#there' s 3 solid years of lore

[dross-the-fish]

This might be the dumbest question on this blog, but is the motley crew like your AU/fanfic or is it an actual show? Can you also please give me a short summary?

I’m so sorry for asking such dumb questions I just really like your blog and I want to know more😭❤️🫶

It actually started out as a DnD style table top game I made for my friends. I decided to post some of the stuff from it here on tumblr and I'm re-writing it as a fic.

There is a LOT of lore, so I'll try to keep it brief and stick to the broadest points.

It's a goth lit crossover story, it begins with strange events happening all over England. There's an increase in the rat population, clouds of bats fill the sky at night, there are rumors of occult activity. The great detective Sherlock Holmes is called out of retirement to investigate a string of grisly murders and disappears without a trace during the investigation, leaving John Watson to try and find him.

Meanwhile Lawrence Talbot and his best friend Quincey Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina (dracula) trying to rescue a woman from a wolf attack one night while passing by Baker Street. Lawrence is bitten and the bite is treated by Watson who finds it odd that there are wolves in London as wolves had been extinct in the UK for several centuries at that point and no zoo had reported a missing wolf.

Lawrence feels ill but otherwise fine and goes home thinking he'll sleep it off. Through the bite he contracts the curse of lycanthropy, on his first transformation he kills his entire family. The police investigate but don't connect Larry to the murders. The scene of the crime is a similar state to the one Holmes was investigating when he disappeared leading the newspaper to report the Talbot's as the latest victims of a serial killer at large. Watson questions Larry and Quincey, thinking they may be able to provide him a lead to finding Sherlock and, not knowing who else to trust they reveal Larry's lycanthropy. Watson is skeptical but once it's revealed that Larry is a werewolf he's convinced to help them find the cause of the curse and hopefully a cure.

Their search for a cause and cure leads them to fragments of a strange journal about an allegedly deceased man called Henry Jekyll who's own story seems to loosely mirror a werewolf curse and while trying to break into Jekyll's abandoned lab thinking his serum may have been the source of the curse they run into an unsavory character, Edward Hyde. Edward is at first, unhelpful, but once he realizes Lawrence Talbot is from a wealthy family he offers to help, stating that he knows a few things about Henry Jekyll and can get them access to his research in exchange for a place to stay and some money. Watson is mistrustful and advises the boys not to reveal Larry's condition to Edward until he proves himself an ally. At first Edward plans to mooch off of them for awhile, steal their money and disappear but once they figure out that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person they get him to agree to research Larry's condition and develop a cure derived from Hyde's serum.

Their continued investigation and search for Sherlock and a cure for Larry lead them to all kind of places and they start to assemble a group, picking up the Frankenstein creature and the Phantom of the Opera along their way.

It's eventually revealed that vampires, lead by Dracula have set up a society in England with the intention of taking over. Dracula is working for and with other villains from gothic literature like Dorian Gray, Carmilla, Imhotep the mummy, Dr Moreau, and Griffin the invisible man. Most of whom have sold or are in the process of selling their souls in Faustian contracts to Mephistopheles (Dorian's portrait physically is one). The crew's quest to find Sherlock and cure Larry turns into a bid to save the UK and possibly all of the world from team Dracula and Mephistopheles's machinations.

#This is just the tip of the ice berg #there' s 3 solid years of lore

[karniss-bg3]

Where do you think Kar’niss got his sword? It’s a very nice sword. Not just some off the rack gear. And named as well—-

*drags palms over face* This effin’ SWOOOORD! It has haunted my nightmares since Kar’niss’ corpse first dumped it into my Tav’s lap. I’ve dug and dug and dug and I’m left with more questions than answers. Knowing my luck there is some obscure text or throwaway dialogue somewhere I’ve missed that might lend me a better clue. Damn you Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re too bloody big.

So, I began to write out this big blob of text going into the history of drow weaponry, hues of metals, in-game model comparisons, the stats on the damn thing, and so forth. I was out here looking like this guy for two hours.

Truth is, it’s really difficult to pinpoint the source of Kar’niss’ weapon. Not because there aren’t clues, but because Larian reuses longsword models so much that looking at the weapon alone isn’t solid enough. I almost came to the conclusion that it was an original drowcraft sword pre-1370’s DR until I discovered another sword model that was identical and not tied to drow at all. That and if it was truly a drowcraft weapon forged via faerzress methods then Larian would’ve changed the rules on how they worked. Which makes sense. It’s a fun bit of lore, but it would be a pain in the ass for a game mechanic. Who wants their badass weapons destroyed or losing all magical abilities when you leave the Underdark?

“ME ME ME,” said no one.

The only thing I can say for certain is that it is a drow forged weapon because it carries a buff that only activates if a drow elf is wielding it. It also seems to be perfect for a drider since it also has ensnaring strands, an attack that does 1d10 slashing damage and possibly enwebs the target. This works in conjunction with the added 1d4 poison damage to restrained targets. The swords description may hold the best clue of its origin:

“The trauma of becoming a drider is quickly set aside with a cold arachnid dispassion. This sword follows that disturbing trend - a replenishing poison gland is built within, deployed only against trapped opponents.”

This description and the name, Cruel Sting, lead me to believe the weapon...was a gift.

Imagine Kar’niss fresh from his transformation. He’s dazed, in pain, lost and alone. He’s been exiled from the only home he’s ever known and has lost favor with the Goddess he’s worshiped from birth. His future is uncertain and how long he has left to live is even less so. His mind is shattered, the incoherent thoughts his only remaining company. He hears frantic footsteps approaching from behind him and his already broken heart shrivels more. His kin have come to finish the job, to put him down, so enraged by the offense he caused Lolth. Weak and struggling to keep himself upright he turns to make a last stand, to show strength in his final moments, to die with some level of honor.

His resolve melts into confusion when he sees who is sprinting toward him. The individual would be unknown to us, but well known to him. A childhood friend? A lover? A confidant? Or perhaps someone he fought alongside faithfully for many years. Regardless of whom has arrived a strong bond is present between them. They approach and peer at what Kar’niss has become. Their face twists, a brief flash of sorrow betraying their features. Yet they cannot let it remain, nor are they able to stay with him for too long. Instead, they unsheathe a sword they brought with them, hurriedly holding it up to Kar’niss. Naturally he flinches at first, expecting the blade to pierce his flesh. The strike never comes, rather the new comer pushes it toward him with urgency, expecting him to take it.

Hesitantly Kar’niss complies, taking the hilt in hand and admiring the beautiful drow craftsmanship. He frowns, his eyes lingering on the one who brought it to him, too stunned to speak.

“It will protect you, Kar’niss,” they said in a hushed tone. “...Goodbye, and good luck.”

Kar’niss could do no more than stand there as their former companion darted off quick as a shot, not willing to run further risk of being seen with the newly transformed abomination. He clutched the sword close to him, the last connection he had to the life he lived before. It would forever act as a reminder of everything he has lost, the cruelest sting of them all.

#baldur's gate 3 #kar'niss #drider #bg3 #karniss #baldurs gate 3 #answered #my writing #drow #lore #cruel sting #kar'niss lore #I am not sure how accurate that theory would be #but I think it suits the theme of Kar'niss' life #pure unfiltered tragedy #thanks for the ask!

[bleedingintogold]

(Don't mind me. Just dropping random OC lore without context. Currently on clone whump rot)

01 looked through the glass where 05 was. The youngest clone was sat almost comfortably on the examination table as the research and medical team around him poked and prodded at his skin. Several IV lines were connected to his body, either taking blood or pumping something else into it. There were electrodes on his temples and chest, monitoring vital signs.

01 had been afforded the dignity of boxers, all those years ago. 05 was given no such thing, covering himself with his hand as he stared blankly out the window, which was really too high to see anything but the sky. He wasn't the slightest bit fazed by these routine testings, yet the clone still grimaced when a new IV line was placed directly into the base of his neck, the medical officer doing the procedure holding his head firmly in place.

05's attention was caught by one of the officers as they explained something to him. The young man frowned before nodding, a gas mask placed on his mouth and nose before he was made to lie down on the table.

For a moment, 05 caught 01's eye through the one-way glass. 05 couldn't possibly see the older clone, but 01 could feel the gaze on him. It didn't last long as 05 lost consciousness within a few seconds, the gas mask removed in favour of a breathing tube down his throat.

01 left when the medical officers started to shave 05's hair. The sight of a tray of assorted sterile surgical equipment, including what 01 recognized as a drill and saw laid on it, being pushed into the room was enough to make his stomach turn.

-----

"Are they done with him?" asked 03, when he saw his elder enter their barracks. "No. They won't be for a while. Looks like they're putting a new chip in," "Why only him?" "His chip stopped sending signals during the past mission. You know how the higher ups hate to not be able to see what's going on in real time,"

What 01 did not mention, but was sure the other clones knew, was how unstable the committee believed 05 was. As though it was 05's fault that they had run out of raw DNA to clone him from and decided to use the genetic material from their previous sucessess instead. Them.

Clones made for the purpose of leading war according to their ideal. Made unable to disobey nor even consider to betray them.

Puppets with guns.

-----

05 groaned as he woke up. At least they had given him a blanket this time, even tucked him in. He passed his hand over his head, slightly upset at his shaved scalp before feeling the thick stitches at the base of his skull with his fingertip.

"How are you feeling, Alpha?"

05 hated that name more than his number. It ingrained that he was a test model, a draft. But its what everyone else but the other clones called him.

"My head hurts. May I get some painkillers?" "I apologize, Alpha. But you're not allowed to have any yet. I'll give you some as soon as I can," the officer said, almost respectfully if 05 didn't know any better.

He knew what they thought of him. If the older clones were their successes, 05 was barely a proper result. Soon they would make a 'Beta' or 'Gamma' and he would be thrown into a cryonetic tank, to be preserved like a fossil and used as fodder for the next generations. Alive but not at the same time. He dreaded that inevitable day.

"When will I be put back on the field?" "You'll stay here for the next week at least, so we can test that your chip works," "And my team?" "They will be deployed only when required under the command of your predecessors,"

05 watched as the medical officer prepared an IV. The officer held her hand out for 05 to offer his, cleaning the skin before sliding in a new IV in his wrist.

"This is for your nutrient supplement. You may feel hungry still, unfortunately. The best you can do is drink some water. No solid foods for 3 days," "I understand, "

05 thought she would leave right after that, so he had let his guard down, leaning back into the bed. He did not expect her to squeeze his already aching skull, her fingers digging painfully into his skin.

"Talk to me with more respect next time, Alpha. It's the least you can do in front of one of the people who made you," 05 grimaced, fighting off every trained and embedded instinct in him to subdue her. "I...I'm sorry. I didn't realize," he said instead, grimacing as a fingernail dug into the new stitches. "Good boy," The beep of the monitoring camera being turned back on was the last thing 05 heard before the door to his prison room was locked.

#whumpblr #whump community #whump tropes #whump prompt #whump #whumpee #team dynamics #leader whumpee #leader whump

[opha]

warning: fallout prime (derogatory) spoilers

i'm giving the fallout show a fair shot (pirated, of course; even if it was the best fallout media in existence i would refuse to give amazon anything for it). everything that isn't the plot is fine. funny, even, at times. first episode, as much as i hated having to see the BoS so soon, was pretty solid. i laughed out loud more than once at the "representation" knight titus brought to the BoS and it's exactly what they deserve.

the plot itself has very low internal logic from episode 2 on that isn't about the lore at first so much as basic inconsistencies (like "how strong is the power armor's punch", "is the ghoul supposed to be superhuman", etc) with way too many contrivances to carry the story forward. everyone is exactly where they need to be at just the right time, and sometimes they don't even bother to justify it.

then from episode 5 on, when they start to establish their original part of the fallout canon, pretty much every plot reveal makes no goddamn sense and it lapses into "we don't need to explain why this non-ghoul woman has been alive for more than 200 years" level plot craters. sometimes it feels like they're writing like the bombs dropped 20-40 years ago rather than 200. shady sands has a fucking vault under it. you know, the settlement that didn't exist pre-war and was created with vault 15's GECK? yeah. not even gonna get into the whole profit motive for the great war making no fucking sense because vault-tec knew roughly how many people were going to be left in the US after nuclear war, which could be intentional, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth that they came right out and said who started it at all. it was left vague in classic fallout on purpose.

before ep 5 i thought it could end up marginally better than fallout 3/4/76, at least. the only relief i have now is that i haven't had to deal with the bethesda-esque dumbing down of super mutants so far. please tell me there aren't super mutants.

#fallout #i still have the last 2 eps to do and after ep 6 i'm fighting for my life trying to get myself to finish it #all of this makes accidentally rendering NV impossible look like chump change #(i'm not talking about the blackboard shit; i'm talking about house's long-term plans for NV being heavily reliant on the NCR)

[exoid-the-locomotive-monarch]

I think since today’s the day, I should get off my chest what I think about Homestuck and the epilogues: the former is good and the latter is like an uncooked steak covered with diahhrea.

To elaborate, Homestuck is a cake that used too much baking soda and cooked in the oven for too short, its the same size as a cake but the outside is too airy and the inside is mushy and liquid batter, disgusting.

But there’s this middle part, between the layers that’s delicious as all hell, it uses grandma’s secret recipe and the chef was running a rush order, it’s a miracle he used the perfect ratio of egg to sugar to flour and milk, you can’t deny most chefs wish they could prepare a cake this good, and when one ingredient is off and it was underbaked, many critics would absolutely drop a solid 9 to a 5/10. It’s still good in my heart.

Now leaving the metaphors, I love this comic to an autistic degree. Its art direction and narration perfectly mix the feel of a strange adventure game published by some studio pushing the boundaries but had no budget so they end up reusing assets from stock images for most of its run, and for the second half abandoned jpgs for minimalist bean shaped heroes.

It has multiple flash animations, interactive walkarounds, and plenty of callbacks and reference to its own story beats and panels, it’s really good and even the secondary characters have a lot of dimension to them! The big issue was the pacing, and by god did Act 5 Act 2 cone out the miracle it did, balancing troll to human conversation perfectly, never abandoning the kids, and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for the mess the trolls were about to make for themselves.

I even like act 6. Yeah I said it. Caliborn is funny, Calliope is eh, Roxy is the obvious character with the most going for her, Dirk has a good arc about his own struggles, but between him and the alpha kids, not so much. Jake had an arc for him to realize who he can be and his linits and how he should stand up for himself, and Jane was learning to trust her friends while being able to sleuth out manipulation or bad actors. Some of these words are in past tense because Hussie was now ping ponging to the boring 3 years where the kids are separated by dream bubbles and a long yard, almost never interacting with each other’s side of the 3 year journey (minus one DISTACTION by Rose and John hammering Bec’s head in with COOL NEW BREATH POWERS)

The pacing was a whole lot and openbound was a waste of time for 10 characters the fans could play with as dolls, but Act 6 Act 6 united both alpha and beta parties to actually do stuff.

But Hussie was also developing a (STILL UNFINISHED) adventure game(s) for his two new kidsonas that were going to give Alternia more breathing room and two new kidsonas an adventure to expand on the lore of Beta earth Roxy, Jake Harley, and a dead flighty broad.

After delaying when the comic should have ended by one and a half years, Hussie says “fuck it” and drops an awesome flash where everyone fucking dies. I was sad a little bit but remembered the comic had to end with the good guys winning so I just slogged another 500 pages watching a cool concept unfold: alter the timeline to unfuck the doomed timeline and fix the time paradox that would cause Lord English to not exist. Cool yeah?

The problem was after undoing 2000 pages of characterization Hussie needs to redo those 2000 pages and give characters worthwhile new arcs to solve, make everything both hunky dory on our way to the finish line but also start a new problem from railroading the characters into this new chance to win the game, and are clearly still coping or ignoring their other timeline’s struggles.

The best Hussie could do was 750 pages.

Build the new universe, kill the bad guys, save the troll race, finish Dave, Dirk, and Roxy’s character arc’s, we’ll finish the rest in a new timeline, the epilogues stuff. Drop in some vague shit at the last minute like “Ultimate Selves” “Aspect design and destiny” and some lip service to how these aren’t the same kids John knew, the look like them but they’re ever so different.

Then for like 6 months that was it, then the credits explained what happened to them and where they are now, and what’s unfinished.

Bonus updates we see a human cosplay space fish horns Hitler, a troll cosplay an immortal time demon hellbent on wrecking the corpse of every Universe he is aware of, and a carapacian cosplay a teleporting radiant dog demon that killed 3 parents. This was for Halloween.

Jane gets kidnapped by the goons you loved back when the comic only had 4 kids 3 adults a dog, some 4 chess friends, Jack, the midnight crew and the felt, and then she mind controls Jack and says she is going to get political.

Also the woobified side characters Wayward Vagabond and Oeregrine Me dicant are no longer “the deterrent of the original bad guy” and “silly marketable plush character who was once a veteran of the bloodiest massacre in Sburban history” they’re dead.

So what an ending huh, that was overwhelming, also unfinished. That epilogue should really tie in loose ends and end the narrative stakes of a work of fiction to a calm and satisfying pace like a traditional narrative does, boy oh boy can’t wait to expect that from the postmodern work of Homestuck hahahahahahahaha.

#homestuck #413 #15 year tumblrversary #15 years ago #webcomics #happy 413

[cheese-anon-real]

New Year's Cheese

2023 has been one wild ride of a year for me Writer content in the latter half of this, below the cut!! do be warned! So. In 2023 I went from Cheese the Anon Asker to Cheese-Anon-Real. I’ve formed what I like to consider my little family, with the Sparda Boys and my fellow anons! Gods below I am so grateful for all of you, you made the last like, 3-4 months of the year so much better. Got sent to Space Jail twice, broke out twice with help Found Kaz again!!! Already touched on the family, but just Met Dante, Nero, and Vergil, absolutely love them to bits(Please be alive over there, Vergil, and not split in 2. Urizen’s cool and all but good god I wanted to shadow your devil hunting so bad when I got free) and Griffon I miss you come back you dumbass ball of feathers where’d you GO- Azuree may not be an anon but gods below, do I love them!! They’re such a sweetie like wth Joker, Fresa, Queen and her daughter Kaylee, and Candy have won my hearts, as my funny little family. You’re all being adopted by me now, face your future hell with me. UwU or smth idfk Am I an UwU-ass bitch or an OwO-ass bitch? Partner says it depends lolol. On what? Who knows. I love them so much too, they’re my world. I’ve had a lot of fun meeting you all, and I hope to hell and back that we keep up these silly little interactions over the next year. I know it hasn’t been perfect, but here’s to a good ‘24 for us all! Thank you for literally existing. I hope the other anons join the official family soon. Happy New Year, @pizzalover8969, @thebestsonofsparda, @thebluerose, @the-thunder-chicken, @azureedoodles, @anonjoker, @bizcochodefresa, @anonymousqueenofrandom, @princessanonofrandom, @therealcandyanon, and finally, @reece-piece-puff

sorry if the @'s is a bad move or I like, piss some of you off with it ;;

Love, Cheese(Roseanna)

P.S. I promise I'll get on writing my lore soon, I just haven't had much time :')

Reminder; Writer Content is Below The Cut. Beware!!!

2023 was even wilder for me than it was for Cheese lmfao.

I finally got into DMC this year, after being drawn in by Gura and the OST in summer of ‘21. On a family vacation, at that! Finally played 5, beat it, beat it again as Vergil. Played 3, beat it with some help from my partner. Started a Vergil run of 3, and started 1, never finished either, because life kinda got crazy Started playing C.O.D??? Somehow?? Never thought I’d play a C.O.D. game but here I am and I like the campaign for the MW2 remake, I suck ass at it but that’s a me problem lmao Got into therapy, finally, actually working on my problems now and really happy about it Went through several Vtuber avatar designs, finally settled on one I like and I’m almost done with it!!! Just gotta struggle through the hair, hand toggles, and the face! Wow!! Went through endless self-discovery, thought I might be trans(I am in fact not trans, I am Fluid! As far as I know. Still working on that. And other things, but one step at a time!! FINALLY reunited with my two best friends. In person. In another state. One of em, I've known since we were 11 and they moved away when we were 13. I had never hung out with them outside of school, and they introduced me to my other best friend, who came up to my state to meet me in late spring of ‘21, hadn’t seen them since. That friend actually paid for the trip themself, because I went through a god-awful breakdown for a solid 2 weeks and tried to. Isolate myself from everyone I love. But thankfully they talked me out of it and got me back into the group, got me going again when I was at probably my second lowest point since I was a preteen. Got oddly close with another friend while I was there, met the majority of my friend group, and now that friend I got close with is EASILY my third best friend! Not third-best, they are also a best friend and I love them so much?? We hyperfixate on like, all the same things. Dragged them into loving Ghost(band) and they’re dragging me into Scott Pilgrim! Woohoo, here we go! Left my friend group like a month ago because one of them is uh. Not. the best? But only sometimes. They don’t have bad intentions and they’re not outright toxic I don’t think, but I uh. Got kinda sick of their sense of humor. Not always funny, kinda mean to a certain other member. Not always though. But like we can work on it when I go back its fiiiiiiine! Learned communication to a degree, holy shit I hate talking about my problems, oh my god please I don’t need help I’m just a burden anyway(I’m working on it, don’t come at me with support I’ll get there with my family and friends eventually. Not attention-seeking here, I’m building my support group as I go.) Had 13 house emergencies!!!! Will list them! Woo! 1 - water heater leak 2 - gas leak 3 - roof leak again(we had a roof leak in ‘22) 4 - house flood 2 electric boogaloo(house flooded like a week after my partner moved in, in ‘22, before I arrived) 5 - flood 3 6 - roof leak 3 7 - roof leak 4 8 - heater died 9 - bathroom door handle fell off the door for literally no reason 10 - house flood 4 11 - roof leak 5 12 - house flood 5 House Flood 5 caused us to get renovations in the organized housing, and after that, they just straight up moved us to a new house. We had 8 fffffffucking days to get the hell out of our house and into the new one. Like, they actually put the time constraint on us. So funny of them! AND THEN THE NEW ONE DIDN’T HAVE SHUT-OFF VALVES FOR EITHER OF THE HOSE SPIGOTS AND WE HAD TO GET THAT HANDLED BUT THEY DIDN’T HANDLE IT. HELP. BROTHER WE ARE TRYING TO FOLLOW THE RULES. WHY ARE YOU FORBIDDING US. so. 13 - no shut off-valves(technically an ‘emergency’ bc the pipes could freeze and then burst) Got summoned for Jury Duty in my parents’ state! IN THE TIME WHERE WE WEREN’T CERTAIN WHEN THE CONTRACTORS WERE COMING. OR IF WE WOULD BE IN THE SAME HOUSE NEXT WEEK. JESUS CHRIST. But, did also get to go on another family vacation. We got to watch the Perseids! I saw a possum there. Literally loved that so much.

Also got SUUUUPER into Ghost(band) in the last like 3 weeks and I'm head over heels for 99% of their songs that I've listened to?? Hell yeah.

It’s been an intense year of ups and downs, but I’m really determined to turn my life around for the better, now. I’m gonna put my all into actually improving my health, both physical and mental/emotional. I didn’t want that to be like, a new year resolution, it just kinda lined up with the new year.

#cheese #Happy New Year #Spardanon Family #I love you all so much #thank you for everything these last few months #here's to our continued adventures! #very anxious about actually hitting the post button on this one #don't know why i'm so scared to #either way happy new year i love you all a lot #really hoping no one gets annoyed by being @'d :')

[pangolin-404]

Life, Death, Chance, and Trains

An Upturned Analysis

(I enjoy this game greatly, so here's a 3k word analysis about motivations, perspectives, and fate. Use ctrl+f to hunt down certain headings: 1. Ikabod Kee, 2. The Traveller, 3. Sobbergritch, 4. The Inn & the Afterlife, 5. Trains, 6. The Morning. Enjoy!)

    Most of the deeper lore of the Upturned is revealed at the end, with little build up, and the story concludes just as quickly. And it all puts things into a wildly different perspective and context, and hammers in the game’s deeper themes of death, chance, change, and fate.

1. Ikabod Kee

    Ikabod Kee died in his teenage years in the late 90’s. He never truly got to live, and at the end of it all he concluded he didn’t learn much when he was alive. The end of his life was a series of unfortunate events, from attempted murder to winter storm to attempted murder again. Sheer, bad luck killed him in the form of a tree.

    (There’s a solid chance he was gay and disliked this part of himself in both life and death: He went to a party where one other guy would be there, and he understood why his father shoved him out of a moving car and would in fact thank him, and of course there was the number of masculine mannequins in the Inn, all of which he found beautiful. His story contains lots of hiding, so that was a grand old cherry on top of his existence.)

    Like the Traveller, dumb luck and chance ended his life and influenced his Afterlife. Sure, he had good parts, with his collections of miscellaneous items, and viewing the stars, a brief good time with the Inn before Sobbergritch came along, and his brief companionship with the Traveller, but also like his final guest, he never truly got to live, did he? Did Ik enjoy what little life he had?

    He founded the Upturned Inn out of a genuine kindness in his heart. He put his heart and soul into building the inn, and ensuring it was self-sufficient. It had its own power grid, mall, aquarium; why didn’t he create a community of multiple buildings? Did he perceive the wider Afterlife to be dangerous? Maybe he was the one who made it go downwards. It could’ve all been a big pun on his part! An Upturned Inn! Or, he very well could’ve feared making such a tall building that any old storm could knock over, and he held a fear of large storms years after his death. Making it go into the ground was ensuring his guests were safe against all elements. This kindness and urge to help others is one of his core personality traits.

    This is further proven by his interactions with the Traveller. He went through the shell-shock of a line of thousands whittling down to nothing, and he still greets the first guest in ages with gusto. He referred to the Traveller by his last name and formal terms, despite how he considered him a friend. 40+ years of customer service does that to a guy.

    Despite knowing full well the elevator led to a certain death/disfiguration/crow-ification, Ikabod worried over the Traveller at every twist and turn. He constantly checked up on them and aided them on their journey. This cannot be due to some secret ploy to get the Traveller to Sobbergritch faster. Ik truly, deeply cared for them, and the thought of losing them is what drove him to flee the Inn, after not going outside for 43 years. The number was just tossed out there like nothing, but that is decades of being in one place, more than likely kept there by Sobbergritch to ensure any passerby is roped in and sent down into his awaiting traps.

    Did Ik think he was doing good, when he signed the hotel off to Sobbergritch’s ownership? It was years ago, when he had no idea what Sobbergritch’s true goals were. At what point did he realize and regret? What lies (or truths) was he told to hand the Inn over? He must’ve believed Sobbergritch’s presence would make people happier, safer! Sobbergritch snapped at the end of the game. His facade broke, and he spilled his intentions of killing death and ceasing existence, but that’s after the storm, after the Traveller had escaped death time and time again. But we’ll get into Sobbergritch’s morality and perspective later. Point is, Ik signed himself into the world’s worst business partnership. 11 million guests, he stated, and did that number even hold meaning to him anymore? Day after day signing in guests, telling them their room number. It must’ve gotten mechanical in nature at some point. Could he even wrap his head around how many guests have been transmogrified into monsters or glass?

    And then the Traveller came along. After years of never being given a break, of never socializing, of never having normal human interaction, after never speaking to someone outside of formalities, someone comes along. And this Traveller was a quiet little man! He never initiated conversations, and was a man of few words, but he listened. Did Ik feel joy, genuine excitement when the elevator broke again and again? A true excuse to ramble to someone and form human connection! And maybe he felt guilty, or maybe he was too excited to care. No other guests came in; he had all the time in the world to chatter about his hobbies and past. To feel less alone.

    No matter how rude they were to him, Ik cherished them and considered him a friend! He always assumed the best in him. They may listen to his music. Ikabod prided himself on his work, and he beamed when the Traveller paid attention to something he put effort into! He considered the Upturned In a great thing; perhaps he was reminiscing, or nostalgic, when he spoke about the greatness of the aquarium, or the ingenuity of the power grid. He went to the Traveller when the storm scared him. Did Ik ever feel close to Sobbergritch? Doubtful. He considered the Traveller would be a source of comfort in a time of fear, and that says something.

    At what point did Ikabod fully realize that Sobbergritch was going to take away his newfound only friend? This bond with a near-stranger is what drove him to break the cycle of sitting around, turning a blind eye. There is a true, true chance that Ikabod was behind the health packs that fell when the fire cannons malfunctioned. That it was him trying, desperately, to help his only friend in whatever way he could.

    In his own words, he hid for all his life. For a time, perhaps, he enjoyed the Afterlife experience and truly lived, hosting the Upturned Inn and making people happy, giving people relief, safety, and community. But then Sobbergritch came, and he had to lie to himself and others, and hide all over again. He metaphorically shoved himself into a shoebox and took all the punches thrown at him. He had his dream ripped away from him, but couldn’t stand to have his only friend taken, too. Waiting until it was too late, if anything, shows how conditioned he was to Sobbergritch’s torment of others, and how used he was to sitting back and watching.

    His decision to not hide in the face of the Morning, in the face of this unknown force barreling at him, was a sign of his growth as a character, refusing to back down from change and let greater forces control him.

    Ikabod Kee was an optimistic beacon of joy and delight in an otherwise desolate situation.

2. The Traveller

    The Traveller had a good life, at some point. He grew up in a post-pandemic world and firsthand witnessed world peace. Wouldn’t it make sense for him to have a spark of admiration for the human race? Some deep, heartfelt urge to do good in the world and help people drove him to be on the frontlines of aiding evacuation efforts. What was he before? Surely in a position of helping others. They share this trait with Ikabod: kindness and compassion.

    Even if the world broke most of it out of the Traveller. It was great, until the first domino fell, and he was helpless to watch the world crumble. Lady Luck spat in the Traveller’s face and left him to rot.

    Imagine, if you will: An empty bunker system. It was built to hold millions, if not more. But the ravaged outside world clawed their way inside in a storm of hooves and tusks. One by one, lives are snuffed out. Resources are devoured by things sturdier than the birds that won the Great Emu War. And now the bunkers are hollow and silent, save for the sound of wind, electronics never turned off, and the distant, omnipresent sniffling of hogs.

    Did the Traveller ever give up hope? One of the last things he remembered doing was listening to a radio. Music, perhaps. But for a man perhaps all alone in an underground bunker, he could’ve been listening. Calling out, even, for others. He couldn’t have known he was the last soul remaining in the bunkers. Did he go out in search of survivors? Did he already own a shotgun, or did he steal it from some armory, sparsely-stocked because everything was great, why would people need guns? Did he find half-eaten corpses? Did he bury them? How much crippling survivor’s guilt filled their being?

    One of the Traveller’s core traits was persistence. They refused to die, to give up, to fail. He was one durable little man, to the point the only way he could die was to literally explode.

    Given the state of things, he could be bitter toward Ik. Ik, who called at the most inopportune times as he ran for his life. But Ikabod was a golden retriever of a man, and even if persistent with lines of questioning, he was ultimately a trusting individual who didn’t push that much. Even if spoken down to, Ik always came back and offered company and friendship.

    That being said, the Traveller’s level of cruelty or lack thereof is dictated by the player’s actions. How they speak to Ik and how they treat Shrimp. Does he call Ikabod sergeant and play along with the unspoken game, or does he throw furniture at an (at the time) harmless Shrimp? Because of the range of possibilities, the statements “the Traveller is selfish” and “the Traveller cares for Ik” could coexist. The range is there, and it offers a wider view to the Traveller’s personality and demeanor, encompassing all the roads his exhaustion could take him.

    But still, even acting kindly towards the characters, the Traveller was cynical, bitter, as a result of their last days. They stand as a stark contrast to Ik’s optimism, despite how chance ripped away both their lives. Sampling another user’s words and interpretations, “there’s always this underlying sense of exhaustion and childlike scolding in the dialogue we’re given, and when you put that into the context of the travelers existential cynicism and ik’s unfinished life, you begin to understand why the upturned inn exists. what does the upturned inn means to these characters.” [Source: lkabod on Tumblr]

    Sobbergritch’s final spiel about the Traveller’s issues with chance and surprise were spot-on. Every single natural disaster, the elevator failing over and over, was all pure luck. The Traveller was tired, above all. The main drive for them in the Inn was the promise of rest, and perhaps deep down, static. A situation unchanging, calm, safe. A place they could control and know. Which makes it all the most unfortunate that a cramped, poorly furnished room at the end of a long hall is in fact a very dull and predictable thing.

    The Traveller did not want that. If he wanted something so dull, he wouldn’t have left the Inn. They can show worry over Ikabod’s location and safety, and a desire to find him. They were opposites but so achingly similar. Sheer bad luck did them both in, and neither lived a full life. Ik continued with optimism unhindered by 40 years of forced customer service and dealing with Sobbergritch, while the Traveller became exhausted from all the world’s troubles.

    The Traveller wanted control over his destiny, and he took that by leaving the Inn and making the decision to go elsewhere, where grandiose forces couldn’t direct him to his fate. Even though, unknowingly, his fate was already galloping toward him. Is fate a chance? Is fate a surprise, something unexpected? Would he have it in him to be upset, if he knew what those lights led him to? 

3. Sobbergritch

    Sobbergritch was this oppressive, selfish entity that beamed his own issues and desires onto others. He saw death as a scam, he was sick of existing, so everybody else must’ve been sick of it, too. He was doing a service by trying to kill death.

    Whether or not he had a hand in Ik not leaving the end isn’t a question. It is unstated, but it’s safe to assume he played a role in Ikabod not stepping foot outside in years. He monitored the calls, listened in on all Ik and the Traveller spoke of, and took pride in this power he held over everyone else. He believed himself to be so correct and clever by trying to snuff out life and trust. His sense of righteousness drowned out any common sense or attention to anyone else’s opinions.

    Sobbergritch tried to call Ik untrustworthy for calling the Traveller by his last name. However, Ik had immediately tried to assert himself as a friendly face by introducing himself with a nickname—it’s entirely possible to miss his last name! Years of lying to himself and others about the Inn’s safety led to a constant underlying sense of professionalism, being polite in naming and assuring the Inn was the height of luxury. On the other hand, half the time Sobbergritch never used the Traveller’s name, and instead addressed him as cockroach, which (especially when paired with the traps in certain levels) suggests he’d been trying to kill him for a long time, and the Traveller was very very good at evading death.

    Sobbergritch’s past is unknown, but his usage of the word “alow,” with an archaic definition meaning “below,” combined with his particularly skeletal appearance, suggests he was older than Ikabod. Maybe he roamed the Afterlife, growing sick of its endlessness, experimenting at random, and finding the Upturned Inn was striking gold. There’s also the chance he died after Ik, and decided he wanted it to be over in a short span of time. Either way, he felt cheated, and made it everybody’s problem. Unlike Ik and the Traveller, who never got to live, he felt he’d lived too much.

    His well of test subjects ran dry with time, and maybe that’s why he took the time to speak with the Traveller directly. He lorded his power over this stranger, taunted him at every turn, and did his best to sow the seeds of doubt and distrust between him and Ik.

    At the very end, when he had one more toy to break, he spent it mocking the Traveller for having choice ripped from their hands one last time. Maybe Sobbergritch had a right to be angry, to be tired and sick of being, but he spent this energy harming others and dragging everybody into his personal beliefs.

4. The Inn & the Afterlife

    The Inn, ultimately, was an escape. At first the Inn was meant to be a sanctuary. Sobbergritch, in his drive to cease existing, created a limbo that ripped away the autonomy Ikabod aimed to give his guests. In the beginning, the Inn was an escape from isolation and loneliness, but then it became an attempted escape from death itself.

    The Inn-goers attempted to find closure. Ikabod found joy and contentment in aiding others. For a time, he was fulfilled. Sobbergritch used the Inn as a means to an end, a supply of all the resources he’d ever need to get rid of the light in people’s eyes. The Traveller wanted to have autonomy, a say in their own life, and for a time they thought they’d get that by fighting through hell to get some rest.

5. Trains

    The Traveller was dumped into the Afterlife by a train. Ikabod referred to the Morning as a train. Trains! Heavily based in Ik’s words, trains represent a colossal, unstoppable force that has been moving since the beginning.

    The train that deposited the Traveller represented dying. It served as a psychopomp transporting him from the realm of the living to that of the dead, or limbo. It roared by, faintly filled with people, and then it was gone. This reflects how humanity is leaving, how soon there will be no more passengers. The beginning of the end.

    Whether or not the Traveller ending up at the Inn was sheer luck depends on the view of the Inn as an object of change and autonomy, as well as the intelligence of the train or its driver. Was he shoved out by the crowds of people? Did he step out willingly? The vagueness of the beginning of the game leads to various possible interpretations.

    No matter that, the train at the beginning of a game was an inevitability, representing death. Everybody dies.

    The train at the end of the game is the Morning, the Horseman, the Death of All. In the context of the Afterlife, humanity barreled toward its end in a blaze of glory, and the Morning waited to rise at the end of it. The end waited for nobody, and as soon as the last human on earth cracked her head open and died, the Morning ran. There was nothing anybody could do about it. It took its passengers, the souls of not just the Inn but of everywhere, and ran singing into the ether, never to be known again.

6. The Morning

    The Morning is the End. Perhaps the Morning is God, or the horseman of Death, or an angel. But no matter which it is, it is essentially rapturing the souls. It is taking them elsewhere, or making them cease to be.

    With no more humanity, what’s the point of an Afterlife? Is there such a thing as a destination when there’s nobody left to travel there?

    Could the Morning be called luck? Chance? It is an ending, and everything ends at some point, but the characters were unaware of its approach. Even at the end of it all, Ik could only guess that it was something big and unstoppable. Perhaps the Traveller would’ve viewed that as a slap in the face of trying to take his fate into his own hands, if he knew what the horseman staring him down truly was. Is that another strike of bad luck, if it is an inevitability?

    Knowing what impassable force is barreling towards the beloved characters, the Upturned becomes a tragedy. Neither the Traveller nor Ikabod got to live full lives, because bad luck ripped that opportunity from them. In their own way, they attempted to find closure at the Inn. Ikabod makes a choice for himself, to escape the job pushed onto him by another person. Meanwhile the Traveller takes his fate into his own hands and crawls out of the Inn, away from the destiny Sobbergritch attempted to drag him towards. The mere steps toward a wanted change is closure, goal reached or not.

    But, in the Traveller’s case, he never quite got what he wanted, which was for a say in the matter. But the Morning, being a train of finality, does not wait, now that humanity is dead, and the train takes its passengers because everyone has a ticket. They all moved on away from the Afterlife, toward an unknowable future.

    The Upturned is a game about finality and chance.

    It is a good game.

    It is tragic.

    Thank you for your time.

#thoughts #the upturned #the upturned posting #analysis #the upturned mr #the upturned sobbergritch #open this in a new tab. because it's big #ikabod kee

[spoodlebat]

OC-tober day 3/4: Old OC/Redesign

This one took me a few days so I'm combining the two prompts ^^ It would have been the same oc regardless anyway so it makes sense to given the tasks. I very rarely draw mechs so I hope you'll excuse the identical style to Zerrinth's post; symmetry is just so much easier when it comes to designing and basic posing.

His name is Delta, and he's an OC who I've had for a very long time.

Extremely long ramblings, timelapse and original art under the cut

I'll frontload this with the character lore and timelapse; if anyone cares for my breakdown of the oc itself, that'll be the huge ramble at the bottom ^^

D-17, going these days by Delta, is an autonomous multi-function guard unit. Originally from a world shrouded in eternal night, he and his charge Amyss fled its destruction in their ship, the ArchWing, to the planet of Soniterra. Spending their time amongst my other ocs, they now live amongst its denizens in secrecy, studying the world of light and sound through void-borne awe and wonder.

Powered by a zynal core, Delta is mechanically minded and quiet most of the time; tweaks to his functionality by Amyss have given him something of a sassy streak, however, and he's not afraid to giving a gentle ribbing to (or occasionally completely devastate) a poor friend with sharp remarks every once in a while.

Able to rearrange panels and parts of his body, as well as altering the shape and location of the hardlight parts of his form, Delta is capable of minor shapeshifting. He can also very precisicly manipulate tools and objects, capable of working on engineering projects at microscopic levels without any form of magnification or complex set ups with ease. Combining these skills means he is a very capable engineer, and has even rebuilt a living body into a partial cyborg to save someone's life. Though the world he now lives on seems primitive and inefficient by his standards, he does not usually feel arrogant about it; the mechanics of its tech are so different and new to him that he is ever interested in studying it.

A highly capable combatant, D-17's original purpose was to protect the outpost he and Amyss lived within from creatures of void. Energy beams firing from his hands and sharp blades forming from his body kept him and his charges safe, but the planet's end signalled an end to his guarding duties.

Ok, rambling time ;w;

I don't know exactly when I made this guy, but I remember writing about him all the way back in primary school, in blue pen on lined paper that I kept in my little organiser tray. That would be about age 6 or 7, making this guy almost twenty years old in real time ;-;

This OC is old enough to drink and vote in the uk, good fuckin lord

His origins start even earlier, in fact; he's an amalgamation of a couple of simple characters I made as a small child, including one of those 'running along the side of the road' guys you'd imagine on long car trips. Timelines and memories are fuzzy after 2 decades, but I'd imagine those guys are from at least a year or so before I squished all those ideas under one single name. So a solid 19 years, and a potential 20-21 easily :') wow.

Delta is actually old enough that I hadn't done much drawing by this point in my life, and so I mostly wrote things instead. Those old papers are around here somewhere, but design-wise he's never been truly nailed down; just a basic mental image and the odd description or two. The one exception is an old pixel art piece I made of him in mspaint, back on the Family Computer (remember those? ^^). I was a huge fan of pokémon fusions at the time, and I'd spend ages mixing up their sprites to see what I could do. Eventually I moved onto making things from scratch (scratch spriting, what a fun term), and that lead to the one and only time I've ever drawn this guy. It took way too long, it's very clunky, and I no longer have the original file :c Lost long ago in the move between computer to laptop I imagine. Instead, I managed to find it in a gloriously 240p youtube upload set to a Linkin Park song ^^ ah child me, you never left.

All the way from 2010, here's the best surviving version I could find. And yes, the youtube bar at the bottom is in the shot; you want to fight me over it, go find and screenshot it yourself :)

It's weirdly posed, has literally only 1 shade of grey + shading for colour, the design makes very little sense, especially for the chest and torso, and he looks a lot more evil than I intended. Despite a few efforts that went nowhere later in life though, I just never managed to redraw or redesign him in a way I was happy with. So for a long time, this grey pointy spriteart has been all I ever saw of Delta. Figured he was long, long, LONG overdue an update, and so here we are :)

Though he might look very different now and have actual anatomy knowledge informing his structure now, who'd have thunk? I tried very hard to keep intact the core design features that 13 year old me added in. It's the same fella after all! Here's a quick list of basic ones, since most of them are subtle but intentional after all:

-Glass/screen face with digital expression; I think taking the top off frees him up to look cleaner, but underneath was always a smooth screen. This way he can see above himself too ^^ -'Bunny ears'; little antenna/paddles that originate from the endless runner character, who was originally something of a rabbit -Shoulder-mounted boosters. Pretty self explanatory. -Upper arm loops; this one was actually a coincidence! I guess 2010 me and 2023 me both thought the upper arm needed something ^^ -Elbow plates; these were like. A big thing. Originally able to shapeshift into blades and other tools, I had to keep them in. It wouldn't be delta without them. They're just less... accidentally lethal now ^^ old design was POINTY -Split shins; the original shins have a pair of plates on them that form a sort of 'cuff' above the foot. I honoured this by making the feet the same way, the ankle connecting between the two sides. -Spikes! His hips were feeling a little.. empty? So I gave him some electromagnetic spikey blade things he can use as tools, as well as some hardlight claw hands.

#spoodle draws #digital art #art #potatoposting #bweird oc tober #bweirdoctober #robot #redesign #oc #original character

[nymphdiariesdotcom]

get to know a blogger! ☆

tagged by: @alltimefail-sims - love u angel <3

☆ show ur wallpaper [changed to this one like a few days ago! lmao]

☆ last song listened to: soja by ckay 🫶🏿

☆ currently reading: my own unpublished works. lol [also last official book i began to read was The Door by Magda Szabó]

☆ last movie: paranormal investigation [2018]

☆ last show: revenge [2011]

☆ food craving: wendy's. and also that one specific sandwich order i place at my local deli shop

☆ currently wearing: spaghetti strap tank top with orange shorts decorated with cacti/sunrays [desert themed pjs <3]

☆ height: a semi-solid 5"8. i think. haven't gotten checked up in a min haha

☆ peircings: the default aka ear lobes. i'm a boring bitch i know

☆ tattoos: none. again, a very plain girl SMH

☆ glasses/contacts: glasses! contacts put the fear of god in me

☆ fave color[s]: pink, green, yellow and orange!

☆ current obsession: well besides my boyfriend, obviously my OCs and expanding their lore. also *drumroll* Ted Roswell! and just strangerville in general i always find myself crawling back to that bombafuck town and scouring the landscape in admiration. OH! and i've been suppressing the urge to give in and watch the anime, blue lock because holy FUCK those fan edits are plaguing me bad

☆ last place you traveled: new york, but that was a good 4 years ago. i've been within my city/state for a while since :)

tagging: @myungsooism , @missatan , @rottenbubblegum , @veone , @musetrait , @khadijah551 , @trendyarthoe and basically anyone who wants to do this lol!

#crsent.txt #tag game #this is saurr fun!! hehe <3

[softsapphicvibes]

I played HI3 when it first came out and then genshin and now HSR and if it's okay, I'd like to rank them a litte, because I have SO many feelings right now.

HI3 is literally the baby, she isn't the firstborn but she is and will forever be the most iconic. It's like a whole saga about love and lesbians and the power that those two things can accomplish. HI3 has some not so great lore in the earlier days--especially when hoyo was really just trying to get out there, and some of their writing decisions don't sit well with me, but HI3 is very clearly a heavy labor of love for the company and with how part 1 ends, you feel some level of closure--which is very rare for these types of games.

I would rank HI3's story a solid 9/10, graphics are 8.9/10 and gameplay is a 5/10(My phone is small and my thumbs are clumsy 😭 it was a challenge)

Genshin. Is certainly there.

In the spirit of fairness, I will say that genshin allowed more people to get into Honkai Impact. On the other hand, genshin's initial release and a year or two after were its strongest, but that game is incredibly boring. While it does look pretty, everything feels empty and unappealing. Paimon is a huge deterrent as she is speaking for you essentially, and it drags the game into a repetitive and annoying sandbox.

This is 100% subjective and is based on my personal feelings, obvi, but my word, I just can't imagine playing genshin again.

I'd give the graphics an 7.9/10. Very pretty but the size of the world is not working in their favor. Story is a 2/10. A very strong opening but QUICKLY falls off and struggles to pick back up. Gameplay 3/10. Again, the game feels incredibly repetitive without any real reward. It's a time sink and the only reason to come back is either because you've already put x amount of hours in or because your favorite character might be in the newest update. Sorry for being a mean lesbian but none of the genshin characters are interesting or appealing enough to be heavily invested in it.

And the newest baby, Star Rail.

NO SPOILERS

Just initial thoughts. Very very fun, influenced by how new it is, but the way it's introduced feels a lot like Honkai Impact 3rd, which I love. Since this is a Honkai game i feel like im more likely to enjoy it and that's due to familiar faces and setting.

Story 8/10 I really like it but I haven't gotten very far. Graphics 9/10. It's a Honkai game, I will say that my laptop had some performance issues with some scenes which is a little sad but I can live with playing on a lower setting. Gameplay 10/10 I LOVE IT SO MUCH LIKE TURN BASED GAMES ARE SO MUCH FUN AND HSR DOES SUCH A GOOD JOB HERE LIKE I LITERALLY DO NOT CARE HOW LONG I SPEND PLAYING THIS GAME BECAUSE THE COMBAT FEELS SO FAIR FUN AND BALANCED IT'S AMAZING.

HI3 has an captain mc who does not exist like they functionally are not real outside of the login screen.

Genshin has an MC but your personality, voice, and thoughts are all dictated by other people and you have little to no real input or say in the game. I HATE games that do that they are so boring. Paimon might as well be the MC for how little you do outside of slashing and climbing.

Star Rails MCs have a bigger air of mystery than Gen's and have more personality as well. Your companions don't speak for you, and MC has voice acting. Games like these typically tend to make the MC loved by all (which is another one of Genshin's problems) but in HSR you can at least understand why people might want to hang around the MC.

All in all, I feel like HSR is the game that deserves to follow the success of HI3. It's real fun and more focused. I enjoy the characters I met and the gameplay is absolutely steller.

Hope you have fun once you get to play!

anon. ANON. I love this so much! also same hat! i've also played hi3, genshin and star rail from release!

I totally agree about hi3 being a labour of love and about it giving a level of closure that I didn't particularly expect. I also agree that it begins quite confused because it was supposed to be a ggz sequel and then it wasn't and then they brought some lore over from ggz but also retconned some stuff... hi3 hasn't always been pretty lore-wise but overall I am super happy with it <3 I know what you mean about playing it on mobile though, once I got a laptop that could handle the game I had a lot more fun lol

I also agree with your thoughts about genshin - it's super pretty, it had a strong start and I genuinely enjoyed the story at the beginning, but I have also dropped off and may only return if there are big story developments. I agree that it's stunted by the mc being silent or a self-insert character, for me I would prefer to play as an actual character with established lore and opinions etc. there's also not enough lesbianism for me and I haven't been really grasped by a character besides with aesthetics? whereas i'm super interested in the lore of pretty much all of the honkai cast.

I also much prefer the way that hi3 deals with story progression and the character development of the cast through new battlesuits. I think I saw someone mention this somewhere but you can literally see bronya, for instance, age from 14 at the beginning of the story into a fully-grown adult by apho part 2. I think sticking with a consistent and slightly smaller cast allows them to really develop the characters in a way they can't do as well in genshin. I think the idea that you meet a new batch of characters for each nation is a good one, and it's really nice to play events and see older characters again, but it doesn't allow for the same level of detail that hi3 loves to dump on people.

thank you for no spoilers on the star rail part too! I will be opening it right after answering this~ super excited by how much you seem to like it because that's probably a sign that I will also like it 👀 I was kinda put off when I saw the mcs for star rail, but hopefully they're like you said and have more of a functional role in the story overall!

I really liked reading this ask it was very fun and we have a lot of the same opinions! i'm glad you like star rail so far and I endorse your rankings as absolutely correct with no flaws 😇

#these are just our opinions so if anyone wants to fight me about genshin please don't 💞 it's just not my fave mhy game #thank you anon!!! i will always welcome a mean lesbian in my inbox 💞 #ask #answered #anonymous #anon

[randybananas]

New decade. New (old) car. New adventures. New blessings.

I was sad to have to lay “Lucy” the Land Rover to rest. She was a dream car of mine, a discovery 4, shaped in the image of the great Defender 110, an icon. She served me for 6/7 solid years, a true driving experience, above and beyond.

Now, it’s time to welcome the new comer, a classic in its own right. One that has since been discontinued, with an abundance of parts, scarcity of vehicles, and a lore all its on.

Welcome the “Fjita”, my little FJ cruiser, built to the 9’s. 3” full bilstien lift, method race wheels, wrapped in 33” tires, bushwhacker fender flares, Apple CarPlay, and more lights than I can shake a stick at.

Here we go.

#cars #car guy #fj cruiser #toyota #land rover #landrover #discovery #adventures

[ambelle]

I’m prefacing what I’m about to say with “I went on Twitter, so I did it to myself.” Dude who just recently became a DK fan and was acting like he was about that DB life just last season is on Twitter talmbout he wonders if the fans hadn’t fought for them they would have happened? 🙄 I’m going to go out on a limb and say yes, yes they would have. Just because the show didn’t portray them in a traditional manner or the way that some people wanted doesn’t mean they didn’t plan for them to be endgame. In fact Greg Walker has stated (many times) that they knew the direction they were going. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Brenton and Anna knew that as well. As the leads, the show runners would have given them a lose outline of what their plans were. In any case, if people actually watched the show instead of putting their own spin on things they would be a lot happier with the way the show turned out. I’m not saying there weren’t missteps, and missed opportunities but overall the show was good and true to the characters created by Wolfman and Perez. And there were many elements of the original Judas Contract comic from the 80’s as well as the animated film from 2017. It is an enjoyable show and I will be rewatching it forever!

Hey anon! I think people assume they have more power over writers than they actually do. So when they complain and then things still don't go exactly how they demanded they are shocked and personally offended. And yeah the showrunners have been saying the same thing about DK being endgame for years it for sure wouldn't happen if they didn't want it to happen.

Before s3 even aired Greg did some interviews about a DK bombshell and them being endgame. The reaction was everyone saying he's a liar and there's no bombshell. They were wrong but they won't admit it. Brenton and Anna also knew what they were doing in their interactions. It's fine to misjudge people if you can at least admit you called him a liar for no reason.

As everyone enjoying the current season has said there are plenty of things we all wished happened in this show. I have a lot of beef with season 3 in particular. But I'm also genuinely enjoying this season. Not just DK content but overall team interactions, the villains (well Mother Mayhem so far but Im sure Brother Blood is about to kill her and step up to bat), the overall plot with the prophecy the lore and Trigon is way more interesting this time around. Screentime is all even and everyone has their own thing going on. It's just been a solid season and my favorite since s1. I actually like it more than s1 because Gar and Kory are far more present.

I do love the show overall even with all its misteps it's one of my favorites and I'll miss it. Also if I'm being honest most shows I watch end up completely falling off so eh. I think Watchmen may be the only show where I can say it's damn near perfect...but there was also only 1 season so...yeah.

Titans Forever right?

#anonymous #dickkory

[lowkeyclueless5137]

ooooh, What about a sonic the hedgehog AU for twst :D. Can Idia and Ortho be the main stars again?

Hmmm... Let's see...

Sonic is a very wide franchise. I do enjoy Sonic, I like to mindlessly watch gameplay of the games, but I really didn't see every single sonic piece of lore. I am very lacking in the og lore, reboot lore and any kind of sonic deep lore tbh.

What I do know a bit better than others(like I just have a general idea at best) tho... Are 3 Sonic games: the black knight, secret rings and unleashed. Along with the 2 live action movies... I guess I have a pretty solid material to work with! Look at it!

*slaps roof of material*

*material crumbles apart*

:'3 yep... Pretty solid

We are starting with a distant planet, one full of lush green forests and aincent temples.

In here we meet Mrs Shroud, who is living in a modest tree house alongside her 2 sons. Idia, a 9-10 years old and Ortho, a newborn, who is yet to comprehend anything about this new world.

Idia was a quite curious child. He always asked his mama all kinds of questions, such as: where's papa? Why can't I go outside without covering my hair? Why do my teeth look wierd? Those were very VERY common questions. Unfortunately, all 3 would be always answered with 'when you get older, you'll find out'.

Their house was isolated from any other villages and other people that inhabited the land. Doesn't mean that Idia didn't see them. He would go after his mom to help her sometimes, so he saw the vibrant hair colors, the sparkly eyes and all the marks on one's skin, marks that would glow when those people would perform supranatural feats. He saw people flying, running fast, punching holes in stones and many more. The catch was that only 1 superpower was per person. And they seem to be awakened after a special ritual, which Idia always saw be made by the end of summer.

Idia once asked his mama why he doesn't have marks like the rest. Even his mother had some marks, although they seemed faint and weak. He never saw his mom ever use them. He didn't know what his mama's special power even was.

One day, Idia was watching over his little brother at home, mostly checking on the cradle and making sure Ortho is sleeping nicely and doesn't stirr around. Their mother was supposed to come back from the village with the usual errands.

Except that the 2's mother returns in a hurry, with an arrow plunged in her left arm. Idia, of course was absolutely horrified, but his mother tells him that he has to take his brother and leave. She hastily gives him a map and a pouch with golden rings, telling him that whatever he does, he must not be discovered, she tells him to look over Ortho and prevent anyone from finding out the truth about the Shrouds and their fire hair.

Idia begs for his mother to come with him and Ortho, but Mrs Shroud says that she can't, that she would only weight Idia down, just how she weighted her husband down to the point people discovered why they should fear the Shrouds. All she wished was for her 2 sons to find a peaceful life on earth.

It was a very first time that Idia heard about his father, but he had not much time to even sink in the info that he had to run with Ortho in his arms, finding themselves on earth. Only with a flimsy piece of paper that was useless, a pouch of interplanetary portals in the form of small golden rings and nothing else but their clothes and each other.

Idia and Ortho found, thankfully, their way to a small city. More on point: at a house of an old lady that was blind. She had a service dog and as such she couldn't see the flaming blue hair of Idia, taking him and his baby brother. She told the 2 about stories of her children that were living out of the country and didn't visit in a while.

Those children never once came to visit from what Idia realised over the years he came to stay in there. The old woman knew how to braid and would usually braid Idia's hair in a tight bun or something that could make the flaming hair be easier to cover up.

But when Ortho was around 7-8, the old woman died. Her time did come in the end, but the 2 brothers still cried at the funeral. Surprisingly, that's also when the said children of the woman showed up. Idia thought all that time that they were dead too or something, but no... They were all healthy and well off.

Even more surprising was when the testament was read, in which the old woman leaved all of her valuables, belongings and house to none other than Idia, the one who for the past 7-8 years was trying his best to both raise his little brother and also take care of the old woman. Idia was 18, therefore he was deemed the legal guardian of Ortho and had all the rights to inherit everything in the testament, much to the surprise of the other relatives, since they knew that the old woman had some valuables that make up for a fortune alone.

As such, past that, Ortho is 15 when Idia realises that his little brother couldn't be home schooled anymore. Idia himself worked a lot to get into an university, a lot of paperwork, a lot of exams and situations until he was allowed to study from home. This is also how he started his job in Graphic design and assets programming. He was working from home, for the sole reason that he had to both work his job and also play teacher for the sake of his brother.

Of course, Ortho grew up to be just like how Idia used to when he was 8: curious, energetic and always happy for the little things he discovers. Unlike Idia, who still had his hair long, Ortho had his in an undercut even, mostly since it was easier to hide with a beanie. Idia was very skeptical of leaving his brother to go to the high-school, but it had to be done. Many in the town never knew Idia's actual upbringing before he was basically adopted by the old lady, so he enrolled in college without much suspicion, but the town knew that Ortho is of age. Middle school, sure... He could be homeschooled, but not high-school. That would raise questions.

Idia tho, still kept the old woman's car. That probably belonged to her husband, but still with some repairs and upgrades, it was just like new, maybe even better. As such, Idia decided to drive Ortho to school.

The rules are the same as ever: don't show your hair, hide anything that may seem wierd, if anyone asks about parents, dodge the question and move on. Also don't get into trouble.

Ortho also asked why he has to wear long sleeves, even at PE, to which Idia reassures that it's just in case of anything, which puzzles his younger brother even more.

Idia also wore a lot of long sleeves, which Ortho found it curious, since he was aware that his brother had a bunch of tattoos. He never knew when Idia got them, but he always thought those were really cool.

First day in and already Idia is called to the school. :'3

Apparently Ortho got in an argument with Epel, his deskmate, which immediately escalated in a fight. Thankfully, no one got hurt as a teach broke them in time. Still, Ortho had a bruise on his cheek and Epel had his eye swollen. Additionally, Deuce, Ace, Sebek and Jack were there because they intervented and made it worse. Weather it was on accident or not, it wasn't important.

Idia of course arrives first. Mrs Spade called, saying she couldn't come in time, Mrs and Mr Trappola couldn't come, but Alex will go. For Jack his mom showed up, for Sebek his dad and for Epel his grandma.

Ortho also noted how Alex and Idia seem to be the same age and something is going on in between the 2. Sum kind of rivalry that Ortho never saw up until now. Ace did mention how his big brother was a passionate conspiracy theorist so Ortho concluded that it had to do something as to why both had a glaring war in between them.

Idia also was particularly giving sum business vibes by how he dressed, to the point the other kids thought he was either sum young business mogul or a mafia man. He was also much colder than Ortho knew him.

Of course, the 5 in question did have to address their unresolved tension, while their guardians were also arguing in the office, but ya know... Like adults. :'3

Of course, Idia and Alex are the first ones who get out, both clearly more than ready to take a jab at each other. Especially how the 'Holesti Ghost' is still kicking. Idia instead replies with 'how's the salary kicking at the donut shop?', which it's a pretty hard hit.

Ortho is confused, but apparently everyone in the town knew that Idia and Alex went to the same college. It was a pretty small town after all and everyone knew pretty much everyone.

Well except Ortho.

Idia, of course, is trying to keep sum sense of actual calm, as to not look like an absolute hypocrite after telling the kids to not fight in between them.

That ride home was one silent one for Ortho. Once home, he does inquire why Idia is so secretive. It's his first time when he gets outside fully, interacts with other people and all he's meet with is secrets that all dial back to Idia. Just how much did Idia truly hide from him?

That's also when Idia snaps, since Ortho keeps pressing on it. His hair flares up in bright orange hair and electricity around the house starts malfunctioning and a serious blackout occurs. Ortho is absolutely horrified, while Idia realises what he just did, so he firstly tries to calm down his brother before he finally puts down Ortho to have the ✨talk✨.

Idia tells his little brother that their real name was Shroud, that both descended from another planet. They had to run away in order to survive. Their mother sacrificed herself for their sake. Idia tells Ortho that at one point, marks would appear on his body, sign that his powers are finally ready to be used. Idia had his in the spur of the moment and since then they grow. Of course, everything has to be a secret, otherwise who knows what would happen to them. They might have to flee to another planet altogether.

Ortho wants to ask why, but Idia tells him that he also has no idea. His only lead was the flimsy map he hid in the attic, but even with that, Idia had no idea what they would be searching for? Answers? A tool? A weapon? Who knows?

With the new knowledge, it daunts onto Ortho literally everything. How every aspect of his life was absolutely unnatural because of that need to hide and survive.

This made high-school even harder to go through with the new anxiety over literally everything. :'3

PE does have to play an important role, because that's also when Ortho discovers that he can go super fast. And not just faster than a normal kid. Faster than a car even. The teens did not give it much thought and even the sports teach wasn't thinking too much into it, but Ortho realised something was up, so he excused himself to the bathroom.

Low and behold! The marks started to appear. And Ortho was more than horrified since they appeared, just like Idia warned him. And it wasn't something that easy, it was goddamn super speed. He could make a run of the sports field in a second, maybe even less!

Ortho wanted to call his brother, to take him early, but after PE he only had history and it would be less suspicious if he simply stood that class and then go home. What the worse that could happen?

The worse indeed happens when it gets announced that sum military investigation is going on. Something about the blackouts that seemed to not happen only in their city, but in the whole region. At one point it happened spontaneously in the whole continent, although for a few secs, that was something to raise suspicions.

So it took a while until they got on board a 'genius' scientist to lead the investigation. Rumors did go around that towns or villages in the vicinity were scouted as well, so now it was their turn.

And Ortho was downright horrified of this. It doesn't help that for today, his math class was cancelled for the sole reason that the kids could also be examinated in case of anything. Oh he was so scared, he was basically shaking off his feet.

A note on this whole mess wast that several weeks passed and during those weeks, Ortho actually got along with Epel, Adeuce, Jack and Sebek. They had their own lil group and it was great overall.

As such, the 5 in question noticed Ortho's state and asked if he was alright. Yeah, sure, everything is alright if you count off that his hair is literally blue fire, he is currently having tattoos spreading on his body and that apparently he can run faster than an F1 car. Sure those are minor details... Right?

Of course, his turn comes to the lil examination, which Ortho absolutely dreaded. His friends all went before him, in fact, everyone went before him, and he was the last. Jack tried to reassure that it's a simple thing and won't hurt at all, while Ace and Epel in the bg are dramatically crying about how they were cut open and stitched back up via super hi-tech lasers and what not.

Surprisingly, he passed. These bitches did not realise he was an odd one, but he was absolutely glad about it.

Although Ortho notices that the head of the investigation, that 'genius' scientist has sum holograms that depict runes and photos of ruins. Ortho thought those were familiar, that he saw them somewhere.

When he comes back home, Idia is obviously waiting for him. Apparently the adults went first before the kids, so Idia also passed by quick.

And that's when Ortho noticed that the marks on his big brother's arm were similar to the signs he thought were runes on the reports he saw around. And he did bring it up to Idia, on how his marks are actually engraved on sum temples and shit and that's what the special forces are looking for.

Idia, rightfully, is taken aback by this, but his worry is more when Ortho also tells him about his special power and the marks that did spread over his own body. They were faith and already were fading away quickly, but the more it's used, the more the marks become permanent and spread.

Idia also reveals his special power: electricity manipulation. This is why he caused that blackout when he got mad. His powers got out of control at that moment.

But Ortho insists that maybe those temples and aincent engravings could be the answer Idia's looking for. The answer to why they are like this. Idia tho, says that for now, they shouldn't pursue anything. He searches in the attic and finds his old pouch with rings and the map in question. Idia gives half of the rings to Ortho, teaching him how to use those and telling him that only in emergency cases he should use them. He had to picture clearly where he wants to go first of all. Idia would forge a PE pass for his brother, so they won't have a worry over it.

That night, Ortho also couldn't sleep and Idia was more than welcoming for a bedtime story and sum cuddling under the blankets.

But, next day at school, there is again an inspection, which apparently it's because of the fact that the wierd energy was repered to be around this small city, as such, another more through investigation had to commence.

And this time, everyone is put in an line at the end and told to hold something. From what it was whispered around, it was a small piece of rock, a brick with engravings if one was to say. It was a bit heavy, but not as heavy as a couple of grapes. Ortho had 0 idea what this meant and he was scared for life. He was absolutely glad he had foundation on him to quickly cover the marks for the through investigation, but now his anxiety got the best of him, not knowing why he has to hold a goddamn brick of all things.

Until it reaches in his hands and the brick starts shaking. Scared, Ortho passes it off to the next one, Jack, but that doesn't stop the brick from shaking, it goes even worse. So it gets passed to Sebek, it starts glowing, Epel got scared when it started cracking, Deuce already had it starting to crumble apart and Ace found himself with a bunch of crumbles of the brick and a pretty lil purple gem in his hands.

Oh they were screwed. So fucking screwed. :'3

Cue running away from the military and Ortho using in the spur of the moment one of the rings in order for all 6 to escape through it.

They ended up in Siberia. In fucking Siberia! It was cold, they were buried in snow and Ace had his pants caught in a pine tree.

They are all 6 scared and try to make their way through, until they find a quite cozy looking house. It was apparently an inn, so it wasn't wierd to have 6 guys completely decked out in snow to come in.

Thankfully Sebek knows sum Russian so he could ask for them to just be let to stay for a bit. And now, all 6 at a smol table in the corner, they are eyeing Ortho. Ace still had that purple gem and none of them knew what the hell that was. It was pretty? Yes. But what is its purpose? Why was it in a magic brick? And why tf did the brick shake so much? What does the military even want with them???

Ortho does start to explain what Idia told him. They are aliens and it seems that they go under hiding because there is something inside of them, some sort of power that people are afraid of and would kill them to ensure that it never comes to light. Ortho was downright terrified and all he wanted was to call his big brother and at least make sure he is alright too. Now Ortho's friends were dragged in because of him being stupid and passing the brick around. He couldn't blame anyone but himself.

Deuce is the voice of reason this time, reassuring that Ortho shouldn't apologise for what already was done and over. They need to just get out of this situation. They have a wierd gem and that would be it. They are absolutely not ready to die or be dissected by the government since apparently they put targets on all of their backs.

Jack is the ACTUAL voice of reason and says that maybe they should go somewhere warmer, because they cannot stay in this snow paradise without freezing to death. Ace suggests Hawaii, just because why not? Free trip to Hawaii I guess. :3

So with an excuse that they will go to the bathroom, they use one of the rings in there and find themselves in Hawaii. Epel took the gem from Ace and wrapped it in a handkerchief, putting it in his pocket in case of anything. They just need to find a goddamn public phone and call Idia, in case the government tracks their phones as well.

Idia, of course responds and immediately nags Ortho because 'WHY THE FUCK DID YOU GO TO SIBERIA OF ALL PLACES?!'. He panicked, alright? Idia tho, was also in hiding so he didn't have much time to talk. Neither did the Bois have coins to keep the discussion longer.

In frustration, Epel punches the bottom of the telephone, which immediately makes a hole from which coins pour out. Absolutely terrified at this, everyone realises that the gem is glowing slightly. That because of the gem, Epel had some sort of super strength.

But they got free money at least. :'D

Idia gave to them a location to meet up, in Hawaii so that they won't have to use the rings willy-nilly and end up in the middle of the ocean or something.

Idia himself looked a bit dishevelled, but he had a similar gem, but green. Apparently these 2 were taken from 2 different temples, but even so, they were 7 in total, as per sum aincent manuscripts that retell how 'celestial beings' came from nowhere and built 7 temples in order to hide those gems.

Idia made sum proper research onto this. Ya know, hack into the top secret files, violate some laws of digital security, the usual. :3

But Idia tells them that there is a catch, that the gems, or as they were named, chaos emeralds, can be used to obtain power beyond imagination. To birth gods at that. Idia also did some digging since yesterday to the lead of this investigation and knows that Crowley, the said genius's record, isn't that clean. The government got him in lead because it was their easiest choice: erase some things of his record and they are all gud.

The first years group concludes 1 thing: they have to go after the rest of the emeralds and find them before Crowley does. Currently Crowley uses the discovery of the Shrouds's true nature as a plausible excuse to hunt them down. If the gems reacted to them, it meant that they could find the others.

Of course, Idia also clears it out that Adeuce, Epel, Jack and Sebek cannot go back, for they would be hunted down by the special forces. So they will have to stick together.

At least they have a pouch of stolen coins. :3

Using the map, Idia manages to activate it via his powers, revealing 6 locations all in different colors. Idia says that the green and purple sparks have to be the temples where the green and purple chaos emeralds were initially hidden. The closest to them was the red one.

Idia also insists that the emeralds should be kept separated, so the green one gets handed to Sebek. If he happens to unlock sum new cool power, good for him I guess. Epel is pretty hyped up about his super strength. :3

Cue a lot of shenanigans and chasing around. Crowley keeps getting on their trail and with all the machinery and everything, we are talking about 6 teens and a 25 years old all trying to survive and race to find all the emeralds before Crowley does. Well... It's easy to say race when Ortho has that super speed. And on the way, the other emeralds allowed the rest of the first years to also gave cool new powers, but only when they had them on their person.

Sebek had electricity manipulation

Deuce had water manipulation due to the blue gem, while Ace fire due to the red one.

And Jack had the yellow emerald, which granted him the ability to make plants grow. Ace laughed at that so much until Jack threw him in the air with a tree.

So far, they were missing 2: the torquoise and white one. And Crowley, much to their dismay, has the torquoise one. The white one was the last and as such either way they had to keep the other emeralds safe, not risk it for one.

Cue heading towards the white emerald, but crow man manages to get in their way, catching Idia. Of course, Ortho wanted to save his brother, but Idia denies him of that, his last words being to find that goddamn emerald and hide it from Crowley.

So while our group goes on to the biggest and most booby-trapped temple of all, Idia is held hostage by Crowley, who realises that the emerald does react to Idia. It's a very wierd reaction, volatile at that, but it's one that Idia himself feared and actively tried to avoid it. When he got too close to it, his marks would glow and skin would start to crack up, which was an unseen reaction.

Crowley realises that Idia knew something else about the emeralds. Not only that they can grant immense power to someone. And with that, Crowley gets himself a nice lil experiment to conduct with a brand new subject.

Cue a bigger race for the last emerald. Our group had 5 while crow man had 1 and also Idia.

The Very epic fight is up to the imagination of everyone, just imagine a lot of boom and pows and cool af poses. :v

In the end, Ortho is given an ultimatum: the emeralds or his brother gets it. Idia himself begged the group not to do it, but the rest were on Ortho's side and even encouraged to save Idia over the emeralds.

Of course, that's also when the big betrayal occurs. Ya know, the military holds hostages the first years, while Crowley double backstabs and uses the emeralds on Idia, who seemed now to bring him immense pain. The ground stated to shake and the whole temple was becoming rumbles, so everyone had to flee, leaving Idia alone, there to be killed by the crumbling of the temple. Our first years were devastated, while Ortho was the most affected out of all, crying his eyes out and accusing Crowley of killing his brother. The grief was turned into rage, but already Ortho was holded up with special cuffs, which were made by Crowley when he had Idia as a hostage. Of course, the other first years were huddling closer, trying to comfort each other and hope that they won't be killed.

Except that the earth shaking didn't stop, as something rose up from under all that rubble. Something big and very angry. It was a being that seemed to be made out of pure magma and stone, with long fire hair as it stretched out. In the middle of it's supposed to be chest was a soft colorful glow, clearly the emeralds.

That was Idia. And unfortunately, Idia was very angry at Crowley. But crow man warns him that if he tries anything, he can immediately give the order to shoot all the kids up. The soldiers in question put hesitantly guns to the kids's heads and that seemed to make Idia hesitate, deciding to demand to leave the kids alone. Crowley tho, insists that Idia has to give out the chaos emeralds if he wants the kids to at least be alive by the end of this.

While this exchange occurs, Ortho the solider from behind Ortho undoes his shackles. It's revealed to be Alex, Ace's big brother, who apparently is working as a secret agent. This reached a new level of messed up and while Alex had strict orders to listen to Crowley, he couldn't put a gun to his brother or his friends's heads.

With this, the first years manage to free themselves and cause a commotion enough to distract everyone, including Idia.

Well, everyone except crow man, who used Idia's distraction moment to aim at him a device, which forcefully took the emeralds out. This did not revert Idia to his original form, it weakened him, yes, but he still was a gigantic creature that currently tried to get back his footing. He fails tho, falling unconscious.

Meanwhile, Crowley, now empowered with the emeralds, is reeking havoc and again double crosses, but this time the government, by starting to attack the military and abusing of his absolute power. In his delight, he wants to start first with the first years, who were the menaces that kept annoying him.

Cue epic 1-1 in between Ortho, who only had his super speed, and Crowley with God powers. The gimmick in here is that Ortho is aiming for the emeralds. And when he gets one, he gives it to one of the rest of the first years, thus putting in game more players.

In the end, the last 2 emeralds are kept by Ortho. And using 1 ring to the mushroom planet, the 6 of them throw Crow man in there.

After that, Ortho goes to his big brother. Idia gained back a sense of consciousness, but he was still weak and the only thing he could do is leave out huge tears that became steam immediately, as he saw his little brother, giving to him to of the emeralds. By now, Ortho's body marks were fully developed and proeminent and Idia ws proud of his little brother. With 2 out of the 7 emeralds, Idia does gain enough power to raise on his knees at least, holding Ortho in his palms. Ortho himself was bearly half of his big brother's thumb now and Idia carefully holded him, telling him how happy he is that Ortho was alright.

We also get Ortho hugging his big brother's cheek and saying that he only wants everything to be back like usual. He wants back to the normal school days, to coming home and being just happy in general, with the only care being his homework and the upcoming tests.

And that's also when the other first years manage to also climb on Idia's hands, all wanting to give up their emeralds to Idia, but the latter refuses, saying that in a bit of time, he won't need any of the emeralds to sustain this form, for he takes his power from the core of the earth itself. That was why the Shrouds were so feared. When they awakened to their full power, they take out from the core of the planet they are on, thus able to control it to greater lengths than anyone could. The chaos emeralds were simply a method of defeating a Shroud and keeping them grounded from going mad with power.

Alas, there was still the fucking government to take matters with. Idia does manage to return voluntary to his human form and as such, he offers an agreement: Act like nothing happened, leave him and the first years to live peacefully back in their home city and in turn, they won't cause any trouble, unless some other planet threats occur. It was either that or Idia just smashing through the soldiers like warm butter so you guess that it wasn't merely an agreement.

And things went back to normal! :3

Except that now Ortho is allowed to not hide his hair and marks anymore. The first years are pretty known now through the high-school as 'the guys who fought an evil science man and the fucking government with cool-ass superpowers'.

At least they get a good PE grade :3

#twisted wonderland #asks :3

[bigsnaff]

So!!! Here's that Merlish post mentioned several months ago that I'd write pretty soon after the first SotO update dropped (I did not). But here it is now!

So, in all the time I've had Merlish, I've never really had a solid story for him. He's my second oldest character right next to Cyna, being 8 years to her 11 years (the 3 year gap being because he's the only other character that survived deletion from that period), but only in the last 2 years has he had any... actual substance.

Anyway, disregarding previous incarnations of him, Merlish Cendigg is a ghost of Ascalon, except he's not bound to the same limitations that all of the rest are.

I'm not nearly as familiar with GW1's lore and have only played a couple of hours of it, so inaccuracies and headcanons that are contradictory to canon are probably impossible to avoid while developing a character that's literally from the time period of said canon, so... bear with me a bit. But Merlish was in King Adelbern's court. His specific role, I'm not entirely sure. But suffice it to say, he was, and still is, an extremely powerful sorcerer - enough so that he drew the attention of the Astral Ward, probably became a member somewhere along the line, and was seriously considered a candidate for ascension. Until the Foefire.

Merlish had taken some precautions. He embedded his soul into his spear. His body was incinerated by the Foefire and he became a ghost as all the other humans did, but he was spared of many of the limitations that the other ghosts suffer. He has retained his awareness, consciousness, isn't just a complete rage-blinded specter (though his emotions are far more volatile than they were when he was alive, and he is much more prone to anger and restlessness), and he is overall more independent.

But, nonetheless, he is entirely bound to the spear, and remained dormant within it for centuries, until it was eventually plucked from the rubble by a member of the Ward and brought to Isgarren.

The spear happens to be the very same staff skin that Isgarren actually carries in-game! This was completely coincidental, as I had already been using that skin for Merlish since it was released, but it stirred a lot of ideas in my head and is what spurred a lot of this post to begin with.

But anyway, the post-effects of Merlish finally being awoken from his dormant state after his discovery are still TBD, especially on account of the fact that we haven't really figured out Isgarren's actual angle in SotO yet, but I'm assuming that either:

1). Isgarren felt some amount of guilt for Merlish being imprisoned for centuries in the ruins of Ascalon, and is looking to rectify that in some way, which is why he's carrying the spear in-game as we can see.

Or, the other option, (which is probably more likely tbh):

2). Isgarren is using the spear, and by extension Merlish, as a conduit for his power, strengthening his own magic. He regards this as a necessary sacrifice of Merlish's own autonomy in order to ward off the Kryptis.

Either way, I think eventually Isgarren hands Merlish off to Cyna (a precaution for her while in Nayos, as Merlish is a very valuable ally and formidable foe, and portable, no less), which is when Merlish finally regains much of his autonomy, and Cyna finally gets to experience at least a little bit of what revenants have to go through with a ghost rattling around in her head. Which, added with Peitha, is not a very good time. At least Merlish is a little more polite though, if angrier.

#soto spoilers #gw2 #guild wars 2 #my characters #merlish cendigg #to clarify merlish can and does materialize as a literal ghost outside of the spear post-awakening. #he can also be summoned forth forcibly from the spear in the same way by anyone skilled enough in magic. #I think he and galrath have a bit of a mutual understanding and respect for one another #not just because they're both roughly from the same time period but also their situations relate enough

[selfindulgentsillinessbracket]

Why Each Character(s) Were Chosen, or, Why These Sillies Are Special To Me - CHAPTER 1 of ??

This is a series of posts documenting why each silly in this bracket is in this bracket & why they're each special to me.

These will be getting fairly personal & I may ramble on too long but I want to be sincere so I won't hold back my overly silly manner of typing if need be.

These will be covered in order of appearance on the brackets from first to last contestant(s).

#1. Wario & Waluigi

Wario is straight up my favorite mario character. No cap. He's number 1. His character, his games (Wario Land is peak 2D platformer with the only series beating it in existence being Donkey Kong Country), his moveset. He's a king if you ask me. Waluigi is by all accounts my other fav. I'm so mad they refuse to use him in the Wario land games. The one series he SHOULD be in. I demand they treat him better. Anyways love these two goofballs & they've always struck a chord with me. I'm all about the goofy rivals. Wario & Waluigi are just pure fun. Love em. Also play Wario Land 4 because it's literally peak. I promise you it's worth your time.

#2 Calvin & Hobbes

Back when I was a wee lad, the thing that made me wanna do art in the first place? That was comic strips. In particular, Calvin & Hobbes, & Garfield. These two series are why I'm an artist. I owe it all to these two along with that fat orange cat. But we'll get to Garfield later, for now, let's focus on Calvin & Hobbes. They were the first ones I was introduced too. I didn't read Garfield til a few years after I met Calvin & Hobbes. I loved these two. And their comics are timeless. The writing is just out of this world with how smart & hilarious it is. It doesn't matter that it's from the 80s or 90s, they still ring true now. They're still God damn hilarious. These guys made me wanna make my own comics. Which led to me making my own characters. Which led to me becoming an artist. Thank you Calvin & Hobbes. Thanks for shaping who I am today.

#3 Squeek

Ok so there's not much to cover here. Squeek here is from a game called Oddworld: Squeek's Oddysee. Never heard of it? Yeah of course not, it was canceled. Like many Oddworld games sadly are. See the teason I have SO MANY oddworld reps on this bracket is 1. Yeah oddworld is extremely special to me. But 2. I'm hoping it'll cause more people to give the oddworld games a shot. They're so underrated. Legit my favorite story, world, lore & narratives in all of gaming. Squeek is a character who from what little we know, he's got so much potential. His lore is tragic and depressing but that makes you want to see him beat the odds like how Abe & Munch did. Squeek was meant to be our third protagonist. And maybe someday he'll get that chance again. Anyways please I implore you guys to give this series a shot. They're not perfect, but there's so much to love.

#4 Zoey

Ok Zoey is a character who I need to get personal to explain why she was a special enough OC to be in this bracket. So this is gonna be a long one. Zoey has been around for a while now. I mean like a while. She was created back in March of 2016. Yes I actually remember the exact time she was made. So yeah, that's her origin. The very first artwork of Zoey ever made has the original time saved on the upload date. Lucky us, bc we know her time of creation.

Zoey was officially created on March 3rd, 2016. Here was the first drawing of her. Comparison to her current look included :)

Now I know what you're thinking, yes this does look awful. I was not nearly as good at art back then. 2016 was a terrible time. But after that Zoey was just left forgotten, never had a real idea what to do with her. Until this past year, I uncovered her. And with a new design and finally having a solid personality to give her, she was given life. My life. Because the personality she ultimately found was just mine. She is quite literally the definition of a self insert. When I write Zoey I am literally just writing myself. Or to be more accurate, I'm writing a very cartoonishly exaggerated version of myself.

The fact people vote for her at all, it genuinely got me to cry more than once. It means so much to me. Bc Zoey means so much to me. So, thank you. And Zoey thanks you all too, she's humbled & would hug all of you if she could (and if we both were more open to physical contact but autism yknow yeah)

Next Chapter of this coming idk anyways Polls are still open so voting is still here for group 1 & 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#mod toasty #mod talks #autism #adhd #zoey #zoey toasty #zoey the bee #zoey thornsborough #thornsboroughcomic #thornsborough #self indulgent silly propaganda #self indulgent silly summit #self indulgent silly bracket #self indulgent silly #bracket #character bracket #tumblr bracket #swag summit #voting poll #tournament #thattoastygeckoart #thattoastygecko #tmnt 2018 #crash bandicoot #wario #wario land #warioware #waluigi #calvin and hobbes #squeek

[utopianoverlord]

is it worth getting baldurs gate 3 early access or should I wait, I really can't decide

I would say if the question’s been weighing on your mind for a while, and you really want to experience Act 1, then yes, Early Access is very much worth buying. The races, classes, character paths and story content currently available gives Act 1 a high replayability, which to me is already worth the $60. BG3′s EA has given me joy that no large-scale RPG’s done in several years. But if you're worried about ruining the purity of experiencing a fully released game vs. getting a sneak preview more so than the game's price tag, there are a few things I'd like to mention which might help you make a decision: 1) Early Access means seeing fundamental changes with each update, which can be exciting! When I bought BG3, Early Access was on patch 4. Over the past year, some characters received appearance or personality makeovers. Lighting, animation and cutscenes have been overhauled. Dialogue has been added, removed, and added back again. There’s a certain fun in the mystery of not knowing what the next patch will bring! But it isn’t fun for everybody. It’s not to say that the full release v1.0 will be the exact same as later versions of the game will be many years from now, but if you’re someone who’d prefer to play the complete, ideal vision Larian Studios has for BG3 as opposed to a heavy work-in-progress, then waiting would be the better option. 2) Early Access also means that if you want to experience each newly released patch, you'll have to leave your previous saves behind. Mods made for previous patches will also be broken, although the modding community for BG3 is very dedicated and quick to update their works, bless them. So if you’re too attached to your characters but want to experience new/updated content, you’ll be frustrated. Thankfully, there will probably only be 1 or 2 more patches before the game leaves EA. 3) Playing early gives you an easy, head start on understanding game mechanics and deciding what race and class interests you most. As someone who’s clocked 300 collective hours into BG3 so far and knew close to nothing about D&D before that, I’m personally thankful for the time to learn up on literally everything. There’s plenty of helpful videos out there (by WolfheartFPS in particular) to acclimate you to lore, spells/attacks and solid character builds if you need them. 4) The target release for v1.0 is planned for 2023. While it’s not set in stone, if you choose to wait for the official release you (hopefully) won’t have much longer to go. On the flip side, if you take your time and play through Act 1 now, your excitement for the launch will multiply tenfold and you’ll burst into candy when the day comes! While not the greatest addition to the list, I’d also mention that I’m at a point in life where delaying gratification is saved only for certain things. If a piece of entertainment looks fun, and it’s available right now, you can bet I’m going for it. (I’m writing this having bought Slime Rancher 2 within the same hour it launched today lmao) If you’re in the same boat, definitely get it now and enjoy it. ✨ @rosewaterhag made very good points about the same topic in her post as well, which I'd highly suggest considering, too. I hope this helps!

#thank you for the ask! #Baldur's Gate 3 #mailbox #for the record I originally bought the game for Astarion but I stayed for the everything