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goodlucktai · 1 year

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soft ground, claiming moon

out-monster the monster

@natsumeweek 2023 day 1; sun/moon read on ao3

(next)

The worst part about all of this is that Shuuichi found out by accident.

Natsume was uncharacteristically energetic on the phone. Not so much excited as anxious, and not overly so by any normal person’s standards, but Shuuichi knew him just well enough to tell.

It wasn’t his place to pry. But Shuuichi spent a good chunk of his time worrying about that boy, small and overshadowed and terribly lonely, so maybe he was entitled to prying just a little.

“Any big plans this weekend?” he said conversationally.

“Oh, uh, I don’t know if you’d call them ‘big,’” Natsume replied, with the slightest trip in his tone that would have been a huff of laughter if Shuuichi was talking to anyone else. “All of us are staying at the temple. Tanuma’s place, I mean. Even Ogata and Shibata are going to be there.”

“So it’s a party,” Shuuichi teased, something in his heart going soft the way it always does when he’s reminded that Natsume has a big group of chaotic, good-natured friends who are happy to go out of their way to spend time with him. “I didn’t know you had it in you! Especially since you fight tooth and nail to avoid going to all the ones I invite you to.”

This time, Natsume really did breathe out a laugh. It was a big personal win for Shuuichi.

“Definitely not a party,” the kid said dryly. “At least, not by your standards.”

“Well, it’s at least partly a party if the whole gang’s getting together. What’s the occasion?”

“The full moon rises on Saturday,” Natsume explained, as if that was a very normal thing that normal people were both aware of and planned events around.

“If you tell me Taki has finally turned you into a witch, I’ll be very disappointed,” Shuuichi said, only half-joking.

“I don’t want to be a witch or an exorcist, thanks. I have enough on my plate as it is, don’t you think?”

Considering one half of his bloodline’s very storied history, and the gift—or curse—his heritage granted him, Shuuichi has to admit that Natsume makes a compelling argument. It’s a mark of how far they’ve come that they’re able to joke about it with each other on the phone.

“Satchan’s probably going to be too tired to do much of anything,” Natsume was saying. “I think we’ll mostly wind up napping and watching movies.”

Ah, the small-town mountain life, Shuuichi thought to himself, not unkindly. He would have gone insane with boredom if he was stuck in Hitoyoshi at fourteen, but Natsume, who has lived in a dozen different places in half as many years, genuinely seems to love it. At least there’s relatively less trouble for him to find out there.

At least he’s well-protected from people like Shuuichi out there—people who made a career out of hunting down people like Natsume.

Shaking away the grimmer thoughts, Shuuichi asked, “Do I know Satchan?”

He was familiar with the names of Natsume’s friends, given how often Natsume talked about them, but that one wasn’t ringing a bell.

“Oh, uh, I meant Nishimura,” Natsume said quickly. He sounded embarrassed. “That’s—Kitamoto calls him that.”

Saving the cutesy nickname as mockery material for another day—they would definitely be revisiting that—Shuuichi said, “Ah, your friend with the excellent taste in movies! Is he not well?”

“He’s fine.” Natsume’s tone took an oddly defensive turn. “We’re taking care of him.”

Something about that pinged in Shuuichi’s brain as very weird, but a lot of conversations with Natsume did that. If he stopped and wondered about every strange thing his young friend said, he’d never get anything done.

It’s not until much, much later, when Shuuichi is juggling emails from his agent about his role in an upcoming period piece and exorcist correspondence regarding a grudge in Osaka, that it occurs to him what weirdness, exactly, the back of his mind had picked up.

A few weeks ago, there was an animal attack out in the forest that all the children frequented. Shuuichi found out through Touko, who called him to explain why Natsume would not be making the trip to Tokyo to visit him on set after all. Satoru was in the hospital, she told him. Natsume hadn’t gone to school in days, camping in the boy’s hospital room with their friends. They could hardly be budged.

It was so strange, Touko had said tearfully, because no one in town had a dog anywhere near big enough to do that kind of damage. And there certainly weren’t any wolves left in Japan.

He had reached out to Natsume the next day, sending him a paper man that delivered the question, Do you need my expertise?

He was a monster hunter, and it was a simple, unacknowledged way to ask if there were monsters at large in Kyushu. Natsume’s reply came within the hour, the talisman paper turned brittle with the powerful signature of his magic. It was ozone and static electricity, the wildness of nature. The touch of it contained the barest hint of a threat.

No, it read. We’re taking care of him.

“Fuck,” Shuuichi says out loud, to Sasago and Hiiragi’s disdain and Urihime’s delight. He’s up and moving a second later, barking over his shoulder for the familiars to begin sealing the doors and windows, setting up the barrier, preparing the house for an extended absence. One never knew how long a job might take.

Shuuichi yanks open a cabinet door in his workshop. A neat row of silver tools glint with promise beneath the warm lamp light.

There is at least one wolf left in Japan.

#natsumeweek #natsume yuujinchou #natsuyuu #natsume takashi #natori shuuichi #my writing #natsuyuu fic #im a day behind :')#soft ground claiming moon

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cosmical-flowers · 3 months

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Favorite Card Statistics - #1

Last week, I put up a poll (which you can access here) about people's favorite cards from Ensemble Stars! I got 30 responses, so here's the first report!

1. What unit is your favorite card from?

I was the most curious about this one to see how many people were biased against one unit, but I didn't expect this honestly! Overall, the top unit was Knights, with 9 votes. Second place is tied between ALKALOID, Crazy:B and Switch, with 3 votes each. The units who didn't get a vote this round were AKATSUKI, MaM and 4Piece. There were also no votes for the faculty or other cards as well.

2. Is the person in the card the leader of their unit?

Most of the time, they were not the leader of their unit! I expected this more, since there a much more members than leaders. 22 people voted no, while 7 others voted yes. The one vote for other was for a Chiaki card.

3. What year was the card released?

An overwhelming majority of the time, the card released in 2022 or 2023! Both years got 10 votes each, making up 2/3 rds of the graph! Seems like it makes sense, since it trended a lot those years.

4. What era is this card from? (Music!, ES!! Y1 or ES!! Y2)

Aligning with the response from before, most of the time the card released during ES!! Y1. This category got 21 votes. I expected this result mainly as well.

5. What kind of event is this card from?

Reading the question again, this came off a bit confusing... But nonetheless, another one I was curious about! A majority of the time, someone's favorite card would have came from a Scout / Event Scout / Feature Scout banner, with 19 votes. A close second place goes to Event / Climax Events / Shuffle Events with 8 votes. I thought it would've been more balanced between these two categories honestly.

6. How many stars does the card have?

Another weird one! I thought much more people would have admired some 4 stars, but it seems a swooping majority was left to 5 stars! 29 people voted for 5 stars alone.

7. Is the card bloomed or unbloomed?

A majority of the time, the card is bloomed (makes sense, since the art is so pretty for it). 26 people voted for the bloomed versions of cards.

8. Written response portion

For this portion, I had people mention what their favorite card was specifically. This includes the name of the card, the character, how many stars the card has, and whether it was bloomed or unbloomed.

The characters who had the most votes were Natsume Sakasaki, Izumi Sena and Arashi Narukami with 3 votes each! Congrats to them for having very likeable cards! Other characters who had 2 votes were Mao, Kohaku, Ritsu and Hiyori.

A card showed up more than once! Izumi's card, Evening Glow Paddle, had showed up twice in the responses! Both times, it was mentioned that it was the bloomed one.

Honorable mentions for the option to explain why the person chose that card: - Very long talk about Hiiro's Fs1, Intersecting Paths (I loved this rant so much. Anyone who votes, feel so free to rant about why they are your favorite card.) - "he is literally just a bunch of pixels on my screen" for a Natsume card (But if they are pixels why do the pixels look pretty) - Person staring at a Mayoi card for 10 minuets because they were so stunned by it (This was me but with Shinobu's White Day outfit. It changed me. THE ART IS SO PRETTY UWAGHHHH)

[Thank you to @/cafekitsune for making the banners!]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll! I was really happy to see I got this many responses at all! The form is always open, so feel free to send in a card or several cards! There's no limit on how many you can send in! Have a good day / night / evening!

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mihai-florescu · 1 year

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This was a cultural reset you just had to be there for. The nurse's office scene thumbnail. The fact that they called episode 4 wuthering heights. The fact that natsume overheard it. The eye closeups. The fact that it came out on the saturday after my first week of work and every day i was just looking forward to seeing how much they animated. Not knowing yet what happens in Blackbird and then finally finding out a few days later... April 2023 i will never forget you

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mayorofcattown · 1 year

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Summary:

An incident with a horrific youkai the likes of which neither of them have ever seen before leaves Tanuma forced to watch as his worst fears play out before his eyes, and leads to an unfortunate first meeting with the head of the Matoba clan.

Natsume Week 2023, Day 2: New Meetings/Keepsakes

Here it is, the first chapter of that 'Tanuma meets Matoba and has a Very Bad Time' fic I've been working on!

#no idea when I will get the next chapter out #so you will just have to suffer with my terrible cliff hangers now sorry lol #natsume yuujinchou #natsume week #tanunatsu #fanfiction

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tsukiyadori · 1 year

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The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: "Tsuki no Hikari" (Clair de Lune) Web Short Story Translation

I just read the short on Nanako Tsujimura's website here that was posted in May 2023. It's called つきのひかり which directly translates to "moonlight".

And just felt compelled to make a translation immediately, because it's just such a beautiful little piece.

Timeline-wise, it's probably set somewhen after volume 10 and before volume 11.

Suggested accompanied reading prior to it is the Extra Case "Moonstone's Affection". It's included in Seven Sea's English translation of volume 4. In Japanese it can be found in the ebook version of volume 4. (In print, it appears to have been in a booklet extra handed out as shop-exclusives.)

Moonstone is all about hilariously playing the classic line "The moon is beautiful" by Natsume Souseki, something that by now is so worn out it's probably as well as become a cliché already. Moonstone has Richard giving lectures criticizing how the line gets wholly divorced from its original context and sentiment, as well as giving ab abstract roundabout what it was supposed to be about. A feeling, a peaceful mood, he says, but there isn't so much elaboration on it rather than just implication yet.

I'm kind of shocked I didn't expect it to get back to it and with what's effectively an illustrious applied example essay in prose on the subject while at it, when the whole series is all about nuanced takes on variants and expressions of "love" and beauties already. But here we are.

I tried to imitate the translation style of the official English translation.

Clair de Lune

I was sleeping amidst flowers.

When I woke up, I confusedly wondered what happened. Flowers were blooming above my head. Flowers painted in a faint colour between red and orange. Probably red puppies. It was a completely different scenery from napping on my bed or the sofa. The sky expanded itself above the flowers. It was clearly outdoors.

And.

"Good Morning."

Richard.

The sky, the flowers and Richard.

While I was thinking that something about this was rather poetic, I bewilderedly rubbed my eyes. When I raised myself, leaves fell from my head.

A garden and a pond. An arched bridge. Ah.

"This is… Henry's new residence."

"Correct."

"It feels so impressionistic, erm, this is…"

"Giverny"

"…so that means France"

"Oui"

Right, Richard answered. Reality caught up as the details gradually came back.

I and Richard, we came to Europe a week ago in order to participate in a mineral show in Munich. Munich is in Germany. That was seven days ago. Afterwards I met Shimomura who was on a little trip to Austria and learned about Henry's new residence. Somehow he bought a new real estate and restored an old building and how about we dropped by. Somehow it was amazing, somehow it left a deep impression. Somehow a lot of somehow impressions. That was five days ago. After that I joined Richard again – of course bringing a Sachertorte with me – and we headed towards our business in France. It was just a small trip by air. That was four days ago. By Japanese standards, it cost only a domestic travel fare to get from Vienna to Marseille. Somehow I wound up making Bouillabaisse at a regular customer's place, three days ago. And two days ago we got a message from Henry.

He contacted us, because we were apparently nearby, asking us if we wouldn't come over to his new residence.

Richard was a bit perplexed, but honestly I was already in Europe Mode – basically the mindset about travelling through countries in an absurd speed. It usually felt like this on the continent – it was a sort of let's go somewhere!-tension. We've even talked about taking two days off and watch some soccer or such. But honestly, I and Richard, we were a bit tired. We didn't have the spirits to watch soccer and drink beer with cheers. Our physical stamina was doubtful to last as well. To do such a thing after working a week every consecutive day, it'd be difficult unless you were in your teens or your early twenties. We have both passed that age bracket already.

That being said, the place we've been invited to, had its own set of issues. Giverny. It's somewhat in the neighbourhood of Paris. By plane, it would be just a hop away, but from Marseille it's a five hours distance with the train. Of course, it was in the same country as Marseille but, somehow, like this, the place didn't exactly feel close. It seemed about as exhausting as the soccer watching plan.

But Richard said he wanted to go.

Prefixed with a reserved 'if that was all right'.

If that was the case, things were clear for me.

Let's go. I also want to go.

And that's what we did.

We rented a car at the airport and headed towards Giverny. Right upon arriving, a bunch of security staff looking people clad in black came for us and guided us with their black car.

The place they brought us to was a house surrounded with a garden and pond and looked straight out of a fairy tale. Flowers in all sorts of colours bloomed in abundance, boats floated above the deep pond and a gracefully arched bridge hung above it. However, this version of Seigi Nakata, who recently made strides in becoming more sophisticated, understood. It was a masterpiece of impressionism, this was a residence built with the concept of Monet's paintings in mind.

Henry showed up looking like Snufkin coming out of a Moomin house – a security staff personnel was behind him like a matter of course – and welcomed us with a smile. Piano suit him, but at that moment I learned that an apron suit him as well. Not an apron for painting, but the sort for cooking. With a light brown one hanging down his head, he looked like an ordinary, a bit too skinny man.

"Recently I've been doing all sorts of things. Working, pastimes. This place is for recreation. It's very good for a change of pace."

'Work' meant the Claremont family business, an 'insurance company for an insurance company', as well as several finance-related businesses, apparently. Jeffrey handled them until now, but lining up with his vacations, Henry took them over. Richard and I were mostly kept in the dark about it, but achievements of big companies could be checked on in the daily internet and from the looks of that, they were doing pretty well. And in order for continuously doing well in any sort of work, you needed to take a breather or get a change of pace from time to time.

For this purpose this place here in France was established.

Indeed, it seemed like a very good place for a change of pace.

Henry showed up this hyper gorgeous summer house – it had a combined kitchen and dining room, as well as a reception room with a grand piano in it, a jet spa bath, a huge cabin filled with supplies neighbouring an enormous garage and all kinds of other things – he personally treated us to nice fragranced tea as well as some not wholly uniformly shaped cookies he had just baked himself. It was a perfect reception and everything tasted very well.

That's why it was a little bit exhausting.

Henry was nervous throughout the whole reception. He was his usual self. You don't have to be all that nervous, Enrique is what Shimomura would always pester on about, but that was his special privilege. Neither I nor Richard had this sort of skill.

In the end, all three of us got tired in their own way.

Henry withdrew himself to the studio to be alone for a bit, Richard departed with the car to get some snacks for the evening and I…

I said I'd take another stroll around the garden.

I was looking down at the pond from the bushes on the loosely slanted slope.

I doozed off a bit.

It was early summer. When I looked at my wristwatch it was 3pm. I probably doozed off about 30 minutes at most. It was fine now with the sun all up, but if I doozed off until evening, I would certainly have caught a cold.

"… Thanks for waking me…. Uwah, there is dirt on my shirt."

"Fortunately, it's a washable shirt."

I laughed a haha. True, if it was a dress shirt, it would have been a tragedy. That's why I only wore such wear on special occasions, like being invited to some lakeside castle party. Sometimes there are such times through.

While I rubbed my eyes, Richard looked intensely at the garden. Or at the pink and yellow flowers behind my back. Or at me. Then he suddenly started talking.

"I understand a little bit how artists feel."

"Artists?… You mean impressionist ones?"

"There is no denying that your shape with flowers nestling around you is wealthy with elegance."

"Easy mode please."

"I somehow just got the feeling of wanting to draw a picture."

"… of me?"

"Of what else?"

How weird. The owner of features that millions of artists would want to paint was, somehow, saying he felt like drawing a picture of me.

But it also made me happy.

When I playfully tried to pose as Mona Lisa, Richard sighed and politely corrected me that that was from Da Vinci. Then he started a brief commentary over Monet, the master of impressionism. Listening to it in this garden that seemed like out of a painting of his, was enjoyable and beautiful, sometimes wistfully so.

Henry, Richard and I, we enjoyed a great number of France's famous items from the supermarket and small dishes à la carte. Pâté de Campagne or cheese were the apéritif. Riding a Japanese food boom wave of recent, even Kinpira burdock was available in square packages. There was sushi as well, but Richard, who was used to Ginza's sushi in Japan, didn't seem to itch for it. Henry made a bit of a disappointed face, as salmon rolls were a secret favourite of his.

After dinner Henry played the piano for us.

France's impressionism wasn't just limited to paintings. In music there are also various artists summed up under the genre. Debussy, who is famous even in Japan, is one of them.

What he played was "Clair de Lune".

It was music filled with peace and beauty.

Outside the window, a half moon was floating about. It was reflected in the pond, and flickered as if it was drawing the picturesque design of a mosaic of light.

I wondered if that was the 'impression' that artists remembered.

Not the real moon, but something like the shadow of the moon. Something that tingled your imagination, something that allowed for an in-between.

Like how I would associate the moon or ocean to Richard's beauty whenever I remembered it.

If that was the case, I felt like I understood a bit of what Richard had called 'elegance'.

It meant to 'love' something very much.

Very much.

The sounds of the piano carried on. Tomorrow's plane would depart at noon, but we had to return to Paris and return the rental car. It was about time to go to sleep. But I wanted to stay up a bit more. I wanted to look at the shadow of the moon.

The flickering golden light somehow resembled Richard's voice, when he was right by side when I woke up.

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(TL Time 116min+40m QC/formatting)

#light novel #novel #translation #english translation #the case files of jeweler richard #housekishou richard shi no nazo kantei #tsujimura nanako

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foreigndistance · 5 months

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Jubilee, Rank #72 (a post-event reflection)

“Why would you post this on Nocturne’s 7th anniversary of its addition to Starlight Stage?” Because one, I like the song—especially the original duet. And two, screw it, we roll.

It has been a few weeks since the event ended, but I’ve been trying to write this reflection for weeks without trying to lose my mind over actually writing out several thoughts (both good and bad) over a collaboration event in a mobile rhythm/gacha game. Forgive me for the raw honest thoughts I’m about to say in there.

The Prologue

Hoshimachi Suisei is a virtual YouTuber (VTuber) affiliated with Hololive Production, one of the biggest virtual agencies for such talents. She is one of the earliest talents recruited by the agency, alongside other soloist VTubers like Tokino Sora, Roboco, Sakura Miko, and AZKi—together referred to as “Generation 0”. She is also someone striving to become an idol herself. Prior to becoming affiliated with her current agency, she had tried entering IRL idol agencies, to no avail. She tried joining Hololive Production, but got rejected. She got into INoNaKa Music, but would eventually get transferred into Hololive’s main JP branch in December 2019.

To briefly describe her activities: Suisei is a forever 18, multi-talented idol who has done (and sung) a lot of accomplishments over the years. She has interest in 2D idols as well, with her having interest in Ensemble Stars!! and THE IDOLM@STER, the latter of which being an inspiration that led her into her own idol journey. She would do covers alongside other Hololive talents with songs from those two series. “Honeycomb Summer”, “Melty♡Kitchen”, “Alive Factor”, “Hanamuke no Tori”… to name a few. There were also times where she would often be pulling in the respective games’ gacha, often spending a lot of money on them. Her favorite idols from Enstars!! and IM@S include Ritsu Sakuma, Natsume Sakasaki, Hayate Hisakawa, and Kaede Takagaki.

Six years after her debut, she would perform with her own tantou.

At Suisei’s 6th Anniversary 3D live, appropriately titled “SheenderellaDay”, a certain someone would perform with one of her fans.

The song? It was “Koi Kaze”.

Suisei shared the same stage with no one other than Kaede Takagaki, who was in her 1st SSR outfit. This was followed up by a small MC corner. Kaede switched into her 4th SSR outfit, and then a new song written by Suisei’s recurring composer, lyricist, and fellow Midnight Grand Orchestra member TAKU INOUE started playing on stage. As the concert was happening, I was merely saying “congrats” in my mind.

And thus, the grand “Jubilee” started.

The Event (and My Mixed Feelings)

It’s easy for me to say that among the people who wanted a Hololive collab with THE IDOLM@STER in-game, Suisei probably won the hardest. She got her own in-game event, original song, a commu, and even an SSR in the series she loves—ignoring the behind-the-scenes shenanigans we will probably never fully know about. There were previous Hololive collab events in other gacha games, with Tokyo 7th Sisters and Granblue Fantasy getting their collabs in the past few years, but when it came to Starlight Stage’s collaborations, this was the game’s most intense collab yet.

I… didn’t initially plan on running this event much. While I was initially excited by the intensity of the collab event upon its official announcement, there were lingering feelings of “what if this were to be my tantou idol’s last event” and a slight hint of disappointment. The “end” of Starlight Stage had become a recurring topic among English-speaking Ps ever since the so-called “content reduction” announcement was released before the end of 2023. The collaboration itself was teased in that same announcement, but I presumed that the things around the collab were already in production as the whole “content reduction” stuff was being decided. The thought of losing IM@S’ most profitable mobile game because of whatever Bandai Namco is up to is kinda scary. It’s a silly sentiment towards a live service mobile game that will shut down eventually, but the thought is also real.

Then, there’s Kaede herself. Her last token event (and unit from the original mobile game) in Deresute, “Pretty Liar”, was held back in 2018. There’s… things I could say about her content released after that, both things I liked, things I felt odd towards, and things I didn’t really like all that much. In a nutshell: I want to see Kaede as “herself” and not just as the “final boss” Cinderella Girl that she is. It’s complicated.

And yet, this event’s timing couldn’t have been even more perfect. Lately I’ve been finding March and April to have moments involving my tantous. The event’s duration overlapped with March 30 (one year since Cinderella FES Mizuki’s release and eventually sparking FES Kaede in that same banner) and April 2 (10th Anniversary Tour Final, aka the live that changed the trajectory of my producing life forever). And the whole thing took place during Holy Week break, no less. The only real issues I would’ve had were potential connection issues that may arise in a then-upcoming 3-day road trip.

Why did this event have to be 11 days long?

The Actual Grind

Day 1 of the event started with me messing around with all my early intense grinding. I managed to get around the top 20 within the first 30 minutes of the event. Trying to maintain a top 100 spot was hard during the first few days, but eventually things stabilized as the days went on.

For a short break during the first day, I pulled on the collab gacha. My Suisei gacha tickets didn’t give me too much and got me an off-rate SSR (Miyo1), so I resorted to using jewels. Here came Kaede’s collab limited SSR, fully animated. My jewel count went from 55k at the start of the event to 36k—which would eventually be thrown into event ranking hell instead of being saved for the Kaede7 reruns (which was its own story).

During day 2, I kept playing (actually sending my auto Grand team through EVERLASTING FORTE hell and back) while I was at a local convention for the whole afternoon. Not pictured: me showing fellow artists there that I was playing the event! I may have fallen out from my goal for a while, dammit, but I kept farming for tokens anyway.

In addition, I drank some coffee especially during the last few days, although sometimes I find myself feeling a bit sleepy…

Throughout days 6-8, I was stuck on the annual provincial road trip during Holy Week. I brought two phones through the whole thing: my main phone whose mobile data has been mostly spent on event grinding, and a side phone where I would often chat on Discord or play videos and music during the trip. During the second night, I did get to stay in the hotel room by myself (we had two hotel rooms) and took that opportunity to try staying awake.

On day 9, I hit the 99,999,999 money cap for the first time. Nothing too significant about it other than me having to spend a lot on stuff from the limited money shop. (That’s why gold bars exist in-game!)

The final two nights had me trying my damn best to stay up for as much as possible past 1 or 2 AM. If you really value your sleep and sanity over a dumb number for a popular idol’s event, I do not recommend this.

The last day of the event was quite a stressful trip. Within the final 24 hours, I wanted to try reaching the maximum amount of tokens you could hold (99,999 tokens) but I feared that there would not be enough time for me to reach the target. I ended up stopping the EVERLASTING FORTE grind as soon as I got to 90k.

I wanted to park at certain numbers related to my tantous (Ray Distance’s Mobamas debut date, the day CG 4th LIVE’s performance of Nocturne happened, etc.) but I wouldn’t have enough time and/nor tokens to actually reach those numbers. Near the end I tried getting 1,591,715 (Mizuki and Kaede’s respective heights) but in the end, I only managed to reach the 1.59 million point mark with the last tokens I grinded and spent.

The hardest part of the event was actually trying to keep that high amount of uptime, and it was more apparent when I would get knocked out as I was trying to stay awake. I have a terrible sleep schedule (or lack thereof) but my sleepy butt wouldn’t keep me awake for too long. The loop of pressing buttons every 2 minutes felt monotonous for 11 days straight, minus the part where I actually played the event song for either jewels or to get a high score.

My complicated feelings towards Kaede’s latest event song being a collab with a popular VTuber was stuck in my mind, and I first thought I would try to settle for Top 500 early on; but previous sentiments and “final event” anxiety, combined with some encouragement from friends and other Producers (who ranked with me) kept telling me to keep going.

I ultimately finished the event at rank #72, which is… certainly a number associated with ChihayaPs. With a total of 1,590,435 points. I saw the numbers on Haruka’s birthday (April 3), send help.

I also made it to SSS rankings for the first time. It’s something I never really cared for, usually, but apparently ranking very high in a token event would let you in the top 1000. I never saw my actual SSS rank at the end of March (since I was too busy grinding), but I probably made it in the top 500 in the 91st SSS ranking that month.

The Tantou Unit Revenge

There’s one last thing I want to talk about, something I’ve been preparing for almost a year by that point. Long story short: I wanted to tier for the units I produce, and for the idols that are closest to me. I wanted to do that with S.E.M (my first tantou unit), but over the last few years my chances kept fading with each SideM game that got killed. By the time Growing Stars leaked announced its shutdown, I ended up starting to ask for a Kaede and Mizuki event (as Ray Distance) for me to tier in for me to have some form of “revenge” and (hopefully) closure on that front.

Of course that dream event didn’t happen (yet), knowing how much Bandai Namco and Cygames likes putting that After20 duo (who also have some of the busiest VAs in the series) together sometimes.

Over 2023, I did get some top 2000s here and there, in both token and groove events. The last event with my actual tantous in it happened over a year ago (Heartboiled Wars with Tomoe). Every event I’ve tiered in has had an idol I like: Aki, Sanae, Airi, Kanade, and Koharu.

And yet, I didn’t tier in this event because I like Suisei… I tiered in this event because I like Kaede. So much that I ended up producing her.

As weird as I feel about the collaboration as a whole, giving up on this chance would’ve left me with intense regret for several reasons. Future me would be really disappointed if this is to be Kaede’s final Starlight Stage event. (So I hope she gets one more event after this…)

The possibility of me failing a chance of tiering one of my closest tantou’s events again scared me. I lost my chances more than once, and it would probably hurt if I give up that chance. It wasn’t the ideal event I wanted to try in, but the timing was too perfect not to ignore either. There were many thoughts swirling in my head throughout the whole thing, but then again… it’s a tantou event in the end.

I’m awaiting Mizuki’s next event (especially since she hasn’t gotten a new song for nearly 3 years now), but I need to recover first.

Despite everything…

In the end, I do not regret being Kaede’s producer.

The Stats

PLv: 347 → 501. The 2x fan campaign combined with a bit of the EXP Produce perk boosts may have helped a lot.

Jewel count: 55k (pre-gacha) → 36k (post-gacha) → 7k. Thank goodness I didn’t have to spark Kaede in that limited banner.

Idols made past 15 million fans: Uzuki, Takumi, Nanami, and Tomoe. Three of my tantous & an excessive use of Nanami’s FES SSR.

Idols made past 10 million fans: Seira, Yui, and Koharu. Sanae, Miku, Nana, Ranko, and Karen also got a significant boost in fans due to all of this.

SSS songs cleared: Gaze and Gaze. Been wanting to save getting that clear for a special event.

Stamina drinks spent: everything.

Total no of EVERLASTING FORTE plays at the end: 2,947.

SSRs obtained from collab gacha: 5 (two Kaedes, one Rin4, a Makino1 dupe, and a Miyo1.) I’d eventually gain another 2 SSRs after the event (neither of them were Suisei though. I had to resist pulling further because a Kaede7 rerun was coming…)

The Special Thanks

The KaigaiPs that ranked with me in the top 100 (Zhu and Shiina especially—those two are on a different league of their own) for helping me survive this tiresome first Deresute T100 attempt.

My fellow online friends from the various Discord servers and on Twitter, for supporting me. I’ve been keeping that whole thing under wraps from my main account out of embarrassment, but yeah.

The Hololive Fan Wiki, Virtual YouTuber Wiki, and the JP Hololive Unofficial Wiki for Suisei research.

As a final note… when’s Passion Jewelries? Or the next Kaede/Mizuki event?

#producer's rambles #s: deremas #cinderella girls #idolmaster

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celeryw · 1 year

Text

Natsume Week 2023 Day One:

Sun / Moon

Takashi is knee-deep in a forest pond when he overhears two youkai talking about his grandmother. He pauses to listen.

“…Rumblings from the sky,” the smaller one says, he swings the twig in his hand a few times and draws a circle, “the last time this happened Natsume Reiko chased it off and we were saved!”

The larger one laughs and rubs at the side of his face, “She didn’t kill it, though. Since it’s here again.” The little one laughs too and hops onto the larger one’s shoulder.

“She didn’t.”

He doesn’t listen to the tail end of their conversation and instead puts his hands on his thighs and looks at his reflection. This probably means he’ll have an interesting week. He smiles to himself and resumes fishing for the rock another youkai had requested he find.

He’s in the middle of class, standing up to read a passage, when he sees an object hurtling down past the window. He pauses his reading.

“Natsume-kun, please continue.” His teacher says, so he does.

The bell rings for the end of the day and he’s out the door and sprinting down to the garden. There is a pile of cloth nestled in a small crater. He reaches toward it and opens it gingerly to reveal a small sleeping rabbit.

“What’re you doing, Natsume?” He turns quickly to see Tanuma and he sits back on his heels. The creature in his hand squeaks and he notices Tanuma squinting at the palms of his hands. Youkai, huh. He clasps it closer to his chest and he smiles in greeting.

“Youkai, huh?” Tanuma asks, and Natsume laughs fully from his chest.

“Yeah, I’ve got to get back home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow!” He shoulders his bag and gets to his feet.

He makes it home without incident, he says hello to Touko-san and she tells him that dinner is going to be ready soon. He goes upstairs and opens his bedroom door to find Nyanko-sensei rolling around on the floor.

“Sensei, have a look at this,” he says and sets the bundle of cloth and fur onto his table, “it fell from the sky.” Nyanko-sensei waddles up to it and gives it a sniff.

“Aah, I haven’t seen one of these for a very long time. Although, they do come down every ten to fifty years. I missed the last few while I was occupied. They live on the moon, they’re harmless little things,” he says, poking it with a paw. It snoozes peacefully despite the prod, “they wake up at night and they bring luck to homeowners that look after them while they stay down here. Lucky you, Natsume.”

Sensei tells him a bit more about the moon species while they watch it sleep. The rabbit youkai that live on the moon are talented at cooking. They’re good with utensils and have high quality expectations in food. They sleep without waking during the day and

He’s called for dinner and he eats it quickly when he sees the sunlight fading. He thanks Touko-san and excuses himself, rushing back upstairs — sensei hot on his heels.

The rabbit rustles and shifts in its sleep, Takashi smiles to himself and settles in to wait for it to awaken.

It takes almost twenty minutes for the rabbit to roll into wakefulness, it startles when it sees Takashi.

“Natsume Reiko…” It says, “I have come to take back my name, I have heard rumours from Earth youkai that you have been giving them back. I have come to take my name. Please give me back my name.” It lowers its tiny head in a bow and repeats ‘please’ five times.

Takashi waves his hands in a placating way and agrees, “Give me a minute, I will return it to you.”

He kneels in front of his table and holds the book open in his hands, he closes his eyes and he pictures the rabbit in his mind. He rips the page that it stops on out and places it into his mouth.

‘Yoru, enjoy your night here.’ He blows out.

#cel writes #natsume week #natsume yuujinchou #i was going to send him to the moon #but i ran out of time and finished it up #in an alternate universe of this #i send takashi to the moon

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