#-but like most stuff basic runthrough-

[arolesbianism]

Thinking abt my nuggets again. Explodes them.

[bomberqueen17]

Loftus Bralette Sewing Journal: cutting out

LOL so I have started the project but not made a ton of progress, but I thought, well, I'll write it up anyway.

First thing I did was watch the sewalong. It's not the slickest, shiniest sewalong-- there's no jaunty theme song, there's no animated intro, there's no flashy graphics-- it's very much Old Youtubey, where it's someone actually doing the steps and showing you as she goes, not really sped up, with minimal intercuts. As it happens, the demonstrating sewist is the owner of Porcelynne, which is a lingerie supply company and pattern maker, and she also helped design this pattern and the previous Cashmerette bra because she is not only a bra specialist but also is a very busty woman herself, and so completely on the same wavelength. She has incredible technical knowledge, has clearly sewn very many bras, produces a lovely end product, and shows you several places where she either made a mistake or has made many mistakes in the past and has developed this trick to avoid the mistakes. So it's a good solid sewalong... just not the most short-attention-span-friendly thing in the world.

So I will say I watched the sewalong with closed captions on and at 1.5x speed, just for my first runthrough.

(I can't watch a sewalong or tutorial while I'm trying to sew a thing. I do best if I watch it first, so I know what to expect. Hopefully it relates well enough to the instruction manual that I can piece the two together and figure out what I'm supposed to do as I go.)

And now I've started my own sew-through.

I bought a bunch of stuff from Porcelynne-- a nice kit for once I've made it, but basic stuff to muslin it. There are several places on the Cashmerette website and also in the instruction book for the pattern that lays out exactly what fabric you need and what notions. I also then made a list in Sharpie on a scrap of paper, inventorying how many pieces of each pattern piece I needed, and how many inches of each type of elastic I needed, so that I could enclose that inventory along with this iteration of the garment, so that I could refer to the checklist.

I also labeled the elastic-- N for neckline, U for underarm-- as I cut it, so I would know what was supposed to go where.

[img desc my hand holding several lengths of peach-colored elastic, one with a sharpie N and the other with a sharpie U which is sideways and looks like a C but I know what it means trust me. in the background is a baggie with other elastic in it including two pink straps I cut off an old bra to reuse the notions. This bra muslin is not going to be all one color or even going to match, that's just how it is.]

I forgot to order cup lining, it was in my cart but then the session refreshed and I didn't re-add it. So I'm making my muslin with two layers of the same fabric, which means I need to label which layers are the lining and which the outer. This is both easier and harder and I'll let you know whether I recommend this or not 😅.

I'm following Jen from Porcelynne's suggestion of marking the wrong side of the fabric with painter's tape, and i applied the tape immediately after cutting out each piece since there's not an obvious right or wrong side to this fabric, and I also used a felt-tipped marker to write on the painter's tape which 1) piece it was, which 2) layer it was, and 3) whether it was the pattern piece or the mirror image. (Given my specific brand of neurospicy I cannot reliably tell left from right so I'm just making One Half Of The Bra The Same Direction As The Paper Pattern And The Other Half Mirror-Imaged and I'll find out which is right and which is left once i put it on.)

I also immediately used a felt-tipped marker to trace the grainlines on the pattern pieces, then flipped them over and traced the marker line onto the other side, so that I could see how the grainline should be oriented while I had the pattern pieces in mirror-image mode, since the most accurate way to cut fabric is not to cut it while folded. And i know myself, I'd want to wiggle the odd-shaped pieces to fit best on the fabric, and I'd fuck up the grainlines, which are important especially as some of the pieces are cut from stretch fabric.

To add to the confusion, the lining is inside-out from the regular bra. So my first layer, everything mirror-imaged gets an A on the end. (Piece 1a, 2a, 3a on the painter's tape.) but for the lining, the A goes on everything NOT mirror imaged, because the lining and main pieces are cut from the same pattern piece. So the first half of my bra consists of pieces 1, 2, 3 in main fabric, and then mirror-imaged pices 1L, 2L, 3L, and 6L in the lining fabric, and then also 6 non-mirror-imaged in the lining fabric-- 6 is the center front bit and you cut both layers from your lining.

So then the opposite of that is the other half of my bra. Pieces 1A, 2A, 3A, and then lining 1LA, 2LA, 3LA, etc. And then there are two copies of pattern pieces 5 and 4 cut from the powermesh fabric-- the powerbar, and the back band.

L for lining appears in the written instructions, and that plus my own inability to distinguish left from right is why the bra is not labeled L for left or R for right. L for Lining would confuse me even if I just labeled the right half. So I did not, it is Side Unmarked and Side A.

I traced the paper pattern in felt-tipped marker directly unerasably onto the fabric because this is my muslin. And then after I cut it out (with a rotary cutter and mat) I took a pencil, laid the translucent fabric over the paper pattern piece, and traced on every notch, every marking, and the entirety of the sewing lines. For the mirror-imaged pieces, I did this and then flipped them over and darkened the sewing lines onto the now-right side of the fabric. Because this is my muslin and it is far more important to me to sew it perfectly accurately than it is to have the marks erase for later when I maybe wear it and maybe never do.

Yes, this took forever. I did not do this at my usual cutting table I did it on the kitchen table where I could sit comfortably, because I only needed about 24x24" of space to work, and I needed good light and a very steady surface and to be comfortable and not rushed while I worked.

[image description: all my cut out pieces spread across my kitchen table/counter, labeled in silver metallic sharpie on blue painter's tape, with the roll of painter's tape and the paper pattern pieces and my cup of water and scissors all strewn around.]

As soon as I was done I lay everything out, compared it to my checklist, compared the checklist back to the instruction book, made sure the painter's tape was on the correct side of each piece, and then put everything neatly away. I have all my elastics and notions in one little plastic baggie, and then all of the second half of the bra (so, mirror-imaged main pieces, and then non-mirror-imaged lining pieces) in another little plastic baggie, and then the first half of the bra is just in the main baggie that i put the other baggies into.

I brought the whole thing down into my sewing room, and what I did was get the lid of a rubbermaid tote to use as a tray, and lay out half the bra on that, triple-checking the orientation of the pieces, and I did find one where the masking tape was on the wrong side somehow argh. But I've started off by sewing the outer layer and lining layer of the first half together, and I got like one seam in before I was interrupted, but everything inactive is still in the baggies and everything active is on that rubbermaid tote lid in its correct orientation, so I could walk away from it and know where to resume when I come back.

I also have the paper pattern pieces easily to hand to check that notches are correctly marked, because I have no faith in myself to have done that right consistently. Normally I put the pattern away but I'm not doing that here, and I think it makes sense to just print the pattern out numerous times and put any corrections on every instance of it, and then have several copies of it so that any project in-progress can still have the pattern pieces with it until it is complete.

This is my note to myself to do that, keep the pattern pieces there and make adjustments as necessary and then when I finish the muslin, print out another copy with adjustments included.

I also would like to print out a mirror-imaged copy, and potentially have separate pattern pieces for the left and right, as I expect some asymmetry to be a factor.

[musical--android]

Shining Live Basic UI Guide

(( hey there !! for all that don’t know me i’m ami and i’ve been deep in this fandom for several years now. since i play a lot of idol games the ui for shining live is pretty standard-ish for me so i thought i’d give my kinda take to explain the ui to the best of my ability until something better comes out !! disclaimer: i know EXTREMELY limited japanese so most of this is my attempt at this. so with that out of the way let’s go !! ))

to start everything off we’re at the home screen. the bar at the bottom is your main navigation to go from home screen to story and so on, but we’ll cover each section later on.

underneath the box which shows what your chosen idol is saying are as follows: your giftbox, the news tab, your friends, and missions.

giftbox: pretty standard. this is where things such as login bonuses and live rewards will go and can be picked up from !!

news tab: basically anything that’s new and happening with the app.

friends: this is where your friends list will be along with your received requests, sent requests, and where you can search for people via id and whatnot.

missions: this is where missions can be listed. completing these missions will reward you with a set number of scouting gems.

here is a basic look at the friends section. there are four tabs at the very top. when you first click on the button for friends your friends list will be the first to display. the tab next to your friends list is the requests you have received from other players. sent requests is where you can view the requests you have sent to other members. the final tab is where you can search for other players using 2 specific methods. the top bar my guess is by nickname but i am not certain. the 2nd search option is by ID. this is where you can search for your friends using their game id. below will include your nickname and then your id.

this is the page for the stories. it is pretty straightforward as each form of story has a what it is underneath in english but here is basic info for each section.

main story: this is where the main story is which by completing you can unlock songs. a story chapter is unlocked by story tickets which can be obtained via leveling up. each story you view gives you 5 gems.

side story: these are stories you unlock by filling out your idols’ memorial boards on their cards (more to be explained later on). each story you view gives you 5 gems.

event story: most likely stories for events. currently no events thus no event stories.

next up is the idol menu. here you can view the different idols. you can do various things such as change costumes, change partners, and so on.

This is the general layout for each idol. the top bars switch from this layout to their general character profile.

costumes: this is where you can change your idol’s costumes. costumes can be unlocked from filling out the memorial boards for the idols. (again explained later)

portraits: portraits of your idols unlocked from completing specific side stories for each card.

backgrounds: change the overall background for the game. can be unlocked through stories.

bonds: your idol’s bond with other idols increased via them performing on the same team.

set as partner: set the idol as your partner. will appear on main screen.

here we have the songs. you can play songs you have unlocked on one of the 4 different difficulties and gain gems for scouting upon either getting a specific score, getting a specific combo, or completing the songs a certain number of times.

the other tab is your general “b-sides” songs. here you can play these songs for specific “tokens” used for idolizing your cards. the songs here have a limited mount of time available and can be seen underneath. currently Shining Romance and FORCE LIVE are available for 32 more days. the 3rd song cycles out every day.

here we have the place where you scout. the tabs above allow you to filter between different kinds of scouting. currently the other tab is only capable of being scouted with PAID gems. so if you’ve bought gems you can make do with this. it is pretty straightforward for most idol games. here the scouts can give you anywhere from rare to ultra rare cards. it is most recommended to wait to scout for 11 as you receive at least one guaranteed sr or above.

note: if you are playing this for the very first time and have your guaranteed ur ticket there will be a 3rd tab where you can proceed to use your ticket in order to receive your guaranteed ur. mine isn’t here as i’ve already received mine.

here is the general menu for lessons.

teams/live members: this is where you can create your teams to be used for playing the songs. you can have up to 6 teams.

lessons: this is where you level up your cards. you can use exp orbs dropped after live performances and available in certain purchased packages or you can use other cards.

special lessons: this is where you can use duplicates of two of the same card together to essentially “limit break” them. similar to other idol games.

memorial board: this is where you can use the moon/sun/star tokens to strengthen, idolize, and unlock things such as stories/costumes/quotes with your cards.

bromide: basically the collection of cards you own.

medal shop/exchange: here you can sell your cards for special coins/medals. chich can be used to unlock backgrounds, tokens for your memorial boards, and other coins/medals.

here is the basic look at the teams/live members menu. you can have up to 6 teams that you can cycle through. the menu with the pen on it is where you can change the name of your teams for better organization. the yellow button is what you press to set a specific team as your main team. the white button is to auto build team.

upon clicking it there will be a set of buttons. on the left it will have you choose from auto building a team based on either balanced, dance, vocal, or act.

the other half will allow you to filter specific cards for that team such as only wanting act cards for your team rather than building a team that includes dance and vocal cards as well.

here is the basic layout of the lessons menu. you will select a member and from this menu you can choose to use either cards you have or exp/skill orbs to level up your card’s level or its skill level. unfortunately for this screenshot i do not have any exp or skill orbs to show. press the red button to confirm your choice for the lesson and white is to cancel.

the special lessons can only be used with duplicates of each card. as i currently do not have any there is not much to show aside from a blank screen. it is pretty straightforward though. it will provide you with the cards you have duplicates of. select one and then you will be prompted to select the other(s). you can confirm and there will be a little number next to them to show if they’ve performed a special lesson or not. in my screenshot for the lessons menu you can see an otoya, a masato, a tokiya, a syo, and a reiji card each that have performed one special lesson each.

here is a look at the memorial board. just as with the lessons menu you can choose any of your cards in order to enter the memorial board to fill out using either the moon, the sun, or the star tokens to unlock side stories, costumes, quotes, and to idolize your cards. this can also increase the strength of your cards as well. if you do not have enough tokens you can choose to use your gems in order to unlock things,

a special note: for quick gems for scouting fill out your memorial boards with all of your normal cards you received from the tutorial. they each have one story and by viewing each story you can get 5 gems for each boy.

here is the bromide(?) menu. here you can view the cards you own. it is pretty straightforward.

here is the medal/token exchange. here you can sell your cards for specific medals/tokens. red is confirm and the white next to it is to cancel. clicking the button underneath the medals/tokens will bring you to this menu.

here is where you can use your tokens/medals to exchange for various items such as better tokens/medals, tokens for your memorial board, and backgrounds.

and finally we have the menu.

album: album of all the cards. you can only look at the ones you own.

shop: where you can purchase gems, lp, and extra member slots.

medal exchange: covered above

inventory: where you can check the gems, tokens, tickets, etc that you have.

profile: where you can view and edit your profile.

settings: general settings such as bgm volume and voice volume

live settings: where you can change things for the lives such as speed of notes and calibration.

help: general help

data transfer: where you can choose to connect your account to twitter ids/etc in case of wanting to change phones or as general back-up so you do not lose your account.

websites(?): provides links to the utapri website, shining live website, and shining live twitter.

terms of service(?): i assume terms of service.

??: generally do not know. if anyone knows feel free to tell me and i will fix this.

EDIT ( 08/29/2017 ) - additional translations can be found on this reddit thread !! including game & live settings translations along with missions and whatnot !! please check them out !!

[sanstropfremir]

are you watching any of the kingdom behind the scenes videos the groups are posting? and if yes, is there anything interesting or surprising to you?

i am watching a few of them! i've seen stuff from ikon, btob, sf9, and ateez, but i'm only really following what ateez and btob are putting out. what i've seen is about what i expected it to look like behind the scenes, so a lot of this is me going 'ah yes i love being right.' i think the most surprising thing for me is that btob's choreographer/performance director is blocking EVERYTHING in that tiny cube rehearsal room. like that takes a lot of strong spatial skill and memory to plan out, especially when you see them do runthroughs. like i'm gonna hazard a guess and say that the mnet double stage is three to four times the size of that room? those dancers and btob are so skilled for being able to do that kind of fast spatial adjustment, because it looks like groups maybe only get one or two rehearsals in the mnet/studio rehearsal hall. most of the other groups were renting out larger rehearsal spaces, which is the general protocall for if you have to work on a big stage with a lot of people. sf9's dance practice videos are a great example of this (they rented a stadium for believer rehearsals lol), and they also look great, it's really clear they though about shot order and composition when choreographing. here's a fun tidbit for you! in the jealous dance video, you can a bunch of lines and shapes on the floor; that's the floorplan of the mnet stage! this is a technique that's used in theatre by stage management to mark out where the stage is and where obstacles are so directors and performers aren't making movements that would be clipping into walls. basically the stage managment team comes in before the start of rehearsal with a dimensioned groundplan and tapes everything out using accurate measurements. the most satisfying bit is pulling up all the tape on the last day of rehearsal. so this was a nice confirmation what there actually was someone with theatre training involved behind the scenes.

from what i've seen from the ateez videos i hope they're all taking very long naps right now, because they fucking deserve it after promoting and filming for kingdom at the same time. i know they're probably going to have a comeback soon because that's in line for what most groups did after rtk and i think skz has a confirmed comeback for july??? but i hope ateez (and ikon, i think they were promoting too during filming) get a fucking break because you could really tell they were tired during music shows stages.

[yahargul]

your yizhan anons are so fun to read... would you mind doing a quick runthrough of the most 👀 moments for newcomers to the party? can obvs be as short or as detailed as you want

omg okay so, i think the moment that knocked me out and first got me into this rabbit hole was an unofficial bts clip of them during ha/ppy ca/mp when yb was joking about xz being older than him and under his breath said “old cow eats fresh grass” which is an idiom meaning cradle robber, and then xz hit him and said he’s not gonna pay for his bike repairs. (recently an official version of this bts got released with the audio on that part turned WAY down, but you can still hear the part about the repairs). i was actually legit freaking out (i mean in a panic way cause i thought this would be really bad for them) and i couldn’t understand why no one else was until i understood the Protocol of everything being cpn (couple brain) or fake on the bxg side and everyone else shoving their fingers in their ears pretending this stuff doesn’t exist. so. crisis semi averted. but that clip being a thing that exists still kinda stresses me out lmao, but that’s what got me investigating cause i was trying to find out if they were actually a thing or not or if the clip was faked or something ....anyway i’m here now 

uuuh there’s also stuff like this and also basically every single instance of them looking at each other during the fanmeets also some of their reactions to interview questions like this one?? ‘how have your impressions of each other changed now’ and that reaction uuuuuuuuh yb what tf are u grinning like that for

basically if you watch any interviews/bts of them after a while everything gets very  👀 👀 👀 👀 

[misslaneyluck]

Flame Liberator Write Up!

I rarely use Tumblr but it’s easier to link to than a Twitter thread. Here’s a quick runthrough of how I made Lea’s Flame Liberator Keyblade from KH3 (the one in DDD has a different handle, it’s not round like the KH3 one is).

Here’s some ref images:

Let’s get started! I modeled the handle myself, however I’m just not good enough at organic modelling to make the blade. I’m still working on it, and will upload it to Thingiverse when it’s finished. It went from idea to completion in just under a month, so I didn’t have too long to spend trying to model the blade.

Read it all below the break! 

Supplies

Here’s the handle I modeled: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/20647-leas-keyblade-flame-liberator-handle-only-wip

Here’s the model I purchased for the blade: https://www.etsy.com/listing/694651403

PLA+ (handle)

Clear PETG (blade)

Sandpaper

Super glue

Bondo/ Wood filler

XTC3D

M3 heat set inserts + screws (optional)

Magnets (optional)

LEDs + Control board (I listed the ones I used below)

Soldering iron + solder 

Alligator clips

Blade colors: red, orange, yellow

Handle colors: chrome, metallic red, black gloss

Gloss topcoat

Fabric to wrap the handle

Masking tape

Polyfill to diffuse the LEDs

Tote to check

Process

1. Modelling: The first thing I did was work on the model. I made the handle in Fusion 360, then brought the whole thing into Meshmixer to clean up and slice the model (slicing means cutting it down for your printer). I used Meshmixer to cut the handle into 5 parts (4 for the ring and the handle was separate) and put holes in it for 1/4″ wooden dowels. I also used Meshmixer to cut the handle off the model I purchased and smooth out the very end of the blade.

If you’re planning on 3d printing, I highly recommend getting comfortable with Meshmixer, it’s free and really powerful, but also incredibly simple, one of my favorite tools! 

2. Printing: I printed the handle + keychain in eSun PLA+ and the Blade in clear PETG. This is the most straightforward, however clear PETG isn’t really beginner friendly. I definitely recommend testing your settings, and starting with a fresh spool if you’re going to print something this big, it needs to be kept dry.

3. Print Finishing: The chakram handle needs to get sanded and have the handle attached. I gave the rings a good sand with the dremel and then glued it together. I attached the middle of the handle with heat set inserts and m3 screws, then glued it down. This probably isn’t a necessary step but I had the pieces on hand, and I wanted it to be really strong.

After it was all glued together I started refining the finish. Sand with sandpaper, fill seams/ dents with bondo or wood filler. Coat with filler primer, sand some more. We want it to be smoooooooth so the shiny paint looks good.

The blade I glued together in pieces (top 2, then next 2) so I had 2 sections, I poured XTC3D inside and slushed it around as best I could. After that was done I glued those 2 sections together and used a paintbrush on a stick to coat the inside seam with XTC3D for strength. Hindsight I wouldn’t do this this way, I would work base to top and leave the top off until the LEDs were inside.

The very end of the blade is a little different because it goes around the Chakram handle, and needs to come apart for travel. Basically they come on/ off with magnets. This isn’t an ideal solution as I didn’t design it with this in mind, however I realized that it needs to get to Florida then go back home with its new owner so this is what we have. Hopefully the photos make sense, I used a combination of friendly plastic, magnets and epoxy to hold everything together.

4. Painting: Chrome finish paints need a glossy black coat underneath. You can use any paint- black spray paint, black glossy paint, XTC3D over black, etc. As long as the whole thing is glossy black. I should have done a better job sanding/ priming because the chrome paint ended up a bit spotty, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. I definitely handled it too much after priming it black, LPT is to not touch it at all! 

Painting is pretty straight forward, for the handle I did chrome first, making sure to let it set fully before masking it off and painting the red. I used Spaz Stix Mirror Chrome and Candy Apple Red.

The blade I used a matte yellow base coat, then an iridescent yellow. The orange and red are acrylics I thinned with airbrush thinner, a lot of airbrush reds are actually pink so I mixed my own.

Seal the fuck out of everything with paint sealer! I put a final layer of XTC3D on the blade because the paint scratched super easily.

5. Electronics: LPT: Figure out how to get your LEDs in first, I had to cut the tip of the blade off and fix it. Would not recommend.

The electronics made me super nervous because I’ve never put LEDs in anything, I haven’t programmed since college, and I was on a time crunch. I read through a bunch of Adafruit tutorials and decided on using the NanoPixel LEDs and a Circuit Playground Express controller. If I had more time I could have ordered something cheaper, but I wanted the reliability + community of these things.

YOU WILL NEED TO SOLDIER THE LEDS. This is the only way to ensure a permanent connection on your wires. All you need is a cheap soldering iron (they’re like $4) and solder.

Adafruit has a bunch of tutorials, here’s the ones I found most useful:

NeoPixel Uberguide

Introducing Circuit Playground Express

Glowing Interactive Staff

Glowing NeoPixel Table (this covers some FastLED stuff I found helpful)

Supply list:

Circuit Playground Express Base Kit

NeoPixels 60 - 1 Meter x2 (they come terminated so you won’t have to cut + solder the LED ends if you get 2x 1 meter strands)

Battery Holder (I know the kit has one, but based on my measurements it would be too big for the handle, so I bought this as well)

Alligator clips (use these to test connections before you solder)

I used FastLED to get the fire animation (link)

There’s a lot to this that I don’t really want to get into, because I’m not an expert, and the guides on Adafruit explain things much better than I can. I found the glowing staff guide the most useful, I just left out the on button (there’s an on/off switch on the battery pack). Basically - connect LEDs and battery to Circuit Playground Express (CPX), and plug the CPX into your computer. If you have the software all set up you just upload the code.

6. Bonus! Travelling: It fits in the bin! I added foam padding to the lid and insides to keep everything safe. just need to make sure it’s extra secure with bubble wrap and padding. The tote has 4 snaps but I closed it with zip ties before flying, TSA will just cut them open if they need to.

[smartzelda]

Okay *Demyx voice* Arendelle time!

Poor Sora😂

That gust of snow just moves in and he's like "Coat! Please! I'm an islander!"

Donald just shrugs it off like "That's not how it works. Go and freeze."

This is where I bring up the "kh3 is self aware thing" again because now we actually have Sora dying from the snowy area, and then when Sora just like completely forgets about it, Donald and Goofy are like, "Islander my butt. He's not even feeling it anymore, is he?"

Sora getting the first puzzle piece to the situation when Elsa runs away, a sad look on her face. Y'know, the beginning of that Riku to Elsa and Sora to Anna parallel, Elsa running away because Anna and the whole Kingdom are better off without her

Elsa: *uses magic*

Sora, Donald, and Goofy: *surprised pikachu face and slightly fearing for their lives*

If I'm remembering correctly, there's a section right here where you basically fight a bunch of enemies in the huge area

I distinctly remember running around, (and Xion could vouch for this) fighting the enemies, and very monotonely voicing that I was about to die

So...ice maze.

In my proud runthrough I really had to get to a save point so I zoomed through the ice maze as fast as possible. This time I took the time to explore every room and beat all the enemies. I still hate light rails with a passion.

So, the avalanche gets started at the top once we reach the palace, pushing Sora, Donald, and Goofy off

I... The ice dragon thing was so bad. I spent forever, dying and dying and dying to their stupid laser beams. It happened so many times that I had to go to bed and try it again the next day. I would get to the part where all three flew in the air and shot beams, and it felt so unpredictable and stupid and impossible because I would dodge beams from two, and the third's would appear right under where I was landing, which was impossible to judge. It was here I learned a lesson: Use the Kupo Coin when you need it

Bless the kupo coin for saving my stupid butt

The sled part after that stressed me out cause it wasn't hard, but I had a bad habit of bumping into things, so...😂

I pretty much just abused shotlocks, ultimate form, light form/double form okp, and thunder or thundara or whichever I had at the time and I finished those dragons off

Spiky brown grass 😂😂😂😂

Poor Sora is so frustrated that he didn't get a color like green or blue like Donald and Goofy

The part where Anna talks to Sora about Elsa and he finally puts some pieces together and relates it to him and Riku really gets me every time because their situation is a big Soriku parallel. I know this is one of the scenes that's probably been soriku analyzed to death, but like

Elsa and Anna used to play all the time when they were really little like best friends

Baby Sora and Riku, best friends, used to play together all the time

One day, Elsa shuts Anna out because she doesn't want to hurt her

Kairi enters the scene, Sora starts paying a little more attention to her, Sora and Riku's duo relationship isn't terrible, it just does a little decrease. The literal shutting out in which Riku and Sora close the Door to Darkness. Then, the shutting out when Sora wakes up in kh2 and Riku alienates himself because of his guilt over what he did, and what leads into the next part of the parallel

Elsa accidentally uses her ice magic and flees the kingdom to the north mountain. She alienates herself so she can't hurt anyone (especially Anna) and because she thinks the kingdom and Anna are better off without her

Riku feels like he can't win without using the power of darkness and is weak. He is ashsmed that he relied on darkness and it showed in his appearance as Ansem. He alienates himself from Sora and everyone because he feels like he can't show his face as Ansem and because he thinks Sora is better off without him.

Sora, of course, puts these pieces together with Anna's story and makes the parallel connection between him and Anna, then Elsa and Riku in his head. I like how he says, "If anyone can help her, it's you," because I feel like that's him remembering his situation with Riku when he wanted to find him and that because of the reason for Riku's actions, only he could help.

And I think it's interesting that it's first Anna saying "I have to bring her home" and then Sora saying "I'm sure she knows now much you love her" for him to make these parallels. I think that implies that Sora gets that Elsa and Anna are siblings that love each other and he's thinking over what Riku means to him and even what he means to Riku.

Also Sora (in jap ver dialogue) realizing that maybe Riku pushed him away because he's someone precious to Riku is like...

My heart bro...

Ngl, so many times here I moved up the mountain fighting enemies and died that I'd go halfway up the mountain, then backtrack all the way back to the save so I wouldn't have to keep completely starting over every time I got oneshotted by an armored body. I did that multiple times for this area.

So, we get to the point where Sora finally reaches the top of the mountain again. For whatever reason I couldn't remember if it was like that before, but the Elsa freezing Anna's heart scene and it flashing between that and Sora, and then Sora holding a hand to his heart in pain right after we see the shot of Elsa putting ice into Anna's heart.

I think it's a parallel and Nomura's tryna tell us/foreshadow something

Okay, so big oof on the Marshmallow fight. I think on my proud run I got a bunch of times to use the team attack with the tree. I swear I only got to use it twice counted up from all my attempts on this run

The suckiest part was armored mode. I did a lot of trying to let Donald and Goofy do the work here cause I didn't wanna get oneshotted, but that didn't always quite work out... I eventually did it though, snd of course Sora, Donald, and Goofy are knocked off the mountain again

Idk how mant times I'm gonna keep saying this, but poor Sora. He's just so done and frustrated. "I could do this a hundred times."

And then Donald and Goofy both take him seriously 😂

"Please don't."

"Yeah, we should do it again!"

Awwww, Marshmallow. He just wanted to protect Elsa. I know that's what he was created to do, but that's still sweet

Sweet Sora boy making friends with anything that moves and we love him for it

Marshmallow made my life with enemies a little easier ngl

At the save point right before seeing Kristoff, I did some meteorite farming in gummi space and took a trip to the bistro. By this point I had excellents on all but 3 dishes because I didn't have the ingredients yet.

Also, by this point I was blessed with adorable remmy and Sora getting presents. Remmy got his own tiny present!

And I'm sure you know this already, but like...I have a soriku obsession right now, so I enjoy making things into little personal Soriku references

Exhibit A: My gummi and Teeny Ships

They are both named after Yozora and contain the colors for Sora, Riku, and Yozora

Okay, so back in Arendelle, Sora, Donald, and Goofy temporarily leave Marshmallow behind, and we come upon Kristoff and another Soriku parallel

Kristoff: "No, Sven! We're not going back. She's with her true love."

Riku: "You mean Kairi. To Sora, she's someone very special."

Sora: "Where'd Anna go?"

Kristoff: "She's back at home."

Sora: "Something happen?"

Kristoff: "Anna was struck in the heart by Elsa's ice magic. If the ice isn't removed, she'll freeze forever. Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart. So I took her back to Arendelle and to her true love, Hans."

Xion: "Do you know where Sora is now?"

Riku: "That secret stays with me."

Xion: "Why's that?"

Riku: "Xion...your memories...they really belong to Sora."

Xion: "So you mean...I'm like a part of him?"

Riku: "When his memories were scattered, some of them...found their way inside you. Now, Sora has been put to sleep so that we can piece together his memory."

Sora: "But...what about you?"

Kristoff: "What about me?"

Sora: "Uh, I sorta assumed you guys were..."

Kristoff: "Nooo! I just keep her from getting lost."

Xion: "So, do you hate me for taking your friend away from you?"

Riku: "Nah, I guess...I'm just sad.

Sora: "Really? Oh, but you seem so..."

Goofy: "Perfect together!"

Donald: "Yeah, like me and Daisy!"

So let's talk this over.

Point one, both assumptions on who the person in question's (Sora and Anna) true love/most important person is. This may have to do in part with some surface level stuff and Kristoff/Riku's anxiety that the person in question (Anna and Sora) probably doesn't like them like that.

Point two, the person in question has had something bad happen to them such as their memories being "erased" or their heart being frozen, needing some sort of action to save that person.

Point three, neither Riku nor Kristoff factor their feelings into the situation, Kristoff because he just feels the duty to save Anna and doesn't believe he is her true love, and Riku because he feels the duty to save Sora snd similarly does not believe himself to be Sora's special person (which didn't exactly factor in in Riku's case, but it's true he too pushed his feelings aside in all areas except saving Sora).

Point four, "I just keep [him] from getting lost" is totally something Riku or Sora would say about the other.

Point five, I added the last part because despite the insistence that Hans is Anna's true love, Sora, Donald, and Goofy agree that it seems Anna and Kristoff are perfect together, and it especially helps to know that on their side, they've seen that Anna and Kristoff work well together. They haven't seen her with Hans, and even in the movie, she and Hans don't get much screentime development. This is a parallel more to the soriku experience. On our side, we see Sora and Riku get a lot of screentime and development together, and it's clear that they care for each other. So when someone, even in game, insists that Kairi is most important to Sora, it feels like, "Oh, but Sora and Riku seem perfect together" and "But Kairi and Sora don't really get development like that or really much screentime together."

So, resuming the story (and the parallel), there's a gust of wind amd Kristoff looks towards Arendelle. He obviously feels something is wrong and says Anna's name before rushing off. I'm being completely honest, we've seen Riku too rush off, feeling that Sora's in danger. Prime example I remember though would be in the keyblade graveyard when Riku just gets a feeling and runs over to Sora, giving him a pep talk sorta just before everyone else gets swept up.

So, Marshmallow too, just like Kristoff, feels something is wrong, and gestures in the direction of Arendelle, saying Elsa's name, and the group is off to save Elsa and Anna.

And then, another parallel! Yes, Arendelle is Soriku parallel city over here!

Before Hans' sword reaches Elsa

Before the demon tide reaches Sora and Riku

Anna stands between the sword and Elsa

Riku stands between the demon tornado and Sora

Anna puts her right hand out to block the blow

Riku thrusts the keyblade in his right hand forward, directing the darkness around him and Sora into a tunnel

Anna completely turns to ice and saves Elsa, an act of true love

Riku attempts to save Sora at the expense of his own life, an act of true love, and is swallowed by the darkness

Anna gives one clear final breath

Riku gives one clear final breath

Elsa, alive due to her sister's act of true love, realizes the power of love and is able to save/unfreeze Anna

Sora's heart and body persist, arriving in the final world, his heart likely persisting due to Riku's act of true love, and his body due to Kairi, and he believes in himself and is able to go save Riku's heart

Just...ya know...food for thought...

And now, boss battle time! I believe I didn't have too much trouble on it when I dodged correctly. I beat it fine. One of my favorite shots I saw though was Sora using subzero impact with Ultima, but his clothes were the formchange color because I had just hit Ultima form right before. It was literally so epic!!

No, Marshmallow! You can't die this way! I need you to battle things for me-! Uh, I mean, you need to be alive because we care about you!

Just kidding Marshmallow! I love you and you're actually a nice snow giant with a big heart!

Cue Sora getting the example of the power of true love when Anna unfreezes.

THE PRETTY ANIMATION

Pretty animation Sora, I looooove you

Poor boy caring so much about everyone. He just wants to keep everyone safe.

And after Elsa gives another demonstration of the power of love, Arendelle is over.

[inquisitorhotpants]

Hii, do you happen to have made any organizational charts of then sith military? Sort of like, how the fleets are organized etc? The new Onslaught expansion had definitely made me curious on how the Empire actually manages its resources. Also, these swtor prompt ficlets were amazing!! :)

thank you!  :D

So this is all gonna be very slapdash and not very well organized, but here we go with at least an *overview*. :D

The Sith Empire’s military’s largest designation is the Fleet, First Fleet through Fifth Fleet. Fifth Fleet is the home fleet, commanded by Rycus Kilran (or whoever succeeds him if you have him die - I do not lmao). I don’t have a lot broken down from there because I haven’t needed it, but we can definitely do a quickie runthrough.

I work a lot of the Imperial military much like the Marine Corps, because it’s what I’m most familiar with, with a few changes. The Marine Corps’ largest dividing structure is Headquarters Marine Corps, the Operating Forces, the Supporting Establishment, and the Marine Forces Reserve.

Headquarters Marine Corps would be analogous to the Ministry of War, with a little overlap with the military spheres of the Council. It’s the absolute tippy top brass. (In terms of most folks in the military, HQMC is this basically nebulous concept that sends down stupid rules that we don’t like, like the tattoo policy the Marines implemented in 2007. Besides it’s all officers and everyone - ie, all enlisted folks - knows officers don’t do shit. xD )Operating Forces is a very overarching designation for regional commands with multiple services in it. In US terms, it breaks up the whole of the globe into five main commands. Its equivalent in the Sith military would be the Fleets I referenced at the beginning. 

The US is covered by US Northern Command, or USNORTHCOM, and its Sith Empire equivalent would be the Fifth Fleet, the one that guards the home triangle of Korriban, Dromond Kaas, and Ziost.The Marine Corps breaks down its commands within the Operating Forces breakdown, but that’s very service-specific, though the Army and the Navy would both do so within the Fleet structure, another thing I’ll probably tinker with once NaNoWriMo is over.

Supporting Establishment is for literally everything else - everything we consider “the military” in popular culture, extra duties like recruiting or drill instructor duty, etc. Basically, your average Jane is not going to be concerned with HQMC or Operating Forces, pretty much ever. You won’t ever hear “oh I’m getting transferred to the Fourth Fleet.” It’s always going to be the direct base, planet, or ship (in the case of the Navy) that they’d be transferring to. So while a Marine might go, “Fucking A, I got orders to Barstow, I asked for QUANTICO on my request!”, someone like Pierce would be like, “Goddamn it, they’re sending me to the Adamant? Even I’ve heard their chow hall sucks and the commander loves early morning inspections.”

The Reserve is self-explanatory, though I’ve greatly expanded its role in the Sith Empire. In the reserves for the Empire, everyone trains, everyone continues to be as battle-ready as they can, because the Sith have lived with this cultural fear that the Jedi are coming to eradicate them for millennia. If you aren’t active duty, you’re Home Guard. 

Once you get past this main structure, you get a lot of room to play around. In RL, you get into what the Marines call the MAGTF (Marine Air Ground Task Force). These are the largest Marine-specific organizations outside of the Fleet Marine Force designations (what I referenced a couple paragraphs ago about the breakdowns within the Operating Forces), and are put together for specific missions and dissolved when that mission is over. MAGTFs are organized so that the Marines are ready to go with everything they’ll need at a moment’s notice - ground, air, and logistics. Within the MAGTF there are smaller designations, from expeditionary units (smallest) to expeditionary forces (largest). This is how I see a lot of the Sith Empire’s deployments working - you pull together what you need and go on a mission. 

For example, in Onslaught (and I’ve only finished on my JK so I could romance Scourge, so I’ve only seen it from the outside so far), you have both the iso-5 and the Silencer fleets turn up. Aside from that mainly being so SWTOR can reference stuff you’ve already done, these ships likely wouldn’t be just palling around together. Thus, seeing what was going on and remembering what happened with Corellia last time, what likely happened is that the commander of the ... whichever fleet it is I assigned to closest to Corellia was like, “we’re going to put together this, and this, and this, based on our intel on what the Republic is going to bring to this fight.” The plan for Corellia had to have been in the works for some time, but the benefit to being able to bring together a force quickly because you already have detailed information on where each of these units are is that you can mobilize quickly. 

Given their history with the Republic, the Imperial military would place great emphasis on being mobile and fast-responding. A lot of emphasis would be placed on being mission-ready, having all training up to date, not dragging around a bunch of broken gear, that sort of thing. Lots of drills, lots of training exercises, etc. 

that was .. not short at all, sorry.  xD hopefully it’s at least a little help. :D

[fishdavidson]

Dream Journal 2019-06-27: An Unusual Movie Called QST.B32

All right, so this dream is probably going to be far too long for the amount of time I have to write tonight, but I will do my best to get as complete and concise a summary as I can. Part of the reason for its length is that I was pretty lucid for a large part of it, in addition to its vividness.

The dream begins in a nondescript bedroom that appears to belong to an older teenager or young adult. A black shelf is built into the wall next to me, empty except for a DVD case and an almanac of economic statistics. Someone has circled various statistics in the book, and I know deep down in my gut that this is supposed to mean something. I recognize the DVD --which is labeled QST.B32-- as an underappreciated cult film that I have yet to see.

I take both of them.

Flash forward a bit, and I have watched the movie and promptly become obsessed with it. This movie is unique among most other movies because there are hundreds of scenes hidden on the disc that you will probably never see. The only way to see them is to find hidden branch points that will allow you to change the story.

I watch the movie again. And again. And again. I trawl the internet for tips and rumors of how to find the dozens of scenes I haven’t yet witnessed. Once the internet stops giving up secrets, I turn to other sources. I am convinced that the book of economic statistics from earlier is somehow related to uncovering all that this movie can offer.

My brain gets a bit jumbled with events here, because things are simultaneously happening and not happening. The boy from whose room I took the book and DVD has died of unknown causes. He is also alive and fearful of an impending event known as “Bounce Day.” And he is unconscious and much younger, lying face-down on the tile floor of a kitchen.

This is where the lucidity kicks into overdrive.

Somehow the DVD, the book, and the reality in which I find myself are all interrelated. My reality is now that of the DVD, and I am at a narrative branch point. I also now have the ability basically make a “bookmark” at the current point in the film/reality, but each time I make a bookmark, the next one has to be closer to the end of the film.

Reality spans several days until it reaches “Bounce Day” at the end of the film. Once it reaches this point, I have the option to restart the film from the beginning and make different decisions to change what happens in the story. My goal from now on is to understand what exactly “Bounce Day” is and to stop the boy from the beginning of this dream from ending up dead.

I go through the events a few more times, trying to figure out where some hidden branch points are. The only thing that I can carry between replays is the book of statistics, so I use it to create a notation system for tracking which branches I’ve seen and where decision points are likely to be.

Everything seems to be laden with meaning and subtext. Otherwise unrelated or meaningless objects want to share secret messages with my brain somehow. I become more attuned to the weird little waypoints that indicate where in the narrative I am. These waypoints are all little things like the expiration dates on grocery store coupons, or status messages on gas pumps (like “no change given at this terminal”).

Some decision points always occur during the flow of the narrative, while others only show up if certain conditions are fulfilled. By this point, I’ve experienced the film several dozen times. I’ve located several fuel pumps that function like debugging menus and let me sidestep certain branches and move forward and backward through time via a process known as “advancing the room.”

Bounce Day is the first mystery that gets solved. It occurs in the timeline where the boy dies, and Bounce Day is some sort of cataclysmic event that will bring about a major civil war filled with bullets and bombs. If I can prevent the boy from dying before the end, I can probably prevent Bounce Day.

On the next playthrough, I make a bookmark before the boy dies and knock him unconscious instead. This is the timeline where most of the stuff I haven’t seen before is located. My notes in the book indicate where the first new branch should probably occur. I steal a car and drive very slowly through a specific parking lot to travel through some sort of demonic portal to a new parallel reality where time doesn’t exist in a linear fashion and there are more overtly supernatural beings (though everything otherwise looks identical).

I make another bookmark here.

This portion is extremely chaotic and the decision points seem even more arbitrary. After another dozen runthroughs from this point, I am pretty confident that the only way to prevent Bounce Day and keep the boy alive is to secure the help of a blue demonic assassin named Bella. But the only way to get Bella to appear in a scene where she is not outright hostile to you is to figure out the arbitrary patterns that govern her appearance.

The position of two pieces of wood in a barren concrete room with a thin layer of water on the floor dictated this for some reason. One particularly advantageous path put me in contact with another human named Matt who worked as an agricultural scientist before he ended up having to work on finding a way to avert Bounce Day. He gave me a packet of instructions that detailed more hidden paths (which got documented in my book) and told me how to find weapons and ammunition I could use to defend myself.

I took Matt’s plans and made another bookmark. I started cycling through different paths until I found one that gave me about 30 seconds to reach Bella before she entered into a gunfight with another assassin. I jumped down a massive staircase in order to beat the rival assassin to Bella and secured her assistance right as the gunfire started breaking out.

At this point I had found all the passages through the movie and found the best possible ending to the film. But all was not finished!

Upon reaching the end this time, I was transported back to the bedroom from the beginning of the dream. But this time around, I was outside of the movie reality. The book and DVD were still there, but all the notes I had made in my journeys were still in the book. The boy from the beginning was maybe 5 or 6 years old at this point.

My purpose in this dream, it turns out, was to map out every pathway through a treacherous alternate reality for this boy. He was destined to be the one who would avert Bounce Day in this reality.

Good luck, kid; you’ll need it.

[indigo-werewolf]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Story Poll Pt. 3

LiHello, everyone, it’s me again! If you saw my last post, you know that I won’t be posting in June, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t share some of my ideas for the Yu-Gi-Oh! runthrough I’ve been talking about!

I know I said I was looking at modifiers for the standard game, but I’ve become more open to changing it a little more. I know, I’m fickle. Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

Dungeon Monsters-

I had this idea a while ago but it all seemed overwhelming, so I shelved it. I’ve been working on it some more and I think it could work well. Basically, it would be the standard game, but instead of monsters just attacking and destroying each other, they have real-time battles in a holographic arena. Duelists direct them as they fight and use their monsters strategically.

I feel like this could be a good balance between what I want to do and what I feel like I can do. It would be a good way to spice up the game without overcomplicating it too much, and let monsters be more than just numbers. This way, a field full of weak monsters could fight off one really strong monster, which I really like the idea of.

Some things would be different if I did this. Instead of the difference between both monsters’ ATK, damage would only be inflicted when a monster is destroyed, and is equal to the monsters’ Level x 100. Rank and Link Rating would be similar but different at the same time, but those are a long way away. There wouldn’t be attack mode and defense mode, and ATK and DEF would be more about how much damage monsters can do and withstand than a hard numerical value.

Duel Robos-

This is a pretty drastic change. Basically the above, but monsters are actual miniature fighting robots instead of just holograms. Think Custom Robo or Little Battlers Experience. Duelists would be able to customize their monsters and give them different parts, equipment, and weapons that can give them effects, increase their ATK/DEF, or make them more effective in battle in other ways.

I could either do this with standard dueling or more like Custom Robo and Little Battlers Experience, where it’s a one-on-one fight. Either way, I feel like it’ll be really complicated and I might not be able to handle it. I really hope I can and I want to do this, just because I’m really excited about it and it has so much potential, but I also know it could get messy fast. I’ll probably write a test duel for this, and if I like it, I might post it on AO3 for more people to see and weigh in on. I’m pretty much just talking to myself here, after all.

Duels would be pretty different if I did this. Most of the rules would be the same as Dungeon Monsters above, but now any monster could be given an effect even if they were a Normal Monster, or they could get extra claws, weapons, or armor. Thinking of all the different mods they could have makes my head hurt a little, to be honest, but I’m also really excited about it.

Real-Time Duel Fights-

This one came to me as an afterthought. Basically, either of the above, but without a simulated environment. Monsters would sit on the field like the normal game but go into real-time back-and-forth fights when their duelists declare an attack, and return when they’re done. Other monsters summoned afterwards could join in and continue the fight if the first monster to attack gets destroyed. I feel like this might be “it” just because it feels like a really good balance between the standard game and the complicated stuff I want to do. Especially with Duel Robos and maybe the Attribute Advantage and Environment Spaces ideas below, this could be what I finally land on. Let me know your thoughts.

I also had a couple of things for the normal game:

Attribute Advantage-

Basically, some monsters would gain ATK when attacking certain Attributes of other monsters, and gain DEF when being attacked by them. If I were doing the standard game, this wouldn’t have much use, but I could also apply it to Dungeon Monsters and Duel Robos above, which would be better, I feel like. I may add more Attributes, such as the ones from the old Capsule Monsters Colosseum video game, if this is the case.

Skills-

I only recently became aware of this, but adding the Skills from Link Vrains and the Speed Duel cards that Yami and other characters have. I like this and might do it regardless of anything else.

Two Rows-

I went over this in the last post, but two rows of monsters instead of one, sort of like the Seal of Orichalcos’ effect in the anime. I’m still working out exactly how it would work, but since there are already Extra Monster Zones, I feel like it’s not too much of a stretch.

Damage on Destruction-

Pretty much just what I was talking about in the Dungeon Monsters idea. Instead of regular damage, duelists take damage if their monsters are destroyed even if they were in Defense Position, equal to the destroyed monster’s level x 100. Piercing damage would function the same way and apply to Attack Position as well.

Environment Spaces-

I went over this, too. Pretty much the field power boost from Season 1, where certain Types of monsters gain ATK/DEF when on certain spaces. They wouldn’t be locked into the real-world environments, though, instead they would be decided by fields that duelists choose before the start. I feel like this would work better with the Two Rows idea than not, but I’ll see how it goes.

And that’s it. Feel free to chime in with anything you can think of. Really, all I want is a way for monsters, especially low-level ones, to be more prominent. Especially in the later seasons, a lot of them end up becoming fodder, and I want to change that. The Dungeon Monsters and Duel Robos are good for this, and so is the Real-Time Duel Fights, but if you have a better suggestion that’s not as complicated, I would welcome it.

[power-of-friends-games]

Since you're on break, I was wondering if you could brief me on the characters. I only heard of this a short while ago, and it looks like a lot of important stuff was lost when the old tumblr was deleted.

Alright heres the quick runthrough of all main characters of SeptiScape, this includes stuff known by our Discord server.Henrik Schneeplestien: Really sweet dad friend. Loves his “son”. Lowkey considers himself a failure because he wasn’t able to save his wife and newborn child from pregnancy complications. Misses his wife Joline like crazy. Also like never sleeps and wears at least 15 caffeine patches at any given time. Demisexual.Chase Brody: Henrik’s best friend. Loves memes and puns, loves his kids. Has been emotionally and physically abused by his wife for several years and only stayed because he thought things would get better and refused to admit he was being abused until Henrik confronted him about the situation. Very soft-hearted and kind. Pansexual. 

Jackieboyman/Jackie: Strong, stubborn, and wants to change the world. Bullied for years until the Cool Patrol stepped in and turned him into a superhero. Really loves cats, and he basically adopts every other cat he finds. His secret base is literally filled with cats. Sweet boy, just dont try to seem like you’re taking his job or trying to control him. Gay, NB.

Marvin: Magician who went through several years of failed shows and backstabbing managers, but managed to finally come out on top. Very compassionate, a little extra, and most definitely a furry an amazingly talented magician and shape-shifter. Gay.

Bingsepticeye: Soft-hearted and close friends with [REDACTED] as well as Robbie and Chase. One of the first egos that formed in the Mindscape. Very smart, very good robot boy, extremely caring and is the main person who watches over Robbie. Bisexual.

Robbie: Gets himself in trouble by literally eating everything, but is very intelligent for a zombie and very innocent. Loves Bing and thinks of him like a big brother. Asexual.

[REDACTED]: After nearly fading, he stole a soul from what was forming as Anti in the Mindscape and became Anti himself. His soul is unstable and he has a hard time expressing positive emotion as a result of the whole thing. Considered by Henrik to be his son and by Chase to be a little brother. Best friends with Bing. Gay, Trans male.

[prettycooregrey]

So after setting up a 100+ plugin modlist for Raka, I started their official Skyrim SE run with SkygerfalI. This is really long. Like, really really long. And it’s packed with spoilers, so my fingers are crossed that the cut works on mobile because otherwise I am so, SO sorry to mobile users.

Links: Legendary - Special Edition

What a hell of a mod. It was so much easier to swallow than Daggerfall proper, I’ll give it that! For one, the 3D map in Daggerfall drives me batty. I can’t read it at all, and the samey graphics in every dungeon make them really hard to navigate. For another, Daggerfall notably averts the “take your time” trope where players are allowed to fuck off and do whatever they want while the main quest stays politely paused in the background - almost every single quest is timed, and exceeding the time limit is an automatic fail. It’s possible to lock yourself out of the main quest this way.

Thankfully, the Skygerfall mod recreates all the main quest dungeons with a significantly more helpful Skyrim-style local map. The mod page describes the dungeons as hand crafted, and... well, I’d personally describe it as LOVINGLY put together. The attention to detail is exquisite, and it absolutely feels like a recreation of the dungeons. In fact, it’s so carefully and thoroughly remade that for the most part, the original walkthroughs on UESP came in handy for the few places I got stuck (ahem... Direnni Tower). There’s so many twisting corridors, right angles, and those big huge pyramid-esque centerpieces. My unabashed favorites are the little diagonal rooms hidden within other small rooms, tucked into corners in and of themselves. My own playthrough of Daggerfall made me look forward to those spaces as good places to rest or find loot.

There is not much going on outside the cities or dungeons though! Since it was, for the most part, a single dev putting the whole thing together in their spare time, it’s just the main quest. Even the main towns are largely empty, save for tavern owners (who act as general good merchants), a blacksmith in Daggerfall proper, and any NPCs directly related to the main questline. Ironically, Scourg Barrow is one of the most populated places in the entire game, if only by volume of nonhostile NPCs! The palaces also have merchants and guards around, and there’s a... cheerful little kid over at Wayrest who would love to meet your Agent.

That means no questlines for any of the side factions, very few extra merchants to buy your high volume of crap (though you wont actually need more than one or two at a time), no side dungeons to explore, and nothing in the landscape between the map markers. There’s not even any generic NPCs to populate the towns, and almost no interiors.

Still, it’s entirely worth playing, if you want the basic runthrough of Daggerfall’s main quest in a familiar, modern engine. Particular props goes to some of the scenery and levels. Where there’s very little going on outside of your quest targets, the places that have been built are stunning. Shedungent’s exterior in specific enchanted me, looking exactly like a medieval castle with plenty of nooks and crannies to poke into (though no loot, unfortunately... not that I need any extra with how much garbage I haul out of those dungeons). Another particular detail that I loved were... pigs, actually. I loved the pigs. There’s a few dungeons that contain pigs, which existed in Daggerfall.

I love them. They’re darling.

I dunno, the fact that Oracus0 put so much time and effort into making sure that Skygerfall was a true to the original as possible, down to the animals passively hanging out, really brought me into it. Sure, I wish there weren’t giant scorpions in any game ever, but I can also appreciate that since they were in the original, they were there in Skygerfall (and that they dropped a Raka certified safe alchemical ingredient). And who doesn’t get excited when they see the loot pile model tucked behind a locked door?

I also ADORED - spoiler alert - Aetherius, which turned the game into a full-fledged puzzle platformer. Note to anybody playing through the Room of Fire? You can and will fall off if you’re not careful! But the scenery there is also gorgeous, with a stunning backdrop of swirling stars and galaxies, hellfire, and a wonderfully dapper Sheogorath (whose voice actor does a great job, by the way, of holding true to Sheogorath’s canon voice).

Bonus points for having (and I must emphasize) FULL VOICE ACTING. Every NPC available in the game has a voice. All of the custom NPCs have custom voice acting, and every voice actor did a real bang up job. There wasn’t a single character I encountered whose voice didn’t match them.

It’s also way more... cartoony? Than Skyrim, and it shows a lot in places where custom and vanilla 3D assets were used right next to each other. There’s a lot of blocky, and almost plastic-y walls, floors, sconces, etc that made some of the rough-and-tumble stuff stick out, but it’s not actually enough to take you out of the game unless you’re a really picky bastard imo. It works really well for being a faithful recreation of Daggerfall, which looked like... well. This:

I had a habit of taking pictures of any cool animals I saw in Daggerfall, especially if I haven’t seen them in TES before. Speaking of this awesome camel picture, not to fear if you’re worried about hauling all your crap out of the dungeons like I am (my partner has a hard time watching me play Skyrim with the way I lug out everything that isn’t nailed down to hawk later)...

There’s a mount waiting for you near Sentinel!

...(: That’s right. You get a camel. No need to buy it, it’s not tagged as theft (as of 11/12/19, a little under a month post initial release). It works exactly like a horse - hop on and it’ll help you bounce between map markers, even if you’re overencumbered by several hundred pounds of loose swords, gemstones, potions, and your enemies’ underwear. It looks AMAZING, and though you kind of clip through his hump a little bit, it’s again not really an issue unless you’re overtly picky.

The only thing I absolutely cannot stand is... mythril.

Mythril in this mod is... blue. The armor is gray, but the weapons and shield are blue. Not a silver blue or a dark slate blue in the way you’d expect from something metallic. No, I’m talking about Hawaiian Punch Blue Typhoon, I’m talking blue raspberry Airheads, I’m talking about Lapis lazuli from Minecraft and/or Steven Universe, Cornflower Blue Crayola, “her cerulean orbs” fuckin BLUE. That was the ONLY thing that really stuck in my craw. Raka is an archer, but in the event of an emergency they dual-wield daggers and for a period the best one I had on hand aside from the ebony dagger was mythril and I hated it. I resented it. Every time Raka had to get into close quarters I grumbled with distaste as soon as that goddamn Manic Panic deep dream knife popped out on my screen. I replaced it with adamantium as soon as I was able to.

Everything else was copacetic! As with the set dressing, a lot of the custom armor and weapons were kind of cartoony and might stick out in Skyrim proper, but they’re pretty charming in that way. If for no other reason than collection purposes, I took one of everything with me to Skyrim at the end of the questline with the intent to maybe display it in one of Raka’s player homes. Especially the adamantium, which out of everything fits in the best with vanilla Skyrim’s assets (as far as I can tell, don’t quote me on that, please!).

Again, it’s a very lovingly made tribute to the original game, with a lot of time and effort put into it. A lot of modder resources were used in order to achieve this end, and what an end it is. For all of the places where there might be criticism, it’s still a fantastic piece of work that deserves a lot of praise and appreciation, especially since it was largely a single dev working and learning by themselves to put it together. It’s still hours of content to work through, having taken me about 4 days to get through via my playstyle, even when it primarily involved jumping between map markers and delving into dungeons. God only knows I’d have never gotten to the actual main quest of Daggerfall in the original engine, and likely not even in Daggerfall Unity, as I was too busy messing around, getting headaches from the procedurally generated dungeons, and trying to climb the ranks of the Mage’s Guild and Thieves Guild. Not to say that that isn’t a fun and completely valid way to play the game. But Skygerfall allowed me to play through the actual main quest, kept me engaged with voiced characters and a streamlined series of events, and a thorough and faithful recreation.

A lot of people mentioned wanting more stuff between the towns and cities currently in the mod, but personally, going forward, I’d love to see what already exists be expanded. I’d love to see more shop interiors, some generic NPCs to chat with or ask about rumors from (or even just to fill out the space! I’m not picky!), and maybe some basic structure for some of the guilds.

That being said, it’s still a complete mod in and of itself. It has all the components anyone could reasonably ask for. It has its dungeons, it has its armors and weapons, it has custom spells, potions, and ingredients. It makes use of monsters from the Mihail mods, populating the underground with lots of scary and lore-appropriate foes to fight. It has very little to explore outside of that, but still offers a LOT, and I was able to enjoy the main quest of Daggerfall in a way that was comfortable and easily playable for myself, which is more than can be said for the clunky DOS the original game is built in. I would not be mad if Oracus0 decided to close it up, call it good, support bugs for a while, and moved on. They’ve done plenty in the way of Skygerfall, and though I’d love to see more I’m also incredibly happy with what I got! I’m pleased as punch, got to roleplay my little idiot moron bosmer in their original context, and then was able to seamlessly integrate them into the world of Skyrim (via Live Another Life, which is supported by Skygerfall) to enjoy the rest of their modlist. I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you want to get a feel for Daggerfall with some of the comfort and convenience of a better engine and less stingy limitations.

[marnathas]

The hidden guts of hypnosis #1: The Elman Induction

Right, this is going to be a bit different. So, this is the first of what might be a series of posts that are sorta teaching the how-tos of hypnosis inductions (or other things, but inductions to start with). The idea is basically to explain things as if I'd been asked in-person, one-on-one to do so.

So what does that mean? For one, I'm not providing scripts or such to just read and ape. I'm a firm believer in understanding the fundamentals behind something, and understanding exactly what it is you're doing. So basically, I'll be explaining the underlying concepts and tricks, and how to basically build an induction of the type I'm explaining from scratch, as opposed to just teaching a script in detail, which isn't hard to find.

Note that in-person, I'd be trying to accompany any explanation with an actual demonstration, but that's not possible in this format unfortunately.

This is a bit of I kinda want to try doing this, I feel it'll be helpful for people to see some concepts explained that don’t in workshops normally, and what I've explained above means that I'm kind of not suited to teaching actual classes, because I'd get bogged down trying to explain concepts and details, rather than just making it easy and letting people go at it. So let's get to it!

Note: I'm kind of floating this one as a test to see how people like the idea, and to get feedback (PLEASE). I'm almost certainly going to re-do this explanation in the future if and/or when I get a better hang of it, it's actually weird doing it like this.

The Elman Induction

I'll start, naturally, with the Elman. For those who don’t know, the Elman is a very broad-purpose induction, meant to be effective on the vast majority of people you'll encounter. It's usually one of the first recommended inductions someone new to hypnosis should learn because of that, as well as the fact that it teaches a bunch of things relevant to other inductions and deepeners. It's also one I've seen some rather shocking lack of understanding of within the community considering what I’ve just said.

So, to explain, the Elman is basically a series of different mini-inductions/deepeners done in rapid succession to induce trance. It's effective because you're using a bunch of different methods, so on any person at least one of them is likely to work (hence it works on most people). The rapid succession part helps too, as you never give the subject enough time to really analyse and break down what's going on with one portion of the induction before you've moved on to something new, so it’s almost like a confusion or overload induction too, even if none of the components are. It's meant to be quick, just a few minutes long, although it's still effective when drawn out, so you can learn it slowly and then speed it up later. And of course, to learn how to do the Elman, you have to learn at least the basics of a bunch of separate inductions, so it's a great learning tool for someone new, as even though it seems daunting initially to learn, once you've done so you have the stepping stones to a lot of other things down.

Ok, if this was me actually talking to someone in-person, here's where I'd run through it (or just explain it as how I do it), as the full thing can seem quite complicated and it's better to just see it done, and then explained. So here's a text runthrough of how I do it, basically taken from Mark Wiseman's book Mind Play, which is what I learnt from myself. I'll just explain it section by section, giving the brief overview of what's being done. In practice there'll be fluff in the middle of them and such, of course.

Eye catalepsy: Basically getting the subject to relax the muscles around their eyes, and then briefly try (and fail) to open them. Basically acts as a way of getting the subject into the headspace of "this is working omg".

Fractionation: Getting the subject to open and close their eyes when told several times. The opening and closing serves to bring them briefly out of trance then back down, and the timing lets you know they're actually following you along and not pretending.

Hand drops: Very similar, you pick their hand up, and drop it back down into their lap, telling them they'll relax more when you do so, and repeat a few times.

Counting backwards: You get the subject to count out loud down from 100, relaxing more with each number, and letting the numbers fade with each one, until they fade completely and lose track of the numbers and stop counting. Done!

Now obviously that's the briefest of run-throughs (find a script and see for more detail). But basically, each section is designed to do a few things. It's some form of induction or deepener by itself, despite being done briefly. The ones near the start are more geared towards convincing the subject stuff is working. And each one cleverly has a method of feedback built into it for the hypnotist to check during and see how well things are going, and adjust if needed.

Those being, in order, eyes struggling to open (and not), eyes opening and closing only on your signal (a neat trick is change the timing up after a few times), how their arm feels (a hypnotised person will be completely limp in a way that's hard to fake), and of course, losing track of the numbers.

And that's sort of the trick to understanding it all on a really basic level. That example of sections I've listed can be completely changed or mixed around depending on the situation, as long as you know what they're meant to do, and what to look for during them. Seeing a complete Elman script looks daunting as hell to remember, but when you break it down into it's component bits and know what each of them does it's actually rather easy to remember.

Here's where I'm torn a touch, with the format. What I'd do in-person is run through each section in detail, and go over all the small tricks and things to look out for, but that works because I'd demonstrate it, and without providing a script to explain off of that seems a little silly here. That said, I’ll repeat my request for feedback on this, if I can find out what people might want to get out of a thing like this, or how I can improve it it’d be much, much appreciated. I’ll definitely be re-doing this runthrough eventually.

[indigozeal]

"Elaborate games of death are the best way to solve any problem."  (Violence & trauma in 999)

A while back, I translated this Famitsu interview Kotaro Uchikoshi gave right after 999's Japanese release to answer lingering player questions, and I was struck by the number of times that Uchikoshi chalks stuff up to "well, it had to happen that way because that's the way it was in the past."  That sounds like a cop-out and, even with the game's Sheldrake fixation, it kinda is.  After reading the 999 novelization (synopsis here) and mulling over the changes it made to the game's story, though, I began to look at these comments in a different light  -  they seemed to speak to a more psychological parallel reason behind the goings-on, one that dovetails with what the game has to say about violence.

Cutting for endgame 999 spoilers  -  right in the first sentence, so watch out!  (Also, a) this essay refers to the DS version of 999, not the iOS or upcoming Steam/PS4/Vita versions, and b) this material may have been discussed previously elsewhere; mea culpa if it's not blindingly original insight.)

When I played 999, I was actually disappointed in the idea that Akane was Zero.  I didn't buy it  -  Akane was, it then seemed, played up as such a fainting damsel and "lovable girlfriend" character in the game that I couldn't buy her as a bloodthirsty, calculating mastermind.  Then the novel handed me a version of the story where Akane wasn't Zero, and it demonstrated how that idea didn't work  -  how Akane being Zero is central to the game's core theme.

The main thing that the novel loses in its portrayal of the Kurashikis (Akane in particular) is the game's commentary on how people are changed by trauma.  It pervades 999 the game, though I didn't realize it until the novel took it away.

Now, we're all familiar with the mechanical significance of the morphogenetic field etc. in 999's scenario and how the plot hangs together "scientifically" and "logically," for Art Bell values of science and logic.  Stories, though, often derive their power from how they map to more relatable, everyday touchstones in the human experience.  So let's take a look at things from a symbolic perspective: what are Akane & Aoi trying to do by staging the new Nonary Game, basically?  Recreate the circumstances of their past trauma and have things go right this time.  The entire Sheldrake/Nonary Game setup, where a "repaired" echo of something in the present can rewrite the past, is a fictive equivalent of the coping tactic of replaying a distressing incident in one's head, except with a favorable outcome to make things better  -  Akane is trapped in the past in more ways than one.  In the mental made literal, Akane and Aoi dedicate themselves (and others) to running through their trauma over and over again  -  except, given the device of the morphogenetic field, they actually can rewrite the past (or resolve the time paradox favorably, if you will) and get a good resolution on one of their runthroughs, if the conditions are right.  The idea is that once this process is successfully completed, as is the hope with many therapies (even misguided ones), Akane will be able to self-actualize and move on  -  except here, given Akane's Schrödinger's cat situation, this self-actualization is painfully literal.

(This brings to mind the old observation about how in good fantasy, the emotional needs of the characters and the themes of the story shape and determine the nature of the magic powers, instead of the powers being shaped by ornamental or other arbitrary considerations.  It's no mistake that the particular brand of pseudoscience that drives 999's plot focuses on how the past influences the present in unseen ways, and how the past causes its own repetition and perpetuation.)

In these circumstances, the traditional happy ending would never work, as dealing with trauma doesn't result in an instant happy ending; you're just finally able to move on (as Akane, again very literally, does by driving away from the scene of her rehabilitation without additional entanglement).  If we look at matters from the protagonist's perspective and priorities, though, there's another reason why Junpei can't have a happy ending: the Akane Junpei knew no longer exists.  The violence visited upon her changed her and made her a different person.  It's not a coincidence that once the player understands whom the current Akane really is by understanding the actions for which she's been responsible in the game, "June" disappears from the narrative in the current sense.  There isn't any heartrending, revelatory confrontation or goodbye between her and the rest of the cast; she just totally ghosts.  Akane narrates, and Junpei can communicate with past Akane, but "June" as we knew her throughout gameplay can't stay in the active narrative, as she's a conscious construct meant to reawaken Junpei's memory  -  a means to an end (and, perhaps in part, a role that allows Akane to enjoy for a few hours what might have been had things gone differently).  June might have been an evolution of an Akane who existed before the Nonary Game  -  but the present Akane is no longer Junpei's Akane and hasn't been since the incident.  June's total disappearance is meant to signal this definitive break.

Other details of the story of the participants in the first Nonary Game mirror those of real-life trauma victims in notably specific ways. They're not believed by the authorities (a depressingly common phenomenon with victimization), because their victimizer is in a position of prestige and power (ditto).  What do Akane and Aoi want from their assailant?  Not death, but a public acknowledgment of what he did to them.  The vindication and validation of their account and feelings that they were previously denied  -  which only Ace can give them  -  mean more to them than obtaining vengeance through death (which they have no problem orchestrating for their ancillary tormentors).

Then we learn (in supplemental materials) that their assailant was himself brutalized in the same way and himself has been obsessed with reliving his past.  He, however, has not even a morphogenetic plot reason for using the Nonary Game as the vector of his research; he does so only because he's mentally obsessed with it.  He can't move on from his trauma and instead inflicts it upon others  -  a trait that defines those responsible for the misery in the story.

The cycle of violence is also acutely depicted in the two characters responsible for the game's most memorable acts of bloodshed: Snake and Clover.  It's telling, and consistent, that out of the present-day Nonary Game's innocent targets, the characters who have previously been the direct victims of violence prove to be the ones most capable of violence themselves.  Contrast this to Junpei, Seven, and Lotus, who are not direct victims of the Nonary Game from nine years past, at least not in the deeply traumatic manner of its helpless young test subjects: though Seven can play enforcer and Lotus and Junpei both attempt shady maneuvers involving doors, none wreak anything approaching the charnel of the Axe ending or the cavalcade of vengeful horror in the incinerator.  (It's interesting to note that the most passive-victim ending, Sub, is experienced from the perspective of the Junpei-Seven-Lotus triad  -  who find out nothing and can only be slain as bystanders, swept up, symbolically, in a huge tableau of violence they can only view from outside and whose motives they don't understand at all.)

Snake and Clover, though, commit violence only in the relative heat of the moment, when the very worst is inflicted upon them unameliorated; their acts lack the long-term premeditation of the Kurashikis or Gentarou Hongou.  Elsewhere in the game, they are used as a contrast, an alternative path  -  to emphasize the importance of a healthy response to trauma.  Snake is the game's standout character, but why is he so remarkable, really?  He has survived trauma  -  losing his sight  -  yet moved on to thrive in its aftermath.  Small wonder, then, that he is one of the most capable players, the biggest help in negotiating the Kurashikis' miasma of personal pain; there's no question why, in the right path, he's Junpei's guide to unraveling this morass and not, say, something like the note in the safe.  When he is absent, this task falls to his sister (and fellow trauma victim) Clover, and she will rise ably to it  -  provided she does not fall prey to the fresh horror inflicted on her.  Given the themes of the game, it is no coincidence that a great deal of the path to the good ending in 999 involves ensuring that Clover doesn't let the fresh trauma of her brother's assumed death consume her.  And who is responsible for the "hope, faith, love, and luck" mantra that greatly contributes to bringing Clover out of it (and helps the young abductees on the Gigantic in the first Nonary Game get through their ordeal)?  Well, of course.

(It is noteworthy that while it is Aoi who first tells Junpei of the "Hope, Faith, Love, and Luck", he does so specifically in an act of repudiating it.)

(Note: VLR spoilers ahead.)

Now, I don't like 999's sequels at all; they have a markedly different attitude toward violence, embracing it Saw-style after the most perfunctory bits of hand-wringing.  To me, 999 is a self-contained story.  But I feel the few details we get of Snake and Clover's life decisions in Virtue’s Last Reward, and the siblings' complete absence from Zero Time Dilemma, actually work as extensions of their function in 999's narrative.

VLR posits that after the events of 999, Clover and Snake were asked to join a secret organization supposedly dedicated to stopping a group of terrorists.  (The specific branch they are asked to join is composed of their fellow first Nonary Game victims, headhunted for the same pseudo-psychic powers that got them selected for the game.)  The organization is not under Akane's purview, but its cause is strongly identified with that of a group led by Akane.  The Fields, however, refuse at first  -  as VLR Clover says, they want to "move on" with their lives; only when old friend Seven makes a personal appeal do they yield.  

Snake and Clover's behavior may seem selfish, as the group's cause is on its face a noble one  -  and they are ultimately moved by it, after all  -  but I think, in a way, their initial resistance speaks to something good in the Fields: they decidedly do not want their past trauma to define them.  They are reluctant to join a group that largely defines them by their role in the past Nonary Game (one that is, perhaps not coincidentally, largely ineffectual, as we hear of not one success in several missions; again, reviving old trauma proves to be a poor starting point for an endeavor).  When their mother tries (understandably) to ensconce them in bodyguards in response to multiple kidnappings, they bolt to start their lives anew  -  and they succeed in carving out a niche for themselves, and are happy and fulfilled.  The Fields are well-adjusted and have successfully moved past their trauma.

The Akane of VLR, however, has not fared as well  -  perhaps unsurprisingly given the method chosen for her salvation, her recovery has not taken, and she cannot move on from her past.  Of all the infinitely more efficient options surely available to a woman of her talents and resources, Akane yet again resorts to a game of death and victimizing strangers to solve her problems; like Ace (another organizational head whose wealth and power should have afforded him better options than the path he took), she repeats the pattern of her past trauma, still mentally trapped by it.  (Yes, VLR attributes the game to Klim, but Akane is the de facto mastermind.)  Her recreation of her trauma continues right down to the separation of siblings with her potentially permanent separation of Clover from Snake, seemingly needless for any reason except obeying the dictates of her own ensnared mind.  The parallels between Akane and Gentarou Hongou are even stronger and more striking here; she has become her victimizer, a role she fully embraces.

Akane's choices, though, are viewed by Virtue's Last Reward rather uncritically; the object of the game is (again) to save her, and she is held up as a patron saint of sorts, giving a benediction to Sigma and the player in a radiant green garden in the ending.  This matches, however, the game's much more gleeful attitude toward hurting people; Akane's new Nonary Game is dramatically more vicious and nasty, encouraging players by design to backstab and murder  -  a task to which its cast rises, even to the detriment of its own self-interest, with downright stupid zeal.  (Compare this to 999, which devoted oodles of dialogue, even for 999, to the Door 3-7-8 moral dilemma of leaving even one person behind  -  whereas the very title of Virtue's Last Reward states that ethics are for suckers.)  Again, yes: Akane's actions are in the service of trying to stop a deadly global virus (in a bit of author overreach for his favorite character).  But her approach to solving her problems does not speak well for her personal well-being, or to any continuity with the previous game's approach to trauma.  

(These misplaced priorities, by the way, seep into VLR's portrayal of Clover (and every other VLR character); bluntly, Clover during the actual events of VLR is a fucked-up character because VLR and its priorities are fucked up.)

Then we arrive at Zero Time Dilemma, which is gleeful wall-to-wall violence, blood and guts and sadism for its own sake.  Though Uchikoshi promised that the fate of Clover and Snake in the "real" timeline would be revealed in ZTD, the siblings merit not even a mention in the finished game  -  unlike, say, Lotus and Seven, who were markedly less central to the overall narrative.  It makes sense that they are wholly absent here, spared not a thought by the plot or its participants: by ZTD, the series has given itself over to wholesale slaughter for its own sake, a celebration of pain rather than an examination of how to overcome it.  There is simply no longer a place for what the Fields represent.  

[caitielou-askew]

After careful preparations are made, Sans and Papyrus get their hand plates removed.

BOY that took longer than it should have. Between the insane number of edit markers I had after the first pass of editing, and my own pickiness with how this came together, I am several days later on this than I wanted to be. But here we are! The video’s up there, and here it is on Ao3 if you’d prefer to read it. Links to download the chapters as MP3s or listen on Soundcloud are in the video description on YouTube. And in case you’re lost, here’s where the series started and here’s the first chapter of this part.

Thanks yet again to @hatori1181​ for performing Gaster and Asgore, and to @zarla-s​ for making this wonderful story, and being so generous in letting us fans put in our two cents on how different timelines might go.

As I’ve said before I have a few more ideas on future events for this, but they’ll probably come out as little single-scenes and one-shots rather than big honking things like this. I’ll build up a few before recording them though, lol.

Also, there’s a lot I want to talk about with what’s going on in this chapter, but it’s best that you read or listen before reading that. So it’s under the fold to avoid spoilers. EVEN MORE SELF-INDULGENT RAMBLING AHOY!

Whaddya know, it's a "Gaster survives" timeline! Just look at this big ol' happy screwed-up family. I thought about putting in a line directly pointing out that all 3 of them were now physically scarred by all this, but I couldn't find a good place to fit it in. So I trusted the reader would put that together, lol. Of course this wasn't going to go perfectly, nothing about this situation is ideal. Papyrus's reaction to it came directly from his understated reaction to getting killed in the genocide run, which Zarla has previously discussed.��(wow until I found that link just now I didn't realize I copied her use of the word blase in describing that, rofl).

I worked in as many throwbacks as I could, given this is basically additional vetting to Gaster's horrible deeds. Sans and Papyrus have been slowly sharing with Alphys (and to a lesser extent Asgore) what Gaster did to them, and Alphys has been reading Gaster's notes. The mention of the handrail was by far the latest addition to the story, even after my betas had read it and given their feedback. One of them had been a bit confused that the end was meant to establish that Gaster wasn't going to fall into the core in this timeline. And until that one comic about the core, I really had no way of setting that up without making it stupidly blatant. Now it should be a lot clearer without being clunky (I hope)

Even though the scarf was sort of the unifying element in this one (like the light motifs in Revealed), it was actually the second latest addition to the story. The first ending I wrote had Papyrus asking about Gaster's name, since "W.D. Gaster" is most likely what would have been posted outside his office door. Buuuut I couldn't think of a good origin story for his name, and the whole exchange just didn't feel right. Then I remembered Zarla's adorable sketches of kid Gaster and the hint that Papyrus finds the scarf in the lab after Gaster is erased, and it hit me. So then I had to go back into the first part and retcon it into there, haha.

Also it's kind of funny, Zarla literally just gave a few thoughts on possible "Gaster gets arrested" timelines, saying depending on how it goes it may make him MORE emotionally shut-down inside. I think in this timeline Gaster would definitely prefer that, and actually tried to make that happen in Released. But it all fell apart when Asgore blamed himself and showed mercy instead. So now he tries to be as stoic as possible when it comes to the boys, but between his dad instincts and those pesky brats' shenanigans it's just not a hurdle he can totally clear. He'll never accept forgiveness, but he also can't stop indulging in those paternal thoughts from time to time. So he's stuck in this sort of emotional limbo.

Very similar to the limbo Sans is now trapped in. Another fun thing about doing this was exploring Sans and Papyrus's characters, and showing how they come into their adult selves. They haven't met too many people in the castle at this point, but I figured the chef would have been one of the first. At first they wouldn't really know their likes and dislikes as far as food, and Asgore wouldn't want them to go hungry. So he'd just show them where the kitchens are and introduce them to the chef. Gaster never used food as a punishment, or hurt them while they were eating, so whenever he brought it Papyrus knew instinctively that he wasn’t going to hurt them just then. So naturally, Papyrus quickly became attached to both eating and making food, associating it with mercy. His tastes are still questionable though, probably a side-effect of growing up on junk food, haha.

As far as Sans, I've always loved the almost diametrically opposed ideas of him being this "final judge" the player has to answer to, but also being a sort of apathetic nihilist. In the game it was his awareness of the resets but his inability to do anything about them which (presumably) brought that apathy on. Since Sans is still pretty young here, I thought he’d still have a bit of that fire in him, especially at the beginning when they were first rescued. I think at his core Sans really does have a strong sense of justice, which is why he still shows up in that final corridor every time even though he knows it’s pointless. He knows he can't stop you, but he also knows he's the only one who can speak to you about the timelines "on your level," so to speak. So he throws himself in there to be the last voice of reason, or the last stumbling block, on your journey.

But now in this timeline, Sans is getting worn down by Gaster not getting proper retribution for his crimes. He eventually shuts up about it because he's making no progress, and taking any more drastic measures would make Papyrus unhappy. So he's also stuck in emotional limbo, unhappy with the way things are but powerless to change them. Good thing that's not going to get any worse anytime soon… Oh speaking of that, I chose Snowy for the ending music because it just sounds so bittersweet to me. It was quaint my first time playing the game, but on my second runthrough I couldn’t help but think about the monsters being trapped underground, but also Sans being aware of how they’re doubly trapped in this time loop. So while it’s pretty and nice and an overall benign area of the game (at least on pacifist), it became a bit more melancholy to me.

And PERSONALLY I think the "running around looking like a CLONE of..." line is the greatest thing I have ever written. Not gonna lie, I had the worst shit-eating grin on my face for like an hour after that line hit me. YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF, GASTER. You emotionally constipated twig.

Anyway, given Gaster isn't going to disappear, that leaves the future for this story a bit more open. I have a few ideas rolling around in my head for a few more moments as they're growing up in the castle. Also some speculation on how different UT timelines would play out (including a pacifist timeline that's just...MMPH. SO GOOD). But they will all be much shorter than this, so I'll wait until I've got a few written and put them out as little one-shots. Sort of like those short story collections I keep saying I'll get back to, lol. Anyway thanks for reading! If you have questions or want to talk or speculate about stuff my ask box is always open <3 Obviously I am totally down with nerding out about this stuff, lol.

[thejsubexperiment]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Episode 21 Runthrough (Part 12)

And we are back! Alas, we have finally hit a point where our scenes are so short we’re going to work on them in one part. So these are scenes 6 and 7. I’m sorry if we’ve been off with the scene numbering lately. Now we’re back on track, promise.

Scene 6 — Hospital Room — Dusk — Havoc, Breda

ハボック： せっかく１日１本だけ許可もらったのにったく女に刺されて退役なんて笑えるよな。

ブレダ：退役してどうすんだよ。

ハボック：実家は���貨屋をやってんだ。

ハボック：電話番くらいはできるだろ。

ブレダ：オートメイルにはできないのか。

ハボック：下半身まるまる神経回路が途切れてるから無理だとよ。      

ブレダ：おめぇに隠居生活なんて似合わねぇよ。

Scene 7 — Hospital Commons — Dusk — Roy, Breda

ブレダ：大佐。

ブレダ：ハボックの脚のことですが鋼の大将から仕入れた情報です。 

ロイ：ドクター·マルコー ...医療分野に精通した錬金術師...賢者の石...

ブレダ： オレの休暇、延長できますか。       

ロイ：許可する。　

ロイ： 行け。 

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ハボック： せっかく一日一本だけ許可もらったのにったく女に刺されて退役なんて笑えるよな。 (Habokku: Sekkaku ichinichi ippon dake kyoka moratta no ni ttaku onna ni sasarete taieki nante waraeru yo na.)

せっかく (sekkaku)- is an adverb meaning “at great pains” or “finally” 

一日 (ichinichi)- is a noun meaning “once a day.” Here is it serving as an adjective to the following noun. Japan has very few adjectives, but every now and again we will find a noun preceding another; and we’ll count it functionally as an adjective.

一本 (ippon)- is a noun made up of a number and counter. The number is “ichi,” meaning “one,” and the counter is “hon,” here seen as “ppon,” which is used when the object is a cylindrical thing. Here’s we’re talking about cigarettes. 

だけ (dake)- is a secondary particle meaning “only.” This secondary causes the direct object particle, “wo,” to drop out. So know this is the direct object.

許可もらった (kyoka moratta)- is the indicative, past, affirmative conjugation of the verb “kyoka morau,” meaning “to get permission.” “Kyoka” is actually a noun meaning “permission,” and “morau” is the true verb, meaning “to receive.”

のに (no ni)- is what we’ll call, for now, a “compound particle.” “no” is actually a substantivizing suffix, making that verb phrase syntactically a noun. “ni” is the dative particle. The dative case describes the direction of an action, the indirect object, and the purpose of an action. “no ni,” together, is often used to indicate a sort of regrettable situation. “A, and yet B” That’s what’s going on here.

ったく(ttaku)- is an interjection expressing exasperation. We’ll translate it here as “damn...”

女 (onna)- is a noun meaning “woman.”

に (ni)- is the dative particle, marking the indirect object.

刺されて (sasarete)- is the gerund of the passive conjugation of the verb “sasu,” meaning “to stab.” This is more commonly called the “te form” of the verb. Here we call it the gerund. (Others call it a participle, which we like to reserve for the nominative use of verbal stems.)  The gerund can sometimes mark the cause, as in “Because A, B.” That is what is going on here. (Needless to say, this is a spin-off of the conjunctive function of the gerund. “I ate a lot, and I got a stomachache” being equivalent to “I got a stomachache because I ate a lot.”)

退役 (taieki)- is a noun meaning “retiring from military service.” Note that we have no subject and no verb in this phrase. We are allowed to add one, if needed, so we will say “[I am] retiring from military service.”

なんて (nante)- is a secondary suffix that is exclamatory. It adds a certain emphasis to what is being said, expressing, dislike. That “te” is a gerund suffix. It’s conjunctive.

笑える (waraeru)- is the potential, indicative, imperfective, affirmative conjugation of the verb “warau,” meaning “to laugh.” The potential mood expresses the possibility of something happening, rather than the actual fact that is has or will happen.

よ (yo)- is the emphatic ending particle. It often expresses that this is new information that one is informing another about. 

な (na)- is a casual dubitative ending particle. It is equivalent to English’s “huh?”

Translation: “At last I get permission to smoke only one [cigarette] a day, and yet -damn- because I was stabbed by the woman I am retiring, man, one can laugh [at it], huh?”

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ブレダ：退役してどうすんだよ？ (Bureda: Taieki shite dou su-n da yo?)

退役 (taieki)- is the same noun we saw before.

して (shite)- is the gerund of the verb “suru,” meaning “to do.” It is being conjunctive.

どう (dou)- is an interrogative adverb meaning “how?” Often it gets translated as “what?,” and that’s fine, because “dou” can ecompass that too, even though what it is getting at more than anything is the manner in which something will happen. Consider how when someone asks you “What will you do if you drop out of school?” what they’re asking you more than anything is what kind of a life you will live. That’s what’s going on here.

す (su)- is the truncated form of “suru,” the indicative, imperfective, affirmative conjugation of the verb meaning “to do,” which we just saw. This happens.

ん (n)- is a substantivizing suffix. It’s a variant on the “no” we saw before. “n” does a lot of things semantically; and we find that “it is/was the case that” often gets the idea across in translation. What’s going on here, quite clearly, is that Breda is pointing out his main concern. One might even be so bold as to say in translation “the question is...”

だ (da)- is the indicative, imperfective, affirmative version of a copula. Japanese has 3 main copulae. This is one of them. A copula is basically your “is” verbs. In Japanese, they also mean “have.”

よ (yo)- is the same as before.

Translation: “You retire, and [the question is] what do you do?”

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ハボック：実家は雑貨屋をやってんだ。 (Habokku: Jikka wa zakkaya wo yatte-n da.)

実家 (jikka)- is a noun meaning “home,” as in where one grew up.

は (wa)- is the topical particle. The topical case indicates the topic of a sentence, and is syntactically not the subject. In English, sentences require a subject and so in translation the topic often becomes the subject.

雑貨屋 (zakkaya)- is a noun meaning “general store,” as in a place to buy sundries.

を (wo)- is the accusative particle. The accusative case mostly indicates the direct object of a sentence.

やって (yatte)- is the gerund of the verb “yaru,” meaning “to do” or, in this case, “to work.” We believe it’d be okay to say “to run” in this case. Why is this a gerund? We are not entirely sure. We suspect that the “iru” dropped out, implying that this is the periphrastic progressive, i.e. a conjugation expressing continuous action.

ん (n)- is the same as before.

だ (da)- is the same as before.

It would be good to point out here that Havoc speaks a bit strangely. You’ll note that the topic is “home” and that we have no subject. We can infer that he means his parents run a store “at home.” The reason “home” is the topic is because he’s informing Breda that he’s going home.

Translation: “[It] is the case that, as for home, [they] run a general store.”

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ハボック：電話番くらいはできるだろ。 (Habokku: Denwaban kurai wa dekiru daro.)

電話番 (denwaban)- seems to be a truncated form of the noun “denwa-bangumi,” meaning “telephone number.” This is just part of Havoc speaking strangely. What we think he meant was just “denwa,” for reasons we will soon see. (Quick edit here: I have been informed that “-ban” here is a suffix referring to watching over something, and that in that spirit it’s a “duty.” So what we’re referring to here is “doing the task of watching over the phone, or “phone duty.” So keep that in mind.)

くらい (kurai)- is a suffix meaning “at least.”

は (wa)- is the topical particle.

できる (dekiru)- is the potential, imperfective, affirmative conjugation of the verb “suru.” What is one doing? Well, as far as anything having to do with the “telephone number,” one cannot think of much. If one just says “telephone,” then one can imagine answering, calling, and all that stuff. 

だろ (darou)- is a verbal expression meaning “it seems,” and is roughly equivalent to “na” and “ne.” A nifty translation, to distinguish it from “na” and “ne,” is “don’t you think?”

Translation: “As for the telephone (number), at least, [I] can do [that], don’t you think?”

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ブレダ：オートメイルにはできないのか。 (Bureda: Ootomeiru ni wa dekinai no ka.)

オートメイル (ootomeiru)- is a noun referring to the metal prosthetics some characters in this show have. (The fullmetal in “Fullmetal Alchemist” comes from this.) The term is a Japanese-zation of what would be “automail” (that mail being like “chainmail,” which makes no sense because “mail” refers to the rings and this is actual folded steel, but w/e)

には (ni wa)- is another “compound particle,” this one being the dative particle and the topical particle. Generally, one can translate it just topically, but it is good to keep in mind that the topic will be dative-y, as in something will happen “by automail.”

できない (dekinai)- is the potential, imperfective, negative conjugation of the verb “suru.”

の (no)- is the same as before.

か (ka)- is the interrogative ending particle, marking a question.

Translation: “Is the case that, as for automail, [you] cannot do [something] [by it]?”

This is a sentence that perhaps requires some background so that you can see it does make sense (if you’ve never seen the show.) Basically, when people’s limbs stop working, as has happened to Havoc’s lower body, it gets replaced “by automail.” So that’s what’s being alluded to here.

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ハボック：下半身まるまる神経回路が途切れてるから無理だとよ。 (Habokku: Kahanshin maru-maru shinkeikairo ga togireteru kara muri da to yo.)

下半身 (hakanshin)- is a noun meaning “lower half of the body.” Note that there is no case particle here. It would be “wa.”

まるまる (maru-maru)- is an adverb meaning “completely.”

神経回路 (shikeikairo)- is a noun meaning “neural circuit.” It comes from “shikei,” meaning “nerve,” serving adjectivally to “kairo,” meaning “circuit.”

が (ga)- is the nominative particle. The nominative case indicates the subject of the sentence. (Cases have many uses, but we are giving  you the most popular one.)

途切れてる (togireteru)- is the truncated periphrastic progressive, indicative, imperfective, affirmative conjugation of the verb “togireru,” meaning “to be interrupted.”

から (kara)- is a post-position, which is like a preposition except that it comes after the phrase. “Kara” means many things, but here it means “because.”

無理 (muri)- is a noun meaning “impossible.”

だ (da)- is the same as always.

と (to)- is a quotative particle, which indicates a quotation, which can be something someone said or thought or considered or believed. It is normally followed by the verb (to say, to think, to consider, etc.), but here it isn’t. We can infer that this is something the doctors said. 

よ (yo)- is the same as before.

Translation: “[The doctors said] that because the neural circuits are completely interrupted, [it] is impossible.”

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ブレダ：おめぇに隠居生活なんて似合わねぇよ。 (Bureda: Omee ni inkyo seikatsu nante niawanee yo.)

おめぇ (omee)- is a slurred version of “omae,” a masculine second-person singular pronoun, i.e. “you.”

に (ni)- is the dative particle. Sometimes verbs use the dative as the objects of their actions, very often when the object is a person. The verb in this sentence is one of them.

隠居 (inkyo)- is a noun meaning “retired person.” It is adjectivally modifying the next noun.

生活 (seikatsu)- is a noun meaning “lifestyle.” One can say “the retired lifestyle” or “the lifestyle of a retired person.” But if you choose the former, then you’ll have to say that a genitive particle, “no,” dropped out.

なんて (nante)- is the same suffix as before. Note that it causes the subject particle to drop out. 

似合わねぇ (niawanee)- is a slurred form of “niawanai,” which is the indicative, past, negative conjugation of the verb “niau,” meaning “to suit.”

よ (yo)- is the same as always.

Translation: “The retired lifestyle doesn’t suit you.”

__________________________Scene Change________________________________

ブレダ：大佐。 (Bureda: Taisa.)

大佐 (taisa)- is a noun meaning “coronel,” which is Roy’s rank. We’ll take a moment here to point out that Japanese has a vocative case. The vocative case indicates that someone is being called upon or invoked. The particle for the vocative case is a “zero particle,” which is to say the absence of the particle is the particle. 

Translation: “Coronel.”

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ブレダ：ハボックの脚のことですが鋼の大将から仕入れた情報です。 (Bureda: Habokku no ashi no koto desu ga Hagane no taishou kara shiireta jouhou desu.)

ハボック (Habokku)- is Havoc’s name.

の (no)- is the genitive particle. The genitive case indicates possession or classification. “X no Y” tends to translate as “Y of X.” There are three different grammatical “no”’s, the one we haven’t seen being the attributive form of the copula “da.” 

脚 (ashi)- is a noun meaning “leg.” Keep in mind that nouns in Japanese do not inflect for numbers. So this can be “legs” as well; and it is.

の (no)- is the genitive particle.

こと (koto)- is a noun meaning “thing.” “X no koto” can mean a few things. It’s an expression. What it means generally is something along the lines of “the matter of X.”

です (desu)- is the polite form of “da.”

が (ga)- is a conjunction. (We don’t know the entire history of “ga” and this may be a spin-off of the nominative particle, but we’re not sure.) It has a few meanings, but in this case, it’s in an expression “X desu ga,” which translates to “as for X” or “on the subject of X.” (Don’t quote us on this because we feel like we’re generalizing a bit too much.)

鋼の (Hagane no)- is the title of the main character. Edward is a state alchemist, and all alchemists have a title in the style of “Alchemist of X” “X no renkinjitsushi” And Edward’s X is “Hagane,” meaning “Steel.” This is what get’s translated in the English dub as “Fullmetal.”

大将 (taishou)- is a military rank used as an address suffix. “Taishou” is a general rank, indicating a high ranking officer. We can translate this as “chief.”

から (kara)- is the same post-position as before, here meaning “from.”

仕入れた (shiireta)- is the indicative, past, affirmative conjugation of the verb “shiireru,” meaning “to procure.”

情報 (jouhou)- is a noun meaning “information.”

です (desu)- is the same as before.

Translation: “On the subject of the matter of Havoc’s legs, [this] is information procured from [the Alchemist] of Steel.” 

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ロイ：ドクター·マルコー ...医療分野に精通した錬金術師...賢者の石... (Roi: Dokutaa Marukoo... iryou bun’ya ni seitsuu shita renkinjitsujitsushi... kenja no ishi)

Please note here that Roy is reading the letter Breda gave him. So that’s why it is generally incomplete.

ドクター·マルコー  (Dokutaa Marukoo)- is the name of a character, Dr. Marco.

医療 (iryou)- is a noun meaning “medical care.” It is modifying the next noun adjectivally.

分野 (bun’ya)- is a noun meaning “field” or “branch.” This, like the last case of an adjective we had, allows us to also consider there to be an omitted genitive particle between “iryou” and “bun’ya.”

に (ni)- is the dative particle. It is indicating location. We’ll reflect the dative in our translation as “in.”

精通した (seitsuu shita)- is the indicative, past, affirmative conjugation of the verb “seitsuu suru,” meaning “to become an expert.” “Seitsuu” is a noun meaning “having knowledge” or “conversant” if not “expert.” The important here here is that we recognize that that process of “becoming” has been completed and that he “is” an expert.

錬金術師 (renkinjitsushi)- is a noun meaning “alchemist.” “Renkinjitsu” means “alchemist,” and “shi” is actually a suffix indicating a specialist.

賢者 (kenja)- is a noun meaning “wise man.”

の (no)- is the genitive particle.

石 (ishi)- is a noun meaning “stone” or “rock.” “Kenja no ishi” is the Japanese translation of the “philosopher’s stone,” which is a coveted item in alchemy.

Translation: “Doctor Marco, an alchemist that became a master in the first of medical treatment... philosopher’s stone.”

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ブレダ： オレの休暇、延長できますか。 (Bureda: Ore no kyuuka, enchou dekimasu ka.)

オレ (ore)- is a masculine first-person singular pronoun: I.

の (no)- is the genitive particle.

休暇 (kyuuka)- is a noun meaning “vacation” or “absence from work.” Here we believe it is more of the latter, given that he is not at work but still working for Roy behind the scenes. Note that we do not have a case particle here, and it would be “wa.”

延長できます (enchou dekimasu)- is the polite form of “dekiru,” which we’ve seen plenty of, with the noun “enchou,” meaning “prolong.” As you’ve probably noted, there are various nouns that pair with “suru.” 

か (ka)- is the interrogative ending particle.

Translation: “As for my absence, can [you] prolong [it]?”

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ロイ：許可する。　 (Roi: kyoka suru.)

許可する (kyoka suru)- is just the indicative form of the verb we saw a moment ago.

Translation: “[I] will prolong [it].”

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ロイ： 行け。 (Roi: Ike.)

行け (ike)- is an imperative form of the verb “iku,” meaning “to go.” The imperative mood marks a command.

Translation: “Go!”

For those wondering, we will be doing a separate vocabulary list once we’re done based on frequency of terms and all that, so that we can encourage you to look at everything a second time, having learned the vocabulary, once the parts are written (and we make up our minds on certain matters.) 

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