#i already spent enough on other gachas in my life...

[stressyviv]

The banner ends today and I'm stuck at 46 wishes to guaranteed 5*...

Rafayel cost me a 50/50 and now I won't get Zayne 😭😭😭

[aventurineswife]

Hi so i sent this but i dont think it sent so ill send it again so uh

I spent literally ALL WEEK GRINDING FOR MISTER BLOND MAN bcz i lost my fifty fifty to ugly dragon loli amd i just needed forty more pulls to garuantee him but guess what 😃

I accidentally pulled on friggin acherons banner and got her instead

So can you please help me cope by writing a fic where that happens to reader but aventurine buys her a bunch of jades so she can get him anyway? Because i need someone to do the for me. I need a stinking rich friend who will gamble for me in mobile games. And yes he knows hes in a game and breaking the fourth wall

Thank you

Also established relationship plz

P.S im still gonna try to get him wish me luck im SO demotivated but its whatever

Luck, Love, and a Thousand Jades

Summary: After the latest banner drop in HSR, you’re excited to pull for your favorite character, Aventurine. However, to your surprise, Aventurine appears in person, offering an overwhelming amount of in-game currency to ensure your reunion. As you summon him with his help, you marvel at the absurdity of it all.

Tags: Aventurine x Reader, Romance, Humor, Fictional Crush, Fluff, Surreal, Fourth Wall breaking, Bro is real somehow-

A/N: 💀I feel so bad for you bestie... I do hope you get Aventurine on his banner before it ends! Hope this fic will cheer you up!

The soft hum of your phone filled the cozy room as you sat cross-legged on the couch, your eyes glued to the screen. The banner for the latest update had just dropped, and the character you’d been pining for—Aventurine himself—was finally here. The dazzling image of his in-game model, with all its sharp edges and that maddening smirk, stared back at you, practically taunting you to pull.

“You’re really going to make me work for this, aren’t you?” you muttered, debating whether to throw your measly stash of resources into the gacha abyss or exercise patience for once in your life.

“I’d say you have a better chance of hitting a jackpot than summoning me with that pitiful pile,” a voice drawled behind you.

Your heart jumped into your throat, the phone nearly slipping from your grasp as you whirled around to see him—Aventurine. Not the 2D version on your screen, but the real deal.

Or, at least, the closest thing to it. He stood in the doorway of your living room, hair perfectly tousled, those impossibly vibrant eyes glinting with amusement. The overcoat, the spade-shaped chest window, even the roulette detailing—he looked exactly like his character model, down to the smirk that never seemed to leave his lips.

“Wait, what?” you sputtered, looking between him and your phone. “What are you doing here? How—”

“Ah, ah,” he interrupted, holding up a hand to stop the inevitable spiral of questions. “You’ve already accepted that I’m aware of the... meta circumstances surrounding my existence. Let’s not waste time rehashing the impossible.” He sauntered toward you, the soft click of his polished shoes against the floor making you wonder just how far your suspension of disbelief could stretch. “What I do find curious is why you, my supposed significant other, have yet to summon me.”

Your jaw dropped. “First of all, you’re the hardest character in the game to pull for. Do you have any idea how low the pull rates are? Second, I don’t have enough jades!”

Aventurine chuckled, perching himself on the armrest of the couch beside you. “Darling, do you honestly think I’d let a little thing like odds stand between us?” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a sleek, gold-accented wallet. “Allow me to... invest in our reunion.”

Your eyes widened as he handed you what could only be described as a literal mountain of jades. The shimmering gems appeared in a neat pile on your phone screen as if by magic.

“Where did you even get those?” you asked, utterly baffled.

“Do you really want to know?” he teased, leaning closer until his face was just inches from yours. “Let’s just say, being one of the Ten Stonehearts comes with its perks.”

You stared at the screen, the obscene number of jades practically begging to be spent. “This... this is too much. I can’t just—”

“Of course, you can,” he interrupted smoothly, his gloved hand gently tilting your chin so you were forced to meet his gaze. “Consider it an investment in my ego. After all, how could I possibly allow anyone else to steal your attention?”

You hesitated for a moment longer before sighing. “Fine. But if I don’t get you in the first ten pulls, I’m blaming you.”

“Blame me all you like, darling,” he replied with a wink. “I’ve always had a penchant for high-stakes gambles.”

With a resigned smile, you hit the summon button, the familiar animation spinning across your screen. The first few pulls were a flurry of three-star items and a character you already had, but then—

Gold.

The distinctive glow of a five-star pull lit up the room, and there he was, sitting on his red velvety sofa, looking smug on your screen.

“Well, well,” Aventurine said, his voice full of mock surprise. “It seems fate has finally smiled upon you.”

You turned to him with an incredulous laugh. “You bought fate! This isn’t even fair!”

“Fairness is for those who can’t manipulate the odds,” he said with a smirk, pulling you into a playful embrace. “Now, don’t you think it’s time to show your gratitude? Perhaps dinner, on me?”

You couldn’t help but laugh, leaning into his warmth. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

“Unbelievably charming, intelligent, and generous,” he agreed, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “Now, shall we celebrate your victory—and my unparalleled generosity?”

As absurd as the situation was, you found yourself smiling. After all, not everyone could say their fictional crush had crossed dimensions just to spoil them with virtual currency. With Aventurine, life was always a gamble—but it was one you’d happily take every time.

[theshiftingfairy]

Games to use for face claim + designing dr houses, waiting room, etc

Life Simulation are great to well…simulate your dr and offer visuals for your shifiting script. I did a post like this in the past, it was one of my very first one, so I thought I would update it.

-Inzoi

I just tried it and it’s kind of what prompted this post. it’s great, more on the hyper realistic side, except the eyebrows colour on the female character wouldn’t change colour in my game but for the male model, it was working fine ? I have no idea how it works, but this is just a demo, not the final game. For some reason I couldn’t change the features on the child model either, I tried to do my younger siblings and nothing was moving.

The different life stages are here (no teens and no toddlers though but there are three adult life stages) and i thought the elderly looked really great. I definitely encourage you to try while the demo is on. You can see below my attempt at my dr Dad and grandma (I did try to do me, but the dark eyebrows are throwing me off, especially because I have close to no eyebrows irl)

The demo is just the character creation but I think the build mode for apartment and house might just dethrone the sims 4 for me. Although i love making fantasy houses with the sims so maybe not.

But I saw a video about the build mode and apparently you will have the ability to scan in 3D objects in your house and put them in the game, which sounds absolutely crazy !

I will also just mention paralives here, who looks interesting especially the building mode, but it’s not out yet when I’m writing this.

- the sims 4

As long as you are ok with the cartoonish style, I think it’s still a good option. Especially since mods exist and there is a way to make your sims look hyper realistic with them. Normally I don’t like alpha ccs personally , but If the goal is to make a face claim/ body claim and you don’t care your sim looks off with the rest of the game, why not?

I love building in the sims 4, i didn’t build anything in a while though. I always recommend downloading the base game since it’s free and download cc, there are tons of good one. The expansion packs are so expensive and often not worth the full price imo, especially if you’re like me and not really interested in playing in life mode.

I do think it’s a fun way to channel your dr though, by seeing how your dr sims interact with each other ( I did it for a little bit, got a lot of unexpected things happening)

- Life Makeover

The game is free, as long as you’re not weak with gacha games. I don’t spend too much, because I feel like there is enough possibilities with the outfits you gain by playing, so I’m fine not finishing limited sets. The last mermaid set was a close one, ngl but the universe heard my prayers and I got the mermaid tail with the gems I already had, so I’m not paying to pull more.

Anyway, the character creation is the best one I know. The style is in between realism and cartoony. My profile picture is made with that game. Bigger, animated like eyes look better on the character in my opinion, but I definitely saw very realistic looking characters made by people more talented than me lol. It’s one of the only game I own where I can make myself pointy elf ears and it’s very important to me lol.

Only down side for face claim is there is no male model. Then again, there is always way to work around it by making the character look more androgynous (kind of unrelated but I think there would be a market for male dress up games, they should think about it)

The big plus though is to get inspiration for your dr wardrobe ! I might have spent a whole day screenshotting my favourites piece of clothes + styling some outfits to put into my script 😂

I think it’s especially great for idol / K-pop or even celebrity dr with the style of the outfits, there is also things that would work for a fantasy/royalty dr.

Since I am talking about my addiction for dress up games once again, for fantasy outfits I also use Shining Nikki, but it doesn’t have a character creation which is why it’s not officially on this list.

Life makeover on the right, Shining Nikki on the left

Surprisingly, there is also a house building mode, which looks really great imo but definitely more limited than the sims (doing cool roofing is a nightmare in this game because the roof doesn’t disappear inside a room like it does in the sims 🥲) . Here is one of my waiting room as an exemple, my mermaid retreat:

- Baldur gates

Now, I’m starting with games I haven’t tried yet. Baldur gates is on my list but I’m waiting to have money to spend for it, and to have time to spend hours obsessing over a new game, which I don’t really have either right now 😂

The character creator looks incredible for fantasy drs. This is the kind of game where you spend a whole day in the character creator before you actually play.

literally any fantasy races you could think of is there, I think there are mods that add more too. I love how versatile it looks, there are a lot of skin tones, horns, lizards guys (I’m not familiar with dnd races, I’m sorry) I saw wings too but that might have been mod

- Once human

I found about this game in this post from @elizabethhearts-shifts : https://www.tumblr.com/elizabethhearts-shifts/758372410780221440/once-human-for-face-claims-hey-shifters-i

I don’t have a computer, don’t have the money for the kind I would need, the steam deck was a much more affordable option for my games, but unfortunately the steam deck doesn’t take in charge this particular game, I don’t really know why, it wouldn’t even let me try to download it anyway, like I had to do with Inzoi.

In any case, you can see the face claim of Elizabeth on her post, and it looks incredible so I still wanted to include it in the list ^^

I realise this is a post for the gamer shifters x)

Personally, Pinterest is not enough for me. I think it’s my autistic brain but I need to have a clear idea of the space I live in my drs, and find that having a 3D representation of the space really helps. When I get into meditation, I then get very real images about my drs in those spaces. Same goes for people, I create a representation and then can get vivid images about them in my head.

So as usual, I hope this helps and inspire,

Happy shifting 🧚🏻‍♀️

[misericordel]

(comes to the toa anniversary munday late with starbucks)

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: leon

Pronouns: he/him or they/them. idrc

Birthday (no year): august 30th!

Where are you from? What is your time zone? i was born in virginia but spent like 90% of my life in the midwest ✌️ i'm central time

How long is your roleplay experience?

i've been roleplaying since i was a kid! i probably have around 10 to 12 years of "roleplay" experience

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole?

i started roleplaying on gaia online before the inflation really hit in the late 2000s (iykyk), and then i moved to deviantart took a break from that and now i'm here!

How were you introduced to TOA?

found it on twitter through a moot i think. the details are foggy at this point LOL

Do you have any pets?

yesss my two beloved chichis beethoven (bae for short) and skippy. yall may have seen em in the server but they're my babies and i spoil them so much. i've had them for around 7 — 8 years and my family adopted them from owners who neglected them a lot.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period)

late spring early summer you will always be my it girl

What is your IRL occupation?

i have a fancy title for it but for simplicity sakes i'm a university receptionist

Some interests and things you like/enjoy?

hmmm main interests are probably fire emblem, j-pop and vsynths/vocaloid/pjsekai (spongebob holding his hands out meme) I WAS A VOCALOID FAN STARTING IN THE LATE/MID 2000S

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play?

other than fire emblem i play a lot of jrpgs. i've been really into balatro and fields of mistria lately! (ooo you want to buy fields of mistria so bad) also project sekai as mentioned above. gacha is a curse though

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon:

i've always liked most psychic and dark types. my favorite pokemon is blaziken bc of nostalgia haha

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself!

much of my time spent writing here in toa is on company time bc i just happen to have access to a computer my entire work shift and it's generally quiet enough to do so

How did you get into Fire Emblem?

like a lot of people i first saw fire emblem in smash bros, then later on i think a year or two after awakening released i saw it on the shelves at my local gamestop and bought it because i recognized the namesake. of course i fell in love with fire emblem from that point haha (i have 100+ hours in awakening. lol )

What Fire Emblem games have you played?

i've watched playthroughs of a lot of em. for properly played though genealogy, blazing blade, sacred stones(never finished), awakening, fates conquest (never finished), three houses (golden deer + never finished blue lions), and engage!

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games:

first: awakening

favorite: genuinely a tie between engage and genealogy

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series!

veyle, sigurd, edain, caeda, tie between timerra and eldigan (yeah sigurd was actually beaten out by veyle. crazy times we live in.)

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason!

the very first one was cherche from awakening! very much was attracted to her weirdo onee-san vibes when i first played, and every playthrough after i would always put in extra effort to make her really good in my army haha

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳

y'all already know i go fucking rabid for sigurd von chalphy

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: chrom (BY CHOICE) - Fates: xander - Three Houses: claude - Engage: alfred bc hes a sweetie pie, though i almost s supported diamant instead

Favorite Fire Emblem class?

mage knight beloved

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable?

villager that needs a lot of extra planning to get anywhere good, or like a merlinus merchant type haha

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran)

golden deer hehe

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent?

all banes. all of them. every single one. if you manage to reclass me they all go to neutral instead

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon)

firene bc i'm just a little guy. i'd die at port florra though.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?)

toe-uh. always have and always will

Current TOA muses:

veyle. feels weird to be a single muser.

Past TOA muses?

lesse iin order from my very best knowledge : sigurd -> cherche -> edain -> arthur (fe4) -> caeda -> askr -> timerra -> here i am now. that's probably a little worbled of a timeline though

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again?

my first toa muse was sigurd! i certainly have been weighing in my hand if i want to pick him up again recently

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?)

i gravitate to any character who suffers from the empathy disease i think if i were to give an answer that were all encompassing LOL i do like muses that are a little stupid though

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could?

i cant handle the stoic type or the intelligent type. it's a running gag for me at this point that i'd be interested in writing laurent or miriel if i were smart enough to do so

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?)

i love writing anything with/in relation to romance. it's like my bread and butter haha. i think i do conversations between characters best and have always struggled with writing things like fight scenes (though i have improved since i started)

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”?

i'm pretty satisfied with what i've been able to write for veyle here. i do like when i get to write veyle getting angry/fighting back though!

Favorite TOA-related memories?

0 days since our last food discourse

Present or past tense?

present tense! started writing in it and it just kinda stuck with me.

Normal size text, small text, no preference?

small text girlie for lifeee

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 

wouldn't you like to know weather boy

[dxseol]

hello everyone and a very happy opening to district x!! ( *´ ˘ `*)

i'm excited to write with everyone and their lovely muses i've been seeing on dash! i'm luyi (they/them), here with my unfortunately red flag of a guy that i present to you: "kim seol", a 23 year old "humble" tier d enhanced agent with "parents" that manages a "sushi restaurant" (lol).

here is his general profile, under the cut will be a short introduction to get to know seol alongside some plot ideas to kickstart some action! do like this post and i’ll get to your dms eventually, or discord upon request! ✶⋆.˚

Ⅰ. 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ↯

born ahn eunbyul who was raised by parents who viewed him as their most successful mutagen experiment rather than their youngest son. the illegal project was destroyed by a villain group who sought out powerful abilities, taking him in as one of them to make use of his eyes of death perception.

changed identities multiple times in his life while going undercover as a spy or performing assassinations. in this ‘life’, his identity is kim seol, a lazy carefree guy who for some reason, isn’t fired from his job. he’s always drinking or partying and does just enough to not get fired — which would infuriate people.

seol is a fun guy to be around with if you aren’t his coworker. he’s good at talking and knows how to lead conversations, there’s some sort of charisma that draws people in. he wouldn’t say no to a fervent night together too. you just have to deal with his strange attachment to his potted plant that he planted a gps on.

he’s like the snow that falls from the sky, mystifying you with its fragile icy beauty, then melting away when it feels the warmth as if it never existed; that’s who ahn eunbyul is. they always say, winter is the season where life dies.

Ⅱ. 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 ↯

coworkers – it’s either your muse wants to help him out out of the goodness in their heart, seeing how pathetic he is or noticing the potential that he does not want to utilise. or not. your muse gets annoyed by him and wants him fired. but hey, at least he lightens up the mood (even if the situation doesn’t needs it!).

a drink or two – they met at bars, parties, whatever social event it can be! seol can be pretty popular at such places. though, his reputation can be either good or bad. consider it a gacha to find out which one your muse will get! he would approach your muse and they could hit it off. he can be flirty and shower them with sweet nothings, take their hand to enjoy an even longer night together. seol dumps them the next day.

to fill the void – they used each other. in what way? let’s find out!

rivals/enemies – maybe your muse is suspicious of his background, and they want to find out what seol is hiding. or perhaps they noticed his ability seems to be more dangerous than he lets on. or maybe it’s just something petty, who knows?

friends? – detached from relationships he may be, he’ll still appreciate the time they spent together. he could always disappear and throw away his identity, your muse won’t remember him, but ahn eunbyul will always remember.

from the past – your muse had met seol in the past, but they aren’t sure if it was him or not. it’s strange, he’s so familiar yet your muse could never figure it out, and it goes on from there.

unbloomed love – a love that could have been possible, but the next day, he ceased to exist.

“family” – your muse knows who he is and they’re in the same line of work.

brainstorming time! we could figure out something fun, something crazy orrr if you already have a plot in mind. throw it at me and i’ll catch it, let’s plot! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

[rolotouto]

"Jiman no Otouto" translated lines

(Some lines are missing from this video because they aren't included in the in-game voice gallery despite appearing when you have him at Home. I will collect and post them some other time)

When you get him from gacha: This is my own will! I will protect Brother. For that purpose, something like my life is…!

Home lines: The inside of the Ikaruga is too quiet… I have a bad feeling. Brother!

Sayoko was [caught/killed] by FLEIJA, Jeremiah is searching for Nunnally… I’m the only one who can be by Brother’s side… And yet…

Should I do something for Brother…? But even if I do that, won’t he dislike it…? (<-He's probably thinking this when he's alone, after Lelouch told him to leave) No… I want to protect Brother. Even if he hates me for it, I’m the one who knows that I want to!

I don’t want Brother to be in pain. I will protect Brother! This… is my will!

Lines that are unlocked together with Trust levels: Brother hates me. He merely used me to get Nunnally back… When Brother said I’m an imposter, he wasn’t lying. Yes… I can tell. When it comes to brother. Anything. (<-In case there was any doubt that he did lie to Lelouch when telling him he knew he was lying. He definitely knew Lelouch wasn’t lying… 😢) I was a tool. Just a being to be used by someone. But if someone like that (lit. “such me”) could turn human, it was thanks to Brother. During the time I spent with Brother, Brother truly looked at me. That time at least is real! At last, even the life of someone like me has found a meaning! … That’s right. For Brother, who was the first to treat me like a human, I will use this life! (<-No, Rolo, your evil brother HAD promised you a happy, normal life which was going to be better than having to kill yourself… But it doesn’t even occur to Rolo to lament or resent that he didn’t get that… like he never really was hopeful that he could deserve such a thing… 😭)

Battle lines: Because this is… my own will! I will protect Brother. If it’s for Brother’s sake… I’m going out. (<- into the battlefield) Not yet! If there’s anything I can do… … I don’t care about my life! (<-this line comes after the previous one, so he's not saying he doesn’t care about his life on its own.) Result S: Complete victory. Not as a tool, this is the result that I have obtained as a human! Result A: Will Brother be happy about this result…? Hehe, Brother would have done better, so he won’t be satisfied, right? My Brother is so incredible, as expected! Result B: Winning alone isn’t enough. I want to better live up to Brother’s expectations!

When his Trust levels go up:

TRUST 1->2) I’m sure the fact that Brother hated me is true. And the fact he thought of me as a tool, too…

TRUST 2->3) Even so, I like Brother. Because being by Brother’s side, I turned human for the first time.

TRUST 3->4) Even if Brother thinks I’m a fake little brother, the memories he gave me are real, so I want to protect him.

TRUST 4->5) Brother… to me is a sibling that I’m proud of and care about!

--- What do you think? I liked the other two previous Rolos' lines better in the sense that these are a bit... too similar to what he already says during the episode? I mean, "I became human" works once, but if he's going to say it 3 times or so, it would have been nice if he was more specific and recalled a moment when Lelouch was kind to him or a memory where he made a new observation. Lost Stories has previously referenced the Illust Dramas, so referencing Turn 19.02 would have worked too.

What I hope for is that now that Rolo has "redeemed himself", he can actually show up a bit more during extra events, and maybe receive another alt? Getting to know how he felt about Lelouch buying clothes for him was so cute and also showed us a side of him we hadn't seen before! I believe Lost Stories is much more successful than Genesic Re;Code and that the app still has years before it closes down, so sooner or later he should be included somewhere again. Euphy got at least one alt during an event which took place after she'd died in the story, so it's not like he can't be used anymore.

[mchi22]

hey u wanna see me rant about an anime gacha game

so i play a mobile game called isekai slow life- youve probably seen ads for it before. its far from perfect, but i really enjoy playing it!

for christmas, they managed to get a collab with miss kobayashi's dragon maid. i used to be SUPER into that show so obviously i was hyped, especially considering they actually included fafnir, my favorite character

so. this is not the first collab event theyve had in the game, but this one is by far the greediest

i know, im playing a gacha game, i should expect as much, but let me explain:

there are 5 characters you can get, and 3 of this 5 are only obtainable through the gacha, with EXTREMELY low pull rates (note also that theres a 30% chance to pull fragments of other, non-exclusive characters. keep this in mind.)

throughout the entire event, we are given 40 vouchers to use on the gacha, for a total of 44 pulls. now, ive played this game for over a year and am very proud of the fact that i havent spent a single dollar on it. but you know what? i thought to myself: well, this is probably the only time the event its going to run, so maybe ill finally give in and buy some more vouchers

in order to get enough vouchers to pull 11 times, id need to pay twenty fucking dollars

and you know what? if i could pay $20 to ensure i could get fafnir, i would bite the bullet and do it. but for a chance???? youre fucking insane

thats not all though. remember i mentioned the fragments that show up in the gacha as well? this mechanic is by no means new to the game, but usually how they work is that in a gacha, there will be a low chance to pull a character, with a slightly higher chance to pull fragments. 100 fragments can be exchanged for the character

but the thing is, this has always also been the case during events! i assume the reason the gacha is instead using fragments of regular characters is mostly to make it harder to get the event characters, but maybe also in order to assist new players who may have just gotten the game because of the events

and no! im not done!!

when you pull from the gacha, you get points that you can then use in a shop. for the event, the shop included artifacts (just another type of item) of the dragon maid characters, which came with a sticker of them which you can use in the chat!

..... but only if you already pulled the character!

that along with the fact that you can only get their character fragments once youve already pulled them is such a punch in the face

(by the way, no other event has been like this. i have stickers of event characters i do not own)

all of this is on top of the fact that the event uses a stamina system to perform tasks, and rewards the player the more stamina they use.

after over a week of this event running, and after spending a frankly obscene amount of in-game currency, i have used 6.618k stamina

yeah to get tohru you need to use 50 fucking thousand

thats all i have to say i guess. a lot of ppl are upset about the event, even players who usually spend money on the game anyway. this paired with the fact that theyre currently running an event almost everybody hates, and a new event that seems to crash after a few minutes for almost everybody.. well the players arent very happy !

ok im done now .thanks 4 reading my insane rambling if you did or it you didnt and u just scrolled down to the bottom. thats fair i wouldnt read this shit either

[otomegamesandme]

Infinity Nikki: First Impressions

Hello, the welcome event for Infinity Nikki is over, and seeing as I played every day since it launched, I thought I'd go over my first impressions. If you're new here, I don't really do full on reviews, this is more an informal post about various aspects of the game. If you aren't new here, welcome to my first non-otome Thoughts Post!

I'm going to be honest, I've only made it to Chapter 4 in the story so far because I keep getting distracted with all the various side quests and all the places to explore. I love all the little things to do, and it makes it feel really relaxing to play with the add on of all these different options we're given. With that in mind, here's some thoughts:

Gameplay:

There's nothing ground breaking in this department, it's a lot of basic things that you see in various games all thrown together into one. I also like that it's simple since the target audience is definitely younger girls, and the simplicity of it helps make it easier to play games if you're newer to the hobby! That said, I know everyone has commented on how the bikes are hard to handle, but I have a very specific pet peeve about jumping and how it sometimes registers when you're doing a double jump. I can't explain it, but there's like this slight delay when you're near a ledge that I notice during certain platforming sections. It's a super minor nit pick, but since there's so much jumping in this game, I feel like I notice it a lot.

Story/Characters:

I'm honestly really vibing with the story and characters so far. Nikki and Momo are super cute and fun, and again, while the story isn't anything ground breaking it feels familiar to a lot of books I used to read as a kid. It makes it almost nostalgic, and in turn it's easy to get in to. Again, I'm only on Chapter 4, but it's been nice coasting along and just seeing more of the world as I go through the story. I also ended up really liking some of the side characters as well (Nonoy is my daughter), and they really add to the atmosphere of the world. When I want to relax, I'm a big fan of simplicity, and this is what this story (and the whole game in general) delivers really well!

I also like the side quests. The way they're done makes the world feel more alive and lived in, which is something I feel like I don't normally experience in these types of game (ie Genshin or others in that vein). The little tidbits about the lore and the people in each area you get through the side quests are a nice touch. And while there are random quests that don't do any of that, I think there's enough that does that breathes more life into the game as a whole. I especially like the extra touch of the journal information for the various Styling Factions. It all just comes together to make everything feel cohesive.

Graphics/Performance:

The world of Infinity Nikki is the best part of the game for me, but that's definitely due to my play style. The entire reason I'm only halfway through the main story despite playing over twenty hours already is because I just want to keep running around and exploring. There are so many little details, even in areas you might not expect there to be, like in the woods. It makes exploring a great time. I do think there's something about certain bodies of water in the game that make the game stutter for me, but the ocean itself is nice to look at.

With that being said, the performance of the game for the first two weeks wasn't great. I kept getting the "Reconnecting" message, to the point where I'd just log off and do something else because it would give that message every few minutes. I think with the recent update its felt a little more stable, but that was my biggest issue with the game: the fact I couldn't connect to play the game.

The Gacha:

I'm going to be honest, I am the least qualified person in the world to talk about this because despite playing various games with gacha elements, I have not spent a dime on any of them. I've always gone into these types of games as a F2P player and I stick to it. I also think it's far too early to tell how bad the gacha is going to be in the long run, since the first few weeks is filled with so many freebies, you don't immediately feel the strain of it.

I would like to think that since it's focused on clothes instead of characters like other gacha games, the average player won't get hit with FOMO quite as bad as other gachas, but that's probably me being idealistic lol

Regardless, my first impressions is it feels on the "average to slightly worse" side of the scale. I'm used to freebie pulls being time limited to the duration of specific events, but the way they do it in Infinity Nikki feels off in a way I can't put my finger on. Maybe people who are more into the gacha can explain why that is, but it is the reason why I'm placing it on the "slightly worse" side of things.

Closing Thoughts:

Honestly, I was left feeling pretty positive about the game! There's definitely a few things here or there that could be better, but I've been having a lot of fun! I also like that there's plenty of free outfits you can earn in game, which I think helps take the pressure off for doing pulls (at least for me).

There's other things I didn't touch on because I just haven't experience it (like how it plays on mobile or the PS5. I play on desktop) so I know I'm missing a lot of the issues performance wise there. But for my experience so far, I've been having a lot of fun!

It's just been really nice playing a game that is so obviously made for girls and to see it doing as well as it is!

[xarrixii]

to those of inquiry,

my introduction

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

hello, fellow traveler of the hellscape that is this website (or app, if you happen to be on your phone using such)

my name is @xarrixii, and i am better known as "arri"

i have a separate blog from this one designed for reblogging other peoples' work. if that's something you're more interested in (my taste in writing), then i suggest you visit @the-arrikive

masterlists a long way under the divider

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

i have come from a land not so far away (planet earth) to share the nonsensical nonsense of my brain (my writing).

i write both longer, novel-like stories and responses to writing prompts when i'm feeling it (feel free to send me one, if you'd like). my brain is random, though, so i can't guarantee i'll get something out right away.

i am irregular. do not expect something like weekly uploads. you get a story when i remember to post one and have one available. i shall not rush the accidentally filled plotholes genius i breed.

sometimes i make edits. i've made a lot of edits recently, like layout/ease of access and also wording on some of the earlier chapters. (already read chapter one of cinder? i changed the beginning because i hated it and i personally would put down the book immediately if i'd found it in the library)

i still hate the first sentence but honestly, the noggin can't think of anything better so we'll cry about it later

also, grammarly hates me because i don't like its grammar rules and i don't capitalize my "i"s when i'm casually speaking. i hate grammarly because some of its suggestions are stupid. i just don't want to turn it back on every time i eventually end up needing it.

less important: i am cisgender. i identify with she/her, but i could really care less (not quite sure that counts as any). i am pansexual. (frying pans don't have enough personality, don't ask about them)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

what i like reading:

i love, love love love love love love love it when a book focuses on its characters. there's nothing wrong with taking in the fantasy world they built for the people to live in, i'm all for that as well. it's just a trend i see that the more a book focuses on following its plot, the less it focuses on the people riding out that plot.

i'm a firm believer in characters "building a plot" based around their actions, even if that means an author built a plot and then designed the perfect character for enacting it.

also, i grew up a gacha kid (gacha studio/life/club). that means i'm familiar with cliches and love it when people throw them on their heel. it's also (unfortunately) made me enjoy love stories less (which makes things difficult since books that focus on characters almost always have some love plot that works out).

i'll read a hero x villain, sure. but sometimes i might think up the ending where they don't love each other (platonic and rival)

ask me any time about what i enjoy reading if i've confused you (it happens a lot).

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

what i like writing:

this one's a lot simpler, i like writing what i like reading. because if i wouldn't read it later, why would anyone else?

due to me being cringe once upon a time, i spent several years writing out roleplays (yes, i was the edgy roblox kid too) with some friends, so anything super long i write for a very long time from now will be my personal adaptation of something that's already existed before

writing prompts are the truest test of my creative abilities, though. making up new characters, a new environment, and a new plot based on the whims of a few sentences from time to time is what keeps my rewrites from being copy-pastes.

that also just keeps it fun for the friends who wrote it with me once and will read it from my fingers typing it again

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

also to note, i'm not afraid of writing about blood, gore, violence, and the like, and i'm also insensitive to what all needs to be tagged, so any help with that goes a long way

most of my writing prompts will be written with non-binary characters

if you find me fucking up pronouns please notify me where i diddled it up thank you!!

so about being a gacha kid

i suck at drawing. the physical descriptions of my characters are laid out in gacha apps, and yes i am mildly embarrassed about it. but putting their designs down somewhere means i have something reliable to refer to while writing.

thou shalt not judge me for it.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

hobbies

writing. i guess a bit obviously. i also still enjoy playing video games and listening to music. i like watching horror games, but can't bring myself to play them. i also make a lot of jokes about violence. i mean a lot. but i know when to take something seriously.

favorite roblox games including: entry point, scp: site roleplay, funky friday, robeats, 3008

i also play genshin impact occasionally, and no i'm not elaborating.

if you couldn't tell by now, i talk too much. moving on:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

masterlists

hey, me! i know you're reading this, because i know you're the most likely suspect for looking for these links all the time.

"Cinder" Masterlist writing prompts

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

looking for more? ask me! send me prompts! FILL MY INBOX!!!

[viastro]

the best surprise | lee chan

ミ★ synopsis: you and chan have been together for the last four years, and he has failed to surprise you on your birthday for each and every one.

ミ★ genre: established relationship!au, fluff, humor

ミ★ warnings: none !

ミ★ word count: 3,128

ミ★ pairings: lee chan x gender neutral reader

ミ★ notes: hi everyone ! it was my birthday two days ago (the 15th), and i wanted to give you guys a little belated birthday gift from me ! i know that’s not how birthdays work, but i thought it’d be a cute thing to do. here’s a cute oneshot of sir lee chan ! make sure to give him lots of love <33 

You and Chan have been together for the last four years. 

The two of you started out as childhood friends, and it was when you both entered high school that you started to develop feelings for each other. You know the typical childhood friends to lovers au? Yeah, that’s you and Chan. Except it wasn’t complicated and there was no heavy angst involved as neither of you were worried that your friendship would be ruined. It was a rather simple process, actually.

“Yn, I have something to tell you.” You glance up from your phone, finding Chan standing before you with a small dandelion bouquet in his hand. Raising an eyebrow, you ask, “Did you pick those from the school yard?”

“...No…”

You and Chan stare at each other for a moment. With you being unconvinced, and Chan internally wondering whether or not he should’ve gotten the flowers from the actual garden. 

“A-Anyways…” Chan continues, shoving the dandelions onto your lap without another word, and you hold back your giggles as you turn off your phone, giving your best friend your full attention. 

Chan looks a bit nervous, something that’s somehow new to you even though you’ve been friends since elementary school. Chan usually oozes confidence, always passionate about whatever he does, so this sight is rather intriguing to you. 

Does that make you a sadist?

… Oh God.

“Do you want to go on a date this Friday?” Chan asks, promptly putting a pause to your thoughts on whether or not you get gratification from someone else's misery. You tilt your head to the side, feeling warmth flood your chest from the precious blush on Chan’s cheeks as he stares at you with hope in his eyes. 

You finally let out a smile after a moment, nodding your head as you respond, “Of course.”

The beautiful smile you’ve become accustomed to finally forms on Chan’s face, making you grin when he pulls you up from the bench, wrapping his arms around you in a warm embrace. You laugh, wrapping your arms around his waist and rubbing his back. 

“You’re so happy, did you think I’d say no?” You ask with a smile on your face, and you feel Chan shake his head, squeezing your frame a bit tighter. 

“No, I had confidence you’d say yes, it’s just nice to hear it in real life.”

“You’re a bit too overconfident.”

“Shush, you said yes. No take backs.”

And after a few dates, you and Chan became official. It’s been four years since then, and now the two of you are in your second year of university. With Chan being on the dance team, and you excelling in the Art department. The two of you are a rather talented couple, if you do say so yourself.

However, if there’s one thing that Chan never really succeeded in, it was surprising you. For the past four years, Chan has tried and tried to surprise you on your birthday. He would always buy a gift and think, this is it. this can’t fail. this will be the gift to surprise yn.

He was wrong each time.

Whether it be that you stumbled upon the hiding spot of your gift, you barging into his room to find him wrapping your present, or running into him at the mall with your gift in his hand.

Chan never wins.

However, he is determined that this year will be the year as it won’t be a physical gift that he’s planning to surprise you with. He will surprise you with people! A goddamn surprise party! 

Nothing can go wrong!

“Everything is going wrong!” Chan cries out, slamming his forehead down onto the café table. 

Seungkwan and Vernon exchange concerned glances with each other, trying to figure out how to comfort the youngest that will now, most likely, get a migraine. Seungkwan points towards Chan, and Vernon shrugs his shoulders, pointing towards the youngest as a way to get Seungkwan to initiate the conversation instead. To which the blonde only shoots a death glare towards Vernon, and the latter lets out a sigh, reaching out and resting a hand on Chan’s shoulder.

“Chan, everything is not going wrong.” Vernon says as an attempt to comfort him, but Chan only lets out a loud sob that gains the attention of a few passerbys. Seungkwan’s eyes widen, turning towards the few concerned fellow customers and waving his hands towards them, “He’s okay, don’t worry-”

“I’m not okay- OW!” Seungkwan kicks Chan’s ankle underneath the table, making the youngest let out a yelp of pain. The blonde sends those near the table a smile, and they simply turn away from the trio, more afraid than concerned at this point. 

Seungkwan lets out a sigh, before glancing back at Chan to see the youngest lift up his head, tear tracks evident on his cheeks. Vernon holds back a laugh, instead grabbing the rough café napkins and blotting away the tears on Chan’s face. 

“Why do you think everything is going wrong, Chan?” Seungkwan asks, and Chan sniffles, dramatically looking out the café window as he’s reminded of what occurred earlier. “Well basically,”

“You’re out… of balloons…” Chan says in a state of disbelief. The employee in front of him nods their head with a pitiful smile, “Yeah, so sorry about that.” 

Chan runs a hand through his hair in frustration, not having enough time for this before pointing towards the name of the store that’s in bold purple letters.

“The name of your store is Seongyeom’s Balloons!”

Seungkwan and Vernon both stare at Chan with frowns on their faces, and Chan raises his hands up in the air in exasperation. “That’s the same exact reaction I had!”

“How the fuck does a balloon store run out of balloons…” 

“That’s what I’m saying!” 

“I think we should acknowledge the fact that just because Seongyeom’s Balloons ran out of… balloons… doesn’t mean everything is going wrong. We can just go to a party shop or something, or even a convenience store! It’s fine, Chan. Don’t worry.” Vernon interrupts, and Chan bites the inside of his cheek, nodding his head in agreement. 

“Okay, you have a point. I’m just so stressed about making sure the surprise party works. I haven’t been able to surprise yn for the last four years, and I really want to surprise them this time.” Chan says, and the two nod their heads, already knowing of Chan’s previous failures. Vernon reaches out and pats Chan’s black hair, giving him a reassuring grin. 

“We know, and you will surprise yn. The two of us will be here to help you, as well as the rest of the guys! There’s twelve of us out here trying to help you, so don’t stress too much.” Chan glances at Seungkwan, finding him nodding his head along with Vernon’s words. The black haired beauty finally lets out a smile, feeling a bit more confident that this will be the best surprise ever.

“Can you pass me the chocolate chips, Chan?” You ask as you stir the cookie dough, reaching out with your free hand so that he can just place the bag onto it. You raise an eyebrow after a moment when you realize there’s still no chocolate chips in your hand, and you turn your head to find him engrossed in his phone. 

“Channie.” You call, just to let out a quiet laugh when Chan continues to type into the cool metal. You reach out with your foot and nudge his ankle, finally gaining the attention of your boyfriend when he looks up at you with soft eyes. 

“Yes?” Grinning, you motion towards the bag of chocolate chips beside him. 

“I asked you to hand me the chocolate chips like two minutes ago, but you were so busy on your phone.” You say, watching as Chan’s eyes slowly widen. He quickly pockets his phone and grabs the chocolate chips, stepping over and handing them to you. 

“Thank you, Chan.” You say in a sweet voice, turning back towards the dough, and Chan feels his heart melt when he takes notice of the bit of cookie dough resting on the corner of your lips from when you were stealing bits and pieces of it. 

“Yn.” You glance back towards your boyfriend, wondering what he needs. 

“Mm?” Chan doesn’t answer, instead leaning in and pressing a kiss to the corner of your lips. Your eyes widen slightly, warmth flooding your face from the sweet action when he pulls away. The black haired beauty gives you a smile, “You had cookie dough there.” 

Your mouth opens slightly as you let out an, ah, nodding your head as a shy smile breaks out over your features. Chan grins, going to your side and leaning against the counter as he takes over folding the chocolate chips into the cookie dough.

You watch as Chan does the tedious task for you, and you let out a laugh when he sneaks a chocolate chip into his mouth rather inconspicuously. He grins at the sound, turning towards you to try and act innocent, and you just shake your head at him. 

“Why were you so distracted with your phone earlier? Did you finally download Genshin?” You ask, propping yourself up onto the counter as you watch your boyfriend form balls of cookie dough to place onto the baking sheet. Chan freezes slightly from the question, before easily going back into what he was doing without you noticing. He turns and shoots you a look, “No. I’ve seen what Genshin’s done to you. You spent almost 100 dollars trying to get Xiao when he came out.” 

You purse your lips, letting out a quiet grumble when you can’t think of a way to respond to your poor spending decisions. Chan simply grins at that, turning back and placing the cookie dough onto the baking sheet. 

“Can’t believe you almost spent that much money on a gacha game-”

“At least I got him!” Chan lets out a laugh, and you burst into giggles as well when the two of you begin talking about your Genshin addiction while making cookies.

Chan sneaks a peek at you, grinning when he sees how passionate you look as you explain your love for Genshin. He’s only so grateful that he was able to steer your attention away from the previous question. As he was actually texting the groupchat the game plan for Friday evening, your 20th birthday.

Internally, Chan is screaming.

Externally, he looks like the epitome of calm, minus the drop of sweat that is currently going down his neck. 

Chan swings your intertwined hands back and forth as the two of you walk towards the elevators of your guys’ apartment building. You’re both heading home after the date you went on to celebrate your birthday. Or so, that’s what you think. In reality, it was a way to get you both out of the apartment so that the gang could decorate and prepare for your surprise party.

In which the surprise aspect will occur in about one minute.

“We should’ve gotten a slice of cake from that one bakery we like!” You exclaim once the two of you are standing in front of the door to your guys’ apartment, turning to look at your boyfriend, just to find him smiling at you. He squeezes your hand, “It’s okay. We can go tomorrow.”

You smile and nod your head, letting go of Chan’s hand so that you can unlock the door to the apartment. Chan anxiously stands beside you, watching as you open the door and step inside, finding the shared space to be borderline pitch black.

“What happened to the potato light I left on?” You mutter to yourself, only to let out a scream and jump backwards into Chan’s arms when the lights suddenly turn on and a chorus of voices shout out the word, 

“SURPRISE!”

Chan laughs at your reaction after the confetti gets thrown into the air in front of you both, peeking his head around to see your eyes wide and mouth dropped open as you stare at each person in your friend group. You point towards the balloons and the disco ball hanging up on the ceiling in shock, before your face morphs into a bright smile.

“You guys!” You whine, making Seungkwan and Vernon laugh when you raise your hands to your warm cheeks, feeling slightly embarrassed by your reaction. Chan grins, letting go of your waist and stepping in front of you to get a good look at the expression on your face.

“Did it work? Did I surprise you?” Chan asks with a hopeful smile, and you pout, nodding your head as warmth floods your chest. Your boyfriend turns towards the group, before he throws his arms up into the air in victory.

“WE WON!” 

“CHAN FIRST WIN!” Soonyoung yells, and all the guys come huddling towards you and Chan. A chorus of happy birthday yn!, and chan! you did it!, echo around the small apartment along with the sounds of laughter. 

“Let’s celebrate with some food!” Jeonghan shouts from the kitchen table, causing the thirteen of you to glance over at the wide arrangement of delicacies sitting on the wooden surface. Your mouth drops open, and you quickly grab Chan’s hand, shuffling over to the table without another word. The guys laugh and follow after you, finally being able to dig into the food that they’ve been waiting to eat. 

You peacefully eat the cake as you watch Chan and Mingyu battle it out on the switch, currently in an intense round of Just Dance. You let out a grin when Mingyu shoves your boyfriend, taking another bite of cake as you listen to Chan yell, 

“Foul! FOUL!!”

“Alright, how’d you know?” You turn your head to see Seungkwan standing beside you with a knowing grin on his face, and you bite the inside of your cheek to hold back a smile, “Know what?” 

Seungkwan rolls his eyes, nudging you with his shoulder as he takes a sip of water, and you let out a giggle. You glance over at Chan, smiling at how precious of a boyfriend he is for trying to do all this just for you. 

“Well, I found out around a couple weeks ago when I went to go and buy tea.” 

“I’ll have a honey green tea please.” You order with a smile, taking out your card to tap it onto the card reader in order to pay.

“Everything is going wrong!” A confused expression makes its way onto your face at the familiar voice, and you turn your head just in time to see a head of black hair slam onto the wooden table. You bite back a laugh, wondering what’s ruined Chan’s mood this time. 

After getting your receipt, you walk over to the other side of the bar to wait for your drink, now closer to Chan’s table as you recognize Vernon and Seungkwan sitting beside him. You tilt your head as you wonder why your boyfriend was crying, watching as Seungkwan just stares at Chan in confusion.

“I think we should acknowledge the fact that just because Seongyeom’s Balloons ran out of… balloons… doesn’t mean everything is going wrong. We can just go to a party shop or something, or even a convenience store! It’s fine, Chan. Don’t worry.” You hear Vernon say, and you raise an eyebrow because first of all,

How does a balloon shop run out of balloons ?!?

And second of all,

Why does Chan need balloons?

“Okay, you have a point. I’m just so stressed about making sure the surprise party works. I haven’t been able to surprise yn for the last four years, and I really want to surprise them this time.” Your mouth drops open when your second question gets answered, and you immediately turn away once you hear your order number get called. Quickly, you walk over to grab the beverage, thanking the barista and stepping out of the café so that you don’t get noticed. 

“And that’s how I found out about the surprise party. In all honesty, I think there’s a God that just doesn’t want Chan to be successful in surprising me.” You explain, turning to gauge Seungkwan’s reaction. The blonde only lets out an unsurprised sigh, shaking his head as he glances over at Chan. 

“You gonna tell him that you knew?” Seungkwan asks when Chan and Mingyu finally finish the dance, and you watch as Chan jumps up and down in celebration. You smile softly, shaking your head, no, “He’s been trying to surprise me for the last four years, I think I should let him have this.” 

“Yn! I won!” Chan shouts out to you once you answer Seungkwan’s question, and the two of you glance over at the black haired beauty, letting out a laugh at the sweat beads dripping down his forehead. 

“How are you so sweaty from a Just Dance game?!” Seungkwan asks, and Chan shrugs his shoulders, grabbing a napkin and blotting his face. 

“Don’t underestimate the power of Just Dance 4!” Mingyu answers back, pointing at the blonde with a serious expression on his face. Seungkwan scoffs, patting your shoulder as a means to tell you that he’s leaving the conversation. You nod your head with a chuckle, watching as Seungkwan walks over to initiate a dance battle with Mingyu. 

You move to take another bite of cake, only to pause when you see Chan standing before you, mouth open as he waits for you to feed him strawberry cake. Rolling your eyes with a smile, you place the cake into his mouth, and he bites it, letting out a noise of content. 

“You can get your own cake over there, ya know.” You say as Chan steps beside you to lean against the wall, and he scoffs. “I prepared this surprise party for you and you don’t wanna share your slice of cake? How rude.” 

You nudge his shoulder, and Chan lets out a laugh reaching out and wrapping his arms around you from behind, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Are you having fun?” 

You nod your head with a smile, looking around the room at all your loved ones. Chan sees the warmth in your gaze as your eyes wander, and he finds himself smiling at the sight. He presses a kiss to your cheek, proud of himself. 

“I’m glad I was able to surprise you this time.” 

Holding back the laugh that threatens to escape, you lean your head back onto Chan, letting out a happy sigh instead as you press a kiss to Chan’s cheek in return.

“I’m glad you were able to surprise me too.” 

[akampana]

I don't know how much of a ship it could be, but... What about Ruler Artoria or Lancer Alter Artoria with Gil? I know you said that regular Gil would probably dislike Saber Alter because she lost everything that made her unique in his eyes, but i wonder now how would both him and CasGil react to these drastically different versions of her.

Hello, Anon! Thank you for the ask. I spent a lot of time on this one, sorry for the wait!

Right, I’m going to preface this by saying FGO is a recent thing for me and I’m F2P, so I don’t actually even have Cas Gil or any other Arturia save for the OG. But as I love any version of these two way too much, I’ve obsessively gleaned whatever extra info I can from wherever I can with as much fervor as I apply to praying to the gacha, so I hope I can still provide some insight or at least give you a good read. :)

I’m gonna answer this in a slightly different format since we’re talking about opinions here. Lot’s of HCs included, since I wanted to illustrate better how their specific dynamics would go. See below:

Ruler Arturia x Gil : AN EXPENSIVE GOLDEN RIVALRY

Ruler Arturia is a casino owner and specifically a cards dealer. We also know thanks to Artoria’s material that despite not being the luckiest person alive, she has a talent for gambling. 

Regardless of the bet, the casino is usually at an advantage to win, which is what makes each game a gamble. And with our talented bunny dealer handling the cards, you can bet haha  the casino would earn a hell of a bunch. 

Enter Gilgamesh, with a ridiculously high rank of luck and LITERALLY ALL THE MONEY IN THE UNIVERSE 

Now this puts them both in a unique position because:

Arturia as a casino owner would want to glean everything she can out of that treasury

Gilgamesh is nigh impossible to trounce

What does that make for? The highest stakes round of blackjack that the world has ever seen. 

Funny thing is, Gil probably isn’t even playing to win. He’s so rich that any loss is immaterial. 

If anything, he’s staying for the challenge, and of course, the entertaining dealer.

Ruler Arturia is formatted after Lartoria’s attitude, though, so rather than sparks flying across the table, their battles would be quiet and consist of a lot of poker faces and piercing eyes. 

As Gilgamesh is technically a guest, it is not out of the question for them to share a few cocktails. 

He likes the bunny suit. He just doesn’t say so. 

Eventually, it comes to the point where he bets an irrefusable amount in exchange for a night with her. And boom, she loses, and gets treated to dinner. All in all, not such a loss. Especially since she finds that the amount he’d bet last night makes it into an expensive briefcase left in front of her casino the next morning. 

Ruler Arturia x CasGil

CasGil, I think would have the same interest, but rather than the kind of competitive rivalry Archer Gil brings to the table, he gets Ruler’s attention a different way:

He doesn’t lose. He just doesn’t.

Caster doesn’t even raise the stakes, nor does he bet such thriftless amounts like Archer Gil does, he just wins and wins and wins over a course of a few days, and Ruler eventually has to investigate why one of her tables consistently loses more than it gains

Lo and behold: it’s the King of Heroes, nonchalantly sipping on a cocktail waiting for her to arrive. 

Arturia offers to play against him, and they calmly proceed for enough rounds until he finally loses for the first time. 

Except when she checks his hand, she discovers he could have won again. 

Still possessing a knight’s honor, she tries to refund him, but he won’t take the money. He’d only take a date. 

The next day, they’re sharing her parasol, strolling on the beach with drinks in hand. She swears she’ll beat him for real next time. 

Oooh how I love older more mature Gilart. HNNNNNNNNGGG

Lancer Alter x Gilgamesh in General

There’s a lot of complexity when it comes to “Alter” Servants which I am still trying to grasp because not every Alter-ation is the same as I’m sure you know. 

Lancer Alter isn’t even Evil like Saber Alter is, she’s just more of a realist and in the eyes of her people, more of a tyrant. In fact, I think she’s closer to the essence of what a Lancer Arturia would be, and maybe she would have been the Lartoria we got had the Lion King not been conceptualized yet. But like other non-lancer Arturias she shoulders the same burden of a king. 

It’s on this basis that I say that Archer Gil also might not be attracted to Lancer Alter initially, because part of what he likes about Artoria is her idealism. He finds her idealism foolish sure, because he wouldn’t rule that way, but that’s also what fascinates him. 

Caster Gil, I believe, would have the better chance, because he’s already lived through and moved past the period in his life where he was a ruthless, feared tyrant, and he can therefore understand Lancer Alter’s mentality more than Archer Gil ever could. 

But whether or not Casgil and Lancer Alter Arturia ever end up together, entirely depends on CasGil’s interest, because he’ll be facing someone who is rather like his younger self. But a little more self-deprecating. Better feed her some junk food.

Thank you for the ask! It makes me happy to have stuff in my inbox. Hope I provided a good read for you at least. :) 

[butlerbarb]

Sweets (Leviathan x Reader)

i suppose i should start this blog off with the first fic i posted on ao3!

Staring at yourself in the mirror as you fiddled with your uniform, you sighed. It just didn’t fit right! Diavolo had said he found the one that matched your human world size the closest, but apparently demons and humans were different in more ways than you thought. With another tug at the chest area, you groaned, deeming it good enough for now. You’d get Asmodeus to fix it later.

Exiting your bathroom, you grabbed your D.D.D just as it buzzed to life with a text. Catching Leviathan’s name on screen, you smiled and unlocked your device. Taking a quick look at the text Mammon had sent you – something along the lines of wanting you to skip with him again – before you opened Levi’s.

Leviathan: Gud morning. Are you going to RAD today?

[Y/N]: …I HAVE to go.

Leviathan: Why do you have to go? You’d have a better time skipping school and playing games with me all day.

You rolled your eyes. Really, what was it with these demons and wanting you to skip school? It was everyday that at least one of the more troublesome brothers asked you to skip and do something else with them. Even if some days you wanted to skip, you knew Lucifer would have you hide if he did, so you tended to avoid any of their persuasion.

[Y/N]: I AM a student, after all.

Hitting send on the text, you clicked your phone off and shoved it into your pocket. Pulling the door to your room open, you were immediately greeted by Mammon, fist already raised into the air to knock on your door. His eyes went wide, and he laughed, his hand falling and landing on his hips in typical Mammon fashion. His shocked expression quickly morphed into a grin that oozed confidence, again, typical Mammon fashion.

“Are you psychic now, Human? Or were you just that excited to see the GREAT Mammon, that you came rushing out of your room?” Mammon spoke, as cheerful and loud as ever. You stared at him, shaking your head at his overflowing confidence, he was very annoyingly cute.

“Yes, Mammon, I was just SO excited to see you this morning I came rushing out of my room as soon as I heard your footsteps.” You spoke sarcastically, hoping Mammon would catch it. He didn’t. Instead, your words only seemed to inflate his ego more. You watched in disbelief as his grin grew wider and a small blush dusted his cheeks.

“Ha-ha! Of course, ya’d be excited to see me! I am the GREAT Mammon, after all!” He boasted again, leaning down slightly towards you. You laughed, rolling your eyes again and reaching a hand towards his waiting head. You gave his hair a ruffle, bushing a part of it out of his eyes.

“Yes, yes of course, you are very great, Mammon. Now let’s go to breakfast please, I’m starving.” Mammon let out a quiet, happy cheer at your praise, refusing to pull away from your hand until you pushed him away. He took off down the hall, leaving you to walk by yourself, to which you wonder what the point of him coming to your room was anyway. With a shake of your head, you pulled your phone out of your pocket as it buzzed again.

Leviathan: OOH, GOODY 2 SHOES OVER HERE

You snorted at the text, getting read to type a reply when another two texts popped in from Leviathan.

Leviathan: Well, go on and go if you’re gonna go. Come back home quickly tho. Leviathan: I can’t do any of the co-op dungeons by myself, you know.

You laughed, smiling to yourself as you walked down the stairs to the first floor. You had forgotten that Leviathan had made you play on of his PC games with you the other day, claiming that it wasn’t cause he liked you, he just need someone to do the two player dungeons with and you were the most reasonable choice. He was cute.

[Y/N]: Roger, boss! <3

You watched in amusement as he read the text immediately and the three dots popped up, disappeared, popped up a second time and then disappeared again. Leviathan never ended up replying, much to your amusement, making you think he simply went into emotional overdrive and shut down. He was really cute.

You pocketed your phone right as you stepped into the dining room. Claiming the seat in between Mammon and Beelzebub, you greeted everyone at the table and began piling some food onto your plate. Beelzebub always made comments about how little you ate – although everyone ate very little compared to him – not realized that you couldn’t eat most of the stuff demons ate. Monkey brains, spider legs, you swore you caught Satan downing a vial of poison before. Demons ate things you were sure would kill you in the most painful way possible.

After breakfast, Mammon and Beelzebub accompanied you to your class – Mammon unwillingly, of course – and you spent most of the morning trying to get both brothers to focus on their work instead of slacking off. You felt your phone buzz a few times, but you made sure not to make a habit of checking your phone in class, you didn’t want your teachers, and subsequently Lucifer, getting mad at you.

Around lunchtime was when you finally pulled out your phone at Mammon’s insistence. He demanded you check out this new game he had playing, claiming you would like it as well. You noted that you had a few texts from some demon friends the brothers said would be okay for you to talk to, most just asking if you were busy after school, wanting to hang out. You would have, had you not had plans with Leviathan. Texting them back, telling them you were busy, you then proceeded to the app store to download the game Mammon wanted you to.

You opened it up, both Mammon and Beelzebub now leaning over your shoulder to watch you play. It was a rhythm game focusing on cute, demon idol girls. It also contained gacha elements, so you knew this was just another game Mammon would blow all his money on until he got bored. It was fun, and you had no trouble picking up how to play, having fallen victim to plenty of rhythm games back in the human world.

Mammon complained as you easily S-ranked even the hardest difficulties, claiming he was only able to do up to normal, hard on some songs. Beelzebub laughed at him, claiming he just didn’t have any rhythm himself, which of course, set Mammon off on a tyrant. You ignored Mammon’s insistent yelling, tuning both brothers out as you focused on a particularly difficult song. You tuned them back in once you were finished, only to watch as Beelzebub full-combo-ed an especially difficult song on max difficulty. You high-fived the younger brother, laughing as Mammon complained in the background.

Turning back to your phone, you caught a glimpse of a notification banner sliding off-screen. Closing the rhythm game, you opened your messages, seeing Leviathan’s name at the top. Seeing as he completely ignored your last message made you chuckle.

Leviathan: What’s uuuup? Ur still at RAD, rite? Could you hit up Lament and get some Bufo Egg Milk Tea for me on your way home?

Smirking to yourself, you typed out your reply:

[Y/N]: My services do not go free of charge

You could feel Levi rolling his eyes at you as he typed his response. Once Levi had started warming up to you after making a pact with him, you realized he enjoyed it when you gave him playful responses and teased him lightly. He was always annoyed when his brothers did it, but for some reason played along when it was you.

Leviathan: FINE, be that way [Y/N], I’ll give you some cash so you can get something for yourself, too. I’m still gonna ask you to pay me back tho lol. Thanks in advance 👍

[Y/N]: Aw, you’re the best Levi! I’ll be home in a little, you better have snacks ready :3

After your conversation with Levi, the bell rang for the end of lunch. You headed back to your classroom with both brothers in tow, happily anticipating the end of the day. Your last classes were fairly laid back, meaning time passed by in a blur. Once you and everyone else were released, you insisted Mammon and Beelzebub take you to Lament, knowing you’d probably get lost on your own. You made the trip as quick as possible, knowing if you stayed there for any longer than necessary Beelzebub would try to order everything in the café. You got what Levi wanted, and a snack and drink for yourself with the money he sent you. Mammon demanded you buy him something as well and pouted when you told him you only had the money Levi lent you.

After waiting for an extra 15 minutes so Beelzebub could get his absolutely massive order, the three of you headed back to the House of Lamentation. You quickly ditched the second- and sixth-born brothers in favour of the third-born. You knocked on his door gingerly, entering quickly after you recited the secret password. Leviathan was reclined on his bed, phone in hand as he gazed up at you. He held his hand out expectantly, and you took the hint to hand him his drink. He shifted over slightly in the bed, allowing you room to scooch in beside him.

“What’d you get?” He asked, gesturing to the drink and paper bag you held in your hand. You only shrugged in response; you weren’t really sure what you got yourself. Mammon had pointed out the things that were most “human-friendly,” so you just got that. Explaining that to Levi, he only nodded in response before going back to his phone. You took an experimental sip of your drink, slightly scared about what it would do to you, only to find that it was actually surprisingly good!

You hummed happily as you continued to sip on your drink as Leviathan laughed beside you. Taking the pastry you got out its bag, you started at it in slight horror. It looked… strange to say the least. It was a cupcake that you had thought was adorned with a fondant eyeball and icing. As it turned out, this guess was very, very wrong. The eye seemed to follow you as you moved it around and to your utmost horror, it blinked. Had you not been in Leviathan’s room, you most likely would have thrown it across the room. With a grimace, you held it out to the demon beside you.

“Is this like… safe for me to eat? It feels like it’s gonna attack me if I do…” You spoke quietly, eyeing the cupcake warily. Leviathan laughed at your question, grabbing your wrist to bring the item closer to his face. He sniffed it, before letting go of your hand and shaking his head.

“Nah, I think you’ll be fine, lol. I think it’s chocolate.” He replied, using his pinky finger to swipe a bit of the icing off of it. Bringing it to his mouth, he nodded in confirmation as he licked the sweet icing off his finger.

“Yeah that’s chocolate. The eye won’t hurt you, it’s not actually real.”

“But…”

“No buts! Just eat it or go give it to Beel.”

With a sigh, you hesitantly brought the dessert to your mouth. Taking a small bite out of it, your eyes lit up at the taste. Surprisingly, it was just as good at the drink! You happily took a bigger bite, no longer feeling creeped out by how it was seemingly living, you were free to enjoy how yummy it was.

“See? I told you it was good, normie.” Leviathan laughed, his hand reaching out to pick off a piece of the actually cake for himself. He hummed to himself, muttering under his breath about telling the guys on the forums to check this out. You snorted, was all that all he was thinking about? People he only knew through the internet? He was so lame, it was cute.

“What does your drink taste like?” You asked, now suddenly curious of the cup he held in his hand. His eyes widened as you reached out to grab it from him, jerking his arm away from you. You frowned, reaching out further for it, only to have him pull it further away from you. This continued until you were practically on top of him, yet he was still just barely able to hold it out of your reach.

“Levi,” you whined, sprawling yourself on top of him as you tried to reach for his drink. “Let me have a taste!”

“No way! That’d be like, an indirect kiss or something!” He protested. At his words, you practically deadpanned, staring him right in the face. No longer reaching for the drink, you let your hands fall to his chest as you continued staring at him. You watched as very noticeable blush dusted his cheeks a bright red colour, as well as the tips of his ears.

“What? Quit staring at me like that!” He pouted, turning his face away from you in an attempt to cover his quickly darkening blush. You nudged his chin with your hand, forcing his gaze back onto you. You stared down at him until he finally met your eyes again, a pout on his lips. God, when he looked like this you could have sworn, he was the Avatar of Lust, not the Avatar of Envy.

“You’re so worried about an indirect kiss, does that mean you’ve never actually kissed someone, Levi?” You asked quietly, leaning down closer to the demon underneath you, watching him squirm in panic at your question. He refused to meet your eyes, the colour on his ears darkening more than you ever thought possible. Although, seeing as you were in the realm of demons, you supposed anything could be possible now.

“Quit it…” Leviathan muttered sheepishly, his bottom lip jutting out more and more. Moving your hand from his chin, you slide it up the side of his face and into his hair. Just like his older brother, Leviathan was weak to having his head rubbed and hair played with.

“I’ll stop if you want me to, Levi. I won’t use the pact to make you stay if you don’t want to.” You offered, backing off slightly and getting ready to remove yourself from him. He stopped you, however, his hands shyly resting on your hips to keep you in place. He refused to meet your gaze, but you could tell by the way his fingers dug into you slightly that he didn’t want you to leave.

“Tell me what you want, Levi.” You teased, using the hand that wasn’t tangled in his hair to trace the side of his face. The embarrassed glare he shot at you was so adorable, you almost cooed at him like a child, but you knew that would only ruin the mood. You slowly dragged your hand from his cheeks to his lips, using your thumb to pull at his bottom lip slightly. The noise that left his mouth, similar to that of a kitten, was adorable to say the least, and you could feel yourself swooning at his cuteness.

“Levi, you’re so cute.” You whispered, leaning down to ever so slightly brush your lips against his, watching in amusement as he stretched to fully connect your lips with his. You moved to brush your lips against his again, but right before you could, you swerved to the left slightly. Grabbing his once discarded milk tea and bringing the straw to your lips, you took a sip before scowling at the taste. You assumed it was probably because of the weird, slimy texture of the Bufo eggs, but something about it was off-putting.

From underneath you, Leviathan groaned, frowning up at you. You feigned innocence, tilting your head to the side as if to ask did I do something wrong? Before you could react to anything, Levi’s hands that were once on your waist moved to cup your cheeks in the blink of an eye. He then, suddenly feeling bold you assumed, brought your lips to his forcefully. The kiss was awkward, clearly showing his inexperience, but it made it more endearing to you.

Leviathan, the socially awkward, shut it nerd, was willingly giving you, a human, his first kiss. This was the best day of your life, really. You sure hoped Levi was enjoying it as much as you were, if not you were sure the situation would quickly become awkward. You definitely didn’t want this to ruin the friendship you had with him, and his brothers as well.

Demons, as you just found out, could hold their breath much longer than humans. When you pulled away from him, he was nowhere near as out of breath as you were, but you could probably blame that on your own excitement and the way he kissed you without warning. You weren’t complaining, though, you liked the bolder, confident side of the normally awkward and sheepish demon.

Leviathan frowned up at you, obviously upset that you pulled away when he wasn’t finished. You rolled your eyes at him, poking his cheek lightly as he tried to pull you back down to him. You rolled off of him, curling into his side. He sighed, wrapping one arm around you as his other grabbed his previously discarded drink. You didn’t realize when you had let go of it, more than likely sometime when he was kissing you.

“Weren’t we supposed to be playing games?” You asked, peering up at him from under your lashes. He glanced down at you, a hint of a smile on his face as he shook his head at you.

“We were, but you seemed more interested in stealing my drink from me. Can’t believe I let a normie like you kiss me.” He replied, setting his drink down of his nightstand to grab his phone. You watched as he loaded up a website, one you certainly didn’t recognize, and began furiously typing on his phone. You snorted at his response, batting him lightly on the chest.

“Oh please, Levi, you’re the one that kissed me. You’re so cute when you’re confident, by the way.” Levi’s typing slowed to a stop at your words, his cheeks flaring to life once again. He refused to look at you, his eyes staying focused on his phone screen as he tried to finish what he was typing.

“Whatever, it’s not my fault you teased me like that.” He spoke, trying to sound as confident as possible, although you knew he was freaking out on the inside. He blew a strand of hair out of his eyes, the arm he had wrapped around you tightening slightly. He was embarrassed for sure, but you found it all the cuter.

Peeking at his phone, you caught a brief glance of what Levi was typing and had to suppress a laugh.

You guys aren’t gonna believe but totally just kissed a super cute waifu! LMAO!

You didn’t know what a “waifu” was or why it was a “LMAO” moment, but it didn’t really bother you.

Leviathan really was the cutest.

[hello-there]

Communities are a new way to connect with the people on Tumblr who care about the things you care about! Browse Communities to find the perfect one for your interests or create a new one and invite your friends and mutuals!

[maladaptivedaydreamsx]

i wanna impulse pull so bad but at the same time i don't wanna regret it the way i did when i recently spent all my gd s-chips prior to this event... i couldve had like 20 pulls minimum from those alone... anyway i finally went thru and read all the guys' personal stories and managed to rack up enough for the s-chip limited tears promotional thingy (1400 for a 10 pull? not bad, not bad at all). but anyway uuuhhh... the only character i don't have an ssr for yet is marius... i have 2 artem ones already so i feel less tempted to go for his, and i think i wanna try my luck when its either luke/marius rate up in a few days' time, or uuhh if there's an artem/marius one. 🙏🏻

while it's no secret vyn is my least favorite (doesn't mean i hate him, but he is in 4th place so) anyway my thing is that i just personally didn't find his card as pretty as the others'. but mainly.. its just bc lately he comes home every damn pull and i wanna give myself a better shot at finally getting a mf marius card. i legit only have 2 marius cards from the gacha the thebes one and the guitar one... and only have a 3rd bc the last event gave it out for participation 💀 i hardly get luke or marius and it blows bc they're my favorites.. but alas, tis life.. tis rng 💔

tldr; the sheer amount of willpower its going to take me to be patient enough to wait a few days for the luke/marius rate up... i think my minds gonna implode... anyway, may rngesus bless everyone's pulls!

[merryfortune]

Day 5 / Dreams

All The More to Love You With 2021

Event: @aiballshipping

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains

Ship: Ai/Yusaku

Word Count: 1,389

Tags: Alternate Universe – Modern, Gambling Addiction, Surrealist Elements, Ambiguous Ending, Meta Comedy/Commentary

    Yusaku stared dreamily at his phone, keeping it loosely propped up in one hand and in the other, the side of his face. He probably could have spent all of the lunch period just staring at his phone like that but, fortunately or unfortunately, Takeru had to come along and disturb that.

  He was such a noisy teen that Takeru, how he sat down and put his lunch box in front of him, how his chopsticks clacked against the desk and how he leaned into Yusaku’s personal space and gasped.

  “Please tell me you didn’t whale last night?” Takeru asked.

  “I didn’t spend any real money if that what’s you mean.” Yusaku assured him. “I got lucky last night, I barely had to spend forty gems on free premium to get this.”

  “I don’t think that’s any better.” Takeru replied.

  “I can’t help it,” Yusaku said, “he’s my comfort character. He makes me happy.” He probably could have said more the topic given how his heart raced whenever he managed to have a moment of vulnerability and admit something like that to his closest friend, but he opted not to. It was kind of embarrassing.

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s healthy.” Takeru sighed.

  “Whatever.” Yusaku replied.

  As much as it pained him – almost, sort of, kind of – Yusaku put his phone in sleep mode but when he closed his eyes, he still saw his so-called comfort character – the love of his life, really – amid the phosphenes on the back of his eyelids. Ai.

  Ai was the first Ultra Super Rare that Yusaku had ever pulled in this game. Ai was a Dark Attribute and happened to use Yusaku’s favourite weapon: a sword. He had a good personality: equal parts fluff and angst. And that was to say nothing of his face; he was an utter bishounen. Yusaku was helpless, always having a secret infatuation with the Gothic and the like and Ai very much tickled that fancy he buried beneath his shapeless clothes like hoodies and such.

  At first, he hadn’t thought much of Ai or the game but somewhere along the line, Yusaku got hooked. For better or worse. At the best and better of times, Ai had come to mean something very important to Yusaku, helping him pull away from the darker brinks of loneliness and the like, imagining him pressed up against Yusaku’s body, in a tender embrace, helped on bitter nights of coldness. At the worst of times, it meant that Yusaku sometimes spent a bit too much money trying to pull his seasonal variants and additional weapons and special memento cards and the like, putting him in serious financial situations where he had to choose pick between Ai and groceries but that’s totally fine. Yusaku doesn’t mind eating frozen tv dinners, even if they sometimes made him gag…

  Ai made Yusaku really, really happy. Using him in combat; admiring the collection of items associated with him; Yusaku was a proud whaler when it came to Ai’s promotions and he had even plus ten’d him and given him all the other bits and bobs that he could so Ai could be Yusaku’s best unit. Ai was worth every penny: in-game or not.

  Takeru… didn’t really get it. Maybe Yusaku was just bad at explaining but it was very genuinely love. He could swear that on his heart and how it raced whenever he thought of Ai as though he were a real person. Listening to his voice lines with his eyes closed, Yusaku could swear it was something more than just a para-social melding of the 2D and the 3D.

  So long as it didn’t get in the way of school, he supposed. And after school and going home club, there was nothing quite like the incentive like doing his dailies to get through his homework and doing things which sometimes bordered on wastes of time, liking meal preparation and laundry and other stuff like that.

  It was all such sweet leisure at the end of it all, Yusaku lounged on his bed in the dark. It was already so late, and he was a bit sleepy, but he wanted to get through that grind. He only had some pittance towards units that weren’t Ai, Ai was his ace and the love of his life. Yusaku yawned himself as he absorbed all that wonderful blue light through his eyes, and he turned the volume on high.

  If he closed his eyes and rolled onto his belly, holding his phone close, some of those combat noises – the grunting and moaning – that Ai made could be interpreted very deliciously otherwise.

  “Enjoying yourself?” Ai asked as Yusaku sighed to himself as he began to get lost in flights of fancy in the middle of this grind.

  “Yeah.” Yusaku replied with something of a sigh to his exhale. It was contented.

  “I enjoy it too,” Ai replied, “you make me very happy as well, Yusaku-chan, my master, my summoner.” Ai giggled.

  “We make a good team.” Yusaku replied.

  “We do.” Ai agreed.

  Yusaku opened his eyes, bleary with these unravelling thoughts of his place inside the role-playing game, and he had to blink. His mouth ran dry.

  “Oh.” he exclaimed. “Um, er, are you comfortable.”

  He tried to keep his hand steady. He wasn’t sure how solid Ai was. Was he even here at all? It was just a normal gacha game. It absolutely did not have holograms; holograms were barely real at all beyond virtual reality or things of wonder and riches.

  “Totally.” Ai replied with a chirp to his voice. But he titled his head, batting his eyelashes, his golden eyes gleamed in the dark of Yusaku’s room. “But are you?”

  Yusaku wriggled up a bit, so he could better see Ai in all his glory. He glowed, blithely illuminated by a slight violet colour. He was magnificent: tight pants, a handsome coat with epaulettes, high heeled boots. He lounged in the air, like he was sitting upon some seat or throne, the base of which were the planes of light which shafted in an upwards position from Yusaku’s phone screen.

  Yusaku licked his lips and swallowed. He was a bit confused by Ai’s question. But he was greatly intrigued by it as well. “What do you mean?” Yusaku asked.

  Ai shrugged and looked around Yusaku’s room. It was old with cracks in the walls; no carpet; the barest amenities.

  “You know,” Ai began, “for one hundred gems, you can upgrade your barracks, if you wish. All it takes is a snap of my fingers.”

  “Oh, well, um, sure.” Yusaku said.

  And with that, the transaction was complete and all around him, Yusaku’s room was transformed. Became luxe and a little bit more themed a la Ai. The very bed underneath him became a double from a single with rich doona covers and high-quality silk sheets.

  Yusaku glanced at his phone. He noticed that his balance of gems had changed but he didn’t even care. He had a good stock of it and other resources after all from playing the game devotedly.

  Ai giggled. “Much better, don’t you think, my summoner?” He winked at Yusaku.

  Yusaku was unable to muster a reply. He just nodded dumbly, thinking more with his rushing blood and the emotions that came with than any other sense of logic.

  “Well then, shall we begin the master-unit bonding event for ten stamina?” Ai asked.

  “Y-Yes, that sounds great.” Yusaku beamed, his heart pounding his head.

  That appeared to be the correct answer as Ai looked sultry and pleased with his smile. Yusaku couldn’t look away but he had to, he had to check his stamina bar and sure enough, it had changed but he was willing to spend it all especially for time with Ai.

  Ai who came down off that throne-like perch in the hologram and joined Yusaku on the bed. It was almost like all the nights previous that Yusaku had dreamed for Ai to join him. His touch was gentle on the side of his face, leaning in, following through with a tempting kiss and Yusaku kissed back. Hard and fast. He couldn’t believe that all his dreams had come true like that, all whilst holding his phone like it was equally as precious as the very Ai before him.

[gelo-p]

Blooming in ZERO: Memories

I’ve decided to T100 the Re:ZERO collaboration! Let’s review how it went. XD

WARNING! A rather image-heavy post

Step 1: Roll for Rinko! (She’ll make my team stronger) Strictly speaking, I didn’t need her (means more work though), but I thought maybe I’ll get lucky? ^o^

I only had enough stars for 3 10-pulls though, and I have to say, this paid gacha was really tempting... (my Twitter friends all got Rinko WTF)

I’m broke though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We would quickly learn that we were overloading the servers, LOL. The game was very unplayable during the first two hours. During my first roll, the connection actually timed out D:

When I logged back in, I saw my stars got deducted, but thankfully I had new members in the waiting room. ^^

I actually got the limited Ako during that very first roll!

And so I tried again.

Fuck my luck. I’ve done 3 10-pulls, and all of them sucked.

Time to start playing I guess...

Oh right. The connection was bad.

Really bad. >_<

It’s been a while since I met coldgaze (P3), a fellow T10 from the Cycling Seasons event! That guy rarely shows up in the public rooms, LOL.

Also, we got a login campaign for 2500 stars! Which means another 10-pull! ^o^

...Why did I even think my luck would improve. >_>

Know what?

I SUMMON THEE! BLACK FRIDAY SALES!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHA RIP wallet-kun, RIP being an F2P player 2020-2020

I swear to Babanbo-sama, if I don’t get Rinko using the paid gacha-

OMG D:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE-

YESSSSSSSSSS

I am now a believer in the Babanbo religion.

WHAT? Had I known I would be rolling both Rinko and Ako in this single paid gacha I would have started with this and avoided wasting 10k stars!!!

>_<

(Of course, I couldn’t have known. Although in hindsight, I definitely should have tried rolling the paid gacha first... but then we only got the Black Friday sale news after I already spent 10k free stars, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

Fuck yes, Rinrin. Fuck yes.

I already had a good 4* Yukina, so I didn’t really need to roll for her anymore. Not to say I didn’t want her ^^

Anyway let the tiering continue!

First checkpoint: Almost at T100!

Let’s talk about Unite! A to Z for a bit.

I’ve been tiering since forever and one of the many gripes casual players like me (yes. I’m casual) is that a lot of the more serious players go into the public rooms and just spam the hell out of this song. I understand why they do it (tl;dr - short length, high score, aka “meta song”), and I can’t really stop them from doing it.

There are other meta songs, like Jumpin’, that give a little less score for a little longer duration, but players really, and I mean really, like to spam A to Z. I could argue that you can’t really get the full benefit of A to Z 100% of the time (players take time picking songs and difficulty anyway, and you’re not always going to be consistent with your score), so in the long run, there’s no significant harm in picking other meta songs (maybe I should do the math..?), but no.

For those players, 100% AtoZ.

And it’s gotten really annoying, to the point that players like the one in the screenshot just straight-up disconnects when AtoZ is picked.

Anyway, back to the story. ^o^

WTF? Why is Gigguk (the #77 guy) tiering? XD Is that really Gigguk?

Who knows? XD

99 ILLUSION IS MY LIFE

I feel bad for P4, LOL. Surrounded by Yukina cards. XD

WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE

Progress report: T35!

I took this screenshot just as I finished a game of AtoZ...

...and the game disconnects WTF GIVE ME MY FLAMES AND EFFORT BACK

(the score’s a bit higher since it wasn’t completely tallied yet when I took the 1st screenshot)

I’ve seen Bad Wifi Pam a couple of times during my entire Bandori career and when I saw this, all I could think was-

“Is it finally gonna happen?? IS IT!?”

“YESSSS!” XD

I’m sorry Bad Wifi Pam, but that moment really felt like I saw the DVD logo diving into the corner XD

I hope they didn’t lose too many flames though.

I told you, people just hate AtoZ XD

We didn’t sign up for a rhythm that only has one song, come on!

My connection got bad a couple of times and I was punished for it. >_<

There are 2 impostors among us.

P3, when has that ever stopped them LOL

UGH tell me about it, P4.

FINALLY A RANDOM ROO-

WHAT-

WHY, P1 WHY!?

I changed my name to encourage Random songs ^^

..not that it would work, but whatever.

We more than managed to...

Stay Alive. ;D

I’ll see myself out.

WTF is this, a Mexican Standoff???

More AtoZ haters (also known as Etuze, well, coz that’s how Aya pronounces it... We love you Aya! :”> )

Finally ran out of drinks.

It was time to burn stars for flames.

:|

:|

:|

:|

(That Orion guy ended up as T9, BTW. There’s more incentive to AtoZ spam when going for T10, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying for me.)

MY PC DIED WTF

It got fixed after a restart though, so thank fuck.

Now that I think about it, I need to really get down to the bottom of my GPU issues.

LOL, one time I picked Happy Synthesizer for the lulz, and one of the AtoZ spammers disconnected :)))

TBF, nobody likes to see Happy Synthesizer in Multi.

I’ve decided to be an asshole and just delay AtoZ. Oh? What’s that? AtoZ again? here, let me take 30 seconds to pick a difficulty.

Please note that this is an asshole move, since the other players are gonna get dragged into it. But I was really sick of it.

Hey! A friend that also hates AtoZ!

Anybody wants Miracle Crystals? -_-

Someone actually copied my name WTF XD

Woke up on the 2nd-to-the-last morning to see myself almost out of T100 contention.

Check out my challenge points tho. 8-)

It was time to burn them!

STOP THE COUNT! STOP THE COU-

Yeah nah fuck you. Count them all.

Aaaaaand we’re done! I parked at... this score, and I was fairly confident I’d still be in T100. ^^

...Unfortunately, I woke up the following morning to see that Bestdori projected the cutoff to be at 10.6M. That is waaay too close to 11M for comfort. So I panicked and played some more, even got to Level 230 in the process XD

Eventually the cutoff never really reached 11M, so I guess I didn’t have to? :3

I’d rather regret the extra effort though, than potentially lose T100 standing.

Now we’re done. 8-)

Just waiting for the event to end!

AAAND EVENT OVER! *victory fanfare*

LOL one of the T10′s got banned. Don’t cheat, kids.

IT’S HEEEEREEEEE

YukiRan SayoLisa YukiRan SayoLisa YukiRan SayoLisa YukiRan SayoLisa-

[freewheelshippin]

30 utapri questions!

Thanks @dekiaibadchoices​ for the tag, this was an awesome way to wind down after a ton of nonstop busy busy busy!!! (and thanks for tagging this blog vs the general utapri one so i can REALLY gush LOL) Here’s the OG meme! 

1. Your best boy?

BANANAMAN RAN WHO ELSE  

2. Your least favorite boy?

“least favorite” implies dislike which...not true! truthfully it’s much of HEAVENS by nature of ‘I haven’t spent as much time getting to know these characters so I don’t really know who they are.’ (though I already know I love to go for drinks and snacks with Van hehe) i do like all of HEAVENS quite a bit from what i’ve seen so far but that affection has not had time to ripen! 

3. A character that you never thought you would love as much as you do now?

mnmnj ranran tbh 

4. A character you can relate to in any way?

I can’t answer everything with Ranmaru but like. His ambition, straightforwardness, and how the soul and spirit of music motivate him to move forward beyond a tough past are things I same hat so much ;; But HONESTLY I also relate a lot to Masa and Tokiya, especially in their moments of self-doubt and dramatic commitment to to their art? 

5. A character that you think deserves more love?

Oh, Cecil, without a doubt. He’s such a resilient, committed, and open-hearted cutie and gets really shafted by canon tbh. Which makes it harder for everyone to see what a great boy this sweetie is! But I appreciate how Shining Live has given him some room to have really cute and standout moments so everyone can love him more but okay like, give me more Ceci and Ran palling around I love him most when they’re up to shenanigans 

6. A character you would want as your partner?

well we’re posting this fuckin here so you all fuckin know (im very embarrass rn i can barely say it lmao) 

(for the record i would also very much like to be friends with reiji and syo, they are cool people i think i’d get along with! and i know myself, if i knew otoya or masato IRL i’d just be like ‘well. that’s my son now’ and basically appoint myself their tough big sis-type-friend lookin out for them lol) 

7. A character you would want as your mentor/senpai?

I would swallow a pinecone before I called him ‘onii-san’ but teach me how to network kotobuki-senpai 

(No, like, forreal, I suck so, so bad at a ton of stuff Reiji is aces at, and I respect the hell out of his *waves* general everything and skilll navigating the industry. Since I’m a goofy, jokey, overenthusiastic teacher for work a lot it’d be nice to be on the receiving end of all that energy! and be a fucking decent kouhai that isn’t so horribly unappreciative of all his hard work and good cheer ) 

8. Your favorite ship?

shut your whore mouth i dont have the marbles to write it out 

(tbh it’s also Haru/Tomo, I just feel so much more romantic chemistry between those two than Haru and any of the boys u___u  Friends’ selfship stuff goes without saying, haha, and ngl I’m kind of About a Ren/Van rivalry hatemance? can i call it a kismesis thing? it’s a kismesis thing.) 

(actually no I think I’m just a member of the “Ren Fucks and sometimes it’s Hatesex” club) 

9. A character that you want to cosplay/have already cosplayed?

I had plans to cosplay Ranmaru a couple months ago bc it’s really not much of a stretch for my wardrobe, haha, but I dunno about that anymore! Part of it was wanting the Euphoria of looking like a tough, twunky, princely anime character but tbqh I’m already that every day of my life so 

I suppose if you were to pull my leg I’d go for cosplaying Van, mostly because I wanna try that mullet on for myself. 

10. Favorite side character?

TOMO!! LOVE U BITCH WHEN WILL I HEAR U SINGGGGGG 

11. Your favorite solo song?

god this is horrible how can I decide??? so many good ones??? I think it’s a draw between Top Star Revolution, No. 1, Brand New Melody, Wild Soul, Seien Brave Heart, and Junketsu Nara Ai ~Aspiration~ ??? 

12. Your favorite duet song?

HMMMMM again too many good ones. Three-way tie between Haru Hana, NorthWind and SunShine, and Original Resonance! 

13. Your favorite trio song?

Ahhh Dream More than Love is really nostalgic bc it’s the first Utapri song I really loved, but i gotta be real. It’s just Egoistic. There’s just no getting better than Egoistic 

14. Your favorite group song?

mmmm i’m be basic. Poison Kiss 

15. Your least favorite song?

I love Ai and Shouta Aoi’s incredible voice but......I’m really not a fan of super slow, overly-saccharine songs. u__u so A.I. really, really doesn’t land with me, much less so than easygoing (like Knocking on the Mind) or somber (like Winter Blossom) songs. 

16. Your favorite singer?

ranran...it’s always ranran...

(I do also adore Natsuki’s and Camus’s voices! I tend to like deeper, richer vocal qualities, but you just can’t beat Ranmaru’s subtle growls and high-energy rock!!!! <3) 

17. Your favorite group/trio/duo?

god what combo of these idiots DONT i love? I could watch Reiji prank and tease Ranmaru all fuckin day, and I also really like it when Ran’s at his most ‘tuff big bro-y’ with, like, Ai, Otoya, and Cecil!!! but honestly I do like how the Ran/Masa/Ren trio isn’t so straightforward and is more or less held together by a thin string of professionalism, there’s something i appreciate about not forcing ppl to just bury the hatchet and be Perfect Friends but you all can still care about each other? (Ranmaru needs to be nicer to them still but...) 

i need to suggest one that isn’t ranmaru centric fjdsioafjsa i fuckin love Soccer Buds (otosyo) and I loooooove it when Otoya and Cecil are good to each other!!! 

18. Your favorite member of Starish?

they’re all my favorite but if you REALLY had to make me pick.....Masato, probably, haha. I just...if you take yourself too seriously and care so much about everything but still know how to be Nasty how can I not love you??? 

19. Your favorite member of Quartet Night?

what do you fuckin think, hoss 

20. Your favorite member of Heavens?

I mentioned earlier I don’t really know Heavens well, so ofc this is all liable to change! But off the bat I love what a conniving yet wholesome bastard Eiichi is and Van is just the kinda guy I would rib and pal around with IRL!! 

21. Your favorite seiyuu/voice actor?

Ahhh that’s tough! I love all these goofbags, and Tattsun really is just so cool and makes music I’m pretty about. But I think I gotta give it to Suwabe, his performances are always so him but still pretty varied, and how can you not adore a man who loves his chihuahuas that much??? 

(if i’m being 100% honest Tattsun lost points bc he voices my absolute least favorite character in granblue ffjsfjisda) 

22. Favorite Drama CD?

HMMMMMMM see as a certified Giant Tool for Everything Mecha and silly and extra, I enjoyed the hell out of Polaris, but it really suffers from a lack of Ranmaru in my humble fuckin opinion lmao. So even though I’m not one for pirate stuff most of the time, I gotta give it to Pirates of the Frontier!! I really loved Ranmaru and Otoya’s dynamic in that one, and Camus was juuuuust the right amount of shitheel, too. 

I haven’t heard the whole thing but that thing from Egoistic where Natsuki squeezes Ranmaru to death and Eiichi’s just like ‘WUAHAHAHAHAH’ is also the mcfuckin best. 

23. Your favorite shining live card?

CAN’T PICK 

HOW COULD I POSSIBLY PICK?????????? LIKE??? I love the fucking dumb, dumb, dumb ostentatiousness of Evil Villains, I LOVE a good heel, and I also worked so so hard to t1 that event and had a lot of fun doing it!! But also, I just love his big smile and all the energy and mixed prints from Fortune and Prosperity, and it was literally the first time I ever got the exact card I was rolling for in a gacha on the last pull I had left!! (He also came home during a time I was really going through some shit, and ngl it rescued me a little bit!) but AHHHH Soulful Bass also came out right around my birthday, I love all the textures in the outfit and it’s generally the most My Aesthetique thing Utapri has ever released!!! And god, I just love it when he’s so confident and in his element like this, it sets me on FIRE to see him light up the stage wurghjgfj ;___; They all make me just want to HUG SO MUCH ARGGHHHHH 

24. Your favorite song beatmap?

Ahhh I think Shining Live really has great beatmaps across the board so that’s a tough pick! Almost all of them are super fun in their own way, but I think I gotta hand it to Wild Soul, Top Star Revolution, and Innocent Wind! 

25. Your least favorite song beatmap?

A.I. u__u Sorry, Ai...it’s just not fun for me.

26. Black Deja Vu or White Gravity?

Actually I’m really glad for this question bc I’ve been so busy lately I hadn’t given myself the time to really check them out! checking ......... 

and yep. Black Deja Vu. (I mean...Ranmaru is on it, haha.) But I’m so about this. Love this heavier sound and all these harmonies, this is so juicy. (White Gravity also absolutely kicks ass though!! I’m really liking that voice group, it’s making especially good use of those higher registers!) 

27. Utapri merch that you own/want?

Honestly I don’t have much u__u Not a lot of Utapri merch is my thing...you know? I’m mostly shopping for Ran merch if I’m getting any, but I’m very picky about how he gets drawn? Keeping his toughness and a particular clothing style about him is so essential, haha, and barely anything hits that sweet spot for me. But I will say I adored the whole ‘My Favorite Things’ series, and if I had the budget and space atm I’d love to get some of the Ran goodies from that line! 

28. How did you get into Utapri?

I first heard about it through some acquaintances from cosplay before Quartet Night was a thing. It didn’t appeal enough to my heavy metal ass to make me drop everything and try it, but I did have an interest in it I couldn’t explain and I’d always intended on trying it out. (especially after I got into Love Live and idol anime for a bit.) But it was Shining Live that got me! And I really only downloaded Shining Live because I was super exhausted after a business trip, didn’t want to leave bed once I got back home, and just wanted to sink my teeth in something new I could enjoy for hours while lying down, haha.  

29. A set theme in shining live that you want to see in the future?

This will surprise nobody, but something tougher. More rock, more punk, more metal. I want all of them in studs and spikes and leather, and I want less polish. More rough! 

I’d also love a wrestler set complete with who’s-a-heel-who’s-a-face but that’s a pipe dream and a half, lmao. 

30. Why do you love your best boy?

Oh boy. 

I think he’s this powerhouse of a human bean who can face a ton of pain and meet it with a big middle finger. And that middle finger is chasing after ambitious dreams, of spreading the power and soul of the same music that made me who I am and influences so much of my work, but also being ... you know, smart about it? He’s an idol because like, sure, maybe it’s not the OG dream, but you can’t dream if you’re dead, and you also deserve to give yourself a life and platform to share some of who you are, and you can do a lot of good with that, too. (And I won’t lie, I respect the drama of a man who takes his hair that seriously and commits so hard to the aesthetic he wears fuckin mismatched contacts i just. charm point ) 

But at the same time....I don’t know, this might sound presumptuous, but. I think. I just think he’d think I’m as neat as I think he is. I’m an ambitious, passionate person, too, and I also furiously stick to my ideals, and I also love the same kind of soul of music he does. I lean a little more metal than I do rock, but I think that’s nice, like sharing it has that ‘alike but different’ kind of familiarity and novelty all at once. Sometimes it’s tough sharing just how deeply rock and metal have sculpted me and my artwork (and therefore my career), bc it’s so deeply personal to me, and sometimes there’s weird elitism/misogyny/racism to deal with, too. But. The way he talks about rock, the way he describes the passion and how it transcends identity and is just a pure rush of power and sharing your feelings..................it just feels like he Gets it the same way I do. Just that unspoken, burning passion and understanding. I know it sounds weird to feel that strongly over just a music genre, but I just vibe with how to him, it really isn’t ‘just’ a music genre. I feel more accepting of myself for it, and I’d like to think he’d be real proud of himself for that.  

And listen, like....I’m very sentimental, but I really don’t like saccharine, flowery, romantic kinds of affection to be lavished on me. Just be straightforward but also a little tsun about it fjdsjfas and ..... those are the kind of feelings I can accept. And that’s the way Ranmaru is, and it’s also grounded in the kind of reality that I don’t like to be swept away from. He’s just so cool and hardworking and unwavering in his passion, it makes it easier for me to do the same despite all the bumps in the road. This got real long but Ran’s a cool dude, haha, I got a lot of positives to say. 

Anyways, I never tag folks for these things, but I love seeing everyone’s answers! If you see this and wanna fill it, feel free to count this as a tag from me :) I know this got real long, but with 30 questions how could it not haha? Thanks for reading and sticking around!