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I assume everyone already knows this, but here’s the label on the demo for Hidden Star in Four Seasons. New butterfly character. Go wild, fandom.

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Behold: the first written use of fuck, from 1528, inscribed by a monk who seems to have been pretty pissed off with an abbot.

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this is probably one of my top 10 favorite videos please watch it

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A post shared by Luke Kidgell (@lukekidgell)

I aspire to be this cool.

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Posted by Steven Payne to Facebook group British Medieval History:

People in the Middle Ages valued sweet smelling breath and bodies, seeing them as desirable, so there is a great deal of evidence from the period of tooth pastes, powders and deodorants. Contrary to the typical Hollywood depiction of medieval peasants with blackened and rotting teeth, the average person had teeth which were in fairly good condition, mainly due to the rarity of sugar in the diet. Most medieval people could not afford sugar and those who could used it sparingly. Archaeological data shows that only 20% of teeth had signs of decay, as opposed to 90% in the early twentieth century. The main dental problem for medieval people was not decay but wear, due to a high content of grit in the main staple, bread. For deodorants, soap was available for the wealthy, but a variety of herbs and other preparations were also used. Soapwort is a plant native to Europe and Asia which, when soaked in water, produces an effective liquid soap. Mint, cloves and thyme were also extensively used by simply rubbing into the skin, and alum (hydrated potassium aluminium sulphate) was an effective deodorant. I am trying to keep to 14th century technology on my pilgrimage to Canterbury, which gives me various options when looking at hygiene. In the middle ages people generally cleaned their teeth by rubbing them and their gums with a rough linen cloth, or the chewed end of a stick. There are various recipes for pastes and powders that could be put on the cloth to help clean the teeth, but I have chosen simple salt to whiten them and to aid fresh breath. I will also be using the stick method, and will be taking along a supply of liquorice root sticks for that purpose. I also have a few blocks of alum, which when rubbed into wet skin has a deodorising effect. Alum, like beeswax, was used extensively in the middle ages for a variety of purposes, also being useful: * in the purification of drinking water as a flocculant * as a styptic to stop bleeding from minor cuts * as a pickling agent to help keep pickles crisp * as a flame retardant * as an ingredient in modelling clay * as an ingredient in cosmetics and skin whiteners * as an ingredient in some brands of toothpaste The photograph shows my wash kit including home made olive oil soap, salt for the teeth, a block of deodorising alum, cloves, a boxwood comb made for me by Peter Crossman of Crossman Crafts and some liquorice root sticks, all on a woollen ‘towel’. Note that the cloves are kept in a ventilated box….this is because insects hate the smell of cloves and so a perforated box will keep them out of my kit and food bag when I am sleeping rough. TIP: If you steep some cloves to obtain the oil and put the liquid around the doors and windows of your house, it keeps spiders and insects out.

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There’s a big Google Docs email scam going around. Here’s what to do if you received it.

Many people — namely individuals in media — are reporting that they’ve received emails that appear to be sent from someone they know, addressed to “hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh@mailinator.com” with a link to a Google Doc and the recipients blocked, according to Motherboard.

If you received a similar suspicious email, someone you know has been been phished, my friend!

If you receive an email like the aforementioned (or any suspicious email or text ever), do not click the link. I repeat: Do not click the link.

Before deleting the message, you should first report the phishing scam to Google, as EFF’s Director of Cybersecurity Eva Galperin tweeted.

You should also check authorized apps in your email account, as well as enable two-factor authentication, as ACLU technology fellow Leigh Honeywell tweeted. Read more (5/3/17)

follow @the-future-now​

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Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 Publisher: SEGA (Arcade), Arc System Works (JP PS3/PS4, Windows) Aksys Games (NA PS3/PS4), PQube (EU PS3/PS4) Developer: Arc System Works Platform: Arcade, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows Year: 2017

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WHERE’S THAT POP’N MUSIC IMAGE THAT SHOWS YOU HOW TO PRESS THE RED AND WHITE BUTTONS????

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OC dump!!

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So you want to get into Touhou?

If you’re on the internet, and you’re a weeb like me, chances are, you may have heard of Touhou! The series is quite prolific in the Japanese and western communities, having over 2 million art submissions on Pixiv alone, numerous fan-anime, thousands of music remixes, loads of fangames and thousands of videos.

What is it?

At its core, the Touhou Project is a series of danmaku (bullet hell) shooting games, playing like a classic arcade vertical scroller. Players are required to play through various stages of enemies that shoot huge amounts of slow-moving projectiles across the screen, while dodging them. There are currently 16 main games in the series, the first 5 of which were released in the late 90′s and were for the old Japanese PC-98 computer system, and the most recent 11 of which are for Windows.

Each main game in the series was developed by a single man - Jun’ya Oota, going by the alias ZUN, publishing under the company name Team Shanghai Alice. He does all of the game’s programming, music, story and character design by himself, releasing them at conventions like Comiket and Reitaisai - a yearly Japanese Touhou convention.

Aside from each of the main games, there are also spin-off games, which often feature different mechanics. Some of them are also bullet hell games, but with different gameplay mechanics, while there are also five official fighting games, developed in partnership with Tasofro (Twilight Frontier), a doujin game developer circle.

Aside from the games, there are also many print works - consiting of artbooks, several official manga, text-based books and an official magazine. These are all canon, and further expand the universe and characters developed in the games.

And finally, the last bit of official material in the Touhou series are ZUN’s music CDs - releases of music in the game’s characteristic style, usually accompanied by a side-story.

And that is all the material that is considered the Touhou project! Any anime you may have seen are fan-made, and while many are really well done, there is no official Touhou anime.

The story

The Touhou Project majorly revolves around Gensokyo - a sealed-off, magical region of Japan where humans live alongside a huge variety of youkai (Japanese mythological creatures), ancient beings, gods, magicians, fairies, ghosts, vampires, famous historical figures, immortals, hermits, you name it! The catch is that, rather than appearing monstrous, nearly every character in the series is a personification. A female personification. A cute female personification. And, by some miracle, every single character manages to be completely tasteful and unique.

(This isn’t even the full cast.)

The series’ protagonists are Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame, a human shrine maiden and human magician, who, occasionally with the help of friends, must go out and fight to protect Gensokyo when one of its powerful inhabitants decides to do something that threatens the balance. Reimu, strong-willed and short-tempered, is the latest member of the Hakurei line, shrine maidens who have historically been the protectors of Gensokyo. Marisa is a cheerful, reckless witch and thief who uses powerful light-based magic and fights for loot and thrill. They feature as playable characters in nearly every game, and feature prominently in the print works.

In Touhou, the bullet hell genre is actually part of the canon. Characters fight using the Spell Card system - battles in which participants duel with Spell Cards - different complex attack patterns that the other combatant much dodge, which seem to take the form of actual cards, which, when activated, unleash a magical attack. This style of fighting is non-fatal, and mostly non-damaging, relying more on skill and beauty than overpowering an opponent directly. This system was established by Reimu herself, so that youkai and humans could settle their issues without unnecessary injury.

Each game adds a new group of characters to the Touhou universe, although not all of the villains are pure evil. Many of the incidents that occur in Gensokyo threaten life on a large scale, but an equal many are mostly inconsequential. In the same series, you have a game where an annoyed vampire blocks out the sun simply so she can go outside without needing a parasol, and a game where a youkai from Hell who has recently gained the power of nuclear fusion threatens to burn the entire surface world to the ground. But by the end of each game, the new characters usually end up settling down and integrating themselves into Gensokyo, which gradually builds up a huge cast of a characters and a very dynamic, exciting universe.

And of course, an interesting universe is going to spawn dozens upon dozens upon hundreds of fan content, videos, music, memes, and more.

The music

In the Touhou games, every stage has its own theme, and every boss has its own theme. Touhou music is generally regarded to be very good, and has spawned a huge amount of fan arrangements and albums. Here is an example of some of the official music!

I’d encourage you to listen to different songs from different games, because everybody has different tastes. There’s a ton!

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. How do I get into it all?

Touhou games are hard. Really hard. While they’re easier compared to other bullet hell games, the bullet hell genre in general has a huge learning curve. The majority of people who are into Touhou probably can’t beat any of the games. I can’t. So chances are, you aren’t going to learn the story of Touhou through playing the games, although I would still urge you to try to play them, since they can be very fun once you get the hang of it! They’re unavailable outside Japan, although if you don’t want to buy them, finding a download link shouldn’t be hard.

I doubt most people who enjoy Touhou enjoy it purely because of the games - it has a huge universe with 100+ interesting characters, and that is most likely where the appeal comes from. So I encourage you to do your own research to try and find out more!

Obviously, with so many games and so many characters, it becomes difficult to cover it all in one post, so I would recommend Touhou Wiki! On the main page, there are links to every official game, print work, and music CD, where you can learn more about the story of each. Each official game’s article has subsections detailing the story, providing the game’s translated dialogue, and listing the music and characters in each game. This page offers a list of every character, and each page is pretty comprehensive!

Once you’re acquainted with the story and characters, you could try to play the games or find gameplay videos, but as long as you’ve read the stories, you’ll probably understand the plots and characters.

The print works are also a big part of Touhou’s story, second only to the games. I’ve listed the most important ones to read in this post, but encourage you to read all of them if you’re interested! They offer a lot more information on the universe and are really fun.

The music CDs mostly revolve around Maribel Hearn and Renko Usami - two characters who currently live in the future, in the world outside Gensokyo, and provide commentary on the state of the world, while also exploring Maribel’s odd, developing ability. However, these stories are short, and are less relevant to Gensokyo, and so the music CD stories only offer a very small slice of canon compared to the games and print works.

And that’s really all there is to it, in terms of official material. Other than that, you’re free to enjoy Touhou at your leisure! Part of it is the official works, but a huge part is also fanworks! There are tons of fan-made games, music remixes (just search up on Youtube, you’ll find a ton), doujins (many of which are translated on Danbooru), and even a few fan-made anime. I would personally recommend Memories of Phantasm, a fantastic anime exploring the events of the games that stays very true to the story and would be good for someone getting into the series.

It takes a while to really get to know everything, but you’ll never run out of Touhou content to enjoy, and it has a bit of everything for everyone! The fanbase is usually quite accepting and helpful, so whether you’re here to stay or just checking it out, I wish you luck and hope you can enjoy it!

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that artist mood

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Things that are canon in the Metal Gear universe

Big Boss employed a man whose sole claim to fame was that he was able to run. Said man also was incapable of jumping since he runs into claymore mines you place on the floor

A man named “Hot Coldman” was a high ranking government official

There are several mechs that spoke like Vocaloids and sang while attacking

An astronaut died, was possessed by a pyrokinetic demon, and was able to continue living as a zombie by sheer force of will

A man had his arm cut off and then replaced it with the arm of his boss, whose ghost then briefly possessed him. Maybe.

Two United States politicians attempted to use Metal Gears to restore America to greatness. Both men were killed by the same man with a katana

Nanomachines are pretty much the explanation for everything

There was a guy who could control bees

Big Boss discovered the tsuchinoko