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sardonic-the-writer · 1 year

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Better Call Saul characters with saying I love you for the first time? Don’t care who you have but can it at least include Howard and Nacho?

yeah sure! slight spoilers for season five.

—JIMMY ☆

The first time Jimmy ever tells you he loved you happened after his trek through the desert. He had come back, sunburnt to hell and dehydrated out of his mind. Looking like he had just dragged a few bags of bricks from hell and back—which wasn't far off from the truth. So when you picked him up, fingers anxiously tapping on your steering wheel, it was the most he could do to reassure you with a slight squeeze of your hand.

Only once you had gotten back home and lowered him into a cool bath did Jimmy close his eyes, letting a small 'I Love You' slip from his chapped lips. Which were swiftly rewarded with a kick kiss, the first genuine smile breaking out on his face in days.

—KIM ☆

You said it to her first.

Kim has a difficult time reading people and their emotions outside of her workplace, something that bled into your relationship together. Of course, you understood, taking your time with her and getting comfortable as a pair. That's why it took so long for you to say anything to her that would take your relationship to the next level.

It most likely occurred on some random movie night. The both of you in sweatpants sitting on the couch watching a black and white movie, curled around each other and just forgetting about life's worries. She took a moment to pause the movie, facing you and your caring gaze. Kim captured your lips in a soft kiss after a moment, washing away any worries that might have been lingering at her delayed response.

—HOWARD ☆

HMM had the privilege of being the place where Howard first confessed the true depth of his love for you.

He hardly could sit still. It was the third boring meeting of the day, discussing something he couldn't care less about when you were sitting next to him. It was all he could do to contain his giddy feelings, occasionally nudging your foot foot under the table with a barely contained smile. So the minute after everyone had slowly trickled out of the conference room, he caught the tail end of your suits cuff, pulling you into a heart melting kiss, both of your teeth occasionally clicking together on accident.

"You know what?" He mummbled against your lips, his own buzzing with electricity. "I think I love you."

"I think I love you too Howie."

—NACHO ☆

Part of the reason Nacho was so invested in you was the feeling he got when catching a glimpse of you. It was one he didn't feel often anymore; after getting involved with the drug ring and such. One of security. Warmth. Being home. The only other person who ever made him feel like that was his dad. And things hadn't been going to well in that department lately.

Nacho was quiet around you. Not the same stony kind of silence he presented in his pine of work. That was pure defensiveness, not letting anyone see into his head unless he wanted them too. No, around you he was quiet becuase he preferred to hear your voice. To listen to you talk to him about your day and carry on a conversation just by looking at him for a non verbal response. He loved how you knew what he was trying to say without actually saying it.

"I love you (Y/n)." He had mummbled into your hair one evening—between your tales of horrid days working in customer service. "I love you more than I've ever loved anyone."

—LALO ☆

Light had barely begun to peak through the curtains, and Lalo was already rolling out of bed with a sigh. Pulling away from your warm embrace, yet another night without sleep plauging his mind with things he had to do today.

"Sorry querido." He would chuckle, slipping into more formal clothing as you quietly called for him to come back to bed. "You know I have to go tend to some things."

His smile softened even more as you rolled over in his direction, eyes still closed and scrunched with drowsy annoyance. Accompanied by a small frown.

"Fine. Bu' be quick. L've you."

Lalo paused, a patterned shirt draped over his bare shoulder in the moment. You would later remember the dozens of kisses he peppered across your face in a moment of adoration, mirroring your accusation of love in between each one.

"Por dios serás mi muerte."

#jimmy mcgill x reader #jimmy mcgill #kim wexler #kim wexler x reader #howard hamlin #howard hamlin x reader #nacho varga #nacho varga x reader #lalo salamanca #lalo salamanca x reader #better call saul #better call saul x reader

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writing-frenzy · 7 months

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The Kinda/sorta SI!Aizen Sosuke Isekai AU

because my brain has been blessed with works from cywscross/cheshiresense, like the Ichigo and Aizen Time Travel AU, and the amazing I (Not) Aizen Sosuke by Williamcipher, I'm gonna half-hazardly note this idea out because I can not write bleach fic to save my life.

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So, first things first; why is this only sorta SI!Aizen Sosuke?

Because, this is technically Aizen Sosuke, just a parallel from a modern universe and because the thought of a Milennial!Aizen makes me want to fucking cackle like a banshee. Like, Sosuke is still a tricky, nasty little genius, but he's actually had therapy and the internet to get any teenage angst and black history out. (Which he denies ever having, like a lair) And yes, He has suffered Retail, so he can and will be the fakest bitch you ever did see, the customer service smile never forgotten despite how he wishes he could. He's had to grow from a life of poverty, clawing and reaching for everything he's had, but he's also had the public library and some really damn good teachers to have his back, an actual safe place for him to fall back too.

(Amazing, what a difference it makes.)

So, as a kid, Sosuke practically read everything he could get his grubby hands on, partly to better himself, partly an escape, when he came upon his library's selection of comics and manga; he found a certain series; Fullmetal Alchemist.... Just, imagine this young, little genius reading such a book at such a young age; think of how he would react to such twists and chills this story brings, and how it unknowingly shaped him. (how it inspired him).

This started a very big, very large rabbit hole for the kid; he could not get enough after that; which, in the end, leads him to a manga called Bleach. He ends up enjoying it, not as much as Fullmetal, but the story does peak his interest, from Ichigo's charisma, to even side characters like Gin's treachery and Urahara's puppetry. it is a fasinating story in it's own right, even as the villain, Aizen both intrigues him and frustrates him.

Like, his motives and ambitions, along with his skills should not make such a fucking flat as depth character! Where is character depth, why does he fucking monologue so damn much? Why not explore the sense of loneness that Ichigo saw, especially once we reach the Qincy War and he still sided with SS? Sosuke would like a little more justice for a character with so much potential and shit, a villain through and through, and yet one of the greatest helps at the end.

(We do not mention the Bleach Epilogue, and it's not because Sosuke ships Ishida and Inou, nope, it just doesn't exist, out of spite out of mind. why does he ship it? because why not :D)

So, for this relatively self-adjusted Aizen Sosuke, he suddenly dies one day, only to find due to certain circumstances, (I'm gonna say a certain wishing rock, his soul being distantly connected, wrong place wrong time, shitty luck, and his death not actually be an accident >_> how energy can not be destroyed or created technically, so it attached to his soul) Sosuke finds himself kinda sorta before what might be the Soul King(?) and he's gonna have to be born as Bleach!Aizen Sosuke cause funky things happened across dimensions, and it's either this or have his soul shredded in unbearable agony.

Sosuke:... So what, I become a Shikigami and get guaranteed a one way ticket to hell the minute I die? Soul King: Not if you play your cards right; but yeah, the Visored still need to be a thing, so have fun figuring that out :D Sosuke: Fuck. You. *so starts his Tries to figure out a way to fucking change the whole Soul King system so the Captains and such don't have to became hellspawn the minute they die and how to create Visored consensually*

So yeah, Aizen Sosuke is a pretty different animal in this world; He still has the damn Customer Service smile, because it has become a very important tool in survival among those damn annoying nobles, is a bit snarky tho but very, very rarely because corpal punshiment with whips and such is actually still a thing here and people do get so very nasty because they can with Outer Rukongai Trash as he is called.

But it's so pathetically easy to find souls and such that willingly let them be experimented on if it means their families get fed or they don't die in the cold. the only illusions Sosuke uses is to disguise himself with or erase memoires of conversations if the soul choses not to be experimented on. Otherwise, Sosuke is brutally honest in what he's doing, what can happen to the soul, and what it can cost.

(It's kinda understandable, that other Aizen Sosuke's ambitions, with just how fucking many take him up on that offer so fucking willingly, some even happy with it.)

So things happen, Sosuke really doesn't want to create a certain death marble, but the way things are going it's looking like it, seeing as he is nowhere near close to his goals. (He thinks of such a thing, this Hogyoku, thinks of just how many suffered for it, how it twisted a version of himself, the temptation of twisted promises, and this man can't help but hesitate, uncertain of temporing with such things beyond him. He might be a version of Aizen Sosuke, he might be made up with twisted ambitions and his own greed, Rukongai chewing him up and spitting him out into something that will survive, letting him see just how deep his inner demons are... but as he is parallel, there are lines he will not cross.)

So, Sosuke on a whim and coffee withdraw, (with nightmares haunting his feet and dreams, screams and blood seemingly drenching them) sees if he can maybe at least get along with Urahara Kisuke. After all, he's pretty sure he won't get the worst case scenario, with the man plotting his downfall one step at a time at least.

(It is the start of the best and worst relationship anyone in Soul Society has ever seen; Like, 95% of SS thinks these two are just really intense, hateful rivals who get under each other's skin like no one else can, concerns about how the two spar really rough with each other, people guessing if anything they must have had hate sex at least once because of battle high. the startled concerns with how their debates are rough and harsh, their Rukongai language actually coming out as they argue and growl at the other even as they smartly trash the other sides pro's and cons, only to get served a minute later.

The remaining 5% is split between groups who think the relationship is like the worst married couple ever, you think they're on their way to a divorce any minute now, with maybe a concern of toxicity. But the other part, with maybe one or three people who have actually looked at this relationship, really look and realize; oh... so that's how love can look like too... huh.

Because for these two broken, bloody men showing the world they have something they care about, something they treasure and love is never a smart thing; it only gets it stolen from them or tossed aside. So all their gentle touches, soft words, the domestic bliss of Sosuke able to cook and serve a little tea on the side as Kisuke rambles with bright eyes about his favored project at the moment, of just holding the other close as they sleep after rough missions and nightmares; this is only to be had behind closed and reinforced doors so they don't risk this person who they world destroy worlds and more for) But that is later; much later; for now, the two are snarky besties who take pot shots at each other but will mentally screw with others who would say shit about the other.

And then... the thing that Sosuke has been trying to do, the Hollowifcation that he has been struggling to reach all this time, has been failing at... is done; not by him, not by any scientist or some such, but i'm gonna say it was a means to save him and a few others from a fate worst then death or something, Kisuke desperate to do so.

Yes, this does in fact mean We get a Visored!Aizen, cuz why not :3 not to mention, with maybe a few different Visored with maybe a couple still the same. (Kaien and Gin would be interesting in my opinion, with maybe Shinji not actually a Visored in this world, maybe Lisa either if we want to trade seconds of the squads :3)

So yeah, exile happens still, no one hunting them down because the only search parties that would be allowed for them would be assassinations and such, and no one wants them dead besides assholes.

Things happen, things go differently, and in the end Aizen Sosuke, as a soul outside the cycle of reincarnation, one touched by so many different energies, has been both corrupted and become more, with a power and sword that can warp reality, he can touch the throne and not become unmade, can use it for his goal, in return for his own sacrifice

Of course, this is Sosuke; his back up plans have back up plans; so, he goes Isekai protagonist, finding himself in post canon bleach without knowing it, pretty powerless if you didn't count his mind and that he still has his sword, just forced to forget their name and his power cut in half (he's built himself up from nothing twice already, what's once more with some perks and it's not like he won't be able to remember their name; on another note, all his respect for all the sheer bullshit Ichigo had to go through after the winter war).

Of course, Sosuke isn't going to go through this alone; nah, urahara and his fellow visored are like "you're not getting rid of us that easy So-kun :) " and of course others will join in, because they are rebel or die together.

So, all these alternate versions in post canon, what havoc will they cause? A lot; some interactions I want:

Sosuke is injured and past out when canon first finds them, because of the newest villain of the week got lucky and so we have a blood thirsty Kisuke ready to destroy everything, cold blooded and still unlike he usually shows the world. Hijinks happens when all three groups clash, bonds happen, pretty sure the Ichigo effect comes up once or twice as the two groups work together against the enemy flavor of the week, so it's pretty late when peeps realize; wtf, why is an aizen here?

On Sosuke's part; wakes up, bleary-eyed, blinks, takes in a scene before him that is probably a bit ridiculous, before he turns his back to it and goes right back to sleep: I reject a reality where there are two Urahara's :T

Sosuke: ... why am I surrounded by children? *generally confused by ducklings he has unintentionally gathered by being honest and snarky and a really damn good teacher* Kisuke: *laughing not realizing at first that those are now his ducklings too*

Like, a movie night I want to happen, Sosuke and Kisuke starting it because nightmares and trauma, only for Ichigo and other to join in somehow, it becoming a bonding event.

People finding out about how Sosuke ended up being forced to be reborn in a manga and have no choice but to make Visoreds or have his soul stuck in a cycle of constantly being shredded and tortured, but actually trying to make it as safe and willing as possible. Kisuke: WHY THE FUCK DIDNT YOU TELL ME, I COULD HAVE HELPED!!! Sosuke: WHAT DO YOU MEAM WHY DIDNT I ASK, OF COURSE I WON'T, WHO'D BELIEVE FLAMING BULLSHIT LIKE THAT!? I BARELY BELIEVE IT AND I'VE FUCKING BEEN THROUGH IT!

Sosuke: *Been through the worst day possible, almost died, his people he actually has positive emotions for almost died, made it through with a little more trauma." ... Fuck it. *Kisses his boyfriend, uncaring who sees.* Post Canon Characters and others: *Jaw dropped, choked sounds, sputters, and money and bets exchanging hands*

Sosuke to Canon!Aizen:... You can not tell me you have not wanted to pin Urahara to the wall and stab him a little as you kiss him; I know myself well enough.

And welp, here it is, ask me questions if you want or if anyone gets inspired, let me know!

#Bleach #Aizen Sosuke #UraAi #Is that the ship name?#Urahara Kisuke #Kinda/Sorta SI!Aizen AU

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archonsbitch · 2 years

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ℭ𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔫𝔞

note: I've decided to cross-post it on AO3, so you can find it there under the same name ;3

warnings: light cursing

previous chapters: Introduction

next chapter: Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Vacation...?

Soothing summer breeze, lulling sound of waves.. Even with your eyes closed you could feel a pleasant warmth on your skin as gentle sunrays seemed to kiss your cheeks. Oh, what a wonderful dream you had right now. You could feel all the stress from this week’s work dissipate into nothingness…

Speaking of your job. Constant shouting of your boss, absolutely uninteresting gossip all around the office, endless spiral of stress and despair as you have spent days over those stupid reports that ‘had to be done yesterday, but whoops, we forgot to tell you’. As if everyone suddenly decided to bring you to the edge of madness and provoke a few crimes of passion, huh. Yeah, screw it all. Mulling over the last weeks events you sighted.

When did your life get so dull and uninspiring?

Office job was, of course, not the worst one you could have, especially if you compare it to the one of those poor souls who have to work at the customer service (bless them and their patience, truly - astonishing) and some may even consider it somewhat prestigious… Yet, a beautiful facade always hides something hopelessly glum. Hustler mentality? As if there was something exceptional to hustle for! And yet your checks were only covering your rent (have you tried finding a decently priced nice flat in the bustling city full of workaholics? Bet, even Sherlock Holmes would struggle searching for it on all those listing websites) and some necessities that included: Netflix subscription, freezer full of ice cream baskets and those small trinkets that you happened to spend ridiculous amounts on. But, hey, they did make your life less miserable! Occasional thought of grabbing a few drinks at a bar with your friends on a pay day has recently been pushed away due to the crippling thought of waking up with a shitty hangover (they do not get better with age and your college self would have been embarrassed about you suddenly being a lightweight, but, alas).

And it’s not like you could suddenly drop your job and start a life changing adventure to the middle of nowhere, those bills won’t pay themselves… The only vacation you could afford was either a nice walk straight to the depths of hell that is your office desk or, as an alternative, logging into Genshin Impact and completing your daily commissions. Yes, Genshin did give you everything you have ever wanted from a game: breathtaking sceneries, outstanding lore, sexy characters, exceptional music, inexplicably hot characters, exotic places, those absolutely gorgeous people… Ahem. Ah, screw it, you were in a desperate need of vacation, that’s for sure. If even your dreams are now nudging you to go to a beach? Yeah, a break was needed.

And thinking of dreams.. With your eyes still closed you could hear a somewhat distant murmuring nearby. Huh? Since when people in dreams started speaking gibberish? And why did your cheeks burn from being exposed to the sun…

At that you decided that it’s finally time to open your eyes and sit down. Woah! The sea right in front of your eyes was mesmerizing. Stretching and yawning like a cat who has just had a full-course royal meal of a few tuna cans you got up and finally glanced at a place where you have heard people quietly conversing.

A young looking blonde male with a braid that could make all those shampoo commercials’ models green with envy was carefully observing your now standing form from a distance. Next to him, a small white something that strangely resembled a child was currently busy with waving their arms and shouting something inarticulate at you.

Aether and Paimon, huh. It’s not as if your brain even tried to hesitate deciding who it was upon seeing them. An interesting addition to your dream, indeed. But why was Paimon shouting again? And WHAT was she shouting exactly? What, Morpheus did not foresee an auto translation feature in his dream kingdom?

Tilting your head in confusion you’ve sent her a puzzled look hoping for her to catch onto your unspoken question. Looking at your perplexed face expression the little fairy has finally stopped abusing her throat and started anxiously waving her hands, pointing at something that was supposedly right behind you.

Bloop..Bloop…Bloop…

Turning your head at a lightspeed you have finally noticed the presence of a blue blob that was currently jumping towards you. A hydro slime. A hydro slime?! What in the Genshin Impact…You knew what it was, obviously, and if you consider all the slimes that you have murdered while playing this game, no wonder that it has suddenly decided to start its revenge arc aiming right at your left ankle. But you cannot get hurt in your dreams, right? Well, as soon as the blob, who seemingly didn’t have a single thought behind those big round eyes, finally bumped at your leg, you have felt a sudden sharp pain in your ankle… Great.

Well, apparently you can get hurt in dreams and that was not what you have signed up for! Not wasting a second longer you straight up bolted towards the watching duo. Hiding behind Aether, who was seemingly unaffected by this ordeal, you started waving your hands as if you were Paimon’s lost twin.

- Why are you standing here as a mannequin, it is going to hurt us!

As if responding to your panicked cry Aether has finally decided to stop his game of peepers, sighting deeply. Stepping towards the blob he has now materialized his sword (the almighty Dull blade, you notice!).

Aaand ... Slash.

The blob is gone, the world is saved, hotel? Trivago.

Both, you and Paimon have let out a breath that you were holding. You looked at the crime scene in front of your eyes: the only remains of an annihilated slime were some splashes, that were currently being absorbed in the sand.

- Nice moves you’ve got there Aether!

You have always thought of yourself as someone good at communication, the one who could pretty much predict where any conversation was flowing. Yet, the only thing that you have not anticipated was a dull blade pointed right at your throat after that exact sentence.

Nani the fuck?!

Buckle up! We are going to throw a Bilbo Baggins move and embark on a journey. Not that the reader has a choice anyway... ;)

#genshin impact x reader #genshin impact isekai #genshin impact sagau #genshin impact x you #genshin impact imagines #genshin sagau #genshin isekai #genshin imagines #genshin impact #various characters #aether #genshin fanfic #genshin x you

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matenrou-fan · 1 year

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Hiiii can you do hcs of samatoki falling in love with a girl at a nearby thrift store? we know toki loves his vintage clothing.. s/o just starting working there and toki met her, he came back a few times and after they'd talked more, he'd come just to see her bc he toootally fell in love 🤭

nd then when he confesses his feeling to her..!! 💕

anya I really enjoy your writing, thank you so much for your wonderful stories. I hope you have a lovely day, and don't work too hard, you have so many requests!! I don't know how you write so fast, but please remember to take breaks and care for yourself too 🩷

you really do good job of understanding the characters!

Samatoki falling in love with a girl that works in thrift store

omg hiii!! First thing first - thank you very much for all these words, ahh!! I'm very flattered!!! >///< I also have no idea how I'm able to write that fast, I just have too much free time, I think.. Also, I had put your request in my schedule as fic and only when star work with it notice that you ask for hcs!! So I writed hc yet ended up with a small scenario in the end lolollo hope it's okay..!

femreader, fluff, just wholesome stuff, swearing;;

-Samatoki was no stranger to almost all thrift stores in Yokohama division, knowing where and what he can buy exactly - this one is full of good jeans, this one is more expensive but clothes here are always in really good quality..

-Yet most of the time he visits a store that was near his house, he didn't have that much time as second in command of the Yakuza. Also, let's be honest, Samatoki can be kinda lazy to ride to another part of town, especially if he's just bored and just wants to peek a little.

-And one day, as he was walking around, looking at new arrivals, a consultant appeared in front of him with a small blush on her cute face.

-It was you..! And honestly, in your first meeting Samatoki didn't pay that much attention to you. Like yeah, you were kinda pretty, but he's not the type to fall madly in love right in the place.

-"Can I help you?" - you ask with your cheerful voice. Ahh, you just started working here and were kinda nervous..! So you try to be as positive and polite as you can, looking at the tall grumpy man in front of you with a soft smile.

"Actually, yes.. There was always this stand with t-shirts, where is it now?" - Samatoki points out an empty place and you nod.

"Oh, we had a little change here, and moved it to another side.. Here." - you lead him through shelves and hangers to the right place.

"Mm.. Thank you." - he still looked kinda somber, yet his voice was pretty calm and soft..? Just who is this man..?

-Well, it looks like he was absolutely uninterested in you, yet somewhere in the depths of his mind, the Yakuza made a mental note about you. Nothing serious, he just remembers you.. Why? He probably can't answer himself.

-He visited this store at least once a week, and after a few times he would prefer to ask you than other consultants. You're a newbie yet being able to understand Samatoki better than experienced sellers, like you two have some sort of connection.

-Despite his harsh character, Samatoki is actually more calm around civilians, so very soon he will show this side of him too. Slowly, he starts to be softer around you, and sometimes you even notice the corners of his lips lifting up a little..

-"Hey, what do you think, which of these shirts is better..?" - he suddenly catches you with an unexpected question, when you help him once again. The way he asks you, with such a smirk on his face and playful tone, looks more like he asks a friend, not a consultant..

"Oh.. This one is good, yet I do remember you already bought something similar last time?" - nervous, you get closer and touch the fabric of the yellow shirt he was holding in his arms, then look at another place of clothes. - "And this one.. Oh, I know..!"

You went away for a minute, leaving your loyal customer a little bit confused, then returned with a matching hat and jacket.

"Here..! I think it all would look good together." - A small titter escaped your lips as you held out new clothes to Samatoki. His face was the same yet you can see a little surprise on his face and it tickles your heart both with excitement and fear.

"Hm.. You're right.." - he mumbled, looking at your suggestions then chuckling. - "I'll go and try this all.. Stay here, I'll need your opinion once again after I'll change my clothes.."

This time you were the one who was left in place, absolutely confused. You didn't even notice when this intimidating man got all friendly with you..!

-Yet it's more look not like something friendly, more like teasing, as Samatoki loves to mock you a little. He can be kinda bratty and playful when the right mood strikes him, yet it just means he gets attached to you more, feeling relaxed around you.

-But at the same time you notice that when you actually get alone - on days when he gets in store really early or really late and there's not that many other clients, or when you two suddenly get in an empty part of the store where no one sees you two through all the shelves.. Then this Yakuza actually opens to you completely, not only his more chatty side, but something attentive, caring and soft.

-Even his voice gets more low and soothing, as he speaks with you, asking about new things, and slowly changing topics to some domestic stuff.

-"Huh.. I notice you start to take less weekends now. Don't think money is more important than health and don't rush over it, okay?" - Samatoki mumble, trying on another vintage pair of shoes.

"Oh, no.. My co-worker just got sick so this is why I take more shifts now.." - you mutter in response, looking through another box with shoes that would suit him, then realization hits your mind. - "Did you just try to scold me..?!"

This was neither the first nor probably last time he did this, and you always receive some laughter and more teasing for your reaction, yet this time Samatoki looks more serious.

"More like a warning.. I don't want you to overwork yourself." - there's no sign of blush on his face or something, Samatoki said this so casually like you two talk about weather, yet the tone of his voice was so unexpectedly caring, making you blush a little.

"Okay.. Sorry."

-Samatoki is a straightforward man. He doesn't want to fool around with you or with his own feelings, and after some time, after he shows this softer side of him, and receives no less soft care and attention from you, he decides to act.

-And one day, he held up with you until the store closed. (especially or accidentally? well…) The weather was terrible, torrential rain and strong wind, so he suddenly offered to take you home in his car.

-Well, it seems like things are planned, huh? He lives not that far away from the thrift store but you told him before that it takes some time for you to get here, that's why he took a car with himself today?

-But how can you say no? As you also develop some feelings for him.. and a long ride in a warm passenger seat as you enjoy gloomy skies and watch a small drop of rain running on the window sounds so good.

-Quiet, calm music fills the car as Samatoki slowly rides you to your place. He didn't talk much, just a small light conversation between you two but it felt so soothing, like if you know each other for a really long time. Low velvety voice makes your whole body relax, your eyes slowly move from the windshield to his figure, and you feel like you literally can fall asleep in this atmosphere..

-"Hey, sleepyhead..! We're in place." - light chuckle wakes you up as Samatoki touches your shoulder. Maybe you were too drowsy after a small nap but you can swear the way he strokes you was so indescribably yearning..?

"Mm.. Already?" - you yawn, looking at your house through the window. The rain was still pouring down, and you can't help but yawn a little bit more, almost mewling.

"Are you always like that after sleep? Like a small kitty.." - he smirks, yet then his voice gets more deep, dropping to whisper. - "It's amusing that I wish I could see such a face of yours more often.."

"What?" - you turn to him with widened eyes, still not sure what you just heard. For a moment he looks at you, then moves back, sighing disappointed with furrowed brows.

"Fuck.. This is not the way I wanted to say this.." - Samatoki bumble, then look at you again, this time you actually can see some light blush creeping to his pale face. - "S/o, there's something I wanted to tell you.."

"You get too special for me now, and I can hold this inside me anymore. No one ever makes me feel more alive, it's like your softness melts something in my soul, if not breaks it completely.. I'm no longer as I was before, cause now I can't imagine my life without you.." - soft careful touch to your hand as he gets closer, not breaking eye contact with you. - "S/o, I love you.."

For a moment you froze, trying to process his words. You never would have imagined that Samatoki can be so smooth and poetic with his words, and it makes you kinda shocked now, speechless.

"Wait, I need some time, as it feels like I'm still dreaming.." - small murmur was all that your trembling voice could come up with now, as you look away, feeling your cheeks get warmer and warmer.

"I don't mind if you would remember it's all just like a dream.. After all, I originally planned to take you to some more suitable place than my car to confess to you.." - Samatoki smirks, his thumb slowly caressing your knuckles as he admires every small reaction on your face, this heavy blush and darting eyes. - "But you just look too cute and mesmerizing right now.."

"Huh.. Then can I fetch another small memory from this dream..?" - you whisper under your breath, not able to control your gaze that stopped on his lips. And Samatoki quickly noticed this.

"Fuck, s/o.. You wanted to toy with my heart, do you..?" - he groans, moving his arms from your hand to your shoulder, bringing you closer to himself. In the darkness of the street his face looks so mysterious and charming, and this deep gaze of red eyes, as they glow with passion.. - "You know I can't resist your small games.."

You whimper, grasping in his shoulders too, as he presses his lips to yours. Some soft but needy kiss, as if a young Yakuza was actually waiting for this for a long time. Damn, you almost can feel like he is trying to control himself from getting carried away in this small display of affection.

"Mn..You sure want me to remember that kiss only like a dream? It sure feels too good to be real, yet still.." - you giggle shyly when he pulls away, breathing heavily.

"Oh? And I always thought that you were an angel.." - he smirks, placing his hands on your waist, looking at your lips more hungrily. - "If you decided to be so playful, then okay.. I will show you my devil side once again.."

#hypmic x reader #hypmic imagines #hypmic #hypnosis mic #hypmic samatoki #hypnosis mic samatoki #samatoki aohitsugi #samatoki x reader #Samatoki Aohitsugi x reader

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bettsfic · 1 year

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craft essay a day #10

i can't believe my highlighter ran out of ink. anyway, back to the sweet safety of a beginner essay.

“Research in Fiction” by Angela Barrett, The Writer’s Notebook II: Craft Essays from Tin House

beginner | intermediate | advanced | masterclass

filed under: process, research, meaning making

summary

Barrett begins the essay by recounting a situation she seems to think is widely experienced but has never once happened to me: falling so far down a well of research for a story that you lose sight of the project and/or fill the story with all the research you learned, neglecting the characters.

but i do know there are plenty of writers out there who basically live in research wells so i definitely get what she's saying.

"I hate how dangerous research can be for our work. It's always easier, and often more fun, to dive into books and photos and the shark-filled depths of the online world than to write."

again, i do not find research easier than writing. i would always rather be writing than researching. so, this essay is probably not for me, although i would love to read an essay whose point is "maybe at least read the wikipedia article? you fool?"

the very big point she is making (and a great point it is) is that when you research for fiction, you're not invoking the facts of a time or place or trade, but translating those facts into a lived experience that will shape and affect your characters.

"What is the research for? Think about it like this: research is simply a way of understanding what our characters understand."

she goes on to point out that Tolstoy started writing War and Peace when he was thirty-five. today, many of us assume he was writing about his own time, but actually he was writing from several decades later. Barrett points out that for those of us around his age, it would be like writing about World War II.

she concludes with an amendment to writing what you know:

"A more generous, more useful interpretation of the phrase ['write what you know'] is that we should write about what we know, however we come to know it, whether by vision or sensual experience or reading or conversation or passionate imagining."

why did the editor bother keeping the Johnston essay, when Barrett more or less said what he was trying to say in a single paragraph, and more cogently?

my thoughts

when it comes to research for fiction, the most helpful thing i can suggest is developing the skill to name what you don't yet know, but know could be known.

let's take banking, for example. because i worked at a bank for ten years, i know a lot about finance and therefore i know what kinds of conflicts can develop for characters in that setting, and how it might inform their perspectives or identities or choices. i know things that can't be researched because trade secret agreements keep anyone from writing nonfiction on the inner workings of a financial institution.

because i know banking so well, i can apply the framework of my knowledge to other topics and use that framework to begin my research.

for example:

at the bank, every morning i had to run the daily insufficient funds report. the NSF report exists to decide whether or not the bank will pay or bounce checks for funds that aren't available in someone's account. hence, insufficient funds report. when you write a check and you don't have enough money in your account to pay it, a real human person decides what to do about it.

twenty bucks? not a problem. you pay it, you move on. but i was in business and that meant i was paying sometimes thousands of payroll checks for a company that didn't have the funds to pay them. paying insufficient funds means giving the customer a line of credit that has no promissory note or collateral to secure it, which means there's no guarantee the bank will get back its funds.

and yet, if i don't pay it, thousands of people won't get their paycheck.

that's an external conflict that can only happen in this setting, with internal repercussions and potentially personal consequences for your character. (in reality, i had to obtain a lot of approvals, but that's less of an interesting conflict; fictionalizing means fudging things sometimes for the sake of being interesting.)

this has other implications, too. when you make a debit card transaction, for example, the process of the bank choosing to pay or not pay must happen automatically, without a real human person making that decision. before 2013ish, most banks had a policy that debit card transactions would always be paid, regardless of how much money was in the account.

this was a perfect storm: customers could either overdraw their account and accumulate a massive number of fees ($38 at the time for a single overdraw, even one penny over), or they could open an overdraft line of credit. most people don't have good enough credit to open an overdraft line of credit, which meant people had to overdraft. a few banks had the courtesy of allowing you to dip into your savings for overdrafting. but not many.

and banks could say this was a good thing: you'll never get your card declined! we'll pay any purchase! (evil laughter)

then during the Obama administration, somebody finally decided that was super shitty and developed Reg E which forced banks to allow customers to opt in or out of overdrafting on debit card transactions. so finally you could go into a bank and say, "i want to opt out of overdraft," which means that on one hand, if you don't have the funds in your account, your card will get declined, potentially leaving you in a bad situation with whatever you're trying to purchase; but you'll never have to pay $38 for overdrawing your account by a nickel.

whew. okay. so here, as myself, i have an annoying daily situation which has greater historical and social context. and as a researcher writing about, say, a mechanic, i can begin my research by asking, what's a mechanic's equivalent NSF report? what's the annoying thing they have to do every morning when they clock in? and maybe also, what's something they have to do that has greater personal, social, and maybe political consequences? a mechanic works on your car, and that means your safety as a driver is in their hands. that means there are regulations to consider, the history of the safety of motor vehicles and the ways cars have changed. how do all those much bigger things influence the work of your character? are they the type of mechanic who keeps that in mind, or maybe they used to but they're only going through the motions, allowing for the potential for error and therefore danger? or do they just not give a shit about that kind of thing?

i once gave a writer feedback on their story about a clown. and my question was, but what about the clown's clown friends? the writer didn't know what to say to that. i said, well i know clowns are very much about community. clowns are generally pretty proud of being clowns. so this clown would likely be affected by his status in the community of clowns in his area. he would either be in his community, and that would create a certain conflict; or he'd be an outsider of his community, and that would create a different conflict. but the point is, you the writer acknowledge an understanding of the greater life of clowns.

Barrett assumes an approach: a writer does research and then applies that research to the experience of their characters. i'm suggesting an alternative: a writer begins with the consideration of their characters and tailors their research to that experience.

good research begins with the understanding that the foundation of the human experience is that we are inwardly affected by our outward reality, and by acknowledging that, you can develop a framework in which to fill in the gaps of your knowledge by targeting what you know you don't know.

or, to put it more simply, you can always begin research with one question: what's the most annoying part of your character's day?

craft essay a day tag | cross-posted on AO3 | ask me something

#cead #research #process #meaning making

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queenofmalkier · 8 months

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So, for my personal thoughts I'm gonna have to watch it again, too much happened. I'm gonna word vomit every thought I have now. Putting it under a cut to be extra careful, spoilers for EVERYTHING.

BAYLE. MY BOY BAYLE.

The Seanchan are so much more horrifying when they explain they're about to fuck shit up in their best customer service voice. And that fucking SPIKE????? It's so perfect. Fucking gruesome. Not making the damane kneel was good too - because they're not people, they don't count. I do wish they'd shown her being rewarded at the end, petting her hair or something like that to really elevate the what the fuckery.

Adeleas is everything and I love her so, so much.

I understand why they made the change to have Nynaeve thought to be dead - it's sowing the seeds for whatever is going on with Mat and it gives Liandrin more depth. It also gives us Egwene showing her own stubbornness - if they won't go get Nyn then SHE'LL do it.

Honestly I'm kind of here for the Liandrin depth? She acts like a bratty little doll come to life but like. The Chucky kind.

AND SHE HAS A SON???? FUCKING TWIST OF THE CENTURY. I was wondering about her comments about living for such a long time and protecting little girls. And we all wanted to know about the "man" Moiraine threatened her with. Honestly I'm just... I like Liandrin as a character now and I don't know how I got here. How did this happen.

Egwene thinking she isn't noticed meanwhile all the background Aes Sedai are like DID YOU SEE HER. Babygirl you been seen. You're just not being stubborn so they don't have to worry about you.

Nynaeve. Fuck man. The Elnore scene broke me but they GOT ME with that fake out no lie. I was like WHAT IN THE FEMINISM GIRLBOSS BULLSHIT IS THIS!?!? And then "OH NO."

I'm glad Elayne got busted for trying to make her room fancy. I was initially annoyed because she wasn't supposed to get special treatment but I need to have more trust.

THEY GAVE US THE FADE SCENE.

They're also giving me Spooky Children of the Corn Elyas and I respect this decision wholeheartedly. He's very "Bitch you about to learn" and I also respect this. Even if him turning up riiiiight when Ishamael was being a shit covered in blood was not helpful for Perrin's Health, Wealth, or Wellbeing.

Oh the darkfriend social POV from the kid was actually genius. It showed all the details without the tricky business of an internal narrative! ALSO. Not everybody gets pulled to the shadow because they're afraid. I think it's important to show that, to show in some ways how indoctrination can happen. That's how you get people who are loyal down to their bones.

Fuck what else.

OH! OH OH OH! PERRIN WRITING LETTERS WAS ALSO GENIUS. Because he's so internal but he's genuinely so thoughtful. He would take the time to write letters, and would take care in what he wrote, and in that way we get to know him so much better. They're not doing my boy dirty this season.

Rand :( :( :( him working in a mental hospital worked well - I was afraid of that change, but they handled it with care. Him going after the dickhead showed us his lack of control too, even if I personally Support Him.

Lanfear is so good. She's so, so, SO fucking good. THIS is what she was always supposed to be. I love RJ, he's my boy, but I think he failed to convey just how fuck off horrifying somebody like Lanfear is. "Don't ever leave me" GIRL.

I saw some complaints about Logain "still taking care of himself" before it came out and was annoyed, but now I feel justified. The man is not eating willingly - I'm sure by now he knows if he doesn't eat they will force feed him. He's a living example. The madman in a cage. He's unkempt and unpredictable and I am living for it because to me, that is having nothing to live for. Asking for ridiculously expensive wine just to pour it out. Nothing matters to Logain anymore.

Min I'm unsure of. I feel like she was a plant by Moiraine for sure, to watch Mat and make him trust her the only way she could, but now she's helping him because of what she saw. (Which, WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKK!?!?!?!?)

All the Beltane lanterns broke my heart.

One gripe: Loial roaring was. Um. Weird.

#wheel of time tv series #wheel of time book spoilers #wot prime spoilers

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feralshadowdemon · 28 days

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6, 12 and 13 !!

omg vik!! hello!! 6 - that i struggled with, but triumphed over the ending to oceans of love and millions of kisses

Even if it takes centuries, even if it takes lives—even if it ends in a different life than the one it began with; whether it is not about a sailor and a sculptor, whether it is not about two men who exchange greetings at a masquerade, whether it is about a horror from the depths and a bringer of darkness and consumer of blood—no matter what life, maybe this one time… a tale can have a truly, happily ever after. (Key detail: This may not be a fairytale, however Howard Phillips and Bram Stoker would meet again, and again, and again.)

12 - that has a particularly good bit of characterization i really like how i wrote lucy in haku; to vomit, to throw up <3

Agh, damn it! She has to socialize with them? Seriously? She’d rather this end in the best way possible, the best way possible being the rain miraculously stopping and allowing them to continue on with their day. Her long day at work did not help either, sure, she loves her job, but some of the customers need to learn manners. At least the guy buying a bouquet for his girlfriend was nice. She wishes someone bought her bouquets, but now’s not the time to reflect on how single she is, nor does she really want to. What’s the point, anyway? It sours her mood, like lemons. Why did she say lemons— you know what, nevermind. She feels sick, for a moment. It feels like she has a stomachache, but she didn’t eat anything bad today—she feels like something is in her throat, but there shouldn’t be. Subconsciously, she hugs her stomach with one arm, gritting her teeth. She wants to cough, and that phrase—butterflies in your stomach—feels like it’s coming true, but it feels more like flowers blooming in her stomach, she thinks. She hates it. Next thing she knows, she’s coughing, her vision’s sort of blurry, and she thinks they’re both looking at her now. She feels so awkward. This is awkward. If she could just stop— …Coughing.

13 - that helped me understand a character better the sky may call for you, but i'm the one who deserves you unfortunately let me get inside teen dazai's brain and i Cannot Get Out. this is a call for help

He’s brought out of his thoughts by the stranger screaming. He also screams. This is an awful combination, as Dazai scrambles backwards at the sudden scream, only screaming because he heard screaming, and the stranger almost immediately tries to get to their feet, screaming because, well, this probably was an awful time for them to open their eyes.

(my lovely beta reader called them weird love birds when they read this scene)

#ty for the ask. always a joy to see mutuals in my inbox so im politely waving to you vik #mutual tag #ask game #ask

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aratilightwood · 2 years

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I’m slowly starting to see the TMS fandom turn into team Seojoon/team Jiwoo, and I’m hating it. I had a feeling this divide would happen, as soon as I learned that the storyline for season 2 would involve one of them leaving the other with only a note. It wasn’t hard to guess who this was going to be, and that many of us would’ve disliked him for it.

The first four episodes of the season have been biased, considering they’re narrated from Seojoon’s perspective. I knew that as soon as the series started, Jiwoo’s voice and feelings would’ve remained in the dark for some time. I mean, he didn’t have to be vocal, it could’ve been a short voiceover of his thoughts about Seojoon, instead. It annoys me that all we’re shown at the moment, is his coldness and nonchalant attitude - which he’s clearly prepared himself to do. Yes, “prepared.” Even Seojoon can see through his lies, especially when he first confronts Jiwoo about why he left. Why else does he visit the village frequently, attract customers to the restaurant and camp outside the house? He said it was because he couldn’t move on as quickly as Jiwoo has. But when you tie this together with his codependency and fear of abandonment, you understand that this is something that needs to be addressed outside the dynamics of their relationship, because it’s pretty alarming. Aside from all that, though, there’s also a part of him that wants to get closer in order to dig out the truth. This is a test of patience that no one, not Jiwoo, or even us as viewers can truly understand - because most people would’ve given up.

An outsider may glimpse at the series and observe this: (a) cold heartbreaker with no remorse for his actions and (b) an individual who’s obsessive over his ex, to the the point where he cannot move on from their relationship. Where as, the series is simply just about two soulmates, different in every way possible: a rigid chef and an enthusiastic actor - both who have greater depth and nuance in their characters than we give them credit for, as they go through life’s hardships together.

And, despite my annoyance towards Jiwoo’s lack of perspective, I know the showrunners are holding off revealing too much at the moment, to carry on the suspense of the mind-boggling question, “why did he leave, and especially in that manner?” I can’t imagine what justifies breaking up with your boyfriend on his birthday via note, and disappearing for a year. I can only guess that it’s something that even speaking about it, would be dangerous for those who know - hence Jiwoo’s silence.

Therefore, until this revelation, and to ease our minds, it’s important to note a few things: (1) despite his cold and nonchalant attitude in season 1, there was still kindness and affection underneath it all. (2) Taking in the few breadcrumbs in season 2 so far, let’s also not forget that he’s battling with his inner demons by (a) keeping Seojoon’s shirt, (b) lying with every reason he gives for breaking up with Seojoon, when he can’t even look at him during the confession, (c) lying about throwing away the ring, (d) showing heartbreak and awe in his expression before leaning in to desperately kiss Seojoon’s bruised lips and (d) not being able to stop himself from researching news about Seojoon’s scandals.

In short, all I’m trying to say is:

It’s possible to sympathise gravely with Seojoon’s year-long struggles and heartache, while simultaneously acknowledging Jiwoo’s year-long struggles and heartache. Just because we’ve been shown more of one than the other, doesn’t make the other any less important or any less worthy of our empathies.

#to my star 2 #to my star #to my star spoilers #kang seo joon #han jiwoo #this bl just hits differently compared to other bl series #i have so much in common with both seojoon and jiwoo -#- that its unnerving #but at the same time i feel i’m all the better for understanding their characters individually-#- and in the context of their relationship #my ask box is open for any question and thought #don’t be shy

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beevean · 2 years

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Thoughts on Castlevania: Leon's not very nice evening?

The more I played Lament of Innocence, the less I liked it.

Lament of Innocence feels like an odd blend of Classicvanias, Igavanias, and the hack ‘n’ slash games of the time, DMC1 in particular (say hello to fixed cameras).

The plot is interesting, but there are some issues. Leon is set to save his girlfriend Sara from the clutches of the evil vampire Walter, so far so good. Some bosses leave hints at something that has happened in the past, like the Succubus being responsible for the death of Rinaldo's daughter, or Joachim who is a vampire who rebelled to Walter (I suspect that he was meant to be far more important, considering that he's an unlockable character lol)...

The first twist is that Sara was “tainted” (very uncomfortable implications there...), and Leon can’t even kill Walter to save her because his whip is “incomplete”: coincidentially, Sara’s tainted soul would complete it and make it super powerful. Okay, poor Leon who went through this journey for nothing but I really can’t feel bad for Sara lol. This is Iris all over again. At least Sara became the source of power of the infamous Vampire Killer - it would have been cool if we saw her in, for example, Portrait of Ruin when Jonathan fought Richter inside the whip.

Then Walter was used by Death, who is under the control of Mathias, Leon's friend who was only mentioned before. Okay? I don't know him. I don't feel betrayed. I was more curious to hear why Death serves the owner of this Crimson Stone.

Then we discover that Mathias became Dracula because his wife died, and... really? We don’t even hear of this wife before, we don’t see her, and also this is literally what happens in SOTN! At least with Lisa (really, the same name too) we know that she was killed by humans, Elizabeth... died. This is the great motivation of the main antagonist of the series.

I liked Leon in that scene, though. Mathias sought eternal life to spite God; Leon thinks an eternal life without Sara would only be painful, and would rather honor her final wish. He plays a good contrast to the antagonist. I like him and his cute hair :)

So yeah, the plot felt like it missed something, but overall, it was enjoyable. Even the voice acting wasn't bad! Now onto the gameplay.

The castle is essentially made of 5 dungeons, plus the final area. You can access the main dungeons at anytime, and you only need powerups for optional content. This means that there’s no real difficulty progression, but you can also customize your adventure everytime you play (the more correct order would be based on the keys you find, but again, they’re optional). Although, maybe it’s my impression, but some dungeons are definitely harder than others: the Garden Forgotten by Time was a cakewalk, compared to the Dark Palace of Waterfalls that I had tackled previously.

The level design complements the style. The maps are nicely laid out, and it’s easy to orient yourself, even with the repeated assets. There are just a little too many empty, repetead corridors, though. Very rarely the maps take advantage of the 3rd dimension: at best the entrance is up a ledge... at worst you’ll fall down a floor lol. But it works.

So, for now, the game is doing fine. I was having fun! ... then problems started to become bigger and bigger...

The biggest issue for me was that the controls are stiff. Leon doesn’t jump very high or very far, and once he does, his trajectory is locked in - you can only change direction by double jumping. There’s very little platforming here, but what little there is is annoying, not helped by the lack of depth perception that you’d need for these challenges because of the fixed camera. The electric fence puzzle in the House of Sacred Remains, the wall blocks puzzle in the Anti-Soul Mystery Lab, the dark room puzzle in the Ghostly Theatre, they were all very irritating. I gave up on fighting the Frost Elemental because the blind, perspective-less jumps you have to make are just unnecessary, the way you fall down at every mistake reminds me way too much of Catwoman for PS2 for my tolerance, and the idea that if I had died to the boss I would have had had to redo the whole thing again... no. Sorry Whip of Ice, you aren’t worth this. (I could have gotten the Whip of Fire, but by that point I was just done and didn't want to see any platforming ever again :\)

Combat is... repetitive. You have two buttons for attacking, a focused weak attack and a swiping strong attack (it feels like it should be the other way around, but no big deal), and you have to unlock new moves simply by attacking. It works, but at first it feels like busywork. Sometimes you can skip enemies, since the only incentive you have to fight them is money (you don’t level up, you buy or find better equipment)... but since this is a 2003 game, sometimes it likes to lock you in typical “kill all enemies to proceed” scenarios. It’s very arbitrary. It also happens if you revisit old rooms. Some of the moves you unlock are pretty effective, though, I especially like the diving kick that can hit bigger enemies multiple times, and that move that makes enemies fly in the air.

(also, I don’t understand why you can only select items in a secondary menu screen that doesn’t pause the game. What if I needed a break to find my potions?)

What makes it a bit better is something that I discovered by accident :P the orbs aren’t there just to be used as keys, you can equip them, and it changes how the subweapons work! They cost more hearts, obviously, but 7 orbs (5 collected after defeating the main bosses, 1 to be found, 1 as a prize for defeating the gruesome bonus boss) for 5 subweapons equals 35 attacks to experiment with! That is really, really cool :)

The bosses are also enjoyable. Only the Succubus gave me some trouble, but the others were all the perfect difficulty and had nice strategies. The dodge mechanic is fun to exploit but isn't completely broken. The double combo of Walter and Death was intimidating at first (also, hi Death, I'm glad you finally managed to become the final boss!), but I genuinely had fun fighting both of them. Easily the highlight of the game.

But back to the nitpicking... Exploration was another gripe I had. It’s boring, Leon isn’t particularly fast, and there are no warp rooms - the closest thing would be a ticket that sends you to the last save you used and a ticket that sends you to Rinaldo's cabin - it's an efficient combo if you feel like stacking up before a boss fight. Add the issues of forced combat and insufferable “platforming”, and exploring areas for optional content is just demotivating. Speaking of which, the game can be very stingy with save rooms - why isn’t there one near the Succubus arena? Was it really necessary to put it on the floor above? Same with the Frost Elemental, although in that case you can say that it’s optional.

Even the finale was somewhat underwhelming. It goes like this:

go to the second floor

go to the east wing and get the VI tablet

go to the central hallway and reverse the tablet

go to the east wing and put the now IV tablet in place

go to the central hallway to face Walter

While in the meantime, tanky enemies block your way. Not exactly the deepest design. You can choose to visit the even harder west wing for a Health Up and the Unlock Jewel, but it’s optional. (I know that there is a room similar to the dark room in the Ghostly Theatre, and honestly, never again)

Where the games shines is the aesthetic. The game looks good for its time, with plenty of details that enhance the atmosphere. From the holy chapel with stained windows, to the luxurious theater, to the floors covered in water, the game is very pretty and isn't ashamed of thinking so. The PS2 graphics feel nostalgic to me too (I was constantly reminded of Hogwarts), so maybe I'm biased. In particular I like the look of the save rooms, they really feel like small sanctuaries for you to rest. Even the models of the humans are pretty good all things considered, although in the pause menu Leon looks like he hasn’t slept since he was born lol

But the music... boy. Michiru Yamane could finally unleash her whole talent, unrestrained by MIDI sounds, and the absolute job that she did <3

You know what you’re getting into when the entrance theme, usually an upbeat track, is a one woman wail

House of Sacred Remains keeps the tradition of beautiful chapel themes. It’s as peaceful as Requiem for the Gods :)

Statue Enchanted by Darkness has huge Berserk 1997 vibes, what a contrast from the previous track

ah yes, my favorite 11th century style music. rave. Something about it reminds me of Letz Get This Party Started from Sonic Adventure and I don’t know how to feel about that.

Ghostly Theatre is as elegant and somber as the abandoned theatre itself

Dark Palace of Waterfalls is like Michiru Yamane listened to Crystal Waterdrops and realized that she could now work with real instruments. dat organ tho <3

Garden Forgotten by Time is not what I expected from a greenhouse environment, but for some reason it feels the most SOTN track

its companion piece, Fog Enshrouded Nightscape, is just so pretty <3

Dark Night Toccata is almost wasted for such an easy boss

And finally, Lament of Innocence is clearly the masterpiece of the whole OST. When I got to the second floor of the Pagoda and this played, I went like “oh ho ho, now we’re talking!”. Shred that classic piano <3 Michiru said “A piece that shows Leon's grief and anger”, and yes it is. Love how the theme of the protagonist plays near the end of the game, rather than at the beginning like in most games - he got his theme after a great amount of grief. Also, is it me, or is the part at 1:34 reminiscent of Dracula’s theme in Super Castlevania IV? I hope it's intentional because I am in love.

Bonus: the three arrangements from Aria of Sorrow, because they slapped with the GBA soundfont so imagine with actual instruments. The Cross of Fate is how Ruined Castle Corridor was meant to sound, Requiem for the Dark Soul hits much harder than the original Chapel, and Holy Cross Obsessed by the Moon (should be “possessed”, but no matter) lacks Top Floor's catchy piano but makes it up in finality.

So, did I hate the game? No, I may have been negative overall, but I don't think it's that bad. I would say that it's better than Megaman Legends, which truly made me furious for its terrible controls. This one was just... undercooked? I could see the ambition in creating a 3D Castlevania game that would satisfy both fans of the Classics and fans of the Igavanias, but something is missing. I can tell that Igarashi wasn't well versed in designing a 3D game. I'll take it as a relic of the time and an interesting origin story.

#castlevania #lament of innocence

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daisyachain · 2 years

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Everything Everywhere All At Once

Great!! movie!!

The movie splits into two halves: Part 1, underdog heroine finds her strength in a game of sci-fi cat and mouse; Part 2, woman comes to terms with her own dissatisfaction and regrets, learns to embrace the chaotic nature of life and stop worrying about perceived insufficiency. Part 2 is where it gets literary/highbrow, but I was 100% down for Part 1. If the film never went beyond an absurd action movie, I would still love it for the worldbuilding and the tense pace as the Alpha world collapses and Evelyn turns to more and more extremes to escape.

The depiction of mundane life was as fun as the world shenanigans. Loved the set dressing of all the lived-in spaces, the realism was rich and tense instead of boring. I really did feel stressed-out looking at the tax slips! Without getting you invested in the stakes of the Wangs’ “normal” life, the remaining story doesn’t work--why is Evelyn so resistant to new things? Why is she so terrified/enthralled by her world of possibilities? The slice of time we spend in their daily routine is so well-fleshed out that the rest of the movie can stand on that foundation.

Evelyn! I feel like there’s a tendency to give older woman actors ‘girlboss’ roles when cast in Western action movies (which is rare enough) -> see Judi Dench in James Bond, Angela Basset in Mission Impossible, Helen Mirren. A few quippy lines, 0 depth. Evelyn being a struggling, middling underdog was just so refreshing to see! Like every other hero she has to come up through her insecurities, her fears, in a way that has been missing from even some of Yeoh’s recent roles (Discovery and Crazy Rich Asians off the top of my head).

Waymond! Stole the show. One thing that sticks with me is Quan’s high voice. Like height it’s never something you think about, but cinema has an aversion to tenor-range men that doesn’t stand out until you find one! That real-world context doubles down on his awkward self-effacement. I feel like my mom (world’s foremost advocate of calling the customer service representative) would love him. There isn’t much I can say that hasn’t already been said about him, only that his breakdown in the van over the divorce papers is fantastic.

Unfortunately Joy wasn’t as standout a character to me as Evelyn or Waymond, but boy was she real. There are Joys that I have met. One of them I play DnD with. I wish some of her disaffection had been more directly explained the way Evelyn’s/Waymond’s despair was. Their relationship clearly isn’t good, just somehow it didn’t quite feel as heartbreakingly awful as it should have to make Jobu Tupaki feel natural. Contrast Gong Gong and Evelyn, who were truly hard to watch.

Alpha Gong Gong showing up was one of my top 5 moments in the movie. Go granddad!

The action scenes were superlative, no notes

In an age where more experimental stuff gets made, they pulled off the absurdity! I find a lot of stories that go for ridiculousness fail, they get self-conscious, they try too hard to be weird and end up just being pathetic. Like a high schooler’s comedy routine. The film managed to keep up a hectic pace of bizarre happenstances, the off-colour jokes were funny, the bright lights and glittery costumes were exactly as dazzling as they were meant to be.

The one point where the shenanigans felt forced was the joke of the Everything Bagel, which gets a pass because of the circles -> cycle of reincarnation -> opposing googly eyes/bagel -> rolling rocks -> black circle motif, the bagel itself isn’t a joke, but rather a joke made from the leftovers of the circle motif + title. The bagel follows, it doesn’t lead, so why not make it into a pun!

I am so glad I saw the googly eye/bagel post before I saw the movie

The 2001: A Space Odyssey Sausage Fingers scene had me laughing in the second-run theatre with 8 other people in it

Sausage Fingers universe was surprisingly poignant which I hated, because it did make me cry, and I stayed distraught until wedge cut Evelyn talked it out with foot pianist tax lady

I think my sister would have the hots for Racacoonie guy, I should ask her

Favourite 2-second gag: the guy photocopying his ass in the sex room ambush

The sci-fi lover in me wanted to see more of the different alternate universes even if I know there would be budget issues

It took me a very long time to realize that the Movie Star Universe is actually the Michelle Yeoh universe in which Evelyn is Michelle Yeoh ;;

Laundry and taxes scene was exactly as good as everyone says it is

Divorce! I love divorce narratives so much, or at least I love narratives about two peers with an intense relationship on the verge of breakdown (Infinity Train s4, CDRW, Gotham, Magnus s4). I don’t talk or think about it often until I saw EEAAO and it was the best romance that I have seen or read or thought of since...The Magnus Archives? Which was a romance designed to appeal to me personally.

Specifically I loved how you can see where Evelyn and Waymond fit together, the jagged edges that line up as the borders of Brazil do with the Gulf of Guinea. Her stubbornness, his flexibility, her fear, his quickness, her conviction, his despair, you can see how good they have been for each other and could be again, why she nuked her relationship with her family to follow him, why he accepted it when she started treating him as an employee instead of a partner. They need each other to climb out of the pit--shown literally through Alpha Waymond teaching Evelyn about the universe and...everything about current universe Waymond. But it’s almost as painful staying together as staying apart! I love to watch two people have to think about why they need each other, have to break down their own relationship in the way that I-the-viewer am doing it.

The ending! Again, nothing I can say that hasn’t been said, the one part that I will pick out is Evelyn listing her grievances. The movie doesn’t comfort the audience and say ‘actually the kids are right, stick it to the old folks’--it says that communication is what is right, that it’s down to Evelyn and Joy to negotiate what each should do to repair their relationship, that we the audience can’t fully judge either.

#kelsey liveblogs movies

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salty-dracon · 2 years

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AI The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative Spoiler Liveblog part 2. Starting a new thread for another major change in the story.

Continuation part 9.

We've finished both of Ryuki's path splits. Now, we can go back and remind Ryuki of "Dahlia Boat" or "Kaname Date".

Both of these are different timelines. Ryuki should technically know only one- Shoma revealed "Dahlia" when he finally opened up to Ryuki, and "Boat" was when Tearer said it himself at the cathedral.

Uh oh, his face is fading away... and everything's glitching... and my device isn't happy...

OH HELL NAW I'M BEING CHASED BY SLENDERMAN RYUKIS

Haha. Now you're the game, dumbass.

Hmm. Tama can accidentally glitch into Mizuki's brain... and its dark secrets.

Dahlia Boat. I wish I had any idea what that meant. It could be a thing where the writers thought of a fake English name and it did not sound like one in the least.

Hopefully Mizuki's side of the story is a little more lighthearted this time... Because Ryuki's was sheer pain and confusion.

The scooter!!!

How come Ryuki closes his eyes diagonally while Mizuki's are straight? Is it possible that Ryuki doesn’t have depth perception, and we just didn’t know?

If this Jin's death was nine hours ago, and the other one was 40 hours, that means the corpse teleported back in time. If time teleportation and not cloning was, in fact, the truth... maybe. Time is fucky here.

A single tire tread, machine oil, and a screw... don't tell me... Shoma's Robota? He chose to follow Naix in the explosion route... Maybe he's using Robota for them.

WHAT??? OTA AND IRIS LOOK SO DIFFERENT!!!

IRIS REALLY SANG THE CHUG JUG SONG WTF

Iris and Ota please stop with the conspiracy theories.

Ryuki stop going insane! You're gonna become like one of our story's two creepy old people at this rate!

Amame :( I'd really like to know how and why she seems to know Naix and the Nirvana Initiative so well.

Gen loves Amame so much awwwww

Why is there a second customer and why is he saying something about a king's dream

Breaking and entering into my old classmate's house. just to use the kotatsu

Kizuna's in a wheelchair? I didn't expect that! But her design now matches her box art. Lien hasn’t changed, though, but he already matched the box art, minus his airplane necklace.

She suffered a spine injury in the collapse? Awww. Poor Kizuna.

Wow. Lien's really mellowed out. He was downright creepy at first, but as the obsession wears off his kindness is shining through. That being said, it's still creepy to hit on an 18 year old at first sight.

Shoma’s going to Horadori Institute? That means he hadn’t cut ties with them, or he really believes that he’s going to die if he doesn’t keep getting their genetic treatment.

MIZUKI POWER LETS GO!!!!

How many astronauts are there?! I count ten on screen... she just beat up three...

MASKED WOMAN TO THE RESCUE!!! She’s straight up the funniest character in this game, which is the last thing I expected.

there are dead astronauts everywhere. like among us.......

KIZUNA???

Well, we can rule out the masked woman being Kizuna!

They’re being very dodgy about showing Shoma’s face... apparently he and Lien are like “brothers” now.

Did “what” to you?

I kind of... actually had no idea how old Tokiko was... so 37 years ago, she was 23.... SHE’S SIXTY???? AND WITH SKIN THAT SMOOTH????

remembering ana overwatch...

HAHAHAHAHA MASKED WOMAN SPILLING ALL THE TEA ABOUT THAT CRAZY ILLICIT RELATIONSHIP CHIKARA AND TOKIKO HAD

... wow, she was really attached to that child, wasn’t she. is that why she’s like that?... And the child is dead? If I’m right that Gen is the child, of course Tokiko would dream about them both. Or perhaps Shoma is the child, like a clone of her original child. Hmm. (Well, I was right that she made some decisions due to her trauma... but we still don’t know why she joined Naix or if it’s even relevant.)

Aww, the masked woman is really nice and stressing she’s on our side. Despite shooting at Mizuki. With rubber bullets. Her two pieces of advice were “Don’t lose sight of yourself, no matter who betrays you” and “Be wary of Ryuki.”

Kizuna why are you having nightmares about Chikara and can I help you

One thing I realized re: my initial theory powerpoint is that since I forgot to add the images, nothing is really stopping me from adding text boxes and adding my comments on my initial theories after the game.

Absolutely hilarious that Boss went “don’t do anything stupid or illegal” and the next day mizuki goes and does something stupid and illegal

kizuna brain time

“Little Blue Riding Hood”... not red.

Wow, it’s all so... sparkly. And weird. And melancholy. And calm...

Looks like her memories are being rendered as fairy tales...

*homophobe voice* it’s hansel and gretel not hannah and gretel

aww. kizuna was always sad that her father wasn’t around, no matter how much he gave her.

glass slippers... looks like she really did see lien as her prince, in a way. Holy hell her whole life has been downright depressing.

And eventually, during her childhood, she lost her sister, too. It’s like everything she had, and everything she loved, was eventually just stolen from her. So she just hid all the pain and sadness away. What other choice did she have? Kinda relate in a way, though I’m only just starting to lose beloved family.

So, Kizuna’s father knows about the inhumane genome experiments being done at Horadori Institute.

“A girl whose genes were forcibly rewritten...” What does that mean? And why? There are lots of mysterious female characters in this story we don’t know anything about, but one that gained superhuman athletic ability... that could be Mizuki, or it could be the masked woman.

... wait... MIZUKI??? Mizuki was the one with superhuman abilities? No one else? So Shoko and Renju just adopted her when she was three? She’s not their birth kid? All those stories about how her grandfather was super strong were just lies?

chikara’s left half got stuck to the edge of the giant stone rectangle in yoyagi park. and this was apparently the man that genetically modified her. holy shit, this must be devastating for her.

uh, let’s see. jin got horizontally displayed in a tv studio, and then in a stadium. chikara got vertically glued to a blackboard and then a... stone slab. we’re gonna find tokiko on boss’s desk or something. and then komeji in a police truck.

... why did they stick the alphabet inside his body. what is “rle” supposed to mean? and now “aef”... it’s like they wanted mizuki specifically to figure all of this out for herself... and same with ryuki’s own investigation.

wait, let me check my previous liveblog posts. i wrote down the letters in that one video...

ccfggd,aeigahe ... nope i can’t figure it out

Hmm, two X’s that cross down. And the balloon was red on the left and blue on the right, kind of like this game’s thematic.

Scrabble word solver didn’t help with anything.

MOMA YOUR VOICE????

Uh, those puzzles are clearly going to point to “NAIX”.

Ryuki shot a guy? Oh no...

Gen wasn’t BORN with a warped skeleton... but Chikara’s genetic experiments destroyed his body. That’s three characters that have been experimented on now- Shoma, Mizuki, and Gen. And potentially also the masked woman.

More warped voices? And it’s the male and female one again. They seem to follow the order of %.

GEN NO

we’re psyncing through his MASK??????

oh my god. a cooking competition. gotta have one in everything

“we can use the timie from earlier to reduce any amount of time to one second”... oh boy and here comes the gag. THATS A LOT OF SECONDS

every time i learn more about chikara I hate that guy even more!!!! gen is not a failure!!! he’s a friend!!!!

wait... chikara said that gen was created from a genetically modified egg. his body wasn’t genetically modified, his pre-existing genetic material was and he grew from that. so is there a way to grow bodies that doesn’t require a surrogate? or was someone else the surrogate...

gen :( awwwww but amame loves him so much

1 HO ST

2 UN RA

3 IN DG

HORAINSTUNDG

Oh, Horadori Institute Underground!

Boss was literally about to kick her ass for this one and she’s like “better call my friend with a giant key for some reason”. illegal and dangerous!

Well, thanks Lien. Your description of the TC-PERGE virus, which according to him causes people to do crazy things over and over, sounds a lot like a certain speech from a certain hologram of a certain dead cult leader.

According to the hologram, you do enough crazy things over and over in a video game world, you’re bound to find some way to break outside of the game’s boundaries, in a way no one wants you to do... and if you’ve got all of humanity doing that, that process is accelerated seven billion times. Those “seams” they believe exist, would be found very quickly. All anyone would have to do is quarantine themselves until they find one. And then, you get in an astronaut suit and punch God in the face.

Which would explain the final part of Tokiko’s Somnium. She knew that tons and tons of people would die painfully for Naix and the Order of % to find the seams. Though whether she would have wanted to see it happen (she feels... something towards shoma and gen... probably just pity) is still up for debate. And we can’t ask her, she’s dead. (Well, actually, Ryuki might be able to contact Jumpscare Tokiko.)

Also reminds me of Zero Escapes 2 and 3, in which religious cult leaders release a virus over Earth that causes complete and total mayhem.

shoutout to the guy who heard a bit of music and recorded it in do re mi’s. actually i’m going to see if i can transcribe it into piano music

Or the game could do it for me.

Musical code! That seems awfully unsecure...

Well, we found it. Horadori Institute Underground.

Now the question is, descending these steps, will I be faced with a Horadori Jumpscare or a Shigure Jumpscare?

Lien really is “I’m a locksmith!” *smashes window*.

I don’t like how rusty that door is.

This is... what?! The Naix cathedral?!

Noise...? No biological life...? ... Tama is there?

Years-old bloodstains...?

A tooth! Specifically, Jin Furue’s tooth, probably. Meaning if there’s any place he got bisected, it was most likely here.

“Let us call this person T for now” must be a reference to another Uchikoshi game. Not sure which one...

Tokiko Shigure’s other half?! (Her bangs are... not entirely cut off.)

And that’s how the bodies got cut in half molecularly. It wasn’t teleportation, and it wasn’t a portal like in Big Hero 6.... it was just a really, really, really thin string. But does that mean everyone was sliced like that while they were still alive? And why are there two machines? And how was the body even preserved all this time, since her time of death is six hours ago?

And why do I have the sinking feeling that Shoma’s wrapped up in all this...

Ouch, she was suicidal.... that sucks.

“I can’t just leave her, but...” Leave her. Trust me. Screw her.

Wow. This is most certainly a murder dungeon. There’s a Naix symbol up there, a shower... it’s like a really, really dingy living space. And there’s lots of training equipment.

Nirvana Trial was produced here. Looks like the person living here was having their creation used without their permission. And unlike them, there was someone here who was kind to them. I’ll be furious if that’s true, but I’m betting that’s Shoma. He was affiliated with Naix and Horadori Lab, he had a creation used for evil (Robota), and Tokiko clearly knew Shoma somehow- and this might be how. He even calls a woman “Mom”...

Huh? So, something about a “Mom”... and that he hates “him”... and that he was bleeding from the mouth after he was punched in the face. Jin Furue? But who’s “Mom?” And is she the one degree of separation connecting everyone else? Also, no way this can be Shoma- he’s extremely weak.

That’s how Jin died! He was punched by this person, got his tooth knocked out, left unconscious... and then chopped in half by him.

I’m even more sure now that “Mom” is Tokiko and “him” is Jin. Plus, Tokiko was ready to help her kid with money- and with that crazy waterfall in her office, she’s absolutely loaded.

Oh, this guy is Tearer! But could Tearer be another Ryuki? Or is it Shoma, like I thought? (That would be a twist... ) Shoma’s in the mountains, camping... but that could be a lie.

First Jin, the man he hated, who apologized insincerely for locking him away. TC-PERGE, the virus that will make humanity achieve “Moksha”. Then, Chikara, who stole something important from him. 2/13, they met the person of their destiny..... who is that? Who is that person? Is it Ryuki? Is it Shoma? ... Is it Date? I still find it suspicious that “Kaname Date” fits right into the question at the beginning of the game... But the diary stops right before Tokiko and Komeji being bisected. And Komeji’s corpse is nowhere to be found. Plus, this is minor, but why say the names out of order?

Boss is REALLY mad! And for once, Aiba’s standing up for Mizuki.

A fifth person’s blood... a victim we don’t know about yet. Who could that be?

That’s right, Mizuki. Even if your mom hated you, and you were used as nothing more than a test subject when you were a child... you’re surrounded by the best of friends and family! And you’ve got a trusty eyeball who’s defending you from your boss. Who also loves you. Which is another reason I’m suspicious about Date... Ryuki only ever looked up to him, and now that Date’s missing, he’s gone off the deep end. We don’t even know where he is right now.

Still trying to understand what “truth is only an illusion” means. Does it refer to simulation theory and that’s it? Or is there really something darker at work?

Uuuuuuugh, we’re missing so many pieces! And I’m 90% sure Amame and Tokiko have some kind of strong relationship, but hell if I know what it is!

Well, uh, Kizuna and Lien ending? Yay, they dug up the time capsule.

I wonder if it’s possible that Amame is Tearer. 1. When Shoma came face to face with Tearer, Tearer said his name was “Dahlia”. And when Tearer ran into the cathedral, he said his name was “Boat”. Dahlia is a super feminine English name, and “Boat” has something to do with water, which Amame is associated with. 2. The only time we suppose they had contact was when Amame supposedly met Tearer, when Aiba is supposed to be able to tell when there’s living organisms hiding and somehow didn’t know. Somehow, she didn’t think that the Tearer behind the curtain was a real person. But Amame could have just slipped her Tearer costume onto a mannequin. 3. Amame was apparently heavily traumatized by Tearer’s words. But she knew Tokiko before she ran into Tearer, and she knows everything about the weird videos that are coming out. Her knowledge of what the Nirvana Initiative was existed before she met Tearer face to face. And how did Tearer explain the Nirvana Initiative so fast? It doesn’t make sense unless Amame is Tearer, or she knows way, way more than she’s letting on. 4. Jin Furue’s death was practically the first thing that happened in both stories. That means that no matter what branch, Amame isn’t wrong about it being only her and her mother. Or her being dirt poor. A lot of what’s going on with her could be lies by omission. It would also explain her affection towards Gen. 5. Amame’s Somnium was weirdly fucked up for someone who supposedly held affection towards everyone in the room. Like, Saito levels of fucked up. Her Somnium was about being taken prisoner, almost...

Iris and Ota! They've got some more bullshit information! And... Yogano... who... has just proven that bullshit information right. Plus, if Aiba says that people are going out of control on the news, she's probably right. And the descriptions of the actions people are taking matches up almost exactly with Tokiko's description of how humans tried to reach Moksha. Hmm, Misetan at midnight?

Now Lien is hiding something?!

Amame’s dad is watching from heaven. She has to obey someone. The three male victims are Chikara Horadori, Andes Komeji, and Jin Furue, plus possibly a fourth person... Based on what I said earlier, I think she’s associated with Naix. Like, as I keep memeing, Tokiko is her mom or something.

Time to meet 18 year old Shoma!

He looks the same as 12 year old Shoma... But he’s a little more talkative. So, just like me. He also wants revenge, just like Ryuki does. Well, without going off the deep end.

Curious why Shoma asked about how Jin’s body blew up. A thermite bomb on a timer, obviously, but what would he use that information for? Choosing violence?

He’s still a little grumpy and hard to read. That’s normal.

Naix is at Ikume Shrine?!

The rockets from six years ago contained TC-PERGE?!

Mizuki going full sadist and reminding the Naix members that she beat the shit out of them all six years ago. And she could do it again. And will.

Masked Woman! With a baseball bat this time...

Huh. She was raised at Aioen. And experimented on at Horadori Institute.

HUH? From 9 to 15, she was raised with a different family. A sibling she loved. The most peaceful six years of her life ... The Masked Woman is Kizuna’s real Big Sis. The one Kizuna loved, and the one she misses so much.

Huh. She describes herself as a “designer baby”.

Masked woman stands the fuck up, says she needs to rest, and passes the fuck out on the ground. What a queen.

horadori jumpscare

why are horadori somniums just straight up BANGIN’

okay, well. second horror game somnium

also shoutout to chikara’s va, because you’ve had to voice this guy doing so many weird things and now he’s a horror movie scientist, and you’re still doing amazing

Wait, I just realized- this room, with its metal shutters, is where we found the left half of Tokiko’s body, aka the slicing room. She was experimented on under Horadori Institute.

HUH??? The masked woman’s Somnium has a path split!

this one is just full of horadori jumpscares eh

When his son was born, he said an eight-letter word about it. Looks like the password is a result of the path split.

Well, this Somnium is stress inducing. Mess up, and you get stabbed. Also, rudimentary stealth section, which is... annoying.

I was right again: if you don't know what Chikara said about his son, the eight letter word, you can't go down one path.

just realized that when you're hit with a horadori jumpscare, his pupils are little slits. Like a catboy's! ..... Chikara is not a catboy.

You know, I was considering a plot point where my mad scientist character drives a drill into someone's heart... but not a child's!

Why did I think this guy was a red herring again? He's completely messed up!

HOLY SHIT!!! A DRILL?! WITH YOUR BARE HANDS?!

Yeah, that's what I thought. Cause a worldwide, simultaneous bug. Using TC-PERGE. And the rehearsal's at Misetan.

Are you bringing Masked Woman? Yes you are!

Those dark lines under his eyes... he's clearly doing worse. I wonder if he's Tearer, with Date's help. Or if Date's Tearer and he's helping.

Masked Woman: Hey.

Ryuki: You...

Masked Woman:

Ryuki:

Masked Woman: *beats the shit out of him*

Mizuki: Why did you punch him?!

Masked Woman: I kicked him too.

Phew, there was no virus in that rocket...

There's Komeji's left half. We still don't know how they're messing with the time of death...

So I noted after hitting the twist of AITSF that there was a plot reason why there was nothing after the Ota ending. I'm wondering if it's the same for the Komeji ending- for some reason, Tearer has to cut Komeji in half. That would be awful for Shoma.

Get the bow... Komeji's bowtie, maybe? Which would prove they're different people?

... wait. Mizuki has a younger sister? Who? Who's just forcibly inserting little girls into everyone's lives?

Chocolate for Shoma!

Wait, what Komeji found and hid away was... a corpse?! The left half of someone's body?! Was that the same six years ago and today?

Kizuna's missing again?! This is just like the Explosion ending...

I wonder if the twist is that Mizuki's story doesn't actually take place after Ryuki's. It takes place in a timeline that appears similar but is fundamentally different.

Right, Lien's friend is someone named Quartz, but we don't know anything about them.

Hmm. He doesn't kill when he doesn't have to.

MIZUKI LIFTING NOISES

Same as Ryuki. She gets hit with an eyeball destroying blast of electricity.

Now Ryuki's turning on her. That's why I'm 90% sure that Tearer is Date.

How did one bullet knock Tearer out?!

Psync with Tearer, eh?

Doesn't the existence of the chemical plant Psync machine completely spoil AITSF?!

if this is Tearer's room, wonder if we'll actually see the faces of his victims.

Wait, "Terrible, terrible, terrible... That guy can just die" is from TEARER'S somnium??? In which case it's likely referring to Jin Furue.

'Mom help me'.

Oooo a walking puzzle! I love these things!

Jin had tumors in only one half of his body. Is it possible that this child was being used by Jin as someone to harvest organs from?

Looks like he kept that resentment until adulthood. Of course he did- he was a prisoner and a human test subject.

Oh. You're fucking kidding me. Jin Furue is Tokiko and Chikara's son. And Tearer is her son too.

Well. That was fucked up.

Somnium end.

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todayimgonnaplay · 6 months

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Today I'm Gonna Play: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

I've seen Ys pop up often as people's top JRPGs. I've never played them before, so I jumped into the latest entry blind to what this series offers.

Talking of combat first, the first thing this game reminded me of was Tales of Arise; having skills by pressing button combinations, dodging, on screen encounters, and having a party based system where you could switch characters. It felt extremely snappy and satisfying, and I loved unlocking new skills be it from getting them as I fight, or from shops. It's an easy system that's fast-paced which is also great when you want to play something simple and shut your brain off for a bit.

There are also raids included, which have a tower defense mechanism to ensure you survive hordes of enemies while protecting a crystal, or to collect X number of item in a time limit. It gets quite chaotic but is manageable with the use of upgrades. This adds a nice variety to combat so that it does not get monotonous. Aside from that, the game seems to have a superpower motif going on, allowing you to traverse in different ways such as parkouring or gliding, or accessing hard to get places, as well as some combat abilities. It was an unexpected but fun touch.

The best qualities I've seen in this game are more finer details that add to the overall Quality of Life. One being how the map system functions. You're able to get a view of your current area AND look at the region map, in which you can look at other area maps because why not, all with the press of a button or two. . The game really encourages exploration in a great way by rewarding you with fast travel unlocks, and new shops or quests. What surprised me the most was that the minimap leaves a decently sized trail as you move around, making backtracking easy as well as marking where you've already been in case the dungeons or areas look the same-ish (or if you're feeling a bit forgetful at the time of playing). It's spoiled the way I see maps for JRPGs in a good way, and I'd love to see more games like this. The second detail I loved was the amount of customization in settings, ranging from gameplay to HUDs, giving the player freedom to truly explore or to be guided. And lastly, being able to save at anytime is quite a game-changer. It's not always easy to find time to game, and priorities are there to handle in real life, so having this feature came in super handy.

The story seems somewhat simple and straightforward. It's quite innocent and doesn't get too deep until the latter half of the game. I'm actually quite surprised how deep the game gets into its lore and politics, and it was simple enough to understand without playing the previous games. There's a nice variety in cast, and side quests actually add lore to them rather than being usual fetch or escort quests.

I also find the character designs to be a plus, most of them are designed quite well without the reliance of fanservice. It was a breath of fresh air! However I did find Renegade's design to be underwhelming with such a muted colour palette. It does fit his personality a bit, perhaps.

Some negatives are the graphical quality of this game. It's the latest entry released just a few years ago, yet it looks much older, and very bland in terms of colour. I had fun exploring the city of Balduq and was amazed at the size and depth of the place, but it definitely lacked some colour or variety that made the place truly interesting. Midway I stopped to look at previous entries' graphics and felt that Ys 8 somehow looked better, but I also read a bit about the developer and didn't realize their impact towards the genre, and that they seem to make more budgeted titles, so I can give this a pass.

Another negative is the music, most songs fit, but only about 2 tracks truly caught my ears, while the rest sound quite generic and akin to typical melodies I would hear in budget JRPGs.

Overall, the game was truly an enjoyable adventure to experience, and I even felt a little sad as I reached the end, bonding with the cast and the city. I'm looking forward to future titles and may check out 8!

youtube

#game analysis #ys #ys ix #ys ix monstrum nox #ys 9 #ys 9 monstrum nox #nihon falcom #jrpg games #Youtube

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snowhiss · 8 months

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Sigma's Game Recommendations

Hii, here's some of my game recommendations with a lil blurb on why.

Games are ordered relatively neutrally, except for this first section...

Life Altering

Undertale - Multi Platform - RPG - Oh, Undertale. What is there to say about it that hasn't been...I played this day one because a friend lent me a copy from their steam. I had never heard of Undertale beforehand, but my god, would I know of it. It is a quirky little game about making friends (unless...?) and has excellent music, storyflow, and characters. I am admittedly...not a fan of the battle system, but it is unique and fits the game, so *shrug*. I acquired a permanent brainworm in the form of Gaster from this, so there's that too.

Sonic Mega Collection - Collection - Look, Sonic was my first fandom, and when the smoke clears, it will be my last fandom. Mega collection is great to dip your toe in every major sonic game made before Adventure. I'm a big Sonic 2 fan, but don't mind a little S3K as well.

Sonic Unleashed - Wii/Xbox 360 - This may be a rose tinted glasses thing, but Sonic unleashed is apologetically cool and fun to play. Especially the werehog stages. Solid story, solid gameplay, solid music. I love this game and I will kill for it.

Spore Creatures - DS - Spore, but only the creature stage as a little planet exploring game. You evolve your critter as you travel and make friends and enemies. Its a fun little ditty that I love revisiting to see my favorite biomes and aliens. I go crazy for this game ngl

PC, Windows

Golden Treasure: The Great Green - Visual Novel/Point N' Click - I picked this game to play because you can play as a dragon, but was kept playing in by the game play depth. Has very good replay-ability, some very interesting story beats, and some different walks of life you can take. I like the art style and the difficulty as well. Admittedly a bit spiritual, with some very flowery language that may be a bit difficult to digest sometimes, but I think it's truly worth it for a new spin on dragons.

Purrgatory - Visual Novel/Point N' Click - Wonderful thoughtful short game with great music and humor, and stories to discover. Emotional at times, but its a game literally about purgatory. And it DOES have a nice neat ending instead of leaving loose ends.

How to Raise a Dragon - RPG - Short pixel game about growing a dragon. Has 3 paths you can take, and you can customize your color and breath power :3 I always make my dragon blue or white!

Deltarune - RPG - Goofy ass game, but very solid. By the same people that brought you Undertale and more! Currently a demo with only 2 chapters, but looks very promising so far. I love the battle system and overworld sprites. Spamton specifically fucked up my perception of this game so now i see it with rose tinted glasses forever.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - Visual Novel/Platformer - Short, cute little game that showcases some character personality of some of the Sonic cast :) Very very goofy.

Spore - Its spore. - Ngl, I only play up to the creature stage and then start a new save.

Portal 2 - Puzzle/Platformer - Its a valve game, what's not to love. Funny, Nice atmosphere, goofy characters, lesbian romance, confusing puzzles! It has it all!

Dragon Creek - Pet? Game? - Horse game, but dragons. Fairly light in gameplay, but solid. I'll occasionally spend 30 minutes to take of a dragon.

A Little to the Left - Puzzle - Organizational game. It probably has a story, but i like puzzle :) Cute art style and has puzzles with multiple solutions.

Deponia - Point N' Click - Decently long game that's definitely made in 2014. Has a few lel edgy humor moments (i know for sure r slur is said at least twice), but for the most part is a pleasant play gameplay wise.

Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside - Point N' Click - Oh man, I was a huge fan of all Humongous Entertainment games as a kid, but I think the dark, "mature" aspect of this pajama sam game drew me in. And sam is also a snarky little kid lol. Juvenile, but honestly still a fun play. Solid game to play if you wanna see if you like point n clicks.

Web

Flight Rising - Pet Game - You can dress up dragons, train them to fight, breed them, change their appearance, and collect hoards of items and familiars (lil pets). Your dragons CAN NOT die! PLEASE PLAY FLIGHT RISING WITH ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

GPX Plus - Pokemon Clone - The only pokemon clone I've actually stuck with playing. Fairly easy to get into. I mostly play just to hatch eggs, but there are battles and quests you can do. I really like the layout, and I like that I dont have to get on the forums to play.

Rescreatu - Pet Game - I don't actively play this game, but i have to recommenced it on gameplay alone. You can find eggs to hatch pets, and while your pets can die, getting food to keep them fed is fairly easy. There's a ton of pets with all kinds of life stages you can collect. You can play by yourself, but its easier to get pointers from older players on the shoutbox. Its. Ok. I spent a good chunk of my childhood on here so it might be a nostalgia recommendation.

Felisfire - Pet Game - Its about breeding alien cats, with some other spaceship lore tossed in. I've been playing this on and off for a long time. It takes a hot minute to get into, as its breeding system is a little involved, but its a nice game to have in your back pocket for an hour of so on a rainy day.

Khimeros - Pet Game - Besties idk what goes on here tbh, ive been opening this game once a year for 10 years, breeding things and then leaving <3

Console

Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 - Gamecube - Funny monkey balancing game. Difficult, keeps me entertained with some cute graphics, music, and fine motor controls.

Spyro, Enter the Dragonfly - Gamecube - This game fucking sucks, but that's the fun of it. Was my one and only Spyro game for a long time, so I grew to love it. I like the idea of it.

#game recommendations #ok im tired of reaching into the depths of my mind for recs #if i find more ill edit #i thought about recommending some otomes but that might get its own post #critter thought #holy shit you can edit tags without deleting them????????#fresh.snow #the fucking search will NOT infec this post it makes me so sad #adding to pinned here in a sec

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