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captain-tch · 3 years

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All That I Can Give

summary: kiko is a struggling business owner, who gets thrown into the chaos of the borderlands. when she makes a mistake that will threaten her life, she learns just how far she will go to keep herself alive.

TW: DEATH, MENTIONS OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE, MENTAL HEALTH, TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS, VIOLENCE

chapter 3: two truths and a lie

previous chapter

Kiko was sweating so hard she thought she wouldn’t be able to get out of her chair. She was praying no one would be able to see, but with all the eight players sat in a circle, she was certain they all had a front seat view to the perspiration building on her forehead.

In front of them all was a polygraph. From the frowns on some peoples faces, it was clear they were confused as to what it was, some of them even glancing at the foreign device cautiously. Still they followed the instructions from the bodiless voice to connect themselves to it. Kiko prayed it didn’t mistake the racing of her heart as a lie.

“RULES: ONE PLAYER WILL TELL THE OTHER PLAYERS TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE. WHAT LIE THEY TELL AND WHAT THESE TRUTHS ARE ABOUT WILL BE DISPLAYED ON YOUR DEVICES. IF YOU DO NOT TELL THE SPECIFIED TRUTH OR TELL THE LIE YOU ARE TOLD, THEN YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. YOU CAN ASK EACH PLAYER TWO QUESTIONS. THOSE THAT CORRECTLY IDENTIFY THE LIE WILL WIN AND CONTINUE TO PLAY THE NEXT ROUND, UNTIL ALL PLAYERS HAVE HAD A TURN.”

Something about the word disqualified rang alarm bells in her head. Kiko watched the boy in front of her carefully, seeing how he flinched when the voice said this. It clearly wasn’t disqualification as Kiko knew it, but something far more sinister.

“YOU HAVE 30 MINUTES. GOOD LUCK.”

As soon as the voice stopped talking, Kiko’s phone flashed. All around the room her fellow players reached for their phones, reading the information displayed to them on the screen. She took a moment to gauge their reactions - a man in shorts raised a brow before putting his phone face down, glancing nervously at the person next to him, another man with glasses smiled, and the middle aged woman Kiko spoke to earlier was impassive. The teenage boy sat directly in front of her didn’t even look at his phone.

Taking a deep breath, Kiko read the information on the screen.

TELL A TRUTH ABOUT YOUR DARKEST TIME. TELL A TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FATHER. DO NOT TELL A LIE - PICK A RANDOM TRUTH ABOUT YOURSELF.

Kiko tried to control her expression. She tried to not betray the confusion running throughout her body. The rules were running through her head on a loop - maybe by telling only truths, she was misleading her fellow players. By default, even if the words she said were true, she was lying to them. Kiko suppressed the urge to gulp deeply. She tried to focus on the information instead, repeating it endlessly so she wouldn’t make a mistake and get disqualified.

Placing her phone face down on the table, she cast a glance around the room. Everyone was eyeing up the other players.

“Who goes first?” The man with glasses asked. He pulled on the collar of his shirt.

A girl Kiko hadn’t taken much notice of before piped up, clicking her heels on the ground. “Since you so kindly volunteered, why don’t you go? Then we can follow it around.”

Glasses man grumbled, but yielded none the less. Kiko stared at him carefully, watching how his hands kept tapping thin air and he kept licking his lips. “I’ve been committing tax fraud for the past five years.”

He paused, as if waiting for someone to egg him on. He relaxed a bit in his chair. “I married my wife even though I never loved her.”

Kiko sat further up in her seat.

“I hate it when the girl I’m fucking behind my wife’s back is on top during sex.”

A snort slipped past Kiko’s lips. Glasses sent her a glare, which she returned with a sweet smile.

“What questions should we ask?” Shorts man offered the room. No one responded.

Time was ticking and Kiko hated it. These people were sitting silently, as if expecting the answer to be handed to them on a plate. Time was money, a concept Kiko was far too familiar with. Before she could stop herself, she had directed a question to Glasses. “When did you and your wife get married?”

“18th October 1992.” He responded quickly.

At this, Kiko tilted her head slightly. Why would a man who claimed to have never loved his wife, remember the date they got married? Maybe the speed he responded wasn’t because the date was ingrained in his brain, but a sheer moment of panic. Either way, it seemed impossible to pluck a random date from thin air. Even if that wasn’t the date they got married, it clearly was a date of significance to him.

She turned to her fellow players, “Anyone else want to ask a question, or can I go ahead?”

They gestured for her to carry on. Egged on with this confidence, Kiko asked a final question. “When did you start fucking other people who weren’t your wife?”

He paled slightly. Head turned down in shame, he answered. “Four years ago.”

Kiko mulled the information over. The rules said that you had to identify the lie - but they never said anything about half truths. For him to have started an affair so late in the marriage, and to remember the date so quickly, suggested to her that he did love his wife once. By default, it was technically a lie. However with the way he reacted to about the fraud, she wasn’t sure that was the lie. He was nervous, but who wouldn’t be if they committed fraud? Maybe Glasses messed up on the delivery. Or maybe there was only one lie and Kiko was looking too much into it.

“I think his lie is that he never loved his wife.” Kiko followed her gut. The other players stared at Kiko, as if looking for an explanation. Sighing, Kiko explained the train of thought she’d had. It seemed to satisfy most of them, and nearly everyone bar one agreed with Kiko.

“Hold up, you’re going to blindly agree with this girl? You know she could be setting us up right?” The man in the shorts argued, pointing an accusatory finger at Kiko. “I don’t trust the newbie. I believe that the lie is that he committed tax fraud.”

With all the answers in, the disembodied voice made an announcement. “SIX PLAYERS ARE CORRECT. ONE PLAYER IS DISQUALIFIED.”

With those damning words, a beam of energy appeared from the roof. And shot the man in the shorts directly in the head.

Kiko shrieked, watching his body slump and fall off of the chair. A hole was burned into his head. His mouth was slack, his body robbed of the time to scream. His coffee coloured eyes were wide open. Kiko couldn’t erase the feeling he was staring at right at her. Her vision became misty, unable to rip her focus from the dead man she indirectly killed.

The player sat beside him didn’t spare the dead body even a single glance. Now, Kiko understood the blank faces, the dead eyes and the hopeless attitude.

To be disqualified, was to die.

The next five players passed in a blur. The lies were easy to spot from miles away, and having gained the trust of her fellow players everyone gave the same answer Kiko did. While it did provide her a sense of pride they trusted her so easily, the weight of the game lay heavy on her shoulders. Each time she pondered an answer, she saw the man in the shorts, how his face fell slack as the laser pierced his brain, ending his life.

She wouldn’t allow that to happen again.

But as they worked through the players and got closer to Kiko, she realised how fucked her team mates were. She didn’t have a lie to tell. They had been relying on her to identify the answers, and now they were going to do it alone. Someone was bound to die.

“Kiko, it’s your turn.” The middle aged woman gently reminded her. “Not to be rude, but we only have five minutes remaining. You better be quick.”

Gulping harshly, Kiko tried as hard as she could to not show any tells. The moment she showed a clear tell, they would latch onto it and believe that would be the lie. After years of training her face to face loan sharks and debt collectors, she composed an iron wall in front of her features.

She needed to tell them a truth about her darkest time. God, she wished she didn’t have to share this with strangers. Even her own brother didn’t know. “My dad went into hospital and I... I tried to jump in front of a train.”

Taking in a deep breath, she continued with a truth about her father. “My father died and left me with a lot of debt. I resent him for that.”

Lastly, the final truth. The truth that was meant to be a lie. She panicked, letting the first thing that came to mind spill past her lips. “I’m allergic to cats.”

Kiko watched her fellow players, seeing the answers she gave toll in their minds. They had less than five minutes now to decide on the answer. The weight of their deaths felt heavy on her heart and Kiko questioned why this wasn’t a hearts game, especially since she could feel her heart ache in preparation for the pain that was about to come.

“Why did you jump in front of a train?” The woman in heels asked. “Not exactly a great solution to the problem.”

Anger boiled off of Kiko. “Fuck off and shove your heels up your ass.”

“You need to answer it.”

“It...” Kiko glanced away from the woman, trying to shy away from her venomous gaze. Her voice was small as she revealed one of her darkest secrets. “It felt like the only option at the time.” Kiko stared at the woman, imagining how satisfying it would be to punch her. “Can you please stop looking at me as if I’m the scum of the earth?”

“I just hate it when people lie about things so serious.”

Kiko laughed darkly, shaking her head. “You’re one to talk. Didn’t you lie about murdering a man? I bet it was because you only got manslaughter instead.”

“You bitch -” The heeled woman was cut off by the middle aged lady.

“We only have 2 minutes remaining.” The middle aged woman smiled at Kiko, taking it upon herself to ask the final question. “Did you love your father?”

“With all my heart.”

“Then I’m sure he forgives you for feeling the way you do.” The woman looked at the fellow players. “I believe the lie is that she’s allergic to cats.”

All around the room, everyone started to list her lie. There was a variety of answers, with the heeled woman believing the lie was about her dark time. With each answer, Kiko felt her heart fall further. She stared at their faces, memorising the features of those she was about to murder, trying to push down the roaring wave building in her chest.

“My answer is there was no lie.”

Kiko’s head snapped to the boy sat in front of her. His face was young, with eyes old beyond his years. He was subconsciously rubbing the red stain on his shirt sleeve.

“ONE PLAYER IS CORRECT. FIVE PLAYERS ARE DISQUALIFIED.”

She managed to stomach her scream as five people got murdered before her very eyes.

“GAME CLEAR - CONGRATULATIONS.”

Kiko removed herself from the polygraph, keeping her gaze fixed on one point of the wall as she left the room. With a controlled ease, she stepped over a pair of heels blocking her way. She made her way to the entrance, ready to open the door and feel the air brush her skin.

“Wait!” The boy jogged behind her. In his hand was looked like a card, the seven of diamonds painted on it’s surface. “You forgot this.”

Kiko rolled her eyes. “What am I going to do with a playing card that proves I killed six people?”

“You never know when you might need them.” He offered the card out to her. Begrudgingly, she plucked it from his fingers, turning her back to him. “Wait.”

She took a calming breath. A storm was brewing inside her and her body was begging for it to be released. All this conversation did was build the intensity of the destruction.

The boy no longer looked like a boy, a memory of a dark time adding to his years. She could see in the way his eyes clouded and his lips downturned. “I know how it feels right now. Don’t make their deaths mean nothing.”

“What do I do?”

He gave her a sad smile. “You fight to get back home.”

“How?” She wasn’t sure at which point she relied on a teenage boy to hold all of the answers.

“You keep playing games. With this seven of diamonds game, you have a seven day visa. Play a game before it expires. You don’t want to find out what happens if it does.”

With those wise words, he clapped her shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze before pushing his way into the outside world. She followed him, watching him walk further away. As his shadow melted into the night, she wondered if she should have asked him to stay with her.

She didn’t even know his name.

She didn’t know any of their names.

Somehow now, with the ghosts of those she murdered haunting her, she felt lonelier than she ever had before.

#alice in borderland #alice in borderland fanfic #alice in borderland fanfiction #aib fanfic #aib fanfiction #original character #fanfiction

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tes-trash-blog · 4 years

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So, uh, a while back you mentioned making a post about how Prisoner McNord might affect the player experience/perceptions of the "default" and I would be super interested in reading that

So!

I have a few thoughts already on what is considered “default” in Skyrim to be expanded upon in a future shitstorm rant (it’s on the list, between Almalexia Is Interesting Actually and Even More Crying About Snow Elves Part 17: My Tears Have Become Sentient And Are Also Crying).

And as always, keep in mind that Skyrim is coming up on 9 years old, elements of it have not aged well, and this is in no way, shape, or form meant to be a “If you like Skyrim then you’re Bad” rant. In case you haven’t noticed, I kind of love that game. It has flaws; all games do, and frankly it’s a miracle this game is as solid as it is. The writers are that, writers. They had deadlines to make, hardware limitations to consider, and above all else, worked for a company that wanted to make money.

To keep this relatively short I’ll focus on how your perception of Skyrim is influenced by the first few minutes of the game via Ralof, the Nordiest Nord to Nord since Ysgranord, and how the writers really, really really wanted you to hold on to that perception.

Overanalysis and spoilers (Metal Gear Solid, Borderlands, and Bioshock respectively yes this will all make sense in context) under the cut.

Part 1: How To Make A Perspective In Three Easy Steps

As the saying goes, first impressions are lasting impressions. This is evident in.. well, every bit of media you can find. The first chapters of a book, the first episode of a show, the first 15 minutes of a video game, all as a general rule:

1.) Introduces the setting, a part of the main plot, and with these two, sets the tone of the medium (high fantasy movie, light hearted TV show, mystery series, horror game, etc.). Exceptions exist, especially in horrors, mysteries, and certain visual novels, but even these exceptions rely on setting a tone so they can subvert your expectations later on.

2.) Give you an idea of what is going on. This is normally accomplished with exposition of some sort; Star Wars had its famous screen crawl expositing the dark times in the Galaxy, Borderlands literally begins with “So, you want to hear a story..”, Metal Gear Solid briefs Solid Snake (you, the player character) on a vital mission to save two hostages and end a terrorist threat, so on and so forth. And again, there are exceptions: Bioshock purposefully disorients you with a plane crash in the middle of the ocean so you’re inclined to trust the first person who talks to you.

This all serves to suspend disbelief, immerse you, and earn your trust. This is a new world, you have no idea what’s going on, so you’re gonna take cues from someone who does. Combine points 1 and 2, and that..

3.) Gives you an idea of what is “good” and what is “bad”. Damn near every story has a central conflict, you gotta pick a side, and there’s gonna be a bias as to which one is superior or morally just. Using Bioshock again, this mysterious man named Atlas guides you through the first level, and tells you how to fight and survive in the hostile environment of Rapture; meanwhile, Andrew Ryan taunts and belittles you, and also has a giant golden bust of himself. The shorthand is: Atlas is humble, helpful, and good, while Andrew Ryan is a megalomaniac who wants you dead. Leaning on Borderlands again, the first voice you hear is literally a guardian angel telling you not to be afraid, and that you are destined to do great things. Once more with Metal Gear: Your organization and your commanders are good, you are good because you’re saving innocent people, and FOXHOUND is bad because they’re terrorists who have the means to launch a nuclear warhead.

Keeping all this in mind, let’s do a quick runthrough of the first, let’s call it 15 minutes of Skyrim. No commentary on my end, just a play by play of the beginning of the game.

Part 2: First Impressions In Action

You wake up on a cart. Your vision is hazy, and you are clearly disoriented. You see a man bound and gagged, another man in rags, and several men dressed like soldiers. Everyone on the cart is tied up, and the people driving the cart are wearing a neat, vastly different uniform.

Then comes the famous line: “You! You’re finally awake! You were caught trying to cross the border, got caught in that Imperial ambush same as us, and that thief over there!” The thief bitterly remarks how these damn Stormcloaks had to cook up trouble in a nice and lazy Empire. The Nord who first spoke with you nobly says that we’re all brothers and sisters in these binds.

The presumed Imperial tells you all to shut up. Undeterred, the thief and the Stormcloak provide more exposition: The gagged man is the leader of the resistance, is supposedly the true High King, and since he’s on the cart, it’s clear that everyone on board is bound for the executioner’s block. The thief is terrified; the Nord accepts his fate, but takes a moment to opine on better days when he flirted with girls and “when the Imperial walls made him feel safe.” There is also a remark about General Tulius and the Thalmor agents; the Nord, in a rare bit of anger, damns the Elves and insinuates they had a hand in this capture.

It’s execution time. General Tulius gives a speech about how Ulfric started a civil war and killed the former High King; Ulfric, being gagged, cannot say a word in defense. A Stormcloak is executed to mixed reactions (“You Imperial bastards!” “Justice!”, etc.). The thief runs away; he is shot by Imperial archers, demonstrating the futility of escape. It’s your turn. The Nord in Imperial armor states you’re not on the list; the Imperial captain doesn’t care and orders you to the block anyway.

You see the headsman’s axe rise up when, as if the gods intervene, a dragon appears and interrupts your execution. In the chaos, you run with the Stormcloaks. The game does not give you the option to run away alone, or with the Imperials; until you meet Hadvar again in the fire and death, you take orders from Ulfric.

Part 3: The Crux

A lot happens in the first few minutes of Skyrim. You’re disoriented from being unconscious, and that’s compounded by your two near death experiences (point 2), the first person you meet is a calm, almost reassuring mouthpiece of exposition while the other side, at best, doesn’t care if you die (points 2 and 3), one major aspect of the plot is revealed (point 1, and the tone is that this is a classic Rebellion story).

And people love rebellion stories. Americans especially; we spend billions on the day when a bunch of white guys said “fuck you” to a bunch of other white guys. With the additional layer of when Skyrim was developed, by who, and in what landscape it was written.. Yeah. There may be two ways to go for the Civil War questline, but for most players (myself included!) their first gut instinct is going to be “side with the guys who didn’t just try to kill me.”

It’s the same song and dance. In Bioshock, your instinct is to trust the Irish guy who wants to help you get out of Rapture alive, but he needs your help first. In Borderlands, your instinct is to trust the woman who is literally called a guardian angel, and she shows her compassion by asking you to help the people of Fyrestone and the poor robot who got hurt in a gunfight. In Metal Gear, your instinct is to shut down the threat because terrorists are evil and these ones are not just terrorists, they’re deserters. Hell, even in other Elder Scrolls games the plot is laid out by helping hands: you’re a prisoner being contacted by your murdered friend, and given the goal to stop Jagar Tharn (Arena), you’re a Blades agent tasked with putting a vengeful spirit to rest that leads you to a weapon that can secure the Empire’s power (Daggerfall), Azura literally tells you not to be afraid, and that you destined to stop an old threat (Morrowind), and a soon-to-be-assassinated Emperor voiced by Actual Grandpa Patrick Stewart recognizes you in a prophetic dream (Oblivion).

Where Skyrim departs from these games, and even the other Elder Scrolls titles, is how much it enforces the first thing you see as solidly good and evil, and how little it tries to subvert that perception. Remember point 2, when the game makes it clear that this person is trustworthy? Therein lies the bread and butter of psychological horror, mysteries, and heart wrenching plot twists: that trust gets tested, and often broken.

The rebel leader Atlas? He’s somehow more evil than Andrew Ryan, and has subtly controlled you the entire time with a command phrase (“Would you kindly..?”). You are unable to stop yourself when you bludgeon Andrew Ryan to death at Ryan’s command. “A man chooses,” he tells you. “A slave obeys.” His final words are him telling you that you are a puppet, only able to obey.

The end of Borderlands reveals that “Angel” was watching you the entire time.. from a Hyperion satellite. You were tricked into opening a Vault holding back a dangerous monster, and you don’t even know why. Borderlands 2 goes further into just what (or rather who) Angel is: a teenage girl and a powerful Siren, used by her own demented, evil, father, Handsome Jack, to manipulate the Vault Hunters and gain more power for himself. Her final mission given to you is simple: she wants you to set her free and end her father’s mad march to power by killing her.

Metal Gear Solid ultimately plays it straight in that you stop the terrorists and disable the nuclear threat, but you don’t emerge from the rubble as an action hero; you’re forced to kill your own brother, the terrorist cell is revealed to be composed almost entirely of people exploited by your organization, and you secretly carry a virus designed to kill the people you were trying to save. War, as it turns out, is not as clear-cut as “we good, they bad”. The people you’ve killed without thinking are your genetic brothers. Sniper Wolf, the assassin who shot your commander’s niece, survived a genocide and has never known a life outside of war. Psycho Mantis’ telepathic gifts were exploited by both the KGB and FBI until he lost his mind. Ocelot is Ocelot.

Oh, but those are other games. What about The Elder Scrolls? Well..

In Daggerfall, your search for hidden correspondence leads you to finding the Mantella, a sort of soul gem that can power the superweapon everyone wants: The Numidium. There are six entities total who want the Mantella, some for their personal gain, one to make a home for his people, and one so he may finally die; the Underking’s soul is in that gem, you see, and he’s been trapped in this misery since the days of Tiber Septim.

In Morrowind, Dagoth Ur recognizes you not as a schlub with a dummy thick journal, but as his oldest and dearest friend. The Empire who guided you for so long? They’ve manipulated you into taking down the Tribunal, destroying the one weapon that could stand against their might, and depending on your interpretation of “then the Nerevarine sailed to Akavir”, have possibly killed you.

And what of everyone’s favorite game in the series to mock? Surprise! Oblivion isn’t even about you, hero! It’s about the actual chosen one, Martin Septim! Sure you can join the Thieves’ Guild and cavort about as Grey Fox, or uncover the traitor of the Dark Brotherhood, or run off and become the Mad God.. but none of those events actually acknowledge you. To be the Grey Fox is to literally be forgotten, by the time the Dark Brotherhood questline is complete there is effectively no more Dark Brotherhood, and to become Sheogorath is to lose yourself entirely. The Hero of Kvatch is one who is ultimately forgotten. Your actions were important, have no doubt, but such is the fate of the unsung hero: they’re not sung about.

Even Arena plays a little bit with your expectations in that the Staff of Chaos alone isn’t enough to stop Jagar Tharn; you need friendship (just kidding it’s a magic gem in the Imperial Palace). Skyrim.. kinda glosses over that. They land a few punches, but for them to stay with you, you have to keep an open mind.

Part 4: Why does that matter?

Because if your expectations are never subverted, your trust never tried in any meaningful way, then your perception of a very specific, spoon-fed worldview is never challenged. The trust you build with a group that is, in essence, a fascist paramilitary cult is never shaken in any way that’s meaningful. You get some lines intended to evoke sadness when you sack Whiterun, but by then it’s too late. Not that it matters; at the end of the Stormcloak questline, there’s not much question about who was in the right. You never lose friends or allies; the Jarls in the holds change, but is there much difference between Idgrod Ravencrone and Sorli the Builder? You might feel a little guilty when you see the Dunmer forced to live in the slums, but then the haughty High Elf says that she didn’t laze around and instead made a name for herself, or the Dark Elf farmer who complains about his snowflake kinsmen harping on about “injustices”. The Argonians seem decent until you meet the skooma addict/thief, and the Khajiit.. let’s just say that even if we disregard the two Khajiit assassins sent to kill you, there exist a lot of extremely harmful stereotypes that none of your friends dispel. They commit no horrific war crimes in your presence, the worst you hear is a Nord (normally a bandit) yell “Skyrim is for the Nords!”, or the clumsy Welcome to Winterhold script where a Dunmer woman is harassed by two Nords; one’s a veteran, by the way. Got run through the chest by an Imperial craven, or so the story goes.

Your only chance to rattle the Nord-driven story is to go against your gut feeling and side with the Imperials (the plotline is pretty weak, not gonna lie), or complete the optional quest No One Escapes Cindha Mine where you see what a Stormcloak sympathizer does to the Forsworn. Even if you complete that quest, the Forsworn still attack you. “They’re savages,” say the Nords, and the game isn’t too inclined to say otherwise.

When it comes to portraying the Nords in any light that’s not negative, Skyrim doesn’t deliver like it did in other games. You saw what life is like in Morrowind under Tribunal rule; it’s not great. The Houses are almost universally awful and they have slaves. You see the destruction in Cyrodiil and hear the rumors on how much the Empire is flailing with the Oblivion Crisis. Hell, even Arena tells you that life in Tamriel kind of sucks, but it’ll suck a little less when Tharn is dead.

That doesn’t happen in Skyrim. You are encouraged to join the sympathetic Stormcloaks, you find out your destiny as Dragonborn, and you set all these things right. Of course you do. You’re a hero, baby. Others have gone on about how storybook the Dragonborn questline is so I won’t go too much in, but that’s it exactly: Storybook. You’re Neutral Good. You’re going to kill the bad dragon that wants to do its job and eat the world.

And that refusal to really examine the nuances and horrors of war, to consider what it means to be a hero that is never morally challenged or forced into a Total Perspective Vortex, to never challenge an extremely biased perspective or even explore its “logical” conclusion?

It leads to extremely dangerous ways of thinking if unchecked.

#lore overanalysis #about my favorite subjects: media studies and skyrim #this is another long one #good god it's long

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kitty-does-stuff · 5 years

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you like homestuck? why not try ___

(reblogs > likes, if you read this all and think to yourself that you should check out one of the things i talked about then why not reblog and share with others?)

hiya so ain’t a normal post for this blog, think of it like a youtube video but text (i’d make this a video but i don’t have a good mic & idk how to edit), anyways this is a start to a series of posts i’ll sometimes make, the point of this series is to point some fandoms at other pieces of work like the thing that fandom likes, so like in this post i’ll talk about other pieces of work that homestuck fans might like

anyways most of the post is under the cut cause it might be a long but i’ll show the 1st 2 that way you can see if you like my reasoning, also i haven’t seen every piece of media ever so i might miss some things so feel to add in a reblog

(also the numbers i use aren’t to show the quality, it’s just what came to mind 1st)

1: borderlands

ok tbh this game is why i made this post, this game series has a lot of the same kinds of humour (though borderlands doesn’t to what i can recall have any ablest jokes or the stuff like that), it’s a very fun game series even for those who most of the time don’t like shooters as it’s kinda like what would happen if overwatch’s fun shooting mechanics had a baby with diablo 2‘s skill trees

the story is really great, taking a lot of cues(and names) from greek legends, also a hot tip, you really don’t need to play the 1st game, just start at borderlands 2 then go to pre sequel and then tales from the borderlands and you should be fine

also there are quite a few lgbtq+ characters (including a canon lesbian relationship that can end in marriage, i say can as it’s a part of a game where what you say and do can have things end in other ways), and there is also a lot of room for oc making as it takes place in it;s very own world that has a lot of things no other story really has

2: Undertale/Deltarune

ok you most likely know about at least Undertale but hey this is my post and i get to add what i want. anyways Undertale’s story is this: once a upon a time monsters and humans both lived above the ground but one day a war started, humans with their determination sealed the monsters deep beneath Mount Ebott, creating a barrier only a human soul could pass, one day a child climbs Mount Ebott and falls into the undergrond, the way this tale ends is up to the player

ok so there are quite a few characters that you get to know well, they all have backstorys that are quite the tales, there is canon lgbtq+ characters (including a canon relationship with two of the woman characters, a non binary protag and trans coded characters),

it’s also a very funny game and the story is one of the best story's i’ve ever heard, also if you like the music of homestuck then you’re gonna love this game’s music as it was made by toby fox (some of his songs from homestuck are: Black, Descend, Savior of the Waking World, MeGaLoVania, ect)

now Deltarune isn’t a full game yet and only chapter 1 is out rn but if you’ve already played Undertale then give this a go

3: My Hero Academia

ok so a lot of you already know about this anime but i still feel i should about it. So the show’s plot is about a world where most people have superpowers called Quirks, the main character (named Izuku Midoriya) has the dream of be coming a superhero like his role model All Might but he has a problem: he was born without a Quirk, the show has him slowly learn how to be a hero, make new friends and fight evil

there are a lot of characters so if you liked the bigger cast size of homestuck then this will be great. the fights are very well done and the super powers are well done, there is also a lot of room to make oc’s so if you liked making oc’s this show should be great for you

you can find this wherever you stream/watch anime

4: danganronpa

did you like the murder in homestuck? wish there was more and it was somehow more nuts? well then these games (plus anime and book or two) are for you!

the 1st game story is this: you are Makoto Naegi, a student of Hope's Peak Academy, who finds himself trapped in a game of mutual killing among his peers, in Hope's Peak Academy everyone is some kind of Ultimate (of skills or things like being a robot), Makoto Naegi is the Ultimate Lucky Student witch is a Ultimate given out in a lottery

the games have a lot of unique characters and a story about as messed up as homestuck, there are also canon lgbtq+ characters but for the most part most are only coded (and the ones that are canon don’t uh really get any happy endings), also due the whole Ultimate thing there’s a lot of room for oc making

here’s the order that you’ll wanna use (bolded means you need to see or else later things won’t make sense anything else is just a plus): Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc > Makoto Naegi Secret File > Danganronpa Kirigiri (may not be canon) > Danganronpa: Togami (not canon, also just save yourself from wasting time and don’t read it, it sucks) > Danganronpa 2: Goodby Dispair > Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF (non canon) > Danganronpa Zero > Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls > Ultra Despair Hagakure > Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy (there are two different complimentary series. The idea is that you alternate between the two of them starting with Side Future, then Side Despair so your order would be F1, D1, F2, D2, etc...) > Super Danganronpa 2.5 > Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer > anything else to do with the main danganronpa universe > Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (not canon to the rest of the games, it is it’s own verse)

5: steven universe

so i’m sure most of you have heard of this but it’s really good so it’s worth sharing, here’s the plot: The Crystal Gems are a team of magical beings who are the self-appointed guardians of the universe. Half-human, half-Gem hero Steven is the "little brother" of the group. The goofball is learning to save the world using the magical powers that come from his bellybutton and he goes on magical adventures with the rest of the Crystal Gems, even though he's not as powerful -- or smart -- as fellow group members Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Despite his shortcomings, Steven usually finds a surprising way to save the day.

this show has so many lgbtq+ characters that if i tried i wouldn’t be able to list them all, there is so much room to make oc’s if you can think of a type of gem then you got a gemsona idea buddy cuz any gem can be a character and the story is really great

6: the adventure zone

ok so this one is a tabletop rpg podcast, so far there has been two main campaigns though one is still on going, the 1st one is called The Balance Arc it’s the campaign that was for d&d and so far is the only main campaign to be over as it has a ending (though they sometimes still do live shows set in the campaign), it’s also the one you should must likely start with, then the 2nd main campaign is called: Amnesty it uses the monster of the week rpg and is on going, this podcast is hosted by the McElroys

here’s what campaign 1 can be summed up as: The story of four idiots that played DnD so hard that they made themselves cry.

here’s a fan-made trailer for The Balance Arc

youtube

7: critical role

another d&d show! yeah i know but this one and the last one are very very different, for one everyone in this show knows how to play d&d, anyways this is a web series in which a group of professional voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons, that is played live every Thursday. There are two campaigns, one of them is over while the other is on going, both are already very long so you better have some free time on your hands

if you do watch then be ready to cry at least once

8: 17776

ok so uh this one is a bit odd, it’s on the shorter side os things and is a serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative by Jon Bois published online through SB Nation, it’s odd but from what i know it’s good

9: paranatural

a webcomic that is made by the same person that made summerteen romance (y’know from Paradox Space?) anyways the comic follows the story of Max, the new kid at school, and the other members of the Activity Club as they fight ghosts, investigate the secrets of Mayview, and interact with their fellow middle school students

it’s a fun webcomic that has characters that you end up really wanting to learn more about

10: young justice

so this show is a pertty good way to get into the dc fandom, you don’t need to know much of the lore of the main dc verse as a lot of the stuff isn’t quite the same in the show so need to worry if your not the must into comics, the story is about the the teenage team of superheroes as they save the world as well as deal with normal daily life issues

it’s a fun show that can make you cry really fast, that goes from light hearted to dark very quick and isn’t afraid to kill off a characters

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suzu-kun22 · 6 years

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My Top 10 Favorite Video Games

This is basically gonna be the same as my ranking of the V3 characters. I’m going to list my top 10 favorite video games and then write a small paragraph on why I love them so much.

Spoilers for the games mentioned.

10. Pokémon: Alpha Sapphire

The characters of Alpha Sapphire are very fun to hang out with and very endearing (since I chose the female protagonist, I found Brendan particularly likable). Plus its endgame content is some of the best of any Pokémon game I’ve played to completion. The Delta episode is just incredibly fun and rewarding to complete, and it ends with a very nice ship moment for my biggest ship in the game. It was nice to revisit a region I love so much with such beautiful graphics and likable characters.

9. Minecraft: Story Mode

I honestly don’t know why I like this game so much. I know it’s dumb and that most of the choices don’t really change the story that much, but I find the characters so endearing and the story so weirdly compelling that I’m willing to ignore most of that and just enjoy the game for what it is. And what it is is a fun ride with really likable characters who actually have well crafted and well-explored dynamics. A lot of it feels like watching a TV show where I have some input, and that isn’t a bad thing.

8. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Most of the first three games on this list’s appeal chalks up to characters for me. However, THH has the added bonus of an intriguing plot and satisfying twists sprinkled on top. The characters all have standout personalities and designs as well as phenomenally developed dynamics and personal histories. The twists are mostly unexpected, and you can tell that a lot of love went into crafting it, even if the actual art is probably the worst of the series.

7. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

The main thing that pulls UDG ahead of THH is the fact that I prefer UDG’s protagonist. Komaru is just more relatable for me and her dynamic with Toko is utterly adorable. I always found that Toko never got enough focus in the main game and this game remedied that with ease. Yuta Asahina was also an added bonus, even if he only lasted about five minutes. The only reason this game isn’t higher is that the 3D graphics can look really awkward some(all)times.

6. Doki Doki Literature Club

The Gakkougurashi of video games. Need I say more? Yes? Even with its fake-out cuteness and actually evil characters, the game still manages to get you to love them and become invested in their fates. Of course, the darker second act of the game wouldn’t work so well without the relationship you build with the characters early on. It also wouldn’t work without the game’s amazing art and unsettling music. A game that is almost perfectly designed on both a technical level and a story-level.

5. Pokémon Black Version

I must admit that this one is mostly here because of nostalgia. It was the first Pokémon game I ever completed (and I think the first video game I ever completed) and thus will always have a special place in my heart. The Gym Leaders are cool and interesting, the Pokémon are cute, and the endgame content is on par with that of Alpha Sapphire (A whole other side of the map to explore and battle through!! That’s pretty awesome!!). There’s even a cameo from my favorite champion (Cynthia my girl!!)! For a 2D Pokémon game, you can’t get much better than this.

4. Pokémon X

This is my favorite Pokémon game. The difficulty level is just right. The characters are fun and vibrant, and the world itself is laid out in a very cool way. The Pokémon themselves are all cool and cute, and the endgame content (while not as good as Alpha Sapphire or Black Version), is pretty cool. Working with Looker to get rid of crime in Lumoise city was really fun, and all the restaurants and other areas that become available once you beat the champion are interesting to explore. A truly well-designed and fun-to-play Pokémon game!

3. Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

This one all comes down to characters. The characters all have even more personality than those in THH or UDG. The twist is much more compelling and surprising and even more meta. The murders are more interesting to solve and appear better planned out (though you can still guess the killer most of the time, but there were a few times where the killer legitimately caught me off guard). Chapter 5 on its own was better than the entirety of THH, even if the reveal of the mastermind wasn’t nearly as satisfying because we all knew who it was from the start. However, the Izuru Kamukura and Ultimate Impostor twists were easily enough to make up for that. Just a well-made, well-written, clever game all around. Loved it to death.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Link.

Okay obviously that’s not enough.

Breath of the Wild strikes a perfect balance between being challenging enough to be rewarding to complete, but not so much that it’s impossible to figure out how to do it. Games like Borderlands, while very fun to play, often miss this crucial balance for me. While those games may be fun to play and very rewarding if you actually manage to complete them, they are so challenging that actually completing them is often not worth the rage, pain, and time I know it will take. Breath of the Wild hits this balance perfectly with a difficulty curve that doesn’t actually exist, but really feels like it does just from how the game goes about getting better gear into your hands. The characters are slightly lacking (Sidon and even Link are well-characterized), but that’s part of the point. The game creates a beautiful feeling of melancholy in the player, which I’ve talked about in more depth in a short analysis I wrote on the emotional impact of the game.

1. New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

I think the characters pull this one ahead (no surprise). The characters in this game certainly act the most human of any character in any Danganronpa game. They cry when something happens to their friends, they get angry when someone insults them or betrays them, and they’re suspicious of pretty much everyone. Pretty much all of them are completely fleshed out and interesting to watch. The twists are fun and unexpected (even if there are hints towards them early into the game), and there’s even more to do than ever before, with events between trials that aren’t only about getting the characters into a location to find a body. Chapter 5 is yet again the best chapter with the most entertaining and compelling trial in the entire series, culminating in one of the most effectively emotional executions in the entire series (the first one of this game may have this one beat, I’m still not sure). Kokichi Oma specifically is probably one of the most interesting characters in a series filled to the brim with interesting and unique characters and I legitimately missed him once his role in the game was over. This game has so many layers beneath its surface that one could probably spend all day collecting hints to determine if the ending was real or not. The cases of this game are also a lot more complex, with one trial that even goes for THREE HOURS BEFORE THE KILLER IS FOUND OUT!! This is when the focus really shifted from ‘okay we gotta figure out who could have done this’ to ‘okay we have to figure out HOW the killer did this and then figure out who in our group is capable of both coming up with a plan like that and carrying it out without getting caught.’ And the killers themselves are never characters you would expect to kill someone (chapter five is sort of an exception but meh). All of this, plus the detailed art of the characters and environments, (and excellent voice acting if I do say so myself), make this my favorite game that I have ever played to completion.

#new danganronpa v3 #the legend of zelda breath of the wild #super danganronpa 2 #pokemon xy #pokemon black #ddlc #doki doki literature club #danganronpa another episode #danganronpa trigger happy havoc #minecraft: story mode #mcsm #pokemon alpha sapphire #spoilers #new danganronpa v3 spoilers #ddlc spoilers #ndrv3 spoilers #doki doki literature club spoilers #danganronpa

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devintrinidad · 3 years

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Helper T and Regulatory T as head Executioners is it! I personally see (as a nod to the CAW manga) Regulatory T being completely loyal to Cancer and even being one of his inner circle followers who knows the truth about everything.

Oh wow you know this would make Killer T becoming a Akudama even more harsh. Killer T would be targeting his former comrades he grew up with. There’s a lot of ugly in there. Actually Can you imagine NK and Killer T’s confrontation? They would utterly despise each other. Despite whatever they both say about the other, they did care and trust each other a lot as partners. Ultimate betrayal. I wouldn’t be surprised if all this betrayal causes a lot of them to snap and harden their hearts even more about what they’re all doing. Vigilante would be a good name for Killer T. I could see NK giving him that name out of mocking him and Killer T taking it to be petty.

I kind of like the idea of Cancer either being Cancer, or something like Prisoner Zero. Zero because it’s considered the most important of all numbers and Cancer would like that and thinks everything goes back to him. Prisoner because it has double meanings. Maybe in Cancer’s backstory he was a prisoner of lab experiments that led to his immortality. I could see him being a victim of these elites who want to live forever. When Cancer became successfully immortal he went on a killing spree on them (irony, he keeps the cycle of experimentation that ruined him going. I guess it’s one of those, if I suffered then so do you things). It also relates to him still feeling like a prisoner of the world since he can never leave it. But I also like Immortal for being straightforward and simple.

Yeah I imagined Mentor being the Neutrophil Teacher from 1146’s childhood in canon. It would be one of those shock things because how could someone be so nice and dependable but show so much evil. 1146 would be crushed because he’d realize there’s no one in the higher ups he can trust after that. He’d actually blame the Executioner’s, and later mainly Cancer, for corrupting the closest thing he had to a father. He knows his teacher made his own choices, but he can’t help but think Cancer’s evil changed his mentor at some point.

Cancer would probably kiss 3803 as much as possible. Both because he wants to and also to mess with her and 1146. Oh boy, if he did that in front of 1146, I think 1146 would get so angry even Cancer would get scared for a split second.

Deep down Cancer is lonely. But he also lacks so much humanity he just doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He only will accept things that fit his image. He can’t stand peace or stability because he lost the ability to feel those things a long time ago. He always moves things to be in perpetual chaos. 3803 (and Platelet) is the first person who could become immortal like him or at least she can be. He wants to keep her chained to him. She kind of brings up a lot of confusing things in him but in the end he knows he can use her to fulfill his goals and she’s the only one who can understand his immortality. Plus he believes even if it takes a hundred years, she’ll break and become like him eventually. He can be patient. I think it’s he feels entitled over her because he’s had her in his clutches her whole life and in his mind, he practically made her. Like he’s her personal god. He made her a goddess in his image. He does grow to fall in love with her, but it’s twisted of course and only for his sake.

Cancer’s desire to take her and Platelet is because he believes he knows how to tweak them enough to finalize their immortality and give it to everyone else.

3803 and 1146 are adorable and already wife and husband in all but name. Normally she would be the more active pursuer once she realized what was between them. But again she’s hesitant for many reasons. Her uncertainty over what her lifespan is. Her messed up upbringing and being more awkward over normal relationships she’s unused to (yes in this AU, 1146 us the less awkward one. Which isn’t saying a lot). She thinks 1146 can do better and he’s been through enough. 1146 is totally head over heels for her. He’s very sensitive to her personal issues once he’s aware of them. Very defensive of her safety while also thinking she’s amazing at what she does. One time she gave him a lift through a gang war and by the end of it he was so impressed he couldn’t stop gushing about how amazing she was driving her bike like that. He has to make the first moves.. and he’s typically bad at it. But if she notices, she thinks it’s sweet so it has the same affect.

[Trigun is one of my favorite anime/manga series. It’s a crying shame the manga hasn’t had a faithful adaption because the manga is even better then the anime (and I love the anime).]

Yeah I also see 3803 as a pacifist too who doesn’t kill. She’s fine with other people killing and always grateful when 1146 kills to protect her and Platelet and Macrophage. She has a high tech taser gun that can stun people from afar.

I kind of originally thought 5100 was one of the dead kids from Cancer’s experiments. But if not I could see her as a Akudama (for some reason I can’t see her or DB as interesting Executioners. Idk, maybe DB and PO would be a good Executioners. I hadn’t thought about it much). 5100 could be called Supplier. She stores a ton of illegal items and can get anyone almost anything they want that’s against the law. 3803 gets all her supplies for her bike and bombs for Platelet and other stuff from 5100. Eventually 1146 also starts getting weapon supplies from her. 5100 both teases and threatens to block him from getting stuff he needs if he breaks 3803’s heart or acts inappropriate with her.

Sometimes 3803 worries about 1146’s bloodthirsty side. She knows he’s the kindest person she’s ever met. But he can get disturbingly engrossed in killing at times. She tries to bring it up in a gentle way because she doesn’t want 1146 to think she’s judging him, think he’s weak minded or thinks badly of him. She’s seen other good people act that violent and eventually snap over it. She doesn’t want the same to happen to him. Especially since the more this happens, the more he tells her even if he has to kill over a thousand people, he’s going to protect her and nothing she or anyone else says can stop him. Naturally she’s concerned for both his growing obsession over keeping her safe and the possibility he’ll recklessly get himself killed for her sake and she’d never forgive herself if that happened.

She get’s pretty protective of him too in her own way and when she blows up at him when he almost dies thanks to being reckless. He realizes her anger over his welfare is pretty scary and what happens to him really affects her.

3803 and Platelet love Macrophage like a mom/big sis and get her the best Mother’s day gifts ever. They can’t believe she should ever feel guilty because it’s only thanks to her that they got away from Cancer.

Macrophage and Cancer hate each other. She nearly decapitated him for scaring and harming her girls and he wants her dead for messing with his order.

4201 would be very driven to take out 1146 and sees him as her personal rival to fight against in order to redeem the Executioners reputation. In return he’s like, who’s this scary annoying little punk trying to one up me? for 3803, 4201 tries to capture her non stop. Like that Captain Ahab and the White whale, she has no idea why the top wants 3803 so badly but she’s going to capture her alive and 1146 is not going to stop her. Actually she has to keep up with 3803 first. She’s good on a motorcycle too. But 3803 is kind of chaotic so her moves though 4201 for a loop and it aggravates her because this klutzy airhead is one upping her all the time somehow. It doesn’t help 3803 always is in the most dangerous and instable of areas so 4201’s nerves get easily rattled trying to keep up with how unpredictable 3803 is since 3803 always keeps her cool while 4201 is prone to freaking out over all the daredevil moves. Eventually 4201 does end up meeting with 3803 here and there. Like sometimes 3803 stops to save her life and other times they get stuck and are forced to rely on each other. Plus 4201 sees Platelet once and how 3803 loves her. 3803 feels pity and compassion for 4201 because she’s a genuine person who doesn’t know she’s being played by a corrupt system. 4201 starts to understand there are a lot of things she still doesn’t know and maybe she’s not as right as she thought.

~~~

Yup. Killer T and NK would definitely be at each other’s throats. To know that NK gave Killer T his Akudama name would be the icing on top of an already bloated cake.

Prisoner Zero? That is so freaking cool. I love your theory that he himself was once a prisoner, but eventually became a prisoner not only due to his immortality, but in his enabling of the same process that was given unto him. It’s tragic and ironic at the same time. I wonder if he feels remorse for being such a hypocrite or has all the time as an immortal eroded away his morality? Immortal is shorter, though. I suppose Prisoner Zero can be his original name before he shifted over to Immortal.

1146 would be beyond crushed if his Mentor was the father he always wanted in his life.

Hehehe, the squick between Cancer and 3803 always gets me. 1146 would not only vow to kill Cancer, but he also vows to one him up—even though we both know that he kind of sucks at being romantic at times. (3803 doesn’t care, though. She loves her Bodyguard).

You… you watched Trigun? Psycho Pass? CAW? Akudama Drive? Are we sharing a mind link or something? Are we actually the same person? What is going on here? (But seriously, the anime deserves a reboot. I loved the Borderlands Movie that came out in… 2010??? It lacked the rustic flair from the 90s, but my gosh, I loved that it still had that charm).

5100 as the Supplier and the big sister figure to 3803 is glorious. She would definitely tease 1146 all the time all the while subtle threatening him.

As 4201 and 3803… I think I mentioned this before, but these guys are foils in the original CAW canon. To see it play out in AD, well… There’s definitely going to be a lot more than a simple misunderstanding on their part. I can see 3803 trying to be sympathetic and kind while being chased around by 4201. 4201 isn’t having it, either staying silent as 3803 tries to get on her good side, or lashing out in anger that she can’t seem to execute 3803. It’s aggravating and it damages 4201’s reputation as being one of the best, almost on par with the famed 1146.

I love the idea that they somewhat respect each other, 3803 more so than 4201. It would rankle 4201 to know that she was saved by not only a criminal, but an actual Akudama. She would try ten times harder to capture 3803, but her unpredictability always has her evading her attempts.

Anyway, thanks for the continuation of this AU! It certainly has a great appeal. :D

#cells at work #hataraku saibou #caw #caw anon #anon ask #devintrinidad #devintrinidad author #devin trinidad author #devin trinidad #akudama drive #akudama #submission

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