#Not that I'm complaining about some double teaming action

[diantheia]

I had this strange bug in the electrical room cutscene where there was two Figure's...

[astonmartinii]

signed up for life | lewis hamilton social media au

pairing: lewis hamilton x signlanguageinterpretator!reader

f1 finally introduces a sign language interpretor to their media team

yourusername

liked by lewishamilton, danielricciardo and 110,951 others

yourusername: ahhhh such a dream come true, my first f1 weekend was an absolute dream and to be able to represent the deaf community on such a big platform was such a pleasure - here's to many more and to normalising sign language on major sports broadcasts !!

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user1: f1 may be going backwards in terms of fia tomfoolery but i'm super happy to see some good progress

user2: why isn't sign language compulsory in schools? seeing y/n has defo inspired me to start learning

lewishamilton: you're such an inspiration and a great addition to the paddock

yourusername: thank you lewis and thank you for the warm welcome <3

user3: f1 finally stepping up the representation game

user4: i was living for the sass in her signing i can't wait to watch her sign the inevitable domestic between toto and christian

charles_leclerc: welcome to the paddock y/n!

yourusername: thank you charles :)

user5: i ship it already

user6: take a day off already lord she's been there one weekend and you're already minimising her to a driver she could date

f1

liked by lewishamilton, yourusername and 1,204,871 others

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f1: how did you guys enjoy y/n y/ln's sky sports debut this weekend? y/n will be on the broadcast team this season as their sign language interpreter!

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user10: she killed it i love her already

user11: the signing was a slay but can we also talk about how she's slaying the fashion game?

user12: finally lewis has some good competition

lewishamilton liked this comment

alexalbon: welcome y/n !! thank you for the extra help with the hard of hearing fans on friday

user13: huh?

user14: oh a girl on twitter has a thread about this, she's hard of hearing and y/n stopped and acted as translator for her with all of the drivers going into the paddock

user15: omg i love her even more

lewishamilton: can't wait to start my signing lessons

yourusername: you're lucky you've got the best teacher around

user16: uh HELLO?

yourusername

liked by lewishamilton, lilymunhe and 149,086 others

yourusername: taking advantage of the mini break

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user17: who told her she could serve this hard?

lilymunhe: gosh i have a crush on you

alexalbon: do i mean nothing to you?

lilymunhe: not compared to her

yourusername: well i am flattered but unfortunately not up for grabs :(

user18: she's not up for grabs ??? we already lost her ???

user19: it's only been like five races who ever it is wasn't messing around

user20: not to be one of those crazy wag conspiracy theorists but the guy in the last slide is defo lewis

lewishamilton: pastries on a boat?

yourusername: idk the guy i was with thought it was a great idea

user21: chatting like it wasn't him they're so shameless

lewishamilton

liked by yourusername, georgerussell63 and 1,023,677 others

lewishamilton: perks to living in monaco

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user22: oh to be rich...

yourusername: hmmm a baguette on a boat

lewishamilton: idk the girl i was with thought it was a great idea

user23: please stop playing with us

georgerussell63: i see my invite was lost in the post yet again

lewishamilton: i wasn't prepared to hear you complain about thirdwheeling the whole time

georgerussell63: clear solution here... invite carmen and it's a double date?

user24: so they're just gonna be like this and just never confirm whether they're together or not?

charles_leclerc: so this is what my boat was used for ?

lewishamilton: i think i'll keep everything that happened on that boat to myself

charles_leclerc: based on that i don't think i want to know

user25: poor guy, getting fucked by ferrari and lewis fucked y/n on his boat

pierregasly: most action he's seen in a while

user26: charles is just catching so many strays 😭

f1wagupdates

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f1wagupdates: y/n y/ln and lewis hamilton have all but confirmed their relationship after they spent the entire summer break together and arrived to the first race back at spa together. lewis even showed how much time they've been spending together by signing during a tiktok filmed for mercedes' account. what do you think of the couple?

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user39: they're so so cute that's my PADDOCK POWER COUPLE

user40: they are too sexy it should be illegal for them to be so sexy

user41: can't wait for some bitter old men to say that she can't be on the broadcast team cause of "bias"

user42: i need them to stand on me

user43: i think they might actually be the best f1 couple ever soz

yourusername

liked by alexalbon, lewishamilton and 309,778 others

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yourusername: yeah i guess he won yet another race but we all know his biggest win is off the track

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user44: mama knows her worth i love her

lewishamilton: never doubt that you're my biggest prize

yourusername: i love youuuuuuuuuu

lewishamilton: leave your meeting and come home please

user45: move over roscoe i'm their dog now anything to be with them

roscoelovescoco: ????

lilymunhe: give me a chance i swear

alexalbon: i regret ever introducing you two

yourusername: oh please albono you love any excuse to hang out with us

lewishamilton: yea i don't hear you complaining on our double dates

user46: lily, y/n, lewis and alex all double date ???? kill me.

lewishamilton

liked by georgerussell63, yourusername and 1,340,887 others

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lewishamilton: getting to the end of the season and the hard work is paying off. we keep pushing until the end but always remember to take time to be with the ones you love

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user47: only this man could make a race win post so sappy

yourusername: proud of you baby

lewishamilton: i love you

user48: the fact that lewis is so good at signing now he could do most of his post race interview in bsl (though he still needs y/n there for reassurance)

user49: i was there and interlagos had a mainstage activity of y/n teaching basic sign language I LOVED IT

mercedesamgf1: let's go lewis 💪

roscoelovescoco: lets goooooooo dads

user50: guys i worked out that sign we always see lewis and y/n do to each other that's not on any of dictionaries i've looked at - it's their sign names and saying they love each other

user51: they're so fucking cheesy but i love them

mercedesamgf1

liked by yourusername, f1 and 1,679,045 others

tagged: lewishamilton

mercedesamgf1: LEWIS HAMILTON IS FINALLY AN EIGHT TIME CHAMPION OF THE WORLD 🏆

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user52: OMFG IT FINALLY HAPPENED I NEEDED THIS SO MCUH

yourusername: speechless honestly

lewishamilton: really? cause all i heard was screaming on the broadcast

yourusername: FALSE I WAS PROFESSIONAL

user53: the way i knew he would win but i don't know what to do with myself now it has happened?

roscoelovescoco: congrats dad !!!!

georgerussell63: mega season from lewis 🏆 we go again next season 💪

lewishamilton: thank you george, your time will come

user54: the kiss... parents for real

yourusername

liked by georgerussell63, lewishamilton and 901,347 others

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yourusername: this season has been a rollercoaster but two things have stood out to me. 1. i met the love of my life and the man i will be with for the rest of my life and was able to watch the man i love make history and i couldn't be prouder. 2. i got to represent my community on one of the biggest platforms ever and inspire people to pick up the beautiful language of sign language which is the most rewarding part of my job!! thank you so much for this opportunity, the love and for taking the journey into sign language, we welcome you xx

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user53: no i love you so much and your addition to f1 is invaluable

user54: you guys are so cute and so inspiring, really god's favourites

lewishamilton: i love you so much, thank you for your love and support and for introducing me to this beautiful language

yourusername: you're such an inspiration to me baby, you're a record holder and the holder of my heart

landonorris: lord i might throw up

yourusernme: if you're not here to congratulate STFU

landonorris: my bad, congrats (you guys are so grossly in love)

user55: they're so parents it's now illegal for them to divorce

f1: thank you for educating us, we'll see you next season !

note: hope y'all enjoy, i'm partially deaf in both ears and am currently learning BSL to feel closer to my community and had this idea. i wish this was an actual position in f1 but hopefully in the future xx

[omegawolverine]

i love how the first three episodes of soul eater very clearly tell us what the characters are like even in a 24 minute episode limit...soul and maka are very capable as partners, they had 99 kishin souls but the thing that sent them all the way back to square one was overestimating themselves. they thought blair was a witch, they didn't bother checking and just. killed her. sure, she has 9 lives, she's fine, but they not only overestimated their ability to tell she was a witch, but they also jumped right into the fight and kept persuing her without confirming at all if she was a witch all because maka was so determined to make a weapon stronger than her mother had, a weapon stronger than her dad who she hates. and soul is so caught up in the excitement of getting the status of death scythe that he just follows along with it.

the episode show us how well they work together as a pair, maka being quick on her feet and soul coming up with a plan out of nowhere, something not even maka imagined him doing which ultimately helped them sell it in the end, but we also saw their weaknesses.

we get a glimpse into maka's insecurities early on with her truly believing soul was leaving her for blair, equating it to cheating and us getting a montage of spirit cheating on her mother with various women all in front of maka (although he was unaware of that last bit). and although soul had spent the better half of the episode picking at her insecurities in a way that could come across as mean spirited, we see his immediate reponse be "how am i supposed to know? cool men don't cheat on their partners." which makes maka realize he was just setting up blair to fall directly into his trap and get her soul. while maka is usually regarded as the smarter partner, soul shows he is a great asset in a fight, weapon form or not, because he's a quick thinker and can transform from weapon to human fast enough for them to get the drop on blair who has cat like reflexes for...obvious reasons.

in the defense of maka and soul, even lord death and spirit think she's a witch at first, but lord death also stresses to them both that if they fuck this up they have to start all over and they don't even...double check that she's a witch? idk how easy that is in this universe especially given this is before maka can see soul wavelengths (which is probably a huge part of why they just went with whatever intel they had) but i'm sure there has to be some way to tell if it's this huge of a deal to aquire one.

and then we have black star who...immediately shows us he could be a very good assassin if he didn't give himself away every fucking time 😭😭 his ego is his biggest downfall but it's also what gained him his incredibly loyal, kind, forgiving partner tsubaki, who saw him be so bold as to stand on top of the building and ask who would work with someone as loud, obnoxious and brash as him and that's honestly probably the best way he could've went about it. how else would he find somebody willing to put up with all of his flaws if they couldn't even handle him as his regular, outgoing, over the top self?

it's also really interesting how tsubaki and black star go over the assassins' rules of silence, stealth, not being seen, etc. followed by black star immediately throwing that out of the window. and tsubaki chastises him. instead of her being the type of girl who just goes along with whatever black star does, she tells him he doesn't understand assassination at all and complains about how they never collect any souls. black star doesn't take any of her words to heart though and tsubaki doesn't take his actions to heart either.

after this we see lord death even say their issue isnt skill, its purely performance, its how they (black star) don't take the mission seriously and tsubaki accepts blame for both of them instead of just pinning it on him. even if she knows he's the problem, she also sees them as a package deal, a team all the way through and she's okay with this. tsubaki also shows that she fully trusts black star as a partner and thinks he will make her a death scythe, it'll just take a little longer than others.

tsubaki and black star both show a lot of strength in battle, with tsubaki being able to transform into multiple weapon forms, black star being very agile, with the ability to do all sorts of moves that most of the other characters are never seen doing. we can see black star go from a poor excuse for an assassins to an impressive one within seconds to mifune and all it took was him actually wanting to do it. we see he can make himself silent and he can use stealth quite well, making it so mifune doesn't even notice him and tsubaki have switched places for a few minutes and he only notices because tsubaki's breathing is different than black star's. we also get to see that even if his ego is a flaw of his, it's also why he can use his wavelength so well when nobody else in his class really can. he has the confidence in his abilities that most of his other peers do not and that is part of what makes him dangerous when he is actually determined to kill somebody.

and he was determined to kill mifune until he found out that he was just protecting a kid. witch or not, angela was a fucking kid and black star couldn't do it. tsubaki could've. she even tells black star they should take they opportunity that was practically handed to them, with plenty of kishin soul's and angela's right there for the taking and he refuses. despite how they have no souls collected, he still choses to walk away and takes the souls back to lord death in a sack rather than having tsubaki consume them because that isn't a real win to him, he didn't kill those kishins.

and then we get to kid's episode and right off the bat we see this dude is talented and a bit cocky but despite his abilities, his ocd gets in the way of retrieving kishin souls. patty's stance is off, he yells at her about it and she responds apologetically, but clearly isnt upset by him yelling, implying it either happens a lot so she can brush it off or she is truly just that bubbly that it doesn't phase her (probably both). liz, on the other hand, tries to reason with him, telling him now is truly not the time as they're in the middle of pursuing a man and when he keeps lecturing them, she just complains, but let's him do it anyways. it's only when he gets a little too out of hand with it does she put him in his place, punching him and telling him he probably shouldnt be talking about how unsymmetrical her and patty are when he has three stripes on one side of his hair and not the other. he calls himself an abomination and cries. they comfort him despite their (liz's) clear annoyance before.

this shows us that despite them all working well as a team in battle, they get caught up in the actual performance of it all, much like black star and tsubaki do, but for completely different reasons. they're plenty skilled, but instead of ego getting in their way like it does with black star, it's arguing (similar to soul and maka) over what seems like little details to liz and patty, but are all consuming to kid.

we also get a line from liz about how "these little rich kids are always so gullible" which implies her and patty are, at the very least, not well off (though we don't know the extent yet). this is when we learn he is lord death's son and that he doesn't actually need to be doing...any of this. he doesn't need to collect souls, doesn't need to train to be a meister or have weapons or work with his team to make them death scythes for his father, he's doing this out of pure want. lord death says because he had two weapons, he needs to collect double the souls. kid, cocky once again, says he wants to collect all 198 + 2 witch souls at once. he's cocky, but they have the skill to back it up.

and obviously they do, kid's a reaper after all and he specifically picked out patty and liz because he knew of their reputation on the streets (plus the symmetry, but lets stick to skill rn)

but again this isn't what slows them down. they go on a mission and as soon as they get there, kid starts worrying about whether or not a painting he has at home is off center and he cant stop obsessing over this thought until the point where he straight up abandons patty and liz when theyre in a pyramid about to fight mummys.

so instead of seeing kid's strengths, we see liz and patty's. the sisters are great at fighting even when the plan goes to shit, likely due to their time before the DWMA. liz shoots with good aim but switches with patty effortlessly when the mummys get too close, not even having to say anything for patty to know to switch with her. and patty shows that she's definitely less scared than her older sister and works better under pressure, hugging the mummys, giggling at them and sticking liz right in one of the mummy's mouths to blow its (metaphorical) brains out while liz complains about it being gross and creepy.

they collect all the souls alone, without their meister and split them evenly just to respect kid's unsaid wishes.

and then finally kid comes back! he's on his gay little skateboard of course, forgot to mention that earlier but it definitely says something about him that it's his primary mode of transportation and its named beelzebub. he gets back just in time as patty and liz have been captured and since they cant use their weapon forms, kid uses his skateboard to free his partners, but that's about as much as he can do before realizing the pharaoh is perfectly symmetrical and he would rather die than destroy it. like he is literally getting torn to shreds by this fucker but he cant do anything about it.

but then the pharaoh steps out of it's tomb and kid sees how asymmetrical it is and that's also what saves them. it almost gets him killed, it ruins missions regularly, his ocd absolutely disrupts his day to day life, but in this instance it also saves them as he gets so mad about the asymmetry that he blows a fucking HOLE through the back of the pyramid and DESTROYS THE ENTIRE THING by unbalancing it.

so yeah, basically i say all this to say the first three episodes do such a good job of introducing us to the main characters and showing us what their strengths and weaknesses are, even if they're played for laughs like kid's ocd, maka's insecurities or black star's ego.

[ndostairlyrium]

Blabbering ahead about the game in my usual broken English lol

Warning: General, mildly spoiler-y stuff. But still spoilery. Dead dove, yada yada

I tried to avoid reading opinions as much as possible, so I could share my own without filters <<

...this will be a looooong post so I'm putting everything under the cut :'

I've enjoyed this game greatly.

I loved Rook, each companion, the more synthesized visual style, and the majority of the changes they did to make this game stand out among the others. In some parts, it really reminded me of Mass Effect, and those parts I truly adored in a visceral way.

I get the criticism about Rook's tone, but I didn't mind that they had a specific personality and you could work around it. They're a mess of a person, showing a great deal of immaturity in some parts, forced to call the shots, and to be a compass for others while trying to keep everything from falling from their hands. They're just not as player-nuanced (like, it's not on us?) personality-wise as Hawke, I think? Which is a bummer for some, and I get it, but I didn't mind :'D I'm one that deflects a lot with humor, that's my jam

I think I did good approaching this game blindly, and to keep going despite encountering some major disappointments along the way (y'all saw me complaining, I'm a "yes, but" hoe). In the end, I was enthusiast about playing it, I've been enthusiast while playing it, and I'm enthusiast now that it's over (in a very positive way).

Also, to me the combat system was super fun (I had a blast playing orb+dagger mage with the necromancer spec). I liked that it was more dynamic, that you were in control of your character only, and I adored the cheerleading going on within the team during the fights, also the action scenes were SO EPIC. There are a couple of cutscenes in particular that I watch on a daily and feel the tension on my shoulders as if I didn't know the results already :'D

Hate to bring out Mass Effect again, but... I felt that same kind of powerless urgency throughout Veilguard. Except that you're not Shepard, already a hero, you're a nobody in disgrace, somebody looking for a purpose, for then being hired by someone who has a history of dooming whoever he works with :'D in my head, my Rook has accepted because he needed something to go right. Very lol. Much lmao.

Again, bringing out Mass Effect. I always adored Mass Effect important NPCs outside the party, like Bakara for example. I experienced the same kind of attachment to those here, and I was truly frightened for some of them throughout the game, especially the ones I've known from Tevinter Nights.

...now, to the "Yes, but" that had me so frustrated to the point of wanting to stop playing:

I just wish a little bit more sensitivity by the team when approaching specific cultural references. These, along with stereotypes, have always been blatant throughout the games, and I was hoping that in this one we would move past them rather than the doubling down I saw. I can't talk on others behalf, but I could elaborate for hours on why the whole deal of Treviso and the romanticising of Crows (to the point of painting them as the good guys) are such a point of offense for me, even if I'm tired to explain that there's nothing romantic when organized crime takes control over an entire country and call it "patriotism". Moral code my ass. Glorification of mafia is never okay.

Don't pillage take stuff from real life if you're gonna turn them like living stereotypes and excuse that behavior by calling it "inspiration". It's cheap and disrespectful. Fandom has been repeating this for more than 10 years and nobody corrected this trajectory. That's sad, to say the least.

[crystalelemental]

For a long, long while now, Gen 7 has been cited as my least favorite Pokemon generation, with USUM in particular being my pick as worst game in the series. Gen 7 broadly has a lot of gameplay issues, and USUM removes the story components I actually liked, leaving it with very little in the way of redeeming features. As a result of this, it is the only game in the series I have never replayed.

Until today.

As part of the replay for the series, I have taken on Ultra Sun, the game I own but have never beaten because Ultra Moon soured me so badly. The team is endlessly chaotic. I'm serious, I have never swapped around the team as much as I did with this playthrough. The final setup though was Litten, Hariyama, Blissey, Tyrantrum, Dhelmise, and Necrozma-Solgaleo. Some others I know we used for a bit include: Whimsicott, Lycanroc, Ribombee, Espeon, Skarmory, and Zoroark.

Let's start with the big issue: story. A major portion of its problems come from two areas. The first is the obvious: this being the follow-up to SuMo, the change on Lusamine and the Aether Family in particular are jarring and unpleasant. The other is more about its own failings. Specifically, this game added a lot of extra story beats that offer little to nothing, and the game is clearly unedited, resulting in scenes where Lusamine will bitch out Lillie as her having no children because of her defiance, only for the very next scene to involve everyone worriedly talking about how all their actions have been for the good of the family. It's a messy game that did not get to really explore an alternate presentation of this family dynamic, instead transitioning from one end to the other at the literal turn of a scene. I cannot say I enjoy anything about this particular story, and the constant interruptions for it are extreme.

But! I have been on a big focus on gameplay, because Pokemon games are mostly about the gameplay. And USUM has been one I've talked shit about on that front a lot too, specifically in regards to some of the annoying trial changes and holdovers from the original game. Is this still a problem?

Sort of. I've mentioned this often, but the reason I'm replaying all these games is because of one Professor Bopper, who played through the first three generations so far and has really fun takes on the games as a whole. Among his other videos is one where he talks about how games guide players into learning their systems, where he makes the point that gamers are uniquely bad at video games, because of the tendency to double down on how they want to play rather than the way the game wants you to engage with it. They'll impose challenges that don't actually exist, and complain that the game is too poorly designed when it cannot be approached that way. To keep a long story short, I think that's what happened to me the first time.

When I play Pokemon games, I tend to look for arbitrary demands in my approach. Specifically, I will try to avoid "over-leveling," keeping below my opponent, or avoid using more items than they might, not using X items, etc. And USUM in particular does not want you to do that. It even gives you an entire class of items unique to this game that are designed to be beneficial: Roto Powers.

As part of this full experience, I opted to actually use Roto Powers when I felt they were necessary. Popping full heals and boosting all stats +1 on command is...very funny. But I also, as you may notice, swapped around my party a lot. Part of that is just running different options I like, but part of it is to play as intended with an EXP All system. You're supposed to play with different tools and use the Pokemon that best meet an immediate challenge. So I did exactly that...more or less.

Combined, what this meant is that I had a significantly easier time with this runthrough than the first. One holdup my first time through was Kiawe. Marowak gets double speed on entry, and holds a Thick Club to double its attack power, has Detect to prevent non-Z Move damage, and will call a much faster and deadlier Salazzle to counter Brionne. The first time through, using a regular team and using my usual demands, I had a very hard time managing that fight. This time, my Hariyama slapped the Thick Club right off it with Quick Claw Knock Off, and easily finished the entire fight solo thanks to Thick Fat. The other was Ultra Necrozma, an absolute statistical behemoth of a fight that is a major level jump from prior foes, who gets +1 to all stats on entry, has excellent coverage, and boosts damage on supereffective hits. I could not handle this thing short of severe luck and Revive spamming my first time through. It was the only time I broke to use the Roto Boost, and I forget who actually did the deed, but with enough we managed to squeak out a win. This time, not worried about levels and popping one (1) Roto Boost right away, let my Blissey completely stop it while tearing it apart with Shadow Ball.

The Boost item in particular is also what let Litten compete. With the removal of Super Training, Litten can no longer manage its stats via min-maxing, but it can get these free boosts to everything and perform Cat Sweep. Which is fun! I like Litten! I do not care as much about the other two forms. This felt right.

I would say I have been overly harsh on USUM's overall gameplay design. Its flaws exist primarily in places of story and interruptions to game flow. It really is too broken up and too wordy to get into as strongly. But there are other problems I take.

First: removal of Super Training. This causes problems for me, because I actually agreed with how Super Training was implemented. I loved it! But now we don't get it until later, and it invokes real-world time and significant bean counts to get to a fast pace. It's just unmanageable, against a system that was accessible and active.

Second: Roto Boosts rely heavily on Rotom Dex letting you do the lottery thing, meaning your access to these powers are randomized and slow to accrue. I like their effects, but they are rather impossible to come across in some situations. Then again, we have X items that are purchasable, so maybe that's intentional.

Third: Mantine Surf comes so close and just barely misses the mark. I love that BP is actually accessible in ways other than grinding at the postgame battle facilities. I hate the postgame battle facilities. They're terrible. But Mantine Surf lets you have access to BP, which in turn means access to the early game tutors and stat boosting items. In a way, you can still boost stats reliably and early on. But, BP yields are still very low for the time investment, and BP costs are still pretty high. Not impossibly so. But they aren't a good exchange rate. There's also the fact that one of the tutor sets is postgame, when it really did not need to be. Then again, I had a ton of BP from the PokeBank situation, so...

Fourth: side quests. Talking to everyone is a generally good idea if you're unfamiliar with the game. Sometimes they have good hold items or TMs. In this game, however, sometimes they kick off really tedious side quests that give really terrible rewards and have no value. And sometimes those quests are like "Catch this Pokemon for me!" and it's the rarest one in the zone. This is why I used PokeBank. I just wanted to instant clear those quests. I did not intend to pick up 1400 BP. It just kinda happened that way.

Fifth: not to bring up Bopper again, but in his Johto video he talks about fan response to Johto as a whole, referencing the opinion that Johto hates its own dex, a statement I have never heard before and was baffled by. The complaint seems to be about inaccessibility, that the new mons are harder to find and are generally weaker, and thus not worth talking about, as well as that the game as a whole tends to emphasize old Kanto Pokemon in boss fights compared to new ones. Gen 7, admittedly, has a bit of this feeling for me, in a way that Gen 2 doesn't. Not so much the latter point around bosses, but the former for sure. Many of the new Pokemon feel very hard to find, occupying optional areas and being very, very low encounter rates, or relying on the new Call for Help system to appear at all.

Johto's systems that kept things hidden were largely day/night cycle, headbutting trees, and happiness evolutions, which...were all fun systems to engage with! I liked those! Alola's new system...not so much. Call for Help is a wretched mechanic that can drag out random encounters forever just because you can't OHKO an opponent. It is also the only means of finding some Pokemon. And the chances of Call for Help (1) succeeding, and (2) calling the specific thing you want, basically don't exist. Let's not even get into Hidden Abilities. It's just an inelegant system that makes finding these things extremely difficult to near impossible, and I don't like it.

That's not to say they can't have little surprises to randomize playthroughs, but...well, the other group we like listening to is Castle Super Beast, where they recently talked about these kinds of hidden variables that are supposed to be fun things you sometimes stumble on to find a new surprise in games after a few playthroughs. And their take way that these really low spawn rate, really hard to achieve pieces...no longer serve any purpose in the age of the internet. We all know about it already. Trying to hide it as a surprise thing you sometimes run into doesn't help if I already know about it, how to do it, and it's just slow and tedious. There's no purpose to that anymore. And it compounds for a game like Pokemon, where you will see this thing on an enemy team, and know that it exists, but be completely unable to find it because of low rates. You're more likely to move on to other, frankly better things.

After all, regional dexes are large now, and you can get behemoths like Larvitar really early on. When you have all the top performers from old generations around, there's less incentive to use the newer options. One thing I do tend to lock myself too, albeit loosely, is using stuff new to the generation. Because it's new, and I want to try out the new stuff. But it is made difficult when the dex size is small, the new stuff is almost entirely low encounters, and the strongest solutions are more readily available.

I don't really know where my complete feelings are on this game. Did I have fun? Kinda. There were a few places where I completely stopped because the game was getting a bit too slow in forward momentum, like the whole Aether Paradise segment or Mina's trial, but it wasn't as bad as I remembered it being either. It's problem, I think, is just overstaying its welcome. The game goes on for about five hours more than it needs to, and removal of some scenes to just let you move forward would lose nothing. But by gameplay...it was fine. I had an okay time.

"What about Rainbow Rocket?" Postgame is officially outside the purview of these replays. "But you did postgame for everything el-" I am not doing that.

[alex31624]

Duck Comic Reading Club Week 23: Paperinik New Adventures: Absolute Zero

This week review is on time. What a novelty. Have to say, when I found Urk was on this one, I got a bit scared, but it was actually a good one. Let's check it out.

We're in the space, the final frontier. A couple of astronauts are having a regular day (as regular as a day in deep space can be) when their computer alert them about a big anomaly.

I love all the spaceships this comic gives me.

The astronauts enter the ship, and I wonder if they ever watched Alien, because they were ambushed by something inside the abandoned ship.

This comic starts big.

Meanwhile on Earth...

Uno is telling the news about the missing astronauts, and PK has to prepare a team to save them; the first reclute is no other tham Urk.

The big duck is having a friendly chat with some extortionists, and here I want to do a pause. The amount of crime in Duckburg is ridiculous.

Ignore the space pirates and evil aliens, there are theme gangs, high-profile thieves, extortionist and what more. I get that PK has to fight someone, but damn, this place needs mayor Owlson.

Anyway, Urk beat most of those punks, and good old PK took care of the biggest. PK ask for Urk help, and he accepted.

That was funny.

One more duck joins the mission.

I would double check is really her. We had a lot of cases when Lyla is not really her.

Lyla presence triggers Urk's flashbacks, I think that's the best part of this issue. Looks like Urk was about to be granted the Champion Cup, but a lady warrior challenged him.

Back to the present, the group arrives to their destination, and whatever is in there knows it.

The look of the ship is amazing.

The team gear up, and Urk can't stop looking at Lyla. Who could blame him? Once again, the Lyla's aura reminds the warrior about that woman who face him.

But enough with the flashbacks, is time to work.

This is the good stuff.

Well, I get that a comic has a limited space to tell its story, so, I won't complain that there wasn't at least one more page of the group going through the ship.

What I'll complain is, why is the monster in the cover?

The design and its entrance, it was perfect. But the freakin robot is in the cover man, how many times are you gonna keep doing this?

PK excels in action, but it doesn't know how to work mystery.

Talking about action, the fight against the robot is great, full of chaos and destruction. That's why I'm here, and PK knows it.

After destroying the floor where they fight, the group escape to plan a new strategy. The found the computer and learned the truth, this was a Xerbian ship that was intercepted by the Evronians.

Anyway, time to round 2.

I love how they described what fear means to each of them.

After a fierce battle, PK traps the robot in a force field. Before leave, Lyla hack in the computer. And we have one more flashback.

Urk and Lyla went to rescue the astronauts, while PK went to destroy the ship antenna, that antenna was cutting the communication with Uno. And the timing was perfect, because the robot was about the beat PK into oblivion, but Uno burn it to a crisp.

Thanks to Lyla, we found out the robot was the security system of the ship. It didn't do a great job, have to say. The astronauts were saved and PK and Lyla celebrated.

But Urk is having one last flashback.

The lady warrior let Urk defeat her, in order to assure his future leadership. Urk bows to the strongest warrior. If you tell me that lady is going to become his wife, I would believe you. It has that vibe.

We end this issue with a strong and sad line.

Oh man, that hits.

Goddamn PK, you can't make me feel things for Urk. But that's exactly what he did. I didn't care about the guy, but those flashback were perfect to create sympathy; now I know who he was before, what he was destiny to, and who was by his side. And that last line was so powerful. It really makes you feel sorry for him.

Good work Urk.

[p5x-theories]

P5 Collab Chapter 5 Summary

(last updated 11/4/24!)

Usual disclaimer: Please keep in mind this game still has no official English translation, so this summary uses a mix of what happens visually, what I understand of the Japanese dialogue, and Google translate for the Chinese text, in order to get the broader picture here. This will be focused on summing up everything that happens overall, without getting into a line-by-line translation.

Contrary to this blog’s name, this post is going to have as little speculation as possible, and stick to confirmed facts.

This post will cover the fifth chapter of the P5 Collab, also called the “Spaceship Chapter”.

Part 5-1

This chapter picks up almost immediately after the end of the Pyramid chapter. Mona says he understands (implying the group started to explain what happened in the Pyramid to Mona and Noir, in the brief time between chapters), and Closer tells them they were in a place that looked like Oracle's Palace. Cattle determines that, because Noir and Mona are here, it's now obvious that their next course of action is to steal the Core from this place as well.

Closer asks what Mona meant when he said they were waiting for them, and he explains that if they hadn't waited here for the rest of the team, everyone else wouldn't have been able to proceed from here, since Noir's the key to the big door they're standing by. Soy asks what that means, and Noir just confirms this is true, thinking it was nice of Mona to suggest they wait for everyone. She then introduces herself again as Noir, saying it's nice to meet everyone.

You can watch some of this part fan-translated to English here.

Noir apparently heard about them, and the alliance formed between their two groups the previous times this happened, from Mona and Joker. Closer reassures her that they'll work together again, and says it's nice to meet her. Noir, somewhat hesitantly, agrees. Queen notices this and asks what's wrong, and Noir reveals she's nervous, since she just joined the Phantom Thieves. Wind says *she's* new, too, so she understands how Noir feels, but she should just try to relax. Closer enthusiastically adds they're already like friends, and then realizes Joker isn't here and asks about him. Noir, also confused, says he was just here, where'd he go...? A voice comes from somewhere, announcing "I'm here!", and Wonder, recognizing the voice, asks where Joker is. Cattle calls out, spotting Joker above them on top of one of the shelves lining the wall. Panther wonders what he's doing up there, and Soy greets him, suggesting he join them. Joker says nothing, and Wind, meeting him for the first time, double-checks that that's *really* Joker, asking why he isn't speaking. Joker chuckles, then announces right now he's not Joker, he's Beauty Thief! (Doing the pose Haru did when *she* first introduced herself as such.) Noir is shocked, and Closer wonders in disbelief if Joker's really a girl (Beauty Thief in Japanese is "Bishoujo Kaitou", or "Beautiful Girl Thief"). Skull explains he's referencing Noir's entrance, and Oracle berates him for explaining the joke because that's embarrassing, while Soy, also shocked, says Joker seemed so serious he almost couldn't tell it *was* a joke. Queen somewhat awkwardly says he's probably trying to make Noir feel less nervous by making a joke. Fox, hearing this, wonders if he should also be Beauty Thief, then? Wonder thinks something similar, and they stand together, both doing the pose. Oracle, unamused, tells them this isn't a competition. Joker finally jumps down, and says it's good to see Wonder again. The player can double-down on the Beauty Thief joke, to which Joker exclaims "You're also one...!" They both do the pose again, pointing at each other, and Skull behind them grumbles that neither of them really are. Noir, slightly annoyed, complains about all this talk of Beauty Thief this and Beauty Thief that... *she's* the real one!!

Cattle declares that everyone's here now. Mona comments there's strength in numbers, but even though they have two navigators, they'll have to be careful to avoid attracting attention. The group nods, and Panther adds that everyone will have to stop shouting about being Beauty Thief. Joker looks away and says "... okay...", and Skull mutters that he sounds so unwilling. Noir, smiling, thanks Joker, because now she doesn't feel so nervous. Mona announces they'll all steal the core together! They proceed through the big door.

They explore the outer areas of this place, familiar from the original Okumura's Palace, and find Noir's enough to unlock most doors for them out here. Eventually, they reach an elevator to take them further.

Part 5-2

Cattle senses the Core from the center building in this area, and Fox comments it doesn't actually seem that far away. They proceed in that direction, occasionally running into guards along the way.

Part 5-3

Still heading towards the center building, they manage to reach it in this part, Soy noting that they made it. Cattle says the Core already feels close, and Fox suggests they head in, then.

Part 5-4

Inside the building, Fox frames the view with his fingers, while Soy comments that this looks like a factory. Fox agrees, and says they should keep going.

After a bit of exploring, they encounter a door that can't just be opened by Noir; it must be locked some other way. They run into a Corporobo (it appears to be a MDL-CH, but then becomes a MDL-WKR in battle) which attacks them for "being lazy" and not working. When they beat it, it drops a Staff ID keycard.

After the fight, they look out the window down at the factory, and Closer notes that a lot of robots are being produced here, and she saw a lot of broken ones as well. Soy adds that even though they're machines, the slave-like treatment of them is uncomfortable. Wind, alarmed, asks if these robots represent real people in the real world. Noir, downcast, explains that they're all employees of her family's company, as the owner of the real version of this Palace is her father.

Wonder and his team react with surprise, and Cattle speculates that this means the careless way robots are treated here represents Noir's father's attitude towards his staff. Soy says it's rough that she has to change her own father's heart. Noir, still looking a bit down, says it's fine, as she's made up her mind. Her father used to be respectable as the head of the company, but now he only thinks about the company's interests, money, and politics, rather than the employees and customers themselves. Even his own daughter is just a tool to further his own distorted desires.

Wind seems to react to this. Noir continues that she used to think being the daughter her father wants was the right thing to do, but after befriending the Phantom Thieves her mind changed. Wind thinks for a moment, then speaks up that she's had a similar experience, though she says it wasn't as painful as Noir's situation. Both at home and at school, she only thought about fulfilling her responsibilities for the sake of others, and forgot about herself. She can somewhat understand Noir's feelings, because especially when you're alone, it's easy to get lost. Wonder adds that they're here for Noir, too. Panther agrees; Noir's not alone anymore, and she can talk to them about anything! Fox assures her it's not bad to rely on others. Noir thanks everyone, saying she's happier now.

Off to the side, Closer and Soy turn to Wind, and Closer reminds her that all of that goes for her, too. Wind shouldn't try to take on everything by herself. Soy agrees; if she has any problems, she should talk to them, especially since they're always meddling in stuff anyway. Wind thanks them both.

Mona, addressing the others, says they're the Phantom Thieves of Hearts! Besides being good at stealing, they need to cherish the bonds between them, too. Closer hears this, and turns back to the group, surprised that they have a whole name for their team. Soy clarifies that they also call themselves the Phantom Thieves, but never specific what kind of phantom thieves they actually are. Cattle suggests the "Phantom Thieves of Desires", since it sounds like it's "plated with gold", but Wind awkwardly warns him that could give the impression of excessive desires, with a negative connotation. Cattle is alarmed by this, while Wonder thinks to himself about what they should be called.

Queen mentions that there's no point in discussing this here (presumably because they're all going to forget), and suggests they move on. Before they do, Wind clarifies if the other group is currently undertaking the Palace this place is based on, and Noir nods, warning them that there may be dangers here that they don't know about yet. Fox adds that they don't know where the real Palace's Treasure is yet, either, so they can't use that to guess where the Core here is.

Mona points out that they have both Oracle and Wind here, plus his amazing nose, so finding the Core should be a piece of cake anyway! Cattle, annoyed, says his sensory abilities are way better than just Mona's nose, so he shouldn't overlook them! Noir cuts off the argument, reminding them they're all working together here, so they should get along. Both mascots are frustrated, but begrudgingly agree. Fox notes that this makes another excellent composition- framing it with his fingers- and calling it "Brotherhood and Self-Discipline". Mona tells him not to give it a weird name, and Cattle says he's had enough, and they should move on.

Using the keycard to unlock the door, they head out onto the factory floor. Similar to the canon Okumura Palace, they discover they can overclock the mechanical arms on the assembly line to break then, then use them as bridges.

They reach another locked door at the other end of the assembly line, this one requiring a much higher-clearance keycard to open. Noticing a commotion with some Corporobos down on the stopped assembly line, they ambush them, looking for a better keycard.

After the fight, however, Closer and Skull are dismayed to discover that these Corporobos had the same kind of keycard they already got from the first one. Wind theorizes they'll need to find and defeat a more powerful enemy to get a higher-clearance card.

Closer then notices that the end of the conveyor belt has a portal, which Wind guesses takes whatever passes through it to another area. Cattle realizes a new area could have stronger enemies, and suggests they try heading through.

Part 5-5

As expected, the portal takes them to a completely new area. Skull asks how they're supposed to find stronger enemies, and Oracle says she detects several special robots around here. Tapping the air in front of her (with an effect similar to when she uses Necronomicon's skills, so likely utilizing it here as well), she shows the others what appears to be a security camera feed from two different rooms: one contains a MDL-AM with some MDL-CHs, while the other has a MDL-AM and a MDL-DM. Her guess is that one of them will have what they need.

On their way there, they also find an Intermediate Staff ID keycard, which helps them proceed further. They discover after fighting the robots Oracle detected, however, that finding the Intermediate Staff ID keycard made fighting these robots a waste of time, as all they had were Intermediate keycards as well. Luckily, a group of Corporobos marching through the facility opens a door they weren't able to get through earlier, and they can still sneak deeper in.

Part 5-6

Noir stops, and comments that although it's a space station factory, the whole building does feel in line with her father's sense of style. However, she hopes she can make him more aware of what he's been doing to Okumura Foods. Wind notes that that sounds like Noir's father runs a food company, and Skull confirms with a grin that he owns the famous Big Bang Burger chain. Closer repeats "Big Bang Burger...?", and all of Wonder's team looks confused. Skull, now confused as well, asks if they seriously haven't heard of it, and Panther mentions there's a Big Bang Burger in Shibuya. Noir clarifies it's a burger restaurant with a space theme.

Wind, still sounding a bit thrown-off, says that her father also runs a food business, but she's never heard of Big Bang Burger. It occurs to Closer that they do have a Boom Bang Burger, but Panther says she's never heard of that. Noir proposes that maybe, in Wonder's world, Big Bang Burger doesn't exist? Wonder nods.

Hearing this, Cattle speculates that maybe, although similar, the world that they're from is an entirely separate world from the one Joker's team is from. Queen repeats "another world", clearly thinking, as Cattle continues to say that, although they supposedly live in the same city of the same country, the details seem different. "This is commonly known as a parallel world... A world that branches off due to a certain choice." Queen mutters that that might be why details like a store name would change. Oracle says she understands the idea logically, but it almost seems too unbelievable to even be possible. Closer wonders if that means her school doesn't even exist in their world. Soy says that this topic is so crazy it's making his head hurt, and Skull agrees.

Queen points out that, if they really are from different worlds, that raises the question of why they were brought here together. Cattle's less sure about this part, and adds that the parallel worlds theory is just his own speculation.

Wonder notices that everyone seems confused, and can either ask everyone to calm down, or say it doesn't matter if they're from parallel worlds. Joker agrees; even if they're from separate worlds, they've still been working together and trusting each other. Similarly, Panther smiles and says it's not a big problem anyway, while Fox mentions that it's because of these meetings that they were all able to bond, and Queen decides there's no point in continuing to discuss it, thanking Joker for bringing that up. Closer adds that she doesn't really get this complicated stuff, but she's really glad she got to meet all of them, and Soy expresses an appreciation for their help and the chance to meet so many unique people.

With that, Wind suggests they continue on, since their goal right now is still to steal this area's Core. Wonder nods, and Noir says they'll do it together!

As they continue to explore, they start finding some of the remote-controllable robots from Katayama's Palace, and use them to help navigate the area. They eventually reach and defeat a MDL-GM, which drops a Senior Staff ID keycard.

Fox comments that they'll be able to open the door in the factory now, and Oracle manages to use one of the consoles in the room they're in to shut off the security blocking their portal back.

Part 5-7

They head through the portal and return to the conveyor belt, which is still stopped (though the Corporobos are gone). Closer complains that she's starting to get tired from all this walking around, and Skull agrees, suggesting they take a break here since they've still got a ways to go. Oracle seems to be lost in thought, so Wonder asks her about it.

Oracle turns the group, and admits she's still been thinking about their conversation earlier (about being from parallel worlds). She points out that they weren't just taken to each other's worlds, but to a place that isn't part of either of their worlds. While the overall areas resemble Palaces she's seen, there are sometimes shadows she doesn't recognize (ones from Katayama's Palace), so it feels like elements from both worlds' Palaces are mixed together in these places. Queen realizes that's true, and matches up with the place they were stuck in last time this happened as well.

Insisting this couldn't happen on its own, Oracle says she's started wondering about who's behind all this. At Panther's confusion, Cattle clarifies that that would mean they were brought here for a particular motive, though he admits that while he had the same thought, he felt it was a bit ridiculous. However, Oracle asserts that if the reason for all this was just to make them meet, it'd be much easier to simply bring one group to the other world. Instead, they've been specifically brought to an entirely different place, and once they leave, they're forced to forget about it. So she's sure there's a reason, but she's having trouble figuring out what that reason could be.

Wind considers this, and she's not sure how it connects exactly, but mentions that there was also something in the pyramid that neither of their groups had seen before: those murals. Could that be a hint? Everyone else reacts with surprise, and Queen agrees that if these places are supposed to combine both worlds, then anything entirely new to all them must have a meaning. Oracle adds that if it really was referencing the three kleshas, then those might be their lead.

Fox draws a connection between those negative emotions, and desires, and asks if he recalls correctly that desires are being stolen away in Wonder's world. Wonder confirms this is the case, and Mona points out that their own world is full of desires. Skull grumbles in agreement that it's all horrible adults with selfish desires. Closer, taking the thought a step further, wonders what it means if they're mixing one world that's lacking desires, and another that's full of them. Noir suggests that maybe it becomes "complete" somehow, and Wind wonders who it becomes "complete" for. Oracle summarizes: is the situation here that someone who's able to benefit from this wants to combine both their worlds?

She then shakes her head, becoming a bit sheepish, and says that feels like fantasy, because that's not something humans can do. Fox agrees that you'd need power akin to a god to do something like that.

The group drifts off into discussion, and Joker asks Wonder what he thinks about all this. The player can choose either "Could it be that...?" or "That's impossible...". At least upon picking the former, Joker hums, and turns slightly away.

Panther, looking slightly surprised (or motivated?), says they've been chatting for way too long, and they need to keep going. They get off the conveyor belt, and explore the rest of the factory area before finally unlocking the door using the Senior Staff ID keycard.

Part 5-8

The portal takes them to an airlock, where Closer is shocked to see outer space, wondering if the Palace really contains outer space within it, and then if they're really going to have to go out there. Oracle tells her it'll be fine if it's just for a few seconds, but reminds her to hold her breath. Noir immediately does so, and Mona awkwardly says there's no point in holding her breath right now. Releasing the breath, Noir realizes he's right, and says that was kind of stupid of her, but Wind laughs lightly, and says they'll head out when everyone's ready.

With that, the group proceeds through the areas connected by airlocks. Before long, they reach an elevator.

Part 5-9

Mona and Cattle sense the Core, not too much further ahead now.

However, as they proceed, and fight some shadows, a red light begins to flash, and there's an announcement that security measures are being activated. The group watches as the door in front of them (the one the camera is looking through in the above screenshot; the light blue lines are on the edges of the door) shuts, and Cattle grumbles that they'll have to find another way in there.

They do so, reaching the lift up to the spacecraft with the Core. Soy is shocked, while Oracle excitedly asks if that's a real UFO. Cattle ushers them onward.

Part 5-10

You can watch the entirety of this part roughly fan-translated to English here.

The group walks into the room, and sees a humanoid figure sitting in a floating chair. While the body resembles Shadow Okumura, the head inside the helmet is just a black void with a yellow/white smiley face. It mutters (distorted like a Shadow's voice) that it wasn't easy, but "we" finally got the power to create this place, and the foolish humans coming to interfere are just digging their own graves. Skull, grinning, says this must be the boss, and Soy wonders what it just muttered. The figure mutters about being ignorant, then points at Wonder, calling him a bastard, saying it's all his fault and asking if he knows what'll happen if he takes the Core (the camera pans to show the Core is a model UFO kit). Wind wonders if it's talking to Wonder, while Closer is confused why this one's acting differently from the others. Wonder can reply either "I have no idea", "I don't want to know at all", or "I'm going to steal the Core!". (Notably, the figure's text box seems to be labeled as "Moha" as well, like the sphinx? I suppose I'll call it Moha as well for the sake of having a name to refer to it by, but I'm not sure if one of them will be named differently in the official English release.) Moha shouts about ignorant humans being unforgivable, and Wind warns them something's coming as the boss fight begins. It continues to shout insults before doing anything, then summons Corporobos to defend it, similar to Shadow Okumura. After they fight through the initial stock of Corporobos, Moha angrily reveals its true face (a boarlike head, very similar to the sphinx Moha), and summons more, including a MDL-ED. Once this wave is taken care of, they can attack Moha directly, and it only takes one hit before it's down. After the fight, Moha slumps in its chair in disbelief, but then weakly reaches forward for the Core, saying it can't let them extinguish "the light of salvation". Cattle repeats this, wondering what it means, but then everything shakes, and Oracle shouts that it looks like the ceiling is going to fall. Wind calls for Wonder to grab the Core, and he does, but then lingers as the others run off, looking at Moha. Wonder's thought bubble says "Rescue...? You want to save us...?" As the ceiling crumbles, Moha starts to be sucked out into space, and Wonder, closer to it than the others, starts to feel the pull as well, running towards the group. Moha shouts at him to not even think about it- Wonder's coming with it! Then it fires a grappling hook (/arm? It loosely resembles Shadow Akashi's mechanical arm/tentacles) at Wonder's back, pulling Wonder towards it. Joker shouts back that he won't let it, and throws his own grappling hook to catch onto Wonder's front. The two struggle for a moment, each trying to pull Wonder towards themselves, before Joker pulls out his gun, shooting at Moha's hand/that end of its grappling hook. It releases Wonder, but Joker's grappling hook falls as well, and Wonder starts to be pulled upward by the vacuum of space itself, before he tosses his own grappling hook past Joker and pulls himself back. Joker helps him up, and asks if he can run. Wonder nods, and the entire group flees the room.

In a hallway elsewhere, the group stops, Wonder (and Oracle in the background) catching his breath as Wind checks on him and the others watch. Skull comments that was close, and Fox agrees, as Wonder thanks Joker. Joker says he was just returning the favor from last time, but he's glad Wonder's okay. Wonder promises to return the favor again next time, and Joker chuckles, saying he'll look forward to it. Wonder and Wind stand up, and Wind says she's also glad Wonder's okay, but they're not safe yet. Behind them, Oracle warns them they'll all get sucked out into space if they stay here. Cattle and Mona take their cue, switching to vehicle form. Before getting in, Panther laments that their goodbyes have to be rushed this time, but she hopes they'll meet again! Closer says they absolutely will. Noir says she thanks "The Phantom Thieves From Another World" from the bottom of her heart, and bids them farewell, as everyone else waves to each other. Now in the cars, Queen accidentally incites Mona's competitive spirit by urging him to go faster, and Mona gleefully zips past Cattle. Closer exclaims about how fast Mona is, and Cattle announces he's determined not to lose, zooming after him. The camera cuts to the inside of the Cattle car, where Closer wishes they weren't saying goodbye here, since she still wanted to talk more with Panther and the others. Soy replies that it can't be helped, since they'd get sucked into space otherwise. Wind wonders what's going on with these places, and Closer says it still isn't clear, but it was refreshing to see everyone in the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Soy agrees that their positive desires feel like they ignite him. Wind feels that it gives her courage to know there are other phantom thieves out there resisting, too. Cattle asks Wonder what he thinks, and either way Wonder expresses hope towards meeting them again. Soy declares that as long as they're still phantom thieves they will, and Closer says they should come up with a name like "the Phantom Thieves of Hearts" before next time! Cattle repeats "'the Phantom Thieves of Hearts', huh...", and then Closer exclaims that she sees the exit. Now standing back in front of Shibuya station (where they started at the beginning of the Pyramid Chapter), Riko and Motoha are disoriented, and Shun wonders what they were just talking about. Ruferu's head also feels fuzzy, but he recalls they were going to take Riko to Mementos. Riko realizes he's right, and apologizes for forgetting. Shun recalls this as well, but says he feels like he's forgetting something, and Motoha adds that there's a sense of loneliness, but warmth in her heart, too. Wonder thinks to himself that he feels like he's just been to the Metaverse with everyone, then notices something, and pulls it out of his pocket. As he looks at it, he thinks he feels like he owes someone a favor, though he doesn't remember the details. Shun asks what he has in his hand, but Wonder just shakes his head, and Shun thinks it's getting weirder and weirder if *none* of them know what's going on. Riko reminds them they should be going, and Motoha excitedly asks Wonder to activate the MetaNav.

Though it's not shown in a close-up during the cutscene, the item description for the real-world Core describes it as a "UFO model box with a dam pattern".

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1111 review

Last one going into another long break. Potentially but not definitely the end of volume 109. And I think a shift into the final bit of action for the Egghead Arc. While I'm disappointed to have to go three weeks without, I definitely prefer Oda getting the downtime he needs to carry the story through to its end inn the best way possible. And the phrase "scheduled maintenance" in the announcement makes me think this is going to end up being an annual thing, which at least means it won't be a surprise in future years.

We do at least get some gorgeous colour pages for a send-off. The classic piratey vibe of the Jump cover has a whole lot of appeal while the colour spread has some gorgeous lighting for Copic work. The transparency on the jellyfish is stunning. There's cute symbolism in giving Kuma a seahorse shirt, perfect for the series' most dedicated single dad. Bonney and Vegapunk getting to be included is also a good touch, Always nice when current arc characters get to hang out with the crew on these things. I also really like the One Piece logo down the bottom with the jellyfish top and tentacles around the O.

Mars breaks inside the barrier. I initially thought he'd was rebuffed by the lasers last week, but I should have known he'd be able to use his immortality to power through undaunted. And that makes the situation really bad for the crew.

The apparent lack of concern the Strawhats have for Vegapunk's broadcast is interesting. I actually had to go back and double check if they even knew it was happening at all. They do, but it still doesn't really seem to concern them. Escape has become the most important thing, and though I'm sure they'd stand and fight if one of the surviving Vegapunks said it was their greatest dream and the Stella's dying wish to make sure it goes through, but even they seem to be putting their lives first. It's actually kind of funny the number of people complaining last week about Oda using the 'ticking clock' trope in yet another arc, only for the crew to just outright ignore it and continue with their original plan of escaping. All this plus the escape map to lay out the distances and groups involved paint a picture of how the final stage of the arc is likely to play out.

This is an interesting chapter for Lucci. Obviously a commanding show of strength to stay standing after Zoro's big hit and then to remain conscious and clear-headed after Jinbei's subsequent blast, but also to call Kaku his partner and beg for his life to the ultimate authority of the Five Elders. Remember, in Lucci's eyes 'gods are not bound by logic' and 'it is the natural order for gods to have whatever they desire' (chapter 907). He also showed an extreme callousness toward any team member he thought wasn't performing up to par at Water Seven, like the potentially now-dead Nero. To make the request at all, to a man whose desires and whims have complete priority, speaks to a kind of camaraderie I never would have figured he had in him. At some point I'll have to go back over Water Seven properly and see if there's anything that can be interpreted differently with this side of him in mind.

Lucci also looks absolutely terrified when Mars appears, but he immediately recognises the Elder even in his monstrous form and doesn't hesitate to obey. We were told before that anyone below the rank of commodore can't even meet them, but it wasn't clear how much of a secret their specific powers were. York's reaction at the end of the chapter shows that she wasn't aware of the demon forms, despite the Vegapunks having had audiences with the Elders.

The Haki roar is a cool show of power. I'm looking forward to learning more about the limits of the physical effects of Conqueror's Haki and how much they can be controlled. I also loved the visual gag of all of Luffy's stuff blowing off, seeing him stick his scars back on. Amazing comic instincts on that one.

I think one of the big important things to remember for Luffy's characterisation in this chapter is the way the giants talk both with him and about him to Warcurcy. They say that he looks like the god they've heard tales of, but when Warcury asks who Luffy is to them, the only important part is that Luffy is their friend. And we learn concretely that it wasn't even the Nika appearance that inspired them to come intervene, they just saw that he seemed like he was in trouble in a place they were close enough to. Luffy isn't the messiah of the giants (at least not yet), just a guy who makes the right friends.

I try not to dwell on spoilers without the full story, but they definitely coloured my perception of this chapter's baseball bat gag. When I read that Luffy 'conjures' a bat, I was extremely worried. I have raged against the perception that Luffy's new power is literal imagination and that he can magic things into existence or warp reality in any tangible way. I would not want that to be the way the story progresses. Imagine my relief when the outcome is only as absurd as turning a palm tree into a bat with his teeth. I could take or leave the paint and hat. They only interact with Luffy himself and are gone in less than a page, so I can take them as part of the bit. The paint in particular is funny because to leaves the bat looking exactly the same as if it had a layer of Armament Haki (at least as far as Haki is portrayed to the readers). That's like the one part Luffy could have just manifested through willpower and he finds paint instead.

I expected more emphasis to be placed on Ju Peter's revival, but he's just kind of there after the explosion. Do we think the original head reattached to his body, or did he grow a new one? Maybe Oda's saving that reveal for later, when we go further into what the Elders really are.

As much as I want to see Franky get some action, I think the three vice admirals are setting up a Kuma moment, probably his big finale for the arc, whether it's a full awakening or death, or taking his daughter and teleporting away. Borsalino seems to be out for good, understandably overwhelmed by his emotional distress. I wonder if there'll be a tangible difference in the next fight against him, if it happens in a scenario where his heart can truly be in it. And then the robot, with that big, important Joyboy connection promising big things to come. I wonder, if the Strawhats are being characterised as unconcerned with Vegapunk's broadcast, if the robot will then be the force that makes sure it plays in full. Or is there some kind of twist coming about the broadcast's source that we haven't considered yet. Mars asks York about the room Vegapunk is in, as if he thinks the broadcast is actually live. Saturn only said to the other Elders that he thinks Borsalino killed Vegapunk, so they may be operating on the assumption he's somewhere else, especially if the technology to record and repeat a message via snails is not widespread.

But these are questions for three weeks from now. Meantime, I hope Oda enjoys his rest and processes everything he needs to process about Toriyama and comes back to the series refreshed for the home stretch of the arc.

[day-dreaer]

Week 9: Toxic: The poison that destroys the gaming world

If you have ever been a player or viewer of online games, especially competitive games, I bet you have at least once witnessed some uncivilized actions between gamers. In a colorful virtual world where you can transform into a superhero, a powerful magician or even a fire-breathing dragon, becoming a "human" is surprisingly difficult. That's right, I'm talking about those who carry within them a poison called "toxic", strange creatures that specialize in sowing discord and destroying the already tense atmosphere of online battles.

Toxic - The Art of Swearing and Putting Others Down Toxic manifests itself in many forms, from vulgar curses to malicious sarcasm. They are like magpies, constantly complaining and criticizing anyone who dares to "touch" their fragile ego. Sometimes, they even turn sabotage into an "art", by intentionally slowing down the progress of the whole team, or simply… standing still and laughing at other players. There are many reasons why a person becomes toxic. Maybe they are having a bad day or simply want to find a place to vent their anger. Or maybe, they are just insecure and want to prove themselves by putting others down. Whatever the reason, toxic behavior is something to be condemned.

Toxic behavior not only hurts others but also affects the player himself. People who regularly engage in toxic behavior tend to isolate themselves and have difficulty integrating into the community. They may also experience psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.

A virtual world, but not soulless

Some games are always labeled as toxic with a lot of uncivilized players. But in fact, the tool is never inherently bad, but those ugly wrongdoings come from the users. Solving the problem of toxicity is not easy. It requires the cooperation of the entire gaming community, from developers to players. Developers need to have strong measures to deal with toxic people, such as permanently blocking accounts. The gaming community also needs to build clear rules of conduct, and strictly handle those who violate. The virtual world is a great place for us to relax, entertain and connect with others. However, to turn this place into a healthy community, we need to eliminate negative factors such as toxicity. Let's build a civilized virtual world together, where everyone is respected and treated fairly.

Some advice for gamers:

Staying Calm: When faced with unpleasant situations, try to stay calm and avoid reacting.

Reporting: If you encounter toxic behavior, report the player who is behaving badly immediately.

Seeking for help: If you feel affected by toxic behavior, seek help from friends, family or mental health professionals.

Change your mindset: Remember, behind every game account is a real person. Treat them the way you want to be treated.

Toxic is an incurable disease of the gaming community. However, with everyone's cooperation, we can completely push back this disease and build a more beautiful virtual world.

Reference list

Gandolfi, E., Ferdig, R.E., Wang, J., Morris, G., Copus, A. and Sk Rezwan Shihab (2023). Online gaming as a double-edged sword: An Analysis of game community receptiveness, in-game vitality, and player well-being. Education and Information Technologies. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12011-0.

Nexø, L.A. (2024). Toxic Behaviours in Esport: A Review of Data-Collection Methods Applied in Studying Toxic In-Gaming Behaviours. International Journal of Esports, [online] 3(3). Available at: https://www.ijesports.org/article/127/html.

Tiago Garrido Marques, Schumann, S. and Enrico Mariconti (2024). Positive behaviour interventions in online gaming: a systematic review of strategies applied in other environments. Crime science, 13(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-024-00208-8.

Zhu, Z., Zhang, R. and Qin, Y. (2022). Toxicity and prosocial behaviors in massively multiplayer online games: The role of mutual dependence, power, and passion. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 27(6). doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac017.

#mda20009

[bollur]

treasure // vax'ildan x reader

a/n: this is 100% modern au!, but i loved the idea so much i could NOT pass this up with vax.

i know the majority of my stuff is percy, but fuCK this was too cute even if it fucking sUCKS.

Your breathing was shallow as you crept across neon patterns that glowed in the carpet, the only sound reaching your ears was the thrumming of your heart, eyes jumping back and forth around the objects in the room that doubled as cover.

No one had been seen in a hot minute, top that with there not even being any music, it caused the eerily lit room to seem even more daunting. They just insisted on going hardcore.

A part of you almost wondered if they left you here alone just to fuck with you, and were waiting outside in the lobby. Your lips pursed at that thought. They fucking would, actually. Not that you could complain as you'd do the same as well.

Suddenly a soft thud met your ears and you whipped around, gun raised, pointed in the direction it came from. You squinted at the small boulder placed there, deciding if you should tip-toe over and check it out, but it could very well be a trap. Chest heaving with anticipation, you took a step backward as quietly as possible, brain wracking with the possibility of who it could be as that would determine your next course of action.

This was a matter of life or death after all.

Honestly, you wouldn't be so on edge if it wasn't a complete battle royale. No one could agree on teams, being extremely picky about who would get who, and then there was the issue of team names and it almost turned into a brawl. Now you were having to watch out for everyone, and some of your friends were far too good at this kind of shit.

They still hadn't moved from behind the boulder, and you were beginning to wonder if some silly paranoia was beginning to get to you. Inhaling deeply, you sprinted forward, jumping around the side of the boulder ready to fire, but to your surprise it was vacant. Your brows furrowed, gun lowering and taking a few steps forward to shield you from view, looking down at the spot they would have been. Letting out a soft hum you were ready to turn around and walk away, but suddenly you felt your skin prickle, a feeling wrenching in your gut as though someone was watching you.

A familiar voice greeted you, uncomfortably close, "Well, well, look what I've found."

Fuck - it was a trap.

"Hello, Vax," you said distastefully, grimacing slightly at your new predicament, hands tightening around the toy.

He chuckled, "Come on, peach, don't sound so excited to see me."

There was no way in hell you were getting out of this one. This was one of the people that got you all banned from three (yes, three) paintball fields. You still shuddered to this day from it.

"Oh, I'm sorry," it almost sounded heartfelt until suddenly you turned around, gun raised, but so was his, barrels pointed at each other's chests. "Hi, asshole." came a bit more sugary.

The smirk on his face grew. "Aw, you just look so cute when you're determined to shoot me."

Of course, he wasn't going to play fair, using those charming ways of his against you. That didn't stop the slight heat to your cheeks at his comment. "Nope, compliments won't work on me, buddy." you tried to stay strong, poking his chest with the barrel for emphasis.

He only returned the favor, stepping closer to you and you reacted to put a little distance. "Really?" Vax asked a bit surprised, following your retractions before his voice became incredibly flirt. "'Cause, you were begging for them last night."

You inhaled sharply, back hitting the boulder, further trapped than before. Lips pursed, your nose scrunched up in annoyance and you jabbed him yet again. "I'd threaten to kick you in the balls, but you don't have any."

He hissed as if you just stung him, shoulders curling up slightly. "That's almost as cheap as the perfume you're wearing smells."

You gasped, gun pressing even harder into his chest even though you were ready to throw down with your hands. "I won't hesitate, bitch," That shit was expensive, and it was a Christmas gift from Vex.

"Bet," he taunted, leaning over slightly, inching his face towards yours.

The smirk that crossed your face suddenly made him suspicious, but that disappeared when you rose to your toes, pressing a tender kiss to his lips. You knew what you were doing, he had to know what you were doing, his shoulders relaxing and the position of his gun faltering against you. Using his weakness (you) against him, and he loved every second of it, even when the noise of the laser from your gun met his ears. Pulling back from the kiss, you both shared a playful look as you patted his cheek and slipped out from between him and the rock, bounding away with newfound confidence.

Leaning back against the rock, he played with a little braided rope bracelet you made him, a bright smile on his face. "Gods, I love them."

He totally let you beat him, and he would every time if it meant seeing you happy. Okay, well, maybe not every time. He grimaced thinking of the paintball game incidents.

It's the thought that counts.

[poprock-the-baker]

Supportive Brother

Dominick and Joseph we're heading into the locker room to start the period. Dominick had a free period at the end of the day and just chilled in the locker room away from people, Joseph just so happened to have football practice at the same time so it worked out for them both.

"SHIT! Dammit coach is gonna kill me..." Joseph said starting to sweat.

"What did you do now dumbass, you better not have forgotten your sports equipment." Dominick said back to his worried friend.

"No! I forgot my cup today! I need one or coach won't let me do practice!" Joseph was looking everywhere for the cup in his bag, starting to get frantic.

"Just get one from the pile of discarded one? They are there for that purpose." Dominick said pointing at the box of cups in the corner.

"No! Coach told us that we can't grab them from there... That it's our responsibility to bring them from home, your brother is the only one allowed to get them from there..." Joseph said looking sad then looked over at Dominick with a slight smile. Dominick gave him a glare as he looked over.

"I know that look on your face, I don't want any part in it." Dominick said before having his mouth covered by Joseph's hand.

"Will you just be my cup for this one practice? I'll turn you back right after it's over! Please!?" Joseph said giving Dominick the look of puppy eyes.

"Dammit... This is the last time I'm letting you turn me into anything! Just hurry it up and put my shit in your locker ok." Dominick slowly stood up and held out his hand to Joseph, knowing how this worked by now.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH DOM! OH MY GOD I WONT BE BENCHED! oh stay still!" Joseph said as he grabbed Dominick's hand as he slowly changed Dominick into a small athletic sport support cup and placed it onto the bench and picked up all the clothing that fell to the floor and put it into his locker along with Dominick's bag. "Let's get you on so I can get to practice!"

The world suddenly changed for Dominick, first being taller than his friend to being right in his hand. He was facing the ground at the moment, and to his horror he saw in slow motion that Joseph had forgotten to tie his laces. As he slowly walked to sit down his left foot stepped on the laces of his right foot and Dominick felt himself get released. He saw the locker room door get pushed in as someone walked in, and he landed in the box of discarded cups.

"FUCK! SHIT!" Joseph cursed as he hit the floor with his arm to catch himself. He looked over at the door that creaked as Dominick's older brother came into view.

"Damn dude. I saw that! Lemme get it out for you, I need to get one for myself anyways." Dominick's older brother Dylan said as he came over and grabbed two, handing one to Joseph.

"Omg thank you! I didn't want to mix up mine with the others!" He said as he looked at the brand new one in his hand and the brand new one in Dylan's hand too. "Damn, that's a new one too. Why is it in the box?"

"Oh, someone bought the wrong size cups and couldn't return them so they gave them to coach and he just dumped them in here. I've been meaning to get a new one as mine broke last practice, so I'm glad that there are some good ones!" Dylan said as he placed the 'new' cup down on the bench next to him as he stripped down and started getting ready. Everything had turned out fine.

But the world was the opposite of fine for Dominick. He saw Joseph and his brother talking as Dylan came over and grabbed him and another. He was happy he got recognized and getting back to Joseph, but soon that was shown to not be the case. Dylan handed the other cup over to Joseph as they both started chatting and laughing. Joseph didn't notice anything wrong as he looked at the cup in his hand and then over to Dominick. That was when the real terror set in. He was suddenly set down on the hard wooden bench and looked up to see his big brother getting naked right in front of him. He slowly saw Dylan get his athletic support boxers and started putting them on without a care in the world.

"So have you seen Dominick recently Joseph? I know he is usually here with you for practice. I need to tell him I'm not gonna be home for a bit, me and my boyfriend are gonna finally do it after dinner tonight." Dylan said with a smile as he held his dick and gave Joseph a good look at his hung member, then reached over for his cup and started to slide it into his boxers.

Dominick was freaking out. He was hearing his brother was about to have sex and then showing off his dick that was laying in wait inside his boxers. Then to his horror he saw Dylan reach to grab him and he felt his brothers fingers wrap around him as he was slowly slid down into the pouch, feeling his brother's soft dick on his back as he hear the elastic snap shut and his brother laugh with Joseph.

"Hey, tell me how it goes, I've been meaning to ask you two on a double date again with me and Victor." Joseph said putting his cup on, then grinding it against his crotch.

"Got it! And damn... That person had great taste in Athletic Cups, this thing feels amazing. It fits me perfectly, I think ill just use this one till it breaks! I was planning on buy a new one but now what's the point." Dylan laughed as he leaned over and started getting fully ready. He grabbed his crotch and grinded it slowly. "Oh I'm definitely keeping this one."

Dominick was so disturbed now, his brother had just declared he was going to keep him and his panic was setting in fully now. He watched as Joseph started to grind his crotch, no doubt thinking it was him. Then Dylan put on his sports equipment and swiftly copied which sent shivers down his spine as he felt a warm goo against his back.

Soon the bell rung and the locker room was filled with the rest of the team and they were soon all ready for the field. Dylan quickly grabbed Joseph and brought him to the side as they walked out.

"Thanks for dropping your cup dude, you helped me get a great one! It's super supportive and I can't wait to break it in with Malcolm~" Dylan said as he held his hand on his crotch again looking at Joseph.

"Thanks for finding mine dude! It's special and I can't lose it. So you helped me and I helped you~" Joseph said as he looked at Dylan's sexy action.

Dominick was in hell as he heard all of these things, he knew what it all meant and hoped to be found soon but he felt a surge through him as the warm precum seeped into his body. Then the practice started and he slowly lost the will to complain and fight the fear anymore, as he started to slowly cry realizing what was his future.

----

The practice was soon over and they all went back to the locker room. Joseph took of this equipment and placed his cup in his bag before getting dressed and gave Dylan a high five. "I'm heading out. Gotta get home quickly! Later dude!" He said as he ran down the street to his place and took the cup out of his bag and started the process to turn the cup back. But nothing happened.

Meanwhile Dylan was getting undressed out of his equipment but left the boxers and cup on as he got dressed and looked over at Joseph's locker. "Huh, Dominick must have come by while we were practicing. Well he'll be fine without me." Dylan said as he took his jeans and zipped them up over Dominick, who was silently crying knowing his life was sealed away as his brother's athletic cup until he broke and was discarded.

That was his future, trapped to be nothing but a supportive brother.

[highway-in-the-sky]

With the first ark of the idw comic I wanna take a breather and go over it all. Give some more in depth thoughts, I will start to do the same at the end of issues for IDW as well as archie when it gets more actually serious, as well as talk about arks when they end.

The idw sonic comic starts on such a high note, This first ark feels exactly how a sonic story should, great characterization of the main crew, fun action set pieces and quick pacing. It doesn't get too bogged down or doesn't stay for too long. Right off the bat it nails the characterization of sonic and most of his crew which, to me at least, is the most important thing about this comic. I could watch sonic and friends to anything from the extreme to the mundane as long as they are written well. It was also very exciting to see neo metal sonic and metal overlord again. I loved the mr. tinker plot even if I wish we got to spend more time on it and all the original characters introduced slapped.

Rough and Tumble are you usual mooks, the duo that can take a punch but ultimately will get beaten in the end without too much issue. However they are such cool designs (especially a fan of rough's) and are played goofy enough that it's just fun when they show up. They also got that team rock intro and people make fun of them for it. It's a bit I will always love every time.

Tangle is great, it's nice to have a solely action oriented female character who can party alongside sonic. Sure amy is there but amy has more responsibility as well as has a lot of baggage through her history in the franchise, plus you have to worry about romance shenanigans which is kinda exhausting with those two (I have been jerked around with this ship for so fucking long with the will they won't they, just say they if they will or won't already). Tangle is just here to fucking party and I'm super here for it.

Whisper needs a hug, While we are missing most the pieces currently (I'll get into more with the tangle and whisper mini series), she is already a super fun character. She's super cool and I love her design a lot, I can't say much though without talking about the mini series

and Starline my favorite, It's just fun to see a character who's diehard loyal to eggman but not blindly so. While we haven't seen much yet so I won't get too into it, I love how even when starline goes under eggman's nose it's not to double cross or backstab but to hopefully bring him along with him. Sure in litteral outcome this does end up similarly to backstabbing but the context makes it so much more interesting then just "I'm going to stab the main villain in the back."

However it's not all sunshine and rainbows I do have some complaints, Namely with you guessed it Shadow, and trust me I'll have more to complain about as this goes on but for where we currently are I'll say this, he's not totally terrible, his first appearance is actually pretty enjoyable, sonic and his moral conflict feels very in character even if shadows stubbornness to the extreme it's shown feels ooc. However his lack of willingness to actually work with anyone and listen to plans is just so frustrating and contradicts how he acts in other games, like heroes and 06 (I know 06 isn't canon but god damn shadow's characterization is on point and I think looking at it for reference is fine). Now I know that this isn't entirely the writers fault, this is obvious when you look at Even Stanley and compare her writing of shadow in her personal sonic fan comic to the idw comic and it becomes obvious. I've also heard good things about shadows writing on Ians Archie run so it stands for him as well. A lot of the problems can be laid at segas feet as they want him to be this standoffish lone wolf kinda edgy rivil to sonic who cares for nothing but a good fight and that's just not really shadow. It ignores that shadow has made connections with team dark and has this strong mutual respect with sonic. It just makes me dread seeing my favorite character instead of excited. I will say while mandates are the major point of blame here I will say some of this can be layed at the Ian Flynns feet as he's not perfect. This becomes clear as Evan Stanley's writing of shadow is much much better (even if still restrained in this confine of the mandates) Shadow in the Chao race ark is much better than the battle for angle island ark and def metal virus. I'm getting ahead of myself but what I will say is this is my biggest complaint so far with the writing. So far Ian Flynn has done a great job aside from this and it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the comic

also so far all the artist do an amazing job the art in this comic is exilant!

[roanniee]

Maelstrom

🐈Yaku Morisuke x Hinata!GN! Reader

Warnings: swearing, simping, the use of Daddy Iwa Past relationship talk?

Chapter 5

Masterlist

You just wanted to be a good sibling and friend. You just wanted to drop off some surprise food for Shouyou, Hoshiumi and Iwaizumi. Possibly the rest of the team as well, based on the rather large amount of food that you brought with you. But the elderly female guard in front of the training center really would not let you pass through just to drop the food off. You understand of course, why the guard was so wary. You were wearing a black mask and a baseball hat that covered your hair. You look suspicious, and you know it, but it didn't mean that you didn't feel frustrated.

"Please," You said with a sigh. "I just want to drop food for my friends."

"I'm sorry, dearie, but I am not allowed to let anyone in unless they are escorted in by one of the players, or the staff members." the guard said with a regretful smile. You sighed again and stepped to the side, pulling your phone out from your pocket. You sent them both a message, hoping that one of them sees it, when a voice behind you said a nickname that you had not heard in nearly ten years.

"Sunflower?"

You froze before looking behind you, eyes wide as you took in the hulking form of a person that you had not heard from since you graduated.

"Wakatoshi?"

Ushijima Wakatoshi never changed much in the nearly ten years that you have not seen him. He still had a large build and the ever so stoic face.

"It has been a while. How are you?" He asked, a small smile on his face that you couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Normal so far. What about you?"

"I have nothing to complain about aside from being late to training. What are you doing here?" He asked, raising a brow at you. While the action would've intimidated others, it warmed your heart instead. Ushijima was stoic, but around you, he showed more emotions than others would see in a week. The gesture of him raising his brow at you isn't a gesture made with intimidation, but rather, of curiosity.

Just like it had been all those years ago.

"I wanted to drop some food off for Shouyou, Hajime and Hoshiumi-kun. Could you give it to them for me?" You asked, eyeing the white and red jacket he was wearing. Neither Shouyou nor Iwaizumi had told you who the members of the National team were, but you should've known that Ushijima would be a member of it. The man had nothing but volleyball and personal success in his mind.

"Why don't you just come in? I'm sure they would be happy to see you." He suggested, making you blink. Before you could protest, Ushijima grabbed the bag of food with one hand and your wrist on another before gently dragging you inside, nodding at the guard who was watching your interaction with interest. Your whines of protest fell on deaf ears as he continued to tug you along with him through the training centre's long hallways, before opening a door and shoved you inside gently.

You yelped as you stumbled in, bumping into the broad body of one Iwaizumi Hajime. Iwaizumi took one look at you and chuckled, immediately knowing who you are. After all, the cap you were wearing was from him, and the mask you wore was one that Oikawa physically sewed in Brazil with Shouyou.

"Wakatoshi, what the hell was that for!? You did not have to drag me like that!" You whined loudly as Iwaizumi stabilised you, effectively catching the attention of everyone in the gym. From the corner of your eyes, you can see them double back when they realise who Ushijima was talking to and who was leaning on Iwaizumi. Of course you would catch their attention. You weren't wearing your mask anymore, having ripped it off while Ushijima was dragging you.

"Forgive me, but you would've convinced me to not bring you inside if I had done so." The tall male said in amusement, making you huff. It was the truth. If he had let you talk, you would've convinced him to just take the food and bring it to the gym while you went on your merry way.

You glared at Ushijima before moving to look at Iwaizumi who was chuckling beside you.

"This isn't funny, Daddy Iwa. Quit laughing." You said, rolling your eyes. Whatever Iwaizumi was going to say in response died before he could voice it out because someone barrelled into you, making you both fall into the ground. You didn't even have to see to know who it was. Your brother has hugged you more times than you could count with all your fingers and toes in the past month since you got back to Japan.

"Shou, was you tackling me to the floor necessary?" You asked as your brother got off you and helped you up. You winced when your shoulder and back began to throb in slight pain. "Now I'm in pain. Thanks kid."

"I'm so sorry! It's just that you're here! At practice! You need to meet my team." Hinata said excitedly, and you can only sigh when you caught sight of all the dropped jaws. This was exactly why you didn't want to be in here. You knew that Shouyou would get excited and parade you around proudly.

"Hoshiumi-kun, come get your gremlin!" You said loudly to the white haired male at the far end of the court, watching his boyfriend cling to you with amusement.

"Sorry, Y/n-san! He was your gremlin before I even met him! You know how to deal with him better than I can!" Hoshiumi responded with a teasing tone.

"Said gremlin is right here, listening to you both." Shouyou grumbled out before dragging you over to where the team stood to introduce you to them.

Honestly, what is with people dragging you everywhere?

*****

Yaku stood back, jaw dropped to the floor. However, not for the same reason that others in the team did.

It was You. You were the cutie he saw at the airport.

He knows that sideview anywhere, having engraved it in his mind after seeing it once, despite the mask that covered the lower half of your face the first time he saw you.

Yaku blinked when he suddenly found himself in front of you, being introduced by Shouyou.

"Y/n, this is Yaku Morisuke-san. I'm sure you've heard me talk about him?" Shouyou stated, smiling at the dumb look on Yaku's face.

"Ah, yes. Nekoma's former libero, no?" You said with a soft smile, directed at the blond male in front of you.

"Y-yes. H-hi. I'm Yaku- I mean... you already knew that." Yaku stuttered out, rubbing his nape with a sheepish smile. You laughed, finding yourself charmed by the stuttering and the small blush that lit up the libero's cheeks.

"It's nice to meet you finally, Yaku. Shouyou has talked a lot about you and your skills. I hope to see it in action." You said before Shouyou moved you along and introduced you to Bokuto, who was physically vibrating in excitement.

His eyes never left your figure until it was time for practice, and you bet that Shouyou noticed it.

*****

Notes:

Yaku never approached you after the initial introduction.

He was too shy and he knows that he will stutter even more.

The last thing he needed was for him to look more of a fool in front of you than he already is.

Kuroo is crying because he didn't get the chance to meet you.

Calling you as his friend hurts Shouyou more than he would admit, but he knows that there's a good reason for it so he ignores the pain.

You and Ushijima dated. That's it. That's the tweet.

Okay but for real, You and Ushijima dated starting the latter half of your first year until 6 months before graduation.

It was a mutual break up. You know you'd be busy with your work and he'd be busy with volleyball, so to avoid anything from getting toxic, you just let each other go.

You did truly love each other though.

The love is gone now, and when you both look back, all you can see is fondness and good memories.

Sakusa is actually very thankful for Ushijima's ex, which is you. He knew that he wasn't easy to deal with, and he knew that Ushijima learned the patience to deal with him from you.

You definitely think that Yaku is cute.

but...

past relationship problems, and no, it's not Ushi.

Shouyou had been talking about Yaku for years. Especially to you.

If you didn't know it, you'd think that the ginger was in love with Yaku.

But no.

he's just trying to entice you to get to know Yaku better lmao.

Kenma and Akaashi are in awe of Yaku's luck beause??

What are the odds that the cute person he found at an airport was You??

PS. More drama is coming soon.

[trashmenace]

Star Fighters by Robert E. Mills

Star Fighters

Star Quest 2 by Robert E. Mills 1978 Belmont Tower

The second in the series. I haven't read the first but the lengthy recap made me feel like I'd somehow seen it a thousand times. An orphan, a princess, a space pirate, and his animal-like copilot join a space wizard to oppose an evil emperor and his  henchman lord.

I can't complain about this being a blatant Star Wars rip off since that was what I was in the market for.  I'm a sucker for films like Starcrash or The Humanoid and I'm disappointed there aren't more action oriented science-fantasy novels out there.

Conceptually there's a lot I like better than Star Wars here.  The dark emperor Ylang-Ylang is an incorporeal evil force, a bit like Sauron, who absorbs and psychically tortures those around him, include his masochistic followers such as the four armed reptilian Lord Blorg.  The Fellowship of Light are overpowered Jedi, capable of mind controlling enemy captains to self-destruct entire fleets.  And the chosen one orphan, Dann Oryzon, was raised by dolphins rather than moisture farmers.

The first novel had the advantage of being able to copy the plot as well as the characters. The Empire Strikes Back didn't come out for two more years, and Belmont Tower probably barely had time to rip off the title for the back cover before printing - I believe the first teasers with the Empire title were from August, 1978.

Weirdly, there are a handful of elements that were similar to Empire: the Luke character gets seriously injured, a love triangle rivalry is developed with the Princess (Lady Nila), the Han character (Red Rian) has to land his Millennium Falcon on a hostile planet for repairs after being chased by overwhelming Imperial forces, the team is seemingly double-crossed by a loveable rogue who is actually on their side all along.

Of course this is just coincidence and requires a bit of intellectual stretching. Empire was still being written and Lucas stole his ideas from classier fare like Kurosawa and Far Out Space Nuts.

There is almost no plot and almost nothing happens.  There's a lengthy recap, page after page of folks just hanging out, until finally almost something happens. The baddies develop advanced shielding which makes their fleet invulnerable. They shoot down the Hazard, which crash lands for emergency repairs.

The heroes land on a planet with an Aztec like society, including human sacrifice. They fix the ship, develop a workaround for the shields, and blow stuff up.  The sparse action was confusing, to the point where fights went from spaceship battles to fisticuffs with no sense that anybody landed and disembarked their craft.

The original Star Wars trilogy excelled at having an ensemble cast, a smart move given how unlikeable the lead was. To the extent that anything happened, it happened to Red Rian and a character without an analogue to Star Wars, young engineer Ween Leever. Dann is in a coma most of the time, Lady Nila only pops in to tease which point of the triangle she's going to choose, and the two robots are only in the first part of the book to shame Red Rian for his space racism.

Some interesting concepts, but botches the execution.

Paperback from AbeBooks

[batfam-adventures]

(Commentary and thoughts on the problem with certain anti tags and frankly anti tags in general, be warned)

I'm going to be honest, there is nothing that infuriates me more than those who attack a ship, or a character as abusive for the reason of banter, poor writing verging on character assassination or astonishing reasons as one character being created to be a beard for the other.

To give an example, the TimSteph ship has attracted a lot of hate recently because apparently one of the two is abusive towards the other (mostly Steph).

Now, I'm not against preferring another ship to that one, such as StephCass or TimKon, or feeling that Steph has basically had a lot of her agency taken away recently, reducing her to just Tim's girlfriend and that causing people to distance themselves from the relationship, those are all fair enough reasons to not really like the ship. Even feeling like there is no chemistry is a reason, that I disagree with, but can respect.

What I can't respect are some of the reasons given for hating the ship.

To give an example, one tumblr outright stated that part of the reason (though not all of it) they hated Steph was because she was created by a homophobe (Chuck Dixon who IS conservative at the very least) to serve as beard for Tim.

Ignoring for a second that Tim is explicity sexually attracted to women (though considering the run that made that clearest was FabNic's version of Red Robin, I can understand not knowing about it), Steph was originally created to be a one-off character, it was fan popularity that caused her to return AND become a love interest for Tim. Even ignoring that, Tim was dating another girl named Arriana, which didn't work out for various reasons, the least of which was his constant absences to perform his duties as Robin.

Speaking of FabNic, it was his run as writer for Robin that is most often brought up when giving reasons to hate Steph and call her abusive. A run that was basically a rush job, when Dixon left DC again for unrelated reasons, where FabNic proceeded to write Steph hire Scarab of all people to fight Tim non-lethally after promising Batman to make him better. I'm going to be honest, I hated the idea of this to begin with, but someone pointed out how stupidly out of character Steph hiring Scarab was given that A) she would definitely not have the contacts to pull it off, and B) Scarab was the entire reason Steph got fired as Robin, resulting in a lot of trauma for her and I have to agree.

Combined with Steph being portrayed as unusually incompetent and her motivations being glossed over and it really reads like either A) FabNic had a vendetta against her character, meaning her character was hurt again almost immediately after being finally getting a break and having her incredibly spiteful death retconned or B) he was in such a rush due to being brought in to write the final arc of Robin in a hurry when Dixon left, that he didn't think his ideas through, and just wanted to get rid of Tim's supporting cast quickly and finish things up for the next writer to have a clean slate, causing him to write that mess of an arc.

To anyone unfamiliar with FabNic's work, the exact same thing happened in Red Robin when the Nu52 was about to happen, so he ended up butchering an entire arc he had planned, Tim's character suffering from an abrupt shift in coldness again when he was getting better and left the series on a frankly unsatisfying cliffhanger. So, I can completely see that as being what happened.

Now as for those who say that Steph's banter with Tim is cruel and abusive. This is something he canonically said very shortly before their relationship started.

So Tim definitely gave as good as he got.

Though this is nothing to what he once said to his first girlfriend, Arianna.

Not that I believe for a second Tim is actually sexist, but his banter can be unusually and unintentionally aggressive at times.

Now I'm not going to say a word about most of Yost's Red Robin run, but what helps is that Tim is not being portrayed as being in the right with many of his actions and gets called out as such, plus he was written pretty clearly to be in a mentally bad place.

Otherwise I and probably a lot of Tim's fans, hate the Batman jr. Character arc every writer (but Dixon ironically) seemed to have fixated on him having, making him become positively humourless for quite a while (especially in Teen Titans, but to be honest there are many fans of the YJ team who hated that run.) Which basically started with Steph and his dad's deaths by the way.

I'm not going to deny Tim and Steph had their fair share of drama before War Games, most notably the power imbalance caused by Tim knowing Steph's name, but being unable (yes, unable) to give her his. Tim had a reason for not telling Steph, Bruce making him promise not to, and he kept that promise even with the YJ team, and even made it clear that Steph couldn't know if they entered a relationship. That's all fair enough, even if Tim had a nasty habit of reminding Steph he knew her name while they were out in the open, putting her identity at risk and knew she hated it.

The stalking was caused when Tim implied he personally knew a girl they rescued, causing Steph to realise just how unbalanced their relationship was, since Tim could be cheating on her without her knowing due to the double life (and had in fact done so to his previous girlfriend Arianna, with Steph).

Which lets be honest, is also completely understandable as their relationship couldn't work long-term without it being equal knowledgewise.

Think about it, you're in a relationship with someone who refuses to tell you his real name, you may be able to recognise him without his mask on, but have no idea he goes to the same school as you since he makes sure to avoid you while simultaneously keeping an eye on you.

Tim himself realised this, since when Batman leaked his secret without his permission, he eventually made it clear he didn't blame Steph and that he should have been open with her when it began to trouble her.

As for Steph coming on to him when he had a girlfriend and wasn't interested, well this is what caused her to crush on him...

He had just been traumatised by being trapped underground with Cluemaster (brrr.) So kissing her in relief when he had a girlfriend was understandable, but it's also understandable that Steph thought he was interested in her especially since he never mentioned a girlfriend.

Amd Tim clearly cared for her in some way regardless judging from this page when Steph was kidnapped a few issues later.

As for Steph only being in love with Robin... the problem is that Steph made it clear once that she didn't care if Tim quit and she'd love him all the same.

So, no, I don't think Tim and Steph was an abusive ship, it might not be your cup of tea, but it's certainly not abusive, especially when written by a writer who isn't being rushed or got a lot on his plate.

As a side-note, it's worth noting that due to how the Tumblr Search Engine works, people not looking for Anti Tags, and instead quite the opposite, still end up finding them on occassion, so yes, they have a right to be annoyed and complain in private conversations.

I'm sorry if this devolved into a rant, but many anti threads have a nasty habit of focusing only on the bad, even when that bad isn't consistent characterisation. Whether we like the Character or not, we need to remember that having so many writers means that the Character will be screwed up occasionally. How many times has Batman learn not to be a jerk only to return to be a jerk almost immediately? How many times has Green Arrow gotten his act together only for another writer to have him return to cheating on Black Canary again?

We have to concede that any character can be screwed up by the wrong writer and we shouldn't hold that against them, especially when the stuff we don't like doesn't consistently happen.

[heyitsbugette]

Todobug: Fallen lover.

The spotted heroine was out with her team for a regular round of patrol, finding herself just a few meters from the girls to plan the rute alongside Chat Noir. She constantly ignored his attentions, but when he took her hand trying to kiss the back, with her opposite she invoked a lucky charm out of curiosity, winning a small spray bottle with which she sprayed on his feline friend.

──── Bad Kitty! Behave! Behave!

She exclaimed, spraying her partner, watching him contract through the water as if he were a small cat taking a bath, making her laugh mockingly next to the turtle hero who stayed next to them contracting against his stomach to laugh at the blonde’s childish reactions. Lately the heroes have gotten much closer as the meetings get more and more enjoyable, sometimes taking a few breaks to chat or joke with each other.

This was one of those days, being a fairly quiet time to afford that luxury that on rare occasions they could joke around. For today the only ones who were absent were Viperion, Roi Singe, and Pegase, but soon it would be their turn on the night patrol. And while both boys were organizing to cover ground next to Ladybug, it was that both Rena Rouge and Queen Bee looked puzzled at the initial duo of heroes at the same time while Ryuko sitting on a pile of bricks next to them sharpened her sword patiently without much interest.

It wasn't until the beautiful-looking blonde snorted as she touched up her lipstick that when she uttered a word, she broke the ice, paying attention to her reflection in the portable mirror that she carried with her even in battle. And at once her lips took on a little more color, she looked out of the corner of her eye at the heroine in a fox costume, ready to start conversation.

──── And ... Are you sure these two are just friends? Huh, I'm suspecting that the Ladybug's alleged boyfriend scandal is actually fake news of that infamous Alec Cataldi guy.

The blonde wasn't exactly discreet when she looked away from her mirror to turn and look skeptically at the dynamic duo fighting childishly as they calmed down to begin their part of the patrol, both walking away with Carapace jumping from roof to roof.

Instead, the young Japanese woman who calmly held her sword, settled into her seat crossing her legs with a quick movement. For a few thoughtful moments, she rested her gaze indifferently on her mate, while resting both hands on the handle of her sword, glancing sideways at the direction in which her superiors were leaving.

──── Believe it or not, she is in a relationship with Todoroki-san, and we must respect that, Queen Bee. It is not very honorable that you speak of him like this when he is not present to defend himself.

It was her answer said with a little bit of hostility, since clearly the foreigner hated gossip and to people talking cowardly behind them back. She did not know the guy in question well enough to consider him a friend, but he had been cordial in those events in which their parents had coincided.

Of course, it was a shock to learn that he was the mysterious boy Chat Noir was constantly complaining about standing between him and “his lady”. However, she couldn't blame them for their relationship being now seen in the public eye, after how an annoying low morality TV presenter had exposed the couple without their consent, robbing them of the opportunity to reveal their relationship when they were ready. It was so unpleasant, but she remembered with satisfaction how the Ladyblogger reported such an invasion of privacy on her blog, causing so much backlash to the man.

Some karma was dealt after that.

And although her words were almost interrupted by a fox lady in a bright orange suit, far from being annoyed, she continued her own business by returning her attention to the weapon even as she paid attention to the girl who questioned her words.

──── As much as I hate the shit Cataldi pull on them, the guy don't give me good vibes... I mean he's stupidly cold even with her. It seems he doesn't even care that Ladybug is in love with him!

The fox's heroine commented annoyed, while the blonde bee buzzed with excitement, agreeing with the words of her comrade. Neither of them seemed to believe Endeavor's son as the one for Ladybug, the national angel of France.

──── I know damn right the guy is hot, I'm not blind. But he's so... Uninteresting that he loses his charm. I think we all agree that our little bug can easily get someone better, my Adrikins is dying for her and I don't blame him, I don't even know who to be jealous of.

The blonde commented in a playful tone while she fixed some strands of hair ruffled by the wind, and putting on the final touches of the lipstick with her hand mirror, she closed the end at once to cross her arms later. It was obvious that her words were anything but kind, because even when Rena agreed that her heroine should seek someone else, it was equally clear that she did not approve of being so cruel when speaking of the aspiring hero. Chloe, on the other hand, was still taking small steps to be friendlier, but the change was gradual and she didn't avoid releasing hurtful comments on rare occasions.

No one refuted anything, it was not worth it and among the three they ended up leaving finally once their rest ended, ready to resume their patrol, perhaps hopefully catching up with the rest of their teammates.

Todoroki Shoto was just leaving the Le Grand Paris, where he was staying with his family, his father apparently had work pending in Paris and they would be spending the summer outside of Japan.

He keeping silent and walking beside his older brother for as long as their paths coincided, after all he did not plan to follow him any longer; he had his own plans going. He had reserved a table in a restaurant that was close to her girlfriend's home, clearly paying with his old man's credit card with the bonus of bothering him, and of course thanks to his action he ended up earning a tremendous shout from the older one, but that did not matter, he just wanted to pamper his beloved.

──── So.. Have any plans, kid?

Asked the curious albino while chilling at the side of his brother. He and his penpal Luka Couffaine would hang out at the mall and then go to the disco store, it was clear that he wanted to see if the youngest of the family was free to accompany them.

──── I'm going out with my girlfriend once she comes back from patrolling with her team.

He answered calmly, taking out his phone when he felt it vibrate for a few seconds, surely his sister had called him to scold him for what he did with the credit card, but from seeing the angry expression on the older man's face he could say that it was worth it worth the scolding.

──── Ah? So, are you're really dating? I thought you were joking when you told us.

The college student spoke with a little laugh, noticing how his sibling looked at him confused. Suddenly the punk looking teenager gave him a discreet push with his shoulder to shut him up, an action that made him finally react.

And it was not for less, he had really been surprised to hear the albino's words, which shows with his changing facial expression. And while the double quirked teen questioned his words with his typical seriousness, it was remarkable for the man, for his slipt he keeps laughing nervously and even uncomfortably at the heterochromatic stare.

──── And… why did you think that?

──── Hey, chill... I didn't mean it like that, but you guys don't really seem like a couple. You know, you don't show it much. B-But I know you must love her a lot, of course!

Realizing how insensitive his words were, as well as how prejudiced he sounded when saying them, Natsuo ended up hiding behind a certain guitarist who shook his head gently and placed his arm between the two boys in a crude attempt at protection in what they both looked like. Instead of getting angry, the half redhead hung his head in surprise, grimacing seconds later, looking at them this time with a frown, clearly offended and annoyed.

──── Don't take it the wrong way, Shoto. You know that Natsuo can be somewhat naive and reckless, it was not his intention to offend you.

──── See you tomorrow, Couffaine…

Without saying anything else, he turns away into the flower shop, leaving behind the guys with whom he had had a bitter revelation. It was the only thing he said, annoyingly walking away in the opposite direction. Didn't they really seem like a real couple? The young man knew that he was not very expressive with his feelings, but he never thought it would be so bad. He continued his walking now without much encouragement, looking even more serious than usual if that was possible, but he was still determined to prove to himself that Natsuo was wrong. Perhaps if he made an effort to make his night with her girlfriend perfect, he could show his love for her, although it was difficult for him to show his feelings. But that did not mean that he wouldn't do his best to try.

So, he continued walking until he reached the picturesque place, entering and buying a bouquet of flowers, cheering up little by little. He left the place much calmer, even motivated, eager to meet his dear ladybug; but it was not until he heard three female voices talking about him and his lovely girfriend without any hesitation, that without being able to avoid it with strangeness he raised his face to watch the heroines speak from the roof of the building animatedly, being the blonde the loudest among the three.

Little by little he felt worse and worse with each word. Was he such a bad boyfriend? Marinette thought the same as her friends?

Once the heroines left the Japanese boy sat on one of the benches, leaving his bouquet of flowers beside him, running his hands over his hair. Maybe they were right, maybe he was giving less to the relationship than his girlfriend deserved, maybe he was throwing her into the arms of another guy with his attitude. Suddenly he felt an upset stomach just thinking about it, it wasn't a nice feeling.

At the same time his discomfort was escalating and frustrated, he bent down looking at the bouquet of roses with an unsatisfied gaze, remembering how the cat hero used to give her a flower every day during the time that his relationship with her was a secret to the public. He remembered the jealousy he repressed every time Chat Noir tried to seduce his heroine, every flirtatious and cheesy nickname said in the midst of battles, as even when she rejected him, he was still motivated to win her love.

He recalled the mistrust he had for Luka when he mentioned his feelings for a certain baker's daughter, but he quickly dispelled his insecurities when he knew that Couffaine would never try anything with her. In his words he remembered how the eldest simply said that “her melody had found her own rhapsody,” whatever that meant. It was much worse when he find out about the past feelings his Maribug used to have towards Adrien Agreste, but detesting him made him feel guilty, the boy was also too kind for his own good.

He needed advice, it was not a good sign to be so insecure or jealous. But he was just a confused teenager in his first relationship, they couldn't blame him for his inexperience.

Todoroki Shoto, Memories. A couple days ago.

During finals a certain pigtail lady had sneaked to Japan with the equine kwami’s help, of course, she missed her long-distance boyfriend as much as she knows he missed her too, and surprising her lover from behind she didn’t hesitate into hugging him sideways, laughing and playing with their noses in an soft Eskimo kiss. A couple minutes later, he took her by the waist just to give his girlfriend room to sit on his lap, while both kwamis hovered curiously around the room towards one of the hero magazines.

──── Not that it bothers me for you to come see me, actually I enjoy it, but what are you doing here?

──── I needed a break ... If I hear Lila say how she introduced you to Ladybug again, I will lose my patience, mon trésor.

With a snort the young woman let herself lean on her lover's shoulder, listening to him laugh vaguely with that unmistakable grimace on his lips, without a doubt the double quirk teen was just as entertained of the situation than he should be.

──── She's still into her fantasies? Should I be scared?

──── Not worth it.

In a mocking tone the eldest played with his beloveds’ lips, approaching to touch them tenderly just to move away when his muse deigned to reciprocate. From one moment to the next, he earned her frown, and it was when he saw her pout that he finally let himself be caught, feeling the plump and pink lips against his, sharing the cherry flavor of her usual chapstick.

When closing his eyes in duo with his sun sunshine girl, one of his hands fixed on her cheek tenderly as he passed his thumb over the blush, while in an ephemeral separation to discharge his heavy breath in a second, they again kissed again. Much more shy tan before.

──── Please come tomorrow… If not, who's going to kick my ass in Ultimate Mecha Strike?

Little could he know that his scattered thoughts made Gabriel Agreste smile with discretion, as he, after sending one of his models to their wardrobe test in the care of their star designers, was that he hung up the call by video-chat once he delegated the activities of the day to Nathalie and went calmly towards the portrait of his beloved Emilie, caressing gracefully the illustration on her lips, in a silent conversation with himself.

He would have another chance to save her.

──── Oh, disappointment and jealousy ~ Powerful feelings from the hand of the lover that will bring my victory ... Simply poetic. Get ready, Ladybug! It will be the person who has your very own heart who will bring your defeat to me. So, fly my little Akuma, and possess Endeavor's son!

Ignorant of what was happening, were his racing heartbeats and his concern about losing the girl he had fallen in love with, without notice he caught the attention of a certain villain who triumphantly prepare one of his akumas to leave outside of his lair as he walked in the direction of his butterfly window ready for send his tiny henchman in search of the tormented teenager boy whose peace was disturbed. Humming, Hawkmoth smiled poisonously, capturing in his hands the tiny being whom he filled with negative energy, and in the end commanding them with his stick for catch his target.

Earlier when news of the heroine's romance leaked, he simply didn't rush into acting. He wasn't an idiot, he knew how dangerous it was to villainize the wrong people at the wrong time, he learned it the hard way with certain failed villains. But now, it was the perfect timing for him.

The akuma fluttered from the sky until found the source of such intense negative feelings, it could feel them for miles, and when the time came it was easier to be able to catch him without being noticed. Without missing the opportunity to melt into the bouquet of roses that the brokean hearted boy held so sadly, linking without opportunity to fight in a forced communication with the most feared villain in Paris at the moment when the butterfly communicator managed to get a surprised sigh out of him.

──── Greetings, Heartstroke. I am your friend, Hawkmoth. I have felt your fear of losing the love of your heroine, as everyone sees you as an obstacle. I promise to give you the power to punish whoever dares to take her away from you, and prove them wrong... But there is something you must do for me in return.

His words were poisonous, said with false concern and artificial charisma, selling to his victim the idea that would solve their problems once and for all, but the minor's doubt internally annoyed the criminal, he hated when his victims became resistant.

──── No, I won't give you her miraculous…

──── Don't be naive, son. Every Ladybug is destined for her Black Cat. Creation and destruction cannot live without the other. I offer you the opportunity to free her from her destiny. And what do you say? Do you accept my offer?

The half albino quickly covered his ears, while biting his trembling lip closed at the same time, he closed his eyes, unable to resist the intense connection with Hawkmoth any longer. But with each spoken word he felt increasingly furious, helpless, more insecure. To Paris, he was just a busybody, someone who kept Ladybug away from her one true love, the one who truly cared about her; as with every threatening mail they insinuated that he should get away and look for someone else, that he should stop confusing Lady luck's feelings. He couldn't handle it anymore, he was only human after all, and naturally he was selfish.

Selfish for wanting a future with her.

──── It will be a pleasure, Hawkmoth.

With a simple scaling flash of light, the bicolor eyed boy’s body was enveloped until it disappeared into a new metamorphosis, a different appearance drifted away from his usual looks.

Goodbye Todoroki Shoto, let's meet Heartstroke.