#a simple one but THERE ARE STATS YOU HAVE TO RAISE!! THE STATS AFFECT THE ROMANCE PROGRESSION!!!

[specterthief]

hatoful boyfriend also gets points in all discussions for being one of the few parody dating sims that is actually being correctly described as a dating sim

[yzzart]

WHEN I WAS LED TO YOU... ── KENJI SATO

── summary: Kenji could get used to his routine, but, only with you by his side.

── word count: 982!

── warnings: F!reader, nothing intense, mention of Emi and Mina, Kenji being a little needy.

“Come on…” — A voice, entering the melody with softness and familiarity, passed through the player’s ears. — “…i know you’re awake.” — The statement was accompanied by a laugh.

Kenji could easily — in fact, completely — conclude that that voice belonged to an angel; even though he doesn't admit to being so religious, openly. — By having his eyes closed, in satisfied tiredness and drowsiness, he was more likely to believe in his conclusion.

Even in unpleasant, unstable situations and, insanely, worries about his life — like worrying about his stats in games, trying not to destroy the city while fighting some monster, and teaching Emi something practical and not blunt — and not wanting to hear or see nothing in front of him, Kenji had his refuge; a place to feel safe and at peace, at home.

“Ken…” — You voice pleaded, with more sweetness and, trying, to mix a little seriousness. In addition to moving between the thin, silky sheets of your body, wanting to get even closer to the boy.

In fact, he could melt into the bed, right there, just to hear your voice crying out to him like that.

Releasing a brief sigh, and pulling a breathing line, inhaling your scent, which was stuck to the pillow, Kenji tried to communicate with a mumble; which even he himself had no chance of understanding. — Perhaps, his consciousness still remained trapped in his sleep.

Because you found his action funny, your laugh, a little more hoarse, enveloped Ken's ears again; automatically forming a placid smile on his lips. — Moving his head, the young boy, with his eyes sensitive to the light, comes across your image resting on the pillow and covered, just enough, with the white sheet.

Sato was mentally grateful for the privilege of waking up every day with this vision.

"Good morning, my love." — You said, without holding back your wide smile; something that captivated and welcomed Ken's chest. — Your orbs moved, without haste or greed, across the boy's face, memorizing, for countless times, every little dot that existed in the region.

"Morning..." — He replied, followed by a yawn and another grumble; a sudden and unexpected movement was caused in the bed, obviously, it was the player's body snuggling against your. — Like he wants to fit in with you. — "What time is it please…?"

“Hm…” — Your eyes crossed the clock next to the bed. — “Soon, it will be 9:30.” — With his head buried in your neck, Sato let out a whimper, causing a tickle.

“It’s not possible…” — He complained, almost whimpering; as a sign of caress, your hand entered your lover's soft black hair, causing affection and tenderness.

The oldest settled down, and, briefly, relieving a growl, memorizing a purr; feeling on your skin, a satisfied smile adored by the attention. — A true paradise for young Sato and he had no problem admitting it.

“I think someone forgot about the interview they promised for today, right?” — He definitely forgets; by the way his head moved from where it was, and how wide his eyes were, Ken had nowhere to run. — “Yeah, you forgot.” — You raised one of your eyebrows.

“Wasn’t it due tomorrow?” — He questioned, still not believing and with some messy black locks standing out on her forehead. — “I’m sure i had it scheduled for tomorrow.” — He rushed into words. — “Actually, i’m not so sure.”

End of the season, therefore, decisive games for the team and more efforts towards a high level of dedication; it also meant several interviews and moments of questioning about the games, his teammates and his personal life. — Sato understood that it was important, of course, it was part of being a baseball star, however, when trying to balance his life as an Ultraman, a player and, recently, the father of a giant baby lizard, it wasn't such a simple thing.

He wasn't alone, not to mention Mina, and, thankfully, he had you by his side. — Trying, as much as possible, and persisting in helping him; even when, thinking about your care and certain risks, he warned you that he didn't need it. — Evidently, the guidelines were not followed, for a pleasant reason. — And now, seeing you taking care of Emi, as if she were your child, lit up Sato's eyes.

“It really is today, Ken.” — You confirmed it and, unsurprisingly, another wave of mumbles and incomprehensible words and rolled eyes. — “At least, it will be the last one before they enter the rest period.” — Your hand moved along Sato's long, strong, bare arm, reinforcing his attention.

“At least there is a bright side.” — He murmured, shaking his head, prolonging his thoughts, at the same time, reusing the contact of your hand against his skin. — “I need to take a break.” — He said, turning towards you. — “Urgently.” — Like a somewhat defenseless creature, he returned to his comfort, now, with his head under your chin.

"I know, honey." — Your fingers stroked Kenji's hair, for the second time, while his arms wrapped around your waist, squeezing you, with the need to keep you close to him. — “And you will soon.” — Subtly, and delicately, your voice soothed him. — “Don’t worry about Emi, i’ll take care of her for today.” — Kenji thanked, once again and mentally. — “And maybe we’ll make a list of what we can do during these days off and she’ll go along with us.”

Your boyfriend's familiar, radiant laugh spread throughout the room, resounding in your chest. — For a short time, Kenji had understood his relationship with Emi and achieved a paternal image; visibly, it wasn't just him. — The small, and immense, baby witnessed you as a second mother.

“Yes, yes, of course.” — He pulled away, coming face to face with you, looking into your eyes, in pure ecstasy and passion. — “You’re the best, dear.” — Bringing his lips to your forehead, Kenji gave you a long, careful kiss.

[crescentfool]

recently, i’ve been thinking about what a 100% social link/confidant run is like from the perspective of the persona protagonists, rather than the player. i’ve always been a sucker for thinking about the type of narrative created by a person’s gameplay choices (it can be so fun and deep) so!! i wrote this analysis / musing.

some notes before we start: this was written with the lens of persona 3 being the most recent game i played- but the concepts are applicable to the p4/p5 protagonists as well! no spoilers for any of the games are mentioned; this is moreso a general discussion of ludonarrative dissonance with the game mechanics and narrative and how it makes for fun angst (ft. personal interpretation).

(more under the cut!)

the framework: game mechanics

in all of the games, the social link system’s existence coincides with the social stats mechanic. certain social links require a specific set of stats in order to initiate it, or surpass a certain rank. each game has around 20 of these- each of which represent the major arcana (+ some bonuses, e.g. aeon / jester / faith / councilor).

for any players going for a 100% social link run, this basically requires each social stat to be maxed out. anyone who’s followed a guide for a 100% run would know that the beginning of the game tends to be very “strict” with how time can be used, most of which involves getting the stats raised  as soon as possible.

outside of characterization and worldbuilding, completing social links are incentivized for a variety of gameplay reasons. so how could this completionist play style affect the protagonists?

prioritizing social stats over everything else: a general view

regardless of which protagonist you want to put under a petri dish, with a 100% run, you’re essentially asking the protagonist to form amicable bonds with 20 or so people, give or take. granted, not everyone becomes adjoined to the hip to the protagonist.

personally, i feel that forming 20 different bonds over the course of a year would be rather strenuous. during these 100% runs, the protagonists may feel that they’re spreading themselves thin trying to dedicate their resources to multiple different people as well as raising their “social stats.” i find the implications that this has on said bonds is so, utterly fascinating.

while this isn’t reflected in the game and would be better represented within a fic, i find it difficult to believe that this type of behavior doesn’t have any ramifications on the quality of the protagonist’s closer relationships (or their self-image, for that matter).

just… imagine calling one of your close friends but then they consistently give responses along the lines of “lmao sorry i’m busy doing other things,” and they rarely make the time of day for you. how would you feel? gameplay-wise, this deterioration of the relationship is best represented in persona 3 with social links reversing if you haven’t spent time with them in awhile.

part of my fascination with this concept is influenced by my own experiences. trying to maintain so many relationships can be difficult to keep up with and it quickly gets overwhelming (see dunbar’s number for more information). jumping between so many people also makes it difficult to focus on a few relationships meaningfully- meaning that relationships may be limited to being simple pleasantries. even then, ‘successfully’ keeping every relationship satisfying comes at the cost of being unable to pursue your own development and interests.

overall, i think that trying to do so many things ends up lowering the quality of the relationship(s) involved, especially when you also consider the fatigue from going to school as well as fighting shadows.

playing the therapist friend / listening role: a general view

another aspect of the 100% run that i think about is how the protagonists rarely open up to other people. a good chunk of SLs follow a storyline of the protagonist acting as a therapist friend/helping the other person through one central issue. some SLs are an exception to this and have a more casual “we’re just hanging out vibe.”

basically, SLs tend to be weighted toward the other character’s growth, moreso than the protagonist’s (which is handled by the main story). that said, the idea of mostly playing a listening role across most of your relationships and not having many that you feel comfortable to speak freely about your own stuff… feels really unbalanced and unhealthy?

i do think that part of the lack of “input” can be attributed to the silent-protagonist approach taken in the games (which is a whole ‘nother topic). but!! i find that each protagonist’s options, while limited, are fun to think about! some of the traits and interpretations i’ve seen for the differing protags, to name a few, include:

being afraid to open up / get attached and keeping people at arm’s distance as a result

needing to be around other people, even if it’s just listening them, to distract from their own struggles / pretend nothing’s wrong with them

enjoying helping others, being a good and careful listener who can provide an appropriate and helpful response

the willingness to prioritize others over themselves; a lack of self-preservation

compulsive people pleasing

at its worst, the lack of “protagonist talking” or equal reciprocation in response could be misinterpreted by the other person as disinterest (like they’re talking to a wall). alternatively- the lack of “personal tidbits” could be taken as, “you don’t trust me enough to be able to open up, huh.” and i just think that seeing this in a fic would be the biggest shitshow ever (and i would read that).

concluding thoughts:

overall, i feel that the protagonists taking a predominantly listening approach to several relationships at once can lead to compassion fatigue and general burnout. the protagonists are rarely at the receiving end of being listened to and/or having their issues worked through… and that’s kind of sad?

while the 100% social link run can provide great power to any persona fusions (and other cool battle abilities + hijinks)... i ultimately think that there’d be a lot of mental strain that would make achieving this much more difficult when you take a narrative-emphasized approach.

i do realize that it is possible to see the general vibe of this post as “100% social link is bad,” but like… there’s something i find really appealing about the messiness of attempting to manage so many relations at once- only to fall short in several of them and attempting to salvage the last bits of their sanity. when you think about the complications of the 100% SL run from the shoes of the protagonist… yeah!! that’s the good shit!

anyways! if anyone knows of any fics with this kinda vibe for the p3/4/5 protags… feel free to drop it in my askbox… i like them all VERY much :3c… and if this raised any food for thought- i’d be equally honored! let the protags go through shit i wanna see their emotions and coping mechanisms damn it! 👏

[couldbebetterforsure]

Still slowly (VERY slowly 😭) making progress on replaying Fire Emblem Engage so I can get back to the point I was at before my save got deleted and continue my liveblog. As I’m doing that I decided it had been too long since I enjoyed an otome game so I have also been playing Jack Jeanne!

It’s funny when I first heard the news of Jack Jeanne being localized it actually didn’t catch my attention. But like a week ago I saw a random post about it praising it and then I looked it up and saw it was getting a TON of praise. I also looked up some non-spoilery art and info and thought the style looked gorgeous and liked the bits of story and gameplay I found. So I said fuck it and bought it like four days ago.

And WOW I am happy I did!!!!!

First off, the art in this game is BEAUTIFUL! Sui Ishida, the writer and artist for Tokyo Ghoul, is responsible not only for the gorgeous art and character designs but also did a bunch of other stuff for this game (even writing the lyrics for the songs which is incredible). Seriously the amount of time I spend just staring at CGs is nuts, they’re all so incredible whether they’re comedic or dramatic. The character designs are all so wonderful too and so expressive!

The music is so incredible too! The background tracks are great and fitting for the situations. So far I only just finished the Newcomers’ Performance so the only vocal songs I’ve heard so far are the main theme Jack & Jeanne of Quartz, and the two songs for The Sleepless King: Fortune Color is Crystal and Beyond the Plane Tree. Bruh….I never skip the main theme that’s how good it is. And it’s sung in character by the heroine and the six LIs. I went and bought the mp3 for it I’ve been obsessing over it that much. Fortune Color is Crystal was not what I expected considering the nature of the play it’s in but it’s so catchy! And holy fucking shit Beyond the Plane Tree is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, the harmonies in it are so 😭😭😭😭 I’m playing this game blind (with a spoiler free guide) so I haven’t listened ahead to the other songs but I was so impressed by these three that not only did I buy the mp3 for the main theme I ordered the vocal collection since the other songs aren’t available for mp3 download.

The story is definitely interesting me so far. Like I said I’ve only just finished the Newcomers Performance so I’m not that far in the story but it managed to hook me in entirely despite the seemingly simple sounding premise of “heroine disguised herself as a boy to attend all boys academy”. I’m actually surprised by how many times so far I actually forgot our heroine is supposed to be in disguise 😂😂😂 Not because the game doesn’t use the premise properly but more because there’s so much shit going on!!! And it slowly introduces new characters and plot points so that I’m always eager to see what happens next. Especially in terms of the plays (oh yeah this takes place in a theater school sorry I forgot to bring that up)! With this first play I was excited to see who was cast in what roles, the plot of it, watching the rehearsals, and seeing it all come together in the end in spectacular fashion! I like the stat raising element, nothing complex or luck based about it so it’s not aggravating. I’m totally in love with the rhythm game aspect, though it means whenever we get to the actual plays I’m more focused on getting a top score than watching the video of the performance. But that’s what the gallery is for right? The interesting thing about this game from what I hear is that, unlike typical otome games, Jack Jeanne is like 80% common route. Like while you make choices that earn affection and can pick who you hang out with, the LI specific routes don’t come in until WAAAAAY later. I thought I would mind since I generally prefer more romance in my otome (sounds silly but people who play otome games probably understand what I mean) but so far I don’t care because the story is just that enjoyable (and it’s not like there’s no moments at all).

And then there’s the characters. I like when MCs are voiced and I’m especially glad Kisa is voiced since this is a story about theater. I really like her so far she’s sweet and a hard worker, I can’t wait to see how she grows as both an actor and a person! I love her standing up to Otori and doubling down on seeking assistance and working together during practice. And I love how sweet and bell-like her voice is! Suzu (to the surprise of no one because I’m Miss Predictable) is my fave. Sweetheart, earnest, energetic, puppy in human form? Yeah that’s a LI tailor made for Willow! I love how much he has already grown as an actor from how robotic he sounded when he first practiced his lines to his PHENOMENAL performance for his first time on stage in The Sleepless King (which by the way how did my boy Suzu not win any award for that performance?!?!?! This game is rigged😡). And bruh I nearly fucked up both rhythm game segments for the Newcomers Performance because of how blindsided I was by how beautiful his singing voice is (don’t know why I was so shocked I know his VA is incredible). Sou is so soft and sweet so far and I can already see some hints for where his story might go (possibly about him not standing out as much?). I like that he’s in the know about Kisa and I do love me some childhood friend romances! Mitsuki makes me laugh with his tsundereness but I love how compared to typical tsundere characters he’s more softspoken and doesn’t go heavy handed on it. Negi is so funny so far I really enjoy whenever he’s onscreen talking a mile a minute or causing his own little brand of chaos. Kai seems super kind and I love that he seems like an animal expert, I wanna know more about him. And Fumi is just super cool to me, his design to his voice to his personality. I really love this Quartz squad, they’re so lovable and have such enjoyable dynamics with each other! Regarding side characters I’m only just beginning to know some, and I know there are a ton I have yet to meet, but I really like the ones I’ve met so far. They’re either kind, funny, a mix of both, or have yet to really display any trait that makes me feel one way or another. The only side character I have strong feelings towards as of where I am now in the game is Otori. And even then I find him enjoyably annoying. He’s talented and knows it, but he’s also an annoying dick and I enjoy proving him wrong. Also he’s hilarious without ever meaning to be, which keeps me from being too annoyed at him.

Anyways yeah that’s my ramble about Jack Jeanne so far! There’s probably a ton I missed or forgot but I just wanted to gush for a moment about this great game! I’m having so much fun so far and can’t wait to see what the rest of the game is gonna bring. I’m at the very start of June so it’s the Summer Performance next!

[shadowonwater]

Pokemon Scarlet Playthrough part 11: Getting Schooled

Playthrough Masterlist

So I decided before going north to evolve some Pokemon to fill out my dex and then go to school for classes again. For the most part the evolving went well, but evolving Pawmo was a tedious nightmare. So yeah then I went to school again to catch up on my classes.

Art 3: He just explained that tera types can be used to avoid a Pokemon's normal weakness and that you can change the Tera type at the treasure eatery. Also he goes on a tangent about the mystery of snowflakes looking alike. I'm pretty sure it's a physics thing, Hassel.

Art Midterm: it's just a quiz, a very basic quiz for children. I got some exp candy though for passing.

Art 4: oooo grass gym leader is here! wow, these two are close. He asked if you can guess what mood he was in when he made his statue, and I'm like, idk??? "Surrendering" sounds sad though. He's like "no! You're wrong!". Proceeds to describe his mood.. which sounds like he was sad (in very simple terms).

Anyway Brass is like "Don't get too caught up in what sells, make what you want to make." A nice message, although it's lacking in the nuance of harsh reality, but what can you expect from a kid' game. It was funny when Hassel started bawling from Brass's story of his art journey.

Art 5: He tells the class about the 10 sights of Paldea, I haven't been to all of them, obviously. But I've been to a fair few, I do want to find them all though.

Battle Studies 3: Dendra talks about Tera Shields in Tera Raid battles, I don't think I remember ever seeing one, maybe they only show up in higher difficulties?

Battle Studies Midterm: Very easy, simple questions. Asking about Dendra's favorite type gave me a slight pause, but I remembered it.

Battle Studies 4: Stuff about the Let's Go feature and auto battles.

Battle Studies 5: Dendra talks about the TM making machines. Nothing exciting except for mentioned that there have been issues of people hacking to get LP.

I think this raises up an issue that purely digital currently like LP would have, hacking. I think the existence of LP as a currency is kind of bizarre. Because it's like there are two separate currencies of equal value, why not just have one? Also the LP that Penny gives me when I beat up Team Star might be hacked, she is a hacker after all. I might be using illegal money.

Math 3: A random thought that popped into my head, wouldn't it be funny if the History Teacher was the one named Tyme? and not the Math one? Puns are good, if this was Ace Attorney, I'd be the History Teacher.

Anyway... teach is like "Yall like horoscopes?" me: "no." Anyway she talks about Critical Hits. I didn't know that they were 1 in 24 normally, but I don't care too much about that. Challenge runners might tho. But yeah, Tyme, I am aware that there is a lot of probability in Pokemon battles.

Math Midterm: As always, these are pretty easy. Even the math one isn't too bad.

Math 4: Just because I passed your class doesn't mean I like numbers, ma'am. She talks about stat boosts in battle. Once again I am bested by math, even in a kids game. I am terrible with percentages.

Math 5: oh god, it's percentages again. Nevermind, she's just talking about accuracy. I personally prefer more accurate moves. Amusing to hear that people debate in the Pokemon world about which moves are better. I mean, it makes sense but it's still amusing.

Home Ec 3: He just talks about PP.

Home Ec Midterm: you know how it goes easy. Except for a weird question about what affects meal powers. I don't think it makes sense that the color of utensils or the amount of people eating should affect it.

Home Ec 4: talking about multiple people making a long sandwich reminds me of this post I saw once. Basically someone had a tradition with their family of making a ridiculously long sub sandwich and then cutting it into people's individual pieces. It also amuses me that it was Arven asking for advice. I imagine Arven really likes this class.

Home Ec 5: He talks about washing your Pokemon during picnics. He mentions there are areas where Pokemon don't like to be washed, brings to mind fire types with fire-y areas on their body. And that there Pokemon who don't like being washed at all, again fire types come to mind, as to ground and rock. Those Pokemon have a reason to avoid water, even if it's not reflected in gameplay.

Biology 3: Apparently Jacq and Clevell used to work together before getting into education. I wonder where they used to work together. Anyway he's just talking about ways to make it easier to catch Pokemon. Nothing I don't already know.

Biology Midterm: easy quiz. The extra question he tacked onto the end was cute. Yes the Pokedex is easy to use, but I wish it had filters.

Biology 4: He talks about Pokemon Evolution. I find funny saying stuff like "Press the B Button" imagine saying that irl. Anyway it's shame he didn't get to finish what he was saying . I don't know how to evolve Primape but when I decide to i'll use the internet. But it would be nice if it was stated in game how to do it.

Biology 5: He talks about Shiny Pokemon. He even brings up the Masuda Method. He brings up that, while it's a known phenomenon, it's unknown why it happens. It's fun that he talks about the Shiny charm as if it were more an urban legend than fact. I mean in a why it's just a good luck charm afterall.

Languages 3: Once again, my pre-existing knowledge of French and German is really backing me up. You don't need to tell us about your marital dispute, teach.

Languages Midterm: Easy, I don't know why he included his name in the test.

Languages 4: He talks about how Pokemon communicate and had his Pikachu act as an example. He also mentions how there are Pokemon who can communicate in ways other than sound, like telepathy. I just think it's neat how colorful the world of Pokemon can be.

Languages 5: More talk about understanding the meaning of Pokemon crys. I love how proud of itself the Pikachu looks when the students are clapping for it.

History 3: Apparently the school building is really old, about 800 years old. But the Pokeball part is new and the Raifort doesn't like that way it looks. Pokeballs are a popular design element in universe, but I guess there are people who aren't into it. So yeah , a real old prestigious academy, well known, even outside Paldea. Do you suppose a lot of Poke Professors have passed through here?

History Midterm: Very easy, I love fictional lore, lol.

History 4: She tells a fairy tale (hell yeah I love tales). So a king got 4 treasures (interesting that there are 4 when there's 1 of you + 3 friends) he gets them from a merchant from the East (where I wonder, Johto? Sinnoh? Maybe even just Kalos) and the king's castle gets destroyed (were the treasures destroyed along with it? was the castle cursed by the treasure or was it a coincidence?) Teach says you can ask her after class to hear the rest of the story, I hope that's true.

History 5: Some guy called Heath, I've never heard his name mentioned before but he wrote the Scarlet Book. A book talking about the findings of a Team from 200 years ago that actually managed to make it to the depths of Area Zero and back.

People calling Heath a liar is making me think of Noland the Liar from One Piece. Guy who finds something fantastical and tells other people about it but no one believes him because he wasn't able to back up his claim beyond his word. Rip Heath.

It's interesting that there are things in the Pokemon World that are considered too fantastical to be real. And that the paranormal is a thing. But the Pokemon World is already really fantastical. Like uhhh Ghost types?? And Legendaries?? Is that not fantastical enough to believe that this other stuff could be real?

Also another thing, talking about an expedition into a mysterious area reminds me of a book trilogy I'm found of called The Southern Reach Trilogy, also could be known the Annihilation Trilogy. I know there's a movie based off it, or at least the 1st book anyway but I haven't watched it, I would like to though.

So I'm going to go around and talk to some of the teachers again.

With Jacq I now have 200 Pokemon registered so he gave me 20 Quick Balls. Which is epic, Quick Balls are some of my favorite Pokeballs.

Raifort tells me the rest of the tale. The treasures were Pokemon! I wonder what kind they are... apparently they are sealed somewhere in Area Zero, guess I'll have to try to find them when I get in there. Sword makes me think of both Zacian and the Honedge line. But I'm not really sure what the others could be.

Tyme... I'm a bit concerned for her. Apparently someone's been watching her? Hope she's ok. I looked around but I didn't see anyone looking at her, at least not on the ground floor.

Clavell asks about my favorite teacher (I choose Raifort because Pokemon history class is really interesting, let's goooo for lore!) Clavell asked me about what hairstyles were popular among the youth. Just to see his reaction I said Pompadour, he was very happy when I said that, lol.

The nurse, Miriam is studying to try to become a Health Teacher, good luck, I'll be cheering you on!

Dendra is trying to learn to make better sandwiches. It was funny when the Home Ec teacher shook his head after the player tries the sandwich and it tastes terrible. When I first saw her there I was wondering if she might have thing for the Home Ec Teacher. I'll think about maybe shipping them.

Saguaro, the home ec teacher almost gives into peer pressure to eat a spicy sandwich, it's very funny, but I save the day, sort of. Apparently because everybody thinks he's cool, he tries to act that way. Not a great way to live if you ask me.

Talked to Tyme again, the person following her was a student wanting to ask a question, like she theorized. The student should apologies for scaring her teacher by somewhat stalking her.

Talked to Sanguaro again, he wants help in finding some sort of incredibly sweet condiment.

Talked to Dendra again. She was trying to make Miriam eat one of her sandwiches. A month ago, apparently Dendra made her a meat sandwich that was nothing but meat... including the bread. If the game would have let me I would have sided w/ Miriam. No one should ever feel pressured to eat something like that. It worked ok this time because Dendra truly has become better at sandwich making though. Another though, instead of Dendra x Sanguaro howabout Dendra x Miriam and she was trying to get better at sandwichs to impress her.

Talked to Hassel in the schoolyard, I don't know what the fuck that was. Some lady came up and he was like "I told you not to talk to me while I'm here." and she's like "it's a grave matter of importance to the family." What is Hassel part of some rich family or something, seriously, what was that?

Talked to Salvatore, he found a Pawmi that looked worse for were and was freaking out like "whatdoido?whatdoido?" Then he asked me if I had a potion, I sure as fuck do, I have so many you wouldn't believe. He think it might be a wild one that's wondered onto academy grounds, but it could be a trainer's he's going to look after it in the meantime. I bet this storyline ends with him keeping it, but I guess we'll see.

I decided to continue the Salvatore plot. The Pawmi is healthy and uninjured but it's not making any sounds. It is indeed a wild Pawmi that ran onto school grounds. I could be off basis but perhaps it may not be making sounds because it's deaf? Not sure if Pokemon would go for that but I'm digging the idea of the language learning a new language-sign language- to communicate with his new friend. It could also be mute, or as he theorized, just shocked. But I think the storyline I thought up of would be really interesting, and meaningful.

And now for our last, for now, update on school storylines. Hassel is indeed from some prestigious family, a family of dragon tamers! I wonder if he is related to Lance's family at all... Well he was supposed to be the head but he ran away and eventually became an elite four member and an art teacher. I wonder if he uses dragon types or something else. Well apparently his father is very sick and that was what the emergency was about.

So yeah I meant this post to have more than just school but... that didn't happen. Next post though, I'm going north.

[akitoscorpio]

I want to talk about a game I like.

So it's 2023, were in year 456 of the Covid pandemic, I'm feeling nostalgic for my old days of Tabletop gaming, and I just found my Crown Royal bag of dice I thought I lost like five years ago.

So I want to talk about a tabletop RPG game, the last one I was able to actually play for a bit. a game about...

A not to distant future where a unknown viral pandemic infects 80% of humanity and either.

A.) Does fuck all

B.) Gives you superpowers and a ticking timebomb to insanity

C.) Drives you insane and gives you super powers.

Yes.. Yes I am.

The game Double Cross came out in the states in 2014, published by a small indie game company called Ver Blue. Who... doesn't exist anymore? The released the first two books of the original Japanese game in a single 500 page core rule book, and then later published three of the games supplements before disappearing into the void due to heath problems. Which is fine, but there is like... 22 other supplements in Japan we'll never get.

Mechanically, it's a very, very, simple game of rolling a pool of D10's based on one of four stats in the game, keeping the highest and then adding your skill rating to it. 10's "Explode" meaning you reroll any 10's you get and adding them until you stop rolling 10's.

Which is why it's possible to get like, a 54 on a d10 die, also holy shit you can break this game over your knee with shockingly ease with the right setup.

(The Art is also very very good, where there is some)

The setting is, for me the selling point, because, it's special kind anime nonsense and crazy shit that you could just park your ass on and raise a family in.

In the setting, The Virus didn't just infect people, it infected "everything" It infected rocks, trees, buildings, *Concepts*. and it can turn itself into a living personification of said thing. It's very possible that your investigation gets interrupted because a Viral infected *rock* got up and decided in it's newly found sentience and insanity to throw hands. Also one of your characters could either literally be a moth that was infected and turned into a human form. Or you can have someone literally be just idealized version of the concept of your favorite anime character.

(This is just another Tuesday in Japan aparently)

Now how the hell are you supposed to survive the super power psycho pandemic, by also having superpowers of course!. You get your choice of 13 syndromes, strains of the virus that gives you different super power sets (12 in the core book and a 13th in the last American released supplement).

You can choose to pick up to three of them. The more you take, the weaker each strain is overall, Single strain characters can make the individual powers stronger, and you get exclusive powers, but you lack diversity. Taking two is the "default" and you miss out on some "Pure strain only powers" but you don't lose out otherwise. Taking three means you have a large swath of power picks, but the maximum strength of each power is weaker.

Each Strain can also determine your starting stats, picking one means you look at what stats it gives you, and then you double it, picking two means adding the two strains together, having three means you only get stats from two of them.

Each strain is, very different and often builds off of each other and really fun ways, one strain lets you shoot lasers and bend light to cloak yourself. One strain lets you affect heat, meaning you can either set shit on fire, or remove heat to create ice weapons and attacks. One of them lets you create drugs in your body. one of them lets you affect electricity and allows yourself to become a cyborg. One lets you be a god damn lycanthrope.

It's very very fun to just think of combos of power sets in this setting.

For me though, the most interesting part of this game is the way you can create your backstory. You see the super powers, are slowly driving you insane, the more you use them the more likely the virus is going to take you over and turn you into the next Charles Manson. in fact, every "scenario" has your encroachment, aka the amount the virus is gripping your mind. Normally start off in the 30ish percent range. If you end a scenario over 100%, your character goes insane off screen and you loose the character. But the closer to this line you go, the more dice you get. hell even going past the line can turn you into an absolute beast. But your pretty much screwed if you push to far past it.

So how do you keep from losing a character if your riding over 100% at the end of the session?

You see, as part of character creation, you roll, on several different tables to get what the game calls "Loises" Aka things or people that are important enough to you for you to grab on to so you don't go insane. You can collect more of these in a given scenario if it the GM allows it, but by default, you only have three permanent Loises. This could be something mundane like your parents, or your lover. Or you could be holding on to sanity by the sheer burning hatred of that asshole at work that's constantly fucking you over and taking credit for your hard work (Fuck you STEVE!)

Point is, at the end of the scenario, each of these becomes a D10 roll that you can roll to reduce your end game encroachment and hope you can get it under 100, you actually do get more Experience at the end for riding the line, so your encouraged to use those damn powers. Gm's are also encourged to really push at you to use your abilities to the fullest so you don't die in the process.

I also hope you like tables because there is a *metric shit-ton* of them for determining these things.

So yeah, there's a lot to love about this but this is already an insanely long post so I might add more to it later in another post, but this was just me wanting to write off some of that built up very Neurodivergent "Damn I miss playing this" game energy that I started building up in the last day or so for this crazy ass game.

(I didn't even get into the fact it's possible to play the literal personification of Facebook as a character concept..)

[ubormaci]

So today I sat down to write a comprehensive list of the wizard-games I played and how well they fulfilled my wishes of wizardry, ending with this ranking you see.

As this lacks the precedings, here are some of my explanations/justifications without which it would be easily questionable:

The main thing I was looking for was games which contained spells that were unique and versatile. A rule of thumb I used was that I was looking for spells which couldn't be described as 'deal x type of damage' or 'affect x stat'. My favorite example would be Water Walking from Morrowind: it's such a simple spell, it really feels like something wizards would have thought up as a small thing to help themselves.

Of course, the general gameplay also played part in my ranking; anotherr thing that influenced placement was how easy/common using magic was in a given game: most games with restrictive mana (Dishonored 1&2, Baldur's Gate 3) had that as a large negative from the start. It needs to be mentioned that in the case of Skyrim and Morrowind I circumvented this restriction, adding some, frankly unreasonable, magicka regeneration. (As soon as I used up some magicka it filled back up, is the speed I'm talking about.)

There are also some games here which are not very outwardly wizard-y: Cruelty Squad, Supraland, Control, Prey, etc. The explanation is that for all these games, I was looking more at the actual effects; it doesn't really matter wether it's called a spell or a superpower. Prey's mimicry skill is one of my favorites from the entire list, and it could fit in any fantasy game as some form of polymorphism.

With these explanations done, let's get onto the placements themselves:

Dishonored 2 is at first place because its spells are well-integrated, provide interesting interaction with the world, and generally it's my favorite to play, it's immersive sim derived aspects helping to enhance the feelings of versatility. The 1st and 2.5 are also high up, but the second one is my favorite because it has the largest selection of spells, with the only negative being the limited mana supply.

In A tier I put the two large CRPGs I played through, DOS2 and BG3, since both of them contain a lot of spells, but most of them are boring, with few of them being usable outside of battle/in interesting ways. (Notable ones include Teleport, Nether Swap, Invisibility, Speak with Animals/Dead, Feather Fall.) Prey was also put here because of . . . mostly mimicry, and, like with Dishonored, the feeling of versatility that is delivered by the environment that has been created to host an immersive sim: a lot of the games further down the list are there because they fail in this regard, such as Skyrim and Morrowind just feeling very static. (I do understand the limitations that led to this, but still.) (Control was also put there because it has the best flying in any video game I've ever played, and a telekinesis that is very satisfying due to the environment's reactivity.)

In B tier is Deathloop because its spells are more boring than Dishonored's (and I just don't like it as much), Skyrim and Morrowind which have boring spells and boring combat and little reactivity/versatility but still feel somewhat good due to their large open world; Cruelty Squad, which is an unorthodox pick, but particularly the grappling hook implant and it's equivalent of Dishonored's "Dark Vision" made it fit, I think. It doesn't really have spells, per se, but the implants themselves are enough.

Two other games which are less well known are Tenderfoot Tactics and Moonring: the former is an open world, in which you play as a rowing band of goblins trying to rid it of a magical fog. Magic is only used in battle, and even there, it is almost exclusively in the form of damage spells, but the thing that made it special is the environmental manipulation the entire game is built on top of: almost every spell either raises or lowers elevation, and you have to constantly keep it in mind. Moonring (which is completely free on Steam, by the way, 100% with no microtransactions or DLC of any kind) is a retro, open world RPG: imagine Pixel Dungeon and you wouldn't be far away. (I've seen it compared to older Ultima's, but I haven't played those, so alas.) It has a unique magic/spell system, but it's held back by its stingy mana system. (Some standout spells include: puppet, making an enemy mimic the player's movements, traps in the form of a poison trap/exploding doll, teleporting but being blinded.)

In C tier and lower are the games which I rarely actually want to play: Supraland is a linear puzzle game, while Wildermyth just became boring for me pretty quickly. EYE is a campaign based game which I enjoy the idea more of than what it actually is; the spells are cool though. (A very good video on the game; I recommend watching even if you never intend to play it.)

In D tier are Noita and Wizard of Legend: I played the former for 20 minutes, the latter for 5 hours, but I like neither of them. I am aware of Noita's depth, but it doesn't appeal to me: it's "godmode" endgame I find excessive, and, as previously stated, it is full of spells that are different flavors of damage. (I am oversimplifying it, I know; sorry Noita players. (And yes, I am aware of the alchemy system, environemntal reactivity, secret bosses/areas. They don't change the core of my issue.)) It's just too focused on combat for my taste, same for Wizard of Legend: all the spells are just . . . damage. I don't find them wizard-y at all. (And yes, I've been aware of the start of how subjective of a ranking that is; that didn't stop me from making this list.)

In E is Super Grave Snatchers, which is a necromantic arcade-style game; it is centered on combat, spells have little versatility, and it got boring for me fast.

And in F tier is Hogwarts Legacy, a bit of a joke placement (but also not).

[frontlist-official]

How to Enhance Live Streaming Quality in 8 Steps

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[skyria-thehourglass]

Early Drafts - Why () - Rough draft Ver. [For You] short side chapter

*Early drafts- not official version. But may contain spoilers for [For You]

*Rough draft- story flow is chunky, misspellings, use of (blank space), etc.

That dude was a red flag.

The dude- Ama was his name but Lania will forever call him 'the dude'- was a huge piece of crimson fabric that could be seen a mile away. Actually, not just a mile, a whole() and more.

And apparently Aleion's favorite color was red, because he was charging straight into that thing like a mad bull in a bull show. An animal with a brain, yes. Stronger than a normal human, yes. But in the end more simple minded, unable to see.

Sure, Ama was good looking, he fit Aleion's type, but he was definitely NOT someone who fit Aleion. Ama was strong and had a good sence of justice, but also, pride.

Aleion was strong and protective.

He never asked for love. Just gave. He gave too much, to the point that he suffocated the bearer.

And once he would find another that he liked better, he would leave with a simple skip, cut off all his love there and that would be it. No build-up, no long drain that slowed, just a sudden, predicted stop. It left someone like a blanket being given to wrap around in the winter, only to have it taken away for thw bearer to shiver in the cold once more, even colder now that they had gotten used to warmth.

The temperature never changed from before the blanket and after. Only the pain from losing something once had given change.

Overall, if one were to mearly look at what was given as a whole, there would be a great stat of positives.

Aleion left before one could confess their love to them. Aleion came at their worst and left them when he had raised them up to their best. He left. He just left.

It was abandonment. Like adopting a pet when it was still young, then getting another when the pet grew to an adult.

Aleion didn't want them anymore when they wanted him. He gave and hugged and showered them with affection, then stopped. Just stopped, when he had enough.

It was rejection with everything but words. A clean and final cut. Something that no one could argue apon no matter how much they wanted to scream and demand, why, why, why-

But couldn't, because what had Aleion proclaimed? Had he ever said himself as a friend, a lover, or even a declaration of his own feelings?

What could anyone say? What could they?

Aleion was a high god- one of the (greek12) - he was not someone one could just-

...okay, okay, now Aleion seemed like the red flag here, Lania assures [You], this was all in the past where Aleion was not a right in mind- look, it's complicated. She does not want to open that can of worms today.

Anyways, the point was this. Aleion gave too much and accepted nothing. And Ama was uncomfortable because he received so much, and had done so little in return. Yes, that and Ama was 99.99% a fake name and his true name may or may not conveniently be the same to-

Anyways(God, she was really using this word a LOT- need a break, Dr.Anyways?), as much as it sounded, Aleion was best paired with someone who was selfish, or with someone who he did not love as much as another.

A someone who would always be second. A someone who, if circumstances called for, he would kill. Someone who he would not sacrifice anything for.

And () checked all the marks, didn't he?

.

[vnobscura]

Cherryblossom ~Portable~

Opening

Cherryblossom was originally released for Windows, then was ported to the Dreamcast, PS2, and finally the PSP. Minor changes were made in each version. The one I played, the PSP version, had improved CGs that were changed to be 16:9 and even included a sound mode. The game is fully voice-acted, done by a couple of well-known voice actors. There are 4 main guys you can choose from and 2 others that are unlockable once you get all 4 of the main guys' endings.

Story

Summarizing the beginning of the game, Ouse Satsuki is a 2nd year student at Sakurazono High who's almost hit by a truck on his way back to his dorm. The next day at school, he receives a text by someone named "Sakura" who saw him last night. Determined to find who "Sakura" is, Satsuki narrows it down to the student council and tries to get close to them.

Gameplay

Cherryblossom is a stat-raising game where you raise the stats of your chosen guy. You can also call your chosen guy out after he gives you his phone number. It's a matter of balancing stats and raising his affection. The stats include: Fatigue, Intelligence, Fitness, Charm, Responsibility, and Proactiveness (I think that's the closest meaning of that stat's name, I'm not sure). The "Proactive" stat is interesting an stat: It determines how "proactive" you are. Yes, it might seem obvious at first, but it changes certain events, CGs, and the ending for each guy. Basically, it's like an alternate route you can take with your chosen guy. Every week, you get to choose what to do each day. You can: study, work out, play video games, work part-time, do student council, or sleep. On Sundays or on break, you have a choice of going to the library, the café, the arcade, go shopping, or sleep. Once you get a guy's number, you can call him on Saturday to invite him to a date the next day. You'll keep up this process until the end of February, so roughly six months.

Art

The art was all right. Some of the characters looked like they had small faces and big heads that looked a bit uncanny. The CGs looked fine though, for the most part. I wish some of the shots included more of what the characters were doing rather than side by side head shots. An interesting point about this game is that it has rival CGs. When two guys have reached a certain affection for you, there will be an event of them fighting. There are 6 of these and there's an easy way to farm them so they shouldn't be too hard to get.

Music

The music was pretty good. It did a good job of setting the mood of each situation, whether it be serious or comical. Some songs also acted as character themes, but they were also used in generic settings.

Replayability

Like any other dating sim, it definitely has it's replayability value. Thankfully, the game is kind of short so you could probably get through all the routes in one day (if you're fluent in Japanese, that is). There are two endings for each guy (12), 1 premature bad end, and 2 normal endings, all of which give you an item (except for the bad end). There are other bad ends for some of the guys, but they don't give you anything. One strange fact about this game is that you can only access the gallery once you get an ending with at least one guy. After that, the in-game store will start to sell DVDs which correspond to each section of the gallery. You have to buy all 5 DVDs to fully access the gallery.

Casual Thoughts

Cherryblossom is a short and sweet game where you attempt to get close the student council members only to romance them instead. Going out with them may be a questionable way to get clues on "Sakura," but one of them has got to be him, right? Getting each end for every guy was simple, but getting the normal endings was the most difficult part for me for some reason. I looked for guides on Japanese websites and successfully got all the CGs and endings! Below, I'll include a guide (in English) if you would like to tackle this game.

Guide

[gameguides]

Nobody The Turnaround Beginner Tips

Welcome to our Nobody The Turnaround Beginner Tips guide. This guide is about the basics of the game. Work in Progress. We know that there are people who have a hard time finishing the Nobody The Turnaround game. If you are one of those who find it difficult to finish the game, let's take you to our Nobody The Turnaround guide. #NobodyTheTurnaround

Nobody The Turnaround Beginner Tips

This guide is about the basics of the game! Stay Alive and Healthy A quick breakdown of all the stats and how to control them. Cool goes from 0-100 like all the other stats , there are 5 "sub-stats" that affect this "main-stat" by applying buffs and debuffs. Buffs are cap at +2 , Debuffs are cap at -10, High cool Green = You move faster and get a learning bonus to all Attributes of +20%. - Low Cool Red or Yellow = bad events , Slow movement speed and a decrease of pay while doing jobs. - Low Cool at yellow = bad events and 70% of the pay. - Low Cool at red = very bad events and only 50% of the pay. Is very bad to have a yellow or red Cool and can end your game. Mood - Is improve by doing activities is loss by working and some other things. Tip: This one is very simple to control by doing at least 1 of the daily activity's with a bonus (click on the mood icon to check them out they change every day) you can skip the mini-game and still get the 30 mood points or 60 by doing do both. Fed - Just eat something. More Stay Alive and Healthy Neatness - Currently equipped clothes cleanness. Tip:You can use clean clothes while walking around or sleeping and change to dirty clothes before going to work doing this keeps you with a +2 buff , You can save money at laundry early game and durability and later once you have a apartment you save durability by not washing clothes as often. Hygiene - Use public sinks to clean yourself with a random chance to get sick , get cure at the clinic or wait it out, Later on you can take a bath at your apartment. Satisfaction - Eat different things to raise your satisfaction especially candy's you can't abuse a specific food type every time as it will lose effectiveness, resets next day. Tip: Beef Jerky you get a solid 10 points plus you can carry them with you, other good alternatives are Sugar cane and Ding Ding Candy. Beef Jerky can be bough in any store that sells snacks 3 locations are 1-Convenience store, 2-Supermarket 3-Grocery, Ding Ding Candy near the bus station Sugar cane in the T section sidewalk near the Burning pot. Jobs, Training and Reputation There is many jobs in the game many of them require specific Attributes(Smart,Deft,Tough,Keen). How to improve attributes? There is 2 ways by doing jobs or by training, there is 2 places of training Bookworm = Smart , Keen Workout spot = Tough, Deft. You can train up to 4 hours max per day. For example Brick mover trains (Tough) every time you finish the job , it says so at the summary of your work day. Reputation is very important to peddlers as it increase the foot traffic at your stall , best way to increase your Reputations is by doing community work ( just outside the police station ) 2 hours per day , You can get around 30-rep per day , reputation is cap at 100. Reaching reputation 60 in a job location allow you to go directly and ask for work , removing the job broker fee. Making money Using the hiring app in your phone can give you very lucrative job offers with big bonus pay. Peddlers Stalls there are 6 locations and they have a specific items that sell faster and in larger quantity's, All items are bought using your dBay app and collected at Buddy Express and flowers can be bought at Perfect Bouquet. Some locations are unavailable if is raining Songfy Cafe and Park. - Park = Toys; Dinosaurs ,Puzzle car ,Music top. - Pub = Flowers, - Disco = Disco stuff ; Glow Bracelet and Glow Glasses. - Songfy Cafe = Home items; Sponge wipes, paper towel , Cloth wipes. - Bus Staion = Weather gear and miscellaneous. - Market Area = sells anything. Read the full article

[bookofbrokencandles]

Will the different jobs give different tasks for you to do, like as a stat building sorta thing or maybe even plot related? ( and hi, hello, how are you?)

Hi! I'm doing good now. I think my brain broke last week from the heat and sleep deprivation. I used my two days off to decompress and catch up on sleep, the weather cooled down again, and I think I've leveled out to something normal. Mercifully, I got off work early today, too.

Anyway, with one exception, the jobs won't technically affect stats. I'll go into that in a bit, but I'd like to take this opportunity to talk a little about the stats and then answer your question.

The Book of Broken Candles has a small amount of stats. The first of which are three simple stats which will combine to change MC's speech patterns outside of choices. You will still have many opportunities to choose MC's dialogue and you will always have the choice during important moments. But I think this will inject some more variety into scenes as MC comes into themself over the course of the book.

The latter of the stats are Awareness and Coping. As per usual with all of the characters I write, the MC is Not Okay. Several months ago, they snapped, they pursued something they should have long stayed away from, they imploded their home life and, more than anything, they learned things they never should have. And yet, this new low they've landed in may very well have not extinguished their thirst for more knowledge of the realms beyond. But their mortal mind may not be able to handle what they find. In other words, if you wish to pursue eldritch knowledge, it'll be hard to balance your awareness and ability to cope. The more you learn, the more you lose. The less you'll be able to get back.

Now, with that set up:

All jobs will have their own unique storyline opportunities (meaning you can choose to not pursue these threads) and will offer unique situations. There's no Greater Plot these need to tie into, so I'm choosing to have some fun and come up with a variety of ideas that can be explored during the course of a playthrough.

The City Guard job will offer more romantic opportunities with Day and Night, but even if you choose not to pursue these, it will still open the opportunity to get a closer look at the city on a ground level. Maybe that knowledge MC had gained in the past will allow them to look at it from a new perspective, see things others don't.

The Assistant job will offer more romantic opportunities with Dominya and Myra, but even if you choose not to pursue these, it will still open the opportunity to explore the state of technology at this point in the world's era. And perhaps you can even, say... show Dominya the light, the vast world of knowledge she can take for her inventions to make them unlike anything the world has seen.

And lastly, the Mortuary job. This is the job that will affect stats. It does not offer opportunities for romance, but what it does offer is opportunities to raise your Awareness. It's also necessary to see a non-job storyline to completion.

[thrill-seeker-vn]

What skills (charisma, combat, strength, endurance...) will be put into the game?

Hey there!! This is a really good question!!

There are a few stats you'll be able to see, and some you won't. Of the ones you can see:

One of the most important ones is your mental health stat. Their are a lot of choices in the game, and some will make you maintain, increase, or decrease your mental health. If your mental health stat is too low, your choices will start decreasing, and you may have no choice but to make bad decisions. The other thing is that your mental health stat will start affecting the characters around you as well.

Some other simple ones are persuasion (how good you are at manipulating people, really), intelligence, athletecism, etc.

I also want to say it's not a good idea to raise some stats all the time! Some persuasion choices will lower your morality, affecting your mental health and those around you, too. The other thing is other characters have a preference for different levels of morality-- so if your morality is too low, you'll damage your relationship with certain people.

Your career will also give you different skills (which I won't say, because it's kind of spoilers!) but it'll also help you unlock different choices.

Hope this answered pretty well! If you need further explanation on anything, let me know, im kind of running on an empty stomach so im a bit scatterbrained haha

[damselofblueroses]

The Name of the Rose

Summary: Your study-buddy Doh Kyungsoo comes with you for a long-awaited trip to Tokyo, Japan. There is a tension between you, however both of you decided to build a friendship instead of a relationship.

Content: Unestablished relationship, AU, Hurt/Comfort, Anger, Slight Violence, Emotional Complications and Healing.

Warnings: Well, the story contains NSFW/Smut, please minors do not continue.

Note: This story was inspired by D.O.’s album, Empathy, the album of 2021 in my opinion. It is an ongoing mini project, I planned to write it as a one-shot when I started, however I realized there are a lot to say about Empathy Era and I cannot stop shut my mouth, or prevent myself from writing… So, here we go.

Second chapter, the Hunter and the Goddess is out :)

Word Count: 3.6k

Chapter 1: The Hunter and the Gazelle

Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus.

You were excited.

No, it was not the correct word to be used. You were hyperactive, more than your usual self, and God knows that everyone could testify on how hectic your personality was. According to your family and very close friends, you were a walking catastrophe, funny but a fucking tease and potentially dangerous for environment.

And now, as you had been waiting for your flight, you could not manage to even stay still. Your hands were everywhere, you proved yourself again by dismantling your tote bag as poor thing was on your lap and you were playing with it unconsciously.

“Enough.” you heard your companion’s baritone voice tone. “If you will continue like this, you have to buy your belongings again in Japan. Do you have that much money?”

He reached to you and took the bag from your lap. For a second, his fingers brushed your thighs, and you lost your concentration during that fucking second.

Focus! you told yourself.

“I can always lend some money from you.” you cocked one of your eyebrows. “What? Will you bare me from some bucks?”

“Yes.” he was always plain and simple. On the contrary of you. “Unless if it is not a necessary. I am not a guy of sharing.”

What type of guy you are, can you give me a demonstration?

Your trip to Japan made you very excited, but you had to confess at least to yourself in the depts of your mind. What made you frenzied was the presence of your companion.

Doh Kyungsoo.

Your long-term study-buddy. Actually, he was more than a study-buddy, he was a kind of your comfort zone, even though you never express your opinions about him. You have known each other for almost 7 years since the last year of bachelor. Both of you continued your ways in academic world and you were currently being Ph.D. candidates.

To be honest, he never lose his impacts on you. You had a sweet spot for him since almost the beginning of your friendship which made him more than a study-buddy. It did not mean that you were restraining yourself from having dates time to time, but all of them were ended up with the same result.

They were clever and handsome guys, but they were not Doh Kyungsoo.

Sometimes you could not help but wonder, how it would be if you did not meet him as a friend? Could you two manage having a relationship as your best friend, Baekhyun, supported like a bloody zealot? Or one of you would give up as your brother, Jongdae, always believed?

“Hey!” you heard Kyungsoo’s voice and jumped off from the bench. “Come back to your senses or we are going to miss the plane.”

“And you are going to take its money from me.” your murmured inside of your mouth but obliged to what he said by starting to walk. He was generally quiet during flights, but you knew his mouth will not be shut when you will visit the restaurants he wanted to try.

He does not come for Tokyo, he comes for fucking eels, octopuses, or crabs. Kyungsoo and his appetite.

“Naturally.” he approved your words on money, but there was a ghost of smile on his lips. “Since you are the one who became a sleeping beauty.”

Do you think I am beautiful?

This was another problem you had. With Kyungsoo, you were so relaxed, and you felt extremely safe, so you did not need to control yourself as you generally did. Of course, it was a good omen for your friendship, as much as you were sure Kyungsoo never lied to you, it was also a disadvantage on your part, because sometimes you wanted to ask some questions that should be remained in silence.

“If we would be fairy tales,” you smirked. “I would be Belle while you are the Beast.”

“Fine by me.” he shrugged his shoulder. “He is a very good guy. I am happy for Belle; she understands the assignment. You would not most probably.”

“Sweetheart, you are slow to catch the signs.” you playfully smacked his shoulder when you reached to the control point. You thought he would be annoyed, but he stopped and seriously gazed at you. You shivered and wondered why he was looking at you like he wanted to say something.

“What?” you inhaled.

“Since when I am slow to catch the signs?” he pressed on every word of his sentence, and to your dismay he used that voice tone, almost a whisper but goddamn strong. “Give me an example.”

You shuttered down, and this was the last problem you had with Kyungsoo, he was the only one who could make your brain stop working especially in times when the occasion calls for full-speed devilish progress. You just stared at him and shrugged your shoulder.

“Eh Soo,” you murmured. “You missed a lot of beautiful girls, right?”

Your response was so weak even to your ears. If Chanyeol, number two best friend of you, could hear your words, he would burst into laughs by hitting everyone beside him. You could imagine Junmyeon’s disgusted face as a plus.

“I did not miss anyone, my dear.” he chuckled. “Let me rephrase, anyone I want just one exception, but exceptions do not ruin the calculation in your famous mindset.”

When he chuckles, you can feel your blood tension rocks your body. His heart shaped lips does something to you, and you do not want to name it.

“Exceptions run the world, Doh.” you tried to push him to elaborate his words a little bit more. “Who is that lucky girl who run away from you?”

“That’s my secret.” he smirked and put his hand onto your waist in order to led you the controller lady. “Show your passport, I do not want to wait here forever.”

Who was the girl he mentioned? You could not help but started to feel anxious, how much you tried to press your instincts and feelings, whenever he mentioned a girl, there would be a dire need of crying in the pit of your stomach. You took a deep breathe and followed his instruction. While you were walking into the inside of plane, you struggled with the sudden sadness. You wanted to tear that off yourself, so you reminded yourself the splendid trip ahead you. You found your place and processed to sit down.

“May I help?” Kyungsoo asked you but he already fetched your belongings and placed them correctly. You smiled to him and sat down.

How could you meet someone like him? He was a little bit grumpy sometimes, a person who could give unexpected reactions, but he was reliable, kind, lovely and always thoughtful of his environment. You did not want to lose him. You never want to lose him, on the contrary, you want to keep him in your life until the very end. You could not think a life without Kyungsoo, you always desire him to stay your side.

You were pretty sad, you had to admit, and there was regret. You were regretful on your decision to not go further with him, you wished you could be braver and tell him about your feelings for him. How much you were confused because of him, how many days and nights you spent sleepless because of him. To make the things more complicated, you had zero idea about how he would be responded your confession if you pull yourself together and manage to do. For once, you heard his cousin Minseok talked about you by saying you were very important for Kyungsoo, however you did not know in which extent you were important for him.

You two were always closed to each other, you spent almost 3 or 4 days together, you were living in the same campus, your departments were close to each other. He was a huge part of your life, that’s one of the reasons why you were hopelessly trying to conceal your inappropriate feelings for Kyungsoo. The idea of losing his extremely valuable presence was the only scenario could make you sob.

“Am I the only one who is very uncomfortable?” he whispered to your ear and made your stomach twisted. You could kill him for this, but he was not aware of how he affected you. “You are deadly silent.”

“No, I am just thinking.” you run away from him like an Olympic athlete. “About the trip. I am very excited.”

“If you are,” he flinched your forehead. “You have to talk non-stop. You are silent when something bothers you, what are you hiding from me?”

“Nothing, Soo.” you found a smile from somewhere and presented to him. “You know I never find the chance of visiting Japan; I am really overwhelmed.”

“So, speak to me.” he grunted. “Do not act like I am not here.”

“Okey, okey.” you raised your hands to air. “Sorry for that.”

“I start to feel like I am disturbing you.” he turned his head to the Name of the Rosethat he was reading. Umberto Eco, he had a taste for everything of course. “I asked you twice if you are okey with going to Japan with me.”

You could laugh if you were not so tense since he mentioned girls.

“And I told you this is okey, Soo.” you pinched his upper arm. “You are a good companion for trips.”

“Only for trips?” he asked. What the fuck was wrong with Kyungsoo today? He was behaving weird, and his questions made you more baffled. “I thought I am good companion for everything.”

You bit your lips in order to send back the sudden answer you wanted to give. Instead of declaring your ignorance about his performance on everything, you refined your words.

“You are a good friend, Soo and sorry for making you feel unwanted. I am happy you are coming with me.”

“Hm.” he hummed but he did not look like he was satisfied with your answer. You decided to not think about what the heck he wanted to hear, you also turned to your book that you were supposed to read since the departure. At least Pavese helped you to collect your mind till the plane landed in Narita Airport. He helped you while you two took a cab for the way, he was acting like his usual self, so you accused yourself because of searching hidden messages in his questions. You were such an idiot.

“I will be seeing you at dinner.” he waved his hand when you finished the registration process of the hotel you would be staying for the week. You were in front of the elevator. Both of you already decided to take a nap before dinner when you were planning the trip, so you approved his words and took your keys.

“See you.” you smiled and walked to your room. When you opened the door, your smile widened, the room is so light and minimalistic as you really liked. There was no crowded furniture, crazy designs, or unnecessary modifications. The walls were light blue, the furniture was white, and all looked very harmonious. There were plants and flowers, you immediately run to the flowers as you loved them more than anything else. The hotel staff managed to place even Sakura blossoms into the room that made your heart flattered and smoothed your nerves.

And there was only one blue rose, which was your favourite flower in the world. Just one, between a bouquet of daisies and it looked magnificent. You leaned to smell it while smiling as a little freak. You did not have to see your face; you knew how you looked like. Chanyeol always said that when you see a blue rose, you lost your shit. Another creature made you drunk in happiness was white butterflies. You had a sweet spot for blue roses and white butterflies.

And for Kyungsoo.

You grunted to yourself in your mind, and you headed to the bathroom by tapping your feet to the ground harshly. You were done with your obsession with Kyungsoo, it became something out of control, and you were tired of yourself at this point.

You had to live your goddamn life, you had to stop fucking fantasizing about your study-buddy.

You stripped out from your clothes and jumped into the shower. Cold water helped you to take the control of yourself, both as physical and emotional. You were okey, you were in bloody Japan as you always wanted, and you were going to fucking enjoy it. After shower, you threw yourself into the bed, tucked yourself inside the blanket and set the alarm for one hour later.

After one hour, you were swearing at yourself with your very glorious vocabulary because the only thing you did was fantasizing about Doh Kyungsoo.

“Did you rest?” he asked to you while you were leaving the hotel. You held your growl inside. “Did you take a nap?”

“I did not sleep but I leaned down for a while, so it was good. You?”

“I slept like a baby. It was very interesting when you think I am more like an insomniac.”

“I guess, your insomnia is rubbing on me.” you grumbled. “Where are we going now?”

“Eh, at least something about me can rub on you.” he rolled his eyes, your chin was dropped due to his response. “There is a tiny noodle restaurant in Ebisu, but they are very famous. We are going to there.”

“Okey.” you nod and walked beside of him.

“You look very pretty.” he turned to you. “That dress looked very good on you.”

You instantly took a look on your navy, long dress. It was very comfortable, but also elegant and your fashion freak cousin persuaded you the colour and style gave you a

“Thank you.” you replied. “Sehun chose this for me, you know he is the chef kiss when it comes to fashion.”

“He did well.” he smiled. “How is Sehun by the way, I did not see him since ages. Did he come back from France?”

“No.” you pouted. You really missed your noisy cousin. “He just came to visit for a week, then came back to school. I am not sure if he will come back to be honest, he got some important invitations from European universities.”

“Very good.” Kyungsoo’s face was lit up. He was proud of Sehun. “I know you miss him, but he has a bright career ahead of him.”

“Yes, I know.” you also smiled. Thinking about your successful but extremely playful cousin made you happy. “I just worry about him.”

“Stop babying him.” Kyungsoo punched your arm as half serious half joke. “How old is he, 27?”

“Yeah.” you laughed. “I know I baby him very much, but we all do, Kyungsoo.”

“You are just one year older than Sehun.” he smirked. “Who is going to baby you?”

“Chanyeol.” you exhaled. Kyungsoo looked at you for a second, then both of you burst into laughs because it was well known that you also took care of Chanyeol and Baekhyun as well as Sehun. “Jokes aside, I am a strong and big girl, Kyungsoo, I do not need someone babying me.”

“Maybe you can start looking for a sugar daddy to baby you?” he cocked his eyebrows to you. “Before it is going to be too late?”

“Actually, I had some candidates in my pocket.” you devilishly beamed to him. “You have no idea.”

“Beg your pardon?” his face suddenly transformed from joy to deadpanned seriousness, and his smile was disappeared immediately. “I was joking.”

“I was not.” you blinked your eye. “Some people really proposed to me.”

“For being your sugar daddy?”

“I know I am very little in your eyes, Kyungsoo” you took a deep breathe before continuing. “But here the breaking news: some people could find me attractive.”

“We are not talk about usual dates or men.” he held your arm and turned you to himself. “If you receive this kind of proposes, you have to tell me.”

“Next time, I will report you so we can decide who is going to be my sugar daddy.” you poked his ribs while he burrowed his eyebrows and radiated a strong sense of discontent. “Come on Kyungsoo, I am not going to say yes to this type of proposes, what do you think about me?”

“We are always joking about this issue,” he looked like he was cursing beneath his breath. “But when it comes to you and Baekhyun, I always suspect if you are serious or not.”

“Sugar daddy is a joke.” you hissed. “Of course, it is a joke, I have no interest in having a sugar daddy.”

“What about the proposes? Are they real?”

“Well, they are.” you murmured. Suddenly, you felt like the table was turned and you just played your ace card too early. You felt like Kyungsoo’s eyes investigated your soul to the bits.

“How many?”

“Three.” you gave up. “One from faculty, two from outside.”

“Unethical son of bitches.” he lowly cursed and caught you off guard because he generally preferred to use more polite words, even if he was cursing. “Keep them away from yourself.”

“Oh really?” you teased him by hoping to break the strange tension between you and managed to put a little smile on his face.

“Stop mocking me.” he warned you but now he was smiling widely. His mouth became a heart again, this time you averted your eyes from his face.

“Who I am to dare mocking you?” you squeaked but it was fake.

“Oh, you mock me more than even that walking noisy machine Baekhyun.” he flicked his hand. “We have to stop at this station, Ebisu Garden Place is on the way.”

He put his hand onto your waist again, and you felt like electrocuted again. Every time he touched you, and unfortunately, he sporadically did, you felt like you are dying for more. More what? You were not sure what you really wanted from Kyungsoo, but you were certain on you were desperate for more of him.

More of him.

The bus was crowded, Kyungsoo led you to a little corner, and stayed in front of you. He could be a little bit protective when it came to crowded places since you were clumsy, he generally insisted to keep you close to himself in order to catch you, if you would lose your balance, so you did not surprise when he held your wrist.

What made your heart to do a perfect all kill type of somersault was his next move, his fingers did not stop on your wrist, on the contrary they moved into your palm and grasped your hand tightly. You raised your eyes to him, he never hold your hand, never ever.

“I want to be sure.” he whispered by catching your question before you ask. “Since both of us do not know the way, and the bus is full of passengers, this is more secure.”

“Ah.” This was the best of you at the moment. You quickly realized what the heck you said but Kyungsoo sometimes can be quicker than you.

“Why? Are you unsatisfied with the reason?” His dark brown eyes were shining, his perfume smelled fucking good and the proximity between your faces did not help you.

“Why should I be?” you had to be back to play as soon as possible. “I grant you the chance of holding my hand, that’s count as charity.”

He looked at your hand for a moment, and you saw a smile formed on his lips and instead of a sarcastic reply as you expected, his eyes shaped like a crescent and shined as the fucking moon itself during a cloudless, navy night.

“Thank you, your highness.” he genuinely smiled. “May I continue to hold your hand?”

“Why?” the tone of your question was full of surprise, sounded exceptionally strange.

“Because I want to feel you.” he simply answered, and he squeezed your hand a little bit more. “For once let me feel you by my side.”

You knew that your eyes blown up, your mind was playing some tricky and dangerous games with you, you lost your shit, and you were sure about you finally made yourself mad because of your platonic interest in Kyungsoo, but even if God himself would appear in the bus in order to stop you, that would be a fruitless attempt.

You held Kyungsoo’s hand.

If he wanted to feel you by his side, you could not refuse.

You never refuse Kyungsoo.

How could you?

He was the protagonist of your secret dreams, fantasies and your goddam powerful imagination.

He was your gazelle and you were chasing him since the first day you met.

[fluffyblaire]

why can’t Hawks refuse?

‼️MANGA SPOILERS‼️

Tootooroo~ 🎺Buckle up, folks, it’s time for a Hawks character analysis! 

Today, we’re going to talk about what kind of person Keigo is, how Keigo reconciles with Hawks, how much of the HPSC is inside of Hawks and how all of that comes together to answer the question: “why can’t Hawks refuse?”

Section I: Keigo

Looking at Keigo as a grown up, it can be hard to tell which of his actions are natural to him and which ones are a result of the HPSC’s upbringing. However, there is one place where we can see what kind of person Keigo is at the very core, before the HPSC or any other major societal institution touched him. 

Exhibit A: “Top heroes have stories about them from their school days. Most of their stories have one thing in common: their bodies moved before they had a chance to think.” —All Might

When Keigo was a kid, he saved this entire family. This is his origin story, the story “from [his] school days” if he had gone to school, the story where “[his] body moved before [he] had a chance to think.” As a child, he saved a family from a disaster, and that should tell you a lot more about his character other than just that he was a very physically capable boy.

Keigo has the heart of a true hero, and he had it long before hero society’s influence reached him. He didn’t need the society around him to tell him to be selfless. He didn’t need the media broadcasting heroics every day to tell him helping people is good. He just does. He lived in the slums and if anything, his environment and thief relative would have taught him the opposite: be selfish, that’s how you survive. But he’s not like that. He gives and gives and doesn’t even stick around for recognition. 

This is who Takami Keigo is and while he will lose and gain layers of personality after the Commission recruits him, the core motivations, values, and emotions that compelled him to save this family do not change.

Section II: Hawks

After the HPSC recruits Keigo, Keigo’s heroic heart begins to blend with the tools and habits the HPSC gives him. Keigo, combined with the Commission’s training, becomes Hawks.

Now, what did the HPSC do to Keigo? I don’t think they physically or emotionally abused him for years—at least not in the conventional sense. If that were the case, I believe we would have gotten the details by now. I do think that Keigo must have suffered and that he was taken advantage of by the adults around him in a very strategic and unethical way. Let’s look at all the things I can dissect about Keigo’s upbringing by the Commission.

Exhibit B: “My back just ain’t broad enough to put the people at ease.” —Hawks

The first thing to note is that baby Keigo had big dreams when he was first recruited.

He wanted to be a shiny hero the likes of Endeavor but when we meet Hawks, one of the first major character depth details we find out about him is that he thinks his own back isn’t enough.

Sometime between when he agreed to the HPSC’s training and when he became the No.2 hero, something in Keigo died. A dream died, and he has accepted that he cannot be like his childhood hero. Comparing himself to Endeavor, Hawks thinks himself inferior in more ways than just power stats.

Keigo knows there is a disconnect between what he wanted to be and what he actually became, but he also knows his role well and still tries his best with it even though it isn’t the one he thought he had been promised when the HPSC recruited him. He is unsatisfied but he still does his best. Why? Because after all these years, the kid who flew straight into an automobile disaster to save an entire family is still there underneath the Commission’s manufactured hero. 

He still wants to protect people who can’t protect themselves; his dissatisfaction with how he achieves that didn’t dampen that spirit. This is why he works his ass off but still seems discontent with himself. His role may not be his ideal one but through it, he can protect people, and that’s enough for him to keep doing his best.

Exhibit C: “A special program... to become a special hero.” —Unknown

The second thing to bring up is that if the Commission did not make Hawks like his role model, what did they make him? 

Keigo just wanted to be a flashy hero that saves people from bad guys. A very simple, honest type of hero. The Commission did give him the skills for that, but they also gave him skills that a simple, honest hero should never need: espionage, acting, lying, manipulation, and who knows what else.

Hawks’ hero education was not the same education the UA kids are getting. In this panel, Hawks narrates as if his “negotiation skills” were a convenient coincidence, but come on. What straight forward, honest hero (like All Might, Endeavor, Miruko—you get the type) would need social manipulation skills? The HPSC knew what they were doing when they selected Hawks’ curriculum, and the material came in handy at last when they assigned him this mission that a simple, honest hero should never have to take on. The HPSC never intended to turn Hawks into a simple, honest hero; they wanted to turn him into a hyper-competent soldier to whom they can assign the hardest, dirtiest work that no ordinary hero would be willing to do. 

Judging by the way he joked about the HPSC’s “proposal,” I am led to believe that Hawks is used to his own feelings and concerns not mattering. People, especially children, do not naturally accept that their wants don’t matter, so what does this tell you about how Hawks was raised?

Exhibit D: My Hero Academia ED7

The third thing I need to talk about is this photo. I think one look at this photo of Keigo from ED7 should tell you something was off with his childhood even after he was taken in by the Commission.

Out of all the photos Bones could have shown of baby Keigo, they chose a photo of him in a hospital gown, blindfolded, surrounded by nameless, faceless men in suits with a chain-linked fence in the background of a cold metal training facility. If you look too quickly, you’d think his hands were tied in front of him because of the way his posture and pose is drawn.

This photo choice alone is enough to submit to me that something unethical was going on when the Commission picked Keigo up, and Horikoshi and the producers of the anime want us to read it as unethical. We are meant to read Hawks as a victim here, but we are given no indication in the story that Hawks thinks of himself as a victim. Once again, I am led to believe that he is accustomed to his own feelings not mattering in the grand scheme of things. He has no expectations of being treated more considerately, so he does not view himself as a victim of anything.

Exhibit E: Lonely Birdie

The fourth thing I want to bring up is Hawks’ lack of human connections. The Commission talked as if he had a family when they picked him up, but there’s no mention of that family when we see Hawks as a pro. He leaves his sidekicks behind. He has a professional, frosty relationship with the HPSC, the people who raised him from childhood. He has no one who is a friend close enough that the question of his civilian name would have even come up. The colleague he trusted most with info on his PLF infiltration was Endeavor who he’d only know in person for a few months.

Hawks can be very likable; his approval rating is high and the common folk love him. He is also very perceptive of and constantly thinking of others. And yet he has no close human connections, and the only explanation I can think of for this is that he distances himself from others either consciously or subconsciously.

This tells me either Keigo had no chances/time to seek out human connections on his own as he grew up or he was discouraged from forming those connections altogether. In either case, I doubt he was shown much affection during his training. He was not treated as if a child adopted into a family; he was treated as a new recruit to be guided and whipped into shape. A lack of human relationships while growing up likely led to his lack of relationships as an adult.

Exhibit F: Guilty Birdie

The fifth thing to note is that Hawks blames himself for anything that is not swift, decisive success. He always moves like he’s running out of time and thinks like he must do everything on his own. 

This mindset is very self-destructive and the consistency with which he repeatedly monologues lines like “think of the citizens/think of Japan/if only you did X” tells me this mindset was something that was drilled into him from the outside. These don’t sound like things you would monologue to yourself to psych yourself up. These sound like things a trainer or coach would tell you repeatedly in order to guilt you into working harder. 

Section III: Why Can’t Hawks Refuse?

Accepting that his own feelings don’t matter, distancing himself from others, using guilt to push himself, etc.—I think these are small habits the HPSC strategically instilled in Hawks through his environment as they raised him. The HPSC had an agenda while raising Hawks, but it’s nothing as dramatic as brainwashing. Instead, the Commission focused on building small and seemingly harmless habits like the ones I’ve noted. These habits can be positive if applied correctly but instead, over the years, they’ve subtly broken down Hawks’ sense of self-love and made him a slave to his own heroic heart.

His own feelings don’t matter when it comes to fulfilling his role, so Hawks will never refuse a mission just because he doesn’t like it. He habitually guilts himself with a reminder of who he is doing everything for—the people—so he’ll always work hard and fast. He distances himself from others, so no one will ever get close enough to him to teach him his human value and change his habits. Take these tendencies and make them second nature to a man whose heart is far too giving, and it’s not hard to see how the Commission trapped Hawks without having to actually trap him.

I don’t think the HPSC is doing anything dark like threatening/blackmailing Hawks. They don’t need to. Hawks can’t refuse their request because, deep down, he is simply too kind. If he is given a chance to save people, he won’t let himself abandon the opportunity. If he can take the burden of a dirty job off of someone else’s shoulders, he will. 

Keigo wasn’t a good hero candidate just because of his Quirk. His nature is too kind, especially to those he doesn’t know, and the Commission saw it from the beginning and took advantage of it. They don’t have to brainwash or leash him. All they had to do was teach him some self-destructive but seemingly heroic habits and those along with Keigo’s innate selflessness are more than enough to keep him focused on his role and unable to flat-out say no to the Commission.

Exhibit G: The Diamond

Lastly, let’s talk about how the diamond on Hawks’ hero costume matches the diamond on the HPSC building. It’s subtle, but I think it means something. It’s subtle just as the HPSC’s influence on Hawks is subtle in the form of small personal habits. The habits the HPSC strategically fostered in Hawks won’t disappear just because he has his own agency now and can carry his career alone. The diamond on Hawks’ chest is like a brand. Once property of the HPSC, always property of the HPSC even in the smallest ways.

In conclusion: If the HPSC wanted to indoctrinate Hawks, they could’ve easily done it, and the Hawks we know today who is skeptical of the HPSC and who observed that a villain could be a good person would not exist. Instead, the Commission knew they could make him independent (therefore, low maintenance) and easy to order around when needed if they went the subtler route: shaping not his values, moral code, or motivations but his internal habits. It’s sneaky, it’s shady, it’s unethical, but it’s kind of brilliant. 

[nerdythebard]

#8: Adrian 'Alucard' Tepes [Castlevania]

Surprise!

Told you I can do any fictional character. Feel free to send me your suggestions!

By the time I'm writing this, season 4 of Netflix's Castlevania shall hit our screens in two days. Because of that, I decided to do something special and build the main trio in D&D. We'll start with everybody's bundle of daddy issues - Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes aka Alucard. This half-vampire swordsman uses his charm and nimbleness to overpower his foes.

Next Time: Never tell this woman beer is better than sex with her, my man... see what happens.

Now, let's see what we need to bring Alucard into our D&D game.

Errr... besides that.

Half-Blood Prince: Alucard is a half-vampire son of Dracula. He's quite an accomplished scholar, orator, and all-around high-class fella. His strength, speed, and intelligence are obviously above that of any mortal, but I'm afraid this is D&D, not anime. We have to balance it out.

Floaty Sword: Alucard's weapon of choice is a longsword he controls telekinetically. We don't see him doing much in terms of magic and spellcasting (besides occasional quick stride akin to teleportation), so we shall focus on this one weapon.

Tough: I mean... my dude fights either shirtless or in a trenchcoat and he still can take more Punchables™ than Mama said. What I mean is, we need some good AC on him.

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The issue of Alucard's race is pretty much non-existing; he's a half-vampire, there is a half-vampire option in D&D that is about to become official with the upcoming release of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Alucard is a Dhampir. We get to pick a +2 and +1 to two different stats of our choice, let's get +2 Dexterity and +1 Constitution. We get both walking AND climbing speed of 35 feet, 60 feet of Darkvision, and we get to speak Common and one other language of our choice. Most importantly, we get Vampiric Bite, which lets us use our teeth as natural weapons. We can add our Constitution modifier to both attack and damage rolls of our fangs, and the bite deals 1d4 piercing damage. If we're below 50% health, we have an advantage on the attack roll. We're not ourselves when we're hungry. If the creature we bite is not a construct or an undead, we can choose one of the following benefits:

regain Hit Points equal to the damage of our bite;

gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll we make (bonus equals the damage of our bite)

We can use those bite benefits the number of times equal to our proficiency bonus, and we regain all bites after finishing a long rest.

For Alucard's background, I feel like going with Noble is most fitting. We get proficiency with History and Persuasion, proficiency in one gaming set, we learn one language of our choice, and we gain the Position of Privilege feature; much like Shelter of the Faithful or Military Rank from previous builds, this one grants us ability to secure an audience with a noble, or use our status to gain entrance to more secured locations. Nobody tells the son of Dracula what he can or can't do!

ABILITY SCORES

If you ever seen Alucard, you know he's scoring 18 in every single thing right away. That makes him almost anime protagonist-level of awesome. However, once again, this is D&D. We must be fair and adhere to the rules:

We start with Constitution, as we're pretty difficult to hurt (our only weakness seems to be attractive Japanese hunters). Dexterity is next, it is our primary fighting ability, and we need it to be able to go shirtless into battle. We follow that up with Strength, we are nimble but we can still punch a full-on vampire in the face hard enough to make him feel it.

Intelligence is next, we've had Dracula's entire library to kill time, and we're pretty educated. Wisdom is a bit lower than we need it to be, but we did get outsmarted by two Belmont wannabes. We'll work on that. Unfortunately, we have to dump Charisma.

H-hey! For my defence, he's been described as a teenager in an adult's body! He is educated and eloquent, but apart from that, his charm comes from how inept and awkward he is... err... it doesn't work, eh?

YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!

CLASS

Level 1 - Fighter: No big surprise there, we're not a caster or a tank, this is a damage-dealer build. As a Fighter, we get a d10 for our Hit Dice, [10 + Constitution modifier] starting Hit Points, proficiency with light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. We don't need armour for this build (we've seen Alucard using a shield in S4 trailer), and I think his sword is long and thin enough to count as a rapier. Our saving throws are Strength and Constitution, and we get to pick two class skills: Athletics and Acrobatics seems stereotypical, but they're really useful in this build.

Fighters at 1st level get to pick their Fighting Style, and if you remember Alucard's fight with Trevor, you know we're going with Duelling. This gives us a +2 to damage rolls with our weapon, as long as it's the only one we have in our hands, so we're dropping the shield. We also get Second Wind, letting us heal [1d10 + our Fighter level] once per short or long rest.

Level 2 - Fighter: At this level we get Action Surge, which lets us take one additional Action once per short or long rest.

Level 3 - Fighter: This is the level where we get to pick our subclass, our Martial Archetype. Now, if this build was done earlier, I would've picked Eldritch Knight (as Weapon Bond is especially tempting feature), but thanks once again to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything we have something that fits Alucard much better.

Alucard is a Psi Warrior. He uses much less magic than Sypha, and his main tactic is to use his sword telekinetically. This subclass has everything we need. We start with Psionic Power, which gives us a [our proficiency bonus x2]d6 of Psionic Energy Dice, which can be used to perform special effects. We regain all Psionic Dice after finishing a long rest, but once per short or long rest we can also regain one dice as a bonus action, which is useful in a pinch. We begin with the following psychic effects:

Protective Field: when a creature within 30 feet of us takes damage, we can spend 1 Psionic Die as a reaction to reduce the damage by [the result + our Intelligence modifier].

Psionic Strike: Once on our turn, when we successfully deal damage to a target within 30 feet of us, we can spend 1 Psionic Die to add extra [the result + our Intelligence modifier] force damage.

Telekinetic Movement: As an action, we can select a loose object that is Large or smaller (or one willing creature other than ourselves), and move it up to 30 feet into an unoccupied space. Alternatively, we can summon a Tiny object directly to or from our hand. Our rapier is definitely not Tiny, but moving it as close as 1 foot and using a free action to pick it up is absolutely possible. Once we use this effect, we have to wait a short or long rest, or use a Psionic Die to use it again.

Level 4 - Fighter: It's time for our first Ability Score Improvement! Instead, however, we will pick a feat. Mobile feat along with a Dexterity-based character is truly a DM's bane. Our walking (and climbing) speed increases by 10 feet; when we use the Dash action, we are not affected by difficult terrain; when we make a melee attack against a creature, we do not provoke attacks of opportunity for the rest of the turn, regardless if we hit our target or not.

Level 5 - Fighter: At this level we get Extra Attack. During our turn, as we take our Action, we can now attack twice instead of once. Combining that with Action Surge lets us attack four times on our turn.

It is also here that our Psionic Dice increases from d6 into d8.

Level 6 - Fighter: We get another ASI. Let's raise our Wisdom by 2 points. We need it to multiclass later.

Level 7 - Fighter: Our subclass gets upgraded with Telekinetic Adept. We now get two additional effects to pick for our Psionic Dice:

Psi-Powered Leap: As a bonus action, we gain flying speed of [our walking speed x2] feet until the end of our current turn. Once we take this effect, we cannot do it again until we finish a short or long rest, or spend a Psionic Die to do it again.

Telekinetic Thrust: When we use our Psionic Strike, we can force a Strength saving throw on our target (DC: 8 + our proficiency bonus + our Intelligence modifier). On a failed save, we can either knock the target prone, or move them 10 feet in any horizontal direction.

Level 8 - Fighter: Time for another ASI. Once again, we need to raise our Wisdom, but this time only by a single point. We'll put the other point into Strength, and let's get ready to multiclass into...

Level 9 - Monk: We shall now address Alucard's questionable choice of body protection... and by that I mean lack thereof. As a 1st-level Monk, we get Unarmoured Defence; when we're not wearing any armour, our AC equals [10 + our Dexterity modifier + our Wisdom modifier].

We also get our hand-to-hand combat upgraded with Martial Arts, which is going to be useful if we're somehow separated from our sword. While we're unarmed (or wielding monk weapons) and unarmoured (and with no shield), we gain the following benefits:

We can use Dexterity instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls of our unarmed strikes and monk weapons;

We can now roll a d4 for attack and damage rolls of our unarmed strikes (instead of our Strength or Dexterity modifier) and monk weapons;

When we Attack using unarmed strikes or monk weapons, we can spend a bonus action to do additional unarmed strike.

Level 10 - Monk: Halfway through the build, and we're getting access to the Monk's most important resource, the Ki energy. We start with 2 Ki Points, which we can spend to fuel some extra Monk abilities. Right from the start, we know three of those:

Flurry of Blows: Immediately after we Attack, we can spend 1 Ki Point to deal two extra unarmed strikes.

Patient Defence: We can burn 1 Ki Point to take a Dodge action as a bonus action.

Step of the Wind: For 1 Ki Point, we can take a Dash or Disengage action as a bonus action. Our jump distance also doubles for the turn.

We also get extra speedy here with Unarmoured Movement. While not wearing armour or a shield, our walking speed increases by 10 feet.

Level 11 - Monk: At this level, we shall learn how to Deflect Missiles. Whenever we're hit by a ranged projectile, we can use our reaction to reduce the damage dealt by [1d10 + our Dexterity modifier + our Monk level]. If we manage to reduce the damage to 0, we can catch the projectile with a free hand and, using the same reaction, make a ranged attack (20/60) with the same projectile.

This is also the time to pick our second subclass, our Monastic Tradition. Now, originally I wanted to do Way of the Shadow to get some more of that vampiric sneak, but then I realize it's not exactly what Alucard does. Instead, we'll go Way of the Open Hand, to enhance our unarmed combat. With the Open Hand Technique feature, we gain a boost to our Flurry of Blows. Every time on of our Flurry strikes hits, we can apply one of the following effects:

Target must make a Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone;

Target must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 15 feet;

Target cannot take reactions until the end of our next turn.

We also get Wholeness of Body to double-down on our vampiric regeneration. Once per long rest, we can use an action to regain Hit Points equal to [our Monk level x3].

It is also at this level that our Psionic Dice get upgraded to a d10.

Level 12 - Fighter: We return to our Jedi Psi Warrior, just in time to get the Indomitable feature. Once per long rest, we can reroll a saving throw we fail, but we must use the new result.

Level 13 - Fighter: Our subclass gets upgraded with Guarded Mind. We are now resistant to psychic damage. Additionally, we can spend a Psionic Die to shake off the charmed or frightened effects if we start our turn under influence of those.

Level 14 - Fighter: Here, our Extra Attack gets improved; now, we can attack three times when taking the Attack action.

Level 15 - Fighter: We get another ASI. Let's raise our Charisma by 2 point, to get rid of the negative modifier.

Level 16 - Fighter: We now get an improvement to our Indomitable feature. We can use it twice per long rest.

Level 17 - Fighter: For another ASI, we shall raise our Dexterity by 2 points.

Level 18 - Fighter: We get the final upgrade for our subclass in this build. By using Bulwark of Force, we can protect ourselves and others. As a bonus action, we can choose a number of creatures within 30 feet that we can see (ourselves included), equal to our Intelligence modifier. The chosen creatures gain the benefit of half-cover for 1 minute, or until we're incapacitated. Once again, we can use it once per long rest, unless we spend a Psionic Die to use it again.

Level 19 - Fighter: For our final ASI we shall raise our Wisdom and Intelligence.

Level 20 - Fighter: Our capstone is Fighter 17. We get three uses of Indomitable per long rest, and two uses of Action Surge, which effectively gives us ability to perform nine attacks on a single target.

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And that is my take on Alucard from Castlevania. Let's see how he presents himself:

First of all, we're a very speedy boi, with basic speed of 55 feet, with Step of the Wind giving us ability to double that movement. We also have a solid Hit Point base, 181 on average. We can make multiple attacks with Action Surge and Extra Attack, and even if we get disarmed, we can handle ourselves with bare hands.

On the other hand, our Charisma makes those particular saving throws a bit difficult. Same thing with our Intelligence, which modifier fuels some of our subclass abilities. We also have a relatively low AC (16 unarmoured), but we do have several skills attributing to avoiding getting hit (the Mobile feat, Patient Defence, etc.)

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Anyhoo, that's it for Alucard. Next time, it's everybody's favourite tomboy wizard!

- Nerdy out!