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terrietont · 11 months

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Beach City grew a lot over time since Steven’s departure and it got a little too crowded for some of the more firey gems. Bismuth was forced to construct more and more homes for more and more gems and it grew a little stressful after a while. She adored the new era of peace, but sometimes she missed just hanging out with the gems alone.

The B Team (as Peridot called them) crystal gems of Lapis, Bismuth and Peridot decided to relocate their homes just a little bit away from Little Homeworld. The trio were close with their friends, but they still needed their own space especially with the population growing every day since the liberation of the gem empire.

Peridot often claimed the growing noise was “cluttering her work style” and Lapis was generally overwhelmed with so many gems in one place and found it especially hard to relax after a long day of mentoring and showing off her “meep Morps”

Bismuth couldn’t even lie about how much more peaceful the days have become since moving. Of course she loved her gem comrades, but even she; the ever confident metal worker needed personal time too.

Now she could have time to herself to think about certain… “problems” that had been on her mind for an annoyingly longer time than she’d hoped for.

That night out with Pearl, Steven and Connie was one of the best nights she ever had since her reformation. Seeing her once anxious and frustrated friend so happy, so relaxed and so contented warmed her up like the lava she bathed in, but it felt like there was a piece missing from her gem.

Ever since that night, she couldn’t stop thinking about Pearl. Getting closer to the ex-servant was making it harder to manage her feelings.

She really thought she could let go of those feelings after admitting them to Steven, but they only seemed to grow stronger since that night.

She became more and more flirtatious, trying not to show it to anyone. (Though she was sure Garnet was aware due to that little smirk the fusion kept giving her.) Stars, it made her so nervous to think about admitting to Pearl just the stuff she told Steven, let alone everything she felt entirely!

Of course what she said to him was true; she did want to catch up… but that wasn’t just it. She was really hoping her dumb feelings would dissipate once she told someone about them, but ever since Steven left beach city, she didn’t really have the courage to tell the gems about this and she almost knew without a doubt Amethyst would go blabbing the secret around town (even if it was by accident).

She just couldn’t shake the emotions out of her body.

It was like torture! She couldn’t just keep pretending like everything was okay with her and Pearl… she had to tell her. It was going to come out one way or another.

She’d prefer it came out by her own will and not her blurting it out in the middle of conversation.

Bismuth stared over at the lush trees in the open forest, feeling nothing but the cold wind on her body and the morning sunshine peaking through the white clouds.

The buildings behind her empty of her allied gems. Namely, Peridot’s tall green ‘peridot-shaped’ home and Lapis’s more lazily built blue tent-like structure right next door. Bismuth also had her own miniture forge and resting place for Peridot’s obnoxiously large room. (Something Peridot built for all of them so they could “sleep over” as the green gem put it). It was nice, and it felt like home.

Just peace and quiet, no other sounds to interrupt her thoughts-

‘Crackle, Crackle’.

The sound of a rustling bag caught her by surprise. She turned to see Lapis, standing there with what looked like a bag of chips. The gem was putting them in her mouth so casually, Bismuth almost thought she was Amethyst shapeshifted if it weren’t for the blatant blue hue.

“Oh! Didn’t see ya there, Blue!” Bismuth smiled nervously. “Hey, you going okay over there?” The blue gem asked, gently grabbing a chip and putting it in her mouth. “Oh uh yeah yeah… just thinking about things, that’s all.”

Bismuth stopped to look at Lapis with a curious smile. “I didn’t know you liked to eat!”

Lapis shrugged. “Yeah sometimes, I dunno it’s fun when it’s just something small.” She replied.

“Haha yeah, I mean I don’t really eat all that much, but I do like a good pizza every now and then.” Bismuth laughed.

“Tried it. Too cheesy and gooey” Lapis replied, swallowing her chips.

Bismuth chuckled then continued to stare back into the wilderness. “So… what are you day dreaming about?” Lapis asked, curious.

Bismuth stoped and turned, hiding her nervousness. “Uh well… you know lots of things and wait, where did you learn about day dreaming?”

Lapis snorted with a relaxed grin.

“When you nap as much as I do, you tend to drift off when you’re awake as well” she explained nonchalantly.

“That makes sense” Bismuth nodded.

The silence came again and Bismuth found herself lost in thought. “Who are you day dreaming about?” Lapis asked, smile getting a little wider.

“Huh? Who?” Bismuth’s face darkened… how on earth did the ocean gem catch on so quickly? ‘How did she know?’ Bismuth thought to herself.

“Yeah, who?” Lapis nudged playfully.

“Um well, I uh…” Bismuth sucked in a huge breath. There was no hiding it from Lapis at least “Was it that obvious?” She asked sheepishly.

“To someone who knows what it was like, yeah.” Lapis explained.

“Huh? Wait… you day dream about someone too?” Bismuth asked, curious and kind of desperate for some closure.

“Yeah I used to have these weird feelings around Peridot all the time, I had dreams we’d be I dunno a fusion at some point” Lapis laughed, blushing at the memory.

“But uh fusion kind of sucks for me and Peridot doesn’t want to fuse anyway which is fine. I guess what I’m trying to say is, yeah I kept day dreaming about her off and on, it was like torture” she shuddered, rubbing her arms together.

“That’s what this feels like!” Bismuth exclaimed in desperation. “But how did you tell her?”

Lapis turned her head to the side in confusion. “Tell her?”

“Yeah! You did tell her, right?” Bismuth asked. Lapis looked away. “Not really. I don’t really want to make her uncomfortable, she’s not the kind of gem to feel that way about anyone. I just kinda held it all in and then it went away I guess?” There was a hint of sadness in Lapis’ voice.

“I just- I don’t know how you could just hold it in all the time! I-I want to tell her how I feel about everything! I want to hold her and tell her how beautiful she is and how she makes me laugh and smile and she’s so strong and brave and… I could never amount to her bravery.” Bismuth vented, her hands turned into fists.

“Sounds like you got it bad” Lapis teased with a friendly smile. Bismuth forced a smile, but she was clearly embarrassed, her face being a much darker shade than her whole body.

“Maybe I just need to let it go. Not like I haven’t tried that!” She vented again, feelings compeltely mixed up.

Lapis pondered this for a moment. “Well… you could tell her and maybe she feels the same way? And if she doesn’t… then uh you guys can still be friends, right?” She shrugged.

Bismuth looked over for a moment, thinking long and hard. “I guess… I just, I feel like it would make things so tense between us for the rest of our lives.”

“Gonna be honest with you Bis.” Lapis began, looking at Bismuth directly. “It could be super weird at first but if you guys really get along, you can start over and just be friends again right? I mean I did some pretty dumb things and Peridot and Steven still hung out with me” She tried reassuring the nervous blacksmith, but it didn’t seem to be helping.

“Okay but what if she DOES feel the same way?!” Bismuth replied in panic.

“Then that’s good right?” Lapis shrugged

“Is it?” Bismuth replied, shaken for a moment thinking about Pearl ACTUALLY reciprocating the feelings.

“Oh stars… I just don’t know how to do it!” She exclaimed.

Lapis hummed in thought for a moment. “Hmmm… maybe you need to talk to a certain someone about it? Someone who knows about feelings and stuff way more” she suggested with a knowing grin.

Bismuth’s eyes lit up in realization. “Garnet! I know she’ll help me with this!”

“Yeah she um… she’s pretty good when it comes to this stuff” Lapis replied, looking away looking suddenly nervous.

“Okay! I-I think I can do it!” Bismuth puffed out her chest confidently and brushed off the dust from her outfit. “I just gotta go talk to Garnet!” She reminded herself.

She turned to face a slightly surprised Lapis with a grateful smile.

“Hey Lapis? Thanks, I needed to get that off my chest”

The blue gem blinked for a moment before snort-chuckling. “Well uh yeah sure anytime”

Bismuth warped into the temple where she found Garnet waiting for her on the couch, stroking Cat Steven’s head gently.

“Oh Garnet, you’re here!” Bismuth said in surprise.

Garnet had a small smile on her lips. It was pretty obvious she knew what Bismuth was coming to her for.

“I saw you coming here asking for my advice on an urgent matter” Garnet replied stoically. Bismuth laughed nervously, fidgeting with her fingers. “Oh yeah, future vision” she said under her breath.

“Come.” Garnet motioned for the buff gem to sit with her.

“So, Pearl then…” Garnet’s smile began to widen ever so slightly.

Alas, Bismuth’s face went dark again. “Oh. Is it that obvious?” She felt like she was repeating the same thing earlier that day, except feeling even more incompetent than before.

“Bismuth, whatever fate decides for you and Pearl, I know is going to be alright and all I can see is that you both end up being happy.” Garnet reassured.

“But… how did Ruby and Sapphire do it?” Asked Bismuth.

“How did they not crumble into little pieces when they admit their feelings for one another?”

Garnet laughed under her breath a little. “Ruby and Sapphire were a complete mess. They never once had a calm moment when they fell in love. They were completely love struck.”

“But… what if only one of them were love struck? What happened then?” Bismuth asked, becoming a little more desperate for a quick answer with each passing minute.

Garnet thought for a moment, touching her visor.

“Well… they both ended up dwelling on their feelings for a while until one of them made the decision to talk about it, otherwise they’d stay the same. Restless, tortured, longing.” The fusion explained, cringing at the past for a moment when Ruby and sapphire used to bottle up their feelings more often before they finally decided to stay perma fused.

“I mean it’s not like I want to fuse with her, it’s just… I want to be with her and make her happy and make her smile and just be there for her through the good and the bad, and just support her in anyway I can!” Bismuth sighed, day dreaming again.

Garnet could feel Ruby and Sapphire awing deep within her fusion.

“Bismuth, you need to tell her right away!”

The fusion’s voice suddenly perked up with excitement.

“Wha-huh?!” Bismuth looked startled for a moment and then looked to her side, sweating nervously.

“Uh I um, I dunno Garnet, it just seems like it’s too soon, you know?”

“Well if you don’t do it sooner, you’ll never get around to it and you’ll continue to suffer with deep longing” Garnet explained with harshness, reverting back to her stoic nature.

Bismuth sighed, clenching her fists. “I-“

“You’re right! You’re right!” She stood up, feeling more determined than ever, this time actually feeling like she could do it.

“I better think of something too, maybe prepare a monologue and get some fancy wearables!”

Garnet gave her a smile. “Show her you mean Bismuth” she joked.

The rainbow gem chuckled

“And you better come up with something soon because Pearl is about to use the warp in twelve seconds” Garnet added just as emotionless as before.

“SHE- WHAT!?”

Bismuth tensed with panic.

“Oh shucks! Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?!” She whined, hands griping to her rainbow locks.

“You got this.” Garnet replied simply, giving her a thumbs up and a toothy smile before leaving towards her temple room.

“W-wait!” Bismuth tried, but failed to stop her.

That’s when the warp activated. The whooshing sound of the warp pad and the blue column flashing down shocked Bismuth into hurriedly straightening herself and her hair, brushing off her gem as nicely as she could; though she looked like a real

mess when she stood there waiting; sweating and twitching in anticipation.

Pearl was humming something as she returned from the warp pad, her face remaining neutral before she noticed the pale gem with rainbow hair standing there, almost startling her with her silent presence.

Pearl lit up with joy, clapping her hands together.

“Oh Bismuth! So good to see you again! Did you need something?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact.” Bismuth stood there trying to sound as stoic as possible but her posture said otherwise. She looked like she was imitating a wall.

“Oh… is there something wrong? If it’s about my criticisms of the wedding armour I-I I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said anything-“ she started rambling anxiously.

“What? No no no!” Bismuth shook her head. “It’s about… Us.”

Pearl’s eyes widened for a moment. “Us?” She repeated.

“Yes. Us.”

Pearl didn’t have internal organs, but it felt like she had a heart that just stopped beating for a second. She was worried, concerned, curious, flustered. She didn’t know why. Was it going to be what she thought it was?

Bismuth let out a deep sigh. “Pearl, I need to tell you something. Something that’s been on my mind for well… ever since I met you” she lowered herself to Pearl’s eye level, letting her face go warm without the worry of the reactions she might be getting.

Pearl’s irises went glossy for a moment. Something about the way Bismuth spoke so soflty felt so familar to her…

“Rose” Pearl swallowed, approaching her leader. Said leader turned around with a curious pout, her fluffy pink hair waving around the motion of her body. “Is something wrong, Pearl?” Rose asked worriedly. Pearl clenched her fists tightly. “Can I tell you something?”

Rose smiled warmly. “Of course Pearl, you can tell me anything!”

Pearl smiled slightly, a blush on her face. “Yes uhm.. well the thing is… I’ve been thinking about us..” Pearl admit, flustered.

“Us?” Rose asked, confused.

“Yes. Us.” Pearl continued to force her confidence, but was shaking on the inside. Rose sat down, looking at Pearl expectantly.

“I-I need to tell you s-something I’ve been m-meaning to tell you since we’ve been uhm… around” She gulped, blushing furiously.

Rose, moved, put her hands together, stars in her eyes.

“Yes Pearl?”

Pearl inhaled sharply and then finally let it out “I-I’ve always felt so close to you e-even more now and I-I want to be with you and I-I want to be your Pearl forever. Rose, I love you!”

Rose smiled widely with a giggle. “Aww Pearl I love you too! you’re such a funny gem! So loving and caring and you care about everyone so much!”

Pearl felt like her gem was cracking in two.

“Just the same way Greg-“ Rose suddenly perked up in realization. “Pearl! I need your advice on this! Greg has asked me to be his “Girl-friend?” I have no idea what that means, but he wants to see me tonight about it! What do you think I should go with for my attire? I want your opinion!” She squealed, bouncing up and down like an excited toddler.

“I-I see…” Pearl choked out, holding back tears.

“Pearl? What’s wrong?” Rose rested a hand on Pearl’s shoulder, looking into her eyes.”Oh-Oh it’s nothing!” Pearl forced a laugh, holding back tears as much as she possibly could.

“You mean the world to me, Pearl, you know that? So… black pants outfit or white flowing one?” Rose asked, showing off to her what looked like a tuxedo and a white dress similar to her own.

“Oh whatever you think looks best!” Pearl forced a smile. “Oh you’re right! I think the white one would make Greg really happy!” Rose sighed, blushing at the thought of seeing her human lover again.

“Y-yes I’m sure it would…”

“And Pearl?” Rose turned to her with a warm smile.

“Rose?” Pearl’s voice laced with longing and desperation.

“Don’t forget about our little outing tomorrow, just you me and Greg, my best friends in the whole world !” Rose chuckled warmly and went to hug Pearl. Rose was warm and soft, but Pearl only felt cold and broken.

“Well, wish me luck Pearl! Gotta go dress for the ocassion and impress Mr. universe! Hehe!” Rose got up almost immediately, running to her room.

Pearl stood there silent.

Eventually Rose said goodbye to her gems and left for her “date”, saying “don’t wait up!” Before disappearing into the night. When Garnet and Amethyst retreat to their rooms, all hell broke loose

Pearl fell to her knees and wept. She was angry. Angry at Greg, angry at Rose, angry at herself. What was she thinking confessing like that? She felt so useless and empty. Of course she chose Greg… she just wished deep down she hadn’t.

Everything hurt and it hurt for so long. She was so deeply in love with her Diamond, so deeply in love with Rose�� but nothing ever really came of it. Rose made her choice, and she wasn’t it.

As the memory resurfaced, so did Pearl’s attention towards Bismuth who started rambling for a moment. “Pearl… that night we went out to the skating rink.” Bismuth swooned, blushing.

“That was one of best nights of my life”

Pearl’s cheeks went blue and she could not get a single word out.

Years and years of hiding her true feelings came bursting out of the rainbow gem.

“I’m going to honest with you, I always felt this way about you, even when you were falling for Rose. I had to hide eveything because I was afraid!” Bismuth explained, her voice becoming more and more emotional.

“I was afraid of what you would think of me and afraid of how you’d react. You don’t need anyone to be happy! I love that you are yourself and even more so that you’ve really come into your own” She continued causing Pearl to start tearing up, a happy smile on her face, her hands cupped together.

“Bismuth…” Pearl said, only finding enough courage for a soft gasp.

“What I’m trying to say is… I really like you Pearl, I always have and I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out sometime, maybe for a walk or somethin’ I’ve been trying to get rid of these feelings but no matter how hard I try, they just keep comin’ back harder than ever!” Bismuth’s face was completely flushed by now, but it felt so good to finally let these feelings out.

Pearl’s face was bright blue and she looked like she was about to collapse from the confession. It was so familar, except this time… she was the recipient! She almost couldn’t believe it!

Bismuth had always valued her while she was chasing after an impossible dream. Bismuth was always right there, ready to catch her, to laugh with her, to help her. That was until Rose bubbled her in secret... How much pain she was in over this and how much she tried to hide everything she felt about Pearl for so long.

Pearl was moved to tears.

She felt valued, appreciated, loved, seen. The opposite of how Rose made her feel after she was rejected for Greg. She really thought for so long that Rose was her ultimate fate, her true love, her fantasy turned reality. She would go back in time and tell her past self everything that she so obliviously missed before, if she could!

Pearl’s hands flew to her lips, tears running down her cheeks and blue blush still covering them.

“Pearl… I want to be your rock and if you don’t want that, I understand completely. I’ll always be there to support you no matter what descision you make” Bismuth finished, looking straight into Pearl’s eyes, tearing up at the same time.

“Bismuth I…” Pearl was completely stunned, almost shaking in shock.

Somehow, she felt nauseous, despite not having a stomach. This was so new and so different.

The awkward silence broken as Bismuth began stammering.

“I-I’m really sorry I didn’t want to overwhelm you I um… f-forget I said anything!” She forced a chuckle backing away to give Pearl space, feeling completely embarrassed. “Bismuth.” Pearl stared lovingly at the blacksmith.

“Yeah?” Bismuth turned back, blushing still. “I would love to go for a walk with you” Pearl smiled, speaking soflty, blushing still.

Bismuth let out a half-laugh half sigh of relief. “Really? Where did you wanna go?”

“Anywhere” Pearl held Bismuth’s hands in hers, despite the hand size difference. She reached her head towards Bismuth’s cheek and gave a quick peck, avoiding poking her nose into the taller gem’s face.

Bismuth froze, eyes wide and cheeks still as dark as ever.

“You’re the most beautiful, wonderful, powerful rock in the cosmos, you know that?” Bismuth swooned, almost falling over from the surprise peck.

Pearl chuckled flirtatiously. “Oh Bismuth, don’t be silly. That title belongs to a certain Blacksmith”

Bismuth laughed and couldn’t stop herself from scooping the ex-servant into her arms. Pearl yelped in surprise but was smiling from cheek to cheek, laughing.

“Bismuth, you smooth stone!” She flirted back.

“Who are you calling the smooth one, doll?” Bismuth nicknamed, looking deep into Pearl’s eyes. Pearl couldn’t help but chuckle, swooning over her once more.

For what felt like eternity, they spun around, sharing eachother’s loving gazes, finally finding one another.

“You know” Pearl began, flirtatiously. “Humans usually plan weeks ahead for these things called ‘dates’ but I think we should start right now!” She expressed with a loving gleam in her eyes.

“The most important thing to do on these romantic escapades, is to dress for the occassion!” Pearl said ‘as a matter of fact’. “I know just the attire to dress for!” She popped out with excitement.

“Oh? Dress nicely huh? I think I have a lil’ somethin’ for that!” Bismuth winked and walked over to the warp pad. “I’ll be right back, in my you could say, dating material!” She chuckled lovingly.

“Oh Bismuth you haven’t even seen the REAL fancy suit!” Pearl replied sultry.

Pearl came out of her room wearing the deluxe black tuxedo from Empire City and Bismuth warped back with a white Tuxedo instead.

The rest of day the two did everything they wanted to do together for a long time. Pearl helped Bismuth with puzzles, Bismuth and Pearl began to cook together and both of them talked about old times.

Then as the sun began to set, they walked out still in their formal clothes onto the quiet beach.

There they stood, staring at the calm ocean as the sun started to set over it. Pearl rested her head on Bismuth’s shoulder, watching it with content. “I guess this was uh our first date huh?” Bismuth laughed.

“The first of many” Pearl replied back, eyes closing as she rested closer into her shoulders.

Bismuth’s smile grew so much it hurt and her eyes were so wide and teary. She felt so happy, so calm, so relaxed.

The future was looking bright and it all started with tonight.

#bispearl #Steven universe #steven universe future #bismuth #Pearl #pearl su #bismuth su #pearl x bismuth #bismuth x pearl #fanfiction #su fanfic #tumblr fucked up my notes #I had them written in a format and tumblr #was like #nah let’s ruin her paragraphs #thanks a lot tumblr

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mysaldate · 2 years

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Whoever sent the ask about Journey, Tumblr ate it and had a stroke, here’s your answer!

THIS POST ORIGINALLY HAD PICTURES AND A VIDEO BUT TUMBLR DECIDED NOT TO ALLOW ANY OF THAT TO GO THROUGH. THIS IS A LONG-TERM ISSUE THAT HAS BEEN REPORTED BY SOME USERS AS FAR AS TWO WEEKS BACK.

Oh boy, I hope you don't mind the nerdy rant that's coming because ngl, I have a LOT to say about this game that hasn't even properly released yet.

AFK 2: Journey is an upcoming game collab between Lilith Games and Farlight Games. You may recognize this combination of developers from Dislyte, but don't worry, this is nothing like Dislyte. Well, at least not in the bad aspects of it. You can view the official trailer for the closed beta right here and there are already plenty of people who made videos about it on YT regarding the gameplay and general feel of the game. In short, it's a more or less open-world game where you play as a prophesized savior of Esperia against one particular threat. I'll go more into detail about what is and isn't in the game under the cut so I don't take up too much space on the timeline and I'll also be adding some pictures and maybe even videos of the game itself.

As I was a part of the closed beta testing, I was able to already see what the game had to offer, and here's my crude review. It won't go over everything so if you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.

So to start with, what separates this game from the already existing AFK game, AFK Arena?

Well, for starters, it features 3D graphics. Now, usually, I'm not too big a fan of 3D graphics. It was my main issue with Dislyte (until I looked at the gacha properly at least), and I'm not a fan of Genshin's style for this very reason. 3D graphics make games difficult to run on devices with overall lower performance and everything becomes that much bigger in the storage as well. Not to mention, usually it doesn't even look good and 2D would've provided a lot more emotion and creative freedom. Genshin constantly struggles with supposedly emotional moments falling flat because of both pacing and the limited range of emotions in their 3D models. Dislyte doesn't animate most stories and thus avoids this pitfall... without actually fixing the problem either. On the other hand, I think Journey did a good job portraying emotions even on the NPC faces despite the 3D model limitations. If anything, they were a bit too much at times. The overall body language definitely added to this though so it's not like everything hung only on the facial expressions. They weren't afraid to utilize their whole models to get the feeling across and it certainly paid off. And sure, the expressions are still sometimes a mess and my poor screenshotting skills definitely don't help my case, but you'll see what I mean with the videos. For now, have this.

(very awkward screenshot of a sad bunny mom was here)

The model is a little awkward because of the screenshot but Adeline really sold her distress. She was constantly rubbing at her eyes wiping her tears away, blinking them away, and shaking. She's afraid about her lost child and she behaves like someone in such a situation. She doesn't stand stiff and stare blankly off into the distance.

Another key difference is the aforementioned open world. Now again, it is not quite as open as in Genshin, you cannot climb or swim, and a lot of locations require you to follow specific paths to get to, but you can still frolic in the fields of grain and go off course to grab a random treasure chest or fight a random enemy. You also get rewards for filling out the map. You can choose up to four characters you have drawn in gacha to follow you around and they have no relation to your party whatsoever so you can just put your favorites there without having to worry about combat. The world is split into several larger areas with a bunch of smaller areas within each one. You can progress to the next areas regardless of where you are in the main story which is nice. There's no Inazuma situation where you can't go somewhere until you get there in the story. Every bigger and smaller area is locked behind a small boss fight and there are also teleports on the map. Much appreciated is also the auto-pilot function where you can simply choose a goal and your character will automatically find the shortest route to get there if it is possible, and then walk on their own.

Last but not least, I need to talk about the main character. AFK Arena is wonderful thanks to it not having a main character to dictate the course of its story, even though it kind of seemed like that's where it was going at the start. Journey, on the other hand, decided to commit to the idea of having a playable main character. I wasn't a fan of it when I first heard about it but it kind of blew me away with how seamless they made it and how neatly it fits in with the rest of the game. I will get more into the MC a little bit later.

That were just the key differences between AFK Arena and AFK 2: Journey. So let's talk more about Journey itself.

The story of the prologue, and thus kind of the overarching story, is a little cliché at the start. No star-traveling twins fighting an evil god and getting separated, no world of godly powers bestowed upon mortals. There is a prophesized main character, us, who was foretold to save Esperia from the spreading corruption of dark miasma. That's right, no Hypogean threat and war between good and evil, well at least not in the traditional sense of the word. Also, we have amnesia. But don't worry, there's a reason for it. At the start of the game, we get found by a duo of traveling mercenaries, Ella and Valen. Ella is a mage who studied at the Astral Academy, while Valen is a sword-user, though he can't really be called a knight, and they were hired by someone to find this someone's master. At the start of the game, after they find us, we are completely covered up, you can't see anything at all about the MC.

(a screenshot of a covered up MC was here, they are wearing full-body robes that go over their head and a full face mask that hides their whole face, on their chest is a white gem)

This becomes important later because after meeting with the client who sent them to find us, we are taken to our main base – a building on the back of a massive terrestrial creature that has all the possible accommodations including the Noble Tavern (with best girl Dolly) and a changing room. The MC, once you get past the prologue, is CUSTOMIZABLE. You can pick between the male and female body, there's a variety of skin tones, both natural and not, and you gain avatar items as you progress the story or you can buy them from the shop. You can get fox ears, a monocle, an eye mask, full-body outfits, and more. This honestly excited me so much and it immediately elevated this game in my head so much more. Furthermore, while the MC doesn't fight on your team, they stand in the back and provide various valuable buffs from healing to attack power-ups to even damaging enemies. In a way, the MC is functionally similar to the new Beasts feature in AFK Arena.

The one drawback I would call out is that there's not really much of anything just yet but this was just the closed beta after all. They'll probably add a lot of new stuff before the actual release. You can also choose a faction for your avatar frame but the only ones in the game so far were Lightbearers and Maulers, and the Lightbearer one was the default frame while the actual Lightbearer-looking frame was labeled as Maulers, so nothing is perfect, but there is a very solid base that we could see great expansions upon.

Aside from the MC, you build a team of up to five heroes much like you would in AFK Arena. You also get tutorial heroes for free. These heroes are Ella, Valen, Chippy, and Hammie. Speaking of whom, Chippy and his cousin Hammie are the two who originally hired Ella and Valen and though I would personally consider them related to the Wilders or Maulers, they were apparently accepted as Lightbearers. Maybe the centuries-old race war is finally getting better? Chippy looks like a chubby little hamster knight and works as a tank, and Hammie is similar to a white weasel and has minor magical powers and healing abilities. They come with a whole family of similar creatures who all work for us and do lots of little background things like scouting out maps for treasure and enemies. What's most important though is that they are absolutely ADORABLE!

(several pictures of cute little fuzzy babies were posted here, you can still find Chippy as the game's official profile picture on FB, and Hammie appeared on the closed beta announcement picture)

Aside from the starting four, you can recruit characters through a gacha system in the tavern, just like in the old AFK Arena. The gacha now has an animation that, while far from great, I just can't stop watching. And it is pretty much only for the Dolly animation and especially the way her skirt twirls. 3D animated skirts usually tend to be awfully stiff or feel heavy and suffocating, but as someone who wore them quite a lot not that long ago, I appreciated how realistic and light Dolly's skirt seemed in it. This is a weird detail to get hung up on, I know, but I always focus on weird things, we all know that by now.

(a video of the gacha pull was here, it opens in a cozy-looking shared space with a bar, several tables, a changing room, and even a small store, Dolly is cleaning tankards when she notices the player came to gacha and sets her work down to motion towards larger animations playing out behind her where we can see some of the characters we can pull, after clicking on the 10-pull option, she runs out to the balcony and tosses out a handful of envelopes that fly into the air, day turns into night and a single envelope returns, lighting up beacons indicating the rarities of heroes in the pull)

And yes, I keep mentioning Dolly. However, Dolly is not the only familiar face we'll meet in Journey. A whole set of heroes from AFK Arena shows up in Journey as well. From the Lightbearers, we have Lucius, Rowan, and Mirael, from the Maulers, there's Brutus, the Wilders brought Eironn and Lyca, and the only Graveborn from the original game who made the cut, for now, is Thoran. Aside from them, the game also has a plethora of new original heroes. And these heroes certainly look every bit as unique and diverse as you would expect from an AFK game! During the beta, the game didn't have any backstories just yet, but it had a dedicated space for them so we can expect them to show up soon. Let me quickly walk you through the new heroes!

(two pictures from the promo materials were there; the first one depicted Ella, a young and fairly androgynous woman with chin-length white hair and blue eyes, she is wearing a blue barret, a white and gold vest with a closed top and a turtleneck, blue cape falls from it on both front and back and the front part is divided into two halves, leaving an opening to see her vest through, she also has dark blue booty shorts and long cream-colored stockings on, she wields a golden staff with a blue gem on top; the second picture depicted Valen, he is a leisurely looking young man with a mess of brown hair falling down to his shoulders and wears a white shirt with a dark blue tunic and a fur-lined brown cloak together cream-colored pants and high brown boots, he is equipped with a sword as well as leather arm braces, by his waist hangs the sheath and another sheathed sword)

First, we have Ella and Valen (and sorry I don't have my own screenshots for them, I have their animations). Both of them are Lightbearers and I also introduced them a little bit, but since they play a big part in the main story, I can talk more about their personalities. Ella is smart and relies on her wits but is prone to anger at times and has a strong sense of justice. On the other hand, Valen is laid-back and more careful about how he comes across to others but he has a good head on his shoulders and remembers to consider options outside of what's right in front of our faces. They're a refreshing duo and it's easily understandable why they've stuck together as mercenaries.

Sadly, Chippy and Hammie don't really show up much after the prologue so there's not much more to them other than being loyal and very adorable. Chippy has great faith in us as the prophesized hero while Hammie has a more leveled approach and keeps things on the cooler side.

(a picture here depicted Merrin, she is a young blonde woman, her hair is tied in twin braids but several strands escaped and stick out wildly, she's wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and brown pants rolled up to her knees and on her head sits a white and blue Robin Hood-style hat, she wields a bow and by her hip hands a quiver of arrows and a fox tail, she also has a dagger strapped to her other hip)

The Lightbearer lineup is finished by Merrin. She's born of noble blood but after her mother got murdered, she ran away from home seeking vengeance. This is actually a part of the main story so I don't want to spoil too much but she is very energetic, dedicated, and doesn't mind changing plans on the run if she can attain her goal. She's also not stubborn and can admit when she made a mistake, but she won't put up with nonsense. She's a genuinely refreshing character in an already very good story quest.

(a picture here depicted Hewyn, she is a small girl with pointy ears, her golden hair is tied in two braids and rolled up on the sides of her head, there is a tear-shaped mark on her forehead, she has green eyes and a somber or perhaps distrusting look, she is wearing an ankle-length dress of white and green with a few golden touches and holds a leaf bigger than she is as an umbrella or maybe to provide shade from the sun)

Moving on to the Wilders, we have Hewyn. Unfortunately, if she does appear in the main story, I didn't get to her during the beta so I can't really talk much about her, but she is a dedicated healer and her healing is absolutely busted. I'm sure this will get rebalanced soon but during the beta, she was easily healing 50k HP with her ult while my main AoE DPS dealt a little over 13k damage to the enemies. In her animations, she appears very shy and almost fearful.

(a picture here depicted Seth, a powerfully-built anthropomorphized black panther, he has golden tattoos or perhaps paint on his chest like the rays of the sun coming from below where his neck protection spreads over his shoulders, the neck protection gear is connected to a sleeve over his right arm, both of his arms sport leather bracers, he also wears tight pants of light leather and there are several protective bindings on his legs, his claws are painted gold, by his waist are several signal horns fastened to a wide belt)

That's all the Wilders so moving on to the Maulers. This is Seth and he's a black panther assassin. And that's all I know about him since he doesn't have a backstory and his animations seem generally guarded so I can't read much into them.

(a picture here depicted Bo, he is a massive rhino with a huge battering ram in his arms, he is wearing a fur-lined red attire and sports red body paint around his neck, he is also equipped with heavy-looking arm bracers and a protective piece on his head going from between his eyes to around his horn for which it has a hole, the armor seems to be made of black scales and held together with golden seams, he also has a golden nose ring)

Bo has to be one of my favorite designs simply for how unconventional he is. He's just. so. large. He's the tankiest tank who ever tanked. But in his animations, he also appears very aloof and sleepy, like he used a lot of energy charging and pushing back the enemy, and now he just needs a nap.

(picture here depicted two meerkat-looking Maulers, one significantly larger than the other, obviously the adult of the two if they truly are the same species, the smaller meerkat isn't wearing any clothes but is holding a blue bottle while the larger meerkat creature is wearing a red vest and red and brown drop-crotch pants, as well as red wrist bracers and a colorful necklace, they have dreadlocks on the back of their head and a green stalk between their teeth, one of their hands is extended forward and would be holding a censer if my screenshots weren't always taken in the worst possible moment)

Daka and Waka are a support duo of Maulers whose entire kit revolves around spreading smoke from their censer with different kinds of incense granting different buffs for their allies, with healing added to the mix at their ult. I couldn't even tell you which is which but know that the bigger one of the duo seems to be a parental or guardian figure to the smaller one – and is very anxious about anything possibly happening to their protegé.

(the picture here depicted a ginger hyena with a surprisingly large and fluffy-looking tail as well as very defined and round buttocks, he isn't wearing anything but a loincloth, a shoulder pad on his right shoulder, and a few leather straps that hold his quiver of blowdarts in place on his back, he has a blowgun in one hand and holds the index finger and thumb of the other hand up as if in a greeting, by his waist hangs the skull of a small cow and an inconspicuous flask, he has a leisure relaxed smile on his face, his eyes half-lidded)

The last Mauler of the bunch is Eddie. Okay, I lied, Eddie is probably my favorite design. He attacks with a blowgun and has a very relaxed air around him. For some reason, they gave him the seductive eyebrow wiggle in one of his animations. He's pretty decent at close combat too but definitely prefers to stay at a range.

(depicted here was Lelana, a graveborn young-looking woman with a very sleepy look to her, she has dark circles around her eyes like she hasn't slept in a very long time, her hair is very long and goes from dark gray on top to very light pale green at the ends, she is wearing a long layered dress of dark blue and dirty white with motifs of snowflakes towards the bottom, the white parts of her dress resemble melting snow, her long sleeves are poofy and white and she's wearing white gloves, over her shoulders is a dark blue overcoat and her neck is protected by a ruff, she is holding a tall and thin candelabra with three candles)

Lelana is absolutely gorgeous. That's it, that's my review. No, I'm kidding obviously. She's a mage who summons snowballs and snow-themed attacks, and I think her outfit is very lovely. It has the weight of a heavy blanket to it and it works really great. She doesn't move much but what few moves she does have in her animations are all fluid and elegant, albeit tempered.

(the last picture in this post was Igor, a graveborn whose face is completely hidden behind a knight-like helmet with only his long light green hair escaping it, a sword is sticking out of his upper back causing him to be hunched forward, a large iron with three heavy nails is rammed across his shoulder blades, and he has a heavy spiked shackle around each wrist, he isn't wearing a shirt and his pants, though they have holes in them, are a similar color to his skin but he is also wearing a loincloth over his pants, he dual-wields large blades and is crouching on a gravestone)

And last but certainly not least is Igor. He is somewhat similar to Grezhul with his kit of summoning gravestones but unlike Grezhul, he can teleport between them and activate them, giving debuffs and, I believe, damage over time to all enemies within a certain range. As for his animations, most are surprisingly aloof and seem to kind of hint at him perhaps feeling lonely as he currently is. Though only a full backstory will be able to tell us everything we need to know.

I will not get too much into the story and gameplay in this answer as this is already long enough but I want to mention one more thing regarding the battles. Aside from the battles having a hexagon grid system and thus a lot more combinations for positioning the party. Furthermore, there are various battle modes that allow you to experiment with your teams and units to figure out who works best where as well as devices you can manually use to turn the tide of battle. For example, there are defense battles where you need to defeat waves of enemies before they can damage a cart of supplies. There are solo battles where you can only use a singular hero to defeat several opponents. There are also tactical showdown battles where you can pick a limited number of units from a preset group and defeat tough enemies. The devices include a water gun that slows enemies down, walls and barricades that need to be broken down or circumvented, a flamethrower that deals damage and lingering burns, and more. The combination of all of these makes the battles really engaging and enjoyable, though, of course, you can still steamroll almost everything with high enough levels. There's also PvP, boss battles, and Labyrinth (although that one needs some severe adjustments).

Well, I'll get off my rant now, I'm sure I've wasted enough of your time. If you wanna see anyone's animations that I talked about or are ready to listen to me rant about the AFK Arena characters and their designs in the 3D art style, or anything else, hit me up anytime! My brain is overflowing with this game rn so I will be more than happy to answer anything!

#afk arena #afk 2 journey #afk journey #long post #sorry for ranting #also this took way too much time #tumblr had not one but at least twenty strokes #at the end of which it deleted the original ask #thanks a lot tumblr

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