#so i started mainlining input again

[sideartblog999]

Day 17 of Femslash February: (She was under a love spell again) (She did keep having weird dreams about Faith even afterwards though)

[ladala99]

Lioden Fight Calculator - New King!

Is it going to be an easy Destiny sweep, or will there be some surprises? I'm writing this intro before doing any calculations, so let's find out!

The Competitors

Destiny: A Fiery-based boy of Sandy’s legacy. He has the power to control one lioness completely, alongside the ability to permanently infatuate as many lionesses as he wants. He has had free reign and gathered a loyal army of lionesses in his generation.

Moonblight: A Primal boy of Eclipse's legacy. He doesn't have any powers other than natural Primal strength and resistance to demonic powers. He is motivated to change the pride for the better and move away from the demonic influence that currently controls the pride.

Thunderclap: A Maltese-based boy of Lightning's legacy. He has the power to summon and control his ancestors, but has no resistance against Sandy's power so may very well be unable to use it. He spent a lot of his cubhood controlled by the Sandy of his generation, but she was forced to free him as he could not use his power while under her control. He hates her, but she is prepared to reclaim him if he wins.

The Teams

Let's first see if Thunderclap is going to be a competitor.

RNG chooses a fair fight and Thunderclap as the winner. Ooh, this could be interesting! This also means it'll be a lot more complicated on my end. Time to build Thunderclap's team!

Thunderclap always has Lightning (see below), and gains control of: - Snowfall - Bailey - Belle - And the Sandy of his generation will fight for him, too.

The pride's demonic power is stronger than it was before, so while before the rule was that he'd have to do another round to keep them, that's no longer the case. Whoever he gets, he keeps.

Destiny first attempts to get a mainline lioness on his side: - He takes Lightning from Thunderclap, losing Thunderclap an ally! - Sandy (his mother) will also fight for him willingly And he has all the young lionesses minus Sandy: - Sunrise's Legacy - Eclipse's Legacy - Luna's Legacy - Ember's Legacy - Ashes' Legacy - Luna's Legacy 2 - Lightning's Legacy - Eclipse's Legacy 2 - Sunrise's Legacy Primal - Ashes' Legacy 2 - Luna's Legacy Primal

Moonblight has no allies since Eclipse is mindless. His only advantage is that he has the Primal modifier - all Primals will fight at full strength and all non-Primals at full handicap.

The Fight

You know, I really need to update this thing to maybe have a separate document it saves to, so if I mess up on inputting any of the 20 competitors I don't have to start all over again (I pressed enter one too many times on the 18th competitor. Ugh!)

Looks like: - Team Destiny: 62% overall winning chance. Will win if calculator chooses based on Team Stats. - Team Thunderclap: 21% overall winning chance - Team Moonblight: 16% overall winning chance. Will win if calculator chooses based in individual stats.

The Winner

And the mind-controlled Lightning takes it all for Destiny! I think something like that happened earlier this generation, too.

It was a closer fight than it could have been, but in the end, Destiny fulfilled his destiny of becoming king!

After today, I'll be heading back to Wolvden for that game's next generation!

[empressxmachina]

An Intimate Inquiry for You?

Hey y'all! I'd like some input on a thing I’ve found myself working on for a bit.

TL;DR I'm making a thing that I'm unsure is even allowed anywhere. 🙃

How did I get here?

On my life, it started as one thing, and then I went too far to quit now. But I don't know what to do about it when I'm done because while I think at least someone other than me would appreciate it, I don't know if I can show it off. So, I think I'm in my "smutty girl season/Summer" era at the moment. I got in the trenches of the size-fic side internet fiction. I won't say I was deep in it or anything because I know of worse/harder stuff, especially on other sites, yet I still found some content I definitely shouldn't have been mainlining during and after work. However, I did and got inspired to make something. It's another photo collage/manipulation/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that I'm talking about here, but just so you know, certain saucy content in progress of mine that you have already be introduced to is in the drafts, just to wet your palate (and blue ball you further 😁).

Being a manipulation, it obviously uses the visages of real life people, and doing so limits visibility and general appropriateness of content. While my content up to this point can be considered borderline NSFW, this particular piece I'm constructing, while arguable to not be outside most maturity limits due to cropping and debatable (lack of) motion in the framing, it is absolutely possible to be considered adult to higher degrees from context clues alone, especially because it contains real people, even if they're vaguely nameless and/or nonconsenting via being in free/open stock images. Thus, by being adult, I am discouraged and disallowed to post it to my usual places.

Well, I think so. Am I wrong? Is there a loophole?

Where is "here?"

Let's just say there's a gentleman with three legs and a tiny tree-hugger. I hope I don't have to say more for you to get the gist of how they could combine, but know that no holes are visible, it's basically impossible to tell if the obelisk of the hour is up or down - it's not even a real pole; I'm just good like that to make one - and surely you understand that it's the "hugging" of it that makes things problematic. (Happy early HaGD, lmao?) It's a sexual situation, yes, but an "act?" 🤷🏽‍♀️

As it stands,

There's a chance it could just be considered "artistic" nudity or some conceptual shit and be totally allowed everywhere, but I'd need second, third, and fourth opinions to convince myself. Then again, if I'm questioning myself so much, then isn't that telling enough?

I know I can put this on Daddy's Dollhouse, and I likely will; it's like that's the point of the forum or something.

I'm 90% sure that DA, Tumblr, and my site-blog on WordPress are no-go's unless it's censored, which is totally valid. (I don't know if I'd want to risk using Stash, either, even if others use it to point to WIPs and "wetter" visuals.) Considering that Ms. Tree-Lover is actually hugging a tree in the original stock image, it's not like it'd be a hard, lol, adjustment back.

Wattpad could be feasible, especially given the texts there - No judgment; we love a wholesome hellscape. - but is there too much "action" for it to be allowed? No sé.

The actual hellscape that is Twitter's policies, especially recently with the Muskrat's mayhem, leave me unsure, though I think it'd be fine under a "Sensitive Media" flagged account. I don't know if I'd want to put my public account under such a flag given how many of my retweets are SFW, but the idea of minors interacting with me currently is already a YIKES. Yet, it's not like I use Twitter more than semimonthly, or I'm a largely public figure. (Plus, I did post a sausage a few years ago, but that was a few years ago, and y'all better not be snitches about it.) Would it be worth making a new account there with the flag like many creators do for what could be only one post for forever? Still, it could also inspire to just make more adult stuff, too, and I do have a few ideas in mind, so I'm not totally against it. Hmm... 🤔

Where to go from here?

Aside from using DD as my primary post-place of choice, I'm unsure of which options, if any, are open to mine, whether for now or the future. Any insights y'all have, I would truly appreciate them. If you've read up to this point, thank you, and take care! 💜

P.S.

If you recommend any works (preferably size-fics because fucking duh, but $20 is $20, and good content is good content) that could extend my smutty girl season to a smutty girl solar revolution, let a bitch know! I only just recently found the glory that is GiantObsession on Wattpad, and I've been eating good and well. (I think I'm into oral-oriented scenarios more than I thought I was, or is it just their style? Wat dat mouf do?) But I'm open to most subject matter. Most; don't be weird.

P.P.S.

I'm still collecting content for my Music List, by the way. I have, like, 20 or so things I should have already added by now, but it's 20 things to add, so I CBA. Maybe I'll update the list here with all the unadded links whenever/if I upload my problem-in-progress somewhere else to repent and rebalance my karma.

[rivalsforlife]

AA7 Speculation Post: One Year Later

here we go again.

A year and a day ago, I made a speculation post about if/when we’d ever be seeing AA7. Obviously, my claim that AA7 would be announced in September 2020 did not turn out to be true, but later that year we did get a leaked calendar containing information on the new ports for Chronicles, and also plans for a new aa7, which I summarized in this post.

Now that we have Chronicles we can verify that the leaks contained legitimate information (as if a statement from Capcom saying they were hacked wasn’t legitimate enough). So that leaves us with one key question: is AA7 still happening? If so, when can we expect it? As well, what other information from the leaked calendar can we consider, especially with early sales data on Chronicles? In addition, what are the implications of this new survey on Chronicles from Capcom?

All of that will be discussed under the cut so that this doesn’t take up too much space.

Revisiting The Calendar

Once again, here is a rough translation of the calendar that was present in the leaks:

As a note, in this post, I’ll be referring to our new games as “Chronicles” to prevent this from being blocked by people avoiding spoilers.

So: this original calendar, generated before the pandemic, had Chronicles releasing in Q1 of FY2021 - and it’s also important to note that in Japan, each fiscal year starts in April 1st, so FY2021 is actually April-June 2021. This shows that Chronicles was pushed back about a quarter from their expected release date. However, Chronicles was a port of already existing games, therefore somewhat less work was needed on them - upscaling models and textures, adding in some new features like autoplay and story mode, and of course, the English translation and voicework were needed, which is still a lot of course, but less compared to development on an entirely new game. In addition to that, the pandemic hit AA7 in its early development stage, assuming this schedule was still being followed by the time the pandemic hit. That could cause more delays than expected.

So the original plan was for AA7 to be released in Q3 of 2021, which corresponds to October-December, aligning with the 20th anniversary of the series in October. While it’s a desirable goal, it’s quite likely the pandemic pushed it back at least a quarter, if not more, if not cancelled it entirely. ... haha.

We’ll only know the fate of AA7 for certain when it’s announced. Which it is possible it may never be. However, I have two theories for, if AA7 is getting an announcement, when it will be:

1) Sometime during September 2021, either in the leadup to or during Tokyo Game Show this year. These are for the same reasons as I outlined in my initial speculation post. It’s a popular time for Ace Attorney game announcements, after all. TGS, according to what I can find, will be held online this year from September 30th to October 3rd. If Capcom announces AA7 earlier in September through Famitsu, like they did with AA6 for example, then we can expect to get some information during TGS... 

2) Sometime during a 20th Anniversary Event, possibly in October 2021. I’m assuming AA is planning something for the 20th anniversary - Chronicles wasn’t really marketed as a 20th anniversary release, for instance. If they can’t release a new game for the 20th anniversary (which at this rate, seems unlikely, as we’re about two months out from that with no word about it) then an announcement would be just as good at generating hype for it.

Naturally, if we reach this time next year with absolutely no news on AA7, it’s probably safe to say it’s been cancelled or at least delayed so severely that anything we currently know about it isn’t worth much.

There’s one more point of interest on the calendar: reconsidering the porting of 456. I feel that this depends heavily on how well the Chronicles ports are doing; if it’s not financially viable to keep porting games, then why bother? So, let’s take a look at that.

The Success of Chronicles

As I write this, it’s about two and a half weeks since the release of Chronicles worldwide. So... how did the games do? It’s a bit hard to tell, especially as I am not a game marketer and don’t know the expectations for Chronicles. What is obvious is that, if Chronicles does much better than expected, porting 456 and possibly even the investigations games seems likely. (If Chronicles, indeed, does especially well in the West, than a porting of the investigations games and localization of investigations 2 after ten years could very well be possible.) If Chronicles does absolutely terribly, it damages the chances of porting, and possibly of continuing the series. If it does terribly especially in the West, where the games are essentially new, it could damage the chances of any new games being localized at all.

So, a lot is riding on this, and I don’t know enough to tell how well it did. Here’s what I have found, however:

Nintendo Enthusiast reports on Famitsu sales of Switch games, and overall thinks it’s not doing so great. Chronicles ranks third on the list of Switch sales in its first week, with 14,460 units sold, over 4000 less than NEO: The World Ends With You, which was released on July 27th. Keep in mind that Chronicles was released in Japan on July 29th, which is two days later, and that these are only Japanese sales (where they’ve had Chronicles for years on both mobile and 3DS) and only Switch sales, where NEO:TWEWY is currently only available on Switch and PS4 (Chronicles has the additional platform of Steam, where there could be many more sales). In the next week, Chronicles ranked 22 overall, with NEO:TWEWY at 23, though of course they’re still a little less than 4000 units behind NEO:TWEWY overall. Slightly closing the gap, I guess.  

How about overseas data, then? ... It’s hard to tell. I can find this report from gamespot which discusses the top 20 games sold in the US in July, and Chronicles is not on the list, while NEO:TWEWY is at 16. However, they don’t give any number for the units sold, and it seems that they aren’t considering digital sales for a lot of them, so it’s hard to tell how much of a hit that is.

However, let’s go back to Japanese sales for a bit, and look at the 2019 Trilogy re-release for a comparison against Chronicles. Allegedly, combined Switch and PS4 sales in the first week of the trilogy’s release only amounted to about 8000 units, a little more than half that of Chronicles’ Switch sales. It’s also important to note that the 2019 trilogy ended up being the only ace attorney game to sell over a million copies. Ace Attorney is not a big series; I’m sure Capcom takes this into account when considering sales data, especially for ports. If Chronicles does end up doing better than the trilogy overall, it’s definitely looking good for ports and especially so for Chronicles.

However, there’s more to this than just sales data.

The Survey

Capcom now has a user survey for Chronicles, which you can answer even if you’re partway through the first game. I believe it’s only open until September 30 2021, so if you think you can finish the game before then, I’d recommend filling it out once you’re done so that you can give the best feedback.

It asks you a bunch of questions like what platform you bought it on, why you bought it, your expectations, and all sorts of detailed questions on the various mechanics, difficulty and enjoyment of the trials and investigations, satisfaction of visuals, plot, characters, music, and even free response sections for what you liked and disliked about the game. It’s a very detailed survey that’s pretty long but I think is worth filling out. At the end they ask you to fill out some demographic questions (such as age, gender (male, female, other), country, what kind of things you like to spend money on, and what kind of games you like, what platforms you have to play games on). But what’s possibly the most interesting question is this:

“If a new [Chronicles] game is released in the future, do you think you would buy it?”

This means that, depending on the answers to the survey, they could very well decide to work on a third game to Chronicles.

This has huge implications for the future of the series. I’ll probably make a separate post on plot-related stuff later, but for now... let’s talk about logistics.

In my initial AA7 speculation post I said I highly doubted that they would ever make another Chronicles game. I also said that they probably never would be localized, so, guess who’s a clown now. 

Right now the AA series is in a bit of a dry period, with no new games having been released in the last four years. As well, with Yamazaki (the director of the investigations games and AA5/6) having left Capcom, the next director of the mainline games is completely unknown. As described in this video, the main reason Chronicles ever came about was because Capcom went ahead with mainline AA5 before Takumi could come back from the Layton crossover. Now, since 2017, we don’t really know what Takumi is working on. It’s possible he’s gone back to mainline to work on AA7 (though of course, there is absolutely no evidence suggesting that he has, so definitely don’t take that as any sort of confirmation).

However, if we do get a Chronicles 3, it’s quite likely Takumi would return to work on that, as he directed the previous two games. In addition, if Chronicles ends up being such a success to completely eclipse mainline (from what I’ve heard, though I have no serious proof, Resolve is considered as highly rated as T&T by many Japanese fans) then the series could permanently go down the road of writing more Chronicles games, leaving mainline stagnant (which, let’s be real, it’s already stagnating). The success of that is uncertain considering how neatly our current Chronicles duology wraps up, but... we’ll have to see how things unfold in the future.

For now, I highly recommend filling out the survey to give your input to the series’ future directions. Maybe mention that you want localized investigations 2 somewhere in the free response section because uhh I forgot to do it in mine. do that for me.

TL;DR

Main takeaways from this post are:

- I personally expect an AA7 announcement either during TGS or a 20th anniversary event

- If Chronicles does extremely well, then 456 ports are likely to happen, and I personally speculate investigations ports (along with localized investigations 2) will as well.

- Fill out this Chronicles survey before September 30th to give your input on the games and possibly the future direction of the series. I recommend completing the games before you do, but if you think you won’t before September 30th, you can fill it out at any time.

- We Very Well May Get Another Chronicles Game. Who saw that coming. Not me.

Thanks if you read through all of this, let’s hope September/October doesn’t leave me looking like a fool again.

[nereol]

I’ll Be Your Animal (7/8)

Next part of my Val / Emmerick fic!

You can read this on AO3 or on my WorldAnvil page (with pics, music and other stuff).

Claire looks at her knowingly. “So... you two're dating now?” Val takes another sip and rolls her eyes. “I... no... you.” She sighs again and shakes her head slightly. “You know I don't date or...” “Yes...” Claire interrupts her with calm voice. “Question is, does he know it?” “I...” Val takes a sip to avoid Claire's eyes. “I should probably talk to him.” “Yes, you should.” Claire nods.

Sorry not sorry Em, for the end of this part...

Next time Val visits the Afterlife is just a few days later, middle of the night. The moment the first door opens her eyes meet Emmerick's and they don't break eye contact while Val walks over to him.

“Hey, Em.” Val leans against the wall with one shoulder right in front of Emmerick and looks up to him. “Hey, V.” His voice is deep and husky but calmer than usual and it sends shivers down my spine. He eyes her. How he would like to touch her, kiss her right now... she can see the lust in his eyes and bites her lower lip. His gaze falls at her mouth. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

Then he opens his eyes and speaks with silent voice, so other people around can't hear him. “I know it might be hard to make some time.” He looks down at her, in her green eyes. “But I'd like to spend more time with you.” Then he leans down and whispers. “Alone.” His husky voice and breath at her skin are giving her goose bumps.

Val sighs and eyes him. She'd love to be 'alone' with him right now. Then she shakes her head slightly to clear her mind. “I'm sure we'll manage it.” Emmerick frowns. “I usually go to sleep, when you are working... and the other way around.” “Well, it's not like I'm working nine to five... I do have gigs at night from time to time.” She looks at him with a spark in her eyes. “...and next day off.”

He says nothing, his gaze lingers on her lips again. “I'll let you know.” And Val puhes herself of from the wall to enter the Afterlife. Emmerick closes his eyes to get himself together and to stop himself from looking after her.

---

Val walks over to the bar, thoughts still running. “Hey, V!” Claire comes over and greets her like always. “Hey.” Val smiles. “You okay?" Claire eyes her. “You're a lil' blushed.” Val sighs, her face in her hands. Then she takes down her hands to look at Claire. “Gimme a cold beer.”

Claire hands her a beer. “So?” She looks at Val with raised eyebrows. Val takes a sip. “I just talked to Rick.” She sighs. “Uh-huh.” Claire looks at her knowingly. “So... you two're dating now?” Val takes another sip and rolls her eyes. “I... no... you.” She sighs again and shakes her head slightly. “You know I don't date or...” “Yes...” Claire interrupts her with calm voice. “Question is, does he know it?” “I...” Val takes a sip to avoid Claire's eyes. “I should probably talk to him.” “Yes, you should.” Claire nods. “...before it gets even more complicated.”

---

Val's at the Afterlife for several hours tonight. She chats with Claire about street races, visits Nix to see if he has time to teach her something new. And she has to talk with some people about ongoing and future gigs. After all this, she sits on a couch with a few other people she doesn't actually know, thinks about leaving. Then she gets a text from Emmerick.

You free? I take a break.

Warmth spreads inside her. Then she remembers what Claire has said and she sighs. She puts her phone in her pocket and stands up from the couch.

Emmerick leans against the vending machine next to the elevator. When he sees Val he nods towards the elevator and she steps inside, leans against the wall next to the buttons. He follows her inside, pushes the button in passing and walks over to Val.

The elevator starts with a rattle and they are alone, finally. Emmerick leans down and kisses Val greedily. Her back at the wall she puts both her hands on his hard torso, lets them trail up his chest. He holds her naked waist under her jacket and pulls her closer against his body. One of her hands on his shoulder she rises up on her tiptoes and their kisses getting deeper. While her other hand is in his neck, brushing his short hair, one of his hands grabs her butt tight. She moans in his mouth and he growls with satisfaction.

The elevator stops and Val pulls back a little, somewhat breathless. She can see some of her own lust in his eyes. Then she sighs. “We should talk.” She avoids his eyes and he loosens his grip so she can leave the elevator. “About?” Emmerick follows her. She sits down on one of the crates standing around. “This...” She points around with her hands. “Us... I guess.” One more sigh and she leans back on her hands, looks up at the sky. Of course no stars.

“Okay...” Frowning he sits down beside her. “I don't do dates.” Val speaks quick, before she can change her mind. “...or inputs, outputs ...or mainlines, what ever.” She looks at him slowly. He just looks at her so she keeps talking. “I'm not able to make plans for the future... I'm...” She swallows hard. 'Dying'. But she can't say that. And to be honest, it was like this before this mess as well. “It's complicated.” “So?” That everything he asks, still frowning a little. “So I just wanted you to know before... before we move on and...” She swallows again, avoids looking at him. “It's just fair to let you know, that I don't do serious or... exclusive relationships.” When she says 'exclusive' his eyebrows furrows slightly.

“That's all?” He speaks calmly. Val swallows one more time, looks at Emmerick and nods. “Good, 'cause my break's almost over.” He reaches out with his hand. “Come here.” His voice is husky again and there is a spark in his eyes. She takes his hand and moves closer when Emmerick grabs her and pulls her up on his lap. Val giggles and wraps her arms around his neck.

He kisses her, again greedily and she returns the same way. One of his big hands is on her lower back, the other lays on her thigh where his thumb draws circles on her naked skin. A warmth and a tingle spread throughout her entire body.

She pulls his jacket of his shoulders and when he breaks the kiss to catch some breath Val starts kissing his ear, his neck, the edge of his collarbone. One hand in his neck she pulls his top out off his pants with the other and lets her hand slips under it to feel his abs. He moans, lays his head back and his grip at her thigh tightens.

“How long is your break?” Val asks against his neck in between some kisses. “Not long enough.” Breathless, husky. She takes her hand out from under his top and pulls back from his neck to look him in the eyes. Then she lets her hand trail gently over his crotch. Just the slightest touch through his pants, but she can feel him. He moans. “Fuuuck!” And Val can feel goose bums in his neck.

“'kay, we need to stop” Emmerick's breathless, takes his hands away from her and leans back on them. “Wanna go back to work?” Val still sits on his knee and looks down at the bulge in his pants. “Like this?” She grins evil. “Damn, Rogue's gonna kill me if...” He puts his head back and closes his eyes. “If you're late?” Val can not help herself, she smirks. “Or if you show up with a boner?” “Both, probably...” Emmerick looks at Val and sees her cheeky grin. “Not funny.” “Just a lil'.” Val winks.

“So...” She puts one hand on his thigh, strokes up slowly. He growls low and Val looks into his eyes. “Rogue'll kill you anyway, so we could...” She bites her lower lip. He graps her with both hands on her hips. “No!” And he lifts her of his lap, effortless. Val giggles and Emmerick stands up. He sighs and runs a hand through his face while he walks over to the elevator. Val follows him.

After pushing the button he leans against the wall and looks up at the ceiling. “Please tell me you got no gig tomorrow morning.” He speaks through clenched teeth. Then he looks down at Val. “Well, I have a gig”, she answers with low voice. He sighs.

She walks over to him, just two steps. “I'll call when I'm free.” Then she raises up on her tiptoes and kisses him. Sweet and gentle. “Mhmm.” He hums against her lips with pleasure and the vibration gives her chills. She takes a step back and the elevator stops. “You goin' back in or...?” he asks. She shakes her head. “Nah, I'm done for today.” “So... good night?” He looks down at her. She nods. “Thanks.” She smiles at him and he returns it mournfully.

Then both of them leave the elevator. Emmerick to stand at his positions, hands in front of him, but now a bit lower than usual to hide the bulge. And Val to leave the Afterlife and ride home at her bike.

[anteroom-of-death]

Life, For Dummies p4

a/n: any one out here wilding? i’m just vibing and writing comes when you ave zero braincells left...

Waking up was a struggle, you’d never slept that deeply or that well. The combination between a long, hot shower and Earth-shattering sex made it all too easy to sleep. You were so, so sore, but it was good. You admitted you hadn’t been fucked like that, heavens, at all if not for a long while. You looked at the large mirror across from your bed, lifting up your shirt. You had a few book-related bruises. 

Stretching and feeling out the fact that you obviously didn’t have your sea legs yet. Your knees and thighs were wobbling and weak.

Then you caught it in the reflection. The collar- your collar. You half- thought it was just a fever dream. But it was real, and it’s weight was light but suddenly very noticable. The ring pressed against your larynx, the bow at the back felt oddly graceful as you flexed your neck to get a better look. 

You finally allowed yourself to cry- this was what dreams were made of. (hey now, hey now!) You were exhausted already, you were happy. You felt light years away from where you were before the Master whisked you away. Hell, the last time you saw the Doctor seemed just a memory. 

So much had changed. You felt completely different. Yes, you had all your same traits, likes and dislikes. But a week with the Master? Chaotic, mind blowing, devastating, beautiful, enriching and most of all, beyond your wildest dreams and even your deepest darkest wishes.

You definitely were different. The collar around your throat and the bruises and sore, stiff muscles proved you were. Not only were you having a tea party with the Devil, but you were the Devil’s whore. 

It was wicked, and all too amazing. He treated you well for the most part. Very well. For only knowing you a week, he seemed to harbor no true ill will. 

You got dressed and wracked your brain, reconciling everything finally and putting thoughts in boxes where they needed to go. It was slow, but needed. And time really did not matter anymore. You splashed yourself with cold water from the sink and prepared yourself mentally for outside your solitary walls. You had no clue what was waiting outside and you needed to put yourself out of any more revieries that might pop up. You had a lot of thoughts, and a lot of places to add up. Obviously, pro and con lists were out of the questions these days.

You supposed if this was a standard exchange of power, that rules and limits would be in place, but there was already the imbalance of aliens with knowledge of all of history, time travel, and space. Humans were simpler and had an equal footing. Therefore it was always up for debate.

You were halfway through finishing your daily SPF and thought about what if’s. Where was this all going? You couldn’t ask, obviously. He made it all up as he went along as much, if not more than the Doctor.

Poor Doctor, you allowed yourself to think, picks you up from your mundane routine only for you to better fit in with her best enemy. 

Her loss, his gain.

Things added up, morals and ethics wise. The Doctor could be just as callous and just as insane, yet hid behind the greater good. She was a spoonful of sugar whereas he was castor oil. Twin sides of a coin…

You shook yourself from these thoughts. Too much to process in one morning for you, especially without caffeine to mainline. 

You finished up and made your way out after stretching and taking a few excedrin you found rattling around the medicine chest. This TARDIS was incredibly intuitive and even materialised all your usual products you used. Or maybe the Master read your mind and supplied them. Either way, it was a big help…

You made your way out and sat down to an already piping hot mug of coffee and a tinkering Master. Your heart and stomach gave a flutter. You rolled your eyes at your over-eagerness.

“You’re finally up, I was worried that I’d have to physically go in there…”

You sloshed into yourself, “How long was I actually asleep?”

“19 hours. I think that qualifies as a coma with you humans.” 

“I obviously needed to sleep.” You talked into your coffee mug. It tasted good. Strong, a little crunchy, very much the perfect cup you didn’t have to add anything to.

“Mmn, you made this?” You asked, pointing to the mug held loft in your hand.

“Of course, I know how to make coffee, spent years on the Outback of Australia, I got bored, I know how to be perfect at everything…”

“Yeah, sure, perfect at everything.” You rolled eyes again, this time at him. 

“I am the Master.”

“Alright, alright.” You gave a concessional hand. You stared into your coffee and contemplated breakfast. You weren’t usually a big fan of eating in the morning, but all things considered you scraped yourself away from the coffee and started looking through the cupboards to see if anything was appealing to you in the moment. Nothing seemed terribly tasty so you just grabbed a bowl of random cereal and some sort of liquid you assumed was oat milk by the scent. 

You felt his eyes studying your back the entire time, you didn’t know if it was in an observational manner or just perversely taking a peek at your backside. 

“You like the show?” You demanded jokingly. 

“Of course, pet…” He leaned back and placed the device he had down. It was a long silver and gold rod with three prongs at the tip. “I see my pretty little pet has found her pretty little treat.” He went over and flipped a strand of your hair and fingered the collar at your neck before stroking at your sternum. He smiled down and flexed his lips open. The lighting made his teeth glitter dangerously. 

The dim lighting really brought out a beautiful tone to his lips. You tried to return to your cereal, but you pecked him on the cheek and steered yourself to a seated position. Temptation could take a temporary back burner. You had to get some semblance of nutrition into you.

He joined you at the table. 

“I was thinking of a few ideas, but I wanted your input.” 

“Really?” 

“Yes, really, I can more than enough make my own choices, but to spice it up, why not get some feedback? What chaos shall be wrought today?” He bent over the table, disregarding the personal space needed to eat a bowl of cereal and let actual brain-processing happen. 

“What all did you have in mind?” You scooted back infinitesimally and tried to finish breakfast quickly. 

He quickly pointed to some post-it notes, “Here’s the name of an intergalactic crime boss who owes me a few favors, figured we could go and rough him up until he squeals, giving me the powerful weaponry we all know he has. Or, here’s a plan to visit a certain set of pepper pots and make some deals that most definitely will backfire, but it would be great fun to see them get frustrated and deny the fact that they can get frustrated. Or I was thinking of visiting Earth and teasing Torchwood and UNIT around early 2000’s Cardiff, you know, for funsies. Oh! What if we went back to Raxacoricofallapatorius and destroyed their nursery?” He was spinning around and fluttering between notebooks and sketches including one where he was strangling a person in an army uniform and a handlebar moustache. 

“Jesus, how fast does your brain go?” You massage your temples…

“Too much? Huh? What would you suggest then?” He pouted, placing a hand at his hip and jutting it out.

“Why don’t we just start slow and nothing Earthly? Crime boss seem good? Simple even…” You slurped the milk off the spoon, “But lemme finish Breakfast first!” Pointing it at him, “Slow your roll. Savor the day. Do you Time Lords even sleep?”

“Rarely.” 

“Wow, that explains so much.”

He querched an eyebrow, “And what would that be, love?” The love felt oddly formal, not like being called a pet. 

“I’ve only met two of you, mind, so I might be generalizing...but the high energy. Like... “ You pressed your fingertips together, “Napping? Don’t you enjoy finding a good place to sleep during the day and just sleeping and enjoying the restfulness and sensations of the sun through a window and maybe a breeze if you open it a bit.”

“No, I’d love to try it, sounds pleasurable…”

“And you said that you were the Master of Everything.” You false-scandalized then laughed, cupping his face and smiling at him. It was great. He really made you laugh in one of those cheesy, stupid ways.

“I could punish you for talking down to your Owner…” He teased right back.

“Oooh...dirty.” You gave a salacious wink.

You could feel the “You have no idea…” radiating from his pores.

“Come along, my pet…” He pulled you from the table and over to the console, “We got a crime boss to torture…”

He punched in the coordinates and grabbed his jacket, then pulled you out the door…

You were toasting your success in the newly acquired weapons-room that now belonged to, as he poured you a little more champagne. 

You oddly enjoyed helping torturing the poor sap. He squirmed and you enjoyed him blanching from pain. 

The machine you saw him working on was a laser screw-driver? And he gave it to you as he was attaching some high tech hand-cuffs to the man. He told you that the controls were intuitive and to “give it a whirl...see how that grabs you…” Watching the gross little green man scream and shake around, flushing and pleading- felt good. Felt powerful. It brought you a tingle of pleasure and you could see why the Master was fond of it. The device felt good in your hand and after the second whorl of your wrist, it felt like a natural extension. It felt right to hold it in your hand and be able to grasp such power. 

A bit of sadism? Then champagne? And the thrill of a steal? All felt like an adrenaline rush.

What were you becoming?

A shred of our conscience echoed about the fact that you, obviously, had to kill him, something the Master allowed you to turn into him and avert your eyes as he shrunk his body and flicked it into a drainage gate. He knew your limits and didn’t go past what he knew you could currently take. You grimaced a bit as you heard a tiny clink. That was a tad harsh. 

All in all, a busy day... 

He was busy cataloging and cooing at all the tech he had access to his as he put it “fun, evil plans”...

It was hilarious and so endearing to watch. He was like a kid in a candy shop. Soft, feral, incorrigible. 

You determined that a small nap whilst tipsy and moonstruck was a great gift to yourself. You felt the collar and played idly with the diamond heart until you blacked out. 

You woke up to him watching you. “One of those fabulous little naps you talked of?” He stroked your thigh and massaged the fabric of your shorts. You pulled yourself up and propped yourself up on your elbows and coyly smiled, “Care to join me?” You winked, “Take a walk on the wild side. It’s a real treat. After that...who knows?” You teased him. 

He considered it and then loosened the buttons, and took off his jacket before laying it down and rolling up his sleeves. He laid down and you offered him to slide up to you. He obliged stiffly but soonly gave in. You spotted his chest hair and stared at it for a moment. You then acted, you traced it, mildly twirling your finger in its mass, he shuddered and then left you to continue. You laid down your head on his chest and felt his hearts pounding between two different beats. 

He murmured, “Keep the screwdriver. A little gift. From me to you…” You felt his hearts hitch a bit.

Sighing, you told him, “Relax." You let out a sleepy little moan. You embraced the warmth of his body and soothing echoing in his chest like a whitenoise machine. "You're doing excellent.." The Master eased up and you felt yourself ease up and drift off. You dreamt of falling through water and waves and the scent of fires and musk. You could feel a pair of eyes watching you, but they felt nonjudgmental, just guiding you deeper down. Deeper under the spell of sleep and total darkness. 

[chucklestheechidona]

Freedom Fighters - An Unceremonious Death

For the love of god let them die

Look, I like the Freedom Fighters. More the reboot than the preboot, they have less baggage, but still, I respect what they did. But if you’ve read my other dumb things you also know I think Red Dwarf USA had a real chance of working, so maybe I’m just insane.

Either way, this whole Rally For Sally business has been going around and disturbing the usual culprits from their dens and I feel I should say something.

“The American Canon“

This is a stupid sentence and yet thrown around as you like. There is no American canon, there is just “The Canon” and “Non-canon.” Believe it or not, the people who make the product get to decide what’s done with it and what is canon.

If you made something and then in France they made an entirely different story with concepts and themes you didn’t want to explore, you’d be hesitant about including or acknowledging it. Same with Sega of Japan.

But then why did Sega allow this to be made?

Well, I think this needs a tad bit of history behind it.

We’re going to the 90′s

Denim was in, the future was here, everything in 2000′s would be chrome and the Y2k bug was on the horizon.

Ohno

But Sega of Japan had an issue. Their arcade machines were selling like nobody’s business but they wanted that sweet console piece of the pie, but had no winning mascot. Alex Kidd, unfortunately, wasn’t moving as many consoles as they had hoped, god knows not enough to rival Mario.

They needed something cool, something different, somethi- It’s Sonic. You know it is, I know it is, I ain’t dragging this on.

It did well enough in Japan, but Sega was focusing on international markets with this game. It had a somewhat universal design, helped by the basis being Felix and Mickey Mouse which were popular around the world, with catchy songs based on both Japanese and American releases from the past.

It was going to be a hit.

Or... was it?

Did they need to do more?

Well, Sega doesn’t just have Sega of Japan. It had SOE and SOA as well. Europe and America respectively. Others too I’m sure but my memory’s off.

SoA and SoJ had a somewhat shaky relationship with each other, but then again, so did other companies back then. It was a new foray into public relations. Japan built the consoles that actually sold, America had to sell them, but there was a big gap between the countries, how things were interpreted, different values, and let’s not forget, American pride and greed.

AMERICA in the 90′s

SOJ needed this thing to sell big. Sonic was going to be a global success if they could help it. And let’s be honest, it was.

America had it’s own plans on what Sonic should be, and SOJ actually listened to some of them. Madeline Schroeder, product manager at the time for Sega in the US, actually went to Japan to say what she thought Sonic would be. As of this, they removed Madonna and Sonic’s tie-in with a band, as well as changing certain design traits in the US because “Sonic looked too Japanese.“

And then had the gall to call herself the “Mother Of Sonic”

Again, in a world where shitting on other people’s culture is a big no-no, and for good reason, how that managed to be fine is insane.

It’s a Japanese fucking product, Madeline.

Alongside this, as SOA hadn’t had much access to the Japanese backstories (although, the manuals should have been fine enough), when it came to marketing the games as an ongoing story (and ready in time for the cartoons they wanted to push) SOA made their own Sonic Bible, for use outside of non-Japanese territories.

This would have the seeds of what most people know, Freedom Fighters, Eggman once being good, Sonic being part of the good fight, etc.

[Astoundingly, when they made the cartoons and everything, Fleetway would be the one to actually stick closer to this than Archie/Satam/Underground/Aosth ever did so who’s talking about canon now huh]

Japan didn’t really notice nor take heed. One could make a good case for their complete obliviousness to what SOA was doing. You can tell because absolutely nothing from the bible/comics/magazine ever appeared in a Japanese Sonic game. Spinball was Sega Technical Institute, an American Division. Not Sega of Japan.

On top of this, as I see a bunch of people who go “Sega is disrespecting the American canon”, interesting fact. In Europe and Japan, the manual for Sonic CD clearly states Amy Rose is in the game. Sega of America actually edited this to say Sally, despite not going through and changing the sprites. If that’s not disrespect towards the creators of the games I don’t know what is.

The Canon

The problem I find with this is that, let’s be honest, if we had to look at this from an objective viewpoint:

Japan released a game.

America sought to profit off it, but didn’t like it was very much Japanese, not American.

They changed the story to be more American themed, changed the art design to look more American drawn, and ignored the Japanese additions to the games by editing out the Japanese characters in the manuals.

Because they wanted to profit off a different culture’s work by changing it wholesale so it didn’t resemble the culture it came from.

Nothing about SatAm’s premise or creation says anything about the original material it came from, just heavily adapted without any input from it’s creators to resemble a more American product.

You know how Japan saw Sonic?

This cute lad who acted more like a cartoon Felix the Cat type figure.

Now I get it, especially in the 90′s, everyone was localising. The markets weren’t as much the same, god knows they gave Ratchet attack eyebrows to be appealing etc.

But this was so anti-Japanese that the fact they were profiting at all from a Japanese product is insane.

Adventure

Ha

Back in Japan in the 90′s, they didn’t really have much of an idea what they were doing with the canon. They had plans but they seemed to be not as stable as they would have liked. The amount of games they were pumping out with different Eggman attacks and characters and if the GG games fit in with the MD games-

They needed something a bit more stable.

So when it was their time for their biggest game yet, they started to reign things in. In Japan. In Europe.

In America.

Sonic Adventure would be the basis for the stories for the next decade or so, with some revisions on what came before, what was mainline, what have you.

At this point, SOA’s cartoons had all died and the only thing remaining in the Sonic canon from that time was the Archie comic, still ongoing. But yet America still pulled this stuff off.

In the original script, Eggman is still Eggman. None of this “I AM DOCTOR ROBOTNIK, GENIUS OF THE WORLD” schtick.

No changing the manuals this time at least, so they’re getting better.

Over time, the only surviving things to come out of the canon, which Sega was nice enough to do considering, was

- Chilli-dogs - I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG - Robotnik being Maria’s surname

Didn’t you have something to say about the Freedom Fighters?

Why yes I do.

So, the Freedom Fighters for me, as much as I like them as , represent an American centrism. Not only was America not a Sega dominated market, for Nintendo did better and Europe was buying Sega consoles like candy, but the characters and show weren’t that popular outside the country anyway.

Ask someone in Europe in the 90′s who Sally Acorn was and unless they had access to a specific channel they wouldn’t have the first idea. Amy Rose, for sure, she was in the games. 

I didn’t know who Sally was until Mega Collection Plus came out, and the UK STILL manages to get Sonic games in the top of the charts when they come out.

Aosth was shown more abroad with more appeal, the comics weren’t sold internationally, let alone in Japan.

To be all “But these characters cemented the Western fanbase” is mental.

The comics sold somewhere in the tens of thousands in their hey-day. At the same time, Sonic games were selling millions. The comic and show are so old that unless you were part of the 20,000 buying the comics recently or pirated them, you don’t even know who they are.

Fleetway was the only Sonic comic we got in the UK, and there’s more fans that have grown up with Sonic Adventure being the basis which had absolutely no inspiration from the Western products.

These characters are relics of America taking the mick out of a Japanese product in order to make more money and produce shows.

To say they’ve made a big impact on Sonic in the world is really stretching it.

F.A.Q

But you said you liked the FF’s!

I do, but in the same way I like AU’s. It was interesting, of it’s time and it said a lot about the culture it was made in. Like, comparable to Tails gets Trolled or Fleetway

B-but I really like the FF’s!

Good for you, don’t let me stop you. Again, I like a bunch of the stories.

Are you a Japanese purist?

Fleetway is cool and I liked the Boom show, and I liked Robotnik better than Eggman as a name.

I heard that some Japanese fans actually liked the FF’s though...

And more power to them. Again, Red Dwarf USA does a lot to shit on what made the UK version so good but I respect what it tried to do. Again, even I like the FF’s to an extent.

Why did you write this all out?

Seeing all this Rally for Sally has brought out all the insane people who shout at SOJ for being gits for not respecting the American canon despite the American canon being born from a disrespect to the Japanese creators.

What about IDW?

Ironically I actually liked Reboot more but also I was younger when I read them.

What do you think of Tangle and Whisper getting in?

I need to read more of IDW but they’re good enough. As for getting in the games, these designs were vetted and passed through SOJ first and the comic is overseen by them. On top of this, T+W don’t come from a place of SOA taking the mick.

But Sega has used these characters before and ESTABLISHED this as canon why are they changing it now-

I see this a lot, usually with certain people. Dobson’s a good example of why this is stupid. When the Japanese revert changes made to characters like Mario/Zelda/Samus by the West, they didn’t radically change their personalities, they just reset them to what Japan intended.

Japan never intended for the FF’s, the three heavily contrasting cartoons and Knuckles is Jesus Christ Superstar.

They just reverted him back to the sole guy on Angel Island.

Do you think Sally should get in to Sonic Dash?

No more than I think Tekno or Sonia does. They’re old, irrelevant, gone. If they do get brought in for a cameo I’d be happy enough, I like dumb nods to non-canon things.

However, there are crazy people out there and you give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Best to leave it.

Hotel?

[lokisgame]

Some Things Never Change

A/N for @kiwiphroot who suggested a Matrix/X-Files crossover 

It was his first time in Zion, and the first thing that struck him, were the people, there were so many of them. All races, all ages, some with sockets in their heads and arms, some without. He followed Trinity through levels filled with life, with all its' scents and debris and usual everyday stuff. They went through living quarters, with lines of laundry hanging everywhere. They passed something like a market, where street vendors, for lack of a better word, sold food and hand made goods. Countless units were turned into workshops, manufacturing everything, from crafted spoons and pots to shoemakers and tailors, making and mending shoes and clothes. Everywhere, clients haggled for better deals, exchanging whatever they had for whatever they needed. "Man, some things never change." He murmured to himself, but she caught it. "Keep up." Trinity smiled and took his hand, pulling him through the crowd.

Three levels up, the elevator doors opened to a wide walkway, and he followed Trinity dutifully, though looking around curiously. He noticed mothers with kids waiting in chairs along the wall, the elderly and the injured, while men and women in almost white robes, walked among them, sorting them depending on the urgency and severity of their illnesses. It looked just like an emergency room, only more ragged. "We fixed you as well as we could when we found you, but every new freed citizen, must undergo full physical and psychological checkup." She looked over her shoulder and gave him a smile, or rather the corners of her eyes crinkled lightly, which for Trinity, amounted to the same thing. "Don't worry, it won't take long." "You have a med school down here too?" Trinity huffed out a small laugh and paused in front of unremarkable doors, knocking lightly. A female voice called for them to come in. "I'm telling you, Scully, it was real!" "Mulder, internet isn't good for you."

"Doctor?" "Hello Trinity." A small, red-haired woman got up from behind a desk, and the man she was talking to turned around, swivelling in his chair. "Zion's finest! Have't seen you around here in ages!" He cheered. "Which is a good thing." The woman finished for him. Neo looked at the bantering couple, trying to get his jaw off the floor. "We have a new crew member." Trinity said then turned to him, "Neo, this is Doctor Scully and Doctor Mulder." "I," he began, trying not to stare at the faces he watched on tv for what felt like forever. "Here it comes," the man, who looked like Mulder said, folding his arms over his chest, "c'mon, say it." "You were characters! On tv!" "We have a fan." Mulder chuckled. "We get that a lot." The one who looked just like Scully, if her hair was allowed to grow and her freckles to show, took Neo by the elbow, leading him to a nearby cot. "Sit down, let me look at you." "And breath, you're not crazy." Mulder said, turning a monitor to himself and began typing. It seemed to be wirelessly connected to a scanner that Scully ran over Neo's arms. Tip of the device touched each socket, and a new readout popped up on the screen. "Connections look okay." He said and Scully nodded. "Turn around and take off your shirt." Scully said, picking up a different instrument, one that looked more like a soldering iron. "This will feel a little tingly." "How does that work?" Neo asked, feeling a tickle skipping up his spine. "You guys were inside, weren't you?" "We were. Mainline?" Scully asked and Mulder whistled. "Wow, 99.9%." "Check again." "I did." Scully glanced over her shoulder to the screen, which Mulder turned for her to see, then they both looked at Trinity. She gave them a little nod. "What?" Neo asked. "Neuron network responsible for the input-output loop is very dense." "Think of it as having more bandwidth than anyone else." "What does that mean in here?" "It means, theoretically," Scully explained, "when logged in, you can process more data and do it faster, than others, giving you quicker reflexes and making your perception sharper. Possibly, even let you reprogram the matrix in close enough range." "It's a little fuzzy, how it happens, but it seems the machines wrote the code so that we can interact with it on a subconscious, instinctive level." Mulder said, typing, "You take a mug in your hand, start a subroutine with a list of actions, reach out, hand doesn't go through the mug, close hand, it's hot, it burns you, you drop the mug, it falls, run coin toss, it brakes or not." As Mulder spoke, Scully kept prodding at his back, lifting his arms, checking reach and movability of joints. Her hands were steady and warm, and soon she was done. "You can get dressed now." She patted Neo's shoulder and turned to her partner. "Look out, Mulder, someone might think you love the machines." "I'd call it knowing your enemy." Mulder chuckled and rolled his chair closer, taking her place. "So what are you saying, my brain is some kind of a super computer?" Neo asked, pulling the sweater over his head. "In sheep's clothing." Mulder replied, gently taking his face in his hands, tiling it back. "Open up." Neo opened his mouth, closed, followed the finger, squinted at the light, and listened. "With your potential capabilities, and awareness of the program, you could try and shape it, in real time, disrupting the pre-programmed cause-effect loops. Slow down or dodge bullets, walk through walls, even fly." "You're shitting me." "Why would I." "If I can do it, why no one else has tried it." "Oh, they tried it." Scully said, a little sad. "And failed, squeeze my fingers," Mulder said, holding his hands out, Neo squeezed. "Responses normal. She's the medical examiner too." Neo noticed the sockets, just like his own, on both of them. "So you guys were inside too." "Yeah." Mulder bumped the side of his hand just below his knee and Neo's leg kicked, "reflexes normal." "And you were actors? It was all just a tv show." "I wish," Mulder chuckled without humour, "I'd give myself a happy ending." "We were working for the FBI." Scully said. "Doctor and a psychologist, turned feds, investing the paranormal," Mulder recited in a tone of a b-movie trailer voice-over, "I'd show you my badge, but I left it in the pod." Neo laughed. "One day we found an artefact, and it had to be a virus of some kind, because it started to mess with the code around me, making me hear peoples' thoughts, that kind of thing. It put me in a hospital, almost catatonic from sensory overload. Then Trin found Scully." "And we pulled each other out." Scully finished for him, leaning against the desk. On a wall behind her, Neo noticed a drawing, just as the one he remembered, a UFO hovering above the tree line, bold letters at the bottom declaring 'I want to believe' Old habits die hard, he thought. "And you guys never knew it was a TV show." "It was to you, for us it was life." Scully said, as Mulder pushed away, back at her side. "Maybe the machines lacked the imagination to create something as abstract as entertainment, to fill humans' need for escape, and took our story to fed it to the masses. One thing they couldn't fake though." "They could never tear us apart." He said, kissing her knuckles. There was a small knock on the door, Mulder asked who was it and a small head peeked inside. "Daddy?" "C'mere Will, we're done." A little boy came in and quickly scrambled into his lap. No sockets, a real child, born outside. "Can we go play now?" The boy asked. "In a second, honey." Scully said, fondly ruffling his light brown mane. "So, everything looks okay, though your muscle mass could use some work. If you find time, I'd recommend physical training, a real one." "It'll keep you sane, and in touch with your physical body." Mulder added. "We lost quite a few, who couldn't handle the transition, so take this one seriously." "Thanks." Neo chuckled, looking from Mulder to Scully. "What?" "I find it hard not to call you guys Agents." "I don't think anyone in here would appreciate that title, and it's not like we were really a part of the system, since we broke free." Scully petted Mulder's head as well, and her smile was an order of magnitude warmer than he remembered. Trinity nodded in thanks and reached for the door, Neo got up to follow. Mulder got up with him, keeping his son in his arms. "Remember Neo," he said softly, "in there, you're as strong as your beliefs. We believe in you." They left the little family behind, and headed back to their living quarters. In the elevator, Neo took Trinity's hand, fingers twining with hers, her words echoing in his head. "The Matrix can not tell you who you are."

[theclarkystuff-blog]

Ace Attorney 6 : Spirit Of Justice

The Ace Attorney series has always had a strange relationship with it’s audience outside of it’s native homeland, Japan. With the series origins going back to 2001 on the GBA , it would not be until 2005 until the original Gyakuten Saiban would be released outside of Japan,  now under the name of Ace Attorney on the DS. Ports of the original GBA trilogy to the DS would favor functions the DS offered such as the touch screen and microphone input and a new soundtrack, the series would continue primarily on the DS with 3 new games emerging and would see various games in the series get ported to IOS, Windows (Japan exclusive), 3DS and Wii.

The series would continue to see releases outside of Japan although a number of games such as Ace Attorney Investigations 2 and The Great Ace Attorney would stay in Japan for reasons ranging from changing market environment and what some speculate could be a difficult localisation with the series already skating on thin ice with it’s current location setting it somewhere in California despite the series nods to it’s Japanese origins often on display, the titles that would make it outside of Japan however would only be available via the 3DS eShop, the only game to get a physical release being a cross over with Level 5 series, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

In 2016 Capcom would release the latest mainline entry, Spirit Of Justice, on 3DS to which I decided to pass up on buying straight away due not having enough free time to commit to this game but Capcom put a tiny deal on it and I’m thinking great, if I want more of these games to release outside of Japan I have to buy this so I cave in. Starting the actual game up we get what I feel is a standard now with the series, short anime cutscenes to help explain the story, the usual events of a crime taking place and slowly being introduced to the setting, the story starts off with series main man Phoenix Wright traveling aboard to the country of Khura'in, a country at civil war being ruled over by a dictatorship like monarchy which has enforced the Defense Culpability Act, legislation which allows lawyers representing clients found guilty in any crime will face the same sentence as there clients, including being put to death,  which has made being a defense attorney a frowned upon occupation. 

As usual in this game you spend a good chunk of time in a court room having to defend your clients claims of innocence by presenting relevant evidence or pointing out inconsistencies in testimonies given by witnesses or the accused. Returning are old tricks our attorney team can use to find the truth including Apollo Justice’s bracelet which will point out people in distress to him and allow him to use his perception to pick on nervous traits your subject may show when reflecting upon there actions. Athena Cykes brings along her therapy sessions which questions people upon their emotional state during events and with her help you can help recover memories from patients suffering from traumatic events. New for this series is the fountain of truth, an event which will allow the court to see the victims last moments through their eyes in the hopes of finding clues to convict the real murderer. For the other half of this game you will play in the investigation mode which will allow you to explore various areas associated with the crime scene and question witnesses and investigators.

It did not take long for the usual charm of the series to kick in, punny names, stranger than fiction murder plots, colourful characters, although by about the third case into this game I felt that some of the experience was dragging along, being the 6th entry into this series it is but hard to imagine fans have already seen a majority of it is about and the game did feel a little like I had been there and seen a bunch of it before. It never helped that during my playthrough due to a mishap involving forgetting to save and leaving the battery on my 3DS to run out I had to repeat a large chunk of the trial again which turned me off so much that i took a short hiatus from this game, I would pick up the game again a month or 2 later after beating Breath Of The Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

I pushed through with case 3 again I was then greeted with perhaps one of the worst cases I have ever seen in an Ace Attorney game. This case felt like it was put in here just to give Athena some kind playtime, I feel this case has little to no bearing for the rest of the game and just kind of exists for no reason like a commercial break at the third act of a movie. You can imagine my frustration losing my steam for this game due to my save blunder although coming back at the shittest part of the game but then we got to case 5 and it completely turned me around. The concluding chapter of this game was that good I would say the rest of the cases seem like a long drawn out intro. This case puts you in the position of Apollo Justice as you enter into one of the most complex murder plots within the Ace Attorney series which involves spirit mediums, assassinations, black mail, smear campaigns, broken families, there is a while lot to take in, think a friend who played the playthrough commented the case lasts like 14 hours.

As this story is progressing I soon realise I am playing a case as good anything Trials & Tribultions ( AA3) as a whole offered, that story wrapped up many things which i felt were left loose and showcased how many of it’s cast had grown, questioning the motive of there characters and giving Phoenix his defining moment, that moment where you felt he had learned all he could from his mentors and had become the ace attorney he had wanted to become. As the game goes on and draws closer to it’s conclusion I realise that I may have played the “Apollo Trilogy” and while Dual Destiny’s may not have outright focused on Apollo I seem to recall moments in there which helped branched his character forward which makes his story all the more meaningful. The penny drops for me in how this game even follows a similar course to Trials & Tribultions in how the cases are presented to you and how we get told this story from at least two perspectives.

If the series goes on ( I have no difficulty in believing it will) I suspect it may begin to focus on Anthea but it leaves enough open stories to keep older fans interested in hopes of them being resolved but this is Capcom we are on about, they ain’t no problem leaving loose ends open like several of the MegaMan series stories.

My conclusion on this is that Spirit Of Justice stands at least level with Trials and Tribultions, which was already a favorite of mine in the series. This game crafts a wonderful story about character growth and facing up to our responsibilities for the greater good of society and with the political story that feels like it mirrors parts of todays political climate I can’t help but feel the story in this game registered more with me more than perhaps it was ever intended too. Ace Attorney despite coming close to being fifteen years old manages to hold up well with its new stores and bright and vibrant characters, I guess I will dive​ into the DLC at a later date and hope that I will be able to find an excuse to play through this game again, this game comes highly recommended by me.

[maximuswolf]

Need help designing a micro-scale grow via /r/microgrowery

Need help designing a micro-scale grow

Hi guys, I'm new here and I'm hoping to get some input on designing a micro-scale growbox. I do have some experience growing, but that was a decade ago so my knowledge is a bit faded, and some things seem to have changed in the meantime (for instance, CFL lights seem to be more or less rendered obsolete by LED bulbs/panels for smaller scale grows).

I'm not concerned with prime genetics or massive yields - if it gets me high it's good weed, and I just want enough for personal use (let's say 15-30 g a month) so I don't have to constantly spend a ton of money and keep dealing with sketchy characters. My primary concerns are space, stealth and startup/operating cost.

Common go-to containers for micro grows are PC cases, but I feel like that's a bit too constrictive, and it also has issues with smell/light proofing since there are a ton of small gaps and holes all over it. So what I'm thinking of using instead is a larger tupperware/rubbermaid box. The specific one I'm looking at is 55x38x42 cm (LWH), which is only slightly longer and higher but twice as wide as the average PC case - about 0.2 m2 of surface area. The main thing I'd like help with is choosing what kind of lighting to go with, and how to manage the height of the plants since that's going to be the main limiting factor.

The cheapest and easiest to obtain lights in my area are standard E27 socket 15W LED lightbulbs - the beginner guide on here suggests 50-80w per sq ft, and I have about 2.25 sq ft, so I take it I could get away with using 6-8 of these? My main concern is the (already limited) vertical space they'd use up inside the box, and I don't know how close they need to be kept to the top of the canopy. I remember CFLs needed to be really close to the canopy, but from what I understand that's less of a concern with LEDs? Ideally, I'd keep the lights outside and on top of the box, and have them static (no need to adjust height) throughout the grow, which would both give me more space inside the box for the plants to grow and make heat issues way easier to manage - but not sure if this approach would work. Either way, I'm thinking of using two 120 mm PC fans for ventilation (one intake around the vertical middle of the box, one carbon-filtered outtake near the top on the opposite side).

I'm also really struggling to figure out which height-management technique to go with. SOG, ScrOG, LST, mainlining, party/solo cup containers, 12-12 light cycle from start, etc. Ideally, I don't want to spend a lot of time micromanaging growth with something like LST which is also hard to do in such a limited space, and I don't want to prolong the growth period by stressing the plants too much. For both practicality and height-management reasons, I'd like to go seed->harvest in the shortest amount of time possible. Would using small containers like party cups and 12-12 from seed be my best bet here? I realize that would result in tiny yields per plant, but I could fit quite a few of them in there which I'm hoping would balance things out. And again, I'm not interested in huge overall yields - 90g total dry from a 3-month grow would be more than enough for me.

For propagation, I'm thinking of just using some bagseed to start with, and then doing my own seed production when necessary. I don't want to constantly buy expensive seeds from a bank, especially if I'm going the route of having a lot of tiny plants instead of 1-2 large ones. I also don't want to keep a mother plant around for clones since that doubles space usage and costs. So what I'm thinking instead is that I'd deliberately leave one male plant in for the first round and let it pollinate all the female plants. I'd probably take a significant hit in yield due to the seed production, but then I'd probably have at least 100-200 seeds which would be more than enough to start quite a few new grows which would be female only. When I finally start running out of seed again, I could just run another pollinated batch.

Any input from someone more experienced (especially with micro-scale grows) would be much appreciated.

Submitted August 15, 2020 at 04:49AM by GeneriAcc via reddit https://ift.tt/31SpXrj

[recentanimenews]

Monkey Mayhem Awaits in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD!

  One of the stickier questions when it comes to videogames is imagining what classic games we enjoyed on older platforms would be like if they were updated for today’s controls and hardware. While new titles are always amazing and exciting, sometimes it can be nostalgic to think back to titles we wasted afternoons and weekends with when we were younger, games that were revolutionary at the time, but quietly faded into obscurity after numerous sequels and iterations made them commonplace or lackluster. Sadly, Super Monkey Ball is one such series, having been dormant for quite a while, with the main characters AiAi and MeeMee appearing as cameos in other games such as Yakuza more than in their own whimsical games. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz was the last “regular” installment in the series, coming out for the Vita in 2012, and titles that followed it fell more into the category of spin-off than they did mainline titles.

    The announcement of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD lit a bit of a fire in me: would we finally see some new Monkey Ball action on modern consoles? What would it even play like? Unfortunately, Banana Blitz HD is not a brand new Monkey Ball game, but itself an update to an even older title, a 13 year old Wii title of the same name that introduced motion controls to the series. Dreams of a new Monkey Ball thwarted, I was still curious to check out Banana Blitz HD, because I never played the Wii version (I wasn't too into motion controls at the time). Craving some classic monkey steering magic, I put in the code provided to us by our good pals over at SEGA and took the monkeys out for a spin on my Switch to see what sorts of adventures awaited.  

    If you’re new to Super Monkey Ball, it’s basically a combination of obstacle course navigation and mini-golf, as you’re steering your chosen monkey (who all have various stat differences which affect how fast they are, how well they jump, and other control related functions) through increasingly wild stages. The goal of every stage is simple: get to the goal and roll through it. The challenge of the game comes from managing your speed and the various challenges that the courses will provide, constantly finding new ways to push you over the board edge or rebounding wildly off an obstacle and plummeting to your doom. The controls are arcade heyday simple: you steer with the left analog stick, and you can also jump with the face buttons, and that’s it; the game has no other mysterious controls or combinations you need to know.

  In practice, this is fantastic, but this is one of the first places where the revamp from the Wii to non-motion controls rears its ugly head: you can’t change or steer the camera in any way, and the right analog stick is right there. While camera controls might have been difficult on a motion oriented controller, on regular inputs, the inability to move the camera in any way occasionally made parts of the game extremely frustrating, especially during boss battles. Otherwise, the controls of the game work quite fine, and the analog controls of steering your monkeys works like a dream, with tight controls which really matter in various sections of the game.

    Players will find themselves tasked with completing a 100 stage campaign to get back the precious bananas from a nefarious gorilla pirate and his cohorts. That’s about all the story you need (let’s be honest; no one came here for a story) as you embark on completing the various worlds of the game, each introducing new challenges and stage types to confound you. Overall, the 100 levels of the game are stellar, and the game plays great, even in the most challenging aspects of navigating the stages. You’re tasked with puzzling them out, figuring out the best paths, speeds, and ways to overcome the various obstacles you’ll find in order to get to the goal in time. In-between regular stages that have you focused on going from the start to the goal, you’ll also find one bonus stage per world that asks you to collect a target number of bananas within a time limit, and the final stage of every world is a boss battle, requiring you to find ways to hit the boss’s weak points and defeat them.

  At this point, I think it is only fair to be totally honest: I would have loved his game wholeheartedly if these boss fights were NOT in the game. Everything else about Banana Blitz HD is fantastic: the worlds are fun, the stages are challenging, and the music, while not groundbreaking, is fitting and fun. The boss battles, however, are an absolute chore. They are a literal speedbump that doesn’t just stop your momentum, but also destroys the front end of your car. Each boss has a different gimmick, and I found them to become more and more of a burden as the game went on, causing me to put the game down for lack of desire to try and get past them after a few attempts. This really took me out of the game, as I had been enjoying the game through the first world and even second world without much of an issue, but the third world’s boss was the first major roadblock I hit that just drained my energy to continue with the game for a while. When I finally came back to it, I have to admit that throwing myself at the bosses over and over again just stunted my enjoyment of the game; for every 9 stages of madcap fun rolling around and clearing goals, I was forced to sit through 1 extremely bad boss fight that felt like taking a bite out of broccoli dipped in medicine.

    Sadly, this is compounded further by the medal mechanic that the game has. In order to challenge players, each world has a medal they can attempt to receive if they complete every stage in a world without continuing. This means that if you absolutely nail all of the stages in a given world, you’ll end up wasting all of that progress with a bad run in with a boss, which then will force you to do the entire world all over again to try again. If you’re a completionist, this somewhat annoying wrinkle may challenge you in a way that isn’t fun, and I have to say for me it was a drag. If you play through without caring about the medal on your first attempt, then you probably won’t care too much, but it still means that you’ll likely have to come back and do the entire world all over again, hinging everything not on your mastery of the courses, but frankly on dumb luck against the bosses, whose gimmicky battles tend to involve a lot of unfortunate and unforced ring outs that can’t be avoided.

  That, perhaps, is the biggest bummer in the game: the bosses aren’t challenging in the sense that they are an obstacle to overcome, they’re instead frustrating and somewhat unworkable messes that ask the game to handle things it wasn't meant to handle. The boss of the third world, for example, would consistently send me flying out of the ring at the slightest bump during his spin, or trap me underneath him until I would finally be flung out in any direction from the built up momentum the game seemed to assign me. The second boss, who asks you to reflect back missiles at him, would consistently get me trapped in the explosions that damaged him, sending me flying too; in one particularly frustrating incident, I reflected back what would have been the fatal rocket at him, only to get ringed out at the same time, forcing me to redo the entire world over again.

    Aside from the campaign, there are some multiplayer minigames to play. Anyone who played the original Banana Blitz Wii release might remember that this game originally had 50 minigames, but the HD version only has 10, mostly due to the fact that the other 40 games required motion controls. In my opinion, I’m not sure if this is a loss or not; while the games aren’t available, I can’t say I ever really enjoyed many motion based games on the Wii, and so these games being nixed from this release doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the game much.

  Instead, I will say that the 10 games presented here are fun little diversions, but that’s about all they offer: diversion. You can’t play them online, and require another person to be in the room with you to play multiplayer. Again, this isn’t really a deal breaker, but I would say that the multiplayer options aren’t very robust; they are basically a bonus for the main campaign, which is the major buying point for the overall package. While I had fun playing the multiplayer and minigames with my partner, I certainly wouldn’t break out Banana Blitz HD just to play them again.

    Overall, I think I’m split on Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD. I enjoy the overall gameplay in the 100 stages, and just wish the boss battles weren’t there. But the stuff that is there is fun and fast, allowing you to get a taste of the original magic that is Monkey Ball. Perhaps Banana Blitz HD will be a sign that SEGA is interested in starting up new Monkey Ball projects, so I hope that they will consider doing so; seeing one that takes advantage of modern controls and systems would be absolutely amazing. Until then, I’ll certainly consider playing parts of Banana Blitz HD again when the nostalgia for monkey magic strikes, but I can’t say this is the Monkey Ball game I want; it’s just the one I have right now.

  REVIEW ROUNDUP:

+ Fun racing and puzzle solving mix of Monkey Ball magic. + Game runs and looks great on modern hardware with no slowdown or framerate issues. +/- Controls are good, although limited; a camera control would have been a godsend. - Boss fights are an absolute drag and takes the fun out of the campaign experience.

  Are you a Monkey Ball maniac? Did you play the original Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

    ----

Nicole is a features writer and editor for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

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