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purplerose244 · 4 years ago

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My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (1/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Finally Nya's season! Our queen, our water goddess, our amazing girl gets what she deserves! 😍😍😍

What I know about the season beforehand is that Nya's powers apparently are getting problematic for some reasons? Which is a pretty common topic in other shows but it's a first in Ninjago, usually the elemental powers don't have focus and I LOVE that we now get to see stuff like that 💕💕💕

I know there should be Wojira involved, trusting The Island to deliver that little foreshadowing at the end of the episode 🤷‍♀️ Also Maya is back... MAYA IS FINALLY BACK AFTER SEVEN SEASONS YES!!! 😭😭😭

I have nothing else to say, I have no idea what this will bring, hopefully something as good as Master of the Mountain! 🖤

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

Warning reader, I might be fangirling to an extreme because I love mah girl Nya and I've been wanting Kai and Nya's parents to be back ever since Hands of Time ended. So yeah... screaming alert 😅

At this point I don't doubt that the intro is great, we reached such a level of animation and we got The Fold 😍😍 Love the marine vibe and how it's similar to The Island, because it's a great intro 👌

NOW I like the writing! Maybe they rushed the dialogue's quality for The Island to get here? It's just fun and in character, maybe it's just me but I'm enjoying it a lot for now

How many episodes are in this? Wiki says ten, then I checked again and it's sixteen like with Master of Mountain... eh, it looks good so far so it's fine whatever happens 🤷‍♀️

A BIG SPLASH

Oohhh, new villain! One that uses... flames... huh, does she know there's literally a master of fire in the ninja team? Eh whatever she looks cute, give it up for Miss Demeanor!! 👏👏

Wait... OMG IS THAT ERIN MATTHEWS??? WE GOT MACY!! ❤❤❤

Whoa, we're finding out where did the order of the vengestone from season 13 come from?? YAS! CONTINUITY!

Yep, there it is, Nya lost control... her attacks look so cool 😍

Lol that kid trying to be a nindroid and Zane being offended 😂😂 Sorry hun, you're that popular

Aaahhh, thank you Ninjago! You gave me back Nya the perfectionist 😂 I was worried her reaction to her powers wasn't going to be in character but it looks fair so far. Brings me back to Possession, my favorite season 💙💙💙

WE GOT BACK THE FACT THAT SHE CAN MAKE IT RAIN!!! YAS!!! I might be easy to please but I love these details 🤩

🤯🤯🤯 Okay they are definitely going somewhere this time and I LOVE IT, because wow. WOW. Are we actually addressing the forever questioned fact that wind and water weren't elements that Chen needed at the Tournament? Are we giving a reason for them to exist outside the main set of elements and the elemental masters?? Duuuude, season 15 don't let me stop you, keep going 😍

Mm, so water and wind are connected to Wojira (now I see the connection with the special). Are we setting the ground for a new master of wind? 😏😏 It's risky going for a Morro replacement but it's a super intriguing idea! Oooor Edgy Boy TM might come back? WHO KNOWS I'M CURIOUS ANYWAY 🤩

Love how it is universal knowledge that Nya is super indipendent 👌

YES YES FINALLY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT MAYA!!! 😍😍😍 Is it too much hoping into a Ray cameo as well?? Pleaaaase? Also addressing Krux after so many seasons, this feels exciting!! 😊

This is what I'm talking about, training, fighting scenes, show me everything that water goddess can do! 🌊🌊🌊

Aaahhh, Nya flexing her mightiness through anger, just to remind us that she is the descendant of a water master as much as of a fire master 😅

YES YES YES YES IT'S HAPPENING FINALLY AFTER SEVEN SEASON THE FIRE WATER PARENTS ARE FINALLY BACK!!! 🔥🌊🔥🌊🔥🌊 I'M SO HAPPY I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG!!! 😭

RAY IS THERE TOO HECK YES!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 I shouldn't get this excited at only the first episode... WHO CARES RAY IS BAAAAACK!!! ❤❤❤

Omg Maya is definitely different from what I expected, turns out Kai's enthusiasm came from her 😂

Oh look at my flame babe 😍

He's so happy his parents are here, he's a total family man ❤❤❤

Nya is maaaaad... 😅

THERE SHE IS

WELCOME BACK JILLIAN I MISSED YOU 💚💚💚 Would it be too much having a "Your voice sounds familiar" moment with Maya and Lloyd? 😂

I'm so stoked for this! I want all the interactions I've missed for all of this time, asap!! HECK yes!! 😍😍😍😍

Oh, are we looking over the Miss Demeanor, vengestone situation? Mm... for now at least... WHO CARES FIRE WATER PARENTS!! 🔥🌊🔥🌊🔥🌊

THE CALL OF THE DEEP

Imma just slow clap for The Fold because this is another amazing intro, one of those things in this show that stays awesome no matter what happens 👍👍

So Maya gave Nya her discipline and perfectionism, but not the passion behind it 😂 I like this, it's not your conventional master of water, although I'd say it's different from the impression she gave me back in HoT. Maybe this is how she is when she's not trapped for fifty years? 😅😅

Is it too much asking for Kai and Ray bonding while the water women get the work done? 😅😅

Is this the sequel of Green Eggs and Ham?

Green Pancakes and Ham? 😂

Oh it's seaweed nevermind... at breakfast? I'm all for sushi rolls but this is a little 😅 Although since Maya missed their childhood she probably never cooked meals for them... how did I get myself sad 😢

Whoa, Maya is a strict teacher! I got flashbacks from my first and only dance lesson, teachers nitpicking every single pose, uuurrrggg I feel ya waterlily 😡

Again, not a fan of Misako, but coming from her the whole speech about wanting to be there for her child makes a lot of sense

Yes. YES.

YEEEEESSSS KAI AND RAY FAMILY BONDING THIS IS EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WANTED I'M GETTING ALL OF MY WISHES GRANTED FOR THIS ONE ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

AND MY FLAME BABE IS SO GLAD HE GOT HIS PARENTS!!! 😭😭😭

Lol with Kai's new hair they look even more related 🤣

Ray also sounds so happy he gets to have his moment with his son 😢 I feel so blessed in this moment 👍

Also this scene makes a lot of sense. Nya grew up to be indipendent, one that succeed in most of stuff without problems, she built her life without any help and doesn't look for it. Kai grew up more insecure, he got some walls up but loves to take care of others and be taken care of. With a childhood lost he looks forward to a bit of softness ❤❤

Did Maya make real bacon for that sandwich? Do I smell some favoritism? 😅 Or maybe she really wants Nya to get onto the water mind setting idk 🤷‍♀️

Little tiny complain, why isn't Jay doing the fixing? Did he give up mechanics completely? It feels like we haven't seen him do tech stuff in so long, I miss techy boy in action 😞

And no, having to check on the bathroom doesn't count 😅

Aww robot date 💜🤍💜🤍

AAAHH ROBOT DISASTER 😱😱😱 ZANE DANG IT YOU WERE DOING SO GOOD NOT TRYING TO DIE IN THE LAST TWO SEASONS!!

Oh that was weird, weird magic purple wave thingie?

I DID NOT ASK FOR A SEASON WITH A BEST GIRL AT THE EXPENCE OF ANOTHER BEST GIRL PIX DON'T YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME 😱😱😱😱😱

"Well this is troubling." I love this samurai so freaking much 💜💜💜

GUYS THIS IS ONLY THE SECOND EPISODE, I'M A LITTLE SCARED NOW 😢

Okay Nya admitting that something's wrong looking so apologetic, girl you don't need to do that you already own my heart 😭

Alright, I'm guessing this is Wojira's power or something, and they will have to go down below and find out why... just throwing this in, maybe Maya did something? Because she wanted to finally be with her family and needed an excuse? JUST A THEORY WITH NO BASE I REALLY HOPE I'M WRONG!!!

Okay, two episodes and I'm BEYOND engaged, let's keep it up! 😍

UNSINKABLE

Getting an idea how this episode might end already 😂😂

Look, I love best girl Pixal, but I'm kinda sad that she seems to be the only one tinkering at this point. Like, I saw Nya fix little stuff, while Jay dropped engineering altogether, I miss my engineers team 😭

Aww, the guys didn't want to crush Pixal's dream of an unsinkable boat 💜 But honestly yeah, I agree with Cole, this might end badly 😅😅

Thank goodness

I was worried they forgot about Jaya ❤💙❤💙 Jay is such a cutie omg

Nya: Mm, going on a potentially dangerous mission with unstable powers in the heart of my element or... mom's tofu pancakes... *yeets herself over the ship*

I'm making too many screenshots of the Smith family... WHO CARES THEY ARE BACK AND THEY ALL LOOK SO GOOD!!! 😍😍😍😍

Aww Ray wants to play with his son and his friends so CUTE ❤❤❤ Still can't believe they play Prime Empire after everything that went down 😂😂

Whoa whoa whoa, Kai and Cole are sitting this one out? That's actually interesting, I'm pretty sure I saw Cole's scuba suit in the sets though so I didn't expect it... lol it's actually kinda fair that the two that used to be afraid of water aren't going 😂😂

Bet Kai is happy to stay behind because he gets to spend time with his dad 😭

Also studying the fire elementals?? Uhm, yes please?? TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT MY FLAME BABE!!! 😍😍😍😍

I'm sure this one scene...

... made so many lavashippers happy ❤🖤❤🖤 Cole you got Ray's blessing

Ninja team acting cool while Jay is being Jay, it's how it always goes, it's the entire show's description and I absolutely love it 😂 That wink though 💙

PIRATE ZANE IS BACK 😂😂😂 Haven't seen him since Possession, and this time he's not even malfunctioning 👌 Pixal is so done with his dorky boyfriend 😝

Of course Jay already has a ghost butler theory going on 😂

OF COURSE IT'S MAYA 😂😂

To be honest muffins would sold me too 😅 Not sure if she will make them out of tofu again though...

It's actually really interesting that we still haven't met the actual enemies, it does build up excitment! Very curious about these squid guys 👍

Well what do you know, the Unsinkable sank. Who would have thought?

... yeah same, sorry Pix 😅

FIVE THOUSANDS FATHOMS DOWN

Aaaahhh, Nya fixing stuff! That's more like it!! 😍😍

Oww, that one speech, I've been waiting for so long for that! Maya just wants to catch up with her daughter and it's not her fault she was separated from her children, but Nya did everything on her own with Kai. Only fair she isn't seeking for her help right now... still sad 😢

Pff, with this ninja team there's not a moment of privacy 😂😂

Maya cleaning his future son-in-law's laundry what the HECK 😂😂😂 To be fair Jay has a bit of a history of having to change underwears during sea travels 😝

Zane was attached to a battery? When?... are you talking about that one scene in Prime Empire? Cause that's not really a flashback I wanna ha- whoops never mind got the flashback 😱

Maya looks more calm now, I think she's trying to act more reasonable and she's got good points 👍 I know people were a little weirded out by how more cheerful she looks in comparison to Hands of Time, but I think she gets the most serious and rational when time needs. That's actually fascinating of her 🤔

CALLING OUT AN ATTEMPTED MURDER

THIS GIRL IS TOO GORGEOUS MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT 🤩🤩🤩 Like my gosh that smirk, what the heck Pix 💜💜💜

Okay but Jay looking at Nya until the doors are completely closed?? CAN YOU FEEL MY JAYA HEART BEATING?? ❤💙❤💙

Whoa green gas I thought this was Nya's season 😂

MAYA WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS STUFF YOU'RE SCARING ME 😱😱😱 I SWEAR LEGO IF YOU BROUGHT BACK WATER MOM JUST TO KILL HER OFF I'M GONNA SUE YOU 😭😭😭

I really REALLY like the atmosphere of the entrante of the temple! Super sealike and ancient! 🌊🌊🌊

Maya: off we go, into the spooky old temple! (Why does it feel like something Kai would say? 😂)

Oh gee, someone sleeping in the deep, who could that be? Coff Wojira coff

Whoa the jellyfishes look pretty lifelike!

HERE HE COMES

WELCOME BACK GILES!!! ONCE AGAIN ON A LEGO SHOW I MISSED YOU SO MUCH YOU AND YOUR GODLIKE VOICE!!! 😍😍😍😍 Gosh he's a villain but he's got Clay's voice, how can I even try to hate him?? 😅

Alright, knocking down my water girls, that is pretty hateful material... BUT CLAAAYYY 💙💙💙

So they need the two amulets to wake up Wojira? Isn't one on the island? Fire dad and son coming to the rescue? WHO KNOWS BUT I'M ENJOYING THIS A LOT SO FAR KEEP GOING SEABOUND 😍😍😍

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schrijverr · 4 years ago

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'Till Death Do Us Part

Part 6 out of 13

When Alex has to bring Philip to work, he and Thomas discover that they both have something in common: they lost their love. They form an unexpected bond and connection about this that grows into something more.

A medium burn with parental feelings about Philip and flowers.

On AO3.

Ships: Jamilton

Warnings: brief mention of trauma in regards to water.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 6: Garden Daisy Means ‘I Share Your Sentiments’

Alex and Philip played in the park the next day. He pushed Philip on the swings, they tossed a ball back and forth, making Alex feel very stereotypical, so he taught Philip how to make flower crowns from the little daisies in the grass.

Philip was especially excited about making the daisy chains, telling Alex animatedly about making one at school tomorrow: “Yeah, Theo loves flowers, so I’ll make her one, because she is my bestest friend.”

“I’m sure, she’ll appreciate that,” Alex smiled.

“Are you going to make one for Mr. Thomas?” Philip asked.

Alex shook his head: “Probably not, buddy. I don’t think Thomas is much of a flower crown person, but it’s a sweet thought of you.”

“Why?”

“What? I’m going to need more context than that, Pip.”

“Why doesn’t Mr. Thomas want a flower crown?” Philip asked, looking heartbroken about it as he then also asked, “Is a flower crown not a fun gift for your bestest friends?”

“No, no, Pip, it’s a wonderful gift for Theo tomorrow, but are Theo and Thomas really the same?” he tried to do damage control.

Philip thought about it, then said: “No, but they both think my art is the coolest and they like hearing about dinos and Uncle Laf said Mr. Thomas really liked the flowers you gave him and that he was adorable over them, so he must like the flowers. Don’t you think, so Papa?”

“Uncle Laf said what?” Alex was unable to help himself, immediately backtracking, not wanting to involve his kid in that, “Never mind, not important. You make some really good points, Pip,” he had to acknowledge that, but he wasn’t giving Thomas a flower crown.

“I do?” Pip sounded excited about it.

“Yes, you do,” building up self esteem was good, “But Papa is probably not going to do that, because there are no flowers around the office and they will wilt if I make it now,” he wasn’t going to make Philip sad, so hopefully that would be enough.

Philip hummed thoughtfully, then shook off the entire thing: “I suppose you’re right.”

They went home soon after, eating dinner, before Alex read Philip a bedtime story. When Philip had drifted off, he gave him a kiss on the forehead: “Sleep tight, Pip. You’re going places.”

In return Philip snuggled closer into his pillow with a soft sigh. Alex smiled at the sleeping kid, before retreating downstairs, planning to work a bit on his essay about biphobia within the queer community.

He had written a few good paragraphs when his phone buzzed. He picked it up and smiled when he saw it was a message from Thomas: ‘Since you told me that if I wanted to pay so bad, I would have to ask you out and because I said I would, here is me formally asking if you have time next Saturday?

Alex giggled at the wording, before shooting back: ‘dork’

‘me and pip usually hang out on saturdays, but i think hercs free to babysit’

Thomas replied: ‘I was hoping to take you on a picnic, if Philip wants to come and you don’t mind, he’s more than welcome’

That was something Alex hadn’t seen coming. He would love if Thomas and Pip got along and it seemed Thomas was willing to spend time with his son, but he worried that the man had only offered out of guilt.

He took a quick screenshot and send it to Angelic, asking: ‘is this thomas being nice and awkward abt it even though he doesnt mean it?’

After a few seconds, she replied: ‘He wouldn’t lie about shit like that, now reply before he gets anxious about your silence’

‘yes, ma’am’

Alex quickly went back to the chat with Thomas and send: ‘ill ask if he wants to come, but iwould love to take you up on the invitation :D’

‘Good’

‘Talk to you tomorrow?’

‘yeah, see you then’

‘goodnight’

‘Sleep tight, Alex’

Alex sat for a moment smiling dumbly at his phone, looking forwards to tomorrow to see Thomas again as he got up to get ready for bed.

The next day, he quickly put his stuff in his office, before going to the break room, knowing that Thomas would be in soon and meet him there. It always took a few minutes, so Alex busied himself with making coffee, trying not to look at the door.

He was just taking his first sip when Thomas came in. Almost choking he managed to wave as he greeted: “Hi.”

“Hello, be careful there,” Thomas smirked, noticing Alex struggle with the coffee.

“Shove off,” Alex told him, finally swallowing the sip that had betrayed him.

“Nah, don’t wanna,” Thomas shrugged, making himself coffee, “How was your weekend? Did you get terrorized by Lafayette as well?”

“God, he got you too?” Alex asked.

“Naturally,” Thomas replied, “He was at my house first thing in the morning on Saturday, I think he had a notepad.”

“He is such an idiot,” Alex facepalmed.

“You’re telling me,” Thomas laughed.

“But no, my weekend was good,” Alex said after a pause, “I was over at Eliza’s on Saturday, she and Maria were watching Pip and on Sunday me and Pip went to the park. You?”

“Well, on Saturday I hosted Laf, unprepared, but it was alright,” he was not telling Alex he had been draped over the couch, dramatically recounting the entire night like a teenager, “Then on Sunday I read a bit,” and botheredJames about date ideas, which he did not appreciate, before bothering him about what would bea good message to send, which he also didn’t appreciate; he added mentally.

“Are you reading anything interesting?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, I’m reading Frankenstein, just a classic I never got around to,” Thomas answered.

Alex lit up and their conversation went on, discussing the want for bodily autonomy that Mary Shelley as a woman in that era must have had and how that was integrated into the book and how the story of being otheredcould be applied to other minorities today.

The rest of the week sped by like usual. Their lunches together had felt a bit odd at first like it had gained a deeper meaning after the date, but then Thomas had spilled his coffee and Alex had snorted and inhaled a few crumbs, so that had worn off quite quickly.

When Alex had asked Philip if he wanted to come with him and Thomas on a picnic the boy had been beyond excited, which made that easy for Alex.

Now was just the issue of making sure that they had a kite for Pip, the drawing of Mr. Thomas he had made and wanted to give to the man, and sunscreen on as well as a jacket with them, because the weather was mostly good, but there might be winds later on.

Thomas came to pick them up in his car, it was a bit flashy, but the normal amount of flashy for Thomas. Still Alex said: “Hi there, show off.”

“And proud of it,” Thomas just grinned back, before he could say anything more though, Philip came running out of the house, yelling: “Mr. Thomas, Mr. Thomas, do you know how to fly a kite? Will you fly it with me?”

“Wow, calm down, kiddo,” Thomas said to the kid clinging to his waist.

“Sorry, Mr. Thomas.”

“It’s okay, and you can call me Thomas if you want to, you know that, right?”

“But it’s rude to not call people Mister,” Philip frowned.

“Well, it’s okay with me, I am hereby giving you permission to call me Thomas,” Thomas told the kid gently, the whole Mr. Thomas made him feel old.

Philip nodded, then said: “Okay, Uncle Thomas. Do you know how to fly a kite?”

Okay, that was- that was an upgrade that Thomas was unsure of how to deal with, so he just ignored it: “Yeah, I know how to fly a kite. Do you have one?”

“Yes, it’s the bestest one, it gots all the colors of the rainbow on it!” the kid was clearly beyond excited about it.

“Wow, that sounds super awesome, kiddo.”

“What is also super awesome, is car safety,” Alex interrupted them, “I got Pip’s booster seat, do you mind if I put that on the backseat?”

“Of course not, need help?” Thomas answered.

“Nah, I’ve done this before,” Alex grinned.

With Philip’s booster seat firmly in place and the kid buckled in, they got into the car. Thomas holding Alex’s door open with a flourish, making Alex blush as he called him a dork.

“Not a dork, darlin’, just Southern hospitality,” Thomas winked at him, letting his accent coat his words heavily.

And with that he closed Alex’s door and got into the car, driving off in the direction of the nearby park Alex often visited with Pip.

After they arrived Alex got Philip out of the car, while Thomas grabbed Alex’s bag andan actual basket out of the back. When he noticed Alex staring with a raised brow, he shrugged: “You were cliché, so I thought why not.”

“It’s very picturesque.”

“Papa, what is pictuu- pictuu- that word?” Philip asked.

Breaking the eyecontact with Thomas, Alex explained: “Well, sometimes things look just like a picture, they’re put in on purpose to be pretty, like with a drawing. So, we call it picturesque.”

Philip hummed thoughtfully, before he said: “Okay, can I go on the swings?”

“Sure, buddy, but first we go find a spot to sit and maybe eat something, okay?” Alex said, taking Pip’s hand, holding his other out to Thomas with a raised eyebrow.

Thomas took it with a smile, leading them to a spot near the little pond in the park, where a tree provided both shade and an easy marker to find it again if Philip wandered off on his own, which Alex was grateful for.

Out of the basket came a checkered blanket, which made Alex laugh as he and Thomas struggled to lay in down in the wind. But there were also sandwiches, orange juice, brownies, fruit salad and a thermos with coffee.

“Wow, you thought of everything, didn’t you,” Alex whistled.

He got an eye crinkle smile in return as Thomas said: “I try,” before turning to Philip and asking, “What sort of sandwich do you want, kiddo? I got PB and J, ham and cheese and one with chicken and eggplant.”

“May I please have a PB and J sandwich?”

“So, polite,” Thomas commented, handing him the sandwich, “Here you go. Alex?”

“Uhm, can I have one with chicken?”

“Of course, there you are,” Thomas handed him a sandwich, before taking a chicken one as well, nodding a cheers to the others before eating it.

It wasn’t really quiet while they ate, neither Alex nor Philip had a talent for keeping their mouths shut while Thomas was comfortable enough to mix himself into the conversation, either to argue fondly with Alex or to encourage Philip to keep going.

When most of the food was gone, Philip asked: “Can I go on the swings now, Papa?”

Alex checked if the swings were in sight, they were actually quite close and since he was trying to let Pip be more independent, he nodded: “Yeah, just be sure to stay in sight and to come tell me if you’re going somewhere else, okay?”

“Okay, Papa.”

“Can you pinky promise me?” he might be trying to let Pip be more independent, but he still worried about his son.

“Pinky promise,” it was adorable how serious Philip looked while making the pinky promise.

Then Philip skipped off to the swings to play. Alex watched him closely until he got there, then a few moments more just to be sure.

“It’s incredible to see how much you love him,” the comment startled Alex for a moment and he asked: “Wha?”

“Just- you love Philip so much and you can see it every time you two interact,” Thomas explained, “It’s kinda amazing to see. You know, with a big family it wasn’t all that one on one, so seeing how much attention you give him is weird – in the best way of course.”

Alex blushed, no one really every complimented his parenting much, with the trans thing and the single parent and the busy job, most of the PTA moms looked down on him, so it was refreshing to hear: “Oh, uhm, thanks, really means a lot.”

“No problem,” Thomas smiled, “Coffee?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Alex held out his cup and watched it get filled, nodding to Thomas gratefully as he took a sip.

It was quiet for a moment, then a thought popped into Thomas’s head, making him a bit unsure and he asked: “Philip is calling me Uncle Thomas, you okay with that?”

“As long as you are. Pip’s never had a conventional family, I’m not sure he knows exactly what the word is supposed to mean, so he just calls adults he knows well that,” Alex explained, before quickly adding, “If you want him to stop, I can talk to him.”

“Oh, no, I don’t mind – honored, actually – just, you know,checking in.”

“Okay.”

Then it was quiet again. They both stared at the little playground where Philip was now playing tag with a few other kids, obviously done with swinging on the swings.

The sun was out and there were birds in the trees that were chirping, they were sitting on a checkered blanket, nearly completely leaning on one another and Alex was enamored by how picturesque this actually was, even if it had been teasing before.

He remembered Thomas complimenting his date and how relieved and excited that had made him, so he leaned more into Thomas’s side and softly said: “This is pretty amazing, thanks for asking me out again.”

Alex couldn't see it, but Thomas grinned as he replied: “Well, I am glad for inviting you, the company makes it much better.”

“How romantic,” Alex told him, trying, and failing, not to be touched by the comment.

“I try,” Thomas merely replied.

“So,” Alex looked around for something to talk about when he spotted the daisies in the grass and was reminded of his trip to the park with Pip last week, “opinions on flower crowns?”

“What?” Thomas sounded very confused.

He sat up straighter and plucked a few flowers, making a chain and holding it up: “Opinions on flower crowns?”

Thomas laughed for a second, then saw Alex’s face andexclaimed: “Oh my God, you’re being serious.”

Alex laughed too, before schooling his face into a more serious expression: “A trustworthy source told me these are very great gifts.”

“Oh, and who might that source be?” Thomas challenge.

“Well that would be my very own flesh and blood, Philip Hamilton, UncleThomas,” Alex emphasized the title teasingly.

Thomas grinned: “Oh, you should have said so, can’t argue with such an esteemed member of society.”

They both laughed again as Alex plucked more daisies and made a flower crown. It might have been a bit of a joke, but he had never known when to stop and he wasn’t going to start now, so he concentrated on braiding the flowers together while Thomas watched with an amused smile.

“Here, a pretty flower crown, for a pretty boy,” Alex said, handing Thomas the flower crown, taking much delight in how he had a front row seat to a blush blooming over Thomas’s entire face.

Mutely Thomas took the flower crown, mentally trying not to die at Alex’s face and words, which was really hard.

“Well, aren’t you going to put it on?” Alex asked, it was kinda mean to tease at this point, but he couldn't help it when Thomas looked like that.

“Ye- yeah, naturally,” Thomas managed, putting the flower crown on as he regained his bearings, “So, how do I look?” his voice was still a bit squeaky.

“Ah, just like I thought,” Alex smiled, “beautiful.”

“You can’t just say things like that, Alex,” Thomas tried to hide his face.

“Yes, yes, I can. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m kind of known for always speaking my mind and being honest. Can’t help it if it’s true.”

“I hate you.”

“I sure hope that’s not true or this is going to be awkward.”

It was a teasing reply, but both stilled for a moment, before Thomas slowly and softly said: “No, I- I didn’t mean that, you’re- you’re pretty alright.”

“Pretty alright… Hm, I’ll take it,” Alex was smirking, trying to play off the fact that his heart was beating like a marathon runner’s as relief flooded through his veins.

Thomas shoved him over and said: “You’re an idiot.”

“Now that- that I already knew,” Alex grinned, before getting up and looking back to the playground to check in on Philip.

He didn’t have to search much, because the boy was just running their way, yelling: “Papa, Papa, I slayed the dragon.”

“Wow, really buddy? That’s so cool,” Alex caught him as the kid practically tripped into his arms as he gestured wildly while recounting his epic encounter with a dragon and a witch and some fairies who were ‘the coolest, Papa, you should have seen then, they went pow pow and it was so cool.’

Then he spotted Thomas with the flower crown perched on his head and he smiled widely: “Did you give Uncle Thomas a flower crown like I said, Papa?”

“Yeah, I did, Pip. You were right, it was a great gift.”

“I have to agree, you have way better ideas than your Papa,” Thomas budded in.

Philip’s smile widened: “Really? I think so, but Papa is an adult and people always say adults know better.”

“Well, in some instances, adults have more experiences so they can make better decisions, but that doesn’t mean they’re always right,” Thomas said, “Kids can have interesting ideas too. Think of it like painting, experiences are different colors, but you don’t need every color, you can just make a more elaborate picture with more.”

Alex watched as Philip took a moment to think about it, before he nodded in understanding and saying: “So, I may not have all the colors yet, but I can make a good picture?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Thomas was grinning so broadly that Alex was going to loose his mind with how much he adored Thomas and Philip interacting and how fucking cute it was.

Suddenly Philip’s eyes lit up and he said: “Papa, I forgot to give Uncle Thomas his picture.”

“You can give it now, buddy,” Alex told him, reaching over to the bag he brought himself and digging through it.

“My what?” Thomas asked in the background.

“I made you a picture,” Philip was bouncing in place waiting for Alex to find it. When he did, he handed it to Pip, who in turn handed it to Thomas.

“It’s you,” he said, “You’re all purple, because you like purple like me and you have big hair like Uncle Laf and Uncle Herc do, though Uncle Herc’s is smaller and I gave you a book and a laptop ad then I thought planes would be cool, so I added those.”

“Wow, Philip, this is amazing,” Thomas said, “I feel like I should donate it to a museum, but something is missing for that.”

“What?” Philip’s face fell slightly.

“I need it signed, can’t have a masterpiece and forget who made it. What if you get famous? I want to be able to brag that I got an original Philip Hamilton drawing,” he dug around in his pocket and got out the purple pen he used to sign things when he was annoyed at Washington.

Philip took it excitedly, messily scrawling his name at the bottom, before handing it back: “Here, for you.”

“Truly, I’m speechless,” Thomas said, “I’m going to have to frame this.”

“You will?” Philip’s eyes were as big as plates.

“I am a man of my word and I promise,” Thomas told him, holding up a pinky. He had alreadyfigured out that promise meant the most to Philip at this age.

Philip happily interlocked their fingers, before Thomas carefully put the drawing away. Once it was gone, Philip asked: “Can we go kiting now?”

“We first have to put it together if you want to do that, so while I do that why don’t you drink some more juice,” Alex said, already pouring juice in a cup for Pip.

“Thank you, Papa,” Philip started drinking happily.

He struggled with putting the kite together, but luckily Thomas had more experience in putting together kites, citing his big family. So, they had it assembled by the time Philip had finished his juice.

Alex forced Philip to eat a brownie too. It might not be the healthiest, but he wouldn’t let Philip run around on an empty stomach if he could help it.

“I have no clue how to do this,” Alex confessed holding the kite. He had bought it on a whim in the supermarket about twoweeksago. However, he had no childhood memories to draw from on how to do this.

“Fortunately for you, I do,” Thomas said, taking the kite from him, “Here, let me take this.”

Alex gladly gave the task away and watched as Thomas gave Philip the handle of the kite and instructed him on what to do as he threw the kite into the air.

Philip whooped when it stayed up and Thomas cheered as well. Alex took out his phone and sneakily took a picture of the two, before cheering as well.

He flew the kite for half an hour before it went wrong. It was nothing big, just a sudden gust of wind that ripped the kite from Philip’s small hands and carried the kite away from them until it dropped into the water.

They looked at the kite for a second, before Philip turned to Alex with big eyes: “Papa, we have to save the kite.”

Looking at the water, Alex shuddered before he replied: “I’m sorry, Pip, but I can’t retrieve it for you. I think you’re going to have to say goodbye to the kite.”

“I can go get it, please, Papa,” there were tears gathering in Philip’s eyes.

In his mind images of Philip drowning flashed and quite harshly he said: “No!” cringing as Philip startled slightly. In a softer tone, he repeated: “No, Pip. You can’t swim, I’m not letting you in the water, because it’s dangerous and your clothes will get wet.”

“But- but the kite,” Philip argued.

“It was an accident, but we lost the kite,” Alex tried to break the news gently.

They were distracted by Thomas, who said: “I can go get the kite.”

“What?” “Will you do that, Uncle Thomas!”

“No, I can’t ask that of you,” Alex said, “You’ll ruin your clothes and it’s in the water and it might get cold later, it’s too much to ask.”

“I’ll be fine, Alex. Unlike Philip here, I can swim, so it’s fine if I fall. And this isn’t a natural pond anyway,” Thomas explained, “It’s made to trap rainwater so the neighborhood doesn’t get flooded, but because it’s in a kids park, it’s shallower. I don’t think my shorts will get wet.”

“You really don’t have to do this,” Alex pressed again, making sure that Thomas didn’t feel obligated just because Philip would be mildly upset about it.

“I know,” Thomas smiled as he sat down to toe off his shoes and socks.

Before he stepped into the water, he looked at Pip and seriously said: “Can you watch over our spot and your Papa for me while I go rescue the kite?”

Philip nodded, equally serious: “With my life.”

“Good,” Thomas chuckled, then set his first step.

He had been right about the depth of the pond and got to the kite without any difficulties. More onlookers had turned their attention to the water, but Thomas tried to ignore them as he saved the kite.

Returning to the shore he handed it to Philip, who beamed: “Thank you so somuch, Uncle Thomas.”

“No problem, kiddo, though I don’t think we can kite any more with the kite all wet,” he replied.

“That’s okay, I can still swing,” Philip said.

As the kid ran off again to play, Alex turned to Thomas: “Really, thank you, you didn’t have to do it, but thanks.”

“Did you see Philip’s smile? Worth it, really,” Thomas assured him.

Alex smiled, he didn’t think his heart could contain all the affection he had for Thomas in that moment, so he just hugged the man and gave him a peck on the cheek.

Thomas gently touched the spot Alex had kissed before smiling like he was the happiest man on earth, which only made Alex scream more internally.

They returned to their blanket and watched Philip play. After a few minutes of silence, Thomas lightly said: “So, water. Not a fan?”

“Ah, no, not really,” Alex replied, not sure on what to say.

“You don’t have to tell me, just good to keep in mind,” Thomas told him gently.

“Oh, no, it’s okay, just not something I talk about much,” Alex shrugged.

Thomas repeated: “You don’t have to tell me, really.”

“I know,” Alex assured him, “You know how I’m an immigrant, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I come from the Caribbean and uhm- You see, there was this hurricane that hit my island when I was seventeen. It’s- uh, it’s not something I’d recommend living through,” he told Thomas.

“Oh wow, I remember that being on the news,” Thomas felt like he had maneuvered himself into an awkward position. He was bad at comfort, with John he could relate, but here he was way out of his depths.

“It’s okay now, I got over it- mostly,” Alex shrugged, trying to move on, “Just don’t like water or storms that much.”

Thomas nodded, staying quiet. Instead he slung an arm over Alex’s shoulders and let the man snuggle close as he stared off in the direction Philip was in, though Thomas wasn’t sure if he was seeing much, so he kept an eye on the kid just in case.

After a moment, Alex asked: “Do you have one of those brownies left?”

“What? Huh, oh yeah. Here.”

“Thank you, these are amazing.”

“Why thank you, I made them.”

“You did?”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised.”

“I’m not,” a beat, then Alex said, “Well, I am, but it’s more pleasantly surprised than anything else. I didn’t know you baked.”

Thomas was glad for the change in topic and that the atmosphere hadn’t been ruined by his comment. So he replied: “It’s calming, repetitive and you have something nice at the end.”

“Never pegged you to be a stress baker,” Alex commented.

“According to Jemmy it’s one of my more redeeming qualities,” Thomas joked.

Alex laughed: “James is good in pinning people, I’ll take his word.”

“He thought you to be annoying and a dick, so I don’t think you wanna do that,” Thomas raised a brow at him.

“Schematics,” Alex waved his hand, “And in my defense, I was annoying back then, maybe even a bit of a dick, butI just aged like fine wine.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“I thought you were supposed to be on my side.”

“What can I say, I’m a man of many faces.”

“You’re a dork, that’s what you are.”

“Maybe so,” Thomas smirked, before looking over to the playground again. Philip was going down the slide, before running around with another kid. Thomas said: “He looks like he’s having fun.”

“Yeah, yeah, he does,” Alex agreed, snuggling closer into Thomas’s side.

Thomas planted a kiss on the top of his head and Alex was pretty sure he was one day going to melt out of affection.

Philip stopped running for a moment, to turn to them and wave excitedly. Alex waved back and so did Thomas. Alex couldn't stop the smile on his face, this was nice, so much nicer than he ever thought he was going to get after John’s death.

He send a quick look to the sky, slightly wistful, before fully draping himself over Thomas, earning a not-that-offended offended squawk that he ignored in favor of draping even more until Thomas gave in and let them both topple over.

Alex vowed that he was going to try to hold on to this for as long as possible.

I am not a parent btw, I feel like I should have stated that early, also don’t take this fic as parenting advise. I try to write Good Parent!Alex, but that doesn’t mean it will be entirely, bc, again, no experience in this field.

Btw, Philip not understanding Uncle and Auntie and being over at the other’s houses so much is a concept I love, bc it’s a very queer way to raise a kid. Sure, Alex is his primary care giver and dad and stuff, but a village raises a kid and- ugh, I love found family dynamics.

Also this is getting incredibly fluffy, I was worried this was going to be too dark for me with my other fics, but no within a few chapters the angst has made place for this. Love that for me *gay peace sign*

#RR writing #tw: trauma mention #Hamilton #Hamilton AU #alexander hamilton #thomas jefferson #philip hamilton #Jamilton #'Till Death Do Us Part #'Till Death Do Us Part Part 6 #'Till Death Do Us Part AU

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slade-neko · 4 years ago

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Monster Hunter Rise ~ My Thoughts

Oh, man, Monster Hunter Rise, where to begin?! I guess I’ll start with the game itself in a nutshell is a BLAST! It’s not without a few issues I have with it personally, but I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it nonetheless. I want to take the time to mention I am a second generation hunter myself. Started playing Monster Hunter in 2008 with Freedom 2 on PSP at the tender age of 13. So its safe to say I’ve got a lot to say about this game! If you want to read the full thing then here it is.

This review is MOSTLY spoiler-free! There isn’t a lot you can spoil in this game... I mention some endgame stuff and there is a screenshot that contains the final boss’s armor but not focused on it. Just a friendly warning if you are a die-hard spoiler avoider.

The Weapon Types

I’ll start with the fact that the weapon types in MH Rise are all really fun to play and have very well polished movesets. I haven’t extensively played with all the weapon types, but I’d like to say a few things about the ones I have been using. Long Sword feels the best it has ever been in the entire series in my opinion, ironically this game starts you off with a Long Sword equipped too.

I went ham with Long Sword throughout the main story, but now have swapped over to maining Light Bowgun. I was a big Heavy Bowgun main in MH World, but shield spreadshot builds don't feel the same for me as they did in World, but the Light Bowgun in this game shreds. Narga Piercing LBG for distance shooting and then Magnamalo Spread LBG for getting up close and personal. Evade Extender 3 makes zipping around the battlefield a breeze and next to impossible to get hit making it a very fun and rewarding playstyle.

My brother on the other hand has been hitting hard with Long Sword and the new Hunting Horn. He misses the original note playing at times, but the damage on HH is insane and healing constantly with the Rampage Horn is a big plus too for a game with no health regen factors. He’s been building sets for nearly every weapon type, but LS and HH are his two mains. Both weapon types were introduced in 2nd Gen, where we started, so maining those two for him is a bit symbolic. Also the fact that LS has been heralded as the most used weapon-type and HH the least used as of recent games is a neat contrast to use both.

The Characters, Setting, and Story

I know Monster Hunter isn’t exactly known for it’s characters or story, heck most games hardly had a story until World came out. Typically Monster Hunter games follow the simple formula of big bad flagship monster causing problems with local village and ecosystem, hunt it, happy ending?, turns out bigger badder scarier secret boss monster was actually causing the problems, hunt it, true happy ending. Nothing wrong with that, I can roll with whatever story they make, majority of players are here for the gameplay. That said, I still enjoy and appreciate what story the devs put together no matter how it turns out. I liked what Rise offered, nothing too grand like World, more of a simple story following the old games formula.

Surprisingly I haven’t seen many people talk about the characters in this game and the little fact that this is the first time in the ENTIRE SERIES (outside of MH Stories) characters have REAL names! Hinoa, Minoto, Fugen, Yomogi, Iori, Hamon, Rondine, Hojo, Utsushi, like honest to goodness actual NAMES, not “Blacksmith,” “Village Elder,” or “Fish Mongress.” The characters are fun though, nice and memorable, not really annoying. Also following World’s fully voice-acted characters is a nice touch. I sometimes miss the days of old when characters had simple grunts and you read everything, but I doubt that will ever come back now, just something lost to the classic MH games.

Then there’s the super Asian-inspired ninja-like theme to the entire game. You’ll either love it, hate it, or maybe you don’t care about how the village is at all. I like the whole ninja aesthetic while it does work for this game in particular, but I will admit its a little bit weird in the entirety of Monster Hunter as a series.

The Hunts, Gameplay, and Everything Else

Ah yes, the gameplay, the heart of the Monster Hunter games... while yes I do think this game is a lot of fun overall, I do have a few complaints with it... I’m going to break this down into mini-sections because there is a lot to cover here.

Quest Preparations Maybe I’m just old school, but I feel like they took away a lot of the prep work for going on hunts. No cold/ hot drinks, access full inventory on quests, refill items, no longer eat for attack/ def buffs, monsters always visible on maps, no random spawning on High Rank quests, little things like that. In the old games you had to prepare for each hunt, it was part of the game. You go after a big monster, you make sure you got everything you need to win BEFORE you depart on the quest. It feels like they are double-downing more so on just the fighting itself.

Tracking Monsters Monsters aren’t even tracked anymore, they’re always visible on your map. No having to run around and look for them like classic MH games... Though to be fair maybe that’s better off in the old games with the paintball tracking system and individual loaded areas than in a game with a fully open-world setting because I got headaches tracking monsters in MH World’s open-world especially the Ancient Forest.

The Monsters The new monsters in this game a welcome addition. I don’t really have any problems with their designs or fights. Have to say Goss Horag has a very fun fight, but my favorite new monster is probably Rakna-Kadaki. A pelican spider is a dang neat idea for a monster and there aren’t a lot of Temnocerans. Would love to see the return of the Carapaceons though! This is literally the perfect game for Shen-Gaoren to come back with the new rampage system! Bring back my giant enemy crab, Capcom please!

Monster Behavior/ Minion Monsters/ Herbivores Added this subsection to talk specifically about the monsters’ behaviors in this game along with the minion monsters cause while not very important overall there are still some things to be said.

Same thing in MH World, but the monsters act more like animals now. While yes, that is more realistic and is mostly a good thing, but it honestly gives me second thoughts about hunting them. In World most boss monsters wouldn’t attack you unless you attacked them first. That made me feel terrible walking up to a calm Teostra just chilling in the dunes and then I start smacking the heck outta it with a weapon... Old games the monsters saw you, the “something’s gonna getcha music starts playing” and then it charges you and your in the fight! Now its like you’re the monster killing a bunch of animals (exaggerating a bit, but still!)

What’s not exaggerated is the minions in this game. The old games had minions that were incredibly annoying and I wanted to kill them. This game however has the sweet little bullfangos, jagras, and other minions just lazing around sleeping. My brother and I were in need of Rhenoplos scalps for some gear, set out on a quest to slay some, find them peacefully sleeping by some rocks and I ask my brother, “Okay, so you gonna bash its skull in with your hammer and pop its eyes out or am I gonna fill it full of lead with my bowgun?” Needlessly violent example, I know, but it still makes the point that it feels more like animal cruelty when they aren’t bothering anyone. I’d rather the minions just start charging me and piss me off as a player, so I wouldn’t feel bad defending myself to take them out.

Lastly, there’s the herbivores. Not a lot to say on the matter, but I feel like they could’ve given a few more herbivore types. Like no Aptonoth in this game? I thought they were kinda a staple of the series for herbivores. I also feel like the maps could feel a bit more lively with more herbivores placed around. Maybe Mosswines in the Shrine Ruins, especially when scaling the central mountain shrine with the mushroom colonies everywhere. Great spots for mushroom piggies!

The Maps/ Locales I love them! Well for the most part. They are good and I don’t dislike any in particular. My only problems is that they sometimes feel too big, too open, and too empty. I know they have a lot of stuff in them, gathering points, spiribirds, relics, and many other things, but there is an odd sense of emptiness there. Like I mentioned earlier, I think perhaps adding in more scattered monsters might’ve helped that a bit. Only other thing to mention is that the new locales rely too heavily on the Palamutes to get around effectively. I personally like bringing my kitties with me on multiplayer quests, so I am at the mercy of wirebug zipping to get around and often left behind.

Oh, last thing I will mention on maps is while its not in the base game, I pray they add back the Tower as a map. Preferably the 2nd Gen version where you start at base camp and scale the tower. A game that’s all about rising and verticality, the Tower is literally the PERFECT map to have in this game!

Spiribirds Love em or hate them, there’s the Spiribirds. Cool concept, but I don’t think it works very well in my opinion. I don’t care about roaming the map to collect my bird buffs, I just want to eat for Attack Up large like old games and be done. I definitely try to grab them when I can, but I can’t be bothered to chase down all the birds each and every hunt just to get my full Attack up buff.

Wirebugs On with the title of the game being Rise giving meaning to the new wirebugs feature. Wirebugs are fun to use, zip around the map, super attacks, and what-not, but I can’t help but feel its a little out of place in a Monster Hunter game. Feels like I’m Spider-Man or something. I know I praised this when I played the demo and I’m not dissing it now, I still enjoy using them, but I am also admitting that they do feel very outlandish for a Monster Hunter game. Still better than the slinger/ clutch claw though! Let’s never talk about those accursed items again.

Silkbinds The Silkbind attacks though are fully great! I love having access to super attacks like Hunting Arts and things like that for my weapons, so I sincerely hope they keep some kind of super attack format in future games.

Mounting The mounting system in this game is weird, but pretty cool! Its a great way to let you control a monster for a change and beat the snot out of other monsters as a monster. I saw someone describe it is as “going full on Ratatouille with the monsters” and honestly there isn’t a better way to explain it than that.

Palicoes/ Palamutes The Buddy System in this game is great! Palicoes still feel about the same as they did in World, maybe a little less powerful now since you can have two of them at once, still love them though and prefer to bring a Palico with me on my quests.

Then there is the new doggies, the Palamutes! Super cute and cuddly, but also quite powerful! I love the doggos, but I wish the maps weren’t designed around them. I like to bring my cat with me on multiplayer quests, so I don’t get a dog to ride and the maps are HUGE, very wide-opened, lots of running... Wirebugs help, but still not quite as fast as the puppies.

Oh and two little pet peeve of mine is you can’t see other players buddy names and you can’t change buddy comments! I want people to be able to see my buddies’ names and I need my Garfield cat’s comment to say “I hate Mondays.” and my Sonic dog to say “Gotta go fast!” and my Courage the Cowardly Dog dog to have “The things I do for love.” Unless there is a hidden menu somewhere where you can edit these, but alas I have yet to find it...

Voiced Hunters Hunters have always been the silent protagonists of the games with attack grunts, hurt sounds, and little to nothing more. Now they are full voiced for gestures and full hunting dialogue. I really like this, its funny to hear them shout things and stuff and having some familiar voice actors in the game is really cool to have them voice my characters. My brother rocking the Xander Mobus voice-type on his hunter is freakin’ cool and hilarious at the same time. I am tempted to make a Zentisu hunter, name him Zenitsu, give him the Zentisu voice-type, and go full Thunderclap maining a Thunder-type Long Sword just for the heck of it. Oh and also there’s the fact that CRISTINA VEE IS OFFICIALLY IN A MONSTER HUNTER GAME NOW AS A FEMALE VOICE OPTION! Still feels weird comparing it to previous games, but I’m okay with it because the fun factor in it outweighs the weird for me personally. Besides if you for some reason decided you hate fun you can just mute them in the options.

Layered Armor (or lack-of) I love Layered Armor... and there is only two sets in this game. The Deluxe Edition’s “Kamurai” samurai looking layered armor and the Magnamalo amiibo “Sinister” layered set with a few head only layered pieces as DLC in the eShop. I was honestly expecting all armor to be layered and unlockable in the base game after the huge demand for layered armor in MH World and Transmog being a thing in the side team’s last game, MHXX/ MHGU.

I think a mixed system of both Transmog and Layered Armor would be ideal. Transmog system for in-game armors and then additional bonus themed armor sets made as Layered Armors like the Kamurai set. That way players can be rewarded for crafting all the armors with use of a Transmog system even giving an incentive to make multiple sets twice to Transmog differently. While the devs could still make money off cool unique Layered sets as DLC in the eShop. Literally fixes both issues right there. Feel free to use that idea, Capcom, and you’re welcome.

Multiplayer/ Lobbies/ Scaling Four people lobbies are back! Not necessarily a good thing. I mean hey its not bad either, but I honestly preferred the larger lobbies like World had. Having more people doesn’t make it less social. All they need is to force people to do multiplayer quests in the Gathering Hub. I prefer large lobbies and have people do whatever they want and meet up in the Hub for socials. Mainly what I dislike about 4 player lobbies is everyone will be expected to help each other on their quests within the lobby. I just want to chill and do my own thing, but see and interact with other players in the village between quests. Oh, but the ability to join quests late is seriously great! Dropping into a lobby and seeing people already on a quest and being able to jump in with them is a godsend!

Difficulty scaling is a very weird thing. It’s basically a double-edged sword. Its good to have because you can beat everything on your own, but that also defeats the purpose of multiplayer. In the past games, Hub quests were scaled higher for multiplayer, so getting more people to help only made it easier. Now, why bother with players when you could just do it yourself scaled to an easier single-player difficulty? I can usually get faster times when I solo things now. Multiplayer is there just for the social aspect to goof around with friends or if you just wanna do chill hunting with people. It’s no longer a requirement or an aid for beating the game. Like I said, its a weird thing, not bad, but not good either? I dunno, I just compare a lot of things to the classic MH games. In the past getting a second player to help makes it twice as easy compared to beating a Hub quest by yourself, while getting four players makes it where you’re effectively doing 4x more damage. Now its like you get 4-players and the monster gets 4x the health too. That might not be the exact scaling, but you get my point.

One last thing I want to touch on which a lot of people have already mentioned is the fact multiplayer can get pretty chaotic. Especially when you have 4 players with 4 palamutes all smacking away at a monster. Hit effects are EVERYWHERE! Creates quite the mess and can be hard to tell what’s happening.

Quest Difficulty/ Harder Monsters I don’t care too much about how hard the game is and I know this is a touchy subject, but I do like challenging monsters, without relying on gimmicky crap to fight them. MH World was filled with gimmicky fights like Behemoth, Leshen, even Alatreon and Fatalis to some degree. I still have Extreme Behemoth PTSD. I just want good clean fights, no damage checks, unavoidable one-hit kill moves, crap like that is not cool. I want to cart because I screwed up and made a wrong move and got punished by some wicked strong attack from a big bad boss monster. Not a stupid damage check telling me, “Oh, you not do enough damage, you die now.” To be fair, old Monster Hunter games had some gimmicky fights too though. MH4U with Apex Monsters and Wystones, MHGU with HP tank Hyper Monsters, heck even Freedom 2 was unintentionally gimmicky with outrageous hitboxes haha. Oh, that game was brutal! Deviants in MHGU were amazing though! Some really tough fights there, but incredibly rewarding to beat, that’s what I love!

The Endgame/ Secret Bosses (or lack-of) There is no Endgame, we are stuck in the Infinity War for now (or Affinity War as my brother calls it since the meta is all about those crits!) Okay, so that’s a bit harsh, all jokes aside there is an endgame, but its not exactly what I was expecting and leaves me wanting more. One of my favorite aspects of Monster Hunter games is the endgames and the secrets they hold, which this game had very few! They revealed nearly EVERY monster before this game launched. I get it, they want to sell their game, but leave some secrets please. Only monster that was secret was just the final boss. I love getting to the end of the game and unlocking new quests to fight the big scary endgame bosses. I guess World kinda suffered from that too a little bit. Mostly hanging on to old games like Freedom Unite unlocking Fatalis, MH3U getting Abyssal Lagiacrus, and Molten Tigrex in MH4U was very cool! Could just be the state of games these days like Smash Ultimate where they reveal everything before the game is out since data miners will just leak them anyways... kinda makes me sad.

Updates and Future Content

I know this game has planned updates that will add a lot of content, but I can’t help but feel those “updates” were part of the game that’s been withheld to make the updates feel like so much more. Its like they ripped out the ending of the game and are passing it of as a big huge update to be released after launch.

The real kick to this is the fact there is no Hunter Rank in the current game... I’ve done approximately 300 quests so far in my game, its going to hurt me very badly when I see the HR update come out and I don’t get any HR for the hunts I’ve done so far. I know some people could care less about HR and just see it as a number, but for me that number is a nice thing to see. I love seeing it go up as I do more quests and play more of the game. Going hard at launch has been a lot of fun, but less rewarding knowing I am quite possibly not getting any HR points for all my gameplay.

Only reason I can see they would not want to allow a buildup of HR before this update is because this update will add a bunch of new endgame monsters most likely unlocked through getting high Hunter Rank. I pray for my boy Akantor to finally shine again, I know the side team loves him, so let’s please get him into Rise! AND Please don’t show them off in videos, Capcom! Just stealth drop a bunch of Elder Dragons and Endgame bosses into the game!

Final Thoughts

I’m probably just stuck in the old days some, I guess this is just how the games will be going forward, but a bit of that makes me sad. Feels like the game series I loved so much is losing some character and personality of what made is special and unique. This review might’ve got a bit ranty, but I like to critique a game series I am very passionate about. World was very similar to this. From everything I’ve said, by no means do I hate this game. I still love MH Rise and the entire series and I’ll keep playing it having a lot of fun along the way. Best way I can describe Monster Hunter Rise is it’s the Side Team’s Monster Hunter World. Its fresh, new, and very experimental!

All in all this game is still great and I stand by what I said at the beginning of this entire post, its a blast to play! I hope everyone can enjoy it and remember, Happy Hunting!

#Monster Hunter Rise #Monster Hunter #MHRise

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multimetaverse · 6 years ago

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Andi Mack 3x14 & 3x15 Reviews

Hammer Time and Unloading Zone were two good eps that were somewhat marred by filler. Let’s dig in!

Positives:

It’s good to teach kids early that there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.

I’ll give them credit for not bearding TJ and for having him explicitly say that that he and Kira are not together. Also really drove home how petty and manipulative Kira is.

The Tyrus scenes were brief but not as angsty as I thought. It’s very clear they’re pushing the bounds of subtext and showing that Cyrus has a crush on TJ and wants to make that known but of course we can’t start moving into text until after the cut episode. I think this is the ep that probably clues in the casual audience that Cyrus does in fact like TJ as more than a friend though knowledge that they’re being set up to be a couple won’t come until Something to Talk A-Boot (unless they happen to see the promo with the Bench scene).

They’ve clearly set up Buffy as Cyrus’ crush confidante, making sure all talk of TJ is kept away from Andi and Jonah which is sad but unsurprising. It wouldn’t shock me if Andi and Jonah don’t explicitly know about Cyrus’ crush until after the bench scene itself. Great to see Buffy being so encouraging although she can’t explicitly say anything yet.

I wonder if that whole ‘’brings out his eyes’’ bit will come back during or after the bench scene. TJ is wearing a green shirt at the party that would bring out his eyes. Maybe that will be a Disney approved gay version of the typical straight guy calling his love interest pretty.

Those were some great Muffy scenes. I know there were some worries on tumblr about their chemistry after 3x13 but those should be put to rest now I think.

Extremely easy to see the Muffy arc ending in a kiss in the finale.

Bringing Garren back was a very wise decision on the writers part. That ‘’ I want to cross the finish line’’ with you line was a great little nod to them being endgame. And that piggyback ride Marty gave Buffy was sweet.

Really good subtle message sent by the camp out that it should be totally normal for a straight guy to have sleepovers with his gay friend.

Andi’s line about Jonah maybe not being capable of more emotional connection than his usual 6 emojis is damning but I also wonder if it’s set up for him to subvert that when he sings You Girl.

A sad reminder about Amber’s awful home life. It’s clear she’s seeking the love and attention she’s not getting at home from her parents but Jonah is really not the solution.

In 3x15 we get some foreshadowing for Buffy’s later foot injury

Nice to see Jonah participating in the protest and I always enjoy when they lean into Jonah being kind of dumb.

We still managed to get an Alpaca cameo after all. Also confirms that the original 3x18 at Snuck Farm was indeed planned as the original wedding.

The don’t hurt yourself lines Cyrus and Jonah had were very funny.

Cyrus referenced the Tunguska event most likely

Lauren Tom knocked it out of the park with her emotional scenes in both eps. i wish we had seen more of this Celia in S3 instead of wacky grandma

Liked Officer Penn’s Clint Eastwood impression. And interesting that they used a white male cop as a bad guy.

Celia’s snow globe was a lovely gift. According to Disney PR, it was inspired by Terri’s snow globe collection and Lilan and Trent didn’t know what was inside the box until they opened it.

Liked the Game of Thrones reference (at least the Andi Mack finale can’t be worse than that show’s)

Loved the music in the cold open, it was the same they used for scene transitions in 3x07.

I try not to pass judgment on the show because the whole Ham situation is so awful and unprecedented but that convo about him going to India really skated close to dark humour especially when Celia said ‘’don’t worry you’ll see him again’’.

Negatives:

Notice how they kept Kira making TJ feel bad about his crush out of the previously on and instead focused on her disliking Cyrus because he’s Buffy’s friend. I do think Kira gets called out for that by TJ during the finale but it’s clear for now that they’re trying to pass this off as her hating Buffy and liking TJ and wanting him for herself.

They had Luke and Raquel for a day but filmed quite a bit less than their typical maximum. TJ himself only got 2:45 minutes of screentime, including being in the background, which is a little less than his usual 3 minutes.

Which isn’t a surprise, TJ’s screen time operates by a different math than other recurring characters. It’s the same pattern in both S2 and S3, he can be in 9 aired eps max and only 3 eps after the 13th ep of the season. Luckily in S3 Disney only ordered 21 eps so instead of only 3 TJ eps spread out over 12 eps we got 3 spread out over 8 until the FBI knocked that down to 7.

It’s not a question of budget, they had a much higher per ep budget in S3, nor was it scheduling since Luke had no other projects and they were able to work around Garren’s GH filming schedule right through the finale and re-shoots nor was there a 9 ep limit on recurring characters as Emily was in 11 of the original 21 this season.

Not to mention they’ve been drastically cutting TJ’s screentime with Cyrus. Luckily they do probably have to give him a bit more than 3 minutes in Something to Talk A-Boot and hopefully gets more than 3 in the finale.

The Cyrus and Jonah plot was sweet but pure filler. I never expected Cyrus to talk to Jonah about his feelings or anything related to his sexuality but was there nothing else they could even briefly touch on? Jonah’s anxiety? Cyrus’ anxiety? Jonah’s family problems? It’s not like Terri didn’t know the show was going to end just 7 eps later in otl so why waste this time? It’s most likely the last significant solo time those two have and they should have used it more wisely.

Vivian turned out to be completely useless. Seems like they cut some of her lines but I really don’t get her purpose.

The clothing protest was rushed and the ending was very unsatisfying. It hurt the plot that we never actually saw anyone connected to the company.

Celia and Bex didn’t really patch up either and I’m guessing things weren’t truly fixed until Bex agreed to put the wedding back on in 3x17 in otl.

Amber is in love with Jonah? This is what they’re dedicating so much screen time to in these final eps?

They really ruined the swings for nothing. At least we get nice scenes in Something to Talk A-Boot and the finale

Kira really is something. She’s trying to get a a guy she knows is gay to date her which is insane

I was expecting there to be very little in this final TJ ep before the original wedding in part because of Terri’s instagram post back in November right after Josh revealed the endgame had changed and right before they shot the original 3x18 where she screenshotted a tweet that said Andi Mack fans should stop accusing the show of queer baiting or blaming Disney censorship in regards to Cyrus’ story line. Writers let their work speak for them and that Terri posted that was a sign that the criticism hit to close to home.

The show is not queer baiting and 3x11 was an all time great but to pretend there hasn’t been long running censorship from Disney is a straight up lie and excluding 3x11 there’s really been very little. I’m sure she had planned for the bench scene for a while but she couldn’t have known that she’d get it approved until it was time to write the finale. Disney seemed committed to some sort of Tyrus endgame but it very easily could have been just them standing together smiling at the end in which case this whole mess of a plot would have been for nothing. She was reckless but got very lucky that Disney didn’t screw her over. I hope whoever ends up making the next Disney show with a gay story line will know not to bite off more than they can chew.

Looking Ahead:

Things are in some ways simpler and in some ways messier for Tyrus. TJ seems to have accepted Kira as a friend but is refusing to use her as a beard and still wants to hang with Cyrus. Cyrus thinks TJ is straight but has seemingly forgiven him for costume day so that conflict is swept under the rug. Either Kira does a complete 180 off screen and apologizes in her 45 seconds of speaking time in the finale or she’s just there so Cyrus can be sad and TJ tells her off and then goes to speak to Cyrus without her getting any real development or redemption. Either way it’s going to be wild going from closeted TJ to TJ having a boyfriend and being out to at least several people all in like 3-4 minutes of screentime.

She really is only looking at something like 30-45 seconds of speaking time in the finale and not all that much more of background time if she’s lucky as Raquel was only on set for one day and it was the same day all the other main and recurring kids were also filming and she was only 14 at the time which means she can be on set a little less than most of the other kids. And her insta story shows that it was just her and Luke in the school room and after she finished class she was just hanging on set until they wrapped for the day.

If she’s not getting a redemption arc than most likely they’ll follow up with what Buffy said and she’ll say something mean about Cyrus that will cause TJ to drop his willful blindness and tell her off or she gets tired of waiting and tries to demand that TJ dates her and he tells her off. Either way Cyrus would likely see them and mistake it for them having a moment.

This does mean that TJ doesn’t need to redeem himself so much in Something to Talk A-Boot at the theatre or the game. That TJ is even at those events and hanging with Cyrus over at least two days in universe means he’s either not hanging with Kira or he still is but is less vulnerable to her manipulation.

So the prop garbage was for community service after all. Wild

They really went there with the stereotypes about Asian people. I think great things can come of this plot and I’m excited to see Andi’s art plot line take off.

Now we know why Jonah says ‘’why can’t it just be fun? Why does it have to be love?’’ There’s almost no chance this Amber in love with Jonah story won’t be a trainwreck but hopefully it’s an entertaining one. I really don’t know if there’s anything they can do for Amber’s home life. Her parents divorcing would probably help in the long term but it would be a very depressing ending to her arc.

Really does seem to be no set up for Jandi but we’ll see how long they can keep their lead girl completely romance free. Lilan and Asher have both talked about Jonah and Andi being settled and Disney has been hyping up Jandi moments and of course Jonah sings You Girl so something is going to happen. With the new promos suggesting Andi might be moving away in the finale, probably for her art, I wonder if they have an ending where they’re not officially together but they know they like each other and that the universe will always guide them back to one another or some hippy crap like that.

Presumably Bowie still wants to get married. Wonder how they’ll get the wedding back on track without Ham’s help.

Mack chat kids hate Kira but no mention of Tyrus which is no surprise. On the plus side this means we get Luke guest starring for either Something to Talk A-Boot or the finale and it seems that Josh was a finale guest so they will have to talk about Tyrus even if only briefly.

I’ll talk more about the new promos tomorrow but I’m so glad that they’re teasing the bench scene.

Only 5 more weeks left!

#Andi Mack #Tyrus #TJ Kippen #Cyrus Goodman #Muffy #Buffy Driscoll #Marty from the party #Jonah Beck #amber #Jamber #Bexie #Bex Mack #Bowie Quinn #Celia Mack #Kira #Andi Mack Reviews #Andi Mack Meta #Andi Mack Season 3

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fuse2dx · 4 years ago

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June '20

Trials of Mana

Maybe not the highest profile remake Square-Enix have put out in recent memory, but one that was pretty exciting for me. I played a fan translation of the Super Famicom original some 20 years ago, so while it's not particularly fresh in my head, there's just enough there to enjoy some infrequent little pangs of nostalgia. The move to 3D has made for some welcome changes to to combat - jumping adds a vertical element to combat that wasn't present before, and enemy specials being clearly telegraphed and avoidable puts a little more control in your hands. There's still a good amount of 16 bit jank though - combo timing feels unreliable, the camera's often a pain, there's plenty of questionable hit detection, and you definitely wouldn't want to leave your fate solely in the hands of your party's AI. Willing to put most of this aside, what actually mattered more to me was that it still had the kind of playful, breezy nature, it looks and plays nicely, and that it progresses at a nice clip. Party selection will change the way you fight moment-to-moment, but only provides minor and very brief deviance from the main storyline, most of which is the kind of schlocky cartoon villainy that will have you looking for a skip button before it would illicit any kind of emotional response. But you know what? Overall, I still enjoyed it a lot.

So while it may not be revolutionising the action RPG, what it does show is that Square-Enix is capable of acknowledging their history of previously untranslated works, and that they also now have a pretty good template for getting a B-tier remake of such titles out in a reasonable timeframe. Where do I send my wish list in to, team?

Sayonara Wild Hearts

As a one-liner found on the back of the box, 'A pop album video game' is about as on-the-nose as it gets. The old "it's not for everyone" adage is definitely applicable, and its defiance of traditional video game metrics is not in any way subtle. How sophisticated is the gameplay? Not particularly. How long is it? Not very. But how does it make you feel? Now you're talking. It presents a simple but deeply relatable story of a broken heart, and leads from there with a catchy tune into a fast and colourful onslaught of new ideas, perspectives, and concepts. That is to say: it has the potential to make you feel all kinds of things.

One especially celebratory note was how well the game is structured to fit into the album structure it boasts about. Stages flow quickly into one another, and while shorter, more compounding numbers are often about introducing new ideas and themes, moving on to the next is a few simple button presses and a brief, well-hidden loading window away. Inevitably there are more standout stages, those that feel like the hit singles; the longer, verse-chorus-verse type joints that grant the space for more fleshed out visual story telling, and that smartly synchronise their percussive hits, soaring vocals and the like to appropriate beats of play. A lot of the gameplay can easily (and cynically) be reduced to "it's an endless runner", but to liken this to a cheap re-skin of a confirmed hit-maker is to wilfully dismiss so much of what it does better and so much beside. You can play it on damn near everything, and for the time it takes, it's well worth doing.

Twinkle Star Sprites

I've meant to play this countless times before. I've almost certainly passed it by while strolling through arcades, the Saturn version has never been hoovered up into my collection, and the PS2 collection this particular version belongs to - ADK Damashii - is no longer a cheap addition to anyone's library. The digital version of it for PS4 however was however recently on sale at a point that saw me receive change from a fiver. David Dickinson would be proud.

Having now credit-fed my way through the game's brief arcade mode, there's no doubt in my mind that the nuance of its systems are going to be glossed over in this rather ham-fisted appraisal. At least at face value, there's plenty of character and charm to appreciate in its colourful and cutesy style. As a two-player, vertically split-screen title, its a pretty clean break from a lot of a shooter's typical characteristics - rather than 6(ish) stages of hell, its a series of one on one battles - and all the better suited to 2 players for it. As enemy waves come at you, taking them out in chains can generate attacks to the other player; however if these attacks are too small then it's entirely possible they'll be killed off again, and an even bigger attack will come straight back at you. Think of a bit like competitive Tetris, but with shooting rather than puzzling. It's a neat and curious little game, that's likely best experienced properly, with a friend on the other side of the sofa to hurl abuse at.

Blasphemous

Let's get the lazy-but-effective description out of the way: it's a 2D MetroidVania Souls-like. You've got "that" type of map, definitely-not-bonfires and definitely-not-Estus Flasks. You are encouraged to return to your body upon death, the combat system is very reliant on parries and dodge-rolls, and there's even a dedicated "lore" button to use on every item you pick up.

While this likely sounds dismissive, it's more about addressing the elephant in the room. To give some context, these are both types of games that I love, and the end product here has done a pretty good job of bringing them together. The exploration is pleasantly open - gatekeeping is typically done less by specific items and abilities, and more by just which areas you're brave enough to poke your head into. It's a little bit of a shame that most of the new abilities have to be switched out for others rather than adding to a core arsenal of moves, but at the same time its base setup gives you plenty of ways to deal with any number of combat scenarios. This is of course best demonstrated by the boss encounters, which are wonderful affairs - big, gruesome, thoughtful variations on approaches to combat, which drop in at a nice pace to keep you from ever getting too cocky. The theming in general is wonderful, and the name is certainly appropriate - there's a lot of deep catholic inspiration in its gorgeous backdrops and environments, but then layered on top are some chilling elements of religious iconography, along with a cast of disturbing devotees and martyrs to sufficiently unsettle you. It's arguably a small intersection of the gaming population that it'll appeal to, but if you're in there, it's a real treat.

Death Come True

The first thing you see upon starting is the game's central character breaking right through the fourth wall to tell you directly not to stream the game or to share anything that might spoil the story. The first rule of Death Come True, and so on. I consider myself fairly well versed in such etiquette, so to then have the screenshot function entirely disabled for the whole game felt a little like being given a slap on the wrists for a crime I had no intention of committing. I don't envy the team trying to market it, that's for sure.

The reasoning behind this is clear at least - it's a game that is in total service of its plot. Consider a mash-up of a 'Choose your own adventure' book and a series of full-motion videos, and you're mostly there. Unless you were to walk away from the controller or perhaps fall asleep, there seems very little chance that your play time will deviate from the 3 hour estimate - which will certainly put some people off, but is understandable given the production values, and personally, quite welcome in the first place. In terms of replay value, there are branching paths that a single route will obviously skip: as an example of this, in looking up a screenshot to use in lieu of taking my own, I found a promotional image of the central cast, only to not recognise one of them at all. One thing that such a short run-time does ensure though, is that minute-for-minute, there's plenty of action; without wanting to speak about the story itself (rather than in fear of reprise for doing so, I might add), it kicks off with plenty of intrigue, shortly thereafter switching to full-on action, and then strikes a pretty fine balancing act between the two for its run time. It doesn't get quite as deep or as complex as I would've hoped given the team's pedigree, but I do like it, and think it'd actually be a pretty fun title to play with folks who normally don't concern themselves with games. By the same token, it's probably not for the 'hardcore' types looking for something to string out over dozens of hours.

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

After the generous main course that was Persona 5 Royal, I figured that I'd follow up with dessert. I did however wait until a weekend where I knew my girlfriend would be away, so as not to trigger any unpleasant flashbacks to looped battle themes, and the chirpy, indecipherable voices of Japanese schoolkids that made it so painful to endure as a non-gaming cohabitant.

Immediately, it's clear that very little has changed since Persona 4's take on the rhythm action genre. The core game, while still functional and fairly enjoyable, hasn't changed a lick. Perhaps the most notable improvement to the package as a whole is in scaling back on a dedicated story mode, and instead just having a series of uninspired but far less time-consuming set of social link scenes that pad things out. The biggest flaw is repeated wholesale though, in that trying to stretch out noteworthy tracks from a single game's playlist into a dedicated music game leads to repetition - and there is a much less prolific gathering of artists involved in remixes this time. I'd be willing to wager that it's a very similar story once again with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, but I'm not about to ruin a perfectly good dinner to start with the sweet just to find out, if you'll excuse a second outing of the metaphor. Still, again compare these to Theatrhythm though - where Square-Enix plundered the Final Fantasy series in its entirety, along with spin-offs and other standalone titles to put together a library of music worthy for the one single game. Cobble the tunes from Personas 3-5 together into one game, and you're still coming up very short by comparison.

#trials of mana #seiken densetsu 3 #sayonara wild hearts #twinkle star sprites #blasphemous #death come true #persona 5 dancing in starlight

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precuredaily · 5 years ago

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Precure Day 142

Episode: Futari wa Precure Splash Star 43 - “It’s Not a Dream! A Day with Everyone” Date watched: 19 July 2019 Original air date: 10 December 2006 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/3jyC0xj Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

I’m not crying you’re crying

It’s back to the regular episode grind as we settle into the new status quo, gearing up for the endgame. The focus in this block of episodes is more on Michiru and Kaoru, but otherwise not a lot else happens. Let’s dig in!

The Plot

Michiru and Kaoru are finally back! They hang out with Saki and Mai at Panpaka Pan as Princess Filia and Moop and Foop all tell them how glad they are to finally meet, and they genuinely smile!

old Michiru and Kaoru would never look like this

Minori comes up and Saki is about to re-introduce her to the Kiryuus but she instantly recognizes Kaoru and treats her like she’s never been gone. The next day at school, the same thing happens, and Saki and Mai are relieved. After school, Saki invites all of them to come study for finals with her, since the sisters are behind on lessons. As usual, Saki is the one who needs the help most, but Michiru and Kaoru are just happy to be there.

On their way home, the two discuss how nice it is to be reunited and how they want to stay like this forever. Unfortunately, Moerumba and Kintolesky show up with other plans. The villains interrogate them about their betrayal, but all they can say is that while they appreciate Akudaikaan giving them life, they don’t feel that siding with Saki and Mai is wrong. You can imagine how well the villains take this, and they fight vigorously. Michiru and Kaoru cannot manage to destroy the seals on the generals that power them up, due to interference, so the battle goes back and forth until Saki and Mai show up and transform into Bright and Windy. Even then, Moerumba and Kintolesky manage to overpower the Cures, but as Michiru and Kaoru prepare to tank an attack in order to defeat the villains, the Cures jump in to save them, saying they’re so happy to be reunited at last and they don’t want to lose them again. Thus, the cures hold off Moerumba’s fire so the Kiryuus can launch their attack to destroy his seal, and then Bright and Windy finish him off with Spiral Star Splash.

Kintolesky smelled a trap and kept his distance, so he lives to fight another day. Michiru, Kaoru, Saki, and Mai all smile at each other in the sunset, and then the next day at school we find out that Saki managed to score a 78 on her English test, a personal best. Mai got an 85 and Michiru and Kaoru each got 100, because of their photographic memories. They all agree it was because of the group study and it’s smiles all around as we freeze on the sisters for the end card.

The Analysis

It is so, so nice having Michiru and Kaoru back. They’re happier than they were when they worked for Dark Fall and it makes Saki and Mai happy as well. Everybody remembering them and acting like they’ve been there for the last 20 episodes is a little bit of a cop-out but it makes Minori so happy to have Kaoru in back in particular that I can live with it. A happy Minori is a good Minori. I also love all the scenes of them just hanging out with Saki and Mai doing ordinary stuff like studying. They’re having the ordinary life they never got. They know that they’ll understand the material instantly once they read the text, but they enjoy being with their friends, with the people who treat them like people rather than like tools. Sadly, they don’t have the words to articulate this yet, so every time anybody from Dark Fall confronts them with “How could you betray Akudaikaan-sama, after he created you?” they don’t have a solid answer beyond “We like it here and we want to stay!” I don’t remember if they ever manage to spell that out explicitly, we’ll find out.

The Dark Fall scene is a low point of this episode, to me. It kind of emphasizes that the plot has stagnated. Gohyaan holds the Fairy Carafe, but can’t do anything with it, and the girls aren’t really seeking it out at the moment, so the plot is on standstill until the revived generals are all defeated. It’s important character development with the Kiryuus, since they’ve been gone for the last 20 episodes, but it does make me realize that neither side is really working towards a specific objective right now, for the first time in this show.

A lot of this episode is taken up by the fight between the Kiryuus and Dark Fall, with Saki and Mai not showing up until near the end to lend their assistance. It’s an exciting fight where the sisters just barely manage to keep afloat, but they do land some good hits in and there’s some fantastic sequences that I would gif if I had the time.

It seems that their combined beam attack is the only thing powerful enough to break Gohyaan’s seal so that a Splash attack can defeat them, but Moerumba especially blocks their attempts to form this attack with a ring of fire, keeping them at a stalemate. Ultimately, of course, the heroines do show up and in a particularly inspiring moment, they hold back the ring of fire long enough for the twins to do their thing, before destroying Moerumba. Not that I’ve been keeping good track, but this is definitely a highlight fight of the series.

On the technical and animation side of things, there’s a few shots that I am particularly fond of. One is the shot where Kintolesky is spying on the girls at Saki’s place, and the camera zooms out from inside the room all the way to his standpoint:

Another, also involving Kin, is this extremely menacing shot from his battle.

That’s got to be the scariest he’s ever looked.

The last one, not involving the villains this time, is during Michiru and Kaoru’s little chat after school. They’re standing in the shoe locker room, changing shoes, and it’s uncharacteristically dark, symbolizing that they are beings born of darkness and they still feel connected to that darkness. That’s the top picture, in fact. But then Saki and Mai call out to them from outside, and from the sisters’ visual perspective, they’re bathed in light and you could say they resemble the light at the end of the tunnel. The camera flips around and shows Michiru and Kaoru also lit up, symbolizing that Saki and Mai have brought them into the light, into a world where they’re valued, and I love it.

There is some laughable artwork as well, such as this shot where Kaoru’s skirt fuses with her legs and everybody is just kinda bleh, but it’s a good showing for the most part.

The last thing I want to talk about is that Kintolesky doesn’t really get to go full ham in this episode. He plays second fiddle to Moerumba and while he’s still attacking them at his full strength, he doesn’t boast about his honor or discuss the thrill of the fight. I guess he realizes that the girls don’t have anything more to prove to him, since he was defeated once. He’ll get one final time in the spotlight in episode 45, so we’ll see how he acts in that.

Next time, Michiru and Kaoru have an existential crisis. Look forward to it?

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 Zekkouchou Nari!

P.S. I’m sorry this took so long to get out, I was just kind of sitting on a half-written review all weekend and got caught up doing things. I’ve got a busy couple weeks ahead of me, which is why I really wanted to finish Splash Star by now, but I should be able to wrap it up by the end of July. I absolutely do not want to let this bleed over into August. Fingers crossed!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Futari wa Precure Splash Star #FWPCSS43 #PCD142

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himboholhorse-moving · 5 years ago

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💕 🕹 🌡 📷 📅 📏 🔑 📖 📝 🌐 🐷 🎥 📻 🎁!

Aaaah so many to answer !! Thank you !!

💕 Your two top fave fictional characters

So I’m gonna b... Old here for a second. #1 favorite of all time will always be Hawkeye from “M*A*S*H” and that’s a favorite that’s going all the way back since I was a Young Child. #2 position currently being held by all the “Stone Ocean” protags... Foo Fighters if you’re out there I’m available-

🕹 Video game you are currently playing

A three-way tie between Pokemon X, Tomodachi Life, and Nintendogs + Cats... Tomodachi Life is so chaotic and fun I just made Hol Horse and can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen.

🌡 Fave season

Winter !!! I’m a January snowstorm babie and I LOVE the cold... and yet I am attending a beach college...

📷 Post the 12th photo from your phone’s gallery

For context... #1 I have butterfingers n screenshot things accidentally when I try and turn down the volume on my phone bc I was listening to the something so this got screenshotted but #2... yesterday I introduced Beez to a very Mom phrase. I was talking about Pucci

📅Your birthday

January 15th !! I turn 21 on a Wednesday if my schedule gets planned out in the way I want it I’ll have a 10am class the next day so :^)

📏 How tall are you

I am a whole 5′2″. Meanwhile... relative of mine is 7′2″...... Tommy Burleson I’m coming for ur kneecaps sir

🔑 Key to your heart

OUGH this is gonna sound cheesy but I am very fond of love letters and love poems... and also just like. actually listening to me and paying attention as I talk. The Bar Is SO Low but even friends can’t meet it ! We love 2 see that...

📖 Fave book

For some reason I rlly liked “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien... am also fond of “Hamlet” because I’m a Nerd and a Fool.

📝 Fave quote

Ok so there’s a poem I really love called “Invictus” and I’m getting the last two lines of it as a tattoo but I LOVE the whole final stanza which is: “It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll, / I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul.”

Like when I read that for the first time I went APESHIT... I love it SO much

🌐 Languages you can speak and/or are learning. Which are you fluent in

Well English is my first and primary language and the only one I’m wholly fluent in, but I can understand German fairly well! I can kinda read it alright and understand what someone is saying but Do Not ask me to converse in it. I Will Die. I have retained a bit of Spanish and French from middle and high school which means [Kel Mitchell voice] I know some of these words!!

But I’ve wanting to learn Russian for some time !! My dad knows Russian and I’ve only picked up the odd phrase and sentence from him but I’d like to learn more !!

🐷 Junk food you can never get enough of

Swedish Fish... I will go HAM for some Swedish Fish... Also cookie dough I’m a mess of a human but also a trash compactor... Lays potato chips tho, I will lay my life down for those bad boys

🎥 Fave film

This changes all the time I HATE being a film major n film bitch... but I’ll always love “Miracle” because I’m a hockey WHORE.......... “The Thing” is also up there and so is “Berkeley Square” WHICH I WISH WAS ON DVD but I don’t think that’s ever gonna happen... This Is Why You Shouldn’t Like Old Movies

📻 Fave song currently

I’m cheating here bc I have 2 but both are from “Revue Starlight” and I am currently going ham over that series djhskdfj but it’s “Hokori to Ogori” (”Pride and Arrogance”) and “Koi no Makyuu” (”Love’s Wicked Pitch”). It’s moreso the latter right now but both SLAP and are also on Spotify with all their songs

🎁 Best gift you ever received and why

Oooooh, I gotta think about that one... it’s rlly hard to pin stuff down nowadays because What Does True Happiness Feel Like Again and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it’s been awhile !! But I’d say the leather jacket I got for my 18th birthday because my family doesn’t really have a whole lot of money so them to shell out that much for me meant a lot. And also seeing “Singin’ in the Rain” that day !! I got to see it in theaters and it was super nice and fun :^)

Thank you for all the questions !!! I really appreciate it !!! 💜💜💜💜💜

#proteuslindo #asks #ask games #''berkeley square'' also has one of my fave quotes of all time in it which makes me cry A LOT..........#''we'll be together. not in my time. nor in yours. but in god's.'' LORD just fuck me up...#TCM can show it on tv but not have it released on dvd I see how it is...................

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fourteenacross · 7 years ago

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a tiny thing to tide you over

New chapter later tonight, in the mean time....

Alex is surprisingly not hungover the Saturday after John's birthday party, although it's entirely possible that's because he's still drunk. There was a lot of drinking and a lot of toasting and he assumes that the only reason he's not as miserable as Lafayette the morning after is that he and John disappeared from the drinking games at least twice to have sex, first in the bathroom and second, mortifyingly, in the building's back stairwell.

Which, to be clear, he's definitely had sex worse places than the building's back stairwell, but they were loud as hell during a not inactive time of night and that place fucking echoes.

But, hey, it saved them a hangover, probably. John is at the kitchen table when Alex comes out, bleary but not miserable. Lafayette is also at the kitchen table with a cold compress on his forehead. Molly Ludwig is eating bacon from a styrofoam diner take-out container like she might die if she doesn't consume her weight in greasy food immediately, and Dolley Payne and Henry Lee are still passed out on the sofa bed. Herc looks inscrutable as ever--Alex assumes he's the source of the food, because he has a clear memory of Herc leaving last night and taking Jamika McHenry and Tad Kościuszko with him to drop off at the school.

"Morning, Ham," Herc asks, sipping coffee.

"Morning," Alex says. There are only four chairs in their kitchen, so he sits on John's lap. John grunts, but puts an arm around his waist to hold him steady. Alex shows his gratitude by stealing John's coffee.

"God, you're an ass," John mutters, but he doesn't fight it.

"You love my ass," Alex replies, wiggling a little on John's lap for emphasis. Molly points a piece of bacon at him.

"I'm already queasy, please don't fuck at the breakfast table," she says. "I don't care if it's your birthday."

"S'not, technically," John says. "It was Wednesday."

"Birthdays continue as long as there are presents and celebration," Molly says, gesturing vaguely with her bacon. "My birthday lasted for six months, once, when my bestie bought me a book series that was so out of stock I got one every six weeks or so."

"Oh, hey, right," Herc says. He reaches under the table and grabs a manila mailing envelope, then tosses it at John, who somehow manages to catch it without even startling. Fucking athletic people, what the hell.

"You already gave me a present," John says.

"Not from me," Herc says, just as John flips it over and reads the return address, his brow creasing and his mouth curving downwards. "It was in the lobby when I came through with breakfast."

The top corner lists the sender as "M. Laurens" with a Williamsburg, VA mailing address. Alex is pretty sure John's sister goes to William and Mary.

John's still frowning as he lets go of Alex's waist to reach around the tear the envelope open. He pulls out a card and a small package wrapped in tissue paper. John places the package on the table and tears open the envelope, because he was raised with manners or something. He rolls his eyes at the card--it's not particularly cheesy or anything, there's just a photo of a turtle on the front and the inside is filled with a brief, handwritten birthday message from his sister. Alex isn't at the right angle to read the whole thing, but it seems fairly generic and not really worthy of an eye-roll.

At least, until John puts down the card and opens the package, revealing novelty socks with turtles on them. Alex doesn't have to be fully sober to recognize a pattern.

"God, my sister is an asshole, it really must be genetic after all," John says.

Laf's face is still covered by a cold cloth, Molly is picking apart a pancake and eating it one tiny bite at a time, and Herc's on his phone. No one else seems to have noticed this peculiarity, so it's up to Alex to ask the nosy questions.

"Turtles?" he asks.

John sighs so loudly he almost knocks Alex off his lap. He sighs loudly enough to get the attention of everyone else at the table.

"It's an old family joke," John says. "It's stupid. Did you ever like...very briefly express interest in a thing, only for everyone you fucking know to just decide that was your thing, now?"

Alex shakes his head, but Molly and Herc nod.

"I loved The Fox and the Hound when I was a kid and now foxes are my thing," Molly says. "Which, don't get me wrong, I still like them, but I get fox shit every year for every holiday. And it's cute. But it's been happening for literal decades."

"Got real into robots as a kid," Herc says. "Even though I do legitimate engineering shit now, I still get at least one fucking robot cookie-cutter or some shit in my stocking at Christmas every year."

John gestures as them with the socks. "Yeah," he says, "that. When I was in elementary school, we had to do this project where we picked one subject and presented it in a bunch of different art forms. We had turtles living behind our house and I liked watching them sometimes, so I did turtles for the project. Dad hung a bunch of them up and people seemed to miss the fact that the point of the assignment was to do a bunch of drawings and paintings and photos of the same fucking thing, so they just all decided I loved turtles all of a sudden. Every single fucking person in my family started bombarding me with turtle shit for every holiday. And, you know, turtles are fine--"

"--but you have other interests," Herc finishes for him, and John nods fervently.

"I mean, I get it," Molly says. "It's hard to shop for people and it's nice that people see a thing and think of me, but christ."

"Yeah," John says. "Anyway, thankfully I went to boarding school a few years later and no one there knew anything about it and it finally mostly died. But my sister is an asshole and likes to remind me every once in a while." He drops the socks on the table with finality, wrapping his arms around Alex's waist again and leaning against his back.

Alex, meanwhile, pulls out his phone, makes some quick edits to John's contact name, and then sends a screenshot. John either doesn't notice or thinks nothing of it, because he jumps when his own phone buzzes a moment later. He looks down at it and scowls at the picture, with John's contact name changed to "[three turtle emojis] Turtle Boy [three turtle emojis]." He glares at Alex.

"Don't test me, Hamilton," he says.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Change it back if you want me to touch your dick ever again."

It's an idle threat--John's the instigator of at least half of their sexual exploits--but Alex takes pity and pulls his phone out again, changing John's name to "My Cranky Boyfriend, Whom I Love." He shows it to John, who snorts, but nods and reaches out to snag one of the boxes of food on the table, ending the conversation.

Which is all for the best, really, because it gives Alex ample cover to bring up Amazon on his phone and search for the ugliest turtle sweater he can find. Christmas is right around the corner, and while John will probably murder him for this, it might be worth it just to see the look on his face....

#fic by me #hamilton #the redacted boys #john laurens #alexander hamilton #i recognize this goes the other way too #that everyone associates you with XXX and you lean into it and happily collect a million monkey figurines or whatever #but there you go #they call themselves the trash of the thing

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sunbrights · 8 years ago

Text

fic: by the claw of dragon (1/7)

fandom: danganronpa characters/pairings: natsumi kuzuryuu, fuyuhiko kuzuryuu, peko pekoyama + 77th class ensemble, et al. kuzupeko. character tags will be updated on AO3 with plot-relevant characters as chapters are posted. rating: m summary: The Kuzuryuu Clan stands on the precipice of the greatest era of its history. Kuzuryuu Natsumi promises to be the strongest leader the clan has ever seen, the Overlord of the South born again. That Hopes's Peak Academy would select her for it's 77th class was assumed, not hoped for.

To the younger Kuzuryuu son, everything is as it's meant to be.

The Kuzuryuu family arrives to the entrance ceremony in the compound’s entire fleet of armored cars. In the first, there is only Natsumi and her father. In the second, her mother and brother ride with her aunt and three of her first cousins (the eldest, Yuuto, has not been welcome in their territory for almost two decades). In the third, there are the personal servants and bodyguards of anyone in the first two.

The other seven contain the rest of her family: blood relatives and loyal underlings who have earned the right to stand alongside them.

(“They are here to witness the beginning of a new era in our history,” her father tells her on the way there. “It starts today, whether you’re prepared for it or not.”

Natsumi listens to the steady hum of the car’s engine, and looks him in the eye. “I am.”

Her father says nothing. She can't tell if he approves or agrees, or doesn't. He only nods, and leans over to pour himself a drink from the bar.)

They form a massive block of the audience, a swath of dark suits, expensive jewelry, and mostly-concealed weaponry. The others in the crowd give them a wide berth, and Natsumi can’t help but grin in her seat.

The senior student council president recites something about hope and history and the school’s mission statement. Natsumi isn’t sure; she’s not listening. She doesn’t care about what Hope’s Peak stands for, or how it thinks it’ll change the world. She cares about what it has to offer her and her family: resources, connections, and opportunities.

If it couldn’t give her that, she wouldn’t waste a single second more here.

All the families crowd the students after the ceremony, and Natsumi receives hers in a line out on the grass, Peko behind her left shoulder and Fuyuhiko behind her right. Her father insists; he’s the one that corrals all of them, and then he waits off to the side with her mother until Natsumi’s seen every single one.

For the first few minutes, it’s fine; her aunt clasps both of Natsumi’s hands in hers and says a prayer for the family’s future right then and there, and her cousin Rin shows her the World War I-era pistol she’d managed to get off a collector as payment for outstanding debts. But as the line proceeds and the number of faces already familiar to her start to dwindle, Natsumi begins to understand why her father arranged it this way.

“Natsumi-chan!” Togawa Minato is a grand uncle, who married into the family eight years ago. He reaches out to take her hands, and she folds them behind her back instead. He falters, fingers outstretched into the empty air between them. “Y-You’ve grown into a magnificent woman since I saw you last, Natsumi-chan. Truly. Truly.” Natsumi only looks at him, and without anything to grab he starts to wring his hands instead. “I did have a small favor to ask, if you’ll hear me out. Your mother and I go way back of course, of course, you remember my beautiful wife, and we’re in need of a small loan—”

“We can arrange something with my mother,” Natsumi tells him. “I’m sure she’d love to hear why you decided to presume so much about her generosity.”

He pales. “Oh. Oh, no, no, no. N-No need. I wouldn’t want to bother your honorable mother with such a trifling thing. I’ll be on my way, of course, congratulations again, Natsumi-chan!”

It goes on like that for a while. Most are only here to butter her up before she leaves for school, but some have the stones to ask for more immediate favors: money and contracts and forgiveness. Natsumi knows her father is watching her, and she handles them.

“Lemme guess,” Fuyuhiko mutters eventually. He’s been fidgeting for the past fifteen minutes. “This one wants to know if you can convince the old man to give him an extension on what he owes him after they played cards that one time they were our age.”

“No way,” she whispers back. “He wants free drugs. One million percent.”

“Bullshit.”

“Two bags of karinto says it’s drugs.”

She can feel him glowering at the back of her head. “Fine,” he hisses after the man has introduced himself as second cousin Jun, visiting from the United States. “You’re on.”

It takes five seconds for second cousin Jun to clasp her hand and step close to ask her, “Exactly how big are the shipments coming out of Taiwan?” and only five more for Peko to remove him from the line. Natsumi bites her lip to keep herself from laughing while Fuyuhiko swears in her ear.

They go back and forth; it makes handling the last third of the line less of an excruciating bore than it might have been otherwise. In the final tally, he owes her three bags of karinto and Peko a lemon soda. (Natsumi had been able to goad her into guessing exactly once: she’d blown the both of them out of the water by identifying the sibling of another student who’d snuck into the line to ask for work, and then had removed him, too.)

“Look who it is,” Fuyuhiko whispers. Their cousin Yuina has cut to the front of the line; Natsumi remembers her face from childhood playdates that had ended a long, long time ago. “She thinks she’s better than us. Thinks it’s supposed to be her and not you.” He grunts when Yuina comes up from the head of the line, all smiles and false friendliness. “What now, bitch.”

Natsumi sputters a laugh right into their cousin’s simpering face.

Yuina ends up stomping away, red-faced and fuming. It doesn’t matter in the long term, not with her family so far down in the clan hierarchy, but the murmuring from the line turns their father’s head. Natsumi clears her throat.

“I think the young mistress has the rest of things in hand, Fuyuhiko-sama,” Peko murmurs. Her voice is too light and too warm; Peko is good at a lot of things, but telling off Fuyuhiko will never be one of them.

“What, being fought over like some kinda prize ham?” he whispers back. “Yeah, I think so too.” He pinches the back of Natsumi's arm. “Like you really needed Peko to say that for you.”

Natsumi smiles wide at the next person in line, a second cousin once removed from Yokohama whose given name starts with either E or F. “No,” she whispers, “I just figured you’d like it better coming from her.”

Fuyuhiko has nothing to say about second-cousin-once-removed Eikō from Yokohama. Or anyone else after that.

Her parents stay long enough to confirm that her things have been properly delivered and unpacked in her dorm room. Her mother gathers her up in a bear hug before they leave, and even her father reaches out to wrap one strong arm around her shoulders.

Fuyuhiko lingers at the door, and waves their parents off when they’re finished with their goodbyes. “We gotta take care of something,” he tells them, “I’ll catch up.”

He follows her and Peko to the school store, and argues with her the whole way about the odds of Yuina posting a vague message on social media before the night is out. (Natsumi’s position is that she absolutely is, and that he absolutely needs to find it and take a screenshot of it for her.)

“There’s your karinto.” He slaps the bags into her open hands, fresh from the vending machine. Natsumi pops one open right then and there, just for the look on his face.

“Good luck,” he tells her anyway, hands deep in his pockets. “Don’t fuck it up.”

She hugs him then, too, half because he hates it and half because it already feels weird, being separated from him. He elbows her in the ribs until she lets go, but not before she feels him pat her back with one hand.

“Don’t forget!” She points at the drink machine, and swipes the edge of her sleeve against the corner of her eye when his back is turned. “You owe Peko, too.”

“That’s not necessary,” Peko says, even though Fuyuhiko is already pressing the buttons. “The young mistress should—”

The soda clatters into the bottom of the vending machine, and Fuyuhiko bends to grab it. “She got it wrong. You won fair and square.” He holds the bottle out, and Natsumi looks up at the ceiling when Peko glances over to her for help. “What’re you sayin’, I shouldn’t pay my debts?”

“No,” Peko answers, and she reaches to take the bottle with both hands. “Of course not. Thank you.”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah. Anyway— I should go. Mom’ll lose it if we get home too late to have dinner on time.”

“Like she’s not going to lose it anyway,” Natsumi says.

“Yeah, and I’m the one who’s gotta deal with it, right?”

He tilts his head back in Peko’s direction, and Natsumi fights the urge to roll her eyes. It’s the same every time and he doesn’t even know it. He lifts his chin instead of waving because it looks cooler, eyes creasing at the corners because he’s trying not to smile, and Natsumi considers herself a top tier sister for not gagging right there on the carpet.

“Later, Peko.”

“Goodbye, Fuyuhiko-sama.”

They leave at the same time, in opposite directions down the hallway.

There are introductions the first day of class, even though it’s pointless. Anyone with half a brain and ten minutes of spare time would have done enough googling to put names to faces. (Natsumi knows much more than just names and faces by now, but not everyone here is her. She’s generous enough to give them a lower bar.) She doesn’t see the point in separating them into classes at all, but the school seems determined to pretend it’s even halfway normal, at least in the first few days.

Natsumi stands when it’s her turn, and when she tilts her head, so does Peko.

No one in the room misses it.

“Kuzuryuu Natsumi,” she says. It starts right away, eyes shifting and people leaning across desk aisles to whisper. A swell of satisfaction lifts her chin. “Nice to meet you, I guess.”

Peko bows her head, on cue. “I am Pekoyama Peko. It’s nice to meet everyone.”

That’s all anyone ever needs: Natsumi’s name, and Peko’s sword. The rest sinks in on its own. Natsumi sits, counts to five in her head, and then she sorts them.

There are three who won’t meet her eyes at all: Tsumiki, Souda, and Hanamura.

There are four who seem too stupid to understand what’s in front of them: Owari, Mioda, Nanami, and Komaeda.

That leaves five potentials: Nidai, Saionji, Tanaka, Sonia, and Mitarai.

Well. Five potentials, and one more:

“Oh, wow. Look who it is, Peko-chan!” She laughs behind her hand when Koizumi stands up, loud enough to get as many pairs of eyes to swing toward her as possible. “Did you get lost on your way to the Reserve Course, Koizumi-san? I didn’t think they’d even let trash like you through the gate.”

“Hey, hey.” The teacher stirs behind his desk; he doesn’t raise his head, but he does flick the edge of his hat up to look at her properly. He reeks of tequila. Natsumi assumed he was dead. “Let’s treat our classmates with respect, yeah?”

“Back off, Natsumi,” Koizumi says over him. “I have just as much of a right to be here as you do.”

“Ohhh, I remember. The pictures, right? Sure, sure. They were kind of cute, I guess.” Natsumi leans back in her seat, and makes sure her smile is wide. “My bad. Go on.”

Koizumi does, and even manages to keep her face from flushing red until after she’s already sat down again. Frustration or embarrassment, Natsumi doesn’t really care which. If she’d known they’d actually be put in the same class together, she would have done something about it, but it’s too late now. She’ll just need to handle it, like everything else.

“Right, right. Nice to meet everyone,” Kizakura says, after Nanami has spent thirty seconds standing at her desk playing her game, completely silent. Natsumi thinks the odds that he was listening to any of them at all are pretty low. “We’ve got about thirty-five minutes left.” He burps into his hand and tries to pass it off as a cough. “So, uh, unstructured free time, I guess.”

It’s about as much as any of them expected. A few people chat quietly, but most everyone else works on their own: Mioda plucks a few notes out on her guitar, Tanaka encourages his hamsters through a relay race on his desk, Souda tinkers with some kind of robot that looks like it could either be a dog or a chicken

Natsumi takes stock.

Her list has shrunk since the start of class: Tanaka had talked for five straight minutes and said almost nothing, and she still has a headache from Nidai’s shouting. Mitarai had been soft-spoken and stuttery in his introduction, not at all what she expected after the cool stare he’d given her after hers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much.

She has unstructured free time to burn. No reason not to test a few theories.

Natsumi stands, stretches (she can feel eyes on her, but there’s fewer now; people are learning), and follows a winding path toward the front of the classroom. She bumps Koizumi’s desk with her hip on the way there, scattering photographs across the floor.

Koizumi glares. “Watch it.”

Natsumi smiles at her, and twists one of them under her shoe. “Oops. Really sorry, Koizumi-san.”

Mitarai is looking at her. When she meets his eye this time, his head drops immediately back down towards his desk. He quails under her scrutiny, shoulders drawn up and face pressed so close to his tablet he might smudge it with his nose.

She kicks the picture under her foot toward him. “Hey, Mitarai-kun,” she says, “I think one of Koizumi-san’s pictures fell over there. Can you grab it?”

“Oh.” He lifts his head, but he’s looking past her, at a point somewhere behind her shoulder. “Um.” He bends, and holds the picture out to her.

The flip-flop is almost even more pathetic than the ones who’d known not to stare right off the bat. A miscalculation on her part, or maybe some temporary bravery on his. Either way, he’s not worth wasting time on.

She plucks the picture from his fingers and tosses it back onto Koizumi’s desk, dust and all. “Hey,” Koizumi snaps, “You can’t just walk around here like you own the place. You—”

Natsumi ignores her. She turns her back on Koizumi's self-righteous lecture and raises her voice just enough to carry. “Hey, Peko-chan?”

Peko lifts her head. She’s near the front, behind Souda. “Yes, young mistress.”

“It’s kind of a pain with you sitting all the way over there and me all the way over here. Do you see somewhere we can sit together?”

Peko doesn’t need to be told what to do. She makes as if scanning the room for empty spots. “I’m sorry, young mistress. They all look to be taken already.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I bet we could trade with somebody.”

Natsumi reaches over Souda’s shoulder to pluck his dog-or-chicken robot off of his desk; he jerks in his seat, and the noise that comes out of his throat is somewhere between a whine and a yell. She hops up to sit on the edge of his desk, and fiddles with one of the robot’s loose screws. “So! Souda-kun.” She smiles down at him; his eyes are so big they could fall out of his head. She points to an empty desk in the back corner. “You sit there now.”

“H-Hey. You can’t—”

“What? You don’t want me and Peko-chan to be able to sit together?” She indicates past his shoulder with a tilt of her head, and she knows he doesn’t need to turn around to picture Peko behind him, tall and cold and immovable. “We’re inseparable, you know.”

“No, that’s not what I—”

“Then what’s the problem? You don’t mind swapping desks, do you?”

“It’s just that I—”

Natsumi leans down into his space. She holds the little robot under his nose. “You what?”

His teeth clack together when his jaw snaps shut. “That’s what I thought,” Natsumi says, and drops the robot into his lap. He jumps straight up in the air, knees knocking against the underside of the desk, and nearly falls over himself scrambling out of it. Natsumi waits until he’s clutched his books and bag against his chest and hurled himself toward the back of the room, and hops into his empty seat.

“I feel you may have been too harsh with Souda-san,” Sonia says from her right.

“I just did you a favor,” Natsumi tells her. She stretches out wide into the seat, arms crossed behind her head. “Did you see the way that guy was looking at you? Eugh.” Sonia did see; she’d been looking straight forward at the blackboard when Natsumi came in the room, even when Souda leaned forward to try and catch her gaze. Natsumi shudders to hammer the feeling home. “He’s a stalker-in-training. Now, instead of a creeper, you’ve got your year back. You’re welcome.”

“He can be a little… much sometimes, that is true.” Sonia rolls her shoulders in what Natsumi thinks is probably the princess-equivalent of a shudder. “It is what it is, I suppose.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Natsumi grins at her. “You can owe me one.”

Natsumi spends afternoon homeroom in the dojo with Peko. There’s no point in going back to class today; Kizakura is a pushover, and there’s no official punishment from the school even if he wasn’t. She made the impression she needed to make. (She ate lunch alone, the entire table empty except for her and Peko.) It’ll solidify better the longer she lets them stew in it.

Besides, what’s the point of being at this school if she still has to sit in some boring class, anyway?

She sits by the lockers instead, out of the way enough that she won’t be caught in the crossfire of any Ultimate Archers or Gunslingers or whatever else, and watches Peko rise and fall through her forms. Natsumi names each one in her head as she goes (Ippon-me), the way she has since they were both small and Peko was just beginning to learn.

(Her father had strong objections toward her sitting in on Peko’s lessons, at first. He’d thought it was inappropriate and that Natsumi’s time could be better spent.

If they were meant to work together, she’d argued back, it only made sense for her to know exactly what and how much Peko was capable of.

Natsumi had gotten her way.)

There are times now when Peko moves too quickly through them for Natsumi to see the transition between each one. (Nihon-me.) When that happens, she sits in on as many more of Peko’s practices as she needs to until she gets it right. If she lets the gap get too big, she’ll never catch up, and she refuses to let that happen.

Today, Peko goes through them more slowly than normal. Natsumi knows she’s doing it on purpose; she’s adjusting to the new environment, new equipment, and new training partners. Even when her partner trips over herself trying to show-off to the new Ultimate Swordswoman, Peko keeps the same slow, measured pace.

Peko has nothing to prove to anyone.

(Sanbon-me.)

Natsumi rifles her phone out of her bag, and texts her brother.

me 14:09 🎉🌏💁

She doesn’t expect him to answer right away, and he doesn’t. (Yonhon-me.) She taps her phone against her cheek and waits until it buzzes in her palm.

fuyu-chan 14:13 when the fuck are you going to start using words like a grown up

me 14:13 👎👎👎

fuyu-chan 14:13 you shouldn’t even be texting in class anyway

me 14:13 i’m not in class

fuyu-chan 14:13 the hell is that supposed to mean

fuyu-chan 14:14 are you skipping???

fuyu-chan 14:14 IT’S DAY ONE

Natsumi waits. (Gohon-me.) Peko’s phone pings in the open locker next to her. It barely even took him one full minute.

me 14:15 🙌

me 14:15 peko’s skipping too btw don’t even bother

me 14:16 literally nobody cares about this except you

(Roppon-me.)

At first she thinks he’s started ignoring her after that, but then Peko’s phone pings again. Natsumi counts backwards from twenty in her head, and gets to three.

fuyu-chan 14:19 goddammit quit dragging her into your bullshit

fuyu-chan 14:19 and stop snooping around her phone

me 14:20 maybe you shouldn’t be texting her while you’re in class!!

me 14:20 that’s so disrespectful to the teacher fuyu-chan 😲

(Nanahon-me.)

He really does start ignoring her after that. (She sends three more messages, with as many combinations of the heart emojis as she can manage.) One of the downsides of them not going to the same school anymore: she doesn’t get to appreciate how red his face gets when he’s trying not to throw his phone across the room.

It’s Peko’s final set of forms. She finishes with her partner, sword sheathed with no flourish or flash, and bows deeply. All those repetitions and she’s barely even broken a sweat; her partner tries to hide the way her breath heaves in and out, and fails miserably.

“I am finished, young mistress,” Peko says, when she comes back over. “Thank you for waiting.”

Natsumi doesn’t bother looking up from her phone. She watches because it's important for her to, not because it’s some imposition; Peko knows that just as well as she does. “So? How’re the new digs? Is it everything the website said it would be?”

“The facilities are even more extensive than I expected,” Peko admits. She’d brought all of her equipment with her, but today the only things she hadn’t swapped out were her shinai and her sword bag. Natsumi knows because it had all been shiny and slightly too big, not at all like Peko’s broken-in and battered equipment from home. “I’m grateful for everything your family has provided—”

“Whatever,” Natsumi says. She flips her phone back against her palm and leans her chin on her hand. “If you see something you like better, tell me and I’ll get Dad to buy it for you. He doesn’t get to skimp just because he feels like it.”

“Thank you, young mistress.” Peko reaches into the locker for her change of clothes; she balances her phone on top of the pile, its notification light still blinking. “Did something happen?”

“It’s my brother,” Natsumi tells her, while she scrolls through the messages. “We’re gonna need to chat with him in a couple days. He’s getting something ready for me.”

“He says we shouldn’t be skipping class,” Peko says. “In mostly capital letters.”

“Oh, yeah. That too.”

“Should we attend class tomorrow?”

Natsumi laughs. “Me? No way. I’m not spending my morning watching some old guy sweat out his hangover. You?” She shrugs. “It can’t hurt, I guess. You can go if you want to. I think it’d be a waste of your time, but whatever. I’ll tell you if there’s ever a day you definitely need to skip.”

“Yes, young mistress.”

Fuyuhiko doesn’t respond to her until the weekend. He’s just being a baby; she knows it doesn’t take him that long to crunch a few numbers. He does it faster than she does, which is why she even asks him to do it in the first place.

She video calls him from her dorm room before dinner, while Peko sits on the bed to wait.

“Still with the fucking emoji code?” he says when he answers. “What are you, eleven?”

“Hi, Fuyu-chan.” He glowers, and she grins. “Did you get what I asked for or not?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Fuyuhiko waves a manila folder at the camera. “I’ll have somebody bring it to you. What do you even need these numbers for?”

“I want to see how we measure up in Europe,” Natsumi says. “I think I can open up some contracts.”

“Europe?” He lays the folder flat out on his desk, and flips to one of the center pages. The aluminum crackle of the bag of karinto under his left hand isn’t friendly to her computer’s speakers.

“How many bags of those have you had today?” she asks.

“Shut up.” He snaps the next piece noisily between his teeth. “It’s pretty pathetic out there. You’d have to get a lot more to make it worth anything. Maybe find someone other than those Nagahara dumbasses to make the shipments. The only reason Mom didn’t roll them after the last one they lost was because it was barely worth anything anyway.”

The shipments. She hadn’t thought of that. It’ll set all her still-forming plans back by at least six months if she can’t find a decent way around it, maybe even squash them before she has a chance to get them any further than that. The whole point was to expand into the region by securing more lucrative contracts, but if the goods go missing between here and there, they’re even more dead in the water than they were already.

“That’s fine,” she says anyway. “I’m Ultimate, aren’t I?”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, according to somebody. Still a dumb as fuck thing to call it, if you ask me.” He ducks out of view of the camera, and Natsumi knows he’s rifling in the bottom drawer of his desk for more karinto. “What’s that place like, anyway? Are the toilets made out of solid gold or what?”

“They might as well be. There’s a kid in my class whose real talent is dumping the perfect log, I think. Ultimate Actual Shitter.”

“Fucking gross. I didn’t need to hear that.”

“Well, I had to, so now you have to.” She waits until he starts fidgeting with the packaging of his snack, and then tilts her head to talk back over her shoulder. “Oh! Plus, Peko’s got a bunch of cool new stuff to try out. Right, Peko?”

Fuyuhiko says, “Peko’s there?” behind her, his voice tinny over the speakers.

“Did you bring any of it back with you, Peko?” Natsumi says over him. “I bet Fuyuhiko’s dying to see it.”

“No,” Peko says. Natsumi nudges the edge of her laptop to put her in better view of the camera. “The equipment is intended for all the athletes. It wouldn’t be fair to keep it to myself. I’m sorry, Fuyuhiko-sama.”

He fumbles. Natsumi could set everything up perfectly for him, and he’d still find a way to mess it up. “No, that’s not— Seriously, don’t worry about it.”

“That’s okay,” Natsumi says, “I’ll take a picture next time!” She leans her chair back as far as it will go, and frames Peko and her laptop between her fingers. “Ka-chk. It’ll be just like you were here too, Fuyu-chan.”

“Yeah, hard fuckin’ pass on that one.”

Natsumi describes it instead, the way Peko has already worn through three training volunteers without even trying, until the bells ring to tell them they’re late for dinner.

For two months, everything is fine. Her teacher gets more and more useless every day, and her classmates stay out of her way, which gives her all the time she needs to do what she needs to do. She opens eleven more weapons contracts in France, Belgium, and Italy, with a twelfth in the pipeline.

All of them are conditional on her having a better and more reliable shipment team within the next six months, but that’s fine. She can find the contracts, and she can find the shipments.

Natsumi texts her brother a time and an address while she waits for Peko to change and start her forms. The deal is too big to lose, but too small for her to go herself; sending Fuyuhiko lets them feel good about themselves, but reminds them that they aren’t good enough yet to see the heir in person, much less the boss.

The door to the dojo creaks open. The woman who steps in is too old to be a student, but she’s not any faculty worth knowing. Natsumi ignores her. “Kuzuryuu-san.” She doesn’t look up. “Kuzuryuu-san, did you know class has started?”

“That’s a laugh,” Natsumi says, and she does laugh, for good measure. “Calling that garbage ‘class.’ I think I might actually get dumber the longer I spend in there.”

“Ah. Sorry, maybe I misspoke! What I meant was—” Natsumi doesn’t know how a teacher managed to get reflexes like that, but next she knows she has a faceful of ginger ponytail, and her phone isn’t in her hand anymore. “Kuzuryuu-san, it’s time for class.”

Natsumi swipes her hand out, but the teacher ducks back out of her reach. It’s the most anyone has crossed her since the very first day, and Natsumi nearly has to sit on her hands to keep herself from leaping off the bench. She grits her teeth, says instead, “Take it up with Kizakura. Or maybe all of your students dropped out already?”

“I’m Yukizome Chisa,” the teacher says. She smiles, bland and placid, like she isn’t holding Natsumi’s phone hostage. “I’m your new homeroom teacher.” Her eyes lift past Natsumi’s shoulder. “Pekoyama-san, I hope you’ll come with us as well.”

Natsumi looks; Peko is just a few steps behind her, her shinai half-drawn. She doesn’t answer, only looks to Natsumi for instruction, and Natsumi jerks her head.

Yukizome has the air of one of those starry-eyed schmucks in their first teaching job, determined to motivate everyone into holding hands and doing their homework. She’s not the half-drunk limp noodle Kizakura is, but it isn’t like taking care of her is going to be hard.

“Yukizome-sensei, huh?” Natsumi drapes both arms over her knees and meets Yukizome’s persistent pleasantness with a saccharine drawl of her own. “You’ve got a lot to learn. Me and Peko-chan are like peas in a pod, you know? Even Kizakura knows that.” Peko falls into place behind her, silent reinforcement. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

Her phone buzzes in Yukizome’s hand. That’s her brother, probably complaining about how far away the meeting place is. “I understand,” Yukizome says. “What if I made you a deal?”

“A deal?” Natsumi repeats, “Is this a joke? What’re you gonna offer me, my phone back?” She flicks her wrist; she’s done with this stupid conversation. Peko ducks to start collecting their things from the lockers. “Whatever. Keep it. Read my texts if you want. I’ve got better things to do.”

Yukizome doesn’t read the message; she doesn’t even look to see who it’s from. “You come to class with me today,” she goes on, “And I’ll owe you one favor. Anything, no questions asked.”

Natsumi laughs in her face. “It is a joke! Are you hearing this, Peko-chan? Keep at it, Yukizome-sensei, you’re already miles ahead of Kizakura.” Peko’s ready; Natsumi can feel her waiting for what to do next. She stands up, both hands on her hips. “What am I supposed to get out of that? Somebody to make my bed for me?”

Yukizome considers the ceiling. “Well, you could if you wanted,” she says. “But I was thinking more along the lines of… Access to school security and surveillance footage? Faculty contact information? Performance and disciplinary records?”

She lists them on her fingers, one by one, like they’re items on a grocery list instead of potential breaches of her contract. Natsumi looks her in the face and still can’t decide if she’s stupid, bluffing, or ballsy.

“Please,” she says, “You don’t have access to any of that.”

Yukizome’s smile doesn’t flicker. “That doesn’t mean I can’t get it,” she says. “Just remember! It’s only one, Kuzuryuu-san. That’s the deal.”

As far as Natsumi can tell, there’s no downside. She suffers through one class, and if Yukizome is telling the truth, she has an ace in her pocket. If she isn’t, then Natsumi can break her fingers later for her practical exam. “Yeah? And what’re you getting out of this?”

“You’re my student,” Yukizome says, like it’s obvious. “It’s my job to help you accomplish your goals.” She holds the phone out, an offer. “So, will you come to class this morning?”

“One class,” Natsumi says.

“One class,” Yukizome agrees.

Natsumi snatches her phone back.

There are six other students already waiting outside the dojo. Sonia beams when Natsumi and Peko follow Yukizome out; the others groan all at once.

“There was a betting pool on whether or not you’d agree to Yukizome-sensei’s terms,” Sonia explains on the way to pick up Komaeda. “None of the others thought you would.” She pulls a small wad of yen from the front pocket of her uniform. “I have just ‘made bank’!”

“That was a stupid bet,” Natsumi tells her. “I almost said no.”

Sonia only smiles. “Admittedly, I did not know the details,” she says. “But a good leader will do something unpleasant if it benefits the people who follow her, yes?”

Natsumi’s phone buzzes again. She shrugs Sonia off, and tells Fuyuhiko to suck it up.

#natsumi kuzuryuu #fuyuhiko kuzuryuu #peko pekoyama #kuzupeko #danganronpa #it's here finally i'm locked in #me: let's do a chapter fic #me: let's make a character with like three minutes of screentime the main pov character #me: let's put emojis in it #me: sets me on fire #don't ask me if the emojis were worth it i don't want to talk about it #i'm excited though!!#fic: by the claw of dragon #sunwrites

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brightsimmer · 8 years ago

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ZIAM: HERE WE GO AGAIN FEAT. TODDLERS!

So.... I decided to make a Ziam family again starting from scratch because I feel like my creating/playing Sims in the Sims 4 has improved so much since I first got the game. And then the Sims team surprised everyone by releasing a toddlers update for FREE and I thought it was just too perfect that I wanted to redo my Ziam family and we just got toddlers in the game!

This is Liam and I’m actually really happy with him! I think I got his nose and his brows right this time! But I think his face is too... square? Too chiseled? idek

The dog tag looking necklace was the closest I could find to that Chain he was seen wearing! The traits he has are Goofball, Cheerful and Active and his Aspiration is to be a Musical Genius.

And this is Zayn.... listen I’m never gonna get Zayn to look right as a Sim, I give up! This is as close as I could get! I’m not crazy about that hair but it’s pretty close to the hairdo he’s been rocking lately.

Dressing him might have been even more difficult than trying to get his facial features right... but I tried! His traits are Loner (I know... but its accurate! he likes being alone!), Perfectionist and Family Oriented and he has the Painter aspiration.

I moved them into an apartment in San MyShuno together, they live in the Hakim apartment in the Arts Quarter. Its the same one that my Sims Jasmine and (I honestly don’t remember what I named the other one!) lived but this time I kept it furnished and only changed a few things.

Liam entered the Social Media career which... I’m not sure if I see him doing that but... I just really want to explore that career more and I like to be able to have him work from home. He had to “check in” at a park for his work assignment so he brought Zayn with him. (This is also before I changed Zayn’s phone case color to black!) I had them get to know eachother and become good friends before they started any flirting or anything.

Then Zayn decided to make a move and one thing lead to another and...

they kissed! (Zayn kissed Liam first, obviously!!)

I should also mention right now that my game was being even more laggy and glitchy than usual which I think is due to the update since it was such a huge change to the game. So I couldn’t use the “C” hotkey to take screenshots which meant I couldn’t zoom in and get good angles using the “tab” mode so I’m not that happy with how these screenshots turned out but I didn’t want to have to restart my game for the 3rd time to fix it... I had to restart it once because all the mods were disabled like usual, then I had to restart it again because I had a glitch where I could hear Zayn practicing singing even though he’d stopped and my game also thought my Sims were at the Humor and Hijinks festival even though they never left their apartment so when they went to sleep it wouldn’t go into hyperspeed...

Anyway... then Liam kissed Zayn again!

And they went back to their apartment...

Liam excited about Woohooing!

And they Woohoo’ed for the first time! And then they did it again lol... and then the next night they tried for a baby!

I had it set so Zayn could get pregnant so it turns out he was pregnant and he told Liam!

Liam had to check in at a gym for work so they went together

This is so hilarious because Zayn had just started his second trimester so his belly grew and Liam’s face looks like he just noticed Zayn’s belly but really his face was like that because he was so smelly from working out!

Pregnant boxing!

Liam feeling the baby when they got home!

Zayn (refusing to sit on the couch) making a ridiculous face while playing video games

Playing a video game together! I wish they could cuddle on the couch while they did this :/

After I decorated the nursery with some of the new things from the update and went back to Live mode, Liam went straight in there to put away a toy but then decided not to and walked away.

Zayn’s third trimester belly!

This picture is amazing!!!!! Zayn’s in labor in case you couldn’t tell!

And they had a baby boy, Azan!

Aww!

Awww!

Completely unrelated but they tried a bubble blower for the first time which I guess is the closest thing to smoking in this game...

And Azan aged up to a TODDLER!!!! He transformed from a baby to a toddler and like launched himself out of the bassinet and into Zayn’s arms! I took a snapchat video of it which I might’ve posted before or after this post...

OH MY GOD!!!!

I’m so mad at myself because I thought I got a proper CAS portrait of Azan but it turns out that I didn’t :( I just have this kind of weird but still cute picture showing his teeth because you can make your toddlers have all their teeth or just a few. But I did take a few snaps of me freaking out with him in CAS lol

LITERALLY????!!!!!!!!? CUTEST THING EVER!!!!!! HE LOOKS JUST LIKE LIAM!!!

Putting Azan in his highchair! The highchair’s connect to the tables, how cool is that?! Zayn fed him a ham and cheese sandwich!

And he made a mess of it lol!

And OH MY GOD let me tell you I was losing my shit because Liam decided all on his own to take Azan out of the highchair when he was done eating and started playing with him and IT!!! WAS!!!! ADORABLE!!!! And such a Liam thing to do too! And I can imagine Zayn scolding Liam for playing with him right after he just ate.... “Careful, Li, you’re gonna make him puke and then I’m gonna make you clean it up!”

SO!!!!

CUTE!!!! I was actually dying!!!! (no idea what’s going on the TV btw)

And then in a very sensible Zayn-like fashion, Zayn decided all on his own to put Azan to bed!!! Like??? I was shocked that my Liam and Zayn Sims were acting so much like well.... Liam and Zayn! I can just imagine Liam being the type of dad to just want to keep playing with his kid and get into mischief together... “Don’t tell Baba I’m keeping you up this late...” And Zayn having to step in and be the sensible one to decide that “the baby is tired and has to go to sleep, Leeyum!”

Look at him! In his little jammies!

Zayn tucking him in for bed!

BATH TIME! I had the most difficult time trying to get a good angle of bath time and this was even after I restarted my game so I could use the “C” key again... the bathroom was just laid out too weird to get a good picture

I thought it was so cute how Zayn is on his knees lol don’t mind me!

Azan was splashing and even splashed Zayn and I swear I heard Zayn say “splish splash!”

And here’s Liam tucking little Azan into bed!

And then he and Zayn went and tried for another baby... but this time Liam was able to get pregnant!

And all it takes is one time apparently!! I love Zayn’s reaction: “Are you fucking kidding me?! Don’t you think we already have our hands full with a toddler?!”

Azan playing by himself with his blocks. But don’t worry his parents never leave him alone for too long (especially Zayn... definitely a helicopter parent!)

Zayn potty-training Azan! This took a while! The kid’s Bladder bar was red and he sat there and sat there for the longest time just holding it I guess!

Zayn was cheering when he finally used the potty! And Liam came in the bathroom to get some water... completely ignoring Azan and Zayn!

And Zayn even gave him a hug for using the potty like a big boy!

And lastly, I thought pregnant Liam (he’s in his second trimester already!) carrying Azan was wicked cute!

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crazy-grrrl-on-the-computer · 8 years ago

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About your oden post: AWESOME! But I have two pointers: (1) it's very interesting how they focus on Goura while En talks about chikuwabu; could he be the chikuwabu of their own group? (2) when you say Ibushi is the daikon, all I can think about is the Seifukubu manga's chapter 7 and the OTHER meaning of daikon (the Japanese equivalent to our "large ham" in the West). This makes everything even funnier.

For anyone who missed it, thisis the post-in-question.

Aaah, I’m glad you enjoyed that analysis, thank you forsaying so~ ^^

It’s interesting that you brought up Goura and the chikuwabubecause I had been debating whether or not to make a post trying to analyze thesignificance of the camera panning to Goura during that part of En’s speechever since I originally screenshotted it for this post back in February of lastyear (yeah, I was working on it for that long and I’m a powerfully lazy butt toonly finish it now). But I came to the conclusion that I don’t have nearlyenough information about Goura to actually make a post or even a small theoryabout that right now. Maybe if we get more material about him, I’ll be able tocome up with something, but I can’t really say anything for sure at this moment.^^

Okay… I am slightly ashamed to admit that, when I firstread the second part of this Ask, I thought you meant that there was areference to “daikon” meaning “large ham” in Chapter 7 ofthe seifukubu manga… and I went “???? SOMETHING RELEVANT THAT I MISSED?!*SCURRIES AWAY TO FIND IT*” But of course, there was no such reference inthe chapter, and I got confused and started reading through two more chapters(in an attempt to read through the entire thing again just to see if it was ina different chapter)… before it dawned on me that I’m just dumb and you werereferring to the chapter and the daikon separately. XD

For anyone (like me) who didn’t get it, seifukubuchapter 7 is the one with the flamemonster (Hot-Blooded Monster) that makes everyone super passionate, and Ibushigets put under its influence and starts making up silly names for CaerulaAdamas attacks such as “Aurite Special Bomber” and “Argent HyperDragon Beam”… basically where he’s acting like a “large ham”,so to speak.

But hey, because I’m dumb and took so long to figure thisout, I ended up finding this on the TV Tropes page:

In Japan, Large Hams areknown as “daikon”, meaning “white radish”. [x]

So, there we go. Thanks for the pun. XD

#Ask That Dork #boueibu #random thought #the manga/daikon thing is the reason I didn't reply to this right away #I thought there was some secret context that I had missed and could ramble happily about #but nope... turns out I'm just silly and my poor sick brain misread that sentence #I have a cold and it makes my brain a bit foggy so please go easy on me right now ^^'

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the-connection · 6 years ago

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Generate Customers 24/7 with “The Advertising and Marketing Flywheel”

http://ihustledaily.org?p=720059 “What’s your favorite advertising secret of all time?” It became a simple question. but I didn’t have an answer. My mind shuffled via previous campaigns like a deck of cards. The seconds passed like minutes, as I regarded examples I had considered. besides the fact that children, none of the advertising and marketing campaigns from our SaaS company, our competitors or outdoor industries stood out. every so often, I’m invited to talk on podcasts. I’m accustomed to answering questions on website positioning, content material advertising and constructing advertising and marketing teams. besides the fact that children, during this selected moment, i used to be drawing an embarrassing blank: What variety of CMO doesn’t sustain with advertising campaign tendencies?! 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You can even make the wheel spin sooner if you choose to accomplish that! The theory got here across my radar about 6 years in the past. I stumbled across a video via Rand Fishkin and was hooked. Ahrefs’ advertising Flywheel right here’s how our running a blog method works: Examine what customers are searching for in Google, as involving a problem we resolve. Yep, we use our personal web optimization toolkit for this. Submit an editorial on the way to remedy the particular problem, whereas demonstrating our product as the most effective solution. Promote that article unless it starts ranking on Google for the topic. Receive a perpetual circulation of guests from Google; all of whom may additionally, probably, develop into clients after studying about our product. Get pleasure from observe-of-mouth publicity, as our “informed” consumers inform others how our product solved their complications. Lather, rinse and repeat. 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Even implementing very fundamental steps will, doubtless, come up with a robust competitive talents. Does your marketing crew count on one-off advertising campaigns, or are you constructing a perpetual advertising and marketing Flywheel? If no longer, what’s the largest aspect maintaining you lower back from getting begun? Please tell me in the comments beneath. "Just Go!" Don't Stop.

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