#CDS 1 Result

[arctic-hands]

I'm not saying that all new media is evil, I'm just saying that technology peaked with the MP3 players before they made them connect to wifi or bluetooth

[funishment-time]

🧠 PLEASE DO NOT PIRATE THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY ON APRIL 24TH 🧠

WHY THO? ➡️ Kazutaka Kodaka has said on many occasions that this is literally make or break for TooKyo Games due to production issues and the resulting debt while making it. The company did not have money for ports or for additional languages, or physical versions in some areas. Additionally, he will likely leave the game industry if it doesn't sell. I suppose that final bit could be a joke, but I'd rather not risk it.

In short: to pirate The Hundred Line is not sticking it to Bethesda's spaghetti coding or EA's nonsensical manufacturing line of Sims DLC, but rather an indie studio.

But we're all short on money these days and shit's expensive. I understand. I get by on an income of lint and those mint chocolates you can eat at the Olive Garden. So while I ultimately can't control what you do, random citizen, I've provided alternate means to pirating on this post.

➡️ "I would like to try the game before buying it."

Here is the Steam demo.

Here is the Switch demo.

Both provide about 5ish hours of gameplay, both story and tactical modes, and it should be enough for you to make a decision.

➡️ "I would like to play the actual game."

Digitally, you can get it on Steam or on the Switch, as stated.

(Good news: it'll also be compatible with the Switch 2!)

Physical copies will be sold in the US and Japan. (Unsure on China.) Take a look online or at your local retailer! There's even a spectacular pre-order package with eggstras.

You can also try joining a Steam Family with a friend who owns a copy of the game. Of course, you'll have to sort-of take turns playing it, but it's better'n nothing.

If you're really desperate, see if you're qualified for a short-term pay-over-time plan from Paypal etcetera. I don't recommend it, but I assume we're all adults here. Make your own financial decision!

➡️ "I don't mind if I just experience the game."

Have a friend stream it for you over Discord or another platform! Pool money if you must to purchase one (1) person the copy.

There's also no restrictions on streams and no restrictions on spoilers, so...

...your favorite Let's Players or streamers might be glomming onto the game ASAP, if you don't mind waiting a bit.

You can also politely ask/suggest that your fave content creators, if they're small enough that they still listen to individual fans, play or stream the game. (Don't be annoying, though, and make sure they're into games like this first.)

➡️ "I would like a physical copy."

See the third bullet under "I would like to play the actual game."

There is sadly no official physical copy for Europe as of writing, so I would look at the other sections if you're over yonder. I believe you can import into Europe, though.

You might also be able to flash a cartridge or USB or CD or something of the digital version if you already own it please. (Don't make a cartridge of it if you didn't buy the game, like. That's defeating the point.) I don't quite know how this works, but I'm putting it here anyway.

➡️ "You're a bootlicker/I am owed this content/sorry Kodaka but I'm built different/Danganronpa sucks and this will too/I'm not giving money to a [racist implication about Japanese culture]."

ok

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Roxette - The Look 1989

"The Look" is a song by pop duo Roxette; Sweden's second-best-selling music act after ABBA. It was released in early 1989 as the fourth single from their second studio album, Look Sharp! (1988). The album was an immediate commercial success in their home country, spending seven weeks at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart. "The Look" was written by Per Gessle as an exercise while learning how to operate the Ensoniq ESQ-1 synthesizer he had recently purchased, using a repeated A–G–D bass line as the song's core. The track's sixteenth-note rhythm was inspired by the work of ZZ Top. The original title was "He's Got the Look", with the lyrics using male pronouns. Gessle said this was done because he initially wanted Marie Fredriksson to sing the track. Both he and EMI Sweden had chosen to highlight Fredriksson as Roxette's lead vocalist. However, when recording the demo, Gessle realised the song "didn't fit her style that well, so I had a go and it sounded OK."

The singles from Look Sharp! at the time were only released in Sweden, Germany and France. However, an American exchange student from Minnesota named Dean Cushman returned from Sweden and gave his copy of the album to his local Top 40 radio station, KDWB-FM in Minneapolis. The station's program director Brian Phillips initially ignored Cushman's request to play a song from the album, leaving the CD unplayed in his office for several weeks. Phillips eventually listened to it after learning Cushman had come to the office requesting the return of his CD. Immediately impressed by the album's opening track, "The Look" was played by the station for the first time on US radio less than an hour later, and the response from listeners was overwhelmingly positive; the station immediately began receiving phone calls to replay the track.

KDWB began distributing the track to their sister radio operations, sending 500 copies to other stations throughout the United States. EMI America promptly signed the duo to a recording contract as a result of the airplay. The label had previously rejected Roxette as "unsuitable for the American market". The song had already entered the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100 before official promotion began, peaking at number one on the chart eight weeks later. This made "The Look" the third number one single by a Swedish act on the Billboard Hot 100, following Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" (poll #152) in 1974 and ABBA's "Dancing Queen" in 1976.

The track went on to top the charts in 25 countries. It spent three weeks atop the New Zealand Singles Chart, and six weeks at number one in Australia, where it was certified platinum for sales in excess of 70,000 copies. It also topped the charts throughout Scandinavia. The song spent five weeks at number one in West Germany, and an additional five weeks at number two. It was a massive success in Spain and Switzerland, spending eight weeks at number one in both countries. It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart.

"The Look" received a total of 80,5% yes votes!

[empty-movement]

Empty Movement's 2023 Revolutionary Girl Utena UPDATE

Fashionably late? As always. 2023 was a HUGE year for Empty Movement, so much so that to confess, we did a big fail in actually keeping up with sharing the stuff we did! OOPS. So finally, we proudly bring you: all the Revolutionary Girl Utena content we dropped in 2023. Essays, artbooks, CD information, you name it. Click below for the entire site update, or get it at the source, as always, at ohtori.nu.

In Analysis (Fan Essays): • seebee's essay The Power of Living an Embodying Narrative is about more than Utena, it's about the fandom--including us. We were both interviewed for this piece, and the result is an absolutely beautiful essay that has helped inform how we do Utena stuff going forward. Thank you so much for letting us be part of this! • seebee's VIDEO essay FILM CUTS BACK | transfeminism in utena absolutely blew our minds and it's so good we're listing it. Look at the title. Just go watch it, it rules. • Nicole Winchester's essay No Choice But To Become Witches: The Bishōjo-Demonic Phallic Mother Dichotomy in Revolutionary Girl Utena catches you up to speed on the academic discussion around what might best be described as the shoujo manga iteration of the Madonna-Whore complex. Then, naturally, it finds plenty to say about Utena. Great work that was well worth the coding!

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In From the Mouths of Babes (Translated Meta/Creator Content): • Cross X Talk, A Round Table Discussion Commemorating the Second Musical Utena GOGAI FUCKIN' GOGAI. Nagumo and friends bring us the final untranslated part of the 2019 Black Rose Musical's program guide: the monster interview with Ikuhara and the director of the musicals, Yoshitani. INCREDIBLE content here that 100% lives up to the first musical's similar encounter! A must read!! • The Rose Apocalypse's Ei Takatori Interview The director of the mysterious 1999 musical (yes the machine gun one, and YES WE HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT IT COMING) interviewed in The Rose Apocalypse book. This...is that. Thank you so much to iris hahn for translating, and I can't wait to bring you more of this mythology!!! • The Utena Dossier Animage Magazine's June 1997 supplemental, this 36-page Utena tome has ben translated by Nagumo with editing by Ayu Ohseki. Because so much of the content is in its visual presentation, I worked the translation into the original scans! Check it out! (PS. Yes that is an entirely different gallery on the emptymovement.com domain, no this won't stay there, yes it has been a weird couple years.) The Dossier includes two long interviews that are also worked into html pages for easy viewing! The Auspicious Joining of Manga and Anime: Saito and Hasegawa For Whom the Director Smiles: Ikuhara and Kitakubo

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In Historia Arcana & The Bibliothèque (Untranslated Resources): • There are a lot of changes happening in this arena!!! How and where to place different materials has been a moving target, so I'll do my best! The sites don't quite reflect this yet, but Historia Arcana will be for cover to cover Utena media, including special magazine publications. Something Eternal's gallery, the Bibliothèque, will be for magazine articles, clippings, and other things. Major artbooks will likely be in both places, cross referenced. New books in Historia Arcana: • The Rose Spiral: Reflections on the Mythology of Utena While not strictly official, this is a fan published book of in depth analysis of Utena, circa 1998! Yep, cover to cover. • Revolution Dictionary (OST 1 First Press Bonus) Cross-referenced from Audiology, this is the bonus dictionary you only got if you grabbed it early! Cool! • Revolutionary Girl Utena Making of Visuals Book Art of UTENA I am mentioning this for completions sake and because I already uploaded it, but this is a cover to cover high resolution, uncleaned scan of the 1999 Art of Utena artbook. I am going to clean the scans, and ultimately be posting the official artbooks elsewhere. • Revolutionary Girl Utena Photobook: Rose Memories This special Animage bonus could be purchased for 700 yen, and back then, was probably a great way to keep the anime in your pocket! It's entirely shots from the TV series, though, so there's nothing specifically new. But I scan it all, baby. New books in the Bibliothèque: • Chiho Saito's 1999 Revolutionary Girl Utena Original Illustration Collection HI THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL. Read more about why when you visit! TLDR? Here's some of the best artwork of Utena, rescanned and remastered by yours truly to be the best big big scans of big big beautiful Chiho Saito Art. This is a feast. I even made myself a calendar! (Note that the price is such that I don't make a profit on these, so if you're looking to donate, definitely go by other routes, haha.) You will find multiple ways to obtain the scans, and in more than one size. Either way you soak up the rays, enjoy 'em! New articles and clips in the Bibliothèque: • H! Rockin' on Japan Magazine Saito X Oikawa This fashion music magazine's July 1999 article has ALREADY BEEN TRANSLATED? Like, I am going to add the translation officially to the site of course, but holy hell Nagumo is amazing!! This article is actually the origin of a Saito art piece that uh, well. Now we know she went to a love hotel with movie Akio's VA. Cool! Anyway check it out! • Comickers Magazine, August 1997 This absolute monster find is an industry-focused magazine with this gorgeous spread and interview with Chiho Saito. It gets into how she does things. The making of Utena. All kinds of stuff. I'd LOVE to know more about this one!! • Comickers Magazine, June 1998 Again, an industry-focused publication, this time it's exploring the manga and the anime and how they compare. Again looks like a tasty meal!! • Volks Magazine, Spring 2022 YEP SCANS OF THE BOOK OF THE DOLLFIES. For a lot of us, this is at close as we get to these ludicrously gorgeous dolls. I included a few extra pages because they were just fuckin' cool and felt relevant. • Sega Saturn Magazine, December 1997 One of two grabs I got recently on Yahoo! Japan! This appears to be the first look announcement of the 1998 Utena video game! (Yes we have more on it, yes we will eventually post links.) • Sega Saturn Magazine, April 1998 This feature brings attention to the voice actors, who are all returning for the game! • Dengeki G's Magazine, January 1998 Another gaming focused magazine, with frankly a more adult edge, cheaply lets the readers know about Utena. These three game magazine moments are just a bizarre reminder of how we did things before the internet, LMAO

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In Audiology (Music and CD Information): • Complete information about the STAR CHILD - Girls Character Song Best album! You also definitely can't grab the two new remix tracks there. • Did you know there was a first press bonus dictionary for the first OST? I DIDN'T UNTIL RECENTLY. Now I know all about it, and so can you. Check it out! Obviously, scans available, both here and in Historia Arcana. • I FINALLY acquired a complete set of the Utena CD singles!! Check out complete track lists, scans, and information for ALL FIVE Utena singles. Yes. Including the movie Akio guy's one.

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In The Doujinshi Gallery: • Several dozen dounjinshi were uploaded earlier in the year, and can be found listed on the Site Update archive here.

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That's all for now, folks! There's so so so much coming. I have the episode 18 and 20 (!!!!) storyboards to scan, as well as a fully translated scanlation of The Duelist Bible. We're planning to do something for Anthy's rare LEAP YEAR birthday coming up, probably a musical stream or something! Love!

[returnofeternity]

hope finals have been going well for you!! they're lowk kicking my ass and i might have to retake them 😭💔 but anyways— nothing but thoughts about adult van 🥲

thinking about being a college student who goes into town during their breaks, trying to find something to do or just eat somewhere for lunch. maybe you bump into van at a café or at her work just out of curiosity, resulting in a spark of a genuine bond that you start coming to her regularly. she gives you sm movie recs and probably great advice whenever you're doubting yourself because of school getting hard that you start crushing on her so bad 😭

⋆🍓

i just finished all of them yesterday!!! i passed all of them 😁 hope u do well on urssss :)

you have a long gap between classes and decide to take the bus/or ur car if you drive (im license-less sorry) to your favorite cafe that always give you freebies. maybe you pass by van when you first walk in! you have to do a double-take because 1. this is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen here, and 2. she calls you babe after you held the door open for her. you're blushing and smiling as you make your way to the cashier, and they know. they mention that her name is van and she's a regular here, almost as regular as you.

you would have never expected that the random video store you happened to stumble upon a few minutes later was run by her.

she's in the back sorting things when you walk in, the little bell ringing to signal that a customer is in, and she yells that she'll be right with you. you walk around in awe, looking at all the awesome vintage items, poking around through old magazines she has and laughing at how there's old porn in here.

"we have vintage tapes too." the raspy voice from behind makes you jump, and you blush bright red at getting caught. your eyes widen when you turn around and see the older woman from the cafe. the one who called you babe. "uh," an awkward sound comes out of your throat. you place the magazine back down and turn around, not ready to face her. "you're from the cafe." she looks you up and down. "did you follow me here?" the woman laughs at your shocked face and scoots past you to rearrange some CDs, grumbling about 'some teenagers.' you scratch your neck and turn around to look at her again. "i just thought the store looked cool. i didn't know you worked here."

you ask her about what she recommends, and you two get lost in a talk about movies, CDs, mp3 players (she has a hard time believing you're even old enough to have had one -__-), and what you like to do for fun. you're genuinely there for hours, just following her while she puts things away and shows you what she has. you end up leaving with like 5 VHS tapes along with the VCR machine she rented out to you. and she expects you to be back to report on all the movies.

at first, she's honestly just a safe space for you :( thinking this older butch lesbian who kind of takes you under her wing, showing you all sorts of queer cinema that you've never even heard of before, always giving you advice and talking to you about things you wanna learn. van who, once you two start to get closer, takes you out to lesbian bars and introduces you to all her older butch and femme friends!!!!

she;s so amazing. you tell her that you're crushing on this girl and she just immediately goes into ways on how to ask her out and when you say EXACTLY what she told you to say, she just says "good job! she'll for sure say yes." like girl 😑😑 she tries to play cool and act like she knew, but she's dying inside.

van who drops you off and picks you up from classes in her truck 😍😍 always kisses you and tells you good luck in your classes, always asks you how your day was and if ur hungry cos she'll take you out to eat :)

always thinkin of movie dates in her room. popping in a VHS and cuddling on the couch, telling her about how you were on ebay and saw this shrek crt tv for sale and that she should totallllyyy get it. and you know van palmer don't mess around about ebay bidding.

ALSO. do yall think this is her skateboard......gulp. butch skateboarder van......

sorry for this added angst but now i just cant stop thinking about being van's favorite regular and hearing about her passing away 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[marimayscarlett]

'Mutter' turns 24 years old today 🎶💿

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the release of the band's third studio album, Mutter. The album's pre-production took place from September to December 1999 at Haus Weimar in Heiligendamm. Since the house was unfurnished, the band first had to fully equip it with furniture and essentials. A total of 13 songs were worked on at Haus Weimar. To keep track of everything, Till pinned his lyric ideas to a wall, and there was also a board with musical concepts and notes about what was still missing in each song. These brainstorming walls served as a daily meeting point for the band.

In May 2000, the band moved to the Miraval Studios in France, though they didn’t begin recording immediately. Instead, they spent another six weeks refining Till’s lyrics.

In the Galaxy Studios in Sweden, they worked with producer Ronald Prent, but ultimately, they were not satisfied with the results. The final choice fell on producer Stefan Glaumann, with whom the band worked in the MVG Studios in Stockholm in the fall of 2000. According to Flake, Glaumann was a skilled producer, but incredibly slow: mixing one song took him five days, after which he needed a two-day break. Alongside the 11 songs on the album, additional tracks were recorded during this period, including Halleluja, 5/4, Ohne Dich, Ein Lied, and Seid bereit.

Over Christmas 2000, Rammstein made Links 2 3 4 available for download on their website. Officially, Sonne (which had the working title Klitschko, after boxer Vitali Klitschko) was released as the first single on February 12, 2001, followed by Links 2 3 4 on May 14.

As part of the album promotion, the band released a CD where each song faded out after three minutes. They also distributed promo sheets featuring a "Rammstein Alphabet" (which can be read on the RammWiki page) and an interview CD with Oliver and Flake (which you can listen to here with an English translation). In this interview, Flake mentioned that the band was so moved by Spieluhr that they couldn’t bear the idea of leaving the child figuratively buried, so they added a final verse where it is dug up again.

The concept of an interview CD was later used again on a grander scale for the Reise, Reise album.

The album was released as a standard CD and vinyl LP, as well as a double CD in the U.S., which included the Sonne music video and the song Halleluja. In Japan, Halleluja appeared as a hidden track, playing only after two minutes of silence.

Directly after the release, Mutter immediately topped the charts in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, remaining at Nr. 1 in Germany for four weeks.

The iconic album cover features a fetus that had been preserved for about 200 years. The imagery sparked outrage from both the German tabloid press and the Catholic Church, and the album's release shortly before Mother's Day in 2001 only fueled the controversy.

The band photoshoot for the album followed a similar aesthetic and was created by artist couple Daniel & Geo Fuchs. For the shoot, the band members were hooked by their feet to a weight at the bottom of a Plexiglas tank and tethered with a lead belt. According to Flake, the tank began to stink over time - thanks to apparently the band farting in the water.

The Mutter tour ran from May 13, 2001, to July 13, 2002. Staying true to the album’s title, the band staged their entrance by emerging from a uterus and performed in diaper-like loincloths.

Here's the promotional picture of the band for this tour as well as the tour poster:

Some album facts:

It’s unknown which song it was, but there’s an urban legend that Till had to write 24 different lyric versions of one track before the band was satisfied.

Richard’s well-known tendency for control reached new extremes during this album’s production, making collaboration within the band increasingly difficult. This period is often described as a near breaking point for the band, as his behavior led to significant internal conflicts. Schneider commented on this, saying:

“Richard tried to lead the band, and that reached the point where we couldn’t stand it anymore. He was trying to control everything, he didn’t want to have anybody change anything that came from his word, and that was a tricky time.”

On April 16 2000, almost a year before the album’s release, the band performed a fan club concert at the Knaack Club, where they played nine of the eleven Mutter songs.

The Ich will music video was released on September 10, 2001, but was almost entirely overshadowed by the events of the following day.

After shooting the Sonne video, the band immediately boarded a flight to Australia. According to Flake, they had no time to clean themselves up:

"The flight attendants on the plane were a bit surprised by us; they probably never had such dirty passengers on board. The headrests were pitch black because our hair looked like we’d just gotten out of a mine. Fortunately, the flight attendants were forgiving when they found out why. We transferred in Los Angeles and took another flight with an American company, to whom we couldn’t explain so easily how we got our dirty faces.”

Some voices on the musical direction of the Album:

Schneider:

"The main thing about the new album is we didn’t want to make another Sehnsucht. We wanted to get away from the techno style, from the dance-oriented style. We wanted to sound more natural, more like a rock band. So we focused more on live drums, we experimented with acoustic guitars, and also tried to find innovative guitar sounds. And we used an orchestra for the first time.”

Paul:

"On our first and second albums, we were very dependent on samplers and computerized music machinery, even to write the songs. And with Mutter, we really based the songs on the guitar and are only using technology to enhance it, to give it flavor. So we didn’t want to be slaves to the machines anymore.”

Sources: rammwiki | radiobob | loudersound | morecore | affenknecht | kerrang

[henrikvanderhussy]

How to play the original Secrets Can Kill in 2025 without game discs

oh my god I almost just wrote 2015 instead of 2025

I've successfully been playing the original SCK for the past couple hours (including "changing discs" and reopening save files), but it's possible I could run into problems later, so no promises that this is a perfect solution.

This method still requires installing the game files, so I think it'll only work on Windows, sorry Mac users. I'm using Windows 11. I was also able to install and open the game on a Windows 10 computer, but I didn't actually attempt to play it there.

All you need are copies of the game .iso files and a virtual hard disk drive program. The post got long, so details are under the Keep Reading. It's not actually complicated, but apparently I talk a lot lol

The .iso files:

.iso files are digital replicas of optical discs (CDs, DVDs, etc). You probably don't have the original Secrets Can Kill discs, so you will need to...acquire these files.

[NOTE: My personal ethics say to not pirate shit from small studios or independent creators. HeR is a small studio and if people don't buy stuff from them, they can't afford to make new games. However, the original SCK is abandonware and literally can't be purchased, so imo, it's perfectly acceptable to pirate it.

I want to strongly discourage anyone from pirating any of the other games which can be purchased. They have 50% off sales all the time (including through today, 1/5/25) and a bunch of the games are as low as $5 when on-sale. The digital downloads don't come with any kind of restrictive licenses, so if you get a new computer, you can transfer the files and keep your games forever. Pls keep supporting HeR so that we can maybe keep getting new games]

I recommend getting the SCK .iso files from archive.org. That link will take you to a software search for Nancy Drew Secrets Can Kill. As of this post, there's only 1 result that's actually for the original SCK.

Anytime you're downloading software from a site where anyone can upload stuff, there's always a possibility of viruses. Check and see if the uploader seems sketchy (Are there comments on any of their uploads warning about viruses? Is the account brand new?). You could run the files through a virus checking program, but apparently .iso files frequently throw false positives. The SCK uploader seemed legit, but I initially downloaded and installed these on an old computer that I don't use, just in case.

There will be a bunch of files available to download. You specifically need to download the "ISO IMAGE" files. There should be two of them- disc 1 and disc 2. After downloading, I recommend moving the files out of your downloads folder because you'll need to access them frequently.

The virtual hard disk drive program:

Like I said above, .iso files are digital copies of physical discs. Similarly, the way to use the files is via a digital version of a physical disk drive. "Mounting" the .iso files to a virtual disk drive is analogous to inserting a disk into a physical drive.

Windows 8 and above has a built-in ability to mount .iso files, but when I tried that, I got a notice that the file was corrupted. The internet recommended that a dedicated program might have more functionality. I chose the Elby Virtual CloneDrive program, which is free.

Installing the game:

After downloading and installing the virtual disk drive software, navigate to your .iso files, and right click on the file for disc 1. Scroll to "Open with", and choose "Mount Files with Virtual CloneDrive". It will now show up as a CD drive in This PC in the file explorer:

Double-click to open the drive and scroll to "setup.exe". Open the file to run the game installer.

The game will install in a typical way. I think the only non-default option I chose was "No, I will install DirectX myself". I didn't actually install DirectX, but everything is working fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk, maybe now it's built-in to Windows or something.

Running the game:

To run the game, just open the game shortcut like a normal program. If you can't find the shortcut or didn't create one during the install, go to your C: drive -> Program Files (x86) -> Nancy Drew -> Secrets Can Kill -> Game.exe

In order for the game to run, you need to have Disc 1 still mounted to your virtual drive. Unless you specifically unmounted it, it should still be there, but if you get a pop-up that says to insert the disc, the problem is probably that the disc isn't mounted.

I was expecting that I would have to run the game in Compatibility Mode to handle that it was made for fucking Windows 98, but I didn't have to do anything. It just worked with no adjustments. A miracle!!

Changing discs:

The original Secrets Can Kill was too big to fit on a single disc at the time it was made! They split it across multiple discs by location. The school is on disc 2, while all other locations are on disc 1. So if you need to move from the diner to the school for example, you have to change discs.

When you need to change discs, you'll get this screen:

WITHOUT closing the game program, minimize the game. Easiest way is by either pressing the windows key or alt+tab. Navigate to your .iso files, right click on the new disc, and choose Mount.

Navigate back to the game and click OK. Easy as that!

Whenever you fully exit and re-open the game, you have to open it with disc 1 mounted. So if you saved while at the school, you'll open the game with disc 1, load your save, and immediately switch over to disc 2.

And I think that's everything! Phew! This got a lot longer than I planned on. Feel free to send me questions if you're having trouble, but I may not know the answer. I'm not an expert in this stuff, I just spent some time poking around at it last week is all.

Have fun! Go manatees!

[wardarose2004]

RANDOM DIABOLIK LOVERS HEADCANONS🫀🩸🥀🌕

Laito would be a masochist if you manage to switch the right button🌚(MB Reiji Dark 3 and Odessa's Curse drama CD where he expressed that he doesn't mind being tied by a woman)

Carla would enjoy reading mangas . He appreciates beautiful arts in mangas. The manga genres would range from shounen, seinen, action, sci Fi, fantasy,horror, mystery, josei etc As long as manga does not contain unnecessary vulgarity like certain seinen hentai he would enjoy them

Kou would be an expert flamenco dancer. Azusa can dance flamenco and gypsy dance.

Yuma has a bad habit of biting nails.

Karlheinz maybe a bastard who ignored his ladies for a long time but if somebody dared to insult/harrass his women in front of him he won't hesitate to destroy/fuck up that person's life.

Ayato got punished by both Cordelia and Karlheinz for not studying and also for extremely disrespecting them once .

Ayato once sympathesized Subaru for having a hysterical mom. He wouldn't want Christa as his mom.

Karl's favorite painting is The garden of Eden with fall of the Man which is hung in his bedroom above the bed(YB vol1)

Whether you hate Cordelia or like her , nobody can't deny that she's the best smelling woman out there. Cordelia is extremely fond of good smelling and long lasting perfume.

Cordelia has her own attic room in the human world castle (anime)

Cordelia and Karl both are fond of art and reading book.

Once Kou mukami accidentaly blasted the song `made in Romania' with full volume while Yuma and especially Azusa vibed with it Ruki wasn't much pleased .

Laito gifted Shu the recordings of women moaning that's how Shu got into this shit(HDB manga)

Reiji values glory and honor of vampires above all.

Yuma's one of the love language is shoving sugar cube into people's mouth.

Subaru like gothic dark accessories which includes skull, dragons, cross, roses, satanic symbols etc.

Shin very often buys punching bags majority of which lasts to 1-3 days

Laito keeps weird video tapes. Upon seeing them, managed to disgust Kanato, Ayato, Shin, Ruki and Shu.

Teachers are often scared to approach Carla which results in Carla's failing grades.

Another reason Carla and Shin get bad grades because they believe they know better then the teacher and refuse to listen their explanation. Same can go for Ayato and sometimes Reiji

Karl too once praised Kanato for having a lovely voice.

[doyoulikethis-videogame-song]

Ask Masterpost #7 (Admin Asks) -- 3/15/2025

Maybe I should change the posting date of these to Sunday so I stop procrastinating them on Saturdays, LOL.

Anyways, this is the first edition of non-blog focused asks (fun questions, personal questions, etc), so I'm not going to write up a summary since none of this is essential information for submissions or anything like that :).

Since I'm writing it up so late in the day I'm going to post it with my answers, but Mod Rae may update it with their answers so feel free to check back! In the future hopefully I'll be able to write it up in enough time to give them a chance :').

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@foulwinter asked: Ever heard of either of Sonic CD's soundtracks? I grew up with the US soundtrack but I love both of them. I think the war between which soundtrack is silly when you look at it from the perspective of having MORE Sonic CD music

Admin: I have never been a big sonic fan, so I have no horse in this race :'). But I do agree that it's nice to have more soundtrack per soundtrack!

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@pearlhoardingdragon asked: If you had to stick with one family of consoles for the rest of your life, would it be playstation, nintendo, or xbox?

Admin: PC 4 Lyfe (I never had enough money for consoles growing up </3). I'd probably pick Nintendo though, since I like the switch and DS.

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Thoughts on Yoko Shimomura?

Admin: LOVE HER!!! I haven't played a lot of the games she has worked on but from what I've heard from her she is 🔥🔥🔥🔥

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who's your favourite villain in ffxiv?

Admin: The only Final Fantasy villain I know is Sephiroth... and I think he's cute and silly 💔

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stance on Nerdcore video game songs? (Miracle of Sound, Aviators, JT Music, etc) both as submissions and just in general.

Admin: I don't think I have a strong/opinion-worthy stance on any genre of music, because all music that I like regardless of genre is good music. Simple as.

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Would you say you've gotten fulfillment out of starting this project? I remember you have it posted somewhere that you started this blog because you wanted to listen to new music, so what's it been like? Any favorites that stand out?

Admin: Yes!! This has been really fun and ESPECIALLY so since I finally figured out some things to help me maintain it without messing with my insane schedule within the last few months. I definitely need to make a proper list of my favorites but I think my most favorite song that I discovered 100% from submissions alone is #212, Tenebre Rosso Sangue from ULTRAKILL. (this wasn't an anon ask, but I forgot to write the blog name before deleting the ask to clear it from my inbox... </3)

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what is your favourite kind of bread, actually?

Admin: Any flatbread!!!!!! Pita bread, naan, roti, and especially tortillas <-- put it in my mouth

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out of every song posted, do you have a least favourite? if so, what?

Admin: The Ao Oni chase theme (#125) because it scared me.

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thank you for all your hard work hosting this blog. question: has it been fun to discover so many songs through the blog? the level of variety is really cool. out of curiosity, how much of the music would you say you have personally already known before they were submitted?

Admin: I'd say I've probably only heard 5-10% of the songs submitted here before :'). But that just means that this blog is highly effective at helping me find new music!

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my favourite kind of results are what i like to call the penis results. it usually happens when "like it/first time hearing it" gets the lead while "like/sounds familiar" and "don't feel strongly" take like 10-12% each. are there any specific poll results that you've found particularly interesting for any reason

Admin: 1. I'm calling that phenomena penis results now and 2. #689, which has the highest 'Like and Familiar' result of any song at 49.60%. The average % for this category is 19.19%.

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Have you ever gotten a submission on this blog that you’re disappointed more people don’t know?

Admin: EVERY NIER SONG EVER!!!!!!!! GO PLAY NIER REPLICANT RIGHT NOW IT IS 60% OFF UNTIL MARCH 20TH.

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Do you have a series you expected to get a lot of requests for, but haven't?

Admin: There's surprisingly few Persona requests, which I expected to be more popular. There's also one song in particular (not from persona) that I'm surprised I haven't seen yet (not naming it, I don't want to invite inorganic submissions!)

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what is your favorite piece of music outside videogames?

Admin: This is hard because my favorites are pretty much always changing (other than the one song I listen to obsessively multiple times a day, of course) and I can never pick just one anyways... I think I'd have to go with (as of writing this) 'With All Its Complexities' by Kyoumeni from her album 'And Then I Woke Up.'

[vanalex]

31 years ago today, the world got to experience Bloody Kisses. As big of an album as it is now it wasn't that way at the start - no one knew what to expect or how people would react after the almighty Carnivore / Subzero; Peter’s version of crossover punk meets metal.

Pete’s original concept was to use an image of green lips as the cover art. But

the label felt it would not do justice to an album of this magnitude and elegance, and after some tense back and forth, he agreed to try another route.

As soon as they all saw the results of Wadsworth's shoot, they instantly knew they had their album cover.

To honor Peter's original vision, they used the green lips as the CD label and (side 1) vinyl label."

[chipmunkfanno1love]

Sonamy Dance scene for Sonic 4

One thing that most Sonamy fans agree on for Sonic 4 is that they'd love to see a dance sequence between Sonic and Amy. The SCU is known for their adorably dorky yet also suprisingly iconic dance sequences in their films, so it only makes sense that Sonic and Amy get a moment to dance together in the upcoming film. We're hoping that romantic sparks fly as a result.

Here are some potential set ups for a Sonamy dance sequence:

One cute but slightly cheesy idea I thought could work for a Sonamy dance sequence is them doing a spoof of the iconic dance scene from the movie Dirty Dancing. I felt it could work really well with Movie Sonic being a huge film buff and because Movie Amy Rose has been theorised by fans as possibly being into rom-coms (a theory that is yet to be but I hope to be confirmed). I could see the scene being set at a party, maybe set in the 80's if time travel is involved in this film. Maybe I could make the scene extra goofy to fit the family-friendly movie.

I imagine Sonic making a number of goofy but fun moves on the dance floor and Amy laughs at how adorably dorky he is (2:06 to 2:31). I could see Sonic making bold moves like leaping off a high podium or stage, plus his cool moves would get everyone to forget that he's an alien hedgehog and a number of party guests join in with his moves (2:43 to 3:04). Amy may be hesistant to draw attention to herself out of fear of their enemies (e.g. Metal Sonic, G.U.N and/or other antagonists) will discover their whereabouts, but she can't help but be drawn in by Sonic's goofy charm and fun dance moves (2:47 to 2:51). Eventually she joins in the fun and with Sonic's encouragement, the two boldly perform the famous lift scene (3:02 to 3:24), showing the amount of trust that's grown between them, as well as the romantic sparks and intimacy. 😁🤞🥰

It might even be fun if they made a little Dirty Dancing reference like an agent or movie director pulling out an old 80's style cell phone or runs to a pay phone and says "Get Patrick Swayze on the phone!" hinting that Sonic and Amy in their time travels together may have unitentionally but ironically inspired the famous scene. I'm sure Sonic would love bragging rights for inspiring the scene and Amy would be only too thrilled to join him in his glee.

Watch 2:06 to 3:46:

Another option I considered was possibly Sonic and Amy dance to this song "Shut Up and Dance" by WALK THE MOON. It could work either as a quiet moment between the two of them dancing to Sonic's playlist or even at a party scene.

I feel this song suits Sonic and Amy really well. It suits the goofy and passionate spirits I imagine they both are. The line "chemical, physical kyptonite" also matches their status as alien superheroes. Plus, with the possiblity that time travel may be involved in the next movie (if they reference Sonic CD in the movie) I defintely think a number of lines about the future and destiny matching well to their young love storyline. 🥰😁

I hope that Sonic and Amy's dance moves mirror the couple in this music video (in both versions I could see Amy doing a little shimmy with her skirt), including their intimate looks and flirtation. One moment I'd definitely love to see is Sonic and Amy spinning around really fast like in 1:05 to 1:22. I imagine with Sonic's super speed he'd literally send Amy flying (much to her delight and excitement) only he holds onto Amy 's hands really tight so she doesn't crash into the wall. Maybe when Sonic does let go she flies through the air and he has a moment of panic where he worries she will crash into the wall. Luckily he slowed down enough at the end that she starts to fall back to earth and he manages to catch her just in time. At the end he gently dips her. The two are giggly and breathing heavily. They sharing an intimate and longing look, looking deep into each other's eyes.

While they could stick with the original version of the song if they want to go for a mutual/Reverse Sonamy option, I could also see them doing a girl cover for this song instead. I feel this song would definitely fit Amy's point of view if they wanted to fit the original dynamic of her crushing on Sonic first. Lines like "this boy is my destiny" and "my discothèque Romeo teenage dream" could suit her well.

The song could also work well as a duet cover for the film. I haven't found a direct duet cover, but I found a mash-up cover on YouTube, plus a mash-up from Moulin Rouge: The Musical.

(*Warning* - Religious profanity):

Dance wise I could see them sharing playful bumps and twirls together. Sonic could look admiringly at Amy like Blu does with Jewel. Plus the almost kiss at the end could be great. They probably get interuppted by either Tails, Knuckles or maybe even Metal Sonic if they're in a public place.

Watch 1:42 to the end:

I imagine them having the energy and flirtation of both the Big Bad Wolf and Diane Foxington. The look they share at the end would be adorable, plus I love those dorky but cute moves.

The look shared between Alex and Gia in 1:22 to 1:34 could also work as a cute shared look between Sonic and Amy:

Maybe Sonic could dip Amy and be shy and awkward about it like Buzz, but then Amy returns the dip passionately and flirts like Jessie. Sonic looks at Amy flitatiously like Buzz does with Jessie.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to vote your preference on my poll.

[paramountinplace]

Hi! Can you do a fic about them going to the beach? The long car ride, Mari and Shauna fighting in the back seat and having to be separated, Gen throwing up on herself and them having to pull over and clean up, Mel having an accident, Jackie who won’t stop singing and pointing out everything they see, Van getting overstimulated with all the noise while driving so she and Tai switch, which makes Gens carsickness worse since Van is the much better driver, Van having to sit next to Gen to make sure if she throws up she gets it into a bag, and having to separate Mari and Shauna since Shauna is in a biting mood and Mari is in a nudging mood. Lottie sleeping peacefully the entire time. Then (this could be a part 2 maybe?) they finally get to the beach. Van is feeling younger by then. Tai and Nat is struggling to put sunscreen on Van and Mel since they both want to run into the ocean right away. Baby Lottie eating sand. Mari and Shauna chasing each other. Mel and Van picking up sand crabs to throw on Jackie who freaks out. Jackie refusing to leave the towel bc the sand feeling is yucky for her.

Thanks— love,

🐨🐨

Life's A Beach - Pt. 1

Summary: As requested above! The girls head out on a trip to the beach and find that the ride there isn't quite as smooth as they might have liked. Thanks for the request, I hope you enjoy!

"Okay!" Van clapped her hands to get everyone's attention, standing just outside the driver's seat door. "We packed the towels, food, and toys in the other car. Does everybody have everything else that they need?"

She got a chorus of nods and agreements, and she gave the car one last survey before getting in. Gen, Mel, and Jackie were crammed together in the way back, while Shauna sat squished between Mari and Lottie in the middle row. Tai was in the passenger seat and everyone else was in a different car. Van glanced over her shoulder at Nat and Laura Lee, who sat with smug smiles on their face in the decidedly less-chaotic vehicle. Akilah waved cheerfully at Van from the backseat and she forced a smile in return, slightly jealous. Nat flashed her a thumbs up and she sighed, climbing finally into the driver's seat.

"Off we get," she murmured to Tai, who chuckled as she slid a CD into the player. Protests rose from the back of the car when they realized Tai was playing her music and not the pop-punk that had been the recent favorite of both Mari and Shauna.

"If you guys can behave," Tai said, turning to look at the middle row of girls, "then we can switch the music."

"Mari's already nudging me!" Shauna cried, glaring at the offending party out of the corner of her eye. To no one's surprise, they had been at odds all morning, starting when Mari came downstairs wearing what was supposedly Shauna's hoodie over her swimsuit.

"Am not," Mari retorted, pretending to be very interested in the scenery passing by as they pulled out of their neighborhood. She was still wearing the hoodie and Tai had no idea how she'd gotten away with that, considering she had taken a peek at the tag during breakfast and found a little S.S. written in marker there, meaning that it was definitely Shauna's.

"Girls, please," Van piped up, squinting at the GPS. Normally, she would have Tai direct her, but they'd picked up the navigational device after an incident resulting in their car map being torn to bits. Gen had forked over half the price alongside Mel, both of them very embarassed that their argument over whether the squiggles meant rivers or roads had ended in their map being unusable.

"Right. Towards my side," Tai said after Van lingered a little too long at the stop sign, staring at the L's she'd made with her fingers confusedly. She'd explained to Tai dozens of times that doing that never worked because they both looked like L's when she did that, but they hadn't quite figured out a better system yet.

She eased the car out onto the main road, wincing when Jackie started talking excitedly about the cows that she knew were coming up down the road. There was something that Jackie found extremely thrilling about passing by pretty much anything on any drive. She had boundless joy for cool statues sitting in people's lawns or neat neon signs hung up above storefronts, which was admittedly adorable and Van liked more when the car was a little less packed.

To her surprise, they managed to get a whole twenty minutes of relative peace before any issues cropped up. Mel and Jackie had been having an animated conversation about horses the whole time, but their chatter was slowly being overtaken by the sound of Mari and Shauna grumbling at each other.

"Hey," Tai commented, turning in her seat again to face the rest of the car. "Do I need to separate you two?"

Shauna wrinkled her nose, backing away from Mari a little. "No. I don't want to sit in the back with Gen. She'll barf on me."

Mari faked a gag, slumping against the window. "Well, I don't want to sit back there either."

"Then I need you both to cool it," Tai said sternly. She leaned up a little further to peer into the way back, trying to get a glimpse of Gen's face. "Gen, sweetie, you feeling okay?"

Gen looked up and nodded, but her smile was a little wobbly. Tai raised an eyebrow but Gen just raised a thumbs up insistently. She hadn't been allowed to bring anything to do in the car, because she'd historically been unable to keep herself from reading and making herself sicker.

"Let us know if you start feeling sick, okay? It's no worries if you do," Tai called, raising her voice to be heard over Mel and Jackie's animated conversation. They had evidently realized they were going to be going over a bridge soon, which they both seemed to think was just about the coolest thing since sliced bread. Tai had no idea how the noise in the car hadn't woken Lottie, who'd dozed off pretty much the second she'd been buckled into her seat. She had her favored teddy gripped tight against her chest, the ear wet from where she'd been chewing on it.

She turned back to the front, noting the way Van was white-knuckling the wheel, jaw working as she gnawed at the inside of her cheek.

"Are you—"

"I'm good," Van replied quickly, eyes flitting over to the GPS and back to the road again. Her cheeks flushed a little. "Can you—uh—tell me what that says?"

"You're gonna merge up here when the sign with the blue badge on it comes up," Tai said gently, "and then keep in the middle lane until we get off the bridge."

Van nodded slowly, mouth moving as she silently repeated the instructions to herself. Tai decided to run through it all one more time, just to be sure.

"Does anyone need to stop before we get on the bridge? Once we pass the next exit, it'll be a little over a half an hour before we can stop again," Van asked loudly once they'd clarified where she was going, directing the question at the back of the car.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace," Tai joked, turning again to see if anyone needed to. No one spoke up or raised their hand, so she nodded firmly. "Alright then."

They slowed into traffic as they came up on the bridge and the noise in the car picked back up again. Mari and Shauna had decided that they were bored again and were engaged in a game that seemed to involve a little too much pinching for Tai's liking. Mel had gone quiet in the backseat, but Jackie was still talking about the bridge, wondering aloud how the boats could get under and did it break in half in the middle to let them through? What would happen if it broke in half while they were on it?

Tai bit back a curse as she realized what Mel's sudden silence might mean and she glanced at the GPS to gauge how long they had left on the bridge.

"Not too much longer here, kiddos," she said loudly. It wasn't entirely true, but she was hoping she might somehow make the flow of traffic go a little faster if she hoped hard enough. They'd brought along a few extra sets of swimsuits just in case, but stopping right off the bridge was always a bit of a hassle with all the traffic.

"Ow, Tai, Mari keeps pinching me!" Shauna whined, hitting a loose fist out at Mari's shoulder.

"Don't hit," Tai replied, shifting her attention back to the middle row of seats. "Weren't you both pinching each other?"

Shauna looked away sheepishly as Mari grinned triumphantly.

"Yeah," she mumbled.

"So stop," Tai instructed, turning to face front once more. Her neck was getting a little sore from all the twisting and turning. She let out a relieved breath as she realized that they were nearly off the bridge, just a few more minutes until they could be on the open road again. The volume in the car hadn't decreased at all, so Tai turned up her music a little bit in order to be able to hear it, missing the way it made Van's eye twitch.

"Asshole," Van muttered as a truck cut them off abruptly, forcing her to slam on the breaks. The jolting of the car had made everyone go mostly quiet, until Mari shouted something out that made Tai wince.

"Mel wet herself!"'

She whipped around. "Ah, jeez, Mari."

In the back, Mel had already broken out into silent tears, covering her face in a way that confirmed Mari was, in fact, telling the truth.

"Mel, sweetie, it's okay," Tai called. Van was already scanning ahead for the nearest gas station to pull off at. "We're almost off the bridge."

Jackie had switched from talking about the bridge to trying to calm Mel down, launching into a story about the stray kitty she and Shauna had run into the day before. It caught Shauna's attention and she turned to add her bit of the story, but Mari started fiddling with the window lever and she was immediately distracted, turning back to scold Mari for messing with the car. The hum of chatter in the car rose again as Mari and Shauna bickered, which Tai ignored in favor of trying to calm Mel down from the front.

It was nearly another ten minutes before Van was able to swing the car into a gas station and the girls poured out of the car, slumping obediently onto a curb as Tai climbed over a still-passed-out Lottie into the backseat with a towel and Van led still-crying Mel into the bathroom with a backpack of clean clothes.

"I told her not to have two cups of juice at breakfast," Mari muttered once they were out of earshot.

"Ease up on the commentary, please," Tai called from inside the car and Mari blushed, obviously not having expected her to hear. She kicked out at the pavement, catching a pebble on the toe of her shoe and sending it skittering at Shauna.

"Mari!" Shauna cried, rubbing her leg.

"It didn't even hit you," she groaned.

Gen had her head between her knees, taking in long breaths and exhaling carefully, but it went unnoticed as Mari and Shauna started arguing again. Tai clambered out of the car, tying shut a plastic bag with the towel in it as she did.

"Guys, knock it off," she instructed, trying to herd them back into the car. "Van and Mel are on their way back and we are not going to tease, okay?"

When the aforementioned two rounded the building, Mel's face was still red from crying, tucked under Van's arm as they walked. She was wearing a pair of Mari's sweatpants, which the other girl opened her mouth to protest before Tai shot her a look and she clamped it shut, slumping against her seat in annoyance. Van helped Mel back into the car, murmuring something to her with a kiss on the temple, before getting back in her own seat. She sat with her hands on the wheel for a long moment, taking deep breaths.

"Are we good?" She directed the question at Tai, who nodded tiredly, and they pulled out of the gas station. "Nat and them are a bit ahead of us, but we're still making alright time."

Which, they were, until Van accidentally made two wrong turns. She made a frustrated sound when she realized, wincing as a shriek came from the backseat. She didn't bother turning to see who it was, squinting at the GPS as she tried to figure out where she'd gone wrong. Her vision was a little blurry, eyes welling up traitorously in her frustration.

"I can't read the—" she cut herself off, voice cracking as a car blew by them honking.

"You can turn around in that lot there," Tai said gently, reaching across the dash to put a hand on Van's knee. She could feel tension radiating out of the redhead's body. "It's okay."

She kept an eye on Van as they continued on, a little worried about the way her teeth were dug into her bottom lip. They managed to make it another twenty minutes in the right direction without any trouble before the car suddenly exploded into noise again and Tai whipped around to see what possibly could have caused such a ruckus. Shauna was already looking at her in wide-eyed panic.

"Gen threw up!"

Tai bit back an expletive. Gen was hunched over in the backseat, while Mel and Jackie were crammed up against one side of the car to get away from the mess.

"Fuck," Van swore, wrenching the car into a nearby parking lot, which was mostly empty. Shauna hollered something about bad words that went ignored by everyone as they came to a crooked stop. Van threw the car into park, dropping her forehead against the wheel.

"Okay, everyone out!" Tai ordered, unbuckling her seatbelt.

"Lottie's not getting out," Mari pointed out.

"Lottie's sleeping," Tai shot back, tilting one of the middle seats forward so she could help Gen out of the car. Her clothes were mostly ruined, but she hadn't gotten much on the car itself, which Tai counted as a small victory. "Van, do we have—"

"More clothes in the trunk, yeah," Van replied tightly, smoothing a hand soothingly over Gen's hair as she passed. Tai tried to ignore the noise of the other girls as she wiped at Gen's tears, murmuring softly, scanning their surroundings for somewhere that she could get changed.

"Do you want to take her over to the building there?" She asked when Van returned with the backpack. "There should be bathrooms."

"Yeah. C'mon, sweetie," Van said, offering a hand to Gen, who took it with a sniffle. As they walked away, Tai turned back to the rest of the girls and was met immediately with a teary Mari.

"Shauna bit me!"

"She started it," Shauna cried, running up to Tai as well.

Tai pinched the bridge of her nose. "Shauna, get in the passenger seat.

"Why does she get to sit there?" Mari whined, rubbing at her arm where Shauna had presumably lashed out with her teeth.

"Because," Tai replied tiredly. She didn't really have an answer. "I said so. Mar, you'll stay in the middle and Jackie, honey, you'll move up to sit with her and Lot, okay? You can watch over her to make sure she has a good nap."

Jackie nodded eagerly, always excited to help watch over Lottie especially. "'Kay!"

"What about Van?" Mel asked timidly. She looked mostly recovered from her little incident earlier, but she was still chewing at the end of her braid anxiously. Tai wound an arm around her shoulders.

"She'll sit with you and Gen in the back," she explained. "I think she needs a little break from driving."

"You're an awful driver," Mari whined and Tai snorted.

"You wanna drive, Mar?"

It got her to quiet, ducking her head sheepishly as she climbed back into the car behind Jackie. Gen and Van returned soon after and Tai pulled Van aside to explain the new arrangements in the car. Van was chewing on her thumbnail, which usually meant she was near slipping, but Tai didn't think she could handle the group alone and fought the urge to pull Van into a hug.

"We have some extra bags and I figured it would be easier to have you hold one for Gen since she's not always been the best with, er, aiming," Tai said.

Van nodded. "'Kay."

"You good?"

She clamped her eyes shut for a long moment, pulling her thumb away from her face as she tried to collect herself. "Yes. Yeah, sorry. We're almost there. Let's just see if we can go without any more, uh, events."

Tai chuckled, nodding. "You can say that again."

"We're almost—"

"Figure of speech, hon," Tai said with a small smile, handing her a blue bag with a plastic ring around the top. They'd invested in right proper sick bags after one too many shopping bags had ended up having unexpected holes in the bottoms. "Hop in."

Van wormed her way into the backseat, buckling in between Mel and Gen. Mel immediately cozied up against her side, resting her head against one shoulder sleepily. Gen flushed a deep shade of pink when she realized why Van was back there with them, but the redhead was quick to reassure.

"It's okay, honey," she murmured. "It's no one's fault. It's just a little easier this way, okay?"

Gen nodded, sniffling fiercely as she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. She pulled her knees up to her chest and Van hummed sympathetically, putting an arm around her shoulders as she used the other hand to hold the bag a little ways away from Gen. Not right up against her face, but near enough that she could get there in time if Gen started getting sick again.

"Last leg!" Tai called cheerfully as she gunned it out of the parking lot. Gen winced as they whipped around a turn, pressing a hand up against her forehead. Tai was a bit more reckless behind the wheel than Van was, much more prone to sharp turns and sudden lane changes and that never really sat well with Gen's stomach.

The car was a bit calmer with Mari and Shauna separated, even if Jackie was still going on about her stray cats, which she directed up at Shauna, who nodded along easily, adding a detail in here and there. Mari kept kicking out at the back of Shauna's seat, but the other girl didn't seem to noice, as enraptured by Jackie's story as she was. Mel was warm against Van's side and she realized her eyes were drooping a little. She shook her head to keep alert, bringing the bag a little closer to Gen when the car went over a bump.

"Fifteen minutes," Tai announced after a while, gaining a weak cheer from the car.

Van was getting hopeful that they would reach the beach without her having to hold the bag while Gen got sick, but her hopes were dashed when they rocketed over a hill and Gen clapped a hand over her mouth urgently.

"It's okay," Van told her, bringing the bag up to her mouth. "Don't worry about it."

She tried not to look when she heard Gen start to heave, tuning out the disgusted cry that came from Mari.

"Calm down," Tai instructed from the front, sounding a little less than calm herself. "Everything okay back there?"

"Peachy," Van grunted, tensing as they went over another bump.

Gen was crying again, but she calmed much quicker than last time when she realized she hadn't made a mess at all. Van opted not to tie the bag off and just focus on keeping it steady until they got to the parking lot where she could hand it off to Tai, just in case Gen needed to be sick again.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Tai maneuvered the car through a set of metal gates, flashing a day pass at the clerk at the stand. A real cheer went up as they crunched over gravel into a parking spot right by the sand and the girls started unbuckling before the car had even come to a full stop. Tai didn't even try scolding them for it.

"Finally" She whooped, seemingly just as excited as they were. "Beach day here we come!"

[molinaskies]

hey, i'm a new sonic fan (really digging your writings btw!!!) would you mind explaining a bit of this tag of yours? i get the feeling youve been in the fandom for a while haha X)

hello, I am SO sorry for the late response. I am terrible with my asks and kind of disappeared for much of the winter. Some might say this particular hedgehog was hibernating! That said, welcome to the fandom!

You are right! I've been here since 2012, but I've done many blasts to the past to learn about the things before my time lol.

This is gonna be an off-the-cuff answer, so bear with me, but this ask was in reference to this post where I mentioned some "questionable Amy Rose characterization." In short, it's only within maybe the last eight or so years that North American Sonic has been in decent sync with Japanese Sonic, as a franchise. While there are still plenty of localization differences between these two realms (from characterization to plot/lore implications), they are largely on the same page, now. This wasn't always the case.

When Sonic first appeared in the 90s, there was essentially a version of him for every "video game region" (North America, Japan, and Europe). Sonic was characterized very differently depending on where he was. Again, super off the cuff, but American Sonic was a super cocky, sassy speed demon who made fun of his enemies and had no fucks to give. Japanese Sonic was still arrogant and sassy, but a lot less flashy about it. European Sonic, I am the least familiar with, but I know him to be somewhere in the middle of NA and JP. NA and EU also have their own cast of characters on top of the official characters we know.

To the core of your question about Amy, Amy chasing Sonic is a trope in JP media between young lovers and was largely meant to be shown as a game between the two. Amy also reads as a lot more "cute and endearing" in Japanese iterations of her in the 2000s.

However, NA Sonic, as a franchise, played up her romantic feelings for Sonic to an absolute extreme for laughs, but it ended up with some really dubious results. Amy's NA characterization makes her out to be more of an active aggressor. Words you might see floating around about this include "stalker," "fangirl," and "obsessed." These things led a lot--like, A LOT a lot--of people to dislike or vehemently hate Amy Rose.

Some iterations of this aren't so bad, but the ones people really point at are Sonic Battle (she mistakenly believes that Sonic intends for a robot named Emerel to be their son), Sonic Heroes (Amy's reason for hunting Sonic down is to "get him to marry her"), and Sonic Adventure 2 (Amy says that she will only free sonic from his prison cell if he agrees to marry her; she is unsuccessful and frees him anyway).

To be clear, I FIRMLY believe that the latter two examples I gave were meant to be understood as jokes and that IS how Sonic takes them. People also point to a moment in Sonic 06 where she says she would choose Sonic over the fate of the world, but I also firmly believe that people misinterpret her meaning (more on that here). However, the fact this is a hill I need to die on shows that it wasn't made clear enough by the American writers. And anyway, this really starts to simmer down around 2008 with Sonic Unleashed.

The general consensus in the fandom, to my knowledge, is that this happened for two reasons. 1) Amy's crush combined with Sonic's (at the time) purposefully ambiguous feelings for her made for the type of gag humour that was big in the 2000s, and 2) Sonic already had a highly popular love interest in Sally Acorn, a NA-exclusive character from the 90s cartoon (Sonic the Hedgehog/SatAM) and the Archie comics that largely acted as a continuation of that cartoon's story.

Sally was so much "in Amy's place," as it were, that the NA instruction Manual for Sonic CD (Amy's introductory game, mind you) deliberately refers to Amy as Sally.

I'm not super well informed about Archie Sonic, but Amy has kind of a bad rep in those comics too. She has a uncomfortable back story (she uses magic, basically, to make herself older so she can join Sally's freedom fighters and be with sonic), is consistency depicted as overbearing and mean, and I've even seen people complain about the way she's drawn (she always has this unbecoming, large mouth that makes her unpleasant to look at).

However, the Archie comics underwent a total reboot in 2013 (the comics ended in 2017), and my understanding is that Amy's characterization is dramatically improved from there on out.

Again, SUPER off the cuff. There were a lot of micro details I skimmed over. I 100% encourage you to go on the deep dive and draw your own conclusions, but I hope this gives some good background to get started!

In summary, NA Amy Rose (and, to a lesser extent, Amy Rose in general during the early 2000s), is kind of rough to watch. SEGA over-corrected a little bit around 2012 by taking her down the hyper-independent route, but settled on something really solid for her in 2017 starting with Sonic Forces and the IDW comics.

[skywalkr-nberrie]

Some weirdos shippers on Twitter/X keep bringing up the “Episode 1: Insider Guide” CD-ROM which comes with annotations on knowledge from the early drafts of The Phantom Menace because of one specific annotation it provides which is heavily taken out of context as a way to argue their ship being real or “almost” real, so I thought I’d take the time to break it down and explain how absurd they really sound.

Insider guide reveals that Padmé was 12-13 in the early drafts of TPM, grew an admiration for OWK because he stood up to the queen (it literally states that she was “impressed” which is a word typically associated to the direct result of forming an admiration or respect for someone.) and that explains why she gave him adoring/admiring looks, and also quite literally states that she watches him with “interest and respect.” (Very indicative to the true nature on her affection.) Mind you, OWK was 30 in the early drafts and Padmé was the same age as Anakin (12-13) OWK was old enough to be considered Anakin’s “father figure”, so wouldn’t it be interesting to claim that this logic wouldn’t also apply to Padmé somehow??

It should be noted that OWK (whom is actually really Qui-Gon in the early drafts for TPM before they were switched out.) is only said to be nervous due to constantly being gawked at by someone and it makes him slightly uncomfortable as anyone would feel if they were being stared at. Not any indication of reciprocal affection or romantic attraction (should go without saying since he is a 30 yo man feeling uncomfortable with a 12-13 yo girl watching him with such admiration 🤡) Trying to amount something out of what’s clearly a childlike hero-worship of a 12-13 child over a 30 yo man is a wild ass assumption especially when the nature of Padmé’s fascination with OWK in the early drafts are quite clearly meant to be seen as kiddish admiration instead of romantic love.

Insider Guide annotation subtitled it “A crush?” (Which is funnily enough posed as a question rather than a straight fact.) is to engage the reader with a quirky composition. It’s not supposed to be taken seriously. Think of it equivalent to a click bait title on a YT video. Falling for it shows your lack of comprehension since the information provided in the annotation itself is very apparent about what it’s saying and implying. *All while Anakin and Padmé have a handful of tender and sweet moments together, obviously laying down the groundwork for a budding romance, and Padmé relationship with OWK remains strictly as an alliance with no tender or personal moments apart from professional and respectful ones with an undertone that would exist only between an authority figure and a child*

There's no verbal or direct acknowledgment in the early script on neither Padmé or any other character through the dialogue or anything else that her interest is even equivalent to a romantic crush, the only thing that's hinted at is that it's out of respect which is more so equal to an adolescent admiration for an authoritative personality, and only exists for about 2 scenes (see the footnote: pages 33, 43-44.) before fading into nothing as the story goes on. (Definitive of how irrelevant it’s supposed to be, so much that it was completely discarded in the end product as it wouldn’t contribute to the plot in any way.) And ironically, it fades into nothing after Padmé meets Anakin (lol, apart from the fact that her fascination with him wasn’t at all lasting and ended up being totally forgotten, the argument that this was supposed to be a setup for a future subplot to make Anakin jealous is a false interpretation as well.) plus the fact that not every crush is = to wanting a romance with someone. Platonic crushes aka admiration of someone is very much a thing as well, especially if you’re at the tender young age of 12, cause at that point crushes aren’t really romantic pursuits or interest, it’s always heavy on admiration and respectful affection, which is quite obviously what was being presented as the case in the Insider Guide.

Yeah, so in conclusion, I wanted to put this all out here cause some proshippers really be using the Insider Guide as proof that ob*d*la was supposed to be a thing without ever diving deep into the actual content it provided, and instead took at face value what misleading screenrant articles had to say then rolled with it, lmao.

[lilysrealities]

introducing… my second album!

more under the cut!!!!

title: epiphany

tracks: 1. a burning hill 2. i bet on loosing dogs 3. once more to see you 4. comfort 5. i want you 6. pearl diver 7. door 8. wife 9. bag of bones 10. eric 11. humpty 12. circle 13. abbey 14. brand new city 15. your best american girl

cover:

released: 2/8/24

backstory:

this album was announced and released on the red carpet after the 2024 grammys, where i had won 8 grammys, one being album of the year for punisher. this release was a result of me winning album of the year and therefore loosing a bet made by my bsf. this album blew up and was received with great acclaim.

all of the songs are originally by mitski in this reality except for comfort, which is by julia jacklin.

vinyls & cd’s:

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/4/2025

my desktop has Kicked It™️🫠 so this is shorter and worse bc it comes from my ailing phone. the tuesdaypost is generally a multi-tab multi-window affair and i completely forgot about the ten-image limit on mobile

listening

i bought this cd months and months ago to fill out the 8 items for $1 sale at my favorite religious thrift shop with the worst vibes, bc i saw the name and thought “oh i like the guy”. i was in fact thinking of nick cave. i would describe this as crunchier than nick cave. also janglier. my most deeply held american trait is that i am a sucker for a song about a road trip.

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reading

i struck out with Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe bc it made me desperately, desperately miss my maternal grandmother and we simply don’t have time for extra emotion this week.

bad news from the zone tumbleweeds i hated this one too. this is a fourth (!) 1997 printing of the 1992 novel by Claire McNab, Under the Southern Cross. 180p, it’s the same physical quality as all the other Naiad Press softcovers. i did not look up anything about Claire bc copying and pasting shit on my phone is horrendous: however, the frontispiece notes that she lives in LA “for love” and misses Australia. the draw and strong point of this book are the vivid and immersive descriptions of various tourist points down under by someone who really loves the country. it’s an effective travelogue!

The vast, forbidding Australian Outback… the grandeur of Ayers Rock… legendary Alice Springs… the Great Barrier Reef… the primal beauty of Cape Tribulation…

Two women, from different continents, with different values, collide with spectacular results… UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

American Lee Paynter has built her small travel agency into an international tour company. Brash, confident, openly lesbian, her great love is her business. Women? They’re to enjoy and let go.

Alexandra Findlay is pursuing a career in Australian tourism with quiet focus and determination, convinced that her career is the best she can hope for in her arid, closeted emotional existence.

Now Alex has been assigned to accompany Lee on the American woman’s visit Down Under, to win Lee’s company over to Australian tourism. Suddenly Alex’s quiet life explodes… And Lee is challenged by a woman unlike any she has ever known.

there were a lot of components i did not enjoy about this book, but the actual construction and hitting what felt like what the next emotional beat in a relationship Should be was there. nobody said anything outlandish and nobody’s crotches were engorged. the first lesbian romance in this project ive read in first person.

i find it extremely funny when someone is in a gorgeous location and having a fucking miserable time. just seething in competitive rage. alex at one point states that her family will never forgive her if she comes out and lee goes “oh? you’re super close with them?” and alex has to go “😠 no 😠”. their relationship is at its best when lee is like “you know you don’t have to live like this?” and kind of mentally drop-kicks alex into enjoying herself. unfortunately these moments are few and far between.

i mostly hated this book bc i hated alex, but it was sort of fun (though not really what i personally read romances for) watching in horrified fascination for 180 pages as she sort of train-wrecked her way through the book. i HATE this kind of sanctimonious unpleasant gay. someone who is extremely pushy about your boundaries (lee doesn’t want anything serious and says so from hour one) but doesn't want to do any work at all on her own boundaries or emotional growth (in only one example, pitches a fucking fit at the airport after lee has been very firm about how she loves to fuck and had a great time with alex but doesn’t want anything serious). this is cutting a little too close to home bc this is nearly all baby (and a lot of grown/post college) western mass queers. i had enough of that in real life and enough roommates like that. i also don't typically enjoy the divorced woman discovering her latent lesbianism storyline. the coming out storyline deserves its own graf.

this book does a good job of portraying alex as believably prickly for her own reasons, and not just out of contrariness or to fit a trope. she was very badly scared by watching her lover get fired and her almost fired at her post divorce job! that makes sense! i wish the arguments for and against coming out that she comes up with for herself rang less true today! however, she doesn’t come out in the book as a big emotional gesture to join lee in scary freedom, she comes out to stop her boss hitting on her and to prevent her coworker from blackmailing her. her coming out is such a significant point of tension and happens with such a fizzle! I think I would be giving the book too much credit to agree and say that sometimes coming out isn't a big deal and is kind of a fizzle, be she is constantly thinking about how her first lover was fired for being a lesbian. it can happen to you!!!

there is a very contrived, unnatural ending that requires lee to betray all her most deeply held relationship beliefs/make a lot of bad decisions and a deus ex concussion for alex. not that i expect every book to be a Victorian morality fable, but i didn’t want her to have a happy ending that felt so unearned. I didn’t want her to be rewarded for being such a pushy bitch while doing zero work on herself!

at least the sex scenes were some of the less awful ones ive read in this project

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watching

HOUSTON MENTIONED

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playing

look at my beautiful little bitches

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making

i am a firm believer that anything worth knitting is worth knitting well and as heirloom quality as you can make it, bc it takes the same amount of time to knit something in garbage single ply that will fall apart in one wash as it does to knit something in yarn that’s actually good. however, sometimes you need to produce an acrylic baby blanket bc a baby’s one job (as i have previously stated in this series) is to produce fluids and crumbs, and you love their parents and want to make their lives easier without adding a wool blanket to the mix.

this baby blanket is completed, only two years late. i did not measure this or even really unscrumple it before throwing it directly in the warsh. nineteen repeats across and twelve up of the tumbling blocks baby blanket, applied icord edging on the short edges which took six! total! hours! to apply. i think this yarn is bernat softee in mint? some sort of oil byproduct. phil is on my lap i cant find the band to check. i got very tired of this one and its 200 stitches across and am glad to see it out the door and to the tender graces of the toddler recipient. next on the docket is some socks for a grown person. i hope i still remember how to make socks.