#mostly random thoughts

[natsarrownecklacx]

Late Night Thoughts With Y/n

Sugar, spice and all things iced (Y/n, Wanda, Sam, Bucky, Steve.)

Memory Game (Y/n, Dr. Strange)

Midnight Race (Y/ n, Wanda, Pietro, Makkari)

Not soon enough Pt Two Part Three (Y/n, Wanda, Strange)

[professorprophetess]

Companions in Video Games

Within games, especially RPGs, you will inevitably come across companion characters for your protagonist to interact with or have a starting party that you are with or will gather. These side characters all have different aspects to them and add stuff to the gameplay experience over all. How this has changed over time is interesting. Going back as far as the fourth generation of games on the SNES there is Secret of Mana that comes to mind. Next I’ll just jump ahead and across platforms to Kingdom Hearts for the PS2, and finally we round this out with two more modern titles: Diablo 3 and Persona 5. There are countless games I could have chosen, but for this these are the ones I’ll use.

With Secret of Mana the player character—Randy— starts off alone after getting kicked out of his village. Then after the first few quests he gains Primm—the female warrior— and Popoi—the sprite child— as companions. Along the way the party characters do have some plot relevance here and there but from then on, that’s who are in Randy’s party through the conclusion of the game (Secret of Mana). The companions are given their own motivations as they adventure with Randy helping him on his quest, and they tie in, but much of what is done is story mandated and the companions are there.

This is similar to how companions are handled with Kingdom Hearts. This time player character—Sora—not only starts off alone but ends up having to fight a major boss alone and then ends up on a new world before he is paired up with Mickey Mouses’s sidekicks: Donald Duck and Goofy. They do have interactions throughout the game, and there are guest party members that can be swapped out for one of the pair since the party is limited to three characters. However, a lot like Secret of Mana the interactions between Sora, Donald, and Goofy doesn’t have much impact on the game that the characters can really affect. They’re just there, as friends because the game says so (Kingdom Hearts).

Whenever we jump ahead to the modern games I’ve selected —one a Western RPG and one a JRPG—things are a little different with the JRPG than the Western One but not by too much. With Diablo 3 you still gain companions when the game dictates that you will, especially those that will accompany you into battle. Another departure between Diablo 3 and the prior games is (unless you’re playing online in a multiplayer mode) you are limited to only one companion character. Each of these characters have an initial quest that is played with them and afterwards they are free to be chosen. They even have other specific side quests related to them depending on what part of the game the player is in. Also given time are the three artisans that can be recruited to the hero’s cause. Covetous Shen, Miriam the Vechin, and Haedrig the Blacksmith. Not only are these three also quest activated (through the first play-through that is) but as artisans they can be leveled up and occasionally there will be side quests that can be undertaken to expand more about them. e.g. Haedrig’s apprentice disappeared with his hammer, if one explores one of the first maps enough, they’ll find his apprentice met a sticky end. Speaking with the companions can also reveal more about them and unlock new bits of dialogue if one had been a bit lax in doing so prior (Diablo 3). However, as interesting as all of this is, beyond the initial things, none of these are mandatory. The player is given a choice on whether or not they want to continue grinding through the side character dialogue that isn’t banter whenever they’re with whatever hero the player’s chosen to play (in my case, I’m always a female wizard). You can unlock an achievement for taking the time to talk to them, but beyond completionists seeking achievements, the game leaves it up to your choice. Whereas with the prior games mentioned the companions’ stories really don’t go beyond whatever the main plot demands but you also were sort of given an easy way to resolve most of the pertinent threads to these characters. Which leads to the most recent game Persona 5. Like Diablo 3, the party member companions are unlock able through story based missions from which they’re permanent members of the party afterwards. Certain other companions (or confidants as they are in Persona 5) are also unlocked by story events—e.g. Sae Nijima. However, beyond that, the player has to go out and make the choice to find all the other confidantes that they can unlock and level up certain abilities to even start on that confidant bond. For instance, the character of Haru Okumura is one of the last party members to join the party in the main story of the game. Yet, in order to even start her confidant bond the player character needs to have specific levels of Charm and Knowledge to even start with her. Now, the player doesn’t have bother with these but it will severely hamper their game later on as the stronger the bonds between the protagonist and the other characters he can have relationships is, the more abilities cheaters can unlock—especially those in the main party (Persona 5).

Persona 5 is not the first game to have this be an option by a long shot, but it’s become more common as of Persona 5’s release to have a system where the player has to recruit characters to be friends or even recruit party members in some cases of games within the prior generations, e.g. Star Ocean. However it has become more common and understandably more complex in how you go about interacting with companions and/or recruiting them. See BioWare’s two most popular RPG franchises for instance: Mass Effect and Dragon Age. I think this evolution in party member recruitment is partly due to technology growing to allow this and a way to make games more immersive as well as add some variability to game play. e.g. In Persona 5 my first play through I had the protagonist romance Ann but in my second play through I had him romance Haru. I also, in my first play through, missed out on a lot of the companions because I didn’t know to look for them and the five social stats—knowledge, charm, guts, proficiency, kindness— had areas that were lacking for those relationships. It gave me something to work on to open up new options for companions and later new side quests. Same could be said for Diablo 3’s companions. The difference between them is in Diablo 3, the companion quests were added by Blizzard to occur after merely talking to the companions as opposed to grinding out the relationship in different outings like in Persona 5. When looking back to the past and to the present, companion relationships are getting more sophisticated in RPG games because it is both a trend that players seem to like this, and it adds more depth to the games. “Do you think an RPG do without these relationship aspects and still be fun” one might ask me and the answer is: yes. Not all games have to do this, take the most recent Kingdom Hearts title for instance. It’s certainly an RPG but it does not do any of that and is still a very well received game (Persona 5, Diablo III, Kingdom Hearts III) . In short, as games change and evolve, so do many aspects of game play. The companion systems are just one of those.

Works Cited

Diablo III. Blizzard, Windows, 2012.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Collection. Square Enix, PS4, 2017.

Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix, PS4, 2019.

Persona 5. Atlus, PS4, 2016.

Secret of Mana. Square Enix, SNES Classic, 2017.

Works referenced

Dragon Age: Origins. BioWare, Windows, 2009.

Dragon Age II. BioWare, Windows, 2011.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. BioWare, Windows, 2014

Mass Effect. BioWare, Windows, 2007

Mass Effect 2. BioWare, Windows, 2010.

Mass Effect 3. BioWare, Windows, 2012.

Star Ocean: The Second Story. Square Enix, 2009.

[befuddledbeauty-blog]

Six word story

Learn to dream with open eyes.

[pastelcryptid]

Will is already familiar with the idea of animals as family, his own consisting of stray dogs (which he has made incredibly obedient). So this is a dynamic that he's comfortable with, in reverse. Hannibal congratulates (rewards) Will subtly when he conforms to Hannibal's rules. As bluehelado pointed out to me, Hannibal evenfeeds Will, not just at the disturbing power-play dinners with everyone else, but at breakfast and during impromptu visits. He also encourages Will to think of Hannibal's home as a place he can run to, even when it's actually inconvenient (such as in 'Fromage'). Will is submissive, and easily led (not just by Hannibal). Will has put himself in a place where he trusts Hannibal with both his physical and mental health. Much as it is a typical fanfic trope, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a situation in which Hannibal – in a non-sexual way – dressed Will. Will is basically kept by Hannibal. This also calls to mind Hannibal's comment from the pilot about Will, that he is "the mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by." A kept animal.

[imadeyouthismixtape]

On Something That Used To Tear Me Apart Inside

     I've decided to no longer harbor these bitter feelings. What happened happened and I can admit that I am a better person for it. Without those events I would have never built the relationships that I did. I wouldn't have someone like Jazzlyn in my life the way she is or Alyssia or Destiny or Stephanie. Through this experience we've all become different in our own ways. However, from what I've learned, I can't take this the same way and I realize that this isn't for everybody it definitely is not for me.At least this specific one isn't. I'm not badmouthing it and I'm definitely not going to go "Dap from School Daze" on everything related. I respect them but honestly not in all of the same fields. I still love them and I'm happy for the recents. And there was never any bitterness to the ones before them even though I could have been with them. I'm honestly happy for everyone and I'm happy...I'm finally happy for myself that I'm no longer letting this tear me up inside. In fact I finally feel comfortable enough to take certain items out of the closet and repaint them so they can resemble something else. And if any of the others decide to try again I will support them every step of the way.

[imadeyouthismixtape]

Traumatic Memories

We were on our way to a church concert and because we're a big choir we had to lap up. I found myself on the lap of someone I knew liked me but I had no interest in at all. About halfway through the ride I felt a....growth under my butt. He got a boner on the way to a church concert. We were going to sing for Jesus. That wasn't for Jesus.

So at this point I had a broke up look on my face and the person I actually happened to like at the time was like "Fix your face". Then my face got worse as I tweeted to him (didn't have his number) "I think he just got hard"his face was so damn priceless when he got the message.

[imadeyouthismixtape]

On My Current Crush

         He told me not to waste my time on him and I did the opposite. I always do the damn opposite. Sometimes just being around him makes me feel like shit because I feel he's entirely out of my league. I feel hideous and inadequate around him.I don't know why I always do shit like that to myself. I'll tear myself down before I can think about one bad thing about the person I like. I always think that I'm too ugly or stupid or whatever for them to like me but what if the truth was that they just weren't good enough for me? Who am I kidding? 

[imadeyouthismixtape]

On Prom

         Some people are like "Who cares if you have a date or not it doesn't matter." even my mom, who in my opinion can't talk on that because she was asked to several proms and went so what would she know about going. Me...I'm like "Fuck That, I want a date". I've been thinking about what it would be like forever and no, my vision of it isn't skewed from high school movies, but I have some sort of expectation. I'm not expecting to go with my crush (pretty sure I revolt* him) but....I don't know how to describe it. I want to go with someone I can have fun with on the way there, take a picture, doesn't mind mingling with other people and can do their own thing while I do mine. I don't want to be stuck on them the whole night chest to chest slow dancing the whole time (one is sufficient, but we don't have to at all). But that's probably too much to ask for and since I'm me I haven't even been asked. I don't really want to ask anymore cause I have an intense fear of being called desperate but I'll probably be called desperate on here too.