#I don’t mention enstars enough actually considering how into it I used to be

[bobbydabob]

you are literally making all my dreams come true. seeing homestuck AND enstars, esp in ur style is a blessing ty for ur service

Thank you, haha.

I intend to draw a lot more ShuMika if I can honestly. They used to be my “OTP” and I was obsessed with Valkyrie for ages. I’ve really really really been missing them recently to the point of vibrating excitement. Homestuck is a no brainer though I have been a DirkJake fan since like 2019.

I’m glad you like my style, I will keep it up. Thank you for the ask.

[twilightmalachite]

2×2 - Grown-Up Situation 8

Author: Akira

Characters: Yuuta, Hinata, Shinobu, Nagisa

Translator: Mika Enstars

"You’re not a very physically strong person, Shinobu-kun, so don’t push yourself too hard, okay?"

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Winter

Location: Downtown

Hinata: —Oh, looks like our producers have arrived on set too!

Yuuta: Good morniii~ng, Anzu-san! Good luck today!

Shinobu: I’d be grateful for your help this time around, or rather, this time too, de gozaru…♪

Hinata: For the record, while the producer changes every time for 2×2, both YamadaP and AnzuP will be on site.

Nagisa: …Hm. It is an effective way to observe your opponent’s work up close, and perhaps also a means to monitor them to ensure there’s no cheating.

…That’s fair.

Yuuta: That’s true, but… Both producers have a lot of other work to do, so it must be quite a burden to show up on site for every 2×2.

Shinobu: Yeah… Anzu-dono had a bit of a cough last time we recorded, so I’m rather worried about her health, de gozaru.

Hinata: Doesn’t she always push herself too hard?

Huh? Actually, Anzu-san doesn’t seem to be feeling well, so she took a sick day off to be cautious…?

W-Will things be okay?

Hinata: Ah, I’m not worried about Anzu-san, but about the program… It’s mostly her own fault she’s not feeling well.

Shinobu: We didn’t say anything…

Yuuta: When you put it like that, it sounds like you instead actually don’t care about her at all, Aniki. ♪

Hinata: Uu, but that’s not what I meant. The producer in charge of the fifth episode of 2×2 is Anzu-san, isn’t she?

What do we do? If she can’t come on-site, how will she give us directions?

Nagisa: …It appears she will be giving direction through HoldHands for the time being.

…YamadaP has come on-site, although he is not in charge this time, so I do not think he can be too intrusive.

Shinobu: If YamadaP ended up producing AnzuP’s episode, it wouldn’t make any sense, de gozaru.

That would make the match, or the producer showdown, nonviable.

Hinata: It’s not something she should do to the point of destroying her body. I feel it’s fine to end this with Anzu-san’s loss now that she’s called in sick.

Managing the health of your idols and yourself is part of the job.

By falling ill, Anzu-san’s already considered inferior to YamadaP as a producer.

Yuuta: We’ve never had to miss work due to falling ill! We are healthy children! ☆

Hinata: But it’s caused for some mental unwellness because of that…

Yuuta: Moving on. This 12 episode program is already in the middle of it’s run with the fifth episode, and it seems to be getting a lot of viewership ratings thanks to the two producers competing.

It might not be feasible to cancel it at this point. At least, to the company or agency, in other words ES.

Hinata: Grown-up stuff is tough.

Nagisa: …I agree. Anzu-san’s name will be credited as this episode’s producer, and it appears that the match will continue whilst keeping her health condition under wraps.

…We should probably try to avoid mentioning it as much as possible.

Shinobu: During filming, at least, de gozaru. Hmm, I am worried about Anzu-dono though…

Yuuta: We just have to do our job. I’m sure doing that much would let Anzu-san at least rest easy.

Hinata: That’s right. …So, what kind of thing are we doing for our “experience” this time?

Nagisa: …I believe we’ve all received instruction from Anzu-san through HoldHands.

…What we’re doing for our “experience” this time is, umm, “experiencing life on the streets”?

Shinobu: Whoa, sounds like another harsh one!

Hinata: You’re not a very physically strong person, Shinobu-kun, so don’t push yourself too hard, okay?

Yuuta: That’s my line, Aniki.

Hinata: The current Yuuta-kun isn’t considerate enough, so I’m saying it for you!

Shinobu: I-I don’t want the siblings to quarrel, de gozaru~? Let’s get along, get along…♪

Nagisa: …Fufu, it is somehow unnerving for various reasons.

…In short, it appears we will be living on the streets for about a week, five days to be exact.

Yuuta: So like a homele… I have a feeling I shouldn’t use that word. Umm, so like an unemployed person with no fixed address?

Nagisa: …That’s right. Like we’ve been thrown out onto the street in only our clothes and have to survive for five days.

Yuuta: So we’ll be surviving in the concrete jungle!

Hinata: Whaaat, this will be easy, then!

Shinobu: Wha, wha? I’m here thinking this will be the hardest so far, de gozaru!?

Even harder than the third episode where we lived in extreme poverty, living on only 500 yen a day!

We at least had an apartment to live in with furniture and a bed, de gozaru!

We won’t even have that this time, de gozaru! It’s like a hard-mode was given to living in extreme poverty due to popular demand?

Nagisa: …Is the producer in charge this time around, Anzu-san, a demon?

Yuuta: She can be brutal at times, but I think she’s rather gentle with this.

Hinata: Yup. We can use the experience of how to save money during the program’s third episode of living in extreme poverty, though not Ran-senpai.

Yuuta: Yup. We have experience.

Shinobu: Oh, right. Yuuta-kun and Hinata-kun—

Yuuta: Yeah. When we were kids, we ran away from home and lived on the streets for some time. We earned money through things like street performances.

That experience can be put to good use. If anything, isn’t that why Anzu-san chose this to be our experience this time?

Hinata: Yup. This won’t be a first for us, so she hoped it’d be no sweat for us—No she trusted us that it would be.

Anzu-san, who knows us very well, has prepared something that I believe is a perfect fit for us.

Though I do feel bad for Shinobu-kun who will have to tag along.

Shinobu: … …

[ ☆ ]

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[ghostportals]

Rejet’s Star Revolution: Starting the game

Uh yeah idk if there’s already a guide out but I haven’t seen one? so i figured i’d post a bit of one

keep in mind if you’re reading i can’t actually read japanese, a lot of this was done with google translate lol. but it can still be helpful to make things quicker till a proper guide comes out (if there. isn’t already one)

Menu stuff is at the very bottom of the post ! The stuff before the menu takes you through the tutorial and the basics that aren't covered in that.

edit before you click: warning that there’s currently irl blood on my desktop theme (won’t be soon tho)

Welcome to the Starevo tutorial! Lines with an * at the beginning aren’t in the tutorial, but are stuff I’m mentioning for the later gameplay.

1. Joining

Enter your Player name. Last name, then first name, Japanese style.

2. Intro

The school’s stuco VP will talk to you for a while. I’d like to tell what he says, but I’m not quite confident enough in my jp listening skills to do so lol. He does call you “president-chan”, though. You’re given a dialogue option:

It doesn’t matter what you say, but the top says “I’m not very confident” and the bottom basically says “I’ll try to do my best.” Both are not very confident sounding either way, which is understandable considering you’re suddenly being thrust into a position of power in a dang idol school, lol.

3. Lives - require LP

If you’re used to mobile rhythm games, the gameplay is pretty easy to get from just the images. There’s only one “button” and it doesn’t matter where you tap.

*Select a song, select a friend or guest as support, select a team, and click the pink button to begin (out of tutorial).

Small pink circle: Regular tap.

Blue circle with trail: Tap and hold.

Green circle with shine in the middle: Swipe.

Big pink gradient circle: Tap with two fingers (or double tap real fast, if you’re lazy.)

Star shaped: Tap A Lot Real Fast. You need to get a certain amount to get a perfect; continuing after the star fills gives you bonuses.

*After a live, you’ll see your results and get rewards. If your support was a guest, you’ll get a popup prompting you to send a friend request; you can send it (blue) or not (gray).

4. Lessons - require AP

You can increase affection(?) degree in lessons. Select the lesson type by selecting one of the colored circles. Keep an eye on the characters condition-- how effective the lessons are is directly proportional to how in shape the character is! (Just like real life wow)

Tap twice on a lesson type (circle) to begin. You’ll need to tap through several lesson types to complete a whole session, and can give items to the characters to increase how much they gain in a certain attribute by tapping on the orange button with a coffee cup.

Sometimes characters will be too tired, or moody, to participate in a certain lesson. Keep an eye on their mood, especially if you’re thinking about using an item. Sometimes they’ll sleep, which means they don’t participate in that bit of the lessons. However, letting them get rest can up their FEVER gauge and their tone. When the FEVER gauge is filled, the effectiveness of the lessons increases greatly.

*You can give presents during the lesson to make something good happen. Try to give what the character likes! When a character participates in a lesson, their affection goes up! Let’s become good friends with everyone!

*Lessons are done by unit. Outside of the tutorial, when you click the lesson button, you’ll choose a unit to train.

5. Story

The tutorial will next take you to the story page. After the introduction (which you already read), the stories will no longer be fully voiced. *You need to spend star/story keys to read most chapters. The mechanics work like any mobile vn; if you don’t want to sit through it, you can expand the menu in the upper right and click the skip button to fast fwd through.

*If you’ve played Enstars, the stories are similar to that. They’re organized by unit.

6. Units

Time to choose your boys! The screen shows you pura.net at first; switch between them by swiping, not by tapping the arrows. When a unit catches your fancy (or you find the one you’re already dedicated to), tap the pink button. It will then ask if you’re sure you want to start with this unit; click OK.

7. Gacha

Time to scout. You’ll automatically be taken to the gacha page in the tutorial, where you’ll be given a card of one of the members of your chosen unit. This ends the tutorial.

*Not in tutorial: the actual gacha function. If you’ve played other mobage, you know this. If not, it’s simple: The regular gacha (at the time of writing, only one, but there will probably be more) requires the little rainbow star stones. Spent 15 stars, get one card. Spend 150, get 10 cards. Getting 10 cards ups your chances of a better card! The point gacha (lower card rarities) requires 5000 points(?) for a 10 pull, and 500 for 1.

The tutorial ends after you get your card. The game will give you a couple messages and then prompt you to let it restart so it can complete more downloads (shouldn't take long). Upon starting the game again, you’ll receive login bonuses and be thrown into the fray.

8. Other stuff tutorial mentions

Cards can be strengthened using items. These are what you obtain from playing lives and completing lessons. You require a story key (blue star key) to read story chapters.

9. Cards

The top button on the card menu is your team organization. There are 5 team slots. Clicking the rightmost button on the bar that shows the cards will show the active skills in the team.

You have two types of teams: live teams, and lesson teams. When you open it, you’re on live teams. Click the other button above the card images to switch. There’s a bunch more buttons on here, but at the time of writing this idk what they are, I’ll. fix this later.

Second button is to level up your cards. Select a card (I have to tap them twice? sometimes more lol) to level. I’d like to add more but I can’t do anything there yet so I’ll fix this later;

Third button is awakening. I assume this is like idolizing/changing/blooming/ect. It looks to require items rather than a second copy? Will update later as well.

The bottom button lets you view a card’s stats. Level, specific stats, and skills. Click the middle button under the card to see the character’s profile. The third button will bring you to the unit pages, where you can look at any character’s profile by tapping them.

10. Menu stuff!

The main menu can be accessed from most pages by clicking the arrow in the bottom left. It’s shown across the bottom, and is showing by default on the home page. You can full screen your character/cg with the button in the left.

Left to right: Home, live, lesson, story, characters, gacha, friends, more menu menu.

10a. Friends

The rightmost button on the menu lets you view friends. It begins as a desolate and barren wasteland of loneliness. Right side buttons, top to bottom: Friends list, friend requests, pending approval from the other person, and search (find some friends!) The search page looks a bit glitchy atm but nothing gamebreaking. Click the button next to their name to view their profile, or the rightmost on their little bar to send them a request.

10b. More Menu Menu

Left to right:

Profile, settings, storage/inventory (items) Shop, friends, Transfer data, help, contact us Opening movie, terms of service, back to title.

10c. Settings

System options -> Live options -> Story options

System options top to bottom: music volume, sound effects volume, voice volume, lightweight mode (makes it run better).

Live options top to bottom: music volume, SE volume, voice volume, lightweight mode, timing calibration, movie (animations), cut-ins (the character popups when skills activate).

Story options is just text speed.

10d. Welcome menu

...This should probably be first but whatever.

Tap the bottom left button to access. Left to right (to bottom): OP movie, takeover/transfer/”inheritance”, clear cache, contact us.

In all honesty I don’t understand the transfer stuff myself... It looks like you can put an account on for sure, but I don’t know how to assign an email and password to your current account.

And that’s all I’ve got! When I figure out how to assign transfer codes I’ll add that in.

[flyswhumpcenter]

Nurse Café - Chapter 3/6: “Brain in a Daze, Stars in Your Eyes“

PREVIOUS CHAPTER / NEXT CHAPTER

Fic Summary: Life could have honesty been simpler than that for Hokuto, a second-year Liteature major. There’s, however, someone out there willing to just make it easier on him.

Fandom: Ensemble Stars! (College/Coffeeshop AU) Ships: HokuAn (Anzu/Hokuto)

AO3 version available here.

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

Chapter Summary: In a haze, Hokuto realizes a few things and makes a few conclusions based on said things.

Chapter Wordcount: 1.5K words

Chapter Notes: Yes, this contains that good shit we're all here for: pinning Hokke. Kind out of nowhere too, but hey, I really wanted to write about that for some reason lol. I'll blame it on the absolute goodness that is "sir, you're buying too many flowers". That'll do, yeah. This fic was meant to end with chapter 3 and, while I do have the final chapter already in the works, I decided to add shippier chunks like this one and the next chapter. I guess Enstars came back for my inspiration, haha. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this unplanned chapter of Nurse Café, and come around for more! I promise I know where I'm going with this, lol.

---------

A vague memory reached in his brain in a moment of half-consciousness. A vague, hazy memory of childhood times, of a past illness. His parents’ muffled voices, his grandmother’s smile warming back his heart left shivering. A day spent in bed, because getting up was impossible and he just felt too dizzy as soon as he tried looking up. Dad was there a lot more than usual, so was Mom, and it was weird and odd: he wasn’t used to having them near his bed so much, their hands cold against his skin, their words here to soothe him. For once, he hadn’t felt alone. The vague memory was sweet, despite its bitter undertones.

A tear was falling down Hokuto’s cheek when he eventually woke up from the daze.

 Growing back to consciousness was like reaching the surface and emerging out of the water after a long, comatose dive into a warm pool. It wasn’t exactly the worst feeling in the world, even if his head felt hot and stuffed, heavy on his neck. Even then, he still felt slightly less terrible than before, as he could actually sit up, yawning. Not the most gracious way to go about with it, but that’d have to do: he could honestly not stir more energy inside of him to be less disgraceful than that.

The place was still less than familiar, but now, he could at least put a name on it: Anzu’s flat, in the college dorms. Quickly glancing around, almost getting himself dizzy from the sudden move, she was nowhere to be found: most likely gone to attend class, like a model student. Like he should have been doing, in fact, if he wasn’t stuck there with an unfinished presentation waiting for him in his flat and… wait. Those weren’t his clothes.

 Confused yet again, he started looking around even more for answers. The curtains of the window were closed, but sunlight still sipped through them: it was daytime. On the bedside table right next to him, the precise answer figured on her alarm clock: it was already past eleven in the morning. The class he had the presentation in? Eight o’clock. Not only had he not completed his slideshow for it, he had actually somehow missed the entire thing altogether.

He glanced at his clothing. Those were cute pyjamas, sure, but they clearly didn’t belong to him. Not to mention, considering how they stuck to his skin, he’d have to wash them and give them to whomever they belonged to: Isara, he presumed, considering Anzu had been with him when he had almost woken up enough to go back home.

 Go back home. That was what he needed to do.

Too bad his legs didn’t agree and let him fall pitifully on the floor after a long moment spent contemplating his own predicament.

 Still, he rose back to his feet thanks to a chair that happened to be nearby and sat down on the bed, blinking away black spots. Okay, bad idea, he got it: there was no way he’d be able to drag himself out of this without the threat of passing out in the middle of the campus. He was also just realizing he didn’t have his phone on him: he had, in fact, left it before getting his cup of coffee on the day before. Talk about a terrible decision. Well, not that the migraine he was currently afflicted with was going to make it any easy to actually read something on said phone’s screen.

Maybe he should go take a shower… but he needed to ask for Anzu’s permission before doing so, didn’t he? He was already sleeping in her bed, that was more than enough amenities of hers he was using more or less against his will. Ah, that was inconvenient… At least, there was one relief to be found: there was still a glass, a bottle of water and some pills on the bedside table, left there, catching his stinging eye.

 This was the one thing he could do, now. Even then, his limbs were still heavily lethargic, so he was slow and clumsy with his hands. Downing a couple pills was absurdly difficult for him, despite how simplistic the gesture seemed in his mind. He was pathetic, this much was clear, but falling back on the bed after just drinking a glass of water was absolutely pitiful for someone his age and constitution. He may have just woken up and tried doing something with his day, and yet, all he wanted to do was going back to sleep…

Still, he should get moving… He felt uneasy staying here for much longer, as close as he was to giving up and falling back asleep. The bitter aftertaste lingering in his mouth made him miss konpeito and, at this point, he’d rather have passed out than having to bear tears coming to his eyes. Why was he feeling so lonely, all of a sudden? He had been alone for so long, he didn’t need to cry like a child over being left on his own for legitimate reasons and—

“Ah, good morning, Hokuto! Are you feeling any better?”

 His throat immediately went dry, knotting. He wiped his eyes as quickly as possible and went back to sitting somewhat properly.

“G-good morning, Anzu,” barely managed to make it out of his throat.

He observed her, vaguely following along, when the world was spinning all around her smiling self as she went to pick some things from another room (the bathroom, he assumed. He had never been to her place before this whole fiasco happened, it was difficult to tell which room was which or even how many rooms there were). Her presence made his mind feel better, soothing the sudden affliction he got hit with merely minutes before.

 Time’s course was also severely disturbed and hindered by the heat in his head, so he couldn’t truly give an estimate of how little time she had spent in another room before coming back, sitting on the chair while humming a familiar song. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have assumed she found this stuff fun. That made no sense, though, considering he was noting but disgusting at the moment, so he brushed it off as his fever messing up with him.

Which, in itself, was a convenient thought to have right as she took it again, putting a hand under his bangs. Her palm was cold, like Grandma’s had been all those years ago; and, just like Grandma, Anzu didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by how soaked they were. Just realizing this made him want to bawl in his grandmother’s arms again, but he needed to keep at least a tiny bit of his dignity and, as such, opted to swallow his pride instead.

 “Thirty-nine point one…” Anzu whispered to herself as she stared at the thermometer. “You’re far less warm than yesterday, but it’s still not good either. At least, your fever’s broken, that’s a relief already.”

He missed her hand as soon as it was gone from his forehead, yet didn’t feel like adding anything to the conversation: he had, honestly, very little energy to begin with and didn’t feel like wasting her time listening to some feverish rambling about whatever his brain was still in a decent condition to emit.

“You should stay here for another day, don’t you think? Maybe just this evening, if you get better during the day. You still look really tired.”

It was odd to let her do all the talking, considering how quiet she usually was, but this he didn’t mind: in fact, her voice was the one sound that didn’t grate against his pounding head, not unlike a cushion whenever everything else was there to worsen it. To be fair, she was purposely keeping it low; or so she seemed, to him, at least.

“Mao had the idea yesterday, but we still wanted to ask you. Can I go to your place and get some of your stuff? I’m sure you’d like to have your own clothes around!”

“Sure…”

 Anzu went back to her feet, grabbing something lying on a nearby table. Most likely his flat key, but his unfocused eyes couldn’t really tell from this distance. At least, the world had stopped spinning all around him, it was enough of a satisfaction for now.

“Ah, before I leave you for a couple minutes,” she turned back to him, still smiling, “do yourself a home. I’ll be at work this afternoon, but I should be back by six. See you later, Hokuto.”

“I…” In the end, his resolve to leave had crumbled away again. “See you later…”

 As the door closed behind her, he was left dumbfounded. The balm on his heart had started to go cold once again, leaving him melancholic and teary-eyed. He knew about how moody he could get whenever he was tired or sick, but being both at the same time was making nothing easier, and he decided he’d finally give this shower a shot.

It was that or falling back into bed and contemplating his own boggling, confused feelings anyway; and he wasn’t ready just yet to admit to have fallen for someone this way.