#technically ghost trick but come on. it's missile

[shouchiku]

it's really cool that i can put shu takumi;s song about his doggie on my vocaloid playlist

[orchidelegance]

review - ghost trick: phantom detective

app store, nintendo store; first chapters free, full game $10 playtime: ~4-5hrs rating: 8/10 replayability: 7/10

crazy characters. insane plot. twistier and turnier than a maze. character design happened while on acid probably. such an excellent game.

ghost trick: phantom detective by capcom is a game of "how many" - how many times you're willing to replay a scene before you go look up a guide, how many times sissel has to help other people in his quest to find himself, how many times you take screenshots of missile saying something only a dog would say. every chapter took me tantalizingly closer to the answer only for the ending to completely blow me away with how incomprehensible and perfectly sensible it was. there's an explanation for everything, and there are so many things that need explaining that at the very end, the explanations come in a barrage of satisfaction that leaves me wanting to replay and see where i missed the clues.

every single character is interesting and lovable, all with their own stories and motivations, from the dancing guard to the simpering henchman to the chicken chef and the waitress on rollerskates. even characters you only see in one scene have an important role to play and a life that you get a glimpse into. each design is so incredibly fun, colorful, and silly, and it echoes the game's message - that everyone is connected, and we are all a part of each other's story.

though i used a guide for most of the game (sue me - there's a great one here by fukuyasu), it's definitely not impossible to do on your own with a little more patience and brainpower. the puzzles were fun, though they can become tedious if you're committed to figuring it out on your own. for me, this game was character driven, and i wanted to complete each stage as fast as i could to see a little more of the story. honestly even with how frustrating i found some of the stages, i would still replay it if i had a few hours on my own and see if i can untangle the threads from the beginning - and to see sissel, kamila, lynne, missile, jowd, cabanela, and the others again.

spoilers below

damn! that ending! sissel-cat is too cute. and the yomiel-creature made up of junk and a cone was hilarious. i didn't like that we went back in time to erase everything, and then suddenly it happened in a way i was surprisingly very satisfied with. sissel being yomiel's cat is an ending only ghost trick could have and could make sense of. i wish we got a little more explanation about the blue people, but i did like the insights in the credits into the other characters' lives in the new future.

that gay little family photo at the end was so funny because jowd's wife is fully alive here but instead he's taking a photo with his daughter (kamila) and his adopted not-daughter (lynne) with his work husband (cabanela) who is also lynne's work dad. and their two pets...

one thing i don't understand is why there's no meetup or anything since yomiel said they would all retain the memory of the past events even if those technically didn't exist in this reality, which i liked as a continuity mechanism to deal with fuzzy time travel mechanics. technically they would all remember what had happened right? or at least jowd, yomiel, sissel, and missile would since they were the ones who went back to yomiel's death. i did like that yomiel was fully prepared to die over and over for baby lynne to atone for his crime of holding her hostage, and that we all thought he died before they revealed he was still alive. it makes him a sympathetic "antagonist" in the perfect way, and opens the road to reconciliation.

what a fun game! i love cat sissel so much.

[temsikfates]

Wishlist (mobile)

Dahlia Hawthorne and Evil!Yomiel (The Manipulator)

Man, please, give me this plot. Seriously. I would looove to rp Evil Yomiel interacting with Dahlia! This is one of my dream threads asdlkflk The fact that both Yomiel and Dahlia are vengeful spirits who wants to get revenge on people responsible for their fall is great. Yomiel can easily relate to her and vice-versa. They could start by talking about their vengeful desires so Yomiel can sympathize with her. The main plot idea would be that he would be interested to know about her knowledge in the Kurain Channeling Technique so he can see Sissel (his fiancée again) while Dahlia would definitely want to use him and his powers for her own purposes. I think it would be interesting to work inside this concept, with two vengeful ghosts cooperating with each other for their own selfish reasons. This could lead to an interesting story-like roleplay and I’m honestly not sure where it could lead. They could team up and become crime buddies or they could betray each other in the end, there’s a thousand possibilities and just the thought of it makes me really excited to rp it!  If you run a Dahlia rp account or a Multimuse blog that contains her as a muse, please jump in! My IM is always open for plotting too

Post-game Jowd

I haven’t seen any Jowd blogs around here yet (well, technically, finding active Ghost Trick RP blogs are already rare) but seriously, I would love to interact with a Jowd! It would be a great chance to develop Yomiel as a character. I’d like to explore how both of them deal with their trauma and their developing friendship over the course of the years Yomiel was in prison till the day he was released. It would also be interesting to see a Jowd and FianSissel interaction! 

Lynne and Yomiel (Post-game)

So, I think it would be great for his character development if he interacted with Lynne after Sissel averts his fate. He still feels bad for taking the girl hostage and for trying to ruin her life in the previous timeline when she was actually innocent. She was the first person who showed him sympathy, even after everything he did, she still shed tears for him and forgave him. This only made him feel even more bad for her and for taking her as hostage in his desperation. He even risked his own body to save her from the falling Mino when Sissel and Missile were trying to avert his fate. So it would be interesting to see him interacting with her and seeking her forgiviness in this timeline as well.

Uncle Yomiel 

I know GT rpers around here are very rare, but if there is a Kamila, please I’d love to RP Yomiel being kind of an uncle to her, teaching her about computer stuff and being a complete nerd while also trying very hard to redeem himself to her (she doesn’t know his past deeds but he still remembers it and feels bad about it) and OMG the fluff and the awkwardness as Yomiel tries to be nice uncle to her, I need it. PLEASE.

Ghost Trick/Ace Attorney Crossover

Man, I always dreamed of a GT/AA crossover. Takumi hinted there would be one but… we got Phoenix Wright x Professor Layton instead and I lost my hopes of ever playing a GT/AA crossover so any interactions with AA characters are welcome! I don’t have any particular preference, so if you are a AA muse and you know GT, come by anytime! I’m always open for plotting too! Be it Phoenix defending Yomiel in his trial to something completely different, be my guest!

Yomiel working alongside the police to solve a case involving hackers and national security

One thing I think it would be awesome to RP is Yomiel helping the police in a case involving hackers and national security and stuff like that. I know he would be TERRIFIED at the idea of working for the government again, given how great the last time ended, but since this time it’s the police themselves asking him to work for them, at least there’s no risk for him to get wrongly arrested. Also Yomiel has a dislike for criminal hackers so this could be a motivation for him to “redeem” himself from his past crimes by helping to catch a real criminal and using his programming knowledge for something useful. Bonus if he has to work alongside CABANELA for that

Turnabout Meteorite

A possible idea for a thread that I have since I started playing AA: Phoenix ends up getting Yomiel’s case and defends him in court. 

Yomiel forming a friendship with any AA characters

Yomiel might be a reserved character but I really want him to make some friends. Like, the guy just needs a hug. Seriously. And he needs people to cheer him up and make him forget about the things he went through. I have some ideas for some characters already like Larry, Apollo or Phoenix. It would be fun seeing Yomiel having to deal with their different personalities and ideas and I just want people to bother him, like seriously. Bother Yomiel. He NEEDS it! 

Anything involving Yomiel in a different timeline/universe

Okay, I’m very used to rp him Post-game (his main timeline) but I’m all up for trying different things with him in different timelines. Be with his Manipulator self (I still want to develop him better in this blog) or with his Teenager self (I love this dorky teen) or even in his kid verse! I have lots of ideas and it would be great to change the scenario a little bit. It can also be in some of my AUs for him! I have a Star Wars AU, Western AU, and I can make even more AUs for him if I feel the need to! Just ask me about them, I love the AUs!

Sissel and Alma (and maybe even Emma) 

I’ve always headcannoed that Sissel and Alma would be great friends. That Alma would have been there for Sissel when Yomiel was arrested, helping her through with it. I love the idea of these two women being friends and gossiping about their husbands and being super supportive of each other. Alma and Sissel have been through a lot, let these women be friends and help each other out. 

Sissel being a heroine

Anything where it’s up to Sissel to save Yomiel, let her be an heroine for once instead od the damsel in distress, she needs more action. 

Ghost/Spirit Sissel

I really love the idea of spirit/ghost Sissel trying to help Yomiel. Could be in an AU where she dies near him and gets Temsik powers or is simply a ghost herself without powers, a wandering spirit. Maybe even allying herself with Alma so they can save the people they love.

[thetruearchmagos]

Post Mortem

An Excerpt: Stand Off

The idea for this one's actually been around for a good long while, but the inspiration to write it all out just struck me like a bolt of lightning yesterday, and I knew I had to put it out!

Tagging @lividdreamz @dogmomwrites @marinesocks @sanguine-arena @athenswrites @ceph-the-ghost-writer @theprissythumbelina @thatndginger @jamieanovels @the-stray-storyteller @muddshadow

Major Dejene “Dusty” Kalu gazed over his instrument panel with an impassive eye. He and his crew of three had been in the air for some five hours by now, flying lazy, fuel saving circles in the polar skies north of Alphania. Their Claude Condor strategic bomber, which they’d affectionately nicknamed “Paper Prop III” in honour of the Major’s previous wartime bird, was built to fly twice that long on a full thirty tonne combat payload, and at the moment the Prop’s mission was something far less severe.

“Right, Danka, anything new come up?”

He turned to ask the Air Technical Officer, Lieutenant Danka Vranes, and her reply, muffled by the intercom, came back after a quick look over her own plot.

“No, sir. Can’t even get any of the civvie birds’ transponders, and the Union’s Guards aren’t trying to flash us just yet.”

The Major snorted at that, shaking his head. Though in a bomber’s hull, and with a crew made up of young aviator’s trained in the role of airborne annihilation, the Prop was currently flying with a belly filled with electronic detection equipment and extra tanks. They were there to be seen, by the watching eyes of the People’s Union of Bothnia, and to see what they could of that state’s own defensive preparations. Not strictly enemies, the Major reminded himself, but hardly friends these days.

Another voice came over the line, this time from the cockpit.

“Well, Danka, you might not be getting a ping, but I’m pretty sure I see a long white cloud with a bit of grey steel coming down at us from two o’clock.”

Up in the cockpit beside the pilot, Captain Halimah Asih, Lieutenant Charles Plourd gave a chuckle.

“Well, it’s ‘bout time the welcome party showed up. How we wanna treat our hosts this time?”

The Major looked back at his display, thinking over his options. He certainly wasn’t scared, since it’d be a pretty mad Bothnian who’d try something too dangerous with his bird. And anyways, in the past dozen of these flights - all well out of their designated airspace - they’d sent up a fighter or two with their seekers cold just to remind the Commonwealth whose turf it was. As he gave his instructions, he half considered getting up to take a photo, hoping it might be one of their old Fidgets. He didn’t have too many of those in his steadily growing collection. 

“Good copy, you two. Keep us on the steady course, try not to let ‘em know we see them. Danka, give me a jam, nothing too harsh, just enough to make our friends sweat a little once they’re inside, say, fifty klicks.”

The three officers set about their work, which for the pilots was not different from what they were already doing. The whole squadron was flying these missions these days, and word had gotten around on what sorts of tricks a good crew might try and play. Since United Commonwealth electronic warfare suites were so far ahead of their erstwhile ally’s, they’d taken to showing off just a small taste of their full potential.Danka looked over her board, mentally going over a list of well remembered settings, and settled on something near the bottom.

Ten minutes later, a shrill cry that would have once given all of them a mild heart attack came through the craft. This was the track warning receiver, which helpfully told them that their approaching escort had decided to give their own missiles a good enough chance to blow them out of the sky, and that as such these guests should mind their good manners. To Danka, it told her much more than that.

“Getting a signature… Well, looks like we’ve got a Folder keeping us company today, sixty kilometres to zero-four-zero at fifteen thousand K.”

The Folder was a good enough interceptor, though in the Major’s mind not good at much beyond that. With a pair of gargantuan engines and the airframe of a dart, hauling missiles high, far, fast, and towards an incoming bomber or missile swarm was about all it was good for. Though considering the People’s Union was on the brink of annihilation when they designed them, it was a pretty good effort, if decades behind his own side.

Then, Danka’s brow furrowed.

“We’ve got a new signature, coming in at one kilometre above the Folder. Can’t tell what it is, doesn’t match any fighter in the database. Damn, they’ve got a lock on us though!”

The pilots’ heads swivelled to look, and confirmed her statement.

“Yeah, we see one new contrail, up high from the previous. Fast bugger, they’re really burning fuel up there.”

Kalu turned to his display again, this time with greater urgency. And curiosity. After all, if the Bothnians had a new toy, it was a good thing if he’d be the one to find out just what it was.

“Clear On, folks. Keep as we are, and start jamming as usual.”

“Understood, boss. Starting the show… now.”

With a flick of a switch, the state-of-the-art BLUE BALE electronic warfare package buried within the Prop’s belly roared to life. Their chaser’s lock was shattered in an instant, and a screech of electronic noise, and looking out their canopy the pilots were happy to see the Fidget respond by jinking wildly in the air, before diving to the deck and speeding up towards them.

And yet, the warning bell was still ringing.

Danka stretched her shoulders, letting out a deep breath. She fiddled with her instrument set, but the lock still held.

“Shit, sir, they’re just burning through! Permission to go louder?”

By now, Kalu’s plot showed the green chevron of their strange new friend approaching rapidly, increasing its speed into supersonic territory in a dive down towards them. He ripped off his harness and jumped to his feet, moving up to the cockpit to get a look for himself.

“Don’t bother, Lieutenant. Cut the jamming and get recording, Command’s gonna want to see this shit.”

“On it, sir.”

He ducked around the cramped hull and entered the cockpit, where he found the two pilots with an air of calm that belied their own growing unease. They’d heard what the ATO had said, and they didn’t like it. 

Kalu snuck between them, leaning against their chairs and craning his head around to get a good look. Sure enough, a long white of vapour trailed towards them, growing rapidly with a faint grey speck at its tip.

Then, he saw a bright, burning orange flash of light, coming from that speck. 

“Butcher in the air! Begin countermeasures, turn and burn!”

Kalu dived to the deck, and at once the whole crew jumped into action with the practised ease of a well honed machine. Too fast to even recognise the totality of what he had just seen, Kalu tried to run back to his seat as the whole aircraft began a steep, twisting dive to the ground, while Danka whipped her instruments into a storm and Asih let loose a stream of burning magnesium strips as they pushed the Prop as far as she could go. The bomber had an agility utterly alien to its sheer bulk and weight, and Kalu found himself kicking against the walls as his bird began its hard swerve to port.

Finally, he slid across the deck into the rear compartment, and grabbing onto his fixed chair with one hand he managed to drag himself into his seat. Kalu was pressed into himself by the sheer force of the turn, and strained to speak through the intercom 

“Status report! What the hell was that?”

Before the pilots could answer, Danka turned to grab his shoulder, and almost braked at the Major.

“No lock, sir! I say again, the lock’s gone, and there’s no active seeker. The contact’s still burning through, they must’ve boosted in ‘cause they’re coming in hot!”

Kalu took a brief second to take that in, and again turned to the plot. They weren’t dead yet, for one, and at the range he saw that flash any missile would’ve knocked them out of the sky by now, even with their fancy flying, or at least blown itself up on the chaff. It was slowly dawning on him what it would have meant if it had been the real thing, and what would have happened to him and his crew.

“Aisah, Charles, you got eyes on anything out there?”

Seeing as he wasn’t being shoved into his chair, Kalu figured they must have aborted the dive. Still, it took a while before he got a response, in the form of a rattled Aisah.

“That we do, sir. Confirm again, no Butcher or lock, but you might wanna get up here and see this shit.”

Kalu was puzzled, but it had been a puzzling day already. Putting away the fact he’d gotten it wrong, he made the journey back into the cockpit again. There, he was greeted by a sight he’d not soon forget.

Hanging barely a hundred metres off their right wing, a large, snow-white aircraft, with a long snout and massive engines packed into a brick like fuselage raced alongside them. It had a large, scarlet red diamond on both sweeping wings and its twin tail fins. Looking at the speed gauge, Kalu saw that Prop was hauling ass at just over the speed of sound, and their shadow was keeping pace without even turning on its afterburner.

Plourde uttered the question that was on all of their minds.

“What the fuck is that thing?”

Looking through the interceptor’s canopy - for obviously that was what the aeroplane was - Kalu could make out two human shapes. One of them, in the front seat, seemed to wave their arms at him. Before he could process that move, the bird wiggled its wings up and down in greeting, and banked off back away, spinning on a dime and burning its engines with a brilliant, orange, flame.

Now it was Aisah’s time to speak.

“Son of a bitch, they’ve got a new bird!.”

Kalu nodded, to no one in particular.

“That they do, Captain. That they do.”

[lexi-the-twilight-dragon]

RED VS BLUE: The Ghost Trick AU

His consciousness slowly slips back, but he’s wide awake when he hears a gun cock. In front of him is two men, one in a coat pressed up against the wire fence with his hands up, the other in a suit pointing a shotgun at him.

“So long, kid.”

He tries to stand. He tries to raise his hand. He tries to say something. The guy in the coat is going to die, dammit!

But he can’t move an inch. And they can’t hear him.

Because he’s already dead.

So yeah, the Ghost Trick AU, everyone! I’ve tried to avoid massive Ghost Trick spoilers for those who haven’t played it yet (if you haven’t, go do so, it’s my favourite game for a reason) but in any case, enjoy the casting!

In order of appearance:

Church (Sissel): He’d give you his backstory if he knew what it was. As it currently stands, all he knows is that he’s a recently deceased individual who has a decently good taste in suits and a decently good sense of humor. Okay, maybe that sense of humor is mostly snark, but hey, give him some credit, he’s dead for fuck’s sake. And apparently, being dead comes with the added bonus of “Ghost Tricks”, the power to interact with the living through inanimate objects, travel through telephone lines, and by connecting with the souls of other recently deceased individuals, rewind the last four minutes of their life to avoid their untimely demise. He’s not doing it out of some kind of altruism. He’s just got twelve hours before his soul traverses to the next dimension, and he’d kinda like some help remembering who he is before that happens. That’s all. ‘S only fair.

Detective Dexter Grif (Lynne): Recently promoted to the Detective Division of New Armonia PD, Grif’s something of a loose cannon, and tends to put what he thinks is right before police bureaucracy, which often gets him in trouble. He’s recently gone off the grid again to re-investigate a cold case in which his superior got convicted of murder, which has led to him meeting with Church for information. Which led to him getting shot. Which led to Church saving his life. Which led to him getting arrested for Church’s murder. But as if he’s gonna let a simple arrest get in his way. He’s got a mission to follow. And if he can get food on the way, that’ll be awesome. (Also, don’t call his coat yellow. It’s fucking orange.)

Felix (Nearsighted Jeego): An assassin tasked in ending the life of anyone who knows about “Shisno”. Grif hasn’t the faintest idea what that is, but apparently he’s on that hit list anyway. However, Felix’s overconfidence proves to be a weakness Church is only happy to exploit.

Ray: A deceased soul possessing a desk lamp, Ray is Church’s “Ghost Trick” mentor. Despite ghosts communicating through telepathy, Ray manages to keep most of his thoughts, knowledge, motive and real name included, secret from Church. He requested Church’s help solving the mysterious goings on in New Armonia in return, but frankly, Church only has twelve hours here. He’s got his own mystery to solve, thank you very much.

Chairman Malcolm Hargrove (Commander Sith): The head of Charon Industries, the technological megacorporation of a foreign nation intent on unimaginable power and possibly global domination. Though their technology is far more advanced than any other nation’s, said technology is… “off”, to say the least. And should anyone get in Hargrove’s way, he has his own “security force” to call on. 

Counselor Aidan Price (Masked Lieutenant): Hargrove’s immediate subordinate, in charge of carrying out his immediate orders and organizing the orders to others. Never breaks his impassive expression, which can even creep Hargrove out sometimes.

Locus (One Step Ahead Tengo): Another assassin under Hargrove’s employ, much more calm and collected than his rival Felix. He prefers to get ahead of his “prey” and lie in wait in the shadows, rather than tail them and face them directly.

Freckles (Missile): A small fluffy “freckled” dog, technically belonging to “Master Grif”, but much more attached to his roommate, “Master Caboose”. He would do absolutely anything for his masters, and not even an inconvenient death will stand in his way. He’ll make instant friends with just about anybody, so long as they don’t mind a bit (a lot) of barking.

Michael Caboose (Kamila): A ten-year-old kid who’s been in the foster care system since he was very young. He’s lived with Grif and Freckles for about five years, after an unfortunate incident with his previous foster family. He may or may not have witnessed said incident, but always seems to be cheerful nevertheless. He’s not the smartest in school, but he’s pretty good at making convoluted contraptions out of random objects, not always with the permission of his guardian. 

Doctor Emily Grey (Superintendent): A former medical examiner of New Armonia PD, now in charge of maintaining and supervising the Zone D junkyard, where Church was murdered. She apparently lives in her office with her pet pigeon Carmen, and spends her free time conducting strange experiments and research in her basement.

Lord Donald Doyle (Justice Minister): The minister of justice in charge of administering the sentences of condemned criminals. It’s a complicated and stressful job, and as such has taken its toll on his health and his relationship with his family. A recent squabble with his wife has resulted in her walking out with their son in tow, which has only worsened his psyche.

Detective Vera Ohio (Detective Blue): A detective at Grif’s precinct, who, well, can get a little too enthusiastic sometimes, especially if she has a chance to prove herself to a superior officer. This enthusiasm doesn’t always equal results, however, so she’s stuck at her current ranking. She’s a little jealous of Grif for making Detective so quickly by comparison.

Detective Ezra Idaho (Detective McCaw): Ohio’s investigative partner, who’s more than used to her antics and usually tries to be her voice of reason, with little success. He’s a little concerned with Ohio trying too hard to impress their superiors, and the ridiculous example set by their inspector.

Doctor Lucy Connecticut (Medical Officer): The medical examiner in Church’s murder case, though no one’s ever seen her on a case before. But, she has her credentials, and she gets the job done, so no questions need to be asked. Right?

Inspector Maddison Carolina (Inspector Cabanela): The head of the Special Investigation Unit, and basically the whole police force second only to the Chief. Though her track record, like her coat, is spotlessly flawless, her manner is jarringly blasé; don’t for a second let this fool you though, she did not get to her position by fuffing around, and heaven have mercy on you if she catches you doing so yourself. Most of the other detectives are wary of her as a result, but she’s surprisingly close to and protective of the newest one, Dexter “Dex” Grif.

Detective Frank DuFresne (Detective Rindge): Oh, did you forget about the other detective at the precinct? You wouldn’t be the first. Whether it be the way he tries not to be in the way, or the way his face disappears under his hat, DuFresne always manages to find a way to be invisible. This isn’t always a hindrance however; as such he’s often assigned to reconnaissance or covert information gathering, a job he excels at. He also excels at it where he’s not meant to, so if anyone knows the low-down on the precinct’s gossip, it’s him.

Officer Dick Simmons (Typical Cop 1): A cop from Grif’s old beat, Simmons would have been promoted to Detective too… if he wasn’t such a nervous wreck in the presence of a superior, which at his rank is always. He tries his best, he really does, but he always seems to stumble over himself at the last minute, and the detectives he works under don’t help either, admonishing him for the slightest mistake and taking the credit when he actually accomplishes something. He also has a massive crush on Grif, which can hinder his mental processing even more. Grif is completely in denial about it, even when others point it out.

Sarge (Chicken Chef): Proprietor, manager and head chef of The Red Base Chicken Kitchen, home of smoky fried chicken, questionable budgeting decisions, and many a husky Southern ballad, all courtesy of the man himself. All of the above factors are an acquired taste, but that doesn’t bother him. As far as he’s concerned, he’s living the dream.

Officer Ben Matthews (Officer Bailey): One of six guards patrolling Stella Nova Penitentiary, Matthews is a stickler for the rules 99% of the time, but in spite of himself, there are two people he can never say no to; one is Grif, and the other is his fellow officer Bitters. The stress of trying to keep the latter in line causes him a lot of pent up energy that… occasionally has to be let out. In hilarious fashion. Bitters has videos.

Officer Antoine Bitters (Other Officer): Once upon a time, Bitters was a hopeful, enthusiastic young police cadet raring to take on the bad guys and protect the streets of New Armonia. But now he’s stuck on guard duty in the most uneventful prison ever, and his attitude is beginning to match his name. With not much “guarding” necessary, he spends most of his time creating his own entertainment, often at Matthews’ expense.

Officer John Andersmith (Prison Guard 1): Like Matthews, Andersmith is a stickler for the rules, but he’s immune to Bitters’ mind tricks, and everyone’s learned to keep the two apart if they’d like to finish the day without a headache. Even if he wasn’t such a stickler, the prisoners aren’t likely to try and bully him; he’s six foot, jacked and pretty good with a firearm. 

Mina South (Spiky): Lead guitarist and singer of rock band The Dakotas, South’s music career hit a screeching halt when she was arrested for leaking government secrets during a concert being aired live around the nation. She’s the most abrasive of the inmates of Stella Nova, but her attitude wins her nothing, especially from Andersmith.

Peter Maine (Sausage Head): A man of few words, Maine’s actions speak for him; he’s in Stella Nova for breaking in to the New Armonia Metro PD and holding the Chief Commissioner at flamethrower-point. Though he may seem intimidating, in reality he’s easily pushed around, particularly by fellow inmate South.

Detective David Washington (Detective Jowd): The third and quietest of Stella Nova’s inmates, Washington used to be New Armonia’s, and perhaps even all of Chorus’, best detective, Carolina’s best friend, and Grif’s mentor, until he was convicted for the murder of his partner Tucker. Though Grif maintains his innocence, he himself has accepted his guilt and his sentence. His detective skills haven’t blunted, though, so little happens within the prison walls that he doesn’t know about.

Officer Charlie Palomo (Prison Guard 2): The newest of the six guards in Stella Nova, Palomo’s innocent worldview has yet to be tarnished by the harsh realities of his job, or the exasperation of his colleagues. If anyone’s going to start a casual conversation, with a colleague or with an inmate, it’ll be Palomo, and he rarely gets the hint to keep his mouth shut unless explicitly told.

Chief Vanessa Kimball (Chief): Though only in the top spot for a few years, Kimball is an instant magnet for respect, even from top investigators such as Carolina. In fact, she and Carolina have struck up a rapport in the wake of Washington’s arrest, and she’s the only one Carolina will open up to. All the other members of the force, however, shouldn’t dream of getting casual with her.

Detective Franklin Donut (Memry): Once the Special Investigation Unit honed in on the location of an illicit deal taking place at The Red Base Chicken Kitchen, they sent in their undercover operative Donut in the guise of a recently hired waiter. He’s not too undercover, though; the bubbly, flirtatious attitude and unwitting innuendos are all the real him, which often makes his workmates, at the restaurant and the PD, very, very uncomfortable.

Girlie (Beauty): One of two operatives of Charon taking part in the deal at Red Base, though she’s beginning to regret agreeing more by the minute. Even if her “sixth sense” makes her invaluable for the job, her teammate is intolerable, and the other party is taking forever to turn up.

Sharkface (Dandy): Girlie’s teammate, Sharkface also has distaste for their assignment, though it has more to do with the extent of work he has to do than the company. If anything, the company is all that makes this assignment worth it, though she greatly disagrees.

Lopez (Bartender): The barman of The Red Base Chicken Kitchen, Lopez is very, very jaded from his job. His boss is borderline insane, the waiter is driving him insane, and no one understands a word he says anyway. The only thing that keeps him there is the knowledge that, at the very least, his work is appreciated.

Officer Katie Jensen (Prison Guard 3): As the closest in age to Palomo, and the one who can tolerate his company the best, Jensen is usually the guard on the same round as him. They can often be found chatting in the halls until they’re needed, at which point she’ll also be one dragging him back to work.

Officer Averil Volleyball (Prison Guard 4): The first time anyone sees Volleyball in uniform, they swear she’s a kissogram, not an actual officer, and her flirtatious manner doesn’t help. But anyone who actually tries to have their way? Those handcuffs aren’t for play, buddy.

Lavernius Tucker (Alma): Washington’s partner, well-known among his colleagues for being the one that can make the usually stoic detective crack the dorkiest smile ever. Or, well, was well-known, until Washington was charged with his murder. Could their relationship really have gone that sour that quickly?

The only characters of import that I have yet to cast are Doyle’s wife and son, and the hippy that makes DuFresne’s job harder than usual. Any ideas from those who know both franchises?

(Also, please don’t judge me for my choice of given names of the Freelancer and Chorus characters. I put a lot of thought into them.)

[iamchikara]

Season Eighteen has come and gone, with only the oddly shaped pieces remaining. Results for Closing Time under the cut.

Match #1: Tag Contest Razer and Sylverhawk (1 point) vs. Hermit Crab and Cajun Crawdad (2 point) Los Ice Creams are meddling again, but Nytehawk came out to support his teammates in fending their pointblocking behinds off. The Hawx were able to secure their second point, knocking the crustaceans out of the standings in thirteen minutes, with Razer pinning Crab after a combo cross corner splash/swanton. WINNERS: Razer and Sylverhawk (2 points), Crab and Crawdad are out of the standings Match #2: Singles Contest The Proletariat Boar of Moldova vs. Faux!Amasis w/Whisper!Ophidian ...yeah, NOPE. 17 put an end to that, as well as Faux!Amasis, and Boar bailed. Trying this again! Match #2, for real this time: Singles Contest Mark Angelosetti vs. Hallowicked (3 points) Another big epic match between these two. Wicked was busted for cheating, echoing their last encounter. Finally, Angelosetti was able to put this ghost from his past to rest, ending the match in thirteen minutes with the Flea Flicker. WINNER: Mark Angelosetti (1 point), Hallowicked is out of the standings Match #3: Tag Contest Dez Peloton vs. Kobald and Oleg the Usurper Kobald was said to have weirdly acted superior the entire match. Demented Elmo is starting to creep me out big time. Anyways, he nearly hit Oleg with a pipe mid-match, and Donald Kluger pinned Oleg in six minutes with a backslide. Post-match. Kobald hit Oleg with Off With His Head, but Oleg was right back up to deliver a chokeslam. So much for this odd couple. WINNERS: Dez Peloton (1 point) Match #4: Singles Contest Gran Akuma (1 point) vs. Officer Warren Barksdale (2 points) Crowd was really pro-Barksdale in this one, but Akuma had his number, ending his championship hopes in six minutes after a tombstone set up into a lungblower. WINNER: Gran Akuma (2 points), Barksdale is out of the standings Match #5: Singles Contest Merlok (5 points) vs. Ashley Vox Oceania Would think this would be another massacre, but nope! The newly rechristened Oceania was actually able to put the big fish down in five minutes with the Reel Catch. The big fish was a graceful loser, bowing to Oceania after the match and walking her out. WINNER: Oceania (1 point), Merlok is out of the standings Match #6: Tag Contest The Closers (yep, both) vs. Petey the Package and Hammerlock Harry (we got a new one!) SQUASH. Two minutes, Caprice pinned Harry after a Hart Attack from a scoop slam/powerbomb on both. WINNERS: The Closers (1 point) Match #7: Singles Contest, Reverse Lucha de Apuesta (Winner Must Mask) Race Jaxon (1 point) vs. Hype Rockwell (2 points) Fairly short at 7 minutes, would’ve think they’d have gone a little longer. Jaxon tried kicking a field goal on Rockwell yet again, but this time Rockwell was wise to the trick and blocked it. A Hyperwheel ended the match in Rockwell’s favor, and Jaxon was forced into the mask post-match. WINNER: Hype Rockwell (3 points), Race Jaxon is out of the standings Match #8: Singles Contest Missile Assault Man vs. Jeremy Leary Leary outright refused to wrestle, forfeiting the match to MAM. Story of the match was the post-match, where three new Volgars with O V and F on their tights arrived, along with a rather goblin-ish mad scientist fellow. We heard quite a bit about this fellow a while back, he is Professor Hugo Nicodemus of Proteus Wheel. He whispered in MAM’s ear, no doubt setting off something that Deucalion had Proteus Wheel implant in MAM and causing a trance, then leading the whole bunch off. WINNER, technically: Missile Assault Man (1 point) Match #9: Tag Contest The Rumblebees vs. Crummels and DeFarge The legitimate businessmen are still having issues. Described as frantic and quick, lasting only five minutes before Solo Darling pinned Crummels after the Sharp Stinger. WINNERS: The Rumblebees (1 point) Match #10: MAIN EVENT, Singles Contest, Grand Championship Defense #8 Juan Francisco de Coronado vs. Dasher Hatfield Longest match of the night at twenty minutes. Described as really strong, though there was the usual cheating from JFDC. Ended with a mask spin and a small package out of a Jackhammer attempt, in a surprise ending. Dasher was dejected post-match. (Really, I can’t understand this one. A title change would’ve been a great feel-good moment to help bolster what’s been a pretty weak Season overall. Why keep the belt on JFDC?) WINNER: Juan Francisco de Coronado

[laughingpinecone]

Yuletide letter

I am laughingpineapple on AO3

Aw yeah, Yuletide time again, here we go! I love all these characters and canons and, barring DNWs, I'm interested in any story about them you might already have in mind. Here's a list of ideas if you prefer to start from a prompt.

Likes: worldbuilding, slice of life (doubly so if the event the fic focuses on is canon-specific), missing moments, 5+1 and the likes, bonding and emotional support/intimacy (platonic too!!), loyalty, casefic, surrealism, established relationships, future fic, hurt/comfort or just comfort from the ample canon hurt, throwing characters into non-canon environments, banter, functional friendships/relationships between dysfunctional individuals, unexplained mysteries, bittersweet moods, journal/epistolary fic where applicable, dreams and memories and identities, and did I mention worldbuilding

Cool with: what-ifs, AUs, any tense, any pov, any rating, plotty, not plotty, IF, nerdy canon references, unrequested characters popping up

DNW: bleak endings, rape, PWP, non-canonical children, unrequested ships, canon retellings

***

Ghost Trick: Jowd, Cabanela

The fandom that got me into Yuletide to begin with! I love the whole cast and their intricate connections, but Jowd and Cabs are my forever faves. I ship them dearly, and I ship them dearly with Alma when she's alive, but I'm also always interested in gen about them as long as the bond between them is central in the fic. I didn't request her because if you're down for, say, case fic with or without Sissel's help, I didn't want to make any additional characters necessary. I just want the fic to star Jowd and Cabanela but also feel free to use the whole extended family aka her, Sissel, Pigeon Man, Kamila, Lynne and/or Missile at will! Or Emma or whatever.

Cabanela has Jowd as his whole motivation, and while Jowd's family comes first for him, we know they were close and he cares for his BF(F) in his own way. I love Cabanela with his endless energy and confidence and Jowd's fatalism, their occasional role reversals (who'd have pegged Cabanela for the hard-working guy and Jowd for the one who'd swoop in and get all the merit!), their banter and trust and tacit understanding, how after five years of not talking to each other and thinking Cabanela hated him, Jowd got that watch and understood what it meant and came through for his friend. I love their tragedy and the prospect of a happier life in the new timeline, with Sissel watching over them (and chasing Cabanela's scarf which is clearly a fantastic cat toy). I love their design, their clothes and the shapes and details of their bodies, so if you ever want to indulge in physical details, not necessarily in a sexual context, stuff like a very soft hug with a majestic ticklish beard, either of their hair getting in their eyes when wet, or Jowd stepping on the damn scarf while Cabanela is hopping downstairs, please do indulge to your heart's content.

I think the game implies that Jowd, Sissel, Yomiel and Missile have their memories of the old timeline, while everyone else does not, so I'm always interested in stories set in the new present that use this imbalance – maybe Cabanela eventually gets briefed on what happened, but it's still not the same as remembering.

A story could be focused on those weird presents they reportedly gave each other – surprise me, or maybe in the new timeline Jowd gifts the framed gun to Cabanela, that missing piece of evidence that would've proven his innocence, now that Cabs doesn't need it and doesn't even know what it's for?

Or maybe it could explore a what-if scenario where Yomiel is stopped and redeemed on the Yonoa, but there is no timeline reset, and Jowd and Cabanela are left to mend what's left of their lives.

Or any slice of life plot in and around Jowd's household is always welcome. Cabanela with his unwavering loyalty and enthusiasm, and that absolute confidence that can be charming or off-putting depending on the person and situation, and Jowd and Alma allowing themselves to be on the receiving end of that much affection, and giving him a place to rest. And at least Jowd has a personality that’s sturdy enough that Cabs can bounce off it, a charismatic presence of his own with his rough humor, physical prowess, brittle emotional sphere and occasional stonewalling.

Obduction: Caroline Farley

I was sure I'd fall in love with the puzzles, I wasn't sure this brand new world would captivate me as much as D'ni ever did, and yet here I am. There's so much to explore about Hunrath's unique setup, with people coming in from more than two centuries, adapting, sharing their memories of Earth. The tree and all the questions and philosophical views that come with it, the seeds and that starry expanse at the heart of it all... and then Soria and then Maray and Kaptar, which we know so little about.

I'd like to see it all filtered through Farley's eyes because she's my fave, and also because I think her background is pretty interesting in and by itself, having been pinecone'd away from Earth when she was three years old. It makes for an interesting counterpoint to the born-and-bred Earthlings like CW with his nostalgia (for the record, I'd read platonic banter between these two for days), but she's no Hunrath native either. And the way her house got swapped into such a central position and became a hub for the community... cool stuff. And what about the mysterious deceased John Farley, who can't be her blood brother because we're told the only relative who came with her was her grandmother, who is highly unlikely to be her husband because of the way “Farley” seems to be used as her maiden name (the house she was swapped with is “Farley's house”...) and who is buried next to a man? An adopted brother maybe? What made her end her stint as a mayor so suddenly? What's a meditation with the Arai feel like, how does it change her outlook on her daily life? What weird thing happened on Hunrath one day? What’s daily routine over there? What required a team-up with dear Josef and did she think a little higher of him afterwards (I'll love Josef if Cyan won't, he wasn't the right mayor during those trying times but the man has his merits damn it)? I nominated the three main characters because they’re the only ones who get fleshed out properly but feel free to include any of the other people we see mentioned!

Twin Peaks: Albert Rosenfield [TWIN PEAKS THE RETURN SPOILERS. Final Dossier prompts to be added asap, I'd like Mark Frost to know that dropping new canon right after signups two years in a row is highly yuletidephobic)

Ships: Albert/Dale, Albert/Harry and Albert/Dale/Harry.

DNWs, mostly in the sense of topics fraught with complicated fandom opinions I wouldn't risk in an exchange: Albert/Constance and hell God baby damn no we ain't talkin about Judy.

So the story ends (or, ahem, artistically cliffhangers, as it does) with the fiery pacifist locked behind a tired, stoic mask, shooting a friend with shaky hands and taking pride in it, and not being even greeted by the man he set out to find before the asshole disappeared again. Cheers to the FBI. Needless to say, I'd like to see my favorite character find himself again, on his own or with the aid of any combination of characters of your choosing. It's never too late to shovel yourself out of the shit, Albert!

I could see him resigning on the spot (especially if Gordon and Diane also disappeared?) and staying in town to heal. Does he go to Harry, does he end up adopted by the Trumans, does he find some of his fire back by shouting at Doris and bonding with her that way, to remarkable mutual benefit? Does Frank, in all earnest and from personal experience, recommend him a hat to cover the hair loss? Or does he end up bonding with Hawk, how would their snark and general judgeyness complement each other? Does he make it to Bookhouse Boy eventually, and what kind of adventures or simple late night chats at the Bookhouse could take place then?

In a year or two or five, does Hawk find Coop like Margaret predicted, under the moon on Blue Pine mountain? How do they reconnect after so long? Do they fall in love again, as changed, tired men? I find it an interesting Albert/Harry and eventually Albert/Harry/Dale scenario, filled with bittersweet possibilities. An Albert/Dale option could be that Albert does not stay in town and Coop goes to find him, and they start again wherever Albert lives now.

Whether he resigns or not, does he keep in touch with Constance? Do they exchange punny second opinions and gallows humor in general over Skype?

He and Denise are on a first name basis, how did they bond, what's their average night out like, or what happened in the Philly office back when Gordon was still their boss that Gordon could absolutely never find out about?

Ditto Diane, it's so easy to picture them smoking together and presenting a united “fuck this and fuck you” front in the office, so what was their friendship like, how did it continue after Diane [got tulpa'd and] resigned? Onto even more painful territory, if Diane didn't disappear in pt17 or if she eventually comes back on her own, how would they rebuild their friendship? Do they come to terms with that horrible day when he shot her? Does she remember those 20 years of their friendship and therefore also dying by his hand, or does she not remember, and so he did kill 'a' Diane along with all their time together, and found another one he didn't even know he'd lost so long ago?

Tammy is pretty much his padawan, what's her apprenticeship like? I love how she's technically Gordon's protege but he's the one who takes time to talk to her and /know/ her (like the fact that she gets carsick). Does she ever get to make him talk about himself? About what this search for Coop means to him?

Did he... did he ever run into Wally by accident in any random corner of the country, and how'd that go down? Like, ignoring the Andy and Lucy connection (although I do adore Andy and Lucy), just Wally as his own very peculiar person, bumping into Albert or being involved in a case or whatever.

Ditto Jade – she's got her brand of pragmatism and of managing to come out unscathed and unflapped by supernatural nonsense, it'd be fun to bounce her off another rare sensible soul like Albert who could easily turn up in Vegas working on a blue rose case.

Much to Albert's chagrin, feel free to double down on the canon-appropriate weirdness! But also on the canon-appropriate cheese...

[fxndom]

mp100/ghost trick AU

@nefertempitou so i went away to eat my breakfast and think about it and i came up with:

if a mp100 character were to be a ghost protag, would it be dimple or mob

maybe mob dies somewhere and dimple & ghost!mob set out to prevent his death. you can come across everyone going about their daily lives b/c no one (as yet) knows that mob is dead because it happened in an accident (or so it seems) in a secluded place

imagine having to solve your way through the Spirits and Such agency, maybe as dimple. (maybe he & ghost!mob split up to Inspect Clues.) reigen is no problem but if your presence is sensed by serizawa, he obliterates u w/o thinking because he thinks ur just an evil spirit presence.

to get thru S&S successfully, imagine that you have to launch a cockroach from somewhere outside onto reigen’s desk through a rube goldberg-like series of actions. the immediate chaos distracts serizawa enough and moves him away from his corner of the office (he goes to get rid of the cockroach for reigen) that you need to get to.

i think if ghost!mob went anywhere to get help, he’d maybe go to hanazawa rather than ritsu. not because ritsu wouldn’t be concerned, but because ritsu would be TOO concerned. he’d be very upset that mob is a ghost. actually, i think hanazawa would be very upset too but mob’s relying on him as a fellow powerful esper & a friend so he can’t let himself get too upset.

since this is a ONE series which tends to bring back recurring minor characters, i feel like you’d have to move thru environments containing former CLAW members too. eg maybe through the flower shop or maybe glasses-guy and scarface-guy went to work somewhere mundane and you visit their workplace for *~*clues*~* too as mob

hanazawa can act as a living distraction while mob moves through objects to a backroom where important files are to investigate, or something

so obv this is adhering to ghost trick rules rather than mp100 rules or otherwise dimple & mob could just float around rather than needing to move thru & manipulate objects. also because they’d need the time rewind ability to save mob!

imagine at one point they have to save reigen from being shot. why? because this

dimple thinks the hard hat thing is fucking hilarious (but only because he’s remembering that they have the time-rewind ability!) but mob’s dISTRAUGHT

speaking of cabanela, remember how smooth the animations were for that game? god i’d love to see reigen’s gestures animated like that. i’d love to see ALL the mp100 characters animated like ghost trick

and speaking of dead reigen, imagine a timeline where reigen is shot dead in a seedy place and not only are they (reigen & dimple) trying to track down reigen’s killer & stop him before it happens to save reigen, but also because reigen’s death causes mob to become “???%” and absolutely take apart the city (literally piece by piece. it all floats into the sky! citizens and all!)

so in that case it’s a race against time, like the original GT! i mean technically it takes longer than a day because they keep rewinding time trying to find the right solution, but maybe the entire plot takes place within like 14 hours or however long it takes reigen’s dead body to be found & the news to reach mob

speaking of ghost trick/mp100 crossovers w/ dead reigen & dimple

also so far i’ve focused on them & not serizawa. what if serizawa was the dead one? good question! i think serizawa would at first be like “oh... no... i’m dead... m-maybe it’s better this way...” since he was a wildly powerful esper who used to be unable to manage his powers safely. he can’t muster up the impetus to do or want to do anything about his death

but reigen is furious and insists serizawa needs to do something about his death, and tells him how necessary serizawa is to the S&S agency, and how he needs serizawa to prevent his own death because reigen needs serizawa to come in each day as an S&S employee, and how serizawa’s classmates need him because they’re supposed to study together, and how mob as serizawa’s senpai needs serizawa as a kouhai so they can both learn from each other

the timeline where serizawa dies is maybe the only one where (from the start at least) the S&S agency are all investigating the death as one and either splitting into pairs or going off separately to find stuff out. reigen directs their investigation

which is fun because think of all the scenarios there are as you swap them about. serizawa-mob team & reigen-dimple team. then a serizawa-dimple team (lol go ghost team!) & a reigen-mob team, and then serizawa-reigen team, and so on

when serizawa comes back to life again (by preventing his death), they all celebrate! but the best bit is the next morning when serizawa comes in to work and he’s welcomed by reigen & mob (dimple is there too but he’s not the welcoming type). it’s the typical “good morning!” you give to your co-worker and reigen gives him a run-down of the day’s schedule and then tells him to go make some tea for them all. it’s exactly what happens every day serizawa comes in to work and then in the evening he has classes and homework. when he thinks back to yesterday when he genuinely thought his time was up and all this was finished and how he’d accepted that, he’s really REALLY pleased that he’s back and able to live on.

anyway that’s it so far and i haven’t even incorporated any Ghost Trick characters themselves yet. haha, guess i’ll have to think about that one for a bit!

but to begin with, imagine reigen and Missile. just imagine

to accommodate all these timelines & repeated deaths, it really makes you think there’s someone out to get the S&S agency, jeez.

EDIT: dimple moving through telephone lines and possessing all those different assassins tho

[fyeahghosttrick]

Hi! I'm sort of very new to the fandom, so I had a couple questions about canon for the ending. 1) Does Sissel retain all of his ghost trick powers? 2) How much of the other timeline does everyone remember? Specifically Lynne, Kamila and Missile. Thank you so much!

I am delighted to know that there are sort of very new people still discovering the game! Onto your questions:

1) we don’t know! We know that ghost powers change throughout the years, and endgame Sissel is ten years later than game Sissel, and also technically in a different situation - he’s dead possessing his own body, like Yomiel was throughout the game. He certainly has the power of manipulation now, since we see him manipulate his body. Fanon says that it’s a power that comes with having the Temsik shard inside you, which makes sense since we know that both Yomiel (game timeline) and Sissel (new timeline) had that power from the beginning and kept it for ten years. But we don’t have the slightest clue about what other ghost powers Sissel may have kept or developed! Game timeline Yomiel also had a very powerful telekinesis, for example.

2) the game tells us that the souls who go back in time keep their memories, and those who don’t, don’t. So Sissel, Missile and Yomiel certainly have the full memories of the game timeline.

Missile’s memories of the doomed timeline are?? dubious??? Maybe? I don’t think so...? It’s complicated.

Jowd could be kinda argued either way, as we don’t have a lot of evidence for 4-minutes-within-4-minutes situations, just Rindge and Pigeon Man, neither of whom is a perfect fit for Jowd’s ch17 situation. But I think that going by the worldbuilding we have, he should have his memories.

Lynne and Kamila are certainly out - heck, Yomiel sacrificed his legs so Lynne could grow up without even having a core of the dead in that same timeline, let alone everything else. Could they get some vague form of deja vu? The Chef’s optional dialogue after Memry’s death gets averted seems to hint at the possibility. But they should be free from the core of that burden.

Hope this helped!

[elpsycongruent]

It’s four in the morning and I need to be out the door by six, but instead of actually sleeping, I’m gonna do the thing @evilpenguinrika tagged me in!

Name: Olivia

Nicknames: Lulu, Lou, Louie, and so on down the diminutive train. (But please, please don’t call me Luluini. It’s bad enough when my dad does it.)

Gender: Agender, but she/her pronouns are fine

Star Sign: Cancer

Height: 5′4″ish? Either I’ve been steadily growing and shrinking an inch between doctor’s visits, or else my posture is just really strange, but I’m roughly 5′4″.

Sexual Orientation: Grey-A Panromantic

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Favourite Colour: Blue. More specifically, the blue of the surface of the ocean on a sunny day, as seen from below. Closely followed by the deep blue of the sky just after dusk on a clear night.

Favourite Animal(s): To the shock of absolutely nobody: sea turtles. Followed by cuttlefish.

Average Hours of Sleep: *glances guiltily at the clock* I mean, I technically should be getting to work in less than three hours? And I may not actually get to sleep at all tonight? And this is not actually abnormal for me? So... on average, let’s say five hours. But really: night to night? It varies. A lot.

Cat or Dog Person: Dogs! I like cats well enough, but I’m super allergic. Meanwhile, one of my friends has learned to tell when a dog is coming towards me because apparently, that’s the only time I show true joy.

Favourite Fictional Characters: Oh jeez. I have to pick favourites? There are SO MANY. GAH. Okay, fine. The first ones to pop into my head, in no particular order:

Yuuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! on Ice)

Missile (Ghost Trick)

Anghel Higure (Hatoful Boyfriend)

Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent (Baccano!) (I totally count them as one unit okay)

Junpei Tenmyouji (Zero Escape)

Peridot (Steven Universe)

Makise Kurisu (Steins;Gate)

Owain/Odin (Fire Emblem: Awakening/Fates) (I don’t care that I only married his mother once for completion reasons, HE’S MY SON OKAY)

L’Arachel (Fire Emblem: the Sacred Stones)

Takashi Shirogane (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Keladry of Mindelan (Tortall)

Bucky Barnes (Marvel)

Olivier Mira Armstrong and Izumi Curtis (FMA) (these two don’t count as a pair, but I can’t rank one above the other)

Jungo Torii (Devil Survivor 2)

...but I could keep going for DAYS if I let myself, so I’m cutting myself off there. (There is a disturbing amount of overlap between characters I consider my children and characters I would marry in a heartbeat. Let’s just continue to ignore that, shall we?)

Number of Blankets I Sleep With: This time of year: one blanket, two comforters. But it varies season to season.

Favourite Singer/Band: Hmm... Normally, this would be my cue to gush about whatever new band has tickled my fancy, but you know, I really haven’t been listening to as much music lately as I usually would? This past month, all I’ve really listened to is the Yuri on Ice soundtrack on repeat. 

But I always return to the Decemberists, the Hush Sound, and the Rolling Stones, so I guess I can mark them down as my favorites?

Dream Trip: I went on it last May, actually- my parents surprised me with a family trip to the Galapagos. And yes: it was all I dreamed it would be.

For the future, I’d love to go back to Italy and Greece. And Sweden, of course, though that’s probably going to be my big family trip for my mom’s 65th birthday.

Dream Job: Basically, what I do now, only actually paying a liveable wage? I love my sea creatures, but my bills do not. Ooh, and more flexible hours.

When Was This Blog Created: Oh jeez. Well, it was definitely after 2010, since I’ve never changed my url. Probably 2012? 2013?

Current Number of Followers: 760, with an estimated 500 of those being porn bots that I should probably have blocked by now. (If I make it to 777, I can use that as a new lucky screenshot!)

When Did Your Blog Reach its Peak?: No idea, man. Probably at some point during my boueibu liveblogs.

What Made You Decide to Make a Tumblr?: I have no idea. I know I had one in high school that fell by the wayside, but I have no memories of why I made it, why I stopped, or even what the url was. Similarly, I don’t actually remember what prompted me to make this one, either.

---

As for tagging someone, how about @tygerflower and @papercranes07? Only if you guys want to, though! (And if anyone else wants to do it, go nuts!)

[operationrainfall]

Title Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair Developer Playtonic Games Publisher Team17 Digital Ltd Release Date October 8th, 2019 Genre Platformer Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone – Mild Cartoon Violence Official Website

I never expected Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Not only did the release totally sneak up on me, I somehow missed it entirely at PAX West this year. So when I suddenly saw it announced in the Nintendo Download I cover weekly, I was happily stunned. After all, I did back the original Yooka-Laylee, and while I enjoyed it, it felt a bit hampered by its adherence to 3D platformer norms. Which is why it’s so funny that I loved Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Who would have guessed that transitioning from being influenced by Banjo-Kazooie to being influenced by Donkey Kong Country would make all the difference?

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The game starts when our heroic duo crash lands in the Royal Stingdom. Capital B is up to no good, and after being taught the platforming ins and outs by the introductory level, things get dramatic. Capital B has a device that enslaves other bees, and he uses it to take control of Queen Phoebee’s Royal Beetallion. Each of these 48 elite guards now protects the dastardly villain from damage. Luckily, due to some quick thinking, you escape further conflict and land just outside his Impossible Lair. Phoebee uses some magic to create books so you can free the trapped Beetallion from Capital B before he took control of them. That doesn’t mean each one captured will be taken from him, mind you, but each guard freed protects you from harm. While you’re more than welcome to tackle the Lair first, you’d be a crazy person to do so because the titular Impossible Lair is a devious gauntlet of instant death traps, cleverly placed enemies, tricky platforming and multiple boss encounters against Capital B. It also contains zero checkpoints, so one death and you have to start over from the very beginning. So assuming you’re not a total masochist, let’s talk about the rest of the game first.

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Each of the books created by Phoebee serves as a level, and is tossed across a vast overworld. You unlock stages in groups, and though you don’t have to tackle them in order, it’s not a bad idea to do so. Namely, that’s because progressing any farther means getting past multiple paywalls set up by the conniving Trowser, and he charges you varying amounts of T.W.I.T. coins found in each of the many stages to proceed. Another reason it’s good to play each level as you unlock them is so you get flush with Quills. You can often do this by chasing Ghost Quills, or just by finding loose Quills littered about each stage. These are occasionally used to unlock things on the overworld, but they are also used to unlock Tonics. There’s a ton of Tonics in the game, and to use them first you have to find them, then pay their Quill cost. They provide a wide array of effects, some changing how a stage looks and others making the levels easier or harder with various effects. If you make a stage easier, it will take away from your Quill total at the end of each stage, but if you make it harder, you’ll be rewarded with more of them. I actually really liked this setup, since it offers the tools to tweak the game as you please. Given that I’m a platformer purist, I only really used one Tonic in my entire playthrough, which made it so Laylee would stick around longer after taking damage, giving me longer to grab her before she flaps away.

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It would be an easy assumption that the overworld is small and basic, but the truth is the opposite. Despite not being in full 3D, the top-down overworld is quite expansive and riddled with secret passages. There’s dark forests, beach-side grottoes, dank caverns and more. Getting from point A to point B can sometimes be a hassle, and often requires returning to areas from a different vantage point. Most noteworthy is that you will find Pagies on the map, and by clearing their challenges, they’ll reward you by altering some aspect of the overworld. This always opens up a path you couldn’t access before, making it easier to get around and find new things.

Another cool part of this aspect of the game is altering stages. Every single stage in the game, other than the Lair, has both an original and alternate version. You might come across a stage and by freezing it with an ice fruit, you’ll unlock an alternate version that’s totally different. These changes are very clever and often required some extra sleuthing to discover. I really enjoyed it, especially since there’s technically 48 stages instead of the base 24. That may not sound like much, but trust me it’s a very meaty experience. In my nearly 13 hours playing the game, I still haven’t unearthed nearly all the achievements, Tonics, Beetallion guards, T.W.I.T. coins or other assorted goodies. Overall it’s a really cool overworld, but with one niggle. It can be time-consuming wandering around, since after you quit and return to the game, you always start right next to the Impossible Lair. For most of the game that meant constant backtracking, until I finally stumbled upon the game’s warp feature. You can basically select any stage from the map and warp instantly there. This is great, but it would have been better if the game told me it was available.

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Much like the game’s overworld, the stages in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair are also deceptively complex. While you can beat most of them in less than 10 minutes, finding all the hidden T.W.I.T. coins can be a challenge. Much like in Donkey Kong Country, things are deviously secreted away, and there were many stages I beat without finding more than a couple out of the possible five coins. Though most stages are standard platformer fare, moving from the left to the right, some mix things up with vertical climbing and even some backtracking. A good example is one that requires you to find five gems to exit the stage, and they’re in all sorts of places. Thankfully, each stage has checkpoints, and you can even spawn more of them with one handy Tonic. There’s a ton of creativity on display, from spinning windmill villages to underwater galleons to dangerous factories to honey-covered towns. There are even some pulse-pounding stages where you’re running from impending death the entire time. It’s all good fun, and will keep you busy without being overly unfair. Just be ready to play most stages more than once to find everything.

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More platform fun on Page 2 ->

Now, none of what I’ve been saying would matter if the game didn’t play well, but thankfully that’s not the case. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a lot of fun. Even though the duo have less abilities than in their first outing, there’s enough here to keep things interesting. Also important is that they are a duo. What that means is that when they’re separated, you’re far less capable and can’t even use all your moves. Laylee the bat is basically Yooka’s armor. If you take a hit, she goes flying around frantically. If you don’t catch her in time, she’s gone, and any more damage will kill you and return you to the most recent checkpoint. This was very smart design, and it made me more careful about how I explored stages. When the team is together, they’re capable of tricks like spinning in mid-air to go farther, rolling around and even ground pounding. Yooka can also use his long tongue to grab items and spit them out as projectiles. I thought the game controlled very well, though I found the roll / jump combo to be a bit finicky at times. The only time things didn’t work as planned was when I was rolling and somehow got stuck in a wall, forcing me to restart a stage, and another time the game force quit and returned me to the Switch home screen. Other than those, the game played perfectly well.

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Visually, I found a lot to appreciate. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a cute and cartoony game. Everything has a vibrant quality to it, such as how the Quills glow with golden light. Though there’s not a ton of different foes, they’re all distinct and there’s no color swap nonsense. I especially liked the industrial parts of the game, like red hot buzz saws and dangerous cannons. Musically, the game is also enjoyable. Some stages definitely have better tunes than others, but there was nothing that I found boring or offensive. The sound effects are also really bombastic and match the action perfectly. And thankfully the gibberish talk for all the characters is still in place, and lends everything a whimsical flair. Visually and musically, this is a stellar experience.

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It wouldn’t be fair to talk about Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair without going into a bit more detail on the titular final area. Earlier I said that it’s a very challenging sequence of traps, foes and boss fights, but let me go into more detail. Every time you play, you start off with the initial fight against Capital B. He only takes a few hits that time, but every subsequent battle he’s more resilient. His fights will gate each subsequent corridor of the Lair, and he starts getting really tricky as things progress. There’s tons of instant death traps in the lair as well, such as lasers, buzz saws, heat-seeking missiles and portals that continuously spawn foes. I ended up taking nine tries to finally beat the Impossible Lair, and that was with nearly all of the Beetallion at my disposal, 40 out of 48. It was still a huge challenge, and one that I feel needs to be gradually worked towards. And though I won’t go into spoilers, I will say it’s a good idea not to be reckless, and try and hold onto a few of your Beetallion even after you’ve finally beaten Capital B.

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Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair may not be impossible, but it is a wonderfully fun and challenging retro platformer. Though it still has much of that compulsive collector DNA from the first game, I found it much less bothersome in this format. For $29.99, you get a lot to explore in this expansive world. Though I spent around 13 hours to beat the game, I still have plenty to uncover. And that’s not even touching upon the many super secret treasures still deftly squirreled away. I would strongly encourage most gamers to check this out. With the use of Tonics, you’re able to tailor the experience to your ability level, so really it’s hard to turn it down. A fantastic and worthy follow up to the original Yooka-Laylee from the fine folks at Playtonic Games. Here’s to looking forward to whatever they cook up next!

Keep your eyes peeled and you might even find an Easter Banana or two!

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

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REVIEW: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair Title Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair