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canceltheact · 3 years

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Cancel The Act: The Definitive Theory of Lunky, Lixian, and Actor Mark

Hello there theorists! This is the big one - the (hopefully) final draft of CancelTheAct.

For those of you that have been following this tale of truth, perserverance, and chromatic aberration,you may find that a few section of this are exactly the same. It basically is the same theory, but with a few things tightened up (see post from two days ago) and some updated information. This is the big one we’re hoping on spreading, so be sure to reblog this one like you’ve done before. We really appreciate all the support you’ve given this assertion.

And for those who are seeing this for the first time...welcome! This is a theory exploring what's been going on the past few months on Markiplier's channel, and the side story that connects the odd goings-on. If you support this theory, spread the word on Twitter and reblog, not just like, on Tumblr with the hashtags and this very site.

Thank you for all the support, folks! Now...let's talk about the truth. We'll see you on the other side.

So, if you are a Markiplier fan on the interwebs, you have no doubt seen the newest Cloak ad that was in the Cooking Simulator video from about a month ago and noticed something...off. Something... suspicious. And if you follow Mark lore, you know that this was NOT ordinary Mark. This was Actor. The robe underneath the Cloak merchandise he was wearing, the spotlights and cracking of his body reminiscent of the Darkiplier ending from AHWM, and of course, what he says in a haughty tone of voice, seeming to be the opposite of his opening stair spiel in WKM: "It's not about you...it's about me." Heading over to instagram, we get more interesting stuff, with a description of the ad clearly reflecting the events of WKM from Actor's skewed and self-righteous perspective.

Was this just a ploy for marketing purposes, you ask? How could it be important to something? Well, Cloak's response to said post says it all: "oh". Meaning they had NO CLUE this was coming.

Even in that Cooking Simulator video, there were signs that this wasn't just pertaining to an ad. In the kitchen of the game, he comments "Modern is stupid; I’ve always said this; I want the classics," quite a different opinion from the man we knew that owned FIVE OVENS, but would seem quite on brand for someone who lived in a old-style manor - even the Youtube description seems a bit suspicious saying that "this time, I'm gonna show everyone what I'm all about." No doubt, Actor Mark has made quite a return, for seemingly NO REASON, right? Right? Well....not exactly. We’re here to tell you that Actor's been here for quite a longer time than you might expect.

For those who have been paying attention to Markiplier for the past couple months, you may have noticed some strange, yet fleeting events.

The stick figure monstrosity known as Lunky invading Mark’s channel for one day. The strange revelation that Markiplier isn’t real, yet 6 days later denied by the very man who confirmed it. The erratic behavior of the editor known as Lixian.

Such strange goings on, isn’t it? But I have reason to believe that these incidents are part of a greater step in the lore of Markiplier. That these very events are tied to each other, and something much bigger than the sum of their parts. Many people have had their thoughts on what this all means. It’s time we threw our hat full of overthinking and crazed observation into the ring. Hopefully, this theory will help uncover a bigger story. A story of control, reality… and CHROMATIC ABERRATION.

First of all, let’s answer the question: is Markiplier real? Answer: No, he’s not. Even with the “Markiplier isn’t Real” videos not being canon, it doesn’t mean that Markiplier is “real” after all. Because he is, and always has been in terms of CANON, Actor. (Now this doesn’t mean that every video Mark has done has been in character, just the ones that have correlation with the Lunky arc, Lunxian affair, and the Mark isn’t real stuff, as this relates to bigger story beats that are happening.) Think about it. After the events of WKM, Actor (who already was a Youtuber as seen as one of the points on the Detective’s theory board reads “What is a Let’s Play?” implying to Mark’s original ticket to Youtube) used Damien’s body as a replacement for his own and going on with his life, rising to even more Youtube fame. This makes him not who he seems, and definitely not real as the person his fans and editors in canon thought him to be. But what does this have to do with Lixian? With Lunky? What about those confessions? Well, for that, we have to start at the beginning.

Lixian and the Lunxian Affair

Though the MarkiplierIsntReal videos aren’t meant to be canon, as told to the member mixers by Mark himself, we have seen behavior from Lixian that is still similar to the entire week-long event - that Lixian has found something out about Mark. We can gauge this through not only the behavior of Mark, but of Lixian as well. Most notably, in 3 Scary Games #46, we see the description of the video of what reads like Mark’s pleas to us, calling Lixian “a monster” and that “the old methods aren't working anymore.” Actor is trying to control Lixian, and even sow the seeds of fear into his audience. Lixian, in that same video, pulls a knife on Mark and, in general, acts more antagonistic towards him. From 3 Scary Games #46, we can gather that Actor isn't happy about any information Lixian may have leaked or let loose at this point.

There are 2 big points that support this:

1. Lixian's animation sprite during the episode mainly shows up as a shadow, otherwise known as "Shadow Lixian". Lixian's animation sprite typically assumes this shadow form as a visual way to let the viewers know that he's sneaking around and doing something that Actor wouldn't approve of.

2. Actor develops the idea of a "controlled Lixian" (which is later to become known as "Lunxian") to where Actor can use his arcane powers to have Lixian do/say whatever he wishes.

But of course Actor can only come up with the idea of a perfect editor at the time, and has no real way to actually manipulate Lixian at this point. It's not until Lixian leaves for vacation that Actor puts a plan into motion.

In an attempt to try and get rid of Lixian, Actor created Lunky to try and make a replacement Lixian. This obviously didn't work, as Lunky is barely like Lixian and was seen for a time by Actor as a poor carbon copy. And as we can see in the Minecraft video where Lunky is introduced, Mark dislikes Lunky immensely, pushing him off to the side and not wanting to even edit him in. Mark doesn’t even say that he made Lunky - he just says that he’s here so that he’s not talking to himself.

Despite this separation, though, there are clues right off the bat here that Lunky and Mark are connected. Where, may you ask? Well, in the outro of this very video (Lixian Is gone, Lunky Is Here), there were some awfully interesting shrieking sounds. Almost sounded….backwards. And wouldn’t you know it, after we reversed the audio, we could hear a voice. And with a few more tweaks to the speed and to isolate all of the echoing sounds that were added to the audio (which is actually a tad important), we made out “Thanks for watching - don’t forget to like” before it dribbles off. (Hear audio here: https://canceltheact.tumblr.com/post/645011603474038784/backwards-lunky-audio-for-reference-in-todays Also, if there are any audio expert theorists out there who are more skilled than us that can get a better result, write us and tell us what you find!) However...this echoing that comes off the audio seems familiar. What other type of person has a voice that echoes? Oh right! ACTOR when using arcane powers!

This CONFIRMS, through the echos and that would be what Mark would say, that Lunky was created by Actor through the arcane power stuff and Lunky, at the moment, though trying to be a poor carbon copy of Lixian, is at most being a channel for Actor's things he would typically do on the channel, as that encapsulates the story dimension and his power as a whole. And not only does the presence of this backwards audio reveal more about this seemingly joke character, it also reveals that this is something that Mark has put time into and planned for this to be something bigger than a one-off.

But then Actor realized that he could use Lunky to do the next best thing - be an extension of his own power and subdue Lixian enough so that he would be kept quiet. So Actor bided his time with Lunky and ‘allowed’ Lixian to trap Lunky in a cage.

This backfires on Actor though, as Lunky manages to harness some of that Actor power and attempts to complete his original intent...to destroy Lixian. Lunky goes on a rampage, overtaking both Lixian’s channel and Markiplier’s channel until Lixian kills him - Or so it seems.

Actor realizes what has happened and decides to do a combination of his two previous plans: have Lunky possess Lixian, making Lunxian (a name we have come up with for this phenomena), in order to keep Lixian completely under control. We see this through two things:

1. Lunky's rainbow glitch, or chromatic aberration, around him is transferred to Lixian AFTER Lunky gets killed - and we see Lixian acting VERY differently towards the editors, saying that he’s watching them, being present in several videos outside of 3 Scary Games and being generally creepier than usual when judging from the scope in general.

2. Lixian screams "I'm the Editor" after ‘defeating’ Lunky. Interesting, isn't it? Lixian has said a few times before that he doesn’t like being called editor. But Lunky, in control of Lixian now, has a different want. Lunky was meant to be the editor for Actor, hence why Lunky would want to be called editor.

#CancelTheAct Reasoning

But now, to let you know exactly WHY we're pushing "CancelTheAct". So, Actor has used the story dimension in order to keep those he has trapped in the manor in playing out his stories, such as Dark as the villain and Abe as the detective archetypes, right? I realized: the story dimension IS the channel. And what does the channel drive on? Fans. So, Actor derives his power from being able to be the hero, the lead of the stories, and his channel in canon gauges his influence and power right? Well... Lixian is trying to EXPOSE ACTOR from what he’s found and we see that as not just exposing... but “cancel” him in the eyes of the people who GIVE HIM POWER... his fans in canon. Thereby making Actor powerless. The fans in canon will see him as a fraud, not support him, and take away his strength of his ego. Jabbing a slight bit at the now-popular cancel culture, we are siding with that fight with a clever little hashtag that can be made alongside #MarkiplierIsntReal. Though MIR was never actually a canon intention by Mark, it’s still a hashtag that people are familiar with - and as it relates to the fact that Actor has been putting on a facade, we can use it in order to rally our cause.

Rainbow Chromatic Aberration Breakdown

Why would this rainbow aberration be cause for identification of something being off? Of Actor?

Well... back in the WMW breakdown video, Mark talks about this one point in the mini movie where there’s this aberration, when Wilford and Abe go from the detective’s office to back at the dance club. Paraphrasing here, he says that this is not Darkiplier and that he just wanted to replicate the effect of a VCR rewinding to establish to take things “from the top” with Wilf and Abe’s meeting. Remember the VCR thing though, that’ll be important later. (Time stamp: 2:07:50 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rsi_L1b1RwE&lc=Ugwo26EalTI5QP15ooF4AaABAg) This thereby establishing Warfstache’s use of gelling and framing this weird reality by manipulating time and space. We see this AGAIN in AHWM, as when the box is used in the Bob/Wade endings and we go through time, we see the SAME COLORS OF ABERRATION. Warfstache does the same VCR type thing in the interview as well. Ok, so we’ve established that the rainbow aberration implies when one (besides Dark) manipulates their time and space.

Now, these colors look familiar... where have I seen them before OH RIGHT. LUNKY. Lunky has appeared with this aberration through that video with his song (you know the one) and in the 3 scary games videos. Since we’ve seen that Lunky is connected as an extension of and creation from Actor’s power, it makes sense that Lunky would have a similar chromatic aberration. We see this fabrication from time and space (Lunky) use this manipulation power, and then, as Lixian is possessed and subdued by Lunky to become Lunxian, this aberration is also adopted. (for image examples, see Lunxian picture in the first part of this theory)

However, we have seen some slight resistance throughout these Lunxian appearances, showing signs of Lixian trying to break free, as we see in the Forest video “Escaping the Sinkhole” where he says “You think you can replace me?” But instead of the typical rainbow aberration, the colors are inverted to a purple and bluish green.

An aberration we’ve seen a couple times before: in the “DEAD” post that Lixian posted on his Twitter when he was thought to be killed, and in the flashback sequences in Lixian’s Confession which, while doesn’t give us any information for the story, still gives us context for what colors show Lixian in control.

However, despite the control of Lunky over Lixian, the past few weeks has shown the emergence of Actor, despite how he tries to keep it under wraps.

Events Post First Lunxian Emergence - Post MarkiplierIsntReal

In the past few weeks, we have seen through the types of video uploads that Mark has put out, along with Lixian’s behavior, that despite Actor’s attempts to keep his identity under wraps, there have been increasing signs in the in-canon Actor channel and Mark’s real life channel stuff that tips us off otherwise.

First off, in the first week after Markiplier Isn’t Real, there were only compilations and old footage from streams, which wasn’t exactly too important, except for a few hints through the editing that Lixian gave us - first, the fact that a lot of the text and effects were surrounded in that Lunky/Actor rainbow aberration - implying that Lixian isn’t really acting of his own free will...not controlled, per say, but not allowed to talk about the secrets of Actor.

In this same compilation, we even get a hint that something is amiss from Lixian - in a moment from the end of 3 Scary Games #38 where Mark is wholesomely preeshing Lixian, suddenly, the moment glitches in a similar fashion to how it was done at the end of Lixian’s Confession - then cuts to the scene where Lixian “kills” Lunky. This type of unusual transition into such an event lets the audience know that this event is important and something to pay attention to.

Secondly, in the 3 scary games compilation, we have an interesting change in edit that Lixian made - instead of the normal jumpscare from 3 scary games #57 with Mark with no eyes, Lunky is plastered over Mark’s face, implying Actor and Lunky’s connection.

The interesting thing that has popped up from these videos isn’t just the type of game that has been done, but, specifically, the behavior of Lixian. And it mainly started with the editor collabs that Lixian has been doing with Marcus (aka Nerd Fiction) and Rachel, the two new editors for Markiplier’s channel- not only a tool to help them learn the ropes to the type of editing Lixian does, but also leaving room for an interesting plot device.

In the first simulator collab episode, “Cooking Simulator”, Lixian seemed to be able to be in control by Actor, doing his VCR chromatically aberrated bidding, but being a bit more acting of his own free will, being a bit more resentful of the job instead of compliant.

However, in the second simulator collab video, “Car Accident Simulator”, Lixian seems a LOT LESS compliant and even rebellious. Yet Mark seems to be ok with joshing Lixian’s chain around, even mockingly calling him editor. Even more interesting…the fact that Lixian says “I’ve got all your dirt!”, implying his knowledge and slight ability to share the truth.

So, why is this? Well we think that Mark still thinks Lixian can’t escape, but Lixian is simply biding his time to get free from Lunky and Actor’s grasp... still playing along with Actor’s game, but planning to get stronger and plan an attack.

Unfortunately, this state of the upper hand does not last long. In the Forest 3 Peens stream before this, we get another Lunky appearance, with Mark seeing. Combined with the rebellious behavior he sees Lixian have and Lunky now being separate from Lixian, Actor sees that Lixian is not under control again, and realizes he has to take further action.

Breaking the Facade

This leads us to the latest 3 Scary Games: #64 and #65. In these two, some of the last regular appearances of Lixian, we see jumpscares like usual, but these monsters are...different. The spider monster in #64 is much more detailed than any monster we’ve seen before, and in #65, the fake Mark stand-in speaks in a newer type of audio voice effect. And in both of these video outros, Lixian is shown defeating them both with an axe, fighting them off. (not showing images due to arachnophobia that spider is dang scary) This tips us off that these monsters are different than just the typical jumpscares we see in 3 Scary Games - Lixian is deliberately against these monsters. And in BOTH VIDEOS, Lixian is in the same position, asking where Mark is.

This is why we haven’t seen Lixian in videos since this - because he is trapped in an area either by Lunky or Actor, fighting off these monsters and unable to escape while Actor keeps up his facade.

However, despite this, through real life and in canon, Actor’s facade has been breaking to us little by little.

The Reddit banner changing from a Heist promo to a picture of Date Mark a week after MIR.

In the “Teardown” video, Mark is shown with some interesting edits when he goes to shoot a tree - seems normal, but with that font being Lunky’s font and his background being red, this definitely seems like Actor - even the things he says,” You wronged me and it’s only right for me to come to pay back what is due” - seems like he’s projecting anger from the people in his past onto this tree.

Then, even the day after the infamous Cloak promo, we see even MORE allusion through referencing Actor scenarios THREE TIMES in the “Stormwatch” video: once referring to WKM, once referring to the END music and filter from WKM, and a reference to the Warfstache Markiplier interview, which points to Actor from THIS CONVERSATION: “You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen Markiplier has admitted to NEVER KILLING ANYBODY.” “Well I never said that”.

Looking back at the cloak promo for the self love story line, Mark himself has said that the promo featuring him wearing Actor’s robe was a last-minute choice by him, as he was largely involved with the release of this line. Even so, there are certain details that simply can't be ignored. Enter: At Dead of Night Part 1. During the video, Mark just decides that he has to leave the room, glitches out of the room, and after an uncomfortable amount of silence, he jumpscares us after some spooky red light engulfs the room. In this period of time, there are TWO things that separate it from the normal type of jumpscare that would be found when Mark plays a scary game (despite it NOT being 3 scary games video)

1. We see a quick flash of what appears to be Shadow Lix...until we look at the eyes.

This aberration definitely shows signs of Lunky - looking like Lunxian has returned.

2. Mark returns...with the same Cloak shirt that Actor was wearing in the promo over his robe. Probably just promoting the brand, right? Well this video was five days after the promo was released, quite an arbitrary number for just doing an empty reference to the promo, especially since the day of its premiere, February 16, was around the day the Self Love Story line was dying down and not needed to be promoted. And all the while Mark plays, the Actor robe is on the dresser in the background - the first time we've seen it since the promo in the first place.

Even considering the fact that the promo was a last minute choice, WHY would Mark bring it back up again? WHY would he nudge us with the hints to connect the promo to something bigger - unless he WAS planning something a bit bigger.

Other strange occurrences have been happening in bits and pieces throughout other videos. A Lunxian appearance in the Barn Finders episode.

And curiously enough, a jumpscare in a Forest video from a previously used 3 Scary Games video - #62, to be exact, and the only one who has eyes that are similar to Lunky’s.

Combine that with the fact that despite Lixian editing a lot of this video, he doesn’t show up at ALL to being called editor - this is showing that Lixian isn’t in charge of editing the videos - Lunky is in control. And the monsters coming out of the closet is a clear sign of another one of Lunky’s monsters that might have bled through the area between where Lixian is trapped and where Mark is - the 3 Scary Games dimension, if you will.

The Next Plot Step

The next 3 Scary Games videos since this time have clearly been very, very telling of this banishment and kidnapping of Lixian. Let’s go over some of the most important details, namely from #66, #67, and #69.

In #66, we see the latest monster in the line of the three we’ve seen before, such as the spider and the fake Mark; the squid monster fake Mark. This monster says the same things as the last monster: “Your end is near. Your end is here”, with the same font we’ve come to know of Lunky and Lunxian. (first pic #65, second #66)

But this time…Lixian’s axe doesn’t work. Why? Well, as we can see, there’s some kind of…force field.

Of…dark red. HMM…. looks awfully familiar. Even though we’ve never seen it before. Like RED, ARCANE ENERGY. There’s no doubt about it. Lunky, and by proxy Actor, are making the monsters stronger. So Lixian can’t escape.

And as we see in #67...this has seemed to work. As towards the end of that episode…

Lixian is…not doing good. At all. As we see him in an area, a rock or something, coated in red. Lixian is in trouble. It seems the monsters have finally banished him to a place where he cannot fight back, where he cannot tell the truth he knows. The red lighting looks similar to the prison in where Lunky was kept, possibly entrapping him in a prison of his own making.

Interestingly enough, before this, we see Mark’s “monster” thing: his eyes, moving aLLLL around. And the aberration on him is a tad rainbow-y. Could this be an allusion to Lunky, whose power is all about his eyes?

But...the most INTERESTING video was of course, #69...where quite a few things were confirmed. Let’s tackle them in this breakdown linked here, shall we? https://canceltheact.tumblr.com/post/649094311147978752/3-scary-games-69-the-eldritch-resurgence

We should have you caught up with all of our important findings for now. As you can see, Actor has been playing his games for quite some time. But he’s gotten bold - far too bold, to reveal himself to us like this. And this is where you, dear reader, come into play. It’s not too late to end this game Actor has us in. We, the viewers, give these alternative egos power, and if we refuse to play Actor’s games any further and cancel his acts, we can begin to weaken and perhaps even eliminate Actor’s grip on the channel. We believe that the time is now. Spread this post if you support it - reblog it, hashtag it on Twitter or Tumblr, use the hashtags #CancelTheAct and #MarkiplierIsntReal. This may be our only avenue to have our voices heard, and to truly unearth what the Actor has been threading together all along.

Chromatic Aberration Appendix (Yay!)

Hey there folks! I’ve decided to do a companion writing on my theory, that explains exactly WHAT chromatic aberration is and why it’s important to the current Mark lore.

Chromatic aberration is the glitchy effect of various colors surrounding words, objects, or people. There are quite a few different types of this aberration, and as they are an important part of this theory, this section is to denote the different types of aberration and what they mean.

“Rainbow” Aberration - This aberration has been used multiple times as a representation for the manipulation of time and reality in order to control someone - we see this used in AHWM as we surge through time using the artifact, and as Warfstache brings us to our proper interview location in time/space. This effect has also been associated with the effects or rewinding of a VCR, as Mark says in his WMW breakdown video when discussing said effect when Warfstache takes Abe back to the disco club to “have a little fun”. And as we have seen in this part of the lore, Actor has used this type of power as well in order to control people’s reality. This aberration, therefore, denotes for those OUTSIDE Actor’s planned story - which is why Warfstache has it (since he has no role), why Lunky has it (because he was created as something to exist outside the story dimension and to fill a role that wasn’t a set role in Actor’s story in the first place) and was used initially, yet unsuccessfully by Actor to control Lixian (because he was working outside his story onto someone who didn’t necessarily have a role)

Heavy Presence of Red Aberration - this aberration, though more of an aura than anything else, indicates the control and presence of Actor, as seen in “Damien” - though this isn’t used too often, it is often used with Lunky’s rise of power, such as in “He escaped...” and at the end of various 3SGs.

Lixian’s Aberration - this combination of dark purple, teal, and greenish blue aberration is present in Lixian’s confession and is a marker of when Lixian is in control - as seen in Lixian’s confession and the “DEAD” picture post on his Twitter.

#markiplier #markiplierGAME #markiplier game #markiplier lore #markiplier lunky #markiplierisntreal #markiplierlore #canceltheact #lunky #lixian #markiplier theory #actormark

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macaronnya · 3 years

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So I just saw the announcement about the EN server shutting down or at least dicontinued (hopefully just for now) and I might just burst into tears 🥲 I want to put my thoughts or rather feelings of the journy up until now on here to come down but maybe also as some form of comfort for anyone who needs it? It's very long and might have some broken english as it's not my first language so do keep it in mind please 😅

Anyways, I started A3! last year on march 7th because I saw a youtube video of people cosplaying Sakuya and Sakyo. At taht point, I already knew of A3! somewhere in my distant memories back when it was JP only. I decided to try out the game since I was getting bored of my current mobile games and the few reviews I could find of it were relatively positive. I had no idea just what a big part of my life this game was about the become 🤧

Btw I'm listening to some A3! songs right now, specifically Sakuya's 2nd character song, and it's not helping me 😢 So at the time, lockdown just started 2 days ago, which left me with a lot of time playing it and, I kid you not, I gulfed the main story down like it was the last slice of cake at home. I have 2 siblings. I think I finished it in a week or so despite it being only unlockable through leveling up, and if my memory serves me right, you need to be around lvl 75 to unlock all 4 episodes. As one can see, I was VERY invested in the story. It was just so....nice? I don't know how to exactly describe it but I was surprised by how likable everyone was. Of course I didn't hold such strong feelings for everyone back then as I do now but I was intrigued enough back then of nearly everyone, which is kind of rather rare in such types of games, no? At least for me it is, although I haven't played terribly a lot (Love Live, MLQC, Mystic Messenger).

I really like how the story actually continues through the events and how it alternated between stories exploring certain characters more (show events) and stories focusing on just them having fun. Getting to know everyone bit by bit and seeing how everyone grows closer to each other, not only within their respective troupes but the whole theater, makes me really all warm and fuzzy and it's found family, what more could you want?

Also, I really like Izumi, our dear MC 🥰 Even though she's supposed to be our self-insert, I found myself really enjoying reading her thoughts, observing her reactions to other characters' shenanigans (like her 'I do not see' to the members plan of faking their identity to bail Citron out lol) and just....her personality. Trying not to digress here but she has a lot more personality than other MCs in these joseimuke games and it makes her interactions with others not only bearable but even enjoyable. I'm not saying that this is what a perfect MC looks like or that she's superior to bland self-inserts. After all, it depends on the story, gameplay and other things. It's just a nice bonus I'm very grateful for. I mean, I got really emotional when Izumi performed with the other staff members all of the plays the actors have put out so far for the first anniversary. Her realizing she gained a new dream for her lost one just really took my heart, broke it in thousand pieces and then mended it again.

I also love A3! songs ❤ I did wonder how they would work in this franchise since it's not about idols but actors, though I guess there was nothing to worry about. I really like the duets because it's always a different duo and hearing them singing together, harmonizing with each other, complimenting each other, just fills me with undescribable joy. Of course the songs also slap pretty much every time. Even by limiting my options to 1 troupe, I still wouldn't be able to pick only one favourite (I like the majority of Winter's song tho, like Shoutai is just 🤌 and my sibling blasted Unmasked non-stop so I can't get it outta my head anymore). Gosh, I was so excited for 'Double Solitaire' since it would complete trilogy of the Hyodosakas singing together. I was really looking forward to getting all the songs and I was even saving up for Summer Troupe's 6th play.

If I had to describe the game A3! in one word, it'd be "charming". Coming to game itself, there are so many little quirks, that on their own aren't anything groundbreaking or big but together give the game its own flair. Live 2D is pretty common to see nowdays in games because it brings the characters to life through movements like 3D models. But I think A3! is able to illustrate it just as well, if not even better with their 2D sprites. Citron moonwalked by flipping the image over and sliding across the screen, Hisoka appeared out of nowhere by coming from above the screen, they do a little jump when they're happy, they go down a bit when they're sad. And that's just things with their whole sprite. The little drops when Tsuzuru finds himself in an awkward situation or is worried, the little note when Sakuya is happy, the hearts when Kazunari is lowkey flirting with Izumi, it's so cute! Or Omi's O.O face, Taichi's crying face (the usual one, not his face when he cried out of guilt of betraying Mankai), Yuki's done expression, H O M A R E AHA! They each have at least one personalized expression and also quote. Can you hear Kazunari's Yoropiko~☆, Citron's humming, Taichi's loud ass whining and scream of terror, Tsumugi's awkawrd laugh? It's brimming with life.

But also the UI (?how it looks) is joyful. The main screen's background cascading shapes changes depending from which Troupe your current character is from, the loading screen has sakura petals and a bird, the colors are very bright and saturated fitting to the overall color palette of the whole game, the little notebook during practice showing all the necessary infomation and a little sketch by the characters. It's just really charming.

As frustrating as it was, not getting halloween Tsuzuru after 110 pulls or Valentine Omi after 120, it was my first time ever understanding why gachas are called hellholes. Through my strong connections to the characters, their cards automatically appealed to me more. But the art is also so good???? Azuma is always looking flawless obviously but Omi's unbloomed Wolf card, where he is standing in the sunset looking at his camera or Kazunari's Shinobi card, unbloomed all concentrated on his panting and bloomed all shiny smiling like the fireworks in the background? Breathtaking everytime. I also appreciate it not needing multiple copies to unlock the whole backstage story.

I think I'm slowly running out of things to say, which might be good for whoever managed to come this far. I have to say though, A3! helped me through the pandemic. Being a perfect distraction to the world's chaos and more importantly my crushing schoolwork and worries for personal future. I'm a very pessimistic person but seeing the characters overcoming their hardships through the help of their to-be "family" and just being happy doing trouble, gave me a little hope and light for a bit every day. I came to cherish everyone, even those I like the least. I haven't felt like this since Mystic Messenger, which was also a game, that helped me through a difficult time. I can only wish to a shooting star, that it's not the end for the EN Server yet. While yes, the JP server is thriving and I could just switch to reading fantranslation, through my experience, my enjoyment considerably sinks playing like that and I wish to fully enjoy A3!.

Anyways thanks for reading (maybe again). Sorry for all the possible errors on the way here. I'm writing everything directly without too much thought. If you want, you can also share your experiences in the comments. It's always nice to share good memories with others.

Edit: I accidentally posted it already but I wasn't actually done 😓 When I said I had a lot to let out, I meant A LOT

#a3!#i will never forget a3!#in the end i never managed to get halloween and groom Tsuzuru

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palindromeadams · 4 years

Text

Talking to The Moon

Hello! Sorry about the almost year break...

I’m working on the continuation of Zodiac’s Brew as well as another fic but this one is one that I’ve been working on the longest so I wanted to get it done!

Feel free to send any constructive criticism!

I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading!

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It began when Natsu was 4. Igneel and Grandine were headed to the office when they passed their son’s room and heard laughter. They looked at each other with smiles on their faces, after a long bout of giggles followed by a muffled conversation. They assumed that he was either talking to his stuffed dragon, or maybe he had made his first imaginary friend, but they were surprised when they peeked into his room. Standing atop his toy chest their pink-haired son seemed to be in a deep conversation with the moon.

“And then I grabbed that ice princess’ clay and I smushed it! He made the funniest face! I wish you coulda seen it!” Natsu laughed, “Metal breath tried to steal my clay, but before he could, I shoved Elsa’s clay into his face!”

More laughter, before it cut off abruptly and his face screwed up into a pout.

“But Luuussshhhhiii they started it! Gray drew all over my dragon picture and Gajeel kept snoring when I was trying to take my nap!”

The boy continued to argue with the sky as his parents slowly closed the door, smiling.

“Our boy has a really active imagination, eh Iggy?” Grandine asked as the parents returned to their trip to the office.

Igneel let out a laugh, wrapping an arm around his wife and kissing the top of her head. “He gets that from you dear. I didn’t have any imaginary friends, but if I remember correctly, you had at least 20.”

Light laughter followed the couple down the hallway as they went to go finish some work in their office.

Natsu looked at the moon with a goofy grin that split his face, “I’ll always be here for you Luce, I promise. All you have to do is call my name and I’ll be there.” He said, raising his pinky up to the sky, “I pinky promise!” The sound of tinkling laughter could be heard by those that were listening close enough.

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Six years passed, and Grandine and Igneel would still pass by their son’s room at night, hearing him talking away. Every time they peeked in, they would find him standing by his window, smiling up at the moon. One night, in the middle of his tenth year, he stopped. The couple was used to one, maybe two, nights a month that his son wouldn’t talk to his friend. This usually happened on the new moon. However, after a week of not hearing anything, they were confused as to why he had stopped.

During dinner, a little over a week after the nighttime chats had ended, Grandine decided to broach the subject with her son. “Hey Natsu, why don’t you talk to the moon anymore? Did something happen?” She asked.

Natsu’s brows pinched together, his nose scrunched, an angry frown formed on his face. The two adults shared a look, something had happened.

“I was tellin’ Lisanna about Lucy at lunch. The stupid stripper overheard and started telling everyone.” He stabbed a piece of broccoli, angrily shoving it into his mouth. “Then iron mouth said that havin’ imaginary friends were for babies! But Lucy ain’t an imaginary friend! She's a moon sprite! It ain't my fault she can only come down when she gets older.”

He huffed and crossed his arms. “Then Levy said that there ain’t no such thing as a moon sprite. That the moon wasn’t livable cause it had no atmosphere or water, and somethin’ about vacuuming. I tried to tell her about Lucy and I described her and everything, but they wouldn't believe me!” Angry tears welled up in his eyes, “So I stopped talkin’ to Luce cause she ain’t real. There's no such thing as moon sprites or magic. I was a baby for thinkin’ otherwise.”

Grandine and Igneel looked at each other. Grandine looking pointedly at Igneel to get him to say some fatherly, encouraging advice.

Igneel let out a sigh. “You know Natsu, it doesn’t make you a baby for having someone that you can confide in. Even if other people can’t see them the way you do.” He placed a reassuring hand on Natsu’s shoulder, before ruffling his hair. “If you want to keep talking to Lucy because she makes you happy, do it. Magic is real kiddo, even if your friends don’t believe it, you do. That is what is important.”

“Really?” Natsu asked hopefully.

“Yup! Magic is all over the place! All you have to do is look for it. You are one of the lucky ones. You were able to befriend one of the beings that can control it.” Igneel gave a goofy grin. “I would have preferred you making friends with a dragon, but I guess a moon sprite will have to suffice.”

Grandine smacked her husband’s shoulder before the family started laughing.

Natsu gave his signature grin, moving to put his plate in the dishwasher. He made a quick glance out the window and up at the moon.

“I guess I should go and apologize to Luce for ignoring her.” He said with a sigh, “I hope she wasn’t cryin’... I hate it when she cries.”

Natsu ran his fingers through his hair, mumbling, “ Course she was cryin’ dummy, this is Lucy. The biggest crybaby in the solar system. Cried cause she thought she forgot my birthday, but it was the middle of December. ”

Grandine and Igneel looked at each other with a smile, glancing back at their son in time to see him sprinting up the stairs, slamming the door shut behind him.

They could hear the window slam open, and hear him shout, “LUCY! I’M SORRY FOR BEING A BUTT AND IGNORIN’ YOU FOR A WEEK! I, NATSU DRAGNEEL, AM THE BIGGEST JERK IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM!” He paused, as if reluctant to continue, “AN EVEN BIGGER JERK THAN THE POLAR PEST OR METAL MOUTH!”

The couple looked at each other, before bursting into laughter at their son’s antics. They really hoped that he would continue to have this imaginary friend for a little longer.

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Four years had passed since the night of the Dragneel’s talk, the now 14-year-old boy was still talking to his moon sprite friend every night he could. Igneel and Grandine were sitting in their office, finishing up some last-minute paperwork, when the sound of their son’s laughter reached them.

“Hey Grandine, don’t you think Natsu is getting a little old for imaginary friends?” Igneel asked, looking over at his wife.

“I don’t think there is such a thing as being ‘too old’ for something when it comes to the imagination.” She replied, typing away at her computer. “Besides, talking to her brings him joy. All I can hope for is that Natsu is happy and healthy, no matter what he does.”

Igneel sighed, “I know, but don’t you think that this could cause issues in the future? What if he doesn’t want to hang out with his friends anymore? Because he wants to talk to a figment of his imagination? He already refuses to do sleepovers or any overnight camp, don’t you think that having it could be detrimental to his future?”

“Natsu hangs out with his friends every single day that he can. He invites them over to hang out, he goes over to theirs for homework and video games. He is a perfectly normal teenage boy that just so happens to have a friend that no one else can see,” Grandine huffed. “I don’t know why you’re bringing this up all of a sudden, nothing has changed since you encouraged him a few years ago.”

“Natsu is going to be starting high school in a few months. Then in a few more years, he’ll be graduating. I don’t want him to be bullied in high school because someone finds out that he still has an imaginary friend. He’s already picked on enough as it is because of his hair, but talking to someone that doesn’t exist? Insisting that they do? Deeney, they’ll think he’s crazy!”

“Natsu hasn’t had any issues with bullying or being picked on since elementary school. The kids that he goes to school with have known him for years! He’s no more at risk of being picked on as Gray or Gajeel are!” She argued closing the top of her laptop and glaring at her husband.

“He’s going to a new school! Magnolia high isn’t just these kids that we’ve known since diapers. There are going to be students from at least three more middle schools, and they’ll have no clue about Natsu! They’ll pick on him because he’s different, giving them more fuel for the fire will only make things worse,” Igneel argued.

“You honestly think that Natsu will just stand there and let himself be picked on? You’re talking about the boy that decked a kid for making fun of Lisanna wearing cat ears! Even if he did, do you think that his friends would just let him be bullied? NO! If Natsu hadn’t already; Gray, Gajeel, and Erza would punch the poor kid that thought picking on Natsu was a smart idea!”

Igneel sighed and ran his fingers down his face, “I don’t think that physically, Natsu would be in danger… Deeney, I’m just concerned about our boy.”

Grandine gave a small smile, before setting her laptop down. She walked over to her husband, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Our boy will be fine Iggy,” she soothed. “There isn’t anything wrong with having an active imagination or imaginary friends. He will grow up to be a smart, strong, and happy young man that will succeed in everything that matters.”

She kissed her husband’s forehead, patting his back lovingly. The couple turned to look at the door when they heard a soft sound from that direction. They looked at each other questioningly, before shrugging and getting ready to go to bed.

When the couple had finished, they walked quietly to their room, passing by the now silent room of their son. What they didn’t know was that Natsu had overheard most of their argument.

The boy was now lying in his bed staring at the ceiling. Thinking of ways that he could prevent his parents from worrying, while still getting to talk to his best friend. He decided that night that he would wait until his parents were asleep, before talking to Lucy. Natsu let out a long sigh, turning on his side, trying to get some sleep.

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Two years after Igneel and Grandine’s argument, Natsu and Gray pulled into the parking lot of the campground.

“C’mon Frosty! Let’s grab our gear and set up camp before everyone else arrives! Then we can get straight into the activities!” Natsu said, hopping out of the driver’s seat happily, before running to the trunk to pull out the camping equipment.

Gray let out a loud groan, slumping out of the passenger's seat. “How the heck can you be so freaking happy at 7 in the morning flame for brains? You didn’t even stop for coffee on the way here. I can barely function.” Gray said groggily, shuffling to the overexcited teen.

“Cheer up ya pervy popsicle! We get the whole weekend to ourselves! No parents, no responsibility, no work! Just relaxation and fun with our friends!” Natsu cheered, dragging out the tents and sleeping bags. He walked over to the fire pit, dumping the items next to it.

“Hey squinty eyes, I bet I can set up the big tent before you can set up the two smaller ones!” Gray said, grabbing the 14 person tent and throwing Natsu the four and two-person tents.

“Oh, you’re so on droopy eyes!”

The two boys pulled out everything from the bags, laying them out on the grass.

“Ready.”

“Set.”

“GO!”

They both yelled, before throwing themselves into setting up the tents.

By the time their friends arrived, Natsu and Gray were arguing, covered in grass and dirt stains.

“Why am I not surprised that these idiots are fighting already?” Lisanna sighed, pulling out her duffle from the back of her sister’s car.

“Because they are MANLY!” Elfman said, coming up behind his sister and grabbing his own bag, along with the large food-filled cooler from the back.

Gray and Natsu were in charge of bringing the tents and sleeping supplies. This left the food and drinks to the Strauss siblings. This way, it would reduce the number of times the two would argue.

“It's because we’ve known those two since they were in diapers. Their relationship hasn’t changed over the years,” Mirajane replied, slipping in between her siblings. She grabbed her duffle, along with the smaller cooler.

“Those two could argue about practically anything for hours! Yet they still won’t get tired of it.”

The sibling trio laughed, heading towards the fighting pair. After locking their car, they went to see what started this disagreement.

“There’s no way you finished before me flame breath! You were still putting on a rain cover when I was done!” Gray argued, fists clenched by his sides, glaring at the pink-haired boy in front of him.

“That's not true fruit of the gloom!” Natsu yelled getting into Gray’s face, “I finished, then turned around, and you were still securing one of the stakes!”

The boys continued arguing when the siblings reached them.

“Hey, Natsu! where do we put our stuff?” Lisanna asked.

Natsu continued to glare at the dark-haired boy in front of him, “Bags with clothes and stuff go into the four-person tent. Coolers and other food things go in the two-person,” He said, before Gray launched himself onto him, the two boys beginning to roll around on the grass, fighting.

Lisanna's facepalmed, letting out a disappointed sigh. “Why do I still hang out with those two.”

Mirajane put a reassuring hand on her little sister’s shoulder. “Because those two boys will protect their loved ones with everything they’ve got.”

“That better not be fighting I hear,” A menacing voice called from a red car that had just pulled into the parking lot.

The two boys froze mid-battle, fists still raised. Their faces paled, eyes wide. They quickly scrambled to their feet, pushing the other down.

“We weren’t fighting at all!” Gray said unconvincingly. His hair was sticking up more than usual, and there was mud on his cheeks, grass stains on his outfit, or what was left of his outfit anyway.

“Aye!” Natsu agreed, his own appearance matching closely to Gray’s, but with more clothing.

Erza strolled over to the group, Jellal trailing behind her, his arms filled with bags full of who knows what.

“Gray your clothes,” Lisanna said, returning from dropping off her bags.

“What? I was just wearing them!” Gray exclaimed, searching for his missing clothes.

The small group laughed at their friend’s antics.

“Looks like we’re still waiting on Gajeel, Levy, Cana, Juvia, and Wendy.” Jellal said as he returned from dropping off Erza’s things in the tent, “Have you heard anything from them yet?”

Gray returned with all of his clothes on, “Juvia, Wendy, and Cana are headed up here together. I got a text from Juvs a few minutes ago saying that they were close.”

“Iron breath picked up Levy, so they should be here soon,” Natsu said, lacing his hands behind his head. “What should we do while we wait?”

“You guys could play capture the flag while I finish setting things up,” Mirajane offered. “I’ll lay out the sleeping bags, then start getting lunch ready.”

“Thank you, Mira!” The rest of the group yelled, splitting into their normal teams and running off into the forest.

The sun had set and the group of teens sat around a roaring fire laughing and telling stories. They had all eaten their fill of Mirajane’s cooking and a few were still roasting marshmallows.

“Okay, what is one thing about another person here that you’ve always wanted to know?” Lisanna asked, taking a bite of her s’more.

“I’ve always wondered why Elfman always says ‘MAN’ or ‘MANLY’ after everything,” Wendy said looking over at the said man.

The group looked confused for a second, realizing that they hadn’t really given it much thought, it was just something that Elfman had always done. They all looked over at the man who sheepishly smiled rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well when I was a kid I met this teenager that helped an old lady cross the street and he looked down at me and said ‘The manly man is one that always helps out others.’ so I guess that it just stuck…” he chuckled.

“Well, I sure wasn’t expecting that,” Gajeel grumbled before looking over at Natsu. “Whatever happened to that moon bunny that you went on about for years. It seems like one day you just stopped.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that! What was her name again? Laney? Lacey?” Erza asked looking up at the sky, where a full moon looked back.

Natsu looked up with her with a soft smile on his face, “Her name is Lucy, and she’s a moon sprite, not a bunny” he let out a sigh before looking at his hands, conflicting feelings flashed on his face. Should he tell them the truth, or should he lie to make them get off his back?

He took a deep breath, they were his friends no reason to lie to them, “She told me that on the first full moon after she turned 18 she would be given the choice to either stay on the moon and keep her magic or come down to earth and become a human. “he looked back up at the moon, “She said that she was going to choose to come down to earth, she doesn’t have anyone there that really cares about her. Her mom died about 6 years ago and her dad is a dick, she’s always wanted to meet you guys ‘cause of all of the stories I’ve told her.”

He chuckled, “I stopped talking about her because my dad was afraid that I would be bullied because of it, so I figured I would just wait it out and keep her to myself until she came down.” His voice took on a tone that the group had never heard from him, it was soft and full of love, “I can’t wait until you guys can finally meet her. She’s amazing and you all would love her.”

The group looked at him in awe, they didn’t think that Natsu still believed in this Lucy girl and he talked about her with so much love.

Gajeel snorted “So you still believe in this bunny girl ey, fire hazard.” he let out his signature laugh, “I’m surprised you still believe in those baby things.”

The air around the group went tense as the soft smile that was on Natsu’s smile morphed into a scowl then his face went blank.

He stood up, glared at Gajeel “This is the other reason why I never brought it up because you would be a dick and I really didn’t want to have to get pissed off again. I thought you had grown up in the years since you’ve made fun of me before Gajeel, but I guess not.” Natsu said his voice sounded cold and hollow, the opposite of how it was a few minutes before. He turned his back on the group and walked into the forest.

The group was in shocked silence, Natsu hadn’t even taken a swing at Gajeel like he usually would. In his place though the normally timid Juvia punched his arm.

“The hell waterwoman!” He growled rubbing his shoulder.

“That was a real jerk move Gajeel! He trusted us enough to tell us that and you made fun of him!” She scolded.

“What you think he’s tellin’ the truth about some bunny girl living on the moon with magic that will just appear one day?”

Juvia glared and punched him again, “It doesn’t matter if Juvia believes it or not! Natsu does and he’s our friend so we should be nice and supportive of him! Either he’ll realize one day that she isn’t real, or she’ll show up one day and we’ll get to meet her! Natsu has always been supportive of Juvia’s thoughts and beliefs and has never once made fun of something that you guys cared a lot about. Natsu has always been able to tell what was really important to us and respected that.”

Juvia let out a frustrated noise, “Ugh! Juvia is very upset with Gajeel, but she is going to find Natsu and apologize.” She stood up and stomped off in the direction that Natsu had disappeared to.

When Juvia caught up to Natsu he was sitting atop a boulder in the middle of a clearing staring up at the moon. He let out a sigh before burying his hands in his hair.

“I should have known they wouldn’t believe me Luce, but a part of me hoped that they would. They would love to get to know you and become friends with you especially Levy, she loves books as much as you do. And you and Erza would bond over shopping and all that girly crap and even though Juvia is shy at first as long as you don’t fall in love with Gray you too will get along.” He said ending with a small laugh. “I wish they could talk to you now. You can’t use any of your magic to like visit them in their dreams and threaten to curse them if they’re still dicks?”

Natsu paused as if he were listening to someone and let out a laugh making Juvia jump. “Only, you would say something like that Luce. Thank you though, I really appreciate you sayin’ that.” He gave the moon a dopey grin that had Juvia smiling along. She looked up at the moon and gave it, sorry her, a smile.

“What? Someone’s here?” Natsu murmured before turning around and locking eyes with Juvia. Walls seemed to go up around his expression and it turned blank.

“What do you need Juvia, I’ll be back at the camp in a few no need to worry about me.”

Juvia took a deep breath and walked into the clearing, “Will you tell Juvia a bit about Lucy? She must be pretty great if she’s got you smiling like that.” She smiled at Natsu then looked at the moon, “Juvia is sorry to be interrupting your conversation with Natsu, Lucy but our friend was being a bit of a jerk about you, but Juvia wants to get to know you better before Juvia gets to meet you in person in a few years.”

Natsu’s mouth was agape and his eyes were wide in shock, “You believe me?” he whispered in disbelief.

“Of course Juvia does Natsu. Natsu has no reason to lie to Juvia and Natsu believes Juvia too.” she placed a hand on his shoulder, “Can Juvia sit down while you tell her about Lucy?”

Natsu, still in a state of disbelief, shifted over to give her space to sit. He shook out of his shock and gave Juvia a face splitting grin before he started to rant about Lucy, how they first met, and almost everything that he learned about her, occasionally being interrupted by the moon sprite either correcting him or having him translate what she was saying to the earth girl.

The trio talked until the sun was close to rising, “Lucy has to go now Juvia, she thanks you though and is glad that you two can be friends. She said that you can talk to her anytime and she’ll be listening even if you can’t hear her back. All you have to do is say her name while looking at the moon and she’ll be there.” Natsu smiled at the blue-haired girl, “Thank you for believing me Juvia, you’re a really great friend. When Gray gets his head out of his ass he’ll realize how great of a girl you are and you guys will start dating. You’ll be a great influence on him.”

He gave Juvia his signature grin before giving her a hug, “If you ever need me to do anything Juvia,” He said then pushed her back lightly gripping her shoulders looking at her seriously, “ And I mean anything Juvia like if you want me to beat up Gray because he doesn’t compliment your hair one day, I’ll do it.”

Juvia let out a string of laughter, “Okay Natsu, Juvia will do that, but Juvia will probably not have you beat up her beloved Gray-sama anytime soon.”

Natsu laughed and nodded, “Got it Juvi. Let’s head back to camp so they don’t think we got attacked by wild animals or abducted by aliens.” He slung his arm over Juvia’s shoulder and the pair began their walk back to the camp.

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Two years and a couple of months had passed since the camping trip and Natsu had moved out of his parent's house and into an apartment. He had been saving up for this apartment for over two years. It was a cozy little two-bedroom apartment, and it almost felt like home to Natsu. It had some hand me down furniture in the kitchen and living room from his parents, but he had made sure to buy nice beds for the two bedrooms and decorated the walls of one with pictures of him and his friends while the other was simpler with glow in the dark stars on the ceiling laid out to match the night sky in summer.

Natsu took a deep breath as the sun began to set. Tonight was finally the first full moon after Lucy’s 18th birthday, meaning that in the next hour he would finally get to meet his best friend and crush of over 14 years. He had already started pacing and feeling nervous. He had triple checked everything to make sure that Lucy would feel comfortable at his place, he had cleaned and made sure the fridge was stocked but he still felt like he was forgetting something important.

He picked up his phone and dialed the phone number of the girl that had become his closest friend.

“Juvia! She’s going to be here soon and I think I’m forgetting something and I don’t know what it is! I cleaned the house and the fridge is full. Her room is set up! I don’t know what it could be! I just want everything to be perfect for her first day here!” Natsu rambled.

“Natsu. Take a deep breath. Are you dressed?” Juvia’s voice was calm on the other side. She was used to him freaking out about this by now, he had been in a panic these past few days not knowing what he should do to make Lucy comfortable on Earth.

Natsu looked down and saw that he was still in his boxers with chibi dragons. “Shit. I thought I had put on pants.” He scrambled to his room, his phone echoing with Juvia’s laughter.

“Everything will be okay Natsu. You’ve known Lucy for 14 years. Juvia is sure she would be happy if you still lived at your parent’s place. She’s Lucy, you know her.” She reassured him, “And when she's all settled and she feels up to it Juvia would love to get to meet her too.”

“You could come over now Juvi, Luce would love to get to see you, she talks about you a lot,” Natsu said as he buttoned up his slacks. He had decided to dress up a bit to try to impress Lucy a bit.

“Juvia is fine Natsu. This first meeting is something that you two deserve alone time for. Have been waiting for this for over 14 years. Juvia can wait a few days, but don’t hog her for too long. Juvia needs to shove Lucy’s existence into Gray and Gajeel’s face for being pricks about her growing up.”

Natsu laughed, “Thank you Juvia. I’m so excited to see her but I’m also fucking terrified. What if she decides not to come down and stays on the moon, or what if she regrets coming down and she wants to go back but she's stuck here forever…” his thoughts began spiraling into a negative space that it really only went to during the night after his talks with Lucy.

“Natsu! Shut up and get out of your head!” Juvia scolded.

“Wow never thought I would hear that.” a deep voice echoed from Juvia’s side of the phone.

“Shut up Gray.” She snapped. The sound of a door was heard closing behind her before Juvia’s voice softened, “Natsu, you know that Lucy doesn’t break her promises and she promised that she would come down to Earth, and you know how much she’s rambled on about coming down here and getting to meet us, but mostly you.”

Natsu could feel his cheeks warm as she continued, “Especially you Natsu, you’re her oldest friend and probably first and only love. Mavis knows how much you love her.”

Natsu sputtered at her bluntness, “Juvia! You can’t just say that!”

“Why not? It's the truth, you talk about her with the same fondness that Gajeel does about Levy, Jellal does about Erza, and that Juvia does about Gray.”

Natsu’s face was probably the color of Erza’s hair, “I know that, but you don’t need to say it out loud. It’s embarrassing.”

The moon’s light began to shine brighter into Natsu’s living room from the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony. “Shit Juvia she’s coming. Oh, Mavis what if I screw things up. No no no this is Luce everything will be okay.” He said teetering off into a mumble before he took a deep breath. “I’ll message you later Juvia.”

“Have fun Natsu!” Juvia said before she hung up.

Natsu slipped his phone into his back pocket and watched as the moon’s glow began to get brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. He turned his head away to protect his eyes then looked back to the silhouette of a girl standing on his balcony. He scrambled to the door and locked eyes with probably the most beautiful girl he had seen. She had hair that was as golden as the stars, her skin was as pale as the moon itself, and her eyes, Mavis her eyes, were a warm chocolate brown that seemed to hold galaxies in their depth. The girl smiled and Natsu felt his heart stop before he could get his body to work and give the girl a smile in return.

Natsu slid the door open and immediately embraced the girl. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to give you a hug Luce.” He could feel tears prick the edge of his eyes. He felt his anxieties disappear, he was finally holding Lucy in his arms. She was real. She wasn’t a figment of his imagination or an imaginary friend, she was a moon sprite that gave up her powers to live with him.

He heard sniffles and could feel her shoulders shake. “I would guess as long as I’ve wanted this too Natsu,” Lucy said as she hugged him tighter.

Natsu let the tears that he had been holding back go as he nuzzled into the top of her head.

“You’re finally here. You’re really here. I’m never fucking letting you go.” He said in disbelief and she let out a watery laugh.

“I would hope not Natsu because I’m not letting you go either.”

The pair stood outside in a hug until the sound of Nastu’s stomach interrupted them.

“Shit. Stupid stomach I just fed you. Shut up so I can keep hugging Luce.” He pouted and gave the girl another squeeze.

Lucy giggled, “We should probably head inside so we can talk about stuff and get some food.”

Natsu sighed before he lifted up the girl and walked them into the house. Lucy let out a surprised squeak before she laughed at his antics, “You can let me go Natsu I do have two working legs you know.”

“Nope, I said I was never letting you go and I’m not. You’re stuck with me forever now. No takesies backsies.” He said plopping the two of them down on the sofa readjusting so Lucy could be more comfortable.

“You do know that I’m not going anywhere right? We’re together forever now, even if we aren’t attached at the hip. I promise I won’t leave you, and you know that I never break my promises.” Lucy said with a sigh pushing back on the boy’s chest to get a better look at him.

He was just as, if not more, handsome than Lucy thought he would be. His tanned skin and vibrant pink hair were a strange combination but it suited him so well. His sharp green eyes seemed to go on forever and his smile was something that Lucy wanted to see forever. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes again and watched as panic washed over his face.

“Shit whats wrong Luce? Did I do something to upset ya? I’ll let you go if you’re starting to get uncomfortable!” he rambled not wanting to make the former sprite feel pressured into doing something that she didn’t want to do.

Lucy let out a watery laugh, “It’s nothing like that Natsu. It’s just that I’m so happy to finally be with you.” She sniffled, “I never thought that I would be able to do thing but with your help I really did it! I love you so much Natsu.”

Natsu’s eyes widened before they softened into what can only be described as a look of pure adoration. His hand slid up the side of Lucy’s cheeks wiping away the tears that fell. “I love you too Luce. I love you to the moon and beyond.”

Lucy leaned down and Natsu leaned up and the two met in a soft kiss. They parted and gave the other a soft smile. Natsu pulled Lucy gently back until their foreheads touched, “Thank you for existing and for giving up your powers to be here with me.”

Lucy smiled, “You’re a lot better than the ability to make lights turn on at will, I can tell you that much.” She joked before pecking his lips lightly, “I will miss being able to fly but I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it up to me.”

Natsu laughed, “I’m sure I’ll think of something, if not I’ll get Juvia to help me. Oh! Before I forget can we take a picture to send to Juvia? She’s been wanting to see you.” he said scrambling for his phone while trying to not let go of the girl.

“Of course! You’ll have to take me to actually meet with her in person soon! I wanna see her! And all your other friends too, but Juvia first because she believed you about me.” She pouted, “The other ones were dicks and I can’t wait to shove my existence in their faces!”

He laughed again before opening his phone up and going to the camera app to take a selfie. When the pair felt the picture was good enough (i.e. when Lucy thought the picture was good enough) they sent it to Juvia. Natsu then threw his phone to the other side of the couch and the pair snuggled up together and began talking about their plans for the next week.

A few blocks away Juvia’s phone lit up with a notification from Natsu. She looked away from the movie that she and Gray were watching to look at the message and let out a squeal before shoving her phone in Gray’s face.

“Juvia told you, Gray! Juvia told you for years but you never believed her and Natsu!” She cheered as Gray pulled the phone away from his face and his jaw dropped.

In the picture, Natsu was sitting next to a pretty blonde girl that he had never seen before, the text below read ‘Luce says hi!’

#fairy tail fanfiction #fairy tail #nalu fanfiction #Nalu #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia

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bnha-scenarios · 3 years

Text

Okay, so, first thing first. The second half of September and the whole October has been a wild ride.

Apparently this game blew up on TikTok (and probably some other platform or something?), and now I could see that there are tons of you who downloaded the game. That's just... so... unreal, at least to me. I didn't think this project would get so much attention. Even now, I’m still waiting to wake up from this dream 🙃

Anyway, if you’re new here: welcome! Sit back and relax, ‘cause this is gonna be a long ride!

I want to take this opportunity to say that due to the amount of comments, especially on itch.io page and my Tumblr, I won’t be always replying personally one by one to everyone anymore. I'll still try my best to answer questions and all, but I think by now everyone's common questions should already be answered in the FAQ page. So, moving forward, questions I have already answered inside that page will be ignored.

Still, I want you to know that I do read and treasure every single one of your comments. Thank you so much for your encouraging words, support, and suggestions! I'm sorry I can’t reply to those writing in languages other than English and Indonesian. While I can throw simple comments into Google Translate, every now and then the translator butchers long sentences and gives me garbled translation which I can't understand 😥

☕️ Special Thanks ☕️

I'd like to also take this chance to say, many, many thanks for the coffee, you all amazing, generous people:

M.L. | Dominique | Genki | Sara | 1 Anon

Even in this hard time, you’re all so kind. Again, I can’t really do much, but as my way of thanking you, your names will be put under Special Thanks in the game ♡

Alright, now, to the real essence of this post: progress update.

My work had been pretty demanding nearing the end of this month, and it made me get really sick of doing coding in general. Still, there is some progress on the game, and that’s good enough for me!

More details below ↓

Character Sheet: You / Player / Main Character

Before I get to anything else, let’s talk about ‘you’ first, shall we?

Although the main character's name is changeable, if you don’t wish to pick a name for them, ‘Suzuki Kaede’ is set as the default name.

Why Suzuki? I figured I would just take from one of the most common Japanese surnames.

Why Kaede? I chose it because I wanted a common Japanese unisex name, because the main character themselves is supposed to be gender neutral. So, the name came up as one of the results in Google, it has a somewhat nice and neutral meaning (maple), and I find that it sounds pretty nice, I decided to use it.

To reiterate, throughout the game, I try my best to not mention any physical characteristics and avoid elements which leans heavily to a specific gender in the story. All the characters in the game will also call you with your last name, and only neutral suffix (-san) is used at first. But you could get an event where you would be able to pick how the love interest will call the player, starting from that point in the story (on top of neutral options, there will be choices with gender-specific suffixes which you could pick if you want to). Other than that, all characters will always refer to the MC as ‘they/them’.

Now, moving on to the thing which people has asked about -- the player's Quirk. Here's a text version in case you couldn't see it in the image above for some reason:

What happens when a woman with Enhanced Learning quirk and a man with Camera Vision procreates? A child with exemplary learning ability and a pair of exceptionally observant eyes, apparently! The hereditary Vision you got from your father enables you to focus or scan an object or landscapes. With all the cues and information from your eyes, it seems that you're able to analyze and 'see' particular details of your object of interest in the form of numerical data. Due to the mainly passive nature of your quirk, you have to rely on the traditional weapons for offense, which might not be useful at all depending on your opponent's quirk. It's a plain and nonoffensive ability which isn’t so suited for a hero according to most people, but whatever - you’ll show those noobs the power of a gamer!

In other words, the information in 'Stats', ' Weapon Proficiency', 'Special Moves', and even the 'Affection' meter, are actually part of the MC's Quirk. This also means, the more you hone your Quirk, the more it could affect your gameplay. I'll talk about that on the Gameplay section below.

There is one thing that’s kind of related to the MC's Quirk and I wanted to clarify. Bakugou did call you this in the demo, and yep, you might have guessed it: “crosshair eyes”. Reticle, crosshair, whatever you want to call it -- it’s that symbol you usually see in the center of your screen whenever you play FPS games. This is the only physical feature of the player's character that I specified (and yes, canonically, Hatsume has a pair of similar looking eyes in the original work). In relation to this, the icon for ‘activating’ your Quirk matches the same symbol.

Gameplay

Introducing: Stats, Special Moves, and Video Games!

Stats

There are 5 basic Stats for all of the characters in the game (brownie points if you recognize where they're taken from!): Speed, Technique, Power, Intelligence, Cooperativeness.

Your own Stats start off low, but you will be able to increase it by doing various activities, such as studying, playing games, winning on Heroics lessons, going to certain places, etc. Different activities raises different Stat, and you're free to choose which particular Stat you want to develop.

What are Stats being used for?

Certain Stat will increase a certain character’s affection, though it won’t be as much as if you hang out with that character.

There are certain places which you can only unlock when a specific Stat reaches a certain point. I’ll talk about hang out places and characters’ schedules in another post.

Weekly one-on-one training matches in Heroics lessons will test a specific Stat or Special Moves each time. Depending on who you chose to become your opponent, that specific Stat will determine the outcome of that match. On one hand, winning these matches can increase your Stat, but on the other hand, there are also special events you could possibly unlock when you lose. Again, I’ll probably talk more in detail about this in another post, since I still don't have the coding part down, so things might change.

Special Moves

Every hero has a Special Move in this universe, and so does the player’s character! While they might not be as flashy as All Might’s iconic United States of Smash, some of your Special Moves will have a direct effect on the gameplay. For example, a certain Special Move could unlock more answer choices for certain scenarios. Another Special Move could be activated to give you hints on how many affection points will be added to a character for the available choices.

You have a total of 5 unlockable Special Moves, and it will be up to you to use this feature: do you spend your time trying to unlock all of it in hope to make your gameplay easier, or ignore them completely in favor of balancing your Stats while pursuing the affection of your chosen love interest? It’s your choice!

(More brownie points for you if you got the reference in that picture lol)

Another use for Special Moves would be in the Heroics lessons, seeing as it might test how your Special Move fares against the opponent you picked.

Video Games

I would say that this particular element plays quite a big role in this game, since the MC learns and develops themselves by playing games. While you do have a set of games which you’ve owned, you’re able to purchase new games from the Video Game store. I would recommend doing this, as there are some neat ones which will help you greatly in your playthrough. But if you're not interested to explore them, that's fine too!

Each video game has a different effect, and it’s up to you to discover them! Or, perhaps, you could unlock a Special Move that allows you to know what effect each of the game has? 😉

What are Video Games being used for?

Most games will only increase specific Stat(s), but there are also others that can unlock Special Moves.

There is one game which helps you to unlock Stats or Special Moves of your classmates, which you can use in the Heroics lesson to pick a suitable opponent based on your current Stats.

In addition to all that, there are 2P games which require more than one person to play, and you could play them with your romance target when they’re available. On top of building your Cooperativeness, choosing the right answers during the gaming session will increase that character's affection.

Others

The basic functions behind some activities like studying, buying video games, and playing video games are done. I will probably move on to code the functions handling the Heroics lesson’s battles and the behind-the-scenes of when the player chooses to go to certain places.

I've also finished the two main custom screens, which is the Quirk and Games page. If I have time and the motivation, I'm guessing I'll be adding the two other additional screens I had thought of doing. We'll see.

Assets

This part is my nightmare, because I’m a perfectionist who’s far too picky when gathering resources…

But no assets = no game, so I did find several assets which I did like. This includes backgrounds, audios, background musics, and some sprites I was planning to use for developing the phone call function. I’m not going to list down all the things I found here, because I don’t think any of you would be interested in a long-ass list, but here’s an amazing background picture which I stumbled upon searching the dark abyss that is the internet:

Full credits to the artist: https://arsenixc.artstation.com/

Writing

I would have to say there isn't too much progress on this side yet, but I did decide on some story elements I want to insert into the game and scripted in a few scenes for the first day. I also managed to code in the dialogs for some common activities / places, like the video game store and a small part of school lunch time.

Honestly, I should probably create a sheet to identify how many scenes I would have to write? So all of us know the progress for this part of the development? ..... Let's see how it goes when my OCD flares up...

Disclaimers

All assets included in the devlogs are not mine, and credits to the asset owners / websites will be included in the game! My Hero Academia / Boku no Hero Academia ⓒ Horikoshi Kouhei

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha #bnha #heroaka #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto #wnha #devlog

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aimai-ronri · 3 years

Text

Reworking the Fuzzy Gaming Quest

This is the first time I've ever blogged publicly about something like this. I usually talk to friends about it, but I just as often don't say anything, because when I talk about video-games I get hyperfocused and sometimes the conversation takes a long time, so I often feel like it's a bit rude to get people wrapped up in it. But I remembered I have a tumblr now and people actually blog on here sometimes, so: prepare to suffer.

To set up why I'm so weird about games allow me to explain: first of all, I'm obviously not neurotypical in some way I don't know but one day would like to figure out. SECOND, I've been playing video-games literally since I can remember. My first real memories of cognition are watching my dad put cartridges in the NES, and climbing on the bed to put our Thai bootleg cart in there myself so I could play weird sprite hacks of Super Mario Bros. So anyway, gaming has factored heavily in my life since the beginning.

Anyway long story short, this has led to, for a long time, me wanting to leave some kind of legacy behind me in the form of a trail of beaten-up old video-games. Often this takes the form of just wanting to curate out a collection (physical or unholy--I mean digital) that I can leave behind in some state of completion, but on top of that it comes as me wanting to sit down and truly spend time with the games that are most important to my history over the course of my lifetime.

This has led to me making innumerable 'systems' for approaching the task of having a humongous backlog of video-games (some might say longer than is completable than anyone in a life time, and I recognize this) and often these systems get replaced or revised for being inadequate in some way. The latest no-thought system on my part was the Fuzzy Gaming Quest, in which the goal was basically to play through games starting from the beginning of time and blasting through at hyper-speed, with the intention of covering as much ground in order to induce familiarity as fast as possible with arcade games from an era I've rarely played (but longed for in my old man's soul).

This was working but I quickly ran into a snag (after recording about 250 videos 😥): I wasn't spending as much time with individual games as I'd like by any means. On one hand, I was backlogging games I was enjoying just to get them out of the way and continue the progress. On the other, sometimes I wasn't sure how much time you'd even spend with a game to consider yourself familiarized enough to rank it in some way, without necessarily having to beat everything (who has the time?). Not to mention arcade games that have no viable ending for the regular player (Pac-Man, Galaga, etc).

So anyway all this is leading up to me explaining the next iteration of the Fuzzy Gaming Quest. Here's a picture!

What you're looking at is essentially a 7 day scoreboard for various games that I selected out as important during my previous pass through the 70s and most of the 80s. These are all games I wanted to play more of or possibly log in a list.

7 days is my naive answer to how long I think would be good to spend on a game, in order to get competent enough at it to get a decent score and/or feel you've experienced your average game enough to go ahead and put it somewhere in a list. It might seem like overkill for a simple arcade game (though I'd argue you need to play repeatedly and give your brain time to absorb it to get the true experience), and it may seem like underkill for an RPG (though I'd argue that most RPGs probably aren't changing much more if you've been playing for 7 days already, but this doesn't forbid from continuing to play if I choose to), but this is my naive and probably flawed answer, anyway.

This is meant to serve the purpose of: - Progressing reasonably fast (notice this is a list of basically banger games everyone has heard of, I will probably only include a few games here or there that are lesser known that I just happen to like--I'll also be avoiding some consoles intentionally that I don't particularly like (like the Odyssey 2, sorry, it's my list though--convince me otherwise if you like)) - Filtering into some kind of "best of" list (if I don't even want to play it for 7 days (in brief sessions), it must not be very good after all and doesn't deserve to be on any best of list I would leave behind me--games that I do get through the 7 days I should understand enough to rank competently enough to make myself happy) - Giving me an excuse to spend more time on the games that really matter to me, today, in case I get hit by a bus tomorrow - Giving me a target for when I'm able to comfortably say I've experienced a game enough and don't need to feel bad about moving on if I want to but still haven't "beat it," and also leaving room for playing more if I like (I can sort it, take it off the board, but finish it anyway on the DL) (Also, if I do beat it, I can stop there with the board) - Satisfying whatever kind of ADHD thing I have going on by allowing me to keep a variety of games on rotation for some amount of time and not just getting stuck behind one game at a time - Breaking game experiences down over multiple days to allow a longer time to think about them and grow accustomed to them, also to allow me to fit them into my busy schedule by playing Space Invaders on the toilet for ~10 minutes - To leave behind a journal of high scores or information about how far I got in various games as I plod on

So, you may (rightly) ask: What's the point of all this? Why can't I just play games that I like and call it a day?

Well my first answer would be, "shut up I know you're right I just can't, my brain is broken," but my second answer, the one I would say aloud, might be that I really have always wanted to take a targeted approach to going through all of game history and that's what this is in service of.

I have no false expectations about getting all the way through game history up to now in one lifetime, at least not without sacrificing a lot of games in the process. I definitely won't ever get to the point where I'm always keeping up with contemporary games. It's lucky for me that I mostly fell out of favor with games around 2011 for various reasons, but really it had been a steady decline of interest since about 2005 or so. I have a shorter-hand target, but if I were to ever reach it, I'd like to keep going on, even if it means playing PS4 games in 2061 when I'm almost as old as my dad is now.

Anyway, your second question (and wow, if you made it this far) might be: "so what does this mean for your tumblr, which I care about intimately after seeing 20 posts, and was gutted when you temporarily took a break, and have been looking for meaning in my life ever since?"

Well, true believer, if you want I might post my 7 day high-score for various arcade games or something along with some pictures or videos of high points of the game (when I get to games complicated enough to have cool art). I haven't decided yet. I'm open to suggestions! I'd love to see people try to (and succeed!) at beating my scores (I'd feel like I influenced someone into maybe playing some old, great game they wouldn't have before deciding to just then).

If nothing else I hope it was interesting to see my thought process about this stuff.

If that's not true, I hope you were entertained by a write up of someone's journey ever deeper into video-game delirium.

And yes, I will get frustrated with the system and change it again in approximately a month.

#long post #fuzzy-gaming-quest #spreadsheet #video games #retro games #rambles #crazy guy talks about video games

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honhonluigi · 3 years

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So, did you hate Chiaki right off the bat or did you begin to hate her as time went on?

I don't hate any characters right off the bat. I don't know anything about them, so how could I? I always try to give all the characters a decent chance and never decide something before I know their personality. Usually I try not to form a strong opinion before they're dead, because anything about them could change or be revealed as a lie up until they're gone. And even after, in some cases.

As far as Chiaki goes, I expected to like her. I only saw her sprites on the Wiki and I knew absolutely nothing about her, but I knew that people compared her to Kaede, and I liked Kaede. Plus I thought her sprites looked cute. Because of the Kaede comparisons, I thought she was going to be Hajime's best friend and love interest, and I was prepared for that. I thought she was going to be a really dumb, ditzy, clueless cute idiot, and I thought I'd at least like her somewhat, if not love her.

In the first chapter, I didn't know much about her. She was just unremarkable to me. I had no opinions. I did spend some free time events with her, because I didn't know her at all, and I thought 'if this is going to be Hajime's girlfriend, I should get to know her better.' But she remained pretty bland and unremarkable. I thought it was just because I didn't know her well enough to get to her personality. I had no idea it was because she didn't have a personality at all. I had no opinions about her. Towards the end of the first chapter, and through every chapter onwards, I realized that Chiaki actually had nothing to do with Hajime at all, and wasn't involved with him in the slightest, so I struck the 'love interest/best friend' thing from my mind. I just want this to be stated for the record: I went into the game thinking Hinanami would be canon, and it was so not canon that I changed my mind. The game proved me wrong. Also, I realized that Hajime x Chiaki wasn't canon before I started hating Chiaki, and before I had any opinions about her at all.

In chapter two, I started to think she was pretty fucking creepy. I noticed that she was completely emotionless all the time, and her lack of a personality was becoming clearer. Chapter two was when she really started to first creep me out. Chapter 3 did the same thing. In chapter 3, she also really fucking creeped me out. By the time I got to chapter 3, I was terrified of her. I thought she was going to be revealed as a murderous psychopath. Also, in chapter 2 and chapter 3, her lack of a personality and her bland boring self were really grating on my nerves. She was annoying and obnoxious already, and they were trying too hard to make her seem 'cute'. But that was overshadowed by how fucking creepy she was. I did give her a chance though. I gave her two more chances, two more free time events, to try and get to know her. I wanted to give her a solid chance before I formed an opinion. I remember thinking "this bitch really doesn't have a personality, does she?" and "Maybe I could just try a couple more free time events and see what happens, and maybe I'll find her more interesting if I get to know her." I tried so hard to like her. I gave her plenty of fucking opportunities. I did three full free time events with her without learning a thing about her personality, and by the end of it I was like, "Okay, fine, I give up. God damn."

In chapter 4, I realized that she wasn't going to be revealed as a psycho killer. I realized that she was actually going to be the Future Foundation spy, and the only perfect person in the second game. That was when it hit me full-fledged how perfect they wanted to portray her. How much they wanted to push her importance despite her not doing anything. How much they wanted everyone to love her despite her talking to no one. How much they wanted to see her as perfect despite all the bad things she did. How much they wanted to portray her as the perfect character despite having no personality. That was when I saw that, far from being a creepy villain, she was going to be a Mary Sue and nothing but Waifu-Bait. (Around that time, I also got on tumblr and saw that people did insist she was Hajime's love interest, which just made it worse. I was dreading the moment that they would start pushing her on Hajime. She never actually did become Hajime's girlfriend, or even his friend, but the fandom insistence still chafes me regardless.) Anyway, by chapter 4 I saw that she was going to be nothing but Mary Sue waifu-bait. By chapter 4 I knew that she didn't have a personality. By chapter 4 I saw the obnoxious ways that they tried to shove how 'cute' she was down your throat. By chapter 4 I fucking hated her, and I had had enough. She annoyed the shit out of me. I dreaded every line that came from her mouth. It only got worse in chapters 5 and 6, when she started doing horrible shit that no one ever called her out on, and when she was made into this important martyr despite doing nothing all game.

So, the answer: I hated her over time. At first, I knew nothing about her at all, so I didn't have any opinion. But the more I got to know her, the more she annoyed me. The longer she was around, the more I despised her and saw her as the obnoxious waifu-bait she was. I tried to give her a chance and get to know her before I formed an opinion, but every second I had to spend with her on screen only made me want to tear her fucking eyes out.

My opinions of her went--

Chapter 1: No opinion. I don't know her. But I'm gonna try to like her, since I try to like all the characters.

Chapter 2: Oh, she's kind of creepy isn't she? And annoying. They're trying too hard to make her seem cute. And she's really boring...

Chapter 3: Okay she's really fucking creepy! God, I'm gonna have nightmares about this bitch! And she's so obnoxious too! We get it, she plays video games and she's a girl! Stop trying to play waifu-bait with her! And she's so fucking bland! why is she even here!?

Chapter 4: ah. mary sue. it's a mary sue. that's why. that's why she's so obnoxious. that's why they're trying so hard to shove it down your throat that's she's 'cute'. it's fan service because it's a video game with anime girls so of course the video game girl has to be an anime waifu. we're being played. I hate her. I despise her. She's so annoying and boring and obnoxious. She has nothing to her personality. She's worse than Maki.

Chapter 5: ohhh my god ohh my god oh my god I'm going to put my first through my fucking computer screen if she talks one more time oh my goooooddd

Chapter 6: I̷̩̰͓̮̻̔́̍͊̀͆ ̶̨̝̠̝̣̭͉̪̟̳̣͔̝̇̔͑̉̈́̅̐͗́̔̾̅̔͝͝ą̴̪̲̺̻̹̫͈̳̼͐͜m̴̢̢̧̛̻̼͕͔̝̀̿̂͌́͝ ̶̧̨̩̮͇̲͕̠̼̙̐͑̀̃̔̈̿̿͗̕͜i̸̡̧̥͙͈̦͊̕͜ͅn̷̢̛͉͙̩̹̦͚͚͚̹̗̗͈̜͐͂̇̑̇̊̊̃̕͜ ̶̛͙̲͕̫̯̹͚̝͇̘̻̊̋̃̈́̉͐̎̈́̏͜͠ë̵̗̺̘̗͕͒͐̉͊̄͌x̵̧̛̰̖̘̞͉̪̫̿̓̿̐̀̐̃̕c̴̢̨̛̰̙͇̟̘̳̦̼̲̪̺̀̉̎̀͋̋̀͜r̸̯̩̟͌̑̊̅͐͗͊̍͠û̴͕̥͈̦͚̜̠̲̯͖̖̲̉͗̔̅̇̎͛͊͜͝ͅͅc̷̘̞͍̦̙̲̟̰̬̔̔̆̀͜ì̷̢͕͙̲͑̾̈́͑̔̽́a̸̡̧̨̧̫̩̲͇̠̲͕̬͙̟̼͐̒̚ţ̶̲̘̞̫̗̯̱̤͒́̾͑͠͝ͅį̴̛̣͓̩̪̪̩̲̄̋̌͝ṅ̵̛͔͒̑͑̎̀̊͑̐͘̚ğ̶̢̹͕̤̱̖̜̠̟͍̗͔̇͗̀̑̀̉͝͝ ̴̢̤̗͓̻͍̩͎͒̈́͛ṕ̵̛͎̪̻̜̳̏̒̄͝a̸̛̮͖̮̞͛̉̒̐͗̽͌͒͌͑͑̊͘į̷̢͍̙͖̘̲͎̜̣̐͜n̸͖̘̥͙͍͕͉̺̈́͌̆̄́̈́̽͜͠ ̵̧̰̜̟̤̗̺̮̳́̽̓̾̉̉̍̔͊͋̓̇́̚b̸̧̩͇̣̫͓͖̜͖̫̫͔̜̾̒͛͐̈̈̋ͅȩ̷̛̹̪̤̱͓͙̰̼̞̮̇c̸̢̨̼̺̤͈͎̰͔̠̮̩͙̰͋̈́̓͛̆͛͌ạ̸̧̛̹̯̹́̿̄́̑̿̈̇̇̈́͊͘͝ṵ̷͎̮̱̔̇̍̅̃̒͑́͝͝s̶̳͚̻̖̈́̄̎̀̋͊̿̆̉͛͆̈́͛̈́̚ȩ̴̞͉͎̫̩͋͋͋̒̅̃̆̓̉ ̸̞̻̫͇̬̟̦̒̔̉ţ̶̛̲̫̝̫̩̳͎̈́͑̇̿̐͆̓̀͂̕͜͝ͅh̵̨̛̫̗̑͒̋̾̅̐̈͝͠i̴̞̖̓̇̽̏͋̀̈́̐̕s̷̲̱͈̤̪̪͛̌̈́̈́̈́̀̓͂̿̂͗̚͝͠ͅ ̴̳̭̮̪̜̣̝̱̤̅͐͐͘̚͜ͅb̸̜͇̺̼̲̞͈̟̫̎̍̑̈́͗͑̓̓͊̑̔̕̚͝i̵͎͚̞̻̭̩̬̟̯̝̣̠̳͌̀̃͘͝ͅt̴̠̑̉̾̇̏̄̐̌͗̽̒̔͑͑͆c̷̙̣̝̫̯͎̱̳͒͛̽͗̉́̈̇̚͠͝ͅh̵̭̓̏͑̏̿̅̌̆̊̎̓͆ ̵̠̘̲̦͈̰͎͈̹̾̑̿̀̐̾̄͠ͅȉ̸̟̘͙̌ͅs̴̫͉̼̹͉̪͔͓̣̼̽̊͌̊͌͋̑̃̏͆̈ ̶̦̠̂̉͋̑̎̈̍̋͐s̶̛̛͎̺̪̤̫̥̥̀͛̓̀͋̈́̇̔̏̃̑̕͜o̸̢͖̯͇̱̙̔̀̎̋̄͊̀̋̒̈́̄̊͊̕͝ ̵̨̧̛̳͍̲͓͇͍̃̾͛́́̓̔̚͝͝͝͝ͅͅṯ̶̛̹̲̀̋̃̏͆͛̉͋͂̂̈̈͑͘e̸̛̠̟̓͂̋̅̈̈́͂̃ŗ̶̧̦͎̗͓̺̪̪̞̜̦͌̍r̷͇̎͊͋̑̐̌͂͐̀̕͠i̴̯̗͖͕̺̖̣̗̝̙̪̐̌̅̈́͠ḃ̵͖̞̯̐͑̂̈̋̈́̋̉͂͐̕ḽ̵̢͉̹̤͕͔̠̞̻̤̘͍͖́̒̌̑́̈́̃͊̐̇̾̔̂ẻ̴̖̹̹̲̬̠̀̊̋̓̂ͅ.̴̢̲̺͒͒̈͋ ̶̘͈̄

And then I found out about the anime and how the fandom saw her, which just made it worse. So...thinking about her gives me indigestion and an aneurism. Story time over.

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nyrator · 3 years

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wondering what to make next still

5AM and just felt the need to vent again I guess

Just a very depressed day for no real reason, still brought down by how stagnant things are I suppose- My creativity, my situation, lots of things

Drew Lain fanart, got a nice group of people following me on twitter thanks to it. It’s silly to worry about things like follower count, but it’s sort of addictive at the same time- I feel like I know the ways to do it, if I wanted, but I guess I just don’t really want to just chase followers with fanart- Feels like Tsukumizu fanart’s the way to go after Lain if I did more fanart, but mann, even if I did, still wouldn’t know what to draw.

I admire artists, like that one Diva artist that draws nun arts, or that one Avogado artist, people who draw constantly, consistent themes, but also a form of ongoing narrative, or something. Not only drawing so often, but each piece being its own. Diva especially, the way there’s so much packed in every scene, with an ongoing narrative in each piece, it’s admirable.

I really want to draw- but I lack that story element. That writing ability. I used to have it, where I could brainstorm and write pages and pages of notes. But I’ve lost it, somehow, for years. Last time I remember doing it was when brainstorming the prewrite for Rotten Nyan and coming up with like seven or so chapters (and still haven’t finished one). I don’t know if I just gave up on my writing, or if I just don’t care, or what. Maybe it’s simply depression/anxiety issues that medication could fix.

I think I’m just going stir crazy- friends occasionally get me out of the house, at least, which is nice of them. But haven’t cleaned in forever, and the apartment’s becoming more and more of a mess I can’t find the energy to do anything about. Every day feels wasted and underutilized, and I still worry about things like blood clots or other health issues or something from how inactive I am. Feel bad for neglecting cats still, though finally got them new food to try to try to help them be healthier. Wish I wasn’t so allergic that I could let them into my room easier.

It’s really hard just sitting here, day after day, doing nothing and having no energy to do anything, and wondering how much of my life I’m going to waste doing this.

Still need to work on my social anxiety, too- lots of that from talking to people again. And I’m still worn out by the internet in general, spending too much time on it probably. Mainly twitter, I suppose, which is my own fault, but I’m too addicted to absorbing information. Sort of inspired me to write something new, but like I said earlier- I can’t write at all. Made two character designs and the broad strokes, but can’t lay out anything at all. Not even a single scene to draw. It’s a weird, self-serving story, that I’d probably make anonymously just to avoid feeling guilty about it. Basic premise is a depressed girl caught up in her simple problem(s?) while observing other characters and their more complex, hard to understand problems. The other main character is a boy with a strong sense of certain social issues to the point of fault, and the girl trying to make heads or tails of what’s right and what’s wrong. Maybe I should just make them two separate stories, though, since they don’t really mix well together, I think. If I even manage to make it at all.

Been trying to play Picross or read manga to escape, but as soon as its over, it hits hard. Today I decided to read that Fire Punch manga I hear a lot about, since a friend introduced me to that Chainsaw Man when I did that one group of six requests a while back, now that CSM is ending next week. Pretty good, bit all over the place, can appreciate how silly ridiculous it could be, though admittedly also felt lackluster to me in places like the ending, though I wouldn’t say the ending saga was bad either. Definitely an interesting manga, to say the least. Disliked the movie girl at first but she became pretty entertaining for the most part, then lost interest in them towards the end of their arc. I think I just wanted to see more of some of the characters they introduced in that part and felt a bit let down because tree things.

I think reading manga’s really the only hobby I consistently enjoy, it just requires finding a good one. Decided that I was going to buy myself a physical version of all the manga I’ve read that I enjoyed/don’t own, but then realized almost none of them have been localized, and the ones that have are the lower priority ones.

Also started playing FF9 again finally, just got to the Black Mage village. I’m also definitely not very good at video games. I’d like to want to play one again, but they’re very hard to get into, especially on my own- I usually just go with whatever other people want to play.

In a few days, it’ll be you&me’s 10 year conceptualization anniversary. Still no progress, and still can’t even feel the desire to draw or sprite something for it. A friend ignited a spark in me to work on it again, but it immediately blew out the next day. I think it’s an impossible dream- I’ve learned RPG Maker 2003 inside and out, and if I could make maps, I’d probably be set. But the fandom’s grown away from me, and it feels almost pointless to make at this point. Been way too worn out from hanging around people who criticize those kinds of games, I guess, myself included.

On a random note, laying down is weird for me, I’ve probably mentioned it before. I feel like I’ve been hallucinating a lot- like half dream, half thinking it’s real and blending with reality. Keep thinking my mother’s still alive, that the death thing was a misunderstanding. Or that my uncle wants me to live with him. I can’t even remember if that really happened or not. The house I dreamt wasn’t his, though. And yet, I’m not asleep when these things happen, I’m lying in bed thinking and aware of my surroundings, and of the fantasy at the same time, thinking of them like memories, or concurrently. My brain is weird. Not only that, but how easily I forget to do things- I’ve set up a reminder on my phone just to remind me to message someone every day, because I just can’t remember to after waking up.

I guess I just don’t want to sleep and be trapped in my thoughts again. But it’s 5:30 now, and I should sleep. I’m scared by how trapped I feel. Still need to find a way to see a therapist about it, but I’m not very proactive about that either.

Got my mother’s death certificates finally after three months. Now I need to contact the bank and stuff somehow. It’s intimidating. Apparently her cause of death was “aspiration pneumonitis possibly due to cerebellar atrophy”, believed to be over the course of months. I wonder what that entails, exactly, and if it could have been avoided in the nursing home she was put in. No sense thinking about that, I suppose, I just know my aunt’s interested in a lawsuit if we’re able, so we’ll see how things go.

People are kind, I get kind messages from people who read these. Even those that don’t message are still kind. Hopefully no one feels obligated to read these, but it is appreciated to be cared about. Thanks, everyone.

#text stuffs #nyrants

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atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine · 4 years

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Fire Emblem: Awakening Thoughts

As of the date May 20th, 2020, I finished my playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening on its one year anniversary of when I got it. It is now June 5th of writing this. This post will be my thoughts and feelings on Awakening, much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post last year. Let's get into some history between me and Fire Emblem before I go into Awakening.

As I've said before, Awakening was both my first Fire Emblem game and my first Tactical RPG. Smash Bros. was where I had heard of Fire Emblem but it wouldn't be until Ultimate came out that I would start to get interested. It was because of my friend's preference for Lucina that got me into playing as her in Smash and that's pretty much how she became both one of my mains and a favorite. It honestly wasn't till I listened to the Smash remixes of Id, Conquest, and Lost in Thoughts All Alone that I decided to play Awakening and then Fates. So thanks go out to both Smash and my friend Eric for converting me to Fire Emblem trash!

Much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post, I'll be going over every aspect of Awakening I can think of, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. I'll even include a Best/Worst Girl and Boy of both generations because that kind of thing seems to matter to some people, along with my reasons for why X is Y. Keep in mind that whoever I choose as those categories, it is just my opinion and you're free to disagree with me. I say this because I know that, no matter what I say, some diehard fans will get pissed at me and come at me for daring to shit on their favorite character. I already know some people are gonna get mad because they think X should be Best/Worst and that'll be fun to see (You can interpret that as sarcasm if you want).

Listed below are Awakening spoilers, so if you want to play the game and don't want to be spoiled, now's your chance to stop reading. I know Awakening came out in 2013, meaning 6 or 7 years ago, but there may be some people who haven't gotten around to playing it yet so I want to be courteous to them. Here are my thoughts on Fire Emblem: Awakening!

First off, the graphics. I think they looked really nice for a 3DS game that came out in the early 2010's and I believe this was Fire Emblem's first fully 3D game as well so that's really impressive. The in-game models were nicely detailed, the in-game sprites were nice looking, and the prerendered cutscenes were beautiful. This doesn't mean they're not without their faults, though. I wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated because it's easy to tell when an animation's been used over and over again, I feel as if the in-game sprites have some dissonance with official art, and there are times where expressions or animations for the prerendered cutscenes have looked pretty awkward. In terms of the first and last point, I'm giving IntSys some slack because, as I stated earlier, they were developing a game for the 3DS, a powerful handheld device but it's still a handheld, and this was FE's first 3D game so there may have been issues transitioning from 2D sprites to 3D models. I'll explain what I mean by my second point. I've looked at Cynthia's official art and when I see her face, I tend to see what I'd call a baby face, pudgy cheeks and all. Her in-game sprite, however, her face is sharper, more mature, if that makes sense. Maybe it's the pigtails throwing me off or it's just a difference between two art styles, I don't know. I'm not an artist so there's not much weight behind this but I'm just saying there's somewhat a dissonance between official art and in-game sprites.

Secondly, gameplay. I loved how easy it was and how I could switch between a simple and complex UI if I wanted to see which attacks could hit or what the enemy's stats were. This may sound stupid but I honestly thought it'd be way more difficult due to this being a Tactical RPG. I know strategy's a big part of Fire Emblem but strategy's not a big problem if you're like me and you grind to hell and back. Speaking of which, I played on Easy Casual mode so that might be why it seemed so simple from the get-go. Just to give you an idea of how much I grinded, I put in 200+ hours and that mostly consisted of buying a shitton of Reeking Boxes, spawning Risen on some of my favorite grind spots, and fighting them over and over again. I went through the 3 basic classes each character could have, maxed out their default class one last time, promoted them to their advanced class, and maxed out those classes 2-3 times over. I have a video on my Twitter that shows the stats of these characters and most of them are over 220 (The shapeshifters 300). Needless to say, I loved each and every fucking crit I got. Cordelia even got what I call a miracle crit, which means she got 2 crits in one round and after the enemy attacked, she got another 2 crits. Level grind ain't a joke in this game.

Thirdly, the music. Considering it's part of why I got into this game in the first place, I loved it. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the OST and it sounds so much better when you don't have the ambient sounds and you're not listening to it through the 3DS speakers. The song that hit me the most and just gave me the overwhelming feels was Id~Sorrow as it played in Chapter 21. It fit so well with the tone of the scene and I just sat there for a few minutes, letting it play in the background as I did shit. Other notable mentions are Id~Purpose, Destiny, Conquest, and the song that is just ellipses. If the music is this good in Awakening, I can't wait to see what's in store for Fates!

Fourthly, the voice acting. For a game where most of the voices come in forms of clips, I thought they were good. Each of the actors tried their best to convey their characters in the clips they were allowed to have and I think it shows. The only critique I have, and it's not the actors' fault, is that some of the characters' voices don't fit them. I'm not saying they miscast these characters, it's more like the direction was off, if that makes sense. Let me bring up Cynthia, Kjelle, and M!Morgan as examples. I don't think it's a stretch to say that, sometimes when you look at a character, you kinda imagine what they'd sound like before you hear their actual voice, right? I already brought up Cynthia's looks so I imagined her voice to sound very high-pitched and maybe a little childlike. I hear her voice and, while she's high-pitched and some of her voice clips do go into that childlike territory, she's nasally sounding and more mature. Kjelle is a complicated case in that, her voice fits her appearance (minus the armor) but not her personality. Her personality is similar to Sully's so I figured her voice would sound gruffer and not...cute, if that's the right word. M!Morgan's, I think, everyone can see the problem with. He's supposed to be the youngest of the kids, right? Since he's the only third generation character and all that? I think he just sounds a little too old for the supposed baby of the kids. Again, I'm not saying the voices are bad or that the delivery/emotion was bad, I just think the direction in which they were voiced don't fit some of the characters. Maybe I'm just thinking in terms of archetypes or something.

Now we move on to the story. I can't say as to whether it was good or not, mainly because I spoiled myself on it way before I decided on playing Awakening, so I don't think I can say much to the quality. The least I'll say is it's serviceable. I'll admit, the one thing I was shocked by was the appearance of the Grima Avatar because I thought Grima was inside Robin the whole time and I didn't think he'd have a separate vessel. I straight up thought Grima!Robin was either my mother or a twin I wasn't aware of so I'm giving credit to the writers for surprising me. Anyway, I think the only flaw I have with the story is with the pacing. I thought the first half was fine, it wasn't too fast or too slow. It was the second half that the pacing couldn't find a middle ground. Now I'm going to say that this half was stretched out over months of my playtime so whatever I say next might be exaggerated because of my procrastinating ass so... I feel like the Valm arc was way too slow and the Grimleal arc had so much trouble finding a middle ground. The beginning of the Grimleal arc was quick but Grima himself decided that I had to finish 2 and a half chapters before I finally got to beat him and you have to deal with constant reinforcements before you kill off the target. I think if it weren't for my overleveled as fuck units, I wouldn't have finished Awakening in time for my birthday.

Just for shits and giggles, I'm gonna say what I picked for my choice with both Luce's judgement and Grima's fate. I picked the self-sacrificial choices, which means I accepted Luce's judgement and allowed her to kill me and I dealt the final blow to Grima so Chrom didn't have to. While I knew the outcomes of both choices and them ultimately not meaning anything, I wanted my Robin to reflect what I would've done and I'm a very self-sacrificial person. Because I made Chrobin happen in my playthrough, which meant Luce was my daughter, I believe that, if my child who came from an apocalyptic world told me I was the reason for that happening and that she came back through time to stop that future from happening so she and the others wouldn't suffer, I would've let her kill me. Parents would and should do anything for their kids and if my death possibly gave my daughter the chance for a better life, I'd take it in stride. As for me dealing the final blow to Grima, if it was to save everyone I loved, I would've done it. Although there's some feelings of wanting to give a big "Fuck you" to Grima and to permanently end the problem so any future descendants wouldn't have to deal with it. This section may sound more philosophical and personal than I usually write but I think it deserved it.

Now we're on to Supports and who I chose to be together. I don't think it's wrong to say that this is where the characters really get to shine and it's because of the Supports I love these kids and how much I'm going to miss them when I move on to other FE games. As for the "canon" couples, I mainly went with characters that I thought would complement each other and this was one of the few things I tried to choose for myself. I tried my best to go for pairings that weren't fan favorites but I'm also not very connected with the fandom as of writing this so I may be completely wrong in which ships were favorites or not. So here are the pairings I got for my playthrough!

Chrom-Robin

Frederick-Sumia

Virion-Miriel

Vaike-Nowi

Stahl-Sully

Lon'qu-Cordelia

Ricken-Lissa

Gaius-Maribelle

Gregor-Cherche

Libra-Panne

Henry-Olivia

Lucina-Inigo

Owain-Cynthia

Brady-Nah

Kjelle-Laurent

Severa-Yarne

Obviously, there are some characters missing from this list and I can explain why. I didn't recruit Kellam and Tharja and it's because your girl is a dumbass. Kellam, I thought, was already on my team, he was just labelled as an ally so I didn't need to recruit him. They really should've made that clear. Tharja, on the other hand, was an even bigger dumbass than me because she decided to charge after Robin, who happened to be in front and was way overleveled, and got her ass promptly beaten with a crit. I regret not getting Kellam but after hearing how awful of a person Tharja is and how many fans are willing to put aside emotional abuse and stalker-like tendencies to have a chance to fuck her, she can stay buried in the sand where I electrocuted her ass. Unfortunately, this does means Noire didn't pop up in my recruitment list and that fucking sucks. The only characters left I didn't have a pairing were Gerome and Morgan. I think Gerome wouldn't really care for a romantic partner because he's all about not wanting to create ties in this time and shit and, since I see Morgan as the baby of the kids, I figured he'd be a little too young to be in a relationship. Despite that, I wish I got him and Nah together because I found out after she was shipped with Brady that Morgan's the only S-Support she'll say "I love you" to and I was immediately filled with regret.

Before I move on to the Best/Worst contest, there's something I need to bring up because I can see what sensible fans have shown now. This game is HELLA gay. Like, holy fuck, how many instances are there where you have two characters of the same sex and they have dialogue that seems to have been written with romantic intent but the writers decide it's meant to be platonic? Maybe I just have this weird line of thought on how straights are because there's no fucking way some of these gay moments would be a thing with even the most accepting straights. Maribelle calling Lissa darling and other pet names, Robin blushing from some of the girls and even mistaking Flavia's proposition for a marriage proposal, Severa looking at Kjelle's abs, the list goes on. I'm not straight because I'd be doing some of this shit with a potential girlfriend if I could! Why did it take IntSys until 3 Houses to implement LGBT+ pairings when this game is right here?! At least this game doesn't have the weird student/teacher relationships 3H has and believe me when I say that, if it weren't for the fact I could give less of a fuck for 3H, I wouldn't play that game for that reason! Anyway, Awakening is hella gay and it should've been the first LGBT+ FE game instead of 3H.

The Best/Worst contest... As I said in the beginning, there'll be a Best/Worst Boy and Girl for both generations because that's fun and it seems to matter a lot to some people. Repeating what I said, this is just my opinion and you're free to agree or disagree with me. One rule I'm putting in is I will try my best to not pick fan favorites. Don't get me wrong when some of the crowd pleasers are good but there are other characters that deserve just as much love as the fan favorites so this is why I'm putting in this rule. Without further ado, here are the rulings!

1st Gen

Best Boy-Lon'qu

Best Girl-Panne

Worst Boy-Virion

Worst Girl-Miriel

2nd Gen

Best Boy-Owain

Best Girl-Cynthia

Worst Boy-Inigo

Worst Girl-Severa

Let's see how many people I piss off with these judgements. So, my reasoning: Best Boy for 1st gen was a big toss-up. I kept wanting to choose between Chrom, Frederick, Stahl, and Lon'qu because they really endeared themselves to me but I chose Lon'qu in the end because he's honestly such a dork (I mean, all of them are) and I gotta admire how he tries to overcome his fear of women and try being there for his wife and daughter if he happens to have one. There's also the fact he has to literally psyche himself up to talk to women if you check in with him in the Barracks and I'm just like "Fucking hell, that's adorable and I GET it". Best girl is Panne because believe me when I say that the moment I see this woman and hear her voice, I'm immediately gay for her. Then she transforms into a giant rabbit, kicks so much ass, and I'm in love. Funny story, I'd talk to my friend about my progress in Awakening on Discord and the moment he asks me who best girl was and I answered Panne, he called me out for being a furry. Granted, I would've automatically said Luce but I'm trying not to pick fan favorites so I get his criticism. If a woman like Panne existed in real life, bunny ears and tail and all, I'd probably become a furry for her, no questions asked. As for worst boy and girl, Virion and Miriel are characters I honestly don't give much of a fuck about. Not that they're bad, I just don't care about their archetypes, if that makes sense. Miriel I found to be boring and Virion's of the Casanova archetype and I've always kinda hated that archetype so that's why they're on the ranking.

Oh boy, 2nd gen. So, best boy being Owain. This boy is going to kill me. He's so adorable and sweet and he's just a good boy. There are literally Tweets on my Twitter where I just gush about him and he deserves so much love. He's just a sweet boy who loves his parents so much and is so proud to be their son and how he manages to rope his cousins (Luce and Morgan) into going with his fantasies and how they just go along with it! Owain is a cinnabun and I want to protect him and love him. Anyway, best girl being Cynthia is sorta the same reason as Owain. She's just so bubbly and happy and just adorable. Yeah, she may get carried away with showboating but I just love her earnest desire to be a hero. I think everyone can see why I paired Owain and Cynthia up. Now for the worst. Inigo and Severa are probably the only characters in this whole game that straight up got on my fucking nerves and for different reasons. Outside of his supports with Olivia and Henry, Inigo's constant flirting with the girls and Robin and inability to take no for an answer just rubbed me the wrong way. I actually put out a Tweet saying how Inigo's like an r/niceguy and I still think he is one. Course, this doesn't mean I didn't have my fair share of laughs from him. I fucking died at his and Gerome's A-Support where he ends up pathetically crying after the emo loner got more game than him and Gerome has to comfort his ass, that was hilarious. It also helped the fact that Liam O'Brien, who I've only heard him as the brooding emo loner role, voiced Inigo as the complete opposite of that and I had a blast. Severa, on the other hand, was...really unpleasant. There's a reason I hate Tsunderes with a passion and it's because they're unnecessarily bitchy towards everyone they know, even if they have no reason to be. Severa, however, was somehow worse because she went out of her way to be horrible to people. My dislike for her was cemented the moment I saw her and Cynthia's C-Support and she chose to make fun of her, despite Cynthia minding her own business and Severa just going "fuck it". However, I should express that I understand why Inigo and Severa are the way they are and that's why I'm not being as harsh on them as I could be. They still have their good moments and I can appreciate them while also raking them over the coals.

So that concludes my review/experience of Fire Emblem: Awakening! Despite some moments of frustration and annoyance, I had fun playing this! I mean it when I say I'm gonna miss these kids but I had plenty of time to spend with them so it's time to move on to newer lands. Next up on the list is Fates and I think I'm siding with Hoshido first. It's funny how, despite me spoiling the story for myself 3 separate times, I still can't remember much, if any, of it so that may say something about the quality. I also know Fates is pretty divisive among the fandom but the thing I know it for is the weird pseudo-incestuous ships it has so that's going to be fun! Hopefully, I'll get around to playing as one of my other mains in Smash, my water horse dragon Corrin, sometime soon and I'll be sure to let everyone know when my journey will start!

#fire emblem awakening

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qveensbury · 4 years

Text

return to sender; ch. 2

i said February lol here y’all go

AO3; zutara week 2019

to all the boys i’ve loved before AU — ch. 1

“Is this a bad time?”

Zuko stared at Katara.

“No…”

“You look distraught.” She sat at the counter and leaned her cheek against her palm.

“After the day I had, who wouldn’t be.”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about today. Is that okay? Do you want to head to the patio in the back? Your uncle said it was a good place to talk.”

“Uh, sure.” He stood up and walked out from behind the counter. “Is everything okay?”

“Yea.”

The creakiness of Katara’s voice raised Zuko’s eyebrow.

“Are you sure?” Zuko sat in a chair.

Katara sat across from him. “Positive.” She tapped her fingers together. “A little known fact about me is that I am petty.”

Zuko crossed his arms. He thought of his sister and wondered what storms Katara hid. “Ok.”

“So, when Suki sent me a screenshot of Jet’s subtweets freaking out about us in the library, I just got a little happy.” Katara took in Zuko’s raised eyebrows and scoffed. “What is he gonna do? Dump me again?”

Zuko realized the storm was larger than he’d imagine. “You wanted to tell me we pissed Jet off?“

“No, I’m wondering if you’re interested in continuing to piss him off.”

Zuko frowned. “How?”

“The one thing you never want to do is show someone how to push your buttons. Jet just gave us a YouTube tutorial. He realizes it was a mistake to dump me. And the thought of me moving on is driving him crazy. I think it’s only fair to mess with him a little. He was a royal jerk. You know that better than anyone.”

“He is.”

“So are you interested in being my fake boyfriend just until Jet apologized for being a horrible human being.”

“That could take a while.”

“Jet can be pretty contrite when I’m involved.”

Zuko felt his eyebrows furrow. After the day I’ve had, the last thing I need is another ball to juggle on top of Je—

“And wouldn’t this temporarily solve the Jin situation? It didn’t look like you were too excited to talk to her about your letter.” Katara folded her hands under her chin and leaned her elbows on the table. “You don’t have much to lose.”

Zuko pursed his lips. A fake relationship seemed so over the top. “What would it look like?”

“Well, we’d pretend to be a couple. We’ll say we started dating after you sent me your letter. We’ll go to parties and school events together. I can come to any theatre shows you have. We’ll hold hands—Jet hated it. It can be a win-win.” Katara’s eyes were sparkling.

“I don’t know.”

How many chances would he get to piss off Jet like this?

Katara hummed. “You don’t have to answer right now. Just think about it? Here let me give you my number.”

“Are there any other rules we should have in place?” Zuko handed his phone to Katara.

“Don’t fall in love with me, Ryuku,” Katara winked.

Yea, that’d be a bad idea.

“Here lemme walk you back.” Katara stood up.

Zuko followed her to the cafe. He saw a familiar ponytail and froze. He grabbed Katara’s arm before she could step in the cafe.

“Actually Katara, let’s do it.”

“Really?”

“Yea.” Zuko glanced above Katara before looking back at her. “Yes.”

She squealed before throwing her arms around his neck.

Zuko took a step back to steady himself, wrapping his arm around her. He saw Jin. She blinked and pivoted out of the cafe.

* * *

Katara stepped out of Zuko’s car.

“You’re supposed to let me open the door for you.”

Katara raised an eyebrow at him before glancing to the side. She turned to Zuko and beamed. “Sorry. It’ll be nice getting used to dating a gentlemen.”

Zuko turned and saw Jet. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Ready to go to class?”

“Yup!” Katara skipped around the car and took Zuko’s hand. She pulled out her phone. “Quick picture?”

Zuko nodded, a blush taking over his cheeks. He leaned towards her as she took the photo.

The relationship reminded Zuko of a bubble. It was pretty. But, he knew it wouldn’t last long.

* * *

“Ryuku,” preceded an arm being flung around Zuko’s shoulder. “What’s up?”

“Gas prices, Jet.”

Jet chuckled. “Always the killjoy, huh, Ryuku? Saw you with Katara this morning. What’s that about?”

“We’re dating. I wrote her a letter and the feeling was mutual.”

“I knew you had a thing for her,” Jet said dropping his voice menacingly low. Zuko knocked Jet’s arm away. “And yet, I never ruined your chances with Katara. You managed to do that all on your own.”

* * *

Katara scanned Zuko’s face. “Are you okay?”

“I saw Jet and—”

“What did he say?”

“He wasn’t thrilled we’re dating.”

Katara rolled her eyes. “His problem.” She stuck her hand out. “Are you ready?” She smiled.

Zuko reluctantly smiled back. He took her hand. “Lead the way.”

“This is Zuko, my boyfriend.”

In turn, Katara introduced her friends so quickly Zuko didn’t catch the names. He started to ask for them to say their names again.

But, one of the girls started talking.

Zuko sighed, hoping someone would say a name so he could start to memorize them. But he only heard Iri and Haru’s names.

At the end of lunch, Haru extended a fist towards Zuko. “Zuko, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” he returned the fist bump.

“You have to be at my Halloween party.”

Zuko smiled. “Sure.”

Katara stood beside Haru. “Yay!” She shook her fists in a cheer. “We should have a couples’ costume.”

Zuko looked at the ceiling, raising his eyebrows. “I’m happy to hear ideas.”

Katara giggled. “Perfect.”

Zuko watched Katara take the ball back from a defender and lead the attack on the other side.

“Your girlfriend is great.”

“I don’t know that much about soccer.” Zuko turned to Mai.

Sitting besides him, she scoffed. “You’re supposed to say ‘she is.’ You’re terrible at this. How did you two start dating again?”

“Uh, Katara got a letter and we realized the feeling was mutual.”

“Mhm,” Mai watched as the other team started their counter.

Ty Lee stood in the goal, shouting instructions to the defense. “Romantic.”

“How did you and Ty Lee start dating?”

“We were friends and one day Ty Lee asked me if I liked girls. Sometimes, it feels like I was just waiting for someone to notice…I’m glad it was her. She asked me out and we’ve been together ever since.”

“That’s sweet.”

“Pay attention to the game Zuko.”

The referee on the field blew the final whistle.

“Well,” Mai stood up. “I’m gonna wait in my car for Ty Lee. Later Zuko.”

“Later Mai.”

Zuko looked at the field. The players circled around their coach. She talked for several minutes before clapping. The girls got up and started running around the field putting things away—the flags, the cooler, the soccer balls.

Katara looked at the bleachers and waved at Zuko. She raised her pointer finger. Give me a minute.

Leaning back, Zuko nodded.

This time Katara walked out from the gym and waved again, beckoning Zuko to join her.

“Thanks for coming out.”

“Of course.”

Katara pulled out her phone. “C’mhere.”

Zuko shuffled towards her.

She turned as he stood behind her. She extended her arm before tutting.

“Can you talk the picture? My arm is too short.”

Zuko took the phone and angled the camera to capture both of them.

“Perfect.” Katara smiled, leaning back against him. “Cheese!”

Zuko smiled and took the photo.

Satisfied with the photo, Katara smiled at Zuko. “What a great way to end the day!”

Zuko’s heart fluttered. “Yea.”

After Zuko dropped her home, he stared at the photo Katara tagged him in. The sun had just begun to set when he took the picture and it brought out the gold in his eyes and made Katara’s skin glow.

They looked…good together. Like a natural couple.

Katara’s caption—soccer husbands of Republic City—made him chuckle.

Katara’s having too much fun with this.

“So you’re the guy who’s been dating my sister?” Sokka used a toothpaste to clean his teeth.

“Yes.” Zuko sat opposite Sokka waiting for him to say something.

Sokka was home on break from the magnet school he went to. The school was on the other side of the county so Sokka stayed with his grandmother.

Sweat collected on Zuko’s palms and he wiped them on his pants.

This is just a formality, Ryuku. You need to meet Sokka to keep up appearances and that’s all.

“So, are you a sophomore like Katara?”

“I’m a senior.”

Sokka let out a low whistle. “Way to go, Tara.”

There’s no reason for you to be so nervous.

“What do you do for fun?”

“Fun?”

“Yea. When you’re not at school or work?”

A groove formed in Zuko’s forehead as he tried to recall the last thing he did for fun.

Sokka snorted. “Oh boy. You’re definitely meant for my sister.”

“No! I mean I train at the dojo.”

“And, is your brain completely off?”

The groove grew deeper. “No.”

“Exactly! I have something to introduce you to.” Sokka stood up. “C’mon.” He led Zuko into his room, “Sit,” Sokka said, pointing to a beanbag.

Zuko did, watching Sokka turn on a small tv and the game console next to it.

“We’re gonna play some video games. You need to get a hobby.”

“Uh,” Zuko accepted the controller from Sokka. “Ok.”

“We need to avoid the guards and save the princess.”

“So, I shouldn’t try to think of how to save the princess?”

“Shh. It’s a different part of the brain.”

The game music filled the silence.

“This is going pretty well,” Sokka mumbled.

“Watch out!”

The defeated score played.

“Ugh! Let’s try it again.” Sokka reset the game.

Zuko let his shoulders drop. His brain needed the break. Even though it sounded like a hasty excuse, Sokka was right: the video game felt like a different part of his brain.

“Are you two done in here?”

Zuko looked away for a moment.

“Zuko, look out!”

Turning back too late, a guard captured Zuko’s game sprite.

“Sorry,” Katara sat on Sokka’s bed in between the two of them.

The tiny growl in Sokka’s throat suggested disbelief. “What do you want?”

“Zuko and I were gonna go study.”

“You said he’s like a star student and so are you. Let him goof off once in a while.”

Katara pouted.

Placing his controller down, Zuko turned to Sokka, “Thanks, Sokka. I had fun.”

“Katara gets everyone to do what she wants,” Sokka leaned back against the wall.

Although he could see the expression on Katara’s face, he knew she was either smirking or sticking her tongue out at her brother.

“Fine. I’ll let you kids study. Next time I’m in town we’ll try the new game I got last week.”

“Oh bubby,” Katara used a baby talk tone. “Let’s take a picture.” Katara placed an arm around Sokka’s neck. “Zuko you too.” She handed her phone to Sokka and put her other arm around Zuko’s shoulders. “My two favorite boys.”

“Ooh. How cute,” Sokka mocked. “Smile!”

Zuko was unsure if knowing Katara would visit was contributing to his nerves or bringing them down.

Their high school put on a renaissance fair every year instead of the usual homecoming fair. An alumni helped with the alehouse and the theatre program supplied actors around the grounds for an authentic experience.

“Hey you!” Katara waved. “Earl of the Pearl manor, correct?”

“Yes,” Zuko smirked, “how can I be of service?”

“The show starts in an hour, right?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Good. Can’t wait to see you perform,” Katara smiled. “Sorry, outsell!”

Zuko felt his chest grow light.

“Can we take a picture?” She brandished her phone.

“Is that a new case?” He whispered, breaking character.

Katara blinked, “Yea.”

“It suits you.” He took the phone from her hands and raised it to take the picture.

The fruit from Katara’s shampoo signaled she was getting closer to him. She pressed her head under his chin.

Zuko’s heart stuttered.

“Smile,” she giggled.

He listened.

After Zuko handed her phone back, she cooed looking at her phone. “That reminds me. I found a couple’s outfit that should be perfect for Haru’s party. For someone in the theatrical arts, you’d think you’d be more into costumes. But! This should work,” she turned her phone to show the picture to Zuko. “Your costume will be a lot simpler than mine and we’ll have plenty of time to put it all together. What do you think?”

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck. “Yea. That could work.”

“Don’t forget we’ll all be in costume. And, besides you’ll be with me,” Katara winked.

Before he could stop himself, he was smiling. “Okay.”

“Break a leg, Zuko! Can’t wait to see you in action.”

“What are you wearing Jake from State Farm?” Katara giggled.

Zuko snorted, finding her laughter funnier than the joke she was repeating since he picked her up. Pulling into a parking spot, he shut the engine off.

Clicking her tongue, she showed him the poll results on her Instagram story. “No fair! People think you’d give better insurance than I would.”

The photo Katara’s dad took of them served as the background to the poll Katara described.

“Maybe pointing the price gun at the camera wasn’t the best idea.”

Katara pointed, looking down at it, ”Sokka worked hard on this.”

“He did, but it might not be the best PR strategy.”

“Well, what do you know?”

“Enough to beat you in the polls.”

Katara hmpfed. “Obviously, it’s because you’re cute.”

Zuko froze. “Huh?”

“Don’t try to fish for compliments Ry—“ She blinked at him. “Oh, you’re serious. Zuko you do know you’re handsome right?”

“I, um,” facing the steering wheel, he struggled to pull the key out of the ignition. “Someone may have mentioned it.”

“But, do you believe it?”

He shrugged, before finally freeing the key.

“You should. You’re very handsome.”

The keys bit into his palm. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

“Well, uh, we should go inside.”

Before Zuko could knock on the front door. Katara tugged on his hand. “First, the doors always unlocked. No need to announce yourself. Second, this light is perfect. We should take a quick picture.” She handed him her phone.

At least she didn’t ask me if this was my first high school party. Zuko extended his arm to take the photo.

“You’re getting much better at this!” Katara cooed after she reviewed the picture. “Okay let’s go.” Pushing the door open, she put her phone in her apron and took his hand to lead him inside.

“Zuko! Katara! You made it!” Haru grew out a mustache to complete his pirate costume.

He embraced Katara before giving Zuko a fist bump. A beat later, he laughed. “Nice. If anyone needs insurance, talk to these.

Katara squeezed Zuko’s hand. “Aren’t we so cute?”

“You don’t really give us a moment to forget, Katara.”

The smirk on her face probably meant something different to Haru than it did to Zuko.

It wasn’t flirty or cheeky. That smirk said our ploy is working.

And, that bothered him.

“Let’s get some snacks,” she tugged him towards the kitchen.

When she saw Katara, Haru’s mom’s face brightened. “How are you, my dear?”

“Good!” Katara let go of Zuko’s hand to hug her. “This is my boyfriend Zuko.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Nice to meet you.” Haru’s mom turned to Katara winking. “He’s polite.”

She giggled, “Stop it. Don’t be embarrassing. We’re just getting some snacks.” The handful of candy Katara took wouldn’t hold her for very long but Zuko didn’t point it out.

“Are you gonna get anything?” Katara asked Zuko, eating a gummy worm.

He shook his head.

“Are you ready to explore?” Katara put the price gun under her arm and placed her hand in his.”

“S-sure.”

She smiled, leading him through the Prakoso house.

It all felt nice. And, Zuko was sure it looked nice, too. The picture of the two of them holding hands, matching costumes, having side conversations.

It would look good until you got too close.

Like fake flowers.

“Ugh, I’d kill to have a relationship like yours. You two are like couple goals.” Pearlista said before wandering off.

“Yea, except it’s fake,” Zuko mumbled.

Katara stiffened.

Crap.

Holding his breath, Zuko let his hand go slack in Katara’s.

“Zuko, I—“

“Hey! Haru wants every one to take a group photo.”

“We should go,” Zuko tugged on Katara’s hand towards where their classmate pointed.

She didn’t protest, letting him lead her.

Every time Katara tried to start a conversation, Zuko blurted something out to steer it away from what he said.

After the photo.

During the pumpkin carving.

And, the dance-off.

“I’m gonna go use the restroom. Can you hold this?” Katara handed the price gun to Zuko.

“Sure.”

“Be right back.”

Katara didn’t squeeze his hand or his face. She didn’t even wink.

Oh no.

Fiddling with the prop, Zuko sighed.

I wonder if she’s mad.

The bass of the music swallowed his tiny groan.

I’m being sucha downer maybe that’s why she left.

Zuko ruffled the back of his head.

Agni, I’m the worst. I should go tell her I didn’t mean it.

His heartbeat was a little faster as he walked around looking for Katara. Spotting her white headband, he walked towards her.

“Ka—“

Zuko’s stomach clenched.

Back against the wall, Katara’s arms were crossed.

Jet leaned over her, talking into her ear. Their body language reflected years of comfort and familiarity Zuko and Katara still hadn’t achieved.

There was another smirk on Katara’s face. She opened her mouth to say something when she saw Zuko. She pushed past Jet, shoving his shoulder away from her.

“Zuko, I—“

“Katara,” Jet called for her.

“I’m ready to go home. Please. If that’s ok.”

“Yea. Totally.”

She took his hand and sighed.

“C’mon.”

Zuko wanted to bring it up. It—his comment or Katara and Jet.

Of course, he knew their relationship was a set-up and eventually Katara would end up back with Jet. That was the plan.

But, Zuko drank the kool-aid Katara was serving.

They were cute together.

And he liked being with her.

He liked her.

Maybe Zuko never stopped liking her?

Why am I so shaken up by the two of them together?

He pulled up in front of her house.

“I had a lot of fun tonight.” Katara looked at Zuko.

“Good. Yea.”

Katara paused. “Thanks for the ride. Good night Zuko.”

“Good night Katara.”

What if Jet was apologizing to Katara?

What if she wanted him back?

What if that meant we’re through?

A sharp pain camped in his chest.

Jet looked like he belongs next to Katara. When have I ever felt that way?

Zuko stared at his bedroom ceiling.

The whole relationship’s fake.

Why is it such a surprise?

Somewhere along the way, the bubble had become solid. Fantasy is incompatible with reality.

Bubbles pop.

Solid things shatter.

A/N: uh khakis?

#Zutara week #zutara week 2019 #zutara fanfiction #atla #alta au #zutara AU #day three; shattered #return to sender; tatbilb AU #zkweek2019

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novantinuum · 5 years

Link

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 1.2K

Summary: In another world, he doesn’t have his mother’s sword or shield to hide behind when Bismuth lands her strike. The bubble pops.

Steven falls apart.

Chapter 1: Pink

“So what are you gonna do, shatter me?!”

Bismuth’s tone is corrosive, boiling with hurt, as sharp as the fine point that she’s forcibly pressed against the gem inlaid in her chest. Steven’s hands quiver against the cool metal casing of the breaking point. Once assured words derail and fragment in the presence of terrifying uncertainty, his mind grasping at straws for the barest glimmer of optimism. (Optimistic thought number one: While it’s absolutely the most horrifying tool of war he’s ever had the misfortune of holding, he’s at least glad this thing isn’t a thousand billion degrees like everything else in this crazy lava powered furnace.)

“Go ahead!” she continues, tears budding in her eyes, and jerks the weapon against her gem so roughly that it clinks against the hard crystal’s surface. His shoulders seize at the sound. “Just do it!”

Whatever force of fear that once tied his tongue dissipates at the first sight of her distress.

“No!” he says, surmounting the strength to rebel against her hold, to pull the razor sharp point away from her. “Even if we don’t agree, nobody deserves this...”

In an instant, a complex series of emotions flicker across her stony features in consuming waves too rapid to identify. Confusion, maybe? A hint of relief? He dares to dream she’ll reconsider, earnestly apologize, back down and store the weapon away. Destroy it, even. They can warp to the temple together, and then everything will finally return to normal. A new normal, with her a part of his Crystal Gem family! Amethyst will have a new wrestle buddy, and Pearl and Garnet will smile a little brighter alongside their old friend!

But any hope he dares cling to is quickly incinerated under the blistering anger radiating from deep within that Gem’s tear stained eyes. She yanks the breaking point from his grasp. Heart pounding in his ears, his glance desperately skates over his mom’s sword lying across the room. Too far away, too far away! Bismuth raises her weapon adorned arm above her head and swings.

It happens so fast there’s not even time to summon his shield. Instinctively the world around him turns to pink, but he knows his limits, knows the bubble’s protection won't be enough. Not against something like this, not at point blank. Steven grinds his molars together, slams his eyes shut. He suddenly wishes he hugged everyone goodnight before going to bed. He wishes he texted his dad.

The bubble pops.

In a heartbeat, agony tears through his nerves like nothing he’s ever experienced before, radiating from his gem all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes and drawing a hoarse scream from his lips. Something within him shatters into fragments, rips away with a force unimaginable and shoves him forcibly to the warm stone. He desperately tries to raise another bubble shield but now his body is cold, cold, cold and his head feels woozy, stuffed to the brim with cotton. He catches a faint flicker of pink through the crack of his eyelids. But that solid clink against crystal, followed by that horrid, horrid sound— the unmistakable sign of a cracking gemstone— might as well have come from miles away.

When he finally opens his eyes again, he’s immediately aware of two things.

One: he’s shivering. Despite the overwhelming heat of the forge, heat he knows should be making him sweat rivers, his body convulses and his teeth chatter like he’s just come out of the snow.

Two: after her aggression he doesn’t understand why, but Bismuth is holding him. His breath hastens as he realizes this, but in his current state of disorientation he doesn’t fight it. She’s pressed him tight against her chest like he’s suddenly the most precious being in existence, her hard light form nearly burning to the touch even though Gem bodies don’t produce heat like organic life does. Paired alongside the uncontrollable shivering, he‘s pretty sure that’s reason for concern.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she cries, fat tears budding at the corners of her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. “Shards, I- I was so sure that you were somehow Rose that I almost-“ Her voice hitches, unable to complete that sentence.

A pang of... of indescribable emptiness assails him then, and a glimpse at the figure standing motionless where he once stood enlightens him on concerning reality number three.

“Steven. Steven, please tell me you can still hear me? Please tell me you’re not- I didn’t mean to- for any of this to happen, I swear!”

“W-what...” His throat constricts, horror gripping his limbs as he shakily pulls up the hem of his shirt and finds nothing but smooth, blemish-less skin. “Where’s my-?” His gemstone is nowhere to be seen. Gone. Except...

His gaze drops once more on the softly glowing, pink clone of himself that’s currently staring at him with hauntingly blank irises. He doesn’t speak a word, and his expression barely shifts at all, but Steven soon finds himself understanding his other self‘s existence regardless. He... he saved him. (Them?) Somehow, this hard light manifestation split himself apart to shove him away from Bismuth’s strike, sparing him from the brunt of the breaking point’s force. And yet...

Phantom pains from a gem he no longer possesses arc like lightning through his now completely human body. He gives a sharp whimper, his eyes growing wet. It’s almost immobilizing, reminiscent of the feeling one gets when they accidentally slam their funny bone against a counter or a door jam except it’s everywhere at once. Simultaneously, his pink double’s form glitches like a video game sprite.

Oh. Oh, no. Surely that’s not what—

Bismuth pulls his frail form tighter as he bursts into tears. Memories of a distant afternoon he’s tried so hard to forget slam to the forefront of his mind, leaving him helpless under their power. Amethyst, fracturing her gemstone when she fell on the hard edge of a boulder. Amethyst, her form glitching and morphing wildly, growing more and more unstable with every minute until she could barely speak or move. The bone chilling cracking noise that plays over and over in his deepest darkest nightmares, absolutely unmistakable in its horror, just like the sound of a car’s bumper crunching inwards. The same noise ringing through his ears not moments ago, the breaking point aimed straight at his gem.

“What do I do?” she asks fervently, her attention snapping back and forth between his two fractured selves, human and Gem. “How do we fix this??"

Steven can’t catch a breath through his sobs to even respond at first. He’s heaving so hard his chest aches. Tears streak lines through the dirt that’s caked on his face from their fight. As he desperately reaches out towards his double, a keening cry slips through his lips. The absence of his gemstone weighs on him as if something had reached its hand inside him and scooped it out like pumpkin guts. One moment he‘s whole, and the next... He doesn’t understand how any of this came to happen. All he knows— the unceasing mantra buzzing within his woozy cotton-filled mind— is that he needs him, has to reach him to become whole again—

Need— I need to...

"T-take me back," he croaks, quivering helplessly in her arms. "I- I need—"

Awareness surges into his double's otherwise blank features as he chimes in to order the other Gem. The emotionless monotone of that voice is enough to send a shudder through his bones.

"The temple. Now."

Notes:

I honestly don't know how long this will go on for, or in what direction. All I know is that I wanted to explore the idea that Gem/human Steven coming apart (as per Change Your Mind) is a sort of subconscious survival instinct, one which will only occur when Steven's about to suffer some pretty egregious injuries to his gemstone.

I figure Steven's subconscious attempts at protecting himself were able to:

A) Entirely spare his organic body from harm. (All pain human Steven feels here is flat out shock from suddenly being without his gemstone- and while they're separate he still is somewhat connected, thus can sense something's off when Gem Steven is glitching.)

B) Defend against the breaking point JUST enough that it only grazed/cracked his gemstone instead of full out shattering it.

As for Bismuth, we don't really get a chance to see her heel turn because Steven is blacked out for it. But the moment the split happened... and she saw human Steven spilled on the forge's floor, and Gem Steven cracked... it's alarming enough that it snaps her out of her rage and makes her realize that despite her confusions she genuinely could never shatter another Crystal Gem over this. The fact that she actually struck a blow this time is guilt inducing enough.

#su #steven universe #bismuth #su fanfiction #su fanfic #my writing stuff #crack the paragon

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gamersonthego · 4 years

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Chase Koeneke’s Top 10 Handheld Games of 2019

With the Switch in full gear and the debut of Apple Arcade, 2019 was another solid year for handheld games. Sequels to many of my favorite games were plentiful, but very few absolutely blew me away. And a few games I really loved (Slay The Spire, Return Of The Obra Dinn, Super Mega Baseball 2) were handheld ports of previous games I didn’t feel super great about adding to my list. So instead, I left this final year of the decade feeling content, and that’s perfectly OK too. So here are 10 games I liked this year, even if I didn’t love them.

10. Tetris 99 (Switch)

I love pretty much all iterations of Tetris. From the iconic Game Boy release I would play in the car, to the Facebook-based Tetris Friends that kept me company through many boring lectures in college, to last year’s gorgeous and powerful Tetris Effect, Tetris is A-OK with me.

Battle royale games on the other hand? Not so much. Despite enjoying shooters in general, I’ve yet to play a single match of PUBG, Fortnite or Apex Legends, and I’m not itching to change that anytime soon. But I found the mechanics of the battle royale genre to translate rather brilliantly to Tetris. It’s a thin experience (even with the expansions made to the game), but it’s an addictive one. And the fact I never quite crested the mountaintop – even if I did get a second place finish to video game Santa himself, Wario64 – is one of my biggest 2019 gaming regrets.

9. Mini Motorways (Apple Arcade)

Dinosaur Polo Club’s previous game, Mini Metro, made my top games of 2016 list, so it’s not surprising to see their latest game show up on this year’s list. What is a little surprising is how much of what could be said about Mini Metro can be echoed here on Mini Motorways. From my 2016 write-up:

Mini Metro wins my heart for its amazing ability to be serenely relaxing and nail-bitingly stressful simultaneously. Watching the train cars move back and forth around the sharp, minimalistic map brings a calming sense of satisfaction, but when the ever-growing amount of train stations hits critical mass, there were few experiences more harrowing this year. The basic strategy is smart and layered, preferring to let you experiment rather than tutorializing you to death up front.

You could remove the word “train” and get yourself a pretty accurate Mini Motorways review. But unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. While I love a lot of what’s new in Mini Motorways – being able to create partial roads to better plan out cities from the start, colorful and sprightly graphics – the strategy and variety on display here actually pales to the previous game. One Mini Motorways upgrade, the traffic light, doesn’t even seem to function correctly. And the fun modifiers in Mini Metro’s different locations like Tokyo’s shinkasen are nowhere to be found here. Every city has a body of water to deal with, it’s just that some are slightly more of a pain than others. That’s not variety.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mini Motorways and have put a lot of time into it. It’s my #9 after all. But if I had to pick just one to take up space on my phone, Mini Metro is getting that spot every time.

8. Risk Of Rain 2 (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

The first Risk of Rain also appeared on my games of 2016 list, and like Mini Motorways, the sequel is good, just not quite as good…and also feels a bit unfinished. But unlike Mini Motorways, Risk of Rain 2 made a bold change, ditching the two-dimensional world and sprite-based graphics for 3D polygons.

Bringing the z-axis to the tried and true roguelike mechanics of the original Risk of Rain makes for a new experience, for better and worse.

The worlds of RoR2 are bigger and more awe-inspiring. The 3D nature makes some classes and items feel more viable (like the melee Mercenary class) and it’s much easier to dodge incoming enemy attacks.

But the shift in perspective is anything but perfect. Just as enemies miss you more, so too will you often miss your own targets. The camera is both too close and yet also too far away, depending on the situation. The levels, after your inspired awe has left you, are barren, and the main objective of hunting for a teleporter to take you to the next area can be a frustrating venture as they are much more easily camouflaged in the polygonal zones.

It’s also just…not done. As of this writing, there’s no final boss fight, just a shrine that lets you sacrifice yourself to say you’ve “won.” There are missing classes on the menu and the artifact modifiers tab says “coming soon.” Last time I checked, the Switch was not an early access machine, and the fact that this version also gets a “Switch tax” makes it go down even more bitterly.

So why would a deeply flawed game like this make my list? Because the core loop of Risk of Rain is still better than most experiences out there. Stacking power-ups to near omnipotence is a blast, and running around with a friend or three in co-op is more fun than ever. Risk of Rain 2 may eventually become a great game someday, but for now, it’s a good game. And despite its issues, it’s still good enough for me.

7. Baba Is You (Switch, PC)

Sokoban meets coding logic; Baba Is You layers these puzzling elements to create something that feels familiar, yet fresh. It’s a simple concept: You push physical words around the self-contained areas to manipulate the level’s rules and collect a flag…or a different win condition if you’re clever enough.

Take the screenshot above for instance. “Baba is You” means you control Baba. “Flag is Win” means you need to touch the flag to win. But say you push the words “is Win” to vertically align with “Baba.” Now Baba is both you, the player and also the win condition, so you can forget the flag. You win automatically!

The puzzles continue in that fashion, ramping up the challenge very quickly (or maybe I’m just not very good at it.) I’m nowhere near mastering it, but for its highly inventive mix of environmental and logic problems, I’ve got an incredible amount of respect for it.

6. Assemble With Care (Apple Arcade)

I’m kind of down on Apple Arcade as a concept (I’d rather just pay for the few games I want and be done with it), but if games like Assemble With Care keep coming out, I might have to soften my stance. Assemble sees you repairing broken objects like rotary phones, cassette players and watches by using the touchscreen to pull objects apart, replace their busted components and piece them back together. It’s wonderfully serene: There’s no time limit, no logic-defying puzzle box qualities, no Operation-style buzzer if and when you make a mistake. It’s just nice.

A lesser game would leave it at that, but Assemble goes a step further, wrapping the repair mechanics with a short, satisfying story with solid writing and voice acting. It’s this year’s Florence, and while it may not be as impactful as that game, it’s a must play for anyone with an Apple Arcade subscription (or a good reason to burn your free trial if you’re not a subscriber).

5. Untitled Goose Game (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Like Assemble With Care, Untitled Goose Game does not hang its hat so much on its mechanics as what it chooses to do with them. There are no fail conditions to Goose Game and what challenge it holds is relatively minimal. But it’s a true sandbox game in that it’s loaded the small town you inhabit with lots of little things to play with and discover. It’s Grand Theft Auto, except they’ve replaced carjacking and shooting with taking an old man’s stool or honking at a kid until he hides inside a phone booth. You’re an asshole, you’re just not a malicious asshole.

A list of tasks helps to keep you focused, but it’s more of a nudge in the right direction so you can discover something else to mess with or people to bother. And once the game is “over,” you get a new, more inventive list of tasks, all with the benefit of the entire sandbox available to you. It might not be the most complex game, but when it comes to the enjoyment of play, it’s one of the best this year.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch)

I’m well known for my aversion to finishing Zelda games. I’ve played almost all of them and have finished exactly two of them (Oracle of Seasons and A Link Between Worlds, probably not the two you’d expect). And despite enjoying it, even the original Link’s Awakening eluded me, so seeing it get an overhaul in the form of a Switch version excited me. Not only was this a second chance for me to play a classic, but it was also another opportunity for the world to see how great handheld games have always been.

Outside of the really well done tilt-shifted graphics, the remake is mostly made up of small quality of life improvements. The overworld isn’t as rigidly screen-based anymore, allowing the player a little more finesse in dealing with enemies. Some equipment, that on the original Game Boy version must be switched in and out ad nauseam, now has dedicated buttons on the controller (never again must you be without your sword). All these decisions allow for the charm of the design to shine through even easier than its original version.

Would it be nice if the frame rate were more consistent? Sure. Is the Chamber Dungeon a completely extraneous and half-baked idea? Totally. Does it tarnish the fun that’s there to be had here? Not in the slightest.

I’m proud to say Link’s Awakening has joined the pantheon of Zelda games I’ve actually finished. Now maybe someday I’ll finish that “Link to the Past” that everyone keeps talking about…

youtube

3. Super Robot Wars T (Switch, PS4)

Super Robot Wars X made my list last year despite me having only played the PS4 version. So it feels a little more legitimate to have played the Switch version of Super Robot Wars T this year. It’s still not available in the US (you have to import a copy of the Asia version that comes with English subtitles,) and it’s still an extremely flawed game with its repetitive and uninspired level design and overly complicated systems, but man, I love this bad game so much.

I love tinkering in T’s dense mechanics, upgrading my anime mechs for perfect turn-based strategy synergy. I love jumping through hoops to find the right way to recruit new units. And I still love the over the top battle animations – seriously, if you’re bitching about Pokemon’s weak animations, the video above will show you Super Robot Wars has your back.

Plus they’ve added Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop this time around, so there’s at least one recognizable character from a non-Gundam anime you’ve probably seen in here. That’s…progress.

Look, this game probably isn’t for you, but it is totally for me. And Christmas came early this year in that Super Robot Wars V (which came before last year’s X – the naming conventions are not here to make sense) got ported to the Switch, and last year’s Super Robot Wars X will get ported soon too. That’s a lot of anime turn-based strategy to play, and I couldn’t be happier.

2. Pokemon Sword/Shield (Switch)

After much Internet handwringing from an extremely vocal minority, the new Pokemon games came out. And, what do you know, they’re good. Really good. They continue the slow evolution (I’m so sorry) of the franchise with small quality of life enhancements, a few new features and a little trimming of the vestiges. I appreciate the renewed focus on gyms and gym leaders and the single connected world, even if it basically two circles with a straight bit in the middle.

The new Pokemon are…fine. Very few that I detest, but also very few that I’d be willing to write home about. The new Max Raid Battles are generally pretty cool, but they all take advantage of the gimmick I’m least thrilled about: Dynamaxing. Making a Pokemon bigger for three turns is not all that compelling to me. And the Gigantamax variants with their special appearances are neat, but it’s basically just a worse form of Mega Evolution.

So yeah, it’s a good entry in the series. And a good Pokemon game is pretty hard to top in my book.

1. Fire Emblem Three Houses (Switch)

Hard to top, that is, unless you’re Fire Emblem. But despite being a new game in my favorite franchise, I was actually dreading Three Houses. The pre-release coverage did not leave me optimistic. Old features I hated were making a comeback (cough, weapon durability, cough). The art style couldn’t hold a candle to the jaw-droppingly gorgeous previous entry, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. And whether Intelligent Systems was admitting it or not, there was a strong Persona-fication at play here (don’t get me wrong, I love Persona, but if you’re going to get your Persona chocolate in my Fire Emblem peanut butter, I’d rather you just make a sequel to Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.)

So the hopes, they were not high. But Three Houses exceeded my expectations with a cast of characters I really grew to love. My loveable loser Golden Deer crew went from zeroes to heroes, and the ability to recruit students from other classes meant I got to make my dream team (Hilda, Petra, and Lysithea were my undisputed MVPs) when saving the world.

The story was deep and complex, and hearing how it changes based on which house you align with is pretty cool. I enjoyed the control I had in molding my students, and appreciated seeing them have a breakthrough in something they used to struggle with, and it becoming one of their best qualities. Turning a lazy, valley girl like Hilda into a front line tank and hearing her bitching about it every step of the way was especially enjoyable.

It’s not my favorite in the series, but I’m glad it’s seen pretty universal appeal and sales from the community at large, cementing its status as one of Nintendo’s premier franchises. Someday I will play through all four of its routes, but for now, I’m content with it comfortably sitting as my favorite handheld game of 2019.

#goty #gotggoty2019 #chase koeneke #tetris 99 #mini motorways #risk of rain 2 #baba is you #assemble with care #untitled goose game #the legend of zelda link's awakening #link's awakening #super robot wars t #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #Fire Emblem Three Houses

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anthony-sparkz · 5 years

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Buisness collaboration & inquiry form PLEASE DO NOT SKIP

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Alright , so think of my self generated survey as a job application ... I would appreciate if those in favor of well needed participation answer in complete Sentences that would help me alot THANKS ...

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1b. I do understand everyone has a unique level of talent tho these writers can they revise , edit , can they easily identify grammar and punctuation mistakes , have they had experience with the plot pyramid scheme , famously mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories can they write the following (which will be put in the tagline of this post)

1. Are you or do you know any other experienced artists/writers other than yourself and do you only draw/write ? can you bring me awareness or shine light on your other talents artistically speaking with some "reviewable" artwork or writing or tangible proof of this talent ?

@ WeekesCorp. Enterprises ,(the nonfiction real life company) is a company dedicated to its teams evergrowing collective mindstate ,overall health, and creative development . we also pay close attention to fan growth and receptiveness and reaction to what there seeing as they will be able to relate to the weakest extraterrestrial to The ultimate human lifeform alike we are a FAMILY COMPANY and so we must encourage oneness to provide ancient or esoteric knowledge of puticular cultures while still juggling entertainment , meaninful relationships with a balenced ideals of shock and awe whilst times of struggle as well as triumph and strength of individuals who are realistic fictional representatives of real world people places or things with that being said among different races all on earth categorized as what the world fears The most A national crisis .

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Words of wisdom with Dr. Weekes

A wiseman once said to change the world we all must learn to change ourselves from that right there i gained the understanding of the 4 sides to the bigger picture and that is to love ourselves cuz if your not lucky enough to find the one you want if your not able to do what you love because of unfortunate circumstances, then change your perspective and mindset material. manifest your destiny by building your emotional intelligence , compassion and self worth with yourSELF 1rst you cannot teach something you have not yet learned and as human beings weve all been there one way or another and with that being said you cant do something that you have no knowledge of doing so before. So when you go out in the world today be like thoughts my friends (intangible until spoken off or spoken to)

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not-a-feron · 5 years

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Buckle up here are my thoughts on Deltarune

I’ve been seeing a lot of ppl here and videos on YouTube talking abt theories and stuff so I thought I’d make my own megapost to surmise my thoughts and my own theory on wtf is going on in this game Part of this was @brigadeinvader and me talking over discord and discussing the game, I don’t think either of us would’ve come up with this on our own

Timeline Placement & Stuff

As Toby stated, Deltarune is neither a sequel nor a prequel because it’s not the same world as Undertale, and this is important. You can call it an AU if you want, it’s not far from what I believe it is. However, somethig doesn’t have to be a prequel or sequel to happen before or after something else. Lemme explain.

I personaly stand for the idea that Deltarune is an alternative wolrd to Undertale, hence why the same characters are there, only different. It being an alternative world means it’s still somehow connected to Undertale. If you know anything about the multiple worlds hypothesis, then you should know Undertale and Deltarune’s timelines would run parallel to each other without interfering (they might’ve been one and the same at some point, but not anymore. And timelines cannot merge back). This still means the events of one can take place after or before the other, just in different worlds.

Not necessarily in that order, but like so. We have two dates to go by, and those are the begining narration of Undertale and Ralsei’s cut manual for Deltarune. Undertale’s is 201X, while Deltarune’s is 202X. This would normally mean Deltarune goes around a decade after. However, the date at the beginning of Undertale is not the date the events of the game take place on, but the date the Fallen Human (I’ll refer to them as Chara) ends up in the underground. The game asks us to name the human from the beginning narration, which isn’t Frisk, so we don’t know exactly how much time passed between Chara’s arrival and Frisk’s. It has to be a lot of time, though, seeing as six other humans fell down in that time and most of the monsters underground don’t remember/flat out haven’t seen the surface or the humans by the time Frisk arrives. And if we take Asriel’s transformation at face value, then enough time has passed for a Dreemurr to age from a kid to a... young man, I guess. Which is certainly more than a decade.

Arsiel being in university in Deltarune doesn’t put it after Undertale, because I’m pretty sure Asriel would also be around that age, if not older, by the time Frisk comes around if he hadn’t died.

If you don’t want to take Toby’s declaration too seriously, since he doesn’t outright say anything but Deltarune being a different world from Undertale with different characters that lived different lives; then Chapter 1 still has some evidence that points towards this. None of the characters you meet that were also in Undertale are exactly the same. Not even their sprites. Everyone has at least something different in their designs when compared to the ones seein at the ending credits of the Pacifist run in Undertale. Asgore doesn’t have a crown, Undyne doesn’t wear an eyepatch, Alphys doesn’t have her labcoat and was probably never a scientist, Mettaton never became a star, Toriel has a darker shirt underneath her purple sweater (check it, I’m serious), Bratty and Catty hate each other, and so on. Sadly we don’t get to see Papyrus, The only one who’s exactly the same is Sans.

Sans

There’s a post by @napstamuse (idk about putting links bc of tumblr’s recent algorithm, sorry) comparing all the main sprites of the characters in both Undertale and Deltarune, and Sans’ jacket is has the same color, even down to the hex value of the blue. Not only that, but his personality remains untouched. He still has some sort of attraction (I don’t mean romantic necessarily) to Toriel, still fond of puns, etc. He’s the only one of those we see that’s exactly the same in Deltarune as in Undertale.

He’s more than probably even the exact same Sans from Undertale. As in, he somehow moved from one timeline to the other, unlike the rest who aren’t the same characters per se. We all know by now Sans wasn’t from Undertale, not really. His Genocide fight convo states “I gave up trying to go back a long time ago.” and “getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore, either”. This means 1) he’s not from there, from Undertale’s world/timeline and 2) whatever place he’s from isn’t the surface. That’s important. Because a lot of details point towards Sans being originally from Deltarune’s world, then for some reason moving to Undertale’s sometime before Frisk arrives. But when we find him in Deltarune, what does he say?

And when you ask about “Friends”.

Meaning he also came from somewhere else. Considering Deltarune’s town is in, apparently, the surface; then it makes sense why Sans didn’t originate from there, since he didn’t come from the surface. And he knows the surface, as evidenced by him telling Papyrus what the Sun is (though that could also be bc of Alphys’ anime).

But if he doesn’t come from Deltarune’s town, and he also deosn’t come from Undertale’s world; then where does he come from?

I propose Sans is a Darkner. I don’t know if someone has already made this point in a video or post, but hear me out.

Unless Sans is from a different world altogether, then the only place in Deltarune that isn’t the surface (that we know of) is the Dark World. Not only that, but we know thanks to this infamous scene:

... that Darkners bleed. Monsters do not bleed. Susie right there more than probably doesn’t bleed either, and yet Lancer assumes everyone in the Fun Gang does. That can only be because his species, the Darkners, all bleed. You know who else bleeds?

Sans does. And yes, I’m aware there have been ppl saying the red thing coming from him is actually ketchup from a bottle inside his jacket (which, knowing sans, wouldn’t surprise me tbh), but that wouldn’t explain why it comes out of his mouth as well. Hence it must be blood. Monsters from the underground all turn to dust upon defeat, yet Sans is the only one in the game who doesn’t. It doesn’t help the fact that we never see him die on screen and the sound effect that plays when the battle ends isn’t the one of a moster being defeated, but of one being spared. We also never really see Darkners bleed, that’s true, since they all flee from battle and you can’t kill anyone in Chapter 1; but Lancer’s bucket scene tells us that yes, blood is a thing in the Dark World that does come out of bodies when they are beaten.

There’s also another thing that might be minor, but all Darkners get tired after enough time in a battle. It’s the way you defeat the Chaos King and it’s the easiest way to spare enemies in Chapter 1. They all fall asleep. After enough time in a battle, Sans also falls asleep. It’s also the only way to defeat him in Genocide.

So Sans might be a Darkner. Why he left the Dark World (what is the Dark World) and why he then left the world of Deltarune to arrive at Undertale... we don’t know. It could have something to do with Undertale’s Gaster (or maybe Deltarune’s), but again, we don’t know. We’ll have to wait for the rest of Deltarune to come out to have more material to go on, I suppose.

Also the stuff about the “don’t forget” picture with the three smiling people on it. The song at the end credits states “don’t forget, I’m with you in the dark”, and the Fun Gang is comprised of three people. But we have no definitive evidence on that either.