#Fatal Fury First Contact

[smbhax]

Garou Densetsu: First Contact (aka "Fatal Fury: First Contact") (NGPC)

BEST Collection re-release, mini clamshell case

[devileaterjaek]

Fatal Fury: First Contact

[lostplay]

Game 4: Fatal Fury First Contact (Jan 2023) 👌

Fatal Fury First Contact certainly feels self explanatory. While most SNK fighters often have something else to unlock to keep single players coming back to play the game, First Contact only has one secret character, and that's it. Effectively making Fatal Fury First Contact kinda boring to play on repeat unless you have a friend.

I don't want to put too much a damper on Fatal Fury First Contact, but truthfully this game feels like a weird mix bag of Fatal Fury charm and a toddler trying to grab a cookie jar. Everything is there to make First Contact good, but there is just something about the combos, story, options, and the overall game that feel like I'm reaching for something more. First Contact just leaves me rather unsatisfied because it feels like the game should have more to it, but there just isn't more. The story has one nice picture at the end of your player character, there is no dialogue between characters, no cutscenes, no extra collectible, no practice mode, no fancy opening animations, just no flare to it.

Aside from a few move adjustments, I will say First Contact does play well enough like a Fatal Fury game on console. The game absolutely has stunning backgrounds in each of it's stages. The music is positively robust, and the sprites work for these characters. But that's really all you get. Fatal Fury First Contact is a solid fighter, but just not much of a showman.

[gellavonhamster]

unsweetened

One Piece || Smoker/Tashigi || set after Punk Hazard ao3 link rus || ao3 link eng

Halfway there, he realized that if he didn’t stop then, soon he’d fall down and wouldn’t get up anymore. So he had to rest against the wall and spend some time standing there, inhaling and exhaling steadily. It was unclear what made it harder to breathe, dizziness or fury.

The two petty officers that were passing by slowed down the pace.

“Hello, sir!”

Usually a nod is response was enough. This time, however, he must’ve looked as shitty as he felt, because the petty officers exchanged hesitant glances.

“Are they letting you get up already?” one of them asked.

Smoker summoned up all the strength he had left, straightened his back, and stared at the speaker.

“They are,” he said forcefully. “Are you a doctor now, Burke?”

Burke drew himself up; his companion, whose name Smoker couldn’t remember, try as he might, did likewise.

“No, sir.”

“Perhaps you’d like to go and teach our doctors how to do their jobs?”

“No, sir.”

“Great. Dismissed.”

As soon as they disappeared around the corner, he leaned against the wall again.

They let him get up, of course. They let him walk. Admittedly, to the window and back, so that he would smoke there and not at the other patients. But the doctors at G-5 had the same problem with discipline as the rest of the personnel. He didn’t have to wait for too long for all the medical staff to sneak away on some outside-of-duty business. He would’ve given them a rap on the knuckles in any other situation, but not this time. The rest of the wounded were dozing when he left.

There were not so many wounded after Punk Hazard. The number of fatalities was larger.

His destination was a nook at the end of the corridor, which housed a hot plate and a little cabinet containing tea, coffee, and rows of identical grey mugs. Smoker has no idea what kind of tea they kept there. Normally, he drank coffee, and made it in his and Tashigi’s office, but he couldn’t go there at the moment. Or rather, he had to go there, but later.

If he didn’t pass out on the way.

His own lack of strength filled him with rage. After that failure of a fight with Doflamingo, which made him feel like an egg in an egg slicer, he was all covered in thin scars that kept opening up here and there for the first few days. By now they were already healing, but the ever-present pain was still there, just less intense. Painkillers helped, until they didn’t. That could not have been more inconvenient at the time when the entire base had come under his command, and on top of that, had become a temporary home to a pack of brats they had to ship to Vegapunk. When Tashigi dropped by the infirmary that morning, she mentioned she was trying to contact the families to inform them that their missing children had been found, were in the care of the Marines, and were to return home in the near future if all went well. What made the task more difficult was that some kids couldn’t really explain where they were from. Where do you live? With Mama. And what’s the name of the island? I dunno. Can you describe it? It has those trees, and a beach. All in all, that was not the time to lie up.

A separate, particularly virulent sort of rage came from realizing just how much he fucked up. Serving under a spy for two years and having no damn clue. Throwing his lot with pirates again – that crazy kid must think they’re bosom friends at this point. Losing to that vile cackling kingling in pink feathers, a government-sanctioned thug, an asshole drunk on impunity. If not for Kuzan, he would have stayed there, in the snow. And until he was back on duty, he was going to be of as much use as he would have been if he had. Dammit.

Alright. Tea. The only kind available in the cabinet was black tea, and the sugar bowl was empty save for a few grains, but as far as he remembered, Tashigi took her tea unsweetened, just like her coffee (that is, the right way, in his opinion). Could use some honey, on the other hand, but the rations of the Marines obviously didn’t include any. Now he had to carry the mug to the office – once again, without passing out on the way. Ideally, without spilling the drink.

Knocking on the door of his own office would’ve been weird, so Smoker didn’t do that.

It took him some time to spot Tashigi behind a barricade of documents on the desk. Thick dusty folders, some boxes full of papers. He could only hope that it occurred to her to put some of the personnel to carrying that crap here and she didn’t lug it all by herself. She didn’t even hear the door open, so engrossed she was in reading some file. Had he been healthy, he might have waited for her to notice him. Might have lingered at the doorway watching her work and fiddle with the corner of the page and occasionally adjust her glasses, not because they slid off but simply by force of habit. However, no matter how embarrassing it was to admit it, he needed to sit down badly.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

Tashigi jerked her head up. Blinked a couple of times. And sprang from her seat as if something stung her.

“Sir? What are you doing here?”

“What, is it not my office anymore?”

“You know very well what I’m talking about! Weren’t you told…” and she broke down coughing, quaking with it, even hunching over. Smoker came closer and put the tea on the desk next to Tashigi’s personal mug, its bottom dark with the leftover coffee grounds. 

“Brought you some hot tea,” he said.

He made that coffee mug himself. That must’ve been her fourth, he reckoned. Tashigi, with the clumsiness characteristic of her, broke each mug eventually, and got so upset about it every time as if she had caused him a terrible offence. He just shrugged and made a new one. That suited him fine, relieving him of the need to figure out what to do with the results of another evening at the potter’s wheel. Besides, working with clay was easier when he knew who was going to get the thing he was making.

Tashigi looked up at him. Up close, it was impossible not to notice her unhealthy pallor and dark circles under her eyes. Her neck was wrapped in a shaggy blue scarf.

“You’ve lost your mind,” and then, flustered, “thank you.”

Smoker sank on a chair next to her desk. He took the cigar case and the lighter out of his pocket, then cast a sidelong glance at Tashigi and put them back, not without regret – sure enough, she was used to constant smoke, but normally she wasn’t constantly coughing. Tashigi sat down too, touched the tea mug and immediately hissed and pressed her hand to her lips, having scalded herself.

“Told you it’s hot.”

“Yes, I… I see. Why are you doing this? You can’t leave the infirmary yet.”

“Can’t bear listening to you cough anymore. Like some damn miner.”

“I’m taking care of it.”

“Yeah, sure you are. I know you. Bet you’re forcing yourself to work nonstop. You’re gonna get all the brats sick.”

“I don’t think it’s contagious,” she took a sip carefully. Looked at him over her glasses. “I just caught a cold, that’s all. A bad cold.”

Shit. Well, sooner or later one of them was bound to bring that up. Sooner must be better. In a way, that was why he came here.

“You could do with some cold training,” he couldn’t help muttering. Tashigi slammed the mug down on the desk, spilling tea on the documents she was reading.

“You know what, you could train all you want, but it still won’t prepare you for someone else running around naked in your body in the freezing cold.”

“Don’t twist it round, Tashigi. Unbuttoning a shirt isn’t running naked.”

“In winter and for normal people, it is!” Oh, now she was definitely angry, eyes glittering with outrage or fever – trust her to work with a fever – or both. A couple of years back she wouldn’t have dared to tell him off like that, even for a good reason. She was still polite and shy, but now she could also bite. Hold her own. And good thing that she could. When she inevitably outgrows him and gets promoted, he won’t have to worry. At the same time, even her anger had something cute about it. Like a tiny bird – a sparrow or a swallow or something – threatening to peck him to death. “And how dared you take off my, my…”

“Your what?”

“My bra!” she spat out crossly, and flushed red. Before he met Tashigi, Smoker had no idea people were able to blush as often and as hard for any reason whatsoever. He could’ve assumed it was some peculiarity of her organism, but then goddamned Trafalgar Law switched their minds, and he had to witness her redden in the exact same way while in his body. Now he knew what he looked like with a maidenly blush on his cheeks – like a laughingstock. And the entire first unit of G-5 now knew it too. Fucking great. “What did you do with it?”

“Tore it off and threw it away!” he raised his voice to match hers. Bloody hell, were there any limits to how red that woman could get?

Tashigi glowered at him and opened her mouth to say something, but hunched over in a coughing fit again, and covered the bottom of her face with the tip of her scarf. She was shaking violently, far too violently for her fragile form. Granted, that fragility was misleading, and he didn’t need to swap bodies with her to know it; they trained together all the time, and he’d seen her in combat. But he could see she was struggling. He couldn’t help her in any way, yet he leaned forward on instinct, wishing to… hell if he knew what to do. And he winced when sharp pain pierced his ribcage, one of his worst wounds making its presence felt.

Tashigi lowered the scarf, and Smoker saw that it was not cough she was shaking with anymore, but laughter.

“Looks like we’re both… falling apart,” she spoke hoarsely. There were tears in her eyes, but no pain; no more anger, either.

“Tell me about it, Captain.”

Tashigi gave him a sad smile, took her glasses off, and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. Reflexively, she reached for a wrong mug, then remembered it was empty and took another. Smoker glanced at the coffee mug abstractedly. At its bottom, like at the bottom of its broken predecessors – all but the very first one – there was an outline of a little bird traced in clay, a very simple one, like a child’s drawing. He wasn’t much of a painter. Tashigi must’ve thought he drew these birds on all his ceramics. He never explained, and she never asked.  

He sighed grimly.

“Actually, you’re right,” he admitted. “I should’ve been more careful. Should’ve kept in mind it wasn’t my body. It’s my fault you caught a cold.”

“You could’ve said that when I came to visit you again, instead of dragging yourself here with that tea. Since you don’t feel well.”

“No, I couldn’t. And I’m fine. I feel better here,” he wasn’t even lying. That single jab of pain aside, he could swear he felt better as soon as he entered the room and sat down across from her. “I am sorry.”

Tashigi took another sip and put the mug down.

“All right, I forgive you. Apology accepted.” It was probably intended to be a proud, affected smile, but it still came out sincere. “Forgive you the cold, that is. I don’t even know about the bra. Why did you tear it? Do you know how much they cost? More than T-shirts.”

“Want me to buy you a new one, huh?”

She grew embarrassed. “I d-don’t think that would be appropriate,” she stammered out.

“Mm-hmm. That’s why it was a joke”

“Oh. Right,” she adjusted her glasses nervously. Whatever she imagined a second ago, she kept it to herself. Whatever he couldn’t help imagining when she blurted that out, he kept it to himself as well.

“Mind if I smoke?”

She gave him a perplexed stare.

“No, I don’t believe that you’re feeling fine. Since when do you ask for permission?”

“Since you started coughing. Don’t worry, it won’t become a habit.”

“Then knock yourself out.”

The smoke from two cigars at once began to stream towards the ceiling.

“I tore it because it was uncomfortable. Who knew it was only gonna get worse,” he grimaced. No, he’s always has enough brains to realize that women weren’t wearing those things for the aesthetic only, but he had no idea that it literally hurt when it all jiggled. Tashigi smiled with the corner of her lips; must’ve thought he had it coming. Well, yeah, that wasn’t wrong. A minor payback for letting her body catch cold, but a payback nonetheless.

“You could’ve just undressed and unhooked it,” she pointed out. Smoker shook his head.

“There was no time or place to undress. And I didn’t want to… touch your body like that,” he said. “That would’ve been rotten of me.”

“And you said you couldn’t keep in mind it was mine,” Tashigi said quietly. Something changed in her gaze, but he couldn’t begin to interpret it.

“Well, I noticed,” he hesitated, “some things.”

“Such as?”

Of course he noticed. Except that there was no time to pause to think about it on Punk Hazard – they were all too busy trying to stop Caesar, stop Vergo, save the kids, and not get killed in the process. It was later, in the sick bay, half in delirium, that he thought back on the delicate skin under his fingertips and resigned to the awareness that yes, it was her. He touched her, and he could no longer forget what it felt like. He pinned her hair up so that it didn’t get into his eyes, and now, when he looked at her and saw that a strand or two have got out of her ponytail, his hands remembered: like silk. He wanted to reach out and tuck that errand strand behind her little ear. Wanted it even more than ever before. He clenched his fists.       

As to that whole thing with the bra – ha, wouldn’t he have liked it if the only thing he remembered was the way it was uncomfortable to run with breasts bouncing at every step, not the fact that those were her breasts. Oh, he had some ideas on other, much more pleasant circumstances in which they could bounce like that, but he wasn’t going to think about that when she was sitting in front of him. Sometime later. He didn’t touch her body more than was unavoidable when he was trapped in it, but he was no saint.

He shrugged.

“Short height. Shitty eyesight. Stuff like that.” Again, he wasn’t even lying, because how do you not notice that? Especially the height – he couldn’t have imagined what it was like, having to look up at almost everyone. “Not having the Devil Fruit powers was a bummer, too. Like I lost a hand.”

“And I gained an extra one,” Tashigi grinned. Judging by her face, she suddenly remembered something – and her cheeks turned pink once more. “And now I know why you never button up. No smoke without fire, right? You’re very hot. I mean… to the touch.”

Smoker chuckled. She positively had a talent for innocently phrasing things in… an interesting manner. 

“What, now you want one too? The Devil Fruit?”

“No. It’s such a lottery, isn’t it? You can become invincible, or you can learn how to turn into, I don’t know, a sloth. I’d rather keep practicing my Haki. And swordsmanship, of course. I have to become stronger than… the others.” She pressed her lips together stubbornly, and Smoker thought he knew at least one specific swordsman she wanted to surpass.

She was always trying to get stronger. To prove to the world that she was worth something – as a Marine, as a warrior, as a captain. That was why he hadn’t gone easy on her ever since she entered the service under his command; you couldn’t afford to relax if you wanted no one to doubt your prowess, and she couldn’t afford it twice as much. He remembered what it used to be like for Hina – not that he had to explain that to Tashigi. Female Marines were not uncommon, and it was considered that total equality had been achieved in that matter, but in reality, an officer was more likely to be taken seriously if that officer was a big man, not a pretty young lady.

The actual stance of the Marines on many issues differed from the official one. For example, sexual relationships between subordinates and commanders were against the regulations, but in practice were rarely condemned – unless they were used as a pretext if anyone involved had high-ranking ill-wishers. Barring that, such things were discussed with knowing grins, and no one ever said anything to the culprits’ faces. Only behind their backs. If it came to light that a girl was sleeping with her commanding officer, no one would stop saying hello to her, it’s just that many people would secretly start thinking her either a naïve little fool unable to say no, or a calculating bitch sleeping her way up the ranks. There were certain words to describe such girls, and if she happened to make some enemies, those words would make themselves known.

He couldn’t risk everything she had achieved and would still achieve. She could bite all right, but she hadn’t yet grown a shell for such words to ricochet off. And he was responsible for her as her immediate superior and mentor. If she served under someone else and mentioned that her commander had started making unambiguous advances to her, he would’ve told her: it’s a bad fucking idea. The fact that he was that commander changed nothing.

“You will,” he assured her. “But first let’s get you back on your feet. You won’t get far if you keep coughing your lungs out.”

Tashigi shook her head. “I can’t believe you of all people are giving me lung-related advice,” she murmured. She finished her tea, put the mug on the desk, and fixed her eyes on him. “Fine. I’ll go to the infirmary right away and ask the doctors for something for my throat.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“And you’ll come with me and go back to bed.”

“I told you I feel better here.”

“Yeah, right. Like you would admit if you didn’t. I know you. Sir, if you keep exerting yourself too much, you won’t get better for quite some time. And I need you,” she turned pink again but held his gaze when their eyes met. If anything, he sensed some sort of challenge in her gaze. That was the last thing he needed. “I mean, there’s so much work and you’re the base commander now and…”

“Alright,” he interrupted her. He couldn’t take that staring game now for health reasons – yes, precisely for health reasons. A bad fucking idea, he reminded himself. Bad, and yet so tempting. “A day or two I can afford. But not more.”

She beamed at him, and he rolled his eyes and looked away, making an effort not to smile back.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 47: Evil alien invasion (Part 1: The Xorda)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! 

I know it’s been awhile since my last episode, but I’ve had a lot to catch up on at work that’s been keeping me occupied. I was expecting to come back to find some of my assigned work had not been done while I was on leave, but I wasn’t expecting none of it to get done. Hoo boy, what a mess. Anyway, let’s get back into it. Today’s episode is:

Episode 47: Evil alien invasion (Part 1: The Xorda)

So this isn’t my first time mentioning alien races in this series...

I’ve already gone over Car-Heem of Wheet pretty extensively, and he wasn’t really evil so much as misguided. We also don’t know if the rest of the Wheetens are like him, as we only saw them in a brief cameo when A.D.A.M. summoned the Chaos Emeralds from their planet, so there’s not much point going into them.

There’s also the Bzzzz which I’ve previously mentioned from Sonic’s Tossed in Space arc. The Bzzzz were an evil race raging war on the peaceful Blodex, and were wiped out by Super Sonic, who appeared as a separate and chaotic entity to Sonic himself due to him using red chaos emeralds.

So those guys have been covered too. But there are two other alien races that I’ve mostly skipped over so far, so today I'm going to have a look at the first of those.

The first evil aliens to invade Mobius were the Xorda, who debuted in the Sonic Adventure 2.5 arc in Sonic #124 and 125.

The story was that thousands of years ago these guys sent an emissary to Earth to make peaceful contact and offer an alliance. But the humans who made first contact  (naturally including an ancestor of the Kintobor clan) captured the emissary and dissected them. The Xorda were justifiably upset about this, but they may have overreacted slightly when they decided to commit planetary genocide. Just a little planetary genocide, as a treat. Bombarding the planet with gene bombs, they left after they assumed that they’d wiped out all life on the planet. But they were unaware that there were pockets of survivors, and the gene bomb radiation resulted in most of mankind slowly evolving into anthropomorphic mammals, aka Mobians. 

In Sonic Adventure 2.5, the Xorda returned to Earth (now known as Mobius) thousands of years later and discovered that they hadn’t wiped out all life on the planet after all, so they started the war anew.

This also marked the return of Shadow the Hedgehog to the comic, who had been missing and presumed dead since the events of Sonic Adventure 2 (partially shown in Sonic #98).

It turned out that Shadow had been saved from his fatal fall from the Ark by an alien race called the Bem (more on them later) who nursed him back to health. When the Xorda attacked, the Bem imbued Shadow with enough energy to become Super Shadow again so that he could fight the Xorda off while they escaped.

…yeah, that didn’t exactly work out. But at least the Bem got away safely.

With the planet under attack by the Xorda, who were still yelling about the murder of their emissary thousands of years ago, Sally and Nicole researched what had happened and found out that all signs pointed to them being truthful - Mobius used to be Earth, and the Xorda’s attack on the planet coincided with history’s accounts of the Days of Fury that ravaged the planet.

Sally tried to plead a case with the Xorda for them to spare the planet, pointing out that humans were no longer the dominant lifeforms on the planet and that the Mobosapiens were inadvertently created by the Xorda’s previous bombing. But the Xorda could not be swayed and continued their attack.

It was Dr. Eggman who brought the solution - a giant robot that was totally not a Transformer and was strong enough to fight back, but needed Sonic’s speed as a power source. 

Just an aside note here, but my headcanon for this mech was that Eggman originally intended to power it with his own people. When a colony of Overlanders (aka humans) suddenly returned from space without warning, Eggman temporarily tricked them into taking refuge with him and his robotic forces in Robotropolis. At the time ("the time" being Sonic #95) Snively was curious about why Eggman hadn’t just roboticised them and been done with it, and so Eggman showed him exactly what he had planned for his guests.

We never did find out exactly what Snively was shown, as Sonic and Sally showed up and evacuated the Overlanders to Knothole (then later, Station Square) before Eggman could go through with his plan. But my theory is that Eggman was showing off his Giga-Bot Prime to Snively, and after losing the Overlanders he converted it to run on the power of one speedy blue boi rather than a hundred odd mediocre humans.

Anyway, back to the Xorda. In desperation Eggman called Knothole proposing a truce, asking them to send Sonic so he could save the day. But King Max had a rare W moment here (yes, he was very occasionally awesome, mostly depending on the writer) and demanded that in return for Sonic’s services, Eggman surrender half of his territories to the Acorn Kingdom. With no other choice, Eggman reluctantly agreed.

Sonic and Sally raced off to Eggman’s base to check out his newest toy, and sure enough, with Sonic powering it the Giga-Bot Prime was powerful enough to beat back the Xorda.

Predictably, as soon as the threat seemed to be gone Eggman turned on Sonic, remotely trapping him inside Giga-Bot Prime to be its eternal fuel source as Eggman used it to conquer the planet. But he didn’t get a chance to do so, as the Xorda dropped off their deadliest weapon: the Quantum Dial, which once activated would create a black hole that would engulf the entire planet.

Both heroes and villains alike across the entire planet travelled to the Quantum Dial to try and stop it, but were unable to get past its defenses.

On top of having sentry turrets that shot at anyone that got close, it also emitted a field that caused all technological weapons that came into range to just fall apart before they could do any harm. Giga-Bot Prime was no exception and disintegrated as soon as it was in range, but on the plus side it at least got Sonic and Sally past the outside defenses. The Quantum Dial had one last defense though, a quantum wave designed to incinerate anyone who got too close. But Sonic and Sally were saved by some literal Deus Ex Machina, as Knuckles came back from the dead in a massive wave of power, stopping the quantum wave.

However Knuckles could not help any further, as returning from the Chaos Force had stripped him of his powers. It was left to Sonic to destroy the Quantum Dial by doing a speedy thing and running around it counterclockwise to reverse the dial’s direction and cause it to implode.

Sonic appeared to have been killed in this last sacrificial act of heroism, but he’d actually been transported across the universe and was completely fine. This kicked off the Tossed In Space arc, which I talked about during the “We’re in space now!” episode.

So that’s the Xorda in a nutshell, but there was one other alien race that caused trouble for Sonic (and to a larger extent, Shadow), not just in the comics but also the games. So come back next time, when I’ll be talking about the Black Arms!

[the12thnightproject]

Chapter 20: To Eleven - It all goes to hell.

Shingen x OC; Kenshin x MC (Mai)

Previous Chapter: here

Logline - Disguised as a boy, Katsuko finds herself working for Shingen, but her dangerous masquerade becomes difficult to sustain when she falls for the man with a fatal secret.

Borderline NSFW below the cutline

Shingen dropped that affable mask, and the look he gave me nearly incinerated me on the spot.

I lifted my chin, determined not to be the one who spoke first. To be honest (for once), I wasn’t sure what I could say. I wasn’t sure if I could speak – the events of the past hour left me in a tangle of confused emotions – fury at Iekane for what he had tried to do to us all, embarrassment for being revealed so publicly, shame for not finding Iekane before he had a chance to act, and … the big one, guilt for lying to Shingen. All my feelings were reaching critical mass and had nowhere to go.

“Messenger, maid, daredevil, spy… so many roles you’ve played.” Shingen prowled the room, circling me… once… twice. Underneath his rage, there was pain. I had done this. I had done this to him. “I’ll choose one for now. Liar.”

His tone cut like a lash. It hurt more because I deserved it. But while the voice inside me was telling me to shut up and take it, I couldn’t help but point out, “You knew I was a liar. I told you I was.” Also, technically not a spy, though it wouldn’t do me any good to argue that at this moment.

“I knew she was a liar,” Shingen confirmed. “I didn’t know you were, Katsu.” He paused, then corrected, “Katsuko.”

She is me. I am she. And yet in my head they were still separate people, with different wants.

He stopped in front of me and again stared until I felt forced to look up at him. “Are you here spying for Nobunaga? Do you work for Mitsuhide?”

“N-no. It’s y-y-you. Since I’ve been here, I’ve only worked for you.” Even if I had been able to contact Aki, I wouldn’t have told him anything.

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” He took hold of my arm – firmly but not painfully. “Would you be more honest after a night or two in Kenshin’s dungeons?”

After an hour in a dark windowless room, I would be unlikely to make any sense at all. I planted my feet on the ground and scrambled for another option before he could herd me anywhere. After a hasty look around the room, I focused on the wooden practice swords. “Would you give me a fighting chance?”

He looked at the swords. “I’d have given Katsu a fighting chance. If he existed.” 

In spite of those words, though, he retrieved two swords. “If you want to fight, Angel,” and there was a mocking quality to that name, “you still owe me a kiss.” He tossed me a sword. “Double or nothing.”

He wouldn’t have accepted a refusal, and my pride wouldn’t have offered one. Besides, right now, I was in the mood to savage something. This would do. “Deal.”

“Until yield,” he said, raising the sword, sounding utterly confident that I would be the one yielding to him. “If you think to hang back and then run away, think again, for I will find you, even if I must climb every tree in the province.”

That was an empty threat. If I ran, I knew he would not find me – not even if he sent all his mitsumono as well. But he deserved this fight, and so I stayed.

We’d sparred before, but the previous time had been a training exercise – part fun, part education. This time, he didn’t pause to allow me to get some concept into my head. He outweighed me, he could outreach me, and he was physically stronger. This could be over in minutes if I weren’t faster and more agile.

When I backflipped out of the way of his sword, something I knew he hadn’t seen me do before, he seemed surprised. Then I lashed out with a kick, nearly catching him in the stomach, but it was mistimed, and he easily spun out of the way.

Suddenly he smiled, but it was not his normal smile, or even his flirtatious smile. This smile was without joy. “I’m going to win. Do you know why?”

I had several theories why he was most likely to win, but since the question was clearly rhetorical, I ignored it, focused on not losing at that moment, and once again ducked out of the way of the sword.

“Because you’re still unwilling to attack.” We circled each other, and, he was correct, I was still playing defense. “Maybe you want to lose, just like you – or whoever your master is - wanted me to find you in the lake, Angel.”

Really? He went there? Disappointed that he would use that kind of reasoning, I did muster an attack at that point, with a series of spinning kicks that sent him backward. “First of all, I had no idea that you would be anywhere near there that night. All I wanted was a bath. You can confirm that one with Mai. And secondly,” I scurried backward as he seemed to catch a second wind and braced myself in time for a blow to my sword. *Thwack* It nearly unarmed me. “Stop calling me Angel. It’s not my name, and you’re clearly aware that I’m not one.”

“Devil, then.” He punctuated that with another strong hit that nearly numbed my hand.

“Better the only Devil than one of the thousand interchangeable angels.” As soon as I said that out loud, I regretted giving him even that tiny bit of what had been in my head over the past couple of weeks. And I could tell by the way Shingen’s mouth quirked up at the corner, that he filed that away like he filed away every bit of information he encountered. I had given him another weapon, should he choose to deploy it.

He clung to the advantage, driving me back toward the wall, and I needed to use all my strength to keep my sword and my balance. He swung toward me, and I dove under the sword, somersaulting away.

Neither of us spoke for a while, and the room was filled with the clack of the swords, the thuds of our feet against the floor and each other, the grunts of effort, and in the background, the pounding of that unending rain that had set all of this into motion in the first place.

He was breathing harder now, slowing a little, although he still put the same amount of strength behind his hits. He seemed to know where I was going to be, before I got there… right, because I was still playing defense. As long as I continued that strategy, I was never going to win, and so, the next time he swung at me, I ducked, pretended that I was going to pull back, and then at the last possible moment, attacked, using his momentum to knock him off his feet.

I had one split second of triumph, before those long arms grabbed hold of me and pulled me down with him. He grunted as my elbow landed in his gut, then he rolled, trapping me underneath him. He tossed his sword away and pinned my arms over my head.

We stared at each other; our faces so close they nearly touched. Although I had expected to lose, it seemed we were both surprised at the when and the how. In the sudden silence, the rain was a roar. The humid air clung to my skin.

“Yield.” All the Barry White had been stripped from his voice. “Say it.”

I said nothing, assessing whether I had any other moves left. That, and simply to be defiant. No matter what had brought it about, I had welcomed the fight and wanted to prolong it. I was apprehensive about what was next.

He stared down at me and repeated. “Yield.”

“We both know I’m out of options.” Stalling… technically not an option; definitely what I was doing.

“Two words. Two words from you that I can be assured are not lies.” Those smoke eyes had darkened, and he hadn’t moved at all from the moment he pinned me to the floor. “Say it.”

I couldn’t say it, because… it would have been a lie. I could yield the fight, but I would not yield myself. Instead, I bypassed the admission, and paid off part of the updated wager with a kiss.

The moment our lips touched; all the jumbled emotions of the day were transformed by some unexplainable alchemy into want. No – need. I needed his lips, his mouth, his tongue… To say this was only a kiss would be doing a disservice to this kiss, and yet, with his hands still locking mine to the floor, there was no exploration of bodies – it was only a kiss.

He took the kiss deeper, drowning me in the sensation of his tongue sweeping through my mouth, his teeth biting my lips. This was not like the seductive kiss from the lake or the teasing kisses from the inn. This was someone pushed past their barriers by anger, and though I was sorry for angering him, at least a tiny part of me couldn’t regret the result of finding the authentic passion under the flirtatious exterior. Maybe it was anger, but it was real, and my body responded to it eagerly.

The incendiary look he had given me earlier was nothing compared to the heat that was building inside of me. I became convinced of the existence of spontaneous combustion. Tomorrow morning, the maids would come in and find a mysterious little green globule on the floor, because everything had been dialed up to eleven.

Shingen broke away from the kiss. “You never said it.” He slid his mouth down to my neck, pressing his lips to the base of my throat, then growled, “Say it,” his breath hot against me.

I’d have been lucky to manage to say anything at all. Instead, it was I could do to take a large drink of air that ended in a moan as he sucked and licked the sensitive skin under my ear.

Letting go of one of my wrists, he undid my sash, so that both layers of my kimono fell open, revealing the leather binding I used to flatten my figure. “That looks uncomfortable.” His fingers traced the cord that laced down the middle of it. “Would you like to be released?”

“Mmmphm,” was all I could manage as my fingers tugged his hair.

He loosened the binding, pushing it down around my waist. Underneath the binding, I wore a sleeveless cotton shift to protect my skin from the stiffer leather. He pushed that away as well, baring my breasts. With the back of his finger, he lightly stroked them. “They’re too lovely to be mistreated like so.”

The gentle touch after the tight leather felt like balm to my sore skin – but had the opposite effect on my emotions – I wanted to cry… why, I didn’t even know. His touch became more purposeful, arousing, and the need I had for him rushed to the surface. But I couldn’t need anyone.

Lowering his head, he kissed one nipple, then the other, his tongue flicking each until they tightened, leaving me shaking with the sudden rush of emotion that engulfed my body, that combination of want and need and fear of letting go.

“What am I doing?” Shingen froze, then violently flung himself away from me.

We stared at each other. The only sound was our breathing and that unrelenting rain outside. “You’re trembling.”

Awareness gave way to embarrassment. I pulled my kimono shut with one, yes, trembling, hand, and swiped my hair out of my face with the other. I couldn’t think of what to say. I didn’t know if I was shaking out of want or shaking because I afraid of it.

“I’ve never forced myself on anyone,” he said as he pushed himself to a sitting position. “If you’re unwilling, if you don’t want this, get out.”

I wasn’t unwilling but, Katsu and Katsuko were arguing inside my head. I didn’t know which one of me I was with him anymore. 

Not like this…

If I only get one night with him…

No, not like this…

It would make everything worse.

And yet, I would be willing because I cared for him. I cared for him as Katsu. I cared for him as Katsuko. After all this though, I doubted he would believe me. Or, worse, if he did believe me, he wouldn’t welcome that knowledge. He would reject it.

Better to have him think I was unwilling.

And so, the biggest lie I had ever told him, I said with my feet when I got up and ran for the door. Before I turned my head away, I saw his expression of self-loathing before he buried his face in his hands.

Once again, I did what I do best. I ran.

It was only when I was back in my room, my mouth still tasting of his kiss, did I realize what that look on his face had meant. In protecting myself, I had caused a greater injury to him. I had made him believe I was afraid of him. I had made him believe he was capable of force.

If I had had a mirror, I was sure that that same look of self-loathing was on my face as well. The only difference was, I deserved to hate myself.

I should have stayed, at least tried to explain.

It was too late.

[ryupioupiou]

I remember when my father always had a point of more or less gently telling us we sucked and were useless in life because we didn't understand something immediately when he explained or demonstrated it to us.

Like homework was pure hell. I always did whatever I could to work only on subjects HE wasn't good at. Only way to get peace.

I still feel the utter terror of when i was working on maths assignements. The screaming. Like, SCREAMING. Guy legit yelled at me (I have oversensitive ears. I let you imagine how nice it was).

I am in my 30's.

Once I volonteered to paint the fences (already in the ground). And as I had little experience, I wanted to to it good. So I took my time (i always take a lot of time to do stuff because I want to do them well). And quite frankly I was trying not to get dirt on the brush and in the paint, and was enjoying being outdoor so I was peaceful.

Apparently, fatal error. Dad coms in fury demanding why I hadn't finished yet, "you're so slow, what the fuck are you good for?" Took a brush and well painted the thing with me while reprimanding me and like telling me that's not so complicated and to HURRY UP (it was on a sunday, and there was no plan for the day!). I rushed the thing, and of course, less careful, put dirt in the paint.

"AND LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE! YOU PUT DIRT IN THE PAINT, HOW CAN YOU BE SO CLUMSY?!" while still yelling. (Still hurts to this day, I was like 14)

I. Never. Volontereed. Again. NEVER.

Another was that in hs, I openly admit I didn't really put in the work. Except for subjects I was actually interested in. I gave up on maths because 1. Most of the things I wouldn't use later so why bother and 2. It was too fast dor me to keep up with. Here you choose what diploma you want but most of the subects, you couldn't choose at the time. So i admit i scared my parents about not getting my HS diploma. Well, more my dad. My mom, being a teacher, had a very different point of view. My dad even made me do math homework when I wqs at his place for the summer. Absolute worst summerbof my life. I had anxiety just looking at the books. While I do understand why he did it, tl help me, yelling at me because I didn't understand is not the way to do it. Telling me i an an incapable person and that I won't accomplish anything in life is not something thzt helps. And for what? Nothing.

I did get my diploma. First try. The teachers were confident I would get it. Maths? Nailed it becausz I was lucky to work on stuff I understood. (The look on my math teacher's face is still burned into my memory 14 years after). Dad was excstatic when I told him on the phone. When I went to his house for the summer "you should have done better. Bad results. Not good enough".

A few years after, he told me that him and his wife (whose opinion is irrevelant) were convinced I wouldn't make it. Not that they were scared. They were CONVINCED. That's where I utterly gave up. I just... gave up on him. He told me that after I took my fibal exams for my IT course. Before this, i went no contact with him for 4 years becquse of the Argument. I just... gave up. I only told him when the results came in that i made it and that I was in the top 5 of all the area (thousands of students). I now am on minimum contact with him. Telling him that what he says is hurting is a sure way to get insulted or told bot to be such a pussy or stop overrreacting.

The worst is that it would be like that for anything. A lot of kids had this kind of dad.

One of the worst things is that what he says in anger, he never. Never apologized. Never thought about the impact his words had on his children.

Saying fucked up things can really screw your kids. I know there are far worse things people have heard their own parents say to them. My case isn't the worst. But some people will struggle even as adult. I am in a therapy, and it's still very tough for me to even believe I am not some useless scum.

Be careful of what you tell your kids. It can really screw them up. And if they tell you you hurt them, do some fucking self reflection and at the very least APOLOGIZE. Children do bad things too but insulting them isn't the way!

Sorry. Needed that off my chest. Still sensitive.

parents are so crazy because they can say the most fucked up shit to you when your brain is forming and it sets the tone for your whole adult mind set and then they forget about it the next day

[pleinsdemuses]

Taking my first muse ever here. Say hi to Celeste Bjornson.

Full Name: Celeste Bjornson

Age: Late 20s

Biography

Celeste Bjornson lived a peaceful and simple life in a small town, unaware of the incredible and terrible potential she carried within her. Her childhood was ordinary and happy, marked by the love of her family and her bond with her golden retriever, Buddy. Everything seemed normal until one fateful day when Celeste was just eight years old.

Buddy was hit by a car, left broken and dying on the side of the road. Devastated and desperate, Celeste clung to him, crying out for him to be okay. To her astonishment, warmth spread from her hands into his body, knitting his wounds together until Buddy sprang back to life. Though amazed, Celeste didn’t understand what had happened and kept the incident secret, pushing the memory to the back of her mind.

For years, Celeste’s life remained quiet and uneventful. She never used her ability again, partly out of fear and partly because she didn’t know how.

The Turning Point

Celeste’s older sister, Lucille, had been dating a drug-addicted, abusive boyfriend, and Celeste tried to intervene. They fought bitterly, and Lucille, momentarily swayed by her sister’s pleas, decided to stay. Furious, her boyfriend pulled out a gun to threaten Lucille into leaving with him. In a horrifying moment of chaos, he accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting Lucille in the head.

Celeste’s world shattered as her sister collapsed lifelessly before her. Desperation consumed her as she tried to use her healing powers, but Lucille was already gone. Her abilities could not bring back the dead. Grief turned into rage, and Celeste screamed, unleashing a dark, destructive force she never knew she possessed.

The man’s head exploded in an instant, her agony and fury channeling into an uncontrollable act of violence. The realization that she could inflict such pain horrified her. From that moment, Celeste was never the same.

Life After the Incident

The guilt of Lucille’s death and the terrifying new power Celeste had unleashed drove her into isolation. Her newfound ability to manipulate pain was unpredictable and dangerous. A stray thought, fueled by anger or anxiety, could harm anyone near her. She became a recluse, cutting herself off from the world to protect others from herself.

Abilities

Healing Power (Touch):

Can heal external wounds, including deep cuts, fractured bones, and severe burns.

Currently limited to external injuries; cannot yet heal internal organ damage or fatal conditions.

Healing leaves her drained, particularly with serious injuries.

Cannot bring back the dead or reverse the effects of fatal damage.

Her healing abilities will strengthen with practice, though she avoids using them due to her trauma.

Pain Manipulation (Telekinesis/Telepathy):

Can amplify physical and emotional pain or create false sensations of agony.

Can transfer wounds from one body to another.

Can neutralize physical pain entirely, though she rarely does so.

Responds to her emotions; intense feelings of anger, fear, or grief can trigger the ability without her control.

Personality

Celeste is deeply compassionate but burdened by guilt, fear, and self-hatred. Her innate desire to help others is overshadowed by the trauma of her sister’s death and the knowledge of what her powers can do. She avoids human contact, fearing that even a moment of emotional weakness could lead to harm.

Two fc available: Theresa Palmer & Elisha Cuthbert

Will/Can adapt her powers for the plot.

[sulan1809]

Terry Bogard e Mai Shiranui chegam ao Streef Fighter 6

Durante o Summer Game Fest 2024, a Capcom anunciou Terry Bogard e Mai Shiranui como personagens convidados na segunda temporada de Street Fighter 6. Mas você sabia que Terry seria personagem do primeiro Street Fighter?! Para começar, Terry é um cara alto, de longos cabelos loiros, que veste uma blusa vermelha, em similaridade com outro personagem estabelecido, Ken Masters, no entanto, a Capcom já tinha um personagem estabelecido, de cabelos negros, trajando dogi branco, Ryu. Takashi Nishiyama saiu da Capcom para trabalhar com a SNK, então ele estabeleceu Terry como o protagonista central de Fatal Fury(1991). Na trama, Terry, ao lado do irmão dele, Andy, e um terceiro companheiro, Joe Higashi, participam de um torneio papara se vingar de Geese Howard, o cara que foi responsável pela morte do pai dele, Jeff Bogard. Depois da morte de Geese, Terry encontrou um jovem chamado Rock Howard, e o adotou como filho, treinando-o no estilo Garou Densetsu. A franquia Fatal Fury constitui-se de doze títulos, sendo eles, Fatal Fury: The King of Fighters(1991), Fatal Fury 2(1992), Fatal Fury Special(1993), Fatal Fury 3: Road to Final Victory(1995), Real Bout Fatal Fury(1995), Real Bout Fatal Fury Special(1997), Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers(1998), Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special: Dominated Mind(1999), Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition(1999), Fatal Fury: First Contact(1999), Garou: Mark of the Wolves(1999) e Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, o novo capítulo oficial da série desde 1999, que ainda está para ser anunciado pela SNK, mas a previsão de lançamento oficial está estipulada para o ano de 2025.

[searching4rinoa]

Fatal Fury: First Contact FINALE [I'm Gonna Pocket You So Baaaad!]

[smbhax]

Li Xiangfei on the character selection screen of Garou Densetsu: First Contact, aka "Fatal Fury: First Contact" (NGPC)

Session: https://youtu.be/gWrwND7o7XQ

[kesakeshi]

reblogging because I want to talk about this more in-depth and speculate how they could put this in the game (yap warning):

First...yeah the story would be the main issue with this. For example, lets say Estinien was at a different planet and couldn't (logically) meet with the WoL to go on a date. How would they work around this? I've got two ideas on how they could, actually...

For starters, they could just say "screw it" and not care, making Estinien somehow be able to meet the WoL anyway and just label it as a "side story" and not canon. But then, would it be as immersive? Knowing that our 'relationship' isn't actually canon to my warrior and this is just some dream episode. And then that brings up the question, "If they did make the relationship with our WoL and their pick canon, how would they implement that into the MSQ"? Would the characters dialogue towards you change depending on if you're romantic to them or not, or would they just ignore it? It'd be quite awkward if they did, having my WoL and Estinien (for example) standing apart in a cutscene and pretty much ignoring each other even though they're supposed to be "romantically involved". But then that also brings up the question, "Could we date more then one"? If we could, I'm sure that would be even more difficult when it comes to changing the dialogue. For example, I romance Estinien and Urianger, and they're both in the same cutscene with my WoL...how would that play out? They'd have to make every character polyamorous to where they wouldn't mind, but then that just makes things a bit chaotic, wouldn't it? Especially if they allow you to romance more then two...

...but I'm getting ahead of myself (putting my WoLxEstinienxAymeric fantasy aside....)

Another thing they could do (and what a lot of people have been pushing for anyway...) is to make a whole separate side story otome/dating sim game/visual novel so they wouldn't have to worry about screwing up the story in the original. This way, they could even add....certain characters that wouldn't make sense to add (coughTheDeadCharacterscough) to please a lot of the fanbase as well. SNK did this with their Fatal Fury/KOF series, I don't see what's stopping Squeenix from doing the same.

(and in fact, they'd have a much better chance at this not backfiring compared to SNK considering there's a higher demand for an otome/dating sim in this fanbase compared to the KOF/FF fanbase)

There are probably a bunch of other great ideas I haven't thought of yet but these two are the only ideas I could think of for rn. I'm probably overthinking this a bit but idc. I just have a few hopes that, if they do make the NPC's dateable in the future, that they might consider:

PLEASE make it voiced, or at least voice the more "intimate" moments, however they decide to do this!

If they also decide to implement it in the game somehow and not take the easy way out with a dating sim, it'd be really cool if they didn't just focus on the romancing aspect of it. Let me go on an adventure with Aymeric. Have me and Estinien get into a badass fight with a dragon. Something before I start smooching them please!

And, I know I'm asking for a lot, but even after we have our moment with our NPC, there's moments even after that's spread throughout the game (despite possible dialogue changes). What I mean by this is like, occasional letters in the mail from Estinien, or maybe they visit our island randomly (like how a villager visits your house in AC). Hell, for events like Heavensturn or Valentione's Day, they could make a guest appearance somehow (they did something similar with Aymeric for the christmas event in the past if I remember correctly). Or, wouldn't it be cool if they suddenly get into contact with us via linkpearl while we're minding our business doing something else? Little details like that would make me extremely happy, though I doubt the devs would care that much about detail when it comes to this...

Anyway, I'm done yappin. Just needed to get this off of my chest because when I saw this I got way too excited....

also, something else to mention, if they do add something like this in the future...expect the twins to suddenly be of age to avoid controversy lol.

REAL???

YOSHI-P PLEASE I-

[fancypantsrecords]

Various Artists - NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 - Selected Tunes | Pix'n Love Games | 2022 | Blue Opaque | /300

[gertlushgaming]

Fatal Fury First Contact Review (Nintendo Switch)

Fatal Fury First Contact Review (Nintendo Switch)

FATAL FURY newcomers like Rick Strowd and Li Xiangfei clash fists with nostalgic fan-favorites Terry, Geese, and Mai Shiranui! Easier for beginners thanks to single-lane fighting! Unleash an ultra-lethal POTENTIAL POWER move at the brink of death to turn the tables on your foes. Pros:  Beautiful retro pixel graphics. 140MB download size. Full touchscreen support. 2D fighter gameplay. 3…

[brutalgamer]

Fatal Fury First Contact (Nintendo Switch) Review

Neo Geo Pocket action returns to Nintendo’s Switch console with Fatal Fury First Contact. Shrunk down to portable form, the fighter still hits hard. Real Bout If you know fighting games, then you likely know and have played a bunch of SNK’s titles. The publisher created...