#he’s got a 5 star relic!

[skelecored]

I DID IT

FULL BLADE TRACES BABY!!!!!

#YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG THIS TOOK #i got blade on the 22nd and ive been grinding every single day #i also have a fully leveled light cone and a full 5 star relic set on him #he is PERFECT #I SAID I WOULD SPOIL HIM AND I FUCKING MEANT IT!!!! #hsr blade #honkai star rail #hsr liveblog #💀💬

[masked-fools]

❝ your old buddy sampo is a model citizen these days. y'know the guards on sentry duty in the restricted zone? i deliver their breakfast every day! ❞

— Sampo Koski, ancient relic specialist

Tavern Notice Board

7th of August — 13th of August

(1) forsaken and yet not [blade, kafka] — @leonistic

even when the world is against them you stand by their side

(2) an apology [kafka] — @c0metes

reader is a stellaron hunter and got their shoulder hurt. some love acrobatics. guns and bullets and swords, average day for a stellaron hunter

(3) vacation on jarilo-vi — @xieni-logs

astral express crew with a child!reader

(4) with a vidyadhara reader [blade, dan heng, jing yuan] — @pyroxeene

them with a vidyadhara reader whose tail gives away their true feelings

(5) habits before bed [sampo, jing yuan, gepard, dan heng] — @cnnmairoll

their habits before going to bed with you

(6) under the lotus leaves [dan feng] — @milksnake-tea

you've known dan feng long before he became the high elder of the vidyadhara, before he donned the title of imbibitor lunae and became the legend he is known as now. long ago, back when the two of you were mere children, playing in the waters of the xianzhou luofu.

(7) hot and cold [dan heng] — @eggluverz

in which dan heng runs hot and blasts the air conditioner to keep cool, and you feel like you’re living in the arctic [college roommate au]

(8) how to take care of your lover when they're sick [jing yuan] — @generalsmemories

scenario in which jing yuan’s significant other (a short life species that isn’t a xianzhou native) has gotten sick

(9) showering them in affection [blade, sampo] — @pyroxeene

headcanons of them with a very affectionate s/o

(10) goodbye, halcyon days [jing yuan] — @bladesmuse

as time passes, its branches grow thorns, impaling themselves into your heart. it is most evident as you reflect upon your life, about the three men you loved most who came and went like the sun, moon, and stars. domestic fluff, potential high cloud quintet lore spoilers, angst, hurt/comfort, hurt/no comfort

(11) i didn't know where else to go [blade] — @milksnake-tea

blade x gn!reader, angst

(12) catching smoke [sampo] — @bladesmuse

you are a silvermane guard who has been assigned to catch Sampo. However, every time you get remotely close to catching the shady merchant, he always disappears. cursing, violence, suggestive content

(13) dropped your hand while dancing [gepard] — @particular-one

angst. hurt/no comfort. failed relationships. fluff to angst. passing mention of alcohol. marriage proposals. set after the events of the jarilo-vi trailblaze mission.

(14) a beloved tradition [luka] — @starboyshoyo

a paper marriage in belobog isn’t the only way to show off the love between a couple.

(15) wildest dreams [poly; blade, dan heng] — @bladesmuse

love, lust, and revenge are often inextricably linked, unsurprisingly causing complications in your relationship implied sexual content, combined undertones of fluff and angst

(16) accidentally falling asleep on him [sampo] — @milksnake-tea

you accidentally fall asleep on sampo's shoulder mentions of alcohol

(17) interlocks [nanook, yaoshi, lan, xipe] — @milksnake-tea

braiding their hair

(18) weathering the storm [gepard] — @meaningofaeons

gn!reader, meet cute, reader is implied to be part of an affluent/noble family, soulmate au wherein you have a countdown on your wrist until you meet your soulmate

(19) back home [dan heng] — @meaningofaeons

gn!reader, fluff, reader is part of the nameless but did not join the belobog mission

(20) not quite so slick [sampo] — @meaningofaeons

gn!reader, fluff, silvermane guard!reader, belobog story spoilers, pining

(21) only in the limelight [dan heng] — @meaningofaeons

gn!reader, actor au, angst/no comfort, unrequited love

(22) could you be any more dense? [gepard] — @meaningofaeons

gn!reader, hurt/comfort

(23) starry night bakery [dan heng] — @eggluverz

in which the cute baker down the street catches your eye and you decide to become a regular to keep seeing him [modern au]

(24) everything i need [blade] — @eggluverz

in which you’re feeling down about not seeing your boyfriend in a few months and blade takes time out of his busy tour schedule to surprise you. idol!blade x barista!reader, modern au

(25) lucky day [luka] — @antimatterz

you found the cutest plushie in a claw machine, but can't get a hold of it. fortunately, a handsome stranger shows up to help you out [modern au]

#honkai star rail fluff #honkai star rail x reader #honkai star rail #hsr x reader #hsr #blade x reader #dan heng x reader #kafka x reader #jing yuan x reader #sampo x reader #gepard x reader #dan feng x reader #nanook x reader #yaoshi x reader #xipe x reader #lan x reader

[shuttershocky]

Thoughts on Hoederer?

Infographic from here

Now I've seen that Arknights What If Project (the hacked game that has everyone unlocked, max potential, and maxed out for testing purposes on a private server) showcase his S1M3, S2M3, and his S3M3, and I'm of the opinion that his generic powerstrike S1 is his best skill actually. His Talent 2 giving him and one other ally 18% shelter means he at least doesn't take True damage from fuckin dogs and slugs (though he will still get ripped to shreds without sustain from either his skills or a medic), while his Talent 1 makes his DPH spike even higher vs stunned or bound enemies, and he's got stuns on his S2 and S3. Pretty decent kit overall, given how godawful his archetype is.

As a note: the 18% shelter means he only takes 410 x 15 damage from Aak buffs rather than the 500 x 15 that Quartz and Wind Chimes do, which means Aak buffing him is actually viable with only a little help. This is important since if there's anything Crushers actually want (besides DEF), it's ASPD, which Aak's S3 is the biggest provider of.

Now let's go over his skillset.

S1 is probably the strongest version of a generic powerstrike type skill since Hellagur's S1. 2SP cost, 260% ATK, a very thick ATK stat to use that big multiplier, and heals 25% of Hoederer's max HP. When maxed out this thing deals 4422 damage without any buffs, and the 2 SP cost means Hoederer procs it every 3 strikes, while using Ch'en makes it go even faster.

IS players, you already know this is the new Spinach skill. With relics for increased healing effectiveness or ATK recovery SP charge, Hoederer might also actually become completely self-sufficient as a laneholder. Sure he's not going to be Mlynar, Gavial, or NTRK with that 6 hope, but IS is about having fun you know?

With its Block-3, you can think of Hoe with S2 as a very high DPH Centurion. It's really fucking slow though, his attack interval becomes 3 whole seconds to do one attack that stuns for 1 second. And since S2 doesn't have any self sustain, he's going to get babysat by a strong medic lest a particularly large stream of slugs eventually wear him down. I may be wrong here, but I like this one the least. I can definitely see use cases for it but it feels like the skill that makes Hoederer's Crusher weaknesses be at their most obvious.

S3 feels like Hypergryph duct taped 3 different popular 6 star Guards together. Apart from the giant +120% ATK, it's got +1 range extension (like Blaze), a huge Max HP buff (like Surtr), and deals minor True damage on dealing damage AND taking damage (like Mlynar), all while healing himself for 5% HP every hit and rolling a 25% chance to stun the enemy for 4 seconds (meaning the next attack will hit for 140% damage), with the drawback being that Hoederer loses 100 HP as true damage per second.

This skill also lasts for a jaw-dropping 70 seconds (one of if not /the/ longest lasting non-permanent skills) which is so long his SP cost is actually lower than its duration despite being a very large 60 SP.

I don't know what to think about this one, to be honest. It kinda reeks of desperation. They were so bamboozled by the challenge of making an actually strong Crusher that they glued different parts of actually popular guards together in order to force it to be good, and I still am not quite sure about it.

Don't get me wrong, it's numerically very good. Hoederer reaches something like 10k+ HP with this and this skill does a lot of damage (the True damage burn alone is 14k True damage over the full 70s duration), I just don't really know why I'd want to be using this skill over my many, many other options for Guards. It doesn't seem particularly fun or exciting, just big.

The most unique and useful thing I can think of where I'd use his S3 over the competition is if I'm fighting a boss that does Arts or True damage where that +60% max HP gives him a health bar that would scare even the Abyssal Hunters.

Strength wise S3M3 will probably be the way to go, but I plan on going S1M3 first instead and trying it out on IS to see how high and how often I can pump those funny red numbers.

#arknights

[the-courtsjester]

Hey jester! Can I make a request for a March 7th confessing to a male reader who secretly likes her back?

Greetings Ladies gentlemen and uh... things, when I was originally making this ask I forgot to save it as a draft so it deleted itself and I'm in pain, anyway some other stories I'm making are being blocked do to lack of knowledge on doing dialog, so this will be good practice.

March 7th x male reader

Back when March 7th first arrived on the Express from being saved from the cold emptiness of space, she was very awkward not knowing how to express her feelings took her a long figure out that they were in fact in love with you, so she turned to someone she knew could help her.

March 7th: "Himeko! I need help with something"

Himeko: "hmm? What is it March"

March 7th: "(Y/N) makes me feel funny"

Himeko: "what?"

After March explained what she actually ment Himeko told her to "just go for it". you see Himeko knows a lot of stuff and she seems like the type to know everything, and she most definitely manged to find out you had a secret crush on March.

Himeko: "March believe me just take the chance, you'll regret it if you don't"

March 7th: "but what if he doesn't like me and it ruins our friendship?"

After a lot of doubts and convincing Himeko got March to go to your room on the Express and knock on your door, she felt her heart pounding in her chest and without looking in the mirror she could tell she was blushing madly, but when you opened the door she steeled her nerves and took the leap of faith.

(Y/N): "oh hey March, what'd you need?"

March 7th: "(Y/N) I have something really important to tell you"

(Y/N): "oh what is it?"

It took her a couple seconds to come out with it but but when she did she couldn't keep it in her normal talking voice

March 7th: "I-I love you!"

She stopped herself there not wanting to spill more out and further embarrassing herself but you were stunned staring at her before breaking into a smile

(Y/N): "I love you too March I have for awhile now, I'm relived to hear you feel the same"

Upon hearing what you said to her she couldn't hold herself back anymore, she hugged you suddenly and nuzzled her head into your chest, not planning to leg go anytime soon you could only respond by gently hugging her.

Once news broke out about your new relationship together Himeko found you two adorable when you did stuff together, Mr. Yang was happy for you two, and same for Dan Heng though he was not to happy to learn he was going to listen to you drone on about how amazing March is.

Well I hope this was good I feel like it was shitty, though speaking of March 7th she actually helped me clear the Simulated Universe, now I can reliably do the higher level SU worlds to get 5 star relics thank god, but I'll see you all whenever I post next.

And scene...

#march 7th #honkai star rail #x male reader #march 7th x reader

[a-gay-little-cat]

(This drawing got way out of hand but. I'm attaching it to the OC interview anyways!!!! Thank you for tagging me @mail-me-a-snail!!!!) OC interview thingy under the read more :]

Name?

“Vito.” Nothing special or out of the ordinary here really. Though he doesn’t like giving people his surname. Scan him for it if you are so nosy.

Nickname?

“The Red Scorpion.” "...." “That’s a joke, it’s V.” His name is short enough to not warrant a nickname really but V is what he likes to use for business related stuff, keep it formal, keep it anonymous. Though I do think Red Scorpion is the name for his bike. And also the symbol he wears on his vest. He just really likes scorpions and any other desert critter.

Gender?

“Male.”

Vito is trans, has been for a good chunk of his life and he couldn’t be happier with it.

Star sign?

“Scorpio, much to my delight. No idea what it means though. Don’t really care for that kind of stuff.” Fun fact I was so close to making the joke of having Vito be born on the day the Arasaka Towers got blown up but then his age wouldn’t have aligned quite right. He’d have to be 53 during the main story but… still a joke in the back of my mind, might adjust it JUST to be funny, maybe not.

Height?

“Last I checked it was 5’8.”

It’s a pretty good height all things considered. He might appear a bit taller though thanks to the bit of heel on his boots as well as his hat he wears most of the time. He has no complaints about his height though.

Orientation?

“Whoever strikes my fancy.”

Vito is bi and doesn’t really have a preference. Just kinda lets himself be taken wherever his heart desires. (Sometimes that can be horrible ex-corpo men who have something really wrong with them. Shoutout to Lucian. What is wrong with him.) Though he usually doesn’t look for more than a fling. Not actively looking to date or find anything long term. (Lucian was kind of an unexpected case.)

Nationality/ethnicity?

“Born and raised in Mexico. Lived there a good while too.”

His parents likely still live there, he wouldn’t really know. Cut ties a long time ago and has kinda moved from city to city looking to follow his ambitions.

Favorite fruit?

“Hm… don’t have fruit a lot these days but peaches have always been my favorite.”

I can only imagine fruit is just kind of rare to come by, if not expensive. Vito’s never had a lot of money to his name all things considered.

Favorite season?

“Fall. It’s just right.”

Listen he may be used to hot climates but all that leather is probably a nightmare during the summer. And no he will not sacrifice his looks.

Favorite flower?

“Flowers? In this year and age?” He doesn’t know shit about flowers. He might like ones that bloom on cacti but… it’s not really his scene.

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

“You can’t go wrong with a nice tea.” He’ll always pick tea over anything else. Coffee is… okay. But he doesn’t get the appeal. Vito especially likes any sort of red/fruity tea but he’ll give anything a try at least once.

Average hours of sleep?

“4…. 5… depends.”

And that’s on a good day. Especially in the height of everything with the relic he is lucky to get one or two hours of sleep. Pain is one hell of a bitch keeping him up. Very hard to get comfortable at all. But once that’s all over and he’s settled down it’ll probably end up closer to an average of 8 hours, at least.

Dog or cat person?

“Reptiles.” “...” “But if I have to pick? Cats.”

Vito isn’t one to really care for pets. He doesn’t hate them and will pet a dog or a cat if someone he knows owns one but that's about it. Doesn’t really need a pet of his own.

Dream trip?

“Not really looking to travel.”

As a guy who has moved from place to place, Vito doesn’t really… plan for trips. Most of his traveling was out of necessity and not because he was looking for a vacation spot. Somewhere outside of NC could be nice but he just doesn’t really think about it. Busy with other stuff. Also he would want to travel with Lucian and well……. who knows how that would go down.

Favorite fictional character?

“Pardon?”

Vito reads a lot but he’s not like… crazy about the characters or even really involved, it's just to pass time and relax.

Number of blankets you sleep with?

“.....2.”

He gets cold in his sleep and it's a nice weight. One hell of a fight to get out of bed in the morning though.

Random fact?

Vito loves putting together little models of things if possible. Doesn’t always have the time for it but… it’s fun and relaxing :)

Don't really know who to tag but hey whoever wants to do this with their guys feel free to go ahead!

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #male v #putting it in the tags bc look at him #vito really isnt the most talkative guy all things considered #künstlerischer kuchen #vito #my ocs #i do wanna do this with tiger also but grr grrr i must draw smth first #and then get lost in drawing #i'd probably have an easier time writing these down for tiger since hes been established longer but. i wanted to talk abt vito. #BTW lucian is kings guy. just so we are clear #king being gr-74 on ye ol tumblr

[wutheringmights]

"Red, White, and Royal Blue" by Casey McQuiston is extremely dated. I know it was published in 2019, but spiritually this is a relic from 2013. This is a 2/5 for me.

The rest of this post is overwhelmingly negative, so skip if you don't want to see.

I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't buy into its escapist fantasy. I like silly romcoms, but this novel felt like it had to excuse every aspect of itself. "Don't worry about the love interest being a British prince! He also hates the empire!" Okay, but now you got me thinking about British imperialism so much I can't ignore it.

Don't even get me started on how American politics is handled. Again, I am more than willing to turn my brain off and just enjoy a lighthearted romance, but the narrative didn't want you to turn your brain off. This would be fine if it went beyond buzzword acknowledgements of systemic injustice and the cesspool of American politics. Yes, rich white men in power is an issue. Do you have any else to say besides that?

And the thing that really grinded on my nerves was the narrative's insistence that Alex was some kind of underdog (you know, to contrast, Henry's privilege). But Alex isn't an underdog! He's rich! Both his parents were lawyers before they became politicians. His dad owns a lakehouse. His mom remarried a tech billionaire. Alex is rich and his lifestyle is rich. If the story wanted to be about a smart-aleck rich boy-- great! I'd actually prefer it that way! But instead it's all about how he feels like an outsider compared to how rich Henry is. I know it's not at the same level, but I would have preferred some acknowledgement over this insistence that Alex is Just Like Everyone Else (this in particular reminds me of how Sasha Alsberg accidentally revealed how blinded she is to her own privilege in "Breaking Time", but I digress).

Some other miscellaneous thoughts:

No story gets to call itself enemies-to-lovers if they fall in love in the first 100 pages

A book gets a free pass to make one Star Wars or Harry Potter reference; any more and it starts to read like it was focus-grouped for mainstream nerds

At the very least they should reissue this book to remove the (and I am loathe to use this word) cringey Harry Potter references

The prose is insanely readable, which is a rare feat of skill. McQuinston can write, I just wish she didn't write this story.

I've seen a lot of people say that this is written like a fanfiction, which I initially was going to fight on principle; upon reading this, I can concede that this story is at the very least structured like a fanfiction

Specifically, I think this story started as Hamilton fanfiction. No, I will not elaborate on this

#kinda a duller for me but at least it was readable #listen i know “readable” sounds passive aggressive but it's actually a compliment. sometimes there are books that are really good in theory #but are 100% unreadable. books that you can actually sit down and read without effort are to be treasured #me reading #me rambling #red white and royal blue #red white and royal blue by casey mcquinston #readblr

[seelestia]

YOU HAVE A GUARANTEED FROM CLARA BECAUSE CLARA'S VA IS PRESIDENT AVENTURINE SIMP WHICH MEANS YOU WILL GET DOUBLE EARLY FIVE STARS TRUST ME BRO IM FROM THE FUTURE !!!

THANK U, MIREI / USER MILK-VIOLET / TIME TRAVELLER FROM THE FUTURE !!! i am here to dedicate the most monumental wins in my life to you & emily (the avenation's president) o7

so pls allow me to ramble a bit abt how my pulls went:

he came home EARLY !!!! 31 pity counts as pretty early to me like i genuinely did not believe my eyes at first. but who am i to complain 🫣🫣 i also got his LC!!! not as early since it came at 69 pity - but still the first 5* LC that i've ever pulled for willingly LMAO so it's still a win in my book! congrats to this silly guy for breaking my no-warping-for-LC's streak ig 💔

by the time i got aventurine & his LC, i have 55 warps left + 12 more from the starlight exchange for jingliu.... but she did not come home and e2 bronya did instead. this woman is stubborn 😔 so now it's either i continue grinding jades for her or i save 'em all for sunday (delulu) !!!!

MOVING ON - i spent the whole day maxing his traces, so i wanted to show his build aka my blood, sweat and tears. HERE COMES THE BOY !!!! his crit ratio is 30/184 with just the relics - but thanks to his traces & LC (that provide a crit rate boost based on def & a crit dmg boost respectively), this man's stats in combat went 🆙🆙. here's a comparison for my aven's crit ratio out of battle vs in battle!

(ignore the team setup on the right: that's my default farming team with a free slot for support charas that i borrow from friends 🏃 i run him w/ ruan mei, silver wolf and dr. ratio! rip luocha ur services will be missed)

from what i observe, he does a consistent 50~60k with his ult and an average 25~35k with his FUA. i'd say that's good !!! his shield in itself is already op. regrettably, i wished he could have more SPD, but i'll take what i can get! all that matters is that he's here safe and sound <3

#waiting for him was soooo worth it #the last time i ever invested in a character this heavily was ratio #and i didn't even get him his LC lmaooo #aventurine is just special that way (so real) <33 #thank u for wishing me good luck btw!! i like to think it managed to convince him :3 #ask box! 📬 #visitor: milk-violet

[cerastes]

After watching you stream IS2 for a bit the other day, I took some of your advice and finally got my first ending 1 clear! I've been trying to get back there again, and I feel something might be wrong with my general strategy of "Get a big 6* and try to build a core around them". I don't have high hopes for getting ending 2, as my one clear that mostly revolved around +120ish ASPD Exu and Mudrock was mostly on luck and stacking the two Coin Op-alike relics I have unlocked. Do you have any advice on how to pivot to something more reliable and sustainable than "Make big thing hit hard/fast"?

First of all, congratulations on you clear! You now have [Theater Kid Money]!

Now:

"Get a big 6* and try to build a core around them" <- This is where you went wrong, Giorno Giovanna.

The following advice is applicable for all Roguelikes, actually, but it's very very useful in Crimson Solitaire: You're filling a check list.

Whenever you're playing a run of Crimson Solitaire (or any Roguelike, really!), your first few runs are recon, you're just finding out What It Did. Once you can answer the question "What Did It Do?" or in other words, you have a rough idea of what you'll encounter and what the end boss of your desired route will look like, you then go into Going For The Clear Mode.

What would the Lucian check list need? Let's do this together, ok?

Lucian, Blood Diamond check list:

The Scarlet Singer carousel to the right that starts seeping into the rest of the map -> They loop for quite a while, giving you plenty of time to kill them, and there's two tiles that let you place Marksmen/AA Snipers facing right to hit them. Check list item 1: 1 to 2 Marksman Snipers, or Thorns facing right, in other words, a way to whittle down and kill the Singers before they become an issue. These ALSO deal with the aerial units that come from the same direction!

Several low HP enemies come out quickly from the upper gates, with some higher bulk enemies in between. Check list item 2: A plug for the stream of enemies that comes from above. Frontliners, AoE Guards, Defenders, you name it, you need to be able to block and kill.

Upper left gate releases very strong Elite Armored Guards. Check list item 3: A way to hold and kill these elite mobs, so sustain and Arts damage.

Lucian's most dangerous attack is his Song, which deals wide AoE Physical damage and fills your Nervous Impairment gauge. Other enemies also deal Nervous Impairment. Check list item 4: AoE healing and a way to deal with NI, so Mulberry/Honeyberry and one other source of healing, like an AoE medic or Saria S2.

Lucian has Phys and Arts Dodge if he's not blocked, and has a Crownslayer ability to phase through units, on a cooldown. Check list item 5: Two strong brawlers to jail* Lucian, making him vulnerable to damage, as well as burst damage (a source of True damage would help as well, but being able to jail is far better). *A jail is when you place two units next to each other, facing each other, to trap phasers like Crownslayer or Lucian.

This is your basic needs for Lucian. Some units cover more than one need, for example, Saria S2 can block the Elite Armors AND provide AoE healing, and the same source of Arts damage for the Elite Armors can provide burst damage to deal with Lucian. What matters is, you have to build your composition with this in mind throughout the game, not just grab a big 6* and build around it, because in the end, even the most multiuse 6* won't do jack shit for you if you aren’t covering the needs of the map.

In other words, you must suit your team to the needs of the map and prepare as best as possible. In an ideal world, you can fill this list, but you likely won't have every ingredient. That's the beauty of Roguelikes! You have to improvise, adapt, and adjust depending on what you end up with. That's what it means to be a true warrior of likes and rogues.

In my latest VOD, I cleared with just 3 and 4 stars on the first try, because you don't need a six star to clear, you need to build your team with purpose and intent. Knowing how to build is half the game mode, the other is execution in gameplay. Lucian's check list is simple, for instance, Big Sad Lock and Mouthpiece's check lists are more complex. You also should account for dangerous maps on the way to the boss (no AA snipers on Drone Landing Zone? Say goodbye to Exodia).

So yeah, it's less about big number, more about smart use and accumulation of number.

#flusterfluff

[tacticalhimbo]

— OC INTERVIEW

name: vincent hale

nickname: v, vin, vinny

gender: genderqueer transmasc

star sign: gemini sun, gemini moon, capricorn rising (double gemini oh god)

personality type: entp (the debater). this man is charismatic. he's a quick thinker. but god does he have an argumentative streak. he is stubborn to a fault

height: … 5 feet. short king energy.

orientation: bisexual

nationality/ethnicity: white american

favorite fruit: oranges. vinny fucking loves oranges. he likes most citrus, really. but oranges just hit for him

favorite season: late winter/early spring. that period of time when there's still snowfall and a notable chill in the air, but things are a little less wet and miserable

favorite scent: i feel like vinny is a spice kinda guy. maybe some more smokey tones, the occasional woodsy tone, but a lot of it is like warm. thinking like. parfums de marly althaïr

coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: coffee. he drinks that shit dark too. one, because it's luxurious. two, because he cannot survive without some form of caffeine. he'd honestly love shit like death wish roast

average hours of sleep: it's either 2 or 12 babey! he already had a pretty chaotic schedule prior to the relic incident, but it was just consistent enough for him to survive. now, though? he's either kept awake because of all the shit going on, or he's so exhausted by the neurological and physical stress that he's gone to the world for the day

dogs or cats: cats. dogs uh, well, they aren't exactly around anymore. most animals aren't due to all the illnesses that spread. and he did adopt nibbles, so-

dream trip: even though he's already been, he would love to revisit japan's konpeki plaza. it's between that, or making a visit to misty out in the polish wilderness and truly being able to step away from the big city enivronment for a month or two

number of blankets: one, but it's large and it's got a nice weight to it. not too thick to where he gets hot, but not super thin either. it's also a sherpa blanket. he fucking loves sherpa-

random fact: i've told you all how vincent has considered having a risky rendezvous with jenkins. this i know. but consider also: vincent buttering up and sleeping with meredith is canon. he freaky freaky like that (positive). and yes, the "weapon" you get after… she did use it on him.

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tagged by the lovely @perpetuagf to fill out this meme! switching out of my fixation for a second solely to talk about one of my stinkiest blorbos <3

idk who to tag so if you wanna do this please do!! <3

#txt #my ocs #tag games #cw suggestive

[the-monkey-ruler]

Journey to the West Sidestory 5: The Legend of the Little White Dragon (2017) 西游外传之小白龙降妖

Director: Ren Deyong Starring: Liu Tianpeng / Ren Deyong Genre: Fantasy Country/Region of Production: Mainland China Language: Mandarin Length: 67 minutes Type: Retellling

Summary:

Xiao Bailong, the third prince of the Dragon King of the West Sea, got married to Princess Wan Sheng, the daughter of the Wan Sheng Dragon King in Bibo Pond of Luanshi Mountain. That night, Xiao Bai Long found out that Nine-Headed Insect was having an affair with his wife. He got angry and got into a fight, and accidentally set fire to the pearl that was rewarded by the Jade Emperor. The matter reached heaven, and Little White Dragon, who was about to be beheaded, was spared the death penalty by the intercession of Guanyin Bodhisattva.

The Bodhisattva ordered him to wait at the Yingchou Stream of Snake Pan Mountain for Tang Xuanzang, a monk from the Tang Dynasty who went to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures. He waited for more than ten years. One day, a young monk Yide from afar was ordered by the abbot of Dalin Temple to deliver the relics of a senior monk from the local temple after his death. He was stopped by a clever ghost and a ghost took away the relic. At this time, Xiao Bailong was passing by and rescued the little monk. When the Nine-Headed Insect and Princess Wan Sheng found out, they were very angry and planned to harm Xiao Bailong and force him to leave the temple. In this way, Princess Wan Sheng sent her personal maid to confuse the little monk and harass Xiao Bailong. She also sent clever ghosts and demons to the temple many times to poison and steal treasures, but they failed.

Source: https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28011

Link: N/A

#Journey to the West Sidestory 5: The Legend of the Little White Dragon #西游外传之小白龙降妖 #jttw media #jttw movie #movie #lost media #live action #retelling #addition #xiao bailong #bailong centered #bai long ma #Princess Wan Sheng #princess wanshen #wansheng princess #nine headed demon #nine headed insect

[scripted-pleasures]

Fourth Wing Review

1.5-2/5 stars

I would like to thank everything for giving me the strength to finish this book. It took less than a week and 14.5 pages of notes but we're done! To put it bluntly, this book was bad. Like, garbage. After talking about it for a while I get so angry that I lose the ability to form rational thought anymore. Anyways, I hope this is entertaining and/or informative! This will be hidden cuz it's a long one!

I would like to start off by saying that even though I don’t agree with the general rating of the book, I can say that I see how people enjoy this book. If this is a first fantasy book for someone, it makes an ok low barrier to entry for the genre. I think this would be mid-fantasy? I will say I wasn’t a fan of the romance, even if Yarros took her time and saved the Big Bang for way too late in the book to try to ‘flesh out’ the connection. (Spoiler alert: it was wack). For better or worse, I’m a lore person so in terms of a meaningful story with solid characters, plot, and setting, it’s no more than a 2. I do have to give credit where it’s due, and there were some parts that I enjoyed (mainly Tairn) and if I wasn’t going into this so critically, I’d give this a solid 3. The story is fine, though it is full of contradictions and weird sentences that are hard to ignore even if I was reading for fun. Violet was more interesting at the beginning of the book and things got kind of jumbled together toward the middle whenever the focus wasn’t on how horny Violet was for Xaden. The flying scenes were fun when they were actually written out. As for characters, Tarin is the best by far, no competition. I know that was bland but that’s how I felt if you wanted a short review if I was reading for fun. Honestly, this book is nothing to write home about.

 Though, I am home, and I will be writing about it, so here’s the full 2 star (more like 1.5) review:

A major non-in universe problem with this book is the use of Scottish Gaelic words/names that are being bastardized. The name of the college, dragons, and some characters’ last names use Scottish Gaelic that, as confirmed by Yarros, are not pronounced properly and are instead pronounced however she finds easiest. There are wonderful creators on TikTok that have read the book and know of/speak Scottish Gaelic that air their own grievance on her use of the language and are a wonderful source of how to properly pronounce the names/words in the book. I urge all who read this to check them out.

Anyways.

I absolutely love the fact that Yarros is actively not following the rules that she set up! 

The earliest show of this is on page 21 where there’s a quote from ‘Major Afrenda’s Guide to the Riders Quadrant’ that says “there’s a misconception that it’s kill or be killed in the Quadrant unless there’s a dragon shortage or a cadet is a liability”. A similar rule is found on page 27 where the Codex states that ‘it’s unlawful for a rider to cause another harm.’ Both of these rules are broken literally on the Parapet where Jack, an antagonist, throws someone into the ravine below and suffered no consequences. Jack also killed someone in training for funsies and nothing came of that either. Most importantly, there isn’t a shortage of dragons, there’s too many riders. The school says rider candidates volunteer yet make no moves to control the amount of applicants when they know the amount of dragons willing to bond in advance.

There was the rule that states cadets with rebel relics can’t be in groups of 3 or more, otherwise it’ll be seen as a capital offense (pg 77) though Xaden tells the group to travel in 3s

On pages 159, Violet was surprised that Jack knew information about feathertails and wondered where he got the information despite spewing the same information earlier in the book

Violet wanted to get Jack angry so that he makes mistakes in the match (pg 293) despite this plan backfiring on her against Imogen earlier in the book

On page 356, Violet is given her saddle and says “When did I ever give you the impression that I give a fuck what people think of me?” even though the page before she was bemoaning how people are going to know that she can’t keep her seat (despite her falling a dozen times every lesson)

Minor thing, but on page 475 Violet is trying to keep Liam on Taiwan’s back even though her shoulder got messed up earlier in the fight though that wasn’t brought up again

Okay, this isn’t a specific pinpoint but it looks like Bás Giath is the military, college, the national archives, and also the church….? That’s not very clear which is a problem

Other than the inconsistencies, Yarros has a bad habit of telling, not showing and even not writing or acknowledging whole scenes. This is shown on page 310 where Sgaeyl, Tairn, and Andarna are supposed to train together with Violet and Xaden. At this point we had seen Tairn and Xaden interact, Violet/Tairn/Andarna, and a wee bit of Xaden and Sgaeyl but not Violet and Sgaeyl or Xaden and Andarna, let alone all of them together. This lost scene along with the majority of the Squad Battle on the next page, mind you misses an incredible amount of character interaction and growth that this book desperately needs. This story also lacks depth in any place outside of Bás Giath/Violet which can be seen in the beginning and toward the end. The furthest back this story goes is 5 years when the Sorrengails moved to Bás Giath and there’s no mention of their life before that. Like, even a little bit. Toward the end when Mira, Violet, and Rhinonnan go to Rhi’s village, the interaction with the family is completely cut out, focusing only on a conversation between the Sorrengails. We do get to see that Rhinonnan has a nephew and that’s as far as the meeting of the main character’s ‘best friend’s’ family goes before they run into Xaden as soon as they step outside. Fantasy really isn’t the type of genre where things are secular if there’s no good reason for it for which this story has none. Quite literally nothing happens in this book and I have no idea how this story will stretch across 5 books. I had a Science Fair project once where the project was to watch paint dry in various conditions and that was somehow more interesting and full of substance than this book.

Extra tidbit: The fact that she wrote white guilt into this story, was willfully ignorant of the idea that an oppressed people would want to revolt and side with the ‘enemy’ (aka. The only people who are willing to stand up against their oppressors), and thinking that any sort of militaristic choices are made ‘for the good of the people’ while War College actively tries to kill the students fills me with so much rage. This book is huge on social media, meaning tons of people are being exposed to these views where the book says these are the morals of the characters you’re supposed to root for. Dangerous and irresponsible. There’s also the fact that Xaden and Rhinannon, both of whom are noted as darker/dark-skinned the whole book are hyper-sexualized, feeding into stereotypes, shows that Yarros and her editing team (if she has one), have never met anyone darker than a cafe-au-lait and it shows.

All in all, I rate this a 1.5-2 out of 5 stars. The only reason why I don’t rate this lower is because there were moments where I did have fun and there were flashes of what this could be. Had I not been reading this as critically as I was or read only fantasy/sci-fi books, I could see the appeal for this. Unfortunately, Yarros might give new readers the impression this is how fantasy, beginner or not, is supposed to be and that’s a disservice to the genre. I’m almost 100% sure Yarros has no plans for this story/universe because Fourth Wing can’t stand on its own, answers no questions, and brings no inquiries. I’m happy for the people who like this book, really, but this isn’t the best it can be and I hope you find actual literature after this.

#book review #book reading #fourth wing

[swearingcactus]

From the OC asks for little V please: 5, 18, 26, 45, 50! :D

ahh thank you for asking!!

5. Do they have any tattoos? If so what are they and do they have any special meaning?

He does! I actually just based the tattoos on the vanilla ones because I didn't play with any mods, it sort of morphs into something different after I draw him a lot. He has roses and a cross on his neck that he got when he was a teen in an attempt to look older, and then a snake guarding his heart that he got not long after he chopped his name to just V. Unlike the game version tho the snake actually hugs his entire back, mayhaps in hopes that something will always have his back after the entire experience:

18. How easy is it to become their enemy?

pretty easy. you just need to actively stop him from doing what he needs to when he hasn't done anything against you. this works from combat (shooting at me first = hey don't blame me if you die) to non-combat. best example of his enemy is Placide. V came in Pacifica ready to be cooperative and came back out with another notch in resurrection, pissed off, and with a bad taste for all Voodoo Boys.

(it's also why Little V is not enemies with Johnny. For all of Johnny's whining he lets V make the final calls.)

26. Have they met any of their heroes? Did they regret it?

He doesn't have any heroes, unfortunately. Growing up in Heywood means he has a low opinion on adults that stuck. Even when he got stars in his eyes staring at the badass merc groups who have power and money from across the street, he never considers them role models much less heroes. Heroes gotta save him first.

45. Do they plan in advance or just wing it?

He'd like to say a mix of both, but really he's more of a planner. For gigs he'd scout the place, hack through the camera to figure out the number of guards, does he need to take them out, where to hide them if so, exit locations, etc, then he goes stealth mode. He's good at improvising when necessary but most of the time his plan works out and nobody notices he was even there. Unfortunately, things don't always work out and when someone notices him it's guns out and Wing O'Clock babey.

50. What is your favorite thing about them?

that he's just a little guy first and foremost :') but on a more serious note, his cycles and duality. He accepted that he's going to die but refuses to go out without kicking and fighting, so he tries to survive anyway. He lends an ear to everyone he meets and goes out of his way to help them but doesn't want the same treatment. He undersells himself but is prideful about his skills and demands respect for them.

He's a great mix of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 'oh well!' about the whole relic business and making the most out of the time he has by just doing whatever he wants.. but then the survival instinct kicks in whenever there's a new lead for a cure and he'll somewhat panic before going back to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 'stressing's not gonna help! let's go burn a yacht'; and rinse and repeat and that is incredibly endearing to me. he's like a feral puppy that keeps getting distracted.

#lil guy v #askingcactus

[wormytoast]

current build for aventurine, shifting to full 4pc knight AND penacony set (prev was 2pc knight/2pc duke + salsotto)(i use my lvl 1 arlan as my placeholder for relics 😭 sorry buddy)

crit ratio is 30/177, but based on new leaks i believe thats ok for now since apparently one of his traces makes his crit rate scale on his def stat which is CRAZY, which is also why i have his orb on def instead of imag dmg (i dont think an imag dmg orb would be worth it anyways since hes still a sustain first and sub dps second, and since all his attacks scale on def anyways it would probably be a negligible change in dmg output). as long as i can get at least 20% more crit rate just from his def stat ill be fine lol.

the boots are also 4 star spd! i have a couple 5 star def boots also leveled just in case but obv spd is super important, its just unfortunate that i dont have any knight spd boots for him with crit subs other than this one. still, its got some pretty bonkers rolls so im fine with using it for now, maybe in the future ill use a self modeling resin for some 5 star spd knight boots and if theyre not for aventurine i can just put them on march or pres trailblazer

i got super lucky with the planar ornaments! i was working so hard trying to get a good salsotto def rope for so long since i already had a salsotto imag dmg orb with good def% and crit rate subs, but one day i was looking at all the def ropes i had and found this penacony rope, 4 stack with crit subs, and it rolled so beautifully! its one of my best pieces tbh. so after that i switched to looking for a penacony orb and landed on this def orb! its not great but its not bad considering im f2p

#hsr #hsr spoilers #hsr aventurine #yippee!!!!!!! honestly i think this makes me look kind of crazy but you know what whatever LOL

[wordsandrobots]

Thoughts on the Urdr Hunt (Eps 1-5)

As of writing, five episodes (each in two parts) of the Iron-Blooded Orphans tie-in game campaign ‘Urdr Hunt’ have been released on the Iron-Blooded Orphans G App. This is currently only available in Japan; I’ve been watching it subbed by Youtuber Trafalgar Log. I thought I’d summarise my impressions so far, since we’ve now had every character who shows up in the opening sequence appear at least once. Spoilers etc below.

The Set-Up

The titular Urdr Hunt has been revealed as a chase to recover data from various landmarks of significance to the Calamity War in general and the Seven Stars in particular. So far, the participants have visited a wrecked ship belonging to Angelica Elion, an Ariadne Beacon/resupply station administered by Kalf Falk, and an orbital satellite marked with the coat of arms of Gargin Bauduin. It seems probable that places overseen by the other four founders will be next on the itinerary.

Now, I’m of the opinion that one of the best things about IBO is that it’s not a ‘war is hell’ story so much as about how the peace afterwards is as well. The great big space war is three hundred years in the past and everyone is still living with the consequences: the unjust systems it created, military technology that has encouraged the use of child soldiers, powerful relics buried across the solar system like landmines waiting to be stepped on, etc. I think a series actually focused on the Calamity War would be considerably more generic than the one we got. That being said, it’s an obvious and perhaps irresistible narrative hook. The idea of some rich personage (the prize is a 100 billion meria, one of the two in-setting currencies in IBO) instigating a search for data and even artifacts from a by-gone, technologically superior age is a cool set-up for an episodic game.

Moreover, the central mystery here actually has little to do with the War -- only one of the competitors so far has voiced interest in the what the data they are collecting actually means -- but concerns the identity of whoever set up the Hunt in the first place. All we know about them is that they are wealthy enough to offer such a huge prize and that they go by the appellation ‘N’.

Now, given that Naze Turbine pops up in one of the trailers for the Iron-Blooded Oprhans G app, in the section pertaining to the Urdr Hunt (and in conjunction with Shino flying an updated version of the Season 1 Ryusei-Go) suggests he and indeed Tekkadan may well be putting in an appearance at some point. And certainly, the all-female team of Hunt guides might be an indicator that this is the doing of IBO’s premier harem-haver. However, there are three reasons I think it’s unlikely Naze is ‘N’. First, it seems wildly out of character: Naze shows zero interest in the Calamity War over the course of the show and this is extremely elaborate for Teiwaz, whose interest would be purely material in the sense that they have uses for old equipment. Second, the Hunt has already intersected with drone weaponry and some actual pluma sub-units of a mobile armour. If this is building to Naze being responsible, why didn’t he freak out when the half-metal mining operation uncovered Hashmal? We know Eco didn’t have a clue what a pluma was at the start of that arc in Season 2, so it would seem a continuity goof for Naze to have previously collected loads of information on the War. Finally and most importantly, there’s the presence of the Rakou Pirates as one of the entrants in the Hunt. They are explicitly described as the Turbine’s black-ops team, so if Naze wanted to know more about the War an the Seven Stars, why didn’t he just ask them to visit all the way-points and collect the required data? After all, the risk faced by the competitors has been entirely caused by the other competitors. Even the drone missiles wouldn’t have been a problem if Cyclase hadn’t turned them on. It would just be a case of bopping along the trail and downloading some files.

Basically, I don’t think it makes much sense for Naze to be ‘N’. Plus I really don’t want him to be? That’s too much of a tie-in to the main show and makes Naze out to be too much of a scheming jerk. But if not him, then who? A single-letter pseudonym implies a reveal of some kind, so who are the other options?

One who springs to mind is scheming jerk Nobliss Gordon. We know he likes byzantine plots and is rich as Croesus, plus being an arms dealer would give him a reason to want to dig up Calamity War relics for his own gain. That being said, it does seem a bit . . . fanciful for him and certainly a massive investment for potentially little gain. Still, not one to rule out.

A better fit might be Nemo Baklazan. ‘Who?’ you’re probably asking -- well, Nemo is another member of the current Seven Stars, the old, possibly blind gentleman who exists primarily to fill out the table and tell McGillis ‘no’ at the worst possible moment. The biggest evidence I can see for the Hunt being set up by someone in Gjallarhorn, aside from the Calamity War being the whole impetus for their existence, are the rings that serve as the means of entry. Each competitor has been given one and they appear to be highly advanced technology for the setting, basically being a wrist-sized computer capable of holographic projection. Nowhere else in IBO have we even seen that holograms are a thing. To me, that suggests they are War-era tech and since Gjallarhorn have controlled such technology for 300 years, I’m going to apply Occam’s Razor. Plus, it would make sense for a Seven Star to see what happened in Season 1, look at his fellow council members and go, ‘hmm -- wonder what other massively powerful weapons are lurking out there. Maybe I should do some digging into that . . .’

Of course, ‘N’ might not be anybody we have seen before. But if I had to bet, Nemo or someone else connected to the people who already know most about the War is where I’d put my money.

The Protagonist

I’m going to admit straight up that I don’t find Wistario Afam as engaging as either Mikazuki or Argi Mirage (lead for the other spin-off, a manga) which I think is partly due to him being a protagonist.

Let me explain. Neither Mikazuki nor Argi are precisely ‘protagonists’ in their own right. They are, broadly speaking, where the narratives are centred but both have complex relationships with other characters that mean they cannot be taken on their own. You can’t talk about the story of IBO-proper without making it about Mikazuki AND Orga, and indeed, Mikazuki AND McGillis. Similarly, the events of Gekko/Moon Steel happen to Argi, but while he has a more concrete personal aim than Mika (getting revenge for the death of his family), the narrative drops him into things that mostly have nothing to do with it. He’s a sullen grump, who’s nevertheless easily spurred into helping other people and as a result, it’s generally their stories (Volco wanting to restore Astaroth, Liarina taking over her father’s business, Mina running from her family) that we follow.

By contrast, Wistario’s quest to win the Urdr Hunt and use the money to buy Radonitsa Colony is where we come in and broadly speaking where we continue to go. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course, but it’s structurally shallower.

Wistario himself is by turns a slightly-spoiled, slightly-sweet kid, lonely as the only youth not to have left his home town, swaying people to the side of his big dreams with a charismatic earnestness I’m not sure the game has sold as effectively as it could. Broadly inoffensive and not as grating as I’d feared going in, but not as striking as his peers.

Also there’s his attitude towards killing -- always significant in Gundam fiction -- and, look, I feel I’m being unfair picking on this given we’re talking about a game where battling enemy mobile suits to destruction is the core mechanic. All the same, it’s a bit jarring to have a hero positioned as a *civilian* -- the teenage heir to a maintenance and administration company -- who gives less of a damn about shooting down enemies than Mikazuki Augus.

I’m not talking capacity here. I mean, Wistario goes from worrying about leaking pipes to efficiently murdering attacking pilots without really remarking on it and later proves completely OK with launching himself into fights to the death. With Mikazuki, we’re shown he understands what he’s doing. It’s one of the most scary things about him, that he isn’t killing people under the impression it’s not serious but out of a fundamental belief it’s the only way to survive. As for Argi, he goes from wannabe hit-man to frantically trying to save the life of the man he was there to shoot in, like, the first two pages. Looking back, I’m not sure he kills anybody over the course of the manga and many of his fights end with him demanding the defeated party give up. In their own ways, these are both characters in dialogue with the necessity of fighting and killing.

Yet it’s not been a part of Wistario’s story at all. He’s just . . . fine with it.

Maybe we’re building towards something here. This is the problem with making judgements halfway through a story. It could be that Wistario is being set up to be just as psychopathic in his own way as probably-main-villain Cyclase, willing to do anything for his dream.

And there is certainly *something* up with him, in regards his connection to his Gundam, which has been shown operating at Alaya-Vijnana speeds despite him not having one. I suspect we might be headed for the reveal that he’s our first non-Gjallarhorn descendant of an original Gundam pilot. Which -- eh. I guess that’ll be fine too.

I still prefer the other two.

The Supporting Cast

I have to say, I’m also rather ambivalent about Wistario’s direct subordinates. Demner Kitaco Jr basically exists to dote on him and Dexter and Sinister are fairly one-note old geezers. They’re well-designed and work OK in the story, but mostly, they’re just there. Even if Demner keeping a Gundam in the basement hints at more backstory for him in particular to come.

Katya Inoshi, on the other hand, intrigues. She provides a necessary extra element to the crew, which is otherwise made up of Wistario’s lackeys, offering common sense observations and asking questions the audience might be thinking. She is also clearly on the run from Gjallarhorn and her similarities to Carta Issue (hair, eye colour, eyebrows) may offer some hint as to why.

That said, while her joining the Erda II crew after they help bust a human trafficking operation (and she raids their fridge) works well, I do wish she hadn’t been relegated to ship’s dogsbody. It feels rather rote for the girl to get lumbered with the cooking and cleaning, and she lacks the framing that helps with alleviate the feeling over in the main show. Atra is supremely at home in her chosen profession as Tekkadan’s cook (as competent as her comrades, just along a totally different axis) and demonstrates a core of iron-toughness that makes it clear she belongs alongside them. By contrast, Katya essentially begs for the roll in order to stay aboard the ship, making her far more subordinate to Wistario as a result. It feels like a step down, though her personality offsets it somewhat.

I want to deal with the Urdr Hunt guides later, so let’s skip to the next member of Wistario’s gang, Range Dubrisko. Oh, Range. Well first off, he endears himself by being the kind of mook who wears his poncho over his normal-suit.

Beyond that, he has the most involved backstory we’ve seen so far, as the son of a human debris-trader who grew sickened by family business and took a job with the Omden Colony Company instead. His aim in doing this was to gather the power necessary to build a paradise where people could be free and equal. Unfortunately, Range is . . . how to put this . . . a bit of a chump. A well-intentioned chump, but a chump nonetheless and it’s clear there was no chance of him pulling off his grand design -- which was in truth not so much a design as a dream chased to ease a guilty conscience. With the loss of his loyal followers Andy and Bito (who exist to believe in Range unto their deaths), he has thrown in his lot with Wistario, drawn in by the teenager’s unwavering conviction in his own big dreams. I’m interested to see where that dynamic goes. And he’s certainly fun to watch, in a ‘cutely flailing disaster’ sort of way.

The Friendly Rivals

Speaking of flailing disasters, time to discuss my favourite character: ex-ish human debris and Tekkadan wannabe 598. Now I have to confess, I primed myself to like this kid from the get-go, having adored his character design since it was first revealed. Just look at this doofy gremlin child.

He is absolutely dying horribly before this is over. Indeed, 598 is the most typically IBO character in Urdr Hunt. A kid sold as human debris before getting abandoned on the street, he was taken in (in both sense of the word) by a pirate who convinced him to fight and steal by spinning stories about Tekkadan’s success in Season 1. The prospect of becoming a similarly-powerful gang blinded 598 and his numerically-named comrades to their exploitation until a fight with Wistario led to the revelation their boss had a cargo hold full of young girls he was planning to sell off. 598 ended up taking control of the ship, freeing the prisoners, and setting off to join the Hunt as head of a new group named Foundling. There are a lot of things I like about 598, from his boisterous enthusiasm to the fact he’s both more worldly than Wistario and much less smart. But mostly, I like his stubborn refusal to live on anyone’s terms except his own (even when he doesn’t quite understand what those terms are). While Wistario gets him thinking (and later comes to his aid in battle), it’s the discovery of those human trafficking victims that spurs 598 to change and he takes responsibility for actions he took as a pirate, finding dignity in owning his mistakes. He even refuses to take a new name, not seeing what’s wrong with the one he’s got. As I said, I suspect this attitude is going to get him killed but in the meantime, he’s the highlight of the game.

The second friendly rival takes the form of a pirate captain by the name of Tamami Rakou, head of the single most unsubtle black-ops team you could imagine.

Yep. Yep, that’s literally just the Turbines’ logo with a skull painted over it. Tamami self-describes as someone who was once a lot like 598 in the sense of being extremely reckless, before being brought into the Turbines by Naze and Amida. She learnt how to run a business under their tutelage and took on the kinds of missions that would reflect poorly on the company. Eventually, this led to her crew becoming known as pirates and they just sort of ran with it. It’s a nice, straightforward backstory that fits well with what we know of Turbines, and as I mentioned above, speaks to a separation between the Hunt and our favourite Teiwaz subsidiary. Tamami comes across as a fairly reasonable woman, albeit one who turns fierce when confronting threats to her family. She had to be drawn into the Hunt via pursuing 598 over his attacks on Teiwaz shipping, but now she’s involved, I’m looking forward to seeing more of her teaching him the ways of the Jupiter mafia. It’s a nice means of taking their stories forward.

Thirdly we have Mendou, a treasure hunter with very different priorities to the other two.

Where 598 and Tamami are, like Wistario, in the Hunt for the massive cash prize, Mendou is here for the historical knowledge. We’re introduced to him braving danger in the name of uncovering information on the Calamity War, and I suspect we’ll see more of that. He seems pleasant, but his off-putting reaction to hearing the Erda II crew are from Venus and cryptic hints about Wistario’s Gundam make me think he might not be as much an ally as he currently appears. Certainly he seems the sort to press a big red button that should on no account be pushed . . .

The Antagonists

On to the unfriendly rivals, we should probably start with the Zan brothers, Rome and Aiko, who reflect that thing about it being very clear when an anime character is intended to be American.

Their theme music is literally named ‘Gangsta Bros’, they’re members of a crime family from the SAU (the fictional country comprising the Americas), and leaning into this set of stereotypes doesn’t feel like the greatest choice, honestly. But it’s what the makers of the game went with, so here we are. Rome is a self-important blowhard, puffing himself up as the natural successor to his father while being not nearly as smart as he thinks and a bit of a cowardly lion, retreating when it’s clear he’s not going to immediately get his way. Aiko gives the outward appearances of subservience, while muttering under his breath about his brother’s shortcomings, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this relationship is headed towards fratricide. Their role has been to show up intermittently trying to kill the competition. For all their flamboyance, they’re presented as basically rich bullies, happy to send human debris out as cannon fodder, and a threat through force of arms rather than anything else.

Far more dangerous, it appears, is Cyclase Mayer, the most villain-coded git you could imagine.

Cyclase starts out as Range’s superior in the Omden Company, coldly demeaning the hapless poncho-wearer, before graduating into full-blown bastardry by abandoning him, Andy and Bito to an automated weapons system simply to ensure the destruction of a Hunt way-point. Indeed, this has been his overall modus operandi, demolishing artifacts of historical significance to make sure nobody else can extract the precious data. Such single-minded ruthlessness has put him firmly at the front of the pack, with barely any interaction with Wistario to get in his way. All this said, we haven’t really had much hint as to what drives Cyclase yet. He gives a big speech to Range about being a cog in Omden’s machine, so he clearly has no belief that he’s valued by the company. On the other hand, he’s been diligent in pursuing their goals. I guess time will tell if he has an agenda of his own (the character profile describes him as a former Gjallarhorn officer who killed his commander -- he even flies a stolen Schwalbe Graze -- but this is yet to come up in-story). He’s working well as the competent opposition and I look forward to seeing that expanded with an actual confrontation.

Finally, a note on the minor antagonists. First up, we have the nameless prisoner from the very start of the game who is the intended recipient for the Hunt ring that Wistario ends up with, who I mention chiefly because it’s a point that’s gotten lost in the shuffle.

Wistario isn’t meant to be involved, and the fact the guy who is was sprung from a Gjallarhorn prison seems like it might be notable with respect to whoever’s running this thing.

Then there’s Torrado Omden, the man at the Omden Company in favour of continuing with the hunt (and presumably the owner of said company?).

We know absolutely nothing about him, but the fact he has a character model suggests we haven’t seen the last of him yet. I do wonder if we’ll dive deeper into the corporate side of things, something IBO has gestured to in the past but largely evaded in favour of your actual mafia.

Then there’s this arsehole.

Kimball is the pirate who 598 originally worked for and was, it turns out, a member of the Dawn Horizon Corps who struck out on his own. He’s probably not all that notable, save that he rivals Jasley for awfulness and has a fairly striking design. It was extremely satisfying to see him get his comeuppance. Which is kind of what you want in a villain, right?

The Urdr Hunt Guides

So far, seven guides have appeared, all helpfully providing the bare minimum of exposition required to get everybody involved in the Hunt. They are:

Korunaru Kousa, with Wistario;

Berose Kousa, with the Zan Brothers;

Parstai Kousa, with 598;

Tagging and Bana Kousa, with the Omden Company;

Kenshal Kousa, with the Rakou Pirates;

And Slice Kousa with Mendou.

Out of these, Tagging and Bana have had the least screen-time and precisely zero lines, appearing only in the background of an Omden Company board-meeting. Berose, meanwhile, has been relegated to the Zan Clan’s battleship, bemoaning her lot in being stuck with the brothers.

Kenshal, by contrast, seems to be having a nice time with pirate crew, albeit a rather boring one until Tamami gets drawn into the Hunt. She’s the youngest, a literal child, with the attitude to go with it, partial to sweets and loudly overruling an exasperated Tamami on competition matters. It’s actually kind of refreshing to have a kid in IBO who freely acts like it. Huh. I’m not going to dwell too hard on that, if you don’t mind.

Parstai might be my favourite of the lot, working as she does to directly help 598 out of his situation with Kimball and going on to administer his new company, despite being barely more literate than he is. She offers us possible hints about the Kousas’ background: she more or less says outright that she used to be human debris and doesn’t seem too far removed from that existence. She’s clearly come to care about her brash young charge and I do wonder if that’s going to creat a conflict with her mission. Generally calm and quiet, 598 does say that she’s utterly terrifying when she’s upset, as she certainly is with him offering up his arm as collateral and then signing away his life to a pirate captain.

I like Slice quite a lot too. She’s obviously invested in doing a good job and frustrated with both Mendou’s side-tracking and the dodgy comms system that have meant her hard work going unreported. (With her completing the set, I draw your attention to the fact that for all the guides, their hair-colour matches their eyes, though Berose’s character page shows that in her case at least, it’s dye.)

However, I can’t say that I’m too enthused by Korunaru, nominally the most important of the guides since she’s palling around with Wistario. It’s fine for a character to be meek and quiet, but I don’t think we’ve gotten much of a personality from her beyond her love of making tea. She mostly exists to gesture towards the plot, without really doing anything. Again, I hope that’ll change as the story progresses. Certainly there’s plenty of directions to go, including maybe giving us the full explanation for what the guides’ deal is. That would be the logical path for getting to the bottom of who ‘N’ is and what all this is in aid of. But for the moment, there’s not a great deal of connection established between her and Wistario, despite them having spent a lot of time together.

Closing thoughts?

Honestly, I have rambled quite long enough but if I had a closing remark to make, it’d be that I’m not sure how to evaluate the story in comparison to the main show yet. I don’t know how many episodes there are going to be, so I’m not sure how far in we are. We’re gotten through most of the trailer footage excepting that showing Gundam Hajiroboshi‘s original form and the aforementioned Naze and Shino cameos. Time wise, we’ve had at least 10 episodes of the anime, but structurally, I’m not sure it’s quite that much content (though neither is it just 5 so . . . hmm).

But with the next part showing Cyclase and Wistario coming face-to-face, a mobile armour’s reactivation and bloody Iok putting in an appearance, it seems things are about to start moving very quickly indeed. Hopefully there will be enough space to expand on the parts I’ve been meh on and this will all cohere into a satisfying tale!

#GUNDAM #Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans #gundam ibo #g tekketsu #Tekketsu no Orphans #Iron-Blooded Orphans: Urdr Hunt #Urdr Hunt #notes #thoughts #more rambling

[lanzaa-033]

Tuesday 26th—5 days left.

You wake up again (When exactly did you fall asleep in the attic?) to the sound of birds chirping lively. You open the curtains and let the light rummage trough the different relics your owner has been collecting over the years. You look at the "family portrait" that she keeps hidden between some boxes, and you remember how she used to talk non-stop about her brother while she cooked, all before he...

Well, you don't really remember what happened since your vision was hazy blue, maybe because of a spell she threw at you or something.

You put on some music.

Your brother knows about the attic, but doesn't like to go up here. You feel the music through your veins, and before you know it, you find yourself dancing around the attic, your tiny legs carrying you in an happy yet desperate pace. The sun is shining, the place is "quiet" and it smells like the old books you used to ready when you were younger.

You trip and fall but you don't care, life is funny once again.

When the song finishes, you notice the strange sounds that were accompanying you previous dance... You feel your right ear moving, and-

Wait, wasn't it supposed to be bandaged? You remember touching the bandages while you were dancing...

You try to cover your left ear to see if you can hear something.

You regret it almost immediately, the sound of thousands of lost souls screaming hits you like a train on a rainy day (after being pushed to the cold, hard railings).

The sound makes you scratch your ears hard enough to make them bleed, and when you finally find a piece of old fabric and wrap it around you ears frantically, it stops.

The weird sound from before also stopped... weird.

You look around once more before going downstairs.

There's nothing there... again

You go downstairs and find Deca next to the stairs, waiting for you with half an apple between his hands. "Brother, brother!" He exclaims "I heard the music upstairs, did you dance today? I'm so proud of you, big brothers!" He smiles happily "I was cutting an apple when I h- oh my stars!" He looks at your ears with concern, before dragging you to the bathroom where he gets the first aid kit.

When he takes off your bandage, the surroundings are... awfully quiet for you...

After treating your wounds and bandaging your ear again, he nuzzles his head against you, affectionately. "You have to be more careful, brother..." He smiles and lets you eat the apple alone.

After finishing, you go to the main door and look out the window, surprising yourself when you find out the shadow chose to not appear this time.

You look around to see if there's something that you can do.

There isn't much you can do here, you usually spend the day cleaning, reading, or looking at the spiderweb (as long as the spider isn't there, of cousre). Today, you decide to join your brother and help him with his drawings.

You sit next to him... "brother" He smiles at you and hands you some pencils, then you start drawing some apples. He's trying to draw his wizard hat, although he can see it because he refuses to take it off.

You go to the couch and start to think about the day he got it.

It was right after the incident. You were on the couch, drinking from a bowl with some medication in it, Deca was staring at the bonfire and she... was petting your back while encouraging you to drink a little bit more...

You still remember her voice land how she used to praise you when you helped her with cleaning. You had to stop doing that after the accident and the only thing you could do was try to meow at her (Without success, due to how tired and damaged you were).

That day, Deca started crying softly all of a sudden, and you saw how she picked him up and comforted him. The owner gave him a wizard hat, the same one she fixed the day before she...

(...)

There's a reason why Deca doesn't take it off, and it's because she gave it to him, a copy of her hat that made their connection stronger, a gift that she gave to him while telling him how much she loved him... how much she loved us.

That was a lie.

Why would she say it before abandoning us? It's impossible to have a good reason... right?

I just... hope she comes back soon. I miss her. My owner, my friend...

My mom...

And with that, you drift off to sleep.

—Day two

—Neutral ending.

Omggjanfnsnf sorry for being late 😭😭😭

I had to do a project all by myself :]

Here, a photo of Dotoro after the accident:

I know it's bad, I did it in class :,)

#Dotoro and Deca's birthday party

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

So I saw a post discussing Lando from Star Wars and how despite his choices, the narrative doesn’t treat him as a villain for them and it got me thinking about James and how the narrative treats him so differently despite his actions (at the time he is condemned) arguably are not nearly as bad as Lando’s.

Long rant below the cut with spoilers for Star Wars Episodes 5 and 6, RWBY and mild Undertale Genocide Route spoilers.

One thing I want to make clear, when discussing James vs Lando, I am comparing what the mains where aware of what James had done at the time they condemned him. This is an important point to recognize because while we the audience know James shot Oscar and killed Sleet, the mains did not. The only thing they where aware of, the thiing that made them decide James was untrustworthy and deserved to be condemned as untrustworthy to the entire world is he decided to save who he could and evacuate the people located on the conveniently floating rock. That’s it. They had nothing else they knew about the influence that decision. It doesn’t matter what James does later or had done, for the purpose of this conversation all that matters is what the mains knew. 

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at Lando’s actions and how narratively he is treated for said actions. The situation in question that I am referring to is in Episode 5 when Lando hands Leia, Han and Chewie to Vader. We find out almost immediately after he does this that the Empire arrived before Han and Leia did and given that we see the Empire blow up Alderaan in Episode 4, it is very safe to assume Vader would have had Cloud City destroyed had Lando not cooperated. However he, as soon as possible, works to rescue Leia and Chewie and tells them that Han can still be saved. They fail the initial attempt but Lando does go on the subsequent rescue to save Han which is successful. 

Back to the point, while Chewie and Leia are understandably furious with him for what he did, they very quickly begin cooperating with him and trust him again to help them escape and as mentioned before was trusted to be apart of Han’s rescue. So while the characters have a moment where they don’t trust him, he is quickly forgiven and trusted again. He’s not questioned by the rebellion, he’s not forced to repeatedly prove he is on their side over and over again, he doesn’t have to get on his hands and knee’s and beg for forgiveness and Leia graciously forgive him but keep him on thin ice. He’s forgiven and trusted again because the Rebellion realizes Lando was in a tough position and needed to protect the people whose lives he was responsible for. 

Contrast that with how the narrative and mains treat James and his decision to evacuate the people conveniently sitting on a floating rock that can quickly and easily be moved to a safe location before Salem, the immortal witch hellbent on ending the world. He knew he had two of the four relics and the maiden who was basically the key to one of them on Atlas, and he knew if Salem got those relics she would be that much closer to destroying the world and killing everyone. Yes, the people trapped on Mantel dying is horrific, but the other option was risking everyone dying on Remnant. James was quite literally trapped between a rock and a hard place, no matter what he did, their was a high risk of a lot of people dying. His choices where A.) Guarantee the Relics and all of the citizens, including those evacuated from Mantel, who where on a conveniently floating rock that could be moved the safety and ensure for now at least Salem couldn’t get two of the four relics needed to end the world at the cost of those still on Mantel who hadn’t been evacuated yet most likely dying or B.) Stay behind and risk the lives of everyone on both Atlas and Mantel and two of the four relics needed to end the world in the hopes of saving both everyone in Atlas and Mantel knowing that if anything went wrong, everyone would die and the relics could fall into Salem’s hands. 

Neither option in this situation was perfect, their was nothing James could do that would ensure that everyone survived and that Salem didn’t get her hands on the relics. He had to make a tough choice, one that in reality had no right or wrong answer, however the show goes out of its way to make sure the audience knows their is in fact a right answer and its RWBY’s plan which boils down to “sit around and wait and pray a dues ex machina falls into their laps. The show turns James into an irredeemable monster for in essence deciding to save those he could even if it meant he couldn’t save everyone. 

It’s wild to me because I never see anyone ever say for example Alphy’s is an evil person who secretly hated a certain population of monsters who lived in the core because the fallen human was able to find them and kill them before she could evacuate them during a genocide run. She’s not blamed and called a killer by the narrative because the fallen human is able to kill a bunch of monsters she could not rescue. She saved who she could and got as many people out as she could and that’s it. The narrative nor the fanbase ever blame her for what the player decides to do in a genocide run, those choices are placed squarely on the players shoulders for deciding to do a genocide run. 

Why is James different from Lando or Alphy’s? Why is he blamed for an evil all powerful person’s choices that put him in a difficult position with peoples lives at stake? Why does the narrative make sure he is portrayed as monstrous and evil and wrong? These are all complicated situations where people are placed in difficult positions where they have to do what they can, to save who they can and pray they make it to the other side of the disaster. I’m just so tired of the FNDM trying to pretend the whole Atlas disaster was a simple black and white situation when it was anything but. 

#RWDE #James Ironwood #Pro Ironwood #Pro James Ironwood #Ironwood Protection Squad #General Dadmiral #Dadmiral ironwood #General ironwood