#right. the background is just a stock image btw

[dotpyenji]

mercury at IKEA

[maxwellpaws]

Creatures for the PSX OST review

okay so today I'm going to go in a little bit more in depth with this topic because even among fans of this series this seems to be quite obscure.

Creatures is a series of video games of the pet simulator genre were you take care of Norns and makes sure they don't die.

If that description raises your curiosity here's video that goes a bit more depth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swxtKrVb0m0&t=58s

Now at some point in time someone got the bright idea to make a "port" of it that turned into a entirely different game that's weird like the environments are mashup of landscapes from the first three game that range from something that could pass as a mockup for an environment to cursed images, and from what I've seen the game (and it's sequel) looks tedious and unfun.

(here’s a playlist of the console game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swxtKrVb0m0&t=58s)

and because it's a game it has more traditional background music compared to the the other games (technically the first game doesn't really have a sound track)

and that's why were here today: Is the creatures PS/PSX "port" soundtrack good despite the games quality is it just as bad as the game?

Let's find out!

(note because I’m lazy here’s a playlist of the whole OST instead each title having an individual link. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZyFjGv7qIjmll7noNNuAP7hj-gUJch0R)

Track 01:

Yes that's what it's called, none of them have names.

So I'm going to give them one this one's name is Phil, anyways this is the logo song.

It's okay and does it's job.

5.5/10

Track 02: Julie

Okay this is anything personal, but I don't really like Julie, She's kinda tedious.

and it doesn't help that according to the playthourgh I watched this plays 95% of the time!

It's not a bad song I quite like parts of it, like the chimes and it's feeling of finally on a warm summer's evening and I like the strings and chimes, and while writing this I realized this song isn't that bad when you're doing something else so I guess it's not THAT bad but not something I'd return to any time soon.

7.5/10

Track 03: Joey

Joey is great he's peppy, I like the clapping sound and guitars, and while listening to this all I can think of are cowboy norns in the west, and lucky for me songs like this are present throughout the album!

best part about this is the accordion.

7.5/10

Track 04: Jenny

Jenny is like Joey's more somber sibling.

I like the slow plucking of the guitar and the other strings,

it gives off the vibe of a town practically destroyed by a gang an a lone guitarist is free styling alone and is slowing getting into it, as it slowly cuts to a scene of the hero running through the field.

9./10

Track 05: Goober

Okay so I believe this the track for one of the minigames in the game Pac norns

(BTW having a biome dedicated to arcade game parodies feels like something I'd do to poke fun at how creature fans like to mod the games especially the third one in any way they can)

but if that isn't the case than this is the most unfitting track in the game and the person posting all this is probably right about this being stock music.

back on track I like this song especially the main two synths and the chimes and the final boss energy, also it's nice and short but not something that could get annoying on multiple replays.

10/10

Track 06: Timothy

I like Timothy even tough all I can think of while listening to him is maybe the opening of RPG involving dragons he's probably the closet to a creatures song.

(that's not saying much tough)

7/10

Track 07 Nicki

Nicki is very similar to Julie with their feeling of closure and finality but less tedious.

and I really like the recorder used in this.

7.5/10

Track 8: Jeremy

Jeremy is okay it's kinda plain.

It makes me think of that one Nick jr. browser game that was like those old PC games (the playroom types) but it was with Dora.

Hey did you guys know that at some point later on in the show they gave her two younger siblings?

I don't think I ever saw any episodes with them in it, mostly because I didn't watch Dora much my mom didn't like the show.

3/10

Track 09: I'm running out of names, so I'm going to call you Mc fucker.

Mc fucker is a nice song, love the whoop thing.

7/10

Track 10: Milo

Milo is good.

I like the guitar, sounds like a journey is happening and any minute now we'll hear the main character's mother sing hoping for there kid's return.

also I like the flute.

8/10

Track 11: Cofee cup

Coffee cup is one of the songs that is more aligned with what the series has to offer when it comes to OSTs.

(even more so than Timothy)

I quite like it, and the ascension is neat.

7/10

Track 12: Ned

Ned sounds a lot like Jeremy but more fleshed out like the long guitarist really got into it and made it into a son expressing it's sorrow about the destruction of his town.

10/10

Track 13: Suzanne

Suzanne is very skycore, jk jk.

Sounds very uplifting, The synths that accompanied the guitar is nice, and the ending melody is great.

So far this is my favorite track.

9.5/10

Track 14: James

James is some nice stereotypical eastern sounding stuff with a hip-hop beat.

All I can imagine is some norns rapping, and then they get sued because of the sample they used or something.

this is my second favorite.

7/10

track 15: Teddy

Teddy sounds exactly like a mashup of Julie and a minecraft song. which I quite like, honestly I'm quite floored with how this sounds like minecraft music BEFORE minecraft was a thing.

Also cool reverb.

7/10

Track 16: Nemo

Nemo is another single noise song that just plays in a loop for longer than it should...and it's not even as long.

From what I've seen from playthourghs I'd say this sums up the experience.

but hey at least it was only two minutes.

1/10

Track 17: Jake

Jake is very energetic sounding like marching music and it sounds quite nice despite it being a single beat for only a minute.

7.9/10

Track 18: Lou ann

I love this one.

the long synths the choir that just drones on and and the bass

and from the sounds of it I assume it plays during whatever that games has close to a graveyard (if it has one)

I also enjoy how the droning slowly fades away to reveal a guitar that plays along.

and the lone synth at the very end playing a simple melody is the cherry on top.

THIS IS THE BEST SONG THIS GAME HAS TO OFFER.

10/10

Tack 19: South

It's fine.... sounds like a wiggles song.

Can't really say anything about it beyond that.

6/10

Track 20: Leroy

This song is cool. cool riff.

BUT CAN LEROY BEAT THE ROCK SONG FROM THE FIRST GAME?

Track 21: N

N is the intro cut scene song that explains what were supposed to do in game and why, but not why the game is a bizarre mash up of assets of assets from previous games or unique one or if whether or not the unique ones are from a previous build of the PC games.

Or if this is the untold origin story of the creatures adventures feather thing because it's the same character but it looks different.

uh anyways the song exists.

5/10

Track 22: Jean

The beginning is very muffled compared to the rest of the song and I don't know why.

this also feels like something from a DS game but this time a LPS one.

it sounds okay but I feel like it went on longer than it should.

8.5/10

Track 23: Nya

I like Nya?

I think it sounds like something I'd hear in a breakcore so-

OH NO I'M TURNING INTO THAT MEME!

4/10

Track 24: Taffy.

Back to the topic of songs from this game that sound like songs from games that didn't exist till a decade or so later this sounds like the Core from Undertale.

it's okay.

5.5/10

Track 25: Flute

I like flute sounds like a companion piece to hip-hop thing I covered earlier and hey it appears were out of the kinda boring short song slump!

8/10

Track 26: Shitty porno

There's a reason why had this be the title card music for Melvil and Minestro enter the Webtoon boyfreinds omegaverse.

4/10

track 27: Cool villain song

Before the drop it sounds like the song for a villain in one of those animated movies like the "were back dinosaur's tale" were you (at least me) keep thinking it's a Don bluth film but it's not.

but after the drops sounds like DVD menu music for some generic cowboy film from the early 70s.

7/10

Track 28: Fred

Fred I'm pretty sure is Shittporno's brother.

But this time he mostly works as transition music as we go to the house to the beach.

this is slightly better.

8/10

Song 29: Bun

Bun is totally related to Shitty porno and Fred in some way.

but she's a lot more eurodance-y and is a more pleasant experience on the ears.

9/10

Track 30: qwertyyterwwqwertyu

Orchestra. I like it I guess? it exists.

5/10

Track 31: Dingo

HOLY SHITE! WERE AT THE END!!!!

Let's see what masterpiece awaits us at....

*this music plays*

Most of the animals are sooooo stupid.

7/10.

Final thoughts! Even if this is just a collection of stock music I'd say for the most part it's a very good collection of stock music and in fact I quite like it, i totally recommend listening to this at some point.

but for the game itself not sure I might play it (and it's sequel) some day....Probably for some sort of milestone.

Tune in next time were maybe I’ll talk about the OST for the other games maybe.

(spoilers Creatures 2 OST is actually pretty good and Creatures 3 dying music should be a meme)

final score is 8.9/10

[talentless-witch]

Sayu’s asukusa national sea park advertisement!

The fish in the background isn’t mine btw I ripped it off from this website

https://pixers.hk/wall-murals/fish-vector-set-53611471

Saying so I don’t take the credit for something I DID NOT DRAW AT ALL and that I only changed the colors of.

I legit googled fish vector because 

1- I was to lazy to draw the entire fish when the main asukusa drawing was almost finished and would've taken me a ton of time

2-because advertisements rip off from images or stock images so why shouldn't i. (only for the advertisement related art, any other art of mine will Not have ripped off images and if it does, be assured I will list my sources regardless.)

I had so much fun drawing this sayu! ^^ the scales will always be the difficult part but I'll make it out~ 

This is the previous drawing im referring to!

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/talentless-witch/689367238207258624?source=share

Please enjoy this drawing out and the next one which is a nsr oc related advertisement for the asukusan drawing!

Here are my list sources of the arcade machines THAT I DID NOT MAKE, I just edited them out and repainted them.

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/M%C3%A1quina-vertical-jugadores-monitor-pulgadas/dp/B07Q9LNRSG

https://www.amazon.com/-/es/quarter-arcades-Numskull-gabinete-pulgadas/dp/B08X943CYT

I legit Googled Arcade machines.

So yeah please enjoy this drawing! ^^~ and have a nice day!

Feel free to skip this part! It’s a rant!

I actually feel like 🗿 today.

I hope you guys don’t get disturbed, I just feel 🗿, because I want to mentally shake my head and tell it to shut the fucc up jack you can’t fret over every egg.

I feel like quitting art sometimes that’s what I'm saying.

Now I say this here since I feel safe to say it here than other platforms merely because I am afraid of seeking as much possible attention when it’s going to make it worse for absolutely sure

I feel selfish for many reasons I will not list out because I don't want anyone else to feel like sht besides me, that would be terrible.

The only one I will say is that often I wish my work was more recognized, sometimes I do wish for a comment, idk what comment even, anything that doesn’t sound disingenuous or uninterested, because I can tell sometimes when someone is doing it out of being told to do so because they feel bad and not because they actually want to.

I feel like whatever I draw isn't recognized at all ,and it honestly feels selfish it feels awful and it feels greedy and entitled all at the same time because what right do I have to make others do something they don’t want to out of choice?

What do I even get out of it? Nothing but worse things basically.

I wish my characters where more recognized, that’s what I mostly wish, I wish I could do the same thing other creators and artists did to me with their characters.

Just inspire me to do whatever I want and keep on, I wish I could inspire the same way with my characters, because I feel like all I've been doing is nothing, all I've been doing is watching how things go down for everyone else and I wish for them to be an inspiration, for them to be looked up to.

But I feel selfish thinking that because I can’t do such a thing...and therefore look at me, doing this for an attention, a voice out there to beg people to do things I should wait for them to do by their own without me saying a word.

But the pressure on myself is to much.

But yeah that’s my distasteful rant on this art, I'm sorry please skip this ahead and feel free to ignore this post 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 270: Harry Potter Rules

Previously on BnHA: Present Mic punched Ujiko in the face! It was awesome. I’m thinking about getting a tattoo of it. Meanwhile Endeavor saved Mirko’s life by setting her on fire (reason #15 why I will never become a superhero), and Aizawa did some sexy Spider-Man poses for our viewing pleasure while fighting the rest of these Noumus which are still annoyingly refusing to die. Anyway but back to Present Mic, the undisputed MVP of this chapter. Because you see, in addition to the punching, he also used his Loud Voice attack (literally the actual attack name; Horikoshi will steal all of my jokes and leave me with nothing) to smash open Tomura’s Noumutank! Which I really thought was going to immediately lead to Everyone Dying, but apparently I was wrong! Anyways so yeah, right now Tomura’s just lying down all heart-stopped and not-breathing. Which seems very anticlimactic, BUT I JUST HAVE THE CRAZIEST FEELING that maybe, just maybe, the super powerful villain lad who just spent the last three arcs slowly upgrading his bad self just in time to wage war on the world as the story reaches its climax, might not actually be dead though.

Today on BnHA: DON’T MIND THAT OMINOUS ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND, IT’S NOTHING, IGNORE IT. Ahem. So first of all, as some of the bolder among us dared to speculate, Tomura is not, in fact, dead. He’s still very much kicking it with his nipple-less pecs and truffula tree hair, putzing around in his mental landscape filled with crumbled buildings and disembodied Theatrical Gesture Hands. For some reason he doesn’t have shoes or a shirt in his mental landscape, which was a very interesting choice on Horikoshi’s part, but we will speak no more of it. Anyway so to sum things up, Tomura’s family is all “TENKO WE LOVE YOU” and he’s all “oh hey” and then AFO fucking appears and he’s all “COME HERE MY BOY” which is exactly as creepy as you would expect, and for some fucking reason TOMURA ACTUALLY DOES COME HERE. And lol it turns out Ujiko gave him AFO. Like the quirk. Yes, that quirk. So long story short, Tomura is about to be possessed by AFO’s evil soul or some shit, and to put the cherry on top, fucking Deku out of fucking nowhere, MILES AWAY, is all “HE’S COMING.” Because of course he can sense it, because AFOFA IS REAL, AND FUCK ME THIS IS ALL HAPPENING TOO FAST, FUCK.

I know this chapter has been out since like 1pm, but I’m not getting to read it until 5 hours later because for once in my life I was trying to be responsible and actually get some work done on a Friday. I thought this might lead to less oh-god-I-still-have-to-get-that-done anxiety hovering over my weekend, but instead it just led to oh-god-I-have-to-get-the-chapter-recap-done anxiety hovering over my now! anyways so this might be a bit rushed lol

(ETA: yeah turns out this wasn’t exactly the kind of chapter you could just read quickly and get on with your life lmao. so, then!)

what a nice panel of Present Mic taking out the trash

you heard ‘em fellas. the doctor is secured. good job everyone we did it, manga over, congratulations. now to cut away to a two-page spread of Dark Shadow comically smothering Dabi’s flames with a giant stock pot lid, and that’ll be that! what a wonderful, extremely short and strangely underwhelming arc in which we haven’t even seen the actual main characters do anything yet. but I guess we don’t need them since the main bad guy is lying dead on the floor! everything is just so fucking dead and secured!! do you think if I keep repeating it enough Horikoshi will finally be like “okay geez I get it” and reveal his hand already

Mic is now ordering Ujiko to power down the Noumu, which again, I’m sure he will definitely do without a fuss since after all the good guys have clearly won the day

OH SHIT OH FUCK

rip X-Less. gonna just take a moment here to imprint your beautiful face onto my memory before it turns into a pile of ash. your face, I mean. not my memory. well my memory more or less already is a pile of ash but that’s neither here nor there ANYWAYS

:’)

what are these little sound effects. I think that’s supposed to be a buzzing noise?? anyways whatever it is PLEASE STOP IT, I AM NOT HAVING A NICE TIME SO STOP

ffff Horikoshi sure has done an excellent job of setting the mood in such a way that all of these panels of X-Less doing incredibly mild things are sending my stress levels through the roof. like is anyone else reading his lines more or less like “WELP, TIME FOR ME TO DIE, ANY SECOND NOW, WE’RE REALLY DOING THIS, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING, HERE IT COMES”

(ETA: when is this poor sweet innocent man going to fucking die already.)

LET’S CUT BACK TO MIC ESCAPING THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY

I have the clearest mental image of Horikoshi standing by with a walkie talkie in one hand and one of those remote bomb detonation clicky switch thingies in the other, patiently waiting to receive the go-ahead once all of the important characters have gotten to safety

anyway so now Ujiko is talking again

no fear everyone this is just the beginning of his verbal noumu deactivation sequence. nothing to worry about. everything is fine

yes for some reason his code phrase to put all the noumus back to sleep involves going into rambling detail about his work researching quirk singularities and shit. it’s fine. it’s not a big deal. code phrases are just like that sometimes all right

just ignore the increasingly panicked look in Mic’s eye as he slowly realizes he was way too fucking keen to just leave the “dead” Tomura back there with his laser-eyed hero buddy. anyway so let’s continue learning all about the Quirk Illuminati or whatever the fuck

okay so... he faked his own death? 70 years ago, at age 50 or thereabouts? I mean, that’s interesting and all I guess. not saying I wouldn’t be thrilled to spend the rest of this chapter learning all about Ujiko’s boring evil life. I don’t need to say it because it’s implied on account of Ujiko sucks and is the worst. so yeah can we get a move on though

oh shit?!?

WHOSE NARRATION IS THAT IN THE BOXES TOMURA IS THAT YOU OH GOD OH GOD

also, comparing AFO’s smile to a buddha’s really sent an actual shudder of disgust down my spine for some reason lmao. I personally would have steered that comparison in a different area, maybe less to buddhas and more to Norman Bates from Psycho, but to each their own

oh shit wait up

okay but this is actually a pretty big revelation though, isn’t it? because it’s been hinted for a while now that AFO and Ujiko had some method of duplicating quirks (the fact that all the Noumu share the same regeneration quirk was the biggest clue, but there was also John-chan’s quirk, as well as Hood’s Muscular-esque quirk), but as far as I can recall, this is the first time we’ve had it confirmed. though to be fair I wasn’t joking when I said my memory really has been shit lately sob

anyway so for real though, can you really call it a BnHA chapter if you’re not spending a good chunk of it being hopelessly confused over the ownership of some ambiguous thought bubbles. WHO IS THIS. I do seriously feel like it’s Tomura, because he’s the wrathful one, but another hallmark of a typical BnHA chapter is me constantly questioning everything I know as I muddle my way through

(ETA: yeah I’m pretty sure it was him. still impressive how vague it is though! it could also potentially be Ujiko, Mic, or even Deku. hopefully Caleb’s translation on Sunday can shed some more light on this. though he wasn’t really helpful last time this happened lol.)

SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON

didn’t... you just... say that “preservation” was your quirk?? what do you mean that you wanted it?? CAN YOU JUST FINISH YOUR SENTENCES LIKE A NORMAL PERSON

anyway so here’s a summary of this chapter thus far

present mic: okay goodbye forever x-less

x-less: what a strange thing to say! :) also is it just me or is this machine fucking staring at me

present mic: turn the noumu off please

ujiko: seventy years ago... society... singularity... he’d be 120 years old now...

??: [REPULSIVE FEELING EW WHO’S TOUCHING ME]

ujiko: all for one has the smile of an angel...

??: [SON OF A BITCH I’M SO FUCKING WRATHFUL]

ujiko: my quirk... preservation... the truth is... my quirk... preservation... the truth is... my quirk...

all caught up?? grand. also btw is anyone else super disturbed by the fact that Ujiko recognizes Mic as being “Kurogiri’s friend”, like holy shit though? how would he know that. I can’t think of any implications of this that aren’t super disturbing tbh

anyways back to -- LOL WHAT THE

Horikoshi Kouhei: [furiously scribbling notes to himself at 3am] BUT WHAT IF THE FOLDING CITY FROM “INCEPTION” HAD MORE GIANT HANDS

jesus christ. is this like some mental representation of what shit is currently like in Tomura’s mind? lots of crumbly destruction and traffic lights and the house his father built (isn’t it? I feel like it looks familiar), and SO MANY HANDS, HE JUST LOVES HIS HANDS

anyway so at this point it’s a coin toss whether or not anything in this fucking chapter is ever going to make any kind of fucking sense! but here I am voluntarily along for the ride while Gene Wilder sings that creepy boat song right in my ear!

DSFKLDSJ

ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN FLOATING IN A JAR FOR THREE MONTHS TBH. that is some luscious quarantine hair

SDFLKJSDLFKJSLKFDHLKSDJFLKJLKSDJL:FKJSDL:KJ

(ETA: that Tomura in the top left may be my new favorite panel. look at him. all he is is a nose and chin and ~*~HAIR~*~.)

HANAAAAAA AHHHHHH OH MY LORD OH MY LORD! OKAY I’M FINALLY PAYING ATTENTION NOW FOR REAL! NO MORE JOKES! EVERYBODY SHHHH!!!

FFFFFFFFFF

“LOOK AT ME I’M A MAIN CHARACTER I CAN HAVE STRANGE VISIONS AND TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE IN MY DREAMS, SOUND LIKE ANYBODY ELSE YOU KNOW?” TOMURA SHUT UP I DON’T HAVE TIME TO ANALYZE THIS SCENE THEMATICALLY RIGHT NOW I’M TOO BUSY BEING SAD ABOUT YOUR DEAD SISTER WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY CALCULATING THE ODDS OF THIS SOMEHOW BEING FORESHADOWING FOR HER NOT REALLY BEING DEAD. OH GOD, OH FUCK YOU GUYS, I’M FREAKING OUT

WHAT KIND OF YOUNGER BROTHER DOESN’T CALL HIS OLDER SISTER “NEECHAN” TOMURA WHAT KIND OF ANIME CHARACTER ARE YOU

AT THIS POINT HIS HAIR IS ITS OWN INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER WITH THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS WOW

HORIKOSHI PLEASE STOP SHAKING THIS CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE OF SIBLING FEELS SO VIGOROUSLY I AM SO TERRIBLY AFRAID OH GOD

“BY THE WAY TENKO I JUST HAVE TO SAY, YOUR MAN BOOBS ARE SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE AND YOU SHOULD BE VERY PROUD.” YES HANA I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY. HOW ASTUTE OF YOU TO POINT THAT OUT. BOY HAS BEEN HITTING THAT BOWFLEX

WTAF IS HIS HAIR THOUGH SERIOUSLY??!

IS IT JUST ME OR IS THIS DIALOGUE BUBBLE ACTUALLY COMING FROM THE HAIR ITSELF. TOMURA. TOMURA BLINK TWICE IF YOU ARE IN DANGER

SJJKJSKJSW

TENKO IT’S ME YOUR GIANT MOM I’M BEHIND YOU HONEY TURN AROUND AND LOOK HELLO HI I LOVE YOU DO YOU STILL WANT TO BE A HERO

ffff why is he so pretty all the time lately

you are very handsome with your billowy hair and ken doll abs, you. sure are having a lot of trippy visions for a dead guy too there

HEY!!!!

WHO SAID YOU WERE ALLOWED -- DO YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST -- ffffffffff I need to be alone with my thoughts for a few minutes fuck

okay well. but since it is getting late I guess we’ll just pack these feelings up real quick and put them inside a box and neatly label it “feelings I have about Tomura having a vision of his mom and immediately turning back into his innocent little boy self in said vision as soon as he sees her.” not too sure about the contents of this box yet but I will have to explore them thoroughly at a later date

oh hey it’s this asshole

“THAT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO, DAD.” jesus Kotaro. get over it

and also guess what, if you go and get Tomura all riled up so he wakes up grumpy and disintegrates the first hapless guy he sees, I will hold you solely responsible for that poor man’s death. I’m just warning you now

oh my

I remember this conversation going a bit differently the last time, but hey

LOOOOOOL

HIGH FIVE. PUT ‘ER THERE

WHY WOULD YOU LOOK SO SURPRISED LOL DID YOU NOT JUST TURN TOWARDS HIM WITH A SINISTER MURDER FACE LIKE TWO SECONDS AGO. LIKE WTF DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN

OH NO OH SHIT

FUCK ME, GUESS IT WOULDN’T BE A DRAMATIC BNHA DREAM SEQUENCE IF THIS ASSHOLE DIDN’T MAKE AN APPEARANCE AT SOME POINT OR OTHER NOW WOULD IT

-- HOLY SHIT?!

RECORD SCRATCH, FREEZE FRAME??

holy shit. holy shit. holy shit. holy shit. holy shit. holy shit

holy shit. fuck

...okay so

is this implying that AFO has been Noumufied? but that doesn’t make any sense, does it? he already had multiple quirks. what other advantages could there be to him becoming a Noumu. well whatever I’m just typing out all of my thoughts real fast for the time being and I’ll try to make sense of them later

or is it because he sees Kurogiri as a father figure? and AFO also?

or is he using Kurogiri’s quirk????? IS HE SOMEHOW WARPING INTO TOMURA’S DREAMS

because that third one, to me, is what this panel most looks like? Tomura says he looks like Kuro, but he doesn’t though. Kuro has a very distinctive face which this is very much lacking. instead it looks to me much more like one of Kurogiri’s portals, with AFO’s buddhaesque smile sticking out. so yeah. I got nothin’. except, again, fuck

(ETA: yeah I obviously have more thoughts about this now, but we’ll get to those in a bit.)

...

.......

-- !!!!!!!!!!LKJLK!JLKJ

oh shit oh shit oh shit 

OH SHIT

NO BABY NO DON’T DO IT

GASP

THEY’RE TRYING TO SAVE HIM AHHHH

I HAVE LIKE TEN THOUSAND THOUGHTS IN MY BRAIN RIGHT NOW YET SOMEHOW MY MIND IS ALSO STRANGELY BLANK?? I DON’T EVEN KNOW?? I’LL JUST KEEP READING

KOTARO ARE YOU TRYING TO HELP HIM OR ARE YOU PULLING HIM TOWARD AFO??

OH HE’S PUSHING HIM BACK!! OH SHIT IT’S A WHOLE FAMILY EFFORT

THEY’RE TRYING TO SAVE HIM AFO IS GOING TO TAKE HIM OVER AND THEY’RE TRYING TO PROTECT HIM OH GOD OH JESUS

BABY TENKO EYES OH MY GOD HE LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE DEKU THAT I THOUGHT IT WAS DEKU FOR A MOMENT

NO TENKO!!!

FUCK -- DOES HE NOT CARE? HE ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN BUT HE DOESN’T CARE?? IS HE TRULY SO PROFOUNDLY MISERABLE THAT HE’D GO AHEAD AND ACCEPT THIS FATE WILLINGLY

NO SOUNDS. NO WORDS. YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP IN MY ROOM RIGHT NOW

except that I have the most incredible, chilling, disturbing, electrifying feeling that my mental soundtrack is about to start blaring AFO’s theme from the anime on full blast...!

LOOOOOL SOB OH FUCKK

THE MOST TERRIFYING, DRAMATIC KIP UP YOU’VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE!! THIS IS IT, IT’S BEEN REAL FRIENDS, THIS IS WHERE WE DIE

-- ARE YOU REALLY, TRULY, GENUINELY SHITTING ME RIGHT NOW

NOW OF ALL TIMES IS WHEN WE FINALLY CUT TO THE TRIO, I’M CAN’T, I’M FUCK

AND THAT’S THE END AHHHHH

holy shit holy shit holy shit. wow

okay so. I don’t really have any sort of neat and tidy way to wrap up this hot mess of a recap lol. so, just... have a whole mess of all of my stupid whirling thoughts

those first four pages really did nothing to brace me at all lol

okay, so. here’s my understanding of all this, I guess. basically we’re going full Harry Potter rules here. AFO horcruxed his quirk, and from the looks of it, a piece of his soul (perhaps even the main piece) along with it. he then passed it on to Ujiko to implant into Tomura

horcrux!AFO then wakes up, and takes over Tomura. so then my understanding is that he’s going to be possessed by him. and I also got the impression that he’s fully aware of that, but just doesn’t care at this point. he knew his family was trying to warn him, but he didn’t care. and that look in his eyes when he disintegrated them just seemed so fucking resigned to me, though. jesus

but now the more interesting thing! so we can liken Tomura to the resurrected Voldemort from book 5 and onward, reborn after transferring his power into a new vessel. which would go a long way toward explaining how AFO was able to sense what was happening from all the way in Tartarus; because if we liken it to Voldemort and his horcruxes, it would mean that he still has a connection to them (similar to the connection between Voldemort’s mind and Harry’s)

but so now comes the really interesting thing -- what does this then imply about the connection between AFO and Deku? because you’ll recall that AFO alluded to a similar mental connection back when Deku first activated SIXQUIRKS. and now we have Deku somehow being magically aware of AFO’s sudden resurgent presence in this chapter. but why?? if the reason AFO and Tomura share a psychic link is because of a shared quirk, why would Deku also be experiencing the same link? the answer is, he wouldn’t -- unless he, too, had the same shared quirk

in other words, I think All for One for All is fucking confirmed you guys. I can’t think of any explanation for this other than that OFA is also a horcrux quirk. a little piece of AFO broken off and embedded in his brother, and then passed along through the generations. and now residing within Deku

anyway. so that’s a hell of a lot to ponder lol. I guess we can at least be grateful for the fact that we’re not waiting two weeks for chapter 271 like Hori originally planned. can you fucking imagine. what a fucking asshole lol

[skunky2]

Top 11 Worst Cartoons of the 2010′s!!

We had so many great cartoons introduced in this decade and while I haven't seen every last one I can say this decade was one of the best for animation in general! Sadly for every good animated show produced in this era there are also some bad apples in the bunch the following cartoons are some of the worst I have seen but please remember this is only my opinion if you like any of these shows then that's great continue to enjoy them don't let me stop you!!! 

        Now let's get this list started!!!

11. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs the series         (2017-2018) 

Ok before we talk about the show I want to make one thing clear I don't hate the films in fact I actually find them enjoyable even going as far as calling them guilty pleasures the show on the other hand is a huge flop compared to the movies were the films had creativity and fun humor the show lacks that in fact this is by far the most boring show to be based on a freaking film about an invention that makes it rain food!! The other problem I have with this show is it's set before the events of the films so Flint hasn't even become an inventor yet but instead it's about him in high school and apparently him and Sam knew each other already did they even watch their first film!? Also the mayor is the principle because why not seriously this has got to be the worst show based on a hit animated film it's so painfully unfunny that I question how kids found it entertaining to begin with!!!! Not every movie needs a tv series and this one proves it!

10.  Total Dramarama (2018-ongoing) 

Oh the pain to see the Total Drama series downgraded to this especially since the original Total Drama Island took a ton of risk for a show aimed at kids also how did we go from a series that spoofed reality  shows to a bad Muppet Babies rip-off!! What's really sad is that creators have no desire to produce a new Total Drama series they just want to work on this. On the plus side it's still not as bad as other shows your going to see later on the list. 

9. Super Noobs (2015-ongoing) 

Other then the "how do you do fellow kids" title I wasn't expecting this show to wow me considering it was brought to you by the same dude that brought us Johnny Test aka the original most hated cartoon of all time I got the DA pics to back me up! The worst part is this show has a very interesting concept but it's ruined due to the bad humor and characters. The show is about a group of outcast middle schoolers who receive super powers in the form of power balls from aliens who then become their mentors and how they must save the world from an evil virus that threatens the world sounds like an awesome plot too bad it's not pushed further. 

8. Almost Naked Animals (2011-2013)

Yes this is a children's cartoon not a title for an X rated film. All I can say about this show is why? Why would anyone greenlight a show about an animal nudist hotel not only is it disgusting but those character designs yikes!!!! They look so ugly looking no one wants to see something that looks this hideous!!  Not to mention the humor is just as terrible as the art design. 

7. Breadwinners (2014-2016) 

You know when you feature twerking in your show you automatically fail. The best way I can describe this cartoon is it's just awful first off the two idiot main characters who I'm not going to refer by name since they are some of the most stupidest names for characters seriously  SwaySway and Buhdeuce!? Anyway the show is about these two "ducks" I say ducks like that since they look nothing like ducks they look like frogs or aliens or something. Try to make your character if they are an animal try to look as close as possible as the species they're supposed to be so it will make it easier for you audience to identify them. Well they fly around in a rocket car or something I really don't care and deliver bread to stock-image ducks which brings me to another problem they can't even draw background characters they just go on Google find a duck photo and photoshop cartoon eyes and whatever on it how lazy a can you be!! Also I found out a long time ago your actually not supposed to give ducks bread yeah it can use malnutrition and illness to them so this cartoon is spreading the wrong message to kids. 

6. Brickleberry (2012-2015)

You know why I despise most adult cartoons because most of them are either trying way to hard to be quote on quote "adult" with overuse of swearing, gore, shock humor, and sex jokes and guess what this show is full of this!! Not only is the animation similar to that to Family Guy it's just as disgusting and offensive!!! The show revolves around these park rangers and their everyday lives at their jobs and the characters aren't very good either they are pretty much all assholes, stereotypes of usual characters you see in adult animation, and your typical characters that are just there to offend you! In fact the little bear cub character is pretty much the shows answer to Brain from Family Guy with the personality  of Cartman from South Park. Now I haven't seen this show in a long time but I just remember it wasn't a pleasant experience if you want to check it out just be warned it's not for the faint of heart.  Also the creators of this show produced another show for Netflix that is just a carbon copy with cops instead of rangers and I though that Seth McFarlane was lazy when it came to plots!! It's called Paradise P.D. btw 

5. Teen Titians Go!  (2013-Ongoing) 

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah you've heard it all before this show is garbage, a disgrace to DC comics, stupid etc. The animation community has tore this show apart so there really isn't much to say that already hasn't been said but I will say this I never intended to hate this show as much as I do in fact I was fine with it when it fist came out I mean the original Teen Titians cartoon from 2003 will always be better then this show in every possible way but I wasn't one of the fans to jump on the hate wagon when this was announced I mean I had nothing wrong with it just focusing on comedy if you remember correctly the original had eps that were just as silly and bizarre. The main reasons why this show is so high up on this list is for the following reasons the first is I've never seen a show like this disrespect a fan base this much  it's like the creators have it out for the original fans and they get joy out of mocking them with all these pathetic critic call out eps they do it also shows that they can't take criticism at all!!!! Second is how the creators view their show and animation in general they literally came out in an interview and said the reason why they made the show so stupid is because it's for children you do know kids aren't stupid right guys they deserve shows that don't try to talk down to them!!!! But the main reason for my anger towards this show is how they made an episode awhile were the moral literally was that cartoons are only for kids and told the original fans to grow up!! Mainly the creators themselves have this warped mindset that I honestly wish would just die out that only children should be allowed to watch cartoons and that their show should be immune to all the hate since it's for kids so they use the "just for kids" excuse for their show being like it is. It's hard to believe they would even have a mindset like that when they are adults themselves making an animated cartoon show. I didn't mean to rant this long but I mainly hate everything this show stands for and sadly it's going onto to get 300+ eps. Personality I really think it's time for this show to officially Go not because I don't like it's mainly because it's showing signs it's on it's last legs and with that Sixth Titian thing they pulled this summer and repeating episode plots is starting to show that the writers are becoming burned out this show was never good but I think it's time it ended. There are tons of other reasons this show is bad but I rather not go into them this has gone on long enough already. 

4. PPG 2016 (2016-Ongoing) 

Well TTG isn't the worst reboot/spinoff Cartoon Network produced in this decade the honor has to go to this piece of trash Powerpuff Girls 2016!! Why was this made simple CN wanted more money so they made this show to sell toys yes that was the only purpose of this reboot to sell merchandise too bad the show sucked so hard that the target demo along with the fans of the original Powerpuff Girls hated it! There are tons of problems with this reboot that have already been explained such as god awful animation errors, bad writing, and let's not forget the memes those outdated memes. Not to mention they removed the character Ms. Bellum since the creator thought that having a beautiful, warm-hearted, motherly, intelligent and strong-willed woman on the show was offensive to the new generation! Not to mention they got rid of breast but they did allow the girls to twerk tho!!! Yes because having an intelligent good-looking woman with boobs is bad but kindergarteners doing a sexually explicate dance is fine!! Seriously I feel so bad for Craig McCracken it was bad enough he was screwed over by Disney but to have his show turned into this!! 

3. The Problem Solverz (2011-2013) 

If you want to know my opinion for the worst animated show Cartoon Network has ever made it would be this one! Not only is the show ugly to look at but it uses enough bright colors to make your eyes bleed. The show is about these detectives who solve problems in their home town too bad they cause 90% of the problems they need to solve. These characters are so nasty to look out we got this ugly fish-like man, some robot, and a big nosed hideous lipped Domo wannabe. It was cancelled from tv but ran it's final season on Netflix. I still feel pain for any child that had to sit though this. 

2. Pickle and Peanut (2015-2018) 

Ugh this show!!!! If you've never seen it you may guess this would be something on Adult Swims line up since they're more known for wired shows like this but no it's not from Adult Swim in fact you'll never believe who made this Disney!!! Yes Disney Television Animation produced this the very same company that bought us shows like Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb, Star Vs. and so on made this garbage. There are several problems with this show first off the animation remember when I said that Breadwinners was lazy for using stock-images as background characters well this is the same damn thing but in reverse they couldn't even animate a pickle and a gosh darn peanut this is a peeve I have with most modern cartoons if it's not for a joke then why use stock-images it just makes your show look lazy! Second the humor it sucks it's mainly is "trying" to be Regular Show since both characters are slackers and get into bizarre adventures. Also this show loves to show gross-out shots like the ones in Spongebob for example but unlike Spongebob these are not funny and just plain disgusting like how is this show fun for kids to watch I mean I can understand why kids love cartoons like TTG but I can't see any child liking a show like this!!! Finally we have to talk about the god awful theme song it's not even a theme song but a random robot voice listing off things adults think that children are into so pretty much they're trying way too hard to appeal to kids just like with PPG 2016. There really isn't much more to say about this show it's just awful and it's still hard to believe Disney had a part in making this.

Now it's time for the cartoon from the 2010's that I believe disserves the crown as the worst show from this decade. Out of all the shows I've seen this year none of them of completely  disgusted me more then this one it pretty much has everything  I despise in modern adult animation it makes Brickleberry look tame in comparison!!! It comes to us from our friends at Adult Swim may I present to you the cartoon that I consider the worst!

1. Mr. Pickles (2013-Ungoing) 

I honestly don't know where to start on this one it's just god awful!! First it's got all the things I despise in adult animation shock humor, sex jokes, violence for the sake of it, and ugly character designs!! The show is about a family who owns a dog who is either the devil himself or one of his loyal followers and the dog does extremely messed up things to people stuff I rather not try to remember let's just say this show is MA for reason. If you have a faint heart please stay away from this show at all cost!!!

So there it is my opinions for the worst shows from this decade I hope you all enjoy it since I worked really hard on it.

I didn’t include Big Mouth or Paradise P.D. because I’ve never seen them but yeah I know they’re bad. 

[saleintothe90s]

390. Fire at 30 Rock and how Conan handled it (October 10 & 11th, 1996)

I kind of wanted to commemorate Conan’s 10th anniversary of being the short-lived host of The Tonight Show here somehow, and this is the butt-backwards day I’m doing it. 

In October of 1996, fire broke out at Rockefeller Center, where most of the news and talk programs at NBC have their studios. I vaguely remember this being reported on television that morning and tuning into the Today show to see how they were handling it, because you know, you can’t run a repeat of the Today show. I seem to remember Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric outside? I can’t find clips of it anywhere online, because back then people didn’t record out of the ordinary things like this. Nobody really records the Today show unless someone they like is on there that day.

''This is my office today,'' said Jeffrey A. Zucker, executive producer of ''Today,'' leaning on a Fire Department car on 49th Street, where Ms. Couric and Matt Lauer, filling in for Bryant Gumbel, were broadcasting.

The program's set is normally a windowed studio on 49th Street. But Mr. Zucker could not use graphics, commercials and other tapes stored at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and the program moved into the street in an act of solidarity with displaced colleagues. The horde of tourists who usually line the ''Today'' windows were behind barriers a block away, where they waved and held up signs.

The studioless ''Rosie O'Donnell'' and ''Maureen O'Boyle'' talk shows were canceled, disappointing hundreds of ticket-waving fans. Network programs for 215 NBC affiliates were broadcast from Burbank, Calif. ''The NBC Nightly News'' with Tom Brokaw was shifted to Washington.

Executives of ''Dateline NBC,'' a news magazine broadcast three days a week, held staff meetings in the street, as did executives of NBC Sports, who were planning a weekend of coverage that included Yankee-Oriole games, football games and other events. Beepers and cellular phones were highly visible. 1

(The Internet Archive also has these eps as well on this playlist, look for 10/10/1996 and 10/11/1996)

The October 10th episode (part 1, part 2, part 3,  part 4 )  start with this extreme close-up of Conan. 

“We could put together a new show, but ten e wouldn’t be able to maintain our unusually high standards of broadcasting excellence. So instead folks, please enjoy this rerun.”

[His producer whispers in Conan’s ear]

“...WHAT. WE DON’T GET PAID UNLESS WE DO A SHOW?! ALRIGHT, LET’S THROW TOGETHER ANY OL’ CRAP. WE’LL DO IT ON THE STREET. WHO CARES. COME ON PEOPLE, LET’S GO.” 

I died laughing when instead of Conan’s usual theme, we saw just news footage of the firetrucks at 30 Rock at 4am that morning, and other stock footage of fires. 

Apparently all of Conan’s suits were locked in the studio, because he went casual tonight. But yet his furniture and his Eisenhower Mug made it downstairs. 

I’m a little podunk who lives out in the middle of nowhere in Virginia. I only know this part of Rockefeller Center from when the NBC Nightly News with Lester zooms out at the end of the show during the winter and you see the skaters skating near the gold statue? Yeah, I’m one of those people who don’t know squat about NYC. 

Conan’s audience looks like it was people just strolling by on their way home from work. They’re pretty dressed up to see Late Night. Conan compares them to a crowd of bystanders at an accident. Whenever he showed a clip, the audience couldn’t see it because there’s no TVs, so the audience watched Conan & Andy show a clip of O.J. Simpson from The Towering Inferno but they had no clue what they were clapping about.  At one point in part 3, two people randomly walk behind Conan and Andy headed to dinner. 

Conan even managed to find a place for Max Weinberg and his band too. I think they’re sitting on folding chairs. They play fire themed songs!  I miss Max. Has he ever been on Conan’s TBS show? *YouTube search intensifies* Yes! Yes he has! 

Oh man, I forgot about Oldy Oldeson! I also forgot about the illustrated jokes the show used to do back then: 

Conan and Andy walk mere steps over to Brookstone(s) to find a gift for tonight’s guest, Samuel L. Jackson. Remember Brookstone? Such a throwing-around-money-in-the-late-90s store. I had to Google it to see if they were still around. No more stores in malls, but they still have airport stores. Huh.

btw, Samuel loved the chair.  He said that Andy was wearing “Crippled People Shoes”. This also happened:

Tomari the ostrich delivered Conan an egg with the guests for tomorrow night’s show inside. Boy, I thought they had retired her by that point. 

Chris Kattan came by and talked about his character I love so much, Kippy Strug, Kerri Strug’s brother. They couldn’t show that clip, but I’m sure if it was a normal show they would have. Chris did an impression of his dad watching Splash.

There was an giant owl there too that didn’t want any meat. Maybe he was scared by Tomari. 

The following day, the show (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) started with the same extreme closeup of Conan. Joel announces the show as, “From next door from the burned out hulk of Rockefeller Center, it’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien!” 

omg, Getty Images have these great press photos of Conan and baby Andy in their little sweater vests on the Today set: 

That’s Conan’s longtime producer, Jeff __ .  

Andy looks like a toddler.

 I kept hearing a baby in the background and was thinking it was some sort of joke, that all they could get for an audience was a baby due to the slap-dash nature, and I was kinda right: 

Conan brought in a family to watch the show from inside the studio. 

Oldy is back tonight with the news.

Eric Idle comes by on his way to the airport. “They said I would be out of here by now, Conan.” He also sings a song about shopping, with is 100% accurate. 

More news with Oldy.

Dang, Oldy sitting in Matt Lauer’s old chair, foretelling the future. You go, Oldy. 

They snoop on Bryant Gumbel’s locker. Is that a joke on how bland he was? 

Also voodoo dolls because never forget he’s a jerk who hates everybody.

Aw, Conan fed Oldy some bread.

I just realized. My icon this month (if you’re on Tumblr dash and its still June 2019 look to your left)  is Lorne Michals rescuing Jon Lovitz from a fictional fire at 30 Rock during the 1986 season finale of SNL. I didn’t plan it that way I swear. 

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1. McFadden, Robert, “Fire at 30 Rockefeller Plaza Sends NBC Programs to 49th St. Sidewalk, New York Times, October 11, 1996.  https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/11/nyregion/fire-at-30-rockefeller-plaza-sends-nbc-programs-to-49th-st-sidewalk.html?login=google

[tezsaltblogsrhpc]

Eighteenth Bottle of Mike’s: Apocrypha

The true ending of Radiant Historia is one of the only works of fiction that's ever legitimately made me cry.

I've played it enough times that it doesn't anymore.

In a happier universe, where PC didn't suck on toast, the addition of voice-acting might have changed that, but between the crappy art and the unfortunate association I have developed between the voice acting- which, I want to note again, is legitimately decent- and PC's bad writing and characterization, I doubt that's going to be the case, even before the Nemesia stuff swoops in and undermines all of it.

Final boss time.

One last benchmark comparison, for old times' sake:

When I reached the final boss in my modded playthrough where I killed everything once but had no combo bonuses, when I hit the final boss, Stocke was level 64, Aht was level 61, Raynie, Marco and Rosch were 59, Gafka was 58, and Eruca was 54.

In PC right now, I have Aht at level 73, Raynie at level 69, Marc at 67, Rosch at 66, Eruca and Gafka at 65, and Stocke at level 84.

I think most of the difference is from Vault of Grinding and the Shadow Stocke boss, though the popemobile and Tudeforce boss fights might also have contributed a bit.

Theoretically I could kill the superboss with the ear-hurting sound effects in the Vault of Grinding before I did this for completionism's sake, but with those level numbers already, I don't want to make this fight any more of a joke, so it can wait.

As usual, everyone enters the room in a glitchy huddle, and oh my god I only just noticed they changed the color on Gafka's hat in his sprite to be very slightly redder, why.

Why was this changed? 493

Great budget priorities: 23

Sips++

What the hell, NO, don't read "We shouldn't exist here" like it's a badass threatening line, oh my god.

Sips++++

...aaaaand Heiss's "......!" in response is read as a weird grunting noise with a neutralface. Of course.

Sips++

Aaaaaand there's the return of that godawful evil grin on Heiss that pretty much always appears on lines where there is no way in hell he'd be grinning.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 133

Sips++++

"I can help too!" Marco says, and S.Scans the first phase of the final boss. Thanks, Marc, I'm pretty sure we guessed the final boss was going to be immune to status effects and have no weaknesses, that's the least useful thing you could have done.

Stocke is doing a downright embarrassing amount of phys damage now; he's taking 2/3 of the HP off the Shadows with one attack, which is pretty inconvenient in this fight where you need them alive so you have things to push into the book so you can kill it.

Anyway I had Eruca slap the Black Chronicle to death just to spite PC's total lack of respect for her.

(I still think this first phase would work much better if it had a scripted ending and didn't go into the victory screen, BTW.)

Heiss's line: "Hesitation...? What on earth are you talking about!?" Heiss's voice: Weirdly flat Heiss's face: >8D

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 134

Sips++++

Stocke's VA is reading his dialogue here gentle and sad, but the expressions are all neutralface. It would work either sad or blunt and matter-of-fact, but sad voice with matter-of-fact expression doesn't particularly.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 135

Sips++++

Aaand when Heiss makes the crystals on the edges of the room start glowing black, the glow effect is now behind the clearly-visible ones in front instead of in front of them, so it looks less like the crystals are glowing and more like there are just black spots in the empty space on the edges of the room.

Oops: 110

Sips++

Another

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 136

for another use of the godawful >8D face on "I must commune with the other Sacrifices once more..."

Sips++

...so apparently PC decided to put in a cut-in image of the Black Chronicle just kinda on a blank background.

I don't think I complained about this way back when they did the White Chronicle cut-in, but I should have: the lack of background is lazy as hell, especially here, during the INTRO TO THE FINAL BOSS. The text they added here of Heiss yelling to the Black Chronicle would honestly be a lot more effective on a black screen, not slapped over concept art; as with many of the CG splash images, it's very apparent they put it in just because they had it, not because it actually serves any purpose or makes the game better in any way.

Sips++

what the hell was that sound effect on the book opening. Why do so many PC magic sound effects sound like they got mixed up with the sound effects from a sci-fi game and no one noticed.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 137

Sips++

"Ah, I feel their martyrdom!" Martyrdom is kind of the opposite of the feeling Heiss was aiming for here. Martyrdom is dying for a cause; Heiss wants resentment and anger at the fact that they had to die.

Sips++++

Anyway, I can't blame them for trying to make it a little more explicit exactly why/how Heiss turned into a witch from Madoka/a chicken made of stairs, even if I'm not 100% behind some of the phrasing, so

Changes I Don’t Hate: 228

anyway.

oh my god Marco you S-Scanned the final boss AGAIN? Seriously?

oh my god please don't tell me I'm going to be listening to that same weird distorted yelling noise every time Apocrypha attacks

Annoying Sound Effects: 46

Sips++++

...Why did a Dancing Death'd Punishment only do 900 damage. I could top that with a G-Frost. Did they buff Apocrypha's magic resist, or nerf Punishment way more than I thought they did?

anyway I'm blowing Dead Fencer on the second phase just so I can maybe have an actual fight on the last phase, because my party is so much faster than the poor stair monster and Stocke is doing so much damage that a combo for 3500 damage is completely trivial.

"CAN YOU WITHSTAND THIS?!", last-phase Heiss yells, and I have Tudeforce flashbacks. PC's battle voice clip writing really is godawful.

(I am also having Tudeforce flashbacks because he keeps using full-party status skills that don't do anything because I have Polaris up.)

On the subject of bad voice clips, I will never understand why PC made Eruca's clip on Death Penalty "Kneel before me!', but her clip on Punishment "You're going down!" I mean, obviously a lot of it comes down to not understanding Eruca and another part of it comes from the US translators being shockingly bad at character voice and formality register, but still, you'd think they would have put the much more dramatic line on her ultimate, not her second Mana Burst.

(I'd write a selection of new battle dialogue for every character in an interlude out of sheer spite, except that that's a type of writing I'm not particularly good at.)

oh my god Rosch stop using AOE supports when there is ONE ENEMY. Depending on the algorithms, I think it might actually have been to my advantage not to teach him a bunch of his supports in case that makes him use Lethal Rush (i.e. the only one I usually CARE about) more often.

And Apocrypha goes down like a chump without even getting to use Dark Matter.

There's a terrible part of me that wants to make a hack of RH where every boss's HP total is doubled except some of the spiders, just so you actually have to see more of the mechanics.

Heiss's VA is reading the dialogue where he's offscreen in Historia in this really weird spacey distant tone in exactly the same way Noah's VA read his dialogue in the ghost scene in the Popemobile quest, so I think we can safely blame this on the voice director. It's an awful decision, especially here: Heiss's dialogue here is really emotional, and absolutely does not benefit from being read in an Obi-Wan's-Force-ghost-like tone of vague mysticism.

Original: "I used the Chronicle and saw hope for the future... But you used it to see the ugliness of the past." PC: "I used my Chronicle and saw hope for the future... But from yours, you could only see the regret and despair of the past." I hate this.

This implies that the problem here is the Black Chronicle's capabilities. This puts the onus of Heiss's fall on what book he had, instead of on him and his decisions and how he chose to interpret the world around him.

And that is just factually wrong: he had the White Chronicle first, and switched after killing Victor and stealing his. Even if the Black Chronicle has a different focus and that ended up making Heiss worse, he'd started down this path before he had it.

This is also why I'm not giving them credit for distinguishing between the fact that they're using different Chronicles now. Heiss had the same Chronicle when he went off the rails that Stocke has now. And Stocke knows that: Eruca told him that the Black Chronicle was stolen when Victor was killed, and he knows the White Chronicle is the one given to the Sacrifice.

Why was this changed? 494

Sips++++++

Stocke's VA is... really not selling this speech as well as I would like. Like, I don't think he's doing anything wrong, but it's... generic, and it doesn't make the writing of the lines sound natural, and it's not helped at all by the bland neutralface through all of it.

Original: "And I won't ever forget that." PC: "I won't ever forget that." I think the original flows better.

Why was this changed? 495

Sips++

Original: "Huh? Where's the queen?" PC: "But where's the queen?" I'm going to run out of opportunities to say this soon, so: What was the point of this?

Why was this changed? 496

Sips++

Aht's cheeks-puffed angryface is a pretty bizarre choice for "has just spotted Eruca."

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 138

Sips++

...well, okay, I say that, and then I see Eruca's long-haired floating sprite. Yeah, angryface is a pretty appropriate response to that. Since the allegedly-floating hair doesn’t move and only fans out at the bottom, it looks more like she grew wings.

How Do I Art: 84

Sips++++++

Original: "Stocke... There's no need for you to sacrifice yourself!" PC: "Stocke... There is no need for you to sacrifice yourself!" 1) Why are they putting a weird echo voice filter on her when she's right there 2) Why is her voice acting so unemotional 3) What was the point of this.

Why was this changed? 497

Sips++

WHY WOULD YOU USE NEUTRALFACE ON "I must play my part"

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 139

Sips++++

Original: "Me three!" PC: "Me too!"

FUCK YOU AND THE HELL SPIDER YOU RODE IN ON: 35

Why was this changed? 498

Sips++++++

Original: "And I am... Ernst is already dead." PC: "And I am- rather, Ernst is- already dead." Siiiiiiiiiiiigh. And god dammit, Xander Mobus, that line could have been about a dozen times more heartbreaking. I was really expecting you to come through better at the end here than you have been.

Why was this changed? 499

Sips++

Original: "My journey will go on, just like I traveled with all of you." PC: "As you continue your journeys, I'll be in your hearts." ...Either the Japanese has been changed, or one of these is a very inaccurate translation. The original works a lot better re: everyone’s reactions and the normal ending, though.

Original: "Me too... I'll wait! <br> I mean, we're friends!" PC: "Me too... <br> I'll be waiting for you, Stocke!" I think this mostly got changed because they used the stupid blushface on the second line, but I'm giving it a point anyway for being less jarring if you've hit AJE.

Changes I Don’t Hate: 229

Original: "...You were the best friends I could have hoped for." PC: "Everyone... you were the best friends I could ever have hoped for." "...Except you, Marco." </Simmering Fury joke> "...And you, Gafka." </Gafka’s lack of characterization joke>

Why was this changed? 500

Sips++

Did you have to pull out Rosch's incredibly stupid-looking smile face RIGHT before the ending? Like, really? "Someday, somewhere!" isn't even a line that particularly makes sense on, especially with how it's read.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 140

Sips++

...And they're doing it with Aht's :D face too. You know, the person in the room who's probably least okay with this.

What the hell.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 141

Sips++++

Original: "...Looks like they succeeded." PC: "...Looks like they did it." It would have been so nice to end this update with a nice round number.

Why was this changed? 501

Sips++

Oh, right, I forgot when I was facepalming about that stupid "where only royal blood may set foot" thing last quest that Eruca walks into that room with three random guards.

Sips++

Anyway.

True end scenes next time.

Tally:

Why was this changed? 501

Changes I Don’t Hate: 229

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 141

Oops: 110

How Do I Art: 84

Nyarlamesia: 64

Annoying Sound Effects: 46

FUCK YOU AND THE HELL SPIDER YOU RODE IN ON: 35

Handy-dandy gameplay changes: 31

Great budget priorities: 23

The monkey's paw is flipping me off: 17

Let Stocke Say Ass: 14

Save Me From Fanservice: 9

[sssoto]

Happy 200th birthday, Serena!

My dearest baby Serena da Silva has her birthday today, October 17th, and it’s not just any birthday - today marks the day she was born 200 years ago! EEEP how exciting is that? You only get to celebrate an anniversary like that once in your lifetime!

If you’re unfamiliar with Serena, she is my character from my book project series for Amnesia: The Dark Descent, in which she plays a major role. She’s probably the character nearest and dearest to my heart, and she tends to be a fan favourite among readers as well, so I wanted to do something extra special for this particular anniversary.

So here comes: a birthday feature! In which I display all the amazing gifts Serena has received today.

First of all, I want to show the wip of what I had planned to do for Serena, which unfortunately I couldn’t finish in time since my laptop screen broke at the WORST. TIMING. EVER. I meant to have this artwork ready for today, but since I won’t be able to finish it until later, I’ll share a wip of the clean sketch:

I must admit, I’m quite proud of it! It’s the first time I experiment with perspective and interiors for real, and I also usually suck at drawing animals, but Cleo (Serena’s cat) came out quite okay here, so I’m happy! I hope I’ll be able to finish it sooner rather than later.

And now, let’s get into the amazing gifts my baby has received today AAAHHH!

@juliajm15

If you’ve been following me for a while, you might know that @juliajm15 is an art goddess who’s been making amazing beautiful fanart of my characters for the past couple years. She always goes so above and beyond for me, and that can be seen by LOOKING AT THIS GORGEOUS PIECE OF SERANIEL FANART.

IT’S THEIR FIRST KISS. THEY’RE SO YOUNG AND INNOCENT HERE. THAT HEIGHT DIFFERENCE. THAT DRESS. THAT HAIR (BOTH OF THEM). I COULD GO ON GUSHING BUT WE’D BE HERE ALL DAY.

OH YEAH, AND THAT BACKGROUND.

I just had to mention that.

OMG I die over how perfect and cute and romantic this is, it just completely captures the essence and emotion of that scene in my book! I feel so blessed and privileged, how am I ever gonna recover from this perfection?

But not only did she do this amazing gorgeous romantic piece for me, she also did a complete remake of Serena’s character portrait and DAMN SHE LOOKS GORGEOUS.

HOW does she always manage to capture Serena so perfectly? Ugh I honestly just can’t with this perfection, I just can’t. That expression, that hair, those LIPS. Okay, I’m gonna move on because I could literally gush about Serena’s face all day, but then we’d miss out on all the other amazing gifts she received today! Just, thank you so much @juliajm15 my darling, you’re such a generous and ultra skilled human being, thank you so much for being in my life and supporting me always

@shaelinwrites

So meme and aesthetics queen @shaelinwrites totally disarmed me today when she sent me THIS GORGEOUS MOODBOARD FOR SERENA OH MY LORD.

LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS WINTER AESTHETIC. OMG LOOK, CLEO MADE A CAMEO ON THE BOTTOM LEFT. Omg these colours are just too beautiful I CAN’T. The art supplies, the gesture and expression of this girl, it’s all SO Serena. The whole feel of this moodboard is just so romantic and cosy and wintery and ugh, the nightgown, the long dark hair. I’m aware I’m just rambling and gushing throughout this post DEAL WITH IT.

And @shaelinwrites didn’t stop there, no, as any good bae, she knew how important the bae is. HAVE SOME MORE SERANIEL, THIS TIME BLACK AND WHITE SEXY EDITION.

OH MY LORD. HOW WILL I EVER RECOVER FROM ALL OF THIS. I CANNOT DEAL, CAN. NOT. DEAL.

All of this is literally just so accurate. Like, it’s so friggin’ hard to find good stock images that can embody a fictional character, BUT MY BAE DID IT *CRIES*. Thank you so much bae, omg this surprise was such a highlight today!!

@coffeeandcalligraphy

Another dear friend of mine (who’s a total cinnamon roll btw), @coffeeandcalligraphy, also went above and beyond for my character’s birthday because LOOK AT THIS:

I swear, everyone remembers the bae Baeniel. Eeeeeveryone.

Omg I swear, MY BABIES LOOK SO ATTRACTIVE HERE LIKE OH MY LORD. Daniel boooiiiiiii with that Expression of Angst™ and them puffy lips, and SERENA OMG THE HAIR AND THE LIPS AND EYES, HER INDIGENOUS ROOTS ARE SO PRONOUNCED WITH HER EYES AND I LOVE THAT.

I actually can’t??? Like how do I have so many talented af friends??? I must be a talent MAGNET I’m telling ya.

Oh and Rachel had the same idea as Baelin and went the sexy Black and White edition with the OTP as well:

BECAUSE CAN WE EVER HAVE TOO MUCH SEXINESS? I THINK NOT. Thank you so much @coffeeandcalligraphy I swear your art just blows me away, you’re improving at such a rapid pace, slow down, I can’t keep up

@sarahkelsiwrites

Also @sarahkelsiwrites is a close friend of mine, and actually @coffeeandcalligraphy‘s twin sister (gotta collect the whole pack amirite), and as part of her inktober challenge she did THIS GORGEOUS INKED PORTRAIT OF SERENA:

LIKE OMG OKAY SO the Victorian aesthetic is on POINT here, and OMG I love that her Hispanic features are soooo visible here. ALSO DAMN, THE DETAIL ON THE JEWELLERY. THE INKING OF THIS IS ALSO SO GREAT, LIKE, DO YOU SEE THE LINES IN HER HAIR???? I’m sorry, I’m an artist, I have to appreciate it when I see good craft, okay? I also gotta note that I’m living for how everyone always remembers Serena’s choker because girl never goes without one

Ugh HER EYES AND LIPS okay I gotta stop. I mention the eyes and lips every time, when will I switch it up. NEVER. Okay, glad we got that settled.

(Yes, I’m a dork, but only when I’m overwhelmed with this much love and beauty, I swear.)

Also omg THE SONG LYRICS, THOSE ARE SELENA GOMEZ LYRICS, AND IT’S STARS DANCE, AND I LOVE THAT SONG, AND IT’S SO RELEVANT, AND I’M ACTUALLY SHOOK. LORD thank you so much @sarahkelsiwrites god I just can’t believe how friggin’ talented and generous and thoughtful all of you are, I will never get over it.

Constance

So I’ve not mentioned this, but not too long ago I was totally taken by surprise and utterly *shook* when I received a private message on the site where I have Memoirs posted. This long message came from an angel named Constance, who registered a profile just to tell me how much she adored my story, give me fanart, and TELL ME SHE’S TRANSLATING THE ENTIRE THING TO FRENCH BRUH.

So if any of you out there are speaking French and not super comfortable with English, but still interested in reading Memoirs, it’s Constance you wanna hit up. She’s got you covered.

But back to the FANART.

Constance is working on this GORGEOUS Serena fanart for me, and while it’s not all finished yet, she said I could still post it for the birthday feature! (I’m going to update the post with the finished piece once it’s ready)

LOOK HOW CUTE AND PRETTY AND YOUNG MY SERENA IS HERE. THIS DRESS IS SO PRETTY, I DIE. OMG SHE HAS THE LOCKET. I realise like 90% of this post is all caps, but WHO CAN BLAME ME? I’m so #blessedyouknow right.

All I wanted in my life is Serena in a pink pretty dress. Thank you for realising my dreams, Constance *cries* and thank you so much for the endless support and this generosity! Seeing other people getting so invested in my story and characters really moves me so much, it’s all that I could hope for waaahh.

2k17 - Birthday One Shot

Okay, so I know how I said I couldn’t finish my artwork for Serena in time as I had intended, which made me very, very Sad™, BUT. I came up with something else.

So this was actually SUPER spontaneous and I usually NEVER do something like this, but I took a chance, and you know what? It worked out. I just wanna say thank you so much to my bae @shaelinwrites who pushed and motivated me to do this, I dunno what happened, but you must’ve transferred some of your writing machine abilities to me, because I actually managed to finish an entire one shot in JUST ONE DAY. (Are you as shook as I am? Cuz I can never seem to finish a chapter so I’m shook.)

Since I couldn’t finish my artwork for Serena like I planned, I decided to write a short fluffy non-canon one shot for her birthday. It was super spontaneous and unplanned, but it actually came surprisingly easy to write! I’ve not written in first person in many, many years, so this was really a leap of faith LOL, but I like the end result! A major thanks to @shaelinwrites, who encouraged me and critiqued the short before publication, and @coffeeandcalligraphy, @sarahkelsiwrites and @juliajm15 for giving it a read and telling me their thoughts as well! I hope you all enjoy this little piece of fluff; since I’m taking so long to write my book, maybe this can keep y’all entertained meanwhile

Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported me and celebrated Serena’s birthday with me, even just in spirit! It makes the long journey all worth it, knowing there are people out there who care (’:

(short story starts under the cut!)

Roses and Ballerinas

The balcony drapes danced lightly with the gentle morning breeze, a delicate waltz. My existence was comfort, head cushioned by feather pillows and silk sheets swathing my naked form. Sunlight hadn’t woken me; London was always grey, ash brick and fog, and even more so in the rainy days of October. However, for what one might expect, the morning didn’t seem to carry its usual autumn gloom—though I suppose that observation could’ve had more to do with my current disposition.

A smile crept on my lips at remembrance of the night previous, one which, if anyone saw, surely would’ve spoken of scandalous notions unfit for a such young lady to entertain. Fortunately, none had been around to witness what had occurred in this room; tangled limbs, kisses of the sweetest character, ardour’s touch, skin marked with such fierce passion that even I could not have imagined. It didn’t seem right that something so blissful could be immoral. Should a simple seal of matrimony reverse what was once considered debasement? What a frigid, unromantic sentiment. If anyone would’ve cared to ask me, I would sing praise to the levels of delight and unison one could only reach when committing so wholeheartedly to Venus’ embrace. Might my lover treat me to such a lovely experience again tonight? This was after all a special day of mine.

I turned in my silk cocoon to face him, and was met with a disappointing sight. Half my bed was empty, only evidence that anyone had occupied the space a faint outline in the wrinkled sheets where his body had laid. I was accustomed to sharing this queen size with no one. My parents had always been diligent in ensuring that I was endowed much more space than a small person like me required. Somehow, the vastness of this bed, indeed this entire room, seemed pronounced in this moment. I fancied I didn’t really like that much space at all. It only served to remind me of my loneliness.

Rationality grounded me; naturally, he’d gone to his own room before my maid servant would come to knock. It was only sensible. If Lydia came to discover him here, she could not keep such a secret from Mama—though truly I hadn’t much need for concern today, as she was typically inclined to let me sleep in on a day of my celebration. Yes, it was the day itself which heightened my sensitivity, nothing more. Admittedly I’d had hopes for the morning, that he might wake me with another of his sweet kisses, might whisper words of admiration and appreciation in my ears as he’d play with my dark locks—an occupation he liked to take up whenever he visited my private chambers, I’d noted with slight thrill. Indeed, he was a beautiful man—one would be hard-pressed to argue the fact—but more importantly was how knowledgeable he’d proven himself on the treatment of a woman. Had I ever felt so worshipped and adored? If so, I couldn’t recover the memory.

My hand caressed the empty space next to me. He’d always held my fancy, even before either of us could be consciously aware of such implications. As far back as when he’d been a scrawny boy with round green eyes and tufts of brown hair that grew unrestrained, too wild for taming. Such was he when I’d first laid eyes upon him, myself a guileless, wide-eyed girl just six years of age. Our childhood was an innocent one, as most are, and a discordant one, as most aren’t. We’d been too young to fathom the consequences of our relationship. Even so, I could never regret it.

The door clicked open. I sat in surprise, pulling on my duvet to cover me. Why would Lydia not knock? This conduct was so unlike my meek maid, and certainly rude and improper. Under usual circumstances I’d not mind, but in my current exposed state I would’ve preferred for my servant to know her place and knock before entering. Would she not question my state of undress? Would I have answers to offer that wouldn’t further incriminate myself and fuel her suspicions?

But the sight which entered was not Lydia; indeed, this character was too tall, too broad, too much man. The clothes he’d discarded last night was now fitted on him in a most casual manner, shirt tucked carelessly into the waistband of the trousers he’d worn the day before and not fully buttoned. The tension in my body dwindled, and I let a sigh of relief. “You’re awake already? I thought I might make it back before you’d notice my absence.” He wore a crooked smile as he closed the door behind him, though it wasn’t smug but awkward, as if regretful he might’ve troubled me while he was gone.

“Daniel, where did you go? Did you not care to think you could get caught sneaking in and out of my room like that?” I said while he approached. I could not ignore how he moved with an arm behind his back, making his climb back into bed rather clumsy looking.

His smile was amusement now, a hint of a chuckle on the tilt of his lips. He leaned close, and his scent engulfed me, piquant and potent, woodsmoke and seasalt. I savoured the fragrance of him, and his warmth, and those lips, perfect for kissing, as they met mine in a sweet greeting. “Happy birthday, darling,” he muttered against my smile.

He pulled back, much to my dismay—though that sentiment was soon replaced by curiosity as he presented whatever he’d cared so much to hide behind his back. “What is that?” The words escaped me before I’d taken a proper glance at the object; a wooden box, handcrafted. The carving of a rose adorned the top lid and composed the main attraction. Still the rest of the box was as skilfully ornamented, only with less eye-catching swirls and foliage.

“Watch.” He bit his lip in thrill as was his habit—one I found rather endearing, I might add. He produced a small key from his pocket and inserted it into an opening hidden on the side.

I looked on in fascination as three turns of the key set the box in motion. The lid of the case rose all on its own, and as a lovely tune began its play, a small ballerina came to life and emerged from the box. She twirled around in a graceful dance, contentment in her gesture. I brought both hands to my lips, unable to contain my smile; she had long black hair, just like mine. “A music box!”

“Is it to your liking?” Daniel chuckled, and this time his grin was indeed quite self-satisfied.

I took the music box in my own hands and brought it closer to my face. The ballerina spun and spun without a care in the world; she was me, a version of myself I had dreamed of once. Unrestrained, unchained, free of her cage. Her face was simply painted, but the meaning in her dancing form could not escape me. Such I had seen myself, fantasized of another life. That he remembered… “It’s beautiful! How… When did you arrange this?” The inquiry came out more quiet and raspy than I had intended, but he heard.

“Good while ago,” said he with an air of nonchalance, as though it was little trouble. “The actual crafting of the box and ballerina wasn’t too difficult, but I needed some help to have all the parts fitted together. A clockmaker assisted me in getting the thing to actually play; as you know, I’m not much of a musician.”

I audibly gasped and stared up at him, unable to help myself. “You crafted this yourself?”

He seemed amused by my shock—no wonder, as I shouldn’t have been so surprised. He was the son of an artisan after all. The tune of the music box came to a halt at last, its last note fading into silence. “With my own bare hands. Look here,” he pointed to the interior of the lid, “There’s an inscription.”

My eyes followed to where he pointed; the ballerina had indeed stolen attention away from an engraving hidden behind her, on the curved inner side of the rose-adorned lid. Soul free of sorrow, heart light with hope; this be the path I follow, this is the path I chose. My chest swelled, and breath hitched. I wanted to speak, yet couldn’t bring the words to my tongue. Instead I choked on them, and they came caught in my throat.

Daniel tilted his head, understandable question lingering in his expression. Oh, those striking green eyes, this lovely visage. Handsomeness was a term he embodied so utterly; how was it fair for a face like that to completely disarm a woman? I composed myself and swallowed the cry which would’ve escaped me if I’d had just little less self restraint. My one hand cupped the side of my face while the other held the music box, and my smile had no end to it still. Since all else I felt refused to be spoken, I settled on the one feeling I could formulate with ease—amusement. “Some poet you’ve become, huh?” I laughed, shaking my head, yet in an effort to quell the rush inside me.

He grinned and gave my shoulder a gentle shove, an action so very like his behaviour as a boy. “Don’t laugh, I put in a great effort; see, the words rhyme!”

My giggles intensified at his reaction. I placed the music box on the nightstand and spun the key again, thrice; thus the ballerina resumed her carefree dance, light and free. She was magical, twirling such as she did. What a spirit to have, a life to live. To choose your own path to follow, and not the one chosen for you.

I turned towards my company again and pulled on him, locking him between my arms in a tight embrace. “Thank you, Daniel.” I squeezed in hope that the fierceness of my display of appreciation would deliver the message better than words could. “Thank you so much. It’s wonderful.”

“I do consider myself quite the expert on gift giving.” His chuckle was warm against my bare neck. A large hand planted firmly between my shoulder blades and pressed me deeper into his warmth. “I’m sorry if I had you worried, Serena. I only went to fetch my gift for you. I promise I was careful.”

“It’s fine, Daniel.” The words came out in a sigh of contentment. He was indeed so broad and so much bigger than I; his figure wrapped me in amenity, instilling within me an ease I couldn’t hope to discover elsewhere. It was an ease of novel excitement and nostalgic familiarity, all at once. “In truth, what bothered me was the idea that you’d left me to wake by myself.” I pulled away enough to look at him and brushed a strand of his long, brown locks from his face. “Today of all days.”

At those words, Daniel constrained his smile from widening too much, and I blushed by the notion that I’d said something to make him so satisfied with himself. “Well, let me assure you that you needn’t worry of that, my love.” He leaned over me, and I fell back into silk. I had no need for the duvet to cover my naked figure any more; his broad form was quite enough coverage. “You should know that the only instance in which I would leave this bed willingly would be the moment you tire of me and kick me out.”

I bit my lip as a gratifying sensation waved through me, and my fingers found way to the waistband of his trousers, pulling the shirt loose of it. “If that is a challenge,” I laughed, “then go ahead and make your attempt at tiring me.”

By the smirk on his lips, it seemed he accepted. The music box played its last note; it rang into the room and deadened to silence, and so a music of another kind took its place. Lord pray that Lydia would have the thought to let her lady sleep in on her birthday.

So that was all for this century’s anniversary! Thank you so much to all my friends who made these amazing gifts for her, and all of you who participated in celebrating her; it means so much

Until next century, darlings! (I’m kidding, I’m not gonna be inactive on this blog a whole century…)

[impurelight]

Mi 9T

When the OnePlus 7T came out I distinctly remember posting 'Oh, it's the double priced Mi 9T'. Because it is. The Mi 9T is one of the best phones you can buy for 300 USD. So I bought it and here are my impressions using it.

The first thing I noticed when I powered on this phone is the display. It is gorgeous. Just, it looks painted on as you'd expect. But also I can actually use the autobrightness mode. This is my first AMOLED phone. All the rest were LCD's and on LCD's if you lower the brightness the colours also get washed out. Perhaps this has to do with impurities in the red, green, and blue filters. But whatever the case I'd always leave autobrightness off because in dark modes it was too difficult to see anything.

This AMOLED fixes that. In fact it looks even better at night when there's no other light because the colours just pop that much more.

Also about the display there is an oversaturated colour mode turned on by default. I turned it off because although it looks good in most circumstances, if you have a colour that's already really saturated the extra saturation can bump that colour into uncanny levels of saturation.

Oh, and AMOLED displays are not as sharp as LCD panels. It's probably due to the pentile subpixels but if you look closely you can see some diamond stuff going on. Not the actual pixels and in normal use it looks fine but if you stop and stare at it it does look a bit off.

A post about the Mi 9T would not be complete without a talk about MIUI. I really like MIUI. So browsing MIUI discussions the 2 big problems with it are the task management and the notifications not showing up.

First the notifications. Yeah, they don't all show up on the lock screen. But I don't really care about that. When I look at the lock screen it's usually only to control my music as there is a fingerprint icon that displays over the fingerprint sensor. More on this later. So I can unlock my phone without ever seeing the lock screen. Pretty nifty.

And all the notifications show up in the shade so I'm not really sure why people are talking about that. It doesn't bother me that much.

And second there's the task management. MIUI is brutal about killing tasks that are eating battery life. Certain apps will run in the background as long as you opened them manually like the clock. But the official instructions to get something to run in the background are to:

Go into the battery settings and select no optimizations.

Go into the permissions and allow the app to autostart.

Go into the multitasking view (which looks really weird, not worse, just weird. In fact it might even be a bit better than that waste of space multitasking UI stock Android uses. Why they ever moved from the cards UI is beyond me.), long press on the app in question, and select the lock icon to keep MIUI from killing it.

And then I realized there are additional steps no one tells you:

Restart your phone.

Start the app after your phone has restarted.

So it's a bit of a pain. I wouldn't even know this if I didn't have a Mi Band 4. They even put the instructions in the Mi Band app. You'd think the Mi Band would do this automatically given it's made by the same company but I guess not.

I'm not sure if all these steps are necessary but they are recommended.

The upside of all this is that you get fantastic standby time. Like I can go to sleep and my phone won't drop in battery life overnight. There are times I'll go to sleep with my old Android One phone around like - I don't know - 40%ish battery life and wake up with 15% and a low battery warning. It's pretty annoying. I don't know if this trade off is worth it but I mean it's not so bad if you follow all the steps.

As for the rest of MIUI it's pretty amazing. Oh, yeah, people also complain about the launcher not having an app drawer. I don't mind, on my old phone I put all the apps on my home screen anyways. Although I now use Nova just because the default app drawer does not support adaptive icons and some of the icons in the default launcher are pretty bad. But the default launcher has a better swipe animation. When you swipe up the app goes back into its icon. I wish Nova had this but unfortunately not. When you swipe up the app just shrinks into the middle of the screen.

Speaking of the swipe gestures they're pretty cool. Up to go home. Up and hold (not up and to the right like in iOS) to access multitasking (which causes a vibration. BTW the vibration motor on the Mi 9T is really loud). And right or left to go back. Sometimes they do conflict with other things. Especially in Nova launcher (this is more probably due to not being able to go home again if you're already home) and in games but it's not that bad.

My one complaint is you still get that stupid swipe up twice to go home in full screen apps. That means when you're playing a game and you swipe up instead of going home you get a message "swipe up again to go home". It's pretty annoying and I don't know why they do it. But it doesn't bother me as much as having to swipe up to get to a button so I could go home because you're doing the same thing twice. That annoyance of having to swipe up twice is actually what made me never want a phone with on screen buttons. But now all the phones have edge to edge screens so I guess I have to move on.

Also some more notes on MIUI: it doesn't whine about mobile data. On stock android it's like "Oh, you don't have mobile data. Do you want to enable it?" And it's just so annoying. I don't know what sort of fantasy land Google lives in where everyone has unlimited data all the time. Also the clock text is really nice. I mean, it's just a clock but I still really like it.

It only displays like this if you don't have notifications though. It displays the boring normal text if you have a notification. Too bad. I would have perferred it if it always displayed this clock.

Also the battery icon text is too small.

And there's a lot of notification spam. Especially the app updates. Some update through the Play store but others don't. I don't understand why they can't all just update through the Play Store. Oh, well, at least the app update ones can be blocked by the cleaner ones cannot.

And there's this nifty feature called fingerprint shortcuts. Basically once you unlock your phone with your fingerprint you can slide your finger to one of a few shortcuts. This could be really useful if you could customize the shortcuts at all. Oh, well.

Speaking of the fingerprint sensor it's not what I expected. I saw tons of videos and they all had the fingerprint being really fast. And yeah, it's about that fast. But only if you have your finger in the same position you normally unlock the phone with. As soon as you start moving around or you're holding your fingers at a weird angle it can take about twice or even three times as long to unlock and the sensor will occasionally stutter for some reason. And if your hands were recently wet (even if you dryed them) it can even refuse to unlock entirely. I'd still say the fingerprint sensor is pretty good and way better than a back mounted one but I don't like how all those 'reviewers' lied to me.

So I briefly touched on the light up fingerprint icon. Basically there is an icon right over the fingerprint sensor so you know where to press. It's pretty nifty. It's easy enough to know where the fingerprint sensor is as it's usually marked by an unusually oily spot on the screen but it's nice to know explicitly. It's not always on, it appears to light up whenever you move the phone. Also the brightness of the icon doesn't use the ambient light sensor. So in dark locations it'll be fine but in bright locations you can hardly see it.

Also the Wifi is insanely good on this phone. Much better than my previous phone. The connection appears to be much more reliable and the connection is faster.

So let's talk about the camera. I keep on touching it when holding the phone. Because there are three cameras and a flash module. Anyways, it's a fine camera. In a comparison with the stock camera app the Google Camera app gave me much more details so I'm using that even though the HDR isn't as aggressive in that.

Also there is this sky replacement effect in the MIUI gallery app. It is so convincing. It makes the random dual exposure thing Google's doing this year look like a joke. The only problem is that if there's something that looks too much like sky, like a white house in front of some white clouds, it'll try to replace that too.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the default case. It's really nice. I originally thought it was too thin but it appears to give the phone enough protection. Just be a little careful with it. I love how the buttons are so easy to press unlike other thick cases. Also it's very tight so you won't have to worry about it falling off.

So those are my thoughts on the Mi 9T. I love it. The only question here is, "If I had an equivalent phone running stock Android would I take it?" And to be honest I'd have to lean more towards the 'no' end of the scale. I don't really care about notifications, the closing apps issues is solvable and greatly improves battery life, and the fingerprint icon is a godsend. My biggest problem with MIUI is probably the battery percent in the top right is way too small.

Oh, and PS. Google's migration assistent is a complete joke. Contacts and stuff transfer fine but as for apps it basically use reinstalls them all one by one from the Play store. What a pain.

[cooper-draws]

(click on the image to get a less-blurry version)

I felt like drawing Sofia in a big poofy hoodie w/ spooky panties

so I drew Sofia in a big poofy hoodie w/ spooky panties

the hoodie design is from the “Green Hazard” skin for DJ Scully from Killing Floor 2 btw because I thought she’d look good in it and I was totally right

i have a couple more ideas in mind for something of a “casual” lineup of all 3 of my OCs in super casual outfits of course, but I think some other ideas i have in mind are of higher priority so those might be a while.

(also made some slight changes to her design, more on that in the Mod Commentary under the break)

lookit this cutie patootie lesbian pupper doggo

i think this is actually only the 2nd time that Sofia has been drawn without Moria, but the first time for when it wasn’t her introduction. i like keeping them together but i didn’t have Moria in mind for when I drew this so she’s not here.

i think this came out really well, while drawing her head I moved some things around to better emphasize the perspective; i thinned out her left ear so it looks more like it’s on the side of her head and it allows more space for her eye so I can draw the left-side eyelashes.

I kinda did the same with her right ear, before it stuck out a little bit, it kinda mirrored her other ear which didn’t exactly make sense, so instead it’s the same shape as the left ear but wider

I found a better way of drawing the middle spike on her collar so it doesn’t imply it’s facing directly towards the viewer. Also just kinda settled on a generic background because I didn’t like plain white but I didn’t wanna draw anything too complex otherwise I would’ve felt compelled to shade this when I didn’t want to. I usually don’t like shading mostly-dark-colored art because the shadows get really hard to see or make things look darker than they should be so colors start blending in with the lineart which i think looks bad.

i wanted to draw her in a hoodie because i wanted to try my hand again at drawing poofy clothing now that i’ve seen it done correctly a few times. to that end i wanted it to be big and not fit to her form to emphasize her breasts or anything like that. i tried skewing the biohazard symbol in photoshop to make it look like it’s curving with her chest but eh, that never usually turns out as good as i think it will but i think it definitely looks better than just thinning a flat image.

originally she was supposed to be wearing her usual stockings but i thought spooky skull panties was cuter and she’s definitely the type of girl who would wear those so it worked out.

i also might start drawing her feet a little different, i don’t exactly know how to describe it but they’re basically kinda taller but also shorter/not as wide, and i think this’ll help with making her thick thighs a little more believable in my style

you may notice she has a tongue stud now. that’s about it. i just thought “hey a tongue stud would be neat” so i gave her a tongue stud. may stay, may go, idk. the challenge is definitely getting the size right so it’s not too big for her tongue but also so it’s clearly visible with how small it is compared to everything else. also you can bet Moria loves licking it when they have gross passionate make outs

additionally i should emphasize that obviously this isn’t a new default outfit or anything i just felt like drawing her in it.

ok now to address the elephant in the room: her tail. i thought, since her parents were a basset hound and dalmatian, both breeds that have long tails, she should have a long tail instead of a short one. she wraps it around her waist when she fights people for Moria so they can’t yank on it. to that end they don’t expect it to come undone and whip them in the face.

kinda wanted to draw her really chill in this pic bc hoodies are just the clothing of chillness. you can’t wear a hoodie and not be chill it’s against the law and you will be arrested.

in the future i’ll keep trying to better draw her and moria’s thick thighs to be more believable and also try to give them some big tummies like i originally intended.

overall, i say this one turned out okay and i’m glad it did because I love Sofia <3

thanks for reading! i hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more art and commentaries.

[myuun]

Whats your fav anime and why? Btw ugh your blog is so so cute!!!! I love your theme, I'm rlly impressed ( ^▽^)

Thank you very much! ;u; I dooon’t really have a favorite anime. I guess from my anime liiiist... my top 5 would be... 

Well animated series (not counting movies) it would be in no order: 

Kuuchuu Buranko because of it’s incredibly funny plot, amazing arc to arc episode, colorful and suuuper cool art, and overall fantastic from start to finish. It is more of a matuuure anime but if you’re into different mix of art styles this is so so so good.

Mononoke (not to be confused with Princess Mononoke) uses one of the most beautiful art styles I have ever seen. It is without a doubt beautiful, the story that follows the main character is gorgeous, and every episode is very interesting. You never quite know what it all means until you watch it to the very end of each episode and it is just fantastic. 

Paranoia Agent is incredibly well-written with the most realistic art ever made. It was made by my favorite director, Satoshi Kon, and it deserves all the praise it gets. It is psychological, horror, and a mix of so many wild thoughts of imagination and the theme it shows through each episode is very powerful. 

Michiko to Hatchin is one that I just added right now because I don’t want to lower it to below five. It is an amazing story with incredible scenery, background, and characters. It is funny, amazing, it has so much dynamic. It is real and so so so good. It is definitely a girl power kind of show that has so much diversity in it’s cast and takes place in a country resembling Brazil. Beyond beautiful, honestly, Michiko was the reason I started to exercise in high school. She is my idol. 

Ergo Proxy is one of the most heart-wrenching beautiful sci-fi animes ever. It doesn’t only show lots of futuristic things, but it has soooo many references to the past. It constantly is teaching you new and beautiful things and from start to finish it is a poetic and beautiful ride that honors so much history and culture. 

AND HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Panty & Stocking with GartelbeltGhost HuntCard Captor SakuraRurouni KenshinHigurashi no naku koro ni

DP: not my thing | missing something | really good | i want itURL: not my thing | okay | awesome | switch with me THEME: not my thing | needs work | pretty cool | don’t change anything POSTS: not my thing | somewhat mixed | great | would reblog allFOLLOW: not yet | definitely | now i doCOMMENT(S)?: Ohooo! Very pretty blog with very good posts! I definitely am following now! I really like the mix of the pictures and background all put together. I enjoy the cuteness of the pink flower and now not only is there some in the background but also raining down from the page. It creates a really nice effect. I think my only little thing about it would be that the image background is not sharpened enough or at least it all looks a bit faded in the back, but overall it is very beautiful!! 

[doycetopia]

Dungeon World Character Creation Thread

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We’re starting up a mini-campaign of Dungeon World, with most of the conversation taking place in a single private Google+ conversation thread.

But it was too good, so I’m saving most of it here for posterity.

Okay, I think the plan I’m going to go with is running a Dungeon World thing, followed by a Masks thing. (I’m especially jazzed about Masks since I just got a new packet of playbooks from the Kickstarter yesterday, but patience…)

SO, here’s the particulars.

The Roll20 page is [link redacted] – you can jump in there and open a character sheet and put in stats and moves as you like, if you’re super motivated. (Mike, your Artificer is in there already.)

Dungeon World is baaaasically a PBTA take on classic DnD, so the standard DnD classes are there: Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, et cetera, and you can dig into alternate playbooks if you want to go the Basic DnD route of “Dwarf is a character class” or whatever. The System Resource document has all the basic classes, but seriously if you have some kind of fantasy trope you want to play, ask, because it probably exists out there somewhere.

Once I know what people are playing, I will hit you with personality and background questions.

The tone of the game will be fantasy closer to White Dwarf and Heavy Metal magazine covers than The Hobbit. Magic is powerful, weird, and dangerous.

We’ll be using Flags instead of Bonds, so ignore Bonds in the rules.

That’s about everything I can think of right now.

Yay! Glad to finally be back to Dungeon World and interested in how Flags play out. Might I also suggest this document.

Oh I like those! Good stuff!

Basically, unless you’re a bard or some other highly social character (some priests might qualify), pick or design two flags for people to hit. If you’re super-social, three.

BTW Doyce, are we still going to be doing the thing with the timeloop where my artificer remembers what happened that you’d mentioned in the previous thread, or are we doing something else? Will probably help me determine my Flags.

What do you think? I was thinking something like you suddenly find yourself riding a horse on the way to Frostberry at the base of the mountain, with these people you know, but also with that other set of very vivid (but fading?) “memories”… it would tie into your experiments in the cabin pretty well.

Or you could play someone else and your other guy can be a backup character following someone’s gruesome death.

Actually, Mike, I was looking over my notes from that other session, and guess what? During the lead-in questions, we found out that group was actually the SECOND group you were heading to the mountain with – the first group was wiped out before you ever got to the mountain.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BE TRYING TO REACH THE PEAK?

(~Ash tries to play it cool as he relives a hellish groundhog day scenario for the 113th time…~)

I’d forgotten all about that. Man, Ash really shouldn’t have played with that clock… every single time.

I kind of like the idea of Ash just flashing back to town, with a brand new group of adventurers ready to head up to the Mountain. “Gods below, why is it always a new group of people? Why do the memories always end when we get to the door? Why is it always the same day but everything is different? Maybe things will turn out differently this time…”

I love this, so much.

Also of use: the dungeonworldsrd.com site has a section just on Character Creation – nice, since the actual character class pages don’t cover things like “what stat numbers you get.”

I’ve been re-reading the Flags article Doyce originally linked to at http://walkingmind.evilhat.com – From Bonds to Flags.

(Saying this aloud to be sure I get the idea): a Flag is a Significant Personality Trait, with how others can tap it to demonstrate it (both trait and tap being something that makes the game interesting) and so earn them an XP.

I would say the label of a flag is usually expressed as a personality trait, although the actual flag itself is the action that somebody takes to point at that personality trait

To go down a little bit further, it’s not just a personality trait that your character has, it’s an aspect of your character that you think will be FUN to see called out fairly regularly in play. People are going to be getting Xp rewards for hitting this thing, so they’re going to want to hit it. if you don’t want to see it… actually I’m going to say that if you don’t think you’ll enjoy seeing it repeatedly, pick something else.

(As a side note, and not to discourage anyone, but bearing in mind that this is meant to be a short campaign, it may not be necessary to boil the ocean to create our characters. Though I’ll confess I have several paragraphs of backstory already written …)

He’s going to feel so silly when he dies in the first room.

No worries, I can run an immediate sequel campaign using Wraith: the Oblivion.

Is there a mechanical reason to put the Flags in the Roll20 Bio page, vs. putting them in on the main character sheet as if they were Bonds?

(We’ll probably want to gather all of those into a convenient document, since we need to know each other’s Flags more than our own.)

The bio page is the only page that other people can see, other than the people who can actually edit the character sheet. So you can see the part of the sheet with all the stats and numbers and moves, but somebody else looking at your sheet can only see that bio page. So if I wanted to see what flags to hit on your character, I can click on your character sheet and see those flags on the front page, but I won’t be able to see them if they’re inside your character sheet, and even if I could see them in the character sheet they’re a lot harder to find in there.

Basically I would put them in both places, but I’m weird like that.

Put another way: The bio page is basically for everything you want other people to see and know about your character

Poifect, thanks.

Did anyone else figure out what they are playing?

Dave’s got a bard, Mike is doing his Artificer, Kay is I think gravitating toward a Ranger or Fighter. I don’t know about Margie yet, and my personal experience with her character choices, while extensive, isn’t deep enough to let me guess.

I do know that she’s usually as willing as you are to fill a needed gap, so you need not wait.

Right now, the ‘gaps’ are primarily thief- and fighter- or cleric-shaped, I think?

That said, it’s three sort of hybrid classes so far, so more dual-mode stuff (an unclassed ‘elf’ or ‘dwarf’ or something, for example) also works.

Knowledge/lore stuff can be covered by both the Artificer and Bard, but don’t let that rule out a Cleric or proper spell-caster.

I mean, really, I’d say go for whatever type of play most appeals to you – if you guys don’t end up with a bend-bars/lift gates or lockpick person, you’ll have to work the problems another way.

I shall sing to the iron bars and they shall part to let me pass!

Or … most likely not.

My favorite part about the alternate Bard playbook is that it’s specifically designed to remove the ‘singing with a lute in the middle of a fight’ stuff.

Okay, stock Thief is statted in Roll20.

I will noodge the kinfolk.

Bill, you say “stock thief” but the image makes me think of a very specific thief who wants my HP or my GP. 😉

I’m not picky.

“Cowardly: Put us in situations I can justly complain about.”

Well, there’s everyone XP fountain for the game.

PERFECT.

Hey, Ash and Basler can complain about everything together! 😀

Actually just noticed that they both have the same flag, just named slightly different; I found mine under the Lawful header, but I figured I’d rename it for something more character appropriate.

Hmm. Yeah, that duplicate flag might be troublesome. Something to ponder. Hmm…

Oh I don’t know Doyce, that just means that Ash and Basler will want different things to complain about. Can’t speak for Bill, but from the Cowardly tag it sounds like he wants Basler to complain about being put into dangerous situations that he doesn’t want that he can complain about. “Hey Basler, this hallway looks suspicious. Mind taking a look?” “Oh, I don’t know…”

I see Ash’s more of seeing other people in danger and after helping them, complaining about being put upon to help. (just making some assumptions here…) Eduard: “Oh no, I’m being beset on all sides! Someone help me!” Ash: disgusted noise “I swear, if I wasn’t around to pull your butts out of the fire.”

Sure it’s a slight distinction, but I can see it being quiet different in play. Sort of an internal vs. external dynamic, if that makes sense.

I am 100% on board if you guys are.

Kay has given you all a marvelous gift for this campaign.

“Go fight that demon! This talisman will protect you.”

By the time that PC dies, the rest of us will have leveled up enough to beat it.

Actual conversation I had with kay on Roll20 tonight:

“Seriously, can I trust the thief?”

GM looks at your ‘Gullible’ flag.

“Absolutely.”

This whole thread is a national treasure.

Just checked out all the characters on the Roll20 page and I must say I’m very excited for tonight’s game.

Yeah, thank goodness this is just a one-off adventure, otherwise folk might have put real effort into devising interesting characters …

If you guys don’t end up destroying the world, I will keep them around for additional Adventures.

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