Okay, But What The Hell Was That??? I Think I Need A Thesaurus And A Dictionary To Find The Right Words

The votes are in!

The main story of the fangame rpg will be focused on rebuilding the Isles, but little tidbits of the second storyline will be interspersed! @jumpyrope brought up the fact that it'd probably be a massive undertaking to try and combine all of the storylines, so I'll focus more on the other two ideas as side-quests/side plots.

Demo release date TBD. Considering I'm a college student and will be working as a camp counselor this summer, the time I have to work is limited. In the best case scenario, the demo will drop by the end of August 2023. (But I'm not that hopeful.)

This will be a sort of development blog? I'll periodically post updates here, just to have someone to share my accomplishments with.

I'm currently working on Sprite sheets for the hexsquad. So far, I only have Luz and Hunter's animations finished up and King's expression sheet- but i see that as monumental progress so far! I'm still very new to RPG Maker and game development in general, so if anyone has any advice, let me know!

I'll post some progress shots tomorrow, once I have the basic walking animations set up! I fear for the day I will have to work on custom tilesets...

Desirée: I feel in love with my Ronnie at first sight because he came to defend me and he saved me even though he was a stranger.

Phoenix:

not a big fan of AI but this is a top 10 video of all time for me

I think this is a really valuable take, and it definitely did feel a little strange for that to be the final test. There's definitely a little underlying misogyny there, and whether it was intentionally written to show Lumons values or incidental on the show-writers part, I think it should be analyzed. I really hope next season they're able to develop all of the female characters more- especially Gemma. But, with the direction the story is going into, I really do think the female characters will carry the next season. I see a lot of Checkovs guns being loaded, so I can only hope.

However, I think the reason why the (disassembled) cradle was her final test was because her miscarriage had been the reason she came to Lumon in the first place. And, if I remember correctly, wasn't her fight with Mark over the broken cradle what caused her to seek help from Lumon? Having her take apart something that had meant enough to her to take part in Lumon's experiments (until it no longer was a choice) was the final way of destroying her will to leave. This was something that had been a source of so much of Gemma's pain, anger, fear, and, well, hope- all four tempers- yet it was something else that caused her to fail the test. Maybe, too, her taking it apart could be framed as a form of empowerment? No longer is her greatest worry or concern tied to motherhood - she has something else to fight for. Her own freedom and happiness.

And hell, if my theories are right, I think girlie is gonna take down Lumon with Cobel or Devon. Like, stick her in the birthing cabin, get all the details from each separate Gemma, reintergrate that girl, and she'll destroy that whole company. Do I know how that'll work? A different Gemma per room??? Who knows. Tldr- I think we've only seen a fraction (haha) of Gemma so far, and that season 3 will focus a lot more on who she really is.

Cause it's not like you can't do a story involving miscarriage without it being sexist. That's a real and traumatic experience that many people go through that can and should be thoughtfully explored in fiction.

The thing that makes it feel sexist with Gemma is that it's the only new thing we learn about her as a person in Chikhai Bardo. There's all the plot stuff happening to modern Gemma of course, but that's stuff happening to her, it's not who she is. Everything we see about her outside of Lumon in that episode is either stuff that Mark has already told us about her and the miscarriage, which was also already alluded to. Which makes it feel like prior to Lumon kidnapping her, she didn't exist as her own person but rather as Mark's Wife who wanted to be The Mother of Mark's Children. Which, would suck as a way to write any woman, but feels like a particularly egregious way to write an Asian woman given the whole submissive China Doll stereotype (I know she's not Chinese, that's just what the trope is called).

And it's reinforced in Cold Harbor with the revelation that what Cold Harbor is is a test to see if her strongest, most fundamental memories can break through severance. And what Lumon has determined to be her core self that they're so worried about whether or not they can separate her from it, is maternity. And yes, you can argue that that is Lumon's perspective of her, not the show's, and that Lumon viewing her that way is meant to be viewed critically as more of the Eagan's patriarchal, white supremacist bullshit. But if it's just Lumon's view of her and not the show itself, then why didn't we learn anything else about her in the episode ostensibly about her?

cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it

she's so silly i love her so much

Vanderwood Route - Mystic Messenger

✿ so i am a complete vanderwood trashpit, and this is my attempt to write a detailed fan-route about our favorite confused spy. if you enjoy my work and want a vanderwood route as desperately as I do, please feel free to sell your soul to cheritz in the interests of giving our leopard-print love a little more limelight.

In celebration of 1,000 followers and 100 posts… on with the show!

W A R N I N G

This is not spoiler free, and it assumes that you have played - or are at least aware of - many elements of 707′s route.

There are some mentions of suicide, abusive childhoods, and other potentially triggering topics in this route. They are not described in depth though. If you can handle the game, you can probable handle this.

General Notes

After completing 707′s route, new options will be unlocked in the deep route prologue that allow dark purple hearts to be gained. Accumulation of enough of these hearts will, much like all the other routes, cause the player to get Vanderwood’s Route on Day 5.

Calling and texting Vanderwood will not be available from the beginning of the route, but after a certain point it will be unlocked.

In the interests of making this accessible, I use ‘they’ for Vanderwood. Please, feel free to insert whatever headcanoned pronoun and gender identity you wish for them.

I have also done a little work to create a more detailed backstory for them. It felt necessary, since we know so little about them in comparison to the others. I hope this only enhances your enjoyment!

D1 - D4

The new options in the deep route initially seem to focus on 707. Much like accessing his route, you joke around with him, but the topics focus more on embellished stories from his secret agent life and his relationship to his “maid”, Mary Vanderwood the III.

This gives the player a lot of background into 707′s life as a secret agent, providing more stories like the potato chip incident. All of them are told humorously, of course. Through them, the chat begins to get a sense that Mary Vanderwood the III is actually a dear friend to Seven, who has saved his life on multiple occasions and whose life has been saved by him in return. However, Seven does not admit this, instead saying that they simply work in the same spaces, and ‘their relationship does not go beyond maid and master.’

The good options include asking about Vanderwood’s habits, hobbies, and personality, and also telling Seven that Vanderwood sounds like a very loyal friend who will go out of their way to take care of him. The other members will agree with this - (particularly Jaehee and Yoosung) - saying that Vanderwood goes above-and-beyond what would be expected for a ‘maid’, given they help him with his work, bring him tea and coffee when he’s having a hard time, and they’ve put themselves in significant danger to ensure his safety.

MC: Wow… It sounds like she really cares for you! (+1 Dark Purple Heart)

Zen: Yeah! She’s totally in love with you! I’m so jealous!!!

707: i guess we know that Zen’s into maids lololol

On Day 3, if you select an option that gets 707 to talk more about Vanderwood, he’ll send one of the first Vanderwood CGs - a picture of 707 cross-dressing accompanied by Vanderwood in a suit. It’s a surprise selfie taken by 707, and Vanderwood clearly doesn’t look happy about it.

(Seven says that the person in a dress is Vanderwood, and Zen predictably believes him.)

Seven is veeeery slowly starting to accept that Vanderwood is actually his friend by the evening of the fourth day, and he’s becoming extremely comforting pal-ing around with MC. In Vanderwood’s route, Seven is basically your bestie.

The route proper is underneath the read more due to length!

Keep reading

OH MY GOD, I JUST REALIZED. EPISODE 7 HAS SO MANY ADDITIONAL SYMBOLIC TAROT REFERENCES. I WAS HALF ASLEEP AND I JUST. SHOT UP IN A COLD SWEAT. SO LISTEN TO MY SLEEP DEPRIVED RAMBLE ABOUT ONE OF MY HOBBIES AND MY HYPERFIXATION. I WON'T ADD SCREENSHOTS OF THE SCENES, BUT I'LL PROVIDE TAROT CARDS WHEN NECESSARY!

1. "The Star": This one is the most obvious because of the stakes miniseries. We already know the pattern of all the vampires being named after tarot cards, yadda yadda. The star in tarot comes right after the tower, symbolizing rebirth and hope in the wake of destruction. Clearly, this is meant to be two metaphors in a trenchcoat because if you consider her backstory in this universe, her becoming the daughter of the vampire queen is somewhat of a more hopeful end. If you ignore the fact that almost everyone died in that universe, at least. Also baby Finn??? What's going to happen to him??? Please??? Am I the only one terrified about that baby??? BUT ANYWAYS OFF TOPIC. TAROT TIME.

2. "The Tower": Although not explicitly referenced, though maybe they did call it the tower idk, is what comes before the star, a sudden upheavel. You can see it pictured as below.

The tower, although generally thought to be a negative card like death, is actually more of a positive one. Yes, sudden change is scary, but if a house is built on shaky foundations, no matter what, it will fall. This card is only negative if you refuse to accept life for what it is, which seems to be pretty in line with the theme of Fiona and Cake so far.

You'll immediately see the parallel to the final scene if you look at this picture. With the birds (or vampires) falling with them, the smoke and the tower, with a dark sky... The only difference is Bonnie and Marcy were holding one another, which I find to be interesting. There's many different decks, but considering the AT crew is probably going off of the Rider-Waite deck, (yes I spelled it wrong, sue me), I hardly believe that was unintentional. I think it's to go to show that even if they may not be happily in love in every universe, you can't deny that there is some kind of soulmate au fuckery going on. Their two options in any given universe is: ride together, and / or die together.

I'm pretty sure there was also The Devil symbology with The King, and there was something going on with Simon's bones, but I'll leave that for tomorrow.