#could also be a nier thing i bet

[noblechaton]

Fic title: Your Pain is My Pain

I'm seeing something post-canon (as in, somewhere post-Strikers) that sees the Phantom Thieves finally getting a break from the constant madness of the metaverse and thereon, each finding their own sort of reprieve in the aftermath of several cataclysmic events - Haru focuses up on her gardening, Ann spends time with Shiho, Yusuke dives into his artwork and Ryuji continues working on himself. Everything's calm, for once, and normalcy starts to creep back in - but that doesn't sit right with everyone. Amid her attempts to live a more outgoing life among her fellow citizens, Futaba can't help but keep tabs on Ren, himself having ended up living a relatively close distance to the others after all. While that quiet, somewhat stern behavior of his remains on the surface, she and the others come to profess worry over their former leader and best friend - after all of that, despite what's changed and the catharsis he might have felt alongside all the help he'd given them, it's not as if he'd really decompressed, as far as they knew, with who knows how much otherwise bottled up inside.

So they send Makoto over, dragging him out of his apartment and spending the day with him on the town. They reminisce over all that's happened throughout trips to the familiar places, the movie theater, Big Bang Burger, etc., but he doesn't seem to crack until he realizes that Makoto's taking him back to Leblanc for the first time in however long. Ren's expression shifts from subtle and restrained to something more uncertain, almost anxious as they approach the doors, some obvious silhouettes distorted by the glass. It processes then what all of this has been for, why she'd led him through town and avoided the topic of the others for so long. Makoto takes him by the hand and asks him if he wants to go inside, fingers between his own and her eyes soft on his. Silence falls as a gentle rain starts right on the verge of dusk, the moon above blocked by the clouds as they stand for what feels like eternity.

"Yes," Ren's lip trembles with his eventual, inevitable answer. "Let's...get inside."

All the bracing in the world couldn't quite prepare him for the welcoming faces that greet him, that invite him into a booth and supply him the finest cup of coffee in Yongen-Jaya. It's been a few months since he'd last seen everyone, and yet they all behave as if they'd not missed a beat. Ryuji makes a few bad jokes, Yusuke makes things weird, Ann and Haru offer gifts from their own professions - something stupid expensive and somewhat useless from Ann, a bouquet of flowers mixed with vegetables from Haru. Sojiro keeps the food and drink coming, while Futaba is the one who eventually settles the group down enough to confront the issue at hand, getting their attention with a loud clearing of her throat before she nods behind him.

Makoto eases her arms onto Ren's shoulders then, warmly asking him if he'd like to talk. When he tries to downplay and otherwise avoid the subject, the others nudge him back. Ann encourages, Haru assures, Ryuji affirms and Yusuke - in his own way - inspires. Ren's head dips some, his eyes to one side in a glance towards a Sojiro who shrugs him on. Ren then sits upright again, a twinge of red on his face as he finally, fully speaks his mind. He'd not been silent before, he was often blunt about things, but in this moment, he's allowed to fully process the utter insanity that's been his last few years now, the group listening and replying where they can and where best it fits. He talks and talks and talks some more, of Maruki, of Kasumi, of Akechi. Ren exhausts himself, a glance at his watch revealing that, for a change, he'd been the one talking for a near hour straight, with some tears having subtly welled up in his eyes. He's clearly embarrassed afterwards, but finds himself surrounded. One hand in Ann's, the other in Haru's with Yusuke across from him, sketching out his own inspiration from Ren's flood of emotions. Ryuji places a palm to a shoulder while Makoto rests one on the opposite side and Futaba, who'd earlier slipped onto his side of the booth, leans against him

His friends insist that it's okay, each sharing looks with him in their encouragement, that it's alright - it's alright for him to feel, outwardly, like this, given all they'd been through. Ren's somewhat unfamiliar with this, but comes to relent - he holds hands back, leaning into the touch of his friends with a slight smile across his face as they all share and repeat the sentiment that his pain is their pain, and that they'll all be alright, together.

[nierly-amazing]

Controversial opinion: Nier Automata's story would have benefited a lot from the creative freedom of being an indie game with more queer & disabled writers, and writers from heavily colonized places

Probably less controversial to those who are still following my gay ass.

It already manages to be a masterpiece on it's own but there's always going to be constraints in big budget games to appeal to a wider audience--like the rumor/fact/idr that 9S was going to be a girl initially but got changed. There's a lot of good input queer and disabled creatives could have offered from their life experiences and how it relates to some of the transhumanist themes in the game. A lot of people seem to forget the machines have been colonizing earth and genociding the androids for 6000 years and those themes could have been expanded on more too.

Like yay we get lesbian 6O and implied trans Pascal but it doesn't really go anywhere with them. The anime does go more into Pascal and machines swapping parts and 9S completely dismissing it but then they never touch on it again (unless they still plan to but with 4 episodes left I doubt it). I want to see 9S have a crisis over it, (and 2E 2B have a crisis over him having a crisis about it).

It'd be interesting to see more a of a discrepancy between high-end porcelain doll yorha models and underfunded ancient Resistance androids. They all look like normal humans. Even the ship of theseus trader guy with the bad leg looks like a regular android. Give me some androids with fucked up body mods that causes 9S to have another crisis (because this boy can fit so many crises in him). Something something parallels with relationships to gender something something 9S is trans and transphobic--doesn't understand the FEEELINGS or what to do about them.

Yorha could have much stricter rules on body modification that's drilled into the android's heads from day one and then they see the machines swap parts with no reservations and resistance androids swap parts with some reservations. Even the whole "emotions are prohibited" thing could be touched on more with more internal struggle in 9S over his inability to act emotionless, and perhaps touch on the point of conflict with 2B who poorly pretends to have her emotions in check.

Maybe some conflict between the machines in pascals village and how rigid they are in trying to emulate humans. Like a group trying to emulate rigid gender roles despite not having assigned genders or sex characteristics, and a group that just does whatever. Like "no you have to choose" but also "humans didn't choose (mostly) so who cares".

And then there's the fact that most machines in pascal's village are not fully sapient, or are maybe coded as children still learning the world and something something its 1am something something how much should their level of sapience matter

Even with 9S's memory "issues" we only have 1 moment in the anime where he has a flash of past memories. Imagine if his descent into grief-stricken madness in route C had his old deleted memories start resurfacing and mixing with his current ones. Or maybe the machine network had copies of some of them and used them to torment him more.

Imagine if they showed Anemone and Devpop try harder to help him but weren't able to due to them not fully understanding what he's going through and their own hangups about machines. Imagine him being unable to really open up to anyone because he doesn't fully understand what he's going through.

9S """racism""" toward machines isn't at all unique to him. They've been genociding the androids for 6000 years, everyone hates them. I want to see more opinions from resistance androids, especially regarding pascal's village. Even Anemone/Lily aren't completely fine with the idea of trading with machines but are basically forced to out of desperation since the council of humanity left them on read. I want to see more of their internal strife with the concept. I want to see some conflict between resistance and yorha androids, too, and conflict within the resistance over the idea of aiming for a peace treaty.

There could also be some good conflict between 2B and 9S over 2B's willingness to just "accept" pascal's village. Since they both have valid points for their opinions (2B's a big softie and doesn't want to fight and 9S sees pacifist machines 'suddenly' popping up after 6000 years as a mega giganto trap (and why wouldn't he?)).

I would have liked to see more interactions with other androids and how they manage in a posthuman world and them trying to replicate humanity from 11,000 years ago. We have little bits and pieces like the bit where the operators give commander a bunch of brown things for valentine's day instead of chocolates.

Oops I thought I was gonna write like 2 paragraphs but I blacked out and wrote an essay. It's late I might expand on this tomorrow but here's some stuff 2 think about

(and bonus extra controversial opinion but it's kinda fucked up that there's the whole theme about robot sentience and then you can go stab fish in the face for fun and kill moose and boar for a quest so an android--who doesn't need to eat at all--can try eating them. Like here we are arguing about fictional robot sentience and then ignoring actual real animal sentience in our daily lives to the point where we don't even question how messed up killing them for non-survival reasons is)

[astralartefact]

in another branch, on a less lonely moon... are nier reincarnation ocs even allowed?

yH ("Waiha") - Sentinel Surety Character Story

In another branch, on a less lonely moon... He is one of the 7 to 8 YoRHa models stationed at the moon base. Tasked to monitor, document and organize weapon stories he finds himself reading countless accounts of humanity's folly - much to the dismay of the easygoing Pod assigned to him who can't bring himself to scold him for taking far too much time.

Ashen Confidence - Light Staff Weapon Story

The Pod I work with behaves in weird ways. He keeps making references to a non-existent girlfriend - that I should hide her when he comes into the room. Why would he say that?

Working through archival data I understand it to be a customary greeting male authority figures use towards younger male relatives. For some reason they seemed to hold great pride in the relationships of their young.

I asked Pod who he thought my girlfriend was and he just replied he was joking and that I shouldn't take what he says so seriously. Another time I told him that I could just as well have a boyfriend but he ignored hearing me say that.

>>Analysis: The requested parts for Unit 16H's repair are once again missing from today's shipment. >>Hypothesis: He will likely find him before we can revive him. >>Proposal: I should write Logistics a strongly worded message.

xH ("Exha") - Sentinel Shepherd Character Story

In another branch, on a less lonely moon... She is one of the 7 to 8 YoRHa models stationed at the moon base. Beloved by all of her colleagues she tries her best to fill their days with smiles. Though nobody has ever seen her work the disorganized Pod assigned to her has yet to scold her for any sort of laziness. In her private quarters, away from the other androids, she harbors secrets.

Bebi

An experimental canine droid living in xH's room. His baby face makes him look very sweet, but he will stop at nothing to protect his Mama.

Ashen Alliance - Light 2H Sword Weapon Story

"She has brought over some cookies again." "I wonder how she has the time to bake for everybody. I can't even stop and eat between work units without Pod telling me off."

"Last month's report says she has the most work hours." "I don't believe it. I never see her work. If it wasn't for this Pod I would follow her around all day to know how she does it."

"She told someone off for trying to come into her room." "I tell you, she's hiding something in there. I'm pretty sure her room is bigger than ours, too. I bet she works with the Pods behind our backs."

>>Analysis: Deletion of Memory Data successful. I will bring these two to maintenance. >>Inquiry: Will you be okay, dearie? This is the 3rd time you are the reason they found out.

Notes

I called them Shepherd and Surety because of JESUS CHRIST (no but really, if the cage contains "humanity's sin" then 10H died for our sins - she IS the savior)

I gave them pieces of Hina and Yuzuki's Mechanical Outfits, yH has Hina's sleeves and xH has Yuzu's belts and cape

xH's is also to some degree inspired by the YoRHa Girls 1.1a uniforms

I started these before 10H came out, so that's one of the reasons they barely resemble her uniform

Their weapons are Ashen versions of the respective Virtuous/Cruel weapons. I wanted to call them after the things Papa and Dark Mama 'provided to' Hina and Yuzuki (Confidence // Community -> Alliance)

I haven't decided yet if: a) Bebi is Babe's true form and he can't talk irl (=the Babe in the cage is actually just a dog talking) or b) Bebi is Babe's corporeal form and the dog can talk (=his voice is really deep) both are equally as hilarious to me

Initially I wanted to give them all the costumes 10H gets, but then EoS happened and now... welp

I don't really have a hang of xH's hair yet, it doesn't really look like how I wanted it to look and it's even harder to figure it out while also trying to evoke an existing art style - but I will keep trying!!!

Rendering is so fcking hard. How do people do it. I start and my brain just stops thinking and just does whatever and what I'm left with is a mess. I hope you still like it because I kind of don't, but without it it looks even less like the reinkane style

[shuttershocky]

You mentioned that PGR’s story is the only holding it back right now (or something to that effect?) Me and my pgr playing friend were talking about how the story was good enough to make her roll for Plume despite wanting to save for Selena, despite both of us saying before that the story wasn’t as good as AK or FGO.

What do you find particularly weak about PGR’s story and what direction do you think it has to take to bet real good?

Its biggest weakness is that it doesn't tell its story at all.

Now I haven't played PGR in a bit, but something that immediately struck out to me when I first played it was that there wasn't a story being told: shit was just happening. No whys or hows or whats behind anything, shit was just occuring.

Take Camu's chapter for example. Oh Kamui has another, dark self now. Kamui's run off searching for Tenebrion, whatever that is. Lucia catches up with him eventually. Soon the Purifying Force does too. Then they decide to not kill him. And thats it.

There's no building anything up or character development or themes or anything at all. Experiencing Punishing Gray Raven's story is like reading a wikipedia summary. Stuff is happening in chronological order and characters are doing things to keep that plot going, and that's about it.

The whole chapter with Lucia Plume tried to be some big finale to the 'arc' of the first few chapters by bringing in characters from all the past chapters, which, damn I sure wish you made me care about those past chapters first.

That chapter was maybe the first time I saw PGR even attempt at real storytelling by having actual stakes (Lucia's mind is slowly being overwritten by a new copy of her since she's essentially dying by going in this stronger body) and some real emotional arcs with PRESENTATION and FLOWERY PROSE, but the problem with that was it relied on buildup that was completely nonexistent. Why would I care about the Lucia being erased when she was barely a character despite being the protagonist? It didn't even fuckin matter in the end because the new Lucia Plume ended up acting almost exactly the same afterward anyway, and also had the old Lucia's memories as records she could view.

I couldn't shake the feeling that PGR's storytelling was a bunch of people writing down what they thought would look like a really cool anime but actually not having anything to say, not even "look at how cool our robot girl is." That's why there's so much description in certain events, like Lucia hallucinating the ghosts of her other selves walking past her, but the events themselves are so disconnected from each other that they don't really add up to even a simple story.

And then I just stopped playing PGR entirely, because as much as the action gameplay actually kicked ass and as much as I loved the game's various game design choices and creativity with unit skillsets, I ultimately did not care about anyone or anything within the setting, and surprisingly that turned out to be one hell of a dealbreaker for me even when I was having fun.

I lasted about a year though (stopped right when the Nier collab event started), which says a lot about just how solid the combat system feels. I'm hoping Kurogames' Genshin competitor Wuthering Waves ends up with a much better setting, though I'm already kind of concerned at how repetitive the combat looks vs PGR which gets the appeal of a hardcore character action game dead-on despite the simplified, touchscreen control scheme

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on the recent Nintendo Direct?

Things that jumped out at me:

Splatoon 3 Side Order really feels like, to me, somebody at Nintendo really likes NieR. Keep in mind, I have never played a NieR; I've only seen someone play the Xbox 360 version of the first one. But I definitely have that vibe.

A lot of Nintendo's porting/remaking efforts are starting to feel very strange to me:

Luigi's Mansion 2 on Switch, but not 1. Technically they "just" released Luigi's Mansion 1 on 3DS in 2018, but not only was that five years ago, it was on the jaggedy low-resolution 3DS. If they think LM2 deserves to be seen in HD on a TV, why not LM1? "Starting" at 2 like this is weird.

Similarly, it's weird they're doing Mario vs. DK and not starting with DK94. Both are great games, but again, they're kind of starting with the sequel.

Doing both Thousand Year Door and Super Mario RPG at the same time is also weird, especially given they're skipping the original Paper Mario. I guess that game is available through the NSO app, but it's kind of a jumble they'd remake an SNES game, skip the N64 game, and then remake a Gamecube game. They could have also put Super Mario RPG on the NSO SNES app, too. Again: Weird.

Another Code never entered my orbit in any way shape or form, so I feel nothing about that remake.

Princess Peach Showtime looks sort of interesting but somebody said "it looks like Wario: Master of Disguise but for Peach" and that thought alone left such a bad taste in my mouth I am keeping my distance from it for now.

Have no connection to SaGa or Detective Pikachu, so those do nothing for me. Actually, I think I played the Detective Pikachu demo on 3DS and that was in one ear and out the other for me.

The Tomb Raider remasters look bad. I've been curious about those games for some time now, because I think I understand more of what they want out of me mechanically now, but those look like $10 Xbox Live Arcade remasters and I bet the trilogy will sell for $40-$50.

Can't decide if Wayforward's Contra remake looks terrible or passable. It looks early as heck, so maybe it'll get more polish, but Wayforward's output can have some pretty wild swings in quality, so that's a hard "wait and see" at best. At least it looks better than Rogue Corps.

People were going wild for Vanillaware's new game (Unicorn Overlord) but I am not a strategy game person and I have no experience with Vanillaware games in any capacity.

It's weird for an American Nintendo Direct to talk about a small museum opening in Tokyo. I've never flown anywhere before, but a quick glance puts a plane ticket to Tokyo at nearly $2000. It's nice they brought it up, I guess, but the amount of Americans who saw that Direct and will actually be there during the time the Museum is open will probably be very, very small.

Good to see they're still making Amiibo, though they definitely aren't celebrating them like they used to. There's a weird part of me that wants to get Sora. I probably won't.

I have played F-Zero 99 now and it's kind of crazy how polished and nice it feels. A lot of these previous 99 games have felt expectedly low budget, but F-Zero 99 has a multi-phase tutorial and vehicle customization and a map voting system. It looks and feels really, really nice. I'm impressed.

It's funny how quickly they threw 1-2 Everybody Switch under the bus and are now talking up the WarioWare remaster that is a lot of very similar concepts.

Everyone I've seen talk about Dave the Diver seems to refuse to say why it's so cool, "it just is" and they never say anything else about it. The Direct here was the most I've seen of it in motion beyond just the first few basic dives and it actually does look pretty neat.

[clockworksteel]

Scattered gendered stuff with no conclusions again.

Lately I've been thinking about how it could be nice to have a profile picture that was some sort of person, that could also be used in some sort of scene in my Youtube banner. But... I've never been sure at all what that character should look like. It occurs to me... it's probably related to me not knowing what I want to look like for real.

I bought myself some chapstick. I get that's not really gendered on its own, but when the motivation is less "My lips could get dry" and more "I can pretend it's like having lipstick without committing to the bit" it kinda is. Also it's pomegranate rather than some sort of neutral "classic". Chapstick is also not really something I've bothered with before now even when I needed it. Like, I wouldn't refuse if someone offered a use, but I didn't keep my own either. At any rate, trying things without committing to the bit does seem to be a theme for me, but it feels safe.

I had a dream this week about getting lectured by my parents because of knee-high socks. I've already been worried about my parents, thanks. Lately not a week goes by when I don't think about a certain religious anti-LGBT one page document they had a framed copy of in the living room for almost as long as I remember (although it’s actually in one of the guest bedrooms now). I mean, the document is plenty dogwhistled, and does cover a couple other things, but it had a definite undertone. It’s “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” from 1995 if anyone is wondering.

I've got 4 characters named Alice now. In addition to Splatoon, I named the character for a new Terraria playthrough "Alice", my R-Type Final 2 pilot "Alice Pierce" and my Cupid Parasite protagonist "Alice Mirror" (default last name). Weirdly, when I went looking for a website with some last names so I could find a cool one for my R-Type Final 2 pilot I found a website which broke last names into female and male ones. That's... not how last names work. They had Pierce as a male last name, even, but honestly the only Pierce I can think of is Tamora Pierce.

I got a bit of a questioning by someone on my Switch friends list about why I decided to play Cupid Parasite, but the conversation kinda started off on the wrong foot with reasons why they didn't expect me to play it so I never really explained properly. Maybe I shouldn't have responded to the initial "Why are you playing that?" with "Why not?" because they actually had an answer. I'll admit the dating men thing is a bit odd, but do I really seem that much like I don't care about stories in games? Like, sure, some of the time I don't. I get that I usually can't be bothered to talk to every NPC, I didn't read all my fates in Granblue Fantasy (big events throw too many pulls at you), and I didn't really do sidequests in Nier: Automata so I didn't put together as much as I could have nor did I find its story that memorable, but it's not like I skip every cutscene in stuff I play or anything. I even played every route of Hustle Cat before. Anyway, I mentioned I'm kinda tired of always getting a fragmented version of the story from watching my housemate play and just wanted to see one complete route for once. It could’ve been a good time to mention that I also specifically wanted to try playing something aimed at women, though.

...I wonder if a lot of stories I haven't appreciated a whole lot are because my emotions haven't been working right for a long time.

On the subject of emotions, for some reason I keep wondering about the question "How often does the (median) average adult cry for emotional reasons?" Less as an actual fact I'd want to know and more of an "I bet my best guess would be way off". Like, I'm thinking yearly, maybe?

I was going to say something here wondering about the last time I actually cried but I think I'd rather leave it out.

[davidmann95]

here we go here we go here we go

* I want you all to know I had the Square Enix Youtube page loaded up and I went to that first thing in the morning, and then physically blocked the screen with my hands and slowly uncovered it one calculated sliver at a time until I saw a runtime on a video that seemed right and looked to see it was indeed 'Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Announcement Trailer' without seeing any potential individual trailers, so I got to go into this totally cold. Even up until the last second I didn't know if it was gonna pull a fast one and technically be some kind of interquel.

* Damn this is crisp, especially since it's running on Unreal Engine 4 when the finished product will be 5.

* "Your options are endless" suggests this could go well beyond Quadratum, but I hope they commit (at least on Sora's end) to this being a full-fledged open world game.

* That does indeed look like a Star Wars AT-AT foot! That'd make that gorgeous landscape Endor, and I do like to think of Sora escaping Quadratum, thinking "oh thank god it's funny animals and generic bad guys, the world makes sense again", and then a dad is trying to murder his son with a sword while a spooky old freak cackles in the background and Sora just breaks down. With the franchise's degree of influence on Nomura I'd be fascinated to see how this plays out, and also being extremely real Kingdom Hearts > Star Wars so I'd be happy to see the material elevated.

* I thought using The Caribbean's style engine in the Yozora fight was a very deliberate choice, and following that up here by giving Sora a relatively realistic 'do rather than his classic Goku hair is tripling down on that.

* I bet I would be extremely excited about Strelitzia if I had played the mobile games.

* Someone immediately doxxed Sora and apparently the flat he's in is $1.2 million in the real world, our boy's living in style. If he has a permanent living space in this game, might there be a day-night cycle ala Final Fantasy XV? Jesus, would rather than camping out like Noctis' crew the lost boy in the city with no way home literally have to sleep under bridges or on benches if he can't make it back to the apartment safe haven?

* THE REAL WORLD IS KINGDOM HEARTS HELL

* This thing seems to have as much in common with the Invisibles or to my eye even the Dark Inferno as much as the old Darksides.

* The little shot of the guy falling out of his car is the bit that truly brings it home for me as 'holy crap, this is basically the real world'; I had wondered why they put Big Hero 6 in the game before this when it'd potentially undercut the impact, but the contrast is a stark one.

* Getting a full look at it in motion, while it can't beat the iconic power of II, this might be my favorite look for Sora after that - that was the peak of what it was doing, this is the next step in an entirely new direction that III only started on the road towards. Pour one out though, I now assume Sora injured his feet as a kid and slowly gained courage throughout his adventures to tone down the padding:

* I don't read many Kingdom Hearts fanfic these days, but I'm still following @kitsoa's IV[or]y Wall, and the beginning of the trailer so closely mirrored the opening of that that I legitimately wondered for a second if Sora wouldn't be able to summon his Keyblade.

* I only recently started paying attention to Yoko Taro's work - one of the mandatory multiple playthroughs of Nier Automata, and watching one of the Drakengard endings - but that's enough to see he's had influence on Nomura, especially with Quadratum. In that regard, the fight on the freeway and especially this Heartless seemingly draining most color from its surroundings (pay attention to the cars it's hefting) definitely gave me Copied City vibes.

* Crushed that the move to a new saga isn't met with the restoration of the Command Deck, but apparently the last COMMAND option below items is now 'Build'?

* A lot of Sora's moves here are clearly previz fakery in the same way as the reveal trailer for III, but that this is even suggestive of what they have in mind is pretty stunning.

* I know it's a drill which I understand has some Gureren Lagann vibes (another show I want to watch someday), but let it not be overlooked that before it forms Sora fully does a Kamehameha.

* Even just that pan up the building emphasizes how different the visual storytelling is here than anything we've seen in Kingdom Hearts before.

* New logo slick, and the triumphant horns accompanying it? Magnifique.

* Glad to see the boys and glad to hear the sound effect to emphasize that there's at least a slice of this that still plays by the old rules; their destination makes sense but boy, they really gonna bring James Woods back again?

* If Kairi is not journeying with Donald and Goofy I will be incensed.

* I have spent 13 years (13, damn you Nomura) obsessed with the vibe of this old fanmade Kingdom Hearts IV boxart, and it is shockingly close to the vibe here.

* There have been different translations/interpretations regarding a key comment: one that Nomura chose between making Kingdom Hearts IV or a Verum Rex game first and chose IV because folks were worried about Sora, the other which I find more plausible is that the debate was which of those two to name this game and he chose IV out of concern that players wouldn't associate it as a mainline Sora game otherwise (and presumably because Disney wouldn't be having any of that) - I've seen other comments supposedly from him elaborating on both, one saying he didn't want to develop two games at once, the other that they still call this Verum Rex around the office, but barring a crash course in Japanese I'm pretty sure which take I believe for now. In any case, that they considered naming this after their Final Fantasy self-parody if not in fact literally making that is beautiful to me.

* I assume I will be in my 30s by the time this comes out but that it won't be a 6 year wait like last time.

* I was worried that the success of III would lead to Disney clamping down on Nomura, but instead they seem to have really decided to let the mad freak to whatever he wants, and I couldn't be happier.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt four: Nie sect was always weird, so nobody thought that much about second wife of sect leader Nier. Later it was very clear that sect leader Nie and NMJ love that clearly non human woman and her non human baby. So everyone tried really hard to ignore baby shadow monster that just lives at Nie sect. It continues when NHS goes to Gusu and it makes WWX wonder if because of it JC did not catch that his crush is not a human. JC thinks that he is just jealous for not having cute shadow bf.

“So what you’re saying is that you’re jealous,” Jiang Cheng said, and Wei Wuxian spluttered.

“I’m not jealous!” he exclaimed. “Where are you getting that idea from what I said?!”

He’d only meant to point out to Jiang Cheng that Nie Huaisang, as nice as he seemed, wasn’t quite…right.

The way he sometimes seemed to fade into the shadows as they walked past, fade entirely until there didn’t seem to be any difference between the darkness and him, only to reappear just as normal on the other side. The way he sometimes seemed to appear places he shouldn’t, and seemed a little confused by the concept of doors.

The way things he didn’t like seemed to just – disappear.

The way no one else ever talked about it.

Wei Wuxian would’ve thought that Lan Qiren, at least, would’ve said something, anything, when he threw his ruler at Nie Huaisang and it disappeared right before it was going to hit his forehead, but the teacher didn’t so much as blink, only barked at Nie Huaisang to return the ruler after class. Lan Wangji hadn’t said anything either, and he must have seen it, he was sitting right next to them. But he didn’t say anything, either!

And now Jiang Cheng was spending extra time with Nie Huaisang, sneaking out, studying together, going on long walks late at night, somehow, despite Nie Huaisang’s tendency to fade in and out if he happened to not be in a direct patch of moonlight…

Wei Wuxian just wanted Jiang Cheng to know about what was going on so that he could make an informed judgment, that’s all.

“How am I jealous?” he demanded again.

“You’re jealous because I got a pretty lover for the summer before you did,” Jiang Cheng said triumphantly, and – hey, what? Sure, they’d talked about getting together with someone during their lessons, taking advantage of being far from home, but this wasn’t about that! Also, since when was Jiang Cheng willing to cut his sleeve?! “Just because Lan Wangji won’t tell you the time of day –”

“It’s not about that!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed. “And anyway, I’m not pursuing Lan Wangji!”

“Yeah, right. You talk about him all the time.”

“I do not –”

Okay, maybe he does.

“And anyway he’s not –”

Actually, he was that pretty.

“But he doesn’t –”

Jiang Cheng was right about not giving him the time of day.

“…fuck,” he concluded. “I’m trying to date Lan Wangji and I’m failing.”

Jiang Cheng nodded.

“Wow. I hate that. Well, congrats, you won our bet about finding a lover first, bragger’s rights and everything, but also, getting back to the point, that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No! I didn’t even realize!”

“That’s true,” Jiang Cheng admitted. “You’re really oblivious.”

“Thanks,” Wei Wuxian said, rolling his eyes. “But speaking of oblivious, I’m still talking about the fact that, despite no one paying any attention to it, Nie Huaisang is some sort of shadow monster.”

“Half,” Jiang Cheng said.

“…what?”

“Half shadow monster. On his mom’s side.”

“Wait,” Wei Wuxian said. “You knew?”

“Of course, everyone knows,” Jiang Cheng said. “The second Madame Nie was, uh…how did Mom put it? ‘Special’?”

“Wait,” Wei Wuxian said. “Was the first Madame Nie also ‘special’? Because I’ve seen Chifeng-zun from a distance, and he’s, like, a giant.”

“By all accounts, the former Sect Leader Nie had weird taste. I don’t think we know for sure about the first one, but we’re sure about the second – according to Mom, she didn’t even bother looking human-shaped sometimes, but it didn’t keep the old Sect Leader Nie from looking at her like she was the prettiest thing in the world even so.”

Madame Yu probably thought it was sweet, insofar as she ever thought anything was sweet.

Wei Wuxian didn’t even begin to pretend to understand women.

Hmm, maybe he really should try cutting his sleeve. If only Lan Wangji would be more amiable…

“So what you’re saying,” he said, instead of coming up with a whole bunch of new plans now that he knew what his intention was, “is that you know that your boyfriend is a shadow monster – or, half a shadow monster – and you’re okay with that?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty neat.”

“It’s awesome,” Wei Wuxian agreed, enthusiastic now that he at least knew why everyone else was ignoring it. “What can he do? I want to know everything!”

[icharchivist]

There's something really funny and impressive about the fact Belial's been upstaged in terms of being awful for the previous age rating by a human. Then again, I guess this probably had happened already with Lobelia. Personally I think Cygames should just throw caution to the wind and put Lobelia and Ferdinand into the same event just to feed on people's morbid curiosity.

DLKFJDLKFFD RIGHT. My bet is, they accidentally made Belial a little too pathetic so he enters poor little meow meow territory. For the one described as the worst, i feel like they just realized they got away with it and tried to see what they could do worse and escalate from there.

I don’t know how Belial managed to avoid the censors for so long considering EVERYONE knew of him. He’s the most popular fucker for a reason. Or perhaps they thought his crimes were at least isolated enough to not banish the whole game in -18 land? while the more they add in the fucked up gang the more we have to accept that this is our land. (and truly any events after Belial has just been testing just how far they can go in gore and horror, Belial was the floodgate to -18 and here we are now.)

Lobelia is DEFINITELY UP THERE in the fucked up gang, but i think contrary to the other two, he's more stealthy because grinding for the Evokers is a nightmare i'm sure anyone reviewing the Apple Store can decide to ignore. (the only fact the game wasn't raised to -18 when the Lobelia skin, which involves a very explicit and long recording of a woman screaming as she's eaten by a shark, which ends up something you can hear just by accidentally clicking on Lobelia if you have him set on the homescreen, caused such a scandal when it came out. Tho it does show that Lobelia's horrors were a little more gated because it's a miracle this didn't raise the ratings back then.)

Meanwhile Ferdinand was living stealthily in Tikoh's FE for a while, but i think the fact he showed off everything of his horrors AND MORE to any casual readers in Marionette Stars could easily have been the last straw.

(or perhaps it was a combinasion of Naked!Bubs and whatever the fuck lewd thing is going on with the New Narmaya's uncap because GOD. That being said if "big boba with liquid on it that is suggestive" is the reason the rating was raised and not "explicit and long reading through a cannibal act of a man forcing a girl to eat her own father in order to brainwash her into accepting HIM as her father" i am losing faith in rating forever. "Extremely explicit cannibalistic grooming is fine but lewd art is where i draw the line" feels so american it might as well be the reason.)) (tho i dont actually think it's Naru's fault bc the timing of the announcement seems that it's something that cygames must have been aware of before Naru came out. So please to our sanity, let's blame the cannibal for everything.)

Anyway as for your last line: THEY SHOULD. it would be the worst event ever as i would be crying all the way through purely out of disgust, but it has to happen please. I also want Belial there just to go:

And after all, granblue did do an art of Ferdinand and Lobelia (and Nier) together:

If that's not a sign that they're just dying to torture us with an event with those two, i don't know what that is. (or just fanservice of the fucked up gang but shhhh let me dream. Or have nightmares i guess.)

But yeah personally i blame everything on Ferdinand, i don't even care if it's not his fault actually. I think he deserves to be blamed for everything.

[dragons-bones]

early morning 5.5 thoughts:

thoughts on Werlyt, MSQ, and YoRHa below the cut:

So I did Werlyt first to get it out of the way and it is still Bad Fanfic: The Quest Line. like. this was definitely better than last patch, but goddamn it just really highlights how unsatisfying the rest of the story was.

Cloud Deck was amazingly fun fight, though. EX is going to be a bitch but gimme.

where the fuck was Nero seriously goddamn this was the perfect place for him

NGE vibes were great but ultimately: still don’t give a single solitary fuck about the au ra kids. heavy-handed plot devices, every one of them.

that pop was very satisfying

(as discussed in the FC discord) ...that, uh. that ending cutscene is a lot less heartwarming when you realize all the Terncliff townspeople probably had trauma reactions to seeing images of their conquerors walking around all of a sudden.

hindsight: BAD FANFIC. REALLY BAD FANFIC.

anyway

MSQ was next and I have SO MANY First Brood feelings and am now seriously jonesing for a Meracydia-focused expac at some point in the future, hnnnnnnnng.

there was great worldbuilding and buildup, I think; the tempering stuff I found fascinating since it implies another layer to primal summoning and that the perception of the summoned by the summoner can have a huge effect on things.

I’ve seen some discussion before about untempering the Unsundered and honestly, after the Tiamat stuff, I genuinely wonder if it would have been possible at all. like, the implication with Tiamat’s is that it worked despite five thousand years because of her sheer force of will and that she saw Bahamut as an unequal. while the Unsundered I feel probably would have had the force of will...their perception of Zodiark wasn’t just as a god but as necessary to the continued functionality of the star and reality.

like...jesus.

(for the record, my interest in the Unsundered remains firmly in the, “fascinating antagnoists” category and the Ascians as a whole with the, “god I’m really tired of these fucks” category.)

also! something I noticed: despite the excitement of everything, this was a pretty chill patch! both 3.5 and 4.5 were the big “holy shit” patches with 3.55 and 4.55 being the denouement into Stormblood and Shadowbringers.

but 2.55 was A Realm Reborn’s HOLY SHIT moment and I’m willing to bet good money that 5.55 is going to be the HOLY SHIT lead in for Endwalker.

did you notice HOW MUCH MSQ STUFF FROM THE TRAILER WASN’T IN THIS MSQ THAT MEANS IT’S IN PART TWO.

Estinien versus Alisaie is hilarious btw and it’s a miracle that man isn’t dead. though god, I have to feel for Alisaie: I joke a lot you can’t tell my twin brother and I are even siblings, but before puberty hit us, we looked muuuuuuch more alike, and I knew another brother-sister twin set as a kid who looked so similar the only way you could tell them apart was their hair style (the brother’s was traditional-boy-short and the sister traditional-girl-long). I lost contact with them after we went to a different school, but I’m curious now if puberty did the same for them as for me and Twin-Boy or not. and as much as Yoshi-P and the devs talk about and semi-enforce a time bubble, I do wonder if we’re actually going to see Alisaie and Alphinaud age a bit in Endwalker

after the Alliance briefing, while the other leaders have gone off and the rest of the Squad and Scions go to talk with Arenvald and Fordola:

Aymeric: Darling, it’s not like we haven’t seen each other in a week, we had breakfast together this morning--

Synnove: Don’t care, I’m horny, find a private corner or I ride you on the meeting table.

Aymeric: I’m not complaining, merely pointing out a fact! And my vote is for the table.

Synnove: >:3

during Paglth’an: drive by shippy smooches after defeating the latest enemy group

WHAT A FUN DUNGEON but I’m gonna have to go in here as GNB to learn how to do the pulls

DID I MENTION RECENTLY MY FIRST BROOD FEELS god I love Tiamat

*paps Arenvald’s cheeks* you’re a good boy and I love you very much

I know Ishikawa-san isn’t likely to do anything permanently harmful to my boy, but if she does, I will fly to Japan and fight her (after a detour to fight Koji for all his goddamn puns)

and then Nier

my issues with some of the visual elements aside, the fights were hella fun...but the story had me all ???????????????????????

like, the stuff with the dig site chief and Komra I’m enjoying, but everything else...no. I was definitely a little confused for the CF and PB portions of the story, but the Tower at Paradigm’s Breach just...explains absolutely nothing in a meaningful way? and I really feel that this portion they went hard on the Nier/Drakengard references so I was left feeling, “I don’t know why this is important or what the implication of this very obvious reference is.”

like, Return to Ivalice from the get-go was an obvious homage so I just tuned most of it out until we got some sweet sweet Dalmasca/FFXII stuff, but even with this raid series being another crossover,  I felt like there was a mystery and buildup that was being well-handled for the first couple of parts, so this part falling flat is a letdown for me

I’m hoping we’ll get some meaningful explanations in addition to the Komra stuff in the weeklies going forward. cause like. damn. I’m sad about Anogg and heartbroken for Konogg but I don’t know what the context of everything is and I’m really frustrated.

really super glad that we’re going back to original stories for the 24-mans in 6.0.

So, yes! Having a fun time with 5.5, ready for 5.55 to fucking take me out at the knees. today, we do Hatching-tide, custom deliveries, fishing, and Fishing (Unreal)! a girl still needs an Incitatus whistle and also the anteater minion.

[holdharmonysacred]

man thinking about some of the nier lore and a lot of the background stuff feels like a worse version of the “why did the pacific rim guys decide the best solution to their monster problem was giant robots” thing where it’s like. yeah a lot of the stuff these background mad scientists made is creepy and cool and horrifying, but also why. why did they decide that making child soldiers they already made fight the zombie plague kill each other in a death game to turn them into books to get their sentient magic tomes was the best course of action. why did they decide that the best way to keep their magic clones occupied until it comes time to restart humanity was to rebuild society as a wacky JRPG world, up to and including casting the guy who all of humanity’s survival is physically bound to as the demon lord character who is going to be the most obvious enemy number 1 that people will want dead. why did they decide to turn emil and his sister into horrifying weird skeletal monstrosities with creepy skull faces, as if that was the best way to make magic sci fi weapon people, is to make them weird skellingtons. Everyone is Surprised Pikachu when the replicants gain sentience and it’s like what the hell did you expect!!!!!!! what the hell were you doing with this wacky JRPG world in the meantime!!!!!!!! Did you program them to act like SNES game NPCs or some shit?!?!?! I understand every little bit of the out-of-universe logic for this, it’s “because all of this looks cool in the game”, what I don’t understand is how did it get to this point in-universe.

Literally the only possible in-universe explanation I can think of based on what I know is that it had to be sabotage. Somebody in charge of these wacky mad scientists had some not-so-noble goals and was abusing all these projects to try and save humanity for their end, whether it be they’re just a sadistic asshole and wanted to cause all these horrors for giggles or they went mad from god knows what and in their despair and pain decided to take everyone else down with them. There’s precedent for this kind of a twist given what the Automata concert short stories reveal about the original Type 9 and origins of Yorha, but like. I just do not understand how the people who caused the events of Nier could just set up a JRPG setting and then be shocked when a guy shows up who does, in fact, act like a JRPG protagonist, not even getting into all the unnecessary horror and pain going on. I would bet dollars to donuts that if we ever did get a game that takes place in that massive time gap between Drakengard Ending E and the actual events of Nier that there would be some kind of reveal that it was an inside job. a lot of this stuff is just hilariously nonsense if you think too hard otherwise.

[theravencawsatmidnight]

Them Video Games pt2

A very special Non Fandom fic that i care deeply about. I wrote this a few years ago around E3 Time and ive since rewrote it and turned it into a fic with Suna. But this is the rewrite and the one i adore. Part 2 because its still too long . (Its 11k words) so maybe one more part? This part ends on a cliffanger oops

@squeaky-ducky @galagcica

W! Nsfw. Incest slightly. Body image issues.One slur

Kiki was dressed in her Converse and blue thigh highs, her skirt was blue and she had on a ps4 shirt. She also had a little pink messenger bag with controller buttons all over it . Toshi did not live to far surprisingly. They actually have to pass his house to get to school. She also brought some money with her to pay for the controller. It was not much but.. it was a start to buying a new one. Was he really upset? He seemed it.. maybe she could show him the strategy videos she liked.

The house was coming into view and also the black Mazda. Kiki pulled her bag close going up to the door knocking lightly. She looked around while she waited. It was a small house nothing to fancy. She jumped when the door opened.

Toshi smiled leaning on the door looking down at her. Cute. Super cute.

He was wearing blue pj bottoms and a black tank top, his arm was bandaged along with his shoulder and chest.

“Ohayo” he said.

“Uh!!! Ko..ni..no wait that's afternoon ..” she rubbed her face and Toshi laughed pulling her in and closing the door.

“Adorable. Well cmon” he walked down the hall and Kiki hurried after him. “ uh .. Toshi!” She said.

He looked back and opened his door going in, Kiki followed opening her bag getting the money , she held her hand out to give him the money but she froze when she saw his room. Amazing.. was an understatement.

He had shelves on his walls. One was full of figures , another had certain video games in special protective cases and the last case had trophies on it. All gold trophies it looked like. Some said ‘Champion’ and some said ‘E3 finalist Winner’ , one said ’Nintendo E3 Winner’. His tv was huge.. it sat on a corner desk that fit right into the corner , it had a shiny Ps4 system tucked into it nicely and a pink Switch next to it. There was also some gaming posters scattered around the room. His bed was very big and mostly black with what looked like japanese symbols on it. He had multiple controllers docked , all different colors sitting on his desk. On the desk was also the controller in half ..a special edition blue one.

Toshi smirked when he saw her looking all around his room with the money in her hand. He tapped her head and she jumped looking at him. “Here! It's not enough to cover it but i can get the rest if i do chores soo..”

Toshi took the money and put it back in her bag startling her. “I don't need it, i'm not replacing it.”

“Wah? Why not ? It's the special edition?!?”

“Well i wanna have a reminder of when i got my ass handed to me in Overwatch” he chuckled ruffling her hair and grabbing a controller. “Show me these strategy videos Mishiko” he sat down on the floor , his back to his bed.

Kiki sat down next to him putting her bag next to her. The Ps4 turned on and Kiki’s heart jumped.

“You have the same theme as me!!!!” She pointed at the NieR theme, the music sending chills up her back. He smirked rubbing his bandages. “Well how about that.” He handed her the controller after opening YouTube. The videos that showed up were… mostly video game walkthroughs or Top 10 mixed in with music playlists. Kiki typed the video in and put the controller down after hitting play. She didn't skip the ad though.

“ you dont skip ads?” He leaned forward to skip it and Kiki jumped up grabbing his arm to stop him.

“No no! I dont skip if i like the guy!” She whined sitting on her knees holding. Toshi felt a smile come across his face when she grabbed onto him. He pulled her between his legs holding her in place. Kiki struggled whining and Toshi let go , the video started and she looked back , her cheeks flushed .

“Sorry Mishiko .” He held his arms up. She wiggled around, she could hear the video too. “Is it okay .. if I sit here? I dont know if you have a girlfriend i …”

He pulled her back wrapping his arms around her again. “Nope, so what do you like about this guy?” He gestured to the tv.

“Well uh.. hes funny. Most strategy videos is just long lectures and he makes it fun” her eyes wandered to his bandaged arm . She saw something black it looked like under them. Could he feel her heartbeat? She was so surprised by him grabbing her like this. He smelled nice too.. a nice leather scent lingered around his neck , it was a mix of cherries to.. must be his shampoo.

Toshi could see she was nervous in his arms, she seemed a little shaky and her knees were up. He laid his chin on her shoulder watching the video and he felt her pulse pick up.

“Uh.. Toshi?”

“Hm?” He was watching the video.

“Are you angry about the controller . I feel really bad.”

“Nope. I already told you Mishiko, don't worry about it”

“Okay.. those trophies ? You've been to E3?”

“I go every year. Free ride”

“Really?!?” She peeled his arms off her turning around to look at him and Toshi sat up straight laying his arms on his knees. “Indeed. Little neko” he smiled.

Kiki felt her cheeks flush red. Neko?. She looked all around trying to hide her embarrassment and Toshi dipped his head chuckling at her.

“Wanna go with me this year?” He teased.

“Uh YES! But .. I don't know if Max would let me.. and you probably have someone else you wanna take “

“ i dont see anyone else here with me” he said rubbing his bandages growing irritated. Toshi pulled his shirt off getting up grab a container off his dresser and sitting back down. Kiki sat criss cross trying not to look..

he pulled his bandages off revealing a black japanese tribal tattoo. “Wanna help me put this on my ink? It itches.”

Kiki held her hands out without realizing it , the container dropped in her hands and Toshi dipped two fingers in and applied it to his arm. Kiki scooted a little closer watching him. He looked a little relieved when he applied the medicine. Slowly Kiki dipped her fingers in to the cold liquid and rubbed it on his upper chest. Toshi smiled at her applying more to his arm , he watched her shaking hand travel all around his chest all over his tattoo. She was tiny to him , never really saw her around school either.

“Hey” he said.

Kiki finished with the medicine looking up.

“Yeah?”

“ I never saw you around school , where do you hang out ? “

“Oh.. “ she pulled her bag close hugging it “nowhere.. I just rush to the next class.. I dont . .. besides Max and Adam i have no friends. Everyone in my class calls me a hermit”

Toshi furrowed his brow listening to her . What the fuck. “Well thats a fucking awful thing to say to someone.” He petted her head .

“I just want one friend heh.. I guess maybe next year.”

Toshi pulled her to him squeezing her for a long while. Kiki whined struggling in his grip , eventually she gave in and hugged him back.

“Your pretty cool, here, show me what you can do” he grabbed his controller giving her it. She did not take it, instead she just looked down at his chest. Toshi rubbed her back. “Oh cmon, yosh yosh..” he rubbed more and tipped her chin up. “ little neko.” He kissed her forehead making Kiki get very red in the face.

“Uh!!” She panicked pushing back and he let go of her.

“Mishiko you are awesome. Your into cool things. Don't let those losers get to you. I dont” he switched to a game looking at the tv. “You know how many people still call me a Jap?”

“No..” she sat down between his legs picking up another controller turning it on joining his game.

“Sucks, but who cares.” He laid his chin on her shoulder.

“Do you.. wanna make bets?” She asked playing.

“Ouuu yosh.”

They laughed . “ if i win i get to keep your thigh highs”. He said . Kiki looked back at him for a second then back at the tv.

“Okayy..” she giggled . “If i win .. I want another kiss.. please.”

He nuzzled into her neck smiling.

“Deal”

The gaming got very heated between the two. Kiki got out from Toshi’s grip standing up on her knees to play and Toshi stood up to sit on his bed leaning forward. They yelled at each other and the screen, it was Street Fighter. They both had one loss and this match would decide who won.

“COME ON!!!” She yelled button mashing.

“GIVE UP KIKI” he grinned watching his special bar inch closer till it shined . He grinned activating it and it was all over in a matter of seconds. Toshi won and Kiki gently placed the controller down watching the screen. Her character was on the ground , she lost.

She looked back to see Toshi putting his controller down and leaning back on his arms smirking. He saw her sad face and gestured his fingers for her to come over. “ awwww c'mon , now i feel bad. C'mere little neko”

Kiki got up coming over looking all around, she held her shirt once she got between his legs. Tohi was a tall boy , maybe an even 6’ . His hair was black and long , hanging just above his eyes. “How.. uh. Should i just take em off?” She asked a little lost.

“Mm nope. Can i take them off you?” He asked leaning forward looking up at her smiling.

“I .. I guess so . Why do you want them though?” She asked curious.

Toshi smiled extending his hand to her left thigh, gently he wrapped his hand around the back of it squeezing gently. Kiki shuffled her knees around and covered her face. She was all tingly between her thighs and her heart fluttered around.

“Well i'm into it. What are you into hmm?” He asked gently moving his hand down her thigh to her leg. Taking her thigh high with him.

She thought it over for a minute. What was she into? She never really thought about it too much. She lifted her foot and Toshi slid her thigh high off, he squeezed it and then gripped her other thigh repeating the process.

“I never.. really thought about it i guess. “ she finally answered. Toshi frowned as he slid her thigh high down. She stepped out of it and he placed it with the other.

“Never had a boyfriend to figure it out with?” He asked poking her stomach. Kiki wiggled feeling a little embarrassed.

I guess this is a little too much for her, he thought.

“Mishiko you want that kiss?”

“But i didn't win?”

“ ah well.. I want to kiss as well, so ill let it slide, after that we can do whatever you want. “

“You do? Why?”

“Well you were yelling at me during Street Fighter. You should see these guys i beat at tourneys. They get so angry but just walk away. Maybe it's a turn on for me. Maybe i wanna be your first kiss. Maybe i think your cute and i like you. One things for sure though Mishiko, you're the coolest gamer girl i've ever met”

Kiki hid behind her hands whining loud.

“stoppp .. it's embarrassing. Im sure theres lots of hot juniors at school”

Toshi reached up moving her hands from her face and grabbed her hips pulling her close to him and sat her down on his right thigh.

“Trust me. There's not.” He kissed her gently and lovingly. Kiki jumped stumbling and Toshi held her hips firmly . Her heart jumped when his lips touched her, she had no idea what to do with her hands so she just held his face trying her best to kiss him back.

Toshi broke away after a minute while squeezing her hips smiling at her red face. Kiki’s hands slowly fell from his face to her chest holding it. “Uhm.. it was nice.. “ she spoke softly.

“Yes it was, what would you like to do now? My plan was to keep you till Max started blowing up my phone.”

Kiki wiggled and leaned on Toshi closing her eyes and Toshi smirked wrapping an arm around her laying back, his other hand behind his head .

“..Toshi?”

“Hm?”

“Ill convince Max to let me go with you.”

He pet her head . “Sounds good little neko”

The two were still laying in bed , Kiki was on top of Toshi , she was pretty sure he could hear her heartbeat. This was all new to her. .. it all happened so fast too. There's no way Max would approve of any of this though. Its crazy how.. she never noticed him at school before, to busy keeping her head down avoiding everything. Toshi had asked her what she was into to. What did he mean though?

She peaked up to see Toshi holding his phone up above his face browsing. He looked down smiling at her.

“Yes ?”

“ what did you mean.. when you asked what im into? Do you have an example?”

Toshi smirked turning his phone to her and Kiki shyly sat up on Toshi’s lap . She rubbed her eye with one hand and took the phone with the other looking at the screen. She jumped and Toshi enjoyed the little hump she did on him.

.”its a .. very lewd catgirl” she said, her face red.

“Yep” smirked the happy man. “What's she got on?”

“Uhm.. fake paws.. ears..tail.. thigh highs and a t shirt” she looked over at her thigh highs that were laying on the bed then at Toshi.

“So it like.. makes you happy?”

“More ways then one. Swipe left”

Kiki swiped and saw a drawing of the same cat girl but she did not have the shirt on, instead she had a collar attached to a leash, she was sitting next to a man but she was on the floor.

“So.. the Master stuff?” She asked looking closer and Toshi shot up wrapping his arms around her back laughing, he took his phone back swiping a few times and showing her a photo of the last picture but it was a cosplay.

“Little neko how do you know what a Master is hm?” He teased her. Kiki wiggled around trying to hide her blushing face in her hands. “Ii.. if im really bored i look up fan fics of game characters and i came across Master stuff…”

“Oh yeah? Did you read it?” He asked rubbing her thigh. Kiki nodded once hiding behind her hands.

“Adorable, look at you.” He teased moving her hands, she was very red and her lip was pouty. Kiki whined looking around fast.

“Can i read it too?” He asked smirking.

“I.. i guess yeah…my phone is in my bag ..”

Toshi leaned down grabbing the bag and Kiki fished out her phone and opened up Safari, she typed and handed Toshi the phone.

While he was reading his phone went off and Toshi glanced over to see the screen. “Max is calling why dont you take it , ill be here”

Kiki agreed taking the phone and quickly getting off of the mans lap going to the hallway. Toshi laid his head back on his pillow reading the fan fic, so shes into the same things as him… interesting.

Kiki was on the phone with her brother.

“Max?”

“Kiki are you ok?”

“Yes why? I.. “

“How long do you plan on staying?”

“I..i dont know. “

“Just make sure its before dinner ok?”

“Okay Max..”

She hung up looking at the phone screen, he had Akali as his background. He also had a ton of text message notifications. Kiki hurried back holding the phone out.

“ hey you've got some texts. And I can only stay for another half hour..”

“Little..neko. Come here” he sounded different to her, more serious ..

Kiki flinched going over and setting the phone on the dresser. Toshi placed her phone next to it and pointed to the floor. “Sit” he ordered.

Kiki immediately felt her cheeks flush red once she heard his words.. it sent tingles all the way to her thighs . Carefully Kiki sat down on her knees by the bed trying to figure out which one she actually let him read. She heard the bed shift behind her , Toshi’s legs were on both sides of her. He gently lowered his left hand to cup her cheek.

Which was it,!! Which one?!? They were all kind of the same but.. they all had this one unique tag. It couldn't have been… the most erotic one was it?!

“This fanfic is quite dirty for such a little neko like you ” He spoke slowly, rubbing his thumb on her cheek. “As a Master im not sure how I should react to it” he gently tipped her chin up so she could see him looking down at her.

“What do you think?” He asked smirking.

Kiki was wet, so very wet. Her thighs were starting to ache and she got slightly dizzy listening to Toshi.

“.. i cant.. be you're Neko without a.. collar”

She knew which one it was now… Toshi had the same attitude as the character in the fanfic. Her favorite one.

“Ill have to get one for my little neko then” he tapped her forehead and stretched groaning.

“Ahh.. been way too long since I last did that.” He teased.

Kiki shot up grabbing her bag and Toshi grabbed her hand. “Woah wheres the fire?” He asked.

“Just hurry up and make fun of me so i can leave..”

She was shaking, she was embarrassed and hot all over. Toshi pulled her over and sat her on his thigh again, he instantly felt her wetness on him. He ignored it for now and hugged her.

“I'm not making fun of you Mishiko, i showed you what i like didnt i? We like the same things.”

“Please.. dont tell Max.” She looked up at him peaking through her hands.

“I won't cutie. But if you're serious about the collar, we can work towards that, id be on board for that”

Kiki shifted around thinking it over, she tried not to look at Toshi since she was embarrassed. Would Max be okay with her dating his friend-wait. He just said the collar stuff.. not that he wanted to date.. he wouldn't want to date her anyway. I mean who would..

Toshi tapped her forehead making her look at his smiling face. She nodded in agreement and Toshi rubbed her thigh. “Well yosh. So you are okay with it then? “

“Yes i am “

He smirked nuzzling his cheek into her neck hugging her tightly. Kiki squeezed him tightly trying to push her feelings aside. This is enough.. it's basically the same thing. She leaned on him just enjoying his embrace, his clean scent, his arms around her. Until her phone buzzed making her groan. Toshi chuckled grabbing it and handing her it. “Boyfriend?” He teased.

She didn't even look at him when she answered him.

“Its Max, my only contacts are Max and Adam so.. no.. hello?” She answered her phone.

Toshi watched her while she talked , oh shit .. so she really is just all alone. Does Max not try to get her to socialize? A sophomore with no friends? Not one goddamn friend?

He pulled her hips closer to him and Kiki almost fumbled her words . She mouthed “what are you doing?!?” To him and he just winked at her.

Kiki blushed a bright red as she talked.

“Okay.. okay.. yes Max.. ok im on my wa-“

He lifted her up and sat her down again with both legs on the side of him , Kiki put her free hand between her thighs holding her skirt down and Toshi nuzzled her cheek chuckling ,he rubbed her thighs while he listened to the conversation.

“Im on my way home..”

Toshi spread his legs a bit and Kiki was losing balance, she couldn't hold onto her skirt and Toshi with one hand…

“Okay well if you don't hurry ill hide all the HDMI cords Kiki” Max said.

“WHAT NO. MAX!” She was falling , Kiki whined grabbing onto Toshi digging her nails into his shirt. Toshi looked down to see her skirt bunched up over her thighs and her panties nearly visible.

“MAX PLEASE DON'T I NEED -“ she felt rubbing on her inner thigh. Kiki’s head shot down to look to see Toshi’s bony hand slipping under her skirt, the sensation she was feeling was unlike any other. She felt her head get foggy and her midsection ached, if she stretched it would have felt euphoric .

“Well then hurry up.” Max said hanging up, Kiki dropped her phone on the bed and Toshi laid back moving her forward to his chest.

“Can you spare five minutes little neko?”

“ just WHAT did you think you were doing?!? What if he caught on? If he heard you?!? He would have killed me! Toshi are you listening?”

Toshi lifted Kiki up with ease bringing her closer to his face, he clicked his teeth when he remembered she still had her panties on, oh well.

“I'm listening Mishiko i promise. but its fun to be a little dangerous. “ his thumbs grabbed her skirt till he had a good grip and carefully he yanked the skirt up revealing her panties , doing his best not to drop her in the process.

Her panties were … D.VA panties. He looked up at her and Kiki had her hands covering her face.

“Dont laugh!!!!” She whined .

“Why would i laugh? I've got Junkrat boxers on”

He rubbed the little wet spot on her panties with his thumb, Toshi watched her wiggle from it and dug his thumb into the side of her panties moving them to the side. Kiki felt a slight chill , she moved her hands away to see Toshi lowering her down.

“Wait Toshi!!!”

“Itedakimas!” He sat her on his face and started licking at her folds . Kiki could not hold in her laugh , she leaned on the wall laughing , she held his head with one hand, her other on the wall. Toshi was laughing aswell , trying his best to lick in a steady pace.

“You… i cant.. belieeeve…” she moaned with each lick. She felt his other hand part her folds so he could dig his tongue in deeper , Kiki was panting into the wall feeling very flustered and hot. Her whole body was crying for more, her thighs were shaking and her juices were dripping down them.

Toshi felt her clench around his tongue and pulled away to lick at her clit sending Kiki over the edge, she let out a loud moan and Toshi smiled gently nipping her thigh. “Cum for me little neko” he whispered.

Kiki came hard falling forward twitching. Toshi licked her clean and pulled her skirt back down sitting her next to him. Kiki laid there coming down from her high, Toshi snuggled her close petting her head.

“You .. really said..”

“I did”

“ it was hilarious.” She managed a weak laugh. Toshi laughed and the two cuddled, ignoring her buzzing phone.

The two were in Toshi’s car sitting outside Kiki’s home, Max was leaning on the door looking .. angry was not the right word. Kiki figured her playstation was unplugged and locked up somewhere . She undid her seatbelt and Toshi grabbed her phone putting his number in it . “There, you can text me whenever Mishiko, don't matter what time it is.” He plopped her phone on her lap.

Kiki put the phone in her bag then looked at Toshi.

“ but you had a lot of messages on your phone..”

“Yeah its just Gina and Kera , no one important. But , Mishiko?”

“Huh? Yes?”

“Have i done anything today that bothered you? I want to make sure you consent to everything. Im probably going to ask you about the collar stuff again too”

She gripped her skirt thinking it over, her knees rubbing together. Her body felt tired from the orgasm , like she was really heavy and shaky.

“Everything was nice Toshi. I'm just sorry im so .. inexperienced..”

“Nani? Oh Mishiko. That's okay , i like to teach. “

“I.. I wanna hang out again. But Max looks like hes putting me under house arrest.”

Toshi looked out his window to see Max still leaning on the door. He looked back at the girl.

“Ill convince him Mishiko. Bring your favorite movie and snacks okay? We can have a nice soft night.”

She blushed nodding and getting out.

She wanted to ask something but…

Gently she closed the door and waved once she got to Max. Toshi waved driving away and Max stared down at her.

Kiki put her bag on the couch turning to Max, he sighed hugging her tightly. Ah.. so he was not mad. Just worried.. Kiki whined when he hugged her to tight.

“You're okay?” He leaned down cupping her face.

“Yes Max” she wiggled around

“Why didn't you answer?”

“I was in the bathroom.. and Toshi was playing Tomb Raider..”

He squeezed her for a long time .

”uhm.. im hungry Max”

He let go and the two went to go eat dinner.

Toshi was home lying on his bed with one hand in his sweatpants and the other holding the thigh highs.

Max had not unplugged anything thankfully… everything was where it should be . Kiki sat down on her bed turning on her Ps4 and saw a friend request from Toshi. She accepted and looked through all his trophies, pretty much the same as hers .. maybe a few more than her. Lots of different games, he also had a lot of followers.

She laid down opening Youtube putting on her playlist, she rolled to her stomach just listening.

“Uhhn.. hes so popular it seems like.” Kiki rolled to her side looking at her wall. “Today was… i dont even know”

Kiki woke up the next day around 9 am . She whined feeling her phone buzz next to her , pulling her phone over, flipping it over to see a picture of Catwoman and a text from Toshi.

‘Morning Little Neko. Leave Max to me. And I'll pick you up around 3 okay?”

Kiki rubbed her eyes before replying. “Why do i feel so.. upset..”. She sat up looking at the message . “I want to be .. his girlfriend..” she got off her bed dragging herself to her mirror looking at herself. Kiki was 5’2, c cups, a tiny chub stomach and plump thighs. Her hair was long and brown, down to the middle of her back . She lifted her shirt to look at her stomach and turned to the side to see her back . “He would have said he wanted to be my boyfriend right? “ her shirt fell from her hands. “The.. Master stuff does not mean that ..” she went back to her bed rubbing her eye , grabbing her phone .

‘I don't feel good , can we reschedule?”

Toshi tapped his screen pausing the video he was watching to open Kikis message, he blinked , furrowing his brows and sitting up in bed.

“Mishiko? Are you alright?”

“Have i done something? Did I make you uncomfortable?”

“Dammit what's wrong ..”he asked himself, running his hand through his hair.

“Im fine , I think i need a day to myself. I'll see you monday.”

“Mishiko….” Toshi put his phone down looking at the soft blanket he dug out of his closet , it had D.VA on it .

••

Kiki only really left her room to eat a single piece of toast and to shower. She said good morning to Max too. “Hey kiki, doing anything today?” He asked, reaching over her to get the cereal.

“No, I'm kinda tired. “

Oh no. He looked down at his sister . “Oh yeah? Late night gaming?”

“No, just tired.” She took her toast up to her room , Max heard the door close and he ripped his phone out dialing Toshi.

“ oha-“

“What the fuck did you do.”

“...? Excuse me?”

“Mishiko is being quiet , she's letting me tease her and she's not gushing about games.”

Toshi’s heart was racing. Oh fuck. Fuck. He went too far. God dammit…. fuck….. “i didn't do anything. Max, I never did anything to your sister. “

“You fucking swear Toshi”

“Yes, Max. Fucking hell.”

Max leaned on the counter groaning, pinching the space between his eyes. “Alright.”

The relief Toshi felt was like a weight off his damn shoulders. “Is that all she said.”

“Yes, then went back up to her room.”

Toshi grabbed his controller, turning his PS 4 on and checking his friends. She wasn't on.

“Max i, -“

“Ill let you know if she leaves her room.”

“Okay…”

Max hung up and Toshi squeezed his controller, he grabbed the thigh highs that were still on his bed staring at them. “How could you let this happen. The one nice girl you meet and you take it too far.” He dropped everything on the floor running his hands through his hair. Meanwhile, kiki was curled up in her bed, sniffling.

[imagine-your-kh]

Well it's either canon or not that all versions of xenahort are night owls for the sake of research. May I request a headcanon of Ansem sod, xemnas and tereanort heard s/o singing a song with a forgotten ancient language with a sense of calm and fascination. Etc: Emi Evans nier "kaine: salvation"

Okay, no background of any sort here because I have no idea where in the timeline I can put that *snort*

❣️ Note : the song,

“Ansem” SoD :

• The Heartless had an appeal for corporeal envelopes

• So his researches were focused on it

• He could pass nights on it since he didn’t needed to sleep

• One night, he heard your voice

• It took him a few seconds before understanding why he couldn’t decipher what you were singing : it was another language

• There was something… Relaxing, calming about your chant

• … He could use a break

• It’s fascinated, drew by your song that he came to you to pass a few minutes if not a few hours with you

• You bet he called you his “siren” after this

Xemnas :

• The Nobody had an appeal for Hearts, how emotions could be manipulated

• So his researches were obviously on it

• Xemnas was a Nobody, which mean that he still had a body that needed to sleep. However, he could stay awake for a long period of time

• This was one of these nights

• He was busy when he began to heard someone singing ; you

• He could not stay deaf to your voice

• The man wasn’t understanding the language, but he couldn’t denied that there was something fascinating about it…

• He won’t stop his researches, but he would give you compliments about it and asking what language it was next time he saw you

TerraNort :

• He wasn’t just interested by one single thing

• It was his strength but also his weakness. Fortunately for him, he was organized enough to not go everywhere at once

• Because of this, his researches took a lot of time and he could pass nights awake on it without even noticing it before his body failed him

• This night, he wasn’t alone though

• He didn’t mind to have you in the same room as him while working

• When you started to sing, he didn’t react at first

• He secretly was enjoying it

• It’s only when you finished that he finally spoke, asking you what language it was

• After your answer, he tell you that it was pretty and relaxing

[eggoreviews]

My Top 13 Nintendo E3 Predictions!

It’s that time of year again lads. With Nintendo’s annual E3 blowout now just a week away, I thought I’d lay all my personal predictions on the table as to what we might see at this year’s viddy game christmas. I’m ranking these based on how confident I am about each prediction, so here’s hoping some of these actually happen!

13. SNES for Nintendo Switch Online

I don’t want to jinx things by saying this, but surely Nintendo have milked the NES for all it has now. I reckon E3 could finally be the time we finally get to move into 90s gaming. I really can’t think of anymore NES games they could shoehorn in, especially not first party, and I can’t imagine many more third parties are going to want to jump in. So mostly because we seem to be running out of passable games, my prediction is that June will be the final month of NES Online. But hey, you never know with Nintendo.

12. Pikmin 4

There’s been rumours floating around for a while now that Pikmin 4 is ready to go out and I really can’t think of anything better for a first/final reveal for the direct. If this happens, it’ll be nothing more than a trailer like Luigi’s Mansion 3 had in my opinion, but this is still a very exciting and plausible prospect.

11. Cadence of Hyrule drops during E3

In an unexpectedly brilliant move, Nintendo announced a crossover between their own Legend of Zelda franchise and indie studio Brace Yourself Games’ Crypt of the Necrodancer, with brand new Zelda remixes! This looks like great fun, but so far all we really know is that it has a June release date. Considering the odd quiet around the game, I reckon it’ll get a little dedicated section in the direct, followed by the announcement that it’ll release either straight after the direct or in the intervening days of E3.

10. Bayonetta 3 trailer

Another game that’s gone oddly quiet, Bayonetta 3 was confirmed with a teaser trailer alongside a switch port of the series’ second installment back in 2017, but we’ve heard nothing since. So finally, I think a first proper trailer will pop up, especially after the game’s explicit mention in the last direct in February, but whether or not the game will still release in 2019 (my thought is maybe not) is anyone’s guess.

9. Town info

After a brief trailer and a few synoptic details, Nintendo nudged us in the arm with the announcement of a Gamefreak game that isn’t Pokemon. And since we’ve heard nothing since September, I can see Town getting a second trailer, maybe a few more gameplay details and a vague release window. If not, I’d expect this one in the next direct.

8. Metroid Prime Trilogy

With the still relatively recent news that Nintendo is scrapping development on Prime 4 to pull in Retro Studios, I think Nintendo has been sitting on a Prime Trilogy remaster for a hot minute. And now with E3, the time when people probably would’ve expected Prime 4 to make an appearance (we now know that’s not happening), I think it would be the perfect time to make the announcement. To clarify, I’m almost 100% sure this is happening, it’s just a matter of when, but E3 is a safe bet.

7. Persona 5 for Switch

We’ve had someclues pointing towards this (Joker in Smash), as well as a legion of disappointed fans after discovering Persona 5 S was actually a Warriors game (which I am way too excited for and I can see that appearing in the direct too). But really, I think this is another one Nintendo and Atlus have been sitting on until E3, now that Joker’s in Smash and Scramble’s been announced, I can’t see why they wouldn’t finally announce it.

6. Smash Bros. amiibo

With news of more amiibo coming from the last direct, I’m fairly certain that we’ll get some firm release dates for Squirtle, Ivysaur, Snake and Simon Belmont. I also reckon that we’ll get a brief look at the final wave of base roster amiibos, which will be made up of Dark Samus, Chrom, Richter and Incineroar. As for Joker, I think they’ll hold off on him for now, as it’s less likely his amiibo will be finished up due to his character being finalised much later than the others.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening info

I’d say the Link’s Awakening remake is fairly likely to get a spot in this direct, though I can’t imagine it’ll be an especially long segment. My thoughts are that we’ll see another trailer showing off some new gameplay, followed by a release date. And that’s an exciting prediction for me because this game looks incredible.

4. Smash reveal: Banjo & Kazooie

I’m pretty much 100% on the fact that we’ll see a Smash reveal for Fighter Pack 2 at the end of the direct, so I thought I’d go a step further and try to predict who it will be. With Nintendo and Microsoft’s strong relationship as of late and VP of Microsoft Phil Spencer going on record as recently as 2018 stating he’d be chill with B&K joining the fight is good news for Banjo fans. It’s pretty safe to say there’s a pretty overwhelming fan demand for them too, and it certainly wouldn’t be out of the question for Nintendo to pick them if they’re wanting to bring the hype for E3. As a couple of placeholders though, I’ll say 2B from NieR: Automata or Erdrick from Dragon Quest in the event Banjo misses the cut.

3. Astral Chain info

Astral Chain is the first of 3 games I can see getting a fairly beefy segment in this direct, as so far we’ve only seen a trailer and the game is out August 30th, likely before the next direct comes around. So this is looking to be their main chance of exploring what Astral Chain is going to be and how it’s going to play. Definitely something to look forward to, because I’m loving how this game looks so far.

2. Luigi’s Mansion 3 info

Yeah these predictions are getting fairly, you know, predictable at this point, but I did say least to most confident and these top ones are almost guaranteed to happen. I don’t think this will get quite as much screentime as my top pick, but Nintendo have already reaffirmed that this is still slated for 2019 so a gameplay breakdown, title reveal and release date confirmation do seem to be on the cards. At a guess, they’re probably going to want to cash in on the Halloween aesthetic, so late October as a release seems likely to me.

1. Animal Crossing info

Of course this is here. And of course it’s going to happen. I think Animal Crossing will end up taking around 5-10 minutes of the direct at least, with a proper title reveal, trailers, gameplay, release date, the works. Because we haven’t even seen any gameplay for this yet and it’s arguably Nintendo’s most anticipated title so I think they’re gonna want to shine the spotlight on this one, especially since they seem to be handling Pokemon Sword & Shield outside of the main directs.

So there’s my best guesses for next week’s direct! Got any predictions or big wants of your own? Drop them in the comments! And make sure to check back next week for my breakdown of everything that got revealed. Oh, and one last thing, make sure to keep your hype levels healthy so you don’t get let down on the day.

[amigolupus]

I got the inspiration for this image from listening to Vague Hope - Cold Rain from Nier Automata. There’s just something in it that make me think of how miserable Mullet Stan’s ten years of hell must be, and how this probably isn’t the first time this has happened to him.

Also, here’s a fic under the cut!

Title: Whiteout

Character: Stanley Pines

Words: 2088

Summary: After getting roughed up and left for dead because of a failed con, Stan ponders the state of his life. So pretty much just a regular Tuesday for Stan Pines.

Cold.

That was the first thing that he noticed as consciousness slowly returned to him. It seemed like his body was wrapped in a cocoon of cold. The second thing he noticed was the feeling of something wet and sticky all over his body.

And then, the third thing that hit him was the pain.

To say that the pain blossomed was an understatement. It was more like liquid fire had flowed out through his veins. He wanted to cry out, but long-honed instincts told him making too much noise would be a terrible idea, so he just settled for a pathetic hiss. Not that he could shout if he wanted to, really. His throat felt too dry and he could taste iron in his mouth.

Where was he anyway? And why was it so cold? ...More importantly, who was he? Stetson Pinefield? James Oakley? Sean Spruceteen? Nah, none of those felt right.

Memories started to trickle back, and along with it came shame. It was like having slime spread out and tarnish a clean surface.

He remembered who he was, and it was somehow much worse.

He was Stanley Pines. He was a professional grifter who lived out of his car. He had tried to pull off a con, but had gotten caught. As he was trying to get away, he had slipped on the icy ground and then the goons were on him in an instant. He was then almost beaten to death and left alone to die, which was more merciful than if they tried to “interrogate” him.

So not a new experience for Stan, really.

Stan tried to open his eyes, at least to figure out where those goons dumped him, but one of his eyes felt like it was caked with blood. Hell, he was pretty sure he could feel himself bleeding in lots of places. Those bastards really didn’t hold back, did they?

He opened the eye that was still somewhat fine and instantly regretted it. His vision swam so much and the only thing he could register was blinding white. Stan winced and waited a few minutes before trying to open his eye again.

There was snow everywhere. It didn’t seem like he was anywhere near civilization. Did those bastards seriously just dump him outside of town or something?

Though it could be worse, Stan mused, as he flashed back to a car trunk and suffocating darkness.

So what now? He didn’t think he could move in his condition. Just trying to breathe already felt like a tall order. He hoped that was just cracked ribs and not something more serious. Maybe he could rest and get some strength back, at least before he froze like a popsicle.

But while his body just wanted to take it easy, Stan’s mind was racing and going over his latest failure. He’d thought for sure that he could pull off a heist. He hadn’t expected the building’s doors to use those newfangled keycards that meant there was no lock to pick. Or for the “inside man” he’d seduced to let him in the building to be more loyal to his employers and turn Stan in. Stan wasn’t sure what irritated him more, that technology was screwing over the noble art of lockpicking, or that he was past his prime and his looks weren’t enough to charm anyone anymore, or that his plan this time was so damn sloppy.

Moses, was he really this badly off? Was Stan Pines already outdated by the times, doomed to fall off the crazy game called life?

Well, what did you expect? Once a loser, always were a loser.

So what if he was? This was just a temporary setback. He’ll make it big next time, he was sure of it.

You mean like the last hundred times you said that exact same thing?

Stan tried to cut off that train of thought, he really did. That was a well-worn and familiar road, and it never led to anywhere good, but still...

He looked around, hoping to find something, anything, to distract himself. His eye caught a hint of yellow. It was a tiny flower peeking out from under the snow. He didn’t know what it was called, though he bet Ma knew. Heh, stupid little thing was still growing in this frigid weather.

Stan tried to come up with something sappy. Like...there was beauty in something struggling to survive under harsh conditions. Or that there was something hopeful about it yadda yadda yadda.

What his stupid brain told him was that the flower looked incredibly lonely in a sea of white. That it was only a matter of time before it got buried under the snow.

Well, shit.

He didn’t need these thoughts creeping in, not now of all times. He tried to fight it off, but the cold was making him so tired.

Why do you even bother struggling anymore? This is the perfect resting place for you.

Because that’s quitter talk, and Stan Pines was no quitter. Because if nothing else, Pa taught him to be a fighter, to be able to take some licks and then get back up again.

Oh really? A real man would never let himself get beat up like you did. A real man would never be such a huge disappointment. You know what you really are? An animal. Hell, at this rate you’re as good as roadkill.

That’s... Stan’s heart clenched at the thought. What else could he say to that, really?

The only thing that ever comes out of your mouth are just lies anyway, you miserable little thief. You’d be doing us all a favor if you just disappeared already.

It’s true that he’d thought of that, but to just fade away when he hadn’t made his mark yet?

What mark? You mean your terrible criminal record? Besides, it’s not like anyone will miss you if you’re dead.

That’s...that’s not true, isn’t it? Sure, he seemed to have a knack for making people hate him, but at least Ma would be sad if he was gone, right?

And you think having to hear that you’re “doing fine” over and over is doing her any good, Mr. Personality? Your mother can smell bullshit a mile away so you know she knows what’s really up. Her hair’s turned white by now thanks to worrying over your sorry hide.

How about Shermie then? It’d be a shame if he never knew his other older brother.

What’s a real shame is that you think we’d even let Shermie know about you. Do you seriously think we’d burden him with the knowledge that he’s got a thug of a brother lying and stealing his way around the country? Do you even think Shermie would ever want to know about the shame of the family?

Ford... Well, that was useless. Stan already knew what Ford thought of him.

Did you really think I’d miss the person who ruined my life, Stanley?

Stan could taste familiar bitterness and loathing in his mouth. Ford wasn’t the only one whose life was ruined that night. Where was Ford when he needed his support?

Now why would I ever choose to stand with someone who sabotaged me?

That one stung, because Ford honestly thought Stan would actually do something like that. Why didn’t he believe it was an accident?

Even if it were, that doesn’t matter because you still ruined my chances, Stanley. You always were determined to be a millstone around my neck, weren’t you?

Stan shivered, and he wasn’t sure if it was from the snow. He knew he’d been holding Ford back before, but he’d been trying to change that. He’d been doing his best the last several years to raise some cash and prove he could be half as good as Ford, so didn’t that count?

And look where that got you; bleeding out on the snow like some manner of wild beast. Tell me, was it even worth it, Stanley?

Well...

You know you deserved this, don’t you Stanley? Every terrible thing in your life you brought upon yourself.

He did, didn’t he? In the end, what did he even had to show for himself?

Then you know the right thing to do.

Yes, he did. Stan let out the breath didn’t even know he’d been holding.

A smile tugged at Stan’s lips as he felt the cold sink in. This was it. He was finally going to do something right, just this once. Why was he even hesitating to let go in the first place?

...

Coward.

...

Are ya seriously just gonna lie down there like the loser everyone says you are?! Get the hell up, you cowardly piece of shit!

...Stan frowned. Couldn’t the voice just leave him alone and let a guy die in dignity?

Dignity, my hairy crack! We ain’t going away anywhere, numbnuts. We’ve been through this stupid song and dance over and over again and believe you me, we can’t afford to croak it here.

Why the hell not?

For one thing, we’re in Bugfuck, Booniesville, and I dunno about you, but we could at least pick someplace better to die than this.

...Fair. And what’s your other point?

For another thing, we still haven’t apologized to Ford.

Stan scoffed at the thought. He’d thought about apologizing to Ford thousands of times, had replayed conversations in his head over and over again. But for it to actually happen?

One thing Stan was certain of was that he didn’t want to be the one to end up begging Ford to let him back in his life again. It felt too much like admitting that everything was his fault, even if he sometimes felt it was. So his plan had been to stay away until Ford asked him to come back.

And, well, he doubted Ford would ever want to talk to him again.

But how can we be so sure of that?

Because he hates me more than anything else in the world.

Yeah, so what if he does? That doesn’t mean Poindexter could carry a grudge for all his life.

Of course he can. I ruined his life.

We totally did. But there’s always the small chance he’d change his mind. ‘Side, are we gonna be fine not knowing if he could ever forgive our pathetic hide?

...No, I wouldn’t. I’d want to know for sure.

Exactly. It’s like one of Sixer’s nerdy science theories he’d always ramble on about, the Shatner’s Pussy or whatever. You know how it is. Something’s locked inside a tin can, and the only way to know if it’s a cat is to open it with a can opener. So unless we see the can getting opened, we don’t know for sure what Ford’s got for us.

So what, I’m just supposed to survive and wait years and years until Ford finally decides he wants to talk to me?

We both know the answer to that.

...

Well, shit.

Pulling from scraps of strength he didn’t know he had, Stan grunted as he gingerly moved his arms until his fingers found some purchase in the snow. Stan grunted as he slowly pushed himself upwards while his muscles and nerves felt like it was on fire. It was only then that he registered how much the snow was tinted red from his blood.

Stan hoped he was lucky enough that lying on the snow had frozen his wounds shut but he wasn’t holding his breath. He just hoped he still had some thread and needle in the Stanmobile. He really didn’t want to have to staple his wounds shut again.

Getting up to his feet was a challenge on its own. His vision swam while his legs felt weak and wobbly. Stan had to stand in place for several seconds just to steady himself. When he thought he was ready, Stan took the first step forward.

Stan took another step, and then another, his boots leaving deep gouges in the snow. He had no idea where he was, so he picked a direction that he thought would take him back to town. He figured that if the goons that beat him up thought he had died, that’d mean they wouldn’t expect him to come back for his car now.

And then Stan could finally say goodbye to this stupid joint.

After that? Who knows.

The only thing Stan knew for certain was that he had to keep going, no matter what.

[blessuswithblogs]

Katsura Hashino is a Big Fat Creep and Other Observations

(for the record all uses of the word “queer” in this post are meant in the academic sense as shorthand for a wide umbrella group of gender and sexual minorities and not as a slur i hope that is evident from my past history and status as Big Gay Bitch Who Loves Girls but let it never be said i don’t cover my ass)

A few weeks ago, Catherine: Full Body Edition or whatever gross subtitle it got was released. Catherine has had a very checkered history as one of those games that is just kind of slimy, though it has endured with a cult following and a surprisingly successful competitive community by way of the game's multiplayer mode where you compete to see who can climb The Dream Sex Tower the best. Honestly, I don't know that much about Catherine because it is difficult to think of a game that repulses me more on a visceral level, but I want to do my due diligence and not talk out my ass. One of Catherine's initial claims to fame was that it was by Atlus Japan, specifically the same people who made the much beloved Persona games. This is evident in the game's art, music, overall style of delivery, and being basically hate speech.

The original Catherine was a greasy, misogynistic mess with some really vile politics about trans people in particular. Deadnaming your own fictional character in the credits is some next level petty malice. Full Body returns with, stupendously, a double down on this ideology that is actually kind of comical in how convoluted it gets in trying to decry the Degenerate Queer Lifestyle. The game adds a scene with Rin, who is apparently a gay crossdresser from space(???????), getting slapped away and running away crying from their love interest after he learns The Terrible Truth. In another game, with a different writing team, this could have been a teachable moment about the destructive consequences of taking too narrow a view of human sexuality and gender expression, but as it stands it's just another tiresome example of Trans Panic with a sheepish admonishment from the other characters that gosh maybe slapping their hand away was a mean thing to do.

So we're already firing on all cylinders here, but the best is yet to come. The bulk of the outcry comes from the addition of a weird "true ending" cutscene where Catherine, who is also from space, goes back in time to make everybody's life better. Or something. This is already pretty stupid on the face of it because its Fucking Time Travel Out of Nowhere, but the scene then depicts a pre-transition Erica, the game's trans character who got deadnamed in the credits the last time. There has been a lot of exceptionally tedious discussion about exactly when this scene takes place in the game's chronology and what it means for Erica, and some brain geniuses have tied their thinkmeats into pretzel shapes to prove definitively that all this means is that she delayed her transition in this Better Timeline, that might not actually be better, because Catherine is weird and selfish, maybe. And. Fine. Sure. Okay. Let's accept that for now. Given the game's previous track record, and continuing insistence on using Erica's pretransition name in the credits even in the rerelease, it is meanspirited at best to show her before her transition at all (many real life trans people would be utterly mortified for such a thing to happen to them) and overall just in poor taste and pretty lousy writing at that because it's so unclear what any of this actually means. Since the game has not yet received an official english localization, the context of this scene is to begin with muddled by amateur translators on the internet all with slightly conflicting interpretations of the scene. It's a fucking mess, by and large.

So I would disagree that this is a fake controversy manufactured by those damnable essjaydubyas. Even with the most charitable interpretation possible, it's still just really sketchy and gross. Erica's english voice actress, who seems to be very fond of the character, has been vocal about her dissatisfaction with the new scenes on twitter and has recently come out to say that the localization team is going to try and take some steps to make things less blatantly hateful. Between this and Jennifer Hale's recent tweet about it being time to grab our pitchforks in response to Activision-Blizzard's mass layoffs, I'm starting to think that voice actresses are pretty cool. I mean honestly I always thought that but we're getting off topic. One of the top competitive Catherine players, who was by all accounts really hyped for the release of Full Body, just straight up said on twitter that he was quitting the game because he couldn't support something like that in good conscience. I don't know if he's remained consistent on this position since, but it was a bold statement, to say the least.

Now, whenever an incident like this happens, the inevitable string of More-Progressive-Than-Thou white boys who watched an anime once and thought the bouncing titties were a little much appears to start pontificating about the cause of such untoward elements in media. And it's basically all just a bunch of Orientalist bullshit. Every time. For whatever reason, people still really love to be racist towards Japanese people because it's still sort of socially acceptable when couched in the language of "oh japan!!! ecks dee" and so the neverending procession of softboi neckbeards declared with confidence that Atlus's continual inclusion of Actual Hate Speech towards LGBTQ+ people was the result of the inscrutable Japanese Mind and its Mysterious, Antiquated Culture. Many mentions of the philosophy of Wa, wherein the nail that stands out gets pounded down, and lots of very lovely psuedointellectual claptrap. Evidently, people just seem to think that queer people don't live in Japan, or that they don't fight just as hard as we do for equal rights and protections under the law. They do live there, and they do fight as hard as we do. Obviously. You fucking imbeciles.

In their quest to clearly illustrate their moral and intellectual superiority to the backward, collectivist Asiatic Peoples, these highly reasonable and enlightened manboys forsook a very important logical principle: Occam's Razor. Sure, you could blame jApAnEsE cUlTuRe for Atlus's impropieties and just conveniently ignore all of the fantastic queer media it has produced in recent years like My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Horou Muskou, Nier Automata, etc. Or you could go for the simpler and more logically consistent option: Katsura Hashino is a big fat creep. Who is Hashino, you ask? He is the director of every Persona game since 3, as well as Catherine, and all of these games' gross shit and self-contradictory themes of self-acceptance and rebellion against an unust society (unless you're gay, ew) can probably be traced to him and his gaggle of accomplices. In addition to the fact that Atlus games not by Hashino's team tend to just. not have these problems to nearly as large a degree or even at all, Hashino himself has gone on record saying some really kind of hilariously backwards shit. Most infamously, when asked why in Persona 3 literally all of your social links with girls ended up with Hot Makeout Sessions regardless of like. Previously Committed to Relationships. Hashino simply said he couldn't imagine friendships between boys and girls. So that's where his brain is at. Since subsequent games in the series graciously allowed the player the option to not be a Huge Cheating Bastard, one can assume either his moral development has progressed past early puberty or somebody on the team convinced him this wasn't actually a normal thing to think. Given the man's output, I would say it's probably the latter.

It is because of this man's decisions and behavior that so many people are simply unwilling to give Full Body the benefit of the doubt. The game's director is, quite simply, a well known louse, and not in the endearing, Roger Smith way. Once again, it requires far fewer leaps in logic to assume that Hashino is just being a bigoted creep again than to go through some fuckin galaxy brain Kingdom Hearts-esque dot-connecting to justify it as just a LITTLE BIT bigoted not REALLY SUPER bigoted, or simply blaming the whole ordeal on some strange ineffable property of the Japanese Character. He's a gremlin! An overgrown manchild with a warped view of human interaction and society put in charge of games about exploring those concepts for.... reasons. My bet is that his dad knew somebody and then Persona 3 was successful enough for the rest of Atlus to just go "alright fine let him do it while we do mainline games". Unfortunately, Persona became so popular that the mainline games sort of switched places and became side-projects, at least in the eyes of the Western consumer base (which let's be real is the only perspective that any of these Serious Online Commentators even pretend to care about).

So I would once again caution everyone against just assuming that Japan is some sort of quaint anachronistic country of weird gameshows and backwards social mores. This is both a gross oversimplification of an entire culture and the struggles of their own subgroups and minorities and simply a grand display of lacking self-awareness. Like have you fucking seen the guys in the White House? The preposterous media that gets routinely greenlit on prime time TV, theaters, and digitally? Don't make me laugh. The West has no claim to any sort of progressive superiority to anybody else. The white cishet bubble of comfortable middle class affluence might distort what you see of the rest of the world, but believe me: we got problems too. Big ones. Even the presupposed bastions of Demsoc Virtue like Sweden have an awful track record of discrimination and eugenics. But Dazzlyn that's different, you cry! All of these groups and forces don't represent the entirety of Western culture! Yes. Exactly. Oppression is not culturally bound like cuisine or art. It is a nasty, universal thing that worms its way into everything, and it will use any excuse it can find to murder and exploit. It's against Christian values! It represents a genetic defect that must be purged! It's ostentatious and immature! The list goes on. And every time you giggle and go "oh those silly japanese" you're just being another expression of the same vile ideas.

I'm going to relate some of my own personal experiences, because as a noted Big Gay Bitch Who Loves Girls, I feel like maybe I have some authority on the matter? Just a little? Enough that if I make a well reasoned argument it can't be dismissed out of hand? Let's hope. So, what's the gayest game I've ever played? Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. Look yeah I know I'm talking about it again but come back this is important. Final Fantasy is a series that has had a lot of LGBTQ+ undertones pretty much since forever, and while they have largely been in keeping with the times in terms of tact and representation (the Crossdressing Cloud debacle is a deeply bizarre, uncomfortable sequence in a lot of ways but there's also some genuine Good Gay Shit in 7 like Cloud's surprisingly cute and genuine date with Barret. I think. It's... it's been a while.), by God, it was at least there, and 13 had honest to god Lesbians, Harold in Fang and Vanille. I don't want to say it has pedigree, but the series has dabbled. XIV continues on the tradition with a vibrant world that's actually got a lot of characters and NPCs that are just incidentally there and kind of gay. The adventurer couple that befriended the Tonberries in Wanderer's Palace, a vendor that appeared in the Rising cosplaying as Minfilia at her wife's behest, a miqote lady bathing in the oasis that lets on she wouldn't mind having cute girls stare at her instead of grabby boys, every horny Elezen in Ishgard, Samson and Guydelot (shoutouts to Lulumi Lumi), and probably more that I've missed. More than that, though, is that because FFXIV is an MMO, it is by necessity a social space, and in my experience it has been one that has gone out of its way to be inclusive to everybody, from the GMs handling reports of abusive behavior right up to the top decision makers who made same sex player marriages a thing just immediately on its implementation and letting boys wear the gold saucer bunny costume too (albeit after quite a bit of pleading). The game's got a huge queer community of which I am kind of part of sort of. It's one of the reasons I keep coming back to it. Hell, they've recently partnered with a pride group in Australia to have an FFXIV float in a parade. I usually turn my nose up at such things as meaningless corporate grandstanding, but it does seem to be more meaningful than two boy pastas getting married or rainbow colored oreos because like. Cheesy as it sounds, it's more than just a brand to a lot of people, it's a place, sometimes the only place, they can go to feel safe and accepted in a community. Having official, vocal support from the dev team means genuinely a lot, I think.

Now, there is one quality about this game of which I am speaking that might strike you as noteworthy: it is Japanese. It's made by Japanese people, in Japan, under a Japanese company. A middle aged Japanese man goes up on stage in Gunbreaker cosplay to speak in Japanese about the upcoming expansion, while a meme obsessed gremlin translates for him. It's not perfect, there are problems, etcetera, why do I even need to qualify that in 2019, when everything sucks, god. But it's better than most things. I hope that it serves as an example to people that even in the supposedly regressive countries of the world, queer communities are still living, fighting, and sometimes even being heard, and that the only thing you're enriching by dismissing them wholesale as socially backwards is your own internet penis. And nobody fucking cares about that you simpleton. I expect 5.0 to be gayer than ever before because they're taming up with Yoko Taro to do a Nier themed raid and by the 12 Warrior of Light Dazzyn Reed is going to kiss 2B or an equivalent model right on the robot lips.