#LIKE DO U UNDERSTAND HOW INSANE THAT IS LIKE. HE ACTUALLY FEELS SOME ASSEMBLANCE OF WHAT HE WRITES IN HIS SONGS???

[somuch-4-stardust]

EVEN IF THEY WERE TO FIND US, I WOULDNT NOTICE; IM COMPLETELY OCCUPIED !!????!???

[beabaseball]

this is a delirious 11pm post for Adults Only guys

Leave this space, child!

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...

...

...y’all teenagers are going to be tweaked out of their goddamn minds.

Like, not necessarily in the drugged way, though some maybe yes in the drugged way, but like. Specifically in the non-drug way, they’re going to be snippy, and inattentive, and self centered. And that’s probably fine.

Like. Of course teens are self-centered, their bodies are doing weird shit for the first time and people keep making jokes they don’t understand yet, and some of these fuckers haven’t been given sex ed so they don’t even know what’s coming.

The younger teens have just emerged from the child form that has only just started being able to comprehend a larger world. In elementary school, sure I was reading time magazine for kids and we prayed for people who were being reported (religious school; recent tsunami, it happens) and when I was in 1st or 2nd grade we heard rumors that once upon a time women weren’t allowed to do the same stuff as men, but like— you can feel those things, but it’s not really something that you comprehend unless it’s right then a part of your life. I remember the first time I really ‘got’ sexism was in ninth grade in a gym class of 24 boys to 3 + me girls, and I wrote bad poetry about it in my phone for like three months trying to process it.

When I was like 16 our car broke down midway to school and we had to call my dorm parent to come drive me the next 5 mins, and so he’s in a bad mood bc he has to pick me up, and mom is in a bad mood bc car she gets a feeling dorm parent didn’t believe her when she said the car broke down, and it’s like 80 out but more importantly the humidity is a swamp, and I just remember being in his car driving the rest of the way to school and he’s complaining about sunburns bc he’s super pale and Irish, but he’s trying to talk so I kind of say “huh well i’ve never gotten a sunburn. I tan real fast and then go inside and I’m white again.”

and even in the moment I remember being like “that’s not really what he wanted to hear” and I think he even made a face, but I was too out of it and hot and tired to really do anything passed that. And I do feel kind of bad about it? Like, I did not mean to demean his pain of sunburns and I know also that at the time he was having A Rough Time with his marriage, to the point where he had us doing religious plays about parenthood for three seasons straight.

But also, I was a teenager. And looking back I can’t exactly blame my past self for just kinda... saying some words and feeling bad the rest of the car ride but also too tired to care. Theater teacher man wasn’t a bad guy; we were definitely not good at reading each other and he thought musicals sucked, but he also was the one who comforted me out of a panic attack when we had a tornado warning and I ended up convinced my daystudent friend was going to die.

Because that’s what I cared about at the time. Me-related things. Yes, tornado, but I am worried about one (1) person, and that mattered to me. I stayed behind when we got an actual sex-ed person in 7th grade because I was scared that reading yaoi would send me to hell. I had a breakdown in front of my history professor because one of my friends was discovering her gender identity and I was scared I was ‘losing her’ (you know the words!)

Now, someone comes out to me or someone doesn’t understand a term and I’m over here like “yea which definition u wanna use” but back then I was a kid and I had never experienced anything like this before, my hormones were wild—which didn’t mean I was horny and wanted boyfriend, it meant I was in constant fear of bleeding through things and every now and then I would wake up and my body would be in surprise unknowable pain (aka I was finally big enough to cut off my own circulation in my sleep and also growing pains)

Now, I’ve got a lot of that under control. When I wake up with a body in pain I usually know why and probably it is my fault actually. I know a bit better how to get through days when I’m too hot, or too groggy, or just dissociation or mad. (The trick is: say aloud, “sorry if I’m not responding much, I’m just really hot/groggy/out of it/still upset about that.” )

That’s not something a lot of teens have down yet. I saw a kid with a naruto shirt on at work once and I said “hey naruto” and he looked at me like he’d seen the face of god, he was so surprised someone knew what naruto was. To someone even MILDLY in my age range, the idea of not knowing who Naruto is is preposterous. But this was like, 12-15 year old at the most. Not hit his growth spurt yet. Just absolutely blindsided that there was an outside world which recognized something he liked, which I’m gonna wildly guess his parents probably aren’t into or don’t talk about it with him, because the thought of talking Naruto with your kid is horrifying.

Obviously, thinking other people don’t know about naruto is a similar kind of self-centered thought along the lines of “I bet thigh chick isn’t a REAL fan of x” or “EVERYONE has an opinion on me and there is no in between” where like the world... sort of revolves around you.

And like, once that person grows up if they keep that sort of self-focus, that’s usually the time you start trying to ditch them, but even older teens are still just coming out of that larval childhood state. They know a lot more about the world than we probably did at their age—I know a lot of them aren’t having the same existential crisis over their friends’ gender like I did, which is a big ol step— but there are still days that it’s going to be too much new shit to deal with, plus whatever else is happening inside them personally. And it’ll take a while to learn how to handle that.

In the meantime, they might be snappish, or out of it, or just kind of give up and have a ‘fuck it’ attitude sometimes, and it drives a lot of adults just goddamn insane it seems, according to all the mildly aggressive parents at work, trying to get kids who don’t want to be there to give the right reactions. It’s probably not even anything personal to the event that’s making them unhappy. One time I talked to a kid who was crying, and when I got her to tell me what was bothering her, it turned out that some people on her family reunion were mean to her. Nothing about the immediate ‘now’, just a lot of emotion that needed to go somewhere, and that somewhere ended up being crying, and it was not at all about respect or disrespect or anything related to us. Probably most of what was needed was to talk about it (success) and take a long nap.

The first time I remember having a meltdown with a ‘trigger’ like that, I was in 5th grade and my first assignment was something like “what did you do over summer” so I lost my entire shit and cried on the couch for an hour. Passed out, slept til 7, woke up and was fed soup, and have no idea if I finished that paper but presumably I did because I remember a nap and food working.

I would keep having these homework meltdowns periodically, and I don’t know when they stopped, but I had at least one, maybe two, in my first year of college.

And eventually I’ve just kinda.... stopped having them. Stress about a big project wasn’t something that bothered me anymore. You just did it one step at a time, and when you started thinking “maybe I’ll do it in the morning”, you immediately go to bed because you’ve already lost the fight and even if you don’t do it in the morning at least you won’t face it sleep deprived.

It takes time and living to get these experiences, and while one kid might not have the same issues with school work I had, maybe something else just knocks them on their ass every time (same) and it is just. Literally something you need to live through a couple times before you know how to deal with it. You can provide Blank Slate Alien Person with all the mental health tips and anecdotal advice and chamomile tea as you want, but the first couple times they face stress, none of those tips help if they don’t know how to implement them.

If you’ve ever assembled something by instructions and ended up building it upside down—it’s easier to build it again once you’ve gotten mad and undone it and started again. Because you’ve practiced. You already had the instructions, but now you have the experience of building it already, even if the result wasn’t the one you wanted.

Teens are learning a) how to read instructions, and b) that their assembly is probably upside down. and in the meantime, the world is also bonkers wild right now.

When they have that moment of rage, or giving up, or aloofness upon finding shit got built upside down— just. Let them.

You don’t have to ‘fix’ it or ‘fix’ them for having these emotions, or lack of them.

These are normal reactions. They make sense. All I’m asking is that we understand it’s going to happen. These emotions are going to happen.

Don’t let yourself justify being mean to kids and teens by telling yourself they’re being disrespectful. The world and their lives and emotions also don’t revolve around you. It’s not always a rebellion or reason to fight when things get too high strung to hold total control of.

That doesn’t mean ignore them. I was maybe 12 or 13, and it was 90 on a metal ship, and i was wearing an under shirt because i didn’t have a bra, so two layers of clothes on a hot metal ship, on my period— and all I remember is asking my dad to let us sit down and eat some lunch, because i was dizzy and dehydrated, and all he just kept saying we would do it once he saw the tour. I have no idea how long it was but I probably could’ve cried and been called moody or uncooperative.

Life is difficult. Especially for people who aren’t yet in control of their situations. Who are still bursting out with emotions they can’t otherwise articulate.

Be kind to that.

[franklyshipping]

Run Eric Run ~ A Markiplier Ego Fanfic

OOOHH THIS IS GONNA BE A CUTE ONE JUST WARNING YOU THIS IS GONNA BE REEEEAL FUCKIN CUTE WOOOOOOO LET'S DO IT PEOPLE IT'S TIME FOR THE GODDAMN CUTENESS UP IN THIS SHIZZ!

TAGGING: @erik-lee-derekson @ericleederekson and @goog-ler-iplier

Eric was running. Eric was running as fast as he could. He was flushed in his cheeks as he rounded another corner, smiling a nervous smile and giggling a nervous giggle as the paps of his bare feet on wood surrounded his senses. Until, heavier footsteps came to his attention. That made him run faster you see....because Eric Derekson was being chased down by a being of immense determination, tactical ability....and implicit playfulness. Eric turned his head to glance behind him, and quickened his pace with a squeak when he saw a flash of blue. The being was gaining on him....the footsteps got faster and closer and faster and closer until-!

'Gotcha!'

Google Blue hoisted Eric into his chest with only one arm, making Eric squeal and giggle happily. The android smirked fondly at the wriggly little human in his grasp...Eric was truly the cutest specimen that he had ever encountered before. Google treated him to a little spin before setting the giggly man back on his feet. Eric looked up at Google through his spectacles as the droid looked down at Eric through his own. Google smiled.

'You are getting faster, which is rather impressive.'

Eric blushed bashfully and looked to the floor, tapping his feet softly. Yes....his feet. After the situation regarding the accident with Eric's family, and the subsequent use of cheap and badly maintained prosthetic feet for Eric, was known by all the Ipliers, Google was the first to propose the development of some proper replacements for the lost body parts. Google remembered when he had first told Eric, and when Eric had clung to him weeping with gratitude Google had decided then and there that he was going to make it his primary objective never to see such tears rolling down the cheeks of Eric Derekson. Thus, Google had somewhat become the affectionate surrogate-uncle to Eric, which I think we can all agree is pretty damn precious.

'R-Really?'

Eric stuttered with his bashfulness as he looked back up at the smart, intelligent droid. Eric thought he was just beyond cool, and he wanted to be as clever as him one day...or at least, as clever as his human brain could be in comparison to his android-ness. Google smiled.

'Definitely. Come, let us run diagnostics.'

Eric couldn't keep the happy smile from his face as Google led him to the nearby couch, wherein Google sat so that Eric could lie down and prop his feet up on the droid's lap. Google rolled up Eric's sweatpants to reveal where the prosthetics connected to Eric's legs. The prosthetics essentially were to replace Eric's feet, ankles, and the lower thirds of his shins, which did somewhat present a challenge since the prosthetics wouldn't be starting at a joint, but Google oh so enjoyed a challenge. After cultivating material synthesised from Eric's DNA and Google's own synthetic flesh, he created a flesh that Eric's body would accept when it was connected to him.

The prosthetics were connected via fields of enhanced kinetic energy, so no extra surgery was required to attach them, and so that any discomforts of rubbing or damage to the ends of Eric's legs could be avoided. Eric was in awe of them....they looked like his real feet. On top of that....he could feel them too, courtesy of....some advanced nerve relay technology that was complicated as hell. Eric smiled as Google picked them up, getting Eric to point and rotate and wiggle them every which way as the familiar queries came through.

'Any discomfort in the connection to your shins?'

'Nope!'

'Any numbness, pain, or unprompted cramps?'

'Nope!'

'Mobility is still unrestricted?'

'Darn righty!'

Google rolled his eyes fondly at Eric, who was giggling....a lot. He couldn't help it! This entire scenario just made him giddy beyond belief, he was getting his feet back, his actual feet! It was INSANE! Eric was happy and entranced by his own giddy thoughts as Google went about doing a few more minor checks. He used his fingertips to exhibit little taps and flicks up Eric's soles and over his toes, just to check that the receptors were working at 100% capacity; he was expecting the littlest unconscious twitches and flinches...but he got a little more than that. 

'O-.....o-oh.....'

Eric had suddenly gasped and sat up straight, lips parted as tears suddenly seemed to spring to his eyes. Google felt a deep unease in his stomach at seeing Eric react in such a way, what had he done?!

'Eric? What happened? What is wrong? You are in the process of tearing up, you are upset...what has upset you? What degree of pain are you in Eric?!'

For the supposedly 'least emotional' of the Googles, he sure was exhibiting a hell of a lot of worry right now. That was because he WAS worried. He was worried that he'd miscalculated something and somehow caused Eric pain or discomfort, or both; the fact that Eric didn't reply straight away worried Google even more. Nevertheless, Google tried to bite back the rest of his rambling so that Eric would have a chance to reply to him. Eric, after a few moments, with tears glistening in his eyes, looked to Google and whispered.

'G-G-Google that-.....th-that t-tickled.....'

Okay, that wasn't a bad thing...or was it a bad thing? No...no, Eric was smiling, it wasn't a bad thing. Oh thank god it wasn't a bad thing. Google stayed quiet however, since he could sense that Eric had a lot more to say. Google didn't understand why someone could become so emotional so instantly from simply the realisation of ticklishness...he was about to understand though. Eric took a deep breath...he was still reeling from the sensations. Those were sensations that he hadn't felt at his feet for a long...long time.

'U-Uhm....b-b-before the a-accident....I had uhm....I had th-the most sensitive f-feet ever....I w-would get tickled on them a-all the time. I haven't felt t-ticklish there in s-so long it just....I-I'd forgotten h-how amazing it was....'

Google was the one reeling now, and if you think that saline fluid started to build up in the eyes of the most advanced, calculated, emotionless android ever just from these words...then you'd be absolutely right. Google could never fathom what it would be like to lose a limb, because re-assembling or developing a new one was so easy for him that to imagine not having a body part for the rest of your life was something that wouldn't really happen to him. Now Google was remembering...Eric was a young human person who would have always thought, since the accident, that he'd never have feet again. Google could also see now that Eric was now starting to border onto feeling more downcast emotions as evident memories of the accident started coming back. Google was not going to let that happen. He thought over Eric's words...he looked to Eric's feet, and then back to Eric with bright, inspired eyes.

'How about I remind you then? For ah...scientific purposes of course.'

Eric had been about to spiral down into a stupour of bad memories, until Google's voice penetrated through the clouds in his mind. Eric blinked a few times and looked to the droid, eyebrows furrowed a little as he tried to process what he was saying. Remind him...remind him-? No....no way he wouldn't actually-? Eric's cheeks went a bright, and thankfully happy, pink. Eric started fidgeting as he realised what Google was asking...what he wanted to do to him. What he wanted to do for him. The bashful man nodded, his feet twitching as he replied softly.

'Oho w-w-.....h-heh u-uhm....y-yeahokaysure.....'

Google's face lit up at hearing Eric agree, and he immediately set about curling an arm over Eric's feet so that they were properly secured in his lap now. Eric was already smiling. Excellent. Google's shining blue eyes roamed over Eric's feet as he let out some playful, thoughtful hums; he was strategizing his approach, his attacks. The droid began by carefully and experimentally tracing little circles over both of Eric's heels, and to Google's delight, Eric started giggling.

'Does this tickle nicely?'

Google mused in a crooning tone of voice as he glanced to Eric, who was absolutely flustered and in shock from hearing Google be so teasy. Nevertheless, he nodded amidst his stammery reply.

'Y-Y-Yeheheah....'

Google let out a strong, satisfied hum, before musing teasingly once more.

'Excellent...you should be pleased to know that from this point on, things will only tickle more and more...'

Eric let out an initial flustered splutter, before descending into a far more bouncy giggle fit as Google deftly scratched at his heels with his blunt nails. This was amazing...just amazing. Eric would have just wept if he hadn't been laughing. His eyes were wide and his face was getting pinker as he squeaked with his joyful, adorable disbelief.

'Ohohoho my gohod-ohojeheezohjeezohojeez....'

Eric was letting out little, comical puffs of air in an attempt to control his breathing and regulate his giggling. Google certainly couldn't have his little tickle subject trying to restrain himself though. The droid smirked as a spontaneous idea came to his mind, and he felt a warm spark of sadistic delight flare up in his chest as he suddenly dragged his nails up the lengths of Eric's soles. Google bore an evil sneer as he purred.

'Problem?'

Not only was Google's faked obliviousness flustering as hell, but Eric had to hide his face in his hands to try and hide from the spontaneous tickling itself! He'd let out quite the shocked squeal before trying to hide himself, giggling sweetly as he exclaimed.

'EEEK-yohohou meheanie!'

Google chuckled, amused at seeing how the obliviousness and the tickling affected Eric, and so he kept it all up.

'Whatever do you mean?'

The android's nails were dragging up and down Eric's soft, tender soles without mercy or faltering. Eric was consumed by the torrents of squeals and mad giggle fits he ended up letting out, and his eyes were wide with how the tickling felt...he remembered how it used to feel...he remembered how he loved it.

'Nahaha-EEK! Thahahat t-t-tihihickles s-sohoho bahad-EEE!'

Eric was happy, and thus Google was happy. Google was overjoyed at seeing Eric react like this, and he felt rather proud since HE was the one making Eric laugh and squeal like this.

'Really? I hadn't noticed-'

'THAT'SABIGFIB!'

Google raised his brows, letting out a surprised laugh as his purr was interrupted by Eric's flustered wail. Google adored how Eric was trying his very best to defy him...but that didn't mean that Google was going to let such incivility pass without reprimand.

'You do realise that it is remarkably rude to interrupt someone, don't you?'

Google sneered once more, before setting about holding Eric's feet together so he could scratch hard and fast at his inner arches. If you thought that Eric's squeals were high-pitched before, now they were on just another level of shrillness.

'EEEEHEHEHEE OHONOHOHO-IHI'M SAHARRY!'

Eric cried out as his giggles morphed into wild laughter, and he ended up using his forearms to try and hide his face now as his embarrassment truly reached its peak. Eric back was also sharply arched in response to the new, evil tickle torture; whilst Eric's reactions were wild however, Google remained oh so smugly calm.

'Are you really? I am not convinced...'

Google just kept scratching and scratching, endeavouring to not only give Eric all the tickling that he could possibly desire, but also to help satisfy his own need to have a human shrieking and wriggling in his evil grasp. Yeah, pffft, Google wasn't a sadist...mostly.

'PLEHEHEHEEEASE PLEASEPLEHEHEASE NAHAHA!!'

Google hummed softly, regarding Eric's begs with a teasy amount of deliberation...before momentarily stopping the movements of his fingers because, and don't repeat this, Google did somewhat care. Eric gasped into his hands before hurriedly, and embarrassedly, wiping the sweat off his face as he looked at Google through his spectacles with giddy excitement and trepidation. Google made him think of his brother's...they'd been such amazing, evil ticklers too. Google smirked, and Eric trembled, glancing to his feet as he saw Google's hands starts to move again. His fingers were oh so slowly walking up Eric's twitching feet.

'Oh Eric....you are ever so tempting when you beg like that....it makes me never want to stop...'

Google purred, to which Eric let out a flustered series of whimpers and whines...he knew Google was building up the anticipation to something truly diabolical. Eric hurried to catch his breath as he felt those soft fingertips crawling up closer and closer towards his toes, but he was already giggling from it all.

'P-P-Plehehease ohogosh-Ihi cahan't tahake the tickles!'

Eric tried to implore through his whines as he gazed at Google, and Google had to admit that he could see pleading flickers in Eric's doe-like eyes. However...he saw excitement more. Google paused his fingers, and simply chuckled.

'Unfortunately...science has no sympathy.'

Eric's eyes widened, and he just shrieked. He shrieked because of what Google had decided to do to him. Google was holding his toes steady on one foot, and was taking his sweet, sweet time to scratch the little pad of every single one of Eric's toes. It was agony, ACTUAL ticklish agony.

'AAHHHAHAHA NAHAHAT THE TOHOHOHOES!!'

Eric was hysterical with laughter and squeals, and even the occasional scream, as his body arched sharply and writhed about on the couch. Google merely smirked.

'Oh yes the toes, no part of you can escape this....no part of you at all.'

Eric was just consumed by joy amidst all of his mirth. It tickled...it actually tickled. His feet existed again and were being tickled. It was like all the memories of them being tickled in the past were coming back and being re-enacted all at once. Eric was nearly overwhelmed with how joyful he was, and thus could only wail and wail and wail as the toes of his other foot were soon given the same treatment.

'AHAHAHAHAHHH GOHOHOOGY OHOHOHAHAHA!!'

Google may not have been able to read people's minds, but he could read people to some degree...and they amount of joy he was reading from Eric was off the scale. Google almost felt like his could see it...like he could actually see and feel the soft tendrils and waves of happiness bursting out of Eric, and coming forward to caress him and make him feel the same joy. That was what it felt, yes felt, like for Google anyway.

'Has little Eric reached his breaking point?'

Google then softly purred, because as much as he was enjoying reducing Eric to this mad mess, he cared for him and wanted him to always be within the parameters of okay. At this point, all Eric could really do was nod, and that was all Google needed to see to spur him to have mercy. He stopped, and Eric heaved out a huge gasp before panting and tittering residually, letting out little 'hics' and whines as he slowly scrunched his feet up....there were even ghost tickles.

'Ohohoho...m-m-.....ahahh....wohohoah....'

Eric was wide eyed and trembling, but smiling like the sweetest of angels. He ended up purring happily and needily when Google pulled him into his warm, whirring chest. Eric instinctively nuzzled and nestled in close, since the humming of Google's core always had this special ability of easing his anxiety and lulling him into relaxation. Google looked down at his little human and stroked his hair, murmuring gently.

'Was it too much?'

Eric smiled lazily and shook his head, his eyes getting heavier and soon shutting as the last of Eric's conscious words came out as a murmured slur.

'....it was jus' like I remembered....'

Just like that, he was asleep and content...and Google had fluid flowing down his cheeks as he smiled down at the bundle of purity in his arms. He kissed Eric's head as his words swirled around in Google's mind...he knew that those words had so much meaning in their depths...and thus, the android was so, so happy.

WOOOPPP HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED THIS LEMME KNOW IF YA DOOO WOOO LUV YOUS XX

[meiizumi]

Castle of Shikigami: An informal rant nobody asked for about my most obscure obsession to date

STOP i spent like 2 days writing this post and im only posting it on tumblr because it’s the one website i’m a member of that can hold the most text. i wanted to infodump somewhere...... read this to learn something i guess (´･ω･`)

Bad voice acting is the Peak of comedy to me, and while I was looking for something to laugh at one day, I found this game called Castle Shikigami 2 for the PS2. The US version of the game's dialogue is rife with machine translated text that makes no sense, and awkward voice acting to boot. They even have voice actors saying the wrong lines, voice actors speaking implied commands, and a few voice lines are left in Japanese. Apparently, Roger Craig Smith (Sonic the Hedgehog's current voice actor) was in this game but I don't think he's even credited?! I think I know which character he voiced but I’m not exactly sure.

The history behind this game’s localization is REALLY weird. Castle of Shikigami/Shikigami no Shiro was originally an arcade bullet hell shoot em up game. The series was created by Alfa System and it was one of Alfa System’s main IPs. There are three main shmup installments and a text adventure game for the PS2, Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku. Nanayozuki was practically fanservice for whatever number of CoS fans there were back then. Each main game in the series was originally an arcade cabinet, but they were all ported to PC and home consoles. In CoS 2′s case, it came out on the PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast, but only the PS2 version got localized. The western publisher, XS Games specializes in publishing quality budget titles such as “Bass Pro Shops: The Strike” for the Wii. I theorize they didn’t care too much about the actual content of CoS 2 and were more focused on selling a game quickly for a low price, so they just machine translated it and adjusted a few things. If you’re wondering if Castle of Shikigami 1 was also translated this badly, the answer is No. XS Games instead removed all the dialogue from the western release of CoS 1, and released it with the title “Mobile Light Force 2″.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘Mobile Light Force TWO’ if Castle of Shikigami 1 is the first game in the series?” If you want to know what Mobile Light Force 1 was, it’s GUNBIRD; another shmup game, but by a completely different developer than Castle of Shikigami. I don’t know why they did that. What really kills me though is that both MLF 1 and 2 use the same boxart, which is COMPLETELY unrelated to the actual contents of either game. AFJQHJFOKLJFDS look at this

There’s more hilarity behind Mobile Light Force that isn’t hard to find so you can search that up if you’re interested. But thankfully, Castle of Shikigami 3's Wii edition got more of a proper localization by Aksys Games.

Now I would bluntly say something like “stan castle of shikigami” but:

1. This series’ lore is insanely convoluted. It’s an essential part of this expansive fictional universe referred to as “Mumei Sekaikan” (I don’t know what this translates to in English) where there’s like, 7 different parallel worlds. There’s more obscure ass games and manga that are tied to this universe, and I think there’s even a tabletop RPG made based off it. Have you heard of “Gunparade March”? Most likely you haven’t; it’s an obscure video game made by Alfa System that also got adapted into an anime, and I feel it can be described as Mechas x Persona. One of the characters in CoS 2 is just one of the GPM characters going undercover to find her senpai who traveled to the CoS world. Or something like that. The 7-world universe isn’t explicitly talked about in the game but they make so many references to it without defining anything that it’s like you Must know about it. There is NO documentation in English about the Mumei Sekaikan I could find on the internet, although there is a wiki in Japanese where I got a ton of knowledge from (GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS MY TRUSTED FRIEND) I feel like I might be THE person in the United States who has the most knowledge on the Mumei Sekaikan, and I could go on another tangent talking about what I know so far (and who this one specific dude Shibamura Yuuri is) but I won’t.

2. The writing isn’t excellent and can be pretty Unwoke ™; the first game came out in 2001 and the third game came out in 2005 if that gives you a sense on what era these writers were in. As far as the games dialogue goes, the characters appear kind of flat. CoS 1 and 2 Kotaro (i refuse to use the official “Kohtaro”) is stupid and driven by JUSTICE to a point where it’s annoying. I can’t tell if Hyuga is trying to be a Ladies Man in CoS 2 and 3. Kim, a religious tae kwon do instructor, spends CoS 2 thinking about how he should atone for his sins, then he turns himself into jail at the end. Sayo’s backstory is that she was a shrine maiden raised as a “human weapon” to have no emotions and her only goal in life was to kill god and then die, something like that. However, after CoS 1, she gets a crush on Kotaro because he actually treats her like a human and Of course that’s what you’d expect from the main teen girl and boy in the series. In CoS 3, Sayo's character is mostly played out to be a major tsundere for Kotaro even though surprisingly HIS character in this game changed a ton compared to 1 and 2 (he had to kill an illusion of his older brother, who he learned actually died earlier, and now he has to kill an illusion of his childhood sweetheart... damb that shit sucks :/). He’s still stupid though

There’s a gag in CoS 2 that I can’t clearly remember where it’s like, Niigi makes Sayo and Fumiko, who are both romantically interested in Kotaro, think that he’s only into little girls? Meanwhile, Fumiko’s magic goes wrong and her appearance turns to that of a child though in response she’s like “hee hee maybe Kotaro will like this”. basically more On-Brand early 2000′s anime unwokeness than average. Speaking of Fumiko, she’s a 400+ year old militaristic witch who constantly teases Kotaro (who’s like 16 or 17) and she wants to marry him for his magical potential since he’s like one of the candidates for becoming God??? From the official CoS 3 character descriptions, “Her hobby is to steal the men from other women. Her second hobby is trampling upon people.” She canonically stole her stepmother’s husband from her stepmother (the 3rd boss of CoS 3). I don’t get how that shit would have worked

3. The game itself is HARD af but to be fair I’m a scrub gamer. I can’t get past stage 3 on easy difficulty without continuing. Yes i bought CoS 1 on Steam, Yes it has a port on steam i feel like i should have mentioned this earlier

4. Besides CoS 1 having a port on Steam, CoS 2 and 3 might be hard to obtain legally. The poorly translated CoS 2 was apparently super cheap back then, but since it’s an old game, its value might’ve increased. When I tried looking up prices for English CoS 3, all the listings were like at least $40 and being broke I wouldn’t want to spend more than $29 for a Wii game in 2019... honestly I just emulated CoS 2. shout out to PCSX2

Last month I was desperate, bored enough, and deep enough in the Shikigami rabbit hole that I tried to find the manga based off of it online. The CoS manga only tells the events of the first two games so I still don’t really get anything about CoS 3, like who Mihee, Batu, and Emilio are supposed to be. However, the plot events also differ. For example, Roger Sasuke exists as a character in CoS 3 but in the manga he literally Dies. There’s 11 total volumes of this; 3 volumes dedicated to CoS 1 and the latter 8 (the “Twisted Castle arc”) dedicated to CoS 2. Only the very first 3 chapters were scanlated to English all the way in 2011. Fortunately, I did find the entire manga uploaded though............... in CHINESE. So you know what I did? I “read” the entire thing using my phone’s Google Translate OCR app to take pictures of each page and comprehend the translations. Of course I still don’t understand CRAP because of the Mumei Sekaikan jargon + machine translation but I understood enough to get emotionally attached to some of the characters. I wish I hadn’t. At least through the manga I learned that the characters DO have some depth and pre-established relationships. For instance, the reason why Roger Sasuke became a ninja is because when he first landed in Japan as a kid, he was getting bullied or something and he didn’t know Japanese then Kotaro saw this and told the bullies to stop. Then after Roy /sorry i mean Roger learned that he was set to home-stay with the Kugas in the first place, he decided to dedicate his life to Japan in order to protect Kotaro back. I think. DO U SEE HOW ABSURD THIS SHIT IS Anyway Nanayozuki takes place between the second and third games and sets things up for CoS 3. There’s a full playthrough of it uploaded to YouTube and I think it contains a lot of juicy lore, but it’s just too much to go over with Shitty Google Translate OCR. There’s also Shikigami no Shiro novels which apparently contain the most backstory, but I have a 0% chance of finding these online for free. Not to mention that these would ALSO be too much effort to Google Translate.

in conclusion: You don’t HAVE to play Castle of Shikigami. Like, I’m not gonna recommend it for the content, but if you love shmups and are looking for a shmup game you haven’t heard of then I will recommend it for the gameplay (old touhou mutuals assemble theres a POWER-UP-BY-GRAZE MECHANIC). I’ve counted like 4 total fans outside of Japan that like this series for the story, and I don’t think that number is going to increase because I doubt CoS 2 will ever get retranslated and ported. I just want you to know that this series exists and that there’s a ton of wacky shit behind it besides the bad Castle Shikigami 2 dub. also if someone knows enough japanese or chinese and has an INKLING of interest in this series umm talk to me and help me decipher stuff

I‘m kinda sad that the series is pretty much Dead though. This is the most recent piece of official Castle of Shikigami art I could find, and this was for the 2018 New Year. The next most recent piece of official CoS art I found was also drawn by the character designer Sonoda Miku all the way in January 2008, commemorating the end of the CoS manga serialization. Alfa System released a spiritual sequel to Castle of Shikigami on the Japanese Switch eShop called Sisters Royale, with character designs I think are still by Sonoda. By “spiritual sequel” I mean that it has some of the EXACT same shot types as CoS and the same mechanic where grazing bullets increases your power and score. This is the closest we’ll get to a Shikigami no Shiro 4. I wonder what the business decision behind that game was but it actually looks like fun and I want to play it so OK Go off i guess