#I should probably replay the original again now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-afronick · 9 months

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Normally I like to tally up everything I've beaten on an annual basis but I've been lacking the last two years, so this is three years' worth of finished games: 2021-2023. Also been lacking in finishing stuff until the last third of this year but I think I've got the swing of things again. There are other games finished/completed I've chosen to not count here as they were simply different ports of games I've already done before, but I'm still counting MW1 Remastered to make it a nice even 50.

Since this is all getting typed up right now in one afternoon, enjoy some quick thoughts on each of these.

Finished

Yakuza Kiwami (2017) - Yeah it still feels like a weird version of the immaculate Yakuza 0. I'm not the authority on these but I'm unsure if I'd recommend this over the PS2 game to someone who is willing to play the original.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012) - I liked the split campaigns, though moreso the 80s one. Probably need to play Arma 1 or Reforger to satisfy that Cold War craving now that '83 is canned.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (2016) - I think I got this with Infinite Warfare off of a keysite primarily to use this remaster as an excuse to replay CoD4. Still enjoyed it and really ended up liking the enhanced visuals/touch-ups in animations. 2007 is still fine to play but this was a fun detour. I want to try the Wii version at some point.

Death Stranding (2019) - A game I was way more curious about its story than I was its gameplay pre-release ended up being enjoyed the other way around. I loved Hiking Simulator 2019, cresting peaks and sliding down into cities while some Low Roar kicks in... and everything about the environments as you head west are the greatest. I'm probably gonna get the PC version of Director's Cut to play it again at some point.

Shellshock: Nam '67 (2004) - What should be a simple arcade third-person shooter ends up being frustrating because reticle bloom is way too much for some of the engagement distances. Not the worst I've ever played but I'm probably not going back to it ever.

Thunder Force AC (1990/2020 Sega AGES release) - I mean I like Thunder Force IV more but hey III's pretty good, and so is its arcade version.

Vietcong (2003) - Originally recommended to me by a friend and I kick myself for not getting to it sooner. Fun, tense campaign of having to take caution every with every move, guns felt great, and overall I had a good time. Regrettably couldn't play the online but ah well.

Postal 2: Paradise Lost (2015) - More of what I remember from playing Postal 2. It's still silly.

Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (2003) - This is the one. Yeah, 6 gets the recognition because it's the reboot and has the top-tiered fan favorite characters but 7 takes the wrinkles of 6 and irons them out to a fine crispness. Good patterns, good bosses, and good music. I have no complaints. Want to play a Touhou game? This one.

Touhou Reiiden ~ The Highly Responsive to Prayers (1997) - I first played this at an anime convention in a hotel room full of Touhou cosplayers on their laptop they had hooked up to their TV, mainly wanting to show off where it all started. Touhou's kinda fun as a Breakout game, but this is more of a curiosity than anything nowadays.

Ninja Gaiden (1988) - My second favorite Castlevania game, but man FUCK Act 6.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (2021) - I mean what else can be said that hasn't already. It's nice that Nier 1 got a revisit after Automata set the world on fire and even though this didn't do its numbers, I missed my friends :)

U.N. Squadron (1990) - Glorious. The SNES/SFC version offers a fantastic and better conversion from the arcade game allowing for choice in mission order and choice in plane selection (though the YF-23 and F200 are effectively the only way to win) to work in tandem with your pilot's unique skill. Not particularly a great adaptation from Area 88 if you're looking for its story and characters but that's not what this game is aiming for - instead, it takes the elements that would work in a shooter and only those elements. You're mercenaries so money is the key to everything, mainly your weapons loadout. There are large superweapons, some taken straight from the manga. The only downside is the grinding element to get more money for better planes in the form of a strafing run special stage that you'll have to play over and over. Highly recommend.

IKUSAAAAAAAN! (2018) - I actually can't comment too much on this one since I only played it through once but it was fun and highly energetic, and Iku is my second fave 2hu so that's a plus.

Halo: Fireteam Raven (2018) - "hey let's play this since we're all together and it's a Saturday night which means bad co-op game night but now IRL!" (moments before friend temporarily lost their wallet.) We finished the fight, but at what cost? About $20 and an hour.

F-Zero X (1997) - Everyone likes GX (and you should) but I like to describe X as the first five feet of stairs on the difficulty curve of F-Zero. You absolutely can lift yourself up those missing steps but wouldn't it be better to ease your way on up? Very fast and grippy compared to SNES F-Zero. I also like the rock/metal soundtrack as opposed to GX's industrial (which again, still good, just not as good). Dream Chaser the greatest. Also that arranged music album is killer.

Project Wingman (2020) - Did you like Ace Combat Zero? Of course you did. Here you go, have some more. It's kinda weird how even with the option to bring in multiple types of special weapons, the strongest thing you're armed with are your normal-ass machine guns.

Neo Contra (2004) - The Shock Troopers 3 we deserved. All I have to do to sell you on this is show you the opening to the one stage where Bill and Jaguar are running on top of helicopter blades.

Udongein X (2021) - There are a surprising amount of Mega Man-inspired Touhou fangames out there to the point where they can be divided into inspired by classic series and X amongst others (maybe there's a Battle Network one too?) This is the latter and since it felt most like MMX1 to me, I liked it a lot.

Dimension Tripper Neptune: TOP NEP (2022) - Welcome to the Fantasy nep Zone.

Mega Man 8 (1996) - I hate this fuckin game.

Made Man (2006) - Frustrating. I was expecting a mafia clone of Max Payne but instead it's a cover-shooter with the most mediocre gunplay and braindead AI I've seen in a while. Also the bullet time only activates once you fill the meter and upon manual-deactivation, you lose all of the remainder. Kind of a shame too because some of the setpieces are fun (one of my favorites being a gunfight in the rafters above a rock concert at Madison Square Garden) but it just sucks otherwise. The main voice actor, Rick Pasqualone, does too good of a job for this game when everyone else is phoning it in and I'm glad he got a second shot in a better game as Vito from Mafia II.

P-47 Aces (1995) - Recommended by my friend @bizarredawdler. I got my ass beat.

Carrier Air Wing (1990) - If you liked the arcade version of U.N. Squadron specifically, this is more of the same. Not as good but hey, dogfighting the space shuttle isn't something you do everyday.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (2022) - This was fun, and probably the first beat'em up that I began to understand rather than just fumble my way through. Would like to do a co-op run with friends at some point. Played as Donatello, he seems cool.

Freedom Planet 2 (2022) - My GOTY 2022. Despite my teasing in numerous late night calls that this was one of those games where the slightest inconvenience resulted in a delay, I can honestly say my expectations were met, exceeded, and blown away. Enjoyed Freedom Planet 1 a lot back in 2015 and while originally hesitant that the artstyle change would bring a gameplay change, all of that faded away when that first demo came out. It's still just as fast and hard-hitting as the first one if not moreso. The reworks to each characters' movesets are nice. Neera is a great additional player character. God I wish someone could get these homebrew'd onto a Saturn because that's the only way this could get more perfect. My one (1) complaint is now Classic Mode being locked behind beating Story Mode once which, while I like the cutscenes and characters, makes it a little harder to recommend to people who just want the pure gameplay that you could immediately access in 1. That's the only thing I'd change.

Panzer Dragoon: Remake (2020) - It sure is Panzer Dragoon 1 but prettier, but oh boy I would not recommend it for full-price precisely because it is Panzer Dragoon 1 with all of its under-an-hour length intact. There's an achievement for playing it for 100 hours... also one for dying once. Don't have either!

Drainus (2022) - Team Ladybug caught my eye and captured my heart with Touhou Luna Nights, and ever since then I'm on board with whatever they've thrown at me. I still haven't finished Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth but I did play this, which was a pretty fun, if not easy STG. Looks nice too!

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015) - God the campaign sucked except for one part (you know the one). If you get this, only get it because Zombies workshop support is still alive and well.

Halo 5: Guardians (2015) - I cannot, cannot, cannot stress enough how many times I said "Halo 4 did this better." An absolute goddamn slog of a singleplayer with a dumbass story. The teammate AI will not save you or will kill themselves trying to save you despite the game being designed around squad mechanics. Halo's never been good at boss fights, so here have the same one over and over and now there's three of him hahahaha! I hear "multiplayer is good though!" sure it might be, wouldn't know, don't really care to know.

Dolphin Blue (2003) - Neat little run and gun. Liked the 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds here, very vibrant.

Demonizer (2020) - Neat little shooter, though it does punish you harsher later on for taking hits and losing your allies. One of those if you mess up late you might as well restart.

Ace Combat: Joint Assault (2010) - I really enjoyed Skies of Deception, the other PSP Ace Combat. This one is not that, dropping the Strangereal setting for our own and going with a plot involving insurance CEOs I think. Back to linear mission structure, no choosing the order. Could not play the Joint missions in which you and friends tackle operations at the same time affecting one another which is this game's entire gimmick. I don't remember any of the original music but there are plenty of AC2/3 tracks here which are good.

Demon Front (2002) - Kinda hard run and gun, though it's something I'll have to put more time into to get the groove of it. Otherwise, neat Metal Slug-inspired game! Recommended by a friend who I'm not sure wants to be named.

Raiden II (1993) - I like Raiden. Raiden II is more of that. Simple as.

Burnout (2001) - Another one of those games where you probably played a later one and went back only to discover there's kind of an idea here but it needs to get flushed out a little bit more. I started on this one back in the day and only finally got around to finishing, this time on the Xbox version. Not a whole lot going on here apart from being a standard AA racer of the time with a crash mechanic that's more discouraged than encouraged like its later entries. That AI rubberbanding isn't nearly as bad as NFS Underground 1's but it gets pretty bad. I don't regret playing this but I don't see myself going back, especially now having started 2 which is the ideal form of early Burnout.

Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (2013) - After teasing my friend @thathomestar for years about it, I finally caved. I don't know MMOs or their systems or what makes for a good one, so I won't speak to its quality. I can make my catgirl fish so hell yeah.

Quake: Dimension of the Past (2016) - Where's the ammo? My gun needs more food!

Quake: Dimension of the Machine (2021) - Gameplay-wise it's more Quake which I love but holy shit do some of these levels look good.

8-Bit Commando (2011) - I thought this would be an okay Contra clone but instead it's subpar. I do like the verticality of your path, but it does feel more linear than it should be. Difficulty is easy even on Hard Mode. There's this weird thing where it'll upload replays of your gameplay as workshop items if you let it, so turn that off as soon as possible. Otherwise, you can't buy this anymore outside of keysites. Done to get footage of the dopefish in it.

Operation C (1991) - Quick, easy, but it is Contra, and nobody does it like Contra.

Contra III: The Alien Wars (1992) - Much like Super Castlevania IV, the jump to the Super Nintendo meant that Contra was gonna get a boost in just about every aspect... and much like Castlevania, I still prefer the original NES game to its SNES sequel. That said, I do think Contra III comes out ahead of CV4 with the amount of cool moments that happen, and abilities like locking the aim direction or standing in place and rotating your angle of shooting are accounted for in the increased difficulty. Very cool title, but personally not my favorite.

The Citadel (2020) - This is a fascinating game. While riding the retro-FPS wave, it still includes mechanics from modern shooters like bullet drop, travel time, weapon condition, hunger(?), full-body awareness (even as sprites!), and so on. Levels are really monochromatic. Very bloody and loud when it gets violent, and boy howdy does it get violent. And yet, there's this certain bleak serenity during level exploration that I haven't felt in a while. Looking forward to the sequel.

Castlevania: The Adventure (1989) - You know what? "Battle of the Holy" isn't just a good song, it's good even by Castlevania standards. And that's about the only good thing I can say about this dull game. I'll have to play ReBirth at some point.

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991) - Better, but I'd rather be playing something else.

Risk of Rain 2 (2020) - This is cheating since I've only seen credits twice or three times, and I normally don't do the roguelikes so again I won't speak too much to it, but I like this one. I've had a fun time alone but it's definitely a lot of fun with friends, and I hope we can come back to it.

Kid Dracula (1990) - What if Castlevania was Mega Man? is my clickbait attention grabber, but also a pretty apt description. It's easy apart from this one railcart section which I felt like I got through on sheer luck than anything else. Still enjoyable.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992/2021 Absolute Version) - I've never actually beaten Sonic 2 legit, half from getting pissed off by the special stages and half because I get bored by the time Oil Ocean rolls around. Now that the special stages are actually in 3D and have a draw distance, I finally was able to get through and grab all Chaos Emeralds for the first time without save states or sound test cheat codes. And I was finally able to appreciate just how good Sonic 2 is once that weight was lifted. The levels are fun and a vast improvement over Sonic 1's, and the 2-Act structure works a lot better for pacing. And during the final boss, doing it legit gave a level of pressure that a final boss should rather than turning on debug mode and spamming rings to help out. I think I can go beat this even more legit on my Genesis without the modern assists, but it is thanks to this version that I gained the confidence to do so. Just needed a little help up is all.

Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit (2022) - I had a big old dumb smile on my face the entire time.

Sonic After the Sequel (2013/2017 DX version) - I enjoyed this one too. A bit more lengthy due to a four-act structure per zone and the special stages are slightly more miss than hit for me, but it all worked out in the end. The true final boss had my friends and I laughing.

That's all. I'm gonna try to finish up a couple more Sonic games in the new year and also try to beat the Burnout series, with some other stuff along the way.

#year in summary

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brineffxiv · 1 year

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I returned to the first. I said hi to many of my friends and acquaintances. I filled Ryne in on what's been happening.

...And now I have to see if any part of Elidibus' soul is still in the Crystal Tower, and if it is, if he will help me.

I didn't only kill him, after all: I killed his friends. I made sure their millennia-long labor to resurrect their people ended in failure. I destroyed their last hope.

And now he's mine.

The memories of my friends are with me

Man, Shadowbringers was a fantastic expansion. I haven't even finished Endwalker and I'm already looking forward to replaying it.

Oh thank goodness; he's still here. I don't know what we'd do if he was gone.

He was sleeping, but I woke him up. The smallest of my crimes.

I tell Elidibus all that has transpired, and, to my surprise, he agrees to help me. Not for my sake, no, but because this was done by Fandaniel, he, as Elidibus, sees it as his duty to repair.

I am once again struck by how... honorable doesn't seem like quite the right word. Perhaps integrity? What I am trying to say, is that I would not have blamed Elidibus if he told me to go fuck myself. The dedication to their duty the Ascians held (save, of course, Fandaniel): it humbles me. I have a great respect for such consistent service to their people.

Elidibus tells me what little knowledge he has been granted by the constellation crystals. A pity that the one Ascian there is to ask is the one with memory problems.

It was Fandaniel himself - the original, unsundered version - who discovered the connection regarding the celestial aether currents, and dedicated himself to finding a solution. Without his knowledge, the Convocation would not have been able to do what they did to save the star.

Elidibus' claim that the Fandaniel of the past was very different from the incarnation of the present jives with Fandaniel's own assumption that the man he was would weep to see what he had become.

Aha! Elpis the place! Tell me, what was it? Where do I go to find what's left of it?

Apparently, Elpis was a testing facility for the ancients' creations; determining which ones were fit to be released into the wider world. More intriguingly, and in what cannot be a coincidence, the man who would become Fandaniel was chief of the place. When he was known as Hermes.

(I see the pattern with the names. The Convocation's true names are all those of Greek deities. Hades, Athena, Gaia, and now Hermes. What's yours, Elidibus?)

Unfortunately, that is all Elidibus knows, as the crystals tell little of the Convocation's lives prior to taking their seats.

Wha-? But, I know it's a place I go to. How...?

Eh!?

Something about this moment has triggered a memory for Elidibus. Impossibly, he seems to remember meeting me, in the past, in Elpis.

H... How?

Apparently, Elidibus has gleaned how the tower works from the Exarch's memories, and now, fueled by his own empowered essence, he is willing to send me into the past. If I am willing to trust him to do it.

The distance to be traversed is so great that I will be invisible, inaudible, and intangible. But even worse...

Even should I manage to interact with anyone I will be unable to change the future to which I must return. This tracks with what I know of G'raha's own jaunt through time, and the continued existence of the reality he left. I have no option of escaping the Final Days via changing the past, just as G'raha's changing of the past did not erase the future he came from. This is probably a good thing? I would be petrified of accidentally wiping my friends from the face of existence otherwise.

Sending me to the past will consume every last mote of Elidibus' essence. This will be his final act. I pray he finds the peace he longs for in it, and that there is some place where he will be reunited with those he lost. For all the evil he and his brethren brought into the world, they have lived their own hell all this time. I would not begrudge them this reprieve.

Elidbus' final thoughts are to Hydaelyn, now the last of the ancients. I... hadn't thought of Her in such terms before. My thoughts are somber, and apprehensive, as I step into the past.

Oh my. I am indeed a shadow of myself.

Oh my god I am in the past. And there are ancients. Real, living, ancients! I had forgotten how absolutely massive they were. Wow.

I run around and try my best to catch anyone's attention, or interact with anything at all. It is as Elidibus said it would be: I am entirely intangible.

While I am fighting with the door I can't manage to open, two more ancients appear via the atheryte-like device behind me.

And then I took three days to find a way to write out this sequence that wasn't simply pure screaming in joy. Know that behind every sensible comment is a continuous "aaaaaaaaa!"

I will admit, I did not recognize him from the brief glimpse I got prior to fighting Zodiark.

This was the precise moment I realized who these two must be, and proceeded to lose my entire goddamn mind.

It is not possible to render in text the sound I made. I missed him so much and they gave him back to me! I am going to cry of happiness!

Goddamn, Emet-Selch, you have gorgeous eyes.

Every time he looks into the camera my heart skips a beat.

Hythlodaeus was right when he said you had a handsome face, too.

Sir, I desire you carnally.

Hythlodaeus himself is also painfully pretty.

This game just keeps giving me deliciously beautiful men.

I took approximately 9000 screencaps during this reveal sequence.

Omg omg they can see me. They can see souls. They can see me. (lol at Emet pretending he can't)

Hythlodaus thinks I might be Azem's familiar.

Emet-Selch doesn't know what I am, only that I'm bad news and they should ignore me.

Hhhhhh! Stop looking at me like that! Please keep looking at me like that!

Oh damn, they can't hear me though. Blessing and a curse? I have no idea what I would say to them if they could hear me.

Oh? You can do that?

The grumpiest man in the world.

You've got him wrapped around your finger, don't you?

Self: do not ship them. Not allowed. They are both already dead. Horribly. There is no happy ending possible here. You know how it ends. The game is trying to lure you into a false sense of security by having them be all cute together. Down this road lies only madness. Do. NOT. Ship. Them.

I'm solid again! Yay! Emet-Selch even made me the right size!

Hythlodaeus introduces himself and Emet-Selch to me, and I, in turn introduce myself to them.

But then my new old friend wants to know where I came from: he can tell from my strange aetheric composition that I wasn't created here. I'm not sure if I even should explain, much less how I'd go about starting to, "You see, I'm from the future..." Elidibus said I cannot change the past... But...

Thankfully, Hythlodaeus senses I am having a difficult time with that question and asks me a different one, what am I doing here?

Turns out that our purposes are the same! What fortune! As an apology for assuming I was Azem's familiar, Hythlodaeus offers to serve as my guide as well.

Predictably, Emet-Selch is not happy about this. But, Hythlodaeus points out that it's better to keep me close by if he thinks I'm up to something.

And with that, we pass through the doors and into Elpis...

(Had to cut this post in two. Too many pictures, lol)

I can't believe it. I think I'm still in shock. I'm in the past. The ancients' world. The world unsundered.

Catch me sobbing because it's all so beautiful here and it's all going to be destroyed.

I'm doing little quests from the ancients here, and all I can think about is how they're all just people. They're the same as the people I know in my time. Oh god. I think I'm going to be sick. This is what I felt upon seeing Amaurot, but worse. Because they're alive. Fuck. Amaurot exists out there somewhere, filled with people, living and thriving. That shining, beautiful city... What did Elidibus say? He said I can't change my future... I am tied to what I came from... But can I change theirs...? Can I do for them what G'raha did for me?

This is a game. I can't effect what the game does. But I want to save them. I want to save them so dearly.

#ffxiv liveblog #rhesh'a tag #elidibus #emet-selch #hythlodaeus #thoughts on lore #fangirling #thirst

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morphogenetic · 5 months

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Mediaposting 2024, #6: Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2/The Great Ace Attorney Resolve

Completed: April 21st, 2024 (/i still have to watch the DLC episodes that didn't get released with the official loc, I guess but I'm not playing it any more so ?? lol)

Time spent: 49.5 hours (will be like 50.5 after the DLC stuff)

Rating: 9/10 (more objectively. but a very biased 9.5 in my heart.)

ohhhhh my god alright where do i even start with this. i guess i also have to talk about dgs1 a little bit in this review/mini completion log but I will TRY and keep it to just 2. [editor's note: somehow succeeded with this! lfg]

first, to get the non-spoiler parts of this out of the way:

please for the love of god play this fucking game if you've played the original AA trilogy but not the DGS duology. i can not stress this enough. i would not recommend playing them as your FIRST aa games because a) they will set your bar way too high (and too low simultaneously bc wow dgs1 still has whack as hell pacing) b) there are a few details, especially in this particular game, that will evoke no reaction in you if you haven't played at least the main three games but WILL cause you to start gnawing on drywood if you have Knowledge Of The Future

the whole dgs duology - and specifically as a duology, bc 2 makes no sense without 1 but 1 by itself is not on this level - is absolutely in my top 3/4 AA games now. i admittedly have not replayed the original trilogy in quite a while, buuuuuut T&T/AAI2/DGS1+2 are my new top 3. not necessarily in that order, give me a bit to think about it lol.

im going to be thinking about this game for the rest of my life probably. i can see why my best friend wanted me to play it for uh. seven years. because yeah it really is that good.

i want to cosplay four different designs from it. i have not wanted to cosplay anything new (to me) since neo twewy came out three years ago. take that as you will.

music still slaps. obviously. my favorite new song is absolutely partners (IYKYK) but agh. the new theme(s) that characters get are all so fucking good. clenches fist. the leitmotifs

definitely becomes relevant in retrospect in a few places where capcom obviously cut the hell out of the budget but they saved it for where it matters so i dont care. im also uh. very used to low budget VNs so frankly even 3D models are better than I'm used to LMFAO. i also you know. didn't realize that they did that until after the fact. so. they hid it well

if you havent played this go and play it (after playing the original AA trilogy). please for the love of god im on my hands and knees.

everything below the cut (i.e. below this point) has blatant unfiltered spoilers. you have been warned.

okay so welcome you've presumably played all of dgs2 if you're reading this. i have THOUGHTS. a lot of these will come off as critical/negative but i need to strongly emphasize that these are the only reasons that this game is not a 10/10 for me and otherwise i'm in love with it. it is fucking CLOSE. i am not talking a lot about the things i really love because that is.............................a lot of the game for me and we'd be here all day. the critiques are much more limited in number. but. you know.

dgs2 absolutely has much, Much better pacing than dgs1 does overall. it does not take 3 cases to get past a bunch of tutorial cases. this is a good thing. however..............the first two cases are still very slow. i won't call them pure filler, because a) reminding us about yuujin was a very good idea, b) they contribute to the Themes of the game. and im glad hosonaga was there again and (of all of the side characters we could have had) seeing souseki was good. i like them. but they really didn't need to be there to fulfill the themes of the game. case 2 in particular feels like a filler case, which I do not love given how tight the rest of the plot feels. if anything i feel like they should have done an interim flashback case without susato, as much as I adore susato, because as-is it's canon that ryuu had 3 cases in the span of a week. which feels INSANE

speaking of better pacing: im so glad dgs2 remembered that AA games can take investigation breaks between courtroom shit because running through ALL of the trial after ALL of the investigation in 1-5 was. let's say. taxing. the 'finding their footing' aspect of the first game

i do kind of wish we got One more case with the masked apprentice where susato wasn't there at all for the entire case. if only because then the delay between ryuu Thinking It and susato Knowing it would be even more painful. but i do really appreciate that they don't try to make it a woah big reveal as much as a painful "i know who you are but you don't." really adds a certain je nai se quois or however the fuck you spell that. idr. its 1 am when im typing this

also hey asougi can we fucking unpack how susato (the girl you were raised with to some extent, probably not like your sister but your weird younger cousin) called your name and you didn't remember who you were but you DID remember when you saw a wax reconstruction of your dead dad. can we fucking talk about that for a minute. can w

speaking of asougi. my god. they did such a good job with him. i think i wouldn't have cared nearly as much about him if all we had was the dgs1 stuff but his extreme motivation for the truth almost turning him into a violent attack dog is. aaaaaaaaaah. god. and the parallels between him and his father's followers (read: the von karmas) that one has from playing the mainline AA games. truly brainworm material

speaking of this: i can absolutely tell they did NOT think about writing the professor stuff with this game until they added in the masked apprentice - before he got turned into asougi - even though the reaper was obviously something that was planned. i do not care personally about this, because game dev is weird as hell and it REALLY works with asougi and van zieks' character arcs. in the same way that i don't think [SPOILER CHARACTER] from vlr would have been as good without the knowledge of 999, i think if barok had been foiled against a new character it wouldn't have worked as well. all that said. it sure is obvious they didn't know what they were doing. this makes me even more impressed that that they got it to work at all

the same is true of everything with the hound of the baskervilles but im really glad that they took it in the direction that they did.

also man it is so obvious that they probably wanted to have this be a proper trilogy like the original trilogy but then budget happened. because 2-3 through 2-5 all slap but they feel so fucking weird next to 2-1 and 2-2. like i dont feel that theres anything missing per se but a little more time for character growth would have been nice. hell even adding in an extra case (and/or editing 2-2....)

the only writing thing, aside from. 2-2 being like that. and the other weird pacing issues..that extensively is off to me is the whole assassin trading plot. i do think it is Very stupid and that they clearly wrote themselves into a corner with 1-5 on how to deal with it because they just...proceed to not deal with it until 2-4 and 2-5. however. even with that said. i actually kind of like that it is so stupid. because stronghart definitely feels SO obsessed with his version of justice that he wouldn't think through the potential downsides of having two free-roaming assassins running around and maybe coming to get his ass. obvious flaw that would not occur to him because of his insane ass behavior

its still dumb. but it's ace attorney dumb. so i can excuse it a little bit

stronghart being a damon gant expy was funny but goddamnit was it predictable. making him be so obssessed with justice that he talks to ryuu about it for 4 hours was funny as hell though and absolutely adds to him as a character. still dont like him that much Personally but hes definitely a character

his breakdown was peak. by the way. top 3 breakdowns in the series

jigoku being like that kills me. also. the way he just let genshin

g. genshin impact (sorry)

i dont care that sherlock's bullshit was a deus ex machina bc honestly.....electricity was real at that point. its fine

also. holy shit i love ryuunosuke in this game even more. 'i'm not doing this for you, kazuma. i'm doing it for the truth.' BANGER!!!!!!!!!!!! his growth across these two games is really good but especially in this one he shines so brightly

however..........this game made the glaring lack of ryuu's parents even more obvious. its not like i Need it or anything but considering how he very literally refers to yuujin/susato/sherlock/iris as his family in 2-4.....where are your parents!!!! what was your childhood like!!!!!! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT I WISH COULD BE ANSWERED!!!!!!!!!

and asougi. i could write an essay on asougi alone i think. but i adore how both he and ryuu are like 'you've changed' at each other and neither of them are wrong but then by the end they're like 'wow you're the same as before.' theyre so fucking gay. anyway

and sherlock (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY DO YOU LIE FOR FUN LIKE THIS????????)

and yuujin (partners ~ game is afoot starts playing and i start crying). obsessed with how they only had to write the dynamic for a single case and you can believe all of it because they can just go. lol. ACD canon. anyway

and susato

and, most surprisingly of all for me.....fucking barok van zieks. i would not call myself a Fan of him in the way i am a Fan of asougi and ryuu, but i am obsessed with him. he did so many things wrong but realizes he genuinely fucked up and wants to atone for it. he gets genuinely upset in prison when he can't join the red-headed league. he's a professional alcoholic. he has bats in his office (???). what is wrong with him. (i know the answer is 'literally everything that could be wrong with a person.' but still

i love every single character in this game (or i hate them but because they were written to be hated)??? how did they manage this again. dgs1 helps so much here because the character growth.

argh. the character parallels with everyone realizing their parent / mentor figure was fucked up and/or hiding shit from them in some way. thinking emoji rotating in a circle goes here

wow that magically became way less critical as i was writing it. i thought it was going to be a lot stronger of a critique. its still weird pacing stuff basically that bothers me but i have very minor complaints that im forgetting aside from this

UHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YEAH HI GUYS IM BRAIN ROTTING NOW FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this has had almost the same brain impact on me (as evidenced by the 1 million words about it) as raging loop i think and thats never a good sign since i still think about raging loop at least once a week despite the fact that i played it 3 goddamn years ago

#dgs thought spiral #< if you're wondering. how much personal hell i am in because of this game. i made a tag for it. lmao.#mediaposting #junpei.txt #finished writing this at 1 am my time but im queueing it for the morning so people can read this like the fucking morning paper. you know.#long post

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k-dokja · 1 year

Text

synopsis: someone dies during your mission, that's never easy.

timeline: first year, before star vessel.

characters feature: geto suguru, gojo satoru.

relationship: classmates, friends.

notes: probably ooc as hell since i'm trying to narrow them down. originally written for gojo but then 75% in i realized gojo was an asshole so suguru has to lead the convo.

— you feel him before you hear him and you know that won't happen unless he wants you to see his approach. even then, you don't bother to acknowledge him and he gives no complaint when he sits down beside you. next to him, you once again feel the distance between you and the world.

it's strange, and alienating, but you can't stop it from impeding your thoughts and clouding your mind.

"you were nowhere to be found, had to search for you," suguru's easy words become once with the breeze when they enter your ears. it ignites a single cinder of irritation in you but the fire fizzles and then dies.

"i wanted to be alone," you say with pointed indignation. you hear him laugh. it's annoying and pathetic how he gets to you simply by doing no more than breathing, but maybe you are at fault for leaving your walls penetrable. then again, he was the one who came all the way to this rooftop to seek you out when you wanted to hide.

maybe you're justified in your annoyance.

"sorry for ruining your fun," he says, "but you're upset and i don't think you should be alone when you're sad."

you acknowledge him now. your glare is met with a single glance from him. his smile is resigned. it's not a declaration of victory, it has no reason to grate you further. but the reality is contradictory.

"...you shouldn't worry," you muster out your concede of defeat anyway, it's unreasonable to get mad at him, "i just need a moment then i'll be back on my feet."

"take all the time you need," he says, "all of us have to get used to death at some point, whether it's a civilian or somebody we know. it's unavoidable."

you flinch at the accuracy of his words. deep down, he makes sense, you know he does. no one smart would approach being a sorcerer without a healthy dose of pragmatism. but it sits ill in your stomach, the fire from before heats up again to boil your organs with an unfamiliar sickness.

"...no."

"no?"

you glare at him again. it's incredible how your eyes don't burn when you talk because your body is steaming from all of the emotions you're withholding. "no." you say. "the moment i become apathetic to death is the moment i stopped trying. i don't... i don't want to..."

it sounds silly. stupid. the rebellion of someone sinking and unwilling to admit they can't swim. this is why yaga-sensei kept telling you to temper your mind because getting emotional is no good. but you can't shut down the images of lifeless eyes staring back at you. memories of familiar faces turning indistinguishable replay in your head in a broken reel.

an endless loop without escape and maybe a hell of your own creation.

you swallow and turn away. you aren't going to have this conversation with him, not without coming out of it broken into dust when you're already fragmented.

"...hey," suguru's hand lands on your shoulder and your body turn rigid to stop pushing him away. "i'm not telling you to stop caring, i know you can't." he's trying to find the words to use. you know it because his breath hitches. "it's a part of our line of work, it's fine to grieve and you should grieve... but you have to be quick at picking yourself up since there are others to save too."

suguru breathes in, then out. "there are people we can yet save, we can't spend all of that time worrying about our mistakes and regrets."

"you make it sound easy."

"it isn't, but it has to be," you hear it, the resignation in his voice. "sometimes, we have to pick our battle and do whatever we can. we aren't invincible, nobody is."

"you're hurting satoru's feelings," you point out, unable to resist the opportunity to quip. "he'd argue fervently that he's as close to perfection as one can be."

but suguru only smiles, "i believe if i did, he'd have something to say about it," then, he turns his head back, his voice raised, "wouldn't you agree, satoru?"

to your surprise, an unexpected newcomer pops out from the wall behind the two of you. a mess of white hair, black glasses, and a grin that lacks the normal lustre. "oi, don't sell me out," despite what he said, satoru voluntarily steps towards you from his hiding place.

had it not for suguru's revelation, you don't think you would've noticed him. somehow, that makes you tired. "why in the world are you hiding?" you ask. "do you know how weird that is?"

satoru only shrugs when he reached you. "thought it was better to leave suguru to talk to you, i don't even know where to begin with this." it's weird to hear satoru admitting weakness, but you don't comment on it. he scratches the back of his neck, awkward out of nowhere. "it's not that i don't care enough to make an effort, it's that..."

"you might say something that triggers the wrong nerve?" you drawl. "like you did before?"

you hear suguru chuckles, but satoru only grins, "spot on," he says, "we do worry about you, you know, but some of us don't have the talent to deal with fragility like others." he nudges you with his foot.

you snort, momentarily distracted by his attitude, "asshat," you elbow back at his leg, "at least you're good at making me mad at something else."

"hey~ it's a talent," then he plops down behind the two of you, "better for you to be mad at something inconsequential~"

"well, we can't deny that he's uniquely equipped in pissing people off," suguru chimes in airily, you can't help but snickering at his comment.

"you guys, honestly..." surprisingly, you find yourself smiling. but then, a single thought touches you and steals that smile away. "...wait, i'm skipping class... and the two of you are here... oh shit."

you hear him before you feel him.

by skipping class, you'd sooner or later face the consequence of a pissed yaga-sensei and you had expected later rather than sooner. but apparently, with three fourth of the class missing, your teacher had no choice but to take the matter into his own hands.

you're already shivering by the time you turn back and meet his eyes. nothing but pure death.

"you fools."

the punches land down on the three of your heads too fast to react. briefly, your life, you accumulated past mistakes, your will to live, all of them flash in front of your eyes at once.

"ouch!"

"ack!"

"mercy!"

although, if there's any comfort to gain from this, at least his anger will be split three ways.

#gojo satoru #geto suguru #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #fics

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ladylooch · 1 year

Note

“When opponents bring up Emma, the gloves are dropped.”

Oh should we explore this? I feel like we are having so much fun with timo and Emma rn

Obvi this is where lio gets it from

Do I want to explore this? OBVIOUSLY! Also, lil pause to say thank you for loving these two. I love my OCs so much and it fills my writer cup up to do these blurbs 🥰

Anyone who trash talks Emma gets both Timo AND Nico in their face. So they probably just shouldn’t. But hockey boys aren’t always smart…

My eyes water a bit as I yawn, sitting in the family suite at the Prudential Center. Liv is sleeping in her carrier on me after her latest feeding. Lio is munching on a chicken finger, eyes following his dad around the ice. Timo and Nico are both out on the power play. Lexi is home sick with Lucie, so it’s a relatively quiet game tonight including on the ice where the score remains 0-0.

The puck moves along the perimeter quickly until it gets to Nico. He passes it back to Dougie, then to Jesper, then back to Nico. My brother saucers the pass across the slot to my husband, who one-times it into the back of the net.

“Hey there we go!” I cheer, watching the replay on the Jumbotron. “Daddy!” I poke Lio’s side.

“I know I saw it.” He beams up. “Can I have ice cream now that dad scored?”

“I’m not sure what one has to do with the other?” I chuckle, but wave him up to the food to grab a bin of dippin’ dots. “Mom tax.” I open my mouth, letting him feed me a little bite.

Timo is skating back onto the ice after his goal when a Blackhawks players starts jawing at him. Timo looks over his shoulder at the guy, smirking as he comes to line up next to him. Timo suddenly stands tall, cross checking his opponent in the chest. Nico is getting ready to take the face off circle then abruptly stands up too, coming over to the other winger across from my husband. Nico shoves at him too. More talking resumes. The ref tries to get between them, but it’s too late. Timo and Nico both go after the same guy. Gloves are flying. Sticks are dropped. One guy tries to get in to pull Timo off. He shoves that guy in the face and keeps going after the original player.

“Oh boy.” I mutter, rubbing at my forehead. The arena stands. I do as well because I am so anxious watching them both fight. I put my mouth on Liv’s head, smoothing my hand over the back of her hair as well.

“Dad is mad.” Lio murmurs, eyes wide and excited. “Get him.” He pounds his little fist into his palm.

“Ah… no.”

“Why?” Lio murmurs. I can’t really lecture him on violence when both his dad and uncle are punching people.

“Because it’s not.. nice.”

After we get home and put the kids to bed, I finally ask Timo what that was all about. We are in the closet changing into our bed time apparel.

“This motherfucker.” He starts off, stopping from changing out of his suit. His eyes are all squinty as he retells the story. “He was talking about you. Nico and I felt he needed to never do that again. So we took care of it.”

“I can’t believe you both jumped him at the same time.” I shake my head, pulling my flannel pajama pants up my legs.

“I mean, the opportunity was presented, so why not?”

“Well, your son was mimicking your punches.”

“Our son saw me beat a guy's ass defending you today. I’m okay with that.” He kisses me as he walks out of the closet in only his boxer briefs. “Why you putting pants on? I’m just gonna take them off.” I ignore that, going back to the real issue.

“When he is older and beats a kid up on the playground, I expect you to be on my side with that.”

“Sure, baby.” He says. “Now come here.”

I walk to the bed, crawling onto his lap. He leans back into the pillows, hands on my hips as I look him over.

“He got you.” I murmur, seeing red under his left eye along with other signs of bruising.

“One. Compared to my fifteen.”

“At least you landed a punch. I couldn’t quite figure out what Nico was doing.”

“Me either. I had to tell him to find someone else.” I lean my head back, laughing at the ceiling, remember how Nico went off to grab the closest Blackhawk. Timo leans forward, kissing along the swells of my breasts that are off limits again. I sigh with pleasure when his nose outlines my nipple through my shirt

“Hey.” I tug his hair softly. He knows why.

“So bossy tonight.”

“You like me that way.” He nods in agreement.

“So what did this guy say?” I ask. Timo sighs like he wants to be done talking about it.

“He said your pussy probably dries up like the desert when you see me.” I burst out laughing. Tears are pooling in my eyes. Timo flips me to my back and crawls over me. His marked up hands pin my wrists on either side of my head as I shake with laughter.

“You know that is not true.” I try to take my hand away to wipe at the tears. He holds me in place.

“I do know that.” He glides a hand into my pants to prove his point. “But that fuck stick shouldn’t be talking about your pussy. And Nico agreed with me so we went. Together. Defending your honor.” I try to get my laughing under control, but then I think about it and start all over again. “You could be a little more grateful.” He mumbles against my mouth, trying to shut me up.

“I sure could.” I pick up his left hand in mine. I wrap my legs around his waist, then swing my full momentum to rotate on top again. Timo is stunned below me. “But I can take care of myself. I’ll fight him next time. Defend your honor.” Timo collects my shirt, bringing it up my body and over my head.

“Mhm, okay baby. Whatever you say.”

#TM: Loving & Leaving

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quibbs126 · 26 days

Text

I can finally post this, after weeks!

But yeah, this here is something I made to celebrate the 9th anniversary of Evoland 2

Some people may remember this work in progress from weeks ago, but now I can finally show the finished product. Which I finished 2 weeks ago

It’s based on the 3D picture you get when you finish the game, specially the 100% completion, and more specifically, my screenshot that I took when I first completed the game and got 100%

Though I should probably also note that this was the only picture I had of the beach scene until I was mostly done with the picture, so there are some inaccuracies between it and the original. Except for Reno in place of the Prophet, that was completely intentional

This game was I think the first (and will probably be the only) game I’ve ever 100% completed, and when I did it the first time, it was just because I knew that games would have extra things for those who 100% it, and I wanted to see what the game would give me. It’s the only time I was so invested in a game that I had to know what I’d get if I got everything. It’s also the only game where losing nearly 10 hours of progress due to a (maybe) glitch does not make me give up the game in frustration, but instead complete the entire thing within a single school week

I may gripe about my issues with the game, but I absolutely love it, and I have a lot of fun playing it. Well, aside from the parts I’m bad at, but that’s just because I’m bad at them. I feel like I have next to nothing to complain about from a gameplay perspective (which is in part because I don’t know how to critique gameplay, but also because I think any issues I have are my own fault), it’s just narrative stuff. And even then, I wouldn’t nitpick it so much if I wasn’t so invested in the world, story and characters

Maybe today I’ll start replaying it again, seeing how I’m pretty sure I’m free today from any schoolwork

I’m still holding on to some admittedly delusional hope that a 3rd game could release one day, even if I know it’ll almost certainly have nothing to do with this one, but even if it never does, I’ll still have this game to play over and over again, so I can accept it

I was disappointed that I missed the last two, since I first played the game in 2022, but not this year, I remembered!

Now to just talk about the art itself, the reason there’s two versions is because I originally made the background lineless, but after finishing the characters I thought it maybe clashed a bit too much, so I made a duplicate of the picture to do a lined version. But I also spent so long on the lineless version that I didn’t want to just leave it in the void, so I’m showing it too

Admittedly now I think I can say the lined version probably is the better one, but I can still show off both

I used the card colors for the characters, since all of them have cards for reference, but now I’m looking at the colors and thinking they look somewhat wrong. At least on Menos

Also as mentioned prior, I switched out the Prophet for Reno. I know I’m biased but I really think he’d fit in this picture of all the main characters far more than the Prophet, considering he’s kind of the reason the plot started, the second half happened, and he’s the main motivation for one of our party members. I mean, I see why the Prophet’s there in the original. He’s really the only other semi-important character with a 3D model, and Reno never had one, so they’d have to make an entirely new one just for this extra thing. Also it doesn’t make sense for him to have a 3D model in the first place, especially not of his Present era self. But not only is this now a drawing where I have the power to do what I want, this scene isn’t canon in the first place, so put Reno in the background there!

Overall though, I’m honestly surprised the piece turned out as good as it did. Those who follow me know that I was really struggling with drawing during the summer, more specifically drawing people and the Evoland 2 cast. But despite all that, I think the characters turned out pretty well. Certainly not the best, but better than I was expecting. And not only that, but the background turned out so much better than I thought it would, especially since I don’t usually do backgrounds. Though I suppose it does help to have a reference for all this though. But yeah, there was a reason I was so proud of how the sketch turned out, and while the final product may not have entirely been what I was hoping for after the sketch, it still turned out pretty good

As long as I can remember it next year (which I really hope I can, considering that’s the 10th anniversary), I’ll try to make something there too, hopefully with much improved drawing skills, since I’m still trying to figure all that out again still

Not sure what I’ll draw then. Maybe I could redraw the beach scene, or make an entirely new beach scene concocted by my brain. But it’s also the 10th anniversary next year, so maybe it should be something more special

Ah well, that’s next year’s problem. For now, have this to celebrate the game’s anniversary. For the minuscule amount of people who actually play this game, I guess

#I’ve slightly started to doubt if today is the actual anniversary #that’s what Google tells me the original release date was #but if I’m wrong I will never know peace #probably the incorrect phrase but I can’t figure out what it’s supposed to be otherwise #but yeah Evoland 2 anniversary #for all 5 of us who care #evoland 2 #my art #anniversary art #evoland kuro #evoland fina #evoland menos #evoland velvet #evoland ceres #evoland reno

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carrinth · 11 months

Text

Whelp I've done it. Just finished Witch Hunt which now marks the end of my Dragon: Age Origins run. 10/10 would recommend. Especially Awakening and Witch Hunt DLC.

And y'know what? Witch Hunt was worth it for this moment. A fitting end for my Warden. Reunited with his love (and baby mama) and peaces out of work and responsibilities via magic mirror. Just look at that face. I think this is honestly the first time I've seen my Warden-Commander smile in a LONG time. Poor guy.

Minor DA2 rant below cut;

Actually I finished it awhile ago but had been procrastinating by replaying Awakening.

Because uggghhhhhh... I don't want to play DA2.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll grow to love Hawke again but right now my mood is just... meh. Replaying Origins and all its DLCs just made the differences in quality and content between the two all the more jarring. Aaaand on a more personal level -- I don't want to stop being a Grey Warden. ಥ_ಥ

For the last near 150 hours, I was sold on being a Grey Warden. In fact, I think my best fun was Awakening where I actually got to BE a Grey Warden doing Grey Warden things WITH OTHER GREY WARDENS. We ALL drank the nasty juice! It was a bonding experience! This game spent so much time building up the lore and excitement of being a Grey Warden -- leaving so many unanswered questions about the Taint, the Blight, what it all means, dO wE GET griFFONs -- only to just... drop it all in DA2.

I'm just so confused by the direction DA2 went. Replaying Origins with the knowledge of the upcoming mage/templar plot in DA2, the conflict in Origins felt... minor. Sure we get hints here and there that things are Kinda Bad. But nothing major. Heck, I played a Circle Mage as my Origin and I never felt that 'Oh wow, mage rebellion should totally be Main Focus of the next game!' Like don't get me wrong, mage/templar conflict is 😌👌but the Darkspawn and Grey Wardens was what set Dragon Age apart from other fantasy.

"Well the Blight's over Carrinth, there's no more story to tell about Grey Wardens" you say. And yet, Awakening did a fantastic job of making an entire campaign post-Blight.

Part of me feels like if they didn't want to keep the Main Character the same (ala Mass Effect with Cmdr Shepard) then couldn't they have still made the DA2 MC a grey warden? Like a junior(?) Warden that's investigating Corypheus or whatever in Kirkwall but gets caught in the mage/templar mess. Sure we would have gotten a very different story but would that have been so bad?

In the end, I will likely end up playing DA2, if only for the excellent companions and to reunite with my Sad Mage and Angry Spirit Husbands. But at the moment... *sigh*

So goodbye Marzel Amell. You were the best Warden-Commander and I had fun throwing Storm of the Century on fools, flexing my maxed out Coercion, and painstakingly working out TACTICS. I will probably still keep stubbornly drawing Awakening fanart (because I am Not Normal about those idiots) but DA2 stuff will likely eventually bleed in. ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Farewell Marzel and go live gloriously in mirror land with ur spider lady and kid.

#dragon age stuff #marzel amell #carrinth's continued da adventures #minor DA2 rant

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lizisshortforlizard · 11 months

Text

Living Dangerously - Chapter 30

Jurassic Park’s animal handlers: none of them ever mentioned by name in Michael Crichton’s original novel. Who were they? What were their lives like on Isla Nublar? Did any of them survive the disaster?

A year in the life of those responsible for the care of the dinosaurs. Many people would kill to have their jobs.

But would they die for it?

Jurassic Park novel/Jurassic Park film (1993)

Viewpoint: 3rd person female oc

Warnings: some swears, harassment and misogyny in the workplace

Tagging: @heresthefanfiction @ocappreciation @wordspin-shares @howlingmadlady @arrthurpendragon @themaradwrites @starryeyes2000 @kmc1989 (please lmk if you would like informed of my sporadic updates)

Read on Ao3

Chapter 29 | Chapter 31

I Hate Myself for Loving You - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

It turned out be a different sort of sleepless night to what Lizzy had been hoping for.

The wrong kind.

She had lain awake for what few hours remained until morning, tossing, turning, occasionally weeping. Any sleep she managed to grasp was fitful, feeling like it only lasted a few seconds at a time.

She kept replaying what had happened in the clearing, each time a little more painful. Wondering how she could have behaved differently. How it could have turned out better than this unbearable limbo in which she didn't know where she stood anymore. Whether she'd just forever destroyed one of the best professional relationships she'd ever had.

It was all her fault, of course it was.

Why did she keep doing this? It felt eerily similar to the last time she’d engaged without thinking of the consequences. It had nearly ruined someone else’s life back then, as well as her own. History was repeating itself, and she only had herself to blame.

And now, once again, she had to live with the uncomfortable reality. She’d argue that it clearly wasn’t taking advantage from either side, in fact Lizzy would be bold enough to say they were both very much in agreement. But InGen’s legal department probably wouldn’t see it the same way.

Admit it, girl. You fucked up.

Dawn came, and she finally forced herself to get out of bed and pretend to be human. She should be looking forward to going out into the park again and seeing her animals, now that she wasn’t alone and it was relatively safe to do so, but she was dreading it. Unsure what she’d do when she inevitably bumped into Muldoon again.

Pretend it never happened or meet him head on?

I don’t think I have it in me this time.

She was in the canteen, laying low, listlessly poking at her scrambled eggs with a fork. Lizzy had cooked them herself, but they were far from her usual standard and didn't taste of anything other than disappointment.

She heard the familiar Jeep engine outside, and the shower of gravel as it ground to a halt. Lizzy shrunk down in her chair, staring at her plate in dread.

I’m better at breakfast.

Be the one to wake me up in the morning.

God, why did I do it?

At least the coffee was worth leaving her room for.

It was the first thing Muldoon noticed as soon as he walked in. She hadn’t brought one over for him, like she usually did. Message received, loud and clear.

The one small act she did for him almost every day, and he hadn’t even appreciated it properly until it had stopped. That was enough to get him to talk first. Armstrong did something when she made coffee. Invoked a higher power. Witchcraft. Somehow she always got it exactly right.

This wouldn’t do at all.

“Good morning.”

“It is?” She replied dully, glancing up with red-rimmed eyes. “Doesn’t feel like it.”

“You’re late for work.” He pointed out. “How are you doing?”

“Well, that’s a kick in the teeth.” She muttered. “But, if you’re genuinely asking? Annoyed. No, that’s not right. Vexed? Hm. Frustrated. Mostly at myself.”

“Armstrong-“ Muldoon awkwardly stood in front of her. “I probably owe you an explanation.”

“No need. I thought you made it pretty clear, actually.” She felt the sting of rejection anew. It was more painful than she’d reckoned to talk about it. “You don’t owe me squat.”

“I could have handled things better.” He pulled out a chair to sit opposite her. “It all happened rather quickly.”

“You were handling things just fine.” Lizzy gave up on her eggs, pushing her plate away before sitting back and folding her arms. “What changed?” What exactly had changed? It was hard to explain, but what it came down to was-

“Too fast."

She blinked, confused. ”Say again?”

Muldoon wished more than anything that Baker was around to keep him on the right track, guide him with what to say.

”…moving too fast.”

”Well, thanks for the clarification.” Lizzy replied dryly. “And that’s…bad?”

It was, it didn’t feel right, to be suddenly rushing matters in the dark. Outside…fair enough, but in the back of a bloody Jeep?!

Or maybe on the bonnet of his Jeep-

No, stop that.

He wasn’t sure quite what had happened, but he’d forgotten his responsibilities. Keep her safe. And risking her career for the sake of one night together did not fall into that bracket. No matter how strongly he felt. How he felt didn’t matter. Hadn’t mattered for a long time.

“Don’t want one and done.” He tried to explain, despite the relentless stare from the other side of the table. “Can’t do it.”

Not with her. Everything or nothing at all. Anything else would never be enough. He was trying to voice that sentiment out loud, but he didn’t have the words. He barely had the syllables.

“It’s not right, either. We already knew that.“ Muldoon gave up. She’d have to trust him, he was doing his best. If she could still trust him. ”Does that help, at all?”

“Yes…” Then her face crumpled.

He looked at her closely. ”Are you lying to me?”

”Yes!” It all came pouring out in a high-pitched hurry. “You’ve been mad at me before and I’ve understood why. But, after, and when we were driving back-…I couldn’t read you, at all!”

Lizzy put her head in her hands and mumbled something beyond his range of hearing.

She thought he was angry with her? That’s what she was most upset about?

Muldoon reached out and gently but firmly pulled her hand away from her mouth.

”Again, please.”

”…really thought I’d lost you.” She whispered.

“Well, you certainly have a flair for the dramatic, Lizzy.” He kept hold of her hand, she let him.

”Are you implying I’m overreacting?” She choked out. “Because women love that.”

”To be clear, I’m not mad at you. I’ve never once been mad at you.”

”Are you sure?”

“Positive. Annoyed, maybe. Vexed? Once or twice.” Lizzy groaned when she realised what he was doing. “Frustrated…you get the idea.”

”Oh, that’s not fair.” She muttered.

“But I’d find it very hard to live with, if you were dismissed because of something I did. Or might possibly do, if we were to, er-…” He looked uncomfortable. “-you know.”

"Suppose that’s a good point. Damn you for being so rational. I love my job.” She glanced up. “The people, eh...."

"Indeed, people are awful. Most people, at any rate." He quietly agreed. "This island would be bloody idyllic if we weren't going to be overrun by guests in a few short months.”

“So, where do we go from here?” Lizzy was already dreading the answer.

“I don’t think…we are going anywhere. You and I-" Muldoon looked resigned. "-have to carry on as before.”

“Like nothing ever happened?”

”I’m afraid so. Strictly professional.”

“But that’s not what I want.” May as well say it.

“Nor me.” Lizzy wondered if him tracing circles on the back of her hand was conscious or otherwise. “But it’s what we have to do.”

Sobriety would be a distant memory if he was responsible for ruining her career.

“Still the funniest story I’ve ever heard.” She muttered after a few moments, breaking the tension.

“Good.” Her laugh. That ridiculous laugh that he couldn’t stop thinking about. “That’ll keep me going for a while.”

Lizzy nodded and managed a wonky smile. She felt like crying again, it seemed horribly like saying a goodbye. "We'll be okay, right?"

"I don't even want to imagine the alternative."

This is the right choice. This is the right choice. This is the right choice.

Doesn't feel right. Feels bloody awful.

Lizzy tilted her head, pushing her body towards him, her candour returning. “Did you like it, though?”

”Excuse me?” He had to have misheard, but the mischief in her expression was telling him otherwise.

”You heard. Did you-“

A noise from the doorway startled them both. Muldoon dropped her hand quick as a flash, Lizzy tried not to let her face fall in dismay.

Kathy Baker was clattering into the canteen, struggling yet again with her bag, which looked even heavier than when she’d left before Christmas.

“Found you, finally!” Kathy called and waved. "Oh, hey, you came back early! What gives?"

“Nothing.” In a role reversal, Muldoon quickly answered for them both, while Lizzy was the one who baulked.

“O-kay…jeez, answer faster.” Kathy gave up on her bag and abandoned it at the door, clumping over to their table, still in her winter boots. “Girl, before you ask, yes, I got the goods. Here, you’re welcome.”

She passed Lizzy a box of liquorice which was met with a pleased but slightly frantic ‘ooh!’.

“Have you been crying?” Kathy asked her matter-of-factly.

“Just allergies.” Lizzy sniffed and wiped her eyes, looking at the floor.

“Uh-huh...” Kathy darted a quick glance at Muldoon, before drumming her recently manicured nails on the back of a chair, building up. "This is kinda perfect actually. I wanted to tell you two first out of everyone, obviously, but not over the phone. I, uh...I have some news."

The way she was avoiding eye contact with both of them, Lizzy could guess what it was. She quickly forced a smile. "You got the job?"

"Yeah, I got the job..." Kathy tried her best to look dismayed, before the grin burst through and she bounced on her tiptoes. "Guys, I got the job!"

Lizzy scrambled up to congratulate, quelling the geyser of rage, dread and panic that was bubbling up inside, feigning happiness for her friend. “What’d I tell you? You’re incredible!”

”I know, I’m kind of a big deal!” Kathy giggled, squeezing her tight. “First woman to ever hold the post in the history of the Smithsonian! I’m gonna have an office! I don’t have to work weekends anymore! I’m gonna have a life!”

“Alright for some.” Muldoon wasn’t so enthused.

Kathy broke away from Lizzy, hands on her hips. “Go on then, let me have it.”

"Well done. Knew you’d get it."

Lizzy shook her head. Damn man was proud as Hell, just doing his stubborn best not to show it.

“It’s not the end of the world, I’ll be here for a while, until you can find my replacement.” Kathy pointed down at the top of Lizzy’s head and stage whispered pick her.

“How long have I got?”

”Until August. “I can hang in there until August, right? What could go wrong before then?” Kathy laughed nervously then abruptly stopped at the alarmed look they both gave her.

“Plenty.” Muldoon huffed.

Lizzy agreed with him. ”Best not to answer that.”

***

Kathy wasn’t the only one who brought Lizzy dessert as a souvenir on their return.

Rico, the youngest but not least talented member the Carnivore Team was making his way towards her brandishing a Paupério tin that was far too dented and discoloured to be new. This looked promising unless, God forbid, it turned out to contain a sewing kit. Lizzy had been burned before.

“For you!” He was calling to her as he jogged along.

Her face lit up at the sight. “That looks homemade, boy. Tell me it’s homemade.”

Rico caught up, handing her the tin. “From my mama, for you.”

“You really didn’t have to…” Lizzy tried to remain polite though she was dying to rip the lid off and tuck in. Dinner time was still achingly far away.

“Yes I did. She made me swear I wouldn’t touch any.”

Have you been making friends, niño?

I have, at least one.

The strange Scottish lady was always nice to him, even if she was scarily forthright at times, and it had taken Rico a couple of weeks to figure out that she used certain rude words not as insults, but as terms of endearment.

“I’ve got good cigarros too if you want one, but don’t tell mama about those.” He tapped the side of his nose.

“Have you done something bad?” Lizzy asked warily. “I’m not being funny, but this is too much-“

“It’s just a thank you. You look out for me.” Rico said simply. “It was rough, at the start, but you wouldn’t let me stay in my room alone. I hated it at first, when you dragged me out all the time, but I know why you did it.”

His shoulders drooped. “When I can’t remember the word for something, you don’t make fun of me. The other guys still do, sometimes.”

Lizzy hadn’t really thought about it before. But he was around the same age as her brothers. And it was true, his English hadn’t been the best at the beginning. She knew all to well what it was like to be the outsider, not being confident to chip in when everyone else spoke a different language to you. She hadn’t wanted the youngest member of the team to feel left out or worthless. The boy was good. Not long left school and already working for InGen? He was going places.

Rico was somewhat of a phenomenon. He was quiet and thoughtful, introverted, but he had a way with the dinosaurs that Lizzy was envious of. Even the most timid of creatures could be coaxed forward by Rico. He was just good at it. Something about how he spoke to them, how he moved, he had a calming influence.

People had their favourite animals, and the reverse was equally true. The dinosaurs just liked him, most were comfortable being around him.

It had made other people jealous, some who weren’t as happy to just shut up and deal with it as Lizzy was. She had even considered asking Muldoon if Rico could become a handler for the infant raptor. He would be good for her, she was certain.

“It’s just banter.” She reassured. That was true enough, but one or two of the guys had a bad habit of pushing it into cruel territory. Words needed to be had. “Although Tom really is an arse. Don’t ever listen to him.”

She resisted the urge to ruffle Rico’s hair, like an unbearable aunt. He’s a grown man. He’s taller than you.

But he had such a baby face she couldn’t help but want to look after him. Maybe it was guilt. She missed her brothers by far the most out of all her siblings. It had been so long since she’d seen them.

“What would I do without you, kid?” She glanced down at the tin gratefully. “And your mother’s baking. Seriously, she could sell these.”

“You won’t ever find out.” He sidled closer, looking like he was getting ready to tell her a secret. “Listen, I want to see Africa. The Africa you and the boss talk about. See a wild elephant.”

“All these dinosaurs right here and you want to see an elephant?” She couldn’t help but smile.

He laughed. “A wild elephant. Just promise you’ll take me along, next time you go, yes?”

”Sure. I might know somebody who could give you the tour.” Unable to resist any longer, Lizzy started breaking open the tin and she nearly teared up at how delicious the contents smelled. “Oh my God. Can you bring your mum too?”

He seemed to seriously consider it before nodding. “I’ll ask her?”

***

“Hey!" Later that day Kathy sneaked up behind her and tapped Lizzy on the shoulder. “Got a bone to pick with you.”

The old reliable Baker intuition was yelling loudly in her head, yet again. Niggling in her thoughts for several days. She couldn’t ignore it any longer. Kathy pointed a finger in accusation at her friend and cried triumphantly:

”You got laid!”

“What?!” Lizzy's eyes darted back and forth. "Shhhh!"

"You did!" Kathy gasped. "Oh my God, you did!"

”I did not!” Lizzy made a grab for her friend, trying to clamp a hand over her mouth, something, anything to stop her. “What the Hell, Kathy?”

“You’re, I dunno-“ The Team Leader wriggled free and shrugged, unconvinced. “-different?”

“Yeah, well. You’re wrong. Nothing happened at New Year.” Lizzy insisted. “Ro-uh…Muldoon and I went out for a drive, that was all.”

The at least partly true white lie that both of them had discussed and agreed on together.

“Who said anything about New Year?” Kathy raised an eyebrow. “You…did?” Lizzy stalled helplessly.

“I didn’t mention Muldoon, either. That’s where your mind went though, huh?”

”Er-“ Lizzy started to panic.

”He came back early, to check you were okay, you were all alone here for a whole night and- oh, don’t give me that look! And ‘nothing happened’?” Kathy was still sceptical. “Yeah, right!”

She recalled the moment she had first suspected things may have changed between them. She peeked through the window just before she’d entered the canteen, nearly screamed in exhilaration and then saw how quickly Muldoon dropped Lizzy’s hand when he heard the door opening. Like a hot potato. Her heart had dropped just as quickly, and she caught the noise ready to burst forth from her throat in the nick of time.

Whatever had been going on, she clearly wasn’t meant to see. “Cross my heart.”

”Really? Nothing?” Kathy was still crestfallen. “You finally had the island to yourselves, and nothing at all?”

Lizzy considered how he had made her laugh harder than she had laughed in a long time, maybe even in her whole life. A moment that regardless of whatever happened between them now, she’d likely remember until the end of her days.

Kathy was looking at her expectantly, while Lizzy’s memory was a mile or so away, in her favourite place in the park, with the stars above and the Rex rumbling away like a purring cat as the fire crackled.

”Well, not exactly nothing at all.” Lizzy’s mouth finally curved into a smile. “But if I told you, you’d probably never believe me.”

***

”Regis, why is my Jeep boxed in?”

”Uh…sorry Muldoon, I’m losing you-crrrhhhsshshhh.” The group of animal handlers all saw Ed discretely switch his radio off with a loud click.

A couple of weeks into January, New Year a distant memory, but Lizzy’s stomach still flipped whenever she heard the park warden’s voice. Carrying on as normal was working, for the most part. But she couldn’t simply forget and move on. Feelings don’t just go away, you only adapt to get better at dealing with them over time. If you’re lucky.

Fortunately, a welcome distraction was in progress. Preparations were underway for an official event on the island. The front of the visitor centre was positively bustling.

"Thought they weren't opening the park until the autumn?" Lizzy critically eyed the deliveries that were turning up left, right and centre. The supply boat that morning had been sitting much lower in the water than usual.

"These are investors, idiot. They aren't guests. They need to see we’ve made good use of their money, so that they give us more!" Tom flicked her ear for emphasis, causing Lizzy to take a swipe at him, which he dodged easily. "Or we’re screwed. So Eddie’s gotta get his nose right in there."

"I don’t think they’ve ordered enough stuff.” When she turned back to look again, Lizzy could have sworn the number of boxes had somehow tripled.

”You’re doing a great job, buddy. Keep it up!” Tom yelled over to Regis, whose neck quickly turned red under his freckles. “Don’t call me buddy!”

“Would you stop?” Lizzy elbowed him. “One of these days, he will throw something at you.”

”Hope it’s not gonna be valuable, cos it won’t have my good self to cushion the blow. He’ll miss.” His self-assurance was still grating.

”Wanna bet?” Lizzy remembered Trenton Thunder. “Baseball nut over there.”

”So Daddy played catch with him, big whoop.” Tom replied, grinding out his cigarette with his boot heel.

“Can you guys make yourselves useful and keep an eye out for the ice sculpture arriving?” Regis trotted over to them. “I gotta go do a thing…”

”Yeah, sure. We basically get paid to stand around, anyway.” Kathy replied cheerfully.

“This event-“ Lizzy queried. “-are we invited?"

”Absolutely not.” Regis denied. “In fact, you in particular are barred, Armstrong, for obvious reasons.”

”Aw, Ed!” She feigned upset. “You know that just makes me want to go even more!”

“Ain’t gonna happen, Liz.” Regis carefully pulled a transparent plastic garment bag out of a box full of packing peanuts. It contained a very short, very red cocktail dress. “So quit asking.”

“That’s gonna clash with your hair.” Tom pointed out.

”It’s for María!” Regis snarled back at him.

“That’s not fair! Why does she get to go? You have catering staff flying over.” Lizzy was still on his case.

Ed gave her a lopsided grin. ”Eye candy.”

”Huh?” Lizzy and Kathy said in unison, shooting each other confused glances.

“Okay, I see what happens.” Tom stepped forward. “Let me paint a picture for you, girls. You’ve got a lot of rich, lonely, powerful men in a room together, far away from their wives and mistresses, trying to prove who’s got the biggest dick. You need a little entertainment. Something pretty to look at. Grease the wheels.”

Regis clicked his fingers. “Bingo.”

“Oh, that’s disgusting. That’s disgusting.” Kathy was horrified.

“Nobody touch anything.” Off Ed Regis went, garment bag slung over his shoulder. Presumably to find the unwilling future occupant of the dress.

"Team Meeting, now.” Lizzy announced.

The eight animal handlers huddled.

”I move that we do something. I want to find out where all their money's going. Because it sure as Hell isn't on the animals. Or us. Y’know, the people who actually do the work.” Lizzy's expression became stormy. "They're going to take advantage of her. And Ed's going to sit back, drink his lite beer, and watch it happen."

"In another win for human evolution, public relations manager achieves upright stance sans spinal column." Kathy muttered dryly. “That’s cold, Kit.” Tom sounded impressed. “Attagirl, you’ll be as cynical as Liz and I by the time you leave this place.”

“Well, she has a point!” The Team Leader gestured. “We can’t leave María there alone. They’ll eat her alive.”

"So you agree?" Lizzy jumped on her chance. “I’m commandeering the situation?”

"Girl..." Kathy shook her head. "Girl, he's gonna kill you...getting involved…”

"I can handle Ed." Lizzy said confidently.

"Ed's not the one I was talking about, sweetie.”

“We’re gonna see Liz in a dress? Looking like an actual woman?” Tom smirked at her expression full of disgust. "Hey, you gotta. It’s a formal. You’ll need something that doesn't scream 'I shovel crap for a living'."

”Oh sure, let me just go pick one of my many ballgowns out of the wardrobe.” Lizzy gestured from her flyaway head to her mud-caked boots. "Are you blind?"

”You and María are about the same height. You wouldn’t look terrible in red, if it’s low lighting-“

”Jeez, Tom! Stop encouraging her!” Kathy moaned. “This is a terrible idea.” “As much as I hate to admit she’s right, better Liz than María.” The Texan stuck to his guns. “And you know it, Kit.”

“That’s settled then. All in favour?” Lizzy called the vote.

Six ayes were heard from the men before they looked to the Carnivore Leader for her choice. But she still hesitated.

Come on, girl.

The seconds ticked by. Tom smirked confidentially at Lizzy before asking loudly: “Kit, you wanna go grab Ed that cappuccino, or what?”

“Oh, I’m so gonna regret this.” Kathy wearily nodded. “You win.”

***

God, I'm starving.

Lizzy had poured herself into the tiny cocktail dress meant for Maria, far more petite and less muscular than she was. The Haitian was more than happy to be relieved of her duties for the evening, kissing Lizzy on both cheeks before practically flinging the dress in the ethologist’s direction and gliding away down the corridor to do God-knew-what. Watering the plastic plants, probably.

The cheap fabric was working particularly hard underneath her arms and around the tops of her thighs. As well as doing hair and make-up, Kathy had reluctantly helped pile her into the nightmare dress and zip her up. She felt like an overstuffed sausage, and already had blisters forming from the high heels, rubbing her feet raw as she shuffled around with tiny steps.

But the place Lizzy felt most under-dressed was on her left hand.

She wished she’d had the foresight to put her engagement ring back on, which she still hadn’t found the willpower to shove in an envelope and send back to Simon. At least it would offer some protection for a few hours. Lizzy looked around the room. String quartet, ice sculpture, flowers everywhere…the opulence of it made her feel uneasy.

She had a flashback to her apartment in the States, something Simon had divulged while complaining about a flamboyantly rich but cantankerous client as they were unpacking groceries together. Very rich people didn’t show off how much money they had. They didn’t have to. They tended to be quietly generous and classy about it. People who acted like they were still trying to prove something, they might be well-off, but they weren’t rich rich.

Lizzy herself had fallen for it in the beginning, but as time went on, increasingly often she began to suspect that Hammond was the latter. Everything for show. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.

She caught sight of the man himself in the corner of her eye, amber-topped cane in hand, and remembered the reason she was enduring such torture in the first place. To secure better care, more money specifically for the dinosaurs. Lizzy tottered over, tugging the hem of her dress down as she approached.

“John?”

He turned and looked at her blankly. She knew what he was thinking. You weren’t on the guest list.

”It’s me, Lizzy.” She could forgive him a few moments hesitation, she’d probably never worn this much make-up in her life.

“Lizzy?”

She began to get annoyed. What happened to ‘my dear old granny was a Lizzy’? Anyway, she’d always considered herself fairly memorable.

This was not a good start.

“Doctor Armstrong? From Namibia?” She gestured helplessly, at a loss for what else she could say to jog his memory. “The ethologist.”

“It’s Mr Hammond, tonight, dear. If you don’t mind.”

“Alright-“

“I’m fairly busy, I’m afraid. Why don’t you go and mingle? We’ll catch up later.”

“Wait, no-“ Lizzy knew well enough that there most likely wouldn’t be a later.

“Please, Miss Armstrong. Another time.” And he gently took her arm and guided her away, leaving her all alone, facing the wall as he resumed his conversation.

Not quite sure how she had lost her hold on the situation, Lizzy vowed to try a different tactic. As she was busy scanning the rest of the venue for anyone who might be worth talking to, she didn’t notice one of the businessmen swanning over to her, until it was too late to get away.

“Where’s Hammond been hiding this one, then?” American. Mid-West. Sweating profusely. “Forget the ice sculpture, why didn’t they just put you up on the table?”

Lizzy recoiled. “I’m a scientist.”

“Ah, she’s funny too. Not dressed like that, you aren’t.”

Lizzy really wasn’t a fan of being referred to in the third person.

”Really, she’s a PhD.” She flushed in anger. “She studies animal behaviour.”

And you’re behaving like an animal.

”Wait-“ He pointed at her face, closely scrutinising. “-I know you from somewhere-“

Not again.

In yet another event from her past that occasionally came back to haunt her, Lizzy had undertaken a couple of modelling jobs as a first-year student at NYU.

Nothing big. One or two jobs for the campus magazine, then it had kind of snowballed. She didn’t even know what some of the photographs were ultimately used for. But her face, and the rest of her, was definitely in print for something other than behavioural research. It offered a few extra dollars here and there, until Simon had asked her to stop, telling her she didn't have to worry about money now she was with him. She'd obliged, but it had been kind of fun, at the time.

It happened more than once in New York, sometimes a stranger, usually an older man, most likely on the subway would give her a funny look. She’d know exactly why, and she’d huddle closer to Simon and try not to make eye contact before they reached their stop.

New York and a tiny Costa Rican island, it seemed. Just her luck.

”No, you don’t!” She insisted and turned to leave, but he grabbed her wrist and she had no choice but to turn to face him to keep herself from toppling over in her high heels.

”How much-“

His grip hurt. Lizzy looked around in panic, searching for Ed Regis in the crowd. She didn’t want to make a scene, but if there was no other choice…Ed would help her, right?

Right?!

“Hey, back off, pal. The only one who gets to talk down to her is me.”

From somewhere close behind her came the low Southern drawl she both looked forward to and dreaded equally. The voice she hated being on the wrong side of, the one that meant trouble, had antagonised her time and time again. And she’d never been so glad to hear it defending her.

Tom’s hulking frame cast a long shadow over both Lizzy and the strange man who was intent on getting to know her better.

“Look, here-“ The investor was bristling at the intrusion.

”Move along, now, buddy.” Tom gave him a firm pat on the shoulder, a little bit harder than was polite or necessary, but not enough to get him into trouble. “Trust me, you don’t wanna find out the price for this one. It’s measured in rounds, and I don’t mean at the bar.”

The stranger grunted unhappily and finally beat it, avoiding looking Lizzy in the eye.

She relaxed slightly, her hands trembling. The smell of old cigarette smoke and cheap aftershave had never been so reassuring.

“About damn time.” She tried to act breezy, but the words sounded forced. Lizzy was more shaken than she'd care to admit. She glanced down at her wrist, red finger marks already burned harshly into her skin. Shit.

”Ma’am.” Tom tipped the brim of his stetson towards her without the slightest trace of irony. He had gone all out for the occasion, wearing a bolo tie, white shirt, dress jeans with a big belt buckle and leather boots. A real-life cowboy.

Lizzy cleared her throat, trying to restore her bravado. “Didn’t know there was a fancy dress shop on the island. Where’s your tinfoil sheriff’s badge?”

“You get straight to Hell. This is my good stetson. I’ve not worn this baby since prom night.” He flicked the rim. “You realise how privileged you are, getting to see me in my good stetson, right?”

”You have more than one?” She stifled a giggle. “Didn’t know you moonlighted as a Village Person.” “You like a man in a hat.” He winked at her disarmingly, and her steel nerve buckled.

”Piss off.” She muttered weakly.

"There it is." Tom grinned in satisfaction. “On that note, what has your man got to say about you hitting the town, all dressed up?”

“Not my man, what are you on about…”

“Ah, I see. He still doesn’t know, huh?” He shook his head, tutting. “You are in so much shit.”

“I do what I like.” Lizzy scowled. “Although I don’t like this. Quite literally taking one for the team.”

“You scrub up pretty nice.” He gave her a sly look. “Trim your moustache, did ya?” “Ha!”

At the other end of the room, Lizzy spied Regis’ ginger head, still wearing his ever-present baseball cap (seriously, at a black tie?), jerk upright at the noise she’d just made. Lizzy quickly turned it into a cough.

“Insults aside, glad you’re here.” She meant it. "Dickhead.”

She meant that too.

”Save it.” Tom grumbled. “I just didn’t wanna miss the look on Ed’s face when he sees you of all people gatecrashed his fancy event.”

“Keep telling yourself that, mate.” She didn't mind anymore whether he hated her or cared for her. It was a blurry line at the best of times. But she mattered to him, in some way, that much she knew and was grateful for. If he hadn’t intervened when he did…

One way or another, it would have gotten messy.

“How’s An Audience With Hammond going?” He interrupted her thoughts.

”It’s not.” She told him about how she had failed miserably at her mission. “I am very low priority on his list of people to schmooze tonight.”

Tom was eyeing up a tray of glasses making it’s way past them. “In that case, when in Rome-“

She scoffed. “Beginning to see the real reason you’re here…”

“They don’t got bourbon?” Tom grumbled at the sparse choice of red or white. “I hate wine.”

“The single malt is for much, much later this evening-“ The waiter somehow managed to look down his nose at the taller man. “-sir.”

”You’ll get what you’re given.” Lizzy took a glass of each colour and handed him the white. “It’s free.”

”How about a toast?” Tom sardonically eyed the blue InGen banner hung over the door, company slogan in italics beneath the ever-present logo. “To…Making Our Future.”

”Spare no expense!”

They clinked their glasses.

“Hell with it. Let’s pound as much of this food as we can before they throw us out.”

”That-“ Lizzy waved over a tray of canapes. “-is the best idea you’ve had in weeks.”

***

“He was talking so fast, I couldn’t keep up, and he said Hammond personally asked him to make it happen!” Rico was hurriedly trying to explain as he stumbled into the control room after the park warden. “To show the investors.”

”That may be true.” Muldoon was barely keeping his anger in check. “But there’s a very good reason we stay away from that animal.”

”Not all of us.” Arnold added loudly as he blew smoke upwards, causing Muldoon to shoot him a venomous look.

“I sincerely apologise, boss.” Rico continued, visibly trembling in fear. “H-how can I make this right?”

”Just stay out of the bloody way. Something like that, you really should have checked.” He dismissed him with a wave of his hand before shouting “Where’s Baker?!”

“Here, I’m here!” Kathy popped up from behind a console. “Ray called me, we’re watching her now. They weren’t kidding, she’s fast.”

Rico went mute, eyes downcast, he took the opportunity to slip out of the control room like a shadow while everyone else was bustling around. Nobody noticed.

Muldoon moved around to look at the screen beside his colleagues. “Arnold, can you send out an alarm?”

”Manually.”

”That doesn't sound very efficient?"

“It ain't. As in, I’m going to have to go check the manual.” Arnold looked at him pointedly, cigarette dangling. “Or you can just grab a radio and alarm everyone all by yourself.”

”You’ve got to be joking.” Muldoon ground out. “There’s no system in place?”

“Looks that way.”

Meanwhile, Kathy was wringing her hands. All the procedures she’d gone over in her head. All her studying of emergency exits, muster points and evacuation routes. All her carefully constructed contingency plans and she still wasn’t ready for this.

“What are you going to do?” She hesitantly asked.

“What’s required.” Muldoon was looking for the key to the locker in his office. “Don’t interfere.”

Kathy solemnly nodded. “In that case, what do you need?”

“I need my best shot, for backup.” He grabbed his radio. ”Kennedy, come in.”

No response.

”If anyone can see Kennedy, pass him a radio, now.”

No answer.

What a mess. Muldoon conducted a quick head count. Only six animal handlers present. Baker-Esteves-Harris-O’Reilly-Palmer-Yamada-

Another was unaccounted for. “Baker, where’s Armstrong?”

”Er…”

Oh, balls.

Muldoon impatiently took her by the shoulders. “Is she indoors, yes or no?”

”Yes, definitely.” No way would Lizzy be seen in that dress anywhere outside the function room. “Unless-“

His eyes narrowed. “Baker, it’s important for your lifespan that you tell me exactly where she is.”

Arnold had momentarily stopped typing, holding his breath.

“She’s with Tom. If he smokes, she usually goes too.” Kathy confessed nervously. “I mean, they could be outside?”

***

”Nah, you’re doing it wrong. No chewing, you’ll be there forever. Down in one, like this-“ Tom was trying to show her how to handle an oyster.

Lizzy stared at the cold shell in her palm, the corners of her mouth downturned. ”Tom, it’s looking at me.”

She’d eaten far more questionable things in her lifetime. But this was turning out to be her Everest.

”Ah, forget it. These ones are just okay, need some tabasco.” He took the offending mollusc from her and swiftly dealt with it. “Better barbecued fresh, out on the water.”

“If you say so.” Lizzy wasn’t convinced. Sub-par oysters, she’d rather not take the chance. Yet more cracks were appearing in the InGen foundations.

A very familiar silhouette caught her eye, making his way through the crowd to their secret corner of the room with purpose. He’d clearly spotted Tom’s stetson from the doorway.

“Uh-oh, busted.” Lizzy whispered as Muldoon drew level with them both.

“Kennedy. With me, now.”

Lizzy tutted. He was clearly dismissing her as ‘just some girl’ Regis had flown in for the night that Tom had decided to try his luck with. It must have been the heels giving her an extra couple of inches that was throwing him off.

“Tom, I think you’ve pulled.” Lizzy nudged his arm. Muldoon did a double take at the familiar voice, only recognising who she was the second time around.

“Oh Christ, it’s you.” He frowned. “What’s happened to your face?”

“Rude.”

“Don’t like it.” He was looking her up and down in disbelief. ”And I can bloody well see what you had for dinner-“

“Stop staring at me.” Lizzy hissed through gritted teeth. “Surprise, I do in fact have a waist under the tattie cloths they pass off as uniforms.”

“Of course. Your waist is what’s drawing the eye.”

He wasn’t at all a fan of the look, but he still couldn’t drag his gaze away from her with everything…pushed up like that.

”Aw, Jesus.” Tom seemed genuinely upset. “Not cool, boss.”

”Why are you two in here, anyway, without your radios on?” Muldoon recalled the memo Regis had flashed around about keeping a certain animal handler away from the event at all costs. “No, never mind. I don’t actually care.”

“I would love to know-“ Lizzy remarked sweetly. “-where exactly I would be keeping a radio on my person, in this thing.”

”Talking out your ass, no doubt-” Tom muttered.

Another of the investors had broken off from the herd and started to sway his way over, bleary eyes fixated on Lizzy, and the parts of her body the dress wasn’t quite managing to cover. She could already see the words say, you look familiar forming in his head as she began to back away in fear.

But she wasn’t alone this time. Both Kennedy and Muldoon abruptly stopped what they were doing and gave the interloper a hard stare so intimidating that he about-turned and wobbled straight back the way he’d came without uttering a single word to anyone.

Muldoon shook his head, looking like his motor was rapidly winding down. “Christ alive, I need to get out of here. I hate this sort of thing.”

Lizzy cocked her head. He doesn’t do crowds.

“So if you’re both done wasting time-“ He continued.

She quickly sobered, not averse to making a quick getaway herself. “What’s wrong?”

There was a faint rumble of thunder from outside and the overhead lights dipped and came back on with a flicker. The drone of conversation around them lulled, then resumed.

The next thing the park warden said made Lizzy’s ears ring and edges of her vision darken as the adrenaline kicked in.

“Don’t react, either of you-“ Muldoon dropped his voice low enough that she had to crane her neck to hear him. “-but there’s an animal loose in the park.”

Son of a- Tom was already pushing past Lizzy, making his way to the exit doors, the sea of businessmen parting before him as he cleared a path.

“Don’t react. I said don’t react.” Muldoon quickly turned to follow him.

“Hang on-“ Lizzy caught up before he moved out of reach. “Which animal?”

Muldoon gave her a certain look while saying nothing, which told her everything.

Lizzy knew exactly which animal had broken out.

“Oh-“ She reached for the wall to steady herself as the lights flickered off again and thunder boomed over the island. “Oh, no.”

***

Thanks for reading!

If you worked out what this chapter is leading up to I will personally send you a gift basket or something.

#jurassic park oc #living dangerously #welcome to jurassic park #oc: dr lizzy armstrong #jurassic park female oc #jurassic park #jurassic park fanfiction #my writing #jurassic park 1993 #jurassic park fanfic #jurassic park novel #robert muldoon #ray arnold #john hammond #ed regis

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asaka-lucy-dr-rc · 3 months

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Hello again! I'm the person who asked about that line form Island Mode said by Kazuichi. So i guess the translation was right after all! Your explanation makes sense, I've read somewhere that in japanese he uses a particular way of speaking that's typical of 'cool teenage boys', and that it's one of those nuances that's a bit hard to translate to other languages. Apparently, it's the same for a lot of other Danganronpa characters way of speaking as well.

The 'Dating Sim' modes have a lot of silly stuff ^^ Like, for example, both Leon and Mondo complain that they don't know how you're suppossed to eat a hamburguer without making a mess, I've seen some funny fanart of that xD (if you're curious there are some compilation videos on youtube, so you don't have to play the whole game, and the wikis as well)

Hajime doesn't exactly say 'let's burn the books', that's true ^^;; (I probably should have just copy pasted the real dialog form the wiki), but you can make him and the other protags say some WEIRD things, I like to imagine that after saying things that are out of character like that they just stand there blinking for a couple of seconds and then go 'huhhhh???? why did I say that????' and the other character just says 'you're asking ME???' xD

Thank you for such a long and detailed answer, your english is really good! I want to learn japanese myself but it's quite difficult ^^;; , but seeing people like you who speak japanese and english inspires me and makes me want to keep trying ^^ that's why I enjoy reading your posts =)

Exactly, including Kazuichi, many of the characters in Danganronpa speak in a way that is typical of teenagers or in a more unique way, so I think it's quite difficult to translate them! X(

OMG, I didn't know Leon and Mondo had such silly stories, how cute and typical of a teenager! ehehe XD Actually, I love the Dating Sim mode and have seen all the endings in Island Mode in DR2 and Dangan Salmon Team in DRV3. Since there is no completion list for Island Mode, I don't have any records of completing it, but everyone has reached level 9 in Gathering and Cleaning to get more than half of the levels to 9.

As for Dangan Salmon Team:

But I have not played School Mode yet! 😭 The reason is that I played DR:THH on the original PSP version, and School Mode didn't exist at that time. Now I have the Nintendo Switch and iPad versions of DR:THH, which have School Mode, but I thought that if I were to replay it, I would like to play the English and Japanese versions at the same time, but I haven't had time to do that yet. So you told me how to see the dialog online, but I'll save it for when I actually get around to playing it. But now that you've told me about Leon and Mondo, I'm really looking forward to playing it, so I think I'll finally do it next month! ✨

RIGHT, making the protagonists say weird things is one of the great joys of the Dating Sim modes! 😆😆 It's pretty crazy that when Hajime goes to the beach, he can suggest "Let's take our clothes off" to anyone. hehe And it's so funny and cute how the protagonists have regrets after saying those things to someone. 😄

I'm very happy to hear that my posts have motivated you to learn Japanese! Actually, my English skills are not very good, using some AI grammar checkers is essential, and my listening and speaking skills are low. (I'm not being modest. I have taken some online English lessons, but even then my evaluation was at the lower end of intermediate level). Still, I enjoy communicating in English, so even if people don't have wonderful Japanese skills and have to rely on machine translation, I hope they feel free to try using Japanese. It's still a fun experience to try using a language other than your native language and communicate with someone far away. Language is a great reflection of culture, so it's also interesting to learn about the cultural background. Annnd it's even more interesting when it's related to the background of your favorite characters! XD So if you learn something about Japanese, you can try sending it to me 😉 (This is not just for the anon who sent this question, but for everyone!) Thank you so much for always reading my posts! (*,,˃ ᵕ ˂ )･.｡*

#ask

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jugheadthelesbian · 3 months

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wip wednesday !!

here’s some morcia dialogue practice ive been working on

Penelope wishes they could’ve stayed in that moment, two girls hopelessly pining for people they couldn’t have, but then the Fisher King attacked them and Penelope fucked everything up and Elle got shot. Derek nearly got blown up. And it is all Penelope’s fault. They get the weekend off, all three days, because of emotional damage. Penelope, who originally still had to work, goes home at Gideon’s request. She can’t look him in the eyes anymore. “How could you be so stupid?” He told her. Long forgotten are the flowers and MP3 player from a few weeks ago. Shame and guilt stabs her in the heart and she stays in bed for all of Friday and late into Saturday as well, ignoring her phone and the missed calls she lets go to voicemail.

She keeps replaying Derek’s disappointment in her over and over again in her head. His frown when he realized what she had done. Just him and how he probably hated her. How they all probably hated her. She bet that they were all hanging out together right now, talking about how terrible she is for what she did. For letting the Fisher King hack into her iron fortress of a computer system. She lies curled up in a ball on her bed, sobbing into her pillow like a petulant child. Nearly two days pass like this, she moves like a ghost in her own home, before Derek Morgan shows up at her door.

“Fucking hell, baby girl,” He says, immediately hugging her tight to him once she opens the door. “I was so worried about you. You never ignore my calls.” He speaks into the crown of her head and she breathes in the scent of his soft T-shirt. “Can I… come in?” He asks and Penelope notices how he doesn’t let go until she does. She nods and turns away so he doesn’t see her cry. She’s grateful for confining herself to her bedroom for the past two days because the rest of the house is relatively clean which is good. Of course, Derek has been over at her house before, after hard cases or just when the two of them needed someone to talk to, but this is different. She hasn’t seen him since the attack and she doesn’t even know what to think of him anymore.

She stifles her crying, gesturing for him to sit on the couch while she moves into the kitchen. Her heart hurts and she can’t breathe, she has to push herself to not sob. She’s making this about herself which is what she always does and she should just like die or something. She hates herself and she’s being dramatic and she can’t breathe. “Penelope?” Derek’s in the kitchen now with her. And she’s sobbing like crazy now. “What’s wrong?”

“It was all my fault,” She cries out and in two steps he’s hugging her. She doesn’t deserve this, whatever the two of them are. She doesn’t deserve him. “And I can’t do this with you anymore.” She pushes him off of her.

“Do what, Pen?” He asks with wide eyes, his hands up in surrender, like he’s not a threat. He’s not a threat, she is and the way she feels is and that’s the problem. “I don’t understand, did I do something?” He cautiously inquires, taking a step closer to Penelope, hands still up in surrender because he thinks he did something wrong when she’s the one who ruined everything. Who will ruin everything and wants to cross over the invisible boundary line they’ve created.

@voidratwrites @eico-23 if yall want to share any wips

#morcia #salem's collection of fanfiction #morgan x garcia #garcia x morgan

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fenrisisms · 3 months

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Hiiii bestie <3 i would like to know 2 (can u believe i dont know this one for sure already??) 6, 8, 15 and 19 for that DAV ask game <3

okay fake me fan 🤨🤨

2. which dragon age game is your favourite so far?

its probably da2 at the moment... origins is my bestie forever and ever and ever but replaying da2 is just so fun. the combat is sexy (EXCEPT THE ARISHOK FIGHT AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN A MAGE) the story is sexy red hawke is sexy etc. while i don't think it's the best in terms of narrative (origins outsold forever, again) it IS the most fun for me to play again and again because the narrative still SLAPS and my favourite guys (merrill and fenris) are there

6. do you have your rooks planned out to some degree?

mf i am in your dms about this every day. yes and no. i have some vague concepts (veiljumpers i am in your walls) but i know myself and it does not matter how much i plan it out i will get in that character creator for the first time, black out and end up with whatever most speaks to me at the moment, and THEN i will be able to start thinking about rooks for the rest of my worldstate. i think worldstate codeword noble should have a human rook to keep the bit going. we'll see.

8. what faction are you most excited to learn more about?

VEILJUMPERS I AM IN YOUR WALLS !!! also as a d&d barbarian #stan i am making eyes at the lords of fortune but the veiljumpers are you KIDDING ME. i want to know everything there is to know about them yesterday <3

15. do you have any unpopular opinions about da:v so far?

uhhh well when the trailer dropped my unpopular opinion was that i actually like the more stylized art but i feel like public opinion on that has really swung around since the gameplay reveal? i have others but i also have self preservation and i simply do not want to be executed for [redacted] crimes so i will keep them to myself. but an actual unpopular opinion is i do not want to see fenris in that damn game no matter how hot he would be in the new style because i live in fear of someone actually making that fuckass david gaider "fenris would be team solas" tweet a reality. he would not fucking say that.

19. are you planning to replay any other games or read/watch any other material?

i have no solid plans lmao i go where the wind takes me... i might try and read tevinter nights before the game comes out since it seems pretty pertinent to the content and i like to Know things first hand but i am also gonna be pretty busy between now and a potential release so i make no promises.

thank you for the questions my littlest meow meow i love you <3

ask me questions about da:v

#ask game #personal

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messenger-of-stupidity · 1 year

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Little Bit of Hope - Day 4

I have officially listened to every video by Castle Audios (By the time this gets posted it’s been a while. I wrote this in the beginning of March.), and come to the realization that I am in fact a bisexual mess that simps over any and all types of voices and accents. Someone save me dear god, I was happy with the reminder that ✨feminine voices✨ are amazing by hearing some of my friends speak. Now I got the fictional characters reminding me too.

Also I know Castle is on Tumblr but I stfg if she sees this, I'm going to scream. It's bad enough that I'm worried about anyone seeing this. But the original creator?

Hrhehjfjevffhrhrhr

Okay I'll shut up and get on with the actual fic now.

Day Four: a little bit of hope

Characters: Ranger and Claire

CW: mentions of previous episode at time of writing, cursing, fluff, crack, pining

Masterlist

Ranger slammed the door closed behind them, their shoulders slumped. The side of their face still ached from the fight that they had found themselves in a couple days ago now. The bruise had healed enough from dark purple to show hints of greens and sickly yellows. If it hadn't been for Diane and the fact the park ranger team wasn't exactly big, they might have gotten in trouble for so obviously having been in a fight. The bruise that covered a good portion of their right ribs was uglier though. Should they have probably gone to a hospital to make sure their ribs weren't fractured or anything? Yes, but that was something they would rather die than do and it also felt like letting Claire win. Something they were absolutely not going to do.

"Dear, can you try not to slam our doors?" Diane's eternally concerned voice asked them. Ranger looked over guiltily and offered a sheepish smile and nod.

"Yeah. Sorry Diane." They said as the mother hen of a woman wandered over to them. She reached over and cupped their cheek gently, thumb brushing gingerly of the discolored skin. She clicked her tongue, whether scoldingly or sympathetically Ranger couldn't tell you. "I'm fine. Really. You shoulda seen the other guys." They weren't going to tell her about the bullet hole in the sign. She would only worry more. And at that rate all her hair would go white and she might have a stroke or something. She nodded, even if she was unconvinced and let go of their face. They smiled and stretched to try to convince her even if little bit more that they were fine. The action of stretching made their side ache, but they hid it. She sighed and patted their shoulder before going back towards her office. They exhaled and turned towards their desk, sitting down, giving their body a rest.

They pulled open a drawer to pull out the bottle of painkillers, popping one in their mouth and grabbing the old water bottle from the corner of their desk to swallow it down. The bottle was put back inside the desk and closed. Ranger leaned back in their seat, scowling at their computer as the events of the past couple days replayed in their head.

-- No they weren't going to think about that extremely awkward car ride with Claire. Shut up. As far as they were concerned, no such thing happened. --

They weren’t going to regret releasing classified information about the poachers to Claire. As long as she didn’t spill the information, they were safe from losing their job. And then there was that bullet hole. Was it simply an expression of displeasure or was it a threat? With people like that, you could never be too sure. Even if it was a threat, they doubted that the local law enforcement would do anything. After all, the poachers should have had jail time after everything with their records. But here they were, wandering around free and shooting state park signs. Ranger’s frown deeped and they leaned forward again, booting up their computer. They had the files about the poachers and the gun that they were licensed to own... maybe if they could compare the bullet hole and licensed guns they could try to get the law enforcement to care about unlicensed gun use. That might be something to look into. Of course they would need solid proof, which would mean taking the short walk down to the sign. And a gun expert.

They might have intimate knowledge of forestry, but finding specific bullet hole information was a stretch of their skills. The likelihood that the guns were allowed was high as well considering it was a lone bullet hole and not from anything with a spray range, nor automatic multi-fire. It could just be from a hunting rifle. Which the police wouldn’t care about, even if they should since the poacher’s hunting licenses were revoked after the trap-setting on protected grounds. They scrolled through the listed weapons, chewing on the inside of their cheek. They pulled out their phone to take a couple pictures before they stood up again, grabbing the hat off of the hook next to their desk.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Diane!” They called and left, closing the door softly behind them this time. They walked down the faux trail --because how could you consider it a real one when it was so obviously planted in the middle of a few pathways to simply simulate trails?-- towards the sign, sliding their phone in their pocket as they placed their hat on top of their head. Eventually ‘GLENWOOD STATE PARK’ shone out at them with a few smiling native animals decorating the metal. They were more focused on the hole in the sign. They eyed it before gently poking it with one finger. They were so absorbed in it that they didn’t hear the truck rolling up behind them. They spun around quickly at the sound of slightly husky voice calling out to them.

“Hey khakis! What’cha doing?” Beth asked. The window of the backseat from the truck rolled down and another inhabitant of the old country club building stuck their head out. Ranger was pretty sure they responded to Knight. Ranger crossed their arm and made sure they were standing in front of the bullet hole. No need to worry this group of people either until they were sure of the motivations behind the message. Besides, it was directed to them and them alone. They were pretty sure...

“Nothing you need to worry about. Are you headed up to the old lounge?” They asked. They weren’t sure if the group calling the old lounge ‘the den’ was legitimate or not. It seemed weird anyways. Beth nodded and jerked their thumb back towards Knight.

“Yeah actually. This pipsqueak needs to pick up something for their girlfriend. Are you headed up there to talk to Claire?” She asked. Warmth sped up Ranger’s neck and they scowled. The reaction spurred a laugh from Beth, who looked back at Knight. “I hope you have the money you promised. You really have to stop placing them." She asked. Knight opened the backseat door and scooted away from the window.

“Hop in. We’ll give you a ride, Ranger.” They said. Ranger gave a confused look to the both of them, but found themselves climbing inside regardless. Were they some kind of glutton for punishment? Claire wouldn't be happy to see them just traipsing around her property. And why did that bother them a little more than it used to? Who were they kidding, they knew why. They clicked the seatbelt into place and huffed, crossing their arms as Beth started driving down the broken pavement of the road.

"When are we getting these roads updated, Khakis?" Beth asked. Ranger wrinkled their nose at the nickname but didn't protest. Pick your battles and all that. They glanced over at Knight, who was currently trying to fit half of their legs out the window as they twisted in their seat.

"I'm not sure. Most taxpayer dollars go to maintaining the trails or the office and parking lot. Usually when people come here they aren't looking to drive on the main road." They answered calmly. Beth sighed and mumbled something about wet blankets. Ranger thought the conversing was over until Knight spoke up.

"Have you ever met my girlfriend, Khakis?" They asked, looking up at Ranger from where they were sprawled sideways on the backseat. Beth groaned and caught their eye in the rear view mirror.

"Say yes and move on. Otherwise that lovesick idiot will ramble on and on about Evie. I love her like a sister, but it's a bit much." Ranger stared at her before smirking and looking at Knight.

"Can't say I have. Would you like to tell me about her?" They asked. Knight sat up quickly, their eyes gleaming, and Beth groaned again. The sound tapered off into a soft whine and Ranger laughed. That would teach them not to refer to them as 'Khakis'. Even if they did wear them a lot.

The truck eventually pulled up to the old lounge and the ignition turned off. Ranger got out quickly, hearing the soft ticking of the cooling engine before they turned towards Beth and Knight. They watched as Knight grabbed a wrapped up rug and hold it over their shoulder as Beth grabbed a cooler. They stared at the cooler curiously. Their curiosity only heightened as Beth shifted it over to her other hand upon catching Ranger staring.

"Claire is inside. You're welcome to come in." Knight called over their shoulder as they walked up the steps. Ranger rubbed the back of their neck in an effort to self soothe as they followed the two towards the front door. Maybe they really should just turn around...

"Thank fuck. I thought you two somehow miraculously got lost." Another familiar voice sounded. It was a lot less grumpy than when interacting with them, that was for sure. They heard a snort from Knight before the younger pushed past Claire from the sound of a tongue clicking and a soft 'rude'. Beth giggled and stepped towards the side, putting them in full view of Claire.

"Look who we found just standing by the road." She said before moving around Claire to enter the lounge. They figured that was revenge for getting Knight to recite all the reasons they loved their girlfriend.

"Oh. Hi there Ranger. This is certainly unexpected." She said, leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed. They swallowed and stared directly into her eyes.

"I'm guessing unwelcome too?" They said, sarcasm coating their voice heavily. Ah, just like old times. They watched as Claire wrinkled her nose.

"I never said that. Although it's always welcome to change depending on why you're here. So why are you here, Ranger?" She asked dryly. They pushed their hands into their pockets and rolled their eyes. They needed to come up with a lie, and quickly.

"How familiar with guns are you, Miss Green?" They asked her and Claire sighed, face dropped into one hand. Their brows drew together slightly in confusion before scoffing at her muttered explanation for the reaction.

"Always answering my questions with questions. Dear lord..." She straightened again and her hand returned to being tucked safely in her arm. "Some. Not enough to comfortably call myself some kind of firearm expert. Why?" Ranger tipped back their hat and turned around, walking down the stairs. They didn't hear the door close and after a couple moments of silence Claire swore and went after them. She caught up to them pretty easily, hands now pushed inside her jeans pockets. "What is this about, Ranger? Is it about the sign from the other day?" She asked. Ranger stopped abruptly, turning towards her.

"If I could get the local law enforcement to care about illegal gun possession, usage, and destruction of government property I might be able to get those poachers nailed. I probably won't get them on possession, but the other two might work. I just need to make sure the bullet that came from the rifle was anything that had been registered under their name. And since they defaced a state government protected park it might go to the circuit Court instead of just the municipal one." They said quickly. They watched as Claire's face furrowed and doubt entered her eyes. All that was encouraging was the small twitch of the corners of her lips. They sighed and turned away from her, continuing to walk away. "Nevermind. I'll let you know if it works." They murmured. Claire didn't stop them.

Instead she watched them go down the gravel driveway before sighing and turning back towards the lounge. It was kind of adorable seeing them get so fired up and hopeful about something that was unlikely to happen. But if they intended to give a little hope to her again, it certainly had its intended purpose.

"Good luck, Ranger." She hummed as she closed the door behind her.

#castle audios #castle asmr #castleverse #castle audios ranger #castle audios beth #castle audios knight #castle audios sweetheart #castle audios claire #claire greene #(is there an e at the end?)#(this is the problem with binging:#things blur together)#claire green #(just to be safe)

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dansantcaparet · 2 years

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Maiden of the Planet: Canon or not?

CloTi nonsense: "Maiden of the Planet isn't canon, so you can't use it for proof!" This argument should automatically be suspect considering that 99.9% of the people spouting this are rabid CloTi fans. Why would they try to discredit an obviously canon novella? Simple- it crushes many of their CloTi ideas It proves that Aerith is over Zack and loves only Cloud, Aerith knows "the real Cloud", and Aerith didn't love Cloud because of Zack. It also strongly hints at Cloud's feelings for Aerith being much more than mere friendship. I will discuss these ideas further in a later essay. Studio Bentstuff and Benny Matsuyama.... Not long after the first chapter of Case of Denzel appeared on the movie website, a complete guidebook to FFVII was also published by Studio Bentstuff named Final Fantasy VII: Ultimania Omega. Besides an indepth guide to the game, it also contained a short story (not related to "On a Way to a Smile") named Hoshi wo Meguru Otome , "The Maiden who Travels the Planet". This story written by Benny Matsuyama focuses on Aerith as she travels the Lifestream and is set about midway through the original FFVII game. Although not written by the original FFVII scenario writer Nojima himself, the work was under the supervision of Square-Enix. Before the release of FFVII:AC, Nomura had approached the staff of Bentstudio and said he wanted a new book made for FFVII so that fans can enjoy the game once again. As the original game is now obsolete (unless you check some old second hand stores), this was probably the best thing to do. Besides an in-depth walkthrough of the game, this 592 paged book contains huge amount of details about FFVII such as detailed analysis of the story and locations, original concept art along with an introduction to the recent Compilation of FFVII series. (Source: http://xcomprandomness.co. uk/ff7novels/) Although not written by Nojima, Maiden of the Planet (MotP) was commissioned by S-E, who then carefully supervised its progress. This means that there is nothing contained in this novella that was not approved by Nojima and Nomura. Why would they commission a novella to be written just to toss it aside as a mere fanfic, as so many CloTi fans claim? Talk about wasting their money. In the weeks before the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega was released to coincide with the fact that many fans would be replaying the original game as a way of refreshing their memories. Final Fantasy VII Ultimania was originally released as a deluxe strategy guide and gaming Bible. However, as has happened with other Square Enix titles, such as Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, whenever a new edition of the game is released, an updated version of the book is published, entitled Omega, the final letter of the Greek alphabet (used in this case to denote the final version of the book). These updated strategy books often contain new information, side stories or strategy guides to help players beat new bosses or get past newly added sections to the games. Director Tetsuya Nomura approached Studio BentStuff about reissuing the book, and Benny Matsuyama was commissioned to write a short story told from Aerith's perspective, entitled Hoshi wo Meguru Miko, which literally translates as The Holy Maiden who Travels the Planet. Despite the fact that the tale itself was not written by the scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, it was written under the watchful gaze of Square Enix. (Source: http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2005/12/feature/01-4.php) Once again, Nomura approached Matsuyama about writing the story for him and then S-E kept a watchful eye on what he wrote. So, you can be assured that everything in that novella had to pass inspection before being allowed to be published in the FFVII Ultimania Omega. I would also like to point out that Benny Matsuyama is not just another writer at Studio Bentstuff, he is actually co-director of the company, along with Tezuka Ichiro. Benny has also written more than just MotP for S-E. He also wrote the following: * Musei Renu Haito, Tōbae wa Onore Mazu ("in the abandoned capital where mist never clears up, the first howling comes from me")- a short story set during FFXII's continuity and published in the FFXII Ultimania Omega. * The Whistle You Called With- a short story set from Yuna's point-of-view and describing her reunion with Tidus, published in the FFX-2 Ultimania Omega. * The diary entries in Final Fantasy Dismantled. Matsuyama was also in charge of Dismantled itself, and the whole book was supervised by Square who also gave the materials for it. So, does anyone question the validity of these other written works? No, actually, they don't (not even CloTis). Funny that it is typically CloTis that question the validity of MotP, especially when it slaps a crack in their CloTi doctrine. Double standards much? Why only question this one novella and not the others? Are they really that threatened by it? Studio Bentstuff itself is S-E's primary workhorse when it comes to publishing guidebooks. Actually, Bentstuff has produced a staggering 38 Ultimania guidebooks for Square-Enix, which encompasses not just Final Fantasy, but SaGa, Legend of Mana, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, and Kingdom Hearts. Benny Matsuyama has also had a hand in writing portions of some of these Ultimanias as well. Other Written Final Fantasy Works.... CloTis like to assert that MotP cannot be canon because it was written by someone other than Nojima. Well, guess what? MotP isn't the first Final Fantasy novella not written by Nojima. And it sure isn't the only one written for S-E by Matsuyama. * Final Fantasy II - Tsū Muma no Meikyū 1989- novel. Notes: Novelization of Final Fantasy II written by Kenji Terada. The title roughly translates as "Labyrinth of Nightmare." Never released outside of Japan. * Final Fantasy III Yūkyū no Kaze Densetsu - 1992- manga. Notes: Manga adaptation of Final Fantasy III by Yū Kinutani (art) and Kenji Terada (story). The title roughly translates as "Eternal Legend of the Wind." Never released outside of Japan. * Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 2001- novel. Notes: Novelization of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within by John Vornholt. * Final Fantasy: Unlimited After Spiral 2002- collection of short stories. Notes: A series of web novels published on the official Japanese Final Fantasy: Unlimited website (which has been taken down), which continued the story of the anime. The stories have later been included in a single anthology published by Digicube. * Sō no Kizuna 2002- novel. Notes: A side story to Final Fantasy: Unlimited. The title literally translates to "The Bonds of Two". * Final Fantasy XI ~Hoshi no Chikai i~ 2003– novels. Notes: Series of novels set in the Final Fantasy XI continuity, written by Miyabi Hasegawa. The title roughly translates as "Oath of the Star." Released in Japanese, German and French. * Final Fantasy XI ~The Out of Orders~ 2004- manga. Notes: Manga set in the Final Fantasy XI continuity, by Kim Byung Jin (art) and Kim Sungjae (story). Never released outside of Japan. * Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles ~Hatenaki Sora no Mukō ni~ 2004- manga. Notes: Manga adaptation of Final Fantasy Chronicles by Ryunosuke Ichikawa (3 volumes). The title roughly translates as "Beyond the Endless Sky." Never released outside of Japan. * Maiden who Travels the Planet 2005- novella. Notes: Novella set in Final Fantasy VII's continuity, written by Benny Matsuyama and published in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω guidebook. Never released outside of Japan. * On the Way to a Smile 2005- novella. Notes: Collection of two novellas set in Final Fantasy VII's continuity, written by Kazushige Nojima and published in the book Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Prologue. The first novella is titled "Case of Denzel" and the second "Case of Tifa." These were later published in English with the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Limited Edition DVD set, along with another novella, Case of Barret. Later, more novellas followed: Case of Yuffie, Case of Nanaki, Case of Lifestream: White, and Case of Lifestream: Black. * Kingdom Hearts 2005-2007- manga. Notes: Manga adaptation of the Kingdom Hearts series by Shiro Amano. Released in Japan and North America. Kingdom Hearts- 4 volumes (2005-2006) Kingdom Hearts: Chains of Memories- 2 volumes (2006-2007) Kingdom Hearts 2- 5 volumes (2007) * Musei Renu Haito, Tōbae wa Onore Mazu 2006- short story. Notes: Short story set in Final Fantasy XII's continuity, written by Benny Matsuyama and published in the Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Ω guidebook. Never released outside of Japan. The title roughly translates as "In the abandoned capital where mist never clears up, the first howling comes from me". * Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates 4 Komaansoroji Komikku 2008- manga. Notes: Manga adaptation of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (2 volumes). The title roughly translates as "Ring of Fates 4-Panel Anthology Comic." Never released outside of Japan. * Adventure Log 2007- Present- webcomic. Notes: Official Final Fantasy XI webcomic. Written and drawn by Scott Ramsoomair. * Final Fantasy IV 2008- novels. Notes: Two-volume novelization of Final Fantasy IV. Never released outside of Japan. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Final_Fantasy_media) I would like to point out that the validity of these other written works is never called into question by anyone, not even CloTi fans. Once again, it sort of makes one wonder what the CloTi angle is, and why they assert that only Nojima can write canon works. Guess what? Nojima didn't write Dirge of Cerberus. It was written by Chiba Hiroki. Are you going to tell me now that an official Compilation game isn't canon because it wasn't written by Nojima? FFVII wasn't written by Nojima either. It was written by Hironobu Sakaguchi (with Tetsuya Nomura). Is FFVII not canon now, too? Contradictions? Does Maiden of the Planet contain contradictions to the original canon? Actually, it is quite fluid with the original storyline and contains very few, if any, contradictions. The ones people bring up are actually contradictions to their interpretation of the original game, typically CloTi fans. I have to say that Maiden fit in just fine with my interpretation of the original game and I can say that for many other ClAeris fans as well. If Maiden contradicts someone's interpretation, then they need to consider that maybe, just maybe, their interpretation is wrong. Also, I'd like to point out that pretty much every addition in the Compilation of FFVII contradicts the original game. At this point, Square-Enix contradicts themselves left and right. It has left a lot of fans angry and disillusioned. But, I digress.... A few examples of other contradictions: * Before Crisis: A female of Red XIII's species, named Dinne, is shown living in Cosmo Canyon at one point. And, yet, in the original game, Red XIII is constantly shown being in despair over being the last of his kind. He and Bugenhagen discuss this together and wonder if Red's species will become extinct after Red passes. And yet Dinne is supposedly right there, according to BC, living in Cosmo Canyon with Red and Bugenhagen and they know all about her. Seriously, S-E? o_0 That is the biggest retcon I found from that game but, believe me, there are plenty more, mostly revolving around the Nibelheim incident. * Crisis Core: This game changed the way Cloud and Zack escaped from Nibelheim as well as Zack's entire death scene. It also changed up the Shinra uniforms and Tifa's outfit (degrading her further by having her dress like a stripper- stupid fanboys! >_<+ ). * Case of Tifa: This novella states that Avalanche went to Kalm to see Elmyra and it was then that Cloud told her about Aerith's death. However, in FFVII, Cait Sith tells everyone in Disc 2 that he'd been to Kalm to deliver the news about Aerith's death to Elmyra. * Advent Children/Complete: The main inconsistencies I've seen here revolve around Materia. Not only are they bigger now than their original marble size, but the colors seem to have changed as well. Kadaj uses a green Materia to summon Bahamut-Sin in AC/C, but in the original game Summon Materia was red. * Last Order: Most of this Anime was completely inconsistent with the original game. The largest retcons, though, involve the actual Nibelheim incident. For example, in the original game, Tifa gets slashed, goes unconscious and never knows that Cloud showed up to fulfill his promise (which is why she reminds him to fulfill it later, when he joins Avalanche). In LO, Tifa gets slashed but stays conscious and sees Cloud there. So, she knows all about Cloud being there and not being a First Class SOLDIER and yet she later lies to him about it? The retcon made Tifa appear to be a liar, like she intentionally deceived Cloud. At least in the original game, she never saw him and had an excuse for deceiving him, because she simply got confused about the events. Also, in the original game, Cloud and Sephiroth struggle in the reactor. Cloud gets impaled, but overcomes the pain, lifting Sephiroth over the railing and tossing him into the reactor below. In LO, Sephiroth impales Cloud and then does a lemming impersonation, committing suicide into the reactor. Way to go... you just took away Cloud's first defeat of Sephiroth and the entire reason Sephiroth was so dead-set on making Cloud suffer (because he was defeated by a "failed experiment" like Cloud). Thanks for ruining the scene and Cloud's entire twisted relationship with Sephiroth, jackwagon. Note: Last Order has since been confirmed as not being a part of the Compilation. I just included it because CloTis cling to it so much with its cheek-stroking and all. XD If you really want to see a list of all of the contradictions throughout the Compilation, I will refer you here. Simply do a search for "The lists [8.2Co]". I haven't read further into this essay, though, so I cannot say if I agree or disagree with other parts of it besides this list. Considering the person who compiled this essay was a CloTi, I am sure there are things in there we wouldn't agree on. ;) One thing we do agree on is that Maiden contains far less inconsistencies than other canon entries in the Compilation of FFVII. Taking all of these inconsistencies into consideration, Maiden actually fits better into the original game's canon than most of the other Compilation entries listed here. It follows the original mythos and storyline (Discs 2 and 3) of the original game and establishes a foundation for AC/C. So, what are the so-called "contradictions" in Maiden? Honestly, the only real inconsistencies I could find that actually mattered and weren't some CloTis nitpicking some inconsequential little things were the following: "Hey Aerith, did you see Cloud's finishing?" Zack guided his energy into the second wave as Meteor was thrown back losing its force. "That was one my sword techniques too. Doesn't it charm you again?" (Maiden of the Planet) CloTis take Zack's boasting to mean that he taught Cloud Omnislash, but he actually says nothing of the sort. He doesn't actually say that he taught Cloud anything, even though it is common knowledge that Zack at least taught Cloud Meteorain. If you read the excerpt again, you'll notice that Zack simply stated that one of Cloud's "finishing" moves, used during Omnislash, was a technique Zack had once created. As we all know, Omnislash is a series of 15 sword attacks. Since Cloud and Zack were once best friends, doesn't it make sense that Cloud might have learned one of the sword slashes used during Omnislash from observing Zack? It is also possible that Cloud learned the whole of Omnislash from observing Zack. Or perhaps Zack did teach Omnislash to Cloud at some point, since Zack is also shown using this particular attack in Ergheiz. This website states (search for "Omnislash" within the document) "You should hold the buttons until Cloud, or Zack, does Omnislash just to be safe". So, no, this excerpt shows no contradiction, despite what some CloTi fans may be saying. Let's move on to the next... "The mad apostate angel smiled boldly. But the damage he had taken was far beyond what he could endure and his spiritual body started to fall apart as he laughed. Beams of light blasted out from inside his body as if they were cutting him apart." (Maiden of the Planet) Maiden insists that Sephiroth smiles and laughs after his defeat in the original game. Fans claim that this does not occur. However, given the quality of the graphics used, how would one know for sure? The expressions on the faces of the characters never changed during a battle. Plus, this game did not contain voice acting. So, how would one know whether Sephiroth smiled and whether he laughed? The technology used to create the game did not allow for such expressions of emotion anyways. So, IMO, this scene in Maiden does not directly contradict the original game. And, honestly, if it did, who cares? Considering the staggering amount of contradictions present throughout the Compilation in other canon entries, trying to prove that inconsistencies exist in Maiden doesn't equate to it being canon or not. More absurdities... Another reason I have heard CloTis mention in regards to Maiden not being canon in their eyes is that it isn't mentioned as an official part of the Compilation of FFVII. Personally, I think this is a ridiculous reason to not consider something canon, but I will cover it anyways because they continue to insist upon it. First of all, I think I should bring up the fact that there is a distinct difference between "being canon" and "being a part of the Compilation of FFVII". "Canon" materials consist of all things that are official. This includes the entirety of the Compilation as well as the Ultimanias (official guidebooks), interviews with the creators, etc... In other words, something doesn't have to be a part of the Compilation to be "canon". For example, the Ultimanias are canon and yet they are typically not considered part of the "Compilation of FFVII". The Compilation of FFVII includes the original game, the On the Way to a Smile novellas, and all of the spin-off games (no matter how craptastic they are). So, if there are materials out there that are canon, but not part of the Compilation, then why does "being a part of the Compilation" mean so much to CloTi fans? Obviously, being categorized as part of the Compilation of FFVII does not denote canonicity. This is just one more reason why I think this argument is absurd and someone really needs to be slapped for saying it. CloTi fans further make themselves seem foolish by claiming that Maiden isn't canon because it isn't mentioned again. Clearly, in their minds, unless something is mentioned constantly in official sources, it isn't canon. o_0 I know, once again, this really makes no sense. Last Order: In the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Edition, on page 226, it stated "'Last Order', is an original anime work depicting the situation of Nibelheim event by one's own explanation." There was also a footnote there, which stated that it was "A work outside the Compilation of FF7". In Reunions Files, this was stated about Last Order: "The 'Advent Children Advent Pieces Limited' box set includes an animation entitled 'Last Order'- approximately 30 minutes in length. Last Order's production and script were done by Madhouse. Zack's escape and the Nibelheim incident are explored further in this production, while certain scenes differ slightly from the game's storyline (such as the scene in which Tifa looks at Cloud when he comes to save her). Since a single scene can be subject to multiple interpretations, it was agreed upon to portray them in this way. (p.95) Also, in the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania, it said, "The most distinguishing feature of 'LO' is that, after completing the supplement of FF7 story, it initiated an independent one. For example, 5 years ago, in the Reactor of Nibelheim, Cloud runs to Tifa and their faces meet at each other; Sephiroth flies downward the Reactor. If you consider it a new interpretation to start FF7, then this work can furthermore be enjoyed." Also, from the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania: The feature of 'LO' is that it partially has its own unique interpretation based on 'FFVII'. (Tifa's profile) So, not only is Last Order not considered a part of the Compilation, its canonicity has been called into question. It was called an "original anime work" and the scenes within are called a mere "interpretation" of the events of FFVII. It was also referred to as an "independent" work. It even clearly stated that the script and production were done entirely by an outside source, the animation studio Madhouse. Just how much guidance were they given, if any? It never says. Not only that, but no one who has actually seen LO would actually consider it an accurate representation of the Nibelheim events. It completely bastardizes that sequence of events and warps the storyline to such an extent that the events of the original game no longer make sense. And, then, there is Crisis Core, which came along after Last Order, and actually changed the events back to fit more closely with the original game's canon. So, why am I bringing up Last Order? To make a point- that when something isn't canon, it not only doesn't fit at all with the original game's events, but the creators themselves make statements that ostracize that particular piece of work from the current canon. Have they ever stated anything like this for Maiden? Actually, no. Like I said before, it was commissioned by S-E, who then carefully supervised its creation (unlike LO, which was completely dropped on an outside entity and may or may not have been supervised by S-E). Maiden also fits in almost perfectly with the original game's canon, the novellas, and AC/C (unlike LO, which completely screwed up the entire plot basis for FFVII). Themes from Maiden are also followed-up later in another novella about Aerith, Case of Lifestream: White, which was written by Kazushige Nojima himself. The bottom line is this: Last Order is mentioned quite often, although it was confirmed as not being a part of the Compilation and it's canonicity is highly questionable. So, why would the amount of times something is mentioned matter at all in trying to determine whether something is canon or not? So??? Is Maiden canon or not??? Now that I have proved that all of the CloTi "reasons" for Maiden being not canon are completely bogus, let's focus on why it definitely should be considered canon. It's quite simple- Maiden of the Planet was published in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega. As I've stated before, all of the Ultimanias are considered canon. They may or may not make it into the list of being a part of the Compilation of FFVII, but they are canon nonetheless. The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega, however, is not only canon but it is considered a part of the Compilation of FFVII. In fact, it is referred to as "the literal edition of 'The Compilation of FF7'" within its own pages (p.3). Since Maiden is contained within the FFVII: UO itself, then it is safe to say that, not only is it canon, it is considered a part of the Compilation of FFVII. What is so amusing is that some CloTis believe all of the Ultimanias are canon except for this one, even when it has been made painfully obvious that is, indeed, canon. Others believe it is canon, but not the story published within it. It's hard for them to accept the truth when Maiden is so brutally ClAeris-slanted, but there it is. If the UO is canon, which it undoubtedly is, then everything within it should be taken as canon, including Maiden.

#clerith #cloud strife #aerith gainsborough #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7

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