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yakumtsaki · 3 years ago

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Welcome, dear readers, to part 1 of the finale to the BackupKingdom2 saga! We’re in our final ambition now, let’s check how Liz’s post-divorce-bloodbath is going..

Oh yes, excellent. Our path to death-achievement-glory has been paved with so many executions that wherever I look I see npcs crying..

..comforting each other..

..and in Agnes' case, coming straight to Liz to.. ask for mercy for the populace I guess?? Bruh. I can't believe we even brought down AGNES, truly this is the saddest kingdom on earth. Amazing job, Liz, you've definitely earned your place in the tyrant hall of fame!

Now a lesser player would be like "oh, maybe we should chill a little on the insane tyrant thing, finish the Pirate/Noble arc cause we've been dragging this war out so the pirates/guildsmen would keep spawning and it should have ended like 20 quests ago" and true, we could just end it, we ran a very effective operation around here, shoutout to MVPs Donius and Bellinda and their 'seductive' legendary traits:

They bedded them and Liz beheaded them, the power of teamwork! So one could say that we should consider raising kingdom morale now because everyone is so depressed but I think, if anything, now is the time to ramp it up and go for some of the other morally questionable achievements! Like Machiavelli said, you should commit all your atrocities at once! What do you think, Liz? Ready to get atrocious?

-OH FUCK YEA, I’M ENRAGED, I DROPPED MY FIDDLE IN THE PIT AND NOW I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE SERVANT TO GET ME A NEW ONE!! WHY DOES EVERYTHING ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME >:(

Aw I’m sorry Liz, but I’m sure you the upcoming suffering of your subjects will cheer you up!

-Ok motherfuckers, by order of the Crown aka ME -you hear that Rae?? ME, NOT YOU. God I want to execute you so bad, fucking ingrate, do you remember what rags you were wearing when I hired you??

Let’s get this back on track, Liz.

-Right, so by order of the Crown, Magus Olivia and Spymaster Spainot are given COMPLETE LEGAL IMMUNITY to do whatever the fuck they want in the interest of earning achievements, so don’t you people come crying to me cause I don’t give one tiny chinchilla crap about your health and livelihoods. If you need me for something actually important, I'll be at the gates, executing anyone who doesn't like my fiddle playing.

-Oh man, this folksy peasant hat isn’t protecting my ears enough.

-THOUGHT I WOULDN’T HEAR YOUR LITTLE MURMUR, DID YOU -YOUR MAJESTY NO I ONLY MEANT MY EARS WERE COLD -WELL ALL OF YOUR BODY’S ABOUT TO BE COLD NOW! CONSTABLE, THROW THIS PEASANT IN THE PIT

-Death marker? I hardly know 'er!

So the Constable npc has this little Billy Elliot subplot going, I'm pretty sure he has the 'drunkard' fatal flaw because he was always at the tavern so I had Bellinda try to hire him to perform in one of her plays just to see what would happen and it actually worked, and now he moonlights as an actor! It's cute but it also takes forever for him to come arrest people.

-THEY LOVE ME ❤️😁 -CONSTABLE WHATSYOURNAME, COME OVER HERE AND DO YOUR FUCKING JOB OR YOU'RE NEXT FOR THE PIT

-No one knows what it's like to be the bad man, to be the sad man, when someone dies😢

In the background you can see that Bellinda just got a pregnancy bump, it’s her lovechild with Donius, I for real can’t keep these two apart. Anyway, the time has come..

..to unleash Magus Olivia onto the populace.

-You know what, I'd rather not, this book is finally getting good and I'm sick of cursing peasants, it doesn't even drop their mood that much..

Oh no, Olivia my beloved, we're not cursing them, we're going for the 'Well Done' achievement!

-NO WAY.

WAY.

-Won't I be executed??

You have immunity! You can do whatever you want!! And, AND, once you complete it, because I know it's tiring, I'll give you a magic skeletal parrot as a gift!! Edward got all the materials for it while treasure-hunting, you'd think I'd let him keep it but that's not the kind of shop I'm running here.

-This is my face of pure, childlike happiness!

Good lord, it’s terrifying, please don’t look at me like that.

-Alright, time to roll down my sleeves so they look more sinister and do this thing.

You can do it, Olivia!

-Of course I can, save your reassurance for the flops that need it.

-I.. cast.. INFERNO!

...

-What?

I mean really, those are the words, "I cast inferno"? Can't you say something with more evil magical flair?

-Not when I have to cast it 80 fucking times I can't.

-IT BURNS, IT BURNSSSSS

Oh how the tables have turned, usually it's the witch that gets burned, huhu! Did you hear that, Olivia? Did you like my joke??

-Oh, it's beautiful!

Well it wasn't one of my best-

-Not you, you needy moron, the sight of burning flesh! I can't wait to do this 79 more times!

Alright, so everyone in the tavern has been turned into a chicken nugget, time to get some rest and check in with Spainot!

-Amazing news, Rodolfo, I just got royal permission to unlawfully lock up and interrogate whoever I want for the achievements!!!

-Darling, no offense, but aren't you a bit too shit at your job for that? -WHAT????

-FUCK YOU RODOLFO YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF MY SUCCESS -I WISH I WAS JEALOUS OF YOUR SUCCESS, THEN YOU'D BE SUCCESSFUL AND I WOULDN'T BE MARRIED TO A BROKE LOSER

-And then he says the only reason he hasn't dumped me is he doesn't wanna be a rando npc while Batshit Liz is on an execution spree, can you believe this bullshit? How can anyone be so hurtful??

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NO NO PLEASE DON'T HAVE THIS CHINCHILLA MAUL ME I'LL GIVE YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT

-How about you give me some marital advice, are you even listening?! Ugh.

That's right, while Olivia is inferno-ing the peasants, I've sicced Spainot on the nobility, specifically all those foreign diplomats that are always hanging in the reception hall, lagging up the place. We're going for the 100 interrogations achievement and we’ve installed a nice spiky torture chair right in the middle of the hall to save time! Now this is how we keep every stratum of society terrified enough to not realize that the person in charge is.. uh.. well you know:

-DANCE TO MY FIDDLE, PIRATE, DANCE!

-I AM!!!!!

-DANCE MORE ENTHUSIASTICALLY. ALL THE WAY TO THE PIT

After a couple days and several locations I feel we’re pretty close to 80 infernos!

I’d say we’ve burned a good 50-60% of the population at this point, everywhere I look I see singed townies-

-so we take this little barbecue to the palace because we’ve ran out of peasants and it’s time to start burning the foreign dignitaries. And it’s a good thing we do, because Olivia meets Nyrexis the Dragon!!!!

Nyrexis is the human form of the dragon from a hilar quest where there’s a dragon in the kingdom and you can either befriend it or slay it, I had Bellinda befriend it:

So if you complete the befriend route of the quest, the human form of the dragon appears in town and is in love with whoever did the quest, in this case Bellinda. I am of course not about to waste Dragonfu on Bellinda’s basic ass, plus I feel Olivia is kind of a dragon with all the people she’s been burning so they have a lot in common!

We dazzle Dragonfu with a coin trick! True magic at work.

-OMG IT WAS BEHIND MY EAR THE WHOLE TIME -I KNOW!

Good God, all of Olivia’s ‘happy’ expressions are terrifying, just don’t smile ever again, you’re too evil for it, you’re gonna scare the dragon away!

Or not!!!!

AWWWWW 🐲❤️🔮

You know what, fuck it, let’s lock it down, when it’s right it’s right!

-Burn stuff with me forever?? -I WILL!!!!

-We are gathered here today, under threat of fiery death, to join two unholy abominations in holy matrimony. Yes, the irony is not lost on me.

AW CONGRATS GUYS <3333 The wizard tower is so small and family un-friendly and Olivia is so unmaternal but come on, like I’m not gonna have her reproduce with a fucking dragon.

Back to Spainot, we’ve hit a slight bump, mainly that this Snordwich lord is proving fucking impossible to torture.

-Um.. Are you enjoying this??? -Sure am, bad boy, but why don’t we take this somewhere more private already?

Wtf, stop sexually harassing the innocent person who’s torturing you! Does no one around here have any sense of humanity anymore??

-Come on, Spainot, throw some flesh-eating rodents at him! -I’M BUILDING UP TO IT, RAE, GAWD. No one likes a back-seat torturer!

-HA, who’s the loser now, Rodolfo? Rodolfo?? RODOLFO

Ya Spai I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure he left while you were interrogating, I haven’t seen him in like 3 days.

-WHAT. So Olivia completes one achievement and gets a dragon wife and a magic skeletal bird and I complete three and get dumped?!

Well what do you want from me, I don’t make the rules!

-YES YOU DO

Can we move on, please? And Olivia had a very rough go of it-

-she got burned in some rando quest and looked positively karma-stricken after, inferno-ing left and right while sporting this look! She deserves a magic bird!

Congrats on your success and 4 kids, Olivia!

-I love this skeleton bird more than I thought it possible to ever love something.

-Gee, thanks mom.

We had leftover bones so here, Spainot, you get a magic bird too.

-A bone parrot is little comfort when you’ve lost the only bone that matters! Why Rodolfo, whyyyyy!!!!!!!!!

Oh I don’t know, probably because you challenged him to duels 3 times a day?

-No, that can’t be it.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but you look like a man who has nothing to live for?

-Yea, I certainly don’t.

So you wouldn’t mind like, jumping into the pit multiple times so you can get the parts we need for the hardest achievement in game aka Legendary Doomsword?

-Rodolfo had one of those too, it was legendary and now that it’s gone I’m doomed!!!

Ok ya ENOUGH metaphors about Rodolfo’s absent penis, although they really are writing themselves. We’ll get him back! If you survive all the pit jumping that is. Join us next time for part 2: Legendary Doomsword!

#tsm

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grigori77 · 3 years ago

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Summer 2021′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 1)

The Runners-Up:

20. LUCA – I’ll admit I really wasn’t sold on Disney/Pixar’s coming-of-age fantasy comedy, which revolves around a pair of young sea monsters living off the coast of the 1950s Italian Riviera, who discover they can assume human form when they dry out and go on land on a quest of discovery. Thankfully the strong reviews convinced me to give it a chance – this is a frothy and irreverent romp through an exotically nostalgic world filled with Vespas, pasta-eating contests and found families that’s fun for kids of all ages.

19. FAST & FURIOUS 9 – the high concept action franchise may be bursting under the ever-increasing weight of its own ludicrousness, but it’s still TONS of fun, packed with stunning over-the-top action, colourful globe-trotting and a loveable bunch of misfits we’ve grown incredibly fond of over the past TWENTY YEARS. This time Dom (the irrepressible Vin Diesel) and the team are up against ruthless hi-tech mercenary Jakob (John Cena), a lethal jack-of-all-trades with a dark connection to the Toretto name.

18. REMINISCENCE – Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy’s attempt to make it on the big screen looks set to go down as one of the biggest cinematic flops of 2021, which is a shame because the feature-debuting writer-director has crafted a genuinely fascinating speculative sci-fi noir detective thriller. Set in a darkly dystopian future in which Global Warming has caused the sea levels to rise and society to start breaking down, it tells the story of Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a former soldier who ekes out a living using revolutionary tech to help the idle rich relive their fondest memories, until a life-changing mystery from his own past resurfaces, threatening to tear his whole world apart. Frustratingly, it looks like most audiences are going to bypass this, which is a criminal loss.

17. FREE GUY – after a seven year hiatus, Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy returns to the big screen in fine form with this deliriously inventive fantastical comedy adventure about Guy (a typically on-fire Ryan Reynolds), an NPC in an anarchic, Grand Theft Auto style MMORPG called Free City who discovers his own sentience after falling in love with Millie (Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer), a player with a hidden agenda that puts them both at odds with the game’s nefarious creator, Antwan (a thoroughly hilarious Taika Waititi).

16. EVANGELION 3.0 + 1.01: THRICE UPON A TIME – visionary anime creator Hideaki Anno brings his long-running sci-fi saga to a close with this fourth instalment to his wildly ambitious cinematic “Rebuild” of cult TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s as frothy, melodramatic and bonkers as ever, packed full of weighty themes and crazy ideas, while the animation maintains this series’ ridiculously high levels of quality and the action is as explosive as ever, and Hideaki brings the whole mad mess to a climax that’s as rich, powerful and thoroughly befuddling as the saga deserves.

15. THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD – Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan returns to the director’s chair (after impressive debut Wind River) with this intense and enthralling suspense thriller adapted by bestselling author Michael Koryta (along with Sheridan and Blood Diamond’s Charles Leavitt) from his own acclaimed novel. Angelina Jolie is (ahem) fiery but fallible as haunted smokejumper Hanna Faber, whose PTSD drives her to protect a desperate boy (Finn Little) who’s being hunted through the wilds of Montana by a pair of relentless assassins (Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult).

14. CRUELLA – far from the clunky cash-in retcon many were predicting, Disney’s ambitious black comedy crime caper does a thoroughly admirable job in delivering this fascinating and deeply compelling reimagining of the story of rogue fashion designer Cruella de Vil (one of the best performances I’ve ever seen Emma Stone deliver, hands down), the dastardly villainess of 101 Dalmatians. She’s certainly far more complex here, no longer a raging monster, but far from a whitewashed PC apologist, either, much more of a morally grey antihero with a very wicked dark side – then again, with I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie at the helm it’s not really a surprise. Richly designed and dripping in spectacularly adventurous period detail, this is an divine romp from start to finish.

13. THE GREEN KNIGHT – the latest feature from writer director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saits, Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man & the Gun) is as offbeat and unusual as you’d expect from a visionary filmmaker with such a wildly varied CV. Adapting the fantastical chivalric romance Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, he’s crafted what’s surely destined to be remembered as the year’s STRANGEST film, but it’s a work of aching beauty and introspective imagination that sears itself into the memory and rewards the viewer’s patience despite its leisurely pace. Dev Patel is unbearably sexy and wonderfully complex as Gawain, while Sean Harris delivers show-stopping support with stately charisma and world-weary integrity as King Arthur. This film is sure to divide opinions as well as audiences, but I think it’s a bona fide masterpiece that must be seen to be believed.

12. CANDYMAN – after watching this wildly imaginative and frequently gut-wrenching soft-reboot/sequel to Bernard Rose’s acclaimed adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story The Forbidden, I feel supremely confident about emerging writer-director Nia DaCosta’s coming MCU breakout with The Marvels. Wisely papering over the clunky previous sequels, this streamlined trailblazing deep dive into the pure horror of the legend of the righteously mad spectral killer haunting the Chicago housing ghetto of Cabrini-Green sees a daring modern artist (Aquaman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) find his latest project turning into a dangerously self-destructive obsession. Writer-producer Jordan Peele’s fingerprints are all over this, but DaCosta clearly shows signs that she’s going to be a hell of a talent to watch in the future.

11. THE WITCHER: NIGHTMARE OF THE WOLF – I wouldn’t normally shout about an animated spinoff to a TV series like this, but I was SO INSANELY IMPRESSED with this brilliant prequel to Netflix’ popular fantasy show (which clearly intends to lay some origin story groundwork for the impending second season) that I just can’t help myself. Recounting the backstory of Geralt of Rivia’s own Witcher mentor Vesemir, this beautifully expands on the already compelling universe the series has created, as well as delivering some breath-taking thrills and chills through some of the most exquisite cell animation I’ve ever seen outside of the greats of anime. A must-see for Witcher fans, then, but one I’d also highly recommend to anyone who likes their animation a bit more grown-up and edgy.

#movies 2021 #luca #disney luca #fast & furious 9 #reminiscence #reminiscence movie #free guy #evangelion thrice upon a time #rebuild of evangelion 4 #those who wish me dead #those who wish me dead movie #cruella #cruella movie #the green knight #the green knight movie #candyman #candyman 2021 #the witcher nightmare of the wolf #awesome sauce

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beels-burger-babe · 3 years ago

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had this dream LMAO IT WAS LOWKEY SO HD AND PRETTY ITS HAR TO FORGET

i tend to wake up and sleep again and wake up and sleep again and repeat so i have alot of dream but this is the one i remember the best

so Luci was giving me a tour of this mansion place we're all staying in for christmas

and at the dead hours of night, Belphie and i tried to sneak outside to play and i was watchig from the door keyhole and gap just. looking at Lucifer spinning nd moving like a lagging npc before flopping dead asleep on the couch

Belphie and i sneaked infront of him whispering/shit talking about him infront of him HAHHSHAJD

so we got outside and i accidentaly knocked down some antique thing and Lucifer woke up from the sound, marched towards me and gave me a lecture

at the end of it he asked "what do you have to say for yourself?" and i backed up a bit before saying something along the lines of :

"cant punish me if you cant catch me !!"

and i turned into my dragon form and zoomed out of there

this whole time i assumed he wasnt following me because i didnt sensed or see him anymore in my proximity

until this loud voice started echoing going smth like

"INSUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF STAMINA"

aND DUDE JSHRFHJFJJRJFF

EVERYONE. THE BROTHERS AND SOME OF THE DATEABLES JUST STARTED BLASTING TOWARDS MY DIRECTION I FUCKING PANICKED

I TRIEDJSJRJRFJ I TRIED TO JUke them by falling [ slowly charging a bit of stamina ]

Lucifer and Mammon zoomed in tryna catch me [ probably idfk, Lucifer looked FURIOUS JSJRJF JWJFHD AND MAMMON DOES TOO BUT HE ALSO HAD A BIT OF TEARS DOWN HIS FACE ]

so i fell but then when i hit the ground, used the fall momentum to blast myself and LuCIFER WAS JUST CHASING ME TF DOWN WITH MAMMON FOLLOWING RURHRHRHEHYJDUFIEIORJRKFJ

after a while we stopped and everyone just fucking shouted at me dude HAHAHAHSHABFHFH but a bit after they calmed down, Satan, my supposed twin??? said smth like

"please dont do that again. we were worried about you"

and then i tried sneaking out of their radar to run away agaINSJDKFKGKGKGIGUFDIDFJFIVJTHHJEFJF

also can i be 🚽 anon hehe

That sounds like the craziest dream I have ever heard. Man that is wild. And of course you can!

#🚽 anon #anons 🕶#the hive #ask b #b answers #🐝 answers

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kurixta · 2 years ago

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Alright fellas! Pokemon Scarlet and Violet trailer just dropped, and I wanted to give my full opinion on it that nobody asked for! So let’s go

The first thing that came across my mind while watching the trailer was the character models, for both you and the NPCs. And my opinion on them in the first trailer was kinda negative, they didn’t look bad but it just didn’t look like Pokemon. However, coming into the new trailer and seeing these models made me change my opinion a bit, especially of the NPCs. They honestly look great, and the design of them are pretty good. I DO have some thoughts about the new professors, but I think I’ll just keep those to myself. Seeing the other character models later in the video promises a large range of customization for how diverse the other players are each, so I’m very excited about that.

The Pokemon shown in this trailer though, not necessarily the new ones that were revealed, kinda gave me a bad rap. Some of the models and animations of even just the 3 starters did not look good. Sprigatito especially stood out to me of the 3. It’s face just didn’t really look right, the muzzle was too high up and the whole structure just looks incredibly flat. Quaxly, I have no problems with. The model and animations look incredibly good and I love him. And while I do LOVE the Fuecoco starter model (it was my favorite when the designs first came out), the animation shown for it kinda just made it not look the best. The closed eyes didn’t look right, and it could’ve done a lot better. When footage of the pokemon battle with a trainer came up, the models kinda looked dumb in comparison to the size of your trainer. I know these pokemon are meant to be smaller, but the non closeup made the battlefield look empty.

Now, the introduction of multiplayer in a Pokemon game? YES. These games have just awaited the release of multiplayer, and while this game may not turn out to be good, multiplayer will begin to release in future games. The biggest worry is because multiplayer has not been introduced yet to the Pokemon series, this may cause a lot of glitches and lag. I don’t have high hopes for the technicality of the multiplayer, but I’d love to be proven wrong.

Now I’m going to approach the new Pokemon. The first one showed in the trailer by the trainer battle seems to be an electric type, and while the pokemon does look cute, it’s design just personally isn’t doing it for me. The colors look good, but model kinda looks like something a child drew, was refined, and boom a model was made. Not my favorite. The plant-like pokemon about a third into the trailer looks a little too under done, and a bit too much like Budew. Though I do like the mouth shape and droplet-like leaf, makes it look funky. Ok, so the pig. I love him. First off, the name is Lechonk, which is one of the best names in the Pokemon series. While it’s design is simple, the little quirks are just appealing to me. The ears flopping a bit over the eyes and the tear looking eye bags look incredibly cute, and the color choice of the pink contrasting the black and brown is very nice.

Ok. The confirmed legendaries. I’d be lying if I said these weren’t some of the coolest legendary designs I have ever seen. Their designs are PHENOMENAL. Koraidon, the red legendary, is incredible looking from it’s beautiful feathers and body shape, it’s feathers acting as horns and supporting as a nice contrast of the red due to them being white, blue, and magenta. The white markings, while more simple in it’s design, make it incredibly appealing as well. Miraidon, the purple legendary, is just astonishing. It’s glowing jell-like features are just so pleasing to the eye with it’s colors, and looks a bit like the night sky. It looks much more mechanical than Koraidon with it’s jets and metal looking body, and it looks incredibly appealing over all. I don’t think I could choose between the two of whose design I like more, they are cool in their own ways.

Alright time to the not fun stuff. First off, the backgrounds in this game look more diverse and nice, however the graphics don’t do it much justice and causes it to look flat. Especially the trees and grass, their movement drawing the eye to low resolution images. The effects made by pokemon during moves or just in general do look good, but they didn’t make it quite as good as PLA, despite being released in the same year. The few sound effects and pokemon sounds you are able to hear over the music just doesn’t really draw me in too much, and could get boring once you play the game more. The entire trailer just looked low quality, and some parts even a bit pixelated, which doesn’t bode well for actual game play.

All in all, despite me criticizing it a bit, I do like it so far! I’m intrigued, and can’t wait to hear more news about it.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet #pokemon violet #pokemon scarlet and violet #kuri rambles

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promptis-imagines · 4 years ago

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How about Promptis go on their first ever date at an arcade or a fair and they're both nervous at first. They relax after a nice chat and some junk food and Noct notices a giant chocobo plush at a stall/prize counter and tries to win it for Prompto

nananasonatra: Noctis taking Prom on a summer carnival date. They both act like teenagers in love and at the end of the night they ride the Ferris wheel .Noctis bribes the operator to make them stop ontop .Sorry my heads fried in this heat lol

yes this is exactly what I need. You two have galaxy brains. So I will combine them: first date to the fair complete with shitty carnival games and a ferris wheel extravaganza

They are both very obnoxiously awkward. Prompto can’t stop talking even when he desperately wants to shut up. Noctis is having a hard time speaking at all. They went to the fair because hey, it’s in town! Surely that’s gotta be cheesy and fun. Thing is, both of them are too shy to admit that they love cheesy things (even tho they literally...are going on a date there. They’re doing their best). It’s the way there and the getting tickets where they’re still acting the nervous couple bit, but once they feel the adrenaline of a rollercoaster and stock up on junk food (a horrible choice before going on more rides), they start to loosen up and laugh off the nerves.

Also I can just...picture that scene. So vividly.

The sky was growing darker by the minute, which was only accentuated by the carnival lights dotting the view. Most of the rickety rides had been conquered, though not without a fair share of screaming on the couple’s part, so the tired boys decided to take a break for snacks before taking on the rest of the event.

Okay, maybe calling them “snacks” was a bit of an understatement. Two orders of fried oreos, an entire funnel cake, some wildly-oversized corndogs, and a large lemonade. They might have forgotten to grab dinner before the fair in their nervous endeavors, and nothing was healthy at the fair.

Sitting on that bench, laughing and munching on their food, any hint of awkwardness or fear was left behind in some gross seat of a rollercoaster car. Well and truly, this was a real date.

There was only a bit left of the funnel cake in the end. Prompto heaved a sigh, shoving the plate onto Noctis’ lap while his head flopped onto his shoulder. “You eat it,” he murmured.

Noctis pouted. “No, you.” The plate was passed back.

“Noooo, I’m so done, dude,” Prompto whined. “Just take one for the team.”

That earned a snort from Noctis. “What team? And why do we have to finish it?” he questioned.

Prompto paused, then sat up straight again. “I dunno. Feels wrong to just throw it away?” he reasoned. Especially considering that Noctis was the one who paid for all of it. He would feel bad, prince or not.

Noctis lightly bumped him with his shoulder. “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s the last thing we have, and I’d rather toss it than have either one of us get sick before our date is over.”

He couldn’t lie, Prompto’s stomach still erupted with butterflies at legitimately hearing Noctis say they were on a date. He’d been dreaming of this for so long that he’d chalked up his hopes to wishful thinking. But no, they were here, and they were having a good time. It was enough to make him grin. “Fine, fine. Throw it away, and we can walk around for a while before hitting something that could make us lose all that food we just ate,” he conceded.

“Right.”

The two of them hauled their trash to the nearest trash can, and Prompto had to laugh at just how much powdered sugar had attached itself to Noctis’ all-black clothing. “Y’know, I applaud your choices to start wearing white,” he teased, making Noctis look down at his shirt.

“Oh, come on,” Noctis grumbled.

Prompto ran his hands along the worst parts. “No worries, I got you.” It only took a few seconds more for him to note how low the powder had gotten. “Um...”

Noctis huffed a laugh, getting the rest off. “You’ve got some on you, too.”

“I do?” Prompto asked with a confused expression. “Could’ve sworn I dusted myself off, already. Where’s it at?” he rambled, hoping he didn’t look like a mess.

“Hm, right here.” Suddenly, Noctis’ hand was on his cheek, his warm lips pressed gently to Prompto’s in a kiss that lasted all of three seconds. Nonetheless, his cheeks were absolutely burning afterwards.

When they parted, it appeared that he wasn’t the only one. Noctis’ cheeks were dusted a soft shade of pink, though it was hard to see under the harsh lighting around them.

It took a moment for either of them to say anything. “Did...you get it off?”

Noctis’ lips turned up in a faint smile. “Think so.”

Now it was Prompto’s turn to smile. “Cool. Thanks. What would I do without you?” he joked.

“Dunno. Have powdered sugar all over your face?” Noctis returned teasingly.

“All over? You saying I’ve got more on me?”

Noctis hummed in thought, once again brushing his fingers along Prompto’s cheek. “Nope, got it all,” he confirmed.

An eye-roll from Prompto. “Dork. Let’s move away from the trash can, yeah?”

The two headed back into the bustle of the fair, hand in hand without Prompto even realizing they'd reached for each other. It made him giddy all over again.

Before long, they stopped. A long row of carnie games sprawled out before them, vendors shouting for patrons to step up and take their chances. Stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes were presented along every surface, and it was a safe bet to assume they’d been waiting to be claimed for far longer than necessary.

Prompto looked over to his date. “Got something in your sights?” he questioned.

That got Noctis tugging him towards a nearby stall. “Does a giant chocobo sound good? I’ll try to win it for you,” he stated, all the determination in the world lighting up his eyes. It was rare to see Noctis this enthusiastic about something. Gods, it was cute.

Still, Prompto couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. The thing Noctis had pointed out was giant, which also meant that it was going to be near impossible to get. “I mean, it sounds great, Noct,” he started, leaning against Noctis’ shoulder. “But I’m not gonna get my hopes up.”

Noctis knocked his head against Prompto’s. “What, don’t believe in me?” he returned in mock-offense.

“Oh, c’mon, you know these things are rigged,” Prompto reasoned. “Plus, this is a shooting game. One, that’s even more rigged. Two, we should both know by now that I'm the better marksman out of the two of us."

His boasting earned him a scoff from Noctis. "While I might cave and admit that, it doesn't mean that I'm bad at it. Have a little faith," he requested, giving Prompto's hand a light squeeze. Without waiting for a response, he was off towards the unattainable holy grail of stuffed animals. Oh, to be the carnie that got to proctor this little event in history.

Watching with an air of amusement, Prompto leaned on his elbows over the counter. "Heya! What's the requirements for getting that Behemoth up there?" he asked, gesturing to the comically large bird in question.

The carnie's polished grin focused on him. "Well, buddy, it's fairly simple!" he chirped. "All you've gotta do is shoot at those little targets that are moving across the planks." He made a grand gesture towards the back wall, which sported plenty of painted wooden ducks with red and white targets on their sides meandering in a single file. "Each duckie has a different number on the back. Shoot as many as you can before the time runs out, and your score will be tallied afterwards. Get over fifty points, and the chocobo is all yours. But watch out! Some of the ducks are hiding negative numbers that will reduce your score. So, care to test your skills?"

His speech had sounded so trained and NPC-like, Prompto had to laugh. "No, not me. But this guy wants to give it a go." He tugged on Noctis' sleeve, a grin of pride bright on his face. Noctis, on the other hand, had lost some of that brazen confidence in his expression.

It was always funny to watch people's eyes go wide. "O-Oh, Prince Noctis! Er, that is you, isn't it?"

"Nah, but I get that a lot," Noctis replied nonchalantly, rolling his shoulders in preparation. "Just a guy trying to win a chocobo for his boyfriend. Can I start?"

The man, seemingly recovered, nodded with his previous vigor. "Of course! Here is your weapon, good sir." After ducking down to grab one of the dingy guns from under the counter, he handed it over. "The timer starts when you first shoot."

Prompto cast a smirk at his boyfriend. "Let's see what you got, sharpshooter," he teased.

Noctis took aim. "Oh, hush. I'm doing this for you."

After a quick "Good luck!" from the man behind the counter, Noctis started the timer with a pop from the toy gun. One duck down, who knew how many more to go.

"Wohoo, got one!" Prompto exclaimed, beaming at a smug-looking Noctis. "Think you can keep it up?"

Still keeping his eyes on the targets, Noctis gave a little nod. "You bet I will. I've got someone to impress," he replied before knocking another off of the shelf.

Prompto snorted, slumping more over the counter. "You say that like you're on a date," he continued.

Another duck toppled. "And what if I am?"

That earned a dramatized gasp from Prompto. "Are you, now? Didn't know you had it in you to snatch a date. Always thought you were too shy." The mocking edge to his words were light, and he couldn't hide the slight giggling that followed. The next few shots hit the wall. He poked Noctis in the shoulder before wrapping an arm around his middle. "Trying to win him something?"

Noctis gave him a knowing glance. "I would be, if he wasn't doing stuff to distract me. Don't be disappointed when I can't get the prize for you," he warned, getting another target down.

Prompto leaned in to press a kiss to Noctis' cheek. "A good marksman should be able to work well under pressure." Still, deciding that he'd messed with him enough, Prompto let go and returned to being an encouraging spectator.

As the timer drew nearer to zero and the little duckies came crashing down, Prompto did have to admit that he was impressed. Especially considering the hindrance that was a rickety carnival gun, the sizeable amount of targets Noctis had managed to hit was most likely more than the average. Though he hadn't expected much of a reward from this mess, part of him was thinking he might be going home with a giant stuffed chocobo.

When the timer sounded, the carnie bounced back to life. "Aaalrighty, let's see how you did!" he said in his merry speech. He collected the last few fallen ducks, then laid them face up on the counter in front of them.

"Sweet, let's count 'em up!" Prompto was grinning as he began to turn over the targets. "Noct, count with me. This one's five," he stated, "and then eight, and…damn, negative six." Oh well, there were plenty more to bring the score up.

Noctis continued flipping over the next few. "Hey, got a fifteen," he boasted, shoving it over to the counted pile.

"Aw, so proud."

The scores varied for the rest of the ducks, some on the smaller or negative sides, presumably to keep the prizes from all being taken. Still, Noctis had gotten a few of the higher numbered ones. With one left to check, he had reached a whopping forty-five. Prompto was tingling with excitement; that chocobo was as good as won.

The last one stared them down with its chipped paint and bright, ducky smile. "You want to do the last one?" Noctis offered.

With a nod and bated breath, Prompto turned over the last one to add the number….

"Negative twenty?" he cried. "Why is that even in here!" Noctis groaned as well, and the two boys slumped against each other in defeat.

The man behind the counter drew up an apologetic smile. "Sorry, fellas, luck of the duck. But you still get to choose from one of the smaller prizes!"

He gestured to the side wall that sported the rest of this booth's treasures. They were way smaller than the grand prizes, more hug-to-your-chest size, but they were still something.

Noctis nudged Prompto's shoulder. "Go ahead and pick one."

"Mh-hm." Prompto's eyes flitted over the options: stuffed dogs and coeurls, moogles, various fruits for some reason, and a mini version of that giant chocobo above their heads. "Not to be predictable, but I do want the chocobo," he decided. So what if he consistently chose them? They were his favorites!

As it was being retrieved, Prompto turned to Noctis with a bright smile. "By the way, good job, dude."

Noctis shrugged, a light mix of embarrassment and pride in his face. "I would've won if it had just been about knocking them over," he reasoned.

Prompto chuckled. "Sure would've. They weren't ready for you," he teased.

"Here you are, sir." Holding it in his hands, Prompto decided that this was officially the best first date ever. How cool was it that his boyfriend won him something at a shitty carnival game?

They ventured back into the crowds, a bit dissuaded from trying any of the other booths for now. The chocobo plush was held securely with one arm while his other hand held fast to Noctis'. Now there was just the matter of deciding what else to do before calling it a night.

"Got any ideas what to do next?" Prompto questioned.

Noctis pursed his lips, doing a quick glance around. "Well, I think we already went on all of the rollercoasters, and you're not putting me back on that drop thing," he said definitively.

That drew a laugh from Prompto. "I half expected you to warp right off of that thing, by the way," he commented. "But fine, something else. How about…." He trailed off, rubbing his thumb along Noctis' hand. "Oh! We haven't done the ferris wheel yet."

What other way was there to end a night at the fair than being sappy while overlooking part of the city from the top of a rickety ferris wheel? Prompto hoped he wasn't coming across as too sappy, though; it was embarrassing, but he really did enjoy those dumb romantic fantasies. Even after being asked out, he was still worried that Noctis might laugh at him for wanting to do cheesy romantic things. Noctis just didn't seem like the type to enjoy that. He knew he was probably being ridiculous, but that didn't dispel the doubt in the back of his mind.

Thankfully, Noctis gave a casual shrug and nodded. "Sounds good to me. We can hit the ferris wheel and then head out for the night," he said.

Relief flooded back into Prompto's lungs, and before long, they were speeding up towards bright lights of the their last ride. Giggling, the two kept it up until they were running and dodging people in the crowd to get there first. Nevermind that they were still holding hands.

The pair stumbled to a breathless halt at the entrance gates, turning to each other with a full-out laugh. Prompto still had his chocobo clasped tightly between his arm and chest.

"After you," Noctis said, finally letting go of his hand to gesture to the open gate.

Prompto landed a playful punch to Noctis' shoulder as he walked past. "Really acting like a prince today, huh?"

"What, I don't normally?"

"Gonna have to give a no to that one, bud."

"Rude."

The worker got them situated in the seat, Prompto first. Noctis lagged behind slightly, turning to the lady in charge before climbing in next to his boyfriend.

Once they were snugly hip to hip, Noctis sighed. "How old do you think this ride even is?" he asked.

Prompto looked up. "Proooobably pretty old," he reasoned. "But I'm sure it's fine. They have, like, inspections and stuff, right?"

Noctis huffed a little laugh. "Hope so. If something does happen, I'll just grab you and warp off of this thing."

"My hero," Prompto teased. Though, as they began their ascent up and around the ferris wheel, the idea that it might break down did start to creep into his mind. A jarring bump halfway there didn't help one bit.

He pressed closer to Noctis' side just as he did the same. Prompto took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting the feeling of being close to him soothe him. The warmth they shared was a nice defense against the cold winds, too.

A tiny smile formed on his face when he felt Noctis nuzzle slightly into his hair. "Sorry I couldn't get you the giant chocobo," he heard him murmur.

Prompto gave a slight shake of his head. "Nah, don't worry about it. This one's just as cute. And it's travel sized." He gave the toy a squeeze. Honestly, he was thrilled to have a gift from him in the first place. It was a silly little thing, but it made his heart swell in a way he thought he'd never feel.

As they completed the first rotation of the wheel, Prompto decided to look around more at the fair below. By now the sky was completely dark, making the colorful lights shine brighter. Laughter and shrieks of children reached even where they were up high. He even saw someone drop their cotton candy in a puddle, which he pointed out to Noctis so they could both grimace at the sight.

All of a sudden, they were stuttered to a halt at the top of the wheel. Prompto swung his leg a bit and laughed. "Welp, looks like we're up here forever," he joked.

Noctis snorted. "We'd better not be. I'm not sleeping on a ferris wheel."

"That's your problem with it?" Prompto laughed, making the seat sway slightly.

"There's other issues with living on a ferris wheel for the rest of my life. That one just came to mind first," Noctis said in his defense.

Prompto's laughter continued while he squeezed the stuffed chocobo to keep from dropping it. "Yeah, okay. Sleep is always your first thought."

"Don't judge."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Being stuck at the top really wasn't so bad. They could see everything, and it was just the two of them, despite there being hundreds of people around. It was as if they'd been brought up just to be alone for a few minutes.

A hand rested atop his thigh, and Prompto turned to face his date. And gods, did he look so good with the lights of the city behind him. Noctis' dark hair made him a silhouette, though his features were close enough to make out. His cool gray eyes had a soft shine to them, and he was looking at Prompto in a way that stole his breath. He had to be the luckiest guy in Eos right now.

Noctis quirked a small smile. "Is it…too cheesy if I ask for a kiss right now?"

Prompto paused, then cracked a smile as well. "Very cheesy. Do it," he replied.

"Then can I kiss you at the top of the ferris wheel?"

Without speaking, Prompto slid a hand along the side of Noctis' neck and pulled him in. His lips were tinged with slight cold, but they felt soft as they touched Prompto's. And just like that, they were sharing one of those dumb movie kisses on their first date at the fair. The thought made Prompto's smile grow as he leaned in more.

Once they pulled away, there were a few moments of silence between them. Then the ride began to move again, starting through one more loop before they would be let off.

Prompto couldn't hold back another little laugh. "Good way to end that?"

"Definitely," Noctis said, looking equally relieved and happy. "Now we can't say anything else for the rest of the time so we don't ruin it."

That earned a shoulder punch from Prompto. "Oh, shut up."

"See, like that."

Prompto grinned, taking Noctis' hand in his. "Too bad you're stuck with me, then," he retorted.

Noctis smiled back. "What a shame."

#I finally finished it lakfjagahgkjdk #this took me forever I am sorry #y'all be like: give me the tooth rotting fluff #and I try to provide #promptis #ask #thedarkrose17 #nananasonatra #answered

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sso-mysteries · 4 years ago

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SSO Mysteries: Inside the Big Top Tent

Disclaimers: As a general rule, my posts involve spoilers for both the main and side quest lines. Keep scrolling if you’d rather not know.

ϟ ✯ ☾ ❂ ϟ ✯ ☾ ❂ ϟ ✯ ☾ ❂

For my first post, I thought I’d do a bit of a “soft” mystery -- I do have other mysteries and theories in the works, but they require a little more time and research, so here’s a slightly less robust one in the meantime!

Who’s Under the Cloaks?

The setting up of Ydris' big top tent is among some of the first quests we get outside of Moorland -- it's even open to non-star riders. And once we receive Xin's Butterfly Race and are able to enter the tent, we see these creepy looking guys in cloaks and hoods, seated up in the stands.

Now, my first thought was that they were supposed to be an audience. But, if that were the case, then why aren't they in all of the stands -- only two? Furthermore, SSO has done audiences before -- the fashion show in Jorvik City, for instance, or Linda's showjumping competition -- and those were, well, normal-looking NPCs. So, what's with these guys?

Well, I took a closer look at them through photomode, zooming in, shrinking the field of view, adjusting the brightness, even tweaking the time of day, and this was what I came out with:

Look familiar? They should, because these guys are Druids! Along the hem of their robes you can see the lightning and moon symbol, and the details on the sleeves and at throat -- it's all there.

Now, let's take another look at them. Notice, they all have sharp, pointy hoods, even the two not in this screencap -- except for the one guy in the middle. In fact, his hood flops back at the tip, making the model look exactly like Avalon's. But it can't be Avalon, since he's over in Valedale all the time. So who is he? And why is he -- or she -- the only one with this model? SSO could have just used this model for all of them, but no. They chose to use it for only one of them. My guess is that this fellow is somehow more important than the others (especially since he’s smack in the middle), and if we eventually get any kind of quest with these Druids, this one will almost definitely have some dialogue with the player.

Also, on a bit of a sidenote, some of them have those weird yellow eyes -- which, paired with the robes, really makes them look like Jawas -- but I couldn't really find anything significant in that, so that’ll have to be a discussion for another day.

Why Are They There?

Now if you look at this chronologically, these are the very first druids we meet, as the setting up of Ydris' tent comes long before we have any quests with Avalon, the only other druid we know of and interact with. In fact, at this point in the game, the only Keeper of Aideen we’ve met is Conrad -- the Soul Riders are still unknown to us.

As for their purpose, at first, I thought perhaps that they're here to spy on Ydris -- we already know KoA have an excellent chain of communiqué with the help of the Spymaster, so I assumed his scouts had seen Ydris'... unusual, shall we say... abilities, and he'd reported to the Keepers that "hey, there's a guy doing suspicious magical stuff, maybe send some people to keep an eye on him".

However, if that were the case, why is it that when we face off against Ydris to retrieve Concorde, we know so little about him? Even Linda refers to him as "some kind of sorcerer", indicating that she has no knowledge of Ydris, either. If these guys were spies, then you'd think they'd have reported back with more information on Ydris, and the Druids would have seen fit to tell us more about him before going into battle! Furthermore, why didn't they help us during the quests, when Ydris turns the Bobcats into horses -- even us! Why did they do nothing when Garnok nearly broke through the worlds?? It makes no sense. So, they're obviously not "keeping an eye" on Ydris -- or if they are, they're doing an atrocious job of it.

Besides, Ydris has to know they're here -- it's his big top, after all! And you can't exactly spy on someone when they know you're spying on them.

My next thought, then, was that they're here to keep an eye on us, the player, the fifth soul rider -- but again, that didn't make any sense either. After all, nobody among the KoA seemed to know anything about us when we first began working with them.

So... why are they here? If not to spy on Ydris, or to stalk us, what is their purpose?

The Button

And now, finally, the last item. See this floating grey button here? (Or, at least I THINK it's a button. It also looks kind of like those dressage top hats, but for the sake of this post, I'm just going to call it a button.)

The odd thing about it -- aside from its floating nature -- is that it looks nothing like the other buttons in the tent. All those ones are red with a little yellow star on them. The ones on the barrier bring up flaming hoops you can jump through, and the one over on the pole produces confetti.

But the grey one does absolutely nothing. It just... floats... directly in front of these mysterious druids.

Now, I think these two have to be connected -- they're the only grey things in the entire tent, while everything else is in vibrant reds, purples, and yellows! Plus, floating objects do tend to have a connection with the Keepers of Aideen -- the keystones, for instance, which float above their pedestals. And we can't interact with either the button, or these particular Druids at this point in the game. In fact, we have absolutely zero information on either of them -- not even the slightest of hints from Ydris, Xin, or the Keepers of Aideen, much less the SSO team!

The only possible theory I can come up with is that we'll eventually have a quest with the Druids, and we'll be able to dismount and enter the stands through the curtained-off doors, much like the main entrance (since there are no stairs in the ring that would lead up to the stands). As for the button... I have no clue. It's really a mystery, and one I'm more than ready to figure out.

(Compare the floating grey button with the normal, clickable red one. There’s quite a difference in the designs.)

What about you guys? If you have any ideas, tack them onto this post -- I'd love to hear your own theories!

Until next time, and I'll see you around!

-Cali

#star stable #star stable online #sso #sso theory #sso theories #star stable theory #star stable theories #sso mystery #sso mysteries #star stable mystery #star stable mysteries

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pocmuzings · 5 years ago

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hello and i hope you’re doing ok!! i’m thinking of starting a murder mystery esque rp but this will be my first time running an rp and i’d love to hear any tips/preferences/things you’d like to see if you have any in terms of plot/execution!!

omg how exciting !!!!! you have to link me when it comes all together, i’d love to see it ! in response to you - this is by no means definitive or how you should run a rp. u can run it HOWEVER you would like, but these are things i’ve found that i enjoy for these type of rps / general murder mystery plots!!!

HAVE THE KILLER BE SOMEONE IN THE RP - this is the essence of the rp after all, it’s a murder MYSTERY, u can’t just have joe-blow an npc be the murderer bc then it kinda defeats the purpose of why anybody would want to solve it! ppl like to have an EMOTIONAL CONNECTION to whoever the killer could be. before you even open the rp to the public, u should know who your killer is, and WHY they’re the killer. and they should be someone who is a playable character!!!

HAVE RED HERRINGS - this is a classic move for murder mysteries of all sorts. you need someone to look like the bad guy. you need someone to be suspicious and have motive and incentive, but then . . it turns out they’re innocent ! have 2-3 red herrings hidden away. this really involves people in the plot because they start thinking it’s one person, then another person, THEN ANOTHER!! it’s great for all development !

MAKE THE RP EITHER OC, OR SKELETON. DON’T MIX BOTH - this helps create the ~mystery~ and whodunnit. if you write skeletons .. chances are, the murderer is going to be one of the skeletons, right ? so then that already wipes out all of your oc’s from being suspects!!! i personally think its more fun to have one or the other for this sort of rp !

HAVE A STRONG TIMELINE OF EVENTS - plot this out beforehand too. think about how and when evidence will be found. think about police reports being released. think about who will be called into the police station , and how this will throw a spanner into the works for all the other characters in the rp. create doubt. create suspicion. create paranoia amongst the characters . don’t let your rp start with a murder mystery and then let it flop with no plot drops, or events pertaining to said murder mystery. this is like baking a cake , and not even putting it in the oven. it’s like .. u started smth great , but now whats the point?

GIVE EVERY CHARACTER JUST A LIIIIITLE BIT OF MOTIVE - this is good because you do want every character to have just a little bit of a reason as to why they would have potentially ~murdered someone

KEEP THE MURDERER A MYSTERY … EVEN TO THE MURDERER ! - i don’t think its necessary to let someone know they’ve picked up the ‘murderer’ straight away, unless u need to for plot development and for them to ~play~ the character and the game ! but honestly, it’s fun for everyone if NOBODY knows who did it, including the one who did it !

WATCH AND READ MURDER MYSTERIES !!! - there are some really really good ones out there ! desperate housewives, KNIVES OUT, prisoners, the first season of pretty little liars, veronica mars, one of us is lying, a good girls guide to murder , sadie, . . these are all bits of media that have done FANTASTIC jobs at creating characters and a really well-driven and developed mystery plot!

CREATE STRONG CHARACTERS - this goes without saying for any rp, but i think this is especially important for murder mystery rps which is why i lean towards having SKELETONS for these type of rps. give them bones, and a trope. make them all as different as you can . think about characters that work well in other murder mysteries and try to mimic what makes them so good and strong, and what they can PROVIDE to the murder mystery . is one of them a reporter ? an ex best friend ? a nancy-drew sort of character ? they should be !!! they should all have a clear PURPOSE in the rp , don’t just give them a label like ‘the peacemaker’ and call it a day. what is their purpose ? what do they serve by being in the rp, and why do you NEED them in order for the rp to work ? ( and u SHOULD need them ! ideally, u should need every skeleton taken, right ?!)

THINK OF PLOT DROPS AND EVENTS, AND ASK MEMBERS TO CONTRIBUTE IDEAS TOO - these should all keep the same sort of aesthetic as having something spooky or mysterious to them . a haunted halloween night. a spooky festival. a power outage at school. a piece of evidence found by one of the characters . somebody finding out who the murderer could be, and then getting into an ‘ accident ‘. this type of rp is PLOT HEAVY and events and plot drops should absolutely be something you already have in mind and know when are going to happen and WHAT the main event of them happening will be !

CREATE THREATS AND A ‘SCARE FACTOR’ - it should start light and easy , in some degree. the rp should start with everyone thinking their character is going to be safe. lull everyone into a false sense of security, and then show that nobody is safe. either by having an anonymous blogger, or gossip blog make blasts, or by hurting one of the characters who keeps sticking their nose in. you should have people in the rp seriously realise that there will be consequences for their characters actions , bc lets be real .. if ur a killer and someone is purposely goading u or trying to Solve the Crime .. ur gonna be pissed and want to Eliminate them !

HAVE A GOOD SETTING - honestly, setting in murder mystery rps is SO MUCH FUN and is what can make a rp so unique ! is it a small town, therefore the murder ROCKED the entire town to their shells bc everyone knows everyone and WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING ?? is it a homely city, that was previously thought of as being very safe and ideal, until this horrible crime happened ? is it a grungey neo-noir city, that has a lot of crime, but THIS crime was ‘ particularly heinous ‘, or maybe the work of a notorious serial killer ? think of a location. think of a setting. this is IMPORTANT to the rp and to drawing people’s interests in !

CREATE CONNECTIONS - how does skeleton a know skeleton b ? who trusts who ? who DOESN’T trust who ? who thinks who did it ? who thinks who is innocent ? ideally, every character should have an impression of the next. this create a more tight-knit feeling within the rp, both ic and ooc, because EVERYONE knows everyone and has a basic ‘first impression’. you don’t have to write all of these or provide them for every skeleton, but i think its important to try and write a couple at least, so everyone finds it a bit easier to plot and reach out to different people !

ENCOURAGE SECRETS AND LIES - this goes without saying. i think its fun to have each character have a ‘secret’ or ‘something they’re not telling the police’. i find this makes for more in character development and activity !!! again, u can let ppl think of their own, or u can assign one if u want ! but basically, this rp should be filled with no ‘good’ characters and no ‘bad characters’. everyone should have equal amounts of flaws, and advantages.

MAKE THE KILLER STRIKE MORE THAN ONCE - so the killer most likely strikes once at the ‘beginning’ of the rp, or just before the rp opens, to kick things off. but then . . don’t forget about them ! its very common for someone to strike twice . they can kill a npc, or .. maybe somebody doesnt mind throwing their character in to be Axed, but honestly . . the killer should and will strike again , and this should help keep everyone on their toes, ic and ooc, too !!!

WRITE ABOUT THE KILLER IN YOUR PLOT - its a murder mystery . it’s horror. so. talk about the killer, without giving away their identity. give hints as to who it could be . tell us what their relationship was to the deceased. tell us how they killed that person. was it a crime of passion ? a crime of hate ? an ACCIDENT ??? how did they feel after they’d realised what they’d done ? what happened that night/day/morning ???

this is all i can think of right now, and i hope it helps!!! whatever u come up with will be AMAZING i bet. as a nerd of murder mysteries, i rlly enjoyed answering this and if u need any more advice or help . let me know !!! good luck, and make sure to link me when ur good to go !! i can’t WAIT to see it !!

#rph #rpc #murder tw #murder mention tw #tip #tips #Anonymous

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gem-quest · 5 years ago

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[ QUEST 01. — I N F E R N A ]

taglist: @ayzrules @bebemoon @atimefordragons @armadasneon @now-on-elissastillstands @interluxetumbra @pulltheskydown

Inferna was hanging out in her favorite spot in Yue City - the lousy excuse of a Chinese restaurant, because it was just so easy to market her Inferna Sauce and sriracha to players who came away disappointed by the Asian dishes with absolutely zero seasoning - when the announcement popped up in the sky.

[ . . . T O U R N E Y . A N D . F A I R . I N . W I L D F L O W E R . M E A D O W . . . L E V E L . O N E . . . ]

"Well, shit, that's just right around the corner," Inferna said out loud, putting away her sauce for the time being. She wasn't sure if she was going to compete - she'd prooobably get distracted by the free food - but it might be fun to just watch for a little bit.

So, with one over-dramatic whoosh of her hooded black capelet (which was decorated with intricate gold embroidery, because Inferna didn't wear things that were plain, thank you very much), Inferna was off.

When she got to the meadowlands, the entire place was filled with stalls and throngs of players eager to watch the tournament. Inferna decided that she'd watch the tournament after some refreshments, and immediately headed for the food stalls. She stocked up on some chicken pot pies and mead, nibbling on an apple turnover as she browsed. Eventually, she came across a wyvern being turned over a spit, and tossed the NPCs roasting the thing a coin in exchange for a hunk of meat, which she drizzled her homemade hot sauce over before biting into.

It tasted just like chicken. Then again, most meats that weren't pork or beef also tasted like chicken, in Inferna’s opinion.

Rats, for example; Inferna had been dared to eat a rat skewer in the City of Magic, once. She did it, and got a whole blueberry pie in return. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. And that pie had been good.

Inferna wandered around for another thirty minutes, snacking on the wyvern kebab, before finally making her way over to the lists. She frowned when she noticed that there were almost no seats, instead hopping up onto the balustrade after shoving all the dumb meatheads out of the way.

There. That’s a perfect view, she thought, satisfied. She was taking in the sight of the Moonstone player with the pretties armor she’d ever seen facing off an Obsidian player in all black, just as she felt someone flick her calf.

“What the f-” Inferna’s muttered profanity was cut off when she noticed who it was.

"Hey, what’s up? You’re Neddy, right?" she asked, grinning widely. Inferna had met Neddy back in Level Ten, AKA Finvarra’s Gardens, and honestly, Inferna thought she was the sweetest thing. And her dragon, ugh - Inferna would never! Get! Over! Jack!!!!

The other girl looked up. "Inferna?"

Inferna beamed down at her and offered her a hand up instead of answering.

Neddy took her hand, and Inferna pulled her up onto the balustrade with her. “View’s better up here,” she told her with a wink, grinning her usual shit-eating grin.

Inferna was about to go back to watching the action - the Obsidian player had easily unseated the Moonstone one - when she noticed...was that Jack?!?! Riding in a basket on Neddy’s back?????

She gave an excited half-squeal, half-exclaimation. “God, Jack is so freaking adorable! Does he still like sugar cubes?" she fired off, pulling out a sugar cube she’d gotten from the Tearoom, as well as a tiny bottle of Inferna Sauce (she’d decided that she was going to make mini bottles to carry around outside of her inventory, just for convenience). She dunked the sauce onto the sugar cube.

"How are you faring out there?" asked Neddy.

“It’s been pretty chill on my end,” Inferna replied, giving the Moonstone player a cheeky grin. “Haven’t really done anything exciting, besides get some blueberry scones from the Tearoom yesterday; they’re amazing. I was at Level 39 the other day too, but fighting the dragon is so much work, so I fucked off after a few minutes.”

Her attention strayed back to Neddy’s dragon. “Ooh, fuck, Jack is so cute. Here, you’re a good boy, aren’t you?” she said, gently tossing the sugar cube in the air and clapping with delight when Jack caught it in his mouth.

“What about you? Got anything fun going on?” she asked Neddy a moment later, tearing her eyes away from the miniature dragon.

"Nothing quite as exciting as thirty-nine," Neddy replied. "I've just gotten through floor twenty-nine by the skin of my teeth. Mermaid Cove won't be easy for me since I'm currently, you know, on my own."

Inferna nodded, grimacing. “Oh, yeah, that level’s a pain in the ass if you don’t have a party. I think I got through it by just finding a group that needed an extra person who didn’t care about Angel’s Breath. Aydina - that’s the NPC you go up against - is kind of a cunt, too. Like, I get that it’s just pre-written dialogue, but the lady could be nicer while trying to fuck us over with that dodgeball of hers, you know?”

Inferna rolled her eyes at the thought of the pirate queen. Really, though, she was a cunt, she mused to herself. Everything she said, just - ugh! So unnecessary.

It was a known fact that Inferna talked so much shit about any and all of the NPCs in the game. She was a bit infamous for it within the Obsidian Guild, actually, which was something that Inferna was immensely proud of.

"I’m not very good at dodgeball," said Neddy.

Inferna shrugged. “It was my favorite thing in gym, when I still had to take that bullshit class. All I did was dick around and throw balls at the annoying people in my grade, even if they were technically on my team,” she said, in the most solemn voice she could muster.

She continued. “I thought that level was pretty fun, besides Aydina’s totally unnecessary commentary. So I can help you, if you want,” she said, “if you bribe me somehow. Since I don’t see how helping you with dodgeball helps my Guild, after all.”

Neddy seemed surprised. "Bribe?" she managed to get out. "I don't have much in the way of coin. . . . I'm not formidable by any means. Surely, it won't hurt Obsidian any if you help little old me move through a lower floor."

Inferna narrowed her eyes, skeptical. “Little old you and a dragon,” she pointed out, gesturing towards Jack. As cute as Jack was, both miniature and at his full size, he was still a, you know, dragon.

Neddy nodded, slowly. "Yeah. Okay- well, I can give you all the apricot tartlets in my inventory if you help me out."

Inferna bit her lip. Apricot tartlets? That was...that was a tempting offer. Plus, dodgeball was really fun, and plus, Inferna sort of owed Neddy, because Neddy had saved Inferna from being eternally trapped in Level Ten with that insufferable faerie prince (but the sweets on that level all looked absolutely divine, so could you really blame her?).

“Alright fine, I’ll do it,” Inferna agreed, flipping her red hair over one shoulder. “Just tell me when, and I’ll be there. But don’t make it before noon, or I’ll probably sleep straight through it. Like, I’m not even kidding; last semester I somehow slept through ten alarms and missed a 12:30 PM lab. So don’t make it before twelve.”

She narrowed her eyes, again. “Now hand over those tartlets.”

After Neddy had given her the tartlets, Inferna lingered for a little while, then decided to go find some other food to eat, nibbling on one of the tartlets as she went. She bought a steak and mashed potatoes dish, stowing it away in her virtual inventory for the time being.

A commotion by the lists caught her attention, about an hour or so later. Intrigued, Inferna crept closer, just in time to see a fellow Obsidian player wearing a flowy dress win a duel. Inferna cheered with the rest of her Guild, elbowing closer for a better view.

Hey, she thought, suddenly. Isn’t that the girl I saw yesterday?

Inferna let her gaze follow the blonde girl as she collected her prize money and went off towards one of the open areas. She took off after her, finding that it was extraordinarily easy to follow the other player when she was wearing a pretty flower crown - all she had to do was look for the flowers in the crush of people.

Once Inferna reached the grassy field, she scanned the area before finally locating the girl she met at the Descend the day before.

“Oh, hey,” Inferna said, trotting over. A quick glance at her profile said that she went by ‘Morningstar’. “I saw your duel, by the way. Congrats on winning.” She grinned.

Morningstar gave her a scathing look. Inferna ignored it and flopped down to sit on the grass next to her, dragging out a bottle of Inferna Sauce from her inventory, as well as as the steak and mashed potatoes dish she’d just purchased. She all but drenched the food with her hot sauce, because everything in the game was so damn bland - to someone who’d grown up eating spicy food, anyway.

“Do you want some, by the way?” Inferna asked, glancing up at Morningstar and grinning again. “It’s hot sauce. For when the white people food in this game gets too boring.”

She paused, for a moment. “I’ll trade you a bottle for a potion that makes me feel like I’ve just smoked some weed, if you have any. Or if you have anything like vodka? This mead and ale and stuff is fine, but jesus fucking christ, sometimes I just want to take two shots and be done.”

The two of them talked for a bit. Inferna mentioned that she’d be doing dodgeball with Neddy soon, and asked Morningstar if she’d want to join in. Then, once Inferna was hungry again, she got up and went searching for more food.

I should probably also get something if I’m going up against Aydina again, she thought. God, but she’s such a fucking cunt.

As such, Inferna found the marketplace and bought herself a few propugnatio potions, knowing that she’d need them to up her defense for the underwater dodgeball game; as a fire-mage, she was more vulnerable in aquatic environments. She also stocked up on fortissime potions, just to make sure her fiery attacks would pack an extra punch.

Satisfied with her haul, Inferna tossed the items into her inventory and went towards one of the stalls selling pastries. God, but they smelled good.

#writing #q1 #inferna #vicky #inferna story #wildflower meadow #yue city #s/o to fanfan for dialogue!!!

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watercolourferns · 5 years ago

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The Lipstick

Slap, slap… Zayn fell backwards, cheeks stinging, the lipstick he had had in his small hand smashed on the floor by a foot wearing formal shoes. He toppled over something and landed on the dirt-covered porch tiles, gasping for air, stunned and scared. “I told you to take that god awful thing off your lips!” a male voice thundered in his head, making him cover his five year old ears and screw shut his great big hazel eyes. “But, abuelo, mama uses lipstick too- OUCH! Please, abuelo, let go, it hurts!!” Zayn yelped and screamed as the strong, old man pulled him up by a handful of his neck length waves and shook him, sending him back to the dusty tiles with a violent thrust. “I told you NOT to call me abuelo, your Spanish accent is awful, I can’t stand it! And you’re a man!! You’re disrespecting your father and I by wearing that, and take off that jewelry, too!” the man barked, raising his hand to slap the child again. “B-but, grandpa… I’m not a man…” Zayn whimpered, feeling tears starting to bud in his eyes. He brushed them off quickly, knowing what his grandfather thought of him crying. “You- Not a man?! Then what are you if not a man?!” the old man laughed derisively.

“I… don’t know. I’m Zay? Just… Zay…” he whispered. “I don’t want to be a man, I want to be pretty like mama-” But as soon as the words fell from his smudged, childish lips the old man lost it. With a powerful whack from a cane the small child was thrown against a bench, falling back onto the floor, crying openly now. Zayn curled up into a ball and attempted to turn his sobs into whimpers, covering his head to stop the old man from hitting his face again; it already hurt bad enough from the first slaps, he much preferred to be to be spanked or hit with the cane. “G-grandpa… Please… I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry… I’m sorry, abuelo!” he sobbed, looking up at the man just as the cane came flying down towards him. “AH!!” Zayn screamed as he sat up, panting, extending his arms forwards to protect himself from a nonexistent assailant. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as his adult body trembled with terror. He didn’t recognise where he was or the two strangers in bed with him. He hugged his white bunny stuffed animal, his body unable to stop trembling. “My moon?” a gruff voice said and Zayn flinched at the sound, scooting away from it, bumping into the woman to his right and yelping like an injured puppy. “Zayn? Hey, it’s me, darling, it’s ok. I won’t hurt you! Kore? I think Zayn had a nightmare.” Marcone had sat up the moment he saw the dancer flinch and fumbled for the light as the gray-haired woman turned from the wall towards them waking up in a second. “Zayn? Amor, it’s us. Don’t worry, you’re home and you’re safe,” Kore’s voice said from behind the riot of chestnut hair. Zayn turned violently behind him and then in front. He felt Kore’s hands on his arms, though, and that helped start to ground him. He recognised the texture of her soft hands, the sixth finger, her witch-like nails, the softness and coldness of her skin. He looked in front of him again and Marcone’s face became visible in the soft yellow light of Tiffany table light. “Where did you get it, it’s perfect!” he had told the man when he had brought it home, swaddled like a newborn… His aquamarine eyes glowed and Zayn recognised them too. He had always loved that feature in Marcone’s face, that and his scar... It took him several more moments to fully recognise where he was, but finally he realised he was in their room, sandwiched between Marcone and Kore-Sídhe like every night, surrounded by the things they all loved. Irin, Jawahir, and Danae peering at them from their sleeping places, Danae whining softly. “It’s ok, girl, he’ll be just fine…” Marcone said, patting her great, fluffy head as she tried to climb onto the bed to flop on top of the dancer. “No, no, we’ll take care of this, you big goof.” The dog huffed at him, gave Zayn a sniff, an affectionate lick on the hand he offered her and went back to her plush bed, curling up in there but still attentive. “Are you here with us now, love?” Marcone said softly, keeping his contact to a minimum. Over the years, he had learned that sometimes gruffness could trigger a bigger episode in the shorter individual he called spouse for three years now. His big hands had spooked Zayn several times before when waking up from a trauma-induced nightmare, and it hurt him to see his beloved like that. The dancer looked at the tall man before him and nodded, his eyes still a bit hazy, but now sure he knew where he was. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you…” he whispered, hugging Snowdrop and hiding his face in the bunny’s head. Marcone sighed and smiled and finally scooted closer as Kore motioned for him to do. The woman had rounded Zayn gently with her arms, kissing the top of his head. “It’s quite alright, love. You didn’t scare us. You didn’t know if you were here or not, but you’re here and you’re with us, and everything is fine, see?” she said, offering him her left hand, which Zayn took and pressed to his dark cheek, as if to reaffirm her words. Marcone offered his big, a little rough, hand to him and the dancer smiled softly, taking it too, pressing it to his other cheek. “It was about lipstick…” he whispered, unprompted. “My abuelo had slapped me because I was wearing a lipstick mama had given me… I was little and… and he had his cane with him that day. I woke up the next day bandaged up, lying in mama’s bed, she was bandaged up too, with a busted lip and had no makeup. I didn’t… I didn’t like it when she had no makeup on… She looked sad when that happened…”

Marcone and Kore were respectfully silent, holding the chestnut haired witch between them, humming or nodding for him to know they were listening. After a long pause, Kore looked up and rested her forehead on his temple. Marcone kissed Zayn’s knuckles. “What hap-?” he started, but Kore looked up, tears in her eyes. “He caned him…” she whispered, hugging Zayn tightly to her. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, amor… I really am…” Marcone gasped, horrified, and hugged both of his spouses, enveloping them in his big arms and pressing the to his chest. “Next time I see that old fool I’m gonna…” “Marc, please…” Kore said softly but with a smile, acknowledging they were of the same mind. “I don’t care what happens to him, just don’t make him hurt you…” Zayn said, muffled by the group hug as he snuggled into it. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you sad…” Marcone barked a small laugh and nuzzled him. “You didn’t do it, dear. And we’re not sad, as much as…” he sighed and nuzzled him again. “We just want you to know that you’re loved and safe here, Zayn, and you can wear any shade of lipstick you damn well please!”

“In fact, we’ll take you to the store tomorrow, you’re running low on your favourite shade and I have it on good word that it’s back in stock, how does that sound??” Kore said, pulling away a bit and winking at him. “I need translucent powder, as well, so we can make this a makeup hunting trip, what do you say??” Marcone nodded. “I do need help with picking out the covering base for my scar… I was asked to help at the children’s festival in the library, and I don’t want to scare anyone there…” “You? Scare a child? You’re such a cinnamon bun!” Zayn laughed. “Your scar gives you character, too…” “You could be a witcher!” Kore exclaimed, caressing the man’s scar with love. “A witcher…? When was the last time you spent an evening with small children??” Marcone laughed loudly, hugging them again. “When I was a small child myself…?” Zayn said, raising an eyebrow. “I eat small children for breakfast, but I pick them off the streets when they annoy me…” Kore casually commented, yawning and stretching. Both of her spouses looked at her in surprise, and she went “What?? I’m kidding!” making both of them laughed. “Let’s go back to bed, then…?” Marcone offered, laying on his back and patting his side for Zayn to settle in. The dancer blushed and nodded, pulling the woman with him, pressing his back onto Marcone, who turned to spoon the shorty, who in turn spooned Kore. “If I punch someone in the face tonight, don’t blame me… You know I don’t spoon well,” Kore warned, making the others laugh again. “I don’t mind waking up with a black eye if it’s from my wife,” Marcone joked, kissing the back of her head. “Shush and go to sleep…” Zayn groaned, snuggling more into them. “Thank you… really…” Both of his loves reassured him he was safe again, holding his hand or kissing his temple. He didn’t know what he had done to deserve them, but he hoped he would continue to do it… They were angels and he was grateful for them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Depressed and anxious so I wrote angst, but it’s got a bit of fluff too! Tell me what shade of lipstick matches Zayn, please, I’m curious to know what you think he would look good in. ^_^ Marcone is property of @finally-romancable-npc, and Kore-Sïdhe is property of @kobresias. I just borrow them to maltreat them a bit. (sorry. ^_~ XPP)

patreon / ko-fi / insta / shop1 / shop2 / commishes

#fern is writting #Marcone Vintura #seeing!Marcone #Kore-Sídhe #Zayn Luna #modern au #drabble #fluffyangst #tw: abuse #tw: abuse mention

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phantomphangphucker · 6 years ago

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A Life Of Role Playing Weakness - PhannieMay - Day 14 D & D

Summary: What’s a halfa to do when school is on lockdown and everyone’s bored? Games and trickery.

Most of the class groans as they can tell the sun has set by the room becoming near pitch black. Though pretty well everyone’s glad Mr. Lancer got stuck outside of class, otherwise he would have spent the afternoon making them do school work.

Danny, knowing full well no one else can actually see, finds some candles and sneakily lights them with his fingers. Unfortunately, there’s only three but most of the class seems relieved to have them, “took you long enough Fenton”. Rolling his eyes at Kwan, “like you would have been any faster, at least I was actually doing something”. Danny honestly could have found them way faster but that would have been suspicious. Groaning a bit at the window, though the groan was more aimed at the extreme weather outside, that has caused the school lockdown and blackout. Sure he could technically just leave, but due to the schools' security system, all the doors and windows are sealed shut. The only way out would be to phase out and that would be so many levels beyond suspicious.

Clearly, a couple geeks are tired of Star and Lily bickering, “why don’t we play a game? You know, actually get along? For one night?”.

“Oh why would we do that when it’s more fun to annoy you losers?”, Danny rolls his eyes at Todd, sure he’s not as bad as Dash but still.

Apparently, the geek kid, James, isn’t very impressed either, “I’d rather get destroyed by stupid wind while having fun, than getting mocked by some meathead”. Danny’s not really sure how insulting the guy will get him to play games but whatever.

Deciding to interfere, “what game? Ain’t nobody going to play if no one knows what’s up. And if you say truth or dare even I will mock you”.

“Oh like you even know how to mock someone, Fenton. But yeah whatever, spill”, Danny muffles his snickering because he could out mock this guy easily. Half his fights involved mocking the opponent, eighty percent if it was Vlad.

The other geek kid, Tyler, rummages through his bag and pulls out what looks like a board game, “well, someone made a D & D ghost edition. Because this is Amity, got figures and everything”. Tyler is smirking as even Danny knows that anything ghosts gets pretty much every Amity teens attention. And Danny is honestly so down for this too, he will die if there’s a figure like him in this thing.

Flopping on his back as there is indeed a little crystal clear figure that, while mostly featureless, looks suspiciously like Phantom. Finger gun shooting himself in the head before pointing at the board, while still laying on the ground, “ok, I’m in”. Seems everyone else agrees while looking at the collection of ghostly figures.

Unsurprisingly, pretty well only the geeks know anything about this game. And no one’s interested in long explanations. So they just give a quick run down of classes and alignments. But having to pull out the book and read over it quickly for species, since this was an entirely ghosts and humans version.

Danny snickers, “chaotic good undying warlock suits me I’d say”. Really Danny only picked that because of the undying bit, the joke was there so he had to take it. And chaotic good pretty much was him, no way he could call himself lawful. Not when his very existence was against the laws of nature and reality themselves.

James tosses down a shorthand species sheet, “I’m surprised they actually made so many ghost species, so take your pick”.

Species:

Ghost - versatile but never the strongest

Ghoul - aggressive close and personal fighters

Spirit - gentle divine creatures, usually lawful

Spector - sneaky loners, like to appear highly intelligent.

Poltergeist - aggressive powerful fighters, always evil. Large but often invisible.

Whisp - tricksters but powerful with magic, always chaotic good. Small in size

Wraith - protective, unattractive and often feared by others

Banshee - prophetic strong healers

Phantom - selfless guardians who care for others, always good.

Danny obviously wants to pick the Phantom class but apparently, no gets to be that, as James taps on that class and snickers, “considering this is Amity, Phantom isn’t going to be a playable species otherwise half of you guys will pick that”. Danny sticks out his arms, “oh come on, if anyone should get that species it should be the guy with the same first name!”. A few of the other kids snicker and even James shrugs in amusement but, “can’t just let one person pick it. That would be a dick move”. Danny rolls his eyes but is thoroughly amused, seeing as he’s almost about to graduate and literally no one has figured out who exactly he is, he’s kind of stopped caring about going out of his way to hide shit. Heck, he’s tempted to just randomly clue in his classmates through various absurd means. At least now the government can’t even touch him, they wanted to be on “safe footing” with the ghost king even if they still have no clue who exactly that is. All they know is that he’s frequently in the human world and capable of taking the form of a regular human. Danny’s perfectly content to let them think that ability is unique to the Ghost King.

Shaking his head and looking down to the sheet, Whisp and Wraith are the only ones that stand out to him but trickster is much more in line with himself and would be much more amusing. And he’s not really surprised that no one picks regular ghost, “well Whisp it is for me. A chaotic Whispy Warlock that just can not fucking die already”.

“Dude, that’s not what undying means here”

“No shit, let me have my jokes”, besides undying warlocks get their magic from immortals right? Well this character was made by a damn immortal, given creation and thus power from Phantoms immortal ass.

Lily rolls the weird dice in her fingers, “so what? We roll for stat points now?”. While Rex eyes Danny up and down, “you picked the smallest class but you’re the tallest guy here. Did you just pick everything to be funny?”. Danny smirks wide, not why he picked the species but absolutely. Everything about him is practically one big joke, Hell he’s playing a board game with a bunch of regular humans while pretending to be trapped during a storm. He could literally fly through this weather and it would be fun too. He could also stop it if he really wanted to, use his ice to mess with the weather and air currents; but fucking around that much really wasn’t a good idea.

“Yup, roll three dice. Total stat point of three is the worst you could get, eighteen is the highest. Ten or eleven is the average. All the regular human npc’s are tens”, Danny’s not surprised Todd went with Ghoul. He might not be that big of a guy but man could he ever be an aggressive asshole to pretty much everyone. Speaking of asshole, “Fenton, your turn. What? your brain still fried from that weak little shock?”.

Turning to Todd and answering as he throws dice, “you know I underplayed that shit right? Didn’t want to deal with damn doctors, no way anyone would have let me out of going to the hospital if they had known it was closer to four billion than a hundred volts”. Smirking at Todd, “just for reference, a lightning bolt is around one billion. Your wall socket, that I’m sure you rammed forks into for kicks, is about a hundred and twenty”.

“Ok first off, you suck with dice, second how the hell aren’t you dead then?”, James clearly thinks Danny’s bullshitting and the sad thing is, the portal was probably more volts than that. Who knows what the volt readout for the entirety of a dimension colliding inside one tiny body is. Danny finishes rolling as he talks, “I’m not dead? Well, that’s news to me”.

Star elbows him, she’s become oddly friendly even flirty over the past year. Danny’s pretty well positive it’s because of his height and even if he wore baggy clothing pretty well always, if you really looked you could tell he wasn’t scrawny. Star’s got an eye for details so he can’t be too surprised and she’s perfectly fine with dating below her standing, Hell she dated Tucker of all people. “What even happened? Pretty sure you never told anyone”.

Rolling his eyes at her, “no one cared to ask. But if you must know a ghost portal opened up directly on top of me. There’s no real way to know just how much shocked me but I’m pretty sure an entire dimension carries more volts than one lightning bolt”.

Danny’s the only one to notice the straight up shit roll of his last dice as everyone gapes at him. Tyler’s the first to speak up, “you were electrocuted by the ghost zone?! Like all of it?! At once?! You should be a lot more than dead!”. Danny throws his head back and laughs, “what? Dead with a side of extra dead sauce?! Sounds like the perfect breakfast!”. Shaking his head as he continues talking, while catching James staring in bafflement at the dice, “sounds way more edible than those stupid ecto-contaminated Hot Dogs that try to eat you back! Or that damn overcooked turkey that stabbed me with a knife”.

Kwan mouths “what the fuck”, while James points at Danny, “dude, your luck is horrendous. I’m not even sure how you even get the worst stats possible. No wonder a portal opened up on you, I think the universe might actually hate you”, glancing at Danny who has curled up in laughter, “I don’t think it’s quite that funny though”. Danny can’t help but laugh harder, the king of ghosts, the most powerful ghost around, who’s literally worshiped as a god by some; is the weakest and shittiest ghost in this game. Like Boxy could beat this guys ass. That thought makes him laugh even harder. Wiping his eyes a bit and noticing that everyone actually looks slightly concerned know, “trust me, this is utterly hilarious. You just don’t know why! Oh man!”. Wheezing in laughter again, “now watch, the rest of my rolls will be so insanely good that I impossibly succeed at everything my character does”.

Kwan points at him, “with these awful stats you damn well better, otherwise you’re screwed”.

“I think the stats reflect Fenton perfectly. Weak and pathetic!”, Danny really can’t feel insulted because it’s just really funny right now. Todd is clearly not happy that Danny finds this funny instead of insulting, or that Star is mouthing, “are you blind?”, at Todd.

“How can you possibly find being insulted funny?”, comes Rex’s squeaky voice. Danny runs a hand through his hair, “insults are funny when they’re so insanely incorrect that it becomes absurd”.

Todd rolls his eyes at Danny, “you’re a complete weakling and a scaredy cat, just like al-”, Todd cuts himself off as he stares at Danny. Who just tore off his sweater, because this is way too funny. Chances are if he ever gets destroyed, it will be because he couldn’t resist a good joke. Danny smirks a bit as he nonchalantly flexes without doing any dumb poses, because he does have some shame. While everyone just stares at the clearly ripped and heavily scarred weirdest member of the weirdo trio.

“Todd, I could fucking maim you. I could maim the whole damn football team. But that wouldn’t be very good of me, now would it?”, tapping on his character sheet with a sly smirk.

“How the hell do you look like that man? And why don’t you just join the team then? Actually have good social standing?”, Danny can’t really blame Kwan for caring about that sort of thing. After all, being a jock was pretty well the guys' life and he wasn’t burdened with crazy weird responsibilities or power for that matter.

Responding mostly to Todd’s little insults, “I come from a family of ghost hunters, what the hell do you think? That scaredy cat crap is just a cover. Which is rather pointless now, what with graduation coming up and all the teachers not really giving a shit about my crap now”, aggressively pointing his finger at Kwan while the others finish rolling, “I don’t care for sports and my time is better spent elsewhere. Social standing in Highschool means nothing to me”.

Now it’s Tyler’s turn to look incredulously at the stupid powerful halfa, “why are you even telling us this?”.

“Because it’s funny. I picked a jokester species for a reason. I’m a little shit and this is one way I get my kicks. That and no one will believe you if you tell. So it really doesn’t matter. Even if you were believed, it would hardly matter. It’s too late for the school to really do anything and I really am someone of chaos. I will only laugh harder if the whole school starts freaking out”, Danny can tell he’s confusing everyone and that is only making him snickering more. So he takes the chance for first dibs on a figure, a transparent floating skinny man in a hooded robe with his legs crossed. Looks a shit ton like ClockWork, snickering “now if only he had a staff”. This prompts everyone else to realise what he did and to start snatching at figures, while Rex gives him a shy but quizzical look. So Danny decides to be more of a confusing mess to these regular mortals, “he looks like a close friend of mine. And this makes my horrid stats even funnier because my friend is flat out OP. His tricky ass will get a good laugh out of this I’m sure”.

“Uh, humans aren’t really OP, ever, are you friends with a freaking ghost? You’re damn weird enough to be the person who befriends some ghost. And what? You going to talk his ear off about actually hanging out with people other than the two other resident freaks for once?”, Todd’s tone goes from confused questioning to his typical insulting asshole mode. So Danny decides to be a bit of an ass right back, “Todd, my friend is an omniscient borderline god of a ghost. I don’t have to tell him, he already knows and is probably snickering like crazy right now. But of course you don’t believe me, why would you? Which is why he’ll either A, do nothing to make me the butt of a joke. Or B, do something to make you the butt of a joke. That, or he’ll hit me with his staff to do both at once”. Honestly Danny’s kind of looking for approval and pretty well a go-ahead from the master of time here, he’d like to know he’s not majorly fucking up just because he’s having a bit of fun.

Everyone’s staring at him in disbelief and he can tell Todd wants to mock him some more but Danny falling back laughing stops him. Holding the figure, which now has a little tiny glowing CW staff resting across its lap, above his face. Through a laugh, “fucking nice, you enigmatic weirdo”. Sitting back up as he places the figure on the board, “and now he’s got a staff”.

“Nice trick, maybe you can-”, Lily cuts Todd off, “dumb boy, pretty sure he doesn’t carry around mini glowing staff things. No ones that weird”. She’s not wrong, why would someone ever do that anyway? Well, ClockWork might, just to throw them at him. After all, he’s got all the time in the world to mess around, when he can anyway. Just like Danny, though Danny takes way more mess around time.

Tyler shakes his head, “something tells me, we barely know you”. Danny pats Tyler on the shoulder while James actually gets the game started, “so we’re doing this party style, just a dungeon crawl. Get through the city without getting caught by hunters and defeat the ghost king”. This makes Danny cough a bit startled, the goal of this game is for his classmates and him to defeat, himself? Well, he guesses that’s not really a first for him. “Hey, James. Who does this game think the ghost king is?”, everyone looks a bit confused at him. Then James grabs one of the figures, Danny can’t help but laugh at the little knock-off Pariah figure. “Well that’s a damn easy battle currently then! Dude’s locked inside the sarcophagus of forever sleep. So we’re beating up a sleeping man, or releasing him just to fight him. Which is grade A stupid and insane”, waving off their shocked glances, “besides he’s not even the ghost king”.

“Oh and you know who is? We could just swap out if there’s a figure for him. All the figures have set stats for if you’re going to use them as NPC’s”, now Danny’s just flat out interested, because that includes him. Danny motions for the book but James sticks it behind him, “oh Hell no, just tell us who”.

Rolling his eyes, “I’m just going to take the book, dude. I do want I wanna, chaotic and all that”.

“Fenton, he’s literally right across from you. How you plan to do that?”, Todd snickers a bit while James looks smug. Danny decides just fuck it at this point, because really how has no one noticed his crap yet. Using the free-floating ectoplasm in the air to fling the book over Jame’s head and at himself, flipping through it as everyone gapes. “How did you even do that? That’s more than just sleight of hand, holy shit”, Danny blinks at them over the top of the book and snickers, realising none of them actually noticed the slight ghostly glowing. Comparing his and Pariah’s page and damn they made Phantom overpowered. Sure, that’s accurate but, uh, even if everyone had freaky high stats this doesn’t seem winnable. Why the heck put a nearly undefeatable character in a board game? Sure it was accurate to real life but still. Though making Pariah just barely above half Phantoms strength was majorly underestimating the former king. Like insanely so. And did they seriously make a Walker look-alike stronger than Pariah? The tornado “race” too? Putting the book down, “yeah I don’t think we want to do that. The goal here is to actually win right? Not just have everybody’s asses get universally kicked”.

Lily puts her hands on her hips, “just spill already. You satiated your curiosity now do ours”.

Chuckling a bit as he pushes around the figures some, “fine fine, it really should be obvious though”. Smirking as he cups the little knock-off Phantom before slowly placing him at the castle, “our little town hero is a lot busier than he seems”. Literally all of them are grinning, though Star looks a bit confused, “so why do ghosts keep coming here and picking fights with Phantom. If he’s their king shouldn’t they, like, listen to him?”.

“Fighting is how ghosts socialise, know each other, and keep each other from getting rusty. The only way ghosts won't go picking fights with another ghost is if that ghost is hated or extremely annoying to literally everyone. Well, that or just being really dumb and pointless to fight”.

“So what Phantom’s not strong enough to be pointless to fight? Really Fenton”, Danny rolls his eyes at Todd’s unimpressed tone. Shaking his head, “oh the stats this book gives him are accurate. He’s pretty well the most powerful ghost there is. An omnipotent immortal who’s literally worshipped as a god by many other ghosts. All those fights are usually more like sparring matches, he’s having his ghostly fun and keeping in touch with everyone. He’d be so very bored otherwise and the other ghosts wouldn’t want him out of practice in case something happens”.

Todd actually starts laughing at this while James does indeed decide to stick with using knock-off Pariah because damn. Todd points at Danny, “of course Phantom likes hitting and fighting! Regular jock for sure, just with real power”.

“Well I don’t like that. He should be wanting ghosts to not come here, not eagerly, or whatever, awaiting the next fight”, Danny can’t help but jerk from that because dude fuck buddy. He absolutely did look forward to the next fight, fighting and witty batter was his bread and butter. Locking eyes with Tyler, “nearly every ghost awaits their next fight, welcome to ghost nature buddy. Humans go to cafes, ghosts punch each other. Humans show off pictures of their selfies or pets, ghosts show off new weapons by using them on each other. To fight is to socialise. Phantoms one of the few that doesn’t like others in the crossfire though. If ghosts stopped picking fights here, he’d feel unneeded and paranoid. Plus this is his home, ghosts have to come here to see him. Them being here doesn’t mean they’re causing problems”. Tyler still looks unimpressed.

There’s the occasional jokes and pepperings of ghost questions as they play a few turns before Lily has just about enough and finally asks Danny just what the fuck, “how do you even know all this shit? Even your parents, who’ve spent their whole lives researching ghosts, don’t know even half this shit. I would know, I’ve asked”. Danny chuckles, his parents would know this shit if they weren’t so damn biased and actually just asked. Smirking at her, “you learn this stuff by genuinely socialising and being friendly with ghosts. My parents only wish to send them back to the Zone or experiment. Of course, they don’t know”.

“That’s actually kind of sad, still doesn’t answer my main question though. You’re actually fighting ghosts?”, Danny will give her props on being pushy. But he rolls to see if he can avoid this random hunter trap before responding, smirking as it rolls high, “I spar yes, protect the citizens. Toss around witty banter, making Plasmius regret ever meeting me. In general, I’m an OP little shit”, Danny taps on his figure, that’s actually doing well for being an utter weakling, “that’s why this is funny. The strongest most capable person here has the utterly weakest character ever”.

“Capable ghost hunter isn’t a capable ghost, even if you’re a ghost friendly hunter”, Danny can’t help but wheeze. He was just a ghost being a ghost. Half human or not, he was sparing and socialising as a ghost does. Calling him a human hunting ghosts was just so entirely wrong. Smiling with his head in his hand, “I don’t call myself a hunter and neither do they”.

Kwan pushes him playfully, “yeah well, regardless of title, I still can’t believe you even do that. Props man, I guess”.

By the time the party gets to knock-off Pariah, both Lily and some quiet kid named Max have had their characters killed off. Danny’s snickering as his and Tyler’s characters are leading the face off. While James shakes his head and points his hand at the figures, “this is ridiculous even if you had raised your stats the most you possibly could, there’d still be no way to win this”. Danny chuckles because that’s pretty much what the odds were when he did face Pariah. Once again deciding fuck it, “well then let’s make this even more realistic then. I’ll roll to multiply my characters power a hundredfold”. James starts lowkey choking, “what?! How is that realistic?!”. Danny laughs as he rolls, “that’s how Phantom won. Multiplied his power a hundredfold and nearly destroyed himself in the process. This book drastically underestimates Pariah’s power. It took thirteen extremely powerful ancient ghosts just to seal him away, Phantom did it alone. Like the self-sacrificial idiot he is”. Shrugging, “well that and, no one else was even willing to fight Pariah cause he was too damn strong and wasn’t worth fighting”.

Smirking at his die showing a high ass number, while menacingly petting his figure, “having that much power... it’s a burden, isn’t it, child?”. James mouths, “what the fuck”, at both the die and Danny.

While Todd blinks a bit surprised, “Fenton, what? I would never have expected you to sound creepy, threatening, and powerful”. Danny grins wider, “and that’s why no one will believe you about any of this”.

Now, unfortunately, this battle with Pariah requires actually defeating him. No sealing him away, and his character is pathetically weak even at a hundredfold power. He could kick his own ass with his ghost powers completely neutralised. So it really surprised no one that Danny fuckin’ dies.

Snickering down at the figure, “little ragged around the edges, eh, child?”. Before bursting out laughing as the mini staff explodes into purple mist. Todd, Tyler, and Star do wind up surviving and winning though.

“So any other crazy bullshit you feel like pulling. Since we’re officially out of shit to do besides being dicks to each other”, James mutters while lying on the floor. Todd snickers, “I’m cool with that”. Danny rolls his eyes, “now-now, would you act like that in front of Phantom?”. Both Star and Todd shake their heads rapidly, only Todd speaks though, “why the hell would I? That guy’s like super moral, I’d be making a horrible impression”. Danny can’t help but laugh, yeah he’s definitely got strong morals but he’s also a little shit. He steals, pulls pranks, constantly breaks into to pretty much everywhere, and spends most of his time pounding the crap out of someone. Good reasons or no, he’s ain’t a golden boy. Just the good guy who generally plays fast and loose with morality... and mortality. Smirking at Todd, “it’s a little late to change his impression of you, I’d say. You’ve literally punched him in the face, multiple times actually”, Danny sneers mockingly but still humorously, at Todd looking startled, “oh what? Didn’t know Phantom can change into a regular human?”. Throwing his head back and laughing loudly, “funny thing! The town barely knows Phantom”. Danny sighs as his ghost sense goes off and well, surprise surprise, his icy breath also glows. Knowing full well it’s Skulker, who really is more of a threat, he has a bad tendency to abduct people after all.

“What the fuck was that?”, Danny completely ignores Tyler, though he does talk, “the town also barely knows Fenton. So you’re right about that, but looks like I’ve got a job to do. Guess Skulker doesn’t really care about the shit weather, but then again, neither do I. Flying in the wind is hella fun”. Smirking as his toxic green eyes fill the room with an eerie ghostly light, “anyways this has been quite amusing and like I said, I’m a little overpowered shit. And ain’t nobody gonna believe you”. Before transforming and phasing out the window.

“Fenton, Phantom. We are all idiots, holy shit”

End.

#danny phantom #phandom #phanniemay #phanniemay19 #d & d #danny fenton #kwan #oc’s #star #boardgame #reveal #danny’s a little shit #danny fuckin dies #ghost king phantom #danny is op #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick

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klimp42 · 5 years ago

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Final Fantasy 8: An Amazing Story Hidden Behind Weird Mechanics

So it should be said that there is one thing that I love and that is some good narrative in gaming. I love it, give me a game with a good narrative and at least decent gameplay and I am in there, and a good narrative doesn't mean oscar level writing because I love Deadly Premonition, a notoriously weird game, but a golden game in my heart. Its story is weird and unique and at times outright strange, but it's endearing and I love how wild the story gets as it goes on. Now why am I talking about this? Why it's because of my lovely new bad gameplay good narrative obsession, Final Fantasy 8. That's right, gamer boys and girls we are going back to another old game, and that's because I just played it, and the remastered just got announced at E3 this year.

Alright so if you know nothing about the Final Fantasy series, let alone the 8th installment, let me help you out. Final Fantasy is an old franchise, it started in 1987 and got its name because the original name Fighting Fantasy was taken by a board game in the states, the myth of it being called Final Fantasy because it was a last ditch effort to make a successful game is just that, a myth. The game is prolific, being one of the granddaddy's of the JRPG genre and helping bring that good ol fashion turn based combat system popular in tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) to videogames. Final Fantasy 1 is a classic of gaming and also is kind of like D&D, you have classes similar to the previously mentioned board game; Warrior, Monk, Thief, Paladin; with a few of its own unique classes; Red mage, Black mage and White mage. The games story was very simple, worlds ending, killing these fiends and go back in time and stop Chaos from doing this over again, also at some point the game explains that you are from another universe and that's why you just start outside the beginning kingdom, Final Fantasy stories like to be a little wild at times.

Like D&D you gained levels in this game by fighting monsters, getting stronger with each fight and eventually being strong enough to be able to face the final boss on even grounds, or maybe a little above them if you grind out yourself to max level. This system, if you are into the RPG genre, is incredibly rewarding as you get to see your team of lowly nothings evolve into masters of combat who can slay gods. The best part, to me at least, is going back to the starting area or an area that gave you trouble and stomping on those monsters who thought they were so cool 20 levels ago. Now in Final Fantasy series this system is in most of them, fight monsters, get exp, level up and your stats go up with it, the special cases are Final Fantasy 2,6,8 and 10, and of these the worst offenders of weird leveling are 2, 6 and 8. That's right, I said it, 6 has a weird leveling system with level not raising stats and needing summons equipped to level stats, I personally don't believe that it deserves its spot as one of the best Final Fantasys but that is an article for another time. I could explain why each is weird and 10 is fun and different in a good way, but forget all that and let's get into the focus of this piece, Final Fantasy 8.

Now even though it is my new obsession in good story bad gameplay, my fascination for this game goes way back to when I was a 3 year old with a pizza hut demo disc. Yeah you bet that was a thing, you would order a large pizza and it would come with a playstation demo disc that had a couple of games, but the only one that mattered to little old me was the demo for Final Fantasy 8, or that game with the guy with the cool sword and big water snake, as I was 3 and couldn't read that well. Seriously, if you have played a Final Fantasy game before you would know that you can use summons by clicking the tab they are in and then selecting the one you want, well ol kid me thought it was random as I was just picking things at random. So what I am saying is, I have always had a special place for this game in my heart, so there might be a bit of bias.

So I spent some time flip flopping over what I wanted to discuss and explain first, story or gameplay, on the one hand I wanted you to know what FF8 had to offer narratively, but on the other hand I feel I should let you guys know what you're getting into when you play this. So I decided to compliment sandwich this one, but like a subway compliment sandwich where the teenager who doesn't really want to work there barely tries to cut your bread so the top part is like really thin. So thin that what I am going to give you is this, FF8 is a great story of a young man learning to overcome his own weaknesses to understand that strength can be found in companions, listen I know that sounds cliche but I need more space to talk about the amazing character development and got to tell you about this bad gameplay.

So remember when I said that old Final Fantasy's had a nice leveling system based on fighting enemies, getting exp and raising stats? Throw it all out the window, because like I told you earlier FF8 is one of the weird ones. So for some reason FF8 has a whole system based around equipping "Guardian Forces" (summons) and then through this unlocking the ability to junction (equip) magic to your stats; like strength, magic, hp and the other classics; while also being able to junction magic to element and status attack and defense, allowing you to be able to either protect or do damage based on said elements and statuses. Now you might be thinking how does this work, because magic is usually used based on magic points (mp) well there is no mp in FF8. This is due to the narrative stating that it is very rare for people to do raw magic instead they need to draw magic from nature and creatures/people and use it that way. This means that in FF8 magic is a finite resource and instead of regaining mp you have to spend time drawing magic that is randomized to be either 2 or 12 magic, so it can take awhile. If this sounds a bit weird and confusing, don't worry it kind of is, there are tutorials to explain it, but man is it a weird system. So why is this all necessary? Well unlike other Final Fantasy's, in FF8 leveling raises your stats by the littlest amount, so to be able to do decent damage and also defend against it you need to junction magic. Also to make things even worse, leveling can be a problem as monsters level with you, so if an enemy is tough for you at level 20, raising your level to 30 won't help you as they will be doing more damage and have more health. The game does try to offset this by making it so if an enemy had fire to be drawn at lvl 10, at lvl 30 they would have fira to be drawn, which would make it so that you can junction a more powerful magic and do more damage. FF8 also gives you the option to just cast magic instead of drawing it from enemies, and can be useful since most bosses have healing magic to draw from them meaning you can go in without a huge stock of cure's.

Alright so we have a confusing system with a bad mechanic of monsters getting stronger with you as you level, is that all that is weird? Nope. So remember the guardian forces I mentioned earlier? Well they are necessary to be able to junction spells to stats and make your party stronger, but there are a limited number of them and that usually means only three of the six party members will have guardian forces so you can make a decent party for fighting. The problem is that the game likes to switch around who is playable a lot, and while it is fun and interesting in the narrative, it sucks gameplay wise. The game does make it easy by letting you be able to switch who has what guardian forces in a menu, but it gets tedious after the 15th time you have to do it and especially when the game switches between two perspectives like 4 times in 30 minutes. Also sometimes you have dream sequences where you play as another team and when you come back to your main party everyone but Squall, the main character, has everything unequipped, so you have to go back and re-junction everything and it's just a waste of time. Listen I could keep going on the weird aspects of this game, but I don't want it to take up this whole article and we got cool card games to talk about.

FF8 does a lot of things in a weird and bad way, but that doesn't mean it doesn't do things really really right, and thats with Triple Triad baby! Triple Triad is the super fun card game that exist within FF8, a game so good that you can also play it in FF14. The game is easy to get into and can get pretty hard with each area of the game map have unique rules, yet you can game the system by going to areas and abolishing rules and bring rules from other regions to new regions. Well except for one region, it is the king of rules, no exceptions! The fun of this game is not just showing the npc's of FF8 why you are the Yugi Muto of Triple Triad, you see you can learn an ability to turn cards you win from Triple Triad into items, which in turn can be turned into spells, powerful spells, I'm talking spells you are not meant to gain until like lvl 45 or 50. This means that if you want to you can spend time in the starting area at lvl 7 and leave a powerhouse that level thanks to Triple Triad. But there is a problem, this method is not quick, it takes hours to do this and also to even be able to get the ability to do this you will need to get AP for your Guardian Forces, which means either fighting fights normally or carding enemies which kills them but doesn' give exp, it can only be done at low health so be careful not to accidentally kill them.

So I have given a decent way to have fun but let me give you guys, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy FF8's gameplay, cheats. That's right a game that's so weird that the PC port has cheats that you can add to your save. I'm not talking about the normal ones we saw when FF7 and FF9 were ported to modern consoles, like the ability to turn off encounters and have it so you don't lose health in combat and do max 9999 damage. I am talking about the ability to modify a save file so you start with most low and mid level magic at full stock on all characters, and let me tell you it is a blessing. On PC it also allows you to at anytime raise all magic stocks to 100 and max level Guardian Forces, and let me tell you guys if you don't have the patience for the grind or want to try and just enjoy the story I highly suggest using these cheats, it makes things so much easier and I hope that the FF8 port coming to console has these cheats too. Also I should let you guys know I didn't immediately use these cheats, I tried to play it legit about three different times and every time the grind burnt me out, honestly if it wasn't for these cheats I would never had enjoyed FF8's amazing story. Speaking of amazing stories, let's finish off this subway compliment sandwich and talk about the good stuff.

So let me give you guys the easy lore of this world, on this planet, there are two types of people, normal people and sorceress, sorceresses can use magic naturally and a lot of them use this power for world domination especially the last sorceress, Adel, who was in charge of the country of Esthar and almost succeeded, due to this the Gardens were created by a man named Cid with the sole purpose to be able to kill sorceress should one like Adel show up again. The thing is one will show up and I don't mean because of plots need for a main antagonist, I mean because a sorceress can not die until she passes her powers to another female. Our story follows the character of Squall Lionheart, a quiet and distant youth who wants nothing more than to be able to prove that he is strong enough to be on his own, so badly that he actively shuts out other people who try to get close to him. Our boy here is a SeeD candidate in Balamb Garden, which means he is close to graduating and being basically a mercenary for the Garden until the need to fight a Sorceress arrives. And from there that's how the story grows, you have a cast of characters that join over time each interesting in their own right, helping as you deal with a looming sorceresses threat. Sounds pretty standard right? Well let's be real even something standard can be handled masterfully and that is exactly what FF8 does. Before I get into that there are two more characters I need to talk about. Laguna Loire, a soldier of the Galbadian army, who Squall keeps having vivid dreams about, through these dreams you see piece by piece of what he went through and how these events shaped him and the world around him and also how he is connected to Squall. There is also Rinoa Heartilly, a young girl who wishes to free the city of Timber from Galabadian control and in the process acts as the catalyst to what motivates Squall to change, all do to a chance meeting. When you look at the plot of FF8 it is abit generic what with stopping a Sorceress from creating her perfect utopia and most characters, outside of the ones mentioned above, get little depth to them, but what makes this story so engaging and interesting is Squall.

You see Squall starts off as a character who I can say I was disappointed in and didn't really like, a character I had adored since I was a kid due to my memories with that demo. He is angsty, off putting and really annoying, hell it feels like half of Squalls Dialogue is "...", but the thing is, that's the point. Squall is like that because he is afraid of trusting people again, fearing that if he does he will get hurt again and abandoned like he was as a child, so he puts on this cold front to make it easier for him, he doesn't have to worry if people like and rely on him if he is cold and indifferent, they would all just hate him. It is through this premise and his chance meeting with Rinoa that we see how Squall grows and changes, a man who I started off hating and grew to love and it's because it feels natural. Squall isn't cold because he thinks its cool or because he knows he is better than everyone else, he is a kid, a sad kid who went through heartbreak way to young and is afraid to love someone again. He is thrust into a dangerous world and has to come to terms that his lifestyle will not work for him, that he needs and wants to rely on others and he can't just keep ignoring a part of himself. Through the course of FF8 you see a quiet kid with a broken heart, overcome himself and become a real hero and use his new strength to make sure he can protect those close to him as well as himself.

And now we reach a bit of a problem, I would love to explain more, I want to explain why certain scenes moved me so much and why Squall's journey brought me to tears, but then I would need to spoil parts of the story, and that is the last thing I want to do. This is a Final Fantasy story that has incredible character development and I want people to be able to experience it themselves, to see what makes it great. I should also at least mention that the story is not without faults and tropes with Rinoa starting off being your typical manic pixie dream girl and if Squall really wanted to be alone he would have left SeeD after completing his training, and of course the other characters are not given as much screen time as Squall and Rinoa. However, tropes are not always bad and can still have depth, and by the end of the story I would say that Rinoa sheds the trope but it is on the nose in the beginning.

I left a lot of stuff out and with the HD remaster coming out sometime this year I think that if this article intrigued you, pick up a copy and experience it yourself. Experience a masterpiece of character growth that I believe is held back by clunky gameplay choices. I sincerely hope if you do decide to pick up this title that you enjoy Squall's story as much as I did.

#final fantasy #final fantasy viii #final fantasy 8 #final fantasy 8 hd #final fantasy 8 remaster #squall #squall leonhart #rinoa #rinoa heartilly #laguna #laguna loire #article #look at at #discussion

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frenchy-and-the-sea · 6 years ago

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Favorite Passage

I was tagged by @thereluctantinquisitor to share one of my favorite passages from something I’d written! And as much as I’d love to slap some SC stuff in here, this piece I did in regards to @themilokin and @phoenix-failing‘s twins - who are NPCs in the game they run for us - really came together nicely.

I’ll tag @rufinagertrude, @bladeverbena, @focsle, @the-devil-moon, @themilokin, @phoenix-failing, @becausedragonage, @captainsaku aaaand @dalish-farther-roam!

Bren licked the last of the sugar and cinnamon from his fingers and set the sachet aside, looking unusually content.

“Well,” he said, “that’s the least boring thing that’s happened to us the last few weeks, at least.”

“Speak for yourself,” said Cavvery, stretching out her back with a wince. “This week Kate took me over a library of obscure Sendran property law and if that wasn’t the most engaging, stimulating, delightful - “

Bren reached over and shoved at her, and she let herself go sprawling onto the bed, snickering.

“I’m serious,” he said when she had smothered the last of her laughter, “I feel like we’ve done nothing but hole up in our rooms for days. I mean, we used to sit around doing fuck all before, but that’s because we were always just….just waiting.”

His tone made Cavvery sit up, just slightly, but whatever memories he was conjuring seemed notably absent of Ambrose’s shadow; he simply looked thoughtful, chewing on his lower lip as he fiddled with the slapdash shark statuette in his hands. She sank back down, pillowing her head on her folded arms.

“That’s not so terrible.”

“It’s not,” Bren agreed. “I definitely wouldn’t go back. I just…this was nice.”

Another moment of quiet rolled over them as they surveyed the array of knick knacks scattered around them on the bed. Eventually, Bren cleared his throat.

“I think we ought to send something back,” he said slowly. Cavvery snorted.

“Don’t bother. They certainly don’t need any more useless garbage weighing them down -”

“It doesn’t have to be this,” Bren said, gesturing with an arm towards the bed, “but I think we should. A note or something, just to say thanks. I think….I think they’re our friends, Cav.”

The silence this time was longer, and decidedly less kind. Some quiet, vile part of her wanted to scoff; what manner of idiot would accept being friends with a group of wannabe world-savers, who ran off into danger on a moment’s notice? Where was the gain in that? The sense?

And more importantly, what wannabe world-saver would want to be involved with them?

“I don’t think us trying to kill them twice really puts us on the road to being friends,” she said after a moment, keeping her eyes on the ceiling. She could let this much of her cynicism out, at least - the sensible part, the part still far enough removed from Kay that she didn’t hear her voice creeping through her brain.

“And I don’t think they’d have sent any of this if they weren’t at least trying,” Bren replied, his voice inching up into that particular quality it got when he desperately wanted to win a fight. “They killed Kay with us, Cav. They came back for me just because you asked. What else would that make them?”

Cavvery shrugged. “A group of idiots?”

Bren opened his mouth to argue. Paused. Closed it.

“Okay,” he said at last, sounding strangely put out, “fine. Fair enough. I’m still right, though. They wouldn’t have done this if they didn’t give at least a little bit of a shit.”

With a sudden surge of movement, Bren pushed himself haphazardly through the sea of gifts and off of the bed, towards the little wooden writing desk in the corner of the room. He pulled back the chair with a huff and flopped into it, grabbing a piece of parchment from the drawer. Then he turned in his seat, one arm dangled over the back of the chair.

“Just sign it?”

Cavvery pushed herself upright again, eyeing her brother for a long, silent moment. She hadn’t noticed it before, she realized, but he had changed over the last few weeks of boredom they had been wrestling with. There was a looseness to the lines in his shoulders, a slant to his smile that nearly looked easy now. They were neither of them done with the hellish backdrop of seventeen years under Kay and Ambrose, but it seemed rather like Bren had started tearing it down.

It seemed rather like he was the one trying.

Sighing, Cavvery pushed up off of the bed and threaded her way over, just as Bren was starting to scrawl a greeting. She shoved at his shoulder, nearly pushing him clear out of the chair as she slid in to take his place.

“Let me,” she said stiffly. “Your handwriting is terrible.”

Two days later, a scroll appears at the feet of a party of road-worn travelers as they trudge their way through a thin dusting of snow. It crumbles to ash in a matter of seconds, revealing a squat brown sack, decidedly less full than it had been when it had left their possession. On it is a small note, attached with a single fabric pin. It reads:

Thanks for the gifts. We thought we would return your bag, and a few pieces of home.

Stay safe if you know how.

Your friends,

C & B

#frenchy replies #thanks for the tag!!#i wish I could bottle whatever the fuck I was on when I wrote this and just keep it because MAN #I'm REALLY proud of this one

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