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zeravmeta · 28 days ago

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Hundred Line DLC Route Concepts

So since hundred line might get some dlc and kodaka wants to hear concepts im gonna put this out in the wild and hope the psychic forces of the universe beam it into his head

note im not 100% on HL yet so maybe some of these ideas were done/are fulfilled in other ways BUT this is my post and while I DO think some routes can get expanded on, im sticking strictly to actual new concepts even in expanded routes, if I want to expand on a previous route id want it tacked on post the supposed ending where a last minute choice could branch off the end

spoilers obvs btw and also long so readmore for spoilers and length

Preamble: BIGGEST AND EASIEST WAY to make a lot of these routes possible as DLC is to allow Eito to kill Sirei on Day 2 and work from there, but they can easily be added at other junctures. With that out of the way,

Concept 1: Last Defense Academy 3rd Run / Inherited Will -> Nozomi as the time looper coming back

I think the title is pretty self explanatory BUT I could see it going in two ways: Takumi after his death in Second Scenario manages to rewind himself back to Day 1 and, using the knowledge of the truth and greater context that Truth/Second Scenario provided, does one more go around for the 100 days to stop Humanity's invasion of Futurum and try to save everyone. Alternatively, you can have Nozomi as the protagonist for this 3rd run, having inadvertently absorbed Takumi's cryptoglobin following the end of Second Scenario and she rewinds, letting us play through this third run with her as the protagonist where she tries to save Takumi in turn and, with a newfound contempt for humanity, can choose whether to strive for coexistence or to sabotage humanity's efforts for using her friends as living weapons.

Concept 2: Bad End Takumi Invasions

So Hundred Line definitely has what I call the Three Houses problem, wherein a character who has time travel powers they can use pretty freely to fix the immediate problems in front of them STILL does not use them because the story demands they not have the reset button on hand, BUT i think this could be used in an interesting way: Have alternate Takumi's from bad end routes use their powers to invade the Academy to try and take our Takumi's better circumstances for themselves. For example, you could have a Retsnom end Takumi try to kidnap our non-Retsnommed Darumi under the logic of "You don't love or appreciate her like I do, so I'll take her off your hands. You don't care anyways so this isn't an issue.", or maybe a Cult Takumi obsess over our Takumi being another extension of his will and try to absorb him because he needs to fulfill his role as the ultimate fix-it tool, or perhaps a Failed Rebellion Route Takumi trying to find a new Futurum after he accidentally ruined his own, you could take this in a whole ton of ways and it could even be as simple as different Takumi's who died early trying to live and absorb and take our Takumi's place.

Concept 3: Expanded V'ehxness & Eva Routes

I think this one is also pretty self explanatory, as while the despair sisters commander siblings have some of the best routes, they're also pretty short, written out as really good endings but with little substance in the middle.

Eva routes can be expanded just from letting Eito kill Sirei: She doesn't get brainwashed, and because Sirei isn't there to shock Takumi and the SDU every waking minute, Eva and the SDU engage in more dialogue where perhaps she has the SDU join the Futuran rebellion against V'ehxness earlier on because now with Sirei no longer manipulating info, they talk for a literal 5 minutes and realize the truth about the war far earlier. Takumi when he was actively shunned in the class managed to befriend her in 10 days this one is so easy.

V'ehxness route can also be expanded upon easier, maybe there can even be an offshoot following Ending 44 where V'ehxness, now having someone she actually loves and wants to survive FOR as opposed to being an eternal unthinking god symbol, manages to escape with Takumi and narrowly survive their fatal wounds. From here it could go a few ways: Maybe they become vagabonds fighting all sides and relying on each other to survive, maybe the commanders and SDU slaughter each other and the satellite humans invade, leading V'ehxness to tenuously team up with Kahmyun and you fight against humanity's invading army as an unlikely allies rebellion where it's an awful tenuous peace but Kahmyun recognizes that V'ehxness is needed for her power and at least this time she actually has a person she cares about other than herself so she can be directed using Takumi.

Honestly I think V'ehxness and Eva should have more interactions in general, maybe even the Unlikely Allies Rebellion route has Eva as the only surviving commander from the massacre and V'ehxness and Eva are forced to actually talk like equals, and we get more backstory from both perspectives.

IDK something something pull both sisters? that'd be kinda funny. Moko spontaneously materializes from Takumi's blood to beat the shit out of him.

Concept 4: Traitor Route / Satellite Invasion Route

Takumi as a "Paragon of Despair" commander allying himself with the Commanders and leading the invasions against the SDU, each battle ends with the capture of a friend and you have to choose to either imprison or eat them. it could be that he's captured early on, MAYBE he revealed his foreknowledge and that leads to his capture and from there they talk more.

I think there's so many ways this one can be done in general: Not only would this be the route where Takumi can bond with the commanders vs the SDU students, but maybe Takumi can have mini routes associated with various commanders as he reaches an understanding/deeper connection with individual ones? Like Nyewgank straight up also has a time power and is depicted as a priest so maybe he can have a mini route dedicated to more worldbuilding as he teaches Takumi about his Futuran heritage? Maybe Takumi even embraces the religion and the internal strife within the commander ranks can have Takumi pick between factions like V'ehxness, Dahl'xia, and the like.

This one would def need to start with letting Eito kill Sirei but perhaps it can be its own golden end scenario with Eito finding out the Second Scenario truths and nudging the other students to join as commanders, with this route's enemies being an invading human army instead of the little monster mobs. Maybe it can even do a rehash of the Second Scenario final battle, but the combined might of the SDU and the Commanders helping them this time actually leads to a happier end for them.

This one is one of those route concepts I like not just for story reasons but for gameplay reasons as well, using the commanders in place of the students can expand gameplay a ton, you fight your endgame gigabuffed students that you spent all those previous routes building up with your giant 4 space bosses, maybe the human army has a different enemy variety type with a whole bunch of different new gameplay mechanics.

Concept 5: True Golden End -> This is the School Mode Dating Sim Option

Eito kills Sirei, then Takumi locks up Eito. Once everyone else wakes up, he uses Second Scenario foreknowledge to not only get the SDU on his side, but also takes the Commanders prisoner, eventually culminating in all the Commanders invading at once (maybe around day 20ish where you have half the army imprisoned and half the army invading). Because Sirei isn't brainwashing them this time and the captured commanders realize "oh shit these aren't humans they're artificial Futurans who literally didn't realize they were being used as weapons", Takumi and the gang + captured Futurans manage to establish a true dialogue with the remaining Futuran commanders and from there they have 80 days of fucking around in free time where you can date them ala the Danganronpa School Mode post games.

We can also date Shion AND Nigou.

Concept 6: Multiple Minds / Takumi remembers multiple routes

This one is a more loose concept and I already think Takumi remembering Second Scenario alone leads to a whole bunch of new route options BUT we could maybe expand on different routes and using multiple routes foreknowledge to give them good and or bad endings? Maybe Retsnom Takumi manages to go back and take Retsnom into himself instead of Darumi, and the rest of the route has us play as Darumi and making the choices to support and/or maybe even kill Takumi.

This can be used for a whole bunch of different routes, like an Eva/V'ehxness route Takumi going back and trying to help the commanders earlier on, an embittered Failed Rebellion Route Takumi being more merciless to try and prevent any SDU casualties, etc so I'll let you have your personal route blorbo pick

Concept 7: Eitovision Route

Listen if we're gonna have Eito be the government assigned yaoi for this boy, why not have a route where Takumi actually sees and lives the world through Eito's eyes? We see distorted versions of all the SDU and Commanders, even Eito and we can decide to help sabotage humanity alongside Eito and the route has a dramatic end with both of them being the only living SDU members left and it's a rehash of the Day 2 Eito solo battle.

Concept 8: MatchMaker Route

This one is more comedy focused but hear me out. Romance routes have Moko playing matchmaker and hosting an outright gameshow with Takumi's lovelife, so what if TAKUMI joins in on the action and tries to make his friends happy by playing cupid with them. Already there's a ton of potential choices in just setting up your fav pairs and you can even make your yuri/yaoi piles canon (take this to the extreme imagine if Takumi mid battle is like "V'ehxness you should really check out Addamaque you both love violence and murder :)" ), but maybe this could also be the Moko romance route.

Concept 9: Karua is Real Route

Ok so we all know that Second Scenario revealed that Karua was just an artificial memory in Takumi's head put there to make him fight extra hard for humanity as were all the hundred liners' backstories, she just happened to take up on Nozomi's look and history because Nozomi would always talk to test tube Takumi. But what if Karua actually WAS a real person on the satellite?

Second Scenario's end cutscene has Karua's spirit appear alongside Takumi, so perhaps from alt timeline shenanigans or whatever reason Uchikoshi cooks up, Karua actually IS real and this completely sends Takumi spiraling because there's two of them now!? And with Karua by his side and technically safe there's not really all that much reason for Takumi to want to fight for humanity.

You could take this in a ton of ways: Karua could be a plant by humanity, maybe a double agent by Sirei or even one of the executives from the Satellite who had a soft spot for this particular experiment, maybe this is a new Futuran commander/other party who was a plant IN the satellite and she nudges Takumi to abandon the cause and join Futurum because she likes him or DOESNT like him, maybe she's from an alt timeline where SHE is the artifical soldier and Takumi was the implanted memory, maybe this could even be a spy thriller/conspiracy esque route where Nozomi is the one trying to figure out what Karua's deal is because she KNOWS something is up. It can be taken in a ton of ways

Concept 10: Monster Mash

Another loose concept comedy focused one but what do you MEAN that there isn't a single vampire in the game where you eat other people's blood. Takumi literally reads about a whole bunch of human mythos in the library so what if he finds a cursed halloween book and now MONSTERS INVADE idk this one is more funny meme idea than anything

#thllda spoilers #the hundred line last defense academy #zerav meta #yapping about my fun ideas #yay or nay like comment subscribe etc etc #kodaka i dont have twitter so im sending this heart tipped arrow out into the wild and hoping it plunges into your back

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goshdangronpa · 28 days ago

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Are we in the Golden Age of Video Games?

Maybe I'm just giddy. In the 24 hours before I started writing this, I got a Switch 2 at my first console launch event, played a genuine dream game in Mario Kart World, and revisited the self-evident excellence of Deltarune on a new save file. Still, I'm serious here. Even with the many problems we can all see in the industry, the products, and the community, there are several signs that it's really never been better. So many, in fact, that I'm putting them under a readmore.

QUALITY. Yes, we still get plenty of garbage, but our overall standards are so high now. It seems like something exciting, fun, fresh, clever, or otherwise impressive comes out every week. Every day, even, if you look beyond releases from major studios. This isn't just limited to a few notable types, either. Great games now vary in genre and aesthetic, length and complexity, budget and cost, pedigree and originality. Even new games that we consider terrible would've been the stuff of dreams just a few generations ago. That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but what I mean is we've come a long way.

QUANTITY. Video games are coming out from all kinds of entities. They may be giant corporations, funneling vast resources into AAA behemoths that offer hundreds of hours of adventure. Or they may be individual auteurs, independently creating something more intimate, poignant, and unique than you'd find from most studios. Between these extreme ends of the spectrum are many other teams and groups and studios, collectively releasing games at significantly higher rates than any other time in history.

ACCESSIBILITY. Looking for something new? Visit your local brick-and-mortar game shop (they're still out there). Or connect your console to the internet and browse its online store. Or check if there's a sale on Steam. Or explore any number of sites where people publish their own games, often free of charge. Looking for something old? Emulators, official and otherwise, make a half-century of history more accessible than ever before. Rereleases are also big business, so your fave may be available with shiny HD graphics and other modernizing updates.

MAINSTREAMING. We're on the third or fourth generation of gamers, and public perceptions have shifted greatly in the past 50 years. The belief that video games are purely for children or immature grown-ups is on the wane. All over the world, people of all ages are playing. The Olympics have embraced esports. Hollywood is turning to video game adaptations for blockbuster hits with promising results. Modern titles can generate more billions than the top-grossing movies of all time. This is not a niche hobby anymore.

YOU. Making your own video game has always been more challenging than, say, writing your own book. Nowadays, though, an incredible array of tools and resources are available to help you at every step, from conception to release. RPG Maker alone has been the foundation for multiple modern masterpieces. The gaming community, expansive and expanding, can also help. But you can also join as a fellow fan and engage with the hobby by spectating livestreamed playthroughs or esports competitions, discussing games on social media, watching and commenting on or shooting your own vlogs, and so much more.

They say that you don't know you're in the good old days until they're past. There's plenty of reason to believe that this moment in gaming history, right now, is "the good old days." Those of us who are not children may have a fondness for the games and systems of our youth. I'll always cling to mine, but the past few years have also given us an embarrassment of riches. We live in the age of Elden Ring and Sayonara Wild Hearts, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Balatro, UFO 50 and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, titles that feel like culminations of everything that came before, titles that may swiftly become staples on greatest-of-all-time-lists, titles that spark hope for the future.

Again, I know that things aren't perfect. The gaming community can be deeply toxic. The gaming industry keeps innovating in screwing over employees and customers for profit. Our current era, like every era, has its own novel and specific scourges. This does not dampen my positivity. It strengthens my resolve. If we can overcome the problems of our time, we may see that this isn't the Golden Age at all, but the age that immediately precedes it. We can build that better future, so that these "good old days" lead to the greatest days yet.

#idk what to tag this #switch 2 #video games #that'll do I guess

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waffliesinyoface · 4 months ago

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*kicks door open*

so i have thoughts about Shadowbringers 5.3. I'm rotating it in my mind, thinking about the context it gives, and speculating on where the story might go in Endwalker.

this is under a readmore because, obviously, spoilers.

Specifically, the crystals you get during this quest.

It's never stated as such, but I like to think that these are the archaic form of soul crystals. Stones holding the memories of those who passed before, that might be used to teach the next to fill that role.

Which is, basically, the idea behind every single job stone save machinist. (Because its a new class and the WoL is the first one to use that job stone.) You get new skills because you can attune to it better and can "remember" how to do more skills.

However, you gain the skills and techniques of those who came before you, but there's a distance to them. Like with the Echo - you gets glimpses into people's pasts, from their perspective. You can even get emotions from those memories, as evidenced by Fordola - but they're not your memories.

Which brings me to my next point:

It is all but outright stated that this crystal was yours, pre-sundering. It's been thousands of years, so you've reincarnated, but given the way Hythlodaeus talks about your past self, your innate nature persists.

So, I imagine that like. When you use that crystal - whether you choose to believe your WoL got the whole shebang or just flashes of the important bits - the memories do not have that distance. You know that you never did any of that in this life, but you still think the same way, so the memories feel exactly like your own memories.

It's also implied that the one responsible for making your crystal in secret, was Emet Selch. Which is why he is equal parts friendly, disappointed, pissed off, and annoyed.

This moment of symbolism is something unique to my own playthrough, and I brought this up back in 5.0, but I thought it was kind of interesting how my own outfit choices echoed his own. Black military garb with gold paldrons and red accents. Even down to the length and the same strip of red down the back. His is an outfit of political office, while Alyssa's is that of a frontline combatant, but there's a shared aesthetic.

(And, before anyone says he's wearing those colors because they're the colors of the Garlean Empire.... he made that empire. He's the one who chose those colors.)

Which just adds an extra bit of flavor once you have the context of who you were.

Imagine your bestie reincarnates. And she doesnt remember you, but she still acts the same, and even has the same taste... but also she's against everything you stand for, and she has a bunch of new friends who think you're an asshole.

Is it any fucking wonder he acts like that.

Also, like. Obviously, the WoL is against the rejoining, because slaughtering whole worlds is really bad, actually. But depending on how much you get from the crystal - at this point, at least, it's up to the player's interpretation - you can probably empathize with the 3 unsundered ascians, even if you don't agree with their goals and think their methods are monstrous. Because having those memories means you can remember what having an unsundered soul actually felt like.

So even if you would never agree with them because the cost is too high, and you don't share Emet Selch's "moral relativism" because those other people are people and their lives matter, jackass, you can now remember what it felt like, when you held the title of Azem. And you cant help but feel slightly emptier.

In terms of game mechanics, it's like, say, living a life without an MP bar. Then remembering what it felt like to cast magic. From then on you cannot help but know that it's not that you don't have an MP bar, but that it's been permanently set at 0 your whole life.

If you've never had something, you don't realize that its gone. But now you do, and no one else in the entire world can relate!! Alisaie even says as much at one point - she's only ever had a "sundered" soul, so she can't understand the Ascians' perspective.

The only other people who you might've talked to about that are dead because you, personally, drove a sword through them. Because they wanted to commit genocide, and someone had to stop them.

----------

This is in its own section because it's unrelated, but my speculation re: Endwalker plot beats is related to Elidibus and Zenos. Specifically, Elidibus was Zodiark's heart, but stopped because he was needed in his role as the Emissary. Which implies that Zodiark, at the moment, no longer has a heart.

And Zenos?

Zenos has a history of taking over primals and using them himself.

#Alyssa Morgiana #ffxiv #ffxiv shadowbringers #shadowbringers spoilers

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trianguard · 6 months ago

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NO LIMIT TO HOW FAR I'LL GO.

# TRIANGUARD - indie , private & selective low activity blog for an original character from netflix's SQUID GAME . loved by iggy ( 27 / any prns / est ) . ( TEMP ABOUT ) / ( VERSES ) .

triggering content WILL appear on this blog , so I ask that you be 21+ to follow and interact with this blog. tyvm 💐

RULES BENEATH READMORE !

basic.

hello, and welcome to my blog! followbacks take me a little while to get to as I like to thoroughly read rules and other relating info. assume if I do not follow back within a week I am currently uninterested, but know it has nothing at all to do with you!! I merely like to have a smallish follower count to keep my dash clean. on top of this I normally am stuck on mobile, so replies may take me a while to get to. this blog also WILL contain spoilers for both s1 and s2 of squid game.

shipping / nsfw.

I am really not specifically here for either, but am not opposed to the potential of possible ships forming. nsfw however I will not write on this blog as I am uncomfortable doing so in a public setting. the occasional nsfw ask is accepted, but please know if all you are here for is nsfw then my blog is not for you. thank you for understanding.

drama / triggers / anons.

I do not participate in callout culture. I am a personal believer that most things can be settled in private without dragging others into them. exceptions of course are if someone displays truly disgusting behavior (ie is a predator, irl abusive, etc) and there is solid proof backing said claims up. I also ask that if ever there is an issue with me, my character or my blog you come to me privately to discuss it. I promise I won't ever be mad for you doing so!

onto the dni : no racism, bigotry, lgbtqia+ phobia, etc allowed. I WILL block you if I catch you engaging in any of that outside of your muse. you are not welcome here under any circumstances.

I tag all of the usual triggers, and know the ones that are present on this blog will be no exception. what you can expect to find are : abuse (mentally & physically), violence, murder & death. given the nature of the show itself consider this blog heavy with things like that. as for my own personal triggers I haven't any.

writing / formatting.

I write. a lot. however I do not expect you to match my length! honestly I am very much fine with just being given something I can work with. on top of this I tend to use a mix of small text, with bold and italicized words. if you ever need me to change anything in our threads please let me know! I value your comfort over personal aesthetics.

other stuff / ooc / credits.

I do not mind if you reblog things (ie ask memes) from me. I only ask that you send stuff in on occasion so I do not feel like a sole meme resource blog. personals you are very much welcome to follow, like my stuff, or send IMs / asks, but I request you do not touch my threads. doing so will earn you a block.

hello! my name is iggy, and if you made it this far I appreciate you reading through my lengthy rules. I promise I am not as strict as my rules may seem, but I like to make sure all my bases are covered in regards to what you can expect from my blog (and myself)! on top of that, if you ever wish to have something clarified or merely need someone to talk to, my asks / IMs are open to all, and my discord is available upon request so long as we are mutuals!

unless stated otherwise, everything that appears on this blog I created (save for promo and carrd), and I ask that you do not lift anything from it (including my headcanons). if caught doing so you will be hardblocked.

credits.

promo - tba

carrd - tba

bloglist.

@robotn1k - dr. robotnik (sonic franchise) / (high activity)

@sonneic - sonic (sonic franchise) / (low activity)

@eggspresso - agent stone (sonic franchise) / (low activity)

@chaoscharge - shadow (sonic franchise) / (low activity)

#𔓘 pinned post /

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jynxeddraca · 11 months ago

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Tav Moonridge Character sheet

So I went back to see how much needed to be done, turns out i just needed to tweak a couple things and presto! Background summary was going to go under a readmore but that option is not popping up for me.

Summary:

Daughter of a Iados, a leather worker, and Felicity, an animal handler, who moved to Baldur’s Gate when she was 3. Her early life was filled with grief. First her father being murdered for the sin of being a tiefling and her mother falling to the bottle to drown the never-ending grief of losing her husband. Tav had to learn quick how to take care of herself and her mother at a young age – taking to pickpocketing to try to help make ends meets.

Her mother did eventually meet Euphony and they had her little sister Temerity. Euphony was barely tolerated by Tav and considered Tav crabby, prickly, and grouchy – but taught her to play the lute and improved her pickpocketing skills. After her younger sister was born, and without her mother's knowledge, Tav also learned how to use a knife, how and where to strike someone to get away quickly, how to plan escape routes quickly and silently, and what certain potions/drugs taste like (basically, what does date rape taste like).

When her mother was killed over debts Euphony was nowhere to be found – leaving both her and Temerity (her sister) to an orphanage that let Temerity get near-lethally ill. Putting her skills to the test, Tav managed to get them out of the orphanage and into less unpleasant homes. There were still periods where they slept on the streets, but Tav was able to mostly keep a roof over their heads.

The next couple of years were marked by anger and bitterness. Anyone who wasn't Temerity or a close friend was held at arms' length at best. Tav played nice enough while busking or picking up shifts at whichever one of the many places she managed to talk her way into – but she was quick with sharp words backed by sharper teeth. While she made certain Temerity always had a roof over her head, food in her belly, and school to go to – Tav was not so kind to herself, having long ago learned how to ignore hunger pangs and how many rocks a tiefling's stomach could digest before needing something more nutritious. Even with her two friends trying to make sure she had things to eat, Tav refused to accept more than she felt they could comfortably offer and of that gave the lion's share to Temerity.

Eventually, she realizes she was becoming like all the adults that failed her and chose to help other urchins by letting them crash on her couch now and then and – when she could spare it – a hot meal. Even if it simply meant some kid didn’t die of exposure in the winter, she realized that it was making a difference and managed to convince a few other former urchins to do the same.

As of the start of BG3 she is considered the de facto head of the ‘Network’ – a loosely organized, unofficial group of urchins and former urchins who offer safe spots to crash for the night or fill an empty belly. Despite her turning over a new leaf to be a better person – she still takes absolute shit care of herself and focuses most of her attention on her sister who things she is overbearing and controlling. When Temerity manages to get an apprenticeship with a leatherworker in town and considers getting her own place, Tav does not react amazingly to it. Tav tries to convince her that she’s too young to be on her own and that she should focus on saving money or perhaps getting more schooling and it ends up in a massive fight and Temerity running off for a few days.

Which makes Tav frankly go insane with worry because no one that she knows seems to know where her sister went and Tav is acutely aware of just how dangerous the city can be. When Temerity does finally show back up, she agrees to stay home on two conditions: 1) That Tav stops trying to act like her mother and instead acts like a sister and 2) trust her and give her space to do her own thing.

Tav agrees and attempts to be less codependent on her – by the time Tav is tadpoled their relationship is still strained because she has a difficult time simply being a sister to Temerity and not acting like a mother to her.

#BG3 #Baldur's Gate 3 #Tav Moonridge #OC #Character Sheet #Drow armor is so nice #but it is a bitch to draw

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demystifiedstardust · 11 months ago

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Dream Log 1

I had something of a kin dream and it throws everything off.

Readmore for length and possibly disturbing dreamlike situations.

Basically I had wandered into a liminal space where I was separated from reality. Most people there were trying to get back to wherever they'd came from, and were understandably quite upset (I really wasn't, but that's just me). Anyway, there was some sort of multi-room I eventually made my way to with many tables and chairs clustered like a classroom or pseudo-cubicle group.

There was also a large monitor, and groups of 4 people were undergoing "quests" which were like multiverse Takashi's Castle stages. I participated in a few. It turns out you had a 3-life system, and depending on the challenge, you would lose a life by either dying in a conventional or video-gamey way.

I made it through several quests but eventually lost a life by falling off-screen into a gap between playforms in a timed scroller esque level. Luckily, I was Wanderer, so I was able to rescue myself. For a lot of people, the 3-death rule would take place consecutively because they ended up under positions with no recourse.

I stopped participating and started observing after that. After a particularly gruesome death through the screen to which everyone was shaken up, I stopped paying attention to the games altogether and started questioning nature of the space I was in.

I specifically mused over praying to a god for guidance. Ei was the first to come to mind, to which I said fuck not. I ended up praying to Lesser Lord Kusanali to ask for guidance, saying something along the lines of I was so close to understanding the nature of the space I was trapped in. I woke up almost immediately after, and was distraught because I wanted to save everyone else and now I couldn't. I must have still been partially asleep, because Nahida said to me clear as day, "Isn't this what you wanted?"

I... can't argue with that.

And here I am.

So.

I'll just have to wait and see if this means anything. It's very rare for me to have any dreams of first person POV as myself. I don't read any manga or etc with this kind of plot so idk where it came from. I'll stick this in my back pocket for now.

#miscellaneous musings #my sleep schedule is all messed up because of work so maybe it's not that deep #🌙😴💭 sweet dreams are made of these

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pancakeke · 2 years ago

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I wrote a bunch of paragraphs about nothing in particular again so here it is under a readmore so it doesn't take up space.

like 8 years ago when people used tumblr more via desktop browser than its app, I put a 3rd party metric tracker in my desktop theme that logged how people were referred to my blog. it also captured what pages of my blog people viewed.

at one point during this time I reblogged a piece of pixel art from a japanese artist. they came to my blog through their activity page, and then searched my blog in a couple different ways for the terms "ドット" and "ドット絵" ("dot" and "dot art", as in pixel art). I checked those search urls myself to see if they found anything but there were no results because I never used those terms or specifically tagged pixel art in any other way.

ever since then I've made an effort to tag all pixel art I reblog with the term "pixel art". that artist was probably hoping to find more art to check out and it bums me out that my tagging system wasn't thorough enough to help.

this is why I have my current specific tag system lol. it keeps evolving but having the ability to find stuff you're into without jumping through hoops is really handy. (the site-wide post and tag searches return sooo much bullshit. it's a slog sifting through thr noise whenever I use those to fill my queue due to the sheer amount of manga caps, polls, liveblogs, personal posts, and fics posted without readmores...)

if only the way to view all tags you've ever used still worked. I think it caps at 500 or 1000 now and is also chronological so the first 500 or whatever tags you ever used show up in the list. then there's a hard stop and it does not update as you delete posts or use that mass tag editor to remove certain tags for your blog entirely.

I went through my used tag list earlier this year to unify certain tags and remove tags that I stopped using in favor for other ones, but I only got like 400 tagged terms down the list. maybe downloading my blog data would show more. the trick I mentioned uses your desktop blog's archive page. the tags are in its code so you can use "inspect element" to view it. I remember scrolling a lot to load a bunch of posts on the page but cant remember if this was required or I just did it to see if I could access more tags.

it's formatted all fucked and hard to manage but you can copy and paste the long chunk of tags into one cell of a spreadsheet and then use Data options to split them into columns by commas (or whatever punctuation separates them, I forget). a wide list is a huge pain to view so from there you can click on a cell containing data, click ctrl+a to highlight all data in thr row, copy, then paste special as "transposed" to turn the copied row 90° so it pastes as a column. the spreadsheet will wide as fuck from the hundreds of columns so honestly its easier to paste the transposed data into a new tab and delete the original vs clicking in the column to the left of your transposed data and then pressing ctrl+ shift+right arrow to select all rows to the right, then deleting the extra rows.

if you're in Excel you may have to use the "delete rows" option from the "home" tab and then save the sheet using "file > save" (do NOT save via the save button on the upper left corner or ctrl+s). this returns the sheet to a manageable size for scrolling (plus reduces its file size). this piece of shit software usually retains the sheet width/length even after you delete hundreds of columns/rows unless you use this trick of deleting specifically via home tab + saving specifically through the save menu.

I got a round number of tags when I did this which makes me think there's a cutoff.

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melpcmene · 4 months ago

Text

As I've done this for Jay and Nya, I feel like I should do this for Sonic too. So all my headcanons can be here in one place and may get updated here and there too. ( As I very much enjoy thinking/writing out headcanons! ) Expect this to be in my pinned post next to his verses! And if this gets too long then don't worry! Rest of it will likely be under a readmore! including his headcanon tag here.

01. As an inspiration from Murder of Sonic and confirming what I assumed. Sonic will sleep in strange spots. ( Confirmed by Tails himself! ) So these spots are: Hedges. In the palm tree because why not? He may nap on the Tornado. ( With or without Tails' permission. ) Randomly snoozing in a field of flowers. Sleeping somewhere on a roof. In a washing machine after doing a couple of laps in it. I know, silly of him to do so, but he needs to catch up on his zzz's.

02. And speaking of strange places to sleep in. Things like hedges and flower fields can cause some leaves/flower petals/grass to get stuck in his quills. Sonic isn't always kempt, you know? I find it hard to believe that he's always clean 24/7 here in Green Hill. ( Or anywhere else in the world. ) And most of the time he does not notice nor does he care. He's here to adventure after all and kick ass.

03. He prefers nature over the city any day. Cities are more cramped sometimes. They lack loop-de-loops. He likes more freedom like nature offers. Plus he's a hedgehog. Often seen in the wild. Running happily.

04. His friends are the world to him, and seen in countless things. Sonic will stop to help them. ( Like in Sonic Riders in the opening: Tails was pushed off his Extreme Gear and Sonic stopped to help out his buddy! ) But he knows that they can look after themselves. He is not the mother hen of the group. Sonic truly believes in them. He believes in Amy and her strength and her hammer. He believes in Tails and his flight and his smarts. He believes in Knuckles with his boulder-breaking punches and his loyalty to the Master Emerald. So on and so forth, but he will save them if they need it. ( Like going through all that length like in Sonic Prime to bring them all back to him. )

05. He's not fond of someone being upset. He has a preference for smiles. “ Just smile. ” He'd said to Elise. But also knows when it is the time to cry. Like wishing all those handkerchiefs for Shahra at the end of Secret Rings. “ Now let yourself cry. As much as you need too. ” So he gets it. And will never tease those who are currently down. As he knows there are other things to help.

06. He is not fond of titles, nor likes when people use them on him. Like master, king, hero. He prefers someone to say his name, not a title.

07. Again. He is selfless and adventurous. Like in the comics: “ me? i just like helping people out wherever i go… it feels pretty good, too! ” Sonic is there whenever someone needs him. More so if he's nearby. He does whatever he needs to do in his power to stop whatever is going on.

08. Obviously. This guy loves chili-dogs. If they're cold? Put them in the microwave! He prefers his chili-dogs to be hot! And when you're travelling the world here and there, you need to pack some chili-dogs for the road!

I may add more later as I go through the games!

#hc. sonic the hedgehog

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bettabythesea · 2 years ago

Photo

It’s Sumire, an OC I made for PLA! She looks a lot like the canon Akari, but she’s a little bit different in the fact that she is from the era that the game takes place in and not a time traveler (I did this for reasons that will become clear when I post my Sinnoh kids) More info under the readmore!

She’s a sweet but quiet girl who keeps very scarce- she was the lone survivor of an incident involving her family and so quite a few people believe her to be cursed with disaster and keep her at an arm’s length. However, she’s more open to the idea of approaching and befriending Pokemon since it was a luxray that saved her from said incident.

The people of heroverse are typed just like Pokemon, and Sumire is no exception. She bears the water type, and not only does this make her better at navigating the water, but she is able to detect its presence-- almost like a dowsing rod. Because of this she was occasionally called upon by various residents to aid in finding water sources. It was on one of these missions that she came across a sky-fallen man and a mysterious object that she would later find out to be an Arc Phone, instructing her only with the message: Seek out All Pokemon, which eventually led to her joining the Survey Corps.

Her story plays out a very similarly to that of the game’s, with a few exceptions that I won’t get into here, at risk of writing a novel ^^;

Uhh some misc. facts about her!

-She has a baking hobby and in particular loves making Jubilife Muffins

-A naturally talented swimmer, she starts learning how to properly dive once she visits the Cobalt Coastlands

-She’s particularly close with Laventon and Cyllene-- the two are basically her parents haha

-She;;; kinda believes in the curse on her a bit, and is at times hesitant to befriend someone for fear that disaster will befall them

Finally, for her main team (in order they were caught):

Ichimaru (M) Hisuian Samurott

Momiji (F) Lopunny

Monta (M) Hisuian Arcanine

Suiren (F) Basculegion

Setsuna (F) Alolan Ninetales

Miko (F) Hisuian Zoroark

#pokemon heroverse #pokemon au #pla au #custom akari #sumire hashimoto

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bumblewarden · 2 years ago

Note

So!! I've been wanting to do this for a while, but life got in the way, so now I'm here to take that thing up again because!!! Fun!!!! This is about the relationships between OCs, and I don't want to impose anything but. Regarding how Novhen and Astala would get along:

What if they HAD grown up together? Maybe not in the same family (although, it would be fun 👀👀👀👀👀👀 they are very similar and very different from each other in different aspects. For example both are very loyal and community oriented, but also Astala is loud and boisterous while Novhen is quieter and more underhanded), but definitely the same Alienage. They'd know each others' quirks and habits. Maybe Novhen got frustrated with Astala because she'd always hide in these really obvious spots when playing hide and seek and Astala in turn would never be able to find Novhen? Maybe Novhen would at some point have stolen a plum tart for her and maybe Astala would've helped him against another kid who made fun of Novhen? Maybe, if we wanted them to meet up later during the Blight, Astala had to move away from Denerim at some point. I think she's a bit older than Novhen; maybe she got married elsewhere. Or, if not, now we gave more elves storming Vaughan's estate, which is alwats fun. I think Novhen would get to lead that one operation until Nelaros's death, because before that, stealth does seem to be the best option.

I think these two would get along well, differences aside. Astala would make an effort to lower her if needed, and having a familiar face to lean on during the Blight year would probably be a big comfort to them both. I think they'd be comfortable enough with each other to talk about the recruitment and how it didn't exactly happen willingly; they could gripe about nobles and politics; they could just. Sit in silence after Broken Circle and try and digest Sloth's nightmare. They could kill the slavers at the Alienage together!!! I think having a like-minded person from the same cultural background would help enormously.

One thing Astala probably wouldn't be on board with is the Cult of Fen'Harel. She'd let Novhen practice alright and defend him if accusations about this were levelled against him, but I think she would either have fallen out of it if she'd ever been introduced to it (it didn't save Adaia after all, so...), or never warmed up to the idea of this elvhen trickster god

These are my thoughts as far as they go. What do you think? Also I hadn't thought of it, but if you want to move this conversation to DMs, they're open ^^

(And if this doesn't tickle your fancy anymore, feel free to ignore ^^)

👀👀👀👀👀 I am eating this ask up like breakfast. Or, er, ramen. Which is the thing i am actually eating atm. But yes yes yes to all of this, i love it so much

Full response under the readmore for length, but i'm realizing now my response is mostly about them as kids 😅 Oops

[Ask Game]

The way i play with companion!Novhen, i'd assume he and Astala are probably either siblings or cousins (i waffle), except this time on their mothers' sides. I don't know Astala's exact age, but Novhen was born in *pulls out notes* Wintermarch of 9:7 Dragon. If we try to stagger them based on Adaia's death, that's probably close to a decade between them which seems a tad bit higher than it should be. We'll just have to dance around that matter

Even if Astala isn't significantly older, there's probably never a single moment where he's taller than her XD Add onto that that girls tend to hit puberty first, there's gonna be quite the height difference around age 10

But yes, their personalities go in very different directions but are probably pretty compatible, especially if given the benefit of a shared childhood! They're both very sociable, but i suspect most people like Astala more, especially authority figures. She's much less of a troublemaker, and Novhen definitely took a while to come into his own as a social mastermind. (This also would make her the ideal candidate for a distraction whenever Novhen’s a-scheming. That’s gonna do her a lot of favors when trying to get him to steal plum tarts for her XD These two are the real blight as far as anyone in the alienage is concerned XDD)

Oh, actually! If they knew each other, i can imagine pretty well him practicing with or studying Astala to get better at social situation! And clearly it worked! (A: "Ok now make an angry face... You just look like you can't find a chamberpot. You have to scrunch your eyebrows like this." *jams her thumb down his forhead*)

Astala seems to prefer her hair shorter during the Blight, but how was it as a child? Because if it were in some sort of puff, i can imagine her child-level object permanence resulting in her hiding in an empty barrel with the puff still peeking over the top! (Artist's Rendition Below)

I don’t think he’d be too frustrated with her poor stealth outside of team games at least! (If they’re partnered is another story…) He does sometimes tease her that she’s not going to be a very good criminal when she gets bigger. Idk, how would she respond to that? Because how does she feels about the fact that she's not going to follow in her mother's footsteps (or how aware of that she'd be as a child) or maybe she would retort about how she’s already bigger or something else? Definitely a lot of ways to take that one lol

But also the idea of Novhen as alienage king of hide and seek is kinda cute. He's usually the last one left (all that damn thief training), so it’s not unheard of to see a parade of Astala, Shianni, Soris, and whoever else they've wrapped into their game (which with Astala could be quite a number) turning the alienage upsidedown to find him. There's probably at least one time he gets found in the first minute, and he thinks he's going to die of embarrassment. Because of that, they almost never let him be a hider in the first round. Sometimes when he’s hiding, they'll accidentally pick up seekers who weren't even playing along the way because they want to see him knocked down a peg XD That's what happens when you win too much!

Astala probably has him beat at wrestling tho! And the game where i imagine they’re most evenly matched would be arm wrestling. As an archer, Novhen has insane upper body and especially shoulder strength, but Astala has insane everywhere strength

On the less competitive side, imagine them as dance partners as little kids ☺️ Astala’s probably the more enthusiastic one about it, but i’d imagine she could drag him into it Easy whether through blackmail or Ole Reliable (puppy dog eyes). There have to be lots of events in the alienage that call for dancing, so it’s good to have a go-to dance partner! And if they ever get a Silly Urge while dancing, the one thing that i’ve found little kids most reliable to do is spin so fast they nearly make themselves sick, and when there’s two of them spinning each other, there’s no stopping them until the centrifugal force throws them both to the ground. At least they’re having fun lol

The Cult of Fen'Harel thing makes sense. I wouldn't expect Astala to be into that. I imagine in this case that Cyrion and Adaia agreed to expose the children to both sets of beliefs, so they could choose once they got older

It's a good thing Novhen's good at keeping matters hush because otherwise Astala would likely get stuck constantly mediating between Novhen and Ilanlas on matters of religion 🤭

Tbh Novhen would slightly begrudge her for choosing the Chantry, but i don't think he'd ever let her know if he could help it. It's just not worth it, and you can't talk about that without talking about Adaia's death which nobody is excited to talk about. Still, it's a potential source of drama, esp as the politics of DA:D are winding up

Back in the present day, if the endgame configuration is one where they live in the same location (which i think could only be the case if they were both companions), Novhen would offer her once for him to educate her child/ren in the way of the Cult of Fen'Harel and/or the Vir Banal'ras fighting style, probably get denied at least on the first one, and never bring it back up. He knows she's Andrastian and also wouldn't expect her to teach them that fighting style herself (too rogue-based), but if he had permission, he'd want to at least try to expose them to their family's traditions, so they could make a choice themselves like Novhen and Astala did

And honestly, if he's present for the origin, once Nelaros dies, Novhen would more than happily hand leadership of the mission over to Astala. Stealth only goes so far, and she has first dibs on revenge #SupportWomen

And with Unrest in the Alienage! As soon as Caladrius is dead, Novhen is scampering over his corpse to pick the lock on Cyrion's cage. Doesn't even wait for someone else to pilfer the key. Astala is free to react to that little scene however she wishes, and we get the whole Tabris family reunion after

Whoever’s Warden, i imagine those two leaning on each other a lot for emotional support during the Blight because not only are they the only alienage elves in the party, they’re family (or at the least childhood friends). Once we personalize the Broken Circle dreams, they get upsetting fast. If either of them get sent into that mission (or Maker forbid both of them), they’re definitely going to need to share a blanket by the fire for a minute

EDIT: the paragraph looks like it's been eaten but also! Novhen would be very cautious about Astala's Zevran romance at first. ("Yes, Stala, he's very dreamy, but let's not forget he's only here because he was hired to kill you.") We know he's very protective, and they're both so eldest sibling-coded

#askbox #heniareth #novhen tabris #astala tabris #au: companion novhen #< for archival purposes #also i think i remember you also speak german?#bc every time i look at the drawing my brain can’t decide if he’s even playing or just saying hello lol #so good at hide and seek he wins even when he’s not playing no wonder they’re trying to nerf him

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twisted-wonderland-shenanigans · 3 years ago

Text

Welcome back, my lovelies~! We’ve got another story on our hands, and I’m glad to share it with you all. Joining us today is a certain android deity: Ortho! Say hi, Ortho!

[Greetings, everyone! Fauna Taleweaver was so kind to invite me to share a few stories with you all.]

“Eh? Hey, are you really a god? You’re more…metal-y than any of the ones I’ve seen so far.”

[Oh? Why, yes, I am a god. According to my historical records, there have been several deities in the ancient times that wore grant metal armor to war and even in peace. What’s so unusual about the fact that I am made of metal? Even Deuce Spade wears his armor with pride.]

I guess every deity is unique in their own way.

“Hrm…so what’s this story you’re gonna tell us, huh?”

[It’s one of my favorite memories with my big brother and younger sibling.]

Huh?! Wait, Ortho…what do you mean ‘younger sibling’? I thought Idia was your only brother?

[Well, you see Fauna Taleweaver, that was the case…for a long while anyway. But centuries ago, that changed. In fact, I’ve gotten big brother’s permission to share his side of the story!]

“Really? That recluse???”

[Believe it or not, my big brother was the one who put everything into motion, and…he even made me see my duties in a new light and change the way I rehabilitate broken souls! You see…]

WARNING: Implied character death but nothing descriptive; tagged just in case. I wasn't sure what else to tag it under, but please let me know if I need to add another tag and I will do so as soon as I can! Story under a readmore for length, but mostly focusing on the wholesome character growth!

////

“Greetings, number 5294831! Your colors are looking brighter by approximately fifteen percent–an improvement compared to last week’s scans. Oh? Number 1574, you’re looking rather dim according to my current data. My brother upgraded my systems and functions just this morning, so let’s see what options are available to assist you.”

Idia watched in silence as Ortho worked, observing the younger deity floating about Limbo as he checked on his wards. Everything seemed to be going according to design–not that he doubted his skills of course. And yet, he couldn’t help but gaze at the vast cavern, a soft frown on his face. ‘There are far more souls here than normal,’ he thought.

Everywhere he looked there were souls, each one in a deplorable condition. Most had arrived in varying shades of gray, some barely clinging to a hint of the once vibrant colors they were meant to have. Some he could see even from afar the cracks in their core, looking like fragile glass ready to shatter at the slightest touch. Others…they were so far faded that he almost missed one that floated by in front of his face.

Lost…fragile…broken…these were the souls that Ortho focused on the most, working around the clock to restore the bright hues they once held. It seemed a Herculean task, for every soul he saved, two arrived in danger of fading away forever. Even though this part of the job wasn’t in his lane, Idia could see how distressed his little brother was to see these souls vanish, too weak to survive…

What in Seven’s name was even going on in the mortal realm that so many souls come to them practically taped and glued together?

Sighing, Idia uttered, “What a drag…being a mortal should be easy mode compared to the nightmare god mode we deities have, even when they’re not fighting lame wars. At least it should be way easier than getting an uber deluxe limited edition Hizu Matsune figure…”

[:...Hi…zu…?:]

“Eep!?” he squeaked, staring at the tiny humanoid shape hiding in the nook near the entrance. “D-Don’t do that!”

The tiny body quickly retreated, huddling into a nook in the stone wall with a whimper. It was then that he realized it was a mortal soul–or rather, a child’s mortal soul. What were they even doing here?! There’s only ever been adult or elderly souls here in Limbo…maybe there has been an uptick in teenagers and young adult souls, but…children??? That shouldn’t happen…

[:...s…orr…y…don…hurt me,:] the little soul whispered quietly, their transparent ‘body’ flickering like a flashlight’s failing battery. [:P…lease…:]

Realizing that they were scared of him, he hesitantly knelt down and–in as calm a voice as he could muster–he spoke softly and said, “I-It’s okay…I’m not going to hurt you. You don’t have to be scared…” Oh Sevens, he wasn’t good with children–well, people in general anyway, but still! Taking a breath, he asked, “How uh…how did you get here? Shouldn’t you be over in the fields of Purga…tory…”

As soon as the words left his mouth it finally sank in the condition of the soul itself: dark cracks creating a spider web effect across its surface, black-violet ooze staining the inner core, and the color…the original color of the soul had all but completely faded from existence. It was impossible to tell what color it originally was, just like the other broken souls.

[:I…don’t…remember,:] the soul said, its voice distorted as they covered their head in their hands. [:It’s dark…and scary…mama…papa…where are you? You…you promised…you would come get me before…:]

“Before…what?” Idia asked, voice quiet.

[:...the monsters…:]

He felt a chill go down his spine at this, though he couldn’t quite place why as he asked, “What monsters?”

[:Monster…the monsters…! They’re coming! The monsters are coming!! AAAAAA-!!!:]

The soul–though it had no lungs–unleashed a haunting wail so shrill that Idia’s blood ran cold and his ears began ringing, forcing him to cover them. Before he could even think of calling for help, a blur of black and blue appeared next to him and a gentle lullaby began to play from the speakers built into his frame. Idia could hear Ortho’s muffled voice as he said, “Please settle down, number 429754. Your core is in critical condition and cannot take much more stress. Please don’t worry–there are no monsters here. You’re safe now.”

Whether it was the music or his words, the ghostly wails died down to quiet whimpers, the corporeal form curled into a tight ball before fading away and leaving behind a faintly glowing glass orb. As Ortho picked up the core and held it close, Idia saw the black-violet ooze spread further and recognized the all too familiar material.

Blot…

“...how did this happen?” Idia asked.

Ortho seemed to hesitate, looking unsure of what to say before looking down. “I found this one in the remains of a small town,” he finally said. “It was overrun by a pack of Soulless Ones. Deuce Spade and Rook Hunt managed to stop them from escaping to the next mortal settlement, but…there were only five survivors out of a roster of three hundred mortals.”

Soulless Ones…mortals whose souls were corrupted by blot, leaving behind a hollow shell of their mortal bodies to become twisted and mangled amalgamations of corruption. These abominations become little more than zombies, seeking out uncorrupted mortals in search of their own lost soul until nothing is left. He’d heard from Azul how the other deities were struggling to contain the spread, but…he never imagined it could ever get this bad.

“How did you manage to save this soul?” he asked. “I thought mortals attacked by those things had an instant-KO?”

“According to my scans of the mortal shell, they possessed DNA from a deity relative–inconclusive if parent or a distant. By my calculations, this was the only thing that kept their soul safe long enough for me to slow the spread of blot. Now, however…their core is unstable.” Though his eyes closed in a smile, Idia could see that it didn’t quite reach the same way it normally would. “Once I take them to the Stardust River for their first cleansing, we may begin tailoring a proper recovery plan to mend the cracks and heal their light.”

“Eh? You haven’t taken them to the river yet?”

“No. My simulation program indicates that a full submersion in its current state would cause unnecessary stress on the soul, accelerating the spread of blot. I’ve been applying drops from the vial that Lilia Vanrouge gifted me to help with mending some of the cracks. Once the soul is sufficiently calm, I will take them to the Stardust River.”

He felt a pang of guilt that refused to leave him be, taking his focus away even from his gaming match later that night. As the God of Death, Idia rarely interfered with the lives of mortals, let alone interacted with them. Yet seeing his younger brother struggle to understand how to soothe such a young soul traumatized by creatures that were never meant to exist…

Then, he remembered the sadness in Ortho’s eyes, the sheer worry in his voice as he gently tended to the fragile soul. With a deep breath, he released it in a nervous sigh and uttered, “Why am I doing this to myself…?” before pulling out his phone and dialing a number.

—----------

“Good morning, number 429754! How are you to…huh? Big brother? What are you doing here?”

Turning to face the small android, Idia crunched down on the snack he’d been munching on and said, “Watching Hizu Matsune music videos before we watch the series Shimmer Heart Sugar Stars. There’s a new season that just released today, and we already finished the first two seasons last night.”

“Huh?” Ortho uttered in confusion, shaking his head in disbelief. “But…you’re never here in Limbo unless I am, and you’ve rarely shown any interest in interacting with mortal souls for very long.”

Idia shrugged and said, “After what happened yesterday, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said. So…I figured I’d try something different.”

Looking in the direction that he pointed, he gasped in amazement and said, “You managed to get them back into their corporeal form! How did you-??”

“Well…you said you couldn’t start the recovery plan until they were calm enough to take a dip in the river, right? After everything they’ve been through…I reached out to Lilia for a few cheat codes.”

“Cheat codes?”

“Yeah. Compared to us, he’s boss level in terms of kids and childcare, so he’d know a few strategies to calm one down, right? He said to find something that interests them, so…” With a wide, toothy grin, he gestured to the screen displaying bright and colorful characters singing and dancing together as he said, “After remembering how they reacted when I mentioned Hizu Matsune, I came up with the ultimate gaming strategy! Using top notch music videos and anime shows with the perfect amount of cheerful and sappy cuteness, it’s the perfect plan to calm them and catch up on my backlog, sending them on the path to a visit in the Stardust River! Pretty clever if I do say so myself. Sound good, Shims?”

“Huh? Shims??”

The soul looked up at him, a flash of pink-red light flaring within as they smiled and nodded. [:Can we…watch more, please?:] they asked, pointing to the screen.

“Sure, Shims.” Tapping away at his keyboard, the screen changed to an opening theme song with a peppy beat, the soul swaying and bouncing happily to the music. “We should be done with this season within a few hours if we don’t take breaks.”

Ortho, despite having a mask covering his mouth, looked gobsmacked as he stared at the two. A moment later he shook his head, activating his scanners and examining them closely. “Oh! Readings indicate that the soul’s color’s are showing a twenty percent increase! They’re still faint, but by comparison to the five percent it was yesterday it is still an improvement.” Looking up at Idia, he said, “At this rate…we should be able to take number 429754 to the Stardust River in less than a month! You’re a genius, big brother!”

[:Shims…:]

“Huh?”

[:Shims…my name is Shims,:] the soul said, pointing at the screen again. [:Shimmer…makes me happy. Call me Shims…please?:]

“Oh…of course, Shims!” Giggling, Ortho said, “Perhaps we can find more fun things to help with your recovery plan. And perhaps I can incorporate this method to ensure the recovery of the other souls! May I join?”

“Sure,” Idia said as he and Shims moved over so he could have a seat. “Should we start from the opening again?”

“Yes!”/[:Yes!:]

—--------

Every day afterwards Idia made time to enter Limbo with Ortho with a new series in hand, finding that Shims enjoyed listening to him ramble for hours on end about his favorite shows and games and manga. With each storyline he told and the characters that brought the story to life, he could see the enchantment on their transparent face grow and the color blossoming brighter. There were times he was forced to ease back when the core reacted to the blot, which had slowed its spread yet still remained present. Ortho kept reassuring him that they were making good progress and that the stardust drops were helping, but he couldn’t help but feel anxious each time he saw the pain on their face.

Finally–after what seemed like an eternity–Ortho deemed them ready for the journey. Only…

“It’s okay, Shims. We need to make our way to the Stardust River if we are to begin your recovery program.”

[:No! Don’t want to leave!:]

“But don’t you want to feel better?”

[:Noooo…the monsters are out there! Please don’t leave me!:]

Ortho sighed as he moved back, hovering near the crevice that Shims had hidden themselves in. “What am I going to do with you?” he wondered aloud. “This has never happened before. What protocol should I follow…?”

Idia watched as Ortho pondered over what to do, frowning in concern. Sure, Shims had gotten better at speaking and had come out of their shell more, but now it seemed like they had reverted to their terrified self again. By now the blot had spread farther than it had in the beginning, consuming more than half of their core and ooze starting to seep out. What were they going to do? Even if their soul was part deity, it could only preserve their core for so long before it was consumed…

“Big brother, what are we going to do?” Ortho asked, snapping him out of his thoughts as he noticed how bothered his younger brother was at this situation. “We can’t leave them here for much longer, and we’re running out of time.”

“I…don’t know,” he uttered, looking back at his phone at the messages he’d gotten. “Lilia mentioned that some kids could be stubborn, but he never said what to do in this case. I don’t have a cheat code for this and they don’t want to watch or play anything…”

“...you were able to connect with them, big brother.”

“Eh?”

“You were the one who managed to help heal Shims’ soul core so we could even make it to this point.” Gesturing to the hiding soul, Ortho said, “They might listen to you if you speak to them.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling a surge of anxiety in his chest. It was one thing to chat with them about different characters and storylines, but to try and talk to them about normie stuff?! That was hard enough the first time around! How was he supposed to do this?! He didn’t have time to prepare a strategy or-

[:...big brother…:]

He froze, staring at the soul as they stared up at him. “What…did you call me?” he mumbled.

[:Big brother…:] Shims repeated, looking ready to cry despite not having the capability to do so. [:I don’t want to go…I don’t…want to be alone again…:]

“...you…won’t be alone, Shims.” Crouching down so he was sitting back on his heels, Idia watched them for a moment before he said, “I know you’re scared, but…there’s a whole world of fun things and friends to find back in the mortal realm. Don’t you want to go and see it all again? Discover something new?”

[:But…the monsters…:] Shims’ colors began to dim again, curling into an even tighter ball than he’d seen before. [:The monsters are still out there…what if they find me again?:]

He didn’t know how to respond. ‘I always thought mortals had a permanent easy mode compared to the nightmare levels,’ he thought to himself. Looking up at the souls floating around them, something finally clicked in his mind. “...they might be there, Shims. But…if you keep hiding away, worrying about what kind of crazy scary mobs are out there…you’ll miss out on the chance to build the life you want to live.”

[:Huh…?:]

“I understand now…it doesn’t matter whether you think someone is playing on safe or easy mode–your idea of an easy playthrough may be someone else’s nightmare difficulty. And that’s okay.” Thinking back on the games he introduced to them, he said, “The point of every game is that–no matter how many times you get knocked down–you get up and try again no matter how many times it takes to reach the final boss. The journey would be long and difficult, but you’ll always find companions to help you through each level until you can beat the game and move on to the next campaign. Life may be tough, but–” glancing up at Ortho–who gave him a smile–he said, “with the right NPCs by your side, even the scariest monsters can be defeated.”

Was it his imagination, or had some of the other fragile souls drifted closer…?

[:...I…I’m scared,:] Shims said softly. [:What if…what if I can’t get back up?:]

“Then…Ortho will be there to pick you up.” Holding his hand out to them, he said, “And then when we meet again, we can play games and trade stories–just like we have been doing.” With a genuine smile, he said, “No matter how much of a normie you become, I want to hear how your campaign goes…okay?”

Shims looked from his hand to his face, slowly reaching out to rest their hand into his palm and allowing him to pull them out of their hiding place. Then, in a quiet voice, they asked, [:Will you…come with me, big brother?:]

A warm feeling spread in his chest, and he nodded as he said, “Sure…if you’re okay with having two brothers now.”

The smile on their face grew so wide he couldn’t help but grin back, Ortho happily moving over to hold their free hand in his. “Let’s go,” Ortho said. “The Stardust River awaits!”

////

[...and after the blot was cleansed from their core, we were able to restore their light to the point they could safely be reborn. Due to the nature of their heritage though, not all of their memories were cleared to allow a clean slate.]

Oh no! Were…were they okay?

[Of course, Fauna Taleweaver! In fact, they were able to live very well in several life cycles before choosing to stay with us as a new minor deity. By my calculations, they should find their calling within the next few centuries–I can’t wait!]

“Fynaaah…Faun, are you tryin’ to make me cry with all these stories?!”

Awww, you really are just a softie on the inside, huh, Grim~?

“I’m not soft! S-Stop laughing at your future god!!”

Heehee…anyway, thanks for sharing that story with us, Ortho. Oh, and thank Idia for us too!

[Absolutely! If any of your followers have any further questions about souls or the Underworld, I am happy to oblige!]

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland deity au #twst deity au #idia shroud #ortho shroud #twisted wonderland grim #twst grim #tw // death

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jujulebee · 3 years ago

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🤩😍🙀LETS FUCKIN GOOO??? 😭😭jules like totes helped me figure out how 2 even make one of these things 🥴️🥴️🥴️ so im supes excited!!! 😜😍🥰️

honey b is HERE bayBEEEEE 😘💕

((RULES AND OOC UNDER THE READMORE, IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THEM, READ THEM AGAIN))

((another blog by me, bunny, the person who came out of nowhere swinging SEMI-LUKEWARM

honey will randomly blip out of existence with my motivation and energy levels! This does NOT mean that she wouldn't be communicating with your OCs during this time. I know it sucks to pilot an npc but please don't just assume honey is ignoring your oc, i seriously do not have the spoons to be as actively extroverted as her. i am an introvert.

theres going to be So much eyestrain on this blog, like to the point that almost every post would have an eyestrain tag, so please keep that in mind! i WILL tag flashing gifs, since i also have issues with flashing images, but if i dont clock something that you need tagged as flashing please Politely let me know, dont be a cunt id be happy to do it

gifs are tagged "gif" queue tag is "supes cute" food stuff is "yummy stuff" nails are "perfectly painted" art tag is "artsy shit" selfie tag is "super cute selfie" makeup is "looks that kill" clothes are under "wardrobe" silly shirts are under "shirts for jules"

my name is bunny, im 25+, i am not a social person and do not have the energy to talk to a lot of people at once, so either have patience or don't bother

i have several other blogs im not active on, but im occasionally on null

do not send me IMs in character, i will accept them as ooc if you don't have my discord, otherwise dont, likewise, please assume my IMs are not ic

do not leave Replies on my posts, i have stated this multiple times, i don't notice them in the deluge of activity notifications i receive, if you want to have a conversation on a post i have made reblog the post

youre free to ask for my discord but i dont guarantee that ill talk to you regularly, i am not a talkative person

im not fairly picky with who i follow and will block freely and without hesitation. im here to curate my ideal experience, not save the feelings of a stranger.

while i understand that ic=/=ooc if your character is transphobic or racist in any way please dont interact, actually

honey wouldn’t want to talk to you anyway

this page does not accept magic anons

please do not godmod to try and fix honeys issues, i dont want that, genuinely

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

honey b azrael was born august 6th, 1998

she’s bi-racial korean, born in texas

she is 4'8" (her boots typically put her at at least 5’), approx 240 lbs

honey was embraced on january 23rd of 2021

honey's status as a human is well-maintained and has not revealed publicly that she is a vampire

honey is a thinblood with the following: lifelike, vampiric resilience, discipline affinity, day drinker, long bond, prey exclusion: children, vitae dependency, baby teeth

Strength: 3/5 Dexterity: 2/5 Stamina: 3/5 Charisma: 4/5 Manipulation: 2/5 Composure: 3/5 Intelligence: 2/5 Wits: 2/5 Resolve: 1/5

Humanity: 9/10

honey is a party girl and there will be mentions of drug/alcohol use and i will tag them as “drug mention” or “alcohol mention” if mentioned

nsfw content will be tagged as “nsfw //”

honey is pansexual and romantically committed to cherry, juan and romantically interested in alessio, and in general sexually available

honey is NOT doing okay, no matter what she tells you, any and all trauma she has endured will not be talked about at length unless there are warnings put in place in the tags, always assume dead dove do not eat policy

honeys best friend circle consists of dolls, sam and jules

she loves making friends and talking to people, though, so feel free to shoot her a message! she WILL talk to you

if your character is rude or just generally mean for no real reason (there are funny exceptions to this rule) honey will not want to speak with you and will probably unfollow you

ooc follows are fine, if i dont interact with your character much ill probably end up unfollowing, though

will add more if i can think of anything

#super cute selfie #gif #artsy shit

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antimonarchy · 5 years ago

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How to Create Image Descriptions

So I’ve been creating image descriptions on tumblr for about a month, and I wanted to share some helpful guides I’ve found on how to create them as well as my own tips that I’ve picked up. Video descriptions and transcripts are also necessary, but since I mostly focus on image descriptions that’s what this guide is about. This might get a bit long, so fair warning.

What are image descriptions?

Image descriptions are a textual depiction of what is going on in an image, as shown with the image below.

[Image ID: A picture of a person with short black hair working on a computer. They are sitting at a wooden table with a large blue pot of pink flowers in front of a grey brick wall. A guitar is propped up against the wall in the background, and there is a string of lights near the ceiling. /.End ID]

Why create image descriptions?

The primary reason for creating image descriptions is to allow people who are blind/have limited vision to experience visual content. Many people who are blind/have low vision use screenreaders, which read text out loud when it is clicked or hovered over with a mouse. A large amount of online content, such as pictures, graphics, or drawings, is visual and so possibly cannot be experienced by someone with vision problems. As a general rule of thumb, anything that can be dragged or dropped most probably requires a description. In addition, if someone has partial vision and attempts to zoom in on an image, sometimes it can become pixelated and impossible to understand.

Some neurodivergent people might need a description to understand the tone of an image, such as the meaning of facial expressions of a person to understand what emotion the artist is trying to depict

Some people might not have high speed internet or have low computer memory, meaning that they turn off images in order to save space. This means that they as well might require descriptions of visual content

Are image descriptions the same as alt text?

no, alt text and image descriptions serve the same purpose, but they are different in how they are presented. Alt text, short for alternative text, is included in the html of an image and can be read by a screen reader. However, there are many reasons why many prefer image descriptions over alt text.

There is a limit of 200 words in alt text on tumblr specifically (and not in other contexts, which makes this information only applicable here), which means that detailed images or graphics are unable to be described fully without possibly cutting out important information.

People who require descriptions, but who do not use a screenreader, must right-click and search through the html of an image in order to find alt text, but with an image description they are saved that work.

Who should create image descriptions?

Everyone who is able to should create image descriptions. A content creator is best able to communicate the message of their work through text, as they are the one who created it and thus understand its message the best. While of course it takes practice when starting out, over time image descriptions become second nature when posting visual content. Always check the notes of a tumblr post for an ID rather than reblogging without one.

What should be included in image descriptions?

There is no simple answer to this question, there are a variety of resources and guides on how to create one, and you should not accept my advice as the ultimate authority, as I am by no means a professional, and only create descriptions in my spare time as part of the effort to make Tumblr more accessible. However, here is my information for those starting out.

First, consider what type of visual content it is. Is it fanart of a tv show, a screenshot of a tweet, or an informational graphic meant to educate people on a particular issue?

Then, consider what information is most important in the image. If the visual content is an image of a famous building, then in writing the description the focus should be on the building, rather than describing for instance the color of the sky, surrounding buildings, or the clothing of the people walking by, as they are not the information that is being presented.

Perkins ELearning has an excellent list of things that should generally be included, which I will include here. In my experience, these are the most important elements to describe

The people and animals in an image

The background or setting of an image

Elements that relate to the context specifically, so if it was an image of a congested highway on a news website, the description would mention the packed cars

The colors of an image (don’t overdo it however, a simple ‘light blue’ will suffice, no need to say something like ‘a color blue that is similar to the color of a robin’s egg’ unless it is crucial to the viewer’s comprehension of an image)

Context for an image. For instance, imagine if someone had drawn a version of the Bernie Sanders ‘I am once again asking’ meme, with Eleanor Shellstrop from the Good Place saying “I am once again asking for there to be a Medium Place.” Rather than provide a description to the example such as: [Image ID: A drawing of Eleanor Shellstrop saying “I am once again asking for there to be a Medium Place.” /.End ID] you would instead say [Image ID: A redraw of the Bernie Sanders ‘I am once again asking’ meme with Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place saying “I am once again asking for there to be a Medium Place. /.End ID]

If the image is of a social media post, include the username/handle of the creator as well as the reactions (likes/reblogs) if they are visible in the image, as they may be cut off by the original screenshotter.

If it is a drawing or piece of art, always look for the artist’s signature when writing a description

How do I write an image description?

To start off, here is an example description written for a piece of art I made myself.

[Image ID: A digital drawing of Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender over a gold background. She is shown from the shoulders up facing the viewer, and has a neutral expression. She is wearing metal armor over a light green tunic, and is wearing her Kyoshi Warriors facepaint and headdress. The artist’s signature ‘Astra’ is written in the lower right of the image. /.End ID]

In this description:

I made clear where the description begins and ends, so that someone with a screenreader is not confused. I usually use brackets ([ ]), write the words ‘Image ID’ (or video/gif/other) and finish with a slash, period, and the words End ID. (/.End ID)

I emphasized the type of image, in this case a digital drawing

I said the character’s name (obviously this may not be known if describing a photo or something you are not familiar with)

I described the background and the character’s clothing

I described her expression

I included the description of my signature.

This is my basic process for writing a description

I first say what the content is, such as a drawing, photo, or screenshot of a tweet.

I then use what is called Object-Action-Context for the most part, which UXDesign has a long article on https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-write-an-image-description-2f30d3bf5546. For example, [Image ID: A photo of a person standing in a crowd waving to someone out of view in front of a river. /.End ID] While obviously I would usually provide more information than that, Person = object, standing + waving to someone out of view = action, and ‘in a crowd’ = context.

I describe the clothing that might be worn

I talk about the position that people in an image might be in, such as leaning against one another on a couch, or standing with their fingers intertwined

I talk about the expressions on their faces, if shown

I talk about their general appearance (if important to the description) such as hair color/length

As said before, I talk about the context of an image if necessary

If the background is a simple color, I usually include it in the first sentence of the description. However if it is more complicated, such as a river winding through a dense forest, I include that at the end of the description after describing the important elements.

Typically if I am reblogging an image, I do not add on any commentary after creating an image description, as this allows others to reblog my description without my personal reaction. If I want to add on to an image, I usually reblog my description post.

In general, it is best to remain objective when writing a description, meaning not including your opinion of the content. However especially in an informal setting, say for instance you were describing an adorable cow, I would see it as fine to say [Image ID: A small drawing of an adorable cow. /.End ID] because the emphasis is on the appearance. There isn’t a clearcut answer, and it really depends on the context.

What are some tips for writing descriptions/common pitfalls?

If there is an element of an image like a line that represents an emotion, or a sound effect like ‘clang’ if something falls, include that in the description. For instance, [Image ID: ...beside the mug that has fallen on the floor, there are the words ‘sploosh’ indicating the sound of the water that has spilled out. /.End ID]

Put image descriptions first. Don’t hide them under readmores or any other text. If you have something with multiple images and you are the creator, place the description under each image in succession rather than all at the end. Readmores are ableist, as they require someone who has vision problems/one of the conditions described above to do more work to access the message of visual content.

If you are mentioning the skin color and/or race of someone in an image, make sure you describe it for anyone else who might be in an image. Don’t just describe the race of someone who appears to not be white. This doesn’t mean that you have to describe race, such as if the character is one whose race is commonly known, just that if you do, make sure you do it for all characters/people in an image.

In order to write IDs effectively, I’ve found it useful to download a screen reader. I use NVDA, which is entirely free and easy to use and can be downloaded here: https://www.nvaccess.org/download/.

Insert + Q turns it off

While my guide has focused mostly on image descriptions, video descriptions are also necessary. However they are not my area of expertise, and differ slightly, so I would recommend anyone interested in them to check out this website https://www.washington.edu/accessibility/videos/

Transcripts, for those who are d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing, are also necessary for making content accessible, and might be required for content that also has a visual format, such as a Tiktok. I would recommend this website https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/transcripts/ for anyone interested in writing transcripts

What are some more resources I can check out?

Here are a series of websites that I have found while researching how to write descriptions

UX Design - I mentioned UX Design earlier when talking about Object - Action - Context, this article is very useful and examines how to structure a description and provides very useful examples for beginners

Perkins E-Learning - This article is very useful in helping someone what to include in a description, such as clothing or background information, as well as providing some additional information on alt text if you are interested

Meloukhianet - This blog post by s. e. smith goes into detail on the elements of an image to emphasize depending on its context, using the example of a picture of their cat sunning himself.

SOAP - This article by the Stanford Online Accessibility Program (SOAP) provides a large amount of information on the purpose of image descriptions and what content requires them

HubPages - This article by SOTD and Zera discusses the difference between sparse, lush, and overdone descriptions, which is the amount of information included, and if/when each should be used.

I hope you found this information helpful, I encourage everyone to check out these websites, and my inbox is always open for questions!

#has id #please feel free to send me any questions you might have!#while I am not a professional by any definition of the term #accessibility is a large interest of mine and so I am more than happy to help #image descriptions #accessibility

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nitroglycerincontaminant · 3 years ago

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give us the deets on your agents

YES thank you anon you are my hero and I will be forever grateful to you for this. This post got very very tall because I have had so many thoughts about these characters, which I have not had the opportunity to share. I spent all morning typing! Forgive its length, please!

Captain Three:

Real name Amber. 22 years old, recruited at age 15.

Uses she/her pronouns & she's a lesbian.

She maintains a separation between how she perceives herself as an individual and as a leader. In other words, she behaves very differently depending on which role she is trying to fill. When she's being the Captain, she's stoic, efficient, and unwilling to waste time. When she's just being Amber, she's more competitive and playful. Occasionally a bit of Amber slips through while she's trying to be serious.

She cares a lot about the other members of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, although expressing that doesn't come naturally to her. She is especially close with Craig, she spends a lot of her time visiting him and hangs on to basically every word he says. She thinks of Callie and Marie as her somewhat immature little sisters who she has to keep in line (even though they're older than her). She sees Four and Three as kind of halfway between peers and her protegés, but perceives Eight as her true equal, despite being her captain.

Amber has a sizeable crush on Agent Eight, but has no idea what to do about it and so she leaves those feelings largely unexamined.

She keeps her sentences as short as she possibly can. Occasionally she'll make one a bit too short and have to clarify immediately after, so instead of "Put that back on the shelf" she might say "Put that away. Back. On the shelf." This happens a ton when she's flustered.

She refers to everyone by their agent numbers, even in casual settings.

Unmatched skill with the Hero Shot, very comfortable with a Splattershot, and frankly useless with anything else. She has always had a natural athleticism and knack for combat, which was greatly improved through extensive training with Craig prior to her promotion.

Fun fact: She LOVES routine. Amber is happiest when she's waking up and going to bed at the same time every day, eating the same food, and structuring her schedule consistently. She can cope with having to go off routine, but it's always a relief to her to get back on it.

The rest of them are under the readmore! Fingers crossed that I remembered how to insert one correctly...

Agent Four:

Real name Agent Four. She couldn't decide on a name for herself for a long time, until a while after she saved Callie, at which point she decided "well I like being called Four so I guess that will be my name". 21 years old, recruited at age 17.

She/her and a lesbian. Also trans, which is the root cause of the name situation.

She is basically the opposite of Amber in that she makes no separation between herself as a person and as an agent; this is why she decided using her codename as a personal name would suit her.

Absurdly multitalented with weapons. She has thoroughly mastered all nine of the Hero Weapons that Sheldon gave her in Octo Canyon. She's also very capable with every weapon carried at Ammo Knights, which she learned individually after the Hero Weapons. The exception is Splatanas and Stringers, which are still new to her.

However, her raw physicals are just average. She can't do Amber's acrobatics or swing around heavy rollers all day without getting tired.

A bit impulsive, extremely hyperactive. She is rarely willing to sit still. Four stops by Alterna for at least a couple hours every day to brush up on any skills she feels could use practice. Due to the variety of weapons she uses and the depth to which she understands them, there's always something.

Four is unable to communicate in front of people she doesn't explicitly trust. Noncommunicative vocalizations such as cheering are fine, but she won't speak if someone she doesn't know is listening, and she won't sign or even nod/shake if someone's looking. She doesn't particularly fear or dislike being in public, though.

Quite a chatterbox when she's able to be, with a very silly and playful sense of humor.

Unique relationship with Marie, who was her first friend due to those communication issues. Her friendship with Marie enabled her to get to know and trust the others. She has a lot of affection for all of them, although she doesn't know Agent Three super well yet. She doesn't really examine these relationships, so she just thinks of them all as people she really really likes.

High social needs. Not being able to spend at least a couple hours a day in the presence of a friend tanks her mental health. She's roommates with Eight, so it's almost never an issue anymore; just the company is enough, interaction isn't required. She also requires a bit of extra attention and reassurance on occasion. The others accommodate for this.

She is the only agent who exclusively refers to Callie and Marie by their first names and never uses their agent numbers.

Extraordinarily observant and thorough. Four can find something interesting and hidden basically anywhere. She is also remarkably good at reading expressions, even those of non-cephalopods. Mammalian faces such as Judd's are too foreign for her though.

Fun fact: She knows how to cook but she's a weirdo and doesn't think it's worth the time investment. For most of her meals she just eats raw ingredients out of the fridge like a wild animal.

Agent Eight:

Real name currently Eight; her name prior to the Metro is unknown. She doesn't hate being called Eight, but she wants to find a new one some day, one which wasn't assigned to her by Tartar. Every now and then she tries one out, but none of them have stuck so far, so she's always gone back to using Eight.

She/her, lesbian. Statistically significant number of these in the NSS, wouldn't you say?

Age unknown. She seems to be around 22, and so would have been recruited at around 17. Couple years margin of error.

For a while she was very preoccupied with trying to remember her past life; during this period she collected all of the Mem Cakes. She has since made peace with only having a few fragmented memories of that time, and dedicates her energy towards building a good new life for herself and her companions instead. She has no strong desire to learn about her old life anymore.

Very big crush on Amber. She thinks about her a lot and has frequent daydreams about her. She gets too nervous to make a move, though. She and Amber are both oblivious to each others' feelings, even though they're obvious to everyone else.

When she was initially learning Inklish, she found contractions too confusing to use. She understands them just fine now, but it formed a habit and so she still never uses any.

Usually very level-headed in crisis situations, however she tends to feel like she has to fix everything, and shuts down if she feels like she's failed. Consequence of having to save herself, Craig, and Amber in the Metro, and then suddenly being told she has three minutes to prevent an apocalypse.

This does mean she's very good at staying collected and strategizing during combat, though. That's why she was able to defeat Amber, a more powerful combatant.

Eight is very skilled with shooters including the Hero Shot, and reasonably good with a lot of other miscellaneous weapons. She has a very solid understanding of and interest in the technology of all ink weaponry. As such, she works full-time at Ammo Knights. Her duties include assembling, benchmarking, and repairing weapons. She hopes to be able to design a new weapon class some day.

She greatly admires Sheldon for his knowledge and dedication. She greatly admires Pearl and Marina for their constant support. She greatly admires Amber for her immense skill, and also in a gay way. Eight does a lot of admiring.

She is very close with Four and sees her as something like a sister. She likes Agent Three and thinks of them as a potentially very good friend, although right now they're more just buddies. She thinks Craig is kinda weird, but is very respectful of him.

She maintains a close relationship with Marina & Pearl. Eight experiments a little bit with making music on her computer, but isn't quite confident enough to show it to anyone but Marina.

Fun fact: She likes to shake up her appearance a bit every now and then, as with her name. New outfits, a different hairstyle, that sort of thing.

Agent Three:

I haven't decided on their real name yet. I usually use Four as a POV character, and she doesn't know it, so I haven't really needed to yet. 19 years old, recruited at the same age.

they/them, nonbinary, undecided orientation. First character here who isn't a she/her lesbian, woah!

Really weird. You kind of have to be, to be best friends with a salmonid.

They're always casual, and they don't beat around the bush. When they have an idea, they'll say it immediately in plain words, even if it's something unusual or illegal.

They make most of their money searching for scrap in the wastes to sell. It doesn't pay very well, though.

They have a very lax attitude about stealing, which is how they're able to get by on the limited income of scrounging. It's kinda ethically dubious, since they aren't opposed to nabbing from smaller businesses and vendors from time to time, although they're conscientious about not causing them much financial harm. Smallfry is really helpful for this.

They think Callie, Marie, and Amber are really cool. They think Eight is also pretty cool, and they're not entirely sure what to make of Four but they like her energy.

They're really good with the Hero Shot and the Tri-Stringer. They're comfortable & capable with other weapons, but they don't have an especially deep understanding of them; for the most part they play every weapon in a class the exact same way.

They also get a bit tunnel-visioned sometimes. Just part of being a rookie, though.

Fun fact: They have their locker half-filled with dirt and use it as a terrarium. They keep worms in there. This violates so many rules.

Smallfry???:

that's right he's an agent now. i'm making it official

His full name is The Huge Ally to the Scrounger of the Desert and Sky. This name is self-assigned and he is presently the only one who actually knows it. Salmonid names are just like that.

Salmonids lack gender, and Smallfry himself is entirely unaware of the concept. If he knew what a pronoun was, he wouldn't care.

Smallfry has no languages in common with any of his companions. Salmonids are known to be capable of interspecies communication, but Smallfry himself is too young to do that yet. This is why the others don't actually know the name he has given himself.

He has an unbreakable bond with Agent Three. He is fiercely committed to protecting them and aiding them in anything they do.

As a salmonid, Smallfry lacks any natural fear of death. He isn't going to sacrifice himself any time soon, since he knows his life is precious to Agent Three, but he does not really grasp why his companions are as death-averse as they are. Many of their actions are incomprehensible to him for this reason.

He requires direct interaction with Agent Three in order to effectively help with anything. Because he does not understand their goals, he has no way of guessing what they would want him to do by himself, and because of the language barrier they cannot issue instructions for him to act on independently. As such, he relies on Agent Three to make it clear to him what he should do, such as by throwing him at something.

One thing that salmonids naturally have in common with the other sentient species is laughter. As such, one of the ways in which he can truly relate to and bond with his companions is by goofing off with them. This is the basis of his friendship with Four, Eight, the Captain, Callie, & Marie. He sees them as a bunch of cool friends he can play around with, as close allies to Three, and as powerful fighters.

He likes music, too. Maybe some day that's something he could bond with Eight over?

Fun fact: Smallfry likes much of the same food Three does, but he also catches and eats plenty of bugs. Three also catches them for him pretty often. Occasionally Smallfry will manage to catch and eat a bird, which is horrifying, but that's just where salmonids lie on the food chain. Three thinks it's cool, but they don't catch birds for him because it would make them feel bad.

Bonus! Callie & Marie!

They're not OCs so there's not as much to say about them, but they do have relationships with these characters.

Both of them respect Amber as a leader and love her as family. They see her as their slightly no-fun-allowed little sister/cousin/something.

Four is especially important to Marie, both because Four was so helpful when everyone Marie relied upon was gone, and because she understands the enormity of the impact she has had on Four's life. In the past she thought of Four as her recruit, student, and protegé. Some element of that remains, however she mostly sees Four as a peer now.

Callie are Four have a lot in common in terms of their personalities, they're really good friends.

They aren't quite as close with Eight as with the others. They like her a lot, but they mostly see her as "the really nice & smart girl who Gramps recruited and who the Captain has a very funny crush on".

They both like Agent Three a lot and see them as a fun, good-hearted kid with a lot of potential. Neither of them are particularly knowledgeable about salmonids so they don't really get Smallfry, but they like him just fine.

And of course, more asks are always welcome! Vague, specific, about one agent or about all of them. I'm not picky.

#text contaminant #captain 3 #agent 4 #agent 8 #agent 3 #oc contaminant #<- hey look at that it's an oc tag #ask contaminant #<- hey look it's an asks tag which was added retroactively

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catalists · 4 years ago

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📓!!!!

Congrats, you get the angsty one :))))))

So, this one is set well in the future: Caleb, in his early-to-mid sixties, Essek...Essek. Caleb has made significant progress dismantling the Assembly and continues to teach at the Academy. A few years earlier, he and Essek mutually break off their romantic relationship--Caleb is the one who insists, since he is very aware he is getting older and Essek is not. Caleb urges Essek to start to build other relationships and focuses in his life before the Nein are gone. They still sort-of live together, on and off, but Essek's absences become lengthier. Caleb half-regrets it, but he also knows that Essek who spends time with them but has friends and projects elsewhere will have a better life when Caleb is gone. Anyway, they've been living in each other's pockets for about thirty years. He tells himself a little space is okay. While they're not 'in' a romantic relationship anymore, they also aren't looking for other partners--Caleb is getting older and has what he needs, and whatever Caleb's worries about not being enough, Essek really doesn't have interest in anyone else. But, charged with broadening his social circle, Essek...flounders a little. He has only had one (1) friend-making experience and he still doesn't really know how to get to know people aside from as an exchange of favors--or, since he isn't really looking for returns besides positive relationships, offers of aid. So, Essek ends up helping and befriending another adventuring party.

He likes them! They don't have a Jester, or a Caleb, but he does grow to care about them. But most critically, they don't have a Caduceus, who has always been able to turn things around, drag people back from the brink. And when things go very, very bad, it falls to Essek, who panics and rips them forward through time to save them.

It works. Sort of. They all make it. They dodge the blast of dragon fire that would have killed them all--and the dragon itself has given up, hours after their vanishing. They patch themselves up, enthusiastically hug a reluctant Essek for saving them. Essek teleports everybody home. It's fine. [[rest under readmore for length & injury descriptions]]

He has a headache and feels nauseous when he gets home, but that’s pretty par for the course for wild adventures. Essek honestly doesn’t think anything more is wrong until his skin is flaking and peeling the next morning. A sunburn, except he hasn’t spent any real time in the sun. When the irritation turns to bloody sores and the nausea remains, he figures out pretty quick it's a side effect of the untethered time travel and rushes to the others, but they're all unharmed. Good. It's just him, then. Their druid heals him and he goes home, relieved it wasn’t worse.

Then it comes back. The heals work temporarily, but they don't keep it at bay. He goes to Caduceus then, but though Caduceus can heal it more easily, it still returns. They experiment with letting it go a little longer to see if it might repair itself without magic, but the wounds only worsen and Essek becomes more ill. He stays at the Blooming Grove through the next month, to the end of spring, where Caduceus’s healing can get him through most of the day of spellwork or light work in the garden before his body begins to break down again. If healing is not the answer, something is--something in the spellwork caused this injury, destabilized his own body’s ability to hold itself together. Something in the spellwork can put it right again. But he can’t find the answer, and as spring turns to early summer, Caduceus gently suggests that he ask for help. “I have,” Essek says, a little confused. He has been at the Grove for nearly a month now. “You have done a lot for me.” Caduceus makes a sweeping gesture at Essek’s notes, his spell diagrams, the painstaking account of his own casting as he tries to figures out what he did to himself. “Help with this,” he says. Essek is stubborn, but he is not stupid, and he is very tired. Caduceus goes with him when Essek returns to Rexxentrum again. It is early evening when they arrive and Caleb welcomes them both warmly and has them stay for dinner. His school year is just wrapping up; only a few advanced students are staying on to do research over the summer, so it is good timing, he says. If they want to spend a little time there. He avoids Essek’s eyes, a little. Essek wonders what he means by a little time; wonders if he resents their presence or regrets their parting at all.

“I am glad to hear it,” Essek says as steadily as he can. “I came to ask your help with--a project.” He explains it haltingly; Caduceus lets him, sitting silent. It’s mid-evening by then and whatever good was done by the healing spells is starting to wear off, so Caleb gets a good demonstration of the way the skin turns paper-fragile and blood wells up, on his hands and arms, under his fingernails. They’re only partway through their meal, and Caduceus reaches up automatically to touch a spell to Essek’s jaw and stop the bleeding in his gums so he can swallow without tasting iron. Caleb takes Essek’s arm very gently. He looks him over, fingertips up to his elbow, which is as far as he can carefully unbutton Essek’s sleeve. He finds without direction the other little wounds, familiar enough with Essek after decades to sense how he holds himself differently, both where the skin is tender and where there are invisible aches beneath the surface. “You should have come sooner,” Caleb says, cupping his face where Caduceus healed him moments before. Color seems to fade from humans as they age, and Caleb is no exception--his hair is more gray than red, now--but his eyes are as brilliant blue as ever. “You should have come as soon as it happened.”

“I didn’t--” Essek can’t look at him but can’t look away, so in absence of averting his eyes the words leave him. It takes him a minute to find them again. “I thought it would resolve itself.” The truth is he stopped believing that after the first week, but to admit anything else would be dangerous. Caleb insists on taking a look at Essek’s notes that night. They stay up late; Caduceus pats another healing spell into Essek’s shoulder as he leaves them to go to bed to get him through to the next morning. Caleb starts out fiercely focused and determined and full of hope; it reignites that same hope back in Essek. They work until Essek’s headache creeps back in. Caleb stays up a little longer as Essek trances in his chair. It neatly averts any negotiation of sleeping arrangements, for the time.

After a few days of progress with Caleb’s fresh eyes, they stall again. They both spend long hours staring at the equations, reworking them; Caleb goes to the Academy library and the Cobalt Soul and brings back every book that might help. It is the sort of complicated problem a wizard could dedicate their life to. I might, Essek thinks dizzily when he wakes from his trance in the middle of the night with blood running down fresh sores on his arms and trickling from his nose and mouth. The illness worsens as time creeps by; a healing spell can only hold the deterioration off for so long, and ��so long’ becomes shorter. Essek would feel guilty to impose on Caleb for so long, guilty to keep Caduceus away from home, except that he is tired and ill most of the time, working with Caleb every moment that he is well enough to think. They fall, effortlessly, into their old patterns; when Essek slips from trance to sleep entirely by accident in the library one night, Caleb lifts him with a spell and carries him to bed. They fall asleep together after that without discussion. When Essek begins to reliably wake with bloodied arms, Caleb wraps him in bandages before they sleep so they don’t wake in bloodstained sheets. Every once in a while there is a flash of insight. But it’s not enough; not fast enough, not far enough. Caleb forgets a meeting one day, distracted with their latest approach and Essek’s worsening state, and that prompts them to involve the students. It’s an interesting problem; it is good practice for them, even if they are mostly checking or repeating Essek and Caleb’s work. Two of them try a few things and lose interest, going back to their own projects. The last student becomes invested, and Caleb eventually explains the situation a little more. Eventually, they meet Essek, and Caleb and Essek find themselves with something of a laboratory assistance.

It is the longest day of the year when they finally talk about it; high summer, the heat baking into the pavements outside. Essek stays inside, and the curtains stay drawn; while he once might have chanced the discomfort, they’ve learned the hard way that now his already fragile constitution shatters entirely in sunlight. Caleb sits with him, the room lit by an arcane glow in deference to Caleb’s eyesight. Even inside it is hot; Essek conjures an arcane chill periodically to keep the air at a comfortable temperature, and no one tries to use the stove. Essek picks at a platter of sliced fruit; everything tastes a little bit of iron, these days. Eating is an effort.

Caleb notices. “I can get Caduceus,” he offers, but Essek shakes his head and forces another bite. He doesn’t want to trouble Caduceus yet, not when he knows he’ll be asking again before he tries to sleep, in the hopes of drifting off in the temporary respite from pain.

He chews and swallows. Perhaps he is doing it to himself; the bright sweet novelty of citrus still draws him to the slices of tangerine even though he knows they will sting. Then he says, trying for casualty, “I am sorry for going back so quickly on our agreement.”

“What agreement?” Caleb wonders.

“To...be apart,” Essek says. “To end things.”

“I am glad you came,” Caleb says steadily. “I told you, I wish you had come sooner.”

“Even so,” Essek says. “If your hope was...I am conscious that I am taking up a great many of your years.” Caleb’s eyes are very blue, watching him like this. He looks from the fruit to his notes and says, to his own lines of failed equations, “I will try not to take many more of them.” On the last word, his own fang draws blood from his lip, so gentle a brush that he wouldn’t have noticed it if he did not have skin that split at the slightest provocation. He fumbles for a handkerchief and adds callously, “One way or another.”

“Essek,” Caleb says. “Essek, no.” He catches both of Essek’s hands in his; Essek is strangely aware of the texture of them. He has held Caleb’s hands many times, when he was younger, more recently, and he can feel the way Caleb’s skin has changed as he aged. Essek’s skin has a new texture now, too, although not quite the same--but in some ways comparable, thinner, more delicate. Caleb takes the handkerchief from him and dabs at Essek’s lip with single-minded concentration. “I would like you to take up many more of them. This was not--I was honest with you. I am cognizant only that you--our lifespans--”

“May not be so far apart,” Essek says. “As it so happens.”

“We are going to fix this,” Caleb says, sharply.

“I hope so,” Essek says, honestly. “But I only meant...there is no accounting for the future, Caleb Widogast. I will manage without you someday, should I have one. I promise you that. If I do not, or if I do...I am glad, to be here now. With you.”

Caleb smiles wanly at him. “Someone told me there is always a way.”

“Yes,” Essek says. “But we are on a clock. If we do not find the path before it runs down...I do not know how much longer. But if this draws itself out towards an inevitable conclusion, I will go.”

“What?” Caleb says. “No. Until this is fixed, stay here.”

“And if it ends in my death?” Essek says. He sees Caleb open his mouth to object. “Humor me. If this ends in my death. Surely you do not wish me to die here. We have gone to so much trouble, to let neither of us watch the other die.”

Caleb looks stricken. “That is not what...that is not what I meant.”

“What did you mean?” Essek challenges. He sits back to look Caleb full in the face. “What is this, but a slow deterioration? What is this but destined to cause you pain? Do not tell me you will fix this, Widogast. Say we cannot. Let us plan for such a possible future.”

Caleb wets his lips with his tongue. “I want--Essek. Unless there is someplace you would rather wish to be, in which case we will take you there, stay here. Please. Stay.”

Essek nods, slowly. “If you wish it, I wish it.”

“I do,” Caleb says. There is some relief on his face; Essek would feel a little guilty, for making such a threat and seeing the pain it caused him, if Caleb had not so assuredly done the same to Essek without any hesitancy.

“And say we fix this,” Essek says. “Say we fix this tomorrow.”

“Say we do,” Caleb says.

“Would you have me go, or stay?”

“I would--” Caleb looks at him. Essek does not know what he sees; for his part Essek sees Caleb, just Caleb, all the Calebs he has known at once: young and flame-haired and wary and a little older with more lines around his eyes and mouth, the proportion of them from smiling creeping up year by year, and with hair all-red and red-with-a-hint-of-gray and red-with-some-gray and red-and-gray in equal measure and the lines deepen and his eyes stay the same bright, bright blue. Essek holds Caleb very carefully in his memory, although he is aware it is not as good as Caleb’s. That is okay; he has back-ups. He has a collection of drawings of Caleb by Jester, from most of the years they have known each other, Jester’s private winter solstice gift to him. “I would have you, Essek. However you would like.”

“And if I do not want to go?” Essek asks.

It is Caleb’s turn to look past him at the books heaped on the table. “I do not want to be selfish with you, Essek.”

“Do you want me to stay?”

“I want you to stay,” Caleb says, finally. “I have always...”

“How fortunate,” Essek says, “That we want the same thing. I wish to have you too, Caleb. For as long as we have. Until the end of it, whatever pain it causes.”

Caleb stands and moves, then, dropping beside Essek on the sofa and drawing him in. Essek goes easily, melting into the familiar hold. Caleb presses a kiss to his cheek, a less-fragile bit of skin. Essek closes his eyes.

One of them will die, in the next year, or in another thirty. That is the least important part.

In my imagination, they probably figure it out and save Essek, but hey, dealer’s choice unless I actually write this.

#cr fic #my fic #critical role #shadowgast #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #future fic #we were talking on Discord about side effects of time travel being like radiation sickness #which is catnip for me considering I watched Stargate at a formative age #caduceus clay

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