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rogueshadeaux · 3 months

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Chapter Thirty — Infamous

“Well, sometimes if you have someone listen to something they haven’t heard before, they might notice something you didn’t.” Zeke patted the top of a sealed ammo case. “Gain a new perspective. I have a buncha dead drops I’m gonna have to listen to, and I need a conduit’s opinion.”

5k words | 20 min read time | TRIGGER WARNINGS: more goddamn lore and links (i love you guys but it's messy work /s), references to death, disease, catastrophe.

Zeke eventually came back as we finished organizing the papers, taking a moment to crack his neck before looking down at us. “Y’all look about done,” he commented.

Brent nodded. “Nearly, but I don’t think there’s anything here that’ll help.”

I couldn’t help but agree. There was a ton on Celia taking out less-than-desirable people, and while I wasn’t sure yet how to feel about the death of those guys, I knew it wasn’t enough to lead us anywhere.

“Yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes,” Zeke sighed, moving back into the kitchen. “But keep an eye out and an open mind — sometimes things connect in ways you weren’t expecting. Now, your pops is making a call, trying to connect with someone that might have some old info we passed to her years ago. I’m sure when he comes back he’ll go over everything y’all found and see if something stands out.”

I stood, grabbing the little empty mug of coffee and moving to the kitchen with the intention of getting some water, letting the stream run over my hand for a few seconds to take in that peaceful feeling that always came with draining. I screwed my eyes shut and tried to let the calm wash over the anxiety in my chest — and nearly screamed as it jump started my heart and sent it soaring when I opened my eyes to see Zeke standing inches away on my side, arms crossed.

“You good?” He asked me.

Other than nearly having a heart attack because he snuck up on me? “I’m…okay.” I answered. “Just worried. What if all of this is useless, you know?”

“We’re just covering our bases, kid.” He said heartedly. Cheerfully. Way too happily for it still being nine in the morning. “We find nothing here, we’ll just go lookin’ somewhere else. Now,” he raised his voice a bit so it would flow over to Brent, turning so he could regard us both in his sight. “If y’all are done with those files, I could use some fresh ears on some things I have.”

Brent cocked his head a bit, glancing between Zeke and I. “What do you mean?”

“You want…our help?” I asked.

“Why not?” Zeke shrugged. “Figured it’s the best crash course for y’all — you’ve gotta learn what really happened with the Beast and First Sons and all that, anyways. Figure it’d be better to have sources.”

So we started helping set up Zeke’s desk, moving piles of papers and magazines Zeke threw his hand over and insisted were nothing to make room for this weird little device he seemed to pull out of thin air. “What’s that for?” Brent asked, somehow managing to hold a printer like it was a weightless purse.

“This? Just a little doohickey I made to listen to the dead drops. It’s either this, or I hunt down equipment that’s older than y’all two — and I’m not usually lucky in bidding wars on eBay.”

“You made this?” Brent balked. Excitement quickly overtook his eyes, and I knew he was about to demand to know everything about the gadget as he soaked in the ingenuity. He’d be an inventor if he had the patience to fail.

I let the two ramble on about technical words that escaped me as I finished cleaning off Zeke’s desk, grabbing the ammo case he had brought over and opening it. There was a dank smell that wasn’t at all pleasant, the dozens of little chips in it settling with the same sound LEGOs in a bin did. When there was a lull in conversation, I looked to Zeke, asking, “Why haven’t you uploaded these to a cloud or something? It would make storing them easier.” And it would smell less like swamp, too.

Zeke, though, scoffed. “What, put them online where anyone could claim them? Where the government probably has a backdoor and could delete ‘em for good? Absolutely not.”

He turned to hook the device up to the computer, giving Brent the chance to look at me and shrug.

Dad came into the room just as Zeke finished hooking up the device, and looked between the three of us. “I’m gonna go talk to Eugene, and then I’ll be back down here to help.” He glanced at the papers on the ground. “You guys organize everything?”

We both nodded. “There’s one pile of random stuff I couldn’t really link together, but yeah,” Brent added.

Dad hummed. His eyes breezed over the room but didn’t really seem to settle on any one thing. “Alright, I’ll be right back,”

He disappeared from the room as quickly as he came.

“He seems distracted,” Brent muttered to me.

“Hopefully in a good way,” I added.

“Hopefully in a way that gets us more food. I’m starving.”

“You just ate!”

“Yeah — eggs.” Brent complained in a whisper. “You think that’s enough?"

I shot him a glare just before Zeke turned back around. “Alright, I think the thing’s set up. Pass me a chip, Jean?”

I nodded, grabbing one randomly and laying it in Zeke’s outstretched hand. “You’re sure this will work?”

“Well,” he popped his mouth as he inserted the chip and opened something on his computer. “It either works or explodes.”

“Explodes?”

“Yeah. So you two might wanna step back for a moment till we know which is which,”

Brent and I listened without another word, moving into the living room. I couldn’t help but notice how Brent stood in front of me, arm twitching like it was ready to grow a shield as Zeke finished pressing some buttons and breathed deeply before switching the machine on, flinching as he did so.

No big boom came, though; there was a shrill trill of static, a sort of vibrating tone like it was calibrating, and then the most shocking noise — a British voice.

“Audio report. Final.” The British voice says on the recording in between bursts of loud bangs. “The door won't hold them. I've done what I could to reverse the damage I've unleashed on the world. After Bertrand took control of the First Sons, I chose to stay on and I committed further acts of horror up under his twisted leadership. His resources allowed me to finish the RFI. That is all that matters. My God, I hope it works.” There’s another loud bang, loud enough to make me jump in place. “I hope it exceeds my wildest expectations and put an end to the Plague—”

There was this huge screeching sound as metal itself was broken, clinking against the floor.

“Forgive me Kuo,” the voice rushes to say, “I wish I could've warned you—”

It cut off as the sound of a chair scraping against the floor raked through the static, and then there were punches. That same British voice huffed out in pain until the recording became muffled and then forcefully turned off.

We both stayed silent as Zeke seemed triumphant with the success of the device. “Who was that?” Brent eventually asked, the first to shake off the stupor of what we just heard.

“Sebastian Wolfe,” Zeke explains, turning his chair slightly so we were in his eyesight. “He was one of the head First Sons scientists.”

“He was trying to end the plague?” I asked.

Zeke leaned back in his chair, biting on his tongue for a moment. “He…he was. Or, did,” He began. “That’s what the RFI was for,”

“What’s an RFI?” Brent asked.

Zeke didn’t get to answer; Dad was coming back down the stairs, standing at the foot of them and leaning against the frame of the stairwell. “It’s what stopped the Beast.”

I cocked my head to the side, looking between Dad and Zeke. “I thought…I thought Cole defeated the Beast?”

“He did,” Zeke rushed to say. “He did. But it wasn’t like in the stories where David knocks down Goliath and wins. He had to make a hard choice.”

“The RFI purged ray field energy.” Dad took over. “Cleared it, and that included what was in the magnetic field at the time. Taking it away killed the Beast, but it’s also why almost every conduit died. None of us can survive without it.”

“So that’s….that’s what the mass death was?” I asked. “People said it was because of the Beast dying—”

Dad scoffed, sounding rather annoyed at the idea. “We aren’t minions to something bigger,” He said. “It’s not like we can’t survive without the Beast. Obviously we can — he’s gone. But think about it for a second; if the truth was told, and everyone knew there was a device to kill Conduits — you think there wouldn’t be certain people trying to use it?”

Brent and I glanced at each other; no, it was very likely there would be someone trying to remake the device. And I didn’t like that idea at all.

“I’ve been hiding the notes on the RFI for years so that no one would have that sorta power,” Zeke said. “It didn’t work the first time — it just caused pain. I don’t want it to cause any more.”

My brow knit, and I realized something; the Beast happened in 2011. But Dad…Dad was older than that. “Dad?” I asked. He looked at me, raising an eyebrow in a silent prod to continue. “How did…how did you survive?”

Dad rubs the scruff on his chin. “Don’t know. None of us do.”

“Everyone’s been wondering since they started comin’ back,” Zeke said. “Or, when some didn’t die. It was supposed to work.”

“It was supposed to kill Conduits.” Brent said flatly beside me. “That sounds more like genocide than saving.”

Zeke looked over at Brent with a surprising fire in his eyes. “It would have killed either way. You know how many people would have died if Cole didn’t use the RFI? The plague wasn’t just killing regular humans, kid—anyone with the plague was dying. Conduits included.”

“Inactivated Conduits,” Dad corrected. “Which means I would have died, too, if I caught it.”

Brent had the foresight to at least look remorseful at the fact. “So if you weren’t activated or had the gene, you were just fucked?”

“Brent—”

“C’mon, Dad—”

Zeke interrupted. “Yep. No powers…no survival.”

That silenced the room. No powers, no survival. Cole was literally stuck having to choose between the needs of the many, or the needs of the few—there were even less Conduits then than there were now. Imagine killing off the entire population just to save, like, 7% of it.

I couldn’t imagine how he felt making that choice, no matter how right it was.

Zeke eventually sighed, saying, “Hand me another chip, please.”

I nodded, looking down at the case in my hand and picking one at random. Zeke took it from my outstretched hand and wiped down its surface with the hem of his shirt. He takes a deliberate amount of time hooking it up to the device, long enough that Dad leaves to look at the files Brent and I organized and Brent moves to sit back on the couch.

There was another harsh burst of static before the audio of the next file came through. “Audio surveillance file X76,” that same British guy, Wolfe, said. “Meeting with John White and Lucy Kuo.”

“I wanted to, eh,” a really deep and really grainy voice came on the speaker, “Advise you of a recent incident. Kessler’s plan is unclear to me, so I’ll just stick to the facts: Kessler kidnapped MacGrath’s girlfriend, Trish, and dangled her off of a rooftop.”

“Holy shit,” Brent murmured as my hand came over my mouth.

“He said MacGrath had time to save her. But there was another rooftop with six doctors about to die. MacGrath had to choose.”

Dad shook his head from his place on the floor. Cole had to choose between six innocent people and his girlfriend? That had to be horrible!

A feminine voice, clean and disgusted, simply said, “Sick!” while Wolfe responded with “Madness!” in his best impression of an aghast 1800s European settler.

That grainy deep voice came back on. “He…tried to save his girlfriend. I dunno, maybe he was selfish, but…” he inhaled deep enough for the recording to catch it, “I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.” Then he scoffed. “Kessler killed them all anyway.”

“Of course,” the feminine voice muttered.

“Evidently he wanted to toughen up MacGrath before the Beast arrives.” The deep voice said. “And who knows — maybe he succeeded. MacGrath definitely seems tougher than I’ve ever seen him.”

The dead drop beeped, signaling its end and leaving us all with so many questions.

“Who was Kessler?” I asked first before anyone else could speak.

Zeke sighed, rubbing a hand over his eye like it was too early for a conversation like this. Maybe it was. “He was the leader of the First Sons.” Zeke started. “Took over the position from some guy he overthrew, I forget his name. Robert? I dunno. I know his son’s name was Alden Tate,” Zeke paused, turning his chair to face all of us. “Kessler wanted Cole to be the one to fight the Beast.”

“So he killed his girlfriend to get him to do it?” Brent asked, incredulous.

“It was about the choice,” Dad realized from the side. “Be selfish, or worry about the greater good.”

Zeke nodded. “And he picked the wrong answer. They all died.”

“How is saving your girlfriend the wrong answer?” Brent demanded.

I ran a finger along the texture of my cast. “It isn’t exactly caring about the greater good…” I murmured. “The doctors probably…they would have been a lot more helpful in Empire City, if it was as bad as Zeke says.”

Brent glared at me. “So you’d sacrifice someone for that? If it was me or Dad or—”

“I didn’t say I would!” I shot back, rolling my eyes. Brent could be so short-sighted, it was annoying.

“Guys,” Dad said off on the side, glaring at us both pointedly. His eyes flicked over to Zeke, who looked like he was going through the five stages of grief as fast as he possibly could.

“He was going to propose to Trish, later that year,” Zeke said, more to himself than anyone. “He wasn’t…he didn’t want to lose that. It had broken him.”

I think it would have broken anyone.

“Was that the idea?” Dad asked Zeke. “Make him get used to making those hard choices?”

Zeke nodded. “Yeah. That’s what Kessler told him, anyway. He needed someone that would be able to make the decision, in the end. That could fight the Beast and have nothing to lose.”

“That’s messed up,” Brent uttered. “He basically groomed MacGrath.”

“Messed up ain’t even the half of it, kid.” Zeke said. He sighed hard, and then motioned silently for me to give him another dead drop.

Wolfe’s voice crackled on. “Audio surveillance of Agent John White, file D102.”

That same deep voice was back, but crystal clear this time. That must be the guy, John White. “I was carrying the Ray Sphere out of the lab when Kessler stopped me. It was...it was strange. He said that I had an important destiny, that I'd accomplish great things.”

Wolfe hummed. “I used to be a skeptic, but many of his predictions actually do come true.”

The guy, John, hesitated to answer. “I don’t know…the way he looked at me? Made me want him to be wrong.”

The dead drop ended there, the most useless one so far.

At least, I thought so. Dad, however, felt otherwise. “Who was John White?” He asked Zeke.

Zeke hesitated. “He, uh…he was an NSA agent. Him and Kuo, they were both supposed to infiltrate the First Sons and get more information on them.”

Dad’s brow furrowed. “I thought…I thought that the government funded the First Sons?”

Zeke threw his head side to side as he tried to figure out how to explain this to Dad. “Well, yes, but they didn’t know they were. The woman in charge of DARPA at the time had a deal with Kessler on the side. You know, under the table, ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ sorta stuff. She knew of the First Sons because of their investigations, and then she found out about the Ray Sphere.”

Dad scoffed. “Hear about some magic eight ball that can give you powers, and of course you’ll be interested.”

“Exactly.”

“But why would Kessler think that this White guy was important?” Brent asked from the side. “What, could he see into the future or something?”

Zeke didn't answer that immediately. His eyes sorta traveled off like Dad’s always did when talking about his past, when he was reliving memories that left bad tastes in his mouth, and he inhaled deeply. “John helped us in Empire City, during the quarantine. He tracked down the Ray Sphere and him and Cole destroyed it.”

After a breath, Zeke added. “It also killed him. At least, we thought it did.”

A shadow seemed to come over Zeke’s face, and from where I was, I could see the grip he had on the arm of his chair tighten. “What happened?” I asked softly.

Zeke’s next breath was a bit shuddered. “It activated him. John was the Beast.”

“Oh, shit.” Dad murmured. Brent was too shocked to throw in his own curse words. "So Kessler made the Beast,” Dad scoffed. “Glad to know the First Sons have been the root of every problem.”

“None of this makes sense,” Brent murmured, head in his hands.

I couldn’t help but agree with Brent; my mind was reeling. Not only was there some group with science advanced enough to activate Conduits, but they managed to make the Beast. They created the creature that killed millions and practically turned the east coast into a wasteland.

Zeke had us listen to more dead drops, explaining things along the way; Kuo was another agent tasked with collecting intel at the New Marais First Sons’ base, and Dr. Wolfe was recording these dead drops behind both her and John White’s backs to send to the NSA so they could make sure there was no backstabbing going on. Other recordings featured Joseph Bertrand III, the guy I knew from our history books as the Alt. Right businessman-turned-politician that people contributed with starting the ‘small government’ movement that led to his easy fascist takeover in New Marais. Apparently racist rhetoric and anti…well, anything he deemed sinful wasn’t enough, because he was the head of the First Sons’ New Marais base as well, in search of power. He took the First Sons’ assets the moment Kessler died and used everything to fund his fascist army, the Militia, passing Dr. Wolfe human test subjects to play with along the way.

Those test subjects are what caught Dad’s attention, especially as Dr. Wolfe recorded himself speaking to one.

“I paid a visit to the First Sons' dorms where the Vermaak men were housed.” Dr. Wolfe said into the mic. “Subject 881 approached me and we took a walk. The recording follows.”

“You seem…” the accented voice hesitated. “Agitated, Doctor.”

“I figured out what Bertrand has in store for you. He's going to use the Transfer Device, isn't he?” Dr. Wolfe demanded.

881 sighed. “Sorry, you know I can't say.”

Wolfe wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Do you know who the Conduit is?” he demanded.

“I just... can't comment on this.” 881 talked over him, and I could only imagine the head shake that came with it.

Dr. Wolfe switched to pleading, saying, “You need to know something. The transfer procedure was never designed to split abilities among multiple recipients. I don't know what it will do.”

“You…” 881 drew off, “Just got my attention.”

Dr. Wolfe continued, “Theoretically you'll all be ‘over-clocked,’ so to speak. You'll receive a portion of the true Conduit's power but your body will wear itself out trying to sustain it! You may go insane.”

There was a pause, and then the Vermaak soldier asked, “Why are you telling me this, Doctor? Bertrand, he wouldn't like it.”

Dr. Wolfe sighs hard. “I'm not a brave man, but if I'm right and you and your men lose control, then I'll have far more to fear from you than Bertrand.”

“Did he…” Dad asked the moment the dead drop beeped, signaling its end. “Did he say the Vermaak?”

“Yep.” Zeke swiveled in his chair to face Dad. “Bertrand took out a contract with this private military group and used those guys to make Conduit soldiers. He planned to sell ‘em overseas.”

“I know that name.” Dad hums. “Vermaak 88. They were like some version of green berets from Africa, I think. Reggie worked with them on his tour in Iraq. They were…pretty ruthless, from what he told me when he came back.”

“Yeah, that’s why Bertrand hired them originally — for protection,” Zeke hummed, already digging in the ammo crate for another chip he deemed worthy enough to listen to. “At least, that’s what everyone thought. Turns out, he was being paid under the table to make superhuman soldiers for a buncha war lords.”

“So he was hired, not the other way around?” I asked, Zeke nodding in response.

“Yep. Only guy in the world that had a power transfer device before Brookie and her government funding walked into the picture.” Zeke held up a chip, examining it close. “One on one, the transfer worked damn near flawlessly. Cole only was out for about four minutes when he did it—”

“Woah, wait,” Brent hummed, holding out a hand to pause Zeke’s tangent. “Cole was a forced Conduit?”

Zeke let the hand holding up the chip fall, chuckling a bit. “No, no — well, if you don’t count the Ray Sphere as forced. Jury’s still out on that one. But Cole had gotten another power from someone. Kuo, actually.”

Dad’s head tilted slightly. “You mean…he had more than one power?” he asked, eyes betraying how much the statement confused him. I couldn’t blame him; there wasn’t any other Conduit I knew that had more than one power. Anyone but him.

Zeke seemed to realize this as well, saying, “Yeah — he wasn’t as strong in the other power as his electricity, but he could use both on a whim. Sometimes even combined the two, that was always cool to see.”

Dad’s confusion grew, and something else played in his eyes: betrayal, maybe? “He could use both at the same time?” Dad asked, almost disbelieving.

Zeke nodded. “Yep. Sorta together, more than anything. Like he needed some of his electricity to work the power.”

Brent’s brow furrowed. “That’s nothing like how you do it,” he muttered, looking at the floor before glancing up at Dad.

Dad’s eyes were now off of Zeke and facing the wall, boring a hole into the wood as he chewed on his cheek. “It’s not.” He agreed, seeming to hate the fact that he did. He glared at the grain a bit longer, like the patterns would shift and give him the answers to his unasked questions, before slightly shaking his head, refocusing on Zeke. “He used a power transfer device for that? Like the one Augustine had?”

Zeke nodded. “Well, similar. Couldn’t tell you what the old one was like, considering it blew up before anyone else got a chance to play with it. I wasn’t even there when Cole hooked himself up to it.”

“So he was the only one to use it?” I asked before Dad could.

“Well, him and the Vermaak.” Zeke replied, bringing up the corner of his shirt to try and polish the dead drop chip in his hand. “You heard Dr. Wolfe — Bertrand had him use the device on multiple people at once. Dunno how, and they all escaped before we could find out more. So we were stuck not only fighting the Militia, but a bunch of half-sane ice soldiers while trying to prepare for the Beast—”

Everyone’s heads snapped around to look at Zeke so fast that he nearly dropped the ammo crate in surprise. “Ice soldiers?” we managed to chorus, only half a beat off from each other.

“Y–yeah?” Zeke stuttered, looking between the three of us. “They were transferred ice powers from Kuo, after she was activated. Cole too.”

Brent and I both glanced at each other before looking at Dad, who was staring at Zeke with a blank face before it cracked. His hands came up to press into his eyes. “Fuck,” he said, beginning to pace, “Fuck!”

Zeke was absolutely bewildered. “What, uh…why does that matter?”

I sighed hard on the side. “I was frozen by ice soldiers, in the fight with Augustine.”

“Oh, shit,”

“You know,” Brent deadpanned, leaning back on the loveseat. “Seems like everything comes back to the First Sons,”

“Always does,” Zeke huffs.

Dad was still pacing, arms crossed now. “Bertrand was in charge here,” he muttered, a hand coming up to rub his face. He lifted his head, raising his voice slightly. “The ice soldiers were here. We’ve got to find their old base, maybe there’s something we could find that connects them to Archangel—”

“Delsin, this was some twenty-odd years ago,” Zeke said. “There’s a very small chance there’ll be anything left, between the military and any sorta urban explorers.”

“And they didn’t know what we do now,” Dad snipped. “There’s got to be something that can help us” He stopped, spinning in place to face Zeke. “Do you know where it is?”

Zeke hesitated. “I…I don’t. At least, I don’t remember. But one of these dead drops gotta have something that’ll help us,”

So we were stuck listening to more: of John White, telling the others how six blocks in Empire City were blown to bits when it was activated; of Bertrand, convinced he was doing something to honor God by gathering prisoners to test his own Ray Sphere on.

There was a crackle, and then that same British voice again, far less panicked this time. “Audio surveillance of Agent Kuo, file G27,” he said.

“I got my hands on an Echelon phone transcript the day Kessler detonated the Ray Sphere. He requested a very specific bike courier for the job.” She began.

“Do you mean Cole MacGrath?” Dr. Wolfe asked. Brent’s head snapped around to look towards Zeke and his speakers now.

“There’s more,” The woman, Kuo, says. “I–I may have found some important new insight on Kessler, but I can't make it out. Kessler knew Cole MacGrath had the conduit gene, that's pretty clear, but I can't find his name in the First Sons database.”

“So…” Wolfe hesitated, “How did Kessler know Cole MacGrath had the gene?”

“Exactly.”

“Do you think they’re related?” Wolfe almost immediately asks after.

Kuo hesitates on the tape. “Huh…you know, I can try to find that out.”

The tape immediately goes dead, as if it was edited to the end of that exact statement. Dad was looking up from a file in his hand to where Zeke was, asking. “So who exactly was Kuo in all of this?”

“NSA Agent Lucy Kuo,” Zeke said, spinning his chair to face Dad. “She found us in Empire City and told Cole she had a way to make him powerful enough to fight the Beast.”

“And she was the ice conduit?”

“Yep.”

Brent was up himself now, having too much pent up energy. He was matching Dad’s steps earlier, pacing around the room. “How did he get more powerful to fight the Beast?”

“Blast cores,” Zeke says simply.

“Did the NSA know she was a conduit?” Dad interrupted before Brent could ask what the hell a Blast core was.

Zeke shakes his head. “Just that she had the gene. Bertrand’s the one that activated her, actually.”

I raised a hand like I was in class; this conversation was cool and all, but none of it was related to the very big piece of information in the dead drop we just heard. “Wait,” I started. “So — Kessler; he was in charge of the First Sons, right?” Zeke nods. “Okay, but then…how did he know Cole was a Conduit?”

Zeke had put on his glasses at some point, trying to mark each chip with a little code to signify what was on it. Now, though, he took them off, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “If I told ya, you wouldn’t believe me.” He said.

What kind of an answer was that?

Dad seemed just as perplexed. “What do you mean? We need to know everything we can if we’re going to figure this out—”

The stairs creaked, and Dr. Sims came down into the room, sighing hard. “Decoding that journal is gonna be harder than I thought,” he started, looking at Dad. “But I did get the emails,”

He said that last bit with that tone of voice Dad would use when he told us he got a message from our teacher when we were bad at school: We need to talk about it.

“Kessler was a piece of shit, who knew too much for his own good,” Zeke responded, completely ignoring Dr. Sims’ intrusion. “It would be easier if we just left it at that.”

“But why choose Cole?” Brent asked, bewildered. “I mean — no offense to, you know, your old friend — but he was just an electricity Conduit. Why not pick someone stronger to fight against the Beast? Like Dad?”

Dad ignored Brent’s praise to glare disapprovingly at Zeke. “You can’t hide something valuable like this,” he protested. “It could be exactly what we need to figure out what the hell is going on.”

Zeke opened his mouth to respond when Dr. Sims interrupted. “Zeke,” he called gently. “They need to know.”

The argument in Zeke’s chest died on the tip of his tongue, and he made a weird noise as he deflated. He leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair as he chewed on his tongue, seemingly debating how to start this. Whatever he was going to say looked like it stressed him out to even think of.

And I definitely wasn’t prepared for what came out of his mouth next.

“Kessler was Cole. He traveled back in time after the Beast destroyed the world to try and stop it from happening.”

#infamous second son #infamous #infamous 2 #infamous erosion #delsin rowe #cole macgrath #fanfic #Zeke Dunbar #fucking. shit do I put everyone?#Kessler?#John White #Lucy Kuo #Sucker Punch Productions #'suck my titties' came up when i was typing that and i'd love to know why #heyo inF2 overview my beloved #this chapter was originally 12k words I just have to wait to add the others in two weeks #god i hate it here (lying. she will do this again)

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rockybloo · 1 year

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Changing the elements the Flavor Four (and probably all Monstrums) use that also shape their magic into abstract feelings and sensations because it connects them better to Vents and just fits their whole thing more than having stuff like earth, wind, and fire...and water.

Nothing about what their magic aesthetically changes, it's just that Bitterbat's element is fear instead of smoke, Sourpuss is surprise instead of...I forgot whatever it was they had initially actually. Redhot's is pain instead of fire and Halite is solitude(or something along those lines) instead of water.

Bitterbat is a scary guy and poison is a scary thing he has free range of using, as well as being able to hide in the smoke he emits and how he can teleport as he pleases.

Sourpuss can copy peoples voices and certain abilities and their Monstrum monster is visually surprising as well as unpredictable.

Redhot's element was fire and tbh I think pain goes hand in hand with fire since that shit is painful to touch. Even if something gets too warm, it burns you. Plus one of his inspirations was one of the most painful torture devices (at least in my opinion) which is a brazen bull.

And Halite is based off a siren and the ocean. And the ocean is a lonely place. It's home to a buncha shipwrecks and we'll possibly never truly get to explore all of it in a single lifetime because it's so vast.

I imagine all Monstrums have similar things where they have abstract elements but Glitter and Guilt is a series of bridges I construct vaguely and will flesh out when I cross them because I have decided I am not gonna think too hard about the lore of everything (Beanstalked is where I make everything too complex).

#glitter and guilt #flavor four #rocky rambles #anyways i was thinking about how noahs and arrancars are based off abstract things #and seeing as i grew up reading d gray man and bleach #i am treating myself

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winns-stuff · 1 year

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Honestly why does Hades even have like 7 dogs?? Why do we almost never see Cerberus, you know the Actual hell hound of Hades who guards the underworld? (Where's Charon, the Stygian boatman? I guess because the gods have cars and can fly theres no need for souls to cross the river styx anymore?)

But back to the dogs. Hades even mentioned at one point his therapist telling him to stop getting dogs and he blatantly ignores his therapists advice. So he has zero self control and even in telling Persephone no, still often gives into her demands, which isnt healthy either.

Also Hades' personality is a bit strange. Hes simultaneously really mean and callous to his employees yet gift giving is his love language (which I guess is supposed to paint him as sympathetic?). He loves his dogs and despite being a king he can't put his foot down and actually assert some boundaries in a relationship and is seen as a pushover and a victim of Minthe... Despite having control of all her finances and job.

And then we have Persephone "cinnamon roll" goddess whos supposed to be super nice yet a lot of her personality traits kinda contradict? She's also mean and callous to people who she think has wronged her (Tori). Doesn't know how to take no for an answer. Is somehow naive as all hell (doesn't know internships aren't paid) yet is supposed to be super smart and have a buncha wisdom which is counteracted by her growing up in a secluded area and apparently this makes her a good fit for being a queen. Is a vegetarian and is supposedly down to earth village girl yet loves all the expensive gifts Hades presents her with. Etc. I'm probably wording this badly so apologies.

Also, with one of your other posts, yeah why is hades portrayed as sad and lonely in the underworld when he has a team of people and a support network? (Hecate, thanatos techncially, Minthe etc?) Then it just seems like RS is trying to go for "Hades technically has everything but hes still sad and tragic cause he doesn't have a waifu".

Again, sorry this rant got wayy off track. There's just a lotta weird contradictory things in LO character wise and setting wise (having a monarchy yet Apollo is running for president for ex).

It’s completely fine! I enjoy reading the opinions of others since it gives me insight and helps me realize/understand things better and you worded everything fine, I understood everything. But you’re right there’s a lot of things that are missing with LO that connects to greek mythology, like yes I know it’s a retelling but there shouldn’t be so many elements taken from the original that it’s completely unrecognizable? I’ve seen this from a lot of people who talk about how Americanized Lore Olympus is and I can’t help but agree, there’s no greek traditions or clothing. Barely any greek phrases or any signature dishes, nothing connects Lore Olympus back to Greece even though it’s their myths and I think it’s a huge letdown. Being modernized doesn’t equal to Americanized, there should at least be some sort of connection even if it’s small you know? I feel like it’s not exactly my place to go into too much detail but that’s just been on my mind for a while and I’ve noticed it a lot lately.

I’m guessing Rachel just thought that Hades was a huge dog person since Cerberus was always with him in the myths? I’m not sure. But it’s insane that she included so many dogs yet only showcases about four in total. Me personally I would’ve liked to see Hades get emotional support dogs or something, then we can take a dive in his other traumas besides Kronos, because that seems to be the only terrible thing that’s happened to him. The emotional support animals could’ve also helped him with his emotions and helped regulate them better so he wouldn’t be lashing out on everyone, it would also be good representation about the importance of emotional support animals and the seriousness around them. There’s a bunch of people who still think they’re regular dogs and the people having them are just using them as “an excuse”, this could’ve easily showed people more about them and educated them more in my opinion.

And Hades’ personality is very weird, he alternates from different personalities every few chapters and also even every few panels. You see him wanting to be understood by his peers and not wanting to be a tyrant like his father, then you cut to him being an absolute madman and causing chaos to those beneath him. He doesn’t want to include Persephone in his life because he has too much baggage but then you cut to him trauma dumping on her when she was telling him about her own. You see him not wanting attention or to make things about himself and then cut to every single conversation he’s engaged being transformed about him by him. Then lastly, he says how it’s terrible for Persephone to be lied to/it’s disgusting to cheat, then you cut to him keeping information from her and cheating with his sister in law (in this comic). There’s so many contradictions with him that you never really know who he truly is and it’s irritating trying to play the guessing game with him. Is he mean and cruel or sad and lonely? Which is it?

Same is said with Persephone, nothing about her character makes any sense. How is she going to dumb as rock one scene and then oh so smart in the next? I’m so caring and I care about not hurting Minthe’s feelings and then play house with her boyfriend knowing that they’re with each other? Feel guilty about breaking them apart but continue to go after him? It’s really stupid. And then she claims that she enjoys him because he’s nice to her yet everyone else that is nice to her doesn’t get half of her attention like Hades does, she doesn’t do anything nice for any of her friends or family or even coworkers only for Hades. Not only that but we’re supposed to believe she doesn’t use him even though whenever they’re together Hades is giving her all types of gifts, many of which she’s never offered back even with her money, and taking her places/making her feel better and such. We never see Persephone putting in any effort to do the same yet she’s not using him? Funny story.

Their whole relationship is one sided on both ends and it’s insane how people think it’s romantic, a relationship is between two people one person should not be doing all of the work while the other one lounges around and allows the other to bend over backwards for them. It’s very sad that Persephone not respecting Hades’ boundaries is fine when it’s Persephone but if Hades did the same thing (which I know he has but I mean actually clearly, like intentional and not having the comic tell you otherwise) it would be terrible. I do feel bad for Hades being taken advantage of like this, he’s just too up Persephone’s ass to even realize it.

#lo critical #anti lore olympus #anti lo

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icarus-suraki · 6 months

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Classic, owl, skeleton for the spoopy asks :D

Spoopy ask game ooooooh~

Classic: What’s your favorite classic spooky movie? I could get really pedantic here like "But what do we consider a 'classic' and what is a 'spooky' movie? Indeed, what is a 'movie'?" But I'm not gonna.

I'm gonna go way back to a true classic: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1920.

The German Expressionism turned up to 11, the irrational and disproportional sets, the establishment of a buncha tropes, the influence it had and still has, the visual elements, the twist ending, Conrad Veidt in a black leotard and a lot of eye makeup…!

I like a lot of spooky movies, some more spooky than others, and I could just sit here and list them, but Dr. Caligari is just so iconic and influential in so many ways.

The art museum here had a showing some years ago accompanied by a live string quartet and I desperately wish I could have gone. Alas!

Owl: What creature would you have as a familiar? This is tough! I mean, I can always fall back on the classics: cat, crow, raven, owl.

Whatever, I'm kind of basic: cat. But it would be interesting to have a hairless cat. I worked with a guy who once said that I seemed like the kind of person who'd have a hairless cat. Maybe he's right. My hairless cat familiar and me, practicing experimental chaos magic in a minimalist house all done in black and white. That's the dream.

Now, speaking of, I did have a dream about a skinny black-and-white cat (more black than white, but he had white toes) named Honk who I saw in the bay window of an old bookstore next to a sign that read "Honk is not for sale!" So if I ever find Honk (who will be adoptable, I'm sure, but not for sale), maybe he's my familiar?

Skeleton: What never fails to send a shiver down your spine?

A lack of context!!!!!!!!

Let me explain: the less context or explanation there is around an image, a sound, a video, &c, the creepier or stranger it is (to me).

This is why I get disappointed partway through basically, um, every analog horror series or internet horror creation: sooner or later, there's too much context and/or too much explanation and it destroys the mystery. It puts too much of a frame around the concept. It solidifies it. And it immediately defangs it.

Once there was all this lore that evolved around The Backrooms, they immediately stopped being interesting to me. Do I like that The Backrooms are this collaborative storytelling project? Absolutely. And I enjoy some of the things people have made in that whole concept. But they've ceased to be as eerie to me because there's all these explanations now.

One of my favorite(?) examples of no-context-horror is from just before the US-made version of The Ring came out, the "cursed video" was posted online--and it was just the cursed video. There was no context, just a series of unnerving and (seemingly) disconnected images. (It was 2002 and I remember watching it on my friend's desktop in her dorm room. We were all scaring each other with it. If you had a cell phone, you'd call your friend's dorm number right after she'd seen it lol.)

And, yes, a lot of the images are gross or disgusting unto themselves--twitching severed fingers in a box is gross. But not knowing how everything connected together made even benign images like a plain wooden chair all the more horrifying. As in, if the images will go as far as a finger jammed onto a nail, the implications of the plain wooden chair are even more horrifying.

But then you see the whole movie and it's like seriously? That's it? It was a real letdown for me. The suggestions were scarier than the facts.

And, honestly, anything that you do show can't be as horrifying as what might be shown. I don't even mean Cloverfield-style where you don't really see the monster but you know a monster is there. I mean leaving the whole thing open-ended enough that the benign becomes the terrifying. Why are weird sounds in the dark scary? Because you don't know what's out there; you can only imagine it. Or worse, you can only half-imagine it.

I think The Blair Witch Project (1999) just about managed this because they never showed the witch. You got no satisfying explanation. That made it scarier (to say nothing about the "is it real or isn't it?" marketing, as Cannibal Holocaust did back in the 70s).

Nowadays, it feels like all the found footage stuff explains too much. It's like the creators think of something for the backstory so therefore they must include it in the main plot. No, don't do that. Stop that. You have to hold some things back.

Same thing with most modern "real ghost videos." It's Too Much.

Back in the early 2000s on YouTube there were actually decent "real ghost videos" that had no context, no explanation. Some of my favorites were compilations of ghost videos and photographs from Japanese horror/ghost televsion shows--I remember the photos giving me the absolute creeps in particular. And it was because I had very little context. The language and culture barriers made everything scarier--to say nothing of the time distance, since most of the clips I was watching were from the early-mid 90s. So it was all low-quality VHS tapes and film cameras, which made it just that much harder to really parse out what you were seeing. And then when you see it, you will shit bricks.

And I think this lack of explanation is what makes Tool's video for "Sober" by Fred Stuhr so fucking disturbing. Humans like narrative and explanation right? And, yes, there's some kind of narrative here but it doesn't entirely align. There seems to be a story here but it's not clear. At one point, this human-like figure the camera has been following opens up a pipe and there's raw meat flowing through it. What does it mean? What's going on? Why is this happening? We want an explanation, in part because the raw meat is distressing unto itself, but we get nothing, which makes it more distressing than just gross-out images. (The video always reminds me vaguely of Kafka's writing, and he understood this too. See: The Trial and The Penal Colony.)

I could talk about this for hours because I really think "showing the monster" is both the escape hatch or the release valve of horror but it's also the weak point of horror. Stephen King loves to show the monster eventually in his books and I don't usually find his books all that horrifying. But Revival actually almost got me because of the creepy visions the main character experiences and the whole "Mother is behind the paper sky" line. There's not much explanation in the plot/text about this, but it's not totally unexplained. But I can tell you, the first time I hit it in the book it actually got me. And that's rare.

I think that lack of context is very hard in the, well, context of a narrative. I mean, narrative demands context. Narrative is context. So the things that get me are the rare things without much of that: the cursed video from The Ring, music videos (like "Sober"), certain kinds of visual art (Francis Bacon's early work, especially), butoh dance, early internet stories and some urban legends, ghost videos/photos that don't try too hard… Lose the context, gain the fear.

(I think this is why I like the smeared, almost-but-not-quite look of older AI art, like Midjourney v3. It's in that other uncanny valley: it should be recognizable and yet it isn't entirely right.)

Oh my gaw this went on longer than it should haaaaave...

#ask game #ask me things #anon is on

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 26 days

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"At least with Persona, I can expect the world to keep going and expanding (either it's main continuity or the larger continuities in general)" I mean, you say that, but then P5 and its spinoffs happened and there sure weren't a buncha posts about how they conflict with/retcon various lore and story details no siree (tho that could also be the unhealthy side of hyperfixation, that does pop up)

I mean......I didn't specify that the expanding was always good and consistent. TT0TT Just that they at least put in the effort to keep building on it a little bit at a time. So I at least have a steady and manageable stream to work off of.

I feel like it's more of an issue of "this is a big franchise. They'll make goofs, have changes in creatives and writing teams. Sometimes they'll be conflicting info, sometimes it's retcons (replacement/override types and "additive" types)"

How angry I get might be more of the unhealthy side of the hyperfixation I gotta deal with. TT0TT But I'm aware goofs are gonna happen.

Avatar's gone through a lot of this, between the "nick extras" (I thought we all agreed that was bunk? but I saw some people using these more as facts recently?? TT0TT), the comics, Korra, and the new chronicle novels (and lord knows there's a bunch of other supplementary material nowadays too TT0TT)

My issue with P5 (ah, a statement as old as time 8U or is it a dead horse? ...or a broke record? Or all of the above? TT0TT) and it's spinoffs was just.....egregious tbh, that if they are retcons, it felt more akin to gaslighting than retconning TT0TT P5 even having issues within it's own game let alone the others so I'm like????? But hey, P3 has a timeline problem.....it annoys me a lot too, but at least I can be like "Atlus can't math, they mean 1999 not 2000 here, it's the 4 fucking iteration of P3 but they still can't fix it I see but whatever I'LL DO THE HEAVY LIFTING!"

That's a bit more doable, esp since it's one semi-consistent issue (makes me wonder if they meant for the game to take place in 2010 rather than 2009).

But yeah, both franchises have varying issues, esp because of their size. Same thing can be said about Harry Potter (fuck JK), which is famous for shitty retcons. And Naruto, which is famous for additive retcons.

All those are different than like.... say.....Addams' Family and it's spinoffs (and if anyone says different, they are wrong and don't know anything! 8U). Because, despite it also being a long running franchise, if you took a good hard look at each entry.......they all have diff canons. The have a lot of similarities, they share a lot of key canon similarities, but they don't share EVERYTHING. And they certainly don't execute things the same way (just look at the char Wednesday, there was a big shift in her key component as a char around the 90s!). So that's not really retcons or rewrites. It's literally just diff canons. TT0TT (ah I'm getting off topic so I'll just stop there).

TLDR; I only claimed that they got content (not that all the content was good or bad). Long running franchises will just have goofs, how bad they get varies. How annoyed I get varies depending on various factors, but yeah that can be part of the negative side of hyper fixation too sadly TT0TT

#silly asks #silly answers

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lair-of-bees · 3 years

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I finally finished my crew, which mean I can finally share my crew/mechs ocs :D!!!!

A quick rundown since I know probably not many people who see this will know about the mechanisms, they're a band who plays characters of immortal space pirates! They're made immortal by mechanical body parts, or mechanisms (three guesses as to where the name came from)! There's 9 of them, and there's a buncha great songs and lore and it's great I love them

So first up is Fitz, the captain of the starship Amalthea!! He/him she/her they/them, his mechanism is her tail!!

Before being mechanized they were..also a captain!! Specifically of a mail ship, to deliver letters and packages between planets within her solar system. Her ship was ransacked though by pirates, and in the chaos he managed to hide away, but when the pirates left the ship to drift it crashed into a comet and his tail ended up getting crushed :( but they're mechanized now though so it's fine

And next is Buttons, quartermaster! She/her fae/faer, faer mechanism is her vocal chords! She plays the cello and is also on vocals (lol)

(warning for the next paragraph for mild gore? And also destruction of an entire world via eldritch nonsense)

Before being mechanized, she was a scientist, and her team was working on figuring out a way to harness faer planets core to utilize it for it's energy. In doing so, they kiiiinda ended up riping a teensy hole in the fabric of reality and maybee let through an incomprehensible eldritch being, that maybee kinda destroyed. Everything. Buttons was found, the last on the warped and shattered planet silently screaming, vocal chords torn beyond recognition, which was when fae was mechanized. I love faer :(

And next Bifrost, the bosun! They/them it/its, their mechanism is its bones!!

(warning for the next paragraph for unspecified trauma)

They don't really talk about where it's from, or what happened to cause them to become mechanized. It just kinda grins and laughs it off, says it doesn't want to bring down the mood, and moves on. Sometimes though, in the dead of night, their crewmates will slowly filter into their room to try to help calm its nightmares. (Buttons knows what happened, but won’t talk about it without its consent)

And DvD!! Pilot :) He/him, his mechanism is his nervous system!

He comes from a planet where people are made with technology (for a comparison, kinda like Akiridions from the show, 3 Below!) He started traveling with the crew for a while before being mechanized, and then a few years later was shot in his core, damaging him irreparably! His mechanism keeps him from glitching out entirely though (if he were to glitch out entirely, he'd fizz out to nothing and just. Die :( )

And next is Zinc, the gunner! She/her xe/xem it/its, her mechanism is xyr skin!

It gives a different story every time whenever anyone asks how she got her mechanism, ranging from she was caught in an explosion, to one day xe just took it off like a coat and forgot to put it back on!! ("'What really happened to me,' you ask? Well, I never had skin in the first place of course!!" -Zinc (/j))

And Firefly :) the mechanic!! Xe/xem voi/void! Xyr mechanism is voids arms and legs! Xyr stretchy :3c

Before being mechanized, voi was an engineer! Xe made all sorts of things, and then one day it all exploded in xyr face. Literally. And now voids the mechanic for Amalthea! Voi doesn't talk about why xe sometimes becomes a bit "void of space-y" or why xe can phase through objects. Dw about it :)

And next is Grape Fanta, the striker! They/them, their mechanism is their spine!

They were a hunter before becoming apart of the crew too, and one day their prey kinda became predator, and they did manage to get away but their spine was. Rather broken! So they were a bit stuck there, until the crew came along and helped them out/mechanized them :)

And next, Swallowtail!! They're the chemist/creator! They/them fae/faer, fae mechanized everyone!

Initially they just wanted to see if fae could make someone immortal, and in a moment of brilliance (/s) decided to try it out on faerself! Tbf it did work!! They were immortal!! But it got really lonely :( so fae mechanized everyone else in the crew (over vast amounts of time)

And last, but certainly not least, is Amalthea! The starship :) she/her, and yes, she's sentient, yes, I love her.

She actually comes from the same star system as DvD! She used to be a unicorn, before a (rather foolish and amateur) person accidentally transferred her consciousness to a starship in an attempt to save her from being hunted!

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starstainedtea · 2 years

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some Drabbles i Might revisit in the future::

if you don't enjoy oc x canon,or just ocs interacting w canon characters it's okay. just a buncha hcs and shit anyway. but i'm going to write about it. im going to draw. im going to lore. LAKAN AND THE BOYFS I GUESS, TO THE LIKE, TWO PEOPLE WHO WOULD READ THIS DERANGED THOUGHT PROCESS AIGHT GIVE ME A BIT

FUCKING i hate that chamber is a potential love interest for lakan because OMEN LIKEE HEAR ME OUT GUYS THE FLAVORS HERE ARE ASSORTED BUT THE TOP TWO IS

its basically either

(OMEN) co-workers to best friends to lovers type thing w a monster finding love and humanity in another monster who treats him like a human

(FRENCH FUCK) enemies to lovers who wants what's best for the world and has had a prior relationship w a semblance of trust while they try to bring it back for the sake of working together to save the worlds they care for lakan and chamber based on what we have so far (wHAT IFS. COULD BE SCRAPPED IF THE SITUATION CALLS FOR IT) ::

lakan and chamber met a lot before considering lakan is a viable component in the creation of the collider.

chamber might've tried to coax them to join him, but considering he didn't have the best entry and professor doesn't immediately trust people in high stakes situations (funny because of their character developm-)

but they would chat. meet up in the same cafe while they try to understand more about the other, hmm, could write a ficlet about that.

god i just wanna write about lakan's internal struggle in working w someone who betrayed their trust

but it's for the better balance of the two worlds

BUT

?????? HELP ME, DEAR GODS AND GODDESSES

based on my soty w lakan, first time they meet chamber again after all these years, he gets a bigass punch on the face. i mean, it's only fair since he destroyed the collider, amirite.

lakan had a short period of time wherein talking to them is like a gamble: you either have a civil conversation or you get thrown out of their vicinity by a buncha tikbalangs. t tension w the two of them fr fr

the distrust and yearning slowly morphing into a beneficial partnership, then friendship again, huhu

must be nice for chamber to have someone be his friend other than himself, yknow?

but omen on the other hand.

SWEET

ABSOLUTELY SWEET.

OMEN DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO GIVE BACK THE AFFECTION THEY GIVE HIM

like, he was basically their babysitter at first when they were new to the protocol.

their monstrosity makes him feel things, man,they look,, decently normal save for diamond cutting lookinass eyes and the blood drinking thing, but they are someone thats normal enough to pass the radar in people's eyes

and for them to give him such affection and makes him feel good about himself? *heart hands* this shadow was attached and loved everything about them

well, most things, they can be a little too stubborn

omen kinda just

started trusting them more? they're such a sincere and kind person to him that it made his heart melt???

and lakan?? trusts him?? not to hurt them??

ah, the hesitance on his part while lakan easily makes their way into his heart

i am spitballing the fuck here THESE TWO WERE THE ONES THAT R SUPPOSED TO BE

ROMANTICALLY RELATED

BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

LAKAN HAD TO HAVE CHEMISTRY

FUCKING

#i'm rambling #shitpost #oc #ship dynamics #me crying???#because?????/ fuck?????#valorant omen #valorant lakan #valorant chamber #IM GONNA LOSE MY SHIT I NEED TO JUST #*SIGHS*#I HATE WRITING SOMETIMES YOU JUST

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trans-clown-catgirl · 3 years

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Sooo, someone on Rewritten Belial wanted to know what I see wrong with mid fight masses. Boy, boy oh boy, where do I fucking start

ANIMATION

My god. My god the animation. The problem for the most part isn't the animation itself (except for the title screen, fuck that, it looks so weirdly floppy and stiff), it's the fact the animations aren't aligned properly. Take one good look at Sarv's sprites in the first 2 songs. Look how often her position shifts. There's seemingly no ground whatsoever for her, her feet get positioned up and down seemingly at random with the notes and it's REALLY frustrating. It isn't even bc of exaggerated poses, Week 4 shows that exaggerated poses can work while still making sense with where the floor is. Sarvente continues to be an offender in that regard with the fact the telephone animation looks EXTREMELY choppy and lacks a lot of inbetween frames, not to mention how stiff it feels.

Ruv is a lesser offender, the only thing that bothers me is how his feet curve down on his idle stance, because, again, That's Not How The Ground Works.

Selever. Dear god. His idle animation is so fucked. He goes 3 steps to the left by standing still. And this is purely an XML issue btw, bc there's a gif in the files with the animation in its raw state and it looks just fine

ART

THE BACKGROUNDS, DON'T GET ME STARTED. They're completely fucking lineless. That's NOT what you do with FNF. In FNF, lineless stuff is the environment, a car, the sun, a house, individual objects that are supposed to be in front or behind of one another are lined, always, and the mod NEVER does this, making everything blend in super hard.

Then there's a problem all the sprites share. They are by no means in FNF's style. FNF's art style consists of a lot of thick lines, big shapes, and a generally very street-like style. MFM does none of that. The lines are thin (with sarvente having completely lineless elements, which you should NEVER do for fnf character sprites unless it's pure black) and look very out of place when put next to every other character. Ruv is, again, the lesser offender, although he's definitely still one.

THE CHARTING

Hell. Hell. HELL. SO MANY NOTES THAT AREN'T EVEN IN THE SONG ITSELF, SUCH AN ABSURD OVERUSE OF TRIPLES AND DOUBLES, because god forbid the player actually has fun doing patterns for fast songs, right?! Gospel is safe in this regard, meanwhile Zavodila. Why. Zavodila could have been perfectly fun and difficult without them. Why did you do this. They're not inherently wrong, you just need to implement them really well and chief this ain't it. Jacks and multis aren't to be abused, ever. Patterns are best, always.

THE MUSIC

Subjectivity zone has been entered. Worship, Parish and Gospel are very subjective and down to taste, personally I ended up only liking Gospel out of the three even if I insist it should be a metal song bc demons are just like that.

Now Zavodila I have an objective complaint about, AND IT'S THE BEST SONG IN THE MOD. This isn't too much about the song on its own, but as an FNF song. Listen to it. Listen to it and tell me Ruv's voice sounds like a voice at all. No. It's just hard bass without a smidge of voice on it. If it was a voice with a filter on it that made it kinda sound like hard bass, fine, Whitty is good for that reason, it's a voice with a filter that makes it sound SIMILAR to an instrument. But when it's JUST an instrument, you've gone overboard. Idk what Selever's song is called but it has the exact same issue.

THE WRITING

ULTIMATE SUBJECTIVITY ZONE ENTERED. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

The writing is very lackluster. Everything just kinda happens for the sake of it, there's no background motivator or thing that got BF and GF there against their own will, it just kinda. Happens. And the reveal for Sarv's demon form is VERY lackluster, she just goes "lemme show u a secret actually" and transforms for no reason other than an excuse for a harder song. And to be blatant hornybait btw, I saw the namefiles, this demon form was designed with pure libido and no brain processes. Either way; everything just kinda happens for no reason here. It's not good. It's. Very, very bad.

And then you get into the background lore and it all gets so goddamn confusing because Dokki literally dug up OCs from when she was a kid and tried to bullshit up some backstory for them and it all crashed horribly. Every little fact is thrown in just because, like. She's lucifer but also didn't want to become lucifer and did so on accident?? How? It's never elaborated on? And WHY would she help God, who she hates, to bring people to heaven, what kinda consequence is there to not doing it, why is she being told to do this, and yet she's apparently NOT an actual nun and is just wearing a costume. What the hell is going on there. It's a mess. And Ruv. What's going on with Ruv I actually don't know I just know apparently he has dead nerves that make him unable to smile (which btw THAT'S NOT HOW NERVES WORK THEY'RE SPREAD ACROSS THE BODY AND ARE VERY, VERY LONG, THEY'RE NOT DIRECTLY CONDENSED INTO ANY SPOT AND THEN THEY JUST STOP THEY'RE INTERCONNECTED) and that he "kills for a sense of justice and ends up becoming an antagonist because of it"?? It's all so confusing and it makes 0 sense. They should have been remade from the ground up instead of having been picked up and thrown a buncha shit onto. You don't pick up a rotten piece of meat, slap a buncha sauces on top of it and make it taste good. It's still old, rotten meat, and you should just get fresh meat instead. Same type, new start. Remake, don't rehash.

CONCLUSION

In my sincere opinion? This mod had a TON of potential. You could have done a lot more under more capable hands. On every single end. Writing, charting, art, music to a lesser degree, if it had been done by more capable and experienced people it could have been one of the best mods. But then it wasn't. And it got popular anyways. This. This all is why I'm reclaiming it. Because I see what could have been. How much you could have done with this mod. And I wanted to take a shot at the writing end of things, because that's what I'm most capable of, even if it isn't much. That's why I made Rewritten Belial. And why I hope I did a good job of making something worthwhile with these characters.

ALSO THE DEVS ARE SO ENTITLED HOOOOLY SHIT YOU LITERALLY CANNOT POST RECHARTS ON GAMEBANANA ANYMORE WITHOUT GETTING BANNED BC THEY GET MAD WHEN PEOPLE FIX THEIR HORRIBLE CHARTS. THEY NEVER, EVER ENCOURAGE FAN CONTENT THAT ISN'T SUCKING UP TO THEM AND JUST COPYPASTING WHAT'S ALREADY THERE WITH 0 MODIFICATIONS. MIKEGENO UR THE ONLY DECENT PERSON HERE BLESS YOU

#Rant #Long post

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bitterfucked · 3 years

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finally beat all the ds3 bosses solo the other day so here’s a buncha shitty cell phone pics i sent to my friend to brag

build was a regen faith build 44/40 VIG/END, 28/16 STR/DEX, 60 FAITH. rings were Sun Princess, FAP, Havel, and Chloranthy (all +3 for Midir/Gael). i used Blessed Lothric Knight Greatsword for Soul of Cinder, with Ancient Dragon Greatshield offhand, Sunlight Straight Sword + ADGS vs Nameless King, and the Blessed Dragonslayer Axe/Ethereal Oak Shield you see in the pics vs everyone else.

here’s my review of the 5 hardest bosses:

1. Soul of Cinder: 9/10

fun fight, the super varied movesets were really thematic. loses a point cos if you aren’t familiar with previous games’ lore this is kind of an “okay i guess there had to be a final boss” type of fight. like great gameplay but Cindy has 0 story build-up in ds3

2. Nameless King: -100/10 first phase, 7/10 second phase

overhyped garbage fight. hate playing camera souls phase 1, hate that you’re encouraged to bring lightning for the drake’s weakness and then punished for it phase 2, and i hate his janky stab-grab hitbox.

“he’s got a super varied moveset” okay but he doesn’t if you do the typical “suck dick and smack booty” ds3 boss strategy; the fight is just swing swing punish for 2 minutes straight. don’t get me wrong i love ds3 gameplay and i’m here for that but the way ppl talk about NK i was expecting something better than a trashfire phase 1 followed by a phase 2 that is IMO subpar when compared to Dragonslayer Armor or Cindy for “big dude with sword” fights.

i won’t be fighting NK on any NG+s i think. phase 1 is that unfun, so it’s probably a 1/character fight to get his sick fashion and maybe that swordspear

3. Sister Friede: 9/10

first phase is fun as hell once you get the hang of it, phase 2 is a bit meh and really why she isn’t 10/10, phase 3 is terrifying and so satisfying to beat. not much to say here. Friede and Cindy are both very nearly that platonic dark souls ideal of a boss that feels impossibly hard until you learn their moves and realize how fair (yet challenging) the fight is.

4. Midir: 10/10 potential, 7/10 practical

i love midir’s moveset and he’s the dragon fight of my dreams. you know how a lot of video games do dragon fights but they don’t do a good job of actually showcasing what it’s like to fight a five-storey tall crocodile that can breathe fire and fly? midir falls (omg spoiler) a lil short on the flying department but nails everything else.

the thing is, he’s a health sponge. this’d be my favourite fight in the game if he had about 2000 less HP but as is, he’s a bit too much of an endurance fight. which takes away from the sheer terror of a well done dragon - there should be more of an element of “take him down fast or die”. endurance fight removes that tension and makes it more of a “somersaulting arsehole teases animal for ten minutes before delivering a brutal headshot” kind of tone. midir also gives a surprising amount of space for you to heal for a battle that’s considered the hardest in the game, which removes the tension of an endurance fight - you’re not outlasting a series of deadly combos, you’re using your own massive HP pool to marathon 200 hits into midir’s noggin

5. Gael: 6/10

i’m probably never going to fight gael again but he does score a lot of points for

a) having each phase be more of an awe-inspiring “oh shit oh fuck” moment than the last

b) making me nearly piss myself when i passed through the fog gate for the first time and was like “huh this a weird spot for the gate” and then see him just fucking sprinting at me

c) literally saying “it’s always darkest before the soul!” like what a fucking funny line for the final boss of the series

anyways he’s got the same issue as midir where it’s a sastisfyingly difficult fight made frustratingly much harder by an inflated HP pool. even once i got phase 1 & 2 relatively down, he was such a slog that my mistakes would just pile up for phase 3. i know i don’t have this complaint for Friede who has a similar size HP pool but she’s not an endurance slog - she can get combo’d down fast phase 1, and phase 2 is so full of free hits that she’s effectively 5000 HP less than her written total. you don’t spend the entire fight dodging around being like “okay… where’s my one hit opening…” which is fun to do sometimes! just not for the entirety of an extremely long fight

outside of HP bloat, teleporting into phase 2 feels janky and basically having to use the pillars to create space for estus and buffs reduces an epic fight into cheesy videogame moments. i also literally did not realize that his cape hurts you because that makes no fucking sense. i thought he just had janky hit boxes until i looked up a video on how to beat him

fun as hell game overall tho time to finish my pyro, sorc, and ranger playthroughs

#dark souls #ds3

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mychemicalaromanticism · 3 years

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things ive already established r on this post

besties this got so fucking long but heres a giant ramble about cherri

okay so. there are huge differences betwn cherri as a hyperviolent drac hunter and cherri as a friend of the four and cherri as the girls mentor. with the first one he was 17 and desperate to distance himself from his upbringing so he went all in on Being A Killjoy. he was always one of the first ppl to rush into a fight and he fought hard. he blew up his fuckin hand with that attitude. and all the while he was just racking up more unaddressed trauma and eventually he ran away from that, too. giving himself radiation poisoning was more appealing than facing his problems.

so as a teenager/young adult hes kind of constantly in a panicked state. hes scared the people from his past are going to find him and drag him back with them. so he lashes out and he runs away over and over again.

i said in another post that he has some past life shit goin on which usually would give him a connection to the witch that manifests early in life, but with all the stuff hes gone through he has been Preoccupied. he can become oblivious to almost anything that doesnt apply to whatever hes focused on. not in a hyperfocus way its likeeeeee. when u live on survival mode during prolonged periods of stress. hes immune to magic bullshit bc hes too tired and scared.

anyways around his mid-20s he finally has a little more stability (as much as the average person living in the zones can have, that is) and he finally notices that Weird Stuff happens around him. basically: out of my list of Powers People Connected To The Witch Have he has the prophetic dreams/enhanced intuition as well as a form of sensing ghosts where he can see auras and kind of like, echoes of past events in ppls lives. that look like auras. itz complicated and not of utmost importance so im leaving it at that.

anyways thats what makes him start writing poetry. just 4 funsies he'll describe his weird experiences and embellish them to make em pretty. just as a casual hobby n all that.

he would forget fun ghoul in between the times they ran into each other but its pretty easy to be reminded of who fun ghoul is. the most insane 10 year old cherri has ever met. cherri isnt a brother figure to ghoul. hes just. his friend that happens to be more than twice his age. its whatever lmao

to cherri, ghoul is kinda like a stray animal he keeps seeing. which is hilarious. ghoul actually goes and finds him to introduce him to jet when they start running together, and cherri meets party and kobra (spark and birdie at the time) when he drives the four of them to a party. because he has a truck hell yeah. so now instead of one stray animal he has, like, a feral cat colony that he drives around occasionally. i have no real-life human relationship equivalent to them because irl if some guy that is not related to any of you and isnt even a childhood or family friend and theyre hanging out with you? they are usually not a safe person lmao. but this is my fantasy land and im too stubborn to change anyones birth years even though ghoul being born in 2004 makes everything really hard to make not creepy.

so yeah hes a casual somewhat friend of the fab four. hed probably get more and more concerned as they got famous. the beginnings of any sort of protective feelings, awww :) that sets him up for becoming the girls mentor.

OH FUCK. THE GIRL..... i think if i was in my late 20s and i heard that the gang of 13-17 year olds had adopted a 5 year old kid i would go bananas. what the fuck. it is a LONG while before cherri meets her. but he has the strongest affection for ghoul (if you could even call it that) and ghoul absolutely adores the girl and swings her around under her arms like a cat to show her off to cherri and its very endearing and the girl is sweet and funny so its easy to be around her. and (unfortunately) she is somewhat used to interacting with weird easily agitated people so she kinda gives him space. cherri isnt quite the uncle figure the fandom usually makes him (i luv uncle cherri sm but he simply cannot exist in the universe ive created, f), but hes a little similar.

and then the four had to go and pretend to die. lol.

when the girl was kidnapped, fucking everyone who knew her was ready to storm the city then and there. like regardless of how little you knew her, if you had ever met her you would fucking die for her. she is pure childish charisma and shes precious. i love the girl. so cherris immediately on board with whatever plan the four make to get her back. ive already talked abt how it fucked up the girl tho; there was no way to tell her that the four werent actually dead, she sees the building collapse and she shuts down. and cherri has to fight against his instinct to leave the radio station and never come back when he sees an eight year old girl sitting dissociated on the couch. that fucks everyone up.

i just realized i havent talked about literally anyone else at the radio station. i think cherri started lingering around the station bc it was safe and sheltered while also not being a popular spot. there are less kids there (people pass through but its not a hangout spot). he was kind of just hanging around to get away from the heat and noise and dr d took notice. because that man can see ur soul and no one knows if thats literal or not. so theyd chat a few times a day and show pony was the one 2 get him out of his shell a little and also was the first one he mentioned his poetry hobby to. im making this all up right now as im writing bc i dont know anything about LITERALLY any of the ppl associated w the radio like im not even going 2 try with chimp n newsie i do not have the willpower to tackle all that. justttt. cherri pony n D become bros and live 2gether there.

back 2 the regular timeline. the rescue mission happens in 2019. the girl lives at the station until 2023. during that time she is very much depressed and withdrawn and is only happy when the four come to visit. none of the Adults know how to help her so they just keep her safe and cared for and hope she'll open up to them.

she does not. she takes the weird cat thats been hanging around and she runs away.

cherri does not see her for three years. shes still worse for wear in the mental health department and he can see all kinds of visions of what shes been through since the last time he saw her and he fucking hates the ultra vs bc they remind him of his past. he does not want her going down that path but its obvious that she isnt crazy abt the ultraviolence thing either so thats a relief.

they have a kind of tense relationship throughout the comics. he feels like he failed her and that spirals into feeling like he failed the four for not being a good adult to them and fun ghoul for not helping enough when his commune was bombed and all kinds of shit and that irrational thinking mixed with plain old, yknow, caring about the girl, is what makes him take a bullet (laser. whatever) for her.

i was trying to figure out the timing of each of their ghost experiences, but i want both of them to talk to the witch and im just gonna make it like dreams where a whole buncha stuff happens but irl its been like seconds. so its like barely a second while the girl has her Witch Convo and cherri FINALLY gets a straight answer, yes there is weird shit going on with him having powers. he doesnt have any story-significant past lives because im lazy, hes just an old soul. like really fuckin old. the amount of latent life experience and stuff his soul/energy/whatever has picked up along the way makes him VERY noticeable to gods n stuff. he fuckin lights up all the alarms like what the FUCK is that over there. she wasnt rly able to get to him or even properly notice him while he was a kid and a young adult so shes happy to finally see him again. he has a STRONG sense of familiarity with her. they know each other on a wild ass level that he cant really comprehend.

welp thats some more lore I'll have 2 think abt. anywayz

post canon is when he and val get to have the most awkward spiderman meme moment of realizing that they have the same trauma SOOOOO thatz fun lol /s sorry kings i thought it would be fun to give u something fucked up to bond over <3

not much changes in his personality. he has a better understanding of Weird Magic and delights in freaking out the ultra vs but for the most part he returns to his life at the radio station. i love him

THIS GOT SO CRAZY LONG I DID NOT MEAN 2 GO THROUGH EVERY PART OF HIS LIFE LIKE SOME WEIRD CHARACTER STUDY but here we are. this is basically a first draft like almost all of this is subject to change but u gotta start somewhere. so heres my start i love this guy. its probably obvious but i have not read ANY twitterverse killjoys stuff </3 maybe i will someday idk

#cat talks #lore #ok2rb but what a mess this post is

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xenoredux · 3 years

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if you're still doing horse talk can we hear more about flutter ponies? also did you have anything in mind for seaponies?

Ye ask for horse talk, ye shall receive horse talk.

I’ll elaborate on seaponies first: I don’t actually have much lore planned for them and that is my greatest flaw. But seriously, I probably should develop my ideal version of them. They’re fun little guys.

If I had any lore surrounding them, I’d say they were the first subspecies of earth pony to climb out of the sea (and then promptly go back in once they realized how cold it was out in the open air) and that they’re not limited to a strictly seahorsey shape. The classic seapony body type would be the most prevalent, but by no means the only observable kind. There’s seaponies out there that look like clownfish and sting rays and stuff. They’d have their own equivalent to the Gloom Witches who’d be, like, a shitty little lobster man and his easily frustrated jellyfish minions. Once the landtrotters (Starwish ‘n Co.) gained their friendship, they’d be able to call on them whenever they’re in both water and distress.

So that’s about it for seaponies BUT I DO have a lot of a lot to say about flutter ponies (warning for horses becoming much ded):

Flutter Ponies are a subspecies of pegasus which are related to the even lesser-seen subspecies Winger Ponies, Breezies, and Changelings. Flutters are generally smaller then the average pony both in height and weight, which makes it easy for them to skirt by pony villages unseen. There is the same variation you'd find in any species - it's possible to find a "tall" or chubby flutter - but they're characterized primarily by their small stature and their round, short-muzzled faces.

The biggest difference between them and "normal" pegasi is that their wings resemble those of insects instead of avians. Different flutter pony wings come in different shapes and colors, and these seem dictated more by individuals' personalities then their genetics. i.e. you may find a flutter with ladybug wings, or dragonfly wings, or housefly wings.

Their wings are powerful enough to carry them great distances if they need to travel, but they're also fragile enough to tear if targeted, and the healing process for a torn wing is long and painful. This motivates flutters to protect their wings whenever they can, sometimes to the detriment of what they're doing. Many a flutter has abandoned ship because they instinctively wigged out over obtaining wing damage.

One of the reasons Whilderbee is such a novelty to the populace of Paradise Estates is because flutter ponies are reclusive, secretive animals by nature. They live far away not just from other ponies, but also each other. These guys are paranoid, truly the most easily spooked and horselike of the pony races given their anxieties. If any pony is going to "see ghosts" and bolt from something that isn't there, it'd be a flutter.

So shy are these guys that their family units are limited as well. The typical flutter pony's nuclear family is, at most, composed of 2 parents and their 1 child. Flutter ponies with numerous offspring are often considered "selfish" and "irrational" among their kind because more kids = more interaction with the outside world = greater likelihood of others intruding/invading/whatever. Flutter ponies value secrecy and despise vulnerability both inside and outside of their family units.

Part of this deep-seated paranoia is because of something that happened long ago. Flutter ponies have always separated themselves from other cultures, but they used to live together in herds (or flocks - take your pick) of their own. These flutter herds would be lead by someone who had shown themselves to be unusually brave and wise, and this pony (dubbed "The Royal" by the others) would determine what was best for their herdmates.

The largest flutter herd ever recorded, one lead by The Royal Morning Glory, was destroyed because of an invading goop referred to only as "the Smooze". Little is known about this substance or its origins, but what we do know is that Morning Glory made a mistake in determining how to resist it, and so her entire herd was swallowed up by it and destroyed.

When other flutter herds caught wind of this tragedy, even after the Smooze had disappeared they were all too shaken to remain in their previous living accommodations. They came to the conclusion that living in a herd was too dangerous. There's just too much room for human (equine?) error, and working together under some wise guy's delegation didn't prevent all the flutters lost that day from being eaten by sentient sludge. Unusually, the trauma of the event didn't bring the community together but instead drove them apart, and that's how they've lived ever since.

When you combine all this isolationism, ingroup shaming, and self-limiting fear, it's not hard to see why Whilderbee was frowned upon by her people. She's wildly outgoing by flutter standards, not to mention her cardinal sin of actively seeking communications with other creatures. Ever since she was a little kid she's been trying to buddy up with blewbirds and jackalopes and sparkledogs, and this quickly earned her a reputation as, well, a freak.

Flutters don't often interact with one another (if only because a lot of them are curmudgeonly) but word spreads fast among them. This is part of the reason why Beebee, despite her cultural upbringing, still actively gets involved with her friends. She learned her own form of emotional invulnerability, and that's making everyone too cheery and giggly to ask her why they saw her wiping her face of tears the other night.

As you can imagine, all this stuffiness makes flutter ponies a bit more hoity toity then you'd think a buncha forest-dwelling recluses would be. They often pressure their only children into behaving in a very put-together, boring manner so as not to invite the scrutiny of their nearest neighbor two woodlands over. Imperfection is weakness in their eyes.

They also don't do much to hide their distaste for other animal species, non-flutter ponies included. Most other animals are simply beyond their comprehension, but other pony species unnerve them because their ways are so unfamiliar. Like, what, they just have family gatherings and cry openly and own television sets? Inconceivable! Ugly! Wrong!

All this probably makes flutters sound like a bunch of miserably stoic fuddy duddies. In a sense they are given the sort of lives they've subjected themselves to, but still waters run deep. Flutter ponies are beyond powerful if you can get them to cooperate. When enough flutters get together and beat their wings with great speed - a phenomenon they used to call "flutter stutter" - they have the power to change the weather, move buildings, and overcome just about any tangible treachery.

Pony historians have written tales about how long forgotten herds of flutters once defeated great evils by joining forces and literally fluttering their enemies away. It's also been theorized that not utilizing this ability was the mistake that killed Morning Glory's herd as they'd surely have won against the Smooze had they used it. Sadly a flutter stutter hasn't happened in about as long as anyone can remember, and it'd be a difficult thing to orchestrate these days given, well, everything.

I can imagine if this were a real show, part of a major arc would be earning the flutters' trust, convincing them that being persnickety passive-aggressive assholes to each other is bad, and motivating them to unleash this long dormant power on a common enemy. Maybe by the end of it an exceptionally clever and altruistic flutter would be dubbed leader of a new trial community the flutters would tentatively propose, a matriarch of a new age flutter pony herd. She's probably have a name like Rosedust or something. Who knows?

#asks #my little pony #mlp #pony words #me writing mlp like ''the equines must be SAD and BASTARDLY until they learn to share and make friends''

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dinoburger · 5 years

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What is lisa rpg? It looks good but I have no idea what it's about.

the LISA rpg series is a series of RPG games, of which there are three and also a buncha fan made games that are pretty bangin too

the most prominent in the series is the second one, LISA: the Painful which takes place in a post apocalypse setting rife with gang wars and perverted men, which our protagonist Brad is forced to wade through in order to rescue his daughter

the series has a lot of really heavy themes but the Painful in particular has lots of ridiculous shenanigans to balance it out with (most of the time) and lots of fun wacky characters

…and also some interesting monsters…

the first focusses on Lisa herself and you can just download free if you look it up, the Painful and the Joyful you can get off steam.

the Joyful has more lore in it too but it’s. a lot.

definitely look up content warnings if you’re thinking about getting into it. there’s like, everything from child abuse, drug abuse, heavy sexual themes, suicide… yeah.

#lisa rpg

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crashdevlin · 5 years

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@dolphincliffs wanted to know about my first hunt. Now, first hunt with my dad or first solo hunt? ‘Cause first hunt with my dad was pretty simple, a haunting in this little farmhouse. Dad dropped Sammy off in Blue Earth with Jim and took me with him. It was easy. Spirit wasn't violent, grave was clearly marked, Dad did the digging. I just manned the shotgun and a flashlight and Dad let me pour on the salt and kerosene and drop a book of matches on the bones. Everything went up nice and pretty.

First solo hunt was a shitshow, don't tell Sam. I've been telling a sanitized and glorified version of it for years. So I'm twenty-four and Dad sends me off on what he calls a “surefire ghoul”. There were a buncha grave robberies, somebody saw their dead mother walking around, shit like that. So Dad loads me up with all the lore and tools I need for a ghoul hunt and sends me on my way. I pull into this town in North Florida called Niceville about two days later and I'm excited, right? It's my first solo, it's something easy, and it's in an Air Force town called Niceville. I'm thinking it's gonna be pie.

It was not.

See, what Dad called a surefire ghoul was actually a duo of witches. Grave robberies were a supply run for their dark magic, sightings of dead loved ones was glamours to fuck with the minds of the airmen on base.

Oh, these bitches clocked me as soon as I made it into town. There was a hex bag in my rental car before I finished my first interview. By the time I made it to my motel, my hair was falling out in clumps. It was terrible. I would almost rather deal with the coughing up blood and losing teeth and almost dying. I had to shave my head. I was so pissed off. Dad thought it was hilarious when I told him why I showed up looking like I was about to ship off to Basic.

Next morning, though, Dad shaved his head, too. So maybe it didn't end so bad but it started out terrible.

#cassies1kdwtakeover

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itisspermo · 6 years

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A dood who doesn't watch Adventure Time explains the lore of Adventure Time

So when Adventure Time first came out, the writers weren't really thinking about lore, so the first significant thing lore-wise was Fin's fight against The Lich, who is evil because he is evil, and Fin ends up using a glove that a previously established character Billy used, but it turns out to be useless as Lich tells it to quiet down, so Fin instead uses the power of being the main character to beat the Lich. Next important lore came from Ice King, who used to be a nerd, before his crown made him really crazy, and also maybe have been Marceline's, the vampire "queen", adoptive dad. This harkens back to a really interesting lore bit about a great mushroom war, which killed the real world and let Ooo exist, although after interdimensional junk and stuff about gods was introduced, this was dropped. Next big lore came when The Lich took Billy's body to trick Fin into opening the door to the cube place, were Prismo lived, and he wished everyone was dead, but then Fin wished Lich died first, accidentally stopping the great mushroom war and creating an alternate reality. But the Jake was like, "I wish to fix it." And it was fixed. This was when I dropped the show by accident, but don't worry, I still perfectly know the lore. After than Fin found his dad in a tower, but it wasn't his dad, but he still gave him his arm for a good reason. After that a really big bee gave him a new arm, that had a thorn in it, and could create a grass sword. Soon Fin got another sword that was made of himself, but that got broken and fused with his grassy sword, creating a grass Fin named Fern, who is important for like 2 days before having an identity crisis and steals a motorcycle to join the circus. Sometime after that Ice King became the nerd again, but then turned back. Also Prismo had a party so good that the Lich was there too, but he couldn't kill anything, so he just kinda sat around, until the real prismo showed up and killed him, and in turn Prismo, but then Prismo came from the past and locked Lich up, so it's okay. Then Fin learned his real dad was in the same jail as Lich, so he did a bad thing to get himself taken there. He met his real dad, but the Lich broke free and gave the best evil speech ever, before Fin covered him in glitter which gave Lich his skin, and became a widdle kid. Prince Princess happened. Then an Ice Girl who was better at ice than Ice King showed up and made everything weird, but Fin remembered he was the main character and fixed everything. Then he went oversees to see his mom, who was dead but not really because she was really a computer. Something something, Ice King went back to being a nerd, and the crown was ice king now. More something somethings, then Golb happened, who was evil incarnate, but Fin remembered he was the main character again, and fixed everything.

The End.

(Also Marceline is lesbian with a buncha gum with a crown.)

#spermo #adventure time #lore

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 4 years

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K now you got me curious about that. I kinda assumed P5MC would’ve been stronger then P4 MC (P3MC beats them both no doubt from me) so why do you say that P4MC is stronger?

Was gonna make a separate post when I had time but now is a time as any XU (btw I still dunno why people think P5MC is stronger, is it cause of the gym? His Phantom Thieving? The gun? Stanael’s gun? The Yaldy scene? I really wanna read people’s reasons but I have a feeling it’s those and.....if that’s it then no one is paying attention to poor P4MC then ;w;)

So that post was more lore driven than gameplay driven just a heads up (gameplay it’s a lot more complicated because we have to look at like.....a bunch of different entries and lay down ground rules for those, cause like P3P!MC/FeMC vs P4MC vs P5MC is.....a lot more fair considering the former can’t use fusions due to them being items....assuming we can’t use items). Just want to clarify before I explain what I mean is lore wise (I’ll compare the Personas down below but I’ll try to keep it from crossing to much into the gameplay meta line). And this is excluding Royal/Scramble (cause....not everyone knows that stuff yet, and I need to reevaluate things myself and I just haven’t been able to yet XU). But man, people really do underestimate P4MC ;w;

Now then, without Personas they are probably about even, like if they got into a fist fight they could probably end in a tie (but my money is still on P4MC if I had to choose cause he gets back up). P4MC seems to be taller (by a few in) and a more buff build, while P5MC is more of a slim build (but is probs more agile). And this is regardless if they are in the Metaverse, TV World, or the Real World (cause he should get an outfit in the Metaverse, plus Personas seem to give the user great physical strength regardless if it’s a Metaverse setting or not). That being said, P5MC does have akido(?), but it’s self trained and that’s if he goes to the gym. But, P4MC trains with Chie (which he probably did cause they all probs maxed their SLs/CoOps, but Ren might not have gone to the gym), and also stays in shape thanks to 1) fighting Shadows and 2) his sports club SL (this is assuming we are only looking at their school time selves, Adult!P4MC is unknown atm), so it’s not like he’s out of shape himself. P4MC also has crazier and bigger fish too (also needed to complete an SL), so that could be deemed as a work out compared to P5MC’s fishing.

If we’re looking at initial Personas (which is what they are most likely gonna run with cause of how the spinoffs handle P4/5), P4MC has the upper hand thanks to resisting Dark (aka curse) (btw Minato/Hamu would probs go down first in an initial only Persona fight, cause they’d be weak to P5MC and then P4MC could/would probs beat P5MC thanks to resisting the other’s attack).

Ultimate Persona is a bit more....I wouldn’t say even, but there’s strengths and weaknesses to both sides. Satanael has the upper hand with a “survive one attack” ability, resists everything but almighty, heatriser, and can harm INO via physical (and maaaaybe psy/nuke...it’s unclear how Atlus wants to treat INO in this regard). INO has better stats (and can achieve better stats than Satanael), can deal BIG almighty damage (thanks to mine charge, Satanael doesn’t have a charge), and while he doesn’t resist Light/Dark/Alimighty he does have a big evasion ability. I’d say INO could also be hit by PSY and Nuke thanks to PQ2 (which still makes no sense???? why didn’t they add resist in those categories to all the other ult Personas ??? XP) but P5R shows INO resisting those now so we gonna go with that....because that makes more sense (it makes sense for them to resist Psy and Nuke because they resist all elemental damage but since those didn’t exist, you could assume they could resist it cause it falls under elemental damage...but PQ2 fudges it up for some reason XP), I mean P5R also made him more of a beast since it seems like INO resists Phys too but I won’t include that. I mean if you wanna say he can be hit by Nuke fine, one more thing INO can be hit with....BUT INO also has a ult attack and Satanael doesn’t. Which, while Satanael and INO could be going toe to toe for awhile, INO might be able to deliver the final blow that Satanael can’t.

Which leads into why....P4MC should win. He’s just shown he’s stronger in his stories. He wins because of his own power that made him stronger. P5MC doesn’t win via his own power. He wins because he receives outside help more often than not (which isn’t bad, I’m not saying having help is bad, but in a hypothetical 1v1....it doesn’t bode well for him). Against Yaldy he got a freaking buff from the cognitive world....A TEMP BUFF MIND YOU! THANKS TO COGNITION! It’s such BS! Yes, P3/4MC they received their power because of their bonds, their connections, MC’s are their friends’ power as much as they are power for the MC’s. P3/4MC could only get that strong because of their friends. It’s because of their own effort and will to protect the ones they care about is the reason they win......P5MC it’s because of the public cheering for them for like 5 min for a temp buff cause of cognition (and it def doesn’t continue to last cause of how the meter goes down to 50% later irl). Even with cognition on P5MC’s side, it’s probably not a whole lot to actually do anything beneficial for him like with Yaldy. P3/4 is about power of friendship and relationships. P5 is about the power of convenience and plot devices. Buncha bullshit that he gets handed the World Arcana like that, not even his own power saved the world (he doesn’t even have a World Arcana Persona! No one ever talks about that what’s P5MC’s World Persona?! P4 has INO, P3 has a finger 8U What’s P5′s????)

There’s also the fact P4MC can use Myriads of Truth outside of Izanami, and it can hurt people outside of her too (we know this thanks to Arena). Satanael can’t use his Sinful Shell (at least at this point in time, watch Atlus jk my post when Arena 3 comes out, I’m already prepared for it >8V I bet Atlus’ reason won’t even make sense because->) because it’s only used in the 100% cognition scene! Satanael can only be that powerful and can only use that move thanks to cognition! But you see, P4MC is Mr. Bond Master, he’s strong cause of his bonds, every handshake with a new person=him getting more powerful (half jk). 8U But this drive also shows that even if he loses a fight, he gets right back up because he wants to protect his friends (as seen post-Liz fight in Liz’s route in Arena). Like this is a big thing P4MC has that I think people overlook, this bastard has A LOT of willpower. Whenever that word is brought up, only Tatsuya (you know defying time and reality to keep his memories) and P3MCs (staying alive for like two months to keep their promise) are ever mentioned (and don’t get me wrong, those are amazing feats too! All three/four, FeMC/P3MC are technically two people, of these people deserve the top 3 will power spot), but gd P4MC has it too. After getting his ass handed to him by Liz, he got right back up and was like “round two!” and power starts to flow through him that it takes Liz aback! Or his most amazing feat, coming back from the freaking underworld (aka basically death), just will his ass right back in front of Izanami and then Izanami is unable to freaking kill him (he hangs onto 1 HP like a boss, hell if he can do this against P3MC it’s possible for him to even come out on top of that fight). Izanami literally says “can the will of so few surpass that of all mankind?!” His (and IT’s) determination is one that surpasses all of mankind! Compare that to P5MC, who defeated Yaldy because of his bond with his CoOps-oh wait no it’s cause of a BS temp power buff the public gave him my mistake. P3/4: “We know what’s best for mankind! And it’s not freaking death! Our will power will surpass mankind!” P5: “Y-yeah same! But we’re gonna not succeed on our own and get bailed out by the public, only for them to half revert back to their same old ways despite....changing for us for a hot second...wait what?”

P4MC (depending on where in the timeline we have him and P5MC facing off), he’s had more experience too. Not only has he beaten 7ish gods/god avatars (to P5MC’s.......looking at all the P5 entries and without spoilers....possibly 3ish/4ish gods/godly avatars/god level stuff), he’s also faced off with 2 robots and what is basically a super soldier (aka Sho), he’s also fought against a lot of SEES who are seasoned fighters and had ult personas vs his initial persona (and won in some cases, or held his own A LOT, depends on the timeline/route). Oh and has fought more VR people/the VR people more times (P4/G, PQ1, PQ2, and...maybe Arena/Ultimax depends on the route). While P5 is catching up (kinda, we aren’t comparing how a lot of those final battles were won with the final blow), P4MC still has the most experience.

The only way P5MC can win if it’s 1V4+, P5MC has access to the VR and can use multiple Personas and P4MC can’t, P5MC has 100% cognition on (not possible, and would be a real ass pull), P4MC is crippled beyond belief (even then I’d still expect him to win cause he doesn’t give up).

So yeah. P4MC has more willpower, his Personas seem to have an advantage (either elemental advantage with initial, or stat+final blow for Ult), and doesn’t get up/gets right back up after a beating (so even if P5MC gets P4MC down to 0 hp, its possible P4MC will get right back up without the need of a skill like P5MC).

That being said I need to reevaluate some stuff with Royal. I still think P4MC is stronger tho (but I think P3MCs are the strongest, that being said P4/5MC haven’t been put in a situation where they need to die to protect everyone, aka get the universe arcana, so I wouldn’t 100% count them out because I think P4/5MC have the potential to go as far as the P3MCs if need be...well....def P4MC.....not sure about P5MC he still needs to prove himself imo).

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