#also replaying ac origins as well

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

Rise of the ronin is coming out tomorrow and I’m psyched!!

Wonder what more games can inspire me when it comes to my fics:)…

(So far I’ve managed to finish ac3 and ac syndicate after the mess that happened after a storm came by and my ps5 wouldn’t turn completely on unless I deleted everything🥲 the pain I felt in my soul was deep when I saw that I had to restart ac unity)

[hypnagogics]

how soon is now? | part one

READ THIS FIRST 🇵🇸

teasers: one. two. series masterlist. next part here!!

♡: hallway crush!ellie x uni student!reader

☆: listen, i know this timeline is kind of ridiculous, but i’ve organized it all best as i can! this is the expanded story based on those first little blurbs introducing the au (reads fine on its own though), and this part specifically was originally going to be one huge fic, but i've ultimately decided to split it up and drop the first part now, because i feel like it ends in a convenient enough space where i can make a separation not so jarring. so that means this will have a direct continuation (how soon is now? 2 ? lol this is so stupid-), and that will be posted soon enough once i finish it! but yes that means after so much waiting, it's finally here for y’all. i literally thought up this silly idea right before i passed out on new years, and never expected y’all to love it so much…but i keep my promises, so here. also love the smiths and felt the title sort of fit. i feel like not too much happens but eh anyway, thank you for waiting, thank you for reading, and please enjoy!

♧:4.6k word count

◇:suggestive but not explicit - horny descriptions and tension, however no smut (for now?….BUT DON'T HOLD ME TO THAT.) no descriptions of reader’s physical appearance, no use of “y/n”, slow-burn construction and loooooads of pining, a lot of build up but stay with me, attempts at occasional foreshadowing, smau elements(text messages lmao), savage starlight is a plot point lol, hallwaycrush!ellie is sort of a mix of loser/modern/university au/dorky-ish ellie I DON'T EVEN KNOW. abby is your bestie, girl what else do i put here- this is just kinda plot, plot, and more plot progression about the whole ordeal, and me indulging my obsession with modern!ellie. (lmk if there's anything to be added!)

“Abbyyyyyyyyyy.” 

You rolled around your lifelong best friend’s bed, babbling her ear off while she studied away at her desk, or tried to at least. This situation has been a daily occurrence for weeks at this point.

Laying on your stomach facing away from her, you could hear her scoff in annoyance. “What?” “Please give me some advice..I don't know what I'm even supposed to do. She's driving me up the wall." This crush was the sole thing occupying your poor mind, so naturally, you had to drown your bestie with your troubles as well. That's what friends do. Abby spun around on her chair to face you, with a clearly fed up expression on her face, and leaning forward, resting her elbows on her knees. 

“Well I don’t fucking know man, I’ve already given you my best advice, and that's either introduce yourself, or suffer.” She said coolly. You sat up and groaned. Wasn't there an easier way? One that didn't involve actually taking initiative and doing something? Maybe, hypothetically, you ace a test, and the professor announces it in front of everyone as he emotionally congratulates his star student, and she bounds over, beaming. Then tearfully confesses her love and admiration for you- hold on, where the fuck is this going?

“Oh come on, you know I can’t do that..” You gulped a burning bundle of anxiety down as you replayed the scenarios with your obsession for the thousandth time that day, the mere crumbs you were forced to fixate on until you saw her next, the first sighting that started this whole fiasco,  and shook your head to clear it and listen to what your best friend had to say. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, slamming her textbook shut and making her way over to sit next to you.

“Listen babe, I love you, but you really gotta get ahold of yourself, alright?” She spoke sternly, looking you straight in the eyes to make sure you understood and absorbed every last word she said. “Listen, here's what you're gonna do. when you pass her in the hall, smile, it's simple but it's a classic, okay? And then you listen to the lecturer as normal, right? I have no idea what you nerds do in astrophysics, but that's besides my point. Make sure to pay attention and not stare only at her like a stalker or something, I cannot stress enough how normal you gotta be. But here's where it gets good, you still with me?” 

You're listening to her for sure, and nod vigorously. Crystal clear. She continues, “Okay you said you sit as far as possible from her? Sheesh, why'd you do that? When the class is over I want you to go over to her, and introduce yourself. Catch her on her way out, tap her on the shoulder if you're feeling bold. Ask for some of her contact details, play it cool. Just don't shit yourself, got it? All you gotta do." 

Abby finishes her speech, smirking and looking smug. She's positive she got through to you this time. On the surface you're totally chill, confident even, ready to snatch this ethereal being for yourself, however underneath all that you knew you didn't have an ounce of the courage that was required for this seemingly impossible task. 

Breathing deeply to calm yourself and try to take in her helpful words as best as possible, you give Abby a hug. “Thank you Abs, really. I'll do my best. Oh, but what if I freak out and start stuttering- or what if I trip and fall on her…I can't do this what the hell.” Swarmed with worry, you start doubting yourself yet again. Burying your face in your palms, you feel two strong hands on either side of your upper arms and you look back at Abby, who's really not playing around anymore. 

She was so serious about this it almost scared you. Either she cared about you more than anything, or she wanted to hear the end of these pathetic, lovestruck rambles. You prayed it was the former. 

“Suck it up. You can do this. You've had crushes before haven't you? This should be a piece of cake c’mon, I believe in you. Make sure to keep me updated every step of the way! I need to hear every last detail.” She lightens up at the end and releases you from her grip once she sees you've relaxed. 

Unsurprisingly, your best friend always knew what to say to snap you out of your spirals. Maybe most would disagree with her methods, say she was being rough, but they worked for you. Heart rate returning to a normal pace, you reply genuinely. 

“Okay, okay I got this. Yeah, it'll be fine.” She was getting through to you, this time you felt sure of it. “Good, good. Now will you let me finish this stupid assignment? Then we can watch something or do whatever." Abby chatted as she got up and sat back at her desk, resuming her studious endeavor as she left you with your thoughts. 

Immediately you heard her mutter, “All this and you don't even know her goddamn name…good grief.” For the sake of preserving the peace you chose to graciously ignore that one. She said she wanted some quiet, didn't she? 

Drifting away into a sea of daydreams, your thoughts inevitably returned to being clouded by this cryptic figure. It was like she'd cast a love spell on you. Did she even know who you were? Or did she shoot everyone those insufferably charming looks of hers. Was she even aware of how fucking cool she was? 

Dressed in that deliciously grungy style, you yearned to know what floated behind her greener-than-grass eyes. Her hair looked so smooth and soft, the wispy auburnette strands framing her refined features, intriguing fern tattoo decorating her lean forearm…. You felt your cheeks begin to heat up as a portrait of her materialized in your mind's eye. Nestling into the comfortable atmosphere of your best friend's room, you sunk deeper into your thoughts.

Like Abby had mentioned, it certainly wasn't as if you've never had crushes before, you've certainly had your fair share of them, like most people. But that was a sort of flaky, surface level interest, whether it be for their looks, their little quirks, or ways they treated you. Maybe it has been a while since you'd had a proper crush, but you couldn't recall a time when the infatuation, the pure limerence, had hit you this hard before. You almost felt helpless, just besotted by her.

You simply needed to act on this. Right then and there you steeled yourself, and decided you were going to follow Abby's advice after all, and go after this hallway crush. Worst comes to worst, she turns you down, you get over it eventually, bla bla end of story. It wasn't going to be too complicated, right?

You and Abby had stayed up all night, dusk till dawn, gossiping about things other than your hallway crush, shocking, and you were greatly regretting that decision the very moment it was time to gather your books and get to class.

You really did not feel like stunning everyone around you with a gorgeous outfit today, you were just trying to make it through the day in one piece to be honest with yourself. 

With a pounding headache you threw on some mismatched sweats, and ran out the door to be on time. Your bag felt unreasonably heavy as you made your way down your apartment stairs, and you cursed your past self for choosing a building without an elevator. Sure, exercise is healthy, but it can’t be when you’re feeling like a zombie, and wish for nothing more than a good, long nap.

Luckily the lecture hall was a comfortable distance away from your place, not far enough to make it a pain, but enough so you could get a much needed breath of fresh air. The tiredness had pushed all plans of action you and Abby had discussed the previous night to the back of your head, and you weren't thinking of your crush at all. At least for now. 

Walking slowly with your gaze pointed downward, you eventually made it to the hall. Completely dazed and zoned out, you made a mental note to never pull an all nighter again, gross, who’s idea was that- thump. 

Out of nowhere you're rudely jolted from your silent sulking by colliding with something, or someone? It takes a moment to register what happened, and you quickly look up from staring at the ground to sort the situation out. “Oh my gosh I am so sorry..” 

Profusely apologizing while simultaneously being smacked across the face with the realization of who this was. Her. Your words trail off as you’re suddenly winded, and you feel your blood run cold. You’re transfixed by the intense eye contact, and it feels like time has stopped. Goodness, this is dramatic. 

In the time it takes for you to briefly die and come back to life, the young woman has lowered her chunky headphones so they rest around her neck, Morissey’s vocals faintly floating out of them, and is looking at your stunned state with an indiscernible sneer playing on her face. Was this actually happening? Holy shit you and Abby did not discuss this scenario…you weren’t looking where you were going and had collided with an actual Earth angel. Great.

Still gawking at her like an absolute buffoon, akin to a deer in headlights, she breaks the tension first, with a smooth voice that you would obey virtually any command for. 

“Nah, you’re good.” And a wink. Your heart skipped a beat, or four, when you witnessed her wink at you. Did you imagine it? Was she being suave on purpose or did she have an eyelash in her eye…Was your life a literal rom-com or what? 

“Um..” Your mouth opens and closes in an attempt to form a coherent sentence, but your brain is much too fried to do so because, well, you had just made physical contact with the literal girl of your dreams. And gods did she smell good…while you’re unable to tear your eyes away from hers, she keeps talking as if nothing happened.

“I think the prof had an emergency or fuckin’, I dunno.” She stops to gesture around the two of you at the crowd that had formed in front of the auditorium’s double doors with elegant, ring adorned fingers..holy fuck you needed those inside you right fucking now- WHAT. 

Briskly shoving those thoughts down to the deepest depths of your subconscious back to where they belong, you turned your attention back to her, and put on a brave front. Hyper aware of how searing hot your face felt, her pretty self didn't show a hint of caring that you were making a fool of yourself. They say that any situation is always worse in your head than it was in actuality, well you hoped so. 

“So, what are we supposed to do now?” Clearing your throat you managed a sentence back, hooray. You were doing this. Good job. Although, of course, before the gorgeous nymph before you had a chance to respond with her own assumptions, a substitute lecturer you had never seen before pushes his way through the crowd and unlocks the door while people file in, separating you from her. You felt like Rose, viciously torn away from Jack from Titanic, what a cruel, cruel world this was.

And once again you didn't get to ask her name. Re-slinging her bag with one arm, she looks back at you one final time and throws you a “cya around.” Before disappearing into the auditorium with everyone else. You meekly nod at her and force a lopsided smile, before leaning against the wall to steady yourself after that fiasco in the now empty hallway.

Wasting virtually not a moment of time, you pulled your phone out and began furiously texting Abby with a recount of the events at a speed faster than the speed of light. 

Once that excruciatingly torturous class was over, you applauded yourself for containing the stares in her direction and keeping your eyes fixated on the professor. Whether you actually retained any information, now that was a different story. Picking up your bags and laptop, you stay behind for a moment as everyone else files out, no need to crowd and suffocate amongst the other students, and you had nowhere to be except catch up on your favorite shows and relax all by yourself. 

Filing out the auditorium with everyone else, you see a familiar face pass by you, and vaguely hear Abby’s voice in your head urging you to seize the moment. Now’s your chance, go! And so you gather every little bit of strength you possess to do just that. 

After a couple deep breaths you jog up to her. “Uh, hey.” She turns around and gives you a warm smile, making your legs instantly turn to jelly. You subtly checked her out and took in her outfit, another bulky jacket and lightly distressed jeans. Fingers studded with layered silver rings, and those big ole headphones seemed to be magnetically attached to her, she always had them on her. Note to self: ask for some music recommendations.

She was even hotter up close…with a beautiful galaxy of freckles scattered across her fair skin, you wanted to place a kiss on every single of them. “I, um, never caught your name.” “It's Ellie.” She sticks out her hand for a handshake and you accepted it, you finally had a name to the face you've been pining over so intensely for so long. Abby was going to lose it once you tell her about this. You steady your voice and hide the glee that was likely evident from this interaction going so smoothly, and introduce yourself to her as well.

After some time of idle chit chat and standing there, neither one of you knowing really what to say, Ellie pipes up, facepalming, tsking, and furrowing her brows. “Oh yeah, I don’t mean to spring this on you outta nowhere, but would you wanna study sometime?” She flushes a dusty pink, “I don't know anyone else taking this course and am having kind of a hard time with it...when I chose it, I expected it to be more about space and the planets, and less about numbers and math, my head hurts.”

Her demeanor was making you feel rather comfortable with her, even though the two of you had just formally met a few minutes prior. “I would love to, yeah!” Maybe you were being a little too enthusiastic, but at this point you were operating on pure instinct and not thinking critically of what was coming out of your mouth. “I actually don't have any plans now, or today at all, so if you want to, we can get a head start before the next class?” Well that just slipped out. Go you, blurting things out. 

You had no idea why you'd said that because your place was an absolute mess, clothes strewn everywhere, trash can still full, you'd been too preoccupied with your studies, and well her, to do much about it. To your horror, Ellie exclaims, “Hey, that's perfect! I don't have anything to do right now either, and it would be good to act on it while it's still fresh in my mind, y’know?” Her face morphs into an adorable toothy grin as she taps on her skull comically, you were becoming more obsessed by the second, if that was even possible.

Every little sliver of her personality you got to see under the stoic one you had assumed she had just grasped at your heartstrings. You smiled back at her so hard you almost pulled a muscle in your cheeks, “Awesome! Follow me, then, my dorm isn't far.”

The walk there was mostly fine as the two of you made it to your place, Ellie occasionally making comments about how she hates the class even though she adores outer space and learning about it on her own time, and you were nodding and acting as if you're listening, agreeing with her robotically while she rambled away and you daydreamed about what her lush lips would feel like on yours. You wondered if she was gentle with it, or if she’d kiss you hungrily, devour you like her very last meal….gulp.

Leading her to your place was an automatic task, not much navigation needed, and when the journey was done you had to legitimately stop short for a moment in an attempt to soothe the pounding in your chest. 

The crush that has plagued your mind for ages, who you've just met formally today, was about to be in your room. The two of you were about to be alone. That was totally fine, yeah, she can't be a murderer…..right?

“You good?” She asked sweetly, why did she have to be so nice, “Those stairs were killer, I totally get it, phew.” “Oh for sure, gets me every time.” Covering up your panic smoothly, you unlocked the door and went inside with her. When she walked inside, Ellie took a glance around your room and set herself down at the edge of your bed, immediately making herself comfortable, while you still lingered in the doorway, awkwardly swaying and staring at her, unsure of what to do with yourself. 

Suddenly you had completely forgotten why she was here in the first place. “No way, you read Savage Starlight too???” She spotted the figurine on your desk and snatched it up in her hands to inspect it thoroughly, with a childlike wonder in her eyes. “Wow, this one was a limited edition and it sold out in like an hour, I'm so jealous you got this!! How much you want for it, I'm serious.” She was so excited, and you couldn't believe it. Savage Starlight has always been one of your favorite comics ever, you've loved it since you were a young teen, and now this seemingly perfect human before you, who you're hopelessly obsessed with says she loves it too? Could she get any more flawless, is all you could wonder.

Her happiness because of this little thing you two bonded over was infectious, and some of your nerves slowly began to go away.  Grinning genuinely, you sheepishly said, “I've never met anyone else who likes it, that story has helped me through lots of phases in my life, and Daniela was my gay awakening.” Ellie gaped at you for a beat, making you almost doubt revealing that information.

“No. Fuckin’. Way. Mine too! Her suit was just- damn. And those action scenes in the third volume had my thirteen year old self’s brain just mush for, I don't even know for how long. This is crazy, I can already see we’re gonna get along so well.”

You wanted to talk to her about everything and anything forever, and her glee made you want to squish her, but there was unfortunately work to be done first. “There’s so much we have to discuss, but we gotta get some studying done first if we wanna make it out of this course alive.”

You were sitting at your desk, hunched over the sprawled out textbooks and messy notes, as you drew the graphs and talked to her about the concepts she was struggling with. Your desk was so small and you only had one chair, and you were the one using it, so Ellie was forced to hover over you to see all you were doing.

Focusing solely on the subject before you was proving to be more difficult as studying time went by, because you were a little too aware of the way she had caged you in against the desk to watch, her oversized shirt grazing your upper back. You gripped your pen ever so tightly to minimize any trembling, and kept a steady voice as best you could while explaining it all.

She was so, so close, the tension in the tiny room was palpable, she didn't seem to notice your nervous tremors or the proximity she’d created, and the low murmurs of, “ohhh, mhm, yeah,” as you embarrassingly stammered over your explanations made you flushed and to be frank, needy. You could feel her warmth radiating off of her, could faintly hear her breathing just above you. You didn't dare move a muscle. Was she feeling this too?

At this point you swore the delicious gravelly vibrations from her voice this close to you would be plenty enough to make you cream your pants. The air in the enclosed space was getting hotter and thicker by every passing moment, it took everything you had to keep yourself from losing your mind right now. If you moved back a petty few inches, you’d be pressed flush with her front. What would that be like, you wondered. Oh, no. Your throat felt drier than the desert when you swallowed, the thought of that making you weak.

Since your focus on the work was lapsing, you were beginning to make some little mistakes and blunders, compelling her to take the pen right from your hand and fix them herself. “No, no, this one’s supposed to be like this instead, see? Then you're able to get the right answer which is…” She stretches over you further, you nearly whined, someone save you, and grabs the textbook to review the solution. “Like this, yeah, I was right. Honest mistake though, don’t worry about it.”

You nod your head and make a pathetic murmur of approval, ignoring the fiery tingles spreading all the way up your arm when her hand bumps yours to return the writing utensil, and the blistering coil of want forming in your stomach. This all had to be deliberate, right? She couldn't lack that much spatial awareness, could she? Well, it wasn’t that you minded, she could get as close as she damn wanted to, you'd let her throw you around like a ragdoll even- you were just afraid your heart was going to give out if she kept it up. “Could you show me this work you guys did? Of course the one day I'm late, the prof talks about something new and I miss it.” 

What feels like an eternity later, you hear her groan above you and she returns to her earlier spot on your bed. You can finally breathe properly. Glancing at the clock, your own headache begins to set in. Crap it was late, how time flies. 

“We’ve been studying for so long, it’s getting late.” “Shit, you’re right, I’ve definitely overstayed my welcome. Sorry about that, and hey, thanks for this. I understand it all a lot better now, see you tomorrow.”

She stands up abruptly and ushers herself out of your door in a flash, to which you clumsily stand up, knock your chair over, and hastily run after her, not wanting her to go just yet. “Wait, Ellie!” “What's up, did I forget something?”

She pats her pockets and looks at you with concern. Round puppy dog eyes, and lips in a miniscule pout, so cute. You were in front of her now, but did not process what you actually wanted to say. Just ran after her like the smitten nincompoop you are. Upon feeling your face go hot, you look at the ground to mutter, “Uh- nothing. See you later.” Realistically, what were you planning on saying, or doing?

After stumbling over your words you two finally part ways and you slump down against your door, missing her presence already. You simultaneously wanted to jump around or open your bedside table drawer to release the energy you'd accumulated, and wanted to fall into the deepest sleep of your life to recuperate from the experience. This was just, a lot. You wanted to scream and screech like there's no tomorrow, but did not want to deal with noise complaints from the others living on your floor. Gosh she was so close, she shares your niche interest, your hands touched, albeit accidentally, lo and behold you were in love with her.

Maybe it was early to call it that, but you were going to plan out your future together. Preferably a quaint, peaceful farmhouse, the one you two lovebirds renovated together exactly how you envisioned, where you could ogle her doing the farmwork. Ugh. Cook all her favorite meals, make sweet, sweet love under the moonlight. Take strolls through the flower gardens you two planted, receive her curated bouquets as gifts, you two are going to have such a tender, domestic life. 

You had to mull it over some more, and didn’t dare wish to forget how close she was to you, you were still buzzing from her essence. You were pointlessly pacing around your room now, unable to stop looping the study session's events in your head. The simplicity, the eroticism of the encounter. One-sided or not, you had yet to find out more about her, the impatience was going to take over. The day almost seemed too good to be true, but for now you had to force yourself to relax and think about something other than her. Time to browse Pinterest with striking kitchen ideas for your beautiful future. 

What were you going to say to her the next time you see her? You were eager to know how, or if at all, this new friendship was going to progress. Part of you was dying of impatience, but the rest of you wanted to take it all as slow as possible, savoring every little moment and making the most of it. 

You sighed, this was going to be a long, long, year.

lovely taggies: @amiorca @mostlyhornyandsad @lasting-lover @radioheadfan699 @sophie-thefrog8 @machetegirl109 @ellieschair @aouiaa @wavesgocrash @tangerinngi @elliesbitchvenus @dinaissoprettyoml @rxreaqia @camicocom1a @elliesexual @ellslvr @boobdrug @writing-on-a-bathroom-stall @bready101 @yourelliewillms

.......really hoping this doesn't flop because it isn't smutty, yall wanted more fics that are plot soooo

[robin-evry]

Heeeyyyyy~ it’s a me again, so just watched the Transformers one movie, and it got me thinking of what would happen if Yuu was a cybertronian/Transformer? Like alien robot that Can transform into a vehicle isekaied to a magic School? Imagine the fun! the chaos! They can pick up the overblot students and put them in air jail like a misbehaving cat! Ortho finally has a bestie!!!!

Sure thing, ask and you shall receive

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐂𝐘𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐍 👾🤖

Cybertronians are a species of autonomous robotic organisms originating from the distant planet called Cybertron that had their essences transferred into robotic bodies known as "Transformers".

Cybertronian!Yuu one of by far most unique students ever, they tower over most of the students. By cybertronian!yuu has received some modification in twst that helps them fit in the world more.

They can partially transform parts of their body into mechanical tools, like shields, scanners, or even small weaponry. This ability has led to some interesting duels in combat class, where they improvises with forms no one expects.

Cybertronian!Yuu sees magic as something like a digital matrix, with each spell having its own “source code.” While they may struggle with traditional spellcasting, Cybertronian Yuu can often rewrite spells or make unique modifications, leading to unexpected effects. This adaptability often puts them at odds with teachers, yet impresses friends like Ace and Deuce.

Cybertronian!Yuu can store and retrieve a ton of information like a living database, sometimes glitching and blurting out random trivia. Ace and Deuce find it hilarious, but it occasionally becomes handy, especially during exams.

Do you know the meme of the song I woke up in a new Bugatti, that's the first year riding on cybertronian!yuu on their transformation form. They have become their friends chauffeur around school pretty much everywhere.

Ortho + Cybertronian!Yuu : robot besties.

NRC tend to call them both a “tech wiz.” They often exchange “upgrades” and tech secrets, and Ortho even helps Cybertronian!Yuu unlock hidden Cybertronian features that they were previously unaware of. They’re like the school’s tech-savvy duo, making Idia’s life easier and sometimes scaring him with their synchronized techno-speak.

Cybertronian! Yuu has an “echo mode” that lets them record and replay sounds, which Rook finds utterly fascinating for tracking creatures or investigating mysteries. Sometimes, they use it to replay people’s voices, teasing Ace or copying Riddle’s strict tone. Grim once caught them imitating the Headmage and nearly exposed them!

Their system has an auto-translate function for languages, magical runes, and even animal sounds, making them NRC’s unofficial interpreter. This skill shines with Sebek, who tries to one-up them in translating ancient text, and with Kalim, who loves hearing animal translations from the Spirit of the Dunes.

Inspired by Pomefiore’s focus on beauty, they develop a “glamour mode” that projects holographic outfits, allowing them to “try on” new looks with a simple transformation. Rook and Vil are fascinated by their ability to shift appearances at will, and Vil even pushes them to “update” their glamour mode regularly to keep up with fashion trends.

Cybertronian!yuu is very curious about the world around them, since originally back in Cybertron there wasn't any organic like plant-life. You can find them being curious and browsing things that find them interesting.

When seriously damaged, cybertronian!Yuu has an auto-repair protocol that initiates a regeneration process. This usually involves a “recharging stasis” where they power down for a few hours to restore internal systems by transforming into a metal box to repair any damages coming to their body and database.

They also have the ability to heck or connect themselves into different technologies, they can see through the technology database as well copying the abilities of the technology.

They discovers they can use holo-projections to mimic voices and create illusions. With Ace and Grim, Yuu pulls harmless pranks like projecting an image of Crowley, scaring students into thinking he’s around.

During battles, cybertronian!yuu possessed a wide range of arsenal weapons. But one of their favorite styles of fighting is basically running over the enemies in their transformation form.

Imagine overblot Azul laughing and yapping about something, and the next thing he got hit by a vehicle as well putting their enemies in time out.

[teecupangel]

So I'm replaying FF7 and so I'm thinking about the Desmond as the same species as Nanaki au (I can't remember if Guardian Beat is Canon or not) again and how fun (for us) it would be to drop him where he'd get picked up by by Shinra to play on his Abstergo trauma

Also imagine being Nanaki you believe for years that you're one of the last two of your species until you give yourself up so your friend can escape and find another one of you had been captured who knows how long ago

I don't really know about how everything ends would go past Regular FF7 but Des is there past Nanaki thinking des has amnesia because of the experiments and deciding to take Des under his wing and that Jenova arrived on Gaia through the use of a POE whether she's an actual Isu that was wiped by the travel or just an experiment

Also also since Nanaki's species is so long lived it'd be funny if Desmond's age was 1:1 instead of an equivalent age so he's around early teenage age for Guardian Beasts

Here is the original Desmond is the same species as Nanaki in AC world idea

So, for this one, Desmond will be booted into FFVII world in his new body and, to show our love for him, he will be experimented on in a different facility and will be saved by the main party during their adventure.

This way, Desmond would have some time to be isolated to hammer in the Abstergo kidnapping ‘flashbacks’.

And when the party finally saves him, that’s when he’ll be comforted by Nanaki. Nanaki, of course, is out of his depths and asked help from someone who has experience with children (because, in his eyes, Desmond is still a child).

Barret.

So while the party is traveling to their next destination, Desmond has to watch Nanaki and Barret try to… well… act around him like he was a kid.

He wasn’t.

But no one was listening. Nanaki seemed to believe that he’s in his ‘rebellious period’.

Then Sepiroth appears and calls Desmond ‘uncle’ and people are now going “??????”

.

Unorganized Notes:

Up to you nonny how Desmond looks but I kinda like the idea that his right front paw is black and looked burnt. Everyone believes Shinra had something to do with that.

Everyone thinks Desmond has amnesia because of Shinra’s experiments. Desmond never bothered to correct them because no one was going to believe he was from another world, after all

He lets Aerith and Tifa braid him and he likes the feather they pinned on his head because it reminds him of Ratonhnhaké:ton.

He absolutely fights using some kind of blade attached to his legs like some sort of spur made by Yuffie.

Sepiroth calls him uncle because…

Jenova isn’t an Isu but a lifeform created by the Isus as a test subject. Specifically, she’s made by Juno and Aita and was the test subject to see if traveling to another world would be a feasible solution to get away from the incoming Solar Flare.

It failed in the sense that Jenova’s genetic structure got fucked when she crossed worlds and that’s how she started her intergalatic travel.

The same problem occurred to Desmond but Desmond’s genetic structure became the same as Nanaki’s species instead of Jenova.

So yeah. Sepiroth calls him uncle because Desmond is technically a product of Juno like Jenova herself. In his mind, Desmond and his mother shared a common ‘parent’.

[miralyk]

love the drawings you've been making for desmond and alex, what's ghosts in the machine? first i see them crawling out of your screen and now everyone's angels devils or monsters, i don't know if i'm missing something!

ah man, think it's time to try to summarize everything and apologize LMAO;; ty for asking though, i should've made things less confusing! this will be a Pretty lengthy post for irl context/backstory and "actual au" info so be ready if you want to read everything!

(for starters, the title's just a pun on the philosophical phrase "ghost in the machine" interpreted Literally and taking inspiration from clay in ac revelations, since he Was a ghost in a machine and jokingly called "my guardian angel" by des, haha)

the short version: basically, "ghosts in the machine" is what i've called the au(?) where i just doodle silly "artist talking to her art muse(s)" stuff like these kinds of comics instead w me,, the ""art muse"" is whatever i'm hyperfixated on (currently desmond, the assassin brotherhood as a whole, and alex/prototype lmao):

the Full LONG version: when replaying prototype and ac awhile back, i also posted fanart on LOFTER (china’s local version of tumblr) and made a mainlander mutual/friend who drew fanart too, like her oc w the assassins in an animal shapeshifter 刺客信条乙女向 (assassin’s creed otome) au! as i’m vietnamese-american and she’s chinese, we use translators and send pictures/doodles to talk about the games and our days, and when i was replaying prototype, she started ac2 too and sent me this as commentary:

from there, whenever we’d text or send pics/art, it became a running joke of sorts to also include our ""game companions"" like that fanfiction thing of “author’s note where the author and fictional characters comment on the situation and/or talk to each other”, and my doodles also became us or our computers being accompanied by them LMAO;; that’s pretty much the origin and setting of the particular doodles; just the daily shenanigans and art struggles of an artist (me and her) talking to their art muses (characters from special interests) haunting them and their computers

as for the "supernatural" aspects, at some point desmond and alex got drawn an as angel and devil because i’ve had ridiculous “protected by a guardian angel” luck lately like surviving a car crash unharmed, they’re my favorites and associated with me, the motifs match the duo, etc, it's not really that deep and/or for a "Lore Reason";;

likewise, the brotherhood got drawn as ghosts to emphasize the “we/our computers are haunted by them” joke more, along with how my friend and i are both asian and used to like ghosts and ancestral worship casually being a part of our lives already LMAO (ig in the context of the au then, they’re basically desmond’s ancestral spirits disney-mulan-style that freeload off of his vietnamese protectee (me) for both spiritual veneration or "worship" like staying relevant in this modern age via fanart)

for example, i'm also considering drawing like altair, ezio, connor, and edward as the vietnamese four holy beasts just to play around, things like that! there's no special lore reason aside from just personal thoughts and "oh that'd be fun to draw", they just thematically fit well being four prominent “legends” and being desmond's ancestors, etc,, haha

at the end of the day, "ghosts in the machine" are just silly shenanigans of me drawing what's on my mind, from who/what i'm hyperfixated on (aka impromptu art muses for me), any thoughts/frustrations i have w daily life or drawing stuff,, and "hm this sounds cool, i could draw this design or Cool Thing" stuff. it's not really an au persay (plus i still really cringe and feel self-consciously wary about the embarrassing self-insert aspect of all this, help lmao), it’s just,, just silly personal scribblings that are kind of sharing an inside joke to everyone now, but i'm happy to know people still humor these silly drawings and are curious if there's more to it, thank you!

[ataraxiaspainting]

Trick or Treat!

-> the air is deathly still. you can swear your walls shake and untouched doorknobs twist. it's that time of year again... yep. another event to celebrate all hallows eve!

-> how the event works...

the trick or treat event will have a total of nineteen stories originating from my own ideas, but people can also send in their requests until october 8th! please do not request anything beyond this date or those requests will be saved until the next time asks are open! nsfw requests are open, but only for people who have 18+ in their bio!

this is an x reader event, and not a character x character event. no exceptions will be made. requests must also follow my rules.

all potential characters for asks will be listed below, and all characters will be written with yandere or darkfic in mind unless stated otherwise.

you can choose up to three characters, separate or otherwise! if you do not have a concept for your character, i will just do my own concept with them!

-> potential characters...

jujutsu kaisen - gojo satoru, geto suguru, mahito, sukuna ryomen, nanami kento, mei mei, megumi fushiguro, yuji itadori, toji fushigoro

hunter x hunter - chrollo lucilfer, nobunaga hazama, feitan portor, machi komacine, hisoka morrow, phinks magcub, shalnark, franklin bordeau, shizuku murasaki, pakunoda, bonolenov, uvogin, kurapika, illumi zoldyck, pariston hill

genshin impact - scaramouche/wanderer, zhongli, albedo, xiao, eula, raiden shogun, kazuha, childe, cyno, alhaitham, kaveh, diluc, kaeya, kamisato ayato, arlecchino, columbina, capitano, dottore, pantalone, beidou

honkai: star rail - kafka, blade, dan heng/imbibitor lunae, aventurine, dr. ratio, jing yuan, sunday, black swan, topaz, jade, ruan mei, serval, boothill, argenti

twisted wonderland - malleus draconia, lilia vanrouge, leona kingscholar, jade leech, floyd leech, azul ashengrotto, riddle rosehearts, jamil viper, vil schoenheit, rook hunt, rollo flamm, idia shround, kalim al-asim, silver, sebek zigvolt, neige leblanche, che'nya, ace trappola, deuce space, cater diamond, trey clover, ruggie bucchi, jack howl, epel felmier

other fandoms in my fandom list (on pinned post) can be included as well!

-> examples of requests include...

yan blade + body motification eula + cute date night yan chrollo + amnesiac reader

-> planned stories...

inside god crawls the devil - yan (demon) chrollo x f (guardian angel) reader

love letters - yan (college au) chrollo x f reader (non-con)

black and blue - yan blade x gn reader

again - yan (general) blade x gn reader

magia - yan albedo x gn reader

artistic contributions - yan feitan x f reader x yan phinks (non-con)

holiness consumes rising flames - yan (fake archon) scaramouche x gn reader

a sinning savior - yan geto x f reader x yan gojo

solace in you - yan nobunaga x f reader

the drowning dove and the fish in a birdcage - yan dr. ratio x gn reader x yan aventurine

the tragedy of rage - yan shigaraki x f reader

so close, yet so far - yan dabi x f reader

grounds of worship - yan sunday x gn reader

the weight of the world - yan alhaitham x gn reader

pulling into the tide - yan nanami x f reader

a rose by any other name would be just as sweet - yan (vampire) diluc x f reader

watching from the outside - yan overhaul x f reader

one last time - yan (archon) childe x gn (knight) reader

stuck replaying the memory - yan aventurine x gn (avgin) reader

[fraeuleintaka]

AAIC: German Translation!

This is the 13th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 68 days left until release!

Today's topic: the German Translation!

With the first official Western release for Investigations 2 in the Investigations Collection we not only get an English Localisation but also translations into German, French, Korean, Traditional and Simplified Chinese! After so many years of English-only (and sometimes not even Western) releases it's great to see that AA reached such a popularity high in recent years that they translate it into multiple languages again.

I will mainly talk about the German translation as it’s my mother tongue and the language I first played Ace Attorney in. I originally played the German releases of AJ and AA1-3 back on the DS. Apart from being translated they change nothing about the games, names and everything stays the same. So for everyone who doesn’t know, the von Karmas are still German in the German translation which was weird and kinda cool for my teenage self because it’s such a random choice of country for them to be from but I loved seeing it in a game I really enjoyed. Klavier was an even weirder case because the German translation doesn’t change the language he throws in phrases from which is why you don’t really get that part of his character in German except his quirk of calling women „Fräulein“ (which is not a word anyone really uses anymore except mothers when they scold their daughters sometimes). His name is also the only one that’s been changed because „Klavier“ is really just „piano“ in German and therefore very unfitting as a name when the entire game is in that language. (Which is also the reason why I actively pronounce his name differently than what the object is called because just calling him „piano“ feels terrible and I like the way it sounds when I pronounce it differently.) In German he’s Kantilen. Back then I only switched to playing AA in English because Investigations 1 only had an English release in the West. After that I replayed the other games in English as well because I got used to thinking of the characters talking in English and any new releases since then also being English-only reinforced it all the more.

Returning to the present, I finally get the chance to play not only Investigations 1 but also Investigations 2 in German! (DD and SoJ as well but I’m focusing on the Investigations Collection.) It’s been so long that I honestly never thought this in particular would happen, even getting Investigations 2 in English seemed like a distant dream for so long, but here we are! It’s not something that I felt I really needed, as I said I got used to playing AA in English, but now that I know I will have the option I feel weirdly giddy about it! I already mentioned in previous countdown posts that I intend to replay the entire collection immediately to get any achievements that I missed and to try out the arranged music tracks for both games so I'm also going to use this opportunity to play both games in German for the first time after doing the first playthrough in English. So excited to see what the translation is like!

I don't think I even remember what the original German voices sounded like but I look forward to hearing them again and I'm especially excited for the new ones! I hope they're fitting. And I'm curious how they'll translate the special phrases like Shi-Long's "Not so fast!" or Justine's "Overruled!". For Shi-Long's I think "Nicht so schnell!" would easily work the best, it's the 1:1 equivalent, sounds just as natural and takes the same amount of time to say. For Justine's I'm not so sure. I can really only think of "Abgelehnt!" as what a judge would say to overrule an objection but it's not as specific, you can use it for any kind of suggestion or proposal which might make her sound like a really annoying clerk in an office who won't accept your documents in triplicate 😅 On the other hand, that might fit really well in a way, Idk. For Miles' "Eureka!" it's easy again, "Heureka!" is the 1:1 equivalent here.

Looking forward to finding out!

[light-wolf]

Ok, time for some of my Nintendo Direct thoughts! I'll go in announcement order:

Mario & Luigi: Brothership: Well, this came out of nowhere! After the closure of AlphaDream, I assumed the M&L series was dead, at least for the time being, so this was a really cool surprise. Mario RPG fans are eating good lately. Game looks really fun and charming and I'm looking forward to it!

Fantasian Neo Dimension: I'm not super familiar with this game but I've heard cool things about it so it's nice seeing it on Switch. I have soooooo many JRPGs in my backlog already though...

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: This one was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Not that I don't like seeing a great game get an upgraded version available on a modern console, but man... it's been 10 years since the last original DK game, and all we can get is yet another remake? This is one of Nintendo's biggest and most iconic franchises and it feels like all they do with it these days is using it as Mario spin-off fodder. It's just sad. Oh well. Great game, though, highly recommended.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake: I haven't played much DQ outside of DQV (which is one of my favorite RPGs of all time) but this one is said to be a classic and I like the HD-2D look so it's definitely on my radar. Nice to see the first two games get remade as well. But I can't help but feel that what I really want is a DQV remake in this style. xD

NSO stuff: Great to see Four Swords live again in some form! Also ZERO MISSION FINALLY!! I've been wanting to replay that one lately. I'm not really interested in Turok or Perfect Dark but I guess it's a good thing that the West also has an "adult" version of the N64 app now, as that opens the door to more games.

Super Mario Party Jamboree: I've never been much of a Mario Party fan, but this one looks quite fun! At least it seems more interesting to me than the other Switch ones. I probably won't get it since I'm more of a solo gamer but I'll keep an eye on it.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: HOLY SHIT!!! YES! YES! YES! Oh man, I'm soooo glad that this game exists! I LOVE 2D Zelda and I've been wanting a playable Zelda for so long. Also the gameplay looks so creative and fun! Not a huuuuge fan of it reusing the "toy" art style of the Link's Awakening remake (even though I loved it in that context) but I feel like this game has enough differentiating stuff to have its own identity, so I'm fine with it. Absolutely love this. Probably my favorite thing about the Direct, and it's releasing quite soon too! Can't wait!

Stray: Not a lot to say about this other than it's a game I really wanted to play back when it first released but I didn't have access to it. So it's great to have it on Switch! If the port doesn't suck I'll probably get it at some point.

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection: YESSSS!! These two are the only AA games I haven't played yet, and while I've considered emulating them for years, this is even better! Also great to see the second game get an official localization. So all around a great thing. AA7 when, Capcom? :P

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond: Oh man, what can I say? It's real. Seven years after being announced with just a logo, we finally got a real first look at it. A very short first look that didn't really show much, but a first look nonetheless. It was a bit disappointing seeing it get a 2025 release date, but oh well. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being a cross-gen release. We'll see. Can't wait to see more, and find out what's the deal with Sylux.

Overall I'd say it was a pretty good Direct! Nintendo is still giving the Switch a lot of love during its final years and that's great to see. Now, to keep working on that backlog...

[twisted-wonderland-but-gayer]

I've been a bit busy this last few weeks and I just discovered, toy absolute shock, I overlooked The Villain's Lair on YouTube by PattyCake Productions. I have no idea why (or maybe I do but won't tell 🥺), but the song from "That's All" is my favorite so far and I thought of this idea while hitting replay - replay - replay - replay:

This is Great 7 AU + Ambiguous Villain Resurrection Plan + A Yuu that's not above seeing them as family, but isn't afraid to call out BS (but can be gullible).

Basically, the idea that came from this song is sorta coinciding with a Yuu that is known to have visions / hear things, and the other students just see it as a reason why the mirror chose them. They think they're a medium, but definitely it's much less that.

You can insert what you like the Great 7 to be here but I'm also taking a bit of "everybody knows somebody that owes Ursula something" and "Ursula deserves a power creep because she's kinda a demi-god". Basically: Maleficent would physically have no wings if she returned because of Ursula's assistance with the potency of the sleeping spell, The Evil Queen owes her because her original demise was stopped by Ursula seeing use in her, etc cetera. Scar and Jafar like: nah, no thanks.

Definitely, working together can lead to an alliance of sorts, but no matter what beginning the Yuu has with them, they all do still have that underlying animosity and, well, fear. Hades, Maleficent, and Ursula would be big threats to the others if they did succeed, and this world is also not the same as it used to be: Malleus and Crowley definitely hold a threat, Grim is very clearly an unknown variable only probably the powerful know how to use (I can see Hades going: "oh that guy... what? no, i didn't say anything at all..."), and of course the current magic state of things.

I can see The Evil Queen definitely getting easily agitated, and probably Jafar or Scar as well, that maybe resurrection will be more trouble them it's worth if the debts and power creep are so evident. This can lead to a meeting of Evil Queen and Maleficent in the chambers of Yuu's mind palace (Persona 5 YOINK) about why the queen is not as helpful anymore with driving Yuu to research. She had been go ready to be free, she forgot who else she'd free too (and if your Gunhildr likes Yuu: who she'd be potentially hurting/worse in the process of somehow resurrecting them).

All of this to say... They duet in Yuu's head and Yuu can faintly hear the emotional bouts of it (because it's their head, and even with the other's blocking themselves, they're emotional singing loudly), and tap their foot to the beat. A bit of mumbling of words they don't process as they study.

Ace, confused: "What song is that? Sounds like a cat fight from a musical."

Yuu: "Oh? Uh... I don't know. It just came to me. But I don't understand it."

Ace: "Ghost music?"

Yuu, keeping the Great 7 a secret: "Ghost music."

No no dude u don't understand I would listen to Pattycake to write the seven. Like it fits them so well.

And I always imagine them singing these songs to yuu whenever they ask about their past and they make themselves to be the better person and manipulate Yuu to their will before they end up loving them.

They make being bad look super good and stuff and encourage Yuu to be evil like them. Listen to Evil Like Me from Decendants and imagine Maleficent herself singing that Yuu idk I love the concept so much bro

Though my great 7 is more fluffy I do debating writing a toxic 7 with Yuu as they all work together manipulate and use them. Maybe once I finish my regular fic idk.

[davekat-sucks]

i was doing some research cause i wanted to get into indie dev cause i want to make one of my ideas into a visual novel, came across a video called Why 96% of Indie Games Fail on youtube and so much of it was about market optics. understanding your target demographic is really important when it comes to marketing and it got me thinking about homestucks current devs and how they dont get what made homestuck fun to begin with

The Homestuck devs probably only know the basic surface levels such as cool character designs and music, but don't know the deeper stuff such as the adventure dos game style the original comic was inspired from. Or the premise was more simple back then before it got big. After all, the beginning of Homestuck was just about 4 kids playing a game. Another is that some take the easy route, which is using visual novel gameplay as a means to pump it out faster. Not realizing there is a market to visual novels and there are different ways it is appealing to others, despite it's simple nature. There are ones that have mixture of other gameplays such as seen with Ace Attorney or Danganronpa. Another is story tied to it that invokes readers emotions such as crying whenever someone reads CLANNAD. Even something like sound novels, visual novels that only have music or sound effects in the background with no voice acting, can leave a lasting impression with a good story, as that's what made Higurashi successful despite having few resources. As well as the time and placement the series was released in. Homestuck was made with old flash in years 2009-16. They should have a better understanding of people who played flash games on sites like Newgrounds. How can you bring something old to new people who have never seen it? Henry Stickmin Collection was able to do well because they were able to weave the separate flashes into one. And the different choices of each one gives a lot of replay-ability as well for people who want to see every possibility. The most important thing that Homestuck devs struggle with the most as well is something that has been going on ever since Hussie had even released the Kickstarter game. And that is PR. Public Relations. I get that the series is based on fandom interactivity. But the problem lies when stuff like Andrew Hussie starts to antagonized the audiences. It may work for some, but not all, especially if you want to draw in new readers or players. This extends out to members of WhatPumpkin and HICU too. Certain members do not have self control on what they want to say or do on social media. Thus, they may end up looking bad or unfavorable to the crowd. Nobody is told to not post or share certain shit. Freedom is speech is one thing, but it's another when you are working on a project that needs to make money that whatever your post is tied what you are working on that people know. Even stuff like a political posts that is unrelated to the project, will make audiences assume of what the person is like and how it could affect the game. PR in a way, does go hand in hand with Marketing. Not only you have to research the right audiences, but you also have to have a good image too when showing off your project.

[morphogenetic]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

g. genshin impact (sorry)

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

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

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

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

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

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

and susato

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

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

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

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

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

[terriedirewolf]

Robots. Ight so I been able to play Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon, and damns this series cleaned up nice. The only other games I've managed to play are the original, Project Phantasma, and Master Of Arena. Which are PSX games commonly refered to as first gen. I loved those games after messing with them and figuring out what they were going for. A lot of people complain about the controls, but honestly, nah, those are fine. I played enough megaman legends to where it felt normal and responsive.the first game came out before duel sticks, and they kind of just stuck with an all digital scheme well into the seventh console generation. Which is a bit long tbh, but i'm fine with it.

Anyhow, point is, it's like kitbashing your own robot to murder, explore, and job hunt your way through the war scarred future of planet earth. And it does some really cool stuff with narritive in the first game. Missions come and go, failing them can end with you not getting payed, but still needing to pay for the car sized bullets you wasted. And on top of that, the missions you accept and complete, tips the tides of the rivalries of the factions that fuel this merc economy.

The next two are more typically structured, which is fine, but it do be a little less interesting from a design perspective to me. Armored Core 6 does an interesting middleground. You can infinitely replay missions, and it's actually pretty hard to get into any kind of dept, but the branching paths and optional missions are still there. It's a very accessable and nice system. And being able to replay any beaten mission at any time is just, fantastic.

Another cool thing is the characters. Easily the most charismatic group of people ever put in an ac game. I love it. I do have problems with the game. I think a lot of the gameplay being focused into burst damage feels weird, and I don't like some stuff like reloading and being able to turn independent of the camera. Plus, the manual aim feature sucks with charge shots and back weapons. But man, the characters make up for it. There's a ton of art already, but I hope to add to this post regularly to try and display my impressions of these people. Cause there's some really great dynamics you can set up in this.

I might also sketch up some old gen stuff too, idk. Apologies for the very rough first couple posts.

[kill-vonkarma-again]

so your hd trilogy looks like shit

very glad im not the only person who holds this opinion because every time i look at the hd sprites i feel like im losing my mind. i have absolutely no idea who thought it was a good idea to go in and trace the original sprites with like. what. a marker????? and throw out all the nuance of the cel shading for some reason. foaming at the mouth punching the air etc.

but honestly unless you have a working ds theres not much of an alternative right? because raw ds footage on a high res computer screen ALSO looks like shit! well boy do i have a treat for you

download desmume. idk if its the best ds emulator out there but frankly its the first one that shows up on google so thats the one i use. it works well enough

emulate any of ace attorney 1-4. legally i cannot tell you how to do this but well it sure is easy!

download shaderglass. this program is a little bit clunky to work with but once you get the hang of it it's a neat little novelty for your computer and makes playing old/stylized games way more fun. here's a test screenshot i got from stardew

4. use this shader on desmume (or any shader you feel like using there's plenty to choose from. experimentation is the spice of life)

5. congrats now your game looks epic and you don't have to look at talk sprites that were drawn with crayola markers

im too lazy to replay the game so that i can get other screenshots but tbh i think ive made my point. go try it for yourself live be free

[foxdemon-loser]

ACE ATTORNEY OC

can’t be bothered trying to find his drawing yet i’ll post it at some point-

JUST A FOREWARNING

This is also kinda an au??? I played the trilogy ages ago but can only rlly remember the first game, so basically this goes off no coherent timeline, all the shit that happened still happened but there’s no timeline and i’m not gonna mention the canon stuff here i just wanted to make some dumb french boy

i’ll replay the trilogy at some point

OKAY

We clear?

We clear.

Cassius Francoeur

Age: 25

.💙🤍❤️

.🩷💜💙

.🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵

He/Him

Originally from France, he moved to the weird hybrid of America/Japan (if it had a name lmk i forgot) and studied law, becoming a prosecutor.

Him and Miles worked together a lot, (double prosecution style mf) and actually got on…semi-well? Miles could stand being around him anyway.

Francoeur is relaxed, generally kind and friendly, but is not hard to get pissed off. He thinks Pheonix is kinda annoying but just sucks it up when he’s around him. Cas has a tendency to lie a lot, which he doesn’t when in court, but around people he often has to hide his proper opinion, which led him to becoming a pretty good liar.

Anyway yeah

that’s the guy =3

[sage-nebula]

And now, 13 years after it first released in Japan, I have finally played and 100% completed Ace Attorney Investigations 2!

Honestly, part of me still can't believe it. I was floored when it was announced for localization. I never played the fan translation because that wasn't what I wanted; I didn't want an unofficial, possibly too literal* translation by fellow fans doing their best, but the official localization from the same team (or at least company) that brought me the other games that I had loved. So I held out for an official localization, while at the same time giving up hope we'd ever see it. It was a spinoff, after all, and one that was 13 years old. Chances were slim. I just gave up on knowing this particular story.

But I should have learned from the Vesperia PS3 situation, honestly. My patience was rewarded! And now here I am all these years later, having finally played and completed it. It was worth the wait.

(*Sometimes—not all the time, but often—fan translators will translate the text, reword it into grammatically correct / passable English, and call it a day. This is both expected because they are not professionals and are doing it for free, but also sometimes not the best for the end product. Yes you want the translation to be faithful, but that doesn't extend to just words; meaning and intent is important too. And with Ace Attorney, which has puns and personality oozing from its pixels, I just personally wasn't interested in rolling the dice on a fan translation. This is not a knock to the fan translators; I haven't played their version and I'm not judging it, but merely explaining why I chose to not bother in the first place. And hey, bright side—none of the official names bother me as a result! I win!)

I do agree with the general consensus that AAI2 is better than AAI, and I stand by my earlier reasoning that it's because AAI was originally conceived for a different protagonist (Ema Skye), while AAI2 was an Edgeworth game from the ground up. But even apart from Edgeworth lore, the way the cases and characters all tied together was great. I do have my nitpicks (chief among them that I wish Kay was more central to the story), but overall I really enjoyed it. It's up there among the best.

As of now, the only Ace Attorney games I haven't played to completion are TGAA, because I started the first one and then got pulled away from it early on (I think perhaps because Legends Arceus came out?). Well, that and the Layton crossover, but I will never play that because I don't like Professor Layton games lol.

Regardless, I need to play Echoes of Wisdom next (it has been sitting there WAITING for me to finish AAI2 since Thursday), and then I want to replay the sequel trilogy (including—and I feel an immense dread even speaking its name—Spirit of Justice), and THEN TGAA. Probably. We'll see.

But at least I finally got to play AAI2. I can rest in peace now.

[trlvsn]

i see we're talking about trans hc stuff and while it's mostly about miles...

what do you think of transfem kristoph? it's admittedly a guilty pleasure of mine and I hc he uses he/she pronouns but is quite secretive abt his femininity bc. internalized phobia stuff yeaa

that is a nice headcanon to have! i can imagine that, but i don't exactly share the vision, ngl. i will only talk a lot about kristoph when i'm done with the lock theory, which hopefully i will be someday (i can't bring myself to replay the games properly, attention is hard), but i will say that originally, kristoph and klavier were written to be a kind of opposing conservative vs modern duo (source: ace attorney fandom wiki). i use that part of his character design to complete his image in my head when it comes to parts of him we don't know about, like his relationship with gender identity. to me, kristoph is a conservative man who reads the old testament like a newspaper, and to me, he is cis or presenting as his assigned gender at birth regardless of his feelings on the matter. i'm even hesitant to call him something other than straight sometimes, despite my krisnix feelings, but in the times when i view his and wright's relationship as romantic, it's a "behind closed doors" type of deal that is not even spoken about properly or established. kristoph is also a very complicated person - so complicated he would be lost if he tried to understand himself. understanding your gender identity, in my humble opinion, requires being in tune with your feelings and not, well, being in denial of certain things about yourself. kristoph is very much a denial kind of guy (but i shan't say more), so him even understanding something about himself that doesn't fit his overall views on the world (conservative, neglectful of emotional needs, arguably) does not fit with my vision of him.

and, to be honest, him having a secret feminine side seems kind of on the nose for me with the nail polish thing. that's probably not why you view him that way though, so again, nice hc to have! every time a person makes a character trans in their head, i feel it like a god feels a mortal prayer and i nod to myself in joy.