#and none are canon sprites of course

[idkmanwtfishumanityanymore]

GOOOOOOOOOOOD EVENING DWELLERS OF TUMBLR AND TSBS FANS ALIKE! I JUST FINISHED COOKIN’ UP A NEW ESSAY. HOPE Y’ALL CAN TOLERATE HEAT, CAUSE THIS ONES GONNA BE SPICY

FIRST FUCKING OFF, USING THEM AS CLICKBAIT? AGAIN? REALLY? WOOOOOOOW GREAT TO SEE YOU’VE LEARNED NOTHING. GREAT TO SEE Y’ALL DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE FANBASE.

SECOND OFF, OHOHOHOHO BOY. HOLD MY MENTOS GUM AND SPRITE, BECAUSE THIS IS GONNA GET FUCKING UGLY.

OKAY SO LIKE 2 MINTUES IN YOU’RE DRILLING IT INTO EVERYONE THAT THE TWINS ARE “IRREDEEMABLE”, WHEN AS I’VE SAID BEFORE, THEY FUCKING AREN’T. WE *SAW* THAT THEY COULD HAVE HAD ATLEAST A CHANCE WHEN THEY LIVED WITH FOXY AND FC.

AND YOU’RE SAYING THAT BLOODMOON HAVING A CODE WITHIN THEM THAT *MADE* THEM *NEED* TO KILL AND CONSUME BLOOD, WHICH IS ALREADY CANONICALLY ESTABLISHED SEVERAL *FUCKING* TIMES, IS A HEADCANON WE MADE UP???? WHAT???

OH AND DON’T EVEN GET ME *STARTED* ON ECLIPSES WHOLE “I made them to cause chaos” BULLSHIT. YOU MADE THEM, *FOR KILLING*. I IMPLORE ANYONE READING TO PULL UP THE RECEIPTS FOR THESE, BECAUSE THEY *FUCKING EXIST,* AND STITCHWRAITH HAD THE *GALL* TO SAY “THEY’LL ACCUSE US OF RETCONNING”, OF COURSE WE’LL SAY YOU’RE RETCONNING WHEN *LITERALLY* FUCKING *ARE.*

I’D HAVE REALLY THOUGHT YOU’D STOP BEING *DICKS* TO YOUR COMMUNITY AFTER WE COLLECTIVELY CAME TOGETHER TO PROTEST LAES BEING TERMINATED, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO.

THIS WHOLE EPISODE WAS JUST THEM SHITTING ON US, EITHER BY SHITTING ON OUR THEORIES, OR JUST SHITTING ON US IN GENERAL, THEY WERE JUST BEING DICKS TO THEIR ENTIRE COMMUNITY, NOT *JUST* BLOODMOON DEFENDERS THIS TIME.

BACK TO THE BLOODMOON TOPIC THOUGH, ECLIPSE SWID THAT THIS PODCAST WAS OF “IRREDEEMABLE VILLAINS”, SO WHY THE *FUCK* IS HE THERE WHEN HE’S *HAD* A CANON REDEMPTION ARC? WHY IS STITCHWRAITH THERE WHEN THEY GOT A HINTED AT REDEMPTION OF SORTS BY SAVING FOXY AND FC?? WHY ARE 2 VILLAINS WHO’VE CANONICALLY HAD SOME FORM OF REDEEMING QUALITY, ON A PODCAST OF “IRREDEEMABLE VILLAINS”, BUT STILL SAY THAT BLOODMOON IS COMPLETELY IRREDEEMABLE?

PAIRING THEM WITH THE OTHER ACTUALLY REDEEMED OR SEMI-REDEEMABLE CHARACTERS JUST *PROVES OUR POINT.*

THE TWINS, COULD HAVE BEEN, REDEEMED. MUST I REMIND EVERYONE THAT BLOODY COMPLETELY *BROKE* INSIDE WHEN HIS BROTHER DIED? DOES ANYONE WHO CAN BE SO UTTERLY BROKEN AND NUMB FROM A LOSS, REALLY COUNT AS IRREDEEMABLE?

FROM WHAT I’VE RESEARCHED, (AND YES. I DO FUCKING RESEARCH ON THIS SHIT), IRREDEEMABLE MEANS THEY HAVE *ZERO* REDEEMING QUALITIES, NONE, NADA, ZILCH.

BEING UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY BROKEN OVER THE LOSS OF A LOVED ONE, IS NOT WHAT WOULD BE IN AN “IRREDEEMABLE VILLIAN”, BECAUSE HAVING ANY REDEEMING QUALITIES, *MAKES THEM REDEEMABLE.*

TELL ME, READERS, WHEN YOU THINK OF A COMPLETELY IRREDEEMABLE, DISGUSTING, HORRIBLE VILLAIN, DO YOU THINK OF;

A: Someone with no remorse, no sympathy or empathy, no attachment to anyone, and just a pure drive to torment and slaughter

OR

B: Someone who is completely and utterly SHATTERED by the loss of a loved one, to the point they begin to lose themself, lose the will to live, and actively TRY to die. Someone who can and DOES feel sympathy and empathy, but only for people they care about?

Me personally, from my research, A IS IRREDEEMABLE, AND B IS REDEEMABLE.

GUESS WHICH ONE IS FUCKING B???

BLOODMOON.

I WILL NOT BE SILENCED. I WILL NOT TOLERATE BEING TREATED (even if not PERSONALLY) LIKE I’M *CRAZY* FOR DEFENDING A CLEARLY REDEEMABLE CHARACTER.

I WILL NOT TOLERATE THEM BACKTRACKING AND RETCONNING PRE-ESTABLISHED LORE JUST TO FIT THEIR *OWN PREFERENCES*

while sure, some may argue; “These are *their* characters, *their* story, and *they’re* the ones in control of it, not us!”

THAT DOESN’T GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO FLAT OUT CLAIM WE’RE MENTALLY UNSTABLE FOR DEFENDING A FICTIONAL CHARACTER WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE A MURDER HOBO.

I, AND MANY OTHERS, ARE FUCKING *SICK* OF BEING CALLED CRAZY, UNSTABLE, MENTALLY DERANGED, INSANE, ETC, FOR DEFENDING A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, WHOSE WORST CRIME IS A BODY COUNT IN THE THOUSANDS.

PEOPLE DEFEND CHARACTERS WITH WORSE CRIMES ALL THE TIME, AND SURE THE FANBASE ITSELF CALLS THEM (rightfully, especially if they’re defending a character whose S/A’d people before) CRAZY, BUT DO THE CREATORS CALL THEM CRAZY? NO? BUT THE WRITERS HERE CAN CALL US DERANGED FOR DEFENDING A COMPLETELY FICTIONAL MURDERER?

THE MATH, ISN’T, MATHING.

THEY JUST DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO ADMIT THAT THEY DESTROYED A CHARACTER WITH POTENTIAL TO BE A BETTER PERSON, BECAUSE THEY COULD. BECAUSE THEY DON’T CARE HOW IT’LL AFFECT THEIR FANBASE. BECAUSE THEY DON’T CARE THAT PEOPLE WILL RIGHTFULLY BOYCOTT THEIR CHANNEL AND SCREW THEIR “BUSINESS”.

IT’S FURTHER PROVEN THAT THEY’RE JUST MAKING UP FOR THEIR MISTAKES AS SHITTY WRITERS, BY THROWING THE TWINS AT US IN THE MOST CLICKBAITY WAY POSSIBLE AND ESSENTIALLY SAYING; “HERE TAKE YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER AND SHUT UP ALREADY”.

This concludes my… *calculating how long it took me to write this bc of how many breaks I had to take from being livid* overnight essay about the recent clickbait usage of BloodMoon and the writers “justification” of their actions via retconning. Eat up, feel free to add on, I’m gonna go fucking die now.

(For legal reasons, by die, I mean sleep because of how mentally draining this whole ordeal is and consistently will be until they fix their fuck ups or atleast admit to it.)

[suddenlymicah]

so, we agree that kokichi's love hotel is really interesting, right? for saiouma purposes, of course.

in most of the love hotel events, the characters don't act like themselves. they act a bit differently, and on top of that, don't have their actual roles.

but with kokichi's love hotel event...

they just act like themselves. shuichi is a detective, kokichi is a sly antagonistic thief. shuichi even says says it himself, "Ah, so I'm not a different person here. I'm me, and Kokichi is Kokichi.

this sets it apart from every other love hotel event.

think about it.

notice how all of them are clearly imagining someone else. kaede is imagining a lover, miu a childhood friend. korekiyo is imagining someone that confessed to him, angie a "lower rank"(presumably something related to worship of atua on her island). gonta is imagining an actor(?), and tenko a fellow user of neo-aikido. rantaro is imagining a student, maki is imagining a fellow person at her orphanage. ryoma is imagining a former manager, himiko is imagining an animal she granted a human form with magic, kaito is imagining a rival pilot, and kirumi is imagining the son of an employer. i'm not even touching tsumugi's event.

now, some of them are more unclear, like kiibo's event. it's implied that shuichi is a close friend, but either way, he's not meant to act like shuichi usually acts.

this is all unlike kokichi's event. if anything, SHUICHI is more in-character during the event than kokichi is, but that makes sense, considering kokichi's character. that's an argument for another day, however.

one other think that's odd about his love hotel event is that kokichi leaves.

in all of the other events, the screen just fades to black with the character sprite still standing there. but with kokichi...

he leaves. after playing around with shuichi a little bit, he turns and leaves. NONE of the others are like this.

now, i think it's worth mentioning what the love hotel events are. the danganronpa wiki states; "The student fully believes in the dream scenario even if it is farfetched, but has no memory of the encounter when they wake up, whereas the protagonist is fully aware that it's a dream, and has some foggy memories of the encounter when they wake up." the reason none of the other people leave is because this is a dream on their part, an ideal. in kokichi's ideal, not only is he toying around with SHUICHI, he leaves him pining and confused, just like he does in-game.

But then again, what do I know? This could be not-canon, and thus not saiouma.

[nerd-cat-rambles]

Sorry, same ask as the fanfic one but I want to continue telling more about this fic so basically the plot is they were teleported to a place to watch the future and after the 1st chapter Kyoko confront Sayaka about her framing Makoto, and got mad at her and stuff and she didn't even mention what she did to Leon. So basically they've also change lots of dialogue... And about the bath scene, Makoto thoughts about the bath scene wasn't mentioned and how the scene also changed of instead of him willing peeking through, he was dragged by and force to see the girls. Also apparently Sayaka in the fanfic purposely flirts with Makoto and give the other girls with crushes 'sly smile' and giving them a 'murderous aura of jealousy' and Mukuro called Sayaka a 'vixen' and they always defend Makoto even tho what the others said were a bit of teasing (etc Leon teasing Makoto about him referring Sayaka as a doll and Sayaka suddenly quips back)

WHAT THE FUCK BRO HELP

Please remember, no hate to the original creator of the novel!

Okay so this is literally one of those "gacha life danganronpa reacts to the future" with more plot. Alright let me break this down word by word. /hj

"Kyoko confront Sayaka about her framing Makoto, and got mad at her and stuff" - Okay so that's OOC for both of them because 1. Kyoko wouldn't be the one to try and change the course of the future, unless she really liked Sayaka, but later it's shown that Sayaka is mean to her and the others. and 2. Sayaka isn't mean? She knows the future, and it must mean she knows she's on national tv and being watched, she wouldn't let her idol mask drop just like that for being accused of a murder she is later to attempt.

"she didn't even mention what she did to Leon." - If Kyoko was trying to save Sayaka who she wasn't close with why would she not try and save Leon too?

"And about the bath scene, Makoto thoughts about the bath scene wasn't mentioned and how the scene also changed of instead of him willing peeking through, he was dragged by and force to see the girls." - ooc because he did it in canon, it's fine if it's like... Hifumi being reluctant to see ("I'm only into 2D!") <- but it would work because he has so many other flaws. Throughout the course of THH we get to see like... 3 flaws from Makoto. Number One: The bath scene, which is his biggest flaw. Number Two: "he's too trusting" <- that's not even a fucking flaw bro and Number Three: He's willing to let Byakuya step all over him and bully him. Removing the bath scene removes his biggest flaw, and if girls are around him all the time Byakuya won't get a chance to be a little bitch. So techincally, Makoto is a Y/N self insert character.

"Also apparently Sayaka in the fanfic purposely flirts with Makoto and give the other girls with crushes 'sly smile'" - Okay goddam. Take a look at this sprite set.

DO ANY OF THESE GIVE YOU "mean girl vibes" OR "She's sly" OR "boyfriendkisserIthoughtshewasmyfriendwehadagoodtimebutnowI'mgonnamissherBOYFRIENDKISSER" (<- TDWT) vibes??? NO. NONE OF THESE PORTRAY SAYAKA LIKE THAT! NONE!

"'murderous aura of jealousy'"

Ah yes, a murderous aura of jealousy!

"Mukuro called Sayaka a 'vixen' and they always defend Makoto even tho what the others said were a bit of teasing" - WHY WOULD MUKURO START BEEF WITH ANYBODY IF SHE HAS SEEN THE FUTURE AND KNOWS SHE'S GOING TO DIE TO JUNKO?! WOULDN'T SHE WANT TO STAY SAFE?!

Okay so this whole fic is OOC and they turned MAKOTO into the dating sim protagonist. (Like I was watching a stream yesterday at the streamer was like "Oh I thought it was a dating sim, chat how old are these people?") like, they're teenagers they want to survive and see their parents again, NOT FAWN OVER A GUY THEY JUST MET-

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Quill Society HQ Tour

(Every sprite here belongs to their original owners, most of which are from the Spriters' Resource.)

Dimension TNL-2015: Gust Planet HQ

On the way up to the main hub floor of Gust Planet, those waiting there were simply chilling out, though LM!Sonic wasn't too pleased with the music choice.

LM!Sonic: Remind me again WHY we have this music in the elevator.

EV!Sonic: Hey, don't look at me. Somari suggested it. Honestly, it was a cool suggestion on his part!

LM!Sonic: Urgh, whatever...

EV!Sonic: Sheesh, you really need to liven up, you know. Even Zonic, as serious as he is, isn't as grumpy as you are.

LM!Sonic: I don't have time for "humour", Sonic. Not with the multiverse potentially on the line.

EV!Sonic: Okay, look, LM. Humour is a perfectly alright thing to have, as long as the jokes and quips don't hurt anybody.

Jake (Reclassified Sonic): Yeah, Sonic's right. Man, you're like some kinda dark, edgy Garfield the way you're acting.

This got a chuckle out of NES Sonic, Hefty and OMT!Tails, and LM!Sonic simply glared at Jake for that.

EV!Sonic: Look, the point is, LM, you've been downright moody the whole time since you've been here. First you have high distaste for anyone who's not from a Sonic dimension, you've been shut up in your dorm for so many days, and now you're trying to suggest I DON'T bring OMT Tails to see what the place is like? How much of a killjoy do you have to be?! *sigh* You really haven't been the same since what happened with Dimension MULTI-2023.

LM!Sonic: The kid almost caused multiversal instability back there, and that's why you brought him here?!

EV!Sonic: That glitching was more likely a cause of Crimtake passing through. It was purely coincidental good timing. Urgh, you're seriously starting to believe in that tried-and-failed "canon event" theory?

LM!Sonic: What I'm doing here is none of your business. Once I'm finished, I'll be going.

EV!Sonic: Look, if you keep up this attitude, I'm going to have to block you out of accessing this dimension AND the Society full-stop. I'm the leader of this place, not you, so you need to have better respect for the policies we've got here to keep everyone safe.

LM!Sonic didn't say a word, getting off the elevator as EV!Sonic simply facepalmed in frustration. As the current characters got off the elevator and new ones got onboard, EV!Sonic went to check on OMT!Tails.

EV!Sonic: You okay, little bud?

OMT!Tails: I heard what you were talking about with that other Sonic. It's just... Did I do something wrong?

EV!Sonic: Of course you didn't, Tails. If anything, you saved BK Amy a lot of trouble helping her out of a jiffy back there, and I'm proud of you for that!

He sat down with OMT!Tails.

EV!Sonic: Well, still got a bit to go before we reach our floor.

OMT!Tails: This place is really that big?

EV!Sonic: Heh, you'd be surprised. Well, anything you want to discuss on the way up?

OMT!Tails: So, what's the whole "canon event" ideal about?

EV!Sonic: Some debunked theory about what should and shouldn't happen in a bid to supposedly "keep the multiverse stable". It's like trying to keep to a script; too hard to do 100% of the time.

OMT!Tails: Is that why "LM" is so grumpy?

EV!Sonic: Well, he hasn't been the same since what happened in his dimension. Lost memories, being tricked by his Eggman, a death he couldn't prevent... He doesn't like to talk about it at all. After your last outing, he... he just hasn't been the same.

OMT!Tails: And considering the "non-canon", is that where some of those other guys came from around four months ago?

EV!Sonic: Well, some of them did indeed come from alternate timelines, like the alternate counterparts of you, Lilac, Chara and Karilvatch. Their circumstances... are something I really don't like discussing with anyone.

OMT!Tails: So where are they now? The guys we restored and all.

EV!Sonic: Shalian, Talrareth and our Corrupt are all safe in our dimension, CR-2017's Corrupt and Sonath were neutralised as threats, as you know. And all the hurt counterparts of guys like you are safely at a place known as the OMEGA Universe.

OMT!Tails: OMEGA universe?

EV!Sonic: Kinda like a sanctuary for anyone who needs it, and a popular tourist destination. It's run by a grown-up version of me, like CR, alongside a peculiar version of Frisk.

OMT!Tails: Ah, I see!

EV!Sonic: As for Curse, you'll see where the dude is shortly. Speaking of, we're almost at our stop! You ready, Tails?

OMT!Tails: Born ready!

The two disembarked from the elevator into the main lobby at Sector 11.

OMT!Tails: Wow... This place is huge!

Tekno disembarked off the elevator too, having joined the duo on their last stop, and watched them head onwards before going to see Fleetway Amy.

(Millie the Fox (the fox girl on the left) is owned by CartoonsAnimate22)

Tekno: Hey, Amy! Have you or anyone else seen Crimtake around recently? His power's recently overclocked and we need him stopped as soon as we can.

Fleetway Amy: Okay-doke! Let me ask around. Ahem. Hey, guys? Has anyone taken a lookout for Crimtake?

Tekno simply smirked in response.

Tekno: Heh, quite funny. Anyone else got more quips to say before the search begins?

Fleetway Amy: You know, now that you mention it...

Water Sonic: Yeah, bet he can't shapeshift through water like me! Still prefer my hedgehog look, though, heh.

Other Quill Society members nearby joined in with their own puns.

OMT!Tails: Heh, this is unbelievable!

EV!Sonic: Well, kid! This is the main lobby.

OMT!Tails looked out in awe.

OMT!Tails: Woah...

EV!Sonic: Welcome... to the Quill Society!

Curse: Quite a lot to take in, isn't there, Tails? Glad you could make it, heh.

OMT!Tails: Thanks, Curse! You too, Alice!

EX!Alice: Hehe! Don't mention it!

OMT!Mina came in.

EV!Sonic: You all good, Mina?

OMT!Mina: Mhm.

OMT!Tails: This is definitely bigger than a small elite strike team.

OMT!Mina (looking sad): A lot of these members work part-time, though.

D-Sides Mighty arrived.

D-Sides Mighty: So, Mina, how much have you told him about the nature of this place?

OMT!Mina: A little bit.

Tails glitched out a bit behind them, which shocked EV!Sonic a bit.

EV!Sonic: Oh! Here you go, Tails.

EV!Sonic passed OMT!Tails a fancy watch to wear.

OMT!Tails: Woah! My own extra watch?!

EV!Sonic: It's your very own day pass! We haven't fully nailed down how to stop that glitching in this universe, even with your own watch, so it'll keep you from glitching while you're here.

He put it on, his glitches disappearing proper thanks to this.

OMT!Tails: So what about the Chao Alice has with her?

EV!Sonic: Ah, we have our own dedicated Chao Garden where we raise Chaos for therapeutic roles or simply as companions for members. Since Shadows tend to get it THE most rough, they get them free-of-charge.

OMT!Tails: Heh, that's very sweet.

Into the hallway into Sector 12, and they watched different Sonics go by.

OMT!Mina: Hey, Sonics!

Modern Pocket Adventure Sonic: Hey hey hey! BBLIR Sonic: How's it going, Mina? SMB3 Sonic: Way past cool! SMS1 Sonic: Hey, Mina!

One based on Super Mario World made a brief stop.

SMW Sonic: Hey, Mina! This a new recruit?

OMT!Mina: Heh, possibly.

OMT!Tails: (She knows everybody here?)

A Cream and a Cosmo saw OMT!Tails with curiosity.

SCD!Cream: Another Mr. Tails? He's got blue shoes!

Cosmo: Heh, yeah! Those look great on him!

At Sector 12, an outdoor space akin to Metallic Madness's construction stages, EV!Sonic walked up to Carol.

EV!Sonic: Hey, Carol?

Carol: Carol the Wildcat, at your service! What do ya need?

EV!Sonic: Well, I need you to escort the Mix-Match group over to Sector 18's docking station. LEGO me will meet them there, where they'll be able to start cleaning up the messes Crimtake left behind. Free sushi on the house in the café if you do a good job today!

Carol: Okey-dokey! Alright, crew! Next stop; Sector 18!

Rob O': Thou services art much appreciated, fair maiden! Onward!

Rob O', the Ray and Espio at the scene, and Johnny Lightfoot headed off with Carol for their mission.

OMT!Tails: (It's awesome how Carol's here, too!)

Over at Sector 21, outside the café, Tekno approached Turbo, who was leaning against the wall.

Tekno: Hey, Turbo? I need-.

Turbo: Sorry, can't talk right now. Too busy reminiscing on how my newest quest will play out...!

Tekno: Er, actually, I kinda needed you for something.

Turbo: (angry gibberish, before calming down) Okay, maybe that wasn't the best approach.

OMT!Tails: Is he okay?

OVA!Knuckles and a version of Julie-Su arrived on that one horse from the Archie comics, the former hopping down first.

OVA!Knuckles: Hey, kid. Wanna see how good your reflexes are?

OMT!Tails: Oh? Sure!

OVA!Knuckles: Alright, then! On three, draw!

OMT!Tails, not hailing from the cowboy genre, harmlessly hit him.

OVA!Knuckles: Woah there! You didn't wait 'til three. That's the whole aim of this stuff.

OMT!Tails: Sorry, hehe. I'll get better at it next time. So, uh, what's your horse about?

Julie-Su: Me and Knuckles here share responsibilities of looking after her while we're here. The crazy layouts definitely make it fun to traverse!

OVA!Knuckles: Well, I'd love to stay and chat more, but we gotta dash. We'll duel again next time, Tails!

OMT!Tails: You bet!

The two climbed back aboard their steed.

OVA!Knuckles: Alright, giddy up, girl!

They headed off.

OMT!Tails: By the way, who's the bird next to you, Lilac?

Hedgehog Lilac: Oh, he's Red, from Dimension ROV-2009. The Society's leader brought him on since SEGA bought out the company that designed his universe.

OMT!Tails: Ah, I see! Well, have a good day, Red!

Next on the tour was Sector 15, the site where multiversal villains were being held in different cells.

OMT!Tails: Who are all the guys in the cages?

Tekno: Those are the villains we've had to round up who've slipped into the wrong worlds by accident. We keep them here for a bit before sending them back home.

EV!Sonic: Yeah. Holding these guys long-term is not an option. I know canon events are outlawed in the Quill Society, but we just gotta be careful with them, since they definitively can't go out of their worlds for too long before glitching.

A pod hovered over with Sark sealed inside.

Sark: Let me the hell out of this cage!

OMT!Tails: One of those Sonic.EXEs, huh? What's he in for?

EV!Sonic: Well, since you're still young, and I really don't want to ruin that innocence for you, I'll say he's in for unspeakable crimes that are truly unspeakable.

Tekno: We usually keep these guys deeper in the facility away from the other captives, but in Sark's case, he's getting the Ret-Gone treatment. He's too mentally out of his mind to go back to his world.

EV!Sonic: Yeah. Hey, Somari?

Somari walked up next to them.

Somari: You-a called, pal?

EV!Sonic: Get this guy's pod over to Sector 0 for erasure.

Somari: Alright-a, my friend. Okay, little child-a lover, you're-a coming with-a me!

Somari escorted that cage away, whilst OMT!Tails wanted to see more around this prison area. However, OMT!Mina seemed suspiciously eager to move on.

OMT!Mina: They're not all that interesting.

Tekno: "Not all that interesting"? Of course they can get interesting. Look. Over there with Sunky is Sir Fuzzy-Logik and one of the small video game Robotniks...

GG Spinball Robotnik: (angry beeps) Sunky: -_-

Tekno: Over on that end are Dr. Qwark, Witchcart, erm, Type-egg, who's simply ASCII text meshed into a man...

Type-egg (in a TTS voice like Microsoft Sam): Go to Helvetica, Tails!

OMT!Tails: Bold.

Tekno: Then over this way are an Eggrobo, Agent Stone, a Heavy Magician, an Emerl-.

OMT!Tails (shocked): An Emerl?!

EV!Sonic: Oh, er... Not your Emerl, we mean.

OMT!Tails approached one of the cells Pana and SS!Amy were guarding, with a Chaos-coloured Emerl suit on top and Speedy (or Battle Kakku XVI) inside.

(Cell sprites by RaulHedgeBomber)

OMT!Tails: Hey.

Speedy: Hey. ... It's rude to stare, kid.

OMT!Tails: So, er, what's with Speedy and that altered Emerl suit?

Pana: Birdbrain was causing some chaos in one of the dimensions. Took me and mini Amy here to apprehend him and bring him here.

SS!Amy: Sure I bonked him the best, Pana.

Speedy: You two idiots kidding?! During my escape, I tripped! You heroes just got off lucky.

OMT!Tails: So how many missions have you guys been on together?

SS!Amy: Well, not too many.

Pana: With Mina? A... couple dozen?

OMT!Tails: Wait, what? (a little jealous) Ah, that's cool.

As he headed to the next spot, he bumped into Nicole.

OMT!Tails: Oh! Sorry!

The two's super-senses were resonating, with some kind of vibe between them.

OMT!Tails: I'm Tails!

Nicole: Woah, no way! Heh, there's lots of yous here too.

OMT!Mina: Can we please just keep moving?

But OMT!Tails had already followed Nicole into...

(BG by Lithium)

Sector 30, the site of the Transport Hub, where Nicole quickly blipped to the other side of the room while GCD!Amy was maintaining the machinery there.

OMT!Tails: Woah... What are you?

Nicole: I'm a digital avatar! My real body is back in my home dimension chilling in a gaming chair and eating fruit salad. You know, I think I like it here better.

OMT!Tails could hear arguing parents through her digital body.

OMT!Tails: I hear that. What's this big spot behind me?

Nicole: Besides having a cool name? It's the Transport Hub!

OMT!Mina: At one point, I voted against it.

A Spider-Man version of Sonic showed up, quickly webbing up the Metal Sonic from Dimension OVA-1996 that somehow managed to slip in.

GCD!Amy: It allows you safe travel between dimensions, even without a way to summon portals!

OMT!Tails: Awesome!

GCD!Amy: Sure is! Got started engineering it after my scuffle with GlassCD back in my dimension. (to OVA!Metal) Now, goodbye, tin-can! Don't come back!

OVA!Metal was warped back to his dimension.

OMT!Mina: We should get going, Tails.

OMT!Tails: Okay. Uh, see you around?

Nicole: Good luck out there, Tails!

OMT!Mina started dragging OMT!Tails out of the room, who had a cute face in reaction to that. Jealousy from Mina, much?

OMT!Tails: Okay, bye!

Nicole and GCD!Amy watched him go. Elsewhere, LM!Sonic was watching everything going on from the confines of a green and black data room.

E-21: You know, it sounds like LM!Sonic might be hungry at the moment. Amy Rouge: I heard he likes the Tex Mexan sandwiches from the café. Can't figure out why, though. OMT!Tails: Maybe that could cheer him up! Man, there's loads of food on the menu! How many places have SEGA collaborated with? Amy Rouge: All sorts! Now, to go, there's also meals like the Tails' 2x2x2, Dr. Eggman's Benedict, and even Sonic's Blue Blur Special! OMT!Tails: Man! You guys have everything!

LM!Sonic: My name is Sonic. I may not be the only blue blur in this joint, but I'm not like the others.

LM!Sonic: I don't always like what I'm aiming to do, but I know I have to be the one to do it. I've given up FAR too much to stop now.

In the café, Pana came to talk to OMT!Tails after he bought the Tex Mexan sandwich he was looking for.

Pana: Why do you wanna be in a huge community like this so badly?

OMT!Tails: To see people that are quite like me and can relate!

Pana: You know, I bet you got a nice set-up back at home. Nice family of sorts you have?

OMT!Tails: Absolutely.

Pana: Now, listen, Tails. Whole point of being the hero of your world is being capable of making your own choices. Being your own boss. Plus, you're a smart kid. I noticed you built your own interdimensional watch.

OMT!Tails: But if you're not a team-player all the time, why do you come here anyway?

Pana: Well, I'm just lookin' out for my songoose sis, is all. Just remember, only enlist once you know all the insides and outs of a job like this. You don't have to feel pressured to be a part of it now.

OMT!Tails: Yeah, I understand. I mean, it is a day out, and I do have Crimtake to stop as soon as we can track him down. I'll do everyone here proud!

Pana: That's the spirit, little Prower! Now, I think we need to have a word with LM in his dorm and uncover just what he's doing to distract you from the truth he's hiding about himself.

OMT!Tails: What "truth"?

Pana: Well, I ain't got a Scooby-Doo* what's outright going on, as he's wanting to leave people out of the loop.

[*cockney rhyming slang for "clue". - PDS]

Barry came by.

Barry: Oh, hey there!

OMT!Tails: Hi! You must be Barry, right? I heard a lot about you.

Barry: Hehe, thanks! You too!

Pana: Mind putting your investigation skills to use in here, Barry? I feel we really need it.

Barry: Okey-doke!

OMT!Tails: Alright. Let's see just what he's hiding.

They moved on to Sector 10 where the dorms were.

NEXT POST

[lady-of-the-spirit]

For the character thing, Sersi? And Anakin too if I may ask multiple? :P

of course i'm gonna do both my blorbos!!

Sersi

How I feel about this character: BEST CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE. she's chronically late, she talks to statues, she's a bad liar, she's a collector, she's horribly insecure and is such a sweetheart and is the heart of the whole movie 💚

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Ikaris (I love tragedy 😔), Dane bc she deserves a nice normal guy and he clearly loves her!! (or at least they think he's normal-), Thena and Gilgamesh in an ot3 because I thought of it ONCE and couldn't let it go

My non-romantic OTP for this character: I mean I could say all of the Eternals because I love their relationships but I'll be specific. Phastos! They are besties to me, I cannot be convinced otherwise. Also Druig. I'm pretty neutral on Druig but I love his relationship with Sersi, he clearly respects her and listens to her!!

My unpopular opinion about this character: I mean just the fact that she's my fave is kinda unpopular already. people don't really care about her :(

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she could have had a more solid leadership arc. Like she's clearly afraid to take control, everyone makes jokes about Ikaris not being the leader which probably isn't good for her self esteem (Sprite outright says she doesn't care about Ajak choosing Sersi instead), and in the end none of that is really resolved. I wish her internal arc had been fleshed out some more and gotten a more satisfying ending of everyone looking to her as leader (this is why it should have been a show and not a movie!!!)

Anakin

How I feel about this character: honestly my favourite character potentially from the whole star wars series, DEFINITELY from the prequels. I love a tragedy and Anakin Skywalker is the definition of tragedy.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Padme, obviously. I've read some Rex/Anakin fics too but tbh I never watched the clone wars so I can't say I actually ship it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Obi Wan is his tragic brother/father figure and I love it. Also, again from someone who hasn't watched the clone wars but read fics, Ahsoka and also his clone trooper squad.

My unpopular opinion about this character: This is more an unpopular opinion about the fandom I guess but. Anakin was not misunderstanding the Jedi teachings when he talked about love. Love is forbidden for Jedi, that's literally the whole point of the story? It's not just attachment or obsessive love, it's all love. Why would Anakin have completely misunderstood the jedi teachings. If that were true that would say more about the jedi as teachers than Anakin, I think.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I mean if I said what I wanted to happen to him, the rest of the series probably wouldn't even exist in the first place? But damn I wish someone in the jedi had been like Why the fuck does Palpatine want to spend so much time with our new 9 year old recruit and cut that shit out.

Or just. Him being a slave for his entire childhood being acknowledged at all after Phantom Menace because damn they did not acknowledge any of that shit at all.

give me a character and I'll break their ass down

[applecat8]

Random Headcanons for the constant DS/DST

-Because your metabolism is sped up it’s really hard to pack weight unless you’re eating heavily to keep yourself full. So if you’re constantly hungry and starving you thin out and look more hungry. Ex: Wilson before the constant was a little heavier (doesn’t exercise, has/had money) but over the course of starvation he slimmed up

-Starvation, Wilson’s been in the constant so long feeling full has left him, and will continue to eat afterwards if he’s got the food. Food is certainly a comfort for many of the survivors him included

-Chewing behavior, Woodie and Wilson are constantly chewing things, Woodie nibbling on a stick or grass while Wilson may have sap or something chewy to knaw away on. It helps with focus

-Woodie has influenced behaviors of his were-forms. Like head butting things, bitting woody fibers, arm flapping like goose wings. I also like to think when he’s a goose he makes nests to sit in. he absolutely hates birds.

-Maxwell has memory loss/he’s forgetful, he talks about forgetting how to craft items and how he can’t remember how to read the languages in the ruins. Yet. He has the entirety of the Codex Umbra engraved into his mind and can make it.

-Bound in blood, I also believe the Codex is bound to Maxwell with blood, (Costs blood to make it) and that it still speaks/influences him when it feels the need to, (when it needs fuel, when the book is being damaged) a hc of mine with nothing to really back it up is when William/Maxwell was pinned under the train his legs were broken, and his blood soaked the book binding him to it. Because he was in danger of dying the book did everything it could to keep him alive. Even fixing his legs as he wondered off into the desert.

-Reseting the world to continue the death loop also resets scars and other wounds completely. Reseting who ever back to how they looked when they first arrived or with a different set of cloths on. Any scars/conditions before the constant stay

-Wilson had fair vision but uses reading glasses, Maxwell had incredible nearsightedness, the throne changed that. Maxwells eyes are blue but the color fades to black depending on how much of his mind is split. Wilson’s eyes use to be Blue but faded to a coal black after the throne

-Effects of the throne, looking at game sprites for a bit of theories, and just style curiosity. Wilson’s arms are completely black to the shoulder with clawed fingers, this doesn’t pain him it’s some corruption of sorts, maxwells hands are also clawed but only to the forearm. Maxwells skin greyed, giving a lifeless look. both of them have sharp teeth. Both also have a key sense of magic as well power. Wilson is still empathetic while Maxwell is slowly getting better at showing his more soft emotions. But his heart is beyond simple healing and is remains dark and twisted. And last but not least both have the same awful dreams about the throne.

Most of this is just random off the top of my head stuff, and again none of this is canon it’s just my thoughts! It’s ok to have a different perspective on things too :b

[freezethunder]

Top 5 dra/sdra2 characters

I'll do both because it seems like fun and I want to differentiate them

Top 5 DRA Characters

1. Akane

As far as supporting characters go, Akane Taira is certianly up there. She’s positive and very trusting of those she hold dear to, which is very heartbreaking seeing how she dull and empty she became at the start of chapter 3. And of course we have to talk about her mastermind personality. I think it is very shocking how someone so close to the cast, especially the protagonist could be the mastermind behind their killing game. It’s like Tsumugi done right! Not much has changed about her from her time with the cast, she’s just very unhinged and incredibly acrobatic to make all those leaps. Look at her go. I like Akane a lot out of the main cast and dare say she even beats some of the canon characters in most aspects.

2. Rei

Female and Better Byakuya. I’m kinda cheating here honestly this list is of DRA characters but I’m also taking into account her time from SDRA2 sooooooooo…..Rei. Like I said previously, obviously a female Byakuya, I mean she even shares some of the same sprites as him as well as the notes. A tall, smart, and stuck-up jerk who constantly berates the crew and doesn’t want to put up with them for a majority of the run time. Golly, where have I seen this before?~ The reason why she is so much better than her predecessor comes down to two factors. One, her growth comes from not finding the game boring or not wanting to participate like long legged lemon boy, but rather; “…..well fuck. These sentiments got to me. Now I have to help” And two, how she behaves when we next see her in other material, primarily SDRA2. She’s a lot more emotional and compassionate, even striking Tsurugi during that shit he pulled in Chapter 6. Like, let’s go girl! Yaaas! Get hiiiim! Queen shit!

3. Utsuro

I want to go more in depth on the masterminds at a later date, so for now I’ll just say I’m very on the fence about. There are some days I like him and some days I don’t. But I will say that the twist of the protagonist being the mastermind was done really here, and in order to get to the true ending, you have to go down the darker path which is a really nice twist and one I can’t say I could have done better.

4. Teruya

Also kind of cheating with this one but uhhh…sue me :/ Anyway, Teruya was one of the comedic goofballs right behind Haruhiko and Satsuki. Single brain cell trio. I also love his growth, from fighting with Haruhiko in Chapter 4 to wearing his goggles the rest of the game, that character design I love to see! And it carries over in the sequel too. Having Teruya be the one with the killing game experience is a neat concept, even if that aspect wasn’t used all that much. A shame what happened to him though(STUPIDFUCKINGPSYCHOCOPTSURUGIIHATEYOUIHATEYOU-)

5. Kanata

Kanata is a sweet girl, nothing more too it than that. But there ain’t nothing wrong with being a simple, polite, short cinnamon bun. And it really was a shame she had to go like that, I would have liked her to stick around some more. And I’m kind of interested to see what really was LINUJ’s intended purpose for her was……..y’know considering another character he made in the sequel, I don’t want to know actually, Nevermind.

Top 5 SDRA2 Characters

1. Sora

I want to go more in depth with the protagonist’s another day too, but let me just say that SORA IS AN AWESOME CHARACTER AND PROTAGONIST! HELD BACK BY THE FACT THAT SHE ISNT ENTIRELY CANON! SHE WOULD DO GREAT THERE! Ahem! …..Sorry. I love everything about Sora, her sassy attitude, her snarky comments, even hints of showing something darker within her. Sora is a top tier character in my book!

2. Mikado

Also want to talk more about him at a later date, but Mikado is my favorite mastermind! Hands down, bar none, literally beating all of the ones from the main cast! Revealing him right from the jump was genius, because then it was the cast constantly hating him and roasting him. He’s so wacky and goofy that for half of the game, you kinda forget he even is the mastermind. From his charming personality to his cool design and powers, Mikado Sannoji carries the entire game on his back along with Sora.

3. Yoruko

A pink haired love interest for the sassy amnesiac protagonist? Where have I seen this before?~ In all seriousness I think Yoruko’s cool. Her angry behavior and yelling at others can get old at times and some are even unwarranted such in Chapter 4 to Yuki, but underneath that facade lies a girl that is trying her best to protect those close to her after some many hardships in the past. Her relationship is Sora is just adorable and it’s crazy that after Chapter 4 and beyond, she’s the most sane person there. Yoruko may be a tsun-dried-tomato, but she’s the best tsun-dried-tomato Ive ever seen. (Can tomatoes be pink?)

4. Hibiki

Before playing the game: Oh wow, a bully character to the shy girl, again?! Oh geeeez! I can already tell I’m not gonna like her.

After playing the game: OH MY GOOOOD! IM SORRY HIBIKI SWEETIE! DID NOT DESERVE ANY OF THAT!

Getting right to it, I think Hibiki should have survived! Unlike Hiyoko who’s only character development relegated to a blink and you’ll miss it moment in the third chapter. Hibiki was trying from the end of Chapter 2 onwards, so why waste the actually, good, DEVELOPMENT?! I guess it is interesting to see a Chapter 3 with only one victim and two killers this time, but there was no need to drag Hibiki down with it. The general consensus is right, this was wasted potential. Go look up some Hibiki lives AU to ease the pain.

5. Iroha

Ahto-Bleh incarnate. Iroha seemed like the overly kind, ditzy sort of character made for comedic relief, and she is. But making her out to be one of the voids was pretty neat I suppose. It does set her up for some development to overthrow and turn her back Mikado to be with her friends and, …wait what? That, that didn’t happen…? ……GOD FUCKING DAMMIT LINUJ! So Iroha just stays this bratty, annoying, and fearful child the whole way through and learns nary a thing in the process. So I have to ask: why even bother?! Now you may be wondering, why is she high let alone top 5 if I have these issues with her. Well for one, I think she’s kind of funny with all her reactions and expressions, plus knowing the identity of one of the Voids in the group builds tension, and her drawing book has helped several times in trials. And it could just be me imagining a better character than what we actually received. Death to the author folks!

[butcharondir]

wip wednesday

none of my mutuals even do wip wednesday anymore but i don't care, i am back on my bullshit with this ridiculous tom x sophia x oc x oc gay polycule fic and i want to yell about it

this is set several months post-canon and takes place just before the drama of the story really gets going

Tom looked very fine upon his horse, even more so because he wore a new riding jacket of pale forest green. It blended just so with the veil of foliage around them, so that he appeared almost as a creature from a children’s story — a sprite, or a fairy, or a very handsome troll. His beauty was always set to best advantage in nature, Sophia thought. Whether he was dressed in simple finery like this or stripped down to his shirtsleeves, it didn’t matter. She always liked him best in such a state.

He played the fool for most of the ride, pretending to be guide but stating everything wrong or backwards or only half-true, so that Sophia might act the playful scold. They left the coach road early and moved through the understory, both well accustomed to the hidden paths of the wood. When they reached the bluebell grove, Tom jumped from his horse and plucked one of the blooms, offering it to her with a flourish. “This, my lady,” he said. “Is one of the rarest wildflowers to be found in these parts. But!” He tossed it away before she could take it from his hand. “I fear it is deadly poisonous even to breathe upon, so for your own safety, I must recommend you stay atop your horse.”

“Hmm,” she said, staring down her nose at him. “Perhaps you are right to urge caution. But, sir, I believe there is something wrong with my saddle. Will you check it for me?”

“Of course, my lady. I shan't have any accident befalling thee whilst thou art in my care.”

Sophia snorted, losing her composure at his overly serious manner. He smiled up at her, guileless, then trained his expression back into a look of studious concern. His face hovered close to her leg as he inspected the tack.

“I cannot find anything wrong, madam.”

“Look closer,” she commanded.

Tom leaned in. “I beg your pardon, but I believe your skirts are in the way.”

[fma03envy]

Bored so I'm stating my thoughts on every DRS swimsuit sprite

(Part 1: THH)

Makoto: it's like. Fine lol. Kind of generic but totally fits with his "totally average high school student" thing

Taka: Accurate. Next.

Byakuya: Torn between "this looks stupid" and "it's Byakuya we're talking about here, of course he'd wear something stupid and think it would make him look more refined ". Like this looks bad but it's absolutely in character

Mondo: Eh. Feels almost kinda young for him but I don't really have any better ideas and it does fit his color scheme well

Leon: Flaming hot cheetos vibes but I'll take it

Hifumi: Fitting but makes me even more mad that he's stylized Like That. All the other characters had plausible proportions I'm SURE you can do that for a fat character too. Either they all should be cartoony or none of em should be

Hiro: I guess I get what they were going for but this is too patterned and also not his color scheme at all. Maybe I'm just saying this bc I think orange and green basically never match but yeah

Chihiro: BEAUTIFUL AMAZING SHOWSTOPPING PERFECT. My favorite outfit so far. Dr may have utterly failed in basically every aspect of Chihiro's writing but they did not fail with this outfit she looks amazing

Sayaka: This looks dumb sorry. Idk what they were going for but like. Why. The top and bottom of her suit don't even match? (Admittedly her hair being draped over her shoulders weirdly like that is just for this sprite not all of them but still)

Kyoko. Like. Technically it's better than Sayaka's aesthetically in that at least it matches with itself and her hair ties (in most of the sprites at least. For some reason they're discolored in this only fullbody one.). Still. The thing about me is that I have trouble imagining Kyoko wearing literally any feminine clothing ever so I see this and my mind just goes "OOC" even though she literally also dresses fem in canon

Hina: Worst one yet. She's literally ultimate swimmer why would she wear this it's impractical and dumb. Also the color scheme is soo different from the normal desaturated red+white+blue she normally wears. The bandaid is an ok touch but that's the only good thing about this design

(I'm sorry Toko's expression is like that; this is the only close-to-fullbody DRS sprite on the wiki)

Toko and Syo (kind of the same outfit so I'll judge it together): I really like this one! Toko having a skirt thing so no one can see her tallymarks but Syo taking it off is a good touch. I wouldn't have thought of blue as her color but it actually really works (and reminds me of Komaru's uniform...)

Sakura: Cute! Tbh a bit more frilly/cutesy than I would have expected but she looks nice :)

Celeste: SECOND FAVE AFTER CHIHIRO I <3 IT. Generally Celeste's aesthetic fucks so hard (only tiiiiny criticism I have is that the lace on her suit would look nicer if it was matching in size with that on her headdress)

Junko: Why so plain??? Like it really doesn't seem to fit with the gyaru aesthetic at all (admittedly I don't know much about said fashion subculture though so I def could be wrong it just looks very different to my eye). Like I feel like this is what Hina should have worn it looks like smth actual swimmers would wear in a race

Mukuro: REAL LIXED FEELINGS HERE. On the one hand, this is very fitting for someone pretending to be the ultimate fashionista; you've perfectly captured that vibe. On the other hand, why should she have to pretend to be Junko in this context whyyy. (So like generally this aesthetic is good she's getting a good grade in Junko mimicry but the "Mukuro is butch" part of my brain is NOT a fan she shouldn't HAVE to wear that)

Monokuma: Sure lol. this is fine. Why do you need a swimsuit when you're normally naked

[stardestroyer81]

Last month, after seeing the success of my then-previous attempt to sprite something in 16-Bit, I decided to give it another go many months later by giving Glitch Man a Mega Man 7 styled makeover... with a result that I'm still very much thrilled with!

Very shortly after I showcased my 16-Bit Glitch Man sprite, I knew I wanted to jump straight into SNES-ifying yet another Synth Legion Number, though it was admittedly tough to decide who to choose of the remaining seven. I wanted to focus on choosing a Number that'd be a fair challenge to sprite in 16-Bit, but nothing too extreme.

And who better to choose than the Synth Legion's second in command?

Up next in my ongoing series of doubling the bits of Mega Man Ultimate's robot masters is none other than Zap Man, who proved to be exactly the sort of fun challenge I was looking for!

(Check under the cut for the usual Star Insight, Zap Man’s spriting process and a little bonus!)

This is something I never touched on when first revealing Zap Man and the sprite I'd drawn for him to tumblr, though of the eight Synth Legion Numbers, I would say that Zap Man was probably the second to third hardest to sprite. I'm certain that this is because I stuck within a five color limit, and his hulking size is slightly non-standard when compared to other robot master sprites in canon.

However, it was and still is a sprite I'm proud of nonetheless, and when preparing to go about my method of creating Mega Man 7 styled sprites out of already existing 8-Bit sprites, I had but one goal for Zap Man's SNES iteration— to up the detail to the absolute maximum.

Naturally, with over double the amount of colors I was able to use, it was an easily attainable goal! Since the above sprite is about two or three times bigger than Zap Man's original sprite, this of course meant that I could run wild in squeezing out as much detail as I could, and that was something that I had an absolute blast with.

Zap Man definitely took me much longer than an hour to sprite. If I recall, I think this sprite took me just about a day to draw— not twenty-four consecutive hours, obviously, but as you can probably tell, a sprite with THIS level of detail was no walk in the park to create, as evident by the above sprite process!

With that said, though, I think that Zap Man's 16-Bit sprite may just be one of if not my best SNES styled sprites yet, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to show him off! ✨

[jacquirebriggs]

A Really Fair and Sincere and Proper Review of an 8-Bit Final Fantasy 4 port.

My Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf09CtI2VGXoyA4U0ot9QyIIylm4AvIiU

Alright. I know this place is not the best for Video Game reviews, but I want to get this out to advertise my stuff on my channel and before I ghost the place for good. I did a review on this game already, but it was short and the words move too fast. This time, I am going to make a proper review on this bootleg I decided to play out of boredom while I was wondering what will be my next discord stream.

I present you:

Zui Zhong Huan Xiang IV Guang Yu An Shui Jing Fen Zheng

Like I said, this game is an unlicensed Chinese NEs port of Final Fantasy IV. That’s already a language barrier here The playable characters are the same as the original. The portraits are the same, just mushed up to NES Pallete. The NPCs on the other hand are a different perspective. Mostly due to their portraits. I believe they are taken from other games. Some I believe are from Megaman (The “Baron Soliders”), a Dragon Ball Z bootleg (Female NPCs, Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo), and some unknown Dark Fantasy Game (Golbez is one of them.) Can’t the bootleggers easily just take the Head Portrait sprite and make it the dialogue portrait and call it that? I can do it in five seconds. Besides, Golbez is armored from head to toe. Not unmasked lol. Also, why are Dark Knight Cecil and Kain’s overworld sprites are mixed up? Kain’s Overworld sprite clearly has dragon horns. Can they not tell the difference? I can go on about Scramiglione having Zemus’s sprite, Barbariccia having Bomb’s but this nitpicking will eat up most of the review. Let’s move on.

Music is the next thing I wish to talk about. When you hear Chrono Trigger music when you start the game, you know it’s a bootleg. Any music taken from Final Fantasy IV is near to nonexistent. The Battle Music for enemies is played on when you fight Bosses. Makes the bosses more irritating considering how long the mid to endgame bosses take to kill them. Regular enemies get a squashed-up sample of Final Fantasy II’s generic enemy fight. The FF2 chiptune is only the first verse over and over… while the FF4 music oddly has the full song for some reason. Did I mention both tunes distorts into monotone when I used a certain magic? (Google Translates says it is Psychic which attacks with a flashy gear.) I rather have the NES-fied FF4 battle themes like the other FF4 bootleg has. Hence why in later parts, I slapped Fanmade NES-styled FF4 music mainly because I am tired of hearing that same old sampling. FF4’s wide variety of music is for enchanting the setting and mood of the game. Since this is the NES, of course none of this exists. Instead, we got the aforementioned Chrono Trigger music in the start (and possibly the map and other towns?) and a very questionable music choice:

The Chocobo Theme in castle-related areas. This makes the scene with Golbez very hilarious, that I cannot take it seriously.

The story may be mostly the same to the original, but it differentiates as I play through the end. Before I cover the story, I want to talk about the battle system first.

Gameplay:

The battle system is simplistic. It’s not a clone of earlier Final Fantasy Games. You still have 5 party members at a time, but you don’t get any magic spells from the canon games. You have to equip a magic stone to use magic; only of a single certain element. This sadly locks the mages out of various elemental damage…not that it matters because of reasons I will go over. AoE Magic is unlocked so late and by the time you unlocked it, you will be only fighting one enemy at a time. Healing Magic is scarce. Only thing besides Asura summon is unlocked at leveling the light stone to 3 or 4 and it is outclassed. Nice. Unlike the Final Fantasy VII NES port created by the same company. It has summons. You get summons as you progress and talking to some guy on a sidequest story that he’ll go with someone on a honeymoon. Depending on how you time them, they can be useful for dishing out extra damage and makes bosses easier. This is where go to the biggest flaw: Level progression and zero enemy variety. You deal so little damage even at the endgame. You can keep attacking with your weapon and spam magic, but you’ll get nowhere on leveling them up. (Even then you must visit a store to upgrade them.) Late game is such a slog because of this. I know Chinese companies are known for making their unlicensed ports really hard, but there’s a difference between difficult and GODDAMN near impossible. The basic enemies are always the EXACT SAME no matter where you encounter them. The only think different are they scale with how far you progress Also, most of them are taken from FF3 (even a few of the bosses) with the occasional Toad and Goblin Enemies actually stolen from the original games and devamped for the NES. Scripted battles are eliminated. Wanna know which boss fights.

Story:

If Google Translate properly tells the truth, then the story is the exact same as the original FF4, just having various key event removed. The Other FF4 bootleg only cuts Optional Areas, Tower of Babil and Giant of Babil. This NES ports cuts most of the endgame areas! I pay respects to the lack of Leviathan and Bahamut summons. I don’t care if they’ll take long to unleash, still extra damage. Some events have been repurposed in other areas in the Rom’s limited area selection. The events in the Underworld area for example has been relocated to Mysidia without the Calcabrina fight. (That’s okay. That fight is so annoying for me anyway.) Because of this, the story at the end is way different compared to canon. To spoil:

Yang and Cid sacrifice themselves after you get Edge. Edward joins the party at the end instead of Kain. (If you’re not gonna readd Kain at the end, at least pick a character that is endgame worthy like…*points at Yang.) The ending is really different. After Fusoya and Golbez kill Zemus with Meteor, Kain appears out of nowhere and defeat them. Kain’s Hatred causes him to transform into Zeromus and he absorbs FuSoYa and Golbez to become unstoppable. Of course, until we slowly kill him. And then what happens next? Kain dies. Fusoya and Golbez are dead. There is no implication that Cid, Yang, and the twins survive. All it gives is Golbez’s spirit telling to forgive him as his soul moves with light and dark shining the world and then it boots you back to the title screen. With little fanfare. I wanna get mad because I like Kain a lot, but is parts of the story taken from the FF7 bootleg of the same company? This may explain it.

Difficulty:

I think we’ve reached the boiling point that I will review. Amongst the greatest sin of bootlegs: The Diffcultly. Bootlegs games are notorious for them being extremely difficult. This is no exception. Not getting helped by the tedious grinding system, either. There are two difficult gauntlets. The one in Baron ( I have to unequip Palom and Porom and set myself up for a hard time.), no breaks on Yang, Baigan and Cagnazzo. And the grueling hard Zeromus gauntlet. Yes, endgame is brutal. I must slow down the summons to beat Zeromus. Not helped by how much HP he has despite trying my best.

Overall:

I believe Kain becoming Zeromus is better than most of the whatifs in Alter Destiny (besides Rydia being antagonist to Cecil for killing her mother, but even then: everything else went downhill.) I still can’t forgive the grueling difficultly or the questionable choice for Kain’s replacement. Since this port is like a sister of the NES FF7 port made by the same company, the problems will be the same as of course. I could give it a 1/10 but it’s a bootleg, so it wouldn’t be fair and I’m reviewing this rom in the Dawn of 2024 for some reason. Let’s give a fair review in bootleg standards. I’ll give this game a:

3/10. 5/10 disregarding the brutal difficultly.

My gameplay of this thing: Here

Alright. I know this place is not the best for Video Game reviews, but I want to get this out to advertise my stuff on my channel and before I ghost the place for good. I did a review on this game already, but it was short and the words move too fast. This time, I am going to make a proper review on this bootleg I decided to play out of boredom while I was wondering what will be my next discord stream.

I present you:

Zui Zhong Huan Xiang IV Guang Yu An Shui Jing Fen Zheng

Also known as Final Fantasy IV: Light and Dark Crystal Conflict

Overall Setting:

Like I said, this game is an unlicensed Chinese NEs port of Final Fantasy IV. That’s already the language

Barrier here The playable characters are the same as the original. The portraits are the same, just mushed up to NES Pallete. The NPCs on the other hand are a different perspective. Mostly due to their portraits. I believe they are taken from other games. Some I believe are from Megaman (The “Baron Soliders”), a Dragon Ball Z bootleg (Female NPCs, Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo), and some unknown Dark Fantasy Game (Golbez is one of them.) Can’t the bootleggers easily just take the Head Portrait sprite and make it the dialogue portrait and call it that? I can do it in five seconds. Besides, Golbez is armored from head to toe. Not unmasked lol. Also, why are Dark Knight Cecil and Kain’s overworld sprites are mixed up? Kain’s Overworld sprite clearly has dragon horns. Can they not tell the difference? I can go on about Scramiglione having Zemus’s sprite, Barbarricia having Bomb’s but this nitpicking will eat up most of the review. Let’s move on.

Music is the next thing I wish to talk about. When you hear Chrono Trigger music when you start the game, you know it’s a bootleg. Any music taken from Final Fantasy IV is near to nonexistent. The Battle Music for enemies is played on when you fight Bosses. Makes the bosses more irritating considering how long the mid to endgame bosses take to kill them. Regular enemies get a squashed up sample of Final Fantasy II’s generic enemy fight. The FF2 chiptunr is only the first verse over and over… while the FF4 music oddly has the full song for some reason. Did I mention it distorts into monotone when I used a certain magic? (Google Translates says it is Psychic which attacks with a flashy gear.) I rather have the NES-fied FF4 battle themes like the other FF4 bootleg has. Hence why in later parts, I slapped Fanmade NES-styled FF4 music mainly because I’m tired of hearing that same old sampling. FF4’s wide variety of music is for enchanting the setting and mood of the game. Since this is the NES, of course none of this exists. Instead, we got the aforementioned Chrono Trigger music in the start (and possibly the map and other towns?) and a very questionable music choice:

The Chocobo Theme in castle-related areas. This makes the scene with Golbez very hilarious, that I can’t take it seriously.

The story may be mostly the same to the original, but it differentiates as I play through the end. Before I cover the story , I want to talk about the battle system first.

Gameplay:

The battle system is simplistic. It’s not a clone of earlier Final Fantasy Games. You still have 5 party members at a time, but you don’t get any magic spells from the canon games. You have to equip a magic stone to use magic; only of a certain elements. This sadly locks the mages out of various elemental damage…not that it matters because of reasons I will go over. AoE Magic is unlocked so late and by the time you unlocked it, you’ll be only fighting one enemy at a time. Healing Magic is scarce. Only thing besides Asura summon is unlocked at leveling the light stone to 3 or 4 and it’s outclassed. Nice. Unlike the Final Fantasy VII NES port created by the same company. It has summons. You get summons as you progress and talking to some guy on a sidequest story that he’ll go with someone on a honeymoon. Depending on how you time them, they can be useful for dishing out extra damage and makes bosses more easier. This is where go to the biggest flaw: Level progression and zero enemy variety. You deal so little damage even at the endgame. You can keep attacking with your weapon and spam magic, but you’ll get nowhere on leveling them up. (Even then you must visit a store to upgrade them.) Late game is such a slog because of this. I know Chinese companies are known for making their unlicensed ports really hard, but there’s a difference between difficult and GODDAMN near impossible. The basic enemies are always the EXACT SAME no matter where you encounter them. The only think different are they scale with how far you progress Also, most of them are taken from FF3 (even a few of the bosses) with the occasional Toad and Goblin Enemies actually stolen from the original games and devamped for the NES. Scripted battles are eliminated. Wanna know which boss fights .

Story:

If Google Translate properly tells the truth, then the story is the exact same as the original FF4, just having various key event removed. The Other FF4 bootleg only cuts Optional Areas, Tower of Babil and Giant of Babil. This NES ports cuts most of the endgame areas! I pay respects to the lack of Leviathan and Bahamut summons. I don’t care if they’ll take long to unleash, still extra damage. Some events have been repurposed in other areas in the Rom’s limited area selection. The events in the Underworld area for example has been relocated to Mysidia without the CalcaBrina fight. (That’s okay. That fight is so annoying for me anyway.) Because of this, the story at the end is way different compared to canon. To spoil:

Yang and Cid sacrifice themselves after you get Edge. Edward joins the party at the end instead of Kain. (If you’re not gonna readd Kain at the end, at least pick a character that is endgame worthy like…*points at Yang.) The ending is really different. After Fusoya and Golbez kill Zemus with Meteor, Kain appears out of nowhere and defeat them. Kain’s Hatred causes him to transform into Zeromus and he absorbs FuSoYa and Golbez to become unstoppable. Of course until we slowly kill him. And then what happens next? Kain dies. Fusoya and Golbez are dead. There is no implication that Cid, Yang, and the twins survive. All it gives is Golbez’s spirit telling to forgive him as his soul moves with light and dark shining the world and then it boots you back to the title screen. With little fanfare. I wanna get mad because I like Kain a lot, but is parts of the story taken from the FF7 bootleg of the same company? This may explain it.

Difficulty:

I think we’ve reached the boiling point that I will review. Amongst the greatest sin of bootlegs: The Diffcultly. Bootlegs games are notorious for them being extremely difficult. This is no exception. Not getting helped by the tedious grinding system, either. There are two difficult gauntlets. The one in Baron ( I have to unequip Palom and Porom and set myself up for a hard time.), no breaks on Yang, Baigan and Cagnazzo. And the grueling hard Zeromus gauntlet. The Tower of Zot streak comes close to being one of them. Thankfully, you can lose to Golbez when only Tellah fights him, but if you unequipped Kain and Rosa beforehand prepare for a very hard Barbariccia battle. Yes, endgame is brutal. I must slow down the summons to beat Zeromus. Not helped by how much HP he has despite trying my best.

Overall:

I believe Kain becoming Zeromus is better than most of the whatifs in Alter Destiny (besides Rydia being antagonist to Cecil for killing her mother, but even then everything else went downhill.) I still can’t forgive the grueling difficultly or the questionable choice for Kain’s replacement. Since this port is like a sister of the NES FF7 port made by the same company, the problems will be the same as of course. I could give it a 1/10 but it’s a bootleg, so it wouldn’t be fair and I’m reviewing this rom in the Dawn of 2024 for some reason. Let’s give a fair review in bootleg standards. I’ll give this game a:

3/10. 5/10 disregarding the brutal difficultly. It’s not the worst bootleg game. At least it can be finished without cheating if you’re determined. Unlike the other FF4, the three parter, where the game bugs out in the second part in Dark Elf Cave where you cannot move after entering. Someone I’ve watched have to do some hex editing on a save state to pull through. I’m pretty there’s something way worse that I won’t be aware of its existence.

Final Fantasy IV runs on the SNES system for a good reason.

[i7transparent]

Nanase Riku - In game sprites: Edited expressions (Hoshi Meguri / Erin)

[click here for sprites with canon expressions]

[choicesarehard]

I keep my streams about Wolf Bride light-hearted. It’s been a hell of a year, and I think we all need a space where we can laugh together. But part of responsibly consuming problematic media is being aware of where it fails. And that’s why I think it’s important to talk about Morgan, and Wolf Bride’s troubling depiction of blindness. 

Morgan is one of the first Love Interests in Choices to have a canon disability. She is representation many players with disabilities, like myself, are eager for. But like any form of representation, writing a blind character requires research. A quick google search will lead you to numerous visually impaired voices who outline the tropes and stereotypes that harm their community. Wolf Bride has included nearly all of them. 

signal boosts are appreciated

Not All Blind People Wear Sunglasses

Morgan is shown wearing dark sunglasses from the moment she appears on screen. And there are certainly blind people who wear sunglasses — particularly those who (unlike Morgan) can still perceive some degree of light and dark, and experience painful light sensitivity. But no context is ever giving for Morgan’s use of sunglasses. In fact, they aren’t even addressed for four chapters. 

[ID: Two screenshots from Chapter Four of Wolf Bride. The first features a text box over a forest background, and reads “You glance at Morgan, and are surprised to see the dark glasses still covering her eyes.” The second features a labeled image of her sunglasses, placed over a black background, with a selectable button that reads “What does Morgan look like without these?”] What follows is a scene Pixelberry could have used to provide insight into an assistive device the sighted community may not be entirely familiar with. They could have touched on degrees of visual impairment, or why some blind individuals need dark lenses while others don’t. They could even have explained that for some individuals with visual impairments, dark lenses make tasks like reading or navigating dimly lit spaces harder.  Instead, and far more troublingly, MC is given the option to ask Morgan not to wear them anymore. And depending on your choice, the book is coded to remove the sunglasses from her sprite in future scenes. This reduces an assistive device to a fashion choice, something our MC can wish away if they don’t find it attractive. And that isn’t okay. 

Unusual Eyes

[ID: Two side-by-side screenshots from Chapter Four of Wolf Bride. The first features a text box placed over a forest background that reads “With a start, you realize her pale eyes aren’t looking at you, aren’t seeing you, aren’t seeing anything.” The second features Morgan’s sad sprite in the same forest setting, and a text box that reads “...I’ve been blind since birth.”] Morgan has a customizable sprite. But regardless of the ethnicity you select for her, she is depicted with pale blue eyes. And that troubles me. Because the stereotype that all blind individuals have cloudy, distorted, or unusual eyes is pervasive and harmful. 

Even when it isn’t tied to another harmful trope — the blind character as mystical seer or psychic — this stereotype create an expectation that blindness is something that always manifests in a visible way. And for millions of blind individuals, that isn’t the case. 

And while cataracts, trauma to the eye, and corneal infections can all cause the clouded effect most of us recognize from media, none turn your brown eyes into blue.  Heightened Senses

Another common stereotype in media is the blind character who’s remaining senses have become heightened as a compensatory mechanism, often to a supernatural degree.

[ID: Two side-by-side screenshots from Chapter Four of Wolf Bride. The first features Morgan’s surprised sprite in a forest setting and a text box that reads “I guess I sort of...feel things. Like the place on my cheek where the branch blocked the wind.” The second features Morgan’s neutral sprite in the same forest setting, and a text box that reads “I can smell the dew on the leaves, and the moss on the bark. Can’t you?] Individuals with visual impairment may learn to rely on their other senses to navigate the world around them. But they do not suddenly gain the ability to sense the location of a branch based on wind patterns, or to accurately throw a dart at a carnival game ballon based on its smell. 

[ID: Two side-by-side screenshots from Chapter Eight of Wolf Bride. The first features a text box placed over a carnival background that reads “Pop! Pop! Pop! Three darts fly through the air, striking their targets.” The second features the white MC with straight blonde hair. Her sprite is surprised, and beneath it is a text box that reads “So you did that by smell, too?]

This trope may seem harmless — after all, it gave us Daredevil, a beloved blind superhero — but it contributes to the unachievable expectations we often place on real-world individuals with visually impairments. And that isn’t fair. 

Of course, we all suspected Morgan’s abilities were due to something other than heightened senses. And that in and of itself is a problem. 

Magical / Supernatural Abilities

To the surprise of no one, Morgan exhibits these unusual abilities because she is a werewolf. But choosing to give a blind character magical abilities should only be done after asking yourself some challenging questions. As visually-impaired Tumblr user @mimzy-writing-online explains:

Your blind characters don’t need a magical ability that negates their blindness. [Ask yourself why it’s so important to you to give them one]. If it’s because they can’t do all the things you want them to do without it, then should you really have written them as blind in the first place? 

And that’s the thing. Morgan isn’t actually written as a blind character, not when it counts. Morgan shoots bullets with accuracy, runs through unfamiliar terrain, and navigates moving objects with ease. She doesn’t use common assistive devices like canes or screen readers. Her sunglasses are discarded at MC’s request. The scientific papers that fill her research facility are not digitized for accessibility or written in braille. 

Even her dreams, which should be reflections of how she perceives reality, look identical to Bastien's — which makes no sense for someone who has been canonically blind since birth. 

[ID: Two side-by-side screenshots from Chapters Five and Eight of Wolf Bride. The first features a scene from Morgan’s lucid dream. Set in a glamorous hotel, it includes visual details like twinkling lights, and patterned carpets. The color is tinted a grey-blue and the exposure on the image has been increased to an unnatural level. The second features a scene from Bastien’s lucid dream. Set in a forest, it shares the same tinted and over-exposed qualities as the first.]

Her blindness isn’t an integral part of her character. Instead, it’s a narrative device, paraded in front of the reader when it can further a central — and deeply disturbing — plot point. [content warning: discussion of discrimination and child abuse / abandonment ahead]  Morgan Was Left to Die Because She Was Blind 

And Jesus, what a plot point it is. In Chapter 11, we learn that Morgan was left to die in the woods because she was born “wrong, sickly, blind.” But the only canonical disability or illness she is ever shown to have is her blindness. 

[ID: Three side-by-side screenshots from Chapter Eleven of Wolf Bride. The first two feature the white MC with straight blonde hair’s shocked sprite in front of a forest background. The first text box reads “I don’t understand...” followed by two dialogue options “Why was Morgan abandoned?” and “Is that what you do to full moon babies? Kill them?” The second panel’s read box reads “Just because she was blind?” The third panel features  the old woman Noemi’s sad sprite, placed over a forest background. Her text box reads “If we know an infant will not survive, it is best to let it die quickly.”]

I...am frankly having a hard time thinking through the screenshot-induced fury to make a coherent argument here. To imply that blindness is an impairment so limiting that death is the only foreseeable outcome? That being born blind somehow makes a child “wrong”? The ignorance and prejudice shown in this scene is staggering. 

But equally troubling is the response of the main characters to this revelation. Yes, in fiction, bad people sometimes do bad things. But Noemi isn’t shown to be a bad person. Neither is Bastien, who knew what his pack had been guilty of in the past, and even seeks to justify it to a limited degree. 

Most shockingly, Morgan herself, who in the second screenshot below has just overheard that she was left to die as an infant because she is blind, isn’t angry or upset. She’s almost apologetic, still seeking a place within the pack. 

[ID: Two side-by-side screenshots from Chapter Eleven of Wolf Bride. The first features Hispanic Bastien’s sad sprite in front of a forest background. The text box beneath him reads “It doesn’t happen often, Clara, but...” The second features white Morgan’s sad sprite in front of the same forest background. The text box beneath her reads “I didn’t mean any harm. Especially after...what I just overheard.”]

By introducing the idea that a child born blind cannot survive, let alone thrive, without superhuman abilities, and then failing to soundly and thoroughly refute that idea through the characters we identify with, Pixelberry is unintentionally perpetuating the same false beliefs that have led to real-world instances of infanticide for centuries. And that isn’t okay. 

I don’t know where Pixelberry will go with the story from here. Perhaps in today’s chapter some of these concerns have been addressed...but I doubt it. In the meantime, I’ve also written to their support staff to express my deep concern and disappointment in the treatment of Morgan’s character. And I’d encourage you to do the same. 

Will I continue to keep streaming Wolf Bride? For now, yes. My VIP subscription is already paid for, and frankly, I want to see Morgan’s arc through. I guess the small part of me that was excited for the representation is still hopeful the narrative can be corrected. 

But I’ll be adding a content warning at the start of each stream for ablism, and that’s something I never thought I’d have to do.  Screenshots courtesy of CrimsonFeatherGames on Youtube

[arcadejohn127-9]

Don't you think it's just a bit racist to turn Mammon, a non-black POC, black and darkening Simeon, the one black characters skin to be darker? Especially on official artwork?(and no excuse about them being angels and demons so they're not *technically* any race, if that's the case then lightening Simeons skin is equally okay by that logic, which is obviously also terrible and racist and should also be called out when it happens).

Okay I guess this is a very debated topic but 1, none of them have confirmed races - just because they're pale doesn't mean they are white. They could be Asian - just like if they have darker skin doesn't automatically make them black. There is no canon race of the characters, we don't know their racial history.

But some of the characters EG: Diavolo, mammon and Simeon all obviously aren't white - it's clear from their skin alone that they are a person of colour. (and maybe even Barbatos)

My example as this is human world clothes; no one else dresses like this (except for the Japanese culture event) and it is obviously has many references and design to east Asian clothing. So there could be an argument that barbatos is Asian which means, he isn't white.

I'm glad you acknowledge that turning a darker skinned chatacter white/pale is racist itself as we call that "white Washing" something that happens alot in fandoms and just racist artists.

An act someone does to make an obviously non white chatacter white because they believe it'll make them look more appealing and they wish to erease the characters culture and race for racist reasons.

But turning an already non white chatacter darker isn't racist. Now, forgive me - I am a white man who bases his opinions on non white voices on what is racist and what isn't. As I wouldn't know what it's like to have faced racism myself and doesn't understand or spot all the things that are engrained in our perspective and society because of my race.

So, by listening to these voices I have been told that making a chatacter black or POC isn't bad or racist. of course, not everyone will agree but most voices I hear are the ones that say it isn't racist.

These are the posts you're referring to, my HC/redesign post. I got their skin tones from doing their skin colour and adding multiple - now for mammon there was a few tweaks with vibrance and changing the tone from red to orange.

My headcanon's are that Simeon and mammon are both Indian with mammon being a black Indian. So I made them look how I HC them.

That is the whole point of these redesigns. Though, editing your HC on official artwork is common in multiple fandoms I have in so I don't really see the issue of editing official work because at the end of the day - your HC is just a HC and won't change canon.

But many people do racial HC as a way to show representation where there isn't any or add more diversity where it might be lacking. Or perhaps, to make your favourite character look like you because you can't find good rep in media.

Not all reputation is good reputation.

But on the topic of changing colour, here's some comparisons I've quickly done with official art and my edit.

Not all of these skin tones match and even in a few its closer to my edit than the official art work I edited. Lighting does come into play of course but are these artists also racist because they've made Simeon, whilst his skin tone more vibrant, darker than his official sprite? Shouldn't you be posting about why this is 'racist'.

I also did comparisons with mammon but Tumblr has an image limit.

Also speaking about colour racism; what about Diavolo? In my edit I changed his skin to be darker but here's the thing, I was matching it to look like his demon form as the Devs are known to make Diavolo darker when demonic. Which is rooted in colourism.

Obey me has this strange thing of have their colours closer in the grey scale than anything vibrant which is extremely noticeable in their darker skinned characters. But once again, another example of changing skin colours in official art done by hired artists.

Again, are you making posts about this? Are you calling out actual racism and colourism in game and in the community or are you just going into anon on random people's Tumblr posts trying to say their racist for making a chatacter darker?

I don't see how me making them darker is racist or is even comparable to making a character lighter/white. Because while they don't have canon ethnicities and races it's so obvious that there are characters who aren't white.

[just-horrible-things]

Here is some gratuitous Ariadne whump that may or may not be canon, as I take a break from writing things that have plot. Enjoy. [Editor’s note: it grew plot.]

‘Verse: Resistance Story: Unlikely Salvation, co-author @whump-sprite Timeline: Arc 5, Ariadne is loyal to the Resistance

Begging for Water, pt1 [ First | Prev | Next ]

Days without water take their toll. Ariadne screams through a dry throat. Her lips crack. 

She doesn’t ask for water - they'll give it to her when they decide they have to, and not before. 

---

At the end of a beating, the senior interrogator crouches over Ariadne with a bottle. He splashes a little water on her face. Her split lips part and her head turns effortfully towards the droplets.

“You must be thirsty.” His tone is conversational.

Ariadne does nothing.

“What do you say? Aren’t you thirsty?”

"yssir," she croaks. She’s past refusing her part. It only provokes them.

“Would you like some water?”

“yessir,” she repeats. “-- please.”

Her vision is blurred but she sees well enough to track the movement of the bottle as he takes a swig.

“How about a deal,” he says. “I’ll ask you some of the easy questions. Nothing too important. If you can tell me something new, I’ll give you a little water.”

Ariadne is silent.

“Of course, if you give me Peyroux or Reyan or Mr. Cecil, you can have as much water as you like. Food too. But let’s start small.”

Every time she does not answer his questions, the interrogator drinks a little more. When the bottle is empty, he drops it in front of her face. It rattles on the concrete.

He leaves the room, and Ariadne licks the neck of the bottle. Clumsily she tips it up just in case there’s anything left. She gets a single drop.

---

When he tries the same tactic again, Ariadne dares to hope that if she does not answer, she will die.

She knows it’s a foolish hope. No one dies in here without permission, as the joke used to run.

But sometimes they mess up. Maybe this time they will mess up.

---

She is barely conscious under the whip. Her limp body and faint sounds provide little entertainment. 

When he teases her with the water, her swollen-shut eyes will not open to watch. 

She hears the questions but she cannot muster the will to listen. They mean nothing anyway.

---

Nightmare and reality are indistinguishable.

She wakes -- as so often -- to a kick in the ribs.

It hurts so much more than she can handle. She tries to roll away but she hasn’t the strength.

Water touches her lips. She drinks urgently. Thoughtlessly. Swallowing is difficult and painful and she chokes on the water but she still wants it desperately.

---

Awareness fades in and out.

Gloved hands touch her face and there is water again. She drinks. 

She moans when the water is taken away. She drinks when it returns. The pattern repeats. 

She sleeps, and wakes, and drinks, and sleeps again.

---

Someone is wiping the crust of blood and muck from her eyes. The touch is shockingly gentle. For just a moment, she thinks it could be Alex. The hope is merciless and leaves her devastated in its wake. She sobs just once.

“Let’s get a look at you,” says someone above her. “Come on, open your eyes.”

She cannot open them far. The bruising has only gone down a little. Her vision is blurred. She can make out a figure sitting beside her, looking down. One of the guards.

“More water?” His voice is dangerously soft.

She doesn’t mean to be so desperate but her mouth opens and a little hopeless whimper escapes.

“Here you go.” He holds it to her lips. It could be drugged but Ariadne cannot afford to care.

---

The world is still hazy and nauseous when they come back with the whip, but Ariadne is conscious enough to scream for them.

The questions are rapid-fire. Loud questions screamed at her, quiet questions hissed at her, soft questions wheedling as if they might actually stop if she answered. None of it matters. It’s just noise.

At the end of the session it is the one guard who stays behind with a bottle of water, not his superior.

Ariadne is still sobbing from the whipping. Wasting precious water down her cheeks. The guard just watches. Humiliation is a memory. He’s not beating her right now, that’s enough.

When he takes the cap off the bottle, she lifts her head hopefully. It throbs and the world spins and the guard smiles. He brings it close to her face, then pulls it away again and grins at her disappointment.

He holds it out. Ariadne is shaking too hard to lift her shoulders off the floor, but she strains her neck trying to reach. After a moment he relents.

“Ask nicely,” he prompts.

“... please, sir …”

He moves the bottle back and forth and watches her eyes track the motion.

“... please?” she tries again, losing hope fast.

The water soothes a fraction of the pain.

He takes it away too soon.

“What do you say?” Ariadne recognises the glimmer in his eyes. “thank you,” she rasps, “sir.”

---

He catches her eye while she is trembling in the standing cuffs, and winks as he takes a long slow drink of bottled water.

He doesn’t give her any.

---

He comes into her cell alone. Ariadne’s traitor heart hopes for water, even as she fears more abuse. She can’t see straight and her throat is on fire. Surely they have to give her more soon.

He waves the bottle in front of her and smiles.

“please sir,” she forces out. “please … please … water, please … ?”

His grin is candid. She gets the water. It feels a little like success.

But he relents and allows her a little more, and Ariadne swallows something a little like agency with the precious water.

He pulls it away after a few mouthfuls. Ariadne whines. The sound cracks and catches on the roughness of her throat. “Please,” she whimpers, “please sir I’m so thirsty, ple-ease…”

“I know,” he chuckles.

There’s a hunger in him. Even as weak and disoriented as she is, Ariadne can see it. Recognises it. She doesn’t know what to do with this information. But it must be useful to know.

“No more,” he tsks his tongue as she starts to beg again. “Thank me nicely.”

“Yes sir,” she agrees. “Thank you sir, thank you for giving me water.”

“That’s good.”

[Next]

[alexandriaisburning]

012: Top Gear Pocket 2

CANON FIRE is made possible by the generous contributions of readers like you. Support more writing like this on Patreon. Thank you!

Footnotes are available here:��https://www.patreon.com/posts/64916818

As game worlds stretch closer to infinity, sometimes it's easy to forget games can impress in scale, not only with how big they get, but how they shrink down an experience. Top Gear Pocket 2 (1) is a Game Boy Color racing title that doesn’t initially feel at all impressive. Coming out at the start of the year 2000, only a few months before the PS2, there had been plenty of incredible, full 3D showpieces in the genre, with even more to come in the portable space with the release of the Game Boy Advance. Hell, it didn’t even look as good as Out Run, which used similar techniques to fake 3D, and had preceded it by a decade and a half. 

Within the context of the Game Boy Color library, however, it’s astounding how much Top Gear Pocket 2 manages to fit in. This is no simulation: it doesn't accurately model tire physics, nor will you be tuning gear ratios, or rebalancing your car for the terrain. It may technically have "rally" in the name, but it isn't even accurate to the format, sporting the standard lap and position format instead. What is here is a remarkable facsimile, one that seems like a minor miracle compared to what I assumed GBC was capable of. 

One of the most immediately impressive aspects is the way the game handles roads. True to its rally roots, roads don't feel like closed circuits, but real terrain meant for everyday driving. The elevation dips and rises, cresting into hills that throw you into a jump when going at speed. There's even separate sprites for hitting a jump during a turn, which is not a given with how little cart space the GBC has available. 

Terrain is split into multiple types--grassland (2), savanna, city, forest, lakeside and mountain--as well as four weather types to pick from--fine, rain, snow and night--which all affect your visibility and handling in different ways. Alongside the different vehicles and tuning profiles, there's a lot of small variations to how you approach a course. 

If you're playing the original Japanese version, the cart's built-in rumble will communicate the state of your tires as you push them to the edge. Driving off road or bumping other drivers will give you a heavy rumble, with more subtle rumble as your tires make hard turns on uneven terrain. It adds a lot to the physicality of your vehicle, even if it can be a bit conservative in how it deploys it. Spinning out at the start doesn't provide feedback, and if driving on asphalt it'll never go off no matter how much you slide.

To sell the rally racing feeling, on screen alerts  provide a heads up for upcoming turns, as if you had a co-driver on board. Maybe it's all my time playing Codemasters' games, but I could almost hear the calls in my head. (3) Along with the minimal, it's actually incredibly helpful for navigation, given how difficult it can be to mentally position yourself in a faux 3D environment. 

One thing it can't do is make the U-turns more convincing. There's really no way to create a convincing 180° turn without at least the ability to rotate the ground. Here you can hear the game's design screaming up to the limits of the tech. The same is true of the game's sound. There are some bonafide jams in this game, but none of them play during the race, presumably to make the full range of sound channels available for detailed engine and tire sounds. The bet does pay off--the artwork and car sounds provide a convincing atmosphere--but it makes longer sessions more monotonous, since there's no music to vary the mood.

I've heard Top Gear Pocket 2 described as a digital game with an analog feel, and it feels apt. You need to keep in mind the terrain and conditions, and give yourself some leeway as you enter turns. Harder turns require you to brake to keep control, especially if there's another driver on the track, since collisions hit you with severe speed loss. You'll even lose speed on a turn, making exiting them faster key to keeping a position. 

By its fundamental nature, Top Gear Pocket 2 can't provide a realistic simulation. The distance from the outside to the inside of the track will always be the same for each type of turn (you're essentially sliding left and right as obstacles come towards you). You won't exactly be calculating perfect racing lines, and there's only ever one opponent on screen, with rudimentary AI that attempts to block a pass by swerving. If you look close, there's plenty to break the illusion. 

None of that matters. It might be little more than a series of moving horizons and sliding backdrops, but there's enough for anyone wanting to see the magic trick. I found myself getting really into it, checking upcoming corners, planning my overtakes and celebrating as I cut across my opponents' paths. Maybe it ultimately didn't matter, but it felt like it did. Give it a little imagination, and you'll find a convincing little set of races on that tiny screen. 

Top Gear Pocket 2 is available on the Game Boy Color. The Japanese version has both save and rumble support, the European version save support only, and the US version uses a password system instead of saves.