#Well - made it to postgame anyhow

[sysig]

I can’t see a damn thing

[finsterkiibo]

ive always headcanoned that keebo is somewhat genderfluid, comfortable with any gender being applied to him yet also sometimes having a preference whilst also remaining like.. generally gnc, because robot,

and i wondered if you have any headcanons like that for kiibo and shuichi! or maybe just put a ramble about them for this ask i dont mind and just want to get my saiibo brainworms fed

HI ANON!!!!! THANK YOU FOR THIS QUESTION!! it made me realize i haven’t explained my wonderful kiibo gender worms here on tumblr yet ehehe

though I don’t usually discuss gender and/or sexuality headcanons cuz I LOVEE when other people project their own headcanons onto my art, I also love getting the chance to talk about my own headcanons every once in awhile, so thank you!!!!

so, we all know mettaton, right? the pretty robot from undertale? the man himself, iconic even years later, his wondrousness still filling the minds of many today? WELL we all know he’s trans, correct? going from a genderless ghost to his true self as a robot. WELL, I SEE KIIBO BEING TRANS IN THE SAME SORT OF WAY YKNOW. I really adore the idea that kiibo was made with zero gender in mind, idabashi leaving it up for kiibo to decide whenever the time came. raising him purely genderless for several years (neutral pronouns, clothes, and the like) until he decided on his own that he prefers to be masculine presenting/refered to as a man, and idabashi immediately respected that and started raising him as a man! building more masculine outer armor, helping change kiibos voice if he wished for it, more masculine clothing and uniforms for school, stuff of that sort! (though after becoming more comfortable, especially postgame after he’s rebuilt and doesn’t have to deal with that pesky over armor from ingame, i see him dressing more gnc, just wearing what he likes and not caring whether it’s considered masculine or not, he’s very comfortable in his own masculinity!!!!!)

basically as a huge tldr i headcanon kiibo as a trans man in the same way that mettatons a trans man!!!!!!!

and as a bonus, in AUs where i make kiibo a human/not robot he’s an intersex trans man!!! again, raised genderless until he realized on his own that hes a man :3

wish i had some huge elaborate headcanon paragraphs for shuichi too but he is simply the most bisexual disaster ever and that is all LMAOO most unintentionally gnc cisgender man in my brain

as a little saiibo bonus though, i like the idea that kiibo unintentionally and maybe sometimes intentionally helps shuichi become more comfortable in his own masculinity postgame too, helping his confidence in dressing more freely n such :DD i feel like he’d always feel this pressure to wear more masculine uniforms and such when he goes out due to his more feminine appearance, but seeing kiibo dress without a care in the world really inspires shuichi to do the same!!!!

ANYHOW, THANK YOU ANON!!! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE RAMBLE!!!! I REALLY DO LOVE GETTING THE CHANCE TO BRING OUT MY REALLY OBSCURE HEADCANONS EHEHE

[teefa85]

Well, got through the postgame chapter tonight. And made a Mythic Cookie/Opulent Incense combo last stupidly long...

...by that I mean I popped 'em right before fighting Du'Inke and then quickly went boss to boss and made it last for all four of them AND Passar's little monster ambush! If Iain's room wasn't in the ass end of the palace's top floor and you can't fast travel to it (only the door to the palace itself), I might have gotten the one enemy unit in the back area of Ulul on that Incense too.

Sadly, with only one monster group there, despite them being much higher leveled than the one in the Sanctuary, it's less feasible to do any grinding there! Heck, I debate just getting the last levels to finish my characters off on NG+ where I can get it off boss EXP in the late game.

EDIT: A quick search online revealed that all of Ulul has boosted the level of mobs so I'll just grind there.

Anyhow, I am not surprised Passar was behind the whole postgame mess! He was the only loose end we hadn't cleared up yet. I should be surprised he was the one who caused the Etearn tragedy, but I'm not. Him getting eaten was extreme karmic payback that keeps our heroes' hands clean of killing an unarmed douchebag!

Leveling a bit and going for the fuzzy pest after. Tried, so as not to waste my incense/cookie on cutscene walking, but wasn't yet strong enough to take it out.

[drinktouch05-blog]

How the Celtics can salvage a confounding season

How the Celtics can salvage a confounding season originally appeared on nbcsportsboston.com

The 2018-19 Boston Celtics might be one of the most confounding NBA teams in recent memory. 

It's a group bursting at the seams with talent and one that has proven itself capable of hanging with the league's elite, and yet they routinely struggle against inferior competition. It's a team with championship aspirations and yet they've lingered in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff seedings for nearly the entire season. It's a team helmed by a coach that preaches a never-too-high, never-too-low philosophy and yet players have been prone to wild swings in emotion based on the team's performance.

Game 60 was the perfect microcosm of this team. Coming off a one-point loss to a Milwaukee Bucks team with the best record in the NBA, the Celtics were listless against the 15-win Chicago Bulls, falling behind by 25 and suffering a double-digit loss Saturday to a team it beat by 56 on the same court two months earlier.

After the game, Celtics coach Brad Stevens suggested he's got to be better. Kyrie Irving put a spin move on his sometimes-critical postgame chatter and boldly declared the Celtics were just trying to get to the playoffs, where he didn't see a team that could beat Boston in a seven-game playoff series. Al Horford followed by suggesting that this team can't just expect to flip a switch. Marcus Smart kept screaming into a chasm about needing more effort from a team that's clearly not willing to work to be great in the regular season.

The NBA playoffs begin in 47 days. The Celtics might get bounced in Round 1, or they might surge to the NBA Finals. Good luck trying to forecast this team. But there's still time for redemptions.

MORE FROM CHRIS FORSBERG

There's also a lot of work to do and it's unclear if this team is willing to put in the work to salvage a maddening season.

Boston's inconsistencies, and players' often overly emotional reactions to the bumps in the road, have worn on the team's fan base. The Celtics were easy to wrap your arms around in past seasons, the spunky overachievers who routinely overcame adversity to outkick expectations. This group seems sometimes stressed by the burden of expectations and can't easily move past adversity. This team's ability to better endure turbulence might ultimately dictate just how far it can surge, and whether it can win over fans by showing the sort of mental toughness that's been the hallmark of Stevens' teams in past years.

Some thoughts on the hot-button issues surrounding the team and what needs to happen for this team to find the consistency it's lacked: 

How much blame falls on Brad Stevens?

After the loss in Chicago, Stevens said he's disappointed in himself and needs to do a better job coaching this team. Was he trying to take some heat off his players, or genuinely frustrated with his own performance? Probably a little bit of both.

Ultimately, when a team doesn't live up to its potential and struggles with consistency, that falls back on the coach. Stevens has been resistant to wholesale changes, in part because, in the bigger picture, the Celtics have played well the past three months. Injuries have complicated that process, too, and it's fair to wonder if little things like having defensive-minded energy-giver Aron Baynes available would cure a bit of what has ailed Boston's reserve groups. Alas, this post-All-Star speed bump might be providing an opportunity for Stevens to test some lineup tweaks with the goal of finding the units that work best.

Stevens has said he needs to hold his players accountable when they don't play to the expected standard. While he - more than anyone, especially given this team's temperament - has to be careful to not make overreactions, the final 22 games offer one last chance to see if small alterations can promote a bit more consistency.

How much blame falls on Terry Rozier?

No player finds themselves more in the crosshairs of Celtics fans at the moment than Terry Rozier. Some of it is justified: Boston's net rating with Rozier on the court in February is minus-5.8 (and that number spikes to plus-5.0 when he's off the court). Over those nine games, Rozier is shooting 34.2 percent while hoisting 9.1 shots over 23.8 minutes per game. Over the last four games - including two in his typically jolting starter role - Rozier has made just 5 of 26 shots (19.2 percent), including just 2 of 13 3-pointers (15.4 percent). 

Story continues

But to put the Celtics' struggles on Rozier alone is grossly unfair. Yes, he's struggled to figure out how to consistently impact games this season, particularly in a reserve role with the return of Irving. For the season, he has the lowest on-court net rating among all Celtics regulars at plus-0.6, and that number spikes to a team-best plus-10.5 when he's on the bench.

Stevens might need to reel Rozier in when he gets a bit reckless with his shot attempts, as he did in the second quarter of Saturday's loss in Chicago. But Rozier is too talented to simply phase out. Imported rookie Brad Wanamaker can give a nice jolt of energy and effort in small doses but it's hard to know if he could have a sustained impact in bigger minutes. The Celtics rotation is going to crunch down closer to the playoffs and ultimately the playing time for reserves like Rozier will be dictated by just how impactful those players can be in smaller chunks. Stevens shouldn't be bashful in tightening rotations at times late in the season.

Should the Celtics make a lineup change?

Stevens doesn't like how much reporters tend to fixate on the starting 5. He's routinely pointed to how fluid that group has been during the postseason with the coaching staff unafraid to make tweaks to best match up with an opponent (see also: starter Gerald Green). It's fair to wonder if there will be matchups this postseason where Boston might deploy a healthy Baynes to add some beef to the front line and limit the wear on Al Horford. It's all part of the chess match.

The question, in the interim, is whether Boston should consider a lineup tweak before the postseason. The Celtics entered the season hoping to lean on a starting 5 of Irving, Horford, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Gordon Hayward. It didn't work and the struggles of that 5 played heavily into Boston's lackluster start. The team found more success after Smart and Marcus Morris were shuffled into the starting group.

MORE CELTICS

Keeping Hayward with the reserve group is intriguing for staggering purposes as the Celtics would probably desire to keep one of Hayward and Irving on the court at all times in the postseason. But with both Smart and Morris cooling off, it seems fair to wonder if Stevens should experiment with moving Hayward and/or Brown back to starting roles.

The Celtics' current starting 5 (Irving, Smart, Tatum, Morris, Horford) has been excellent, owning a plus-11.6 net rating in 378 minutes of floor time overall. Among high-volume 5-man groups, they are one of the most efficient in the league. But in the six games they've played together in February, that group is down to plus-1.8 net rating over 95 minutes. 

What's more, Smart and Morris have seen their efficiencies plummet this month. Over nine games in February, the Celtics own net ratings of minus-6.6 (Smart) and minus-2.6 (Morris) with the Marcuses. What's more, Boston is plus-7.5 or better when either is off the court.

It could just be a blip for two players that have each endured little slumps. But it might also be opening the door for Stevens to experiment, even if the goal of any swap might be more to solidify the second-quarter lulls the team is enduring when reserve lineups are on the court.

Can the Celtics win in Toronto? Does playoff seeding matter to Boston?

The Celtics visit the Toronto Raptors in another East showdown on Tuesday night. Boston hasn't won north of the border since April 4, 2015. To put that in perspective, Smart is the only player on the roster from that night, a game in which his tip-in at the buzzer lifted Boston to a 117-116 overtime victory. You'd have to rewind to the pre-Stevens era to find the last win in Toronto before that.

Winning on the road is going to be essential for the Celtics and there's a strong case to be made that Toronto is the most daunting of playoff matchups for Boston should those two line up. While seeding adds an obvious layer of difficulty to Boston's postseason odyssey, it would seem playing at a high level is paramount at the moment.

Still, Tuesday is a chance to clear a mental hurdle about playing in Toronto.

The Celtics have made their playoff path all the more daunting with their inconsistent nature. They are not catching the Raptors or Bucks so the focus has to be on balancing the push to get ahead of Philadelphia or Indiana. Being rested and playing at a high level should trump the seedings push.

Can this team really flip a switch likely Kyrie suggested?

There's certainly something to the notion that the refresh button that arrives on April 9 could aid Boston. Nothing the team accomplished during the regular season was going to matter in how this team is ultimately judged anyhow.

Boston's inconsistencies will simply become part of their journey if they can turn things on in the postseason. What's clear, though, is that they must become better at handling adversity - whether that's a tough loss, or a tough in-game run - if they're going to find that success.

Irving is going to be particularly motivated in the postseason and Boston has proven itself capable of pushing elite competition. Maybe that's why Irving's narrative changed this week. The regular season has been mentally exhausting and, while he's putting pressure on himself by suggesting that the team will be OK in the playoffs because of his presence, he seemingly recognizes that the team has to get beyond the noise of the regular season.

Here's the good news: Despite all their inconsistencies, the Celtics have lingered near the top of ESPN's Basketball Power Index for most of the season. They sat third behind only the Warriors and Nuggets entering Monday's action. What's more, they remain in front of five teams with better overall records, including the Raptors team they trail by 6.5 games entering Tuesday's head-to-head matchup.

Which is to say: Boston is better than its record suggests. It simply can't get out of its own way sometimes.

There's plenty of work to be done to get where this team wants to go and they've made the journey more difficult than it needed to be. But maybe the reward will be sweeter given what they've endured. At least that's what they have to convince themselves.

Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device.

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-salvage-confounding-season-174228246.html?src=rss

[patrick-charles]

The Boston Dispatch

I first learn there are two dime-sized holes in the soles of my brown leather boots as we slosh down the narrow streets of Cambridge with our necks shrugged into our coats fighting off the sideways sleet of early April.

Winter came back to life in New England. Hands tucked deep inside coat pockets, the mess of a gray slushy winter lie dirty in the entrance of every bar and hotel lobby. The falling, freezing rain glitters in the sky. Cars ride by slowly as if navigating a flood, headlights guiding the way to safety.

We step off the curb near the Dunkin Donuts, the glorious coffee shop of the northeast, the purple and orange signs on every corner you turn, fueling an entire city, region and area. The country must run on this stuff.

Nearly every stop on the T is filthy, dirtier than I remember New York ever being. But it was a respectable kind of dirty, hard-earned and struggling, dependable and determined. The red line screeches to a halt at Porter Square and we pile on, heading into the heart of the city. A dimly lit pub has two open seats at the bar so we pony up and order our first bowl of clam chowder. The Friday crowd is happy and loud. I rub Sam’s leg, she skims her spoon on the surface of her soup with a silver smile.

It’s halftime at the Garden when we run into scalpers who have got two different box tickets in two different sections. I take a piss to think it over. We fork over $57 for the pair and find seats at center court next to a couple from Ireland in Celtics jerseys who secure us spots. Isiah Thomas does what he does and the C’s hang on in a one-point win. The stairwells are packed with green. The weather rains on the fans in t-shirts, guys take their girls back home, call cabs from the corner.

Inside a dive bar off Massachusetts Avenue a group of a dozen locals take up space at the center table, pulled three tables together to make room for pitchers of beer and pizzas. Not one of them on their phones. Instead they jaw and laugh and holler in those accents. Older men sit at the wraparound bar watching the Bruins postgame show. Our waitress slaps down a plate with Philly cheesesteak, a caesar salad and a tallboy of Harpoon’s IPA. We listen to the accents, grease up our fingers and watch winter come down in thick white pellets.

The next day we stand in line at a brewery for over an hour as it rains and temperatures fall below 30. Right on the harbor, major boats sit idle and wait for joys of summer. The line stretches on forever. We drink a flight of dark beers and can’t get buzzed fast enough. I have a hard time holding or walking, all my digits on the verge of falling off. My hands stay purple up to my wrists for an hour. We have dinner plans so we head out into the cold again, make one more pit stop for a Boston-only beer for Chris back at home and catch a bus across town.

Duck tacos, more chowder, shrimp and grits, glasses of water, big wide windows showing traffic. Rain dribbles down the glass. Sam across from me, shaking her head in delight and trying new foods, her favorite thing in the entire world. I’ve sat across her in these moments in dozens of cities across the country, tasting, picking, forking, nibbling, smiling, chewing, closes her eyes, the shake of her head and then that smile, like a light that wishes it could grow brighter with every bite.

The sun comes out the next day. We stroll along the green, blue and yellow houses of the northeast. We walk along ‘50s Boston. I feel as if I’m walking in Kerouac’s Lowell, in the midst of classic Americana with tiny sidewalks, big bushes out in the front yard, Victorian houses painted the colors of an autumn rainbow. The trees barren but pretty, the mailboxes full, cars in the compact driveways and garages, big wide windows with the greens of gardens and hanging plants. We walk slow and take it all in, get lost on purpose down the winding streets.

For lunch we eat gourmet bagels with almond butter and scallion cream cheese. Downtown, coming out of the train station, we spot a miniature blonde in a long white winter coat with flowing, thick blonde hair. She waves and smiles in sunglasses too big for her and runs across Causeway Street and gives Sam a long, tight, loving hug. Eleanor, all five feet of her, hasn’t lost a lick of her Tennessee drawl or southern charm. She smiles big, tosses her hair with her small hands and calls and Uber to catch our brunch reservations she made on the train ride down from Portland, Maine.

Strong mimosas in flute glasses, syrupy chicken on a plate, pizza with mozzarella and basil. Laughing from the two girls at the table, reminiscing of old friends years and miles away. What happened to our younger selves? Have we forgotten who we are, who we used to be, is it okay to feel old now? At only 25? They talk and ask about Megans, Sarahs, Rebeccas, girls I know and don't.

We step out into the sunlight with full bellies and walk our tired feet across town with coffee in paper cups. Street performers with kids dancing holding plastic instruments gather at Boston Common. The pond of summer is brown like sewage. The grass dull and dead, trees the same. Sidewalks are packed with strollers and healthy dogs on leashes. We sit on a wooden park bench and take in the movement of a city. A woman lays in a tree with her legs sprawled out in beige jeans and leafs through a novel. An Asian couple in Red Sox windbreakers nap on each other’s shoulders.

The crooked streets of North End spine through four story flats like an Al Pacino movie. I look for his handsome face as the sun sets on the buildings beyond downtown and over the river. A 90-year-old bakery on a corner is packed with patrons and cannolis. They make every dessert under the sun and they're all on display in dough-smeared glass cases. We grab $15 worth of treats and Sam and I finish them off with licked fingers as Eleanor boards her train back up north.

The Harvard Arboretum isn’t full with green life this time of year but we stroll hand-in-hand anyhow and imagine June in Massachusetts. A small creek runs through the stones. Kids play near the pond, geese gawk at their silliness.

The blue harbor matches the blue sky for a twilight walk along the water. The lights of the sky twinkle in a big way, a catch your breath and make sure you don’t forget how she walks and moves her neck across the street watching for reckless cabbies kind of way. That moment of the weekend that resembles the dreams you had when booking a flight across the country and the memories that linger forever. At the time I’m frustrated with tired knees at every Italian and seafood restaurant we pass up for an imaginary and perfect one. But looking back this was it, walking along in silence and taking it all in with my southern lover, with my two-and-a-half year lover, the one I’ve given the most time to, the scariest one, the one who knows me best out of anyone. She whispers the names of street signs to herself, biting nails, scarf around her neck, her small ears turning pink with fading winter.

Dinner is a disaster. We walk into a five-star jaunt wearing sweaters and sneakers. The hostess wears a suit. The owner with gray hair and grace asks us how the gnocchi is. I write a note to the staff on the receipt apologizing. Never did we both want to be out of a meal as fast as that one. Neither of us want to stand up to even take a leak. We slump out after a high-end dinner and hightail it out for another dirty subway ride back to Cambridge.

The first Monday in April means baseball, and Boston does their baseball right. Like in movies, TV shows, broadcasts of my youth, sitting in front of the TV watching and gawking at Fenway Park. I find it outside of a subway stop, men and women selling programs, juggling autographed balls, the same scalpers on the sidewalk now as the Garden. Cold beers in cans on the patio as the first-pitch roar of the crowd comes cascading over the Green Monster. A flight of IPAs on the other side of the block with the sun shining down, the glow of Boston goldening the small glasses of heavy beer with the crowds and chants and fans filling up the streets. Sam clinking her rings on the glasses, taking sips of beer and more chowder. Bostonians fill the street, happy with red hats and navy blue jerseys celebrating the first win of the season.

We end our last night in Boston drinking beers in a living room watching the NCAA championship game. Cambridge glows in the rain outside as we toss and turn on the air mattress.

Tuesday rains on us, the city bidding us farewell with more cold and clouds. The owner of the burger joint down the block wishes us well on our travels. On the bus to the airport Sam and I share a half hug-half kiss in front of sad strangers, traveling with the same Tuesday blues. The city sits beneath a falling puddle as planes wait for passengers at the gate.

Where did the days go? Where do adventures take us? Why do we long for them?

To see the way buildings are positioned together next to the ocean. To hear how people talk to each other with pints of beer in their hands. To taste clam chowder, duck tacos, Boston brewed beer and to hold hands on cobblestone streets tight enough so your palms sweat with love and excitement.

Boston did this for us, and so much more.

[ddrkirbyisq]

Things have been pretty okay!  I think the past few weeks have been some steps in the right direction, which feels nice. General Stuff I saw Kiki in a dream the other day.  I really wonder, what they think of me, how they are doing, and if I really will ever see them again.  Haha, well, not like that's anything new, anyways.  Only time will tell. It's better to prove yourself by following through, rather than offer promises. I've been thinking a lot about regaining more of a sense of my old self, and I think I've really started to get in touch with some things and made some realizations.  Perhaps most importantly, I have remembered that feeling of calm and peace that I carried in myself.  Not all the time, for there were also many periods of uncertainty, but those times when I would be content to just be.  I think that feeling is perhaps a large part of what I have been missing in recent times.  That mode where you are conscientious about everything you do, carefully placing your movements and actions as if you were performing tea ceremony.  I tried on Friday to return back to a time of quiet in my dance as well, and I think it taught me a lot.  It amused me a bit because it went against quite a few things that I have been preaching generally when I work with others on their dancing, yet I understood so clearly that this was also an essential duality of my nature, not something to be left behind entirely. Hoping to maybe mark the return of OHC and Monthlies next month =O Tactics Ogre Stuff Tactics Ogre (specifically, the One Vision mod) is proving to really be something that I have been sinking myself into...it's been pretty great.  Despite the fact that there are no sort of "cross-job skill combos" as there are in FFT (one of the funnest parts of FFT, IMHO), there is a LOT of opportunity for customization and flexibility in how you build out your squad and characters.  I've recently been exploring a bunch of these options to see what makes sense, and have learned quite a number of things along the way. One of the main customization options is equipment.  First off, there different =types= of armor, and you can only pick two at a time to wear: Body armor which offers the best defense but is heavier, Helms which are a bit lighter but still offer good defense, Legguards which focus more on evasion, and Gauntlets/gloves which forego defense in favor of upgrading your offensive stats.  But past that, there are different classes of each, with some jobs being limited to what they can wear.  The Ninja class, for example, only has access to light armor and caster robes, so he can't go in wearing heavy tank armor.  You could focus instead on boosting evasion, but that would still probably leave you soft to magic damage.  Knights, on the other hand, can wear heavy armor, and they can't use 2-handed swords, so they also have a shield to help with their defense. But wait -- there's more!  There are "sidegrades" (not upgrades) for both armor and weapons that let you make specific tradeoffs.  For example, you can craft gloves that sacrifice some of their strength bonus and give you a bonus to magic stats instead, for mage knights.  You can take a 2-handed sword and make it deal more damage, but at the expense of speed and accuracy.  You can take the avoidance bonus from legguards and replace it with a magic resistance bonus.  There's all sorts of flexibility! It's pretty interesting because in general when thinking about equipment, you want to maximize the unit's strengths, but also want to cover its weaknesses.  Previously I was taking a bit too much of a min-maxing approach and as a result many of my units were a bit too frail.  I tried to forego defense in favor of speed (allowing my units to act faster) and all-out offense (everyone had gloves!), but I've since had to scale back on that to avoid my units dropping like flies. Recently I've changed up a few of my builds significantly.  My two Valkyries/Spellblades (Rune Fencers), for example.  Valks are sort of a tricky unit to deal with since they can be front-line units but also can cast a limited selection of magic.  Previously I had them equipped with a one-handed sword or spear, and had them basically casting support buffs, as well as throwing items around -- basically full-on support units.  That worked out sort of ok, but the problem is that they were never super great at any of their roles -- if I wanted melee damage, my warriors and knights did better, and if I wanted healing, my priest can just sit in the back and heal from afar.  The support buffs were useful for a while, but nowadays the Sword dancer can actually apply them in a huge area (and I have him do that at the beginning of most battles to cover my team).  So right now I've changed things up so now my valks both have staves, as well as mage gloves and rings which boost their magic, so they are essentially mages, but a bit tankier so they don't have as many problems being in the front line.  This works pretty well because my lineup was actually fairly low on magic damage output, so this balances that out a bit. My priest (actually called a monk) sits in the back and pretty much just does healing.  Healing doesn't really scale with stats (confusingly enough) which means I'm actually optimizing her for speed, so she has no weapon!  That said, sometimes she also casts a speed buff on herself or someone else (very nice), or casts sleep on an opposing unit (also very useful). One unit I really haven't figured out how to work with is the Familiar, which is a faerie-exclusive unit.  This unit had problems in the original game as well, apparently.  It can cast healing magic, which lead me to basically use it as another cleric...though it can also cast a bit of offensive magic.  It also has a bunch of neat TP-requiring abilities, such as some nice debuffs and a large area heal...but the problem is that in order to gain TP you need to either deal or receive *physical* damage.  Unfortunately the Familiar is also really squishy and often dies if you put it in the front lines.  So it's sort of a weird conflict that I haven't figured out.  Right now I've tried giving it a dagger and shield, and an evasion cloak to boost its survivability.  It's still a bit awkward though, as if I need a heal, it's probably more important for it to heal.  And if it's attacking with its dagger, it's not doing a ton of damage or anything.  I could give it a one-handed bow, but again, that wouldn't really do a ton of damage.  It's a weird unit. Update: I've actually had a short discussion with the creator of the mod regarding the Familiar!  He says he hasn't gotten around to a full proper rework of the class and so right now it's a support-type unit with some mediocre stats, but also neat abilities, haha, which is sort of in line with what I figured out already.  I also discovered that besides faeries, you can also have gremlins (didn't realize for some reason they are a different race altogether) and pumpkinheads (!) become familiars, so perhaps I just have the wrong stats for the unit to be effective.  I'll have to try and recruit some more faeries/gremlins to see. I've changed up my winged human Canopus, which uses the "Vartan" class, as well.  Canopus has a pretty great mobility advantage in that he can fly, which makes a huge difference in many maps.  Previously I just gave him a two-handed axe and called it a day, but unfortunately as I got further on into the campaign, that led to him flying into the enemy, getting a great attack in, and then dropping dead soon after since he was super exposed and didn't have much protection -- Vartan can't equip heavy armor!  I also realized that it didn't make quite the most sense (?) to equip him with a melee weapon as he can't equip heavy gauntlets, so he can only wear the armguards that boost dex.  It's a bit confusing because dex DOES still increase melee damage as well, just not as much (well, it depends on the weapon, really).  It would be great if he could use a 2-handed bow or crossbow, but that option ended up being overpowered so it's actually not allowed in the mod (good reasoning).  Instead of a 1-handed bow I've actually just gone ahead and given him a throwing weapon -- so still a dex weapon, and still 1-handed so he can have a shield, but does more damage than a bow at the expense of having less range...which works out because he can easily fly behind enemy lines and get up close to the squishy units at the back anyways. Anyhow, I'm actually near the end of chapter 4 (on the "neutral" route) at the moment, ready to go into the hanging gardens and deal with the dark knights.  Not sure how long until the end of the game, but that's where things really start to get crazy as you can essentially newgame+ back to the other storylines and finish other sidequests and such.  There is like infinity hours worth of postgame content so...yeah, we'll see! Melee Stuff I've realized that I need to be a little more dilligent in what I am focusing on when I am playing, lest I just keep on doing the same silly bad things over and over.  My current biggest thing is working in empty jump -> grab into my game for all characters, but here's some other notes for things that I need to work on. All characters: - Stay shielding on a platform when they are below you, angle shield down, WAIT, don't just drop through asap (I really suck at this situation right now, every time I prep for a shield drop and either get shieldpoked or fall into a waiting uptilt because I did a braindead timing) Marth: - Empty jump grab - Backthrow on platform to shield->shield drop uair - Look for fsmash out of uthrow - Uthrow to reverse fair - Fsmash on tech away when under a platform - Upair strings out of upthrow on FD - Some random edgeguarding things Fox: - Empty jump grab - Upthrow -> use up on control stick to fulljump ff upair - Upthrow -> drill reset Falco: - Shinegrab - More uptilt in neutral, and in combos Falcon: - Dthrow at edge -> REACT, either turnaround sh ff knee if close, or run out dj uair if far (we'll see if i can get the actual timing right on the dj uair, if it keeps on clanking and they're too far to hit before starting, then maybe sh out is better than run off) - Fastfall timing for sh knee to cover missed tech (I miss this like every time right now and it sucks) - WAIT before back sh knee to cover tech roll in Sheik: - Mixup between sh nair and run off dj nair to edgeguard - Empty jump grab Peach: - Waveland on platforms to catch techrolls - Upthrow -> dash attack instead of trying to regrab - A lot of float stuff

Other Stuff

Been itching to play Space Alert again at some point, haha.

Tried Baldur's Gate 2 multiplayer a bit...the BG2 interface definitely takes a bit of getting used to and...I feel like this is definitely a game that needs to be played singleplayer, really.  I feel like it also requires a lot of knowledge going in already, like if you don't know what all of these gajillion spells do, good luck trying to figure out how to use them.