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transmascjfk · 3 years

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i'm,, trans and hc chihiro to be a male..

i'm sorry, but i don't quite understand how that's transphobic. could you please explain how chihiro is transmisogynistic? (sorry if i come off as rude - that's not my intention and i genuinely just don't understand, though i would like to!!)

What is transmisoginy?

"Transmisogyny is a distinct category of transphobia in that transmisogyny mainly focuses on trans women and other transgender individuals who demonstrate femininity, whereas transphobia is a more general term, covering a broader spectrum of prejudice and discrimination towards transsexual and transgender individuals. Julia Serano states in Whipping Girl that "when the majority of jokes made at the expense of trans people center on 'men wearing dresses' or 'men who want their penises cut off' that is not transphobia – it is transmisogyny. When the majority of violence and sexual assaults committed against trans people is directed at trans women, that is not transphobia – it is transmisogyny." "

Chihiro is written to mock trans women, to say that in reality trans women are secretly men, she is a man who is weak and uses being trans as a way to escape her problems, this is a thing that is also said to trans men a lot, that theyre just trying to avoid the hard parts of being a woman by becoming a man. Even if the writters intended it to be like that or not (which they probably did because transphobia is a big thing that happens a lot, obviously) it's still transmisogynistic. Thats that on that

This is a pretty common transphobic trope actually, the "Turns out this one character was actually from the opposite sex??!!", theres more examples of this in other games outside Danganronpa.

But also her experience is pretty different from other examples, her experiences are way too similar with trans womens experiences.

This is mostly for the cis people who call her a crossdresser and refuse to change their mind, on it, sit down.

Written by a trans man.

Don't tell me whats transphobic and what it's not transphobic if you're cis. Just sit down and read.

Tw: transphobia, transmisoginy, death mentions and blood in the pictures.

The game implies a lot of stuff with her dialogue, it doesn't straight up says "I don't want to be a woman anymore, I'm a man" like everyone claims it does.

[ Alt text 1:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I'm going to get stronger...and accept who I am... ]

[ Alt text 2:

Chihiro Fujisaki: Strong enough so that when someone says "even thought you're a boy" I'll be okay. I'll get better! ]

[ Alt text 3:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I wrapped myself in lies. I'm weak. I want to destroy that version of me forever! ]

[ Alt text 4:

Chihiro Fujisaki: ... I want to change. ]

[ Alt text 5:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I have to change. I don't want to be weak anymore ]

She goes to Mondo not because hes masculine, but because she admires him and his strength. She never once says it's because shes a man or because Mondo is a man.

[ Alt text 1:

Chihiro Fujisaki: Maybe talking to Mondo about it will help give me some courage... ]

[ Alt text 2:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I admire... your strength... ]

These dialogues can be read in two ways, the first one being the one the game tries the hardest to put in your head thats shes a man, all of this guessed by other people btw not what she herself says. Which is really transphobic, because she was written as a trans woman and then theyre like "uh no actually hes a man, because he was born as one but hes a coward so he started to dress as a woman to hide from his problems. Because thats what people do right? People who dress as their oppossite gender are so pathetic, specially men amiright? Ahaha"

Reading it in this way really weird, you're doing a lot of mental gymnastics because you would literally call her a trans woman with all of this if the rest of the trial, that consists of cis people assuming shes a man, didn't happen. And sadly you're following transphobic ideas by this. Because the canon is transphobic and transmysoginistic.

And the other way is just read what she says, that she just wants to be stronger and stop lying to everyone, basically about being cis, because shes not, shes amab (assigned male at birth) and thats probably what she said to Mondo, but most people when a trans person who already passes or is in their transition comes out many people tend to think "oh so youre your gender assigned at birth and not the one you claim to be?", because they don't get what being trans is and they think only "biological gender" is a thing. Basically, misgendering and invalidating the trans person.

I can guess all of this just because of how vague they decided to make her dialogue, not even showing how she tells Mondo about being amab.

What did she said to Mondo? "I'm trans"? "I'm a man"? "I was born a man"? We dont know, because they didn't show it and she died right afterwards and then everyone was like "Chihiro was secretly a man" to solve the case and thats it. A lot of people in the discourse get their information from Monokuma who isn't either Chihiro or even Mondo. Monokuma knows many things but he can't read minds to know if she was really trans or not, only she could say it but she died so she couldn't explain if shes trans or not.

[ Alt text:

A youtube comment by Gail Frisbee, posted 4 days ago, this comment was edited by the autor. The comment says:

"It's honestly increible to me when people try to argue that a scene in which a female-presenting character gets their genitals groped and then is posthumously referred to as a male from that point on can't be transphobic just because that character calls themselves a boy in some other side content later. It's on about the same level of intellectual honesty as claiming that Quiet from MGS5 isn't really fanservice because she totally breaths throught her skin you guys.

As it turns out, if you really dig down deep into the lore, Chihiro is a fictional character and the same people who wrote the genital investigation scene also wrote the lines that character says in the game as well. It's a shocking twist, I know." ]

Her fears of being outed and people founding out her secret (being trans) or being transphobic is used as a gross big twist. A trans woman being used as a mockery of trans people? Great totally normal (/sarcasm)

Read this post made by a trans woman. I'll be using this only part but it's still a great read.

[ Alt text:

So. There is a lot to unpack here, but I want to start with something that specifically hurts me as a trans woman, and that's how the game flippantly uses real world horrors trans people face as shocking reveals and twists. You can go down the list for "worst nightmares" of trans people incluiding:

Threatening to be outed against your wishes

Outing yourself to a trusted friend and being met with rejection, or worse, violence

Having your body and privacy examined and invaded

Having your deadname used and being misgendered after death, when you can't correct them ]

Now, let's go to her backstory for a bit. I will be using the wiki for this. (Which sadly uses he/him for her 💔)

" When Chihiro was a child, he became the subject of harassment and bullying. He was always told to "be a man" and that he was "so weak despite being a boy", and because of that, Chihiro slowly but surely began to develop a "weakness complex". In order to escape the bullying, Chihiro began to dress as a girl so that people wouldn't bully him as a weak boy. "

This doesn't sound like a normal crossdresser, this sounds like a trans woman who was bullied for being different when she was younger, like many trans people, and then she decided to transition because she's a woman, she wanted to be more feminine and stop being seen as a person shes not. Specially after so many people tell her to basically man up when she doesn't want that, because shes not a man.

Have you ever heard of the classic stories of "since I was little i knew i was different, i was a boy who liked playing with dolls and was more feminine than the rest" or "i used to be a tomboy when i was little, i had mostly male friends, i liked playing with car toys and was more masculine than other kids" coming from trans people? This just sounds as these types of stories to me.

People also like to say that alter ego uses he/him pronouns and says shes a boy. Many trans people can misgender themselves for personal reasons too guys, she could've been trying to misgender herself because she didn't felt like she wasn't enough to be a real woman, this happens a lot to trans people. If people constantly tell you that you're not actually transgender or you just feel like you're faking it then you might actually believe it, thats were most "detransitioners" come from. And thats basically what they made her, a detransitioner.

Some of you might also don't get how shes trans because you think she doesn't perfect or exact trans stereotypes. Trans experiences can be similar on the feeling of not fitting in, dysphoria, etc. But trans experiences, stories, transitions and complete lifes can be very different, because we all (including cis people) live different lifes, experience, process and cope with things differently. So i can understand why you might not get her being trans coded at first, don't worry. But try instead of just not caring because you don't get it at the first try, to see what trans people say.

This whole discourse its mostly cis people talking over trans people about their own experiences (incluiding the dead trans coded characters experience) saying if theyre valid or not and denying stuff not wanting to learn anything, completely refusing to it because "In canon hes a boy" ok then in canon shes written in a transphobic way too but most of you don't care about that. You would rather call her a crossdresser than try to acknowledge how obviously trans coded she is and how thats used as transphobia.

The way most cis people act in this discourse is very transphobic to me to be honest, if you think you're a good ally but act like this then you should get more educated on the topic as a whole and about trans people too.

-the trans Chihiro flag to finish this up, she has a bit boobie! good for her! good for her.

#chihiro discourse #discourse #transphobia #transphobia cw #transphobia tw #chihiro fujisaki #if i forgot about something please tell me!!#trigger happy havoc

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thedinanshiral · 3 years

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My personal DA4 wishlist + thoughts

I’ve been teasing this post for a couple of weeks over at Twitter, i’m the worst! But anyway, since game journalism has decided to confirm, once again, that the next Dragon Age game will be set in Tevinter like that’s breaking news, now’s as good a time as ever to write all this down.

Locations: Tevinter, clearly. It’s been pretty much a given since the end of Trespasser in 2015, with that scene where the Inquisitor stabs a map on a table directly on Tevinter as they promise to go after Solas to stop him. But also concept art and several stories from Tevinter Nights heavily imply Antiva, Nevarra, the Anderfells, and maybe Rivain. For those of you who don’t know your Thedosian Geography 101, that’s basically Northern Thedas. And it makes sense, since so far for three games straight we’ve been first stuck in Ferelden, then the coast of the Free Marches, and later the rest of Southern Thedas. We’ve never been North, only heard of it. So in DA4 i’m sure we will finally be able to visit.

Characters: If we’re going to Tevinter, we must meet Dorian again, maybe meet Maevaris Tilani as well (previously only seen in comics), judging from the latest comics series, i’m hoping for Fenris too. And going by the latest teaser trailer, we might see Varric again. As for characters that so far we have no news of, i’d like to see Cole, the Iron Bull, and if by any chance BioWare feels like blessing us with a Hawke/Fenris reunion i might just die happy. I’d also very much like to see the Inquisitor, but more on that later.

Companions: considering concept art and the latest teaser trailer, plus Tevinter Nights stories and new characters, we have an interesting repertoire of new potential companions. A Tevinter mage, an ancient elf (like a temple guardian) or a dalish elf (like Strife), a Nevarran mortalitasi or spirit, Antivan Crows, Lords of Fortune (new faction, kind of like treasure hunters), Qunari lady, maybe an alchemist or shapeshifter, Grey Wardens (possibly a dwarf), a liberated or escaped slave, a Siccari (Tevinter spies/assassins)..even past agents of the Inquisition could return.

Plot: We know Solas wants to take down the Veil. We know there’s two archdemons left, and Grey Wardens are regaining some spotlight in concept art lately. We might have to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously and be strategic about it. Solas might even unleash a double Blight just to keep us distracted while he focus on his own goal, who knows. But many other things are happenig in the margins and all over the place. The Qunari Antaam is having a crisis with some of its members supposedly going rogue, the order they’re so proud of is breaking up, and the whole of Northern Thedas is facing an imminent threat of invasion. Tevinter is still dealing with remnants of the Venatori and might soon be dealing with a slaves rebellion and/or a political and social reform (Magisters Dorian and Maeveris have been working wirh the Lucerni, a group aiming to restore and redeem Tevinter). The Antivan Crows -the de facto rulers of Antiva - may be dealing with a succession crisis, as their First Talon, a powerful feared and respected but old lady, might not be around for much longer and seems her chosen heir has died before his time. Meanwhile in the Anderfells nobody’s heard anything from the Grey Wardens’ HQ at Weisshaupt since the end of Inquisition, and as told in the novel Last Flight, the sudden reappearance of griffons may have had something to do with that radio silence. So you see, get ready for another +100 hours long game because BW has plenty of stuff to keep us busy with. But in short, DA4 seems will be about primarily searching, finding, and dealing with Solas. Regardless of what you decided at the Exalted Council in Trespasser, the Inquisition or what’s left of it is most likely the group orchestrating that mission. As it was so clearly stated then, they need new people Solas doesn’t know so he can’t foresee their actions, so it’s possible the DA4 protagonist is a new agent or a third party hired to do what the Inner circle can’t due to their familiarity with Solas in the past. But at the same time -and this is assuming we get to find Solas in this game - i definitely think the Inquisitor could easily show up again. No, losing an arm doens’t mean they’ve retired forever, prosthetics do exist in Thedas, a world where you can combine dwarven craftmanship with enchantments, seriously, i don’t ever want to hear “but they lost an arm” ever again as an excuse to write them out. And no, marrying Cullen or joining the Red Jennys is no impediment to join the “Stop Solas” Squad; the end of Trespasser means something, mainly that this is personal. Be it they loved them as lovers, as friends or ended up hating his guts for using and betraying them, the Inquisitor’s relationship with Solas makes this very personal, and so having any other character do that face off would cheapen all of it, all that bittersweet angsty development and expectations of either revenge or closure. That moment should happen between those two. It adds a ton of motivation due to their past historyas well, something a new protagonist would lack entirely. My personal best hope is for a sort of dual protagonist thing, say we play new protagonist for most of the game but a selected missions or scenes where we play as the Inquisitor once again and take over for key and heart-wrenching dialogue options. My second best hope is for the Inquisitor to show up as playable for the moment we catch up with Solas. My third and final best hope is for the inquisitor to be a sort of advisor but more like new protagonist’s boss/employer to whom they report back to and get new missions from. The Inquisitor can be stuck in meetings for the most part of it, i just want to know they’re there, behind a door, super busy but there. A cameo like Hawke’s in Inquisition is the bare miminum i can take, anyhting less than that like a mention in a sidequest description or a footnote in a codex entry would be a total injustice.

Romances: I’m open for pretty much anything, as any good BW fan would be. But i’d like romances to feel more alive in the sense that they don’t abruptly get stuck once you exhaust all related quests and dialogue options. As much as my Adaar liked that spank from the Iron Bull, that it was the only thing they could share after their romance was locked was a bit..meh. I liked Dorian’s tho, because his gave one the option to talk a bit, go for a walk, gossip, and sure, it all happened off-screen, and there were limited possibilities, but it was nice and made their relationship feel a bit more real, like they had more to it than kissing and stuff. It happens in most games, once you secure a romanceable companion suddenly you run out of things to do and share with them, and you get stuck with the same 3 lines of dialogue over and over again. There should be a way of solving that.

Side quests: i’m ok with fetch quests initially as it is a good way of forcing the player to go out and explore huge maps, but i’d also like the fetching to have some meaning other than checking things off a list. I want to explore many ruins, and -can’t believe i’m actually saying this- i want a Fade quest. Wait! I know what you’re thinking but don’t kill me just yet, here’s my idea: what if we could visit the Fade at certain locations to witness memories or meet with spirits and recollect information on Solas, his past, his present? Both to understand him better (keep in mind we’ll most likely get a new protagonist who isn’t familiar with him like we are as players) and try to locate him or predict his next move. It would be i think i great way of having visions of Arlathan in its golden age, maybe seeing some of the other Evanuris, how they interacted with each other and with the elves in their service, what really happened ...i just want that sweet, sweet lore, i need it.

Technical stuff: ok, graphics will be amazing for sure, but i also would really really like: better, more varied and longer hairstyles, PLEASE. Body sliders, it’s damn time we get them. Mounts that actually make a difference! Let staves blades make damage in combat, I’M BEGGING HERE. Combined classes, MAGICAL ROGUES! A homebase we can fix up/build on/redecorate as fully as possible (Skyhold was great and i love it to pieces but why were those walls NEVER repaired????) . More casual outfit options, idk i love to dress up my characters, maybe some transmog? A day/night cycle and please i would love to see Thedas’ second moon, also weather variations depending on the region. Yes, i’m ambitious.

Gameplay: i’d like more AI options for companions, but not quite like in DAO, that was too much and i rarely used it. I’m curious how they’ll do combat this time but i know for sure i don’t want the kind of combat that has me going almost frame by frame pausing at every second, it’s annoying for me. I want large areas like in DAI but with a bit more stuff to see and do although one of my favourite maps is the Hissing Wastes so i won’t complain if we get a literal desert but i’d also like it to have secrets hidden around, make me work to find and solve them, i love exploring, i jump and click on EVERYTHING like i’m still a kid playing Monkey Island. A companion in concept art seems to be holding what looks like some form of rifle, so i’m curious how they’d incorporate that in the game. I know Tevinter has the magics and dwarves have the skill, a firearm is totally within the possibilities in-game without breaking any lore; also super curious what sort of skill trees Crows or Lords of Fortune could have, are they rogues, or warriors, or both??

So far, that’s what i got in my head.Well, most of it anyways, i may have missed something but this post has to end somewhere lol

What’s in your head? Feel free to share! Have you been thinking on how you’ll create your next protagonist? All i can think of is magical rogues and that glowing bow was all the hype i needed.

#Dragon Age #Dragon Age 4 #Tevinter #da4 wishlist #DA4

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holylulusworld · 4 years

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Congratulations on 8000 followers. For your celebration drabble request, I suggest: Dean X Y/N quarantined from a witch's spell. I'll leave it up to you if you want fluff, angst, smut. You get the idea. This prompt is starting to give me ideas.

F*cking Witches

8000 Followers Drabbles Masterlist

Prompt: None provided so I chose one. “Fucking witches!”

Warnings: language, angst, fun, fluff, cocky Dean, being quarantined due to an odd spell, Dean being a tease, tension, implied smut

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Characters: Sam Winchester

Word count: 1223 (it got a bit longer)

“Fucking witches” Dean growls struggling against his brother's strength. “I can beat her! Let me just...” Sam pushes his brother into the bunker, almost causing Dean to fall down the stairs.

“Wait! Let us help!” Squeaking you end up pushed into Dean’s arms before the heavy door of the bunker locks behind you. “Hey! You can’t just lock us in!”

“We need to get out of here, Y/N! I will not survive for two weeks in this cage! I am not a good roommate while being a caged animal, sweetheart.” Dean pants heavily, not liking the idea of being locked in again.

“Dean, what if Rowena is right? What if we are toxic?” The hunter blinks a few times before he pokes your shoulder. “DEAN!”

“There, I am still alive. Cursed to kill my ass!” Eyes narrowed you poke Dean’s cheek only to giggle lightly at his pissed expression.

“Maybe we are only toxic to other people?” Not liking the idea Dean nods. “I’ll check on the lore. I bet I can find a way to get us out of here, Dean. I don’t want to be stuck with you either.”

“Hey, I am an awesome and great roommate,” Dean smirks, giving you one of his charming smiles followed by a wink. “Just push the right buttons, sweetheart.”

“I will not push anything, Winchester. Now, let's make a plan...”

Day 1

You gave up on reading more books last night. Sam said they are getting closer to solving the case. Hopefully, Rowena can reverse the spell and free the grumpy hunter and you.

“I am bored,” Dean whines while you make a list of your supplies. “Play with me…”

“Dude, I am not going to play any games with you. I have to check on the supplies or do you want to starve for the next two weeks?”

“Starve?” Suddenly interested in whatever you started, Dean dips his head to glance at the list your prepared.

“We’ve got three six-packs of beer, which means you’ll only drink one bottle per day from now on. Good thing I hate that crap.” Dean gulps hard, glancing at your list.

“We’ve got enough water, though. Let’s check. Sam bought enough food for three weeks but, we need to prevent food craving attacks, Dean. No midnight snack for you, big boy.” Grinning you pat Dean’s belly.

“As if you never ate anything in the middle of the night. Damn, I am hungry now…”

Day 3

“Can I not have one more beer and a slice of pie?” Dean whines, looking at you with big eyes, imitating his brother's puppy dog eyes. “Please?”

“Dean, if you drink more beer today, there will be nothing left at the end of the week. You have to choose…”

“I’ll choose to have one more tonight. Snacks are out soon…”

Day 5

“Hmm…that’s a nice outfit, sweetheart. How do you call it?” Watching you walk around in hello kitty sweatpants and a crop top Dean ogles you shamelessly. “I bet; you’d like to lose it…”

“Winchester, I am warning you.” Poking your finger into Dean’s chest you narrow your eyes. “It’s only five days, Dean. I don’t think your balls are blue…”

“Wanna check?” Dean cocks his head when you glance at his crotch.

Day 7

Another day in hell. The bunker is too cold today. Literally freezing your ass off you run around the large building to find the reason for the failure of the heating. “Damnit, Dean. Where is the heat gone?”

Dean smirks, stepping closer to open his coat. “Could warm you up, Y/N.” Debating to take Dean’s offer or to freeze to death you nod, letting Dean wrap you in his coat.

Head resting against his chest, you try to warm up. “I know a way to get you all hot and bothered, sweetheart.”

“Dean, what the fuck!” His swelling dick presses against your thigh. “That’s the problem. No fuck…”

Day 9

Crawling up the walls you try to find anything useful to do but you end up rolling around your bed, staring at the wall. “Watcha doing, sweetheart?”

“I try to bore myself to death, Dean. And you?”

“Same. You know, we could do something useful.” Dean snickers, pointing toward your bed. “Just saying.”

Your pillow ends up in his face and you groan, hoping Sam will free you soon.

Day 11

“For all that’s holy Dean, wear a fucking shirt and pants. You can’t just run around in boxers and socks!” Whining you glance at Dean’s ass when he bends over to grasp for the last beer.

“It’s unbearable hot today.” Huffing you wipe off some sweat. “I don’t know what’s wrong with the bunker. Days ago we almost froze off our asses and today I feel like getting roasted.”

“I had a shower and it was too warm. Not refreshing at all…”

Day 12

“No, no! That’s not true! They both would’ve died if she shared the door with him.” Bickering about Titanic, Jack’s death, and the door you stuff the last popcorn into your mouth.

“I believe they could’ve been saved, both.” Dean pokes your side, smirking as you pat his chest.

“Fine, Dean. If we ever end up in the middle of the ocean, freezing our asses off I’ll share the door with you.”

Day 13

“I am going to find you, sweetheart…” Dean yells through the bunker. Today you decided to play hide and seek, much to Dean’s amusement as he won all rounds so far. “There she is…”

Squeaking you try to outrun Dean, but he grasps for you, throwing you over his shoulder.

“I want my prize now, sweetheart. No chicken out. I am going to lay claim on this cute ass.”

Day 16

The bedframe slams into the wall one last time.

Dean barely can roll off your body, not after non-stop fucking for three days.

“That was awesome, but I need a break.”

“Same, Dean.” Laughing you pat his head. “I mean, at least we released the tension. It was overdue we fucked.”

“You know, this means your ass is mine. No discussion.” Nodding you close your eyes to calm your racing heart. “Did Sammy call? It’s fifteen days today.”

“Sixteen, Dean…”

“Son of a bitch!”

Day 21

“What the fuck, Sammy! What took you so long?” Cocking his head Dean glares at his brother.

“Three weeks, brother. You left us roast in this hell for three weeks while we had nothing else to do than…”

Sam’s eyes wander from you, wearing his brother’s plaid, to the hickey at Dean’s neck, back toward the handcuffs around your wrist Dean forgot to remove hearing the door of the bunker open.

“I think we are all happy Dean and I can leave the bunker again. Thanks to all of you, but Dean and I got a business to do. He owes me something and I want it now…”

Grabbing Dean’s hand you drag him toward his bedroom. “I want that orgasm, even if it kills us…”

“What the…?” Sam swallows thickly watching you ogle his brother shamelessly.

“Yeah, we ganked the witch, reversed the spell, got captured by a coven and almost tortured but it’s great you two found the time to…connect…”

“Fucking witches Sammy…” Dean snickers running off with you.

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A/N: If your name is crossed out Tumblr won’t let me tag you.

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#dean winchester #dean winchester x you #dean winchester fanfic #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester SPN #dean winchester x reader #implied smut #dean x reader #dean x you #8000 followers #8000 Follower’s Celebration #8000 followers celebration #8000 followers drabble prompts masterlist

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fun-with-colors · 4 years

Text

The thing about Maruki’s reality

Ok, first off: this is not a moral argument. I’m not gonna touch the morals of it all with a 10 foot pole right now. This is about the actual viability of Maruki’s proposed reality. Because here’s the thing:

It’s unstable.

Here are the facts as we know them:

“Reality” is based on the collective perception of the world

Maruki is trying to overwrite that collective cognition with his own

Maruki has to actively collect information from Mementos and from screening centers to know what problems to fix, and that is an ongoing process

When people die, their cognition collapses

The way I see it, there are two possible ways his actualization could work, and both have distinct logistical issues that make them incapable of fully achieving his goal of a world where people will always be happy.

Possibility One: After Maruki’s reality is “cemented,” it stays a live version of his cognition and changes as his cognition changes.

This is the possibility that is best backed up by game lore. What Maruki is essentially doing is replacing the cognition that reality is based on with his own, instead of the collective cognition. As we saw after the Yaldaboath fight, when public cognition changes, “reality” changes to fit. Based on that event, we can assume that Maruki’s reality will continue to change as his cognition does.

Ignoring the terrifying prospect that after decades of being a literal god, Maruki might become jaded and lose some of his benevolence to become a tyrannical dictator of public thought just like Yaldaboath (because, again, this is not a moral argument), this possibility opens up a small question with huge consequences:

What happens when Maruki dies?

We know that when people die, their cognition collapses. In fact, Shido tried to take advantage of that fact just a palace earlier to try and kill the Phantom Thieves. So... what happens when Maruki dies, if he has written over reality with his own cognition?

To put it another way, if Mementos is based on the public subconscious, then would you expect there to be a Mementos if literally everybody was dead? No, of course not. So, by making “reality” based on his consciousness and his alone, Maruki is dooming the world to oblivion the moment he dies.

One might argue that Maruki could be somehow immortal (again begs the question of devolution into tyranny, but this is still not a moral argument), but I doubt that. For one, he is still distinctly mentally human. After being beaten by the Phantom Thieves, he literally has Joker fistfight him for catharsis. That’s not the behavior of a man who has transcended his human flaws. And the second thing is that he is still beatable. If he literally thought of himself as a god, then he would be entirely invincible. This reality is built on his cognition. If he believed himself to be eternal, then he would have been. The very fact that you can beat him means that he can, and will, die at some point.

Or, fine, let’s say that reality won’t simply fade into nothingness when Maruki dies. What if we assume that because this cognition of reality has to be based off of something, no matter how detached that something is from the actual substance, that when Maruki dies, reality will simply go on as it was at the moment of his death, developing naturally and without his further interference? Well, then we run into the same problems as possibility two.

Possibility Two: After Maruki’s reality is “cemented,” it becomes a fixed state of reality, and does not change as his cognition develops.

This is less backed up by game lore, but I could see it happening based on the way Maruki’s reality is described. We are told that his cognition’s fusion with reality will be complete on February 3rd, and that at that point it would not be a cognition, but would be reality itself. What if we take that to mean that it will stop changing with his cognition?

Well, we avoid the harrowing question of Maruki’s death, but we run into some other issues.

First off, we know that Maruki has to actually seek out people’s problems to fix them. He did not simply fix everything all at once on New Year’s Day. He fixed everything that he already knew about, but based on the cables going into Mementos and the ongoing screening happening for patients, Maruki is not omniscient. He has to learn what problems exist in the world before fixing them. In fact, the Phantom Thieves can even go into Mementos after Maruki has changed the world and find people whose hearts they can change. Not only does Maruki have to scout out Mementos to find problems to solve, but he takes time to get to everyone. This leads to an interesting consequence if the world stays static after February 3rd:

How could Maruki possibly hope to fix everyone’s problems in only a month?

And, even if he somehow could, here’s another fun question:

What about problems that arise after February 3rd?

Just because there aren’t currently any problems in the world doesn’t mean there won’t be. Ignoring the possibility of political stuff, because the premise of this world seems to be that “happy people just don’t kill,” what about when other people die?

He brought back Wakaba. He brought back Shiho. He brought back Akechi. Great, awesome, people are happy, problems are solved. But... None of those people are immortal. Even if they live long, happy lives, they will die eventually. As will everyone. And Maruki knows and wants to avoid the pain of losing a loved one -- we can see in the loading screen dialogue that he even went so far as to bring people’s cats back -- so what will he do when those people die? In fact, that particular question applies to both this possibility and the possibility where reality continues to change with Maruki’s cognition. I don’t know what he would do if he could still impact the world. Maybe he finds some way to make it work.

Regardless, if reality is at that point divorced from his cognition, then there is nothing he can do and people will grieve. And as soon as people have to face the grief of losing loved ones, as soon as that grief comes back, as soon as that person’s cat he brought back dies again, then his goal of creating a world that will never have problems becomes moot. And if the idea behind this world is that “happy people just don’t kill,” then that also falls apart and we end up in just the same world we were in before. If Maruki is incapable of maintaining this ideal world, then it will not stay an ideal world. It will be an ideal world for a bit, but only until something goes wrong, at which point it will start falling apart.

In Conclusion:

The way I see it, there is no way for Maruki’s reality to be stable. Either he maintains an ideal world up until his death, at which point the world either disappears or stops being an ideal world, or he creates a moment of peace where most people’s problems are fixed... until things start falling apart and it stops being an ideal world. There is no way that his reality can last forever. The longest it will last as an ideal reality is roughly the length of a human lifetime.

Well... There is one possibility that I haven’t discussed, but it’s more of a moral argument.

Let’s say Maruki is immortal. We know he’s still mentally human and flawed, but let’s say he’s physically immortal. We now have a being that has the mental capacity of a human, who has put himself in charge of the happiness of everybody in the world... forever.

There’s no way his sanity could last.

#persona 5 spoilers #persona 5 royal spoilers #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #takuto maruki #maruki takuto #original oat #rambling #i've had these thoughts in my head for months #hoo boy

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just-jammin · 4 years

Text

Relighting

Word Count: 2024

Summary: The obscure yet infamous game of Sburb has probably caused some trauma & all-around bad times within the Chaos Family.

Their resident Protector can tell you all about it, and about how this predicament can be solved...

So. It’s been a while.

Not in the sense that I haven’t spoken to anyone in a while, just that I haven’t written a journal since... yeah, it wasn’t that long since I did that, but my point still stands.

Look, this whole Sburb thing is crazy ever since I first knew about it, but this is just outright ludicrous. The world-ending meteor shower, trying to process the abstract concepts & lore within the game, witnessing death itself... it’s not my cup of tea when it comes to first-hand experiences.

All of this reminds me of... something. It reminds me of a story that I’ve heard once while participating Mass, in a Homily. I can’t help it but think that it’s so much similar to our situation as of now.

How? I’ll tell it here.

>> —^— <<

In a dark, quiet room, there were four Candles.

Peace, Faith, Love, & Hope.

These four elements are very important to the story, as it is related to the people’s thoughts & actions. The Peace within the group, the Faith of triumph & joy, the unconditional Love for each other, and the Hope fueling our will to go on & go forth.

It’s all present in this session, as the Chaos Family. Even though we never formally met each other until the game started, and somehow one of us was accidentally sucked into it, we still have some camaraderie with each other.

And that’s when things started falling apart.

>> —^— <<

While talking to each other, the Candles noticed that Peace was melting.

You see, we never had proper Peace. We’re all about Chaos, right? But this is our kind of Peace; knowing that everyone is having fun & laughing along to our antics is our kind of Peace. It means that every single member is getting to know each other more.

Yet somehow, when we entered the Medium, things got serious. When I thought setting up a Zoom call tutorial thing for the extremely confused members was a mess, I didn’t expect our problems to be worse when we got our own Planets.

Don’t get me wrong, all of our Sprites did say that our Planets’ purpose was to strengthen ourselves. But all I could feel was insecurity. Scared of moving forward. And I bet the others felt that too.

Basically, our first impressions of our planets are outright Hell.

I think this is why fights started breaking out whenever we talked to each other. Whether it was a memo in Pesterchum (which we had to download), or just meeting up in one of the Planets, arguments are thrown here & there. Unfortunately, it escalated to rowdy fistfights that we had to have a hard time to let them struggle & break it up.

To be fair, sometimes I was in those fights. It was... rough.

Needless to say, this was a different kind of Chaos. It wasn’t the one we’re used to, nor the one that brings people together. It was the kind of Chaos that tears relationships apart and basically destroys everyone, inside & out.

When Peace had been standing in its final moments, it cried out, “Oh, what’s the use of me being here?! Everybody has been making a fool of themselves by causing nonsensical conflict!

“That’s it! I’m done here!”

There’s no Peace in there. Not anymore.

Its light flickers out.

>> —^— <<

There were three left.

And it had been for days.

Until one time, while the Candles were talking, they noticed that Faith was melting.

Faith. It’s hard to say when it was there in the first place.

I mean, to be fair, a lot of things are difficult to see in this Family, or the rest of Tumblr, actually. (Heh... I miss Tumblr...) But Faith comes in small things, like the friendships of others. And even full-on relationships. Little things like that can let us keep on believing that we can do better for ourselves.

That was... unfortunate.

Although entering the Medium was a win for all of us, there were also some losses for a handful of us.

It included our friends outside the Chaos Family. And even some of them in the Family.

Almost everyone not participating in our session is dead.

Dead. Gone forever.

It was a hard one to take in. Some of our real-life family relatives in our houses are still alive, but our Tumblr friends impacted some of us the most. People were crying. Like real tears.

And for some reason, I didn’t.

Almost all of my friends are here, my brother is here, and honestly, I didn’t have much back on Earth. Sure, my parents and relatives are gone, so that’s... depressing. But I can cope with them here. They’re the reason why I’m thriving.

The others? Not so much.

Faith had shouted while getting weakened, “Look, my own Faith is dwindling too, y’know?! They’re moping around in their own disbelief!

“I’m out!”

I guess I’m the only one who had more of it. But only by a smidge.

Its smoke wafts away in the dark.

>> —^— <<

And then there were two.

Unfortunately, Love was next to melt.

Ah, Love. This one is somewhat different from the story I’m telling than the source material.

You see, our Family’s Love never dwindled. We all still care for each other, no matter what happens to any of us. Through thick & thin, we helped each other to get ourselves up & going.

Heck, some of them got together romantically. Not that I’m too envious of them, but to be honest, they’re really cute with each other. A handful of them loved those outside of the Family, but you know what happened...

It’s just that we talked to each other less over time, either because of the missions we were given or because we just didn’t feel like talking to each other. It’s ok, I do respect their reasons, whether good or bad.

However, it just made me more concerned. I bet the others feel the same about that, but I think it’s been taking over my brain recently. I even tried talking about it to the closest people I know in the Family. No responses were made.

It doesn’t help that I have to literally build my way up, going through a complicated labyrinth of temperature-changing caverns filled with walking & talking thorny devils that hate me so much they shoot blood from their eyes at me.

Not to mention that I only have my annoying older brother with me, who only set my issue aside when I tried telling him. It sucks.

So no, our Love never dwindled.

It just became more isolated.

And yet, Love sobbed out, “Come on! Why am I not strong enough for them?! I thought I can keep all of them together!

“I can’t take this anymore!”

It just... feels like before. Numb all over.

Hehe, shit. I’m too familiar with that...

Love’s warmth faded away soon.

>> —^— <<

Only one was left standing.

The Candle of Hope.

Hope...

Well, that’s the only one that’s actually relevant to our session, huh?

It’s one of the main Aspects of Sburb, so of course it’s relevant! According to my Sprite, Hope is the embodiment of all positive emotions & beliefs, including Hope itself. It’s a pretty nice Aspect, in my opinion.

Anyway, Hope’s the one that got us through all our shit. Yes, even the very bad times. It’s basically a lifesaver for the Chaos Family and the rest of Tumblr. It can be distributed in many ways, from simple things like compliments, to posts like those ‘One Note a Day’ ones and a bunch of others like that.

But this, this is what I thought we were lacking the most at the time.

By that time, a little girl came running inside the dark room.

She noticed the other three Candles, melted & burnt out.

“Peace? Faith? Love?” she tried to call out.

I... didn’t think it was there when we started the session, nor when the fights started to break out. Not even when... when my friends started struggling with themselves.

Heck, some of them wanted to let their lives go to get to God Tier... or for worse intentions...

Shit, everything sucked.

The girl started tearing up, calling the other Candles repeatedly.

“Why?!” she finally sobbed. “Why aren’t you still burning?! You’re supposed to stay till the end, right?!”

At least, that’s what I thought... before, uh, that happened.

You see, it was one day while I was struggling to find my way through the Land of Rumors and Elements when someone stood in a distance away from me. When I tried to process who it was, they somehow got to me in quick speeds & punched my glasses off of me.

I was at a disadvantage by then. I tried to use my two knives (alchemized ones; they looked cool & they were more fit for fighting) to get them, but my eyesight is pretty crap. I missed my slashes so many times.

Then I felt them getting one of the knives, and it turned into what was basically a very inconvenient sword-fight. It went on for a long time, trying to injure free spots before getting parried repeatedly.

I then noticed a sharp pain on my right side.

When I turned my head towards the feeling, my right arm was on the ground.

Bleeding. Aching. Hurting.

Fading.

I faced the person one last time, and I only see a silhouette. On their head is a mint-colored circle with three wisp-like appendages... a symbol...

The next thing I knew, I was lying on stone. I was... weak. And tired.

On my side was my Sprite, a golden retriever with water buffalo horns & a fedora. She had a mournful look on her face.

I closed my own eyes & took a deep breath when I realized.

I was dying.

“RIGHT?!?!”

She cried out before falling to the ground, practically drowning in her own tears.

Then I felt as numb as I could ever be.

>> —^— <<

Then she heard a voice.

It said, “Worry not, child. I’m still here.”

She looked up to see the remaining Candle in the room.

“Why should I not worry, then?” the girl questioned.

It replied, “I can relight the others if you truly acknowledge my presence.”

She perked up at the response she was given. Crawling closer towards the Candle, she followed up with, “And why is that?”

A soft chuckle came out from it.

“Well... isn’t my name Hope?”

>> —^— <<

I didn’t expect to feel a burst of cool air from where my arm was cut off. At least, I didn’t expect it to be the first thing I felt since I died.

Then I felt something on my back, pushing me up & up until I recognized it as floating in the air. Little by little, my senses came back to normal. The numbness had subsided, replaced with what I think was... power.

My lungs breathed air again; I can make sounds; I can see, smell, hear, feel...

I’m human again. Alive. Awake.

Unfortunately, living again came with having to deal with pain. Remnants of the aching on my right arm arrived, so naturally, I let my left hand clench where it hurt. There was a scar on where I was touching, but I can unusually feel the rest of my arm...

Yep, I got my arm back. Nice, I guess. Let’s set that aside for now.

One other detail I noticed was that I was wearing a mostly yellow outfit: a sleeveless shirt, some leggings, and dark green boots, along with long fingerless gloves. I then took a look at a puddle to see that my reflection has a superhero-like mask on my face.

I did not know how the fuck they got on me.

Yet one thing’s for sure: I’ve ascended and went to God Tier.

And my role?

I relight our Family’s bond & trust with the help of Hope.

With shining eyes, the girl picked the Candle up and lighted the other three.

Peace, Faith, & Love.

All together, alight again, in the dark room.

>> —^— <<

I am the Rogue of Hope, the one who distributes Hope to others.

#hOOOOOOLY FUCK THIS MIGHT BE MY WORLD RECORD-#I STARTED WRITING THIS YESTERDAY #OH MY FUCKING GOD I AM SO HAPPY & PROUD RN #homestuck #sburb #sburb au #sburb session #fan session #[Homestuck AU]#chaos family!#just writing some bullshit #(yes that’s a tag now)#chaos & conflict

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ecto-american · 4 years

Text

White and Nerdy

Holiday Truce Gift for @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy based on their request for Vlad’s slice of life outside of the Fentons.

On FFN and AO3

Summary: Contrary to belief, Vlad does have hobbies other than spinning in a fancy chair with his cat thinking of evil plots. For example, every Tuesday he dedicates the day to hanging out with his best friend as they both indulged in their crippling, long term addictions: World of Warcraft, with a pinch of Dungeons and Dragons.

Rating: K+

Warnings: Some cursing

Other Notes: Everybody is gay or trans, and you can't stop me.

Running a multi billion dollar empire was stressful, to say the very least. And of course, when you own those businesses, it was easy to work as much or as little as you pleased. Not that Vlad ever found himself taking off too much from work. No, no. He loved running his empire, the meetings and decisions. Whenever he took too much time off, the halfa found himself restless. Vlad craved a full schedule, and he needed things to look forward to.

Though of course, he wasn't all work and no play. There was one day of the week Vlad always, with the exception of business trips, took off or would take easy: Tuesdays. Tuesday was raid day.

And on that Tuesday morning, Vlad paid no mind as he could faintly hear the front door being unlocked and closed. His best friend, his actual best friend (NOT that fool Jack), had keys and was permitted to come over whenever he pleased.

Vlad continued his morning routine lazily, carefully shaving and grooming his beard to his preferred style. Brushed and styled his hair in it's normal ponytail, and he dressed himself. Any other day of the week, Vlad would be putting on his Italian brand name custom suits, always freshly pressed and ironed by a maid. But today was raid day, and so he instead was wearing sweatpants and an oversized Packers sweatshirt. He slipped on his football slippers, and he went downstairs to his computer room.

Not his office, which was expensively decorated with only the most fine and formal, shelves lined with important titles. His computer room, which was expensively decorated for a whole other reason. As he opened the door, he smiled at the shelves full of figurines of his favorite characters, accessories adorning the walls. He knew that most would have a stroke, since he never kept anything in the original box, despite having the entire collection of figurines, statues, busts, everything that would make the most dedicated fan drooling. That was simply stupid in Vlad's eyes, it was made to be admired and displayed, not kept in a box. If any were to break, he could simply buy another, no issue.

They lined shelves that were all over the brightly lit room, with cabinets below that held their boxes. While he didn't keep them in boxes, he of course, still kept them. There were also some books, mostly related to the lore but also game guides and manuals.

He admired his collection for a moment before turning his attention to the middle aged man getting comfortable in one of the three computer setups Vlad had, the far left one. All the setups were, of course, only the best and most advanced, with each desktop having three monitors and leather chairs. Each desk was a large U shaped one, set pressed to each other and near the back wall for the outlets.

"Hey, morning!" Edward Lancer greeted him warmly. Both men were morning people, clear by their chosen professions and schedules. Ed was in his own lounge wear, sweatpants with crocs and an old college t-shirt. "I brought McDonald's." He gestured to the bag that was left on Vlad's desk, alongside a cup of coffee clearly from Vlad's own kitchen.

Had it been any person other than Ed, Vlad would have been mortified over McDonald's. But even billionaires couldn't resist their breakfast, and it was only on Tuesday that he was able to privately indulge. Ed never judged.

"Thank you!" Vlad replied brightly. Ed had his own meal in front of him, sitting facing away from the keyboard as he took his time eating. Vlad joined him, sitting at his desk and doing the same, allowing them to talk face to face as they ate.

"Are you ready to fight the dragon later?" Ed questioned as he cut up his pancakes. "Since we're resting, I've been trying to figure out what spells I should prepare for the day to fight it." Vlad snorted, shaking his head.

"Knowing Harriet, she'll likely make the dragon a red herring that goes down with ease and dick us over with the actual boss that'll be invincible to half our party because it's immune the attacks that destroy the damn dragon," Vlad replied before taking a big sip of coffee. Burning hot, but delicious. Ed chuckled in amusement.

"She's always made it fair though," Ed replied. "Her boss battles are never unbeatable."

"Yeah, but she makes every campaign some Water Temple level meets 90s point and click mystery game difficulty and outrageous puzzle solving," Vlad grumbled.

"I like it, it's good critical thinking practice," Ed replied. "I've used some of her puzzles in the games I DM for the students. Really makes them think rather than just attacking everything. I swear, one of my students, Nathan, he just loves rolling to attack every NPC I make."

"Sounds like a ninny," Vlad said as he took a bite of his greasy fast food. The best part about the summer was Ed not having to teach. They could dedicate the whole day to hanging out. Of course, Ed took up a summer job, but he was able to secure Tuesdays off.

"A bit, but a good kid," Ed always spoke fondly of his students. "You should come in sometime for a game, it'd be fun."

"I think I might," Vlad agreed thoughtfully.

Of course, going to Casper High was always hit or miss. Daniel was there, and it was always nice to be able to check in on the little badger. But as mayor and a billionaire that funded several scholarships, it would be nice publicity to go and have some face time with kids. Many of his high school interns had graduated and left for college, and he was in the market for some new ones. Might be able to find some promising new future employees too. Hm, he'd have to see where he could fit a Casper High visit into his schedule when school began. Vlad would worry about that another time.

"How's their gay club?" Vlad questioned. "You guys just formed one, right?"

"It's got a steady group of kids who come in, very good kids. Many have supportive parents now," Ed explained. The teacher had paused, giving a small sigh. "It's a double edge sword for me. On one hand, I'm so grateful that so many of them can be who they are. But...I don't know. I hate that we never got to have that."

Vlad nodded understandingly. He poked at his breakfast, feeling hunger temporarily leave him as those depressive memories came back.

"I'll forever be thankful that Mother wanted to apologize and make amends before she died," Vlad spoke. "But I'm sorry she missed out on so much because of what I had to do to become happy. At least she passed away recognizing me as her son."

The last memories of his mother was depressing. Elderly and sick with cancer, even with all the money Vlad began to throw at her once she reached out to him after nearly twenty years of refusing to speak to him. Whether his sister wore her down, or it was deathbed regrets. It was an emotional two years, being able to see his mom again.

"Mine's in better shape than me, and they're still calling me by my old name," Ed complained. "I don't think it'll ever change. I try to keep a relationship, cause of the kids, but I don't know if it's even worth it anymore."

Silence hung in the air as they separately mourned for what it all cost them. Of course, it was worth it. Absolutely worth it to be happy, to be comfortable and finally as they should be, but it didn't make the cost any less harsh of a price to pay.

"Their generation will be better," Vlad said firmly. Ed nodded in agreement. "Please let me know if any of them need binders or anything of the sorts."

"I will. I've been thinking about starting a clothing drive for them," Ed explained. "I can probably get the school on board with it if we market it as for the lower income students too. Dressing how you want makes a big difference."

"You get the details sorted out, and I will absolutely financially back you," Vlad promised. Ed smiled.

"Thank you. I may start working on that to propose for this school year," Ed mused.

For the bumbling oaf that Jack was, Vlad had to admit that he was a very loving and caring man. A bit too caring, honestly, it was a bit of a flaw. He had immediately accepted Vlad, and later on his own son. It always warmed him to remember that Daniel had two parents that had immediately gotten him everything a young trans man could ever need. No hesitation, no questioning.

Ed took a final bite of his breakfast before humming happily. He wiped his hands as he pushed to toss his empty containers into the trash can.

"Enough being sad, let's raid," he suggested. Vlad hurriedly took his last two bites before nodding in agreement.

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The raid was broken up with greasy Chinese takeout for lunch, brought to them by a staff. Another guilty pleasure Vlad rarely indulged in. Then, of course, it was a return to games before they changed into their normal attire, sitting down to a home cooked dinner by staff. By the time they were finishing up, their other guests had begun to arrive for the evening plans.

Vlad always hosted the game. It just always made the most sense. He had the most room in his house, nor the distractions of family. Not that he disliked Lance nor Ed's children, they were great, but there was nothing that ruined the immersion of dragon slaying quite like teenage dramatics. And he thought that playing with toddlers in the house was frustrating.

The four sat in yet another room in Vlad's mansion that he had dedicated fully to the hobby. A large round table with Harriet Chin sitting furthest from them. A DM folder that separated her papers from there, just low enough that the halfa could see her smirking to herself as she reviewed her plans. Ed sat to her left, with an empty seat in between them. Another empty seat in between him and Vlad, and yet another separated Vlad from Lance Thunder.

Vlad honestly didn't really know the man that well yet. He was one of Harriet's coworkers that she had dragged into the summer game, as Vlad and Ed needed a third person in the party for this campaign. Their normal fourth and fifth friends, Joe and Frank, were spending the summer with their daughter and their newborn granddaughter. He already missed the pair terribly, especially Frank. Frank would often join in on their World of Warcraft adventures. But Lance was gay, and that made him okay enough for Vlad to accept him into their little queer circle with little complaint.

"I wouldn't get her a car unless she had good grades," Vlad gave his two cents into the conversation. Something about Lance's daughter wanting a car. Lance nodded.

"That's what I've been saying, but Alan keeps saying that if Star had her own car, she could begin driving herself to the library and to school to study, but I just don't buy that," Lance agreed. Vlad knew by now who those people were. Alan was Lance's husband, Star was Lance's daughter from his first marriage. Vlad had seen pictures of Star before. She was a spitting image of Lance. "She's more interested in being with her friends."

"And what does Rene think?" Ed questioned about the ex-wife's opinion. Lance shrugged.

"She doesn't think Star needs a car," Lance replied. "Public transportation isn't bad here, she can always borrow one of our cars, and lots of colleges won't let you have cars as a freshman anyway. So it'd be sitting in the driveway in a year or so for a year anyway."

"Star's going to be a junior, right?" Vlad questioned. Lance nodded. Vlad mentally went over his garage of cars. "When she's able to have a car on her college campus, I'll happily give her a good deal on one of my cars if she has good grades. I'll probably be retiring one of my cars by then. Of course, it's not going to be some beat up piece of junk." Lance's eyes widened.

"I'll definitely keep that in mind," Lance smiled warmly at him.

"Vlad sold my oldest, Ophelia, a car about five years ago. Car still runs like it's new," Ed spoke up.

"Ophelia just began graduate school, didn't she?" Harriet questioned, finally speaking up. She had been nose deep in her campaign notes. Ed nodded.

"She got in at the University of Chicago, full ride," Ed beamed with pride, and Vlad was very proud too. Ophelia, his precious goddaughter, was like a niece to him. Very smart, quick-witted and the only one who could match Ed's passion for literature. Of course, Vlad provided her with that full ride scholarship, as he did with her younger siblings, and eventually he would do the same for Ed's remaining two when they got to that point. No niece or nephew of his was going to college with student debts. "George is set to graduate soon too, this is his last year. Before med school anyway."

Ahh, little Georgie. Vlad got to spend a lot of time with him. He was one of Vlad's interns at Axion Labs. A strong willed boy, good head on his shoulders. Sometimes a little too honest, but the world needed more people like that. Whenever the billionaire stopped by Axion Labs, he always paid a visit to his favorite intern. It was always those times he spent with Ed's children that Vlad regretted not having his own.

"So how's the cat, Vlad?" Harriet asked, giving a small smirk. She could always seem to sniff out his emotions. Damn journalists. They were a bit too observant. Vlad rolled his eyes.

"How's yours?" he asked back. She chuckled.

"Bandit's the happiest boy alive, I just got him a nice new cat tower," she replied. Vlad nodded.

"I just had a new cat house for Maggie built," Vlad told her. Of course, he was never going to admit to his friends, most of them knowing the ghost huntress, that he named his cat after a long term crush. "It's going to be installed in the next week or so. You should bring Bandit over then. Maggie loves him."

"Oh I might," Harriet hummed happily. "It's been a while since Bandit got to hang out with Maggie."

"Does anybody want a drink before we begin?" Vlad questioned.

"Can I have a glass of rosé wine?" Harriet questioned. The billionaire smirked.

"Of course," he replied. He glanced to Ed and Lance.

"Uh, just gimme a beer, you know what I like," Ed shrugged. Lance thought for a moment.

"I may just have some wine too," Lance spoke.

Vlad nodded, and he stood to go to the intercom on the wall. All of the rooms in his house had it for his staff. He pushed it, and he requested the drinks, alongside what he knew to be choice snacks.

Almost as soon as Vlad had sat down, a male staff member came with a tray. It was full of cheese and crackers, popcorn, chips and fondue. Another staff member came with drinks and glasses.

Vlad picked up a beer like Ed, cracking it open and taking a long drink. Of course, in any other company, he'd indulge in wine. Beer was not something one could normally drink at a formal business function, and so he always took advantage of the times he could freely have some.

They began. A small discussion, and as the billionaire expected, the dragon went down easy. Suspiciously easy. Harriet gave the group before her a mischievous grin just over her DM folder. Vlad didn't like this, or that look in her eye.

"So you guys defeated the dragon," the reporter replied slyly. "But there's no loot to collect on him. The dragon dissolves and melts away. Everybody roll for perception and add your stuff. Then tell me what you got."

Oh, he definitely did not like this a single bit. Vlad eyed her coldly as he picked up his dice. Ed and Lance did the same.

"Visual or hearing, I'm missing an eye so I'd have to roll disadvantage otherwise," Ed reminded her.

"Hearing!" Harriet chirped. He nodded.

"Uh, sixteen then," he replied.

"Ten," Lance said.

"Twenty-two," Vlad spoke.

"You hear nothing," Harriet told Lance, pointing to him. She moved her finger to Ed. "You hear a small noise, two voices. But they're a bit muffle, you can't quite make out the entire conversation. But you do hear some words. The general jist of the conversation you can make out is that these individuals have realized you killed the dragon and are here." Harriet pointed to Vlad. "You! However, you can hear everything. It's a rough voice of a masculine figure telling somebody to prepare for battle, somebody has killed their precious dragon. They're going to detect your thoughts to determine your next movements before making their next move."

"I cast detect magic," Vlad replied. Harriet's eyes sparkled.

"It failed," she announced gleefully. Vlad internally groaned, and he could see Ed looking confused. "So what will you guys do."

Lance scratched his temple as he stared at his character sheet. He was not just new to the group, but to the game itself. The weather man studied his sheet for a moment as he tried to think. He took a long sip of his wine before speaking.

"Well uh, I think my guy is just gonna look for the treasure, cause I didn't hear anything," Lance said slowly. "And I'm still really interested in the promised gold."

"I tell him to not, because we should be careful," Ed spoke up quickly. "Because of what I heard."

"You tell your party what you heard?" Harriet questioned. She had leaned back in her seat, a leg over the arm of the chair as she held her beverage. The lesbian lightly swirled her wine in her glass before taking a long drink.

"Yeah, I tell my party what I heard," Ed clarified.

"And I'll tell them what I heard," Vlad agreed. "Because I need these people alive to keep me alive. They're my meat shields." Harriet snickered.

"So the prince never mentioned anything but a dragon being in here," Ed said slowly. "It must be another adventuring party trying to get the treasure. Prince Yamum said he did send several people to collect the family amulet."

"I say we kill them," Vlad suggested. Ed looked at him in disapproval, and Vlad shrugged. "My character's selfish. He doesn't want to share the loot with this party, and he doesn't want to share the rewards for returning the amulet."

"I agree," Lance said slowly. "My guy doesn't want the competition."

"No, no!" Ed said sternly. "We are NOT killing him, he may have useful information for us or be able to help."

"There's two voices, so that's a five way split between treasure," Lance pointed out. Vlad glanced to see Harriet's reaction. She was grinning like a fool, with that distinctive sparkle in her eye. She was absolutely up to something, and she looked like a true super villain. Evil plots forming her mind. Vlad trusted her with nothing, and yet he admired this chaotic evil lesbian. Harriet was his villain goals.

"Harriet, I swear on your grave," Vlad began his threat, only to stop with a frown at Harriet's devilish giggle.

"The individual detects your negative and violent thoughts," she announced cheerfully. She finished off her glass, shifting to have both legs over the armrest, her back against the opposite one. "And they have deduced that you're a threat that needs to be taken care of. Congratulations, boys. You're encountering the real boss." Vlad scowled.

"I knew you were going to do this, you always pull some weird bait and switch thing!" Vlad complained. Harriet smirked. "Lemme guess. It's a, it's a, god what would be the worst thing to fight right now." Vlad racked his mind for a possible enemy. "A rakshasa? Probably with a shield guardian too."

Harriet's smirk only widened. And Vlad knew he was correct.

"Roll for initiative, bitch."

#my phics #phics #holiday truce 2019 #idiot cheesehead archenemy #vlad masters #mr. lancer #lance thunder #harriet chin

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spirit-shroud · 5 years

Note

Tinsel: b c e f Cassandra: p q s v

hi nines!! love u!!

For Tinsel -

Beverage : What do they most like to drink, and why?Tinsel’s two most common drinks are pumpkin spice coffee and pomegranate juice! Coffee just because he’s like, an autumn weeb in general (and he has Sleepy Bitch Disease, as i do), and pomegranate because he’s #not a vampire bat but kinda wants to look it so people don’t like, bother him, yknow?

Co-Habitate : Do they live with anyone? What’s “need to know” before moving in? He lives with his parents because he’s like, a baby, a small 15 year old, but when/if he gets older and like... inevitably fucks off and moves in with maple and gang as crime solving buddies im pretty sure his entire ‘need to know’ list is like: 1. chores need to assigned ahead of time, publicly, on a very noticeable list, so he doesn’t miss them / they aren’t left up to interpretation and people arent left frustrated2. he cannot cook anything that’s not in a box and he is too terrified to learn3. he needs two days’ warning before anyone comes over so he has time to free himself from living in squalorpretty simple stuff i think?Escape : What do they do to destress? How successful is it?his idea of “de-stressing” is arguing with people over the internet which would work and be a fun time except he. takes things personally. very personally. and would probably be thinking about anything mean he said or got said to him for like, months. it’s. a whole-ass thing. also the more stressed out he is, the more stupid, impulsive decisions he makes! and the more he wants to isolate! it’s whack! please get a stress ball or like, go outside, tinsel!! this isn’t healthy!!!we aren’t going to talk about the fact tinsel is literally just my self insert/fursona

Fluff : What hits their soft spot? Does anything them into emotional goo?(do you think the op noticed there’s a missing word in this question? lol)

not much, really? like he has a half-soft spot for his friends, but he never really gets emotional? like he gets defensive when complimented, doesn’t really squeal for long over kittens, feels guilty receiving gifts, doesn’t have any concepts of empathy or grief. like. i think the closest thing he has to a soft spot is the fact he’ll think forever if someone is generally nice to him or invites him out someplace or just says they’ve been thinking of him. he’ll feel the desperate need to top their kindness until it makes an infinite loop.

how about i just make this a two for one deal where you get both clair and cassie? but like. im. making up 100% of stuff about cassie as i go and if im too far off path from what you think then yell at me about it in the devcord kjdfhgkdjfg

Pistol : Is this character skilled with a weapon? What’s their opinion of violence? Clair: Clair’s main weapons include a kris dagger and a heavy tome, since he’s like, a (clairic) cleric. he’s uncomfortably good with any knife or scalpel, though, just from his history of medical Nonsense and picking up a few things here and there. he doesn’t particularly like violence, though he has a tendency to snap and not stop hurting people people until everyone around him is in some way gone/incapacitated/dead should things come to that. he’s not the most aware person when he gets upset :V

Cassandra: Cassie has a singular pistol that got sent to her P.O. box as fanmail and she’s kept it ever since. It’s not really effective against, y’know, hordes of zombies at all, but it sure does shred living people if need be. she’s another one who doesn’t like real violence, citing it as disturbing and difficult to watch, but definitely wouldn’t turn down some good ol staged graphic stuff. Movies/video games/witing are fine. It’s just when it’s happening in front of her without the stage lighting is she hurt by it.

Question : How often do they feel doubt? What topics are they defensive about? Clair: Clair is like, made of doubt. 100% of his existence is just him doubting his own experiences and what really happened to him to land him where he is. he gets pretty defensive over topics like friends/family, being super deeply afraid of people getting attached to him. whenever people prove to like him too much, he goes out of his way to betray them and fuck off somewhere where he doesn’t have to see them anymore.

he’ll also totally overexplain and correct anything pertaining to zombie lore or psychology. but remember, he’s not an actual zombie. allegedly. clair is allegedly not a zombie.

Cassandra: Cassie doesn’t really doubt much. like, she hit that ‘self aware that everything sucks and there’s not much she can actually do about it as an individual’ stage, and rather than having a breakdown over it, elected to just have fun with it, tormenting the citizens of Isolon with her nonsense and trying her best to make sure people are at least somewhat aware like she is. i feel like if there was anything she’d take super personally, it’d be anything pertaining to the fact Jules Is A Bad Guy (she has like. 9 powerpoints on this, probably. she makes a new one with new evidence every No Censorship Saturday and streams its creation). she’d throw hands with a jules supporter. fuck em up, babe!!

Sing : Do they like music? Do they listen often/sing/hum/play songs in their head?Clair: Clair doesn’t really seek out music, per se? but he’s never bothered by it if it’s playing. he’ll bop along and if it’s something he’s heard before it’s definitely been quietly sung before. if you ask him to sing in front of other people you will definitely die, though. figuratively and literally.

he’d never tell anyone without some extreme emotional compromise, but he used to play piano and was learning the harp before he died.

Cassandra: Cassie ran out of lofi/royalty free/meme songs for the CasCast(tm) on like, day 931, and decided she’d try her hand at making some of her own!! she has. limited success. but she’s trying and that’s what counts. She’s probably responsible for there being a refurbished karaoke machine in Tim’s bar because like, the world ended, who the fuck cares. she’s a music fan and old memes and is trying to bring back rickrolling in 2069. (this may be an excuse to add canonical rickrolling in SO. maybe.)

Vice : What bad habits do they have? Is there something they would be ashamed of? Clair: i think clair’s most notable bad habit is that his idea of like... coping with anything is just. putting it off. he don’t have time for feelings. hes an apathetic lil bitch. but in that same vein he doesn’t really feel like.. shame, per se? because like. he hasn’t really done anything hes just mad all the time lol

Cassandra: she kinda falls under the same vein as clair i think as far as her worst possible thing being Not Coping With The Apocalypse. i mean, she'd have a few annoying habits, like needing to talk through literally everything she does off or on the air, she probably hoards used mugs at her desk, leaves towels in weird places, has never once folded nor put away laundry, but nothing like. evil? just the dumb stuff. as far as shame goes, i can’t think of anything off the top of my head tbh

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

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bleedandevolve · 6 years

Text

Monsters and Men vs Bleed and Evolve: Why change?

I’ve spoken a lot about Monsters and Men, our previous forum and name, and I realized I should have made an entry like this sooner. Basically, I want to address what’s with all the change and why.

I’ve already covered some topics, like how enemies are starting to become their own mechanic instead of having to stat out new characters, essentially, every time you want to beat something up. How starting gear got a bit of a change with the pokemon zodiac, and other things as well. I’ll try not to re-cover those topics here.

Story time!

When I started Monsters and Men, it was because I fell in love with tabletop rpgs and had no one to play them with. My cousin, who was the only Dungeon Master I knew, decided he hated running games and abruptly stopped. I turned to the internet, but knew I wanted something specific, that I didn’t want to reinvent my old forum Chasing Our Spirits, because when I look back on it, it felt like a colossal failure to me. I wanted something similar though. I wanted to take pokemon and “ruin” it so to speak, then mash it together with tabletops. Pokemon has always been my biggest love of any sort of fandom, ever since I was very, very young, and Pokemon Yellow came out. I got a Gameboy Color just for that, and it took me hours to figure out how to leave the first house because I was a dumb kid. I sobbed when the batteries died in my Gameboy and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t play anymore. I watched the Pokemon anime whenever I could, I even went so far as to demand the Pokemon mac and cheese shapes over any other kind of shapes (the shapes are the best tasting and you won’t convince me otherwise).

I joined a few other pokemon roleplays after Chasing Our Spirits was closed down, and realized it still wasn’t fitting what I needed. That eventually spurred me into making my own again. I tried to delve into the world of tabletop rpgs, of which I was completely new to. A lot of my cousin’s rpgs were improvised on the spot, with little to no mechanical involvement. Anywho, I contacted my old friend Amissa, who I knew from back when I started this whole mess, with a little rp in a pokemon collectible's roleplay section on their forums. The roleplay was Shadow over Alleos, which I also consider a disaster, but it did teach me a few things.

We started working on what would become Monsters and Men. She had more experience than me with tabletops at this point, but I spearheaded the mechanics, thinking that I could get by with what research I did on FATE and Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying System.

Oh how wrong I was.

It became abundantly clear to me immediately after we opened in beta that we weren’t attracting people who wanted to tell a story where dice played a role. They wanted to “win” the roleplay, and quickly broke my system to make themselves very powerful. Being young and naive, it took me a while to figure out how to put my foot down and start trying to fix things, not to mention my social anxiety making it difficult for me in general. But slowly, I kept trying to fix things, and improve them. Members largely came and went, though we had a few who stuck by our side (thank you guys, you have no idea how much that meant to me).

But I still felt like I was only band-aid fixing everything. I didn’t know enough about tabletops to really fix the system in a way that wasn’t tedious to use (our later system) or completely easy to break (our earlier system). While the later system made things harder and more threatening, the fact that you had to go through useless skills to make better ones and then drop the old useless ones actually made zero sense and I don’t know why I kept running with it.

In addition, I had the luxury of seeing a few sites try to mimic my system and watched how the system fared there. I kept coming to the same conclusion though: something needs to change. A lot of things need to change.

Let me show you the problems I had and how I’m addressing them:

Problem: Skills are tedious to use because so many of them are garbage. Solution: Revamp the skill system entirely. I’ll go over how we almost completely changed skills at a later date when I’m sure I have more of it figured out, and more testing is done, but suffice it to say, I launched myself into research. I started backing rpg manuals on Kickstarter, I asked for them for Christmas, I went out and bought them and began to hoard them. I read them cover to cover, things ranging from Pathfinder to Dungeon World to Fireborn. I’m still in this process, making sure that I’m not missing anything, to make sure that things are ready to go and hopefully in better shape this time when we re-open.

The problem with the old system was that skills had to be “Generalized”, then you could “branch” a skill when it reached a certain rank to “Specialized” which could do more cool things, and then “Unique/Expertise” which could do the best stuff, but you had to level all of those skills individually. Instead of being useful, it just created a step ladder of skills that you never came back down from.

Problem: Enemies take forever to stat up and it makes combat slow to a crawl and makes people (like me) not want to post ever. Solution: At first, my solution was that I was going to improve the skill system. However, when I figured one out that I liked, I ran into the issue that it would be impossible to do without a second person. And impossible to automate, even if I paid the big bucks to someone to develop it for Xenforo. Not to mention paying them to maintain it through updates! So then it clicked, as I said in the last entry...Why did the two systems have to be the same? Who said? Well, they were wrong. I’ll give you guys an update on the new enemy system soon, I promise!

Problem: Equipment is either too powerful, or not powerful enough. Solution: Tear it up and start anew. I’ve been through so many different equipment systems I can’t even remember a lot of them. But the one I have right now I’m pretty satisfied with. I hate to say it again, but stay tuned! I’ll go over the new system soon. Problem: Pokedex (and wiki pages in general) pages were all over the place. Solution: Fuck it, make a new wiki. Start fresh. (Noticing a pattern in how I solve these issues?) It will, of course, suck to move all of that information over, but we’re changing so much to begin with that it’s not even worth trying to fix up the old wiki. Problem: Lore is all over the place, or not covering things that people need. Solution: Hand it to our local lore nerd lorekeeper Aurora. She’s extremely passionate about the setting of Bleed and Evolve, and I trust her completely with it. We have a pretty great connection when it comes to what we want out of the world of Cimmeria, and I know she’ll give it her all. I really want Cimmeria to feel like a living, breathing world you can immerse yourself into and be completely taken away. Did you ever want to know how much metal and what kind of metal 100 scrap traditionally is? Weight included? We got you covered.

Problem: There’s no good way to restrict certain types of characters (escaped pokemorphs, ect). Solution: Meta currency, my friends. Separate from scrap, which is in-game currency, the meta currency “Diamonds” will be gained from different activities, like being a Storyteller. Diamonds can be exchanged for access to a rare character type, like an escaped pokemorph. Problem: Quests are very same-y and boring. Solution: Change the system! You can see what I did in an earlier entry, but the short answer is that the whole system needed to be gutted. We had it automated on Monsters and Men, but I would trade it in a heartbeat for what it is now. What’s the bottom line answer to the question I asked in the title? We changed because I hated the direction we were going. We changed because it wasn’t working, it was time for something new. And we changed because I knew more this time around. There are so many different reasons why we rebranded as Bleed and Evolve, but one of them was because I wanted to shed some of the problems Monsters and Men had. Not to forget about them, but to start anew. We needed to make way for something better.

On that note, I think I’m going to stop this entry here. Stay tuned for more Developer Diaries, possibly one tomorrow as an update to The Enemy Turn! - Thief

#pokemon roleplay #dark pokemon #pokemon rp #tabletop rp #pokemon tabletop #gritty pokemon #bleedandevolve #forum rp #forum roleplay

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bluering8 · 6 years

Text

TNG S01

I’m done with TNG S01! I’ve gotta watch some other stuff before I launch into S02, so have a quick round-up of my Very Important opinions on various characters/episodes:

Data - I love Data!! Holy shit do I love Data!! He is precious to me and perfect in every way and I want to hollow him out and wear his skin like a suit. That... possibly sounds creepier than I meant? Look, he’s my perfect wish-fulfilment character, okay. He’s earnest and awkward and he never quite Gets It, but he wants to Get It so badly, and he tries so hard, and whenever he talks people are constantly cutting him off partway through because they’ve decided he’s saying too much or saying it wrong, and he sort of... exemplifies what has been my perspective of the Autistic Experience. And despite all that, he has a career he enjoys and friends who care about him and I want to be him so much that it kind of hurts.

Also, Data has feelings. I will fight anyone to the death on this issue, I sincerely can’t see how anyone could look at Data and not come to the conclusion that he has feelings. Data has so many feelings! He might not have feelings the way humans have feelings, but he unmistakably has his own opinions and his own way of relating to the world. It’s heartbreaking that he doesn’t recognise the value of his own experiences in favour of desperately trying to live up to some arbitrary “correct” way of existing.

Deanna Troi - I hate Troi. I do not want to hate Troi, because empaths are way cooler than they usually get credit for, but she’s so fucking annoying. All she ever does is say things which were already completely fucking obvious. She’s a walking violation of show-don’t-tell and every time she opens her mouth I groan because I know whatever she’s about to say is going to ruin my enjoyment of a scene. About the nicest thing I can say about her is that she’s still a better character then Wesley, being merely irritating rather than universe-warpingly terrible.

Jean-Luc Picard - Picard’s such a dad, holy shit. I never noticed this when I watched TNG before, but now I’m picking up on it as, like, the major facet of his personality. I mean, he also drinks Earl Grey and LARPs as a detective and discusses philosophy with aliens, but mostly he’s just Space Dad now and forever. Somehow I also forgot the LARPing as a detective part of his character? Picard’s just a huge fucking nerd isn’t he.

Q - I have very mixed feelings about Q. On the one hand I always love arrogant, capricious, petulant trickster gods, especially when they have Q’s flair for the theatrical, but on the other hand I think when it comes to Q I maybe love him more in concept than in execution? I spend a lot of time thinking about trickster-god entities and how a nigh-omnipotent creature unbound by linear time and the laws of physics might relate to the universe, and Q’s a very mundane example of the character type. On the gripping hand, Q’s super fun and whenever he shows up I know I’m in for a good time. I strongly suspect that if I were a Q I would also spend an obnoxious amount of time trolling Picard. He’s just so delightfully trollable!

Tasha Yar - Yar falls into a lot of tropes which I absolutely hate, but despite that I kind of... love her anyway?? I just don’t get enough masculine female characters to not love them even when they have rape-y backstories and secret desires to be more feminine and Issues feat. their emotional vulnerabilities, I guess. She was kind of frustrating at first because she kept randomly attacking people, but in the later episodes she seemed to mellow out a lot and started acting the way I’d expect of a security chief, ie 101% willing to solve problems with violence but no longer functioning on a hairtrigger. I’m sad that she died, I would’ve loved to see what she could have grown into as the show developed.

Also she was bros with Worf! Somehow I completely forgot about that, but I love it. This is an extra layer of tragedy in her death, Yar&Worf is a delightful friendship and if it’d had space to develop I sincerely believe it could have toppled Data&Geordi as my most beloved Trek brotp. This is what fanfiction is for, I suppose.

Wesley Crusher - I know it’s kind of Trek cliché to loathe Wesley but boy do I ever loathe Wesley!! The funny thing is that I actually liked him for the first two or three episodes: he was a bright and enthusiastic kid who was transparently desperate for Picard to be his father figure (and Picard was transparently disinterested in being his father figure, which is hilarious), but then he was allowed on the bridge despite not being part of Starfleet or even an acting-cadet at the time, and then the action paused in the middle of an episode so Picard could get lectured on how Wesley is the bestest most wonderfulest, and then... you get the point.

I’m not here to shit on wish-fulfilment characters (I mean, that’d be hypocritical as fuck considering my feelings about Data), I’m here to shit on wish-fulfilment characters who are so devoted to wish-fulfilment that they stop functioning adequately as a character. The universe warps itself into a pretzel so that Wesley can be the bestest most wonderfulest and it really really pisses me off.

S01E01E02 Encounter at Farpoint - You know, for a nigh-omnipotent weird space being, Q is amazingly fucking dumb. Like, who agrees to judge people based on a test without realising that if you tell people you’re testing them they’ll go out of their way to be on their best behaviour? You’re not gonna be getting any kind of reliable data here, Q.

S01E07 Lonely Among Us - What the fuck was this episode, I mean seriously. Okay, so we open with two groups of diplomats who super super hate each other and the Enterprise has to transport them to a meeting, so you’d assume that the episode would revolve around dealing with the conflict between the two groups right? Except no, that’s like the d-plot, the a-plot is there’s a weird space thing and the b-plot is Data has a crush on Sherlock Holmes. The c-plot is Wesley does his homework. And then the episode ends with the news that one group of diplomats has cooked and eaten a member of the other group and Picard’s like “lmao I don’t give a shit, Riker you deal with this I’m gonna go take a nap.” What the fuck, basically.

In other news, spacefuture meat is all cruelty-free synthesised magic apparently. I wonder if vegetarians still exist? Other than vulcans, I guess. I don’t know enough about the philosophy behind not shoving delicious chunks of animal corpse into your face to work out the answer here.

S01E08 Justice - I talked about this episode already and honestly that’s all you really need to know. People try to talk to Picard about Wesley’s impending death and Picard immediately changes the topic to talking about the weird space thing, rinse and repeat.

Anyway I was recently reading about a guy who was transporting prisoners when some of the prisoners escaped. The punishment for letting prisoners escape was death, so he released the rest of the prisoners then ran off to be an outlaw because it wasn’t like they could kill him any more then they were already going to. Then he became Emperor! Anyway the moral of the story is that Light Yagami is a moron escalating punishments are important and if someone knows you’re gonna kill them for something they did then they have basically no reason not to go and do a bunch of other crimes also.

S01E10 Hide and Q - Hey, quick quiz: you encounter a nigh-omnipotent entity who has previously mocked your species for being savage and violent. Said entity dumps you on a planet with a bunch of weird monsters. Do you: a) attempt to communicate with these monsters in the hopes of reaching a peaceful solution, or b) savagely resort to violence by shooting them with your space guns? If you picked option b, then congratulations! You are the crew of the Enterprise. This technically wasn’t the point of the episode, but come on! Step up your mind-game game, Q.

Also Picard yells at Q for constantly changing his costume and it’s like, Picard, dude, you’re aware the thing you’re yelling at isn’t actually Q? Q isn’t a human with superpowers, he’s an incomprehensible entity who occasionally puppets around a meatsack so you can have something convenient to yell at. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from Greek mythology and also Lovecraft, it’s that you super super do not want to see the incomprehensible entity’s true form.

S01E13 Datalore - I LOVE DATA AND I LOVE HIS HORRIBLE BROTHER!! but also, fuck Wesley. I hate Wesley. He’s immediately suspicious of Lore-as-Data purely on the basis of he sees “Data” doing Lore’s facial tic despite the fact that at the beginning of the episode he walked in on Data attempting to mimic sneezing, and despite the fact that there are several other characters with much better reasons to find Lore-as-Data suspicious.

Actually, you know what my dream rewrite for this episode would be? Someone becoming suspicious of Lore-as-Data, not because they think he’s Lore, but because they think he’s Data. The crew had previously been discussing whether or not they could trust Data now that he’d found links outside of Starfleet, so having that issue play out onscreen would’ve been fantastic. (Especially if it influenced their behaviour towards Data and Lore tried to take advantage of that as a “your friends are dicks, betray them and join me” kind of thing. I’m Here(tm) 24/7 for manipulation and corruption, my dude.)

S01E17 When the Bough Breaks - You know, this entire episode could’ve been solved with cloning. I mean actually it couldn’t, but the problem they thought they were having could’ve been solved with cloning. Ask the Enterprise for some unfucked genetic material and you can make your own kids! As many kids as you want!! More than six kids because seriously I don’t know what you were expecting to achieve with that, that’s not enough people to keep your planet alive.

S01E19 Coming of Age - This episode is an excellent example of What’s Wrong With Wesley. Wesley does an exam, and he loses some points in order to help another person with the exam, and at the end he’s told the other person passed but he didn’t, and the other person’s like “oh but that only happened because Wesley lost points by helping me!!”, because Wesley is so bestest most wonderfulest that the only reason he fails is because he sacrificed himself to help someone else to succeed. There’s a vague attempt at suggesting “oh, but there were other reasons Wesley failed!!” but like, fuck you, you don’t get to show me nothing but Wesley succeeding and then attempt to salvage this mess by telling me there were other factors at play, especially not when there’s so much attention devoted to Wesley helping the other person.

S01E22 Symbiosis - Everyone spends this episode focusing on the wrong thing. See, the Brekkians are selling medicine to the Ornarans, except actually it’s not medicine it’s addictive drugs, and this is bad because... drugs are bad? Don’t do drugs kids!! Why are you all focusing on the part where there are drugs and not the part where the Brekkians are lying shitbags taking relentless advantage of the Ornarans so that they can live like parasite kings in a capitalist hellscape castle?

“Golly gosh I sure can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily become dependent on a drug!!” says FUCKING WESLEY, THE WORST CHARACTER, completely missing the part where the drug actually is medicine and the Ornarans are entirely unaware that they no longer have the plague the drug is medicine for and thus believe that they have literally no other choice than to take the drug if they want to live. There is nothing “voluntary” about this at all, Wesley you absolute fuckwad!! Somebody shove this kid into a locker already.

S01E23 Skin of Evil - There are no pockets in Starfleet uniforms so everyone spends this episode wandering around with stuff awkwardly glued to their sides and it’s terrible and hilarious. I’m pretty sure this is true of other episodes but this is the one where I found it really really noticeable and couldn’t stop laughing.

...this episode was just obnoxiously funny in general actually, Goo Man is trying so hard to be super evil and scary and grimdark but nobody really gives a fuck about it, he’s more just like majorly inconvenient and kind of irritating than he is actually threatening at any point. “You don’t understand! I don’t serve evil, I am evil!!” the Goo Man wails. Picard categorically does not give any kind of a shit in response.

tl;dr: Data is precious and perfect and every time he’s onscreen I start weeping. YOU’RE DOING GREAT, DATA! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!!

#star trek #star trek tng

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chroniclerwabba · 7 years

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it’s 5AM and i’m pissed about warcraft (mostly lore) again

I have a personal chip on my shoulder against Overwatch for reasons that might not be wholly valid. Project Titan (original OW) was started, and Blizz started to shift people around. Jeff Kaplan switched from working on WoW to Titan, and the game eventually got cancelled in 2014. Cataclysm’s released heralded a downturn for the quality of the game, not just in terms of lore. The xpacs had a few good things in them (MoP is one of my favorites, the pandaren have great lore), but there was a lot of shit in there too. WoD was barebones as shit in terms of content with a completely nonsense storyline that took a huge shit on the lore. Titan was cancelled and recycled into Overwatch, a move that divided developers and even caused Metzen to quit. I don’t blame or hold anger at Metzen for quitting (the guy had a fucking baby on the way, he needed to be a dad), but when he announced he was retiring, that’s when Warcraft really lost its magic to me and when I fell out of love with it.

So I blame Overwatch for what happened to Warcraft, which isn’t necessarly fair. Overwatch is fun and well made (in terms of art style that is, everything else is debatable). Maybe it makes more sense to blame the writers for losing their touch. But I still hold that slight disdain for Overwatch, even if it’s unfair. But enough about that; let’s talk about shitty lore.

Cataclysm is where the game just became bogged down with bad lore decisions, consisting of forced conflict and characters acting against their established selves to make said forced conflict happen.

Garrosh being made warchief was the first in a long laundry list of bad decisions. There was no reason Thrall would’ve logically made him leader even when being Grom’s son. It was evident he was not suited for this position and someone like Vol’jin or Saurfang should’ve taken the reins. He would’ve either kept him as a high ranking general like Nazgrim or waited until he matured a bit more and mellowed out to give him the mantle. It’s such a bullshit promotion that exists only to force conflict and have lore why PvP is still a thing (because it’s not like we can just have pvp be noncanon like bungie did with classic halo jesus fuck blizz you’re not 343 you don’t need to give pvp lore validity of fucking course the racial leaders aren’t really dead despite me killing them smh)

Garrosh is a bumbling inconsistent mess. In the books, Garrosh is smarter, but in the games, he’s a goddamn idiot and a brat with no sense of responsibility who blames Thrall during their fight in Nagrand (despite the fact that thrall literally left eitrigg, vol’jin, saurfang, and cairne behind to help him deal with shit and he tells them all to fuck off. also blaming thrall for him having to pick up the pieces is bullshit when he almost broke the horde because he literally kept trying to push the other races down into subservience, to a point where he tried to assassinate vol’jin). So Garrosh had no accountability as a leader. His whole plan to establish orcish supremacy and “make the horde great again” shows he has no fucking clue about orcish history despite his dad being IN THE SHIT. Orcish supremacy was all a lie concocted by Ner’zhul to fearmonger the draenei as evil invaders. Before the Horde, all the clans did was just live separately and fight the ogre empire who just wanted to enslave them. The Horde only exists because Kil’jaedan manipulated them into becoming one to wipe out the draenei. Garrosh doesn’t even know his own people’s fucking lore. Oh, and an extra special fuck you from when he said Thrall is no longer an orc. Nobody in the entire Warcraft lore has any right to tell Thrall he isn’t an orc. Thrall was a literal child soldier raised by Blackmoore to fight like an animal in his colosseum (his fucking name literally means SLAVE). The only human friend he had during his childhood was raped and beheaded and even lets Blackmoore’ men go free after he kills him in honorable combat. Thrall has the most validity out of anyone in the Horde to be against the Alliance, but he just wants to give his people a home after the Legion stole it all and turned them into murderers. So anyway Garrosh can go fuck himself (except none of what I said actually matters because warlords of draenor established that all orcs are evil murderers even without demon blood so everything warcraft 3 was about means nothing i guess fuck you blizzard). Also, miss me with that bullshit about honor™ when you use a bomb to vaporize your enemies and not fight them by yourself on the fields of battle like your dad would’ve.

The Alliance hasn’t been written as morally grey or written to have flaws since Warcraft 3. Aside from Arthas’ and Jaina’s storylines, the rest of the Alliance is a bunch of assholes. Grom is forced to drink from the demon pool because the night elves started murdering them after they went to Ashenvale to cut down trees so they can build settlements to protect the orcs and their new tauren allies. The same allies the night elves just up and abandoned to be fucking murdered by the centaur almost to extinction despite how Cenarius himself blessed Huln Highmountain for his bravery for the tauren helping fight the legion alongside the kaldorei ten thousand years ago. So big fucking lore oversight, right? Also, since the kaldorei can just grow trees everywhere, why is there a logging crisis with the Horde? They can literally replace the trees right there. In fact, they could literally have solved the Horde’s famine crisis, but they don’t because they’re a bunch of stingy fucks who never get their shit called out. When people complain about Alliance favoritism, this is what they mean. The Horde always has to be the villain in some way, and the Alliance are always the good™ guys who never do anything wrong ever™. The closest we’ve gotten to the Alliance being somewhat morally grey was Camp Taurajo (which is swept under the rug with the biggest bullshit handwave by baine saying ehh it’s okay because that’s a realistic reaction). Jaina just straight up lets her men burn down and kill a bunch of native farmers whose race has lived here for years and never has to acknowledge this directly.

Jaina is almost as mishandled as Garrosh was. In the early days of MoP, they screwed up her being the anti-Horde character but could’ve salvaged it. Now they’ve just made her near irredeemable trash. So after Garrosh blows up Theramore and kills all her men, she’s pissed and out for blood and justifiably so. You want her to kill that motherfucker, but Blizzard doesn’t know about this thing called “moderation” or “reasonable chracter development” so they just decide to crank her up to 22 and have her be a stone cold murderer. She’s just gonna drown Orgrimmar and kill all sorts of innocent civilians inside, including an entire fucking orphanage of children she knows good and well exists since she’s visited the city many times before. Completely missed her the first time (because someone who watched her ex-fiance burn down an entire city including the children would be okay with killing children i guess). Thrall shows up and tries to tell her “hey, child murder is fucked up” and she doesn’t bother listening (apparently thrall isn’t allowed to be upset by children being victims of war despite having been a child slave himself but it’s somehow his fault because he made garrosh warchief even though there was no way he could’ve known this would’ve happen but whatever conflict i guess). So Kalecgos then shows up (who apparently is just her token love interest now and will never show up in the game to do anything useful so all that development he had in cataclysm is now moot. like fucking aggra at least helped thrall at the echo isles kalecgos didn’t do shit) and tells her “hey, child murder is bad” and it finally clicks in her head (so it took three times for her to figure out that she shouldn’t let small children die). Then we flash forward to Legion where Blizz has just decided they just don’t give a shit. Jaina shows up to Stormwind Keep and is pissed that the Horde abandoned the Alliance at the Broken Shore. So a grown ass woman in her 30s proceeds to be condescending and talk shit to a seventeen year old boy who just LOST HIS DAD about not wanting to fight two wars at once and risk crippling the Alliance (because apparently kul yiras no longer exists so she just can’t fund her own damn war i guess. also jaina apparently possesses a teleportation spell established since wotlk to exist that would’ve allowed her to save varian wrynn before he died so thanks a lot for the pointless death that could’ve been avoided for lore reasons, blizz. also we’re just supposed to forgive her racist piece of shit dad for wanting to commit ethnic cleansing and kill little orcish children because jaina needs to angst). Then she gets written out of the plot so Anduin never gets to call her out on the bullshit she tried to pull and so Blizz can shelve her for another forced war conflict. So Jaina has literally developed backwards to the beginning of Warcraft 3. Thanks, Blizz.

Sylvanas has angsted since WC3 that undeath is a curse and nobody should be subjected to it, only for Blizzard to keep turning her into Lich King 2.0 when we get Warlords of Northrend™ eventually (undeath is bad and i angst about it 24/7 so let me use all these chemicals to raise these people into zombies and plague the land but it’s okay because i think slavery is bad at least. also she’s afraid of going to hell to be tortured forever when it’s like “hey you dumb bitch maybe you wouldn’t go to hell if you didn’t keep raising people into zombies after establishing it’s a LIVING HELL TO BE A ZOMBIE”). So Sylvanas has also developed backwards. Thanks again, Blizz.

I’ve written this twice before, but Illidan is the biggest load of bullshit ever. In Warcraft 3, he was a great antihero. Kind of a dick, but you admired that he was out for himself. Now he’s the greatest™ hero™ ever™ that did nothing wrong™. He’s like a worse Anakin Skywalker.

All of WoD

anyway i’m going the fuck to sleep and then wake up in 5 hours to write wow fanfic to fill the hole that blizz’s nonsense created

#mine #saltposting #World of Warcraft #long post

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between-two-worlds · 7 years

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Quantum Break

I’ve been meaning to play this one for a while, and I just finished it tonight after playing it over the past few days.

That was...disappointing.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing is the fact that it started out so strongly, with a lot of potential. It really spent time on building up the lore and mystery of the world. I was hooked. I was enjoying the characters, the slow progression, and trying to figure out where things were going to go.

And then a little after the halfway point, the story began to falter, characters that I loved began to stop appearing, and by the end, the whole thing fell apart. It was a weak end, with an ending that felt like sequel bait...a sequel that will likely never happen due to poor sales.

Overall, I give it a 5/10. Spoiler filled thoughts are below the break, if you’d like to read more.

I’ll break it down to keep things easier to read.

Story: It started out very strongly. I love time travel stories, but keeping them consistent can be very difficult. Quantum Break did a good job with it. There was a slow progression, and lots of mysterious moments that were later revealed to be due to time travel shenanigans. A common theme of time travel stories is that trying to prevent actions from occurring often leads to those same actions occurring in the first place. Trying to prevent an accident is what makes you the catalyst for said accident, and so on.

For the most part, they handled it well. They do their damndest to stop the Fracture from leading to the End of Time, where time just...stops. Forever. And every action they take seems to lead them closer to the End of Time.

At the very end, Jack manages to work with his brother to heal the Fracture, seemingly restoring the normal flow of time...except...then it shows he still has his powers, he’s getting visions, and things aren’t as good as they seem. And then the game ends. We see him in an interrogation room, the credits roll, and then we see a character that had previous been killed, alive and well. There’s another moment where Jack promises a past version of Beth that he’s going to come back for her, despite all evidence being that the timeline can’t be changed - though the fact that Martin Hatch apparently survived his death seems counter to that, so who knows.

The problem with this is that it means the main problem of the game isn’t actually solved, and since the game is unlikely to get a sequel, it makes the whole thing feel a bit pointless. Did they prevent the End of Time? Can events be changed after all?

There’s also the problem of the fact that there’s no resolution. What happened to the people in the Lifeboat? What happened to Amy? What happened to all the Monarch employees, and the soldiers and people with time tech? What about all the damage caused to the city by the stutters? None of it is brought up. There’s no resolution. It’s very unsatisfying.

Also, what the hell was up with Dr. Kim? And the Shifters? I kept expecting to have to confront Dr. Kim in the end, or another Shifter. That totally went nowhere. Ugh.

Characters: Jack is boring. He’s a generic protagonist. I know more about Amy and the other side characters than I do about the main character of the game, and that’s kind of a problem.

In a generic action game, you don’t need a lot of character backstory or motivation, because it’s not the point.

Quantum Break tries to tell an intricate, involved story, with rich characters. When the main guy is so generic and bland, another brown haired shoot-em-up guy...that’s a problem. Everyone around this guy is more interesting than he is. He doesn’t do anything except shoot people and read terminals. His brother is the one that invents the machine. Paul is the one that builds the company and works to prepare for the future. Beth is the one that actually does most of the legwork in the beginning and is the one that sacrifices the most. Hell, even the minor characters that were only present in the show had more character than Jack does.

I know his parents died, he’s estranged from his brother, and he traveled around the world before returning to help Paul. That’s about it. He’s boring.

Meanwhile, I feel like the game wastes it’s most interesting characters. I wanted to know more about Will, and how he managed to create the time machine in the first place. I wanted to know more about the doctor working with Paul, and how she got involved in the whole thing. I want to know more about Amy, who gets dragged into the whole thing and is a strong character up until the game just forgets she existed.

I especially want to know more about Beth Wilder. We actually get a lot from her, but for where the game really stopped being fun for me is when she died. It felt so pointless. Like the developers wanted us to be angry with Paul as motivation for the end fight - well, we already had our motivation. Killing her didn’t accomplish anything except trying to add drama to the story. It was pure motivation for Jack. I hate that trope so much. I don’t mind it when characters die, but at least make it mean something.

I also read that Beth was supposed to be a playable character, but the developers cut that out and decided not to include her playable sections, which would’ve been fascinating to see, considering that she spends 11 years stuck in the past. She’s sacrificed her life twice - once in trying to prepare, once in being stuck and trying to come to terms with the fact that she failed. And in the end, it’s utterly pointless, and a waste of my favorite character. I don’t even give a damn that the game teases she might be able to be rescued in the future. It should never have happened in the first place. She should’ve been a main character right alongside Jack.

Gameplay: The time powers are fun, there’s no doubt about that. The problem is the shooting. It gets repetitive. You zoom around, shoot the baddies, repeat. Bring up a shield, zoom around, freeze a guy, shoot. Repeat. Again and again. Making this a third person shooter was a huge disservice. It’s in conflict with the story. You have these large stretches where you just wander around and read e-mails and look at diagrams, or watch lengthy cut-scenes and live action episodes. And then you participate in fast paced gameplay where you’re zooming around frantically and shooting everything as much as you can, with repetitive mechanics.

This feels like it should’ve been something more in the vein of TellTale or Life Is Strange. The gameplay wasn’t polished at all.

Mass Effect and Gears of War manage to pull off the shooter/story combination SO much better. Here, it’s unpolished and uninspired, and by the end, it was a chore. Even the final fight is totally repetitive, and you don’t even get to fight Paul directly. I was hoping for a time powers against time powers conclusion, but it’s just a game of “dodge the explosion” and then it ends. Boring and totally lacking in creativity.

Graphics: It is a beautiful game, I’ll give it that. I couldn’t run it on full ultra though, even with a fairly beefy PC (6700k and a 1070). I also played it on steam, which is the DX11 version. I hear the DX12 version that was on the Windows store was even worse for performance. That version isn’t even getting updated anymore, making me very glad I waited to buy it.

Music: Finally, the one thing I have no complaints about. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. I listen to it outside of the game all the time.

Conclusion: A game with a lot of squandered potential.

It builds an interesting premise and world, and couldn’t stick the landing.

It has fascinating characters with a totally boring protagonist.

it kills a strong female character for the sake of manpain and drama, and it’s totally unnecessary.

It ignores the side characters at the end and totally lacks any kind of resolution.

And it sets up a sequel that will likely never happen.

I’m glad I played it finally, but man, I was hoping for something a lot better.

#quantum break #spoilers #review #game review #kind of rambled on a bit #needed to vent

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