#or whatever and then the enemy shows absolutely no damage or indication that anything happened

[squidpro-quo]

finished kaiju no. 8 and it really surprised me, i was curious mostly because of the cleaning job for kaiju aftermath but the relationship between Reno and Kafka got me hooked. he just wants to keep his senpai safe! and then Shinomiya too, if i had a nickel for every time a character named Shinomiya was a daughter of a powerful name and weighed down with expectations from her family, I'd have two nickels yada yada but I do love her character

love that Kafka's an older mc too, i'm not his age yet but I can feel myself ageing out of the teenager and school focused anime and it's nice to see someone who has a job and it might not be what he wanted at first, but he's good at it and the coworkers are nice and god i sound old but it matters. that said Hoshina's scenes are my favorite, he's just so fun and deadly. his fight scenes are obviously the best in the show, but in general the action is so well done, i love when bullets actually make an impact instead of doing as much damage as an ice cube on lava

100% recommend!

[writer-and-artist27]

A Count’s Favor

Note: Study break called for more writing. So another short story in the AU of Vy and Ayako coexisting in the same Chaldea. I’d like to think this takes place immediately after the first short story, so @panyum, this is for you.

An accompanying song as usual, with an extra since it helped me write this, and now onto the action. Warning as it is mostly unedited from my writing late at night after working on homework.

Here we go.

-----------------------------

The first sign that something was going on was the soft touch of what felt like a hand on Vy’s head. Now, she wasn’t a stranger to the sensation of “head-pats” — after all, Ushiwakamaru still adored them and begged for the occasional pat when she passed by. Not to mention Vy’s own short stature from her Vietnamese blood apparently making her the “perfect” patting height. Or, at least, that was what Caster Cu had said with a sharp-toothed smirk. Most of the male Servants seemed to agree if the usual pat after a quest was any indication, but this specific pat was different. 

Light, far too brief to really register anything aside from long fingers (were they bony?), and almost wispy. 

Vy had turned her head once the sensation had registered in her brain, glancing around for a few moments before anxiously tugging at one of the hems of her jacket in the Mage’s Association Uniform. The shorts and stockings were comfy, but the orange was still something to get used to when the last time Vy saw this outfit, it was with—

I don’t want to die!

Vy shook her head, squashing the urge to cry. Olga-Marie was still gone. All that was around her, all that was left, were the white halls of Chaldea. 

“Am I overthinking things…?” left her in a soft mumble. 

Of course, no one answered. There was no one around to answer. Supposedly.

Vy glanced at the area she had just left, her eyes lingering on the door leading to Ayako’s studio in the distant horizon, before walking a bit faster to get to the others.

“Gotta hurry to get back and cook…!”

-----------------------------

The next instance of that wispy headpat came after the most recent Ember Farming Daily Quest. Arturia, as the former King Arthur looked less than phased at the damage she took once the battle was over, absently telling the Saber version of Diarmuid how they were no more than “mere scratches,” but Vy’s head wasn’t entirely present in the situation. Mana drain was still mana drain, as much as Vy hated to admit it. 

Aya-san’s still resting, so why can’t I make it up to her a little more…? Gotta— 

Vy still found herself slumping down to sit against a tree. Darn it… 

But once Vy had ducked her head and closed her eyes to take the rare chance to rest for a small moment before the inevitable Rayshift back, the pat occurred. It was a few seconds longer than the first time, letting Vy take in what felt like a calloused touch as the pat rustled the hair she had set in her usual work ponytail, but once Vy raised her head to look towards the direction it came from, the touch disappeared. 

“Vy?” 

Arturia’s voice slowly echoed in her ears, almost soothing as Vy turned to look up at the Level 100 Saber with her best attempt at a comforting smile. “I-I’m okay, Arturia-san, I’m okay.”

Still, Arturia looked less than convinced as she dispelled one metal gauntlet with a shrug of her shoulder to rest a warm hand against Vy’s forehead, undeterred by hair. With a soft inhale, Arturia then said, “You don’t have a fever, Princess. Are you merely tired?”

“Kinda,” Vy said truthfully, trying not to shrink into herself once Diarmuid, D’eon, and Saber Alter all turned to look at what was going on. “I dunno.”

“What do you know, Princess?” Arturia entertained in a softer voice, kneeling to Vy’s sitting height as she dispelled her other armored gauntlet to take one of Vy’s hands in hers. 

Vy felt a frown form on her face, both from guilt and embarrassment at being confronted, before meeting Arturia’s earnest green eyes with a tiny, “I think someone’s been patting my head.”

Arturia blinked, a wind passing between them enough to jostle the gold crown sitting on her head. “Pardon?” she said after a moment, her grip on Vy’s fingers slackening with the question. “Could you repeat that, Vy?”

“I-I really don’t get it either, Art-san!” Vy knew she was blushing by now, but she still went on with a squeakier, “Whenever I seem to be looking elsewhere, I feel like someone’s been patting my head, but I just. Can’t. Find them!”

A somewhat troubled expression dawned on Arturia’s face as she squeezed Vy’s hand in hers. “Perhaps it is a Servant?” she offered, her thumb gently rubbing the back of Vy’s hand in a comforting gesture. Vy couldn’t miss how Arturia’s touch lingered on her flower-shaped Command Spells. “The staff already pet your head enough for you to recognize them by now, can’t you, Princess?”

“Aye, it’s just this one hand…” Vy gestured to the top of her now rustled ponytail with her free hand, trying not to squeeze her eyes shut from some bubbling frustration. “I feel like I know it somehow, but I also don’t! It started just after I visited Aya-san to drop off her breakfast smoothie, too!” 

Arturia stared at Vy for a moment longer before pulling on Vy’s hand, making Vy fall into a warm hug as a chin gently bumped the top of her hair. “I see,” she said mildly, an arm winding past Vy’s jacket to rub her back, “but as long as this hand isn’t hurting you, Princess, I don’t think you should worry. Knowing your heart, you’ll find them soon enough.”

“You sure…?”

“I am absolutely sure of it.”

Even with her nose stuck in the crook between Arturia’s neck and shoulder via hug, Vy couldn’t miss how Saber Alter in the background turned her nose the other way, a scoff clearly audible even from her distance. 

-----------------------------

By the time everyone got back to Chaldea, Vy couldn’t help herself. Even if she was cooking, the curiosity was tugging too hard. “Big Robin?”

Robin Hood didn’t even pause in his action of cutting carrots, tossing his head in Vy’s direction as a carefree glint shined in his visible green eye. “What’s up, little sparrow?”

Vy tried not to sweat at the attention, admitting slowly past an anxious tug of one of her stray hairs out of her ponytail, “You don’t happen to know any Servants in Chaldea that uses a Noble Phantasm like your No Face May King, do you…?”

The question was something that certainly got Archer’s attention at this point, since he had stopped his vegetable cutting to throw Vy an incredulous look. It was hard to miss how his green apron was already close to flickering out of view in favor of his usual cloak and crossbow. “Who do I have to poison, little sparrow?”

ACK. “Th-There’s no one to poison except the Demon God Pillars, Robin!” Vy blurted out for damage control, because sheesh, Robin’s sentence almost made it sound like he was being serious. And knowing him — the seafood porridge Vy was still stirring would probably be neglected in favor of creating the means for some kind of comeback against whatever enemy he saw in his head.  “A-And that’s not what I meant!” 

“Then what did you mean, little sparrow?” Robin continued, his voice lowering to a deeper pitch as he put the kitchen knife down, raising a hand to gently rest his palm on top of Vy’s head. The apron on his person solidified again, leaving his weapons intangible to the touch. “Because if someone’s messing with you, I know where the traps are.”

Vy did her best not to pout, she really did, but by the time she was looking up into Robin’s eyes, it was obvious he was still not backing down from his previous declaration as his fingers scratched the top of her scalp mid-ruffle of her hair. “I-I wanted to ask since I’ve been feeling someone new pat my head lately, that’s all.” Even if she didn’t really know how to feel about it, she still leaned into Robin’s hand anyway, finishing with, “Really, big Robin, I’m okay. I just wanna know who it is.”

The statement was enough to make Robin momentarily freeze, his green eye widening for a moment. 

The last thing Vy expected was for him to close his visible eye, exhale what sounded like a tired and exasperated sigh, and then suddenly retract his hand and thrust it past her neck. Any closer and something would’ve been cut. Instead, Vy felt the saliva dry up in her throat as Robin Hood said with an eerily cheerful smile in her direction, “Why don’t you ask the person who’s right behind you, Master?”

There was definitely a muffled curse at this point in time, nearly making Vy squeak herself as Robin pulled, and Vy only had a few seconds to glance behind her before getting a glimpse of shadowy wisps fading into the air, fluffy white hair, and long bony fingers. 

Huh? 

“A-Avenger?” Vy said slowly, blinking at the clearly ruffled Edmond Dantes coming into view as Robin Hood pulled him (via a tight grip on the wrist, too) out of whatever portal he had conjured to show up in the kitchen, both Servants muffling curses at each other. The curses were something along the lines of “Let go, Archer,” and “No way in hell, jerk, you nearly scared my little sparrow.” Well, it at least sounded like those phrases, unless Vy was hearing things again. “I thought you were with Aya-san…”

“Normally, yes,” the Avenger bit out past a retort to Archer as Robin Hood let go with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “But there’s only so much observing I can take when my Accomplice refuses to leave her studio.”

Robin Hood huffed out a tiny, “Typical,” as Vy felt a nervous laugh bubble up in her throat from the sympathy. So Aya-san was still in her painting muse. Okay then. It was better than not talking to anyone at all, at least.

“So then, er, Avenger?”

The Count of Monte Cristo closed his eyes at the title, a deep frown set on his face. It was clear that he didn’t like it, even with the shade the brim of his hat gave him.

Vy tried again with an (unintentionally) higher-pitched, “Count?”

Dantes nodded. 

Vy did her best to sound as patient and open as possible as she went on, with his permission, with, “Why did you come here?”

In that very moment, Vy could’ve sworn Dantes’ look towards her softened as he opened his eyes, almost like the times she found him staring after Aya-san. Then he opened his mouth with an equally soft, “You are a curious one, little flower.”

Eh? 

“Flower?” Vy echoed in confusion. “Me?”

“Flower? My little sparrow?” Robin Hood interrupted with an exaggerated puff of his chest. “You gotta be joking.”

“I am not, Archer,” Dantes shot to Robin Hood, crossing his arms in return. “I heard from my Accomplice how this little one’s name in Vietnamese stands for some kind of yellow flower. I could not help but look out since.”

“Aaaand, um,” Vy got between the two Servants with hands raised, acutely becoming aware of sparks flying above her head, “what did you find, Count?” 

The last thing she was expecting (again today, funny enough) was for Dantes to give her a small yet heartfelt smile. “Kuku,” was the chuckle under his breath. Then, he said, “You may be the key.”

Vy slowly blinked at him, taking in the words in what felt like an eternity’s wait when it was really only a few seconds. Barely registering Robin Hood’s fake gagging behind her, she said to the Count, “What key?”

“…It is nothing, little flower,” he said in the same voice, and he raised a hand to once again pat her head. Even if the touch was still wispy and far too faint to really take in the sensation, it was obvious he was identifying himself as the “mysterious headpat” to Vy now, and Vy felt her heart swell a few centimeters outwards. “Just allow me to thank you. My Accomplice wouldn’t be where she is without you.” Something shined in his eyes at that moment, something along the lines of what looked like love and concern before it was squashed by the darkness that was what laid behind his yellow eyes. “Do not leave her.”

Even when Robin Hood was impatiently tapping his foot behind them, Vy knew her answer.

“Aya-san’s my friend, Count. There’s no way I could.” 

It seemed to be enough when the Count retracted his hand and brought it to his hat to hide his face. 

Vy couldn’t help herself. She proceeded to reach over and gently pat Dantes’ head through his hat. An eye for an eye, or so they said. Sure, it took standing up on her tiptoes to do so, but once Dantes was looking at her again, she said with a warmer smile, “With that established, do you want to eat porridge together? We can get Aya-san to eat with us.”

“You… You would mingle with me?”

“No,” Robin Hood said.

“Yes,” Vy said. She could faintly hear Archer put a palm to his face soon afterwards (even muttering something like, “Goddammit, Vy,”), but in the light of the moment, she couldn’t care.

Even if Edmond Dantes wasn’t her Servant, he was still a comrade, and considering how he looked after Aya-san more than Vy ever could, he was worth spending time with.

“Let’s go get Aya-san together, Count! With you around, I’m sure we’ll get her to eat something!”

“How… bright of you.”

They had a few steps to go, but it was progress!

[ganymedesclock]

Hungry Knight & Characterizing Ghost

Y’know, it’s interesting, as far into Hollow Knight as I am, and having been aware of Hungry Knight for some time, I haven’t checked it out before very recently. Upon rectifying that, there’s really something interesting in how much of the game is recognizable from this bare bones, two-minute little thing. Obviously there’s a grandiosity and complexity of story that Hollow Knight possesses that Hungry Knight simply couldn’t be of the scale of, but as a sort of primal eggshell the rest of the game hatched out of, it’s very interesting.

The three guardians that are hunted in Hungry Knight are simply boss enemies; they are not given backstory, and hunting them is basically an unambiguously good action. It’s interesting how this progressed to the execution of the Dreamers in Hollow Knight- but what I find illuminating about the Hungry Knight’s journey to its ‘proper’ game sequel is that at its most bare bones, Hungry Knight is a story about Ghost- our Ghost, as we recognize them- who is hailed by Mister Mushroom as the same being, even though he’s sort of breaking the fourth wall to do so and thus Hungry Knight is not in-universe canonical to Ghost’s history- hunting three beings, in order to save the life of a being like themselves.

With many of the major beats of Hollow Knight following an extended, more elaborate imagining of Hungry Knight’s simplistic two-minute plot, I think this characterizes Ghost’s perspective and motives for returning to the kingdom interestingly. 

Another related area of interest to me is that Ghost is very finished compared to everything else in this game that received intense reimagining. Their mainstays remain nail attacks and dashing; the hunger system is a clear predecessor of soul- in essence, Ghost as they are in HK does “hunger” and need to “feed” themselves- it’s just that the timing of such is dependent on the damage they take, rather than time.

However- Ghost also, in Hungry Knight, talks. Not to any NPCs in the game world, because they have no one to speak to- but directly to the player. 

Ghost speaks twice; in the opening card explaining the controls:

I’m a knight. I have something I need to do.

And I’m hungry.

I need to eat every 10 seconds or I will die.

I must search the area carefully.

I must strike swiftly and remorselessly

I must be nimble to avoid danger

I must not fail, whatever happens. I am ready.

And at the end:

Thank you for your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Again, given how polished this proto-Ghost is to the finished character in Hollow Knight, I want to take this as an indicator of how Ghost would speak through some kind of proxy around their voicelessness. What follows is basically take-it-or-leave-it headcanon, but going off Hungry Knight as a guideline:

Ghost is very blunt. They contain a bit of the eloquence that perfumes all dialogue in Hollow Knight, really, and they’re not shy of using fancier language, but they express their ideas in very simple words. They seem to think it’s rather important that they are specifically a knight- and this statement exists in absence of them being a knight of or for anything. They do not seem to have an order or affiliation, or- in fact- loyalty to anything in the game world of Hungry Knight except their fallen friend.

They also show a predilection towards imperatives, which is interesting. Outside of the hunger limit which is a factual stating of boundaries, they cite four edicts with rather intense gravity:

Search the area carefully

Strike swiftly and remorselessly 

Be nimble to avoid danger

Do not fail, whatever happens

The existence of these edicts is interesting. The idea of Ghost as someone who internalizes certain things that they take completely seriously and unflinchingly / refuse to compromise on is one not foreshadowed by their very subdued body language. But it betrays a whole host of implied values. That Ghost values precision, caution (they are not reckless in the risks they take) and adaptation, but, also, believes firmly that this caution and adaptation must ultimately serve their end goal.

The biggest reason this is interesting to me? Zote.

Here’s the thing about Zote: he was pretty clearly designed in Ghost’s likeness. Their cloaks are similar. Their weapons are similar. The shape of their horns are similar. While he is in other ways clearly his own character, Zote was conceived as a caricature of Ghost.

Zote insists that he is a principled creature, insists that he is a knight, and has an exhaustive, lengthy list of personal edicts that he insists lead him to success through every situation; however, those edicts are in some ways useless advice; in others, they are useful, but not in the way that a personal creed generally would be.

So, if we’re going off Hungry Knight: Zote as a caricature of Ghost, may, with his 47 Precepts, be caricaturing the idea that Ghost themselves carries and lives by a personal creed.

Some of these things are implied per my earlier headcanon, that the more “neutral-seeming” notes on the top half of the Hunter’s Journal entries represent Ghost’s impressions. These upper-half journal entries, and overall gameplay of Hollow Knight, would seem to align with Ghost’s stated edicts in Hungry Knight.

“I must search the area carefully” -> Ghost’s notes, compared to the Hunter’s, are detailed and factual. They often discuss what weapons a creature uses, whether or not it is trained, its origins... and, take special note of anything that is or used to be a knight, or adhering to a personal creed. (note the sentry enemies in particular, and how much Ghost mentions their hierarchy and weapon choices. The White Defender is also described as “gallant”, in contrast to the dismissive way the Hunter speaks of the Dung Defender). What’s more interesting is that some of the most formidable enemies in the game- Radiance, and Nightmare King Grimm- are given extremely sparing descriptions by Ghost- as if they are struggling to describe what they are beholding.

Likewise, a huge amount of Hollow Knight’s gameplay, especially if you want anything besides the worst ending, or just to make your going easier, involves scouring the game world tenaciously. Both Hornet and Hunter suggest Ghost has a predilection to dogging others’ trails; Quirrel and Cornifer both suggest Ghost is a kindred spirit to them as someone grasped by the love of exploration, and the Old Stag likewise commends them when they open the Queen’s Station.

“I must strike swiftly and remorselessly” -> not only is this one spoofed by Zote (he has a precept about exploiting weaknesses, a precept about felling enemies in a single stroke...) but Ghost is basically never reluctant to throw down with anything that seems about to attack. The Hunter cites Ghost as approaching without fear after he roars at them, and Quirrel’s dialogue outside the mantis village suggests that without much of a clear sense that the mantises are obstructing Ghost’s progress, they’re eager to challenge the Lords. Likewise, the Radiance does not attack you immediately, but Ghost still hops to the highest peak of her domain and tells her exactly how they feel with a single brandished nail.

Likewise, everything Godseeker tells them seems to galvanize them onward, even though initially their motivation may have been curiosity. This even lines up with, according to Hungry Knight, at least, that Ghost defines themselves first by their job, and second by the fact that they have something they need to do- and they do not consider failure any kind of viable option.

As far as remorselessness... there are in fact several times in the game you can cut someone down and then realize afterwards maybe you shouldn’t have. Encountering fully infected Myla is basically set up to encourage it- a player might assume that in defeating her, she could be saved, or just be startled by her attack and retaliate the way that the game has trained us. Her unique dying cry, to me, suggests that the game expected us to hear it.

Likewise, the Nailsmith asks to be cut down, and, if you oblige him, it happens extremely quickly and without effort.

The interesting other side of that is someone who tells themselves to act without remorse, is, generally, someone who is predisposed to regrets- which we know Ghost is, given the canonical information available about the Shade, and that the Shade is already pre-loaded into the Hunter’s Journal on unlock... suggesting Ghost has been forced to contend with it before in the wastelands beyond the kingdom.

Similarly, both Grimm and Brumm in the Grimm Troupe questline prod at the idea that Ghost must make their choice, knowingly, and choose something they won’t regret doing. There’s also the absolutely heartbreaking song of the Hollow Knight battle, and Godseeker’s comments on the Pure Vessel fight that Ghost may yearn to be close to their sibling, but can only get there through combat.

So this particular edict is something emotionally shaky to Ghost- they feel like they have to attack quickly without hesitation, and it’s seen them through many enemies, but... as far as attacking remorselessly- they, uh, don’t always succeed.

“I must be nimble to avoid danger” -> platforming and evasion are huge parts of the game. Given the amount of health bosses have, hanging back, moving around attacks, and finding the right places to heal is an imperative regardless of play style. There are few bosses you can really efficiently face-tank through and you need to do a LOT of charm work, and screaming of either the internal or external variety to succeed there (ask me how I know,) The majority of the upgrades you unlock are about maneuverability. 

“I must not fail, whatever happens.” -> Much of the game, especially Hornet, is basically about interrogating Ghost’s resolve, and whether or not they’re okay with what’s going to happen to them. This refusal to give up in the face of outstanding adversity is a huge quality of Ghost’s, and basically one that the game sympathetically cultivates in the player. This is a game with a harsh and demanding learning curve, and, basically, if you’re going to see it through, you need to commit to it.

However, like Ghost’s belief they need to lack remorse, this walks a dicey line. At their worst, Ghost can ignore everyone and everything, write them off as distractions, minimize their observations of their surroundings and blind themselves to everything except the next obstruction in the way of their goal.

However, in that worst ending? Ghost does fail, if you look at what Hungry Knight says about Ghost’s motives. What proto-Ghost thanks the player for is being able to save their friend and leave that place together.

In the base ending of Hollow Knight, Ghost is unable to save Hollow. Instead, they cut Hollow down, and replace them, making a meaningless sacrifice that won’t save anyone else, either- just buy them more time, in a stasis that has already led to decay.

“Thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

All of the better endings are facilitated by engaging with other characters. For Dream No More, you need Hornet and the White Lady’s help, and seeking closure from the Pale King’s body and the bottom of the Abyss. Ghost has to confront their past there- twice- and face, and embrace, their regrets. The opening to dream nail Hollow rather than cutting them down is only created by Hornet believing in Ghost enough to risk her life entering the Black Egg Temple and tackle Hollow to hold them down.

Embrace The Void takes that even further- you need all of those criteria, and then you need to rummage in two different areas, very far away from each other, to find first a key, and then a sarcophagus, and keep prodding the weirdo that falls out of said sarcophagus, even when she’d really rather you didn’t. And even that has unpleasant consequences unless you go even further, and rummage enough to find a way to deliver a Delicate Flower to Godseeker.

Ultimately, Ghost only gets what they want by letting others in. They only accomplish what they do with help. And this is important, when, again, Hungry Knight would point towards the idea that everything Ghost does is to the end goal of saving another person. They want, ultimately, to protect Hollow.

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapter 213: the classic trope - the enemy of my enemy is my friend - on ice!

This week’s chapter was only slightly shocking with the reappearance of our favorite (and only Russian sniper) Vasily.  I’m going to be a little slower with my turnaround time on the meta for the next little while - my work schedule is less ideal and I’m having a hard time adjusting to it, so please bear with me for the next few months, things will lighten up towards the end of November.

Overall, I’m not surprised at how things went down in this chapter but I’m just feeling “meh” about it.  It seems like a transitional chapter for a realignment of the factions - pretty common by this point in GK.

The chapter then reveals a quick one page flashback of Shiraishi and Asirpa the night before just hanging out in the inn.  This is clearly before Shiraishi went out for drinks later that evening and the innkeeper or inn staff person is casually chatting with them.

She points out that the ferry will be leaving tomorrow morning and that one will have to walk out onto the drift ice to board the ferry so that they should be aware of these things to make sure they make it on time.  Shiraishi has taken the lead with Tanigaki (he’s really a type of man who has no problem following others) and realizing that only he and Asirpa are privy to the information about the ferry back to Hokkaido, he knows that she must be heading there. 

The action then shifts to Asirpa with Sugimoto hiding under a building.  She’s tearing some cloth to back his wounds and this will prevent them from being followed.

This shows how well trained Asirpa was by Wilk.  Just stop and think.  She immediately takes the best action to conceal their location and prevent detection.  Not as harsh as Wilk killing his own comrade like he did in front of Sofia and Kiro but her default thought is to prevent the pursuit of them by the 27th. 

Sugimoto looks like he’s in pain and his face is completely shaded - what is he thinking here?  Is he realizing that Asirpa is a product of Wilk and that his best efforts won’t change the fact that she’s able to do things that indicate her ability to be more proactive?

She then grabs his hand and encourages him that it isn’t that much further to the ship and that he can make it.  She looks up to see a horse approach them and the next panel dramatically reveals Vasily on horseback and he takes up half of the page in a total power pose.  This means that Vasily had been watching them the entire time from a strategic location and followed them to where they were hiding.

Sugimoto looks shocked and a bit hesitant and Asirpa calls him the “hood guy - hoodie/hood-chan in Japanese” based on the nickname that Shiraishi gave him.

He then offers his left hand to them to get onto the horse.  Sugimoto then mentions that perhaps he was wondering if Ogata was hanging back as long as the members of the 27th were around Asirpa and he trails off not completing the statement.  Asirpa looks at him with an almost neutral face.  Whatever she sees in Vasily’s eyes she’s willing to work with him for the time being.

Tanigaki and Shiraishi are still running and Vasily, Asirpa and Sugimoto catch up to them.  Asirpa calls out to Shiraishi and he smiles and yells at her that things were going like he had thought.  She orders him to get on and he does!

These actions say a lot about the relationship between Asirpa and Shiraishi.  Even though she didn’t tell him what her plan was, the two of them were smart enough to have faith and trust in each other that the other knew what the other would do.

I like this so much.  It makes their time on Karafuto mean something substantial.  They really learned how to work with each other and Asirpa and Shiraishi are likely more “on the same page” than Asirpa and Sugimoto are based on his drunken rant to Sugimoto. 

By this point, the poor horse isn’t going to be able to fit anyone else.  Tanigaki then realizes he’s being left behind.  Shiraishi gets a sarcastic remark in that the horse doesn’t have room for him.  It is clear that this is linked to the fact that Tanigaki killed Kiro.  I don’t see Shiraishi ever forgiving him for that action.

Asirpa then tells Tanigaki he can’t come along b/c Inkarmat is still under the “care” of Tsurumi.  As she says this Shiraishi does not look pleased, his eyes are half closed with his mouth down turned just a touch.  He likely has mixed feelings on Inkarmat, he was friendly with her but when she sold them out to the 27th and her kerfuffle with Kiro accidentally resulted in her injury Tanigaki went straight for revenge instead of asking for clarification which had to have upset Shiraishi.  At the time of Kiro’s death Shiraishi felt hurt and confused, it is clear now with some time he has come to respect and understand Kiro’s actions and he likely is judging the fact that even though Tanigaki loves Inkarmat, he doesn’t understand her “situation” as an Ainu.

What really shocks me the most is how as he’s running he almost seems to realize that “Oh yeah.  Inkarmat. Right - the whole reason I went on my second revenge quest.” 

At least he finally blurts out what he had been alluding to - that the 27th would be watching Asirpa’s kotan.  She looks sad when he tells her she can’t go back but he should tell her Huci that she had a dream where they meet again.  The next page she declares to him that “she will absolutely be back again.”

Tanigaki then falls behind and the trio looks back at him.  Shiraishi tells him to take care of himself but his facial expression is anything but kind or caring.  I don’t think Shiraishi is a vindictive person but it is clear he’s fine with Tanigaki left in the hands of the 27th.  He knows what kind of man he is.  Sugimoto finally glances back with a frown also disappointed looking.

As Tanigaki runs out of steam Kikuta catches up to him also looking quite exhausted.  You may want to cut back on the cigarettes Kikuta.  He then asks Tanigaki if he was with Shiraishi and what happened to him?  Tanigaki then lies to him and points and tells him that Shiraishi met up with Asirpa and Sugimoto and headed back to the town.

Kikuta then asks him why he isn’t chasing after them, looking distressed.  All Tanigaki does is reply that he’s a Matagi and Kikuta is like “what?”.  This fits with the past information that Nikaido had no idea about Kikuta and Ariko, and that they were in a different regiment of the 7th during the war and did not meet until now.

Tanigaki then gets a very dramatic half page image of himself stating that he’s Tanigaki the Matagi as sunlight streams down behind him and he looks confident back at Kikuta. He’s flushed a little and still breathing heavily but seems less hesitant than he normally is.

What does this even mean?  Has Asirpa yelled some sense into Tanigaki to remember what is priorities are?  She removed him from the “Asirpa side quest” since she had decided she will make it home her own way in the future.  It is clear he wasn’t going to remove himself from the Asirpa side quest.

Vasily, Sugimoto, Asirpa and Shiraishi have safely made it onto the ferry and Shiraishi is concerned that the still need to get the bullets out of Sugimoto as Asirpa looks on concerned.  As usual Shiraishi wonders how Suigmoto is still going but he finally owns up tells Asirpa that he’s fighting for the gold for his own reasons.  He’s no longer under the guise of using Asirpa softly.  What I mean by that, is he aligned with her first to make sure that Noppera-bou would be no longer useless and then killed.  He then chased after her to rescue her from Kiro and Ogata and to remove her from the gold hunt.  Now he’s at least owning up to the fact that his own personal reasons are driving him.

Vasily mumbles a little to get their attention and point out a man from the 27th picked up on Sugimoto’s blood trail and was trying to stop the ship from leaving.  Shiraishi then determines that Vasily could - should be able to hit him from that distance based on experience.

Asirpa tells him to hit his foot to incapacitate him by tapping on his boots.  Vasily takes aim and - snipes him right in the forehead between the eyes.  Well, it looks like Vasily is the type of sniper that Ogata determined he was during their battle.  He want for the most efficient and effective kill despite what Asirpa said.  Keep in mind that when Ogata facilitated the escape of Shiraishi and Sugimoto from the 27th in chapter 98, Sugimoto leapt out the window with Shiraishi and Ogata shot the man in the shoulder slowing them down and preventing anyone from following out the window.  When they escaped from Edogai’s house, Ogata also shot at others but didn’t hit them between the eyes like Maeyama, he flushed them towards the front door instead.

He also followed Asirpa’s directions to save Tanigaki without shooting anyone.  It is clear that Vasily is a different type of sniper than Ogata.  He shot Shiraishi in the hope he’d flush Ogata out since he is a more compassionate comrade and will come to the aid of others at his own risk.  Ogata frequently avoids unnecessary damage when possible.  The last fatality that is known in the manga is when he shot Ilya, Vasily’s partner to allow them to rescue the wounded man, escape and set up his trap for Vasily.

Asirpa nervously inquires if Vasily hit his foot while Shiraishi tells him good job and pats him on the shoulder.  The sweat and shading on Shiraishi’s face likely indicates he’s a bit uncomfortable with Vasily but he’s got the binoculars, so he knows exactly what Vasily did even if he likely disagrees with it as well.

Vasily looks dead serious as he still keeps his rifle at ready.

Tsurumi heard the gunshot and stated it came from the ocean.  He and Usami head that direction.  Shiraishi nervously declares that they did it and they were able to escape from them and Karafuto as Asirpa glances back concerned.

There is a beautiful panel as Sugimoto and Asirpa look back towards the land and Karafuto across the water.  Sugimoto looks back firmly while Asirpa has a blush/flush across her face as she looks back a changed person.

Tsurumi noticed the man shot dead on the ice with the boat in the distance.  He then notices the abandoned horse.

Shiraishi mentions how it will take about 3 hours to reach the port in Hokkaido.  He then asks why the time that they escaped was when they chose to do so.  Sugimoto says if Asirpa were under the control of Tsurumi’s men, then she’d have no chance of escape and Shiraishi adds in that they may have just taken her into custody since she’s not required to track the the few remaining convicts.

This is all pretty interesting since Sugimoto is speaking for what was Asirpa’s plan.  Shiraishi is the escape king, so I could see his reason to wonder why they chose this time and I’m guessing he would have done things a little differently even though it worked so far.

Sugimoto then goes on to explain that if they find the gold they will decide how it is used. He states that he now understands that Asirpa will stay strong on her dedication to not killing anyone.  He uses this to reason that if she is true to her own beliefs than she will find her own way to protect the Ainu.  He’s decided that he will believe in her and her beliefs.

Asirpa smiles and blushes as he says this.  I’m glad to see that Sugimoto has decided that maybe he should take her own feelings and opinions into account, but he’s still setting himself up to likely hurt and kill others in the future. 

Plus, Shiraishi adds in that it is a fine idea, but he points out a major issue - how are they going to find the gold all by themselves.  His point is 100% valid.  They have no skins and just the code.  Are they thinking of meeting up with Hijikata again?

Of course the last page ends with an explosion in the water near the ferry and a navy vessel in pursuit of them!  Next up a battle at sea!

Conclusions and a few quick hypotheses.

1.) Vasily is an ally for now.

But I don’t see him being loyal or faithful to their group at all.  Sugimoto is shit at reading people when it comes to Ogata.  I’m under the indication that ALL Vasily wants is to continue his sniper game with Ogata.  I don’t even know if he wants to win or lose either.  He just wants to get back into that mindset.  By the way Vasily - you lost.

2.) What is Asirpa’s plan?

Okay, Asirpa got them out of the clutches of Tsurumi as she determined he was not a man to align with.  She appears to have gotten Sugimoto on her side with the help of Shiraishi but what are they going to do?  We still don’t know the result of their argument after the movie.  Did she tell him the code or withhold it?  Is she looking to reconnect with Hijikata? This has got to be in the works - with the photos in Hijikata’s possession and all, Shiraishi’s understanding of his media plan will come back into the plot. How will she navigate the quest with no skins and only a clue to the code which will still need the help of a Japanese person to read the kanji.  She showed great faith and trust in Shiraishi and vice versa so hopefully she’s figured something out. 

3.) Tanigaki the dense Matagi.

Tanigaki got ditched hardcore for both strategic and personal reasons.  He had become a liability just like Inkarmat was pre-Abashiri.  His entire reason for being involved with the gold quest has been to avoid going back home to Ani.  He’s much more comfortable being told what to do and he needed Asirpa to tell him that he needed to stay with Tsurumi for Inkarmat. 

He only had the grace that Kikuda didn’t know him and know that he’s a terrible liar when he was running.  He will likely get caught in that lie as soon as he sees Tsurumi again who is already in pursuit of them on a naval vessel likely with Koito Sr.

Kikuta is also likely trying to figure out how to do what Tsurumi wants from him while feeling torn about Ariko. 

I’m curious to see the fall out with Koito, Tsukishima, Tanigaki and Kikuta but likely we will get Tsurumi and Admiral Koito who recall talked to Sugimoto who now stabbed his son.  Yeah. . . .

[kiwisfics]

Loki x Reader - Warrior Girl

A/N - Ragnarok made me fall back in love with Loki so here’s my first attempt at writing him ever! This is also the first thing I’ve written non-school for quite awhile so I’m a little rusty. (Not to mention I somehow ended up writing in present tense and I always nitpick more when it’s in present tense.) There is a panic attack in this btw! Don’t trigger yourselves! Anyway here you go!

×

Its on Sakkar he first sees you, a woman who looks beyond fragile aside his brother and the others imprisoned alongside him, even with the scars lining your skin. Scars mar the skin around the disk imbedded in your neck, much more noticeable than the scars lining the rest of your body-those weren’t bleeding.

You’re silent as his image speaks with Thor, only offering a glance when he first appeared. He’d recall later the cold calculation seated within the glance, absolutely barren of emotion. That was the look of someone ready to kill.

It was almost enough to send a chill down his spine.

×

You fight like an animal.

Every time you’re knocked away from your opponent, you come back with all the ferocity of a caged beast, using teeth and nails and a fantastic display of the deftness your hands possess when occupied by blades. There would be no distinguishing your show of aggression in the arena from absolute hatred for the man you fought.

The crowd is shouting your name.

You’re not much compared to his champion, but Loki can see the veiled admiration in the Grandmaster’s eyes, if only slight. You’re clearly not a new arrival to this battle, not that the scars marring your skin didn’t already give that away.

Your work with blades is much more calculated than the damage caused by your teeth and bare hands. With one, it seems to fall seamlessly from hand to hand, the moment of hand-off almost invisible as one hand distracts and the other slices. With two, you glide around the enemy with elegance he couldn’t ever recall seeing. At least, he couldn’t recall seeing it in the midst of a bloody fight, from a woman covered in blood—both her own and not.

The animal vanishes.

You make the remainder of the fight resemble a dance, your opponent—larger than you by more than five times—tripping over himself in all attempts to catch you. His size works against him and you easily launch yourself onto his back and embed one of your blades in his neck.

You stand on the man’s body for a moment, panting and catching your bearings, the moment of victory such a sudden change from the time of violence preceding it.

When you leave the arena, though the man is still breathing and all major arteries and organs remain unscathed, you’re covered in his blood. Underneath the gore, your own damage is hidden. Loki can’t help but wish to chance visiting your prison again, if only to ensure your well-being.

×

You stand beside them against Hela, your battle-worn mind and body taking their greatest hit against her. Yet, you stand with all the strength of the Asguardian warriors beside you without letting the damage that mars you mentally show, not until well after the fight is done and you’re alone.

You revel for a moment in your regained freedom, before falling against a wall and sliding to the floor. Though you try to avoid it, try to bury all loss and pain for the moment, to have at least a short time of peace after the torment you’ve faced, pain seeps through and you’re sobbing before you know it.

Pained pants escape your throat as you try to breathe—why can’t you breathe?

Fear explodes in your chest as you begin to think that—after all this time fighting and surviving—you’re going to die here alone on a crowded ship where no one knows your name. You’re going to die to some unknown injury sustained in one of your countless fights—and it’s all you deserve isn’t it? You’re a killer yourself, after all. You could only hope you’d redeemed yourself far enough by helping save innocents that whatever waited for you on the other side wasn’t worse than what you were leaving behind.

It could have only been seconds after your chest first began to feel as though it was collapsing in on itself that he arrived, though it felt like centuries.

Your hands are clutching at your chest, nails digging rivets into the unprotected skin at your neck and you’re certain he’s going to haul you off to someone who can help fix whatever is wrong with you.

It takes Loki a moment to realize what’s happening, and that more stress and crowding is far from what you need.

He crouches by your side, encouraging you to breathe and—after instinctually moving away from his presence—you want to yell that you can’t that you need help, not the nonsense he’s providing you.

However, his calm demeanor does wonders on your bruised and battered psyche and he is able to quickly coax you against his chest, and, although the beating of your heart against your ribcage is harsh, the painful constriction in your chest begins to ebb.

“Match my breaths.”

It’s easier said than done and it is far, far longer to slow your breaths then you would have wished, but he’s patient and calm throughout it all and his calm is infectious. Finally, your breaths do slow and exhaustion quickly takes the place of your panic.

A minute or two pass after the fear dissipates with no more words, only the sound of his breaths and your own, heavier attempts to match them.

You’re the one to break the silence, “I’m [Y/N].”

Well, a panic attack was one way to begin an acquaintance, though the weight of you leaning against his chest with no indication of movement seemed more than an acquaintance, he was willing to blame your clear exhaustion.

“Loki.”

You hummed, having already heard his name and well aware he’d heard yours in the screaming crowd, still, you were unwilling to let silence fall again, for fear your thoughts would reappear and, with them, the raging pain that had choked your lungs and made you struggle to remember how to breathe. “Thanks for saving my life.”

You tilted your head to give him the best grin you could muster, well aware you weren’t going to die now, and he knew that he’d do anything to see that smile in all of its glory.

“I won’t be needing your saving again, though,” your grin dimmed to a lazy smile, that wasn’t soon to fade.

Loki chuckled, the sound reverberating in his chest and vibrating against your head and back, “We’ll see about that.”

“Next time, I’ll be doing the saving. You can count on that.”

[quicksilversquared]

Lost Heart:

Chat Noir: Part 1

Magic can be a dangerous thing to play around with, particularly when that magic is tangled up in a curse. When Nathalie Sancoeur experiments with magic that she doesn’t fully understand, it sends her on a path to become Paris’ most dangerous supervillain and tips the balance between superheroes and supervillain.

But which way will the balance fall?

links in the reblog

                                          tumblr why did you get rid of page breaks

Chat Noir wasn't sure how he had made it through the rest of the fight, he really didn't. But the akuma was defeated, Ladybug's Cure had swept around the city, and now he and Ladybug were recharging their kwamis in an alleyway on opposite sides of a dumpster before they headed to Master Fu's apartment.

His father was Hawkmoth. His mom had used the Peacock Miraculous every few months for several years to defend Paris against monsters from another dimension, apparently, and now she was in a coma and close to death. Nathalie was Mayura and was slowly (or not-so-slowly) losing her humanity every time she transformed.

It…..was a lot to take in. Pretty much his entire life was being shaken up under him, and somehow he was supposed to not react until…. Well, he didn't even know. He couldn't let on anything in front of his father, of course, or in front of Ladybug because they hadn't yet been given the go-ahead to share their identities with each other and getting upset about who Hawkmoth was would definitely give him away. It would be dangerous to let on that anything was wrong in front of Nathalie, and his friends…. well, in their eyes nothing had changed and he wouldn't be able to explain how he knew what he knew to them anyway.

That meant that he had to be absolutely alone (with the exception of Plagg) before being able to let himself actually react.

At least- at least his father wouldn't akumatize him, right? Adrien would be safe to actually be upset, right?

Maybe not. That was upsetting in itself. It wasn't healthy for Adrien to have to repress his emotions all the time.

"Ready, kid," Plagg spoke up, and Adrien nearly jumped. "Are we transforming or not?"

"I'm ready when you are," Ladybug called. "And then I can show you the back window that I sneak in when I have to visit Master Fu as Ladybug, so that no one from the street sees me."

"Right, right," Adrien said hurriedly. Focus on one thing at a time. He could manage this. "Plagg, transform me!"

It didn't take long at all for them to race over the rooftops to Master Fu's place and sneak in. Once they got there, though, they found Master Fu with a client and had to wait in his back room until he was done. Chat Noir glanced at the clock hanging from the wall, wincing at the time.

He was missing so much school today. No doubt there would be another letter home, and he would have to have Chloe forge his father's signature again to avoid getting in trouble. Then she would ask questions that he couldn't answer, and then get mad at him when he didn't respond.

Maybe Adrien should learn how to forge signatures. It would be less work than asking Chloe, especially when he figured in the emotional work attached to anything and everything Chloe.

"I'm looking forward to not missing class anymore once all of this is over," Ladybug said in his ear, echoing Chat Noir's thoughts exactly. "I'm going to get grounded for this for sure, I'm missing so much class today."

"D'you think that you'll be able to tell your parents who you are after this is done?" Chat Noir asked, latching on to the opportunity to talk about something else for a while. "Has your kwami mentioned it at all, or…?"

"I'm hoping that I can, honestly. It's so hard hiding it, and I hate disappointing them." Ladybug glanced over at him. "And you?"

It took Chat Noir a second to catch her meaning, but when he did, he shook his head. "Not a chance. It wouldn't be safe for me."

That got him a worried glance from Ladybug, but Wayzz flew in before she could ask further. He looked surprised to see them.

"Will Master Fu be free after this customer?" Ladybug asked right away. "We have some important developments to talk to him about, but if it's going to be a while…"

"No, just the one!" Wayzz assured them. "And he's almost done, too. But what kind of developments are we talking about?"

"We found out Hawkmoth's identity and what he wants," Ladybug said before Chat Noir could speak up. Not that he exactly trusted his voice yet, really. "And how Mayura is getting around the curse on the Peacock Miraculous. She's using Heart."

Wayzz gasped, little nubbly paws flying to his mouth. "Oh no! That's so hard to recover from!"

"Is Body?" Chat Noir asked anxiously. "If they've been really affected?"

Wayzz shook his head. "Not Body! It's very straightforward damage to make, and so is very straightforward damage to repair. Heart changes who a person is, and so it takes more magic to undo." He sighed. "Though we did suspect that that might be the case. It would not take more than a couple weeks of concentrated use for someone using Body to be dropped into a coma, and Mayura has been very active. And her strategizing skills definitely indicates that she didn't use Mind."

Both superheroes nodded. They knew enough about the options to be able to recognize that.

"But you say that you discovered Hawkmoth's identity," Wayzz said, finally catching the other part of Ladybug's sentence. "Who….?"

"Gabriel Agreste."

"And how?"

"He overheard us talking about the Peacock's curse and demanded to know if we could cure it, and in return for our promise to do that, he revealed his identity," Ladybug told Wayzz. "It was one of our conditions, actually. And we did have him cornered and unarmed, too. But this way, he backed down without a fight."

Wayzz looked pleased. "Very good. There will still be a final battle with Mayura to subdue her, no doubt, but with Hawkmoth taken care of it will be much easier." He glanced at Chat Noir, no doubt wanting to say something more but refraining because Ladybug was listening. "And I think I just heard Master Fu's customer leave! Let me check, and then I'll come back to get you."

Wayzz zipped off, and then they heard Master Fu's slow footsteps coming back to get them. Wayzz flew next to him, updating Master Fu on what Ladybug had told him.

Chat Noir appreciated that. At some point, Ladybug was going to start wondering why he didn't seem as thrilled about their discovery of Hawkmoth's identity as he was.

"So you've been quite busy, and have had quite a successful battle, I hear." Master Fu beamed at them as he opened the door and waved them out into the main room. "Very good! Come out, come out, I want to know everything that you've learned."

Ladybug practically bounced out, settling down on a cushion quickly. She pulled her yo-yo out again, opening it up to pull out her notebook and pen from before. "I took notes! And Mr. Agreste is going to be sending us the instruction on how to get down to the underground lair where Mrs. Agreste is. How soon can we heal her, do you think?"

Chat Noir froze. Of course! With everything else that had happened, he had forgotten (well, nearly forgotten) that they had found out where his mom was, and they were planning on healing her. That was good news, at least.

Master Fu smiled. "Well, there will be two spells for that- one to break her connection to the Peacock so that her condition no longer is declining, and then one to wake her up that I will need the grimoire for, because I didn't get a picture of that page. But since we have an in with Hawkmoth now, he can simply hand the book over to us."

"I'll message him!" Ladybug volunteered at once, yo-yo already in hand. "Tikki and Nooroo have made a connection. Then he can leave the grimoire down near Mrs. Agreste and we can pick it up when we go check it out."

"I will go with you to cast the severing spell," Master Fu told her as Ladybug typed out a quick message. "Are you both able to go…?"

"Of course," Ladybug said at once, and Chat Noir nodded his agreement. He saw what Master Fu was trying to do, of course, and he appreciated the chance to bow out if seeing his mom would be too hard, but he wanted to see her. He wanted to hear whatever analysis Master Fu made when he saw her firsthand and be able to know how soon he would get to have her back again.

Chat Noir already knew that it was going to be hard seeing his mom and not reacting. He knew that. But he could handle it, if it meant that he got to see her.

(Besides, he hadn't forgotten the way that Ladybug had screamed earlier when Hawkmoth grabbed her, and he didn't like the idea of her being on enemy territory without him by her side.)

"We will go tonight, then, if we can," Master Fu told them. "Will you be free?"

"My parents go to bed right after dinner," Ladybug volunteered. "So I should be free by eight thirty or so."

"I'll be free then, too," Chat Noir said, glad that the nerves in his stomach had calmed down enough for him to form sentences and actually sound- well, not normal, but not too off, either. He edged closer to Ladybug. "Did you send the message?"

"Yeah, but I didn't say what time we'd be by. I don't trust Mr. Agreste fully yet." Ladybug's expression hardened. "Should- should we be telling someone who Hawkmoth is and where we're going, just in case…?"

"I will contact Marianne," Master Fu told her. "And I will tell her everything that you have told me, and a time at which we should be returning. And I might pull a couple of the other kwami out to act as scouts, to disable any traps and to look for cameras."

Ladybug nodded.

"So what was the Peacock being used for before?" Chat Noir asked, realizing that maybe he was getting excited too early. He didn't think that his mom would have ever been a supervillain, but, well, clearly he didn't know his parents as well as he thought he had. "I mean, Hawkmoth said something about creatures from another dimension, but who knows if he was telling the truth. Do you know?"

"I don't know specifics of the fight- I was across the world dealing with another issue while the portal was trying to rip open in Paris, and I made the error of not coming to check in on what was going on- but I can assure you that Mr. Agreste told you the truth and the Peacock was a superhero," Fu told him, smiling gently at Chat Noir. "Abet one that worked entirely behind the scenes. The tear between dimensions didn't exactly appear frequently, so she could manage well enough with a broken Miraculous. Though I suspect that she was doing something to lessen the effects as well."

"If Duusu is trapped, then he will be drawing energy from anyone and everyone who he is bonded with," Wayzz chimed in. "Which means everyone who has transformed using the Peacock and who is still alive. If she found a way to feed Duusu- if, perhaps, she buried the Miraculous in food when it was not in use- then I could see the effects being pushed back to be as minimal as possible. My guess is that she was not fully asleep when she first fell, and then dropped off quickly as Duusu went unfed."

Ladybug nodded. "That makes sense."

"Once the bond is severed- what does that mean, exactly?" Chat Noir asked. "It doesn't sound pretty."

Master Fu smiled at that. "Well, normally we would use the spell to force an end to a transformation- if someone got injured and needed treatment but wasn't conscious to detransform, or if a Miraculous was broken. It would keep the kwami from getting overly drained, too. Then we would have to use another spell to allow them to bond again in the future, if they were able. There will be a reaction from the magic, but it does not hurt."

Chat Noir nodded.

"I might mix up a quick potion meant to heal and restore energy," Master Fu decided. "We might as well kick-start the healing process so that there's less strain on Mrs. Agreste's body once she wakes up. She's been out for over a year now, after all."

"Do you need help?" Ladybug wanted to know at once. Master Fu smiled.

"Only a little. Ladybug, why don't you return to school? I can teach Chat Noir a bit about the potion-making process. You've already seen a couple, so it's only fair that he take a turn."

"Of course," Ladybug agreed. She glanced at Chat Noir. "Unless you have somewhere to be?"

Chat Noir glanced at the clock again. He was going to be in so much trouble. "I can stay. I might as well, at this point."

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Ladybug sighed. "My teachers are going to be sending a note home with me again, I just know it."

"Tell them that your grandpa had a health issue and he called you to come help," Master Fu suggested. "Since the akuma appeared over your lunch break, it should be believable enough."

"Unless they still send a note home, in which case I'm in trouble." Still, Ladybug pushed herself to her feet. "It's worth a shot, though. See you later, Master Fu."

"We will meet at the park near the Francoise Dupont school," Master Fu told her. "Best of luck. You can leave through the window."

Ladybug nodded, waved, and dashed off. Seconds later, the soft click of a window lock marked her departure.

"You can detransform now, Adrien," Master Fu told him. "And then we can get started on the potion. How are you doing?"

Adrien released Plagg and sighed. "Honestly? I'm not even sure."

"Would you like to talk about it? We can do that while collecting what we will need for the potion."

"I mean… sure?" Adrien got up, following Master Fu back into his apartment. "I found out that my father is Hawkmoth and has been terrorizing the city for over a year now, and that Nathalie decided to join him and has become heartless and she's why the akuma attacks have become so much worse. And my mom's in a magical coma, apparently, because of some secret double life that both my father and Nathalie knew about but I didn't."

"But your father has decided to cooperate now and we'll be getting your mom out of her coma, now that we know about it." Master Fu walked over to a tall cupboard and opened it. "Can you do me a favor and grab that jar up there?"

Adrien grabbed it. "Yeah, but he only decided to go to us for help when he had no other choice, once he was being terrorized by Nathalie. He just decided that Nathalie was a bigger threat than jail, and he saw a quick way out of the problem that he had created."

Master Fu nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, there is that. But he didn't decide to go along with her plans willingly, that much is obvious. He became a pawn in his own game."

He deserved that, Adrien thought. His father manipulated and pushed other people around all the time. He needed to know what that felt like himself, and maybe he would stop.

"But now I know why my father has suddenly started coming to get me for my activities himself, instead of sending Nathalie," Adrien said instead, not wanting to sound like he was all down for revenge. Even though he sort of was in this case. "She's not going to be trying to hide that there's something up with her, is she?"

"That is the danger of Heart: the person using it doesn't even realize that something is wrong. To them, all seems normal." Master Fu collected a couple small bins and shoeboxes, then pointed out another few jars on the high-up shelves for Adrien to grab. "And I have told you how Heart is a misnomer, right? It should really be soul. But to many, heart and soul are seen as largely interchangeable."

"It takes out what makes you human," Wayzz chimed in. "Which would explain why akuma attacks have been causing more injuries and worse. Mayura has noticed that you will get distracted moving civilians and without a conscience telling her that it's wrong, she's decided to take advantage of that."

"That would also explain why Hawkmoth started coming out, and why he decided to target Ms. Bourgeois directly," Master Fu added on. "In the absence of a heart- or a soul, as the case may be- she would be viewing all of the citizens of Paris as simply chess pieces, ones that could be sacrificed without hesitation."

Adrien nodded. He understood that, but it didn't make it better. "Yeah. But all of the 'improvement' that he's been showing- interacting with me instead of sending Nathalie and giving in to Ladybug and I- it wasn't because he wanted to improve. He didn't take a good, hard look at himself and decide that he needed to do better. He did it all because he had dug himself into a hole and got scared."

"That is very true."

"And then finding out about Mom- I'm happy about that, because she didn't do anything wrong. But I'm worried about her." Adrien swallowed as he followed Master Fu back to his kitchen and helped him line up the jars and containers on the counter. "What my dad said- it made her condition sound really serious. What if she slips away before we get there?"

"If we're going tonight, the chance of that happening is very low," Master Fu told him. "The curse takes a certain fraction of a person's energy, so the decline is faster at first than it is once the cursed person gets to…. Well, once they get to the point where your mom is."

Adrien frowned. "But my father said that she's gotten a lot worse recently."

"Think, kid," Plagg cut in. "What has changed recently that would cause that? We gave you the answer earlier."

Adrien thought, then frowned. "I…. don't know?"

"When do I need more energy?" Plagg prompted. "Is it the same all the time?"

"You'd eat all the time if you could." Still, Adrien gave it some proper thought, and it only took a second for him to figure it out. "After I've transformed and used my power! And Nathalie was transforming maybe once a week or so for a couple months after months of the Peacock not being used, and now it's several times a week so the curse is drawing more energy."

Master Fu smiled. "Exactly! So the draw should be baseline unless Nathalie transforms between now and then, and then we'll be cutting off the connection tonight and giving her a booster. And as long as she responds well to the potion, we'll probably be sneaking back in every day to give her more while I work on the spell that will help her recover fully."

Adrien let out a breath. "Okay. So by tonight, she should be out of the danger zone."

"Apart from the fact that she's technically in the same building as a person who has lost much of their soul…. yes, she will be out of the danger zone."

Plagg snorted. "You just had to throw a ginormous qualifier in there, didn't you?"

"I was simply trying to point out that the house is not safe, and nothing can be guaranteed. But if Mayura was transforming with the goal of ending the curse to help your mom, then I see no reason why she should pose a danger to her now."

Adrien relaxed marginally. "Okay."

"So for this potion- first we'll start with a base," Master Fu told him. "I have the recipe written here. This recipe, the kwamis are allowed to stay around for. For the ones altering their powers, they are not allowed to stay nearby."

"In case they get captured?"

"Exactly."

Adrien spent the next hour watching Master Fu carefully mix together ingredients, stirring the pot occasionally. He ground up a few ingredients at Master Fu's request, working them into a fine powder.

"Thankfully this particular recipe is rather straightforward," Master Fu told Adrien as he inspected how well ground the final ingredient was. "I have had trouble working out what some of the others were referring to when they listed an ingredient. The potions for power-ups took several tries, and Ladybug was the one to figure out the final ingredient."

Adrien smiled. Of course his Lady was the one to figure it out. She was so smart and creative. It had probably been someone just like her who had come up with the instructions in the first place.

Master Fu deemed the grinding good, and brought the mortar over to the bubbling pot. He sprinkled the powder in, and Adrien watched with interest as the formerly green potion transformed into blue, sparkling brightly.

"Well, that looks like it worked," Master Fu said cheerfully. "Fantastic. Now, would you like to help me bottle this up? And then we can put together a kit to bring along when we go tonight, to test magic and energy levels."

The rest of the afternoon went by in a flash, and then Master Fu was ushering Adrien out of his studio, promising to bring the kit to the park that evening.

"Let me know if you can't make it on time," Fu told him as Adrien headed out. "We can go later, of course, but we want to still be alert enough to deal with any threats."

Adrien nodded, and headed down the street. As he walked, his shoulders slumped a little and he squared them, trying his best to look as though nothing was wrong. It was harder than he would have expected, but he was a model. His mom had given him some acting lessons at one point when he had shown interest in what she was doing. He could pretend to be fine for a little bit longer.

"Are you going to be okay, kid?" Plagg asked, sticking his head out of Adrien's jacket. "I can feel you worrying from here."

"I'll be fine," Adrien said again, but even he wasn't sure how true that was. "Really."

[outofoxygen]

Elsewhere Demo (Elsewhere 0.2.3) - Please kill me. Please.

I’d like to preface this with the notice that this is a demo; it’s incomplete. However, it’s still horrid and I still hate its horrendously disgusting being.

Okay, I’m not going to blunder about trying to explain this thing’s garbage plot. Instead, I’ll get directly into this thing’s horridly disgusting being. So, how would I explain Elsewhere (0.2.3)? Well, it’s basically like.. sitting in a subway tram. A dirty, strangely moist tram. Some hipster walks in, wearing a godawful V-neck and twisting his horrible mustache around. He looks at you, then proceeds to walk over, sweating and blathering about useless dreck. Heh. Hah. It’s pain. You want to die.

Yes, playing Elsewhere makes me want to die. It’s absolutely disgusting. The most disgusting thing you’ll easily spot is the horrible artwork. Awful facesprites, disgusting character sprites, and horrible enemy sprites. These awful sprites.. made it almost impossible for me to even play this entire fucking game. If you can give me a noose, I’d probably begin to hang myself rig

Okay, got sidetracked there. Moving on, I will mention something that also makes me want to die. This game mentions one ‘Yuko’ character. At this point, you’re probably rolling your eyes. “A game mentions a character, so what? Do you hate continuity?” No, I don’t. That’s why I hate Yuko. Yuko is a character mentioned for no apparent goddamned reason other than, I assume, a set-up for later on. However, the main character, Clyde, acts as if you already know who this Yuko is, despite the game never mentioning this Yuko or showing Yuko’s face even once. Not even once. The game can dedicate an entire faceset to Clyde, but not even toss us a paltry image of Yuko.

As I thought about it, I came to a conclusion. “Maybe Yuko is the name of the dev’s player, and they forgot to change it! Yes, that’s it!” Little did I know, that innocence.. it was misguided. 

For those of you who don’t know, RPG Maker 2003 uses a simple system for displaying things like a custom player name. There is a small list of characters within the game that are playable/in there for whatever reason, numbered from 1 to some arbitrary number. Going by this game, “Player” is in number 5. So if the developer wants to make the game output the player’s custom name, they would put this string into the text: “\N[5]”. Unedited, it looks like this: “\N[n]”. What it calls upon is hero number ‘n’ (in this case 5) and outputs the ‘N’, or the name of the hero.

I thought the developer forgot to put in an “\N[5]” and instead misguidedly typed in their test name. However, the textbox mentioning Yuko looks like this: 

“\N[5] and I were sent here on behalf of someone named "\C[14]Yuko\C[00]." You wouldn't happen to recognize the name, would you?” (The “\C[14]” and “\C[00]” determine the color a portion of text; in this case, changing it between gold (the “[14]”) and the default color (the “[00]”).)

Yes, there it is, the contradiction, the elimination of my theory. The developer, as such, either had to forget to mention Yuko, or for some horrific reason seems to believe they don’t need to. I don’t know what would run through someone’s mind to make such a horrid and counterproductive decision, but I fear that may be the reason.

So, let’s assume that someone out there in the around 5 or so people that will read this looks at my ranting, and screams out: “What, no mention of the characters? No discussion on how it fits in with the lore?” Well, I shall talk about the characters. You chose your cyanide, now I must deliver it on your silver platter.

So it turns out that the characters are about as lackluster as the art. By that, I mean they’re absolute garbage. The main character, Clyde, lacks most of a personality other than the leftover traces of the archetypal energetic, excited, and heroic 'personality’ that so many blank and forgettable characters possess. 

They introduce a cat, Syrup, who is basically a more pathetic and depressing version of The Judge. I don’t mean intentionally pathetic and depressing, just so.. bland and sad to witness, it is comparable to watching two unmanned cement mixers smash into one another. I shall speak no more of Syrup.

The final character that is actually mentioned so far is one Yuko, which I already complained about. So there is no character to be mentioned.

Within the game’s files (which I will admit I am liberally digging around in) there exist five other notable characters: ‘Sprinkles’, ‘Copper’, ‘Clover’, ‘SoundTest’, and ‘Password’.

Sprinkles is, as far as I can tell, either a poorly drawn rabbit or a lopsided cat. Their title, ‘Delirious’, does not seem to match their mannerism of walking or facial expressions at all. Whether this is due to a poor understanding of what ‘delirious’ means, or gross incompetence, I shall never know.

Copper is a TV-headed individual whose apparent actual name is ‘CU-713 M.III’ (does the developer even know what ‘M.III’ means? Why is Copper ‘Mark III’ of its type?)  This character lacks a proper character sprite, instead only possessing foul facesprites.

Clover looks like an angel. A permanently annoyed and irritated angel, matching my personal feelings on this game. She (I’m going to bet Clover is a ‘she’. After all, fangames seem to have a penchant for the ‘Zone 3 female follower’ thing.) has the title ‘Saigai’, which, on the note of that, I will thank the developer for forcing me to look up their weeb terms. Apparently, ‘saigai’ stands for ‘disaster, calamity, misfortune’, which sums up my experience with this beta very well.

Of course, I also possess the skill list. Clyde, in my opinion, has a horridly boring skill list, that clearly isn’t complete, given that this game is a beta.

Sprinkles is the healer of the party, and.. none of these competences bear any indication of having healing effects. None of the competences have anything to do with ‘delirious’, by the way, except for two or three.

Copper has competences that I assume are named after the first things that the developer saw when they opened up a ‘Beginning Programming for Dummies’ book, and some sci-fi jargon that is absolutely meaningless.

Clover is still horribly weeaboo, as indicated by the fact that her competences are named after random Japanese terms that mostly bring up anime and shit. Among note of these are ‘Bokusatsu’, which brings up “Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan” as its first result. Bokusatsu apparently means ‘Bludgeoning’ or ‘Eradicate’, and is not just a horrid misspelling of ‘bukkake’. Another random Japanese term I do not need to know, and never wanted to know. Yay.

There’s some random skill called ‘Strangle’. It does 30 damage at the cost of 15 goddamn CP. It’s not even 100% accurate! For contrast, The Batter’s ‘Special Homerun’ does 160 damage at the cost of 15 CP. It’s not 100% accurate either, but at least it can do 160 damage, and that’s not even factoring in variance for either!

I guess I’ll be going on to fitting in with the world of OFF.

I’m strangely disgusted by even typing that, because it’s offensive to OFF to type those words in a review of Elsewhere. It’s rude to OFF to even dare to compare Elsewhere’s shitty, nonexistent lore with the complex lore of OFF.

To put it simply, no, Elsewhere does not fit in with the world of OFF. It has a horribly hideous graphical design, and its characters lack any slight semblance of a personality, or even a semblance of a character. Yes, this game lacks what makes a character.. a character.

By the way, on note, I mentioned Yuko 13 times (including this time) and I’m certain that this mysterious character doesn’t even exist in any manner, because I have no reason to.

Should you play this game?

You can’t hear it, but I’m laughing as I type those words. I am laughing, because that question doesn’t even need the slightest semblance of an answer. That question is, in all entirety, already answered by me a thousand times over in this entire horrid review.

No. No, you should not.

What do I think of this game?

Well, it’s shit. It’s a horrible beta, and it looks like sludge and sewer-water. I know it’s a beta in 0.2.3, but it hasn’t even been updated in nearly a year or two! I’m working with what I have, okay?

I don’t hold anything against the developer, okay? They could be a nice fellow, I don’t know them. All I know is that Elsewhere is horrible and disgusting.

As I began to get up, I sighed. A single, upset, disappointed sigh. A sigh made from a place of disappointment and annoyance. All the words in the English language don’t give me as much a way to reflect my sheer irritation, my incredible disdain for this game.

So that, is my final thoughts on Elsewhere’s Beta 0.2.3.

A sigh. A single, irritated sigh.

[queenofthyme]

November Third (part three)

as always, for @o0o-chibaken-o0o. may her birthday last many days.

bingo l part one l part two l part three l part four l part five l part six l part seven l updates to come...

Draco was furious. First, that wild animal of Hagrid’s had attacked him - and he still had the sling to prove it even if it wasn’t completely necessary - and second, one of the horrid nifflers that same oaf had brought onto school grounds had ambushed Draco and stolen the shiny Malfoy crest pin right off his robes.

If his father found out he had lost the pin, he would be in the deepest pools of absolute shitville. It was an heirloom worth more than Hagrid’s entire life, if the pathetic hut he had followed the niffler into was any indication.

He could hear the stupid creature - it almost sounded like it was laughing at him - but he couldn’t see it. Where was the damn thing? He cast stunning spells around the cabin recklessly, waiting for the stupid noise to stop so he could rescue his pin. But no matter where he cast, the creature’s laughter continued.

Draco hastily tucked his wand away, picking up one of Hagrid’s oversized chairs instead and throwing it across the room for good measure. “This is not happening,” he muttered to himself. “This is absolute - “

“Caught you at a bad time, Malfoy?” Interrupted a very familiar voice from behind Draco.

“Get stuffed, Potter,” Draco responded without even looking around. “I’m not in the mood to deal with you.” Although he knew that wouldn’t be the end of it. He’d been trashing Potter’s favourite teacher’s house - it was all too likely the encounter would end in a one-handed duel. For the first time, he regretted insisting Madam Pomfrey put his arm in a sling.

Sure enough. Potter jumped straight into accusations: “What do you think you’re doing in here?” There was anger in his voice of course - Potter’s temper was a precarious thing - but glee too - clearly at the excitement of catching Draco out.

Draco swivelled around and leant back on Hagrid’s table - better to be facing his opponent when the first curse was cast. “One of that half-breed’s nifflers is what - “

“His name is Hagrid,” interrupted Potter in the cold, serious voice he reserved for showing off what a flawless, noble prick he was.

“Whatever,” Draco said dismissively, because he knew better than to fight the point when Potter used that voice. Rage fuelled Potter’s power and Draco did not feel like being on the receiving end of a bombarda disguised as an expelliarmus right now. “One of his nifflers has stolen my Malfoy crest pin and if I - “

“You have a Malfoy crest pin?”

Draco didn’t appreciate Potter’s condescending tone so he bit back. “Of course. You would’t understand since you don’t have a family.”

Potter didn’t even flinch at the quip. He wandering into the hut, assessing the damage Draco had made. “You really need some new material,” he said calmly over his shoulder as he picked up the thrown chair, but Draco could see the white of Potter’s knuckles quite clearly.

“Perhaps if I wasn’t so busy chasing this stupid niffler, I’d have the time to come up with something witty enough for you, Potter,” Draco retorted, mentally preparing himself to pull out his wand if Potter made a move - it seemed imminent. “Now if you don’t mind, I prefer it if you wandered somewhere else.”

Potter turned back to Draco. This was it. Draco edged his free arm towards the pocket of his robes - towards the safety of his wand. “Hagrid’s a good person, you know.”

Draco dropped his arm. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You provoked Buckbeak. I know you know it. And now Hagrid might lose his -“

“Have you not seen my arm, Potter?” Interrupted Draco before he could be guilt-tripped - that was Potter’s speciality. “I was viciously attacked.”

“We both know your arm is completely fine, Malfoy. Stop the act. I’m asking you to have some decency and - “

“Ah,” Draco laughed - Potter was really quite skilled at getting on his noble bloody high horse. “But you seem to have already made up your mind that I have no decency. So why should I bother?”

“What do you care what I think?”

“I don’t,” Draco said quickly. He was just making a point for merlin’s sake - did Potter have to be so…so…urgh.

“You still have time to take it back. Get rid of that stupid sling and apologise.”

“My father already - ”

“Your father is a-

“Not one more word, Potter!” Draco went for his wand instinctively, his arm jerking his sling open as he reached for - the sling! Shit. He froze, realising what he’d done, and looked up to gauge Potter’s reaction.

Potter didn’t look surprised but worse, he just looked unimpressed. He crossed his arms and stared at Draco with that one static look that made Draco want to fall inside himself and disappear. Draco couldn’t move - not even to return his arm back into the sling. Any move he made would be too telling under Potter’s eye. Why couldn’t Potter just stop staring already?

And then something strange happened - Potter sighed, releasing a long drawn out breath - and when he spoke, it appeared his previous anger had vacated in the same air. “Have you tried coaxing it out with something else valuable?”

It took Draco a couple of seconds to process the question. After all that, they were back to the niffler? “Like what?”

Potter silently pulled a golden snitch from his pocket and placed it at his feet.

The combination of the snitch and finding himself alone with Potter, drew up a memory of the previous year, one Draco thought he had successfully erased from his head. But no, the faint sound of Potter’s laughter rang in his ears once more. Draco fought hard not to enjoy it.

A husky sniffling sound brought Draco back to the present - the niffler! It had crawled out from underneath Hagrid’s stove and was shuffling to the snitch, making its greedy little noises as it did. Draco reached for his wand - with his uninjured arm this time - but Potter stopped him with a raised hand. Draco obeyed automatically, but immediately wished he hadn’t. Since when did he follow Harry Potter?

Potter waited until the niffler raised a grubby little paw above the snitch before he dropped to the ground with impressive speed, grabbing it with gentle hands.  He turned it upside down and stroked its belly, all the while making the most revolting cooing sounds Draco had ever heard. Is this what Potter was like around babies?

After far too much cooing, a number of shiny objects began to fall from the niffler’s clutches - galleons, necklaces, something that looked exactly like the hair pin Professor McGonagall wore, and there it was - the Malfoy crest. Potter’s hand shot out and caught it before it hit the ground - now he was just showing off. He placed the niffler lightly on the ground - where it promptly picked up the rest of its valuables and scampered behind the stove again - and walked over to Draco.

“Here,” he said, holding out the pin. Draco was sure to take it with his good arm. He needn’t have bothered - Potter didn’t look away from his face, a steely expression on his own. Oh merlin - Draco already knew there was something preachy coming. And: “You don’t have to be your father, you know. We don’t choose our family.”

Draco blinked back at Potter as his hands closed over the pin. He should have been angry at the audacity of Potter to comment on his family, but he couldn’t work up the energy for a fight. So he just took his family crest back from Potter’s hand silently, an automatic thank you dying before it reached his lips.

Potter waited there a moment as if expecting Draco to reply - but how was he supposed to reply to something like that? When enough time had passed in silence to make the moment truly awkward, Potter shrugged and walked to the door.

“Wait, Potter - “

“Yes?” Potter turned around immediately.

Shit. Malfoy hadn’t meant to say anything. How had that even come out of his mouth? And he certainly hadn’t expected Potter to stop. Shit. Potter was looking at him expectantly. Draco found himself trapped between the way he wanted to act and how he was supposed to act around Harry Potter. He hadn’t felt like that since the day he - wait. “What day is it?”

Potter looked at him strangely.  “Wednesday? November Third? Why do you - “

November Third. The day I beat you. It was a coincidence. It had to be. But still, something seemed off. On every other day, Draco never felt like this. Never felt anything other than hatred towards Potter. They were arch enemies. That was how it should be. This was wrong. Like he’d been cursed. Which didn’t make sense unless -

“I don’t know what you’ve done to me, Potter, but I’m not having a bar of it.” Draco pushed past Potter and made his own dramatic exit before Potter could continue his.

November Third. It couldn’t have any significance. Really. That was absurd. It was just Potter. Being his usual do-gooder self, trying to get Draco to feel something. Merlin. He needed to stay away from Potter. Every day of the year. Or he was going to lose his mind.

Bingo progress under the cut...

@o0o-chibaken-o0o PLEASE don’t murder me. I HAD to. you KNOW I HAD to. Also it doesn’t look like we’re ever going to hit bingo at this rate. Who even designed this board?

[aresutitek116co-blog]

How to get past abandoned dungeon Archero?

Nevertheless, you can also find some truly beneficial skills that you didn't understand existed, which is always great. Utilizing an Archero guide will teach you everything you require to learn about leveling up quickly and can assist you discover the best weapon to assist you do so. These are books that will show you how to level up quick with the different weapon sets and classes. Only about half of the Archero weapons published online are actually listed and credited as the work of an Archero in any way.

There's no sense in going through all the trouble to purchase the product if you do not know how to use it. Unfortunately, a great deal of the items that you see over again have either extremely little or no end results. You can discover an Archero best weapon guide for your class here.

How to fuse in Archero?

Do not forget to use Archero tips when you are leveling up and keep your minds active. This would be like a class having 2 weapons, one which is meant for long-range DPS and one which is meant for melee DPS. Archero will not help you with that, but it can help you concentrate on one particular problem.

Armorsmith is not the most typically known profession to the majority of people, but for the PvP characters who are serious about the game, this is the very best talent tree for you. All you require to do with this skill line is make certain that you have good armor repair tools and armor repair packages so that you can get the armor repair for yourself.

That's since that talent costs no mana, which indicates that you must opt for the talent. A few of them have actually been mentioned on this podcast. If you have a search for the right list of Archero weapons you'll discover numerous recommendations in different online article archives. Chances are that it will not, however there are a lot of various products and services out there that are over hyped. They are much better at crafting the weapons, and they have such a high level of know-how that they can deal with whatever that requires to be done to get the weapon that you desire.

If you actually wish to enter making Archero your brand-new income stream, then you ought to have a strategy. I would never trade that for anything.

The Archero weapons tree will also give you a premium weapons and armor for every single type of weapons and armor, you will be making in PvP. You might likewise want to include that you need to utilize the Mage's Lightning Shield ability, considering that it costs no mana.

How to beat crystal mines Archero?

The technique with this type of program is that you're not limited to two specifications or weapons because the points you have actually invested in the weapons will help you reach more than one. All of the talent trees are active, suggesting that they are the only buffs available to you at all times. As soon as you have actually selected your class and weapon, it is time to discover an Archero guide.

So if you are a hunter and you wish to make certain that you are getting the very best weapons for your construct, you need to go for the best Armsmith in Archero. Another crucial thing is that you ought to consider looking at the older skills. It all began for me when I was in college and working a home business. The Warrior class is extremely flexible, including all four classes.

How to get more bear rings in Archero

For the armor that you make, you will require to have actually the specialized plate armors. When selling equipment that is extremely important, it is constantly a excellent idea to supply a range of options in the description so that a potential purchaser has something to think of.

I hope that you have actually discovered something new, or a minimum of taken a number of things away from this guide. It is absolutely worth your time to take a look at this guide, since it covers a lot of ground.

When this happens, all enemies within variety will suffer some type of damage such as fire, poison, or acid. If you're searching for an Archero guide, the best weapon and armor are found in Archero. This ability will cause you to go undetectable and will explode if you are harmed or eliminate an opponent.

[knightofbalance-13]

Actually...

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/165589953048/lets-be-real-and-agree-on-something

No we are not agreeing to this.

RVVBY is an amalgam of multiple tropes, cliches, and concepts from other media that did it much better.

As we will soon see: The examples are either way too general, RWBY does too differently for a comparison or RWBY actually does it BETTER.

Faunus as a stand-in for minorities. X-Men did it first, did it better, and has better justification for it. Some mutants are dangerous, and have abilities that could level a building with little effort. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are just a separate branch of mutants that humans use to justify their discrimination, and sentinels are extermination bots. There’s literally “Mutant Camps” In the Days of Future Past movie that are analogous to concentration camps. Whilst being a mutant has since evolved into an analogy for being part of the LGBT+ community, it started as an allegory for racism. And it was much MUCH better at it. Last I checked, Inhumans are now the new racism allegory, and even then, they’re still a better analogy than faunus. The reason why both of these are all more effective is because they don’t replace all racial minorities by being their stand-in. There are African Mutant (Storm), Native American Mutants (Moonstar), and even biracial Mutants (Darwin). So, Mutants are a multi-cultural fictional race that acts as a stand-in for a minority group in the Marvel Universe. See, this is what happens when you have good writers who are open to criticism.

Except the racism is UNDERSTANDABLE in X-Men since mutants ARE more dangerous than humans and some of the (like Rogue) can’t control their powers and thus are a danger no matter how you slice it whereas the Fanaus aren’t any dangerous than humans because they don’t significant enough advantages to overcome the human dominance so it’s just like racism here in our world: Stupid and irrational. So you’re basically saying it’s more rational to hate an innocent group of animal people that people who can control the weather, kill on touch or mindfuck everyone. COngrats, you have shown you have a bias against RWBY so your opinions mean jack shit.

Final Fantasy did the idea of dust better. It was called Materia, and it had a better explanation as to how it’s applied. Much like dust, it’s mined. Unlike dust, it’s explicitly stated to be magical in nature rather than the vague explanation we got for dust. dust is also weird in the sense that it’s kinda elemental. Materia also has a simpler categorization by just giving it five subcategories. Dust has to be classified under fire, ice, gravity, electric, stone, whatever Yang’s standard buckshots are, and so much more. It’s starting to get to the point that I wouldn’t be surprised if they started to be more direct in their rip-off and make Summon Dust. And it’s hard to even argue this because Monty Oum (God Rest His Soul) is a Final Fantasy fanboy (See: Dead Fantasy), so there’s no doubt that there would be some FF references every now and then. But the idea of Dust is too similar to be a coincidence. Even the claim of how similar the show is to Advent Children is rather hard to see any other way. Advent Children had very little plot to it, but had spectacular action scenes - sound familiar?

Yeah, of course it’s a rip off here! ...And in Storm Hawks...and Kingdom Hearts...And Pokémon-

Almost like this is a COMMON TROPE. Can’t really call it a rip off when everyone is doing it. Almost like you don’t know how tropes work.  Also, you don’t mention how Final Fantasy does it better: you just say they do. Probably because FInal Fanatsy=Not RWBy ergo better.

Legend of Korra did the whole “Girl Power” thing better. Considering that they also managed to portray PTSD in a much more realistic way, and didn’t romanticize it like RVVBY did. Korra had hallucinations, was clearly sleep-deprived, and struggled to keep up with even a few non-benders because of the trauma. Sure, LoK had its own issues (Like trying to keep up with its predecessor), but it still managed to hold its own. What does RVVBY do? - only ONE on-screen nightmare, and only ONE on-screen panic attack. The worst part is that we didn’t even NEED it to be on-screen. Just show Yang not wanting to sleep, or her waking up from nightmares. Even offhandedly mentioning that she’s having nightmares would have been better than nothing. But we get that nothing. Because making Yang get back to doing badass fighting moves is more important than giving her a good recovery arc.

OH Ho ho ho ho!

This is a fucking GOLD MINE!

A. RWBY was never touted as a Girl Power show: It just had female protagonists. Men were just as capable as women and it was clear from the first episode so this comparison doesn’t even count.

B. Oh korra. The one with a protagonist who was one trait away from being a full blown Mary Sue who disobeyed orders, stole food, caused property damaged, nearly committed murder, committed police assault and resisting arrest who gets off t6eh hook and is treated as in the right for doing all that. And that’s just the first episode, shall I go on to explain how Korra essentially harassed a guy and acting like an obsessive stalker despite him saying that he has a girlfriend and then kisses him despite this, hurting his innocent brother and gets rewarded for it, or how Korra barely practices Air bending (the ONE element she doesn’t aut know) but can magically airbend without using airbending techniques and having her bending TAKEN AWAY. Or how about Korra flipping outa t Mako, May Lin trying to arrest Tenzien’s wife and wrecking Airbending Island for getting dumped and that one Psycho girlfriend Waterbender is all treated as humerous and okay? Or that Asami was just basically eye candy in the first and second seasons? Or how the one main female villain seen as redeemable is the one who refused orders, forcibly recruited people, took advantage of the spirits, tried to kill her fiancé, sent people who didn’t agree with her to “reprogramming” camps, threatens the lives of her subordinates and tried to kill an entire city. It wasn't Amon who was implied to have severe hatred against benders due to his dad’s abuse. It couldn’t even be the fucking Red Lotus, the most human villians in the Avatar franchise since ZUKO: It was the female earthbender whose actions numerous times mirrored fucking Hitler.

Bottom Line: Even without TRYING to be a Girl Power show, RWBY is a BETTER Girl Power show than Korra.

C. The PTSD arc is the ONE thing Korra has above RWBY and it SHOULD be better because Korra has more time, more experience, more money, more people and in a medium that is more forgiving than RWBY’s. And even then, it’s BARELY better in terms of actual writing because it tries portraying Korra’s PTSD as an outside force, uses her Avatar State self as the representation when it makes no sense, she gets over it by herself despite her lesson being not to lock other people out, it came back with no indication, uses Zaheer out of nowhere and brings up smaller events that never eluded to extend the arc. It could have been fixed so easily by just having an imaginary Zaheer attacking her with kora being hesitant of airbending. I fucking fixed and I’m an inexperienced fanfic writer. All RWBY needs to do to be better is acknowledge it again: Something VERY likely due to RT’s history.

So far: We have one example that is out right wrong, one example that is too broad to do anything and doesn’t show jack shit and one example that is so wrong it helps ME absolutely.

SO what’s next?

And since it probably wouldn’t be me if I didn’t include this, here’s the one that some people are probably waiting for:

So you’re outright acknowledging bias against RWBY and for Storm Hawks because Nostalgia huh? Fine, I’ll cut you down HERE too.

Storm Hawks did the small amount of habitable land that needs to be protected by various teams of heroes first and better. Energy attacks have better justification for their appearance, and the fact that both Crystals and Dust are both gemstones with elemental properties that need to be mined and are integral to powering weapons and vehicles. Both shows have amazing transforming weapons, teams made up of various people with different skills, and incredible action scenes. They even had a spectacular superpower that manifested in one of their main characters after they were put in a tough situation. See my chart below for more detail.

Sky Knights : Huntsmen/Huntresses

Crystals : Dust

Squadrons : Huntsman Teams.

Atmos : Remnant

Talons/Raptors/Murk Raiders/Beasts : Grimm/WF

The Binding : Silver Eyes

... (points to the Final Fantasy point above)

So it’s perfectly okay for Storm Hawks to “rip off” Final Fanatsy but RWBY is bad for doing it?

Because these are all elements from Final Fantasy.

Not to mention since you DON’T explain why Storm Hawks does it better, all I have to do is point to the fact that Storm Hawks is canceled early and RWBY is a worldwide phenomon. Storm Hawks is at 7.2  whereas RWBY is at 8.3 , Storm Hawks had more time, more experience, more money, more people and the backing of Cartoon Network where RWBY doesn’t.

Dudeblade, this is why you go unnoticed by the writers, why all of you in RWDE tag go unnoticed: you do ANYTHING to tear down the show, whether or not it’s true. That and you suck so bad, I can do a better job than you.

Here, let me:

Harry Potter does the “school for special people” better because the school stays in focus for most of the show where we grow more and more attached to the setting and characters there and since the enemy is gradually shown more and more: he gain slightly more and more fear in a very smooth and natural way. And since the books take time with the enemies, we can keep track of the numerous characters easily. All unlike RWBy

Kill La Kill does the Girl Power aspect of the show better as the main cast is female, the show is driven by females and each character has their own unique set of strengths and weakness along with flaws they must overcome and deal with. It also tackles the idea of women being objectified and encourages women to take pride in who and what they are, ignoring how society sees them and think ofr themselves. Again, unlike RWBY would be.

Dragon Ball does the “Writing by the seat of your pants” style better than RWBY because Akira Toriyama was used to writing tis way and thus had more experience and even had a talent for writing this way which also made the series more suspenseful. Once more, unlike the CRWBY.

When I can do your job better and in less time: Might want to rethink what you are doing.

[stone-man-warrior]

August 1, 2018: 8:08 pm:

August 1; 2018: 5:59 PM:<br><br>In what country on Earth can anyone who is in... StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-08-01T21:20:16-0400 - Updated: 2018-08-01T23:08:44-0400

August 1; 2018: 5:59 PM: In what country on Earth can anyone who is interested learn about the intricate details of the various branches of the United States Armed Forces, it's personnel, It's leadership chain of command, it's protocols, it's equipment and how the equipment is operated, delivered, deployed, built, maintained, managed, lost, stolen, and where to purchase spare parts? The answer is the information is available, complete with video, instruction manuals, charts and graphs, names and phone numbers of top brass, where and how bullets of all shapes and sizes are made, and the favorite places that enlisted men and women enjoy eating... it's all available anywhere in the world to anyone who has a internet connection and a phone. A small computer wouild be extra, bonus viewing, but is not necessary to get the blue-prints for an Aircraft carrier, or for a barracks building. Anyone. Anywhere. For free. How do we know that that Tesla in space is not a spy satellite designed to infiltrate US Military. Elon Musk is just the kind of guy that could arrange such a thing, if anyone could spy from above or below... he could. Also, what nations of the world make available to media outlets their military secrets and locations and whatever? The answer is none other than the United States of America. Who in the world is in the position that best completes a circle if the circle includes leadership, media, structure, wealth, ego, an agenda, like minded friends, and gold? You know the answer.Shared with: Public

+1'd by: Ben Krefta

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-08-01T22:05:19-0400

August 1, 2018, 6:58 PM: When, or if the truth that this page exposes is ever resolved, the world will find that since the Gulf War, and maybe before that, when our US military men and women are sent to fight in a war overseas, they do not come home. Ever. Those who are sent home are impostors. We are being slaughtered by our own war, by an enemy that lives within the elements of the conditions set into motion by the USA. A conspiracy of one. The death of a nation from within.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-08-01T22:12:25-0400

August 1, 2018: 7:06 PM: I can find no copyright information for this song. The entire album is about US soldiers being slaughtered by there own command chain. The Offspring Conspiracy of One From the Album: Conspiracy of One Red over white It's one last fatal scene Brought on by someone unseen Moving on their own Bring on the night And bring us all to our knees All are gone and none agreed One who acts alone Nobody wins Nobody hears us fall Nobody wins When it's done Conspiracy of one Bring on the night And bring us all to our knees All are gone and none agreed One who acts alone Red over white It's one last fatal scene Brought on by someone unseen Moving on their own Nobody wins Nobody hears us fall Nobody wins When it's done Conspiracy of one Nobody wins Nobody hears us fall Nobody wins When it's done Conspiracy of one Nobody wins Nobody hears us fall Nobody wins When it's done Conspiracy of one Nobody wins Nobody hears us fall Nobody wins When it's done Conspiracy of one

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-08-01T22:45:20-0400 - Updated: 2018-08-02T03:53:04-0400

August 1, 2018: 7:43 PM: Vandalism of persona property at the end of my driveway a few minutes ago. Not a big deal... But it is a big deal, all at the same time. Representatives from Myers family terrorist cell were leaving in a white late model pick-up truck with matching shell cover, near my driveway, as I approached the vandalized. The Myers are famous locally for human taxidermy and for the making, creating, sewing, fashioning and otherwise crafting gruesome disguises that are made of real, human, body parts of dead American Victims. These are Seventh Day Adventists. That are absolutely terrifying to find in my yard when they show up in costume with the odor of rotting flesh heavy in the air. Most people are shocked into a state of catatonic inability to comprehend or act upon what they see... I am no exception the the catatonic response to exposure to such horrible terrorist behavior. Myers, 560 "MyStreet". ================================ August 1, 2018: 11:56 PM: The following is a list of terrorist cells associated with the music industry. These are email advertisements that come to those who subscribe to them. Terrorists of all kinds subscribe to these email lists in order to get orders from the command chain, not just musicians... all kinds of different soldiers use these incoming emails for information and updates and orders.. The orders are sent in the mail, in the art, in the graphics. The graphics themselves are the orders. Those who can read the graphics are able to carry out the orders. Don't be confused by the idea that someone can order products from these suppliers, that can be done also, however, those who order products from these suppliers will be visited by terrorists cells who follow the items shipped to the delivery address. That is completely different than using the artwork as a hieroglyph. These are indeed hieroglyph symbols used to communicate messages of all sorts including murders, locations, directions, heroin delivery criteria, and a variety of other information is located withing the photographs on the advertising page in the emails sent from these vendors. When the email is viewed, there are text areas, there are banners and other colorful shapes, there are areas that are void of color yet have a perceived shape, there are a variety of products, each product has a name, and a model number, and a size, and a quantity, and a color option, and might be an open box item, or a damaged item, or is blemished, or is a "One-Off", or is a "Limited Run", or could be used in association with other advertised and suggested goodies, there are a variety cables in a variety of lengths and gauges, and are suggested to serve a particular need, some are generic cables, some are specific cables, there are wireless considerations of all kinds, and etcetera and so on and so on and so on. With all of those considerations and more, there is more than enough parts within the advertising, which when combined with some specific knowledge of the gear it advertises, makes a more complete alphabet to work with than does the English language. It has taken me many years to figuer out how to read the orders and information and I only have a small understanding of it, however, all information currently in circulation suggests that soldiers are being called to go dark, go off of wireless communication and back to older ways. There are indications for cells to wait quietly for further information, and to use this down time to repair and and maintain the equipment and tools that the cells use. It's a good time to fix your broken items if you are a terrorist this week. Also, when doing maintenance, the indications are that there are specialists on hand waiting for the call to come help with more complicated things that are out of the realm of what normal soldiers are trained to maintain or repair. There are a whole bunch of personally threatening messages to me within the disguised email advertisements that I receive. And more that is too complicated to explain here. Those in national security would be well advised not go stumbling around without a real good plan that can happen all at once across a wide area of terrorists, other wise, they just go dark and weather the storm until you are done fucking around. I really could use some help. This is good information, no one outside of the industries has this kind of Intel. At Vintage King Audio there are speakers made by BareFoot speaker company, the brochure information says that Barefoot is he name of the man who invented them and produces them. Bullshit. They cost no less than $5,000 for a pair of small ones, and the middle of the selections available cost $15,000, and they go as high as $29,000 for a pair of speakers that fit on a shelf... not huge speakers. Studio Monitors. It is my belief that these Barefoot speakers are used to communicate the desire to purchase a human being. Child trafficking at Vintage King Audio is what I am suggesting. No regular person can possibly afford to by anything they sell there, only the most professional recording industry engineers could ever buy even a patch cable there. They are located in two places, Nashville, and Hollywood. I have been there personally in Hollywood, they are weird and secretive. American Musical Supply <ams@email.americanmusical.com> Sweetwater <yourfriends@sweetwater.com> zZounds News <zznews@newsletter.zzounds.com> Chicago Music Exchange <gear@chicagomusicexchange.com> via <mail191.atl101.mcdlv.net> The White House <info@mail.whitehouse.gov> Joe Bonamassa <webmaster@jbonamassa.com> Fulltone Musical Products sales@fulltone.com via http://gmail.mcsv.net Vintage King Audio <noreply@goto.vintageking.com> Eastwood Guitars noreply@eastwoodguitars.com via http://sendgrid.net Harmony Central <makebettermusic@harmonycentral.com> Dean Zelinsky Himself via http://gmail.mcsv.net Keeley Electronics fx@rkfx.com via http://auth.ccsend.com Anthony from Singular Sound anthony@singularsound.com via http://s4.csa2.acemsb3.com Premier Guitar <pg@premierguitar.com>