#damage output is so so ass that it can’t DO THAT

[clannfearrunt]

Nintendo essay on not wanting to even consider buffing brellas even a little bit sowwy we just don’t want to ~change how it feels to play~ what is ur Fucking Problem

[multiheadcanons]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT ITS SPRING. THE MERCS IN A STORM

scout: scout doesn’t mind the rain. he just can’t move as quickly. and it’s not that he’s bogged down, like some of his teammates, or that the rain harms his damage output, like others; he just… falls. a lot. the mud makes him slip, and his feet hardly hit the ground for him to have a solid footing to ensure he’s not about to eat dirt. but he does like the rain! he just isn’t very good at fighting in it. has a cotton hoodie. it does effectively nothing.

soldier: soldier is not the smartest man in the world. but what soldier knows is that the moment he’s hearing the rumbling of thunder outside, there is a very large and very real possibility that if he strips ass naked and stands outside in the rain, he could be the lucky opponent to a drunk mud wrestle. and he does not need the alcohol to make it a good time. this single thing, this piece of knowledge, has skyrocketed rain and storms as one of soldier’s favorite weather patterns.

pyro: pyro does not like the rain. they will stay indoors until the sun decides to show itself again. it’s hard to maintain damage in the rain, and they rely on the afterburn for a more than fair portion on their damage output. and even outside of battle, the rain is normally cold, and makes getting out of the suit difficult. they do love the rainbows that come from the aftermath! if the sun’s even out at that point…

demo: demo loves the rain! he might join engie in a drink and storm watching. demo is still lively enough to want to go chase storms, but he will rarely actually take the opportunity unless others are going with him. demo is always in some stage of intoxication, so demo is usually happy to give soldier a few rounds of a fight in the rain. they end up grappling on the ground. demo does keep his clothes on unless he is goaded to take them off.

heavy: please get under the umbrella. or he will get you a raincoat. heavy doesn’t mind the rain! but the team stresses him out with their unwillingness to try to prevent a cold, running around in a storm with no jacket, no boots, dell gets naked sometimes. they’re stressing him out. he enjoys the rain until he sees his team in the rain. then he is immediately over the rain. he prefers the snow.

engineer: if he’s not on the battlefield, you bet your ass he’s got a chair set up and a beer in hand, watching the lightning strike. whooping with the thunder. he loves a good storm. he has a raincoat for when it’s really hard out there, but otherwise he’s standing in it. ass naked, if he’s drunk enough. this is an invite to soldier to wrestle. and the texan will step to the plate. it does something to him to fight in the rain. the hits hurt less, almost.

medic: the doctor does have an umbrella, but it has never seen a drop of rain. he will normally just stand in the downpour, or find a nearby awning. he enjoys it. but he does not like to fight in the rain. it bogs him down, and when it seeps into wounds it stings. and it’s not the stinging that’s the issue. it’s the brainpower it takes to register that it’s a continual burn. it almost makes him feel like he’s been shot again when he hasn’t. but he enjoys the rain outside of battle!

sniper: he loves sitting in the van and listening to the storm shake everything in it. the sounds of the rain against the roof put him at ease, almost. if he can, he’s willing to laze those days away. the sound of the rain is just too nice to not close his eyes and drift in and out of sleep. also a little lazy on the field. a little distracted with dozing off in the nest. just a peaceful, soothing time, as long as the drops of the rain continue to lull him into states of relaxation.

spy: get away from his umbrella. this is his umbrella. he will watch a storm from his smoking room. listen to the windows rattle around him. he may crack one of them and smoke his cigarette. listen to the team beneath him. and he hates fighting in the rain. he doesn’t have a raincoat to put on, and he ends up looking like a wet cat. can’t smoke cigarettes either. the enemy pyro is normally nice enough to set the man ablaze, and at least he can die with a couple hits of nicotine.

[arottinghouse]

STATION NEBULA-03 : RESCUE MISSION

SPACERIDERS POPPY PLAYTIME AU made by @onyxonline

AUTHORS NOTE : since the au is spaced theme it keeps reminding me of that fnaf-like alien game Alien Blackout sooo yeah. sorry if it’s bad, i’m trying to get back into writing.

OC(s) : Poneriateras/“Fetidteeth”s & Prof. Armaros.

It was a pretty uneventful day, basic patrols were the only thing being sent out, and poppy was late for a meeting. again. Hoppy was considering ditching the meeting all together despite Crafty’s insistence on staying, since it may be important, and Catnap was sleeping on the table. It took 20 minutes for Poppy to come online, and she seemed.. nervous. It was odd, since nothing important was happening as far as the group was aware— Hoppy’s complaints about her taking long were instantly stopped when she noticed her expression. Poppy explained how she had recieved a distress signal from the Station Nebula-03, while it was hushed she was able to hear it, and had to amplify the sound, so that’s why it took so long. Dogday was about to ask what the message said, but decided against it, so Poppy started to play the signal received to brief on the situation.

“This is Professor Armaros Evans, I need urgent extraction from Nebula-03’s research station. If you pick up this signal, proceed with EXTREME caution. There’s… an alien organism loose on the station. It is deadly. Repeat: Deadly!”

From the vents, the sound of a ship docking on the station was carried throughout, alerting whatever was left on it..

“Which camera is it? Come on..”

Armaros mumbled as they flicked through the cameras that were up and working, landing on the entraces camera as they saw a crew of four enter, their vitals appearing on the screen as they stepped inside.

“Yes, finally…” He breathed out in relief, their heart practically jumping in joy at the sight of rescue. They fiddled with the panel for a moment, turning the microphone on so the crew could hear them.

“Hello? This is Armaros Evans. Can you hear me?”

“Uhm.. Hello? I’m Hoppy, one of the spaceriders here. We have —”

He quickly cut her sentence short. “Not so loud! We are all in danger!” They whisper yelled through the microphone.

A loud thud was heard, causing Hoppy to turn.

“What the—?”

Almost on beat, a large, black creature came jumping down from the vents from the right door, where Hoppy and Crafty stood. It let out a horrific wail, causing Hoppy to quickly back away and Craft to fall down on her ass, her hands ready to sheild herself from the attack. Only for the doors to quickly close before the creature could lunge at the group.

“What the hell was that thing?!” Hoppy shouted in surprise.

“Didn’t you get my transmission? This place is a death trap!”

“We.. did get one,” an orange dog, seemingly the leader said. “But our ship was damaged by the station, it fired at us for some reason.. The station mainframe cleared us to dock for repairs.” He explained.

“I’m Craftycorn, a space ranger too.. And yeah, the ship was damaged by the stations fire, Hoppy was able to get us to safety before any major damage was done.. The ship can’t go half a day without another set of scrubbers.”

“Hoppy Hopscotch, I flew us here. We came for you, but we need those parts before we can leave.”

Armaros sighed behind the microphone. “There’s an engineering bay close by, so you should find some spares there. I’ll open the door now.” Slowly, the door in-front of the group opened, allowing them to proceed further.

“Hoppy and Crafty, fetch the parts please. I will stay in the shuttle with Catnap.”

“Figures..” The rabbit mumbled, walking further into the station with Crafty.

“I’m afraid we’re also on the clock here. Thanks to trigger happy security, the grid was damaged. I’ve wired up some solar panels, but their output is limited. They’re only good for 8 minutes before they shit down to charge…”

“So let’s make them count. What do we do, Evans?”

“Take a left to that control room, then bypass the lockdown to get to engineering.”

The two carefully made their ways into the control room, trying to be quiet as they could on the metal floors while also hurrying. They stopped as they reached the panel, Crafty taking the lead.

“Okay, disengaging the lockdown…”

“Where you folks holed up, Armaros?”

“It’s.. just me now, and I’m in the ducts, using a maintenance access point.”

“E..everyone else is dead? My god..”

“The pods were launched prematurely. Some may have made it, I don’t really know.”

“Got it!”

The two looked forward as the doors finally opened.

“Careful now, it’s fast.”

“So what the hell is ‘it’?”

“An alien organism. It lives to kill.”

A foreign voice chimmed in. “A station of this size, devastated by a single entity? Seems unlikely, no matter how ferocious it is.”

“Panic did most of the work, but don’t underestimate this thing, I’ve seen it do worse.”

“Wait— You’ve seen it somewhere else?”

“I’ve encountered these creatures before.. I’m still having nightmares. Ever hear of Mevastopel station?”

“Yes, there was an accidental detonation as it was being decommissioned.”

“Accidental my ass…” He mumbled as Crafty & Hoppy finally made their way in the engineering bay.

“Let’s find those parts and get out of here. Evans, keep an eye on the cameras.”

The two searched the bay thoroughly while Armaros flipped through the cameras.

“They’re not here.. Damnit!”

“There’s a note: “Took the scrubbers, installing them soon. Greg..”

“Thanks for getting us killed, Greg!”

“We can track them down. All service orders can be accessed from the administrative hub.”

“You’ll be needing my credentials then.. Catnap, with me.”

“There’s a door right next to the docking lounge, but the others should return to the shuttle first.”

“Got it.”

There was loud thuds coming from the vents, alerting Armaros as they looked up from the cameras.

“I.. I think I hear it coming.” They said as they looked to the opened duct, the creature quickly crawling towards them causing to scream, closing the vent in the nick of time. The creature banged on it as Hoppy’s voice was heard from the panel.

“Armaros! Hey Evans, are you okay..?”

“Don’t shout, we’ve made too much noise already.” They said as the panel rebooted.

“l had to route all the energy to the duct access, it’ll come back on soon. I’m trying to keep a fix on it with the cameras and motion trackers… But I’ve only got this small portable unit hooked up to an access point. Crafty, what are you doing?”

“U..uhm.. being lost. Kinda panicked there. Can you give me some directions?”

Armaros sighed, finding her on the panels map and directing her back to the entrance.

“Thanks, Armaros.” She sighed in relief.

“Don’t rely on me guiding you all the time. That creature tracks human voices, and those REALLY travel through the ducts. Also no running, if you can avoid it.”

“Right.. Got it.”

“That devils close-“ Hoppy’s voice cut through the conversation, causing Armaros to direct him to hide as they went through the cameras and did their best to direct the two back to the entrance, Dogday and Catnap going in their place as Armaros ordered them two to move it, closing the door behind them once inside to protect the two from the creature in case it came from behind.

“The admin hub isn’t too far, but I’ll need to move to a new access point, i’ll let you know once I’m connected again.”

“Before you go.. tell me, have you worked here for long?”

“The crew pulled me out of a bad situation and brought me here actually. But.. when I came out of hypersleep, most of them were already dead. Did you know what they had cooking here?”

“Are you suggesting the Spaceriders created that creature?”

“No, but this one was born here all right. But we can talk about it after. For now, less chatter.”

LMK IF YOU WANT ME TO FINISH THIS!!

[agirlinsearchof]

Finally picked up FE4 for the first time in a while!

Tailtiu seems like a fun character! She had it rough in the arena, though. I can’t wait to see her conversations with Azelle!

I am making an effort to pass down Claud’s Valkyrie staff, even though I am such a perfectionist that I don’t let my units die… paradox much? At least he has Fortify, so it’s not like he’ll only be standing there looking pretty while I try to pair him with Silvia. Speaking of whom, she has the Leg and Knight Rings at this point. She’s the most mobile Dancer in Fire Emblem now! Nine whole squares of movement, with Canto, in the one game with road tiles? And being able to refresh four units? Dancers were at their most useful here!

Brigid is super cool! Yewfelle is OP! No wonder only two player-usable holy weapons increase the stat that increases damage output!

So far, the plot is taking a tense turn! Sigurd is believed to be a traitor and a murderer. Yikes.

Next time I pick this back up, I will promote Lachesis and watch the ensuing ass-kicking. She’s probably my favorite character so far! And if what I’ve heard is true, I’ll get to use her even more!

I hope the Brave Bow patches up Midir’s Arena performance in Chapter 5. (Kinda late, but still.) At any rate, even if he doesn’t get much use out of it, Lester sure will!

The only thing I regret is not selling Ethlyn’s Return staff so Lachesis could pass it to Nanna. I meant to do that but forgot until it was too late. At least Finn will keep his Brave Lance by virtue of being single, so he should keep Leif and Nanna out of trouble with minimal issue.

[cagemasterfantasy]

Battle Smith Ranking (5e)

Guide

1=useless

2=often useful

3=sometimes useful

4=perfect

Tool Proficiency 4 most interesting and expensive non-magical adventuring gear is made of metal

Subclass Spells

Level 3 Heroism and Shield 4 Spectacular defensive buffs. Shield easily makes up the durability gap between Battle Smith and Armorer in heavy armor

Level 5 Branding Smite and Warding Bond 2 both options are situational. Warding Bond is hard due to Artificer’s d8 hit die

Level 9 Aura of Vitality and Conjure Barrage 2 both spells are fine but not especially good for a 3rd-level spell

Level 13 Aura of Purity and Fire Shield 4 more great defensive buffs

Level 17 Banishing Smite and Mass Cure Wounds 2 both options are situational but you don’t have another good way to deal with extraplanar creatures and your best group healing is Aura of Vitality which can’t get a whole party back on their feat in 1 turn

Battle Ready 4 finally a way to use Intelligence for your weapon attacks. You also get martial weapons which offers a small improvement to your existing weapon options. Be sure to take 14 Dexterity to max out medium armor but otherwise go all-in on Intelligence. You have a variety of good options for how to jump into combat with a weapon. Grab a longsword and a shield and you’re nearly as durable as a Fighter (arguably more durable if you have the right infusions) especially with Steel Defender’s Deflect Attack. Deflect Attack may even be enough to justify using a two-handed melee weapon so that you can focus on offense but if you’re going to use Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade the bigger damage dice will be less impactful than the AC bonus from a shield. If you want to be extra defensive but still in melee grab a whip and keep your Steel Defender between you and your enemies. If that’s still not safe enough grab a ranged weapon and send your Steel Defender into melee on its own

Steel Defender 4 the Steel Defender is primarily a Defender rather than a Striker. It has a decent pile of hit points and what amounts to Fighting Style (Protection). It deals damage equivalent to a longsword and since it’s force damage almost nothing will resist it but its primary function is to protect you while you do the real damage. It has a poor AC at just 15 so expect to spend a lot of time repairing it between fights. The Steel Defender’s Repair action allows it to repair itself but at 3 uses per day you’ll get a lot more healing out of Mending. The Steel Defender notably doesn’t gain any ability to fly which is a problematic limitation once you reach high enough level that flying enemies become common. You’ll need a way to either get enemies down into range of your Steel Defender or you’ll need to find a way to make your Steel Defender fly. Infusing a pair of Winged Boots is probably your best option

Extra Attack 3 Helpful since Battle Smith typically relies on weapons for damage output but without an on-hit damage boost you’ll get considerably more damage output out of cantrips like Booming Blade and Sword Burst so Extra Attack may only be consistently useful if you’re using a reach weapon or a ranged weapon

Arcane Jolt 4 2d6 damage/healing up to 5 times per day isn’t much but fortunately it doubles at 15th level and the healing is as useful as Healing Word allowing you to heal dying allies and get them back into the fight. Personally I would reserve this exclusively for healing and critical hits. The damage isn’t enough to make a big difference normally unless you know that it’ll kill the target but the damage is extra damage rather than a separate damage source so it’s multiplied on a critical hit like Divine Smite or Hex

Improved Defender 4 2d6 more damage/healing on Arcane Jolt makes it a little more impactful but still not significant. The AC boost is significant especially since your pet has been sitting at 15 AC for 11 levels while attack bonuses gradually increase. The tiny bit of damage on Deflect Attack is nice too. At this level 1d4+5 (assuming that you have 20 Intelligence by now) isn’t much at this level but it’s still a nice little buff to something which you were going to do anyway and if you’re using it every round (which you really should) it will add up quickly

Final Ranking 3 Battle Smith allows Artificer to focus on Intelligence and Constitution allowing you to thrive in melee without worrying about Strength or Dexterity. The Steel Defender is a really simple pet and the cost of it dying is low enough that you don’t need to feel bad about it so you’re free to throw it in front of you and your allies whenever things get dangerous. The hardest decision facing Battle Smith is what to do with your hands. Most characters only have two hands and if you plan to be in melee that’s often a problem. You could use a two-handed weapon but a shield is an important option when you only have d8 hit dice. You could fight at range with a bow or crossbow and that would work fine but if you want to fight at range Artillerist is typically a better fit. Battle Smith is intended to wade into melee with a weapon in hand and clad in so many Infusions that you’re basically untouchable. Remember that you can use any item bearing one of your infusions as a spellcasting focus which means that you can use it to provide both Material and Somatic components for spells that require inexpensive material components, and thanks to the “Tools Required” part of the Artificer’s Spellcasting feature you don’t need a free hand to perform Somatic components so long as either your weapon or your shield are one of your Infused Items

[scertifiedsavanaclawstan]

The First Years Playing DnD

Sooo I’ve been on a dnd kick lately (like I’ve seriously been obsessed over it in every way) and I got some ideas about this sooo here’s a thing I wrote with all the first years including Ortho and Grim. Poor Yuu having to dm a 7 player game... but they’re the one who brought all the source books with them on their phone when coming to Twisted Wonderland so they brought this on themselves.

Grim

Originally suggested (read: pestered) that everyone try out this "role-playing thing”, since most of the other first years had at least heard of it. And it sounded fun to get to blow stuff up! Which he does... a lot. He’s your stereotypical, ever memed, Evocation Wizard. He’s never met a problem he couldn’t fireball, and if he does, he clearly hasn’t used enough fire. Also he flavors all his fire as blue... and he plays a tabaxi... and his character is filled with ambition and arrogance to be the world’s greatest mage... Yeah hes the guy who just plays himself. Everyone else is frequently annoyed by his antics, and keeps asking him to just try ONE utility spell they’re practically begging at this point. At least when they do get into combat he’s very effective, honestly he spends more time maximizing his damage output than he does focusing in class...

Ace

Jumped on board because he was pretty bored. REALLY jumped on board when he realized role playing wasn’t “Just talking to people about stuff that isn’t real” He’s still not actually very good at roleplay, but at least he makes up for it by being very enthusiastic about the human rogue he’s playing. Considering he picked the thief subclass... and begins every new npc meeting or room entry by stealing everything that isn’t nailed down (and some of that too. His starting equipment includes a crowbar and by damn he’s going to use it!) Even if he struggles to roleplay he still winds up more helpful to the party than Grim, at least since he stopped stealing from the party. After Epel nearly beat him up... out of character. That was a pretty heated session.

Deuce

Was also relatively interested because he didn’t have much else going on. Unlike Ace though he’s actually REALLY into roleplay. He’s one of the few who gave you an in depth backstory to work with. He’s a proud Oath of Redemption Paladin, a dwarf who left on an adventure in order to make his family proud! Because even in an RPG he can’t help but try to be the best boy he can be. He’s the one making sure Ace’s character doesn’t steal from anyone too important (when he rolls high enough on perception) and keeps the party on track. Of course that doesn’t mean he dislikes the other aspects of the game. It just means when he uses his divine smite every chance he gets, he’ll give an appropriate one liner with it.

Jack

He got roped into it. But he’s begrudgingly glad he did because he thinks it’s great. Jack’s definitely more into this because he gets to spend time with his friends classmates, but just like everything else that doesn’t mean he’s half assing it. He’s gone full in on the fantasy theme like Deuce and plays an elf, and he’s the only one other than Ortho who read ahead of level one to pick his class: A Circle of the Land Druid, the desert version. You’re not sure why he picked it, but the way his tail wags whenever he describes his plant spells making cacti pop out of the ground to impede his enemies might be a hint. You were half expecting him to use his wild shape on the dire wolf... but he said that wouldn’t make sense for a desert druid, so he usually picks either a lion... or hyena... Unless he really feels like going fast. He’s a decent role player, but doesn’t get nearly as into it as Deuce or Ortho.

Epel

He was in from the moment he realized he could make the character however he liked. AND role playing is sort of like acting right? So Vil couldn’t be upset with whatever Epel decided for his character (the fact that Epel was right about this however very much did upset Vil). It shouldn’t be a surprise then that his character is the most masculine, most smashy, most... tall? He’s a Goliath Berserker Barbarian. His roleplay might not be much more complex than the basics, along with some intimidation and Barbarian screaming, but he’s definitely having some of the most fun at the table. It wasn’t exactly surprising when he showed you his backup character... a rune knight fighter. He’d been playing the game for only a few weeks and he already found out how to max out player size.

Ortho

Ah Ortho, a dream and a nightmare all at once... You should have expected how he’d take to roleplay like a fish to water given his love of acting out movies and games alike... you ALSO should have known that Idia Shroud’s brother would make the most min-maxed character known to man, To both ends, he plays a scourge aasimar death cleric. He gave you more details on his character’s incredibly complex backstory than anyone else, complete with an angel civil war and his characters entire life history. Which he does keep in mind when he’s roleplaying to be fair. Of course, he also destroys all encounter balance since his character is so optimized: damage, healing, support, debuffs. He’s got it all. Why a death cleric though when technically any would do? Oh that’s just because he really likes the Lord of the Underworld, he is in Ignihyde after all!

Sebek

Sebek was not originally invited, he inserted himself when he heard Malleus mention that this “Dungeons and Dragons” you had mentioned sounded interesting. So of course he had to try it himself to test it for his lord. He plays a blue dragonborn, who actually has black scales because he begged really hard for the flavor change, who is also a blue draconic bloodline sorcerer for maximum lightning. His character is the heir to an ancient kingdom, who is mostly adventuring purely for his own amusement, and is named... Dralleus...  Maconia... No one exactly knews what to say, but Sebek is at least having fun, and honestly he isn’t bad at either mechanics or roleplaying... so everyone just kinds of ignores it.

[saintofvoid]

Psychofans & Mediacorps

(Backstory and lore on some psychofan encounters and the attempted kidnapping of Kerry Eurodyne along with some related events with Johnny Silverhand. Written as a Screamsheet because I was bored, and this all isn’t 100% since actual events aren’t always fully disclosed. Word count: 2976. Sources at the end.)

Being a world famous Rockerboy is really all it’s chalked up to be, doesn’t mean there isn’t its fair share of snags along the way. Fame and glory comes with a heavy price tag many don’t realize as they’re building their way to the top. Blinded by having your name in the lights, seeing hundreds of thousands of fans all eagerly waiting to just get a glimpse of you. Night City Legend Kerry Eurodyne commented, “It’s scary. I mean, to think that one hundred thousand people are selling their souls to see you, and you’ve got them hanging on your every word.” The very fans that would kill for a chance to see their idols live, are the very same that would put them on Trauma. 

Not just the fans either. Corporate is everywhere, in everything. Fight the system through lyrics while making them richer all the same. Media giants like N54 and DMS buying up the whole show to beat on their chest about who has the most control. The issue comes with their greed for it, keeping those who give them wealth on short leashes. Best offers, benefits, prestige of having a higher name attached to yours. But when friendship runs deeper than the quick climb to fame, other options of “persuasion” may occur. Aggressive strategies to keep themselves on top, because the company always come first.

We’re going to start this article off on arguably a lighter topic, that being the psychofans. I say arguably because they can do just as much damage as the corporations, but it's usually a bit more controlled. We'll hit on that later. There’s the usual rush security, jump fences, steal an axe, the almost seemingly normal chaotic fan behavior you can expect at most high profile gigs. Don’t lie, there’s always one in the audience. 

The sudden rise to fame with Samurai also helped play a part in this erratic behavior, Eurodyne had previously stated, “One minute we’re chugging through our old numbers in some small, no name club to the same crowd; the next we’ve sold out Wembley Stadium and there are a hundred thousand killing each other to get a look at us.” This wasn’t much of an overstatement either. Samurai’s rapid rise to fame took a mere three weeks after signing to Universal Music to reach the number one spot on EuroRadio charts. Everyone wanted a piece of Samurai then, and following the break up in late 2007 that craving didn’t soon die out. 

A number of incidents have happened, being on world tours is a crazy place. Never really know how fans are going to act until you’re in the thick of it. Most these incidents happen backstage, after gigs, or just by random chance coming across someone on the streets, in the open. One particular incident was documented in 2020 in the following of Trauma Team’s Rich “Meatball” Cramer M.D., Lifeline Trauma Inc., Night City Branch #23. 

Broken card call, 15:55, to the Grand Illusion Dance Hall and Bar. Patient being none other than one Rockerboy, Kerry Eurodyne. Compared to the rest of the logs of the night this was a breath of fresh air for the Lifeline agents, not so much for Mr. Eurodyne who was being assaulted by a gang of young female fans. Teargas was dispensed and our Rocker was extracted from the scene. Kerry was in good health at time of extraction, footing the bill of the call to the studio as well as a new set of clothes. Lawsuits were never charged as the fans left enjoying the chaos. 

Another lesser known act back in 2043-44, while performing in Memphis TN an assailant got backstage and put a knife to Kerry’s throat. Intentions of the attack are unknown. Could have been a psychofan making demands of an idol, or someone who knew the net wealth of the name Kerry Eurodyne at the time? Either way the incident ended without bloodshed, Kerry was able to talk the assailant down and promptly knock him out with a stiff pour of that high life tequila. The rest was handled by the venue’s security. Unfortunately events like these are almost common for the stardom lifestyle. 

Lives are kept under public scrutiny 24/7. “Be prepared to have your private life open to the world,” Rockerboy, Johnny Silverhand, had mentioned in a column from Advice From the Pros. Name in the lights simply means just that, private life is on show as well and nothing can truly be kept secret forever. Kerry Eurodyne had added, “Cover your ass on your social life, the mediacorps are capable of setting you up bigtime in compromising situations… Make sure you know who you’re hanging out with, and something about their friends.” Not just fans and so called friends you need to watch out for, but the very people you sign yourself away with. 

Rockers Kerry Eurodyne and Johnny Silverhand are no stranger to this cold truth. Even mediacorps you don’t sign with will have motives, and often resources, to try and gain a signature. Corporations will often go after the output/input or family of the Talent instead of the Talent itself. However, big companies like DMS, the rival to N54 News, also have other methods to “persuade” a contract breach and change. Both Kerry and Johnny were targeted by this particular company, though this time it was Eurodyne dragging Silverhand into trouble. 

After the time Samurai had broken up for good, late 2007 early 2008 Kerry was looking for a decent solo deal. This was a gamble for most Labels at the time, Johnny was the frontman of Samurai, Kerry’s true talent had yet to really flourish into the Legend we know today. At this stage in their careers they were just some new-boy artists, that had a couple songs and albums that made it big. A lot of bands will have their handfuls of top sellers and then disappear into a faded memory. However, media giant DMS saw promise in Kerry, and they quickly came out with an offer for the young Rockerboy that would put him right back on the road to stardom. 

Kerry was going to take the offer until Universal came up with an offer that wouldn’t just set him up but Johnny as well. The two decided that the offer Universal had was too good to pass up, and with good reason. Universal not only was packaging the two Rockerboys together as independent solo artists, they were offering a better deal as a whole. Since Universal already knew them from Samurai, and knew what the two could produce, formalities of signing a new band was skipped. Re-signing with Universal gave them guaranteed concessions normally only offered to major bands or superstars. 

DMS didn’t come back with a counter offer, they came back with threats. Eurodyne, and those close to him, started to receive threats from the mediacorp, these quickly escalated to hired thugs harassing and assaulting everyone in the Rocker’s inner circle, as well as himself. A common tactic for many corporations to get what they want. However, Kerry wasn’t folding to their pressure, sticking with his decision with Johnny to sign to Universal. At this point the signatures were received and Kerry’s talent was the official property of Universal Music once again. This only made the situation worse, and turned into a rather rare occurrence for the music scene. 

Major corporations have a number of outlets that they have at full disposal to get what and whom they want, when they want. DMS is not unique in this fact, but they do have one of the more unique techniques. DMS is creative, deadly, and, for a corporation its size, dangerously agile. They are known for their aggressive and ruthless recruiting tactics, and they do not take “no” with grace. 

Eurodyne’s fate, to DMS, was sealed the moment they selected him, no matter his choice. DMS starts with a fair offer, most of it coming with the prestige of having their name backing you and their benefits package. In the case of Eurodyne, where this was not enough, DMS will call on their Special Recruiting Division, which is devoted solely to recruiting and converting people who are reluctant to sign to DMS. A fancy way of saying they send in their black ops section to perform extractions on those who are bound by contract or reluctant to leave their current company. 

Extractions are illegal, but the government is in the pocket of these corporate giants. Though they hardly ever send their own people, so even if the extraction does fail the proof of finding out who sponsored the extraction is normally too timely, over looked, or asking corpses. Most these companies hire Solos to get the job done, a number of groups exist in this profession alone. Extractions are unsettling common in the corpo world that counter extractions are budgeted into company spending plans. As well many big companies have jealousy protection, and pre-planned countermeasures to prevent extraction attempts of their employees or Talents.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “If they didn’t want to work for them before, what would kidnapping them do?” Well, DMS and other companies thought about this issue as well. How do you force someone to work for you? Blackmail is the obvious answer, to the Talent, to their friends, their family, etc. It's a simple fix that will get a result, but can’t guarantee the product. Its proven effective though, reputation is everything- threats to destroy that are not taken lightly. For a company like DMS, they have a one up on this if they can't get the Talent to see eye to eye with their terms. “Talent Indoctrination”, TI for short, otherwise known as brainwashing to the common choom. It's a program used for winning over people who express resistance to “joining the DMS family” even after extraction. 

TI is only a rumor outside of the highest levels of the corporation, and those who have been subjected to it. Luckily, TI section failures are rare, unluckily survival of TI section failures is even rarer. DMS, however, is willing to risk TI only on targets with a high enough revenue generation potential. Executives are more at risk than artists, given artists are seen as disposable and the average commercial shelf-life of a DMS Music artist is only a couple years. Most only making it an average of two before they’re dropped back to performing at clubs and bars for the same hundred fans, if that. 

This was the threat Kerry was under, one that became very real one fateful day when the Rockerboy was abducted by a group of hired muscle from the corporation. While Kerry was successfully kidnapped and relocated, the extraction itself failed due to intervention of Legendary Solo, Morgan Blackhand. Blackhand was able to capture all five kidnappers, alone, and turned them over to the Federal Authorities. Beaten, battered, and bruised but all five were alive when they were handed over. This act alone humiliated DMS, who was only found later on in investigation to have been the group’s sponsor. Its not unheard of extractions being foiled, but for a company like DMS it was a shot to their pride since Kerry would know it was them that called it. The real humiliation of it comes from the fact Blackhand snagged them all alive, allowing the truth to be exposed to the public, tarnishing that royal reputation of theirs, though no legal action would be taken.

Embarrassing a huge company like that puts a major target on your back. Legality they could care less about, but reputation is not something any corporation wants to gamble with. Morgan Blackhand would become a target for a later date, DMS wasn’t done with Kerry Eurodyne yet. Now, though, their attention was brought to one of the key elements for why Kerry declined their original offer; Johnny Silverhand. 

“They were threatening Johnny and I with things like government investigations and stuff. By the time that threat was made, we’d already signed with Universal…” Eurodyne recalled during an interview. It was true, DMS had dug not only into Kerry’s past life but Johnny’s as well. They were at the stage of “If we can’t have you, no one will.” While Eurodyne’s rap sheet was arguably cleaner, DMS was preparing to go full out, and all in to find anything they could. What they had as their ace was Silverhand’s military past, and they knew they could find the same information about Eurodyne as well or paint him for it. Both Rockers had served during the 2000’s Central American Conflict, Johnny’s desertion was all they needed to start the fire.

DMS was preparing to take this knowledge to the government, and at that point they could say and paint anything on Kerry as well. Their careers were about to end before they even began. Short on time, they did the only thing they could do, they went to Universal Music. With the counter threat of exposure of DMS’s corruption and abusive power over their Talents, Universal made their position clear. This was a PR move, DMS could go to their pocket government agents to have the Rockerboy’s locked away for life, but Universal was going for their public appearance. The ends didn't justify the means, DMS backed down.

Lawsuits were dropped, threats ceased, no more extraction attempts were made on either rockstar. They were given freedom to produce their albums and do tours under the protection of Universal. It wouldn’t be for another several years down the line when DMS would rear its ugly head back into their lives. Well, only in passing.

Denny, the former drummer of Samurai, had a new band called Mastermind that was being recorded by DMS Music. “She knows how I feel about them, but the contract they’ve got is suitable for her, so I’m not going to interfere as long as she is happy.” Kerry had stated on the matter back in late 2013, “Even now you won’t find Johnny or I saying anything remotely positive about DMS… I’m just glad no one was listening when I made certain comments or some of my fans might have taken those rash words to heart and we might have had some serious problems.” A tongue in cheek response to the 13 April 2013 Arasaka Riots led by Johnny Silverhand, under the old band's name of Samurai. Rioters killed 18 and wounded 51 on that night, gutting the Arasaka complex. An event that would only deepen the wedge between the two Rockerboys, yet redefine them entirely.

Silverhand, however, would be blackmailed again later on in 2009 by EBS Records to leave Universal and sign a solo contract with them. EBS had found out that Johnny was an AWOL U.S. Marine who had deserted during the Second Conflict. The blackmail attempt was quickly dropped as Johnny came clean himself, revealing all his secrets and shining light on the plight of veterans of the covert war, with his now famous album Sins of Your Brother. 

One thing the Rocker was known for was starting changes with his music, back in late 2012 Silverhand had an assassination attempt on his life believed to be sourced from Biotechnica do to their belief of controversal opinions to their practices heard on his album Clone Wars. Being forced to take several months of seclusion to let the heat die down before going on tour himself.

Given all of this, and much more, they had been relatively lucky. Maybe not with the fans, Eurodyne still faces the masses though in some more creative ways now. Having his biometric data copyrighted, and agreements with NCPD to monitor CCTVs for any unauthorized replications. Hasn't stopped some from trying, going as far as faking nudes that broke headlines awhile back only to have frisky imaginations shot down by his management. As far as Johnny goes, I don't think anything beats the rumor that was circulating sometime after the events of Arasaka Tower back in 2023. The idea some obsessive fan sneaked past security of the city to dig through the rubble, locating his body to put on ice and keep like some kind of memorabilia? It sounds crazy, but everyone in Night City knew what kind of fans Samurai, and more importantly, Johnny Silverhand had. Made it completely possible and people didn't really doubt that it could be true.

With corporations though, the two Rockerboys dodged a bullet. Multiples if you were keeping count. Others haven't been so lucky. A number of stories of Talents being threatened and giving into demands, multiple assassination attempts to end someone's career, Talents being kidnapped and tortured, so far as one account of a musicians hands being crushed to prevent preformances. From the outside being a Rockerboy looks like a party scene, and a lot of it is, but as the longest living in the scene will tell you, keep a Solo and a Netrunner you trust close on personal pay.

Events come full circle, once you make it to the big time stardom, the public eye notices everything, hangs onto every word. Talents like Silverhand and Eurodyne control the masses in the same way the corporations do. The audiences look to them for guidance, though in some cases the lessons are lost in translation. With everything from greedy labels making backdoor deals behind their Talent’s backs, something Kerry Eurodyne and Us Cracks went through this year, to psychofans making their own demands, to corporate reputation wars. Being a Rockerboy never gets easier, but few have hardly ever survived the test of time as Kerry has. An uphill battle from his earliest beginnings, to sitting on the Rockerboy throne of Night City, well into 2077 and still holding the title of "God of Rock" without a fault. 

Sources and Quotes:

Rockerboy Source Book

Backstage with Kerry Eurodyne page 7-9

Extortion. Bribery. Kidnapping. Brainwashing. And Other Nasty Tricks. Page 44-45

Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. The Second Edition

Silverhand Update: Clone Tour Begins page 225

One Night with the TRAUMA TEAM page 231 

Live & Direct 

Diverse Media Systems “Technotainment” page 81-82

Solo of Fortune Vol II Source Book

American Angels: One of Europe’s Best Rates the Top U.S. Pros. page 63

Cyberpunk Red

Welcome to the Dark Future page 239

Cyberpunk 2077

Spector Melee Vendor Westbrook

Gig: Psychofans Gaston Slayton's computer

Shard Glam Now! - The Mag For Those Who Love This For Themselves

[noelclover]

On Genshin Impact: Zhongli

Now I’d like to preface this by saying that I do appreciate Jinjinx and Tuner and their maths and that this isn’t a criticism of them as much as it is a criticism to the folks out there who hate Zhongli and the various arguments given. a) We were baited into rolling through MiHoYo’s false advertising. No. You weren’t. You were baited into rolling for the character because of information obtained from a beta because you can’t understand the simple concept that whatever happens in a beta is subject to change. Unless you mean to tell me that you looked at a cool ad wherein a character attacks and decided that he’s DPS material, which is... kind of understandable but strange, as that would mean that if Soraka is seen attacking, she’s an ADC. ((No, please don’t build Soraka ADC, I’ve seen it, it’s really, really iffy.))

b) Why wouldn’t they make him a DPS if they gave him cool animations?

Why wouldn’t they? The visual design of a character does not necessarily correlate to their roles. Not all wizards have pointy hats and be old, not all fighters walk around in breastplate.

c) He’s not even a good support!

Debatable, but it’s very hard to weight defensive supports against offensive ones because the latter is generally more flashy and something you can really feel while the former is a lot less exciting to think about.

d) Noelle’s shield is better than his!

Noelle’s shield scales with her DEF, which is something you’ll probably be building on her due to how her Burst scales.

Zhongli’s shield scales with HP%

This means that, depending on the calculation, odds are Noelle’s shield will be tankier than Zhongli’s, if only because there’s not as much damage reduction (as far as I understand it. I don’t really know shield mechanics and whether or not damage reduction applies before damage is applied to the shield. It it does then you’ll get more mileage from Noelle’s shield because you probably stacked defense, which means a greater percentage of damage reduction, which means less damage is applied to the shield.) So yes, her shield is better than his, except for the simple fact that his shield does AoE, thus generating quite a few shields for you to pick up and has half the cooldown her does, while having roughly double the duration. This means that if you use his shield not to enable your (masochistic) face-tank fantasies but as a safety net or an opportunity to sneak in some extra attacks, his shield will probably last you all the way up to recast.

Does this make his shield better than hers instead? No clue, it really depends on how you use it and honestly, I think it’s impossible to calculate shield value by virtue of it being a shield. You have to calculate the number of hits a shield can take, how much DPS you lose out on a stagger, the opportunity cost of attacking while the shield is up, etc etc. I personally think that his shield is good if you’re a somewhat decent player because it’s a nice safety net. e) He doesn’t do good damage! Xiangling does more damage than him! He’s a support, not a DPS. I don’t know what their stats are as the wiki doesn’t state it, but he may have more base stats than her, which in turn would work much like the Diluc vs Razor argument, wherein Razor has a higher attack percentage on his attacks but Diluc has a high base stat to work with resulting in Diluc outdamaging Razor anyway. Dreamy made a video on it, I don’t really remember much from it though as it’s been a while. f) He’s bad, you just can’t admit it!

He’s not bad, but I certainly won’t say he’s great. Is he worthy of being called a 5 star unit? Honestly? That’s debatable. The only other 5 star I have is Childe and he can’t reach his maximum potential with me (at c0) because I don’t have the crit damage bow he needs. I do have Diluc on my NA account which I don’t play and I’ll admit that Diluc feels really smooth to use and play however, but he’s basically Riven and saying that an easy-to-use-Riven feels better to play than tanky-Trundle is kinda... well yeah. Hard comparison. g) According to the numbers, he’s not worth it! It really depends. I don’t agree with Tuner’s statement that Zhongli is only good when you can swap out a character because you’d have enough DPS for your content because I think Zhongli can provide some quality of life that makes it easier for you to clear said content. Additionally, if you pair him with Geo MC (and why wouldn’t you) you’d get quite a bit of free damage. Hell, even pairing him with Ningguang is pretty darn good due to her buff from walking through the screen and his pillars basically letting her act as a turret, which means that he can enable more DPS output that you would otherwise (because dodging takes up time and stamina which can be converted to more DPS). Given that it’s tremendously difficult to calculate quality of life changes (literally how), I’m really not sure one can say that he’s bad. Underwhelming perhaps because of them, but not bad. h) You’re just unhappy he’s getting buffs! No, I’m happy he’s getting buffs. I just don’t think this was the buff he needed. If anything, I really want his pillar to generate energy, and, though it’s definitely broken, for it to scale with the number of constructs around. I’d like for Zhongli to do an Unlimited Meteor Works. Additionally, I’m not sure about buffing a character because of a community whining for him to be something he wasn’t meant to be is a good thing, and that’s power creep aside. Yeah, it’s a PvE game and so power creep may not (to some) matter as much, but I’ve seen how games can be ruined by power creep. i) You’re just a blind devotee to MiHoYo and Zhongli! Or you’re paid!

I wish they were paying me, and no. I wish MiHoYo wouldn’t make the whatever-oculus’ into a treasure hunt. It’s annoying. I wish Violetgrass was available for purchase. I think getting 4 star weapons on the character banner is asinine and you should get the banner character guaranteed for your first 5 star when you roll on that banner. Additionally, I wish that they would make MC’s ability to change elements easier, I think resin makes sense but is kind of ass and I wish exp is easier to earn.

The game has faults, as does the company because they’re the ones making them.

Also I don’t even Honkai Impact, I installed it and didn’t touch it on my phone for 3 months. I personally think that Zhongli makes a player’s life easier. It doesn’t mean that I think he’s someone you should absolutely roll for, or that he’s without flaws. When I look at a character and their kit, I think about the role they fill and not the roll I want them to fill.

[a-crimson-lion]

Ultimatum: The Art of Lying In A Made Bed

(Or Why My Experience With Chapter 285 Is Contrary To Everyone Else's)

[Manga Spoilers Ahead. Also Opinions. Feel Free To Ignore.]

After Chapter 284, many fans were wondering how the story of BNHA would follow up on Katsuki's development. Now that Chapter 285 is officially out, fans are clamoring about Katsuki's latest acts of heroism, about how his arc is finally kicking it into high gear.

I'd be inclined to agree, but… you know how these things go.

[Heads up fans/stans, if you like Katsuki you might wanna bail. The word vomit that follows is pretty much incoherent and reflects my disaster of a thought process.]

I was looking forward to Chapter 285. I had my reservations on the execution of Chapter 284, but if the next chapter could follow it up and then some, I'd be pleasantly surprised. But then the leaks came out. And then the fan translation. And as of today, the official VIZ translation.

While everyone else is cheering for explosion boy, I'm just… done.

285 didn't get me to see how far Bakugo's journey has come. 285 didn't get me to finally root for him. And maybe I am making this decision prematurely, maybe I am missing something, but…

...the way things are going in the story I just- I just CAN'T root for him.

And I'm not saying the rest of you can't, if you're still reading. Katsuki is definitely a different person compared to Chapter 1, a better person, and he's definitely been heading on the up and up! If you can and want to support him, then by all means, go for it, don't let me stop you! It's just…

For me, chapter 284 was a wavering torch: a flicker of hope that sometimes dwindled, but was still there. Chapter 285 was the moment where I wanted to jump on the Katsuki Development Train, to finally gain some semblance of respect for him. But when I jumped, I landed on the tracks, and had to crawl back onto the platform.

I missed my chance to jump on that train. Whether it's because of previous circumstances or recent circumstances, I'll never know…

You probably wanna ask me at this point, "But Crimson, why DIDN'T Chapter 285 make you see the awe inspiring pinnacle of character development that is Katsuki Bakugo???"

To put it simply: it's a culmination thing.

For starters, there's a sort of… whiplash with Katsuki's development in the last few chapters. People like me will complain that Katsuki's development is too slow, in the case of the last 2-3 chapters, it feels like a switch was flipped, and now it's become too fast. Perhaps it's a me thing, but let me try to explain…

Shoto starts out as a standard background character. By the time he gets his spotlight in the Sports Festival, he comes off as reserved and antagonistic. After the whole "it's your power" moment, Shoto is finally able to accept the side he always hated. Then Katsuki fights Shoto, and we're shown he still needs time to grow; his left side comes with a lot of baggage he can't just brush off in the span of a single sparring match.

Fastforward to Hosu. Shoto's starting to take other people into better account. He's starting to learn to better control his fire. He's reconnected with his mother. His goal is no longer one-upping his old man; he has goals, people, that he wants to protect. He's coming into his own and wants others to do the same, like Tenya.

He joins the Katsuki Rescue Squad because, like Izuku, he had an opportunity to save Katsuki, didn't, and now he wants to make up for it. When we get to the Provisional License Exam, we're yet again slammed with the fact that his growth is still not done via Inasa, that there's still a bit of Endeavor he has to shake off, even if it was in the past. And he does progress towards that with the Remedial Course Arc. And while I have my opinions on the Endeavor Agency Arc, I'll admit that it was another development opportunity for Shoto and the Todoroki family. Shoto's growth comes with setbacks, but overall it's consistent.

Let's shift gears to Tenya, who's characterization I find fascinating. He starts out opposed to Izuku when they first meet at the Entrance Exam. He sees how Izuku is (for lack of a better phrase) "better qualified" at heroics thus far, reassesses his position, and apologizes whilst making amends. When Tenya resorts to LITERAL MURDER against Stain, the narrative does not let him go off without reprocussions. His arms are damaged, his supervisor's teaching license is revoked, and while he managed to avoid legal charges via police cover up, it still came close. Tenya listened to Stain's words, and opted to improve himself by that notion. He tries to set a better example, be a better class rep. It isn't a one and done.

Him lashing out during the Hideout Raid Arc is an offshoot of that. He doesn't deck Izuku just to be a dick; he's trying to knock some sense into him. They're so focused on Katsuki that they're forgetting about everyone else. Their friends, their teachers, their parents. If they f*** up like Tenya almost did at Hosu, they'll have hell to pay, and he doesn't want that. Of course, once they explain that combat/murder is not their M.O., Tenya tags along, if only to ensure the operation goes smoothly without this hitch. And again, Tenya keeps up. He looks after his classmates, looks after Izuku during the Shie Hassaikai arc. His growth is also consistent.

There are probably more characters I could elaborate on (Ochako, Momo, Eijiro, etc.), but I'll stop there. So, what's the deal with Katsuki's arc?

Well, it's… frustratingly back and forth.

It's one thing to have setbacks like Tenya and Shoto. It's something else entirely to have multiple setbacks and to keep trucking on with only abstract signs of development, but otherwise feeling like a very similar character compared to several chapters ago.

This is (in my opinion) Katsuki's problem. If we're going by what the manga stated, his arc technically started in Chapter 11: "Bakugo's Starting Line." But this is a rocky start. Izuku tells him about OFA right from the getgo out of guilt, but this neglects the fact that he's technically lying to everyone about it (including his new friends Ochako and Tenya), that OFA is a world-shattering secret, and that Katsuki is likely the worst person to tell this to considering that Izuku just handed Katsuki's ass to him and Katsuki was willing to use lethal force in their Trial. That aside, instead of say, sucking up his pride and opting to try and learn from everyone else, Katsuki doesn't really change strategies or approaches. He essentially does what he was planning to do since the start of UA; he's only crying because, SURPRISE, people are better than him. You'd think he'd expect that considering he called his middle school crappy…

After the USJ, once everyone had their "Lol Bakugo sux" moment on the bus ride, we get to the Sports Festival and everyone is clamoring to join Katsuki's team despite his apparent unapproachability. This feels less like something happened in the two weeks leading up to the Sports Festival, and more like history repeating itself from middle school. Moving on to the tournament, we don't even get to see how capable Katsuki is at serious combat. Two of his matches resort to Deus Ex Machina pulls, and the other two are in his corner by principle instead of difficult.

First off, Katsuki vs Ochako. I don't know why people praise this fight. For starters, it makes Katsuki HEAVILY OoC. Ochako is the only person he asks if she wants to back out before the match even starts. The ONLY person, which kinda undermines the whole "he didn't underestimate her" thing. Then he takes a reactionary stance the entire battle. Like, I thought we were still dealing with the "fist first" Katsuki. He does this to Eijiro, Fumikage, even Shoto, but Ochako? Stay still and then attack. Even if he did get his gravity removed, couldn't he just… propelly himself and let her have it. If he was proactive, he could have ended the fight quicker. Instead, he just plays sitting duck and headless chicken. If you're gonna have Katsuki win the fight, don't bulls*** it.

Which brings me to the final bit of that fight: the meteor shower. Having Katsuki blow that away after supposedly expending most of his energy earlier in the match just does NOT sit right. Ochako gets the upper hand, and then you just… negate that? You expect me to believe that Katsuki could generate an explosion at that magnitude, if nothing else? And what exactly does that do for him in the end? No one else tires him out for the remainder of the festival, which is pretty sketch.

(And yeah, I know I know "What part of her was frail?" but that's more of a retrospective thing than in the moment, coupled with the facf that it's never elaborated on again in any capacity, with Ochako or with someone else. It's a throwaway moment; a waste. Moving on…)

You really can't say much about the matchups with Eijiro and Fumikage. With Eijiro, it's an endurance match, and Katsuki apparently has infinite stamina and is on the attack. And he just… rushes him, which I'm pretty sure anyone else would do. Then with Fumikage, Dark Shadow is weak to light. Katsuki's explosions emit light on contact. Do the math.

And I am especially mad at Katsuki vs Shoto because one, he stays in place yet again at the start of the match, and two, he can apparently ignore his Quirk' weakness to low temperatures. In a gym uniform. Against a glacier the size of a building. Even with his power output, you don't see his explosions dampening in magnitude. It's obviously in his favor, which defeats any tension the fight could have had. It sucks, and in the long run, as a wise man once said, "Todoroki should have folded [his] ass."

Then we get to the Final Exams (ABOUT DAMN TIME) and… Katsuki hits Izuku for trying to cooperate, nearly gets knocked out once, and gets knocked out the second time around. He does not want to work with Izuku despite it being All Might, is petty enough to consider losing, and actively grumbles against working with Izuku. And all of his supposed self-preservation goes flying out the window when he's willing to try and beat All Might, leaving Izuku having to come and carry this boy out of the gate, which should not have let him pass.

Then there's the Training Camp attack. The second Izuku is mentioned, Katsuki decides to go AWOL, and while being kidnapped sucks, I am less sympathetic when you're boneheaded enough to help them capture you because you wanted to fight villains instead of getting to safety like the professionals recommended, all because of your one-sided hatefest with one of your classmates. Congrats, you played yourself.

Then we get to the Provisonal License Exam, which feels like a step in the right direction… until you realize this will boil over into Deku vs Kacchan 2, which will get both of them in trouble, which will give Katsuki insight into OFA while Izuku gets shunned by his classmates, and which will prevent Katsuki from the one ass beating that could have potentially taught him something. It's essentially the narrative covering his ass, and then he has the gall to be happy about other people potentially getting set back just because he was set back. Geez dude.

The Cultural Festival essentially undoes what the Remedial Course Arc accomplishes, having Katsuki look down on the rest of UA when he said NOT to look down on people earlier. And then his speech is still heavily antagonistic to the rest of the school, and to the idea of basic human decency and kindness in general. And if I'm being honest, that whole "he can play drums" feels like a big ass pull to keep him in the spotlight. At least the story brought back his ability to cook down the line.

The Joint Training Arc is just shoe horning in regards to Katsuki. It acts like his gearing up towards saving, but the circumstances are heavily, heavily in his favor, and not in a good way. I've already brought up how Katsuki won't get "saving" until the Endeavor Arc, and how here he's just doing it to show off, so I won't go into it here. Then apparently he gets to outwit a recommendation student 'cause why not? It makes him look more impressive than he actually is, even though he outright states he hasn't changed much if at all. Not to mention the narrative makes it sound like he was some sort of underdog, even though he only got kidnapped and didn't get his license. And I know those are big things, but not enough to warrant his victory feeling that triumphant. I'd probably buy it if he didn't win the Sports Festival or pass the Final Exam. Keep him in that slump for longer than you actually do, or it lessens the impact. And let's not forget, he might have been willing to help Izuku with Blackwhip via fisticuffs, but the second he realized he wasn't getting anything out of it, he noped out. And it's been what, almost 200 chapters since his "starting line?"

I don't have much to say during the Endeavor Arc (that was its own can of worms),  but as for the War Arc thus far… here's what I mean by "whiplash." The arc begins in Chapter 253. By Chapter 257, Katsuki will demonstrate how much he just does not give a f*** about Izuku's mastery over OFA so long as it looks like he'll come out on top. By Chapter 274, when Izuku's gotta split, it'll look like Katsuki has been thinking about some stuff, but by 275 he's gonna throw that out the window so he can attempt to one up Tomura and Izuku, and then he'll nearly get killed for it. And we won't know what exactly Katsuki is thinking until a flashback in Chapter 284 (which chronologically takes place after 257), where he has a conversation with All Might about his past with Izuku. Or at least the bullet points. If you're me, the start of the conversation feels less about Izuku and more so about his situation: his situation with OFA. And as much as I want to believe there was at least one good kernel in Katsuki that he was too stubborn to let out with Izuku, I feel like Katsuki only brings up him and his capabilities now because he got a Quirk. That's what put him on Katsuki's radar. That's what forced Katsuki to take notice of Izuku, what caused him to be unable to ignore his own weakness. Because of a Quirk. That's… borderline shallow, if not remarkably so.

And even when Katsuki is attempting to save Izuku in 285, his first thoughts are still on OFA. And even if we go by the line of thought that Katsuki is thinking "Even if OFA sucks, it's still Izuku's Quirk." And that's nice and all, but the flashback makes it seem like the Quirk is still All Might's Quirk as well. That all of Izuku's worth is hinged on the fact that he got a Quirk now and therefore can't be written off. Maybe he doesn't owe this to his accomplishments, but the narrative is terrible in its implications that Izuku wouldn't have gotten as much attention without it. At the end of the day, Katsuki is still associating Izuku's worth with his Quirk. And as much as I want to vaguely, vainly hope that this will change later on, I'm already at my limit

...and now that I've said my piece on almost the entire narrative thus far, let's shift gears to a few more tidbits in 285.

Again, the flashback. I think it's significant that they're shifting the focus briefly on middle school again. But you wanna know what sent me the wrong way? They didn't include the god forsaken suicide instigation. They can show Katsuki gloating. They can show Izuku up against a wall. They can even show a notebook and Izuku's face during the Sludge Villain rematch. But they can't show Izuku reacting with sorrow mixed with almost fury. That can't show Katsuki threatening him with a mere "What?" and the sparks on his palms. They can't show Izuku standing and crying, small and defeated.

"BUT HORI SAID HE WENT TO FAR WITH THAT SCENE!1!" Blah blah blah, doesn't change the fact that it still happened. Doesn't change the fact that it should be addressed, at any capacity. Doesn't change the fact that the story had the balls to recall middle school but couldn't bring itself to remember the one thing that could get its audience raising eyebrows.

But that's alright, it gave you the notebook; clearly it's done enough.

And maybe in another timeline, I could have let my jaw drop when Katsuki was hit and the chapter title was revealed. "Katsuki Bakugo: Rising" It would have been pretty damn powerful too.

...but with all the previous crap the narrative has pulled, it feels like more shoehorning. It feels like more Erasehead stepping in and shaming the audience. It feels like more All Might letting Katsuki in because he's not completely familiar with the finer details. It feels like more people. In narrative parroting that Katsuki changed when he does the bare minimum, as a hero or as a person. I can't treat this development legitimately, because so many other "legitimate" developments pulled a "psyche!" and headed out.

So, I'm done. I'm done with Katsuki, done with hoping his development will be done in a somewhat satisfying manner. Done with people telling me "it's actually good though!" like I'm blind and deaf or something, when I have enough brain cells to formulate my own opinions, and we both have enough brain cells to leave each other alone if we don't agree. Maybe when the series ends and we can all look at this in hindsight, and Katsuki has either found a way to redeem himself, or remain deplorable, I might talk about it then. But for now. I'm drawing the line. I might talk about what we've gotten up to this point, but everything past 285 I'm taking with a grain of salt. 'Cause I'm sick of hoping for something that obviously won't come through, and it's better for me and everyone involved if I just pack up and move on. BNHA isn't just Katsuki's story after all.

And if you made it to the end of all this… I hope you'll either respect my opinion, or respect my thought process. That's all I can ask.

-Crimson Lion (27 September 2020)

[jauneda1]

RWBY

The New War AU part 2

Classes and combat training

(Jaune's mind)

"Professor Port's classes where one of the best classes to attend, you get to kill Grimm of a low level and show off new skills. The only down side is he talks entirely to fucking much."

Professor Port: Blah blah blah blah

(Jaune's mind)

"Fucking hell this is boring. When the hell our we gonna get to kill some Grimm. He didn't even ask us to take notes he's just talking and gloating about how he done this and that. Not to mention he keeps gawking at Yang. Oh and I swear to God if he winks at her again I'm gonna shove that mustache up his ass. Haa calm down Jaune... Yang... Why did you say no?

Two days ago on the Rooftop

Yang: Jaune... I love you, You know that right?

Jaune: Yes and I love you two that's why I want to make this permanent. We've been off and on for so much but really I don't think I'm complete without you.

Yang: Jaune you are absolutely fine without me. I know remembering Ricky is hard for you but I'll always be there for you.

Back In Ports Class

Jaune is just sitting there unaware that Port chose him for today's bout.

(Jaune's mind)

" Why are women so confusing, this is why we keep breaking up I don't understand her and maybe I should work more on that or..."

Professor Port: Mr.Arc first please remove your hood. Second I have chosen you for today's unarmed Grimm battle training.

Jaune Arc: Okay sir... Wait did you say unarmed?

On The Combat Floor

Jaune Arc: Why do I have to be unarmed again?

Professor Port: As a Huntsman Mr.Arc you must always be ready for any situation. Like if an Ursa major where to knock your sword away-

Jaune Arc: I would have my shield.

Professor Port: But you have nothing, besides in my days I could take on 10 Ursa with my bare hands.

Professor Port winked in Yang's direction which resorted in Yang feeling embarrassed and disgusted.

(Jaune Arc)

That bastard did it again I don't care what he sends at me I'm gonna beat it into the fucking ground.

Professor Port: Now Mr.Arc your opponent will be a Ursa Major.

Jaune Arc: 😂😂😂

Jaune rushed forward with aura infused in his legs. A few people where surprised and thrown of when they heard him laugh. But Jaune cared not as he slid past the Ursa and with his momentum spun around. Putting his hands on the ground and putting aura into his hands and grip latching onto the floor and gaining a good base. He then kicked the Ursa in the leg shattering the bone and destroying everything beneath the skin. Jaune then backflipped out of the overhead swipe the Ursa threw out of pain. Jaune saw his opening again rushing forward and tackled it but the Ursa stood strong until. Jaune with his hands still wrapped around the Ursa spinning around now behind the Ursa Jaune lifted with his back and legs aura coursing throughout his body giving off a blue highlight. All the while Jaune is building up his to release his semblance.

With a loud smash and to the amazement of the entire class with the exception of Yang and Ruby Jaune German suplexed the Ursa Rolling over with the momentum of the suplex and lifting the Ursa up. With the same strength now doubled he shifts his weight to now Jaune is lifting up and about to slam the Ursa into the ground with his one arm. This feat of strength from this tall and scraggly looking man. Shook everyone in the room even Professor Port. Jaune standing only 5 feet from the Ursa began to speak since he's been silent since the beginning of the battle.

Jaune Arc: 😂😂😂 An Ursa Major 😂😂😂 it's like throwing around a bag of potatoes. GET UP AND ACT LIKE THC KILLING MACHINE YOUR SUPPOSED TO BE! I've seen the battle scar's on you. You've been through a lot now come at me everything you've got Beasty.

The room was quite till the Ursa rushed at Jaune with a mighty roar even without one of it's legs and with one slash Jaune was sent back like 2 or 3 feet. The Ursa if it could look it would. Now Jaune's 2nd favorite hoodie was slashed through but that wasn't nothing compared to what everyone was paying attention to even Yang and Ruby where surprised by the secret semblance he had been hiding from everyone. Jaune's body was surrounded with auric blue Flame and there are blue lines spider webbing out from a bright blue light where his heart should be and Jaune's eyes are bright blue.

Jaune Arc: Okay my turn

Jaune then tore off the shredded hoodie revealing that he is a hell of lot more ripped and muscular then he may seem. With one burst of speed and Jaune was now holding the Ursa in a bear hug and with a mighty roar Jaune's eyes mouth expunging blue flames.

Jaune Arc: BAHAMET DETONATION

With that Jaune Arc let out a self detonation the explosion was controlled. To the eyes of everyone there they saw a orb of pure blue flame and the feeling of an explosive going off in front of them. All that was left was a decent size crater and Jaune Arc standing there with obvious exhaustion.

Jaune Arc: Cough... Did I past?

Lunch Room

Yang:😭😭😭 Then he yelled out this phrase like he was a super hero

Ruby:😭😭😭 He did something similar back in Signal right lol.

Jaune: Yeah yeah laugh it up. Ow my body really hurts, that's the first time I've tried releasing full power.

Weiss: Wait you've never used it before?

Jaune: Nope I still have some of it built up inside me. I'm going to probably have to go burn it off. I felt the size of the explosion it would of wiped out the entire classroom so I pulled more then half of it back into my body.

Nora: The was so cool though, I almost couldn't help but jump from excitement the way you moved so fast.

Ren: You where extremely focused in that fight it was like you where in the zone.

Nora: That is the power of a high grade. I didn't think much about power difference but you even said you got some energy stored up. Btw you need to let me see the explosion at full power and when you burn off the rest later.

Jaune: Sure

Nora: So your basically your in beatable you use a sword and shield and your semblance is basically a walking explosion with a smoking hot btw.

Jaune: Thank you

Ren: Nora.

Nora: Sorry sorry. So how does it work?

Jaune: Well... It's like a strength storing semblance. I store up kinetic energy from successful attack my targets or receiving damage. I can't do anything with it till I've hit critical mass which is when my heart starts to burn bright through my chest. Then I can use that explosion.

Yang: Bahamet Detonation😂😂😂

Jaune: Yes Yang Bahamet Detonation. I can control the output and size of the explosion. But if I wanted I'm pretty sure I can store even more. But that cause great harm to me I actually had a burn scar over my heart on my chest due to me trying to store copious amounts of energy... I guess it's really good for groups of enemies.

(Jaune's Mind)

"Fuck my body is hurting I should of condensed the size of the explosion and let it all out. But I've never done that I have a lot of aura but I don't think I would survive that it already hurt to do what I did in class."

Jaune: Hey guys I would love to stay and chat but I need to go burn off the energy left. If anyone wants to see the explosion follow me.

Nora: Oh definitely me.

Blake: Should be fun

Ruby: yay

That's a wrap for part 2

Character analysis

Jaune Arc: Age 18, Huntsman classification, High Grade, Battle classification, Vanguard, the vanguard classification is a hybrid between oppressor and tank with they're oppressing attacks keeping they're targets at bay an they're tank like strength they can keep multiple targets on edge and defeat them single handedly.

Semblance: Kinetic energy store and dispersal, Jaune stores up kinetic energy from combat and can release it with enough output to cause a devastating explosion that can reduce anything in the blast radius except Jaune to atoms.

[multiheadcanons]

MERCS PLAYING THEIR OWN GAME

scout: scout would give every class a shot. he really likes playing as soldier— a lot of no think just click. he tries to stay away from playing himself as a class, feels weird to him. goes out of his way to spycheck. no spies will ever get past him. once there’s more than two on the opposing team he switches to pyro. his taunt menu is FULL. has a couple australium weapons.

soldier: soldier will play himself because it’s no think mouse one. finds it humorous that it’s much easier to rocket jump in the game than it is in real life. market garden pro. he’ll occasionally play medic, but he will switch classes the second someone calls for him more than once and leave the team down a doctor. be appreciative of the medigun or suffer and die. will not switch his layouts, ever. even if you beg him in chat.

pyro: pyro will also give every class a shot; but they focus on playing spy. one of those players who would obsessively watch “how to play spy” youtube videos so that they can take what they learn and catch the enemy spy more in actual battle. catches the spy when he’s sure he was undetected. undetected by all but one. they also… really enjoy playing spy. don’t tell anyone. they fucking hate that spycicle though. won’t use it on principle. really cute cosmetic layouts.

demo: demo will also opt for his own class. it’s fuckin… hard. he doesn’t enjoy playing himself. he blows himself up more often in that damn game than he wants to admit. likes the mann vs machine game mode. sometimes plays heavy to no think w + m1. also really enjoys playing pyro! if he doesn’t want to suffer playing himself he opts for an “easier” class; but he’s pretty dedicated to playing his class and getting better at it.

heavy: y’all know if he’s not playing himself he’s gonna play his doctor. all of his class layouts are god tier though. good weapon layouts. the best cosmetics. got australium everything. too embarrassed to get the burly beast cosmetic. even more embarrassed to admit other medics with that cosmetic fluster him. he can’t even look at them. a very aggressive battle engineer. heavy playing engineer is a spam of “dispenser going up!” “sentry going up!” “teleporter going up!” “packin up!” “i’m moving this!” “movin out!” “let’s do this TEXAS STYLE”. his sentries are never in the same place for more than a minute before he’s forcing the team to push ahead again. taunt menu full of kill taunts. it’s so funny when it works.

engineer: hands down a sniper main. if only to kick sniper’s ass and gloat slightly if they’re playing together. he’s actually pretty good! has considered installing cheats, but it’s better to be good and piss people off to the point of accusing him of cheating. it’s only happened once. he doesn’t play himself, he would actually rather do his job at that point. stock layout, no cosmetics, no text chat available for this user. sometimes he’ll switch to scout for some more “dynamic” gameplay, but he’s not particularly good at the classes that have to be directly in the action.

medic: yes he does have the burly beast cosmetic, why do you ask? gives generous attention to all classes, even himself! decent, if a chronic overextender. KD ratio is fucked up but has insane damage output. he likes to play with heavy, but he won’t play his own class. they’re the real thing. sometimes heavy will ask, and he’s nice enough about the request he’ll oblige, but he’s not the best when medic plays his own class, so he’s more tempted to say no more often. some of the most frightening layouts imaginable. make no sense. people are screaming at him to change, he’s got voice chat muted. he’s always having a good time when he plays because he literally doesn’t focus on chat.

sniper: snipes will play other classes until engie gets too big for his britches and gets one too many headshots on his own class. then he’s absolutely switching over to sniper and he’s fucking destroying the entire server. fuck you, dell conagher. you have officially ruined the game for everyone in the server. he’s gotten kicked from multiple games being accused of cheating. and he’s not cheating, he’s just better. a prolific spy killer. if snipes is playing and engie’s pissed him off enough to switch, it is a bad day for every enemy spy. it’s almost instant. he sees the pixels of a cloaked spy in the corner of the map from the corner of his scope and he’s already predicted where that spy went and got him. he never has less than a five killstreak on the board at any given point in time.

spy: spy isn’t playing anyone but himself. and it’s why he doesn’t get better on the field while everyone else has found other, more creative, better methods to do their own jobs. he’s got one serious loadout, and one joke loadout. no cosmetics. whatever loadout he decides to play, he’s pissing everyone off on the team. he’ll focus down razorback snipers on the enemy team until they’re screaming at him to switch classes. he will purposely type in chat “no”. has only spy exclusive taunts.

[stellar-imagines]

HEADCANONS REQUEST: ❝S/O with Meltdowner quirk, artificial arm and eye.❞

[ Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia ] [ Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Aizawa Shouta, Takami Keigo ]

「Headcanons of Midoriya, Aizawa and Hawks with S/O who has a Meltdowner quirk, artificial eye and arm from past encounters with villains.」

MIDORIYA IZUKU

♤ You never knew he’s a science nerd until he questions the principles of your quirk. It’s quite a complex quirk if you do say so yourself. However, talking about your quirk is actually exciting, especially with someone like Midoriya who’s always willing to listen to whatever you’re saying. This guy, as usual, is jotting down notes at the speed of light which makes you wonder whether his writing is still legible. Even though you try to keep it as simple as possible by telling him what you could do with your quirk, like being able to melt through thick metal walls, block shockwaves, disintegrate objects and make a shield ― he seems more interested in how it works. So, get some refreshments ready and prepare yourself mentally cause this is going to take a while.

♤ This guy is still a nerd and nothing can change that. It doesn’t apply to your quirk only. He’s super interested in your artificial eye and arm. You were given the freedom to customize your artificial body parts, so you often sneak of to the Department of Support. One of your weaknesses is that you needed to take a certain time to aim with your quirk but your artificial eye made it easy for you to aim as it allows you to track movements. Originally there’s a limit to how much power you can use but thanks to your new arm, you were able to go beyond your limits when using your ability.

♤ He trains with you everyday and helps you make up for your weaknesses. You like to test your output during training session but you were always careful with it since the backlash and blow away your body and break your arm. Having a quirk like this really intimidates people because it’s capable of destroying a person in seconds. When Midoriya watches you melt through even the thickest of metal, he’s mentally taking note not to piss you off. But of course, you wouldn’t hurt this boy, he’s too precious.

♤ Oh but the way he looks at you after every mission you come back from. You’re usually just tired and there’s nothing you’d like but to lay down on the bed with him right now. He would be all over your face, babbling about how cool you looked in TV, beating up all the villains with your quirk. Midoriya could go on for hours, just praising and rambling on about your most recent success. You have to shut him up with a kiss and thank him with a smile before you could continue with your plan to laze around with your lover.

AIZAWA SHOUTA

☆ Aizawa isn’t born with an offensive quirk and he’s never the type to stand out. He would be someone who supports instead of leading the attack. He’s super amazed with what your quirk is capable of, going as far as to say that you’re a destructive hero. This guy knows people without actually meeting them because he actually keeps up with news. He learns that you’ve actually lost an arm and eye from a villain attack a year ago. His respect towards you grew when you continue to work as a hero, with an artificial arm and eye which makes up for your weaknesses.

☆ Genuinely amazed at the amount of power you hold in your hands. Your quirk was very destructive and honestly, with your quirk, you could blow up an entire city if you wanted to. Of course you couldn’t do that because as a hero, you have to keep the causalities and damage to surrounding structures to a minimum. He’s definitely the guy on the sidelines telling you not to cause any more damage and destroy the surrounding buildings. But you end up destroying nearby buildings and most of your money goes to repairs.

☆ Super proud of you and is very secretive of that. Aizawa had the TV on once during his day off. Originally he planned on making himself some coffee until he changed to the news channel to see that there was a villain attack. And what’s more, when he hears someone mention your name, he forgets his coffee. He would be at his couch, watching intently like a kid watching their anime. You bet this guy is cheering for you to beat up some villain ass and by the end of the battle, he will be super proud, like a dad watching their daughter win some sports festival. If only you knew he was usually like this.

☆ He is a very attentive lover. Aizawa pays close attention to you, he’s the one reminding you to check your limbs regularly and accompanies you to get them repaired if there’s anything wrong with them. If by any chance, you do your own repairs, he’s there to help you despite not knowing much. There were the days where you would have to rest your arm and can’t really do anything much, he will be taking care of you, buying you food and all that. He might not look like it but he is one great caretaker, he’s usually lazing around the house but when you’re injured or something, he’s up and doing everything he can for you.

HAWKS (TAKAMI KEIGO)

♡ Bird man never realized he’s into strong women until he laid his eyes on you for the first time. As a Pro Hero who’s rising in the ranks steadily, it was no surprise that Hawks have heard news of you before. This guy thought you would’ve retired after that one mission that cost your eye and arm. But look and behold, you were alive, kicking and patrolling like usual. Hawks is amazed that you’re still working as a hero instead of taking a break from being a hero. You should’ve seen the look on his face when you used your quirk to completely disintegrate the car that the villain threw your way. He was in love and awe.

♡ Low-key thinks that you look super hot when you’re using your quirk. And of course, being the cheesy guy he is, he will make stupid pick up lines and puns related to your quirk. He’s the type of guy who would get to know you through an unorthodox method. You both would coincidentally bump into each other during patrol or a villain attack. He flirts openly with you, saying cheesy things about how you melted his heart or something along those lines.

♡ Hawks has this tendency to mess around with someone. This is done in various methods, whether by teasing, making stupid jokes or small little harmless pranks. He tends to mess around with you for the sake of getting an interesting reaction from you. Of course, you didn’t mind because you thought it was kind of endearing. But there are just those times where he can’t read the atmosphere and decide to pester you when you’re in a bad mood. You would threaten to burn his wings off with your quirk. If he chooses not to believe you, you would hold your quirk in a ball-shaped stationary form to show how serious you are.

♡ Helps you with repairing your limbs! But usually he uses this as an excuse to touch you. He’s not that smart with gadgets and you should know that more than anyone else. Even so, Hawks likes to keep you company while you work on repairs. He will occasionally disturb you to gain your attention. When he’s feeling extra generous, he would make some coffee or tea for you. Not only that, he might actually bring some food for you though it’s all take out because he can’t cook for shit.

Total: 1290 words Published: 22.08.2020

We’re looking into expanding our list by adding two more fandoms. Please help us by casting your vote in our ongoing poll ― CAST YOUR VOTE HERE!

Thank you for requesting! ｡٩(ˊᗜˋ)و*｡ In case you all didn’t notice, we’re both Raildex nerds  (っ˘ω˘ς ) Mugino’s abilities are quite complex if you ask us but we did all we can! So happy to hear you loved our previous headcanons! Hope you like this one too! ― author Lou

Thank you for requesting! It’s really nice to know that there are people out there who enjoys the Raildex series. Hope you enjoyed this, anon! ― author Natsuki

Requests are open! Matchups are closed!

Please do not mind the grammar mistakes and typos.

[maskydoolovesmasseffect]

Mass Effect Tag

Wellio, I’ve been tagged by @berryshiara. Passing this on to @grummel83

Gunna answer my questions now. Y’all feel free to tell me what you think of these answers. ​

I’m a fan since: 2008. I was just out of high school and still not over KoTOR. I was fresh in the army and got to talking to some other dude fresh to the army about video games. He asked me if I played Mass Effect. I said no. By the next day I just about totally forgot about him, then he suddenly appeared out of nowhere sat in front of me in the chow hall and pulled a copy of ME1 for Xbox 360 out his pocket like he was a magician doing a magic trick (ACU pockets are huge.)

Anyway turns out that guy was a romance option and I must have picked the right dialogue options. I’m still with him, too.

Favorite game of the series:

Mass Effect 2. It seemed like that’s the one where choices mattered most and you really got to know your squaddies. Also MAJOR gameplay improvements over the first game. And that game gave me the most freedom to do basically whatever I wanted and wasnt afraid to give me consequences for it.

MShep or FShep:

FShep. Nothing against MShep, but for me the real Shep is FShep. Can’t beat Jennifer Hale’s voice. 

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer:

Colonist. I like having the background of knowing just how dangerous the galaxy can be and how the Alliance can’t be everywhere at once so sometimes you need to manage your best on your own.

Biotics or Tech:

Both.

Paragon or Renegade:

Paragon, mostly. I tried being renegade but some of the actions are just so pointlessly dickish, or even outright unhinged in a way that would make it impossible to believe the Alliance would ever promote Shepard as an officer or even keep her in the Alliance at all, especially in the first game.

That said, there are times where a renegade action is more expedient and practical than a paragon one, like in 2 when you stab a dude in the back to prevent him from repairing an enemy gunship, so even with a paragon playthrough, my Shepard will have no issues taking that opportunity. She’s already seconds away from betraying all those guys anyway.  

Paragon in treatment of others, renegade in combat pragmatism.

Favorite Class:

I play as infiltrator and vanguard.

Infiltrator is great for using a sniping and opening loot, and then for going invisible, and if I remember right AI hacking too. That’s cool and I wish there were more genuine opportunities for stealth.

Nowadays I play as Vanguard in my playthroughs mainly just so my Shepard can be canonically biotic for story reasons. From 2 on when looting no longer needs a special skill and I get to charge around the map. I don’t really care much about using biotics (that’s what the squadies are for) but the movement is super useful (when Shepard actually does the thing instead of just standing out in the open soaking up bullets until the ability decides to actually work.)

Favorite Companion:

Garrus. I like to set him up in sniper positions. When he actually STAYS where I put him instead of running straight up to enemies to try to snipe them at point blank, he’s great.

Also his quips in 2 on are pretty entertaining.

Least Favorite Companion:

Garrus, Oh my god. Go back to the sniper position where I put you. Leave tanking to krogan; you do not have the HP for this.

Also Kaidan in ME1. He can not shoot to save his life - literally.  

My Squad Selection:

For all ME1 playthroughs after my first one, Ashley and Kaidan, just of their comments and because... well... I only have so much time with them.

Apart from that I mainly just pick my team based on who’s likely to have the most interesting commentary on whatever the mission happens to be, squad balance be damned. 

Favorite In-Game Romance:

Garrus X Shepard is my favorite love story. They are just so adorable together and always supportive even when they disagree.

But my cannon romance is Kaidan X Shepard for the drama and angst.

Favorite NPC:

In ME1 there’s this random Turian on Noveria who randomly has like a New York accent and I absolutely adore him. He plays basically no part in the story other than some minor information but he’s just so pleasant to speak to.

“If you need anything, I’ll be here.”

Favorite Antagonist:

Morinth, the Ardat-Yakshi daughter of Samara. Yes, she’s a murderous vampire who will absolutely kill you given the chance... but like, it’s a medical condition. And I really can’t help but feel for ardat-yakshi in general when their only options are to spend their whole lives on the run from justicars out to execute them, or waste their entire 1000 year lifespan imprisoned in a monetary unable to experience the world at all. Yeah, Morinth is evil, but Ardat-Yakshi don’t exactly have a good deal.

Favorite Loyalty Mission:

Grunt’s loyalty mission is the best. I get to help my baby boy, reunite with Wrex, enjoy krogan society being fleshed out, have a kickass battle against a thresher maw, and get a breeding request. It’s nice to have a quest that isn’t about family drama and genuinely gets a happy end.

Favorite Mission:

Despite Citadel DLC requiring everyone to have a deathgrip on an idiot ball, and also basically gloss over some really dark stuff, the whole clone storyline with the whole crew is an absolute ride all the way though, with lots of interesting and unique scenarios, a ton of replay-value, and funny party banter that feels like it came straight out of a Marvel movie.

Favorite DLC:

Again, Citadel DLC. Not only did it come with the story above, it also had all those interactions with past and present crewmates, including a memorial for Thane (finally!), a cool apartment to hang out in, a party, an arcade, and an awesome battle arena. It really added a TON. Also, it’s nice to see Bioware figure out that DLC needs characters - I’m remembering back in the DLC to ME 1 the party never had a single thing to say, no matter what was going on. The fun and wacky Citadel DLC is a far cry from the serious and somewhat dark space opera Mass Effect started as, but as the final DLC capping off the end of the series, it gets to do a silly victory lap (and get the taste of the ending out of our mouths.)

Control, Synthesis, Or Destroy:

No.

Favorite Weapon:

Sniper rifles, whatever I have that’s fast and has high damage output. Also that one pistol that shoots tiny energy grenades. Pew pew.

Yeah I wasn’t really big into the weapons so much. I’m here to get my story on. 

Favorite Place:

The presidium on the Citadel. It bothered me a lot when I couldn’t explore it in the second game. I know it would have been terribly impractical, but as the presidium is just a huge ring, it would have been cool to be able to explore the whole thing, going past all the little park areas, shops, monuments and so on until you loop aaaaall the way back around to where you started. Like, how cool would it be if the ring had a running track? Maybe C-sec  academy trainees would be spotted jogging together along it in formation. And can you imagine grabbing a coffee (I was going to make up a space-related name for Starbucks but it’s already STARbucks...) and taking a nice stroll along the water before finding a nice bench to alien-watch from? Other locations in the game are like great places to explore and do gameplay stuff, but the presidium seems like a nice place to just be.

Favorite Quote:

"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer." - Javik.

This is such a fucking raw damn line. It makes me think a lot about Cerberus. When ME3 wasn’t out yet, I thought maybe the plan was Shepard would at some point choose a side, Alliance for paragons and Cerberus for renegades. It would have been so cool to have morality not merely be good vs evil, but idealism vs that ruthless calculus Garrus mentioned. How fucking raw would it be if Cerberus wasn’t just generically evil for no reason and suddenly indoctrinated but really were embodying that ruthless calculus, determined to defeat the reapers at any and all cost. Maybe Cerberus actions’ were more likely to do terrible things for the sake of ultimate victory, doing whatever it took, whereas the Alliance would be less willing to make the terrible choices and ultimately be less likely to succeed.

Now obviously, that’s not what happened, as it would have required Bioware to basically make two entirely separate games. But that line from Javik makes me think of that concept, and a universe where like Dragon Age party members can approve or disapprove of actions not merely as good or evil but along the lines of their personal values. I think Javik would sit at victory at all cost.

Also that one mission in 2 where some random NPC catches Shepard sneaking around and is all like ‘what are you doing here?’ and Shepard is like ‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Get out here before it blows!’ and the guy’s freaking out like WTF and she says ‘RUN!’ then laughs to herself as he flees from an imaginary bomb. Shep you troll. 

The thing I like the least about the entire franchise:

The misogyny and objectification that crept its way in, epically from the second game on. Really didn’t like those ass-shot camera angles, or female characters being slut-shamed in-universe for the clothes the designers made them wear. Yikes. 

But the biggest yikes for me in that regard is actually the reveal in 3 that the prothians guided asari development. That was fine and all, but the part that bothered me was the characters commenting “ooooh, so that’s why asari are so advanced,” as it was ever any kind of mystery before that exact moment. For one thing, asari aren’t really shown as being more advanced than anyone else, apart from having discovered the citadel first, and for second, why wouldn’t asari be advanced? All the way from ME1 it’s established that 1: Asari live for a really long time, and 2: can instant transmit information directly from brain to brain. That means they have long lifetime in which to accumulate knowledge and experience, and also can easily spread and preserve that knowledge without even the need for books. That ALONE should put them ahead. And even with all that, they only barely beat the salarians to discovering the Citadel first. But no one asks for an explanation for why salarians, who live only a few decades and can’t do mental data-transfer, are so advanced. No, only the success of the all-women race needs explaining. It was just one moment but it still bugs me. 

Also the general loss of realism after the second game. First game everyone gets armor, including full-face helmets automatically on in environments that need it. After that, people can apparently just wander the battlefield half-naked and even somehow survive in a total vacuum if they just put a plastic cup (that isn’t even connected to anything) over their mouth and nose. In the first game they at least made up some reasonable-sounding science fiction explanation for things, but after that it’s like F-it everything is just space magic now. 

Oh, and those repetitive unlocking stuff minigames. I use a mod to just skip those. 

[prongsisabadger]

TWP Chapter 20

It hadn't been a separatis attack, we all knew that. There were no blaster wounds on any of the fallen troopers, and droids -as far as we could tell- did not make a habit out of parading their victories by putting clone helmets on spikes. All deceased clones had either been stabbed to death, had their necks or spines shattered or died of internal damage. There was no way this had been a droid attack.

Chairman Cho insisted otherwise. While both Jedi masters followed Rex and his squad to an abandoned separatist base, I was left to keep the dignitaries safe. While they argued over which party was responsible for the attack, I helped Nax and his men bury their brothers. We scanned the wrists of every fallen man and buried them in the most dignified way we could. We took their helmets and used them to mark each grave. A total of thirty men had been killed.

"I know clones, for the most part, don't believe in the Force," I started, once all the bodies had been buried and all that was left was to honour them. "I know that becoming one with the universe seems far-fetched at best to some of you. But believe this: they died as soldiers. They died fighting for a cause they believed in: not for the republic, but for their brothers. They died so that we didn't have to. Let us honor their sacrifice and make it count."

Four troopers stepped forward and aimed their rifles to the sky where the wind made snowflakes fly like bullets. Four rounds were shot, and for the next minute, only the storm could be heard. It was getting worse, and Masters Kenobi and Skywalker were still out.

"Commander, I just got back word from Rex. He and the squad are on their way, but both the Generals decided to keep investigating." Nax said when he approached me.

"Good, do me a favor and check if the team inside managed to get systems operational. We are going to need them if we are to survive this weather." I answered.

"At once, Commander." But the man hesitated, he stood in place as if wanting to say something else.

"Anything else, Nax?" I asked.

"Just- thank you, Commander."

Rex brought troubling news: as we had expected, it had not been a separatist attack. The CIS base had also been overrun and decorated in a similar fashion to our own. Thing is, they had found surveillance footage, and the planet was, in fact, populated. The news brought no joy to the Chairman, the man all but called the Captain a liar and denied the fact that Orto Plutonia could be inhabited. Pantora had had the planet under its protectorate for generations, after all. But we all kept our mouths shut. Rex did because he was a professional, I did because if I said something I would probably start yet another intergalactic conflict. That and Obi-Wan would be pissed at me. Call me what you like but if there was something I hated it was disappointing people.

I decided to leave the command center to the politicians, maybe then they'd have a sense of control and stop harassing troopers. So I went to the hangar to "oversee" inventory and reparations.

"You know, Rex? I really admire your self control, it took all the training I had not to kick Cho's ass back there." I said as I jumped on the hull of a speeder and sat down.

The captain chuckled underneath his helmet as he crouched to check that the speeder's systems were working properly.

"Oh, kid, you wish it was self control," he said, taking the tool I offered. "Trooper helmets have different communications settings and they can cancel audio input and output. You'd be surprised at how much chatter's been going around today."

"The amount of gossip must put a Hutt's spy network to shame…" I chuckled.

"It's not all bad," he said, turning the speeder on and running diagnostics. "Most of it was troopers wanting to see how Cho would fend against a Jedi Padawan. For all his talk, most of us think seeing him bested by a seventeen year old would be quite entertaining."

I shot him a playful glare. I knew it was wrong, but Force did I want to kick his ass. He was arrogant, rude and a total womp rat to senator Chuchi. Patriotism died in the face of toxic masculinity apparently.

"You know I can't do that, however tempting it might be…" I said.

"We know, but watching you try to hide the impulse is very entertaining."

He dodged the snow ball I threw at his head, chuckling as he made his way to the next speeder bike.

…

As soon as Master Kenobi and Master Skywalker returned, I realized for the first time that my lightsaber was the wrong color. I did not have the patience to be diplomatic with people like Chairman Cho, the man deserved a roundhouse kick in the ass and absolutely no authority over other living beings. And everyone around me agreed. Master Kenobi was so done with the man, he couldn't even bring himself to be sassy anymore, and even worse was the fact that Master Skywalker wasn't speaking at all.

The only person who was genuinely interested in changing the Chairman's mind was Senator Chuchi and to be completely honest, the woman deserved an award. I would have beaten some sense into him but Obi-Wan's seriousness frightened me more than the frustration the Chairman provoked.

The Chairman insisted that the Talz had no jurisdiction in Orto Plutonia, that they were savages trespassing on Pantora's territory and that they were a threat to them. It didn't matter that they didn't have the technology to leave the planet, or to get light that didn't come from a fireplace for that matter. Nothing mattered, only that we were all on his land.

To be fair, those kinds of situations were the reason I'd decided to become a Jedi, but every time the Chairman opened his mouth I wondered whether it had been the right choice. I decided to just keep silent and follow Master Kenobi's lead, I couldn't trust myself on this one. If I had, Pantora would have had to hold elections for a new Chairman. there was nothing I hated more than entitled beings.

To be honest, I didn't really think the Masters' efforts to resolve things peacefully would work -not if the Chairman was the one carrying out negotiations. And we all should have seen the result coming clicks away. The first indicator was when we were setting off for the meeting with the Talz and Cho told Rex to gear up for war. Granted, General skywalker told him there would be no war, but someone had yet to tell that to Cho.

The Chairman had had every chance to change his mind. The Talz had proved to be intelligent enough to monitor us, to have scouts follow us, to have evaded our scanners. Their status had been put in question when it was proved that they were intelligent enough to have developed not only a language but also a writing system -however rustic. The Talz had every right to be respected, they just didn't have the luxury of a sensible person on the other side of the negotiations table.

And the Jedi? We could do nothing about it. Chairman Cho had declared it all an internal affair, and not even Senator Chuchi had the authority to denounce his authority. So war was declared. Ironically enough, however eager to declare it an internal affair, Chairman Cho was ordering our troops around as if he had any right to them. It was sickening to watch, and I could stay silent, but never idle.

"Master Kenobi, I'd like to escort Rex's squad." I said as soon as Cho started ordering troopers to gear up.

"Kriari, the Chairman has declared this an internal affair. the Jedi cannot intervene." He sighed.

"Then he has no right to our troops, Master." I insisted. "I know you are not going to let him go undefended, but at least let me go as backup. The men don't deserve to die for his arrogance."

Obi-Wan seemed to consider it as he looked me in the eyes. Maybe he was searching for something. Maybe he found what he was looking for.

"Very well, but you are not to intervene for anything other than protection. Understood?"

"Yes, Master," I said, and in my relief I hugged him. "thank you."

…

The only good thing I had to say about chairman Cho was that at least he rode at the very front of the suicide squad he had assembled. The clones followed him only because thos had been their orders, they were not stupid. The enemy was only the enemy because the man at the front of the charge had made them so -even if they had reason to resent them. The Talz were in their homeland, they knew the territory, the best spots for ambushes, they were not hindered by the weather conditions. We were at a disadvantage, a big disadvantage. And still they followed orders, because above all, clones were good soldiers, and good soldiers followed orders.

Good soldiers died that day, for a man who was not worth the life of a single one of them.

It happened so fast yet so slow, as battles often do. We were ambushed and as we had expected, the Talz weren't messing around: colonizers were not welcome in Orto Plutonia. I jumped off my speeder and took point, cutting spears left and right and deviating others with the force. We were surrounded, Rex got the men to take defensive possitions. We were all doing our jobs tight, everyone was in possition, but we were being overrun by an enemy who had the numbers and the terrain on their side. Six troopers went down.

"Retreat!" I yelled over the noise of blaster fire and the growl of the beasts Talz rode. "Rex, get the men out of here!"

The Chairman tried to protest, to call me a coward, to say they could never retreat when faced with beings so inferior. I cannot say if I could have prevented him from getting stabbed when he did. I was too busy making sure the troopers lived to fight another day. It might have been wrong for a Jedi to admit, but I didn't care if he died.

Rex took the wounded man and mounted up. I covered as much of the retreat as I could before jumping on the back of Nax's speeder. We were not in the clear, not yet. The canyon stretched around us and the enemy knew the terrain well. Even in our retreat we were losing men. Some got shot down, some got caught in a trap. I tried desperately to Force push spears away from the troopers, to cut down those that got past me. It was difficult work when trying to hold onto the back of a speeder bike.

To our dismay, the enemy had booby trapped the ice bridge that led to the tundra as well. two more troopers went down when they were trying to get across. The bridge collapsed, and with it our only way out. We were surrounded, the storm had jammed communications, and as far as we knew, no support was coming.

"Just like in Christophsis, ey, Commander?" Said Rex beside me.

I smiled sadly at him.

"Tighten up formation, Captain. I'll do my best to redirect enemy fire away from the men." It had become a habit of mine to default to 'business mode' when in a tight spot. Compartmentalizing was a lot easier when the lives of others depended on you thinking clearly. "Ger Coric to tend to the wounded right in the middle of the formation. Hopefully we'll make it out without any more losses."

But hope was often worth jack shit in war. We lost three more men before the gunships showed up. The sound of the LAAT/i engines over the roaring storm almost made me cry, and the ceasefire on the enemy's side even more so. I turned my lightsaber off and grabbed Rex's forearm. He grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. We had made it through another one, if barely.

"You okay, Rex?" asked Skywalker as soon as they got off the ship.

"Just a scratch, sir." he said.

"Tell me." He said, voice low and grave face.

"Eleven dead and several injured including the Chairman. Would have been a lot worse if the Commander hadn't been here." He said patting my shoulder.

Master Kenobi had been looking at me the whole time, waiting for me to say something maybe. Or maybe just checking for injuries. I shook my head, I didn't want to talk about it, not right now. The price for one man's arrogance had been too high. Too many men had died needlessly because one man decided colonization was worth more than peace.

I am not ashamed to say I was glad when Chairman Cho died. In my eyes, he deserved it. Maybe his death would at least be a little consolation for the eleven troopers who lost their lives that day. I didn't hate people easily, but I hated that man, and I was glad that he had died. An even better consolation was Senator Chuchi denying the man his dying wish. There was cruel satisfaction in knowing that he failed to achieve his aim even when he had died for it. The fact that the Talz had been recognized as sovereign over Orto Plutonia gave me ever lasting satisfaction if only because that meant all those troopers hadn't died in vain. And then, there was one less war to fight in the galaxy.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, Vigilantes 23, Replies Part 2

1) “And like I said, Knuckle is not even caring about it, he already noticed the bombs are too weak, and they hurt you more than they hurt him. This little trick ain’t gonna fly.”-Well, more like he’s willing to gamble that the first one was the really powerful one, and the rest are more semi-harmless duds to buy Kuin time to catch her breath without incurring too much damage from their explosions.

2) “Also, now I’m wondering are you really bluffing with the effective damage output of the Beeombs or are you only bluffing in hopes that this will make him back off?”- Probably the ‘back off’ option- Kuin’s not thinking too well right now- probably on account of the mental/physical damage she takes from her own bees detonating- so she was hoping to steal a few precious seconds to re-orientate herself to properly escape, only for knuckle to keep mentally and physically pressuring her to prevent her doing exactly that.

3) “Barely scratched after that onslaught, what weak-ass type of explosive was she even using here? Well, she probably would die if she tried to using something stronger anyway.”- Looks to me more like the majority of bees were actually ‘firecracker bees’- loud noises and tons of smoke, but not much actual oomph to them, and like was planning to count on the smoke they generated to escape whilst knuckle was distracted, only for him to basically ignore the entire thing based on a hunch the parasite would prioritise his own existence over his demise.

4) “Yeah, an the few moments she had to fuck off from there were wasted laughing manically at that “genius trap” that she set up. My god knuckle, is this really your daughter? She doesn’t seem that smart… Granted, there’s a bug crawling around her skull, but even so.”- On the other hand, if Tamao is actually still in there, that could be the reason why she didn’t flee. Tamao can’t mentally fight the queen off, nor exert control, but there may be roundabout ways for her to subvert and trip up the queen, such as focusing on preforming non-efficient villainous actions rather than more pragmatic ones. Pushing their shared body/mindscape to enjoy what the queen perceives as a brief victory over an annoying opponent makes her act sloppy, and gives Knuckleduster another chance to close the gap between them. Tamao may not be able to fight the queen off, but she doesn’t have to correct her when she slips up as well either.

5) “Wh- WHAT

NOW YOU TRY TO RUN AWAY?! GODDAMMIT GIRL MAKE UP YOU FUCKING MIND”- Maybe tamao’s making sure she can’t, to the best of whatever limited control she maintains over herself. 6) “Real talk, but this jumping around that she does, that she already kind showed before, reminds me a tad too much of Pop, and now I’m left wondering if part of the reason that knuckles care about Pop is because his daughter had a similar quirk and he’s acting like she’s a replacement goldfish.

At least I think this is his daughter’s quirk, that parasite would be able to make use of it, right?”-Probably, but if it is a movement quirk, then it’s hard to tell. Strendal also pulled off some bullshit backstreet acrobatics to move around, and it’s possible that everything Kuin does here falls under the heading of ‘host’s 100% body capability’ so it’s unclear if she can access and use her host’s quirk as cleanly as Tamao herself can- at the very least, we’ve not seen her demonstrate any powers beyond those that seem to come from the Queen herself nesting inside her. 7) “Oh, time for some GRAPPLING HOOK action Knuckles? Alright, time to swing around and grab that thing before it finds a new host.”- Knuckle may have come up with this method of patrolling the city rooftops in the first place primarily because of his need to keep up with an agile target like Kuin herself on foot

8) “Could you try to be a little less creepy knuckle? Even I am starting to get terrified by this slasher smile of yours, calm the hell down, alright?”- I think it might be potentially half a grimace, his full expression being concealed by his mask like that. Regardless of how their fight turns out, knuckle is still having to witness his little girl’s body being twisted and distorted by the parasite running around inside her noggin, and deal with the emotional toll of having to physically pound her down with his own hands to ultimately save her. He may be acting calm and in control, but underneath everything, knuckle must be in extreme emotional turmoil over everything he’s having to endure just for the faint hope he can reclaim his little girl.

9) “Alright, everybody is staying calm for the time being, but I don’t think that will last, even more now that someone said “stay where you are and remain calm”, that’s just asking for panic to ensue.”-When has asking everybody to not panic ever worked? It’s practically a trigger to start doing the opposite.

10) “That exchange become funnier when you see it as Midnight thinking that Aizawa is somewhere in the other end of town, when he’s literally down there, across the street.”- Aizawa: (looking down at the bound teruo) Yeah, unexpected work came up on the way over…got a little tied up by me.

11) “Dammit Aizawa, you jinxed it!

You should’ve waited until after Ms President and Mr Magician had their romantic duet, now the party will be attacked and we’ll never see their moment”- nope, turns out Aizawa may not be one for soppy, irrational love stories, but he’s a damn good hero regardless, and doesn’t let a little thing like being horribly outmatched against a crazed monster stop him for his duty to keep the peace- even if that means he’s also indirectly supporting their love drama from the side-lines. 

Sure, he couldn’t stop Teruo from self-destructing himself with electricity, with the side-effect of shorting out the block, but other than that he stopped him physically crashing and wreaking the venue beyond repair, so there’s still a chance of the Love Ballad of the Featherhats to proceed- and precious memories are sometimes best formed when you make them in times of crisis, rising to the occasion in your own unique way.

12) “I mean, wouldn’t it be the most prudent thing to do right now? Evacuating the building? There was a villain attack outside, and the power won’t be back for quite some time, sorry but from what I see the night is over, everybody needs to go home.”-On the other hand, as chapter 1 showed, villain attacks are so commonplace that they are literally a viable excuse for being late to work, so if heroes and everybody started blowing off public events every time one occurred nearby, there’d never be any kind of public entertainment happening at all.

13) “And, look at that, seems like Makoto already found a way to take advantage of his presence there. Get ready to work CC, your boss demands it…”-

Makoto: We need a hero! (CC appears) Makoto:… close enough!

14) “You have no idea of how much it pains Mic to not be able to go out there and raise the roof, you really don’t. But yeah, once again, they are on standby, meaning that they know there’s a risk of another problem arising, wouldn’t it be better to let everyone go home?”-It’s close, but not 100% a chance of a second incident occurring, and since there’s a lot of time and effort gone into the concert already, not to mention the fact that heroes are all about inspiring people and being symbols of hope and reassurance, in the same vein that All Might takes to extremes, it’s be a shame if they let this adversity get in the way of having a good time. Besides, all the heroes currently on-site are all about having a good show in front of the public…granted, Midnight’s about a certain type of show, but still…

15) “OH GOD, WHERE DID KOICHI GO TO? OH GOD SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN

It’s also cute that Pop immediately goes reaching for him without looking, knowing that he’ll be there as a source of comfort only to be surprised to find that he left to do something else.”- Rather than providing a source of comfort to just one person by being there for her, Koichi left for the more heroic reason of providing comfort to many people at once, in his usual oblivious way, by getting what Pop needed to put on her usual show and inspiring her to go out and try it, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, by having faith in her performance abilities. 

He might be uber-dense in matters of romance, and have the unfortunate habit of saying the wrong thing every time he’s nearby a romantic situation, but when it’s time to be a hero, Koichi has the uncanny ability to say and do the exact right thing needed to help everybody and also make Pop fall for him all over again without realising it. It’s like when he tries to be a hero, even a small-steps one, he becomes 100 times more capable than if he remains an ordinary collage guy.

16) “OH THANK GOD HE’S ALREADY BACK, I WAS WORRIED FOR A MOMENT.”-  I dunno how far the venue is from the vigilante cave, but if Koichi went there and back in the time the blackout occurred, without anybody realising he was gone until he was nearly back, than he’s really boosted his speed and Parkour up

17) “I mean, you’re not wrong, technically speaking, but the scope here is far greater than anything she ever done before, you know? She’ll do it, probably, but first she’ll have a panic attack and try to convince you she’s not capable of it, just you wait.”- On the other hand, it being less ‘official’ and scripted, the things that were giving Pop the anxiety attacks beforehand, might be just what she needs to put on a semi- improv show like she’s used to- bigger stage than before, but still, mostly familiar ground to her. Koichi praising the situation as one she excels in won’t hurt either.

18) “They are on her side here, but I feel like those comments are what gonna make her stomp her foot and say “fuck it, I can do it, just sit down and watch, motherfuckers””-Ironically, for all the times he’s put his foot in his mouth around them, Koichi says exactly the right words to get pop and the others ready to start the show here, without even realising it. Sometimes, speaking without thinking too much is the best way to proceed. That is not usually the case in romance situations, but thankfully for Koichi, romance in on the back seat in this mini-crisis

19) “And after all, Pop took the spotlight, the stage is all hers. Thirty minutes of fame, with her acting as a solo star, shining in the darkness; exactly what she was afraid of, but that now she’ll do her best to make sure it goes fine”-

Pop: My name is Kazuho Haneyama and I’m fine!!!

20) “The heroes also support her on this heavy endeavor she’s about to partake in, but there’s one last person that she needs reassurance from…”- It wouldn’t matter if All Might himself gave her reassurances- there’s only one hero of her heart who matters to Pop. and Speaking of top heroes, Endevour himself might even use useful in this situation, acting as a grumpy torchlight illuminating the area for the crowd. Shame he wasn’t invited.

21) “And he, of course, is always there to make sure she knows she can do it. Koichi is always supportive of his friends, and, as long as he keeps his mouth shut, he always know how to let them know everything will be alright.””- The Hoodie of Justice must add 100+ to Koichi’s charisma skills or something, he’s way more effective at talking to people with it on than with it off- needs to find some way of keeps the bonus to his speech around when he’s forced out of ‘costume’ or he’ll go back to putting his foot in his mouth again at the next dialogue tree.

@thelreads

[therodrigator6]

Well, hello there fellers.

You can ignore this text post if you want, it comes straight from me, completely outside of Drawings or Proyect updates.

I just really felt as though I needed to take the time to write up my thoughts into a, very possibly, LOOOOOOOOOOOONG post, since I have a LOT on my head right about now.

So, my melancholy, rather depressing, but perhaps amusing, musings, under the cut.

Right, so my whole string of thought was sort of just... proppeled out of me reminiscing about the past... 2 years, maybe year and a half.

I got thinking hard about She-Ra again, LMAO. and I know, I KNOW, why am I even thinking about that damned show again.

BUT, I was really thinking hard about how much I went through, positively I mean, how much growth I had (Around my art and my vocation obviously) with She-Ra.

And really, if you were to scour through my blog, if you went back all the way to... maybe it was late 2018, early 2019, when I posted my first fanarts around She-Ra, you’ll see how far back I was, skill-wise. I mean I wasn’t exactly a beginner, but I weren’t no Grade A artist neither.

And PRIOR to all of that I had more or less drawn fanart intermitently.

Anyone who followed me back when I made RWBY stuff, specifically Whiterose fanart could attest to that. I wasn’t consistent at all, and I experimented more often than not with every single drawing I was making. And don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed drawing stuff for RWBY, I sort of miss it now LMAO.

But I can certainly see just HOW POWERFULLY drawn I was to She-Ra, because my output of content and the growth of my skill as an artist was EXPONENTIAL. I suppose in a way I owe it really to MY sudden... obsession? Fixation? on that show.

VERY HONESTLY, at this point in time, I feel like I could REALLY speak on what things drew me to She-Ra, and precisely what things KEPT me there. IDK I think it used to be a very special little show.

On one hand? I really had just decided to watch it because I was starting to fall out of love with RWBY.

RWBY WAS a show I’d also loved, and which also meant a lot to me, but the things that MEANT a lot to me, were just not given the story I would’ve been interested in. That AND the small fandom space I’d carved out for myself was getting even smaller. Smaller AND very... toxic? Uncomfortable? I felt as though... my efforts and my involvement in that fandom were neither welcome nor appreciated at one point, let alone the fact that on the SHIPPING side of things, it stopped being fun.

So there I was, starting She-Ra up. I’d known about it for some time before, and I’d *Heard* that it was a fun good show, and most specially... *With an active, HUNGRY fandom, raging about a very popular Ship*. So I thought to myself, YAY, I’ll watch this show and I’m REALLY gonna do my best to go for everything popular.

I was tired of unwelcoming fandoms, tired of enjoying the very little measly, *Unpopular* things about shows, this was all about having a GOOD time. And maybe finally getting my works out, really finding a motivation to create stuff.

I mean in hindsight, now I know I fucked myself over MANY times.

You see because, as soon as I started watching She-Ra, I TRIED to do something different about the way I consumed shows.

In the past I used to be VERY ship-centered about my show experiences, to the point were FANON-Ship-centric relationships with shows would make the stories I was watching really boring and bleak in comparison. I had been afraid at the time, that THIS would also ruin She-Ra for me. So I really thought about... NOT tainting my vision and perception of the show with... Fandom stuff, Fanon or Ship-centric views, NOT EVEN CREATOR INTERACTIONS. I really tried to watch it blind and enjoy it for what it was.

Fool I was, I should’ve done the opposite.

It’s a tired old story, and a really redundant thing for ME to talk about. But I really felt a DEEP disappointment with She-Ra. Akin to LOSS almost.

Cuz you see, for a year and a half I ended up CENTERING myself on She-Ra, on more than one level.

On one hand, I TRULY believed She-Ra was a show with a story that I loved, there were plenty of characters that REALLY spoke to me. Characters like Glimmer? for example? And her storyline? for me are *one in a million*.

Of course I’m... REALLY compacting my She-Ra experience. I had come to appreciate MANY things about it. It’s world, it’s story, the characters, the comedy, the animation, the people who loved it and grew because of it, etc.

Furthermore, once my initial *doubt* about the show had passed, I really immersed myself in the fandom side of things. And I gotta say, I really enjoyed it for as long as it lasted. I think I experienced a new level of feeling like I *belonged* in a community, and a feeling that people LIKED what I did for it, and that people wanted MORE of ME in it.

Alongside that, and going back to animation. Geez, She-Ra came at the best *or worst* (depends on how you wanna look at it in hindsight now, LMAO), time of my life.

Literally on the verge of me finishing up with Prepschool and having to chose a career for University.

Prior to She-Ra, I really was trying to pinpoint my vocation, and animation had been in my mind for a LONG time, since Steven Universe really.

AND... Idk, AGAIN, THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT SHE-RA... which told me... “This is important”. Animation is important, being able to tell tales for people is important. Telling tales for people who need it, or people who don’t often get to tell tales is important. This medium is BEAUTIFUL, I MEAN, LOOK AT EVERYTHING IT CAN SPAWN OUT OF PEOPLE.

So it helped me make THAT decision.

Also alongside these things well... I go back to all of that about “Belonging”, and “community”.

Boy I met some of the most amazing friends I ever have in my life. People whom I respect, people who I admire, people who thought like me, liked ME, enjoyed this show, etc.

OF COURSE, at the time, and I really should’ve known better. We met out of our mutual LOVE for Glimmadora, LMAO.

ME? FALLING IN LOVE WITH AN UNPOPULAR SHIP? Who’da thought.

AND I DID SO, *DAMN NEAR DIVORCED FROM FANDOM* LMAOOOOO, you can see how my “I’ll learn to love whichever aspects of this show I’m *gonna* love, outside of fandom influence” policy really just fucked me in the ass.

AND GOD, DID I *LET IT* BE A PART OF ME.

That comunity, those friends, that ship, that show, those creators. It was all I thought about, and it DROVE me. so much so I put up with so much shit from my University. I put up with so many bad things in my life that were going on because of that show.

And I see now that many of those friends I mentioned did too. GOD, how I wish... we just hadn’t.

I think... for most of us things had already been pretty shit, not gonna lie.

There was the pandemic, for a start. Prior to May the 15th I had an uncle of mine die of COVID, which shook me to *my* core, but dear old She-Ra and the Glimmadora fandom gang were there to cheer me on. (This was around the time really horrid people in the She-Ra fandom, whom LOATHED Glimmadora with a passion were making “Glimmadora shippers must have Covid, since a symptom of Covid is a lack of taste” Jokes btw.)

And I think of my friends also, who have always spoken to me about their problems and their lives. For all accounts I think, they’d always had it harder than me, and they found themselves a WILL and a DRIVE to go on... through this, through She-Ra, and our friendship.

Then May the 15th came and it’s all been going downhill from there HSEBRGJKSEHRBGKJSERHGBJK.

I mean... I understand NOW, just how DAMAGING for myself it was to... cling so much to that show, to all of it. NEVER should’ve connected the drive of my vocation to it.

Cuz yanno... even if I HAVE continued to grow and get better the past few months, some things haven’t changed for the better.

For instance, I basically LOST my entire space here, in fandoms, in ejoying shows. I LITERALLY ONLY CREATE NOW... Either out of spite, or for my friends.

There is a VERY DEEP loathing now within me about stuff like... Catradora for example. I hate it, it makes me feel disgusting, simple as that. And THAT kind of feeling isn’t welcome here, also simple as that. So I’m out of a space and that hurts.

PFFT, basically all the pieces I produce now, which I still do with a She-Ra theme. Nobody’s gonna wanna consume MY content anymore, and they don’t. I made sure they couldn’t because I knew, I wasn’t going to be able to stomache this She-Ra fandom anymore.

That’s been another thing too. I don’t like being a contrarian, I don’t like being the guy who thinks the thing everybody loves is bad or wrong, and if I could SO HELP ME GOD, I’d change my entire view of it all. I don’t really care about being right or wrong anymore, I just want that peace of mind back.

HELL, there were people I knew since 2016 almost, who kinda just told me...

Shut the fuck up or leave.

On some cases I shut my mouth, on others I just left.

And yanno... I do feel miserable about it. But it also makes it all the harder when I think of my friends?

GOD DAMN, EVERYTHING THAT *COULD* GO WRONG, WENT WRONG FOR THEM.

ALWAYS, for all of my friends. And even through the hurt, I sit here and think, well I think I still have hope! I think I still have a drive to go on and persue animation  and tell good stories.

But I understand now... that *I* have a priviledge over my friends. The priviledge of support. I’m not REALLY alone, there’s people helping ME.

My friends don’t have that, and I can’t give them that, how I wish I could.

And it does just HURT only being able to tell my friends, “HEY! Have hope things’ll be better!” And then we all turn to the only beacons of hope we shared, and seeing them all dull and out of light. No Glimmer of hope.

Like, how do you tell people to hold out, to keep fighting, to keep trying to STILL CHASE THEIR DREAMS... When you can’t even help them keep their heads high when they’re trying yo get a damned job. When no matter how much THEY try they keep getting knocked down.

When there’s no longer a space were they feel confortable sharing their creations, because everyone they had ONCE tried to please with them? suddenly decided they were of no value.

So here we are.

I’m starting up a new semester in a couple of days, hopefully building myself up more to chase MY dreams... whilst all my friends suffer and can’t chase theirs.

Shit’s fucked. I wish I could do more.

PFFT, I guess, long story short:

Life unfair, Me Sad.

Me Angery, Me Bitter

Me Lost, They Won

Boohoo I guess.

SO ANYWAYS... I really just... needed to put these thoughts out in words. Scream to the void as it were.

I can’t wait to go back into discord or twitter or tumblr and see how my friends can’t catch a fucking break.

And how things will continue to get worse before they get better.

God I hope they get better, for all of us, if not atleast for them. They’ve already gone through enough.