#I need to make some decisions on Kit's collection

[no-one-picked-maris]

Why I Think They Won't Re-Release Felicity (in any meaningful capacity)

Felicity's stories are very white and protestant in a very alienating way - and I say this as someone who related to her as a child. She's literally a member of the gentry, she's Samantha of the 18th century.

Fun Fact: In the earliest editions of Meet Felicity, rather than referring to Jiggy Nye's language as "not proper", it's referred to as "sinful". Felicity is also chided with reminding her that disobeying one's parent's is a sin. Oh, and this change:

Nan: "Then Mr. Nye called the horse a nag, and he said the devil could have it. And he said he would skin us alive if we ever came back!”

Nan: "Then Mr. Nye called the horse a nag, and he said anyone could take it if they could ride it. And he said he would skin us alive if we ever came back!”

Her hornbook:

(and the parentification)

Felicity and Kirsten share a very similar problem in the way they present history, they are literally the mascots for sanitized white people history. There are no black people in Kirsten's stories. Kirsten is literally Manifest Destiny: the Doll.

There's only one free man in Felicity's stories, Issac. Rose and Marcus are slaves. King's Creek is a plantation, a plantation left to Mother and the children when Grandfather dies (he knew they "loved it so.") Felicity is a slaveowner.

She's not reading Thomas Paine there guys.

I haven't read Felicity's Beforever series. I know they're abridged, and I know they didn't substantially change them. Felicity's relationship with her Grandfather, and his subsequent death, are integral to the series.

How do her central series present her slaveownership? It was ignored as some sort of background consequence of her possession of King's Creek. Like it's just a fact of life, with no need to remark upon it.

okay, and:

Felicity was the worst selling light skinned doll in the collection. Even worse than Kirsten whose sales got cannibalized by Kit after 2000.

I'm not sure if there's a consensus on why Felicity sold so poorly. Red hair, a dainty collection, not girly enough? Her class contemporary, Samantha, is widely agreed to be one of the most popular historical dolls AG released. So it's not class consciousness.

Both don't follow the rules of the time (being a tomboy, befriending people outside her class status):

Felicity only got a movie because Julia Roberts loved her.

Kirsten: Little House on the Prairie and All American History. This is the time of the Oregon Trail Game, after all. I lived on pioneer stories when I was little (1990s).

Samantha: Romanticized "victorian" era things were popular, and her clothing is pretty 1980s inspired. Look at it.

Molly: The Grandmothers' generation.

Is it Felicity's mob caps? She was the horse girl, and that wasn't enough. Was she frumpy, with her gowns rather than dresses? Her schooling - it's unrelatable. She's learning etiquette with Miss Manderly rather than struggling with Miss Campbell's times tables:

Her daddy owning a fucking general store and being prominent enough to provoke a reaction with his refusal to sell tea?

Her Beforever release was out for 2 years, releasing during the 2017 Doll Deluge or whatever we call it. She was gone by 2019. She got a doll, accessories, and undergarments. At least the latter were more period accurate.

you have to keep your trademark active.

Kirsten's unpopularity prior to archival is easily explained by the release of Kit, the decreasing popularity of pioneer stories, and the changing times.

Felicity was never popular at the outset.

Why?

Felicity's 35th Anniversary Edition was the first to sell out, but that can mean a lot of things. AG doesn't realize sales figures and stock figures. Selling out of 2,500 Felicity is relative to selling out of, say, 10,000 Samantha. Businesses order stock based on projected sales. I'd argue, without the benefit of the full statistical picture, that Felicity collectors are a small and passionate group.

They removed Felicity from catalogs in 2001, making her an online exclusive. Did sixty somethings use the internet at the turn of the century? Mine didn't! She wasn't worth the catalog space a year after American Girl was sold to Mattel. Pleasant was inspired by colonial Williamsburg to create AG. She wasn't enough to gamble a new doll line on. She had to wait until they had some footing. I'd argue Pleasant always knew Felicity would be a poor seller.

When Felicity was removed, I got Kit. She was my next favorite after Felicity and I related to her as a small child, too.

Which reminds me, Kit is responsible for a lot in the AG Historical Collection:

She was another blonde haired blue eyed doll, but with a more relatable collection, and easier to deal with hair:

Ta dah ^

I think Kit also a soft relaunch of Felicity:

In photos and brief:

wearing boys' clothing

close with their fathers

tomboys: with felicity being interested in footraces and racehorses, and kit being a newshound, lacking patience for Ruthie's princess stories (at first).

Kit was like a two-for-one special. I'd really like to see her sales stats compared to Felicity and Kirsten.

[oh-saints]

fight

rúben dias x you

part of the dad!rúben collection

word count: 1.6k

tw: endometriosis, health issues while pregnant, intrusive paparazis, implied violence

note: hello i'm back from the dead bcs i've absolutely GONE FERAL AT THE THOUGHT OF THIS ashsjklkkjkl but as usual, i happen to write things at dawn so this is certainly not proof-read yet.

similar to any other parents, the moment you and rúben found out you're pregnant sent you both to the moon. for you, it was definitely topping your list of "best moment of my life" by far. and for rúben, it was up there somewhere with the feeling of winning the premier league and the feeling when you walked down the aisle, looking regal in white only for him.

but probably more meaningful for you and rúben because in all honesty, you've been trying to have a baby for almost 2 years now.

your earlier issue with endometriosis didn't allow you to naturally conceive as easy as other wives and girlfriends of rúben's teammates, or as any other healthy women in general. you were actually at the brink of giving up and were actively discussing adoption with your husband, who is nothing more than supportive at the decision, bless him.

rúben being himself, though, had a way of predicting the future. that's your simplified explanation but in professional jargons, one of the reason pep bought him from benefica; his ability to read the game.

your husband suggested for another honeymoon, during the time he was injured, before he'd get swamped with matches again and you'd be busy with the whole adoption procedure. it was a weekend gateway to st barths, a place you both have never been, but the beauty took your breath away. but even more for rúben because goddamn, that man could speak words without actually using words. he's more expressive when his body takes control of the whole speaking thing, and you've never felt so loved and grateful to have found the meaning of love in rúben dias.

and to be loved by him, surely didn't lie. the 2 lines of the test kit stared back at you like they were meant to be taken seriously, like it was supposed to tell you to get a grip of your life instead of gaping so wide at it your mouth could've sucked it in. rúben had to knock on the door to make sure you were alright and didn't slip on anything because you tend to be clumsy—he’d made a habit to check up on you whenever you’re in a bathroom for more than 15 minutes because of your reckless nature.

after endless failed test, you truthfully didn’t know what to do. this kind of result never came to you. so you just opened the door, in hope he’d know what to do—he always does, usually. only to be met by your husband’s concerned face because you didn’t slip on anything but went back outside with an aghast face.

“what’s wrong, coração?”

you handed him the test kit wordlessly, with shaky hands at it.

rúben looked down to see what it was because he’d never actually seen the test kit. you’d always hide in a bathroom and come out shaking your head, and you never let him buy them on his own. why would you—

“what—”

rúben looked up to you and you were already brimming in tears, a silent confirmation he needed. “we’re going to the doctor. now.”

at first, he did it because he wanted to confirm it himself, that the test kit wasn’t lying. but on the second thought, should you be truly pregnant, the purpose of the trip to the hospital was to make sure your pregnancy needs are met and you’ll have a safe and sound journey until you bring the product of rúben’s love for you to the world.

but of course, life being life didn’t give you everything smoothly as expected.

if you want it, earn it kind of life had been rúben’s way of life so when the doctor told you both that you’ll face some dangers throughout the 9-month journey, rúben gained another purpose in life outside football. to flash a fuck you to world, for they can’t let you and rúben have a peaceful moment in life.

rúben made sure to get home early so he’d cook you dinner during your bedrest period on the first trimester, shocking everyone in the etihad perimeter because he always is the first one to come and the last one to leave. he arranges catering for your lunch on top of it all so you don’t have to cook when he’s not home. he flies your mum and his to be there with you on the days he has a match to go to. he keeps a book to track all your craving and blood pressure, as well as a sketchbook for the baby journey “so we can take a look at it again when they’re grown up.”

you and rúben agreed not to let anyone know beside your immediate family the moment you stepped out of the fragile period, as a precaution, having the taste of public eyes first hand. the moment you announce it to the world, your safe space would and should be compromised.

thus, your baggy apparels whenever you come to rúben’s home matches. it wasn’t often, only once a month or only when the big matches are around the corner. the fanbases and fan accounts still talk about your fashion, with coats and cute jackets and everything, and thankfully none of them has noticed your changing preference from high-waist jeans and wool skirts.

but rúben scores a fantastic header and you see no reason not to jump from your seat. you know he’s been working so hard on set pieces and his headers, only now does it pay off. ivan has to remind you to sit down and not overdo yourself because “rúben will kill me if anything happens to you.”

however, the camera catches your celebration and in less than 5 minutes, your phone rings like the world’s ending. well in a way, it is.

everyone called netizens immediately shoots out their fire, on the speculation you might be pregnant. some congratulate you already, some believe your pregnancy is the reason rúben’s scoring and his gigantic performances as of late, some criticizes you, some questions your decision to come to the match like you’re not carrying rúben’s world. your head aches not long after scrolling down the internet that ivan had to submit rúben upstairs to your box instead of you coming down to the tunnel like usual.

your husband crouches in front of you as soon as he sees your deflated figure, eyes closed in resignation. that’s when he knows the intensity level has reached emergency status because he knows you well and he knows you’re strong enough for both of you to make it through a catastrophe—it’s the reason he’s adamant to marry you anyway—so the word fucking hell escaped his mouth before he even realised it himself.

they didn’t say anything as he shared you his tightest hug, the kind you love the most after a tiring day at work. had she said one word about killing those people behind the screen, he would’ve done so in a heartbeat. only when you pull away, indicating you’re now good to go home, does rúben let go of you and the issue at hand.

he tells you to head to the car first because he needs to pick up his bag from the locker room. but that decision would hunt him down for life, as he watched you being swarmed and surrounded by reporters on the parking lot, camera shoved up on your face and flashes and clicks blinded your vision that you steps on your own feet and fall down.

the idiots don’t stop harassing her, though.

rúben’s feet had never run faster than that moment. pep might be calling him a deceit for never being able to break sprint records. and thank god he was a footballer, a centre back at that, so pushing and shoving people out of his way is within his job description.

rúben lifts his wife from the ground, and the shattering sound of his heart don’t escape him as he notices you’re in the position to protect their child even when you’re in danger herself from the ambush. he brings this to you, he brings this to you and his child, and rage takes over at the thought they both shouldn’t have suffered this side of rúben’s professional life.

if these brainless fuckers are suing him for collateral damages on the cameras he throw to the asphalt, rúben’s so ready to hire a hitman on each and every head count.

rúben doesn’t see anything else than red and only when he’s done strapping the seatbelt on you, you bring him back to life like natasha romanov brings back hulk to serenity. you hold him by his face, staring him down like he’s not capable of bloodbath until his breaths return to normalcy.

“enough, my love.”

and all the sudden, there was the calm, collected rúben you married 3 years ago. the one who loves you when you brush the strands escaping his perfectly styled hair after the match, so you do it and he rests his head on your palm when you’re done tucking the strands back in and hands now tracing his unshaved stubbles.

even when you’d just been tackled down, you’re the one who saves him. he’s not wrong at all about you being the stronger one for the 3 of you, strong enough for the family you both are building. and with the thought you have to still play death with god later during labour, he can’t help but fall in love with you all over again.

“te amo, meu amor,” he brings his head closer to yours to feel his world on his hands. “always and forever.”

[the-sky-queen]

You have my full attention

KAY BUCKLE UP. INFO DUMP TIME LET'S GOOOOOO!!!

We'll go in the order that I listed the spinoffs, even if that isn't the order we came up with them. (Spectrophobia was probably the first one I think.)

Dementophobia is the fear of going insane and it's the Psychonauts one. I hadn't heard of Psychonauts before this, so I'm still working my way towards watching the game cutscenes. I think I'm in the middle of Psychonauts 2 right now and then I'll be all caught up. If you're unaware, Psychonauts is a videogame where this kid named Raz has psychic powers and wants to become a Psychonaut, who are basically spies I think and also use their mind powers to help people get therapy.

So during Dementophobia, Niko accidentally comes into contact with the Warp Topaz (a common theme you'll see in a lot of these) and gets sent to the world of Psychonauts. He comes into contact with Raz who figures out something's up and decides to help him out. Raz goes into Niko's mind and very quickly realizes something is VERY WRONG HERE. (Also, Lily and I along with Lily's more Psychonauts knowledgeable friends have done a TON of worldbuilding around Niko's mind world and what happens there. It's so in depth and interesting and I LOVE IT SO MUCH) Anyway, Raz realizes that he's gonna need some backup here because Niko's mind is unlike pretty much anything he's ever seen before. It's that messed up. He takes Niko to his Psychonauts friends for help and that's when things really get going. Also Maple shows up at some point.

I could go on and on about what we have planned for Niko's mind world, but that might be a bit too spoiler-y. BUT TRUST ME WHEN I SAY IT'S SUPER COOL. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Alright, next up is Phobophobia which in all honesty is a silly joke AU that is really just here to have fun with. Here's what's up: Starline and Maple are married. Niko is their actual child. (Also Surge and Kit show up at some point, also being Starline's kids)

It sounds CRAZY (and it is) but it's really fun!! Niko's like 7 I think and there's not really a set plot to this one. It's just a collection of scenarios that this wacky family gets into. Also, there's like a subplot where Starline learns to be more caring and gets closer to Niko and it's kinda cute. This one got started before the Trauma Siblings became a thing, so they're not included, and I'm still wondering if I should put them in. That would put Starline and Maple at SIX kids though and I don't know if their marriage can handle that. XD

(ALSO EGGMAN AND STARLINE ARE CO-WORKERS AND EGGMAN'S DAUGHTERS ARE 6 YEAR OLD SAGE AND BELLE.)

Next up is Decidiophobia, Fear of Decision making. This is the Stanley Parable crossover, another game that I hadn't heard of before this, but I'm now OBSESSED WITH. Quick rundown of The Stanley Parable: You play as Stanley, an ordinary guy with a job pressing buttons on a keyboard all day. Then one day, his co-workers all go missing and he sets out to try to find them and figure out what's up. The entire game is narrated by the Narrator, who even narrates your actions! However, what he says you're going to do isn't set in stone and you can go against what he says whenever you want. All this leads to different paths and storylines you can take, causing multiple different endings. After each one, the game resets and you start all over again.

SO HERE'S THE THING ABOUT THIS ONE. Instead of doing another dimensional yeet via the warp topaz, we decided that The Stanley Parable exists within the regular Sonic universe. How? Uhhh, I probably can't explain that because of spoilers, but let's just say . . .

The Narrator is vaguely connected to the Time Eater and also the Phantom Ruby is here. And GUN got involved too.

So Niko shows up in side The Parable™ and confuses the Narrator, because he's not Stanley. The Narrator tries to continue on as normal, but after a particularly disastrous ending, he realizes that Niko is AN ACTUAL CHILD and resolves to help him escape The Parable™. :D

Next: Autophobia, Fear of being Alone, otherwise known as the Miraculous Ladybug one. You know the drill by now. Warp Topaz, dimensional yeet, and it's all fun and games until Hawkmoth gets to Niko literally IMMEDIATELY. (Not gonna explain Miraculous because it's a lot. If you don't know about it already, just go watch the show.) So Niko gets akumatized into THE MOST TERRIFYING AND OVERPOWERED AKUMA IN EXISTENCE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS LITTLE ANGEL. He can make people fall (platonically) in love with him just by looking at him and it even works across BROADCAST. So like. Anyone who comes into contact with him is instantly obsessed with him. There's a bit more too it, but that's probably spoilers. :P

Anyway, Ladybug is compromised pretty much INSTANTLY. And shortly afterwards, the entire school falls to Little Angel's spell. Due to spoiler reasons, Chat Noir, Chloe, and Kagami, manage to escape his influence and start trying to find a way to fight back. (Oh also Little Angel is not a hedgehog, but he was turned into a small human child with animal ears, a halo, and wings. Yeah, he's called Angel for a reason.)

This is the only crossover we have where Niko very much does NOT get therapy. He's usually better off by the end of one of the crossovers but NOT THIS ONE. In fact, he actually gets WORSE because of this one. :D

AND FINALLY WE HAVE SPECTROPHOBIA, Fear of mirrors/your reflection. AKA THE ONE I ACTUALLY CAME UP WITH BY MYSELF. XD This one is interesting because SONIC shows up. Like, regular Sonic, untainted by Starline's influence, shows up in the facility. How? Let's just say that the 900th Adventure special didn't quite go as planned. >:) So he's able to find Starline and Niko in the facility right in the middle of a session. Sonic's like 'nah this is stopping right now,' rescues Niko, and escapes the facility! It's not as easy as it seems though because Niko freaks out as soon as he realizes Sonic's here and he took him away from Starline. I REALLY WANNA START POSTING THIS ONE. I PROBABLY COULD BUT I'VE BEEN PUTTING IT OFF. Also the Warp Topaz shenanigans are fun in this one and I've got an art I need to finish for it that no one but Lily will understand but will come up later on in the story. >:)

Kay, that's all the ones I mentioned in that post, but there's a few more. I won't talk about them though, because most of them are more Lily's expertise.

But aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa can you tell why I'm going insane now?

[tanthamorewinterfest]

Let's do a little round up of the first fics posted into the Tanthamore Winterfest collection on AO3...

Don't forget to leave a comment if you haven't already, spread some love!

So you wanna sculpt some snow tits? by spybrarian Rating: General Summary:

Jade and Kit have some fun in the snow. A little drabble to kick of Tanthamore Winterfest, inspired by the header myrebelliousphase made for us.

snow on the beach by rochke11 Rating: Teen and up Summary:

Months after the end of the Quest, Jade and Kit take a detour on their way to spend the Winter Solstice in the Wildwood. They find themselves on a beach when it starts to snow.

i feel you no matter what (maroon) by pirateygoodness for rochke11 Rating: Teen and up Summary:

Kit has vivid memories of creeping into the Great Hall after bedtime, sneaking glimpses of the wildness of those parties. It always felt like this: the din of many voices combining into a dull roar of humanness that somehow felt quieter than the voices of just a few. (Or: Kit and Jade, and a moment to get lost together on the road home)

A Skating Rink at the End of the World by TheLateNightStoryTeller Rating: Teen and up Summary:

So it’s the end of the world. So Kit’s blood may hold the only hope to cure the deadly fungal zombie plague. So Jade might have been tasked with escorting the love of her life to her doom at the hands of the Fireflies. There’s still time for some fun on the ice, right?

Part 2 of The Firefly and her Cordyceps Princess

So I've Heard by Geek_and_Nina Rating: Mature Summary:

jade's coaching boxing, and graydon is her favorite student. kit is his best friend and we alllll know where that's going to lead

A prequel of Show Don't Tell, deaf Kit au!

Christmas Trees: Worst Invention Ever by TheLateNightStoryTeller Rating: Mature Summary:

In the spirit of the holidays, Kit makes a bad decision and ends up needing to be rescued by the fire department (and her girlfriend). Fortunately Jade has a way Kit can make up for her mistake.

Part 2 of A love story on fire, Tanthamore firefighter au

Under the Mistletoe by lowkeyed1 Rating: Teen and up Summary:

Airk has been crushing on Graydon for a long time, but now Graydon has a crush on someone else. What will tonight's Christmas party bring, especially once mixmaster Boorman starts serving up specialty drinks?

Sink or Swim by yubnubbery Rating: Mature Summary: (our first summer addition!)

Airk asks Kit to take his young daughter to her next swim lesson, as long as she promises not to hit on the hot swim instructor. He’s already called dibs! Or 5 times Kit needed saving (from herself) and 1 time she didn’t.

Also an honourable mention for including some of the prompts in chapter 18:

A princess and her other half by Haruka81 Rating: Explicit Summary:

Kit knows that the Wyrm is waking up, Elora and Willow have been clear about it. And she knows that an arranged marriage is needed in order to form strong alliances. Still she is not happy at all to have to marry someone that she doesn't know just out of duty. Well let's say that this is true until she meets the Princess of the Bone Reavers, but will Jade think the same?

We can't promise these round-up posts will continue through the season because the season is busy, but who knows! For more about Tanthamore Winterfest: Rules and introduction Moodboard master list Prompts masterlist

[the-owl-tree]

on that note, if you were going to rewrite the sisters/write a similar group, what sort of approach would you take? ( planning on doing something like that if the motivation gods bless me)

i've made some big changes for the sisters for my beanie blog (pspspsps @askwcbean) but I think it really depends on the group you're trying to create. I wanted to keep the Sisters as a sustainable, self-growing group but keep some of the flaws (their strong sense of a gender binary). I don't want to make a utopian society out of spite, but I do want to make a society that could reasonably survive. Soooo (a combo of my ideas & stealing from others):

my collection of bullet point ramblings under the cut

The Sisters are very open to those willing to join and learn. They are a collection of loners, rogues, and kittypets. Not only does this keep our bloodlines less janked up, but it makes sense as to why the group can keep a reasonable amount of cats - they aren't closed off like the clans.

They'll often adopt abandoned kits, cats who are in bad situations, and generally anyone who is willing to learn and work with the group. This is a group that relies on diplomacy and good relations with others, they should be very open to outsiders.

Get rid of the super special bloodline thing. It's both a personal and practical thing, it doesn't work for a group like this. Have being able to see spirits be something you can be taught

I'm not giving Tree super special ghost powers. Sorry, I'm going to forever make fun of his novella it's so fucking stupid. He can see ghosts and has a heightened sensitivity to them, but it takes multiple Sisters and Brothers to be able to summon ghosts into views.

Keep the "Mother" kittypet origin story.

But how do they function? Well, the Sisters seem to operate a fairly small group, it doesn't really make sense to me for them to need a centralized structure. So, going for a decentralized system in the Sisters, power is distributed across the group and there is an emphasis on teamwork and decision making on all parts.

Choosing representatives for when meeting new groups tends to fall on reputation, charisma, and experience. Moonlight was chosen for these reasons, but she does not control the entirety of the group, though cats will lean on her words when she gives advice. She doesn't have legitimate power like a Clan leader, she relies on social influence and respect. Her word isn't law, but she does carry some weight due to her experience.

The Sisters have a fairly strong gender binary: Brothers, Sisters, Mothers, Fathers. You can be one or the other, they'll try to work around those who feel they don't fit for either role....but it doesn't always work out. I lean towards this not being decided by agab, you can shift from Brother to Sister and vice versa, it's those cats that don't exist in that binary who may feel out of place (but this is a wip idea and I want to tweak it more before i commit. i know for sure that Bean is one of those cats who doesn't want to fit this binary and is why she left to take up a "Brother" role despite not seeing herself as a Brother. I don't want them to treat them poorly, though it can happen, but that there's a lot of...reluctance to try and expand their ideas for these cats).

Toms don't get kicked out as babies. It's dumb, sorry everyone who likes that. There's no real logic to it besides a very half-assed attempt at trying to expand on the Sisters beliefs and even then, a kid with no training would get the shit kicked out of him by the wilderness lol

So, Brothers are socialized and trained on how to survive on their own. They're given information on medical herbs, hunting and gathering skills, best material to build dens and where to find a makeshift one in case of an emergency. Once again, this is not suddenly thrust upon them, they are socialized, this is something that they are believed to be as completely natural and an expectation for them.

When they are sufficiently deemed to be ready, the Brother is sent out to find a territory. They just don't just wander around (because I mean...the Sisters fill that role. They're nomadic). This is where I am yoinking a bit from others (notably bonefall's take on them), these territories act as base camps for the Sisters during their travels when they need to restock on herb supplies, have an injured or pregnant member, young kits, etc. That's why it's so important to them to have as many wide varieties of camps across their travels, and it's why Tree and Moonlight have some tension upon their meeting.

Boy picked a bad territory in their opinion, but in his defense, he didn't pick it for the Sisters. My base idea for these is Tree had a bad bad outing, but it needs work. I'll keep their strained relationship, but I'd like a little more depth to it just than the Erins beloved eeeeevvuuuulll mommmmyyyy (sooo scary!).

The Sisters believe they have a duty to help put spirits to rest, as well as help more malevolent ones find peace in the afterlife. They help with hauntings, lingering spirits, malicious spirits, etc.

They work in groups! The more malicious the spirit, the more Sisters it will take to pacify them and eventually release them from whatever is trapping them to the mortal plane.

Annnd so far that's what I've got! I have some more spirit lore over on my Bean blog, but this has been my working ideas for the Sisters themselves. Hope it helps :D

[shinysamurott9]

2024 Gametalk: Mega Man X5 Improvement Project

So I want to try making a thread or series of posts talking about all the games I play over this year. I'll start with this one, the Mega Man X5 Improvement Project

So I've played most of the main Megaman platformers via the Legacy Collections, haven't played BN completely, SF or Legends though. As anyone who has played the main platformers can tell you, quality can vary a lot, especially, especially with the X Series. Base X5 is definitely on the weaker end of the spectrum imo. It's not an awful game but it's a major step down from X4 and it has a lot of issues and poor execution. From what I've read a lot of that comes down to a significantly lower budget and little direction from Inafune beyond "Conclude the story".

I was aware of the improvement hack for a long while but I got curious about it a few days back and decided that I'd give it a shot, and frankly, I was extremely impressed. This game fixes, not every issue with X5, but a hell of a lot of them, along with a lot of miscellaneous changes. This includes, letting X use incomplete armours, Heart Tanks sharing between X and Zero, additional ways to get certain items, letting Zero get all Heart Tanks and all parts being obtainable with no worry about rank.

There's plenty of other notable changes like a proper retranslation to be more accurate to the original script and removal of RNG with the Shuttle, but the things mentioned above are the most important to me because let me tell you, they are absolute game changers when playing through. It allows you to be so much more flexible with the order you fight each boss, making the game so much more replayable, an essential element to Megaman games imo.

It really does feel like you can get a lot more out of the characters tool kits. The Gaea Armour is not just viable for X, but actually really good, because of some rebalancing, and the fact you're not locked out of using it until basically the end of the game. Many of the special weapons are given new functions. Like Dark Hold giving you Spike Immunity, F-Laser and Charged Tri Thunder being able to destroy the bomb in Duff Mcwhalen's stage, Zero's F Splasher being able to push Gaea Blocks and you can even re-enable the Fourth Armour’s Nova Strike if you want it.

There are some issues I have with the game though. Some of the original design decisions don't mesh well with the new changes, primarily the timer, which is made basically irrelevant by all the streamlining. It was never that big of a factor in a playthrough unless you wanted parts but now it's just kind of superfluous. A lot of the not great parts of the stages still aren't great. Duff Mcwhalen is still mostly an autoscroller, Volt Kraken still has the Bike Section, Zero Stage 1 is still a replica of Quick Man and the Shadow Devil still exists. The hack does what it can to remedy this like speeding up the autoscrollers, lowering the amount of energy items you need to get from the bike section to get the Falcon Armour Part and making it so you won't get caught on walls in Zero Stage 1. Shadow Devil still kinda suck though, especially as Zero.

I'm not gonna hold these issues against the hack or it's creators though as the ideal solution would be to completely rework or replace these elements with something better, which is definitely beyond the scope of a rom patch like this. What I will say though is while they did a lot to improve the Gaea Armour, in my playthroughs at least, the Falcon Armour felt really underutilised. It's entirely possible to get everything you would otherwise need Falcon for via other methods such as the more accessible parts, the updated Special Weapons, using Zero or some combination of these three factors. I literally never needed to use it on my second playthrough. This could be just down to my playstyle but in almost every situation, the Fourth or Gaea armours were strictly better in my opinion. I feel like if it had the ability to charge special weapons like X6 then it would at least be on par with the Fourth Armour. Maybe it would have more use in an X solo run but idk.

The complaints here are mostly minor. Overall, the hack is a fantastic piece of work, it improves on X5 in almost every aspect it can reasonably be expected to. I honestly think it brings X5 up to the same level as a lot of the better Megaman games. Maybe not as good as X1 , X2 or X4, but probably not far behind them. If you've ever played X5, like it or not, I'd heavily recommend this hack. I'd put it in A Tier easily.

Why did I rank it like it’s a tier list? Cause it is.

For the last year or so I've been progressively ranking all the games I've ever played. I thought it would be a neat way to look at everything. X5 Improvement ranks in A Tier between Pikmin 3 and Megaman ZX. I'll update it with each game i finish. Feel free to roast me for my taste in games.

[skitskatdacat63]

misc lore drop day 50/?

Wow how is it already Day 50!! Every time I reach a big milestone like this, I feel a little bummed that I don’t have anything particularly special to write for the occasion, but ah, whatever, days go by! 

I think a lot about how they’re very committed to having shared chambers. Even though they technically have separate chambers, they always come back to the same chambers(and bed!) every night. Even when they’re annoyed with each other, they'll probably end up just sitting in opposite corners of the room, turned away from each other. Then end up inching closer, eventually ending up next to each other by the time they have to go to bed. See, they even stay in the same exact room, not even different rooms. Well, I guess it’s kinda awkward when you know you’re going to end up laying in the same bed in a matter of hours. To some extent, it's an assurance to the other that they’re not aggravated enough to completely walk away, or shut themselves away. Seb knows he’s gone too far if Fernando suddenly storms out of the palace as a whole. Fernando knows he's gone too far if Seb shuts and locks the door to their bedchamber. Their personal quarters are more for entertaining guests and politics, or to keep things in. However, their shared chambers are just for them, and other people are rarely allowed inside, aside from a few exceptions. The same goes for their other palaces, and even Fernando’s palaces back in Spain. They are sometimes separated, often by thousands of miles, due to conflicting schedules and priorities, so it’s better to spend the time they do have with each other together, even if it sometimes can feel cramped. I imagine they both complain about it so much, but it really is comforting to know the other is near. Fernando is the type of man to complain about Seb being too close, but is literally crammed into the corner of a chaise with him, by his own volition. Though at some point I’ll have to write about how in the beginning, he eventually starts to feel bad about how standoffish he acts towards Seb even when he genuinely enjoys his company. The shared chambers start as an effort to force themselves into each other’s proximity in order to avoid problems like that again.

Fernando’s personal chambers, in Vienna specifically, are so funny to think about. I think they would honestly even be a bit scary to walk into if you’re not him. They’re mostly filled with gifts he’s been given, or art he’s collected, and a lot of it is… of himself. He doesn’t feel the need to make it feel liveable or anything, because again, he doesn’t really spend much meaningful time in there. He’ll go sit at his desk in there and write letters and such when Seb is busy, because he keeps his work there. They try to keep their duties to their personal chambers(or to more official chambers) because things would get too messy otherwise. They’re ostensibly a united front but they also don’t really want each other to get involved in their own personal duties for various reasons. For Fernando it’s more important though because any hint of Seb having influence over his own kingdom would probably cause a lot of people to question his position, and think he’s a puppet for the Emperor. For Seb it’s less pertinent if Fernando sees what he’s doing, because he does make an effort to include Fernando in his decision-making, as an olive branch. He told him very early on in their marriage that no matter how much he wants that other title, he’s not going to use his power to lord over Fernando once everything is set in stone. He extends that goodwill to making his best attempt at including Fernando in the bureaucracy of the empire. But yeah, even still, they want to keep politics out of their shared chambers if they can, to avoid potential issues. Anyways, Seb wanders into Fernando’s chambers while looking for him, and is so taken aback by the decor. The chambers are pretty barren except for all the portraits of Fernando, and all the weird kitsch and various other things he’s collected during his time in Vienna. Fernando has to very forcibly drag him out, meanwhile Seb is peering into another room, like ���Is that a full suit of armor????”

[mowsyling]

Willow season finale some thoughts &stuff

Ermahgerd!!! The end... 👀👀👀😱😄

But first things first... I was so frickin scared going into this. I had a crappy first half of the day and when I got around to having time to watch I hesitated, afraid I'd be disappointed again &turning a crappy into a horrible day... I wasn't.. it didn't.. 😅

Anyway, some scenes and thoughts..

Sibling & "lovers" reunion scene was delightfully awkward &weird.. Wtf Airk? Acting like nothing is wrong.. He guys great you made it!🥴

The cliff scene with the rest of the gang went pretty much exactly as I expected, including Willow not jumping at first.

Meeting unexpectedly hot Crone.. Also not far from what I thought would happen.. I was pretty sure they'd end up caught in an illusion type thing. I had even had considered a wedding scenario once, still surprised that actually happened. A surprise was Madmartigan's involvement.. Hadn't considered that! (It makes me think it really was his voice Kit heard in the treasury in the mines.) Anyway..

This...😆

I cheered!! 😄😂🙌

(There's someone far better suited.. he just needs to get through his corruption arc first.. *coughs* I'm getting ahead of myself..)

Of course Willow turns up on time to save the day, shatter the illusion &de-petrify everyone.. fighting ensues..

This was funny... 😆

👆This was hilarious to me😆😂 I want it on a shirt! 😂

This scene was... oof..

My poor foolishly brave baby boy!!🥺🥺😭 I had such a hard time getting through this🫣.. hit pause to collect myself.. I knew he was gonna "die" just didn't know how ded hed get.. When she poofed him through the passage l was very uncertain.. torn between "she literally shredded him - there were pieces!😳 and "but he went though the passage so there's a chance..?" Ooof..

I made it through.. and on the battle went.. Wand broken but Elora now fired up & lo & behold! Shooting lightning from her hands!😅

I was so tense through all this, still worried about Graydon's fate.. I knew everyone else was gonna be fine..

Important realisations &decisions (Boorman)

Then.. I cackled so hard when this happened! They really went there! 😆

(Monster fuckers unite!😂😆)

Kit's face!🤌😆😂😂 The personification of "Eww"...

Croneified Harbinger Airk.. Evil is really not great for your skin it seems.. Do not recommend..

Jade finally activates the cuirass for Kit... I have to say I absolutely love the design of that armour! Gimme!😍

I had considered Willow deliberately breaking his staff but my guess had been the crystal might be needed for the Lux instead it was used as detox or anthelmintic I guess you could say😆😅 for Airk.. kinda..

Boorman.. I feel you..

This is when I finally shed some tears... 🥺😭😭

I was almost convinced at this point Gray was gone for good.. was mentally preparing myself to be very sad disappointed 😅

But..

BUT!!!

I shrieked! I was so happy! Idc that he's in Wyrm-land with (fake) Dark!Elora.. He's alive! (-ish?) The relief!😅😅😄😭

Man bun Graydon has rights!

Dark!Elora is hot!

(can't blame Graydon if he's gonna fall for that for a bit..😆)

(This looks exactly like the Battlefield from Willow's vision btw.. (sadly reached the picture limit😆)

So I guess Graydon might have a corruption arc next season... And it looks like they planned for three seasons!

That's it.. not super detailed just what hit me most..

Not all hope is lost for Graylora nation! 😄😅🙌

💜

[knowledgeb-books123]

Boosting My Business Knowledge with Xpert Kits: Ebooks for Savvy Entrepreneurs

I recently embarked on a journey to expand my entrepreneurial knowledge base, and I stumbled upon a fantastic resource – Xpert Kits: Als Unternehmer unkompliziert Wissen kaufen! Digital - Ebooks (In English: Xpert Kits: As an Entrepreneur, Easily Buy Knowledge! Digital - Ebooks). This collection of digital ebooks has proven to be an invaluable asset, and I wanted to share my positive experience with other business-minded individuals.

Extensive Range of Topics

The first thing that impressed me about Xpert Kits was the sheer breadth of topics covered. Whether you're looking to delve into marketing strategies, financial management, or leadership techniques, there's an ebook to cater to your specific needs. I found ebooks on negotiation tactics, building a high-performing team, and even leveraging social media for business growth. This extensive range allowed me to explore areas I hadn't considered before and identify potential blind spots in my entrepreneurial approach.

Content for All Levels

The beauty of Xpert Kits is that it caters to entrepreneurs of all experience levels. Some ebooks provide a foundational understanding of core business principles, while others offer more advanced strategies for seasoned professionals. I found the content to be well-structured and easy to digest, even for complex topics. The ebooks are packed with actionable insights and practical advice that I could readily implement in my own business.

Convenience and Affordability

In today's fast-paced world, convenience is key. Xpert Kits offers the perfect solution for busy entrepreneurs like myself. The digital format allows me to access the ebooks anytime, anywhere, from my laptop, phone, or tablet. This flexibility has been a game-changer, enabling me to learn and grow at my own pace, even when my schedule is jam-packed. Additionally, the pricing of Xpert Kits is incredibly reasonable, making it an accessible option for entrepreneurs on a budget.

Investing in My Future

Perhaps the most significant benefit of using Xpert Kits is the positive impact it's had on my business. By equipping myself with valuable knowledge and actionable strategies, I've been able to make more informed decisions, streamline operations, and unlock new growth opportunities. The ebooks have given me the confidence to approach challenges with a strategic mindset and implement effective solutions. I see Xpert Kits as an investment in my entrepreneurial future, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to take their business to the next level.

In conclusion, Xpert Kits: Als Unternehmer unkompliziert Wissen kaufen! Digital - Ebooks has been a fantastic resource for my entrepreneurial journey. With its extensive range of topics, well-structured content, and convenient digital format, it offers exceptional value for both new and experienced business owners. If you're looking to gain a competitive edge and propel your business forward, I strongly recommend checking out Xpert Kits.pen_sparktunesharemore_vert.

[gardensandtaverns]

Dev Journal: Day 2

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised to see some attention already on my post yesterday, and it makes me happy to see some people who are already interested. So I’ll start by saying thanks for the support!

Before I go over the developments of today, I guess it’s worth saying exactly how much time is going into this daily. My routine is getting to my desk at 9am, teaching myself Unity and C# through to about 1:30pm, taking about 40 minutes for lunch, and then Creation Kit from the end of my lunch to about 5pm, maybe 6pm on days that I don’t have anything going on in the evenings. Once I’m done with the Creation kit work for the day, I write, so that I can take screencaps without needing to restart my work environment from earlier that day.

So with about 3 hours of work today, what got done? The full structure is built! There’s no glaring holes into the void, though I did notice that a couple of my tiles are placed a few pixels into another, causing some graphical twitching, but that’s okay, and it’ll get fixed tomorrow while I go about furnishing. I also took the time to place a couple of detail items around, but honestly my brain is fried at this point so I’ll probably go back and do it again later. The only negative result from today is that the two-tier library isn’t going to work with the existing textures, but that’s alright.

So what am I going to show you today? Well... everything. All of the rooms in their minimal state, and maybe I’ll write a brief blurb on the context of each of them and changes I noted to make for myself as I was walking around in demo mode. If you ride it out to the end, there’s a little bit of Skyrim trivia for you too!

The scriptorium will be the main vestibule of this construction. In its finished product, the center of the room will be filled with bookshelves in a classic record-stack format, while desks will line the walls for scribes and researchers alike to study, transcribe, and dispute the works contained in the Vault’s extensive library. While this place has long fallen into disrepair, more magical works like spell tomes, scrolls, or books of particularly important and interesting lore may still litter the desks and shelves of this room. I need to reorient a handful of tiles in this room to remove a couple overlaps, but otherwise it just needs to be detailed.

The laboratory may be a small space, but it was designed that way so the use of the space for long-term experiments was discouraged. The vault was not built to accommodate travelers for weeks on end, but to house them for a few days while they performed their research to take home to their own labs. Of course, some of the librarians held private experiments and studies that were more involved and time-consuming.

Opposite the lab are a handful of quiet cells, used by guests for sleeping accommodations or personal study. The northwestern cell is a communal bedchamber for the librarians, as well as a small section of the room used for the repair of degrading or damaged tomes. During my walkthrough I felt as though the guest cells, and perhaps even the resident cell, were a bit too large, so I may use different closing tiles for the far walls tomorrow before I start furnishing, or make the decision after I’ve furnished one. Also all of these cells still need doors.

This shot is taken from the opposite side of the Special Collections door, where few individuals were permitted. The entrance is off down the left fork of the hall, and to our back will be a reading area for these reserved or restricted titles. Down the corridor lies one more chamber where the head scribe was conducting some interesting research into... well, now, I can’t give everything away, can I?

I suppose that covers everything for today! Tomorrow likely won’t be as long-winded, nor have so many pictures, but I hope you’ll continue to enjoy it regardless. Now, I made a promise of trivia. It’s something I learned today while testing.

Did you know that the standard character in Skyrim, if you were to travel to another map location via the coc command from the main menu instead of loading/beginning a save, is a Nord with iron armor, an iron shield, the iron one-handed weapons, a longbow, and iron arrows - much like the promotional character from the trailers all those years ago? It also means those pesky Imperials took the armor off your back when you got caught up in that ambush. Just another reason to side with the Stormcloaks, I guess.

[clangenhead]

jutclan - moon 0 [prologue]

houndstar had been resting on the high-cliff, grooming some knots out of her long pelt in the sunlight. greenleaf had been pleasant for the clan; many patrols were coming back successfully with prey in their jaws to fill the bellies of their clanmates. recently, sedgehail, an older cat, had become a queen, giving birth to spicykit. houndstar's own daughter, riverpaw, had become an apprentice recently and the leader couldn't be more proud of her child.

the leader's grooming session was quickly interrupted by a commotion near the entrance and the leader turned her gaze to look. it was celadineblaze, her deputy, and smokeybranch, returning to camp. the latter seemed to have something hanging from her mouth. however, this thing was definitely not the soft, limp body of prey. no, it was... a kit.

"what is the meaning of this, celadineblaze?" houndstar questioned as she leaped down from her perch, plodding over to the two she-cats. smokeybranch shuffled her paws nervously as the leader approached, not meeting her gaze. celadineblaze was quick to respond, keeping a neutral expression.

"we found this kit alone in one of the crags on our territory," the deputy explained, "there was also a scent of blood in the air, but when we tracked it..." it took a moment for the deputy to collect her thoughts as she swallowed hard. "it only lead to a dead body. they smelled of milk; it must have been this kit's parent. we think they fell off the edge of one of the cliff-faces and didn't make it."

"and where's this body?" houndstar questioned, eyebrow raised. "me and smokeybranch have already buried them," celadineblaze mewed with a dip of her head, "may starclan light their path."

"so, you bring this kit back to camp? for what reason?" houndstar wasn't mad at the kit, nor was she a cruel cat. however, she and celadineblaze have not been... getting along as of late. the two had very different ideas of how to lead the clan. houndstar believed that being loyal to the clan was most important and that they should stand alone. celadineblaze, however, believed that fostering complete peace between the neighboring clans and colonies would aid them all. the two often bickered over the tiniest decisions because of their different outlooks on clan hospitality.

houndstar's hostility towards her own deputy also rubbed off on smokeybranch, who was celadineblaze's closest friend. sometimes, it seemed the two she-cats were more than that, often giving each other dreamy looks when they were certain the other wasn't looking. the fact was, houndstar wasn't exactly fond of the two. and them bringing back a kit wasn't doing them any favors in their leader's eyes.

"houndstar, you can't be serious," celadineblaze sighed. if she could, she would have put the pad of her paw to her face. "this is a newborn kit, barely even a few days old. she'll die out there alone, especially without a mother."

"how can you be sure that the dead cat was her mother?"

"houndstar, please," celadineblaze begged, her voice raising slightly. the commotion was attracting the attention of the rest of the clan. the cats gathered and watched, murmuring to each other as celadineblaze spoke once more. "i get that we haven't been on, well, the best terms lately, but don't take it out on this kit. she needs us."

celadineblaze went silent for a moment, then took a couple steps closer to houndstar, her voice hushed. "what would jutstar think if he saw you reject this kit?"

houndstar became enraged at the mention of the previous leader, her leader. "do not use jutstar's name to get what you want!" she hissed. houndstar noticed the crowd of cats surrounding the three, and cleared her throat and licked a patch on her shoulder. "besides, i never said i was rejecting this kit. just making sure we aren't kitnapping, is all."

"riiiight," celadineblaze meowed, almost wanting to roll her eyes.

houndstar glared at her deputy so hard her eyes could almost bore holes into the dark gray she-cat's skull. she then turned to smokeybranch, who she had neglected to speak to for the whole conversation. "go bring this kit to sedgehail," she ordered. "she's been starting to wean spicykit, but she might still have milk left. i'll send gruntcreek to do a full checkup whenever she returns from gathering herbs."

with a dip of her head, smokeybranch padded towards the nursery, a den nestled in one of the many small caverns along the cliffside that made up jutclan's camp. smokeybranch poked her head into the den and saw sedgehail, who was sleepily lying in the den. the queen stretched and yawned as the warrior approached her. sedgehail then gazed up, her tired expression soon quickly turning to confusion upon noticing the kit.

"smokeybranch? whose kit is that? what's going on?" the gray tabby had to place the kit down before she could speak. as the kit made contact with the rocky floor, she made a tiny mewling noise.

"me and celadineblaze found her on our border patrol. her parent's body was nearby; already dead. please, sedgehail, could you nurse this kit?" sedgehail glanced from smokeybranch to the kit before her expression turned to one of determination.

"of course, smokeybranch, i will," she responded. "come here, little one."

the ginger rosette tabby she-cat leaned her head forward and grabbed the scruff of the kit, lifting it gently and bringing it to her belly. almost immediately, the kit smelled milk and began to nurse, kneading sedgehail's belly as she filled herself with milk. sedgehail purred, licking the kit on top of her head. she was so small, even smaller than when spicykit was a newborn. now, the two-moon kit was curled up nearby fast asleep, more than half the size of the newborn at her belly.

"what are you going to name her?" smokeybranch asked, watching the scene unfold in front of her with relief. sedgehail was silent for a few moments, then finally gave her answer.

"i will name her faithkit."

[instarlightss]

Andor Ep. 4 Thoughts

I love Cassian’s little knife. Clean designed nice and thin. Scrappily stored, and pulled from his boot. Seemingly how he later stores his lock picking kit in R1. 

Poncho. Is it Star Wars without a Poncho?  Imperial rain slickers making an appearance as well, seemingly with more decorative topstitching than previous iterations. Hello? Glyn Dillon? Is that you? Is that lost upon the audience who does not replicate costume kits? I feel like I need to go look up and confirm if he was returning or not. All of the orange topstitching on the uniforms of the Corpos screams Glyn Dillon, a name that us R1 costumers scream when we are frustrated. This is factual information and will not be contested. At this point I feel I could make a PHD level thesis on costume design that Glyn did in R1.

Love this fit on Cassian. The denim, the moto detailed pants. Presumably expensive designer boots.

The juxtaposition of “It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.” and  “It’s better to live. Better to eat, sleep, do what you want.” That feature highlight here on Tumblr with Diego talking about how Jyn Erso at the beginning of R1 and Cassian at this point in the timeline would get along makes much more sense. 

KYBER.  An appearance from seemingly two very distinct pieces of kyber and one in which is gifted in a similar manner as it is in r1? I don’t know how to process this currently. Are we, the audience supposed to be self aware and associate the, ...“strongest hearts are made of kyber” to Cassian as well? 

Clem? His adopted father’s name? 

Our rebel cell being mixed of persons of color, thank you. Also more women in leadership roles. Bless.

Lovely shot of Coruscant. Reminiscent of the prequels. 

Love Karn returning to the lower quarters/district and to his mother’s place with his tail between his legs. Zero sympathy for this man. 

So very pleased to see Mothma. I can’t remember verbatim what Genevieve said on the red carpet, as much of that experience happened way too fast. I want to say it was in reference to being ecstatic to see Mon returning and Genevieve said, “...But she’s got the spark. I think so.” She does have a spark, and intrigue. Genevieve plays it very well, the tonal shift in her voice and posturing as she discusses private matter versus putting back on the mask and facade of the smile re-entering that public space in The Gallery. 

I understand that Mon is rightfully feeling under siege, it is a dangerous game she is playing however it’s a bit privileged to suggest that she would be the first to fall. At the very least, she as a faction sort of leader would be regarded as a symbol and as such that symbol would be publicly broken, humiliated in some garish fashion. Akin or how say Rome would treat an opposing leader, paraded about in some fashion. I reference Rome as that is what my history loving brain associated first, which is fair as by far that was indeed an impressive empire. The reality is that persons ranked lower on that totem pole would be the first to fall. Persons like Vel would be the first to fall. 

Spy thriller slow burn is such a good take in the Star Wars realm and I appreciate it very much. It’s such a strange concept to think of it as boring. It is nuanced, it is complex. (As such, thankfully “somehow” a villain won’t simply return.) It is touching on a number of aspects that simply must be too difficult to follow for the crowd that is dismissing it as boring. 

Her outfit though to visit the gallery. Exquisite. The style lines, the tailoring, the draping. Chef’s kiss. 

That extended linger on her removing her brooch as she quietly seems to weigh her decisions. 

Also...? The Gallery? Such a distracting place and arguably so for what it is hiding. In terms of, you know, culturally significant items cavalierly handled and shipped out to rich buyers to sit on in personal collections devoid of their original context, meaning, purpose reduced to some little token to make a room pretty. Simply to be a conversation starter for some haughtily rich person to seem worldly and cultured.   (what looks like) The Hand of the Daughter, the kalikori. It’s giving the Victoria and Albert Museum vibes.

I’m really hoping she is referencing Ahsoka/ Fulcrum. Strictly speaking as I would like to accept the deleted scenes with Mon, Bail and Padme as canon already thus Bail is a member. And why not? Ahsoka  is getting her stand alone show, this wood serve as a reminder, it would be a good mention although she is certainly also busy primarily looking for Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn (within the context of her show) . 

Another space hoodie, and it’s amazing. 

[cergisoft]

The Top 9 Car Customization Apps for Android and iOS

In the digital age, car enthusiasts can now personalize their vehicles without the need for costly garage modifications. Whether you’re planning to change your car's color, add decals, or modify wheels and interiors, mobile apps have made it easier than ever. We’ve compiled a list of the Top 9 Car Customization Apps for Android and iOS that will let you visualize, design, and transform your car on your smartphone.

What is a Car Customization App?

A car customization app allows users to virtually modify different aspects of their vehicles, such as exterior paint, wheels, rims, and interiors. These apps use high-quality 3D renderings or photographs of vehicles to let users experiment with various customizations before making decisions in real life. They serve as a handy tool for car enthusiasts and those who want to experiment with car aesthetics without committing to expensive changes.

The Top 9 Car Customization Apps for Android and iOS

3DTuning

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: Offers a wide range of cars, allowing users to customize various parts including wheels, bumpers, headlights, and more. The app has a huge library of car models from multiple manufacturers.

Car Mechanic Simulator 21

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: This app blends customization with mechanic tasks. Users can repair, upgrade, and customize the interiors and exteriors of vehicles in a virtual garage.

FormaCar

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: It provides 3D tuning options, real-time vehicle interaction, and an AR mode to see your modifications in real space. FormaCar allows you to change the wheels, paint, and suspension height.

Car Master 3D

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: Perfect for casual users, this game-style app lets you refurbish, paint, and decorate cars. It’s a fun way to learn about car customization in a less technical manner.

Tuning Car Simulator

Available on: Android

Features: Offers a deep customization experience. Users can tweak parts like body kits, paint, lights, and spoilers to create their perfect car.

Fix My Car: Custom Mods LITE

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: This app is a mix of car repair and customization. It lets users install performance parts, body kits, and paint jobs, making it a practical yet entertaining tool.

Customize My Ride

Available on: Android

Features: Allows users to visualize changes such as new paint, wheels, and decals on different car models. The app's simplicity makes it great for beginners.

NFS Heat Studio

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: A companion app to Need for Speed, this app is a dream for gamers and car enthusiasts. You can design and customize your car, choosing from hundreds of options before racing.

Overdrive City

Available on: Android, iOS

Features: This app offers a unique mix of car customization and city-building. You can build and expand your car collection, customize them, and compete in races.

FAQs on Car Customization Apps

1. Can I use car customization apps to plan real modifications?

Yes, many car customization apps offer realistic 3D models that allow you to experiment with different car modifications, making them useful tools for planning real-life upgrades.

2. Are these apps free to use?

Most car customization apps are free to download, but they may offer in-app purchases for premium features or exclusive car models.

3. Can I save my designs and share them with others?

Yes, most apps allow you to save your customized designs and share them on social media or with friends directly through the app.

4. Do these apps support all car brands?

The availability of car brands varies from app to app. Some apps offer a wide selection of brands and models, while others may focus on specific ones.

5. Are these apps suitable for both Android and iOS?

Yes, the apps listed here are available on both Android and iOS, though some may offer slightly different features depending on the platform.

Contact Us :

Email: admin@digitaltechupdates.com

Social Accounts : https://www.facebook.com/digitaltechupdates/

[grimoiresofseveralmagicians]

Section I, Chapter I - “Friends in Different Gensokyos”

“Gensokyo is full of many different kinds of people. Humans from outside… seemingly ageless youkai… practitioners of magic and medicine… people from the Moon… magicians like me… there’s a little bit of something for everyone. But with the Lost Word Incident going on, we’ve met a lot of different faces in a lot of different worlds. Some of them look the same as our friends back home, but could easily have a completely different story altogether!” -Marisa

——————————

“When you first start your journey in Gensokyo (as a new account), you’ll have L1 Reimu and Marisa to compose the basics of a new team. However, you’ll also get a third L1 friend from a very limited group depending on your decision in Remilia’s Roll of Fate (the opening deal to start your collection) composed of six 3-Star Story Cards, four 4-Star Story Cards, and one of the following L1 characters: [Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Reisen Udongein Inaba, Cirno, Sakuya Izayoi, Sanae Kochiya, Youmu Konpaku]. If you aren’t satisfied with Remilia’s dealt hand, you can always decline and roll again until you have something you’re happy with! As this is a new account you’re working with, there’s no limit or currency penalties keeping you from re-rolling over and over again until you get what you want.” -Marisa

“Ayayayaya, here’s something else to consider too. Pick Reimu or Marisa in the roll, and you’ll already have a copy to use for your first Limit Break!” -Aya

“If this starter base isn’t convincing enough, a new player login calendar provides an Exchange Ema for a standard L1 character of your choice, while L1 Medicine Melancholy will also eventually follow you after you finish Chapter 1. These opportunities and more provide generous opening formulas for useful starting teams, but knowing their limits is key to knowing where and when you need someone else to resolve your latest incident. Depending on when you create a new account, events and Prayers exclusive to new players containing high-tier characters are made visible to you in order to gather the resources you need to resolve the incident in its early stages.” -Patchouli

——————————

“Buuuuut… just know that the playable friends you have differ from the story’s main cast when they actually appear in the story. How? It’s explained early on that our Incident Resolver from the outside world has a journal that she uses to summon them like shikigami to join the fight. And those friends also aren’t gonna just drop all their story-based plot points on you just because you know them well… usually. There are a few exceptions that aren’t meant for this opening and more appropriate for the characters’ pages themselves because of specific spoilers.” -Yukari

Friends, also referred to as Units, are the playable characters in Touhou Lost Word. While all of them have different abilities and capabilities, they each have their own kit that makes them unique. Although everyone has their favorites there’s a catch. Just like any other live gacha game, there’s always someone out there that outshines the others and is more preferable for late-game content for simply having a better kit. The real challenge is building a team that works based on what you get in the gacha. And one more thing. Powercreep implied through release sometimes results in more recent characters doing better in gameplay compared to others of matching or similar rarities… but not always. Characters sometimes just resist being powercrept by newer ones because they fill all the right roles for content back then, right now, and in the future.

Guide to Understanding Your Friends

Page 1: Understanding Their Kit - The Uniqueness of Friends & Danmaku

Page 2: Leveling Up - Experience in the Field

Page 3: Enhancements - How to Use Incense

Page 4: Upgrades - Expanding Boundaries & Skillsets

Page 5: Limit Breaks & Parting Ways - Duplicates & You

Page 6: Awakening - Trust in the Heart of the Spell Cards

Page 7: Equipping Story Cards - Bolstering your Spell Cards

Page 8: Fantasy Rebirth - There & Back Again

Page 9: Customization - Creativity in Design

Page 10: Bonds of Friendship - Becoming Closer with New Friends

Page 11: Capacity - Did You Buy Enough Pages?

Page 12: Rarity - You Checked the Specifics, Right?

Page 13: Feeling Lucky? - The New Section on Luck as of Valentine’s 2024

[Character List and light Universe Descriptions begin beneath the break. Heads up, it’s long. All characters are sorted in lists by universe, so some (un)expected spoilers might follow by universe association.]

Total Known Playable Characters: 285

————————————————————

“As for the universes themselves, each of them has a letter/number combo denoting the specific universe. This is usually followed by a number that represents the divergence factor of that universe within the larger multiverse. The higher the number, the lower the stability and the further a universe and associated person diverges. At least, that’s the cipher we came up with. It just stuck with a number of other people, and then we adapted the version in-game to publish here based on that cipher. However, upper management’s breakthroughs are making these codes slightly more complex to record, although I’m sure they had a reason for it.” -K4 Marisa

Friends here will be sorted alphabetically.

Universe L1 - Our Gensokyo

“Home sweet home. This is where you’ll usually meet a lot of Gensokyo’s residents who’re willing to help out and resolve this incident like how we resolved countless other incidents in the past. Several masterminds behind those past incidents are even willing to help, although some are less cooperative (and usually more annoying) than others.” -Reimu

“This universe has the most stability of this series, although universal convergences and divergences are VERY commonplace here. Is it due to the looming Lost Word Incident and the constant stream of Events that happen here? Or the fact that the costumes meant for your Friends in this universe can cause larger deviations? Everything has an explanation as to how those things aren’t tearing this universe apart, but it’s most likely due to its stability factor of 1 and how everyone in this Gensokyo’s gone through every recorded incident and event recorded on the internet. It’s almost as if there’s other outside people like Sumireko that are documenting everything going on here in this Gensokyo! Maybe even the fan-made conceptual works as well…” -K4 Marisa

Universe L1 features many, MANY characters from the “canon” universe of the series. Roughly half the roster of playable characters come from this universe. Every standard Friend can be found here and pulled from any Prayer pool, but a few of them are Festival characters and only appear in certain banners and events, as well as the “My First Exchange Ema” which allows you to choose a friend from this universe to meet directly with some restrictions. Eika specifically appears in two permanent banners which you can only access after gaining special tickets from Divergent Spirit boss fights. Yuuma is simply just a Festival-limited friend. But regardless of whether they’re General or Festival, you can always use Paper Dolls to Limit Break them, which makes them relatively to max out at level 100 depending on how much you play the game and clear tasks if you don’t pull any duplicates.

Known Entries: 121

Alice Margatroid

Aunn Komano

Aya Shameimaru

Benben Tsukumo

Byakuren Hijiri

Chen

Chimata Tenkyuu (FES)

Cirno

Clownpiece

Daiyousei

Doremy Sweet

Eika Ebisu (Divergent)

Eirin Yagokoro

Eternity Larva

Flandre Scarlet

Fujiwara no Mokou

Hata no Kokoro

Hatate Himekaidou

Hecatia Lapislazuli

Hieda no Akyuu

Hina Kagiyama

Hong Meiling

Ibaraki-Douji’s Arm

Ichirin Kumoi

Iku Nagae

Joon Yorigami

Junko

Kagerou Imaizumi

Kaguya Houraisan

Kanako Yasaka

Kasen Ibaraki

Keiki Haniyasushin

Keine Kamishirasawa

Kisume

Koakuma

Kohasa Tatara

Koishi Komeiji

Komanchi Onozuka

Kosuzu Motoori

Kutaka Niwatari

Kyouko Kasodani

Letty Whiterock

Lily White

Luna Child

Lunasa Prismriver

Lyrica Prismriver

Mai Teireida

Mamizou Futatsuiwa

Marisa Kirisame

Mayumi Joutouguu

Medicine Melancholy

Megamu Iizunamaru (FES)

Merlin Prismriver

Mike Goutokuji

Minamitsu Murasa

Minoriko Aki

Misumaru Tamatsukiri

Momiji Inubashiri

Momoyo Himemushi (FES)

Mononobe no Futo

Mystia Lorelei

Narumi Yatadera

Nazrin

Nemuno Sakata

Nitori Kawashiro

Nue Houjuu

Okina Matara

Parsee Mizuhashi

Patchouli Knowledge

Raiko Horikawa

Ran Yakumo

Reimu Hakurei

Reisen

Reisen Udongein Inaba

Remilia Scarlet

Rin Kaenbyou

Ringo

Rumia

Sagume Kishin

Saki Kurokama

Sakuya Izayoi

Sanae Kochiya

Sannyo Komakusa

Satono Nishida

Satori Komeiji

Seiga Kaku

Seija Kijin

Seiran

Sekibanki

Shiki Eiki, Yamaxanadu

Shinmyoumaru Sukuna

Shion Yorigami

Shizuha Aki

Shou Tomamaru

Soga no Tojiko

Star Sapphire

Suika Ibuki

Sumireko Usami

Sunny Milk

Suwako Moriya

Takane Yamashiro

Tenshi Hinanawi

Tewi Inaba

Toyosatomimi no Miko

Tsukasa Kudamaki

Urumi Ushizaki

Utsuho Reiuji

Wakasagihime

Watatsuki no Toyohime

Watatsuki no Yorihime

Wriggle Nightbug

Yachie Kicchou

Yamame Kurodani

Yatsuhashi Tsukumo

Yoshika Miyako

Youmu Konpaku

Yukari Yakumo

Yuugi Hoshiguma

Yuuka Kazami

Yuuma Toutetsu (FES)

Yuyuko Saigyouji

Universe L10.1 - Neverending Music Festival

“Eh?! Is that… US?!” -Reimu

“I think so! That’s you and Marisa right there! And they’re… holding a rock concert like the ones in the outside world! We gotta find out more about this!” -Sumireko

Universe L10.1 is a sub-universe that was added a few weeks after LostWord’s 3rd anniversary containing two Epic Friends. More research is needed to understand their kits. However, we can assume they’re gonna perform highly based on their rarity, their release date, and the fact that this theme exists because of an IRL concert based on music from this game and possibly the greater Touhou series.

Known Entries: 2

Marisa Kirisame

Reimu Hakurei

————————————————————

Multiverse L? - Hifuu Investigations

“This is where our examinations into this side of the situation began.” -K4 Renko

“Examinations? Situation? What are you anyway, some kinda incident resolver?” -Reimu

“It’s a complicated process that I’ll talk with you about later in private. Too much to explain, and I don’t think some of the people here would understand the entirety of this side of the incident, nor the reasoning for how these codexes were drawn up. But to answer your question directly, yes I am indeed an incident resolver in my home universe.” -K4 Renko

The answers found in the characters of this multiverse can be found mainly in the “Hifuu” story of the game; a side story that follows another presence of the protagonist that is actually a different perspective of the whole plot altogether, as well as her interactions with Hifuu Club members Renko Usami and Maribel Hearn. Their side story also includes interactions with Universes B3 and E9, both of which also have a role to play in the main story somehow… but that’s for you to find out until we make spoiler pages. This sub-divided multiverse features kits that are known to take top tiers in both the discontinued Wiki’s tier list and current tier lists found in the official Discord server.

Renko Usami

Maribel Hearn

Sanae Kochiya specifically is the only “Pure” character in the game so far as of May 10th, 2024, where you can Limit Break her with ONLY her own duplicates. This will make things very difficult for you if you have Shion’s bad luck with her banners or don’t have enough money to force-buy her pity prize when she appears.

For Renko and Maribel, they are “Genic” characters that only appear in highly selective Prayer pools and form tag-teams with other characters. How does that work? The Hifuu Club member interacts with you in the lobby while the being they’ve teamed up with does the actual fighting with a kit slated to their lore… so in actuality you’ve got PC-98 characters Shinki and Mima and Gengetsu and Mugetsu as playable characters while Renko and Maribel are just here for lore reasons. Their rarity is stated as equal to Relic characters, so they also use Relic Paper Discs to Limit Break. Consider it an advisory on the potential difficulty on maxing them out if you don’t prepare properly for their banner (or buy/stockpile some spare paper discs).

Known Entries: 9

Renko Usami & Gengetsu (LR1)

Maribel Hearn & Mima (LM1)

Maribel Hearn & Mugetsu (LM1)

Sanae Kochiya (L0g - Broken Line of Forsaken Rites)

Renko Usami & Shinki (LR1)

Universe Lr - [Shikigami Unclear]

“This was always a bit of a tricky one for us back in our office, but we’re doing what we can to make sense of it… I hope. What did they say the ‘r’ stood for again?” -K4 Marisa

“Idk lol. Ran?” -Sumireko

“Don’t put those shorthand expressions in these grimoires. But seeing how the Violet Detector Incident went as we review the feasibility of your actual answer… the others might let it slide anyway.” -Patchouli

Universe Lr has four Ultra Festival Friends that are currently exclusive to Ultra Festival events and specific Prayer banners. They tend to do much better in battle than their L1 counterparts due to their abundant breaks and modifiers, but situations may dictate who’s the better parallel presence for the job. Their temperaments have changed to adjust to two separate temperaments coming together: their own, and the shikigami they’ve inherited.

They all have special roles in both sides of the plot, but I’m not saying what those roles are here. What I can say here though is that they’ve essentially become the servants of another universe’s Yukari Yakumo (Aya/Nitori) or Okina Matara (Kokoro/Flandre).

Aya Shameimaru (Pseudo-Shikigami: Zendouki Gugaku)

Flandre Scarlet (Pseudo-Servant: Nishita)

Hata no Kokoro (Pseudo-Servant: Teireita)

Nitori Kawashiro (Pseudo Shikigami: Myoudouki Giken)

——————————

Universe L80 - The Edge of Oblivion

“There it is… the End of the Line. This is what happens when the Lost Word Incident erases a massive part of a world and sends it into forgotten oblivion. But these ladies aren’t going down quietly. No, not yet. Far from it. Once you put the pieces of their stories together, they’re just getting started, and they’re on the hunt for the mastermind behind this entire Lost Word Incident. And I think we’ve found their paper trail…” -K4 Marisa

“And each one comes with a super rocking music video from a dev-side massive collaborative MV project! That’s what makes the appeal UBER COOL!!!” -Sumireko

“Their stories and elemental resolve indicate multiple factors. They are all Relic Friends that exclusively require Relic Paper Disks to Limit Break them as substitutes. Their power through danmaku is almost unmatched by anyone else in any Gensokyo, often featuring a large amount of bullets with elemental breaks, shot add-ons, and multiple killer-bound critical factors. Two such killer modifiers seen on almost every shot they have are ‘Parallel Presence-Killer’ and ‘Mastermind (LW)-Killer’ which pinpoints their intentions to find the mastermind or masterminds of the Lost Word Incident… whoever they are.” -Patchouli

“Wanna cross-examine who might be the mastermind? Enter a danmaku battle- er- ‘battle of bullets’ with anyone from this list against someone who you think seems suspicious, then check their bullet lines while you’re targeting the one you think seems suspect. If the ‘Mastermind (LW)-Killer’ modifier on any of their bullet lines flashes red while you’re targeting someone who has this trait, then AYAYAYAYAYAYAYA! You just found a bad guy potentially before they do their big reveal!” -Aya

Universe L80 is completely composed of Relic Friends that only appear in specifically-listed Prayer banners and Exchange Emas. The soundtracks which play by default when they play Spell Cards are based on music videos produced as part of a collaborative project with the LostWord development team, and the specific song associated with each character is also that character’s title.

They perform significantly better than their counterparts in almost every other universe- often breaking the EX-tier- and have exclusive access to the “Mastermind (LW)-Killer” modifier, which targets “Someone Else” who is revealed in the main storyline to be the mastermind of this game’s main incident. Their abundance of breaks, modifiers, (de)buffs, barrier status controls, and skill depth make them stand out as primary top-tier characters, but their reliance on Relic Paper Disks as stand-ins for dupes for Limit Breaking makes them significantly difficult to limit break for free, often resulting in lengthy grind fests for the few events that offer these Paper Disks for free.

This universe has not directly appeared in any part of the main plot, but each character has their own story which you can access for free in the “Ruins of Memory” section of the Special subheading in the Explore menu. Each of those levels feature the highlighted character as a Guest, which allows you to experience their playstyle to certain extents depending on their release date (because they changed the accessibility/power of those guest kits over time, EX: Remilia’s abilities being extremely limited in her guest level since she was one of the first characters of the rarity to be introduced) on your first round in said stage. These stages explain a different story featuring other characters who you really shouldn’t know about until you go deeper into the main storylines.

Known Entrants: 19

Alice Margatroid (Sporadically Margaret)

Flandre Scarlet (I’m Alright!)

Fujiwara no Mokou (Silver Gale)

Hong Meiling (Be the change)

Kaguya Mouraisan (Moonlit Festival!)

Kanako Yasaka (Blue Goodbyes)

Kasen Ibaraki (PHANTOM PAIN)

Koishi Komeiji (Moon Reverie)

Marisa Kirisame (Night-Splitting Light)

Okina Matara (Sorrow’s Exit)

Reimu Hakurei (Karma Speed)

Reisen Udongein Inaba (Moonlit Festival!)

Remilia Scarlet (The Heat of My Fingertips)

Sakuya Izayoi (The Moon and Izayoi)

Sanae Kochiya (Hand in Hand With a Miracle)

Satori Komeiji (NAЯAKA)

Suwako Moriya (TataeLost)

Youmu Konpaku (Disillusion)

Yuyuko Saigyouji (Boundary of Time)

Multiverse Type A - Alternate Incidents

“This universe class requires a different approach regarding the cipher we use to refer to those universes. The number that is attached after the A doesn’t refer to a universe divergence scale. It instead refers to the number a game holds in the canonical Touhou series starting with 6, also known by the outside world as the start of the ‘Windows Era.’ A1 to A5 do not pose any threat in terms of universal stability and inhabitant behavior, to which everyone in what the outside world refers to as the ‘PC-98 Era.’ Most of the people we have on this list come from a universe that indicates their first notable appearance, but numerous exceptions are also present. But one question still remains across every universe here: did each universe’s source incident get resolved at all? Or are they still going…?” -K4 Marisa

“Nue’s recent presence as of June 13, 2024 as our first EX friend with a sub-codex in universe A12 is making everyone’s job that much harder. But then again, she is unidentified for a reason. However, Eternal Larva’s appearance on our radar with the same “&” symbol in her universe codex as a subset of universe A16 might suggest a correlation on how these EX-grade people appear.” -K4 Renko

“Wait… if Rumia appears as an EX character from universe A6& or something, that’ll cover a popular fandom interpretation on a lot of people’s lists!” -Sumireko

All A-Type Friends with a simplified universe code are considered Festival Friends who only appear in select Prayer pools and events such as Forever Prayers. They tend to do better when compared to their L1 counterparts due to their increased shot modifiers and elemental breaks, but these cases can sometimes be situational depending on the roles you need to fill on your team. Their Killer modifiers will often target opposing factions depending on their role in their introductory/highlighted game, while their dialogue often refers back to them during the events of a specific universe. Some characters might appear multiple times and even in universes featuring games before their own formal introduction.

As for the characters with a “&” symbol in their universe code, they are Festival EX friends with currently exclusive prayer banners that feature them in a completely different light. Specifically, they are portrayed as their potential grown-up selves. To Limit Break your EX characters, you either need a duplicate of them or a Jumbo Paper Doll found in very specific events and exchanges.

Known Entries: 53

Universe A6 - Embodiment of (Scarlet) Devil

Alice Margatroid

Cirno

Daiyousei

Flandre Scarlet

Hong Meiling

Koakuma

Lunasa Prismriver

Lyrica Prismriver

Marisa Kirisame

Merlin Prismriver

Patchouli Knowledge

Reimu Hakurei

Remilia Scarlet

Rumia

Sakuya Izayoi

Sunny Milk

Tenshi Hinanawi

Youmu Konpaku

Yukari Yakumo

Yuuka Kazami

Yuyuko Saigyouji

Universe A7 - Perfect (Cherry Blossom)

“If some of them appear twice here, it’s no mistake. It’s the conception of multiple ideas held by the same person which manifests in two completely different kits.” -K4 Marisa

“This is also a reference to how each playable character had two different shot types which you would choose from before starting a new game of Perfect Cherry Blossom.” -Meringue

Alice Margatroid

Chen

Cirno

Marisa Kirisame (A7A - Magic)

Marisa Kirisame (A7B - Love)

Ran Yakumo

Reimu Hakurei (A7A - Spirit)

Reimu Hakurei (A7B - Dream)

Sakuya Izayoi (A7A - Illusion)

Sakuya Izayoi (A7B - Time)

Youmu Konpaku

Yukari Yakumo

Yuyuko Saigyouji

Universe A8 - Imperishable Night - (Eternal)

Eirin Yagokoro

Fujiwara no Mokou

Reisen Udongein Inaba

Tewi Inaba

Universe A9 - Phantasmagoria of (Flower) View

Aya Shameimaru

Universe A10 - Mountain of (Faith)

Kanako Yasaka

Nitori Kawashiro

Sanae Kochiya

Suwako Moriya

Universe A11 - (Subterranean) Animism

Koishi Komeiji

Satori Komeiji

Universe A12 - Unidentified (Fantastic) Object

Byakuren Hijiri

Nue Houjuu (A12& - The Unidentified, Overly Fantastic Flying Girl - Fantastic EX)

Universe A13 - Ten (Desires)

Seiga Kaku

Toyosatomimi no Miko

Yoshika Miyako

Universe A14 - Double Dealing Character - (Shining)

Seija Kijin

Shinmyoumaru Sukuna

Universe A15 - Legacy of (Lunatic) Kingdom

Clownpiece (A15&)

Universe A16 - (Hidden) Star in Four Seasons

Eternity Larva (A16& - The Butterfly Fairy Who Approached God - Hidden EX)

Multiverse Type B - Another Lunar War

“The B-Series Multiverse is a complicated universe of significant progress in mechanical engineering and technology. For some, this is due to their abilities being sealed away by a Lost Word. For others, it is to keep their abilities concealed while living within the heavily-advanced Lunar Capital.” -K4 Marisa

“Did another Genso-Lunar War break out?” -Reimu

“We can assume some conflict is happening due to the nature of the people in this subheading, including another Reimu, although we can’t necessarily draw battle lines or assume endgames yet due to the changing nature of this region, the large number of factions at play here, and the incompleteness of the ongoing investigations we’re conducting. The only conclusions we’ve drawn so far include the major point of deviation- Universe A8- and the events that happened in that universe. Besides that, this multiverse tends to converge with a LOT of other universes, so we can assume that a definitive conclusion would happen somewhere.” -K4 Marisa

“Reports from the L1 Secret Sealing Club have also turned up here as their first point of interest after meeting with our Incident Resolver… or at least that’s what we think. Incidents are still happening there at this moment.” -K4 Renko

All B-Type Friends are considered Ultra Festival Friends that only appear in Ultra Festival events, specific Prayer banners, and for some of them, in Exchange Emas. Their shot modifiers will often include common Killer modifiers with other members of their faction- usually depending on the faction a specific character is aligned with and their roles in said faction- although other Killer modifiers are also present in their kits. Most of their temperaments are modified to specifically resist one element (and that element resistance is- once again- mostly shared by everyone in the same faction) and remain neutral to the rest, drastically reducing their chances of taking a Barrier Break or being Full-Broken.

Universe B3 is also the first universe studied by the Secret Sealing Club on the Hifuu storyline, where they learn more about the everyday life of the people in that world on multiple sides.

Known Entries: 28

Universe B2/B3/B5 - Kaiju and Moon Enemies

Junko and B5 Reisen Udongein Inaba remain as outliers in the temperament template in Multiverse B because of Junko’s purification ability. Neither of them have elemental weaknesses nor resistances.

Hecatia has no allegiances, as she is an ancient goddess who was banished from the Lunar Capital, but she has a killer modifier set for the Capital’s residents. Her temperament boasts three resistances and one weakness.

Junko (B2 - Nameless Space Terror)

Hecatia Lapialazuli (B3)

Reisen Udongein Inaba (B5 - Lunatic Space Youkai)

Universe B3/B5 - Lunar Base

All Lunar Base combatants resist Moon Essence and have killer shot modifiers that name the Lunar Capital’s inhabitants as targets.

Marisa Kirisame (B3 - Lunar War Enchanter)

Sakuya Izayoi (B3 - Lunar War Servant)

Sanae Kochiya (B3 - Lunar War Oracle)

Reimu Hakurei (B3 - Lunar War Shaman)

Reisen Udongein Inaba (B3 - Lunar War Soldier)

Youmu Konpaku (B3 - Lunar War Gardener)

Fujiwara no Mokou (B5 - Defiant Blue Phoenix)

Universe B3/B5 - Underground Waste Ward

Many of the Underground Waste Ward’s inhabitants resist Moon Essence AND resist Star Essence. They also boast multiple killer shot modifiers that target multiple subfactions aligned with the Moon ranging from the Lunar Capital to Moon Rabbits in general in additions to other modifiers that mark targets based on their canon lore. As an added bonus, some characters like Komanchi and Medicine have modifiers that allow them to target Kaiju.

Benben Tsukumo (B3)

Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu (B3)

Hata no Kokoro (B3)

Komanchi Onozuka (B3)

Kutaka Niwatari (B3)

Yatsuhashi Tsukumo (B3)

Alice Margatroid (B5)

Lunasa Prismriver (B5)

Lyrica Prismriver (B5)

Medicine Melancholy (B5)

Merlin Prismriver (B5)

Universe B3 - Lunar Capital

All Lunar Capital inhabitants of this universe resist Earth Phase and have killer shot modifiers that can target opposing Kaiju, whom are mostly present in Universe H5 if not in this multiverse. Why? That’s a spoiler alert if I have to say it.

Kaguya Houraisan

Reisen

Sagume Kishin

Seiran

Ringo

Watatsuki no Toyohime

Watatsuki no Yorihime

Multiverse Type C - Eternal Seasons

“Wow…! That’s a lot of water! Is that what the sea looks like?” -Nitori

“Only someone like Yukari could be so chill on the beach, yet retain a team-healing kit so broken that they put her at the very top of EX-Tier. She oughta see the beaches of the outside world someday, they can be really cool! …and usually very expensive to think about. I bet if I mind-read one of those hoteliers, they’re thinking about their trending profit margins.” -Sumireko

“How’d a beach form there? I thought Gensokyo was landlocked…!” -Aya

“That’s the main feature of this Gensokyo stuck in an eternal summer. After much of the land flooded for an unknown reason an unknown amount of time ago, a lot of the residents moved out quickly and settled down by the beachfronts, which turned the area into a thriving beach town. What still remains underwater is under investigation as we speak, although we might know where on the original Gensokyo landmass everyone moved to. Recent reports also suggest that this universe converges with a lot of other universes, but this report is subject to further study. Points of divergence can’t be determined either, as there are just too many divergence points and not a lot of other reference universes that we can use for comparison. This is because the universes of Multiverse Type C are filled with a tremendous amount of water, as if there’s enough water to swim from the shoreline to Hell or maybe even the Moon. As for everyone else that hails from that world, they’ve never been so carefree and relaxed in their new lives on the beach. It makes me wonder how they’d fare in an actual emergency… but I’d rather not imagine the worst case scenarios. That’s for our research team and that other Marisa to work on.” -K4 Marisa

“What about Universe C5> then?” -K4 Renko

“That… well… we just started that file on May 10th. Y’know… the 3rd Anniversary. I don’t know why the office decided on creating the codex for C5> with that symbol. I gotta check in with them with that since Cz1 is self-explanatory enough with Marisa from Universe Z1 coming to Universe C3. As for the > symbol, that was stated by a close friend that this refers to a major shift in temperaments. In this case, C5> is stuck in perpetual spring instead of summer.” -K4 Marisa

The Multiverse C Friends are considered Epic Friends and only appear in specific Prayer banners, with some of the newer ones having yet to appear more than once. They tend to do significantly better than Standard and (Ultra-)Festival Friends due to their increased stats and shot modifiers. Their temperaments are modified to suit their everyday lives in their universe instead of usual elemental attributes, affecting what elements are strong and weak against them. This usually results in multiple resistances and one weakness.

All Friends in Universe C3 have one things in common: they all have the “Swimsuit” attribute. Despite their lax lifestyle, a lot of their kits have gotten some really high-tier ratings according to various tier lists. Yukari in particular was singled out as the best character in the game at least once. Curiously though, Miyoi is playable here while the one in L1 isn’t.

Most of the “newer” characters of universe C3 (and Cz1 Marisa) are playable on select stages in chapter 4 (including the EX stories) as guests until your first win in case you missed their trial event, as that chapter takes place in that universe.

Koishi and Flandre from Universe C5> have only appeared in events since their debut and have not appeared in the main story yet.

Known Entries: 20

Byakuren Hijiri

Flandre Scarlet

Hecatia Lapislazuli

Joon Yorigami

Kogasa Tatara

Koishi Komeiji

Marisa Kirisame (C3 - Magician on Vacation)

Miyoi Okunoda

Reimu Hakurei

Remilia Scarlet

Satori Komeiji

Sekibanki

Shion Yorigami

Tenshi Hinanawi

Youmu Konpaku

Yukari Yakumo

Yuyuko Saigyouji

Flandre Scarlet (C5> - Vibrant Sister of the Devil)

Koishi Komeiji (C5> - Blossoming Eyes of Love)

Marisa Kirisame (Cz1 - Witch of Scarlet Dreams on Vacation)

Multiverse Type E - Pseudo Paradise

“What do we have here…” -Alice

“This looks like more trouble than the Scarlet Mist Incident.” -Reimu

“Is that… is that me?” -Patchouli

“We can confirm that one of them is indeed another Patchouli. Many residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion are reflected much differently here, although Remilia in particular is a subject of concern because she has a divergence factor of 9 while the other residents are much lower.” -K4 Marisa

“What we do know is besides Remilia being rated as a 9 on the divergence scale, everyone else in this timeline is at a 1. This can theoretically generate a suggestion that something there took place before the events of Universe A6.” -K4 Renko

“The L1 Secret Sealing Club has investigated this universe as their second point of contact, although claims are surfacing that the residents of this timeline are getting involved in other affairs found in other universes.” -K4 Maribel

E-Type Friends are all Ultra Festival Friends exclusive to Ultra Festival events, select Prayer banners, and Exchange Emas. Their performances compared to their L1 counterparts tends to be better, but certain situations regarding their roles and traits may suggest the employment of different schools of thought. The nature of the Scarlet Devil Mansion as a whole makes almost all of them weak against Sun essence, but each of them has one resistance based on a defining trait they each have… with some exceptions.

Patchouli blocks out both Sun and Moon essences to defend Remilia as her best friend, while Sakuya- who stands against them- solely resists the Moon because of her unclear stance on accepting/denying the existence of mysticism and the occult while being completely neutral against Sun essence. Both of them are instead weak to Star essence instead for their own reasons.

Universe E9 in particular is the second universe showcased in the Hifuu side storyline, where the Secret Sealing Club gets a firsthand glimpse into the life of the inhabitants of this alternate Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Known Entries: 6

Flandre Scarlet

Hong Meiling

Koakuma

Patchouli Knowledge

Sakuya Izayoi

Remilia Scarlet

Universe F1 - Formulas to the Gods

“That’s the one where the Blue Reimu came from?!” -Marisa

“That’s the one. Our investigation and research teams haven’t gotten around to studying this universe yet, as we only have three useful leads from their universe to observe: Reimu, Sanae, and Koishi. However, recent reports traced back from the Resolver’s journal- which we could do thanks to our Yukari and yours- suggest that we might be putting Suwako and Kanako in a similar yet different list as tiny versions of important figures like their ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️.” -K4 Marisa

“What the- Yukari, did you tamper with her journal again?!” -Reimu

“Perhaps. How else would we trace her findings back here?” -Yukari

“Due to the low divergence scaling of 1 and almost identical divergence points reflecting those of Universe A10.3 (Silent Sinner in Blue), we can infer that this universe closely follows the timeline where Yukari taught Reimu how to summon gods. This is a reminder that ‘Silent Sinner in Blue’ is a manga and not a game, so you’ll have to read through it for reference… like how me and Meringue haven’t read it in full yet and just skimmed through the summaries of both the Touhou and LostWord wikis to write out these articles. If we’re summarizing this wrong, tell us ASAP.” -Kit

“Don’t worry about trying to find a physical copy of the manga, there’s an article of it on the Touhou Wiki (click here to access the wiki’s article on SSiB 🔗).” -Meringue

Universe F1 is composed of Epic Friends which only appear in specific Prayer banners. While they have less- if not as many- shot modifiers and status effects as their counterparts of Universe L80, their kits as of now are so highly-rated that I could consider them to be OP in their field. Something to use to T-Pose over a number of annoying bosses you face. Their temperaments have shifted due to their circumstances to portray their stories only to be slightly held back by something else, resulting in 3 resistances and 1 weakness.

Known Entries: 3

Koishi Komeiji

Reimu Hakurei

Sanae Kochiya

Universe H5 - Kaiju Central

“K-kaiju?! Like those things in those giant monster movies?!” -Sumireko

“It’s a long story. For some reason we’ve tracked some of their movements to universe B3, which may explain the nature of some of those inhabitants’ behaviors and bullets. Reports trying to study their own universe have come up completely empty. The definition of kaiju has changed from what you probably knew in the outside world.” -K4 Marisa

Universe H5 consists of Ultra-Festival Friends that only appear in Ultra Festival events and specific Prayer banners. Their presence in Exchange Emas has not been mentioned much. They perform on-par with other Ultra-Festival characters and generally do better than their counterparts of L1. Everyone in this list also has the “Kaiju” attribute, which is specifically listed as a “Kaiju-killer” shot modifier seen on multiple characters of Multiverse B. The reason for this can’t be explained without spoiling part of a side story in the overarching plot.

Known Entries: 5

Doremy Sweet

Keine Kamishirasawa

Mystia Lorelei

Wriggle Nightbug

Yuuka Kazami

Multiverse Type R - Hakugyoku Arena

“Finally! A place we recognize!” -Marisa

“Alright now, let’s not forget that we’re going low spoilers for the chapter headings, remember? We’ve got a major part of our research team covering this universe, and they’ve got a lot to unpack.” -K4 Marisa

“…right. Things got very complicated, but we always somehow end up back here for incense.” -Marisa

“For newer players reading this part, this banter will make sense soon enough. But as the parallel Marisa said, minimal spoilers on this heading.” -Yukari

The R-Type Multiverse has two Ultra Festival Friends that are exclusive to Ultra Festival events, select Prayer banners, and Exchange Emas. Their performances are on-par with other Ultra Festival Friends, but their temperaments have changed due to their associations with various concepts pertaining to life and death. This change translates to at least three elemental resistances and as little as one weakness (3 and 1 for Youmu, 4 and 2 for Yuyuko) defined by their stories.

Hakugyoku Arena also appears as two permanent challenge modes after you clear Act 1 of Chapter 3, as that chapter takes place in that universe. In these modes, you can find randomly-generated daily and weekly gauntlets that you can take on for extra superior incense and incense burners among other miscellaneous rewards. It’s also the only mode where you can take on regularly changing weekly gauntlet battles in Phantasm difficulty- one step higher than Lunatic- as a callback to Perfect Cherry Blossom’s Phantasm stage, where seriously meticulous planning and high-ranking character progression is necessary to win and not get stomped in one turn.

Known Entries: 2

Youmu Konpaku

Yuyuko Saigyouji

Multiverse Type S - Synonym in Former Hell

“Did Satori change the way she rules the Palace of the Earth Spirits, or are her friends’ new uniforms my next big scoop?!” -Aya

“I doubt those outfits are new to them, so there’s nothing new to report on for our world.” -Reimu

“But despite having minimal defining or exceptional elements in her universe, Satori DID show up in latter ongoing investigations as a subject of interest as of now. Her multiverse shares many identical divergence points with Universe A11.” -K4 Marisa

“Field notes suggest that only the Underworld exists in this multiverse, thus changing their temperaments. Thus, the outside world is… gone…? I don’t know why I was assigned to research a region where my ability doesn’t work.” -K4 Renko

The S-Type Multiverse has three Ultra Festival Friends that are exclusive to Ultra Festival events, select Prayer banners, and certain Exchange Emas. Their performances seem to surpass other Ultra Festival Friends based on the amount of breaks and modifiers listed, but their temperaments have changed due to their entire lives being in Former Hell- and by extension the Underworld. This makes them all resistant to Sun, Moon, and Star essences, but each of them is still vulnerable to one phase element that represents a hindrance in their daily lives.

Known Entries: 3

Rin Kaenbyou

Satori Komeiji

Utsuho Reiuji

Universe T5 - Wasteland Track

“Ayayayayaya?! Why are they going so fast?” -Aya

“And what’s with those loud metal machines making them go that fast? Clearly those aren’t kappa-produced! Can’t they just settle things with bullets?” -Nitori

“Doubt it! Looks like those two are having a motorcycle race to settle something. And with a setting like that, things have already begun to get real.” -Sumireko

“And the fact that they’re doing this in a desert of all places when there’s clearly no desert in your Gensokyo has raised eyebrows with our scouting team. Research beyond these two divine people being deadlocked in a desert motorcycle race hasn’t started yet, although a footnote regarding Crazed World Temperaments has been made known by our scouts.” -K4 Marisa

Universe T5 has two Ultra-Festival Friends exclusive to Ultra Festival events, select Prayer banners, and certain Exchange Emas. They both have the “Racer” attribute (and “Racer-Killer” modifier) and an unusually high number of shot modifiers and killers with barely any shots that don’t have an element attached to them. Their temperaments have changed to allow them to survive in the “Crazed World” which results in two elemental resistances representing specific hardships they’ve learned to overcome in their world’s harsh conditions. They don’t have any elemental weaknesses, which makes it considerably harder to Barrier-Break and Full-Break them, more or less allow a similarly-leveled opponent to do any serious damage to them.

This universe has not appeared in the main plot yet.

Known Entries: 2

Byakuren Hijiri

Tenshi Hinanawi

Multiverse Type W - New Land of Oni and Faith

“Don’t ask much about this one yet, we just started a new wing of our research here recently.” -K4 Renko

“Besides the number of oni declarations here, Sanae appeared at the end of chapter 🔳 act 🔲 and ended up getting grouped here due to her matching aesthetic and factions.” -K4 Marisa

“Uh oh! Looks like I’m gonna have to gap those numbers out there and there… and also in Section F. This isn’t me trying to cause a Lost Word Incident, it’s just a matter of late end spoiler prevention, but I’ll put the words back after later story updates. If you know the words, you know. We’ll also put spoiler story content inside individual pages beneath other breaks.” -Yukari

“Was the use of that much ink really necessary to block out a few words?” -Marisa

“Yes. I’ll get those spots off the page later when details roll out.” -Yukari

The W-Type Multiverse has six Ultra-Festival Friends that have only appeared in their premiere Prayer banners so far, as the characters showcased in this universe have only been introduced very recently. It’s currently unknown when they’ll appear in future events and/or Exchange Emas.

Suika Ibuki (W1)

Kanako Yasaka (W2)

Suwako Moriya (W2)

Kasen Ibaraki (W5)

Sanae Kochiya (W5)

Yuugi Hoshiguma (W5)

Universe Y5 - Bunny Rebellion…?

“There’s not much to say here. It’s just Tewi, but she’s a rabbit from a world of divine hermits.” -K4 Marisa

“Almost no research has been conducted successfully on this universe due to lacking resources, as our supervisor put all our resources in other research areas. Besides our surface files on this Tewi, investigations confirm that she has aligned herself with the Lunar Base of Universe B3/5. But that’s just about it. We haven’t completely crossed the boundary into this universe yet.” -K4 Maribel

Tewi Inaba is the only friend (and an Ultra Festival one) who we know of in this universe. Unfortunately, her scarce presence in events and banners makes her harder to find than most characters of this class. But despite being from a completely different universe, she has aligned herself with the Lunar Base faction of Multiverse Type B and shares most of their shot modifiers and attributes… but mostly with B5 Mokou because the Killer modifiers she has can cover every major faction of B3’s storylines, including the Lunar Base. Is this because they’re trying to train their teammates to win? Or is there another endgame I don’t know about?

Known Entries: 1

Tewi Inaba

Multiverse Type Z - The Scarlet Devil Tower

“I remember this one. The residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion turned the whole building into a tower.” -Reimu

“Yeah, you did. This was the second incident in our Lost Word Incident Portfolio that you- the you of your universe specifically- resolved. But there are a few more things here you missed that we covered that we can easily file into one category: Magical Girls.” -K4 Marisa

“Magical what now? Aren’t those just magicians like you and my world’s Marisa?” -Reimu

“Oh… those. As in, like those characters seen in anime from as early as the 90s. Colorful transformation sequences and girls wearing costumes filled with magic, hearts, ribbons, and stuff like the power of friendship. My classmates from school talk about them sometimes, but it’s hard for some people to choose a favorite, especially when some of the newer shows of that genre tend to delve into considerably darker topics. Meri! You’re what I think is a tengu that came from the outside world, so you know what I’m thinking of, right?” -Sumireko

“Meri-?! Uh… Yes I do, but I might need to look into that genre a bit more and watch some full-length episodes. And don’t look now Alice, but there’s you.” -Meringue

“Me as a magical girl themed after constellations and western-style knights… interesting… but I love the way the outfit matches those of her dolls!” -Alice

Multiverse Type Z consists of multiple Ultra-Festival Friends, of which only Marisa appears in consistent Prayer pools and Exchange Emas. Everyone else just appears periodically, which makes it hard to find them. As such, this multiverse is split into two distinctive parts.

Universe Z1 primarily focuses on the Tower itself and someone’s changing role in the story of this universe, which has barely deviated from the original story seen in A6 and the original EoSD. As such, the rest of the SDM residents haven’t changed much as a result of this and appear more like their L1 counterparts. After finishing Chapter 2 Act 1, a challenge mode with its own story which takes place post-Chapter 2- also named Scarlet Devil Tower- unlocks for you to take on at your leisure (although you’ll want a decent team if you want to make significant progress in one day). A side story in the “Special” tab also named Scarlet Devil Tower allows players to take a short look at this universe and its events after the events of Chapter 2, and although it’s available from the beginning and has both very low level enemies and a full set of Guests for new player lore accessibility, you should really finish Chapter 2 before attempting either side mode so this universe’s story makes sense and to avoid early spoilers, as Chapter 2 of the main story takes place in this universe.

Universe Z3 primarily looks at the concept of magical girls and the influence that the Witch of Scarlet Dreams had in turning some people into magical girls. Not much is known about this universe canonically beyond what we know about this universe’s Remilia and Alice. However, the real question is why Flandre isn’t here, but every parallel presence of her in every other universe in this game exists with the “Magical Girl” attribute like these two. In any case, both of them have had their temperaments changed to harbor Z1 Marisa’s temperament as a result of her influence while also retaining their own at the same time. This universe does not appear in the main plot yet.

Known Entries: 4

Marisa Kirisame (Z1 - Witch of Scarlet Dreams)

Alice Margatroid (Z3 - Magical Girl of Constellations)

Remilia Scarlet (Z3 - Magical Girl of Scarlet Stars)

Satori Komeiji (Z3 - Astrological Magical Girl)

Extras Subheading

“We’ve yet to see their bullets as playable characters yet, but they appear somewhere in our investigations of the Lost Word Incidents. Sometimes as enemies that haven’t been added to the playable character list yet, while some don’t do danmaku battles at all. One of them might even be a mastermind…! Universe cipher denominations might not be accurate.” -K4 Marisa

This section is simply an extras list for universes that haven’t been elaborated on significantly, and for miscellaneous characters who aren’t “playable” yet or appear as an NPC, although bosses can also get lumped in here. However, due to the LW Wiki unexpectedly going down without a backup… we *might* have some trouble finding accurate data. Once data goes up on these, view with caution since they might be major plot spoilers. And by “might be spoilers” I mean “will be spoilers.”

Recorded Entries: 20

Aya Shameimaru (L?)

Eirin Yagokoro (B3)

Kanako Yasaka (L?)

Kasen Ibaraki (C3)

Koishi Komeiji (L?)

Komanchi Onozuka (C3)

Marisa Kirisame (??) - glasses?

Marisa Kirisame (??!?!?)

Marisa Kirisame (L?) - the purple one

Reimu Hakurei (L?) - her first design

Reimu Hakurei (…?) - ⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️

Rin Kaenbyou (L?)

Rinnosuke Morichika (L1) - also appears in C3

Sakuya Izayoi (??!?!?) - ⬛️⬛️⬛️

Sanae Kochiya (L?)

Satori Komeiji (L?)

Suwako Moriya (L?)

Utsuho Reiuji (L?)

Yukari Yakumo (??) - tiny, also appears in some side events

Yumemi Okazaki (??)

[bike42]

Isle Royale

Friday July 19, 2024

The Magnificent Seven are back on adventure. We gathered at our lake home yesterday afternoon on a glorious day in the Northwoods. We went out on our boat and toured the Turtle Lake chain. Lynn and Kent made dinner, and we fell into our easy routine of food prep, giving thanks for being together and then clean up.

One thing this group is good at is logistics! The planning phase is thorough and well researched! This adventure is a bit different in that we don’t have a guide, so all permits and logistics fell to us, credit to Tam and Dan that got the permits and booked the flights. I’d ordered a bunch of dehydrated meals when we started our Ice Age Trail adventure, but we ended up not backpacking, therefore the meals sat in a box with our camping stuff in the basement (they have long expiration dates!). I sorted through them and found we had more than enough for 4 dinners and 4 breakfasts - so I had grouped them and labeled them for dinners / breakfasts. We also contributed our two lightweight stoves, two empty gas cylinders (will fill once we get to the island), our cook kit and our SteriPen. Others bought new or contributed water filtration devices, Tam brought goodies for 4 lunches, Lynn compiled a new first aid kit, etc.

After dinner, we divided up the food and went through our packs comparing what we’d packed and what things we had duplicates of. It’s a moment of second guessing - especially for me because I’d packed most of what was in my pack about a week ago and started second guessing things - is my headlamps in there, and things like that!

Kent had an amazingly accurate scale that helped us weigh our packs, and even help make decisions about what to pack. For example, my Xero sandals aren’t that comfortable but they weigh just 0.6 lbs versus my Chacos weigh 1.7 lbs! Most of our packs topped out at about 35-38 lbs without water, except for Gary’s, which was 52 lbs! Well, we need to slow him down anyway!

After packing was complete, we lit a fire in our outside pit, enjoyed the sunset, and some of us had s’mores. Mosquitoes started to come out, so we ventured inside and some of us worked the National Parks puzzle while others showered and drifted off to sleep.

Friday am we were up, showering, forging for breakfast and all were anxious to get on the road. Lynn and Kent have a RV called an Ekko, an amazing Winnebago. It had been on order since the beginning of COVID and they finally got it late last fall. They slept in it last night, and today we were able to load all 7 packs in an underneath storage space, and all rode to the Seaplane port in that - just over two hours from our lake home.

We arrived well before the “check in tent” opened, so we enjoyed the beautiful days, munched some snacks, and I for one tried to not be nervous as I eyed up the little Sea Planes!! At check in time, two young men drove up and I joked that they were going to be our pilots, but they weren’t this time (they appeared to be as old as the pilots in Alaska!). They weighed our bags, had us remove external things like poles, sleeping bags and my 1.2 lbs chair.

We were ushered to the dock and met our pilot Mike, and I immediately felt confident with him - an older, tanned experienced looking pilot. He told us about the Beaver DHC-2 with great affection for the aircraft in his voice. He said it’s the best Alaskan bush plane.

They loaded all our gear - my pack went into one of the floats! I could see why they wanted all the external accouterments to come off! Then we squeezed in, with Mike directing where we should sit based on our size - easy to squeeze in together after all the adventures this group has already been through!!

We arrived on the island, a gorgeous view from the air. We circled over the island and landed on a protected bay which makes sense versus landing right on Lake Superior! We taxied to Windigo, a small collection of buildings: office, store, shower and toilet building, staff quarters. We were greeted by three rangers, who gave us a verbal preview of what we can expect on the trail over the next 4 days: bugs, overgrown trails and some rain!!

We stopped in the office to pick up our permit, chatted with the ranger there (same story). Next stop was the store to have our white gas cylinders filled, bought some cold drinks and ice cream and chatted with some hikers that had just finished the loop we are about to embark on (same story).

We had to hike just 0.3 miles to get to Washington Creek campground, where we had 4 options for a group site. It’s fairly luxurious, with a picnic table and two pit toilets. Tomorrow, when we start hiking, we get to go past the store again, just in case!!

We set up camp and got started boiling the 13 cups of water needed to rehydrate our dinner. After dinner and dessert, a group of us walked back to Windigo to brush our teeth and use the flush toilets! Beautiful evening, with a jovial group (boaters or hikers?) on the deck of the store watching the sun creep down in the sky.

The variety of animals is limited on this island - primarily moose and wolves, which are heavily studied in the way their populations fluctuate. There are squirrels, and we’ve heard of pesky foxes that can be a nuisance at camp (apparently they’ve evolved to hang out by humans and therefore be somewhat protected from the wolves). So even though there are no bears or raccoons, we’re taking precautions with our food storage. We brought our two bear canisters, and are hanging everything else in a tree using ropes and a pulley system from Jeff’s many trips to the Boundary Waters.

I had several naps today, but still feel like I’ll sleep well tonight. Have to get myself in the right mindset to backpack 9+ miles tomorrow with a 40 pound pack and a sore toe (stubbed it jumping off the boat last night).

[24hrdoc]

Frequently Asked Questions About Online STD Treatment

Telemedicine has quickly become an accessible solution to treat STDs online, making this form of medical treatment increasingly appealing to those seeking discreet and accessible healthcare. We discuss some frequently asked questions regarding this modern way of managing sexual health.

1. What Is Online STD Treatment? 

Online STD treatment refers to using telemedicine platforms to consult healthcare providers and receive diagnoses and prescriptions for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). This approach utilizes digital communication tools like video conferencing to offer medical assistance without needing in-person visits. It allows patients to access expert advice, testing, and treatment from the comfort of their own homes.

2. How Does Online STD Treatment Work?

Typically, treatment for an STD starts with an online consultation between you and a healthcare provider. They collect information on your health, medical history, and symptoms before recommending any necessary tests that can be conducted locally through lab services or at-home kits. Once results are available, providers review them and prescribe medications delivered directly to your home address or picked up locally.

3. Is Online STD Treatment Effective? 

Yes, online STD treatment can be highly effective. Telemedicine platforms provide timely access to healthcare professionals who can diagnose and treat most STDs accurately; their efficacy depends on patient accuracy in providing accurate information. Hence, choosing reliable services with complete care plans that ensure comprehensive follow-up is essential.

4. What Types of STDs Can Be Treated Online? 

Many common STDs can be treated online, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, and syphilis. Online healthcare providers can prescribe antiviral medication for herpes and antibiotics against bacterial infections; some conditions may need additional evaluation or care, which will be recommended by their online provider if required.

5. How Confidential is Online STD Treatment? 

Online STD treatment platforms emphasize patient confidentiality and privacy, using encrypted communication channels to protect sensitive patient data such as consultations and medical records. Your privacy will remain safe throughout this process.

6. Can I Get Tested Online for STDs? 

Yes, online STD testing is an essential element of treatment. Many telemedicine services provide at-home testing kits that you can use to collect samples at home before sending them off for analysis at a lab. Results typically become available within days, and your healthcare provider will review them during a follow-up consultation.

7. What Are the Advantages of Online STD Treatment? 

Convenience: You can access healthcare from anywhere without traveling. 

Privacy: Consultations can take place privately with respect for confidentiality. 

Accessibility: You can seek specialists who may not be readily available locally.

Timeliness: Prompt diagnosis and treatment reduce the risk of complications.

8. Are There Any Downsides? 

While online STD treatment offers several advantages, there can still be drawbacks. Not all STDs can be diagnosed or treated without in-person examinations or lab tests; additionally, lack of physical examination can sometimes result in less accurate diagnoses; to combat this risk, patients must ensure they provide thorough and accurate information during consultations.

Conclusion

Online STD treatment can provide discreet and effective sexual health management in a discreet, convenient, and cost-effective manner. By understanding how these services operate and their benefits, individuals can make more informed decisions regarding their healthcare needs. As telemedicine becomes increasingly advanced, accessibility and quality will increase, making online STD treatment an integral component of modern healthcare delivery.