#most of the time it's more likely they got a ride from a random mook

[flaresanimedump]

I am obsessed with finding out which characters in Bungo Stray Dogs can drive. It all started when I noticed that out of all the characters 14 year old Kyoka is shown behind the wheel almost every time the ADA is going anywhere in a hurry. Atsushi who is 18 has been in the passenger seat beside her multiple times with no mention of the fact that she is 14 and probably struggling to see over the dash and touch the pedals at the same time. How is Kyoka the driver. So.

Confirmed can drive:

Kunikida. He's shown driving multiple times as well. He probably has his license and everything. He still takes the train and taxies so I'm guessing he doesn't own a car.

Kyoka. She does not have her license but she's who they put behind the wheel when Kunikida is down or not around.

Ranpo. Of all people. Shown to be able to drive rather well in chapter 79. I'm becoming convinced this is why he doesn't know how to take the train - he drives literally everywhere.

Higuchi. Shown driving home. Probably the character who drives the most if it's part of her usual commute.

Haruno. Seen driving, is explicitly handed the keys in fact.

Ango: Seen driving (poor thing).

Teruko: Seen driving. Probably has a license since they're not big on breaking laws. (But then they weren't on a public road).

Steinbeck: Can drive in places other than Japan. Rammed his truck directly into a very obvious poll in Japan.

Mori? This is unclear. He gets into what would be the passenger side of the car that explodes, but it might have been an American car. Pretty sure it was supposed to be an American car actually. There's no logo but it doesn't seem like there was a chauffeur and he moves like he's reaching for the wheel. Also it's really old and square in the manga.

Chuuya: Flies for the most part but drives a motorcycle in Dead Apple. Not sure if I feel this is canon or not.

Tachihara. Seen driving a scooter. I guess I'll allow it.

Can drive but shouldn't:

Dazai. Apparently this is brought up in a light novel. He drives with Kunikida, implying he has a license, but apparently launched the car into something. He's called a 'bad driver' but I suspect he just needed the thing he flew the car into dead right then. May actually be a very good driver and just lazy.

Driving status unknown:

Tanizaki: Shown at the controls of a helicopter but never a car? Those aren't the same thing so I don't want to say he can drive but apparently he can fly.

Poe: Also can almost definitely drive. Can change out engines. I'm convinced he was driving the truck the agency members were hiding in during the cannibalism arc but I have no proof. Has not been seen behind a wheel.

Fitzgerald: I can't imagine him not knowing how to drive just for sports cars reasons but I also can't imagine him driving when he actually needs to go anywhere.

Fyodor: Travels pretty far a lot, seems to walk though?? It's unquestionable that he could drive a car if asked, but would he? Is he legally allowed to? We may never know.

Kajii: Driving a train like a maniac doesn't count.

Hirotsu: Travels pretty far pretty often. Could be taking trains.

Katai: Doesn't go anywhere

Natsume: Cats around

Akutagawa: Also flies. Shown walking when Higuchi was driving. Probably can't drive.

Gin: Also shown walking.

Jouno: Probably can't drive legally but could maybe drive in a pinch. Jury is still out.

Fukuzawa: Because both Haruno and Ranpo seem to be regular drivers and Fukuzawa is only ever shown walking even when it's logistically improbable I'm becoming increasingly convinced he can't drive.

Kenji, Yosano, Oda, Kouyou, Q, Hawthorn, Margret, Louisa, Melville, Lucy, Mark Twain, Fukuchi, Tecchou, Sigma, Gogol: can't say one way or another.

Can't drive won't drive:

Atsushi will literally let Kyoka drive rather than take the wheel himself.

Naomi hands Haruno the keys to their getaway car and I feel like she'd drive if she could so she goes here.

Oguri: I think he'd have a heart attack if he had to drive for more than 3 minutes. I could be wrong. Shown having a chauffeur though.

Lovecraft.

[sepiadice]

NavyDice Campaign (2019/8/30): Poor use of Apples

So I was sitting about, attempting to play more Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Due to a pleasant kismet, it was my first day off of four in a row. I was also awake until Four AM being sick, so it was a mixed sort of day.

Anyways, I suddenly got a text from NavyDice[1] asking if I was up to play Dungeons & Dragons in about ninety minutes, at a location I hadn’t yet visited that was a half to full hour away (depending on traffic).

So obviously I agreed. Because I’m desperate and IndigoDice’s campaign has apparently fallen.[2]

So I got the address, plugged it into the Google Maps app, and went off, listening to a Dungeon World Actual Play podcast episode,[3] brainstorming my character since my original plan to transfer Autumn Quill over had to be abandoned due to everyone else playing a spellcaster.

So time to experiment with other new things. Like using the full strength of the Souvenir Mug Rule!

Anyways, this new campaign features three members of the improv group (Navy[4] GMing, as well as GoldDice[5] and LimeDice[6]) plus a friend of NavyDice who we’ll assign the nickname… Tetrahedron.[8]

In true NavyDice fashion, prepare for time shenanigans!

CAST

Acer ‘Maple’ Palmatum (SepiaDice/Me) Level 5 Elf Fighter. I recalled this image while brainstorming, and decided to just run with it.[9] While making the character, I’d decided she had a military history and a desire to help the helpless. Also likes cute things. We’ll see if any of that pays off. I’d give her a Scottish accent if I could remember to do character voices. As she’s named for a tree, her given name is probably actually ‘Palmatum’.

Garland (LimeDice) A spellcaster of some sort? 

Poppi (GoldDice) Another spellcaster, who used Intelligence and Wisdom as her dump stats so… there’s concerns?

Mumble (Tetrahedron) Bard. Talks very quiet, as is his namesake.

Once characters were complete, we took turns inventing a brief history of the party and why we’re hanging out together.

For the actual campaign, we heard of a job dealing with a band of brigands bothering a town. We travel there and meet with the local marshall, Masem, who is grateful for our help.

The party rents a place at a bed & breakfast and waits to be needed.

So we open on the party doing small things that reveal character. Garland is reading a book. Poppi is mesmerized by a pretty mobile that was hanging about. (I forget what Mumble was doing). Maple is doing push ups.

A knock comes on the door. It’s Masem. The brigands are coming to attack the market space. Maple follows the marshall, the squishier party members follow behind.

In the market, Masem and Maple pose as they wait for the brigands to arrive. Garland and Mumble position themselves for optimal support. Poppi gets distracted by apples, and failing to purchase them since everyone else ran.

Combat ensues. The first wave of six brigands fall to sword and spell, and a second wave (featuring a very definite midboss) arrives, and similarly gets cut down.

As the citizenry start to celebrate, Maple hears a ticking coming from the midboss.

After a short back and forth between me and NavyDice to determine if Maple would know the concept of a bomb, we determine she wouldn’t immediately come to that conclusion. Maple investigates the midboss, and discovers he has a vest under his shirt with many magic scrolls that are starting to autocast. I decide that’s enough information to follow my initial instinct, and Maple shouts for people to run.

Maple attempts to scoop Poppi up, but fails the strength check, kinda ruining the moment but whatever.

Most of the town’s out of the blast range as the scrolls deploy in a massive fireball. Once the smoke clears, Maple removes her excess equipment and gets to work cleaning rubble and moving bodies. The local lord rides a carriage down to thank the heroes (our party) and announce a feast. Maple irritably asks him why his bodyguards aren’t helping with disaster response, and the lord sends the guards to do so.

The rest of the party goes to enjoy the celebratory feast the lord was announcing, but Maple stays until the work is done. I’d decided to play her as a Capital-Aytch Hero, so that’s what I’m sticking to, possibly to my occasional detriment.

Eventual she notices those helping the effort beginning to get awkwardly antsy to attend the feast, but don’t want to leave before one of the people who just saved the market from brigands. So Maple relents and leaves for the party, probably with plenty of soot on her.[10]

Everyone’s gathered at the feast, medals are awarded, toasts are started, all that stuff ceremony that Maple lost a taste for due to her time serving in a military.[11]

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 2

There’s a knocking on the front door.

Ah, so Navy is repeating a campaign he’s told me the story of. I decide not to beat around the bush and just let Maple be immediately be on the ball. Call it battle-won instincts of quickly reading the situation.

Maple answers the door and tries to inform Masem about the groundhog day loop we’ve entered, but the marshall is too concerned by the brigands to listen. Maple instead runs off to the market without listening to the mission text.

This time, she intends to save more people.

This time, she’s not going to waste time with the random mooks.

This time, Maple heads straight to the mid-boss with the bomb vest. If she can stop him before he gets to the marketplace, maybe she can mitigate the damage.

However, running towards the guy triggers some attacks of opportunity[12] from the generic brigands, but Maple ignores them. They don’t matter.

However, when she’s facing Bomb-Vest and the brigands flanking him, their combined attacks do drop her to exactly zero, and Maple falls and I begin making death saves.

Then Poppi decides it’d be hilarious to throw an apple at me. Tetrahedron points out that any damage taken while in this state means autodeath, so GoldDice rolls to hit.

And succeeds. Killing Maple with an apple. My friends, readers!

So I’m out of the cycle, and tune out because I’m an inattentive jerk and wanted to try and find the visual reference for my character.[13]

Eventually, the brigands are felled through a method that nearly kills Mumble, the local lord rides his coach down for easy publicity points as he rewards our party and mourns the fallen, there will be a feast, Maple will be given a hero’s funeral, and other familiar notes.

Some investigation might’ve occurred? I think mostly it was just a tad more somber because Maple died.

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 3

There’s a knocking on the door.

Okay, this time the party’s a little smarter. Mumble uses Leomund’s Tiny Hut to contain the explosion, and only he and Bomb Vest dies.

Okay, successfully saved the innocents. Maple takes the time to fill Masem in, who is skeptical despite magic being real so such temporal shenanigans shouldn’t be out of possibility. But using the evidence of (limited) precognition, Maple gets him to accept that maybe this is a thing that happens.

Masem gets called away to a crime scene, and Maple and Garland invite themselves along. Because information is important, and you don’t know what’s relevant.[14] Poppi goes to church, because… well, out of character, to investigate the church bells. In character, Poppi thinks its the Lord’s Day.

Someone blew a hole in the side of a vault, then a second one to escape. Masem investigates with the help of player characters who do what they want by virtue of being player characters.

We manage to, through the powers of basic deductive reasoning and basicer math, figure out which safety deposit box was emptied despite the bank manager’s attempts to be as unhelpful as possible.

Masem gets called away to officiate an execution. Maple assigns Garland to stay back and keep investigating as she keeps following Masem to learn what his day’s like.

Garland and two to three town guards (played by NavyDice, Tetrahedron, and myself)[15] do some more investigation of the vault, before eventually finding and descending into… either the showers or just inexplicable underground tunnels. The guards banter about why they’re taking orders from this random spellcaster guy, how this is an obvious horror movie set-up, how Garland’s orders to split up flies in the face of local bards tales of Scoobert Doobert and the company of mystery,[16] and other fun. They die there when the cycle ends.

Maple follows Masem away, and learns they are hanging the leader of the brigands they’ve been fighting. Which is fun.[20]

Public death spectacle concluded, Maple and Masem go to attend the lord’s feast. Maple notices Masem getting called away for some new distraction, but she decides not to push her luck in case observing it would affect it, and because she’d inserted herself a lot into Masem’s day as is.

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 4

There’s a knock on the door.

The rest of the party wants to regroup and discuss. Maple wants to save people and immediately rushes off, ignoring pleas that people dying don’t matter.

Instead of helping, Garland and Mumble decide to investigate the bank early, and Poppi hangs out at the church belltower to watch what happens in the market.

I roll percentile to determine Maple’s fate. 08. So, due to negligence by the rest of the party (again), Maple dies. Again. As does Masem. And a bunch of innocent standerbys. And also the lord’s manor via explosion I think? I was still trying to find that piece of art. Which I found used as a gentle nudge to the rest of the table that Maple’s a girl. Cut, but still obviously feminine.

Anyways, no one gets to learn what Maple learned yesterday, because screw them, they left her and everyone else to die, and Maple doesn’t write off anyone if there’s a chance to save them.

And there’s always a chance.[21]

Anyways, Poppi spends the day observing while Garland and Mumble annoy a bank clerk, find the brigands hideout, and Mumble convinces one of them he’s a god.

When Maple dies, I use it as an opportunity to take a break and look through social media. Tempers out of character knowledge and lets me take a break from being Permanently ‘On’ for hours at a time.[24]

Eventually, the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

So ends the first session.

I’m excited for the rest of the campaign, though I am (progressively) remembering details from the last time NavyDice ran it, so hopefully that doesn’t ruin the fun. Especially since I’m super excited to play Maple, and I don’t want to add her to the list of characters who deserve a second chance.[25]

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

-

[1] Who has not formally adopted the ColourDice naming convention, but does have a D&D Instagram? [2] I’ve got plans for that group, however, so stay tuned. [3] Concluded my prejudices against Powered by the Apocalypse is true and I will never willingly touch it. [4] Previously credited as Lyons. [5] Previously credited as Maddie. [6] Previously credited as Jose. He assigned himself the color green, but my brother took that color and I couldn’t convince him to pick something more specific. I rudely haven’t consulted Jose on the reassignment. He can yell at me if he reads this.[7] [7] No one reads these. [8] I’ll figure out a consistent guest player naming convention one of these essays. [9] Next time: glasses. Maybe. [10] There’s an amount of Vimes in this character. Actually, Maple may turn out to just be Sam Vimes. Which I’m okay with, even if I want to play her with an amount of bloodthirsty glee when fighting bad guys… [11] For once, 5e’s dumb background rules actually helped flesh out my character in a satisfying manner. [12] A mechanic I don’t think has ever added fun to D&D. It always feels petty. [13] Which took hours to find! But the references are saved to my phone now. [14] Hint: anything the GM draws attention to is relevant. [15] Always allow players to play NPCs so they can take the mickey out of other players. [16] GM tip! Always let real world media exist in universe. Makes it easier to make references, and justifying it is a lot of fun![17] [17] GM tip! Regardless, someone will always be confused by the concept of sandwiches due to the apocryphal tales of John Montagu, despite insisting sandwiches only existing since the 18th century is ridiculous, and evidence of similar food arrangement has existed long before the famed event.[18] [18] There was a tedious argument with the High School group that I’m apparently still annoyed by. But Good Eats has my back, so I’m confident.[19] [19] While my footnotes are cascading, I’ve been humoring the concept of a ‘Adventurer’s Cookbook’. Which would likely just be a camping cookbook with genre writing as flavor, and the recipes arranged in esculating terms of difficulty. [20] Not actually fun. [21] One of this campaign’s experiments: using the ‘It’s what my character would do’ defense. Because I like to try and justify things.[22] [22] Maybe someday I’ll experiment with justifying Failure to Communicate and Teacher/Pupil relationships.[23] [23] Because, to be clear, I really hate both. [24] GM tip! Let players (and GMs) take breaks. Either by pausing the game, or letting there be lulls where portions of the table can get away from losing focus and think about Other Things. [25] A list that includes Trix and Teddi.

[firebirdsdaughter]

Ryusoulger Subs Post #1…

… There never was a #2! What a shock. Not really.

God, now I have to get through the week again.

In no order:

Yes, I remember what happened last time.

Remembered to check the chibi Ryusoulger this time. It’s Red. So I guess this is a Kou ep? Or they’re just going in order, and the chibis are in no way related to the focus.

I’m now wondering if Banba folding his arms is his anxious tell? Like, it’s a defensive body posture. I’m too tired to make much sense of my own explanation rn, but it fits his issues, I think.

Also his hand is so tense, oh, honey… DX

I’m also trying to figure out exactly what he was doing w/ his hand… Like, maybe it was just a nervous fidget, but also kinda like he was picking at his nails somehow? For lack of a better description?

Why is Melto the only one who knows how to check a pulse?

I want to hug Banba so badly right now… This boys’ facial expressions are amazing. Like, you can tell he’s in agony over the fact that, as far as he knows, he, personally, destroyed the only way to save his brother.

Poor Kou having to chase Banba again. XD

Crayon trying to start his own YouTube channel… I like this guy. He’s both creepy and entertaining.

Also I would die for any of the mook suit actors in an instant.

Big Brother Mode is still ACTIVATED. ^^

Crayon uses Microphone! It’s not super effective!

I still love how Kou was like ‘It’s probably best if I transform even before I find him just in case.’ Esp since, in the end, that actually wasn’t necessary.

I would kind of love to have had more to this scene. Like, how long do you think Banba spent trying to go after Crayon/walk on his own before Kou was able to get him back? I’d write it, but I just can’t seem to find the inspiration rn… DX

How often are they changing these cloths? Kou and Banba don’t seem to have been gone, like, ten minutes.

So… What, does it reproduce through spores?

Accidentally paused on very distressed Kou right before he called for the others. Poor baby.

I know it’s in character for him to refuse to sit, but I still think they could’ve offered Banba a chair.

I still want to pinch surprised Kou’s cheeks. DX

No, really. Why are there two? Did it divide or something? Or was she just really mad about people abandoning animals?

HOW IS HE ABLE TO STILL LOOK SO AMAZING IN THAT AWFUL MAKEUP???

Melto gets upgraded to being directly addressed. ^^

Banba really didn’t need to come off the wall for this, really. I love him, but the way he kinda lurches toward Melto there seems a little bit out of a horror film…

Honestly, I’m gonna miss Crayon and Tankjoh’s relationship. ‘You don’t get to laugh.’ (and just the deadpan way he says it) ‘Why be strict about that?’ XD I’m rather fond of their dynamic.

Crayon being unable to completely control the Minusaurs is so bloody hilarious to me. ^^

I guess Kou and Melto just have stronger immune systems?

Banba and Kou and their ‘don’t underestimate Kata Soul.’

…

… Okay, it’s probably not connected at all, and/or it’s just a recurring joke w/ this Minusaur, but… We know that the most recent (at least) traumatic event that happened to Kou involved Kata Soul… What if that Soul was also involved in some traumatic event that happened to Banba? Hell, maybe that’d be why he favours it. I dunno, I’m probably just spinning. But it came into my head when Kou essentially did the same thing Banba did against the other Cerberus Minusaur.

Well, DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON IT, EITHER!

Oh, sweetie, no. I know you’re a mess right now, but no.

I feel so bad for him, though. Like, he blames himself for letting this happen in the first place (for failing to protect his brother/destroy Crayon before, etc.), and he’s probably blaming himself for delaying their chance at getting an antidote by destroying the first Minusaur. Now he’s dying, other people are dying, and most importantly to him, Touwa is dying. This has gotta be some of the most scared and desperate he’s ever been.

Like, the way he hobbles over to look at Touwa before he does it… TT_TT

WHERE WAS HE KEEPING THE SWORD??? HIS SLEEVE??

Does he have Zuuban in there, too?

Sorry. DX I have an incurable condition called thinking I’m hilarious.

But looks aren’t everything.

… Okay, who let my grandfather in here.

No, honey. No. This is not your fault. I promise you, no one here blames you but you. I don’t know if someone once told you you were at fault for something(s), or if you’ve just been internalising blame your whole life or something. But. I promise. No one blames you. </3

I mean, it both is and isn’t selfish. He’s got a point that if they die there will be no one to fight the Druidon. But I think the main driving force behind his desperation right now is to save his brother, and the former reason is more secondary.

He really has no right to look so good in this awful makeup, and yet… I saw a man so beautiful I started crying.

I am rather disappointed that Banba and Asuna didn’t go out there, but I guess their conditions had deteriorated more than the other two’s had, bc they got infected first.

Okay. This looks like a renaissance painting.

Oh, gods… Banba’s reaction to the whole ‘trust’ thing… TT^TT Who did this to you? Please tell me so I can find and assassinate them? DX

Hm… Maybe Touwa does know something, bc he got really soft over the ‘let’s trust them’ line.

Also just the word ‘trust’ seems to be borderline trigger for Banba… I really wish we had some flashbacks for the brothers, too… Though there is still plenty of time.

I still want child¡Banba holding baby¡Touwa.

But, to do some random spitball theorising… Could there have been a situation where Banba felt like he screwed up, and then when he trusted someone to help they betrayed him in some way? No grounding for this, just musing.

But god, his reaction there makes me want to know more so badly…

I always wonder how much they tell the actors? Like, is it like Game of Thrones where they only tell them things that the characters would know? By that logic, Tatsuya may know what Banba’s side of the story is… Though I seem to remember that Keisuke said something that implied he didn’t know all of Kuro Woz’s backstory… Though maybe he was deflecting a question. I dunno.

Okay, it’s not actually that similar, but that cut from the dramatic scene of the others declaring they trust Melto and Kou/resigning to giving them a chance while also having some sort of secret trauma flashback or something over the concept of ‘trust’ (in Banba’s case) to Kou being yeeted into a pile of barrels made me think of that scene in Kyuranger where Lucky gives a speech about how much faith they have in Shou and what a great leader he is––and then it cuts to Shou screaming hysterically about how they’re all going to crash into the sun and die.

Kou is a very reckless oaf, and I love him to bits.

How did he even… I guess sheer force of will.

Honestly, Hayate is kind of rocking the awful ‘poisoned’ makeup, too.

Actually, to be honest, they all are.

Or maybe someone made the smart decision to tone down the makeup.

I’d call Master Red ‘Master Dad,’ but then what would I call Master Blue? Master Other Dad? Master Melto’s Dad? *insert shrug emoji here*

When you pass out from poison, and have a dream about that time your parental substitute father figure gave you a piggyback ride––only it was actually your sentient dinosaur mecha carrying you and your friend on its back.

So. Who summoned Tyramigo? XD

…

… You know what. That’s it. I have nothing to say about the kebabs anymore.

Wait. So apparently the village was destroyed? So… What happened to all the other people we saw? Did they die? Evacuate to somewhere? But the Elder says he has nowhere else to go… O_o

In case you were wondering, the sixth is going to be Gold. Here presented as… Saffron yellow? Bc gold was probably too over the top for a kebab menu.

I love how Melto went from so frightened of the Elder that he hid a banana behind his back to interrupting the guy when he’s talking. XD

Wait, so… Like. Was he the one they were originally meant to bring it to? Are he and Naohisa in cahoots? Did I accidentally skip a line? That’s actually very possible.

… Why. Why was I expecting science. Why did I actually think… Oh, forget it.

Okay, but did they have to make it yellow? There are plenty of juices. You could have made it any other colour.

Kinda wish we got to see them bring it back to the house. But I can understand the ‘dramatic reveal’ of them showing up to fight Tankjoh.

But you know Banba made sure Touwa was cured even before he was. XD

*UGLY SOBBING COMMENCES*

I’M SO PROUD.

I still love MirNeedle and his honking sound.

The RyuSouls still want hugs.

The fact that Tankjoh has legit hands is hilarious to me.

Banba saying the dramatic lines, for some reason. XD

God, even w/ that wording… Banba’s still blaming himself. A) In apologising, and B) w/ the ‘I made you etc.’ It’s basically ‘I failed so you had to do it.’

Touwa calling him on makes me wonder if he does that a lot… Oh my gosh, is Banba also a compulsive apologiser? MY BABY! DX

Aaaaaaw. He gets so awkward and embarrassed. He’s so cute. XD <3

I’m still trying to parse out the look he gives Kou. It’s, like… Bemused? I guess? Like ‘you’re still saying that?’ Maybe? Though given the quick deep breath and how fast he rejects, maybe he was starting to have a ‘maybe we can trust him/them’ thought and felt like he needed to quickly shut it down.

All I could think of was the ‘I’m sorry, you must be a level 4 friend to unlock my tragic backstory’ tweet…

I love Kou’s expression and body language, bc it’s somewhere between becoming fondly amused and Banba’s grumpy tsundere nature, being like ‘Oooo! New friend project!’, and ‘Oh? That is that a challenge?’

To quite the King of Friendship himself: ‘I’m gonna become friends with you just to spite you.’ XD

Kou and Melto are less teasing Asuna, and more that they don’t want to look at the Elder in that outfit again. XD

I guess he wasn’t prophesying, and he has seen the trio more recently… But I’m still petty and will be sour if the brothers get excluded from whatever prophecies etc. there do end up being…

Like, they can do an ‘it’s all up to the original three’ in the end like Go-Onger, but only if they have the brothers pull a Hanto and Gunpei/Go-O Wings.

Preview: Don’t trust the sisters, and I suspect they have vocal powers, perhaps to control others. I do wonder if this is going t reveal more about the brother’s past at all as a parallel? Or we could be taking a break from that for now, which is also fine. I just request that they reveal it steadily as the team grows closer, and don’t just dump it all at the end or something.

That’s all, folks! Virtual jellybeans for anyone who read all that. XD

I am excited for the brother’s backstory, and what happened to Banba, but I’d also be fine w/ taking a break from that as we move on to introduce the next General, who will likely hang around a bit longer than Tankjoh to show off the upped ante. Music is apparently going to be important, since we’ve got several former idol group members here. Also it said so on the official website, so I’m not blowing steam. I’m sure if we’ve got a cast member who can sing, there will be an ep where they sing (Asuna’s most likely, since she’s apparently a former idol?). Anyway, excited for this to continue, and anxious for the week to be over.

[shoottomiss]

Kim Possible Respect

Because I’ve been on a bit of a Kim Possible stint recently, I wanted to compile a post of things that the “girl who can do anything” has done, and why she may very well be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, cartoon heroines of all time. Much of this is taken from a respect thread from Skullanders on ComicVine, so thanks to him.

Like, disregarding cartoon physics or logic. We’re just here to appreciate how cool she is. Ready? It’s a bit long, but most of the feats have a gif or clip linked within them. We good? Okay, let’s go!

Intelligence: May not be as smart as her parents or brothers, but still quite intelligent.

-Aced an algebra test after cramming all studying on a dangerous riverboat ride in the Congo

-Flew a spacecraft back to earth after seeing a monkey astronaut do it once

-Got like 90% of the country’s college invitation letters coming up on graduation

Strength: Someone been eating their wheaties.

-Strong enough to lift large mooks over her body and throw them great distances and take on syntho-drones and muscle enhanced henchman head-to-head, sending them flying with a kick or a punch, or taking on a multitude no sweat

-Kicked a metal door straight out of its secure socket

-Threw a human ninja high enough to reach Dr. Drakken’s hovercraft

Skill: She is, the most interesting young woman in the world.

-Accurate enough to hit a railroad track changer with a rock and then proceed to kick it back in order to avoid being run over by a train.

-Able to hit a gravitation ray with a number plate accurately enough to redirect it.

-Knows 16 styles of Kung Fu (couldn’t find a clip or gif of that being said, but it is quoted in the episode Hidden Talent), and also apparently wrestled a shark (according to Ron in the episode Crush)

--Here she is doing Mantis style, which she claimed only to “dabble in”

-Has held her own against Monkey Fist often, who knows Tai Shing Pek Kwar

--again

-Practically fights Shego, a superhuman, to standstills or better on a daily basis. Bear in mind that Shego fires energy blasts and can tear through concrete like a hot knife through butter.

-Were the last two not enough? Well, now she fights both of them at the same time.

-Able to fight off Team Impossible, an world-renowned team that does dangerous missions like Kim does for a living.

-Actually pretty good at sword-fighting.

Speed and Agility: Come on, step it up.

-Has applied her cheerleading skills to her fighting and maneuverability, only increasing her skill in those areas.

-Her first mission ever, she had to navigate through a lethal laser field. Did she do it? IF SHE DIDN’T DO IT, I WOULDN’T BE SITTIN’ HERE DISCUSSIN’ IT WIT YA NOW WOOD AYE?!

-Dodges frikkin consecutive laser fire on many of her missions

--Like seriously, she does not give a damn about your lasers. She’ll have a convo on her kimmunicator, that’s how much she doesn’t care.

-Add to the list: exploding golfballs, Shego’s energy blasts (multiple from Shego clones), and incredibly fast mechanical arms.

-Ran from stampeding rhinos before flipping back onto them. These are obviously white rhinos, which can run at 31 mph.

Durability: Ouch. Yeouch. Gnuershk. Wait... forget that last one.

-Blasted away by an exploding golf ball, and was A-OK. 

-...I don’t... I don’t even know how to describe this. She has great resilience though, I’ll tell ya.

-Flies into a steel beam while grappling, but is up fighting later like it never even happened.

-Knocked out when fighting Ron in a controlled Battle Suit, but considering it took the Battle Suit, a strength and speed enhancing garment (which we’ll get into more in a sec) to do that, as well as the fact that she was keeping up with him earlier (and probably worried about injuring Ron), it’s still impressive in that regard.

The Battle Suit: Gotta say, she pulls off the 80′s Tron look.

-Can project forcefields (strong enough to block attacks by a ultra strong alien named Warmonga), make a lacrosse-like cup to catch and redirect energy attacks: of-all-kinds, and can regenerate.

-The strength it gives her is insane, allowing her to kick Shego hundreds of feet away into a structure with enough force to collapse the whole thing, and hits the before-mentioned Warmonga into a ship with enough force to blow it up.

-The speed boost she gets is also impressive. Here she is, speedblitzing Shego from an earlier clip.

-Finally, it has rockets in the feet, a stealth mode, and a grappling hook (Kim loves her grappling hooks).

-And last but not least, the creme de la creme. one of her most awesome feats: In the episode Hidden Talent, Drakken put her in his most complicated death trap ever. He put her in a reinforced titanium box, which was placed in a deep pit, which was then filled with water, and then a few sharks and giant squids. To top it all off (no pun intended), he froze over the last unfilled part of chasm with six feet of solid glacial ice. It’s all detailed here.

She proceeded to get out of every layer of the death trap with her gadgets and skills, all up until the ice. How does she break through that ice? SHE SINGS A HIGH NOTE INTENSE ENOUGH TO SHATTER A HUMAN SIZED WHOLE OUT OF THE ENTIRE SIX LAYERS, and then proceeds to jumps out as if it were like brushing her teeth. Bear in mind,this is glacial ice, the kind of ice that ship breaking icebergs are made out of.

In an attempt to gauge the epicness of this feat, I asked the science side of tumblr what kind of numbers this entailed. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten quite the answer I was looking for. So I searched around the internet and actually found someone who attempted to do exactly what I was thinking. Feel free to correct the science if something is wrong, and take what I quote here with a grain of salt. It could very well be wrong. I just wanted to give you a sense of what was happening here.

Here is their quoted analysis and research results, from Terraraptor’s Deviantart page:

“Now, loud sounds can break glass, but ice is structurally different. Glass can be shattered because its internal friction is extremely low, and resonance energy can be built up, which eventually breaks the glass. Ice, on the other hand, is less uniform in its buildup. Its structure is usually random, and usually extremely complex, which means it would have incredibly high internal friction. In theory, this should make it immune from high frequency sounds, but Kim must be able to sing loud enough to overcome this.”

“The minimum level of sound required to break glass is over 100 decibels, which is on par with some opera singers. This is with ideal cases, namely a piece of glass made with almost no internal friction. But because ice is so different, and its unlikely Drakken made ice with no internal friction, Kim must be able to raise her voice to superhuman levels.”

“The only known way to break ice with pure sound waves is through the use of shock waves created by explosions. A study from Japan determined that 1000 joules of energy are needed to break ice 100 mm (or about 4 inches) thick. And since 1000 joules is enough to lift 200 pounds over 3 feet straight up, it constitutes a powerful blast. But Kim’s voice broke ice exactly 6 feet thick. Well, after a bit of math, we calculated that to do this, Kim’s scream had to have at least 18,000 joules of energy.”

“That’s enough energy to lift 3,600,000 pounds straight up! More than enough to shatter human bones, rupture internal organs, and kill any human at close range.”

I would like to add that Kim’s body would have to be tough enough to handle the force from that high note without blowing herself to bits as well.

And that’s all I’ve picked up. Or at least, decided to jot down. There’s a lot I didn’t include, simply because it would overstate certain points.

Kim Possible- She really can do anything.

[fereality-indy]

Mun Update

Welp, we are now 4 sessions in and so far things have been fun. this is a home brewed world were the Deities are all dragons. Mun follows the god of mischief, the moon, chaos, bards, & rogues. Mun follows him because he is the opposite of my the god worshiped by his mother, a cleric of his former nomadic band. They had a falling out over his love of music, rejection of her god (Mun’s CG & her god is LE), and him finding out his dad was a prize of combat. Mun also proved he was better suited to be a bard in our first outing where he failed, twice, to break down a door and only broke through one panel (bad dice rolls).  

By completely random happenstance the party’s Elven cleric, Half Elven bard, and our newest member the Elven rogue also follow the same god (we discovered this after character creation). The only one who doesn’t is an NPC Healer (a class from the 3.5 Miniatures book). We watch as he rolled her stats and he rolled three 18s, a 17, and two 16s, She had better stats than all of us and because of her class she can’t enter combat with another humanoid unless her life is in immediate danger.

Now you may wonder why we need a Healer if we have a cleric. Well though out the first session she never formally introduced herself but only went by the name Lady Badtouch. She doesn’t prep healing spells, only harm. She is also bat-shit crazy. She is also third in line of a noble house and has plans to ‘get famous’ and then challenge first her sister and then her brother to duels for accession. She also has a weakness for liquor and at the end of our first session had seduced a potent bottle of a drink called Angel’s kiss from a female half tavern owner,    

The other bard is played by my son and so far seems to possibly be an asexual bard (the cleric and the barbarian, aka Mun, has done more to seduce characters the the bard). And in the first session he did more to spread the word (ok, he was repeatedly asking the bad guys we were fighting if they want to ‘hear the good word’ or if they ‘want to convert’  as he was hitting them).

The healer was greatly appreciated by Mun as he also prove to be a bad ‘Tank’ in the first session, going into negative hit points twice. But we also was fighting a guy who had captured a farm house and the farmer’s family. He had a group of four mooks and a mystical mask that had given him twice the hit points of our entire party, a full regeneration of those hit points, and the ability to hit hard enough to one shot Mun at full HP. When we finally beat him the mask crumbled and he turned to stone. We saved the farmer’s family and we turned him in for a bounty. 

The next two sessions were based around finding more work, The first session we found out there was a creature attacking people at a fork in the road several days away that led towards the capital. We were only given a vague description and spent a good portion of the session looking for more info, Once we had found out what we were going to be fighting (a gibbering mouth), the DM realized he had read the Challenge rating and the abilities of the creature wrong, He thought it was a singular creature and then saw that they only appear in packs of 4 or more. So he helped us out by introducing a ‘McGuffin’ NPC who we hired because the cleric was drunk and agreed to pay the NPC’s almost 200 gold bar tab. 

He was a member of the dragon riding Knights of the realm. But as with most ‘McGuffin’ NPCs there was something off about him. We later found out that he was essentially a ‘daywalker’ vampire. The rest of  that session was spent on out travels to the fork (which the player playing the cleric repeatedly thought was supposed to be a fort). The cleric also attempted to use her elvish dueling sword to cook the meat of a creature that attacked our camp one night over the fire and ruined it tempering which caused it to shatter,   

The next session introduced the ‘weaponsmith’ (aka the rogue) to the party as he was a member of the previous party who had attempted to fight the creature. We were doing ok until the creature ‘pulled a Voltron’ as my son called it and merged, going up 3 size scales and several CR, After a long battle we finally destroyed it, bit in it’s death throes it explodes, Mun, the McGuffin, and the bard were in the blast range. Mun was the only one to make his saving throw and the bard was reduced to ash. The McGuffin also died, but to paraphrase Monty Python ‘He got better’.

While discussing what to do with the ashes of the bard, McGuffin mentioned that there was a magic user back in the town we came from that could bring him back, but there would possibly be a blood cost. Which is where we ended that session.

Tonight’s session had us fight a warg, hide from a swarm of locusts (that the DM’s random encounter generator had summoned) under a roll of canvas Mun carried for crafting purposes that he soaked in lamp oil to keep the locusts away, 

Arriving in town we found the surrounding farms had been hit by the locust swarm. The healer and the cleric went to offer what add they could, while the rogue and Mun went the see the lady about resurrecting the bard. She was a blood mage and wanted four willing blood donors for the ritual, Mun was the only one willing.We thanked her for her time and told her we would have to discuss it with the rest of the party.

We met up with up with the cleric as he was blessing the townsfolk with water from his superior, a dwarven cleric to the god of drink. The cask (the later morphed a flask) was not holy water like she thought, but a cask/flask was actually a cask/flask of never ending dwarven ale,

After receiving in the bounty on the creature from the fork, the mayor mentions there is a rumor of a lady who lives in a cave 10 miles out of town that might be able to help us, So we headed off, Along the way we encountered a cryo hydra, which the cleric wanted to fight on her own (I did mention she’s crazy). While Mun carried her away from the hydra, she proceeded to get drunk,

We reached the cavern and discovered the lady in question was no lady but a hag. Surprise, surprise. The drunk cleric of a chaos god had no filter and nearly had us fighting not one but three Hags, After attacks left the Healer and the Rogue completely drained of STR and Mun down to 4 points, the cleric was the only one to make her saving rolls, Mun and the Rogue had nearly brokered a deal when the cleric flipped a coin and then tried to attack the hags. She failed and ended up in a force cage,

The rogue finally sealed the deal and the Bard was reincarnated as a female wood gnome, and we have 13 months to complete a quest for the hags or she falls completely under the hags control.

and that’s the story so far,