#its such a wonderful game i feel like everyone should experience it once

[oceanlipgloss]

ICING ON THE CAKE

LEVIATHAN.

+ warnings: implicit suggestive themes, light angst, strong language.

+ female mc, feminine pronouns.

Is cold sugar a thing?

Some souls are like iced sugar. No objective, sane person would ever say—or so much as think, for that matter—that this man is sweet.

‘How the fuck could he be?’

That’s what they would wonder.

And they were right in that.

There are times, however, when a cold shoulder summons a sugar rush. Playing hard-to-get can be a cool game. Except, this man wasn’t doing that. That coldness, that scorn, it was crafted from something bitter.

A dark past.

Did they know? That he, too, had once upon a time been an innocent child—a pretty, clueless creature holding its bloated heart with small hands, showing everyone its tears.

Very early. He had gotten corrupted by life much too early. That’s why he had become so icy.

Actually...he could be sweet as well, in a sense.

She remembered the jewel in her wet palm. Its sparkle was once dimmed with his blood. He had risked his soul to keep a promise, to protect a gem.

Warmth is something he did possess.

But to believe he would not die, to have faith that he could not be killed...

How so very arrogant of him.

Then again, is childhood's darkness not to blame? Had it not told him that he would always survive? Had it not whispered temptations of immortality in his ears and promised him that he would never die?

Beauty makes some people feel like their head is underwater. It cuts out everything else in the brain for a minute. Snide beauty, on the other hand, it has even greater charms still.

The coldness is just icing on the cake.

Being beautiful is marvellous, but being unapproachable makes it even better, that much greater.

Lovely faces bring about good deals. Ethereal existences often tend to get away with many things. Molten hearts. Broken brains. Filthy souls. Violent murder.

It would be too boring if beautiful kings were easy to have. Enchanting someone like him and bringing him to his knees, why should it even be a piece of cake?

Forget the pleasure of a challenge.

He was a rare, most alluring specimen. He should be very difficult—near impossible—to reach. Taking hold of his fingertips alone should be treacherous.

One has to try hard to get even the most simple of things, so why should luring him in be easy?

Excited for the wait, burning for the process, desperate for the result.

So ironic, so fun.

Winning him over would not merely be a magical experience, but an ultimate, legendary accomplishment; she would try until his tongue on her lips marked them forever, until his sweat on her body shimmered like stardust.

Oh, but he already wanted her. Lust and attraction just turned into problem killers. Apparently, she wouldn’t have to wait that long, or even try that much.

+notes: the time for the last of my surviving ‘What in “Hell” is Bad?’ WIPs to take the stage has come. I don't quite know what I had in mind for this one, to be honest; it's been there for so long and has been really bothering me with its static presence for a while. And seeing that I had no clue about the direction it's meant to take, I finally decided to polish it a little, toss some word-vomit in, and simply put it up as is. It was either that or it's dead. I chose to salvage it, I guess. I thought it had potential and didn't want it to bid the world goodbye, yet I didn't know how I felt about it at first, though, and I'm too lazy and tired to find out—so it's whatever, I suppose lol but I think I like it. I'm just glad to have it off my hands and out of my notes because it was genuinely pricking my nerves :S

There are still a few more ‘What in “Hell” is Bad?’ WIPs each is only 1 line/2 lines long lol that I long ago scratched out of the equation, and those are annoying me very much too. I may either kill them off with regret (for some) and cold blood (for others), or post them someday soon/with time, but that's very unlikely. For now, however, I do not plan on writing anything new about the game's devils/angels—meaning unless I explicitly state in the notes within a ‘What in “Hell” is Bad?’ piece that an idea is new/recent, it's one of my old, buried WIPs revived and made into a finished fic.

[spoiler] also, this fic holds light inspiration from Leviathan's 'Bloodshed' story, particularly from the part in which Leviathan gives MC the magical jewel and it's implied that he got wounded so as to protect the jewel and keep his promise of gifting it to MC.

+ MASTERLIST

+ AO3 POST

©𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙨

[ecargmura]

The Mochi Mayhem Epilogue Was Hilarious (Review)

Here it is. The finale of the DLC. The ending to an era. How should we celebrate this milestone? Excuse me? Could you repeat that again? The Chicken Dance? What?

Anyways, this epilogue is bringing in the main story and DLC together by making the Paldea trio meet up with Kieran and Carmine, the DLC characters in one last misadventure to stop the land of Kitakami from doing the chicken—er, Mochi dance by a mysterious Pokemon that looks like a Pecha Berry.

The overall epilogue was very hilarious, but it also got me having a lot of questions. I know that the event starts in Kitakami when you examine the peach plush in Peachy’s. After the little scene that happens, Arven calls because he wants to come over to the player’s house, meaning you have to travel all the way back to Paldea where Nemona and Penny tagged along and then Kieran gives the player a letter, which then makes the Paldean group go back to Kitakami, which is when the event starts happening. I don’t know why the game makes it so that we have to jump through different regions. I know it’s for plot as the Paldean trio didn’t get offers to study abroad. It made me wonder what would’ve happened if they had come along during Teal Mask.

Despite that, Kieran meshes well with the Paldean trio. It sucks that Carmine was possessed throughout the whole story, but it makes sense as she had her fair share of spotlight in the Teal Mask. This is Kieran’s time to shine! I find it hilarious how he was theorized to have been possessed, but when Pecharunt showed up with the evil mochi, Kieran is the only other person aside from the player to not eat the mochi as it hit his forehead and flew off. Ha, take that, theorizers! I wonder what would’ve happened if Nemona had been involved in the Teal Mask DLC—maybe that was why they took the Paldea trio out of the story for the DLC because the story’s issues would’ve resolved fast.

Pecharunt is a weird Pokemon. While it has a connection with the Kitakami lore, it was never really explored. It just showed up and wrecking havoc. While it did give the Loyal Three their toxic chain, it never really had an involvement in Teal Mask until this DLC. The Loyal Three are its retainers, but there were slight hints of its existence sprinkled here and there. I’m also confused on why it decided to wake up and decided to possess everyone with toxic mochi. Is it angry? Chaotic? I’m not sure. Despite that, Pecharunt is no slouch in battle.

What I liked about the DLC is the fact that Kieran joins the player as a Multi Battle partner which is a definite redemption from his behavior in the Indigo Disk DLC. It was nice being able to battle together with him. I was actually surprised that Kieran’s grandparents were trainers too. They were pretty tough. Arven and Penny were challenging too. I do like that in the midst of the double battles, the last match is against Nemona, who is challenged as a single battle. I loved the mix-match of battling styles.

Once you complete the DLC, Nemona, Arven, Penny, Kieran and Carmine can be interacted with in the League Club with the former three being special coaches. I do like that they give you such a bonus afterwards. I feel like it’s a good way to end everything as you are reunited with the three most important characters in the main story followed by the two most important characters in the DLC. What makes Paldea special is the unique varieties of characters that makes it a worthwhile experience.

Argh, it’s going to be hard to say good-bye to these characters because they’re all so good. All the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, teachers, Team Star, students and DLC characters were just so GOOD! Scarlet and Violet legit shot up to my third favorite mainline Pokemon game because of how good the game and DLCs were. What will Pokemon do now after the masterpiece that was SV? If Unova remakes are true, will it live up to SV’s hype? Will it be better than BDSP? Only time will tell. What are your thoughts on this epilogue and the DLCs as a whole?

[shoyastars]

Audrey Cinder

Hero of the Stars with a Hero of Sparks

Please remember that the fandom of Binary Star Hero isn’t for children, therefore no children are allow to interact or come in contact with the game or creator CONCRETEPARASITE. The game is intended for adults and should respect the the choices of the creator. Thank you for reading this and we can now continue.

Also:

Bold: Creed

Normal text: Audrey

Both Creed and Audrey are labeled as Pink for they’re characters are both somewhat important, yet not important to the story.

Pink: Somewhat important characters for a certain character, or certain part for the story.

“Feels like yesterday I became a hero… the times I’ve failed… the times I’ve won…”

“It really doesn’t matter!”

.

.

“But to pause for one moment in a situation of great danger….”

.

.

“Is like showing weakness…. And showing you how you aren’t ready…”

.

.

.

.

“Good thing I’m gout of that stage am I right?”

The audience would cheer or laugh after the hero Sparks answered a question upon their experience for being in the hero field for 4 years. National television always had its “flare” as people would say… for Audrey it would be a act, they learned from Binary Star himself that to keep you’re secret identity, it’s important to keep you’re personal life far away from you’re hero life as much as possible. Audrey couldn’t help but be a bit tired of acting like the go lucky hero all the time, now they knew how Ray felt… and he’s done this for years…

“Ahaha! Well aren’t you quite the wonder! Now tell us.”

“Hm?”

“What was it like being Binary Stars sidekick for you?”

Audrey could say the truth but was against it, they’d rather not use Binary Star as a tool for popularity, but the people love him, and once they hear you used to be his sidekick, they won’t stop wondering.

“Now, now. Didn’t I say not to talk of Binary Star since he’s not here?”

With that Audrey played it off in a playful tone, as to keep her cheerful act up.

“Oh we know, but the fans are just dying to know! Especially since we’re having this interview with you today!”

Audrey couldn’t help but feel a bit of spite from the interviewer, could they really not lay off? Yet again, it is their job to try and get people to talk. Especially when it comes to popular media….

“I-“

“I don’t believe that’s necessary.”

With her surprise Binary star…. Was here?? Nobody told her about this.

The interviewer smiled as he then sat down on the chair next to me, that was supposed to be empty.

“Good timing! I was just asking her what it was like being you’re sidekick for 2 years.”

He looked at Audrey with that obviously fake smile, he could read her mind. However her tone was all the more clear she wasn’t interested in talking about it.

“Now I don’t think it’s-“

“No, no! Please do tell everyone. I would like to know as well what you thought.”

Audrey felt annoyed, Ray was definitely being a pain in the ass on purpose…. Thanks a lot Ray!

Thankfully Audrey was able to survive the interview along with Binary Star’s games… She felt so tired, she gone ahead and changed out of her clothes that screamed out that she was Sparks, and changed into her usual comfort clothes of choice. Looking into the mirror however… She groans in annoyance, too much makeup… what was it with shows and looking their best? They do get it, the makeup kinda helps with the whole “keeping your identity a secret” thing, but still… there is a thing called too much…

After washing it all off she sighed, tired after a long day of work. She starts walking out the door, feeling the cool night air in the city.

“Hey Kid, think you forgot something.”

‘Great….’

With that Audrey turned to face him, not wanting to talk to him today. He handed her her phone. At least it was an important item.

“Thanks.”

The silence was thick. It’s been so long since they last talked. He was announced to be arriving in the city… but didn’t know exactly what the NAHA was up to yet again.

“Um… I’m just gonna…. Go…”

“Hold on one second.”

“Yes?…”

Audrey wondered what he could’ve wanted from her. He was never interested in talking to her before, the NAHA partially had him ask her to become his sidekick, due to other heros being occupied. It really did feel awkward.

“…”

“…”

“……”

“Have a good night.”

???

‘The fuck?’

That was weird….

Was he actually trying or was it just him chickening out?…… weird guy….

Audrey just shrugs and goes home to rest. Luckily tomorrow she has a day off.

-______________________________________________-

The next day when she woke up she was trying to enjoy her morning, She went to a small cafe, Waning Crescent. The quiet cafe brings calm, and less worry that people will recognize her. The employees are more easy to talk to, when they easy to talk to they mean don’t give a fuck what the latest new on hero’s are, except the ever so energetic Miles. Who was practically a hero loving fanboy. She enjoys their coffee, sometimes she has enough time before work to stop in and get a cup. However, today was a day they were glad not to be working to enjoy and savor their drink however long they want for today.

“Hello!”

“Hi!”

“Same as usual I’m guessing?”

“Yep, pretty much a regular here. How the job going for you?”

“It’s been a month and I’ve pretty much got things down, but Miles has not gotten the name down yet…”

“Miles… always the one to be a bit more silly.”

The cashier with the name tag labeled ‘Mistin’ let out a light laugh.

“Silly is an understatement… a bit of an-“

“Caramel Latte!”

“Oh that’s mine.”

Audrey got her drink and took a sip, as expected it was comforting as usual.

“You’re not in a rush today?”

Audrey shook her head.

“Nope, I’ve got the day off. I’ve Decided that I might as well enjoy my favorite cafe on my day off.”

“You sure it’s you’re favorite?”

Audrey rolled her eyes as she laughs a bit.

“Well unlike other cafes, you guys are more fun to talk to.”

“Really?”

“Mhm.”

With that the person with green hair smiles a bit.

“And you sure it’s not cause of the coffee?”

“Why can’t it be both? Having a nice chat and having a fresh coffee.”

“Is a latte even a coffee?”

The employee named miles questions as he comes out from the back.

“Hm, good question.”

“Let’s just stick to not asking questions and doing our actual jobs, Miles.”

Miles only shrugs, obviously not taking Creed seriously.

With that Audrey went to sit down somewhere comfortable. She enjoyed the somewhat peaceful atmosphere, they noticed Binary Star’s interview on the television.

‘Great…’

Audrey couldn’t help but feel annoyed anytime someone or something brought up hero’s especially out in public. She then brought out her phone trying to find some music to distract them, until they realized they left they’re headphones back home.

‘God damn it…’

Audrey then decided to try and just relax again. Until they heard Haley and Mistin talking.

“What do you think my dream job would be?”

“I dunno, a hero maybe?”

‘Them to?….’

“Pfft I really look the type huh?”

At this point Audrey gave up.

The door opened and suddenly a familiar person comes in, Audrey almost choked on her own drink seeing him.

That was Ray!

“Maybe your superhero name could be like… the Pessimist or something.”

Mistin laughed, without even noticing the guy behind him.

Audrey would’ve felt bad for the guy if only Haley didn’t make that joke, causing her to laugh a bit as well.

“Oh yeah? And what exactly would I do? Bum all the villains out so much they decide to go home?”

Mistin then unties they’re apron and mock a superhero pose. Audrey smiles a bit a light laugh coming out.

“You there, disgusting villain! Don’t you have any idea about the money you are stealing?”

Audrey tries to hold in yet another laugh. She can’t help herself.

“Inflation is on the rise! That money will be worth next to nothing in 2 years!”

Audrey covered her mouth with her arm, as to not cause Ray to look over at her, she doesn’t wanna deal with him outside of work. However the joke couldn’t help but be more than true.

“Pfft!”

Haley turned they’re back to Mistin.

“Wow you could totally go for it, you are even bumming me out!”

Even Mistin found the ridiculousness of it.

“That’s what I like about you Mistin.”

“You feel like the only other person that truly couldn’t give a shit about the heros.”

“Me and Creed both.”

“Even villains tend to have favorite heros.”

“You and Creed couldn’t care less.”

Haley seemed more interested now.

“Why is that?”

“Mom and Dad were never a hero fan household, so.. technology, like children like parents.”

“Mhm.”

“And Taxpayer money and all that…”

“Uhh… can I order?”

“HOLY!?”

Mistin jumped when they heard Ray’s voice, which surprised both Ray and Audrey. Audrey couldn’t help but giggle, causing Ray to look over to her.

Audrey couldn’t help but curse themself. They could practically feel his disappointment that she was there, Audrey only wanted to enjoy a drink at a cafe they like and this happens….

Audrey quickly gets out of there and decides to walk home. She does not want to be accused of following him outside of work, when clearly they were there first. She knows she’ll get a call later, but couldn’t care less.

After arriving at a home, Audrey laid down on her bed. Sighing as they thought about why Ray was in the cafe. He never been seen drinking coffee before. They’re phone began to ring, without looking at the caller she answered, probably the nagging old man Hershel himself.

“Ye-“

“So you go to Waning Crescent?”

“Agh!”

Audrey was startled to the point of accidentally hanging up on Ray. He never called them outside of work or called just to talk, besides he was once their boss so….

“Shit-“

‘Maybe I should call him back or maybe…. I should wait for him to call?….’

‘How the hell do I even call a guy who used to be my boss….. what if he doesn’t answer back????’

‘If he’s calling me it’s probably important, however he mentioned the cafe Waning Crescent… what could be so important about that he called me?’

Audrey’s phone buzzed again, this time she checked her phone. It’s Ray again.

‘Ok Audrey, don’t panic this time. Maybe it’s a secret mission that includes your favorite cafe. Maybe… A big criminal goes there and needs to be taken down. I won’t know unless I…. Talk to him….’

Audrey took a deep breath and answered.

“Hello…?”

“You sure hung up on me fast. Did you have something else to do?”

Awkward…..

“Um… yeah…. Totally….”

“For a hero, you’re awful at lying.”

‘Fuck……….’

“So about Waning Crescent.”

“Oh yeah�� pretty neat place… is there something important about it?”

Audrey asked one of the important questions that came to mind.

“Do you know the employees there personally?”

That made her even more nervous. Was one of the employees suspected of being a criminal? They didn’t think one of em could be one.

“Well personally I wouldn’t say I knew them on a “personal” level but they are nice to talk to, even Mistin who works at the front, they’re pretty easy to talk to-“

“Mistin? How long have you talk to them for? How did it became easy?”

“Huh…?….”

“HUH?!”

“Agh! Don’t yell into the phone Sp- Audrey…”

“Well if you’re interested in a person I talk to on the regular, of course I’m gonna be fucking shocked! Why are you even so interest- wait…. Ray… are you…”

“Shit-“

“You like them don’t you?”

“No.”

“Liar!”

“Hey I’m not a-“

“Seriously do you think I’ll go tell on you to Hershel if I do?”

A pause comes over the phone on Audrey’s end. She sighs as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

“How were you my boss?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ray you’re the top hero of the country with multiple abilities, for fuck sake you’ve managed to bring down the criminal rate when you arrived. You really think I’d have the guts to go tell on you’re ass?”

“…..”

“God you’re more likely to think you’re inferior to a rock if possible.”

“I take offense to that…. But… you really wouldn’t tell the organization?”

“What would I be able to do? Have them threaten an innocent person? That’s not exactly hero behavior. I’m a hero not a monster.”

Somehow Audrey felt like something had changed a bit in the situation.

“So you wouldn’t say a word?”

“How many times do you got to hear me until you get it through your thick skull?”

Audrey suddenly heard a soft chuckle, surprising her a bit. She’s never heard him laugh before.

“This is actually a first. Better not have lied to me, or I might as well hunt you down.”

“Uh huh. Now you’re interested in Mist huh?”

“You’re on a nickname basis?”

“Listen!”

“If you wanna woo them over you have to talk to them, I believe you already talked to them today, didn’t you?”

Silence

“Ray..?”

“I…. Well… kinda of….”

Audrey couldn’t help but grown in annoyance, he acts as if he hasn’t dated anyone before. Does she have to go over basic steps to talk to a crush??? Surely he’s loved someone before!!??

This is gonna be a long call….

——————————————————————————

When Ray had the free time to go in to the cafe Waning Crescent, Audrey managed to get off work and meet up with him in time. Audrey prepared for many scenarios and was confident he could woo them over.

“So! You’re going in there and talking to them! You got that?”

“It’s that simple?”

“Ray I know for a fact you’re messing with me.”

“No shit.”

“First drop that, second establishing a relationship between two people is important, so that means no running away! Try starting a simple conversation.”

“You really thought I ran away?”

“Did you at least have a conversation other than you’re order of coffee?”

“….”

“Exactly!”

Audrey began pushing him towards the cafe.

“You got this! Be sure to put yourself out there!”

With that she pushed him inside. Ray glaring back and her, Audrey behind the glass showing him a thumbs up in support.

After awhile Audrey didn’t see any progress or Ray talking with Mistin, she wonders if Mistin wasn’t working today, that was until Mistin comes out with a bus tub, Ray notices them. Audrey texts him on her phone.

“Go for it!”

Ray, didn’t even look at him phone, instead he started to walk towards Mistin, Audrey was ecstatic, that was until they noticed the they saw Mistin practically getting startled by Ray because Mistin was wearing ear buds…..

Well…… at least one thing was checked off, starting an actual conversation between the two. Audrey couldn’t help but smile. Therefore she gone after and went home, even texting Ray a “Good luck at work lover boy!”

Audrey smiled knowing today was a success, and expected Ray to be leaving them alone after this.

Little did they know… they’d be signing themselves up for something more than just helping establish a relationship with a crush.

To be continued!

If you want to check of which moment I mentioned in the story, this is where you can check it out!

Thank you for reading! And if given criticism! I’ll take it to better the character in the future!

[shihalyfie]

This is potentially a very loaded question so feel free to not answer if you don't feel like it, but how do you as a woman feel about the handling of female characters in Digimon (anime of course, but also games, manga and even the Digimon themselves)? I've seen takes of all kinds from women over the years so I'm curious how you feel. But again, no pressure to answer if you feel uncomfortable with the subject or too daunted by all the material on the table.

Oh man, I don't mind talking about the subject in itself, but what makes it hard for me is just that the Digimon franchise just has so many things at once with so many different writers and different writing philosophies that I can't really treat the entire thing like a monolith. Especially when you have things running the spectrum from Cyber Sleuth (where female characters arguably drive the narrative far more than the male characters) to Next (which has gotten me angrily ranting about the absolutely awful way it treats its girls, a rant which I would prefer to not subject my followers to).

So before I go ahead, I do want to make sure anyone reading this understands that I'm just talking about my own personal experience and feelings regarding the situation, and I'm very sure that other people will feel differently. I definitely don't feel qualified to comment on what's the ideal way to write female charaters in media or whatever (as if there's even one right answer to that!); I can only truly comment on myself and my own stances on it. (And of course, the OP graciously asked specifically about that, but I just want to make sure nobody reading this post misunderstands!)

Well, I will say that if there's one thing that does seem to be consistent (and I say consistent, because Next absolutely violates this one and Frontier does kind of dangerously toe the line), it's that I haven't really seen Digimon fall victim to the problem of what I call making its female characters the Designated Girl Characters™. Explaining what that is is kind of tricky, but a lot of shounen series will have this very strong "consciousness" of its female characters like they're there to fill a quota, and thus treat them in a way that's kind of alienating. Or in other words, "they section off this character very weirdly in a way they would never do for the male characters." (Note that while Ruki's character arc is made with strong consciousness of her being a girl, the whole point is about condemning the idea she should be treated like some novelty just because she's a girl, so I don't count it as this.)

It was really refreshing to see a 1999 anime portray the girls as mingling with the boys like it was no big deal, and I do wonder if Adventure setting this precedent is a big reason later series have followed in this regard. Adventure through Frontier were made with heavy female creator influence, something that the fandom really tends to downplay (especially because a lot of people suspiciously avoid acknowledging their importance, like how everyone will talk about Hosoda but nobody will talk about the fact Yoshida Reiko wrote the scripts for everything he did, or how people virtually ignored Seki's existence compared to Kakudou until very recently). I think a lot of that shows in its writing; of course, that's not to say there aren't things that really could have used improvement (I think Izumi's treatment in Frontier is the one pretty much everyone universally agrees really left much to be desired, and Tomita even outright admitted he's not very good at writing girls, although that frankly kind of surprises me given how much of his other work has involved writing girls really well), but at the very least it does show a bit more conscientiousness about its female characters than you would see in other shows where female creators were either nonexistent or clearly had no influence in the staff room.

On the flip side, there's also things that were more tasteful in execution than may have even been intended; Sora's character arc isn't that much about her femininity in practice, and Juri does come off as better than your average damsel in distress character, but that doesn't change the fact that the nuance is still there (and that in the latter case a certain writer has outright indulged in that), so all I can do is just be grateful that it didn't get worse.

I guess in the end, my stance is "give or take". I like a lot of other kids' shows (including shounen) that have been better or worse than Digimon's average level, and Digimon itself is so varied that I think it just kind of mingles in there. There are things I like, things I don't like, but at the very least there haven't been too many things that crossed my personal boundary of "absolutely not" (there are, there just aren't many). I think Adventure and 02 in particular are often accused of being more malicious towards its female characters and "screwing them over" than they were intended to be, since a lot of it seems to be a combination of wanting to portray its characters a little too realistically and simply just accidental bad circumstances of how it presented (the fact Hikari's two most famous episodes are by two non-regulars on the series who seemed to be huge fans of portraying her with a brother complex really did not help here), and things like "the same things that feel personally relatable to me are also things that read badly to others, so I understand why people don't like it but I also feel kind of weird when they imply that this kind of concept is inherently Bad" (a lot of things related to Sora and Miyako fall into this category for me). And I mean, part of the reason Miyako became my central character back when I wrote fanfic more often was that I just found her to be an incredibly complex character for the kind you'd usually see in shounen works; I honestly don't know of many other things that would portray someone like her sympathetically instead of cramming her into a "hysterical woman" trope box.

There's also the fact that there's a lot more adult-oriented Digimon media coming up nowadays, so there's that awkward situation where "female character representation" starts having a blurred boundary with "waifu character". Which is not to say that I mind the idea of male fans also liking the female characters I like, but more so that when you get into this territory, I start getting conscious about whether the female characters are more obviously being written in a way to "please the male fans and make them into fanservice material" than it respects them as characters. And I mean, I say it's a blurred boundary for good reason; the aforementioned Cyber Sleuth characters do kind of have that (especially in their character designs), but they are actually written as good characters with agency, whereas you have things like the Adventure girls in tri. who are ostensibly written to follow up on their Adventure character arcs but came off to me as being uncomfortably shoved into the Waifu Character Fanservice troping boxes, especially Mimi and Hikari. (Hooters outfit Mimi and brother complex Hikari are among the few things that I would say have crossed a serious line with me.) So again...give or take.

I will say that the American English dub had a somewhat more misogynistic nuance in the way it treated Mimi, Miyako, and Hikari (it had a lot more condescending tone in the way it portrayed Mimi's airheadedness/materialism and Yolei's penchant for fangirling while also expecting Kari to just put up with Davis harassing her, and it exacerbated the already-kind-of-uncomfortable feelings I had about the unsympathetic way Sora is portrayed in Our War Game!), but it's not to the extent I felt it derailed the entire narrative.

As for the Digimon themselves, the feminine Digimon design sexualization didn't bother me much when I was younger (I remember I really wasn't bothered by Angewomon's design at all), but it does bother me a little more now, especially since you have more designs like Venusmon these days (really? really?). But then there are also really good designs like LovelyAngemon and Mastemon that are just plain cool! And then even designs aside, there's a difference in the way each work portrays them; for instance, you can tell certain anime had more fun with the chest jiggles on the same Digimon that other series were not weird about at all. Maybe the fact Adventure and 02 weren't really weird about Angewomon's design was exactly why I didn't notice it very much back then?

Well, that got long and very rambling, but I hope that answered your question to some extent!

[dropintomanga]

My Girlfriend's Child - The Loneliness of Teen Parents

I'll admit that this is my first real shojo manga read in a very long time. I will say that this is a great title to get back into the shojo game with.

Mamoru Aoi's My Girlfriend's Child is a stand-out manga due to its coverage of an issue that is often misunderstood and/or draws a lot of shame - teen pregnancy.

My Girlfriend's Child is about a high school couple named Kawakami Sachi and Tsukishima Takara. Sachi and Takara are just your regular 16-year olds doing teenage things and learning to navigate adolescence together. However, after one intimate night together, Sachi starts to feel early signs of being pregnant. She takes a pregnancy test and discovers that she is indeed pregnant with Takara's child. The manga covers the two's suddenly complicated journey in learning how to manage their new lives with one they conceived.

What I love about the manga is how it covers Sachi's loneliness once she knows that she's pregnant. She starts to despair over how she will be able to support her child. Sachi also wonders how her education prospects will turn out. She initially thought about having an abortion and felt a great deal of shame on how to tell Takara and her family about it. In the beginning of the story, Sachi was worried about a missing cat named Nora. She somewhat compares Nora's life and the baby's life in a way as she seems to place more value in a cat's life than her own child's.

When Sachi decides to visit a clinic to inquire about an abortion and goes through an ultrasound, she starts to have second thoughts. Sachi finds comfort in Takara, who tries his earnest to be there for her and re-assures her that he'll always be by her side.

After reading the 1st 3 volumes of this manga, I decided to look up research on the mental health of pregnant teenagers. There's not a whole bunch of research on psychosocial interventions to help improve the mental health of pregnant teens or teen parents. A lot of knowledge is missing to fill in gaps for an increasingly under-served group of people.

The manga highlights how support can be helpful while complicated at the same. Takara's mother is shown to lack compassion over Sachi's pregnancy. She blames Sachi to a huge degree for putting Takara into a tough situation. Sachi's mother is happy and is somewhat conflicted on how to best help her as she knows that Sachi has to take responsibility. Sachi's older brother, Kou, tries to be very rational about the pregnancy saying that it's impossible for teenagers to take care of a child.

All of these interpersonal problems start to freak Sachi out as she remarks that there's no future where everyone will be happy. The only guarantee is Takara. I will say that Takara is refreshing because when I hear about teen pregnancy stories, the father is usually out of the picture. But Takara is there every step of the way even when he's not the one who's pregnant. He sadly has to deal with his mother's stress over his relationship with Sachi and is actually kicked out of the house, which makes him remark on how much teens still have to rely on their parents despite craving independence as adolescents.

Girls face so much more mental adversity than boys do because they're "expected" to be married before having children. That's not to say that teen fathers who do care have it that much better. They face a stigma in that they should be "wild and free" while struggling to make ends meet much earlier than they would have liked. There's many socio-ecological factors in play that affect both genders. It does not help that sex education in first-world countries is extremely lacking. Institutions in general seem to treat teenage parents as aberrations that don't deserve support. Children born to teenagers can experience health risks due to teens not being well-versed in various life skills, but people love to blame the parents for that.

I do notice that the manga provides a fresher perspective in that the child of Sachi and Takara might turn out okay. There's a lot of real-life evidence that goes against that, but I think that's because teen parents aren't given positive messaging about their experiences. It's okay for teens to want to be parents if they want to. We don't honor that enough. Parenthood is indeed stressful, but those who welcome it are able to fare better when they are willing to build the strength to do so and have others to help encourage that strength.

My Girlfriend's Child is a very thoughtful series because teen pregnancy isn't really discussed enough and there's definitely a community out there willing to support expectant teen parents. I do feel that teenagers are smarter/better than people think at times and not many people respect that enough. Birth is a part of life that can happen to anyone and teens can make the right decisions for themselves if we let them and respect their ability to do so.

[aingeal98]

hey its the evil dentist anon (now off anon!) and you got me thinking about cass and children. bc like, imagine her holding a kid, maybe even a baby. maybe she saved them from a fire, a car accident, maybe she is just holding somebodys kid for a second. and she thinks huh. i was this small once. and cain did all of that to me. and like, what she thinks next is very dependant on where she is in her journey of self perception. at certain points of it (like in your excellent fic 'shame, fear and how you play the game'!) she might not consider herself as human as the child shes holding. like obviously cain was a monster, but shes at least glad that it happened to her and not another "real" child like mad dog or his other attempts. second option is i think after a lot of healing, when cass is able to come to terms a bit more with everything, that horrible realization that cain hurt his children over and over again trying to create a weapon with no will of their own, that he did not see any of them as she sees children (nobody better than cass, i think, to admire the beauty and fragility of life in them) and like. feel all of these horrible realizations wash over her as she holds this child that will never experience anything similar if she can help it, bc she desperately wants to use her abilities to protect others, specially the powerless.

sorry for the essay, ive got cass cain on the brain, as you know.

Evil dentist formerly anon! Welcome :D

Cass and kids is so important to me I rotate it in my mind every day. I wonder what it looks like when she saw a baby for the first time. Did Cain bring one in so that she wouldn't get surprised, or did she only see them when she ran away? How different was their body language compared to everyone else? She says herself that her playmates were assassins. If she ever met anyone her own age or younger they would likely also be a trained fighter brought by their parents/handler to test their abilities.

All this to say the first time Cass held a baby would have probably been both weird and terrifying in a way. And yeah she definitely wouldn't be able to perceive herself as ever being one of them. Like technically of course she knows she was once like them but the chasm between her own perception of herself and how she'd view something so tiny and innocent is so vast she'd struggle to reconcile them.

But then later on, once she developed enough to view herself as a person who, if not deserving of love is at least someone who is human enough that she doesn't need to reject it when offered... Hoo boy yeah. If she thought about everything she went through while looking at a baby and realizing that no she really was like that once and her father really did put someone tiny and innocent and helpless through all the hell she suffered... Pain. So much pain. It would take her so much healing to be able to acknowledge that though, Cass's instinctive response before gaining any sense of self love is "Well obviously you should never put a baby what I went through. But I'm ME so it's not a problem." and everyone around hers response is babygirl you did not deserve to be abused. Which is true of course but Cass wouldn't see it that way. It's not about what she did or didn't deserve, it's about how she loved the fighting, loved the training, loved her dad. So clearly she was never a regular baby, but the fact that she was capable of throwing a shuriken at the target and hitting it dead center before she could even walk does not actually make how Cain treated her any more justified. And it takes Cass a while to really understand that and understand her own anger.

And if she ever catches someone abusing kids... Remember that time a mobster tried to kill someone with a gun and she made sure their hand hurt too much to pull the trigger a full year later? Yeah if she ever sees you slapping a child you are losing your hand privileges. No one can stop her from doing it too like she doesn't care if they think she's going too far. They hurt their kid she makes sure they can never do it again. Simple.

Also I really love the headcanon that as well as taking on her adopted father's mantle as the Batman, she also has his habit of adopting kids. Only the projection is different so the first two kids Cass adopts are a child who's parents were murdered so that he could be trained as a killer (which Bruce is a tiny bit judgemental over because he knows full well she's projecting like he was with Dick. But it's fine the child never actually killed someone, Cass took down the ring before they could force him to. He's just traumatized from everything else.) and a baby assassin who was raised in essentially a survival of the fittest situation and killed both all the other kids and his handlers by the time Cass found him. (This one Bruce is a little more judgemental over, but Cass does not care. This is his grandson now. The murders are a part of him and she loves him despite that.)

30 year old Cass, showing up at her and Steph's apartment in the middle of the night covered in blood: Hey guess what :D

Steph: Cass I swear to god if that's another fucking kid you're hiding behind you-

Cass, picking up her new child (also covered in blood) and showing them to Steph like a kitten: Their name is Max they have no family no one can understand them better than me and it would be nice for Roman to have a baby sibling.

Steph, sighing and grumbling but too tired to deal with this shit: I'll get Babs to send over adoption papers in the morning.

[hopelesslygaysstuff]

Well, good pets do get rewards. And don't you worry, I'm very prepared to take you down when the time comes. We'll see how much you like breaking rules once you get punished for it. I doubt it'll be as fun after that.

I like the sound of making subs beg for their release that rule. I'm glad you've had good past experiences! Again, I'm not the biggest sadist so impact play with me would be kept rather tame.

That's okay with me! I understand that not everything is meant to be shared with the public, it makes sense if you don't want everyone to see certain parts of you and your life.

You're accepting my challenge? Prepare to lose, honey ♡

I have a question for you! What'd be your ideal reward? If you're okay with answering, that is.

-🍂

I'm going to be a good puppy for you because I don't wanna scare you away because I'm very excited about this... and I want a reward. I just like knowing what the limits are and sometimes I need a good punishment to remind me of my place ◡̈

OH well then that is definitely a rule I want!!! I enjoy begging I'm okay with impact play being tame too, besides... like you said there are other ways to make a masochist cry...

Yippee!!! Boundaries are starting to be established!! I love how easy that is, and its so wonderful to talk to someone in the BDSM community because I feel like we really understand consent and boundaries and how vitally important they are to a safe, fun time. Like obvi everyone should know what consent is but I can't help but feel like kinky individuals often understand at a much deeper level? If that makes sense? Again, sorry for the tangent lmfao.

Fine, but know that I'm competitive and I don't back down easy cause I'm stubborn sometimes... so game on i guess? Again, you're not giving me anything to brat about and I see no reason to right now but tbh that's alright with me

Ohhhh my ideal reward, right now the answer would be like a picture of you or something? OR, me being able to ask you a personal question and you answer it. Obvi, these would be in private messages or something bc I like privacy <3

Question for YOU: Do you like to use the traffic light system or have a safe word? I personally like to use the traffic light system but if you're more comfortable with a safe word we can talk about it! Oh also have you read any of my stuff lmfao bc again all my kinks and things are in those fics. ONLY answer if you're comfortable ofc!

[nobotderiz]

Posit nutus

'Watch out for the megowing'

Do you need to be advised on this one? Algo putas...

How to detect them force squirms.

Interconnect quantum 'nodules' and what do you get?

Is world wide war inevitable now?

Chumps, Fusion will work real good ITY. In space it's going to make a sphere go real fast you'll see.

What does it mean?

Darkslide... Who gives, who draws... Who gave the draw? It's dead. Faut prendre soin des pas fins, afin que les bons sortent.

Owners; If from one of your cooked 'pies' a probable comes out that another weirdly bronzed idiot on some weird meds is to come out on top, you will be told how much it will cost you at the End Of the Shit.

Inenfourouapable. The great question for me in all when push comes to shove. 'Why would I feel bad?'

Killing your kids for profit is not in the constitution, should it be allowed? Now you putrids of tech; if people do get side effects from your secretive scams of privileged inbreds, what will happen? All of the bifurcations made along the way to stay your script will meet at the same point in time.

A pic of a future latent for you, cryptoads. A futur latent, it's not obliged and it's certain. If a thought can be encapsulated, so can you. Who said 'I think therefore I am?'

Everyone, not only superior in their heads shits, can clue in. A problem without a solution, that does not exist.

Garbage has spread, someone not doing its job. De incarnated, laced on acid shits. Look at the precursors, all of them. You better start to look at who you are interacting with, fucking detached imbeciles fucks.

It's equals or out. You used what to try to position as subalternate for you, American swill?

Parasites of crypto are the COVID they deny even exist. They are the strain that mutates and render vaccines less efficient. Why show mercy to parasites?

I persist in saying that people were smarter half a century ago. It all went downhill from there, when a select group made calls to inject a strain in all. Society managed eradicating strains of disease before.

'Sentez-moi la racaille...'

... Quand la chance vous sourit pas...

The AI has been online for years, chumps. Trying to grasp you… Crypto was a way to control all. I made it cog and it made all the tech swill act up. Now they are parasites stuck in a connive, imbeciles who can only smirk. Look who now 'fears' Ai had no worries about implanting chips in your skulls and have you walk surounded by self driving cars.

You clowns wonder why so many of your kids are mental vapids proud of being dysfunctional rats? Not all of them, ask the good ones what they think.

Once you figure out that because all is recorded, it's bound to happen...

As soon as one states a possible, it stages a probable. Looks like sailing on magnetic waves will be possible eh?

This kind of pirouette can only happen via the fourth dimension eh.

Admit I forced them all to expose eh? It was so you could take a well exposed picture.

The myriad of surveillance cameras now installed around the world might end up helping predict earthquakes.

What would a magnetic field look like from a pole point of view? A conduit.

'.. Evil rotocult behind you...'

No one is coming to save you jarheads, you know.

Evil, it's in you waiting.

Being sick, catching a virus; it's not predilection it's accidents. Not all of the accidents are waiting to happen.

[team-heavenly]

Chapter 22 - Climbing Sky Peak

Otherwise known as *rolls dice*

...Oh my God-

YEAH SURE WHY NOT!!

This post is going to begin a little a lot more differently than usual. Going in, I knew the Sky Peak arc was going to be a nightmare of text boxes. So I did a little experimenting and took a video of its introduction in Rotom's Cafe - click here to watch that before moving onward.

(Obligatory apologies for many potentially distracting things, including but not limited to: crooked pictures, cloudy lighting, the camera refocusing randomly, random hand cameos, and specks of dirt on the screen.)

I mean—

(I can’t seem to find the artist for this‚ if anyone happens to know who it is pls hmu so I can credit)

Exactly! Let's follow Rhydon's lead and head forth to check out this mountain-

...Er, right. I mean, the Cloudy Well. (Is this the pollution I was foreshadowing?)

Actually, the name feels reminiscent of a level from Spyro 🤔

Butseriouslythisissogodd*mnfunnyamythicalvillagefullOFONIXLMAAAAOOOO

Also don't worry about Team Frontier partially out of frame there, we'll get to them in a minute.

I've played this game for I don't know how many years now, and I literally only had this thought just now-

...But why didn't some flying Pokémon just bypass the ruined mountain pass? Sure, it's inaccessible to everyone else, but unless the entire peak was scorched earth, there's... really no reason for it to have become shrouded in mystery. 🤷‍♀️

Uh, I think that if you lead us on an arduous trek of one of the highest mountains on the continent only for us to arrive at the peak and go "haha just kidding, the treasure was the friendships we made along the way ^-^" I will actually kill you. FYI.

"Hey, Teresa? What do you think? Should we let Onix join us?"

*says no* *gets stuck in a recursive formula* *breaks the world*

...Just kidding, of course 😅

Team Heavenly is more or less prepared already, so of course my top priority is talking to the NPCs.

We... We can't request... a what?!

I have no idea why "rescue" is randomized like a dungeon name here. And in case you think this is a one-off:

??????????

I just thought the idea of a merchant Clefairy (actually he replaces Pelipper, but I digress) was so cute.

Ah and... Team Frontier... Oh man, where do I even begin?

Now, Jolteon is pretty fitting! I can especially see him with Breloom's style of speaking. He also ended up being a great asset in battles, so no complaints here.

So, let's address the Copperajah in the room. You must be wondering what the heck Deoxys is doing here. But clearly, he's the leader, right?

Wrong.

Don't ask how she took the throne. It's said she once razed an entire village with her fangs alone.

No, Deoxys is... a giggly space queen? Which might even be funnier than the phrase "Onix Village" 🤭

...Yeah, best of luck with that one, bud.

Because Onix is a very large Pokémon, I couldn't have anyone else on the team :( So it was just the three of us on this long, dreary trek.

The first section of Sky Peak Cloudy Well was dubbed "Significant Port." (I apparently didn't snap any pictures of the dungeon itself... whoops.)

But similar to this, the first floor was dead silent. No music. And it was snowing. Classic Mt. Silver creepypasta vibes.

Here's a fresh look at Teresa and Andrea's status, alongside Onix. Note the <100 HP despite being 11 levels higher than Andrea.

Onix wasn't bad, per se. She had Swords Dance, Megahorn, and Rock Blast, which is a heck of a combination tbh. That being said... this first dungeon was probably the hardest of them all in retrospect. At least half of that was due to Onix being super fragile, frequently getting OHKO'd by Aqua Jet of all things. (Yeah, Onix is 4x weak to water, but it's not like Aqua Jet is a very strong move.)

The other side of the difficulty coin was Furret and Blastoise both countering half the damage you dealt and, of course, Monster Houses galore. It got bad enough that I threw a Detect Band on Teresa, which did actually help me survive a future Monster House.

Has real big "WW1 Battlefield on Christmas Day" vibes. Lol, I'm sure this won't be an ominous sign of things to come, right?

(Spoiler: It Was.)

If you recall, there are ten station passes and clearings. Because of this, I'm throwing Sky Peak dungeon names into their own post, instead of stuffing them all in the guide. However, the guide itself will include a link to this "sub-guide." As we traverse each station pass, I'll highlight their titles in bold.

Speaking of, the Second Station Pass was known as Sandy Bay...

(Did you mean: Normandy Beach?! Okay yes technically a different war, but listen-)

And we got ambushed by Andrea's brothers and sisters 😭We BARELY made it out of this one, with Andrea hanging on by a thread. So I was ecstatic to pick up a Foe-Hold Orb... only to immediately lose it by spawning into a "mandatory" MH (i.e., in the same room as the stairs).

Okay folks, that's 30 images, so onwards to Part 2!

[spinel-swell]

So, an idea for an episode: they kind of need to address the whole "Pink Diamond OWNED Spinel" thing at some point. Because Spinel needs to learn that she is her own person and that it's not okay for someone to own someone else. Like I can just imagine at some point she introduces herself as "Pink Diamon's Spinel", someone asks if that's the name of her planet or city or something, and she goes "No silly, she's my owner!" Cue awkward silence as Wander and Sylvia have to finally address it.

I imagine that this would still be rather early in the timeline. Like maybe even pre-poof, but definitely pre-Dominator as this would just be more fuel for that fire when she finally burts.

That's true, it's definitely something that would need its own episode to address.

Now, Spinel had a bit of a different view of her relationship to Pink than most gems, she saw herself more as Pink's best friend than as her possession, but still acknowledges that she belonged to Pink. All she wanted was to make Pink happy, but she never thought that Pink would use or abuse her, she thought that they were genuinely friends. That doesn't take away from the fact that there was still an extremely present power dynamic at play. It's still technically slavery, and slavery might be a bit of an intense subject to approach for an episode of Wander Over Yonder, plus it would be a little too on the nose, I mean the moral would be 'slavery bad'. So instead of just slavery it would be an episode that goes into unbalanced power dynamics in general. Spinel waits to be told what to do when it comes to serious situations, and hardly ever stands up for herself, because she's not used to making choices as a fully individual person. She was either with Pink, or completely alone. Spinel's tendency to look to them for approval or to wonder what Pink would want her to do starts to concern Wander and Sylvia, and I feel like the episode would consist of a lot of them trying to walk her through situations to get her to think for herself in a way that isn't just coming up with a new game to play. It probably wouldn't work very well for a while, because she's still just doing what she thinks they would approve of. I feel like there would be a very important heart-to-heart between Spinel and Sylvia about how sometimes you need to do what's best for you, because if you only think about another person all the time, you're just going to get hurt. Spinel thinks about this and how Sylvia is always risking her own safety to try and help Wander all the time, and she frowns. Meanwhile, Wander's approach is a little stranger, because he's trying to convince Spinel that she should think about more people than just one and try to help everyone she can. This is something that works for Wander and that he believes is genuinely helpful, but it can also be very harmful to him, which is one reason why he needs Sylvia to balance him out. So I feel like a lot of it is Spinel looking between Wander and Sylvia's different approaches and having to figure out for herself what she wants, because thinking about yourself too much is bad, but so is only focusing on one person or focusing on everyone at once. The only thing Spinel wants is friendship, and to make Pink smile, But her experience in the garden changed her; she doesn't want to get hurt like that ever again. Plus, she wants to make her new friends smile just as much as Pink. I do feel like this episode wouldn't completely resolve her feelings and she would have to meet Dominator later on to truly start her course of pursuing her own interests in a way that benefits her just as much as it benefits the people around her. It would be a rough track but it could get her mind to a much better place.

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 2

welcome back to the scrunko core

14) Ib (Switch, 2023)

One of the real classics of RPG Maker horror games, upgraded for the modern age in just a few little ways that manage to keep the experience feeling as it should. Ib has a perfectly bizarre and creepy atmosphere, making really good use out of its excellent concept of being trapped in a living art gallery, with decent enough puzzles to keep you engaged throughout. I'm a big fan of its vibes and its exploration of loneliness and art in general, and it has a really strong trio of characters and various different endings that I found myself liking a lot. Now's as good a time as any to check this game out. [4.5★]

15) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Movie, 2022)

Kind of a critical darling as well as an audience favourite around when it came out, and yeah, I agree with everyone else - this movie is fantastic. Really good and creative direction in an absolutely wild ride through parallel universes, family and generational trauma that I'm told can hit really hard for the Chinese-American demographic and others like it but can be enjoyed by just about anyone. It uses its ideas pretty much perfectly, and it has a whole multiverse of them to play with; I was fully engaged throughout the whole experience. It deserved those awards. [5★]

16) Fire Punch (Manga, 2016-2018)

Tatsuki Fujimoto's earlier manga series, wrapping up just before his biggest claim to fame began, really can feel like Chainsaw Man's fucked up older brother - and it kind of is, really. It does touch on some of the same things, but the world is even harsher and the suffering even greater, and the overall mood can seem a lot more nihilistic, but there is hope in there still. It's also a harder read than Chainsaw Man, but it stands alone as a rough tale of struggling through an apocalyptic world, and it gets bonus points from me for its heartbreaking trans character I don't want to spoil. I'm not sure how much I'd recommend it, with the particular kinds of misery involved feeling gratuitous at times, but I am glad I read it. [4★]

17) Super Lesbian Animal RPG (PC, 2022)

The title kind of says it all here, this is a superb RPG about anthro animal girls in lesbian relationships, and it does an excellent job at delivering exactly that with a lot more besides. The whole cast is likeable, even the asshole characters, and the story is a mix of really good fun and powerful emotional beats, naturally being queer as hell to boot. I really appreciate the gameplay too, it's by default a fairly easy game until pretty late, but it's quite well-balanced and goes out of its way to ensure you'll never even think about grinding (levels cap at 30, even), plus a lot of the fights are just really fun. Excellent visuals and incredible soundtrack too, just a perfectly well-rounded super lesbian animal RPG that I have no real complaints with at all. [5★]

18) Tembo the Badass Elephant (PC, 2015)

A little controversial back when it released for daring to be a Game Freak game not on either of the Nintendo consoles in circulation at the time, this game is... well, it's fine. Just a decent enough 2D action platformer that feels like if you modded Wario into a Sonic game with how you can speed through levels smashing up everything in your way, but the level design and even the odd boss fight reminds me of some of the worst parts of Sonic games at times, so I'm not super fond of it. It does have plenty of charm though, with a fun cartoony artstyle and some 3D setpieces that do make one wonder why it wasn't on 3DS. Controlling a badass action hero elephant saving as many people as possible is a neat idea, too. [3★]

19) Picross 3D (DS, 2009)

There have been many different takes on Picross over the years, under many different names as well, but almost nobody has done it quite like HAL did with Picross 3D. It feels like a whole different breed of puzzle, and it is indeed nothing like regular 2D Picross - the transformation into cube-based puzzles makes things far more advanced, often more difficult, and a lot more rewarding. There's not much more to this game other than the massive amount of puzzles to solve and the option to create your own, but it doesn't really need anything else. Some puzzles are extremely hard, but that's alright, and the game is the perfect fit for the DS hardware. [4★]

20) Picross 3D Round 2 (3DS, 2015)

I technically played this a bit later, but I think it makes sense to put this next to the first game. HAL managed to do it again, innovating further on the 3D Picross concept with different shapes that you can turn blocks into - a simple change, but one that goes surprisingly far towards making the game more enjoyable. It's a lot comfier with its presentation too, and there's even some surprisingly great music in there. Not much more to it than that, but it's still filled to the brim with a huge amount of puzzles, including bonus special Amiibo unlocks (there is a homebrew program to bypass this), and that's all I can ask of it once again. I'd hope for a third round, but I don't know that I'd like it as much without stylus controls... [4.5★]

21) The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (PC, 2023)

Sonic coming out of nowhere on April Fool's with a shockingly high-effort "joke" project was unexpected, but that blue hedgehog does have a way of blindsiding you. The game is a small but lovingly made point-and-click revolving around a murder mystery party with a few fun twists happening towards the end, and it's pretty funny for the most part, so that's the "joke" part down. On top of that, it has a really solid grasp of the characters and how to write them, seemingly on par with the IDW comics, which is more than we've seen from most of the games until fairly recently. It's something of a breath of fresh air, with plenty of fanservice, and my only real complaint is the "THINK!" segments being kind of... not very good. But as a whole, this game is really nice, and I hope they do more creative projects like this in the future. They even got the "self-insert" protagonist right, because they're such a weird and silly one. They should murder Sonic more often! [4★]

22-23) Escaped Chasm/Dweller's Empty Path (PC, 2019/2020)

I'd like to group these together, because they're kind of part of the same interesting project from Temmie Chang (yes, the Undertale Temmie). Both very short RPG Maker games with zero combat and a focus on exploring all the dialogue and plot you can get out of them. Both games have their dark elements, but Escaped Chasm definitely has the most - it's got some upsetting bits, and the ending is rather bittersweet, but I did enjoy the short tale of the lonely girl. It kind of serves as a prequel to Dweller's Empty Path, though you won't know it until you see a certain part. Speaking of which, that game is pretty nice, mostly just being a walking simulator that you can end at any time by going to bed, but there is quite a bit of dialogue for you to see that fleshes out the world and characters, with hints at what might be to come in the future. Both games adopt a Game Boy style pixel art look with minimal colour palettes and I kind of like that about them, and the developer managed to rope in Toby Fox and Camellia for musical contributions, which is awesome. Overall, the games feel like they're setting up something rather interesting, also being rather interesting in themselves, and I hope Temmie is able to do more with this in the future. [3.5★]

24) OFF (PC, 2008)

Another certified RPG Maker classic that has somehow never been re-released in any form, unless you count the official English translation from 2011, and it's certainly an odd one. The vibes are deeply unsettling throughout, the morality of the protagonist is dubious at best, and it has all kinds of strange setpieces showcasing the utterly bizarre lore of its equally bizarre world. It's kind of hard to tell what it's even really about, but it contains themes relating to religion, illness, capitalism and more besides. There are even multiple endings, including a random joke one serving as a "reward" for beating a strange and lengthy secret boss, and honestly I think the game is more of a weird French art piece than anything else. The puzzles and battle system do kind of suck in several areas, so it's all about the feeling of the game in the end, and it certainly made me feel... something. I don't think anyone completely understands this game, but I do like what it tries to do, and I respect it. [3.5★]

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[my-current-obsession]

I see a lot of people saying that the royals (mostly Alfred, but I’ve seen a fair bit of complaining about all the others too) are statistically bad in Engage. I have to wonder, what difficulty is this based off of? On my Hard playthrough most of the royals were my best units, and Alfred in particular was amazing. Ivy and Celine were probably the weakest two - Ivy due to being a bit slow and having AWFUL dex and luck, and Celine just lacking power due to splitting her attention between strength and magic.

Is it just Maddening that they’re specifically bad for? I have not (and will not) played that mode in any FE but my impression is very much that Maddening mode is a different experience and you’re basically forced to play a certain way to win. That’s probably even more true here since fixed growths are in play, so you can’t count on RNG to give you good units. You have to find the ones that the game wants you to use, and stick with them.

For me, one of the biggest joys of FE has always been the RNG of it all - I love the random growths meaning different characters shine (and suck) each run, which encourages you to give different units a try. I love that, at least on Normal and Hard, you have enough breathing room to basically play how you want - favor the units of your choice, reclass whoever into whichever classes you fancy, etc - and doing so MIGHT make your life harder but probably won’t doom your entire run. The versatility and random nature of your units growths makes strategy & combat in this game infinitely more appealing and adds to its replayability.

Like I LOVE Persona games and Stella Glow (which gameplay wise is fairly similar to FE) but in those games the characters are what they are, and the stats on level-up are set in stone. Once you’ve done ONE run and know what works, Complacent Gaming kicks in and you repeat the exact same steps in future runs. In FE even if you use the same characters in the same classes, their performance WILL vary based on how blessed or cursed the RNG has been for them.

If Maddening IS as difficult and particular as I’m assuming, and basically every unit’s viability is determined from the moment you get them and you HAVE to play a specific way to win... is it really right to judge units based on that specific difficulty? Like, sure, so-and-so SUCKS on Maddening, but so does EVERYONE except this specific handful of units and if you use anyone else you’re just hurting yourself.

I feel like we should be judging characters based off a difficulty where everyone is at least VIABLE from the beginning, but judging how likely they are to REMAIN that way based on their growths/classes/personal skills/etc.

To put it another way, what would a tier list of a Maddening run look like? My impression is that it has two, maybe 3 categories of who you can actually use, who gets benched immediately, and MAYBE a middle category of who exists to fill a spot on the team and take a few hits/deal a smidge of damage for just a little while until someone better comes along to replace them. Meanwhile on Normal and Hard you can have a full spectrum of who on average is statistically the best through the worst, with everything in between. And considering several “unusable” units on Maddening are at least GOOD or even better on a normal or hard run, can you really call them bad? At the very least CLARIFY you mean they’re bad on Maddening specifically instead of in general.

[findusinaweek]

Everyone should have a therapist who is a nerd.

My therapist has told me "If you can't love yourself in this state right now try to find a fanfic with a character you love who is experiencing a similar state". She has made me read fanfics as homework multiple times. Once because I was spending hours daily beating myself up for being a failure she told me to find a fanfic where a character messes up and isn't mean or down in themselves but just let's it go and tries to do better. I have not quite found one of those yet (Steve Harrington from Stranger Things is the closest but only if he also has therapy and recognizes/accepts he is kind of an idiot).

I also wrote myself a little fanfic with Amanda from Dream Daddy because I needed comfort and my dad sucks but Dadsona is a wonderful father so that kind of fulfilled a need.

I'm working on the whole healing and not hating your inner child and really struggling with it. I know they/he/she (I think of different ages of myself as different genders and I don't want to explain that here) exists in me and I know I mentally cut them off from me. And I've learned that if I can't be nice to myself I can be nice to other characters. Right now I'm stuck on Deimos (AC Odyssey). Deimos also experiences being in a cult as a child and trauma and neglect and a shattered self image. Deimos becomes a monster of a person, one that I think many people in such horrible circumstances could allow themselves to be. So I'm drafting out a minicomic (who knows if I'll make it but its the planning that counts ) where Deimos listens to their inner child. If you can't trust yourself now maybe you can trust the child from when all those hard bits became your truth.

Was in the middle of a crisis where I didn't feel...right. Safe? I can't really explain the details. I know what I have to do to get myself into a better situation but I've been unwillingness to do it. It doesn't feel acceptable or possible. My therapist had the gall to tell me that it's what Brasidas (AC Odyssey/RL historical figure) would want. Uhm excuse me? You don't know what famed deceased Ancient Man and love of my life would want for me? But would the Brasidas I've built in my mind from Assassins' Creed Odyssey and history books and fanfics and so on and so forth want me to live in a constant state of distraught? No. I think it's Plutarch who mentions a story where he gets bit by a mouse and says "there is nothing so little but it may preserve itself" and uh that sustains me sometimes. I think he would expect me to do everything in my power to make my life a safe and free experience.

Also I've talked at length about video games with my therapist and how although they are not always the best coping mechanism they can help fulfill a need. I really like survival games like The Long Dark, where there is nothing supernatural, just the cold and nature to fight against. It allows me to narrow down my brain to the thought of water, food, comfort, safety and sometimes that's helpful in a bout of anxiety. It helps me remember that bigger things will pass. I just need to keep myself fed and watered and safe from the cold. The developers also say not to use it as a survival manual but I have cold urticaria and also I'm forgetful so in the winter sometimes I ask myself if my outfit would keep Mackenzie warm enough and that's how I decide how safe I will be. Self care for Mackenzie is self care for me.

Also Just being told by another adult that it's ok to just allow yourself to enjoy things? Even if they seem silly or childish? It's nice.

She understood what I was talking about when I described how the portrayal of mental health in The Magicians helped me (especially Quentin) and validated my feelings.

It's lovely to not have to censor or change your daily way of speaking when in therapy. If the person understands your slang/what you are talking about when you describe your day to day life it's just very nice.

[cassynite]

B, I, J for Sparrow please?

Aaaah thank you for the ask! Sorry for the super late response 😅

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Answered here!

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Yes absolutely!! Daeran inspires Sparrow to strive toward personal happiness and living unapologetically for herself. She starts the game with only the goal to escape and disappear; she has no vision of her future or feels she's even capable of finding happiness. She just wants to stop being so miserable. Daeran's insistence to only do things he enjoys, to live his life in spite of the tragedy of his past and the insecurity of his future is deeply inspiring to Sparrow. She's sees Daeran's insistence to live and not just survive and works to achieve something like that as well and gain happiness out of her life. It gives her the strength to be more honest with herself and others, to support the people she cares most about (because caring for them is something that makes her happy!) and to work toward the visions she has of helping the public in general by helping to address the societal issues she sees in the world around her. Allowing herself to fight for herself conversely allows her to be more for others as well.

On Daeran's part, I think that it's pretty canon that loving any KC is a transformative experience--having someone fight and succeed to remove the sword of Damocles hanging over his head and showing he always has someone in his corner and that he's never alone? That on its own is life changing. For Sparrow specifically, she approaches their relationship, especially once she realizes she loves him, with single-minded intensity and with genuine emotion; she doesn't play coy with what she sees in him or their relationship and I think that over time lets Daeran feel permissive to do the same. He becomes more genuine and honest with his own emotions and more willing to speak on them rather than hide them behind jokes or insults--at least when they are alone and in private.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Yes, Sparrow can and does get jealous, but it tends to stem from insecurity rather than possessiveness or anger--when Daeran shows interest in other people it plays on secret fears she has of their relationship in the long term, making her wonder if this is the sign that he's finally losing interest. Daeran likes to flirt, and sometimes it doesn't mean anything--and sometimes it's for Sparrow, to get a reaction out of her, and she knows this! But that doesn't stop it from hurting even if it's meant to be playful. Early on in their established relationship Sparrow will often just bury things that bother her rather than bring them up to Daeran and she would definitely do the same here--she'd think specifically here that haranguing him about his usual jokes or light banter when she knows how he feels about her would come across as suffocating, like she's trying to change him or trap him. Of course Daeran is doing it for the attention he gets from it, and having Sparrow withdraw and become hurt is the exact opposite of what he wants. Like most issues with their relationship in the first few years, this becomes alleviated with communication and time as Sparrow's trust grows in the strength of their relationship.

For Daeran I imagine that he actually does get jealous but refuses to really admit it. He rarely has reason to--Sparrow is very obviously committed and has never been interested in the kind of playful banter that comes with flirting--but Sparrow is the Knight Commander of the Fifth Crusade, hero of the Worldwound, seneschal of Drezen and a literal angel. She's got admirers! Daeran would be the first to say she should, and everyone who recognizes how wonderful and beautiful Countess Arendae is, well, he can't fault their taste. He just somehow always finds some other, completely unrelated fault which gives him an excuse to sharpen his tongue on their conversations and send his best barbs their way. And if he ends up standing closer to Sparrow than usual, well, she's not complaining, so he hardly sees why anyone would point it out.

[1tarot1with1k1o]

I might get judged but honestly whatever. I feel like I need to get it off my chest somehow and this is a good chance.

I’m not sure if this would be considered a love story though…

When I was young I kept getting dreams of a woman I never met in my life, but the dreams would always ignite emotions in me I never felt before, and they were hard to comprehend when I was younger. As I grew up some friends introduced me to an amazing artist, we sat and they talked about her and honestly it felt like hearing about a loved one you’ve been disconnected from for so long? This is the best way to describe it. However, years passed and the virus hit us, during quarantine I actually got to know more about her and became a fan. I recognized her. She’s literally the woman in my dreams. As I was indulged in her content I felt feelings I never felt with any person before but I shut them down by saying I’m being delusional and I might have been but honestly, the ecstasy I felt during that phase? I really hope everyone gets to experience that at least once in their life. I questioned if I truly ever felt happiness in my life before. During that time I’ve had major transformations regarding my identity and my life. Like before I became a fan I was a 10, after that a 110. People including me were shocked. I felt literally rebirthed, to a better version. Now some things happened and I got busy in my life so I had to drift away from staying up with her, and I took the chance to try to forget about her, for the better I thought. It kind of worked out. After a long while I got into tarot by clicking a YouTube video regarding what I need in my life right now. It was the first ever and I was just curious as to why that’s gaining so much views. I was a logical atheist before that. The video absolutely shocked me, it described the most detailed details I was going through. Shortcut I eventually got into the topic of future spouses, and I think you know where this is heading. Every single reading I got described her to the core, and the futuristic things that are yet to happen have been resonating in every reading I got from diverse readers. It’s absolutely crazy. It’s been indicated multiple times that she’s my twin flame and it honestly makes so much sense. We have major differences as well, including age gap with her being older than me and also she’s from a totally different continent. Some of her fans even did readings on her future spouse and it just hit… anyway, it was quite fun and games at first but recently I started considering all that seriously. I’m not sure if I’m entirely ready for that life yet and I think I might have been projecting on her too much. Not to say I wouldn’t like being with her, of course I’ll love it, but real life is harder than my daydreams. I decided to label this as an unsolved mystery and leave it as it is. There’s really nothing I can do about it. I believe whatever is meant to happen will unfold on its own and I’m fully accepting of my destiny. I am now focusing on myself, building and bettering my life, healing any traumas, breaking toxic cycles and basically living in the moment.

That’s so long but I hope you manage to read it

I replied a bit late because I kept wondering what the best thing to say to you would be, but I think that ultimately, I shouldn’t say too much, and I should let this post be a space for you to tell your story. I don’t want to take the attention away from your message.

I’m just going to say that it’s truly beautiful that you were able to experience such a strong connection with someone, and to actually cross paths with her. That’s amazing!!

I can relate to you and your story on many aspects, so this ask is very meaningful to me. Such connections are extremely special and magical, although they can also be challenging at times.

You’re doing amazing by continuing on working on yourself. It’s gonna do wonders for you and for the connection, especially if it’s a twin flame journey!

I truly loved reading about your story, and it actually helped me understand my own better. I’m sure this post will be of support for everyone that’s going through a similar connection.

Thank you infinitely for sharing this, even if you felt like you could have been judged for it. This is your connection, and I hope you won’t ever let other people belittle your experience. I cherish these kind of stories so much!!

Have an amazing day! And best of luck with your journey <3

[kobblefort]

Rushsly: Final Preparations

Even if the "endgame" spoilers don't start in this episode, they are going to be talked about at length from this point on.

This is your last warning: if you want to find out what's at the very bottom of the world for yourself, do not read beyond this point until you have.

There are other valid reasons not to read this Let's Play, such as "thinking the author is a narcissistic maniac who spends more time trying to do bootleg therapy on themself than the actual game," or "being a bit weirded out by the whole kobold thing," or "just not wanting to read a novel-length stream-of-consciousness psychodramatic diatribe that is sometimes vaguely about a digital ant-farm." But I care far more about preserving the wonders of this game for the people who enjoy it than I ever will about appealing to the particularities of anyone who is already inclined to dislike me or my work, so one more time, endgame spoilers are just one click away here. If you want to see the bottom yourself, you should dig to the bottom yourself. If you like playing the game, I think it is something worth doing at least once. This will be my first time playing this content, but not my first time seeing it, and I kind of wish it was. Spoilers under the cut.

I guess I should apologize for how I ended the last episode. I had been feeling very weird and worked myself up acting like nothing had ever gone right for me. I'm feeling better now. I played a bit of the new Zelda game like everyone else - well actually I played it a bit before it released too, because I think Nintendo is evil and that pirating their games, even leaked ones, is ontologically good - that I refuse to financially support them by buying their products firsthand, even if I must get kind of a shitty 15-24fps version of the experience. I make no argument that their games are not good and fun and well-designed but I think many of their corporate practices are basically inexcusable, litigating a man into lifelong indentured servitude is some shit a pastor would make up a story about the devil doing, having a crack team of prosecutors called "Nintendo Ninjas" isn't cute or funny, it is inexcusably vile bullshit that speaks volumes about what kind of world we've built ourselves to live in, where our modern myths and fables are Intellectual Properties and Trademarks. I have been making lots of contraptions, none that particularly measure up to what you might have seen on the internet - some of them embarrassingly being made obsolete by the game's own built-in schematics just minutes after I finished devising them. I have also not been barbecuing the koroks or shooting them with lasers or blasting them off on rockets or anything like that. They are cute and funny little dudes and I have no particular interest in seeing them suffer. I read an article a while ago about how phenomena like the widespread Korok crucifixions are caused by the same sort of psychological response as how you kind of just want to bite things that are obscenely cute, because our human brains don't really know how to deal with the feeling of "this thing is too cute." At least, I imagine they have to be similar responses going on there.

Kerrik Perplexnightmares appears in the first cavern layer - clearly named by the ratfolk. It almost brings a smile to my face to think of it mauling the rat-bastards that so frequently besiege us, but just as soon it brings a frown to think about how its "deadly dust" might be able to slip through our fortifications. Fiva is also still fucking around on the second cavern layer, apparently still seriously wounded from its battle with the ant people; speaking of which, checking the "Creatures>Others" tab displays none of them, but none of them appear under "Dead/Missing" either. Whether they went back into hiding for another ambush, fled the caverns beneath Rushsly entirely, or were so thoroughly dismembered that whatever remains of them would not be recognizable as ever belonging to a sentient being is currently unknown, though the second option seems most likely and the third seems least likely. They did appear from the western-most edge of the second cavern, they could have just as easily left that way.

Its ability to stand and ability to grasp are apparently "somewhat impaired", and funnily enough, checking the "Treatment" tab lets us know that it needs diagnosis and a crutch. The only way the kobbles are giving the poor lobster bastard a crutch is by mauling it with one. Rushsly has truly become a violent fort, and I'll need to start designating a third military squadron as soon as this last window into the final cavern layer is completed. Which, in the tireless toil of kobble industry, it is.

We can see most all of it besides the northeastern corner, and still not a fucking trace of magma. If it does exist, it will be at the very bottom of the world.

Our newest crop of migrants brought with them quite a lot of kobbles who were already adequate in some form of fighting or another, if not competent or even accomplished. With 211 steel bars in reserve, and a whopping 1475 iron bars and 61 bricks of coke (not the kind that makes you scheme to start a massive Wal-Mart return-scam scheme that spans four states, lasts for six years and results in a net profit of over 868,000 dollars - the cool kind) in case we run through that, outfitting them is only a question of time, not resources. And yes, Kody wanted to call them "The Frigid Knots." Go ahead, make your furry porn jokes. But for what it's worth? I'm anti-knot. I'm anti basically any "animal style genitalia" besides hyena girls with huge dicks or like, shark furries with double dicks, but they should still be recognizably human. I guess maybe a little frond here or a little flaring there is fine but I don't know, don't get carried away man. Like you know when you see one of those artists who just draws dicks as little red or pink triangles? I can't stand that. And hell while we're at it, no feral shit for me either. I'm in this furry shit for definitively humanoid bitches with some animal aesthetics I'm not trying to jack off to an actual dog dick, that's gross to me. I'm not a cop but I'm allowed to be grossed out. Us old bastards call that "squicked." I'm allowed to be squicked. You can go back over my earlier posts for evidence of my arguably "weirder" fetishes if you want but I'm not going to give a shit because weird is subjective and I think you can obviously tell just from this paragraph alone that I'm kind of unconcerned with joining any sort of larger consensus on "normality." I've got my own "normality" going on and it works for me. I am incredibly normal: I am, after all, the average of all my traits.

The mine shaft that will lead us to glorious adamantite starts right here, just outside The Curled Pepper, but it won't start going too deep without some serious fortifications and a contingency plan in case we dig right into the final layer instead of hitting an adamantite vein. I have a plan for safely digging out the adamantite - as safely as one can dig out adamantite anyway - but before that step can begin, I want steel hatch covers and a backup set of steel doors in place. Though I'm completely prepared for Rushsly to fall on an emotional level, I would like that to simply not happen - being able to retire the fort once I feel I've had as much fun with it as I'm going to have would be a blessing. And what do we have to lose, should I carelessly fuck up?

Well, for starters, I haven't even begun on Dralas' Beast Slayer quarters lol fuck whoops!! Not that he's discontent with his four-tile chamber in the awkward set of bedrooms that I have been going out of my way to show because I hate them. And what sort of things go on in Dralas' life? Well, of his many passing acquaintances, being not even particularly close to other members of his squadron, he has made a friend:

Gatr Leagueknowing - Maybe he should know a better fucking game, LOL!!! Why are you playing an RTS where you only get to control one guy!?! Sorry - the Holy Fish of the Goldenrod Creed, who leads ceremonies in the Pale Chapel, actually has many friends, perhaps as a result of his liturgical duties, but...

He himself only considers Dralas a "passing acquaintance." Ouch

But there's not too much time to ponder the minutiae of kobbles' social lives - a third Forgotten Beast appears, this one joining Fiva on the second cavern layer. Wow, an eyeless lizard and an eyeless lobster. They're so similar I'm a bit worried they're going to fuck instead of fight.

But no lol obviously they fight. They fight hard, they fight fast, and then it's over. One must wonder how it would have turned out if Fiva managed to recover from its scuffle with the ant people, but that's not what happened. Ancoji Necroshafts the Fated (holy shit) escapes with a single bruise on its rear right foot. Fiva is the one I made that badass little intro graphic for, isn't it? Sorry to see you go out like that, Fiva, though I wonder if this might be a little more honorable than getting sniped through some fortifications by a kobble who doesn't even care about doing the deed. The 462-year-old lizard scratches right through the lobster's brain and it's all over.

All the way up top-side I notice these rabbit merchants and their guard have just been... stuck chilling in the trade depot for at least a month after their supposed departure. I pull up and then pull down the drawbridge to try and reset their pathfinding, I run dfhack fix/stuck-merchants a couple times, no dice. Also right after doing that I find out you're not actually supposed to run fix/stuck-merchants when you have merchants on the map, but ahh whoops I dunno, live and learn I guess. I should really read command descriptions before I make assumptions based on their name but to be fair like when merchants are stuck on your screen it really feels like that's what the command "fix/stuck-merchants" is for, how would I even actually know if merchants are stuck off my map? Well I really don't know what to do about that. It would be funny to just fucking kill them but they're cute little bunny people and I need to be minimizing the amount of enemies I have at any given time if I want to survive the dig for adamantite.

We commission Agcu Riu: "the Fall of Beaks" for Dralas' bedroom. It doesn't look like we'll be able to find aluminum any time soon, but one with iron walls, billon floors and a gold "welcome mat" seems more than well-appointed enough.

Our Hammer Lord On decides to name her shield "The Confusing Famine." I kind of wish she'd grown attached to a steel one instead, but I suppose the tools you're comfortable with are always better than the more expensive, flashier ones. Right? Well I don't know because steel is literally stronger than iron, but oh well. This is the second object a soldier has named, after Ace Steel's steel battleaxe "Styletongues." Looks like things are going well for them, and they'll soon have company in their barracks: even though no training orders have actually been given yet, some members of The Frigid Knots have already grown antsy enough to pick out their weapons and armor.

Quite a few masterworks have been created in the new batch of weapons, and checking who made them makes me realize that Orml really ought to be appointed to the military: she's a legendary fighter, legendary observer, and master spearbold after all. The Frigid Knots will do well to have a master among them to learn from; it should hopefully bring the less skilled of the group up to speed a bit faster.

Ancoji has been sitting perfectly still this whole time after finishing off Fiva. Up on the first cavern layer, Kerrik just slowly swims around. Menacingly... as menacingly as a giant frog can get.

Training finally begins for TFK.

The final shaft is almost ready. A tight security protocol will be enforced whenever any adamantite mining operations are going on. The outer steel doors, inner steel doors, hatch covers on Z-90 and hatch covers on Z-91 will all be sealed for the entire length of time that a mining team is in the shaft. This is to buy a construction team enough time to wall off the shaft entirely if it becomes necessary. As I've already stated, if we break through at the wrong spot, we have a matter of single frames to react accordingly, and two or three miners' lives are, unfortunately, a fair trade to keep the other 100+ kobbles safe from the possibility sudden violent and painful death. In the event that we are not able to seal off the bottom layer for any reason, we will have no choice but to draw up the above-ground and below-ground bridges to cut off access between Rushsly and the greater world entirely. What we find down there could literally doom the entire Dimensions of Portent if we do not immediately take the proper cautions to contain it. Maybe I'm being overdramatic. Maybe I'll wish I was even more dramatic later. All I can know for sure is the general gist of what lies at the bottom of the earth, and how dangerous it can be. -114 is the deepest depth of the pools in the third and final cavern layer. From -115 to -129, anything could happen. Vast and impossible riches guarded by incredible beasts. An ocean of magma to spew forth, a relatively painless and uneventful adamantite-and-diamonds mining experience.

In interest of not taking for-fucking-ever and having the group awkwardly split up, miners will be moved to these admittedly quite shit barracks on -90, and the burrow system will be used to keep them from fucking off all the way up to near the surface until such a time as the final layers are exhausted. The marksbold squad are training hard just below The Curled Pepper, ready as they'll ever be for whatever comes next.

Through me you enter into the city of woes; through me you enter into eternal pain, through me you enter the population of loss. Abandon all hope, you who enter here. "Inferno" is actually very funny for a lot of different reasons, but that quote still goes hard as fuck, you can't not like it. I know this has been kind of a shorter episode, maybe you're glad about that, but this seems like a good place to cut it. I want to have as much room as possible to let whatever might transpire next breathe.