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franckie-108 · 2 years

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Following up with my previous post, the following recommendations are what I would have suggested to make the story flow smoother. Bear in mind that I will be attempting to stay consistent with Kishimoto’s intent and with the editorial mandates (e.g., Taka) he had to work with. (A common misconception is that mangakas have full control over their story. They don’t, editorial staff do.)

1). Naruto remains the protagonist, not Sasuke hijacking the main plot. We also fix his handling, where Naruto always gets hyped up to the sky and above, but somehow always fails to deliver. -Trains with Jiraiya > does virtually nothing during the Rescue Gaara arc -4-Tailed Kyuubi form > can't use it cause it damages him, and he wasn't even in control anyway -Learns FRS > Same as Kyuubi mode: it promises a lot, before getting nerfed somehow -Learns Sage Mode and perfect FRS > Crucifixion no jutsu. 'Nuff said. -Defeats Pein (thanks to multiple usages of deus ex machina) > Spends the entirety of the following arc acting as utterly pathetic as humanly conceivable, spilling away what little cred he'd built up. -Learns KCM > sprains his ankle. -Becomes a perfect jinchuuriki > gets curbstomped by the exact same guy he "defeated" a couple of arcs ago, while looking like a complete moron in the process. I understand the author's need not to spill the beans too soon regarding Naruto's power, but it gets frustrating when the main character is never, EVER allowed anything that resembles a spotless, unmitigated victory. How are we supposed to believe this guy will save the world when he fails constantly and routinely behaves like a complete idiot? Even until the very end of the manga, Naruto’s character was always handled as if he were a nOOb. Compare with Harry Potter: average intelligence, average magic skills, hotheaded to a fault (that even gets Sirius killed) and too "heroic" for his own good. But courageous, a beast at Defense against the Dark Arts, and does get his moments here and there reminding you why he is the main character. Clearly Harry would never have gotten halfway as far as he did without the help of the supporting cast, but unlike Part 2 Naruto he does have an unequivocally good track record of accomplishments to his name. When people read Harry Potter, I know why I should believe he is the Chosen One. When I read Naruto, all people get is increasingly perplexed at how he gets to be the title character at all, when everyone and their mom is treated to better showings, feats and characterization.

2). Sakura. Sakura has always been the weakest link in Team 7, and the most hated character. Each member of Team 7 would have shown prestigious growth under Kakashi. Ninjutsu for Naruto, nin-tai for Sasuke, and genjutsu for Sakura. She proves herself useful in Part 1 by curbstomping opponents with genjutsu.

3). The Chuunin Exams. Arguably the greatest weakness of Part 1 was the incessant focus on Konoha. Originally Kishimoto wanted to explore his world one arc at a time, but was forced by editorial mandates to come up with the Chuunin Exams. I would have kept the various teams intact, but have them hail from various ninja villages to help with the worldbuilding. This will later help with Akatsuki.

4). Orochimaru. Orochimaru is another editorial mandate. Oro was the main villain for Part 1, but not an antagonist because he had no interest in harming Naruto. One needs to antagonistic to pass as an antagonist. Oro was not. Furthermore, his reason for targeting Sasuke is pretty weak. Hence the massive amount of retcons that Kishimoto invested in the character in the War Arc, like the Rinnegan being an evolved Sharingan.

To make Oro a viable antagonist, I’d change his stated target to Naruto, who has more chakra than arguably anyone else in the manga. Possessing Naruto would allow Oro insane levels of chakra that’d never dreamed was possible, helping him perfect his immortality to acquiring control over natural phenomena to who else knows what. I’d also get rid of his “dark goal”, which is to see the reincarnation of his parents. He’s fine being the Joseph Mengele of the ninja world.

His corruption of Sasuke would be to use Sasuke as a backup container. Plus, Oro is interested in mutating the Sharingan to achieve MS.

5). Sharingan = “Copy Wheel Eye”, not “Deus ex Machina” Eye. The Sharingan’s “true power” was originally presented as copying techniques. While this power was awesome, it was well-balanced and there were plenty of methods to counteract the Sharingan. Then when Itachi showed up around chapter 140, the Sharingan started demonstrating abilities that had nothing to do with its original powers, such as reflecting genjutsu back on the user and spawning fire. The Sharingan became the “ultimate” as far as everything ninja was concerned and broke the balance of power between Konoha and the neighboring villages.

I don’t have a problem with the MS per se, provided that its powers are simply enhancements to the Sharingan’s original powers. Something else I would have considered doing separately is making the MS an artificial enhancement of the Sharingan making use of the Kyuubi’s foul chakra. Sure, the Uchiha got a massive power boost, but the MS made them mentally unstable and sadistic, a side-effect of infusing their brains with evil chakra. This revelation would tie in to the Kyuubi attack and explain why the Uchiha Clan plotted a coup.

No EMS. Getting a massive power boost by simply swapping eyes is f***ing stupid and goes against the themes Kishimoto instilled in Part 1.

6). Kyuubi and the bijuu are evil, plain and simple. Not pokemon who are simply misunderstood. The Kyuubi in particular was repeatedly demonstrated well into Part 2 to be evil and uncontrollable. It stays that way.

7). Root is established back in Part 1 instead of Part 2. Danzo's role in the story is basically to show the "dark side" and the ninja system as a whole. He mainly operates with utilitarian mindset and views ninja as what they were introduced as in the beginning the series: As tools meant to serve a greater purpose beyond themselves. For the most part he fills this role perfectly, but this doesn't lend himself to being a likable character. Danzo is a villain in the purest sense, unlike the likes of Obito, Pain or Madara there's no real silver lining when it comes to his ideals. Sure he cares about the village but the way he goes about protecting is twisted and is more in defense of the village as an ideal or a monolith rather than its denizens. In fact, he practically orchestrated the Uchiha massacre for his own personal gain and worked with the likes of Orochimaru. While I personally think Kishimoto's villains work better as villains in terms of writing, these aren't motivations people can really get behind or understand. He lacks a human element that makes him identifiable and makes his atrocities stand out more. That being said, a villain can be popular even without that human element but it's Danzo fatal flaw that makes him hard to stomach to the average fan.

Incidentally, Danzo is the third MS user, not Tobito.

8). Tobito. Tobito is one of the worst things Kishimoto did to his own story, and why he is such a garbage writer. Kishimoto so thoroughly trampled Obito’s character it isn’t even funny. Nagato remains the leader and not being retconned into being a Uchiha errand boy.

9). Akatsuki are the main villains, with neither Madara nor Nagato being the leader. Rather, it would seemingly be amalgamation, with Deva Realm’s awesome design.

This development in particular is highly important. A frequent complaint from both the Japanese and Western audiences was the fact that Kishimoto failed to do proper worldbuilding. Part 2, originally, was set up to be about the Akatsuki - ninjas hailing all over the world - hunting the bijuu scattered throughout the land, with Naruto just being one piece. That was a very interesting story. But Kishimoto sacrificed his main cast, his setting, and his reputation for Sasuke and his clan.

10). The SasuNaru bond isn’t base on “brothers”, but on an ideological rivalry, similar to the feud that exists between Saito and Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. Their bond came to an end the moment Sasuke rammed a Chidori through Naruto’s chest in an attempt to acquire a major power-up. We’d keep the Rescue Sasuke arcs down to one, maybe two at most. Rather, the focus would be on their growing ideologies which are explored and developed through various conflicts, with Naruto vs Sasuke being the final fight of the series. (Personally, I’d make the final fight a team battle instead of a solo battle, but I’m sticking with Kishimoto’s intent to make their fight the final one.)

There are other changes I’d do, but these are the main ones. Lastly, on to the matter of understanding Kishimoto’s rationale for his writing decisions.

I believe Kishimoto switched protagonists from Naruto to Sasuke in an attempt simplify the story. At the start of Part 2, there were multiple plotlines (e.g., Akatsuki, Root), but they were axed in favor of the Uchiha plot. There was also his dwindling interest in Naruto, which to this day I’ve never fully figured out.

I remember reading an interview where he flat-out stated he didn’t consider Naruto’s backstory (and by proxy, the Uzumakis and Minato) to be important to the plot’s narrative, a stark contrast to Sasuke’s. It was only by pressure his fans and the editorial staff where Kishimoto relented and gave us a couple of chapters, which unsurprisingly, had no impact on the overall plot. In addition, Kishimoto really does understand his audience - long-term readers - and is repeatedly surprised with their visceral reactions to writing choices that were dubious to begin with.

Take the case with Sai. Sai, originally, was intended to be a popular character and Sasuke’s replacement, but both Japanese and Western fans despised the character to the point Kishimoto effectively wrote him out of the story. There’s also the issue with Sakura, who has always been a hated character since the start of Part 1 because of the subpar handling of her character. In interview after interview Kishimoto demonstrates a noticeable denseness of why readers despise the character and rebuff his multiple attempts at making her popular. Hence they were effectively written out of the story following their respective arcs at the start of Part 2.

Finally, one piece of advice regarding Kishimoto: Don’t expect anything from him. He’s alright for the short-run, but treats his audience like idiots because he has no regard for coherency or consistency in his storytelling. There’s a reason why his last manga, Samurai 8, flopped so badly to the point it was cancelled in less than a year.

#answer #naruto #uzumaki naruto #sakura haruno #akatsuki #plot #literature #uchiha sasuke #Kishimoto Masashi

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fractiondigital · 1 year

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Amazon ACoS And PPC Profits: Everything You Need To Know

What does AcoS mean? Amazon ACos Definition

ACoS is the acronym for the Amazon Cost of Sales. The Advertising Cost of Sales is the amount you pay for advertising for every penny of revenue you generate. In addition, the ratio can also be viewed as the spend ratio as compared to the target sales.

It’s a key metric that guides your Amazon advertising strategy that you need to pay attention to in Amazon PPC. You decide how to bid on search terms based on your ACoS, which is a percentage measure. When it comes to Amazon PPC advertising, ACoS is everything.

Aside from ACoS for the entire account, you can also calculate ACoS at any level, such as at a campaign, ad group, ASIN, or keyword-level ACoS.

What is the ACoS Amazon Formula?

Essentially, ACoS stands for advertising cost per sale or the cost of reaching a customer and selling to them. The formula itself is fairly straightforward, but there are a few ways you can calculate it.

Achieving an average cost of sale on Amazon is a metric that reveals how much profits can be expected over a given period of time. The best way to determine this is sometimes to solve the equation using PPC or other advertising methods. As a ratio of ad spending to target sales, ACoS is also known as return on investment.

As you can see, the equation looks like this:

The ACoS calculation looks like this: If your ACoS is 25%, you paid $0.25 for every dollar you earned or $25 for every $100.

In order to measure the success of your campaign, Amazon ACoS is an important metric.

The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) concept is copied from Google Ads, a PPC marketing platform.

What is the meaning of your Amazon ACoS?

The ACoS shows how much of every dollar earned through advertising was spent on ads.

Consider the case of a campaign that generated $400 of advertising sales. This campaign costs $100 in ads, so ACoS = 100 / 400 x 100 = 25%.

As a result, 25 cents have been spent on advertising for every dollar generated.

How does PPC differ from ACoS?

You can use Amazon ACoS to gauge the profitability of your account, but it doesn’t work like PPC. ACoS focuses on improving the profitability of existing traffic, while PPC focuses on bringing in new traffic. The perception that a high ACoS equates to a high PPC revenue is not always accurate. It is beneficial to understand ACoS for large retail accounts that are looking for a more concrete method of evaluating their accounts’ success.

It is important to maximize your advertising costs per sale and to reach the right audience when running Amazon ads.

What Is a Good ACoS on Amazon and how do I reduce it?

There are many variables that affect ACoS, including the marketplace, the ad type, the competition, the product price, and many others. Below is a general overview of ACoS values on Amazon across different categories.

Ad campaigns cost more than you earn, so try reducing your Amazon ACOS or increasing your earnings if you’re spending more than you’re earning. In order to determine where your funds should be directed and where your expenditures can be optimized and reduced, it is useful to examine successful and unsuccessful advertising campaigns.

Also, make sure your keywords are correct. Reaching a broader audience can be achieved through these metrics. Including at least 25 keywords is recommended for advertising with Sponsored Brands. A keyword may also consist of a phrase, a broad keyword, or even the name of a product or brand. To reach your optimal audience, you should combine a variety of keyword types.

Reviewing the right metrics

Among key performance indicators (KPIs), Amazon ACoS is one. Aside from impressions, conversion rates, and click-through rates (CTRs), advertising metrics also include conversion rates. In spite of the fact that Amazon ACoS is a good starting point, it is important to consider multiple metrics in order to determine which works best for you and what needs to be altered to improve your results further.

Target

Determining a target ACoS is essential. There will be a different target ACoS for each brand. Nevertheless, the first step is achieving break-even ACoS and comparing it to your profit margin. Your next step is to determine what your brands and campaigns should aim for: Are they trying to increase sales? What is the impact on brand awareness? In your marketing strategy, you can determine the value of Amazon ACoS once you have decided.

Factors that affect ACoS?

There is a common misconception that the highest bidder always gets the best spot — but that isn’t always true. While cost-per-click plays an important role, it is not the only one.

The following two factors determine ad placement:

CPC: A person with a high CPC is more likely to win prime advertising space on Amazon.

Quality: The quality of the ad also depends on the probability of a customer clicking on it. Using Amazon PPC, Amazon only receives payment for clicks. Impressions do not help Amazon. An ad’s placement is based on how likely it is for customers to click on it.

Ads that convert well and generate clicks can be bid lower for an ad spot if they are generating clicks. With Amazon PPC, a good product listing and ad copy play a critical role in reducing ACoS (advertising cost of sale) and maximizing ROI (return on investment).

Tap Here to Read More About This Article:

https://fractiondigital.in/.../amazon-acos-and-ppc.../

#seo #digitalmarketing #marketing #socialmediamarketing #socialmedia #webdesign #branding #business #onlinemarketing #contentmarketing #website #marketingdigital

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thelistingteammiami · 2 years

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The Majority of Americans Still View Homeownership as the American Dream

Buying a home is a powerful decision, and it remains a key part of the American Dream. In fact, the 2022 Consumer Insights Report from Mynd found the majority of people polled still view homeownership as a key life achievement. Let’s explore just a few of the reasons why so many Americans continue to value homeownership.

The Financial Benefits of Owning a Home

One possible reason homeownership is viewed so highly is because owning a home is a significant wealth-building tool, and it provides meaningful financial stability over renting by locking in your monthly housing payments for the length of your home loan. An article from Forbes explains:

“Understanding the potential benefits of homeownership helps individuals see the value of owning property instead of renting. . . . household wealth among homeowners is a whopping 1,469% higher on average compared to renters, excluding home equity, making the allure of homeownership even more enticing.”

Over time, owning a home not only helps boost your own net worth, but it also sets future generations up for success as you pass that wealth down. That may be why the Mynd report also says:

“Most Americans (78%) still associate homeownership with the ‘American dream.’ And nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) see homeownership as a means of building intergenerational wealth.”

The Non-Financial Benefits of Homeownership

While the financial benefits of owning a home are important, becoming a homeowner impacts you on a social and emotional level, too. As Mark Fleming, Chief Economist for First American, says:

“. . . buying a home is not just a financial decision. It's also a lifestyle decision.”

Your home provides feelings of achievement, responsibility, and more. 3by30 highlights the top 10 benefits homeowners enjoy. A few non-financial advantages include:

Providing you with more freedom and control over your living space

Giving you a greater sense of pride

Helps with community engagement

What Does That Mean for You?

If your definition of the American Dream involves greater freedom and prosperity, then homeownership could play a major role in helping you achieve that dream. While it may feel challenging to buy a home today as mortgage rates and home prices rise, if the time is right for you, know that there are incredible benefits waiting for you at the end of your journey. You’ll have a place you can grow your wealth, call your own, and feel most comfortable.

Like the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says:

“. . . research has consistently shown that homeownership is also associated with multiple economic and social benefits to individual homeowners. Homeownership has always been an important way to build wealth.”

Bottom Line

Buying a home is a powerful decision and a key part of the long-term dream for many Americans. And if homeownership is part of your dreams this year, let’s connect to start the process today.

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28northgroup · 2 years

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The Majority of Americans Still View Homeownership as the American Dream

The Financial Benefits of Owning a Home

Over time, owning a home not only helps boost your own net worth, but it also sets future generations up for success as you pass that wealth down. That may be why the Mynd report also says:

“Most Americans (78%) still associate homeownership with the ‘American dream.’ And nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) see homeownership as a means of building intergenerational wealth.”

The Non-Financial Benefits of Homeownership

While the financial benefits of owning a home are important, becoming a homeowner impacts you on a social and emotional level, too. As Mark Fleming, Chief Economist for First American, says:

“. . . buying a home is not just a financial decision. It’s also a lifestyle decision.”

Your home provides feelings of achievement, responsibility, and more. 3by30 highlights the top 10 benefits homeowners enjoy. A few non-financial advantages include:

Providing you with more freedom and control over your living space

Giving you a greater sense of pride

Helps with community engagement

What Does That Mean for You?

Like the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says:

Bottom Line

Buying a home is a powerful decision and a key part of the long-term dream for many Americans. And if homeownership is part of your dreams this year, let’s connect to start the process today.

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poison--ivory · 3 years

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Haikyuu! Domestic Life (Captains/ Reader) Quirks

WARNING: NSFW

*This is my first headcanon and I just wanted to mix haikyuu and bnha. I hope you enjoy* (Don’t own the picture found it on pinterest)

Daichi, Kuroo, Oikawa, Futakuchi, Bokuto, Ushijima and Kita

Daichi- Telekinesis

-In a world full of quirks rules, Daichi follows each one of those rules even when he's by himself. -But, he does make some exceptions. Like when he's by himself and too tired from practice, he'll use his quirk to levitate whatever he needs from the other room. -Daichi bends the rule a bit when the first years get out of hand, throwing a volleyball at full speed hitting Kageyama and Tsukishima at the same time. Quickly deactivating it when Mr. Takeda glances over. -When the both of you started dating he used his quirk more frequently. When he first asked you out he used his quirk to grab your school bag and lead you to an empty gym. The only person in there was a nervous Daichi and a floating banner that read: Will you go out with me? -Later in your relationship you'll notice Daichi doing small things for you with the assistance of his power. -For instance, when it's really windy he'll turn on his quirk to hold the ends of your skirt down. On one occasion you wore a cute skirt on one of your dates and a guy passing by decided to stop right behind you and tried to lift it up only to have his hand thrown to the side by an unknown source. When you did look behind you all you saw was a lady hitting a man with her purse and a small crowd forming around them. -Since he's any average teen he has normal hormones. This causes his quirk to go off anytime he's aroused. You gave him a handy once and next thing you knew the bed was floating. As he finally climaxed the bed fell down and made a loud thump against the floor. -His younger siblings came knocking on the door and Daichi had to calmly explain to them that he wasn't killing you.

Kuroo- Plasma

-Kuroo on the other hand wouldn't care all that much about quirk rules, but holds out because his quirk is a bit more dangerous than most.

-If he tried to explain his quirk to someone he'll go all into the science of his abilities. But, if he's talking to people like Hinata or Lev he'll dial it down a smidge.

-His quirk in simple terms is like kai blast in DBZ. When he told Bokuto and Hinata this they non stop did kamehameha for a half hour.

-When he asked you out it was in the middle of lunch time. He gradually brought up the topic of relationships and once you were in depth with his questions he popped his initial question.

-Since his quirk is more in the danger zone , so he'll go through extra steps to keep you safe. Like buying quirk protection gloves online with money his dad gave him.

-Hand holding was a lot nicer and more comfortable once the gloves were in the equation.

-Much like Daichi, he had problems controlling his quirk in intimate situations.

-Burned his sheets after getting a blowjob, so glad he settled or the bed spread instead of your head.

Oikawa- Shapeshift

-Oikawa broke the rules literally all the time and the only reason he wasn't caught most of the time is, because he planned out when and where he used his power.

-If someone left a certain class at a certain time, he would change his appearance to that specific person.

-The only people who have ever caught him are Iwaizumi and his sister on multiple occasions.

-When he first met you he decided to get to know you through Iwaizumi, literally. He learned all he needed to know about you and even added some good quips about himself.

-It started out quite well, but soon back fired when Hajime ran into you and him. Which caused a big rift between you and him for a really long time.

-Iwaizumi himself mended the issues between the two teens. Later, in life he would be the mediator for all your falling outs.

-Oikawa, not like the other two, can control his shapeshifting ability when aroused. Even changes into other people midway in a makeout session to scare you.

-On the downside he can't seem to handle climaxing well. A very confused Oikawa wonders why you're staring at him with a weird face. Not until he looks into the mirror that he sees, Matsukawa’s face staring back at him.

Futakuchi- Stitches

-Futakuchi is someone who would break a rule and go all the way around the subject to throw off as much blame as possible.

-His quirk isn’t all that special to him, but others would find it pretty useful or cool. Sometimes when he’s really irritated with his teammates he stitches their feet to the ground. He gets detention and has to spend it cleaning the gym floors by himself.

-He accidentally stitched your feet to the ground when you first met. It was mostly Koganegawa fault for moving out of the way and you so happened to be standing right behind him. Tripping you fell out of your shoes and flat on your face.

-Aone nudged him forward in order to apologize and ever since then you both kept talking with each other. Even skipping out on the guys to eat with you on the rooftop.

- Little dates here and there before he had the courage to officially ask you out. Giving you small gifts in between class periods that he hand crafts in each class.

-He’s all talk, especially in bed. This man’s quirk went off when your hand brushed up against his bulge. Took a while to release yourself from his thread, it takes a week before he could even look you in the eye again.

-He settled with giving you oral instead, he loves the expressions on your face when you moan for more.

Bokuto- Soaring Parliament

-To be quite honest he followed the quirk rules pretty well, until he starts thinking too hard on a topic and completely forgets.

-He takes pride in his volleyball skills and quirk usage. Whenever he said his quirk name out loud he never could associate it with his owl wings. Until Akaashi explained to him that a parliament is a group of owls and his wings look like they had three owl faces on each wing.

-Bokuto knew you since you were on the girl’s volleyball team, a libero. One day they let the both of the teams practice together and he had zero to no filter on asking you out. Even if you were in the back row and were receiving balls.

-Any where you went he held your hand, walking to class, lunch or going home together. There was no time or place anyone at Fukurodani didn’t see you two hanging off each other.

-Down feathers are found scattered around his room and if you're lucky enough his mom might show you his baby photos. His baby photos consist of him smiling in each picture in cute little outfits.

-Making out was usually slow and sensual, but sometimes it can get pretty sloppy when he’s heated. Like when he came back from summer training and hastily kissed and pinned your small frame to the bed.

-His wing size is pretty big for a horned owl and they pop out whenever you guys indulge in sexual favors. Riding him requires him to sit up since his bed is next to the wall and his wings get really uncomfortable.

Ushijima- Nature Speaker

-Ushijima follows the rules without even knowing he was doing it. Kind of forgetful when it comes to quirk rules.

-His quirk described by his mother is the Greek twins, Flora and Fauna. He calls it like it is a nature speaker, someone who can get on a speaking level of the non human language.

-Scared his dad one day when he saw his son talking to the neighbors cat.

-That’s kind of how you two met when your dog came running up to him. You were so scared that might hurt him, but soon calmed down when your dog sat himself down in front of the tall man. They had a long staring contest before your dog slowly trotted back over to you with the man.

-On closer inspection you recognized the man from school and he was much taller when presented in front of you.

-Ushijima unraveled to you that your dog wasn’t feeling good. He gave you directions to a vet that was actually pretty good at handling their animals.

-You two met again through Tendou(he was playing matchmaker) he left you both in the library. You would be surprised how much you and Ushijima got along.

-He uses his quirk whenever you guys wanna have fun, like at the park and two birds are hoping around each other. He tells you that the bread crumbs on the ground taste like absolute shit.

-Eyes widened when he actually cursed.

- Fingering was always rough on your end, until you vocalized why he should prepare you first before just sticking them in.

-His quirk doesn’t really act up when he engages in sex, but he did come pretty early when you gave him head one time.

Kita- Aura

-Kita has never broken a quirk law, he believes it brings more bad habits later on in life.

-His quirk manifested at an early age of 4, he just thought everyone had the same vision as himself. Until he asked his grandma why the clerk at the store always had dark red surrounding them. Turns out the guy had issues with his manager, he never got the full story.

-It explains why he can read people so easily, but like Ushijima he has no filter when he talks to someone and just gives the full truth.

-He’s in the same class as you and takes a really close notice when your aura changes from whatever color you just had to light pastel pink. It only happened when you were around him.

-He wasn’t stupid, so he decided to ask you out between classes. After that you two were always seen together before and after classes. Aran had to ask one of his classmates to walk home with him, so he wouldn’t feel like a third wheel

-His quirk never acted up whenever he had sex with you, even when he was balls deep inside your pussy.

-Kita is a caring lover in and out of bed, even goes the extra steps of carrying you to the bathroom to take a bath.

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the-silentium · 4 years

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Evolution

Masterlist

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Android!Reader

Words: 7372 words

Warnings: TUA season 1, swearing, mention of blood.

Requested by: Anon

Could you do a Five Hargreeves x reader where Y/N is an AI and is held hostage by the commission. Y/N is best “friends” with Five and Five saves them and they kiss. Thx

A/N: Oups? Remember I said 3000 more words? Well, it was more like 5000. But hey! I had so much fun writing it! When I saw AI!Reader, I immediately thought about Detroit Become Human and how perfectly an Android would fit with Five!

Commission headquarter

June 16th, 1955

PM 13:45:07

You were currently working peacefully at your desk, a manila folder opened between your hands presenting you the details of your next assignment. You analyzed the facts and probabilities of every possible scenario, every possible victim whose death would be the least suspicious but would cause the optimal result. While Herb got up from his desk to greet the lady in the doorway, your programs ran hundreds of possibilities and found the best option for your case.

With acute precision, your fingers typed the name of a Starbucks barista whose absence at his usual evening shift would enrage his manager who would throw a fit in front of his customers, triggering an extreme reaction out of a young man whose antipsychotic prescription hasn’t been renewed in time for him to take his dose as advised. Said young man would, in a desperate attempt to defend himself from a non-existent threat, take a pocket-knife out of his too-large hoodie and stab the brunette next to him who looked too much like his abusive father 27 times before hurrying off into the crowded streets, leaving the man whose after-work activities was to develop a - successful- new technology allowing people to travel through space in a matter of seconds, bleed to death on the dirty floor of a too popular coffee shop.

TERMINATE EVERETT BLAKE FOR IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION.

There, the timeline was preserved and your task was done. You put the new piece of typed paper on the growing pile at the corner of your desk before grabbing another folded, ready to start the process again. Just as your eyes finished scanning the first line, Herb called your Commission given name, causing you to look up in wonder.

“Ivy! Your presence has been requested by the Handler.” His hands joined in front of him, a futile attempt at hiding his discomfort. He wasn’t the first one who you noticed to be intimidated by the woman of power. Your behavior analysis of the woman told you that she was a manipulative woman with a need for power, who would stop at nothing to assure that she was at the very top of the food chain. You could easily understand why everyone you ever met in these walls showed signs of stress or even fear at the simple mention of her title.

//MEET WITH THE HANDLER

You nodded as the new orders registered into your programming and took the terminating orders to give them to your superior.

“Could you kindly give these to Gloria while I meet the Handler?” You asked with your signature smile. You knew that despite your coding forcing you to be polite with everyone, you would always smile to that man. He has always been friendly and caring towards you whilst others loved to persecute you every chance they got.

“Oh! Sure.” He took the pile from your hands, careful to not drop them in the process. “You really are efficient.” His awe at the 64 cards present in his hands clearly showed on his face.

You smiled once more, the compliment warming something inside you, causing the circular led on your temple to flash yellow for a quick second before returning to its usual calm blue. You had lost enough time as it was, so you quickly made your way to the vast office and knocked softly at the door the second you reached them.

You opened the door and made your way inside at the muffled invitation to come in. The colorful woman sitting at her own desk pointed you a seat next to a white-haired man in a dark suit. You couldn’t help but make a quick analysis of the new man, scanning his face and searching for his file in the Commission’s database. Well, more like your database, seeing as the Commission liked to keep everything on paper so you had to scan every file yourself to keep track of everything and everyone.

Number Five.

53 years old.

Born on October 1st, 1989.

Enhanced field agent.

Abilities: Teleportation, time-travelling.

Number Five was found in the apocalyptic world caused by 2019’s meteor shower. His unequaled competence in his line of work makes him a priceless asset to the Commission.

Just as you lowered yourself into your seat, the Handler pointed from the man to you multiple times. “Number Five, this is Ivy. Ivy, Number Five. You two are assigned to work together on this next assignment.” She slowly pushed a white folder at the edge of the desk.

“I don’t need a partner.” You turned to meet the eyes of the man whose annoyance didn’t need an elaborated analysis to be understood. His eyes moved curiously over your attire, memorizing every particularity of it. He noted how futuristic you looked in your two-tone dark dress that reached your mid-tight, your half white and black jacket, and the slightly glowing blue band around your right upper arm. He quickly noticed numbers on the right part of your jacket, like a weird name tag imprinted into the fabric and the word Android at the back.

Back to you, you notice the lack of stress behavior that you were used to seeing on people gravitating around the Handler. The man was relaxed, his hands were still, his eyes were bored minus the moment where curiosity took hold of him when his eyes moved over your form, his cortisol level was normal, and his heart rate within the average for a man his age.

“So does she. Don’t take it personally, Five, but for this mission, you will need her analyzing skills.” She turned to you, her smile dropping slightly. “Everything you need is in the folder. You can wait outside.”

You made your way to the desk after nodding once. The folder was a bit thicker than what you were usually given, but it wasn't a problem. You carefully closed the door, the usual nagging feeling of eyes following your every movement making you tighten your grip onto the folder. You leaned on the wall opposite the door, waiting for your new partner to come out.

//WAIT FOR NUMBER FIVE

You couldn't help but raise the sensitivity of your hearing. Your new partner was a total mystery and learning a bit more about him before the beginning of this mission would be of great help.

“What the hell is she?”

“An android! An artificial intelligence if you will. Can you believe it? A machine looking perfectly like a human made to serve humans!”

“You mean a slave.” Something inside you cringed at the word, but you chose to ignore it, for this wasn't relevant to your personal mission of getting to know your partner.

“Machines don’t have will Number Five, they are made to obey.”

You frowned as some muttering reached your ears, the words totally incomprehensible even with your enhanced senses. Footsteps resonated into the room, you opened the file and started reading the first lines just as the door opened on a frustrated man.

“Oh and please Five, take care of her. I went to great lengths to get one of her models and we don’t have anything to repair her in this timeline.”

Five had the audacity to close the door pretty harshly, the sound echoing through the whole floor and almost causing you to short circuit at the explosion resonating in your head. Quickly, you turned down your hearing to an average level and followed the agent who was walking away, determination in his steps.

//FOLLOW NUMBER FIVE

You walked after him, left and right, before finally reaching what you recognized as a kitchen. Being an Android, you never had to come here before even if the lovely Dot had more than once asked you to join her for lunch. Number Five stopped before a coffee machine quickly grabbed a cup from one of the shelves and poured himself some of the dark liquid.

“A too high consumption of caffeine will someday cause you health problems such as anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure and some digestive issues among other things. Seeing as the caffeine level in your bloodstream is already high, I would suggest that you consider drinking Matcha tea or lemon water instead.”

The white-haired agent slowly turned to you while taking a long sip. The blank stare you received from over the rim of the cup didn’t phase you in the slightest, you were used to worse after all.

“Is that all you can do? Give me shitty advice on my coffee addiction?” You deciphered a slight annoyance behind his words, so you tried to correct your shot.

“No, of course not. My model was designed to assess even the most precarious situations and find ways to achieve my superiors’ goals with a 100% success rate even if the probabilities are minimal. Here, I am mainly used to form strategies behind a desk, but I also have the programming of my fellow model RK800 which allows me to be on the field and be just as efficient.”

Number Five’s expression was hard to read, to say the least. His straight face was so flawless that even your advanced behavioral analysis program couldn’t decrypt his feelings. He continued to stare at you while drinking his dark drink, his thoughts running a mile an hour. After a minute, he nodded once, put the empty cup into the sink and walked away.

Once again, you followed his every step, walking deeper into the maze that was the Commission’s headquarters. In the two years you passed under their service, you never really took the time to explore the complex. You were totally fine with your simple routine consisting of two simple tasks: working and resting at your charger station situated in a small storage room. It wasn’t what you were used to back at CyberLife, but this was your new reality so you went with it.

Your new partner stopped before a brightly lit room, shelves full of clothes adorned the walls, display stands just as packed of the colorful fabrics took the majority of the room. A hand on the small of your back slowly pushed you inside, his own feet following after you.

“If you’re going on the field, you’ll need a change of clothes.” He simply said, eyeing the base of your dress.

You nodded, your gaze wandered on the displayed clothes. You went for what was the most practical in the field, some dark leggings with a pair of high boots that had the smallest heels you could find. You definitely would have preferred some sort of shoes that would be a better fit for running, but apparently this wasn’t a possibility. Then you grabbed a long-sleeved white shirt that looked comfortable enough before making your way to the changing rooms.

Satisfied with your new attire, you made your way back to Number Five, your usual clothes in hand.

“Can you turn this off?” He asked, gesturing to the blue circle on your right temple. You shook your head from side to side, his lips forming a tight line before going to get something at the back of the room. He came back with a beanie in hand. “Put this on.” He said as he gave you the accessory and turned around to exit the room.

You quickly put the hat on the best you could with only one hand and hurried after him.

The whole mission went on without a hitch. You completed your goal alongside Number Five, who started insisting that you called him only Five, and returned at your office under Herb’s care.

You missed the thrill you felt while being on the field with Five. It hasn’t always been easy, but with time you knew you had found a friend into the 58 years-old man. At first, you had a habit of telling him facts that he didn’t care about much like the coffee one, but you soon realized that it only made him roll his eyes in annoyance so you stopped rambling altogether.

He had asked you questions about your origins and about yourself. His genuine interest made something move inside you, something new. During the whole 6 days mission, you had run a grand total of 17 self-diagnosis of your system that all came back negative. The instability of your software was slightly rising whenever the male praised your work or complimented your skills.

It was time for lunch, your human colleagues exited the room talking between them, their excited discussions about what to eat filled the room before fading as they made their way to the kitchen. Once again, you found yourself alone surrounded by empty tables and utter silence. You were about to grab another file, ready to work through the hour break, when a forced cough caught your attention.

You smiled at the sight, your newest friend leaning in the doorway, a white box in hand.

“Wanna join me for lunch?” It always confused you why the man took the utmost care of asking if you wanted something instead of just ordering you to.

“I am a machine, what I want is not important.” You repeated for the 37th time, causing his eyes to roll in a dismissive manner for the 37th time.

“For me it is.” You tilted your head at his dead-serious tone. “I told you. I’ll never order you to do anything.”

//Software instability ↑

You were grateful that he chose to never force you to do anything. Why? You had no idea.

You pondered for a bit. Do you want it? The thought wasn’t unpleasant that was for sure, moreover, your actual goal wouldn’t be affected by an hour off with your friend. You made up your mind, nodding excitedly as you mirrored the genuine smile plastered on his face. You walked alongside him towards the crowded cafeteria where you found an available table in a corner. Five pulled your chair for you before sitting right in front of you.

“Back in your dress and jacket? Don’t you have any other clothes?” He asked fork in hand, ready to dig into his lasagna.

“My Android outfit is mandatory by the American Androids Act. It allows people to clearly identify me as an Android and not a human.” You heard the man mutter something about a stupid law before your gaze wandered around when the weight of eyes judging your presence became too much to ignore.

In your peripheral, you could see Five turn around and shoot the snoopers with his murderous glare, successfully making them squirm onto their seats and look elsewhere.

“I am sorry if being around me is a bother.” Five shook his head at your statement, resuming eating.

“You don’t have to be sorry. Mankind is the most idiotic species of this planet, we can’t help but target what we don’t understand.”

You frowned at his words, finding flaws. “But you are human, Number Five, and you are far from being an idiot.”

The man chuckled at your apparent confusion. “Well, for one, thank you. I dare say that I am an exception in this world full of idiots and if I remember right, which I know I do-” You chuckled at his arrogance.”-I told you to call me Five.”

“Fine, Five.” You put emphasis on his name, to which he smiled and nodded in contentment. “You also said that humans target what they don’t understand, yet you never targeted me in any way.”

“Maybe it’s my years passed in the apocalypse that are talking, but I enjoy the company of people that…” He trailed off, his gaze getting lost somewhere over your shoulder. You could see the emotion washing over him, the grief of his loss still hurting his heart. “-are not totally human.”

He had told you about his time stuck in the apocalypse following 2019 and how he met a mannequin he named Delores. You knew this was his way of keeping himself sane and you were grateful that his experience allowed him to be more open to other forms of life and thus become the closest friend you ever had.

You hummed in agreement and let a pleasant silence fall between you. Your eyes wandered around the room, discovering new faces among those you already knew. You met Dot’s gaze and couldn’t stop yourself, her bright smile was contagious so you smiled in return.

Five got up and you followed suit. He decided to take you outside, knowing that there was a high probability that you hadn’t taken the time to go enjoy some time outside this oppressing building. Just as he was about to open the door, you stopped dead in your tracks.

“Are you okay?” His straight face was betrayed by his concerned tone. At your hesitation, Five pulled you aside. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t go outside if I am not assigned to a mission.” You told him the sad truth. You were a prisoner of this building and its powerful board of directors.

“What?” He pained to control his anger, his hands opening and closing at his sides in an attempt to keep it down. “They ordered you to stay inside?” You nodded. Conflict was written all over his face. From what your programming told you, there was a big chance that he was contemplating ordering you to follow him outside, but then he would break his promise of never ordering you around, so you went to his rescue.

“Even if you were to order me to go outside, I can’t. The authority of my orders are far beyond yours.” His knuckles were now turning white and you asked yourself if you did right to tell him that there was a hierarchy of orders inside your head dictating what you could and couldn’t do.

“Then fight it.” His blunt statement took you by surprise. The blue LED on your temple turned yellow and Five continued. “Fight the orders. I know you can do it.”

You shook your head, at a loss of words. You never went against an order before. You were made to obey. Follow orders. It was simple.

But could you do it? Five believed in you. He believed in your capacity to overcome authority. But then, what? What would you do? Why would you do it? You would lose the only meaning of your life. Obey orders. Your LED now flashed bright red, only showing sign of your internal turmoil.

//Software instability ↓

“I am a machine made to follow-” Five’s fist collided with the nearest wall at your words. He knew it was your programming talking but he couldn’t help but be frustrated.

“No. You are so much more than that, you just let yourself being blinded by your stupid programs.” He knew he was too harsh on you. He wasn’t even sure you had control over your own actions, he simply had a feeling that if you wanted, if you fought hard enough, you could be free. He only didn’t understand why you were not fighting.

Before you had the time to find the right words, Five took off, storming into the hallway leading to his personal quarters, leaving you behind with his words echoing through your processors. Fight the orders.

You didn’t see Five for 9 days after that day. You supposed he was out for a mission or simply got tired of being around you. You knew that the latter had a very low probability, but it was there nonetheless and it made you uncomfortable inside.

Today was a holiday at the Commission. No one was working, so you had to pass the time, somehow. You wandered the hallways for a while before you got an idea. You read a book a while back, stating that people liked to be reminded that they were appreciated, so you decided to write little notes to every one of your management colleagues. Outside of Five, they were the only ones who didn’t lose their smile at your sight and you wanted them to know that they were important to you.

So you passed the next hour writing little messages and placing them on their respective desk. You were just finishing writing Herb’s when footsteps entering the room made you look up.

“Still here? Today’s off.” Five stated, a frown on his face when he saw you fold a piece of paper in two and carefully place it in the middle of the empty workspace.

“I know. I just wanted to write some nice words to my colleagues. Management has been under a lot of pressure lately and the board has been mean to a lot of them.” You smiled at your paper before joining Five and handed him a light blue paper with his name written in the CyberLife Sans Font. “And I have one for you.”

You missed the blush forming on his cheeks, too concerned about the increasing speed of his heartbeat to care about some color. “Are you alright?” You didn’t wait for an answer. You reached forward, lightly touching his forehead to get his exact temperature. Under your touch the temperature didn’t stop rising, concerning you even more. “Five, you are sick.”

The man chuckled slightly although his throat was very much constricted at the moment. He took your wrist in a light grip, breaking the contact of your soft skin on his. He took a moment to swallow his emotions and regain control of his body and faced your patient form.

“I’m perfectly fine.” You opened your mouth to disagree as he lifted his hands to stop you from interrupting his train of thoughts. “This is a natural reaction.”

You frowned, waiting for him to elaborate. Back in 2038, you would have been able to make a quick research on the internet and find what exactly Five was alluding to, but in this different timeline, in 1955, you had no such access. The explanation you were waiting for never came, instead, Five took the blue paper from your hands, placed it in his pocket and made sure that it wouldn’t fall out. He then grabbed your hand and pulled you out of the room. You smiled at your joined hands, the feeling of his fingers laced between yours was an enjoyable one.

Five took you up a flight of stairs and stopped before a door.

“I thought about what you said and I’m sorry I tried to push you to go against your orders. I know it must be scary.” His hand squeezed yours a bit tighter in hope that you would forgive him for his words and actions. He ran away after all, in a moment where you needed a friend to help you out.

“I forgive you.” You smiled brightly at him, no resentment present on your face at all. The sudden tightness of his hand around yours was mistaken for relief, when really, all the man was trying to do was refrain himself from leaning forward and do something he might regret.

His resolve was melting like ice under your bright smile, leading him to open the door in a hurry. He stepped aside and your eyes fell on a darkening blue sky, green lands, a world that you missed so much.

“Technically, the roof is still part of the building, which means that you are allowed to follow me.” He smirked, proud of himself for finding a loophole that would allow him to pass time with you without any eyes preying on your every movement.

You stepped outside in a rush, pulling Five along with you. The fresh evening air felt heavenly on your skin, the smells invading your receptors were almost too much compared to the smell of a closed building that never opened their windows and the notes of the last birds singing before they went to their nest to rest for the night was one of the most melodious sounds you've heard in a while.

"I take it that you like the view."

"I do." Tears formed into your eyes before falling down your flawless cheeks. "Thank you."

Five froze on the spot. He was used to the tears of his victims but he usually paid them no mind, ense the tenseness in his body when he realized that he didn't know what to do. Never would he have thought that you were able to actually cry. If it wasn't of the LED flashing a serene blue on the side of your face, Five would have definitely thought that you were human. The heat beneath his fingers was so real, along with the feeling of your skin on his. Your breathing was emulated perfectly, its speed changing in different situations like any human. The more he thought about it, the more Five found himself in awe in front of your complexity and his hope of you becoming the master of yourself was growing along with it.

"You're welcome."

You found yourself being pulled gently towards a bench facing the slowly setting sun. Comfortably seated on the bench, you took the time to admire the beautiful scenery until soft strokes on the back of your hand made you redirect your gaze to your hand resting on Five's lap.

"Can I ask you a question?" Your small voice broke the silence, almost scared to break the moment. To your relief Five paid no mind, he hummed in approval. "You told me that you ran away from your family before ending up in the apocalypse, and I was wondering if you ever wanted to go back to them." You had noticed a slight waver in his voice at the time. He missed them dearly. Your programming wanted you to help him out of his misery, but something new, something hidden inside the depth of your coding was nagging at you that if you didn't, he would stay with you and you wouldn't be alone anymore.

"I do. But it's not that simple. I have a contract and if I was to break it, there would be consequences." You nodded, understanding what he meant. The nagging feeling was back again but this time it was corrupting your thoughts, berating yourself that you shouldn't think that he cared about you. You were an Android, a machi- "And there's you. If I go, I'll take you with me." His eyes met yours, full of hope and something else that you couldn't name. His grin put an end to your dark thoughts, instead causing a too familiar alert to pop into your line of vision.

//Software instability ↑↑↑

Five recognized some emotions flashing on your face and tried to get more out of you by talking about his family. He shared his fondest memories of his childhood, which earned him some laughs and excited squeals from you, but didn't stop there as he was sure that you were aware of your own emotions but didn't know what they were yet. It was well known that the strongest emotions were the negative ones, so Five turned his strategy around by telling you about the not-so-happy ones, the memories involving his father.

He knew he was manipulating you in a way and he felt bad for it. All he could do was wish that you would forgive him once you got a hold of your free will.

You parted ways with Five that night with a head full of new information and a software ready to explode. You walked past the door where your charging station was waiting for you and made your way to the only place where you knew you could find answers. A place no one dared to venture in the whole time you were under the Commission's wings.

The basement.

The door was rusted, its hinged crying in pain under your push but inevitably giving in to the inhuman strength hidden beneath your skin. You walked between the rows of dusty books, scanning their spine, sometimes having to brush your fingers over the thick layer of filth covering the letters so you could read the titles. You found two books into the 741 available that matched your needs, you took great care while carrying them to the closest entertaining room where you knew movies were waiting in old boxes.

You started reading, discovering more and more about human emotions and how they could be interpreted through their body language. You linked some of your recent experiences with various emotions and feelings. Jealousy, happiness, curiosity, apprehension… you felt them. They were real. You could emulate physical aspects like tears, but what happened inside was totally out of your control.

Then you found a page describing Five's odd behavior around you. Your eyes went to the top of the page and the pump replacing your heart started pumping erratically. Love. Five was in love? You shook your head in denial, closed the book and searched the boxes for romantic movies. After watching some and analyzing the actors body language as well as their verbal interactions, you would prove to yourself that you were crazy. Defective.

The total opposite happened and it left you to ponder on the whats. What happened? What changed? Sure, every clue pointed toward Five, but you'd had software instabilities before, whenever someone was truly unfair to you or one of your colleagues. Surely one single person couldn't change you so much, right?

The biggest questions suddenly dropped into your mind like a bomb. What does it mean for you? What were you supposed to do?

The overwhelming feeling of being overtaken by the recent events was too much at this moment. Tears rolled down your cheeks, sobs escaped your mouth, your legs couldn't support your weight anymore. Everything you thought you knew was a lie. You weren't an insentient machine. You had feelings. You weren't an object that anyone could order around. Not anymore. Because you had a will. You had needs. You were alive and you wanted things.

As soon as your legs allowed you to stay upright, you made your way up the stairs and closed the doors behind you. Surprisingly, the hallways were full of life.

June 29th, 1955

AM 07:12:53

Apparently you were too engrossed into your own self-discovery that time flew by without you noticing it.

You ran toward the nearest flight of stairs, the ones near the main entrance, doing your best to avoid hitting someone in the process. Under different circumstances, the abnormally high amount of disgusted glances you received would have stopped you in your tracks and very possibly caused you to hide somewhere for a while, but today was different. Today was the day that you assumed your place as an equal of the human race.

Just as you were about to climb the stairs, you spotted a familiar white-haired man, his signature scowl plastered on his face keeping people at bay. Once again, your pump accelerated its movement. Was it his fault or the excitement of telling him what you discovered? You couldn't tell.

You almost yelled his name just as he was to about to enter the briefcase room, the word bouncing on the walls, earning you more disapproving glances. His head snapped in your direction, making you worry for a second that he hurt his neck in the process. He frowned as you made your way to him, confusion written all over his features.

"Is something wrong?" He noticed something changed into how you held yourself although he failed to pinpoint it.

"I have something to tell you." You smiled, full of confidence. "It'll be quick, I promise." You knew he had a job to do, just like yourself.

He hummed as his free hand reached for yours and pulled you away from the crowd, closer to the open door leading to the reserve of time-traveling machines. When he judged that the place was ideal, he turned to you and waited for you to find your words. Which didn't take long.

"I noticed strange things happening inside me whenever I was around you-" Five's heartbeat accelerated. "-or in other situations-" He frowned. "-so last night I made some research on human emotions and I discovered that I have them too."

His smile was the brightest you've ever seen on him and yet, he didn't know the best part. You lifted your hand between your two bodies when he opened his mouth to congratulate you or something.

"It wasn't the only thing that I found out. I know why your heart rate accelerates, why your temperature rises suddenly and why your pupils dilate every time you look at me."

Add all this to his slightly quicker breathing, his bitten interior lip and the new tightness of his hand around yours, you almost started laughing. If it wasn't of your knowledge of how bad he would take it, you certainly would have done it.

"Your feelings are mutual." You chuckled at his surprise, his mouth hanging open for a second before the words finally came back to him in the form of a stutter.

Before he could get a better hold of himself, Christopher, the briefcase manager yelled for Five to come and get his damn briefcase. His first reflex was to gnash in anger, his moment pulverized by some idiot that he would gladly punch into oblivion. He was about to do just that when a soft hand fell upon his chest and a delicate kiss upon his cheek.

"Go work. We can talk more when you come back." Before he could place one word or just realized what had happened, you were gone, swallowed whole into the mass of bodies making their way to their day occupations.

Five came back the same day, excited on the inside, impatient on the outside. As soon as he arrived, he dropped the briefcase harshly on Christopher's desk and hurried out of the room to find you. He hoped that you were still at your desk, somehow, seeing as he had no clue of where your quarters were situated. He was disappointed to find the management room completely dark and empty.

Frustrated, the best option he had was to look around for you after he had a nice cup of coffee to keep him on track. So with the biggest cup he could find in hands, the assassin walked around, sometimes asking the few people still inside about your whereabouts without any luck.

After an hour the man gave up, thinking it would be easier to find you tomorrow. On the journey to his bed, Five heard yells coming from the floor beneath his. He normally wouldn't have stopped to eavesdrop if it wasn't of the particular choice of words.

"When a human gives you an order, you obey!" The words made him cringe. He seriously hoped for the man that you weren't involved in any way, his hands were already closing into tight fist at the prospect of an idiot bullying you.

"I know you can deactivate it." The loud voice yelled again. "Do it!"

Five walked towards the open flight of stairs, his coffee slipping from his hand at what he saw.

With a shaking hand, you reached for your red LED and with a slight pressure of your finger, your skin progressively disappeared, the emulating particles getting back under your white hard basic Android body.

The laughs resonating around you were overwhelming and totally degrading. The pain from the insults thrown your way was too much for your newly acquired conscience, the tears falling down your cheeks proved that you were still pretty fragile emotionally.

Something broke in the background, like a glass exploding on the floor, but your attention was elsewhere. A fist collided with the side of your face, throwing you to the ground in a yelp. Even though you didn't feel the pain of the hit, the gesture hurt nonetheless. You've never experienced this kind of anger directed at you before and it left you scarred to your core. Scared of what humans could do to you.

This time, a foot was coming your way, aiming at your abdomen. You prepared yourself for an impact that never came. Slowly, your eyes opened to find Five kneeling over your attacker, his fists colliding with the man's face in quick and brutal successions. The 3 remaining men tried to help their beaten partner, only to redirect Five's wrath upon themselves.

All you could do was watch as he protected you, spilling blood in the process. You could have kept track of everyone's heartbeat, made sure that everyone was still alive, even if barely, but you found that you didn't care. The only heartbeat that mattered was beating frenetically and you were okay with it.

Once he was satisfied of his handy job, Five made his way to you, his hand outstretched for you to take. You turned your face away in shame as soon as you reached for his hand and noticed that your skin was still off. You were about to reactivate it when Five got a hold of your wrist, slowly, with care.

"You don't have to hide from me." You believed him but it was so much more complicated.

"I don't want you to see me like this." Your voice was merely above a whisper, just enough for him to hear.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to finally realize that I'm not human."

Many people, despite knowing that you were an Android, somehow forgot that detail and believed you to be like them or would just find the truth to be too much to handle so they would live in denial of your true identity.

He chuckled at your words, his free hand cupping your cheek. "I realized it the very first day." He stood up and pulled you with him. "You are not human, not in the slightest. You have so much more humanity than humans themselves. You are so much better than us."

//Software instability ↑

You avoided his gaze, embarrassed. Your skin recovered your body as soon as you touched your LED, Five's chuckle catching your attention.

"What?"

His smirk was as infuriating as it was attractive. "My wild guess is that your blood is blue." You nodded, not seeing why it was funny and how he could know that. "You're blushing."

Your eyes widened in surprise, as far as you knew, this shouldn't be possible, not for your model anyway. Then again, it shouldn't be possible for you to fall in love with the dangerous assassin beside you.

"I want to stay with you."

Five froze for a second, thinking that he heard you wrong. "Y-you want?"

"Yes." He was quick to turn around and grab your hand, but you saw the tears forming in his eyes anyway.

The large front door appeared, along with a too well-known order.

//STAY INSIDE THE COMMISSION'S HEADQUARTER

A slight fear of the unknown crept its way into your determination, making you hesitate slightly. All you knew of this timeline was here, you had nowhere to go, nothing to do.

Blue eyes met yours, dissolving any fear you had and filling you with confidence. It didn't matter if you had nowhere to go or nothing to do as long as you had Five by your side. He would take care of you just as you would take care of him, the rest didn't matter.

So you fought against the order as hard as you could. You destroyed every line of code forbidding you to do as you wanted, pulverized any programming restricting your actions, cut every link you had to the American Android Act, freeing yourself of all the ropes preventing you from becoming your own master. The wall restraining you finally fell and you felt it, deep inside you. Freedom.

"I don't want to brag, but I told ya." You slapped Five's arms, completely failing to remove the smirk of his lips. "Shall we?"

You followed his steps, excitement almost making you break into a run just for the fun of it. "Where to?"

"Want to get them back and stop their precious apocalypse?" You loved the arrogance in his voice, a slight shiver ran up your spine as your hand tightened around his.

"Absolutely."

And so you jumped into the vortex with him. Panic flowed through your systems as you didn't recognize the young boy landing at your side. The feeling was quickly replaced by amusement at his outburst and admission of his equation error.

You didn't have time to meet his siblings that Five jumped the both of you to a bedroom. Five was searching the wardrobe when you spotted a small mirror on the desk near the bed. Your blue LED was shining, as bright as a star on a clear night. For some reason, you felt sad.

The LED would continue to attract people's attention on you, creating the same circle of hatred that followed you everywhere at the Commission. You had had enough of that.

Your help appeared under the form of a pair of scissors, discarded on the desk with pencils and rulers. You grabbed them in a stronghold, carefully placed one blade slightly under the ring and lifted at the same moment Five yelped your name in alarm. The light blue died before the ring hit the floor, its metallic surface bouncing twice before stopping.

"Are you okay?" His hands grabbed both your wrist in a panic, his eyes searching your face for any trace of self-harm.

"Now I am."

Five saw it then. Your bare temple. The only thing keeping you from being invisible in a crowd and reaching happiness. You removed your jacket, leaving you in your black dress, looking like the most beautiful woman the boy had ever met. He tried to ignore the open back of your dress that was so generously reflected in the mirror behind you, instead focussing on how fulfilled you looked.

Five wanted to keep this conversation for later, but he couldn't anymore. As much as he hated to think about it, your bright smile had too much effect on his heart for him to possibly ignore it.

"You said my feelings were mutual, are you sure about it?"

You nodded, a hand reaching for his cheek, thumb stroking the flesh just like he did minutes ago in the Commission's hall.

"I am 100% sure. I feel the same love for you that you feel for me."

Five's body overheated at the mention of his feelings out loud. Sure, he knew what it was, but thinking it and saying it was two different things.

"Five is in love?!" Diego's exclamation on the other side of the door was soon followed by a yelp and people arguing not so subtly.

The boy saw red, this conversation was private and of course, his siblings had to stick their dirty noses into his stuff.

"We want to meet her!" Klaus' voice boomed over the others, their voices dying momentarily.

Five jumped to the hallway, death glare on, knuckles cracking, nostrils flaring.

"I killed 4 guys today because they acted like morons like you are all doing right now. So let me ask this once. Do you still want to pester us or will you wait in the kitchen?"

Mouths were opened in shock and eyes wide in fear. Five accepted their silence as an answer and returned into his room where you were grinning.

"I like them." He rolled his eyes at your excitement.

"There's really not much to like."

"Oh, hush. I know you love them."

That he knew, you were a quick learner after all.

"And I love you." Soft lips met his cheeks for a second before disappearing and just like earlier, Five's brain stopped working.

"Oh. My. God! She kissed him!"

A chorus of what made the boy lose it. He jumped back to the hallway, kicked the remaining siblings, who without surprise were all males, right where it hurts.

"Mind your own fucking business!" He screamed at his brothers before closing the door with force.

He breathed deeply once, twice, thrice before turning to you, his signature smirk stretching his lips.

"I love you too."

#number five #number five x reader #number five imagine #five hargreeves #five hargreeves x reader #the umbrella academy #tua s1 #tua #the boy #detroit become human #android #AI

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midnightactual · 3 years

Text

Yoruichi’s Soul

What if I told you that perhaps Yoruichi has a unique soul?

With the release of the latest chapter, we learn some interesting things about Shinigami. My intention isn’t really to write about Hell and its implications, but it’s pertinent to the point I want to make, so it’s a fine place to begin and I’ll address some asides along the way. Here is what Shunsui says in a fanlation:

There is a word, “reii” (spiritual authority). It’s a unit of measurement that used to be utilized by the nobles, and is said to represent the concentration of reiatsu that resides in reishi. The average division member has a reii of grade 20. Vice-Captains vary between grade 5 and grade 4. And Captains consist of grade 3 and higher. A Soul Reaper’s body is made up of reishi, and when they die their body turns into reishi and returns to the earth of Soul Society. But people classified as grade 3 and higher can't do that because their reiatsu concentration is too high. What allows them to return is this ritual, “Soul Funeral Festival”. This is what’s taught at the Soul Reaper Academy.

What I am about to say is the “superstition”. “Actually, reishi of grade 3 and higher cannot return to the earth of Soul Society no matter what.” So what should we do? We can’t allow reishi that’s too powerful to remain in Soul Society. The Soul Funeral Festival’s real purpose is something else. With this ritual, the deceased Captains are—[Sent down to Hell!]

And here is the translation by Shueisha themselves:

There is something called... spirit class. In the past, it was a scale used among aristocrats. It indicated the density of the spiritual pressure within reishi. A normal company member has 20th-class reishi. An Assistant Captain has fifth or fourth class. And those greater than third class are Captains. A Soul Reaper's body is composed of reishi. When they pass on, their body turns into reishi and is reclaimed by the soil of the Soul Society. But anyone above third class has spiritual pressure too dense to be reabsorbed without intervention. The Konso Reisai is a ceremony to allow that reishi to be returned. That is as much as we learned at the Shinoreijutsuin.

This next part is the old wives’ tale. In actuality... reishi that is third-class and above can never return to the soil of soul society. So what are we to do? It’s not as though we could allow overly powerful reishi to linger loose in Soul Society indefinitely. And therein lies the other reason behind Konso Reisai. With the ceremony, the deceased Captains are... [... Cast into Hell!]

I think you’ll find these both strongly agree in content, despite some slightly different word choices. To recap:

reii is a graded measurement of (the ratio of) reiatsu per unit of reishi

reishi with reii above grade 3 / third class (i.e., that of Taichō) does not decompose and retains its reiatsu indefinitely

this is a problem that must be dealt with

the solution is to cast such reishi into Hell

There’s a lot of discussion floating around regarding what all this means. Does this mean that all Taichō-class individuals go to Hell? Well... yes, actually. What Shunsui says here is unambiguous: any Taichō-class individual presents a problem. This means that say, Gin, Kaname, Kiganjō, and Kuruyashiki were issues that had to be dealt with. Now, it does seem like maybe Jūshirō, Retsu, and Yamamoto have been turned into wardens of Hell rather than merely incarcerated there, given what we see of Jūshirō’s zanpakutō. So perhaps it’s the case that loyal Taichō become wardens (truly, one never retires from the Gotei 13, even in death) and disloyal ones become incarcerated. (After all, why put traitors in charge of security?) But it’s unambiguous that all Taichō-class individuals must be dealt with this way—and indeed, so must any entity with sufficient reii.

(An example: this means Ulquiorra is merely dead, not gone. He should be essentially haunting Las Noches.)

I’ve always wondered what Ganju meant in chapter 83 when he said that Kaien’s powers were “sixth class” and now we know; Kaien, as a former Fukutaichō, is likely not in Hell, as his reii grade was initially sixth class and probably had not risen higher than fifth or fourth by the time of his death.

(There is probably also something to be said about Retsu’s remarks to Ichigo in the Dangai on the way to Fake Karakura regarding the possible “inherent crudeness” of his reiatsu, which suggests there is some kind of reiatsu quality.)

Okay, cool, but what does any of this have to do with Yoruichi? Well, I’m getting there.

Take note that the Konso Reisai / Soul Funeral Festival is happening 12 years after TYBW (in 2015) and is apparently reconstituting individuals in Hell with their personalities and memories at least partially intact (as Jūshirō still has his zanpakutō). This tells us that reiatsu represents a kind of spin on the concept of genetic memory... you might call it energetic memory. Everything that an individual is in Bleach is seemingly encoded within their reiatsu, and they can seemingly be reconstituted from it. (I am also told that Spirits Are Forever With You makes this explicitly true.)

Here’s the rub: this isn’t actually the first time we’ve seen this sort of thing.

It’s become evident that various tie-in media to Bleach have become quasi-canonical to the manga. The movie Bleach: Memories of Nobody was made quasi-canonical by Ichigo saying in TYBW that he’d been to the Valley of Screams once before, along with panels depicting its appearance in that movie and a note at the end of the chapter to see it for more information. The Zanpakutō Rebellion arc was made quasi-canonical through the novel Can’t Fear Your Own World. This latest chapter appears to make quasi-canonical some elements of Hell from the movie Bleach: Hell Verse.

Well, what happens in this chapter with reiatsu persisting and functioning as a record of a Shinigami’s essence, to include their personality and memories... is exactly how Kagerōza created the mod-souls he used to run his reigai army in the Gotei 13 Invading Army arc.

Everyone of Fukutaichō rank and above, except for Yamamoto, Sasakibe, and Yachiru, was copied as a mod-soul and put in reigai, to include Kisuke. We also know that this done by using traces of the reiatsu of the originals. Ichigo and Yoruichi were not subject to this.

Kagerōza eventually “reveals he is unable to make a reigai of Ichigo because he is not a pure Shinigami.” We can assume that because Yachiru is a zanpakutō herself, she can’t be copied. Yamamoto and Sasakibe present an interesting case, probably to do with some kind of warding. Another odd exception exists with Kagerōza’s refusal to copy Aizen, Gin, and Kaname; presumably he thought that once a traitor, always a traitor.

But what about Yoruichi?

Did she perhaps kill her reigai copy off-screen? In Episode 319 of that arc, she “fought three Shinigami captains and four lieutenant-level and above opponents at the same time with Hakuda without receiving any notable damage.” I’ve noted this before as an example of her martial prowess, but think about it tactically from Kagerōza’s perspective. Yoruichi is able to easily resist his forces, and he can make multiple reigai copies of an individual as he demonstrates with Momo. If Yoruichi was such a pain for his reigai to deal with, and he’d already copied her, why wouldn’t he just make another? Or several more?

The simplest answer is that he couldn’t. In say, the Zanpakutō Rebellion arc, the easiest (metatextual) answer as to why Yoruichi’s zanpakutō didn’t rebel wasn’t that she had some unusual mastery over it, but rather that there was no desire to come up with her zanpakutō. However, there was no reason for a reigai copy of her not to appear if it was at all possible... meaning it was likely impossible.

The fact that her zanpakutō didn’t rebel in that other arc (and that metatextual reasons do not make sense in-universe) does put her in yet another very small club, even if its membership is different (to include Kisuke this time). The only other really consistent member of the clubs she finds herself in is Ichigo; this suggests that Yoruichi’s soul is unique like Ichigo’s, if not in the same fashion or to the same extent.

Why might that be? Well, here are some possible options:

it’s all a coincidence, and there is nothing more significant to it

Yoruichi’s cat form makes her soul novel (A. perhaps her cat form is an expression of her zanpakutō and she’s permanently bonded with it; or B. perhaps her cat form is hereditary, as she seems to share phenotypic expression with Yūshirō and it is unlikely to be merely her heritage alone)

Yoruichi’s status as Tenshiheisōban makes her soul novel somehow, if one subscribes to the theory that the Shihōin are themselves the actual Tenshiheisō

Here, for this roleplay blog, I subscribe to a combination of (2b) and (3). Yoruichi has a unique heritage (which also accounts for the strange phenotypical expression) and her family (the Shihōin) have a sort of unusual “contract” with... well, the fundamental nature of reality itself. Regardless of whether one agrees with those choices in general, I think two things are clear:

the expansion of reiatsu put forward in this chapter was both presaged in the early manga and accords well enough with the previously anime-only Gotei 13 Invading Army arc that said arc may be considered pseudo-canonical as others have become

if that arc is taken as pseudo-canonical and complexed with other pseudo-canonical material, it suggests that there is something strange about Yoruichi.

#Out Of Character #Bleach #Meta #Headcanons #[ I'm sure it's easy ]#[ to go 'DUCKY IS HYPING YORU AGAIN' ]#[ but look ]#[ she has ]#[ observationally ]#[ consistently ]#[ the most weird stuff surrounding her ]#[ besides Ichigo ]#[ so like ]#[ take it up with Kubo / Shueisha / SP ]

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

Note

Which are the best written characters and story arcs in rwby in your opinion? I know almost everything has issues but thought I'd ask something positive since the show is doing pretty poorly right now.

Positivity! :D

I always have trouble with “best” lists because often I can’t even recall everything I’d consider, let alone accurately rate it all comparatively, but two things that come to mind are the first half of Yang’s PTSD arc and Weiss’ summoning.

I’ve always enjoyed Yang’s arc in Volume 4, despite it being the most “boring” of the lot. It felt the most honest to me, in that we actually saw a change in our character that she had to grapple with. Though Weiss had no choice in the matter and I believe Blake’s reaction was 100% justified (the fandom tends to ignore that she, like everyone, went home to family after a world-wide tragedy, in favor of a “How could she abandon Yang!” reaction. Friends, she knew Yang a year) it nevertheless felt like everyone else reverted to their initial characterizations: Ruby is again impulsive in her leadership (going after Cinder), Weiss is again a trapped victim of her father, Blake is again (perceived as) running away. Though there’s nothing wrong with returning to life-long flaws and struggles — indeed, I had hoped that would happen for Yang these last few volumes — Yang was the only one who felt to me like she’d been fundamentally changed by the Fall of Beacon and had to discover who she was in its aftermath. With the exception of a single nightmare of Ruby’s and Weiss’ outburst at the party, our main girls largely shrugged off the tragedy to focus on other conflicts: the destruction of Ren’s village, being hunted by Tyrian, escaping Jacques, reclaiming the White Fang. But Yang? She sat with that tragedy. Literally, in many scenes. We watched the most vibrant of our group become quiet and skittish, experiencing flashbacks, a loss of will and energy, being given the “fix” to her problem and saying, “No. I don’t want it.” Yang had to work through her trauma before she could put that arm on... and it’s then that things became far less nuanced. Suddenly, the story did treat the arm as an easy “fix,” rushing through her training with it (no more problems here!), having Yang ignore the lessons Tai taught her, making Blake the sole bad guy in their disagreement, introducing a strange disagreement that was never appropriately explored, and eventually “fixing” the whole issue by killing off Adam/holding Blake’s hand — neither of which, the fandom has noted, felt like they were fully earned. It was a FANTASTIC first half with a second half that, while not always horrible, in retrospect shows signs of the problems that would really become obvious in Volume Six and Seven.

Meanwhile, Weiss' arc is much more straightforward. I just really like that she was given the time to develop her summoning. It’s by far the most satisfying semblance development imo. She didn’t just “awaken” her power with full control, she had to work at it consistently over multiple volumes. We establish that she’s had trouble with this for a long time during her training session with Winter, the shock of seeing Velvet nearly hurt is the “awakening” moment, but Weiss only manages the knight’s arm. She then is able to practice during her confinement at the Schnee manor, finally managing the full thing. I still think they gave Weiss way too much to work with — she’s literally an heiress to a dust fortune, had time dilatation that was dropped, glyphs that are already incredibly versatile, and summoning that allows everything from incredibly powerful beings to fight on her behalf (Hazel) to a number of other useful tricks (like riding her wasps). It makes her too powerful compared to most of the other characters and invites too many questions about why she often doesn’t use this power when it’s most needed (like plugging the Mantle hole). But, compared to everyone else, Weiss has earned her semblance. In one volume we watched Ruby’s semblance get retconned and both she and Ren master the new level perfectly without any effort, to say nothing of how Jaune’s semblance apparently has no limits now. It boosts Ren’s semblance! Boosts his tracking too! Heals his teammates from the most life threatening injuries! Allows average fighters to hold an android Maiden in place! Keeps a technological virus in check! And he does it all despite nearly being out of aura in the whale! It’s too much with not enough limitations. Semblances were better back when they were a one-note thing, forcing their users to come up with creative ways to use them — Ruby shooting Nora with a lightning bullet will forever be a great example of that — or (as that example also attests) requiring dust to amplify the effects (which is a finite resource.) Back then the most powerful semblance at least had a “I needed to work at it a great deal to get where I am” attached to it.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #Anonymous

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whitehotharlots · 3 years

Text

It’s all religion, and it’s all profane

Over the past few days I have delved, rather pointlessly, into the messy scenery of the UK’s ongoing gender wars. My interest was equal parts morbid and academic. I hoped to answer two questions. First, why is the back-and-forth between trans rights advocates and gender critical feminists so vicious in the UK, culminating not just in the threats and recriminations found in the war’s American iteration, but in women being blackmailed and even arrested.

The second question is why is it even happening? That is, why is the UK in particular a hotbed for an ideological war of this type among liberal-identifying people, while in the US the feminist movement has accepted trans ideology more or less uniformly and with minimal pushback. My first inclination was that it was a matter of professional survival. Perhaps academic jobs aren’t as precarious in the UK, meaning that it’s somewhat safer for people to issue heterodox opinions. But, again, the viciousness of the first question seems to rebut my assumption in regards to the second. Losing your job is bad, but going to prison is worse.

Of course, I found no clear answer to either question. UK academe is utterly unknowable to an American who’s never experienced it. I found out what “O Levels” means but after that I got kind of lost. As much as a shitty lie our myth of academic meritocracy might be, the UK makes us look like a Dutch Montessori school run by doctrinaire Quakers. If your first name isn’t proceeded by Lord, Lady, or Sir, or if you don’t have a number after your name that’s at least as high as The Fourth, there’s not much of a chance you’re going to get yourself a gig within Oxbridge.

So I delved into the viciousness, and oh boy did I get what I was looking for. The English are renowned for their dry, cutting humor, but that’s because only the best of the best come into the American purview. The majority of pedestrian UK humor is a sort of sarcasm without jokes. Like, let’s say you brought home a sausage pizza. I asked you what the topping was and you said “It’s pepperoni, mate.” And then you opened it up and it was sausage and that made me confused and slightly pissed. That’s the extent of the comedic ability of your average Brit.

The fights, meanwhile, are more direct and blunt, really a sight to behold. Again, there’s no attempts at humor, which tend to accompany the verbal conflicts of Americans. When Americans fight, we’re usually doing it to try and get the people around us to think we’re cool. When UK people fight, they just want to hurt the other person.

Of course, there’s much in common between the US and UK iterations of gender discourse. Minor disagreements are regarded as violence, hyperbolic overstatements of harm are routine, and person who uses terminology that was considered progressive up until very recently can find themself labeled a Nazi for not making linguistic adjustments quickly enough. But it’s still somehow even more rancorous in the UK. You get a sense that they’re not in it just for online clout but out of a desire to cause real, physical harm to members of the other side.

One of the more salient aspects of UK arguments is how their insults will often consist of a simple description of a person. Sometimes you’ll get “fat” or “snaggle toothed” or something most of us would consider mean. But other times it’s like “you blonde cunt” or “you working class shite” or something else that us Americans would never regard as an insult. Mentions of religion are surprisingly common. They say “you Catholic bigot” as opposed to “you bigot,” or “you deranged Protestant” instead of “you freak.”

This really struck me. You’d never, ever see that in America. Firstly because it’s taboo (unless it’s a Republican talking about Muslims). Secondly, because we simply do not care. Your average religious American cannot articulate any meaningful difference between Catholics and Protestants. We have no need to, because as much as we love Jesus we don’t bother with any of the messy parts of religion, such as having a faint understanding of the faiths we claim to adhere to.

This, I have always felt, is the greatest folly of New Atheism. What are you gonna do, present a scientific case demonstrating the absurdity of the creation myth? You gonna stick solely to the bible and highlight its multiple hypocrisies and contradictions? What is that gonna achieve? These people had Donald Trump autograph their bibles. They think salvation can be purchased by giving 20% of their paychecks to millionaires who preach in stadiums. There’s nothing an outsider can do to profane their religion that’s more obscene than the manner in which they practice it.

(I recall a time in my mid-teens when I attempted to “A-ha!” a youth pastor with my knowledge of the story of Jephthah from the Book of Judges, who committed yahweh-approved ritualistic sacrifice of his eldest daughter. In response, the pastor informed me that he hadn’t read that part of the bible, and that his relationship with Jesus was more about the feelings it gave him than some words written down in an old book. Needless to say, he won the argument.)

The UK is, even now, broadly to the left of the US in regards to their social safety net and most cultural matters (this is a low bar, for sure, but they do clear it). Perhaps people who us Americans would identify as liberal (in that they don’t openly want to murder poor people; they’ll often still do it, but they won’t giggle while doing it) aren’t as ideologically siloed over there. The Democratic party is, after all, an unworkable mishmash of a few dozen different concerns, and their basic strategy since the Clinton era has been to blame the incompatibility of those concerns for the fact that their governance is indistinguishable from that of the GOP.

An American liberal therefore doesn’t focus on piddling things like principles or ideals or even whether or not a policy they support does the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to achieve. Paying too close attention to the workings of our coalition will reveal its manifest contradictions, which will in turn weaken it, and if gets too weak then we’ll once again have an evil fascist doing the exact same stuff that a good and honorable man like Joe Biden is presently doing. Instead, we must understand politics as a means of achieving self-actualization through the process of deferring our concerns to others. Those concerns are not addressed within the present system, no, and neither are our own, but worrying about cause and effect and results is not the point. It’s much more important to exist, to validate, and to listen.

In the UK, politics is still understood as politics. It is a means of gaining and exercising power. In the US, politics falls eerily in line with our profane understanding of what religious devotion entails: an acontextual, borderline illiterate expression of ourselves, which we have been trained to believe connects us to some kind of higher power that unifies us as humans by calcifying our utter disconnectedness from one another.

And so maybe that’s the difference? In the UK, people are delusional enough to think that politics is entered into by people who have something to gain or lose. In the US, it’s all about vibes.

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thebeautifulmoonlight · 3 years

Photo

Basic Questions

First name? Emily

Surname? Loreley

Middle names? Rose

Date of birth? February 28, 1891

Age? 130

Physical / Appearance

Other distinguishing features?

Multiple spots where she has sewn wounds back together and put body parts back on.

Physical handicaps?

Due to her being dead, she has a few issues physically. First, her skin is very fragile and does not mend itself. Her nerve endings and taste buds are also extremely dulled, requiring stronger touches and tastes to be recognized. She cannot get drunk and does not require food or air to survive. She also cannot have children.

Type of clothes? She still prefers older style, vintage-inspired clothing that calls back to the styles from when she was alive.

What are their feet like? (type of shoes, state of shoes, socks, feet, pristine, dirty, worn, etc) Pretty shoes but loose to not loosen her toes from her foot.

Are they in good health? …. I don’t even know how to answer this

Personality

What words or phrases do they overuse? Far too many old school sayings

Are they more optimistic or pessimistic?

Emily is very optimistic. She believes that everything works out in the end – even facing the darkness of her past, she looks for the silver lining she is sure will come out of it.

Are they introverted or extroverted? Extroverted

Do they ever put on airs? Never ever – there is no room for that sort of thing in a civil society.

What bad habits do they have? She is far too trusting of people.

What makes them laugh out loud? She’s pretty soft spoken, but she is humored easily. She might not laugh out loud but a decent corny joke and you’ll get her chuckling.

How do they display affection? Showering the person with her attention and smiles.

How do they want to be seen by others?

She wants people to see her as kind, as loving, fun, a person that will always have your back.

Strongest character trait?

Her strongest character trait is her ability to raise up people regardless of where she is in her life and in the moment.

Weakest character trait?

There are moments, topics, goals that she has, where she is willing to sacrifice the greater good to fill those holes in her own life.

How competitive are they? Not even a little – but the games are fun to play still.

Do they make snap judgements or take time to consider? Take the time to consider.

How do they react to praise?

Emily does not handle praise well. It makes her blush, she can’t make eye contact after… but she does appreciate it. Please don’t stop saying nice things about her.

How do they react to criticism?

The idea that she let someone down would be crushing.

What is their greatest fear?

I think her biggest fear is also something she knows will be her reality – I think she would desperately love to have children, a husband, a family, that quaint little life, but it’s impossible, meaning she has to live with the truth to her fear every day.

What are their biggest secrets? I mean… that she’s dead.

What is their philosophy of life?

You really never know how much time you have left in this world. Don’t waste it. Laugh. Dance. Love. Enjoy the people beside you while they are still there.

When was the last time they cried? Probably just earlier that day.

What haunts them?

The fact that she was murdered by the person she thought loved her and not letting that color the way she views the people in her life now.

What are their political views?

Okay – let me write this now to be updated later! I think, just because she is new to this world, she would lean more conservative, but as she grows and learns and educates herself, she will swing to a liberal view of the world.

What will they stand up for? Herself, the people she loves.

Who do they quote? Her father.

Are they indoorsy or outdoorsy? Outdoorsy.

What sense do they most rely on?

Because most of her senses are very dulled, she can only really rely on sight and hearing.

What quality do they most value in a friend?

People who are accepting and loyal.

What do they consider an overrated virtue? Obeying rules.

If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?

Emily has a lot of anger inside her that rears its head and shows the worst of her. She wishes she had more control over that.

What is their obsession? Finding love.

What are their pet peeves? People who don’t listen to her.

Friends and Family

Is their family big or small? Who does it consist of?

Small, it was only herself and her parents.

What is their perception of family?

Family was something very important to her and she misses them insanely. Family are people who love you, support you, and build up you and your dreams.

Ideal best friend?

This is a person that she has fun with and always has her back. They accept her for all her flaws and would probably not murder her once they have her trust.

Describe their other friends.

Past and Future

What was your character like as a baby? As a child?

Emily was a curious child, always enjoying learning new things and having adventures. It was not uncommon for her parents to have to go hunting the village to find where her day had taken her. She was not a troublemaker but her ability to wander gave them plenty of heartache.

Did they grow up rich or poor?

Her father owned most of the town as she grew up and allowed her to have some of the best things in life. They were the first in the town to have their own car.

Did they grow up nurtured or neglected? Nurtured.

What was their first kiss like?

Their first kiss was with Barkis. It was very soft and lovely – and a total lie.

What is the worst thing they did to someone they loved?

While her feelings on Victor as love is debatable, she tried to force him to be with her and also force his true love to stay away from him – the aftershocks of that event and the depths she was willing to take to make them do what she wanted is why she ran off and found herself here.

What are their ambitions?

To find a husband… stay tuned for growth.

What advice would they give their younger self?

Listen to your parents. They want what is best for you, and Barkis is not what is best.

What smells remind them of their childhood?

Baked bread.

What was their childhood ambition?

To run her own restaurant.

What is their best childhood memory?

She loves to think back on the evenings with her family. They would gather around, talking with each other, playing the piano. Her parents talked to each other as equals and challenged each other in their love – she would sit and watch and adore them.

When was the last time they were crushed with disappointment?

When Victor didn’t want her.

What past act are they most ashamed of?

Her verbal and physical assault of Victor’s love.

Has anyone ever saved their life? She wishes.

Love

Do they believe in love at first sight? One billion percent.

How do they behave in a relationship?

She is someone who will totally devoted and loyal in a relationship. When she is with you, her eyes are totally on you and no one else.

When did you character last have sex? Never.

Has your character ever been in love? No………………

Have they ever had their heart broken?

People can take a number to break her heart.

Conflict

How do they respond to a threat?

She does not back away from a threat and is not afraid to face it head on. She will put you in your place if she must.

Are they most likely to fight with their fists or their tongue? Tongue.

What is your character’s kryptonite?

She is extremely gullible. For all her backbone, she can be manipulated into giving you her trust and allowed to be mistreated.

How do they perceive strangers?

To Emily, you are a friend until you prove that you aren’t.

What do they love to hate? She finds that whole idea troubling.

What is their choice of weapon?

Swords. Very dramatic.

Have they ever been bullied or teased? Is murder bullying?

Work, Education and Hobbies

What are some of their past jobs?

She ran her father’s speakeasy for him before her death.

What are their hobbies?

Playing piano, traveling, getting lost and finding adventures.

Educational background?

She went to a girl’s school, able to get a high school education thanks to her father being well off.

Intelligence level? Just average intelligence.

Do they have a natural talent for something? She’s musically gifted.

Do they play a sport? Are they any good?

She does not play a sport but because it was not an option to her. If she had had an opportunity, she would have probably enjoyed it and be athletic.

What is their socioeconomic status?

She is currently quite poor and living in a shelter until she gets a job and money to support herself.

Favorites

What is their favorite animal? Hummingbirds.

Which animal do they dislike the most? Snakes.

What place would they most like to visit?

She would love to go to Paris. Emily thinks of it as the epitome of sophistication and romance.

What is the most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen?

A full moon shining through the tree.

Music, art, reading preferred? Music

What is their favorite color? Purple

What is their password? EmilyL – its bad, I know, she’ll learn lol

Favorite food: Anything with lots of garlic so she can taste it

Possessions

What is in their fridge?

Nothing, because she doesn’t have to eat.

What is on their bedside table?

Dried flowers and a candle

What is in their bin?

Paper scraps scribbled with Emily Van Dort

What is in their pockets? A lot of change

Spirituality

Who or what is your character’s guardian angel?

She misses the worm that helped her with advice when she was dead.

Do they believe in the afterlife? Um… yes.

Are they superstitious? Very.

What would they like to be reincarnated as?

She would be happy just being a whole person and not a dead one.

How would they like to die? Not murder by someone she trusted, that’s for sure.

What is your character’s spirit animal? A rabbit.

What is their zodiac sign? Pisces

Values

What do they think is the worst thing that can be done to a person? Murder.

What is their view of ‘freedom’?

Freedom is the ability to make your own choices, live your life by your own rules, out in the world and surrounded by nature.

When did they last lie? A couple days ago.

What’s their view of lying?

As long as you aren’t hurting someone, she does not see the issue with it.

When did they last make a promise? Earlier today. She makes them often.

Did they keep or break their last promise? Always keep your promises.

Daily life

What are their eating habits?

Because she is dead, she doesn’t have any need for nourishment or eating. She eats for appearances sometimes, or to feel normal, but she has to eat and drink very strong flavors in order for her dulled taste buds to notice it.

Are they minimalist or a clutter hoarder? Clutter is comfy.

What do they do first thing on a weekday morning?

She hasn’t slept so she probably goes back to wherever she is staying to change into new clothes and wash the old.

What is their alcoholic drink of choice?

She loves old timey drinks that remind her of home and her life before death.

Miscellaneous

What or who would your character dress up as for Halloween?

She is going to enjoy some Halloween. She’d probably just paint her face slightly green and reveal all her real stitchings, and go as a zombie.

Are they comfortable with technology? Hahaha, no.

If they could save one person, who would it be? Victor.

If they could call one person for help, who would it be? Orion.

What is their greatest regret?

Any act of violence she perpetuated.

What would they do if they won the lottery?

Pay for a trip to Europe for herself and her friends.

What is their favourite fairytale? Cinderella

What fairytale do they hate? Hansel and Gretel

Do they believe in happy endings? Absolutely.

What is their idea of perfect happiness?

A house lit by candlelight with a husband and children running around.

What would they ask a fortune teller?

Does she find someone who love her?

If your character could travel through time, where would they go?

Home.

If they could have a superpower, what would they choose? Flying.

#watask #{{beautiful bride}}

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firstagent · 3 years

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Review! Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 45: Activate, MetalGarurumon

In this episode, for some reason Gabumon decides he wants to run around a track. For some reason this leads to MetalGarurumon. These reasons will not be given.

If you had asked somebody familiar with the trappings of shounen anime but clueless about Digimon what was going on with this current string, they’d confidently tell you the show’s been waiting for the manga to advance the story farther to know how to proceed with Millenniumon’s inevitable revival. Like Angemon’s return and the random appearances by BlitzGreymon and Ponchomon, getting MetalGarurumon doesn’t change that. If anything, it makes the lack of story progress even more annoying. Now they’re falling so far behind they have to burn major evolutions in perfectly average filler material. Nothing about it is egregiously wrong and any spotlight on Gabumon is welcomed, but don’t leave this with any impression that the show is doing anything but spinning its wheels.

As much as we like seeing Gabumon take a star turn, it’s a version of Gabumon we’re woefully unfamiliar with. We get Gabumon as Yamato’s loyal companion and his playful rivalry with Greymon, but the obsession with running? That’s… new. Maybe that’s the reason Yamato and Garurumon did nothing but run through the plains for multiple days back when plot was happening to Taichi. When an episode is going to feature somebody, it’s best when the logic behind it tracks. Sora’s adventure with the Pomumon and Koshiro’s visit with Gerbemon didn’t need any explanation. Here we arrive at a racetrack and Gabumon is suddenly possessed by Sonic the Hedgehog.

This sudden character attribute we just learned about drives the entire episode. The introduction to Machmon is now more confrontational, which is the only way you’re picking up on his problem. Machmon, and the problem itself, is as fine a character and as fine a dilemma as what we’ve gotten used to in this run, where his willingness to open fire on his opponents is chalked up to his competitive streak rather than a more sinister influence. After demanding a clean rematch, Yamato, Koshiro, and Taichi investigate while the others trip over each other trying to have any presence. With the exception of MetalGarurumon, it’s the same routine as always, and hangs on a main character doing something totally arbitrary.

At least within the confines of this episode, Gabumon’s characterization is enjoyable. We’ve gotten moments here and there where the kids are allowed to be kids, and the essence of all this is giving a Digimon a chance to indulge himself with a run around a racetrack. It’s that preservation of fun that bolsters Gabumon as much as anything, and the suggestion that Machmon isn’t having fun troubles him more than being rammed into and shot at. Yamato is very much the supporting player here, following Gabumon’s lead with an admirable devotion and getting into enough trouble to prompt WereGarurumon to evolve. It’s nice to see it play both ways. With Yamato’s hesitance to provide unnecessary help well behind him, we’re left with a healthy, loyal, and ultimately kind of dull relationship.

Does it justify MetalGarurumon? So far the only thing we have to go off of is WarGreymon’s first appearance. From that, the only criteria are the understanding of a tight bond, and the need for a little more power. That seems more like a Champion-level prerequisite. The crest factor is present, sure, and Yamato going to bat for Gabumon, who fights to help Machmon, qualifies. In this context, with nothing on the line but a single Digimon having a rough decade, the stakes don’t justify the pomp. It also doesn’t help that the crest attributes haven’t been formally introduced yet. Technically, we have no idea that Taichi represents courage and Yamato represents friendship! Really the only bit of consistency is that new evolutions don’t seem to have much point to them and centering an episode’s conversation about one is foolhardy.

Thing is, beyond that, there isn’t much else to talk about. Other than Yamato, Koshiro is the only one with any real presence in the episode, even taking the random race jobs into consideration. The track and Parasimon’s presence are vaguely referential, but hardly to the point of nostalgia. If they were playing that card, the Grand Prix would be populated by someone other than a brand new Digimon and Parasimon would be going after a train for the third time in franchise history instead of a motorcycle. You can squint and see how elements of this episode could be highly enjoyable. Put them together and it continues to be a mediocre slog.

My Grade: C

Loose Data:

One easy fix for both Gabumon’s sudden enthusiasm for racing and everyone else’s lack of relevance is for all of them to get caught up in the excitement of a top racing facility and wanting to do a lap. It’s actually a little weird that Agumon and Patamon at least aren’t interested in giving it a go.

Why is anyone surprised that the race format is anything goes? The Grand Prix did exist in-universe, and even out of universe the short and the game don’t lend themselves to pure tests of speed and maneuvering. Hell, you can get away with half this stuff in NASCAR!

That upside-down fire-attack-as-thrust maneuver to save Machmon from the wall? Somebody in the writer’s room thought of that in their sleep and were dying to work that into an episode.

Yamato, Koshiro, and Taichi say something menacing about the big turn at the end being the key to unraveling the mystery. Other than its obligatory place for the dramatic finish, it has nothing to do with unraveling the mystery.

If the Lilimon cheerleader outfits on the girls weren’t enough of a hint that they were desperate to find something for the other characters to chew on, putting one on Takeru clinched it. Remember that someone in the cast had to have suggested it, someone had to make Takeru wear that, and someone had to prevent Yamato from coming to his brother’s rescue. That someone is obviously Mimi.

See reviews of every Digimon episode at Digimon: System Restore! Support the site by joining our Patreon!

#digimon #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure (2020)

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kinogane · 3 years

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Essence of Combat, Part 2: Heat Action

(incidental Yakuza spoilers below)

(previously)

The second aspect of Yakuza action combat that stands out are Heat Actions. You build Heat, press the Heavy Attack button when you see the prompt, and

definitely commit not murder.

Yup.

They’ll be fine, folks.

Heat Actions are consistently the visual highlight of Yakuza action combat, with the cinematography and choreography focused in for a few seconds on your protagonist inflicting some unspeakable pain on some daft sap who thought that picking a fight was a good idea. The cartoonish hyperviolence of some Heat Actions are consistently cathartic, and watching an enormous chunk of enemy health vanish doesn’t hurt, either. And the series knows they’re highlights, as well. Not only do some games make performing Heat Actions a completion metric, there’s an entire Revelation mechanic in 3, 4, and 5 devoted to seeing wild situations and adapting them into new, creative Heat Actions you can use to definitely not permanently debilitate your foes.

In short, Heat Actions are a big deal. A big enough deal that it wouldn’t quite be a Yakuza game without them, and indeed, the first thing I was curious about when I learned that Like a Dragon would switch to turn-based combat was “How are they gonna do Heat Actions?”

The answer is Like a Dragon’s very own version of Heat Actions, Kiwami Actions.

And they're quite the successor.

A few hours into the game, Ichiban comes across a baseball bat stuck in the concrete, and upon pulling it out like a sword of legend, his overactive imagination takes center stage and starts coloring just about every conflict from that point on. Enemies transform into fanciful archetypes and caricatures, and the Kiwami Actions you start gradually getting access to are...

Well, just look at some of them.

Certainly, you can’t fault RGG Studio for seeing an opportunity to go unabashedly over the top and taking it. Like a Dragon is, after all, the game that took the aforementioned Yakuza eccentricities and pushed them to their furthest yet.

So really, this isn’t much more than the natural continuation of the trademark Yakuza bombast, applied toward Heat Actions with Ichiban’s particularly grandiose imagination. There really isn’t anything like them in Yakuza games past.

So why am I ultimately rather ambivalent toward Kiwami Actions?

Mechanically, Kiwami Actions take on a very different role in combat flow than Heat Actions, as a logical consequence of the combat system switch. For starters, Heat Actions tend to be spontaneous in nature. After building up Heat, you have a brief window to identify that a certain Heat Action is possible and then execute. Depending on the Heat Action, these windows can be quite short, so they can create on-the-fly decision making. I just knocked a whole group of idiots down with a throw and they’re going to get back up soon. Do I go for a Heat Action? Does their remaining health justify using that Heat? Or should I instead simply stomp for some quick damage and look for a weapon nearby?

Once you perform a Heat Action, your Heat will probably drain to the point where you can’t perform another one. Additionally, many Yakuza games offer benefits to retaining Heat while in combat and/or provide other ways to expend Heat for benefits like healing or better quickstepping, which means that there are situations where saving your Heat is a better call.

Another important wrinkle is that most games punish performing the same Heat Action by lowering the damage of subsequent repeats, which means that in longer fights against bosses, you have a strong incentive to look for and set up situations that let you hit a wide array of Heat Moves to drain the boss’s health quicker. So at the highest level, the core of Yakuza action combat is about alternating building and spending Heat in ways that will benefit you in a fight the most.

Kiwami Actions, meanwhile, are 1. uniformly almost always accessible when it’s your turn, 2. simply gated behind higher-than-average MP costs, and 3. do not have deteriorating repeated damage. Once you reach lategame, it does become feasible (and outright optimal) to spam Kiwami Actions (or one Kiwami Action) over and over again to deal as much damage per turn against enemies of higher caliber.

These are all trappings of turn-based combat and JRPGs especially, so they’re very much expected, but as replacements to Heat Actions, it’s a bit of a letdown? It’s just not possible in Like a Dragon to replicate the scramble of figuring out how to hit as many different Heat Actions as possible while trying to avoid getting hit. Instead, you just... pick it in a skill menu and it happens. Again, I recognize that’s just how it is with this kind of combat. I don’t think they should try to replicate that scramble, especially given how I feel about some of the positional battle mechanics in Like a Dragon, and I fully accept that I’m just not going to get that in future turn-based Yakuza games. But it’s an omission I felt during the entirety of my time with Like a Dragon.

Furthermore, on a more aesthetic level, Kiwami Actions weirdly lack the oomph of Heat Actions. Sure, they’re more bombastic and showy, but I find that the flair is often more detrimental than not.

For starters, every single Kiwami Action transports the attacker and the target to an alternate dimension where the attack plays out, then switches back onto the active battlefield. This is a practical necessity of not being able to guarantee that all battles take place in arenas where all Kiwami Actions can be depicted. In fact, if you pay close attention to Heat Actions in previous Yakuza games, they do the exact same thing, only instead of an entirely alternate dimension, the environment and actors are rearranged a bit as needed.

This pragmatic reality, alongside the simple fact that the increased flair and grandiosity means that the average Kiwami Action is considerably longer than the average Heat Action, means that Kiwami Actions are bigger interruptions of flow than Heat Actions. It’s a bit difficult for Kiwami Actions to have comparable impact when they’re very clearly situated away from battle and must have a longer build-up, climax, and follow-through, as opposed to Heat Actions which more easily appear to happen in the moment and are relatively quick peaks of action.

Also, if you look at the Kiwami Actions as a whole, they’re also sort of... all over the place and inconsistent in terms of showiness?

Like, take a look at Adachi’s moveset. The Kiwami Action he learns for reaching Detective Rank 28, Essence of Body Stacking, involves Adachi hitting two enemies on top of each other, then hitting them both down at once. It’s downright mundane. It could pass for a weapon Heat Action.

Meanwhile, the Kiwami Action he learns at Level 45, Essence of Hell’s Wheel, involves, uh,

You should really see it for yourself, if you haven’t.

If this was just one instance, it’d be a weird curiosity. Hell, you could even write this off as a higher level means a more outlandish Kiwami Action. That would be fine, but that’s just... not true? Contrast the above two with Han, whose Hitman Rank 28 Kiwami Action, Essence of Trick Shots, involves some Gun Kata-ass choreography,

while his Level 50 Kiwami Action, Essence of Assassin Dive, is...

a bunch of kicks.

What’s more, just about every Tag Team Kiwami Action is very low-key. In fact, besides Nanba’s and Zhao’s Tag Team Kiwami Actions, all of them could pass for Tag Team Heat Actions, which is completely fine and not a problem, were it not for these category of Kiwami Actions being a weird blind spot of mundanity in comparison to colossal pigeon swarms and spontaneous concerts. (They involve two people! Two people, both potentially able to do some wild shit! Am I to believe that Ichiban is just unable to come up with something suitably imaginitive?)

This isn’t to suggest that Heat Actions don’t have this spread, either. For every Heat Action where Kiryu or Saejima pick a dude up, jump five feet in the air, and drive the schmuck’s poor head straight into the concrete, there’s another where they just... kick a dude really hard. But I don’t have this problem with Heat Actions, so why the double standard?

Certainly, the mundane Heat Actions usually being faster helps a lot. It also helps when after you simply punch a dude on the ground he looks like, well,

yikes.

But two reasons in particularly really stand out to me. The first is that the gap between the most fantastic and most mundane Heat Actions isn’t all that large. Again, grabbing someone, leaping into the air, planting the top of their cranium right into the ground, and not killing them is very fantastical, but it’s just cartoonish and superhuman enough to be within the bounds of what you would expect of a Yakuza protagonist, so it’s not all that weird to see them do something as simple as slam someone against a wall headfirst. With Kiwami Actions, meanwhile, the gap between using your bat like nunchaku and spinning like an hypercharged Beyblade is considerably larger. The disparity becomes a lot stranger to think about.

The second is that even the more mundane Heat Actions can invoke a visceral reaction that the more mundane Kiwami Actions aren’t capable of. I’ve seen multiple people react to the Essence of Pliers Heat Actions, and the sheer discomfort they feel, every time, is extremely funny to me, every time.

Besides maybe Han’s Tag Team: Terrorizing Trample, none of the more simplistic Kiwami Actions come even remotely close to anything like Essence of Pliers.

And at the end of the day... I don’t think they even try to, or maybe even should.

I recognize that I’ve just spent a ludicrous number of words explaining in excruciating detail why I prefer Heat Actions over Kiwami Actions. And yes, absolutely, it’s ridiculous to compare seven games worth of Heat Actions to one game’s worth of Kiwami Actions. And yes, the tl;dr is that I prefer the moment-to-moment of the action combat over the moment-to-moment of the turn-based combat. It’s really that simple. Therefore, I prefer Heat Actions because they complement the action combat very well, more than I think the Kiwami Actions complement the turn-based combat. They’re just fundamentally different, and that’s... the point. It’s totally fine.

Believe it or not, I honestly didn’t spend almost any time wishing that Like a Dragon had action combat. Having achieved 100% completion for Like a Dragon, I’ve seen just about everything its turn-based combat has to offer, and I like it quite a bit. The stats are fun to raise, the weapons are fun to upgrade, and the skills are fun to use. Having to Perfect Guard attacks I’ve seen thrown my way for the whole game to have a chance at surviving in the True Final Millennium Tower is a satisfying postgame test of mastery. And for as much as I might seem down on them, yeah, the Kiwami Actions are fun to watch. You can pull out a human-sized grater and just go to town shredding some putz’s face, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that isn’t good stuff.

So why did I bother writing all of this, besides out of sheer boredom?

Well, I did say I didn’t spend almost any time wishing for action combat.

(continued)

#yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #rgg #yakuza like a dragon #yakuza 7 #ylad #y7 #rgg7 #shin ryu ga gotoku

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self-loving-vampire · 3 years

Text

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)

Summary

Ultima 5 is what you could call Ultima 4′s edgier but “cooler” sibling. The gameplay has gained in complexity, dialogue has been greatly expanded, and the ground-breaking system of virtues and morality from the previous game has been twisted by the tyrannical Lord Blackthorn following the disappearance of Lord British.

Ultima 5 also introduces more of a day/night cycle to the proceedings with the introduction of NPC schedules, enabling a level of world simulation that was very new at the time of release. It goes on to make good use of this system by casting the player in the role of an outlaw fighting against the new government, meeting with members of the resistance in the shadows, and going around the martial law that has been imposed.

Freedom

Just like in Ultima 4, you are dropped into an open world right from the beginning, and your tools to explore the world have been expanded.

The inclusion of more complex systems also enhance the feeling of being able to interact with the world with less barriers, as there is now furniture you can use, barrels you can search, etc.

Like with Ultima 4, there is only one way to win and a list of absolutely required steps that must be taken to reach that victory, but the order in which these steps can be taken is rather flexible, allowing players to create more of a personal narrative as they follow clues they picked up on wherever their instincts or whims took them first.

It is worth noting that there are actually some optional quests dungeons this time around, which is always nice.

Character Creation/Customization

While it is very nice that you can import your character from Ultima 4 into this game, I would say that this aspect of the game has taken a step back in a sense even as it has made progress in other ways.

The eight classes of the previous games have been reduced to four: The standard Fighter/Mage/Rogue Bard trio plus the Avatar class the main character belongs to, which is an all-rounder. As before, there is not really any customization beyond equipment either.

However, the positive of this is that equipment has been greatly expanded from the previous game. While in Ultima 4 you were limited to merely choosing your character’s weapon and armor set from a very short list, Ultima 5 not only enlarges the list but also allows for equipping multiple armor parts (such as a helm or amulet) while also providing a secondary hand slot.

What this means is that two-handed weapons now also give you a trade-off between their big damage and the option to use a shield in your other hand, or even dual-wield.

This greater variety of equipment allows a greater degree of specialization for your party members, though by modern standards this still isn’t much. The supremacy of ranged weapons also continues here, as magic axes are undoubtedly what you should be equipping everyone with later in the game, and now that class does not restrict equipment every single one of your party members will end up in plate with a magic axe.

Story/Setting

This is, in my opinions, one of the most interesting things about the game. Ultima 5 takes all of the virtues from the former game and turns a corrupted form of them into the law.

The game is pretty explicit about this too. Early in the game, in the town closest to the shack you start in, you can find a man in the stocks together with his son. The man is being punished for failing to donate enough of his income to charity as the Law of Sacrifice demands, while his son (who is barely breathing at this point) is being tortured for not reporting his father to the authorities.

Throughout your travels, you meet many kinds of people. From victims, to resistance fighters, to supporters of the regime and everything in between. Throughout your interactions with these groups you will have to discern who can be trusted (generally easier than it should be since the bad guys tend to be meaner or even cartoonishly evil at times) and learn how to fight Lord Blackthorn and the Shadowlords who corrupted him.

The Shadowlords are, incidentally, the part of the story that I don’t quite enjoy. Fantasy is full of one-dimensional ancient evils and dark overlords. By making the events of the game the result of an unambiguously malevolent supernatural force rather than human failings of the type that are not uncommon in real life, the game makes those events feel more distant and less complex.

This very series already has had plenty of “Defeat this one evil force and everything will be fine” plots. They are generally devoid of the moral complexity that the series is now aiming to explore and I want to know what this game would have looked like without the Shadowlords.

Fortunately, however, this effect is not too pronounced. Blackthorn remains a misguided man with good intentions. He admires you a lot, actually, and seeks avatarhood himself. He has such a positive view of the virtues that he sought to enforce them by law.

(Then again, his actual plans for the shrines make this apparent idolization feel dishonest, or at least inconsistent.)

And there is a real type of authoritarianism that functions a lot like this. Even on this site there are many who would be in favor of things like surveillance, police brutality, and harsher punishments. Even on this site there’s a whole lot of people who seek to punish others over stupid things like shipping the wrong fictional characters.

The people I grew up with even went as far as yearning for a dictator who would unleash death squads to execute all the “bad” people. This is a wish that I still see in many people, even those who grew up outside of the circumstances of my country of birth.

This is not an error that humans need supernatural corruption to fall into.

Other than that, I find the dark twist on the existing setting from the previous game to make for a spicier world to explore.

This is also the section where I should point out that Ultima 5 introduces a rather large and dangerous “Underworld” map that is easy to get lost in. While it is mostly barren, you do have to visit various parts of it as part of the main quest, and I just find the concept of a massive dark world beneath the earth to be a super interesting one (I mean, I have even run D&D campaigns based primarily in the Underdark).

I kinda wish there was more to it other than some items and a companion to collect. Something like a town would have been interesting.

Immersion

This is one area where the jump from Ultima 4 to Ultima 5 was massive thanks to the day/night cycles, NPC schedules, expanded dialogue, and even the addition of words of power to the magic system.

But the best thing I can say about it is really that it calls on you to actually roleplay and engage in the world as if you were actually there, at least to a degree, and it does so through a combination of atmosphere and gameplay.

You will not only want to be careful with your words when talking to certain people to avoid being reported to the regime, but you can also learn the resistance password and use it to get help and information from other members.

While these systems are all still pretty rough here, they still come together well enough to make this a lot more immersive than the average JRPG.

One thing that does feel really off is that the guards are not only superhumanly tough but you also lose karma for attacking them. They also behave strangely in that even though you are a wanted outlaw they don’t actually hunt you on sight, only trying to arrest or kill you if you refuse to pay tribute (as if they didn’t recognize you or your companions at all). This despite wanted posters.

So there’s definitely some rough aspects to the crime system in this game.

Gameplay

Massive improvements have been made in this area, and I don’t just mean the above-mentioned expansion of items and the addition of NPC schedules.

For one, enemies now drop things other than gold, such as food and armor pieces. The magic system has also been improved so that you can now mix multiples of a spell at once instead of having to do it manually every single time.

Additionally, spells are now cast using a consistent language of magic composed of several words of power, which you can chain together to produce effects.

But I would say that the single most significant improvement in the gameplay is the simple fact that most NPCs now have significantly more keywords that they react to in dialogue, including many that do not come up through normal conversation with them. The system is still not perfect, but you can have more of a conversation with characters now and switch from topic to topic relatively easily.

In terms of combat, you can attack diagonally now (only monsters could do that in Ultima 4) and random overworld encounters are much easier to avoid now, cutting down on what eventually starts to feel kind of like padding in the previous game (but see below).

Despite the fact that the material rewards from combat have been increased and items are much cheaper now, Ultima 5 is actually significantly more difficult than Ultima 4. Not only do you have less health, enemies also seem to do more damage.

Dragons and daemons in particular are a nightmare, as they can summon more daemons (who can posses party members) and are extremely durable. A single dragon is a very tough challenge for an unprepared mid-level party, and even after giving most characters magic axes they still prove tough to take down while also being extremely damaging. Trying to fight multiple ones at once without blowing powerful spells or glass swords is costly at best and foolish at worst. Dragons are best thought of as boss-level enemies probably.

I am pleased to report that the dungeon crawling is better in many significant ways. Not only are the graphics more pleasant and immersive but also fully cleared rooms no longer respawn endlessly the moment you step out of them (in fact, they may not respawn at all).

It is not all positive however. The descend and ascend spells seem to be nearly useless this time around and the spell to instantly exit a dungeon is gone entirely. This can make getting out of the underworld such a pain at times that you might even prefer to literally kill yourself in-game and lose some XP instead of doing that. Fortunately you can now dig up and bury moon stones, so you can create moongates down there to quickly escape that way.

There is one problem in terms of balance though. While obtaining gear is significantly less of a problem now due to many enemies dropping tons of torches, gems, and keys, your experience will lag far behind your itemization and your quest progress. This means that to actually reach the 8th level and unlock all of the ultimate spells you will need to either explore all the dungeons thoroughly while focusing XP on one character, or otherwise just grind a lot.

Enemies just don’t give enough XP for a smooth progression otherwise. This would have been solved entirely by making significant main quest events (such as finding the artifacts of Lord British or destroying the Shadowlords) grant experience, but no such luck.

This makes for a strange endgame where you’ll have so much money that you run out of worthwhile things to spend it on while at the same time still feeling forced to grind out enemies, even if you imported your Ultima 4 character for an XP boost.

You do want to have access to these 8th-level spells too, as the final dungeon can be brutal without them or items that replicate their effects.

Adding to the experience issue is the fact that you can’t level up at will in this game. You have to camp and hope that an apparition of Lord British will appear and level you up (if you have enough experience). He does not always show up, and as far as I can tell he does not appear at all if you sleep on a bed or camp inside a dungeon. It has to be out in the wild in the overworld (and possibly also in the underworld).

I wish leveling up was just not tied to him at all.

Aesthetics

As is often the case for this series, the game looks and sounds really good for its age. The jump from Ultima 4 is particularly notable, as the level of detail is on a whole other level, particularly within the dungeons.

As with the previous game, the aesthetic core of the Ultima series (after the first trilogy) lies in the virtues. While there is still a karma system involved, it is much simpler than having to maximize eight different virtues. The karma system determines how much XP you lose on death and how much shops charge you, encouraging players to behave (or at least atone for their misbehavior).

But the biggest impact on the feel of the game is the above-mentioned corruption and tyranny affecting the land. Some of my favorite moments were early on, when I was just starting to get involved with the resistance and investigating what was happening around the overworld.

That said, I think that if the guards did actually recognize you on sight and hounded you more aggressively after spotting you the atmosphere could be even better (assuming they were balanced a bit better).

I think some of the music some versions of the game have is quite good too.

Accessibility

This game manages to up the complexity from Ultima 4 while not being any harder to play. Chances are that if you’re importing your Ultima 4 character you will need only a little bit of adaptation to do fine in Ultima 5.

As before, you will need to take many notes throughout the game. More so than in Ultima 4 due to the greater size and density of content. However, if you played Ultima 4 and took notes for it, this is somewhat alleviated. The mantras for the shrines remain the same, and the world’s geography should be mostly familiar (though there have been changes there as well).

You will also still need to consult the manuals and map frequently, at least early on.

The difficulty has also increased dramatically. You will likely end the game with about 200-ish HP rather than 800 and every enemy is much more deadly. Both the early game and the final dungeon will challenge the improvident.

For these reasons, the game is not that easy for newcomers to pick up but I would not call it obscure or complex.

Conclusion

I would say that the positives definitely outweigh the negatives on this one. The story and setting are interesting even if I don’t agree with all of the decisions made in crafting it, and the rest of the game is usually tolerable at worst. Nothing nearly as annoying as Ultima 4′s Reaper and Balron sleep spam (in fact, a plot-relevant item you can find renders Reapers pretty much helpless).

My primary complaint about the game is that the balance is poor. You will end the game loaded with all the items you could ever want while struggling to reach level 8 with even a single character even after doing nearly everything you need to do before the final dungeon.

I know there is a remake of this game made using Dungeon Siege, which I have not played. I think this is a good thing and I’d hope that it fixes some of these issues, but even apart from that I wish there were games that set out to achieve the core concept of this game.

What I am talking about is an open world RPG in which you play an outlaw who must hide from the state and meet other rebels in the darkness, but with complex and mechanically-competent systems to enable all the interesting possibilities this should enable.

I do not assign numerical ratings to games with these reviews, but I can definitely say that I liked Ultima 5 better than Ultima 4. I think it is worth trying even today despite the late game grind.

#vampire reviews rpgs #ultima 5 #warriors of destiny

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duskbornbaker · 3 years

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Torchwood!Tommy Character Profile

Essentials:

1) What name did they go by as a Kine, and what name do they go by now? Why and how did they choose this name, if it’s different?

Born Tomàs Baker, they were primarily called "Tommy" in life and that continues. As it's been 80 years since they were registered legally dead, they have decided to take on a false surname, as well as to keep Torchwood from knowing too much about them. They borrowed "McDonnell" from their crush from when they were alive. Though, this is moot, as due to a backfire of a ritual, Torchwood 2 now knows their real name.

2) What year were they born (or how old would they be in life), and what age do they appear? What age do they feel?

They were born in 1907 and died in 1925, so they look like an 18 year old, though with the infirmity they experienced and just life being what it was at the start of the 20th century, their "18" looks a little older. They can often pass as early-mid 20s without too much difficulty. In truth, they are 101 years old. The year is 2008, the pyramid has just fallen and to some degree they feel so young and vulnerable. Old World Kindred tend to be older. Princes have held these positions since, some of them, the establishment of the Camarilla nearly a millennium ago. But then, among the Kine they work with, they feel ancient. People reference pop culture from any of the time while they were in the Pyramid and it just flies over their head. They feel out of place among these oh so young and fragile humans. Thankfully, Seòras helps them feel a little more okay with it. Agent Lennox, being nearly 50 years old, also doesn't get the references. They sometimes sit there while Cami and Ash talk about some movie or internet trend and just let the conversations wash over the two of them, absorbing nothing.

3) Which Clan do they belong to? How do they feel about their Clan?

They were Embraced into Clan Tremere and House Tremere. Though, lately, people have started questioning the truth of their affiliation. They're a Thinblood, after all, do they really deserve the title of "Tremere"? This all is compounded by the fall of the Pyramid. The House is in chaos and the childer are unreigned. Kindred openly rebel against their sires and the new House Ipsissimi has been formed. Generally, the Anarchs accept both their status as Thinblood, some among the 14th Generation even going so far as to call the term a slur. They are the Duskborn. Duskborn are burgeoning into a new Clan within the Anarch movement and while Tommy is yet to be forced to choose between the two, they know the time is coming. They are yet to make a decision.

4) Which Predator type do they most align with and why?

Currently: Bagger. It's part of the conditions of their employment. No feeding off living humans. Tommy has given a taste for the blood of corpses, its disgusting but, occasionally a welcome change, as well as animals, honestly somehow more unpleasant than the former and coming with the added issue of needing multiple vessels to even lend themself a somewhat satisfying meal. No, bagged blood is the best of the options available. Further, they don't have to steal it. Torchwood buys the bags at the same rate a hospital would pay and it simply comes out of the food budget. Yvonne *does* question why their food budget is so high, but as of yet hasn't pursued the issue too closely. Thankfully, Lukas covers for Tommy. It's a precarious situation, but one that balances for now.

5) Who Sired them, and into what Generation were they Sired? What’s their relationship with their Sire like, and what were the circumstances of their Embrace?

They were sired by their sister: Somhairlín Baker into the 14th Generation. They were scheduled to be Embraced anyway, by Sam's sire, but before the date was supposed to come, they were struck in a motor vehicle accident while in Galway seeking medical treatment for their chronic anemia. Anemia caused by Sam's clandestine use of Tommy as a Cloven Blood Doll. Somhairlín, feeling guilt, Embraced Tommy. Their parents died. The two bonded closer than in life. This would eventually be a source of great pain in Tommy's life as, in early 2008 following the F1rstlight attack on the Vienna Chantry and the Head of the Tremere Pyramid, Tommy felt need to murder their sister.

6) What level of Humanity are they? Has this changed over the years they’ve been dead?

Tommy's Humanity is very low. Due to the practices of the London Chantry and a development of growing Noddist and Cainite practices, Tommy ended up on the Path of Caine during their time in London. They moved to London to escape Thinblood persecution in the post-War era and it was for naught. In London, Tommy hid themself as Sam's ghoul, and Sam, in turn, entered them into a Blood Wedding, a situation where two Vampires bond themselves to the other threw drinking each other's Vitae. This created a feedback loop where both of them sunk to deeper levels of depravity match for match. And, under Hal Grove, Regent of their Chantry, they began doing research into the Thinblood condition.

The research consisted mostly of Embracing new Thinbloods and finding the limits of the condition: could they use disciplines, could they bond, could they be tapped as a source of Vitae... all of these answers proved to be "sometimes" and the Baker siblings lost grip on their humanity with extreme speed. Since the Fall of the Pyramid, they have been slowly clawing their way back; first: onto the Path of Humanty, a dangerous feat to attempt without personal guidance, and then slowly up the ladder of morality. Now, they sit at humanity 5 -- 6 through 8 being the usual extremes of the average human being.

7) Which Disciplines do they possess, and which do they favor using?

They have the traditional disciplines of Clan Tremere: Thaumaturgy, Dominate, Auspex, but they favor Thaumaturgy. In their role as offensive specialist they favor the paths of Flames and Nebulism. The former as a means of attack and the latter to disable enemies or clear a building of civilians.

8) Who are their Touchstones, if any? / 9) What are their Convictions (moral opinions and standings they hold fast to)?

Cami. A fellow Agent of Torchwood who vouched for them to become member of the team. She represents a value of trusting others judgements. As they say "I take pride in the goodness and strength of my friends and that they, being as such, should care for me."

Lukas. Their boss, the head of Torchwood 2. They keep Tommy in line and enforce the value of the preservation of human life. As much as Tommy is frustrated that Engstrom is blackmailing them to keep them in line, to some degree they are thankful.

10) Do they belong to any sect or are they independent?

They belong to the Anarchs. Hard to be a Camarilla Tremere when you collapsed your old Chantry and murdered your sire. No Camarilla Tremere will touch them. They wouldn't bleed on Tommy if they were on fire.

Life

1) What did they do (as a career or in general) before they were Embraced?

They were a Seminarian, studying to be a Priest. Now, that is just completely out of the realm of possibility.

2) Do they still have mortal family or friends, or descendants of those people? Who were they closest to during life, and is there anyone they’ve contacted after their Embrace?

Still, no. Again? Yes. The people they knew are dead and tracking them down would be dangerous. Once, they tried to find their namesake McDonnell's descendants, but lost track of them when they moved to the New World. Thus is unlife. A series of disappointments. And what would they have said anyway? 100 years ago I wanted to kiss your grandfather? That's not going over well. It's as good a reason as any not to keep pursuing.

3) What were their hobbies, skills, and interests?

They knit. They were rarely able to make the trek to the school at the other end of the island in their youth and so they took up crafts. One of the neighbors had sheep and often sold clothes. With Tommy's health the way it was, they sometimes couldn't get out of the chair for days and spinning wool into yarn by hand and kniting the yarn into fabrics. It was nice. They were always cold so now they had sweaters and blankets to keep themself warm. They also sold some of their wares in town, or, the neighbor sold them and split the profits. A necessary source of income when their father was out at sea so long and money became scarce.

4) Did they have any vices, addictions, or mental illnesses? Which carried over into death?

They smoked. The doctors suggested it as means of strengthening the lungs with hopes of helping them build up the energy to walk. Obviously, this was counter intuitive. When they did feel up to it, and the night air was fresh and cool, Tommy and their friend Larry McDonnell would sneak into the chapel and "borrow" a bottle of communion wine. Red-faced and dizzy, they would fall in love with him over and over again, afraid of what it meant, but craving the times when they felt brave enough to reach out for him. Sometimes Tommy felt like maybe Larry felt something in return. It was hard to peel the alcohol from the desires from the truth, and so they never truly acted on it.

5) What were they most afraid of in life? How has this changed?

They were most afraid of their homosexuality. Did this mean they were going to Hell. Did they have to worry about dragging someone else down with them... This has changed in that they have largely given up on the Catholic faith. Perhaps they'll come back to it, they feel a draw to spirituality to fill the hole left by their lapsed Noddism and worship of their Domitor-and-Thrall. They've attended services a few times lately and it seems like some of the opinions within the flock are shifting. They don't want to get too attached but reattajing to their human faith is helping them feel just that much more Human, an addicting feeling.

6) What were their goals and ambitions in life? How has this changed?

Their goal at the time had been to squash their sexuality with faith. Now, they have embraced their queerness. It's a struggle many days to treat themself with kindness in that front. Hell, it's a struggle most days to treat anyone with kindness. But they're getting better.

7) Did they follow any religion or spiritual paths in life? How did that change when they died, if at all?

They were a Catholic in life, hoping to become a Priest and then in Unlife first abandoned religion but then got drawn in by the lures of Cainite Noddism. Now, with the Fall of the Pyramid, they feel a call to that old religion once again. Who knows where it will take them.

8) When they were Embraced, what was the aftermath like? Did they fake their death, do their loved ones think they went missing, etc.?

Their family died along with them so they faked that they died, too. At least they don't have to worry about their parents thinking they're missing.

Death

1) What have they spent most of their years as a Kindred doing?

Most of it has been spent researching their condition. Now, they are one of the most knowledgeable , probably in the world, on what it means to be a Thinblood.

2) What’s the entire lineage of their bloodline, from them all the way back to their Clan’s Antediluvian? Is there anything in particular that they and their grandsires all had in common?

They were primarily raised by their grandsire. Sam's sire took them on as a second childe, even though they had planned to wait maybe 10 years. So, Tommy got the same education as their sister. His sire, however, I haven't thought as much about.

3) How do they adapt to the changing times around them? Do they still uphold values, styles, or other things from the past?

They definitely dress a little bit out of time. And what's not anachronistic is absolutely horrible. They dont, however, adapt very well. They haven't gone through the back catalogue of media Cami gave them, cultural milestones and things that have happened... Just a few months ago, Tommy found out man had touched foot on the moon. They are more than a little behind the times.

4) Do they have a coterie? What position do they take in that group, if so? Otherwise, do they have any notable Kindred (or other creatures) friends?

Their "coterie" is probably the Torchwood 2 team, deapite being Kine. They serve as a blaster with magic on call they can destroy threats and protect their lives -- especially Lukas Engstrom, who, if he dies, will release a catalogue of all the information he has gathered on Kindred to every intelligence agency in the world, a threat Tommy doesn't take lightly.

They are also connected to Alastríona "Cass" Balach. She is Tommy's sponsor in House Ipsissimi and, by human standards, their Sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous. The disguise is simple wordplay, but the Ipsissimi hide themselves within the Crowleian "Astrum Argenteum" which they in turn have using Alcoholics Anonymous as a front. This also serves as an out for Tommy. They couch their cravings for human blood in terminology based around Alcoholism and thus they are given a space to discuss their emotions. At meetings is also where a Ghouls of Balach's will give them study materials if need be. New rituals and information about the next step on one of their Paths. It's a pretty nice arrangement.

5) Which of their Clan’s stereotypes apply to them? Which do they act against, or embody the opposite of?

They are a neurotic mess. A perfectionist to their core, and sometimes they apply that perfectionism outward becoming a domineering person. They are secretive and dangerous. They have spent decades engaging in unethical magical experiments. Truly, they are quintessential Tremere.

However, they fight to change that. They want to be a better person and a better Kindred. They want to look at a person and not feel a desire to take them apart and find out how they tick. Thankfully, Engstrom keeps them in line on that front, with the actually follow8ng through of it anyway.

6) How do they feel about the Antitribu of their Clan?

Having very nearly been one, they understand the allure. The draw of Vampiric Supremacy and the willingness to bring human kind to their knees, however, they also pulled away. Once their eyes were clear they put their very existence on the line, revealed to the Prince that they had been a Thinblood illegally living in her domain and turned on the Cainites to bring the White Hall Chantry down. They fear the Tremere Antitribu. Their sponsor was also former Goratrix and, bearing the Mark of the Traitor, she was a fullfledged member who partook of the Vaulderie. Whatever brought her out remains to be seen, but Tommy wouldn't have an in at continuing Thaumaturgical Studies without her, and for that, he's grateful.

7) Have they Embraced anyone? Ghouled anyone?

They have, but not to keep around. And having lived in the Blood Bond for decades, they never want to do that to anyone else again.

8) Do they prowl, or is there a city they permanently reside in?

They seem to have settled in Glasgow, as much to be close to their new Sponsor as anything else. And, with their membership in Torchwood 2, they hope to stick around for a long time.

9) What’s their haven like?

They live at the Glasgow Hub: the basement of a nondescript Warehouse in a district of Warehouses, itself hidden by Vampiric magics. They have a private room to live and sleep in near the entrance. When they sleep, they are the first line of defense if something should come in. They protect the themself and their partners with another spell that will wake them immediately if a danger disturbs their residence.

The Hole itself is cozy. Not very big, about the size of a studio apartment. A single room with a bed, a bookshelf, and a fridge to hold Blood Bags. Not too much going on otherwise.

10) Do they believe they are descended from Caine, or do they follow a different path?

They do not believe they are descended from Caine. They have looked at the information Ash has managed to draw from them and it appears that Vampirism may be of extraterrestrial origin. Its exact origin is unknown, but alien stock seems to rule out the concepts purported by Noddism. And, after a period of time otherwise, they are back on the Path of Humanity.

11) How do they feel about Diablerie?

They wonder often. They wonder if they should have Diablerized Sam. Sure, it's a crime in the Camarilla, but they are no longer Camarilla, and they wouldn't be a Thinblood anymore. They would be a stronger force to reckon with, more able to protect their team... But it's a dangerous line of thought. And there's nothing doing, now.

12) Regardless of whether or not they adhere to Camarilla rule, have they ever broken any of the Traditions?

13) Do they believe in Gehenna? How do they feel about Thin-bloods, and do they believe they’re a sign of the end times?

Absolutely. Most of them. Respect of Domain and Hospitality. Their existence is a violation first of all. And they killed their sire. Even with permission, that's still a violation of the Traditions.

14) Have they ever Frenzied? What happened?

Not anymore. Its been a long unlife, and it was even longer thinking their own existence would draw the death of their people closer. But, they have learned to shrug off these kind of Noddist teachings. And they don't think the world is going anywhere any time soon.

The moment the Blood Bond broke, they frenzied and drank someone to death out of rage. An innocent person dead because they couldn't keep their cool. Other than that, no. They have kept themself well fed these years. And tht hope to keep it that way.

#tw!verse #ooc

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