#I realized halfway through that I sound like a keyboard warrior.

[otiksimr]

Okay. So I saw a reblog that mentioned that they relinked their sources. And the reblog was being mean about it so I personally went and reviewed their sources.

Also only really the first sentence relates to their point. Which, to be nit picky, is a blunder on an argumentative standpoint.

Three of their links go to Wikipedia. Not to say that Wikipedia is uncredible, just to say that it is more credible to find sources that go into those specific topics. Also on the Wikipedia page those sections didn't have citations. For the following paragraphs, the information is gathered from the sites they linked.

Clipping wings, destroying queen cells and the usage of pheromones-as far as the citation says, is a way to swarm bees. + 1 point for getting something right. There is a big difference between 'getting rid of queens because of aggression' and 'getting rid of queens because you don't like them.' And yes. This is beekeeping. Beekeepers would obviously not want their hives crossbreeding with aggressive and or dangerous bee species. Africanized honey bees are notoriously dangerous.

Male drones die after breeding. Crushed or not, either way after the deed is done they die. For culling, only one of the sources mention it. So I cannot say whether or not this is standard practice. Someone else can research into that. And during the process they take care in making sure the Queen in not harmed. Unless they're trying to say that artificial inseminations is an issue in itself.

The sources they give for 'commercial beekeepers even cull their hives during winter' do not say that beekeepers cull their hives during winter.

Yeah bugs feel pain. I'm fairly sure most animals do.

For the last three sources it's a science journal (congrats!), YaleEnviorment360 (I don't know how credible that site is but the article sites scientific data so it's seems okay to me). And BBC news. It gives quotes but it doesn't cite anything. It says "Stricter controls are needed to protect bees from other emerging diseases, researchers report in Science, external journal." But it doesn't cite the reports themselves. Just the website link. Either way. So far the most credible section.

And just to be clear. My ass does not own bees or work in any areas in relation to them. So read the sources yourself and make your own opinion about it. This is all a very dumbed down version of what the sources said.

Wild that folks keep saying beekeepers abuse bees as if bees are not both venomous flying animals and fully unionized

[voxasks]

🫐idk how to do this so i'm just gonna yap i have no clue what my personality type is but one of my favorite characters that i mildly related to was an INTJ 4w5 so i just took that and ran with it. uhh idk if i'm an introvert or extrovert it just depends on my mental state ig. i've been kinda tweekin recently so i'm loud in public like this dude one time caught me saying some of the most devious ahh shii known to man so i pointed at some random dude and blamed bro for saying it and then i sang the my little pony theme song but like 4 octaves higher. my friends hate me i also have no morals whatsoever so i'm cooked. the only reason why i'm not some bonkers dude on a documentary is because i'm a pathetic loser who doesn't actually go through with anything, i just lose interest or go 'nah this is way too much work' i'm a dude and 4'10" (idk lowkey my fault for not taking nutrition supplements when my doctor told me to) and idk what i like because i just have a hyperfixation and then i go batshit over it for several months (my longest hyperfixation was on a character for a year and i spent like 5k on merch of that character and now i highkey hate waking up to see the character's face literally everywhere) i dislike greasy foods with a burning passion, animals of all types (including insects) but actually i highkey used to like sharks but then they got popular online and agreeing with people on tiktok brings me physical pain. oh yeah i also dislike a lot of people online if they disagree with my opinion but depends on my mood because if i'm feeling mildly upset then i spam them with replies and tell them i love them and for them to have a good day but in the most toxic positive way possible and if i'm having a happy day then i do the same thing but i also slander everything i know about them for hobbies i love getting attention, positive or negative like honestly it's so fun. i go on social media a lot i'm pretty much just terminally online except i don't keep up w/ gossip majority of the time because i have no clue who celebrities are. oh yeah i love getting concern i never follow their advice or whatever all i do is make a joke about how pathetic my existence is and they rather don't care or they show concern and either way i get pissed so maybe i should stop with that lmao tbh whenever i read through the things i write i literally sound like those 'quirky >w<' 2020 gacha life ocs i feel like everyone with an ounce of humanity would realize i'm straight up embarrassing anyways ily have a good day!! take care of yourself :3333

“yeah  i'm  gonna  be  real  fucking  honest  with  you  kid—halfway  through  your  life  story  i  genuinely  forgot  i  was  looking  through  my  inbox  and  thought  i  was  reading  an  article  on  a  serial  killer.  you  say  you  don't  have  morals  but  then  you  draw  the  line  at  greasy  foods  and  tiktok?  i  mean  alright  sure  but  then  you  go  on  to  bully  other  people  on  the  internet  over  a  bad  mood?  i'd  say  get  a  life  but  i'm  pretty  sure  if  you  tried  you  would  have  dropped  yourself  on  the  head  like  you  were  as  a  kid.  you  sound  like  someone  who  has  over  ten  restraining  orders  filed  against  them  and  they  still  have  no  clue  as  to  why.  well  fuck  that's  ten  minutes  of  my  time  i'm  never  taking  back—you  have  me  mourning  over  lost  time  when  i'm  a demon  in  literal  fucking  hell,  congrats.  let  me  guess,  you'll  probably  celebrate  by  being   a  keyboard  warrior  in  the  comments  of  this  post,  like  if  junko  enoshima  was  online.  yeah,  that's  the  energy  this  is  giving.” 

based off of the 200 follower event.

“🫐 — tell vox about yourself and he’ll give you his inner thoughts about you.”

[sun-writer-blog]

The Story

AKA The 3 Days Mike saw Eleven and the One day he finally asked her out.

Also this was definitely inspired by that one time the cast sung together

I hope you enjoy! I’ve been working on his for a little bit and it sort of got away from me but oh well. Requests are still open, and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Day One

    Each imperfection made her human. Imperfect, but uniquely beautiful.

    Mike shifted his headphones but didn’t quit scribbling in his composition book. He needed to get the ideas out of his head and onto paper before they were lost forever. He hadn’t written anything in a long time - something that a creative writing major had a lot of trouble explaining to his faculty advisor - and this morning at breakfast he had finally found some inspiration. It came in the form of a girl eating waffles alone.

    Quiet didn’t quite describe her well enough. There seemed to be a purpose in her quietness, as if she wanted to hide behind the background noise and blend into the crowd. Her eyes reminded him of a yule log burning in his mother’s fireplace and the smell of cinnamon at the Byers’ place during winter. He remembered how often authors wrote about winter negatively, and he imagined that they would have written about this girl in that way. But her coldness did not rebuke him. It was the coldness of snow gently falling and the entire forest taking a sigh after a long year of work.

    Mike was with his friends when he saw her. Lucas and Dustin were arguing about forming a band and who would play what instrument. They both wanted to play bass, and had already established that Mike would play drums. Will wanted nothing to do with the band because he didn’t want to sing in front of people, but Lucas insisted because he was the only one who could actually sing. Mike had checked out of the conversation about halfway through it, instead watching this girl as she moved through the ridiculously long lines of half-awake college students trying to get a meal after a weekend of partying. She seemed to be the only one fully conscious. Her movements were graceful, and Mike wondered if she had ever danced ballet. His sister Nancy had been in recitals when she was younger, and Mike wouldn’t wish that on his worst enemy.

    Her gaze caught his as she was cutting into her waffle. Mike blinked and smiled sheepishly. The girl slammed her knife into the waffle while making direct eye contact, then smiled sarcastically.

    “What do you think, Mike?” Lucas questioned suddenly, bringing him back into the conversation.

    “Y-yeah. Let’s do it.”

    “Well that settles it, Mike was the tie breaker.”

    When Mike looked up again, she was gone. He left the cafeteria early and grabbed his brown book-bag hurriedly, nearly sprinting out of the building and towards his writing place. It was a tree in the nature park outside of the gates of his university - a place where lots of people went running. It was the kind of cold outside that hurt Mike’s bones when he pulled out his leather writing book and a purple pen. It was worth it to write this down.

    Every year the majors had to show that they were making progress towards a portfolio of their own work, and so far Mike had only a couple of random short stories and half-hearted poems. He enjoyed fantasy - from all of the days of playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends as a kid - but he also enjoyed realism and romanticism. He had no idea how to blend all of these ideas, and the pressure and frustration had stopped him from writing anything new for weeks. All of those worries went away as he wrote.

    Now, he had a muse.

Day Two.

    When he gazed at the stars, she smiled at their beauty. When she smelled a rose, he breathed in its radiance.

    Her hair was such a deep brown that it appeared black. But Mike knew that black was the absence of color, and that didn’t properly capture this girl. He had seen her again when they were putting up posters for the band’s first performance on the quad in front of the College of Arts. Armed with a staple gun, Mike had just returned from showing a rough draft of his first story to his faculty advisor, who had complimented his work. It was a sci-fi story about a group of kids who were looking for their friend who had gone missing, but instead found a girl who had been kidnapped and experimented on by the government. “Keep working and flushing out the ideas,” his professor had written. “I would love to see where this goes.”

    That had been a week ago, and since then Mike’s nights were filled with music and creating costumes and thinking about that girl. He had asked Will about her - mostly because he knew that Will was the only one who wouldn’t make fun of him for asking about someone - and Will mentioned that her name was Jane and she was in his Abnormal Psychology class. He hadn’t seen her at breakfast since, and even if he did, Mike was sure he wouldn’t say hello to her. There were a million scenarios running through his head, but there weren’t any where he had the confidence to say hello. That’s why he wrote: to hide behind the pages of books.

    The hiding apparently didn’t work well enough, because when Mike went into the coffee shop by his dorm to put up some posters and maybe try and write for a bit someone tapped his shoulder. “You have a band?”

    Mike looked down and froze. It was her. She was wearing a black waitress’ apron and was armed with pen and notepad. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail but a single curl had fallen from her bangs. She tucked it behind her ear nonchalantly. He realized too slowly that he was staring and tried to play it off with a forced laugh. “Um, yeah! We’re called The Upside-Downs. I’m Mike.” He stuck out his hand to shake, and the waitress raised an eyebrow in hesitation. The corners of her lip turned up slightly as she greeted him in return.

    “I’m Eleven. And yes, that’s a nickname.” Mike hadn’t expected that, but somehow it fit her personality perfectly. An odd name, an odd number, for an odd girl. A prime number for someone completely unique. “Why that name?”

    Mike shrugged. “It was either that or The Party. Like, from D&D.”

“What’s D&D?” Mike must have looked hurt, because she started blushing and bit her lip nervously. “Should I know this?”

    “Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a role playing game. It’s so much fun, my friends and I played it all the time when we were younger. We started a club on campus. You should come.”

    Eleven smiled sweetly and pointed at the posters in Mike’s hand. “Aren’t you supposed to be trying to get me to go to your concert, not your club?”

    “Oh! Yeah, you should definitely come to that, too.”

    “Oh really? Why’s that?”

    “Well, if you go, I’ll make sure to dedicate a song to you. Promise.”

    The girl seemed to think that over for a moment, a pleased look on her face. “You got yourself a deal, Mike.” She started to walk away, and with his heart beating in his chest Mike called out to her.

    “What are you doing tonight?”

    She turned around and gestured to the shop. “Working, why?”

    Mike hesitated for a moment, and it was just long enough for him to back out of doing something he really wanted to do. Instead, he smiled and waved like he did the first time he saw her. “Nothing. I’ll see you at the concert, El.” She smiled and raised an eyebrow at him, and he could have sworn she let out a little sigh as he left the coffee shop.

    He went straight home to write all night. He never wanted to forget the way her voice sounded: like the quiet rushing of waves on a beach.

Day Three

    I don’t think I decided her happiness was more important than mine. It was decided on my behalf, by a judge who obviously knew it was the most severe sentence.

    The concert was that Saturday night. The previous day, The Upside-Downs had spent hours practicing together. They were just going to do covers to some popular songs since this was their first performance, but Will wanted to make sure everything was absolutely perfect. Classic Will Byers, the perfectionist. Lucas had finally decided he wanted to be the guitar player, which left Dustin as the bass guitarist. Mike had calluses from playing the drums so long, but Will was a cruel master and demanded they run through each song five times before the day was over. Each time, Mike focused a little more on the lyrics. He wondered which one he should dedicate to Eleven.

    They set up on the small stage on the quad, but not without drawing the attention of everyone on campus. They were dressed in costumes of their D&D characters, which was apparently the tie-breaker that Mike had decided on. “You sure we shouldn’t abort mission?” Dustin whispered as they carried their instruments out into the cold October air.

    “No way, man. This is our thing” Lucas reassured. “Trust me.”

    The drums took the longest amount of time, but soon they got that set up and a small crowd showed up to hear what they had to offer. Mike searched through the faces, but there was no sign of his muse anywhere. Maybe she wouldn’t come. He wasn’t sure if that made him relieved or more nervous.

    Then it was 9:00 and it was time to start. “Good evening! We’re The Upside-Downs and you’re in for an adventure tonight!” Dustin called out to the crowd. They had all agreed that Dustin was the best at introducing the band because, unlike Will or Mike, he wasn’t shy at all. “My name is Dustin, and i’m your warrior. Will the Wise is your singer tonight, and we have Lucas your ranger and guitarist. And last but not least, give it up for our Dungeon Master Mike on drums!” There was obligatory clapping, and Mike adjusted himself in his seat. This would be a long night if they didn’t like the music. “Let’s do it.”

    The first song they played was “Rocket Man” by Elton John. It was a great ice breaker, because it proved that Will Byers could sing his heart out as well as play the keyboard. It started off quiet, but by the chorus Will had really found his confidence. It wasn’t very drum heavy, which was fine by Mike. He was too busy searching the crowd for a glimpse of Eleven, but there wasn’t any sign of her. He was glad for the next song, because Queen was one of his favorite bands and he could actually invest himself in “Don’t stop me now”. Mike thought about music a lot like writing a story. It took you on a journey, a little adventure away from reality for a moment. He loved that about it. Lucas finally got a chance to show his skills in the guitar solo and Mike had to admit, Lucas was great.

    Now the crowd was getting pumped up, and The Upside-Downs  switched to play “Livin on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. This is when Dustin came most alive because he was the guy who got all of the synth-sounds to work. He had run all of the controls to a black box and pedal by his foot. He nearly stomped on it. The crowd went crazy on this song, especially when Dustin, Will, and Lucas all joined together to sing. After this song everything was quiet, and it was time for the “compromise” song. Since Dustin couldn’t play guitar, he got to choose one song all by himself. He chose “Carry on Wayward Son” specifically so that Lucas would have a hard time and Dustin would have to ditch his bass to grab an extra guitar. The group wasn’t sure they could pull it off. Will brought his keyboard and microphone over to where Mike was playing the drums and gave him a worried look as they began.

    The crowd loved it. Lucas and Dustin had their own little performance in the front of the stage with dueling guitars. After the initial guitar session, Dustin grabbed his bass back from a stand, and proceeded to switch back and forth throughout the rest of the song. Will even had a little solo with his keyboard, and Mike was glad that they had practiced over and over again.

    Then it was the final song, and Mike let out a shaky breath as Dustin introduced it. “Now this one is for someone special that our drummer has been talking to. It’s called ‘Every Breath You Take’, and we promise it’s not creepy.” The crowd laughed a bit - the song had been number one on every chart when they were kids, and everyone knew it. But it wasn’t until someone locked eyes with him that he felt the song was the right choice.

Day 4

    Every moment with you lasted forever, and those forevers passed by like the wind through autumn leaves.

    “Morning, Rockstar. What would you like to drink?”

    Mike laughed. In the few days since the concert he hadn’t seen Eleven, and she had left right after the final song had played. He had gone to the coffee shop on a whim, holding a stack of papers helped together by three paper clips. It was a decently long manuscript - the first one he had produced for his portfolio. In purple pen he had written across the top “For El.” He handed her the copy and smiled. “Nothing right now, thanks.”

    Her hair was down and in curls, and Mike wondered if the universe wanted to distract him on purpose. She looked down on the papers. “What’s this?”

    “It’s something I’ve been working on for a while. Talking to you gave me some inspiration, so I thought i should give this to you.”

    El blushed a little and twirled her pen in her hands. “Is that why you were staring at me at breakfast?” Mike’s face flushed, but before he opened his mouth she laughed. “Don’t worry. I thought it was cute.”

    Cute. She said cute. And now she was biting her lip and still twirling her pen. “What time do you get off work?”

    “7 tonight. Why?”

    “I have to teach you Dungeons and Dragons. You can’t go on not knowing what it is.”

    Eleven considered that for a moment, and with a soft smile she agreed.  

[metal-stage-costumes-and-clothes]

Concert Review 001: Children of Bodom

Children of Bodom (Carach Angren, Lost Society, Uncured) @ Mr. Smalls Theater in Millvale, PA, USA Tuesday November 21, 2017 Ticket: $25

         As some of you may have seen, I had a review written about this concert but my damn phone deleted it :(         I saw Children of Bodom last week! I’m only calling this a review because I’m not sure what else to call it. So I don’t know if that was much of a review— Just me raving about the concert because I just had such a good time!         I came in a little late, about halfway through Uncured’s set. As I’m not terribly familiar with the band, all that I can say is that they put on a great show. The band members were all quite energetic and the amiable frontman excitedly informed us that he and the rest of the band would be hanging out at the back of the venue for the rest of the night if anyone wanted to meet them or get things signed. The few songs I listened to online didn’t really catch my attention, but damn, they really brought it in a live show.         Lost Society thrashed around like a bunch of fucking maniacs, and put on a good show. They bumped into each other on the stage a few times— The stage was pretty small, and Carach Angren and Children of Bodom’s drum sets were taking up the back half of the stage. The bassist was wearing a Speak English or Die shirt, which made me laugh. Towards the end (I think they were playing Tyrant Takeover but my memory’s a little fuzzy), they had the whole audience kneel, which was pretty cool, and got the audience pretty worked up.         Next was Carach Angren. Before they came on, I heard some guys behind me emplaning about having to listen to yet another run-of-the-mill black metal band. But by the time Carach Angren’s set was over, they were eating their words.         Though it didn’t seem like many people were familiar with Carach Angren, the band captured and held the attention of every single person in the room. Symphonic black metal, with its long songs, has the potential to be boring live, especially if the audience isn’t familiar with the songs. However, Carach Angren’s exceptionally theatrical performance avoided any of these potential pitfalls.         Unlike the preceding bands, none of the members of Carach Angren came onstage to set up, with the exception of Namtar, who came out to do his drum tech wearing a drawstring hoodie with the strings pulled so tight that all you could see of him was his corpsepaint-covered nose. They seemed pretty eager to preserve that aura of mystery that was so essential to their performance.         An intro started playing before the band even came onstage. The stage was totally dark, and projections of what i think were supposed to be ghosts or undead spirits (their projection was disrupted by the lighting grid) flew across the walls and ceiling. When the band members came on, they came on one by one, all very theatrically. First the guitarist (Bastian Boh, according to the Metal Archives), then Namtar, Ardek, and finally Seregor, who seized his microphone (Decorated with a human spinal cord and pelvic girdle). Ardek’s keyboard came to life. The keyboard had been folded flat on the ground at the beginning of the concert, but it unfolded, and sort of just rose up out of the ground. It looked like there was some sort of robotic arm or something, covered in dark brown cloth with one of Carach Angren’s signature corpsepaint masks affixed to the front of it. The mask, along with the programming, conspired to make the keyboard stand look as though it were alive. I imagine the programming must have been pretty difficult, but it was well done. The keyboard’s movements were all quite lifelike, especially how it cocked its head in a very human way.         In my opinion, Carach Angren’s arsenal of props is one of their greatest strengths as a live band. They deployed costume changes and props with calculated precision. Just when the audience was beginning to get used to to one prop, they would bring out a new one. I don’t think a single person looked away in the entirety of the set.         If there had been another thrash band on the bill, I’m pretty sure the audience would have gotten tired though. Carach Angren was a great palate cleanser after Lost Society. They had a totally different type of energy from Lost Society, but they still kept up the audience’s excitement for COB.         When COB came out, the whole venue went wild. However, after the first song, people started shouting out the names of their favorite old COB songs, essentially telling the band what to play. Though the idea of playing old songs was a great one, but I’m sure they’ve probably been having this problem all tour. But Alexi handled it pretty gracefully. As he was speaking in one of the pauses between the songs, one guy interrupted him in mid-sentence to shout his favorite sound (I think it was Angels don’t kill). Alexi paused for a moment, as though in disbelief, and then replied “Not yet, my friend. Now we’re gonna go way back…” He easily segued into the next song, and after that people stopped shouting out the names of songs.         I’d never really noticed this, but I’m pretty sure Children of Bodom brings their own lighting with them. Before they came onstage, I noticed the guys doing setup placing portable lights on spikes. Only about halfway through the show did I realize that these lights provided Bodom’s usual colored lighting scheme. There were a few drawbacks to them in the smaller stage space. I was in the front row (yay!) and the sweeping lights almost blinded me several times.         The monitors at the front of the stage weren’t bolted down or terribly heavy, so when Alexi tried to rest his foot on one, it slid half off the stage, precariously balanced on the edge. A security guard quickly fixed it, and Alexi didn’t try that move again.         It wasn’t my first time seeing COB live, so it was a great change of pace to hear them sing some songs that I’d never heard live before. They launched into the show with Deadnight Warrior, the first song on their first studio Album, Something Wild. It was probably meant to be symbolic or something. They played a lot off of Something Wild; Red Light in my Eyes Pt. II, and Lake Bodom both made appearances in the setlist, and they played The Nail during the encore. I wish I had written down the setlist, but I was busy head banging and having a ball, so I don’t have too many regrets…         Of course there was the usual crowd favorite, Hate Crew Deathroll, but they also played their eponymous song, Children of Bodom. And they finished their encore with another song I’d never heard Bodom play live before— Towards Dead End, another one of my favorites. As a fan of the older Bodom discography, I was pretty much in heaven.

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 346: Deadly Towers (1986)

            Deadly Towers

Also known as Mashou or Mashō (Japanese)

Japan

Lenar and Tamtex (developers); Irem (Japanese publisher); Brøderbund (North American publisher)

Released 1986 for NES

Date Started: 4 November 2019

Date Ended: 10 November 2019

Total Hours: 17

Difficulty: Hard (4/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

The past week’s odyssey, leading to my lack of postings in a week, begins last weekend. I had just finished the introductory entry on Challenge of the Five Realms and was trying to figure out whether to spend some more time with Camelot, take a look at Mirai, or get started on something else. I decided to go with Mirai but (as of this entry) was unable to figure out enough about the control system to significantly progress in the game. After a couple hours of frustration, I thought, “It’s been a while since I checked out a console game.” After promising to occasionally give one a shot, I played Bokosuka Wars back in July and then never looked at anything again.

Bokosuka Wars (1983, 1985 NES port) seems to be the first Japanese console RPG (if you accept that definition), but it was followed by a slew of RPGs or quasi-RPGs in 1986, including Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, Dragon Warrior, Deep Dungeon, Nobunaga’s Ambition, and Deadly Towers. The latter game particularly sparked my interest because it is often given as the first Japanese RPG released in the west. I went to HowLongToBeat.com, plugged in each of the games, and was happy to see that Deadly Towers also had the shortest completion time, at three hours. I settled in for a quick one.                

In a typical Deadly Towers screen, I shoot swords at a variety of creatures with different movement paths.

               Having just finished the game, I’m prepared to say that you can beat Deadly Towers in three hours the same way that you can beat Rogue in one hour: after numerous failed attempts that add up to a lot more than three hours. I would like to extend a special middle finger to the five users who provided such misleading statistics to the site. You can thank them for not having had any entries in a week.

Deadly Towers is a relatively simple action quasi-RPG. The “quasi” comes from a lack of any meaningful character development except occasional increases in maximum hit points. There are no intrinsic attributes or levels to affect your success in combat; instead, you win through a combination of improved inventory and controller dexterity. Under my definitions, it is thus an “action game” rather than an “action RPG,” but on the other hand I’m wary about rejecting too many games right and left, particularly when most of the rest of the Internet places historical importance on a particular title, as it does here.             

And the “hyper” age, as we’ll soon see.

         The protagonist is Prince Myer, on the threshold of succeeding to the throne of his “stone and copper age” kingdom. One day, as he wanders by a lake, a he receives a vision from the god Khan. Khan informs him of the coming of a devil named Rubas. Rubas has built his own castle on the northern mountain. The castle has seven bell towers, which he will use to ring magic bells and lure monsters to attack Myer’s land. To forestall this villainy, Myer must travel to the evil castle, climb each of the towers, retrieve the bells, and destroy them in a sacred flame.            

Destroying one of the bells.

            (This is the kind of game that you must see in action to truly understand it. I recommend this review by YouTuber Cornshaq. He manages to cover it, including the ending, in 15 minutes. Notice the annoying music, which I turned off immediately, which starts over every time you enter a new area, so you’re always hearing the beginning of the same tune.)

The game is enormous and the map is essentially indecipherable. In basic structure, it consists of a castle of 10 outdoor levels, each level having access to one or more interior area. At the top of the castle are seven separate entrances to the seven towers. Each tower has about seven outdoor levels followed by another seven indoor levels. Any given doorway might turn out to offer a one-way trip to a completely different area, plus there are invisible teleporters to a “parallel world” or to various “secret areas.” Some of the secret areas have their own secret areas.             

Climbing to the top of one of the towers. Any random set of pixels on one of these levels could be a teleporter to a secret area.

             Every one of the screens is full of blobs, worms, bats, spiders, ghosts, imps, demons, fuzzes, whobs, and whazzits trying to kill you. Some bounce up and down. Some fly back and forth. Some circle around. Some seem to attack you directly; others just move around randomly and hit you by chance. Some tear through the screen like a rocket. A few enemies fire projectiles. You must avoid or kill these creatures–which respawn every time you leave an area and return.

Your weapons are a succession of swords, which somehow act as inexhaustible missile weapons rather than melee weapons, in that curious Japanese way that we also see in Ghosts ‘n Goblins (1985) and the Dragon Slayer series. Your starting sword, the short sword, requires about a dozen hits to kill even the most pathetic creature. The manual sympathizes, saying of the sword, “It is so weak, you feel lonely (you have no confidence in this sword).”              

 My confidence fails.

            If you miss a creature with the sword, you have to wait until it goes sailing off the screen to fire another one. But if you hit, the creature is paralyzed for a couple seconds, which is usually enough to keep pelting it with swords until it dies. At the very beginning of the game, you’re extremely weak defensively as well, and just a couple of hits from the basest foes can kill you.

You improve in a couple of ways. First, scattered about the screens are occasional magic “circled” hearts which increase your maximum hit points by 10. Second, enemies drop hearts that restore your current health and money called “ludders.” They never drop the health hearts fast enough when you’re low on health and deliberately grinding for them.

The money, you can spend in a variety of shops in the lower parts of the castle. The shops appear as pentagrams on the floors of certain rooms; stepping on them brings you down a ladder to an area where a shopkeeper offers up to three items. These include helmets, shields, gauntlets, better swords, and armor–although the best of each of these items are found in secret rooms in the towers.               

My equipment about halfway through the game. I’ve destroyed one bell and have one to destroy.

                The castle shops also sell a variety of crystals, scrolls, potions, and other magic items that do things like heal you, teleport you to fixed parts of the game, weaken enemies, or improve your defenses for a short period. Items are relatively expensive while cash is slow to accumulate and (annoyingly) caps at 250.                

Spending ludder in a store.

           When you reach the base of the seven towers, you find the holy flame. Each of the seven towers has at the top a boss creature who fires copious missiles. You can defeat almost all of them by retreating to a corner, shooting diagonally at the creature, and gulping a potion if you get too low on health. After the boss creature is dead, you collect the bell it was guarding, climb all the way back down the 14 or so levels, and toss the bell in the holy flame. Orange scrolls take you directly to the flame, and I learned to prize these items above all others.              

The “Death Bear,” one of the seven tower bosses, kills me.

I’m doing better against this other boss, “Wheeler.”

                All of this makes Towers sound like a perfectly acceptable action game, but there are a number of factors that unbalance it. First, it has no real save capability. When you die, you get an alphanumeric code that you can enter at the beginning of the next game. The code retains your hit points, most of your equipped items, and the bells you’ve destroyed, but none of the miscellaneous items in your inventory like potions and scrolls. The only way to save and continue later is to deliberately die and suffer this pseudo-reload.

A long password–which you have a limited time to write down.

  Second, many of the monster areas are insanely difficult. A lot of the teleporters drop you in the middle of, say, a swarm of bats. Even a quick player would have difficulty killing all of them before dying himself, though of course potions can make things easier.             

I arrive in this secret area in the middle of a bat swarm.

            Third, the game is enormous, and if you’re playing blind, you don’t realize that about half of it is completely unnecessary. You really only want to explore the underside of the castle long enough to find the shops–a handful of rooms out of hundreds.

Fourth, the positioning of teleporters is spectacularly annoying. When you’re trying to reach some objective, they’re always there, invisible, waiting to derail you for an hour. When you’re trying to assemble a full set of equipment, they’re nowhere to be found. I finished the game without ever finding the “Dragonslayer” sword or a permanent weapon power-up that lets you shoot two parallel swords.

Emulating the game on a modern keyboard, at least with NESTopia, introduces an additional difficulty in aiming and moving diagonally, which is often necessary. NESTopia maps the directional pad to the numberpad, but it doesn’t allow the 7, 9, 1, and 3 keys to move you diagonally. Instead, you have to hold down, say, 4 and 8 at the same time to move northwest. I find this difficult at the best times and nearly impossible in the heat of a pitched battle.

If you can deal with all of this and destroy the seven bells, then you have to return to the beginning of the game to gain access to the final area, where you find the best sword in the game, “Splendor.” You then engage in battle with two sub-bosses before meeting Rubas himself. I had saved a magic blue necklace, which renders you temporarily invincible, for this final battle, but it seemed rather quick and easy anyway.              

Killing Rubas in the final combat.

             When the battle is over, the game spends a few minutes raining bells on you and then launches into a long bit of endgame text:                 

The hard and bitter battle has finally reached its end. Staring tiredly at Rubas’s destroyed castle, Prince Myer felt that his victory had fulfilled the promise of peace over the kingdom. His heart suddenly filled with a wondrous feeling. Looking up toward heaven, he heard a voice from far above, the same one that he had heard earlier by the lake. “My name is Khan. Prince Myer, you have done a great deed in defeating the Devil of Darkness. This brings an end to the Age of Stone and Copper. Peace will prosper in the kingdom.”

             Khaaaaaaaaaaan!

                           At once, the prince returned to give the message of the victory to the king. The following day, he succeeded to the throne, being praised as the King of Light by the people. The peace and prosperity of the kingdom continued for about 1,000 years until the coming of the Iron Age, and the revival of the Devil of Darkness.

                    This is accompanied by a cute animation of the prince standing next to his father. Cue end credits.           

Why is peace not prospering right now?

         Three hours would be a generous amount of time for a player using an invincibility cheat. It takes quite a bit longer if you don’t realize that you don’t have to explore every room in the castle. It takes even longer if you play with the intended difficulty and suck up every death. Naturally, save states ameliorate some of this difficulty. I tried to play “honestly” for a while, but some of the rooms were just blatantly unfair.

I haven’t been able to find contemporary western reviews of Deadly Towers, but the years have not been kind. There is no shortage of sites that call it the worst Nintendo game of all time. A 2008 review by “RPG fan” Andrew DeMario calls it “one of the highlights in the history of bad game design.” His penultimate paragraph echoes many of my own frustrations:            

There are too many areas where, for no fault of your own, you simply die by entering a new area, and because many areas are invisible, you don’t have too much say in the matter. Walking past bottomless pits is stressful due to enemies materializing beneath you without warning, and with the password system not saving most of your items, you are set back farther than seems appropriate with every one of these very-regular deaths.

                   MobyGames’s summary of critic reviews offers ratings of 0, 10, 30, 40, and 50. A representative quote comes from the middle one:

           Deadly Towers fails on every conceivable level. Even with a full walkthrough and maps it will be one of the most frustrating gaming experiences of your life. There really is no reason anyone should ever bother with this unless they have a hole in their head. This truly is one of the worst games ever made.

                I can hardly argue. My GIMLET, with mostly 2s across the board, gives it a score of 15–the same rating that I gave Bokosuka Wars, although for very different reasons. I had a lot more fun with Bokosuka Wars even though I didn’t think it was much of an RPG.           

Note that the figure on the cover looks nothing like the GCLM in the game itself.

             The Japanese title of the game was Mashou, which according to the Internet means “evil bell,” although every translator I feed it to gives “let’s go” instead. Lenar wanted to release the game as Hell’s Bells in the United States, but someone from Brøderbund suggested the final title. The game apparently sold quite well despite negative reviews. Lenar later developed two other RPGs–Knight Quest (1992) for the Game Boy and Magna Braban: Henreki no Yusha (1994) for the SNES. Developer Junichi Mizutari (AKA “J. Winc”) appears on the latter.            

I don’t believe Mr. R. Nagasu was ever seen again.

          I know some people thing there’s real RPG gold among these 1980 console titles, and I’m willing to keep holding out hope, but so far they’ve been toys. Toys can be fun, but there comes a time to put them away and do adult things. Like Challenge of the Five Realms.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-346-deadly-towers-1986/

[todokori-kun]

(Ugh, sorry for this late reply! OTL I’ve been busy and whenever I sat down to try and write this message it would be bedtime before I’d even gotten halfway through)

If we want him to be happy the best, most plausible and canon-compliant choice is Saiko…yet Ishida’s been ignoring her ever since she told Urie she loves him ;-; #IshidaY

Correction: Ishida (like Shuu and Uta) is a picky eater. He’ll only eat human flesh that’s been steadily stewing in misery for at least a year, and the bitterest, saltiest tears are all he ever drinks.

Ishida’s eating habits being similar to Uta’s makes sense though, since he actually said he gave Uta some of his hobbies lol

Just stop hurting us, please…Ishida needs to redeem himself with Hide’s return as quickly as possible. Either that or something bad needs to happen to Furuta (if Rize somehow breaks free and eats him I’m sure at least half of the fandom would realize that they can, in fact, be satisfied).

Hmm, I was fine with Re up until this arc. Touken feels forced, shippy fluff and Mutsuki drama is getting in the way of the ACTUAL plot (even with all his trolling skills, Ishida cannot convince me that sex scenes and love triangles/squares are more important than how the Q squad is dealing with their trauma from the last battle, what Juuzou, Urie and other investigators are going to do now that they suspect Furuta is lying, how the rest of Goat is doing, what Uta and the Clowns are up to, and Furuta finding a way to, oh, I don’t know, BRING BACK THE FREAKING DEAD). It’s like Ishida has a really interesting plot in there somewhere, but he’s buried it beneath the pointless, badly timed romance.

As for Mutsuki, I used to be a bit 'meh' about them (I used to like them, and then I didn’t mind their backstory/the treatment they got at Torso’s hands simply because I got spoiled and knew it was coming from the very beginning, plus the parellels with Kaneki had me thinking they’d get a similar interesting development) but I’m starting to become more and more indifferent towards them because they just feel really flat now- a basic murder-bot, a copy of characters like Yuno Gasai. Maybe I’d sympathize with them more if their love for Sasaki/Kaneki felt a bit more genuine, but as it is, it seems lacking. It feels like we’re viewing Mutsuki from an outsider’s POV; not much about their actual feelings or thought process about the entire situation, just a bunch of crazy, yandere moments with a few

That AU…make it canon, Ishida. (jk, but seriously). I’m one of those people who won’t complain no matter how much the creators pile on the angst as long as it’s plausible angst (I’m afraid I’m a bit of a masochist when it comes to fandoms…) but I like to think of my favorite characters being happy for once ;-;

 0/////0 TYSM ;-; You’re so supportive and sweet and just asdfj;lk (it’s not easy to reduce me to keyboard-smashing but I have a lot of feelings right now) <333 I’m still scared because there are two ways this could go (either I somehow get over my fear and do ok, which would probably be really good for the anxiety, or I just freeze the second I step onto the stage…which would probably make things worse) HOWEVER, for Queen Luna I shall do my best !!!! <33333 :D

But wait a sec…‘King’…

Plot Twist: I am the real One-eyed King

Also

‘Urie & Tumblr(Evans): A short story’

-Urie pretends not know what tumblr is

-Only he totally does

-It’s an addictive hole of darkness

-And Luna spends way too much time on it for his liking

-Ok, so it’s not tumblr he’s worried about, really

-It’s this guy called Evans that Luna keeps talking to

-And no, he did not just assume this person’s gender, he (ACCIDENTALLY) saw one of Luna’s messages to them calling them a ‘king’

-She never calls HIM stuff like that there’s only that stupid nickname ‘Oreo Cookie’

-Jealousy?

-N O

-That’s for the common folk like Sasaki

-Look, he’s just worried about his s/o ok

-Then one day he brings it up

-'The 'King’ thing was an inside joke of sorts’

-'Evans is a heterosexual female’

-R.I.P Urie, who must now admit that he was indeed jealous

(super awkward crack that suddenly popped into my head

And aww, I’m really so glad you enjoy the HCs ^^)

Me + a person with Shuu’s personality would be pretty hilarious if we managed to get along well. Since at first sight, I appear like this really quite and polite person who’s way too nice for their own good (sort of like an even more introverted and awkward version of Kuroneki), but with people I’m really close with I suddenly turn into Haise with all of his cringe-worthy moments- plus a little bit of dry humor and sarcasm.

Haven’t got the chance to listen to all of those yet but what little I’ve heard sounds lovely! The first three and Soldier Game are my favorites, I think :)

Give it a few weeks and I’ll probably be joining you in Idol hell…

Loki’s hair is actually as long/maybe longer than Thor’s in later movies tho XD but I’m glad Thor’s getting some love! A lot of fans just characterize him as this big blonde idiot who has no clue what he’s doing, when in fact he’s grown quite a bit since the first Thor movie, where he was a reckless, hot-blooded, proud and arrogant person who really did have no clue what he was doing…sort of like musical-verse Hamilton minus his book smart nature and power of speech (isn’t that a terrifying thought?). Never knowing when to shut up and back down, which is coincidentally one of the things that damaged his relationship with Loki- who is his opposite in almost everything.

Without spoiling too much, let’s just say:

Thor is the extrovert, Loki is the introvert. Thor relies mostly on his raw physical power to get the job done (though he’s much more diplomatic now than he was in his first movie), Loki’s power lies in his words (he IS the god of lies after all) and his cunning. Thor can sometimes be a bit thick about the emotions of those around him, Loki reads people like open books and manipulates them like puppets on a string. No matter how much Thor grows up he’ll still have a bit of his old hot-tempered, non-stop personality, while Loki usually prefers to wait for it until he’s sure of the situation.

Unfortunately, Asgard (Thor and Loki’s 'home’- though Loki doesn’t consider Asgard his home anymore) values courageous warriors over quiet scholars and sorcerers like Loki. They praise honesty and boldness; Loki’s lies and illusions make them uneasy and they see him as a coward.

Despite being a prince, Loki has spent almost his whole life being identified as simply 'Thor’s brother’. People tolerate him because he’s a prince and Thor’s Brother, 'friends’ hang out with him because he’s Thor’s Brother, few openly show that they dislike him becuase he’s Thor’s Brother. Heck, when he lands on earth during the first Avengers movie, humans immediately identify him as none other than Thor’s Brother. He’s spent his entire life in Thor’s shadow.

It’s a very Burr-Hamilton relationship, and you can’t really blame Loki for wanting to be in the room where it happens.

(Also, the daddy issues.

I mean, look at what Odin and Laufey did

(SPOILERS for first Thor movie)

What Laufey (king of the frost giants) did:

1: Abandoned Loki because he was a 'runt’

2: Didn’t just abandon him; left him outside in the freezing cold in the middle of a freaking battlefield

What Odin did:

1: He rescued Loki when Laufey abandoned him because he felt sorry for the child…and also because he was planning use him as a pawn to someday make peace with the frost giants.

2: was planning to never, ever have a decent, reasonable 'you’re adopted, but you’re just as much my child as Thor is’ conversation with Loki

3: 'Yes, frost giants are terrible, bloodthirsty creatures, they are completely irredeemable’

4: some years later- 'Am I…? 'Yes, you are also a frost giant’

5: it’s heavily implied that he, like most others, always paid more attention to Thor than Loki

6: 'FATHER! I could have done it! For you…!’ 'No, Loki.’ *lets his adoptive son FALL INTO AN ABYSS IN SPACE. Like, he literally just stands there, watching Loki let go and fall to his death (well, not actually death, but that’s what it looks like)*

6: 'Both of you were born to be kings’

Later: 'All this because Loki desires a throne…YOUR BIRTHRIGHT WAS TO DIE! As a child, cast out on a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in, perhaps you would not be here now to hate me.’

I don’t hate Odin as much as the rest of the fandom seems to, and I do think he had reasons for doing what he did, but the fact still stands that he can be a massive hypocrite (tells Loki that he can’t try to take over the earth because they are no different from humans in the end, then tells Thor he shouldn’t date a human woman and calls her a 'goat’) and the things he did to Loki were just cruel.

Also, Thor, though he never wanted to hurt Loki, didn’t help. From what little we got to see in the Thor movies, it seems he also thought Loki was a bit weird for his quiet nature and interest in books and magic, usually refused to listen to anything he had to say, and just took his presence for granted most of the time so that he never realized how much Loki mattered to him until he lost him.)

Ok, so I’m trying to start the fic and I’m narrowing it down to Urie, Ken, and Shuu. I mean, the obvious choice is Urie since it seems like he’s one of your faves, but Heathers is a bit of a…graphic…story and while I’ve thrown in a bit of extra fluff IT WILL NOT BE A HAPPY FIC. So. Maybe you don’t want to see your favorite character hurt that way…

Also, because it’s HEATHERS, the story that’s set in a normal high school with absolutely no sci-fi or fantasy yet manages to be almost as dark as Black Butler, I guess I should put some warnings…

Slight yandere-ish behavior, murder, bullying, very vague mentions of self-harm and suicide (nobody actually does it or did it though), implied child abuse, sort-of-smut(scene cuts off right before anything smutty actually happens), and a ton of angst

(hint: it’s probably angstier than that thing I wrote about Viktor in a TG AU)

Is this ok with you?

Last note: Heathers and DEH both have a lot of dialogue to fill up the spaces between songs so you might want to either read the plots on wikipedia or talk with me every one or two songs so I can help explain what’s going on ^^

No worries ^^ I was a bit worried though, since I though you interpreted my ‘no new fandoms until the weekend!’ as ‘no messages until the weekend’

About the new chapter (127), has there been another time skip? Also, Shuu’s back! I’m sure you’re happy to see your hubby again (･ω<)☆ And I’m so proud of Naki ;-; My boy’s finally speaking properly.

#bringSaikoback  #becauseHe’sEvilThat’sY

Wait, she confessed her love? Man, I’ve forgotten a lot of things…

Yeah, that seems about right… What a gourmet.

Mask making, then? or eating eyeballs, that also wouldn’t be so weird. 

I want Hide to come back to life and become the next Jesus or something, saving absolutely everyone, because why not? I mean, he’s Hide after all.  Rize eating Furuta would be enough to get me to read the manga again (I already am, tho, at least somewhat. It’s your fault)

Maybe Ishida’s trying to redeem himself by giving us all the lovey-dovey stuff? It’s a shitty redemption attempt, but still…  and bringing back the dead certainly is an interesting way to advance the plot. hopefully it turns out to be a good one as well. hopefully.

i understand how/why mutsuki would fall for sasaki, but it was done in a very bad time and generally doesn’t fit with anything. id be a lot happier if they went murder crazy, but without the whole sasaki obsession. just let the guy be happy for fucks sake

You’re definitely a masochist. I mean, anyone who reads TGRe is (does that make me one as well…?). The AU is my pride and joy, the best idea I’ve ever had. I mean, just imagine it. Everyone being happy and enjoying life without suffering.

I’m sure you’ll do just fine ^^ I may not have anxiety but I do know the feeling of stage-fright. I mean, just a few weeks ago, I was at the japanese speaking contest and I still remember how badly I was shaking before, during and after my speech. I was so afraid I’d mess up… and I did! I did not understand any of the questions they asked me. Only later did I realise what they were trying to say, but in the moment, I was too scared to comprehend basically anything.  However, I got through it, no matter how scared I was. So I’m sure you’ll do just as well, if not better!

All hail King Evans, the One Eyed King! Now go stop the fighting between ghouls and humans, please.

Yeah, Evans is a bit of a boyish name. My first association with it before I met you was Soul Evans, from Soul Eater, a guy.  It’s also part of the reason why I was really afraid to write anything that might delude your gender, since lots of people get mad when people assume. 

Jealous Urie would be one of the most hilarious things ever. He’s to awkward to admit it, which means he also doesn’t do anything about it. How fun.

But you still haven’t answered my question… Who would you pick to be your significant other from the other fandoms we share, like Kuroshitsuji, AoT or YoI? Or even the Avengers universe ;)  You’re not avoiding it!

Honestly, Shuu is one of those people who get along with basically everyone, so I’m sure you’d get along with him. Besides, he’s empathetic, so he’d give everyone a chance to open up.

IDOL HELL! Join us... 

Oh really? Well, I was planning on watching the first Avengers movie and the Thor movies today and tomorrow (and maybe during the next week), so I’ll definitely tell you my opinion, then ^^ But Thor has short hair in the new movie. I am definitely not satisfied =3=

The whole family has some huge issues, doesn’t it? (thor’s family)

I say Kaneki, because it’s not a happy fic and out of the three, I like him the least. 

Sure, I’m fine with basically everything at this point. TG has ruined me in the darkness of itself (i don’t know what im typing anymore, don’t question me, please)

Okay, I’ll make sure to ask you about anything I don’t understand when I start listening to it ^^