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five-rivers · 4 years ago

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DP/HP twin fic chapter 1

This would be the first chapter of that DP/HP twin fic... I need a name for it before I post it elsewhere... I can’t think of a name... help... @ladylynse I blame you for this entirely. It’s 3k and they haven’t even met yet. What am I doing.

Here’s the thing. Danny had encountered wizards before. And witches. Multiple times.

He was not a fan.

Burning, or other forms of murder, hadn’t ever crossed his mind as a solution to them, even when Freakshow decided to derail his life yet again. Still. There were only so many times you could stumble upon members of a certain group zapping people with bargain-bin neuralyzers and leaving hours’ worth of uncertain memories in their wake before you got sort of fed up.

Memory erasure was great in fiction. Not so much in real life.

Danny got it. He’d erased a couple of memories himself. Well, a lot of memories, depending on how one took the Reality Gauntlet incident. But as far as motivations went, ‘trying not to be dissected by the government’ was a lot different from ‘we can’t be bothered to be discreet about our sporting events and we think it’s funny that our venue managed to attract ghost hunters when these magicless fools have never seen a real ghost in their lives so we��re going to mess with them.’

Yeah. Danny was still annoyed about that. Also, about their reactions to him when he crossed an invisible line that was apparently supposed to repulse ‘no-majs.’

That was before getting into Desiree, one of the few witches to become a proper ghost. According to her, witches and wizards had a different system, and it was rare for magic users to enter the Infinite Realms. Dora’s dragon amulet had also been enchanted prior to her death, although that could have been a ghost’s work, and Dora had never shared where it had come from.

Anyway, the point was that Danny knew about magic as an entity separate from ghost powers and at least a small subset of the living beings that relied upon it.

So, when the woman who dressed like she was living a century ago and smelled of magic walked up to his house, he’d braced himself for a fight. He wasn’t going to let his parents be ‘obliviated’ again. They were oblivious enough as it was!

But. No. She’d come in, no wand in sight (although Danny still wasn’t entirely sure those were necessary) and sat down on the couch, hands primly folded, ignoring all of the… rather questionable features of the Fenton living room.

To add to the weirdness, his parents had been expecting her. They knew her by name. They wanted Danny to be in the room to meet her.

“Edna,” Jack said, with a strained smile. “How have you been?”

“Well enough,” said Edna, her eyes flicking to where Danny stood in the kitchen door, watching. “And this must be young Deneb Alased, correct?”

“Yeah,” said Danny, frowning. There weren’t a whole lot of people who knew his legal name, let alone his middle name. So, who was this? “I am.” He looked at his parents, willing them to clear up whatever this was.

Both of their faces were sour, but they were trying to hide it. Maddie was doing better than Jack.

“This is Edna,” said Maddie. “Why don’t you come and sit down, Danny?” She patted the back of Jack’s favorite recliner.

Danny noticed how Edna’s mouth twitched down at his nickname. His fingers curled, ghost energy buzzing under his skin just barely kept from his eyes. He didn’t like this.

“It’s alright,” said Edna, smiling kindly. “This must be very confusing for you. I would be concerned myself, under these circumstances. What I’m about to tell you may be difficult to process, however.”

“We’d like to start it off, actually,” said Maddie. “When you called this morning—” She broke off, making a face. “We were told this wouldn’t happen.”

“Yes, well,” said Edna. She shrugged. “Purebloods. What can you do? Evidently—Well. You should have your say, first.”

Danny gave Edna another suspicious glance. Maybe all wizards weren’t bad. Maybe Freakshow was an outlier and sports fans just sucked in general.

Yeah, honestly, that tracked. (Cough, Vlad, cough, Dash, cough.)

He sat down. “Okay,” he said. “Way to be ominous. What’s going on?”

“Well, Danno,” said Jack. He laughed nervously.

“You’re adopted,” said Maddie, bluntly.

Danny blinked. “Wait, what?” he said. “Adopted? But I look just like you guys!”

Jack’s nervous chuckles continued. “We are related to your birth parents… not closely, but… Yes.”

“Oh my gosh,” said Danny, feeling several layers of personal identity float away from him. He’d always blamed his weirdness on genetics and family history. Especially the ghost stuff. Then again, his name, which definitely did not match with his parents’ or sister’s, probably should have tipped him off. “You’re serious?”

“I’m afraid so, Danny,” said Jack, kneeling by the chair and patting his knee. “But don’t worry! You’ll always be a Fenton, no matter what!”

Danny nodded, swallowing back emotion. “And Jazz? Is she…?”

“She’s adopted, too. At about the same time as you, in fact,” said Maddie. “So am I and Alicia. It’s a long story.”

“Okay,” said Danny, determined to get that story at some point. “Why is she here, then?”

“I was involved in your adoption,” she explained, “and certain members of your birth family want to get back in contact with you.”

Ancients, that was sure a thing to hit a guy with right after the ‘you’re adopted’ revelation.

Hold up. He was forgetting something. This was a witch. How did that play into this? Because it had to. Witches and wizards, as far as Danny could tell, tended to isolate themselves from the rest of humanity.

He decided he did not like the probable trajectory of this conversation.

“Why?” he asked, because he wasn’t going to say he knew about magic until and unless someone else cracked first.

“Yes,” said Maddie. “Why? Why now? We were under the impression that they would never contact us.”

“Evidently,” said Edna, “Deneb’s birth mother was not properly informed of the decision to put him up for adoption.”

Okay. Yeah. That was a lead-in to his biological parents being magical because he couldn’t think of a single modern western country where that would fly.

“So, what? I was kidnapped at birth or something?” asked Danny.

“Not exactly,” said Edna, wincing. “It was your birth father who filed the paperwork.”

“And she’s only now wondering where Danny is?” asked Maddie, a little shrilly. Her stress from before was now spilling over into anger so sharp Danny could taste it like a knife on his tongue. “Did she somehow manage to forget giving birth?”

“No,” said Edna. “Which brings us to the other matter. One of the other matters. The one who first sent the request for your adoption information was actually your twin brother.”

A third monumental revelation. Wonderful. What next?

“We, of course, contacted his parents, and discovered the irregularity regarding your birth mother’s consent. Hence my presence here today.” She opened her bag and removed a small glass tube, about twice the length of Danny’s palm and the same diameter as a quarter. “There was also the issue regarding how young you were when you were put up for adoption. Generally, our agency deals with the placement of children aged from five to eleven.” She held the tube out to Danny. “Could you hold this, please?”

“Do you really need to do this?” asked Jack.

“Due to all the irregularities involved, yes,” said Edna. “Our organization charter unfortunately requires it. If the mother was not consulted, as is required, the reasoning is that other required things are not as certain.”

“Hold up,” said Danny, hands tightening around the ends of the armrests. “These people—” Who were most probably wizards, and wasn’t that a thing to get his head around, “—they’re not trying to get custody of me again, are they? After giving me away?”

“No,” said Maddie. “We won’t let that happen.”

“We’re not going to give him back to people who were going to abandon him just because—!” Dad broke off. “Uh. Because.”

Smooth.

“You know,” said Danny, deciding to cut off… whatever this was. “Even if this ‘test’ is, like…” He trailed off. “Whatever result you want it to be. I don’t know. I’m still going to find out whatever it is you’re dancing around anyway. Because I’m not going to forget this conversation.”

Silence.

The witch twitched slightly towards where Danny knew her wand was hidden.

Screw it. “And I’m not going to let you erase my memory. You people do get how messed up that is, right?”

Danny was treated to the sound and sight of three jaws dropping open.

“How do you-?” started Maddie.

“You remember when we went to that camp because people thought it was haunted? But you didn’t find anything? Well, they managed to get both of you that time, but not me. And I know you’re one of them, so I’m betting that whatever this is, it has to do with magic.” He paused. “It was some weird magic sporting event, apparently.”

“The-? You went to the Quidditch World Cup?” asked Edna.

“What? No!” protested Maddie. “That was in Britain, wasn’t it? We were just in the next state.” She scowled. “I’m going to write a letter of complaint. Even if we’re living without magic, we’re not no-majs. We’re squibs. They had no right to obliviate us.”

“Okay,” said Danny. “Yeah. You’ve lost me. Squibs?”

No one seemed willing to answer the question.

“If you’d just take this,” said Edna, holding out the tube a little desperately. “It will be much easier to explain all at once.”

Danny looked up at his parents. Jack looked at Maddie. Maddie drummed her fingers on the back of his chair.

“It’ll be fine,” said Maddie, “probably.”

“Fine,” said Danny. He took the tube. Almost at once, it started glowing green.

“Oh,” said Edna, frowning and leaning closer. “It usually isn’t—”

The tube exploded, embedding several small glass shards in Danny’s hands.

“Ow,” said Danny.

“Oh,” said Edna again, evidently not registering the small splinter of glass in her cheek. “Well. Whoever your birth father hired to test your magic as an infant obviously got it wrong. Congratulations, Mr. Fenton. You’re a wizard.”

“My hand is bleeding.”

“Yes,” agreed Edna. “It isn’t supposed to explode, you see.”

Once Danny got cleaned up, which involved a lot of glaring at Edna from Maddie and Jack, they adjourned to the kitchen, which was free of random glass shards.

“The adoption organization I work for,” said Edna, “places squibs—people born to magical parents who do not have magic themselves—with families of squibs. Assuming the child’s birth parents do want to give up their child over something like not having magic.” Her nose wrinkled. “The common wisdom is that it is easier for such children to grow up in an environment that is not explicitly magical. In any case, it is my personal belief that anyone who would give up a child over something like that isn’t going to be the best of parents.”

“Alright,” said Danny, “so… all of us are squibs.”

“Except you, apparently,” said Edna. “It’s hard to tell whether or not someone as young as you were when you were given up will be magical or not. Which is why we usually only deal with older children. I don’t suppose you’ve noticed anything odd happening around yourself? Or unusual abilities?”

Danny stared at her flatly for several long moments. His entire life could be classified as ‘odd,’ and most of it he wasn’t about to share with Edna. Or his parents, as much as he loved them.

But, on the other hand, he now had a great excuse for at least some of his weirdness. His parents wouldn’t think ghost if they could think wizard first.

“Like, define ‘odd,’” said Danny. Despite his earlier encounters with wizards, he had no idea what was normal for them. Other than memory wiping. Which he could not do and wouldn’t have demonstrated anyway.

Okay. If was actually a wizard, and Edna’s doohickey wasn’t just reacting to his ghostliness, he probably could learn how to do the memory thing, but he didn’t know now, so the distinction was meaningless.

(Maybe being a wizard or a squib or whatever was why he wasn’t just. Dead.)

(Yeah, he didn’t want to think about that.)

“Just… Being in one place, and then a different place. Surviving something you shouldn’t have been able to unscathed. Things moving by themselves or changing color or size. Temperature changes. Something you want very badly happening, even if it is impossible or extremely unlikely.”

“Okay,” said Danny. “Yeah.”

“To which one?” asked Jack, concerned. “I haven’t noticed anything like that except what the ghosts do.”

“Um,” said Danny. “This?” He put his hand down on the table, intending to leave an icy handprint. That should be acceptable, right? If temperature changes were normal…

His nerves got the best of him. He knew he was nervous showing even one of his powers around his parents. He overcompensated.

The table was covered with frost.

“Oops?” said Danny.

All the blood had left Edna’s face. Jack and Maddie didn’t look much better.

“Dear lord,” said Edna. “You can do that at will?”

“Yes,” said Danny, holding his hand close to his chest. “More or less.”

“Danny,” said Jack, “why didn’t you tell us?”

“I thought you’d think it was a ghost thing. You kind of shoot first and ask questions later about ghost things.”

“Oh my god,” said Edna. “Never mind that. You can do wandless magic and you’re fourteen?”

“Fifteen,” said Danny, “but, yeah. I guess.”

Evidently, this wasn’t normal.

Also, his comment about shooting first hurt his parents’ feelings. Go figure. Not like they weren’t keeping a massive secret.

“So,” said Danny, once the other discussions had been shelved for the time being, “I have a brother? I think a brother was, at some point, mentioned.”

“Yes,” said Edna. “A twin brother. He wants to meet you. Along with your biological mother.”

“And if I don’t want to?” asked Danny. “If I don’t want to have anything to do with them?”

“I don’t even know,” said Edna. “I can’t believe you slipped under the national detection spell. There’s going to be so much paperwork involved in this. International paperwork.”

“Huh?”

“You were born in Britain,” said Edna, as if this were a minor detail.

Yeah. Like his sense of self needed any further pummeling.

“But it isn’t our fault everything is so messed up,” said Danny. He maybe had some curiosity about his twin brother, but if there was any risk he’d be taken away…

“I understand,” said Edna, “but nothing like this has come up before, as far as we know.” She sighed. “If it makes you feel better, I will use any influence I have in the matter to recommend that you retain custody of Deneb. In the meantime… Do you want to, uh, open communications with any members of your biological family?”

“I don’t know,” said Danny. “Can I think about it?”

Relations in the Malfoy household had been strained ever since Draco’s investigation of his family tree (unrelated to the return of the Dark Lord and how blood purity was now much, much more important) had revealed that his twin brother had not, in fact, died at birth.

And by strained, Draco meant that his parents had taken to living on opposite sides of the manor, interacting only when there were visitors. Visitors such as his father’s Death Eater friends, members of society, and various government officials. All of whom were more alike, and had greater overlap, than even Draco had initially suspected.

This left Draco walking on eggshells between the two of them and wishing for Hogwarts to start again. Anything he did to please one had to be entirely out of sight of the other, or else they began to fight again. Truthfully, Draco was more on his mother’s side, all things considered, but his father was the one with the friends, and Draco couldn’t stay home under his mother’s wings for all his life. Like his dragon namesake, he had to fly.

Which he would most certainly do. Soon. No, he wasn’t hiding from his parents in his room. That would be ridiculous. They knew where his room was. They could find him if they wanted to, and neither of them was anywhere near him. He knew. He’d checked.

This made the inarticulate shriek of rage he overheard from his mother all the more concerning.

It was enough to make him emerge – cautiously! – from his self-imposed exile.

He was curious. And stupid. It got him into enough trouble at school, why not at home?

Also, he really needed to know. For his own safety. Tiptoeing around whatever disaster just happened would be impossible if he didn’t know what it was.

Instead, he tiptoed after his mother.

His mother, who was angry enough that sparks were coming off the end of her tightly gripped wand. Green sparks.

Draco had never actually seen the killing curse in action, but his mother’s face screamed murder all on its own, no magic required, despite the fact that Draco was only catching glimpses of it as she strode towards his father’s half of the house.

This was going to be bad. Terrible. Possibly the kind of event that saw one of his parents in Azkaban and the other in little, tiny pieces all around the smoking room.

Lucius, for his part, looked paralyzed where he stood, and Draco briefly entertained the notion that Narcissa had managed to cast petrificus totalis on him without moving her wand or speaking the words.

Narcissa planted herself firmly in front of Lucius and glared up at him, seething, her breath making sucking noises as it passed through her teeth.

She punched Lucius in the face. The man toppled, clutching his nose. Narcissa kicked him.

It was a good thing that the Malfoys had no neighbors, because what Narcissa screamed next likely could have been heard for at least a mile.

“He wasn’t even a squib, you lying bastard!”

#danny phantom #harry potter #dp/hp twin au #dp/hp crossover #my writting

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kalinara · 5 years ago

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It does occur to me that episode 5 of the Witcher is possibly my favorite in terms of interpersonal dynamics. Specifically for Yennefer and Geralt.

It’s always tricky when we’re dealing with a limited series, with one episode per short story (and not even the full episode, really), to establish strong relationships of the sort that tie the narrative together. This is especially the case for Yen and Geralt, since its their relationship and its push and pull that’s so very important in the novels and the games. (Even if you go the other romantic path, it’s still incredibly significant.)

But overall, I think that episode 5 (and episode 6 after that) do a surprisingly good job with the set up.

A lot of the relationship dynamic between Yennefer and Geralt is set up with what came before. I joked about how the juxtaposition of Geralt’s interest at Calanthe’s torture threat and Yen’s “I *inflict* pain” are the show’s unsubtle way of showing how compatible they are. But honestly, it’s kind of true. If you look at the relationships set up at the very beginning: Geralt and Renfri, Yennefer and Istredd, we start to see how the two can fit together. Yennefer doesn’t play at being anything other than she is. Geralt (with one exception) doesn’t judge her ambition or lust for power.

I think for people looking for a conventional romance, episode five might seem more than a little lacking. But Yennefer and Geralt aren’t really a conventional romance. They’re a kinky romance. Their initial give and take is more about the exchange of power than it is sweet words and candlelight.

The moment they meet, in the middle of the orgy, the power dynamics are already visibly in play. He’s out of armor, disarmed, asking for help and bringing apple juice of all things. She’s gowned and masked, domme chic, lounging in what might as well be a throne. She’s standing above him as they meet and slowly descends as they speak. She sets the terms, he accepts.

Then there’s the bath. He’s naked, in plain sight, while she stalks around him appreciatively. She lowers herself into the bath, but only after making him turn his back. She shifts the mirror so he can’t see. He doesn’t seem to mind that at all.

It gets really interesting though when he mocks her transformation: what was her flaw? A clubbed foot? Split ends? That’s the moment that Yennefer freezes up. And I don’t think it’s because she was offended. I think it has to do with the way Yennefer sees her transformation. Because Yennefer’s transformation was never really about fixing her physical flaws. If you recall the beginning of episode 3, Yennefer’s big complaint was that she had no idea what her idealized self would look like. She tells Istredd that he’s lucky: Ban Ard boys don’t have to go through the transformation at all. She’s not ashamed of her disfigurements, nor should she be. They may have made her a target for village bullies, but in Aretuza, they’ve never held her back.

Istredd accuses her of being angry that she missed her chance to be beautiful, but there’s no real indication that Yennefer was even thinking about that when she missed the ceremony. She was still focused on the damage her ancestry reveal had done to her ambition. She does choose to undergo the transformation, but as a weapon and a means for the power she wants. It’s a mask, the same as she was wearing in the orgy.

What Geralt did in that moment was say “I see that you’re wearing a mask, and I don’t really care what you’re hiding.” And that is where things shift.

She immediately drops the idea of him prostituting himself for his friend’s life (something that he finds obviously disappointing. Clearly he was enjoying the power exchange too) and goes for a more overt means of getting him out of the way. But the sexual chemistry is still there and unspoken, and she can’t completely drop the domme act: see, for example, the way she dresses him.

So then we get mind control and an almost execution. I don’t necessarily think Yen was trying to kill him there. She probably assumed he’d escape before execution (I doubt she had any idea that the one guard really wanted to “play” with a Witcher. And how fitting is it that we get those sexualized taunts in an episode that’s all kinky power exchange.). Or that Jaskier would wish them both away. Though Yen is also pretty focused on her own desires, so I’m not sure that she that she’d have felt that badly if he had died there.

But then he comes to save her. And that’s where things get really interesting. He offers her his wish, she can have whatever she actually wants if she just takes it. But she refuses. Her desire for a fertility cure has never really been about having a child. It’s about being denied something she wants. It doesn’t mean anything if someone else gives it to her. And I think she especially doesn’t want HIM to be the one to give it to her. Yennefer will always be dominant, damnit.

Then Geralt makes his wish. We don’t know what his exact wording was, but I think we know Geralt well enough to know that whatever wish he made wouldn’t have involved Yennefer falling in love with him. He’s as emphatic about choice as she is, in his own way.

But at that point their relationship has shifted again. Yennefer realizes, at least subconsciously, that this is a man who has seen her at her most power hungry. He saw her in the center of maelstrom screaming that she wanted everything. Istredd may have loved her before she was beautiful, but he found her lust for power revolting. Tissaia ridicules it. But Geralt, who saw her at her worst, experienced her at her worst, doesn’t mind it.

In fact, he trusts her enough to fall asleep in her presence. That’s got to be intoxicating for someone like Yen.

Geralt’s side of things is also interesting. (And requires a bit of future knowledge to analyze.) I think there are a few elements at work here: first, his desire to save self-destructive women is clearly what gets him back into that building after she puts him under mind control. But I don’t think that’s the point where he truly became enthralled.

I think it was seeing Yennefer at her worst actually: it was seeing her power-lust and her ambition. It was seeing how much she WANTS.

Because that’s the thing that stands out about season 1 Geralt: except maybe at the very beginning, he doesn’t seem to WANT much of anything.

Of course, he demands coin for service. But he shies away from any kind of more substantial reward. Especially if it feels like it’s undeserved. The whole reason he got a Child Surprise is because he didn’t want a reward at all. Duny had persisted and Geralt just said “fuck it, give me the next goat you have.” Geralt’s a dumbass who doesn’t appreciate destiny’s sense of humor. But he still tries like hell to refuse that gift.

He doesn’t seem to have much by way of long term physical possessions, besides that amulet. He has Roach...possibly, assuming Roach isn’t a sequence of horses under the same name. But with the way he talks to her, it’s clear that Roach (Roaches?) is a being to him, not a possession.

Geralt doesn’t seem to care about personal comfort. He rejects gifts. And the only thing we ever see him buy for himself is a night’s companionship with a sex worker.

And I think that’s not meant to be a positive thing. It’s like Geralt says in episode 6, when Yennefer asks him if he ever wanted anything else besides being a Witcher. And he says that if he had, it was too long ago to remember.

That’s heartwrenching in its own right. Kaer Morhen did such a number on him that he literally can’t imagine anything other than being a Witcher.

But it’s also even more heartwrenching after episode 8, when we do get to see a Geralt who IS young enough to want something. And we see at least some of what happened to him to change that.

And it’s sad-funny too, because early on Yennefer doesn’t believe that he went looking for a djinn just to get a good night’s sleep. But I think we’ve seen enough of Geralt to believe just that. That’s how broken he is, the closest thing he has to a “want” is sleep.

And then he meets Yennefer. Who is indeed magnificent. And she wants EVERYTHING. She’s everything he doesn’t know how to be.

And when she refuses to accept his wish for herself, she forces him to make a wish. And in that second, he does want. He wants HER. Not her love or companionship, obviously, or she’d never have been able to storm away from him in episode 6, but he still didn’t want to lose her.

It’s not a healthy relationship by any means. Not yet anyway. (Maybe Jaskier can give them a pamphlet about safe BDSM practices and teach them about safewords?) It’s not a traditionally romantic relationship at all. But I find it absolutely compelling.

And hot. I own my kinks.

#geralt of rivia #yennefer of vengerberg #yennefer x geralt #geralt x yennefer #do we have a pairing name for this?#the witcher (netflix)#beautiful of face dumb of ass #the real antihero of this opera #vengerwitch

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tumblunni · 8 years ago

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Bunni continues to play Monster Rancher Advance 2! And generally not enjoy it as much as the first advance, though i can kinda blame it on the fact the first advance trained me to get used to a bunch of differences from regular monster rancher and now thats all gone again :P ANYWAY, ONWARD!

* Its a shame that the training coach system’s revamp makes it so much harder to actually achieve it now. i feel so guilty that my first monster Wrigley didnt quite make it! And like.. fusion isnt even WORTH it anymore! if I fused my high stats Wrigley with another high stats monster then all I get is the base stats version of that fusion, it doesnt carry over AT ALL! And it doesnt even let you carry over Traits like MRA1 did. And retiring a monster just seems to be like another name for deleting them, so I just have Wrigley frozen in the hibernation lab forevermore now. I DONT WANNA LET HIM GO! I do feel guilty for giggling slightly at the fact he’s got that cold minty freshness now XD

* Oh, and the ‘nobody dies anymore’ thing has been rebalanced now. In MRA1 you could just continue going forever with your retired monster, you just couldnt raise its stats anymore. (Tho you could still LOSE stats, so that was kinda awkward) Now you cant do anything with your retired monster except rest and give it items, and then send it to retirement/coaching class. BUT because of that change, I didnt realise Wrigley had as little time as he did, and I didnt manage to do that final tournement in time. :(

* For some reason the ‘SPECIAL’ training has been renamed to ‘Sparring’ training even though its exactly the same thing. And its called Errantry in every other game. I DUNNO LOL Also Loyalty has become Reliance, and now the E rank tournement has returned from Monster Rancher 2. (This is part of why its harder to reach teacher rank now)

* A funny glitch that may have possibly fucked up my ability to complete the main story, I HONESTLY DON’T KNOW?? Okay, so.. in MRA1 there was an annoying thing where you could still ‘use’ unuseable items, and they’d be gone forever with no effect to your monster. I lost 5000 gold due to this, the badly translated item descriptions meant I didnt even know that the Silver Cup passively reduces stress when you keep it in your inventory... In MRA2 you now actually get a ‘this is unuseable’ message when you select them! BUT... there’s one random specific circumstance where the game doesnt check for this. Sometimes when your monster is upset with a choice you’re making, it’ll say ‘[Name] would rather [suggested action]’. This time it SOMEHOW came out with ‘Wrigley would rather eat [magic amulet key item]’?? And I was just mashing thru the text and didnt realise it until I’d already hit yes! I really hope this doesnt come back to bite me in the ass later...

* Oh and there’s now a cool rival guy character! I’ve gained three rivals so far but he’s the most actually a rival. Can I just say the plot works a LOT better with actual other monster trainers as characters?? Seriously. THANKE! Why on earth was I even fighting in these tournements last time, lol... Anyway, here’s Mr Bishie Mysterious Jerk Rival:

* There’s also another rival who has more of a story role.. or uhh.. maybe I’m not able to get bishie man story scenes anymore cos i lost the key item, lol Anyway, he’s a younger cutie patoot rival who’s actually on your level as another rookie, rather than being an asshole adult randomly picking on kids. (No seriously, bishie man is introduced as a dude who’s ATTACKING OTHER RANCHES and then he’s just instantly forgiven??) lil rival boy is a bit competitive and grumpy but its just cos he (understandably) feels like you’re cheating by having the legendary holly as your mentor. But then when you battle him he realises youre actually a worthy rival and then you become Kinda Friends I Guess? I like him!

* Also your third rival is GRANDPA Seriously, you literally just fuckin.. find a wild grandpa starving in the cold and take him in. And he says he’s gonna repay you by giving his monsters as free tutors for a certain period of time, but for the life of me I COULD NOT FIND any way to unlock them in the tutor screen! But this was back when I was first learning all these new systems to maybe I just messed up somewhere? Anyway, after a certain amount of time he’s all ‘I’m proud of you, you dont need me anymore, i’m gonna go join the tourneys too cos you inspired me to get back out of retirement’. And its kinda sad that he leaves :( I WILL MAKE U MO PROUD, MYSTERY FOREST GRANDPA I STILL DONT KNOW WHERE DE FUCK U CAME FROM

(Clarification: he is not saying this about you but about the jerkass bandit you just fought off.)

(This is the jerkass bandit you just fought off)

(It is TOTALLY unfair how the game throws you immediately into a battle with him as a tutorial to the exploration system! I literally got this as the first thing with my new monster after Wrigley, I just got lucky enough with the RNG that all his attacks missed and I somehow survived!)

* Random fun highlight of Wrigley’s short career: winning an all bunnies league.

* I really don’t like the random addition they made of a ‘counter system’, though. Apparantly this was an addition made in Monster Rancher 4 for the PS2? It wasnt very liked there either, but this is an absolutely TERRIBLE port of it into a modified game engine that was never designed to include it. In the PS2 game each move is assigned to the four face buttons, and you press one of those to choose which move to counter. Its still not very good cos you only have a 1 in 4 chance of it working, and the AI is completely random anyway so it’s only predictable in 2 player mode. but they somehow made it EVEN WORSE in this version, cos the moves ARENT mapped to buttons yet you still have to input a button combination with a 1 in 4 chance! You have to awkwardly try and hit B and one of the directional buttons simultaneously, and there’s no way to know which random direction the AI picked, and just... GAHHH The only good thing is that you can still play the game perfectly fine without ever using it, and the AI is equally likely to fuck up. I only saw a successful AI counter ONCE after raising three monsters! Anyway, look at this dumbass who failed a counter and smacked himself in the head for 220 damage as soon as the fight started.

* My second monster was kinda awesome, i lucked out and got a rare monster from random tablet regeneration! Its the only Antlan type that I actually like, cos its unique colouration makes it look more like a giant skull thingie. Woo!

* His name was Heartbreak! He didnt have many spectacular adventures along his way, just managing to become a coach for future generations. I mean, he didnt break my heart, so it turned out better than expected XD I’m sorry i didnt have faith in you, lil buddy! THIS GAME IS STILL REALLY DAMN HARD THO

* i haaaaaaate the changes to the coaching system I HAAAAAAAAATE dear fuckin GODDDDDD now you have to keep paying a salary every half a year or you lose your coaches forever all your memories of your past monsters dont have enough for one payment and they NEVER COME BACK T_________T I’ve been savescumming a lot more in this version of the game, there’s a lot of bullshit chances to lose everything... And like.. they kinda wanted to make a good change by letting you hire governement-funded coaches if you cant train your own. but their prices are so ludicrously high and the most powerful one just has 300 in two stats and 600 in one. Your own monsters are always gonna be better than that, and you’d need to raise a few monsters to even get enough money anyway! So yeah just.. fuck this system, seriously, dear god. I still had complaints about it last time, but i was more forgiving cos it was a new change to the formula and all, but this is just making it worse in every possible way...

* Its also very annoying that we have a lot more items in the game but all their descriptions are badly translated. I have NO CLUE what the whole second page is about! ‘Its a cake’, ‘its a candy’, ‘its a meat dish’. Even stuff that had descriptions last time doesnt! You’d never know that ‘smoked newt’ lowers your monster’s ‘spoiled’ status! I mean, at least you could kinda assume that the cake raises it, if you’re getting too strict? I think? Cos I thought maybe the cake is for raising weight like the diet pills are for lowering it, but I can never get it to actually do that. the weight system is so unintuitively awkward! Any choice you make will change it wildly while your monster is a baby, and then as soon as they hit maturity its nigh impossible to change it! And its really hard to keep pushing it back and forth to keep the middle for whenever the maturity flag pops up, cos its not even set to happen on their birthday or anything. And being fat or thin causes gigantic debuffs because WHY NOT! Weirdly enough the raising style doesnt seem to do that anymore, its just like the chance of them running away, and a (never actually explained) small chance of lowering their overall lifespan every time you drift away from the medium.

* But anyway, I AM glad that now your strict/spoiled meter actually does exist in the menu again! It was definately still actually a part of the mechanics in MRA1, you’d still get stress and disobedience and stuff and just not be able to know when you were getting close to it. But MAN is it unforgiving this time... its always been the most difficult thing to manage but seriously... but seriously I am glad its at least in the menu...

* HOWEVER... i have no idea what the personalities do!! There’s now a thing on the menu above the spoilt/strict menu that says stuff like ‘hot headed’ or ‘medium’. And it never seems to change throughout their whole lifespan, so it seems to be like a personality or nature value? Does it actually affec anything? is it like pokemon and it means its easier to train a certain stat?

* Also there’s now the ability to get ill and go to the doctor. Its mostly pointless as its just like.. okay now you get TWO potential punishments for being too strict- monster can run away OR get sick. And running away just means you have to wait a few months and lose training time til they return, but instead sickness is like a debuff that halves your gains in a certain training. Its surprisingly in-depth, they give you a full diagonosis of a random illness and some made up medicines you need to take to fix it.

* ...do you really get anemia from being malnourished? i thought it was genetic only?

* And then ALAS I didnt manage to get any screenshots of my third monster while I was actually training her. I coulda sworn I did?? But it seems I forgot, so have a pic of her as a training coach

(for some reason special monsters get an ugly red background in status screens)

* She was actually surprisingly useful as my designated Explorer monster! It just sucks that you have to rank up in combat tourneys to unlock exploration areas, and you have to do it AGAIN every time you get a new monster. I didnt realise this so i trained her with an exploration-focused moveset and had to blunder thru the tourneys like a total mess. Errantry/Special/Sparring is now also based around combat stats, your chance of gaining a skill is greatly reduced if your stats are lower than the tutor, even if you win the fight! And if you dont, its fuckin impossibleeeee! So I couldnt even gain more skills to fight the skill tutor to gain more skills, GAH! Am I supposed to assign my own tutors here who have terrible stats?? But then the stat gains I get would be low too! So yeah, an intelligence based monster and I never managed to get a single intelligence skill in her entire lifespan. ALAS!

* Oh and Exploration is also REALLY WAY TOO HARD AND UNBALANCED AND HARD Well I mean.. its not??? But it is??? Its actually got much smaller stat requirements than in MR on PS1, and the chance of getting nothing when you inspect a ruin is much lower. But the odds of the MOST HATED STUPID MECHANIC are way higher, and it seems that there isnt ANY stat that affects it, its totally random with no way to avoid! See, sometimes randomly when you’re exploring you can get lost. this ends the exploration immediately and you lose every item you’d collected. COMPLETELY AT RANDOM. NO WAY TO AVOID. keeps fuckin happening at the end of my 500 HP long 50 items gathered super sessions with super Rina the kitty of joy and hugs so I just ended up savescumming every time it happened, its too bullshit to be allowed to exist! Rina earned around 30000 or so Gold during her lifespan, and I was able to get the barn upgrade to keep bigger mons. And she also found the item that unlocks Monol monsters. Yay!

* So yeah thats the end of my gameplay today, and I didnt really enjoy it as much as the last one. The weird new gameplay decisions are a part of it, but also because of just HOW MANY monsters are locked behind various sidequests, and how you have no clue how to get half of them. Last time they were all just tournements you had to beat, now there’s bullshit like raising five monsters of specific species to master rank and sending them to certain exploration areas to find orbs... And like, with the inability to carry over traits and stuff, and the smaller amount of fusions, you cant even make a particularly customized monster out of the ones you can start with. So its just les fun to wait to open up all the options. And there doesnt feel like much incentive to even do it anyway, its not like most of them were locked away because theyre stronger. There’s loads of stuff that was a starter monster last time and there’s just no reason you have to save up a titanic amount of 20000 just to get the weird rhino motorcycle i got by typing my own name in the game last time... But ehh, I might play again anyway? I dunno. Later. Much later.

* BUT I STILL LOVE MY SWEET MONSTER FRIENDOS love and hugs list of all the bebs: Jade the Golem/Lesione, Carole the Momo/Zan, Kyubi the Zan/Mocchi, Dandelion the special albino Lesione, and Diva the special albino Dragon and now Wrigley the Hare/Lesione, Heartbreak the special albino/halloween variant Antlan, and Rina the special albino Mew that looks more like nidorina hence the name ...I’m only just realizing that I tend to like the albino variants the best. I guess maybe its cos they look more normal and dont tend to have overpowered stats or anything. Except the albino dragon which was the strongest one in the first game, hence why I picked it when I just gave up and wanted to brute force my way to the ending... ANYWAY THEY ARE ALL CUTE AND YOU WILL APPRECIATE THEM

* ok bunni go play different games now

* also bunni go try and learn how to draw these monsters, yo

#bunni plays mra2

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