hi! may i request some mikoto + amane (platonic obvs) … anything? they are very dear to me 😭
Yes!!! Thank you so much for the request -- they really are such a good pair ;-; (The thing is, I had so many nice scenes in mind about how they parallel each other, but they wouldn't know or reveal that about each other so I kept restarting...) Anyway, here's something right after Mikoto's first trial/verdict!
Mikoto could pick up on someone’s bad mood from a mile away, though the skill was unnecessary when the other party very clearly and calmly informed him, “I’m in a bad mood.”
After refusing his offer, Amane turned back to a thick textbook she’d been taking notes on. Didn’t kids usually complain that school was already a prison? She must have wanted the full experience. He'd worked nonstop at his studies as well, but this was a new level. Amane often reminded him of his little sister, though she always took the extra step like this. His sister would have jumped at this opportunity to play a few rounds of their favorite card game.
“It’ll be fun!”
He flashed a smile, but it had no effect on her severe expression. “I know you’re just trying to comfort me about our verdicts. I refuse to be pitied.”
“Comfort and pity are two very different things. But anyway, it wasn’t either of those things.” He gave an easy shrug “To be honest, I’m just a little bored. It’s weird not having any work to do during the day.”
Mikoto couldn’t remember the last time in his life he’d had so many hours to himself. A lot of the others were fun to play games with. A few of the sportier prisoners helped him stay active. He enjoyed smoking breaks with the other men. Still, he was left to his own devices for the majority of his time. It was maddening. He’d recently requested some more art supplies, having used up the last batch, but they had yet to come in. Now with the verdict announcement, he wasn’t sure they’d ever arrive.
“That is your own problem. I already have something to do.” Her eyes lingered on the cards for the briefest of moments before returning to the book. “I told you, I’m not in the mood for it.”
Regardless of her hostility, he took a seat beside her. He leaned his arms out on the table. “We don’t have to play the same game.” The last time they'd played as a big group, several prisoners pulling the tables together to fit everyone. Amane had kept very quiet, eyes darting around at the cards as she tried to keep up with the rules. Not many of the others noticed the frustration clear in her face. Mikoto wasn’t the type to let her win out of pity, though he had begun to mutter the rules and strategies to himself a bit more as the night went on…
“Is there a game you liked to play at home?”
“No. There was no time for games in the house.”
“All work and no play… hah… I know what that’s like.” He slumped his cheek onto his arm, lazily shuffling the cards around. He felt bad for bothering the girl if she truly was upset. He thought it was the bad experience that made her reject him, he hadn’t realized there were also family issues attached. Usually he could read people well; maybe he was losing his touch. He seemed to be losing touch with a lot of things, these days.
He readied a game of solitaire.
“Mikoto?” Amane kept her face turned away. “There was… one game.”
“Yeah?” Mikoto shuffled the cards back together. He slid them over to her. “You should teach me!”
She didn’t touch them. “You probably already know it.”
“Nah, I only know a few games. I’m better with tarot cards, though those aren’t really the gaming type. Come on, what is it?”
She told him the name of the game, insisting it wouldn’t be worth playing. She kept her attention on the textbook, but her eyes weren’t reading any of it.
“Ahh, I’ve heard of that one! We start with four cards, right?” He started dealing them out.
“No, five –” she pointed to the deck, urging him to add two more.
“Right, right.” He laughed lightly. “And the goal is to get pairs, and put them in a pile, uhh, here.”
Amane shook her head. She shifted her body slightly towards him. “You must be thinking of a different game. There’s actually three piles for pairs. One here, one here, and when it’s your opponent’s turn…”
Her eyes gleamed as she explained the rules. She pointed to various cards, telling him exact moves and point values. “And to win, you need to –” Her expression shifted. “You… you already knew all this.”
“Of course not!” He put on his most convincing smile.
She deflated. “You’re not a very good liar.”
“Tch, tell that to the warden.”
His shoulders sagged along with her. If Amane could see right through him, why was the rest of Milgram still coming up with stories about what he did and didn’t do? “Well, I might already know the rules, but it’s been a long time since I’ve played. You can still give me a hand. Plus, if you really are in such a bad mood, it’ll be good to take a break from your studies. You should always take a break when things get too overwhelming, yeah?”
She gave him a withering stare.
“Eh? What’s that face for?”
“Alright, let’s play. You can go first.”
“I mean it, what was that look? Aw, come on…”
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got the badges for gone fission evp 400 + evp 600 yesterday! .52 gal, l-3 nozzlenose, dread wringer, and squiffer make for quite the synergistic team!
my peak was EVP 810 (appx 300-310% HL). my high score of 151 eggs was obtained somewhere in evp 300...? i'm pretty satisfied with how it went, even if i didn't get HLM or 9s.
some thoughts/reflections on good freelancing teams/traits to develop when trying to rank up in evp under the cut:
i think grinding this rotation was pretty fun- all of the weapons have excellent mobility and i think they cover for each other really well! the l-3 was not my favorite weapon going into it but i think i really enjoyed the accuracy and mobility of it, so it's a bit more favorable for me now :)
i ended up reaching a skill wall in EVP 760-780 where i could not get past wave 2 or 3 (usually for quota related reasons, the quota is BRUTAL! we'd miss it by like 4-5 ish... ofc this partially relates to how well bosses are handled).
the grind for evp was a mix of freelance and grouping up (freelance for 230 -> 440s, grouping up for 440 - 750~, and then testing myself in freelance for that last bit).
i enjoyed the bits of freelance i did, and from my playtime i think these were some of the key traits/practices that indicate "good salmon run skills" to me:
players that know their weapons role(s) and target the appropriate salmonid (but also being willing to break that when priority targets haven't been taken care of)
knowing when a teammate needs help (with a boss or being revived) or when the teammate has a situation under control (e.g. someone's already on the fishstick, you can do something else)
proactive use of specials when problem targets appear, preferably with no overlap (e.g. tri-strike and inkjet activated on the same flyfishes is not the best)
using specials like booyah bomb, triple splashdown, and reefslider to clear basket area in the last 30 seconds to help eggs get in (especially important past evp 600)
teams that paint the walls first thing (especially whoever had the dread wringer). all interior walls for fission can be painted within the first 10 seconds imo
forwarding eggs closer to the basket after splatting static bosses (throwing one egg, and then swimming up with one)
players with good judgment; knowing when to lure (mostly for initial boss spawns), and knowing when to leave the big shot cannon
being able to figure out which directions snatchers come from and what eggs they can help you collect
i think these practices all stem from having good awareness and being able to collect information about the shift. it helps with making snappy quick-fire decisions, and it just gets more important the higher up in EVP you go. camera positioning/control is essential for this (you can't figure out where bosses/teammates are if your back is turned to them).
for me, every 7-10 seconds, i like to rotate my camera around to the opposite side of where i'm currently looking to make sure there isn't any bosses i'm missing. i'm hardly in one place longer than 5-10 seconds and i try to always be on the move. the spawn direction where salmonids come from are always changing, so it's essential to rotate around the map proactively rather than reactively. i think this also helps a lot with shotcalling in groups too (since you can be someone else's pair of eyes).
other than boss spawns/teammate locations (for revives), i think it's also important to notice when certain bosses haven't been taken care of for prolonged periods of time too, so that a special can be popped. to me it's usually a sign that someone whose ill equipped to deal with that boss has been forced to deal with them because the people with the "right" weapon are focused on something else... (no fault to them, of course, everyone has different priorities and you can't always communicate clearly in freelance)
in situations where squiffers were chased by a pack of scrappers, perhaps a booyah bomb or splashdown can be popped to help if you don't have the time to stun and splat them manually. maybe the fish sticks were left unattended by the shooters, so a triple inkstrike or a crab/inkjet shot can help clear them out.
awareness also extends to meeting quota, which imo involves paying attention to the timer + where eggs are located. i find that it's nice to check in with the timer/quota at 50s and 30s respectively so that you can start forwarding eggs closer to basket. and when everyone's going crazy about quota not being met i try to make sure i'm not overstepping anyone else's egg pile so that no one goes "wait no thats the egg that i wanted to pick up fuck i have to go back and get a different one."
i think this is why sometimes playing in groups is easier. if you have more sets of eyes that you can communicate with, it alleviates the need to have awareness of "everything" (provided that you can comms effectively). someone can be attuned to different things (e.g. my friend always tells us where snatchers come from and if they're good, i'm personally attuned to where people need to be revived, etc.). you also know what specials you have access to, unlike in freelance where you're not sure what others have until they use them.
the other part of completing shifts successfully (to me) is being mechanically sound with your movement, mostly in regards to how you use the terrain (walls) to get around the map and escape situations. the more you play a map the more you'll figure out how you can move around on it.
some examples, using the location callouts from salmonrun.ink: there were a few times i'd go on the harbor but i could escape any salmonids in the bridge area by climbing the walls there and squidrolling out as needed. sometimes on high tide i would swim from the perch to the left plat.
sub-strafing is also good to know too, especially when you want to rapidly collect the basket eggs at the end. i still need to integrate it into other parts of my gameplay, but it's helpful!
uh. this was way longer than intended because i have WAY too many thoughts about salmon run. TL;DR: The key to succeeding your shifts is having good awareness which comes from good information collecting practices, and having the mechanical skill to act on that awareness without hesitation.
there's definitely a lot that goes on in sensory overload the game™, so it will take time to build these muscles and reaction times. i think while at every rank of salmon run you may face a wall of "i'm overwhelmed by the bosses," the exact fix needed to get past it usually varies, so it's important to figure out what information you were missing or what actions you could've taken (more efficient movement or special usage, usually).
or if you're struggling with quota, try to practice forwarding eggs or take a look where snatchers come from (even if people splat them, it's still a good practice 2 develop for later evp. source: i don't fucking do it and it's biting me in the ass)
and most importantly, recognize when you're in the midst of a loss streak/skill wall, so that you can take a break and focus on other things that energize you! even if there's a certain goal you want to meet, grinding for higher levels of EVP and getting better at the game can be a very exhausting process. you can always come back to the grind later, whether if it's after a 30 minute break, or just a different rotation!
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I guess it makes sense that Martians are supposed to have that post-anorexia decades-long coke bloat that only photoshop can fix, broooooooo
I wonder if her parents are proud that she's making sexually themed psychological terror weapons for children lol. (Because I know that my parents are/would be capable of understanding that I'm simply a victim of continuous terrorism and harassment, and if they aren't... then I genuinely just don't care what happens to them anymore. I know that MY DAD is capable of understanding that, and that my presently surviving grandma is not.. so) Or that she has multiple necessary CRISPR experiments with a disgusting morbidly obese hunchback bald leather face pedophile serial rapist terrorist fraud who hasn't married her yet, has multiple children with other women, and spends all of his time being a sex-trafficking pedophile who invests in his childhood sci-fi/murderous terrorist day dreams and paying other women to be the actual mothers to his children while Grimes spends her time getting wasted off of hard drugs with her party friends and using her baby daddy's resources to help her create the illusion that she's actually an active participant in A.I. development instead of just an influencer who lends her heavily engineered voice to A.I. projects that other people develop. Natascha Bassett would NEVER -- just like it seems like Natascha Bassett would NEVER choose to marry or have children with someone as vile as Elon Musk when there are plenty of other rich guys for her to choose from that are actually attractive and are actually capable of pleasing a woman with more than their bank account. Nothing screams "I deserve to win the custody battle/child support payment lawsuit over my children" like creating products for children that act as a weapon of psychological terror for the rape and murders you commit against civilians, the elderly, and children. Like, idk, a CAR COMPANY is disturbing and terroristic enough, but children's products? That's just on a completely different level of "I'm a psychotic sex offender who shouldn't have custody over my children or be allowed to DJ other people's copyrighted material in spaces where children are present," especially for someone who claims to be a mother. THANK GOODNESS FOR THIS MONSTER'S NANNIES, like seriously, it's so sad that those kids don't have a proper mother figure. Imagine how betrayed her poor daughter is going to feel when she's old enough to understand the deliberate choices her ova donor made toward children. Is this the kind of intel that your baby daddy is "cherry picking" from your nannies AKA the ACTUAL WOMEN who take care of your kids for you while you flood your bloodstream with hard drugs and devote your life to terrorism?
Like seriously Natascha Bassett would never, ever in a million years do something like that lol. Maybe that's because she was born beautiful and doesn't have a hideous personality disorder to match her all natural mug. Natascha Bassett is also younger than Grimes and looks a lot younger, and she doesn't HAVE to wear baggy clothes and use photoshop to hide her grotesque figure the way Grimes does. I almost feel bad for Elon Musk for being stuck in such an abusive and sexually unfulfilling relationship.
Like honestly I'm 5'2" and weigh close to 100 pounds and have like no resources at my disposal lol. THAT is the person that Grimes and Elon Musk are deliberately terrorizing... for simply listening to music, making a tweet, having a blog, and working odd jobs with the hopes of eventually finishing my education in Psychology and Criminal Justice and becoming a prison psychologist so I can work with inmates who are going to be released and sent back home to their families/children. My sister is an orphan and has been a CNA for her whole life and is a nurse and her husband is an electrician on the railroad and they have 4 kids. My dad is a veteran who won an art award in high school for a sculpture he made of two humans praying with their backs to each other who broke every bone in his body in a hit and run when he was 10, worked his entire life to help support his family, left home when he was 17 after breaking his father's ribs for beating on his mom (whom Elon Musk and Grimes murdered on October 15th, after murdering the mother of his only child on film on his birthday and then stalking/grooming/torturing/sex-trafficking his only daughter throughout her entire life both on her college campus and in every single workplace she entered), joined the Navy, and got a job as an engineer on the railroad despite how hard it was for him to work a job like that due to his injuries, only had one kid because that's all he could reasonably accomodate on his own, and did everything he could to be as good of a dad as he knew how to be and provide for me financially so I could get an education... only for it to be thrown away by Elon Musk and Grimes' terrorism and sex trafficking. THOSE are the people that Elon Musk and Grimes are deliberately and persistently terrorizing.
I would've been somewhere around 10 - 14 years old when this picture of Grimes was taken professionally by an entire team of people that her parents' connections helped her get deals with just FYI.
Also, just... is it really an ethical best-practice to allow someone with a speech impediment to be the voice for interactive children's toys? If you're trying to create an educational product to help with childhood development, wouldn't it be optimal to use the voice of someone that doesn't have a speech impediment? I understand that her voice is HEAVILY engineered in order to make it sound childlike or alluring or nice to listen to, but like... she has a speech impediment. Does she even care about the children or childhood development, or is this just another vanity project aimed at trying to disguise her true nature and beg for her baby daddy's attention? Like, idk, I get it or whatever, she wants to do the whole "DD/LG" thing with him, but.... she's making the conscious choice to bring ACTUAL toddler-aged children into her kinks and terrorism, effectively using ACTUAL children as props in both a terror campaign and a sexual game. And like... idk lol, that video she released of herself playing with the A.I. toy wasn't even sexy OR cute like she was wanting it to be lol. She just makes these awkward jerking motions and weird contorted faces while trying to look innocent and sweet as a nearly 40 year old woman of average height and weight for her body type and *sniff sniff* lifestyle, tearing her gross, boney fingers through some ratty weave she's trying to make look like hair that's as naturally and virtually effortlessly curly and beautiful as mine is.
She truly is as disgusting on the inside as she was naturally made to look on the outside... and which all of the plastic surgery and photoshop in the world has really not been able to save her from. (I feel that I should clarify that I'm not knocking plastic surgery and photoshop. I'm just making a contextual argument.)
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