#and apparently i've lost some skill

[concerningwolves]

Writing porn is like. Why have I forgotten how to describe a blowjob. How many times have I used the word 'moan'. Why is the line between sexy and absurd so thin. What happened to the clothes. Why can't I just smash these characters together like two dolls and call it a day

[deltastorm101]

Hi! Do you have any tips or info on how you made Zane's spiral painting? I'm thinking of trying to replicate it too! Thanks!

oh hey, yeah sure!! :D

how 2 spiral 101:

SO. first i was looking at references, most of which were, of course, screenshots from room 665 party; i don't think i have those anymore but 0.25x speed and frame by frame search is your friend.

i settled on a 50x70cm regular canvas and bought two small tubs of acrylic paint, one black one white, and a wide brush because i didn't have one. in hindsight i should have probably gone with a bigger canvas (and maybe even a square one? or something like 90x80?) but i was hit with a random burst of energy and i just wanted to get started without my usual ridiculous amount of planning that makes me afraid to start anything.

i painted the canvas with two layers of black (almost completely undiluted) on the same evening, with about 2h to dry in between. then i was looking at where exactly the 'arms' of the spiral originated (from the center and then downwards) and how many turns/loops it had (4.5, plus 3 corners). after that, of course, i was too scared to start painting, or even sketching, the spiral right away so i wanted to determine the exact placement of the pattern by putting some kind of cord or string on the canvas first; i decided on shoelaces, worked out great, looked like this:

then i carefully traced it all onto the canvas with a pencil, fleshed out the thickness of the arms and marked where to put the little gaps and effects:

then everything after that was pretty much improvised. i worked with solid white strokes in thick areas, left gaps where i had marked them, added some roughness (mid-size brush, very little paint and very dry) and extra strokes (thin, semi-dry brush) where needed. the arms get thicker towards the corners and the roughest, most 'blurry' parts are on the bottom left. it took me some time to get a clear view of the bottom right and center right area because that’s where zane stood in a lot of the screenshots i took but i did find a good shot somewhere. i'd say the hardest part was balancing the messiness – i wanted it to look just chaotic enough to resemble the original without having it look sloppy and ugly and like i learned to hold a brush 5 minutes ago. i slowly worked my way around and around, perfecting the loops until i was semi-happy with the overall look and how it looked from afar. right at the end i added a few stray dots here and there – i thought i saw some black ones in the center area and white ones in the outer areas so that’s where i put them.

i guess going the extra mile to make this as true to the original as possible would be to look for a similar frame like zane has. an olive-ish color or dark brown painted wood with a slightly shiny (or even glossy) finish maybe. but i decided against that because it would have greatly overcomplicated things i was happy with already, and i wouldn't know how to frame a 1.5cm thick canvas anyway. but maybe with one of those extra thin ones? i saw some of those at the arts and crafts store i went to but they all weren't big enough.

hope this is what you were looking for, happy painting!!

[dustylovelyrun]

I feel like I'm going absolutely insane, but. Those stupid little wooden pencils that schools issue out or that you'd buy specifically because they're allowed, like the HB standard exam ones or whatever. It feels very wrong to write or draw with them unless all the paint is stripped from the exterior, right? Like it doesn't matter how sharp they are, it's all this stupid, glossy, blunt feeling graphite that doesn't make any of the marks right?

[somecunttookmyurl]

adhd people using the words "object permanence" to convey "i forget things exist when i stop looking at them" in a way that makes it clear it's more than just "regular old forgetfulness" aren't infantilising themselves, yeah. it is in fact mostly people with adhd trying to communicate a thing who are using it though.

"it's in the notion people with adhd can't text back because of object permanence (a thing babies develop"

it's... almost certainly going to be someone with adhd explaining something that they learned of this "notion" anyway. not someone without adhd just deciding to have a discussion about that with another non-adhder for shits n gigs

there is considerable debate over exactly what to call it to communicate it without going in exasperated circles about "no, not like regular forgetting things" and "no, not because i hate you"

honestly to someone who doesn't know (or fully understand) the child development term "object permanence" it's very evocative of "object stops existing to me until i see it again or a specific memory trigger happens"

[for those who don't have adhd here's a nice frankly perfect example.

i opened my microwave last week and was genuinely shocked to find a - now mouldy - cup of tea in there. i can logically reverse engineer what i did (forgot it, went cold, saw it and remembered, put it in the microwave to reheat, shut door, forgot it existed immediately, later rediscovered it like a particularly shit archaeologist) but not only do i have no actual memory of any of this, and thus no IDEA how long it had been there... i also forgot about owning the specific mug in there and didn't notice it was missing. i use it frequently. but above all i really was not expecting there to be anything to be in the microwave.

you can see how this is 2 inches to the left of "regular forgetting" that "everyone gets" - especially when it happens with everything all the time including entire people (it's not you it's me)

but if i relayed this story to you and described it "like an object permanence thing" your response would likely be "that makes sense. those objects aren't permanent also are you okay" (no)]

what's infantilising is people saying "that isn't a thing that that's a BABY thing for BABIES are you dumber than a BABY" whilst conveniently completely skipping over the thing you were explaining to start with. behind which is inevitably "that's a baby thing for babies not a real adhd thing therefore you are making it up/making excuses/everyone does that/cope"

a "notion" if you will (and a notion which isn't why you forgot to text them back)

This was an interesting article to read. I think it's a little simple but still fun to skim thru.

[shockercoco]

Necessary Revenge

Art Donaldson x reader

Warnings - 18+, smut, sub!art, dirty talk, handjob, overstimulation

Word count - 2111

a/n - yeah this is definitely on the list of the dirtiest things i've written. by popular request, here's part 2 to Cheer Up, but it can also be read by itself. Also tysm for all the love on Cheer Up. Sorry this took so long, and I hope you enjoy :)

You hated it when Art teased you, which is exactly why he does it. All you want is a loving boyfriend who listens to you and does what you say, is that too much to ask? Apparently so.

Obviously, the only reasonable solution is to seek revenge. Unfortunately for Art, after being denied an orgasm earlier after a rough day, that’s exactly what you plan to do. Well, maybe not unfortunate since this is most likely what he wants. 

You were trying to study and watch playbacks of matches on your laptop to better your skills, but since you’re no longer in the mood, you decide you might as well close it.

After cleaning up your area, you head into the bedroom to see Art leaning against the headboard on his phone, his back propped by pillows. The television is on but on low volume, he always needed some type of background noise. Art glances up from his phone once he notices you walk in and can’t help the smirk that grows on his face. As soon as he looks back down, you shoot him a glare.

“Back for more?” Art asks.

Just you wait.

“Not exactly,” you tell him as you climb next to him on the bed, using the sweetest tone possible. You get yourself situated against the headboard with him, making sure you’re comfortable – you plan on being here a while. “What are you doing?” 

“Just texting Patrick, he’s complaining about the match he just lost and how he needs to find a way to improve.”

“Well, he always was a sore loser,” you say. Art hums and nods in agreement as he continues to text his best friend. He doesn’t make a move to continue the conversation, so you decide to begin your revenge plan.

You turn your attention to the tv hanging on the wall as you place your hand on Art’s thigh. He must be too into his phone since he doesn’t notice, so you continue to raise your hand higher along the fabric of his sweatpants.

Art’s body tenses as he feels your hand move up his body, his fingers frozen above the keyboard on his phone. You notice the questioning glance he gives you from the corner of your eye, but you continue to play innocent as you keep your attention forward.

You wait for Art’s focus to go back to his phone before drifting your hand even higher and stopping right over his crotch. You don’t hide the smile that starts to grow on your face as you feel his cock slowly starting to harden over your touch. Art’s breathing begins to shallow out as he tries to maintain his focus and keep his mind straight. Well, that is until you give his crotch a firm squeeze causing him to let out a small moan and his eyes to flutter.

“What are you doing?” he asks you, his voice low.

“What do you mean? I just want to spend some time with you,” you answer in a casual tone, but Art can see right through your facade. He can feel his heartbeat getting faster. You finally turn your head towards him to notice his blue eyes not slightly widened as he stares back at you. You notice the way his chest slowly rises and falls in anticipation as his grip tightens around his phone. “Is something wrong?”

He gulps. “N-No, just a question.”

“I’m pretty sure Patrick is waiting for you to text him back,” you say, nodding towards his screen. 

Art continues to stare for a few more seconds before nodding and looking back at his phone, but you don’t take your eyes off of him. You let your hand hover above him as you wait for him to send a few more messages out before beginning to palm him through his sweatpants.

Art bites his lip as he lets a whimper. His cock is at full attention now as your hand continues to move. The grip he has on his phone is faltering, his hands starting to tremble and his face completely flushed. When his hands fall into his lap along with his phone, you stop and raise your eyebrows.

“Pick it back up and continue texting him,” you command, your tone firm. His phone is vibrating non-stop from Patrick’s pettiness.

“Baby-.”

“I said continue,” you tell him. 

A look of desperation flashes across his face before he lifts his phone back up and responds to the messages. Your hand starts back up again, and Art lets out a noise, sounding like he wants to start crying. 

He’s falling apart with just a touch of your hand.

Art is starting to get annoyed at Patrick’s texts and wishes they would just stop so he could enjoy himself. He knows you’re not too pleased right now, but he doesn’t care. It just feels too good.

You lean your head into his neck for you to kiss just below his ear, his favorite spot and his weakness. “What’s wrong? You were so cocky earlier, where’s that same energy?”

A shiver runs through Art’s body at the feeling of your breath on his neck. He lets out another whine as he closes his eyes for a second before opening them back up. He’s looking at his phone, but given the fact that his head is starting to feel empty, he can’t really make out the words on the screen.

“You don’t have anything to say for yourself?” you taunt as you press down harder on Art’s crotch, causing him to buck up into your hand. 

You pull away from his neck to get a good look at his face, which now has a distant look on it. His mouth is ajar as he looks back at you. You tilt your head, waiting for him to respond to you, but all he does is whimper and pant. He’s a complete mess.

You bring him into a kiss by grabbing the back of his neck, which he happily gives in to. The kiss is filled with nothing but need – more on his end than yours. Art drops his phone on the bed next to him so he can grab your waist, pulling you even closer to him. He whimpers into your mouth as you give his hair a quick put firm tug.

He plunges his tongue into your mouth, needing even more from you. You allow it for a moment before pulling back just a little to wrap your lips around his tongue. Art lets his eyes roll into his head at the feeling of you sucking his tongue. He feels his climax coming quickly from the combined pleasure, and you can tell by the fact of him squirming under your touch more and more.

“You’re not going to cum without my permission are you?” you ask after pulling away from his mouth.

Art feels his eyes become heavy as his forehead pressed against yours. “No.”

“Good boy,” you smile, and that brings Art even closer to the edge. He removes his hand from your waist to grab a hold of the cover beneath him.

“Can I cum?” he pleads as he throws his head back against the headboard, your hand still on the back of his neck.

“Not yet.”

“Baby please,”he pleads again, his breathing speeding up.

“No,” you tell him, wanting to torture him.

“Baby I can’t. I-I can’t,” he stutters, his eyes squeezed shut and his brows furrowed.

“That’s too bad,” you tell him. You feel his hips stutter under your touch making it known that he’s about to cum anyways. You already knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back for much longer. 

Art lets out a cry as his orgasm floods through his body and shoots out of him. A wet patch begins to appear through his sweatpants as you keep on pressing against him. He continues to roll his hips into your hand as he rides his orgasm out, a string of gasps falling out of his mouth.

“Oh no,” you fake pout, “Looks like you didn’t make it.”

“I’m sorry, I tried,” he pants as he opens, looking down at the stain on his pants before making eye contact with you. A look of embarrassment falls on his face.

He’s so cute.

You move your hand away from him. “What a shame,” you shake your head in fake disappointment. There’s a moment of silence before you say, “pull your pants down.”

“What?” Art asks, confused. He thought you were done, but he was so wrong.

“You heard me,” you say in a plain tone. 

Art hesitates before shimmying his pants down his legs to his knees, along with his underwear. You look down to see a mess of his cum covering his shaft, and as you take a look at his underwear, you see some sticking to the fabric. His cock is red and starting to soften, but that’s going to change.

Art gives you a look of realization as he lifts his head from the headboard once it registers in his mind what you’re about to do. “Please don’t.”

You ignore his request as you wrap your hand around his shaft. He jumps at the feeling of your cold hand around him, still sensitive from his orgasm. You stare into his eyes as you begin moving your hand up and down. Art lets out a pathetic whine as his body jerks, trying to escape your touch, but it doesn’t work.

“You know, you’re just so easy,” you tease.

“Baby, please-,” Art cuts himself off with a whimper, his hips starting to writhe against the cover.

“Please what? You should be thankful that I’m doing this, unlike how you denied me my orgasm earlier,” you tell him. “I’m letting you cum as many times as you want.”

“Oh my god,” he says as he drops his head. His voice strangled as his second orgasm unexpectedly arrives. You watch as his cum lands on your hands and the bottom of his white shirt. 

A sticky and wet sound echoes through the room as your hand speeds up around him. Art’s mouth falls open as his breathing picks up once again. He looks at you, silently begging, but you ignore him once again. You remove the hand from behind his neck and place it on one of his legs to help keep his body still.

“Say you’re sorry,” you tell him as you run your thumb over his tip a few times..

“I’m sorry,” he gasps, his grip on the cover tightening. He feels like his hands might be stuck in fists by the time this is over.

You pretend to think in your head before saying, “I don’t think you mean it.”

His voice is high and whiny as he throws his head back once again and says, “I am. I promise.”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” you shrug. “Make me believe it.”

Art begins to rethink his choices and starts to regret messing with you. “I’m so, so, so sorry, baby. I swear. It was wrong of me to do that to you.”

“Hmm.”

“Baby.”

You smirk at his desperation. “I forgive you.”

“Oh, no, I think I’m going to cum again,” he cries, his eyes rolling back once again as his body tenses.

“Go ahead,” you tell him.

Art’s third orgasm hits him harder than his previous two. He trembles as his back arches away from the headboard while watered down cum spurts out of him. Drool spills out the side of his mouth as you continue the motions of your hand.

He uses a hand and reaches down to pull yours away from his cock, but you slap it away. Art gasps as he continues to twitch in your hand, feeling like he can’t stop as cum flows out of him. You finally move your hand away, but his cock continues to spasm with your touch.

Wanting to torture him one last time, you lean down to wrap your mouth him, sucking and cleaning. Art’s body jerks as he curls forward and grabs your head. You laugh as you pull away.

You lean back against the headboard, pulling his head into the side of your neck to help him calm down. His breath tickles you as he tries to slow his heart down. You glance down at his spent cock with a smile as you gently rub his back.

After a long moment of silence, Art’s phone vibrates from its place on the bed beside him.

You shake your head as you ask, “Are you going to answer that?”

“Patrick can fucking wait,” he breathes out.

like what you see? check out my masterlist :)

[applecherryandpears]

BBC Radio 1 - 1997: The love edition

Can't believe that so many seminal Noel & Liam quotes are from the very same interview, either Noel's life + music crisis poured it all out of him, or the good moments are just indeed that good BTS.

Naturally, they were (allegedly) drunk. Liam wasn't supposed to show up but he changed his mind last minute, my headcanon is that he missed Noel judging from how well they got along that day.

I'm very friendly to my bed, I love my bed, and my bed loves me.

(Interviewer says Liam only gets better, Noel complains Liam doesn't show up for B sides recordings, Liam says he had a sore throat, and somehow, this comes to this.)

Love-love-love. Liam twists exhibition (oasis photo thing) into expedition and Noel's bullying turns into a live fantasy of marching down the south pole wastelands together to build heart shaped igloos, also Liam's shy. And fighting for his life.

There we have it, a recorded (half) confession.

Okay so here I find the "as long as ... for a couple of quids" holds some meaning as Noel goes a little rigid saying no. Can't ever meant this. but I can't for the life of me understand Liam.

Also Liam clears out that inspiration entails for him listening and understanding him without rushing into ill-made judgments and it's palpable he's at his limits with the media. Coincidentally the day after this interview he was tracked down by journalists, asking him if he had regrets over what he said, because apparently he swore too much and had people clutch on their pearls all over the UK.

Supersonic quote but in full. Mad for it, Noel says.

I'll be a really good uncle to Liam's child.

I could sum this one up with Pardon? but -- "that man is a bigger man than I am, why, it has nothing to do with you, but he has to deal with life and with somebody like me on top of everything else" yet by the end of that year it had all gone to flames. Also audio proof they did give each other birthday presents, not lost on me this one.

Noel truly cares about Liam's opinion but won't show it (nothing new ik) However that giggle at the end has my wonders.

Bonus:

In the honour of a 2024 magazine article deeply regretting Liam's menacing aura and rock n roll attitude from 1997

And, if anyone can possibly make out what Liam says Noel is pointing his way, this one maxed out my comprehension skills:

[autumnmobile12]

My Hero Academia AU: Living Ghost

A little bit different than my other comics; I've never done a time lapse before.

In the Ambush Simulation notes, I mentioned that Dabi has a canon divergence in this AU where he returned home after the three years he was missing/presumed dead, but nothing in the household changed and he was still an unhinged mess.  This is the AU comic behind ‘unhinged mess’ and the partial reasoning behind his antagonistic behavior in The Summer Camp Ambush Simulation.

…

All right, so canonically Dabi is a walking, half-dead, Lovecraftian nightmare of mental and physical health issues who's keeping himself going through sheer willpower/hatred.  Ujiko says that after waking up from the three year coma, he should not have survived longer than a month as a result of the injuries he sustained from the fire.  So even in an AU where he was reunited with his family after the fact, that’s still the reality of his situation.

Enter Endeavor: In this scenario, at that point in his character arc, I think he would have retreated back into his usual pattern of refusing to face the issue. The Todoroki family got Touya back, but they also learned that he wouldn't be with them long. If a missing/presumed dead child turns up after three years, they're immediately going to a hospital to establish mental and physical condition, so the health issues resulting from the fire would have been discovered almost immediately.

From the point of view of Endeavor, Touya's return was cause for celebration and was initially viewed as a second chance/an opportunity to repair some of the damage he'd already done to his family...but then the severity of Touya's prognosis becomes apparent and they're told he has weeks to live. In Ambush Simulation, Endeavor takes the coward’s way out and leaves the problem for everyone else to deal with so he doesn't have to face Touya.  He told himself it was a way of not getting attached and so on, and no matter how much he tries to deny it, the avoidance is his guilty conscious.

The same goes for Rei. She refused to see Touya after he came back just so she wouldn't have to say goodbye to him a second time.

But Touya doesn't die.

Despite what the doctors predicted, he survives '...albeit with complications, various emergencies, experimental treatments to delay the inevitable, no clear answer on how the hell he was still breathing, and no promises that he would ever live a full life...' And now, just like in canon, he has 7-8 years of simmering resentment with the trauma of a near-death experience, the realization of having lost three years of his life due to the coma, the fallout of terminal health, and the crushing disappointment of what should have been a heartfelt reunion turned into a second abandonment.

In this AU as a vigilante, Touya has the Pandora’s Box of being an outrageous public menace and a potential family embarrassment because he figured out the only time his father pays any attention to him is when he’s ‘acting out’ and he decided he’d rather be the problem child than the invisible child.  And unfortunately, this mentality has also ruined his relationship with Natsuo.

In some respect, canon is a happier outcome for Touya because at least in canon, the poor bastard has a purpose instead of reduced to a living ghost.

…

The piano panels are him rehabilitating his hands.  Technically after a three year coma, he should not have been walking and talking as quickly as he did.  Not with that kind of atrophy.  So I’m balancing that inaccuracy out with the headcanon his fine motor skills were likely completely ruined.

Plus, if your life is a train wreck, have at least one positive hobby.

...Yomaha...

[laswells-ashtray]

I think that Mac and Price first hated each other when they first met simply because Price didn’t do well with orders(and still doesn’t), and Mac likes organization and when things go his way. But somehow, some way, the universe thought it’d be funny to tie those two together and now they have a father and son bond.

When they first meet, Mac thinks he's another smarmy little English cunt. Just because John is a good fighter, it doesn't mean he's an overly decent solider. The little fucker has no respect for authority, little self preservation when he throws himself headfirst into whatever violent situation he can find and to be honest, he's just a prick.

He introduces himself to the Englishman and all he's met with is a simple, "I've heard."

I've heard? Who pissed in his Cheerios?

But Mac proceeds with the training drills he'd set up for all of the fresh faced fuckers. And if he picks John to be used as an example in which Mac knocks him on his arse? That's between him and God.

It takes nine weeks for John to make his first good impression on MacMillan. Sure, he's skilled on the field but if he wasn't, he wouldn't be working with Mac.

It's their first mission to properly go tits up. He takes 12 men, 5 return with him. Their intel was fucked from the beginning but they'd been forced to proceed despite his own protests and he wants to deck whoever was responsible for that decision.

A certain sergeant finds him outside, tucked away in a little hidden corner that's protected from the wind and therefore his usual smoke spot. But his fucking lighter won't work. It won't spark despite how many times he tries to light the fag in his mouth. He considers tossing the lighter off of the wall behind him but he knows it'd only end up in him having to pick it up all while looking like a tit and that just makes him angrier. He needs a drink.

He barely notices John approach him, too caught up in his own head. But the sergeant walks up to him without a word and hands him his own lighter, Mac accepts it with a thankful nod. John doesn't lash out like he'd expect him to, a lot of soldiers would immediately turn the blame on him for a mission gone badly to this extent. Every one of them lost a friend today. He wouldn't blame them, he'd let them scream themselves hoarse until they got it out o their system if he had to.

John doesn't. He just waist patiently for MacMillan to hand him his lighter back before lighting his own fag. They smoke in peace and John only says one thing to him before he walks away.

"Shit brand."

It almost makes Mac laugh.

Captain MacMillan officially decides he hates Sergeant John Price when he lets the other man sit in his office to discuss a concern that John has about the upcoming mission. The lad is smart and his opinion is actually worth considering as much as his general demeanour makes Mac want to smack him. That isn't what does it for him though.

No, it's when John takes apart three of his pens during their conversation and then puts them back in the mug he uses to hold them. He doesn't pay any attention to the other man as he does, he should've because after John leaves Mac realises he stole the spring out of every fucking pen.

He never gets those little springs back. Bastard.

The first time he sees John drunk he decides that while he'd never admit it, the kid is growing on him. Because John doesn't spend half the night flirting with the bartender like the other lads, nor does he try to scrap with anyone. He talks Mac's bloody ear off about fucking bees. Bees. Apparently John's childhood consisted of watching bees and thinking they're, to quote the sergeant, "beautiful, fat, fuzzy little bastards".

It's the funniest thing Mac has ever seen and maybe he's tipsy at the time too but it still counts. John is so passionate when he tells MacMillan all about leafcutter bees, masonry bees and their differences. Hand slamming off of the table in protest when one of the other lads dare suggest that bees and wasps are basically the same thing.

The day he meets Nikolai he takes a brief moment to ask God what has he done to deserve this. John is smitten for the man and apparently Mac is the only one to notice. The Englishman hangs off of the Russians every word. His eyes also have a tendency to hang off of the Russians arse but Mac tries not to think about that too hard lest he shoot himself.

John all but refuses to go up to Nikolai and spark a conversation with him alone. This leads to the day MacMillan decides that a certain Sergeant Price is his problem now because someone has to talk the prick into talking because his pining is far too pathetic to sit through much longer.

"Son, if ye don't go and bloody talk tae him then I swear I'll have ye running laps until he's the wan dragging ye back tae your kip when ye pass oot."

John just blinks at him, he can't tell what throws the younger man off. Is it "son" or the fact that Mac is aware that he's a raging homosexual? He'd assume both if it weren't for the fact that John looked like he could barely handle one thought now, let alone two.

"Go talk tae him. He's been trying tae chat ye up since ye first met and I'm fuckin' sick ae it."

He pushes the younger man in Nikolai's general direction and pretends he can't see the Russian watching with an amused grin.

John stumbles and glances back to him with a look of uncertainty.

"Get tae it, and nae winchin. I cannae see that or I'll commit sideyways."

[ryunumber]

Spooky from Spookys House Of Jumpscares/Spookys Jumpscare Mansion

Spooky has a Ryu Number of 5/4/does not have a Ryu Number.

(update and explanation below)

(UPDATE: Per @penndragon, Cross Impact has hit Early Access.)

(UPDATE 2: Per @mr-self-suck-by-nin, confirmation of the Cooking Companions protagonist identity gives Spooky an unambiguous Ryu Number of 4.)

Look, it's complicated. Things will be more concrete when Cross Impact hits Early Access.

Fair warning: this explanation is a bit more involved than normal, because the research hole this sent me down had me sincerely doubting my own base competence.

So, from the top: Spooky's only eligible appearance is in her own game, Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion née House of Jump Scares, as her only other appearance, period, seems to be as a trophy in Indie Pogo.

Naturally, this makes SJSM's specimens as the only connecting points. I've identified three that could work:

Unknown Specimen 1 is just White Face from IMSCARED.

This seems to be a dead end, as White Face's only other eligible appearance seems to be in the Nightmare Mode of Cooking Companions, as part of a menagerie of other horror game characters, including SJSM's own Specimen 6. But all of those also seem to be dead ends, and Specimen 6 just gets back to where we started, so that's probably no good.

How about Unknown Specimen 5?

Named Lisa. Sure looks quite a bit like Lisa from P.T. and once-prospective Silent Hills. Let's say it's that Lisa. What else has Lisa been in?

Apparently just P.T., which wouldn't be altogether unsurprising given, you know, all that happened with Silent Hills. Even the Lisa decoys for Metal Gear Solid V showcased in the Tokyo Game Show 2014 trailer didn't make it to the final game.

But there are still other P.T. references that did make it. Namely, that pleasant radio transmission, interruptions and all, can be heard from some radios in MGSV.

Now, given that audio-only appearances are broadly eligible, you could make a case that whoever's reading in this transmission is a character themself, which would in turn connect Lisa to The Phantom Pain, at which point calculating the Ryu Number is just a matter of hashing out who exactly is and is not in MGSV. The only issue I have with making this connection is that the audio is basically reused wholesale from P.T., which arguably makes it more in line with an archival recording, which is not eligible, than bespoke radio chatter, which is eligible, but hey, whatever, I've peddled dodgier. Why the hell not.

So in the search of a route with less caveats, let's consider what I've identified as the last possible eligible connection, Specimen 8. This cervine bundle of fun can be seen in Lost in Vivo as part of Lost Tape 3.

It turns out there's another character in Lost in Vivo who's been in something else: Sotiris. It also turns out that the "something else" in question is, uh,

the EEK3 2020 Virtual Show Floor. Which, to the best of my knowledge, is never referred to as a game, so if that matters to you, then we're done, and Spooky either has the aforementioned route through Lisa or nothing.

If you're willing to say that the virtual show floor is a game, which does not seem to be an unpopular opinion, then good news! There's a clear path to Ryu. You just have to go through Skully, who cameos in Toree 3D,

to the titular Toree, who's a guest character in Lunistice,

to Kit, the main character of Lunistice, who cameos in CrossCode,

to Lea, whose Ryu Number of 2 is already established, which gives Spooky a final Ryu Number of I'm sorry, I'm being handed a note.

Oh. Well fuck me, then, for not considering that the realities of game development could lead to a scenario wherein a character from an in-progress game could make cameo appearances in other games, only to be scrapped entirely before their would-be source game is released. Clearly, this is what the kids refer to as a "skill issue".

And the best part? This chain is so long that I'm genuinely expecting to have overlooked something really obvious that gives a shorter number, because the documentation I found on indie-ass indie horror game crossovers is spotty. So if you have any information that could shorten this more substantial than "White Face is graffiti in the full release of FAITH", send it my way. I'd rather be definitely wrong than dubiously correct.

Anyway, Toree's set to be playable in Cross Impact, so when that's released to the wider public most of this nonsense I just spewed at you will actually come into play. Until then, make of all of this what you will. If you'll excuse me, I need to go fucking distort.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Tableskills: Making a Game of It

Recently I learned a bit of an unspoken truth that I'd brushed up against in my many years of being a dungeonmaster that I'd never seen put into words before: If you want to liven up whatever's going on in your adventure, figure out a way to engage the players in some kind of game. It's simultaneously the best way to provide a roadblock while making your player's victories feel earned.

This might seem redundant, since you're already playing d&d but give a moment of thought to exactly what portions of d&d are gamified. Once you learn your way around the system, it becomes apparent that D&D really only has three modes of play:

Pure roleplay/storytelling, driven by whatever feels best for the narrative. Which is not technically a game, nor should it (IMO) be gamified.

Tactical combat with a robust rules system, the most gamelike aspect.

A mostly light weight skills based system for overcoming challenges that sits between the two in terms of complexity.

The problem is that there's quite a lot of things that happen in d&d that don't fall neatly into these three systems, the best example being exploration which was supposed to be a "pillar" of gameplay but somehow got lost along the way . This is a glaring omission given how much of the core fantasy of the game (not to mention fantasy in general) is the thrill of discovery, contrasted with the rigours of travelling to/through wondrous locations. How empty is it to have your party play out the fantasy of being on a magical odyssey or delving the unknown when you end up handwaving any actual travel because base d&d doesn't provide a satisfying framework for going from A to B besides skillchecks and random encounters (shameless plug for my own exploration system and the dungeon design framework that goes with it).

The secret sauce that's made d&d and other ttrpgs so enduring is how they fuse the dramatic conventions of storytelling with the dynamics of play. The combat system gives weight and risk to those epic confrontations, and because the players can both get good at combat and are at risk of losing it lets them engage with the moment to moment action far more than pure narration or a single skill roll ever could.

I'm not saying that we need to go as in depth as combat for every gamified narrative beat (the more light weight the better IMO) but having a toolbox full of minigames we can draw upon gives us something to fall back on when we're doing our prep, or when we need to improvise. I've found having this arsenal at hand as imortant as my ability to make memorable NPCs on the fly or rework vital plothooks the party would otherwise miss.

What I'd encourage you as a DM to do is to start building a list of light weight setups/minigames for situations you often find yourself encountering: chase scenes, drinking contests, fair games, anything you think would be useful. Either make them yourself or source them from somewhere on the web, pack your DM binder full of them as needed. While not all players are utterly thrilled by combat, everyone likes having some structured game time thrown in there along with the freeform storytelling and jokes about how that one NPC's name sounds like a sex act.

A quick minigame is likewise a great way to give structure to a session when your party ends up taking a shortcut around your prepared material. Oh they didn't take that monster hunter contract in the sewers and instead want to follow up on rumours about a local caravan? The wagon hands are playing a marble game while their boss negotiates with some local mercahnts, offering to let the party play while they wait. The heroes want to sail out to the island dungeon you don't have prepped yet? Well it looks like the navigator has gone on a bit of a bender, and the party not only need to track them down but also piece together where they left the charts from their drunken remembrances as a form of a logic puzzle.

Artsource

[starberry-cupcake]

I'm trying the post-it method and it's really messy but, if it helps, I'll keep it up, because I feel like live-reading doesn't help me out with processing this as much as going back on notes does...god, I sound like palmolive...

previously, in nona del 9:

this happened

this is the general tag for all the recaps I've done

CHAPTER 8 (third house skull, which, I guess, but tangentially)

sriracha girlie from school is still on the case and asks nona to up her game in the surveillance task and pretend she's on a radio call

she doesn't elaborate but I doubt it'd help nona understand much anyway if she does

she's just happy to help

nona has to put little boots in the six-legged dog's feet before going out into the scorching heat, though

it's the summer here, so I feel you, noodle

(bonus info: our new puppy apparently has been aptly named because she has 0 fear and is trying to jump into the pool head first like a maniac)

so nona, because she has no preservation skills either, just like our puppy, thinks is a good idea to pretend like she's talking to coronabeer

she still calls her "crown", but it doesn't make me feel any more ok with her pretend calling coronabeer of all people

wasn't she with BOE and whatnot? what if the enemy is listening?

she invites her to her birthday party on the beach

and I might be too cautious but I know better than to share so much information in the wild outdoors where someone could listen

like 'I'm gonna be in this location at this day, please come steal from me or whatever'

maybe it's just my latine self talking, but be careful out there

how do they trust this girl to not be a hazard on her own?

she's like 8 years old

oh, great, I sound like mercygirl now

nona starts drowsing off and a bible chapter comes in, which people have told me is her sleeping

gonna remind everyone I didn't find that out on my own

that's not a victory for me

JOHN 15:23

"Whoever hates me hates my Father as well" is the bible verse in this one

well, then

I haven't read the bible this much since I was in my second school (out of 4)

so here we are again with dr. reverend emperor john buttface's monologue

there's a distraction tactic possibility to get him killed, if we ever need one

he mentions the eye color change as things get weird with their experiments

and says cassiopeia?? potentially? or cyrus? told him he looked like edward cullen "from that old movie twilight"

like I'm not gonna clock dr. reverend emperor john having read twilight with his own two changing eyes

so dr reverend emperor john the menace and his terrible lyctors start doing awful things to the corpses that aren't rotting

allegedly due to dr reverend emperor john "loving them"

whatever that means

and the corpses remain undamaged

what I'd like to point out here is that these people are deranged and god awful even when they hadn't been 25 million years old

this is them brand new from the package and they're all either terrible or complicit in being terrible

I think cassiopeia is the only one visibly suffering but still, man

these people were always like this, this isn't some "we've been out in space so long we've lost touch with our humanity"

happy out of touch thursday, this is you, this has always been you

dr reverend emperor john starts talking about touching the corpses' hands and feeling them even when they aren't there with him

mercygirl is doubting his sanity

yet still they all followed him to hell, so who's crazier here

they picked two corpses, a guy and a gal, to make more specific experiments on, and he named them ulysses and titania

titania after the shakespeare character

ulysses not after the greek hero

and by controlling their hands from across the room I guess they discover necromancy

he's still talking to harrow through all this

CHAPTER 9 (sixth house skull, but at what cost?????)

sriracha girle tells nona that, after her imaginary phone call with coronabeer, the ceaseless watcher left the building

literally

nobody knows what this means but sriracha girlie is still on the case

then they start hearing shots outside and everyone has their safety precautions but they're all bored about it instead of afraid

wish this was just a fiction thing and not the current world

so everyone gets picked up except for sriracha girle, as ush

camilla comes to pick up nona from school and gets pastries (aka facturas, where I'm from)

camilla is doing the lord's work here

she got them by selling out pyrrha's cigarettes, apparently, which I find a great exchange but I don't smoke, so I'm obviously team facturas

then, we get a nona flashback from a month prior, about the Event which prevents them from going swimming anymore

they used to go to the sea at dusk to have some private time with the water

and by them I mean nona went swimming, because the sea is filled with deadly jellyfish, so they'd kill a regular person, but not nona

she can swim with the jellyfish, which sounds beautiful, actually

the whole swimming description is so relaxing and beautiful and I am hating this heat but I'm grateful for the swimming opportunity it provides

swimming is great

swimming with jellyfish without dying must be great

relaxing moment for 3.5 seconds for everyone

of course things can't be relaxing for too long, this is tlt we're talking about

nona sees some people surrounding camilla and guesses it must be the police

which, in every universe, is a Problem

tons of police men surrounding one woman, yeah, doesn't look great

but I was fine because this is camilla fucking hect we're talking about

no cops at pride, just camilla and knives

nona can't hear their conversation but, at one point, she can hear camilla say "speak House"

which ??????????????????????'

doesn't sound good AT ALL

nona sees one of them pointing a gun and warns camilla, which earns nona a shot through the shoulder

so then, when nona resurfaces, she finds everyone lying motionless and camilla squatting on the sand

and I was like "of course my baby did that"

but then nona looks at her and she's got one camilla eye and one palmolive eye

and is talking like camolive is some sort of dragon ball fusion

they ask nona not to freak out

I'm freaking out

camolive's timer starts going like crazy and they ask nona to drive them home

camilla comes back to herself at this point BUT

she's bleeding everywhere

like, blood coming out of her skin

it's everywhere

nona asks her to get palmolive but camilla says they can't

so nona has to drive them home in the middle of the night with the blood and the salty water and the potential police following

nona thankfully can manage and pyrrha says camilla is in thanergy shock

she says they can never do that again and that if palmolive wasn't sharing a body with her, she'd be kicking his ass

AND I WOULD BE TOO

PALMOLIVE, I SAID IT LAST RECAP, MAN

YOU HAD ONE JOB

KEEPING CAMILLA SAFE

WHAT ARE YOU DOING??????

camilla asks them to not tell palmolive she was "weak"

pyrrha drinks in camilla's honor while she's recuperating and nona asks her why she said goodbye to her if she's gonna be fine

to which pyrrha asks how does she know she was saying goodbye

basically, camilla is not dying but she's also not fine

which I got from the very heavy bleeding, thank you very much doctor pyrrha

if something happens to camilla I swear to whatever god that isn't the monologuing prick in the sleeping chapters I'm gonna go feral

PALMOLIVE I'M GOING TO CHASE YOU DOWN

AND THAT'S IT FOR THIS RECAP!!! I think the post its system is better for me?? I'll figure it out as I go. See you on the next one!!!

[airas-story]

https://www.tumblr.com/airas-story/771258775856447488/for-your-prompts-how-long-have-you-been-in-love?source=share

"and they said i'm the oblivious one !"

Look here for the previous drabbles! Parts one, two, three, and four! I've got one more request for this in the queue to get some of that resolution!

Tony was the most oblivious person in the world.

Stephen had done everything but throw himself at Tony; apparently none of that registered. Not the dates, not the increased time spent together, not Stephen’s—admittedly not great—attempts to flirt.

Tony enjoyed their time together, eyes bright and warm when he looked at Stephen—love, it was love—but Stephen could tell Tony wasn’t reading anything into their interactions. Tony ‘knew’ Stephen saw him as a friend and nothing more, so he saw nothing more.

For someone who’d loved Stephen for over five years, Tony was remarkably resistant to Stephen trying to change their dynamic.

“And they said I’m the oblivious one,” Stephen muttered as he left the compound after another date-that-wasn’t.

“He is remarkably obtuse,” came a voice from behind him. Stephen startled, turning around. Natasha leaned against the wall. “I admit, I thought it’d be easy once you realized you’re as in love with him as he is with you.”

Stephen stared. She knew? Worse, she’d known before he’d known. That first conversation he’d overheard… “You and Clint?”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Clint is good at what he does, but subterfuge isn’t a skill of his.”

“You used him?”

Natasha smirked. “He’ll be delighted he was of use. He’s a romantic. Part of why he was so eager to get Tony with Lia. He thought you were a lost cause.”

“You didn’t think so.”

“No,” she agreed. “You loved him, that was obvious. Just as obvious was that neither of you realized.”

“What do I do, then?” Stephen asked. “To get him to realize I…” He swallowed. Natasha might already know, but he didn’t want to say it to her before he said it to Tony.

Natasha sighed. “You’re both idiots.” She shook her head. “Just tell him.”

[amethystfairy1]

Amethyst

Amethyst I'm here to yell about TT

I mean I've left a stream of comments so most of my thoughts are there, but I'm gonna try and scrap them together because I'm actually stunned and I need you to know how much I loved it

Also this may prove to be harder than expected considering both my mind and my heart feel too empty and too full at the same time... dunno how you did it, but I'm impressed

So we start with our Swagon (Swaggon?) Family because ohhh I love them so, so, so much and alfjdkfjfs I don't know how to articulate it but they're all so dear to me (I'll admit Scar's my favourite by a teensy bit) and I've just reached the end so they're healing thank the gods

The way Mumbo stepped up when it was all falling apart, the way he doesn't really know how to deal with emotions but he still tries, the way he and Scar work together the way he strives to be a gentlemanly rogue the way he had no clue why Scar wanted to buy Grian but he went along anyway and now he cares so, so much

The way Scar cons his way through life, the way he instantly decided that he was taking Grian when he saw him, the always knew how to make his way around Grian's struggles the way he took the final kill on the Duke so Mumbo wouldn't have to. The way he was the one who messed up so badly and beat himself up about it so much, but it's okay in the end. Because you're allowed to make mistakes, so long as you don't let them define you (/ref :D)

The way Grian is slowly healing from all the hurt, the way he's been learning that what he wants matters, the way he teases and has fun and flies and is more alive now because he deserves it, he deserves it all even if it's so hard for him to believe

The way Pearl is in a similar boat, the way they found each other and it took so much for them to break down all those barriers to just say each other's names, the way she, though some crazy coincidence, has had a year of learning and joy with Gem the way it took so much to just say her name but she still did it the way she's slowly learning and becoming happier just like her brother ("he's his Gem") (shattered my heart for the umpteenth time btw) (absolutely beautiful)

Gem and her batshit insane-ness and how she cares for Pearl so, so much and her huge bloody sword that she doesn't let Zed upgrade (dude she's already terrifying enough can you imagine her with a sword made by Zed's full skill??) and the fact that she dropped the bounty instantly, even though it would break the streak she worked hard for and was proud of, just because Pearl asked

There's so many this is so long I'm so sorry (not really) (i am sorry that it's hardly coherent)

There's Impulse with his heart of gold who's so strong for keeping it even in such a cruel world, Skizz who's had it so, so rough but is still fighting for himself (please dude Impulse is a sweetheart don't kill him) (I really don't think it'd be that easy though- this guy also has a massive battle-axe) (though tbf Skizz is probably very strong... avian things)

Zed and Tango too- oh I love them they're so sweet... Tango slowly letting his guard down and un-learning all the habits he's had to develop in ten years of pain, Zed literally just getting him in a spur of the moment but then growing to care so deeply and standing up for and protecting him without question

Jimmy and the way he finally saw hope through a stubborn mer, the way he has such a myriad of issues to work thorugh, but he's really trying, the way he's not quite ready to say his name yet, the way he wants to because he loves Scott and he wants him to know him

Scott and his stubbornness and his magic and his sharp quips and the way he instantly saw Jimmy as part of his operation to get free, the way he left behind a whole whirlpool of struggles and issues (as evidenced by the apparently still-there hurricane??) and landed in an even worse situation but never lost himself

Martyn (another one who managed to become a favourite) and his magic (which I'd really like to see him use offensively) (we got Mumbo and Scar and such already and I loved it, so... pretty please? /lh no pressure ofc) and the way he grew attached to Ren so quickly, and the way he grappled so much with how he felt because he never wanted to make Ren fake that, the way he healed Scott because he saw how much Jimmy cared the way he doesn't understand their struggle but he's trying

Ren and his masks and how undyingly loyal he is and how much he cares and how hard it was for him to get through to himself, and how he really didn't believe that he could be happy and how his hair means some sort of connection to him and how he was glad the collar was activated because he really, truly wanted Martyn to understand that he meant it

And poor Etho, he's been dealt such a cruel hand. I hope he can heal... though i think that's a loooong ways away

So many people, so many connections! And we've only just gotten one out of the several reunions waiting to happen (very excited for that)

The magic in this one is so cool btw, I love it in all its different forms and quirks (as evidenced by my favourites, I think xD)

"You're on the other side of the storm now" - was the most satisfying thing I have ever read, oml it was incredible!! We got to see Mumbo furious and using his magic! And the roots thing was very cool (and incredibly terrifying if you think about it for longer than two seconds) I was hoping would be used when Scar mentioned it and it was so much better than I expected

And I now have a lovely mental list of people I want to punt into the sun! :D

This is really long and barely coherent I feel like, and I'm undoubtedly forgetting a bunch of things, so my apologies for that lmao

But all that is to say that I'm so glad you've written this and I'm very glad I jumped past my anxiety about heavy angst (it was well balanced, so I actually enjoyed it) (complements for that too! <3) and gave it a try

I feel slightly more normal now

Have a lovely timezone, and thanks for writing! <3

I LOVE THE LONG ASKS!

I LOVE HEARING ALL THE THOUGHTS!

So so so SOOOO much fun! I'm so glad you're enjoying TT! Thanks so much for reading!

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Ok so, I love all the shorts you post on here, you are building up a background of Competent Officer but Emotionally Stunted Price and Emotionally Intelligent and Badass Nik. Cool, fabulous.

But I've got to ask; what is Nik's sore spot?

With the extra decade it does make sense that he is more sure of himself and his relationships generally but you did touch on it with the body image/food one and mentioned it in passing with the how they met bit. Does the age gap get to him sometimes? All the loud machines (and guns) is he worried about his hearing going?

Or, his English is pretty good but does he sometimes get lost with fast speakers/strong accents?

What about something more silly? Is he fine with spiders but gets freaked out by daddy long legs (like me)? Is he wildly afraid of moths? Is he fine with big injuries but if he get a papercut is it the end of the world? Does he suffer terribly from Man Flu?

On a more domestic note, what irritates Price about him? I mean, no one is perfect right?

Does he always leave the bathroom in a state? Do all the broken noses mean he snores like a bear with a head cold (admittedly that might apply to Price as well)? Is he like my Dad and has very strong opinions on adverts and regularly go on rants about how the ad has nothing to do with the product? Does he like Marmite and Price hates it (or vice versa)?

Some excellent questions. I think Nik's weaknesses or vulnerabilities are tied up with his strengths, which I know sounds weird, but hear me out:

- This man is mad intelligent. He speaks eight languages, he canonically can fly pretty much anything (from what I've seen). He was significant enough in knowledge and skills for MI6 to go for him twice. Weakness: his intelligence can sometimes make him coldly logical. Look at how he didn't even blink twice at terrifying Butcher's family; I think that feeds well into Price's ruthlessness. He cares deeply about those he loves, but if you're not "his"? He won't even blink when pulling the trigger if it will help meet his goals.

- Linked to the above, he values his physical strength and his intellect. They make him worth something and he doesn't feel he has any intrinsic worth just as Nik. (Overbearing and demanding Soviet General father made it clear Nik needed to earn his place in the world.) If he feels they are declining or lessening, this is going to throw him through a loop. Big time. (Well noted from the food ficlet.)

- I think he was hugely, perhaps even suicidally, depressed when he turned informant. That conflict of loyalty and morality would have been difficult for his mind to process. I think that explains his apparently unflinching loyalty to Price and Laswell. In his eyes, they saved his life by giving him a purpose. (Nik you stupid fuck you literally set up Chimera and you're a hugely wealthy arms dealer off your own back wtf mate.) Nik never really had time to heal from that, he papered over it and got on with the job. I think as he settles down with Price, he will need to go to therapy. A lot of it.

- He is untidy (not unclean) at home. Laundry on the floor by the basket, never puts books away, gets fixated on a project at the expense of other things. It's like he left the military and his psyche rebelled against the bits he hated the most. Price can't compute how he can be so clinical at work and yet a complete clusterfuck at home. The garage is full of vehicles and appliances he disassembled and never put back together. Man's lucky he's dynamite in bed.

Nik is a "good" man in so far as he can be in a morally grey position. I write him with Price, through Price's lens, so we see "hero protagonist Nik" because that's who he is to/with Price. However, I do have a little ficlet tucked away when a jealous Ghost confronts him in Paris, and he tells Ghost, "If you take a shot, boy, you better not miss, because it will not happen again", and Ghost realises just why Price chose this man as his life partner. He's exactly the same level of ruthless.

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad Activity Report

Part 2

4/22 (Wed) - Reporter: Yukari Takeba

...Geez, Junpei...what's wrong with that...Oh, sorry, it's Takeba.

Well, Junpei Iori, that rude idiot, yelled abusive language at a woman, so I just had to give him a little warning.

For an hour.

By the way, Junpei has a cold. He has a high fever and looks like he is in pain, but I don't care.

After all, after the exploration of Tartarus, he stayed up late watching late-night TV, so it was all his fault.

...I guess today's post wasn't really a report, right? Sorry.

4/23 (Thu) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

It's Kirijo.

There are no Student Council activities today, so I took a quick look around Paulownia Mall before heading home... It seems like the number of Lost people has increased significantly. To be honest, I'm a bit worried, but the reality is that we have no choice but to build up our strength in Tartarus. I hope the second-years, our new fighting force, will do their best.

Speaking of which, it seems that the sports clubs have started recruiting new members, and that's the topic of conversation in the lounge. Akihiko seems to be excited at the thought of club activities, but I'll have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't start training on his own again. The field leader seems to be interested in club activities as well. I hope he chooses a club where he can put his skills to good use in real situations...

4/24 (Fri) - Reporter: Akihiko Sanada

Today, while chatting in the school hallway, a second-year student said something that concerned me. Apparently, a friend of his dropped out of school and has become a recluse. Since there is a possibility that he is a Lost, I reported this to Ikutsuki-san just in case... I hope that nothing bad happens, but I don't think we can be optimistic.

It's really frustrating to see damage happening in places close to me like this. Even though my job right now is to heal my body...

Hurry up... let me fight.

4/25 (Sat) - Reporter: Junpei Iori

Hi, it's Junpei.

Wow, time flies, and tomorrow will be another week since I moved into the dorm. A week that seems short but long... a week that seems long but short...

No, nothing dramatic happened. Anyway, life is comfortable! I'm not tied down to anything.

But it's more free than living at home, or maybe it's just a sense of freedom? It's a bit of a pain to get food, but I can eat whenever I want, I get to choose the channel I want, and best of all, I don't have to hide *it* under the bed... oh no. I'm deleting the last one.

But how can I turn it off? Hey, wait, sir!

4/26 (Sun) - Reporter: Yukari Takeba

Ah, it's Takeba.

Today is Sunday, so I went out in the morning to do some window shopping and eat around town. It feels like it's been a really long time since I've had a day off.

Well, shadows don't have any days off, so you really shouldn't let your guard down...

That's fine, right?

It seems that Junpei and the leader also went out. I wonder where they hang out? I can imagine what Junpei does, but the leader doesn't seem to have any hobbies. Oh, he seems to like music, so he probably goes around CD stores.

The seniors were in the dormitory. Kirijo-senpai said that she feels more relaxed when reading, but I wonder if that was because she was being considerate of Sanada-senpai who can't go out due to an injury? Hmm, I don't really understand Kirijo-senpai's personality, so I'm not sure.

I don't think this is really a report or anything, but this was Takeba.

4/27 (Mon) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

It's Kirijo.

Today I invited him, our field leader, to join the Student Council. I hoped that he would use his adaptability to help me on campus, but maybe I was being a bit too pushy?

Well, right after the invitation, I got permission from Toriumi-sensei and he came straight to the Student Council room, so at least it seems there's not a complete lack of interest.

...When I see a person with an ability, I naturally tend to judge that they would be happy to utilize that ability... but maybe that's a bad habit of mine. I should reflect on this. But even so, I have high expectations for his work.

I introduced him to the members of the Student Council, and it seems he has already caught the eye of the disciplinary committee chairman, Odagiri. To be able to take a liking to such a difficult guy like him, he must be no ordinary person.

But... compared to that, look at the principal's attitude this morning! What a huge waste of time! Do I need to do something about it...?

4/28 (Tue) - Reporter: Akihiko Sanada

The lines that were cut off by the recent Shadow attack have finally been restored. I normally don't use the internet that much so it won't have much of an impact on me, but it will be a relief for Mitsuru, who has to investigate various things. Also, Junpei was making a fuss about online games. That guy plays too much.

Honestly, my ribs are just like the cables.

I hope I can just replace it with a new one and end the treatment... But maybe it'll be nice to go online for a change of pace.

I remember someone in my class saying that the video of the world title defense match the other day was available. I should check it out...

4/29 (Wed) - Reporter: Junpei Iori

Hey!

It's Junpei!

Holiday! It's a national holiday!

Am I the only one who feels like I've gotten a huge bonus when I have a day off other than Sunday?

…Oh, by the way, what day is it today?

Well, that's ok, but anyway I enjoyed my holiday! That's it!

Oh, Tartarus and SEES are on holiday because the Senpais are out.

By the way, our leader said that he saw Sanada-san in front of the police station at night... Could it be that he forgot that Kurosawa-san wasn't there and went to buy a weapon?

Hehehe, the other day he said "I can't buy it at night, so please be careful."

Even though he was saying "I'll do my best", he ended up being the one who got carried away. …Maybe Sanada-san is actually an… air-headed person?

4/30 (Thu) - Reporter: Yukari Takeba

Uh, this is Takeba.

The world is definitely in a Golden Week mood. I saw on TV that the cherry blossoms are in full bloom at Hirosaki Castle in Aomori. In the class next door, some kids are taking Thursday, Friday and Saturday off and have already been to Guam since yesterday.

...Well, that's fine. Even if there are no missions, there is no way I can go out and play. However, when I thought that the battle without a goal would continue on and on like this, I felt a little uneasy, or perhaps I wanted some kind of feedback that I was useful. Haha, I'm feeling a bit down. Sorry! This is Takeba.

5/1 (Fri) - Reporter: Junpei Iori

Hi, Junpei here!

Today, at Sanada-san's request, I was able to accomplish my mission of carrying important documents to Tatsumi Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted for a medical examination!

...No, sorry. This is a report with some dramatization. Even the watchdog and the leader came along, so it just seemed like we were all visiting the hospital. Oh, by the way, the important document is the class list for class 2E. Sanada-san, what is that for?

Oh, and I met someone at the hospital who seems to be an acquaintance of Sanada-san. Someone who is apathetic.

No, how should I put it, he was like a knife, with an aura that said "I'll punch you if you talk to me"... He looked strong... Somehow, I got the feeling that Senpai really trusted him, and when I saw that... I was kind of jealous...

Ah, hahaha, something's weird about me.

5/2 (Sat) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

It's Kirijo. Today is the 8th night of the lunar calendar. I was contacted by the Kirijo family to say that they will be sending me some good Gyokuro tea soon, as they do every year. They say that this year's harvest is even better than before, so as a tea lover, I'm looking forward to it.

Even so, I was surprised to find that it was already that season. I really feel how quickly time passes.

At school, Golden Week starts tomorrow, and my classmates are busy planning trips and fun activities.

I don't have any particular plans, and the whole day is spent... well, maybe I'll read a book. I tuned up my bike the other day because I had too much free time. At times like this, it's hard not to have a hobby to kill time. I'm not interested in TV either... Oh, that reminds me. There seems to be a lot of talk about some suspicious shopping program lately. Amazing Commodities...I think it was a common name, like "Yamada" or "Suzuki"...Yeah. It should be on air tomorrow, so I might as well take a look.

5/3 (Sun) - Reporter: Yukari Takeba

Eh, this is Takeba...

Sorry, I don't really have a good voice.

Don't worry about it. No, it's not like the Chairman's pun really touched my heart.

Something bad happened during the day.

Can I tell you? Is it okay?

Even though I was saying it was a report... I'm also in a hurry. I mean, please listen to me, anyone is fine! This is the worst! I went to see a movie with a friend from my club today. It was a super popular movie that was released just in time for Golden Week. I was really looking forward to it. So, we met at Paulownia Mall, and there was still some time before the screening so we decided to walk around for a bit. I said I wanted to go look at some clothes, but the girl said she wanted to go to a bookstore. But she was a huge bookworm, and I don't know if it's a used bookstore, but she loves books so much that when we go to a bookstore, she loses herself in reading books.

I knew that, and I didn't have any particular books I wanted to read, so it would be boring to go, and when you go into a bookstore, you feel like you want to go to the bathroom, don't you? So I didn't want to go, and I told her I didn't want to go either because she probably wouldn't come back.

She said she was just there to pick up the book she ordered and would be back soon. But I had a bad feeling, so I told her I'd wait by the fountain and that she should go alone...I mean, if you have a bad feeling about it, you shouldn't go! In the end, she never came back...

5/13 (Wed) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

(Recording stopped due to memory capacity exceeded)

5/4 (Mon) - Reporter: Akihiko Sanada

Today, or rather, nothing particularly unusual happened today. The weather is as good as ever, and it seems like many tourist spots are crowded.

Well, we have the important mission of defeating shadows, so Golden Week is out of our league, and in any case, with this body... Well, we have no choice but to hold off on playing and Tartarus until we're fully healed.

Luckily, Mitsuru was at the dorm all day and talked to me, so I didn't have to waste any time. But is she okay? She's too stiff, or maybe she doesn't know how to play... I'm worried, even though it's none of my business. I wish she'd learn a little from Junpei's carefree attitude, but... well, it's not funny when she gets to that point.

Speaking of Junpei, in the evening we had a light discussion, or something like a debate, about Junpei's fight with shadows. It turned out he was thinking about the fight more seriously than I expected, and we had a much more meaningful exchange of opinions than I had imagined. I can't lose either.

5/5 (Tue) - Reporter: Junpei Iori

Hi, it's Junpei.

Oh, hello there. I've had a lot of bad luck lately... sigh.

It's nothing serious, but the day before yesterday I was supposed to go see a movie with a friend, but one of them suddenly had a hard time making it, so it fell through, and today was my revenge, but I forgot that the meeting place had changed, and even though I was at Paulownia Mall an hour before the scheduled time, I got an email saying I was late...To top it off, the item I ordered from Shikaku Net arrived today, but...they made a mistake with the order number!

Sigh, I don't need health sandals.

5/6 (Wed) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

It's Kirijo.

Golden Week ended without incident, and school starts again today. Student council activities are getting more serious, and midterm exams are coming up. I'm going to keep myself in shape both physically and mentally so that I don't get sluggish after the break.

For now, I've been keeping a close eye on the SEES members, and they don't look tired at all, and are in high spirits. ...Even though it's a tough mission that isn't even a duty, they're doing a really good job...I'm grateful.

But Akihiko has to do something. His face shows that he can't help but want to move his body at any opportunity. I'll put a stop to that first...

5/7 (Thu) - Reporter: Yukari Takeba

Hey, it's Takeba.

I was so long the other day...I'm really sorry. Hahaha. Oh, that reminds me, Golden Week is over. That brings back memories...the midterm exams start the week after next...Wow, what should I do? I have to study. Anyway, this was Takeba!

5/8 (Fri) - Reporter: Akihiko Sanada

How should I put it? I just can't get the fishy feeling out of my head. Tonight, after dinner, I was watching TV in the lounge. I usually kill time by cleaning my gloves or reading, but maybe I had a premonition.

The local news section featured a live broadcast from Tatsumi Memorial Hospital on patients with Apathy Syndrome.

The topic was "The number of patients with apathy has increased to this extent..." I never thought... Mitsuru would occasionally let me read the reports from Kirijo, which gave me the overall numbers that could be grasped statistically, but seeing the number of patients lining up for hospital beds with my own eyes... well, actually, it was more than I had imagined. I couldn't help but feel that this increase in the number of patients was strange.

I can't help but think that this is a good omen. It's not just that our power is not enough and the number of shadows is increasing, it's something more decisive. I'm sure Mitsuru will be very angry if I say this, but... I actually went out on patrol secretly during the Dark Hour today. Of course, I didn't intend to push myself too hard. In case I happen to encounter a shadow...

Even if she did, I was planning to contact her right away and run away without making a move. Seriously? I just wanted to do something about this feeling of insecurity. I know... I know it's stupid. But when I look at the full moon, I feel uneasy, an unreachable part deep in my heart. Is something... going to happen?

5/9 (Sat) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

It's Kirijo...

Seriously... This is what they mean when they say "regret is no use in hindsight." No, there's no point in regretting it. Anyway, let's start with today's report.

Today, the appearance of a large Shadow was confirmed again. The first place where it was detected was the New Urban Transit Ane between Iwatodai Station and Port Island Station.

I was in Hazuru's car. I immediately sent three second-year students to the scene, and I myself prepared my backup equipment and set out. However, I think the current backup system needs some review.

To put it simply, the team on the ground was planning to infiltrate the parked Anezuru during the Dark Hour and defeat the large Shadow believed to be inside. However, even at this point, I still hadn't been able to confirm the Shadow's position, and I had to admit that my judgement in allowing it to enter without enough information was a fatal mistake. That thing... the large Shadow had merged with the monorail's body, setting a trap for our attack. To be honest, I had never thought that the Shadow had such intelligence.

Future strategies against the Shadows will also need to be significantly revised.

In any case, thanks to the efforts of the three second-year students, and especially the judgment of the field leader, they succeeded in defeating the Shadow, but it was a battle that required reflection on many things. Next time, they'll clear their name... Next time...

5/10 (Sun) - Reporter: Junpei Iori

Hi, it's Junpei.

No, no, I really thought I was going to die yesterday. The car in front of me was closing in on me in the blink of an eye! I couldn't kill the enemy Shadow very easily! And just when I was about to do so, my attack failed and I slipped and fell! I was like, "What on earth is this?" Ahahaha.

...No, it's no laughing matter. I'm reflecting on the fact that if I hadn't gone too far in the first place, the fight might have been easier... But compared to that, he's really incredible. Even in such an extreme situation, he had the composure to run over to the brakes... No, I really can't lose...even I...

5/11 (Mon) - Reporter: Akihiko Sanada

Maybe because the operation the day before yesterday ended rather unsatisfactorily, Mitsuru seemed a little depressed, but today I was finally able to tell her what seemed to be good news. It seems that since defeating that big Shadow, the Apathy Syndrome patients have been recovering one after another.

Today, I stopped by Tatsumi Memorial Hospital on my way home from school to get some medicine, and one of the nurses told me with a happy look on her face. At the very least, almost all of the patients whose consciousness level had dropped so much that they were hospitalized there were able to respond when the doctor spoke to them overnight. It's a masterpiece because the most serious symptom related to the apathetic patients was a broken bone in a university student who was hit by a car while daydreaming. It would have been a breach of confidentiality, but she must have been very happy.

I told Mitsuru about it right away, but she scolded me, saying that it was the railway company that would be held responsible for the overrun, and that I shouldn't get too excited. She's happy too, but she's still not very honest.

The other thing that's changed is... Ah, that's right. Exams start next week, so the campus is in disarray. Tartarus is important, but we need to make sure the second-years don't neglect their duties as students. Especially Junpei. Is he okay...?

5/12(Tue) - Reporter: Yukari Takeba

Well, this is Takeba.

I skipped Tartarus today and went to borrow a friend's notebook. I'm sorry, Kirijo-senpai and everyone.

I mean, if I don't study, I get anxious, right? I haven't been able to concentrate on studying for the past few days because of the strategy I used the other day, so I'm a bit worried.

I'm in a hurry. Seriously.

Ah, but it's not that I don't like my role in the SEES. I talked to the leader this morning, and I'm happy if I can help someone by working hard. But that's that, and this is that. I'll hold off on Tartarus this week. This was Takeba.

It's Kirijo. Yesterday, a member of the Gekkoukan Academy staff was killed in a landslide by a car.

There was a traffic accident in which a man fell off a road and sustained serious injuries. It hasn't rained recently, so I thought it was just a coincidence, but it seems that it may not have been an accident. What's more, it may have been something to do with a shadow...

Whenever there is a suspicious accident or incident within the police, Kirijo's lab is secretly contacted, and this accident was caught in that net. Apparently, when they were investigating the ground to investigate the cause of the accident, they found evidence of a landslide caused by an external force. However, this is not certain, they also said that it "seems to be an external influence" to the extent that it is merely a symptom of the problem.

Afterwards, I asked for more details, but apart from the fact that the accident occurred around a certain time, there was nothing to suggest that the Dark Hour was related. Hmm... Maybe I'm being a bit overly sensitive.

5/14 (Thu) - Reporter: Akihiko Sanada

Today was an extremely peaceful day, with nothing to report as part of SEES, and nothing I wanted to personally think about. ...Well, that's just on the surface, after all...

Hmph... There's no point in being shy, so I'll just tell you. There are only a few days left until the midterm exams. The dormitory and the school are quiet on the surface, but deep down, I can't help but feel like a pretty violent storm is raging.

As for the guys in the dorm, Mitsuru and I are acting the same as usual, but Takeba seems to stay in her room after coming home from school and never coming out. I'm worried about whether she's eating properly, but in this respect, girls are better than boys. The field leader seems to be cool, and he seems to be doing what he needs to do, such as stopping by the library at school and studying with the lights on until late at night.

The problem, after all, is... Junpei. I'll have to give him a warning tomorrow.

5/15 (Fri) - Reporter: Mitsuru Kirijo

This is Kirijo.

Recently, as I continued my daily Shadow surveillance, I noticed that the number of shadow activities had decreased dramatically since the large Shadow was defeated the other day.

I can't let my guard down, but I feel like I've had a weight lifted off my shoulders for the first time in a long time.

I was aware that I wasn't putting my all into it, so I thought it wouldn't be so bad to spend this weekend sitting at my desk like a student would...

I've been told that Akihiko will be able to return soon, so let's think about how to organize ourselves so that we can start full-scale activities after the exams are over. Yes, I'd like to have more... manpower...

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[conkreetmonkey]

After Alterna isn't good difficulty, it's difficulty stemming from poor design and bad QOL, ok? It fails to purely be a test of skill. There are two things about it that make me feel this way:

the inability to save between segments, despite there being checkpoints. Like, oh, fuck you, game. It is unfair to assume I have 3-5 unbroken hours to burn on this shit. It is especially unfair to assume a child will even be allowed to play for that long. Hell, it's grossly unfair to assume my controller batteries will even hold out for the duration of the time it takes to beat this level! That's some borderline "not being allowed to pause in Dark Souls" shit, like actually just stop, that's artificial difficulty. That's the kind of difficulty where mom calling you to do a chore or spilling your drink is an instant loss. Fuck off with that cheap bullshit.

The one that REALLY gets to me: the RNG element in the "hit the targets while on a rail" segment. WHY would there be an RNG element to a post-game segment testing the player's aiming skill and reaction time? Not only does the gun you're forced to use during that segment have RIDICULOUS spread, but the targets themselves have HP values that sometimes, but only sometimes, require more than one shot. WHAT?? It legitimately feels like an oversight. I believe it is an oversight, and they just didn't playtest After Alterna enough, if at all. The amount of times I've lost that segment despite hitting every target in a bout flawlessly, just because one fucking target got hit, turned 99% yellow, but didn't break, and the very tight time limit then ran out because it's designed so you have barely enough time to hit every target ONCE and I promptly died... that's what made me give up on After Alterna. Why fucking bother if there's a luck element to it, if skill is irrelevant in the face of pure RNG? Go to hell.

In conclusion, fuck After Alterna, I've played better designed game levels on Roblox. It is just sloppy, especially coming from Nintendo, especially coming from the Nintendo that gave us Octo Expansion just a few years prior. Apparently they just forgot how to design a singleplayer Splatoon level that doesn't rely on cheap mobile-game-ass tricks to be hard. What the hell.