#i always think about how ice in the warp effect who goes from 13 to like 20/21 doesn't really work

[projectjasper]

why would you remind us man... i miss them too though 🥺

[marshmalleaux-draws]

I never did post my self insert for My Hero Academia, did I? I was hoping to draw up a more complete and proper reference for her, but given that my mental and physical battery have been at about -37549% for the past 4 months or so, this is all I could manage to do. Still love to share as always, though~.

All her info under the cut (copied from a google doc I wrote not too long ago), cause I hate cluttering up people’s dash with super long posts.

Anyway, I hope you like her~ . ❄️

Name: Sierra Niall Nickname/s: Cici Hero name (?): Snowflake Quirk: Winter Warping Age: 23 Birthday: February 13 Zodiac Sign: Aquarius Blood type: ??? Height: 5'1" Weight: 118 lbs Likes: Marshmallows, lavender (the color, flower, and scent) Quirk and Abilities: Cici's quirk, Winter Warping, allows her to manipulate various aspects of winter, including ice, snow, and the temperature of the air around her. She mostly chooses to use her abilities defensively and for support rather than attack, but she does have a few offensive capabilities as well. Different ways she can use her quirk include: ❄️ Encasing herself in ice as a protective barrier, but this renders her immobile until the ice is broken, either by herself or by someone else. The ice can be close enough just to cover her body, or she can create a large block around her. ❄️ Coating certain parts of her body in ice, such as her hands or feet, so that when she punches or kicks, her attacks are reinforced. ❄️ Summoning spikes of ice to emerge from the ground, either as a barrier or an attack. ❄️ Creating snowflake shuriken (though this one often goes unused). ❄️ Healing open wounds (but not broken bones or internal injuries) using snow. She can do things like use her ice to keep a broken arm from moving, but she can't actually heal such an injury herself, just keep it under control until professional help is available. ❄️ Creating a heavy snowstorm in her immediate vicinity in order to cloak herself. She can see things outside the storm from within, but it's hard for others to see her in the blizzard. ❄️ Creating cushions of snow to break falls. ❄️ Crumbling solid ice into snow, and reforming snow into solid ice.

Drawbacks: ❄️ Since her quirk revolves around the cold, she is especially heat-sensitive. The hotter the air around her, the sleepier she becomes and the more brittle her ice becomes. Environments that are hot enough can cause her to fall asleep pretty much immediately, leaving her completely vulnerable. She also can’t use her own quirk to keep herself cool in those situations. ❄️ The strength of her abilities is tied to her emotions. Feelings of helplessness, sadness, fear, anxiety and the like cause her ice to become brittle, her snow less dense, and her healing less effective. Conversely, intense feelings of passion, contempt, determination and the like can strengthen her ice to near-unbreakable levels, and her healing far quicker and more effective.

Background: Cici has always been a girl of a kind, caring, and empathetic (albeit rather naive) disposition. She's intent on the idea of making sure all the people she meets are happy and safe, if it's within her power. Seeing others prosper is all she needs to feel content, and it goes to such an extent that she often fails to look out for herself. Even with her good intentions, however, she is plagued with severe anxiety and insecurity, which often keeps her from achieving many of the things she wants. In an attempt to combat this insecurity and fear, she enrolls in UA's hero course at the beginning of her high school years, hoping that being shoved outside her comfort zone will push her into being the best and most confident person she can be. While she's there, she meets and befriends Shouta Aizawa, who admires her willingness to push herself to be better. He still knows of her generally soft and sweet personality, and likes to tease her with the affectionate nickname "Snowflake." She takes a liking to him due to his constant (although not always immediately apparent) hardworking attitude, as well as his ability to be both blunt and honest, and understanding and gentle when needed. Unfortunately, not even a year in, her fear catches up to her, and she becomes overwhelmed by the sheer amount of conviction needed to be a hero that she clearly doesn't possess, even though she desperately wants to. Her insecurities get the better of her and, ashamed, she decides to drop out, opting to finish her high school education at a normal public school. She can't even bring herself to explain to Aizawa why she was leaving, and distances herself from him in fear of disappointing him. Years pass, and Cici has found herself a best friend (and later, roommate), Alia, who has done some hero work herself and also had went through UA’s hero course as a transfer student. Cici still isn't terribly confident in herself, but she still is happy to assist Alia in her work, opting to give herself an unofficial hero name as well - the name that her old friend gave her all those years ago, Snowflake. Cici and Alia learn of a reunion being held at their old school and decide to attend, and Cici is surprised to see Aizawa again. He immediately recognizes her, and his first thought after greeting her is to ask why she had disappeared all those years ago. Embarrassed, Cici confesses that she basically chickened out of the hero course, feeling that her own fear and lack of confidence far outweighed her ability to be a half-decent hero. After that, she felt so ashamed and afraid to disappoint Aizawa's expectations of her that she ceased contact with altogether. Aizawa is surprised, saying that she had just as much of a chance to do great things as anyone else, and reminds her of how he admired her desire to push herself to be better, just so she could help others be happy. Although still nervous, she's flattered and elated that he still thinks so highly of her, even though she didn't think enough of herself. It's a bittersweet reunion, but it doesn't end there - they start to reconnect, and in no time they're even closer than they were all those years ago. The two even decided to begin a romantic relationship and have been perfectly content since. These days, Cici still isn't confident enough in her own abilities to be a full-fledged hero, but she's found a happy middle ground of helping people the best way she feels she can - she decides to become a counselor for UA students, helping everyone that comes into her office with whatever troubles and concerns they may have. Her gentle and empathetic personality makes her easy to talk to for many of the students that come to see her, and nearly all of them leave feeling relieved and happy, which is all she wanted in the first place. Stats: Strength: 2/5 Speed: 2/5 Intelligence: 4/5 Technique: 3/5 Cooperativeness: 5/5 Trivia: ❄️ In the present day, she has become somewhat of an aunt to Shouto, since she's been best friends with his mother (in this AU), Alia, for many years. He's always happy to see his auntie and sometimes comes into her office just to take a breather from everyone.

❄️ She absolutely can not get enough of Deku. She would readily adopt him as her son if he didn't already have a pure and loving mother, and she spoils him and treats him better than probably any other student (aside from Shouto). More importantly, however, she actually looks up to him and is even jealous of him, because he's been able to do something that she's failed to do all of these years - he's constantly pushing himself further and further to be a better person and hero, no matter how scared or helpless he feels - and she has an immense amount of admiration and respect for him.

❄️ She understands why people see the potential in Bakugou, but she feels everyone beats around the bush too much and just wishes they would say it for what it is: yes, he's skilled, talented, and powerful, but he's an angry and insufferable prick who won't listen to anyone, ever, and that's pretty much the only thing keeping him from really being a great hero. She dreads seeing him come to her office for any reason whatsoever because he is just that incorrigible, and she enjoys getting back at him in subtle ways for being so pissy all the time (making the room colder when he visits, giving him a largely uncomfortable chair to sit on, etc.)

❄️ She has Tourette’s Syndrome (bc of course I gotta fucking shoehorn this in therekdhsjfk), albeit a rather mild case. Still, she worries that it might interfere with her quirk, since her insecurity and awareness of possible onlookers would certainly weaken the strength of her ice. She also worries that she’ll get mocked by the students or even other staff members (and sometimes is by a certain pissed off explosion boy), but that worry is generally subsided when the sweeter kids like Shouto and Deku are 100% understanding of it.

❄️ Sierra, similar her friend Alia, was an American exchange student. She moved to Japan for the express purpose of enrolling in UA, mixing her goals of heroism with her adoration for the culture and lifestyle of the country. Even after she dropped out, she still enjoyed her time there so much that she opted to continue living there and made it easier on herself by getting a place together with her friend.

❄️ She still goes by her English name, but I also wanted to stick with the theme of punny/fitting names for characters, so I gave her a Japanese alias as well: Seppen Shijinko. Her first name 雪片 (seppen) means “snowflake,” and her last name 詩人子 (shijin-ko) means “child of a poet.” ...Okay, really only the first name is punny/fitting, but her last name is one that I’ve been using for a long time that not only has its own background/story, but also ties in with her English surname (Niall), so that would take way too much explanation sdfgfdh.

[operationrainfall]

Title Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair Developer Playtonic Games Publisher Team17 Digital Ltd Release Date October 8th, 2019 Genre Platformer Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone – Mild Cartoon Violence Official Website

I never expected Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Not only did the release totally sneak up on me, I somehow missed it entirely at PAX West this year. So when I suddenly saw it announced in the Nintendo Download I cover weekly, I was happily stunned. After all, I did back the original Yooka-Laylee, and while I enjoyed it, it felt a bit hampered by its adherence to 3D platformer norms. Which is why it’s so funny that I loved Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Who would have guessed that transitioning from being influenced by Banjo-Kazooie to being influenced by Donkey Kong Country would make all the difference?

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The game starts when our heroic duo crash lands in the Royal Stingdom. Capital B is up to no good, and after being taught the platforming ins and outs by the introductory level, things get dramatic. Capital B has a device that enslaves other bees, and he uses it to take control of Queen Phoebee’s Royal Beetallion. Each of these 48 elite guards now protects the dastardly villain from damage. Luckily, due to some quick thinking, you escape further conflict and land just outside his Impossible Lair. Phoebee uses some magic to create books so you can free the trapped Beetallion from Capital B before he took control of them. That doesn’t mean each one captured will be taken from him, mind you, but each guard freed protects you from harm. While you’re more than welcome to tackle the Lair first, you’d be a crazy person to do so because the titular Impossible Lair is a devious gauntlet of instant death traps, cleverly placed enemies, tricky platforming and multiple boss encounters against Capital B. It also contains zero checkpoints, so one death and you have to start over from the very beginning. So assuming you’re not a total masochist, let’s talk about the rest of the game first.

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Each of the books created by Phoebee serves as a level, and is tossed across a vast overworld. You unlock stages in groups, and though you don’t have to tackle them in order, it’s not a bad idea to do so. Namely, that’s because progressing any farther means getting past multiple paywalls set up by the conniving Trowser, and he charges you varying amounts of T.W.I.T. coins found in each of the many stages to proceed. Another reason it’s good to play each level as you unlock them is so you get flush with Quills. You can often do this by chasing Ghost Quills, or just by finding loose Quills littered about each stage. These are occasionally used to unlock things on the overworld, but they are also used to unlock Tonics. There’s a ton of Tonics in the game, and to use them first you have to find them, then pay their Quill cost. They provide a wide array of effects, some changing how a stage looks and others making the levels easier or harder with various effects. If you make a stage easier, it will take away from your Quill total at the end of each stage, but if you make it harder, you’ll be rewarded with more of them. I actually really liked this setup, since it offers the tools to tweak the game as you please. Given that I’m a platformer purist, I only really used one Tonic in my entire playthrough, which made it so Laylee would stick around longer after taking damage, giving me longer to grab her before she flaps away.

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It would be an easy assumption that the overworld is small and basic, but the truth is the opposite. Despite not being in full 3D, the top-down overworld is quite expansive and riddled with secret passages. There’s dark forests, beach-side grottoes, dank caverns and more. Getting from point A to point B can sometimes be a hassle, and often requires returning to areas from a different vantage point. Most noteworthy is that you will find Pagies on the map, and by clearing their challenges, they’ll reward you by altering some aspect of the overworld. This always opens up a path you couldn’t access before, making it easier to get around and find new things.

Another cool part of this aspect of the game is altering stages. Every single stage in the game, other than the Lair, has both an original and alternate version. You might come across a stage and by freezing it with an ice fruit, you’ll unlock an alternate version that’s totally different. These changes are very clever and often required some extra sleuthing to discover. I really enjoyed it, especially since there’s technically 48 stages instead of the base 24. That may not sound like much, but trust me it’s a very meaty experience. In my nearly 13 hours playing the game, I still haven’t unearthed nearly all the achievements, Tonics, Beetallion guards, T.W.I.T. coins or other assorted goodies. Overall it’s a really cool overworld, but with one niggle. It can be time-consuming wandering around, since after you quit and return to the game, you always start right next to the Impossible Lair. For most of the game that meant constant backtracking, until I finally stumbled upon the game’s warp feature. You can basically select any stage from the map and warp instantly there. This is great, but it would have been better if the game told me it was available.

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Much like the game’s overworld, the stages in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair are also deceptively complex. While you can beat most of them in less than 10 minutes, finding all the hidden T.W.I.T. coins can be a challenge. Much like in Donkey Kong Country, things are deviously secreted away, and there were many stages I beat without finding more than a couple out of the possible five coins. Though most stages are standard platformer fare, moving from the left to the right, some mix things up with vertical climbing and even some backtracking. A good example is one that requires you to find five gems to exit the stage, and they’re in all sorts of places. Thankfully, each stage has checkpoints, and you can even spawn more of them with one handy Tonic. There’s a ton of creativity on display, from spinning windmill villages to underwater galleons to dangerous factories to honey-covered towns. There are even some pulse-pounding stages where you’re running from impending death the entire time. It’s all good fun, and will keep you busy without being overly unfair. Just be ready to play most stages more than once to find everything.

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More platform fun on Page 2 ->

Now, none of what I’ve been saying would matter if the game didn’t play well, but thankfully that’s not the case. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a lot of fun. Even though the duo have less abilities than in their first outing, there’s enough here to keep things interesting. Also important is that they are a duo. What that means is that when they’re separated, you’re far less capable and can’t even use all your moves. Laylee the bat is basically Yooka’s armor. If you take a hit, she goes flying around frantically. If you don’t catch her in time, she’s gone, and any more damage will kill you and return you to the most recent checkpoint. This was very smart design, and it made me more careful about how I explored stages. When the team is together, they’re capable of tricks like spinning in mid-air to go farther, rolling around and even ground pounding. Yooka can also use his long tongue to grab items and spit them out as projectiles. I thought the game controlled very well, though I found the roll / jump combo to be a bit finicky at times. The only time things didn’t work as planned was when I was rolling and somehow got stuck in a wall, forcing me to restart a stage, and another time the game force quit and returned me to the Switch home screen. Other than those, the game played perfectly well.

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Visually, I found a lot to appreciate. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a cute and cartoony game. Everything has a vibrant quality to it, such as how the Quills glow with golden light. Though there’s not a ton of different foes, they’re all distinct and there’s no color swap nonsense. I especially liked the industrial parts of the game, like red hot buzz saws and dangerous cannons. Musically, the game is also enjoyable. Some stages definitely have better tunes than others, but there was nothing that I found boring or offensive. The sound effects are also really bombastic and match the action perfectly. And thankfully the gibberish talk for all the characters is still in place, and lends everything a whimsical flair. Visually and musically, this is a stellar experience.

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It wouldn’t be fair to talk about Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair without going into a bit more detail on the titular final area. Earlier I said that it’s a very challenging sequence of traps, foes and boss fights, but let me go into more detail. Every time you play, you start off with the initial fight against Capital B. He only takes a few hits that time, but every subsequent battle he’s more resilient. His fights will gate each subsequent corridor of the Lair, and he starts getting really tricky as things progress. There’s tons of instant death traps in the lair as well, such as lasers, buzz saws, heat-seeking missiles and portals that continuously spawn foes. I ended up taking nine tries to finally beat the Impossible Lair, and that was with nearly all of the Beetallion at my disposal, 40 out of 48. It was still a huge challenge, and one that I feel needs to be gradually worked towards. And though I won’t go into spoilers, I will say it’s a good idea not to be reckless, and try and hold onto a few of your Beetallion even after you’ve finally beaten Capital B.

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Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair may not be impossible, but it is a wonderfully fun and challenging retro platformer. Though it still has much of that compulsive collector DNA from the first game, I found it much less bothersome in this format. For $29.99, you get a lot to explore in this expansive world. Though I spent around 13 hours to beat the game, I still have plenty to uncover. And that’s not even touching upon the many super secret treasures still deftly squirreled away. I would strongly encourage most gamers to check this out. With the use of Tonics, you’re able to tailor the experience to your ability level, so really it’s hard to turn it down. A fantastic and worthy follow up to the original Yooka-Laylee from the fine folks at Playtonic Games. Here’s to looking forward to whatever they cook up next!

Keep your eyes peeled and you might even find an Easter Banana or two!

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair Title Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair