#until they figured out just what that quest was and tried to stop my protag | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

albatris · 4 years

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ok ok alriiiight ok so the plot of ATDAO

this post is not, like........... well, it’s not gonna be a blurb or a summary or a nice neat synopsis, this is not Professional Writeblr Business, this is, this is, uhhhh

this is like drunk house party logan rambles

works best if you imagine ur just like “hey man how’s it going” super casual and I grasp you firmly by the shoulders and look you dead in the eye and just ramble all of this without taking a single breath

could I have explained in a nice neat concise "elevator pitch" sort of way? probably. mind ur business. that’s not how we do things here at albatris.org

anyway the purpose of this post is “hey people seem to know a lot about the characters and the worldbuilding and the premise but have no clue what happens in the actual story” so I’m not going to be talking about said characters and worldbuilding and premise in depth

in terms of rambles, that stuff’s been covered! this post assumes you know what Ports are, n what the nature of the ATDAO apocalypse is, vaguely what the MCs are like as people......... though I can fetch this info for you if you like

but yeah if you are coming into this post with zero prior ATDAO knowledge........... deeply deeply from the bottom of my heart: sorry

also if this is your first time experiencing One Of These Rambles

also @safe-in-the-steep-cliffs and @siarven I am tagging you because you said you would like to be tagged and also hi and also I hope y’all knew what you were in for

anyway without further ado

(visual representation of my approach to this rant, not of how complicated my plot actually is)

(my plot is not that complicated)

ALRIGHT

there are two viewpoint characters! and two plotlines which converge near the end of the story, but honestly there’s a very real possibility I will decide these are two separate books meant as companion stories to each other because I love making things difficult for myself yeehaw

ATDAO’s co-protags are Tris and Noa, best buds four years and counting. their friendship is one of the single most important aspects of the story, n the ongoing love and trust they have for each other despite the way unfolding events force their relationship to change is integral to the themes and making the heart of the story what it is. I will now proceed to not mention this friendship for the entire remainder of this post. they’re bros. that’s all u need to know. listen. listen. I have a lot to cover

so yeah, ur first key player is Tris Greer, whose parents are dicks but whose siblings are chill. most notably of said siblings there is Jacob, older brother by thirteen years, whom Tris believes is just about the coolest person on the entire planet. this plotline kicks off when Jacob gets caught in the midst of a freak car accident that kills a dude and wrecks a street corner and also somehow causes Jacob to just kind of................. blip out of existence entirely and without a trace?

n Tris is understandably horrified and distressed by Very Much All Of This, but hey, at least there are responsible adults who can look into this obviously Port-related weird disappearance and figure this mess out, right?

INCORRECT

the relevant interdimensional authorities are brought in to suss out the situation and these authorities are kind of like “hmmmm idk about this” but are all set to take Tris at least somewhat seriously until they learn the following:

that Jacob had already been reported missing to police in his home state three days earlier

that Jacob was in the midst of several ongoing personal crises and at least one nervous breakdown

that Jacob was allegedly tangled up in some real weird shit that would more than account for a disappearance under suspicious circumstances

that Tris is schizophrenic, prone to hallucinations, confusion, memory issues and quote unquote “letting his imagination and anxiety get the better of him”, and precisely zero people can actually corroborate his story that Jacob was even there are the time of the accident to begin with

and after some back-and-forth and Looking Into The Evidence pretty much everyone in any position of authority comes to the conclusion that this is just Ordinary Regular People Crimes and whatever happened to Jacob had nothing to do with weird apocalyptic energies, and that Tris is (at best) stressed out and delusional or (at worst) lying through his teeth because he knows more than he’s letting on

so Tris is forced to hop pretty quick from “I’m sure someone will handle this” to “no one believes me but I’m sure if I can find some concrete proof they’ll listen and someone will handle it” to Well Fuck I Guess That Someone Is Me

cue bizarre reality-hopping fantasy quest, which is ten times easier said than done when most of the time Tris is terrified enough just, like, going to the supermarket

he enlists the help of his new classmate Shara, amateur paranormal investigator and professional weird-bullshit enthusiast, who agrees to help him puzzle out what the fuck happened to Jacob in exchange for his assistance in mapping out Adelaide’s interdimensional “fault lines” as part of her ongoing quest to track down the source of the apocalypse

she’s got big fuckin dreams, ok, go hard or go home

slso worth noting at this point that there HAS been an uptick in Ports and their related reality-bending strangeness in Adelaide recently which is why this is of particular interest to her currently. gotta find out What Makes The Weirdness Tick, gotta find out Why The Sudden Extra Weirdness

..........and also Kai is there

Kai has no nice neat reason to get involved with the plot, Kai just likes drama and being all up in people’s personal business. Tris brings them on board for one single afternoon like “hey I will pay you some money to come to my house and fix my fucked up phone so I can listen to an interdimensional voicemail” but forgot the apparently key addendum “and then leave”

their first three chapters of knowing each other is basically Tris being like “stop inviting yourself into my house we are not friends” and Kai being like “that’s a rude thing to say to your friend. also your sister gave me the netflix password and I used your kitchen to bake pastries feel free to help yourself”

but yeah so Tris’s story mostly focuses on his quest to figure out where Jacob got yeeted to and how to get him safely home (y’all probably know a bit about The Unreality already maybe?), whilst also dealing with rising family tensions, whatever shifty stuff Jacob was involved with prior to his disappearance, and his own creeping doubts about his perceptions of reality

n I’m also saying flat out it’s not a plot that’s going the “oh the whole thing was just a delusion all along” route because ew

his psychosis is a fairly involved part of his character but the explorations around it are more to do with, like......... the difficulties he has in trusting himself and whether he has the luxury of letting himself get swept into some Big Weird Implausible Adventure when this has extremely different implications for him than it would someone else. n eventually to how his success and survival is not ~in spite of~ but specifically because of the different way he understands and interprets the world and the skills he’s developed

THAT TANGENT WAS A PERSONAL RANT IT WAS NOT RELEVANT I just have words to say on the subject of how psychosis is treated in fiction and didn’t want people jumping to the “none of it is real” conclusion anyway ok moving on

ur SECOND key player is Noa Yun, who has rather a lot on her plate right now. she’s broke as fuck and her mum is sick and her car is making Noises and she’s not getting enough hours at her job at Not-IKEA and everyone is on her back about her failing studies as if that’s a thing she has the energy to care about. feeling rather backed into a corner by life’s bullshit and her financial situation, she blatantly lies her way into a field job at the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities, because A) surely it can’t be THAT bad, and B) what does she have to lose?

so more or less what she’s doing is the equivalent of emergency services for Port-related weirdness, it’s going out and dealing with highly unstable otherworldly energies head on, navigating Weird Phenomena and bendy patches in reality......... it is, among other things, a job that’s relatively easy to get into because no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole unless they absolutely have to

n the DII is a whole other post, this shit has lots of different functions and levels and branches and corruption and secrets and a tendency to view workers who have to go out and deal with the brunt of the apocalypse head-on as vaguely expendable and I’ve talked about it a bit before and in more Serious Words

things kinda kick off for her when in true Noa fashion she hurls herself into a dangerous situation to help out a coworker, n enters a pretty standard issue “overlap” where the barriers between universes are a little fucky, but hey, she seems to come out of it with nary a scratch, so it’s reasonable to assume everything is fine, right?

INCORRECT AGAIN

she basically gets some whacked-out otherworldly energies latched onto her that are now following her through her everyday life, and it turns out she’s starting to bend the reality around her the way certain types of Ports do, which is! obviously not ideal! she’s not exactly a Port herself, because she’s pretty sure that’s impossible, but it’s clear capital s Something happened to her in that overlap, and she doubts it’s good news. and to make matters even more disconcerting, she’s now being dogged at every step by strange visions of a child who speaks in an unfamiliar language and who seems Real Fuckin Pissed at her

so her thing is basically “I acquired fucked up reality-bending powers against my will and they might be lowkey killing me ‘cause Ports are notoriously unstable like that and also I’m haunted for some godforsaken reason” which all somehow ended up being, like, the least interesting part of her plotline for me lmao

oh and Noa also enlists the help of Shara, Because Ghosts

anyway yeah so her search to find out what’s happening to her re: Weird Children, being a Port-adjacent something-or-other, and whether there’s a way to stop her own unravelling leads her to (rogue computer programmer? mad scientist? general shifty bastard?) Laurence Marrick Thiele, who claims to have suffered a similar affliction in the past and now does some real interesting research on the subject. n this guy. well. he’s got some fuckin stuff going on

he definitely knows more about the nature of Ports than he should. also is he actually researching what he says he’s researching? also what’s with all the weird tech? also did he just straight up murder that guy Avery? all will be revealed later, maybe, if I feel like it

but yeah at about the same time as Noa goes “actually fuck this you’re shady as hell I’m out” she stumbles into, like, The Actual Reality of what Marrick is up to re: manipulating Ports and interdimensional doorways for his own gain, and the various ways this spells bad news not only for her but potentially for the entire city and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire, and she shifts gear to “actually you know what I’m gonna kick your ass”

there are various reasons for this, but first and foremosterly you have to understand that Noa’s got a fuckload of pent-up rage and she will bring it in full force the moment you say some stupid shit like “some people are expendable” or “it’s inevitable for the greater good”

(there’s also a fun ongoing subplot with her work at the DII where she and her team are investigating a string of strange illnesses with bizarre symptoms that appear to be spreading via obscure radio stations so that’s. happening. I guess?)

but yeah the main story here mostly follows Noa’s attempts to undermine Marrick, bastard supreme, and find a way to fuck him up before he goes, like, Full Cartoon Supervillain, n also like........... her attempts to keep up her work at the DII despite her rising paranoia that the teammates she’s growing to care about will notice her increasingly unstable state and the fact that she’s all tangled up with the very forces they’re meant to be thwarting. n along the way discovering the reality of what happened to her in The Aforementioned Overlap Incident and about her visions and such

so that’s all that. did that make sense

n she’s got a whole arc going on about trust and learning to lean on others, like, she comes into this story as a very standoffish person with lots of paranoia, she’s spent much of her life feeling like she can only rely on herself, n she’s. well. yeah, like I said, she’s got a lot of anger at the world and at the various systems that have failed her and her loved ones, n the story puts her in a position to become even more isolated

and her plotline isn’t so much “you have no reason to be angry or afraid” or her learning to Not Be, It’s more, like........... yeah you have every fucking right to be furious and of course you’re afraid! but there are people around you who love you and who will jump at the chance to defend you and who will help you carry the weight of your anger and grief and none of this needs to be yours to bear alone which is extremely cheesy

which applies to both her Weird Supernatural Goings-On as well as her regular ordinary life goings-on

I feel like Alice and Jet deserve a mention for Noa’s plotline but also this went on and on too long already so. well. Alice and Jet exist! yep. they work with Noa at the DII. I have things to say about them. I will not be saying them today

and uhhhhhh

in general, for Tris, his plotline, you wanna think, like, fantasy/adventure vibes which veer pretty sharply into horror, and for Noa you wanna think...... kinda, sci-fi mystery conspiracy vibes with a dash of some superhero bullshit maybe except not really

and that

pretty much is it I think

also the fact that Kai just invites themself into the plot for funsies and then is dragged kicking and screaming into caring about themself and making positive changes in their life means there was no convenient place in this post to be like

"oh there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop"

but there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop

goodnight! thanks for coming to....................... whatever this was! have a nice saturday everyone

#alcohol mention #just in the first little intro bit #being concise is not my strong suit! this should be apparent perhaps #tl;dr #tris's brother jacob gets lost down the back of an interdimensional sofa and tris has gotta go get him back even though #he's terrified enough just leaving the house let alone leaving this entire reality on a stupid convoluted mystery quest #and noa has a run in with some interdimensional bullshit and acquires Powers and A Ghost neither of which she wants #and then accidentally uncovers the schemes of literal cartoon supervillain marrick and is like #''oh sick i was looking for a reason to go absolutely fuckin ballistic and fuck someone's shit up''#And Both Of Them Make Nice Friends And Learn To Love Themselves :)#atdao #i constantly walk the very fine line between not wanting to be Too Vague about noa's plotline vs not wanting to be Too Spoilery about it #like............... the stuff about the kid and about marrick's endgame i'm never quite sure how much to delve into hahahaha #but yeah anyway #imo i only went on ONE mildly unrelated tangent which should have been cut but i decided to indulge it instead #which is the couple paragraphs about noa's character arc #character arcs not important for this post!!!!!! but also. dfkhgkdfjshg. try and stop me #(i mean i did pretty ok staying on track for the most part i think)#(still a rambly post though)

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 4 years

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Maou-jou 1

I sampled this manga with what’s called a “Viz sampler”. I only ever seem to find those at libraries, so I’d assume only they and bookstores can get those.

…Twilight looks like Maou Sadao (Hataraku Maou-sama!).

“Dawner”??? I can read katakana, ya idjits. His name is Akatsuki. Update: The translator must’ve gone, “Dawn is a girl’s name. Let’s tack on an -er so it looks like a guy’s name.”

Aw, Hiro Shimono is Akatsuki. If it were Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, we could’ve gotten a Kirito joke out of it.

Oh! 快眠 (Kaimin) = good rest, literally “happy sleep”. Hence this is the nation of Goodreste. I see.

The lightning effect is soooooooooo cool! *eyes glitter at the particle effects*

I’m gonna die from cuteness from all the teddies and seals!

The little fanfare is so cute and the yokudekimashita reminds me of my days playing the arcade game Bomberman (which had a flower sticker much like this one). I wanna see this get a dub and succeed on all its merits! It’s basically my baby already…bar the fact it took a bit to work up to the first good bit of comedy.

The teddy demons are called Debiakuma, a pun on kuma (bear), devil and akuma (devil). Lessee…After “lesser demon”, there’s more text…“Fluffy bears that can be also used as pets. They give in easily to temptation. A lot of them live in the demon castle, so the princess likes to gather their fur, dye it and spin nice cotton out of it. Warning: A lot of them will either run away or call you their friend./Occasionally act as friends for the princess.”

LOL, I recognised that voice of the Scissors guy straight away…although I didn’t know who it belonged to. That’s Suwabe. (It doesn’t sound like Suwabe, I would’ve thought it to be Takuma Terashima or something.)

Aw, the Japanese version is more boring this time. It’s just Scissor Magician (in the singular for both).

*hears Scissors Demon going -ageruwa”, which is a feminine sentence ending…that’s Suwabe trying to (voice) act effeminate???!!!

These trumpet sounds never get old.

LOL, Siberian huskies dressed as Russians…

Okay, my turn again: Hari means needle, toge means thorn. Next to “His stomach is soft”, part of the subs are cut off due to Funimation’s hardsubs, but I can read “he is proud of his defence” on the 2nd line, “is the type to not refuse when relied on” on the 2nd-last line and “his favourite food is strange bird chawanmushi” on the last line.

I love how parts of the castle are upside down for no reason at all except to look cool…architects must hate that, though.

I hadn’t heard of “seesaw battles” until now. but the metaphor does make sense...kind of.

What about changing the mattress? Update: She does do that…kind of.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Kirito was under my nose all along! Damn Demon Kinggggggggggggggggggg!

Kamina glasses on one of the background trees! Cute tapir! Ahhhhhhhh, it’s so cuteeeeeeee!

Anyways, that’s a fun show. Not as fun as HypMic, but still fun after it gains momentum.

Munou na Nana 1

I remember seeing spoilers for a twist at the end…let’s hope I don’t anticipate it. That would kill the entire anime for me.

The message actually says something about how the island is a nest for enemies of humanity.

There’s the ice narcissist I saw in the promo stuff, right on cue. I’ve never heard of his voice actor Hiromichi Tezuka before, although he does sound like Hiroshi Kamiya or someone much better.

Why do I get the feeling once the title character arrives, even Nanao will get powers…? Or maybe Nana is the catalyst for Nanao’s powers awakening or something? (Just realised having a Nana and a Nanao together in the same anime is confusing…)

Subbers spelt “noblesse oblige” wrong, unless it was deliberately done as such.

I predicted the “duke it out” line.

There’s a menu on the wall of the restaurant.

Maybe Nanao’s “talent” is his leadership stat or something?

Or maybe even Nanao is an enemy of humanity and doesn’t know it? (Sorry, speculation going into overdrive…that usually happens with superpower works like this for me, because I like to analyse them.)

Maybe Nanao can see the future, like the protag from Koi to Producer?

Technically, shouldn’t ice be weak against fire…? Or am I too used to the Pokemon system?

Called it! Nanao has a hidden power! (That reminds me: I still don’t know what Lucien’s (from Koi to Producer’s) power really is.)

Vigilantes is really good at exploring how people can expand on their own powers.

…wow, I heard rumours that the main character was going to die, but I’d pegged Nana to die, not Nanao.

Onodera is clearly important…maybe he was the one with the wind powers? Or was Nana lying about that?

…dude, the red eyes are kinda obvious that Nana is evil in some way, or at least really devious.

Grace of the Gods 1

All I really know of this is that it’s got slimes and it’s an isekai/SoL hybrid…That’s it.

…I am not, I repeat NOT, on board for a harem centred around an 11 year old!

Ryoma speaks with an unnatural amount of starts and stops, hence the caveman speak.

What’s Jil’s role in the party…?

Why would you even need to know 4 high-level skills? Isn’t it better to know all of them?

LOL, I knew the isekaid guy was meant to have a hard life so he could start over with slimes, but…stick Doppo in this and it’s basically the same thing. At least Doppo tries to resist his bosses behind their backs, this guy just did the whole gaman thing and look where that got him!

If he worked for a black company with no overtime and so forth, how did he know about a recent anime trend, eh??? Sounds suspect. Update: Unless he was thinking about 90s isekai, which still involved less reincarnation than this.

I noticed the gods have senbei (the rice crackers with the seaweed). Western-looking gods probably shouldn’t have senbei, unless…they did that to make Ryoma feel more at home?

Seriously, how does a guy with no overtime still have time for online games? Even if he were getting just ads for them, he probably wouldn’t have paid enough attention to be able to figure out what the cliches are, right? Either that, or the Dragon Quest system is older than I think it is.

Slimes don’t have paws…or hands or other appendages…to give…

…I’m not sure what to think there. Am I meant to think the slimes are cute? Am I meant to think the catgirls/animal girls are cute? The answer to those questions is “no”, so…eh.

IWGP 1

Basically, I chose this for associations with HypMic.

…the best first impression involves a CGI car. Of course. <- (sarcastic)

Given HypMic, I almost expected a rap battle…nahhhh…Rap battles don’t look so cool outside HypMic, man.

The owl is a pun. Fukurou (owl) matches ‘bukuro (bag, which is the 2nd character in “Ikebukuro”). There’s also an owl statue used as a meeting spot, much like Hachiko in Shibuya…(I learnt a bunch of things about the division territory through HypMic. Let me show off…)

I think the character designer for this anime also did Joker Game…that’s throwing me off a little. Also, they had a prime opportunity to use a Buster Bros song, so I’m still a bit miffed about that – this OP’s kinda standard. Update: The character designer is Junichiro Taniguchi – my insinct was wrong on him. He did Touken Ranbu Hanamaru’s character designs.

“Smoking kills” – Yuuuuuuuup. That’s true.

Why do I get the feeling all the male otaku will wanna bang Makoto’s mother (to put it lightly)…?

Curiously, the one who hates drugs in HypMic is Jyuto, who’s not from Ikebukuro Division at all. Hmm…

Yokoyama’s voice sounds familiar…but I’m not sure why. Update: If I had to guess, I’d say he’s Saito Soma or someone who sounds similar, so maybe Takuma Terashima, Daisuke Ono or something like that. Update 2: Takahiro Sakurai. See? I knew I knew that voice.

“Big Rei” (“Rei-nii”). That’s different from Ichi-nii (what Saburo calls Ichiro) and could also be goroawase for 02.

Uni of Tokyo is the most prestigious uni in Japan. It has quite the reputation.

…is it just me, or does Makoto have a piercing in his left ear? IWGP also happens to happily work with my existing character, although said character has a piercing in his right ear.

Zero One kinda looks like Uta (Tokyo Ghoul), LOL.

…and of course the girl has to rely on the dude. *sigh* Welp, we can throw drugs off the list for “things that count as TV-MA to Funimation” – IWGP is rated M (not 15+ explicitly, but that’s what it stands for normally) in my region.

This ED song…that’s the sort of song I was expecting from HypMic, Akudama or this.

Seems both Makoto and Takashi have earrings…maybe in both ears? Takashi’s are yellow, I could confirm that much.

…this is decent, but putting it up against its competitors is a bit harsh.

Crusade 1 (cont. from sneak peek - it’s in the title here because this is where it’s completed)

Turns out that preview was most of the episode…like “14 of 24 minutes” long.

Wait, how did Alice fall forward and end up in the princess carry pose? I remember having trouble with that when a character in a story of mine had the same problem.

…Iska-nii…(?)

That opera house looks pretty darn modern to me…

…eh…that was middling. Nothing any ol’ adaption of Romeo and Juliet couldn’t do, bar the CGI for the magic fight in the middle. (There was a fluffy griffin thing in the middle there, though.)

Akudama 1

Ume + Kimura and a cool urban aesthetic. Let’s go!

This is kinda Tron-like, eh?

Ooh, now it’s more like Cop Craft.

Kimura seems to use his gruffer voice more than his Ichiro voice, but Ume is actually worse on that fron with his ordinary voice…Welp, at least his ordinary voice sounds like it fits right in with the Courier. I almost expect an Ocean’s Eleven thing (or Now You See Me, since I’ve actually watched that) from this. Update: Turns out Kimura is the pompadour guy, not the fighter.

You can tell Ordinary Person is an okay person because she keeps saving cats. A bit cliché, but it’ll do.

Ohhhhhh…I can see where this plotline is going. Ordinary Person pretends to be Swindler to get herself out of this mess, but then she keeps getting involved with the Akudama. It’s a typical plot for a typical gal, common to insert a viewpoint character in series that require one, or a magical girl ally.

Wow, those missiles look like a**.

LOL, Hoodlum’s sentence is kinda measly in comparison to most of them. Plus, when he yelled, that sounded more accurate to Ichiro than Fighter was, so…yeah, sorry I messed up.

…Ordinary Person has some real bullseye…uh, eyes.

This could be a top contender…aside from the CGI, which does look a bit funky. I’m getting a death game vibe here, but I don’t know if that’s really the case. Also, it’s a lot of fun, but the possible intolerable thing here is Ordinary Person’s screaming – the pretense she has to keep up seems like it’ll fit right in though.

JJK 1

I read the manga once, dropped it and then read it again and didn’t realise why I dropped it.

Fushiguro has long eyelashes, tbh. Itadori comments on that at one point, I think.

Oh, it was a fish (carp) in the manga. I couldn’t figure out what the Japanese equivalent was just from the Kokkuri board.

This track club teacher is a bit of a freak, honestly. Meddling in kids’ affairs is probably illegal to some extent.

Itadori is known as “tiger” because the kanji for “tiger” is in the surname. Update: Also, the Czech dude Mirko was called “the Croatian tiger”, if a tweet I read is any indication.

I like how there’s more comedy in this one. They show the world records, so you have standards to compare Itadori against.

This is an almost beat-for-beat adaption, bar the slight comedy of the records being added (and not explaning who Mirko is). The contrast makes this better.

“People really can die.” – That’s summoning some real energy of “People die when they are killed.”

(Brief thoughts on the dog and cat short: I enjoyed that more than I thought I would. The picture of a realistic cat – someone’s actual photo of their cat?- that serves as a punchline never gets old and in fact, sometimes contributes to the humour.)

HypMic 2

LOL, TV-MA warning strikes again.

“Kore wa prologue/Hajimete no ippo/Fumidasanai yatsu ni wa/???? shinpo.” – The translation is really good for the bits I can read…the problem is I can’t read the bottom left corner. Update: The part in the bottom left is nai...That’s it.

…uh, even people from around the world can read 24 hour time??? You don’t need subs to read Arabic numerals???

…couldn’t you have just told Ichiro verbally, Saburo…? Update: Come to think of it, kids these days are more on their phones than ever, so it makes sense but also kind of doesn’t.

You don’t really need subs for laughter either…

I’d never heard of “pulling rank” before…hmm: “to use one's high position in a society, organization, group, etc., to order someone to do something or to get special treatment or privileges.”

…and here comes the F word here to mess with us again. Japanese nastiness is conveyed using words that might be considered “soft” in English, hence the sudden jump to use the F word a bunch, but the subbers could use some variety in their swearing. I mean, “dips**t” worked where it did because subbers made Samatoki go overboard with the F word, but…you could stand to use that more, maybe(?)

I like how even the Tenderloins guy rhymes where he’s meant to. It’s the prelude to a battle, after all. (He kinda looks like Kotaro from Zombieland Saga.)

…I freaked out for a second. I swore I saw a similar-looking restaurant (udon shop, located on the left of one of the shots) while in Japan. Also, we finally get to see Ichiro’s reputation at work.

…I still have no idea what a “steelo” is after all this time, but I didn’t realise I was staring at a part of Ore ga Ichiro until I saw it in context. Also, it was kinda derpy – but still really in character – for Ichiro to run to his destination with his arms up like the Glico man in Osaka (except he had his head down).

I get a weird feeling the subbers may have used the wiki translation because I’m using it as a reference and the language seems oddly similar for the most part…

The kick Ichiro does seems like it references the OP.

Notice the location is Nishiguchi Kouen…the West Gate Park. *raises eyebrows at the IWGP anime*

…oh! It occurred to me that the sign the BB do with their hands is…well, a lowercase B. (LOL, if you read my previous line funny, it rhymes.)

Gentaro doing the peace sign to his chest…that was random the first time, because it doesn’t seem in character, but then it does for Dice and possibly Ramuda, so Gentaro probably just chose to go along with it (“to add to his image as a rapper,” maybe…?).

Oh, Saburo has airpods in…those aren’t good for blocking sound, are they…?

Notice the owl on the…uh, café(?)…Ichiro goes to.

That one “holy shit!” made me laugh like a madman. Where it came from, I don’t know, but it was so random I had to laugh at it.

This makes me wonder…if you use a mic that’s different to your personal mic, does it produce the same speakers? No one’s ever addressed that before (much like how no one questions if magical girls always need the same transformation device – I wanted to make a plot on that someday, but I can’t seem to find a comprehensible way to pull it off…LOL, that reminds me, I even had a HypMic version of that featuring Samatoki at one point, but it probably makes even less sense than the standard one because it activates via physical contact. It’s notable – in my head – for Nemu’s version of the “power” being “Samatoki can’t swear, no matter how hard he tries”).

I’m pretty sure that round thing wasn’t part of Ichiro’s rings, ever. (…Unless that was the head of his spoon or something.)

…Microwave? (referring to the shot inside the hospital, which seems to be based off ARB)

The series normally transitions from BB -> MTC -> FP -> MTR, so it was interesting to see that shuffled up. Update: That’s if it has to have an order, but notably ARB breaks this standard a lot by assigning colours to each solo and then arranging interactions based on not repeating those colours (aside from the Sky High Tower event). With 4 things there are 4! = 24 possible combinations and 6! = 720 possible combinations if you count DH and BAT, so as we move forward with those 2 divisions...prepare for more shuffling.

…is Jiro gonna steal a ball? I thought it was just bikes anime characters stole. (LOL)

The mic changes the background, too, huh? Never expected that from more than the speakers.

…and of course, s*** explodes and the day is saved once again....by the Buster Bros!!! (LOL, but also *sigh*)

Hmm, so this anime’s real plotline probably involves this trio: Rex, Tom and Iris. They’re probably foreign in some way, judging by Tom and Rex. Maybe they’re aligned with a foreign government or something? Update: If you look at the credits, their full names seem to be Tom Whisper Weathercock, Iris Innocent Traiter (sic) (LOL) and…Taroumaru Rex…? (romanisations confirmed for all katakana)

Sadamezuka was voiced by the ubiquitous Kenjiro Tsuda.

It seems Cola Bintarou (aka Subaru Kimura) was on the case again today. He wrote the new song for BB, called RUN THIS CITY, along with Gesshoku Kaigi.

Of course, I’m going to keep this anime on my list...I’m just a bit worried about myself going forward, because I realised my ego got a bit inflated trying to defend the series from haters. I’ve never had a series where I’ve been a fan from the beginning that wasn’t already a known quantity for a while (Muhyo and Roji’s, Furuba). With Boueibu, I was discovering things alongside other people (or even later in a lot of cases) since it was anime-original.

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illkickyourbass · 5 years

Photo

I really, really don’t like Ranmaru’s original Shining Quest outfit (it’s too anachronistic, and the trilby/necktie/untucked button-down made the whole thing feel like an ill-fitting Spirit of Halloween costume). But I do really like Ranmaru, and the challenge of keeping the original idea as much intact but making it mesh better with high fantasy sounded fun! (I mean, there are elements I like about the original design...the color palette is great, and I like the general idea of using glitzy Vegas trappings to integrate Ranmaru’s image color, etc...)

Here’s a big big bonus: an accompanying fic under the cut! (SFW, reader-ran meet cute, non-gendered protag, not explicitly romantic, mild cw for violence and arranged marriages!)

You traveled down the alley, uncomfortable in your disguise and your predicament. You never liked plans that made anyone a sitting duck, and you didn’t like wearing a stupid outfit that absolutely yelled you were ripe for the mugging.

It’s only a matter of time before the small-time bandits start to trail, and then even less until one tries to mug you. He’s an idiot, average in size and easy to overpower, and he panics and begs as you pin him against the wall.

“I need you to bring me to someone.”

The other bandits scatter, inevitably relaying the message.

------------------

He’s a weird someone. A swindler who’s not big on honeyed words or grand schemes. He’s notoriously rude and straightforward, relying on sheer guts and intuition (and punching) to move mountains of money and curate the back alleys the way he’d like. Your own gut tells you he’s the man you need, but finding him by yourself went nowhere. You needed someone who knew the pulse of the underground better than you -- which really meant you needed any dumb fuck who could read the thieves’ cant left all over town and you could throw around a little.

“Here!” Your bandit reads the chalked marks on streetcorners, eventually leading you to an unmarked back alley. Two cats sit on a crate, and you see a figure dressed in white, black, and red, leaning against a wall in the dull light of a lamppost.

“Beat it,” you murmur, and push the bandit away. He takes the memo quickly and splits.

The man is still far off from you, but you can still make out his mismatched eyes as he speaks loudly, clearly, and harshly.

“What the fuck does a royal guard want from me?”

Secretly, you’re relieved you don’t have to keep up disguises anymore. “It’s not that weird for me to approach the son of a noble,” you say, barely hiding the anticipation bubbling in your chest.

“Tch.” He glowers at you from under his hat, and he shows his hand, three small dice between each finger. You already know this is him baring his teeth. You’re not sure if he knows you know the kind of ruin he can make with those dice, but he’s not backing down. “Answer my question.”

Your feet move before you can think, and so do your hands. You’re dashing at him, drawing your blade, startling the cats as they noisily leap off the crate. For a split second, you notice he’s distracted -- he even seems to bark after them, but you’re too much of a threat for him to give chase. He steps away from your charge and throws his dice, landing with a clatter before they erupt into flame. You leave yourself open as you escape the heat, and he barrels into you. Gods, he really is strong.

Soon you’re pinned to the ground, but you’ve drawn a knife to his neck, glinting orange as the fire dies down. You lock eyes with him, thoughts wheeling faster than you can process and adrenaline firing even faster than that. He is frowning and looking just as intense and wild as you feel. This is him, you think. I’ve finally found him. Ranmaru, the son of a disgraced Kurosaki nobles, who disappeared from the court to pay family debts and spare them the same fate. And instead of being swallowed whole, he rose up. Not just as the new prince of the underworld, but as the sort of man who’ll swindle only the ruthless of their money and bully those who line their pockets by haranguing the helpless.

It takes some time for you to notice you can feel his pulse, traveling from his neck, through your blade, and softly beating in your hand.

“I need your help,” you blurt out.

Ranmaru makes a confused an exasperated sound.

“The princess has disappeared and that’s not an accident and --”

“Slow down!” he growls. “I already knew that, jackass, that’s old news--”

“NO! Shut up, listen to me! I made her disappear! Nobody announced it but she was gonna get married off to some demon king to serve some creepy old prophecy and I thought that was a stupid solution so I stashed her with her girlfriend --”

“Do you ever stop to breathe!?”

You clap your free hand over his mouth. “-- but now the rest of the guard is onto me and now I need to disappear but still keep an eye on the princess but also still be able to keep up enough with everything so I can figure out some kind of way to fix all this!”

Ranmaru, frowning even harder than before, tears your hand off his mouth. “Are you done?” You nod. “Can you take your damn knife off my neck now?” You oblige. Almost reluctantly, between not wanting to lose the advantage and that odd, intimate grasp on how fragile his heartbeat is. But Ranmaru releases you from the pin, grabs his now-extinguished dice, and offers you a hand up. You hesitate to take it, and he looks annoyed for a moment.

“Listen, you’ve got an honest look to you. You’d be a shitty mark and I don’t want to pull any horseshit on you. C’mon, stop wasting our time.”

So you do. His grip is firm, strong, and warm, even through his runed gloves. Worryingly, he also doesn’t let go and grips aggressively hard.

“If you wanted my help in the first place, why the hell did you come at me like that?”

“.....I panicked,” you answer honestly.

Ranmaru snorts. “Some royal guard you are.”

“Hey, dingbat, what do you expect?!” you reply indignantly, now squeezing back just as aggressively. “I’m on the lam, I’m dressed so I look like sharkbait to any nutsack who wants a quick buck, I’m a couple of goof-ups away from being charged with treason, and I was staring down someone I’ve admired for a super long time now --”

“Admired?” Of all the things to catch him off-guard, you don’t expect it to be that. (You also didn’t expect to say that to begin with -- but with desperate times come desperate confessions, you suppose.) Ranmaru breaks eye contact and grits his teeth, hiding his awkwardness by intently stuffing his dice into a bag on his belt.

“...yeah.” You decide it isn’t worth walking it back. “...I’ve admired how you rose from ash and protected people along the way. That’s the biggest reason I sought you out instead of anyone else.”

He clearly has no idea with what to do with that. You can feel the wheels turning in his head as he tries and process such an idea.

“Mm. Ah, well. I’m hungry,” he says, looking away and straightening his hat that wasn’t in any sort of disarray. He starts to walk to a nondescript door along the alley before turning to look back at you, once more scowling. “....Are you coming or what?” he says, sounding irritated. You just give him a quizzical look. “Well, we clearly have a lot to discuss, and it’d be stupid to do it hungry,” he returns. He knocks in a specific cadence before throwing open the door, the warm smell of spiced spirits and roasting meat blasting out like the heat from an oven.

And hope swells in your chest, intoxicated by this future unfolding for you besides the gambler prince.

(P.S. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: THE PRINCESS AND HER GF ARE HARU AND TOMO)

#ranmaru kurosaki #kurosaki ranmaru #uta no prince sama #utapri #shining quest #illkickyourbassart

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dietaku · 5 years

Text

Amazing Quest 2: Chapter 1

The sequel to Amazing Quest. Honestly, I think this one is better.

-Controls-

Have you played an SNES-era JRPG before? Then you already know this.

-Cast-

Dood Z. Ma--

Wait, you haven't played an SNES-era JRPG before? Sigh. Okay then.

-Controls-

Control Pad – Move your characters or your cursor around, select things, etc.

A Button – Check/Speak/Confirm. You'll be using this a lot for obvious reasons.

B Button – Cancel. In battle, you can set this as a shortcut for Defend.

X Button – Open/Close Menu. In battle, you can use this to shortcut to your items menu. In the strategy guide, it lists this being used to launch things called the Push-of-War and the Dynamite Trigger. This is clearly not true, and has since become memetic in the fandom, where newcomers with questions that should be obvious are met with jeering posts of “Use the Dynamite Trigger!”

Y – Hold to dash on the overworld. In battle, this shortcuts to the Skill/Spell menu.

L/R – Rotates party members in order either back or forth.

Start – Pause the game. Also, in certain circumstances, unpauses it too.

Select – Opens the world map. Runs a 1/8126 chance of showing a pixelated green and black scene of Dood talking to some old man with a beret, who tells you to “SEEK DA TROOF”.

-Cast-

Dood Z. Male

Element: Light

Class: Pudding Warrior

Weapon: Swords. Four to be exact.

Special: Pudding Morph

Dood, as later side materials would go on to reveal, is the descendant of Hiro from AQ1, though with Pudding powers not dependent on the presence of others. Guess eugenics lost the bet on that one. Dood, like all AQ protags, can transform into the powerful Pudding Forms, but his have three-turn limiters where his MP is rapidly consumed away, however, this can be prolonged by feeding him MP restoration items. His stats are bolstered very, very high during this period, and can thus be a very potent character if built right.

Deliost Nu Toruble Element: N/A (Fire after her mid-game Time Wasp shenanigans) Class: Magic Student Weapon Type: Spoons Special Technique: Magical Assault

The quiet, reflective princess of Toruble, who is kept locked away from public viewing, due to her ever-growing chimeran traits (manifesting as kawaii cat eats and tail). She is a powerful offensive magic user, who only grows more potent as time goes on. However, she personifies the phrase “glass cannon” and has very low LP and Con scores for the duration. Also of note is her impressive figure, which I'm sure is an ancillary detail (You perverts.)

Kylie

Element: Earth (Default Form); Changes with Form

Class: Womanticore

Weapons: Variable Tail (Equippable Genes)

Special: Multi-Form

Kylie the womanticore was the result of a “DiY Womanticore Kit” project launched by the recurring miniboss fight, Balzac, who ended up escaping her captivity and mastering a life in the forest. Kylie is a “build your own” character, where she can equip up to three genes at a time, one in the “Head” slot, one in the “Body” slot, and one in the “Leg” slot. Her default form has middling stats and only a few skills it can learn on its own, but once she learns a skill from a particular gene, she will retain it forever, even if the gene is unequipped later on. Fans really like her, for... multiple reasons. Don't look! She's only 2 years old!

Genki Sake

Element: Wind

Class: Cat Thief

Weapons: Hair Clip

Special: Steal

Genki is of the kunoichi tribe (presumably of some relation to Kimyawa of AQ1, but that's just fan speculation), and strives to be the greatest cat thief of all time. In a very literal sense even, as her suit includes cat ears and a cleavage window you could lose mid-sized dogs in. Her weapons are hidden in plain sight, as she uses his hair clips as both weapons and tools of her trade to unlock doors and chests. When she's on point, she'll even automatically disable traps and she'll stop before running over trap floors. She has high attack and speed stats, but somewhat lacking in defense. And, to put the obnoxious fandom argument to rest, Sake is her family name and Genki is her given name. Now, stop fighting about it!

Chester D. Beaver

Element: Water, yup

Class: Beaver, yup

Weapons: Fish Guns, yup

Special: Spray, yup

Chester is quite an odd bucket of fish – literally and metaphorically. Being of the beaver tribe, he has a rather distinct means of punctuating most of his sentences, and as a mob boss over the beaver crime syndicates (which exist, apparently) he commands respect in such social circles. His spray attack allows him to make his normal attack target all enemies, which calculates damage akin to how all-hitting magic spell variants are done, and his bizarre fish gun series of weapons is always a joy to see in motion. He has high, all around stats, but very few skills to his name until almost at the endgame.

Deima the Immortal Element: N/A Class: Furry (Just Kidding) Weapon Type: Staves Special Technique: Magical Genocide

The eccentric and powerful chimera sorceress and eternal Pudding ally, Deima appears once more as a secret recruit you can find at around the midgame. She learns spells much faster and much earlier in the game than anyone else and has, bar none, the highest magical potency of the game and the biggest MP pools of any of the party, in particular her Hissatsu Zeikei Suki attack. Her field ability will also turn any animals you can hunt into burnt meat automatically, so, try not to use it!

Jaydea Varas Schoen Element: Dark Class: Pudding Noble Weapon Type: “Heaven's Blades” Guitars Special Technique: Regal Pudding Form

The Penultimate boss of AQ1 returns thanks to her gift of eternal life bestowed on her by the Goddess of Destruction. She retains her insane Pudding form, the Figgy Pudding Queen, and her love of Rock n' Roll. If you go out of your way near the tail end of the game and get her her fez and a Black Cow, you can have her join you, doubling your effective Pudding-related firepower. She has a stat build not unlike Dood's, but a heavier emphasis on defense, presumably reflective of her immortality. She does not want for offensive options, though, and will hold her own quite handily.

-Chapter 1: I'm Born! ~ Lone Idiot & Cub-

The game starts with a narrator speaking over a black screen.

Narrator: Nearly a century has passed since the legendary Hero-King of the Puddings sealed away the wicked goddess, Hulst.

JeffCom's translation team was not on point here. She was called Halst in the first game, Hulst in the second, and it wasn't until AQ3 where they finally got her actual name, Holstein, in the game correctly.

Narrator: When the red star appeared in the night sky, people called it the “Eye of Calamity” and said it was an omen of dark things yet to come. The people were without the heroes of legend and uncertainty took deep root in the tumultuous times. As a result, the Church of Sethan became home to many, seeking peace of mind and a road to hope, but not all was as it appeared to be.

Then, the image of a deformed skull appears on screen, in the center of what should be the forehead is a large, pulsating eye.

???: ****! Be careful!

Skull: I shall bring forth my revenge. Your efforts to stop me are in vain!

???: Oh yeah?! EAT THIS!

The Skull gets a large slash across its face. Uh, skull. Whatever.

Skull: Insolent Puddings! This is the will of the very stars themselves!

???: This is too dangerous! It's destabilizing!

???: But we're so close, ******! We can stop it now! ???: There's no time. Go on without me!

Skull: Trying to escape?! I won't let--

???: NOT WITHOUT A FALL GUY, BITCH! GLADIATOR!!! Skull OH SHIIIIIIIIII--!!!

The screen whites out then comes back in, late in the evening as some young boy in ragged clothes, with four sheaths around his belt stumbles into view.

Boy: … Huh? Wait... where...? Oh, I don't feel so good...

The boy shakily takes a few paces before falling flat.

Boy: Ungh! My face is in the dirt, isn't it?

The boy lies there for a moment as a well-to-do girl walks on screen, clad in a yellow ribbon and matching dress.

Girl: ! What?!

She hurries over to him and, for a moment, looks like she's going to help him up. Instead, she whips out a stick and begins poking him in the head.

Girl: Hey, are you dead?

Boy: …

After a moment of this, an elderly man in a suit, identified only as Butler, walks over.

Butler: I see. M'lady, allow me, if you would.

The butler, quite violently, kicks the boy.

Butler: WAKE UP, TWERP! THE LADY HAS DEMANDED YOU ACKNOWLEDGE HER!

Boy: OH GOD, THAT WAS MOST CERTAINLY ONCE SOMETHING VITAL!!!

The boy leaps awake and steps away from the two.

Boy: What was that all about?!

Butler: It's rude not to reply to a lady's inquiry! You vagabond!

Boy: Your... mom... is a bag of bonds...

Girl: What's your name?

Boy: I'm Dood.

Girl: I'm Deliost. Want to be friends? Dood: Sure, why not?

Deliost: Fantastic! Daddy always said I need to make some friends! And the last time I tried to make some, it didn't pan out so well.

Dood: Why not? Differences in hobbies?

Deliost: No, I tried to literally make them. Like build them. Out of straw and rocks. My therapist says I'm making great strides, though!

Dood: Great...

Deliost: I don't really get to go out and do much. Even when I do I have to stay close to the castle.

Dood: There's a castle? Deliost: Indeed. I am the princess of the kingdom of Toruble.

Dood: … What's a Toruble?

Butler: Shall I teach the boy a lesson, m'lady? Deliost: Please, do.

The Butler socks Dood in the face, knocking him out cold.

Deliost: BUTLER?! Butler: There. Lesson learned.

Deliost: I meant open a history book and tell him about the Toruble Kingdom! Butler: Oh. … Bully. Now I just feel silly.

The scene fades out, then returns with Dood laying in a bed.

Dood: Boy, I sure hope I get to maintain consciousness for longer than 10 minute intervals today. That'd be swell.

Deliost walks in.

Deliost: Dood, are you okay? Dood: I'm fine. I think.

Deliost: That's a relief!

A tall man in regal splendor walks in.

King: And this...? Deliost: This is Dood. You said I could keep him!

The King goes to Dood and eyes him.

King: You'd better take good care of my little girl, you got that? One step out of line and--

Dood: Sir. I'm pretty sure I'm like 10 years old. Probably. 10-ish.

Suddenly, some guards rush in.

Knight: Y-your highness! Monster attack! King: What you say?!

The scene cuts outside, as we see a knight get knocked down by some munchkins.

Knight: No!! Knight 2! He was the finest mind of his generation!!

Dood suddenly rushes outside.

Deliost: Dood, what are you--?!

Dood: It's fightin' time!!

Dood leaps into battle with the munchkins. This works as your tutorial, with the game briefly explaining Attack, Defend, Skill, Item, and Flee options that any RPG veteran should be very familiar with. If you try to flee from this battle, the munchkins hold up a pistol to a teddy bear's head and Dood insists it would be unjust to leave it as-is. But as Munchkins die to one attack each from Dood and his high offense build, it'll only take a moment. If you ignore the tutorials for Defend, Skill, and Item, and keep attacking, the game will let you do so, but scold you for not paying attention.

Dood: Hyaaa!!

Munchkins: Run away! Run away!!!

Deliost: Whoa, Dood... that was so brave! How did you do that?! Dood: Oh, it's easy.

Dood takes out one of his swords and points.

Dood: The pointy end is the business end.

Deliost: That's... not what I... okay. Sure. Alright.

Knight: That was incredible swordsmanship! Who taught you? Dood: … Um...?

Knight: You... do have a teacher, right?

You then get a prompt...

My parents!

My Master!

The Sun!

What's a teacher?

If you select My parents!

Dood: My parents!

Knight: Who are you parents? Dood: …

Tears well up in Dood's eyes.

Dood: Uwaaaaaaaah! I'm an orphan?!

Deliost: You didn't know that until just now?!

If you select My master!

Dood: My master! Knight: Who was your master?

Dood: … My Master. Obvs.

Knight: Yes, but what was his name? Dood: Mr. Ster.

Knight: You don't remember his name, do you? Dood: No.

If you select the sun!

Dood: THE SUN!!!

Deliost: What?

Dood: I stare into the sun and it fills me with power! Deliost: Dood, you really shouldn't do that...

If you select What’s a teacher?

Dood: … What's a teacher?

Deliost: Something you appear to be in dire need of...

Knight: … Well, your skills are undeniable! Maybe you should take up some work at the guild!

Dood: Work sounds good. Then I could buy MORE SWORDS!

Deliost: Um! Um! Yes, Dood, let us go and do good by the people!

Deliost grabs Dood's hand and pulls him off-screen as the knights idle. The camera soon catches up to them on a small dirt road.

Dood: Where are we going so fast?

Deliost: Anywhere! Now's our chance to get out and get away from the castle for a bit! C'mon!

Dood: Um. Okay!

You're then whisked away to FirstTown, where you're free to go around and talk to NPCs at your leisure. Here we can find a basic item and weapon shop, alongside a place with a sword and shield icon, wherein lies the guild and the plot. Inside is a lady in a dirndl is stationed at the counter.

Woman: Welcome, I am the guild stewardess. I'll post side miss-- I mean-- important jobs that you can accept here at the counter. In fact, there's a guild location in every city of the world, and due to our lightning-quick messaging services, we can relay information and jobs from all over the world to any location in a very convenient fashion!

Deliost: Ooo. What kind of work can we do here?

Dood: I wanna kill a dragon.

Deliost: Dood... do you know what a dragon... is? Dood: No, but I know I wanna fight one! Stewardess: No dragon slaying today, but I do have this. This might be a good test of your abilities.

Dood receives quest: find lost dog.

Dood: A lost dog?! That's... the saddest thing... I ever h-heeeeeeeeard!!!

Dood bawls.

Deliost: I had no idea you were so in-tune with your emotions, Dood! You're kind of like a puppy yourself...

Dood: I am? Deliost: Yeah. Like one of those small ones that never really gets terribly smart, and sometimes pees the floor out of excitement, but they mean well.

Dood: Aww, that's nice of you to say!

Now we can access the nearby inn, or leave town and see the world map. We're sort of stuck on a linear path for the time being, but we ultimately need to head to the north, near the mountains, but I wouldn't recommend going there until you're level 3 or 4, just to be safe.

Dood: I think it went this way!

Deliost: You can determine where the dog went... how?

Dood: Well, it's easy. To find a dog, you gotta think like a dog.

Deliost: You can do that? Dood: Watch me.

Dood gets down on all fours.

Dood: Woof! Woof! Barf, barf, barf!

Deliost: …

Deliost puts a hand to her mouth, trying not to laugh. You're then free to explore the mountain road. As you do, you'll see a deer munching grass.

Deliost: Dood, wait a sec.

Dood: What?

Deliost: Look there.

Dood: … Is that a dragon? Deliost: … Huh? No! Dood, it's a deer.

Dood: I'm-a kill it anyway.

Deliost: What?!

You then gain control of Dood and you're prompted to tap “Y” when near the deer, which you can sneak up on if you time it right. Dood will slash with his sword, turning the deer into large, cartoon meat on a bone. Deliost does her best impression of The Scream as Dood picks up and presents the meat.

Dood: I killed a dragon! Deliost: Uuuugh... I suppose hunting is a way to get supplies when our coffers are low... but... oh, Dood...

Now, when a random encounter concludes, there's a chance, depending on what map you're on, that a hunting event can occur, where you can kill some wildlife to get items. Dood hits with his sword, and will usually yield a meat, an item that restores health usually, and Deliost throws a small spark of electricity which is good for taking down small birds which Dood can't hit. As you go through the cave here, there's a healing spring.

Deliost: This is... it is. If we drink this water, it'll refresh us, body and mind. It's just like a good night's rest, Dood. … Dood?

Deliost looks over. Dood is shirtless.

Dood: So, we bathe in it, right? Deliost: KYAAAAAA!!! PERVERT!!!

Deliost gets a violent nosebleed, then smacks Dood in the face with her spoon. This sends Dood careening back into the wall.

Dood: BARF!

Dood and Deliost learn their first dual skill: Dood Toss, where Deliost swats Dood in the back, hurling him into the enemy for large damage. From here, you should grind at least a little, then proceed to the end of the cave. As you exit the cave, be sure you save, as not far from the entrance is the boss. Dood and Deliost walk a bit before the creature crosses their path. It's a duck with horns and large, pronounced feet.

Dood: Is that...?

Deliost: It is! It's a--

Dood: DRAGON!

Deliost: Dood! No! It's a Jackoduck!!

-Boss Fight!-

Jackoduck

LP: 500

MP: 100

The Jackoduck is strong, only because it's HP is very high compared to what you're likely used to at this point. However, it doesn't have many abilities of note, mostly involving its Duckaphony attack, which will hit you both for small damage. If you heal as needed, there shouldn't be any issue here, especially as at level 6 Deliost gets the first lightning spell, which deals good damage against it.

-Boss Fight!-

Dood: Whew. That wasn't so ba--

The Jackoduck gets up and bites Dood's arm

Dood: Oooooh nooooo! Deliost! Shoot it! Shoot it!!! Deliost: But it's still connected to you! Electricity will--

Dood: I don't care! Just shoot it! Deliost: Well, okay.

Deliost raises her hand as a massive storm of lightning drops down on Dood and the Jackoduck.

Dood: BARF!!!

The Jackoduck explodes and Dood drops.

Dood: I killed a dragon.

Deliost: Sigh...

You're then free to leave the mountain and you'll exit on the other side, whereupon you'll find... a frog.

Frog: Ribbit.

Dood: Is it--

Deliost: It's not a dragon, Dood!!!

Dood: No, obviously, it isn't.

Deliost: Oh, thank goodness...

Dood: It's the dog we've been looking for! Deliost: Say WHAT?!

Dood got... dog? Now we can head back to FirstTown. Once there, go to the guild.

Dood: We saved the dog! See? Frog: Ribbit.

Deliost: I'm sorry, he's slow on the uptake.

Stewardess: Ehn. Seems legit. Here's 500 currencies.

Dood: Yay!

Deliost's jaw falls and hangs open.

Dood: What next? Stewardess: Nothing right now, I'm afraid. But if you're curious, there's a new monster battle ring in the west where they've got a really neat lineup for the Monster Girl Festa.

Deliost: The... what?

Dood: Sounds kosher. Let's go!

You then can travel westward and enter into Corset, the mini-town that surrounds the coliseum area. Inside, you can't actually access the coliseum, due to a huge herd of people clamoring to battle with the monster girl champ, Balzac. Everyone in this town will tell you that to be anybody in this town, you have to win big at the coliseum, and that if you don't have one, a few stray monster girls run wild in the forest. You can tell this was a 90's RPG, as this, alongside a noteworthy minigame in AQ1 was wildly lambasted by Amelia Sardinian as the reasons why JeffCom+DTK and all its affiliates should, and I quote, “die horribly”. Anyway, we can go out into the forest and enter a little maze area where the enemies just love to spam poison as an ailment. The Mushroom Men, Dire Sparrows, and Vorpal Earthworms are indeed annoying, but if you brought lots of antidotes with you, it shouldn't be awful. At the end of it, you'll reach a clearing, where something considerably larger than you is leaping around the canopy, circling you.

Deliost: I don't think we're alone, Dood...

Dood: How can we be alone when there's two of us?

Deliost: I mean there's someone else here with us, Dood!

Dood: I didn't see anything.

The shadow blazes overhead again.

Deliost: There! Didn't you see that? Dood: Sorry, I can't see anything. I'm busy checking my eyelids for cracks.

Deliost grabs Dood's head and yanks it so he's looking up, just in time for the shadow to ninja past them again.

Dood: Whoa! There's someone here! Deliost: No, really?!

The shadow leaps down before them, revealing a curvaceous monster girl with large claws, long hair, and a long, scorpion-like tail.

Dood: It's...! It's...!

Deliost: Dood! Do not say “Dragon”!

Dood: … I'm still gonna think it.

The woman roars.

-Boss Fight!-

Womanticore

LP: 800

MP: 300

This is your wake-up boss fight. She follows up almost all her attacks with “Waffle Iron”, where she strikes with her claws after her normal attack, or she'll use “Mode Change” where she'll change color and use an elemental strike. She also has a huge pool of HP by comparison to anything we'd encountered. When her health dips below 25%, she'll give up using Waffle Iron, and grab one of your two characters with her tail, immobilizing them until the other hits her a few times, forcing her to drop them. This can be super frustrating, so heal early, heal often.

-Boss Fight!-

Monster Woman: Graaaaa--!!!

She falls.

Dood: I KILLED A D-- I mean... nothing.

Deliost rolls her eyes. The Monster Woman suddenly begins flailing, pounding her fists, feet, and tail up and down on the ground.

Monster Woman: Nooooo! It's not faaaair! I'm so hungry! All I want is a candy bar! But all there are to eat out here are bunnies and squirrels and they're TOO CUTE TO EAT! And the berries, good lord, the berries empty me out!!! A-bloo-bloo-blooooo!!!

She begins crying, with exaggerated anime water fountain tears and everything.

Dood: I can safely say I was not expecting that.

Deliost: Oh dear... maybe we should apologize to her?

Approach and speak to her, but all she does is continue her tantrum, reiterating how much she wants a candy bar. For now, we have to leave and return to FirstTown's item shop, which just got a fresh batch of Candy Bar items in, which we can buy on the cheap. For zenny vs. healing, candy bars are actually more economical than mundane potions, amusingly enough! Anyways, take at least one and go back to the Womanticore.

Monster Woman: W-w-what do you want? Sniffle. Hic.

Dood: Here!

Dood gave her the candy bar!

Monster Woman: … Ah! A candy bar?!

She hurriedly unwraps it, break it in half, and feeds half to her tail and eats half with her mouth.

Dood: … Pssst! Deliost! She just ate that with her butt! … Does she poop out her mouth?!

Deliost: You're not whispering, you know. She can hear you just fine.

Monster Woman: I'm Kylie. Who are you? And why are two little kids wandering around the forest?

Dood: Oh, this is Del-- Deliost: I'M ENKI AND THIS IS DOO... uhh... DUDU!

Dood: … Huh?

Deliost: (Dood! I'm a runaway princess! We can't just go around telling everyone who we are! They'll take us back to the castle if we do that!) Dood: (Yeah, but, why do I have to be Dudu?) Deliost: (You started talking about pooping out your mouth, so it just popped into my head!)

Until it says otherwise, Dood is listed as Dudu and Deliost is listed as Enki, even on the menu screen.

Kylie: How... old are you two? Dudu: I'm... 10-ish? Yeah, let's go with that.

Enki: I'm 11.

Kylie: Hm. Well, I clearly have to be the adult here, seeing as I'm 2!

Dudu: That makes sense! Enki: It... doesn't really. But we can just tell people she's 20 and they'd believe it...

Kylie: I'll go with you! That way we'll be safe!

Kylie joins! She is a customizable character, who starts with three copies of the “Womanticore” gene. As you get more, you can customize her, which changes her Head (her hair and horns), her Body (mostly her arms and color palette), and her Legs (which alters her legs and tail). This has made her very popular, as some late game combinations can be game-breaking, due to any gene being able to slot into any of the three options. Her starting skill is Roar, which ups one character's offense for a few turns. At this point, we can return to Corset and the crowd huddled around the door to the coliseum has dispersed. Inside, we can now register for the battle!

Receptionist: I see. Entering the Monster Girl battle with this Womanticore, eh? Well, if you want to do so, you'll need to pass our preliminary match against our director of monster resources!

Dudu: Kay.

Kylie: Me?! But aren't there younger, prettier monster girls you'd want to enter?!

Enki: Actually, I'd be legitimately surprised if there were any monsters here younger than you...

Now we can head over to a small dungeon-like room, to find a horrifyingly muscular man, whose head appears to be too small for his frame.

Dir. Of MR: OH YEEEEEEEEEEAH! Dudu: … I think I peed myself a little in reflective terror.

Enki: Me too.

-Boss Fight!-

Director of Monster Resources

LP: 500

MP: 0

This guy is a joke boss, if his LP didn't tip you off. He just shouts “AGE?! SEX?! LOCATION?!” at you and punches, which barely does any damage. There's literally no reason you should lose here if you're trying.

-Boss Fight!-

Dir. Of MR: OH YEEEEEEEEEEAH!!!

Dudu: I guess we passed?

Kylie: Yay!

At this point, you're invited to speak to the manager, July.

July: Ah, the new rising stars here to challenge Balzac, I presume? Dudu: I don't know why but the answer is “Yes”!

July: Lucky you, your opponent is a girl, so it'll be easy! Kylie: But... I'm a girl too... what's that have to do with anything?

July: Well, the truth is... the outcome is already set.

Enki: What? The fight is a farce?!

Dudu: And it's fake too?!

July: The cruel up-n-comer, who wants to win at any cost... slowly tortures her enemy... and kills her for the sick entertainment of this crowd! … I expect very high ratings.

Kylie's face goes pale, as her tail turns downward and actually vomits.

July: There is no way you will lose, Dudu. During the battle's climax, we will fire poisoned darts at the enemy monster. She will die and you will win. The ratings will explode through the roof as the old champ is unseated, and we will become very, very rich...

Dudu: We... uh... need to... go... place... now.

July: Be sure to get your advanced payment from your locker room!

Go there, and you'll get 1000 zenny. Immediately head out and deposit it in the bank, then return and try to go into Balzac's prep room.

Dudu: Balzac! Balzac!!

Enki: Dudu, what are you doing? Dudu: We have to warn him! We have to protect his monster girl!

Balzac: I can't sign autographs right now! I'm, uh, preparing my girl for battle! Y-yeah, that's the ticket.

Kylie: It's no good. We'll have to do something else.

Kylie paces back and forth as her tail scratches her head.

Kylie: Ah! I got it!

Kylie's tail snaps like fingers as a light bulb lights up over her head.

Kylie: Dudu, let me borrow your coin purse!

Dudu: It's a coin pouch.

Kylie: Now's not the time to argue over your fragile masculinity. Hand it over!

Dudu gave Kylie all his money.

Kylie: I'm gonna get two antidotes. When I fight his monster, we'll both take one and then we'll be safe! Dudu: Great idea!

Enki: Be honest. You're taking all his money so you can stock up on candy bars, aren't you?

Kylie's tail nods.

Kylie: No! … Yes.

She hurriedly walks off screen.

Enki: Aren't you upset?! Dudu: Not if she gives me one!

Enki: Ugh...

You then take over as Kylie solo. At this point, you now have two antidotes in your key items, so you can get your money back and do any prep you need to before the fight. When you're ready, go inside and go to to the arena floor. There, a huge crowd excitedly cheers. Opposite you is a strange, cyclopean cat girl creature.

Kylie: Hi! I'm Kylie!

Monster Girl: Hmph! You're goin' down!

Balzac: Yeah! What she said!

-Boss Fight!-

Cat-oblepas

LP: 600

MP: 800

While Cat-oblepas (ugh, the puns) lacks the raw hitting power of Kylie, she has the ability to turn her to stone for one round with her “Cat's Eye” technique. In itself, this does no damage, but it gives her an opening to hit you before you can act again. If you leveled her a bit, Kylie should have the “Lick Wounds” skill which restores HP to one target, and is generally more efficient than the healing items you'll have access to at this point. This is a war of attrition and you'll be going back and forth and sometimes the random off-chance that is Critical Hitting or Counter Attacking can shift the tide, resulting in some infuriating lucksacking scenarios. Just be patient and you'll win!

-Boss Fight!-

Dudu: Kylie! Knock her out! Quickly! Enki: What he means is SHOVE HER OUT OF HARM'S WAY! The way he's saying makes it sound useless and vague, as she's already unconscious!

At this point, you have a few moments to act and push the KO'd Cat-oblepas out of harm's way. If you do, Kylie immediately chugs an antidote (one for her tail, one for her face) and presents a hearty thumbs-up to the player. If you don't, she force-feeds an antidote to Cat-oblepas and drinks one, but faints and you'll have to take on the next boss without her. Either way, this event gives Kylie her first customizable gene – Poison! The next scene is just the party walking to July's office.

July: What's the matter? You didn't like my script, Dudu? Dudu: MY NAME IS NOT DUDU. I AM DOOD.

Enki: Because that's so much different...

July: Come at me, bro, I'm fekken ripped!!

July bursts into smoke as the boss fight cues. An amusing point, Dood's name in Japanese is read as “Doo-dii”, so what he's actually screaming is “I AM NOT DOO-DOO, I'M DOO-DII,” because apparently JeffCom has 13 year olds as writers.

-Boss Fight!-

July

LP: 1200

MP: 500

If there was really a battle that you run the risk of losing in chapter 1, it's this one. He hits like a truck, can use Waffle Iron, can hit the entire party with ice damage, and also, you can accidentally end up fighting him and be a party member-down! So definitely come here with Kylie. Deliost should also have her fire spells at this point, which you'll want to use liberally here, as they'll do maximum damage against this guy. Dood should stick to attacking, and have Kylie use whatever buffs she has at the ready when you arrive. If she's a sufficiently high level, she should have “Proud Cry” which ups defense, which Deliost should definitely have cast on her. This guy doesn't have any weird tricks or gimmicks. It's just a heavy clash of titans here. Do your best.

-Boss Fight!-

July: N-no way! My script... run through the shredder?! Impossible...! B-but don't think for a second that just knocking me down will stop our God's wrath!

Kylie: You try to murder and deceive, yet speak of God?! What deity does one as sick as you worship?!

July: BARF!

July explodes.

Kylie: … I wasn't expecting that.

Dood: Wow. July was a real monster over his profits! Deliost: That joke sucked!!

And you then leave, concluding Chapter 1!

#Adventure #fiction #fantasy #science fantasy #writing #infrequently asked questions #Amazing Quest

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