#plus that awful glitch

[grimalkinmessor]

Meet the most irritating bitch you've ever seen in your life, my Lawlight fusion! :D (Click for better resolution you know the drill...)

- The most unholy fusion to ever exist. L and Light touched something they shouldn't have and now they're stuck together.

- All of Light's psycho brain but coupled with L's shamelessness. They like to scare people by materializing out of shadowy corners and popping out of odd places.

- L's dragon-esque hoarding tendencies + Light's desire for shiny and rare things = AWFUL kleptomaniac. They steal everyone's valuables and shinies and hide them away in increasingly weird places.

- Lyra often talks and mutters to themself in a language they made up specifically so L and Light could argue with each other and speak without being understood by the rest of the Task Force. Given that it's made up of about seven different other languages, no one's been able to crack it.

- The only people they listen to are Soichiro and Watari, and even that varies wildly depending on who's driving at the time.

Close up bits :3

[gothcatboygirl]

y'know what fuck this *steals an ebook by screenshotting every page*

[reginrokkr]

Today seems to be an update day, but thankfully this one is more positive than the last. I was contacted earlier by the technician in charge of my laptop and he told me that the only issue it has is the battery (this is after going through a preliminary diagnosis to see if my laptop has more potentially concerning issues). Now that I know that the battery replacement is also possible (my laptop is pretty old and last on the list of Macs that allows hardware replacements, so I was a bit doubtful that they might not be able to do the replacement because the hardware for this laptop in particular stopped its production), it'll be a matter of waiting however long it takes for the battery to be ordered and for the technician to receive it as I think that the replacement in itself will be much much shorter.

[animationgirl89]

[MESSAGE TO THE MURDER DRONES FANDOM. 💜💀]

(Please Read)

Hello There!! So, with the Murder Drones Series finale now out and released I wanted to discuss this as I've seen many express their disappointment and even hatred for the series finale and have sent hate towards Liam and Glitch and it's just unfortunate and I feel this needs to be said and talked about. Alright, so everyone's allowed to feel however they feel about the finale and you're allowed to feel unsatisfied and even disappointed, but to send hate towards the team and creator and call them talentless or sending them hate won't solve anything and shouldn't be justified in the slightest, y'all need to be reminded and see that the series finale wasn't intended on being any longer than any other episode or series finale for other shows out there made by studios that are financially funded by huge studios. And I know y'all say, "ohhh!! But it felt rushed and unearned and the finale was terrible and awful and should have been much longer and an hour." Yeah, because an INDIE animation studio has the money for that...plus, I don't think some of you know how animation works and how much time it can be, animation takes so much time and for a Indie animation it's NOT easy in the slightest and also cost so much money, it's extremely hard but isn't impossible. Making animation is extremely expensive and time consuming to make and that's very hard and difficult, funding for a show, a INDIE animated show is incredibly hard especially when it's animating for a full season and that's why these studios sell merch to help them make their stories, to make their dreams come true and help create the shows, the stories they wanna make, every dollar and penny goes into making these shows a reality.

But some don't seem to understand how difficult and how much time animation truly takes and even understatement it which is unfortunate, animation is a form of art, animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre for kids and can be enjoyed by everyone, It Is a medium. People need to realize and see that, again you're allowed to feel how you feel about the finale and I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion, but harassing and trash talking the creator and the team isn't it and won't solve anything, everyone at Glitch worked extremely hard on this finale, they've been working on this finale for over A YEAR, some of you fans are honestly very ungrateful and awful especially for how you treated the creator and Glitch to the point one of the VA's had to tell you STOP, and I know all fandoms are like this..but some of you MD fans are fucking terrible and make this whole fandom look bad, and although I'm grateful to be in this community as I've met some incredible people and will forever love the show, this fandom as a whole (especially Mdtwt) is honestly kinda a hellpit and we honestly didn't deserve this show, some of you really took this show for granted and just didn't seem to appreciate it, appreciated the love, dedication and hard work that went into it and not to mention some of y'all hated on almost anything that's not Md and harassed Glitch and even other fans, again I'm thankful for this show and feel satisfied with the ending however I'm disappointed for how bad this fandom has gotten..I'm saddened and feel some in the community really took this show for granted and didn't really appreciate it, but as a whole I feel this fandom NEEDS TO DO BETTER and improve going forward, and should STOP mistreating both each other and harassing the ones who made the show, just please do better. ❤️

[pumpkinsy0]

modern papercut hcs???

aw yea,,,lets go,,,,

•ponys definitely talked curly out of doing those “money glitches” that would either put him behind bars or just put him in life crippling debt to the bank for the rest of his life

•curly wears baggy pants that have actual black holes as pockets, they r so deep and when him and pony walk out of a store curly whips out about 6 different items he stole, but he would hateeeee those stores that have glass on every aisle to stop shoplifters, like let him shoplift in peace, what has this country become🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

•they hate vapes sooooo much, they see someone vaping and roll their eyes and talk about how stupid it is

•pony hates booktok so fucking much, and curly likes hearing pony rant about it bc 1) its funny to see pony all worked up 2) SOME OF THE STORIES R SO????? i feel like thats the only way ur gonna get curly to read something, curly tries convincing pony to get one of the books so they can read it

•tim put angela and curly in one of those free afterschool programs so they can get something to eat and curly hates it so much bc sneaking out of there is annoying as hell and he skips it sometimes to b w pony, hes used to being hungry, plus pony would just give him his own lunch to eat

•for regular papercut, i dont think theyd rlly, label their sexuality, but for modern, id say ponys comfortable being called bi while curly just still goes unlabeled, do t matter what decade it is he doesnt care

•curly has a pretty well off friend that he drags pony along to hang out w so they can play w his video games, curlys not REALLLYYY friends w him tho, just using the guy

•what do u mean getting snacks at the 7/11 and hanging out in the parking lot isnt rlly a date, they do it all the time, it totally is

•curly WILL repeat a joke he heard from a vid like 1000 times and pony rolls his eyes each time, when will u let it GO

•they cant fall asleep on face time together, their houses r too chaotic and not respective of privacy for that to happen, also their wifi is shit someone id disconnecting anyways

•chances r u can find them in the library computer looking at stuff they rlly shouldnt b

•curlys a real one he puts pony onto those pirating websites

•at least one video of them has gone viral for how absolutely stupid it was

[rainandteastudios]

Need to talk something over rq, it’s bothering me. I have an Danny Phantom AU, i am currently calling it the Uncle Vlad AU. It’s called that because that’s the basic idea it started out as, Jack visiting Vlad in the hospital which leads to less animosity and Vlad, while still not the best, is less of a prick and actually ends up joining and helping Danny.

It’s snowballed… (long winded explanation about everything below, might include spoilers if I actually do anything with it)(it’s also cringe as hell you are under no obligation).

Now I’ve added a bit more to it and it’s becoming incredibly complicated. I have literal scenes in my head that occur in certain orders and now the focus isn’t the “Uncle Vlad” aspect.

Now it’s entirely focused on Vlad repressing his negative feelings about the accident because he’s afraid he’s going to be left alone, getting recommended therapy from Jazz, and instead of a normal therapist he accidentally gets Spectre (the ghost who makes people miserable on purpose to feed off them). She doesn’t help at all and he spirals. Makes the ghost separating gauntlets and his ghost half goes on a rampage trying to hurt Jack and generally being awful.

I genuinely don’t know how to go about it. What the fuck do I even call it? It’s going to take so long to get to the climax because I have to add so much in between to properly go through everything.

It starts in the hospital, Jack visiting him, Vlad later gets his ghost half after two years, gets released, becomes the god parent to Jazz while also trying to build a fortune and figure out the ghost world, second godchild thrown in mix, Vlad gives up the more sinister ghost shenanigans to keep them safe, kids get older so he’s needed less, does not like the spiral that leads to, finds out Danny’s a ghost (or Danny finds him out first, debating that), Vlad clones himself to get a kid, Danny’s ghost dna ends up being used to stabilize her because Vlad’s ghost form is unstable, Vlad has a dad arc, therapy happens, Vlad has a breakdown and rips out his ghost form, Plasmius is pissed and hurt and is taking it out on everyone, Vlad has to merge back and Plasmius is unwilling, resolution occurs.

These are all the major events, there’s also bits in between and the “Uncle Vlad AU” title is not covering it. Plus there’s also a lot of headcannons that stem from the ghosts are manifestations of human emotions explanation that came from A Glitch in Time. Some of which can probably be disproved.

I am considering simplifying the events to “arcs”, as a way to help me chill out a bit and justify time skips. The hospital is more of a prologue time, then an arc about learning both how to be a ghost and get away with crime, an uncle Vlad arc and so on and so forth. Not sure how it works in practice at all.

If you’ve read all this and are curious please ask questions, this idea has been rotting my brain and I need to do something with it. Hoping to do some comics for this AU.

Might delete later actually.

[ghcstao3]

hi, hope you're well! so today I was thinking (bc ofc my brain's natural reaction is to lunge viciously for the hurt/comfort), what if the '09 game events still happened? Like, instead of AUs (where timelines branch off from a single event), it's a glitch in the timeline? So you have the '22 version of the 141 doing their thing, but they have nightmares & deja vu stemming from the '09 stuff. Cue (yes I'm shipping) SoapGhost where Ghost has all these bad feelings concerning Shepherd plus he has awful nightmares about burning & Soap's there to comfort him, but he's afraid that they're all losing it bc he keeps having similar dreams concerning how he dies--

i am well ty! hope u are as well!

anyway i tried my Best. however u may (will) have to pretend 22 141 doesnt know shepherd was part of the betrayal bc uhhh yeah👍🙂👍 also cw for kinda graphic desc of ghost’s nightmares

-

Soap couldn’t pinpoint when the dreams started, or why, for that matter—but what he does know is that it’s pure and utter torment.

It’s a unique fear that festers in their wake, in cold sweat and heart palpitations. It’s spine-chilling in a way Soap has never experienced, because while he’s confident he’s looked death in the eyes on too many occasions, never has he actually died.

But his dreams, these dreams—they tell him otherwise. And he isn’t the only one, either.

Gaz and Price have started to look just as sleepless. And Ghost—Soap has never seen him so afraid. When, for the first time in weeks, Soap sees his face, it’s harrowed. Haunted.

There’s a sense of familiarity that’s brought along with Soap’s dreams; explosions, gunfire, dilapidated buildings and someone screaming his name. His brain supplies him with the knowledge that it’s Price, but it isn’t, not really. At least, not how he knows Price. He feels old wounds tearing open and a searing pain in his side as his body is drained of far too much blood, and Price—not his Price—is shaking him. Begging.

In the end, it just makes sense to Soap. To die in the field. But the dream is too visceral to feel anything but real, and he starts to wonder just when he’d begun to deserve these sorts of taunts.

Gaz says his own nightmares are blunt, but just as violent. As fiery. Price doesn’t say anything, but there’s a new sunken quality to the bags under his eyes, and he just looks at his team so different, with a tortured gaze and a regret so profound he doesn’t seem to understand it himself.

Finally, Soap thinks, their mental states have deteriorated beyond repair. Until, in his arms, Ghost is screaming his throat raw in his sleep, a wail only ever sounded by those trekking their way through hell. Soap’s heard it before, from others, in their final moments, but never from the living.

And that’s when Soap begins to understand that these aren’t just some dreams, but some distant reality he hopes to never face.

Soap gently coaxes Ghost from his slumber, cutting through nightmare and imagination and whatever horrible thing could have Ghost in such pain. His face wets with tears as he slowly wakes, clinging to Soap like a child might to their mother’s leg in an indescribable fear. Ghost has never seemed so small.

“It’s not just you,” Soap whispers. He presses a kiss to Ghost’s temple, pulls the man closer. “Tell me what happened.”

As Ghost gradually forces out the words Soap begins to feel sick, nauseated not only by their contents but by the knowledge that Ghost had just lived through it, but he never lets go. Never asks for Ghost to stop speaking, just listens. Listens even as something gnaws away at his gut, as bile climbs his throat.

Hot, Ghost says. It was hot. A bullet had been lodged somewhere in his body but it didn’t matter—it was hot. He’d claw off his skin to get rid of the heat if it weren’t already melting flesh from muscle, from bone. Clothes and gear meld with his corpse and he feels it all, feels the bubbling, smells the burning, senses the way parts of his body slough off into ash.

He’s reaching for someone, and there’s the itch of betrayal, and a voice in his ear that he knows, instinctually, is Price, but there isn’t anything more he can do than lie there and accept his fate as his fleeting thoughts pester him about everything he’d done wrong. About everything he could’ve done—should’ve done to save… to save—

“I know his name,” Ghost murmurs, “but I also don’t. And I—“

“Don’t dwell on it, Simon,” Soap advises. “Please.”

Ghost shakes his head against Soap’s shoulder. “I can’t just—it’s not something I can forget, Johnny. Not when it keeps happening.”

“But you can,” Soap pleads. A terrible sense of dread has befallen him, growing in intensity and insistence. Something isn’t right, but he doesn’t know if he wants to find out just what. “We all can.”

Ghost is silent a moment. Shifts somehow closer to Soap. Soap can hear him thinking.

“I don’t know if we should be trusting Shepherd,” he finally says.

Soap’s face pinches in a tight frown. It seems such a random topic for this hour, after such terror. “Why?”

Ghost shrugs. “Can’t explain it. Gut feeling. Could be wrong, but—“

“When are you ever?” It’s meant to be teasing, but Soap does trust Ghost’s judgement more than anyone, perhaps even more than his own. Ghost just nods and clings ever tighter until his breathing evens out and tense muscles go lax.

Soap can’t find it in himself to fall back asleep.

Instead, he begins to wonder just how true these nightmares hold. And he begins to question how exactly Shepherd may fit into all of it.

Unfortunately, though, he supposes, there’s only one way to find out.

[maddiviner]

NPCs! OMG

I'm not one of those people who insists arguing on the internet is for dweebs. I realize it has a place and function. I just sometimes feel the need to curb my own impulse to do that, especially on those completely empty ten-hour night shifts. If I don't hold back, I end up writing replies to people on Facebook like this.

Little context - I've been hanging out in this group on Facebook about "Simulation Theory." It's mostly what you'd expect?

I have no clue when I joined this group - probably in the distant past, and/or I expected something else from it. I was pretty interested in that kinda thought experiment when i was in university, mostly as a result of this whole "make fun of Descartes" shit that went on.

I'm pretty sure it only started showing up in my feed suddenly (rather recently) because of a health diagnosis that the group seems to find fascinating. Guess when I joined support groups for that, it also started putting this group in my feed because of it.

Either way, I stayed in the group (with some other people I met there) to lurk, learn what they're believing, and try and push people away from that kind of thing.

They have this obsession with NPCs, who are supposedly soulless creatures that look utterly like humans in every other way. They argue constantly about whether NPCs are controlled by evil intelligences, or just AI, stuff like that.

In the above I was trying to explain to some poor sap that the people he saw in a cafe laughing unprovoked weren't, in fact, glitched-out soulless entities called NPCs, but instead probably just thinking about dangerous sex acts involving dextromethorphan.

If you find yourself writing that kind of explanation or reply on the internet, dial it back a bit? I did. That screenshot was taken a while back, and now I'm mostly lurking that awful group, if that. I often tell myself that those kinds of comments are meant to convince the lurkers more than the people I'm debating... but there's a limit to that, wtf.

Why? I don't really know. It seems to really show the cutting edge of how the techbros are meshing with the New Age movement. It's disturbing, but I want to know what is going on there. Plus, they won't stop bringing up my particular diagnosis, and I still jump in to debunk that association when I see it.

[somber-sapphic]

Training Day

〖Summary: Alex takes care of Lena while Kara is away.〗

〖Word Count: 1k〗

〖Pairing: Alex x sick Lena (platonic)〗

〖Notes: Please forgive me for my very little knowledge of military training. I've been trying to write this for a very long time so I also apologize if it's a bit iffy in places but I do really hope you enjoy it. Also were not discussing the title, I don't have anything better in me today.〗

Lena huffed and crossed her arms, glaring down the short-haired DEO agent in front of her. She had been forced to wake up at the ungodly hour of five am to beat Alex in a fight. For some reason, the DEO decided that even a scientist would need to go through the same extensive training as the field agents. 

It had started a few days ago and mirrored what she imagined Navy Seal training would be like plus a few extras directly on how to fight aliens. That included assembling special guns, a written test about which alien had which fighting styles as well as a basic course in how to treat different poisons the aliens might possess and which would kill you in an instant. These weren’t the only things but they were the ones she cared enough to remember.

The thing that had really gotten Lena was the mile swim. In what world would she need to swim a mile she had no idea but apparently, it was a requirement. She wasn’t a bad swimmer but she wasn’t fantastic either. She’d managed to complete the mile swim in just under the allotted time. The salt in the icy ocean clung to her clothes and hair making the experience all that much worse.

That was thankfully the only test of the day but it left Lena freezing, unable to warm up no matter what she did. The cold also reminded her of the scratchy throat she’d had for a few days and brought more attention to other symptoms that had remained milder. The barely sore throat quickly turned to something much more painful and it was like over the span of a few hours she had developed what she was sure would be an awful cold. 

Her nose was running nonstop to the point where she had just decided to hold a tissue against it so that she didn’t have to keep throwing them away. Her head throbbed with every beat of her heart and she’d wrapped herself tightly in a soft blanket before falling asleep on the couch, her hair still wet. 

None of that mattered. She couldn’t let it matter, there was just no time for that. She wasn’t sure when they would let her go through this training again. No matter how much she argued about her close combat skills she was still told that she needed to fight the second in command that of course being Alex. 

It had been a long time since she’d squared up against such a well-trained opponent and knew that in her current state, there was simply no way that she’d win. Her goal was just to go for as long as she could before either her body gave out or Alex got bored. She was hoping for the latter which would save her some embarrassment. 

So far that plan wasn’t working. Alex had pinned her four times, the rounds lasting only a few minutes each. The longest she’d managed to hold her own was five minutes and she knew that she’d need to prove she could last longer if she ever wanted to be officially allowed in the field. The field being her lab in the DEO.

“C’mon Luthor, let's go. One more then we break.” Alex ordered, raising her fists. Lena did the same, assuming a fighting stance. The world was swimming around her, making it difficult to keep her eyes focused on the brunette in front of her. She was trying to track Alex’s movements but the woman kept doubling and shifting, her movements glitching in and out of Lena’s view. 

When the kick swept her legs she didn’t put her arms out to stop herself much to Alex’s surprise. The young CEO began to fall, her eyes wide and bewildered. Alex reached out quickly and grabbed Lena’s wrist, managing to catch the bit of skin that wasn’t covered by her sleeve. 

Just by touching her wrist, she could tell that the heat was more than a normal higher temperature caused by exercise. Lena's skin was clammy and slick with sweat. As Alex examined her closer she noticed the red nose and hair stuck to her forehead with more sweat. Her friend was shivering hard, curling in on herself. 

“Geez, you’re burning up.” Alex moved the back of her hand from Lena’s cheek and laid her palm against the shivering woman's forehead. The sleepy woman sniffled quietly and shrugged, not speaking. She was too tired to talk, there was just not enough energy in her body to pretend anymore. 

“Alright. I’m going to take you home, did you bring a change of clothes?” She asked, wrapping an arm around Lena’s waist to take most of her weight. The younger Luthor sagged heavily against the agent, barely able to stand on trembling legs. 

“No,” Lena answered, offering no further explanation. Alex rolled her eyes, smiling fondly down at the woman she assumed would be her future sister-in-law. She’d seen the box in the drawer of Kara’s bedside table and her sister had sworn her to secrecy. 

“Okay. I’ll get you home soon, you won’t have to be in these clothes for very long. And, you’re showering as soon as we get back. You smell.” She teased, getting a little whimper from the woman leaning against her. With another eye-roll, Alex scooped Lena up so that she was carrying her bridal style. 

“Why?” Her charge asked, not hesitating to rest her head on Alex’s shoulder. She was pretty sure that she had no other choice, her body was utterly devoid of strength. 

“This is just easier Little Luthor. As soon as we get you settled I’m going to call Kara, alright?” Lena nodded, closing her eyes as she was carried out of the training room. She’d fought hard against this virus but for now, she was down for the count. At least she would have Alex there to look after her until the woman she loved got home.

〖Join My Taglist〗@lovelyy-moonlight, @bloomingflowersthings, @lots-of-pockets, @asiangmrchk13,@scrambled-brain-eggs, @juststuckhereforever, @fayhar

[zeynatura]

Get ready for my Wuthering Waves 1st day experience:

Rover is cute, fun and adorable, i love them

You know who i also love? Chixia

I feel like she portrays the very energetic and always positive girl trope very well, and she's funny

She also knows CPR and was gonna use it on us if we didn't wake up at the start asdfnhbasdfj so that's a plus on my book

Aw yeah i got the tortoise, baby!

There's animals everywhere and they're so cute, you can interact with some of them (dogs and cats, will add videos on another post)

My overall experience was enjoyable, i know a lot of people have been dealing with a lot of bugs and glitches, thankfully for me i only got some lag when i first load into the game and 1 black screen on a cutscene which made me restart the game, i'll give it an 8/10

I love how when you look at Jinzhou City is so Kuro's Arquitecture Style, reminded me a lot of PGR's enviroments

Which reminds me: the combat system is more forgiving in WuWa than PGR lmao, i recetly went back to playing PGR because all my favs were getting something new and i am not good at dodging and parrying on games in general and my main team has 2 tanks and a healer and sometimes i forget to dodge and die, i was scared WuWa was gonna be like that kind of experience but so far is not.

Yes i do get hit sometimes, but other times i sucessfully dodge or parry and i'm like o:! i hope i get to be better at it cause i'll need it in further lvls and harder enemies

[crazyk-imagine]

Fresh Meat

Pairing: Leonard “Wolfman” Wolfe (Henry “Wolfman” Ruth) x Civilian!Reader

Characters: Civilian!Reader, Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, Leonard “Wolfman” Wolfe (Henry “Wolfman” Ruth), Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Ron “Slider” Kerner, Rick “Hollywood” Neven, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (briefly mentioned), Jake the ex-boyfriend (briefly mentioned)

Warnings: Wolfman is adorable (and horny), but so is the reader, the reader and Charlie as besties are a great and terrifying duo, Goose is a little shit, Iceman and Slider are a chaotic duo with a great psychic link, Hollywood and Wolfman bringing back their classic quote, honestly this is crazy but in a good way

Word Count: 2,882

A/N:  Reader’s “Name” is darlin’ and reader says Charls as sh-are-els

... Last night during my Top Gun searchin’ adventure, I’ve found some information that leads me to believe I’ve been duped. Apparently, Wolfman’s name in the movie was Henry Ruth but everywhere else you look you find Leonard Wolfe. I don’t know what to believe but I’m putting both names for the pairing but using Leonard for fics and we’re moving on

*Also, y’all are so sweet! We just went from 581 to 700 yesterday, I feel like it might be a glitch, but it doesn’t seem like it so we’re celebrating!  

                                * 700+ follower celebratory post *

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

You turn the tv off. 

“We should go out.” 

You look over at Charlotte with furrowed brows at the outlandish idea. “Out where? Anywhere we go you’ll be hit on and I just- I don’t want to go out.” 

She sticks her bottom lip out making you feel bad. “Please?” 

“No, Charls.” You look down at your outfit (if you could even call it that. Pajamas and a baggy shirt don’t normally do well for a night of drinking), “plus I’m not even ready and it’s too late.” 

She lifts your watch, pulling it close to dramatize. “We have plenty of time to get ready and have a girl’s night. No guys. No talking or spending the night with anyone. Just us two.” She sees the hesitation spreading across your face. “Please? Darlin, we haven’t been out together in so long. I miss it.” 

“I miss it too, babes but it’s- I-” You stupidly look back at her and throw your head back, sliding off the couch, letting out a quiet whine. “I hate you.” 

She lets out a victory laugh. “Oh, you have no idea how happy you’ve made me,” she practically crawls across the couch, wrapping her arms around your shoulders, pulling you back. 

A slow chuckle escapes you. “Yeah, yeah. I’m amazing. I know.” 

“Are you sure you haven’t been to base? You’re starting to sound an awful lot like them.” 

“Oh,” you shove her off you. “Bite me, Charls.” You push yourself off the floor and walk down the hallway, entering your room. 

“You even have their lame retorts too!” 

“Suck a dick!” 

“That’s better. They definitely wouldn’t say that.” She exits the living room, wandering towards the “guest” room even though you consider it her room since she uses it more than you do. She’s claimed the closet and dresser as hers, the math adds up, but she doesn’t want to hear it. 

The two of you laugh as you work on getting ready for your girls’ night. 

-

“Are you done yet, Darlin’?” 

You put the cap back into your lipstick, “could you give me a minute? Geez, you’re worse than Jake.” 

Your bedroom door opens, the clacking of her heels against the hardwood floor tells you she’s getting closer. 

“How are you doing today? I wanted to ask earlier but I didn’t want to make you sad.” 

You shrug, chucking your lipstick into your purse before checking your teeth making sure there are no marks. “I mean, it’s whatever. We weren’t going anywhere, it’s better to break it off now than wait until we were married or something.” 

She nods, “that’s true but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be magically healed. You still have to grieve even if you aren’t affected by it.” 

You rest your hands against the countertop, closing your eyes. “You’re right but,” a heavy sigh slips through your parted lips. “I just- I don’t want it to seem like I’m moving on to fast.” You turn around, leaning against the sink, “I don’t want it to seem like I’m moving on too soon.” 

“It’s been six months since the breakup,” she points out. “Plus, he has a new girlfriend.” 

“That’s true.” 

“Come on. You deserve to have fun and let loose.” She stands beside you, nudging your arm with her elbow. “It’s time you leave this place and make some friends. Maybe even wake up in some stranger’s bed.” 

You scoff, pushing yourself off the counter. “Oh my God. Charlotte Blackwood.” 

She cackles, “don’t use my full name. I didn’t do nothing wrong.” 

“You’re using your other head and you know it.” 

Charlotte gasps, “how dare you! I’m doing no such thing.” 

You hum, “and if that was the case you wouldn’t have slept with one of your students.” 

“Sometimes I regret telling you everything.” 

“But if you didn’t, life would be boring.” 

“If that’s what you think.” The smile slips from your lips. 

“No, no. Don’t start thinking now. We’re gonna finished getting you dolled up and then we’re gonna have a couple of drinks before we go to the nearest fast-food place and order too much so the employees can judge use at two in the morning.” 

You shake your head and arms, getting rid of your nerves. “Okay,” you grab your purse. “We gotta leave now before I lose my cool.” 

“They won’t know what hit them when we get there.” 

“Sure. Yeah.” 

“Oh no,” she shakes her head, pulling your arm. “We’re leaving and we’re leaving now.”

 -

Charlotte walks through the doors and turns her head with a smile on her face, expecting to see you there only to see the bar. She sighs, turning around to grab you and haul you inside. “We’re having a girl’s night which means more than one female or else it’d be a sad night.” 

“You’d find someone else to be your bed buddy.” 

“If you continue to imply that I’m a whore...” 

A smirk tugs at the corner of your mouth, “you’ll do what?” 

She doesn’t respond and rushes towards the bar. 

You follow after her with a little pep in your step. 

Neither of you say anything after ordering your drinks. 

-

Ron taps Tom’s shoulder, pointing over towards the two of you. “Hey, isn’t that Charlie?” 

The man turns and a smirk slowly appears across his lips. “Why, Ron, I do believe it is.” 

“Should we?” 

“You mean, should we talk to the instructor that hothead Maverick decides to sleep with and break it off before things could get serious?” 

“We are, aren’t we.” 

“This is why you’re my RIO.” Tom walks ahead while Ron shakes his head, slightly wishing he never said anything but then thinks about what Pete’s reaction would be and all sensible thinking is thrown out the window. 

He grabs Leonard and Rick by the back of their necks which intrigues Nick causing him to follow. 

-

“Hello,” the one with frosted tips starts. 

“If we knew all the instructors were this pretty, we would have tried harder to get in,” the one with the cowboy hat says. 

You glance over to Charlie, who lowers her head. You want to ask her what’s wrong until you realize who they are. “Oh.” 

She turns her head, forehead still resting on her arm. “You see what I’m dealing with.” 

You chuckle, “oh, yeah.” 

The one with the mustache busts through the line of guys. “Charles. Charlie. The Charmer. The C-dog beneath Mave’s wings, how are you?” 

You cover your mouth to hide your snickers. 

He turns towards you, “you like that, huh?” 

“God, no.” You shake your head, “that was terrible, but you were so confident while doing it.” 

He rubs the back of his neck, “uh- thanks. I think?” 

“You have a wife, Mother Goose. Move it,” the tall one next to frosted tips sneers at him. 

Mother Goose puffs out his chest, “don’t you talk about her, Slippery Slide.” 

You stare at the two with your jaw close to the ground. “You’re married?” Your head snaps towards Charlotte’s. “He’s married.” 

She nods, “I’m afraid so. Oh, and they have a child.” 

“Well, bless their hearts.” 

“We’ve never met before, but I find that to be very rude.” 

“If you heard the way you talked out loud, you’d be thinking the same as me.” 

The others chuckle. 

“But,” you draw out. “You pull it off well so, I can see why you’re lucky to call yourself a married man.” 

A boyish grins tugs at his lips, “thank you, miss.”

You pull Charlotte along with you towards a table, wanting to get away from the guys before they try to see either of you without any clothes on. 

If only the drinking gods were listening. 

-

Mother Goose shoves the one in the hat, who then trips over people’s feet; his arms flailing in the air as he tries to balance himself only to fail and fall at your feet. 

He reaches up making sure his hats still on his head (it is). His eyes stop on a pair of decently worn-out sneakers, his eyes keep moving up until he spots your tilted head. 

He swears you’re an angel sent to him and it’s only because of his lucky (and only) hat. 

There’s a pretty smile dancing across your lips as you put your hand out to help him up. 

The dopey expression on his face makes the others shake their heads. 

“I told you to watch your step.” 

You turn to look at him. “Mother Goose, was it?” 

He shakes his head, “just Goose.” 

He smiles, acting like he didn’t do anything wrong. 

“Got it,” you nod, pretending to that correction into consideration. “Listen here, shit head Goose-” 

He stares at you offended at your “nickname” for him with one hand on his chest, mouth agape. 

“You should learn to not be mean and trip your fellow classmates. These guys here are the ones that watch your back. Pilot, RIO, WSO, whatever your title and/ or occupation may be because one day you’re gonna prank the wrong person and then you’ll be screwed.” 

“Rude,” he mutters. 

“Am I wrong?” 

He hesitates to answer. “No.” 

“Exactly.” 

-

Leonard leans over to Rick, “I think I’m getting a hard-on.” 

His buddy scoffs, jerk his arm with his elbow, “don’t tease me.” 

-

“I have to go make a call.” 

“Bye bye, Goose!” You shout, waving your arm erratically like an insane person. Nick smiles and returns the wave. 

“Bye, mean, crazy lady!” 

Charlotte bumps your arm, staring at you with a raised brow. 

You give her a smile in return. 

She shakes her head. This is exactly why she never brought you to base. 

-

“What now?” Rick asks Leonard with an annoyed tone. 

“I will give you a crinkly, crisp ten-dollar bill, if you get the slippery combo out of here.” 

“Sixty and we’ll leave the bar.” 

“Why are you ruining my chances at finding love? Be honest with me. What did I do to you?” 

His buddy rolls his eyes, “if I’m taking muscles and frosted tips with me, I’m gonna need something to pay off the tab you created.” 

He sighs, “alright, fine.” He slaps the cash into Rick’s hand. 

“Run along now.” 

The man with the cash walks behind the two, pulling them over to the side. “Follow me if you want to save yourself.” 

Tom and Ron give each other a questioning look; they look back to see Wolfman trying to use his classic go to moves, they follow Hollywood without any more convincing. 

-

“So,” he starts off. “Would you like to have babies sometime?” 

Yours and Charlotte’s widen, she snorts her drink out her nose and leaves to clean herself up in the restroom while you pat your chest and cough. 

Your throats a little scratchy from the saliva and spontaneous coughing fit. You take a sip of your drink. “What?” 

He winces, lowering his hat. “Sorry, I was uh- I was trying to say something nice but then I- well, I said that. If you want to leave, I wouldn’t blame you.” 

Once you manage to catch your breath, the corner of your lips tugs upwards. “I think I’d rather stay here and talk to you. You can certainly keep a girl on her toes.” 

He lifts his hat off his brow, staring at you through his lashes. “Well, if that’s what you want, I’d be happy to make that happen.” 

You lean closer, “let’s get a booth.” 

He nods, “okay.” 

You two spend the rest of the night talking, sadly leaving Charlotte alone but luckily, she was able to talk to the other guys who made their way to you two earlier. 

-

She glances over at you, happy to see you finally enjoying yourself even if it is with one of her students. 

She may not approve of his language at times, more so one specific comment but still happy that you’ve found yourself someone who can make you smile and give you more Jake ever did. 

She realizes now you have a legit excuse to come to base. This isn’t going to be good for her. 

Tom chuckles, seemingly realizing what’s going on in the instructor’s head. 

“Don’t say anything.” 

“I won’t,” he says in between his breathless chuckles. “You can count on that.” 

“Oh God,” Rick adds. 

Ron furrows his brows, “what’s wrong with you?” 

“That horny knuckle head just got himself a girl. I’m never gonna hear the end of it.” 

The two friends chuckle at the twos expense. 

“Ah, but just think Hollywood,” Ron starts. “If he annoys you, you can send him to her so she can deal with it.” 

“Unless she’s not home,” Charlotte adds. “I’ve been trying to get her out of the house for the past few months and today was success.” 

“Break up?” asks Tom. 

The instructor narrows her eyes at him, confused at his sudden interest in potential gossip. “Why do you want to know?” 

He shrugs, pretending to be innocent. “I- he’s- I gotta know what’s going on with my fellow classmates when we’re in the air,” he sputters to say, being quick on his feet. 

“Mm-hmm. It was a mutual break up, if you must know.”

 -

“What made you want to come out here tonight… you know now that I think about it. I still haven’t asked you for your name.” 

He opens his mouth to respond when you place your finger over his lips, shutting him up for a second. 

“And don’t say your call sign. I want to know your real name first at least.” 

He nods, removing your hand. “Leonard, the name’s Leonard Wolfe and you better remember it, darlin’. My call sign’s Wolfman.” 

“How’d you know my nickname?” 

“What?” 

“My nickname. You- did you seriously not know?” You ask with a giggle. 

“You’re joking.” 

“No, it’s practically my name at this point but that’s my nickname. I’ve had it since I was a little girl.” 

He sets his arm on the back of the booth behind you, scooting closer. “Well then, I’d say it’s a good thing that I met you.” 

“Someone’s cocky.” 

“It’s all part of my charm.” 

You fix his crooked collar. “I see and,” your look into his eyes, distracting him. “If either one of us, no one in particular, wants to continue this. Does that mean this… so called charm is code for your cocky all the time?” 

“I am offended at that-” 

It’s a blur. 

Once his vision clears and he sees what you’ve done. He raises a brow, “you realize what that means right?” 

You lean in, staring at his lips for a little too long (and a little too obviously). “Do you realize what this means?” 

His brows knit together in confusion, “now I’m confused.” 

“Well, let me clear this up for you. I’m wearing your hat.” 

He nods. 

“I plan on seeing you again. We’ll go back to your place because- well, I’m not talking to Charls about this tonight. And I wanted to see how cute I’d look in this.” 

He focuses on that for a moment, the hand on the back of the booth cups your cheek, his breath fans against your ear. “You’d look better if you had nothing on except for my hat.” 

Before you can respond he’s on you faster than a surfer trying to catch a wave. 

A muffled surprised yelp escapes you until you two slowly get in the groove with kissing one another. 

The whistling and hollering breaks you two out of it. 

He sighs, glancing over his shoulder at the assholes who’ve ruined his night. 

Charlotte shakes her head at you. 

He throws his head back, resting against the seat of the booth. 

“Did you drive here?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You want to head out and grab something to eat?” 

“You really are an angel, Darlin’.” 

“You’re just saying that.” 

He shakes his head, “believe me when I say it. You are an angel and I’m taking you out tonight and the next night then the night after that.” 

“So, you’ll be keeping me out past my bedtime.” 

“You won’t be getting much sleep in the first place.” He slips out of the booth, yanking you with him. 

“Woah! Slow down there, Dogboy.” 

“We’ve got places to go and beds to not sleep in. There is no rest!” 

You throw your head back and laugh. “Oh, wait- wait!” 

“What?” 

“Just give me one second.” You turn and wave your arm like a crazy woman, “bye, Charls!” 

-

She scrunches her neck, not looking up from the table. 

“You should say by to your friend before she gets the whole bar involved,” Tom advises. 

“Shut up.” 

Nick takes the initiative and waves with the same enthusiasm. “Bye, mean lady!” 

“Bye Mother Goose!” 

“Damn,” he mumbles. 

“Bye, She wolf!” Ron, Rick, and Tim wave at you. 

-

That happy smile doesn’t slip from your lips as you two exit the bar. 

“Aw.” 

“What’s wrong?” Leonard asks you. 

“I was expecting your ride to be a horse,” you joke. 

He growls, pulling you closer by your waist. “You keep joking like that and I’ll give you something ride.” 

You peck his lips with a happy smile dancing across your lips, “keep that promise for later. I’m famished.” 

“Yes, ma’am.”  

[inariyazaki]

2 - Unexpected Reunion

Previous | m.list | Next

Warnings : Mentions of a corpse !

( Text may look glitched LMAO also may seem rushed n like the story line is kinda boring , js lmk if u want cold reader back dho , maybe I will change reader back !! who knows what I have in mind )

You ran to the direction where you heard Lumine scream, "[Name] [name] [name]! Does that thing bite?!" Lumine says as she points as a fox, "It's a fox..?" You say panting, "Yeah but does it bite?!" Lumine asks again, "No.. She doesn't bite, she's my fox." You say, "Oh. She's your fox..!" Lumine says as she calms down, "Whoops!" Lumine adds, "Hi there little fox!" Lumine says as she waves to your fox, "Her name's Rena." You say, "Rena! Rena. Hi Rena!" Lumine greets her, "I thought something serious happened.. Dear god." You say, "Ahaha sorry.. Oh! Do you know a place that has a good view?" Lumine asks, you nod, "Follow me. Just be careful of your surroundings." You say, Lumine nods, you turn around to go to the cliff side you just came from. "Woah.." Lumine says in awe. "It's really pretty, huh?" You say, "It really is! It's so beautiful!" Paimon says, you smile. You smiled, finally. After so many years.. You never knew you were capable of smiling anymore, nor feeling any emotions. You thought you'd be as straight faced as ever, but you actually smiled. Years and years of suffering, of holding the responsibility of being a leader, "Be careful, watch your step. You might slip, I won't be there when you do." You say as you walk away trying to avoid whatever you're feeling, "Why? Where are you going?" Paimon asks chasing after to you, you shake your head, "Don't worry about it. You can find me somewhere if we ever meet again." You say, "Wait you're leaving permanently?!" Paimon says as she flies towards you, you simply nod your head, "Not as in permanently, I'll still be here roaming around. Unless you go to a different forest, then I won't be there." You explain, "Why though..?" Paimon asks slightly hurt, "Nothing. I just think you guys can do it alone and you don't need any help. Plus it'll benefit from me too." You say, "How?" Paimon says moving closer to you, It'll benefit from me by hurting less when you go. You say to yourself, "I can finish my job without slowing you all down. Plus I won't have to think of anything else." You say, "Then we'll help!" Paimon offers, "Right.. We can help you! We're friends after all." Lumine says, "Yeah yeah, what Lumine says! I mean.. We're enough people right..?" Paimon says, "How do you trust me so easily?" You ask, "Because you basically saved our life! You guided us to your camp, your camp! And we were strangers! You even fed us, hunted for us, gave us time to rest, do you think we aren't gonna trust you after that?!" Paimon says, "Alright alright.. You can save the lecture." You say, "I'm glad you want me to stay and all, but I can't stay with you." You say, "Why not?" Paimon asks, "I just can't. I can't explain it myself." You say, "This is my forest anyways, so it's a high chance we'll meet again." You say walking past Paimon, "We'll go to every place we've been then! We'll continue finding you!" Paimon yells as she watches you walk off to the distance, you just raise your hand and wave it, "I'm looking forward to that." You mumble while smiling.

Groups POV :

Paimon faces back to the group with a frown, "I liked her presence.." Paimon says, "I'm sure we all did, Paimon. Don't worry, I'm sure we can still find her!" Tighnari says trying to comfort Paimon, Paimon nods solemnly, "However for now we need to survive on our own. So let's all stay sharp and look for a place to camp at. Or do we want to stay at [name]'s?" Tighnari says, "I suggest we stay at [name]'s camp. It's the closest here and where we first came from. I'd say it's the most safest spot." Xiao suggests, "Good point. Alright, it's set then, [name]'s camp and who'll find the food?" Tighnari asks, "How about me and Lumine? Since we're used to fighting and traveling to different worlds." Aether asks, "Sure. Alright, for the others.. Cyno, Xiao, and Wanderer will stay on guard together with me. Paimon you can go with whoever you want." Tighnari says, "I'll stay at [name]'s camp, maybe I can try finding her in the distance!" Paimon says, Tighnari nods, "Alright. For now we all rest." Tighnari says, everyone nods and the group proceeds to go at [name]'s camp.

Your POV :

You aren't leaving. You're just merely taking a break. You just want to scare them a bit, you know, play! Like friends do. You won't leave them alone, of course since your responsibility is to protect the people in your forest. You overheard their plan, and so you won't be showing up to your camp anytime soon. You'll visit as a kitsune though, hopefully they won't notice. You'll bring them food as a kitsune. Your coat has a rather unique pattern, one you won't see a lot in a forest, so you're quite worried. Of course, you wouldn't want to be seen in those acts of yours, it would be quite embarrassing, at least for you. "Unbelievable, they think they can kill these kitsunes by themselves? Well, I shouldn't be talking. I can't really underestimate them." You say to yourself, "That's correct." You heard a voice say replying to your sentence, your eyes widen, "Whose there?!" You say drawing your weapon, "Now now, what have I taught you? Never draw out your sword at a stranger." The unknown voice said, "What?" You ask, "What the hell do you mean 'taught'?" You ask aggressively, "You don't remember me?" The voice talked again, you thought hard as the voice did not seem familiar, "Ah right I forgot. I wasn't there when you grew up huh? My apologies, hun. I thought you were your bother." The voice said as you see a tall figure come out from a shadow, weird. You never seen a kitsune summon a shadow to hide themselves, "How do you know Kitsuyo?" You ask tightening your grip on your weapon. "Calm down, I'm someone close to you and your brother." The male figure said walking closer to you, "Do not take another step. I won't hesitate to injure you in some type of way." You say looking at him, the male smiled, "You have grown, [name]. It makes me so proud to have a daughter like you." The man said, and after that sentence your eyes widen in realization, "Dad..?" You mumble.

After that day, a week passed. Nothing much has changed with the forest, it was peaceful as usual. Multiple birds were roaming around, some were still sleeping quietly and peacefully, and some were chirping. The group woke up, well, surprisingly, Paimon woke up first to see a familiar figure sitting beside her, Paimon blinked her eyes twice and her eyes widen to see who it was, ''[Name]!" Paimon called out, you turn your head at her direction, "Hi Paimon." You greeted her with a cheerful smile, Paimon rushed to your side and hugged you, "I missed you so much.." Paimon says, "Me too, Paimon.. Me too. I promise I won't leave anymore." You say, "Woah woah [name]?!" Lumine shouts, "Hi there Lumine." You greet her as well, the others woke up to the sound of Lumine's voice, Tighnari sat up rubbing his eyes, once he looked up he saw you. ''[Name].." Tighnari mumbles your name, "Mhm. I'm back." You say quietly, Lumine's smile widens and tackles you in a hug *Maybe feeling happy once in a while is fine..* you think to yourself as the group is laughing. "Ah that's right." You say sitting up, Lumine looks up as you stand, "My father." You say pointing at the male leaning on a tree trunk, "Great to meet you all! I'm Kagero, [Name]'s father." Your father introduces himself to the group, "Hi Mr. Kagero! Your daughter is such a nice kid! I'm Lumine." Lumine introduces herself, "Did you have to add that first sentence.." You say dead panning her, "Yeah! You are a nice person." Lumine says, "The first days we met says otherwise.." You say scratching your neck, "Right. I apologize for my daughters behavior. She isn't used to groups such as you guys, so she has a tendency to seem quite rude at the first times you meet her. But I can assure you she gradually gets nicer. I can speak from experience as she was quite hostile to me when I met her last week." Your father explains, "Oh come on! I only drew my weapon because I didn't know who you were." You say, "You threatened your own father." He says, "I didn't know who you were. I thought you were some stalker that knows my family!" You say crossing your arms, your father chuckles, "Fair enough. The last time I saw you was when you were first born." Your father says, "What happened to Kitsuyo though? Why isn't he with you?" Your father asks, your breathe hitches, you swallow. "He.." you stop thinking about the words to explain to your father, "It's alright [name]. Take your time thinking there's absolutely no rush." Tighnari says, "Hah. You're good at reading body language." You compliment him, "Thanks." He says smiling at you. You take a deep breathe, "Dad, Kitsuyo, he uh.. died." You say as your voice starts shaking as you recall that time where you saw your brother's deceased corpse, "I see. I apologize for making you remember that memory." Your father apologizes, you shake your head while looking down, "No it's okay." You say. After that the group went silent, "Well this is sad.. uhm would anyone like to play a game?" Paimon suggests, "Sure." Aether agrees, you look at her, "Can I trust you to hold a game?" You ask, Paimon scoffs "Of course you can! I can be responsible when I want to!" Paimon says, "Mhm sure.. But what game is it?'' You ask, "Good 'ol Hide n' Seek!" Paimon says, "Seems fun. But I'll be watching to prevent any accidents." You say, "[Name]." Your father calls out to you, everyone looks at your father, "You don't have to do that anymore. I'm here, go have fun with your friends. You all can go to the main part of the forest, they have multiple hiding spots and it's pretty much the safest place in this forest." Your father says, "Yeah! It's alright [name]. You don't have to stress about your forest's safety for a while!" Paimon says, you slightly smile and nod, "Follow me then." You say walking to the main part of the forest.

Multiple hours has passed, you all played with the foxes until the sky turned dark.

"Phew! I'm beat!" Paimon says, "Right! It was so fun chasing the foxes. They're so full of energy! And to think [name] has the same blood with them.'' Lumine says, "What's wrong with having the same blood as them? They're Umi kitsunes as well." You say shrugging your shoulders, "Nothing! It's just you almost have no energy." Lumine says, you slightly tilt your head "Fair enough." You say, "It's just these kill joys! You guys are no fun." Lumine says pointing at Wanderer, Xiao, and Cyno. "Come on, Lumine! That's all child's play, what's the fun in that." Wanderer says, "A lot of things actually. You should try it one day, Wanderer.'' Aether suggests. "See? Even Aether agrees." Lumine says putting both her hands on her hips, Wanderer simply rolls his eyes. You fondly sigh at the bickering of your friends, however all things come to an end, and you had to leave. "Well then, I'll leave now. Aren't you all trying to go back to Teyvat though? I'm shocked why you're still here." You say, "Uhh, right, why are we still here?" Paimon says, "Well me and Aether can stay here, I don't know about you guys though." Lumine says, "Honestly speaking I feel at home here!" Tighnari says, "Probably because you're surrounded by foxes. You know! You're ears." Paimon says, Tighnari chuckles, "Probably." He replies with a smile, "Then, hopefully we can all meet tomorrow. Good night." You say walking away, "Good night, [Name]!" Paimon says, "G'night!" Lumine says as well, the others were waving at you, you come back to your father, "Let's go back home?" You smile fondly at him, "Let's go back home." He says.

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

Taglist [open] - @xiaos-wif3 @riabef @klementime @swivy123

( highlighted w blue means can't tag )

[systemrestart]

Took me a while, but I've finally finished writing my thoughts on all 22 Touhou games I've played!!!

I tried to keep it brief but uhhhhhhh it ended up being insanely long anyways ;; Whoops. Maybe someday I'll be able to make full-on video reviews for each of them, there was a Lot I glazed over and a lot that's hard to describe without footage.

But regardless, here it is, my thoughts on Touhou 1-19, plus 9.5, 12.5, and 18.5! (Warning that this may be incomprehensible to a non-bullet hell player 😅)

[TOUHOU 1: HIGHLY RESPONSIVE TO PRAYERS]

The obvious black sheep of the family, HRtP isn't a bullet hell shooter, it's an arkanoid-style breakout game. But even so, I LOVE it. HRtP is very precious to me. It's definitely Hard, VERY hard, and the stage layouts can be a little unfair in places lol, but the controls are tight and responsive, and it's incredibly satisfying to improve.

Or even just to play purely for fun! For a decade, I honestly didn't expect to ever 1cc it, I just enjoyed playing casually, and HRtP is very friendly to that approach, with infinite continues, the ability to max out your starting lives, and a shorter time to complete than the other games. It's almost 30 years old now, but if you like breakout style games or old arcade, I still think it's worth a try! Maybe someone else out there will come to love it as much as I do

[TOUHOU 2: STORY OF EASTERN WONDERLAND]

Touhou's first proper shmup/bullet hell, and it is unquestionably the roughest in the series ;; That's not to say it's bad, just that it's aged a little poorly.

I try not to hold future QoL stuff against the older games, but man, not having a focus option, or health bars for the bosses, is Painful. This game also has some of the worst visibility issues in the series (like, bullets being the same color as the background, with no outline), and also an awful glitch that hurts gameplay (dying SHIFTS YOUR HITBOX. considering that knowing where your hitbox is is VITAL to survival……. yikes), so yeah, I understand why it's not fondly remembered.

But it has its charms!! There's the infamous (gay) conversation in Stage 2, this is the only game in which Genji (Reimu's pet turtle who helps her fly in the PC-98 games) speaks, I think the low cap on lives+easy score 1-ups is an interesting combo, AND this game introduced Marisa!!! Even if her design is very different now

I don't play this one much. If I were to rank all the games this one would probably be second lowest. But it's an okay time and you can still get some tense battles!!

[TOUHOU 3: PHANTASMAGORIA OF DIMENSIONAL DREAM]

The first VS shooter of the series!

Basically the idea is that you clear waves of enemies to both send bullets/attacks at your enemy, and charge your gauge to send even more powerful attacks, or even a boss. First to lose all their health loses the round.

The VS shooters are very chaotic, and the enemy AI can absolutely be unfair ;; But the high energy back-and-forth of a match is extremely thrilling!! I also really adore the final boss of this game, Yumemi Okazaki……. a human college professor from the real world, who came to Gensokyo to try and capture someone to prove magic is real to her school…… and she fights with, science? I find her super charming and fun, one of my favorite final boss characters

Now that I've played other VS shooters, including the game that apparently inspired this one, I can say that PoDD is very rudimentary. But sometimes you don't need a lot of fancy bells and whistles to have fun! Now if only it didn't require button mashing, I would play it more often……..

[TOUHOU 4: LOTUS LAND STORY]

LLS was my favorite Touhou game for a long, long, long time.

A big reason it was a favorite is because it's one of the most beginner friendly games by far. No cap on lives (plus 1-ups are granted by score, one of the easier systems), a free bomb after every stage, you can increase your starting lives significantly, there's a "slowmode" option to help you train, most of the patterns are either exploitable or designed around having no visible hitbox…… etc. It was first game I beat on Hard, way back when I was a teenager and could normally only play Easy mode. That's still a precious memory.

LLS also has one of the best overall soundtracks in the entire series. The fun, dream-like Lotus Love, into the tense and foreboding Sleeping Terror, into the calm anticipation of Dream Land, into an explosive heartpounding finale with Faint Dream ~ Inanimate Dream………. absolutely killer.

LLS has aged a little, it doesn't have much of the "flashy", colorful danmaku Touhou is known for. And despite being GENERALLY pretty easy there are a couple insanely difficult patterns that aren't balanced well. Aside from that, it's a little Too easy for me now (at least on Hard and below), but, I still play it regularly just for fun, and will always have a very special place in my heart for it.

(plus, side note, LLS was the introduction of the Stage 4 gimmick, where something is unique about the 4th Stage, boss, or both. I love Stage 4 gimmicks and miss them dearly in the newer games,,)

[TOUHOU 5: MYSTIC SQUARE]

God I love MS. I love MS so much. Probably my second favorite in the series at time of writing.

MS truly is the Greatest Hits of the PC-98 era. Mima and Yuuka come back as playable characters, the danmaku patterns are fun and unique (so much so that ZUN reused a few of them in future games!!!), it has most of the QoL features LLS had besides the free bombs, it introduced one of my favorite characters (Alice), and this is one of the few games where I actually find the faster characters easier/more fun to play as!! Both due to the bullet patterns themselves and because the 1-up system (point item collection) is especially suited for fast characters.

MS is much harder than LLS, but a lot easier than some of the later Touhou games, so it's a great middle ground in terms of difficulty. I only have 2 major critisicms; 1) while the 1-up system and patterns make fast characters more rewarding, there isn't good balance for the other options, so if you wanna play Yuuka you're kind of screwed. And 2) Stage 4. I actually love the Stage 4 gimmick (dual boss that's followed by a solo fight after you take one of them down), but Lord. Stage 4 has two awful glitches that can happen to you, and bullets that are the exact same color as the background. ZUN why

Besides that though, I think MS just naturally caters to my preferred playstyle (chaotically weaving and dancing through bullet spam), so it's a top tier entry for me :)

[TOUHOU 6: EMBODIMENT OF SCARLET DEVIL]

If MS isn't my 2nd favorite in the series, this one is.

I will say this. EoSD has Aged. Imo, it's aged more than MS has. Being ZUN's first Windows game it's a little rough around the edges; muddy graphics, rough soundfonts, heavier reliance on RNG and bullet spam over intricate patterns, and it's missing certain QoL features that it Feels like it should have (like, the PC-98 games were missing stuff, but those games felt like they were built around the limitations, EoSD has a lot of areas where it FEELS like it was designed with future QoL in mind, but it's just….. missing). It also sucks that EoSD is one of only 2 games that locks you out of the final stage if you play on Easy (LLS is the other one),,

But. EoSD is still beloved for a reason. One of the most solid soundtracks in the series, a fun Stage 4 gimmick (different spellcards for different shot types), score-based 1-up system, the introduction of the Point of Collection line, some Iconic boss battles, etc. AND, one of those weaknesses is actually kind of a Strength for me, because again, my preferred play style is well suited to bullet spam!! Stages 5 and 6 are SO fun for me, even though they're commonly cited as things people DISLIKE about EoSD.

EoSD is definitely unpolished, but it's still one of my top favorites, both for its general strengths and for how it caters well to me personally lol.

[TOUHOU 7: PERFECT CHERRY BLOSSOM]

PCB is my current favorite!!

Of all Touhou games, I feel PCB strikes a perfect balance between being accessible, but also still having challenges for those that want it. The patterns are really a step up from EoSD; with the introduction of a visible hitbox, ZUN could make them both more dense and more complex/unique, but they're designed to still be easily understandable. Other QoL features were added that also help a lot (like the enemy tracker, spellcard indicators on the healthbar, success/fail counters, you can save practice mode replays, etc). There's also good variety in the playable characters, each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and one of the best shot types in the entire series is here (SakuyaA lol).

I feel like just saying that doesn't express my love though, there's truly nothing like weaving through a dense maze of beautiful bullets, and PCB is one of THE best for that feeling. I also love this game's 'special feature'; the cherry borders. Not only are they fantastic for survival and training (the border acting as a shield allows you to try new things and take risks where you otherwise wouldn't/couldn't), you can also utilize them in various way; break them on purpose at optimal points to maximize score, keep them as long as possible to milk graze points, use them to clear difficult patterns and stage sections……. it's just a great system that adds depth without overwhelming the player!!

And of course, I must mention something unique to this game; the Phantasm stage! PCB is the only game that has this. It's basically just a 'hard mode' version of the Extra stage, but, the patterns are both exciting to face and gorgeous to look at, the boss herself is genuinely Iconic, and her theme may be even more so.

PCB is pretty much the full package, and is also my recommendation to new players starting out, 100%.

[TOUHOU 8: IMPERISHABLE NIGHT]

This is the last of Touhou's "holy trio", so to speak, alongside EoSD and PCB. There's not much I can point to that's "wrong" with it, or "worse" than the other two, but idk, I don't feel as positively towards IN. I do still really enjoy it though!

There's a lot of great things about IN; the introduction of Spell Practice, there's two different final stages/bosses, the really cool concept for the playable characters/shot-types (character fight in teams, and once you beat both Finals with all teams you can play as each character individually, for a total of 12(!!!) shot-types), the Stage 4 gimmick is a callback to LLS (you fight Reimu or Marisa depending on your character!!), and of course there's some great bullet patterns in there (Keine and Marisa are standouts to me).

There's a LOT of content, more than most Touhou games, which is great!! But there's definitely some aspects that don't feel well polished, which brings it down a bit. The 'special feature' of this game, the Youkai gauge, is not only insanely confusing and complicated, and it's also not fun OR worthwhile to engage with,,, Maybe if I was a hardcore scorer I'd find some value in it, but…… eh. At least it's not obtrusive or anything. Then there's the solo shot-types….. while it's cool they're there, I don't know if ZUN playtested the solo Humans ;; They are very clearly not designed with solo play in mind and if you like to clear ALL shot-types like I do, this can make it an arduous experience to get through all 12

I think it's mostly these things, plus me feeling kind of neutral on the soundtrack and cast, that make IN not stand out, despite all the content. Still a great game, I play it a lot, just not as often as some other entries.

[TOUHOU 9: PHANTASMAGORIA OF FLOWER VIEW]

The 2nd VS shooter in the series!

Mostly the same exciting, chaotic gameplay as the first one PoDD, though with a few key difference. You can now use Focus, which also ties into a new mechanic, the 'scope', which allows you to freeze falling spirits (helps with setting up combos and crowd control) when they touch it. And, using your spell/special attack gauge causes a 'wave' to ripple out and clear bullets around you. I think overall these are excellent addition and that add fun strategy to gameplay.

However, I'm not great at keeping track of combos or purposefully placing spirits during the constant barrage of bullets,,, And some of the character's scopes are……. not fun to utilize. There's also the same problem I had with PoDD, how rapidly pressing the shoot button hurts my hand over time, and while PoFV actually has an alternate control scheme, that alternative FORCES you into focus mode as you shoot. I want to be able to not think super hard about when and where I shoot, so I can focus on dodging, but this just makes the problem Worse because it hampers my movement ;;

I do like the bullet clearing wave though! Plus, this game introduced one of my favorite characters, Aya, AND brought back Yuuka from the PC-98 era!! It's not a bad game and I've had fun with it. I'm just not crazy about the Touhou VS shooters overall. If I wanna play a VS shooter I'd rather pick something like Twinkle Star Sprites.

[TOUHOU 9.5: SHOOT THE BULLET]

This is the first of the 'photo' games, and I have a soft spot for this one. It can be extremely rewarding to clear a difficult scene, and the whole photography thing is a SUPER interesting take on bullet hell. The one thing that sucks is that there's little incentive to go back to scenes once you've managed to clear them. But I guess that's not the point, it's to slowly conquer the challenges each level throws at you and clear as many as you can.

Very solid game, something you can chip away at over time, if you like bullet hell and like interesting challenges give it a try!!

[TOUHOU 10: MOUTAIN OF FAITH]

MoF is the start of a new era. It's pretty stripped back in terms of gameplay because ZUN wanted to focus on making a basic, polished shmup, and he certainly achieved that. The new engine feel smooth as butter, the graphics and sound are crisp, and the bullet patterns and stages are solid. Some of the core gameplay mechanics have been changed though, and it's a little mixed.

For instance, the bombs have been changed in 2 key ways; there are no longer unique bombs for each shot-type, and using a bomb costs you some of your Power instead of an item. Not having unique bombs takes away an element in picking your shot-type, but I don't mind the bomb itself since it's both effective and powerful. Losing Power can be frustrating, and you can end up in a horrible loop if you lose too much at once, but, MOST of the time I find MoF is very generous with Power, and that combined with not being restricted to bomb items can actually be a really sweet deal.

Most of the other changes are similarly mixed, but ultimately I think they work well together! There's only 1 thing I have major critism of, and that's the removal of practice and accessibility features. There's no more extra starting lives from here on out, which I understand, but it does make me sad, as extra lives allows new players to see more of the game (and allows old players to relax on just-for-fun runs). He also removed Spell Practice, which sucks :( But, by far the most egregious change, is that using a continue starts you over from the beginning of a stage….. and just seeing a stage is NOT enough to unlock it in Practice Mode. This is a HUGE hit to the game's accessibility for new or unskilled players, not even allowing them to practice the stage they're stuck on, or prepare for anything beyond it. If you die on a stage so much you have to continue, what the hell made ZUN think starting the whole stage over with almost no lives would help??

Thankfully, I don't need that accessibility much anymore, and there IS a fanmade practice patch out there. MoF is definitely among my top favorite games of the series, it's just a great basic shmup and great start to the new era. Also shoutout to my favorite final boss theme, Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field. Loved it so much as a kid that I would mod it into other games LMAO

[TOUHOU 11: SUBTERRANEAN ANIMISM]

SA is considered the 2nd hardest game in the series, and there is good reason for that. Beyond the patterns and stages just generally being pretty difficult, the lives, bombs, and continues system are very punishing in this entry.

The continue system is exactly the same as MoF, which is to say, brutal and unforgiving. Bombs are also tied to power like in MoF, but unlike MoF, Power only goes up to 4.00 instead of 5.00 (with MarisaA as an exception) meaning less bombs overall and leading to the same issues there were in MoF. And, you don't earn full lives, you need 5 life pieces to gain a full extra life, and the one and ONLY way to earn life pieces? Is through clearing boss attacks without bombing or getting hit. There is not even a SINGLE free live in the entire game, you must earn every single one with flawless performance.

This leads to a scenrio where, high skilled players are rewarded with lives they don't need, and less experienced players are basically walled from even practicing. All this, combined with two other factors (some of the weirdest/most difficult to utilize shot-types in the series, and the fact that the actual bombs either suck ass or are also difficult to utilize well), makes SA one of the most "unfriendly" games in all of Touhou project. If not THE most unfriendly.

I have a lot of criticisms of this, and even now I can't say I feel "comfortable" playing through SA. But, (most of) the unique shot-types CAN be rewarding, once you learn how to wield them, and this game has some of the most exciting and challenging bosses. So many fun spellcards……… Satori and Okuu are standouts. Satori's gimmick is also really cool, where her spellcards change based off your shot-type, nearly all of them being alternate version of past spellcards in the series. And of course, this game's cast is absolutely iconic, pairing well with one of the best overall soundtracks in the entire series.

SA is one of those games where I have a lot of fun with it and think it's stellar in terms of music, cast, and bullet patterns, but certain systems and mechanics prevent me from recommending it whole-heartedly to others. There's just a lot of frustrations with it. But it's still fairly high up in my rankings, and there's some value to having a game focused on Skill and skill alone, rather than other gimmicks or resources management or whatnot.

[TOUHOU 12: UNDEFINED FANTASTIC OBJECT]

UFO was the first Touhou game I got to see the release for. It's one of my happiest memories, so my feelings towards UFO may be very biased. Just a warning lol

UFO's "gimmick", the UFOs, is how you engage with basically any other system in the game; you MUST engage with the UFOs if you're going for anything other than a NMNB clear. And ho boy is the UFO system contentious. Not without reason, either. Mid-Bosses and Bosses destroy summoned UFOs which is frustrating, it's super easy to make a mistake with gathering the small UFOs and ruin your combo, if there's small UFOs you don't want on screen they basically act as bouncing projectiles you need to dodge ON TOP of the actual bullets……. etc.

However, while I share a few of those frustrations (damn UFO destroying bosses…..), I find the UFO system to lead to a good combination of routing and room for improvisation. You can memorize when and where certain colored UFOs will drop and plan ahead for them, and if you miss what you need or make a mistake you can still think on the fly and re-route mid playthrough. It's also fun that you can specialize your routing and gameplay towards a specific goal, like stocking tons of bombs to skip difficult stage sections/spellcards, or optimzing for score, or stockpiling lives.

The overall difficulty of the stages and patterns is decently high in UFO (this game is often ranked 3rd hardest in the series), but it can be somewhat mitigated with good planning and resource management. And I personally find a lot of these stages and bosses a Blast to play! Helped again by, of course, having one of the best overall sountracks in the series…. imo at least. The UFO cast is also my personal favorite, AND they get some of ZUN's cutest sprites/artwork :)

The only other real criticism I have is that it shares it's Continue system with MoF and SA. Thank god this is the last game that forces you backwards for continuing ;;;;

While the UFO system has it's downsides, UFO is just a really fantastic entry into the series and a personal favorite of mine. We'll see how I feel once I start tackling the higher difficulties seriously though…… lol.

[TOUHOU 12.5: DOUBLE SPOILER]

Basically the sequel to Shoot the Bullet. There is very little difference, just a new set of characters and cards to face. I personally find this one a LOT harder than StB, and I don't enjoy it quite as much, but it's still a solid game I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed StB.

(EDIT TO ADD: Sometime after I wrote this part, I found an old blog entry from when I was 13, and apparently ZUN explicitly stated DS was meant to be much harder than StB. So, there ya go?)

[TOUHOU 13: TEN DESIRES]

The key phrase for this game overall, imo, is RESOURCE STRANGLEHOLD.

TD is far and beyond the most punishing game in the series, both in terms of resources and the Spirit Gauge/Trance mechanic. The requirement for the amount of pink spirits you need in order to earn an extra Life is brutal right from the start, at 8, and every time you earn a new life this requirement goes up. This doesn't reset when you die, or even when you CONTINUE. That would be brutal enough, but even with OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE, literally no mistakes and perfect utilization of Trance, you earn less lives in this game than in any other. Speaking of pulling of a perfect performance, good fucking luck, because the spirits you need to gather stay right where you killed the enemy, disappearing Quickly, so you have to either have your Trance meter full and ready, or you need to risk your precious few lives to dash up to the top of the screen, in the middle of an absolute clusterfuck of bullets, just for a FRACTION of an extra life.

And of course, there's the real kicker; getting hit causes your entire Trance meter to be used up, and it takes a quite a bit to refill it, especially because again, spirits Do Not Fall the way items do, you have to seriously risk your life for them.

Basically, TD is a very, VERY routing-heavy game, and if you make even ONE mistake it can cause your entire playthrough to unravel. It's super frustrating. There are only 2 saving graces here….. 1) you at least get to keep any extra bombs you had in stock after you die, and 2) TD has some of the easiest boss fights in Touhou. I actually find the spellcards super fun, so by sort of-kind of routing the stages and doing well against the bosses, I was able to find some joy in TD. But that is obviously in spite of the mechanics, not because of them ;;

I will say, though, that it's interesting to have a game designed to make you "boss graze", ie stay dangerously close to the boss and move around them to catch spirits. Interesting concept and it helps train you on a high-level skill.

TD was my least favorite Touhou game for a long, long time. I've softened on it a bit, fun bullet patterns are fun no matter what, but goddamn. This one's ROUGH. And sadly, the OST is pretty middling for me, though it DOES have a few standouts (Desire Drive, Youkai Shrine Back Road, Small Desire's Starry Night Sky)!!

[TOUHOU 14: DOUBLE DEALING CHARACTER]

Ah. DDC. My nemesis.

I actually don't mind this game's special mechanic; using the point of collection line to earn life and bomb pieces. I actually think it's fun and rewarding, though that could just be because I already go to the PoC line as much as possible anyways lol. No, my problem is not with the mechanic, or the life and bomb pieces. This game commits the most fatal of all sins in bullet hell; the bullet patterns are Not Fun.

So many of the patterns in the this game have 'gimmicky' movements, sometimes bordering on Random, and this is often used in combination with one of my greatest weaknesses, bullets coming at you from both above and below, at the same time. This makes them an absolute nightmare to read. There's also a ton of a bullets that are either oddly shaped with confusing hitboxes, or made huge which also makes their hitboxes confusing. And unfortunately, the stages and bosses that don't suffer from this generally have pretty bland forgettable patterns. I can't think of a single attack in DDC I would describe as "fun", and that's unheard of in the rest of the series.

Worse yet, the shot-types themselves……. half of them are 'gimmicky', kind of like SA shot-types were, but the SA shot-types had special extra mechanics that could be mastered and were rewarding to utilize, if uncomfortable to get used to. These shot-types are just plain Uncomfortable, or are underwhleming ;; MarisaB has a bomb that makes it possible to milk life and bomb pieces like crazy and basically cheese the whole game, but that's not fun either :( I wanna be able to PLAY the game and enjoy it…… but I can't.

And the final nail in the coffin…… DDC also happens to have my least favorite soundtrack and, imo, a very bland and unmemorable cast. I feel so sad saying that because I think there's some unique youkai here, but MOST OF their designs don't stick out/are pretty plain, and they feel very disconnected from Gensokyo at large. Maybe if I saw them in print materials I'd feel different, but as it stands…… :/

I want to say some nice things though, so here's what I've got. Wakasagihime has a great design (it's just…. y'know, she's a Stage 1 boss, so there's not much of her. Super sad considering I desperately wanted a mermaid Youkai). Raiko also has a cool design, AND she has the best theme in the game. Uhh…… the PoC line mechanic giving you an extra life piece instead of a bomb if you collect enough point items is a good feature that rewards smart planning and risk management. The Stage 2 boss has lasers you can avoid by staying completely still which is hilarious.

I…. think that's it. Let me say for the record, I'm open to changing my mind!! I softened on TD as I got better, found things I could enjoy in it despite my issues, so that could happen someday with DDC. It's just right now, nearly everything about DDC bounces me right off it, so it's the only Touhou I genuinely don't enjoy playing,, Hopefully someday that will change……

[TOUHOU 15: LEGACY OF LUNATIC KINGDOM]

LoLK is a bit of an odd ball, for sure. While you can play it like a regular Touhou game (using "Legacy" mode), the main mode of LoLK is "PointDevice", which plays very differently. It's focused on "perfection", and very precise movement and dodging, making you retry to same sections and attacks over and over again til you do them right.

You also earn Life pieces (Legacy) and Bomb pieces (PointDevice) via grazing, which requires you to risk your life getting super close to the bullets. All that, in combination with very dense and overwhleming bullet patterns, makes LoLK the hardest Touhou game by a long shot. Especially in Legacy mode, where you can't just retry over and over.

I honestly don't care for PointDevice much, especially because if there's a section/attack you CANNOT pass no matter how hard you try, and you've already used all your bombs, you're kind of fucked and Have to restart the entire thing ;; But, I still find Legacy mode fun, and as someone who loves to graze when I can, being rewarded for it feels good, AND allows for some really creative and interesting patterns/routing. On the higher difficulties, there's way more bullets to milk for graze, too. On one hand it's a little frustrating that it's HARDER to earn resources on Easy and Normal, but on the other hand you can argue that the extra resources help balance the insane pattern difficulty of Hard and Lunatic.

I'm not good enough to beat LoLK on Normal yet (it's the last one left for me), but I still think it's a pretty solid game overall, and I like to replay certain stages (2, 3, 5, and 6) on Easy just for fun.

[TOUHOU 16: HIDDEN STAR IN FOUR SEASONS]

Wasn't a huge fan of this one at first, but I've warmed up to it! Mostly

While this is not the first game with bullet erasers, it is the first to feature them so prominently, aside from maybe PoFV. It comes in the form of the Release system, which basically allows you to massively power down your shot type in exchange for clearing bullets (how much you power down and how many bullets are erased/for how long depends on your sub weapon choice). I think the way it can be utilized both for survival and for scoring is pretty cool. It can also be really broken if you know exactly where to use them, adding another element to routing and memorization. But it can also be handy during my casual play…… if you remember it exists. lol. I admit that I struggle to use any C key function properly ;; But that's a personal issue

The shot types are definitely interesting in this game. Instead of the standard fare, you pick a character (who always has the same shot) and then pick a "sub weapon" based on one of the other character's shots (or you can pick your own to make it stronger). This results in there being a whopping SIXTEEN COMBINATIONS, each with slightly varying properties. Lord. While I think I prefer having a smaller pool of unique and optimized shot types, this is a neat concept, if a bit overwhelming if you're like me and want to clear EVERY combination ;; But still, it allows you to sort of customize to what you're most comfortable with, or what will help you the most (for example, the Cirno/Summer sub weapon gives you short releases you can use repeatedly, but the weapon itself sucks ass as a tradeoff. So pairing it with a faster/more powerful character balances things a bit!), which is pretty cool.

My major complaints about this game are the 2 difficulty spikes; the Stage 5 bosses, and Okina's final spellcard(s). The Stage 5 bosses use the dreaded "random and erratic" bullet behaviour I hated so much in DDC, though thankfully only for SOME attacks. They're still a big spike compared to the rest of the game, even compared to Okina's fight……. until the end. Okina's final cards are super cool in concept, stripping you of your sub weapon and forcing you to just Dodge Or Die…….. but in practice it is PAINFUL, especially since it's the last obstacle before victory. She even has a bomb shield………. wtf. Brutal. All 4 variants are bad, but the Summer version is by far the worst, in my opinion one of the hardest final spellcards in the entire series.

There's also the extra stage, which is mostly spent dodging stuff coming from behind you (my nightmare), but that's more of a skill issue on my part ;; Overall, while the cast is very disconnected and don't leave a strong impression, the music is pretty damn good, the stages are fun, and the mechanics are interesting, even if they're a bit shakey and abusable. Not a top favorite but I like HSiFS :)

[TOUHOU 17: WILY BEAST AND WEAKEST CREATURE]

This game has a similar special mechanic to UFO, but I think it's a little better implemented here.

There are no "shot types" as it were; your choices are whether to power up your unfocused attacks, your focused attacks, or your bombs. This kinda makes it hard to have a preference, as each attack is better at different points in the game, so it's really up to you what's more important. I kind of like this, even though I still prefer variety, it means I can use other characters more freely.

I also like this version of the 'collect stuff on screen' mechanic, there's more leeway for mistakes (you can still activate "Roaring/Hyper" mode without having a perfect collection of matching spirits) AND the benefits are better (it protects you from hits while active, just like the cherry borders in PCB!! and you get either a massive boost to damage or a bullet eraser)! Like with UFO though, there is risk with chasing the Spirits all over the field, and it can lead to some frustrating deaths and distractions. But that's just part of what you have to manage, I think it's a fun system overall :)

What is Not Fun is an issue that actually started back in TD, but I haven't mentioned it yet, because WBaWC has it the Absolute Worst; VISIBILITY ISSUES. Your own shot, ESPECIALLY in Roaring/Hyper mode, can become so dense and flashy that it is near impossible to read the bullet patterns. Or see the bullets At All. Which is, yknow, a problem in a bullet hell game. On top of that, the whole game is tinted red, and full of red bullets, which is sick as hell on paper, but in practice makes a huge portion of the game become slurry to the eyes. And the Enemy tracker, which had its text removed back in TD, is more a problem in this game than in any other because the color of the tracker matches the color of the window border, so you may as well not even have it.

There's also a major problem in the Stage 5 boss (and in one final boss spellcard), with the stupid statues that are summoned……. I already don't like these kinds of "familiars", they''re always a pain no matter what, but WBaWC takes it to another level, as they soak up so much damage that very few of the shot types can kill them before you get body slammed or completely overwhelmed.

WBaWC is really fun and cool and has some great music and designs, but it feels…… almost like ZUN didn't fully playtest it before release. An issue that is going to persist into the final entries………. but it's still enjoyable overall, at least.

[TOUHOU 18: UNCONNECTED MARKETEERS]

I have a lot of fondness for it, but MAN is this game unbalanced lol

There's the obvious, which is the card system. I think the card system is a cool idea and can be fun to play around with, it's exciting when you get exactly the card you wanted, but there are certain cards/combinations that can kind of break the game, and it can be BRUTAL if you get nothing but trash cards on your run, and there are a Lot of 'trash cards'. And once you figure out your favorite card combo it's likely you'll never mess with anything else. Not strictly a bad thing, just a thing.

But then there's the real kicker…… Marisa. People are 100% right when they say this game is "anti-Marisa". I've tried not to mention the shot types I dislike (like most Youmu and Sakuyas), because that's a very personal/skill based issue, but here, the way this game is designed feels actively Hostile towards Marisa. It's hard to describe, but both bosses and stages are set up to have you fly all over the screen, or move off the sides a lot, and her range is EXTREMELY narrow………. AND both the shots and her bombs have been massively nerfed??? She's no longer the most powerful character, so there isn't even a trade off for picking the harder option. Seriously why the hell did ZUN nerf her AND make almost the entire game hostile to straight-forward shots?????

Well, whatever the reason, it makes her PAINFUL to play as. But, if you play as one of the fun shot types……. this game is pretty fun!! The first half a Little plain with it's boss patterns but the second half is a blast!!! If MAYBE a bit unfair (Megumu…….) ;; And the OST is fantastic all the way through. Plus, I just love the characters that were introduced, especially the 'masterminds', Megumu, Tsukasa, and Chimata. Very fun additions to the world of Gensokyo, I really hope we get to learn more about Megumu as the Crow Tengu chief.

If you're looking consistent play, look elsewhere, but for a fun time with light luck based elements this is a great game (if you don't play Marisa. Or Sakuya. lol)

[TOUHOU 18.5: 100TH BLACK MARKET]

Now this is an unique one! You go through stages that are split into semi-randomized sections, and along the way you gather money to buy cards. Bullet money buys cards during a run, and regular money lets you buy cards out of a shop so you can equip them from the start. So it's like….. a rouge-like shooter? Kinda?

I personally had fun with this. It's a little simple, and it can get repetitive, but it was nice because if I didn't have much time but wanted to mess around with bullet hell, I could boot this up and play a couple rounds to gather money for cards!!

Once you buy all the cards and earn all the achievements there's no reason to ever come back, which is sad, but idk, I had a good time milking bullets for money and slowly filling my collections. It shares some of the randomness issues with UM and is a little half-baked but I would still recommend giving it a shot, especially because it gives Marisa her time to shine after getting shafted in UM!

[TOUHOU 19: UNFINISHED DREAM OF ALL LIVING GHOSTS]

The final one so far!! I'll be honest, I've beaten it 21 times now I STILL don't understand how most of the mechanics work. Things just Happen and I either dodge or die. But what I can speak on is the downright bizarre balancing issues and the plethora of missing features.

The difficulty and balancing is wack. The vast majority of the characters feel underpowered already, and to top that off, only a small number of characters have bullet-clearing abilities, which is an absolutely MASSIVE advantage in this game, meaning that some characters are just objectively better than others. The story routes each character takes can also vary wildly in difficulty, making some paths a breeze and others nearly impossible even for the best players in the world.

But the most concerning thing for me is the missing features. No score? No "clear" achievement or signifier for different difficulty levels?? NO REPLAYS????? I can deal with the lack of score since I'm not a score player (yet), but having no indication or reward for 1ccing, and having no way to save or share your run without recording every single play session………. god. Idk, maybe it's silly, but that stuff is VERY important to me :( I'm still so sad about it, and it makes anything you achieve in the game feel….. hallow.

That being said, it's not all bad!! I love the new characters and their designs, there's some really interesting experimentation going on in the OST, I think the 'shield' mechanic adds a fun layer to gameplay (trying to make sure you're ready to restore the shield if it breaks while also trying to send over attacks and dodge)…… and I mean, dodging bullets is dodging bullets, so it's gonna be fun at least some of the time!!

Honestly, I just wish ZUN has balanced it more carefully, gave other characters more power or bullet-erasers, had more people play test it………. and of course, I wish it had replays and a way to track 1cc's :(((

--

And that's it! If you read any of that, thank you, I know it was long ;;;;; But I had fun, I'm glad I got to talk a lot about my favorite game series :^)

[sunskate]

FD-

with nearly half the teams cut after the RD, the FD was all teams who had Grand Prix assignments (except S/F who weren't yet eligible 🇨🇦→🇮🇪)

PiriHara's Chicago program was a surprise - it hadn't made much of an impression over a stream, but what do you know, Broadway is better live 😅

Olivia and Tim - they never did work out the timing glitches in this program. at least he made it to the end without struggling so much condition-wise like he did at Challenge Cup a few weeks ago. catching up to her in one season was a tall order. i really love how languid and easy she can make it look while covering big ice. send him to IAMO for the summer. it's no consolation to them, but going below both sibling teams allowed the Czech Republic to keep 2 spots for next Worlds

Taschlers were low balled - in no reality should they be below Davis/Smolkin

the swan lakes - D/S in this context, skating against strong teams, look so very small, shallow and with not much ice coverage. it doesn't help that they picked huge music that normally would be danced by an entire stage full of swans. plus their music cut had a couple awful jarring edits - the audacity to slug in extra notes in Tchaikovsky 💀 i might be the only one so bothered lol

the Mrazeks by comparison looked smoother and faster and smarter in that they picked some of the gentler swan lake music including the waltz. for a first year senior team, they can be proud. another first year team who's been even more stellar is Hannah and Ye -

omg they were so good - they're able to be so emotional without feeling over the top. just expressive and connected to each other. lovely ❤️

i like Demougeot/LeMercier - i'm going to look forward to see what they do next. i hope they keep being quirky

really happy to see T/V and R/A live - T/V are willowy and ethereal, and her ballet background shows. but i don't think they get down into the ice. i like this FD a lot, but the interest in it is in those arm movements and elements more so than the skating. R/A i liked the RD a little more than the FD but like them very much

CPom are raising their game all the time - so happy for them and their well earned rise. what i love is that not only do you see them becoming better skaters and performers, but you can see they believe - their confidence in themselves is at a completely different place than it was 2 years ago

omg, live i didn't see just how long Charlene's skirt was caught on her blade at the end. idk if Barbara in the kiss and cry was holding her breath to see if the judges used the little mistakes to put F/G ahead. thank god they didn't, because G/F still have such a higher quality

and Piper and Paul - this program uses the glide and sweep of the music to emphasize that in the skating in a beautiful way. a skated program is so much more satisfying than an element-fest like C/B's. as impressive as their elements and performances can be, i don't know if i've ever been moved by a program of theirs

my favorite of the entire event - LaLa - i was crying by the gorgeous OFt. they alone would have been worth the trip. but gratitude to all the skaters and their coaches - my cup's full. i'm still processing

[sh4tt3rg1rl]

@the-moth-from-elsewhere I have so many thoughts on them its not even funny WAAAA WAAAAAAAAA (this will also include a lot of Theory Posting bc of the new 7+8 trailer so be warned)

ALSO CANON SHIP MEANS MORE MATERIAL!!! YALL ARENT READY FOR THIS RANT!!

Alright lets see... first things first

Let me explain "toxic yaoi/yuri" EVEN THO THEY TECHNICALLY ARENT GAY FOR ONE ANOTHER YOU CANT LOOK ME IN THE EYES AND SAY "N IS STRAIGHT" OR "UZI IS STRAIGHT". im PROJECTING "PAN DEMIGIRL" ONTO UZI AND YOU CANT STOP ME also they're toxic because. OH NO THAT 7/8 TRAILER. ITS SO OVER WERE SO BACK!! WAS SHE HURTING HIM??? OH GOD

DUDE, YOU SAW HOW THE LIGHT THING ON THE BACK OF HER HAND WAS PURPLE, RIGHT??? NOT YELLOW LIKE HOW IT WAS WHEN SHE WAS BEING CONTROLLED BY THE ABSOLUTE SOLVER??? SHES HURTING HIM COMPLETELY BY HER OWN VOLITION. NAOAOOAOAOOOOOOO

on a diff note... IM CRYING AND SOBBING. DID YOU SEE HOW GENTLY HE WAS HOLDING HER AND HOW SCARED HE WAS WHEN HE CUT OFF HER HAND IN EPISODE 6??? DID YOU SEE HOW THEY HELD HANDS LITERALLY MOMENTS BEFOREHAND? (lots of hands huh) DID YOU SEE HOW UZI HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE TO COMFORT N AND N HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE TO COMFORT UZI?!?!?!? THAT ENTIRE FALLING SCENE IN EPISODE 4... PLUS WHEN HE DEFENDS HER AGAINST V IN THE SAME EPISODE... UGHHHH I LOVE THEM

plus OMFG THE FACT THAT HE MOVES HER HAND OUT OF THE SUN AND HE CONSTANTLY WORRIES ABOUT HER... HE LOOKS SO HEARTBROKEN ALL OF THE TIME NOW!!!

HOW UZI WAS CRYING INTO HIS SHOULDER IN THE 7/8 TRAILER MADE ME ACTUALLY CHOKE ON MY OWN TEARS WHEN IT SHOWED IN GLITCH X

Dude... how CLEARLY jealous Uzi was in episode 5 when V and N blushed at one another... how Uzi immediately jumped to defending N instead of herself when Tessa told them to not date...

AND REMEMBER WHEN TESSA SAID THAT N NEEDED TO CHOOSE THE UNIVERSE OVER UZI??? aw HELL nah he is NOT DOING THAT. He's choosing Uzi. He's choosing uzi or im in de nile, the river in egypt

Also wheres nuzi kiss, glitch. Need that nuzi kiss. I dont CARE how cheesy it is i NEED FOR THEM TO KISS *screams into my pillow and dies*

The internet would explode if they kissed yk. I would explode as well and I know YOU WOULD TOO, ELSIE!!!

I love them.

[secrets-of-everwich]

05-2 The Book

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies the recording]

[This recording keeps glitching out, a lot more frequently than before]

{Callie}

Hello, this is Callie Hewitt, recording on the 11th October 2021, approximately an hour after the last recording. I’m here with Rin and Asher, and…

{Rin}

We were right. Something was wrong with Emilia.

{Callie}

Xavier isn’t here because he’s got work that he’s already super late for, and Emilia isn’t here because she needed to have food, but I have assurances that she’s okay.

{Rin}

Well, she was okay when we left her.

{Rin}

{Ash}

Don’t say that, I’m sure she’s still okay! Why wouldn’t she be?

Ash, she was-

{Callie}

Okay, cutting you off there before you spoil the entire episode. I’m sure my one listener – who’s surprisingly already listened to the last episode! Wow! … Can’t be Xavier then. Sorry, I got sidetacked, I’m sure my one listener wants to keep the suspense! First of all: The book.

[Rustling]

{Rin}

Got it here.

{Callie}

Because that last episode had like- No explanations, and was solely talking, let me talk about the book-

{Ash}

Can I do it? I can definitely talk for a while, and I’m very good at explaining things, or so I’ve been told, plus this detective stuff is so fun, it’s like I’m in my own little piece of theatre!

{Rin}

[Laughing]

This is real life, not theatre. Let Callie do it, this is her thing after all.

{Ash}

Aw, ok.

{Callie}

This is an old book, written by Adam Ives, also known as Rin Ives’ grandfather. It’s a little diary book, with drawings in. How did you come to get this, by the way Rin? You just said your grandfather gave it to you.

{Rin}

He said I may find some entries useful. He’s definitely the eccentric type, I’ve no idea how he went on to be a CEO.

{Ash}

I like your grandfather, he’s funny!

{Callie}

I wonder if he knew about Em somehow… Hm. Anyway, the page we’re looking for is around April 1962, a week or so before Jill was nearly killed. It doesn’t describe what Adam was going through, but explains how he’s discovered something while exploring the Abandoned Manor.

OH, for the record, Everwich Manor was left uninhabited between the early 1910s and 1993, when my parents discovered they’d inherited it due to a familial link to the Greenes. I was gonna explain more about this in last episode but. Obviously that fell through.

[Recording glitches increase in frequency, making this section almost inaudible]

The manor was abandoned, and so a great place for teens to explore. This page explains the creature it found living in the basement.

{Ash}

Wait, show me that drawing-

[Rustling]

That’s what I saw. That’s what X took me to see, when we went into the basement!

[A pause]

{Callie}

{Rin}

What-

That tiny thing? You said it was huge!

{Ash}

No, it wasn’t tiny- Wait, why do you think it’s tiny?

{Callie}

There’s a scale in the corner.

{Ash}

Oh. Well the one I saw wasn’t tiny, it was huge.

{Callie}

Huh. Strange.

[Sounds of a radio being tuned]

[Radio static growing louder]

[Click]

{Voice}

[The voice sounds distorted]

The rest of this recording has been… Lost. Please refrain from listening to the rest of this podcast. History will be repeating itself, if I have anything to say about it.

[Click]

[Sounds of a radio being tuned]

[Radio static growing quieter]

[Click]

[Recording sounds as normal – barely any glitches]

{Callie}

I hope X – or Rin or Ash for that matter – didn’t get hurt by that thing. I’ll have to keep an eye on them. Make sure they’re all okay. There’s definitely more to this story. Like why Emilia was doing some experiments. I want to get a statement from her. Rest assured, I will not be stopping this podcast until I’ve found all the answers. This has been Callie Hewitt. Thank you for listening to this Secret of Everwich.

[Click]