#I was ASSUMING the next game was gonna be releasing in November this year so I'd be able to do the tradition again this year

[melonthesprigatito]

I've got the BIGGEST mixed feelings about Legends Z-A's unspecified month 2025 release date.

My brain is going: Ah yes. Smart decision. This is great. Gives them more development time. Let them cook. :)

But my heart, upon hearing that I won't be able to play a brand new Pokémon game this year, not a main series game, spinoff or a DLC, for the first time ever, is going:

[af1899]

FEH — Calendar for Nov/2021 is out + own thoughts and plans

(Twitter thread)

The calendar for the month is finally out, and we can plan ahead for who/what I want to pull on, as well as look out for other potentially interesting events.

I'll dump my own plans and thoughts as per usual below the cut, feel free to read on.

Banners

I didn't include links and mentions from the leaks' contents, in case you're avoiding those.

From the looks of it, the dates are still the same for my timezone, but I've read that'll change starting next calendar for some months, due to the Daylight Savings.

Anyway, as it turns out, Ryoma was indeed our next Resplendent Hero, he looks good, but I care very little about him, so I didn't make the usual thought post — but Ryoma being the next Resplendent upgrade candidate means that the leak for the whole month is turning out to be true, it's still soon to say it's trustworthy, but I'm assuming it is to motivate myself to keep saving, as there wouldn't be anything of interest coming for the remainder of November.

The only banner I'm worried about is [Heroes with Bonfire], there are 14 sources in the regular pool but only 3 will comprise the banner itself, and among them is Idoun (best girl 💜🙏🏻), if she's there (extremely unlikely doubtfully but who knows), I'll try to aim for at least one merge, otherwise I'm hard skipping this month; I even had to pass up on the other 3 tempting red stones from the monthly refines banner, Summer Tana doesn't need merges right away and I think pulling on her home banner would be best.

There's also yet another {Double Special Heroes} banner coming... what's with I.S. breaking patterns? That should come out every 2 months. 🤨

Anyway, last time we got a rerun for an assortment of seasonals released this year, from the Valentine's banner to the Young Heroes one, the next banner... well, here are my guesses, just what remains of some of the thematics that appeared in the previous one:

Red

→ Duo Young Eirika+Ephraim

→ Bridal Shanna

Blue

→ Bridal Juno

→ Young Lyon

Green

→ Spring Inigo

→ Summer Caspar

Colorless

→ Summer Duo Hilda+Marianne

→ Groom Saul

...

Hm... assuming I got it right, I'd pick colorless, but unlike last time, we'll need to wait two weeks for the banner reveal, maybe less if it's datamined and shared, but as I've expressed before, these banners are [Orb] scavengers, so I'll skip it in the end.

The New Heroes were also leaked, of which none are my interest (again, assuming the leaks are true).

So yeah, gonna save and see what's in store this month.

Events

Just the usual without much of interest.

[Heroes Journey] (three days) and [Pawns of Loki] (two days) will run once like past months, [Røkkr Sieges] is also coming back and starting today, it's a fun game mode with rather acceptable reward value, but I don't have much motivation to aim for the top in my world, I'll just waste whatever [Stamina] and score as well as I can like usual.

We'll get [Limited Hero Battles] soon, perhaps I'll feel inspired to record a video of my own solution of an abyssal map unless it covers Three Houses units, of which I have very little and stand no chance.

Palla and Catria also get their [Bound Hero Battle], since it's the first run, I'm guessing their banner will have Est as the last unit? Minerva would fit too, but not as well. Either way, it reminded me Palla — best Whitewing! — is +9 among my projects, I'm looking forward to finish merging her.

No free unit will get a rerun after Veld until maybe later next month, but we'll get a few new maps and free units, the next New Heroes are also coming early next month, we can expect the next [Feh Channel] by then, to announce the theme for [Book VI], among the usual celebratory stuff and whatever, I'm quite thrilled to find out what's in store.

So... overall?

I think it's an average month without much of interest (not even the themed banners hold much of interest barring the [Bonfire] one), if you've seen the leaks, chances are you won't be as thrilled for which Heroes you'll see later on, and I can see that, specially since now it's gaining credibility so I don't feel the same thrill but I like planning ahead when given the resources... maybe the fodder will be interesting at least? Who knows, but I plan to skip all along.

Anyway, that's it for me, take care and thanks for reading!

[deltastorm101]

So, I tried to calculate Control...

... and its Epic Games deal, with the help of my certified smooth brain™ and probably incorrect sources. I started this last night hella tired and with a headache, I have finished it up today hella tired and with a headache, and this is what I produced: bullshit! :D But hey, at least double checked bullshit that’s open for discussion and contribution and expansion. Also, I probably won’t list the sources because a) I’m lazy and b) I didn’t have to dig thaaat deep down to find all this so if you really wanna know you could probably hit google with it as well. Anyhow here we go lol So, the initial thought which got all of this rolling was the 2020-wrap-up-post Remedy linked on their twitter, and Epic’s linked publishing announcement in it: studios Remedy, Playdead and GenDesign will release their next next-gen games with Epic. Now, we all know Remedy are working on some sort of Alan Wake-ish thing as we speak (right? right?? god I hope so), which meanssss our boy will most likely be an Epic exclusive. Which makes me kinda sad because, well. I’m deep in Steam’s ass. Hell, I waited for Control for a full year before I played it because they can pry the Steam version from my cold dead hands. So I asked myself... was it worth it for them? How much money did they throw at Remedy (and 505 Games) to have them play along? Would they have reached more people from the get-go if they had released it on Steam right away? Did the individual programmer, designer, writer, artist, person behind it profit from this at all? (Also, like, about the rights and copyright thing,,,,, you’d think they could have learned from Alan Wake and its IP belonging to Microsoft and so not really being able to do anything more with it because they don’t ‘own’ it and shit) buuut anyway that’s not the point of this post, now it’s time to do some MATH BABEY

Ok, let’s start with some things we know. Facts. Figures. Data. Turns out my initial question, how much money was involved, could be answered by doing one (1) google search: according to Wikipedia, Epic gave Remedy and 505 Games €9.49mio. The total budget for the game was €26.9mio over the course of 3 years of development. We know that as of December 2020, over 2mio copies of the game were sold, with November 2020 being the best-selling month ever since its initial release in August 2019. This is where question 1) comes into play: how many of those 2 million copies were sold in 2019 and how many in 2020? Stay tuned, I think I found out.

We know that Remedy gets to keep 45% of the revenue, which, I assumed, means that 505 keeps the remaining 55% (probably a lot more going on there but shhh). We know that Control’s sales cooked up €17.84mio in 2019 (so months September – December), €17.7mio of those in the first month alone (O.O). Side note: because it came out at the very end of August, I’ll ignore that month and declare September the first sales month.

We know that 60% of sales in 2019 were digital ones (aka Epic Store, mostly), 40% physical ones (consoles PS4 and XB1), while in 2020, only 10% of sales were physical and a whopping 90% digital; which is people on Epic who wanted to get their hands on the first DLC and – you guessed it – the Steam release of the Ultimate Edition in August 2020.

Which begs question 2): what’s bigger, 60% of 2019 sales because ‘ooh shiny new game’, or 90% of 2020 sales because ‘yay steam release’? The answer may look obvious, but you have to take into account the dropping price, which I also researched for your pleasure and enjoyment.

For this I used a German website called idealo.de, which focuses on looking for the best deals for basically anything you can buy on the internet, and it also gives you diagrams that describe at which point in time the product was at which exact price. This is what it gave me: - release price: €60 - December 2019: €41 (PS4)/€44 (XB1) - mid-2020: €30 - Ultimate Edition release: €30 - December 2020: €14 (PS4)/€18 (XB1)/€30 (Ultimate Editions) At this point I was like “lol hold on i need chocolate for this cuz i’ll be here for some time *sweating*”

To continue this mess™, I see more questions: 3) How many employees does Remedy have, which positions do they work in and what are their salaries? 4) How many employees does 505 have, which positions and salaries do they have? 5) What’s the total revenue that Control has generated so far?

And also some more stuff like, are my numbers accurate, am I even grasping these concepts correctly, are there even more people involved or am I just trying to explain complete crap (yes) but let’s just ignore all of that shall we. At that point I went “oh shit what have i gotten myself into, this screen does not get my point across, i need pen and paper” and you know shit is gonna go DOWN when I do math on paper.

My paper math birthed the following calculation:

Following this up, we can calculate the end-of-2019 sales, if we set the price for September and October to €60, for November and December to approx. €45:

Now, you might notice that one of those numbers is big and the other is HUGE. Why might that be? Well...

- Covid19: everyone stayed at home and needed video games to play - More sale months of the year, naturally - dropping price: why get it for €60 when you can get it for 20 - Ultimate Edition: why buy it in June when you get more content in August aaaand... - it comes out on Steam.

With this in mind, let’s see what questions we can answer: 1) 661,110 copies in 2019; 1,338,889 copies in 2020 2) 60% digital sales in 2019 means 396,666 Epic copies; 90% digital sales in 2020 means 1,205,000 copies – most of it from Steam? Some of it? A good chunk? The bigger chunk? There’s no way of really knowing for sure but... you could read this into it. I definitely am. 3) Google told me Remedy had a little over 250 employees at the end of 2019... 4) ... and 505 has less than 100. I found no good sources for this, I think linkedin said 37, someone else said 50. I’ll just use the 50 figure, idk. No idea man. and for 5) I’ll contradict my point that the Steam release is what knocked the sales out of the park and assume that the number of sold copies stayed the same across all 12 months of 2020, which gives us this:

Ok and now we’re getting into the most dangerous of danger zones because I have no idea how companies or capitalism work, so for educated people™, the remaining calculations might read like a toddler wrote them; I apologize profusely and hereby present last night’s brain vomit:

As stated earlier, development took 3 years, but everyone wanted to get paid in 2020 as well so let’s use 4 years to find out the salaries, which is 48 months. Let’s assume the utopian idea that every employee on the line here gets the exact same amount of money (LOL ikr but shhhh, let’s live out our dirtiest equality fantasies for a second ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)). Which would mean...

And now without the Epic Deal™:

Quod erat demonstrandum. Remedy has been selling their souls to Epic for €350 a month since 2017. (I don’t mean this as maliciously as I’m making it sound, don’t worry xD)

OKAY SO, O B V I O U S L Y, I have not the slightest idea what on earth I’m talking about so read this like you’d read a good fanfiction. We don’t know the different salaries across the different positions (and genders HAH), we don’t know if other parties were involved, I’ve completely ignored the sum that Epic themselves get, I have ignored taxes, I don’t know if my numbers are accurate (they’re definitely not I mean 505 must have more employees than 50), if I made mistakes (yes), and also somewhere along the way I forgot to use the €26.9mio budget figure because, uuh, I have no idea where to use it, what it means, where did it come from, where did it go, cotton eye joe - but oh well, I’m not starting over, take it or leave it.

So... I can now officially say I have written hot steamy economics fic xD Man I put waaay too much time into this but damn was it fun. Good three-hour-deep-dive (two of them spent munching on chocolate half-asleep listening to psytrance to keep my brain twitchy). Real-life-theorizing. Fuck capitalism. Don’t do drugs. Pet a cat. Wear your mask. Call your grandparents.

If there’s typos in this I’m sorry but also I’m not, I can’t be bothered to proofread again lol. Goodnight imma catch up on the sleep I lost. Gotta love full moons

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

When yoy go by the songs that Louis wrote to me I feel that Louis gave so much to that relationship and wasn't received the feelings back, it is clear who the relationship made him feel. I do feel that Harry made is choices and now is facing the consequences. I didn't see a lot of things of them, but I feel that Harry did get used having Louis attention and didn´t think Louis was gonna put the final ending. (+2)

(+2) Personally the relationship was so complex. I do think for Louis, it came to the moment when he re-evaluated things. Sometimes it´s hard see what happend, but I do feel that Harry made some decisions that made the two grow apart and Louis had this moment to re-evaluate things. Maybe Louis didn´t want to end the relationship, but that moment Harry break up with him. (+2)

—

Yeah, I think we’ll never know. I also feel like Harry assumed he could have his solo career and Louis would always be there for him. Louis had come back after so many problems in the past. I’m almost certain that 2015 was a difficult year but they reconciled for MITAM promo.

[[MORE]]

In October 2015, Dan Wootton published an article in The Sun with the title, “I watched as rivalry, hatred, and drugs tore 1D apart.” At the time, I was a Larrie and was confused by how positively the article painted Harry in comparison to Louis, Liam, and Niall. In retrospect, this article followed every talking point of solo!Harry as well as post-hiatus plans for Louis to have his label under Syco (keeping him under Simon’s control). It’s uncanny, but we just didn’t have the Holo template to properly interpret it.

These were the points in the article:

• Harry and Louis hated each other after they moved out of Princess Park

• Larry is a conspiracy

• Harry and Louis are not gay

• Harry traveled by himself because he couldn’t stand to be around Louis

• “The division resulted in Harry — an international superstar following his high profile romance with Taylor Swift later in 2012 — creating a new social circle, featuring many of the entertainment industry’s top movers and shakers.

His close friends also include Irving Azoff, the highly-regarded US music manager who’s been informally advising Harry on his future career.”

• Nick Grimshaw doesn’t like Louis either. He said Harry has “always played it very carefully as he never wanted to be the man who broke up the band.”

• As for Louis, “A source at music giant Sony said: “Frankly, Louis is a little s*** who’s managed to annoy a lot of people over the last couple of years.

“He’s made some ridiculous decisions, like refusing to let 1D perform at the Brit Awards because they wanted more time off.

“But he’s played a clever game as he surely knows he’s not the most talented member and doesn’t have a strong singing voice, so has set himself up as the business brains.

• Zayn was a druggie and Liam an alcoholic

• “Harry would no longer go out with his bandmates to social events, unless hanging out with Irishman Niall, 1D’s unofficial peacekeeper.”

• Backstage at the historic Band Aid recording last November, the group looked miserable, with Harry hanging out with pals Grimmy and Ed Sheeran rather than bandmates.”

• Louis was furious with Zayn for leaving.

• Liam and Louis were the only real friends.

• “The other band members were angry with Zayn because he had gone against their secret plan to make five albums, release a greatest hits collection and then split for a period to work on solo projects.”

• I’ve learned there are even tensions about when 1D will begin their break.

Harry wants them to start their “hiatus” — translation: a break that will become permanent if he is a solo success — by Christmas time. Louis is keen to continue on to next year’s Brit Awards.

A 1D source told me: “The band were furious with you for revealing the break as they didn’t want it to become a big deal, but the reality is they are splitting for a long time.

“Sure, they might get back together if things don’t work out for them individually.

“But that’s unlikely because the view is that Harry will become a massive star.

“In fact, I’m told Sony bosses’ top priority is securing Harry to turn him into a solo superstar.”

—

In fact, this template hews pretty close to HSHQ’s promo strategy for the last 4 years, down to using Haylor to promote HS1, making sure OT4 cannot compete with Holo, keeping Louis as the problematic business guy with a bad voice, aligning Niall / Harry and Liam / Louis, excommunicating Zayn as the drug-addicted fall guy, keeping Louis with Simon. In fact, Louis and Liam went to the Brits 2016, Niall and Harry did not. We can see Sony/ HSHQ trying their damnest to make Harry the massive solo star, but still keeping 1D as a fallback option. The way to make sure Harry stood out was to have all of them release albums within a few months, and gaming the system to make sure Fine Line was the clear winner. Harry won the industry game.

I’m not sure what was discussed with Louis (and by extension Liam and Niall), but the complication was Larry— they were on and off, but clearly there was love. From their songs, I think Harry did not expect Louis to leave. Louis’ decision broke their push-pull pattern. “I looked you in the eye/ and saw that I was lost.” Louis understood the stakes and did what he had known for a long time was the right thing to do.

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: I Bet You Can’t {2}

Chris Evans x Uriah & Chris Hemsworth x Summer

Crossover-Collab Four-Part Miniseries

Warning: Cursing, Plot, Fun, and Games, Raunchy Talk, Trigger Warning Mention of Trump🙃

Words: 2.9K

Summary: Uriah and Chris are happily married. A night of relaxing with your best friends Chris and Summer Hemsworth brings up “No Nut November.” Once you hear it, you know where it’s leading. IT was all jokes until somehow it turned serious. The Chris’ strike a full-on bet while dragging their better halves into the madness. The rules are simple, for the entire month of November none of you will have sex, none of you will get that nut in any way. Whichever couple makes it get bragging rights, and the 10k pool bet money. Whichever couple doesn’t make it has to change their social media name to “Failed NNN” for a week and post/tweet as normal and go on IG live to announce their failure. The bet is rigged though when Uriah and Summer decide to sabotage their husbands and make a side bet on who could make their husband fail quicker. All’s fair in love and war, and this is war.

Note: Got this idea from a group conversation with my friends, where a debate broke out about women being stronger and more able to survive NNN than men. It got me thinking, hmmm we know Chris has a dirty mind, dirty mind has to equal freak and always wanting to fool around.

It was too much fun working with @oceanscorazon​ a while back for her part one to out first collab titled Rumors & Waves. Look out for part two coming soon.  I had to do it again. Thank you to the beautiful and phenomenal Amber @oceanscorazon​ for agreeing to this!!!

This will be a four part story to be posted one chapter a week to show what November is like for Chris and Uriah. @oceanscorazon​ will also write four parts to show that November is like for Chris and Summer.

***So for Chris and Uriah’s timeline, this is before the events of Rumor Has It.

🍁 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

-Week One-

  Four days. Four damn days. You rolled your eyes and stared at your reflection. Fresh out a shower that you thought would help the tension in your shoulders; you realized it hadn’t done anything at all. You rolled your shoulders and groaned. It had been four days. Not one and done or two and done, it had been four damn days since this stupid bet began. Four days where Chris maintained this gung ho attitude that he’d be victorious in No Nut November.

  The first day was easy for him because he was busy working the whole day. When it was time for bed, you expected him to see the error of his ways. As you were lying in the bed channel surfing, he came in kissed your forehead, and stretched back as if he had not one care in the world. He even tried to have a nonchalant conversation. When you slid closer to him and rested your head on his chest you were sure after a few minutes of feeling your body heat he would abandon the no nut ship but nope. He was perfectly content, even had the nerve to stroke mesmerizing and soothing circles onto your arm.

  The second night was much like the first; the only difference was when he climbed into bed he went to you to assume the big spoon position. He stayed there for a few seconds, but when you moaned and wiggled deeper in his embrace he groaned and abruptly moved away to his side of the bed to roll onto his side. When you asked him what that was, he said he wanted to be the little spoon. You found it strange because he never wanted to be the little spoon. He liked being big spoon so he could overpower your body with his long spider-like legs and arms. When you wrapped your arms around him and pressed your body to his back it felt ridiculous because of how much more muscular he was. You moaned and pressed closer, and it was then he moved away claiming he was hot and really needed some sleep.

Night three, he was in bed before you, and he was fast asleep. That irked your nerve; he was creating space between you, not physical space either. He knew you loved to cuddle, but cuddling had all but disappeared as were any kisses that weren’t for your cheek, or forehead. He’d only allowed lip kisses that were under two seconds. The last time you had a two-second kiss was when you were fifteen playing kissing games with other kids your age. You thought when you were married two-second kisses would be a thing of the past.

  After giving your hair a last once over, you gave yourself a determined look in the mirror. You planned on kicking it up a notch. It was couples workout day, and you had a plan. You walked out the bathroom and grabbed your workout towel, and made your way up to your in-home gym where Chris was waiting. You went over the plan in your head again.

  “Tease, tease, ask for training, tease, then seduce, and finally find a release.”

  You nodded, getting into the right mind frame as you climbed the steps to the top floor of yours and Chris’ Boston Brownstone. When you got to the top, the doors to the exercise studio were open, and you saw a tank clad Chris doing pull-ups. Getting lost you stood there and just watched him pump them out like they were nothing. When you’d counted to fifty he dropped down and groaned while stretching out his arms.

  “Fifty, impressive.” He turned around and looked your body over. The look on his face was a masked one.

  “Ready to show me what you go?” You approached him while fastening the gloves around your wrist.

  “Don’t expect fifty.”

  “Come on; I’ll spot you.”

  You stretched your arms, then stood in front of the pull-up bar and looked at Chris through the mirror. He lifted you effortlessly, and you gripped the bar and began your pull-ups. He walked around you as he counted. You tried to keep your eyes focused on yourself in the mirror but every circle he made, you found yourself getting slightly distracted.

  “Fifteen, good. Remember to keep your core tight,” Chris reminded.

  You nearly laughed; he had no idea how tight your core was thanks to this stupid bet. Your arms began to shake, and you knew you only had a few left in you. Chris sensed it too and stood in front of you with his hands out ready to brace your drop.

  “Thirty.” You let the bar go but barely dropped before Chris’s arms caught you, and placed you onto the floor.

  “Felt good, right?”

  “You and I, my friend have very different ideas of what feels good. Lucky for you I know just what will feel good.” You took a step to him. A smile spread across his face then he bit his bottom lip.

  “I’m all ears, Mrs. Evans.”

  “Just ears? I can think of better body parts to have all in.” You pressed your body to his and placed your hand over his crotch. Chris groaned and dropped a kiss to the tip of your nose.

  “Did you come up here to work out or talk?” He moved away to the treadmill and set it up. He was resisting. Great, you thought.

  You spent thirty minutes on the treadmill, then fifteen on the elliptical, then separated for Chris to focus on his back while you concentrated on your legs. After another twenty minutes you’d worked up quite a sweat. When you wiped your forehead you saw Chris doing curls. You walked over to the kettlebells and decided to kick it up. Taking a spot in front of the mirror in clear sight of Chris, you began your kettlebell squats. When you dipped down, you made sure to poke your ass out a bit more than usual.Thanks to the micro shorts you wore, you knew the view was sublime.

  After ten, you began to feel the burn, and you could feel his eyes glued to you. You decided to let your grunts and moans out on the next dip. When you did, you heard him suck in a hiss of air, but you didn’t stop. You were glad you chose this outfit, it showed just the right parts of you, the parts you knew he loved. After another ten you dropped the kettlebell in front of you and bent over to catch your breath. Placing your palms flat on the floor with not even the slightest bend of your knees you waited.

  After a small grunt, he spoke. “You okay, babe?”

  “Yeah, I’m gonna feel those tomorrow,” you responded. He smiled and nodded then walked to the bench press machine.

  “You wanna go first? I’ll spot you.”

  After you put the kettlebell back, you walked to him and lied back. Chris put twenty pounds on and lifted it like it was nothing to make sure it wasn’t too much. “Think you can handle twenty?”

  “Most I’ve ever taken is about ten and a half, but I can handle twenty.” He fully got your meaning and adjusted his stance as he cleared his throat. You lifted your arms, gripped the bar then began. Chris counted them out.

  You were doing fine until you realized how wide his stance was and just how close your head was to the ten and a half you were speaking of. Suddenly your concentration faltered, and your only thought was having him settle into your mouth. His eyes locked with yours, and you wondered if he could tell what you were thinking about. You bit your bottom lip and just imagined him slapping your face with it. Chris was a gentle guy but when he wanted he could get real nasty. You remembered the first time he slapped your cheek with his dick. It was a shock because he was this vanilla guy and you didn’t expect it, but you liked it. All you wanted right now was for him to slap you with it again.

  “Forty, take a break.” He took the bar and put it back in place as you panted and tried to get a grip.

  Why was this harder for you than his freaky ass? You sat up, stood, and motioned for him to go ahead. Before he did, he added another eighty pounds to the bar making it an even hundred. He knew you couldn’t spot that. When he laid down he nudged his head to the side.

  “I got this, babe.”

  Without wasting another second, he began pumping out lift after lift without so much as a tremble. You’d watched him do hundreds of these over the years, and you knew he wasn’t anywhere near tired. Your eyes slowly feasted on every inch of his body until they landed just below his waist. Without thinking you walked to him and swung your leg over him and sat right on his dick. Chris groaned and stopped with the bar in the air. He looked to you with a question in his eyes.

  “Uriah, really? I could have dropped this.”

  “You wouldn’t.” You fixed yourself on him, and he groaned again.

  “What’re you doing?” he continued lifting the bar, only this time, his movements were slower.

  “Nothing, just sitting.”

  “I’m not a seat.”

  “This is the second best seat in the house.”

  “What’s the first?”

  “Your face.” You saw his arm wobble, and your heart skipped a beat, worried he’d drop the bar on his throat. Chris lifted it with a loud grunt and flung it back. The barbell dropped to the floor with a loud clatter before Chris sat up, wrapped one arm around your waist and flipped you so your back was pressed to the bench with him between your legs.

  “Fuck!” the look on his face was an intense mischievous one.

  “What’re you doing, Uriah?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Since the minute we started working out, you’ve been saying all sorts of slick shit and doing everything you possibly could to have my eyes on you. Now, what—are—you—doing?”

  His face was so close, and you could feel him getting hard.

  “I want you.” The fire flickered on behind his deep cornflower blue eyes.

  “It’s been four days, and I want you, baby.”

  “We can’t; you know that.”

  “Chris, of course, we can. I won’t tell anyone. Summer and Chris will keep thinking that we haven’t. It’ll be our little secret.”

  You dropped your hand between your bodies and slipped it into his shorts and gripped his meat. Chris groaned and closed his eyes to enjoy the feel of your hand.

  “Don’t you want me too, baby?”

  “God Riah, you know I want you. You know I always want you.”

  “Okay then. Take these off and let me do all the work.”

  Just when you thought he would give in, he grabbed your hand and stopped its movements.

  “I’m not going to fail this baby. It’s one month, four weeks, thirty days, it is barely a drop in the bucket of our marriage. We can handle this. Our relationship is much more than sex.”

  Your jaw dropped.

  “Who are you?” Chris got off of you and walked over to his towel.

  “Chris, come on. This is stupid. We’re adults. Children make these kinds of bets.”

  “It’ll make us stronger.” You rolled your eyes. He was making you feel like a dick crazed thirsty thot. You sat up on the bench and glared at him.

  “Christopher Robert Evans, if you do not give me the dick I want I promise you I’ll get it elsewhere.”

  Chris rose his eyebrows, but he was amused. He didn’t take a thing you said as serious.

  “Really? Where?”

  “Right under your nose! Don’t test me, boy. It may be November, but I’m still a hot girl!”

  With that, you walked out of the room and stormed downstairs. Hopefully you’d scared the shit out of him, and he’d screw his head on right.

You were disappointed that night when you were met with an actual barrier between you and him in the bed. He’d made a makeshift wall. Your jaw dropped at his audacity. When you saw it you saw red.

  “Chris, you’re fucking kidding me, right?!”

  “What? I thought this would help you out. It’s a wall. You stay on your side, and I’ll stay on mine,” Chris explained.

  “A wall? So you Trump now? Building walls and shit? What’s next?”

  “Don’t play with me like that. Don’t mention that name in my house!”

  He was dead serious. You rolled your eyes. “Well, stop acting like him, unless you plan on grabbing this pussy.”

  He couldn’t keep a straight face to that one, and he busted out laughing. His laughter prompted yours, and some of the tension melted away.

  “I love you more than life Riah, but you’re not getting none of this dick.”

  Again your jaw dropped. You couldn’t believe this. You stormed away and went into your closet hell-bent on finding your stash of toys. You went into the drawer in the back, expecting to find them in the box you’d put them, but the box was empty.

  “Oh hell no he didn’t.”

  You stormed back out to the bedroom and saw Chris sitting there with a smug smirk on his face. “You’re not getting any plastic dick either. For better or worse means we’re in this together.”

  This shit would not do at all. It wasn’t even the end of the week yet, and you were bout tired of this shit. Tomorrow it was time to reassess.

  ~~~~~~~

 “Girl, you too!”

  You’d just finished telling Summer all about Chris’ ass and the shit he’d put you through. You even told her how he confiscated your toys, so self pleasure was out of the question too.

  “Summer, why are we always the ones paying the price for their stupidity?”

  “I don’t know, but Chris had the nerve to get a body pillow to separate us in bed. A body pillow Riah!”

  “They must be long lost brothers or something. Chris pulled that shit too, except he actually made a fucking wall Summer, a wall of pool noodles. Pool noodles!”

  Summer snickered and nearly fell out of her chair. You laughed too, but deep down, you were salty as fuck.

  “He is serious about this, Riah. I didn’t think he’d make it two days, but the week ends tomorrow, and he still won’t let me sit on it,” Summer whined. You felt her pain.

  “At least he didn’t take your toys.”

  Summer looked from side to side as she thought about it. “Hold on.”

  You watched as she walked through her mansion to the master bedroom. She perched the camera up and searched her belongings. You busied yourself looking through the folders that had been messengered over for the impending album. Suddenly you heard a loud squeal.

  “This mother--.”

  “Watch your mouth, Summer!”

  “Christopher Hemsworth, what did you do? Where is my bag of trix?”

  Chris came into the frame with a wide smile. “I have no idea what you’re referring to.”

  “Chris, I’m not being funny. Where is it?”

  “It’s safe. I found it a new home for the month.” Summer’s mouth dropped.

  “You had no right; it’s mine Christopher.”

  “What’s mine is yours, and yours is mine.”

  “If that were true, you’d give me that dick already!” She shrieked again, but Chris didn’t look threatened. He simply laughed then looked to the camera.

  “Riah, how are you, darling? How is this first week of November treating you and Evans?”

  You tried hard not to scowl, but the salty look on your face was a permanent fixation at this point.

  “Ah, I see, as well as Summer’s week. Cheerio, just three more to go. Eye on the prize. Tell Evans I’ll call him later. I’m off to get a workout.”

  “Yeah, yeah, no one cares. You have the best workout equipment here, and you’re just letting it grow cobwebs,” Summer spat.

  “Cobwebs? I think they have products for that babe.”

  Summer shrieked again before she launched a pillow at him. Chris shouted bye as he ran.

  “I have had it with him, Riah. All I want is some sex, is that too much to ask for?!”

  “I know. I thought Chris would be over it by now, but he isn’t. They’re serious,” you finished.

  The two of you sat there with pained, salty expressions. After almost a minute, the two of you gasped simultaneously. Your eyes met, and she looked like she had an idea.

  “I’ve got it,” the two of you said together.

  “What?” Again your voices overlapped.

  “You first,” a final time you said together. The two of you giggled before Summer spoke.

  “Sabotage!”

  You smiled widely and nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. We kick it up ten notches.”

  “You know what Cevans likes and is weak for, and I know what’ll make my Australian blonde go nuts. We use it,” Summer added.

  “Exploit the shit out of it. The gloves have to come off Summer. We turn this all the way up.”

  “Jamaica Hedonism style, anything goes,” she added as she nodded in agreement.

  “Our goal is to make them lose this bet. The question is who will lose first,” you finished. Summer’s face lit up, and your smile followed.

  “Oh girl, this is good. Payback is a bitch!”

  “May the husbands fail,” you both said together. The two of you looked determined. Your eye was on the prize, and the prize was your nut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***If you want to be tagged please SEND AN ASK SO IT WILL BE EASIER FOR ME TO KEEP TRACK OF. Thank you for reading!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TagList:

@chrisgalore​ @chaneajoyyy​ @rynabarnesrogers​ @disneysdarlingdiva​ @bellaamor88​ @ab-baybay​ @sonjashuterbugjohnson​ @caramara3​ @patzammit​ @melodyofmbaku @kelbabyblue

[raindrops-on-the-roof]

major fanfic progress update! please check here for updates on ALL wips!

hey everyone! this may be a bit of a long one, so i’ll post the tl;dr here and then continue on under the cut! these are all as of the 28th of May 2020!

posted: it's nothing: currently completed. if there's more carmen/gray content in the next season you betcha I'm gonna update it though! hash for updates: its nothing

here is something to believe in: on temporary hiatus while I work out where I want the direction of the plot to go. i try to post progress with the hash: histbi

unposted: red threads, golden chains: Phoenix Wright! a wrightworth-centric eight-chapter analysis of the original game (with artistic liberty involved, of course!). hash: red threads golden chains

You can lead a horse to Water: Fire Emblem: Three houses! a half-finished claudeleth drabble focusing on Byleth's thoughts of Garreg Mach. not sure how far it'll extend yet; we'll see. hash on tumblr: horse to water

Jump into the Fog: Overwatch! a multichap Symmrat fanfic based around the overwatch recall (cause there isn't enough of those!). title is shamelessly stolen from The Wombats and the legendary vargrimar and nezkah. hash for this: jitf!

more information on all of these under the cut! 

Extended version!

it’s nothing: currently completed at about 8k words!  i originally intended to leave it open ended at chp 3 for next season (which is confirmed!! hooray!!) but I eventually succumbed to y'all asking for more haha. not sure the direction i would take other than that though, and i feel like the ending suits the rush of it!

here is something to believe in: on temporary hiatus at around 30k words! i know this is disappointing to a lot of you but i honestly wrote most of those words in a spur of inspiration without any thought as to how it would work lmao. i need some time to work out what the plot will be so that my writing has direction and you guys aren’t left disappointed. the other thing is that chapters are currently spanning a half day at a time and i cannot continue that considering the game spans several years! so i need to plan that out too. would appreciate any advice/assistance! i’m also still looking for anyone interested in betaing it! please pm me if you are :D

red threads, golden chains: currently sitting in my doc at about 20k words. i started this fic almost a year ago as a guilty pleasure during my last year at school (which is mostly why it didn’t get finished) but it is almost completed! i think only another 5k words max before it’s edited and posted which is super exciting! it’s likely going to be about eight chapters, posted weekly. keep an eye on the hash for updates! here is a taster (i haven’t written the description yet lmao): 

“Edgeworth glares at him again and Phoenix remembers when they were on the same side. He supposes that it had never been intentional to chase Edgeworth, but that was just how things ended up: he doesn’t think he’s thankful for Dahlia, exactly, but almost certainly without her he never would’ve met Mia the way he did.

The more he thinks about it, the more he thanks his lucky stars that he fell into her lap and reconsidered that day - the day Miles defended him in class and seared himself into Phoenix’s memory. From that day, Miles showed him he wasn’t and never would be alone.

Until the incident, of course.

He left, and never explained why. He left Phoenix behind, and though that view is childish and he knows it, he can’t help but feel the cold space he left behind, tugging at his very being for years and years.”

look forward to it!

You can lead a horse to Water: it’s a oneshot; currently about a quarter done at around 1.5k. Claudeleth/Bylaude is probably in my top fire emblem ships so i just HAD to write something for it after the feels of this fic and ESPECIALLY this fic! the stunning poetry inspired me so much; just read these lines: ‘He wonders in-between breaths “If she could see me now, would she hate me?”.

Yet what he says is “If I need to shut up, then make me.”

And what he thinks is “If this is a nightmare, then wake me.”’ SPECTACULAR! unfortunately the fic is orphaned, but still, please go read it!

songs such as Charlie by Mallrat and Apricot Princess by Rex Orange County also inspired this! no clue when it’ll be up, but i’m not letting go of it. here’s a taste:

“The first time Byleth saw Claude, it was like something clicked.

Not visibly and hardly mentally, of course - but in her heart, despite its determination not to beat, something almost shifted, like it realised its perpetual emotionless state was unsustainable and impossible against his charming smiles.

Except, his smiles weren’t charming; they were razor-sharp, pointy and pointed, and it would take a long time before that changed, unfortunately.”

watch this space for more updates!

Jump into the Fog: the plans are currently at about 6k lmao! i am very excited for this fic cause it’ll be my first fully planned one! i have the overarching plot and all the characters planned out (everyone will be there, even Echo!) and am just writing the seperate character arc plots and finishing up the ideas for individual missions and such! here is the summary:

“Through no fault of her own, Symmetra finds out of Vishkar’s wrongdoing. Not knowing who to trust and having nowhere to go, she follows the last person on Earth she wanted to see to somewhere that can help her; Overwatch.

His health quickly deteriorating, Junkrat resigns himself to his shortened lifespan and decides to go out with a bang. Recalling a doctor who saved countless lives from his youth, Roadhog doesn’t take that lying down, and the ensuing hunt places them at Overwatch’s door.”

timeline placement: takes past after two weeks after the Paris mission shown in the Overwatch two release video. easy to assume after the events of the Christmas of year one of the recall. Baptiste’s betrayal of Talon brought a year earlier. Junkrat and Roadhog in Australia for Christmas, Lucio’s record released after Vishkar left Rio in November of that year. hence, this takes place in early Jan.

at the moment the planned ships are 100% symmrat, gency and bunnyribbit, and am considering the rest of the characters’ ships. i am also trying to make it as scientifically viable as possible! no cheesing here, i did my research into radiation poisioning lmao. Satya actually gets her friend *cough* Baptiste *cough* to disconnect her arm as she flees from Vishkar! the people present at the Overwatch base when they arrive (a week between them) are the people shown in Zero Hour, minus Genji (which will be explained!)

I’m SO excited for this fic, but I have no idea when it will be ready to post lol. I will likely try to finish other things before starting writing it (namely horse to water and red threads, golden chains and maybe even histbi), so the plans may sit dormant for some time. will be putting out a call for betas when i start writing!

thank you for reading, everyone! stay safe out there!

[smashmusicideas]

November 28: DLC Part 3: the Upcoming Games

Now, there are gonna be a number of limitations here, but I think it’s fair to say that Nintendo will likely be looking at a number of new or unreleased games for at least some DLC characters to advertise. I don’t think that’s all we’ll get, but I’m confident assuming that will take up a bit of their attention. So, let’s get to ‘em - or at least the ones I can remember:

Animal Crossing (though I’m doubtful this would lead to a character now that Isabelle’s in)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Metroid Prime 4

Pokémon Gen VIII

Town

Yoshi’s Crafted World (though I’m doubtful of this, too, given Yoshi has that new alternate costume)

You’ll note all these are Nintendo-owned games. Personally, I’m a bit less of a believer in the possibility of upcoming third party games being included - at least, those that are new intellectual properties and not sequels - just because the rights and processes are weirder and more complicated. You can be more certain that, say, Animal Crossing will come out as something acceptable than a project not entirely or mostly under your control. Though there are also series likely to get a sequel within the next couple years, Kirby and The Legend of Zelda being the biggest. The latter especially could be a big deal, partially since I do think Nintendo will be at least somewhat biased towards the games it more fully controls (over, say, the ones owned by subsidiaries or developed by outside studios). And, there are of course several games we don’t know about that are in production; there’s a chance a fighter might be added before their game even releases, like what happened to Roy.

Now, the easiest way to read this would be through assuming that we’ll be getting a character who’s new, and I do think (at least) one of the fighters will have debuted next year, after Smash. Certainly a Pokémon character will be from the newest generation, for instance. But that might not be entirely the case. The best fit from the new Luigi’s Mansion would likely be King Boo, assuming he’s the bad guy again, just like how a new Kirby game would “probably” go with someone like Bandana Waddle Dee. 

Again, I also do want to discourage assumptions that it’ll be all advertisement for upcoming things. I’m comfortable assuming promoting new stuff will be a big part, but it might not be all. I do think Nintendo has an interest in adding a new fighter from a guest series. And they probably want to bring in some more classic characters who’ve not yet been in the series (Dixie Kong, Birdo, Bandana Waddle Dee) or more modern characters (someone from Rhythm Heaven or ARMS). In both Mario Kart 8 and Mario Maker, Nintendo has shown an interest in representing things both old and new. Classic and new characters were added as Kart racers (with most of the tracks being of classic games), and Mystery Mushroom costumes ran the gamut from has-been NES characters to gimmicky newcomers to classics used for anniversaries. So I do think it’ll be at least a bit more equitable.

However, there will definitely be an interest in grabbing from a new game. There’s gotta be; it’d be crazy if there wasn’t. Fundamentally, the company is looking at DLC from a financial standpoint (it presumably trusts Sakurai and his team to make it artistically and structurally strong). It’d be financially smartest to try for every fighter to hit as many of those points we discussed in the last DLC post as possible, and grabbing from newer games is one not small part of that. So pay attention to the upcoming games, especially in Directs from early next year. The games shown off will have been in production for at least some time.

As one final thing, I’m sorry about having not been on nearly as much over the past week or so. It’s just been hard thinking of new topics, and I’ve also been trying to work on my Smash Bros. retrospective.

(Link to my writings on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

[shortqueershakespeare]

Do all the asks! Hope you had a good Christmas!! <3

In ausOkay here goes, all the asks from the end of 2020

1. How many lockdowns did you go through until now? 

I actually can’t remember if I was in one or two in the UK, because I barely changed my habits, I stayed in my house throughout lockdown and non-lockdown. But either 2 or 3.

2. Ever been quarantined? (contact person, waiting for test result or positive test result) 

Yep, right before the start of UK lockdown one because of possible symptoms in my household and once in Austria now. 

3. Ever taken a Corona test? 

Yup, I took one, a gargle test.

4. Have you lived together with someone during lockdown?

Yep, lockdown in the UK with my dad and sister, in Austria with my flatmate.

5. Something you enjoyed about lockdown? 

Spending more time with my sister and also seeing my puppy grow up.

6. What bothered you most about lockdown? 

Not being able to hug my mum when we lost our rabbit and not being able to hug friends.

7. Which change, e.g. home office, would you like to keep once it´s all over? 

Teaching from home wouldn’t be bad to keep, also normalising wearing masks and distancing when ill.

8. Been to any Corona related demonstration? 

No.

9. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (completely), how well do you stick to government´s rules? Explain. 

In the UK I would say 10, and I did more than stick to them, I rarely left the house except for walking the dog. In Austria 7 or 8, we don’t really have the concept of bubbles here but through lockdown we had our friend in our bubble. I did also accidentally break curfew at one point.

10. Favorite lockdown activity? 

Sleeping, frankly.

11. How did the lockdown affect your work/education? 

The end of my year at uni was done at home, with take home exams and now my work is going to be distance teaching again. And of course masks and distancing at in person teaching.

12. Any new hobbies you tried out during lockdown? 

I taught myself to sew and cross-stitch!

13. Any new subscriptions you made due to lockdown? 

Disney plus!

14. Anything new you tried to learn during lockdown? 

Sewing, a few new recipes.

15. Any old hobbies you took up again during lockdown? 

I started writing a lot more again and did a lot of crafting.

16. How did you keep in touch during lockdown? 

Zoom calls, skyping, postcards.

17. Favorite mask you own? 

My rainbow one!

18. Favorite online conferencing tool? 

Teams for teaching.

19. Any new technologies and technological tools you tried out due to lockdown? 

Zoom, google meet, MS teams and a few online games.

20. Have you been able to go on any holidays this year? 

No.

21. Are Christmas markets allowed in your country? 

Sadly not:( It was part of what I was looking forward to about my year abroad and I’m genuinely gutted about it.

22. How are you going to spend Christmas in this situation? (or whatever you are celebrating!) 

I spent Christmas with my flatmate, we did polish dinner on the 24th, British Christmas on 25th and then called my family on Christmas day. I managed to make all of Christmas dinner all by myself which I was really chuffed with.

23. Any small business you support? 

Yeah, plenty of local shops.

24. Any small artist you support? 

When I find people on instagram or tumblr i try yeah! 

25. Favorite online shop?

I am in a very bath having mood so bomb cosmetics.

26. Dumbest impulse buy? 

My terrible Christmas hat.

27. First thing you bought when the shops reopened? 

Quite literally no idea, but I would assume something food related.

28. Been to the hair dresser this year? 

Nope, but I’ve been cutting my own hair for 2 or 3 years so that’s not unusual.

29. Got a new tattoo or piercing this year? 

Nope!

30. What did you only start to appreciate because lockdown took it from you? 

How easy it was to meet new people.

31. Favorite book that was released this year? 

Contacts by Mark Watson or Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh.

32. Favorite book you read that year? 

The same as above.

33. Favorite movie that was released this year? 

uhhhhh bold of you to assume that I paid attention.

34. Favorite movie you watched this year? 

101 dalmatians, a classic but gave me a lot of comfort. 

35. Favorite series that was released this year? 

Staged or the Goes Wrong Show.

36. Favorite series that you watched this year? 

Same answer.

37. Favorite podcast that you listened to this year? 

Cryptid Cape or I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha.

38. Favorite artist this year? 

Taylor Swift.

39. Total minutes on Spotify this year? 

I don’t have spotify!

40. Favorite album that was released this year?

I can’t separate folklore and evermore.

41. Favorite album that you listened to this year? 

Again, folklore and evermore.

42. Favorite song that was released this year? 

I’m gonna go with dorothea.

43. Favorite song you listened to this year?

dorothea or rainbow by dodie or Sad Girl Summer by Maisie Peters.

44. Favorite Corona related song? 

So Will I - Ben Platt.

45. What do you do to prevent yourself from going insane during lockdown? 

Sat outside and watched the stars at night listening to songs, took my dog for a walk, did some writing.

46. Describe a typical lockdown day of yours. 

I mean I’m in a kinda weird position of living with/being a kind of key worker. When I was in the UK, I would wake up at 9 to look after the pup, take her for a walk, do uni work or plan for my year abroad. Cook or help my sister cook dinner, play as a group with the puppy, then chill in the living room with family, play animal crossing. In Austria It’s been waking up half an hour before my first class, teaching, cooking and chilling.

47. Something you did during lockdown that you´ve been putting off for way too long? 

Had some proper heart to hearts with my sister and organised my year abroad.

48. Trying new baking recipes or new cooking recipes? 

Yeah! I made profiteroles and some new curries.

49. Netflix or Amazon Prime? 

Prime because you can buy stuff too, it would be netflix but my dad keeps forgetting to tell me his password.

50. Did you get Disney+? 

Yeah, I share it with a few friends.

51. Any new social media you started using during lockdown? 

Not sure actually!

52. Any trends you fell for? 

Not that I can think of?

53. Did you achieve more or less than in a normal year? Explain. 

Frankly, since November 2019 life has been utter hell so if it was less I wouldn’t be shocked but I think the tail end of the year has been pretty successful, I moved countries, signed my first rent contract and am supporting myself for the first time. But it’s kind of a mixed bag.

54. Did you start therapy this year? 

Nope.

55. Books or audio books? 

Both but I find reading really relaxing but hard to get into. I’ve read a shit ton of fanfic though.

56. Audio books or podcasts? 

Podcasts mostly.

57. Twitch or Youtube? 

Youtube.

58. Attended any online concert? 

Tessa Violet’s “the something to look forward to” tour

59. Favorite stream/streamer this year? 

I really enjoyed Mark Watson’s Watson-A-Thon and also Broadway Jackbox, the Evan Hansen one.

60. Most used social media this year? 

Either twitter or tumblr.

61. Yoga or long lone walks? 

Long lone walks.

62. Did you get a pet this year? 

Yeah! My puppy!

63. Did it snow where you live this year? 

Yeah It snowed in Vienna for one day.

64. What were you doing when you found out about the announcement of the first lockdown? 

I think I was in quarantine, looking after the dog.

65. Did you panic buy anything? 

No, I don’t think so.

66. Ever ran out of toilet paper? 

Yes. 

67. Favorite lockdown comfort food? 

Something with gravy. 

68. Selfcare tips for lockdown? 

Be gentle with yourself. Try to give yourself structure but don’t feel guilty for not being productive.

69. Did you use delivery services this year? For what kind of food? 

God yes, supermarket a few times. And also meals, kebabs a fair bit.

70. Any weird coping techniques you developed during or after lockdown? 

Not especially I don’t think.

71. Favorite game you played this year? 

Animal Crossing!

72. Favorite drink this year? 

Pornstar martinis.

73. Favorite food this year? 

Christmas Dinner.

74. Favorite App this year? 

Puzzle Page! I’ve enjoyed doing crosswords and stuff a lot.

75. Favorite memory of this year? 

Drunk dog walk with my sister in the pouring rain.

76. Any plans you had for this year that you could realize? 

Wait what does this one mean?? Any plans I COULD do? My year abroad I guess. Any plans I couldn’t - interrailing.

77. Do you even plan anything for next year? 

I still have the rest of my year abroad plan.

78. Did you find new (online) friends this year? 

Yeah - one at my uni who I didn’t know so that was nice!

79. Did you go through a break-up this year? 

No. 

80. Did you get into a new relationship this year? 

No.

81. Did you do something creative this year? Tell us about it. 

Yeah, I cross-stitched a bee, a snake and a butterfly and I also did lots of writing and a few doodles on my writing blog (lovenliterature).

82. Favorite blog you found on tumblr this year? 

A bunch of wolfstar or ballum ones - I really like @aeternumregina and @shanastoryteller too.

83. What did you buy way too much of this year? 

Take out and alcohol.

84. Did you win anything this year? 

Nope.

85. Did you drastically change your diet this year? 

Not especially, I tried to have more fruit though and I started drinking coffee.

86. Did you move to a new home this year? 

Yeah! I now live in a flat in Vienna.

87. Did you do something this year that you never did before? 

Signed rent and work contracts in another country. Also got corona.

88. Celebrity crush of the year? 

Ben Platt or Andrew Scott.

89. Most expensive thing you bought this year?

My phone!

90. Been abroad this year? 

Yep, I moved abroad.

91. Favorite tumblr trend of this year? 

Just fucking waiting for more Destiel news.

92. New Years Resolutions you broke this year?

I didn’t make any this year tbh.

93. NYRs you kept? 

Same answer.

94. NYRs you have for next year? 

Just be nicer to myself and remember to renew prescription/make doctor’s appointments sooner.

95. How are you going to spend New Years Eve? 

Drinking with my flatmate in my flat.

96. Will you get your fortune told in any way around NYE? 

No I don’t think so.

97. Any new shops (online or real) you discovered this year? 

Billa, our supermarket lol.

98. Any food you tried out for the first time this year? 

Polish Christmas food!

99. How did you celebrate your birthday this year? 

It was in Feb so had friends round and had drinks.

100. Was this ask game better or worse than 2020? 

Better

[amisbro]

Let’s Talk:  Broccoli’s Gamble

And how it paid off for them The first thing we have to do is go ALLLLLL THE WAY BACK to 8/8/2009 when Broccoli announced on their blog that they were going to be starting a franchise called “Uta no Prince-Sama”.  It was a game that would follow 6 idols that were going to school at Saotome Gauken (Shining Academy) as they attempt to make their debut with the composer whom the player would name in the game BUT for the purposes of this post we will use the name that is most familiar in Haruka Nanami. Before that November would start with the CDs for the 6 original boys that would appear in UtaPri and this would run up to February where we would get to hear the first songs of the cast at that time.  We WOULD get “Welcome to UTAPRI World” later but we’re splitting hairs. When the first game came out a lot was probably riding on it because Broccoli wanted it to succeed and ,while I can’t find #’s for the original, we can assume it did very well for the company because they kept going with the games all the way up to February 26th of 2015 when All-Star After Secret released and is the last “new” game for either the PSP or the VITA at this time with Dolce Vita to come later Little did we realize that ,while the game gamble was going to pay off, No one probably looked at UtaPri and thought as an Anime it would go past one 13 week series.  Most probably thought it was going to be ,at the least, a single cour series and at the most maybe 2...an OVA ,2 more Series and a Movie was PROBABLY not in the cards if you gave Broc truth serum. But Broc had another part of this plan and that was their stage shows While they only started at a 1500 seat building called “U-Port Hall” they went bigger and better as they moved up to 10K seat buildings to NOW aroud the 30K mark which they have filled for 3 different Lives!  That was impressive There is NO WAY their gamble could  keeping paying off right?  I mean eventually the house wins and you go broke! WELL While I don’t have the numbers for the character singles of the first two series in the Anime Seasons 3 and 4 have shown that Broc was going to keep winning...and in some cases it wouldn’t have to be the character singles from STARISH to outright do it because if you remember around Season 3 when QN had their frist Anime Single they were in the top 3 peaking at #2...they couldn’t do better than that surely WRONG When Season 4 came around what we found out was that QUARTET NIGHT had a fanbase that was REALLY HUNGRY and it was so much so when the Anime came out that what happened was they didn’t want to give up the #1 spot for a long time and they broke a lot of records not just for UtaPri but for Anime Singles as a whole and that has to tell you something. Season 4 was also another gamble for Broccoli:  To allow a “rival group” in HEAVENS to be able to have singles with STARISH members and also to have their own group single. It ALMOST didn’t payoff Interestingly enough when the group singles came out the one that peaked the highest was JUSTICE IMPULSE which was around the top 5 while others made either the top 10 but didn’t stick or just didn’t break it.  Mamoru Miyano’s character single with Yuuma Uchida NEARLY broke the top 10 but not quite but others weren’t nearly as lucky.  With Ren/Van’s and Yamato/Syo’s being the top marks for the duets what would this mean for HEAVENS when their group single came out? Well?! HEAVENS had their single come out last and it was after the masterful job that God’s S.T.A.R. did.  They also had to contend with the fact that the mainstays in STARISH were in the top 5 when their single came out (as was Mamo’s single for the season in Tempest IIRC) so there was NO WAY they would get past that right? WRONG Now I’m going to stop here for a second and I will say that ,yes these songs were under King Records, BUT its the idea that a group that was constructed by Broccoli to be the opposition to STARISH originally was going to be put in this spot.  What would happen? Not much...just the top 3! “Immortal Inferno” peaked at #3 on the Daily charts and yet again Broc beat the house.  Whether we want to admit it they did a hell of a job constructing this group because you had old vets and new guys that no one really knew.  Sure you had Kimura ,OnoD and Midorin BUT we had Hidenori ,Daiki Yamashita and also Yuuma...oh and Wingu unless you watched FREE! (spoiler:  I did and I had no idea he was in it). HEAVENS was the renegades and they did the unthinkable.  Even with their first ever Drama CD in HEAVEN SKY they did pretty well with a top 5 peak even if it didn’t last the duration of the time on the chart. Surely Broccoli was done with the gambles right?  I mean they HAVE to lose the next one right? Well this brings us to a more present day event Last Year was the debut of a game called “Shining Live” which is a co-production with Broccoli and KLab and it did AMAZING in Japan with the game getting over 2 Million downloads since its launch in August of last year!  Put that in perspective:  If you got the numbers from the first 10 weeks on the three music games between VITA and PSP I don’t think they sold 1 Million TOTAL! But Japan was going to be a relatively easy market...how would they do IF the games made it outside of Japan (and this was something Broccoli has been against with restricting PVs for the games in the past)?  Well there would NEED to be at least an English version to find out On May 11 2017 (you can check that through the twitter creation date) there WAS an English twitter created for Shining Live but no posts on it were known about and all news would have to be translated by a fan account at the time.  It wasn’t until before the JP version came out (I believe it was during 7th Anniversary) that a Global version was announced.  No news on the date (because of the fact it was going to be in English and Chinese) but one had been announced...this was going to be the BIGGEST gamble that it takes! Well for a while there were crickets...no one knew anything about the development of the global version and all was silent THEN JANUARY 2018 CAME! It was around this time that the English Twitter started posting news and updates about the game with trailers and the like.  When they got closer to a suspected release date they started with the translated bios of the characters so that newcomers to the series could get to know the characters they would be seeing over the coming months in the game. Then January 24th a.k.a. ONE DAY AFTER CAMUS’ BIRTHDAY came and the game was launched in less than a 3 month period (maybe even less than that) the Global version broke 1 Million more downloads with the English version on Google Play having over 100K! Broccoli is that gambler that ,no matter what, will look at the situation and go “We’re doing this” Its interesting when you think about it because Broccoli took a franchise that is almost 10 years old unofficially (the Anniversary is always designated by the first game release) and gambled SO HARD with it that now the question that needs to be asked is this “If you knew you were gonna come up Trumps Broc...why did you make fans wait outside of Japan?” In many respects Broccoli has won every gamble with UtaPri they can make...there IS one left and its been proven in Japan they can win with them Will they make THE BET in the Western Market? I don’t see how they can lose at this point to be honest

[aurimeanswind]

VIDEO GAMES—Sunday Chats (10-29-17)

There are a lot of video games, and I haven’t done questions in a minute, so those too. Let’s get to it!

ExtraLife 2017

I wanted to throw a PSA in here that Irrational Passions, my “conglomerate” is throwing together our big special ExtraLife show for 2017 on November 11th, starting at 12pm Eastern Time, and we’ll be playing video games and live streaming them for 24 hours from then. It’ll be live over on twitch.tv/IrrationalPassions and myself and Roger Pokorny threw together a little announcement video, since a TON of guests will be there with us! You should check it out!

That’s really it for stuff I wanted to get out of the way, not games and questions!

What’s on Tap

Two things, that are not games, that I want to mention.

Stranger Things Season 2 is out now on Netflix and I have watched all nine episodes of it. It’s very excellent, and you should take the time to watch the series. It’s fun, and funny, and tense, and has a lot of great relationships between characters.

And actually, above all the amazing things to come out this week in the media world, my favorite, hands down is the new cover album from Ninja Sex Party, featuring Tupperware Remix Party (TWRP). It’s called Under the Covers Vol 2 and it’s legitimately incredible. Easily my album of the year, and I’m listening to it right now while writing this. Dan Avidan’s voice is perfect.

That is all on that front.

The Evil Within 2

So I finished The Evil Within 2! It’s great, very fun, very well made, very polished, and has some excellent mechanics.

I think the weakest aspect of the game really is the story, and specifically in that the performances of the characters. There is just not any one really well done character save for the two major villains of the game.

I actually rolled right into New Game Plus right after finishing it too, and that’s been fun since you just get so much extra points and parts to upgrade your guns and abilities, so you turn into a powerhouse pretty quickly. 

It reminds me a lot of Dead Space 2 weirdly enough, just not quite as excellent. Regardless, it’s still a really excellent game and worth a look, especially if you at all liked the first.

Super Mario Odyssey

Joy.

This game is just purely joyous, and unabashedly so. It just takes delight in its own mechanics and creativity.

It’s just a massive breath of fresh air, in a similar way to how Zelda was, but in a totally different way as well. 

Nintendo has laid out some stellar stuff this year, and Mario is no exception. While Mario has never held the same special place as Nintendo’s other properties for me, this one channels all the best parts of Mario and his lineage and brings that glee to light. It’s excellent, and I’m sure you didn’t need me to tell you that.

Questions!

Look for my Tweet with the hashtag #SundayChats that I shoot out Sunday afternoons. Respond with your question, and I’ll answer it here on Sunday Chats!

Okay, but I mean is this—

Um... Okay. Yeah dude. You do you. Glad you got a Switch and the Mario and stuff...

But really, a lot of playing Mario for me has been falling back in love with the Nintendo Switch as a platform. I’m curious what you think of it Logan! Glad you seem to be enjoying yourself!

No. For sure not. I also didn’t really love their E3 showing, so who knows. I think Sony is gonna have some cool stuff to show, but I think the “Second half of E3″, if that is gonna be anywhere outside of E3, is going to be at PSX, especially after The Last of Us 2 drop last year. With Uncharted fully done now, we know Naughty Dog is likely all hands on deck with Last of Us Part 2. I cannot wait, with that in mind, even though it’s likely still 2019. But I think PSX will see the reveal of Sucker Punch’s next game, so I don’t know what that leaves for Paris Games week.

This is a great question! It’s hard to pin down, and I’m honored to say some of my favorite things I’ve read this year have been on IrrationalPassions.com. But outside of that, I wanna give a shoutout to Jason Schreier’s unveil of what went on with EA and Visceral, from this very week.

It’ll be in the Checklist section, but it’s kind of the first of these big exposés I’ve sat down and read all the way through in one sitting, and it was phenomenal. It really opened my eyes to the different kinds of struggles that studios can run into that I had no perception of at all. It’s a fantastic read, and an even better story.

I mean, yes. And no.

Taking into account that I know you, and I know you don’t really like 3D games and games of that ilk, of course, yeah I get it. Taking those big ones out, games like SteamWorld Dig 2, Stardew Valley, HiveSwap, Shantae, and more can’t carry a year like the heavy hitters in the 3D space. But I think you have to take that step back and look at the wider "games” as a whole. 

To use me as an example, I don’t like Wolfenstein nor do I plan on playing the new one, or Battlefront 2, or Call of Duty World War 2, those are the big games that don’t click with me, but that doesn't mean those games can’t be incredible, and just because I don’t like them doesn’t mean they’re not great or incredible, but my appreciation of them will be different. But that’s my critic’s perspective.

I think that’s okay, but I’d encourage you to keep trying those games you typically don’t like and search for something in them that you can find and enjoy. I’ll try the betas for Battlefront 2 and CoDWW2 and try and try and look for something I like even if I can’t find it, because I’d rather waste my time looking for the good then take the easy road of assuming the bad.

But eh. That’s just me being a goody two shoes as always.

Yeah, it does! I would love to see that extend out to Bandai Namco! Getting games like Dark Souls, and the upcoming Code Vein on Switch would be excellent. But more over, I think they’d be shrewd, and quiet, like the Bethesda team up. Bandai Namco isn’t the biggest publisher, not even top three, but it covers another niche of games that Nintendo can draw to its platform. Those kinds of players maybe are to chopped on what system they play on, just how enjoyable that experience is. Going the obscure route has worked so well for them, and I think this could work to.

Plus I really want a Dark Souls remaster/re-release with some new features/better frame rate, and it being on Switch may be even better.

Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, and Samus Aran. 

We’d have tea and crumpets, and discuss cute color combinations and space ships, because I think all four of us would have some broad, sweeping opinions on all of the above.

Another good one, a bit more serious, is Nathan Drake, Marcus Fenix, and... Well, Samus Aran again.

Can I just have a date dinner with Samus Aran?

It’s been crazy weird dude. I wish the world wasn’t in as rough shape as it was :/

Uhg.

Fuck.

This is a great question Miranda, but god fuck all of this.

Okay.

A wolf.

And hear me out, because the wolf would probably kill me a lot slower.

But the same shit with Octopi that is with spiders, which I hate. Octopi got too many legs, and I just don’t wanna fuck with it. And it’d be all slimy. And I know both would ultimately kill me, because Octopi do NOT fuck around, but I can like, imagine the Wolf is a cute fucking doggo and be slightly less sad about it.

Also like, then I’d get to see a wolf, which I’ve always wanted to see, and I never want to see the sea-spider for as long as I live.

He is a v. v. handsome boy Cameron and you should be proud.

I’d say at least two customs, and one robo.

Because I know me.

I’m not selfish.

Save some Robot for the other kids.

I think it’s definitely up there. I love it for sure. I love that it’s doing something different on Netflix, and blending this weird nostalgia and referential material into a really cohesive and well made original thing with its own ideas and things to say.

And these latest season has a ton of Ghostbusters so I’m a fan.

This is so rad! For folks curious, here is the referenced article:

https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/28/16563612/destiny-2-deaf-clan-leviaithan-raid-calus

I just love this shit. I hadn’t seen it, but it shows the tenacity and ingenuity of players from all walks of life. What I’d really like to see, and it’d be hard to set up, but having all six players on six screens in the same room so the Shadow Realm folks  didn’t need to say anything, and the ones outside could just look and know. It’d be super rad, and we may be able to do this at ExtraLife, but we’ll see.

I love making new and original solutions to problems, and just like I said with the whole jargon-discussion when we played the raid, this is this team making their own jargon for the raid.

The Checklist

The Collapse of Visceral’s Ambitious Star Wars Game - Jason Schreier - Kotaku - https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152

This is the first one of these I’ve actually really read, at least since Klepek’s last one I would have read. And it was fascinating. I have so many thoughts and feelings on this piece, and I know Schreier has a book out about them, and did one for Mass Effect earlier this year, but this is the first one I’ve ever really sat down and read. And it’s phenomenal. And eye opening.

Orc Slavery Made me Quit Shadow of War - Matthew Gault - Motherboard - https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjve9q/middle-earth-shadow-of-war-orc-slavery-lord-of-the-rings

This is so, so, sooooo good. I haven’t really read anything on Motherboard before, but being a close sibling to Waypoint, which has skyrocketed to my favorite video game site on the internet this week, I will tune in more after this. Shoutout to OK Beast Podcast episode 65 for bringing this up and reading an excerpt from this. It really hooked me.

Inside the Sexual Misconduct Allegations Rocking NEOGaf - Patrick Klepek - Waypoint - https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/qv384d/inside-the-sexual-misconduct-allegations-rocking-neogafs-last-48-hoursd

This is a weird story for sure. And I wish i could talk to Patrick about it. It’s invasive, but it’s also incredibly well reported, and I think clears up a lot of the misconceptions in the situation. There are no biases in Patrick’s writing. It’s really excellent, and help me get a grasp of what went on on Gaf. And I appreciate it.

Whew, good to get in the swing of things again. I’ll say, we are two weeks out from ExtraLife, and I am going to assume there will not be a Sunday Chats that day. Sorry in advance, but I will try to get my “Alex-Asks-A-Question” style Sunday Chats done like normal next week.

But it’s been a fucking crazy month, and I am so happy to see all the hard work I put in this month come to fruition, and the next big thing is that ExtraLife extravaganza. I hope to see you all watching.

But until then

keep it real.

[lainahastoomuchsparetime]

If you’re new around here, Things I’ve Read Recently is a series of posts I do that are basically mini-reviews of books that I either forgot to review, didn’t have enough to say for a full review, or just didn’t want to do a full post about for whatever reason.

I worked in a thrift store all summer and I had like a half hour lunch break. And doing nothing but eating alone is boring, so I read a bunch of magazines and then started bringing a book.

Now, I didn’t feel like taking notes while I ate, so I didn’t bring any review books. And I didn’t really feel like reading anything… you know, good. So I looked at my physical to-read stack and my book shelves and mostly found whatever looked trashiest. Never underestimate the power of good trash. Sometimes you need to read something that doesn’t make you think. At all.

So let’s talk about what I read this summer!

(Note: As I said, I didn’t take notes on any of these, so I don’t have notes to do content warnings. There’s like murder in most of them, and fatmisia and racism stuff. It’s trash, don’t be surprised by dumpster fires. Assume there’s no diversity in most of these.)

Killing Britney by Sean Olin

Published: July 1st, 2005 by Simon Pulse Genre: YA Thriller Binding: Paperback Page Count: 234 with no extras at all, actually Part of a series? Nope Got via: I wanna say thrift sale or yard sale. I own it and I don’t think I bought it online or anything.

Summary (from goodreads): Britney is the girl everyone loves to hate.

Ever since Britney transformed herself from freak-and-geek to the most popular girl at school, her life has been touched by tragedy. First it was her mom, who drowned on a family rafting trip. Then her hockey-star boyfriend, Ricky, was killed in a hit-and-run.

When the deaths continue to pile up, everyone fears for Britney. Sure she’s popular, blond, and fabulous.

But is that enough reason for someone to want to… kill her?

Thoughts: This was trash. It’s very clearly written by a man who had possibly never spoken to a teenage girl when he wrote this. Maybe because of the time period it was written plus that it’s written in third person, but it does have a kind of removed feeling. Which works for the “twist” ending (it’s a really predictable twist), but normally isn’t my favourite.

At the same time though it kind of worked for how my mindset was when I read it? I didn’t really want to connect to the characters. I just wanted to be entertained for a short period of time while I ate.

Also apparently this won an award for being appealing to reluctant readers, and I can totally see that. This was actually recommended to me by a friend like fifteen years ago. (I can remember that, but I can’t remember where I put my tweezers. Why is my brain like this?) That friend wasn’t a huge reader, but apparently liked this and thought I would.

Well, friend, fifteen years later, you weren’t wrong! Five dumpsters out of five.

(No, I’m kidding, I’m not rating these.)

The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate

Published: November 12th, 2009 by Razorbill Genre: YA Thriller Binding: Paperback Page Count: 235 plus an excerpt for a book by a different author and an add for the Kissing List. Part of a series? Nope. Got via: I think I actually bought it from amazon.

Summary (from goodreads): All it takes is one fatal mistake…

High-school beauty Natalie Hargrove has spent years plotting to become prom queen. She’s got just what it takes: popularity, glamour and ruthless ambition.

When someone threatens to overturn her perfect plan, Natalie needs to take control. So she convinces her boyfriend Mike to help play a prank on her nemesis, Justin… one that goes terribly wrong, and Justin ends up dead.

Natalie is plunged into a sea of secrets, shame and scandal.

Because it turns out there’s one thing even Natalie Hargrove can’t command – and that’s fate…

Thoughts: This was also trash! Not my favourite trash of the bunch here, but it was good enough for what it was. I actually thought the setting of this was really interesting. It’s set in… Charleston. I don’t know where that is. One second.

So it’s set in South Carolina! And takes place around Mardi Gras and has a whole bunch of southern high school traditions that I wasn’t really aware of. Do you remember that book I read last year, Ruined? It kind of reminded me of that, but, like, trashy CW teen show content instead of a ghost story.

Seriously with how popular Fallen was I’m surprised this was never made into a terrible movie. It’d be kind of fun to watch, honestly. Lots of teen drinking and sex, some murder, lots of drama, all that jazz. Not my favourite, but it worked for when I was reading it.

Traveling On into the Light: and Other Stories by Martha Brooks

Published: September 1st, 1994 by Groundwood Books Genre: Contemporary YA Short Story Anthology Binding: Hardcover Page Count: 146 plus an about the author Part of a series? No, but one of the stories was expanded into a book called Being With Henry Got via: I have no idea. I’ve had it forever, and there are not library marks or anything.

Summary (from goodreads): The miracle of unexpected connections and small victories that enlarge and transform shines forth in this haunting collection.

Here are teenagers on the brink of discovery: Jamie, who comes to understand that the lost can be found in unexpected ways when he goes looking for his dead father and finds a living memory instead; Laker, a runaway able to face his mother’s rejection because of the kindness of a total stranger; and Sidonie, who, threatened with the loss of the love that made her feel safe, discovers she can survive and face the unknown.

Out of alienation, isolation, and loss coms hope for the future in the support of friends, family, or lovers, the healing power of memory, or the sanctity of a safe place from which personal dragons can finally be faced.

Thoughts: This actually wasn’t trash. I grabbed it because it was in the box in my closet, and short stories seemed easy to read in small bursts. It’s actually pretty good. It’s older, so some of the stories obviously haven’t aged the best, but looking at it in the context of it being twenty-five years old (and most of the stories older), it’s not a big deal.

Also, like, props for this actually having queer characters? One of the characters in one of the stories has a father who has somewhat recently come out as gay and begun a new relationship. While normally that’s a plot I find a bit tiresome, for the early 90s, it’s handled pretty well.

I’m probably not going to keep this as I don’t feel any urgent need to reread it, but it was good enough.

Speaking of the 90s…

Obsessed by Jo Gibson

Published: This bind-up was released May 27th, 2014 by K-Teen Books which is a division of Kensington. We’ll talk about the original pub dates in the review. Genre: YA Thriller Binding: Paperback Page Count: 356 plus an excerpt from the next book, which we’ll talk about. Part of a series? This contains the books The Crush and the Crush II. Got via: Yard sale!

Summary (from goodreads): From master of suspense Jo Gibson comes two heart-stopping novels of romantic obsession–where the love never dies. It kills. . .

The Crush

Michael Barton is smart, sweet, gorgeous–the total package. Which is why some of the girls have decided to have a little contest. Whoever hooks up with Michael first will be the winner. There’s just one problem. One of the girls has been harboring a secret crush on Michael for years. She’ll do anything to be his girlfriend. She’ll play the game. She’ll win his heart. She’ll beat the competition. . .to death.

The Crush II

Michael Barton has experienced the dark side of love. He has survived the advances of a psychotic stalker. He has endured her deadly game of obsession. And now he is free from her web of lust and lies. But Michael has a surprise waiting for him. His secret admirer is still out there. Watching. Waiting. Plotting her next move. And if Michael thinks he can escape her this time, he’s wrong. . .dead wrong.

Thoughts: Originally the two books that make up this bind-up were published in 1994 by Zebra, specifically from their Scream Line. You may or may not know this, so let’s talk a bit about Zebra, because this is very interesting. Zebra, which is also a division of Kensington, mostly started as a romance publisher. In the 80s and 90s, however, they were quite successful publishing westerns and horror novels. They apparently (I can’t find too much information on it) had a line called “Scream”, which seems to have been somewhat similar to Point Horror line, but clearly not as popular.

The other interesting fact about this book? Jo Gibson is also known as Joanne Fluke, who writes the Hannah Swensen series. I find that so interesting. There’s also an excerpt for her… I think only non-cozy adult book, The Other Child, at the back of this book. Which is just such random advertising!

This is kind of trash, but it’s trash in a very specific way. Honestly, I did not realize that was such an old book when I started reading it, since I literally grabbed it because of the cover. It wasn’t until I got to a part about how cellphones were so expensive and unusual that I was like “what the hey?” and actually checked the publication date.

This is 90s teen pulp horror. You don’t go into this expecting a good book. The characters are barely characters, there’s a ton of 90s isms, the plot is ridiculously predictable, and it’s not remotely scary as an adult. You gotta think about being twelve and reading this with barbecue chips on a Friday night when you’re still young enough that staying up late on a Friday is a treat.

I also wanna just talk about these covers.

  Why are her fingernails so long?? That’s not a thing in the book at all. There’s absoluely no sense to it. I love it.

This was great! I’m actually gonna keep this and I would love to get my hands on the other bind-ups of her books. I’m super charmed by this.

Well, that was fun! What did y’all think of this round-up?

Peace and cookies, Laina

Things I’ve Read Recently (89): Stuff I read at lunch at my summer job that was mostly kind of trashy If you're new around here, Things I've Read Recently is a series of posts I do that are basically mini-reviews of books that I either forgot to review, didn't have enough to say for a full review, or just didn't want to do a full post about for whatever reason.

[murasaki-murasame]

Now that we’re less than a day away from the Dragalia Digest that’ll spell out the contents of 1.12 and all of the anniversary events for the game, I may as well lay out all my last-minute speculation for it now so that I can either look really smart or really stupid tomorrow :)

Anyway I’ll just put it under a cut since it ended up getting way longer than it needed to be.

[This got way too long so here’s my TL;DR of the basic things I expect if you don’t wanna read my detailed thoughts on it all:

-New gala unit [Probably Euden, maybe someone like Leif or Luca or even Zethia]

-Anniversary event/banner announcement [maybe a Leif/Patia banner]

-Announcement for a collab event we’ll get in a month or so [maybe with Granblue Fantasy, Persona 5 Royal, Fire Emblem Three Houses, or King’s Raid as my pipe dream wish]

-New endgame content mode announcement [Dungeon-crawling mode? Something like the FEH event defense game mode? Who even knows]

-New character progression system announcement tied to said endgame content mode [Some sort of 6-star/transcendence/etc system]

-Some assorted balance changes, quality of life stuff, UI adjustments, etc.

-Maybe a surprise announcement of a Switch port or a spin-off game or an anime announcement or something.]

Some of the stuff I’m thinking of might not necessarily happen during the anniversary, but at least in the near future. But either way, to start off with, the announcement for the new digest video said that it’ll go over the contents of the 1.12 update [which will be available to download soon after the digest], and whatever things they have in store for the anniversary, so that’s the bare minimum we’ll get out of this digest. Although I think we’ll probably also get a blog post separately that goes over the new update in more detail.

They didn’t specifically mention it in the announcement, but they’ll almost definitely announce the new gala adventurer we’ll get for the anniversary, since that’ll be starting in a few days. And the last digest video we got also announced Gala Ranzal, so there’s that.

I’m still betting on Gala Euden being the most likely option, but there’s also a chance that we’ll get him as a free unit from the anniversary event, if they don’t want him to be a gacha unit you have to summon. If he’s not the new gala unit, I think instead we’ll probably get another light-element gala unit like Leif, Zethia, Luca, or Jupiter. Leif seems pretty likely but I think they’re gonna eventually do a banner with him and Patia on it, rather than him being a gala unit. Luca will almost certainly get a gala unit since they’ll probably give one to all the free story units, and we’re due for a light element gala unit, but I dunno if they’d have him be the anniversary one. And Jupiter’s a bit more of a pipe dream of mine, but I just really want them to eventually release all of the high dragons as gala units, especially after they teased at Jupiter’s human form a while ago.

One way or another if we get a Euden alt I think he’d probably just be a light sword unit, but they might do something like having him be a ‘neutral element’ unit who changes his element based on what dragon he has equipped.

I think we’ll probably get some sort of a free unit from the anniversary event, assuming that it isn’t going to just be a facility event, which would be kinda lame.

Personally I’d really love to get Alberius as the anniversary gala unit after we got to see him in chapter 10, but given that he’s, y’know, dead, that might not happen. Especially since he might be too similar to whatever Euden alt we’ll inevitably get.

I’m guessing that the anniversary event will be the same sort of game mode as the FEH collab one, assuming that we do get an actual ‘anniversary event’ of some kind. We know it won’t be a raid event since we have an astral raid starting next weekend, but I also don’t want it to be a facility event instead, so it being like the FEH event would be nice. Or maybe we’d get a whole new type of event altogether for the anniversary. Or it might be more like the Valentine’s event, but I think that’d also be a bit disappointing.

I thought at first we might get a collab event for the anniversary, but I forgot that the FEH collab didn’t actually happen until a month after the half-year anniversary, and that it got announced a month in advance, so I guess we probably won’t be getting a completely out of nowhere collab event for the anniversary, lol. I think they’ll probably announce one during/soon after the digest, and that it’ll be planned for somewhere in October or November.

There’s a lot of options for things they could collab with, but if they do it around the end of October, it’d be fitting to do a Persona 5 Royal collab since that’s when that game comes out in Japan. Personally I wouldn’t really care for it if they did it, but it’s possible.

Other than that, I think the two most likely collab options would be Granblue Fantasy and Fire Emblem Three Houses. A GBF one seems inevitable at this point since we already have straight-up GBF characters in the main cast of this game, and our first collab event was a Fire Emblem one so them doing a collab with the new game in that series would make sense. And Three Houses would fit pretty nicely into the template of one free unit and three banner units.

It’s a lot less likely, but I think the only collab event we might get that’d actually seriously tempt me to pull on it would be a King’s Raid one, since I’ve been getting into that game recently. At the very least I think it’d fit very nicely with DL, since it’s another western fantasy-style sword and sorcery gacha game, and the main four characters would fit really nicely into DL’s weapon/element options [and the ‘one free unit + three banner units’ format], with Kasel being a light sword, Frey being a light [or maybe wind or water] staff, Cleo being a fire wand, and Roi being a shadow dagger. I think it’d at least feel like a more ‘natural’ collaboration than something like Persona 5, lol. Although that sort of thing hasn’t really stopped gacha game collabs in the past, considering how GBF just recently had a Love Live collab.

Also the thought of DL doing a collab with a game that also has a character called Cleo is just really funny to me, lmao.

Anyway, if we get a proper anniversary event, I wonder if we’ll get a banner for it that’ll run along with the gala, or if the gala will be the only banner running for the end of the month. I guess it depends on what the event is, and if there’s units that’d make sense to put on some kind of anniversary banner separate to the gala. Maybe this will be where we get something like a Leif/Patia banner.

It’s also possible we might get more than one new gala unit for the anniversary, but that seems kinda unlikely. Who knows, though.

We should also be getting a dream summon for the anniversary, since we got one for the half-year anniversary. It might just be a regular dream summon, but maybe for the anniversary it’ll be a special one that contains all of the units in the game, rather than just the non-limited ones. Though they’d probably still limit it to everyone up to around the Victor/Noelle or Emma/Lea banner.

I think it’s probably more likely that we’d get a regular dream summon for free rather than one that includes limited units, but I dunno.

I also have a feeling that they might finally update the 5-star voucher pool to include all the 5-stars in the game up to one of the recent banners, and if they do we might get a 5-star voucher for free.

Similarly, if it’s anything like the half-year anniversary, we’ll probably get a log-in bonus event that’ll give us at least 3 tenfold summon vouchers and probably 2k+ wyrmite. Though maybe instead of that [or in addition to that], I think we might get a week or so of free daily tenfold summons. The fact that we got that one bug in a recent version update where people got to do a free tenfold summon with their daily deal makes me think that was an accidental leak of this sort of free summon event for the anniversary. A week of free daily tenfolds would be a lot more generous than what the half-year anniversary gave us, but it seems like a pretty typical thing for gacha games to do for their anniversaries anyway, and if it’s done like the recent free daily summon events, then you can’t just hoard those pulls for future banners like you could if we got summon vouchers or wyrmite instead. So it balances out.

They might not be generous enough to do something like that during a gala when all of the 5-star rates are up, but it’s possible. I think it’s a complete pipe dream to expect something like the roulette in GBF, though. We don’t have nearly as big of a pool of characters to make that worthwhile.

If we get an anniversary banner separate to the gala that also has limited units on it, we’d probably also get a platinum summon to go along with it.

Anyway, as for the 1.12 update, I’m a lot less sure what it might contain, but I have a lot of random ideas for it. I at least think it’ll be a substantial enough update to warrant announcing in a digest, especially with how much longer this one’s gonna be than the last one.

Since we just got our final high dragon trial, and the last of the void dragons that are paired with the high dragon trials, it makes me think they’ll probably announce an entirely new form of endgame content. But I dunno what exactly that might be. I think we’ll get a new tier of dragon trials based around Euden’s siblings, but I think that’ll only start happening when chapter 11 comes out, so I don’t think it’d be part of the 1.12 update.

Other than that, I’d really like some sort of endgame mode based around wave content that lets more defensive characters shine. Astral raids are good for that, but they’re very sporadic and come in small bursts, especially since you can just spend all your astral pieces in one go now. I’d like something more permanently available that has a similar feel to it. I’d really like some sort of dungeon-crawling or tower-climbing mode where you go through a series of levels that are laid out like the Avenue maps or the main campaign levels.

One of the main concerns with new endgame modes is how to manage the resources you spend to access them, and the rewards you get from them, though. If too much stuff uses stamina/getherwings then it’d be hard to do all of it, and it might be a problem if we get something like ‘High Imperial Onslaught’ or whatever that gives a higher amount of the same type of rewards and leads to everyone abandoning IO and making it hard for weaker players to do co-op in it.

I don’t think we really need another source of the rewards that IO gives out, especially with the recent boosts to rewards from it, although IO’s it’s own whole thing that probably needs to be revamped a bit.

There’s still a few types of augments that I think we basically haven’t had access to at all, but I think they’ll just stick to keeping those as astral raid rewards. I hope they expand the astral raid store to include all of the augment types, though.

So I think it might be best if any new endgame content we get provides an entirely new set of rewards so that it doesn’t invalidate any of the other content in the game. So maybe it’d be tied to some sort of new endgame progression system.

And on that note, I think it’s very likely that we’re at some point going to get something equivalent to a 6-star system or transcendence or whatever you want to call it, to give characters a boost even after they’ve gotten to 5 stars. It seems like a pretty easy way of giving people more room to strengthen their units, at least, and it’d make it easier for them to make endgame content that’s even harder than the high dragon trials without it being completely impenetrable.

At the very least, I think this sort of system would involve us being able to raise adventurers to a maximum of level 100. It’s always seemed odd to me that weapons, wyrmprints, and dragons all go up to level 100,  but adventurers cap out at level 80. Raising it to 100 would be a pretty easy way of raising the overall stat ceiling for units. They also might give us another tier or more of mana circles, although it’s hard enough to get more than a handful of units to 50MC at the moment that unless they completely revamp the requirements for it, it’d kinda suck to lock additional progression behind that.

And on a similar note it’d be nice if they reworked some of the mana node stuff a bit, if only to do stuff like letting 3-star units and free 4-star units get to 100% status resistance, since that’s just an annoying hindrance more than anything.

If we get this sort of system, rather than it just being about raw stat increases, which is what augments are already for, it’d be interesting if they give units access to a third regular skill, and a fourth ability. It’d be a lot more interesting than just raw stat boosts, and it’d also give them a chance to potentially buff some weaker units by giving them new skills/abilities that expand their kits. Though I also think that a lot of units, mainly 3-star ones, need to have their kits entirely revamped from the ground up.

Also, with how DL’s UI works, with the character icons in menus and stuff, I think a good way to visually represent the idea of boosting a unit beyond a 5-star level would be to give their icon a rainbow border, like what legendary drops look like now. Unlike a lot of gacha games, there aren’t, like, actual pictures of stars on the character icons, and it wouldn’t really look nice to add a ‘+1′ to it since that’s already how augments are displayed.

It’d probably work pretty nicely if the resources to get units to that stage are locked behind whatever endgame content we might get for the anniversary. Anything that’s not the typical gacha set-up of fusing duplicates together would be great, lol.

I’ve seen people speculate about them introducing a new element or weapon type, but that seems very unlikely. At least the idea of them introducing a new element type. They can’t really interfere with the fire-water-wind type triangle, or the light-shadow pair, without really messing stuff up and needing to rework a lot of things. And having an element that exists outside of all that might end up being really game-breaking and bad.

This probably isn’t gonna be part of the anniversary, but when chapter 11 comes out, they might introduce a system where you can farm up resources to manually craft android units that might have their own unique type, and maybe their own unique weapons. I’ve heard that GBF has it’s own endgame units that you craft with resources, and it’d make a fair bit of sense to implement that in DL in the form of androids. But that’s probably further down the track, if that’s even how the android characters are going to tie into things when they show up.

I at least think it’d make sense to have any new element/weapon types be exclusive to those sorts of units who’d be in their own category separate to regular units you summon, but who knows.

I dunno if they’d do this for the anniversary, but I really want them at some point to re-balance 5-star dragons a bit so that they at least get a partial boost to their abilities when you get them to a 2UB level, rather than it only happening when you MUB them. I just don’t really like the current system where most non-MUB 5-star dragons are outclassed by MUB 4-star dragons [which are way easier to obtain overall]. I also think it’d be nice if they release more 4-star dragons to fill certain niches, like having 4-star skill damage or crit-based dragons, or so on. Also I think shadow still needs a dedicated 4-star HP dragon. But that’s a different sorta situation to me wanting them to rework 5-star dragons.

I’ve also been wondering if we might get something like the Unique Weapon system in King’s Raid where each unit has their own specific weapon that has more specialized attributes than regular weapons, but is more of an endgame grind to obtain and fully unbind. But that sorta thing might be hard to implement, since either it’d be better in basically all situations than 5t3s and void weapons, or it’d be worse in all situations than 5t3s and void weapons. It’d be hard to find a middle ground between them. Void weapons already kinda suffer from mostly being invalidated by core weapons as it is.

I also think it’s extremely likely that the anniversary update will let us get the next two halidom levels and their facility spaces, since we know those are already in the game and waiting to be unlocked, and day one players are already hitting the point where they’d start running out of room for facilities soon. So it seems like a pretty obvious addition to make to avoid that whole potential headache.

They also might raise the max player level again, and they might reset the co-op wyrmite bonuses, which would be really nice all around.

This is one of my more out-there pipe dreams, but it’d be really nice if they expanded the English voice-acting so that everything that has Japanese voice-acting is also done in English. It’s always been a shame that the English voice acting is a lot more limited than the Japanese. But there’s a whole lot of reasons why this might never happen.

This is also a bit out-there, though maybe not as much, but I really want them to release a port of the game on the Switch. But that’s mostly just me being biased by the fact that I’m planning to get a Switch Lite soon, lol. I think DL would work really well on the Switch, though. And it’s not exactly impossible. For one thing it’s a first-party Nintendo title, and we’ve also got stuff like Another Eden which is getting a Switch port eventually. They’d have to rework the UI a fair bit, but it wouldn’t be very hard.

Maybe eventually we’ll get a spin-off game on the Switch like GBF is getting, but I feel like that’d be harder to make than a simple port of the main game.

I think it’s very likely that we’ll eventually get a DL anime adaptation, but I think it’s a bit too early for them to announce one. I just don’t think the main campaign story is far along enough to justify doing one. Although it’d also be kinda boring if they did an adaptation that only followed the main story since the event stories and the character stories are a lot more interesting.

ANYWAY, I think that’s about all of my speculation. Which really just makes it clear that I should brace myself for disappointment since even with the digest being three times longer than the last one, it’s not like they’re gonna be able to announce ALL the things I’ve been thinking about, lmao.

Honestly I’d just be happy with finally being able to splurge on the anniversary gala since there’s still a bunch of random 5-stars I want to get.