#it'll be a good introduction to the game

[icharchivist]

@haru-desune submitted:

Hello my semi annual "wth is gbf" ask But in all seriousness y'all look you're having fun 😁

DFKJDFMLFD HEY!!! Tee hee!

we are having a tone of fun over here yeah!! this year is the 10th anniversary of the game with new Triple A game coming out, so it's going to be a busy year and we've all been buzzing quite a bit. Though the way i ended up attracting a hive of anons discussing gbf is a mystery -- in the end the main game itself remains pretty niche -- but we're having a lot of fun bouncing out of each others.

Though to answer "what is gbf".... *looks at my blog* you will have to be more specific about what you want to know, because we don't even talk about the main story on here all that much---

Ok so for the fast crash course:

Granblue Fantasy is a browser game which can be played on any Chromium based browser at http://game.granbluefantasy.jp/ . It has a Japanese and an English version, running at the same time (it's not different servers, we get content at the same time as the Japanese fandom does)

It also has a Fighting Game called Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, and will soon have a Action RPG coming out in February called Granblue Fantasy Relink. Those games are set in the lore of Granblue, though gbvs is slightly in another timeline/universe -- still those stories are stand alones meant to be different steps on the characters journeys

The gameplay is mostly Turn-by-turn RPG for the gameplay, and Visual Novel for the story -- and gacha to get the characters you get to use and meet. (note that today we just got 200 free pulls, and the opportunity to use those pulls will disappear in less than 2 hours, so if you want to play the game today is a good day for that)

For a crashcourse on the basic lore to know about + some vague Main Story Characters and spoilers information, you can go there to learn more about it!

but the long story short is that the world of gbf is a world of floating islands and magic, ruled by the absent God of Rebirth and Destruction known as Bahamut. (all the homies hate Bahamut.) Once upon a time Bahamut split into two, splitting the world as we know, and overseeing two types of people: The People of the Skies (The Skydwellers) who are mortals, and the People of the Stars (the Astrals) who are immortal. The Astrals tried to invade the Skyrealms centuries ago, but where pushed back -- but behind them they left Primal Beasts, immortal creatures who works as semi gods, dedicated to a purpose programed inside of them.

Our Protagonist, Gran if you play as a guy, Djeeta as a girl (you can switch gender anytime tho), was abandonned by their father when they were young as he went on a quest to find Eustalucia, the island of the Astrals -- and after years of radio silence, MC finally gets a letter about their father's whereabouts, and decides to go on a journey to find back their fathers -- travelling the skies and all of its perils.

accompanying them are Vyrn, the red dragon who raised us, who's memories have mysteriously been locked away, and Lyria, the Girl in Blue (well, with blue hair, but shh), a young girl who was held prisoner by the local Empire for her power to be able to control the Primal Beasts. As she attempted to escape thanks to Katalina, an ex soldier of the Empire who was so saddened by Lyria's situation she freed her and swore loyalty to her instead, she met our MC... and near death circumstances brought Lyria to connect her life to our own, connecting us together.

Both Lyria and Vyrn end up accompanying MC out of devotion and love, but also out of seeking answers about their own existence as well.

And on their way to Eustalucia, our MC becomes the Captain of a Crew, going from island to island, adding more and more people to their crew as it goes.

The Main Story follows mainly their struggle to go to Eustalucia, facing the Empire at the time, Primal Beasts going Bersek, and much more others problems.

But every months the game unleash an event story, which will pretty much be "a story on another island that isn't related to the main plot". Those events then disappear for a time before being added to the side stories.

And those events have their own casts. The overall lore builds to the main lore, of course, but each event stories will follow their own themes for instance. Sometimes the casts of those events crossover and spend time together.

On here we talk a lot about What Makes The Sky Blue: A Three Parter story about the first primal beast of creations and their quests to reexamine their purpose, their free will, and their connection with Bahamut as their creators turns out to be heavily linked to him.

wmtsb is also the doomed love story of Sandalphon and Lucifer, as Sandalphon was driven to madness and unleashed his anger on Lucifer, leading to strife when Lucifer tried to make things right no matter what. They're. so much.

(longer version with translation)

it's also the story that has Belial as a secondary antagonist, and it's the guy we talk about soooo fucking much on here because we're so unwise about him. the polar opposite of Lucifer, who yet was so dedicated to his creator he triggered various apocalypses and brought various issues to our protagonists to selfishly reunite with the man he loved.

Oh and, like, i'm not actually like, any type of hyperbolism about the LGBT+ stuff btw. Belial's feelings are explicitly romantic, and later Lucifer mirrors Belial's explicit words to address his feelings for Sandalphon for instance.

We also have various Trans rep (Ladiva and Cagliostro are openly trans women, Balurga is a trans man, Orologia is a genderfluid dragon who literally shift gender from one screen to the next and who use they/them, and the characters who, as a group, are named the 6 dragons, are openly nonbinary. There's also two others characters (Morilynn and Morgan) who use they/them pronouns. And also i'll include him but Lamorak who said he refused to be limitated to gender.)

We also have a lot of wlw and mlm, including a canon wlw kiss (but for that i direct you to my current pinned post, i love them so much they're so unwell) and a wlw engagement party. We're doing fine here.

Another story i'm particuliarly found of personally is the Dragon Knights saga, but it's a 10 parters so it's like. A Lot. But it's basically about four knights who once served the country of Feendrache together, working together to uncover the sins of Feendrache's past and make sure the current country is willing to atone for their crimes, as they're trying to rebuild a proper future, while avoiding the threat of Merlin, a victim of one of said crimes who have been planning Feendrache's destruction ever since.

Or the story Marionette Stars, about people suddenly getting wrapped into a conspiracy as they are being led to connect with powerful weapons connected to the Horoscope, leading them in the web of an organization who is making sure conditions are met for them to awaken their weapons to lead to nefarious intentions.... it's where the kissing lesbians are from for instance, but also fair warning this is the gorest of the saga so far and it has a lot of unsettling stuff going on in it.

And there's so much more characters and stories and anything for the eyes to see. All with gorgeous arts, and a lot of recent stories have very deep themes which really are interesting to sit through, though keeping in mind that the game has a lot of disturbing content and doesn't hesitate to have you sit through extremely disturbing and gore scenes. #SurvivorOfTikohFE

here's some arts samples of various saga to give you an overview of some goodies here and there

and if you want to get into it because of Seiyuu? you're in luck! there's so many characters in granblue that your favorite seiyuu can POSSIBLY be in it!

like i did a list of a3 seiyuus in it for example:

and some of them have songs! as pictured above with Sandalphon's (Suzumura Ken'ichi) song, but also like, the Dragon Knights (Seiyuu: Eguchi Takuya, Ono Yuuki, Ryota Osaka, Kazuhiko Inoue) or Grimnir's song (by legendary seiyuu Megumi Ogata)

or also absolutely bonkers songs as OST, like the infamous Parade's Lust, Paradise Lost, Zero, Existence, Peace and Quiet, The Watershed Moment, or a personal fav with For You.

So strap in, give it a shot, and if you want clarification on literally anything, don't hesitate ;D

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Toy Box

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[youssefguedira]

One of the fan casts I’ve seen a lot is Hunter Schafer as Zelda. Thoughts?

image for reference because i had to google who hunter schafer was

i could back it? she'd definitely be able to pull off like. oot or twilight princess zelda (by looks alone i haven't seen her act) really depends on what they're doing story wise. but ultimately i don't particularly care what the actor looks like as long as they are believably link or zelda to me and i just. don't think the kind of "major hollywood actors" that people toss around when talking about it could really have that effect because they're too recognisable? if that makes any sense. also a bit of a tangent but i don't know if i WANT the zelda movie to adapt an existing game or a new one, though if i had ti guess it'll adapt something connected to botw/totk and that timeline if it is in any way tied to a game because nintendo is generally trying to move away from the 'traditional' zeldas so to speak

for context this is the hypothetical cast in the article i was reading earlier:

like i respect timothee but i think seeing him as link would just make me laugh. he's a perfectly good actor i just don't vibe with this. mr. holland. can we be serious here. respect the inclusion of dev patel and steven yeun but i think this would only work in a post-oot movie that was a tragic retelling of what happens to the hero of time / an exploration of the effect of All That. which won't happen but i think they could pull it off. we're very much dependent on how old link and zelda will be but if i HAD to pick from this list i'd say aramis knight (in ms marvel) because he's not as immediately recognisable and also he's around the right age for Link That Lives In My Head

moving to the zeldas. florence pugh are you KIDDING me. again i respect her i think ms pugh is very talented. but i don't think i'd want her to play zelda. ultimately it comes down to the fact that link and zelda are almost always teenagers and i want the movie to lean into that. especially because AGAIN this won't happen but i would like an examination of the impact of being declared Saviour Of The Entire World at approximately 12-17 years old. though i guess this could also work with an adult link and zelda but that would lean towards more of a drama than a Big Action Fantasy which is what this will be. zendaya again can we be serious i don't think this would work. personally i'd go w/ kathryn newton or stephanie hsu on this list tbh. or hunter schafer i think she'd be a pretty good choice on vibes alone but ive never seen her in anything (euphoria?)

the article also included these as cast possibilities for minor characters and when i tell you some of them made me choke on my water

i respect natasha lyonne as navi because that could be funny. the others are just. really. something

sorry this answer was super long and also not coherent i should inform you that i am running on approximately 2hrs sleep today. so. but if anyone wants to further discuss zelda PLEASE do i am going through a mini phase rn

also as a second tangent. my ideal zelda plots:

skyward sword zelda during her time on the surface because you could have some REALLY good conflict between her goddess side and her human side and the way she slowly realises she has to manipulate link

zelda becoming sheik in oot!!

my roommate pointed it out the other day but i haven't been able to stop thinking about it since: majora's mask stop motion movie in the style of gdt's pinocchio. directed of course by mr Fucked Up Fairytale del toro himself

[roxtron]

I was trying to think of why this made sense to me- the fact that the mimic is intended to be a larger threat but Ennard still had more impact/presence. I think the biggest issue is buildup, or lack of.

I mean, in sister location you spend the whole game avoiding the animatronics while also causing or witnessing the horrible things they go through, you're able to feel some level of sympathy for them. Though for some people that may just make them even more of a threat considering they obviously want revenge. Even though you were being lied to when led there, you get a sense that you still know these characters through the interactions you've had with them, genuine or not. Everything that happened up to this point still matters and gives you a reason to think back.

As much as I have tried to make theories or analysis on the mimic based on the lines we're given.. It doesn't really do the same. The majority of its voice lines as gregory (so basically all of its voice lines..) are just irrelevant "do this thing for me" that's completely skippable in the long run. Sure it's pretending to be a scared kid but we can't really gather any of its own emotions through that because not only are we unsure if there's any genuine thoughts there, but the dialogue focuses so closely on the goal we get no real characterization out of it like 90% of the time.

At least when Baby (or at least her voice?) was guiding you she still had moments where she gave small information, or sarcastic remarks, etc. Things that not only build the story but also show how the character reacts to these subjects. Her seemingly passive aggressive attitude towards Ballora, how passive aggressive she acts towards Mike on Night 4 in the spring lock suit, sure she tells you your goal and the game mechanics, but she also does so much more than that. I know people tend to complain about how Sister location is like 70% dialogue (or more depending how biased you are on the subject) but that dialogue at least serves a purpose! There's still plenty to be analyzed there and work off of, not only do we get pieces of lore from it.. (baby's thoughts on the scooper, the mention of the springlock suit and it "not being used the way it was meant to be used," her dialogue about the day Elizabeth died, characterization through her tone of voice or sarcastic remarks, etc!) But depending on how far you look into it you can get at least a baseline understanding of the characters and their goals.

But the mimic..? Look, you can check the post I've made about it before, I've tried analyzing his voice lines to see if they hold any purpose beyond just guiding you, and honestly? I'm grasping at straws on most of it. A lot of it is pretty irrelevant, I think I only found maybe 4-6 voice lines that matter? And I definitely had to do some reaching to find any potential ties to if anything the mimic said mattered to itself or to gregory, and while I stand by my analysis of it potentially giving us more information about what happened to Gregory down there.. not only does the dialogue barely give us any new information that the environmental clues didn't (backpack, handprint on the vent, etc.) But it doesn't develop the mimic. It develops Gregory. Which, hello, Gregory's one of my favorite characters lol, I'd be happy about that, but for the mimic itself? That's really bad. It makes it feel like everything you've done up until this point is meaningless development-wise. Once it's revealed you're not saving Gregory, it's kinda like, well, what was the point? I'm not talking generally- obviously the mimic being freed is supposed to be bad, but my point is that there's not a lot to look back on and feel like it served a purpose towards building up the ending. Sure you can look back and say "Oh yeah that makes sense, Gregory was kind of whining a lot more than Security Breach." but that's not really enough to justify it? Going into this a LOT of people were already theorizing it wasn't Gregory. Popular opinion at the time seemed to be that it was Vanny or Glitchtrap or Burntrap or whatever. That it tied into a previous villian using Gregory as a lure to get a new victim, someone else to trap into their plans. And that was cool honestly, I might've even preferred it! At least Glitchtrap has BEEN built up as a villain (I mean, I wish he had more screentime and all, but there was development even if it could've been expanded on.) and whether or not the Princess Quest ending is canon it still could've worked, using Cassie as a replacement for Vanessa. Though it may have been a bit repetitive plot-wise, it was a cool idea at least, besides it's not too different from what people are theorizing the current ending means.. Okay, i got sidetracked a bit. Point is, the theories people had at the time, they led somewhere! the twist of it not being the real Gregory isn't really enough to justify all this because 1. most people saw it coming and 2. even if you didn't see it coming, you can't really look back on the experience and feel like there's any new information to be given from it.. For there to be so much buildup for this, for most people to already be actively wondering what was using Gregory's voice and why, only for it to be.. a character the majority of the fanbase would be unaware of due to it only existing within the books up until this point. For anyone who didn't read the books (which is most people) this reveal was likely going to be unsatisfying, to say the least. Hoping for an answer and only getting more questions in return. That's not new for this series, sure, but it can be a bit disappointing at times. Depending on who you are and how that kind of ending makes you feel, I think most people can at least agree the way it was executed would've left people with mixed reactions.

Even if you did read the books, it still didn't really answer anything, did it? Sure, okay, the mimic is here. Now what? Is it the same mimic with the same backstory as the books? Are we gonna be twisting the backstory from the book universe to the games universe? What does any of this have to do with the story that was built up so far? From my perspective, it seems just as out of nowhere as if Eleanor was dropped into the next game. Most people would only know her as the villain of one specific story in the books, and for a one-off villain to suddenly be inserted into the plot instead of the villain we've actually been fighting this whole time.. it just comes out of nowhere, it really does. And all that gets twisted up even more with the question of how the mimic connects to glitchtrap. It's either replacing a pre-established villain and saying "it was this guy we know next to nothing about the whole time!" which is just really unsatisfying because it once again feels like everything up until this point has meant nothing, because there is no solid connection to tie the mimic to glitchtrap in a way that makes it feel, y'know, connected? They feel like two separate entities, whether they are or not, it's still unsatisfying. And even if they are two separate entities, then it's killing off Glitchtrap, a pre-established villain that posed a solid threat with semi-understandable motives.. for this wild card that hasn't been established whatsoever within the games. It feels like killing off glitchtrap in the middle of his arc because people got tired of him before he even got to do much. It felt like glitchtrap was still building up in my opinion, only for them to suddenly get rid of him. Once again, it makes everything feel pointless. I think the TLDR here is that Ennard served a purpose, even if the things they did were to trick you, it wasn't for nothing. You could still get pieces of lore, characterization, and motives from your previous interactions. But the mimic doesn't have any of that. It has basically no established motive besides "use Gregory's voice to let me out" and then what? Get out to the larger world? just kill people for fun or get revenge on specific people? What does it want from there? We don't know, which makes it difficult to care. On top of all that its previous interactions do feel like they were for nothing, there's very little to be analyzed from them and it just feels like a waste. It was all a trick, so, why does any of it matter? There's very little to be taken away from it beyond the fact that it's fake.

✨🤖An endoskeleton that dresses like a clown and tricks someone by mimicking a child's voice into freeing them from an underground basement.🤡✨

[minus-plus-zer0]

The Bakusquad Gaming Group - Ch. 1 - Introduction

| Masterlist | The Bakusquad Gaming Group Masterlist | | Next | ♡ Genre: Fluff, little crack ♡ Pairing: Gamer!Bakugou x Gamer!Reader ♡ Tags: Crossover (MHA x multiple franchises), gaming AU, Quirkless AU, aged up ♡ Summary: You're a pink and girly Let's Player who recently rose to fame. Eventually, your brand grows enough to attract the attention of the (in)famous Bakusquad. Their leader, Bakugou Katsuki, has especially taken a liking to you. This story follows your daily lives together as part of the Bakusquad.

You made waves in the gaming community as an up and coming Let's Player. Your pink and cutesy aesthetic could only be matched by the cozy games you played, with the occasional Dark Souls and DOOM Eternal mixed in.

Your following grew over time but you needed to network to continue your brand growth. Although your channel currently rode high on your DOOM Eternal Let's Plays, you noticed that a popular gaming group called the "Bakusquad" made themselves known by playing Animal Crossing, and you wanted in.

You actually recognized their leader, Bakugou Katsuki (aka his username "Dynamight"), as somebody who attended your old university. But you two never interacted and you never saw him in-person. He wasn't the type of guy who would collaborate with anyone, and even his own group had a hard time getting a hold of him. This could be his and your chance to break further into the multiplayer scene.

But how would you contact him? Emailing him felt too formal for a guy who regularly shirked formalities, and he blocked whoever slid into his DM's, plus he wasn't exactly friendly in-person on the off-chance you ever got to see him face-to-face.

But after watching some of his videos, you knew the best way to get his attention was through force.

You publicly challenged him on social media to a 1v1 fight in an old fighting game that you secretly knew the ins and outs of. You purposefully chose this one since it didn't look like anything you, a girly gamer, would be interested in. You tagged him and then you called upon your followers to get his attention, but it didn't take long before he was sliding into your DMs, mad as all hell.

"What the fuck was that?" was his first text. "You seriously challenging me?"

You didn't reply. You just screenshotted his DM, posted it onto social media, and tagged him again.

Your only words in your post were, "I'm dead serious. <3"

"Oh it is on." That was Bakugou's last DM to you.

Even though it wasn't his idea, Bakugou personally led the organization of the event from here on out. He shot you multiple curt texts of the time of the event, the rules, and instructions on the technical aspects of getting you both into an online call. He even gave you his phone number so that you could communicate faster. Now that caught you off-guard.

While you rested in the privacy of your own bedroom, you dialed his number. You felt the intense urge to tease him for even giving you his contact info. Before he could get a word in, you were already on his ass.

"Do you give everybody your phone number?" you asked.

"Huh? What, hell no! This is an important event as part of both our channels so I had to--"

"You sound so much stuffier in real life, oh my gosh."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING FLUFFY?"

"...I said stuffy, Bakugou."

"WHATEVER OKAY! That's not the freaking point! I just wanted to make sure your online connection was good enough for this old as fuck game. Why did you pick this shit anyways?!"

You could just imagine him in his house, getting all angry over a phone call. You found it highly amusing, mainly because you knew it wasn't that serious.

"It's a childhood favorite of mine," you pouted, crossing your legs on the bed. "It's very near and dear to my heart. You don't like it?"

He sighed. "If you're so fucking dead set on it, then I'm not exactly gonna back down now, am I? I just wanted to make sure this all works perfectly."

"It'll be fiiiiine, Bakugou." You hugged a video game plushie from your bed real tight. "Gee, I didn't realize you cared so much."

"It's my job! Of course I give a shit. I'll make sure this event doesn't flop 'cause of this damn fossil of a game."

"It's not gonna flop!"

Then day of the event came soon, and both of your fanbases were pretty hyped. The game itself wasn't the only interesting part. No, people were more interested in your clashing personalities.

Since you arrived on the gaming scene, people had jokingly made edits comparing your content to what "Dynamight" had to offer. Your brands were like night and day in difference. They knew from your first post tagging Bakugou that your ensuing interactions were going to be... intriguing, to say the least.

The stream started, with two of the Bakusquad members Kaminari Denki (aka "Chargebolt") and Jirou Kyoka (aka "Earphone Jack") helping with the technical side of things, as well as moderation of your chats. Kaminari oversaw Bakugou's chat, while Jirou oversaw yours. Needless to say, this caused numerous arguments between Bakugou and Kaminari. At least you and Jirou got along well enough despite your difference in aesthetics and Jirou's frustrations with the technical issues.

The first match would be starting soon. For the first three rounds, your arena would be a barren field with a galaxy backdrop. Bakugou specifically chose the plainest arena to best show off your skills and nothing else. You and Bakugou were on an online call together, streamed live to both of your audiences.

"You fucking ready for this, princess?" he asked.

"Only if you're ready for me, prince."

You saw Bakugou smirk wider at your comment through his rarely used onscreen camera. It made you feel in some way you couldn't describe.

Your character was a real firecracker on the field, despite their delicate and sweet-looking appearance. You caught Bakugou's fire-based barbarian character off-guard several times, punishing him every time he thought he could attack you recklessly.

Bakugou let out a stream of expletives, with many new swear words being created on the spot. He caught you laughing and he said, "Don't laugh at me, dammit! I'm not fucking done!"

He attacked viciously but he also learned not to throw his character around willy-nilly. Still, he wasn't a match for you and he couldn't get enough hits in before you threw him off the stage entirely. He tried to leap back up to grab the stage's ledge, but you spiked him straight down. His character died from falling offscreen.

Both your fanbases were going nuts at Bakugou's amateur playstyle. This was the first time he'd been taken off-guard in a fighting game. And it was worse knowing that you were beating him down like a professional MMA fighter beats down a sickly old grandpa on his deathbed. Bakugou was beyond livid, but instead of his earlier rampant boisterous rage, he was now silent and focused and seething.

"Somebody's a little pissed," you crooned into your microphone, your hands gripping your controller as you awaited his character to respawn. "Oh come on, Bakugou, it's not that serious..."

"You won't be saying that when I beat you," he said.

The second round was much worse for you. Bakugou grew much more defensive, and your offensive game was not nearly good enough to avoid retaliatory punishment from his character. You kicked him, he countered you and punched back, sending you flying off the stage to the point where you couldn't leap high enough to reach the arena. Your character fell to their death, somewhere into the beautiful galaxy backdrop.

Bakugou shot a stupidly handsome self-satisfied grin at his camera, and you knew for a fact that it was meant for you.

You sent him a well-trained, super sweet pageant smile that told him, "You are so fucking dead I swear to fucking god once I am done here your character will regret the day he was ever fucking born." Hopefully he got the message.

This was your last round of your first match, and there was no chance in hell you were going to throw the fight away that easily. You glanced at Bakugou's screen to gauge his reaction but he was glancing away from his game, and you wondered if he was looking at you.

The final round started and your characters traded blows like old archnemeses. Your character dashed quick as lightning, but you couldn't get any clean hits on Bakugou's character at all. Bakugou's character hit way, way harder and you struggled to remain on stage every time he sent you flying.

You had to admit, you were impressed. He was literally beating you at your own game. Still, you had dealt enough damage to his character little-by-little that you could tell he was getting nervous.

His barbarian character punched yours so hard he sent you flying, again. You were floating back towards the stage while he awaited you at the ledge.

"Almost fucking done here," he said, his voice almost a growl.

"You gotta tone down that ego of yours," you said, with a smile.

His character swiped at yours but you countered hard, your pink magic shooting him right backwards. Then, your character grabbed him, threw him over the ledge, and kicked him straight into the offscreen abyss.

You shrieked and cheered, bursting into a little happy dance. The chat was going wild seeing Dynamight perform poorly in a fighting game, for the first time. You looked at Bakugou's screen and he wasn't even mad. His back was slumped against his chair and his hand stroked his face, obscuring his true expression. But he was staring at your character's victory animation onscreen very seriously, like he couldn't believe it.

"Holy crap!" Kaminari's voice chimed into the call. "What a match! That's a great way to introduce yourself to someone! I can't believe you two have never collaborated before, we really gotta do this again sometimes because I have never, and I mean never, seen somebody kick Bakugou's ass like that."

"Shut it, Dunce Face."

"Aw come on! The night's still young! How about we play a few more rounds?"

Your eyes flickered to Bakugou's screen, then to your camera. "One more round, Bakugou?"

Bakugou exhaled through his nose. Then, he addressed his camera, his face morphing into a deadly smirk.

"This stream isn't ending until I beat you."

The stream didn't end for hours.

Bakugou had basically challenged you on your home turf, which was the biggest mistake of his life. You won most of the matches, and although Bakugou did win some, he could only go home happy if he won all of them. And as an unofficial referee, Kaminari would only consider it Bakugou's win if Bakugou won at least a majority of the matches, but Bakugou couldn't manage that either.

You had so much fun that night. You not only fought Bakugou but you also occasionally let Jirou and Kaminari get in on the matches. Other Bakusquad members also poked their head into the streams and joined in at certain points. Even though you had never met these people before, it felt like you were already fast friends.

You already felt incredibly comfortable around Bakugou, maybe even more so than the others. Once the stream ended, the rest of the Bakusquad congratulated you on the good stream but said their quick goodbyes as it was getting late. However, Bakugou stayed up and switched you two to a facetime video call through your computers.

Your heart raced upon seeing him but your face didn't give away any fear. This was very sudden, but you didn't mind witnessing what Bakugou was like in private. A strange feeling bubbled up within you. Meanwhile, Bakugou slumped back in his chair, his head propped up by one fist as he took your appearance in.

"So?" you said, looking playful and coy. "Guess it's not that bad of a game after all. Your viewers were higher with me around."

"Don't get cocky," he said. "Yours were higher than I've ever seen on your channel too."

"My channel?" You spun lightly left and right on your gaming chair. "I didn't realize you were a fan."

Bakugou lips turned up somewhat. "It's obvious that I'd fucking watch your videos before I collaborated with you. Duh. But... I've actually been watching your shit for a while now."

You knew that anybody who gamed with you would likely watch your content, so this wasn't surprising. But for some reason, hearing Bakugou say it put you on the spot, unlike how you indifferent you felt with past gaming partners. Bakugou could've watched any of your videos, even the cringy anime dating sims you played two weeks ago. At least you never played anything inappropriate on your channel...

"So you are a fan," you said, cheekily.

"So fucking what." He looked so irritated by your comment, but you only found his pissy face to be cute. "Yes, I'm a fucking fan. I've been a fan since you fucking started. Happy?"

"Wait, really?" You stopped spinning in your gaming chair. He looked like he regretted saying those words. "Oh my gosh, I would've never guessed if you hadn't told me! Do you put on my videos just to hear my voice? Do you buy all my merch? Do you want some of my gamer girl bath water--"

"Will you stop that?!" His face was a furious shade of red. You wanted to screenshot it so bad but he'd catch you red-handed. "I just said I'm a fucking fan, I didn't say I was delusional."

"You didn't need to," you said with a smile. You pointed at his face on the screen. "It's written all over."

"WHAT?!"

You burst into laughter. He could only stare dumbfounded at his monitor. He grumbled about how you were oh so impossible to deal with, but that didn't wipe the smile off your face.

"Really though, I'm glad..." you said, as your giggles faded away. "I'm always grateful for my fans, Bakubestie."

"Oh you've got nicknames for me now?"

"You're the one that called me 'princess'."

"You don't need to comment on everything I do, alright?" His face was burning brighter again. "Enough about me and all my supposed funny flaws you wanna point out. I wanna talk about you. You a fan of me or what?"

He tried to look cool while saying that. But by the way he leaned on his desk, closer to your screen, you could tell he was really interested in your answer. You backed away from your desk a bit, because his close presence embarrassed you.

"Of course I'm a fan," you said. "Who wouldn't be a fan of 'Dynamight'?"

His face cracked a handsome and cocky grin. "'Course you are." His voice possibly lowered an octave when saying that. "Since you're such a big fan of me, and I'm such a big fan of you, how about we partner up more often?"

He looked confident, but you could see his heart beating fast through his tight shirt.

That made you more confident in turn.

"Yes please, Dynamight."

[mdianasims]

He has traveled around the worlds and collected many memories and keepsakes. He made many friends along the way while he did both mundane and epic heroic things. And in every town there was another lover (or two) to be left behind.

You all know we're talking about Icarus Ibarra, Iker for friends (and he has many - one cheerful introduction and you're BFFs). His recent adventures made him realise that it might be time to settle down. And that doesn't mean he won't be going from world to world anymore. He will, he'd just prefer to do it with that one special someone by his side. And what better way than to find that someone in style?

Watcher Studios Inc presents...

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED More info under the cut.

We probably don't really need to introduce our bachelor, but here's a quick recap:

Full name: Icarus Nicodemo Ibarra Reyes Age: 28 (young adult) Traits: Romantic, Music Lover, Bro, Active, High Metabolism Aspirations: Party Animal, Romantic Explorer Likes: Activities - Dancing, Fitness, Gardening Guitar, Handiness, Mixology, Photography, Snowboarding Colour - Blue, Green, Yellow Music - Alternative, Latin, Latin Pop, METAL, Singer Songwriter We're not sharing compatibility likes/dislikes or turn-on/turn-offs (TOTOs), because that would take the fun out of the challenge.

In case you're not entirely up to speed on Iker's previous adventures, you can find them here.

Still interested? Good. If you want to apply, these are the essentials:

Read the rest of this post carefully. If you still want to enter your Sim after reading, then comment that you want to submit a sim.

I've made another post that further specifies some choices you have. I'm asking you to prepare this before submitting your Sim. That will make it easier for me to play it out when it comes up in my game. I know it looks like a lot, but all you need to do is make a Sim, dress them nicely and make a few choices. Then I'll do the hard work.

This is The Grand Scheme. Save the link, it'll be handy when you create your Sim. And even if you do not intend to submit a contestant, I don't mind sharing my nefarious plans ;)

There's a maximum of 12 participants (and a minimum of 7 or it'll mess up the schedule), first come, first served. One of these spots has been reserved for @zosa95. Because, if I hadn't submitted Iker's sister Neia to Branson's Bachelor Challenge, I would not have had Iker. It seemed only fair to do this in return.

Practical considerations:

No CC (minor exceptions: x and x)

I have all packs except Batuu. As for CAS Kits, I only have Simtimates and Moonlight Chic.

You will need Growing Together and Lovestruck for the personality likes and TOTOs. If you do not have these packs, you can still participate. You just need to let me know how you want to fill these and I can set them for you once your Sim is in my game.

1. Requirements:

Age: Young adult (give a 'real life' age if you like, anything from 18 to 30 is acceptable).

Gender: Male or Female.

Pronouns: No custom pronouns that are intended to be silly (such as 'His Evil Highness' or 'Her Colourful Ladyship' or whatever you would use to refer to your favourite pet (or Sim)). This is basically to prevent me from making mistakes while posting. Too many different pronouns and it's gonna go wrong at some point. Please use something short (and easy to remember).

Sexual Orientation: Must be romantically attracted to and interested in woohoo with men (whatever else you check, is your choice).

Romantic Boundaries: Set them as you like, Iker's player trait should overrule it (if not, I'll set everything to no jealousy).

Occult: Human preferred. No Werewolves, Vampires or Aliens (Iker is still processing the Moonwood adventure, which also made him hate vampires. After StrangerVille, though unfounded, aliens are bit of a touchy subject too).

Traits: Bro and Unflirty are not allowed (there's a rule about bros, and unflirty will just make it incredibly hard for your Sim).

Likes/dislikes:

No more than 2 music likes (because those still dominate wants).

Decor and Fashion are optional (i.e.: Dream Home Decorator and High School Years are not required).

Conversation Topics and Sim Characteristics are required to be set.

TOTOs:

Way of Life and Characteristics are required to be set.

Romance styles: 2 turn ons and 1 turn off, the other 2 will be neutral (I'll do this for Iker too, for a more interesting experience).

Hair Colour: Black hair turn on is advised.

Outfit colour/Fashion categories are optional.

Your Sim can be CAS created or born in game, skills are allowed, there won't be skill based challenges. They can have additional self-discovery traits if you've played them. However: the romance skill and hidden woohoo skill are banned (Iker doesn't have those either, yet) and charisma is capped off at lvl 3.

Fame is not allowed - I'll just keep all Sims out of the spotlight.

2. Outfits:

There will be lots of themed parties, outings and dates, so I've got an entire outfit scheme set up. To give you a chance to express your Sim's personality through their outfit choices (and get creative with NoCC CAS).

First, look up the outfits on The Grand Scheme. Then choose one of the following:

Easy Street: Set your Sim's standard oufit for each category, copy it to all listed slots. Then adjust the two mandatory second outfits.

The Middle Road: Do as above, adjust any other oufits you like.

All the Way: Set all oufits as requested.

Know that not all of these outfits will be used if your Sim is eliminated early on. But hey, at least you'll get a nice NoCC lookbook from it! Another thing to keep in mind (though entirely optional), the show (mostly) takes place in Ciudad Enamorada and Oasis Springs in Spring and Summer. So, big fluffy sweaters might look a bit out of place. If you accidentally use an item from a Kit that I do not have, I will try to replace it with something similar. If you do not set outfits for the themed activities, I will dress your Sim as I see fit.

3. Dates:

For three of the dates, there's a choice to be made by the contestant. Look this up in The Grand Scheme and let me know through DM what your Sim would choose for their perfect date(s).

4. One Final Question:

In case your Sim is eliminated, should they:

be returned to you (I'll save your Sim after elimination and upload the tray files and send you a private link);

live on in my save file;

be deleted;

remain in limbo forever (I'll store the tray files somewhere)?

Not answering this question defaults in the last option.

I know this is a lot. I hope you are not deterred by it. I just want to do something interesting with the new date system. And then this massive plan formed and now I'm stuck with it.

Anyway you have at least until 21 September 2024 to submit your Sim. If you need more time, or I'm not ready with the preparations, that date may move to somewhere in October.

Let me know in the comments and/or through DM if you want to submit a Sim. I'll put your name on the list. If I've added your name to the list and you no longer can/want to submit a Sim, let me know. There might be someone else who can take your place.

If you have any additional questions, do let me know. (if you think I've made any weird typos, let me know as well. I've checked the post a several times, but something might still have slipped).

Thanks for reading and I hope you're as excited about this as I am!

[paragonraptors]

YEHAW DA:V REVEAL THOUGHTS BELOW!!

Overall: Feeling so excited for this game. I'm climbing up the walls. I can't believe that was 20 minutes, it felt like 10. Need this in my hands yesterday.

What I liked:

-Holy fuck wow wow wow the hair looks like nothing I've seen in a video game before.

-Combat seems very different but also a natural progression of gameplay past. Real-time turn-based was always a little on the clunkier side, and while it never really bothered me, moving towards something more ME-style was expected. Very excited about being able to aim a bow. Would like to know what difficulty they were showcasing bc I'm considering jumping right into a Nightmare run.

-Now that I've been soulsborne-pilled the prospect of a parry mechanic has me buzzing.

-I feel like people are gonna dunk on the "stiffer" animation, but I prefer it so much more than the BG3/HZD constant wobbling. It'll make the key performances stand out instead of mostly jangling keys in front of a baby and letting the big moments get lost in the sauce. (Not that the aformentioned games didn't have good animation, just. If your characters don't need to move their whole body to convey dialogue I'd prefer if they didn't.)

-The sublety in the facial animations is CRAZY.

-The roleplay dialogue seems really reactive!! And the cuts to inject the unique dialogues feels smooth. I'm sure there will still be moments where it's easy to tell, but still cool. Seems like they're gonna be paying more attention to your personality type like DA2 too.

-So excited about Harding and Neve as companions and can't wait to meet everyone else.

-Neve's staff/wand makes me excited to see what kinds of focus options we'll get as a mage AAAA.

-God the costumes have so much swag. One of my hottest of many BG3 takes was that the costumes were overall flavorless. (Really hoping they didn't change the Grey Warden uniforms though that would really disappoint me.)

-Cinematography looks fantastic. Lots of well set up shots.

-NGL I felt something when Solas showed up. Wasn't expecting that. And while not perfect, I liked his interaction with Varric. Their relationship from Inquisition really slips under the radar if you're not bothering to look.

-Varric has never gotten over the trauma of what happened with Anders and it breaks my heart in a good way. God you could see it in his eyes!! [chef's kiss]

-However, I definitely have to kill Solas now for what transpired in this preview.

What I'm iffy about:

-The voice peformances feel a bit stilted. Not really what I'm used to from Bioware and I feel like it's important when the animations are more subdued. Hopefully this feeling will change when I get more of the game.

-The dialogue also felt a bit dumbed down. "Solas is doing his ritual!" "Yes. Solas' ritual. The ritual that we have to stop." Again, hopefully this is symptomatic of a tutorial level/trying to onboard newbies quickly and not the whole game lol. While I prefer this to dialogue that tries to sound smarter than it is, I'm really hoping we see an overall improvement from Inquisition.

-Sort of wish they went with the Andromeda dialogue system instead of bringing back Inquisition's, but I do like that it seems all dialogue options are getting tonal indicators again and they're not as easily conflated with morality. (Though I imagine people will STILL interpret it that way.)

-A little confused about them introducting Minrathous' panopticon shit and then immediately swerving into Solas' ritual. Would have liked some breathing room on that kind of worldbuilding.

- While I'm generally open minded about the change, I Do Not Love not being able to switch to playing companions. Might turn around on this if your ability to issue them commands opens up the closer you are to them/the more you grow into a leadership role. I do like that it seems you will eventually be able to command when they use abilities a la OG Mass Effect bc that was my biggest beef with the Andromeda gameplay, esp on Nightmare/Insanity difficulty.

-Not crazy about the new Pride demon design where are their leggies.

-Not really a Criticism, but they are definitely setting up for Varric to die and while I get it, narratively, I'm NOT HAPPY. Dragon Age has been almost allergic to scripted deaths so it's also gonna feel like being dunked in an ice bath. EVIL STUFF. IN DENIAL.

[digi-lov]

Digimon Liberator Novel

[read on the official website] DEBUG.1-1 [Yuuki] - DEBUG.1-2 [HEAVY METAL PLAY] - DEBUG.2-1 [Winr] - DEBUG.2-2 [GOOD GAME]

First spoiler free, then more detailed including spoilers under cut

So the first 2 chapters of the Digimon liberator novel dropped last week! We don't exactly know how frequent it'll update, but most likely not as regular as the comic. First impressions on the main characters, I really like them. I think they are fun and interesting enough to drive the story. They don't feel like exact copies of previous characters, and make me exited for a fresh adventure!

As far as I could tell, the translation seems fairly good, but there was a mistranslation of a card effect. However the translation of TCG card effects can be a bit tricky, and the translators might not have known the official english wording. They also show the respective card right there, so it's easy to see what the effect should be, but it might be confusing to people who weren't already familiar with the cards.

Nevertheless I'm optimistic and looking forward to read more!

So now for a bit more detail

First off, I think they way they incorporate the player's tamer cards is really smart. A player get's their own blank tamer card, and can obtain various effects to add to it within the game, to customize their own tamer card to their play style. Nice! This way it doesn't feel like a weird 4th wall break for Yuuki to have a Yuuki Tamer card for example.

I really like Yuuki , immediately! She's fun, and she definitely has flaws and quirks to work on that'll make her interesting to watch grow. Her relationship with Impmon is nice too. Impmon is not exactly a serious character, but does want Yuuki to be a bit more serious, and recognize the weight of the situation. To an extend, Impmon wants Yuuki to take their partnership more serious in turn, I'd say. The way they talk to each other feels very familiar. You can tell they're close, not holding back complaining about the other. They bicker, but they also quickly drop the fight when needing to figure something out together.

Yuuki's Impmon, as most already know, get's a new evolution line: Punkmon, Loudmon, and HeavyMetaldramon. I love them! I like how it gives Yuuki and her Impmon more of an individual identity, than if they used a previously common Impmon line. The detail about Yuuki being a dancer, and vibing with the cool metal dragon is sweet too!

Also, I wonder if that Altea character is this girl from the poster? It's interesting that Impmon is not a fan of her...

Winr and FunBeemon's introduction was great too. Winr seems like a proud kid, without being feeling too stuck up. The story taking place after he's already known Yuuki for a year, really helps with his walls having started to come down already. I'm curious if his parents will be related to the in universe Digimon Franchise or Game Company in a way, or it they're just generic absent rich parents. Which, I don't think would take away from Winr's character if they are. I feel for him to want to escape from his home life into a virtual world. I love his relationship with FunBeemon. FunBeemon is very attentive to Winr's feelings, and cares a lot about him. And Winr doesn't get annoyed by it, but appreciates it, even though he doesn't quite know how to express it. The new evolutions for FunBeemon are also cool! I've like FunBeemon for a partner Digimon for a while, and I'm excited to see it finally happen!

I'm curious about Winr's real name too, assuming Winr is his username. Winr is a play on "winner", with his Japanese name サイキヨ Saikiyo being a play on 最強 (さいきょう) saikyou meaning "the best" or "the strongest". FunBeemon's nickname "Winnie" is キヨちゃん kiyo-chan in Japanese.

For anyone who's interested: Japanese first person pronouns

Yuuki uses the japanese first person pronoun あたし atashi, which is quite feminine, but as being too over the top girly is sometimes seen as disruptive, atashi also has a do-as-I-please kinda vibe sometimes. For example, it's used by Yuffie from FFVII. The even more cute-girly atai in turn is often used in media by very strong-willed, rough women, such as Plumeria fom Pokémon Sun&Moon, or the Gerudo women from the Legend of Zelda games. It can also be played straight as super cute too thoug, like with Vivian from Paper Mario TTYD.

Impmon uses オレ ore, which is a strong, proud, often masculine pronoun. In formal situations it would be considered rude, but it's normal for guys to use in a casual setting. Very rarely it is also used by super tough women in media, such as Kumatora from Mother 3, or Big Mom from One Piece. Eiichiro Oda mentioned himself knowing women who use ore, but this is quite uncommon and likely a modern developement. You go girls! Impmon also uses it in katakana, which gives it a bit more emphasis.

Winr uses 僕 boku, which is quite common for young boys, or more soft spoken men in casual settings. In media it is also occasionally used by girl characters that have a "tomboy" vibe, but also sometimes by female singers in their songs.

FunBeemon uses 私 watashi, which is technically a polite neutral pronoun, but using it in a casual setting has a feminine connotation.

PS: Sorry this took so long, I'm still very sick, and writing coherent sentences with okay spelling is diffcult.

[ohthethingswedoforlove]

Yandere!Starlo headcanons

I've been playing Undertale Yellow and of course I had to write for Starlo, with an introduction and boss fight like that, how could I not?

Warnings: yandere character; vague descriptions of violence; imprisonment; some spoilers for the game;

Starlo

💛 Starlo, or North Star as he has taken a liking to call himself, has always been one for fixations.

💛 And you being a human who just so happened to have the unfortunate mistep of falling into the Underground fits oh so neatly into his acquired fascinations.

💛 Imagine you're a human who managed to venture through the Underground until you stumbled upon the Wild East before Clover even had a chance to.

💛 You're the first human, the first real human Star has ever laid eyes on. And how exciting that is!

💛 He just has to take you along! He's seen so much about your kind and he just yearns to mimic a part of it; and besides, imagine his posse, the Feisty Five, now with a human member!

💛 You barely have time to question what he means by that before you're being taken by his gang and brought to his town. 

💛 And if you somehow manage to break yourself out of the grasp of Ed or any of the other members, Star is pretty quick with his lasso. Don't worry! He doesn't want to hurt you! You just have to come with him them! You have to.

💛 He wants you as part of the team, immediately parading you around for the town's residents, delighted at his newest find. You're going to fit in just fine, partner! He's sure of it.

💛 But you can't leave.

💛 Try as you might to ask around, everyone seems to have a soft spot for Star and think of his antics as mostly harmless. They all share the sentiment that you could just stick around for a bit.

💛 They've never seen him so enthusiastic, so lively before. Maybe you could humor him? Just for a little while! It's the equivalent to playing cowboys for a few days, and where's the harm in that?

💛 Besides, this little town is just so welcoming and friendly. How can you not want to stop and stay a while?

💛 Nevermind that all possible exits seem to be closed off. Or even just straight up locked with a very clear intent.

💛 None of the other residents are as enthusiastic about your stay here. They're very nice to you and happy to see a new face, granted, but you can tell that some of them in particular are internally debating whether or not Star should be doing this. It's all in good fun... And it's not like he's actually trapping you here, right? You'll leave eventually, should you choose to.

💛 Oh, how wrong they'll grow to be.

💛 Star will drag you to "training" as soon as he can, hoping to get you started with a spot on his posse immediately. He has an eye for talent, so surely it'll be no wonder when you start showing sharpshooting skills just as impressive as his!

💛 Nevermind the fact you never held a gun with the intent to shoot in your life.

💛 Training goes over a bit awkwardly, with you clearly not being cut out to be a gunslinger and him being stubborn and convinced that you're made for this. Made to join them. Made to join him.

💛 It takes quite a bit of accidents and a lot of convincing from the other members for him to start accepting that maybe giving you a six-shooter and forcing you to answer to moral problems isn't exactly gonna work out.

💛 But he doesn't give up. 

💛 Sure, you're not officially part of the gang, but that doesn't stop him from dragging you around with him everywhere.

💛 Literally.

💛 Most of the time he guides you around by the hand or, during the moments where you are "refusing to cooperate for no reason", he straight up lassos you and then drags you around.

💛 He laughs it up and tries to play it off like it’s not a big deal. He's not trying to harm you in any way, he just wants to show you around! Show you to his town, show you how fun this life is.

💛 He dresses you up for the role too, insisting in giving you old hats he no longer uses and clothes that would fit the costuming of an old western movie, all things he handmade himself. He just wants you to look the part. And he also thinks you look really cool like that!

💛 You're always there during the gang's meetings, whether you asked to be there or not, and of course you have to participate in the group naps afterwards. 

💛 Star lets you take his spot on the old couch the first few times, but then he starts insisting that you two should share. He does take no for an answer, at least, a bit sad but not wanting to make you uncomfortable. Still doesn't really stop him from sleeping on the ground right in front of the couch. 

💛 Makes it easier to catch you when you're trying to run away leave mid nap, for some reason. You're supposed to rest up before the next mission, you know? He's just trying to help you care for yourself.

💛 When he's not busy playing the role of the town sheriff or hanging out with his posse, while dragging you along of course, he tries to get you to talk about yourself and your life on the Surface.

💛 Star absolutely adores hearing more about you, and gets super into trying to involve your experiences, preferences and stories into the whole old wild west town he has going on. Anything you tell him he absorbs, and then he tries to give you gifts that match or recreate things you've enjoyed to the best of his ability.

💛 Of course, he also goes to show off his brand new knowledge on humans and their lives to anyone in the saloon who's around to listen, all direct from a reliable and wonderful source!

💛 But all of this very obviously obsessive behaviour can only go on for so long before the members of his gang or even Ceroba start to point out how... Weird he's been acting ever since he found you.

💛 He tries to dismiss them. He just cares about you! You're special and he has taken a really strong liking to you. You're like… His partner. Yeah.

💛 So why does he keep you so confined? Well, you're human! Any other monster outside this town finds you and you'll very likely get captured and sent to king Asgore, who will kill you and add your SOUL to the amount needed to break the barrier.

💛 That is if you aren't hurt or killed by an aggressive monster before that even gets to happen.

💛 The others can't really argue about that, much to their frustration, but still point out that he's being overbearing and overprotective.

💛 He ignores them for the most part. Or plays it off, as he usually does. C'mon, the town has been so much more lively since you got here! Why think about all that depressing stuff when we could be having fun and distracting ourselves?

💛 Still, part of him knows it's wrong to keep you here.

💛 Especially when you come to him asking when you can leave. Reminding him that if you managed to get all the way out from the Ruins up until this town, it means that you can handle yourself despite not really being a fighter. And you want to go home.

💛 He feels his heart twist everytime you say that. Home. The guilt instills itself, but it doesn't stop him.

💛 Because... This is your home now, right?

💛 It's selfish, yes, but he doesn't want you to leave. He's grown attached. And he's also grown terrified you're going to end up hurt, or much, much worse. 

💛 Thinking about you being gone from his sight makes his hand shake over the holster of his gun.

💛 So you can't leave.

💛 The town is locked up and you're both figuratively and literally tied to him most of the time, anyway.

💛 You're staying.

💛 You're part of his gang, after all. You're supposed to stick together, through thick and thin.

[duckapus]

WarioWare: Watch It!

Had an idea for a hypothetical cartoon where we follow Wario and his friends on their misadventures in Diamond City and beyond. It'd be mostly episodic, though each season would have a couple plotlines happening mostly in the background, and ideally there'd be four seasons.

Season 1

Mainly serves as an introduction to the cast and their weird and wacky lives. The main plot in the first half is the crew working on their latest game, and then midway through it comes out and turns out to be a big hit! So big that the fame (and revenue) starts going to Wario's head and making him act more...Wario-ish. By the end he'll have to decide once and for all what he really cares about the most... hopefully before he takes things too far and finally pushes everyone away for good.

Season 2

Season 1 focused pretty much exclusively on Diamon City and other WarioWare settings, with the greater Mario world being limited to background characters that happened to be species from other games, cameos in advertisements and 9-Volt's games and the like, and occasional mentions of Wario's out-of-town friends (Mario's name in particular isn't heard at all the whole time).

Well, in Season 2 that all changes, with the goings-on of Diamond City and the Mushroom Kingdom overlapping more and more as time goes on. This is partially spurred by Waluigi being in town for a while for reasons I haven't thought of yet, leading to the reveal (at least, a reveal to the audience and a few of the newer WarioWare employees. Most of the crew already knows) that Dr. Crygor and Waluigi are semi-estranged father and son. And unfortunately, them living in such close proximity to one another is stirring up some long-unresolved tension, even with Penny, the bots, Wario and the rest of the crew trying their best to mediate.

Speaking of family drama, there's another storyline to contend with, one revolving around the mystery of who, and where, exactly Ashley's parents are. And unfortunately, the pieces of the puzzle that everyone's been putting together don't paint a pretty picture.

Oh, they're not dead or anything.

That would be too easy.

Wario Land...Ware (Season 3)

The odd season out that goes almost fully serialized for a while.

While on yet another one of his treasure-hunting trips, Wario (accompanied by Mona) comes across a map to a legendary treasure. Captain Syrup unfortunately manages to swoop in and steal it from him, hoping to have the treasure all to herself. Fortunately, Mona managed to take a picture of the map before Syrup showed up, just in case, so it'll be a race to see who gets there first. The two of them head back to Diamond City to get ready and end up recruiting the rest of WarioWare Inc. for a globetrotting adventure!

But Wario and Syrup aren't the only ones after the treasure, and there may be sinister forces at work in the background...

Season 4

A return to form, re-focusing on the Crew living their lives in Diamond City. Though, there's an undercurrent of anxiety, as there are forces, and bureaucratic forces at that, which seek to destroy WarioWare Inc. by any means necessary.

Even if it means completely ruining the lives of its employees.

[soleilnmity]

Doujinshi - [U.S.O (Tankinu Nagase/Shinshu Ueda)] Megami Ibunroku Persona/ Persona 2 dj assortment [RAW]

Titles: (Megami Ibunroku Persona) 阿頼耶DEGO (Alaya de Go), リバース (Reverse) , ゴーバッド (Go Bad) (Persona 2) BIG BAD BINGO, CARRY THAT WEIGHT!

Artist: タンキーヌ・ナガセ (Tankinu Nagase) [Shinshu Ueda's penname for doujinshi) Circle: U.S.O (For Megami Ibunroku doujinshi) ESTMA (For P2EP doujinshi) Google Drive link

Personal Notes: I always wanted to upload these doujinshi, but I usually refrain from posting pure raws because I want the translations too…Unfortunately, I cannot defeat my archenemesis </3 japanese handwriting, and Nagase/Shinshu's handwriting is very……..messy x_x. For some of these, I still want to try my hand at translating eventually, but it'll definitely take a while. I love translating little artist notes and there's a lot of those in every doujinshi so if I can't translate something absolutely fully I end up giving up orz. In any case, yes. These are doujinshi made by Shinshu Ueda under the name of Tankinu Nagase in their doujin circle U.S.O. There are 5 doujinshi attached, 3 for Megami Ibunroku Persona and 2 for Persona 2.

270823 Edit: リバース has now been fully translated! The gdrive has been updated to reflect that. Please thank @falsekaiba for the typesetting and translation! Really well made 🙏 it will also be found in Mangadex as well.

Under the cut are some small explanations for the others, but I'll go straight for the P2EP doujin for introduction, as I actually translated bits of that one.

Title: CARRY THAT WEIGHT! - Eternal Punishment focus (PG, small bits of Kandori mixed in with a Post-EP story) Original printing date: 2000/08/12

This is the only doujinshi of Tankinu that was published under a different circle than their usual "U.S.O.", called "ESTMA". I have never found any other doujinshi of them under this label, and if there were any, they might be lost to time. The first page warns about the book containing spoilers for the ending of EP, so it's advised to proceed with caution. After that, all the way up to page 7 there's small gag bits with Kandori, and an obligatory Naoya illustration (they really seems to like him so much ww). From page 8 to 23 is the actual story of the doujin, "Phantom Pain". FORTUNATELY, it was all written in computer text (not handwritten) and I thought it was such a good story, that I took the time to actually translate it at least. The pictures attached to this post are the translation of those pages. There might be some errors in some of the handwritten parts, but I hope I did well.

TL Notes: アンプ (Amplifier / Ampli), The change in fonts is supposed to represent that Eikichi is talking in english there in the original japanese (but that's hard to showcase to an english translation duh), I keep honorifics like Senpai and Aniki as-is.

I was surprised to know that these doujinshi were never talked about (nor were they ever scanned), but now they exist for all to see.

Now, for the rest of the doujinshi.

Title: Reverse/リバース - Naoya and Kandori (+misc) (PG, a bit of a general all-genre doujinshi mixing doodles for other games and a second half focusing on BAROQUE) Original printing date: 1997/12/28. 2nd reprint 1999/12/24. Has a small gag story called "Dead man's questions" about Kandori in a strange flashy outfit.

English Translated (Google Drive)

Title: Alaya de Go/ 阿頼耶DEGO - Shadow Naoya/Naoya (BL, not explicit but Naoya has (implied) sex with his shadow) Original printing date: 1997/12/28. 2nd reprint 1998/08/14. 3rd reprint 1999/05/03 Naoya is called "Isurugi Tatsuya" (岩動 達弥) in this doujinshi.

Title: Go bad/ゴーバッド - Naoya/Hidehiko (BL, Naoya kisses Hidehiko. Seems to have crossover bits from BAROQUE, another ATLUS game Ueda/Nagase did doujinshi for) Original printing date: 1998/12/29. 2nd reprint 1999/05/03. Despite the cover being Naoya with a skirt, there's no crossdressing involved.

Title: BIG BAD BINGO - Innocent Sin focus (PG, done with collaboration with another artist which is Superunknown Corp's sho太郎/沢田翔) Original printing date: 1999/08/??

This doujin physically has Superunknown's side be printed downwards, so you have to flip the doujinshi to read their part which is pretty nice. Unfortunately this is the only one of U.S.O. doujinshi without an specific day of printing, just vague August 1999.

And that's pretty much what I can say for now, at least until when I get to translating some of these (and the folder will be updated accordingly when so)

Sorry, but I don't allow reposts of these scans unless it's with permission (specially not twitter gimmick accounts that are 'daily character accs', etc). However, if you want to translate these you can do that anytime even without my permission! As long as you credit me for the raws (and @ me while you're at it because I want to know...). You can also edit, crop, use them for avatars and whatnot, whatever you want, just that I specifically don't want the whole doujinshi reposted itself without my credit. Just that, sorry for what inconveniences it causes www

[rivalsforlife]

played the aai2 portion of the demo today!! it's been a while since I played aai2 properly so I probably missed a lot of translation nuances aside from a few that stuck out to me. I love the new minisprites their little expressions are so cute. I missed the music so much. I missed Kay Faraday. It's going to be so interesting seeing mini translation differences and I'm going to point out a few of them but under the cut in case anyone doesn't want specific translation / general aai2 spoilers:

The one major disappointment to me so far is they translated de Killer's "the most important thing about making ice cream is honor" line to change "honor" to "a virtuous heart". "Honor" made way more sense to me as a callback to his motivations in JFA so I was disappointed that they changed that. (Maybe that was more a fan translation insertion but still it was good!!)

I also think they changed "I won't rest until I've inspected every suspicious-looking nook and cranny" in the scene where they're investigating the stand. Which is very weird to me since iirc that line came from AAI's translation. I'm wondering if they changed it for this game and if so why they would have done that? They changed it to "I must scour the scene and investigate anything that catches my attention" which is weird.

I was also interested in the "key individual" line because iirc that was originally "curious individual" (curious being the same character for monkey that's in Sarushiro) which the fan translation changed to "key" for Keyes. But in this one it's "a certain someone" which I didn't even catch. It's a sad loss but I'm not sure how you could do a pun on "Simeon Saint" anyways. Unless somehow "someone" is supposed to correspond to "Simeon" but that's a stretch.

There were some good Edgeworthisms though. The chess scenes, especially the introduction with Knightley, were as delightfully cringeworthy as ever. Him calling the person in the red hood "My Little Red Riding Hood" would have been an instant hit for Nerdworthbot. And I do love Kay calling herself "your best pal in the world" too. I missed her so much.

Anyways. The vibes of the translation feels a little different but it also has been a while since I played the game so that might be part of it. I think some of the misses to previous game references (particularly the "honor" line and ESPECIALLY the nook and cranny line) are weird. I get that the AAI translation was over a decade ago and the JFA one was even longer so maybe they forgot that but I kinda assumed they would have been referencing the previous games? Or at least Janet Hsu is always so involved in these translations that I'd think that would be something they'd be careful about referencing? Or maybe they didn't do those lines and it was someone else? Or maybe it's not the highest priority? It'll be interesting to see how this continues on - there's the part of the game at the very end that quotes stuff from AA1 where if they mess that up it'll be veeery strange. and iirc they have other Lang quotes from AAI that I hope they preserve. I recall an interview with Janet Hsu where they said they didn't have time to go back and redo the AAI translation so I wonder if they were really pressed for time BUT STILL!! NOOK AND CRANNY IS ICONIC!! janet hsu answer my emails

[justrainandcoffee]

Against all odds (Alfie Solomons x fem!oc) Part 1.

(Crossover Peaky Blinders - Hunger Games)

Series masterlist - Alfie x Rose masterlist

Summary: Six years ago, Alfie won his games and the ghosts of those years still haunts him. But he has not choice but go to the Capitol, once again, because that's his role as mentor. No one of those kids who went with him to the Capitol survived and probably this year it'll be the same. Fuck the Capitol and its citizens. They're all the same. The thing is... Not all of them are the same.

Series warnings: Mentions of sex (consent and non-con). Murders. Blood. PTSD. Cheating. Prostitution. || This is set in Panem universe. Topics as minors being sexual corrupted are also mentioned because it's CANON.

Words: 3.1k

Six years earlier.

District 8.

Rose woke up sighing. Last week she celebrated her 18th birthday. Already an adult and yet, once last time she had to prepare herself for the reaping day.

The last six years of her life were tortuous. Year after year, praying for a miracle. But for now, God or whoever was up there, listened to her.

Just one more time.

Her brother Samuel was already up when she went to the kitchen. He was 13, almost 14, and that was his second time facing that not so special day.

"Hi, Sam."

"Rosie…"

She tried to prevent him from asking for things so he couldn't get any extra tesserae but also, there was a time where she fell ill for almost a month and Samuel was the one who had to ask for medicine. His name was ten times on those damn papers. Rose's name was fifty-five.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"If by okay you mean that there's a chance I can be reaped and then die then, no, I'm not okay. But I'm still alive and these toasts are good, so yes, I'm okay."

"Everything will be fine, Sam."

"Except for one boy and one girl."

Rose nodded, "except for them."

.

The escort who always visited the district during the reaping day was an extravagant man called Alistair Pullman, who had half of his hair blue and half white. Perfectly combed. He also had a ridiculous moustache and talked in a funny way.

"Welcome to The 53th Hunger Games!" Alistair exclaimed. He was wearing a white hat and a brilliant green suit.

The introduction was always the same. Same words, same tone of voice.

"…as always, ladies first."

Her heart was pounding.

Please, help me one more time.

Alistair picked up a paper and opened it "Rose… Gregg."

Gregg. Not Coldwell. Not Coldwell. She couldn't help but cried. The odds were indeed on her favour. After all those years, after all those fucking tesserae, she did it. She was never reaped.

Rose Gregg was a thin ginger girl. She was also crying but for very different reasons. She was probably walking towards her death. Rose Coldwell felt sorry for her.

"And now the gentlemen…"

The boy, luckily, wasn't her brother but a boy called Martin Wallis.

When she had the chance, she ran towards her little brother and hugged him tightly.

It was indeed a good day. At least for the Coldwells.

Far away in district 9 a boy called Alfred had been reaped.

Now.

District 9.

"How old are you?" Alfie asked.

"19."

"You're fucking not. How old are you?"

"16."

"Fuck off. Go home, girl."

"Please, sir! My sister and I, we're hungry! Let me show you! Other men say I'm good… I can be good. Whatever you want, sir."

Alfie went to the kitchen and grabbed some canned food and bread and gave it to her. "I said fuck off."

He growled. Not infrequently women and sometimes men knocked on his door offering sexual services in exchange for food or medicine he now had. Since he won his games six years ago that was a every day routine. And not so infrequently, too, he accepted their offer. It was a good way to stop thinking. As long as the person was adult and never vaginal sex. The last thing that the world needed was more kids. Were his actions questionable? Who the fuck cared? That was Panem not a fucking monastery. You had to survive and every person chose their methods. At least he wasn't a fucking rapist.

Alfie tried not to think about it. It was only once but…

He knocked the rest of the cans out of his table. He was angry.

It was months after his victory. A woman in her 50s paid for a night with him. And he didn't have the option to say no. The lady had a fetish for young teenage boys who were like him. They forced him to take a pill so he could last longer during the sex encounter. Not only the woman was older than his own mother but also was incredibly annoying. He forced himself to close his eyes and just do his job. It was the longest and most unpleasant night of his life.

No one else wanted him. Too rude and not childish enough to them. He already had beard. People of the capitol preferred baby faces. Alfie never shaved again in his life, that kept the rest of the citizens away from him.

And that day was the beginning of a new nightmare. Once again, a new reaping day. Another year where probably he was going to lose another boy and another girl.

He watched the ceremony from the distance. Both girl and boy were 15 years old. The boy named Philip had only one hand.

Alfie knew it from the very beginning, Philip had his days numbered. Later he could study the girl. In the distance he heard the train already waiting for them.

.

The Capitol. Wealthy, big, colourful… full of hypocrisy and heartless bastards. Full of people cheering for the tributes and waiting for them to be slaughtered by other kids. He despised that place. Their escort, Alissa, was speaking but Alfie wasn't paying attention to her.

The training centre was full of people. From servants to guards. Alfie saw how other victors talked to the new tributes, introducing that place. Philip and the girl were at his side in silence listening to Alissa who was too enthusiastic about these new games.

A short woman approached them and greeted Alissa with a big smile and also the kids. She just nodded at him, probably reading his facial expression.

"I'm the new stylist," she introduced herself to him and the rest "I'm Rosebeth. And I'm glad to announce you're going to shine."

.

Another fucking year. Rose watched the different kids being selected on TV. Same old story. Happy and proud faces on those from district 1 and 2, resignation on the rest of them.

That was her first year working as stylist and they assigned district 9 to her. The previous stylist had problems with authorities and he had been incarcerated. Probably killed by now, she didn't know. And Rose learnt that it's better not to ask.

If you wanted an answer all you had to do was wait and listen. Sooner or later, people talked. Especially those wealthy bitches ready to spread gossips.

The train was already there. And Rose prepared herself. Time to be someone new.

When you're part of the Capitol, you had to act like one. You couldn't have a simple and mundane name as Rose. Because of that she merged her both names in one, Rose Elizabeth: Rosebeth. And voilà, she wasn't a simple girl anymore.

Not long time ago she was part of the districts too. She didn't born there. She hated the Capitol, the ideals, the way that those kids were treated. Rose wanted to burn that place from the ground and watch it explode in thousand of pieces. And was already working on it.

But for now she was the stupid, superficial and happy Rosebeth Evert, married to one of the richest men there. And one of the biggest piece of shit, too.

"What happened to André?" the mentor asked. She looked at him and smiled.

"André isn't here anymore. As I said, I'm the new stylist and for the next weeks we're a team. The five of us, isn't that great?"

Alissa clapped happily and Philip smiled. Alfie and the girl remained in silence.

.

While they entered the elevator to go to their floor, Alfie realised he was mad. No, in fact, he was disgusted. At least André was a man who he could talk with. The woman in front of him was nothing but the perfect example of a empty minded person who probably celebrate every death. The next few weeks were going to be a hell. He looked at her and Alissa talk like very good friends but said nothing.

Alfie knew the place but the kids not. The floor that the Capitol gave to district 9 was big, elegantly decorated and with enormous windows facing the city.

Alissa was jumping here and there expressing her gratitude for the food on the table, the soft music on the background and almost everything.

"You're Reah," said Rose looking at the girl. Contrary to Philip, Reah was shy and quiet. Not agressive at all, just timid. The girl girl nodded "I'm already thinking about your dress, Reah. But I need opinions, what do you like about your District? I'm against all traditional, sweetie. André was good, but too classic. Make them talk about you, Reah."

"Reah wants peace. Her life is about to change forever, last thing she needs is to talk about stupid costumes."

Rose looked at the mentor who just talked. She read his files. Alfred Solomons, winner of the 53th Hunger games. An impressive number of seven deaths, one of them by decapitation. Two sickles was all he needed to be a victor. But the grumpy man in front of her had nothing to do with the photo in the files she read.

"Well, Alfred, what about let the girl talk instead of speaking for her? My reputation depends on the parade and I'm not going to ruin it because you're against it."

"It's okay," Reah said shyly. "I'd like to talk about the costume."

Alfie huffed before turning around and go to his bedroom.

The fucking Capitol.

.

But Alfie had nothing to say when he finally saw the costumes. Over the years, he had seen his mentored kids dressed as corn or a wearing weath hats. That night, both Reah and Philip represented Ceres, the roman goddess of grains. Comparing the costumes to distract 1, for example, probably they weren't that extravagant. But if you looked closer you could see the little details like weath ears made of golden threads perfectly sewed to the fabric. Plus longer weath ears made of real gold outstanding over their shoulders and heads.

Alissa was fascinated and told Rose. Alfie remained in silence.

Apparently, people loved them too.

The only thing that Alfie thought was that maybe that could help him to get sponsors for them.

At that hour the building was almost empty except for guards and some night workers. No one asked her what she was doing at those hours. She's carrying a sewing machine in her arms and some clothes on her shoulders.

Rose was trying to ignore her heartbeat. You had to start with something, right?

"To spy my husband," she said to the seller who didn't ask much questions when she bought a microphone.

She gave two fucks her husband. He was probably now celebrating with some other men in a bar thinking about the tributes and who could win.

A guard stopped her when she tried to enter the control centre. She knew that was going to happen. She wore her fakest smile.

"You can't pass, ma'am."

Rose giggled stupidly "oh, I know, love. But Claudius is there and I have a message for him from my cutie husband Lawrie Evert. It's just five seconds."

The guard looked at her and used the communication device on his wrist to speak with other guard inside. After a short exchange of words he let her in.

The message was fake. Probably the man named Claudius will forget that, but it gave her the chance to be inside the most precious room in the whole Capitol. The fucking control centre. No one noticed that she put the tiny mic under the table. Especially because everyone was busy and because the clothes covered her arms. Long life battery. Probably it will last longer than this game edition.

Once she left the room and the hallway. That stupid smile she hated so much disappeared from her face.

"Be careful with her," an old victor warned Alfie once the training began.

Alfie had been watching Philip and he was extremely surprised by his ability to use spears despite having only one hand. It's not like district 9 had a lot of wild animals to hunt. Alfie promised himself to ask the boy about it later.

"With who?"

"Your stylist. Do you know her husband?"

"I don't know a shit about her except that she's annoying and she's laughing like an idiot all the time. Who the fuck is her husband?"

"Lawrence Evert."

Alfie stopped looking at the boy to look at the victor. It was the black woman known as Volcano Girl. Alfie was a little kid by the time she won, probably 4 or 5 years old, he barely remembered those games. But for a few years Aveline Young was quite popular. She was 34 years now, almost two decades passed from the moment she won.

"What?" Alfie asked looking at her.

Lawrence Evert was a bad word. It was an open secret the things he did to some victors. Even Alfie who was one of the youngest and hadn't heard everything, knew about him.

"Just telling you, Alfie. I couldn't trust her if I were you. Who the fuck can marry that bastard?"

His head were full of questions. Not only now he had to protect those kids from other tributes, but in case that any of them could win, he had to ptotect her o him from the husband of a woman who was pretending to be their friend.

.

The hostility towards her the following days only increased. Alissa tried to calm him, talked to him about other things but he didn't cooperate. Every time Alfie found her talking to Reah or Philip alone, he approached them.

Those bastards were everywhere. Every night when Alfie looked through the window and watched the lights he asked himself how many of them corrupted kids. The answer was probably: a lot.

Four nights before the beginning of the 60th Hunger Games, Alfie saw Rose dancing with Philip a tropical song. Both of them were laughing, but he wasn't. Not just he turned the music off, but warned the woman with his finger.

"It's nothing…" Philip tried to say.

"It's fucking a lot. Go to bed, now. You need to rest," the man ordered.

"But Alfie…"

"Go to the fucking bed, Philip!"

The boy nodded and left the dining room, leaving the two adults alone.

"Stay fucking away from them."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Rose frowned "the moment you put a feet here you treated me bad, but these last days were awful… as far as I know I did nothing! So tell me, Alfred, what the fuck is wrong with you!!"

"With me? I came forced here! And I'm doing my job! Part if it is protecting those kids from monsters like you!"

Alissa appeared that moment to tell them that they were yelling at each other. Rose open the balcony door violently. Alfie was behind her.

"What the fuck do you mean by monsters like me. Because I was giving the kid a moment to be a child again? Joking and dancing trying to make him forget about his fate?? I don't understand, so tell me!"

"You know nothing, don't you?" Alfie snorted. "Probably you spend your days thinking what ridiculous shoes to buy, what new fucking bag to wear. Meanwhile in your back your beloved husband is a pe…"

"A what?!"

"Pedophile."

Alfie saw the exactly moment where life escaped from her eyes. She was paralyzed.

"What?"

"You heard me. Why don't you ask victors what do they think about Lawrence Evert?"

"What the fuck are…oh God." Rose felt sick and ended up vomiting in a flowerpot that was there. Alfie didn't move.

It couldn't be. Those years she had heard those rumours and never doubted about it. But that was new information. Disgusting new information. Her marriage it was recent, she accepted because he promised to keep her brothers names out of the bowls and he fulfilled the promises. Now Samuel was safe from it, he was 19, but her little brother Louis was only 14.

"FUCCKKKK!!" she screamed in the wind, crying. She let him fucked her without knowing he touched kids. She felt dirty. It was disgusting. "How many…" she thought. She didn't want to know. When she calmed down, moments later, she faced Alfie who was still there.

"You too?"

"No. Not by him, at least."

"I didn't know. Please, believe me, I didn't know. This kid, Philip, he is barely older than my little brother. I miss him! For me he's nothing but like my brother Louis. I never… never!"

"Yeah. I can see you didn't know. I believe you. But I don't want you near them. I don't trust people like you. Capitol citizens enjoying the killing. You didn't touch them, but I bet my ass you enjoy the games. Born in a fucking golden crib..."

"Don't you dare to talk about me like you know me, Alfred. You know a shit about me! I'm from district 8! I put my fucking name 185 times during my adolescence. I was fucking lucky that I never been reaped. I suffer from the same misery than you or these kids. I was lucky that when I was 19 they accepted me to work here. I'm sorry your lucky was worst than mine. But don't you dare to judge me. You don't know me. You don't."

When she left the balcony, Alfie kicked the wall. Everything was a shit.

Reah and Philip the next days continue training. Alfie prepared them to face the judges. Rose was in her studio finishing the clothes for their interview on live TV. They barely talk to each other during those days. But they didn't yell at each other either.

At night, alone on her bedroom, Rose heard the conversation in the control centre and took notes: Specific words, times, names, codes… She also knew that the arena was a copy of a Grand Canyon. Beautiful but mortal. She couldn't tell Alfie, even if she wanted to. She didn't trust him. He could tell this secret to other victors and it could be the end.

.

Both kids ending their training with 7 points over 12 and the TV presentation was successful even for the shy Reah.

If kids could make it, was another story. That night, the last night, no one said a word but everyone knew that it was going to be the last supper for one of them. In the worst scenario, both of them.

Alfie found himself staring at the woman he knew as Rosebeth. She was quiet and she didn't look at all like the person of the previous days.

Next part

[cephalonserotonin]

Koumei & The 5 Fates Update Thoughts

(I've only been playing around with this update for a few hours, so of course my opinions may change in the future)

The new mission type (Shrine Defense) is nice; despite the name, it's more like a mini Interception (though without a timer, which is greatly appreciated as I play solo so Interception is a pain in the ass for me) hybridized with Plague Star (the infested enemies, the tanky final boss, the fact that you'll have to do it enough times to get sick of it, and that Vay Hek is there). The randomized buffs from Koumei offer a nice bit of variation.

The music that plays during the mission is also lovely

When I saw we'd be picking up this mission from Saya, I was happy to see her return to the story and agency a bit, since her introduction in the Saya's Vigil quest sees her operating entirely as a plot device for the two men who are in love with her. Then I saw that, by "talking to Saya," the game actually meant talking to Konzu, and selecting the Saya option. Once again this poor woman is an extension of men. Don't love that!

The fortunetelling minigame is cute, though, and I deeply respect Warframe's commitment to expanding the world with new mechanics and little minigames when they feel like it, AAA-shooter-brain be damned.

Koumei, like Voruna before her, has her special resource (fate pearls in this case) used both to get her blueprints and as an ingredient in them, a mechanic I find annoying and confusing and which I'm displeased to see return. Voruna at least had a chance for parts to drop during her missions, which Koumei doesn't (ironic, that random drops don't come into play when trying to build the warframe themed around randomness...). edit: this isn't true per community response, thank goodness! Per the wiki, you need ~330 pearls to buy the blueprints, and then 330 102 (edit: wiki was wrong yesterday) more as components, for a total of 102-432 pearls to craft, and 14-18 drop per mission...

When I realized this I got so grouchy I left Cetus 😅

I'm not used to the new arsenal UI yet, but it'll happen

As a Caliban Enjoyer, I have mixed but mostly positive feelings on the Caliban rework (much like the Hydroid one before it, as I had hundreds of hours logged on Hydroid even before they made him SP-Viable (TM)):

I actually preferred the old Razor Gyre, wonky and ineffective as it was... hear me out. The new and improved Razor Gyre is almost exactly the same move as Reave: a fast short-range traversal that heals when interacting with enemies. Which is fine (it's a good ability!) but Reave is Revenant's Helminth ability, so I already could put Reave on Caliban if I wanted to. What I can't do, now, is heal by spinning in a silly little circle and ragdolling enemies continuously. I miss that. It was also the most Sentient-enemy-flavoured of Caliban's abilities, which was always fun for me from an RP perspective; something I loved about earlier Warframe content that it seems to be sadly moving away from is the joy of, after seeing an enemy use an ability (or weapon) to kill you, unlocking the ability yourself to use on them with a vengeance.

The 2 Feels the same, but buffed, which is nice, because it's an excellent and underrated CC ability.

The new Summon Caliban Babies utterly slaps, no notes. I love the tactical choice of 3 different baby types to use, and the Summolyst just feels immensely cool in general.

The 4 was a giant fuckoff laser, and is still a giant fuckoff laser. 😎👍

The companion changes are much too large in scope for me to have grasped them enough to form an opinion yet.

I will say, though, all these new mods are going to take a ton of endo to grind, and I would have preferred an endo gift as a sign-in instead of 5 forma (which I probably won't need to use on the new content anyway?).

And most importantly:

Mid-Shrine-Defense I heard an Ostron child yell "I believe in you, Tenno!" and 🥺🥺🥺 the synchronicity of childhood belief, dreams, fate, and the power of stories... I need to lie down

[edelgarfield]

Forcing someone to watch a burlesque show when they're uncomfortable seems pretty messed up.

idk if you're actually a fan of critical role, but the post you're referencing is a hyperbole for comedic effect. nobody forces anyone to do anything. What happens is one character, Fearne, persuades another, Essek, to join the adventuring party in their room to chat. Essek originally declines, but then notices the inn is starting to put on a burlesque show and changes his mind, and says, paraphrased "on second thought, yes let's go upstairs."

the party, however, is interested in watching the show, so instead of going straight to their room, stays to watch. Essek hangs out in the back of the room and watches from a distance, and even shows some (begrudging) appreciation for the show. Nobody forces or even tries to convince him to stay, and he has his own room separate from the rest of the group, so he's free to leave at any time. the joke is that that party immediately switches tracks upon the introduction of a burlesque show and Essek grumpily waits for them to finish, despite originally not wanting to watch.

I'm sex-repulsed, so I get where this ask is coming from, but there's different types of discomfort/anxiety and there's a difference between being uncomfortable, disliking something, and being flustered/anxious. if you read the original post, I never said the character was uncomfortable, I said he "wanted out of there as quickly as possible" which could mean a bunch of different things, and ultimately he clearly wasn't that uncomfortable because he chose to stay without prompting.

I would probably behave similarly in that situation. it's really not my thing, and that makes me feel a little anxious and uncomfortable, because it's unfamiliar, but I'll do anything once especially if it'll make my friends happy. Like, obviously you shouldn't force or pressure someone to do something they don't want, but there's nothing wrong with asking, or playfully needling someone you're friends with. My best friend & I joke about forcing each other to watch movies or play games the other hates because our tastes are so different; obviously we're not forcing each other to do anything, we're choosing to spend time doing something we'd normally find unpleasant because we enjoy spending time together and teasing each other.

like believe me I get feeling pressure to do things that are uncomfortable, but it's not black and white. no one should feel forced to do something they find unpleasant, but I'm allowed to choose to do it for whatever reason, whether it's curiosity or to make someone happy or for my own benefit. I get uncomfortable doing new things, but I do it anyway because I know it's good for me. sexual situations or content isn't any different, I can manage my discomfort and I'm ultimately responsible for bowing out if something is too much.