#Copy Your PSP Game

[hibernating-stag]

Btw I completely understand why when I asked what guilty gear game I should start with I received so many different answers to that question- like. There's no one answer fits all to this one I'm afraid!

[hollow-prey]

one of these days I've gotta write about Phoenix and the whole backstory I've crafted for him, since TLF never gave him any kind of lore because he was a non-canon character in a spinoff game whose sole purpose it seems was to sacrifice himself and die at the end anyway, so any backstory they might have given him would have been completely meaningless

[snapscube]

Hey I've been watching your FF7 Remake stuff and it reminded me that I got into FF7 in like. 2010 so I literally went out of my way to find a PS1 and a copy of the game among local retro game stores, and just played through it cause I didn't have access to like a PSP or whatever.

It's a fond memory, and it's nice to see how special FF7 is to you because I feel that way about the game too.

that’s AWESOME

[nicole-the-hololynx]

how many changes can you make to a game before it stops being the same game?

what if I do it gradually instead? slowly change the artstyle, the plot, the gameplay, just a tiny bit at a time. is it still the same game if it's broadly the same? if I can still kinda give the same blurb to describe it?

I'm mostly thinking about this because of Final Fantasy I (I'm always thinking of this game it seems), and how every successive port of the game changes things little by little. I find it hard to believe that "Final Fantasy" on the PSP and "Final Fantasy" on NES are in any meaningful way the same game.

like, say you took all the map data from Super Mario Bros and copied it over to Super Mario Maker. is it still Super Mario Bros? why or why not? what if I copied it over a different game, like Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario World or Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. is it still the same game then? when did it stop being the same game?

what if I remade the game from scratch based on what I can see playing it? everything looks largely the same, but if you're experienced enough with the original you can clearly tell things are off. certain movement constants or enemy behaviors don't quite match. some secrets are missing because I didn't find them. to an average player it might seem identical but anyone that's played the game for long enough can tell its not the same. so is it the same game? what if I managed to convince Nintendo to sell it, is your answer the same? this one's not a hypothetical. I'm talking about a real game here

following back to Final Fantasy I, can any of the later versions of the game be said to be "the same game" if they don't share the artstyle? if the combat system has been fully redone? if the gameplay loop no longer resembles the original? the story is broadly the same, but characters are there now who didn't exists. characters have different motivations behind their actions as before. is it really the same game still?

and if not, when did it stop being the same game? when the graphics got changed? when the battle system got redone? that happened twice, do you feel the same about both of them? when the story stated drifting? what even makes the game "the game"? I'm unsure myself

Final Fantasy I is a weird game. Final Fantasy I is a weird series of games. No game is truly Final Fantasy I, unless they are. Final Fantasy I is like if the Ship of Theseus was a game.

you ever play Dawn of Souls? it's a really fun game. can't recommend it enough

[burning-academia-if]

Hello and welcome to me yapping about BA. I know this is late, but better late than never! (I have been sick since the end of November, so I also didn't get anything done during December fasdfja). This is pretty long, and I mostly wrote it for myself, since I like giving myself something to look back on in the future + reflect on my work. Feel free to skip this, especially because it is over 2k words LMAO

Brief content warning, there will be a very brief mentioning of health at the end. It won't go in to any detail since it is personal, but it is present! There will be a warning right before I talk about it, but I just wanted to give a head's up! Now onwards, to my 2024 look back: Burning Academia edition.

But first 14 years ago

It's the summer of 2011 (or 2010), and you've just discovered the Persona series for the first time. One day, at the mall, you see a copy of Persona 3 Portable on the shelf in the store, and you beg your very Christian mother to buy it for you, watching as she gives a very hard stare at the blatant "M" rating on the case. By some miracle, you manage to convince her to buy it for you, and then proceed to binge and finish the game in 5 days. Your mom promptly takes away your PSP, which is fair enough in hindsight. You'd played at least ten hours of it each day.

It's the summer of 2011 (or 2010, my memory is Bad), and you also discovered flash dating sims on DeviantArt, which also led to your discovery of otome games in general. Both this and P3P merge together into a story idea. One that you note down in a document full of other story ideas. The notes look like this:

Back then, thirteen year old me imagined an otome game mixed with the classic turn based RPG combat system, but made at a much smaller scale. There were 7 boys, and whoever you romanced changed what the final boss looked like.

It was also centered in a high school, and MC was a lot more of a blank slate sort of character, with no real background. They just happened to find a Weird Book at their private high school and got dragged into nonsense. There were still Wraiths (originally called Night Specters) who you fought during the three month span of the game. Said Night Specters were also controlled by the Resident Voice, who was not a love interest in the original.

Baby Em daydreamed about this idea a lot, for most of summer and throughout eight grade honestly. But it fell to the wayside for things I could actually do (basically, just my writing) and that was pretty much the end of that.

Until it wasn't

Flash forward to 2023, where I was having a rough time and unemployed and to give myself joy I went back through a lot of old files on my Google Drive. I'm not really someone that's ever been ashamed of my creative work, and questionable stories and art I drew are things I'm more fond of than anything. When I stumbled upon this, my brain latched on to it, so I took it, and ripped out it's guts to create the current version of Burning Academia.

Rook and Beck are the only "original" ROs from all that time ago. But even then, they've been changed A Lot, to the point where the two of them are completely different from what they used to be. Rhea was always a character (originally named Wish), who acted as the Best Friend/Guide for MC. She also completely changed to the point of being unrecognizable to the original. And Zoe was a random NPC who worked at the library. I took them, reworked them, and decided on these four as the love interests. Four was a perfectly manageable number, and BA had also changed a lot storywise that romance wasn't even the point anymore.

Of course, there clearly isn't four ROs LMAO

So, the Voice. They were also in the OG as the Villain controlling the Specters and manipulating your heart as a means to get whatever they were after. I'll be honest, I don't remember what they were originally after. But I've always liked villains whose connection to the hero is one where they dig their claws deep into them. It's how I got the idea of making them essentially 'haunt' MC. Then, the more I developed that, the more it just made sense for them to be an LI to me. The reason they're the only gender selectable one is because they're the one most reflective of MC (and the one who would change the least regardless of gender). And then that was it! We had five, I was done.

Which leads to Lars, I guess.

He ended up becoming a RO at the last minute, as in, a week before the launch of the blog last minute. He was kind of just this antagonist asshole whose primary job was to make sure you didn't do anything too stupid and who hated your guts. I'm going to be honest, I'm not that big of a fan of the asshole archetype, especially as a romance option. But then I got to chapter 5 in the outline of the story and it objectively just made sense. I can't say why because of spoilers, but I think I've mentioned all the ROs and MC are interconnected with each other and are meant to reflect certain aspects of each other in some way. With Lars, it would have felt off to me not to add him in, considering the type of character he'd grown into. So, with a sense of reluctance, I threw him in.

I think Lars is the funniest RO to me, because there was a point in time where he was the most popular on the blog, and I was like 'woah, him.' asldfakjldfjka. Over the past year, he's definitely grown on me in ways I haven't expected, and I think I almost find his awfulness endearing somehow. (To be honest, I think writing the scene of punching him in the face did wonders for my own perception of him).

As for the story changes, this clearly isn't set in a private boarding school ft teens. The original idea was just Persona 3 Portable all over again, because 13 year old me had a problem (I would proceed to replay the game over a dozen times over the years, so I still have a problem). And while I love the themes in P3P, I also feel like some of the things I wanted to write about just made a lot more sense with people within the college age range. I also decided to tie it in to a long standing world of mine, so that way I already had a solid basis of world building and lore. Placing it in what I dub the 'World of Fairytales' really anchored the story in my brain. I looked at all the other stories I'd written or developed that took place here, and I realized I'd yet to write one about death. And that's the focal point of BA:

It's a fairytale about death.

The Reception

I'm going to be honest, when I released BA I just expected it to get the same reception as anything else I'd written up to this point. I think when the demo dropped back in October 2023, I'd released two games, a game demo, and I think my novella and short story collection were out at the time. I'm terrible at marketing myself because I'd much rather vibe and make things than have to talk about it online, which is definitely part of the reason most of my work didn't even hit five hundred plays, save for one which had hit a thousand at that point. But you know, that does make it easy to keep making things when you don't feel like you have a bunch of eyes watching. (At least, for me. I know a lot of creatives feel the weight of loneliness of creation, especially when you pour so much into something only for no one to pick it up. I personally tend to release things on a whim though lol there's plenty of finished works I have laying around that I have no intention on sharing.)

Anyway, I thought Burning Academia was going to be much the same. So imagine my surprise when I post the intro post and I got eight hundred followers in a week.

My immediate thought was "I'm deleting the blog." After a year of making things no one paid attention to, eight hundred followers in a week for something was an overwhelming jump. At the time I'm writing this, we have apparently just crossed two thousand followers(???), which again, I was not expecting lol

I've been reading IFs for years now, dating back to about 2015. I was aware of the general community and vibes, although I wasn't fully in the community and just followed authors I liked. Still, I didn't realize how quick word gets around for a new IF. Especially when all I had was an intro post. Granted, I'd at least already had most of the prologue written and just needed to figure out Twine to code it in, so there was a sense of relief there that I wouldn't keep people waiting. But I did genuinely want to close up shop as quickly as I started.

Part of me is still a bit surprised I'm at where I'm at. I don't really care about numbers, be it mine or others, but I think at this point I'm closer to a mid sized author(?), which I can't comprehend. BA is more of a vibes story, with heavy themes that aren't for everyone. I also know there are certain aspects of BA that just aren't appealing to the overall IF community (it not really focusing much on romance, or the RO options being what they are, or just how bleak the first few chapters are).

I don't necessarily think it's like a niche idea, since it's just a fantasy dark academia, but I just assumed some of the details would make BA not noticed.

Anyway, clearly I'm normal about it now and my blog still exists. I do think if I knew where I'd land at, I might have waited longer to post everything, so I had a bit of backlog and more for people to play in the long run and it would have felt like a shorter wait on the player side. But also, in my defense, I did not expect 2024 to go the way it did.

What I wanted to achieve vs what I actually achieved

So, I wanted to have chapter 3 done before the end of 2024, and maybe even have chapter 4 started. It was a perfectly reasonable goal for me, in any other year where my body was better at being a body. I won't go into detail with health since I know it's a heavy topic for some, but I will briefly mention it since it was a major component to my creative output. Just skip the next paragraph if you don't feel like reading.

//

I got sick pretty much every month in 2024, with multiple of them being pretty bad infections. The second half of the year was a lot worse than the first half of the year, and that's why if it seems like everything slowed down after June/July, it's because of that. From November to now, I've been sick to varying degrees. It's why I did nothing in December because I spent it split between working still, the holidays, renewing various certifications for work, and trying to get some degree of rest between it all. My sister in law is a nurse, and she said I probably have an auto immune deficiency. Whether it's that or not, I'm going to get some tests done, and hopefully 2025 is a better year for me health wise!

//

Of course, I'm not upset with myself. Perhaps a little annoyed because I could have hit the goal I wanted if I hadn't been feeling awful for so much of the year, but I'm not annoyed with myself. Just the circumstances. I'll always be the type of person to take care of myself instead of forcing myself to do anything. Especially with something like this, which would just last to potential burn out.

So, I released 2 chapters of BA, a handful of the RO backstories, and a little short about MC's sister Marlowe. Including the unreleased chapter 3, I managed to write over 150k last year for BA. Which is a pretty solid number, honestly.

Depending on how life goes, I'll be aiming for up to chapter 4 this year. It'll also be a shorter(?) chapter than 3, or at least a little more manageable since chapter 3 just ended up having a decent chunk of branching. I won't give any estimates for chapter 3 since when I did, I missed all of them LMAO It'll release when it's ready, and I'll be chipping away at it during the times I feel alright.

Final Thoughts

This is already pretty long, so I'll bring it to a close here. If you read this far, thank you for listening to my yapping. And also just thank you to anyone whose played BA and decided to follow along for the ride!! I love BA a lot, and its both very fun and amazing and weird to see others enjoy it with me. The fact I've gotten so many asks, or fanart (please know if you drew fanart, it has been imprinted in my brain forever and also saved in a little folder on my desktop lol) is still a little surreal. So uh yeah, thanks for being here.

For my last trick, since you made it this far you can have an assortment of mindless doodles I have made of BA in questionable quality because I'm bad at photographing my art LOL

(Some of the few digital art doodles I haven't shown. Ft. mirrored Rooks and an unfinished comic page of Rhea)

The Rook pages

The scribbles ft Beck and Lars

The kinda mirrors ft Beck and Rhea

Aaaand that is all because I hit file limit (sorryyyy to Zoe I think I've already shared all the doodles of them I liked throughout the year sjsjsk)

[net-ntlm]

60FPS Patch for The Sims 2 PSP

Hey all! I made a really simple patch to get the US version (ULUS-10031) of Sims 2 PSP running at 60fps all the time. You need to add the following code to your PSP/Cheats/cheat.db file (memstick/PSP/Cheats if you're using PPSSPP):

_C0 60 FPS _L 0x00139034 0x00000000 _C0 60 FPS (Disable) _L 0x00139034 0xA284FB00

Your cheat.db file probably already has an entry for Sims 2, so it should look like this after you're done:

If you don't have a cheat.db file (and you don't want to find one online), you can alternatively put the following file directly into your PSP/Cheat directory:

After you're done, you should get the 60fps option on your cheat menu! If you're on PPSSPP it will look like this:

I didn't make the cheat for "Infinite Money" and I don't know who did so I can't credit them, but I still included it on the standalone file for convenience. You can also get it here, I believe it's the most comprehensive one available:

The "disable" option doesn't work for now and I'm not sure why but I'll release an updated version if I manage to figure it out! Also I don't currently have a EU copy (ULES-00211) of the game, but I will make a version if I have the time.

This shouldn't effect any other gameplay features but you should still use it on your own discretion since it might still break stuff in ways I don't really know!

Have fun :)

[pinkprettycure]

do you have any otome/dating sim recs? aside from diamond heart of course ^_^

for otome dating sims (like stat raisers) Tokimeki memorial girl's side has fan translations for the DS versions of the games and the PSP version of GS3 (which is what I play, it's an improved version with more content <3) you can play all of those on a mobile device with an emulater as well, PPSSPP the psp emulator runs on android n_n

for other games that have official eng releases for dating sims i sent my friend a lot of them before so I'm copying my list from there lol:

Also I recommend checking out the English Otome Games account that is still very actively documenting and sharing all these games

PAID SIM GAMES:

Backstage Pass THE GOAT fr fr there IS one female LI in this btw!

Dandelion Wishes Brought to You, from the same people who made Mystic Messenger, this was an ealier game i liked it!

Lucky Rabbit Reflex, okay i love this one but a lot of ppl are turned off by the art but it has a great cast and its very funny, but the setting is europe so watch out! also fair warning it IS older it was released n 2011! so it 1. has really low resolution and 2. tacky tasteless dialogue... i remember the r slur is used in it u.u.

MAGICAL DIARY THE GOAT dude, it takes place in a magic school so if you like witch magical girls this one is for you, There's also a boy MC version that came outlater, Wolf Hall. also has female LI options

Paid visual novel otomes!

These ones are regular VNs like MWDH but unlike MWDH shouldnt have much emphasis on stat raising at all.

Amnesia Memories: This was really fun for me I liked the mystery and Kent is my love of my life lol

Band Camp Boyfriend: okay i havent finished this one but it looks really fun and cute so there

Chronotopia Second Skin: this one's based on a variation of Cinderella and has a black cast and female LI options!

Date Warp: man i fucking loved this one it had a fun mystery

Heart Fragment: one i've been keeping an eye on, it's also technically "in progress" but it's doing an episodic DLC model with very affordable DLC tis also has female LI options

With Eyes of Ice: this one is a linear VN with only one LI, and it's meant to be pretty depressing haha, but ebi-hime markets it as an otome/adjacent game and I really like her prose and I loved what I read so far

FREE SIM GAMES!

RE: Alistair is super old but a goodie and a classic for indie otome fans i think n_n Backstage Pass is a spiritual successor to this!

Christmas and Valentines Otome, I didn;t realize they had stats. the creator made halloween otome first and it didn't have that from what i remember, all three are pretty great and theyre all free

Free VN otome:

Cinderella Phenomenon, another classic this one is very popular for good reason its nicely made, a good length story, and best of all? Free babey.

Bell Maidens Bloom: this one is in progress but it's releasing at a time so I'm not rlly considering it a demo ? the selling point is a soft black girl MC lol!

XOXO Droplets: it's free to play with a paid extended version. You play as a girl who's a jerk who doesnt GAF and is pursuing a bunch of jerks just cuz they're hot lmao it's very funny xD

Our Life is by the same people as the above but what if instead of being an asshole rizzing up jerks you're a nice person who's chill and getting to know a shy autistic boy over the course of your life. only one LI

Tailor Tales! This one isn't a pure VN because it has a fashion boutique mechanic? I didn't realize it was totally free but it only has paid DLC for the sexy content xD... you run a boutique and get to rizz up hot guys, it's really intricately done and has a LOT of content

Demos to watch out for

These ones are demos rn and not full games in any capacity, but they look epic and I want ppl to keep an eye out

Edge of Elsewhere: from the same person as lucky rabbit reflex, i really liked the demo so far and it doesn't have the same issues of dated writing (but it still has the issue of being in europe, sad!)

Snowkissed Romance: it's based on 90s anime and is a stat sim game! i really liked what I saw and the art's really cute,

Mirage Noir: a mystery otome! it looks really fun and the art is great. I watched my friend play this one and I liked what i saw

MY DEAR LOVE; this one is SOOOOO cute, another shojo inspired one, this one more manga than 90s anime and it's also another stat raiser. it only has one li I think? but it looks really cute i loved the demo

Thread of You: I recommended my friend to play this one because Liam's VA was in it and she loves his performance lol. It's pretty fun so far though but sadly the character Phil voices doesnt have as much screentime XD;;

[getvalentined]

What’s your opinions of the various ffvii compilation games?

Oh I am a huge proponent of the Compilation as a whole; I know that opinion is rare for someone who's been in the fandom from the beginning, but I'm an insufferable lore gremlin and I just eat up everything the series has to offer. I have three different copies of Advent Children (the original on DVD, ACC on DVD, and ACC on blu-ray) and even still watch Last Order on occasion.

The series itself is really fascinating and staggeringly consistent (I've talked about how the implied timeline of the Jenova Project as presented in-game is so consistent that it matches up with real-world human gestational science), with the exception of the FF7Re series—which I can deal with, since it's canonically on a different timeline and therefore any retcons there are literal in-universe retcons, which is pretty brilliant.

That said, I'mma put ratings for the pieces of the Compilation individually under a cut!

OG FF7: 9/10. would be 10/10 if the English localization were better. Where it all started, still one of my favorite games of all time.

Advent Children (+Complete): 8/10. Not a game, but part of the Compilation! Anyone who says the plot makes no sense doesn't realize that they're watching a sequel that relies very heavily on people understanding the history and characterization of every single character shown.

Last Order: 6.5/10. Also not a game, also part of the Compilation. Love that this is implied to literally be Tseng's coverup of what happened with Zack, presented in anime form. Makes no sense in multiple places as a result, but if you know that's what it is then you can 100% see why it's portrayed that way! Honestly I really enjoyed it and wish more people would appreciate it for what it is.

Dirge of Cerberus: 7/10. The gameplay kinda sucks but honestly the storyline is super good—or it would be, if the entire fucking prologue hadn't been cut from any release outside Japan, thereby leaving the entire issue with DeepGround completely unexplained to all other audiences. Once you know what is going on, the storyline here is fantastic, and I've never really forgiven SE for not releasing the rest of it. I love that Dirge fills in the lore for Vincent that was cut when he was relegated to "optional" in the OG, and that it also helps to clarify why Midgar could have 9 functional mako reactors while every other reactor in the world is either sputtering to nothing or exploding. (It's Omega. Midgar is built over Omega. It's the place where all lines of the Lifestream converge so that Omega can draw it all in and carry it away at the end of the world, and Shinra never discovered that's why the mako well there is so expansive. I love good worldbuilding, and Dirge is a beautiful example of that.)

Before Crisis: N/A. I want this game so bad man where is it give it to meeeee. Honestly tho I've watched playthroughs and read scripts where available, and while I don't think it looks like much fun from a modern gameplay perspective, I have huge respect for it as far as development goes. This is one of the first really mainstream mobile games ever made, it was made for flip phones, and it's super extensive! Also it gave me Veld, who is one half of my favorite ship ever, which means it automatically gets a 7/10 even if I've never played it.

Crisis Core (+Reunion): 9/10. As fun to play as the OG. When I first played this on PSP over a decade ago, it hit me with such an intense feeling of nostalgia that it almost took me off my feet. In spite of the dramatic difference between game mechanics in CC versus the OG, it felt exactly like playing the OG again, and that feeling never really left. Humanized Sephiroth in a beautiful way that pissed off a bunch of fanboys and made me fall in love with him all over again. Also introduced my second favorite FF7 character ever, Genesis, who is one half of one of my core FF7 ships, so A+ on that too!

FF7 Remake (+InterMISSION): 8/10. Had a lot of fun with this one, and it's beautiful, but it doesn't have a lot of replayability in my experience, which is a shame. Would have been 6 or 7/10 if not for InterMISSION, which was a fucking delight.

FF7 First SOLDIER: 6/10. This applies to both the Battle Royale and the title in Ever Crisis. I am not a fan of Glenn & Co. but I love 14 year old Sephiroth and really appreciate that extension of lore and worldbuilding, so it's a decent balance. I love that the opening cutscene for the battle royale literally filled a 20+ year old plot hole in under two minutes.

FF7 Rebirth: 9.5/10. The only things that could make me like this game more would be if Vincent were playable (although I understand why he's not and, in spite of him being my favorite fictional character ever, I agree with this decision), and fewer required minigames. Just cut like one or two. Or fix the controls, maybe. Glide de Chocobo is even more broken now that it's been patched.

[martinsaenz96us]

R.I.P. LittleBigPlanet

It's been a really sad year for "LittleBigPlanet". First the servers for LBP3 PS4 just shut down (servers for previous entries are also shut down), and not only the digital copy of LBP3 PS4 (digital copies of previous entries have already been delisted), but all the DLCs that's ever been released from LBP1 to LBP3 are being delisted from the PSN store. It really sucks that this once beloved franchise is being butchered to death in favor of bland realistic graphics cinematic games, live service games and catering to the so-called "Modern Audience" (*cough*cough "Concord" *cough*cough*). It's just not right how this franchise has been treated lately. The last game in the franchise "LittleBigPlanet 3" has been released about 10 years ago at this point. All the franchise has going for it now is just a spin-off named "Sackboy: A Big Adventure" released back in 2020, which is nothing like LBP (it's basically "Super Mario 3D World" but LBP themed). Sackboy, a worthy mascot for the "Playstation" brand in the PS3 Era is now gonna be known as Sackboy from "Sackboy: A Big Adventure" (a spin-off mind you) instead of Sackboy from "LittleBigPlanet" (where he's originated from). Sackboy has always been in a special place in my heart growing up, I even used to draw him (besides Sonic) in my journal a lot during high school. Back in junior high I was in special needs because of my autism (I even rode the bus and took field trips with special needs kids). I played a lot of video games and I was also a bad boy (I used to get in trouble a lot by giggling and misbehaving during class). My homeroom teacher had a Wii with "Wii Sports Resort" (great game) and even my all time favorite "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (better than Melee, change my mind). He would let us play when we were done with our assignments (we even got to stay after school to play and eat pizza in homeroom if we had good behavior). I never knew about LBP at the time and if you've been following me through the years, you know that I've been a big fan of "Sonic the Hedgehog" ever since kindergarten. So when I first heard LBP featured Sonic the Hedgehog costumes as DLC, I immediately wanted to buy the game for that sole reason (the same way I first got into Smash starting with Brawl). I was also into games that would let you create your own character or levels, that factor also drew me closer to wanting LBP and even "ModNation Racers" (rest in peace) too at the time. But I had a PSP instead, I got both LBP both and ModNation on it and I was a bit disappointed. LBP on PSP was my least favorite version, it felt so limited customizing Sackboy (not being able to place stickers on him too was a drawback for me), or customizing in general (ModNation on PSP is in the same bane too). Once I beat it 100% I wanted to start creating a level, and oh boy it all went downhill from there. The options were limited, the game kept crashing at any given time while creating. So needless to say I did not like LBP on PSP at all, and all it did is made me want a PS3 even more that I kept begging my mom to buy one for me. Around maybe my 8th grade year, I finally got a PS3 (I think it was a birthday gift, I can't remember). I became so happy that I immediately bought LBP at "GameStop" (I also bought both LBP2 and ModNation Racers at the same time). Upon booting LBP for the first time I immediately got so hooked. I wanted to beat it 100% but the only drawback was that I only had 1 controller, and there's sections in the game that require 2 to 4 players to get the prize bubbles. I felt kinda let down since I wasn't able to obtain those prize bubbles without multiple controllers, but I some how managed to get through a handful of 2 player sections using only 1 controller (like the "Construction Site"), which took dedication and dying a lot. I was so proud of myself for accomplishing sections that were only meant to be played with 2 people. The other 2 player sections however I wasn't so lucky, so I begged my mom to buy me more controllers, I didn't tell her why thinking she wouldn't agree with me. Then after beating LBP 100% I became obsessed with making costumes for Sackboy and showing them off while playing online, even in LBP2 I did the same thing. LBP2 is easily the best in the whole franchise. During the release of LBP2, the franchise hit it's all-time peak (I got a PS3 soon after the release of LBP2). LBP2 has also the best story mode. They were difficult at times (mostly ACEING all the levels, even in LBP1 it was difficult), but I still had a blast playing through it all. I also 100% the story mode and went on to complete all the level kit DLCs (which I did eventually). Fun Fact: At the time of LBP2's peak, "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" was also at it's all time peak (on the internet of all places). So while playing LBP2 I saw a bunch of levels related to MLP I got so annoyed by it. I played one of the levels I came across just for the sake of it, then I became intrigued and wanted to see what the whole fuss was about at the time. So one day I turned my TV to "The Hub" (R.I.P.) and the first episode I've ever watched was "Party of One" (you know, the one that featured Pinkamena who spawned a bunch of creepypastas). After watching the episode, I instantly fell in love with the show. The characters, the art style, everything about the show was so appealing to me. I've always been really really shy IRL, but then "Fluttershy" caught my eye since she's the one I can relate to, so she became my all time favorite pony to this day. I loved MLP so much I even drew ponies in my journals during my freshman year in high school (I was the quiet kid). And that is how I became a Brony. So back on-topic. I made so many memories with this game in particular that I will cherish forever. The community levels was a big step up from it's predecessor. Even when playing community levels online with random people made it so worth while (back when online play was FREE). All in all, LBP2 has become one of my most favorite games of all time. I loved the enjoyment of coming home from school to hop on straight into LBP2 (and also ModNation Racers) to play online with other people. Even one of my cousins enjoyed playing it, and would play together every time he'd come over. During my freshman year in high school, I heard about the PS VITA and I instantly wanted to buy it because LBP was on it. So eventually I got it with LBP (and because I love handheld gaming minus mobile gaming). I played it non stop, even between switching classes I would walk while playing. LBP on PS VITA was also great (not as good as LBP2, but way better than LBP PSP). I really liked it, and with the use of the touch screen and the back trackpad. The story mode was good, I liked how it had a slightly darker tone to it, compared to the previous entries. The characters were wacky and interesting (and some ugly tbh). And just like the previous entries, I 100% it all the way through. Online play was pretty cool too (but very laggy at times) and community levels were kinda good but a bit disappointing (not LBP2 good but it's passable). I also had fun making costumes everywhere I went (I even uploaded some on my DA page). LBP Karting however was OK (not up to LBP2 standards). I played through the story mode and 100% it too. The community levels were actually pretty interesting, there were even remakes of "Mario Kart" tracks that were spot on (but no custom music like LBP2). My biggest complaint however was the inability of customizing costumes like the previous entries (just changing outfits and placing stickers on doesn't cut it either), even the kart creation was barebones. Overall, the game just feels like a blatant rip-off of "ModNation Racers" (despite being made by the same developer "United Front Games" R.I.P.), which had better character and kart customization and you can even download custom made ones by other people and upload your own. LBP Karting does have better track customization however, but that's not saying much. And adding insult to injury, the fact that a full blown "ModNation Racers Sequel" got canceled in favor of LBP Karting is just a big punch in the face from Sony. A ModNation Racers sequel would've been miles better (pun intended) than LBP Karting in my honest opinion. Around probably Junior year, I got a PS4 with "LittleBigPlanet 3". From what I heard however it's been called the worst in the franchise, since the game was rushed to meet sales for Black Friday. So as a result, the game released with many bugs and glitches turning alot of people off from the game altogether (So I guess it's the "Sonic 06" of the LBP franchise). I bought it around maybe a month or 2 after it's release, and from what I played I really haven't experienced any bugs or glitches. In fact I really liked it, it felt more fleshed out and about as good as LBP2. Basically it's LBP2 but more expanded with new playable characters and creative additions such as expanded layers, new gadgets etc. I also liked how you had the ability to play every community levels ever made in both LBP1 & 2. I actually did play LBP3 on my PS3 first, but I then gave away my PS3 to my cousin to buy a PS4 (which I regret doing). What turned me off however wasn't the game itself, it was the fact Sony was charging for online pay (which killed online play for me) despite the fact it used to be free. At the time it costed $60 just for one year of online play, I could buy a full price game from retail then play & keep it for as long as I want. Paying for playing online is just a scam altogether. I did pay for one year just to play LBP3 online, then never payed again because what was the point. I did however registered my cousin's account to my PS4 to play online, so I played LBP3 online again then lost interest since the damage has already been done. Now I can't play it online anymore if I ever wanted to since the online servers recently got shutdown, and yet they still expect us to pay monthly/yearly for this (I did recently hear that Sony not only increased the price but added 3 tiers to pay for. The most expensive tier however is $120 a year, if that doesn't sound like a scam then I don't know what does). And recently I got myself a "Steam Deck" as a personal birthday gift about 2 years ago. Best decision I have ever made, and I would go as far as saying it's way better than the "PS5" (millions of games to play, it's a handheld, it's fully backwards compatible with everything via emulation, and best of all free online play). Lately I've been replaying LBP1 (and ModNation Racers) on a PS3 emulator and immediately fell in love with LBP all over again (although it's not perfect running on the Steam Deck with minor graphical issues and crashing every now and then). I've enjoyed every minute of it just like how I was when I first started played it back then, and now with a custom server is giving me the ability re-live those moments playing community levels and playing online without spending a single penny. Thank you "Media Molecule" for giving us a gem that will forever be in our hearts. Your love and passion that you created has brought joy to all of us around the world and will forever cherish the moments we spent playing your game. And lastly, thank you for giving us the power of playing, creating, and sharing our creations with the world. Rest in peace "LittleBigPlanet", you maybe gone now but will not be forgotten. Here's hoping for "LittleBigPlanet 4" in the near future (if Sony is willing to, and getting their act together) .

Posted using PostyBirb

[digitalgate02]

[copy+paste from a convo w/friends btw]

y'know so far i didn't see ANY anime/manga/game/Seekers/etc character Tamer Card depicted in both comic and novel for Liberator

and i guess it makes sense them not using them because… in that universe, the VR game to be exact, uses your own avatar as Tamer card but we know the game is also physical because you see the kids playing it offline too… yet the whole premise is that those cards are made with wild digimon because they can't survive in Lacuna etc without being catalogued as cards

which means… they could play some funny things like… making some sort of AU for every non-Liberator character and make them just cameo there

there's a very very suspicious girl that looks like Ruki in one of the BGs in the first chapters (of the manga version i meant)

or something funny and digimon-esque which is just open a dimensional gate and drags characters into a specific occasion like happened in the PSP Adv game

which means i'm half-disappointed and half-plotting stuff with this info disappointment because i'll never see someone using a Kido Jou card to evolve him into Wolfmon

[satoshi-mochida]

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana coming to PS5, PS4 on May 23 in Japan

From Gematsu

Falcom will release Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on May 23 in Japan for 4,400 yen, the company announced.

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana first launched for Switch on April 27, 2023 in Japan, followed by May 25, 2023 in Asia. It is a high-definition remastered version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana.

Get the details below.

■ Reversible Cover Jacket

The PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 physical editions of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana include a reversible cover jacket featuring both the new and classic box art illustrations. By switching to the classic box art, it is possible to recreate the PSP and PC packaging.

—New Box Art

—Classic Box Art

■ First-Run Bonus: “Music from Ys III” Physical Reprint

First-run copies of the physical edition will also include a reprint of the difficult-to-obtain “Music from Ys III” soundtrack, which includes all the songs from the PC-8801 version of Wanderers from Ys (Ys III), which is the game Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is based on. It includes the same songs as the original release, but the jacket and CD label have been designed as a newly repackaged version, making this a valuable collector’s item.

■ Digital Edition Early Purchase Bonus: “Music from Ys III” Digital Soundtrack

Users who purchase the digital edition of Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana between May 23 and June 19 will receive the “Music from Ys III” digital soundtrack, which includes all the songs from Wanderers from Ys (Ys III). (It includes the same songs as the physical edition.)

■ About Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana

A “deepened” action RPG… The definitive edition of Ys: The Oath in Felghana is coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4! Released for PSP in 2010, Ys: The Oath in Felghana was highly acclaimed as a masterpiece in the Ys action RPG series. This high-definition remastered version further improves the game with additional elements.

■ Fully Voiced Event Scenes Including the Long-Awaited Addition of Voiceovers for Adol

In addition to voiced events for the game’s more than 30 characters, voiceovers have also been added for protagonist Adol Christin, who will be voiced by Yuki Kaji. Coupled with narration by Banjou Ginga, players will be able to enjoy an even more dramatic story.

■ New Visuals Added! You Can Also Switch Back to the Old Versions

“Refine Versions” of the illustrations for every character that appears during the story have been created for this remastered release. The “Classic Versions” that were used in the PSP and PC versions will also be included, so you switch between “Refine” and “Classic” during the game depending on your preference.

—Refine Version

—Classic Version

—Refine Version

—Classic Version

—Refine Version

—Classic Version

■ Remastered Graphics and Sounds

Remastered in high-definition for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4! Not only can you enjoy more beautiful graphics upgraded to high-definition image quality from the original PSP version, you can also enjoy higher-quality background music and sound effects.

■ Switch Between Three Sound Settings

There are three in-game background music sound settings to switch between: the “Original Version” used in the PC version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and the “PC-8801 Version” and “X68000 Version” sounds from its ancestors.

—Original Version

—PC-8801 Version

—X68000 Version

■ High-Speed Mode and Beginner-Friendly Support Features Increase your speed while moving on the field and in battle by 1.5 to two times. This can be activated at any time with the push of a button, allowing you to more comfortably enjoy the game. Additionally, the game is equipped with various support features for action game beginners, such as “Not Fall,” which allows you to recover instantly without taking damage if you fall from a high place.

View a set of screenshots at the gallery.

[clatterbane]

Tonight's little diversion: fucking around with old games in an emulator again! (This time, one that I do actually own a physical copy of, minus the hardware to play it on set up in here. Pretty sure we do still have the PS2 in storage on this side, though.) Not in fullscreen mode, because it's a PITA and it's not like I'm aiming for full immersion here.

Doing one of my favorite things going back to the GTA3verse: playing around with some glitches. This time, one I hadn't tried before: taking advantage of a ghost car to get across to the other islands while they're still locked early in the game.

(Which was a particular pain to accomplish in the PSP version here, when you need to take great pains not to bump into walls while driving down into a subway station to get to the tracks. And also you don't have the controls available to pan the camera around properly to see where the fuck your vehicle is in relation to the tight space. Thank goodness for emulator save states, is all I can say.)

Anyway, I pretty quickly discovered once I did get to the other side that your ghost car also allows you to drive through most obstacles there, not just that locked subway station gate. Though, if you purposely smack headfirst into a building, it will flip Ghost Car through grey here Blue Hell again and straight back onto the same island.

So, that shit struck me as hilarious enough that I decided to experiment with a screen recorder and share. This video does look like absolute ass. I still haven't quite figured out better settings, and honestly didn't feel like spending much time and energy on it tonight--when I could be ghosting that ridiculous car around Staunton Island, until I get tired enough of it to jump Mr. Can't Swim into the water.

[asaka-lucy-dr-rc]

Hello again! I'm the person who asked about that line form Island Mode said by Kazuichi. So i guess the translation was right after all! Your explanation makes sense, I've read somewhere that in japanese he uses a particular way of speaking that's typical of 'cool teenage boys', and that it's one of those nuances that's a bit hard to translate to other languages. Apparently, it's the same for a lot of other Danganronpa characters way of speaking as well.

The 'Dating Sim' modes have a lot of silly stuff ^^ Like, for example, both Leon and Mondo complain that they don't know how you're suppossed to eat a hamburguer without making a mess, I've seen some funny fanart of that xD (if you're curious there are some compilation videos on youtube, so you don't have to play the whole game, and the wikis as well)

Hajime doesn't exactly say 'let's burn the books', that's true ^^;; (I probably should have just copy pasted the real dialog form the wiki), but you can make him and the other protags say some WEIRD things, I like to imagine that after saying things that are out of character like that they just stand there blinking for a couple of seconds and then go 'huhhhh???? why did I say that????' and the other character just says 'you're asking ME???' xD

Thank you for such a long and detailed answer, your english is really good! I want to learn japanese myself but it's quite difficult ^^;; , but seeing people like you who speak japanese and english inspires me and makes me want to keep trying ^^ that's why I enjoy reading your posts =)

Exactly, including Kazuichi, many of the characters in Danganronpa speak in a way that is typical of teenagers or in a more unique way, so I think it's quite difficult to translate them! X(

OMG, I didn't know Leon and Mondo had such silly stories, how cute and typical of a teenager! ehehe XD Actually, I love the Dating Sim mode and have seen all the endings in Island Mode in DR2 and Dangan Salmon Team in DRV3. Since there is no completion list for Island Mode, I don't have any records of completing it, but everyone has reached level 9 in Gathering and Cleaning to get more than half of the levels to 9.

As for Dangan Salmon Team:

But I have not played School Mode yet! 😭 The reason is that I played DR:THH on the original PSP version, and School Mode didn't exist at that time. Now I have the Nintendo Switch and iPad versions of DR:THH, which have School Mode, but I thought that if I were to replay it, I would like to play the English and Japanese versions at the same time, but I haven't had time to do that yet. So you told me how to see the dialog online, but I'll save it for when I actually get around to playing it. But now that you've told me about Leon and Mondo, I'm really looking forward to playing it, so I think I'll finally do it next month! ✨

RIGHT, making the protagonists say weird things is one of the great joys of the Dating Sim modes! 😆😆 It's pretty crazy that when Hajime goes to the beach, he can suggest "Let's take our clothes off" to anyone. hehe And it's so funny and cute how the protagonists have regrets after saying those things to someone. 😄

I'm very happy to hear that my posts have motivated you to learn Japanese! Actually, my English skills are not very good, using some AI grammar checkers is essential, and my listening and speaking skills are low. (I'm not being modest. I have taken some online English lessons, but even then my evaluation was at the lower end of intermediate level). Still, I enjoy communicating in English, so even if people don't have wonderful Japanese skills and have to rely on machine translation, I hope they feel free to try using Japanese. It's still a fun experience to try using a language other than your native language and communicate with someone far away. Language is a great reflection of culture, so it's also interesting to learn about the cultural background. Annnd it's even more interesting when it's related to the background of your favorite characters! XD So if you learn something about Japanese, you can try sending it to me 😉 (This is not just for the anon who sent this question, but for everyone!) Thank you so much for always reading my posts! (*,,˃ ᵕ ˂ )･.｡*

[themadsquirrel09]

Tug-of-war

Fandom ☆ South Park 

Ship ☆ KenMan ♡ KenEric (Eric Cartman x Kenny McCormick) 

Characters ☆ Kenny McCormick, Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Liane Cartman, Mr. Kitty. A bit of Mr. Mackey, Wendy Testaburger, Kyle Broflovski and Butters.

Rating ☆ M

Summary ☆ One impulsive action can make the difference in the game of life and death.

Warnings ☆ Non-explicit adult themes, blood, swearing. They are kids here (11): it is mostly care, angst and fluffiness.

About it ☆ This fanfic works as a one shot, it is also part of an AU I’m writing in no specific order. I’m still trying to choose the name °u°’’’

☆ 3362 words ☆

With love: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Stan

“Here comes a candle to light you to bed.

Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.”

I hate this house, screw this!  

From the backyard, I still can hear the moans, the thuds, shit! I try to climb fast and get into the clubhouse; when I finally do, Mr. Kitty greets me. 

“This place is a mess, but good enough for one night, Kitty.” Something between a purr and a meow is his reply. I made a run for it as soon as I got home and heard them, but I knew this happened before; that it would happen again (and again), so there’s a mini fridge and a sleeping bag here. 

I search into my backpack for a distraction. All I have is food, a few books and, yes! My PSP! I smile at it but, when I hold it, my view gets blurred. I have to wipe the tears from the screen. 

Fuck, like my day isn’t shitty enough already! That PSP reminds me that I have Kenny’s will memorized. I asked for a copy to his lawyer, and read it over and over again, looking for something that I could use to get my way while he was in a coma. Now I know every word by heart.

I toss the PSP on the sleeping bag. Fucking Liane , she is the one to blame, because I can’t blame myself without breaking down and lately I just can’t get mad at Kenny.

“Goddammit!” I curse choked into sobs until I hear a noise, it is Mr. Kitty coming towards me at full speed, purring loudly. He pushes his head right into my hand; cats have funny faces, it makes me chuckle and calms me down. 

I grab some snacks, go for a Mountain Dew, and lean on the window frame; maybe to distract myself from what is happening inside the house, I think about Kenny, do you feel that way? Or were you just pissed at me because of something I did?

I replay in my head those words meant for me.

Eric, I never really liked you. But then, nobody does. You have no ability to feel, and you are going to die alone and miserable. It is only because I feel so sorry for you that I leave you my Sony PSP.

He calls me Eric. Even if sometimes I feel like I say his name over and over again, like a fucking parrot, he almost never does the same. I guess it means nothing, but why do I like it when he does that?  

That question makes me uneasy, so I go back to the will and get pissed. If you don't like me, then why do you feel so sorry for me? And then you let me have your only valuable possession... you know that you will come back to life, right? But maybe he thinks I don't.

“Kenny.” I go wide-eyed because I wasn’t expecting to say his name out loud, then I take a step back when I hear his voice calling me back! I peek through the window as if I’m going to find him outside. What I see is the snow covered in blood; I can feel the liquid dripping from my hair. When I blink, it is all gone. 

My heart hammers fast, but after a moment it slows down until it stops completely . Some weird sense of warmth comes to me. It surrounds me and gives me peace, then I feel it ascend; I look up just in time to see a shooting star, an impossibly big one. I feel my heart start again.

Shit, I better go the fuck to sleep.

Instead, I sit on the sleeping bag and take the PSP; when I touch it, I feel like Kenny for a second. By now I’m used to it, since that time his soul was stuck in my body, this happens sometimes. I wonder: what is he doing right now? , but to get my head out of that, out of everything, I play until I fall asleep with the PSP in my hands.

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

The only reason I talk to Liane the next day is because I need her to sign my permit and give me food, but I can barely listen to her lies, or even look at her as she showers me with unwanted affection.

I struggle my way out as quickly as I can and, maybe because of that, I’m the first one to make it to the bus stop. I'm pissed and sleepy so, when I hear footsteps, I prepare to shit on whoever is daring to cross my way but, well, fuck . Kenny’s big orbs lay on me.

“Hi, Eric.” I try to avoid his gaze, but I can’t. Does he go at a slower pace today? 

“Hey, Kenny.” My voice comes out hoarse, I didn’t get inside the sleeping bag yesterday.

“Dude, are you ok?” Do you really care, or are you just feeling sorry for me again? And he appears to be fragile, but is probably the only kid who could have had a worse night, and still asks me if I’m ok. 

“Hey, dudes!” Stan must have drunk an extra shot if he is so happy, that’s good, distracting. Soon Kyle joins us, but I’m so tired I can barely take my anger out on him. 

Since today we have this stupid school trip, I sleep most of the way; when I do, I have this nightmare: 

I’m standing in a puddle of blood. I move out of the way, but there is blood everywhere and, little by little, paralyzed by fear, I see how the thick dark liquid fills the space; when it reaches my ankles, I panic and start running.

It seems like I go nowhere and, exhausted, I fall on my knees. What is it about this blood that’s so hypnotizing? I can’t stop looking, but when it is reaching my elbows, I hear crying and snap out of it: realizing I'm about to drown, I throw myself back. That’s when I see something emerging from this dark lake. 

I get close, and take him in my arms: it’s Kenny, his eyes are shut, his mouth is open, red flows out of the corner of his lips. 

All this blood, it pours out of him.

“Kenny, wake up.” I try to clean his face with my sleeve. Useless . “Wake up, damn it.” I see his eyes twitch. The sobs turn into a sweet song, a light sound I can barely distinguish. I try to find the source, but it seems like it comes from everywhere. 

While I wasn’t looking, Kenny somehow got out of my grip: he is now floating in front of me and, just for a split second, I see the huge wings that hold him up. The blood now reaches my belly button, I get a hold of his wrists and try to pull him close.

“Wake up!”

With that last scream, I wake up, sweating, buried in Kenny’s arm, clinging tightly to his parka. We lock eyes. What the fuck, am I still dreaming? There’s a warm light that surrounds him. We remain like that for a second and all I’m doing is trying not to cry. 

“Hey, it’s ok, I’m here.” Weird. Those simple whispered words it’s all I need to hear and I’m able to breathe again. When he places his hand on mine, I remember where we are and sit up quickly, but my hand holds on. I feel him squeezing lightly, then he lets go, and the bus stops.

“Why are we visiting a lame-ass national park, again!?” I complain about it as I make sure to stay close to Kenny. He seems much more into this stuff than I do and it takes just a minute, while I convince Butters that some flower is edible, for him to disappear. 

“Kenny?” Where the hell did you go? He is out of sight, but I walk like I know the way, like something—someone?—is calling me. A few minutes later, with the strong wind whistling and rumbling, I see the blond boy kneeling among lilac flowers. His body is turned away from me. He faces the abyss.

I get close without him noticing, when I’m just a few steps away, I feel as if thunder growls under my feet. Without even thinking, I run towards Kenny, grab him by the backpack, and yank him with all my might. The floor crumbles. 

Part of the ground is swallowed by the depths, but we are both safe. I fell on my butt and Kenny lies unconscious. I drag him away from the shattered floor and, for a moment, all I feel is my heart pounding. The chunk of earth we were standing on is gone and Kenny should be dead (again), but he isn’t. Because of me?

I glance at him and his face twitches, it seems like he is about to regain consciousness. I panic and run. I don’t know why, but I run until I’m breathless. 

After a while, I feel like throwing up, fainting, maybe both. I stumble and grab onto something, shutting my eyes so the world will stop spinning. Two things happen at the same time: on one side, I feel better, like a weight is lifted from my shoulders; on the other side, I hear the violent and very familiar sound of puking, it comes from right beside me. 

It is Stan who emptied his stomach. What? Did Stan just throw up for me? Even if it seems impossible, it feels like it. 

So I ran to the other kids and grabbed Stan's hand without noticing. He lets me keep doing that while he tells Wendy he is alright. I steady myself, we glimpse at each other and smile, then I let go of him. He doesn’t know what just happened, but why else would he do this for me? The rest of the trip, I keep smiling like an idiot, feeling like I did something I really like. Back on the bus, I can’t help but flinch when Kenny sits beside me and rests upon me those tired, bright eyes.

“What is it, poor boy, did you see a ghost?”

“No, but I almost became one,” he mutters and I pretend I didn’t hear him.

“What did you say?” I reply, teasing, I know Kenny gets frustrated when people can’t understand him. He squints at me and I almost feel him inspecting my soul. Why can’t I just look away? Fuck.

“I said: thanks dude, your face looks like shit too!” He leans towards me, and I feel myself leaning backwards. “What were you doing last night?” I scoff, amused.

“If you want me to answer that, Kenny, then you have to tell me first, what were you doing last night?” He blinks, taken aback. I can finally avert my gaze and smile smugly. I got him.

“Whatever, like I care!” He says and it stings a little, however I can’t just tell him what happened. It seems like he feels the same. 

This pisses me off.

Fuck it, I’ll just tell him! But, when I look at my side, I find Kenny is sleeping. I pull him by the parka, so his head lands on my shoulder, then I close my eyes and lean on him. I fall deep in a dream of a memory:

The moon peeks through the window and illuminates the room, but my view gets blurred by the—oh, so expected—tears. This time there’s something different, though: the soul of a joyful boy is trapped in my body.

“What’s the matter? It can’t be that you are crying.” Shit . Listening to my voice in that sweet-toned ring just makes me cry harder. “Dude?” He insists and I can feel his worry running through my skin. I breathe, trying to calm down. 

“It’s stupid. I cry at night because I don’t have a dad.” I feel my face warming up at the embarrassing confession. Kenny takes control of my left hand; he reaches for my right hand and holds it softly.

“It’s ok. I’m here.” I smile.

Those words seem to unfold as I wake up. I have to check if it was Kenny the one who said that right now, but I see that he is still asleep, we are still leaning on each other. Nobody can know that he looks cute to me at this instant, that I can't help but press myself against him just for a second before I struggle to upright swiftly. 

I get paranoid about it, but the other kids are talking, screaming and playing. Nobody saw us . I turn, find Kenny’s sleepy gaze already on me and smile nervously. It feels exactly like when I do something bad: I’m afraid I’ll get caught. I have to fill the silence.

“Man, if I knew that trip was so lame, I would have stayed home.” I lie, I would have rather died. I shield myself with my backpack not knowing exactly what I’m searching for, so I take out the PSP and, when I do, it feels like those times Kenny is about to show himself as a ghost. My breath hitches and I feel cold; even if it is him, ghosts creep me out.

“Oh dude, I haven’t played that in so long!” He doesn’t seem to notice, though.

“Check it out, Kenny, I’m already on level 42,” I say as I hand the PSP to him.

“Are you getting your ass kicked or what?”

“Yeah. No matter how much I reinforce the gate, they keep getting in.” Suddenly, we are closer than expected and he shows me the way. We get so distracted by talking and playing, that I barely notice we are back in South Park, but when I do, I swallow hard. If I get home and the same that happened yesterday goes down, I might lose my shit and murder someone. Maybe I will kill myself. That’d be the best .

“If I stay at your place, we can beat this in just a couple of hours, you know? We can also repair our clubhouse a bit, it’s a cool place to hang out,” Kenny says, smiling. Why would you want to stay with me? Are you just feeling sorry for me again? Wait. Did I say that out loud? I’m about to panic, but he gives me a look like he is clueless. “What is it, you had other plans?”

Other plans? I see my corpse lying on the floor and I burst into laughter. I laugh not to cry and because it is too funny. It is impossible that someone like this exists! At first, he asks me what is it, but after a while, maybe because of how much I’m kicking, wheezing, struggling to breathe, he starts to laugh too; at me? Sure, but I don’t care right now.

“Eric Cartman! I said this is your stop, mmk?”

“Calm the fuck down!” I get to say between laughs, “I’m going, ok?” I stand up and turn to see the blond offering back the PSP, but instead of taking it, I grab him by the arm and pull him. He comes with me.

As Kenny said, it only takes us a couple of hours to finish the game, then we start to fix the clubhouse a bit.

“Dude?”

“Kenny?”

“Do you have a crush on Stan?” I feel my gut dropping.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I saw you holding hands; you guys look cute together.” Why does hearing him say that makes me feel like shit? I put the tools aside and go for the door. He follows.

“Cartman?”

“Shut up, Kenny!” I snap, turning to scream in his face, but when I do, I accidentally step on Mr. Kitty’s tail. He hisses, bites me and I back away. Being so close to the entrance, I lose my balance. 

About to fall from the tree, I reach for Kenny and he gets to grab me by the arm. For an instant, I see in him that determined expression he usually has when he is Mysterion. He throws himself back pulling me, so I fall inside the clubhouse, but land on top of him. 

“Fuck!” I get off of Kenny as quickly as I can, he gasps for air. I was crushing him! “Kenny?” He smiles, trying to be reassuring, but he is having a fit of cough, so I grab him, sit him up and get him something to drink. He holds his chest with his eyes closed; the coughs mellow as he breathes deeply. I just look at him. Kenny’s hood is off and it is not every day that I get to see his whole face. Do you really have to hide all the time? 

“Dude!” He exclaims after finally drinking a bit of the Dr Pepper. “I almost died.” And it wouldn’t be the first time today.

“It’s your fault!” 

“Fuck you!” He says to my face playful, and I find myself incapable of insulting him back. “We are ok now, right? I just saved your ass.”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

“About what I said: I don’t care who you like. Let me know if you need a wingman.” I stare at my hands and remember how they reached for Kenny this morning. Did I save his life? Well, he just did the same for me. “Cartman?”

“What? Oh, yeah. I’ll let you know.” 

“Cool,” he says, then he gets into the sleeping bag. “Goodnight.” Kenny falls asleep in a heartbeat. You are even more tired than I am, aren’t you? But I feel restless and keep wondering:

“What were you doing last night?” I ask him under my breath. There is no answer. I sit beside the sleeping bag and imagine we are some kind of warriors; I’m the one standing guard, maintaining a protective field with my wizard powers. 

I see Kenny’s matches on the floor. He probably dropped them when we fell. I take them, go to the window, and after declaring the area is enemy-free, I light one. What kind of kid looks so happy just by watching the fire?

Kenny’s will surface on my mind as the fire goes out on its own: Eric, I never really liked you. But then, nobody does. Then what are you doing here? Why would you want to be my wingman?

I light another match.

You have no ability to feel, and you are going to die alone and miserable.  

I kind of wish I could agree about me having no ability to feel, then I remember his hand reaching for mine in that dream of a memory I had today. 

“Shit!” The fire burns my fingers and I let go of the match, which falls onto the snow. 

I turn to look at Kenny. He sleeps curled up like a stray kitten. Dying alone and miserable, huh? Who else but you would know how that feels?

I get close and kneel beside him, then I light another match. Funny; I’ve seen his face illuminated by fire so many times the image is stuck with me.

It is only because I feel so sorry for you that I leave you my Sony PSP.

“You make no sense.” My mumbled words blow out the match. You make no sense, but neither do I! I can’t even put a finger on what made me pull him away from the abyss today. 

I smile at the thought of it, maybe I just didn’t want to be alone, on the bus, at the house. My eyes go to the floor, I feel like crying, but a sudden yank makes me gasp as I fall forward; Kenny is pulling me by the arm. 

“Eric.” He looks at me with half-lidded eyes, “Fucking sleep.” He commands groggily. I frown at him, he lets out a soft chuckle, and I get into the sleeping bag, wondering: for how long has he been pulling me away from falling to my end?

❅──────✧⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅•̩̩͙꙳⋆✧────── ☆ ──────✧⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅•̩̩͙꙳⋆✧──────❅

This is (definitely) not the end.

⋆✧────── ☆ ──────✧⋆

Final notes 🖊️

 🧡 I love this ship so much ❤️

Did you enjoy reading it? It sure was an amazing and weird experience writing this 🌠 It took me a lot of time mostly because I edit until my eyes bleed =u= (I started writing it and had the 1st draft on January lol)

A little of context ☆ The paranormal connection between Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick is one of the main reasons I adore this ship. Eric says he sees through Kenny's eyes and feels like him on S06E12 ∣ A Ladder to Heaven; then Kenny's soul is trapped in Cartman's body for almost a month. 

The crying at night thing is also from the show, Eric confesses that on S11E08 ∣ Le Petit Tourette.

All kinds of support are really appreciated! ♡ 

If you want to help me keep writing, you can buy me a coffee here ☕

You can also commission me, here you have the info 💌

[phantompoguefangirl]

Wrapped Around Your Finger

CHAPTER SEVEN: Holding On

You're not alone, together we stand

I'll be by your side, you know, I'll take your hand

When it gets cold and it feels like the end

There's no place to go, you know, I won't give in

No, I won't give in

Keep holding on

'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through

Just stay strong

'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you

There's nothing you could say (nothing you could say)

Nothing you could do (nothing you could do)

There's no other way when it comes to the truth

So keep holding on

'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through-Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne

A/N: I added a detail about Calum and Mia's friendship because I feel like in every 5sos story that is not explicitely about him, Calum is always just kinda there. Like he doesn't really do much other than be background support or whatever and he deserves better than that.

Also the song Michael wrote and sings for Mia is Broken Home but I wasn't sure if putting the lyrics in would be triggering to anyone so I left them out.

Oh and I hope y'all enjoy the cute collage of Michael with his acoustic guitar. He's so baby I can't even 🥺🥰

Anyway, here we go!

***********************************

MICHAEL P.O.V:

The next few days were the worst days of my life. Mia came out of surgery okay but was unsconscious for days and we were all absolutely terrified she wouldn't wake up.

The boys and I never left her side if we could help it. The doctor said she could probably hear us so we talked to her and I played music for her, which the guys sometimes helped with.

Ashton had bonded with her over books so he would read to her a lot too. He read her Percy Jackson and the Olympians, because he knew that it was one of her favorite serieses and it was entertaining enough for the rest of us to listen to and not get bored.

Luke fixed her hair and did her nails and whatnot while updating her on life and telling her about a new store he found that he wanted to take her to when she woke up.

Calum had found out shortly after meeting Mia that she knew how to play soccer because her older brother, Mason, played growing up and Mia liked to either play with Mason in their free time or copy his moves from the sidelines at his team practices. Luke and Ash worked out and stuff but I was not even close to athletic and none of us really liked to play actual sports so Calum was super happy when Mia was down to kick the ball around with him. That became their thing and while Mia was unconscious, Calum had been in our large backyard whenever he wasn't at the hospital, practicing some move Mia was trying to help him perfect. He didn't like idly waiting and he wanted to do something for her. Whenever he was with her at the hospital he would tell her about his progress and he gushed to her excitedly for awhile when he finally got it down.

Sometimes the boys would give me time alone with her, which I appreciated much more than they would ever know. I would hold her hand and talk to her about anything and everything. I would have brought my Nintendo DS or PSP to play games, but I couldn't bring myself to even think about playing videogames at a time like this. I would bring my guitar though and play whatever came to mind for her.

One day, when the others had left, I played Mia a song I had written a song about my family. I wasn't ready to share it with the band yet, but Mia understood what I went through better than anybody and I wanted her to be the first to hear it, even if she couldn't respond yet.

I broke down crying halfway through it and set my guitar aside before burying my head in my arms, which were now resting on the bed next to her. I was still crying when suddenly I felt something bump my hand softly then rest on top of it, followed by the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

"M-Michael?" Mia stammered hoarsely, causing me to yank my head up to look at her in shock.

"Mia? Oh my god!" I nearly shouted as I jumped up and carefully wrapped my arms around her. She weakly hugged me back for a moment before I got her some water and sat back down.

"Wha-where-what-how" Mia stuttered, beginning to hyperventilate.

"Hey, hey it's okay. You're safe," I reassured her, leaning over her and trying to comfort her.

She was shaking and looking around desperately while making tiny panicked noises, so I very gingerly climbed into the bed beside her and held her until her breathing began to go back to normal.

Mia looked up at me and I could see a million emotions swirling around in her gorgeous multi colored eyes. I started to feel myself breaking down again.

"Fuck, I missed you," I breathed through my tears as I snuggled her carefully. "I was so scared that I was gonna lose you."

"M-me too," She responded, her words muffled against my chest, her body still trembling a bit, "Is he-"

"He's gone. He'll never see you or touch you ever again, I promise," I told her, knowing what she was asking before she even finished the question. I briefly explained what happened when we got to Jesse's house that night.

She nodded and started quietly sobbing into my shirt.

I wept too and held Mia some more, giving her water and whatnot until the nurses came to check on her.

I didn't want to leave her, but they made me go out in the hall, so I decided use this time to call and let the boys know she was awake.

They rushed back to see her as fast as they could, Ashton being in the lead, of course. He was the first back into the room once the nurses gave the okay and he immediately hugged Mia. By the time they got there, she was speaking full sentences.

"Awe there's my Dimples," Mia said, matching the wide smile Ashton had on his face as he pulled back to look at her.

"God, you don't even know how relieved I am to hear your voice," he managed to say before he embraced her again.

"Us too, Mia. We were so worried about you," Calum said, pointing to himself and Luke, who fervently agreed while holding up the bouquet of Tiger Lilies and stuffed panda they picked out for her on the way here, with my help over the phone, of course.

"Awwwe guys," Mia responded, attempting to hold her arms out to them.

They excitedly hugged her and gave her the gifts. Her eyes welled up as she accepted the flowers and the plushie.

"How did you know?" Mia asked, looking down at her gifts.

"Michael told us that you liked them so we picked these out for you," Luke answered, "He would have gone and got them with us, but he didn't want to leave you."

Her gaze shifted over to me and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other in the doorway before taking a nervous step toward her bed. "You told me a couple of times about the house you grew up in having a flower bed that wrapped almost all the way around it, which your mother filled with tiger lilies, and you told me how much you loved them. Not to mention, you get ridiculously excited whenever you see pandas anywhere."

"You paid attention? I-I was just rambling,"she replied, smiling softly. Was I imagining things or was she blushing now too?

"Well, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't?" I said, grinning and trying to sound nonchalant as I sat down next to the bed.

"Thank you," Mia said, before turning to the others. "All of you. For the gifts and for....everything. If you guys hadn't been there...."

"Don't even mention it. You're still here and that's all that matters," Luke said before she could finish that thought. He squeezed her hand gently and smiled.

She turned to Calum. "I heard you talking. You figured out the Hocus Pocus move?"

"Yeah, I reckon I did. I can't wait to show you when you come home!" He said, grinning at her.

"I can't wait to see....I'm so proud of you, Cal!" She smiled back, but then her smile contorted a little bit as she shifted uncomfortably.

"You okay?" I asked, immediately worried.

"Hurts....fuck," she groaned, trying to move again but stopping and placing her hand on her ribs.

"I think her pain meds may be wearing off. I'll go get a nurse," Ash offered, jumping up and leaving the room.

The nurses came back and checked on Mia before giving her more pain meds and leaving again. Mia began to relax as we kept talking to her. The doctor came in and said they wanted to keep her a few more nights for observation, but otherwise her injuries and surgical incisions were healing nicely and she was able to eat soft foods like pudding and jello and apple sauce. They just needed to see if she could walk and stuff by herself before she left so they knew if she needed any physical therapy.

The guys left when it got late, but I wasn't ready to leave yet so I stayed for a little while longer. I gazed at her, still feeling a tornado of emotions blowing around inside me.

I reached out to hold her hand, but before I could, she slowly raised it and pressed it to my cheek just below my right eye. Her thumb softly brushed away a stray tear.

"I heard your song, by the way," She said,"It's beautiful."

"Really?" I asked, feeling unsure about it because it was so personal.

"Yes," she replied, holding back her own tears,"Every word felt like I said it to my own parents."

"I was hoping you'd like it," I said, my voice showing more of my emotions than I intended. "I knew you'd understand."

"Can you play it again?" she asked, lowering her hand weakly.

"Of course," I answered, picking up my guitar.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and softly began to play.

We were both fully crying by the time I finished so she asked if I could play a different song to cheer us up. A random idea popped into my head.

"We're sooarin', flyyyin'," I sang, grinning as I strummed my guitar strings.

Mia let out a strained giggle and tried to sing along, but she was still hoarse and recovering so it was difficult. We just kept going though.

"There's not a star in Heaven that we can't reach, if we're tryin', so we're breaking free!"

We continued till the song was over and then Mia got more meds so she started to get sleepy.

"I should probably go so you can get some rest," I said, though I really did not want to be away from her.

"No, wait...," she mumbled, reaching out to me with one hand. "Keep singing.... please?"

"Oh, um, okay," I said, unsure.

"Sorry...it's just...your voice is...um...," She took a deep breath as she seemed to search for the right word to use. She looked up at me. "...Soothing."

Her eyes said far more than her words did so I wracked my brain for a song and then started playing again.

"You're not alone, together we stand

I'll be by your side, you know, I'll take your hand

When it gets cold and it feels like the end

There's no place to go, you know, I won't give in

No, I won't give in

Keep holding on

'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through

Just stay strong

'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you

There's nothing you could say (nothing you could say)

Nothing you could do (nothing you could do)

There's no other way when it comes to the truth

So keep holding on

'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through"

I meant every word as I sang for Mia until her eyes fluttered closed and her breathing slowed to a pace that meant she was fast asleep. I carefully stood up, put my guitar back into it's case and walked toward the door.

Right as I got to the doorway, I stopped and looked at back at Mia. I set my guitar down then, without thinking, I went over and placed a very light kiss on her forehead. I touched my forehead to hers gently for a moment, then grabbed my case and went home.

****************************************

@jetblackbritt13 @caityrayeraye

[hateliers]

Bitch I've already sent you how fucking annoying you are lmfao why your annoying ass not answering

Persona,[Jp. 1] previously marketed as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona outside of Japan, is a video game franchise primarily developed and published by Atlus, and owned by Sega.[a] Focusing around a series of role-playing video games, Persona is a spin-off from Atlus' Megami Tensei franchise. The first entry in the series, Revelations: Persona,[b] was released in 1996 for the PlayStation. The series has seen several more games since, with the most recent main entry being 2019's Persona 5 Royal.

Persona began as a spin-off based on the positively-received high school setting of Shin Megami Tensei If... (1994). Persona's core features include a group of students as the main cast, a silent protagonist similar to the mainline Megami Tensei franchise, and combat using Personas. Since the release of Persona 3 in 2006, the main series has used a social simulation function called Social Links, which are directly linked to how Personas evolve. Character designs are by series co-creator Kazuma Kaneko (Persona and the Persona 2 duology) and Shigenori Soejima (Persona 3 onwards). Its overall theme is exploration of the human psyche and how the characters find their true selves. The series' recurring concepts and design elements draw on Jungian psychology, psychological personas and tarot cards, along with religion, mythology, and literature themes and influences.

Revelations: Persona was the first role-playing Megami Tensei game to be released outside of Japan. Beginning with Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, the English localizations began to remain faithful to the Japanese versions at the insistence of Atlus. The series is highly popular internationally, becoming the best-known Megami Tensei spin-off and establishing Atlus and the Megami Tensei franchise in North America. Following the release of Persona 3 and 4, the series also established a strong following in Europe. The series has since gone on to sell over 16 million copies worldwide, outselling its parent franchise. There have been numerous adaptations, including anime series, films, novelizations, mangas, stage plays, radio dramas, and musical concerts.

Revelations: Persona is the first entry in the series, and was released in Japan and North America for the PlayStation in 1996.[1][2] A port to Windows was released in Japan in 1999.[3] The game was later ported to the PlayStation Portable (PSP): it was published in 2009 in Japan and North America as physical and digital releases, and 2010 in Europe as a digital release.[4][5][6] Set in the town of Mikage-cho, it follows a group of high school students from St. Hermelin High, who are forced to confront an outbreak of demons in their hometown. [7]

Persona 2: Innocent Sin is the second entry in the