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viperwhispered · 1 month

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New fic idea: Jamil VS the ex

Context: Jamil and s/o have been dating for while. Things are going great and everyone is just happy. There are no real jealousy issues on either side cause they trust each other and Jamil is confident he's the best catch around. If there is any jealousy, they talk it out like mature human beings since being petty doesn't solve anything. Though there is defintley possessiveness, it never leaves the bedroom and they both enjoy it.

Introducing the ex: just a complete toxic dump. As in, shitty romance novels stereotypical male lead toxic dump. Just controlling, verbally/emotionally abusive, physically intimidates people, tries to use sex to fix things, doesn't know when to leave their exes alone, gets physical with love rivals, etc. For reference feel free to look at Christian Grey from 50 Shades, Hardin Scott from After, and Edward Cullen from Twilight. Honestly it didn't last more than a week yet the ex continued to stalk our poor reader and ruin any attempt at a finding a new lover.

Cue them getting to NRC and finally having a chance at a relationship with our boy Jamil. But unfortunately all good things must come to an end when reader invites Jamil home to meet their family. Let's say that if the reader is not from TWST then they have a way to dimension travel and the family is in on it.

Jamil is quickly welcomed into the family and they make it clear that he's the best boyfriend the reader has had so far. The reader and their family are quick to warn Jamil about the ex and the sabotages. He learns the details from his albi's angry rants about all the bullshit this guy did.

At one point the reader turns to him and goes: "you have my permission to be as much of a possessive scheming bastard as you want. Ruin his reputation, frame him, humiliate him, I don't care! He's messed with my life far too much for me to care about him anymore. If we run into him, feel free to shove it in his face that I am yours. Hold me, kiss me, leave hickies, whatever! I trust you to know my boundaries and when to do it. Hell, if you manage to get rid of him, then we might as well skip the formalities and go straight to the alter."

Cue Jamil plotting:

1. Get the ego boost from going PDA in front of your lover’s ex. Note: make sure beloved is wearing his hoodie/jersey for maximum boost.

2. Get rid of the abusive ex who's been harming his beloved for YEARS.

3. Plan the wedding.

Meanwhile, the reader is just enjoying the extra affection while munching popcorn as their dear boyfriend gets rid of the biggest nuisance in their life. Yes they get turned on by it, especially the smirk. They're planning to thoroughly spoil him when this is over, both in and out of the bedroom.

Bonus: in your professional opinion, what route would Jamil take to get rid of the ex and how sadistic does he get?

Hasdkföjask yes just let Jamil loose on the problem and enjoy the fireworks.

Also hasdfads in my professional opinion, huh? I feel honored. 🥺👉👈

Oop this got long so below the cut it goes.

(Also boy am I glad the ex did not get to do too much lasting damage to reader’s ability to have a healthy relationship. Jamil already has enough baggage for both of them to go through. Still, someone get a restraining order on that ex, stat.)

“Yes they get turned on by it, especially the smirk.” Just… too true. Man’s just way too hot when he’s all confident and cocky I swear.

Also ngl this brand of possessive I can definitely get behind.

Also I love that tasklist, just not sure which one I love more, the note to task 1 or just the entirety of task 3. Tho of course, Jamil being Jamil (and I may or may not be projecting here) I’m sure there’d be plenty of subtasks / -steps to each of these.

(Also sidenote yes Jamil definitely would know how to turn up the charm for the in-laws for extra approval points. What a charming well-behaved young man, just delightful 😇)

Now, the options coming to my mind are:

Something “private”: only the ex (and reader) needs to know what happened exactly, but it’s enough to spook the ex and keep him in line. (I mean, getting snake whispered? Should be pretty scary, especially depending on what Jamil does with it. Oh boy, the potential.)

Something public: ruin this guy’s image, future prospects, credit score, everything, make everyone see him for the cretin he is. Might cause backlash depending on just how concerning this guy is, but also long-lasting consequences.

Ignore the gnat, just rub things in his face by just being super sweet and loveydovey wherever he happens to be without ever directly confronting him because he’s not worth the effort (not too likely, Jamil’s definitely way too petty (or incensed) to just leave it at that).

Now, getting information on people may be Azul’s specialty, but I’m sure Jamil won’t have too much trouble finding out enough (like where the ex works, lives, stuff like that. If this is a different world (or even just different country), I’m sure reader can help him with the details of what is possible and all).

And by the sounds of things, this particular jerkwad is bound to turn up anyway. So maybe it’s just a case of waiting and being ready, setting up the favorable circumstances.

So Jamil and s/o would be going out and about. Maybe to the shops, maybe just a walk outside, whatever they know is likely to land them on the ex’s path.

The thing about the hoodie is that it’s not necessarily obvious (to the ex) that it belongs to Jamil, rather than you. So he’d probably go for the jersey (since that name obviously isn’t yours (at least yet)), or weather permitting he’d only loan out his hoodie to you at an opportune time.

Like, as soon as you two realize the ex is around, you’re all oh, it sure is a little chilly isn’t it, have my hoodie my dear, it’ll keep you warm. Cue makeout session (and definitely no smug glances from Jamil to the ex, no siree. Nothing of the sort when he holds you tighter, pulls you closer, lets his hands trail along your back, into your back pockets or perhaps even under your shirt. Definitely.).

When ex comes over, you’re conveniently in a public place (probably conveniently within sight of cameras, too, so there’d be something on record to go to authorities with, if needed, and for extra consequences).

I’m thinking Jamil might be all “innocent”, at least overtly (and as much as he can hold himself back - he’s used to mingling with the high and mighty and keeping face, but this is more personal) - tho there might be some underhanded barbs with plausible deniability, or just all the casual things about how you’re Jamils and how you’ve been together for however long and how Jamil just met your parents etc. Basically just reminding the ex of what he can’t have.

Tho once Jamil distances himself (and you), from the guy, I could see Jamil going to somewhere more secluded (with or without you, depending on how you agreed in advance). And if and when the ex follows, he gets a very different side of Jamil. Sharp tongue, no holds barred, told in no uncertain terms how pathetic and despicable he is, and to keep away from you, your family, and anyone else who has any connection to you. But especially you.

The only problem I have is thinking of just what he’d do to seal the deal. I mean, probably Jamil would make the guy do something bad / unpleasant with snake whisper. Like, make the dude do something humiliating, film it and leave it on his phone for him to find later? Make him go out into the crowds to make a fool out of himself? (Perhaps in a location with his friends / family / whatever around?) Get him to send some very terrible messages to some folks?

I think I’m a bit too nice to think of just how far Jamil could go, and snake whisper does have its limitations, too. Like to really ruin someone, you need to do something more impactful than just one unfortunate action.

(I mean I suppose maybe he could make the dude kill someone and go to prison for that but yeah let’s not.) Robbery, tho? I’m sure there’s some sort of a crime we can squeeze out of the guy that would not be too bad for bystanders (not that Jamil would be that bothered, tbh) but would still be enough of a consequence, and which could still be achieved with snake whisper.

That, or just make the guy walk into a cesspit or something, especially if it’s right before something important.

I’m kinda just spitting this out (and brain’s a bit fried) but also this was such a juicy concept I had to jump on it.

Honestly I feel like there’d be so much more to be said just for the PDA part and the possessiveness and protectiveness Jamil would feel and everything else, and maybe I’ll get back to that another time.

Did you have any particular thoughts of how you think it might go?

#twisted wonderland #jamil viper #jamil viper x reader #ner talks #chatting with folks #lex752 #feels like there's so many more things I could be touching on here but this already is long and also my brain is hitting capacity #eta: tumblr why do you insist on dragging my readmores halfway down the post from where I place them? 😤

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chysgoda · 1 year

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Thaliak, the Scholar 7. When it comes to formal education, does your character have any goals? 8. Does your character enjoy reading? If so, what kind of books? 9. How important is education to your character?

So quick (ha ha I thought before I actually started writing this) head cannon to contextualize some of what I’m going to go into. Also this is a very YMMV head cannon so ya know I like it others may not. But we’re talking about my characters so full steam ahead!

The Echo acts as a hand dandy hand wave for why WoL can speak to everyone and written language is included in this universal translator per Eorzean Encyclopedia 1. However, on a logic level this doesn’t work entirely for me.

Spoken language works in the meta of the world because when two or more people are directly interacting there also all of the related body language, vocal intonation, and aether/dynamis right there to add all the delicate nuances that come with spoken language. the Echo can really just fill in the gaps (I also think this a big charisma stat bonus for WoL because their in person communication skills have a pretty strong empathic boost)

Writing however has more than a few levels of abstraction and varying amounts of time between the writer and the reader. There’s a lot of very specific ways different cultures use written language to fill in the blanks left when you take out body language and vocal intonations. Another layer of abstraction is translation where you go from an original writer through another person(s) before it ends up in a language the reader can consume. This translation even exists within one language if there’s a chunk of time and language shifts. Two examples of this are; Received Pronunciation vs. Original Pronunciation in Shakespear’s plays (look up the youtube channel Shakespear on Toast and watch his lecture series on this and other things. It’s fascinating) closer to home older Millennials trying to interpret Gen Z slang/abbreviations. So given that the Echo is the ability to “cross the boundaries of the soul” there’s a lot of dead space between the souls and the Echo acts more like google translate rather than a nice fat stat boost. I also think some kind of actual experience with the language outside of the echo is needed otherwise WoL could just read all of the ancient allagan nonsense that keeps popping up.

So given all of that, on to actually answering the question.

Art’imis is ambivalent with regards to any formal education in relation to herself. She’s very well aware that she would be an absolutely dreadful student if someone made her plop her butt down in some Studium class. A large portion of that is her struggle to actually be able to read most of the materials. She was entirely illiterate when she first got to Eorzea (her echo woke on the Azem Steppe before she came to Eorzea) because she had no experience with Eorzean common in any way other than what was spoken in the Kuagane port and on the ship to Eorzea. Her mentor in the gladiator’s guild taught her to read well enough that she could negotiate contracts and part of that negotiation was an instance on plain language. That demand however isn’t something you can ask of an already written book and books are kinda important to formal education. It isn’t until she’s with the scions and Bel is learning to read that Art’imis’s own skill starts improving because she doesn’t want bel to have her limitation and so helps encourage her daughter by learning with her. Even after her reading improved, complicated texts, both technical and poetic, took her a long time and a lot of effort to wade through. So technical stuff she can learn but prefers to learn through conversation. Eorzean trashy penny romance novels are generally straightforward enough and entertaining (in both good and bad ways) enough that she enjoys reading them. Which was where she was kinda floating until Hozan and Yugiri showed her some of the texts that they had managed to save and bring with them. Art could get through those easily and had her first solid clue as to where she came from.

So tl;dr for Art: no; ambivalent/ more likely to sketch; in relation to herself no, in relation to others absolute cheerleader

For a Bel, she was raised by a mix of adventurers, post doc nerds, an ascian pretending to be a spook/post doc nerd, and Ishgardian nobility, so she has much more distinct opinions about education/reading than her mother. She started learning to read around when her echo awakened in the bowl of embers because it looked close enough to burning meteors from the perspective of a 7 year old to trigger the generational soul pstd. Learning to read for the first time, at that age, with the echo, presented some interesting educational challenges. Lahabrea was the one that taught her how to read around the echo (for REASONS (™)), the scions and various associated adventurers encouraged a love of reading and learning. If the bloody banquet hadn’t happened she probably would have gone to the Arcanist Guild in her early teens. In Ishgard any mage schooling was a hard no and Edmont tailored her education so that she could step into a role as a schenchal, politician, or just in general have a very solid I can make things happen and keep happening skills at her disposal when her career as a dragoon eventually came to an end. When that career ended very early due to injury she made the decision to go train at the arcanist guild after a lot of conversations with a lot of different people. She finished her delayed thesis for the arcanist guild shortly after Endwalker since the guild mistress had very kindly handed out end of the world extensions to anyone who asked. For casual reading Bel will pick up just about anything that catches her eye or that someone in her extensive family network suggests. When you’re raised by an eclectic group of people you end up with an eclectic set of interests.

tl;dr for Bel: She’s currently conducting research about using arcamina to channel dragon aether; yes and pretty much everything; yes

#ffxiv #ffxiv ask meme answer #Art’imis Chysgoda #bel aliender #random things I have very complicated head cannons about #thanks for the ask!

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chasing-daydreams · 2 months

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People talk about a twst otome game but like, should it be a straight forward visual novel?

Because if it were to be a something like tokimeki memorial- oh you wont see me for MONTHS

HEAR ME OUT (discussing specific mechanic under the cut)

I just wanna preface that I've only played the girl's side games and thats what Im basing my ramblings off of.

I don't think the bomb mechanic of the games will work for a cast of 22 characters. Maybe if you hang out with them to a certain amount, they'll start getting crabby if you stop hanging out with them all of a sudden and they bombs affect the characters within their dorm. Maybe some overlap with clubs. For example you dont hangout with Kalim as much, making Lilia and Cater go :/ but Jamil would be so peeved now Kalim's moping to him about it, how dare you prefect >:[[

Maybe the stats instead of the usual style, intelligence, etc. are based off the traits of each of the dorms like strictness, perseverance, benevolence, mindfulness, tenacity, diligence, and nobility. And they correspond to each dorm ie. Riddle's route would need more strictness.

To raise certain stats, there's the usual classes of history, alchemy, and PE. History raises strictness, mindfulness, and nobility. Alchemy raises tenacity and diligence. PE raises perseverance and maybe diligence too. There'll also be other actions and events like help out in the kitchen based off of the master chef course (Crowley gived them a school given job i guess) that raises mindful and benevolence. And so on.

Money and Stress is still a stat bc we gotta keep it real, the amount of times the Ramshackle Duo is mentioned to be at the mercy of Crowley's stinginess.... how could it not. Stress is self explanatory.

I don't think the dress up mechanic could work but I think an alternative that's so much better would be items used to boost stats like textbooks (you cant buy multiple but one type and it raises that stat permanently). Maybe when you'll get to a point that you can purchase gifts for the cast as well.

Grim will hate this but... taking care of Grim mechanic. He'll function just fine on his own but taking care of him by like making sure he studies, goes to class, etc. It'll raise stats and will even net you attention from others.

Getting this type of game would also be a good way to get a timeline of events in between overblots. I know there are alt versions like the fairy gala if but maybe you choose which version you play through at the beginning for the game since fairy gala if is only really possible after chapter 6 but the original can take place whenever so it'll be a smooth.

I don't think it has to have a romantic end goal, you can stay friends with characters even if you hit that romance threshold. With the amount of characters too, if you do choose to romance multiple people... I'd like to think word 'round a place like NRC travels fast and a confrontation will happen soon.

thats kind of it for concepts I can think of. Maybe at the end of the year is the end card of how your life progresses in Twisted Wonderland, ie. you have high strictness and benevolence you stay at NRC and become staff etc. Think of the ending system of Princess Maker. The default is that you don't make it back home, but there are certain events you trigger to get the option to go back home. For all the yumes out there, there'll also be maybe a cg of your chosen love interest and a snippet of your life with them (LET ME BE DELUSIONAL)

#twst #twisted wonderland #chasing thoughts #i dont think i can tag tokimeki memorial in this its so twst leaning

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athroneofbones · 2 years

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A Throne of Bones is a dark fantasy interactive novel set in CScript (possibly Twine later on).

Setting(s): Astryae || Othein

Genre(s): Medieval Fantasy, Adventure, Action, and Drama.

Warning(s): This story is rated 18+ for depictions of torture, blood, death, sexual themes, strong language, manipulation, war, and mentions of abuse.

Scenario and NSFW asks are welcomed.

The crown gleamed underneath the silver rays of the moon; argent in color— dotted with glittering rubies— only speckled by the faintest flecks of crimson. And, as you lay it on your head, you could feel the ghosts of all those that had worn it before; for you were the new ruler of Astryae.

Long May You Reign…

Death was your burden when you were born— killing your mother during the process— and it followed you as you grew; a looming giant forever getting closer. Only, as you matured, you decided to meet it head on; to take back your fate and what you lost.

The Kingdom of Astryae was now yours; as it had been your ancestors long before.

You only needed to make sure that you kept it— no matter the cost— and to do that you must complete your end of the bargain towards the nation that had helped you take it back.

Help them take the nation of Othein…

Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems.

DEMO (TBA)

Take control of the new Ruler of Astryae; the most prosperous country— sans Othein— in all of Athon. Will your legacy proceed you? Or have you allowed the myths to taint who you truly are?

Are you as cruel as many believe you to be? Or is there a hidden heart of gold somewhere within you?

Choose between three different fighting styles; warrior, rogue, or mage. Each give a different boost to other stats within the game (as well as different reactions among the people).

Will you be able to uphold your end of the bargain you promised so long ago? A promise you made when you were a young— and foolish— wannabe conqueror.

Customizable MC: name, sexuality, appearance, hobbies, and more. Play as male or female.

Romance 1 of 5 options that will either make your decision all the easier or that much more difficult. (There’s a possibility of poly routes but I haven’t decided.)

Will your legacy ever be anything else besides blood?

Or will you forever sit on a throne of bones?

Vylaran/Vylara [M/F] - The Heir

28 [6’2” | Violet Eyes | Silver Blonde Hair]

With the trademark purple eyes of the royal family of Othein; you could pick them out of a crowd easily. You just weren’t expecting their sunny smile— tinged with something much darker— or their mastery of magic. A skill that has won them many wars as well as allies. Will you be able to defeat them? Especially if you fall in love along the way?

“I hate myself for falling in love with you. What kind of luck is it that I’ve finally found the person I yearn to spend the rest of my life with and it has to be you? Has to be the one person that wishes to destroy everything I hold dear.“

Auryn/Aeryn [M/F] - The Dark Knight

28 [6’4” | Forest Green Eyes | Dark Brown Hair]

Your most trusted soldier within your army; an individual that has killed for you more than you could ever possibly know. Being loyal to a fault only added to the package that was your Knight Commander; covert smiles, warm eyes only ever directed towards, sweetening the deal exponentially. You should have known their devotion to you had more than simple loyalty attached to it.

“I will follow you into death, my liege. I would cut the head off of anyone that wished to harm you. Bring death and destruction to all those that oppose you. I will never back down from being your champion.”

Silas/Samara [M/F] - The Spymaster

31 [5’8” | Hazel Eyes | Onyx Black Hair]

With a witty retort always ready; your spymaster wasn’t ever one to keep things dull. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were so good at their job you might have gotten rid of them long ago, but they’ve proven their worth and loyalty long before then. You just never realized the depth of the person behind the flirtatious smiles and snarky words.

“Just say the word, your grace, and I will find the person responsible for this. I will hunt them down personally if that’s your desire. I just hope that I’ll be… rewarded for my efforts. Especially after I make the coward scream.”

Cullen/Céline [M/F] - The Diplomat

29 [5’11” | Silver-Grey Eyes | Golden-Blonde Hair]

At first glance, you weren’t sure if they belonged with the kind of company that you normally employed; but their silver tongue and sharp wit easily won you over. Especially when they’ve come up with ways for you to win the hearts of the people within your nation… something that was desperately needed if you were going to stay on the throne. Maybe the late night business meetings will turn to more?

“Feelings and politics should never mesh, your grace, but I must admit in my own failure at differentiating the lines between the two as of late. As I can’t stop myself from wishing to be with you. Always.”

Lycian/Lycia [M/F] - The Shadow

???

You’ve never truly gotten a good glimpse of their face but you’re well acquainted with their voice. The soft whispers that ghost across your mind at night and tell of you of the things to come; the calling of Death being one that you were familiar with. You just hope that you still have time left.

“We are one, your majesty, and we will always be one. Ever since your first breath you have been mine to keep. And I promise you that I will never let you go.”

#a throne of bones #interactive fiction #interactive novel #choice script #twine #possibly #no demo #dark fantasy #writing team

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thesparkofhope · 2 years

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The Spark of Hope is a free to play interactive novel set within the world of Star Wars. Wherein you’ll take the role of a young Jedi trying to find their way in a galaxy that has turned on its head; some liberties have been taken with the lore but that’s all for the sake of the story.

May the Force be with you…

The Empire…

It’s synonymous with everything that has gone wrong within the known galaxy; taking life as if they were a simple inconvenience. Many know it as the dark cloud— the dark force— constantly hovering over them. Just waiting for a time when it’s suitable to strike.

You, however, know it a bit more intimately than the other inhabitants of the galaxy. To them the Empire, and subsequently the Emperor, was a faceless tyrant. An entity that needed no physical form for them to feel its presence.

To you he was father…

And to him you were a pawn that he could use to tighten his hold on those he thought lesser. To ensure that he would stay in power.

The only thing in your favor? You were able to escape the Empire’s hold but it’s only a matter of time before he tracks you down.

Even if you wouldn’t be able to stop him, you only needed to get people to see that they had a fighting chance.

That rebelling was the only way to survive.

And that you weren’t the enemy.

This story is 18+ for violence, depictions of torture, sexual themes, profanity, and alcohol consumption.

The lore, as I’ve mentioned previously, is shifted primarily around two things; that Jedi aren’t allowed to fall in love and that Palpatine is known (meaning his face). Palpatine is an ambiguous entity that can look a bit different then how you remember him. I hope that doesn’t upset anyone too much.

This is set before the original movies but after the prequels. Where the Rebellion was first starting out.

Customizable MC: name, nickname, appearance, gender, sexuality, fighting style, and more.

Choose your lightsaber color— that will boost your stats appropriately— from blue to green to purple to yellow.

Romance 1 of 5 options that will show you what you’ve been missing in life. Or choose to stay single.

Visit different planets as you try to recruit allies— while going under the Empire’s radar— and meet interesting people in the process.

Make sure that you don’t crash the Tempest too much, alright? Her captain won’t be too pleased with you.

Toe the line between the Light and Dark side as you try to sever your bond with the Empire. Don’t lose your way…

Have fun down time with your companions— namely your small droid friend— and get to learn more about them as you travel through the depths of space.

Practice the force and hone your skills with your lightsaber— just make sure you don’t blow anything up— as you never know who may show up.

Anehsi/Anehsa Kaa [M/F] - The Warrior

[5’8” | Sky Blue Eyes]

Species: Togruta

You meet the empathetic individual on one of your first stops after escaping the Empire. With kind eyes, a fighting spirit, and a genuine want to help, you know that you have an ally that you can trust. But maybe you’ve found something more too.

Rhen/Rhea Solace [M/F] - The Mechanic

[5’10 | Silver Eyes | Dark Brown Hair]

Species: Human

The other half of the Tempests modest crew; a flirt that has a way with the machinery of any spacecraft. With sly words, a saccharine smile, and innuendos exuding from them, you know your time aboard the ship has just gotten a lot more interesting. Especially when you notice the softer edge they have when they think no one is looking.

Castor/Celeste Ekiam - The Anchor

[5’6 | Hazel Eyes | Auburn Hair]

Species: Human

The only person that you trusted enough to tell your plan— about how you needed to leave everything behind— and who, without hesitation, came with you. With a gentle demeanor and soft words most would assume they were harmless; they’d be wrong. You don’t know what you’d do without them by your side.

Elaire/Elaira Amadis [M/F] - The Captain

[6’3” | Green Eyes | Golden-White Hair]

Species: Human

The captain of the Tempest that has sarcasm exuding from every word; their guard up around you even if they don’t know where you’re truly from. Will you be able to show them that you’re not a threat? Soothe the years pain from their eyes as you get to know them aboard their ship? Or will it all crumble before your eyes?

Kit'alo'nuruodo (Kit) [M/F] - The Bounty Hunter

[6’0” | Red Eyes | Jet Black Hair]

Species: Chiss

A pragmatic individual that has a cunning intellect— you were able to see that the moment you met their gaze— which makes their prowess in battle that much more deadly. You may not be sure if they’re on your side completely but you’re glad they’re not actively trying to kill you anymore too.

DEMO TBA

#the spark of hope #interactive game #interactive fiction #interactive novel #upcoming demo #star wars

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prof-peach · 3 years

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if fans wanted to include peach in stuff they write, would that be okay? and how would they write peach's personality? aside from "FIGHT ME" anyway, i think that much is a given lol. i only really write the anime characters 'cause that's what i know, but it sounds like it'd be kinda fun to try making a version of ash that fits into this blog's universe! nerf'd Obviously, but i think she'd probably appreciate how hands-on he gets when training his pokemon!

Ok, I get a lot of these messages, and I often hear folks wanting to throw peach into their stories and comics and writings, and I will always simply ask that if it’s published online publicly, to be linked to it so I can snoop and enjoy the content too. If someone asks about her in your work, let them know about the blog I guess? But literally I love that people take this stuff, these characters and stories, and make new stuff with it. No ones making money off my work here? So where’s the issue? Go for it buddy, knock yourself out, I’m all for it.

For you, and all the others out there who want to add peach, and other characters to your world building, I will give you a detailed rundown of the main lot, and how they behave, what they do, how they function. You can use that, use bits, or use none of it, I do not mind at all. If you’re creating something, you’re in control, not me.

So, peach doesn’t actually fight people as much as you’d think. She’s very aware most cannot and do not want to do that, and so she likes to keep to herself with regards to that aspect of her life, she doesn’t ask to spar with people, or even bring it up at all, but people ask her all the time, even if they clearly would lose or become hurt should she miscalculate during the fight. She looks at people like they usually create problems, and often has a somewhat reserved nature to other humans. You have to work quite hard to get anything more than formalities out of her. She will dead-pan handle people with blunt and very to-the-point statements, aid whenever possible, but very quickly get back to handling the Pokemon she so carefully tends. Her focus is clear, she’s all about hard work, her very small select family, and the Pokemon.

Her brutal, loud and brash personality only comes out with friends, family, difficult humans, OR any Pokemon. She will joke and laugh and play with Pokemon, but clam up around humans, maintaining tight body language and generally will be a little cold by regular standards. She does however have some weaknesses in this emotionless shield she puts up. When peach was young she was always angry, which swung so fast to sadness, back and forth. Her teenage years it just got worse and worse, it was crippling at points. She is to this day, full of fire and rage, even sadness, but now she has learnt to control it, to use it. When she sees that in others, it’s familiar, and she is pushed to drop the front, and be very real with the person. Underdogs I suppose, people who get bad reps, but deserve the same as everyone else. She can’t ignore it.

Once you start to pry open her personality, you’ll find she’s a lot more laid back and fun than originally appeared, you just have to work hard to find that side of her. She will meme reference, can’t dance to save her life, loves her coffee, and can be caught in quiet contemplation while gardening. This hobby is her calmest, and often is why she can stay so level headed when her quiet rage boils up again. Without time outside she will become grouchy, a little snippy, and lethargic. Will not go in the ocean for any reason other than life or death, is fine with ponds and rivers, or water at wading height. Likes the rain.

With regards to her training others, they usually have to tolerate her somewhat strict nature. She is a little....unforgiving, holds a grudge if you make a lot of mistakes, and has no tolerance for ignorance in the age of information that we all live in. In previous posts I’ve mentioned she’s only recently selected two students, after many years of testing kids who want to learn from her. Hundred tried out, only two have ever been approved. How she teaches is very fast paced, be prepared to get some scrapes and bruises, she will test your physical and emotional tolerances with intense tasks, carefully watching students like a hawk. Bad posture in your stance? She’ll be the first to tell you to sort it out. Not hearing your Pokemon partner? Right, now you spend the day without using words trying to communicate, let’s see how you like not being listened to.

This is a woman who has spent her life saying very little, and watching everything, she watches Pokemon and can see an issue from a mile off, and in battles, her observations are why she can react fast, and chose effective strategy to avoid damage and achieve results. Don’t let her body fool you, her strongest asset is analysing, watching, planning. Those skills have over the years transferred to people too. As a student, mistakes don’t go unnoticed with this professor.

Her methods are harsh but fair, and should you prove yourself, she will protect you with her life.

Because of her disinterest in kids and lots of noise, she does pass the training of students on to the other staff members whenever possible. Grey takes on the lions share of battle lessons, he is far calmer, more open and friendly, with patience for people, and an empathy that peach sometimes struggles to have. When you go through a lot of harsh training, and difficult events, it’s hard to change how you feel or think, with peach, well, she’s been through it. Most do not come out the other end in one piece, but she did, and it made her strong. You may think I mean strong like buff and big, and yeah sure she is, but I mean it mentally more than anything. Peach will not quit. She has learnt to destroy the boundaries that stop people getting hurt, gone is the fear that freezes you in your tracks, that feeling that you’ll pass out if you go one more step. She’s learnt to ignore it.

This means she’s a little forgetful at how it is to be normal, to be vulnerable and soft and squishy like students so usually are.

She has her issues, but for the most part, visitors get a laugh, a smile, a calm assertive confidence, and facts. She will indulge those who have genuine interest, or show a connection with nature, an understanding of the balance that needs to be struck for everyone to live well together.

Despite her many flaws, she’s fiercely protective, and will go above and beyond to defend the island, it’s staff, the Pokemon and the visitors. Injustice is her biggest gripe, along with littering, and she doesn’t stand by quietly if something happens that seems unfair.

You will not see her without Valka, her vulpix, close by. That Pokemon doesn’t like to be touched by strangers, at all, and will run the second someone comes at her with that intent. Peach will scold you for pushing yourself onto her, should you persistently try to get close to pet Val. They are in sync, if peach is sad, Val is sad, if Val is stressed, peach is stressed, and so on. They are inherently connected, it’s just been that long, the psychic bridge between them has been built, and reinforced over the years.

The only other Pokemon who follows her so endlessly is Booker, a teddiursa who’s pretty rough looking. He quietly trots behind, grouchy and stoic, they fight closely together a lot. He lost his mom a long time ago to poachers, and peach took him in, and changed her whole life for him. Not many people know, but Booker was the reason she left the rangers, changed career, and got so strong. Will tolerate people petting him but isn’t keen at all, grumbles a lot and tries to move away.

You may also need to know about the others, for the sake of writing, she here a few more bits that may be important to you, or others wanting to do this.

Grey is very tall, very burly, composed, tells bad dad jokes, is a bit of a goof if allowed to be. If he sees a pun, he’ll say it. Can’t help himself. Very nice guy to work with, good at keeping people calm and grounded. Pokemon are drawn to him like a moth to a flame, he gives off warm energy, and has inhuman amounts of patience. If you wrong his family however, he will snap back.

He grew up in the city, loves to swim and hike and cycle, can snowboard, is really sporty. A total brain box with held items, and boosting stats. He will explore many paths, to make sure visitors and students get the information they need, in a way that can be remembered and retained for later. Is a huge guy, but will get on the floor to play with a tiny Pokemon. Treats big “meaner” looking species like babies, very good with all pokemon.

His free time is spent either tinkering, swimming, or trimming his bonsai trees. This guy stares at screens a lot, so appreciates time away from them. Peach built him his own little greenhouse for his trees and tools, which he keeps clean and loves dearly.

His methods as a teacher are built around fun and games, he makes hard work easier to do by distracting trainers from the difficult bits, and focusing in on something more interesting or compelling.

His most commonly seen Pokemon would be a houndoom, Saxon, old battle veteran, retired now to herding and being a good boy. Very gentle, loves a pet.

Pari, now a fully fledged nurse, often oversees the labs front desk and pokecentre features, such as healing pokemon, and informing trainers who come to visit. Her skills with eggs and hatchlings is high, she’s great with younger Pokemon, and hands out good advice to trainers a lot. She’s not a fighter, never was, but can find any file, any study, any book, and any refrence you may need. A true bookworm, loves her romance novels, chat shows and upbeat celebrity gossip mags. Will cry at a lot of stuff, be it sad or happy.

She’s got a seriously upbeat personality, but if caught off guard or shocked, she gets a little flustered. Too much chaos will overwhelm her, but usually she’s on top of things. The years spent on the island have made her better at maintaining composure in emergencies. With lots of siblings, she’s very competent with others, and has a good ability to disarm cagey people with her jolly nature. Because of this, she can sometimes gain information from trainers that some of the more harsh professors may not have access to. Charming is a word for it.

Her partners are an eevee, and a happiny. They are quite sweet and well adjusted, the eevee gets a bit bouncy if you get it too excited.

#if you dont want to use the refs #im really cool with it #just enjoy yourself buddy #pokemon #prof.peach #peach talks #prof.grey #pari #dotaku island #dotaku staff #PLEASE #just ask me if you dont know something #or feel i missed something in what i wrote

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mediawhorefics · 2 years

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Hello! I saw your tag about “you can be both” reading fics and books and how? Because since I started to read fics in 2020, I only read one back and it was in 2021🤦🏻‍♀️ Can you give us some tips or something? Because there are so many books I want to read but now it’s like easy to read fics but idk, nothing makes sense lmao

omg yes i can ABSOLUTELY give you some tips because as a huge reader who lost a lot of interest in reading original fiction for a while, i worked hard to nourish my love of reading and get back into it.

a little background info: back when i was doing an English lit degree, i was reading all the Classics (which was interesting from a ~learning about literature pov but not from a 'i'm having fun reading' pov ....) for uni and it was a LOT of reading yk? and while i'd be lying if i said i read all the assigned stuff, i did my fair share. none of it was really me reading for pleasure though. and in my time off, i read fics cos that was easier to get into/didn't require as much digging to find what i liked. it was more lighthearted. etc etc.

but at one point i realised i hadn't read a novel for pleasure in years and as someone who ALWAYS described herself as a huuuuuge reader, that really fucking bothered me. so here's a few things i did/do to boost my ~reading original fiction stats.

1. take the time to think about what you like to read & to find the right book

just like fics, there's a lot of choices and there's no point trying to read award-winning novels/the books everyone are talking about if it's not something you're normally interested in. for me, that meant leaning into the fic thing. i thought about what kind of fics i liked reading and why (fun lighthearted romance + queer rep were two reasons) and i tried to look for books that had similar vibes. that meant looking into the romance genre, which i'd never been a big reader of before, and into lgbt+ fiction (both adult and ya). and i found lots of fun stuff that way. i als went back to my first loves: fantasy and historical fiction. i looked into what had been published recently, what was popular, what lots of queer people around me were reading, what movies/shows i had liked were adapted from books, and what other books were recommended a lot alongside those, etc....

2. find people who read a lot whose opinions you trust/who have similar taste to yours and check out what they've been reading

i was following a few blogs of big readers at the time so i tried a few of their favs and once i realised which my taste was most aligned with, i kept a close eye on their recommendations (and still do for a few of my key favs!)..... it can be tumblr bloggers, twitter people, people on booktok or booktube, writers you enjoy, hell you favourite actor/musician who shares their reading lists............ it doesn't really matter. but keeping engaged in the conversation is one of the biggest motivators for me! i keep seeing people talk about cool books and i'm always adding to my tbr pile and that keeps me turning the pages haha.

3. give yourself a challenge!

ok this might not work for everyone but i like the idea of focusing my reading on one contained challenge. i do a goodreads challenge every year with a goal of x books each year ofc, but that's not quite what i'm talking about here. i'm talking about how, in 2019, i decided i was gonna make a huge dent into my tbr pile by banning rereads for the whoooooole year. (i'm BIG guilty of rereading. i enjoy it so very much). it was great and it was hard (all i wanted to do was reread ofc because it was forbidden!!!) and it allowed me to discover lots of new favourites and read things that i had meant to for literally years. this year, i decided i want to try and read more Classic Queer Literature (started with brokeback mountain and now i've just moved on to angels in america). stuff like maurice and a single man and the price of salt, etc. maybe you could try and read ten books written by women of colour, or ten books from ten countries you've always wanted to visit, or five biographies, etc etc. it kinda makes it easier to chose what to read next and it's fun! there's a toooon of preexisting challenges online too so if you don't really know, googling will give you a bunch of lists you can base yourself on.

4. mix it up with the length/medium

this is a big one for me! sometimes i find it hard to focus (between *gestures vaguely at the world*) on big novels so i like to mix it up and read a few comics in a row. maybe a poetry book. or a few plays. things that can be read super quickly and give you a sense of accomplishment. when you haven't read a lot in a long time, the feeling of beginning and finishing a book is pretty satisfactory, so giving yourself a chance with shorter novels/shorter stuff, is totally fair game IMO. esp. as you ease back into it.

5. have a daily goal.

ok this is the big big big one for me..... with my mentally ill brain being what it is, at some point, i had to Force Myself to read. esp. during quarantine since i felt soooooooo blurgh. and now it's part of my daily habit and i wouldn't go back. i've done it differently over the years. sometimes i'll do 15 min. of reading a day (either in the morning or before bed).... and lately i've done reading one chapter per day! and i don't go to bed until i've done it. it's just as part of my routine as brushing my teeth. (just looked at my habit tracker app and i've done the 1 chapter per day thing for 188 days since i started tracking it.) and that really helps me. it's a small enough goal that it's totally doable every day and it really adds up over time. and when the book is good, sometimes one chapter turns into five lmao.

6. audiobooks ?

this isn't exactly one that works for me since i can't focus on books i've never read on audio BUT i know it works for lots of people so i thought i'd mention it. listening to audiobooks while going through the motions of life can be a great hack! while you do daily chores, or while you commute, or on your lunch break.... you can be reading a book through someone else reading it to you. and it totally counts, so!

sooo, it's not a lot but hopefully, that helps a bunch ??? ?

#about me #reading

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thatgamefromthatad · 3 years

Text

Seen these ads? (Obey Me! Review)

This is a visual novel/otome/gacha card RPG game with the same characters and themes as featured in the ads.

As stated in many of the ads this game centers around seven demon brother love interests (as well as some other potential love interests) although the game has a lot of plot elements other than just romance. Most of the ads that I’ve seen feature real art that appears in the game one way or another, and the ads tend to be focused more on the characters and theme in general rather than specific gameplay. Of the ads that do appear to show gameplay, most of the time it’s not really what you’ll see in the game but still follows fairly close to the actual game (for example, the “kiss, free, whip” ad on the top left doesn’t show real gameplay, but you can kiss or whip that character. But that specific art comes from a gacha card I believe and isn’t what you see when you do the kissing and whipping).

A few notes before I get into the full review:

I’m a lesbian, so I’m definitely not the target audience for this game, but I always try to be objective and open-minded when playing any game I’m not the target audience for (other examples I’ve reviewed in the past are Moments, which was also primarily targeted toward women who are attracted to men, Immortal Taoists, which involved a genre I had never heard of before and really had no interest in, Time Princess, which also wasn’t my favorite genre but was still a great game, and various Genius Inc. visual novels, which are targeted more toward high-school age boys as far as I can tell).

Speaking of lesbians, this game weirdly censors the word “lesbians” but not any other LGBTQ+ terms (that don’t include the word “sexual”) as far as I can tell; I decided it was enough of a one-off thing that it wouldn’t factor a huge amount in my overall review of the game, but I think it’s still something to take note of and not let off the hook since it definitely shows bias and can be offensive to players.

This game is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and I was pretty harsh on Crush Crush for being rated that way because I thought it crossed the line with some of its sexually suggestive content. I kept that in mind while playing this one, and personally I don’t think it crossed the line in the same way, at least not from what I’ve played so far; although it does have sexually suggestive content (most often when interacting with the character Asmodeus, who is literally known in the game as the “Avatar of Lust”), it’s much more occasional through tidbits of dialog as opposed to in Crush Crush where it involved a whole section of the game and was more interactive in nature. I would definitely still cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old reading some of this dialog, but I think it fits fairly within the App Store descriptors of “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity” and “Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

Last note - there is a character in this game (Luke) who has the appearance and demeanor of a small child who you can interact with in a similar way to the other love interest characters, which concerned me for obvious reasons. I looked more into this, specifically reading into all of the different dialog options involving this character, and his responses never seem to be more than platonic, which is good. He still blushes when you give him gifts and stuff, which is kind of awkward, and it seems weird to throw a kid character into an otome game, but all considered I wouldn’t say the game is promoting anything inappropriate (unlike one of the Genius VNs that clearly involved relationships between an adult and minors).

Sorry I know that’s a lot of notes and disclaimers but I just wanted to that all out of the way as general concerns anyone might have trying this game or reading this review!

Without further ado, read my full review below:

***

(I’m trying a new color-coding system to help highlight some of the main points of my review if you don’t want to read my entire essay word-for-word lol. Pink is a positive aspect of the game, red is a negative aspect/criticism and purple is not necessarily positive or negative but just something I wanted to highlight.)

😈 Is the game actually fun? Yes! Just in terms of production value, this game is top notch: the art and character designs are very appealing, the transitions between characters’ poses and facial expressions during VN scenes are actually animated (which looks much smoother and more natural than switching between still images), the voice acting is great (although the VN scenes aren’t fully voice acted, some parts like phone calls are and the characters say different phrases during scenes and battles as well)(Note: all the voice acting is Japanese), and the music is FANTASTIC and perfectly sets the vibe throughout the game.

The best parts of this game in my opinion are the different personalities of the characters and the overall plot; although some of the characters’ personalities can be a bit one-note at times (for example, one character’s entire personality that I’ve seen so far is that he likes to eat and is always hungry), the characters each have their own charm and play off each other well. I found myself getting invested in each of the characters’ desires and goals throughout the story, even the characters I didn’t particularly like. The story is also chock full of humor which is always fun, and the whole world and backstory built around this game (the “Devildom” setting and the idea of an exchange student program with angels, humans and demons) are also unique and impressive.

I really enjoyed the multiple modes of storytelling i.e. how the VN chapters are supplemented with text messages and phone calls from characters and an Instagram spoof with additional side stories to unlock. I know this isn’t a new thing in mobile games (even Gardenscapes and Homescapes do it to an extent lol) but add the compelling characters and overall production value on top and it’s a really enjoyable experience. Since the home screen of the game is set up like it’s your phone, with the different parts of the game represented as “apps,” the game kind of creates a feeling like you’re really living in this world with these characters where you can freely scroll through their Instagram feeds and check the messages you get from them on your own time. The shop where you can buy items and premium currency is called Akuzon (an Amazon spoof) and the place where all your gacha cards are is called “contacts,” which further adds to the immersive effect.

The “dating” part of the game is pretty cute although I haven’t gotten super far so I’m not sure of the full scope of the romantic interactions. From what I can tell, in addition to the dialog, blushy faces and bedroom eyes you get from characters when you give them gifts and touch different parts of their body (above the belt lol), when you raise your intimacy level with them you get additional phone calls and messages from them (I haven’t played a lot of otome games but I think that’s how a lot of them go). I wasn’t that invested in this part of the game but I think there’s some strategy that goes with using the right combination of gifts and touches to maximize intimacy boosts and get certain dialog, which adds a whole other aspect of gameplay in addition to the main game. I also noticed that occasionally your choices throughout the VN chapters will give you a small intimacy boost with a certain character; I kind of wish this was even more integrated since most of the time I felt like no matter what I chose it didn’t make any difference in my relationship with characters. Also, I don’t think there’s a way to “officially” date a specific character, it’s more about raising the intimacy level to earn more interactions but it doesn’t actually affect the main plot.

As far as the main mode of progressing through the game, which is winning “dance battles” with teams from your gacha collection, this part of the game has its own positive qualities such as the cute chibi forms of the characters that appear on screen and the fact that some of the special attacks show a little anime clip of the character (of course it’s less exciting when you see the same clip every battle but I still thought it was a nice touch). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a rhythm aspect as the “dance battle” name would imply, and your main interaction during the battle itself is basically just tapping hearts that pop up and tapping the characters when their attacks are ready, but you also have the option to skip that whole interactive sequence and just get a result based on your team’s stats, so there’s not much to complain about there (especially since the battles are sort of a side note compared to the storytelling aspect of the game despite being the main element of RPG-based gameplay that allows you to progress). If you are interested in the RPG aspects, there’s plenty of that to work with (building teams, balancing attributes, managing resources/rewards to level up cards and progress through skill trees of sorts, all that good stuff) although you’re limited to an extent by how difficult it is to get a lot of gacha draws without paying real money. It’s even harder to be able to focus on both strategy and character relationships while playing for free when the same scarce currency is used for both gacha draws and gifts.

👿 Is this a free game or a “free game”? Despite what I just said, I would still consider it a free game - you can gradually save up some of premium currency the game gives out through tasks in order to pay for more gacha draws and other items, and as far as I can tell you can access the main story and the other parts of the game without hitting a paywall. I only got to the fourth chapter so far though so don’t take this assessment as gospel. Like with a lot of other freemium games you might feel pressured to pay (especially when you run out of gifts to give your lover boys, which was the biggest downer for me, or if you’re obsessed with wanting to collect a lot of cards or get a specific card) but since you don’t actually need to pay to progress I still consider it free.

There’s also an energy system where you hit a wall and have to wait if you run out, but I never ran out because of the huge amount of energy the game dumps on you when you first start, and it seems like there are a bunch of other ways to get extra energy as well. There also aren’t pop-up or watch-to-earn ads in this game that I saw.

💀 Features

Main visual novel scenes and storyline (the visual novel scenes come between dance battle stages and there are a few short side routes that branch off but still one main route as far as I can tell, I don’t think your dialog choices really make a different except for in how the characters react to you immediately afterward. Still the main storyline in itself is fun to follow and it’s fun to get different reactions out of the characters based on what you say)

Dance battles (I’m not fully knowledgeable about the minutia of the RPG system at play here but in general the outcome of the battle will depend on the level, rank and attributes of your cards compared against the difficulty and attributes of the stage you’re playing. There also “memory cards” that can be assigned to support your team and expendable temporary boosters called “glow sticks” that boost your stats for one battle. During the battle itself you tap hearts that appear to earn extra points and you can tap your characters when their power is charged up to “attack” your opponent and use special skills. There are guides online that go deeper into stats and strategies and such if you’re interested. Different stages have different rewards for completion and you can quick complete levels you’ve already beaten to mine resources you need)

Gacha mechanic and cards (the gacha area of this game is called “Nightmare” and there are a few different pools along with event pools each with their own odds and sets of cards you can get. For the default pools you get free draws periodically and I believe you get one free draw for each event pool IIRC. You also get a bunch of vouchers for draws when you first start the game which got me handful of SSRs and a couple URs to build a couple of solid teams right off the bat. In addition to drawing directly from gacha pools you can get some cards by collecting card pieces as rewards from stages and events until you have enough to get the actual card. Each card has its own set of stats/attributes, can be leveled up and has a skill tree of sorts that can be progressed through with resources mined through beating stages, although it’s more of an attribute tree than a skill tree since most of the branches just add points onto one of your card’s attributes. Some cards, the rarer ones, have special skills that can be used in battle)

One-on-one characters interactions and intimacy i.e. the “dating” part (there are two ways this occurs: 1) you can set a specific character to your home screen that allows you to enter into an interaction with them, with a refresh period in between interactions 2) the main way, which is through “surprise guests” after dance battles. These surprise guests show up frequently but not always, and they’re always one of the three team members you used in battle, selected randomly. For each one-on-one interaction you can do three actions - either give a gift, touch the character or ignore the character. Sometimes the character will also offer you a high five which counts as an action if you oblige. Different characters have different favorite gifts and touching different parts of the body can get a different reaction depending on the character and your level of intimacy I believe. Your intimacy level with a character increases depending on the combination of actions you perform, and sometimes the character also gives you gifts back like more energy or resources. There are guides for this online as well)

Text messages and phone calls (text messages are the main mode of storytelling outside of the main VN scenes - you get messages from characters or multiple characters in group chats that you respond to with preset messages or stickers similar to how you make choices during the VN parts. Some of the text messages correspond with the main plot as you progress, ex. A character texts you to be in a certain place at a certain time and next VN scene is of you two meeting at that place. I think other text messages also come up when you reach certain intimacy levels with characters. There are certain group messages that you don’t respond to where you’re basically spying on a group chat among characters and just get to see what everyone’s saying. In addition to written messages and emoji stickers characters will also sometimes send pictures. Phone calls are fully voice-acted dialog you have with another character and they seem to pop up when you reach certain intimacy levels - I’ve only gotten ones so far with the two characters I have the highest intimacy with)

Instagram spoof/“Devilgram” (Devilgram is an in-game photo sharing social media app similar to Instagram and the photos on there correspond to gacha cards. When you acquire the gacha card that corresponds to a Devilgram post you unlock a side story, but you also need keys to unlock further scenes from that story, which can be gradually earned through completing tasks and such)

To Do tasks (completing tasks on your To Do is the main way to earn premium currency in the game along with other rewards and resources. There are daily tasks, overall tasks and tasks specific to each character. Examples of tasks are completing a certain stage or number of stages, beating a stage using a team that includes a certain character or reaching a certain intimacy level with a character. There are also beginner missions when you start the game that I think stay available until you complete all of them)

Events (there are sometimes side story events called “pop quizzes” and gacha events that are available for a limited time, or sometimes an event has both a corresponding pop quiz and gacha pool. The pop quizzes are separate chapters with their own dance battles and VN scenes, and the battles will come with reward points that you can spend on different prizes. Sometimes there are unique cards you can only get from an event. Other minor types of events include log-in bonus events and events where you can get special types of gifts for your love interests. There’s also a feature where you can “time-travel” back to old events at some cost but I haven’t explored this much)

Jobs (you can assign characters to passively complete jobs that earn you a small amount of non-premium currency over time and also increases your intimacy with the assigned characters by a small amount)

Customization (you can unlock avatars of different characters to use for your profile and set the name you want characters to refer to you by throughout the game. You can also change the outfit of your homescreen character, change the homescreen wallpaper and change the homescreen background music by making purchases in the Akuzon shop or acquiring certain gacha cards)

⚖️ Ad Honesty Rating: 4/5 (just from the ads I’ve seen, especially the ones that appear to be running currently, there don’t seem to be blatantly fake ads and the ads show real art and do well conveying the theme and characters in the game. However some of the ads are misleading about the actual mechanics of gameplay and may also lead you to believe there are actual romance routes with the characters which is not really the case)

⭐️ Overall Rating: 5/5 (I definitely didn’t want to give this game a great rating just because it’s super popular on Tumblr but I can definitely see why it’s so popular. There are lots of things to do, the characters are very lovable, it’s funny, the art is great, the music is great and the lore and overall vibe are compelling and unique. It’s a high-quality game with a good story and I’ll probably keep playing it)

▶️ Ad Example:

▶️ Gameplay Examples:

Dance Battles

youtube

Surprise Guest

youtube

If you got through this review bless your heart ❤️ Special thanks to @human-watching-ads-from-devildom which is where I was able to view some of the ads since I was having trouble finding them elsewhere online and viewing some of them on the Facebook ad library.

Follow me for more reviews of those free mobile games you’re always getting ads for! Thanks for reading! 🥳

#obey me #obey me shall we date #otome games #gacha games #visual novels #full review #anime games #rpg #dating simulation games #romance games #war and peace but it’s just a review of a mobile game #sorry if there are typos or mistakes

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fatesdeepdive · 3 years

Text

Entry 49: Fetid Scallions!

Paralogue 13: Truly Talented

Subaki is visiting his daughter Caeldori when he is called back to the battlefield. Similar to how Asugi was just Gaius, Caledori is just Cordelia from Awakening. Caledori follows him to get combat experience. This battle takes place on a pair of islands surrounded by a river. Every single enemy wields Tomes or Swords, making them weak to Lances and Shurikens. This chapter is very easy. After the battle, Caeldori shows Subaki up by being really good at everything, even more than he is.

Caeldori

Cordelia from Fire Emblem Awakening. Like Cordelia, she’s a perfectionist who is good at everything. Unlike Caeldori, Caeldori lacks the unrequited love and survivor’s guilt, making her initially seem much shallower. Perhaps later Supports will fix her. Her personal skill, Prodigy, boosts damage if the enemy has higher stats.

Also worth noting that Intelligent Systems did a character poll after Awakening came out and released a pair DLC levels that features special cutscenes showing the winners of the polls in special outfits. Owain, Severa, Inigo, and Lucina one for the Gen II characters and got a hot springs map where they wore yukatas, while Cordelia, Gaius, and the game’s main lord Chrom received a beach map where they wore swimsuits. It seems those polls inspired Intelligent Systems to add Cordelia, Gaius, Owain, Severa, and Inigo to this game. It makes sense that Chrom and Lucina, the lords, were ditched. I’m pretty sure there was another Gen I woman who received a swimsuit, but I forget who. Oh well, I’m sure whoever she was she was a great character who I won’t mind reappearing in this game. Regardless, it’s Support time.

Support: Caeldori/Subaki

C: Subaki watches Caeldori training and praises her. Caledori assumes he only praises her because he's her father. Side note, Caeldori makes laser noises as she fights, which is the only memorable thing about her character thus far.

B: Caeldori spars with Subaki. Subaki says she's always been amazing, which she takes to mean that she's never improved.

A: Caeldori keeps training to be perfect. She admits she wants to be perfect so her father can be proud of her. Subaki tells her that he's already proud of her and that she doesn't have to be perfect.

S: Subaki comforting his daughter about the insecurities he passed on to her is good. It’s weird that Subaki is still...well, Subaki in Supports you get other than this, but it’s nice.

Support: Caeldori/Mother

C: Caeldori manages inventory and rebuilding the armory completely by herself. Her mother feels useless in comparison to her perfect daughter.

B: Caeldori's mother acts passive-aggressive about how Caeldori is just like her father and way better than her.

A: Caeldori tells her mother that she has to work hard to be perfect and that she inherited her work ethic from her mother.

Review: Not awful, but a bit bland. Side note, I checked some of the different mothers to compare and there’s an odd difference. At one point, Caeldori curses in this Support. For whatever reason, the childish fake curse she says changes depending on her mother, giving us a variety of dumbass things for her to shout in anger. Sour cabbages! Fetid scallions! Pickled hen feet! Ginger taps!

Support: Caeldori/Corrin

C: Corrin finds Caeldori reading a romance novel. As it turns out, Corrin also likes romance novels.

B: The girls ask around camp and find out that they are the only ones who like romance novels. They decide to write their own.

A: Caeldori's story drives Corrin to tears. Corrin refuses to show Caeldori her story, because Caeldori's is so much better. Caeldori admits her writing is just a bunch of cliches. Apparently, cliches are bad now. Someone tell this game’s writing team.

Review: Okay, but very shallow. Side note, it’s a wasted opportunity for Caeldori not to say her favorite type of romance story is one about a knight having an unrequited crush on a prince who is in love with her best friend.

Support: Caeldori/Moron

C: Subaki, tired of Caeldori begging him to train her, tells her Corrin is an even greater warrior. Caeldori begs Corrin to train her.

B: Corrin slips during training, Caeldori assumes it's deliberate and a sign of his military genius.

A: Corrin gives Caeldori the advice that she should train with others to work as a more effective team. Caeldori praises his brilliance.

S: Caeldori asks Corrin to teach her to be a kind person and also teach her about love. She mentions that she falls in love with married men constantly, which is...interesting. Corrin decides to get together with Caeldori, but insists that they be equals.

Review: Not bad. Caeldori thinking that Corrin of all people is a genius is actually pretty fun.

#fire emblem #fire emblem 14 #fire emblem fates #hoshido #fire emblem awakening #cordelia fe #caeldori fe #subaki fe #corrin fe

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lizz-revs · 4 years

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Dandelion - Wishes brought to you -

A manage your stats game, with cut-scenes that feature your chosen romantic interest. You choose your activities and interactions, but not the cut-scenes and the cut-scenes don’t influence the further development of the relationship.

Story

The main character is a girl, who is a business major in a university. She is mentally unstable (I’d say almost depressive and close to a complete burn-out) and very unhappy with her current life. The reason for that is her strict mother, who never allowed her to do the things she wanted, but had a close observation regarding everything her daughter was doing and with whom she was interacting. The heroine tried to escape from her mother by choosing to live on her own, but her influence still prevails because the main character isn’t able to change her life (the business major was her mother’s order).

One day though she finds a basket in front of her door with five pets in it: Three rabbits and two cats. She is very happy to be able to adopt them and suddenly her life isn’t boring anymore because she has to take care of the animals. However, those animals aren’t ordinary and, when she begins to fall in love with one of them, all of the animals change back to human form and are in fact handsome guys. Now the heroine is sharing her house with five men and is able to have a romantic relationship with one of them. This relationship isn’t as easy to maintain as it seems and even more difficult it gets after the heroine realizes that these people haven’t come to her world only to be with her.

The characters

Heejung

She is a rather quiet girl, who is living by herself since about three years. At the beginning of the game, she is quite ordinary, but since you as the player can level up her stats, you can enhance her beauty, femininity and her art skills. With increased femininity, she gets better at chores and with increased beauty at make-up and fashion. The heroine slowly wants to change her life, but she is very scared. She is easily pressured and since she isn’t studying, what she wants, every time she studies she gets stressed and needs to take a break. Her self-esteem is pretty low as well, since she can’t really fight back and just accepts being criticised, while thinking that it was her fault. She is used to doing as others want her to do, so the first time she starts actually doing what she wants is after falling in love with one of the guys and realizing that there are people, who accept her as she is and want her to do, what makes her happy. After realizing this, she becomes more mature and is willing to make sacrifices for the person that she loves and wants to live a life that suits her.

The rabbits

Jihae

He is the silver rabbit and rather anti-social. His only communication partner is Jieun and he has a very low self-esteem. At the beginning he isn’t very talkative, but polite and somehow cold towards the heroine. He always calls her “my lady” and wants to be as least a bother to her as possible. In his free time he takes care of Jieun like a butler (from feeding him to carrying him around).

Jieun

He is the white rabbit with red eyes and is really cute. At the beginning, he is shy and you can only watch him as the heroine, but eventually he opens up to her and starts talking more. At first, he isn’t able to do anything without Jihae’s help and clings to him like someone would to a parent. This is rather weird because Jieun isn’t a child, but a teenage boy, and still isn’t able to feed himself or tie his ribbon himself. However, he is able to change his behaviour gradually.

Jiwoo

He is a very noisy and kind of obnoxious rabbit. I’d call him a great example for the tsundere-personality. He is much of an attention freak, but, if the heroine gives him the attention, he just starts harassing her. In addition, he thinks he is very knowledgeable in romance since he has read a huge amount of romance novels and watched some shows. Nevertheless, it’s more like there is no one less clueless regarding romance as him besides the heroine. This makes it rather funny, when he is the chosen candidate and doesn’t know, how to deal with it.

The cats

Jiyeon

At first Jiyeun seems very friendly and social. He is an orange cat, who adores oranges. After transforming to a human his love for oranges still prevails and he seems to be more or less like a cheerful kid, who doesn’t know Korean that well and often makes mistakes, when choosing appropriate words. Well, this isn’t actually quite his true personality as you can see in his route.

Jisoo

On the other hand, Jisoo is really unfriendly and as anti-social as he can be. He is more of a stray cat, who wanders around. He calls the heroine “Foodgiver”, which pretty much characterizes their relationship. Jisoo cares about his looks because he appears to be always kind of stylish. He had a difficult past and distrusts the heroine at first as he doesn’t think that she will choose him anyway. But, when she does choose him things get rather complicated as well because of his personality…

Gameplay

As I mentioned the gameplay is based on choosing activities. Every day the player can choose an activity, which levels the heroine’s stats. Regarding the activity, it is also important that the player doesn’t choose blindly, but minds the other characters. On the map are pictures of the pets that show their locations and while doing an activity the heroine may encounter one of them, if they are in the same room. Therefore, it’s useful to look up a guide about the characters and what they like to do in order to choose the right activity. You will need to interact with your chosen character because otherwise you won’t be able to get him to like you or get his route. Another important aspect is that the heroine has a stress- and a pressure-meter. If she doesn’t study, she gets more pressure, but if she studies her stress increases. If pressure or stress is maxed out, you will automatically get a bad end. Regarding the stats and the chosen character’s affection, you can look both up in “Status”.

At the weekend later in the game, you can also choose to go on Dates with one of the characters. It boosts their affection and you can collect their stamps to unlock pictures at the end of the game. For that, it is also important to boost the heroine’s eye sight.

My Opinion

In my opinion, this game is really good.

The characters feel very much alive. They have a distinct personality and, since it is Cheritz, also a surprisingly dark side. The story feels natural, the relationships feel logical and aren’t rushed. Because there are always time skips between the scenes, you are able to take breaks and just boost some stats instead of reading the whole time. The gameplay is enjoyable and straightforward, although it gets rather tedious after a while and you need a lot of time to clear the routes.

I think, it’s still worth the time though because you get to read the cut-scenes, which are simply amazing. Every story and every character in this game moved me. I mean you can relate to every one of them and the heroine. They aren’t fixed on romance or anything, but they try to heal from their bad experiences and past. I think it’s really important that even, if this is a romance game, there isn’t only romance in the game. Personally, I hate it, when developers try to focus on romance and not the plot because it leads to irrational behaviour of the main character and to more or less a “damsel in distress” story. Meanwhile, the heroine in Dandelion is just scared. She doesn’t try to be saved or to be saved by love. She genuinely starts to care for one of the men and just wants to spend time with them. I think such a story moves a reader’s heart way more than a story about “I want to get a boyfriend”.

Another aspect I really like in this game is the music, especially the opening and ending sequences. Moreover, since I liked it so much, I even bought the OST…

Anyway, I don’t know, if I’m not biased about this game though, since I am a fan of Cheritz. However, I still think everyone should know about Cheritz AND about this game because otherwise you miss out a few of the best visual novels you could find. In addition to that reading Cheritz’s novels is a good change of pace after reading novels from Idea Factory. Both Idea Factory and Cheritz publish great novels, but Cheritz focusses more on creating characters, which seem alive to me and I like every one of them, while Idea Factory has great stories, but I still never liked all the characters the game has to offer.

So, I think Cheritz’s games are one of the classics you just have to read. 10/10

#cheritz #dandelion #game #visual novel #review #curator

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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elicts · 4 years

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[ FROY GUTIERREZ, CIS MALE, HE/HIM ] shh ! ELIOT RIVERA, the TWENTY-ONE year old THIRD year FINE ART major from EXMOOR, UK, is known as an AQUAMARINE around here. HE was invited to join because HE IMPRESSED HIS PREDECESSOR WITH HIS ARTWORK, and now, they’re here to stay. HE reminds me of EARLY MORNING LIGHT SPILLING THROUGH CURTAINS, THE SOUND OF SOFT LAUGHTER THROUGH AN OPEN WINDOW, FLECKS OF PAINT ON A DESIGNER SHIRT.

helllo!! my name is hayley and i’m SUPER excited to be here and to write with you all! i’ve been working on my political science dissertation all day so my brain is just a tad fried... but i’m gonna give this my best shot bc it’s what eliot DESERVES. hmu if you’d like to plot, or leave a like and i’ll come pester ya! @opalsmedia

bio . stats . pinterest

a warning: my bio literally wouldn’t let me put paragraphs in it and i’m... coding incompetent so it’s a wall of sexy, sexy text <3

background

when a neighbour is asked about the riveras what usually comes to mind is the sound of laughter at all hours of the day mixed in with the occasional high pitched screech. his parents met when his father was studying abroad in london, had the kind of ~whirlwind~ romance found in romcoms and romance novels. their five children and small home in exmoor national park are the product of it. eliot, their only boy, was always quieter than his sisters. the smilier one. who probably spent his pocket money buying ice-creams for them and holding the family together.

growing up in a small seaside town, there was never much to do other than visit the beach. so! eliot combined his love for the sea and took up sketching the waves and trying to capture it in some way. and he’s pretty good at it too! definitely the kind of person to give you a little caricature for christmas kinda business

he was honestly just.... a good egg growing up. never caused too much trouble and tried so hard!! in school even if art was always going to be his favourite subject

so, it was all pretty normal up until the time he was thirteen when he became scouted by a fashion agency and probably a little too influenced by the squeals of his sisters, he signed up. so that was suddenly his life throughout secondary school. fashion weeks spent with his nose stuck in a level textbooks backstage... having a lil identity crisis over being an artist stuck in someone else’s artwork... but ultimately realising being part of someone else’s creative vision was cool too!

but now he’s at strathmore doing what he really adores more than anything and that’s .... probably still painting the sea lbr bc it’s his one true love, but they’re better now and he can afford better paints

personality

despite modelling boosting his confidence, eliot’s still a bit quiet. very much the kind of person to only chime in when he has something important to say

probably breaks up arguments by walking in the room like ‘right! i’ve made you both some tea’

incredibly calm and gentle. tries to see the good in everyone and really does try to bring that out of people too! even if he probably fails at times

trips to the beach but... make them semi-organised because otherwise he’ll show up without the right beach goods and we can’t be having that

big listener energy and he’s patient too so if you want to go on about something for hours? he would probably sit there and listen and GENUINELY be interested even if it’s about something really mundane. and he will remember almost anything!! you tell him. so probably has to tone it down and act like he doesn’t remember where you went on holiday when you were nine or w/e lmao

wanted connections

i have a couple of wanted connections listed right here. but as always i’m up for plotting anything outside these... anything spicy.. n i’ll probably add on to that list at some point too!

#opalsintro #forever slow but it's here :')#also i love this gif sm?

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vocaotome · 4 years

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Interactive Queer Fantasy Novel Review - Moonrise

A couple months ago I was invited to try out Moonrise, a text based urban fantasy interactive novel by Natalie Cannon. Although I usually stick to visual novels, since I had played and enjoyed other choice of games before, I decided to give Moonrise a try and write a review for it.

While the game had an interesting premise with smooth, enjoyable prose and witty modern humor, my overall experience has been a rather mixed bag, probably because I don’t appear to fall into the specific audience for the game. I’ll give a vague outline of the plot and share my impressions while trying to not give too much away. In order to prevent constantly switching between “the player”/“you”/“us” etc, when referring to the character we are playing I’m going to use “Heather” (a name from the list of choices available, you can also type in whatever you wish) and “she”.

Full review under the cut, or on wordpress if you prefer it instead.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay of Moonrise is the same as most games on the choice of games platform, all text with no graphics and only stat based choices. The game offers the option to choose between she/her and they/them pronouns at the very start, but as per the basic game premise (supernatural celebration of queer femininity), player cannot identify as male in this game so no he/his pronouns. Choosing between cis/trans/other/not saying is also available, though I felt that there was an assumption that the player is not cis or at least is someone who is pretty invested in using specific pronouns (early game it's mentioned that "you" talked to Alice about your pronouns).

While the game description claims that the main character may be asexual and there are dialogue choices which allow you to refuse romantic advances saying you are asexual, I felt that the narration didn’t really reflect that since there were many parts in the common scenes (regardless of route or picked choices) where you express strong attraction towards beautiful women. The 3 love interests were pretty likable and varied in their backstories and personality, although I wish all of them got equal amount of screentime (your roommate inevitably gets more scenes than the otherworldly goddess you meet in the last chapter). You can date just a single person or multiple people at once.

The players also get to choose between being “Fierce” (20% initial boost to Bloodthirst, Uncanny, Defense attributes) or “Civilized” (20% boost to Empathy, Responsibility, Snark attributes). The choices throughout the game either raise these attributes further or improve your relationship with the love interests.

For those who are concerned about homophobia, Moonrise very briefly mentions the existence of homophobic people but for the most part all the characters treat LGBTQA+ people as very normal (example: Heather finds Alice's puppy love for a girl in her class very cute), so no need to worry on that account.

Plot

The pace of the game is pretty fast right from the start, we begin with “Heather” directly being thrown into a situation where the player has just transformed into a wolf. Another werewolf called “Alice” soon finds us while Heather is confusedly struggling between canine instincts and human reason. I really liked the part where "you" still are convinced that you are a 100% pure wolf and are completely operating under that impression, lol. All the wolf related terms also are rather endearing, time to refer to all my close friends as my packmates <3

At first I was a little bit wary of Alice, who is revealed (within 5 minutes of playing) to be the one to have turned Heather into a werewolf, but she grew on me very quickly, especially with her youthful admiration of Heather and the open vulnerability she shows to us. I’m also grateful to her for helping Heather turn back human, the idea of getting stuck as a wolf forever (which Alice mentioned happening to some people) sounded pretty disturbing. (I did giggle at how Heather was like “bleh, wolves have it better, no student loans”)

Alice returns together with Heather to Heather’s home which she shares with her best friend and roommate Rosario, the first LI we run into. I liked Rosario’s character and sense of humor a lot (random: I bust a lung laughing when the narration mentioned them lightly smelling of weed), though I wish the narration used less jargon when explaining Rosario’s lifestyle as an adventurous and dynamic queer person (this issue popped up a couple of times later in the game too, though not frequently enough to be a deal breaker). The below paragraph made me stare for a solid minute before I managed to comprehend everything.

Rosario is super relieved to see Heather safe and quickly warms up to Alice, and in order to develop a relationship with Rosario (also if you’re interested in building up your empathy stat, very useful for diplomatic options) we must be friendly towards Alice and let her stay in our home. To be honest it's hard to be an asshole to Alice, she’s a cutie. I liked it when Alice was described during this scene to have corkscrew hair and dark skin, yay for varied designs!

Anyway, around this time we learn that Heather is a doctor-in-training working for their residency. I laughed at the part where after picking a choice, the prose apologized to me for doubting that I'd call work to inform my circumstances.This is the point where the free part ends.

Regardless of whether we go to our job, meet our coworkers and interact with patients, or go all SCREW U to your job and hang around in a park (irresponsible, imo, you’ve been missing for a day because of this whole wolf business), you run into the second LI, Chika, a seemingly cold and quiet young doctor who works in the same place as Heather and is actually also a werewolf.

She also seems to have harbored a strong crush on Heather for quite a while, even during routes where I've acted very distant towards her so far she pretty much immediately confesses and we get the option to kiss her. Personally I prefer more buildup in romantic relationships in my stories, but I guess this isn’t surprising considering that we have already spent about 2 chapters on the prologue and this is a short game consisting of only 8 chapters.

The next few chapters are a mix of slice of life situations where Alice, Rosario and Heather blossom into a pretty cute makeshift family, with optional scenes of bonding in wolf form with Alice. Alice also gives us a lot of information about the vampire and werewolf lore of this world, and informs Heather about the 2 opposing factions of the supernatural society: the masquerade, who prefer to keep the human and supernatural worlds separate and operate as an organization under strict rules of secrecy, and the rogues, who prefer a wild and free approach in life and wish to go public about the existence of supernatural creatures.

Not gonna lie, the masquerade sounds amazing on paper, being their part apparently means getting your university tuition paid and guaranteed jobs after graduation, that sounds like a dream lol. However they are a bit to stuck up for Alice’s tastes, especially because of her foster parent who is someone high up in the Masquerade and pretty unpleasant. Rogues sound rather bad at this point since Alice mentions being “hunted” early game and they are supposed to be the ones “after” her.

In Chapter 6 we run into Cassandra, a vampire and the foster parent mentioned above, who pretty much kidnaps us to her place. Over the course of a very tense and threatening conversation, she gives us plenty of reasons to NOT consider signing up for the masquerade, though I think that was the opposite of her intention. The game's description of Cassandra's attitude towards young people like they were "particularly ugly vase that begs to be shattered" sounds so accurate to how some old people act lol. We have to escape Cassandra by choosing either diplomacy or violence, and choosing the wrong option that you don’t have enough attributes for can get you killed.

(Random: Cassandra being portrayed positively in some future scenes after claiming to eat her servants is unnerving. I hope that was a joke ;;;;)

If chapter 6 was the one familiarizing us with the masquerade, chapter 7 is the equivalent part for rogues. We meet up with Chika who is relieved to see Heather safe (even out of her route she acts way too familiar when it comes to physical distance with Heather, her cold queen settings vanish when it involves the person she likes, lol), and reveals herself as the leader of the rogues. We get a bunch of information about the rogues’ motivations and plans, and the misunderstanding that they want to harm Alice is cleared up. (It’s also possible to get some more explanation earlier in the game if you acted all wolf-y right from the start and went on a solo wandering trip which Chika joins)

After the conversation Chika springs a sudden offer for a date on Heather, which made me giggle during the walkthroughs where I rejected her hard. It was extra funny because we had been talking about serious stuff™ right until that point. It is possible to go on a date with her and have a sexual encounter afterwards. All dates in this game can end in sex, but it is optional.

There is a scene with Rosario where we hang out and have some heart-to-heart talk soon after the encounter with Chika, and this can end up being a date depending on our choices, regardless of whether we are already dating Chika or not. I think there is a malfunctioning romance flag here because Rosario talks as if I’m dating Chika even if I have refrained from ALL romantic choices with Chika.

At the start of chapter 8 we are forced to choose between the masquerade and the rogues, though considering the way the representatives from these groups (Cassandra and Chika) have treated us until this point, choosing the masquerade seems like madness.

~~~~~~~

If we choose the Masquerade, Alice and Heather visit Cassandra again to join the society. We meet people other than Cassandra who thankfully are pleasant enough, and suddenly a masquerade member came to seek Cassandra’s help and we ended up being asked to help perform some ritual to teleport somewhere and rescue/steal Dracula's brides??? What? I was very confused during this part because the story flow suddenly became very fast and I was having difficulty keeping up.

During this mission there is a possible dead end (ironic, the people who we went to rescue end up accidentally killing Heather), but as long as things go smoothly, we encounter Ishara, the last LI who a special werewolf from some other far away place (planet? dimension?) and treated like a goddess by the supernatural community because of her special powers and JAW DROPPING BEAUTY. She likes the way Heather treats her casually unlike everyone else, and there is another sudden date offer.

After the rescuing of Dracula brides, we get a slice of life-ish scene with them, Cassandra, Ishara and Rosario in a coffee shop. This is where we finally get some backstory on Cassandra and learn about some of her positive points, being a lesbian Robin Hood of sorts isn’t something I expected from her XD

Although I don’t think it’s possible to keep your relationship with Chika intact in this path, you can talk with your other 2 love interests about the nature of your relationship (open/closed, romantic/queerplatonic). There was one playthrough when I somehow found Ishara sitting on Heather’s lap and kissing Rosario, wild.

Before the final fight, there is a brief scene where Chika meets up with Heather and is quite heartbroken over her choosing the masquerade. Soon after that the day comes where we face off against the Rogues who have decided on a kill or get killed approach.

~~~~~~~~

If we choose the Rogues instead, there is no falling out with Chika (she’s ecstatic to have Heather join them) and we visit the Rogues’ hangout instead. After some socialization we embark on a journey to find Alice’s biological dad who is a powerful but loner werewolf and a possible valuable ally for our fight against the masquerade. This course of option made a lot more sense to me than the Dracula bride thing in the masquerade route.

We manage to locate the man and he joins our cause (I laughed at Alice and his naked reunion, the side effect of transforming between wolf and human forms), not only because he’s annoyed by the masquerade’s way of doing things but also because he suspects them being involved in the death of Alice’s mother and Alice becoming a werewolf (werewolf genes aren’t hereditary). In the Masquerade route Cassandra claims to not have done it, so I’m curious what exactly happened.

We also run into Ishara while on this mission (I’m curious how she is here instead of wherever she was during the other route, how exactly did the butterfly effect work?), and similar to the Masquerade route, get the chances to flirt with her and go on a date. It was interesting how Ishara sex scene has a little more detail than others, and extra text about being trans if your character is trans too (If you are cis she just mentions it during the date).

After the mission there is a party where we can do a lot of socializing, and similar to the masquerade route, confirm with your love interest(s) about the nature of your relationship. Then once again it is the time for the final fight, only this time it’s the Masquerade attacking us.

~~~~~~

I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed with how brief the final fight was. The few paragraphs leading up to the fight are pretty much the same in the Masquerade and the Rogues version, then we simply get to choose between persuading for peace, fighting to kill or to defend. Every one of these choices only have one paragraph explaining the result. During my first playthrough this caught me by surprise as I was expecting to actually read a tear jerking speech about living together in peace, not just a super concise summary. The epilogue is also basically just that, a sentence each about the final fate of the characters who stayed with you until the end.

Final thoughts

Writing: The prose is where the game shines. The usage of uncommon (but not unknown) vocabulary in the more metaphorical imagery was lovely.

However, there are places where some unfamiliar LGBT terms or custom pronouns caught me off guard and made me pause to look stuff up. Personally I believe using too many technical terms in stories makes dialogue sound a bit forced and disrupts narration, but thankfully such instances weren’t very common in moonrise.

The humor was great, me frequently laughing over random things while describing the plot should be proof enough of that. The worldbuilding was done with a lot of care and the flow of plot was pretty logical for the most part, but towards the end I couldn't comprehend the logic behind some events and even after multiple playthroughs I haven't found any explanations for a couple of things, like the real mystery surrounding Alice's mother's death.

Characterization: Characterization was good but varying in quantity- Rosario and Alice were pretty well rounded character development wise and I loved their cute family-like interactions. I was all AWWW when Heather called the place with them her home ;v;

Compared to that Chika felt more of an enigma, but her date and the optional running off into the woods scene still gave her some chances to develop (though it mostly confirmed that she was a good person wishing for freedom and we didn’t really learn much about her personal emotions aside from liking Heather). Poor Ishara got even less chances, so all I managed to grasp was her loneliness. All three of the romance interests shared the issue of overly rapid romantic developments though, though in varying extents (repeat: poor Ishara).

Some side characters like Cassandra got detailed backstories, but it’s hard to grow to like her after experiencing ends where we got killed at her hand over something small. Because this story is only available in the masquerade path and there is no foreshadowing about her positive qualities before the route split, a lot of people might simply never play this path.

Player customization: I also wish the game description didn’t imply that the player character can be customized a lot. Considering how it was implied that the player had an abusive family and is trying to become a doctor because she wants to do and be “better’, imo the already present backstory is too defined for story to be immersive. I personally don’t seek to self insert so it’s not a problem for me (I PREFER this to a blank slate), but it may be for others who came into the game with wrong expectations.

One more thing I would like to see implemented in future versions is choosing if I was polyromantic/polysexual or not at the start of the game. Regardless of whether the player has locked into a romance route or not, "you" still keep thirsting after the beautiful possible LIs that cross your path. I found that rather distracting during my first playthrough since I was playing the game while planning to develop a monogamist cis lesbian character and I felt a disconnect whenever it happened.

Ending: Lastly, the ending. I don’t mind the short epilogues, but the description of the “final fight” was simply so short that it felt anticlimactic, so I will just hope that the ending will be more extended with detailed scenes in a later version.

In summary? Good prose, interesting worldbuilding but too-short romance and rushed ending. Worth a read if you like modern fiction with fantasy supernatural elements involving lots of queer characters and aren’t overly critical in your evaluation of the flow and logic in a story. The game is really cheap though, the amount of content you get is definitely worth $1.99, so if the game sounds like your cup of tea go ahead and try it out!

P/S: A short guide on maxing out the relationship points: being nice to the LI is a given, go on dates with them, and pick the following choices which might not seem obvious (I might be missing some choices that seem obvious to me but actually aren’t orz):

Chika: Ask Naoki to move but politely, Hold her hand (during date), Ask to come up for “coffee” (sex/literal coffee), Don’t choose the masquerade (duh)

Rosario: Embrace her, We let her (Alice) live here, Yes, spar without hurting

Ishara: Compliment, Flirt Back

#Moonrise #interactive fiction #interactive novel #queer fiction #review

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doitsuxi · 4 years

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Omae Gotoki: WN review

To put it simply, Omae Gotoki is a masterpiece. I’ll try to keep this short review spoiler-free, there’s a high probability no one will ever read it but damn even if just one person reads it two years from now I’ll feel like my job is complete.

Omae Gotoki began as Web Novel on naoru by kiki, the author posted relentlessly and completed the story in a very short time, then they began publishing it in LN format and it eventually got a bimonthly manga adaptation by non other than Minakata Sunao, author of Akuma no Riddle and many yuri doujinshi. The LN, WN and manga have some differences in the story and style, the LN is definitely more polished, but I’ll talk about the WN since it’s complete.

The setting is a classical medieval fantasy with RPG elements thing, characters and monsters have stats and one attribute, some of them are common and some other are unique, there are also items that modify stats; common gear doesn’t really do much, while uncommon and up gear usually boost stats and have special effects, there are also cursed items that decrease stats and have special effects as well, but these are always things like ‘increases the user’s pain sensitivity’ or things that straight up kill the user, so yeah, no one uses them. The overall power of a character is calculated by adding all stats together.

The main character is Flum Apricot, a country girl who has the unique attribute ‘Reverse’ and whose all stats are 0. She somehow got summoned by Origin, the god of that world, to partake in a crusade against the Demon Lord, along with other people who either have an unique attribute as well or are have made a name for themselves through hard work. Most of that info and more you can find by reading the synopsis in any LN/WN site, so I’ll just concentrate on telling you why it’s so great. Omae Gotoki is the perfect combination of action, fantasy, eldritch horror, romance and slice of life. It’s a dramatic WN with very vivid depictions of gore, detailed and entertaining fights, interesting characters, a heartwarming love story and just a touch slice of life, which is there to remind us what is Flum fighting for. The plot becomes darker as the story advances forward and the characters develop accordingly. If I gotta choose one thing that I absolutely loved is how the main character is not an all-loving heroine, nor is she an edgelord who hates everything and everyone. She goes through some fucked up shit and some events have a massive psychological impact on her, she grows and learns from her mistakes, she’s scarred by some things and people and still decides to move forward and grasps on the strands of hope along the story, nonetheless her might is not unbreakable and other characters, in particular her love interest Milkit, are the ones who push her forward on those times. Something I’d love to explain further is how her sense of morality’s just... not something you would expect from a character like her, and it’s made evident and is even commented by other characters time and time again on the story, but I think I’d have to spoil some plot points if I go further than that. Now, for the love story, I’m gonna go ahead and admit I’m not a big fan of love stories in action/horror/whatever because I feel like it sidetracks the plot and sometimes doesn’t even add anything. But boy, do I love the main romantic subplot in Omae Gotoki. I’m calling it a subplot, but it’s actually integral part of the story, a lot of the plot would change drastically if it was omitted, and in my opinion, it would change for the worst. Milkit and Flum make such an amazing pair, they always support each other, but because of both of their scarred mental states their relationship is very co-dependent. They have one of the most accurate co-dependency relationship I’ve ever seen in any medium, it depicts two persons who can’t be separated anymore because only they are capable of understanding each other since they’ve both been through hell. It’s stated their relationship is not normal, fruit of the horrible things they’ve lived together. Their interactions and view of each other are commented and analyzed by other characters and the author themselves. I need to point out it’s a super slow-burn romance, but even so it’s super interesting to read, sometimes it’s tragic, sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s heartwarming and since they’re teenagers trying to figure out what the heck this doki doki in their chest is, they also have their awkward teenager moments, which I found both adorable and hilarious. Now for the warnings: as mentioned before, this story depicts gruesome and violent fights, body horror, gore, lots of blood, borderline eldritch abominations and it gets worse the more the story advances. There are also some heavy scenes involving suicide, torture, homicide and/or abuse. Finally, two of the side couples depict relationships that some people could have trouble with. To put it simply, there are some underage characters that get paired with much older characters, nothing explicit is ever shown on the WN, but for one pairing there are some heavy implications they engage in sexual activities. So yeah, if you can stomach most of that, I’d strongly advice reading the WN which is complete. The LN is being released and has been licensed, the English translation of the first volume will be released on October 2020. So far, English translation of the WN cover up to chapter 24. I read it using Google Translate and a Japanese-to-English dictionary over a year ago. It took a long time and a lot of patience to finish it, but let me tell you it was absolutely worth it.

I’ll leave some links here: List of translated chapters (WN) https://www.novelupdates.com/series/do-you-think-someone-like-you-can-defeat-the-demon-king/ List of WN chapters (completed, Japanese) https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5361em/

#omae gotoki

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bi-starprincess · 4 years

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Visual Novel Reviews: Black Closet (Introduction/Overview)

Visual novel reviews are something I’ve wanted to get into for a long time now. So, for my first attempt, I’m going to be covering the game Black Closet by Hanako games, a noir mystery visual novel with yuri romance.

I’ve been following Hanako Games for years--they’ve been my first love when it comes to visual novels. Black Closet, I believe, came out around 2014-2015, and as a young queer girl I was very excited to see an exclusively yuri game be released. Black Closet features two art styles--each beautiful in their own way--an intriguing all-female cast, several cases to solve, a choose-your-own personality main character, and much, much more.

Continued under the cut!

You play as Elsa Jackson, a student at an elite boarding all-girl school called St. Claudine’s. Elsa has just acquired the position of Student Council President, and instructor Miss Talmage (who is very obviously The Villain) informs Elsa that it is her job to solve mysteries within the school in order to keep scandals from ruining the good reputation of St. Claudine’s.

Elsa, however, does not have to do the dirty work--that’s the duty of her “Minions”, the other student council members. (Yes, they’re referred to as minions!) Which, to me, was the first signal that this was going to be a delightfully creepy game. Not to mention these tasks consist of interrogating other students, searching their rooms, stalking them, and even expelling them if they are truly a threat.

But that’s not all--according to Miss Talmage, one of Elsa’s minions is a traitor! This traitor will do anything to sabotage St Claudine’s, and Elsa will be the scapegoat if they succeed. Of course, Miss Talmage won’t just tell us who it is--that’s our job to find out.

Who is the traitor, you ask? Here’s where it gets interesting: Upon your first playthrough of the game, the traitor will be randomized. After you beat the game once, you can choose who the traitor is in you following playthroughs. I’ll explain the significance of that as well as how to snuff out your first traitor later in the post, but for now, lets go over exactly who our “minions” are.

There are five total:

1. Althea, a flirty laidback senior who is also a childhood friend of Elsa’s and has a habit of seducing freshman girls one after another.

2. Thais, Althea’s bold and sassy younger sister with a captivating sense of style and a love of artistic expression.

3. Vonne, Elsa’s dutiful and loyal Vice President who refers to her by the nickname “Captain” for reasons unknown (at least in the beginning of the game).

4. Mallory, a bubbly freshman girl who is new to boarding school life. She quickly becomes popular for her friendly personality and is elected to the student council as a ‘Hospitality Officer”.

5. Rowan, a mysterious, quiet, detached girl that takes care not to draw too much attention to herself.

Take note: Thais and Mallory do not have full romance routes. They are freshman, and Elsa is a senior. You can kiss Thais and become cuddle buddies with Mallory, but that’s as close to romance as you’ll get with them.

Of course, you don’t HAVE to romance anyone. You can just start their friendship routes as well, even for the characters that do have romance routes (Althea, Vonne, and Rowan), but you won’t get all the CGs and special scenes without the romance routes.

Now I’ll go over the significance of the traitor, how to snuff them out, and how to start each girl’s route.

Three things play into the selection of a girl’s route: The identity of the traitor, loyalty scores, and who you chose to be your fellow Queen during the Harvest Festival.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the gameplay, its also a bit difficult to explain through text. More or less, the girls each have four stats at varying levels (intimidation, observation, stealth, and social), which will all be useful for different activities in investigating potential scandals.

I’m not going to lie, even on normal difficulty, Black Closet is hard. There is a debug command to change the values of the girls’ stats--which, honestly, I have always used. But I will continue on under the assumption that you want to play the game organically--the debug codes can be found on the Black Closet steam forum boards. (Yes, Black Closet is on Steam!)

Tips to find the traitor:

1. While solving the cases, you also have the option to send a girl to the supply closet--the traitor is the most likely to bring back lemons, the one item that won’t boost your stats.

2. The game will you probability ratings of successfully completing a task--if this score is 100%, and the girl still fails, she is likely the traitor.

3. About a week before the Harvest Festival, there is a dialogue option at a meeting to say that there is a traitor. Elsa will notice that two girls look guilty. One of these is the traitor.

On weekend days, you have the opportunity to visit two girls in order to increase their loyalty, through a variety of scenes. The girls will also occasionally stop by to give you feedback about the council or to ask questions, giving you a better feel for their personalities. The answers you choose will shape Elsa’s own personality--she can range from being a caring President to a black hearted leader.

If you happen to max out the traitor’s loyalty (45 points, I think), she will confess her involvement to you about a week before the Harvest Festival, each girl has a different motive. At that point you have a choice: expose her and get her expelled, or protect her and choose her as your Harvest Festival Queen.

“But what if I want to pick a different girl as my Queen, and also keep all my minions?” You can’t. (Edit: With the exception of Mallory) If you protect the traitor and choose a different girl as your Queen, she’ll still sabotage the Harvest Festival, and the game will end.

This is why the “Choose your Traitor” feature is handy--because if you don’t want to pursue your traitor’s route, you’ll have to expel her, which will leave you down one minion and make the game significantly more difficult, and will not benefit you save for...a certain route, which I will go over in a future post.

There is much, much more of the plot beyond this, and many more layers. But I’ll stop here for the sake of spoiling further, and because this is where the game breaks off into each girl’s route. I will be making separate posts reviewing each girl’s route, which will contain some spoilers.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! I’ll be posting soon to talk about Althea’s route.

#hanako games #black closet #visual novel #visual novel review #review #walkthrough #please like #or reblog #if you read

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