#and really it's only 3 lines because 1 line was just very slightly modified and 1 line is just the end of an if statement

[officialinuyasha]

Yashahime - Takashi Shiina Blog Translation - Sunday S February 2022 [Part 2]

12/27/2021

The first step in the princesses' journey is the village of the exterminators. The spotlight is on the grown up Kohaku-kun, and we look back at the story of “Inuyasha” from his point of view.

This comicalization starts with an entrance like "me and the reader visit the world of 'Inuyasha' with Towa-chan", and reconstructs the anime as "a story that explains the character of Sesshomaru from the perspective of a new set of characters". Therefore, “the testimonies from different perspectives of those who were there in ‘Inuyasha’” are an explanation that serves as a prequel and, at the same time, a guidepost. The past that boss Kohaku has been burdened with is also fully disclosed in the manga, deepening the interest in the complex shades of the father Lord Sesshomaru.

I interpreted Kohaku-kun as “another Sota-kun who lives in a harsh world”, so in the comic version Sota papa is an over-fond father and boss Kohaku also pampers the three princesses (laugh). I wanted to depict him as a grown up praying in front of the graves of his father and companions, whom he killed while he was manipulated by Naraku, and the fact that he hasn’t completely escaped from his past, but that would make the story darker so I modified it.

In the original Inuyasha version, Kirara-chan is a child who doesn't have speech balloons or anything like that, but in the anime version she is quite vocal, and it feels like she talks a lot when she is imported back into the manga. After wondering what to do (about this) in the comicalization, I interpreted it as “from the human Kagome’s point of view, she’s silent, but from the perspective of the princesses Kirara is relatively talkative”. While I was at it, I tried to make her more cat-like, but it turned out that if I made her too much like a cat, she would become a different person (or beast?), like "she's long when you pick her up" or “she presses your face with her paw pads and sticks to you if you are too sticky". For the time being, I drew it like this (laugh). 

I couldn't have a very large group of people riding on Kirara-chan, so a horse was provided for the boss (1) for the later development. When I drew it, I was able to capture the dignity and authority of him as an adult, so I think it was the right choice. By the way, this is just my personal, unofficial backstory, but I think the name of his beloved horse might have been “Kagura”. 

Kagura’s final scene is one of the most outstanding, famous scenes of the series, so I really wanted to pick it up, but the dilemma was that if I went too far into it, the balance of the story would swing too much in that direction because it is so impressive. Therefore, after consulting with Takahashi sensei, I decided to limit it to a small cut from the perspective of Kohaku-kun, who had rushed (to her side) and was watching her. In other words, I really wanted to show how she lived her short life to the fullest, even if it was just a glimpse. Her way of life overlaps with characters who appear later.

The centerpiece of the new chapter is the participation of older brother Kouga, who only appears in the anime original work (2). If the anime word line is extended, Ayame-chan should also be there, but due to page reasons she couldn’t appear. It may be that she is in charge of protecting the pack and house-sitting. 

As I wrote before, Master Yawaragi has been rejuvenated while slightly changing her standing position. This time she has no (spoken) lines, but in the next chapter she will be speaking in the Kansai dialect, so please look forward to it (laugh).

The first volume of the manga, which contains chapters up to last month, will be released around the 18th of January (3). The first print run has been reduced to a small number, so it will probably run out of stock… That’s what I hope… No, running out of stock means that there will be people who want it but can't get it so it’s not something good. It would be nice to say to Shogakukan “Hey!! You should have printed some more!! Hurry up with the second edition!!” with a smug look on my face. Well, there is also a digital edition, so in case you can’t buy in a shop please consider that option in addition to pre ordering and ordering it. Buy it.

Source: https://cnanews.asablo.jp/blog/2021/12/27/9451212

Notes

1- Kohaku. 

2- He refers to the original anime and The Final Act.

3- January 2022.

[riku-in-japan]

Planning the Itinerary

After a few evenings of careful planning, I have mostly figured out the plans for our (my) stay in Japan. And it's... insanely tight-packed. Let's hope I can actually follow through with it! Weather and exhaustion may force me to change my plans, unfortunately.

Day 0: Airplane time! Day 1: Naritasan Shinso-ji Day 2: Mt. Takao Day 3: Hiking in/around Isehara Day 4: Hiking in/around Isehara Day 5: Hiking in/around Isehara Day 6: Go to Kyoto / Kiyomizudera / Fushimi Inari Day 7: Universal Studios Day 8: Uji / to be decided Day 9: Nara Day 10: Katsuo-ji / Minoh Waterfall Day 11: Himeji / Hiroshima / Miyajima Day 12: Hieizan / Enryaku-ji / Return to Tokyo Day 13: Rest / Shopping Day 14: To be decided Day 15: Nikko Day 16: Kamakura Day 17: Shopping Day 18: Going home...

Booking hotels is still an ongoing process.

For the first few days, we'll be staying at my older brother's place in Setagaya (West-Tokyo). Then, I'll move on to a friend's place in Isehara (Kanagawa), while my husband stays where he is.

From there, we'll go to Osaka. Originally we planned to stay in Kyoto, but the options in Osaka were just so much cheaper. In the end, we went with a place that's not quite a hotel, but not quite an apartment either. It's a single room that comes with a tiny kitchen unit and seems to have a living room section. It does make me a little nervous it doesn't have any reviews yet on booking.com, but judging by the photos it looks super promising!

The place we'll stay at upon returning to Tokyo has yet to be decided. My husband is too stressed from work to make decisions on hotels. Hopefully, we'll have everything booked this weekend.

Itinerary notes

Day 1, day of arrival. Depending on how I feel after a 13-hour flight with very little sleep, the whole plan to visit Naritasan Shinso-ji may be canceled. Though I am curious if actually doing something engaging right after arriving will help me fight of the jet-lag.

Day 2, Mt. Takao. Usually, I would extend my hike to the mountains lying beyond Takao, but I probably will stick to going up and going down. And then spending the rest of the afternoon / early evening at the onsen next to the station. Not sure if my husband will come along for this trip. This is planned for today, because my brother's house is close (15 min. walk) to the Keio Takao Line.

Day 3-5, I'll be staying with a friend who lives near Isehara. The exact plans have yet to be decided, but it's going to be a lot of walking, hiking, and... probably an onsen visit (or two).

Day 6, I pretty much plan to copy this itinerary from my 2017 trip. I intend to modify it slightly, but I do intend to keep my hike from either Awata Shrine of Chion-In up to Higashiyama Park and then onwards to Kiyomizudera. I also want to visit Fushimi Inari in the evening/late afternoon again. After that it's onward to Osaka to check-in to our "hotel".

Day 7, we're going to Universal Studios. Because my husband really wants to visit Super Nintendo World. I am moderately interested too. (Let's pray we can get a timed ticket to get in...) And I wouldn't mind another visit to the Wizarding World. Absolutely loved that part the last time I visited. (I wonder if you still need timed tickets for that part too...)

Day 8-9, I originally considered visiting Uji and Nara on the same day, but after a bit of research I concluded Nara has a lot more to offer than I initially expected, so... I gave it its own day. Due to that, Uji ended up being a lonely morning activity, the afternoon will probably be filled with shopping. In Kyoto and Osaka. Probably. Unless I come up with something more enjoyable.

Day 10, Katsuo-ji and Minoh Waterfall. We have yet to decide which one to visit first. The only proper connection between the two seems a hiking trail, which isn't a problem for me, but might be a problem for my husband and his fear of heights. So, he kind of has to pick which one he absolutely wants to visit. Or follow me across a possibly very scary hiking trail. If time allows it, I may want to drop by Osaka Castle Park at the end of the day too. (I do not expect to enter the castle itself.)

Day 11, I'm quite certain it's absolutely insane, but I'll be visiting Himeji and Hiroshima in one day. In my case, it'll mostly be Himeji and Miyajima, while my husband will be visiting Hiroshima and Miyajima. I have yet to pick the hiking trails I want to explore. I'm pretty sure there is at least one I haven't tried yet.

Day 12, it's my birthday! And I'll be celebrating by visiting Otsu. Enjoying views of the lake (Biwa), climbing a mountain (Hieizan), and visiting a temple (Enryaku-ji). After all that is done, we'll catch a Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

Day 13, is the first day dedicated to rest. We'll sleep in and probably spend the afternoon shopping in Akihabara. And maybe a walk around Ueno park.

Day 14, I'm not sure what to do with this day yet. I don't want it to be just shopping. Maybe a visit to Kasai-Rinkai Kouen (Aquarium)? Or Odaiba (Miraikan)?

Day 15, although transit time will be excruciatingly long (roughly 3 hours), it's possible to visit Nikko without completely breaking the bank (1600 yen, one way). So, we might as well... I suppose. The last time I visited Nikko was in 2014!

Day 16, I can't go to Japan without visiting my all-time favorite place! I just love Kamakura! I will probably follow the Rokkoku hiking trail, grab a portion of the Tenen trail, and make my way over to the Asahina pass. I do want to drop by Enoshima too, but I'm not sure if I'll have time for that. My husband will have to fend for himself today. Even if he comes along to Kamakura, he won't be joining me for the hike, that's for sure.

Day 17, it's time to get the last bit of shopping done! I'll probably be rushing around Ikebukuro, Shibuya, and Harajuku today.

Day 18, airplane time! A whole day of traveling! So much fun!

(All plans are subject to change due to weather conditions)

[northerngoshawk]

4, 16, 19, and 22 for the wip ask game!

because I forgot to ask for a snippet for the wip ask game:🌹

lol no worries, i'mma do it all in this ask for convenience 😌 thanks for the ask, choco!

for this game, i will be talking about my only active wip: my forbidden lovers au for kataang!

4. What percentage of your WIP do you think you have done so far?

uhhhh if we were to go by section, little over 1/3. i have 4 out of 12 sections completely written with one being written out right now and the rest mostly summary notes. but in terms of word count, right now my doc reads 10k, and i haven't even written out the majority of these sections. projected word count is 20k minimum, so i have to split this into at least two chapters.

these sections are turning out to be really, really, really long 🥲

16. What are you most excited about with finishing this WIP?

actually finishing it

but i'm also really really really excited to share this fic with the world. i have yet to see a fic that has this exact premise, and while i wish i wasn't the one to write it, it doesn't really matter in the end, so long as this fic exists, yanno?

also finishing all the kataang scenes, because i missed writing for them 🥺

19. What is a favorite line of dialogue so far?

ah, good question! needless to say, i don't really want to reveal the context for fear of spoiling all the goodness, but i will share this little snippet 😌

“But…” She swallowed thickly, suddenly finding it very hard to breathe, and looked down at the ground. “There is something that he needs to apologize for.”

trust me, once you see the context this line is in, you'll understand why 🤣😌

22. What is a spoiler you can give us for something incredibly insignificant in your WIP?

so since this wip is going to be so long, my supposed "spoiler" should be pretty obvious. but whatever lol

so the "spoiler" here is that Aang and Katara get together at the end of the fic, aka NO DEATH and NO SADNESS at the end. but again, not a big surprise. the focus on the fic is less going to be about that and more about how they get together, especially in lieu of this alternate universe's societal pressures on Aang and Katara. okay, that sounds a lot deeper than it actually is, but the point is, the focus will be on the journey, not the endgame 😌

(oh also this is a childhoodfriends!kataang fic which plays a part in the worldbuilding of this universse)

and since you asked for it, i will give not just one snippet, but a few paragraphs' worth 😌 (slightly modified to prevent spoilers)

After a pause, Katara cleared her throat. “How’d you figure?”

She had meant for her words to come out scathing, accusatory, but all that left her was a half-hearted, weary question. She could no longer bring herself to care enough to be angry. And maybe, just maybe, a part of her was curious on how Sokka came to that conclusion.

Sokka dragged his eyes up to Katara. “He was the only one who could make you smile,” he said. His mouth twisted down and his eyes shadowed with the vestiges of grief. “Ever since…”

Katara swallowed, her throat suddenly tight.

The stone pendant hung heavy from her neck.

After a moment of silence, Sokka seemed to gather enough of himself to continue, “And even now, you’re not happy. Not really.” Sokka looked back up to Katara, his expression unusually somber. “You haven’t been happy since they took him away.”

Katara couldn’t help but bristle at the implication in his words, even as a small part of her heart twinged at his words. She opened her mouth to retort, but the look on Sokka’s face halted her. Maybe it was the tiredness in his eyes, the bags underneath them. Maybe it was the raggedness of his expression.

Maybe it was the way he looked so much like their father—old, weary, sad.

“Katara, I want you to be honest with yourself.” Sokka’s eyes bored into her soul. “When was the last time you were happy? Truly happy?”

i'm super excited to share this wip with the world, and i hope you guys will enjoy when it comes out!!

WIP ask game

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 2nd June

Three familiar songs, but all ones I do quite like - I suspect this entry will be an exercise in comparing different versions! I'm trying to think if anything similar could even happen today. I can only think of multiple versions of Wellerman trending a while back? And that was an unusual song for multiple reasons, at a particularly weird time anyway, mid-Covid.

Unchained Melody - Jimmy Young (peaked at Number 1)

The first version of this song to grace number 1, but not the last. Weirdly I only found other versions of the song at first - it took a bit of hunting to work out which "Jimmy Young" track was the real one.

Once I found it, I did appreciate it. It starts with some more vigorous strummy guitar than I expected, which makes it feel definitely different to Al Hibbler's version from the get-go. It's got the same thing that version did, too, where the rhythms just aren't quite what I expect. They catch me off guard on various lines, and I feel really stupid, because I've just realised why! It's in 4/4, whereas the later versions I know are largely in 3/4. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't work it out with the last version!

Apart from that, the voice and the guitar do give this one a slightly country vibe, which isn't hurt by the violin that is subtly assisting. And there are also some backing singers straight from a Western soundtrack. They kind of work, especially after Jimmy sings Wait for me and they chip in with a ghostly sort of Unchain me, unchain me.

The whole thing works nicely. Maybe a bit cheerier-sounding than the slower, more soulful version? Either way, sufficiently distinct as its own thing that I can't really complain. And the backing singers are a delight.

Stranger in Paradise - The Four Aces (6)

I'm interested in seeing where this goes, since the Four Aces is a vocal group, and the last two singers were very much from the "Easy listening crooner" tradition of solo men. I suspect the style will need to change.

Well, we start with some flutes and some familiar instruments and I wond if there will be any changes, especially as the iconic "ooooh" bits begin, but then they change the theme! It goes up at the end, and I don't think I like it. I know how the tune here goes, why would you change it?!

And then the modified theme ends and the vibe changes entirely, with a double bass coming in and the whole thing picking up a swung rhythm as the singing begins. I don't know if the pivot works, but it's striking, and it does feel like it fits better with the group singing.

What I do enjoy is the oboe countermelody snaking round in the background. It's pretty, and all the other little instrumental frills are equally lovely, even if they only pop in and out sporadically.

Oh, and we shift into a different, vaguely Latin sounding rhythm on the I see your face section, before slowing it down, and returning to the first rhythm finally for the verse's return. The overall effec is a bit jerky, and it' mostly just alarming when the whole group come back for the worlds biggest ending. This is a Big Old Ending on steroids: Take my haaaaaaaaaaaaaand!

Yeah, I don't think this one works, sorry Aces.

Unchained Melody - Les Baxter (10)

Oh, we're starting with the backing singers singing Unchain me this time, and strings playing the main rhythm. It's a very soft, gentle sound, and still a little bit country, like in Jimmy's version. It also repeats twice - at one point I even began to wonder if this was going to be an instrumental arrangement.

But no, we get what sounds like multiple male voices after a few repeats and a fade-out. I can't tell if this is Les and a friend or if he's really a bandleader or the leader of a vocal group, or something. The men, whoever they are, don't sing very much, though, just one verse and done, with the whole song over in a 2:33 take that honestly feels like less.

Yeah, a bit of googling tells me that Les Baxter was an American swing bandleader who branched out into easy listening and lounge music. And this is just that, it's easy to listen to and pleasant bur a bit nothing-y. I'd put it on in the background in a lounge or whatever, so it's doing its job, I guess. The idea of music that isn't designed for really listening to is interesting to me, since it's really not what I use music for. But I can appreciate it.

I do also like the big, cinematic ending, with the choir and the clanking tubular bells, or some such percussion. It retroactively does make the whole thing feel like the song you'd get at the end of a film, a sort of victorious "I've escaped prison and am going home" track. The pathos of it all is dulled down, leaving this big, soaring ending.

I don't think I loved any of those, but none were worth disliking. I kind of wonder how the alternate universe 1955 version of me would have found them, actually. Maybe I'd have been all aboard for lots of strings and backing singing?

Favourite song of the bunch: Unchained Melody - Jimmy Young

[asknarashikari]

Girls Remix 1:

Hana thinks Sakura doesn't want her.

As much as she'll like to know where she came from, she prefers her Family of Choice.

Her Girlfriend, her Brother, her friends.

Sakura Seeing Reika as an Older sister is adorable.

But I can see why Hana would be Jealous.

Since when could kamen rider Aguilera do Restyles?

It's funny how the only thing that needs to be changed to remove toei's Homophobic sisterhood thing is just change Reika's lines.

"Not the time for a lover's spat."

"Reminds me a bit of Magine and I when we channel our anger."

Wow, Riot in Bloom's magnificent.

Sakura would swoon if she heard it.

Girls Remix 2:

Yuriko is Gaslighting Hana.

Fake Demon Hana is really Pretty.

But Hana's always Pretty.

The Girls Remix team succesfully inflitrate a Mansion.

Sawa and Kanon are here.

Sawa has done Investigations about Black Satan and Ganma World before. Sounds like we missed some adventures.

SakuHana are a Family the way Rintaro wanted to be Family with Mei.

Riot in Bloom is even better this time.

Girls Remix 3:

The Transformation Scene was so cool.

I get why they couldn't let Kanon transform, and honestly I was never a fan of the Kanon Specter suit, but it still would've been nice if they filmed a fight scene for her prior to the suit's scrapping.

Tsukuyomi was great, even if the Jacket contradicted her usual Colour scheme.

The Girls' fight scene was so cool.

The old musical cues and background music, and Cherry-ish!!

KR Aguilera restyling is still strange.

Miss Titan's backstory is almost a 'blink and you miss it' thing.

Hana deciding to basically Adopt Yuriko was sweet.

The Photoshoot scene was nice.

Loved Izu's joke. Not that it was funny.

Honestly, other than the dialogue calling them sisters, everything here otherwise felt in character to their subtle gay relarionship in the show.

Sakura also literally went "look at my girl, she's so cute".

The actual photoshoot itself wasn't that in character, but that's not a simple thing to do.

This whole special was pretty good.

Though could've ditched the attempted straightification.

I swear, if either of the girls gets a boyfriend in the VCinema.....

Girls Remix or: Lady Riders and Companions Get More Screentime, to Everyone's Delight

I don't think Hana's feelings were just jealousy per se. I think part of her resents Sakura seemingly placing more importance on blood family as one's "actual family". With how Sakura acted over her finding a possible blood relative, it kinda looked like Sakura didn't think found family was just as important, even though that was all Hana had.

Hana could always do Restyles- her Driver's just same as Sakura's, just modified slightly to fit her aesthetic better. They were both designed by Masumi after all.

Honestly Riot in Bloom MV made me a bit uncomfy in light of some of the stuff that since came out about Yui Asakura. Apparently she's not very comfortable doing gravure-type things, and the MV comes off as very gravure-like to me. The song itself is pretty good though, and if it doesn't confirm SakuHana as canon then I don't know what does.

Ironically, Kanon Spectre was apparently scrapped and reused as parts for Aguilera. So yeah there was no way those two suits were appearing together. Hence Kanon not transforming.

My favorite bit was all the civilian fights though. Koichi Sakamoto, who directed the movie, seems to like them quite a bit. I love that they went out of their way to use the main fight themes for the ladies' respective main Riders- for example, when Akiko was slippering those mooks to submission, the BGM was Hard-boiled. (Yes, that really is the title for that specific BGM.)

I need a photobook for that photoshoot. I won't mind spending money on it because they all look so beautiful goddamnit.

[thehollowprince]

Slightly random TFATWS question here, but I'd be interested in your take on it. If the point of the supersoldier serum is that it essentially amplifies your existing qualities and makes you More of what you already were - as Erskine says, good becomes better, bad becomes worse - then how would you say it's affected Bucky? His actions as the WS were the result of Hydra's brainwashing, not the serum, and he doesn't seem to be affected by it in the way Walker or even the Flagsmashers are.

It's difficult to say for a variety of contributing factors.

Factor #1: Steve Rogers (and Johann Schmidt)

It's important to remember that both Steve and Red Skull were the only two that got Erskine's serum directly. And, if Schidmt got the same style of treatment as Steve did, then they were both the only two that we saw who got multiple doses of the serum, as seen below...

Steve was also the only one we saw who got the combination serum + Howard Stark's Hottie Machine, so we don't know what effect that tech might have had on administering the serum.

Every other person that we saw (or didnt see) had a single dosage of a modified serum - an attempt at recreating Erskine's original success. Such as, the Flag Smashers...

... or John Walker...

... or even the five other Winter Soldiers.

The only exception to this that I can remember was Emil Blonsky from the Incredible Hulk (I know we all try to forget that movie), because he had multiple doses over multiple treatments of whatever version of the serum Ross had cooked up trying to recreat Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner.

And much like Steve (and presumably Johann) it required extra steps to administer than just a shot or an IV drip, relying on Gamma Radiation to help "complete" the process.

The bottom line here is that, there have been no two versions of the serum that were the same that were administered in the same way. Steve Rogers was a unique occurrence in more than one way.

I also have a theory that the original serum was derived from the heart-shaped herb from Wakanda, given the similarities between the two when it comes to the enhanced physicality.

Maybe Erskine and Schmidt got their hands on an herb and refined it until it was just the physical (blue), excluding the more mystical attributes (red), such as the aspect that allowed Wakandan kings to communicate with their ancestors. (I have a theory about the heart-shaped herb, too, but I'll save that for another time)

It's also very important to remember that the only super soldier to experience any kind of major side effects was Schmidt.

No other super soldier looked like this

Factor #2: Hydra

Aside from the fact that Bucky didn't receive the same super soldier serum as the others, but whatever concoction that Zola managed to cook up in his attempt to recreate the serum (interesting to note that Schmidt seemed to take a more hands off approach to this, choosing instead to focus on the Tesseract and it's capabilities). As such, Bucky, as we saw him in The First Avenger, didn't exhibit any of the enhanced physical capabilities (or even an enhanced physicality) that Steve did after his experiment. In fact, the only evidence we have to confirm that Bucky had received some version of the serum was the fact that he survived the fall from the train, which we didn't get confirmed until The Winter Soldier.

The combination of Hydra having Bucky for over seventy years and him not presenting any attributes of the super soldier serum until after all says to me that he went through more experiments once he was back in their care, possibly some of the precursors to what they did during the Red Room and Black Widow programs.

Factor #3: Psychological

Now this last one is just my hypothesis, which is what you asked for, but I wanted to get the other variables out of the way first.

My personal opinion here is that, despite what Erskine said, I don't believe there is a psychological aspect to the serum. It is purely physical. The psychological component to these experiments - how the recipients handled their newfound power - was down to the individual. Steve Rogers didn't go through any radical ideology or personality shift. He was the same scrappy kid from Brooklyn who stood up to bullies and refused to back down from a fight, except now he had the muscle to back it up.

Same with John Walker, as controversial as that may sound. We had three whole episodes with Walker before he took the serum, and in that time, we already saw he was quick to anger and had aggressive tendencies. All the serum did was give him the power to back it up.

Earlier, he and Lemar were talking about what they could have done with the serum, saving their fellow soldiers, and we saw in the immediate follow up that Walker was trying to rationalize what happened, telling Sam and Bucky that he had to do it, that he killed a terrorist. That kind of mindset isn't something that can come about over night. That was something conditioned into him by the military, something he later shouted at them during his disciplinary hearing, telling them he was what they made him to be.

The Flag Smashers were fighting for what they believed in, for those the world forgot after the Snap (I refuse to call it The Blip, I'm sorry), and suddebly they had the muscle to stand up against those who would push them down.

Karli in particular was a scared kid backed into a corner, lashing out. Was a lot of what she did was wrong? Absolutely, but she wanted to send a message and used the only means that the governments hellbent on suppressing them seemed to understand. And, as we saw after that first bombing, this extremism wasn't shared by all the Flag Smashers.

It's like all those shows or movies or books where a mousy wallflower is given superpowers or turned into a vampire or werewolf and suddenly they have the power to push back against their oppressors. A great example of this would be the three werewolves introduced in season two of Teen Wolf, those being Isaac, Erica and Boyd, who all went from being shy loners to being cocky and arrogant because they had the power to stand up for themselves physically now.

You give someone power and you'll see who they really are.

To circle back around to the point I've been trying to make (sorry for the scenic route), it's that Bucky never showed any sign of extremism, whether for good or evil. And that had to do with a combination of who he was as a person - he was more or a follower, latching on to Steve and Sam as his guiding star - and Hydra's machinations and manipulations during his time as the Winter Soldier. By the time he was finally free of them, he just wanted to be by himself and deal (or not deal) with his various traumas.

The Bucky that we met at the beginning of The First Avenger was very quickly buried under war and tragedy. Who he was, because of what he went through, changed. And I think that was the point Erskine was trying to make, though he definitely could have worded it better. The serum makes you more of who you really are, shows your true colors, not because of any chemical response, but because of how power has been prioritized in society. The notion that you don't have to fear physical repercussions anymore, because who's strong enough to stop you?

[baecvlt]

This Night Has Opened My Eyes

Kazuichi Soda X Reader

• smut !

• fem reader

• requested by my irl lmao (they also wanted some hcs so)

“That asshole.. always getting in the way of Miss Sonia and I”

You smacked Kazuichi’s arm, scolding him,“You need to be nicer to him. He hasn’t done anything wrong”. We were in the Hotel Restaurant and it was obvious that Gundham and Sonia had gotten closer since the last trial. Kazuichi didn’t like that one bit. He sighed, taking another bite of food,“Look at him, though!”. He points at Gundham, who is allowing Sonia to pet his hamsters. “Only likes him because he’s a magical cult freak”. You shook you head, trying to explain.

“You think maybe it’s because, I don’t know, he isn’t weirdly obsessed with her?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What I said”

Kazuichi growled, his expression toning down when Gundham approached you both. “You and Kazuichi seem to be two peas in a pod. Tell me, are you both partaking in an intimate relationship?”. Kazuichi was about to get defensive, you just knew it. “What’s it to you?,” he said, fist clenched. Taking a step back, Gundham explains,“I have no such interest in such topics. Rather, Sonia was curious”. Kazuichi’s eyes lit up,“Sonia’s asking about me?”. Gundham cringed and scoffed.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself over pure gossip. Pathetic”

“Watch it, Houdini. I’ll fuck you up”

“Bring it then, you penniless, mediocre mechanic. I’m awfully frightened”

“MEDIOCRE?! I’M A FUCKING ULTIMATE”

He launches himself toward Gundham, knocking him to the floor. Gundham gets a few small, yet hard punches in before Kazuichi lands the nastiest sounding backhand on his left cheek, making heads turn. As gasps can be heard around the room, Sonia runs to Gundham’s side as Kazuichi couldn’t handle himself afterward. “You! How could you?!,” Sonia scolded him. For the first time in forever, Kazuichi wasn’t having it. “How could I?! Fuck you!”. Kazuichi got up, leaving a hurt Gundham and an appalled Sonia on the ground. Gundham turned to you.

“Control your lab rat or I will”

You felt shitty, seeing Kazuichi go off that way. It wasn’t good at all, but by the looks of his response to Sonia, it seems to me like she won’t have to worry about him for a while now. He looked that mad. You thought to check on him, even if you were severely disappointed in him. You had no clue where to look for him and made a mental note of possible places where he might be: his room, Rocketpunch Market, and Electric Ave.

And so began the quest to look for him.

Checking in his room was too simple. When he didn’t respond, it didn’t surprise you that he wasn’t there. You knew he wouldn’t be. I headed off to the Rocketpunch Market. Even if he wasn’t there, you wanted to use the opportunity to buy him a bottle of Ramune. When you got there, there were voices present. That’s when you made them out to be the voices of Nagito, Fuyuhiko, Hiyoko, and Ibuki. “So we’re just not gonna discuss what happened back there?,” Nagito intrigued. Everyone sighed in relief. “Finally, you ask something smart,” Hiyoko said,“Yes, we should definitely talk about it! Kazuichi was totally out of line!”. You got closer to hear, without them seeing you. “Are you kidding me?,” Fuyuhiko spat,“I heard the whole thing. Gundham was being a dick. Had I been the one he disrespected, I would’ve killed that bastard!”. “Well, what did Gundham say?”.

“He called him ‘mediocre’, ‘penniless’, and ‘pathetic’. Kazuichi hadn’t once insulted him. If anything, Gundham approached him!”

“I don’t know,” Ibuki said,“That’s still no reason to be violent! Violence isn’t the answer, only heavy metal!”. “Ibuki, what?”. Ibuki shrugged. Nagito thought for a minute,“Did you even hear why the argument began?”. “Well, Gundham pressed him about his relationship with Y/N,” he said,“but Sonia had asked. He made a comment, hopeful Sonia was slightly interested in him. That’s when Gundham called him pathetic”. “Well, it is pathetic,” Hiyoko said,“But harsh”. The conversation then shifted to something completely different. “Why was he so defensive in the first place,” Hiyoko asked, adding,“he could’ve said ‘no’”. Nagito laughed, shaking his head. “Woah! A laugh like that implies, you believe there’s something going on there!”.

“Ibuki, always knows what to say. Always knows what I’m thinking”

“They belong together,” Fuyuhiko muttered,“Its obvious she likes him”. “Is it obvious or did Sonia tell you?,” Nagito asked,“Everyone, in 3..2..1”... and in union:

“Sonia told me”

Hiyoko laughed. “Yeah, but do you see how they look at each other when Kazuichi isn’t thinking about Sonia?,” she asked,“It’s funny, really”. You decided to come out and without saying a word, grabbed the drink and left. No one said a word as you walked by them. Pussies, all of them. Lastly, you took the long walk to the third island’s Electric Avenue.

Sure enough, there he was, putting together a computer (or a different device with a very small monitor of some sort; it looked handheld). You didn’t want to alarm him, for he might still be tense. You lightly tapped his shoulder. “Hey, Kazu”. He wiped his eyes rather fast, removing what appeared to be glasses. You knew he did this so he wouldn’t be seen crying. “Hi”. His voice was quiet and tired. You handed him his Ramune, making him smile. “What are you doing?”.

“Tinkering”

“Can I watch you?”

“You don’t wanna talk about anything?”

“Not unless you want to”

“Alright,” he said, continuing to modify the device,“Let’s talk”. “What are you doing to that computer-thingy”. He snickered. “‘Computer-thingy’...you’re cute”. Blushing, you were left dumbfounded. “Don’t say that!,” you scolded,“So what is it?”. “I’m making a radio,” he said,“The computer monitor part displays any words that have been picked up by the radio signals. I’ll also make it possible to communicate with them”. You were actually impressed by it.

“That’s so fucking cool”

“Thanks”

There was a bit of silence, then he sighed. “Look, Y/N,” he began,“I’m really sorry about what happened earlier. I don’t know what got into me”. You shook your head. “You shouldn’t be apologizing to me,” you explained,“You need to apologize to Gundham.. and Sonia”. He nodded and mouthed an ‘okay’. He agreed that as soon as he saw him and Sonia, he would apologize. Now that Sonia was in the conversation, he got onto that topic. “Sonia and I can’t be,” he said,“I’ve always known this”. You raised a brow and asked why he pursued her for so long.

“She’s a princess. She’s perfect and kind. She never full on said she isn’t interested in me, so I figured she’d go out with me out of pity”

“But wouldn’t that be a loveless relationship?”

“Not everyone deserves to be loved. I don’t. What I fear more than not being loved is being alone”

“You’d rather know someone is there than to be loved by them?”

“Yeah, it’s fucked,” he admitted,“but that’s over now”. While you were screaming internally, you still felt terrible about what he said. If only he knew how you felt. The question is if he feels the same. “By the way,” he began,“I made you something”. There was a small box next to him wrapped in old newspapers and a ribbon bow. “You and Hajime have been my only friends- well, comrades, on this island. So, I made you both these communication devices!”. You opened the box and a small walkie-talkie device was placed. He further explained.

“They work anywhere on the island. Hopefully, when and if we make it out of here, it works everywhere else. So, y’know, we don’t lose touch”

“I won’t let that happen”

He smiled, warmly. He didn’t say anything else. You were both in a trance, looking into each other’s eyes. “Hey!”. Ibuki suddenly came running towards the two of you. You both snapped out of it, seeing what she needed. She fell in front of you, dusting herself off. “No time to waste!,” she said,“Sonia planned a party at the the Titty Typhoon, what a name for a club, don’t ya think? Anyway, its mandatory, so we’ll see you there at six. Ibuki, out!”. Before you could say anything, she ran off. “Well,” he began,“At least now I could apologize to Gun-dumb”. You sighed as he laughed at his nickname.

Parting ways, you headed back to ensure you could shower and ready yourself a little. As you did, you were grateful for the small moment with Kazuichi. Him not wanting to lose touch? Getting over Sonia. It all made you feel so good and now you were head over heels. Finally, you were ready. You opened the door and there he was waiting for you. “Hi, Y/N,” he began,“I was thinking we should show up together, y’know? Avoid awkwardness from earlier”. You smiled and nodded. “Great, come on!”. He grabbed your hand, dragging you along with him.

You got there a minute or two late. When you stepped inside, the music blasted as loud as possible. You noticed the stares from Nagito and Fuyuhiko. “You should find Sonia, then we can deal with Gundham”. He agreed, checking out the room. Finally, he spotted Sonia near the stage. Cautiously, we approached her. “Hello, Miss Sonia,” he said. She turned around, her rather happy expression turning into something bitter. “What do you want?”.

“I just wanted to apologize for what happened earlier”

“It’s not me who you should be apologizing-”

“I also wanted to apologize for my behavior towards you that’s occurred from the time we’ve arrived. It was really inappropriate, so I’m sorry”

Sonia was no longer bitter, even if she had the right to be. She smiled, nodding,“Well, I guess when you’re being so nice about it.. yes, I forgive you. However, I really think you should apologize to Gundham”. Kazuichi agreed and explained to her that he was trying to find him. “Well,” Sonia began,“He hasn’t gotten here, but he will have gotten back any minute now!”. As if on cue, the doors burst open.

There he was, as tense as ever.

“Tanaka! I’ve been waiting for you,” Kazuichi said. Once in front of him, Gundham was appalled. “You again? I thought I’ve made clear that I was through with you!,” he scowled, shoving Kazuichi into the stage. “Gundham, let him finish,” Sonia pleaded. “Now you’re on his side? What’s wrong with all of you being so pathetic this day?”. Kazuichi got up, trying to explain.

“Just let me finish–”

“I have no reason to further discuss anything with a lowly, degenerate, and pathetic subhuman such as yourself”

“Wait-”

“God, Y/N, I thought you were smarter, but now you’ve fallen for him? You are equally as pathetic!”

“Y/N has a crush on me?”

“God, yes, she does! She is in love with you, you fool!”

“She... loves me?”

Heads were turning and the eyes belonging to them all faced you. There were gasps at first (like this morning), but now there were whispers and small chatter. “Ugh! What’s with you?!,” Sonia yelled,“Kazuichi was only trying tl apologize to you!”. Gundham was the embodiment of the phrase “a face of regret”. “Y/N,” Kazuichi began,“Is this true?”. Your breathing was starting to get worse and worse as you just stood there with an answer, but no courage to confess. You had no other choice, but tear up and say “Kazuichi, no, I-”. You were at loss of words. Then, you ran all the way back to your room.

Once there, you slammed your door shut and locked. You paced around a little, attempting to calm down. When you couldn’t do that, you simply collapsed onto your bed and screamed into the nearest pillow. Your throat hurt and despite having screamed into a pillow, it was still loud enough to hear the scream bounce around the room. You cried into it, for about 5 minutes, moped for 45, then cried again for another 10.

Bing-bong, Bing-bong!

It was time for bed, now realizing that if you didn’t die in your sleep, you’d have to face tomorrow. That was something you didn’t want to do. You began to get ready for bed. Suddenly, there was loud and demanding knocking on your door. You prayed, hoping it was someone here to put you out of your misery upon opening the door, so you opened it without hesitation. To your dismay, it wasn’t the next blackened.

It was Kazuichi.

Your face was all red again and before you could say anything, he spoke. “We need to talk”. You tried shutting the door, but before you could, he forced his way inside. He locked the door behind him. “What?!,” I yelled,“Why are you still here? I don’t want to see you! I can’t-”. He grabbed your face and pressed his lips against yours. “You aren’t one for words are you?,” he asked and after seeing you blush, added,“Guess I’m gonna have to show you”. He lay you down and began kissing you; you didn’t hesitate against him and wanted this to happen for so long. His lips felt amazing on yours. He began to kiss your neck, stopping at your chest. He lifted your shirt up and pulled down your bra, sucking roughly on your tits. He then made his way down. All that was left was-

“Kazuichi, what are you..?”

He unbuttoned your shorts and pulled them down tossing them aside. Looking up at you, he moved your panties to the side and began to work his mouth on your pussy. You whined at the feeling, shifting a little. He held you down, his tongue focused on your sweet spots. “You like that?”. You hummed, nodding frantically. His arms were locked around your thighs to hold you down. You took off his beanie and pulled his hair. He sucked your clit, whining from his hair being pulled. You knew he enjoyed it as he began to be sloppy. He moved away and wiped his mouth before kissing you again. “Sit on my fucking face,” he growled. You saw the fire in his eyes as he said so. “Are you sure?,” you asked him.

“Yes”

You straddled his face and he didn’t wait. He went at it, desperately this time. You moaned as your legs shook. You didn’t just want to sit there and feel stimulation. Noticing the bulge growing in his suit, you grabbed his zipper and pulled it all the way down. You pulled down his boxers and his hard member sprung out. You stroked him gently and spat on his cock. You heard his muffled voice grunt, finally deciding to blow him. “Oh, fuck,” he moaned, his nails digging into your thighs. He thrust upward as you enjoyed him even more. This wasn’t your first time, but it was the first time it felt so good. You stopped riding his face and lay down. He took off his entire suit and boxers, positioning himself between your legs. You’d given a blowjob before, but never actually had sex. You wanted it so bad. He pulled out a condom, slipping it on. As he did, you wondered where he managed to get one. He teased you with his cock in hand, pushing only his tip in, making you whine.

“Oh, you’re so wet”

He shoved in, stretching you out. “Fuck me,” you cried,“Please.. fuck me so hard”. He thrust into you hard, just as you had asked. It hurt for a minute. You shook, attempting to overcome the pain. Kazuichi gasped, feeling your pussy spasm around him. “H-Hey, are you okay?,” he asked. You nodded, your eyes watering; the sensation was overwhelming and in a really good way. His cock grew harder inside you, twitching. His thrusts were rhythmic at first. You can tell he was holding back, he didn’t want to hurt you. He wasn’t hitting your spot like before, so you wanted to help. “Baby, i-it’s not- fuck!”.

“I know, I know. Let me just-”

His hips went from a direct thrust motion, to motion as if his hips were scooping upward. You arched your back as he hit deeper and deeper. “Oh, you like that, don’t you?”. You moaned a little louder, covering your mouth as you were embarrassed and afraid someone would hear what went on in your room. He fucked you harder and asked,“Why don’t you scream for me baby?”.

“Someone’ll hear us-”

“Rooms are soundproof, be as loud as wanna be”

With that, you begged him to fuck you harder. He lifted your legs over his shoulders. His trusts were so sloppy, so messy it hit all areas of your walls, tightening around him. Your eyes rolled back, near frothing at the mouth. “H-ah! I needed this!,” you cried. You put your legs to his sides, grabbing him by the throat and shoving your tongue into his mouth. He moaned when you did, your grip on his throat tightening. The asphyxiation only further excited his cock.

You felt the butterflies in your stomach grow, you knew you were close. “Hh-oh, God, I’m gonna cum,” he groaned. Your kisses grew more aggressive as you wrapped your legs around him, pushing his pelvis deeper into you. “Harder, please,” you whined. He nodded, pounding you mercilessly. Once again, you choked him, dominating him with your kisses. Your pussy tightened around him. You bit him, feeling his dick twitch again. He was shaking and gasped, shooting his load into his condom. He collapsed on top of you, pulling out of your dripping pussy. “Oh my god...,” You sighed wrapping your arms around his neck, playing with his pink locks. His head lay on your chest and his arms were wrapped around your waist all tight.

“I’m sleepy”

You smiled and kissed him. “Thennnn... sleep?”. He shook his head. “We just had really good sex imagine if I go to sleep after that?”. You snickered, making a deal with him. “Fine,” you said,“I’ll forgive it if you hop into the shower with me”. He got up so fast.

“Say no more, princess. Let’s go”

Afterward, you gave him a place in bed, snuggling up with him the throughout the night.

Third person POV

The next morning, Hajime walked out of his dorm. He thought to check up on Kazuichi, seeing how abrupt he left the party last night. He knocked on his door, waiting. Oddly enough, there was no response. Hajime looked around, noticing someone in the distance. There he was, Kazuichi, walking out of a girl’s cabin? Now, the cabin belonging to none other than Y/N! He saw them laughing by her door, Kazuichi smacking her ass as she walked in front of him. Hajime backed up fast, hoping he wouldn’t be seen. He then noticed that they were not headed to the Hotel Restaurant. Now, it was starting to get strange and he had to tell the others. Once they weren’t in sight, he ran to the stairs then all the way up.

“Someone’s late”

Hiyoko stared at him. Hajime, out of breath, shook his head. “Don’t be too hard on him,” Nagito said sympathetically,“It looks like he had something to say”. “Well, I was gonna say something first,” Hiyoko was defensive as she cleared her throat,“I think rather than worry about the next blackened, we should worry about who’s fucking is gonna keep us up at night because I could barely sleep”. “Fucking? You mean, like, I don’t know... sex??,” Hajime asked. The girl’s nodded. “See, last night,” Sonia began,“None of us could get any sleep due to such erotic noises that went on till early in the morning. “Ah, yes,” Nagito said so casually,“Then I do know what you’re referring to”. Hajime decided to bring up what he’d seen.

“Kazuichi walked out of Y/N’s cabin this morning”

Everyone was paying attention now. “Oh my god???,” Hiyoko yelled. “There could be an explanation to that, y’know?,” Mikan whispered. “There’s only one explanation when you see him groping her and he doesn’t get punched”. Suddenly, two people stepped in. “So sorry we’re late,” Kazuichi said,“Y/N needed help..with...a busted pipe!”. “Aren’t you the Ultimate Mechanic? I never heard plumber,” Hiyoko scoffed.

“I do it all. Tinkering with stuff here and there”

“Right”

Kazuichi sat down, Y/N sitting at a completely different table. “So,” Nagito began,“That was quite the eventful night, right, Soda?”. Everyone looked around, having thought they had a world-less mutual agreement that it would be avoided as much as possible. “You mean with Gundham? I already tried apologizing, but-”.

“No, this isn’t about Gundham. This is about last night, last night”

“Nagito, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Nagito laughed, his hand motioning that he gives up and thats he’s over it. Gundham bit his lip, wanting to say something, eventually it came out. “Soda,” he whispered. “Yeah?”.

“You know for a room to be completely sound proof, not a single door or window should be open, right?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Go outside and let me know if Y/N’s window was closed last night”

It finally struck him. His face instantly became flustered. “Oh,” he mumbled,“You guys heard all that?”. Everyone nodded. “Don’t be embarrassed,” Nagito attempted comfort,“If its in any consolation, it sounded like it was good. Hell, even I’m a little jealous”. Y/N still had no idea. That was the case until Sonia had talked to her. “So, Y/N,” she sat down by her,“Are you and Kazuichi together?”.

“Why would you think that?”

“Well, last night we all heard, um, something”

“Huh?”

“Well, it’s not that serious, but I do have a question”

“Yeah?”

“The rooms are soundproof, right? Well, are you sure you didn’t leave a door or a window open or something?”

Y/N choked on her own air. “H-How much did you hear?”. Sonia smiled nervously, laughing in a tone that was just as anxious. “Um, everything?”. Y/N put her hands over her face and screamed. Kazuichi approached her and kissed the back of her neck. “So, you fucked and that’s it?,” Hiyoko asked,“Like, nothing comes next?”. Before Y/N could answer, Kazuichi butt in. “T-That’s not true! I’ll take good care of Y/N and I’m gonna love her forever!”. He rushed his lips to Y/N’s, making her gasp. The tension and temperature grew within the room, as Kazuichi promised he wouldn’t let a thing hurt her.

[darkshrimpemotions]

Dean’s Hair: A Guide

Attention: this post is for people with Dean derangement syndrome who want his haircut and hairstyle ONLY. People with a normal and healthy level of attachment to Dean DNI. Details under...

The Cut

So...in case anyone else is as insane as me, Dean’s haircut in every season is a modified high-and-tight with a very gradual fade on the sides and squared, very short sideburns. If you have no idea what I just said, your hairstylist should (and if they don’t, walk away).

That being said, it’s always a good idea to bring reference photos of the front, back, and sides of the hairstyle you want or something very similar. Try to find photos all from the same episode, season, or photoshoot if you can, as that will get your stylist/barber the most consistent reference. Luckily, we have fifteen years of this man being photographed, filmed, and screencapped as Dean Winchester to help us out.

Dean’s Hair by Season

In seasons 1-2, you can tell it’s been allowed to grow out quite a bit on the back and sides while keeping the top trimmed fairly short.

This is the stage mine is in right now, and while it does have a certain “fuck you I’m the final girl” energy, it’s also annoying as fuck. I’m constantly batting at my own ears thinking a mosquito or something has landed, when really it’s my own damn hair brushing against them.

In seasons 3-7, it’s been allowed to grow in just enough on the sides to not have that “shaved head” look, while the top is kept fairly short still (sometimes awkwardly so).

The overall shape of the high-and-tight is maintained, just longer than traditional.

In season 8 the sides are kept short with the sideburns nearly shaved off, and the top is kept a bit longer and styled with a bit of a swoosh. The overall effect is almost boyish, which should not be possible let alone attractive on a man in his 30s, but here we are.

This, for the record, is my second-favorite Dean hair (just behind season 1 and right before season 10).

In early season 9 there’s also not as much of a fade on the sides, more a clear break between the very short sides of his hair and the longer top which gives vague messy bowl-cut vibes that he somehow pulls off because his vessel is Jensen fucking Ackles.

Later in season 9 the smoother fade is back, but the hair is still longer on the side toward the top and the sideburns and hairline are more pronounced and angular in general (probably to help tie in the facial hair that I think was supposed to indicate to us that Dean was Going Off The Rails?).

The top of his hair is also shorter than it was in season 8, and styled with less of a swoop.

In season 10 Jensen goes through a few styles.

Demon!Dean has the same overall shape as in earlier seasons, but it’s been kept fairly trimmed on the sides while being allowed to grow much longer on the top than we’ve ever seen it. Long enough that when his head moves quickly enough his hair has actual movement as well. If he didn’t style it, he’d have honest-to-god bangs.

Demon!Dean also uses less product in his hair in general, and while he parts it on the same side as usual, the part is more pronounced and lines up with the inside corner of his eyebrow rather than the outside corner.

Now, they slightly fucked up their hair continuity here. You can tell they filmed some of these episodes out of order because Demon!Dean occasionally has the style, part, and length of non-demon Dean in a few scenes (like the fight with Cole), only for the Demon!Dean hair and styling to be back afterward.

That being said, after Dean is “cured” his hair goes back to normal, shorter and spikier on top and parted over the outside of his eyebrow rather than the inside.

In season 11 onward, he goes for a much more traditional high-and-tight with a side fade and faint sideburns. It’s more or less consistent season-to-season, albeit with occasional slight variations in how long the top gets or how pronounced the sideburns are (the below example is from season 11 but I’ll reblog this with additional examples from 12-15, since tumblr won’t let me add more than ten photos to the original post).

The sides are kept pretty severely short, the sideburns don’t really get more pronounced than this, and the top is long enough to spike but not swoop.

And...sidenote does anyone else think they put cheap gray Party City color spray in his hair for 15x20 for some godforsaken reason? Because the sudden gray cast to his hair in the last scene has been bugging me for MONTHS.

(Also: Don’t even get me started on Dean being in the foreground but blurry and out of focus because the camera is zeroed in on Sam...if that isn’t the entire finale summed up in a single image, I don’t know what is. Thanks camera guy I hate it. /endrant)

Styling & Texture

I’ll also add this caveat to all of the above: I now know, based on some uh...interesting photos and videos of Jensen during quarantine and my own experiences with Dean haircuts, that Jensen’s hair is thick and fairly coarse as well. The only reason the sides of his head don’t look bald in the later seasons is he has so much goddamn hair. If your hair is thinner, you might want to go a little less short on the sides to get a similar look.

Also, if you have baby-fine hair line mine, you’re gonna need something (or several somethings) to add texture.

The funniest thing I learned getting this haircut is that even with Jensen having coarser hair than mine, there’s almost NO way Dean Winchester’s hair looks like that (that being the way it looks in literally any season) without application of some styling products and use of a hair dryer.

Which like...we also know he wears a full face of makeup on camera, but I can suspend disbelief for that. What I cannot suspend, now that I’ve had this haircut, is the image of Dean fucking Winchester standing in front of a motel bathroom mirror or the bunker’s bathroom for at least fifteen minutes every morning, meticulously arranging his hair with styling products and a hair dryer, then making fun of Sam for what is likely a much less involved hairstyling regimen.

What styling products he uses precisely, I have no idea because again...his hair’s a slightly different texture than mine. But it’s gotta be something with some light hold that achieves decent separation and definition without looking clumpy, oily, crunchy, or keeping his hair looking wet all day, so. There’s that.

For my hair (thick as fuck, baby fine strands, tends to stick straight up if left to its own devices) I use a rat-tail comb to part it where I want and then a combo of pomade on slightly damp hair to style with my fingers and medium-hold hairspray to set.

Please picture Dean doing all of that. Hell, just picture him using hairspray. I’m begging you. And please note that he almost HAD to for the Demon!Dean look.

(And in case it isn’t obvious, men styling their hair is perfectly normal but Dean Winchester, male power fantasy extraordinaire doing so while actively making fun of his brother for taking care of his hair is...objectively hilarious.)

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Main Story Chapter 2-3: 时间针脚 The Patchwork of Time Translation

“If this happens again, that'll be the last design you're ever going to be making in Warson. We are not a charity.”

*Light and Night Master-list *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *Main story tag will be #For Light and Night

MC: … Sariel is calling for me?

Although I was confused beyond measure at why he would do that, I still complied, walking over to him.

Sariel: Rookie?

MC: Yes?

Sariel: Tell me what you think about this design.

MC: ?

Sariel had already handed me the design draft he had on hand while I was still stuck being puzzled.

❖☆———————————★❖

It was a yellowing sheet of paper. One look told you that it had probably seen a couple of years. There was even a splotchy light brown stain on the blank area.

I looked at the one-piece dress that had been drafted in the centre of the paper.

An intricately, yet delicately modified shoulder line, a tight waist area, and a pleated skirt made out of a thick material that fell over the knees. It was a classic design of a dress, its style reminiscent of the great Fashion Designer, Joseph Clinton's.

But I'm sure he isn't asking me to just comment on the design style of this, right?

How should I answer him?

☆Light Choice: Praise the good points

MC: I think this design to be… bold.

Sariel suddenly raises his eyes to look at me, his sharp gaze making me feel a tad nervous.

MC: This design draft feels like a vintage piece.

MC: I can see the not-yet developed version of the bias-cutting technique, which originated from the start of the last century, here.

MC: So, I’m pretty sure that this draft hails from those times of war.

MC: During those times, the fashion industry took a big hit due to the economic depression and the lack of resources.

MC: Women gave up their dresses, swapping them out for simple and practical uniforms and wide pants.

MC: But in this draft—

MC: Whether it be the special tailoring to further emphasize the curves of a woman’s body or the design of the beautiful bubble skirt, it all requires over ten meters of fabric to be created.

MC: It is a blatant revolution against the fashion trends during those times.

MC: The Designer for this piece hopes to use fashion to help liberate people from those warring times, and also to reshape people’s perception of beauty.

★Night Choice: Point out what's lacking

MC: From the draft, I can see how this is supposedly being created with the bias cut.

MC: The bias-cutting technique was only founded at the start of the last century, so I assume that this draft was created in times of war.

MC: Given that this draft was restricted by the era in which it was created, where the seaming and pleating of skirts were not yet as advanced, I'd say that this still has room for improvement.

MC: The internal structure of the chemise is overly complicated, so it's not very friendly on the wearer.

MC: However, it was able to break out of the wartime's style of “simple is best”, with practicality as its main design factor.

MC: It liberated women from overly baggy clothing and uniforms, reshaping people's perception of what makes things beautiful.

MC: This design spirit is something that should be applauded.

I quietly waited for Sariel to respond after I'd said my piece.

Sariel: That will do. Put it down.

MC: Right…

Sariel: This design draft that you're seeing right now...

Sariel: Is a work of Joseph Clinton's, from the time before he released the "Amber" Collection.

MC: !

So it really is Clinton's work!

That caused a stir in the meeting room as all designers present moved closer upfront to take a look at the design draft.

Designer A: No wonder it looked so familiar… This is definitely the same as his style of elegance and grace.

Designer B: The "Amber" Collection?  Isn't that Clinton's most highly-awarded masterpiece?

Designer C: Not only is it a masterpiece, it even made a new fashion trend take the world in stride! It still has a strong influence even now.

Sariel: He made this draft in an era that was all for simplicity, pissing his boss off so badly that he flung the bottle. It was a fine wine.

Sariel: Decallan 1928.

Sariel: Clinton kept it for a very long time, yet he never managed to taste it.

Sariel glanced at the faint brown stain on the draft, his eyes slightly glazing over. The slight mirth that tinged his voice was reminiscent of how one would describe the embarrassing moments of a friend of theirs.

But Clinton has already long since passed on, and none of these things was ever mentioned in his autobiography… So, why does Sariel know all of this?

Sariel pauses for a while before picking the drafted design sketch back up again.

Sariel: He was fired. This untimely design of his nearly ended his career right there and then.

Sariel: But, he managed to establish his own Fashion Studio in the end, funded and backed by a wealthy businessman.

Sariel: The "Amber" Collection was created using this draft as a baseline.

He pulled out another design draft from the folder. It was also a little yellowed, but still, a precious draft that had withstood the trials of time all the same.

Sariel: And in 1947, Joseph Clinton came out with the "Amber" Collection.

Sariel: It doesn’t matter whether it is a strapless arc that hugs one’s shoulders, or a long bud-skirted dress made with densely woven cotton.

Sariel: They all helped challenge and revolt against the society that was suffering from post-war depression and the trying times.

Sariel: The reason why his fashion designs awe people is because it represents free-spiritedness and an unyielding spirit.

Sariel: Pursuing beauty and personal exploration will always be the main factors of design.

Sariel: Unfortunately, I do not see these in any of the works that you've turned in.

Sariel: If this happens again, that'll be the last design you're ever going to be making in Warson.

Sariel: We are not a charity.

Calm, rational, highly professional, and leaving absolutely no room for debate.

Everyone present suddenly pales as the temperature seemingly drops to sub-zero degrees.

I daringly raised my head, only for my line of sight to coincidentally coincide with the look he shot over. I saw the slight amusement that had yet to falter, hidden within the depths of his eyes.

Light flickered, wavering within those pale depths. It was almost as if the translucent amber wanted to encase the small sliver of a smile, sealing it within its depths.

Does this mean that he acknowledges my prior reply?

I was stunned. I blinked in disbelief, unsure if what I saw was real. However, he'd already returned to his usual frosty countenance before I could process anything.

It looks like what happened earlier was merely just an illusion of mine...

❖☆————— ⊹ For Light & Night⊹ —————★❖

Previous Part: (Chapter 2-1) | Next Part: (Chapter 2-5)

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Hanspur, the Water Rat (and Ashkaelae)

Chaotic Neutral God of Rivers, River Travel, and Smugglers

Domains: Chaos, Death, Travel, Water Subdomains: Exploration, Murder, Rivers, Trade

Inner Sea Faiths, pg. 58~63

Obedience: With the assistance of another priest of Hanspur or by yourself, simulate the act of drowning. You can do this by fully submerging yourself in a body of water, exhaling all of your breath, and painfully inhaling water instead of air. Alternatively, you can lie on your back with your head at a lower elevation than your legs while water is slowly poured on your face and up your nose. If you choose the latter method, you must cover your face with a cloth while the water is poured. When you conclude this simulated drowning, contemplate your life and how your goals coincide with the teachings of Hanspur and the Six River Freedoms. Benefit: You gain a +4 sacred or profane bonus on Survival checks attempted while on or near rivers.

Just reading this makes my sinuses burn and my lungs itch, and not just because it’s springtime and I have allergies! As anyone who’s ever been in a body of water large enough to slap their face with a wave can attest to, inhaling large amounts of water sucks. While this Obedience requires only one wet breath, some... well, some pretty severe complications can arise from it, if your DM ponders even slightly what doing this to yourself every day would do. Dry drowning and secondary drowning are both real dangers from brief immersion, let alone concentrated efforts at simulating one of the worst fates someone can experience (I say this a lot but basically anything that deprives you of air is pretty terrible). The ‘simulation’ will likely only last a few seconds while the rest of the hour is spent recovering from your experience and meditating, but even that may not be enough to offset the fluid likely building up in your lungs. Priests of Hanspur must sound atrocious, coughing themselves ragged every day! No wonder it’s recommended your ritual is overseen by another priest, either, because they’d likely be skilled in helping you manage your symptoms.

Dangers of daily drownings aside, keeping up with the demands of this ritual is pretty easy so long as you’re somewhere with easy access to water. In Hanspur’s homelands, the River Kingdoms, this is pathetically simple! Everywhere else? It’s a lot harder! While I do appreciate that there’s a secondary ritual you can do if total immersion is impossible, but what happens if you’re stuck somewhere with no easy water access? Your waterskins won’t carry you for very long, even if you pilfer them from your party as well. Better invest in a Decanter of Endless Water! Or do something ridiculous like fill the party’s Bag of Holding up so you can just hop in and out whenever you need to.

That benefit is also the weakest I’ve seen in a long time, granting a bonus to only a single skill type and only while near rivers. Survival checks aren’t even all that commonly made, unless your DM is kind enough to let you use Survival to navigate with river rafts rather than Profession or Ride checks. Hanspur really doesn’t want his faithful straying too far from the River Kingdoms, which is only further exacerbated by how his Boons work, so if you’re not the type to linger near rivers you may just want to skip him entirely.

Boons are gathered slowly, typically obtained when a given character has 12, 16, and 20 hit dice. Unlike fiend-worshipers, servants of the Eldest, and devoted of the Empyreal Lords, characters worshiping Neutral gods do not have catch-all classes… but Neutral-aligned characters can enter the Evangelist, Sentinel, and Exalted Prestige Classes earlier than Evil characters, classing in as early as level 6 (they need +5 BAB, 5 ranks in a single skill, or the ability to cast lvl 3 spells); entered ASAP, one can gain the Boons at levels 8, 11, and 14. 

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EVANGELIST

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Boon 1: River Sage. Gain Hydraulic Push 3/day, River Whip 2/day, or Hydraulic Torrent 1/day.

Hydraulic Push and Hydraulic Torrent live in the same niche of “giant water spouts what push stuff around,” with Torrent being obviously an order of magnitude more powerful than Push. While Push has a range of Close and can target only a single creature or square, Torrent is a 60ft line that Bull Rushes or attempts to destroy everything it encounters, so it really depends on if you’re thinking you’ll need three small streams or one really, really big one. Notably, Torrent can Bull Rush targets of any size, unrestricted by the limits of your pathetic frame, while Push contains no such limiter removal and thus likely means you can only blast creatures up to a size larger than you.

Also of note, Torrent attempts to shatter everything it comes into contact with until it runs into something or someone it cannot destroy or push past. The Strength score the Torrent uses is equal to your caster level plus your casting ability modifier, meaning it will start out barely stronger than you are but will eventually be able to punch holes in iron and shatter stone. Hell, with a lucky roll, it may be able to do that anyway. Your choice on which two to take wholly depends on if you want to push three Medium critters around or launch one Colossal one.

What? River Whip? I don’t see any spell like that here! Lets move on! (alright alright; i just don’t like it. it’s good as an emergency weapon but more or less anything else is better in any scenario)

Boon 2: River Scion. As a free action you can breathe underwater, as if affected by Water Breathing, for a number of hours per day equal to the number of Hit Dice you possess. These hours need not be used consecutively, but must be used in 1-hour increments.

A disappointingly weak Boon. Really, what else is there to see or say? If you need to go underwater, this ability is great and has zero downsides. If you don’t, this Boon doesn’t exist. It’s a very binary Boon that relies on your environment, which means that if you’re overjoyed if you’ve remained in the River Kingdoms, but in a desert or jungle or mountain peak, you’re going to be extremely disappointed upon hitting level 11.

Boon 3: River’s Embodiment. 1/day as a standard action, you can transform yourself into a Huge water elemental, as per Elemental Body IV. You can stay in this form for 1 minute per Hit Die you possess, and can dismiss this effect as a free action.

Finally, a transformation ability that doesn’t suck! What does suck is that this is a level 7 spell being granted to you 1/day, when other Boons are equivalent to level 9 spells in power. Hanspur could have at least given you a little bonus on top of it, or made it 2/day, but it’s hard to complain about the force you become under Elemental Body IV. You become immune to bleed, critical hits, Sneak Attacks, and on top of it all get insurmountable DR 5, and the stack of stats you get? Mmmm-mm! Chef’s kiss!

+6 AC, +8 Con, +4 Str, all for the price of -2 Dex (more than made up for with the +AC). And, of course, a swim speed and the power to collapse yourself into a destructive Vortex, but those are only useful if you’re in water, while the rest of the stat buffs are far more universally useful. You’re not exactly the destructive and terrifying Fire Elemental or the deceptively sneaky Earth Elemental, but a wall of surging water can still wreak all manner of havoc on your enemies, your new dual slams able to smash ships (and bones) to pieces, and since Water Elementals are capable of speech and gesture, you can merely bask in your new tank stats while still casting spells.

There’s also the much more amusing but niche use of transforming while already polymorphed by a hostile effect, as having a new polymorph effect used on you while you’re already changed can end the first automatically.

While I wish the effect was usable more often, or at least broken into 1-minute increments, I can’t call it a bad Boon by any means.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: River Guide. Gain Obscuring Mist 3/day, Haunting Mists2/day, or Aqueous Orb 1/day.

I love the name of this ability because two of the three spells do the opposite of guiding people. Now I’m a big fan of Obscuring Mist; it’s a simple staple in my list for almost every caster I make just because of how versatile it is! But now that I know there’s an alternative, it may have competition. Both Obscuring Mist and Haunting Mists do roughly the same thing, but one could argue that Haunting Mists does it better; in addition to granting concealment and shutting off an enemy’s eyes, it deals 1d2 Wisdom damage and shakes up anyone starting their turn inside the mist... But as a Figment spell with the Fear descriptor, there are a great many creatures immune to its unique power, and True Seeing allows one to see through it perfectly, whereas Obscuring Mist remains impenetrable to the apex predator of the Illusion school.

While it cannot be dispelled by wind or motion like a tangible fog, it’s important to note that there’s no way to protect specific creatures from the sanity-damaging effects of Haunting Mists, and its casting distance of 20ft and 20ft spread means that you will likely always be caught in its radius. The range means using it offensively is painfully limited, unless you want to cast it from invisibility after sneaking into the middle of an enemy formation, which... you probably, definitely don’t want to make a habit of.

It’s great for covering your retreat, but not your advance or setup like the normal Mist is.

Aqueous Orb is a good choice if your party is getting screwed over by the mist more than the enemy, creating a big ol’ 10ft ball of water that intercepts and engulfs anything that moves into it, or which it moves into. It deals 2d6 nonlethal damage whenever it rams into a creature and a further 2d6 to everything it has engulfed each round, but the damage isn’t so much the main draw as the fact it’s a massive, roving Sphere of Grappling, snaring and drowning any creature it manages to get ahold of if they fail the Reflex save. It’s a fun little spell that’s great for mopping up and controlling minions, especially ones you don’t actually want to kill, and even at its worst it can become a makeshift barrier in a narrow hallway since there’s no written way to actually move through it beyond wasting 2, 3, or more rounds by slamming into it and swimming through to the other side while your party books it in the other direction.

Boon 2: River Traveler. As a free action, you can grant yourself and any allies within 30 feet of you a swim speed of 60 feet. This effect lasts for 1 round per Hit Die you possess or until you dismiss it as a free action, whichever comes first. Your allies must remain within 30 feet of you or lose this benefit. In addition, you gain a +2 profane or sacred bonus on saves against spells with the Water descriptor.

See, this should have been added to River Scion as a bonus. River Scion and River Traveler feel like they could have combined into a single Boon to make something decent, but as it is they both fall into the same niche: Solves the encounter they’re meant to solve, useless otherwise. This ability is noteworthy for having no restrictions about how many times it can be used, essentially letting you switch swimming off and on at will. The fact it doesn’t take an action is incredibly important, because using the massive 60ft swim speed the ability grants actually removes the bonus, as getting further than 30ft from you makes it fizzle.

I don’t really understand why it would grant 60ft of movespeed if they’re restricted to a 30ft bubble, nor do I understand the purpose of the bubble in the first place. It makes exploration a slog, and escape scenarios more finicky than they should be. Since it can be activated whenever you need to as a free action, the duration feels unneeded. There’s so much about this ability that conflicts with itself that it bugs me too much to say much in the way of positives. The +2 to saves vs Water spells is a fun little ribbon, though most Water spells tend to be harmless utility spells rather than ones you’d need to make a save against.

Boon 3: River’s Depths. 1/day as a standard action, you can cause one creature within 30 feet to begin drowning, filling its lungs with water. The target of this ability can attempt a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Wis mod) to negate the effect. If the target succeeds, it is staggered for 1 round. If it fails, the target immediately begins to suffocate. On the target’s next turn, it falls unconscious and is reduced to 0 hit points. One round later, the target drops to –1 hit points and is dying. One round after that, the target dies. Each round, the target can attempt a Fortitude save to end the effect. This ability affects only living creatures that must breathe and cannot breathe underwater. This is a curse effect.

Now this one’s just insulting, being a technically weaker version of a level 5 spell, Suffocation. It’s weaker in four ways: 1) It fails against creatures which are amphibious which, if you’re in the River Kingdoms, is many. 2) It’s curse effect, which can mean some creatures are resistant or immune to it. 3) It has a 30ft range, unlike Suffocation’s range of Close (25ft + 5ft/level). And, finally, 4) Just ONE successful save ends the effect entirely, while Suffocation continues to torment and stagger the victim for 3 rounds until its effects finally expire.

It’s hard to ignore fact that it’s a basically a Save-Or-Die with excellent DC scaling, but I can’t get over it being weaker than an existing level 5 spell! ... Granted, Suffocation could probably get away with being bumped an extra level or two higher given how frighteningly effective it is at shutting down any creature who needs to breathe even if they succeed their save. I’m probably slamming down too hard on an ability that, again, is a Save-Or-Die at best and an unavoidable stagger at worst (good for making some emergency repairs against a powerful full-attacker), and for extra fun can be used without any components involved, so you can just drop it on someone out of the blue and they’ll have no idea who just tried to kill them. While I am disappointed it doesn’t meet the power of other Boons, it’s undeniably effective against a large portion of the creatures you’ll be fighting, even at 1/day.

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: River Warden. Gain Wave Shield 3/day, Masterwork Transformation 2/day, or Quench 1/day.

Wave Shield is one of those rare spells that are amazing to have, but not especially good to prepare or to waste a precious Spells Known slot on. It’s an immediate action spell that grants insurmountable DR and Fire Resistance equal to half your caster level in response to a single incoming attack, which isn’t stupendous at low levels but is a generous equivalent to immediate, on-demand temporary HP as you get higher and higher level. If a creature relies on a lot of little hits rather than a few big ones, blocking even one of them can save you in the long run, and if your DR cancels out the damage from a poisoned or diseased attack, all the better!

It’s not an especially strong spell given how it only works once before fading away, but it’s better than the other two options by a country mile. Masterwork Transformation is something you’ll rarely need more than a few times in a campaign before masterwork items fall into your laps (or you can simply buy them), and by the time you gain this ability it will likely no longer matter. That being said, if you’re in a low-wealth campaign or have been forced to scavenge for your gear, Masterwork Transformation will save you THOUSANDS of gp over the course of your life, because as a spell-like, the material components are ignored and thus you can slowly upgrade your entire party’s armaments for free. Given its ability to affect a generous 50 pieces of ammunition per casting as well means the Ranger and Gunslinger will adore you, and you can work in tandem with a mystic craftsman (PC or otherwise) to get all of your favorite gear enchanted without discarding your precious family heirloom sword for that masterwork one you looted.

Not to mention the simple joy in taking all the gear off a bandit clan, Masterworking all of it, and selling it for a tidy profit.

Compared to the combat utility of Wave Shield and noncombat utility of Masterwork Transformation, it’s hard to make a case for Quench, which falls into the category of ‘niche spell’ like Water Breathing and Water Walking in that it will instantly solve a handful of scenarios and be utterly useless in the rest. Yes, you may need to put out a forest fire or stop a building you’re in from burning to a crisp, but you’ll have to decide if it’s worth giving up three emergency DR 4/-- and Fire Resistance 4 bandages... as the martial-focused Sentinel. If you plan on fighting a fire that day or encountering a magic item that can generate fires (which Quench shuts off for 1d4 hours) and no one else in your party bothered learning Quench, by all means, but as the Sentinel having the DR is probably better in most cases.

Boon 2: River Champion. 3/day as a standard action, you can sculpt water into the form of a melee weapon that you are proficient with. You must have enough water to form the weapon, an amount equal to the weapon’s normal weight. Once formed, the weapon behaves as a weapon of its type with an enhancement bonus of +1, which increases by 1 for every 5 additional HD you have beyond 5 (max +4). This weapon deals double damage to creatures with the Fire subtype. The weapon dissolves into ordinary water after a number of rounds equal to your HD or as soon as it leaves your hand, whichever happens first.

Boons which call weapons to your hand are alright in cases where your signature weapon has been taken from you, and by the time you receive this ability you will have a signature weapon, but such times tend to come few and far between. This one also has the additional caveat that you don’t actually create the weapon from nowhere, there must already be water around to make it, at least enough water to match the weapon’s typical weight. The good news is that a gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, and a trident--Hanspur’s holy weapon--weighs only 4, with most other weapons barely ever approaching 10, so you can reasonably carry around an emergency weapon in a waterskin or in your backpack... And you know, now that I think about it, it’s kind of cool to be able to turn a glass of water into a dagger.

But when will you need to? How often do you find yourself bereft of a usable weapon often enough to need an emergency armament like this? I can see the niche in front of me, making a new weapon as-needed against creatures whose DR makes them difficult to damage with your normal gear or taking advantage of that delicious little tidbit about doing double-damage to fire-based creatures, but they take your whole standard action to make and last for only a single combat (if that), and you can’t even shuffle around the +1 bonuses for additional effects!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s by no means bad (unless you’re both in a waterless area and haven’t filled your waterskin), especially at 3/day, but I can’t help but wonder when you’d actually need it at level 11+ when you likely already have a primary weapon and several backups. 

Boon 3: River’s Renewal. When completely submerged in water, you gain Fast Healing 2. You can recover a total number of hit points equal to twice your HD in this manner each day. At 20 HD, if you fall below 0 hit points and your body is fully submerged in a river, you automatically stabilize.

As a final Boon, I wish the Fast Healing had a higher threshold than just 28 points a day (+2 per level). In combat it likely won’t matter, and while out of combat it’s a decent amount of healing, usually enough to spare a couple spell slots from your healers or some potions, it’s just not all that impressive for a third and final Boon. Sentinels are the only followers of Hanspur who don’t get some method to easily navigate the seas, so taking advantage of this Boon to its fullest extent relies on an outside method of gaining water breathing or a swim speed.

Funnily enough, you can carry around a Bag of Holding filled with water and use it as a recuperative pod in case you don’t have access to a deep puddle, which is dubiously useful but not entirely terrible. HOWEVER, the little addition at the end is also a kick in the teeth; why does that only happen at level 20? Why can’t that be a base part of the Boon? It’s just insul--Wait, it only works if you’re submerged in a river, too? You can’t stabilize with some good old pond water? The mighty ocean? Can’t take a dip in a bathtub to stop bleeding out? Come on, Hanspur!!! Be a little more generous to your worshipers!

I dunno, maybe I’m underselling the out-of-combat healing this Boon offers, but it just doesn’t feel worth it to put up with the Water Rat for your entire adventuring career just for an extra 1/8th of an HP bar.

You can read more about him here.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #111: Irisviel (Holy Grail)

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the holy grail herself, Irisviel von Einzbern! Iri’s most well known for her healing abilities, but she can still surprise you.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Your cup runneth over again, but in a slightly less Destroying Humanity kinda way.

Lineage and Background

I’m almost getting tired of using Protector Aasimar for half-god characters, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t fit her. This lineage gives you +2 Charisma and +1 Wisdom, as well as some Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands to start off your healing skills right, and the Light cantrip, using your charisma.

You’re not that far away from the rest of civilization, but I’d say literally being the holy grail probably didn’t help your social life. That’s enough of a justification for being a Hermit, I think. This gives you Religion and Arcana proficiencies, as well as one juicy secret directly from the DM themself.

Ability Scores

Good news! You’re a really nice person. Also, Charisma is your main casting ability, so we’re making that really strong. Your Wisdom is pretty good-you’re a mom, you have eyes in the back of your head, you know how it be. You’re also part omniscient wish-granting cup, so your Intelligence isn’t half bad either. After that is Dexterity, you’re not really wearing armor, not getting hit is pretty vital to your survival. Your Constitution isn’t great but we try not to dump that if we can. The same can’t be said for your Strength- it isn’t very useful in this build, and you’re definitely not in the same niche as Jalter.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: Yes your power comes from the holy grail, but it comes from you being the holy grail. That’s a Divine Soul Sorcerer if I ever saw one. That makes you Favored by the Gods, letting you add 2d4 to a failed saving throw or attack once per short rest. “Please don’t let me get hit by that fireball” is a pretty easy wish to grant. You also get proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as two skills. Persuasion and Insight should help you keep Illya in line.

You can also cast Spells, using Charisma as your casting ability. On top of the normal sorcerer spells, your Divine Magic lets you grab spells from the cleric spell list, including Cure Wounds as a freebie.

For your other spells, grab Friends to strengthen your mom stare, Control Flames for a bit of that elemental nonsense from the end of the zero event, Prestidigitation for the hell of it, and Mending so you can heal inanimate objects as well. You can also Bless up to three creatures for up to a minute, giving them an extra d4 for attack rolls and saving throws. You should also grab Mage Armor so you don’t die.  The Dress of Heaven gives you a lot of things, but AC isn’t one of them.

2. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic, giving you a number of sorcery points equal to your level. As a bonus action you can spend sorcery points to make new spell slots, or spend a spell slot to make more sorcery points.

You can also cast Purify Food and Drink now, to clean up all the grail mud.

3. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers can use Metamagic to customize their casting. Irisviel can cast Quickened Spells, reducing the casting time of a spell from an action to a bonus action, or Twinned Spells, casting a single-target spell to two targets instead. Turns out being part grail gives you an edge over traditional mages.

This is also the level your Radiant Soul takes effect, letting you transform as an action once per long rest. It lasts a minute, giving you a flying speed for the duration, and letting you add radiant damage to your attacks and spells once per turn. The extra damage isn’t super useful, but you’re a literal angel now!

To celebrate, you can also say a Prayer of Healing to heal your party all at once.

4. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Wisdom and Charisma. More Healing, and later more healing! What’s not to love?

You can cast Guidance this level to add a d4 to a creature’s next check as a cantrip, or Enhance Ability to help grant some ability check-related wishes.

5. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers get third level spells, but they also get Magical Guidance. When you fail an ability check, you can re-roll the check by spending a sorcery point.

You can also cast Daylight now, shining light out from either a point or object you choose and dispelling magical darkness.

6. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level divine sorcerers have Empowered Healing- whenever a nearby creature is healed by a spell, you can spend a sorcery point to re-roll any dice in that spell, once per turn.

To make the most of that feature, you can now cast Mass Healing Word, to heal six creatures as a bonus action.

7. Cleric 1: Being a cleric and divine sorcerer causes a bit of an overlap, but come on-you are the holy grail, after all. As a Life Domain cleric, you get another set of Spells that use your Wisdom to cast. You’re also a Disciple of Life, giving extra healing based on the level of your healing spells.

(You also get heavy armor proficiency, but let’s just ignore that.)

Speaking of spells, you can cast the cantrips Resistance, Spare the Dying, and Word of Radiance now, and you can also prepare 1st level cleric spells, including your domain spells Bless and Cure Wounds. They’re not as strong as your sorcerer spells, but if you need something weirder like Create or Destroy Water or Ceremony you don’t have to commit as much as your sorcery spell list.

8. Cleric 2: Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest to either Turn Undead or Preserve Life. The former forces a wisdom save (of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your wisdom modifier) or they’re forced to run away from you until they take damage. The latter lets you heal five times your cleric level to any creatures within 30′ of you, but only up to half their HP, as an action.

9. Cleric 3: At this level, you learn how to use Lesser Restoration for healing status effects, and you can trace swords thanks to your Spiritual Weapon.

10. Cleric 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity so you don’t have to worry about dying quite as much. You can also cast Thaumaturgy, because we’re running out of cantrips.

11. Cleric 5: Your Turn Undead becomes Destroy Undead, instantly killing any undead of cr 1/2 or lower who fail their wisdom save. You can also cast third level spells, like Beacon of Hope to maximize your healing and Revivify to bring others back to life. Death is generally pretty permanent in Fate, but you’re the grail you do what you want.

12. Cleric 6: Your final level of cleric lets you use Channel Divinity twice per short rest, and you become a Blessed Healer. Whenever you heal another creature, you also regain a bit of HP.

13. Sorcerer 7: Back in sorcerer, you can finally cast fourth level spells! Aura of Life gives those around your resistance to necrotic damage, and your allies regain 1 HP if they start their turn in the aura with 0 hp. One HP is always a lot when it’s the difference between consciousness and having to make a death save, but combining that with Disciple of Life will give them just a bit more breathing room.

14. Sorcerer 8: Speaking of not dying, use this ASI to get a bit of Constitution for a retroactive 14 bonus HP. A lot of casters are pretty squishy, but there’s limits to what you should have to put up with.

You can also cast a Death Ward on a creature to give them their own guts, preventing them from reaching 0 HP or dying once in the next 8 hours.

15. Sorcerer 9: Grab Mass Cure Wounds as your first fifth level spell to get the most out of all your healing bonuses.

16. Sorcerer 10: Tenth level sorcerers get another Metamagic option- Extended Spell will help you get the most out of Death Wards and Auras.

Your newest spells don’t benefit from this, but Gust and Greater Restoration are still great picks, giving you a bit more elemental control as well as taking care of more stubborn status effects.

17. Sorcerer 11: Your first and only sixth level spell is Heal, for, y’know, healing. It heals a flat 70 HP, and ends blindness, deafness, and disease. 

18. Sorcerer 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity one last time for an even better AC.

19. Sorcerer 13: Your final spell of the build is multiple choice! Investiture of Flame, Ice, Stone, or Wind will let you take on one of your Elemental personas from the event. Flame deals damage to creatures near you, makes you immune to fire and resist cold damage, and you can use your action to launch gouts of fire at your enemies. Ice makes you immune to cold and resist fire damage, the area around you is difficult terrain for anyone who isn’t you, and you can use your action to blast freezing cold. Stone gives you resistance to nonmagical weapons, you can use your action to create earthquakes, and you can pass through earth-based difficult terrain or solid stone normally. Finally, Wind causes disadvantage on ranged attacks against you, you gain a flying speed, and you can use your action to make windstorms that push creatures and deal bludgeoning damage.

20. Sorcerer 14: Your capstone level gives you an Angelic Form, using your bonus action to create a pair of wings that give you a flying speed until you dismiss them.

Pros: 

You’re really good at healing your party, with multiple features to maximize your healing spells, and metamagic to fit as many of them into a turn as possible. 

Flight is incredibly useful for casters, as it significantly reduces the number of enemies that can hurt you. It also lets you ignore difficult terrain as you move between teammates. 

Thanks to Blessed Healer and your metamagic, you won’t have to make as many choices between healing yourself and healing your party. 

Cons:

You have very low hp, so you’re in danger of getting destroyed by surprise attacks from martial classes or getting hit with a Power Word Kill.

You don’t have too many spells with Concentration, but you do have enough to make your low constitution a bit of an issue.

Your low strength means you might be getting pushed around by beefier enemies.

[marveloussupernerd]

Ice Cream - Vanderwood

Uhm so... this idea started w this being abo seven. Then about Unknown. And then about Vandy. Just to clarify, I know lots of different pronouns are thrown around for Vanderwood, but I’m playing the safe route and going by he/him because that’s what the creators said 😀 no judgement if you hc otherwise though! Sorry this is probably gonna be OOC bc I have not played another story so my interactions w him have been slim to none

Summary: You were just kind of... depressed today. With the hacker at large, Seven and Mary Vanderwood III have been tasked with watching you through security cameras. Kinda rough when you won’t leave your room and there aren’t cameras in there. Vanderwood tries to cheer you up

PSA: this lowkey deals w mental health but not explicitly ? Inspired by me bc I get depressed~ esp when I am PMSing (which I am doing now) and genuinely can’t get out of bed and do things (ppl are iffy on mental health so just to say I have been diagnosed and was given birth control to help... which honestly has helped a lil). So I thought this would maybe help me and hopefully some of you, Jesus Christ I’ve prob lost so many of you w all these announcements

You just... couldn’t get out of bed. You had been stuck inside for a few days now, watched over by Seven and Mary Vanderwood III via security cams. But not getting to go outside and have human interaction kinda sucked. And then all your work was stressful too. You just didn’t want to move. And so you didn’t.

You got dressed though. That was a good start. Granted it was in something that could also be considered pajamas, but it felt nice to change your clothes. Felt productive. You went back into bed.

How long had you spent in bed, scrolling mindlessly through social media and watching stupid YouTube videos? You looked at the time; it was 1 pm. You were lucky you had today off, but had hoped to be more productive today. Oh well.

Your video was interrupted. A call from Seven. It was probably important.

“Hey Seven!” You picked up, bringing your voice to its typical cheery state. “What’s up?”

“Are you okay?” The voice on the other line asked. You jumped; it was deep, much deeper than Seven’s, and very serious.

“Are you using a voice modifier?” You giggled. It felt nice to talk to someone.

“Huh? Oh, no. This isn’t Seven.”

You paused for a minute, raising an eyebrow. Your voice caught in the back of your throat. “Are you... the hacker?”

“No!” The voice sounded urgent.

“Tom? Seven’s childhood friend?”

“I’m not fully convinced he exists.” The voice replied, an edge to the voice making it sound like a joke.

“Honestly? Me neither.” You paused, trying to think of who it could be. “I fold. Who are you? And how’d you get Seven’s phone!?”

“Giving up that easily?” The voice was teasing you now. “I thought you’d do more than two guesses.” You huffed out a sigh, making sure your annoyance was heard. “Come on, who would have access to Seven’s phone?”

That literally made no sense though. “...Mary Vanderwood the III?”

“Is he calling me that to you too now?” The voice asked, clearly annoyed. “My name is not Mary Vanderwood the III, and I’m not Seven’s maid. I just go by Vanderwood.”

“Hi Vanderwood,” you greeted. “You’re... a dude?”

“Yes.” He sounded annoyed still. “I don’t know why he’s said all this stuff.”

You giggled. “Well, back to the beginning of the conversation. Why’d you ask if I was okay? Is anything suspicious happening?”

“You just... you haven’t left your bedroom yet.”

“Oh” was all you could say.

“Oh? Are you okay?”

“Yeah of course!” You figured you might as well explain yourself. “It’s just, uhm, I haven’t really wanted to get out of bed and be productive. Sort of a mental block.”

“Oh,” his voice was much more understanding now. “That sucks.”

“Yeah... I think it’s because I haven’t interacted with people in a while. Just kinda holed up in the apartment. Hard to stay motivated.” Why were you telling him all this? He just wanted to know if you were okay. He wasn’t your therapist. “Oops! Uhm, sorry. Didn’t mean to unload that all.”

“You’re okay. I’m... sorry to hear that.”

“I’ve dealt with it before so like... it’s fine. It’ll pass. There are way more pressing matters right now,” you brushed it off, shrugging even though you knew he couldn’t see you.

“Do you-“ he coughed. “Do you like ice cream?”

“Yes?” What a change of topic. “Who doesn’t?”

“Well, if you want something to do, do you wanna get ice cream? If you’re feeling up for it.” He sounded almost awkward. It was kind of sweet.

But still, more pressing issues at hand. “I don’t know if I should with the hacker and everything. Everyone has security but me and so I-“

“I work with Seven. I think I can protect you.”

“Think?” You teased.

“You know that’s not how I meant it. I know I could protect you if need be. If you don’t want to though that’s okay.”

“No!” You shouted. You covered your mouth immediately, embarrassed from your outburst. “No. I think that’d be really nice.”

“I can pick you up outside the apartment in like ten minutes? You don’t have to worry about getting dressed up nice or anything...”

This was all so sudden. “Oh, I guess you do know the address, huh.” You were more saying it to yourself than him. “Wait! What do you look like? So that I don’t get picked up by the hacker or anything.”

“Uh...” he seemed so confident, but very uncomfortable describing himself. “I’ve got brown hair. Kinda long? It goes down to my shoulders. You know what? The lining of my jacket is leopard print. That should help.”

You were silent. Leopard print?

“Don’t make fun of it.” You could hear the scowl in his voice. “Ten minutes. See you then.” He hung up before you could say goodbye.

He did say not to look nice. Which made sense, in retrospect, because he had seen you for the past few days lounging at home. There was no need to try to impress; he already knew how you looked on the norm.

So you grabbed a jacket, your phone, and your wallet (with pepper spray attached to it for good measure), and headed out.

You kind of felt like a hooker, standing out at the curb waiting for a car to drive up and get you. But, you pushed those thoughts out of your mind. You were getting real human interaction today thanks to Vanderwood.

He pulled up in a very standard car, definitely not one of Seven’s babes. He rolled down the window and called your name.

“Wait! Show me the lining of your jacket!” You requested. It felt ridiculous but it was important. You laughed nonetheless, as did he. He pulled the jacket up, showing the intricate pattern. You grinned and got in the car.

“Hi. Nice to meet you in person,” you started, looking over at him. He kept the window down as he drove, the sound from the car loud and the wind blowing through his hair.

“You too,” he shouted, trying to talk over the wind. “Nice day out, huh?”

You leaned your head slightly out the window, the cool breeze a nice offset to the warmth of the sun beating down on you. “Mhm,” you hummed.

Luckily the ice cream shop was only a few minutes away. Good thing too; you weren’t sure what to talk about. You benefited from the fact that most of your words were carried away with the wind; the conversation starters had sucked anyway. You just focused on his surprisingly good driving and the feeling of the sun.

He got out of the car and you quickly followed. He didn’t wait for you, just kept walking to the order window. You scrambled to catch up. “So what’s your favorite?” He asked, sensing you by his side without even having to look.

“Oh, uhm, I’ll have cookie dough. Always a solid choice. How about you?”

He turned to you, a smile on his face that contrasted frankly with the harsh lines of his features. “Dark chocolate raspberry.”

“I can’t tell if I’m surprised or if I expected that.” You let out a little ‘hm’ and shrugged your shoulders. He went up and ordered for the both of you.

“Oh, uh,” you reached into your wallet, but he brushed you off.

“Relax. I can pay for a $3 ice cream cone.”

Your eyes widened. You hadn’t realized that may insult him. “Oh! Uh, that’s not what I meant to insinuate. I’m sorry.”

He glanced over with that smile of his, brown eyes lighting up. Why did it make your heart flutter? You had literally just met the guy. You were such a goddamn simp.

He grabbed the ice creams and handed you yours, his gloved fingers brushing against your bare ones. It wasn’t even skin-to-skin contact! Why did you feel this way from something so small? You wanted to die right then and there. He suggested you eat in the car to maintain a low profile and you nodded, not trusting your own voice.

Were you supposed to talk? Or eat your ice cream? Or both? Your mind chose for you, as words stumbled out of your lips before you could even stop them. “So is Vanderwood your real name?” Idiot. Of course it isn’t!

“God no.” He sounded hard about it. It was hard to take him seriously while he was licking an ice cream cone like that. You tried to hide your laughter. “No, don’t laugh.” His voice wasn’t hard this time. He was almost begging you to go easy on him.

“No I’m sorry! I wasn’t laughing at your name. It’s just... it’s kind of funny when you sound all mad and annoyed but you look so cute eating your ice cream.” No!!!!! Did you just call him cute? This was going AWFUL. You should have stayed home.

“Well, you can make fun of my name. I obviously didn’t pick it. It’s stupid.” Maybe he hadn’t heard the last part of what you said, considering he didn’t bring it up? But why was he blushing?

“It’s not that bad. You could be named Mary Vanderwood the III,” you teased. He rolled his eyes. “Can I give you a nickname? Maybe make it less insufferable?”

“What, you think we’re going to be talking all the time now?” He had a point. Why did you... do any of this? It was so embarrassing. You stared at your ice cream, praying you didn’t blush or shake your leg or do anything to show how much you felt like an idiot. He nudged you, causing you to glance up at him, and he smiled. “I’d love a nickname.”

“Wood.”

“Ha ha,” he laughed sarcastically.

“V! Oh wait... we can’t do that.” Poor V. You had almost regifted his name. “Vandy!”

“Vandy?” He questioned, trying out the name. “I’m not seeing it.”

“I am. Vandy. That’s the one”

“It’s too...cute.” His cheeks flushed red again. He pushed some of his hair out of his eyes. “I’m not letting you call me that.”

“You don’t get to pick your own nickname,” you stuck your tongue out at him. “I think it’s very fitting. It’s cute, you’re cute...” why were you doing this to yourself? You must have hated yourself.

“You’ve said that twice now. That I’m cute,” he mentioned causally, biting down on his cone, the rest of the ice cream gone.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it as an insult.”

“Oh, it’s fine. It’s probably just my toxic masculinity.” It sounded like a joke but he also sounded serious? There were so many mysteries surrounding him.

“Well, if it helps. I think you’re quite handsome too. But that’s a lot of syllables to get my point across.” You were a bit more confident this time. If he was genuinely worried about his image, why wouldn’t you help reassure him.

“Uh, thanks.” He pushed back his hair, pausing midway. “I’m sorry, I’m really bad with gratitude. I genuinely appreciate it, especially coming from you.”

“Well it’s not like I’m lying,” you shrugged. You had finished your ice cream. “Uhm... maybe we should get back. Who knows what Seven’s been up to since you’ve been gone.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.”

The drive back was just as silent as the drive there, the both of you enjoying the sun and the wind again. He turned on the radio this time. It played 80s hits.

He parked in front of the building. “I hope that helped you feel a little better. I mean, I had fun,” he explained. You could tell he was forcing the words out, forcing himself to express some emotion.

“It helped a lot. For real. Thank you Vandy.” You touched his arm gently.

“Can I have your number?” He asked, a small smirk forming at the corner of his lips. “So that I don’t have to call you through Seven’s phone again,” he justified.

You smiled, nodding, wordlessly taking the phone from his hands and putting your number in. Why were your hands shaking? Was he genuinely interested in you? Or was he just a nice guy?

You handed the phone back. “Thank you again.” You smiled, opening the car door.

“Wait!” He exclaimed. You turned back towards him, leaving the car door open. “Can I... kiss you?”

You shut the car door again, nodding eagerly. He pressed himself against the center console to reach you, using one hand to balance himself and the other to brush the hair out of your eyes, cupping your cheek as he closed the distance between the two of you. Your eyes fluttered shut, focused on just how warm and soft his lips were. It was... really pleasant. He didn’t maintain the kiss for long, although you seemed to have lost your concept of time.

He pulled away, hand still on your cheek, smiling that smile again. “Thank you. I hope I made your day a little better. You certainly improved mine.”

Your fingers grazed his own, intertwining with his for a moment as you opened the car door with the other hand. “You did. I’ll look forward to seeing you again maybe?”

“For sure,” he was more flustered now. “Ah, I should probably make sure Seven hasn’t burned down the house. Have a good night.” He regained his composure, winking at you as you exited the car, and driving off, wind still blowing in his hair.

Vandy stans don’t drag me maybe he was OOC but also I wanna think he’s a little less confident in a romantic situation ? Idk. I hope you all liked it tho tyy

[repentantsky]

9 Things I’d like to see at E3, 2021

So E3 2021 is a thing. It’s gonna be all digital, and several companies have already signed up to join, sounds like a good deal, but the question is, will it be what we normally expect out of E3, or will it be more like Summer Game Fest Last Year, where everything that looked like it was gonna be great, but just turned out to be okay? Who can say, but I have some...suggestions, that might make it better, along with some game announcements, that might make it all it should be cracked up to be. 

9. No low quality, at home interviews during the main show 

E3 has had a history of doing interviews during game shows to try and break pace a little, and keep people from being too excited, only to potentially be let down later. However, possibly the worst problem with Summer Game Fest last year, was the at home interviews, which broke pacing during game announcements in a way I can’t imagine was on purpose, and for many, was the time to take a bathroom break, or simply look away for a while. It’s important of course to hear from developers about their projects, and they can divulge some interesting information about games, that either puts something confusing into context, or is accidently leaked, but when we watch shows about game releases, we want to see the games. Interviews should be held in between shows, or better yet, the days following the conferences themselves. 

8. Nintendo finally talks about the big three 

While it’s safe to say Nintendo has done some banger numbers over the last year espeically, due to better console availability, which I never thought I’d say about Nintendo but here we are, it’s also safe to say that fans have been waiting for literal years on Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, and Breath of the Wild 2. While some have been more patient than others, and of course I understand there’s a flipping pandemic going on, Nintendo told us far too long ago about these games, or the restart of their development, and Breath of the Wild 2 was promised to at least get an update this year, and E3 seems like the best place to do it, especially after their last direct, one that was more than a year in waiting, and left so many people disappointed. And this is coming from someone who had literally only hoped to be excited about one thing, and it didn’t happen The future of how they present games, almost feels like it’s in question after such a show, which did not justify itself, so hopefully, they can finally let everyone walk away happy, and talk about the projects that have been generation the most excitement, for literal years now.

7. Space things out better

You might now know this, I only made one list about it after all, and literally no one reacted to it, but I’m a huge wrestling fan, and one of the promotions I watch, is WWE. Now, WWE is about to launch WrestleMania, their equal to E3 in a lot of ways, and are splitting it up over two days, and that goes for their third brand NXT as well, because they have a history of making the show sometimes 8 hours long. For fans of video games, watching The Game Awards, which can be two to three hours long, is arduous, and tiring, and E3, can also have that same effect. I remember in 2019, I literally fell asleep watching Bethesda’s conference, because I was so tired trying to write about the previous shows in between them, never mind actually watching them, that I was burnt out. Since E3 is going fully digital this year, and everyone is going to be in that same boat, it would be nice if we didn’t have too many shows, spanning over a near 12 hour period, which was happened before, making people stay up late to enjoy what they want to, or you know, work, which is free promotion for whatever gets announced. Spacing the shows out to no more than three a day, and giving people enough time to get their thoughts together, would just be really nice. 

6. Devolver Digital, tries a different style

Look, I don’t hate Devolver Digital’s approach to talking about games at E3, but what I do hate, is them telling the same jokes over and over again, and expecting everyone to laugh, because you know, it’s so funny when something that’s already been said, or shown, is modified ever so slightly for years on end. I’m not saying they can’t still tell jokes, please do, E3 is as much a good time as it is stressful depending on who you are, so the change of pace can at times be a lot of fun, but the last time they had a “conference”, it was a slog, and generally left me feeling annoyed, and I can’t help but feel I’m not the only one. They want to be different, I say that’s great, but they need to do it in a way that for one, is actually different, because their style has become a cliché in and of itself, and where they don’t spend time talking about fake games, because it’s hard to know at times what’s real and what isn’t. I honestly thought the last time they did one, the final game they talked about was just a play on the “one more thing” trope conferences have, and when I later realized it wasn’t, I never got that first sense of hype, and so lost interest, and that’s not a good business model. We don’t even know at this point if they’re going to declare for E3, and since it was announced late, it might be too hard to get a show at all, but if they do show up, or even when they next do a conference, it would be nice if they considered this line of thinking.

5. Drop the “Exclusive Online Portal” idea

Yeah I don’t know what the ESA was thinking with this one, but they mentioned that E3 will be streaming from an exclusive online portal, and not only do we not know what that means, but no one flipping cares! We’re all going to watching it on YouTube, Twitch, or dare I say it but it’s possible, Facebook Gaming, and any other platform is completely useless. We are all tired of hearing, download a new program to do a thing you can already do on other platforms, PC gamers especially, stop releasing new flipping launchers and...sorry, that’s for another list in the future perhaps, but the point stands. You might get streamers to download, or go to whatever site they need to, to watch the shows, but everyone else, is either going to watch those streams, or as it often happens, watch the highlights at a later time, so to add a potentially extra step to that process, is just not going to go anywhere, and since E3 will be free to watch, it’s not like this is going to be a good way to make money, unless you do plan to do the following...

4. Throwing flipping ads at everyone between shows or otherwise

Look, I get it, even an online show that’s going to be talking about games costs money to make, and so money must be made by other means, many of which are not available to the ESA without people actually being present, but the thing about E3 is, as much as we all love it, it is one massive ad, and even though it’s an add we like, it’s not one that needs too many ads thrown at it beyond what it already has. There are other, less annoying ways to make money, like having products from the games announced be available at a store online that people can access, that sees them getting part of the profit, or something of that nature, but this portal that was mentioned, seems like a place where the ESA can just throw ads at people all day, and that just seems like a horrible idea. A lot of people don’t see E3 as an ad, even though it absolutely is, and blowing away the smoke and mirrors that it’s not, by throwing countless ads at people for the sake of trying to make money, might be the end of E3 as we know it. 

3. Don’t spend too much time talking about games that are coming out close to the event, or just came out

Like I said, E3 is one big, massive ad, and for the most part, that’s totally alright, but E3 also has a habit of sneaking in little bits talking about games, that are coming out during the week of, or very close to the shows, to the point of being annoying. Most of the time these ads are short, show nothing new, and generally kill the pace of the conferences on display. While it’d be one thing to try and shadow drop a game this way, because we all love a good shadow drop, we really don’t need ads for games like FF7 Intergrade, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, or flipping Mario Golf: Super Rush. We know those games are coming, we are paying attention, give us a little credit, and save that for games that could use the push like Neptunia: ReVerse, Legend of Mana, or maybe even Scarlett Nexus who actually in way, has to compete with Mario Golf. This might be more a developer problem, and E3 itself might actually have little to no control over this, but whoever does it, needs to do it right.

2. Xbox needs to stop lying, and go big

I love Xbox, I really do, for whatever reason it’s become my go to place for physical indie games, and whenever I want to play a shooter, I start thinking green, but in their conferences, Phil Spencer has a tendency to oversell what Xbox is going to show, by talking about how many games are going to be at the show, or by constantly mentioning how Xbox is more powerful than it’s competitor consoles, like it does any good for the bottom line of the company. I don’t want to hear Phil say they are going to show off 80 games during their show, and have half of them be ports, or shown off in a montage. Doing that means everyone has to go look up a large portion of what they actually announce to learn anything, and that’s no fun. I don’t want montages during E3 at all, and while I’m at it, Xbox espeically needs to bring in the big guns. I’m talking Halo Infinite, Gears 6, the next Forza game, and maybe, finally, a Japanese exclusive title that will get people really hyped. Xbox might just have free reign over the show on the day they present, but another show that has extremely mixed opinions like in 2019, might not be the best thing ever. 

1. GET. SONY. 

Obviously we know that Sony and the PlayStation brand haven’t been associated with E3 for a while now, and I get it, it’s kind of hard to justify going down to L.A. every year, when an online digital show, saves a whole bunch of money, and can get people just as hyped as if they had been there, but this year, everything is online, and Sony’s State of Play’s have been a mixed reaction as a whole. Taking them to E3 not only sets up more hype for them, but it also gives people something they really need right now, something close to the norm, with all of console developers, showing off their best. E3 2019, just felt weaker, and too safe without Sony there, and last year was a total, long winded disaster because of Summer Game Fest. If the ESA is really going to go for this, and give it an earnest shot, and give us the best that they can, they need Sony to show up and blow our minds with, I don’t know, God of War 2, Spyro 4 (hopefully) and a new IP or two to really get the show to being considered one of the best. E3 will probably be alright regardless of if they are there or not, but if they are, the chances of it being truly great, go up in spades. 

And that’s my list, did I miss anything else you can think of? Let me know in the comments below, like this list if it interested you, reblog it if you love it, and have a wonderful day. 

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

hi, Rachel. I've been wanting to write flash fiction for a while—not too long ago I started writing short stories but always on the longer side. But I can't understand exactly the difference between a longer and shorter piece, or how sometimes a short-short feels as vivid as a longer one, and google just states the obvious (write less words :D). So I know you've written a few and I really respect you in this art. Do you have any tips or help? even if you don't know, do you have resources? thanks

I wrote this post earlier but it ! disappeared! EDIT: I also thought I posted this but apparently I did not?? maybe I did?? I don’t know?? sorry this took forever! but luckily this is like my favourite thing to talk about in writing! The difference between flash fiction versus short short fiction and long short fiction really all comes down to structure, so I’ll share three different structures I’ve made up to help illustrate what I mean. (So keep in mind this is all made up by me and therefore may not make sense lol!)

I just wrote up a post on sticking to shorter word counts with @ellatholmes​ which you can check out here!

Disclaimer: While I’ll be separating short fiction into three categories (flash fiction, shorter short fiction, longer short fiction), even the nuances in these categories require different things. For example, even though stories between 1k-3500 words may count under shorter short fiction, a 1200 word story is going to have completely different needs than a 3500 word story, and the more practice you get, the more obvious these needs become. 200 words could be the difference between 50 different structures, so take these as a place to start but also the best way to understand how to write shorter short fiction is to do that: don’t allow yourself to go over a certain word count, and if you must for the story, reflect on what structure it may be following.

Usually when we’re taught story structure, it looks something like this:

(via skyword)

This obviously works, but visually, at least for me, can be a bit confusing because that inciting incident is just a flat plane that seems to propel rising action, when in reality, I think it’s a peak in itself and where the entire story lies.

1. Shorter short fiction structure (1000-3500 words)

We can break down this structure in 4 steps:

0) regular boring life before the story starts (not written in)

1) inciting incident (story starts here are as close to here when things get interesting)

2) rising action - story’s events happen here and lead to...

3) short changing moment (can be a decision, a realization, anything where the character “changes” in some way from who they were at the start of the story)

4) Denouement (usually very short, depending on the story this can be a paragraph or 1-2 sentences)

This kind of story has a bit more room than the second option to have more defined “moments”, but still it is quite compact, so efficiency is still required.

2. Shorter short fiction structure (modified - usually works for flash fiction)

This structure is 3 steps! It’s very similar to the above, but just slightly compressed with some different terminology I’ve made up lol!

0) regular boring life before story starts (not written in)

1) inciting/disruptive event (something happens here that disrupts the character’s life << NOTE that I’ve opted to call this the inciting/DISRUPTIVE event because in shorter short fiction, there may not be as much space to have a fleshed-out “event”, per se, but rather, just enough space to describe something [even in one sentence] that somehow disrupts that character’s life. For example, in my short story “Fig” the disruptive event is that someone dies--we don’t see this happen on the page, but it’s implied right away).

2) consequences of disruptive event (aka rising action, except I like to think of this as the consequences to that disruptive event until you make it to the inevitable end)

3) inevitable end (some change should occur to the character over the course of the story but it may be subtler/a smaller change)

This structure is more in line with the structure of a “moment” (how I like to view flash fiction in general). There is more concentration on this moment rather than setup, and usually you only get the information that is absolutely vital for understanding (even more so than you usually do in other kinds of short fiction).

Longer short fiction structure (3500+ words)

0) regular boring life before the story starts (not written in)

1) inciting incident (story starts here are as close to here when things get interesting)

2) rising action that leads to...

3) moment of change (this might be what you’d call the novel’s climax, but I view this as a moment when the character changes somehow from who they were at the beginning of the story)

4) denouement

This structure differs from the others as it has a bit more room to explore character change (obviously in that moment of change). The character might have a more defined, longer moment of “lift” or a reflective moment toward the end of the story, where that “lift” may be much, much shorter in the previous two structures.

I think the secret to getting a shorter short story feel as vivid as a much longer one is to understand their skeletons so that you’re not making your story top heavy or bottom heavy with thinness on either end (which I’ve 100% done in the past)! Redefining shorter short fiction is VITAL though. I don’t think people talk about this enough--the differences between each kind of short fiction. Flash fiction is just an impression, a little dip into a moment that still feels satisfying without being over 1k words. That’s a very difficult task, because it all depends on your idea. Some ideas are simply not flash fiction ideas because they intrinsically require more room to exist. When I wrote Mama Lives in My Mouth which is flash and is coming out in Young Voices soon so you can see that yourself, I immediately knew the idea of a mother living inside her child’s mouth would NEVER work in a piece longer than 1k words. I didn’t think I could sustain that idea, which meant I immediately knew it would be a shorter piece. This is a muscle you’ll develop as you write short fiction, and is a muscle I’m still developing myself! I know it’s difficult to parse whether or not an idea is a longer or shorter story when you’re first starting, which is why sometimes, it’s best to just jump in and fail. Failing is how I learned how to write a story and the differences between these three structures and when I may pull on one and not the other. At the end of the day, these structures are essentially the exact same. It goes INCITING INCIDENT > STORY’S EVENTS THAT LEAD TO > MOMENT OF CHANGE/REFLECTION/CLIMAX > STORY ENDS, but the placement/duration of these events differs, which is really only something you can understand when you do it!

I hope that helps! If anyone has any resources on flash fiction, please send them my way! <3

[crossoverworldtree]

Psychic Powers

Many psychic powers have been covered before, but few of the Cinematic ones are present. To be honest, Psychic Powers are just the sci-fi writers’ way of saying "Magic". A Magical Philosophy (Described eslewhere) can work and fully cover the abilities given to Psychics throughout fiction with ease.

But for those who want to maintain the Psychic-Magic-Ki distinctions, here are some qualities to do that.

Combat Visions (6 Point Quality, Pre-requisite (Supernatural Senses, Magic, Telepathy, or similar quality))

Using your secondary senses, the character gains an added insight against their enemies, granting them a +2 bonus to combat against them. Without this quality, a mental action must be spent to gain this insight with a Perception and Notice or Magic and Notice roll. Depending on the senses, the creatures targeted may be immune or resistant to it (such as Robots and the Undead being immune to Telepathy).

Hypnosis/Mesmerism

Just as a note, double the cost to hypnotize more than one person at a time (Roll Willpower (Doubled) to figure how many are affected (Int per Success Level)). Otherwise, one mental action is needed per target.

Remote Viewing (4-Point Quality)

The ability to see events and places over long distances. This usually requires meditation lasting at least several minutes. A Perception and Notice test is needed to determine what is seen and how far off.

1: The range is only 1 Yard per Perception level. 2: 10 Yards per Perception Level. 3: 100 Yards per Perception level 4: 500 Yards per Perception level. 5-9: SL Miles per Perception Level. 10+: 50 Miles per Perception level

A second Intelligence (Doubled) test is needed to recall all the information gathered. Use the Psychometry chart in Angel for this.

-Kinesis

These qualities all use Telekinesis are their basis, and unless contradicted, operate on the same wavelength.

Bio-Kinesis: 5 points per level

Bio-Kinetics are better called Protein Kinetics. But they do horrible things to animal life with just the merest thought or wonderful things. Bio-Kinetics can heal 2 damage per SL in a Willpower + BK test or deal Armor-ignoring damage to any target within range at the same rate. This is extremely painful and forces a Willpower + Constitution + Resistance (Pain) or Resistance (Powers) test against the attack roll to avoid being paralyzed with screaming pain. Biokinetics naturally heal slightly better than regular humans. Where they heal their constitution per day of rest, they heal their Constitution + Biokinetics level. It's very tempting for BKs to make minute changes in the body to cause massive harm, but the limits are what they are. Unless they have X-Ray Microscopic vision, targeting small parts to cause heart attacks and strokes is a no-go. What occurs when a BK attack is mass spectrum rupturing of cells that are insanely hard to focus. Strokes and heart attacks are the results of powerful BK attacks.

Electro-Magnetic Kinesis: 3 Points per level

This ability has had some stuff on it before, but I'll expand here. This is an Energy-manipulating ability that can also affect metals. On its own, it can create EM Shields (AV SL x 2/SL x 4 vs. Metal) or create sparks of energy dealing SL Electrical Damage at pistol ranges, and forcing electronics to make Constitution (or equivalent) rolls against the attack roll to resist shut down. Alternatively, against the flesh, it can be used to create a stream of stunning electrical current (resisted by either Con x 2 or Con + Will), putting a -2 to all actions for SL turns, dealing 1 damage per SL. This also halves the damage of an electrical attack.

When using Metals, it works like TK, but shields made of metal are either 3 x SL in AV or 4 x SL, depending on if it's a soft metal (like Gold or Copper) or a harder material (lead, iron, or steel).

It also has the basic abilities of material Kinesis types.

Material-Kinesis: 3 Points per level

Earth, Water, Air, and Wood. These elements are all commonly manipulated under the label of specific psychic powers. There are two ways to do this. One is to have TK with the Limited Use drawback applied once to the character. This is the more complex method.

The basic rule of being able to lift and manipulate SL Strength worth of material still holds, but in some cases, more fun can be had with the results.

Various constructs can be formed by manipulating the elements (each lasting 1 turn per level of Willpower per Success Level) to defend or attack enemies. This is also true of TK, but few Telekinetic see a need to do this out of sheer sloth and overconfidence.

To construct a weapon, she must decide what weapon she wants and gain enough success levels equal to the damage multiplier of the weapon. So, a pig sticker needs only 1 success level, but a claymore needs 5.

Each element has its own effects, and a subset element (such as paper) can have up to 3 points worth of special abilities in addition to the elemental abilities. Success Levels can be instead used by special abilities for the weapon, such as converting it to ranged (-3 Success levels) or other weapon modifiers expanded upon in other places, with 1 success level equal to 2 points. Making a rock spear Armor-Piercing would need 4 success levels.

Other items she can create (such as ride-able paper airplanes and ropes) are treated as transmutation spells, requiring the psychic to achieve a number of success levels equal to the cost of the spell effect as determined by the GM, but the time limit remains.

All elemental Kinetics need to have the material on hand to effect it, obviously.

Earthen Elements (Rocks, not metals) Are the sturdiest and toughest. Armor created with it varies depending on what's available. Soft materials (Sand, loose dirt) grant 2 x SL AV either as an armor constructor, or a quick shield. This increases to 3 x SL with softer rocks (Sandstone, mudstone) and 4 x SL for harder stones (Granite, Marble). All constructs grant a +1 to Strength when used. Outside of softer rocks, fine manipulation of sand and harder stones is done at a -2 Difficulty depending on the task. Soft materials have trouble forming hard weapons and objects/barriers well, and hard rocks have problems moving and being flexible/fast.

Water is the most common natural liquid manipulated. Controlling other liquids is possible, but invokes the limited use options. Changing water between its elemental forms takes only a single action. Water grants 3 points when forming bizarre weapons and abilities for its constructs instead of 2. Shields erected with water grant 3 x SL armor.

Air is the weird one. Because it's everywhere, there's always enough of it, but because it's invisible, it grants a +2 to all combat actions taken with it. When forming armor and defenses with it, though, it only provides 1 AV per SL or can be used to deflection bonus for other defense actions (1/2 SL added to the attempt).

Plants or Chlorophyll are also pretty weird. Wood and even green plants can provide the user with 3 x SL AV when used defensively. The Chloro-Kinetic can, however, generate and promote/restrict plant growth to always have the force they need (Depending on the species). This grants them a very effective green thumb and can even force plants to flower or produce fruits with simple tests.

Umbrakinesis – This strange ability manipulates darkness. It works as Telekinesis but has penalties or bonuses based on how much darkness there is around them. High Noon sunlight or being under a spotlight puts a -5 to the tests. Indoor Lightning puts things at -3. A windowed room with the lights off is at 0.

A room with the lights off and the blinds closed grants a +1. A night street in a city grants a +3. Midnight in the middle of the wilderness far from any city grants a +5.

By bending shadows, it can also provide a bonus to hiding, at +1 per 2 Success levels. Like Telekinesis, it can be maintained for several rounds.

Technopathy (5-Points per Level Quality)

You ARE a WIFI hotspot.

You can connect to electronic devices with your mind. This generally is limited to the normal operations of such devices. It works off similar ranges and attributes to Telepathy, but machines without AI do not really resist. Anti-Virus programs can interfere with your ‘hack’ of more advanced electronics (Difficulty set by the GM, usually negating 1 to 4 success levels depending on complexity) to similar results of a failed telepathy check. And Viruses can affect your mind if you aren't careful (resisted by Willpower).

Some Technopaths can power on devices when they were turned off. This is a Technopathy (not doubled) test to perform.

Telepathy (5-Points per Level Quality)

This functions as described in Angel, but each level extends the range and adds to all Telepathy rolls for each level beyond the first (range penalties apply, this describes the normal range). Use the basis set on the Supernatural Senses range chart.

1. Contact 2. 2 yards per Willpower 3. 10 yards per Willpower 4. 50 Yards per Willpower 5. 100 Yards per level of Willpower. Line of sight is no longer needed. 6. 200 Yards per level of Willpower. 7. 500 Yards per Willpower 8. 1 Mile per Willpower 9. 50 Miles per Willpower 10. 100 Miles per Willpower

Further, with a Willpower, Telepathy level, and Wild Card: Psychic Powers task, the psychic can attempt a psionic attack. This over-stimulates the brain and does minor damage, but largely is there to stun and knock out. This is resisted by a Willpower (doubled) roll from the target. On a failure, they must make a consciousness test against the attack or fall unconscious. If they remain conscious, all actions for a number of turns equal to the success levels of the attack, they are at a -1 penalty to all actions. If they pass the first roll, they just suffer a flat -1 to their actions for a full turn. This is an extremely draining move, no matter how powerful the telepath, it always incurs a -2 cumulative penalty to use which only dissipates when the psychic rests.

For extreme mental manipulations (altering memories and so on) an Intelligence + Telepathy + Wild Card (Psychic Powers) tasks are needed, but is hampered by the intelligence of the target (subtract target's intelligence from the roll) and is resisted by Willpower (doubled) roll. Simple minds are easy to influence, but the proud and the stubborn are difficult to manage (so qualities related to such things can be used to resist). Other factors and certain memory things can work to alter any such test.

If the roll fails, it deals the target's willpower in damage to the telepath from the backlash. Prepare for a nosebleed when this happens.

Psychics can defend against such attacks with a Willpower + Wild Card (Psychic Powers) task. Sorcerers and Mages can defend against Psychic attack/intrusion with a Willpower + Occultism + Magic test. Iron Mind, of course, negates it completely.

Note: messing with people’s memories is actually a HUGE DEAL with vast moral complications. Also, the White Council of Wizards may assume you’re a mage and try to chop off your head. This is less damaging than mental magic but still isn’t pretty or nice.

Telepathic Translator (5-Point Quality, Prerequisite: Telepathy)

You can make telepathic contact with a being and translate what they say automatically. This requires having the targets or the translation (for all parties) be in the range of the standard telepathic contact for its level. Once the link is established, the range it can be maintained is 3 steps higher than the Telepath’s normal level. Because it would be very awkward to hold a conversation while someone has a hand on both people’s heads.

Since the translation is automatic, nuance and details can be lost rather easily, though the full intent comes through. This does nothing for written languages.

[vintagesimstress]

VI c. UV_1

(Previous: Changing the texture displayed in Blender)

As mentioned before, the uv_1 map plays a very different role than uv_0: it tells the game where certain parts of your mesh are located, so that the whole thing could move with sliders. It seems many people struggle with it a lot – and to be honest, I have no idea why, as in my experience uv_1 has always been totally unproblematic. Hopefully you'll share my feelings on this!

Let's click once again the little triangle on the right ('Data') and choose 'uv_1' this time.

As you can see, the texture on the model turned very weird – and it'll stay this way, as that map is not meant for texturing. You can as well change to solid shading, if you find that craziness spooky or annoying.

If you switch to edit mode, you'll see that the map looks just as crazy:

UV_1 uses a completely different type of template. It differs very slightly depending on age and gender of your sim; the adult female one looks like this:

You can download all the versions from S4S forum, in HERE (I highly suggest you make some kind of 'Basics' folder for all those things which you'll keep reusing!)

Once you have downloaded it, click 'Image' and then 'Open image'. It works exactly the same as in case of uv_0. Now it should look like this:

You can see that your vertices are twice wider than the template. I'm not sure why the template has been made in this way instead of getting adjusted to the TS4 requirements, but that's what we have to work with. Select all the vertices (a), press s, then x, then type 0.5 and press enter. Do not move your mouse! Your uv map should be twice narrower now:

We still have to move it, so that it'd align with the template. Select all again, this time press g, x and type 512. That's exactly the number of pixels you need to move your mesh to the right. Now it should finally look correct.

Just like in case of uv_0, the top part is completely done, so the only thing we have to do is unwrap the skirt. This time the only valid methods for doing it are no. 1 and 2 (see: VI a), namely moving the lines manually or using cylinder projection. As at this point making manual adjustments would be too cumbersome, we're going to use option no. 2.

Select the lowest line of vertices to select your whole skirt, go to front view this time (num 1) and choose cylinder projection.

Move the newly unwrapped faces up or down (g, y), to the black area, so that you could properly see them.

You can see that my dress got unwrapped a bit unevenly – there are small 'steps' on the sides. I highlighted all the faces which should form the left edge. Now I'll move the highlighted parts on the right to the left, and the non-highlighted parts on the left to the right, and then it should all look and work fine.

Tip: you can also move them precisely into the right place by typing g, x, 1024 (to move to the right) or g, x, -1024 (to move to the left)!

The weird part at the bottom is the closing circle; you can select the central vertex (which is here doubled on the sides), weld it and move it down, to more or less align it with the lowest row. Or simply wait with closing your dress until you're done with uv_1 ;). The bigger problem is that step my dress still has at the top. I'll select all the vertices below it and just very gently move them along the x axis to the left. Now, that looks better:

And now, just as we did before, we have to connect the skirt with the top. It's a bit trickier than in case of uv_0, because you can't do it in one piece: your mesh has to be split along the back and both sides. Take a look at the top mesh. Let's start from the left: click the rightmost face and then, in 3D view, the faces right underneath it. This will tell you where your skirt should be split.

I'll deselect the face of the top, select the whole part of the skirt left from the selection and then move it to the left (g, x), separating it from the central part.

That weird line at the bottom is the closing circle again – I'll delete it and redo it afterwards, it'll really be easier.

Repeat the same steps for the part on the right.

The edges of those three parts should be, if possible, straight. Mine aren't. To be able to adjust them, I'll select the edges and temporarily split them (ctrl + e, in 3D view). Select a vertex or two above as well, or the uppermost one won't get split!

(If you're having problems with selecting edges, it might be smart to select the whole skirt (not the top!) and change it back from tris to quads (alt + j). Then you can easily select edges by clicking them while holding alt).

Split also the top row of vertices, to separate the skirt from the top. Just for a second.

Now select a whole edge, press w and choose 'Align X'

Repeat for the remaining edges. If you want to and feel that it's needed, you can also straighten other lines in your mesh.

Now it's finally the time to put it in the right place. Select the skirt and move it up (g, y).

One can immediately see that it's way too tall. Scale it along the y axis until it looks more reasonable. It should start at the lowest line of the top and end a bit above the feet. Nothing big will happen if it covers them, but it has to fit inside the picture!

And now just scale and move each of the 3 parts individually, along the x axis, to match them with the top.

The only thing left to do is to weld the vertices. It's unlucky that we separated the skirt from the top; now we have to select all, remove doubles and then once again split the side edges to be able to weld everything properly. Just like with uv_0: select a vertex, press w and choose 'weld' from the drop-down menu. Repeat for aaaaaall the vertices connecting the skirt with the top.

Sometimes the vertices can be quite far away from each other. Is it still safe to weld them? I'd say risk it. If you see some weird stuff happening in game when changing your sim's body type, you'll know you have to fine tune it: straighten some lines, make them more regular etc. However, chances are quite high that it won't matter at all.

Select all and remove doubles. Yes, again (I keep doing it all the time, that's probably why I love the edge split modifier so much).

And now a very important, final step that I usually forget about: you have to revert the moving and scaling changes you made at the very beginning. Select all and press g, x, -512 to move it back into position, and then s, x, 2, to make it twice wider again. Otherwise TS4 will get quite perplexed with your mesh (and so will you, seeing everything being weirdly deformed and moving with all the wrong sliders)!

As you see, it's not very difficult and once you get a grip of it, you can do it in no time. To be honest, 90% of the time I don't even do the whole scaling and moving thing; I just open the picture, to know where the feet are, and adjust the rest to the top. UV_1 is really not that bad, at least as long as you don't have to deal with the upper body half.

Here are just a couple of general, closing remarks which I'd like to share:

If you move any vertices of the top, immediately move them on the uv_1 map as well. I try to avoid it at all costs, but sometimes I can't resist making just one teeny tiny adjustment... Arms are usually not a problem, neck can get problematic, and breast area is an absolute nightmare. I already mentioned it once, but honestly, better dissolve vertices and cut new edges with the knife tool than move anything in there.

If you're frankenmeshing, remember to weld any vertices you merged in 3D view! If your mesh is getting split in game when you move any sliders, that probably means you didn't connect those parts on the uv_1 map (or that it's vertex paint... but that's another story).

Of course, if you added any other parts to your mesh than just a skirt – or if you frankenmeshed a thing, but changed its location, e.g. took a hair ribbon and put it on the skirt – you have to put it in the right place as well! In case of frankenmeshing you just have to change its location on the map; if you made it yourself, you'll have to experiment with different types of unwrapping first (pssst, projecting from view usually isn't a bad idea).

There are also certain cases - rarely, but still - when it might be a better idea not to properly unwrap a part of the mesh, but weld it all together to a little dot and put it in the right place on the uv_1. The first example which comes to my mind are 3D buttons. I always weld each button to a single dot, so that it’d be changing its size evenly, without deformations. However, this comes at a prize of an increased risk of clipping.

And finally: if you're having big problems with uv_1 and my method doesn't work for you – or if you made your mesh completely from scratch, so you don't have an unwrapped top – you can always make a data transfer, copying uv_1 data from another mesh. I won't elaborate on this one, because Teanmoon already explained it all in her amazing tutorial, which you can find HERE. Scroll down a bit until you see 'UV-1 Transfers'. I think I used it myself once or twice in the past and I was quite pleased with the results :).

***

Once again, I'm sorry both for how long you had to wait for this tutorial and for its final length. I swear I intended it to be a simple, concise explanation ^^. I hope that at least it's all clear and will help you avoid any problems with uvs. Please tell me if you have any questions or if something doesn't work for you – really, I mean it! Half of my inspiration for this tutorial comes from me watching other simmers struggle with making their first pieces of CC, as it helps me notice what hasn't been explained yet.

From now on we'll be moving into the dangerous territory of clones, cuts, regions, bones and weights, and I need some time to figure out how to divide this whole topic into sensible parts. It's not even that hard, but very interconnected, and that makes it difficult to tackle – as covering it all in one part is absolutely out of the question. Please have some patience with me and stay tuned!