#this is a bit more chibified than what i usually do

[mewtwo365]

Persona 5 - Cognitive Haru

I’ve been playing persona 5 and i really like Haru’s alien design so I had to draw this!

Hope you enjoy and have an AWESOME day!!

[factual-fantasy]

Good day Factual! Hope you're starting to feel a bit better- colds that just refuse to go away are the worst! Glad you've been having some fun playing and drawing Pokemon in the meantime though- and thanks a million for giving us all that great art of Grimace! Him and Sylvester definitely have a wholesome, brotherly bond, and it would be sweet to see some more of them someday, though as always, draw whatever you wish! In the meantime, as a little side Ask- could you tell us how you met them perhaps? Both in game and in "story"? Did you catch them like usual Pokemon, or did they join willingly?

And as for my main Ask- I thought I'd inquire about two of my favorite lesser known Mario enemies, and their places in your AU- starting with the fire spitting, three horned menaces, the Reznors!

Despite them essentially just being chibified triceratops, I've always liked their designs, their pack mentality, and the goofy noises they make! Sadly, Nintendo hasn't used them for much other than a couple gimmicky mini bosses, but I figure if the Bowser of your AU had a few, he'd put them to much better use! Just spitballing here, but you've come up with some cool ideas of how the Koopas use various other creatures- what if they used tamed Reznors as battle mounts, like how humans have used elephants! Imagine the Koopas armoring them up, loading troops on to their backs, and then charging into battle, bullet bills a-blazing! ( Just my idea- what do you think? )

And then the other enemy I wanted to mention, is the rarely remembered, deadly dino from w 1-1 of Super Mario World- the Rex!

They were powerful, speedy critters with a nasty bite- and while Nintendo rarely makes use of them nowadays, many fans still hold them and their lore implications close to their hearts- due to their uncanny resemblance to Yoshis... Because of this, many have theorized they share a common Ancestor- though others fear that perhaps a form of evil magic was involved- which, I think would be a perfect fit for your AU! Since your Kamek has showcased powerful, corruptive magics in the past- what if he created the Rexs, either by mutating captured Yoshis, or enchanting stolen Yoshi eggs before they hatched!? Either way, id imagine they would be just as large and aggressive as your yoshis- and serve the Koopas well as guard dogs, or perhaps as alternative mounts- being weaker, but more nimble and agile than a Reznor. But what's your take? Would either of these guys make the cut? Or not be included at all- ( which would be fine too, I just wanted to ask, and pitch some ideas! )

(Grimace and Sylvester art in question)

Hey there! Unfortunately I'm going downhill a bit, I think my cold is really startin to take me down. Which is just wonderful 🥲 at least I have Pokemon Scarlet to keep my mind busy!

Speaking of Pokemon, Grimace and Sylvester actually do have a story to them..

Starting with Grimace, I actually kinda got him on accident due to a 3 day long brain fart. Let me explain- <XD

So picture this. It's early in the game and I spot a Duskull. I think "Oh cool! Dusknoir is my favorite pokemon! I gotta catch one so he'll eventually evolve into a Dusknoir! :D" So I catch one and name him Dusty.

I ran around with Dusty, training him, loving him, feeding him sandwiches, the works, for 3 days or so. 3. Real life. Days.

It's only when I'm a about to go to bed and I'm thinking about him that I realized..

Dusty is a Gastly. Not a Duskull. He will eventually turn into a Gengar. Not a Dusknoir.

I still can't figure out how I looked at a Gastly and had my brain go "catch one! It'll turn into a Dusknoir! :DD"

So anyways, I didn't really want a Gengar.. but by the time I had noticed my mistake, I had already gotten attached to the big guy. So I accepted defeat, renamed him Grimace and gave up on my dreams of having a Dusknoir. I'll get a Dusknoir in legends Arceus anyways it's fine- <XD

Now Sylvester...

I knew right when I started the game that I wanted a female Sylveon. That was a big goal of mine. And I knew of a place early on in the game where there was a chance for Eevee to spawn. So I ate a sandwich that increased my normal type spawn rate and hunted for a while.

It was quite the drag since Eevees we're still a rare spawn.. but I was able to find some and catch them all. Though there was one peoblem. Every single Eevee I encountered was male! I wanted a female eevee!

It was a few hours into Eevee hunting that I went and Googled the female to male ratio on Eevees. Females have like a 12% spawn rate... Whoops. Looks like I'm not gonna find a female eevee this early on in the game....

But I still wanted a Sylveon.. 🥺

So I did some thinking. I imagined my trainer as a character. I picture them catching a male Eevee and loving him just the way he is. Saying that he doesn't have to evolve for them. Classic Eevee/trailer relationship. And I imagined the Eevee being so happy with this trainer and loving his team so much, that he evolved into a Sylveon. And he's not ashamed at all! His form is the ultimate expression of his love for his friends and his trainer!

I also pictured tweaking Sylvester's body type to make him apear more masculine. Changing the shape of his bows and ears to look sharper. Making his eyes a bit smaller and making his paws pointier.

Point is, the story I built in my head and all the drawing ideas this gave me... Plus my inability to catch a female eevee.. resulted in me adopting one of the male Eevees and evolving him into a Sylveon XD

Anyways XD as for your Mario questions...

I'm actually unfamiliar with those enemies <:0 though having a little more diversity in the Koopa kingdom would be good.. perhaps I could look into the Reznors a bit more and incorporate them somehow.. like you said, making them battle mounts or something similar..

Now the Rex, what an odd critter.. definitely haven't seen that guy before- :00 he really does look a lot like a Yoshi.. I'd have to look into those guys a bit too before I decided what to do with them.. but I'm liking your ideas! Kamek corrupting Yoshi eggs or something similar to make more mindless drones.. that's something he would do! 😅 But I'd probably takes away the Rex wings.. Yoshis can't fly! ☝️

Aaaanywho, thank you as always for the ask and interest! :}} This distraction came at a very good time 🥹💔

[ethaneldritch]

Hypothetical Identity V x Legacy of Kain crossover list:

S-tier is obviously Kain. I'm thinking either for the Detective or Undead. Undead, because his build and weapon look fairly similar. Detective, because he also happens to be the main character of a complicated and tragic storyline (also because Kain never fully "dies"; it'd just feel right for him to run around in synesthesia mode after his part in the game is done).

I'm leaning toward Detective, to add that "specialness" justifying it being an S-tier. Kain doesn't have a very flashy character design, so you'd need something other than tons of special effects encouraging people to buy it.

A-tiers:

Raziel - Axe Boy/Photographer (I'm leaning toward Axe Boy because of the flaming souls and design potential of the trees, but Photographer would probably make a better vampire Raziel. Think "going into spectral" with the cameras, etc.)

Ariel - Naiad (Geisha and BQ don't quite match her temperament, but Naiad's swimming moveset perfectly translates into ghostly floating about. Her harpoon could be redesigned into a staff with the Balance symbol on the end.)

Moebius - Mad Eyes (✨NEED. I. SAY. MORE.✨ His gates could be retextured to look like the stained glass halls in the Sarafan Stronghold.)

B-tiers:

One for each of the clans, of course! I made sure all the B-tiers were Survivors since the higher tiers are very Hunter-heavy, which is unusual for most crossovers.

Razielim - Toy Merchant

Turelim - Mind's Eye

Dumahim - Forward

Rahabim - Professor

Zephonim - Entomologist

Melchiahim - Grave Keeper

(You could switch Toy Merchant for Perfumer if you wanted to represent more of the Razielim's snooty side. Also, Professor and Ento can be switched for Evil Reptilian and Soul Weaver respectively, if you wanted more Hunters in the lineup.)

Miscellaneous Items:

I figure most of the above (except maybe the S-tier) would be presented in an essence, so I came up with some hypothetical goodies to put in the shop, too.

Mini Lieutenants (pets for both Hunter and Survivor. You'd probably be able to get a maximum of two or three for free from the accompanying event, but the rest would be available in the shop. They should likely sell at a discount to the usual pet price as well, since there's so many.)

Mini Sluagh (an alternative pet idea, if the mini lieutenants are too many to collect. Could be for Hunter or Survivor, but I'm leaning toward Hunter.)

Mini anyone, tbh. Vorador, Umah, Janos...heck, just chibify 'em all. I'd open my wallet for that. >:)

Some kind of Soul Reaver accessory (either a small B-tier available in the essence, or an S-tier for Raziel/Axe Boy. In the case of the latter, you could probably brand it as an "elemental font" or something and have color-changing effects for various interactions during a game.)

General Hunter A-tier accessory (turns rocket chairs into a small recreation of Kain's Pillar throne; I'm thinking it could just be a large central Balance Pillar with the others being smaller decorative bits, otherwise the design becomes too big for the item it's replacing. You could even have it similar to BQ's Promised Neverland costume, where the Pillars are whole when a Survivor is first chaired, and decayed when on their second.)

At least one piece of furniture (I literally don't care what, I just have a horrible addiction to collecting furniture in this freaking game. Maybe another throne or some kind of Chronoplast thingy.)

WAIT NO. HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THIS SOONER: BANNERS. (All six clans, probably B-tier. If you wanna get really fancy, you could do a larger banner of Kain's too. Line 'em all up on the wall with his in the middle...oh heck ya.)

Questions? Comments? Remarks from the peanut gallery? Leave 'em all, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts! :D

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why the Star Allies intro screen is so bad /gen? I know which one they're talking about, and iirc it's just Taranza and Adeleine/Susie, I don't understand what the issue is between either of those pairings. Is is it just people seeing Susie as problematic for shipping in general, or is it because people see Adeleine as child-coded, because I took the height increase in Star Allies (around 130% what it was in DL3 and 64 regardless of what you hc the heights to be) as a significant age increase? Or is the problem with Taranza/Ribbon, bc it doesn't seem to be what's implied there and kinda seems like looking for something to be upset over, not to be insensitive since I do see why that particular pairing is kinda dubious

nothing wrong with not getting it! its definitely the issue with adeleine yeah. once again i take the neutral stance of "i never played 64 so im shrugging more than usual" but shes definitely very baby faced still. regardless of what the canonical human look for the series is, i think, and most people do, it still seems shes very young. plus its a little out there for susie and adeleine to be in the same age-group canonically i feel (to make it not weird that he was trying to hit on both of them at once, to be clear). taranzas age and whether hes a kid or adult, as i stated, is a mess and its own can of worms so i wont get into that, but i think for them to be in the same age range, susie would have to be like 18-20 at the youngest and frankly i dont think adeleine is any older than 18-20 either at present day. you have to stretch it a bit for it to make sense, but to be fair it is mostly just speculation and vibe feeling rather than anything with evidence

it may have to do some differences between shimomura and kumazakis views on the character and the kirby universe in general tbh. i know in some art in the dreamland games ado (do NOT come at me with the if ado/adeleine are the same person debate LMFAO im not having that rn) has like regular human proportions, but in gameplay shes chibified a lot which makes her look younger, and then adeleines star allies appearance is based off of her in-game 64 appearance which is also chibi ofc so its ???? Maybe a side-effect of a side effect of game necessity???? i mean its definitely up for debate but the whole susie+adeleine needing to be in the same age range is probably the most egregious issue.

once again i refer back to what i think is the most plausible reasoning: the title screen skit was just a fun idea they had and it was never meant to be taken that seriously

[phoenixyfriend]

Commander Buir

Follow-up to this post. Not in any particular order, just spitballing ideas, with contributions from several friends on discord.

Like presumably it takes long enough for them all to meet up again that Anakin and Cody do, in fact, end up treating each other like family, just so I can have that good good "well, guess I'm Dad now" energy. Shmi isn't entirely sure what's going on but she's not a slave anymore and her kid seems to like this rando mando, so.

Anakin gets to have a mom and two dads, though one of the dads is arguably younger than him.

Also when they all meet up again and Cody explains the "General Skywalker got shrunk" thing, there are three reactions: (General) Obi-Wan: Oh, Anakin. Obi-Wan: [gestures to take him, ends up with an armful of clingy padatoddler] Anakin: You can't blame this on me, Obi. Obi-Wan, a little teary, because babies cause emotions: Of course I can, you absurd human being. ------ Rex: That's... my general. Anakin: I am, Captain. Rex: Cool cool cool I'm gonna go stand where I can't, uh, break you. Anakin: I'm not THAT fragile! ------ Ahsoka: [gasp] Skyguy is SKYKID! Anakin: Padawan, this is-- Ahsoka, grabbing him and cuddling: Oh my goodness you're adorable this is the best day ever. Anakin: This is humiliating, Snips, put me down. Ahsoka: Never.

Anakin hates being a toddler because of the lack of independence but Cody keeps picking him up when he's cranky and just holding him until he falls asleep and that's... nice.......

- The brain limitations aren't quite as bad as the situation with Sokanth and Ylliben in the other AU, but - Even if his brain is mostly adjusted he’s still got a tiny body with different needs that he’s not used to. Like, he needs to sleep more but he’s got more energy than usual when he’s awake and it’s all weird.

Cody carrying around toddler Anakin like "God you give me ulcers but you're adorable, you little shit."

Inconveniently tiny body aside, Anakin has a pretty great time in this au. His family are all together and safe and within reach. His wife isn't around, but toddler brain means he doesn't have the Romance Drive, so that's not as bad as it could be It could be significantly worse.

@atagotiak asked: Does Anakin get annoyed about being called cute? - To which I say, He bites the first few times but Shmi tells him that's Naughty so he stops. - Babies are cute so you packbond with them before they’re annoying, Anakin is cute as a self defense mechanism - He’s extra annoying so he needs to be extra cute

You know how you need to keep an eye on toddlers so they don't, like, fall down the stairs or put something toxic in their mouth? - They need to keep an eye on Anakin specifically so he doesn't rewire the ship they're in while they're in hyperspace. - He has less self control on account of being smol. He still has all the mechanical knowledge! Just less comprehension of y’know, consequences.

Anakin, with a sippy cup: This is demeaning. Ahsoka: Your hands don't work great enough to avoid accidents yet. Anakin: It's still embarrassing.

General Kenobi can't just kill Maul, not when Maul is baby right now (sixteen, which is baby enough) so he just. Kinda. Kidnaps a baby Sith. (It's fine. He's fine.)

General Kenobi (not to be confused with Padawan Kenobi) decides to declare Maul his new padawan because someone has to deal with this teenager, and Plo already claimed the rest of Ahsoka's training. And Anakin's three, so.

"What do we do with Maul?" "Eh, I can handle him. I dealt with teenage Anakin getting arrested for illegal pod-racing twice a month, I can work with this."

Maul bites, but only slightly more often than Anakin, it's fine

Ahsoka definitely bullies Maul whenever possible

Consider: Rex holding very still because Anakin wanted to be tall, so he climbed Rex. Being unexpectedly climbed is better than being unexpectedly yeeted. It's still extremely nerve-wracking. - Cody is perfectly capable of running around with a backpacking toddler General, but Rex freezes like a statue. - Ahsoka finds this hilarious

You know how little kids like to be thrown around and swung in circles and stuff like that? This must get even more ridiculous with force users. Can throw a child real high and catch them safely. - Rex panics whenever Ahsoka throws her chibified Master

Literally everyone except Rex loves being yeeted. Even Maul can appreciate a good tactical yeet no shut up he's not having fun this is TRAINING - Rex is Suffering - Cody, a very Tired Dad, deserves to mock his vod'ika a little, as stress relief - Rex, a certified Little Brother, shoves Cody off something tall. Jokes on him, Cody thinks freefall is fun too.

Tia asked: So the people who didn’t exist yet got flung bodily back in time and Anakin did the mental time travel. Why did Obi-Wan not become Padawan Kenobi? (I mean “because I want it that way” is def a good enough answer I’m just wondering if there’s any reason.) - Which, well, it really was mostly "I want to" but here's two options, both of which come down to Blame Daughter and Father. 1. They figured a responsible adult Jedi Master was needed to convince people. 2. Nobody was supposed to get de-aged but Daughter figured they needed to make Anakin less liable to kill things for a few years. - Also IDK the Force God-Manifestations also took away any risk of rapid aging and early death from the clones because uhhhhhhhhhhh I said so

Rex and Ahsoka are fumbling their way through a relationship where ages are just really confusing and awkward, so they're keeping it to just kisses and cuddles for a bit.

Cody is so tired he doesn't even realize anyone's hitting on him until it's been three years of co-parenting with Shmi and his General. - Somehow Anakin knows Cody is in a relationship before Cody does. Cody has never been so embarrassed. - How did he manage to be less observant than Skywalker? -- it was sabotage; all his brain cells were taken up in managing said Skywalker -- Because Skywalker was up at three in the morning whacking a training droid with a stick so he didn't have the energy for Relationships

Also Shmi's come-ons are super subtle, while the General's are... well, Cody's gotten very used to ignoring anything ambiguous on that end because fraternization rules, and also because Obi-Wan flirts a lot with everyone. So.

Please imagine Cody and General Kenobi walking around with Anakin tucked into a toddler sling while they do whatever work they've ended up with at the Temple. - Yes, Cody is helping the Jedi figure out the best plan of attack to take down this slave ring because his grasp on tactics is phenomenal and he knows how to deploy people at greatest efficiency, but also he's got a nosy toddler on his hip who keeps offering his own insane-but-competent ideas. - General Kenobi ends up with a Council Seat just on account of, like, being the kind of person he is. As often as not, he's got Anakin tucked into his robes, chewing on the ear of a stuffed tooka or something.

IDK what Shmi's doing but apparently Legends had it that some of the administrative and support positions in the Temple were held by non-Jedi civilians? So probably something like that.

GENERAL KENOBI LECTURING PADAWAN MAUL WHILE ANAKIN'S BALANCED ON HIS HIP AND GLARING AT MAUL FOR STEALING HIS DAD

General Kenobi: Ahsoka's babysitting. Anakin: I'm her master, I don't need babysitting, this is-- General Kenobi: Fine, then you need supervision, so that you don't blow up a training salle again. Anakin: And you think Ahsoka would stop me? General Kenobi, eye twitching: Fine, I'm leaving you with Plo.

Even if he’s mentally an adult Anakin always needs supervision Look at canon! Anakin was left without supervision for like two days and he became a Sith

Quinlan gets distracted by how attractive General Kenobi is and tells Obi-Wan "dude, you're gonna be so hot once you can get rid of the stupid haircut" and Obi-Wan pushes him into the nearest pond.

They end up with this weird "Uncle Jango" situation (uncle to Anakin, via weird brotherhood-ish to Cody) because Rex and Cody are just like "Uhhhhhhhhh yeah okay" about him eventually, and Jango just like. Drops by. Trying to Earn Affection Of Blood Kin by bringing weird gifts for them and their (ugh) Jedi.

"Okay, Rex'ika, I stopped by Shili--" "What?" "--and apparently this is a delicacy there, so just... your girlfriend will like it." "She's not my girlfriend." "..." "Okay, I can't call her my girlfriend. Jedi have rules about that sort of thing, and--" "This will make your Jedi happy, probably. Just take it, kid."

Baby Anakin got his arm back but for some inexplicable reason still has The Eye Scar. He matches Buir.

[tainted-wine]

Just gonna leave this here: a quirk that turns Hawks into an actual hawk version of himself that can talk, and his poor s/o must be his falconer until the quirk wears off. Alternatively, Dabi getting chibi’d. MANY LOLS TO BE HAD. And also burnt pants pockets, if I’m not mistaken.

If Hawks was a bird, I’d imagine his appearance would resemble a Brahminy Kite aka red-backed sea eagle. Yeah, I know they’re not exactly hawks but it’s such a perfect look for him. Though I’d imagine his front plumage to look more blonde than white.

The news reporters were already swarming him. At least give him a chance to breathe; this was probably more shocking to himself than it was to them. It’s also just a little intimidating to have so many people several times his height squatting down and shoving mics into his little beak.

“Did you see the villain that did this to you, Hawks?”

“How long will this quirk last?”

“Will you be able to carry on with hero work in this condition?”

“What do you have to say to your fangirls right now?”

“Would you be willing to have a photoshoot with us and promote our bird shop?”

He raises his wings (man, it’s weird when they’re your only upper limbs) and attempts to calm everyone down.

“Relax, everyone. I’ll have this all fixed up soon, I promise! And don’t think I’ll be taking a break from hero work just because I’m small enough to perch on your arm. You villains out there better stay put!”

The flashing cameras hurt. His eyes felt more sensitive than ever.

Of course, that was a bit of a lie. Hell no, he isn’t fighting any competent villain while he’s a literal bird, but he already knows that the Hero Commission isn’t going to let him sit back even while he looks like this.

-----------------

What the fuck were you watching.

A group of reporters were crowding a bird that had just hopped out of your lover’s hero outfit which was piled on the floor. And they were calling the bird Hawks.

And then the bird spoke. With Hawks’s voice.

No way.

A bit less than an hour after those surreal interviews, a rapping sound was heard at your window. Lo and behold, the same bird you’ve been looking at all over the Tweeter feed was waving at you as he waited patiently to be let in.

You didn’t know where to even start as he waddled in, unsteady on legs that bended in ways he wasn’t used to, and large talons that scratched every surface.

“Did ya miss me, baby bird?” Wow, he really just used his seductive voice. 

Your discussion with him about what he plans to do while in his current form is as awkward as you expected, with one extra curve-ball thrown in.

Your face looms over his smaller head. “What do you mean you need me on your patrols? Patrols that you shouldn’t even be doing right now?”

He shakes and puffs up his feathers. “You’ll be my partner in crime! Well, more like you’ll be the one carrying my goods around and answering calls while I take down bad guys. And I have to make sure I always have a good takeoff spot, since I’m not as quick and limber of a flyer as I usually am. It’ll be safe, I promise.”

-----------------

It wasn’t very safe.

Sneaking up on a villain in a sketchy ally was not safe at all. Hawks was unknowingly digging his talons into your skin as he kept his body low, his wings only half-folded in case he needed to fly at any moment.

With a signaling squeeze (ouch), you swung your arm as he leapt off and flew toward the unassuming criminal.

It was...ridiculous, watching what was an intimidating man make high-pitched yelps of surprise and swat at the hawk flapping around his head. All respect as a villain is probably lost if you’re subdued by a bird that isn’t even half your size.

“Now!” Hawks shouted while he had the man’s arms pinned behind his back.

You rushed in to click the handcuffs around his wrists. 

“That’s your third arrest, baby bird! You oughta try for a hero license!” He praised you with a wink.

“Thanks, but I’d rather have this entire fever dream end as soon as possible.”

His phone vibrated in your pocket and you withdrew it to see which sidekick or Commission member was calling him this time. Instead, a strange name popped up.

“Who is...‘Burnt Bitch’?”

Hawks swooped in and snatched the phone out of your hands before you could even blink.

“Aheheheh, sorry love! This is a personal call that I gotta take myself!” He flew out of your sight, leaving you to handle the humiliated and angry villain by yourself.

-----------------

Hawks swore when he scratched his screen as he attempted to answer the call. Dammit, Dabi sure was a master of contacting him at inconvenient times. 

Having finally pressed the button, he gave his usual greeting to the fiery villain. “What’s up, Dabs?”

“So you’re a literal birdbrain right now, are you? Pretty hilarious.”

That...was not Dabi’s voice.

“Um, why do you sound like a chipmunk?”

“...I’m just using a voice changer,” the squeaky villain said. “I shouldn’t make myself too obvious when talking to you.”

Hawks scratched his head, flinching when he nearly poked his eye. “You’re just now deciding to do that, and you couldn’t pick a voice that I’d actually take seriously?”

“Like you’re one to talk. I’m impressed you managed to answer the phone without any hands. You’re meeting up with me at the usual spot tonight.”

“...Tonight?”

Dabi groaned, which sounded more like those low meows that angry cats do. “Did I stutter? Those holes in your bird head work, right? And you better not laugh when you get here.”

Click.

Hawks’s inner eyelids blinked rapidly at the phone. What would he laugh about?

-----------------

Oh.

That’s what.

Hawks rested on a trash can as he watched Dabi emerge from the shadows behind the abandoned building. He was pretty far away, his form slowly getting bigger as he got closer. Although...Hawks is pretty sure that he should look a lot bigger from that distance. Maybe the angle of his giant eyes was screwing up his depth perception.

It was only when Dabi was right in front of him did Hawks realize that the villain was the size of a toddler.

He tried not to let any laughter slip past his beak, and failed miserably.

“What did I fucking tell you?” Dabi growled in his helium voice. Oh god he wasn’t using a voice changer on the phone.

That made the bird hero laugh even harder, wings outstretched as he tried to keep his balance. “Wh-wha...” He struggled to speak between wheezes. “What the hell happened?”

Dabi shuffled in his kiddie hoodie. “Some dumbass thug thought it would be funny to chibify me. I thought it would be funny to turn him into ash, so I did.”

“Really? Do you know if it wears off overtime or did you just kill the poor guy without asking questions?”

“......”

“Holy shit!” Another fit of squawking laughter. “You might be adorable forever!”

A blue flame appeared in his tiny baby hands oh my god he’s so cute!

“Unlike you, I can still use my quirk, so keep talking if you want to become the fried chicken you love so much.”

"You-” Cough. “You don’t even need your fire.” Hawks's feathers were fully fluffed out as he tried to breathe. “If you keep talking with that high voice, I’m gonna keel over!”

A tiny scarred hand around his neck finally silenced him with a startled screech.

“You tweety little bastard.”

Hawks cracked up again as he choked.

-----------------

Shouta Aizawa has come across many strange sights during his late night patrols. Some of them gruesome, some of them obscene, and some that are just too weird to even be questioned.

Finding a child concealed in an oversized hoodie in a bout of fisticuffs with a bird of prey was in the third category.

He couldn’t even tell who was winning. The kid would sometimes get a hold of the bird for no more than a few seconds before a sharp beak digs into his hand and forces him to let go. It was the strangest wrestle that the underground hero had ever witnessed.

“Aww, try again, little baby! You almost had me that time!”

Wait a minute. That voice...

Right, Hawks was still doing work even though he was a damn actual hawk. Well, he probably doesn’t need his help with an unruly brat. 

Aizawa walked away from the scuffle and continued his scouting. There are real dangers out here that need to be taken care of.

[whaq]

Fuck You, Animu (1/4)

A dumbass’ war of heart and mind A few months ago, I hit a creative block. Despite considering myself a jack of many mediums, I couldn’t for the life of me bring myself to make--well... anything. While I do have a Google Keep of creative ideas I’ve come up with over the years, I was unable to find the drive (pun shoehorned) to get started on any of them. This sent me into a bit of a spiral. A lot of creatives probably empathize: you find yourself lacking the motivation to create so it starts to negatively affect your self-worth, which is tied to your ability to make things, and this lack of confidence compels you to just succumb to melancholy, finding yourself the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy to become a slacker because you think you already ARE one.

I was a couple months into this when a buddy of mine hit me up asking if I heard about a call for local anime reviewers. At that moment, it almost felt like divine intervention from God, who I only ever felt in the burning sensation radiating through me whenever I was within 10 feet of a church. An anime news site, let’s call em Animu, with a relatively large following, was searching for writers who would join their staff to review anime being released in the winter season with a salary to boot. As an avid anime fan myself, who just so happened to have honed his critiquing skills over years of media consumption {that has since ruined my viewing experience for the foreseeable future (I legitimately suck the joy out of every piece of media I consume now)}, I saw this as my opportunity to be able to use my skills for some form of monetary gain; which was always a concern of mine throughout my life. Growing up, I was never really good at anything that could easily become a profession later in life. I was too awful at biology to become a doctor, not smart enough at maths to be the next Pythagoras, nor was I athletic enough to shoot a basketball, let alone make it in the NBA. I was good at talking in, and understanding, English... and that was it. At the time, I didn’t realize I had a knack for writing and oration, but even once I did, I found that the trajectory towards being a professional for either of those fields wasn’t so simple. Most people still have the childish idea that “Oh, writers write books and speakers do… speaking things!” but it waters down such a wide yet closed off section of the professional world. Writing alone has so many different specializations: journalism, screenwriting, book authoring, all such niches that don’t have as established a path as scoring high on the Bar exam or being scouted on varsity; it’s difficult to find a place in this world with that skill set, a fear that a majority of creatives have. So I needed some form of validation, an instance of acceptance that’ll allow me to finally believe that my work is worth something and, most importantly, enjoyed by someone. So I started working on my application for Animu by selecting three different series that I was interested in tackling: Re:Zero, Cells at Work, and Kaguya-Sama: Love is War. Starting from zero The posts after this contain these reviews in the state I submitted to Animu. I spent about a month working on these. Re:Zero’s review was close to my usual style of critique, which focuses on the technical aspects and their execution as well as commentary on any relevant subtext, minus the subtext. I wanted to seem as professional as possible with the first one and tried to keep to the proposed 1200 word word limit. With Cells At Work, however, I tried to have a bit of fun. There were many rumblings around the community about the series’ cancer episode which I was eager to capitalize on. That said, upon rewatching the episode, I came across some potentially problematic scenarios that could’ve been blown out of proportion by some headline-chasing media outlet; so that’s exactly what I did. No, I wouldn’t in my right mind compare chibified blood cells to Nazi sympathizers (then again, I’m never in my right mind). Lastly, was Kaguya-Sama, which became my favorite anime of the past couple years. This series was the first anime that got me to actively follow the source material as it hit two of my most identifying traits, being a cinephile and humor academic, as well as a side I’m slightly embarrassed by, my interest in romantic comedies. I wanted to attempt a review that was just hype-hype-hype as it was what the series sparked within me. Oh, and you SHOULD read Kaguya-Sama. Bleeding out After a modicum of proofreading, as well as some peer review from my closest confidants, I sent over my application and I waited. As my heart raced on the day of the announcement, my name was nowhere to be found. To add insult to injury, I was informed that I scored absolutely horribly by Animu’s criteria, my highest grade being one that’d flunk in the most forgiving of schools. While you’d expect me to be crestfallen, I was actually ecstatic to know that the community I’ve been a part of, a local one no less, had people with an even larger passion and greater skills than even I. As someone who went through childhood being made fun of for my interests that have somehow developed into geek chic and gone mainstream (something that, contrary to most of the community, I’m happy to see), I was glad to see how much people like me had developed from waifu worshipping weaboos to outstandingly ornate otaku. Hell, I was content to have made some content. I was looking forward to seeing the fruits of labor from those who were more deserving than me. So imagine my surprise when what I found posted a month later was absolute garbage. I’m not going to get into detail, seeing as said details could lead to someone getting doxxed just because they didn’t meet MY oh so high standards (/s), but what I will say was that the quality of the content indicated something more telling about the whole ordeal. I have taken part in two completely different student publications in my time, and I can say with utmost certainty that THE GRADE SCHOOLERS I MENTORED WROTE BETTER, AND THEY WEREN’T EVEN PAID. Still, it was nice to know I still had it in me to make something of substance. And on this commemorative day, I open up my blog by making public my entries for all to ridicule. As much as I talked down the winning entries, I don’t believe mine were perfect. Like most of my work, it’s rushed and rambly, full of tangents and misnomers. But, it’s very me, and I’m quite happy to see something from me see the light of day.

I hope you find some amusement in my bemusement.

p.s. Yes, the headers are attempts at relating to the three shows p.p.s.s. Yes, they’re BAD attempts at relating to the three shows

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Gacha Gacha Crate Nov 19

I’m actually working on this sooner than I had planned for once :P I wanted to go and visit my mom at the Hospital today (her port for kemo had to be removed because it gave her a bad infection), but I woke up sick and feverish, and on top of that I’ve been having “leg issues” due to a cramp I got yesterday. I think I’m better off spending today in bed.

With that in mind I just ate lunch (caramel apple walnut pie slice and apple juice), and now I’m ready to work!

Later, I will be doing a smaller post regarding some news related to the various boxes/brands I’m subscribed to, so be sure to check that out when you get a chance!

Calico Critters Doll Set

Calico Critters (in Japan they are known as "Sylvanian Families”) are very popular and cutely flocked human-like animals who come in all sorts of species, each with its own special name, outfit, and information.

For this months box, we could get 1 of 5 various sets, each including its own character, items, a baby bottle, and changeable background piece. I know this looks big in the picture, but its actually really small, being about... not even half the size of my juice box. Each costs 200 yen, and besides my bunny piano set, there was also:

Bear and rocking toy

bunny and bed

squirrel or chipmunk and a car

kitty and a slide (this would have been perfect for my set)

The details of this piece are really nice, especially the backgrounds (which are actually from the toy sets), and the crisp and clean animal figure. The house piece has a detailed roof but otherwise no defined traits (which isn’t bad for display purposes), while the pieces with the animal are very “flat”, for example, the baby bottles are single colored and have no details. The bigger pieces are single colored (with the exception of the piano keys, which are white. I can’t tell if its a sticker or painted) with a lot of molded detail you need to look really close at to see.

I think this is a really cute little toy. I’m not sure its really the best thing to play with due to its tiny size, but it’s perfect as a display piece, for figures, re-ment sets. I’ll be giving it to my Tuxedo Cat family daughters (and their adopted bunny sister).

Pokemon Figurine

This is one of those popular “Gacha in its own head build it yourself“ pieces. I had two other Pokemon versions of these, so I assume they have a bunch of series. But they seem to be mainly based on the original generation.

Meanwhile... can you guess Who That Pokemon is?!

I’ll give you a hint, it’s not Eevee~

It’s Flareon!

Besides Flareon, we could also get Jolteon, Vaporean, Eeevee, and Pikachu!

As usual, these figures are very easy to assemble and seem to be “chibified”. All the pieces come inside and you just pop the head pieces on, then slide in the ears. They paint quality is spot-on in accuracy and detail- but I did notice my Flareon has a "mark” on its nose. I’m not sure if its supposed to be a shine on it, or if its a scratch in the paint.

I will mention that these are a bit fragile. Not in the sense the pieces will break as they are plastic, but they seem to “fall apart“ if dropped or moved too roughly. I barely jostled my box after assembling this and when I opened it again I found the head piece was separated and the ears fell off.

Super Mario Bros

I love getting these cute mini-game based Gachapon, and this one is MARIO themed! I love Mario x3 (and Sonic too, I grew up with both series). This series included 6 variations, either coming in yellow or red, with gold or red coins. The various characters besides this one I got was the Mario Bros, Peach, and Toad. I really wish i got one with Princess Peach, she’s my favorite~

The game is pretty self-explanatory. All you do is insert the coins on one side and guide them to the other.

When not playing with it, you take off the plastic pieces and put them together, put the coins inside, and store them in the slot on the back. It’s very handy and makes this a fun little piece you could bring with you.

I’ll admit, the game gets boring after a few minutes and there isn’t much to it at all; but it’s really cute- and if you’re someone who likes Mario or video games as a whole, I think that adds a special layer to it. It could also be really fun if you play it with multiple people.

Onigiri & Tako Rabbits

Next up is this cute little keychain series featuring Piske and Usagi, by Kanahei, featuring various rice recipes (and a tako Piske). Ironically, I probably got the one I’d not want to eat all all; I don’t like anything but white rice, and I especially hate peas.

However, I’m not eating this and I think this is a very cute charm. It has pieces on both the top and bottom, so you have plenty of options as to what to use this for- but they’re so small, I feel like bigger fingers would have difficulty using them.

Quality wise, these charms are great. The one I have is made from heavy-duty plastic and is very detailed, featuring unique textures on each section (Piske, the rice, the omelet wrap), and the painting job is a solid 9.9 out of 10. I noticed a very small amount of white bleeding into the rice, but its not hugely noticeable.

Fruits Basket Rubber Charm

This item is perfect for any Fruits Basket fans out there new or old, and this was made in time to celebrate the end of the updated series’ first season. There was 8 possible characters in the form of a chibified rubber charm, and from what little I do know, I got Ayame Soma.

While the theme of the series appeals to me, I’ve never entirely got into Fruits Basket. I just know basics, and the stuff my friend (who does like the series) tells me.

These charms are very detailed, with a smooth backing and ball chain... that’s pretty much all I have to say about it. I’m sorry but rubber keychains are almost all the same quality wise regardless of the series. It’s very cute and I like it, but I may pass it on to my friend because I feel like she would appreciate it more. 

Onigiri Rings

Our final item of the box is an adorable Onigiri replica :D

Inside the onigiri is this adorable ring, based on the various food items ones might eat in rice, on rice, or with rice. For example... I think mine is sesame seeds and seaweed, or some kind of pickled vegetable. There was also a piece of grilled tuna or salmon, a pickled plum, a raw piece of tuna or salmon, and fish eggs.

Each one costs 300 yen a piece, and honestly I think besides the one I got, I’d like to have gotten the fish eggs (I like how pretty they look), or the pickled plum (because it reminds me of one of my favorite PriPara characters).

The ring is a big, silver loop. I did originally take pictures of my finger with it on, but due to limitations I had to cut back <_< But I will say it fit on each of my fingers and didn’t feel overly tight, so I feel like many hand sizes/types could fit these, which I really like and appreciate. I don’t often wear rings, but just for the cute/weirdness factor, I could see wearing this one.

(Also, does anyone play A3? It’s a new visual novel male actors game. As soon as I got this, the whole thing reminded me of Misumi. With his onigiri and triangle obsession).

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All and all, I liked this box :D it was pretty fun and cute and I think in terms of the included items, it was about the same as the prior box, or maybe a little better in my opinion. I didn’t dislike anything, and I can’t wait to get my next one~

As I said on top, I’ll be making another post very soon. Initially I planned on doing it right after this one, but I’m beginning to feel sick again and it’s wearing me down. I think I’ll be doing it later after I get some more rest.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Semi-Reviews: Gacha Gacha Crate August 19

Hello everyone :3 today’s review is going to be a bit different than usual, but you can probably tell by the title. It won’t be too different, but I’m not going to be putting in ratings; I didn’t have that much opinion about this box so I really don’t see how I could rate the items honestly. Quality wise they’re all really good and I didn’t have complaints there, but I couldn’t bring myself to really become attached to the items, even though I did like most of them. I’ve had this box for over a week now and just can’t really... assess how I feel about it? 

To be fair though, I’m also sick and I’m more focused on getting back on pace with these. My thoughts are kind of all over the place right now and don’t want to focus enough on anything either, and I’ve only been awake for a few hours and I already have a migraine and want to go back to bed.

Glowing Jellyfish

These jellyfish cuties are cellphone straps that glow when exposed to light. As you can see come in variety of fun shapes and colors, I think I would have liked to get one of the longer bodied ones, or maybe the little boxy purple-ish one. The one I got, I don’t believe I’ve seen before so I have no idea what it is other than a mat with some algae growing out of it. Or a moldy pancake.

Personally this isn’t one I would pick out, but I don’t hate it. The quality looks nice and its a rubbery material so it’s fun to touch, but it will also attract hair and who knows what else so I don’t think it would stay clean very long. Also, the glowing feature in the picture is a little misleading, it could just be me but it looks like they glow a brighter variant of their actual colors, so I was surprised mine turned out to be neon green.

Dragon Ball Z Figure

If you read one of my recent GachaGacha Crate reviews you might recognize the style of this next gacha. It’s by the same brand that made my Kingdom Hearts gacha, but it shares some resemblance to the prior Dragon Ball chibified figure I got too; almost like they were crossbred or something.

So as you can see, I just got basic super saiyan goku. The figure quality and painted detail is really good, although I did notice they didn’t paint on his “behind“ features of his clothing, which seems a little lazy to me. The hair always impresses me, but I’m a bit disappointed because they always look like they should be holding something. I think it would be fun if they all could come with an accessory of some type.

I won’t be keeping this one. I’ll either give it to the guy who got me into DBZ when I was younger or to the Japanimation store I frequent. It’s not that I don’t like it but I don’t have a use/need for it, and I know there are bigger fans of it who would appreciate it more.

Pokemon Figure

You can probably tell, but they were really figure themed this month. I kinda wish they would have went for something more summery, but they don’t really do themes with this box. I wish they would try it out though; imagine one full of squishies, or Pokemon, cutesy foods, or idol characters~ 

Anyway, these Pokemon all come with a berry and are ready to begin eating. I got the adorable little Togedemaru, and they’re all very cute so I think I would have been happy with any one of them. They would be really cute for re-ment sets.

The detail on the figure is really nice and accurate, there’s no issues with that but I did notice you can make out some of the “seams“ of the figure, and mine oddly has like a... smudge in its plastic on the back? Like it’s not a stain on it, but in it. But I’m pretty sure that was a random mishap.

Putitto Team Rocket

Putitto figures are very popular, but so far I think this is only the 2nd time we’ve gotten any in the crate. It’s also fun to see a Team Rocket exclusive gacha, I’ve always liked them, mainly because I loved Meowth, but also because they were really funny.

Putitto are a series of figurines that balance on/around/in various objects, usually cups. There’s been tons of these released and they’re mainly based on various characters and mascots. If you’d like to see more, here’s a link to a Youtuber I’ve watched for years who has some: 

https://www.youtube.com/user/japanesestuffchannel/search?query=putitto

I love love love the Osomatsu-san ones~

Anyway, the quality of this figure is great, like the above it has an amazing paint job and although Meowth has less-details, he’s much smaller proportion wise and it looks twice as impressive. Everything is entirely detailed, and he lays down fine even though he isn’t flat-backed.

Sega Keychain

Our next item is this fun pouch that comes in a variety of sega console and remote shapes. It’s very cute, I love video game-inspired stuff  so I’ll find some way of using it. The detail is really nice and looks pretty accurate for a cloth representation of a game remote. It’s fairly small though so I feel like it would only really be good for money or things like a list, receipts, notes, etc.

Until I was like 7 or 8 I was very attached to my sega and Sonic games. But I also had a thing called Sega Channel that had all the games on it and would annually add more or swap them out with others. At one point I also bought a Dreamcast (like around the time some their games started being ported to Gamecube) for a game I really wanted but when I got it home and set it up, it had a lot of problems and didn’t work. It was disappointing, but they actually did end up releasing the game (an upgraded version) I wanted on Gamecube~

Fan

This is our last item, and another one that actually makes me think of summer so I like that. These are little model fans that actually work! I love gacha items like this, so that was another fun surprise. It’s available in 10 colors, including 3 translucent, and 1 that I think is supposed to glow.

As you can see I was lucky enough to get one of the translucent ones, and besides an adjustable head, it also comes with a battery in it so all you have to do is assemble it and turn it on. It’s very cute and would be great with figurines, dolls, certain re-ments. It’s also small enough you could bring it with you or leave it nearby, like on a desk or table.

However, I will say that in terms of use... like you can’t expect it to really keep you cool, even if you’re directly on top of it. The breeze is extremely light, but enough that you can still feel something.

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Alright, so this is the end of my review. I’m not very happy with this one, but I really didn’t think there was much for me to say either -not counting all the rambling I did- for what its worth the items are great quality wise. I liked them mostly, but I wasn’t in love with any particular one? I wouldn’t say this wasn’t a good box though, I just wasn’t feeling it right now....