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ilexdiapason · 10 months

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(part one here) (part four here)

Oli doesn't try to broach the subject again until the pizza is delivered and the ice cube is a soaked-up puddle in a napkin on the coffee table.

When he does, though, it's with his hands in his lap and his best efforts to not sound like a scolding teacher. "You wanna tell me what that was about?"

Martyn, in lieu of answering, pulls open the pizza box and wiggles a slice free from the still-stringing cheese. His fingertips bounce it between them, ginger; he bites down and clearly regrets it. Still, he chews, mouth caught in a conflict between ventilating the heat and keeping his secrets sealed tight shut behind it.

"Come on," Oli continues, gentle as he can push it. "I can't help you if I don't know what the problem is."

Martyn swallows. He looks like he's deliberating.

He must decide, whatever the stakes of this crisis are, that Oli's worth it, because he does reply.

"You know," he says, quiet, "I wasn't kidding when I said you should keep your computer away from me."

"Do you want me to take it upstairs?"

"I mean - bit late now. But yeah, that'd probably help."

So he probably has the conviction that something, somebody, is listening in through the machine. That's understandable; if whatever his situation was involved him being able to join some random strangers' games, he probably had a computer, and it was probably monitored, which would explain why he's so terrified of being tracked. It makes about as much sense as anything else in this exchange does.

Even if it didn't, though, Oli still would have taken his laptop back upstairs, tapped out a quick notice that he'd be unavailable for the rest of the day, and tossed it on his bed - and his phone beside it, after a moment's thought. Martyn's comfort is what really matters here.

"There we are," he says on his way back in, "the highest-tech thing in the room now is probably the microwave."

Martyn offers him a thin smile, which feels more like progress than anything else.

"Right." He sits back down, takes his own piece of pizza (which by now is a far more edible temperature than it must have been when Martyn tried it), and gets the whole thing down before he takes another shot. "You want to start, or shall I?"

Martyn exhales amusement. "Go on then. Tell me what you know."

"Not a lot," Oli admits, "apparently. You don't make a lot of sense. You fell out of the sky, you still seem fairly surprised that things are real, you didn't know we’d been playing Minecraft - and you were calling me CHEST agent, which isn't a job title my company offers, as far as I'm aware. What, were you born in a video game?"

"I told you I was born in Nottingham."

"That might have been a cover story!"

"Nah. Wouldn't lie about that. I am a real boy, Gepetto, you can believe me on that one."

"Well, there's one thing I know for sure about you," Oli says. "All this talk of being in there, though. I don't know. VR?"

"Something like. You -" he hushes his voice, even though it's the middle of the afternoon and the neighbours won't be home "- you're, like, a normal CHEST employee, then? Front end stuff?"

"Yeah. I told you, I'm a software dev. If it's a front, I'm not in on the secret."

"God," says Martyn, "okay, so you're still not safe, but… okay, telling you this now, you're not getting the whole truth. But your company sucks and you should quit your job."

"Sucks like questionable QA policies or sucks like torturing teenagers in the basement?"

"I - shit," says Martyn, "a lot of those agents might have been folks like me, huh. Damn. Least I never killed anyone."

"I seem to remember you being pretty handy with a knife."

"Yeah, 'cause none of that was real, I was a bloody rat in a maid dress. You can't be on at me for killing people there."

"Suppose Jimmy killed the gardener."

"Exactly!"

"So, what, CHESTCorp have figured out how to turn VR into R, and you got caught up in it?"

"Not CHEST," Martyn takes another go at his slice of pizza, "just Doc. It's real experimental stuff. You're lookin' at test subject number one, I'm pretty sure."

"And now that you're not a test subject any more," he finishes, "you're having trouble readjusting."

"I guess. It's just… y'know, like, it's nice to be back, but… weird. Incredibly weird."

"Two and a half years would do it," Oli nods.

They take another lull to properly eat. Oli hadn't realised before this how starving he is; he would have thrown something together from the groceries he'd picked up if he hadn't had a guest to entertain. Martyn, too, seems fairly intent on ingesting an entire pizza by himself. His mother’s voice sounds inside his head, urging him to slow down, but Oli ignores it. If Martyn ends up with stomach problems it’ll just be another stark reminder that he’s not… trapped in a virtual reality simulator, he supposes.

“So, er,” he picks back up, once they’ve cleared the wedges and made more than a dent in the pizza, “what now?”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve gone through all that. Nobody’s going to believe you, I assume, if this stuff’s as top-secret as it seems to be.”

“Kinda thing you’d need a two-hour primer with your therapist for,” Martyn nods, “and a lot of faith in doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“But, what, do you just… go home?”

“I’d like to,” he says. “I would really, really just like things to go back to normal.”

There’s a silence. But they can’t rings clear as a bell in the air between them anyway.

Martyn looks down at the last three slices of pizza. “You should take me home.”

“You’re sure?”

He swallows. “Yeah. I’ll just… I’ll be a big surprise for my parents when they get back home from work. And then I’ll add you guys on Discord, and hopefully we’ll be able to talk more on there?”

“Hopefully,” says Oli, meaning it more than anything. His entire life’s been pretty much flipped on its head by this encounter. “We’re always wondering about you, y’know. Or, I mean, I am. Owen probably thinks you’re there from Apo, Apo probably thinks you’re there from Owen, all that, but… Hard not to wonder who the hell you really were, when you would never act like it was actually a game.”

“I mean, it’s all a game, isn’t it, really?” Martyn muses, half-distant. “Just in the long dream now.”

“Is that from the End Poem?”

“Is it?”

Oli shakes his head. No time for all that. “So I’m driving you back to Nottingham, and… you’ll DM me when you can?”

“Yeah.”

It’s the best he can ask for.

Martyn refuses to tell Oli his exact address, just asks him to drive close enough that Martyn can walk the rest of the way home. It’s understandable - a CHESTCorp employee knowing Martyn’s exact location is, apparently, an incredibly dangerous thing - but still a little concerning. He’d at least like to be sure that Martyn won’t be getting poached back by this Doc guy at the earliest notice. Still, Martyn’s comfort remains the most important thing, and so he leaves his Google Maps at home.

It’s a bit of an autopilot drive, even without directions. Oli feels the wheel under his fingers, the pedals under his feet, like they’re abstracts. He looks over once or twice and sees Martyn glued to the window, to the mirrors, hypervigilant; he hopes that Martyn feels a little more real now than he did before.

They’re idle at a semi-populated roundabout when Martyn straightens his back. “Second exit, then pull over,” he announces.

“Almost there?”

“Pretty close.”

Oli obliges.

Martyn, with just the barest tremor in his fingers, pops the car door and steps out.

“You’re sure you’re gonna be okay?”

The words leave Oli’s mouth in a rush, the emotion behind them probably more visceral than Martyn is expecting, if the way he startles at them is any indication.

“Because - ‘cause if you need a hotel, or cash, or -”

“No,” says Martyn, “no, I’m fine. Promise.”

He hesitates, hand on the open car door, a few more seconds.

“And thanks,” he finishes, “I don’t - I’m not - I don’t know. Appreciate it.”

Oli understands what he’s getting at. “Stay safe, okay?”

“Nah, I’m gonna throw myself right in the Trent when you’re gone,” Martyn smiles, and Oli dutifully ignores the crack in his voice. Blame it on the last vestiges of teenagehood.

“And if you do end up needing to - I suppose erase all traces of your old life online… then it’s been an honour.”

“Yeah.”

“... Good luck.”

“Talk to you later,” Martyn says, and slams the car door closed.

All Oli can do, once he’s ambled out of eyeshot, is mechanically drive back home.

So that was InTheLittleWood. Friend group cryptid, unethical experiment, man with more trauma than Oli could ever begin to help him deal with… but man he was able to feed, and house, and walk through an emotional response, which is better than nothing at all. The one person in the world who Oli could almost hit with his car and have that be a better situation than the one he’d just escaped from. Still a mystery, too; he’s left Oli with far more questions than answers, left him returning to an empty house and wishing he’d been selfish enough to make Martyn stay a little longer, talk a little more.

Oli picks up his phone where he’d tossed it in the bedroom.

He has one new email to his work address.

Human Resources 3:04 PM

to me ˅

Subject: Performance Review

Dear Oliver,

You have been scheduled for a performance review. You are required to report to our Shoreditch location by 09:00 tomorrow, Tuesday December 12th. Failure to comply with this request will result in disciplinary proceedings, which may lead to your subsequent termination.

Regards,

Dan

Human Resources

CHESTCorp UK

Ah.

That’s… well.

The word termination is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that threat.

… Okay, so they’re working to a deadline now. That’s fine. He can deal with that. Martyn’s been dealing with far worse, right?

The friend request, at least, flips through from pending to accepted.

TheOrionSound — Today at 16:14

[Attachment: Screenshot_20231025_161408.png]

InTheLittleWood — Today at 16:14

Shit.

(end! now on ao3, if you’d like to leave a comment slash kudos slash bookmark!)

#ilexworks #reverse isekai au #itlwlore #oli theorionsound #martyn itlw

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nevernonline · 8 months

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✧.* svt as songs from 1989 (taylors vrs)

happy 1989 day to all my bbs celebrating!! xoxo. idk whose but one of these will prob end up being a full fic vv soon give me a suggestion lol im indecisive 🩵😌

seungcheol: i wish you would.

"2 AM, here we are see your face, hear my voice in the dark. we're a crooked love in a straight line down. makes you wanna run and hide but it made us turn right back around. i wish you would come back, wish i never hung up the phone like i did, i wish you knew that I'd never forget you as long as i live and i wish you were right here, right now, it's all good i wish you would."

jeonghan: is it over now?

"was it over when she laid down on your couch? was it over when he unbuttoned my blouse? "come here," i whispered in your ear in your dream as you passed out, baby. was it over then? and is it over now?"

joshua: new romantics.

" 'Cause baby, I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me. and every day is like a battle but every night with us is like a dream. baby, we're the new romantics, come along with me. heartbreak is the national anthem, we sing it proudly. we are too busy dancin' to get knocked off our feet. baby, we're the new romantics the best people in life are free"

junhui: wonderland.

"flashin' lights and we took a wrong turn and we fell down a rabbit hole. you held on tight to me ’cause nothing's as it seems and spinning out of control. didn't they tell us, "don’t rush into things"? didn't you flash your green eyes at me? haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds? oh, didn't it all seem new and exciting? i felt your arms twisting around me, i should have slept with one eye open at night. we found wonderland, you and i got lost in it"

soonyoung: how you get the girl.

"stand there like a ghost, shakin' from the rain. she'll open up the door and say, "are you insane?"say, "it's been a long six months" and you were too afraid to tell her what you want. and that's how it works that's how you get the girl and then, you say i want you for worse or for better i would wait forever and ever. broke your heart, i'll put it back together, i would wait forever and ever and that's how it works. that's how you get the girl."

wonwoo: blank space.

"nice to meet you, where you been? i could show you incredible things. magic, madness, heaven, sin saw you there and I thought "oh, my god, look at that face. you look like my next mistake love's a game, wanna play?" new money, suit and tie i can read you like a magazine. ain't it funny? rumors fly and i know you heard about me. so, hey, let's be friends i'm dyin' to see how this one ends, grab your passport and my hand i can make the bad guys good for a weekend."

jihoon: you are in love.

"morning, his place burnt toast, sunday, you keep his shirt, he keeps his word and for once, you let go of your fears and your ghosts. one step, not much, but it said enough. you kiss on sidewalks, you fight and you talk one night, he wakes strange look on his face pauses, then says "you're my best friend" and you knew what it was, he is in love."

dokyeom: suburban legends.

"i didn't come here to make friends we were born to be suburban legends. when you hold me, it holds me together and you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever. i know that you still remember we were born to be national treasures. when you told me we'd get back together and you kissed me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever."

mingyu: wildest dreams.

"he's so tall and handsome as hell, he's so bad, but he does it so well and when we've had our very last kiss, my last request it this. say you'll remember me standin' in a nice dress starin' at the sunset, babe. red lips and rosy cheeks say you'll see me again even if it's just in your wildest dreams."

minghao: i know places.

"you stand with your hand on my waistline it's a scene and we're out here in plain sight, i can hear them whisper as we pass by. it's a bad sign, bad sign. somethin' happens when everybody finds out, see the vultures circlin', dark clouds. love's a fragile little flame, it could burn out. 'cause they got the cages, they got the boxes and guns. they are the hunters, we are the foxes and we run baby, i know places we won't be found and they'll be chasing their tails tryin' to track us down. 'cause i know places we can hide"

seungkwan: sweeter than fiction.

"seen you fall, seen you crawl on your knees, seen you lost in a crowd, seen your colors fade. wish i could make it better, someday you won't remember this pain you thought would last forever and ever there you'll stand, ten feet tall i will say, "i knew it all along" your eyes are wider than distance this life is sweeter than fiction"

vernon: now that we don't talk.

"you grew your hair long you got new icons and from the outside it looks like you're tryin' lives on i miss the old ways. you didn't have to change, but i guess i don't have a say now that we don't talk. i call my mom, she said that it was for the best remind myself the morе i gave, you'd want me less i cannot bе your friend, so i pay the price of what i lost and what it cost, now that we don't talk."

chan: slut!

"send the code, he's waitin' there the sticks and stones they throw froze mid-air. everyone wants him, that was my crime, the wrong place at the right time and i break down, then he's pullin' me in. in a world of boys, he's a gentleman."

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mayullla · 2 years

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Title: Virtual World Genshin

Character(s): Multiple Characters (Genshin Impact)

Summary: Sagau; Placing a device on your head, you lay down on your bed and entered a virtual world. Hanging out with npcs and teaming up with them to fight your missions or theirs. Well, maybe you were wrong about them being npcs?

Note: This is inspired by sword art online kinda? I thought of VR at first but I could not really make it interesting enough for myself to write then I thought the chars in sword art online got trapped in a virtual world...

Warnings/tags: Gn!reader, yandere themes, cultish, sagau, kidnapping (technically? you will be taken from your world), can be seen as platonic or romantic but the kids (Diona, Klee, Qiqi) are just platonic and nothing more.

Genshin is an interesting game, you thought to yourself yet whined when you remembered how much money you spend on this one game. It was expensive.

Placing the headset on your head, you lay down on your bed and logged into the game.

You felt like you were floating on air as you watched the world load in, first the terrain letting you stand on it, then the trees and buildings far and near that looked far too realistic sometimes when you watched all the small details load in.

The smell of glazelilies and delicious food and the sound of crowds, people talking to each other you can hear them as they talk about their day or how they try to haggle the price down in the shops.

"Ahh, you are back! How are you? Gouba missed you!" Xinagling smiled at you when you entered the restaurant, the smell of spice and the heat radiating of the stove... too real.

"Hey, Xiangling."

The game is simple enough more often than not you are just helping the traveler of your choosing either Lumine or Aether find their other sibling. (The sibling that you didn't choose.) You were like Paimon in a way, that you would be in their life when they need you.

How you would see a notification screen suddenly pop right in front of your face telling you to help the traveler and Paimon in their own missions. The archon quest and all but unlike Paimon you can leave the team whenever you want.

Able to roam free and do whatever you want. This was your own world and your world alone.

The game had co-op too, sending you to another world specific for that (always crowded with people) but when it came to your own world it was you and the npcs only.

You are just you here with the weapon and element you picked at the beginning of the game. Unable to change too much of your features except for the color of your hair or maybe a few tattoos.

Instead of the traveler who too focused on finding their other half, you have dailies and resin for yourself. Building your weapons, artifacts, talents and such. (gifts for the npcs is also another things that you often spent your mora on)

The daily missions are a mix, some designed so that you could do them by yourself while the other which usually involves a lot of fighting would involve asking certain characters to help you out.

It was fun really when you got Kaeya and Diluc who you met at the angel share to go with you to clear out the hilichurl camp.

"Oh, it seems that you have gotten a lot stronger than before Diluc. Could it be because of our lovely little traveler here?"

"Hmph."

Or maybe helping out Yoimiya and Thoma in protecting the hot air balloon goods from monsters.

"Thoma! Get that box that fell off from the ballon! Me and ____ will deal with the hilichurls!"

"On it, Yoimiya!"

Cleaning the anemo archon statues with Barbara or Venti is also fun.

But really the best is the Archon quests or World quests, this one is more specific when it comes to teaming with others. Sometimes would team up with one character only, sometimes with three but not over. The four of you work hard together to figure out puzzles, travel new terrain, steal or help others.

The more personal missions are usually nerve-racking more often than not seeing others' lives play out for a certain character and whatnot. And all you can do is be by their side.

You will morn with those characters their lost, you help them find what they are searching for, overjoyed when the other is happy. You are particularly close with the traveler seeing as they are the main characters in the story.

But in the end, this was just but a game, this isn't reality but a dream, virtual reality, and when you wake up from it you have to face reality.

It is hard at times when you have to log out when you were talking to one of the many characters. Telling them that you gotta turn in for the day, and that you need sleep. Them just smiling as the two of you say goodbye.

They never understood that this was a game you thought, after all you watched others play the game managing to get a video telling a character that they were nothing more than a game, codes and pixels.

Yet the characters never acknowledge that they were, looking at the player funnily as if they were just joking around or have gone crazy.

Walking around the game one time you wondered how the devs were able to make such a beautiful game. Again everything all looked so realistic the characters' emotions, thoughts, troubles and all that you just can't believe this was a dream or even a digital world!

When you got hit in-game you could feel the pain the hilichurl gave you, it was a little less painful than real life but the fact that you could feel surprised you the first time you got hit. What's more when you watched other characters get a heavy hit... you wondered if they too feel pain, when you watched Diona too panic to use her burst to heal Rosaria who was on the grass... hurt.

When you rested in the grass you could feel the pointy tips of it lightly tickling you and when you ate their food, everything tasted delicious, did they too also taste how delicious the food was? Sometimes you wished to believe so when they ate with you complimenting the food that you cook at camp that day.

The kind npcs who greeted you as a hero or sidekick with the traveler you knew why many in your world fall so far into the game wanting this world to be their reality far more than their own. Yet you could not help to also cherish this a little sometimes.

Sometimes.

You would be the same, but you understood that this was a dream and that this wasn't real but all just a game. Because in the end when you wake up the pain you felt in-game from getting hit by an arrow was suddenly gone, and the food that you ate with the characters did not fill your stomach. It is small things like that bring you back to reality and help you understand that all this was just a game.

Sometimes it is hard sometimes it is not but you learn how to separate reality vs game here.

How disappointing.

It was often when Yunjin and Xinyan would try to invite you to a show or two. Asking you to stay for a while longer when you have to leave soon.

"You must see this amazing show of ours! Yunjin helped me so much with this new song, you just gotta listen."

"Could you just stay for an hour, please?"

How the children would give you those pitiful eyes that made your heart pull when they ask you to play a little more.

"Klee wanted to play with you a little more... Are you sure you won't play with me anymore?"

"Qiqi wanted to watch the flinches with you..."

"I wanted to show you this new drink... not that I made it just for you... but it would be nice... hmph."

You thought that maybe it was because you are someone who played a hero that they adore you so much. Because of all the missions, they thought of you as a close friend.

It was nice when you, Diluc, Kaeya and Roasaria are together having a bit of banter whenever you got to the angel's share.

"You should drink a little more, it would only be a waste after coming all this way."

"They would like grape juice more, Kaeya. Too much drinking is also bad for you."

"Leave them alone you two."

Ninguang would tell you about her plans, never in full detail, but every so often she would slip a thing or two to you all the while Beidou and Kazuha would barge into the jade chamber (mostly Beidou) to play with you and Ninguang.

"So that is what I was planni-"

"Yo! I heard that you guys were together so I thought of dropping to the jade chamber to say hello!"

"Seriously Beidou, have a little sense."

Zhongli would often tell you stories of his own. Suspiciously stories that the internet never heard about when you look it up, made you wonder if there were hidden missions that you by mistake completed. Those stories are often the reason why you stay in-game a little longer, just to hear everything because you weren't sure you will be hearing them again.

"Have I told you about this?"

Childe would drag you together with him, telling you that you and he were comrades and that you and he must stick together!

"Since you are my comrade, you better watch my back alright."

Ayato and Ayaka would often invite you to the Kamisato home telling you that you stay for a while.

"You haven't been to the Kamisato home for a while, Ayaka misses you. Come and rest there for today."

"Ah! You are here, I am so glad to see you again."

Somehow just somehow Itto gets into more fights and trouble than necessary or even normal when you are around that you must stay a little longer to help Kuki Shinobu fix things up.

"Thanks without you I am not sure what to do with this guy and his group sometimes."

"Oh come on Shinobu! You love me, and so do you!"

When did this start?

There was always something that made you stay a little longer, there was always someone accompanying you where ever you go.

Sometimes you wondered if it was timed... you remembered that when you first started playing the game you were mostly alone if not with the traveler and Paimon searching and fighting monsters alone for their loot, finding beautiful sceneries as you traveled and marking them off your map.

Now you don't even have that moment of silence, as someone is always there with you. Don't get it wrong... you liked being with them, they are your friends in some form of way... complicated... and you would never say no when all they wish was a little bit of your time but also fight alongside you.

But you can't shake that feeling that when you look at their smiles there was a hint of desperation. That they were just clinging to you as if you are just going to disappear at a moment's notice.

When you promised Albedo, Ei and more characters that you will come back after taking a small break for yourself, some alone time. How they hold your hand or arm so tightly as if afraid only to reluctantly release them, smiling as they said goodbye.

You will come back...

What were you supposed to do when suddenly you aren't able to log out of the game.

That your body was stuck unable to wake up, as you tried and tried to leave. When you begged the system to let you out yet there was no answer, no notification just errors and errors which every button you picked to get out.

You didn't see them come close, surprising you when you suddenly heard their voice asking you if you were okay. Their words of worry you didn't trust when you saw the satisfaction in their eyes, the hesitance in them gone as they bring you into a hug clinging to you telling you that it was alright.

You belong to their world.

#genshin #genshin impact #sagau #genshin sagau #self aware au #genshin cult au #genshin yandere #tw yandere #platonic yandere #yandere imagines #yandere x reader #genshin x reader #genshin imagines #genshin scenarios #genshin self aware #genshin x you #childe #kaeya #diluc

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g5mlp · 11 months

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Here's the entire My Little Pony 2024 Franchise Overview presentation. This was originally distributed online in mid-June 2023, and we reported on it then, but there are a couple of details that didn't make it into the post.

Download links 2024 Franchise Overview 2023 Marketing Plans Hasbro Brands Overview

Slides 2–4. Various random stats which are mostly not important or not properly contextualized. I have just a slight feeling that the stat on slide 3 implying that MLP is bigger than Barbie at the moment is cherrypicked.

Slides 5–6. Slide 6 is the first slide with specific data about Tell Your Tale viewers. It tells us that Tell Your Tale outperformed Make Your Mark on audience approval and toy purchase basket size, and that it outperformed other franchises on repeat toy purchase rate. There are a few more of these stats on slide 20.

Slides 7–9. Tell Your Tale Season 2 will be real, and will have four specials (the accompanying visuals don't seem to be related, other than the beach stuff for special 2). They didn't really explain what "hair play in every episode" or "more magical moments" will mean, although maybe the former is intended to encourage the purchase of toys.

Slides 10–12. This is basically a summary of things that have already been done within the MLP brand over the last few years. "LBE" means "location-based entertainment".

Slide 10 seems to indicate that there are about 7 songs left to be released in Tell Your Tale Season 1.

On slide 12, from left to right, the featured things are the VR book My Little Pony: Virtual Magic; the Sofia Carson-narrated Calm "sleep story"; the I Can Read Comics Level 1 book Sister Switch; the first issue of the G5 IDW comics; the MLP mascots at the Galaxyland theme park in Edmonton, Canada; a render of the lobby of the My Little Pony & Transformers Playlodge in Shanghai; and the "Flight to Equestria" ferris wheel at Galaxyland.

Slides 13–14. Mostly licensed merch, although the Izzy brushable on slide 14 still hasn't been seen anywhere other than this presentation.

Slide 15. Another indication that Make Your Mark won't get anything in 2024: the best they can say about it is that it will "live on Netflix" (i.e. won't be removed from Netflix), which was probably going to happen anyway.

Given the "new episodes weekly" statement, 328 minutes can be neatly divided into 4 22-minute episodes and 48 5-minute episodes, all for Tell Your Tale. Consistent episode lengths make sense for Hasbro, since they intend to license their shows out to TV networks with standard half-hour programming blocks.

"Linear and AVOD" probably refers to traditional TV channels and ad-supported free streaming sites. Some past MLP content is already available on "AVOD" sites such as Pluto TV.

It seems like G5 music will continue to have that generic pop sound.

It's implied that some of the video games shown will be updated in 2024. Maybe not all of them, though, since the MLP Roblox game (Visit Maretime Bay) was shut down in February 2023.

Slides 16–17. They want to grow viewership a lot and convert it to toy purchases. They call Tell Your Tale their "one & only ponable content series"; obviously, maintaining two ongoing animated shows would directly contradict this statement.

The Pipp, Misty, Sunny and Izzy brushables shown all seem to be new, as is the concept art for the accessories of the former three. The Izzy brushable is probably the same one as on slide 14.

Slide 18. They will do a bunch of promo stuff, including releasing a licensed console video game in Q3 2024. The first and third Tell Your Tale specials are to be the tentpole moments (i.e. big marketing focal points) of 2024.

Slides 19–20. Slide 20 features some more new stats on how well Tell Your Tale is performing; it has 177 million cumulative YouTube views, good repeat viewership and better repeat purchase rate than Make Your Mark.

This image is from a different presentation, "2023 Marketing Plans". This slide reveals the Secrets of Starlight logo for the fourth and final My Little Pony: Make Your Mark special.

The "album launch" could be referring to the My Little Pony Theme Song (Sped Up + lofi remixes) EP that was released today. Or maybe something else?

This slide is from the other presentation that was revealed, "Hasbro Brands Overview". It doesn't really reveal anything that wasn't previously known, although it does suggest that Bridlewoodstock will feature in more marketing content through the rest of the year.

Notes

Almost all of the text in the 2024 Franchise Overview presentation is shown in the Calibri font. It doesn't seem like it was originally intended to be that way, and I think it might be due to custom fonts not being loaded properly by whoever converted the presentation to PDF. In spite of this issue, the presentation is likely genuine, evidenced by the high quality images embedded in it, including a shot from a future Tell Your Tale episode on slide 8.

Slides 15 and 18 both note that future plans are subject to change. However, it's probably somewhat unlikely that Hasbro could return to Make Your Mark in 2024. Even if they were to commission more Make Your Mark episodes right now, and could justify the budget for it, it would probably still take more than a year before the first episodes could be completed. I could be wrong about this, but there's nothing to suggest that it would be in the interest of Hasbro, Netflix, Atomic Cartoons or anyone else (except maybe the fans) for Make Your Mark to be renewed after 2023.

While the TYT Audience Report and MLP Shopper Analysis by AIM & We Are Family both seem to be focused on 2- to 8-year-old girls, it's not necessarily an indication that Hasbro is focused solely on this demographic – they might just be the most lucrative demographic, or the one whose analysis produced the best numbers to show to Hasbro's investors and partners.

#my little pony #mlp g5 #mlp #my little pony: tell your tale #my little pony: make your mark

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lunarfied · 1 year

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WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME ? ; friends

introducing the emo band ☆

characters ;

kuni: psychology major, when he was going through a rough patch in life, right around the breakup, he found therapy to be a reliable outlet for him. continuing on with life, kuni decided to study psychology to use his degree to help others. online, he’s a force to be reckoned with. a menace to his friends and fans, when kuni takes on his scaramouche/balladeer persona, everyone knows it’s time to pull out the screen recordings and twitter threads.

ajax: studying education, ajax seemed like a frat boy at heart but when he opened up to you, you could tell there was more to him than meets the eye. pursuing a college degree to help ease financial struggles at home, ajax may seem like a bit of an asshole at first, but he’s a friend you know to keep around. when he’s streaming he’s known as that guy - the one who says the most out of pocket shit and has the worst takes ever. he’s funny and goofy and everyone loves him, even his haters. childe and scaramouche are known as that duo, despite how much scaramouche likes to say he hates childe and hope he chokes on a dick and dies, you can find a few clips out there where scaramouche is being honest about how he feels about childe...

aether: journalist major, who has a side blog documenting everything he sees on his travels. aether, along with his twin sister, lumine, loves to see the sights and travel across teyvat. when he’s not in school, he likes posting dance covers and videos on social media and stream various vr videos. he met kuni completely by accident, running into each other head first while completely immersed in what they were looking at on their phones, but seeing as they had mutual friends (childe) they decided to get to know each other. you also know aether, seeing as lumine is in your friend group. you've talked a couple times and you enjoy reading his blogs from time to time.

kazuha: musical theater major, tending to perform on the streets with his various instruments just to cleanse the aura of the sad, sad college students that walk by him. no one really knows how kazuha became acquainted with kuni, he just happened to be there one day and then stuck with the rest. he's really just an enigma who will be there for you until the end. he likes to encourage his boyfriend to continue his youtube channel and can be seen in the backs of his streams being lovey-dovey with him or doing fornite emotes.

heizou: the criminal justice major, heizou is dedicated on becoming the next best detective in teyvat. he met kuni through shared classes they had together, working on a school project together as well, kuni deemed him worthy enough to be part of his friend group to which heizou brushed off. he was weirded out at first but after hearing about their shared side hobby of streaming, heizou was quick to take up the offer. he's chill, someone kuni goes to when there's no one else for him to turn to (aka when childe is busy).

xiao: a bit of the odd one out, xiao studies philosophy and is much more quieter than the rest of kuni's friend group. not much is known of him, and kuni doesn't push it, finding comfort in the shared secrets the boys both have. kuni doesn't understand how xiao has the patience to deal with his weird boyfriend who's always drunk when he meets him (which so happens to be his new roommate, fun!) but hey, xiao is happy, and that's that. he streams in his free time, the most popular clips of xiao being him raging throughout various story based video games he has played (with venti laughing at him for making a poor choice and getting his characters killed).

thoma: ah yes, the human development and family studies major, no one even knew that was a thing until thoma said it was his major. he's passionate about taking care of people and being of use, so when kuni was having a particularly bad day and thoma noticed that frown on his face in the halls... yeah, he couldn't get rid of him after that. thoma stuck around and honestly? kuni doesn't regret it, he's sweet, cares for his friends and even people he doesn't know - not a single mean bone in his body. he accidentally came onto scaramouche and childe's irl stream once (labeled "HOT TUB STREAM????" and it was childe standing in his kitchen sink with scara yelling at him to get out) and chat went crazy - falling in love with his voice and presence and quickly surged in followers thanks to that...

gorou: he! the veterinary science major, who also happens to minor in wildlife biology - gorou is called a lot of nicknames from his friends and dog boy is definitely the top contender. he really does act just like a dog... some would even say he was a dog in his past life. or something like that. he saw kuni caring for a stray cat outside the school campus and approached him. while kuni was apprehensive at first, gorou told him he was a vet student and he just wanted to make sure the cat was okay and wouldn't give him any diseases. he streams from time to time, mostly with his dog cam on but you'll find gorou is most active on tiktok. kuni likes to clown on him a lot but gorou knows he means well.

alhaitham: ah... yeah. the smartass history major who made kuni annoyed with his presence in the first place. how can someone be so smart yet so stuck-up? he was a pretenious asshole who kuni despised, but oh - oh. when kuni met kaveh... yeah, that was a duo to be messed with. they love tag teaming alhaitham to annoy the shit out of him. at least alhaitham has one thing going for him - his smarts. if kuni ever has a question, he'll definitely ask him first (no matter how sarcastic he wants to be about his answers). while alhaitham doesn't necessarily fit into the streamer category, he did modeling as a side job and got quite a fanbase from that.

masterlist | playlist

prev | next

notes: scara's friend group is rlly anemo boys + whatever the fuck i decided for the rest. i feel like it makes sense in my head....

🏷️: @machiroll

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entomolog-t · 3 months

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Hey! I’ve been a fan of G/T content for quite a while, but I’ve mostly stuck to Deviantart&Wattpad. Pretty recently I decided to create a Tumblr account in an attempt to find more content, and I’ve been amazed by how interactive the community is here! However, I noticed something that I find pretty weird, and just wanted to get an opinion from someone who seems to be a pretty active member of the community, at least from what I’ve seen.

In all the posts I’ve seen, I’ve never seen VR mentioned even once. I might just not be looking in the right place, but I just found it weird. I’ve been an avid VRChat player for a while, and having spent a large amount of time there I noticed the potential it holds for genres like G/T. I was expecting to find at least a single mention of it somewhere here, but I never have. I see lots of posts from both sides of G/T that mention something like, “I really wish I could just hold/be held by someone, etc.” and, well, I’ve had experiences like that. I’ve fallen asleep and woken up in a friend’s hands before. I’ve had friends sitting/standing on my shoulder. They don’t even know this community exists, these interactions just happen naturally.

I just want to share some of the experiences I’ve had, and when I went looking, nobody here seemed to know it was even possible. So yeah, that’s what finally motivated me to interact directly with the community. To at least let someone know that it is possible, and far more accessible than most seem to realize.

I’ll also make a standard post, but considering the fact that I’m a very new account I don’t expect many to see it. Thus why I messaged directly. I know this was a bit of a ramble, I'm still a little nervous about finally interacting with something I've only passively watched for quite a long time. So thanks for taking the time to read through, and I’d love to hear your opinion on why it isn’t mentioned, or anything else you wanna say! Take care out there!

OH! This is quite the interesting ask!! I may not be the best person to answer as I am far from techie.

First off, that sounds incredibly fun! I've only ever tried VR with an escape room - which oddly enough had a silly sizey experience; There was an issue with the calibration or something on one of the headsets and a friend who's just a little over 5ft had their in game avatar show up ballpark around 7ft tall.

I love that g/t seems to happen naturally with your interactions too! I'd love to hear more!

Now for the meat of the question- why isn't this mentioned? Again, keep in mind, I'm no techie or avid gamer so this is really biased towards myself. In no particular order,

Age

Price point

Tech Difficulty

Privacy

Missing sensations

My first guest would be age. I myself am in my mid/late twenties, and just never really grew up with that kind of tech, so theres just a lack of knowledge and not more than a passing interest in it. I think with age there also comes issues with free time, though I'll speak on that more with privacy. I think in general there tends to be a perception that VR chat rooms have a lot of minors (whether this is true or not, I have no clue, but as an adult that is a concern).

My second guess would be price point. Now, again, I am not a tech wiz, so I really don't know too well what would be a good headset (if any ol' cheap one would work, or if the oculus is the way to go), but I know the well known headsets are not at all cheap, and do also require a something to run them on (from my understanding thats just a good enough gaming pc? I have no clue.) Basically, there is a monetary component at play.

Thirdly would be tech difficulty. Some people are just bad at technology, and don't want to learn a new form of it.

Now privacy is what I would think is a big factor- and not online privacy. Roommates, siblings, spouses, family- if someone lives with another person they may not be comfortable being seen interacting on VRchat (especially with how paranoid some of us get with g/t), and then finding alone time is just an absolute pain with work, school, clubs, responsibilities etc.

Lastly, I think some people are hesitant about the missing sensations. Essentially, "who cares if all I can do is see it, I want to feel it." I think for some people it may have the opposite effect, and the degree of realism mixed with the very obviously "not real" cues could be more upsetting- being so close to having something you fantasize about but being reminded its not actually real.

Those are just my thoughts- and I hope others will add some of their own! This is quite the interesting topic and I'd love to hear more about it! As I mentioned earlier, I have very limited experience with VR, but from what little experience I did have it was a ton of fun! I feel like VRchat could be something a lot of people in the community could enjoy if they knew more/had access to it.

#Whew #Long one #I have no clue if I'm accurate about this one #I am a hick who has very limited tech knowledge #I am a whiz with spreadsheets #Thats about it #g/t community

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theamazingian · 9 days

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Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is one of the best (if not the best) VR game I’ve ever played. Astro’s Playroom (free on every PS5) is my go-to game for anyone who hasn’t tried a PS5 yet

With that being said, if you haven’t seen the new Astro Bot trailer releasing in September, you gotta check it out!!

youtube

#boy oh boy #I’ve been itchy for a new Sony 3D platformer!!#Astro bot #ps5 #Youtube

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striikers · 21 days

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hello friends ! my name is jae, 21+, est timezone, and i go by she/they pronouns. dropping this intro to yall definitely not on time, but when am i ever truly prepared for opening with an intro already made ? the answer is rarely. i am bringing to you seo suyeong, better known as striker for the game iron fist. the youngest child of a rich family whom because of his choices is largely seen as the disappointment of the family, but we'll get more into that down below. i would prefer to plot over discord, so feel free to ask. thanks !

user loading… SEO SUYEONG. your current avatar is registered as PARK SEONGHWA. you have been logged in for 26 years since 15th FEBRUARY 2998. your highest ranking stats are INTREPID and RETICIENT. please select your playlist from OVER-INDULGING IN CAFFEINE or WASTING HOURS AWAY IN A VR ROOM for today. last saved activity: working as a PROFESSIONAL PLAYER. resume your ongoing game for IRON FIST as STRIKER ( IF2 ) ?

born as the youngest of three children, suyeong was the final child that seo sung-il and nam areum would choose to have while living in terra. while many might believe that choosing to have a child in a virtual world as their own was an act of love, for the couple whose name would be known in headlines, in fact it was an act of brilliance in furthering themselves into the lives that they wanted.

each child cultivated to specific standards by their parents, ensuring that each child would be a benefit to their father's burgeoning political career. one son to carry on the father's legacy, a singular daughter to push into a socialite like role and eventually marry into another prominent family and cement new ties through marriage, and a final son to support the endeavors and ambitions of their eldest son to its fullest.

by the time that suyeong was born or rather plugged into terras, sung-il had rose past his previous lower standing and in the sphere of politics he was ever on the rise. it was only the beginning of the restriction and a life that suyeong's parents would work their hardest to craft for him to further themselves.

growing up, there were a lot of expectations put upon the boy and his siblings, it did not take long before hours of play turned into the extremes of ensuring they had the best education. tutors and teachers outside of school that meant a ton of extracurricular activities including learning to play an instrument, finding a physical activity or sport, and learning additional languages that they hardly needed when there was an easy button to push on one's panel to translate into their own language.

as the years went by and the success of sung-il in the political realm, suyeong would see less and less of his parents and more and more of the nannies that would watch over them instead of the parents that decided to bring them into terra. the idea of fatherly and motherly love became less and less and though he would claim these days it had no effect on him, well he would be lying.

while suyeong's siblings easily fell into their expected roles and flourished in the expectations, suyeong felt more and more like he was a bird in a gilded cage. for a time he felt aimless. the hobbies and interests he would develop would were not something his parents approved of once they learned of them. gaming was especially one interest that his parents thought very little of and saw as nothing more than a useless distraction that their youngest son was for some reason obsessed with.

after school suyeong would sneak away to vr rooms to play the latest games that had caught his interest. when asked of where he had been after school, then the young boy would easily lie that he had signed up for additional tutoring at school and that was enough to satisfy the hawk-like expressions for the moment.

it should come as no surprise that of the games offered in terra, iron fist, the most prominent fighting game on the market would catch his attention. he had started out as a casual player like most, but the more he exposed himself to the game and played with the generated characters the most he fell in love with it and the adrenaline rush he felt from it.

throughout his teenage years, suyeong would continue to sneak out and play the game at any given moment. he never gave his parents a reason to suspect or question as he kept his grades in school at levels expected of him and never shared where he was with his siblings so they couldn't rat him out.

in college it was harder to continue to play, but suyeong would sacrifice sleep to not only ensure that he earned a degree that was expected of him but to also to continue to grow in his skills as a player of iron fist. this would be the start of his immense caffeine addiction and a constant supply of coffee auto-shipped to his apartment in one of the gated districts once he had a place of his own away from his parents.

after graduating with a degree in communications, suyeong had since upped his dedication to iron fist, so much so that it got him noticed by orbit gaming around the age of twenty three. one thing lead to another that ended up in suyeong signing a contract with the company and becoming one of their newest professional players.

needless to say, suyeong's parents do not approve of him becoming a professional player especially when his siblings have done everything expected of them. to them they cannot understand why their youngest has turned out to be the disappointment of the family.

outside of his professional gaming competitions and salary from orbit gaming, suyeong has started something of a modeling career. due to his natural looking aesthetically pleasing avatar in terra, companies have reached out to him to be involved in ad campaigns for sought-after products in terra. he doesn't mind modeling at all, in fact it has added to being able to live without his parents' money or inheritance.

𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐑.

suyeong's randomly generated fighter would come to be known as striker. striker is a gun-wielding individual whose lore is based upon his past of once being a high-ranking member of the military. striker is adept with a plethora of guns at his disposal but being in the military doesn't come without its sacrifices. time in war has lead the character to suffer from poor hearing and is vulnerable to stealth based attacks. despite this when suyeong is playing as striker he has become adept at being far more aware of his surroundings than most and relying on his other senses while fighting to cover for his weaknesses. ( celebrity ranking 2.9 stars )

while orbit gaming has claimed that none of these game effects are supposed to be felt outside of the game, suyeong has been having moments of hearing issues. sometimes like a spontaneous ringing in his ears that is shrill that he knows shouldn't result in a what he surmises as a splitting headache. for the most part he shrugs it off, but since the two years that he has been playing as striker, the harder it has become to ignore.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘.

suyeong is something of a contradiction when it comes to the things he wants and the things he allows himself. as said earlier, a lack of parental love in his life has had an impact on suyeong's own self worth. if a parent whom had decided to bring him into the world of terra could not show him love, then why would another person ?

as such suyeong isn't the easiest person to open up to others and has developed a reticent nature despite the fact that one of his love languages is physical touch and quality time. those who somehow manage to push past his barriers will find the damage his childhood has done to his heart and his relationships in life.

to a select few they see that he is quite intrepid and enjoys a good rush. he's not willing to let things hold him back once he has set his mind to something as he is especially stubborn in nature. for the most part he is kind and passionate and can even be generous but not everyone gets to see that side of him. instead fooled by his supposed introverted nature.

he pretends to have a tight grasp of his feelings, but the truth is that he holds his emotions tightly to his chest to the point of bursting. when it all becomes too much does he fall and fall hard into his emotions that rarely feel cathartic because of how much he has repressed them.

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒.

as a given, connections with people who work at orbit gaming and/or other professional players of iron fist. i'd love to see different kinds of dynamics with them, good and bad, give him some animosity with another player that has been spun in the media for fans. maybe give him someone who was like a mentor when he first started out.

a close friend or two growing up. maybe someone who lived in a similar rich family as he did. two who grew up with a lot of expectation and without each other they couldn't have really gotten through it like they did.

a close friend that is entirely opposite of him, someone who is very different to him both in personality and in lifestyle. someone he wouldn't have met if he had continued in the realm his parents had kept him in for years.

an ex that broke his heart, perhaps someone who only began to date him when he first rose to prominence as a professional player, flings, enemies to lovers, anything romantic i'd be up for plotting.

nothing catch your eye, we can definitely plot it out !

#ts:intro #�� — 𝐒𝐄𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐘𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐆 : intro .#this got long i'm sorry

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agent-toast · 4 months

Text

🪶 intro post! (will be updated soon)

Hi! I'm XX or Ari! I go by he/they, please use both when possible

I'm 15 (aka, no nsfw please)

I do my best to be considerate on the internet, and respect others, however I will occasionally get things wrong, so please help to explain the problem if that does happen :)

Oh, also I usually type without capitalising and use emoticons [:), :3, :>] to sound more casual, because I can't read emotions in text online very well, so I try to make it clear to others that I'm being friendly. If that doesn't float your boat, that's ok!

>> lgbtq+ safe 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ :)

>> free palestine 🇵🇸 🍉 :)

🪶 • I'm very bad at tw/cw tagging so here's a general warning just in case! •

more stuff

-i'm aroace (open to qprs) & enby/genderqueer :]

-i like rtgame!

-i'm singaporean but have a slight british accent because i watched dantdm a lot when i was younger and now i watch grian??

-i disappoint the irish with my terrible irish accent (which is from rtgame & callmekevin)

-i like i expect you to die (VR puzzle game)

-i played a game on itch.io called "purrgatory" which is a very meaningful and cozy point and click visual novel. 100/10 would recommend. i like sean :3

-i like playing minecraft (grian hermitcraft fan)

- and cavetown! very cool songs

-i like to do a bit of casual voice acting in my spare time, as well as singing

-i draw!

-i procrastinate writing ao3 fics!!

-i'm a sucker for extremely tiny fandoms (sherlock sam [singaporean book series]; story thieves; the revenge of magic; artemis fowl [please for frond's sake give us a good movie/animated series])

-you are cool 😎

-cringe is dead, long live cringe

#intro post #:]

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aspiring-writer-hidden-voice · 1 year

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Virtual Embodiment

Your quirk allows you to enter the virtual world no matter what device (console, tablet, phone, computer).

The idle lunch chatter filled the air as you took a vacant seat, preparing to dig into a lunch you’d been looking forward to when several shadows fell across your own. Several classmates stood on the opposite end of the table, each with their gazes locked upon your own, as you nervously looked to each in turn; a fiery blonde, red head, one freckled, and beak for a mouth. “Is there something I can help you all with?”

Katsuki Bakugo was the first to answer, his open palm meeting the table’s surface with a loud impact that made the cafeteria fall silent. “How long did you think you could hide it, huh?!”

Your brows furrowed. “Sorry?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, stupid extra, I bet you secretly laughed at us the whole time!”

Now you were thoroughly confused. “Trust me, I’d never laugh at any of you no matter the reason.” You looked to Eijiro Kirishima for translation or explanation of the blonde’s meaning but only received a curious yet excited smile showcasing his sharp teeth. A glance to Izuku Midoriya revealed a similar expression, though his was a bit more eccentric as he was busy scribbling within the notebook he always kept handy, and then there was Fumikage Tokoyami who met your gaze calmest. It was rare to see this type of a group and even more so that they were talking to you of all people. You were in a different class, after all, so it was odd that they knew you existed in the first place since you didn’t deem yourself anything special. “I’m still kind of lost, senpais. Can someone please explain to me what’s going on?”

“Apologies, (L/n), but I believe my fellow classmate was referring to events that transpired last evening.” Tokoyami bowed his head. “Forgive his rudeness and blunt disregard that he has interrupted your lunch. This is not a matter of great importance so with your permission we could always return at a later time to properly discuss this topic.”

Silverware fell to lay flat on the table as you sighed. “Thanks for the offer, but my appetite has pretty much disappeared thanks to the raging Pomeranian there. Might as well get this conversation over now so that I can go about my day like a regular person should.” Taking a deep breath, you turned your full attention upon Kirishima who was in the process of attempting to calm down Bakugo who had not appreciated your comment. “I haven’t got all day now.”

“Right, sorry.” He sheepishly smiled while forcing the blonde into a chair with ease before taking the one directly across from you, “You see, in our free time we like to play video games from PC to console to VR. It’s not very often that we get on but there’s this player that seems to be on the servers quite a bit whenever we are. Midoriya here,” one of his hands gestured to the freckled teen who slowly sank to sit within another chair, “found the IP address and tracked it to find traces of a student who goes to UA.”

A lump in your throat rose but it was swallowed down. This wouldn’t be the first time people had tracked your online profile, certainly wouldn’t be the last despite your best efforts, but you didn’t recognize other players as classmates. There had been no hints dropped from you or opposite parties of what outside life was like. Crossing your arms, you fixed a bored expression upon the blonde. “So you decided to jump to conclusions all on your own just because a few things happened to line up?” With a sigh, you made to stand when Dark Shadow appeared from behind that prevented your chair from shifting backwards. Anger began to bubble within your veins. “Okay, what is this, some sort of interrogation? You can’t seriously think you can keep me here.”

“We don’t intend to, we just need to know if you’re who we think you are.” Tokoyami said slowly.

“Then hurry up and tell me!”

“(Insert Gamer Tag of Choice),” they all chorused, “and we know about your ‘Virtual Embodiment’ quirk that allows you to fully immerse yourself into the virtual world.”

All blood within your body grew cold.

Katsuki Bakugo

A sense of fulfillment came over him as you grew pale. So his hunch had been right on the money. You were always within the computer labs or being asked technical troubleshoot questions out of everyone in the school, even the class responsible for creating supportive accessories for the Hero’s Course had gone to you for advice on things! He’d seen you around a few times lingering around the school after hours when only the teachers were left and if that wasn’t suspicious he didn’t know what was. “I knew it,” he growled lowly while leaning into your personal space, “you’re the only one in the entire school who has a quirk that allows you to enter the virtual world without complicated equipment.”

Your gaze wanted to look anywhere else but they were ensnared by the blazing infernos that were his eyes which bore into yours. The lump returned, threatening to choke you, as words attempted to form. “L-look, if I bothered you in some way, I’m sorry—”

“I want to know how you did it!” His shout nearly rendered you deaf, several other students casting weary glances at the table; all knew of his temper and did not envy your current position. He must have felt their questioning looks and instantly took hold of your wrist. “Let’s take this outside.”

Powerless, you limply allowed him to lead you from the crowded space meant for people to eat within until coming to a stop just outside the set of doors that was towards the school’s east exit where he released you with a huff. Surprisingly his hold hadn’t been as tight as you’d imagined it to be, if anything he’d been oddly gentle, and his expression of anger was beginning to give way to one of hesitation. All you could do was blink up at him while waiting patiently for him to voice the reason to his actions.

“That sniper shot you took from the back of Breakneck Bay…how’d you pull a stunt like that off?”

And that was when you were hit with reality. So he had been one of the online teammates that you’d played with recently. “It all makes sense now.” The shadow of your hair fell to obscure your eyes. “You probably think I’m a cheater or hacker but I’m not. I just want to play the game my own way like everybody else.”

“I know your quirk let’s you full body dive into the virtual world, dumbass, so cut the crap. If it’s something that only you can do then fine, I’ll accept it, but I wanna know if I can do it next time I take on Shitty Hair or dumb Deku.” Pink tinged the tips of his ears when your widened gaze met his own in shock, earning a grunt. “Oi, what’s that look for?!”

A laugh slipped from between your lips before it could be stopped, earning a pout from the blonde, and you hurried to apologize for it by taking out your phone. “I don’t know if anyone can but I’m happy to try and show you how. What’s your number and maybe I’ll shoot you a call when I can get on next?”

To say he lit up was an understatement as his own phone instantly appeared inches from your face.

“Then again, maybe I should just message you online, ‘LordExplosionMurderer’.”

His face turned beet red at your remembering his gamer tag. “Got a problem with it?!”

You smiled. “Not at all. Actually I kinda like it and find it suiting since you use a lot of rocket launchers despite your close combat style. Makes it entertaining to watch the opposing teammates fly off into the distance.”

A smirk raised his lips. “Damn right it is.”

Eijiro Kirishima

He instantly picked up on your discomfort and offered you his hand. “Here, let’s go someplace a little more quieter.” Completely ignoring the rants of a certain blonde, he gathered your forgotten food to be consumed later and helped you escape the gazes of a full cafeteria. A sheepish smile raised his lips while coming to a stop near the fridges that students could use to keep leftovers cool. “Sorry about my friend back there…and all that. I realize that we must have come off pretty bad coming at you like we did. If you’d like, I can make up for it by asking you out.”

The initial shock suddenly gave way to embarrassment that manifested itself deep within your cheeks, making them bright red. “W-w-what?!”

It took a moment for his own words be comprehended by their speaker, judging from the sudden blush that spread across the bridge of his nose. “Oh, wow, that totally sounded like I just asked you out on a date, huh? Not that I would mind since you’re cute and really cool and seem to be a pretty good person—” His hand rose to scratch the back of his neck. “—I’m getting way off topic here so I’ll just cut to the chase. I know you play online RPGs like Summoners Art Online and wondered if you’d like to form a party! You made taking down that level eighty boss look like a cake walk and your armor is super cool looking too! I’ve honestly been stuck on this one dungeon, the one with King Lich of Rowanwood, and could use some help.” A bow of his head brought it smack against the open locker that a student had left open, making you flinch at the impact which left the door bent. “Please! I’ll give you whatever loot that drops! I’ve tried everything from special potions to expensive shop items and nothing has worked!”

Sympathy filled you at his words. “Yeah, that’s a tough one alright. What level are you?”

Instantly he was upright with eyes practically glowing with hope. “Twenty-seven.”

“Well, that’s your first problem,” you chuckled, “he’s a level ninety.”

His jaw dropped. “Seriously?! Why would they have it that high when it’s so close to one of the safety zones?!”

“Because it was part of an update recently to allow players to challenge themselves solo or with a party based upon their level.” Your brows furrowed. “I didn’t recognize your avatar, Kirishima-senpai, mind if I ask what to keep an eye out for?”

“No problem! I’m the big shark-humanoid walking around with Giant Forged Armor!”

Your brows rose. “That’s impressive since Giant Forged Armor was a special event SS drop item that had less than a six-percent drop rate.”

The grin raising his lips widened. “Trust me, it took way longer than a lot of those other pro gamers predicted.”

A sense of comradeship filled you with each second that passed in similar conversation. It wasn’t a popular game that many played by any means yet here was a classmate at your school who seemed to love playing it as much as you did. And he had more than proved how much of an avid gamer he was. Now that you thought about it, you’d seen a player lumbering about during raids that fit his description. The flesh of your bottom lip became caught in your teeth. “Who would’ve thought that Kirishima-senpai was ‘BigBadDaddyShark’.” Your tease earned a whole hearted laugh from the red head. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad forming a party with someone for a change. He blinked when you accepted the food then placed it upon a shelf to be gathered after class, earning a tilt of his head when you faced him fully. “You sure you’re okay with playing with someone like me? Lots of people call me a ‘cheater’ or ‘hacker’ because I can fully immerse myself into a game platform.”

His head shook vigorously. “I’m not like other players, honest, I think it’s super cool that your quirk lets you full dive without an Oculus or VR headset.”

Your lips lifted into a small smile as he commended the skill he’d seen during a dungeon boss battle. “If you’d like, I can take you to some of my favorite weapon shops that have great weekend deals. They might help you out with getting proper gear and stuff.” Both of your hands rose, heat tingling within your cheeks. “Not that what you have already is inadequate since I’m sure you worked hard for everything in your inventory—”

“I’d like that a lot, (L/n), thanks in advance!” He grinned as the bell signaling the end of the lunch hour sounded, turning to head back to class but stopping for a moment for his gaze to meet yours. “Seven o’clock work for you?” Another grin earned you a flash of his teeth as he began walking backwards. “Great! I can’t wait to learn from you, (L/n)-senpai!”

The students who had heard his call turned their curious and angered gazes upon you.

Fumikage Tokoyami

“I’m curious to know how your quirk works, (L/n), but I can be patient until you are more comfortable. Come. Let us converse in private.”

You swallowed thickly, glancing around at the suddenly quiet cafeteria who watched with interest as Dark Shadow quite literally picked you up from the chair. “I-I can walk on my own, thanks.”

“Don’t want you running away so soon!” The apparition crowed loudly while leading the way out the nearby exit with Tokoyami close behind.

Sure enough he carried you the entire way until coming to a stop just outside your classroom. Every person who had been passed wore cautious expressions intermixed with curiosity. For you to be seen with anyone was a rarity but Fumikage Tokoyami to be your companion was odd indeed. Your hands hurried to smooth the wrinkles within your uniform once allowed to stand alone, bristling slightly when Dark Shadow “helped” by removing some stray lint from your hair.

“I assume this is more to your liking.”

It wasn’t a question but you nodded to answer nonetheless, earning a smile from the apparition who looked ready to pop. “You can’t tell, but he’s super stoked to finally meet you in person! I told him that he should’ve approached you ages ago but noooo he didn’t want you to be put off by his knowing you hold the top ‘Paranormal Hunter’ on SageSmoke.com! You’ve held that spot for almost an entire year now!”

Heat flared within your cheeks at Dark Shadow’s words when Tokoyami pointedly glared at his shadow. “Uh, yeah, I guess it has been about that long, huh?” You jumped when the apparition suddenly appeared inches from your face asking about which type was your favorite. “I wouldn’t say I have one but the Oni’s have always intrigued me, I guess.”

It was hard to tell but there was a glint of excitement within his vermillion eyes at your words. “Those are the spirits who respond when a flame is extinguished, yes?”

“Close, but that’s an Onryo. Oni’s react most when people are nearby and love to scare their intended victims before attacking. Points for getting the first two letters right.” Embarrassment made to make you shy away from his gaze but there was no judgement to be found within, only fascination. “Sorry, it’s not something a lot of people seem knowledgable in so it’s hard to know who shares in that field of interest.”

His head shook. “Do not apologize, for I too have noticed such things as well. It’s rare to come across another who shares interests such as this, (L/n), so please feel free to tell me if you’d rather not discuss—”

“Please stay and talk with me for at least a little longer!”

The sudden outburst earned you nods from both Dark Shadow and Tokoyami. “We’d be happy to.”

This time shyness did make you avert your gaze to the floor but it rose again when his hand gently lifted your chin to find his gaze calm and full of understanding. “The Oni…can you tell me a bit more about them?”

Blinking, you slowly came out from the protective shell that you’d built to help contain your enthusiasm for horror and ghost encounter games, occasionally answering voiced questions from the pair who intently listened as you spoke. How long the three of you spoke was a mystery until a teacher happened to walk past with a curious yet stern expression as they reprimanded the missing of important class attendance. It was as they were about to turn away that your hand lightly brushed against his own, earning a blink. “Um, I’m sorry to ask, but I’m planning on logging in tonight after school in case you wanted to play a little bit.” You retracted the extended limb in favor of using it to toy with the cross choker you wore. “If you’re feeling dangerous there’s the abandoned monastery that I was going to go check out tonight. I’d read somewhere that several reports have said sightings were increasing lately because of the stars’ alignment shifting towards Mars.”

“Will there be sage?”

“Of course.”

“What about crucifix?”

A breath slipped from between your lips in a soft sigh. “I’m not an amateur, thank you very much, and I even have a rosary blessed by the Father of Saint Joseph’s Church and nearly a gallon of holy oil that I brought back with me from Israel.” You felt a sense of pride well up when their gazes became filled with admiration. “I’ve spent a lot of time on the Dark Web too. I know things that would make the saints themselves turn over in their graves.”

Dark Shadow laughed suddenly, nearly making you question his sanity. “You had him the moment ‘abandoned monastery’ left your mouth, (L/n)! Then you went on and on about the stars and the more you talked the more his heart started to race! I’ve never seen him this excited!”

You wouldn’t have believed the apparition’s words if not for the excitement glittering within those vermillion eyes that bore into your own. A smile lifted the corners of your mouth. “It’s not virtual reality so there’s no save points or respawning if something happens. Are you sure you’re up for it? Living on the line between life and the world beyond is not for everyone.”

“If I had a mouth, I would kiss you this moment.” Even Dark Shadow seemed impressed by Tokoyami’s words as the pro hero in training hurried to scribble his phone number upon a space piece of paper before handing it to you. The honestly within his gaze was shocking to say the least as the paper was neatly slipped into your hand. “Be sure to message me what time for our excursion. I anxiously await our next meeting.” And with the subtlest of taps of his beak against your cheek, he disappeared down the hallway past the teacher whose jaw was nearly hanging open.

A blush filled your cheeks while walking through the door to your classroom, paying no mind to the questions from classmates of why you’d been out there for so long talking to Tokoyami of all people, and fondly traced the glass bead within the cross’s center that supposedly held the feather of a fallen angel. It was when the teacher had turned to face the board that your phone appeared from its pocket for the tip of a finger to dart across its screen. Not two seconds later the sponge of a ghost emoji came.

Izuku Midoriya

His gaze rose from the notebook as silence hung in the air after they’d chorused your gamer tag. Understanding filled his emerald gaze when finding your expression one of uncertainty and took hold of your hand. Without a word to his classmates, he drew you to stand and made for the nearby exit, ignoring the calls of his classmates if it meant you were spared from the confrontation. The forest haired teen didn’t stop until the two of you had reached the courtyard between the main building entrance and grounds gate where he helped you to sit beneath one of the trees. “Sorry about that,” he bowed deeply with sincerity in his voice, “you were minding your own business when we all kinda ganged up on you like that. Please forgive us!”

Still winded from running, you could barely manage to ask him how he’d found out who you were and what your quirk was in the first place.

“Oh, um, well, I play this game called Saber Slice and was playing online the other night when I noticed someone in the lobby that made me think of you. I don’t know you very well but I’ve seen you around enough that it was easy to recognize certain motions that you do.” His freckled nearly disappeared in a blush when you gaped up at him. “Not that I’m watching you like a stalker or anything, it’s just that I’ve seen you in a few extracurricular courses coaching some on fluid movements such as dodging or helping with the drama department with choreography!”

Now you were blatantly embarrassed. How had you not noticed that Izuku Midoriya from class 1A was paying special attention to someone the likes of yourself?! “I guess I should feel flattered but honestly I’m not quite sure what to think right now.”

“I’m sure you’re overwhelmed right now but I promise none of it was in malicious intent, only fascination and admiration!” His eyes began to shine brighter than stars as he sat beside you, showcasing several notes and rough sketches of several familiar motions. “You move so gracefully that it’s like watching water dance, its so amazing to watch and I can understand why you have one of the highest scoring profiles in the world on the Oculus.” Both of his hands rose. “And I don’t think of you as a cheat because of your quirk or anything, I bet its more challenging because of all the distractions you can see that no one else can once you’re in game. That must also mean your reaction time has to be pretty on point, huh?”

Blinking, you could only meet his gaze with surprised silence until finding your voice once realizing he’d asked a question. “Y-yeah, it actually is. Things are much bigger for me than for others when I’m playing and its harder to aim since they get so close.”

Sympathy filled his gaze when you mentioned suffering from motion sickness once deactivating your quirk. “I bet it gets pretty bad when you really get on a role and quit for the night. Have you tried medication to help?”

“Sure, but why go out of my way to get expensive stuff like that when ginger ale has the same affect?”

“That’s genius! I never would’ve guessed that would have similar—” he sheepishly smiled, “sorry, I get excited really easily.”

Your lips lifted into a smile. “Don’t be. It means your honest about your feelings and expressing them should never be taken for granted.” A thought occurred to you, making both of your brows slowly rise. “Wait, are you ‘ClumsyGroot217’?”

That blush returned as he nervously picked at a blade of grass. “Yeah, that’s me alright.”

“I have to say, it’s not easy earning that ‘Longest Journey’ badge. You must’ve worked really hard to get to level…”

“Twelve.” From between his lips came a laugh that made the sunlight coming through the tree’s canopy seem dull when you bit back a chuckle. “It’s okay, you can laugh, everyone in my class says that I have two left feet so it’s a bit harder for me to do the lower combos.”

A part of you wondered if he was being serious, since you’d seen him do impressive footwork whenever the news covered the pro hero course events, but you believed him fully when seeing his hesitation when you mentioned playing again with him tonight. “If you’d like, I can help you. I’m sure you’re busy with school work and such so why don’t you message me when getting online and I can join you? It’ll be a bit strange on your end but you’ll get used to it quickly as if I’m not even there. You could think of me as your own personal AI giving you tips.”

He lit up brighter than a holiday tree during the winter. “Wow, really? You’d do that for me? Thanks so much!”

You accepted the pen that was passed and quickly jotted down your number within his notebook’s cover as the bell sounded. “Guess class is starting back up and we don’t want to get in trouble with our class presidents. We should get going.”

Emerald blinked as you offered him your hand once standing. He accepted it with a smile, grunting under his breath once straightening fully, giving your hand a brief squeeze before releasing it. “I look forward to your lessons, senpai!”

“Don’t call me that,” you deadpanned with a laugh before taking the lead back inside the school building, “anything would be better than that.”

“Then how about ‘Clippy’?”

This time a laugh did sound from your lips. “Oh, my gosh, I’d almost forgotten about that little paper clip guy!”

#mha x reader #mha x y/n #mha x you #izuku midoriya #katsuki bakugo #eijiro kirishima #fumikage tokoyami #mha fluff #2023fluff #fluff 2023 #bnha x reader #bnha x y/n #bnha x you #bnha #mha

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phoenixcatch7 · 10 months

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Just finished playing sb ruin!

STEEL WOOL YOU HAD ONE JOB how did you make the plot holes worse.

Three characters have just EVAPORATED two were just environmental hazards at BEST and only two got any sort of character development!!!!

Literally the only new characters were a) the protagonist (expected, wanted) and b) the antagonist (CONTEXT??? LORE?? HELLO?!). 'Oh it's been down there for a really long time' HAS IT NOW?? HAS IT?? BECAUSE IT SURE WASN'T THERE BEFORE. WE WENT THERE AND IT WASN'T THERE.

The voice acting was great, I will say that. Every actor gave 110% and it really brought the whole thing to life. The set building too. And the glitchy effects!

Unfortunately the story completely fell through again.

At the start, it felt pretty clear where it was going to go. 'Gregory' was directing us down to the old afton fight area, there was rabbit/vanny graffiti everywhere, there was a strange rabbit mask that turned the world purple and glitchy and let you walk through solid objects occasionally, instructed by a gaslighting little AI that knew more than it was letting on.

Given the way it lined up with the gargantuan plot holes in security breach, and it was free dlc for the game marketed as fixing those holes, it was fairly obvious it'd be a story with vanny as the final boss, having not given up on her goal and possibly still kidnapping children. Cassie would potentially face mind control or sensory brainwashing from the mask, we'd get attacked by the broken animatronics, maybe put them to rest or cure them enough to escape the pizza plex, and at the end we'd find out how Gregory was being impersonated, a boss fight almost certainly in vr against whatever weird blue robo bunny kept staring at us (it doesn't even do anything???) and vanny irl, Cassie would stop their plans and/or burn the pizza plex down the rest of the way. Meet up with Gregory again at the end, possibly with a freddy head, I wasn't picky.

You know, closure.

Instead, the plot was... Essentially nonexistent, just as much a run quest cycle as sb despite the linear progression and lack of teleporting animatronics, somehow. The boss 'fight' was completely divorced from the rest of the game, all but roxy and the da were entirely absent of any character development, both of which were relevant for about three seconds.

The lift ending was a cheap shock value ending which only left more questions than answers. The other two, which we googled, were equally free of things like 'explanations' and 'filled plot holes' and 'context' and 'closure', and all of which were dependant purely on random actions in the final scene we were given no hints to knowing about, unlike sb. By the end we were left in shock, fury, confusion and betrayal, which isn't a great note to end your game on.

All in all, while eclipse was a pleasant surprise and roxys five new lines of dialogue were sweet and a bit sad, ruin managed to be like security breach in all the worst ways, and didn't even have any funny glitches to laugh at. Loading screens were insanely long, enough we once ate a full meal during three back to back ones and went on our phones instead of waiting patiently, AND regular. All deaths were to the slippery catwalk in gator golf or frustration making us reckless, and we had to get out the walk throughs just to navigate certain areas. Though we were told we were invisible to most animatronics in the mask no one had told any of them. Bar the endos every single one could spot and chase us in the mask. We got softlocked several times and had to restart. The weird robot rabbit never got any context or explanation and didn't even do anything to our knowledge?? Summoned the animatronics maybe but even if you didn't take the mask off and walked through him he wouldn't do anything. Got jumpscared ONCE and then we continued on our merry way.

Also the game crashed twice.

#fnaf sb #fnaf security breach #fnaf sb ruin #security breach ruin #fnaf ruin #One job!! One job!! It was an easy job!#So annoyed. Like what was the point of the dlc then?? If not to fix the problems of sb?? It's free so it's not money!#Finished the game annoyed confused frustrated. Too many things thrown at us like we're excpected to magically intuit the truth #Like yeah the mimic thing could have just been a really bad callback to a previous game but the Gregory thing??#What we're supposed to trust his voice after the mimic reveal?? HELLO are you MAD?!#He brushes off any 'prove its you' and has 'a friend' who knows how to get her out and sees her live location despite no cameras #And then tries to kill her. Are we supposed to believe that's Gregory?? RIGHT after the reveal?? No chance! No way!#But the game plays it completely straight like that's what we're supposed to believe.#Insane. I really think steel wool has lost the last of the fandoms faith with this. They were so close to a good game. It had POTENTIAL.#But they learned nothing.

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d0t-d0t · 7 months

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read destiny unchain online

I've never used tumblr in any capacity before, but I feel like this is a good way to introduce myself to it - by simping for my favorite manga series as much as I possibly can.

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

So, why read DUO? Because it's just that good. It's basically like Shangri-La Frontier, but if the MC wasn't a lone wolf.

The premise is simple: In the distant future, VR and AR have integrated their way into daily life, and VRMMOs have exploded in popularity. The main character, Mitsuki Kou, has grown up playing VRMMOs all of his life, and his dad works for a company that develops them. From no-lifing VR games for his entire childhood, Kou has basically become what you'd call a "god gamer", and so his dad uses him to playtest the VRMMOs he develops.

The story begins as Kou's dad finishes his magnum opus: Destiny Unchain Online. Kou is called in to playtest for the game. Normally, VRMMOs in this universe are played using a fancy choker (rather than the headsets you see in other series); however, Kou's dad developed a special device for Kou to play in just for him, called "The Cradle". Kou logs in, and after choosing to play as a half-vampire named "Crim" in character creation, he gets genderbent by the game. It's at this point that she freaks out and contacts her dad, who then hits her with the double whammy that because of so-called "technical issues", she'll be staying logged into the game for three months straight.

So, yeah. It's got VRMMO, vampires, and genderbending. A triple whammy, if you ask me. But, of course, the premise doesn't make the story. What else do I love about this manga then? (I'll stay vague in this post to give you all a chance to read it before I post more spoilery stuff...)

Character-wise, everyone is just brimming with personality. Volume 1 largely focuses on just Crim and some NPCs, but in Volume 2, most of the rest of the main cast is introduced, and the character writing really starts to shine with how they bounce off one another.

The VRMMO mechanics are also very well thought out - the author plays a ton of video games and MMOs, and so situations, references, and terminology are brought out from their personal experiences rather than just using VRMMO as a story gimmick they wanted to try writing.

The fights in particular are VERY well executed. The paneling gives a great sense of movement, and the group vs. group combat has a ton of tactical elements thrown in. Just, in general, everything is thought out absurdly well.

And art-wise, holy crap. Wow. This manga, for lack of a better word, is simply beautiful.

Double page spreads GALORE, and there's some crazy art in later chapters that make you think "How the hell is this released weekly?"

And finally, there's Crim. We stan Crim here. (there's another character we stan here too, but that's for another post). Crim is just a completely lovable dork with one of the best character designs I've ever seen.

10/10, best manga of all time. read destiny unchain online.

feel free to ask questions cause I know way too much about the lore, and follow for more crimposting about DUO

#destiny unchain online #manga #new to tumblr

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cola-canine · 2 months

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The System Shock remake is still a great time. Found a bunch of new upgrades and toys to fool around with including a magnum and an SMG. Got my first inventory upgrade about 16hrs in and man, I was about ready to accept working with only two or three weapons. I've pretty much abandoned all melee weapons now as I've got a pretty good income of ammo now. A little sad about that because the laser rapier is such a cool-looking weapon however, melee builds in games just typically aren't my thing. I'm still favoring the pistol and energy pistol still, despite having the shotgun and SMG now. I'm sure that'll change after a few upgrades and whenever I get ahold of the assault rifle.

The balancing in this is so fine tuned, it's insane and it leads into some real close encounters. Your energy pistol, for example, has a charge toggle for low, high, and overcharged. Useful for damage output but is also great tight spots. Overcharged shots will usually cause robotic enemies to explode, creating an improvised AOE type attack but can scatter and (at least, I feel like) potentially lose the loot gained from them - a great tradeoff if your health isn't the best. Low and high charges are best for small and medium sized enemies, respectfully, but usually take a few more shots to stop them in their tracks. Using the right charge on the right enemy makes looting easier.

Lots of new enemies lately, things are definitely getting tougher. Flying mutants, some sort of mutant tiger (that caught me very much by surprise), some very heavy-duty cyborgs and robots. There were a couple rooms I entered where a trap was planned for me and I barely made it out. It's not always as easy as completing a small platforming puzzle, the game really teaches you to be on your guard at all times.

I think the only big criticism is the VR-like flying/hacking minigames that are used to unlock some doors. They're a bit of a pain to play through and its combat isn't as fluid as the main game. I'd rather my "flying vr hacking program" be a hitscan type attack than a projectile one - they always feel slow and unresponsive. Like am I actually doing damage to this thing or did I miss it? They're not very frequent, maybe one per every other level to the station, but as soon as I encounter one I'm like "Great..."

Being able to free roam with some basic idea of an objective is refreshing too. I don't mind the "Here's what you need to do" cursor usually but the lack of one here gives me a sense to not rush my exploration.

Highly recommend this for all you BioShock/Deus Ex/Prey-heads out there. This is fantastic still.

#game rants #fps rants #system shock remake rants

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wolffyluna · 3 months

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I have been working on my "f/f VR streamers in not a death game" by writing little scenes outside of the story itself to get a feel for the character voices of the two leads. I think they're some fun little scenes, and seeing as they aren't going in the story itself, I can share them!

RatGlaive's Scene:

RatGlaive logged into the Coliseum, and logged into stream. “Hi all, just playing something casual. Don’t expect too much fancy footwork.”

27wheelsofcheese: ha, as if you can play casually

Norvegicus: and that’s why we love her! <3

The Coliseum was always good to make some easy content, a nice schedule filler. The only problem was the Coliseum after a patch was it’s own very specific brand of chaos. The crowd was a mess of jittery time travel as the netcode fought the lag. The lobby was silent except for the royalty free music, which was good, because otherwise it would be a cacophony of mostly racial slurs.

RatGlaive was partway through putting out an ad when the ‘bloop’ of a speech request came through.

“RatGlaive! I never thought I would see you slumming it here.” And that would be Matchiavelli. She’d friended him for a reason, he was good collaborator for content. He was a good heel. The problem was he didn’t seem to realise that. His model could best be described as “renaissance anime fuckboy,” the sort where some poor artist had spent the better part of a week modeling his doublet.

He always looked at her like he expected this time she would have bought a better model.

Sucked to be him, a free model made by furries with some jankily added equally free clothes was part of her brand now. “I wouldn’t say I’m slumming it. There’s some people here who know what they’re doing.”

“Oh, Rat, I’m wounded.”

“Would you like to be actually wounded?” That’s why they were both here. “C’mon, I’ll call bush dance rules if you don’t.”

Match grinned the broad grin of someone with expensive face tracking. “I never thought you’d offer your—“

“Do not finish that sentence.”

He gave a flourishy bow. “I would be delighted to join you in honourable combat.” He was slimy nerd who’d read too much Meyer, but she couldn’t even call him that because she was a Meyer nerd too. “Flat ground, first blood?”

She shrugged. “Sure.”

He put in the request, they were teleported to a blank box with gridlines.

Rat felt the lag disappear like surfacing from a pool filled with honey. She selected a saber from the menu, and pulled it out from her scabbard.

He looked at her quizzically past his own drawn sabre. “You? Without your big stick?”

“You see, Match, unlike some people, I read the patch notes.”

“It’s a poor fighter who changes what they do just for the meta.”

Well, he could think that. “Ready?”

“En garde!”

They fought each other carefully, feeling out the other’s reactions while trying to give away as little of their own as possible. They’d fought enough times she knew what he was like— careful and technical and an annoying arsehole if you let him be. Still, he’d had as much time to practice since last bout as she had.

It was true he’d used a sabre more than she had. She was inexperienced. She’d spent the last two days pulling all nighters helping out the wiki people. Getting all the new frame data and damages for each weapon, comparing the button inputs to the full body inputs, the works. It was a shame how’d they’d nerfed polearms, but she had the cold hard data to see how bad it was.

She liked her glaive, but she didn’t like her name enough to lose fights about it.

She focused on reading him, tuned out the comments flowing into her stream. (It was mostly “RatSabre! RatSabre!” and random emojis anyway.)

Match fought her like she was his mirror image.

Match fought her like she was still on 3.2.

A bad fighter followed the meta.

A good fighter forged their own path.

A great fighter made the meta her bitch.

She left an opening near her face.

The poor fool took it. He thrust straight at her.

She blocked him with the flat of her sword.

That very nice face tracking showed the moment of confusion. She could have parried that. She ‘should’ have parried that.

That moment lasted for less than a tenth of a second.

She swung at his face. “PLUS EIGHT ON BLOCK, FUCKER!”

She drew a stripe of blood across his cheek.

The Coliseum kept the pain turned low, but that still would have stung like hell. His sword clattered to the floor as he grabbed his cheek and worked his jaw. “That was unsporting,” he said, though he sounded secretly thrilled.

Rat leaned on the tip of her sabre. “You think I’d be sporting in a slum?”

Her chat became a mess of cheering and open mouthed emojis.

Sternumambush: YOOOOOOOOO

Veeringbiryani: FUCK MATCH GO RAT

27wheelsofcheese: OUR CASUAL QUEEN REIGNS SUPREME

And this was why you helped the nice wiki people get their frame data.

Lamatyave's Scene:

“Hello pianists and prose poets!” Lamatyave reached up and adjust the party hat on top of her model’s head. “Guess what day it is! It’s the fifth birthday of Catacomb of Cataclysm! I have to celebrate the birthday of my darlingest baby!” That everyone forgets I made. “Come on, let’s jump in.”

She did a new version of her loading screen dance while she waited for the server to connect. She’d put a copy on her private server— all the publically available copies had the pain turned up way too high for her tastes, even SplitValley— but it meant she missed out on the joys of a high budget paid server, like a proper CDN.

She popped into the windswept field outside the castle. She’d worked hard to make it look imposing, but it had been so many years and so much tinkering with it in Builder Mode that she forgot how much it looked over you in first person. Past her knew what she doing.

Lightning flashed behind the castle, carefully modulate to not cause problems with photosensitivity.

She opened the ornate wooden doors. There was deep echoing groan. She expected it— it was her voice, modulated and edited and fought to the death— but it still sent a chill up her spine.

“Now, you have to understand I made this five years ago. This map had graduated it’s bachelor’s and is planning to go for it’s master’s. Which means you can’t laugh too hard when I get my derriere handed to me.”

Flonkingbaggins: could you beat this when it first came out?

She smiled. “Aww, come on. Despite my reputation, I did playtest this one. I was the best player of this—“ she stuck her tongue out between her teeth. “—until I put this out into the public.”

And that got her chat laughing, and not doubting her abilities too much.

She summoned a torch and an eleven foot pole from her inventory. “It may have been a few years, but I do remember who designed this.”

Weirdobazooka: and the 60 foot rope?

She smiled wide, flicking her eyes to her preview in the corner of her screen to check face tracking had picked it up properly. “Never leave home without it!”

She walked through that first dark corridor. In the distance, an organ played “My Grandfather’s Clock” muffled by the sound of rain on a roof. …why was that the ambient music she had chosen for this floor?

She tapped her pole in front of her, feeling the satisfaction as she set off each dart trap in front of her. Catacombs had always run on reputation and sheer bloody mindedness. It was hard and tricksy, she’d worked for months to make it that way, but at the end of the day, even she could beat it. “See, easy peasy lemon squeasy. You guys are more scared than me!”

Flonkingbaggins: because we’ve seen you play before

Well, that was uncalled for. Another tap, another click, and a quick spark of satisfaction.

And then a jet of flame came barelling right towards her face.

She dived to the floor with a yelp.

The pain was low enough that it just felt like a hair dryer against her back.

The thing that made her heart rate spike was the flashing health bar in the corner. Down to 50% already, and she’d made this without health bar gradients (or any coyote time, which was going to make the jumping puzzle splendiforously fun if she ever got there.) “I should have rememembered I made this for the eleven foot pole people.”

The chat was laughing, at least.

She picked herself up, and checked for traps more carefully. It was for show mostly. She knew that flamethrower trap was meant to catch the overconfident, and then it was quiet. Give people time to stew in distant music and the fact the torch only shone 15 feet in front of them.

She reached the first right angle turn of the dungeon. She remembered what she put there well, she remembered the tips and tricks to get around it. She put out her torch.

She wasn’t in complete darkness, the game’s lighting engine wouldn’t let you do that, but she had to look hard to see where the walls were.

She dropped low, and shuffled slowly, hoping the stealth engine would be kind to her.

There was a growl.

The first corridor ogre.

She’d seen them a lot, from rearranging them throughout the dungeon. She’d got so sick of them, she’d never used them in any project again. She thought they would have lost all terror for her.

She’d forgotten exactly how they loomed over a crouching opponents. They low glow of their eyes, that reflected off the studs in their clubs just enough for you to see them properly.

Her audience wanted to hear her scream ‘like a little girl.’ They also wanted the fool Lamatyave Experience. “Hi there, stranger. You come here often?”

It wound up for a blow.

The hit felt like cat jumping onto her ribs, but the rushing blackness made her scream anyway.

She respawned back outside the castle, text floating into view: ‘You Have Lost to the Catacombs: One Time’

“Well, second time’s the charm? Maybe me and that troll might get to know each other a little better. ”

#wolffy writes fic #death game streamers

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