#the fucking compendium is my only friend in this game it's the one keeping it real

[timegears-moved]

typed out another champions rant but i stopped myself for you guys <3

#bwark #totk lb #just had a chat with teba and he was like ''oh you don't have your great eagle bow with you? 🤨 be care ful with it because it means a lot #to the greatest craftsman in rito village harth.'' harth?? the game wants me to care about what the bow means to fucking HARTH????????????? #literally why is this game so allergic to mentioning their names #aside from mipha who was done okay i'll give that that and one very small mention of urbosa they've gotten nothing #the fucking compendium is my only friend in this game it's the one keeping it real #anyway teba i don't have the bow with me because it's safe in my house. alongside my other champions weapons. and my picture of the #champions from the dlc. because i care about THE CHAMPIONS NOT FUCKING HARTH #okay so turns out i am incapable of stopping myself. lol #do you guys understand my pain do you get me do you get why this hurts me so badly do you see how bad it is do y

[lilflowerpot]

hello again~

I'm here to ask a question about LoZ. so, I have a friend who plays and recommended it to me because she knows I love open world games and breath of the wild is (apparently) one of the best open world games ever and I've been hesitating ever since. she might be a little biased tho lol

and like. there's a sale going on right now for botw, so the recommendation just kind made itself known in my memory again

anyway so, basically I'm here to ask if it'll be worth it? I mean, the general consensus wherever I go seems to be 'amazing, go get it u won't regret it'

(and, this is totally optional, but if you could answer asap that would be great because idk when the sale ends, thank you)

p.s I love little blade. you're amazing

I think it's obvious by now that I am a //massive// Zelda fan so tbh I'm likely no less bias than your friend lmfao, but that being said I'm going to try and give as balanced a response as possible!

Pros

BotW is beautiful, and I mean b e a u t i f u l . The graphics have this lovely watercolour quality to them as an ode to the artstyle used in Skyward Sword, but more crisp & refined. Unlike a lot of the big open world games (looking at you skyrim) BotW doesn't sacrifice colour or try to be "gritty", but rather leans into that soft-apocalypse, studio ghibli vibe.

The narrative is equally lovely and fulfilling, and depending upon what order you collect Link's memories in you will likely have a different gameplay experience. You'll also meet a lovable cast of characters to whom you'll end up unreasonably attached, which will ultimately break your heart in the end,,, I apologise in advance, but I promise you it's worth the pain.

On that note, do it for my bitch-ass bird son. You'll know him when you meet him.

Link can jump. This will mean very little to you if you've not played a LoZ game before, but my boy can fucking JUMP.

You can also climb pretty much everything (bar like one specific material) which means if you want to get to that Cool Thing Over There, then with a mix of mix of ungodly arrogance, sheer willpower, and a lot of stamina potions, you can. If you suffer from the magpie brain (ie. you see a new shiny thing and become immediately sidetracked from your original objective) this will mean that you take about 10x as long as you should to do literally anything, but my god is it fun.

The soundtrack gives me feelings that I cannot put into words, and the voice acting is //phenomenal//. Importantly, Link himself does not have a voice actor which is the only correct choice considering he's been heavily implied throughout the entire LoZ franchise to be an elective mute, and I would have //hated// hearing him speak.

Link is also just a very sweet & funny golden retriever boy who occasionally sasses back like nobody's business. 10/10 protagonist.

If you like women, you will like them even more by the end. If you don't like women, there's a 90% chance you'll seriously reconsider it upon meeting [REDACTED].

The game has something for everyone: you like exploring? Well you're going to do a lot of that. You like collectables? There are so many outfits (that you can dye to your liking!) and a wholeass compendium to fill out. You like puzzles? You'll certainly find your fair share. You like combat? The basic mechanics are what you'd expect with there are enough different enemy types to keep it interesting, but dO NOT FIGHT A LYNEL WITHOUT MAKING SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH WEAPONS BC THEY WILL BREAK AND LEAVE YOU WITH A VERY ANGRY VERY MEAN MAN TRYING TO KILL YOU.

It is genuinely very good value for money, and even more so if you can get it on sale! Not only do you have the mainline game & all its side-quests, but there's also the expansion pass, and, of course, an entire sequel just ready and waiting!

Cons

Sometimes the open world can feel a little too open. Considering the game's context, it makes sense, but comparatively games like Skyrim feel more densely packed with Things To Do, whereas BotW has several areas of overgrown nothingness that are lovely to look at, but not especially interesting (though this is better rectified in TotK).

You can't swim underwater. This was not rectified in TotK, though I dearly wish it had been.

A lot of fans used to complain about the temple format of p much every Zelda game up until this point, so the developers essentially removed temples altogether and instead replaced them with only four (technically optional) Divine Beasts, plus Hyrule Castle itself. I... did not like this. I'm a big puzzle girlie, and though BotW has shrines scattered across the landscape—most of which are puzzle-based—I personally felt that this substitute was lacking in comparison to the original. TotK does improve on this by reintroducing temples, but I still could have gone for a few more (Skyward Sword was the opposite of this, with very linear gameplay which a lot of people hated, but I personally will stand by SS's Ancient Cistern until my dying breath, and Twilight Princess had some really innovative temples that I have replayed several times over).

On a semi-adjacent note, the final boss just... wasn't my favourite. That's not to say it was bad, only as boss fights go I've had better (I did, however, like the final segment of that fight).

You will develop an immediate fear response to the Guardian music.

Ultimately though, I absolutely do think you should buy it, and am jealous that you'll get to have that bright-eyed bushy-tailed first-time experience, because believe me, if I could erase my memories and play BotW all over again, I would.

#in short: BUY IT AND ENJOY #AND TELL ME WHEN YOU MEET MY BITCHY BIRD SON & WHAT YOU THINK OF HIM ASDJVHGVDFSK #sa screams back #the author speaks #LoZ

[tamerxorles]

So I platinumed Persona 4 Golden... Again.

Back in February of 2021 I was in a little bit of a gaming slump and wanted something comforting to play and maybe complete. I had recently gotten a PSTV so I figured why not Persona 4 Golden? It's one of my favorite games ever and I figured that if I'm going to platinum several other games twice each, then this one deserves at least a once over. Boy did I regret that decision. P4G is an amazing game. The story is great, the characters are amazing in every sense of the word and I'd literally nuke a small country if their leader said something negative about Nanako. All in all the trophies needed to get to the platinum aren't bad and there's only 4 that I'd call tedious. There's one that makes this whole process absolute ass, but I'll get to that. There's the standard stuff that a trophy hunter would be familiar with at this point; finish the story, beat secret bosses, etc. However because the persona games from 3 onward mostly function on a calendar system that means there's A LOT of stuff to pad out gameplay and there's literally no way to platinum a persona game without doing 2 playthroughs minimum. "Oh but Xorles, there are people that can do max social stats and social links in one run, plus all of the extra stuff, I'm sure it can be done in one!" Nope. Every single one of these games has at least one trophy that requires you be in New Game+. For P4G it's got 2. You've gotta be in NG+ not only to fuse Izanagi-No-Okami, but you have to be in it to fight Margaret. Neither of these are really that difficult, P4 is actually incredibly easy on normal mode and a joke on lower difficulties, it just sucks getting to this point. In any case I was able to get the platinum in 3 runs when I did it a couple of years ago. I didn't optimize at all and I basically did almost everything in the first run except read all of the books, the next run I did all of the social links and the compendium, and then the last run was just reading books when I had to and doing the "Hardcore Risette Fan" trophy. Oh my god, whoever decided that trophy needed to exist should be ritualistically sacrificed to the elder gods of Lovecraftian lore. Holy. Fuck. It doesn't look daunting just from the trophy description but doing it was one of the biggest pains in the ass I've ever dealt with. The trophy reads "Hear 250 of Rise's navigation lines" Persona games always have a lot of talking in and out of battle so you'd think that maybe you just have to do a little grinding but nope. Turns out there's MAYBE 30 unique lines for bosses that she says. Everything else is just standard combat lines that you have to keep track of and I hated every second. It was so bad that I needed a literal google docs checklist just to kind of keep track. That said I got to the grind and made a mistake by doing the party social links before doing this trophy which made everything infinitely worse. It's weird because it's like playing the game efficiently actually hurt my chances of doing this trophy easily. Whatever, it was a grind, I finally got it, and I popped off harder than a smash player when they find out that they don't need to shower before their tournament starts. All's well that ends well. I get my platinum, post to Reddit and get the dopamine rush I ever so desired for all of like a day.

Fast forward to 2023 and SURPISE! Atlas F I N A L L Y decided that we should be able to play two of their most popular games on modern consoles! I had a $10 coupon and P4G went on sale so I decided to go ahead and scoop it up for $5. I was thrilled. THEN I got broken up with from probably my most serious relationship ever and I was destroyed emotionally. So naturally I went to one of my comfort games and started playing persona 4 again. It wasn't often but the game did do a very good job at making me smile when I definitely didn't want to. I was talking to a friend and then one of my darkest moments came to pass. He uttered the phrase that sets my soul ablaze and tickles my asshole in a frankly horrifyingly effective way. He said, "I bet you can't platinum it again. Bitch." That was it. Over the course of 110 hours I went through every trophy all over again. I spent the first playthrough doing E V E R Y T H I N G. I read all the books, I fused literally every persona I was able to before NG+, maxed all the social stats, got the hardcore Risette trophy again, grinded out over 2 million yen for the next run through, read all the books. NG+ came around and all I had to do was all the social links, fuse the max link personas at the end as well as Izanagi, slap Margaret around a little bit and then revel in the glory of getting played like a cheap kazoo. Only the I didn't feel as accomplished as I did the last time I got the platinum. It's not because I fell for the obvious trick that my friend used on me in an attempt to get my mind off of my break up, it wasn't because I didn't enjoy my time with the game again, hell it wasn't even because of the Risette trophy. I honestly think that it's just because speeding through the game is a bad way to play it. The last time I did this I had somewhere around 200 hours for the save file that I used and I almost cut it in half this run. Tbh I probably did cut it in half technically, but I have this bad habit of leaving games idle while I do dishes or something so the times tend to get inflated a little bit. I know that the phrase is more associated with 5 but it works just as well here too. Take your time with persona games. The fun comes from spending your time with the game and it's characters. The comparative mundanity of the social links vs the story in P4 is probably it's biggest charm, so doing what I did and fast forwarding through everything makes it so much less fun.

Persona 4 Golden is a personal 10/10 game for me and it's platinum is an 8/10. Literally the worst thing is that Hardcore Risette trophy and if you can do that then all you have to do really is just enjoy the fun game you bought. If you like trophy hunting then give it a try, and if you don't then just do yourself a solid and jump into the town or Inaba for a few dozen hours and enjoy the ride. Am I going to do this again? Fuck no, if I have to hear Rise say "It's weak to ice! Cool!" one more time then I can't be held responsible for what I do next. This whole thing started out as me wanting to vent about how annoying the game can be to platinum, but I think that over the course of typing it out I've accidentally reinforced how much I love this game. That said the next time I pick this game up I'm definitely reading every line of dialog. No matter how tedious.

Thanks for sticking through to the end of this. I want to get into reviewing games and potentially getting into games journalism. I figured talking about a game I love and a gaming process that I routinely go through and enjoy would be a good start? If you have any recommendations on how I can go about this a little better I'd love to read them. I've got 50 other games that I've platinumed and too much free time on my hands so maybe I'll do this again soon. Be good and go play some games. <3

#persona #persona 4 #persona 4 golden #xorles #xorles reviews

[mor-beck-more-problems]

Death Rings Twice || Morgan and Eilidh

TIMING: Current

PARTIES: @braindeacl @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: While searching for answers, Morgan and Eilidh realize the situation is worse than they realized.

CONTAINS: conversations with dead people

They came and went in waves. The first time, only the first time, Eilidh believed them to be just a part of being a ghost. James had done so many times—go in and out of view like the watts on a bulb. But those changes had been consensual, come upon by his own will, and he never truly left. Not like she had, and did, and still do. Moments of nothingness. Blink and she was gone, truly and ultimately gone. Blink and she was back, not even left with a memory. Just a faint recollection, a faint feeling of a blank. Like trying to recall a blackout. You knew it was there, you felt it too—pages torn from a book. But you also didn’t, couldn’t, for nothingness was all that remained. Nothingness that seemed to be her destination. Those blinks got longer, longer, longer. With no sign of slowing.

Eilidh knew Morgan was facing her own bouts of strangeness. Maybe they were connected. Morgan believed them to be—magic set loose like a wildfire, with them in its path. Consumed in its flames, would it burn them all the way to the ground? Or would they come out the other side, for the better? This curiosity, and a gnawing worry, compelled her forward, right into Morgan’s residence. She ventured through those great and winding halls, as if she already haunted the place. She ought to haunt at least one. Before it became too late. Passing by an open door, that familiar face was finally seen. Eilidh stopped, stared. Felt that nothingness threatening to claim her again. Visage flickered—like a light on its dying breath. But the feeling passed, leaving her there, shining on. The motion, or her very presence, must’ve caused a stir. The two women met each other’s eyes.

“Boo.”

Morgan just needed to find the right book. Zombies had been around for ages and so even if whatever was happening to her was obviously very rare, it must have happened to someone else before. And that someone must have wanted to write it down. Because magic directly affecting a zombie body at all was worth writing about; doing so in this cruel, backwards way defied everything she understood about magic and living matter. So, Morgan sat on the floor in the library, swimming through a large haul from the scriberary, searching. When Macleod appeared behind the volume she was holding, calling boo, Morgan yelped with surprise.

“Oh! Stars! That was--” she laughed uneasily. “That was something alright.” She sat back and looked at the other woman. She had believed everything Macleod had told her but seeing her friend, so wild and earthbound, so connected to her flesh, floating and transparent was uncanny in a way her mind struggled to process. “I wish I had good news on the funky magic boogaloo front, but there’s just lots of dead ends so far. But that can wait. Are you...okay? At least, relative to our situation?

Good-hearted chuckle lept out of Eilidh—breaking the illusion of the spooky ghost in the corner. She closed the distance between the two, eyes curiously scanning the cover and pages of the book nestled in Morgan’s lap. More were strewn across the room, circling Morgan in a protective barrier, or perhaps a tomb—either for future study or determined unsuited. Where one group ended and the other began, she wasn’t sure. Mouth parted to offer assistance, her hands and mind well-versed to such a skill, but the words quickly died just as her flesh had. Wouldn’t be much use when turning a page was a difficult endeavor. She had learned that fact rather quickly.

When attentions were placed on her, Eilidh perked. “Aye. Convinced this guy his cereal was sentient. And some lady she could control plants.” Snort of delight shot out her nose as their faces returned to memory. But as the chuckles faded, so too did this delight. That lingering worry remained. A hand brushed her lips, seemingly in thought. “Also…” In absence of external stimuli, she bit on a knuckle. But where a prick of sensation, a prick of life, would usually awaken her hand, only a mere acknowledgement greeted her. Fucking hell, how has James not gone mad by now? A low growl rumbled, and at least it felt nice in her chest. Familiar. “Been going in and out. Kinda like blinking. If you did that with a soul. James says it isn’t normal. And they’re getting longer.” Another knuckle met her teeth; that same hollow impact replayed. “Guess it’s soon time.” Her eyes scanned Morgan, transferring the focus back to the other woman. Wandering gaze found the darkness under her friend’s eyes. “What ‘bout you?”

For what seemed like a long time, Morgan could only stare at her friend. Or rather, through her friend. She could see every title on the shelf behind her if she concentrated enough, because Macleod, despite speaking and smiling and grinning and mischief-ing as much as she had ever done, was incorporeal and transparent. Like a ghost. A baby undead ghost. Which wasn’t supposed to exist. “..Blinking? What? Uh, that sounds bad. And weird. I’ve never heard of ghosts doing that before. They cross over, and they have some kind of teleportation thing, but they don’t play peek-a-boo with a whole plane of existence. That’s…” Another very strange, logic defying twist of magic.

Morgan cleared her head and tried to answer Macleod’s questions. “I woke up at the beginning of the week able to feel again. All my physical senses that went dull were back. It took some adjusting, but I think it was more or less how they were when I was alive. But then my body started decaying even when I was full, or more than full, and healing was fading and now it’s basically gone! So I’m basically rotting away for no discernable reason, and I get to be super physically aware of all of it. Also, I smell, so maybe it’s a good thing you don’t have any senses right now. When did your stuff start? I mean, none of this should be happening at all, because the undead are immune to spellcasting magic that engages with our body’s energy, as far as I can tell, and we’re immune to most drugs and toxins, and I haven’t found anyone else in town being effected like this, so it’s not the big cosmic town bullshit--but if we can get a timeline, maybe that will tell us...something.” She sighed and closed the book in her lap, staring off into anywhere but Macleod’s face. The whole world was slipping through their fingers, just when she’d thought it really did want them after all.

Curt laugh escaped Eilidh. “Yeah. You’re telling me.” Just her luck to be subjected to the worst game of peek-a-boo in existence. Maybe her soul truly did want to pass over, but this supposed magic was keeping her here? Maybe the universe was trying to remedy the fact she shouldn’t have remained—at least not in this form—but the magic tried to go against the very will of the cosmos? Thoughts followed that tangent until it caused a dizziness. Bah, there’s too many maybes and what-ifs. She snapped a finger, sharp noise bringing her back to the present. Mind focused on Morgan’s words, her own story. As such a tale unfolded, her face fell, allowing that worry bubbling inside to find itself in her eyes, her parted mouth. Just as quickly, her eyes tightened, mouth closed, jaws tightened. Resolve overcame the worry, gave her goal new fire. “Aye. That is real bad.” Especially when it started so promising—the worst kind. “Best we hop to it prompto, then. Know anything I can look over? Double-check? Triple-check?” The ways of magic, the ways others shifted the energies of the world to their will, was not a strong subject of hers. But perhaps there were other pieces of the puzzle her ever inquisitive eyes could find. She needed that hunt, after all. Needed something to do—when all things physical brought boredom at best, her mind frequently rushed into restlessness.

Eilidh recalled the start of this plight. “I died beginning of this week.” The same as Morgan’s own unfortunes; a fact that did not escape her. “Or alchemied this way. Or some other magic.” At this point, she wasn’t sure which was true. Death was more reasonable to her. Familiarity always felt more reasonable, and she was very familiar with death. But Morgan seemed convinced its cause was magically induced and, well, she was the expert in that regard. Not Eilidh. “Blinked out the first time a few days later. Didn’t think too much of it. ‘Til a few more days later when it kept happening.” How much longer would this affliction let her speak with Morgan? Would it rip her away mid-sentence, as it had with Milo? Sharp snap of fingers returned. Temptation to bite the nagging thoughts away surfaced—to subject another knuckle to her teeth. But the snap sufficed. For now.

Morgan sat back, thinking. The town had already been shifted in the cosmos by the time she and Macleod were affected. And no one else she spoke to, dead or undead, was feeling anything strange in their body. So why them? And how? It didn’t seem right that the universe should literally change its rules just to be cruel to them. And if an alchemy break-through was responsible for Macleod, it didn’t explain her progressive deterioration. She would have to be confined to a circle in order for that to be the case, and the energy required to continually re-write her body would be outrageous.

She looked over at Macleod, aching to give her an answer. “I only have a few general compendiums on the stuff, but maybe there’s some kind of sickness, or some kind of critter that can affect people like us. Like, bookwyrms and brain biters mess with people’s brains, and there’s plenty of necrophages out there maybe…” Some magic, universe defying critter happened to chomp on both of them without their noticing on the exact same night? Morgan could hardly stand to hope for the idea, it sounded ridiculous enough in her head. But she had to try. If she stopped trying, this thing would take her. “Maybe there’s one that can explain this. Weird abilities that make people incorporeal or mess with their magic composition. Um, it’s those thick ones back there--” She pointed. “Or you could check out the area, see if anything unusual is sniffing around. Every critter’s gotta eat and sleep somewhere.” She smiled feebly. “We’ll figure this out before it’s too late. We’ve got too much to live for, right?”

“Critters!” The word shot out like a bullet. That was more Eilidh’s forte. A hand returned thoughtfully to her lips, though a bite did not come. Her mind was moving far too fast to focus on anything physical. Feet began to pace without her knowledge, beating against the air as if they contributed to her movements anymore. “Those bees cause hallucinations…” What were they called again? Those dick-hive bees. She had still yet to encounter them personally—such a treat will have to wait when she finally visits… that woman. Knowledge was acquired specifically for said venture, so she really should remember… “Eintykara.” But as research came tumbling back into her mind, so did an issue. “No. Cold.” Such weathers would cause them to grow sluggish—springing into action now would make no sense. “Hm. Caballi?” Her encounter with one had been very brief, but James’ was much more intimate. And she had certainly heard stories that mimicked their own. Of ghosts being attacked by them. Or more accurately, being fed upon by them. Could be the cause of their deterioration, those astral feedings. Perhaps they can affect zombies too? “But never saw…” They weren’t exactly invisible, to people like them. But much of them was left unknown, on this world at least. Could be a special sort?

More ideas flowed into Eilidh’s mind. And just easily flowed back out—conflictions and contradictions found in every sort. Though the universe was vast and wide and full of exceptions. Hardly anything could be said with certainty. And hardly everything was stored in her mind—that vastness refusing to be contained in just one thing. Or even in one world; creatures not found in any book had laid just beyond those cracks in the air. One, or two, or more could’ve slipped through. “You could be onto something.” Her feet stilled, and it was only then she realized she had been on the move at all. But they already missed that constant motion. Focus turned to the mentioned books, causing a chuckle to stir. “Would. But these guys do whatever the hell they want.” She wiggled her fingers and they blended and meddled together, like waves crashing into each other. “I’ll look ‘round. You focus on the books. We’ll see this through.” There was an attempt to turn and leave, but something held her there just a moment longer. Those hints of decay sprinkled on Morgan’s form—some grown worse over the course of their conversation. “Think you’ll manage?” The question spanning far beyond just Morgan’s research capability.

With the way Macleod lit up at the suggestion, Morgan could actually start to believe they were onto something. The world was full of strange things and there was so much they didn’t know. Of course if it wasn’t someone it had to be something. Maybe even a creature from another dimension. Some of the critters in those portals had probably gotten stuck on this side when Adam closed them, too, and maybe that was why they couldn’t understand the rules this infection worked on.

Morgan met Macleod’s eyes bravely. They were looking for a needle in a haystack. It might take weeks to comb through all of White Crest and identify the exact creatures they were looking for, especially if they turned out to be beyond sapient record on this world. But they would figure it out, wouldn’t they?

Somewhere beyond them, bewildered geese flapped their way to the sky and called to each other for safety, snow crunched under tired feet, a wind blew through the hollow tunnels of the world. Morgan took it all in, staring through the frosted windows. This was a world that buried its secrets better than its dead, but it was also one where life persisted in the most bitter cold. If anyone was proof of that, surely it was her and Macleod. And Morgan had a future to get to; Macleod probably did too, and if she didn’t, she deserved to stick around long enough to come up with one. So she had to be okay. There wasn’t room in this scenario for her not to be.

Morgan summoned her best smile and hoped with all she had that Macleod believed it and let some of the warmth rub off on her. “I’ve got this. And so do you. Death cut us a break once, right? Twice should be just as easy.”

That smile filled the air, found its way on Eilidh’s face, lifting her spirits in turn. Hell yeah. They had this. That implication hung in the air, threatened to bring it all back down. The one where she died. This soul she carried certainly had—will again. And technically death had touched her a few days prior. But the implication ran deeper than that, tied her to an assumption she kept getting chained to. But she did not let that weight touch her; only a twitch of a brow, a tighten of lips, betrayed these thoughts. Resolve kept her steady—kept them both just the same. Fate may try to give them a losing hand, but she’ll keep playing until a full house. And if not, well, seems she’s had her time then. Her soul will enjoy more, if these pesky blinks didn’t consume her in totality. For fate was hungry this week—eating away at her very soul, at Morgan’s very flesh. Was it feeding on others? How far did this hunger spread? She had no mind, no time to worry about passerbyers on the street. Those teeth readied to pierce again, steal more of them away. But she’ll try her hand at dentistry and rip them out before all was taken. “Good to hear! Let’s give this a–”

She vanished.

#wr eilidh #wr chatzy #wr eilidh chatzy #death rings twice

[r6s-imagines]

bandit x reader >> way with words

•••

requested: no

word count: 1,244

warnings: cursing, awkward conversation, poor writing

•••

summary: what was supposed to start as a prank turned into a very awkward confrontation.

•••

dominic prepared his plan weeks before. he memorized your schedule, recorded every mention of your agenda just for this very moment. elias has assisted him executing the exciting part, cutting and pasting duplicates of every item of your office into cardboard. he was to sneak into your room, hand all objects to elias and replace them with their poorly made counterparts before you could come back from a meeting.

he peered into the room, calling your name once. it echoed off the walls and he turned to elias, nodding once.

you and dominic have been in a long lasting prank war, pissing off the majority of the rainbow team. the gsg9 have been shamed in helping dominic, claiming that operators should have no time for childish games such at those. even monika teamed in, providing insight for your downtime as she slept in the room beside yours. the four members slipped each other intel during the week, all coordinating for one moment.

he grabbed your monitor first, turning and handing it to blitz. keyboard, mouse, pc, and any book you had on your shelf. he started with your dictionary, then some miscellaneous binders. his eyes caught a well-crafted leather bound book, golden lettering on the spine. he took it out of curiosity, fingers gracing the now-legible title: journal.

"something important?" elias asked, stepping in. "y/n's gonna be back in twenty."

"look," he responded, leaning towards his friend. "journal."

"we're not kids," elias protested, whispering frantically. "she'll kick your ass. just hide it somewhere else!"

ignoring his friend's advice, he flipped open the book, skimming the first few pages.

"this is from back when she joined rainbow," dominic observed, eyebrows raised. "who knows what's in here."

he began to read out loud.

"august second," he said, theatrically. "i was welcomed with open arms. meals are adequate and missions are preplanned to ensure success. many have wished my good luck following my opening and have provided assistance and advice to improve my abilities. some have caught my eye more so than others."

"this is not worth our time, let's just replace everything and bug off!"

"november twenty-third," dominic continued. "we met eyes again today. he was working on his device, watching me with his icy glare as always. i could never figure out what emotion he had, interest nor dissatisfaction with my presence. i can’t help but admire his amalgamation of personality traits. his motivation could be like iron, similarly to his ambition to make you smile. i’m more than willing to befriend him.”

“wonder who she’s talking about,” elias said. “could be you.”

“she would never,” dominic replied. “i’m not worth her time.”

“don’t think like that!” blitz replied. “you never know.”

“november twenty-ninth. i fell victim to hazing, particularly from bandit. he assumed the best idea to welcome me was place a fleet of glasses in my room. of course, they had to be upside down, sending me into a flurry of towels and soaking uniform. my hardware was severely destroyed, and i was about ready to send them to dry outside, but i was gifted a new console courtesy to rainbow.”

“that was a good one,” blitz said.

“but here, check this;” his eyes followed the page. “here’s the following week.

i wasn’t sure if feelings were reciprocated or sympathized with. the winks he sends, the pranks he planned, it all seem good-hearted. perhaps it’s my affections taking over, those in which i willingly admit are evident. i feel myself growing into a fumbling fool instead of the person i was when recruited. his strong body and piercing eyes never cease to entrap me in his aura. perhaps dominic is a player, someone to toy with my doubts and play them to boost his ego, but i doubt it was such. he knew what he was doing, how he was doing it, and why. i’ve been debating to bring it up into a casual conversation, test the water you might say. however, from the countless times i’ve had to watch my back, i’d say he’s more focused on festivities than romance.”

“dominic, listen to that! you’re her little honigkuchenpferd!” kötz teased with a childish accent whilst shouldered his friend, now happily leaning over his shoulder to get a taste of your writings.

“nonsense! it’s likely a platonic yearning or the like. now come on, we’ve got to do what we came here to do.”

light footsteps were heard only meters away, and elias made a bolt for the door. dominic froze in place, hands stiff and spine rigid.

“who on earth?” you mumbled quietly, observing the multiple belongings outside your door. “so much for an eviction notice.” you giggled to yourself.

you turned the corner, sighing in exhaustion before looking up, half-awake eyes shooting open in surprise.

“dominic?” you inquired, unsure of how to react. your eyes trailed to his arms, finding your precious journal closed in his grasp. you reached forward and snatched it, holding it close. your face burned and you felt as if your skin was covered by a layer of heat. dominic grew hot as well, scratching his neck and feeling the pulsing, twitching temperature of his flesh. “why’s my stuff outside? and the... cardboard...?”

he did not reply, he merely gazed at you through his thick eyebrows, face never changing. he gestured a hand to the book, fighting a guilty grin.

“my... book? it’s a compendium. record keeping and such,” you struggled to explain, dodging the correct answer.

“you can just call it a diary,” bandit teased, slipping a smirk. “i won’t tell.”

“you didn’t read it, did you?”

“his strong body and piercing eyes never cease to entrap me in his aura,” dominic quoted hesitantly.

“son of a bitch! look... i’m sorry you had to find out this way. you don’t have to reciprocate anything, and i know it’s a lot to take in especially considering we work together, and—“

“you can stop talking now.” he blurted. you look of complete desperation turned to pure confusion as you both halted your conversation.

“i’ve fucked up royally, haven’t i?” you began, tears in your eyes. “i don’t know what i was thinking, dom. it’s been so long since anyone’s ever cared for me as much as you do.”

bandit placed both of his hands onto your shoulders as if to keep you upright. his thumbs dig into your collarbone, the pressure almost forcing you to cry.

“don’t make this any more awkward for yourself than it has to be, y/n,” he finally spoke. “you have nothing to stress about.”

“you’re joking!” you said through tears. “i’ve spent, what, four months with rainbow and i’m already in love with someone who treats me just like everyone else!”

he moved in, meeting his lips with yours. his beard tickled you but you pressed on, in such a state of wanting and desire for approval that you grabbed his upper arms, keeping him in place. one of his hands went to your waist, pulling you closer.

you wiped your tears, sniffing.

“i don’t kiss my friends,” bandit joked.

“that’s what you want her to think!” elias called from a distance.

“kötz!” he yelled angrily, approaching the door. you snatched his hand, stopping his movements.

“you’re gonna let me clean all this by myself?” you questioned. “seems absolutely fair.”

“you’ve got such a way with words,” dominic chirped. “you’re lucky i like you, or i’d leave this to rot outside.”

#r6s #rainbow six siege #siege #siege x reader #siege imagine #bandit x reader #bandit #bandit imagine #plague writes

[draculyr-a]

   DRACULA HAS TO DIE.   A SUMMARY OF WHY THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING.

Everyone who’s seen the (2004) movie van helsing knows that the count was given vampirism by the devil after being betrayed by the angel gabriel, who had become his best friend as a mortal man, and the catholic church who sent him to kill him despite them both working within the Holy Order of the Dragon. The Video Game and Novel however, give me a lot more to work with for fleshing out Drac’s origin backstory. Including how betrayed he felt at, upon being let out of the labyrinth in Budapest after ten long years of solitude and darkness, he was murdered by his own colleague and friend that had, to his understanding, linked him to god and heaven itself. 

He demanded not from god, but from the devil that he be restored to life in any capacity so that he could exact his revenge on those that betrayed him. Now, originally, this would have only been gabriel himself and those in power who sent him after vladislav to begin with. But at some point, this changed. Instead of focusing on just killing those, he started making more vampires than just those he wanted to keep him company. He started killing more humans than were necessary. And this was all done at a very crucial turning point in the entire canonical compendium that is dracula’s lore: 

                       The death of Lisa. 

So now we’re going to talk about a heavy, but necessary topic:   Why Dracula must die. 

When the Catholic Orthadox Church of Targoviste, Wallachia takes his wife from her home and burns her at the stake for attempting to better the lives of the citizens with true, futuristic medicine before he can get there and save her, something within him snaps. His wife, Lisa, had spent years teaching him that humanity could learn from their mistakes. And that they wouldn’t live such ‘scared, short lives’ if he would endeavor to help teach them how the world really worked. 

By the time we see him in the events of Dracula, he has become a husk of what he was. Keep in mind that in my compiled canon, Dracula takes place after Van Helsing, Castlevania and much after Tanz Der Vam.pire. With that being said however, I have changed canonical events into two possible routes in my verse arcs. Since we are discussing today why Dracula needs to die in order for his story to find a happy conclusion, and why he is in fact one of the most dangerous vampiric villains, we will not be discussing the route where he lives into modern day. 

Once Lisa was killed, we saw Dracula go into a blind rage and declare war not on the Catholic Church, which he had done previously already in Van Helsing, but instead on the entirety of humanity. He summons an army from HELL, relying on the creation of chimera by devil’s forgemasters that can exact his form of vengeance. But at what point would he be sated? Why the entire human race? Why not The Catholic Church?

The way Dracula sees his sleights is a hypocrisy. Time and time again, in various incarnations- whether as Count Dracula in the book, Vlad Dracula Tepes in Castlevania or Count Draculea in Van Helsing, he shows a propensity to not wish to harm certain humans or to otherwise bring them into the realm of vampirism themselves. Even in The Elder Scrolls, where we see him clearly characterized as Lord Harkon, he gives the gift of his own blood to the player character when he is in fact planning to take over and block out the sun, and seems to have a disdain for humans in general.  Everything that he does in the aspect of ‘humanity’ is a hypocritical mistake. He wants to kill all humans - oh, but not that one. Or not this one. Or not that one. - But at the end of his ‘war’, there will not be enough food to sate his kind, and he will thus be killing them anyway. 

But Dracula’s focus initially goes out of whack here because he’s also not just thinking about Lisa. It was started by his rage for her, but he also would be relying on his previous dealings with Humans. As in Castlevania, he has hidden himself away from the rest of his kind and from humanity so that he can live his eternity in peace. He does not trust humans, but he also has no ill-will toward them, despite already seeming to know the Belmont Clan intimately.  Even to his wives in the novel, Dracula, state that at one point he loved so dearly to humans that even they would remember. He’s also seen taking preference to those in need, giving aid and shelter to immigrants that the people of Brasov would otherwise have chased away. Dracula identifies heavily with those who have been betrayed by their own kind- because that is what he went through to become a vampire. 

He is always at a constant war with himself through boredom and hatred. And his hatred is so strong that he eventually loses the capability to look the other way. These are the same humans that killed Martha. And they are the same humans that killed Marya Zaleska. 

But he’s also missing two very important points: He kills people he loves. In Tanz, we see him bring up young women that he tried desperately to love and ended up losing control. He also speaks of a young soldier that he attempted to seduce and console that he ended up murdering in an accident. What’s more, his ‘beef’ is mainly with an archangel and not a human at all. 

In conclusion, he falls victim to his own toxic spiral of misanthropy again and again. In some incarnations after he’s been summoned back to life, he goes on to sort of just… fuck off for a while. And then something causes him to snap back into the downward spiral of his hatred for humanity to the point that he starts killing more than he ever intended when he first became the monster he is. 

Thus, this will continue until eventually all life has been eradicated and either everyone is dead (castlevania), OR, everyone is a vampire (tanz der) and there’s no one left to oppose him. And the reasoning he tells himself for this, is that if he corrupts the earth enough, God will have lost His entire creation and he will have gotten revenge that is, in his mind, equal to that which he has lost. not just for his life, but for those he thinks God took from him by the hands of His own human creations that were made in His own image.  AND IN THE END, even if everyone is a vampire. Even if they all live for ‘eternity’ at the end of Tanz? They all starve to death with no more human blood.  In the end, no one wins. 

#♛ . / in my world of temptation. ↬ introspection. * headcanon. #♛ . / in my world of temptation. ↬ introspection. * meta. #long post tw #religion tw

[nordic-breeze]

I was going through my files and I came over this document I sent to my friend @distant-rain pretty much the same day I realized I had fallen in love with Arthur, after weeks of being in denial or shrugging off my daydreaming of this cowboy as nbd or thought experiments and boy was I confused. 

I knew next to nothing about RDR1 when I wrote this December last year and I didn’t know much about RDR2 post chapter 2 either except for Arthur’s fate, which I had just learned of, and oml was I upset and confused. Though also scaringly accurate about certain things.

Now over six months later, I love this cowboy even more. And I kept true to my word. If anyone wanna read the rambings of a fangirl who had just found her new obsession be my guest.

I was blown away by how massive this game is. The level of detail is incredible and I greatly appreciate the effort put into creating this world. Yeah, we’ve all heard about the horse testicles shrinking in cold weather but it’s not like it’s just one bizarre detail being essentially a dick joke in an otherwise average game. No, RDR2 is detailed enough that it actually makes sense to add in peculiarities like that. The amount of wildlife alone, I mean, ever since the PS2 era I’ve been used to seeing animals in games but R* created whole-ass ecosystems in RDR2, several of’em, from snowy mountains to marshlands, with animals that act so much like actual animals. Just listening to the birds singing, it’s like being out in an actual forest!

Characterization is another thing that amazed me, in particular the protagonist. I knew nothing about the first RDR when started playing RDR2, nor did I know anything about RDR in general other than it was western-themed and made by the GTA-guys. I expected somewhat of a similar characterization as GTA where every character is a stereotype or a caricature. I genuinely liked GTAV’s story for what it was and even though every character was more or less an asshole, some of them were also weirdly likeable and even earned my sympathy (and hint of affection) occasionally.

But it never really went deeper than that nor was it particularly long-lasting (still way more than I expected tho). I bonded with one of the characters more than I thought I would but not nearly as much as I would had the characters felt more like actual humans and not like the epitome of stereotypes. But it is what R* wanted and it worked. I expected the RDR2 characters to be the same but to my surprise the characters, especially Arthur, are fleshed out, complex, even relatable (depending on your actions I guess). Unlike GTAV, they act and react like actual human beings. Well, human beings that have lived their entire life (more or less) as outlaws. In a country and time period foreign to me. But still they felt human. Ofc I’ve not gotten to know any of the NPC’s as well as Arthur but from various missions and eavesdropping on their conversation I’ve gotten to know them a bit. Hosea is my favorite. He seems like a good man despite being an outlaw and I love how everyone goes to him for advice and how supportive he is. I also wish more people (esp a certain Dutch man) could listen to him more. I also really like Charles. He definitely got morals and could be a good influence on Arthur and the others. I haven’t seen much of Sadie yet, but think I’ll like her too. Lenny seems nice. That one scene when he and Arthur went out drinking together was absolutely brilliant! And lil Jack’s adorable ofc. Only one I don’t like is Micha or Miach or whathisname. I know no one in the van der Linde gang are saints but that guy is a total psychopath. I kinda wish Arthur had gotten his way there when he said they should just leave him in jail as he was nothing but trouble and it annoys me how Dutch is sticking up for him. Yeah, speaking of, not too fond of Dutch or that German guy either atm.

But all in all very impressed by the large open world, the level of details to well, everything and the characterization. Soundtrack is great, graphics are stunning, animations smooth, the horse-riding simulation is just extraordinary and you never know what’s gonna happen as you ride through the map. The amount and variety of random events and encounters are truly impressive. Often comical, like that wildlife photographer who keeps getting almost eaten up by the wildlife he’s trying to document, sometimes eerie like the serial killer side story, or sad like when Arthur met with his former love. Or a combination of said elements like the pig farmers I ran into. With no pigs. But were still veeery well fed. You know, when people are just a liiitle bit too friendly? That eerie feeling you get when you just know something’s wrong but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Until you can. I thought they were husband and wife I really did. You shoulda seen my face when I realized they were in fact brother and sister. Me and Arthur had the exact same face. They were living as husband and wife tho. Well, up until I killed them.

I also love the contrast between the more ‘modern’ world and the simpler life. I could go into town, buy food at the saloon and rent a room or take a bath at the hotel. Or I could ride a few mins out into the wilderness, hunt and gather my own food, cook it over a bonfire and sleep under the stars. Electricity exists, but people are still completely dependent on oil lamps and open flame. Trains and trams exist, cars have been invented, but people still mainly travel on horseback. This contrast between old and new as an era is ending and the modern era is about to begin has been an amazing experience considering the level of detail the game has. The colonization of the new land, which has been largely unknown to me, the contrast between this and modern-day America we see on TV. So many people did not even speak English, I often find abandoned buildings, or burnt-down buildings, some with bodies inside, leaving me wondering what happened to them, I found a ghost town whose inhabitants had been wiped out by a plague. It was tough for many I reckon.

In fact, I find the exploration of this foreign but also somewhat familiar, beautiful but harsh world and its many random events and encounters waaay more interesting than the actual main story itself, which is why it took me forever to reach chapter 3. In fact, the story is probably my least favorite part about RDR2, as backwards as it may sound. I’ve never been into western stories or aesthetics, and I’m certainly NOT into the whole ‘outlaws till the end’ stuff ugh. I fail to sympathize with the whole ‘boo-hoo the world no want outlaws like us no more it’s unfair’. Ugh, go cry me a fucking river. And then go get a job. A real job. Yeah, I get it that adapting to society is tough, life’s tough deal with it and stop preying on others. Wow, robbing two trains in short time and staying in the same fucking area actually has consequences, I’m so shook!

So yeah, story-wise I don’t quite ‘get it’ and Dutch is really starting to get on my nerves, which is probably why I prefer to just ride off alone and experience the world. I guess RDR2 story will rely heavily on being torn between gang loyalty and your own morality and principles but since I have virtually no concept of group loyalty that is all lost on me. My own morals and principles all the way. I’m like, ‘these people suck, take Hosea, Charles, Sadie, Tilly (maybe John Marston and his family) and leave these bitches behind’.

At the beginning, I did kinda liked Dutch. He seemed genuinely sorry for Sadie, took her in and saved her life, even if it meant another mouth to feed in dire times. And he showed Kiran mercy despite hating the O’Driscol’s. But as I’ve progressed thought the game, his grand speeches about sticking together, sticking with him, slowly but surely has turned from pep-talk to keep people’s spirit up to sounding like a cult leader desperate to keep his following no matter the cost. Yesterday when I was playing, I overheard him quote some quasi-philosophy book to Lenny and used the words to twist them into his own convictions to support his decisions. And when Lenny objected, Dutch literally said ‘you’re breaking my heart, kid’. Wow Dutch, talk about manipulating your protégé.

It was the mission when those lawmen approached Arthur as he was fishing with Jack that really made me consciously see Dutch in a new light. Up until then, RDR2 had mostly been fun and games but that conversation left me feeling a bit uneasy. But I just figured it was the main story finally picking up pace and also, I figured I was near the end of the chapter. I carried on, suddenly eager to see what would happen and was thoroughly surprised by how the chapter ended. In a bad way.

While both chapter 2 and chapter 3 begins with a ‘new start’ vibe, chapter 3 felt very different from chapter 2. Mostly it was that feeling that Dutch’s obsession with ‘sticking to this life’ is going to get people killed. Idk, it’s this eerie feeling something’s wrong but can’t quite put my finger on it-feel again. But thanks to internet being internet I already knew some spoilers so I couldn’t help but to look up something and… well, let me put it this way. I’m never going to finish this game. Ever. It breaks my heart because in so many ways it’s truly an amazing game and a fantastic experience. But I’m just not that into the story, I don’t like where it’s heading and I don’t want to see what’s coming to character(s) I’ve come to care deeply about.

I still want to explore the world more, see what unfolds, do more challenges, add stuff to my compendium, maybe get some trophies… but I doubt I’ll ever progress much story-wise. Quite the contrary, I might reload an earlier save and just stay in chapter 2 forever.

(wrtten a couple of days later)

Seems my instincts was right on the money, esp concerning Dutch. Sad thing, I do believe he is sincere. In the first few chapters at least. He is manipulative but I also believe he’s convinced himself that he’s doing the right thing. And then his obsession will eventually get the better of him and when people and the lifestyle is slipping away from him, he doesn’t handle it well at all. Ugh, it’s so frustrating, I just wanna gather all my favs and yell: “leave nooow, before it’s too late!

It’s not for the sake of spacing it out or making it last. I just don’t want to progress in the story at all. I hated losing Horseshoe Overlook. HATED IT HATED IT HATED IT!!!! Yes the new place is beautiful, yes I know it’s the life of the outlaws and RDR2 does show that life for better and for worse whereas most stories tend to romanticize the whole thing, yes as outlaws they can’t stay for too long in one place. But as mentioned I have a hard time sympathize with and immerse myself into that lifestyle. Yes, I got all my upgrades and a whole new area to explore, a bigger nearby town, and closer to that big city. Still hated it. Horseshoe Overlook was my place. The Heartlands was home. And the view was stunning! And I liked Valentine. It was small and dirty but I had good memories from there. Until I had to shoot up half the town. My motivation for continuing the main story is at absolute zero.

It was more what the transition represented, I guess. You never know what will happen in RDR2. And it’s true, for random encounters, and many of the individual missions. But when it comes to the story as a whole, I feel like I already now can predict how it’ll play out. Every chapter begins with the gang on the move, finding a place to settle down and have a fresh start, even chapter 1 (as they were on the run bc a heist gone wrong or something). Then they settle down, go into town to get to know the area and establish connections and looking for easy money, often at the expenses of others. X random events later, they get too overconfident or careless, screws up or get hunted down, it ends with a shootout, then they are on the run again, finds a new place to settle down where Dutch promises that THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT until they’re wanted on the entire map and can’t go anywhere cos the wild west is ending. I really liked it at Horseshoe Overlook and whenever Im in that area again I’ll just get sad.

I had no idea I’d gotten so emotionally invested so I was really surprised at how much I disliked moving camps and all. I’ve also gotten so fond of Arthur. I was so busy with exploring, doing challenges, learning to hunt etc I didn’t even realize it happening. Until one scene had me almost tearing up! I think because, we as the player really have to look out for him. Even though I make sure that he eats regularly, he’s still underweight. When out riding I usually set up camp when night falls so that Arthur can get some rest. Something I’d never think about in any other game. And I always give him coffee in the morning. Then it’s his journal that gives such valuable insight into who he truly is as a person. There’s no doubt he’s so much more than just a mere outlaw. He writes surprisingly well and is open and is surprisingly honest about his thoughts and feelings. How torn he is between the life of an outlaw and wanting to be a better man, a better person. How he admired Charles because, for him it was ‘so easy to just be good’ whereas he himself always feel torn between good and evil. And his journal entries when he meets his long-lost love Mary and saves her brother from the cultists. The expression on his face as he said goodbye to her on the train station… how utterly heartbroken he was… how she still loved him too… man, that one tore at my heart. Still does when thinking about it.

I wish I could take Hosea, Charles, Sadie, Tilly, John’s family and maybe Lenny too with me, run off and start anew. Charles would have good influence on Arthur and encourage him to turn his life around and find his place in society and encourage John to be a better father and role model for Jack and they could all learn how to live as free men and women without robbing or hurting anyone (unless they deserve it). Like, Charles is an excellent hunter and tracker. He’d totally get enough food for the gang and maybe even enough to sell. He could train Jack too. Hosea was always more of a conman/grifter than a brute/robber. He could con bad guys or rich assholes Robin Hood style. If anyone gave him grief, John and Arthur would settle the score. Arthur could sell animal pelts and John could take up carpeting. They’d be such a happy lil family. But, RDR1 is yet to happen so it’s all just wishful thinking *sigh*

#red dead redemption 2 #arthur morgan #the ramblings of a fangirl #about me

[yeonchi]

2019 In Review

This year marked the start (or rather, a continuation) of my transition into society. It kind of sounds weird when I put it that way, but the truth is that I have much to learn about how society works and that despite all my time on the Internet, I’m gonna have to face up to reality sooner or later. I’ve never really created a name for myself outside of my anime posts, English dub rants, or even my work on preserving the Sea Princesses series, but I still hope to continue posting online at times.

Where previous reviews were released on New Year’s Eve, this year’s review will be released a bit earlier for reasons that I’ll elaborate on in this post. Let’s begin after the break.

Sea Princesses

2019 has been a big year for Sea Princesses. During the first half of the year, I worked on transcribing the episodes and writing plot details for the wiki, since not a lot of work was put into them since the other admin, Liggliluff, joined the wiki in 2015 and gave provision for them. In the second half of the year, I renovated the character pages, adding infoboxes and story involvement (highlights for the major characters) to them. I also created pages for the (named) animals that appeared in the series. Since the wiki is pretty much complete at this point with the addition of transcripts and episode plots, any further work on the wiki from me (in regards to the animated series) is up to whether I feel like doing any.

After six months of seeing no further uploads on the Mr Bean and Friends channel, I caved and decided to shell out some money on a premium account to download the Amazon Prime episodes someone had uploaded to a website. Six months after that, I found that someone had downloaded the episodes themselves and uploaded them to KimCartoon. I know this was way after everything I had done, but better late than never, I suppose. The sad thing was that a few weeks after that, someone reached out to me on the Lost Media Archive saying that they had ripped some of the episodes from ABC iView and put a link to their MEGA folder on 4chan /trash/ and not /co/, which led to me not realising it until he told me about it. Regardless, the split English episodes and Spanish Disney Channel raws are still in my cloud drive folder.

While working on the transcripts for the wiki, I also wrote a review of the series. After watching it, I found that there were quite a few disappointments here and there, but the series wasn’t as bad as I had remembered it. Also, from July to October this year, artist Princess Rainbow Channel did some amazing fanart of each character in the series (including background characters) that trumps everything I had seen before and possibly after. Feel free to check it out here along with my reaction and her response.

Public opinion of the series depends on where you are; in Brazil, people are still bringing it up in their childhood memories on Twitter (usually in response to the question “what were some cartoons you remember from when you were young”), while in Australia, you barely get anyone talking about the series and even if you did, quite a few of them would be people trashing it. I’d seen a couple of Americans who had apparently seen the series as well; aside from the Latin American Spanish version, I have no idea which channel the English version was broadcast or where, otherwise I’d have known by now.

So like I said, the wiki is pretty much complete in terms of the TV series. As for the Princesas do Mar books, I am hoping to cover them in the long term when I have the money and capacity to do so. If you want information about them now, then I’m hoping that someone (mostly from Brazil) will be kind enough to provide transcripts and/or snapshots of them. There won’t be anything about the books on the wiki (with the exception of Marcela and the titles of the books) until I get that information, whether it be from a kind volunteer or by myself, so the entire thing’s pretty much on hold until then.

One thing I realised - the author, Fabio Yabu, recently published the first volume of the Combo Rangers graphic novel for free on WEBTOON. No doubt about it, Sea Princesses would have been more popular if it had received as much love as Combo Rangers. Maybe it’s time that Yabu showed some love to the series after nearly a decade since the last Princesas do Mar book published by Panda Books - I wouldn’t mind seeing rereleases, a graphic novel, ebooks or a compendium of the ten books published by Panda Books (those are the titles that I’m hoping to focus on for the wiki, everything else is irrelevant). With my current situation right now, if I can’t get transcripts or screenshots, then I’d be more happy to spend my money buying ebooks than printed books from Brazil.

Doctor Who

Right at the start of the month, the release date for Doctor Who Series 12 was announced to be on New Year’s Day with subsequent episodes to air on Sundays. Like with Series 11, I’ll be continuing the Thirteenth Doctor reviews after the episode airs. The prelude post will come out later with more details. In fact, it’s because of this that I decided to release this post earlier instead of on New Year’s Eve. That’s pretty much the only reason.

English Dubbed Game News and English dub rants

In case you guys missed it, I’m fully moving on from talking about English dubbed games. I don’t know if anyone ever saw this coming since the end of the feud a couple of years back, but I guess my promise to stand tall back at the end of 2017 must sound ironic now.

As I explained back in September, I’ve lost interest in video games altogether and had conflicting thoughts on how to deal with the occasional toxic comments on my pages. I didn’t mention this back then, but in case you were wondering, no, all the Vic Mignogna stuff did not play a factor in my decision. I’ve never been a fan of him so I don’t care and to be fair, innocent or guilty, he is really only one voice actor. In terms of Koei Tecmo games, he only voiced two characters in Dynasty Warriors 7 and 8 (Jia Xu/Xiahou Ba) along with two characters in Samurai Warriors 3 (Mitsuhide Akechi/Yoshimoto Imagawa), which, I should remind you, never made it onto a Warriors Orochi game. If Koei Tecmo wanted to replace him when the allegations came out, they would have done it already. Ironically however, they did just that with Dynasty Warriors 9, but with the whole cast because of the voice actor strike.

Speaking of the voice actor strike, I’ve noticed something that I never did back when I was writing the rants; a lot of voice actors are part of SAG-AFTRA and I’ve deduced that Japanese game companies are being cheap and cutting corners in localisation (specifically, dubbing) because they don’t want to hire union actors because of the cost (presumably). Additionally, I’ve also read that union actors can’t openly do non-union work, which leads to them being uncredited officially. I know I’ve supported the union during the voice actor strike, but I can’t help but think that I should have criticised them at some point during my rants because their rules for union actors kind of play a factor in this whole debacle of video game dubbing.

I’ve suggested crowdfunding as a way to raise funds to hire (union) voice actors, but in recent years, I’ve seen them go the way of Western game companies and put out season passes and neverending DLC packs. Anyone who defends game companies for being cheap and not dubbing their games has no right to complain about them being greedy in other areas. I kind of saw it coming myself, which didn’t come as a surprise to me. As far as I’ve heard, there aren’t any loot boxes or pay-to-win gimmicks in Japanese games, so I guess I’m still relieved.

As for my opinion on all of this or Japanese game companies, including Koei Tecmo, they haven’t changed much, although I’ve become more and more apathetic towards them given my declining interest in video games. Much as I hate to admit, I’ve gotten back into playing older Warriors games I still have for nostalgia and because I was bored and wanted to procrastinate. This shows that regardless of my thoughts, I’m still grateful towards Koei Tecmo for the games that inspired me in certain aspects of my life.

I’m going to burn a few bridges here and say some fuck yous to a few groups. First of all is a big fuck you to the haters, namely the dub haters, sub purists and opinion-neutrals (that much is obvious). Next up is a fuck you to Japanese game companies for being cheap in localisation (and by extension, even cheaper in DLCs), then a smaller, belated and ironic fuck you to voice actor unions like SAG-AFTRA for making the rules that lead to Japanese game companies being cheap in the first place and enabling them to keep doing it. Finally, a really ironic fuck you goes to my fans and all other fans of English dubbing - the fact that nobody else had made something like EDGN by this point, let alone before I found and joined the page, is really telling of what little you do to promote dub advocacy, let alone not being aware that things like said page or #NoDubNoBuy exist or supporting them by liking or sharing my posts.

Anyway, the current plan is to finish posting whatever games I’ve got in the backlog before New Year’s Eve and then unpublish the page sometime after. I’m not going to delete the page out of respect to its creator, who despite still being an admin on the page, has never posted anything since I joined it. The games list will be kept up through this link for reference. Despite the fuck you I just gave my fans (particularly the 230-so followers on EDGN), I want to thank everyone for the support you gave over the years and invite you to continue following me on my Facebook and Tumblr pages.

The state of social media

I felt that I should address something given YouTube’s new measures regarding COPPA, not forgetting that they literally said that they have no obligation to host content. At the start of last year’s review, I stated that there was always something that managed to affect my Internet life in stupid ways. I haven’t been affected directly this year, but YouTube’s measures have led me to think about what would happen if Facebook were to follow suit, particularly because Tumblr already banned NSFW content at the end of last year and Twitter looks like it’s about to follow suit themselves.

Sure enough, YouTube suddenly updated their harassment policy, which resulted in the Leafy Content Cop being removed as a result of retroactive enforcement. I’ve got nothing much to say about this except that it just proves what we’ve been suspecting all along. To be honest, around the time of the NSFW ban on Tumblr, I was kind of expecting that the parody I did would get flagged ironically, but I guess it never got near the radar, not that there would be any justifiable grounds for it.

Anyone who celebrates censorship or deplatforming with the same argument that “private companies can do whatever they want” should really look at themselves in the mirror because if any of this has proved anything, it’s that anyone can be censored or deplatformed with or without reason whether they’re following the rules or not. You’re all just sitting ducks and you don’t even know it even though you play by their rules in the hope that you won’t be next.

On a more lighter note, I wonder if I should use paragraph gaps instead of horizontal rules in future posts, given that Tumblr removed functionality for the latter in the rich text editor. Sure, I could manually add them in the HTML editor, but it would mean that they would disappear when I switched back to the rich text editor, regardless of whether I saved or not, and it would absolutely kill me to put them back in the exact same spots when I’ve changed something there.

In regards to Hong Kong

Back in August, I made a post about how I nearly got deplatformed from Facebook by the guy behind the feud because of what I said in my repostings of Hong Kong news. I really want to look back and laugh at it now not only because him doing so made him look like a pro-Beijing supporter, but because a pro-Beijing politician he scapegoated as a dub hater in a parody post to evade my criticism of him as such lost his seat in the district council to a pro-democracy newcomer.

In that post, I admitted that I did use some racial slurs in some of my repostings. Given the escalating violence (on both sides, police and protesters) since the start of the protests in June, I’m just gonna come right out and say it - if I could use one word to describe it and the negative reaction from those against the protesters (around the world), it would be the hard-r n-word. I used that word against said pro-Beijing politician because like many other people, I don’t think he’s a good person in any way. He’s advocated violence against pro-democracy supporters, has suspected links to the triads and commended old men in white shirts attacking people in black shirts at a train station following a protest some distance away. If that third thing doesn’t remind you of white (shirt) supremacy, then I don’t know what will. Let’s not forget that at the time, I reposted some news about him not being admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, making him a “fake lawyer n-word”.

In case there are people who disagree with my (former) use of the slur, I want to acknowledge something here. I know I’m using the slur towards Chinese people instead of its historical target, namely people of African origin, but if it helps move the focus away from the latter, then so be it. If I could find another (preferably stronger) word to describe it, then I would, but at this point, I should be lucky that I’m able to control my anger and not use the actual word itself. If you don’t like how I used the n-word at all, then fuck you, you missed the point, but of course, you’re free to leave.

I don’t want to talk about the finer details or criticisms of any party involved in the protests, but I’m quite amazed with the pro-democracy protesters’ motto of not splitting their movement, not condemning the violence from the radical side and not ratting anyone out. In my interpretation, the radical protesters know that their so-called “violence” is illegal, but the other protesters can’t condemn them because words have barely had any effect on the government and they know that the radical protesters are the only people who have a chance of making the government cave into their demands or expose the true sides of Hong Kong and China’s governments to the international community, because their failure to do so five years ago was because they failed to keep their movement together. I probably don’t know as much about this compared to Hong Kong locals or immigrants, but I wager that at least some of my interpretation is spot on.

Two years ago, I said on my personal Facebook page, “I hope that the future of Hong Kong and its politics will improve for the benefit of the people, especially the younger generations, given everything that has happened up to now”. I know it may seem ironic right now, but I believe that the future will continue to improve for the better, but if it turns to the worst, then I hope that due justice may be served.

At the start of this post, I said that I was undergoing a transition into society. I’ll be finishing my university course and graduating at the end of next year, so at this point, I’m currently out looking for work. A lot of people make it look easy, but in truth, it’s been quite excruciating for me; because of some government benefit thing I signed up for, I have a quota of job applications that I need to send per month. It sounds easy, but after a while, it becomes so hard when you look at a job you think you’ll like and realise that you don’t have the necessary skills or experience for it. All I can say for myself is that I’ll keep praying for guidance and hope that I can find something that fits with my timetable, at least until I graduate.

See you all on the other side in 2020.

[annieoftheshitposts]

this post used to be a link to the old canons page but i’m turning it into a text dump of the revised one for people on mobile [or who have bad wifi/computers that the fancy schmancy script on the canons page wouldn’t play well with.] theres a lot sorry not sorry. here we go.

Canon Info

 Much more is said about Annie in external sources than the game itself, here's copypastes of all I know of and go by.

From the 3rd DLC Character Voting page:

As popular figures in nationwide folktales, a children’s television adaptation of Annie and Sagan’s adventures was inevitable. The show’s success lies in its pair of live action hosts, who are as convincing as their cartoon counterparts. Though what the public learns about the real Annie might surprise them. Annie is a seasoned fighter who has been around for a long time, acquiring many skills and powers along the way. Her sword is forged from a meteorite and can channel the power of the stars in its sweeping cleaves. Her right eye bonds her to her Remote Parasite and partner, Sagan, who grants her powers of a galactic motif. While some of her abilities carry more of a sparkly magical girl motif, Annie tries to execute them with the same sternness.

From "The canon info thread" on Skullheart Encore forums:

-Annie is several-century-old. Her immortality was gained when her parents wished on the Skull Heart so that Annie would never have to experience the hardship of adulthood, thereby making her forever a child. -She has had many different weapons and abilities throughout her life. - Sagan, her remote parasite. keeps her right eye in his mouth. - She’s physically not able to swear due to her condition - She is familiar with Double due to her experience fighting Skullgirls - Annie has encountered a lot of Skullgirls and has killed a lot, but not the same a lot. She’s seen the cycle multiple times and seen how they become stronger each time and is looking for the underlying source now. - The Annie of the Stars show is very similar to the Super Mario Bros. Super Show with live action segments with cartoons and PSAs and commercials in between. - Sagan can talk. Somehow. - Annie hides her immortality by getting a new hairstyle every few years. The show tells the audience that they have simply changed the actress. Eliza also pulls a similar trick

and finally some other misc. scraps that weren't covered above:

-annie has some kind of "super" or "powered up" form, in which she seems to fuse with sagan. it can be seen on her

move concept sheet, in the end of robo-fortune's story mode, and as a very tiny feature on one of robo-fortune's merch posters, but to my knowlege it's never really been talked about.

-she's been depicted with an "incognito outfit", presumably for going out in public and not being recognized by fans.

-sagan is named after renowned astrophysicist carl sagan. this isnt really relevant to anything but it's not on the wiki so i figured i'd share :b

-and this random pic of annie in the past with a different look, plus gun and minus eyepatch, apparently official art from the "digital art compendium". i haven't seen the source for this one myself though, and count this one more as speculative canon since that ingame image up there with her eye uncovered doesn't show a scar or any kind of damage from this.

-another canon fact about annie is she is strong and brave and i love her.

Headcanon (Annie)

this is pretty disorganized bc i come up with and revise random shit on a fairly regular basis, but the very least it should be all here and up-to-date. [though on this text post version i may forget to keep it updated oops.

she can still only normally see from the one eye in her head [and likewise probably has terrible depth perception lmao], but she can “project” her vision into the one sagan has if need be, during which time both he and her main eye are blind.

even though sagan’s vision is his own and she doesn’t actively “see” through that eye most of the time, the stuff he sees still becomes part of her memory and she can recall it if need be, though it’s far less tangible and kind of a surreal experience trying to do so.

the space where her other eye was is now just...space. like empty starry void stuff. yes, TECHNICALLY, you could put stuff in it but why would you. sagan can feel when something interacts with it and it’s really just weird and uncomfortable for both of them.as sagan is the source of their powers, the strength of her abilities is slightly dependent on her distance from him. something like long sustained flight is really only capable if they’re touching, but she still has ample firepower and ability to zip around for a pretty good range otherwise.

Not interested in anime

absolutely hates being called her full name; hasn't gone by anything other than "Annie" for longer than anyone that should be alive today should know.

part of her curse of eternal youth is remembering everything up until the point it kicked in and she stopped aging [i.e. when she was Actually a kid] exactly as well as if she hadn’t aged.

from that point however, a lot of it is hazy as shit aside from more recent times [as you’d expect from someone who’s been around hundreds of years]. this one's gonna be angsty as shit when i address it and you can thank @sandstriker for that. fucker.

also hates being restrained. by the concept sheet and beo's story, her fighting style is very kinetic and relies heavily on mobility; take that away and you get one very uncomfortable and very angry starchild. [this one's 'cause of y'all with the handcuffs asks. this is part of why she's so agitated rn.]

what's in the pouch? whatever is alternatively convenient. is it snacks? is it a quick incognito disguise? is it her whole entire sword? who knows. i think it might be infinite hammerspace in there.

i haven't put much though into this side of her story yet, but i've decided part of the mythos of the "annie of the stars" character as a figure of legend is that she literally lives, among the stars.

if there's enough folktales about her to base an entire show off of, i'm willing to bet she used to be less elusive when she was just about fighting skullgirls before dedicating herself to the whole "looking for the underlying source" thing.

Headcanon (Sagan)

tl;dr: as far as things go here, he's essentially a cat and/or younger sibling.

Sagan's canon information and characterization is basically nonexistant, so i got to do pretty much whatever i wanted with him lmao.

simply put, he's a little gremlin of a partner, but he is genuinely good-natured and a happy-go-luckly little dude. mischevious, loves to get up to Shenanigans, go off and hide/disappear to fuck knows where for several hours, climb and sit on tall things[or failing that, annie's head], etc. @sawkinator has described him, regrettably accurately, as "the Token Disney Animal Sidekick". he has a lot of mannerisms like an animal, but is still very much a being of at least average human intelligence. he's also surprisingly indestructible. far from invincible of course, but in canon he's been shown to be quite stretchy and...possibly have minor shapeshifting capabilities?? he's pretty much immune to being squashed and feels very little [if any] pain from most things. really, as far as i can tell he's pretty much a weird sentient plushie. like, if it's not going to damage a plushie, it's not going to hurt him; examples being: getting knocked back really hard or falling a long way? not a problem. fire? problem.

Sagan tends to be somewhat nonverbal and generally only uses a few words or short phrase at a time when he does speak, which sounds something like the voice clip below. that being how it is, he can be kind of inscrutable and more than a bit jarring to most people--though at this point annie's been with him more than long enough to be completely desensitized to it and doesnt quite get why anyone would be perturbed. fortunately, with that familiarity also comes understanding, and she can easily "translate" and articulate more from his expressions. this understanding is a two-way street, and on its other side is sagan's sensitivity to her moods. annie's not particularly...communicative of her emotions, but sagan can always tell when she's having an off day or something's bothering her, and is far better than anyone at helping her feel better. all things said and quirky antics aside, he and annie are exceptionally close and fiercely protective of eachother the moment it comes to it. they don't make a big deal of showing it outwardly, but they know they've always got eachother's backs.

he's taken quite a liking to beowulf as well, and beo defintiely shamelessly enables sagan's shenanigans.

as i see it, annie may be the passion and power of their operation, but sagan is the heart and soul. beowulf is like....comic releif and emotional support. not entirely necessary, but certainly welcomed to have around. yeah. listen im a big sap i just want them all to be good friends ok. i love them.

also sagan does like and watch a lot of anime.

Blog Canon

miscellaneous happenings that either have continued relevance/significance, or y'all just won't let die. there's not a overarching plot to this thing at all, but geez we’ve kinda gathered some history here huh?

taught sagan to say fuck [and other swears, in her stead]. he used to have to do it on command but he's gotten really good at filling in for her.has a

stoat fursona that beo helped her make. she thinks it's neat/cute but has no real attachment to it.

attempted to sue the crystal gems for ripping off her entire shtick [it didn't go well]

beowulf also taught her how to dab.

@sparkeletran is a nuisance and must be stopped

the 70$ pile of high school musical merch. sagan and beo both wear the t-shirts sometimes. she hates it. don't let her attitude fool you though this is actually the best and most important ongoing joke in this whole damn thing.

the first handcuffs stint. they’re gone now but they had a good ~30-post run, and she did take to learning lockpicking because of it.

this.

hey. guess fucking what lads. handcuffs ROUND TWO 'cause y'all just don't fuckin' quit. the first mini story arc sorta thing, in which she visits the cirque des cartes and has an aggravting encounter with taliesin. [currently ongoing][hopefully soon ending]

[[redacted for ""spoilers""]] due to said encounter with taliesin

sparkeletran is a nuisance,

"the official annie of the stars instagram is just cat memes but with sagan" it's canon but i haven't decided whether it's something she would have had already or a recent thing. [either way, hasn't been touched on yet due to the arc taking so long]

badart annie is sorta like her own thing at this point but nothing that happens with her is canon; she p much just shows up for exceptionally dumb posts. we did give her noclip though which is terrifying. on that note i may as well include the things that are Not canon but y'all won't let me forget

beo's animated belt thing. look. it doesnt talk.

spray-on boots.

the lawnmower weapon

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh homestuck

#not annieposting

[theworstbob]

the thing journal, 4.2.2017

scattered thoughts on the things i took in over the last seven days. this week: matt pryor, boyhood, julien baker, literally show me a healthy person, drake i guess, the goldfinch, the discovery, dave chappelle

1) Memento Mori, by Matt Pryor: i mean yeah, it's an album of acoustic folk songs? so i don't. i'm sure there's a lot that can be said about this album? but i'm so not the person to say those things, i could listen to this album again and again and try my best, but i can't be that person. this is no one's fault but my own, i'm not gonna be like "nyeh, this album sucks" because this happens to be something i don't typically dig, because i'm just not the kind of person that listens to folk. (don't you listen to country?) yeah but in country everyone's drunk and heartbroken, this is, i dunno, adult? yeah too adult for me, and i'm comfortable admitting that. (aren't you 27?) listen.

2) Boyhood, dir. Richard Linklater: So it IS possible to be absolutely dazzled by MOVIE-MAKING MAGIC yet be left kind of cold by the finished product. The story of how this film was made is cool, and you can feel the love and passion for this project oozing from the seams, but this is also a film about how a young boy grew up to become a college student with bad facial hair?, and there's a limit to how engaging I find those types of stories. So it's tough, because this is a film completely unlike anything else before it and an absolute treat to watch and think about (gosh, the pains one must have to go through to shoot a film over 14 years and make the finished product look cohesive!), but also a story I could get literally anywhere else. I thought the overall product was fantastic, but enough other people have been waving their flags hard enough and long enough that I'm okay not adding my own to it.

3) Sprained Ankle, by Julien Baker: This week, Bob! attempts to digest three quiet indie things despite not being all that into quiet indie things! For what it's worth, I know I have to give this a more attentive listen, this sort of music would pair better with list-making than it did with Mario Kart 7. I won a race where I had fewer Mario Kart points than all but one other dude in the field. I won the race with a last-turn pass and only by half a second maybe, and once I saw I took 1st, I shouted at my Nintendo 2DS, "REMEMBER THE FUCKING NAME," while alone in my apartment. The Mario Kart 7 headspace is not condusive to an album in which a young woman sings songs about death. I will say: even spending the first listen shouting at Mario Kart 7, I could still tell there was tremendous depth to be plumbed, so at least this thing was able to permeate the mania. Every now and then I'd hear a lyric ("I'm screaming at myself in public/I know I shouldn't act this way in public") and think "oh fuck, that's me, I need more time with this."

4) literally show me a healthy person, by Darcie Wilder: I don't know that any one thing has had a greater influence on my writing, if not my outlook on life, over the last year or so than the 333333333433333 Twitter account. Darcie Wilder is an absolute master of that form. I deleted my Twitter because the website is exhausting and I couldn't handle it (also real talk I'm just a fucking dude in Minneapolis, why do I need to worry about my brand), but hers is one of select few accounts I still visit on a regular basis because the Posts are just that Good, and her voice is perfectly represented in this book. Lesser writers would have published a compendium of tweets. Wilder presents something between a monologue and a short story collection, a recap of the day's thoughts, her mind bouncing from fun thoughts about rats to THIS IS SOMETHING I DID WHICH I DEEPLY REGRET like a mind actually does. It's dope as hell. It's the best thing I've ever read that I was able to knock out in three and a half bus rides. (Also, there's a passage in this book that is just a two-word sentence, "bob died," and it is my favorite instance of my name appearing in a work of art since Undertale.)

5) More Life, by Drake: I took an Intro to Film course at community college, because I like film AND I liked taking classes to help fill the art credit requirement! I took this class in 2008, so naturally, people were abuzz about some of the classics that had been released late in 2007, like There Will Be Blood. The professor DID NOT like There Will Be Blood. When pressed, he said something along the lines of: "There's no story! Daniel Plainview begins the movie as a monster, and he ends the movie as a monster. What changed? What did we spend two hours of our lives watching?" And while I don't agree with his assessment of the film, his perspective has stayed with me. Why do I bring that up? Who knows! Anyway this is the same album Drake has been making for nearly a decade and listening to it didn't enrich my life in any meaningful way because I already listened to other Drake albums. Also this was fucking 80 minutes long and even if I enjoyed Drake's whole thing, there is no excuse for a feature-film-length album, like calm down, just who the fuck do you think you are even? I spent less time reading literally show me a healthy person than I did listening to More Life. That's stupid and I hate it.

6) The Goldfinch, by Donna Tratt: This was recommended to me by a friend, so that's how I read this story about a young man who gets big into antiquing, and now I'm offering a review where, not only am I out of depth trying to proffer literary criticism, it's not even the sort of book that I'd come to on my own, so now I'm HELLA out of depth. This book is written in this elegant, austere way, and I loved the moments in the book where the author was just describing things, this book is at its best when no one is talking, but it was always somewhat jarring when a reference to modern technology was made. It felt odd and out-of-step with the rest of the novel, to have the odd reference to video games or iPods, like what's technology doing here, get out of here, I wanna read about the chairs this dude's been selling. But overall, I dug this book. It's about grief and the power of art and how decisions you make when you're 13 still influence the rest of your life, all things I’m into, and it was a welcome change of pace from what I usually read. (You mean nothing?) Again, listen:

7) The Discovery, dir. Charlie McDowell: ah just what i need a cloudy-day movie about suicide So like, I remember watching The Happening for a Bad Movie Night and thinking that the worst thing the movie did was squander an intriguing premise. There was a good movie somewhere inside The Happening, a movie about how to keep yourself believing life is still worth living, and it's not a perfect one-to-one translation of course, but The Discovery is pretty danged close to being the film I thought The Happening could be. Maybe it's a matter of scale: it takes this concept, "What would happen if science proved the existence of an afterlife?" and applies it to this small family drama, the son of the man who found the proof and their efforts to find out what the afterlife is. It has an offbeat sense of humor (I never realized how much I needed to see Jason Segel and Jesse Plemmons just hangin' out), and I appreciated the hell out of the final twist (even if I could have done without the Usual Suspectsy montage of moments from earlier which presaged the twist; "Look at all the foreshadowing we did! Aren't we such clever boys?" ugh i mean as someone who once paid enough attention to game of thrones to be able to identify every single white dude with a beard, i find that kind of shit annoying, i KNOW he said those things, i was WATCHING your FILM). I found much to enjoy about this film, even if "enjoy" is a weird word to apply to a film where a suicide counter figures prominently in the background.

8) Deep in the Heart of Texas, Dave Chappelle: I think a lot of what I said about his other Netflix thing applies here. The focus was a bit tighter, but ESPECIALLY here, it felt at times like he was telling jokes he wrote a few years ago that he just really wanted to get on television. He did a run on "Wait (The Whisper Song)." I didn't know people were still talking about that. He attributed "Wait (The Whisper Song)" to 50 Cent. One, you think people are gonna remember "Wait (The Whisper Song)," but won't remember The Yin Yang Twins? Two, you're gonna attribute it to 50 Cent? Come on, man. Say Lil' Jon. Lil' Jon is as current a reference as 50 Cent (moreso, actually, given "Turn Down for What"), that name is at least in the ballpark, and it's an easy applause line for you, like dude, shape up, I know it's not that simple but I'm pretty sure I've nailed it. But this was still more good than bad, and it still provided exquisite shots of white people in the front row who somehow didn't know who they had paid to see. Gosh, you could just smell the "well, actually" on some of those bros. That's the best part of these specials.

[alphasobek]

Almost done with P5 again (on the last day in fact) and it’s like I’m just stalling the hell out of it. Using my hunt for a Crystal Skull as an excuse to not go directly into the final dungeon.

Like I know I’m probably going to play again anyway just because I’m bored enough and because I just love it and the characters so much that it’s my go-to time waster

But there’s something about being right there at the end that’s got me like.. weirdly emotional.

It’s one of those things I think where I just don’t want it to start all over and just keep going from where it is. It didn’t hit me this hard the first playthrough because I was excited that, since I maxed out my social stats I could enter the second playthrough with the goal of spending more time with confidants and team mates and all that... but now on the cusp of the ending there isn’t a super big excitement point to replaying it again. The only trophies I’m missing that I can think of off the top of my head are the compendium and beating all the video games. Which is like, why I’m getting so much traction outta wasting time searching around for Crystal Skull.

The second playthrough went by like really fast too since I didn’t up the difficulty at all and blasted through it with the late game equipment and persona’s. The goal for the third playthrough if I can even get myself to finish this second one might be a higher difficulty but still.

Really I’m just kinda a big baby about it and don’t want to start over and lose my current gang of virtual friends, yeah? Games like this always do this to me though so it’s not a terribly big surprise. Me and my terrible inept social life mixed with a game where you’re surrounded almost constantly by friends and all that always ends in weirdly bittersweet emotions.

Like heck no I don’t wanna give up my virtual friends even if it’s only temporary because I’ll have them all back in the next playthrough but that’s like an even harder reminder that they’re just virtual.

Basically I’m fucked up and wanted to rant about it before going back to searching for that last 1% of the compendium.

#Persona 5 #Persona 5 spoilers #How do you even make friends #I'm like 26 or something why the hell don't I know that by now

[thegreatpikminzx789]

Beyond the Stars - Chapter 5

Archive of Our Own | Wattpad | Fanfiction.Net

I have been SOOOO behind on writing, and with Etrian Odyssey Nexus on the rise, I figured I should at least get back into writing to prepare for the ordeal that is the upcoming Nexus game. I also hope you don't mind me skipping over Syrik for a chapter, as despite mentioning him a few times, I'll be introducing him later.

Korey, Kyo, and Demetria reach the Council Hall after  Keiko is already looking around at the Hall’s interior decoration and slowly moving to the prince, while Hilda seems to be trying to catch her breath after being dragged by an overly excited Keiko. Upon hearing the trio approach her, she turns to face them.

"Yeaaah, I forgot to mention my sister really loves meeting royal people, Hilda. I think the hype finally got to her head… My apologies for not telling you that sooner." Demetria explained to the exhausted Harbinger, as she stands up, flicking the sweat off her head.

"I’d still appreciate a warning, at least… felt like I ran a fucking marathon." Hilda complained, approaching the trio as Kyo looked around in an attempt to find Keiko. "I assume she went on in to meet the Prince, then?" She asked, as the white haired girl nodded in response to Kyo's question.

"She’s been staring at the interior decoration for some time, and I guess she got tired of waiting and went on without waiting for all of you..." Hilda sighed, as the brown haired Fencer started making his way into the Council Hall. "Well, guess that concludes that question. Let’s not keep his Majesty waiting." Korey addressed, as the four of them, without further incentive, entered the Hall.

As the group proceeds without stopping, they hear Keiko conversing with Ramus, contrasting Demetria’s worry she was likely gonna stir trouble the moment they entered, though it might change soon. "Hope we weren’t interrupting, Your Highness." Korey announced, trying not to come off as rude. Ramus and Keiko turn to face Korey, as Keiko waves at the guild, though mostly at Demetria.

"Oh, no, you’re not. In fact, Keiko here was just about to go out and get you guys… But, seeing as you stand before me, I believe that saves us plenty of time." Ramus addressed, looking at the guild standing before him, recognizing a familiar face.

"Ah, so you’ve brought Hilda as well?" He inquired, as Keiko easily answered before Korey or Hilda could answer the question. "Yep! Korey was pretty nice to offer the three of us a spot in his guild! Hehe~" As she said that, she was kind of close to Ramus, and that could prove troublesome if the guards happened to witness it.

Demetria sighs before walking up to Keiko and grabs her by her Therian ear, dragging her away from Ramus. "If you can stop being in the Princes’ bubble space, the more relieved I will be!"

"Ow, owie, my ear, I’m sorry, I’m sorrrrrryyyyyyy..."

Ramus chuckles a bit before looking at Korey. "I trust you’re the leader of this guild, then?" Korey nodded, and does a quick bow. "The only leader the Lux Guild will ever need. My name is Korey, and to get straight to the point of why we're here, we would like to take the beginner’s mission, Your Highness."

Ramus nodded, quickly understanding that the guild before him is new to Iorys. "Ah, yes, the mission. The mission is simple- in order to prove your dedication to explore Yggdrasil, you’ll need a tree and mud sample from the first floor. And of course, mapping out the first floor is also part of this test. It’s better to be safe than lost." The prince explained, to the guild, before turning to Hilda.

"Regrettably, you’ll have to retake it as well, Hilda. It may come off as unfair to have your new guild-members rely on you for everything, especially given the circumstance of your previous situation." Hilda let out an annoyed sigh, but quickly get's over her minor anger moment. "It’s alright, your Highness. I’m relieved to hear it, if anything." Hilda acknowledged, thankful that she was not rushed to continue where she left off.

It would've put her friends and her guild-members in danger, as they have no knowledge of the first three floors. Better to just roll with the flow and slowly make progress than rushing headstrong into danger. As Hilda continues her train of thought, Ramus grabs a few materials relating to map making, and hands it to Korey.

"You’ll use these to map out the first floor, and for most of the floors the Yggdrasil will have. Marking which areas are important, where things are, and what the floors are like will give us knowledge of what Yggdrasil contains." Ramus begins, before heading back to grab something. Korey hands some of the materials he had to Keiko and Demetria, as Ramus gave Korey two books.

"What are these?" Korey asked, as Hilda grabbed one of the books from him and quickly glanced at the title, and some of the pages within it. "A Monster and Item Compendium. Not every explorer will recall exact details of a monster or item from their memory, so they are essential to remembering which enemies and items we'll find in Yggdrasil." Hilda explained, as she glanced in Korey's direction.

"I can fill in some of these pages for us in advance, but you will all need to get some map training. Especially you, Korey." She continued, as Korey gulped as Hilda's glance turned into a stare. "Why do you make it sound like I'm gonna goof off while the others work?" Korey questioned, as Hilda quickly dismissed his question before handing the book she had back to him.

Kyo turned to Ramus and bowed, seeing as they are ready to leave. "Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Prince Ramus. It was an honor to meet you." Ramus simply gave the Celestrian Warlock a smile. "It’s no big deal, really. Speaking with the explorers is what will help us all with the exploration of Yggdrasil, and hopefully, solve the mysteries that lie within it."

As Korey and the other start to leave, they are quickly stopped by Ramus, seemingly forgetting to say something. "Before you leave for Yggdrasil, I suggest you prepare yourself by going to Syrik’s shop. You’ll never know what Yggdrasil may bring, so I suggest going there before going to Yggdrasil." Korey and the others nod at his advice, making their way out of the Council Hall and head to Syrik’s shop.

Kyo recounts all the money they had brought with them with Korey, making sure that none of the explorers they pass by steal some of their money without them noticing. "Three hundred is not much to buy us every equipment in the shop, Korey..." Kyo spoke in concern, seeing as half of their money combined isn't enough to buy everything the shop may have to offer.

"Yeah, it might not… We’ll just have to be equally sparring with weapons and armor. It’s better worth trying to find a balance than risk damage over getting severely hurt." Korey suggested, thinking on behalf of not only him or Kyo, but to the rest of his guild-members. It would be a tough balance to keep, considering the source of income may come purely from items contained within Yggdrasil.

"Hilda, is that you?"

A familiar voice reaches Hilda's ears, as she stops and turns to face the familiar voice.

"Father…?" She asked aloud, causing the others to stop and turn to Hilda, before noticing someone approaching them. The armor the man wore was enough to give Korey the idea that the man in question is of the Dragoon class. His black hair and beard could easily match with his black long coat from a glance. Hilda walks up to him as he knelt down to Hilda's height and the two embraced each other in to family hug.

"D’aaawww, that’s heart warming..." Keiko sighed, beaming at the sight of (possibly) a parental figure. "Demetria, is that guy Hilda’s father?" Korey questioned, as Demetria took a few seconds to recall something that Hilda once told them before Korey and Kyo arrived.

"I'm not sure. She did say her father was a Dragoon, but we weren’t introduced to him in person…" Demetria responded, as Hilda and the Dragoon separate from the hug, looking at each other as the man stood up from kneeling down. "I see you’ve finally manage to find a guild." He began, as a smile formed on his face simply from glancing at Hilda's own smile.

"Indeed I have, father. I'm finally going to be heading back into Yggdrasil again!" Hilda grinned, clearly excited about the road ahead of her. "Indeed you are, my lovely daughter." He chuckled, as he approached Korey and the others, looking over the four of them as Hilda walked alongside him.

"So, who is the leader of this guild?"

"That’d be me, sir. I’m Korey." Korey quickly answered, reaching his hand out in greeting. Despite the difference in height, the black haired man greets him back and shook Korey's hand in return. "A fine name, lad. My name is Tyrone. Who might these girls be?" Tyrone inquired.

As if on cue, Keiko proceeded to introduce herself first. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Tyrone. I’m Keiko, and this is my sister, Demetria!" Keiko placed her hand on Demetria's shoulder, giving her the hint to introduce herself next. "Nice to make your acquaintance, Tyrone. This here is Beta."

Beta barks and wags his tail when Demetria called his name. "And I’m Kyo. It's nice to meet you, Tyrone." Kyo smiled, as Tyrone smiled back, letting go of Korey's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially you, Korey. You gave my daughter another chance where an ungrateful bastard left her." Korey tilted his head in confusion. "Uhhh, thanks? But who’s the ungrateful-"

"It’s best not to mention his name… It just irks me if it ever gets brought up." Hilda cut him off before he could finish his sentence.  "But aren’t we likely to meet him in Yggdrasil, Hilda?" Kyo asked, causing Hilda to think about her own words for a moment.

"...Yeah, you're right, Kyo. Guess that kind of makes it harder..." Hilda sighed, gazing at the ground for a few seconds before Keiko decided to change the subject. "So what brings you here, Mr. Tyrone?"

"Oh, I merely wanted to check up on my daughter. I’ve been meaning to visit sooner, but frequent trips to the labyrinth for materials caught me up recently…" Tyrone explains as he places a hand on Hilda’s head and rubs through her hair, causing Hilda's cheeks to turn red. "After all, she is the only thing I have to call a family."

"Daaaad, stop it, you’re embarrassing me..." Hilda commented, trying to hide her blush from the others. The way Hilda spoke made Korey chuckle for a couple of seconds, before Tyrone lifted his hand from her hair. "I’ll see you later, Hilda. I still need to finish some repairs on the house before I can show it to your friends."

"R-Right. Later, father." Hilda acknowledged, as Tyrone soon headed out from the guilds' sight. Although Keiko kind of had a question that she wanted to ask him, she figured it'd be better if she asked Hilda about it. "You had a house the entire time? Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because father has been working on it long before I came around. He’s just finishing up on some final touches on it." Hilda admitted, turning to face Keiko and the others. "Anyways, let’s make our preparations for the first floor. The sooner we get this done, the better."

Hilda continued, looking towards Korey as if awaiting her next move. "Right. Let’s go, everyone." He finally spoke up, as they continued onward to the shop. Despite wasting a bit of time talking to Tyrone, they make it to the shop without any issues.

Soon, the journey through Yggdrasil begins...

#Etrian Odyssey #Etrian Odyssey V #etrian odyssey story