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| 2008-07-22 18:26 |
| Avatar. |
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I watched the last segment of the series yesterday (the Southern Raiders, Ember Island Players, and Sozin's Comet 1-4).
...It went pretty much like I was expecting it to? I did enjoy it! Some parts made me smile happily (hugs for everyone!) and others... not so much (I'm not even really involved, but I know what the fandom didn't need, and that's more incitement to pairing wars).
Overall, I rate it "good." Much like the series as a whole. Compelling in its way, but also occasionally annoyingly trite. There was also much lampshade-hanging, which I minded some times more than others.
...I still really don't want to interact with the fandom at large, though. -_-
( Brief collection of more spoilery observations )
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Sheer brilliance, self. You go through all the trouble of polling the flist, and then what's the next thing you post? Something you know for a fact no one will be able to read, at least for a while, and which may be outside the interests of some even then. orz
...Honestly, I am still a bit o_O at this fic myself. But my brain truly refused to work on anything else today. So here you go.
On the bright side, I got to post something shiny and new to the shiny new asylum ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) megidolaon! ^^;
Feelings Aside.
Persona 3, Yukari/Mitsuru, ~1000 words. Not worksafe. Spoilers through the endgame of The Answer, and also probably won't make much sense without the canon context. ^^;
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| 2008-07-21 00:54 |
| Success! |
| Public |
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Persona 3 FES: The Answer - COMPLETED.
♥ ♥ ♥
I. I am now really happy with this extra chapter. ♥
I mean. It was cool, before the endgame! Just. Much more low-key, in the way where you're adventuring for a few hours for a minute or so of backstory which is exciting mostly because you're invested in the characters. (And less so when you're not.) And there's really not a lot of... forward-looking plot, for most of it. A lot of dungeon crawling. Which is fun if you like challenging dungeon crawling! Which I do.
But then... there is the endgame. Which punches you. And then punches you a few more times. And then -
then it concludes amazingly well, in a way that builds off and adds to the original game without retconning anything. And it's great. ♥
And, okay, I found some of the punching a bit implausible / badly rationalized. BUT I AM WILLING TO OVERLOOK THAT BECAUSE YAY.
also Yukari shut up and get out of my head I still don't like you that much
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| 2008-07-20 19:39 |
| omg. |
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Just got my ass kicked hard by the final boss of The Answer.
I'd been underleveled and barely making it through the battles leading up to it, and being sort of satisfied with that because they were the sort of battles that shouldn't be easy and I really wanted to see the end. But it turned out the end was farther away than I thought.
...I am really okay with this. I will probably have to go make everyone seven levels or so before I attempt the final boss again. But. Oh man. I wasn't really expecting the end of this game to be nearly as satisfying as the end of the original game, but from what I've seen so far it just might be close. I ♥ Atlus.
Also? Most bizarre moment of the afternoon? Sympathizing with Yukari and going "...the hell, seriously, are you listening to what you're saying?" at Akihiko. Are we sure I didn't slip into an alternate universe?
Futher update perhaps later tonight.
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| 2008-07-18 22:59 |
| I am pleased. |
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Played only a bit of Persona 3 FES tonight, but I am actually feeling well-equipped, for once! And I'm really pleased with my set of personas - between social links I didn't max and personas entirely new to FES, I've got a lot of really awesome ones I didn't have before.
( Current lineup )
In addition, tonight I hit a level in which I managed to take out eight Glorious Hands, so between that and the boss prizes I was, for the first time ever in The Answer, able to optimally upgrade everyone's weapons and armor. \o/
Getting close to the end of this game!
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Prompted by chatting with ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lassarina in this thread, I dug out my oldest fanfic notebook, in which I have some game notes as well as fic. There's a two-page beginning of Cobalt/Onyx in here! Where did that come from!
Specifically, I thought I'd type up what notes I have on Magna Carta stuff, so it can potentially help other people in addition to being better preserved for my future reference. ^^
( part only I care about - Raul's style / attack names )
( the letter that's with Reith's clothes in the cave at the beginning )
( The Eight Heroes (book in Pnosen Library) - potential backstory spoilers )
From this we conclude that the translators for this game a) occasionally phrased things quite awkwardly and b) apparently didn't talk to each other about their name romanizations. >_>
...Also more interesting plotty things, though. ^^
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| 2008-07-17 00:09 |
| Fic Link: Something Physical (Baccano!/Persona 3, Luck/Akihiko) |
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| [all fic], category: crossover, category: m/m, challenge: kinkfest, character: akihiko, character: luck gandor, fandom: baccano!, fandom: persona 3, length: 1k-4k words, pairing: luck/akihiko, series: 201x corporate au |
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For kinkfest! ...Although the kink ended up being kind of tangential in this one. And there is no porn. But Luck wanted to go a slightly different way with it.
...Also I think I need to break from writing Akihiko for a bit, since I feel like my themes are getting a bit repetitive. >_>
Fortunately my prompts for the rest of the month are Ladd/Graham and Ryuk/Light, so those should be uh. Very different!
This is corporate AU stuff again. :3
Something Physical.
Baccano!/Persona 3, Luck/Akihiko, ~1300 words. Worksafe.
Prompt: Luck/Akihiko - fighting as foreplay - boxing lessons
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First, over at Making Light (see also feed at ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) makinglight):
Jim Macdonald, who is an EMT, has been doing a series of posts on trauma; more specifically, what can happen to people, what goes wrong with a body, and what you can do to help if you're first on the scene. (First step: call help.)
Part One: The Basics
Part Two: Shock
Part Three: Sticks and Stones (skeletal injuries)
Part Four: The Squishy Bits (soft tissue injuries)
It's all really interesting stuff, if not for the squeamish (particularly Part Four, which I read today. it was kind of interesting to see which parts got a squick reaction out of me - traumatic amputation, I was pretty okay; avulsed eyeball, not so much.) I still really hope I'm never in a situation where I'm the most knowledgeable person to offer first aid, but at least I know more than I did before. And although my writing is generally lacking in gruesome injuries, as I was reading I could feel myself filing away bits of information for future reference anyway. So check it out.
In (hopefully) less gory news, from Neil Gaiman's blog (official_gaiman):
Neil Gaiman will be doing a reading/signing tour for The Graveyard Book in October! Dates and cities in this post - he'll be in Seattle on October 3. More information to come, no doubt.
I saw him in Berkeley in... 2005, I guess it must have been? There is apparently a video of him in Berkeley in 2006, which is not the one I was at, although he mentions at the beginning that the last time he was signing in the area he didn't finish until 2am. Sounds likely, as I wasn't anywhere near the end of the line, and it was late enough after I got my books signed that most of the restaurants around were closed. ^^; But he's really cool to hear talk, so check it out if you can.
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| 2008-07-15 21:56 |
| Observation! |
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I am not sure why this didn't occur to me to mention until now. But:
If you have finished the original Persona 3 and are planning on playing / considering playing FES, you should totally play the new part (The Answer) first! Even if you're planning on going through the original story (The Journey) again as well.
Because you don't get to import data of any kind into The Answer - character stats don't matter, your characters are set back to particular levels, and you don't get the compendium at all. And so there's no downside to going for the new story first. :D
...Also I am now about 80% of the way though The Answer, I estimate, and I'd like to have someone to squee about stuff with.
...If you haven't finished the original Persona 3, of course, you definitely should play The Journey first. Starting with The Answer would not only endgame spoil you like woah, but you'd also almost certainly die really hard. The difficulty is tricky even with 120+ hours experience with Persona, plus tangentally relevant Nocturne experience. ^^;
On a somewhat related note: You can still import data (characters stats + compendium completion) from an unfinished playthrough of the original game into a new playthrough of FES. My brother was in July or so, and he imported data and started over. Gives you a head start on Academics and such, at least.
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FFXII fic! Like something out of the past, I know! I've had something like 3.5k words of this... forever. The Google Docs timestamp on this said I hadn't worked on it at all for exactly six months. >_>
But I thought about it today, and so I thought I'd poke at it and see if I could finish it. Because, you see - and this is the part where you all get to laugh at me - this was supposed to be laylah's birthday present last year. orz
Happy day-belated birthday, laylah! Have some year-and-a-day belated bangaa porn. With bonus adventure! ^^;
Final Fantasy XII, Ba'Gamnan/Balthier. ~4k (!!!) words. Not worksafe, warning for xeno.
Balthier might not be used to all this yet, but he knows the opening to a business proposition when he hears one.
( First Date )
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| 2008-07-03 10:12 |
| In need of an adversary |
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I have made good progress on relationship drabbles, and am having a lot of fun with them, as expected. :D
...However! I am still somehow one prompt short of a full set!
I know there are plenty of people out there who haven't left a prompt yet. One of you go leave a prompt for "enemy" so it doesn't languish, unloved. Please? ^^
...enemies need love too! :P
Edit: Full set achieved! \o/
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| 2008-07-01 20:02 |
| More relationship drabbles? |
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I may have small slices of free time this week! And I feel in a drabble-y mood, I think, or at least in a mood where the long things I have in progress are more intimidating-feeling than my attention span warrants. And this went really well last time, so I think I'll try this format again.
Prompts: You give me A) a character, B) a fandom [which may or may not be the same fandom as A is from], and C) one of the following relationships:
1. rival (Ion, Tales of the Abyss - sugared)
2. partner (Luck, Persona 3 - regicidaldwarf)
3. enemy (Keith, Baccano! - karanguni)
4. colleague (Claire, Persona 3 - mahokiwi)
5. best friend (Akihiko, Persona 3 - lassarina)
6. ex (-boyfriend/-girlfriend) (Aizen, Baccano! - redbird)
7. superior (Firo, Baccano! - laylah)
8. subordinate (Light, Baccano! - mithrigil)
9. mentor (Ronnie, Fullmetal Alchemist - white_aster)
10. idol (Orihime, Persona 3 - mitsuhachi)
...and I will write a drabble which contains A and a character of my choice from B who is A's C. It may be pairing-y or not, depending, but the focus will definitely be on the listed relationship rather than romance as such.
Examples:
You say "Rachel, Baccano!, best friend"
-> I write the drabble where Claire has decided Rachel is now his BFF (and Rachel doesn't mind this terribly).
You say "Ishida, Persona 3, superior"
-> I write the drabble where Ishida joins the archery club at Gekkoukan and Yukari is his senpai.
Preferred fandoms are: Baccano!, Bleach, Persona 3; also good fandoms are: Death Note, Nocturne, Tales of the Abyss. Other fandoms I've played in are accepted on a case by case basis. ^_^
I will take one prompt for each relationship!
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| 2008-06-28 17:12 |
| Bleach update |
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Recently caught myself completely up to date on both the manga and the anime!
Manga:
End of the flashback chapters! I really loved them a lot, even though a lot of the substance was just "100 years ago, A was B's lieutenant! C was captain of Nth squad! D was about six/nine/twelve years old and bitty and adorable!" ...But that's great substance! 'Cause the thing about Bleach is that it's really good about creating compelling characters, so I actually care about what they were doing 100 years ago. Even bitty bratty Byakuya made me grin.
And they did a really good job of filling in all the backstory so the current plot has more context. It was really cool to see everything slot into place. However... ( spoilers! )
Also we are one chapter (316) back into the main plot. I ♥ Orihime. And the battle(s) we're heading into look to be awesome, and more than that, conclusive. Guys, the Bleach manga might end sometime in the foreseeable future!
Anime:
I am actually still pretty pleased with this filler arc! I mean, I really couldn't care less about Kira Izuru's self confidence issues or his new 3rd seat's cardboard-cutout villainy. And I don't really care about new captain Amagai Shuusuke either, except that I am pretty sure there should be porn with him and Shunsui.
But the stuff on earth hasn't been too bad! I mean, it's still not quite up to the standards of the non-filler plot, and there's been a couple times where I've groaned. But there's been no terrible character assassination or anything. >_>; High standards, I know! But Ichigo's complete ignorance of social hierarchy is entertaining, Lurichiyo is actually kind of endearing, Kenryuu's zanpakutou is hilarious, and the Bakkoutou are actually a pretty decent plot device for giving the villains enough power that the heroes don't have to suddenly become completely incompetent for them to be a challenge. And being out-of-continuity means that our heroes have all their awesome powers!
And I actually really, really liked Rukia's fight from 177. Shinigami have all these cool kidou spells! Fights don't have to just be swinging swords at each other ineffectually! There can be strategy! Also, fights do not need to take a million years to be dramatic! It was awesome. ^___^
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I uh. Am no longer sure what prompted this pairing. I still really like it, though! And I think it works pretty well, really. ^__^
Also, first try at writing Graham! His voice may still be rough, but I consider this practice. :D
Baccano!, Graham/Nice, 1.2k words. Worksafe.
Nice investigates. Graham is unpredictable, but in a good way. There are explosions, because it's Nice, and there are always explosions.
( Take it Down )
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| 2008-06-22 23:53 |
| Persona 3 FES = so much yay |
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So I have been playing the extra chapter of Persona 3 FES ("The Answer" / "Episode Aigis").
It's pretty much all dungeon crawling, and harder in a lot of ways. Most notably they force you to Hard difficulty, so the monsters are harder, and while there are still save points right before bosses, they are not return-to-base checkpoints, so you don't get to heal or switch out people. Also there are no daytime activities or blocks, so there's nothing to stop you from pushing on way beyond your means.
I was working my way down in the third door-section tonight, and pretty frustrated with it. Stupid random shadows were killing me with high frequency. But I pushed on, and played a bit longer than I meant to, because I had a good feeling about the plot I'd get if I made it.
My efforts were so worth it.
( spoiler only in the vaguest sense, but adding cut for safety )
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| 2008-06-22 15:37 |
| cosplay woes |
| Public |
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Graham, what the hell is up with your wrench, seriously?
I mean, a lot of the animation frames are terrible in general - the proportions skew wildly, with it occasionally looking like wrench head is tiny and the handle really narrow, then occasionally looking more reasonable except that the head isn't angled at all, and then occasionally looking actually well done.
BUT EVEN if I ignore all that - sometimes the handle doesn't look tapered and sometimes it does, but even when it is tapered it's tapered the opposite way of any actual wrench reference pictures I can find - narrowest at the bottom of the handle instead of narrowest by the head.
...Clearly Graham's craziness bends the laws of perspective?
Also, in case anyone's interested, a wrench of the sort Graham tosses and flips like nothing all the time probably weighs about 15 lbs.
Maybe the sense in which he's the strongest is the literal "lifting heavy things" sense?
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| 2008-06-20 23:13 |
| Fic Link: Vale Tudo (Bleach/Persona 3, Tatsuki/Akihiko) |
| Public |
| [all fic], category: crossover, category: m/f, challenge: no_true_pair, character: akihiko, character: tatsuki, fandom: bleach, fandom: persona 3, length: 1k-4k words, pairing: tatsuki/akihiko |
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So I feel my writing lately has a few strong themes. I'm pretty much okay with this for now.
♥ Tatsuki
♥ Akihiko
Vale Tudo
Bleach/Persona 3, Tatsuki/Akihiko. ~3k words. Not worksafe - see prompt. :3
Prompt: Tatsuki/Akihiko, sex under the influence
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| 2008-06-20 20:52 |
| I am a huge dork. |
| Public |
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And I will actually go finish the fic now, but when I saw the code I had just laying around, I knew it was going to be too easy to do this to put off.
For context, see this thread in laylah's journal.
Here's the same Tatsuki/Akihiko wordle from this morning:
( one )
Here's the one where I've scaled all the words according to their occurrence in the English language in general (and also limited the maximum size a bit so their names don't overwhelm everything else):
( two )
Might still tweak my algorithm some, but I am much more satisfied with its reflection of my fic. :3
Edit: I could do this forever! (Upped the number of words a bit):
( three )
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