#remaking my old post using the new dimensions

[scurviesdisneyblog]

𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚗𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚙𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚝Ｉᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇɴᴀɪꜱꜱᴀɴᴄᴇ (1989 - 1999)

[down-in-the-rainbow-square]

Remember that post that said u wanted to write that one, the reader goes into puppets/welcome home dimension?

I got u!

Can I request a Welcome home crew x reader, the reader from our world just looking at the website and suddenly blacks out. Then they open their eyes to see the puppets looking down at them! :D

Welcome Home x Reader - A Whole New World (and a Whole New Back Pain)

Not proofread! Thank you for the request! I'm definitely in my isekai sort of phase right now right x readers. For this one I'm just going to assume the reader hasn't discovered the hidden secrets of the website yet. Clown said we're only 5% in, so when we're closer to the end I'll do a remake with the reader knowing all the spooks and secrets (plus, it's really fun to just stick to the happy-go-lucky tune for now)!

I don't know what blacking out is like so I kind of just wrote random feelings instead. Hope that's okay!

P.S., This focuses more on Y/N than the characters but I'll make a sequel that focuses on them more!

Words: 1353

Type: Headcanons, platonic

Tw: food, mentioned kidnapping, mentioned death, injury

You were sitting at your desk when it happened. It was nearing sunset; a bowl of two-minute noodles sat cooling beside your laptop to serve as tonight's meal. Scrolling through social media, a sudden notification popped up on the screen. It was from a friend of yours.

Opening the message up, it read, "hey! Check out this website I found!" Attached to the message was a link to a cheerful looking website. Your friend described it as the link to an old and near-forgotten puppet show your parents had taped on VHS. You used to watch it together when you were really young, apparently.

Opening it up, you were sent to a title screen of sorts. It featured a little red house with a blue roof and yellow chimney. The website invited you to click on it. Doing so, you were revealed the real meat of what was inside.

The next half-hour or so was spent perusing the website. Some of the characters vaguely rang a bell; you remembered something about a guy called Frank, but you also thought there was a child, so perhaps you were making it all up. Maybe that was Wally.

Eventually, though, you were hit with a sudden drowsiness and a sick, twisting feeling in your stomach. Assuming hunger pains, you reach for you food on the desk. It would have gone completely cold, but you would have to deal with it. Fork in hand, you lifted it up to your mouth only to-

Only to wake up in bed. Strange; you never remembered going to sleep. The last thing you remembered doing was getting bad hunger pains and eating your noodles. Though you assumed you had just passed out in bed and not remembered anything.

You rolled around in bed. You were too tired to get up just now. You were about to drift off to sleep when you heard something - or someone.

"They're waking up!"

What in the hell?!

You instantly bolted upright only to be hit with a horrible pain in your spine that sent you back down again. Groaning in pain, you rolled over onto your side and opened your eyes to see... People? No. Monsters? Maybe. No, they were definitely puppets.

Looking up, you saw you were surrounded by them. They were all different shapes, colours, and sizes, but shared the same look: concern. Concern for your wellbeing or concerned because their meal just woke up you didn't know, but you didn't plan on staying for long enough to find out.

Again, you tried to sit up, ignoring the excruciating pain in your lower back. It was then that you realised this was also not your bed you were in. No, this was much larger than you could afford and had a red wood frame with feathers carved into the head.

Your first thought is that you've been kidnapped. Your second thought is you've been kidnapped by puppets. Instantly, you try to heave your way off the bed, only to be caught by a pair of arms. Well, two pairs of arms, actually.

"Hey, hey! Calm down!" Looking up, you saw a tall, green puppet looking down at you. He slowly placed you back down on the bed. Taking a closer look at his facial expression, he almost looked scared.

"Wh- what are you?" you whispered. You didn't care if it sounded rude, you'd rather be rude than clueless.

"I could ask you the same question." You turned to look at the source of the noise to see a different puppet. He was of medium height (for the puppets, of course) and had grey skin. Or felt, for that matter.

"What?" you replied.

"Well," the puppet began, "for someone who fell out of the sky, you sure seem fine."

Fell out of the sky? What was this guy on about?

"Wait, I what?" you asked. The puppets shared a look.

"You don't remember?" another puppet asked. He was about the same height as the grey puppet, but had yellow skin and red hair. "There was a lot of yelling."

"There was?"

Safe to say, you were confused. How could you have fallen out of the sky and not remember? Unless you suffered some kind of head trauma, which would explain why your back was in such pain. But if you truly fell from the sky, wouldn't you be dead?

Eventually the puppets managed to calm you down enough for you to not try to run every chance you got. They told you their names, and you told them yours in return.

There was Howdy, the one who had stopped you from running away and hurting yourself; Frank, the grey one who had told you what happened; Julie, the one who had come to help you first; Poppy, whose bed you woke up in and who cared for you while you were out; Eddie, who was the first to actually notice something falling from the sky; Barnaby, who had carried you to Poppy; Sally, who had kept the morale up for the other puppets while you were out; and Wally, who had assisted in taking care of you.

You found them all to be very interesting in both their appearances and personalities. Sally, who you had been informed was once the brightest star in the entire sky, was a rambunctious, creative soul always ready for an adventure and new ideas. She often proposed imaginative but impractical solutions to your back problem.

There was Julie, a kind and fun puppet with long blonde hair. She was always playing some sort of game, or editing one to allow you to join, even when you didn't quite trust her. Her favourite to play with you was Patty Cake, because it was simple and could be repeated as many times as she wanted. Sally liked to join in on that one for the singing. You were surprised she knew what it was.

But no matter how intriguing you found the puppets; they were always more fascinated by you. They constantly asked you questions about who you were, where you lived, what life was like. Howdy was very interested in the 'Click and Collect' system you had at your local supermarket. The ability to know someone's order beforehand without even a telephone was incredible to him.

Frank was by far the most interested. He was always asking you questions while you rested in Poppy's bed. At one point he left for about fifteen minutes before coming back with a whole bookshelf's worth of books. How he managed to carry it without breaking apart you had no idea, but he looked strained.

Frank had sat the books on the floor and started going through each one, repeating his questions only to throw the book away when it didn't match what you said. He ended up with every book thrown in the messy pile by the end of it and was quite angry.

Everyone was surprised with how similar but how different your worlds were. Things like recipes, games, and speech were all the same and yet you had all this technology they didn't, and they had whole species you didn't. Howdy was shocked to know he could never exist in your world, and Sally was upset to learn that she would only ever be a ball of gas (though she felt a bit better when you mentioned how huge they were).

But more than anything they were surprised with you. The first time they saw you eat was fascinating. Sure, (for the sake of the television show) they can eat, but not like that. What you were doing was just plain weird by their standards, with your odd moving of these 'muscles'. Wally had asked you what you were doing with your mouth and was shocked (and a little disgusted) to see your teeth.

The day seemed to go on forever in this little town you were informed was called Home. Poppy was too big for her couch, but refused to move you, so you ended up sleeping next to her. It was comfy, if not a little suffocating.

I'll be making a part 2 for this!

[avatar-news]

Netflix officially confirms cast + authentic adaptation

A bit under a week after my initial report, Netflix officially confirmed the main cast of the live-action adaptation of ATLA. The announcement included some new information as well:

Albert Kim, previously already reported as showrunner/executive producer, will also be a writer on the series.

Michael Goi, previously already reported as a director, will also be an executive producer.

Roseanne Liang, previously already reported as a director, will also be a co-executive producer.

Jabbar Raisani is a newly announced director on the series! More on him in my next post.

Rideback was also announced as the production company, and from it Dan Lin and Lindsey Liberatore as executive producers (all previously already reported).

Lastly, a pretty extensive mission statement of sorts written by showrunner Albert Kim was released. The main thing is that it “confirms” that the show won’t be modernized or changed fundamentally from the original, probably addressing the assorted viral fake news that has been going on for years. If you follow Avatar News, you’ve already seen me debunk this ten thousand times, and never report it in the first place. :) Well, now it’s OFFICIAL official.

Key takeaways:

They’re confident about the bending VFX.

The story will be more streamlined and expanded compared to the original episodic format.

The worldbuilding will be expanded.

Concerning the following three pillars, it will be an “authentic” adaptation: story, characters, and cultural influences.

They’re specifically using that word “authentic”, and “authenticity”, a lot.

Here’s the full thing (bolding mine), as well as official descriptions of Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko after it (no surprises there):

“This is all my daughter’s fault. She’s the one who got me hooked.

When Avatar: The Last Airbender first aired on Nickelodeon, she wasn’t quite old enough to fully track the narrative. Yet I’d still find her glued to the TV every week, captivated by the adventures of Aang and his friends (who would quickly become her friends).

I began watching along with her with the thought of helping her understand what was going on. But my Dad-splainy duties quickly fell by the wayside as I found myself sucked into the world and characters, and soon we were watching side by side, both of us swept away by the singular mix of action, humor, and epic storytelling.

It also wasn’t lost on me that this was a world that drew from Asian cultures and legend, which is a rarity to this day and something I appreciated as an Asian-American father. That my daughter was able to see characters who looked like her on screen was more than just entertaining. It was a gift.

Flash forward 15 years. Netflix offers me the opportunity to develop a live-action remake of Avatar. My first thought was, “Why? What is there I could do or say with the story that wasn’t done or said in the original?” A:TLA had only grown in popularity and acclaim over the last decade and a half, which is a testament to how complete and resonant a narrative experience it had been. So if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I became. VFX technology has advanced to the point where a live-action version can not only faithfully translate what had been done in animation — it can bring a rich new visual dimension to a fantastic world. We’ll be able to see bending in a real and visceral way we’ve never seen before.

Also, Netflix’s format meant we had an opportunity to reimagine a story that had originally been told in self-contained half-hour episodes as an ongoing serialized narrative. That meant story points and emotional arcs we’d loved in the original could be given even more room to breathe and grow.

Finally, a live-action version would establish a new benchmark in representation and bring in a whole new generation of fans. This was a chance to showcase Asian and Indigenous characters as living, breathing people. Not just in a cartoon, but in a world that truly exists, very similar to the one we live in.

I also knew what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to change things for the sake of change. I didn’t want to modernize the story, or twist it to fit current trends. Aang is not going to be a gritty antihero. Katara is not going to get curtain bangs. (I was briefly tempted to give Sokka a TikTok account though. Think of the possibilities.)

Don’t get me wrong. We’ll be expanding and growing the world, and there will be surprises for existing fans and those new to the tale. But throughout this process, our byword has been “authenticity.” To the story. To the characters. To the cultural influences. Authenticity is what keeps us going, both in front of the camera and behind it, which is why we’ve assembled a team unlike any seen before—a group of talented and passionate artists who are working around the clock to bring this rich and incredibly beautiful world to life.  

But in the end, the reason I decided to do this came down to one thing:

Somewhere out there, a young kid is sitting glued to their TV, waiting to be taken on an incredible journey. And I want to take them on it.

I hope you’ll come along too.”

Character descriptions:

“GORDON CORMIER (he/him) is AANG (12), a fearless and fun-loving twelve-year-old who just happens to be the Avatar, master of all four elements and the keeper of balance and peace in the world. An airbending prodigy, Aang is a reluctant hero, struggling to deal with the burden of his duties while still holding on to his adventurous and playful nature.

KIAWENTIIO (she/her) is KATARA (14), a determined and hopeful waterbender, the last in her small village. Though only fourteen, she’s already endured great personal tragedy, which has held her back from rising to her true potential, though it’s never dimmed her warm and caring spirit.

IAN OUSLEY (he/him) is SOKKA (16), Katara’s sardonic and resourceful 16-year-old brother. Outwardly confident, even brash, he takes his responsibility as the leader of his tribe seriously, despite his inner doubts over his warrior skills… doubts that he masks with his wit and deadpan sense of humor.

DALLAS LIU (he/him) is ZUKO (17), a skilled firebender and the intense and guarded Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. Currently roaming the world in exile, he’s on an obsessive quest to capture the Avatar because he believes that is the only way to reclaim his life and live up to the demands of his cruel and controlling father, the Fire Lord.”

Source: Netflix

[caeora]

Hello everyone! Today I finished up one of those desert maps that I was talking about in my previous patreon post!

This was one of the more simple maps and I thought I would start with something I had been working on recently anyway with a big old dragon head. (I do love my dragons XD) This is also a remake of one of the first ever maps I made for Patreon, which you can see below, I think I’ve improved on it a bit since then :)

I’m not fully happy with this new map in some ways, as I think that it's quite rough in some places but since this is my first battlemap for some time It’s not too bad and a good place to start with! :)

As always, you can find the ZIP file for the gridded and griddless files in the downloads on Patreon!

PS: Oh! I’m going to start including the pixel grid and map size in the display file as well so people can see at a glance what dimensions they need for using it in a VTT.

This map is avaliable for free over on my patreon!

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Whomp

Debut: Super Mario 64 

You know what I’ve been thinking about lately? Super Mario 64. Haven’t we all, really? Between all the recent datamines and general online discussion, I can’t help but wonder about Super Mario 64! 

Something I don’t think Mario 64 gets enough appreciation for, is being the birthplace of our beloved Whomps! At least, I certainly belove them. Don’t you? We’ve covered pretty much every “Thwomp” variant in the past, and sure, Whomps may be nowhere near the “obscure” side of enemies, but a splendid design is a good thing to appreciate anytime! 

Not only is this their debut, but they get a whole stage themed around them: the Whomp’s Fortress, if by “fortress” you mean a vague collection of scattered obstacles and platforms floating in the sky, like most 64 stages! That sure is a lot of... textures! My favorite part is the little paddling pool near the bottom.

And who could forget the Whomp in all their original polygonal glory? Clearly they just wanted to make an enemy who is just a rectangle with a texture on top, yet the design had all its charm even back then! The sunken eyes with glowing red pupils, the H-shaped mouth with the crooked teeth... it’s very cute, in an ugly way. And on the back, their weak spot is a crack with a bandage on top! Adorable!

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it- that’s why the Whomp has only really had a few subtle redesigns over the years! When they appeared in Mario 64 DS, they looked just a little bit nicer to look at. They were also in New Super Mario Bros. DS, using the same model- a 3D only enemy in a 2D game, how strange indeed! Their first appearance in a new mainline game in 10 whole years- and it probably just happened because they wanted to reuse assets.

Another redesign? Don’t mind if I do! The Whomp’s grand return to the third dimension happened in Mario Galaxy 2, really cementing them (hah) as a modern Mario classic. This time, they’re huge! And square-ish! And uh, their eyes aren’t wacky anymore. No longer having a band-aid, they instead have a big ground-pound symbol on their back now, which must be just awful, right? Can you imagine having a big logo emblazoned on your back which says “crush me with your butt here”?

This here is their artwork from Mario Party 9. It’s the same as the art from Galaxy 2, but their eyes are glowy now. I just thought this was funny.  But I’m getting ahead of myself here! Before I talk about Mario Party, I need to talk about...

Their monarch, the big bad Whomp King! He’s just... He’s just a big Whomp. He acts just like other Whomps, but he’s big and takes three hits. What’s totally memorable about this boss, though, is the villain monologue he gives before fighting! 

“It makes me so mad! We build your houses, your castles, we pave your roads, and still you walk all over us. Do you ever say thank you? No! Well, you're not going to wipe your feet on me. I think I'll crush you just for fun! Do you have a problem with that? Just try to pound me, wimp! Ha!” 

Uh oh! Looks like Mario’s world has a little problem with under-valuing essential workers! Good thing our world has nothing like that. Well, jokes aside, it’s a pretty cheeky nod at how the Whomps are made of stone- but one has to wonder much of this tragic backstory is serious! It must be a pretty nasty lot in life, huh? 

Don’t feel bad- in 64 DS and Mario Galaxy 2, the Whomp King got a snazzy new crown! At least someone appreciates him a bit!

Well, it wasn’t just him: Galaxy 2′s Throwback Galaxy was one big reimagining of Whomp’s Fortress, meaning this is probably the most Whomp-focused game released in the past decade. The music was remixed, the boss fight was revamped- all in all, a lovely throwback indeed!

And the Whomp has basically just... stuck around! You may have noticed the image at the top (from Super Mario Party) has a slightly different design, being a little more rectangular with smaller, thinner eyes and a more angular mouth! They definitely redesigned the Whomp again at some point, but I couldn’t tell you exactly when... Either way, I’m glad they’re here for good! 

Not that Whomps ever really went anywhere! In the years between Super Mario 64 and its remake, Whomps survived almost exclusively in Mario Party (and other spin-offs), functioning mainly as roadblocks that don’t allow the player to pass!

Which brings me to my final point- between their design and this function, the Whomp is most likely based on the mythological yōkai called... the Nurikabe! And since I’d love nothing more, I’ll now go into a long-winded tangent about what the Nurikabe is, and... Hey, wait!! Come back! It’ll be interesting, I swear! Don’t cut off the post! Hey-

Yeah, yeah. You’re all sick of my long-winded yōkai posts. But I’m happy you joined me here, even if it was out of pity. Let’s talk about the Nurikabe!

Look at this big guy! What a card! Nurikabe literally translates to plaster wall, and they take the form of a big invisible wall that blocks the way of travellers at night. Since they’re invisible, they naturally don’t have many illustrations- leave it to Shigeru Mizuki to depict them as a large, goofy-looking slab of stone! This Nurikabe joined the main cast of the GeGeGe no Kitaro manga, and thus quickly became a cornerstone (haha) of their popular depictions!

(To be fair, there does exist an old illustration of the Nurikabe as a strange, lumpy dog thing... but I’m not MUCH of a fan? I think a literal stone wall is so much more charming!)

Come on, look at this! What could be better? 

Ōkami has a rather lovely Nurikabe-looking guy! Though his design is splendid, if you’ve played Ōkami you likely remember him as “the extremely frustrating memory puzzle” or “the memory puzzle that is literally scientifically impossible for the human brain to solve”. Shame!

Yo-kai Watch has the Murikabe, a.k.a “Noway” in the English version! “Muri” means “no way”. So like, it’s a pun. Hoho.

Nioh’s Nurikabe is quite scary, but also rather cool! Don’t you think? I still know very little about Nioh, but whenever I look at its yōkai I think “Dang! That’s cool!”, and I’m right, and it is cool. 

The Super Sentai series has two whole Nurikabe monsters, each based on a different Nurikabe look! While the latter is quite cool, I’m in love with the former and its weird, grungy brick wall look! It’s like, the dictionary definition of Gnarly! Though I know very little about tokukatsu shows, I think its kind of fascinating how creative they can get with designing humanoid monsters suits!

You may be wondering: was this entire post just a thinly-veiled excuse for me to talk about the Nurikabe? And to that I say:

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmaybe....???

[kyndaris]

Who Else Will I Have Da-Chao Beans With?

With a brand-new PlayStation 5, lovingly dubbed Seto Kaiba, now in my grasp I was excited to try out Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade. In particular, the downloadable content (DLC) featuring everyone’s favourite materia hunter: Yuffie Kisaragi. Yes, you heard it right. I suffered through disappointment and numerous attempts of trying to put my name down on a PlayStation 5 waitlist just so that I could play a $30 add-on. I mean, it’s not the first time that I’ve willingly put down money to enjoy more of the story, but it’s a rare occurrence.

With that out of the way, please know that this impression of INTERmission will be filled with spoilers. I know this post won’t go up until August but considering how hard it is to still get consoles, well…you’ve been warned.

In contrast to Cloud’s stoic and no-nonsense attitude, Yuffie is a breath of fresh air. Right from the gates, her narration in a bid to impress the members of Avalanche that aren’t even present is a joy and delight. True, she’s younger than our main character, but she has seen a lot of things. The conflict between Wutai and Shinra back in the good old days of Crisis Core are very much part of the lore in the expanded Final Fantasy 7 universe.

In fact, our favourite puppy of the series, Zack Fair, also got to meet the rising ninja star of Wutai during the conflict.

But I’m getting off-topic. Back to INTERmission.

After traversing the wastelands around Sector 7, Yuffie finally reaches the slums before the plate has fallen. Once she has arrived, she meets up with the members of AVALANCHE. Except, of course, they’re not the ones that we know and love. Enter Zhijie, Nayo, Polk and Billy Bob.

As for Jessie, Biggs and Wedge? All three were located around the slums. Jessie was seated in front of Seventh Heaven (which Yuffie could not enter), Wedge enjoyed the company of many cats and Biggs was idling by not too far from the others. All of them were interactable but their dialogue essentially boiled down to: stop bothering me. I did like, however, being able to play the board game: Fort Condor with at least two of them. AND UTTERLY DESTROYED THEM WHILE I WAS AT IT.

Chadley too, made an appearance – this time offering a battle with Ramuh and also being the GRANDMASTER of the Fort Condor board games.

By the by, the Fort Condor minigame is probably quite reminiscent of the auto-battles that have gained popularity. Three towers to be defended, summonable units…

I’ve never played any of the auto-battles but it does seem fun. For a short while at least. And as a minigame within a game.

Once I had explored the slums to my heart’s content, it was back to the story missions. Enter Sonon. As soon as he appeared, I knew that things would not end well. After all, Yuffie did not have a companion when you met her as an optional side character. And in every other iteration: from Advent Children to Dirge of Cerberus, he was never present.

But though I knew his time would be limited, he brought excellent banter to the adventure and served as an excellent support to Yuffie. Even if the brother-sister connection was a little ham-fisted with Yuffie reminding the warrior of his own sister: Melphi. Still, despite the way the developers bungled the immediate connection, I didn’t mind. Yuffie, after all, was on a mission to nab the greatest and ultimate materia right from under Shinra’s nose.

It is important to know that while not much changes in the way of combat, Yuffie does play quite a bit different from the other main characters. In fact, she can fight both close-up and at range with her ninjutsu arts. Another change to the formula is that you cannot change to Sonon. Only Yuffie can be controlled – though you can give commands to Sonon and have him perform abilities and spells.

Then, of course, there’s also the synergy aspect wherein Sonon and Yuffie would combine their attacks to deal additional damage. It was fun experimenting with the system and showed how versatile the combat system could be.

Once they enjoyed a trip chasing Zhijie to obtain High-D cards that would allow them to slip into Shinra Headquarters, it was back to the slums to see Tifa and Barret return without SOLDIER-boy Cloud Strife. What I loved about this moment was that we also got to see a private conversation between Tifa and Barret that did not feature in the first game or in the Remake run. Seeing the aftermath of Cloud falling down into the slums below and how it had impacted both Tifa and Barret was a great character moment. And it also helped serve to explain the reason why Tifa ended up in Wall Market in the first place.

With that moment out of the way, our heroes Yuffie and Sonon head to Shinra headquarters. As they slip into the elevator, they are joined by Scarlet: Head of Weapons Development. From there, the game becomes a gauntlet of battles. It’s not the most thrilling chapter to experience but it does showcase how well the Wutaians fight and the innate teamwork between Yuffie and Sonon.

This new piece of downloadable content, however, is not satisfied to simply end matters here, however. When Scarlet is defeated (and even in defeat she’s assessing how best to finetune her machines of war), she activates DEEPGROUND. For the first time in a long while, I got to see Weiss the Immaculate and Nero the Sable.

While I may not have played Dirge of Cerberus, I did watch ALL the walkthroughs that I could find on YouTube back in my younger years. I watched Vincent Valentine grapple with his past and finally learn to control the power within.

That aside, the new threat that Nero presented was a challenge. With his arms strapped to his chest in a straitjacket, he reminded me of Anima Aeon from Final Fantasy X. But it was his darkness powerset that gave me all the Kingdom Hearts vibes. If I have to hear ‘Darkness’ again in anything, I think I might have to scream.

Beyond these few nitpick moments, I felt that Sonon’s death was a little overdone. Particularly for a character that had only been fighting beside us for only a few short moments. Don’t get me wrong, the developers tried their best to sell it: the swell in the orchestra, the use of copious flashbacks…

Still, the pain expressed by Yuffie (which was then followed by the Sector 7 plate falling) was enough to sell a bit of the horror.

My only question though is: WHAT IS NERO GOING TO DO WITH SONON’S BODY?

From there, the credits rolled and we caught a glimpse of Yuffie out in the wilds, on a chocobo and humming. As a side note, does everyone know the chocobo theme song? Is it a piece of canonical music within the game universe that is associated with chocobos? Like, is it used in advertisement for chocobos? I NEED TO KNOW!

We also get to see Barret, Tifa, Aerith and Cloud traipsing along on the road to Kalm. Better than that, we see Zack in his alternate dimension reaching the church in the Sector 5 slums, debating how best to reintroduce himself to his fair flower lady. Where is his version of Cloud in all this? Why are there so many people in the church? How does this whole dimension/ alternate timeline thing work?

Once again, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake left me with more questions than answers. Though I never played the original, over the years, I had scoured the wiki sites to learn as much as I could. And though I knew the plot beats, the creative directors and script writer have kept things close to the vest – tantalising me with the prospect of what is to come.

I still need a slap fight between Scarlet and Tifa, okay! It had better be in there!

[rukialusia]

Fanfictions for Fiveya Fans

First of all I want to thank to all those talented people that took time to delight us with astounding stories for this pair. I am new to this fandom but I am still astonished by the all stories that were created in order to bring a tribute to our favorite couple.

Second I wanted to post a top 10 titles of stories dedicated to this pair in order to have a list of my own with the stories that really impacted my heart. I am very picky when it come to fanfiction maybe because I love reading books in my free time and I even review them on Goodreads so I tend to like those stories that are more complex and detailed then the majority of fanfictions. I was pleased surprised to found stories that are really deep and way more complex  that I initially thought I would have found in this fandom. Of course all the authors that dare to publish their stories deserve applause because of their hard work but there are some that leave a lingering feeling after you finished reading it that I just had to bring a tribute to them.

1. Reset by StormMelody - this story is from the POV of Five and deals with his PTSD , what is amazing is that this story’s Five resembles very much the canon Five from the TV show. 

2. You, Me and this Universe in Reverse by theblythe- the writing of this author is purely brilliant and I am not ashamed to admit that I literally shed tears. The story follows Vanya arriving in a different timeline were she was known as The Echo and she is part of the Umbrella Academy. But soon she realizes that in this dimension she is more lonely that in her reality because here Five is her ferocious enemy. 

3. A Different Life by Chevalier_Barthelemy (Warning this is rated mature) - this is also an alternative reality story but much more complicated and when I say complicated I really mean it (pregnancy, fake relationship, unreliable narrator especially Five) but I feel that by the end it will be a fulfilling slow burn.

4. By the same author as the previous one is Back to the Golden Days - this story is more pure that I believe will be more about their teenage years. I am a sucker for Fiveya in their teenage years because of the “what could have been”, you know the first beating of the heart, the shy glances, the insecurity in touches, the first kiss, the first time etc. In this one Five turns back time and wakes in 2002 when he was 13 with the knowledge of what happened till the end of S1.

5. A Natural Perspective by  Quokkasandnothingelse - this has the most intense scene between 30 years old Five and Vanya were they flirt. Their attraction to each other is so palpable that by the end you are convinced they are made for each other. Usually I am not a fan of make love scene but oh boy I so wanted that this author would have written the love scene...  

6.  At Malum Pluvia  by rappaccini is a collection of 7 works that revolve around the S2 remake and continues the comics very closely. But what is really amazing about this works are the development of the characters. Is the best in that department!

7. By the same author I present to you Treat me like a Stranger - in this one Five takes Leonard’s place and tries to stop Vanya from destroying the world by wooing her. 

8. The next are TooYoungToFeelThisTired ‘s stories that are phenomenal beware they are also mature. From a total of 60 stories I will mention the ones that are in my top: The Blackout, The Touch, The Cabin, I Think We’re Alone Now, Somebody that I Used to Know, and of course All those boys lost in time, all those girls with tragic smiles .

9. I’ll wait, I’ll wait to be the one by  georgiestauffenberg (Mature) - at first I was hesitating to begun this story because of the all Five being a “sugar daddy” but by the end I loved it.

10. He Came Back by  mymindismyweapon - it is one of the few good multichapter story that is completed and is about Five returning home after only being in the future for one week.

[neojeno]

I really wouldn't mind you aiding me with some tutorials love

giffing tutorial/resources

hi anon! sorry it took me so long to answer. i figured this might be helpful for others out there who have asked me similar questions, so i’ve compiled a pretty comprehensive list of tutorials/resources. idk about others but when i was new to giffing, it took me a lot of painful effort to go around and look for resources, so i’m putting it all here to make it a little easier!

i download videos using 4k video downloader. it will download very good quality 1080p videos in .mp4 format. if you’re downloading a 4k video, make sure to change the setting option to .mkv so that you get 4k and not 1080p—for obvious reasons since you want the highest quality.

i rely on kpopexciting to get .ts files — which are basically raw, very high quality video files for live performances. they are much less grainy than .mp4 versions of live performances—which are the ones you’ll see uploaded to youtube. i’ve found that 4k videos (in .mkv) are just as good quality as .ts, but obviously you will rarely see live performances in 4k, so get .ts when you can!! you can also try to find .ts files on twitter, but you may have to do a lot of digging. i wish i could recommend you twitter accounts, but the ones i used to go to have been very inactive/taken down all their drives :( but this website is really nice and updated frequently so i would recommend it!

vapoursynth links + download. the reason you would use vapoursynth is to resize your gif, while maintaining the optimal quality of the gif. if you gif without vapoursynth (.ie only using photoshop), it will still be fine, but the image quality may be grainier. also, you will definitely need vapoursynth to gif .ts files —more will be explained in the tutorial i’ve linked below. i would recommend that you have a high processing/lots of ram/newer desktop or laptop to use vapoursynth so that 1, your computer isn’t fried and 2, your vapoursynth process will go a lot faster. i am using a 2017 macbook pro for all my work, and it runs pretty well, but my laptop still gets pretty hot so just make sure you’re not running a million things in the background while using adobe products and vapoursynth lol. i used a pretty old and beat up 2011 model macbook air back then, and i will say that yes vapoursynth worked and ran on it, but it took much longer, and basically fried the laptop’s battery (aka i had to get the battery changed twice and the laptop would die randomly) but issok it was a school borrowed laptop so i didn’t feel too bad lol. im just saying this as a precaution, to preserve the health of your electronic devices!! but don’t be afraid to use vapoursynth! you should still try it at least once.

thank you to @realstraykids for this super detailed, really nice tutorial! it includes how and where to download videos, how to gif using vapoursynth, using photoshop, comparisons, coloring, and pretty much all you need to know. 10/10 would recommend

thank you to @dreamcolouring for this lifesaver!!! the best and easiest way to blur out unwanted captions/objects in your gifs. i recommend doing this step after converting your frames to video timeline and before you do sharpening and coloring. another tip i’ll add is to feather the selection you’ve made right before you click on “add vector mask” —this will make sense once you’ve read through the tutorial. feathering it will make the blurred spot less noticeable and more subtle.

i use this generator to create gradient colored captions! copy and paste your text, then select the colors you want. generate the code, and copy it. change the settings of the text editor on your post to HTML. paste the code, preview, and voila! add elements <blockquote>,<b>,<i>, etc as needed. see more on colored captions in this tutorial by @kylos​ --i believe op mentioned a different and better color generator but for some reason it won’t work for me :( hopefully it works for u! basically same idea as the previous generator i mentioned.

my own mini tutorial/workflow process of making gifs. this includes working with a .ts file, vapoursynth, photoshop, coloring, watermarking, etc. and a few of my own tips below:

if you are working with an .mp4, you do not have to make any changes to the preprocessor/denoise filters/sharpening in the resizing part of vapoursynth—it doesn’t make that big of a difference if you do. but if you are working with a .ts file, definitely do make those changes,, that’s the whole reason you have vapoursynth. with an .mp4, i like to use vapoursynth to just resize, but i don’t add any additional settings. i use smart sharpen in photoshop to sharpen it, which is pretty good on it’s own (at least in photoshop 2020!).

my rule of thumb is to do add .02 seconds when i am setting frame delay. so if when you first import the frames, they are at 0.04 seconds, i usually change them to 0.06. of course, this is my personal taste—you can make all your gifs faster or slower depending on how you want em to look.

if you are on a mac, you can screen record by pressing Command+Shift+5 (it’s a shortcut to quicktime screen recording). I only screen record for things like the beyond live concert or other live streamed events. the image quality of the screen recording, in my experience, is actually pretty good. when you gif the screen recording however, you may notice that it adds extra frames that you don’t need. by that i mean duplicate frames. you could keep the duplicate frames but that just means the size of your gif is going to be much bigger (keep in mind the limit is 8mb). in order to remove those duplicates, my only solution has been to remove them manually (by holding Command while selecting), or when you are importing the video to frames, select the option to “limit to every 2 frames”—but this method will be less precise and still not as good as manually removing frames. if you remove the duplicate frames, this means you will need to set the frame delay even slower, to make up for lost frames. in my experience, fps(frames per second) and frame delay work in conjunction. so for example, if i delete every other frame because they are duplicates,  but the starting frame delay is 0.02, i am now going to change it to something like 0.05 (so i added 0.03 seconds rather than my usual 0.02). if the duration length and the image dimensions of the gif are short/small, feel free to keep the duplicate frames in—i only delete duplicate frames in order to keep my gif under the 8mb limit. then, if you keep the duplicate frames in, continue with your standard frame delay preferences.  now that i’m writing this im realizing this might not make a lot of sense lol.. but don’t worry about it for now and if you run into trouble w screen recorded gifs then you can come back to this for reference. again, this is only my experience recording on a mac—it may be a lot different if you use a screen recording program or are on a pc.

i don’t really use .psd templates because i like to give every gif/gifset it’s own unique coloring—so i remake the coloring every time, but if you get into a rhythm it’s pretty easy. there are a lot of nice coloring tutorials out there, too! my personal coloring adjustments in order: levels, exposure, color balance, selective color (if needed), vibrance, photo filter (if needed), color lookup (i use 2strip most often and i put it on ‘color’ blending mode). don’t forget to adjust the opacities and fills of the ‘color lookup’ adjustment layer in case it’s too strong. go back to correct each adjustment layer as needed. then, when you’re done and satisfied, group all those layers, copy the group (you can do an easy command+c), and paste it onto the next gif you’re working on for easy workflow.

if for some reason you can’t see the frames when you import your layers/video, it’s likely because your ‘timeline’ window isn’t showing up. just go to the window menu on photoshop, go to the bottom and you’ll see ‘timeline.’ make sure it has a check next to it.

i recommend watermarking your gifs because a lot of people like to repost tings these days 😠 - so make sure u got your brand on it! i keep my watermark saved to my ‘libraries’ in photoshop so it’s ready when i need it. i use the blending mode ‘overlay’ and adjust the opacity, but if you don’t want to do that you can also add a stroke/shadow to your watermark/do all sorts.

tag #nctinc for your nct creations and #jenonet for your jeno creations!!

here’s my own mini tutorial (well not much of a tutorial ig more like a work process vid?): took about ten minutes including the time to search and download the video (but i didn’t record that part i trust yall know how to do that), vapoursynth, and exporting. i hope this helps somewhat! feel free to ask more questions whenever :)

keep in mind that giffing takes a lot of patience, energy, and experience—so don’t worry if it takes you a bit to figure things out or if your gifs don’t turn out the way you want them to the first time around. we all start at the same place and all run into problems. i know giffing can sound intimidating and seem like a lot of work, but i promise, once you get into a routine, giffing is going to happen in minutes—and you’ll get beautiful gifs. have fun! 😊

[gamersonthego]

Chase Koeneke’s Top 25 DS Games

The DS was a fascinating system. It was the first salvo in Nintendo’s pivot to more innovative and oddball gaming, priming an audience for the Wii console that was about to come. It was easy to laugh at this thing. How the hell were you supposed to pay attention to two screens at once? And yet, developers found interesting new ways of using the dual screens to create a slate of awesome and original titles. I haven’t played every DS game. Hell, I haven’t even played all the ones I’ve wanted to (like The World Ends With You or Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story), but here is a list of my 25 favorite DS games. If you don’t see one of your favorites listed, let me know. I could always use another game to add to my never-ending backlog. 1. Advance Wars: Dual Strike 

I may be president of the Fire Emblem fan club these days, but back in the DS era, it was all Advance Wars, all the time. And Dual Strike represented the peak of the series, even if it may have gotten a little too complex for its own good. The dual front mechanics and new units types felt mostly superfluous, but the online play is what made this game truly special in its day. It’d be great to see Intelligent Systems come back to this series one day. 

2. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

I love to tinker. I love to grind. I love job systems with lots of unique skills. Dragon Quest IX has all that and much more. While some may not enjoy the blank slate party you’re given, I loved building a completely customized team. The main campaign is extremely meaty (HowLongToBeat clocks it in at 48.5 hours), but the amount of endgame content is truly staggering. With proto-StreetPass and SpotPass functionality, the game felt truly limitless (for comparison, HowLongToBeat says a “completionist” playthrough balloons up to 752 hours!)

3. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver

Nostalgia keeps the original Red & Blue as my favorites of the series, but if I’m being honest with myself, these are the best Pokemon games ever made. These remakes smoothed out the few rough edges from Johto and added in the modern functionality from Diamond & Pearl (like the Global Trade System). This double-long Pokemon adventure is one of the best, with expressive new sprite work and a remastered soundtrack.

4. Monster Tale

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve never heard of Monster Tale. No one has. It came out late in the DS lifecycle (like, five days before the 3DS launched), so it very quickly was buried in the mix. And that’s a shame because it’s one of the best DS games ever made. Developed by the makers of Henry Hatsworth (#19 on my list), Monster Tale makes great use of the two-screen concept, having a Metroidvania brawler on the top screen and a virtual pet simulator on the bottom. The two games worked in tandem as your pet could come up to the top screen to help solve puzzles or battle enemies. An excellent aesthetic and tight controls make this one of the best games you’ve never played.

5. Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2

Speaking of games you’ve never played, what is a licensed anime game doing in my top five? It’s here because it’s actually a really great RPG. You get access to a large cast of unique characters and arrange them on a 3x4 grid for surprisingly tactical combat. You may rub a hole into your DS’ bottom screen with the game’s poor special attack quick-time events, but if you can get past that, it’s a real gem. I wrote more on this series back in an old GOTG SP if you like what you’ve heard.  

6. Mario Kart DS

This is the best Mario Kart game, don’t let anyone tell you different. No silly gimmicks like two people on a cart or motorcycles or anti-gravity: Just good, tight racing action. A bevy of great new courses (like the incomparable Tick-Tock Clock) and retro tracks (Moo Moo Farm, Choco Mountain, Donut Plains 1) complete the package. There are plenty of other good Mario games, but this one’s the best.

7. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Look, I’d be lying if I said this game was as good as the ones on the Game Boy Advance, but I love Golden Sun with all my heart and this entry does have some cool ideas. Lots of cool characters, some amazing summons and a very useful encyclopedia that can be accessed within the natural dialogue of the story: There’s good stuff here. The graphics may not be great and the game may be too easy, but I enjoyed my time with it, even if I was mostly reminiscing about the GBA games.

8. Final Fantasy III

I’ve mentioned it on a number of shows and in some of these GOTG posts, but I just don’t enjoy Final Fantasy’s Active Time Battle (ATB) system. I like my RPGs strictly turn-based. And Final Fantasy III is that. While not the strongest game in the series by any stretch, it does have a fairly robust job system that I appreciate, and the updated 3D graphics were great for the time (and led to a beautiful, yet too difficult version of Final Fantasy IV not much later).

9. Picross 3D

I love Picross. I’ve written about it here before. But Picross 3D changed the game, literally. That extra dimension made for much more interesting puzzle mechanics as you strategically chipped away blocks to reveal the figure within. So charming, so fun and occasionally, so challenging. I’m glad a 3DS sequel was eventually made, but this original is still the one to play.

10. Meteos

My very first DS game, Meteos immediately showed me how the DS era was going to be different, both in design and input. In this puzzle game, you’d need to skillfully use the touchscreen to line up blocks and bury your opponents while monitoring their progress on the top screen. Each planet you played on had a particular quirk to it, keeping things fresh as you matched and rocketed your way to victory. Extremely fun and a sign of the innovation to come.

11. Animal Crossing: Wild World

12. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

13. Chrono Trigger

14. Metroid Prime Hunters

15. Retro Game Challenge

16. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

17. Pokemon Conquest

18. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

19. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

20. New Super Mario Bros.

21. Pokemon Black/White

22. Space Invaders Extreme

23. Advance Wars Days of Ruin

24. Kirby: Canvas Curse

25. WarioWare D.I.Y.

[officialotakudome]

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New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/reviews/crash-bandicoot-4-its-about-time-review/

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time Review

Crash is back for a third time in Crash 4: It’s About Time. Following two remakes, Crash returns in this brand new game for the first time in twelve years. Taking place after the events of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, (thus omitting the events of the fourth and final canonical game of the original series) Crash 4 has the titular character once again facing off against the now joined forces of Neo Cortex & Nefarious Tropy, He, his sister Coco, and Aku Aku & Quantum Mask Lani-Loli work together t0 stop them from interfering with the fabric of space-time before all of existence collapses on itself.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a 2020 platformer game, it is developed by Toys for Bob, and published by Activision. It is currently available for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Editor’s Note: A review copy for Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time was provided by Activision in support of this coverage. Near complete to complete spoilers for Crash 4 may be present in this review

Activision goes all in on Crash with a new entry for the first time since 2008.

After many, many, many (and many still) years Activision has returned to one of it’s most beloved properties in Crash Bandicoot. Having attempted a reboot in 2008 that was in fairness moderately successful enough to garner it’s own sequel, Activision gave the Crash franchise another life by remaking the first three games from the ground up as well as it’s racer Crash Nitro Team Racing. While it ignores the events of then canonical final game of the original 90s series, it’s quite clear that the Crash of old is here to stay at least for another good while. In Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time you play as Crash, Coco, Cortex, and an alternative timeline version of Crash’s ex girlfriend Tawna as well as former enemy turned ally Dingodile as Crash and co. use the new Quantum Masks to control space-time to stop Cortex and Tropy from destroying existence from where it stands.

Meet the new and improved Crash in Crash 4: It’s About Time.

THE GOOD: In Crash 4, Crash and Coco are out relaxing at home before Aku Aku senses a disturbance; the return of Cortex & Tropy to their world. Going off in a nearby temple Crash discovers a Quantum Mask known as Lani-Loni who is one of several that can control certain aspects of reality such as bending time and space. Quantum Mask are essentially the elders of Aku Aku and the Guardians and like Aku Aku, Lani-Loni has several relatives. Lani-Loni decides to trust Crash and co. having seen them befriend Aku with finding his own brothers to fix the fabric of time that has been broken by Cortex & Tropy’s return. Crash and the others race through time and space against Cortex and Tropy before meeting an alternate version of Crash’s ex-girlfriend Tawna who lends her assistant while simultaneously doing her own thing. As Crash, Coco, and Tawna along with Aku Aku & Lani-Loni try to stop Cortex and Tropy, Crash’s former enemy Dingodile has reformed and opened a restaurant. Following his restaurant being burned down by a rivaling restaurant Dingodile begins inadvertently aiding Crash and the others across space time. Crash finds most of the Quantum Masks and face off against Cortex. only for Cortex to be betrayed by Tropy upon his defeat who reveals his new ally; an alternative female version of himself from alt Tawna’s universe. Cortex agrees to help Crash defeat the Trophies out of spite. With their combined forces they beat the Trophies, collect all the Quantum Masks, and save space-time. The group take a trip to the future to celebrate their victory, but Cortex plans his own betrayal taking Quantum Mask Kupana-Wa to travel back to the past of Crash’s invention in an effort to stop it. Past Cortex refuses to stop the experiment and Present Crash & the others send Present Cortex to the ends of the universe. Crash accidentally intervenes in Past Cortex’s experiment on Past Crash essentially ensuring the timeline is mostly intact. Dingodile reopens his restaurant, Cortex is on a beach, and Crash, Coco, Tawna, and the masks play games on N. Sanity Island. A dimensional rift opens in front of Cortex revealing Uka Uka who was previously thought to be dead is alive.

The Crash crew are playable again for the modern age with a new dimension jumping story.

Toys for Bob being the quality developers they are had a lot to work with by trying to make the Crash formula feel refreshing and new & damn did they nail it. From it’s humor, character direction, and insanely difficult gameplay Crash feels as good as it ever has. Even with the nostalgia Crash 4 does what many years-long sequels fail to accomplish and that’s riding on it’s past glory while also providing something new. This is mostly done through the Quantum Masks and their unique abilities, but there’s also new mechanics for it’s platforming such as wall running. Admittedly the newer aspects feature in Crash 4 aren’t many, but it doesn’t have to be and it’s partly why being a fan of a series and hoping for a new entry & getting it years later can be so frustrating. Often times we don’t get a mix of nostalgia and something new it’s either one or the other. Granted I’ve only recently become a Crash fan having missed out on the series during my childhood, but this issue applies to almost everything that takes a hiatus and comes back. And it says a lot that Crash was gone for over eleven years and still pulled it off. Crash 4’s faithfulness while also trying something new is one of several reasons why Toys For Bob have become such a fan-favorite developer.

Enemies become friends in Crash 4.

THE BAD: Just like the originals Crash 4 is am extremely difficult game so if you aren’t prepared for patience and turbulence then you’re probably going to be in for a very bad time. I honestly can’t stress enough how hard this game actually is and there are times when deaths feel cheap often coming out of nowhere, but you get the hang of your landings and such fairly quick. In regards to the story I personally think time travel has been done to death the last half a decade. but I will admit that for the continuation of Crash that Activision & Toys For Bob are going for it makes. Clearly, they want to reboot the series without alienating fans of the original nor abandoning the original plot so to work around this without too much plotholing or a full on reboot time travel actually works fairly well to circumvent the direction.

New powers and abilities prepare Crash for a grand comeback for years to come.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Crash 4: It’s About Time brings a classic flavor to a modern aesthetic with a blend of old school platforming and time-bending level jumping. While the story does have a bit of redundancy it’s done so in such a way that still respects the original trilogy while given a ton of options for Crash’s full-fledged revival in the near future. Co-op, secret tapes, unlockable costumes (for free) and multiple endings provide tons of hours of replayability and in most cases you’re going to want to experience everything the game has to throw at you.

[allstarsstorymode867]

All-Stars -Story Mode- CHAPTER 16 Part 3 (FINAL PART)

As promised, I will give you a third and yet, a final part of this chapter, I am serious about it in the previous post today and the reason why I was inactive is because I had gotten the Resident Evil 2 Remake game and I am on the second run right now.

But other than adto, give credit to my friend’s artwork and like before, they are mentioned within the part that you are going to read right now so give them credit for their artwork and enjoy the story!

The Doctor had opened his eyes with a silent gasp, he looked around as he realized that he couldn’t hear or see the infant queen anymore and then he looked down and saw that he was in his old clothes again.

Richtofen looked around the familiar place, he looked that he’s in the hardware shop again and saw that Ultimis Dempsey was pressing his back on the wall when he looked at the Primis Richtofen and then asked: “Slept well?”

The Doctor said nothing but looked around to the rest of the store: Diego was boarding up the windows of the office (which it also leads into the storage unit that connects to the rest of the mall) with Ultimis Takeo who is handed Diego another wood panel board with a vine, he is hesitant but he took and then he then nails it with the other wooden boards with nails and a hummer, forming a barricade.

Scarlett and Shaw are talking with the Medic and Miss Pauling with the plans on how to get out of this dimension as soon as possible and maybe try to figure out what is going on.

Primis Nikolai and David Tapp are talking to each other about the situation they are currently in as the Detective had hardy believed that he and his teammates had come here by muitinterdimental creatures and before that, they had fought a group of humanoid soldiers from another planet and before THAT; they had combated corrupted creatures and zombies that had been turned by the 115th element in the periodic table.

Pyro is sitting on the floor with her legs crossed as they watched people do their part to making the store into a fortress, a one that can withstand an invasion of zombies so they are in the background with their hands supporting their head.

Amanda Young, lastly, was looking at the bear traps almost too directly and thinking what to do with them that Scarlett had looked back to see her with a little bit of suspicion before continuing to talk with Pauling, Shaw, and Medic.

Richtofen was quiet when he recalled fallen asleep before this, he sat there with his arms by his sides before turning to Dempsey and then questioned “How long vas I asleep?” as he looked at him.

“About three hours since it happened, all of sh!t had happened while you’re asleep.” Ultimis Dempsey answered as he crossed his arms while he looked at him as the Doctor yawned.

“Und zhe survivors?”

“I am pretty sure they had got away,” Dempsey said to the Primis Richtofen as hearing another nail being hammered with the wooden plank. “Vho? Zombies?” the German asked.

“No, survivors from the Entrance Plaza,” he concluded as he looked at the Engineer with Pyro, appearing that he was modifying his shotgun rifle, the gun he was modifying was a large pump-action coach gun-style shotgun with a wooden stock and ornate engravings on the metal receiver and he was attaching a strange device on the metal receiver then it clicked, he was attaching his team-colored cylindrical capacitor with an antenna is attached with Pyro and Spy by his side just watching him build a weapon of his own. The weapons he is building are personally from his grandfather, Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's grandfather.

The weapons his Grandfather had made consisted of Wrangler, Southern Hospitality, Gunslinger, and the Golden Wrench. He wished that he would’ve known the Golden Wrenches wouldn’t last for much longer after his little Update but he is surprised that he can still use it after the end of life of the Golden Wrench.

Spy lets out a puff of smoke before saying quietly so no one will hear them, “You have a good memory of building this gun.”

“The file had contained the blueprints that mah Grandfather had drew and he had it buried with him but somehow I had contained it from Redmon to fix the machine under one simple condition: If ah find anything else of interest, it is to be brought directly to him and to not build it but-”

“You went ahead and built them anyway?” Spy concluded as he held the cigarette in between his fingers. “And never told any of us, even our employer about this?”

“More or less went ahead with mah idea of getting or creating new weapons for mahself and ah knew ah was mettling the payroll ah am on but when the Devil is going to be beating on his wife, ah am sure that he will beat onto me with her tears as well.”

“But if they do?” Pyro softly mumbled.

“Ah had to leave the country or kill to protect the family tradition for it,” Engineer answered as he put in the final touches on the gun with a screwdriver to secure it safely onto the rifle. “And like how Stanton had said twice while we barricade the whole darn hardware store, “Timing is everything.””

He places the screwdriver down as he has finished the new primary weapon that his grandfather had built.

*The Engineer had crafted: The Frontier Justice!

“Now since we are in an outbreak in a little town like this, ah think it’s time we do this, Texas-style,” he smirked as he cocked it back a little. Spy wrenches in disgust as Pyro opens and lit a lighter, igniting a small flame as they chuckled.

“Are you just about done now, Señor Conagher?” Diego asked as he took a little break from barricading the window winch. By now it’s halfway finished, the Texan looked over his shoulder as he walked over to the Mexican Spy and then placed his hard gloved hand on his shoulder with his other hand as the rifle rested on his shoulder.

“Finished it right on schedule.” Engineer said then looked at the entrance that is barricaded with one wooden board across it with the support of metal brackets that he and Scarlett had bolted to the wall to ensure that they are safe from the outside world.

“We are armed to the teeth, but I am sure that we will find a way outta here and back on the ranch in no time.” Engineer said as he cocked it back as Nikolai and David walked up to him.

Nikolai looked at the gun and then commented “You had made quite a shotgun rifle.” as he crossed his arms, “Ah called it “The Frontier Justice” as its name.”

David was little intrigued to see the gun in the Engineer’s hands, something that police could but he is saddened to think if Jigsaw could have his hands on the talent the Engineer had for future crimes he would commit yet, he is going to go far to stop him… If he finds a way back to his home that is.

“So, what is the plan now?” Nikolai asked out of his own curiosity as the Engineer was then alerted to hear him say that, “We need to figure this out together, find out the root to all of our problems, undo it all and that’s it. But not until we figure out how to get back with the others first.” Engineer answered absentmindedly.

“How are we gonna do that?”

“Ah had no clue on how except we had known that zombies had taken over the mall by now.”

“And that is the best plan you can come up with?” David asked as he crossed his arms and eyebrow raised, Engineer sheepishly scratched the back of his neck as he held the rifle in his other hand.

“Uh…” he was beginning to say when there’s was banging at the door when Engineer had come to the door and removed the wooden board from the metal brackets and then before he knew what was going to happen next, someone had apparently burst in as the Engineer hadn’t had time to react at the moment that this stranger had closed the door.

Engineer raised his rifle up to scare someone off when he sees a man in his 50’s or so, with a light blue long-sleeved jean work shirt and dark brown pants with black hair with brown eyes, is a six-foot and one inch taller than Engineer.

The Texan had cleared his throat as he aimed the rifle at the stranger, he then saw his hands… Well, his hand and a mechanical one, it looked like it had been made from old video game console accessories and Erector Set parts, and he had wielded a chainsaw to that mechanical hand while in his normal organic one was a short-barreled shotgun.

For something that could be a reason, the Engineer still trained the Fountiar Justice at the aged man before him, Primis Nikolai, David Tapp, and everyone else in the store. If you like to care to know more, let the pictures do all the talking.

[Four pictures are drawn @sampoststuff​ on Tumblr]

*New All-Star: Ash Williams!

The Engineer was surprised to see this man had killed a zombie with a short double-barrel shotgun in one hand as the zombie’s blood was pooling around where it laid after being shot through the mouth, a man of his age was incredible to boot as well. He may be an old man but he still got it.

“Now can you at least one of you know what was going on??” the old man suggested as he rested the weapon, one on his good hand, onto his shoulder once again as he looked at the group.

“But first off, who th’ hell are you, stranger?” Engineer answered with a stern and seriousness in his voice toning the sudden urge to fight this middle-aged man before him.

“The name Ashley Williams but you just call me Ash and I can tell the deadites had already caused panic around and no one trusting one of the others.” Ash introduced himself as he got the shotgun off of his shoulder and then just let it hang on his side.

“Deadites?” Amanda said in confusion, even Spy nodded as well while he looked over his shoulder, “You do mean Zombies, right?” Spy said as a cigarette dangles from his mouth as he turned around to face the newcomer.

Ash’s eyebrows raised a little bit at this as he thought “I guess they are just called zombies in this one, not Deadites.” and then said, “Yeah, that’s what I mean.”

“How did you get here?” Ultimis Dempsey said as he pointed at Ash and what he is looking at the most is a chainsaw, red chainsaw that was attached to his left arm, right where his other hand was and it was being held by something mechanical.

“I had no idea,” Ash simply answered, “I had just woken up in one section of the mall with a Vietnam soldier nicknamed “Bill,” he may be an old man but boy he can fight! I had to find a weapon in this plaza but it is worth it.” with a smirk and then twirls that weapon back onto his shoulder, trying to look impressive with three women in their group but Miss Pauling had seen one small hole in his story, however.

The woman dressed in purple and glasses had asked “That’s nice and all Ash but did Bill know where you were when you’re gone?”

The confidence Ash had was gone within an instinct with the realization of what he had settled in as he cursed loudly “Oh sh!t!! I had left him in Wonderland Plaza! One of those deadites could be there!!”

“Zombies” Japanese man reminded him as he looked at Ash.

“Whatever!”

“Easy there Amigo, this “Bill” character is a soldier if I am correct?”

“Yeah. So?”

“I am sure that he will be fine as old as you claimed he is. He’ll be alright, you’ll see,” he said with a smile but Ash didn’t smile with the same thought.

“You had no idea what this deadite was,” Ash stated as looked at everyone, “This one was like a shapeshifter but a one that can consume and assume someone’s identity after he killed them. He was another normie but his skin was very pale and looked like he had been sick for a while along with-”

“Stop right there, Ashley,” Takeo halts him with his hand raised a little bit to his neck and head level as he asked “Does he wore plain gray hoodie, a black leather jacket with a red interior, two horizontal white lines on each sleeve, and a red tribal design on the back?”

He was a bit taken from what this man said but did answer “Oh yeah.”

“You had encountered that Alex Mercer.” U!Takeo concluded as he placed the wood boards down on the floor and then picked up his samurai sword from its place laying on the wall as Ash protested “Wait a minute, you are going out there? To fight a shapeshifter? Buddy, you had no idea what he’s like.”

“I don’t and it is true but I knew from the feeling I sensed he is no good when we met him,” he explained as he straps the sheathed sword to his belt and turning heel and then going towards the door where Ash came in but Diego Shaw was right on his heels at the moment he is going to go through it.

“Uh, Takeo, are you sure that you want to fight a broke like Alex? If it’s true to what Ash said about him being a shapeshifter and able to consume-”

“I may die but a warrior spirit doesn’t, Shaw.” He turned to look at him, already annoyed at this point and would not hide if there’s a demon that is worse than zombies, this “deadite” that this man is calling him may actually be a threat after all.

Ash then got in front of Takeo and  spoke up “Hold on there pal, at least let me handle this guy so you can stay-” but Takeo walked past Ash and then continued on his way to where he said this last sentence “Here?!”

“Takeo!” Spy was the first one to go after the imperial captain as Ash gets out of the shotgun again and then goes after them. “Lock the door! Don’t open it until we come back!” Spy yelled as the door slowly closed on its own.

P!Richtofen got back on his feet as this had transpired, Dempsey, the Ultimis version if you, my dear reader had forgotten about that, had then asked “What the hell just happened?”

“I do not know but if Takeo is true about Mercer being a shapeshifter zhat consumes…” Richtofen began as he trailed off as he looked up at the ceiling with Dempsey looking at him as he said “Hey, my Tak’s had plant powers so he should be fine.

“I hope you’re right Dempzey.” Richtofen muttered as he looked down at the floor away from the ceiling, he was going to lose it by this point. But for now, they need to remain here until the solution to their problem is found eventually.

6:39

Ultimis Takeo has basically ignored the pleas of Spy and Ash as he made his way to Wonderland Plaza with the two of them behind him following the trail of blood he had made from the zombies he had slain as he walked towards the designated area of the mall, mostly acknowledge one fellow survivor’s saying thank you when he killed one of the undead when it was going for him with the intention of eating him too.

“Slow down there, uh.. Takeo?” Ash guessed as he got out the shotgun from its hoister and then blew up one zombie’s head off with it as it happened to be nearby. “His name is Takeo? Right?” he asked the RED Spy as he was walking right beside him while the Frenchman was reloading his revolver.

“Correct, he is right now ignoring us and we are following him to where Bill was last seen thanks to your negligence.” Spy answered as he finished loading a new round of bullets into the gun he is clenching on tightly, this is strangely new to him somehow as he had never been this intense before, not in the Gravel Wars or anywhere more than here before like in the past or future.

“Hey, I wanted a boomstick, I didn’t know that I-” Ash was then cut off by Takeo as he said “Silence, are we close to this Wonderland Plaza?” as he was heading out of the North Plaza now and entering a new one with Spy and Ash behind him.

“We are entering that Plaza right now, Tak-” Ash had answered but Takeo had stopped with his fist raised that made both the Frenchman and the Chainsaw-wielding man stopped in their tracks. Ultimis Takeo was silent for a moment as he looked around the plaza for any signs of anyone or zombies around the Wonderland Plaza.

Spy raised his gun a little, preparing for what was going to come as Ash unhooked his “boomstick” and then unloaded the shotgun shells and then loaded in new ones that are in a strange reloading type device into it and then hooked the gun back on.

“What is that?” Spy muttered as he watched this man put it away before he responded “Just something that will help me reload my boomstick so you can shut up.” as he aims to where Takeo is looking at.

He then moved slowly as he slowly moved forward with Spy and Ash behind him while they looked around and then within 5 seconds into the patrol, the Samurai whispered “Stay sharp for the demons but mostly, look out for Mercer if he is here.”

“Hai, roger that Takeo.” Spy nodded as Ash took note of the order but hardly paid attention to what Takeo had said to them as they slowly go forward until they heard a woman screaming at her lungs as she stumbled out of the nearby corner and running into several things before collapsing into U!Takeo’s arms as several zombies slowly came out of the corner as they stumbled into view of the three men.

They moaned at they marched forward from where they came from as they took a stand back as they are ready to fight the undead but-

WRA-BANG! WRA-BOW! WRA-BLANG!!

The undead had been hit by a bat so very hard it killed them, an old man was behind the horde and he seemed like a soldier but it was different from what Takeo believed to be an American uniform.

“Don’t stand around here, you three, they are everywhere in this mall.” the Old man had said to remind the group when he spoke, Ash then recognized the old man right away as he said “Bill!”

“Stay sharp, Ash!” Bill said as a zombie came in from behind but Ash already knew what he meant so he quickly turned around and pulled a trigger of his Boomstick.

Blood flew when the head had exploded into pieces, wet red and pinkish-white pieces of what was once its head and onto Ash’s face, printing it in crimson red. Ash wipes his face off of it as Bill was walking into view of the others.

What this old fighter is wearing is somewhat similar to his Dempsey, Takeo had taken note of the William “Bill” Overbeck character as Ash he told them about.

This aged man must’ve been caucasian and had blue eyes and white hair, the uniform he was confusing; it was different from the one clothing that Ultimis Dempsey had worn.

The warrior was trying to connect the dots as Bill had walked up to Ash and then said “I thought I told you to stay by each other, Ash.” as he glared at him as he put a bloody bat down onto the floor.

“I needed an upgrade, Bill.” Ash sheepishly excused under his breath as he placed his boomstick back to its hoister on his back as the veteran had stopped in his tracks, Bill didn’t seem to take the excuse seriously as he adjusts his slightly worn beret little. “Well, that word “Upgrade” is what made you left me here to fight off these slow mother humpers. When I say stay, you’ll-” “Are you with the special forces, Bill?” Spy calmly interrupted the veteran as Overbeck stopped and then turned to look at the Frenchman, an annoyed look on his face as he hadn't slept in a good number of days that had gone by.

“How did you know son?” Bill questioned as he walked over to the group, “From what I can tell, you are wearing the 1st special forces uniform from the 1950’s and from your age…” The Red Spy paused as he put away his weapon and then pulled his cigarette case to pull one out when the old man asked “May I have one?”

The mask hesitated before handing one to the soldier before giving one to Bill as then he got out a lighter and then lit his and then Bill’s, sharing a smoke.

The woman was crying in the U!Takeo’s arms, he had forgotten that he had the woman in his arms until now, he gently lets her go as she was a sobbing mess on the floor but her eyes weren’t matching the feeling she had, they are cold but familiar as he looked at her and he knew right away.

“Thank you…” the woman sobbed in hysterics as Takeo muttered, “You are welcome.”

“Are you-” Bill was going to ask the woman but it happened so fast, sword flying through the air and then blood flying and the woman’s corpse laying on the ground as Spy shouted “Takeo!”

“Takeo!? What in the hell is wrong with you!?” Ash yelled at the Samurai as he took two steps back from the corpse and he said “Rait and you rill see.” as he clenched onto his sword tightly and stared at the corpse for a moment.

Spy and Bill were confused but then they saw it; red, black, gray, and white mass had surrounded her and a familiar shape began to form around the body.

She turned out to be a ‘he’ as Alex Mercer had transformed back into his original form as the mass on his body had faded away after Takeo had attacked.

“That clever…” Bill muttered as he gritted his teeth and glaring at him, Ash looked at the man laying on the floor and asked “Is he dead?” but U!Takeo used his sword to block Ash when he was coming to check the body but still had his eyes trained on Mercer's body.

The wound the warrior had made had begun and finished healing on Alex’s chest. He didn’t move at first but then his eyes opened with a gasp. He then got up and then glared right at Takeo as he as found out by the attempt

“Good call…” Alex couched as he slowly got up from his feet, U!Takeo didn’t move but did reply “I didn’t make a call but I knew it was you, deep down…”

Alex Mercer had got back on his feet and then chuckled as he wiped the blood off of his lip from what Takeo had done to him, he wasn’t used to that attack, Alex had been fired at and bullets riddling through him before in his dimension and they all flooded out of his holes from where they had made their mark.

But this time, this is strangely different to him suddenly when he had felt that pain that had forgotten how that felt but this Japanese man had made him remember that pain.

“You do realize that you are going to pay for that, do you?” Alex grunted as the ‘biomass formed over his arms, both of them as he clenched his fist as he looked at the samurai with intention. “I do, Demon.” Takeo growled as he clenched on this sword tighter than ever as others had gotten ready as well.

“Neenie…” Broken had sensed this was going to happen but she didn’t expect a fight to happen sooner, she had to pick something out and fast. “Meenie,” she is scrolling through one after another screen for a perfect battle map for the confrontation between Masaki and Mercer, it was starting to get good but how can she be so careless to neglect the choice of a map for this fight. “Mimi…” until she found it, looks it’s time for a virus-like Mercer to learn that it’s time to play fair when he is face to face with a superhuman that controls and feels plants like Ultimis Takeo Masaki as what she found is a jungle, best for a map suited for a battle as she announced “Mo!”

She pressed onto the screen and a light flashed when she pressed it with a wicked grin.

Alex, U!Takeo and others didn’t realize that the mall had suddenly turned into a jungle but strangely only two of them are there, just Ultimis Takeo and Alec Mercer but Spy, Ash, and Bill are not there as they are standing in the large branches of the big jungle trees.

“Ash? William? Spy?!” Takeo shouted into the trees but he didn’t have the time to react when Alex ran up to him and then he and Takeo were sent flying and then falling from the above.

Alex threw five good punches but Takeo had fought back as he kicked him and then punched him a few times, hitting him as hard as he could muster but it wasn’t enough as Alex was getting the upper hand as he uses both his legs to push the Captain into the moist ground of the jungle so hard no man could survive the fall like that.

Mercer, on the other hand, landed gracefully on the ground with a thud, he then got up and then walked over to the supposed body of the warrior, his eyes were closed and the sword was planted into the ground beside him, signs of the impact was tremendous but the body was still intact in all honesty.

Mercer was looking at him for a little moment longer but he didn’t get up back on his feet, the virus, Alex Mercer, smirked at this and then spoke with ignorance “Hate to break to you but I hate losing too.” before turning to walk away from the body until he felt something… going through his back and out of his chest.

It’s a thorn-riddled vine, covered in his blood and he’s impaled by it, he was then lifted into the air with a vine before it begins to threw around wildly, smashing him in the trees, the ground and then coiling around him and then squeezed him so tightly he was exploded but he was spared when he was thrown too hard into the ground with a yell.

Alex couched as he was on the ground but then noticed the vines slithered over to Takeo and then one of them carefully coiled around his wrist and then lifted him upward with one vine, glowing green flower attached to it as U!Takeo was positioned upright but his head was down as the vines holding didn’t mind much as the green flower blossomed with a needle-like thorn within, revealing to Mercer in full view and then the flower quickly injected the thorn into the side of his neck.

Whatever green liquid that vine is putting into him has begun to heal him, the substance is glowing as it is visible through his bloodstream and the veins in his neck and face.

Ultimis Takeo wasn’t moving at first but then, with a gasp, he was relieved from the danger of dying. The vine that was holding Takeo had lowered him down to the ground and then had him on the ground on his fist, foot, and knee (I am trying to make this epic, believe me, I do.)

He was panting until he had his hand to feel a vine still in his neck and then he forced it to let go as it was painful when he did that; hurting both the plant physically and him mentally as he felt the vine in pain.

It was too painful but instead, he then focused on removing the vine from him and it did; the flower removed itself from his neck for U!Takeo to see. Seeing the needle-like thorn within the blossom of the flower and then he felt for the mark from what the thorn had made.

The warrior looked down with the thoughts he had never once thought; Mercer had tried to kill him!

He had never felt this mad before he looked at the Blacklight virus with eyes that Alex had realized that isn’t human; his eyes were normally golden brown but they are golden yellow and orange colored as he stands up back his feet while he had ordered the vines to get his sword, vine wiggled the samurai sword out of the ground and then returns it into his opened hand and he had clenched it tighter than ever.

Alex Mercer had fought mutilated corpses in New York when he had released the virus but this does take the cake! This man can control plants!

“Aw hell, this is going to be a pain…” Alex thought as vines rose from behind Takeo, ready to take any command.

Begin! Ultimis Takeo Masaki vs. Alex Mercer

Voice had announced out of nowhere as Alex looked around but the vine shoots out of nowhere and he was able to avoid it this time, he jumped onto the branch on the high point but Ultimis Takeo soon followed with the help of vine that threw him to the virus, with the force of the speeding bullet, U!Takeo had then sliced his arm off and then he landed wonderfully on his feet.

“You rill pay!” the samurai barked out as the vines hidden in his sleeves slithered from under them to reveal them that he had the smilax rotundifolia on both his arms, “Sh!t…” Alex muttered as the biomass started to cover his right arm and then created a sword made from meat and bone.

They both stood there on the branch that supported both of them under their feet, waiting for one of them to make the move, minutes felt like hours to them until…

U!Takeo dashed at him as Alex Mercer did the same with his feet beating the wooden ground with the arm-like blade shedding it a little while the thorns on his vines had grown sharper and ready to kill anything with just a touch.

With the sparks flying, blades of both steel and bone met at the force with both of them struggling to gain strength to overpower the other as U!Takeo had used the vines to support his body from being pushed over while Alex uses his own but inhumane version of it to shove the plantsman to the ground, 6-feet under even.

Eventually, Takeo uses his free arm with the thorned vine to smack the shapeshifter away from him, it was a brutal force from the vine and that sends Alex flying to the other tree that made a little crater in it, U!Takeo growls in pain as he feels it in his chest. “I need to be careful…” he muttered under his breath. “It hurts…”

Broken is enjoying the show from where she is as the Samurai and the Virus continued to battle it out.

[Collab between Icefir (Me) and TikTak ( @this-person-is-slowly-dying​ on Tumblr, give her thanks guys! ;) )]

Mercer was running on a large vine after jumping from the previous one, running as fast as he could to avoid the incoming vines coming from each direction, from each tree and from each plant that Takeo had control over.

He had used his body and the virus itself as the weapon; he is simply known as the Blacklight virus, able to absorb the organic matter of all living creatures and converting it into newer biomass that he can manipulate at will, being able to sustain and regenerate the injuries of a great number, able to create weapons with his physical form to attack his enemies and even generate armor for himself to endure the most extreme of most brutal blunt traumas but now here he is.

He is battling a person that is almost like him but he is like the Japanese version of Poison Ivy from Batman except that he is more unlike her. He was bitter and silent and more likely to kill anyone who did him wrong.

“Is that all you got!? I had fought a girl better than you!” he mocked him in the bark but that only angers the captain more; with a roar, vines are shooting from everywhere as Alex took noticed and tried to run to get out of the way but they were too many of them to avoid them and he was soon found himself being trapped inside the vines and soon felt the life being squeezed out of him with the force of a mutated bona constructor by the vines as U!Takeo’s morals were suddenly absent at this point.

All his heart had felt was rage, the red-hot rage within all he could do now is to kill this virus, squeeze and crush the life out of him for what he wronged him for as he-

“Takeo, this is not you. Please remember the code you learned.”

Ultimis Takeo had heard this unrememberable voice echoed throughout his head, it was frightening and strange that it reasoned to him and that made him think about what he was doing to Alexander Mercer.

He had his fist clenching tightly to control the vines to strangle the crap out of the virus but now he is reconsidering it; what if his family found out? Was he a demon or a man, was there any honor in this?

The more he thought about it, the more his tightness on Mercer had losen, and the more the vines began to untwine, the more freedom he felt. Eventually, Alex was released from the cruel crushing of the snake-like vines and allowed him to greedily breathe in air as much as his lungs as he could.

Pause!

Takeo Masaki was lost in his thoughts as he subconsciously remembered Alex at this moment as he got up and had turned his both arms into claws, sharp claws to chop a man apart but ten noticed that U!Takeo wasn’t ready to fight and felt like something was off. Alex knew why it felt; has reason and mercy gotten to him?

“What has gotten to you, flytrap?” Mercer mocked him again, Takeo looked at him but didn’t say anything except he did say a few words that made the Blacklight virus confused.

“Can’t you hear her?”

“What?” Alex muttered in the confusion of this man and what he said about “her?”, “Who are you talking about?” he continued as he let his guard down a little bit. “I heard her voice but it was unfamiliar, how could you not hear her?”

Alex looked around the wild for anyone, nothing, he turned to look back at the man before him and said: “There’s no one here but us!”

“Maybe it is a spirit…” Takeo muttered that made Mercer even more confused, meanwhile, Broken who had been watching the fight is now visibly upset that someone had stopped U!Takeo before he could kill Alex.

“It was getting good!” she cried out of a fit of anger, “It was just getting so good but Knight had to come and ruin it! She had ruined the best part!” she continued to shriek out loud at the top of her lungs before she covered her face in rage while one of the Hallow had crawled up to her and then rubbed its head on her shoulder.

Broken had remained idly like that for a moment until an idea popped into her, a wonderful idea, oh she has a beautiful deadly idea…

“I think we better spice things up a bit.” Broken announced with an insidious tone in her voice, as she got up on her feet and then turned to the rest of the Hallows who were looking at her for a moment.

“You!” she barked and pointed at one of the Hallows in the area, this Hallow she had called over seemed a bit scared at first but then one of its fellow Hallows just simply slapped it on the back of its head, making it go forward a little.

“Yeah you!” she confirmed as that Hallow walked forward to her and she said “Since I know that you are different than the Alpha Hallows as you are able to take the form of any All-Star after you ate the 100th soul so I am giving you this!~” as she opened her gloved hand and a heart-shaped ball of light, a soul, and then handed it to the strange Hallow with a hole in its chest and if you can see it closely; the one thing missing in it was the heart, only organs and two or three heart valves in the hole.

The Hallow, a False Clone, greedily grabs it and holds for a moment as Broken ordered “And as for the two in the jungle; you know what to do.” while had the Jack-O-lantern grin as she looked at the screen and grinned wider than just a grin.

The False Clone nodded as it ran towards and then jumped into a screen that overwatches the postponed battle between the samurai and the virus.

Back to them, a roar had echoed out in the jungle while they were arguing to each other, which made them look around the area around them, staying quiet and unmoving, hoping to see anything with legs as they now knew that they were not alone in this map.

“What the hell is that…?” Alex muttered as he balled up his claw into a rock-like fist and looked around the area. “I sensed evil here... “ U!Takeo answered as he raised his sword up in his one hand as he looked around before he finished with “Other than you, virus”

Alex let out an annoyed chuckle as he shook his head a little as he scoffed “Yeah, other than you.” as turned back to look at him with the fist raised but then heard a twig snapped just on the left of them. They turned to look at what it was and there it was, a False Clone, a vex type of a Hallow.

By looking at that, he growled “You!” as he stands ready to fight the False Clone with Alex Mercer now standing by his side as he asks “Friend of yours?”

“One of them is the reason why we are here.” Ultimis Takeo answered hurriedly, he was ready for any more tricks from this Hallow as Mercer got himself ready to fight this Hallow as well.

“That’s a creeper-looking ****er, isn’t it?”

“That’s a creeper-looking ****er, isn’t it?” the Hallow repeated what Alex said in… his own voice?! Both of them are in shock at this creature, did it mimic his voice?!

“The demon had mimicked your voice, Mercer?” U!Takeo had questioned the confused man- creature beside him when the False Clone had repeated after him but with his voice this time, “The demon had mimicked your voice, Mercer?” before it giggled and then reached over to it’s back and then pulled out a soul as it held it in its greasy paws.

“What’s that…?” Alex muttered but Ultimis Takeo in a hashed whisper “A soul…?” as it raised over its head with its tongue licking its jack-o-lantern lips before opening its mouth and then letting go of the soul and letting it fall into its mouth as it’s mouth snapped shut.

It slid down its throat and soon the soul appeared in the hole of its chest, they watched for a moment until it was lit on fire and soon it screeched in a howl as its first annettas was lit on fire, soon arms and then legs and then it was fully on fire.

Takeo and Alex had to shield their eyes from the sight of the fire, glowing and ember flying everywhere as the False Clone changes shape and form into something that is merely human; It was turned into a form of a human as this clone was wearing a traditional palette swap ninja attire with bone-like structures lacing his uniform, two swords bore on his and his kunai and katana sword attached to a rope tied to his belt. He wore a mask different from anything that the warrior had seen before.

The False Clone of Scorpion was on his knees as he clenched on the chains that appeared to be red hot as he slowly got up with his head down as they noticed that another kunai was attached to the metal chain wrapped around his hand.

His eyes were glowing yellow as he gripped tightly on the iron chains as his hand were lit on fire, he and Alex had known it the moment his fist was in flames as they both took a few steps back a bit as the False Scorpion advanced towards them.

“Do not panic.” U!Takeo whispered but not afraid as he held the sword in front of him, “I am not panicking Takeo…” Alex harshly forced to whisper a reply as he looked back at him.

“We may be able to take him together…” but then noticed that the creature wasn’t beside him, Alex Mercer had fled and left him there to fight this hellspawn! Ultimis Takeo cursed under his breath at this excuse for a human had run from the battle for him to face this Hallow!

The False Scorpion then got out and sent his kunai towards U!Takeo but he quickly jumped out of the way but he had accidentally jumped off the branch as he shouted “Damn it!” but he was saved by a moving vine that coiled around this waist.

The vine gently uncoils around Takeo and lets him stand on it as he looks at the False Clone with interest, “A Ninja…?” He said this to himself, “This demon took the form of this ninja?” as the False Scorpion took out his blade.

U!Takeo grips tightly on his sword as vines that were hidden in his sleeves revealed themselves as they slithered out of them as he shouted “Face me, Hellspawn!” as the vine lowered downward, ready to throw him into action as False Scorpion is doing the same and getting ready to pounce. “I will send you back to hell, one piece at a time!” he yelled as he was launched onto the tree branch and then the False Clone took charge at him.

They both ran towards each other and then both blades met in a headlock and they both were glaring at each other as U!Takeo gritted his teeth and used the vine to smack the False Clone away and crashed into the tree that made the samurai groan through his teeth in pain. The False Scorpion growled and said “You will pay for that, with your life!” before he got back up but he didn't want to or had no time to wait and see what he did next so he whipped his vine into a branch and then he jumped to get out of the way. As he swung onto the new branch and landed onto it, he turned to the previous tree branch he was standing on with the sword ready but there’s no False Clone on it.

Confused, he looked at the tree to see if he’s still right there but he’s not there either and he had suddenly felt something warm coming from behind him and he had to turn around to look too late.

“You-!!!?” he gasped as a kunai was pressed against his throat, as it turns out that False Scorpion had teleported behind him before getting a kunai out to use the moment of vulnerability against him as he had U!Takeo pinned to the tree where the branch they are stand on was.

U!Takeo had looked around for an escape route but noticed a vine under this man and was thinking of a plan but False Scorpion somehow knew that so he pressed the blade harder on Takeo’s neck, maybe enough to draw blood as he hissed “Do not think it.”

Alex Mercer in the meanwhile had been hiding in secret as he watched the fight progress through and he was silently interested that the False Clone was doing the work for him as the warrior was on the verge of defeat.

“Heh, the creepy bastard is doing me a favor.” He thought as he watched the tension rising from this, “I can’t blame him for that though…” as he began to remember one regret about something in his past.

He had remembered that a mutant, a Leader Hunter had kidnapped his sister, Diana, as he was trying to rescue her but he was stopped by the other hunters and had lost sight of them. He was helpless to save her at this point as he was shouting her name.

Alex had pressed his hand to his forehead as he said “And… then I would feel guilty for not saving him. I had to-” but a kunai was thrown towards him as Mercer had realized but he was able to dodge the attack from the False Scorpion as he shouted “sh!t!” and he used his claw to latched onto a tree that caused to both it and to U!Takeo as he coiled in pain.

False Scorpion had still had his blade against U!Takeo’s throat while he looks at where the virus was, “You really shouldn't talk so loudly.” as he slowly got his sword out from its sheath.

“Better than killing a plant pulling it by the roots,” Alex growled as he looked at the False Clone while he was holding onto the bark of the jungle tree. “But you, you are nothing but ashes!” he shouted to finish that sentence that only angered the Clone even more, and with one swift move, he stabbed the sword under him that caused further pain to Takeo with the length of it.

With one choke of breath through the suffering, he had half-remembered that he had tricks of his own and the vines he felt were writhing under his undershirt sleeve so in a swift choice he made and he used the vine swiped the False Scorpion with full force away from him.

The relief of the blade away from his neck was good enough to allow the Captain to breathe easily for now as he kneeled down to the vine that was under the False Clone and he wasn’t sure that he was doing but he quickly began to treated the stabbed vine right away as Alex jumped downward in front of the man before him as his arms were gone back to normal.

Mercer watched as the vine was restored to a healthy version, a scar of the sword blade stabbing through it was there as U!Takeo’s hands slowly drew back with vines and retreated back into his sleeves. The visible black vines on the right side of his face had slowly faded and disappeared as they returned to normal.

Ultimis Takeo Masaki had been looking at the healed vine before he looked up to Alex and asked one question from his mouth: “Why did you come back?”

Alex Mercer seemed to be unresponsive for a moment but he realized that this man had said something to him, he shrugged and replied “I didn’t, I was just standing by.”

Then, a fireball just came out of nowhere and it was launched towards U!Takeo, he looked at what was heading towards him; survival instincts had kicked in and he ducked at the last minute before that ball of fire could hit him.

He turned to find what it was and with no surprise, it’s False Scorpion whose hand was covered in smoke. U!Takeo’s eyes had changed again as he weakly stood back up from his stupor with his family sword still gripping tighter in his hand that he believed he was ripping through the skin and drawing blood from his palm.

He is not going to lose today, he is not going to as Alex Mercer had stood ready to fight the Hallow while vines are slithering towards the warrior, like snakes before rising upward behind him. False Scorpion said nothing but he jumped high as they both watched him go up and then descending back down and then performed a roundhouse kick to the virus that successfully knocked Alex out of here with a burst of fire coming from this as U!Takeo stood ready to continue fighting this demon.

[Traditionally drawn by Icefir]

U!Takeo growled as he launched vines towards this False Clone but the clone was cutting through the vines to get to him but the samurai gritted his teeth as he kept on throwing the vines at the Clone until one of them got him by the arm soon the torso and soon the False Scorpion was trapped in the twisting vines.

“Stop…” he growled as his eyes were once again orange and yellow but the False Scorpion said nothing as he continued to struggle to break free from the snake-like vines. U!Takeo watches on at this failed attempt, he almost feels ignorant at this substance of the False Clone as he said “I do not think you can get out-'' he felt it before he could finish the sentence. He felt the vines were on fire and the scorching hot aura coming from the very place where he had trapped the False Scorpion.

He turns to look at the False Scorpion in shock and see that he is clenching his fist to raise the greater flames, he hisses in pain as he tries to resist through the suffering to what the fire is doing but it was no use, False Scorpion had burned through the vines as he yelled: “Now die!”

The fire had made it worse; U!Takeo was grown weaker from the burned vines, both physical form using the vines that resulted in them going through the torment and mental for feeling them being burned alive from what the False Clone had done to them.

He was panting on the wooden ground where he was kneeling on with his hand to his chest, trying to soften the pain as False Scorpion walked over to the defeated man with his sword in his hand before stopping in front of him.

U!Takeo looked up at him as he still had his hand close to his chest and watched him raised his blade up high for the sun to shine on it, ready for the kill and U!Takeo had shut his eyes as he was ready to feel the blade but when it was being put down on him at full force, something had stopped him from doing the deed.

A woman with a blindfold had come out of nowhere and blocked the blade with her staff with U!Takeo looked at her in shock and was astonished at what he saw as he was losing consciousness.

"Do you also wish to die!?" False Scorpion said with bitterness toning his rage.

The blindfolded woman said nothing but did say this:

Finish Him.

The False clone was confused about what she meant until he felt something going through his back and out of his chest.

He looked down to see a blade sticking through his chest as Alex Mercer had come back on his feet and had gotten his blade power since he was biomass and had come from behind the False Scorpion. He looked at the blade in shock as Alex declared “Go back to hell and tell the Devil he’s next when I get there!” before twisting it to greater the pain that he caused as cracks are forming around him before he screams in agony and then explodes into pieces as souls that the False Clone had eaten were freed and flying away.

Alex Mercer watched as he stood where he was a while the souls were from 5 to ten to 50 and then a hundred of them flew everywhere and disappeared into the trees while most of them flew into the sky. His thoughts were derailed when he heard a thud from in front of him, he turned to see U!Takeo had passed out from the mental suffering of the pants he had used against the clone but the woman who had defended the warrior had disappeared, like suddenly as she appeared only to never be seen again within instinct.

“Where the **** did she go?” he thought as he walked over to his unconscious body but stopped when he noticed the same vine that healed him before as he was going to reach him to grab his shirt. He backed up when the vine approached Takeo’s neck again and then opened up to reveal the thorn in its blossom again and then stick it into his neck again and once more, his vines glowed green.

Ultimis Takeo’s HP restored. Alex looked at the text above him for a few moments until he noticed the surroundings around him and the man was changing before them as the vine repeated itself from his collar bone and disappeared from existence.

The light dimmed a little as his eyes adjusted to the settled and then looked around the area and slowly began recognizing where they were before, they were back in the Wonderland Plaza and much to his surprise; a very few zombies were coming in. Mercer stood there for a moment before his eyes trained onto U!Takeo again, doing what he was going to do earlier; he grabbed him by the collar and then held him while he prepared to assimilate his cells or… for a better word of this: consume him.

“Alright then,” he muttered, “where were we?” as he balled up his fist and raised it in the air but hesitated when he heard someone yelling from the distance, “Follow me!” a man yelled and heard footsteps heading their way. Alex growled on his breath, “Not like this when I was…” he looked at where they are before slamming U!Takeo back down onto the floor.

“I’ll be back for you later.” the last words he said to Ultimis Takeo before he ran off quickie as Frank West was bringing more survivors that had managed to protect themselves from the horde of zombies. He was getting the hang of killing the undead but he knew the story is more important than just killing zombies all day long and since he had gotten Brad’s and Jesse’s permission to cover this story incident to which he will call it a zombie outbreak in Willamette- no, maybe an undead incident- no… Guessing with just the Willamette incident as he already pictured himself on the news about it.

But it was interrupted by one of the people he saved who had said “Look, there’s another guy and he’s passed out!” as he looked at who they pointed at the unconscious Takeo Masaki on the ground. Frank had taken off running to his side as he got out a walkie talkie and hurriedly talked to Jessie right away “Jessie, I found another one but he’s knocked out.” he said as he placed his two fingers on his neck, checking his pulse as Jessie answered with concern in her voice “He is knocked out? Is he alright Frank?”

[This is drawn by SamPostStuff on Tumblr]

“He’s unconscious but he’s all right.” he answered when he felt a pulse from his neck, he’s breathing softly but not life-threatening much to anyone’s relief. He then talks to Jessie again, “Get him back here now! We have to help him!” as he or everyone had been aware that a vine is slowly slithered back into his sleeve.

[jamie-tartt]

Tagged by @taytawan to remake my first gif challenge 😘😘

Date posted: 16th December 2012

This isn’t actually my first gif. My first actual gif was posted on the 10th October 2012 butttttt I can’t find the video for it. I also couldn’t find any of the videos for my 2nd and 3rd gif soooo this one is 2 months later and was my 4th attempt at giffing. I made this in the old dimensions (ah, remember the good old days when it was 500px?) and I’m pretty sure I slapped on a PSD that I downloaded from someone and there was no sharpening at all. Now, I colour them on my own and sharpen my gifs. It’s also a little faster so it doesn’t feel so choppy and I’ve used the new dimensions.  

Tagging @rafaelsilva @marwankenzari @lucamarinnelli only if you want to. 

[kyouminaine]

Frankly, this doesn’t even really belong on this blog, but it coincides with my decision to exclude any new plot from that reality into my portrayal. Yes, I’m talking about the Remake. Yes, I’m calling it a “reality.” Now before anyone starts hissing about me being a purist, I’m going to break down why I cannot and will not use material from the Remake (abbr. 7R) in my writing.

(Spoilers under the cut. Beware long post.)

And let me make this clear: 7R was a good game. It was not a good story.

What 7R did well was create a new system that combined SE’s past experiences from the KH series and previous FF games (I see a lot of influence from XIII). It provided a challenge --- whether good or bad is partly dependent on RNGesus favoring you or not --- and created an environment and interrelationship between characters that gave the gamer a chance to connect with the world and understand the repercussions of certain actions. It gave gamers a chance to develop feelings for certain characters that previously had no strong standing in the original. This was good. (I first played on Normal and got a decent challenge out of it during certain boss fights, particularly during endgame. Currently I’m running through Hard mode and utterly regretting my life choices, so the challenge is certainly there.)

As someone who played the original and delved into the rest of the Compilation over the years, it was enjoyable to see nods and easter eggs to those plotlines. A story I didn’t think would have any part in 7R somehow made its way in. People I thought would be skipped over were brought up. It was nice.

But here’s where it fell apart: all these nods and the expansion of the world (yes, we’re only experiencing Midgar, but I’ll still label it as a “world” since that is the extent that the gamers are exposed to) were haphazardly applied to the main plot, and not only that, when it came down to the endgame all those little nuggets ultimately didn’t mean anything.

Why? Because of the new plotline that was introduced. It’s been speculated and the general consensus is that 7R is a different reality. You can call it a sequel, AU, whatever. It’s a different plot altogether, particularly with how the ending unfolded. The Whispers / Watchers of Fate / Arbiters of Fate are what everyone has summed as being a physical manifestation of what fans expected to happen, or what the creators tried to preserve over the years through the many works that elaborated on the original VII storyline. Because the characters in 7R have destroyed the Whispers, this essentially has ripped apart the expectations that old (and new) fans had for the Remake series. We don’t know how many installments there are for 7R, but it’s pretty clear from the ending line that there’s going to be another part. (Hell, you still have to fight Sephiroth again... or something. Or maybe he becomes your ally. Who knows...)

Which makes a lot of mental gears grind, heads tilt, and plenty of frustrated fans raise their voices. The Deus Ex Machina concept is nothing new. A “do-over” plotline is not unique either. (Doubt me? Go look at all the fanfics that have been circling the internet since the day the original game came out.) Taking the original VII plotline and conjoining it with a “do-over” plotline is... well, it’s bad.

There are ways to make something like that work. Ways to rewrite history and attempt to make it right. There are people who speculate that 7R considers the original VII as the “bad ending” --- as if this is a dating sim and you picked the option where Lover C decides to murder you instead of marry you, so now you wipe your save file and change all of your choices so you get the happy ending with Lover C. The major plot events are the same, but now you’re alive and Lover C never goes apeshit on you.

I can understand the desire to get a “good ending.” This just isn’t the smartest way to go about it.

So with that in mind, we are now on that separate save file trying to make all the “right” choices. No one knows what will come of it, no one knows if it even is a “good” ending that awaits us. So what does that mean?

Quite plainly, it means everything we knew, every relationship that was built upon in the original, even all the work that was put into the other games and that particular reality, are all dumped in the trash. 7R is an AU scum save game file that tosses out the original values and lore that were taught to us and the characters too. In an ugly way of explaining it, 7R is spitting in the face of all the other pieces of the Compilation and what lessons came out of them.

These are lessons of the value of life, the value of relationships, the gravity of truth and the price of lies, struggling with flaws and shortcomings, change, love, and personal growth. These aren’t new or unfamiliar tropes, but their weight of worth still remains. (I won’t call VII to be the greatest game in existence, but it did create a strong connection with its audience through the story it told.)

What 7R does in face of these lessons is push them all aside for what is basically fanservice. Wish fulfillment. People who are dead in the original may/may not be alive in 7R. People who are alive in 7R are supposed to be dead in the original. 7R’s reality robs the audience of a chance to experience those values and struggles in a new yet familiar way. Fans who have no idea what happened in the original or only have a vague grasp of the plot will not have the same connection that old fans do. Yes, new fans can still understand that Aerith’s death was supposed to be a sad event. Yes, Sephiroth is a meteor summoning cockroach. (He has a bad habit of resurrecting.) However, they don’t have the firsthand experience. They did not personally go through the journey.

There are heavy hints of it in 7R, but the experience isn’t the same. And now considering that the Whispers are defeated, there probably isn’t even a reason to go through the original content anymore. Just open up a wikia and get the most basic summary, because what lays before us in the 7R series is uncharted territory.

The story of Cloud’s past and who Zack is will most likely still be introduced and explained, but how? Will it still hold the same meaning? Will fans be able to experience the same joy and pain, not knowing how big of an impact Zack had on the story particularly on Cloud’s, Aerith’s, and even Tifa’s lives? They made a whole game with him as the main protagonist; that was how big of an impact he made on those around him, and how much fans thought he deserved more screen time than what was given in the original VII.

Though the ending cutscenes of 7R implied that Zack may still be dead and his survival is probably in a completely different reality outside of both VII and 7R, the idea that it is possible for him to live takes away the meaning behind his death. It takes away how he made such an impact on those he met. Is it sad to always have him die? Certainly. But that’s the point. You, the gamer, and those in the game itself feel the weight of his presence and his loss. Him living diminishes it. Perhaps not completely, but it does stick a knife in the tapestry that wove together this important and surprisingly strong bond between even the most minor of characters.

The same can be said about Aerith’s death. I do enjoy that in 7R Cloud and Aerith got to interact and you could see more of how their personalities played off each other; I enjoyed Aerith’s portrayal in 7R. Yet, with the speculation of her possibly surviving and maybe being omnipotent (or dimension hopping, take your pick), we don’t see how strong of an impact she made on those around her. We don’t see how her death changed the cast, became a driving point of their mission. Particularly for Cloud, she became a pivotal part of his growth. Regardless if you consider their relationship to be friendship or love, it’s undeniable that she made a strong impression and her death hit Cloud like a sack of bricks to the face. The value of her life was so great in his heart, she became one of the major reasons he was so hell bent on fighting Sephiroth. She wasn’t the only reason, but she certainly was fighting to be at the top of the list. Even in the sequels that followed, she was always on their minds. She taught a priceless lesson that still sticks with gamers today. People still weep over her death.

So let me bring it up again: 7R spits at VII. Not just in the lessons it brought, but the lore as well. The introduction of Whispers, Aerith’s unexplained new powers, Sephiroth’s early appearance and his ability to cut through the veil of reality... It all brings about the question of Gaia and how she works as both a habitable place and sentient entity. Gaia had WEAPON --- colossal creatures that were meant to safeguard the planet. When Gaia perceives herself to be in danger, she brings out the giant no-no stick. (This is mainly in response to the threat of Jenova, but it is plausible that WEAPON will tear apart every major threat and hit the big reset button on everything. Otherwise, why did Ultimate attack Mideel? There’s no Jenova there, unless you count Cloud. But that’s a different topic for a different day.)

There is speculation that the Whispers that meld into the Harbinger of Fate / Whisper Harbinger is another WEAPON. This is a theory to take with a fat grain of salt, but the point is this: what did the Whispers uphold, and how does that alter the rest of the lore of the game? Do we consider the Whispers to be beings completely exempt from the rest of the lore? Are they some kind of god? Are they related or unrelated to WEAPON, and do they have their own agenda or do they also work to safeguard Gaia? No one knows, and there are a bunch of videos that try to tackle these questions.

I don’t have the answer. What I do have is a major side-eye at the whole concept of the Whispers existing and how they interact across the different realities, and how in turn they alter the overall lore of VII. Vague telling of the main plot points from the original are present, yet there is a giant question mark as to how much of said plot points will remain present in future game(s). Is there even a need for WEAPON anymore? Is Aerith not the last living Ancient/Cetra? Is Sephiroth blood kin to her? (Anyone remember that old concept?)

What about Holy? The lifestream? Hell, you can create summon materia now, not find godly creatures slumbering inside giant marbles scattered throughout the planet. Can Meteor be created too, or is it still hidden in the Temple of the Ancients and deemed too dangerous and the magic too great for anyone to handle? Do I even want to touch the subjects of Project G and Deepground??

That’s too many questions that don’t need to exist in the first place. What 7R created was a large stew of wtfery. I don’t just say this out of saltiness, it really is a giant “wtf” where almost every fan doesn’t even know where to start when they try to deeply analyze what happened in the game.

Personally, I believe the “do-over” plot that was introduced in 7R was a mistake. Not only did it mess with the lore of the world and open up a rotten can of worms that no one knows how to decipher, it took away from the value of certain actions from different characters, whether main cast or secondary. (I feel cheated. Tifa’s tears were practically wasted because Biggs is apparently alive, Jessie is probably just comatose somewhere, and Wedge probably survived too despite being tossed out a skyscraper.)

What I expected, and I believe what many frustrated fans expected, was not a “do-over” plotline/reality but a retelling of the same familiar story we have come to love over the last few decades. Whether some fans picked it up as soon as it was first published on 3 discs, or played it later down the line on PC, or even waited until it got ported to PS4, we came to enjoy that original plot. The original reality that has been told and retold, and adored even across different games with cameo appearances from the main cast. Flesh out the world, make it bigger, make it grander, show me Cloud in a fugly purple dress and Tifa in a miniskirt, show me Sephiroth’s Vidal Sassoon flowing silver locks, show me Jenova’s eye nipple... but keep the rest the same. By all means incorporate plotline from the other installments of the Compilation --- tell me more about the Turks, the original/main faction of AVALANCHE, Rufus and his relationship with his dad, other perverted projects Shinra had hiding under its mako skirt, the full story behind the failed rocket launch, the Wutai war, Nanaki’s youth, Zack’s early years in Shinra/SOLDIER, all that --- but don’t suddenly throw all that work, all those relationships and stories, all those valuable lessons out the window.

7R had plenty of potential and even if I take away the “purist” expectations I wanted from it, the game still managed to be disappointing.

Coming back to the topic of why I won’t use 7R in my portrayal, it is because of all this. Because it takes away too much from VII and warps it into something it shouldn’t be. My idea of Cloud sits strongly with the Compilation (namely the original game with some minor inspiration from the other materials). His hardships, his pain, his personal growth... I will hold onto those because they make Cloud who he is at the end of the game. They are why Cloud leaves such an impression on people. Yes, recent adjustments to his features have really ramped up how handsome he is (especially in 7R, though I’m salty about his hair being wrong) and that sticks with people. Everyone swoons over how he looks in that crisp HD. It’s his journey that is more worthy of noting though.

I expect that there will be people who are not/less bothered by these details. There are plenty of people who embrace 7R and what it introduces --- I’ve heard people say they’re tired of the same old formula and a “do-over” plot is fresh and exciting for them --- but I’ll stick to what I’ve come to learn to love throughout my life. Because there are plenty of people who favor 7R, the door is open for people to head that way. This isn’t me kicking anyone out. This is me firmly establishing where I stand and why.

TL;DR --- 7R is a high dollar AU fanfic and I don’t appreciate that. (But I’ll still snag icons and reblog gifsets of the cutscenes because I’m opportunistic that way.)

[rogueshipagogo]

ppl have been asking me my opinions on space channel 5 vr... and i guess since i bought a vr headset off craigslist just so i could play it and speedrun it before work the day it came out... i should talk abt it now... i dont rly think i’ll be able to separate it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things i think i’m just going to do a rambly stream of consciousness bc i have a headache... but i DO have good things to say abt this game... so st.... sta stay t tune  d

right off the bat, the thing i appreciate most abt this game- i like that space channel 5 vr doesnt have cash grab vibes. i Do genuinely believe that they Wanted to make this game For the people who are still obsessed with it, and that they ultimately did what they set out to do when they intended to scale certain aspects of the series up conceptually to match the way the fandom perceives it nowadays. but like i’ve said before... i’m not going to Disagree with the very common conclusion that it Needed to be longer, or at Least more intricate plot-wise. one of my fun and fresh excuses for sc5vr being as short as it is is because you arent really supposed to be playing vr games for too long anyways, its really disorienting and kinda painful, but even that doesn’t account for why so much of the game that we got is a rehash of old settings, concepts, songs, and characters. [i dont even have a problem with reusing old songs, i just think the ones they chose ended up being misleading]

for example i think it makes sense that the first report is a remake of the first games first report on the surface, it’s meant to take you back to the way the first game felt and give you an idea of what it means that the games classic scenery can be rendered in actual high quality detail now [same with the recurrence of events like encountering the space pirates in the asteroid belt/the last battle against a villain being singing to it about what it’s done wrong], but i really thought, like, report 1 was going to end up being a simulated scenario for the benefit of lou and kee’s training... which i dont think ended up being the case??? i think they really did write ‘ok here you are in the first game’s setting again, fighting the old enemies again, because... :^) ok have fun playing report 2!’

and then whats report 2... you fight another old boss from the first game... but theres Still no clear villain or motivation for anything thats happening... and there wont be until like... basically the end of the game...

like, glitter is a really cute character, but its kind of underwhelming that shes just a random citizen who was kidnapped by an entity that we NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT... like part 1 was extremely notable for being about corporate greed and corruption, part 2 honestly wasnt that political in comparison but at least made you do a think wrt purge’s motivation and his methods, and this game just has a plot device that feels like it’ll do smth but then ends up not doing anything beyond what we already learned about it from the information on its character bio before the game was out. if it turns out that cell x is actually relevant again in a future entry in the franchise and they do have a more developed concept for what cell x Is in mind, i’ll do an entire backflip, but for now its just chalked up to being the result of More Space Hijinks that dont need to be explained

ESPECIALLY WITH ALL OF THE ALLUSIONS TO CELL X BEING AN ENTITY THAT FEEDS OFF OF DANCE ENERGY... it had me thinking that there would have to be some New Method of fighting it off that didn’t just lend it more power in the process, but nah apparently just tacking on the disclaimer ‘*this dance energy is not for glitter’ is enough to turn it from smth it can consume for power into big attacks you can use to kill it... like honestly it sounds like im asking for a lot from a game that has Never made too much sense, but considering that in part 2 they could add details like ‘oh didnt you know purge can open pocket dimensions? ulala is capable of manifesting tangible dance energy and the only other person who can do that is purge???’, its not like they havent come up with weird new shit for dance energy to do within the plot before. they just didnt do it in this game fsr

like did anyone else think that cell x/glitter was going to be the result of tossing purge out into deep space and him encountering the sc5 universe’s equivalent of an eldritch alien creature, smth more bestial than morolians?? even if purge wasnt part of it, when you say ‘uh oh, this guy Eats this society’s only source of energy!!!’ i expect the stakes to get HIGH, and i want the ramifications of it to be kinda STARTLING, because blank wanted money and purge wanted to ritualistically end the world but something this near to an ecological disaster that would force an entire paradigm shift hasn’t occurred yet in the series?? its totally new!!! there’s a lot they could do with this but OH DONT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYONE ulala knows how to make dance energy kill cell x instead of feed it she’s got this we’re good no need to investigate more into all that

i can’t explain why the game is like this. and i dont expect grounding to address it in any meaningful way either. i’m sure they’re Aware of these complaints by now- the game reviewing community has Not been kind to sc5vr specifically due to all of these shortcomings [i didnt even touch on the issues with motion sensing and how many of the games mechanics were removed in favor of smth presumably easier to program yet much less satisfying, like Secret Moves just being mini quicktime events and Turning Your Ratings Into Stars just being replaced with the standard Three Strikes You’re Out method of scoring], but the pr team still seems very enthusiastic abt the game and is still promising dlc and potentially even more games in the series after this one- heres hoping that they’ll at least take these grievances to heart and consider making the experience not only more accessible [aka it will... go back to being a rhythm game with controller input.... and not... an exclusive vr experience...], but also as immersive and detailed as the old games, with less reused plot beats. i can let some of it off the hook in this game simply because i’m aware that it began its life as a tech demo that was only supposed to be that initial first report from the first game But Happening All Around You!, but i Really dont think they could get away with doing this little to expand upon the groundwork set by the first two games again. not with the way people remember part 2 being such a vast upgrade from part 1... the bar had been set so high that this just felt like a huge backslide into something even sillier and harder to take seriously than part 1 before we had any idea what kind of staying power the franchise would have as a hallmark of sega’s quirky antics. like... this game is what i think space channel 5 looks like to people who don’t understand the appeal of the first two games. and that scares me

but i guess for the most part, aside from wishing they had done more to revitalize the setting and the lore of the sc5 universe itself, im kind of glad it didnt do a lot to change the existing storylines the characters have kinda forged for themselves- here i was stressing out that they would pull out some plot development that would utterly and drastically change the way we talked abt the series for the rest of time, but so little happened and so little was added to the bank of sc5 lore that we can kind of all just carry on as usual and keep having the same headcanons we always had.

BUT!!! there ARE a lot of cute little details here and there that make the experience feel wholesome and like i said not an utter cashgrab- like so many of the character profiles referencing previous games [all of the references to npcs in this game being relatives of the npcs of the last games made me lose it] and how often ulala changes her expressions up and looks right at you and talks to you. the new music they wrote for the game also all slaps and everyones redesigns [if they got a redesign... rip pudding] are stunning

one of the most important things they did in this game was give a nice sort of Update to every character.... for example explaining that ulala isn’t a rookie reporter any more like she was in the first 2 games, that she’s moved up to being in charge of training new channel 5 reporters, and that while pudding is still somewhat stuck on her rivalry with ulala her career isn’t stagnant either, she was just cast in a romcom series as the lead... which is really nice considering how in the past she was portrayed as somewhat of a loser with almost no remaining fans left from her idol years

and you knew i was going to bring up jaguar at some point HES ALL OVER THIS GAME AND IT LITERALLY MADE ME FEEL LIKE MY LIFE WAS WORTH POWERING THROUGH THESE LAST FEW YEARS AND ALSO LIKE IM A GENIUS FOR SPENDING SO LONG POSTING EVERY SINGLE DAY ‘NO REALLY, HE’S THE SECONDARY PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ITS ABOUT CHANNEL 5 AS A COMPANY AND THEIR IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED THEM AND THAT INCLUDES JAGUAR AS WELL AS ULALA HES INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT BC SHE WOULDNT BE ALIVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM’ i feel like it’s really incredible how in this game he has genuinely nice energy and doesnt withhold praise from ulala just to be helpful in a mysterious way later and he like HAS FRIENDS now. like consider how he went from disgraced former ch5 employee who got mad every time he saw them, to kidnapped robot henchman kinda humbled by the fact that now the turns tabled and ulala had to rescue Him, and now 3 years later his bio is all about how he has a new tv show thats super popular and he has a new entourage of ladies who he considers his '’’’’’comrades’’’’’’’ within the station he founded??? AND AFTER 20 YEARS THEY WERE FINALLY ABLE TO GIVE HIS MODEL JUICY ASS CHEEKS??????????????? NO MORE PANCAKE BOOTY???? THE BOY HAD A GLOWUP AND NO I WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

WHEN I SAY MEOW MATCH THE POSE MOTHERFUCKERS THIS BLONDE BASTARD GETS TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE HUNDRED STAGE BATTLE NOW TOO THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE SPACE PIRATES BAYBEE

[pixelgrotto]

Remake of Mana

Roughly a year ago, I highlighted the official English localization of Seiken Densetsu 3, AKA Trials of Mana, AKA a game that meant a lot to me growing up as an introduction to the incredible efforts of the fan translation, ROM hacking, and import JRPG communities. It took us 24 years to finally get a sanctioned translation, but now, within the relatively short span of 2019 to 2020, we not only have a localized original at our disposal but a fully-fledged remake with three dimensional environments, voices, a revised combat system and several extra goodies to satiate Seiken faithful. 

Playing this game during the coronavirus lockdown, and furthermore during a nice two week vacation period where I was between jobs, was very much a reminder of the period of my life where I had a lot of time to play video games and was most touched by Japanese roleplaying experiences. I’m talking about that middle/early high school teenage era of 12 to 16, where I plowed through oodles of these colorful stories about teenagers leveling up to inevitably save the world (or kill god) via the power of friendship. The Trials of Mana remake is very much comfort food that brings back all memories of that period. The gang that you remember - Duran, Kevin, Hawkeye, Angela, Riesz and Charlotte - are all back and instantly recognizable, and aside from the inclusion of some post-game content revolving around a character from Dawn of Mana for the PS2 (a game that got shite reviews when it came out, but I sorta wanna play now), all the scenes in Trials of Mana 2020 play out the same way that they did in the original, just fancier and with more dimensions. Riesz still unfurls her hairband and stands dramatically on a bridge as she pledges to take down the assassins who killed her father. Charlotte still escapes from Wendel via jumping atop a bouncy little monster called a Springstepper. Booskaboo the giant turtle (sorry, I mean Vuscav, since they insist on using the name established in Heroes of Mana) still shows up randomly to save the squad from an exploding volcano, looking cuddly and ridiculous as ever with his goggles and lil’ shell flag. 

While the plot might be the same, this remake nicely updates much in the gameplay department. The combat is arguably a lot more engaging than in Seiken Densetsu 3, with the ability to jump adding verticality, and there are many solid boss battles that reminded me of an MMORPG at times, with colorful, telegraphed moves and stuff dropping around the battlefield that you need to destroy in order to weaken the boss’ ultimate attack. (DPS checks, in other words - I image that some of the devs are players of Final Fantasy XIV.) Kevin’s damage output, which produced insane numbers in the original game due to a bug, have been fixed, and you no longer have to grind endlessly for the required items to transition to class 3. (I only found myself grinding for about twenty minutes in one section, which is pretty good considering the two hours I had to grind when I recently replayed the original last year.) Speaking of classes, there’s a new class 4 that turns almost all of the party members into strippers, and Lil Cactus from Legend of Mana shows up to bestow bonuses on players who search every inch of the world’s sizable new maps. 

My only real issue with Trials of Mana 2020, then, is that the game does feel like a budget production at times. The voice acting is reminiscent of an inconsistent anime dub and has generated a noticeable amount of criticism online, with most people targeting Charlotte’s UwU speech as grating on their nerves like nails on chalkboard. Personally, I like Charlotte’s Brooklyn accent, and consider her performance to be one of the most consistent. (Lumina the light elemental, who talks in a fabulous gay voice, is another such inspired choice.) Regarding graphics, the game’s outward style, based on the work of new series artist HACCAN, definitely grew on me over the course of 30-some hours...but there’s a fair amount of model clipping on display and half of the environments have these really low texture mountains in the background that stand out the more you look at them. When you compare these looks to the original Seiken Densetsu 3 - one of the most advanced, gorgeous Super Famicom projects ever, with sprites rivaling similar RPGs for the Playstation and Saturn - the low budget that Trials of Mana got becomes evident, especially compared to all of the money that Square dumped into the Final Fantasy VII remake, which came out the same month.

But at the end of the day, this is a loving and especially faithful revision of an old game, and I think players have noticed and appreciate that. Conversely, the Final Fantasy VII Remake (which I haven’t played yet as I’m awaiting the PC version) has gotten noticeable flak for an unfamiliar ending that spins things into left field. Both approaches towards remaking a classic are probably valid at the end of the day, but Trials of Mana 2020 is, once again, a comforting, unpretentious new wrapper around a classic 16-bit RPG, and for a series that often flies under the radar, fans couldn’t ask for much better than that. 

Fingers crossed that Square remakes Legend of Mana next - now that's an underrated masterpiece that deserves a new audience in this day and age. 

[folaevanakingbola]

✧ * Riz Ahmed Gif Pack * ✧

[ DOWNLOAD / PAGE ] In this gif pack, you will find a total of #184 gifs of Riz Ahmed (b. December 1, 1982) in his rose as Paul-Louis in Girls 6x01. He is Pakistani (Muhajir), so remember this when using him as a faceclaim. These gifs fit with @tasksweekly‘s tasks #030.

Do not turn my gifs into any dimensions that are smaller than 100x100 (yes, this includes sizes such as 120x90). You must credit me if you edit and repost these for public use, and you must tag me in the post. Read all of my rules here.

Triggers: Lena Dunham, smoking, alcohol, bare chest, flashing lights

Please like/reblog if you use these or found them to be helpful.

*This gif pack is part of my fun new series where I remake some of my old gif packs. The previous gifs have been completely deleted.*