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gnomebinary · 15 days

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This is my protocol bingo! (Thank you as always osric.com).

Lena is just doing her evil job - No thoughts, no morals, no alligence. Girlboss.

Nobody ever finds out Jmart's real names - I just think that would be tragic, and fit in with what RQ have been saying about this not being too attached to Archives.

Redemption arc - There was a notable lack of these in Archives even though forgiveness and making a conscious effort to behave morally were important themes in the later seasons. I'm ready for Mr Bonzo to have Kylo Ren's exact redemption arc where he's redeemed mostly through kissing. I don't even care who he kisses.

Froyo trip - It's pretty clear that we're being told that this is Somewhere Else through things like the Archives staff having tea and the OIAR staff having coffee. The s1 Archives gang iconically got icecream, so I'm gunning for a froyo trip, and a Gwen monologue about preservatives.

Colin dies first - He's just so killable. Plus, Celia can't die until they do her reveal and they'll probably want to build up to it, Sam can't die because he's the driving force behind investigation into Magnus, Alice can't die because she kinda makes the whole show, Gwen can't die because she's mid-arc and it is of the type that if left unfinished it would be anticlimactic not tragic, and Lena can't die because the impact would be pretty low.

Nostalgic PC games - I LOVE that RQ appears to be into old tech. I want to see Chester and Norris play Catz 5. Lowfi retro charm.

Dyhard - I go back and forth on this one, it feels too obvious what with the hot drinks imagery workplace annoyances to lovers stuff, but at the same time it does Just Make Sense.

Somebody becomes disabled - In Archives people were injured a lot, but none of that amounted to a long-term physical disability, except for Melanie's blindness. Feels like something to do in Protocol.

Police brutality - Feels like a theme that Jonny still has more to say about, and an incredibly easy one to weave into this kind of story.

Alice is hiding something - I actually think she isn't but y'all are saying it.

Alice naming stuff has consequences - She does it so much and Colin warned her off it, clearly seeming concerned but not explaining why, I think it will have unforeseen and damaging consequences.

Someone has a pet - In Archives, especially in the earlier seasons, everyone was notably unattached. Martin has a mum to take care of, but nobody has partners or children. I think this was partly because it made them easier to manipulate, and partly because it meant that tragedy could be dialled up: Sasha dying was sad, but not as gutwrenching as Daisy dying because Daisy's relationships were more fleshed out because it was later in the series. We're already bucking that trend with Celia's son, so I think we might see a pet too. Also, the pet will probably die.

Alice dies in the last season - Alice is very killable but she's also the heart and soul of the character relationships, so I think they will kill her but they'll wait to do it, and then do it mid-final season as an OOH THEY WENT THERE turning point, like how Tim dying brought in a new, darker era for Archives.

Conclusion that love isn't what makes you human - At London Comicon in October, Alex or Jonny (I forget) said that if Archives was about what makes you a monster, Protocol is about what makes you human. I think it's kinda trite if love is the answer, and I think the conclusion re love will be that monsters can love, because that's cooler. Hell yeah romantic monsterfucking.

Celia evil - I LOVE that we're seeing another Welsh person, but she doesn't sit well with me.

Agnes returns but we don't hear her speak - The tree on the other side of the rift is still alive, and if that universe was this one then that means that Agnes may still be alive. Jonny and Alex have said that they regret not doing more with Agnes, and I don't think they'll miss out on the opportunity to use her again. However, I think the fact that she doesn't speak is central to her tragic character and role as Jon's character foil, and I don't think they'll change that. I actually posted a tiktok about this.

Scene on London public transport - We're already seeing our gang at the pub and on dates, I think we're going to get some tube content.

Jmart fate worse than death - They're going to have us WISHING that they died in mag200.

Fears never treated as separate - I just think we're over that.

Breakup - They're getting the character relationships in early, so I'm predicting an onscreen breakup, because that's one of the few ways that we didn't see relationships between characters going bad in Archives.

Gerry's life gets ruined again - I'm sorry guys but I don't think they're going to let him have peace. He's going to get dragged into the OIAR situation and he's going to suffer.

Alice's brother lives - People are already noting similarities between Alice and Tim, I think that it'll be essentially the same character beat again if her brother dies. Adapt, improvise, overcome, RQ.

Another Michael - Just another character called Michael, unrelated to the four existing Michaels. I wasn't going to put this because Jonny is very aware of the four Michael problem, but this man plagurised his own full legal Christian name, so anything is possible.

Jack is Agnes' Jack - I think it's cool if we all think about how there was actually a massive age gap between Agnes and Jack because she didn't seem to age past her twenties, so he was absolutely a child when she was an adult. Not that I want to have Discourse or anything, that relationship was hecked up and complex in plenty of other ways, just because it's interesting.

Onscreen kiss - They said they wouldn't do it during Archives and then they did and it wasn't that gross, so I'm ready to see it happening again. They might have a relationship between allosexuals this time, I don't think they're going as far as onscreen fucking, but I'm game to be surprised. Insert joke about reusing the whimpering noises from Archives here.

#the magnus protocol #tmp #tmp spoilers #the magnus archives #tma podcast #tma #dyhard #colin becher #alice dyer #samama khalid #gwendolyn bouchard #lena kelley #celia ripley #tmagp

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theworldbrewery · 27 days

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Biggest "oh....fuck" moment in your game that your players didn't know was such a moment.

I'll set the scene: The player characters are level 15 and in the Feywild to awaken a long-slumbering archfey. They want to wake her so she can help them brew a potion that will prepare their bodies for ascension to godhood. While exploring the archfey's domain, they come upon an expedition of cultists of Bane, here in search of a book that will help them liberate their imprisoned evil god.

the party is split between two greenhouses. The cleric and sorcerer are alone with the Banite cultists.

Before the other half of the party reaches them, the sorcerer Alice is banished by the enemy to the Prime Material Plane.

She lands in a familiar city under siege by Banites and discovers that some kind of horrible event took place -- so she decides to go investigate it. Little does Alice know that the time-fuckery of the Feywild means that she's several hours behind her friends, timeline-wise -- for her, only minutes have passed in the Material Plane since she entered the Feywild.

The PCs in the Feywild try to break the Banite's concentration on Banishment. It takes them several rounds to do so.

I have to explain some timey-wimey bullshit for this next bit to make sense. Say the party entered the Feywild at 10am that day, and traveled for 6 hours up until the point Alice was banished. Because 'hours became minutes' when she was booted to the material plane, the local time for her is 10:06am and the PCs have a local time of 4pm.

Alice has about 6 hours before the time of Banishment will end.

Alice decides she has time to kill, and decides to invade a newly-constructed Banite stronghold in the heart of the city. She declines help from a revenant paladin ally who is also invading the Banite stronghold. She makes it up 1 flight of stairs and down 1 hallway before getting totally and completely Murdered.

She literally didn't even try to fight back. She spent the whole encounter opening doors to see what was going on.

When the PCs managed to take out the Banite concentrating on Banishment, Alice didn't return. Because she was dead. And her corpse was a captive of the cult, which had already been using the body of a former party member as the vessel for an angel of Bane.

I was freaking out. This was not in the outline. This was nowhere near being in the outline. The PCs hadn't even accomplished their goal in the Feywild yet.

So I did the only sensible thing I could think of, and had the Banites steal her soul so she could be possessed by another angel of Bane. The PCs' next quest was to steal her body back and try to figure out how to rescue her soul with the help of Alice's player's temporary character, a dragonborn heretic cultist of Bane. 🙃

#d&d #ttrpgs #rpgs #dungeons and dragons

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anddreadful · 11 months

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I'm curious, I really like all your dnd characters, and I was wondering how you come up with them! Do you write all your own backstory and motivations?

thank you!! I adore inflicting my blorbos on people online and i’m always thrilled to hear that they enjoy it. the short answer is yes— I like to leave gaps in my backstory for my DMs to exploit, and obviously those DMs are running the overall story, but my PCs (player characters) are all original characters of mine, and their assorted bullshit is entirely up to me. (in case it’s unclear, that only applies to my PCs, Teddy and Aster being the ones I mostly talk about On Here. Clay, Borakov, Strahd, etc are all created and run by friends who are generous enough to occasionally let me gnaw on their characters like chew toys).

"How I come up with them" varies a lot! One of my PCs, Tailor, is a repurposed side character from an old book I was writing (which was itself inspired by Alice in Wonderland -- he was the Mad Hatter character). With my storm sorcerer Marin, I knew I wanted to do an Ocean Aesthetic, so I gave her a mysterious shipwrecked-with-amnesia backstory and a pirate found family. Teddy's backstory is lightly plagiarized from Alina's in Shadow & Bone, and Aster's antiquities expert background and general archetype is inspired by Evelyn in the Mummy. Like coming up with any character, it's just a game of picking one cool thing and then scaffolding out other elements that interest you and complement the core idea.

And what's great is that character creation is just coming up with a STARTING PLACE. A PC's Whole Deal emerges over time, a combination of discovery and deliberate choice that's really fun to craft.

These days, I try to keep my backstories to a tight 2-3 paragraphs with 1-3 meaningful NPCs. I've done the long convoluted backstory thing with Tailor, and it turned out very cool -- my DM knocked it out of the park incorporating everything -- but I wouldn't do it again. Aster, my most recent character, has probably the most minimal backstory I've ever done. I wanted to do something simple and strong, do it well, and be free from the traditional backstory resolution D&D arc in favor of whatever else the campaign is going to throw at her.

I love that you mention motive! Puzzling out what my characters want and feel as the story progresses is sooooo fun for me. Inbetween sessions I try to look at what's happened in game lately and ask what it changes for my character, logistically or emotionally, and how I can incorporate that moving forward. And this has increasing returns! Over time, asking myself a lot of small questions about how I want them to react, why they might do that or feel that way, and then playing that out -- taking into account all the improv RP decisions that happen along the way!! -- builds up to a strong sense of who they are. And that becomes REALLY helpful when dramatic narrative choices have to be made in-game.

This is a big part of all the fic and meta I write -- it's an exercise in bringing into alignment what's happening in game and my conception of who these characters ARE in a detailed, specific way. Because the better I can reconcile them, the more they'll feed each other and make each other richer and more interesting, and the easier and better my realtime RP will be. Of course, this is an optional thing I do for funsies, and it doesn’t pay to overthink it -- this stuff is organic and always evolving, and we’re here to have fun at the table first and foremost. BUT it’s super rewarding for me and has become a huge part of why I enjoy the game so much.

#LONG ANSWER SORRY #dungeons and dragons #this is so fun to talk about thank you for asking!

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spartanguard · 1 year

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first/last lines

the lovely @wistfulcynic tagged me to share the first and last lines of my last ten fics, and @snowbellewells and @searchingwardrobes had tagged me last week (oops) to post the final lines, so we’re condensing this into one. thanks for the tags, friends!!

green with envy

first : Emma was wired with nervous energy as she and her dad shuffled into the loft.

last : Though if she took a few extra kisses from her pirate for moral support…that was her business.

most wanted

first : The village of Storybrooke lived up to its quaint name: It wasn’t much to write home about, but seemed cozy enough.

last : “As you wish.”

life was a willow and it bent right to your wind

first : Leaves and pine needles crunched under foot as Emma strode through the woods.

last : When Killian wrapped her in his arms after arriving ashore from another voyage, she couldn't help but think that all was as it should be—nor could she wait to see what joys her future continued to hold.

it’s getting hard to be someone

first : It wasn’t the largest protest by any means—no march on Washington, no sit-in, nothing particularly uproarious—but it still wasn’t small; this was New York, after all.

last : He held her close to his chest as he and Emma continued to watch the news—and continued with the life they were creating together.

even death won’t part us now

first : There's a lot of romanticizing when it comes to vampires. The eternal youth, the perfect looks and body, the heightened senses—all are excellent perks.

last : And they (after) lived happily ever after.

lakeside lovin

first : Emma sat on the edge of the dock, dipping her toes into the icy water.

last : How could she, when she had the most perfect man, in the most perfect spot—and he was wearing another perfect pair of sweats?

partners

first : She met him while he was trying to arrest a perp who’d just walked.

last : Good thing she got to go home to Killian—and Alice—every night.

a pair of barflies

first : Ian Jones didn’t bother to lock the door of his office as he left it. If anyone really wanted to mess with the harbormaster’s files and ancient PC, they were welcome to it.

last : Yet another thing he could hold over the Crocodile’s head, he supposed: he knew how to make Belle come.

true love is like a beard: it grows

first : January in Maine was cold. Bitingly so. And David knew it better than anyone, working for the humane society—specifically, being the person that takes calls about animals running wild in the great outdoors.

last : David didn’t keep the beard in the warmer months, but each year when the chill returned to the air, he let it fill in—and Killian let him know just how attractive he found it, even when the white hairs had fully taken over. (But it was okay, because Killian’s was similarly colored by then.)

the monsters turned out to be just trees

first : Weary and disheartened, the small band of maidens shuffled back to the camp they’d been staying in the past few weeks—the lone gathering of civilization in what was left of this once-enchanted forest.

last : And, as it turned out, they really did make quite the team—both within the game and in life.

tagging @optomisticgirl @cocohook38 @ohmightydevviepuu @kmomof4 @myfearless-love and whoever else wants to do this!

#tumblr tagging games #writing

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juunimeta · 1 year

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Mima is a touhou character I have mixed reactions with. While a cool design her relationship with Marisa Kirisame should not be ignored should she ever return. The games writers need to be reminded she is a bad person. As it is implied the certain negative behavior traits that make Marisa Kirisame feel insecure about herself, she is not a strong enough human can likely be traced back to Mima who no doubt placed some toxic influence in her. I want Marisa to grow into a more humble wiser person.

I mean, I believe that Mima definitely put some influence to Marisa and is a mildly important character, I think she honestly shouldn’t come back. Mima being who she is as a youkai magician who gave Marisa her magic teachings isn’t as massive of a role as everyone thinks it is tbh. The largest thing about Mima is that and the fact that she is really morally grey as a character is not really worth bringing up anymore. Besides, there are other pc 98 characters that are way cooler to bring back, like yumemi, Rikako, Chiyuri, shinki(who has more importance as a mentor figure anyways), and Rika.

And on the subject of Marisa maybe being humbler and being influenced by Mima, I kind of agree on that, but I don’t feel that Mima was the sole cause. A large mix of factors like her general personality, who she hangs with, and her reason for staying human play into that harder. She hangs out with other youkai magicians as someone whose larger motivations are to prove that magic can be strong without ever extending lifespan, which is something both Alice and patchy have done, most likely making Marisa feel a sense of competition with them. After that, her entire reason for staying human is that she wants to be better than those who extend their lives, so really her entire motivation is competition and general stubborn, which is why it could also be interpreted as insecurity at some points to Marisa.

#touhou #mima #marisa kirisame

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tribow · 2 years

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I have to make a Yuuka-specific post because I can't sum up my notes/thoughts in a bullet point.

Yuuka's representation in fanworks changes quite a bit over time. I feel most people know her as an intimidating sadist that everyone was afraid to talk to out of fear of what she might do to them. (Especially if you damage a flower near her). That intimidation factor was always there for Yuuka, but the way she acted and her interactions with other characters were certainly different.

Because of her being claimed to be one of the strongest youkai in canon, her personality was almost closer to Yuugi's more than anything. She would actively seek out strong opponents to battle. Unlike Yuugi though, her motivations were more psychotic. It was no friendly duel, her intent was to battle to the death. She would be merciless to anyone daring to fight her as well, so yeah, that intimidation is well earned.

Thing is though, the sadistic part of the personality would usually take a backseat unless someone clearly weaker than her decides to interact with her. This was Yuuka for most of 2006-2007.

As time went on though, the violent Yuuka appeared less. This is probably due to her irrelevancy to the canon at that point. As a result, more facets to her character were explored. People would try to explain the origins to her ability since she didn't have it in PC-98 canon. Sometimes her loneliness is explored through Medicine, Alice, Marisa, or other characters. Sometimes her character would learn to protect more than just the flowers, occassionally coming to the aid of Wriggle, random humans, and etc. It questions her values and what she plans on doing going forward. (I would have loved to see a Yuuka with that character development interact with Flandre or Mokou).

Ok now throw all that shit out the window cause in mid-2008 Scarlet Weather Rhapsody releases with Tenshi needs a sadist to tease. It was either gonna be Iku or Yuuka, and Iku is too busy being a disco QUEEN so sadistic Yuuka is back in full force. Her appearences in fanworks were dwindling up until this point, but Tenshi simultaneously brings her back and resets her character to being a psycho in most doujins.

I don't dislike this or anything, I just find it funny that this happened for Yuuka. She remains a surprisingly popular character for the fanbase despite how irrelevant she is to the canon. I know she gets more introspective content after this, but that sadistic side will be here to stay for a long time.

It makes sense if you think about it. Tenshi likes to cause trouble all over Gensokyo, but if you had to think of a place she absolutely should not fuck with, where else but the Garden of the Sun?

#touhou #yuuka kazami #text #Yuuka fights Yukari quite a bit early on #its interesting to see how fans utilize Yuuka's ability against busted ones #There's also the motherly angle some people would take with her #Props to Yuuka for being one of the funniest gag characters #2008 post coming soon maybe

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alexplayssimsnstuff · 4 years

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Bella Goth Disappearance FINALLY Solved!

Back in the day, I had originally subscribed to the theory that Bella was abducted by aliens that were set on her by the Caliente’s who then murdered her when she returned, and so I went in the game to do a walkthrough as to how I came to that theory. That’s when I found that I WAS WAYYYY OFF, there is a whole ass rabbit-hole here, and like a total Alice, I fell in it.

And, after 16 years of wondering and imagining different scenarios, I finally found out the truth. Turns out, we were ALL wrong, and the truth has been staring at us in the face the whole time.

Just as a warning, this is VERY dark and bleak and depressing. Bella wasn’t dealt a good hand, guys. What happened to her was all sorts of MESSED up.

Just for clarity, I do base this off of events that happen in the official sims storyline, because while the game is ultimately up to us to live life as we like, go ahead and do whatever with your game, there IS a story being told here, but in a way that doesn’t conflict with our own free will. It’s ingenious, really. This goes with the main Sims games released for PC and Mac. However, the console versions do provide a lot of insight to further details and situations. Specifically the Sims 2 for PSP, and the Sims 3 for the Nintendo DS.

So, first off, it has been verified what happened to her: In 2014, Twitter held an AMA for the SimGurus just before the release of the Sims 4. Someone asked the following question, and SimGuru Sarah responded.

It was later confirmed that Bella Goth of Lunar Lakes IS the Bella Goth of Pleasantview. She does look like the rest of the ghosts there with pale skin and yellow hair and eyes, and with that in mind, you can see for yourself…

That’s her, alright.

Okay, if she died on Lunar Lakes, there are still questions that need answers:

1. Did she ever go home?

2. Does her family know what happened to her?

3. How did she die on Lunar Lakes?

Well, she died of old age, that can be found out easily enough, but I found the answers to the other two: Kinda and no.

So, just to recap, I’m gonna review Bella’s life as we know it canonically.

Bella was born to Simis and Jocasta Bachelor of Sunset Valley. She grew up the road from her childhood best friend, and later, husband, Mortimer Goth, with her older brother Michael. She always had a sense of the macabre and dark and was known as “the best dressed girl in town.” Even then she wore a red dress. A more child appropriate red dress, but a red dress. She just came from an average suburban family who had a fascination for the not average. She’s still a child, and not a Goth yet. She still goes by the surname Bachelor.

Twenty-five years later, she shows up in the Sims 1 with her childhood best friend and now husband, Mortimer Goth, and they have moved into their own home, and have a daughter, Cassandra. Her in-laws moved out of their home in Sunset Valley and moved into what would later become the Goth House of the Sims 2 in the beginnings of what would be known as Pleasantview. Unless you got her a job, she was a housewife, and she was known to be athletic, elegant, and friendly towards her neighbors. I remember her often being the first to come and say hello to any new Sims I’d move into the neighborhood. Her brother, Michael, is also in town, however, there is no acknowledgement of them being siblings. A family tree system didn’t really exist in the Sims 1, and I’m sure they didn’t even think to make them siblings back then, but the fact remains that they have no relationship at this point in time. The only reason why it’s known that Cornelia and Gunther Goth are Mortimer’s parents is because it straight up says so in the bio. That and their names are the same, but anyway.

So far, things are simple.

That’s because in the 25 years between the Sims 1 and 2, a series of events occurs that really makes things interesting.

Michael joins the science career track. One can assume the reason why he settled into domestic living years after Bella had done so was because he was at grad school. Because he was graduated from grad school, he gets a jumpstart in the career and climbs the latter a lot faster than Mortimer does.

1. Scientist Sims contribute an invention into the Sims world. Michael’s invention was cloning technology. He cloned himself, and a test subject: Skip Broke.

a. Even though he died before it happened, arrangements were made so Brandi could be the next test subject and the first female subject, and when you start Pleasantview for the first time, she is pregnant with her own clone. The baby is always born a boy.

b. Michael’s clones have a 100% rate of being male, genetic identicals to those they were cloned from (Brandi’s just being a boy rather than a girl) and so far, a 100% rate of dying at the same time as the original. They are genetically identical, but wear different clothes.

2. Michael and Bella don’t really have a relationship in their adult lives because Michael leaves Pleasantview early on while Cassandra is still a child and moves to the city.

3. Mortimer follows after Michael, and invents the age reversal serum. Bella is the first test subject, and, the day of her abduction, she takes the serum until she reverts back to being a brand-new adult. Probably to allow herself to fit in her red dress as strikingly as she does, I don’t think an elderly woman could pull that off.

4. Cassandra enters private school.

5. Around this time, Gunther Goth dies. Bella, Mortimer, and Cassandra move out of their home and in with Cornelia to be with her in her last stages of life.

6. Michael marries Dina Caliente. It is speculated that, because of the age gap, they only marry for Michael’s money. But it is worth noting that Michael was Dina’s first serious relationship and she didn’t begin to cheat on Michael with Don until years later just before Michael died.

7. Alexander is born.

8. Shortly after Alexander’s birth, Cornelia dies at the same time Michael does.

9. Dina inherits Michael’s estate and moves in with Nina. They then move to Pleasantview.

10. Don follows them and moves the next day.

11. Bella goes to introduce herself to her new neighbor, Don. They get along, and Don gets the wrong idea and puts the move on Bella. Bella rejects him. He then runs off to go be with Kaylynn and is not there when Bella is abducted by aliens.

12. Bella is never seen again, but shortly after her abduction, a UFO crashlands in Strangetown, and reports that Bella is in Strangetown start rolling in. But, spoiler alert, that’s not the real Bella.

Then, after Bella’s abduction and before you start Pleasantview for the first time, the following happens:

1. Mortimer and Dina hit it off rather fast, and marriage is definitely in the picture when the game first starts.

2. Cassandra, Mortimer, and Alexander all age up on the same day 2 days after Bella disappears.

3. Cassandra goes to Don’s house to find out what he knows about what happened to Bella (jack squat since he wasn’t there) and that’s where they meet for the first time. Don tries to seduce her, probably not knowing who she is, and Cassandra, as much as you gotta love the girl, is naïve as all hell and thinks she won the jackpot and falls for Don quickly.

4. Alexander goes to private school

5. Mortimer retires

6. Cassandra gets engaged the VERY day the game starts.

That is an important thing to note because people like to speculate that Don had something to do with Bella’s disappearance because he made the moves on her mother and they were engaged and he didn’t want to jeopardize that by Bella opening her yap. This is NOT the case because Cassandra was still a teenager when Bella vanished. Don may be a hoe, but he isn’t a pedo. Chris Hansen doesn’t need to be called for this one.

Another important thing to point out is that it’s not known if Dina and Nina knew Bella. At least, not well, since it can’t be established if Michael and Bella had a relationship at all. Despite the fact that they were friends when they were younger, Mortimer has no memories of Michael, and neither do Cassandra or Alexander. They never met their uncle.

ALSO, yes Dina and Nina do have alien ancestry. Their father was a result of an alien abduction pregnancy. But he was born human, so they’re not part alien. Which means they didn’t order ANY aliens to go and kidnap anybody. Why would they? They don’t know her. Not even normal alien sims do that, y’all are just racist.

It’s also worth noting that Mortimer is COMPLETELY fine with Bella being gone. He’s not heartbroken and he isn’t desperately trying to find her like the game tries to suggest. He’s strangely cool about it.

Why is Mortimer fine with Bella being gone?

Because they are no longer married and haven’t been since around the time Alexander was born.

And THAT, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, is the BIGGEST part that y’all need to just remember. If you can only take one thing away from this part, take away the fact that they’re divorced. It’s S U P E R important.

Now, it is possible to bring Bella back with the Tombstone of Life and Death. She’ll only stick around for a short while because she has a death token that activates when you save the lot, go into Pleasantview, and reload the Goth House. She’ll disappear. Interesting to note that if she’s in the middle of doing something, like talking with a sim or cooking food, she doesn’t disappear completely until she’s done. She does turn see-through and it kinda glitches out…it’s really creepy. Give it a try, you’ll see what I mean. But when she’s done, she’ll disappear, and you’ll get a notification saying she died somewhere else and her spirit has returned to where she was buried.

However, if she dies this way, you cannot resurrect her with the resurrect-o-nomitron. It doesn’t matter who tries it, where they are, or anything. Grim acts like he doesn’t know anything about Bella being dead and even if the Sim COULD resurrect a sim, Bella is not listed.

Since we know Bella is buried in Lunar Lakes, this means she died sometime between the week of her abduction and Cassandra’s wedding where the game starts.

However, while you have Bella in your household, you’ll find she’s brought back with no personality points. She has no memories besides what happened to her children after the first load of Pleasantview. So let’s say that between loading the game and bringing back Bella with the Tombstone, Cassandra gives birth to twin boys. Bella will come back with memories that Cassandra had twins, and she will even know who her grandchildren are. (I use this example because in my most recent Pleasantview playthrough, Cassandra had twin boys named Hendrick and Caspian with Don Lothario.)

Bella will have NO relationship at all whatsoever with Mortimer. You can see before you bring her back on the Goth family tree that they are not married at that point, and Mortimer and Bella start their relationship over as acquaintances. If you let them progress their relationship naturally with no cheats, they actually fight a lot and do not get along at all.

Now, any townie and NPC created before Nightlife will have their turn-on and turn-offs randomized. But it seems to constantly make it so that Bella is never attracted to Mortimer and Mortimer is RARELY attracted to Bella. This is a consistent thing. Interesting to take into consideration.

It’s clear to me, at least, that there were some problems boiling up for some time before Bella vanished.

--they get divorced at around the same time Alexander is born

--they do not get along at all

--Mortimer is completely fine after Bella’s disappearance and isn’t the frantic husband he’s marketed to be at this point in time.

--Mortimer gets into a relationship with Dina Caliente extremely soon after Bella vanishes.

--If Bella does come back and Mortimer is still alive, they naturally do not get along at all.

Which is weird, right? They were always shown to be this desperately in love couple who couldn’t live without eachother. I remember them having a good relationship in the Sims 1.

Also worth noting, Bella is a romance aspiration sim. In the Sims 2, they tend to hoe around a lot. There are a few other adult sims in Pleasantview who are also romance aspiration sims.

1. Don Lothario (the epitome of the romance aspiration)

2. Nina Caliente

3. Daniel Pleasant

4. Skip Broke was also a romance aspiration sim when he was alive.

What is interesting is that while for the most part, romance aspiration sims like to hoe around, there is one exception to this rule so far: Nina Caliente. Nina Caliente’s only romantically involved with Don Lothario. Unless you have another sim start putting the moves on her, then it’s a whole other story. If it were a thing back then, Nina would have been a soulmate romance aspiration while the others would have been serial romantic aspirations.

Bella COULD have been the same way, but that wouldn’t make any sense with the myriad of problems with her relationship with Mortimer.

So, in conclusion, Bella had an affair. Mortimer found out about it, which caused them to, at the least, separate for a while. Then, Bella became pregnant with Alexander, which would have brought up an important question—who is Alexander’s father? Once Alexander was born, and as he got a little older, it becomes clear that he resembles Cornelia, therefore verifying that Mortimer is indeed his father. This would have caused them to try their relationship again, and Bella would have turned down Don in good faith to Mortimer.

Who did Bella have an affair with?

Don wasn’t in town yet, and they hadn’t met. Neither did she meet the Caliente’s yet. Which leaves two possible contenders for Bella’s secret lover: Daniel Pleasant and Skip Broke.

On one hand, Daniel was Bella’s neighbor. She knew the Pleasants, and was friends with Mary-Sue. Daniel had an affair with Kaylynn going on, so he definitely could have some action on the side with Bella, too. My only reservation on that would be that I couldn’t imagine her doing that to her best friend. But then again, she did have an affair on her husband, so who’s to say what her morals are.

Then, there’s Skip Broke. This one makes the most sense to me, personally. While she wasn’t close with Michael, that doesn’t mean she completely avoided him altogether. She would have heard about Michael’s cloning experiments and could have met Skip that way, or she came to say hello and that was how they met. There is a theory going around that Brandi found out Skip was cheating on her, and that’s why she killed him and took his insurance money.

Maybe I’ll do another thing on that because the Skip Broke incident happens to be another rabbit hole altogether.

So, we know that Bella had an affair with Mortimer and things weren’t going so well between them at the time of her disappearance. We know that the Calientes and Don are completely innocent, at least as far as her disappearance goes. (And Nina is innocent altogether, she just loves Don and is completely oblivious to the fact that he’s doing her sister and two other women. She is ALSO a victim here, you guys. Give some love to Nina Caliente, she needs it.)

She dies sometime in the week between her abduction and the first time the Goth household is booted up from old age on Lunar Lakes despite the fact that she was a brand new adult again thanks to Mortimer’s reverse age serum.

Then a UFO crashlands in Strangetown and shortly thereafter reports of Bella Goth being in Strangetown start swarming around.

And yes, this Bella is a clone—there are subtle facial similarities, she is not in the family tree at all for the Goth house, but other than that, she’s structured exactly like the Real Bella goes as far as her outfit, her personality, and her aspiration.

(The Wiki says it’s her despite the fact that it’s been verified she’s not, and it also has MANY discrepencies, saying she’s related to the Curious Family and they appear on her family tree, which is incorrect because Strangetown Bella’s family tree is COMPLETELY EMPTY.)

So, clearly, when Bella was abducted, something went wrong. But what?

Well, why would the aliens even abduct her in the first place?

They tend to go after sims who are wealthy, high-skilled, good-looking, popular, anything like that. Bella was ALL of those things. She was the epitome of the perfect sim to the aliens. They practically worshipped her and their queen took her name and appearance. (This is referenced several times, specifically in the Sims 3.)

So, if something were to go wrong, why would the aliens worship her unless she had been being watched for some time before her abduction?

And what went wrong that caused her to lose her memories, her skills, her personality, her youth, everything?

Aliens also do not abduct children, the elderly, and pregnant sims because their experimentation could go drastically wrong.

She wasn’t a child, and reversed her age so she wouldn’t be an elder for quite some time—

So the only thing that’s left is that she was pregnant when she was abducted and that was why things went wrong.

She wouldn’t have known this, and neither would the aliens—it’s possible that the baby was conceived that day, which helped Bella in the case where Don was hitting on her—she wouldn’t go cheating on Mortimer if she were trying to rekindle their relationship and they had made it to woo-hoo that day.

Also worth noting is that there IS another Goth on Lunar Lakes who happens to look exactly like Bella.

Anyone recognize her?

This is Mathilde Goth.

She is the long-lost third child of Mortimer and Bella Goth.

No, they don’t appear on eachother’s family tree, but they wouldn’t if Bella died shortly after giving birth to her and Mathilde was put in the orphanage.

Mathilde looks almost identical to Bella with the exception of her blue eyes. She also has a preference for blue where Bella preferred red.

Mathilde has no idea where her mother came from and the fact that she has a family on Earth who is just as oblivious to her existence as she is to theirs.

What happens to Cassandra and Alexander after they find out about Bella’s death?

Remember how I said scientist sims end up inventing something?

Cassandra’s invention is time travel. She makes a time machine and the first use is to send Don to the future after her, Dina, Nina, and Kaylynn find out that he was playing all of them. She then goes on to live her life. We don’t know how that looks yet, but she never finds out what happened to her mother and that she has a younger sister.

Alexander is greatly affected by his mother’s death. He has no memories of her being abducted by aliens. Normally toddlers remember things like that so it’s odd that he doesn’t when the rest of his family does. What he does remember is her disappearing, Mortimer being okay with it and getting together with Dina really fast after she vanished, and then finding out that his mother was dead.

Alexander is a child prodigee. He’s a smart kid. So, he would go with any other conclusion someone would go with that limited information: he believed Mortimer killed her.

Well, Cassandra still has her time machine after she uses it to get rid of Don. And as we all know, Alexander’s name shows up in the Sims 3 a few times despite the fact that he doesn’t exist yet. And, according to the Goth family tree, it’s not a family name of an ancestor of his, he is the only Alexander Goth.

Once again, we’re going to reference a console game. This time is the Sims 3 for the Nintendo DS. Alexander actually makes an appearance, and this time, he’s not alone: he’s married to a woman named Cecelia. The family bio says that their gloominess is BECAUSE of Mortimer. Alexander dyed his hair orange. Probably he was trying to bleach it and didn’t know what toner was. He doesn’t have that great of a relationship with Cecelia, as a matter of fact, she has a better relationship with Don Alto than she does her own husband.

Back in the realm of the PC games, Alexander wrote two books when he went back in time to the continuity of the Sims 3:

Baron Graff Van Gold, which comes with Supernatural,

And then there’s the one that appears in the base game.

Murder in Pleasantview.

To string it altogether, Alexander remembers her being gone, then learning she died. He suspects Mortimer was the one to do it but he never actually talks to his father about it. He doesn’t know anything about the abduction, if anything thinking it a ridiculous rumor. He grows up, gets married, and decides at some point in time to go back in time to try and prevent his mother’s death. So he and his wife go into the time machine and try to go back to when it happened, but instead get sent back wayyyy too far to when his parents are still children. What happens to the time machine? It breaks. He’s stuck in a period of time where Time travel wasn’t a thing and no one really knows how to help him and he sure as hell doesn’t know himself. Effectively, he’s stuck there.

So, he writes A Murder in Pleasantview to tell the story of what he thinks happens to his mother. He doesn’t know it’s really all for nothing, but at the same time, it is because of what ends up happening as a result. A result he probably didn’t even know would happen.

See, A Murder in Pleasantview is a best-seller. It blows up the world of 50 years before his time. Every bookshelf has a copy of this book, standard-load. Sims would have read this, and would be influenced accordingly. They would have made better decisions, not wanting this tragic thing to happen to them.

And yes, it does literally take the world by storm. Better decisions in the past truly make for a better future.

This is where the Sims 4 comes in. It is a different continuity, but it is different because they are aware of what Alexander believes to have happened to Bella. This would be why their personalities are so completely different, why the age gap between Cassandra and Alexander aren’t so extreme, why the Goths are so much more reclusive.

Alexander did something that inadvertently changed the future, eliminating himself and his circumstances entirely. He vanished suddenly, probably in a series of events identical to Back to the Future, where he is then allowed to live his life as a child with his mother in the picture, having no idea what he believed happened to her, nor knowing the truth. He erases his little sister altogether, but he can’t be blamed for that since he didn’t know she even existed.

What happened to his wife? Did she get erased like Alexander did?

No, actually she died. She tried repairing the time machine, failed, and was electrocuted to death as a result. She died young and is buried in the Goth mansion’s graveyard, confusing future generations because no one knows where she comes from because she has the surname Goth but they can’t find her on their family tree.

Lolita Goth was the wife of Alexander Goth.

Yes, it says she’s single, which means one of two things happened:

Either she tried repairing the time machine one last time after Alexander vanished and died,

Like Alexander’s marriage to Cecelia, they didn’t have the best relationship and they ended up getting a divorce, then, possibly with Alexander still around, did the same and died.

She clearly wanted to go back home to her time and wasn’t happy with Alexander for being stuck there.

And it makes sense that she would have been electrocuted with the time machine because there are no other objects in the Goth Mansion that would result in her electrocution.

Which would ALSO explain why the Goths of the Sims 3 can’t figure out who she is. You can’t list a descendent and their wife on your family tree if they don’t exist yet, can you?

Tragedy is just par for the course in the Goth Family, it matches their dark and dreary macabre air. But Bella’s story is just really extra sad. Imagine trying to repair your failed marriage, going to meet a new neighbor only for him to put the moves on you without invitation, then get abducted by aliens where their experiments go wrong, causing you to lose your memories, your personality, your youth, and then you find out that it went wrong because you’re pregnant, which you didn’t know about that either, and your kidnappers take a tissue sample from you, and then drop you on a strange planet far from home where you have no way to communicate to them that you’re there, but you don’t remember anyone but your children anyway, leaving you to have a baby you didn’t even know existed when you were abducted and live just long enough to name her?

The truth has been staring at us in the face since 2014, but we all missed it. Me included for the longest time. It’s been 16 years since Bella went missing, and we all had theories and ideas, but THIS is the truth, and it’s really. Messed up. Yeah, I found out what happened to Bella, but do I like it? No, not at all. Bella deserved better, and so do her children. Mathilde especially. She grew up in an orphanage never knowing she had a family who would have loved her so very much, only to become a mailcarrier on her home planet. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a mailcarrier, don’t get me wrong.

Dina Caliente is innocent, but seriously? Bye.

Nina Caliente is innocent, and really deserves better.

Don Lothario is innocent, but yet he sucks.

Mortimer Goth used to be my favorite out of the Goth family, yes, even over Bella. But after learning everything about him I have mixed feelings about the guy. I don’t blame him for not trusting Bella, and I don’t blame him for wanting to move on, but jeez, at least show a little genuine emotion, Morty, she was your childhood best friend, and, if nothing else, the mother of your children.

There was no plot to get rid of her and swipe the Goth fortune.

It was just poor timing on the alien’s end, and bad luck altogether.

So, yeah.

That’s what happened to Bella Goth.

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benichi · 3 years

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Favorite Otome Games 2020

It’s that time of the year again, and even a year like 2020 eventually comes to an end. I know that this has been a difficult time for all of us and the only thing we can hope for is that what’s to come will be better. Quick shoutout to all of us for making it through 2020 and a big thanks to all of you for sticking with me. As with everyone this year has left it’s marks on me as well. I wanted to be much more productive than I ultimately was, especially knowing that this blog brings comfort to a lot of you. I tried my best and while it wasn’t as much as I wanted it to be I still hope that my posts brought you joy.

Here’s to 2021 which, especially in the Otome department, at least seems to be off to a good start. But before that let’s look at what this year had to offer.

Piofiore: Fated Memories (Switch)

Honestly I though that Collar x Malice Unlimited would take the spot of my favorite Switch Otoge. But the initial sloppy release simply left a bitter taste in my mouth. So even if there is a patch now I can’t in good conscience give it that title. Instead I chose Piofiore which I ended up liking a lot more than I initially expected. Here you can read my full (Spoiler free) [Review].

Taisho x Alice - Episode 2 (PC)

Taisho x Alice makes the cut yet again. Just like how Episode 1 was among my favorites last year Episode 2 delivered as well. Much like Piofiore this is an Otoge which deals with some very heavy topics and takes a lot of twists and turns. I guess you could say that this year the “problematic” games really delivered lol. In case you’re intrigued I’ll leave you the link to my (as always Spoiler free) [Review].

Obey me! One Master to Rule them all (Mobile)

I know this game came out December 2019 but pssst. Also I only started playing in January. In all honesty I do like Obey Me!, but it mostly made it into the list because I simply didn’t play a lot of (new) mobile Otoge this year.

In the traditional sense it’s not even an “Otome Game” (but hey: they did put it in the title on the android/app store now so what do I know psh). Which is why I’d like to point out that in my opinion this is a “feel good” game that’s a lot of fun (mostly) due to it’s characters and their interactions. But sometimes you just gotta turn your brain off and not think too hardly, especially about the main story. The first season in particular has one big brain fart moment that, if I had know won’t get adressed again, might have made me drop the game. But here we are lol.

My point is I find Obey Me! entertaining, it always manages to make me laugh but you shouldn’t take it too seriously or you may be disappointed. Basically just enjoy the moment, for the most part the game’s a mix of comedy & romance and in those aspects it performs well.

& That’s it for this year. Usually I love to include indie titles but I didn’t get around to playing any this time. I wish all of you and your loved ones a good start into 2021! Stay safe.

#piofiore fated memories #taisho x alice #taiali #obey me #obey me shall we date

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

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Survey #402

“there’s a space kept in hell with your name on the seat / with a spike in the chair just to make it complete”

Have you ever had any really infected injuries? Not an injury, per se, but I've had at least one ear piercing get infected during the healing process. Shit sucks ass. Are you popular on any websites? No. What was the last song you listened to? "Savior" by SWARM. Are you considered popular at school? I wasn't. If you could host your own talk show, would you do it? No. I've got nothing interesting to talk about. If you were starving would you eat food out of a garbage can? I honestly don't know if I could with how squeamish I am about sharing food, even with family. And we're talking about sharing food that's been in the TRASH. Do you know anyone who has changed their first name? I do. Which one of your senses would you be the most devastated to lose? I THINK hearing. I hate silence, so that would just be... haunting. I want to be able to hear people's voices and other sounds. Do you know anyone who has been on life support, and survived? I have no idea. Do your parents have a strong relationship together? God no. They're divorced for a reason. Have you ever read any of Charles Darwin’s works? No. If there was such a thing as a mental health first aid kit, what would you want to be in it? Some ice cream and a Mountain Dew bc I'm an emotional eater, my "graduation" pebble from my partial hospitalization program to remember how far I've come, some cold water to run over my face (or drink), my iPod for music and phone to watch YouTube, a nice, big blanket to turn into a burrito in... that kind of stuff. If you’re in a relationship, are you happy? And if you’re single, are you looking for someone? I'm not actively searching for anyone, no. What is something that people make fun of you for? Always being on the computer. It makes me EXTREMELY self-conscious, and I really wish people would keep their mouths shut about it. Which supermarket do you like to shop at? Wal-Mart. Have you ever been told that your boyfriend/girlfriend wasn’t good enough for you? In the past. Do you think it’s okay to flirt with someone that’s already taken, as long as it goes no further? Fuck no. Do you struggle to say ‘no’ to things you don’t want to do? YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP. Someone attractive is staring at you. What do you do? Probably just kinda smile and blush and look down/away. Are you friends with someone a lot of people dislike? *shrug* Favorite photo search engine? Tumblr for gifs, Google or Pinterest for still images, depending on what I'm looking for. Do you doggie paddle or actually swim in a pool? I'll do both, I think? It's been too long since I've swum. Ever made a snow angel? Ye-ep. Would you ever take up smoking? No. I like having operational lungs. Do you laugh at racial jokes? No. Hate to break it to ya, but they're not funny. Book series you enjoyed reading recently? I've been loving Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland, even if I'm reading very slowly. My psychiatrist has given me a new way to approach my hobbies I have difficulty engaging in, so I'm hoping if I keep it up, my rate of reading will speed up! Are there any keys on your keyboard that have letters fading away? Ahaha, yeah... "a," "s," and "d." A true gamer. How "w" is still alive, I couldn't tell ya. Favorite non-chocolate candy? Sour Punch Straws, probably. The red ones, in specific. Last person you texted? My mom. What did you learn from your first job? That I can't work with people. Favorite website from your childhood? I was a Webkinz A D D I C T. Least favorite flavor of food or drink? Cranberry came to mind very quickly. Least favorite pattern? uhhhhhhh Favorite potato food? Either French fries or Lays wavy potato chips. PC or console gaming? I grew up as a console gamer, so I'm kinda biased. Writing or drawing? Don't make me choose!! I get more satisfaction out of drawing something I'm proud of, but I do way more writing. Who would you put before everyone else? My mom, probably. Lamps, overhead lights, fairy lights, or sunlight? Fairy lights are so cute. How many phone numbers do you have memorized? I shit you not, none. What is your third favourite colour? Hm. Maybe rose gold, or lilac. Can you remember your first phone? If so, what kind was it? I'm really not sure, but I WANT to say it was one of those slide-y, compact Blueberry ones? Who is your favourite character from Alice in Wonderland? The Cheshire Cat has always been very alluring to me. What is the last thing you looked up online? The definition to a word just to ensure I was using it correctly. Have you ever had your fortune read? No. I ain't wasting time or money on that shit. Can you read tarot cards? If you couldn't guess from above, I have zero faith in this kinda stuff, so I don't care to learn. Do you prefer lemons or limes? Lemons. I like lime flavoring in some stuff, though. Are your expecting anything in the mail? No. What would you like to see out of your window everyday instead of what you see now? The forest. Do you own a camera? I do, a Canon EOS Rebel T6. Have you ever written a special note in a book? Yes. Early into our relationship, Jason lent me a book to read, and I wrote a lil love letter in it for him. Do you have any artistic talents? I mean I like to think I'm a good writer and a decent artist. Do you remember the last movie you saw while on a date? Yeah, IT with Girt. It was fun because he's a horror pansy, haha. He did fine, though. What would you do if you found out you were pregnant? Freak the fuck out because I haven't had sex in many years, so that thing's coming the fuck out 'cuz it obviously ain't natural. Favorite thing to get at McDonalds? Look man, I'm shameless, I love me a Quarter Pounder w/ cheese. Plus some fries. :x Do you know anyone named Alex? I know multiple people named Alex, actually. Whose house did you last sleep over at? Sara's. In other words, it's been a loooong time.Would you ever record yourself having sex? God no. Like zero judgment to the people that do, but I get NOTHING out of watching others "do it." I've never actually tried watching porn, but I couldn't have less interest. I know I'd hate it, and a lot. Did the vacuum scare you as a child? I don't think it did, anyway. Have you or would you ever use a dating app? One of my most embarrassing secrets is that I was briefly on Christian Mingle. It makes me want to cringe into fucking oblivion. Who are you most nervous about introducing potential significant others to? My dad. He's... a character. What was the most important non-academic thing you learned in high school? That time fucking flies, so cherish every millisecond. Do you and your friends ever talk about your sex lives? Not really. Even when I was sexually active, I was private about that stuff. I don't care if others talk to me about theirs, but odds are I'm not saying much about myself. What were the best and worst interviews you’ve ever had? What made them so good/bad? I've never had a bad interview, but I mean, I've only had I wanna say four in my whole life. None were anything special either, though. Ever put someone else in the hospital? No. Have you ever sold anything on eBay? If so, what? No. What is the best surprise you have ever had? Finding a container of puppy chow underneath the Christmas tree one year. It was my parents' way of telling me we were getting a dog (which I had been nagging them about FOREVER), and next came Teddy. <3 I miss my boy. Is someone in love with you? I wouldn't know. Ever kiss someone on the first date? No. Ever sleep with someone on the first date? That's a hard no. Do you wear cologne/perfume/aftershave regularly? No. Do you snore? No, actually. Pretty astonishing for someone with such severe sleep apnea. When is the last time someone else slept in your bed? When Sara last visited. How often do you dust? Not... nearly enough as I'm supposed to. Mom gets on me about it all the time. What is the most ‘extreme’ activity you have ever done? Ha, nothing wild, I assure you. I guess riding a four-wheeler through the woods once with our former neighbors, who were good friends of ours.. Have you ever rode on a mobility scooter/wheelchair just for fun? Um, no? That's a jackass thing to do. Some people actually need those. Who’s the most controlling person you know? OH MY FUCKING GOD. OUR FAMILY FRIEND TOBEY. EASILY. She seizes control of EVERY situation, even if she has no right to be involved in it. Does anyone keep a photo of you in their purse/wallet, and if so, who? Not to my knowledge. Do you own a microphone? No. Do you enjoy trailers at the cinema? I do! I like arriving in time to see them. Have you ever been burgled? No, thankfully. Have you ever entered anything into Urban Dictionary? If so, what? No. What’s the last live performance you watched on TV? No idea. Have you ever been embarrassed to buy something from a shop? Not to my recollection. It helps that I'm not the one buying things, like ever. What’s the name of one of your friends’ dogs? Buster! :') He's a precious lil bean. Name a pet you definitely wouldn’t want. A GIANT CENTIPEDE. That's one pet in the invert community that I have ZERO interest in EVER owning. Those bitches are scary. Have you ever needed to wear a tie? If so, when/why? Nope.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''fuck u'' by archive

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locktobre · 3 years

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lately I’ve been thinking that maybe magic isn’t all that secret in the Barbieverse (at least, the way I view it). I’ve been approaching it that way when planning my fics (esp. wrt Rip) but the more I think about it, I think that actually doesn’t make that much sense, given what we see. I don’t think it’s that widely known, bc I mean we do see characters getting surprised by magic, but I don’t think it actually can be a secret, from what we see onscreen.

the first thing that comes to mind is the magical barrier on the lake in RNR, which is never explained, but it’s not like it just covers Camp Royalty, both yachts pass through it. Erika, Rayna, and Zia are surprised by the scepters, but they seem to immediately accept it once they’ve seen it. Zia’s questions seem like standard fairytale references... but she’s (at least) 16 years old, why would she be thinking along those lines? Genevieve also says “of course” when she brings out her scepter, like she’s surprised that Erika doesn’t know about it, which makes sense given that (apparently) all royals have them... but she also doesn’t seem concerned with keeping the knowledge from a commoner, or anything like that. it could be argued that she figured that since Erika wasn’t immediately booted from the camp, it was okay for her to see all that stuff; Courtney seems a little hesitant to show off her scepter, but that could be more down to her shyer personality than actual royal rules. the ‘princess assistants’/sprites in PCS are in approximately the same boat. ostensibly, Blair/Sophia is a commoner and didn’t know about them before attending the school, but she seems far more impressed by her locker than a sprite right in front of her face.

the second thing that comes to mind, similar to the sprites, is the flairies in Fashion Fairytale. Alice believes the place is magical, but that she will be mocked for expressing this, which could point to magic being secret... but once the flairies appear, they don’t seem to try to conceal themselves at all. later on they’re kidnapped bc of that, but on that note, Jacqueline doesn’t seem at all concerned about seeing them, except that she wants to use their powers for herself.

the third thing that comes to mind is Pony Tale. this movie is a bit middling in its portrayal of the Majestique, as Etienne dismisses it as just a legend, but Philippe believes. Philippe did have a picture, but Etienne was in that picture, too; surely he’d seen it at some point. so again, we have a character who does believe in something magical that would be mocked for it... if the thing isn’t real. if it is real, ppl accept it--how could you not if it’s right in front of you? but still, I find it interesting.

this is all with grains of salt, since these are barbie movies that have limited time to work with and they most likely didn’t care as much as I do about these things as they were writing them.

the strongest evidence toward magic being secret is Fairy Secret and the Mermaid Tales, but imo, they only prove that fairies and mermaids are secret. which makes sense! magic is one thing, since humans can use it, either as an inborn ability or with enchanted objects. but an actual magical being, human sized and not easily subdued like a flairy or sprite? I think that would fall more under the category of ‘threat,’ so concealment could be necessary to their survival.

of course, the movies are all written by different ppl and most likely aren’t intended to be taken as a whole, cohesive universe, so it makes sense that different movies say different things. but a consensus, if one can be reached, seems to be that, if anything, magical creatures are a secret, but magic itself, and magical objects, are not.

#mel irl #barbie babbles #magic in the barbieverse #long post #dug thru my 145 drafts to find this asdkjsdnfdfg #I was going to try to make this better and more coherent but it's good enough whatever #i think mostly about the modern era bc that's where my heart is obvs #and this is only about my prime timeline the da timeline is... different.

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theworldbrewery · 3 years

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over our last two sessions, I ran something a little different. Our cleric, Oggie, has a (complicated) relationship with this NPC, Elliot. Elliot is a gay half-elf man whose father is a politician and diplomat; Elliot’s father has decided that since Elliot has a criminal record (he was framed for treason) the best way to ensure he is provided for is to marry him off to another political family, neatly tucking him away where he can’t cause a scandal.

Now, his father isn’t too interested in Elliot’s desire for romance or attraction, so he’s arranged a marriage with a young woman from a prominent elven family. The party quickly decided that this cannot stand. They agreed to attend the wedding in order to prevent it from happening.

Upon arrival at the venue, however, a few key things were going to pop off. First, it turns out Oggie’s estranged family lives in the town. Second, the whole region is deeply haunted and extremely sinister. Third, messing up the bride’s life was a non-option, because when I introduced the character of the bride, a friend of ours came out of the bedroom where I’d stashed them and introduced themself as Gloria, the bride herself (an air genasi monk in a family of elves, another outsider).

this was already clearly a rousing success, but we still had to get through the wedding, and I had to run it in a way that felt dynamic and tense. People go from room to room and building to building, indoors and outdoors and making visits to the village. It’s the day of a wedding!

So I developed a method for running the Day of the Wedding, and I’m sharing it with you for any extended roleplay and intrigue encounters you want to tangle up in plot threads.

First things first: run it like a combat.

What I mean by that is when the party woke up on the day of the wedding, I asked them all to roll for initiative. Instead of a round taking six seconds, each round lasted one hour, enough time for a movement (go to 2 areas near one another or 1 place that’s a bit further away), an action (a primary roleplay scene or investigation), and a bonus action (a conversation with a fellow player character, a quick search of an area, etc.). As the DM, use your discretion to decide what constitutes a suitable bonus action vs action.

Now, unlike combat, this type of encounter should permit player characters to team up and act together. When a PC that is high in initiative order decides to do something, other PCs that rolled lower can opt to join them if they want to act in the same location or engage with the same NPCs. (This is a great option to keep the action moving and lets players work together more.)

In order to keep this situation rolling, I prepared a few key notes. I focused on regional effects; that is, the overall culture and vibe of the area. I decided early on that the region is haunted, and that the locals are suspicious, superstitious, and obsessed with cleanliness. These features are tied into the overall plot conflicts that would develop over time. I also chose to include the effects of the Haunted table from Tasha’s Cauldron to add some spiciness to my haunting. In essence, think of the tensions the NPCs in the region are already experiencing prior to the party getting involved. A recent assassination might make a court intrigue more complicated as they now distrust strangers, for instance, while a new trade war over tariffs can complicate a diplomatic mission.

Next, I considered my locations. In this instance, my locations included the inn where the party slept, various rooms in the manor house hosting the wedding, a handful of outdoor areas, and the chapel. I focused on creating detailed descriptions of the ambiance for each location.

Then, I wrote out a quick description of each major NPC - in this case, the wedding party, the family of the intended, and a few locals and guests. In a roleplay/intrigue scenario like this, it’s vital to include motivations, secrets, and goals for each of these NPCs, even if those goals are very simple. You’ll need them for the last step:

Create a round-by-round timeline. Write out your list of locations and pair them with the NPCs that will be there during each round (hour). In my notes, I added what the NPC was doing there or what they were thinking about--linking their motivation to their location. For example, a character in the garden was leaving an early-morning meeting with her lover, the new gardener, while the fathers of the bride and groom met in the library to discuss the cover-up they had just pulled off (a politician and wedding guest had died mysteriously at midnight, and to keep the wedding from being derailed, they had hidden the body and were intimidating the only witness).

Party members who arrived at each location were therefore entering existing scenes they didn’t have full context for. Each hour, the NPCs would move on to the next phase of their day, seek out other NPCs to interact with, etc. NPCs could still be influenced by the party’s actions, so each round you might adjust exactly what they’re doing or where they’ve gone--the beauty of improv!

Keep in mind that situations should still be developing when the party isn’t witnessing them. An NPC no one had spoken to yet turned out to have spent the morning searching for her missing father, which led the party to the gravesite that they’d spotted earlier in the game, while the gardener turned out to be a villain they’d met before who was acting in secret during the session! Use your best judgment, though. Just because you wrote content for an NPC doesn’t mean the party will engage with it, so follow their lead; sprinkle the clues, and then let the party’s focus drive which storylines get developed.

So long as every NPC has a goal or secret to influence their opinions and decisions, they will feel like nuanced actors within the roleplay scenario; the timeline you lay out in advance gives them a sort of “Artificial Intelligence” that can be influenced by the player’s actions.

Personally, I also recommend setting a natural deadline for the party. If my players didn’t stop the wedding by 1pm, for instance, the ceremony would go forward and they would either be forced to object in public or let the marriage take place. Thus, they only had 5 total “rounds” to disrupt things enough that the wedding would be called off.

You can create similar deadlines depending on the central goal of the party. A vote on whether to pass a controversial law could serve as one for a court intrigue arc, while a crime-solving arc might have a threatened time when a kidnapping victim will be murdered (”You have 24 hours to deliver the ransom”, for example). The sense of a ticking time-bomb gives the players a much-needed urgency. The round-by-round timeline also helps to ensure that you won’t have to continue prepping rounds ad infinitum; instead, you need only prepare up until shit pops off and the deadline is reached.

You may find you won’t reach the deadline, though. In this arc, the party discovered the corpse of a major politician who had died in the night and was secretly buried by the gardener. They used the cover-up as leverage to blackmail the parents of the bride and groom into calling off the marriage, which was helped along by the ranger revealing that Elliot’s father was concealing Elliot’s criminal record to keep the marriage arrangement intact. They managed to prevent the wedding with an hour to spare.

However, as Alice the sorcerer went downstairs to announce the cancellation, she spotted a person who looked just like her weaving through the crowd to leave the manor. She followed, and discovered that she was tracking the semi-villainous NPC who had crossed paths with the party a few times before, disguised as Alice. The NPC, Florian, had been playing the role of the gardener, and blackmailed the bride’s father into giving up a precious family heirloom in exchange for concealing the body; now that the cover-up has been revealed, they’re getting out of Dodge with their prize. This revelation serves as the plot hook for the next dungeon!

#dm tips #dm advice #rpgs #d&d #dnd #dungeons and dragons #roleplay #actual play

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Resident Evil Village’s Lady Dimitrescu: Terrifying Facts You Need to Know About Tall Vampire Lady

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Ethan Winters can’t catch a break. After surviving the horrors of Baker Ranch in Resident Evil 7, it seemed like the everyman hero would finally get to go back to his normal life. But when seasoned zombie killer Chris Redfield shows up at his door with a new mission, Ethan is suddenly thrust back into the nightmare.

In Resident Evil Village, Ethan is dropped into a haunted European village, where he’ll have to survive a gauntlet of monsters, including werewolves and witches. Then there’s Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, the giant vampire villain who has taken the fandom by storm since she was first revealed.

Here’s what you need to know about the new game’s most interesting baddie:

Taller Than the Tallest Human

Before Resident Evil developer Capcom revealed her name, the villain was referred to as “Tall Vampire Lady” on social media, and for good reason: she’s 9’6”! That’s taller than the tallest human in recorded history. That would be “The Giant of Illinois,” a man named Robert Wadlow, who was 8’11” and at one point toured with the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Fortunately, his act didn’t involve anything quite as gruesome as what the Lady of Castle Dimitrescu has planned for her prey. Not only does she tower over Ethan but she also has long, sharp claws for fingers. The better to impale our hero with!

The First Vampire in the Series

Her appearance isn’t the only thing that makes Lady Dimitrescu so interesting. She’s also the first vampire villain in the franchise’s history. Resident Evil has largely avoided the classic monster canon up until this point, favoring zombies and monsters grown in labs over the creatures found in Universal and Hammer horror films.

Dimitrescu represents an evolution for the series. However, this isn’t the first time Capcom has considered experimenting outside of the franchise’s wheelhouse. At one point, Resident Evil 4, which is clearly a big influence on Village, was going to feature a killer ghost with a hook for a hand, but the idea was scrapped before release.

Callback to Castlevania

While she marks a first for Resident Evil, Dimitrescu’s role as the bloodthirsty Lady of a giant castle full of spooky creatures is rooted in a classic video game trope. The concept of a vampiric final boss was originally popularized by the Castlevania series, which is largely set in Dracula’s haunted castle full of monsters.

What makes Dimitrescu’s house of horrors unique is that it’s populated only by women. “With Lady Dimitrescu as the cult’s guru, we have created this hierarchy of women,” Resident Evil Village director Morimasa Sato told IGN. “Men have their blood drained by these women, so you could say it’s the opposite of Dracula.”

Dimitrescu’s Daughters

Lady Dimitrescu isn’t the only vampire in the game. She has three blood-sucking helpers she refers to as her daughters. While Dimitrescu’s attire exudes elegance, Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela lean into the grotesque, down to their smiling, blood-covered faces.

It’s teased in the trailers that Ethan will have to make his way past Dimitrescu’s vicious daughters before reaching the Lady, and it won’t be an easy fight, as these vampires not only carry sharp weapons but also have the ability to transform themselves into even more hideous forms. The way they creep towards Ethan and huddle over him to feed may remind you of Dracula’s movie brides.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Gruesome Inspiration

According to art director Tomonori Takano, the game’s “bewitching vampire” was partially inspired by real-life serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian noblewoman who is said to have tortured and murdered hundreds of women in the early 1600s. Legend has it that Bathory bathed in her victims’ blood because she believed it would stop her from aging.

Another inspiration was the Japanese internet urban legend Hashaku-sama (or “hachishakusama”), an eight-foot-tall evil spirit in a wide-brimmed hat who lures her young male victims to her by imitating the voices of their loved ones. Likewise, all of Dimitrescu’s victims are men, many of their bodies decorating the outside of her castle, “blood drained, looking like skinny scarecrows,” according to Sato. Terrified yet?

The Name “Dimitrescu” Has a Long History

Unsurprisingly, this vampire lady’s name can be traced back to Eastern Europe, especially Romania, where Transylvania is located. Romania also happened to be the home of Vlad the Impaler, the brutal warlord who inspired Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula.

The name “Dimitrescu” could also be derived from Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest, grain, and fertility, which makes sense since the Lady rules over and terrorizes a village of farmers. Interestingly enough, in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula travels to England on a ship called The Demeter.

Maggie Robertson and Helena Mankowska Brought Lady Dimitrescu to Life

Maggie Robertson, a stage actor from the Washington D.C. area who has also appeared in a few screen projects, voices Lady Dimitrescu. While this is her first major role in a video game, her performance as the already uber-popular lady of Castle Dimitrescu could be the breakout role that turns her into one of the industry’s up and coming voice talents.

Meanwhile, Polish actor Helena Mankowska provided her likeness for the character, turning her overnight into one of the most popular faces in survival horror. She has another interesting connection to the franchise: Mankowska was Milla Jovovich’s (Alice in the Resident Evil movies) stunt double in the movie Paradise Hills.

Resident Evil Village is out on May 7 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia.

The post Resident Evil Village’s Lady Dimitrescu: Terrifying Facts You Need to Know About Tall Vampire Lady appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3h91Iy7

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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build-a-buddy · 3 years

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For the lost words blurb- I'd love to hear about PC and Redamancy 💗 -gummibears' main

Redamancy: act of loving in return

@gummibears

TW: Guns, physical violence, swearing.

A/N: this was not actually a good prompt fill - ie relating to the prompt itself - but I’m too pleased with what I did get so I’m posting.

PC, still a little miffed about Moonshine’s disdain with him, gets out of the car, Espeon in his pocket. Alice looks up from where she sits on the island between the front seats.

“Be careful,” she says.

“I will,” says PC.

She nods at him, and he jogs around to the back of the truck, pulling the case haphazard in the truck bed toward him. He opens it, revealing the sword he welded during Operation Leviathan. He takes it out of the case, ignites it - the plasma warms up along the blade.

He shuts the truck bed and walks toward the house. They’re far away from the city now, at a farmhouse on the side of the road miles away from the Beholden’s apartment. The place looks abandoned, sagging grey walls with water damage, boarded up front windows, and a hole in the worn red roof of the barn a hundred yards from the home proper.

Espeon wriggles from PC’s pocket and hops at his side, barely clearing the tall dead grey beige grass with each bound. The grass crunches under his false feet, and he can hear a false heartbeat in his ears.

They reach the porch; Espeon pauses. “I don’t sense anyone in there,” she says after a moment, glow around her felt gem dying as quickly as it came.

“I’ll check here, you go check the barn and come back,” he says.

“Got it,” she says, and begins hopping toward the building in question.

PC finds there is no doorknob, so he pushes a hand against the rotting wooden door; it creaks open, dust swirling around him and shadowy figures of furniture tinted green from the light of the plasma sword as he steps into the dark foyer.

The living room is empty save a coffee table and a ratty couch, and the kitchen when he crosses the floor to stand in its doorway is in disarray, basin dusted and refrigerator missing. There is no sign of anyone living here for a long long time.

“What’s the point of sending us here, then?” he muses out loud as he returns to the living room.

Stairs rise up to a second floor on the left side, and as PC ascends, the flows of the plasma sword lights up the the mark of footsteps in the dust.

It also lights up the sight of blood.

The false heartbeat in him quickens, and he hurries the rest of the way. The blood is spotty, brown, but he still holds his breath as he clears the top step and turns into the hall.

The trail leads to a lone door at the end of the hall, and PC hesitates before reaching for the doorknob.

There’s more blood here, fresh enough that it’s still vaguely red in the green shine of the plasma sword, but not wet when he kneels to touch it. PC glances around, swallowing hard.

The room is empty. Bare white beige walls, wooden floor, spiderwebs in a corner. There’s a small length of rope on the floor near the blood; PC picks it up with his free hand, rubbing it between his fingers. There’s a window, too; he moves to it and stares out into the empty field. At the edge, forest begins.

“Really don’t get it,” he says out loud.

The door slams open behind him. PC spins in the direction of the sound, dropping the rope and bringing the sword up to chest level. He exhales as he sees it’s Espeon who’s rammed her way into the room. She looks as frustrated as he feels.

“Nothing?” he asks. She nods.

“I don’t understand,” he says. “Why make us come all this way...?”

“Could be a trap,” she says.

“Wouldn’t they have sprung it by now?”

She shrugs at him. “M—“

Whatever she was going to say is lost to him as the sound of a sniper rifle cracks through the air, through the window, through PC’s chest.

“Oh, good,” he says after a moment. “I thought we were done with guns. After the whole aliens thing.”

“Where the fuck are they shooting from?” Espeon says, clambering up his body to his shoulder, narrowly avoiding another shot that passes through his Awakening-given arm (no actual injury, just phantom pain and blood).

PC charges down the stairs and out of the house, sword ready, ignoring the feeling of imagined blood pouring out of his chest wound. He can feel Awakening flickering at the edges of the hole, feel it slowly restitching together.

As soon as he rounds the house into the field toward where the gunfire came from, another bullet comes at him, striking him in the abdomen. He swears; Espeon fires a ball of Psionic energy back in the shot’s direction.

Maybe they’re up in a tree, PC thinks.

He reaches the tree line, hunches behind a trunk, both hands now gripping the sword hilt.

Somewhere, a twig snaps.

Espeon leaps from his shoulder at the noise; once he’s sure she’s clear, he swings the sword blindly as multiple series of footsteps come at him—

PC wakes up in darkness.

His limbs are gone, there is only his core pillow self, squished into a space much smaller then he is. The sword is gone. Espeon is gone. The Hoard is not here. The Beholden isn’t either.

He strains to listen, hears nothing.

He strains to see, sees nothing.

“Alice?” he says.

The darkness breathes.

“So it can speak,” a voice answers.

A hand roughly grabs him by the area near his printed ear and lifts and he is brought into bright artificial light. He squints, squirms, feels his chest burn.

A choked noise sounds somewhere and his heart thuds to the ground at it - that’s the Beholden. He can’t see them yet, but that’s them.

Someone grunts, a deep male voice, and the Beholden whimpers.

Anger replaces fear. He blinks furiously to get his vision back.

They’re in a empty room, save the Beholden tied up in a chair at the center, a man standing near them with a baton. A second human is holding PC, fingers digging into the pillow’s self.

“Beholden—“ PC starts.

The Beholden shakes their head at him, and then yelps as the baton smashes against their knee. He glances over them- their eyes are dark, their face is bloodied, their legs are bruised. They look sick and tired.

“Beholden, it’s going—“

“Shut up!” they say, and it’s a cracked crying noise. The man with the baton swings it at their head, and they crumple in the seat.

The man holding him turns PC so he’s looking up into the human’s face. Cold grey eyes, a chiseled jaw, a chipped tooth when the man smiles.

“So the dog toy and the child weren’t lying,” he says.

“The what?”

“Me and Loaf,” groans the Beholden, before another sharp thwack sounds against their skull from the baton holding man, and they go silent.

“Leave them alone!” PC says, and it’s frantic.

“We’re done with them anyway,” says the baton man, and he tucks into a pocket. “It’s you we want.”

“Look, if you need something, you could just—“

The man holding him tightens the grip. “We were going to rule the world,” he says.

“What?”

“The Elders said we would be alongside them,” he continues. “We would be top of ADVENT, and when they were done with this world, we would move on with them to the next.”

“Oh, you’re collaborators,” says PC.

“But you killed them,” the baton man says. He is scowling. “You took that from us. You, who aren’t even a person.”

“You know the Elders aren’t — you know about AVATAR, don’t you?”

“We would be spared,” the man holding him says. “We are useful. Were useful. Are.” The grip tightens even more. “You ruined everything we had.”

“We’re going to get it all back,” baton man says.

“What - the world?”

The men look at each other. “Humans are flawed,” says the one holding you, “but they can provide aid. Refuge. You of all beings understand this too.

His eyes glow purple. The faint projection of a Ethereal rises above him, staring down.

“Shit,” PC says.

“Occupy him,” says the man to his bonded Ethereal. The purple gleam of his eyes blaze—

— and the world shifts just slightly as PC is dropped unceremoniously onto the floor.

He hefts himself up, feeling sick, which is impressive since he doesn’t have the organs to feel much of anything with.

He looks around nervously. They’re in that same empty room with the bright white light, but the men are gone— vanished. The Beholden has been removed from the chair and is slumped against a wall, hands and legs still tied together.

He shuffle hops toward them, manages to conjure a Awakened arm, a hand, and gingerly reaches out to touch them. Their head lolls as he caresses their cheek.

He feels shame burn like the bullet in his chest does still. “Wake up,” he says, although he is not even sure he is awake himself, if this is real, or a trick, or—

The Beholden makes a pitiful moaning noise. He works at the ropes on them, tugs them free, and then lifts their chin with his conjured hand so that they’re facing him.

“Wake up,” he says again. “Please, please, wake up.”

Hazel eyes flicker once, twice; he exhales as their gazes focused unfocuses focuses on him.

“PC,” they mumble, moving their face away. They rub at their wrists and ankles. “You—“

“Don’t talk,” he says. “I think they might have given you a- a concussion or something. Can you see me? I mean, obviously you know I’m here but—“

“You’re too ... loud,” the Beholden says, sounding woozy, and then collapses forward onto him. He lets himself deflate a little under their weight.

“Are you ok?” he asks. “What did they do to you?”

“Chosen bullshit,” they say.

He frowns. “That’s from the expansion,” he says. “That came out after the base game of XCOM 2.”

“The Elder’s Chosen,” the Beholden says, as if they are repeating something they’ve heard. “They... they’re psionic. They can do brain stuff. To your brain. Oh my god I want to sleep.”

“Did they do... brain stuff to you?”

They nod.

PC feels his eyes prickling with false tears.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I wasn’t fast enough. I —“

“‘S okay,” the Beholden says. “I don’t think those guys are Chosen. I mean, maybe they’re analogous, but I think they’re just hosting.”

A pause. “You’re hosting too. I’m not really talking to a pillow... I’m talking to an Ethereal instead, right? Right...”

“No,” PC says.

“Hmm,” the Beholden answers. “I’m not used to audibly hearing objects but I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

“We’ve always been like this,” he says. “We just kept it secret.”

“Like Toy Story?

“Exactly.”

The Beholden exhales into the back of his head. “Can I nap on you? You’re comfortable and they’ve keep me awake for a really long time.”

Every part of him wants to say no, wants to make them both get up and start walking around and trying to figure out if this is even reality but...

“Sure, Beholden,” he says, and feels a thrill as they work an arm around him for added comfort. “We can sit here and rest for a while.”

#buddy posts #asks #writing tag

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bailsmo · 3 years

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Touhou Perfect Cherry Blossom (TH7)

Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom. is a vertical-scrolling bullet hell and the seventh official game of the Touhou Project series by Team Shanghai Alice. The full game was first released on August 17, 2003, at Comiket 64.

Initial release date: 17 August 2003

Series: Touhou Project

Designer: ZUN

Developer: Team Shanghai Alice

Publisher: Team Shanghai Alice

Mode: Single-player video game

There are playable characters such as Reimu and Marisa but they also added Sakuya Izayoi from Touhou 6 The Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil as a playable character, also known as the stage 5 boss or second to the last boss of Touhou 6.

Plot:

The heroine follows the trail of cherry blossoms high above Gensokyo, breaking through the greetings of Lily White, eventually reaching a great magical boundary and the poltergeist musicians Prismriver Sisters. ... The heroine defeats Youmu and hurries to Hakugyokurou to get Gensokyo's spring back.

Touhou Bosses:

Letty Whiterock (レティ・ホワイトロック Reti Howaitorokku) is a seasonal youkai who's only seen during winter. She seems fittingly cold towards most of the humans she meets, and is feared by humans as she is known to freeze them. Letty first appeared as the Stage 1 boss in Perfect Cherry Blossom, later she made a brief cameo in Hopeless Masquerade as a background character.

In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, it was written that she was a type of yuki-onna. According to ZUN, if she was to show her full power compared to her strength shown in Perfect Cherry Blossom, it would cause an incident.

Ability

Manipulation of chill

She possesses an ability to manipulate chill. It's not an ability to create blizzards or make snow fall, but rather an ability to strengthen the "winter" that exists in the natural world. According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, since this is equivalent to an ability that manipulates the winter within nature, she possesses tremendous power according to the environment, but she is pretty much powerless outside of winter. In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Letty herself said that outside of winter, she hides away in a place where not a ray of sunlight can reach. In Forbidden Scrollery, she is shown spreading snow over Gensokyo.

Chen (橙) is Ran Yakumo's shikigami, who was guarding the village of Mayohiga during the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom. Unfortunately, she could put up little resistance due to being far away from her master.

Chen first appeared as the second stage midboss and boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom, along with being the extra stage midboss and Ran Yakumo's familiar in one of her spell cards. She was also Yukari Yakumo's familiar in Immaterial and Missing Power, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, and Antinomy of Common Flowers, and was a target on Stage 6 of Shoot the Bullet. Additionally, she made a background appearance in Hopeless Masquerade.

She is a bakeneko youkai that Ran Yakumo uses as shikigami, but since Ran herself is Yukari's shikigami, she is a "shikigami of a shikigami". When possessed as a shikigami, Chen aquires the fearsome power of a kishin, but since her master is also a shikigami, her ability is fairly low. The possession is removed when she is soaked in water, and since she also hates water as a cat, she is in any case weak to water. Her height is "low" and is capable of human speech. She can use impressive black arts, but only possesses the intellect of a human child. Whether she is possessed or not, her personality and appearance don't change.

She ordinarily lives on Youkai Mountain. In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, she made the village of cats and tried to stand as the leader, but the progress has been unfavorable.

Ability

The way her abilities show up in the game itself is that she runs around the screen so freely in a way that is not expected of a boss of a shooting game, which is characteristic of her (as one would expect of a cat). This could be considered cute if she were an ordinary cat, but it also makes her slightly more tricky to deal with due to her speed and deceptive movement, which can confuse her opponent. Another characteristic of her is how she spins around and around while attacking, somewhat like her master.

Alice Margatroid (アリス・マーガトロイド Arisu Māgatoroido) is a doll-controlling magician who lives in her home in the Forest of Magic near the home of Marisa Kirisame. According to ZUN's comments in the Music Room of Perfect Cherry Blossom, Alice is kind of a special character in the Touhou Project.

Alice made her first ever appearance of the fifth PC-98 Touhou Project game Mystic Square as the third stage boss and the Extra stage boss. Afterwards, with her canon completely remodelled, she appeared again as the third stage boss and midboss in the seventh work Perfect Cherry Blossom and as a playable character in Imperishable Night, along with being a playable partner in Subterranean Animism. She was a playable character in Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and was the Final boss of Cirno's scenario in Touhou Hisoutensoku. Additionally, she was a target on Stage 3 of Shoot the Bullet and has made a background appearance in Hopeless Masquerade.

She is a pure all-purpose-type magician youkai who lives in a western-style house in the Forest of Magic without strengths and weaknesses in attributes, but she fundamentally fights in style of manipulating her self-made dolls. With a personality that is indifferent to other people, she is attached to magic, and is usually confident but is also timid in one aspect.

In the games on the PC-98, she lived in Makai calling herself "The Magician of Makai" and had a black book that's called the "Grimoire of Alice". Makai was created by Shinki, along with its residents. She was also a magician that can control dolls. She also created her own "Wonderland" in Makai. In the games on Windows, Alice's book in her character portrait in Imperishable Night reveals that the writing possibly spells out "Grimoire". This is some evidence that the book is possibly the same Grimoire which Alice used in the Extra Stage. In Perfect Cherry Blossom, she said, "at last, former friend, we meet again. Have you only brought me your life as a gift?" which can be considered to be something carried over from the PC-98 games, and ZUN himself said that it was the third time that they have fought.

Lily White (リリーホワイト Rirī Howaito) is a fairy who heralds the coming of spring. She first appeared as the 4th stage midboss of Perfect Cherry Blossom, then as a special generic enemy in Phantasmagoria of Flower View and a common midboss in Fairy Wars, each time announcing spring has arrived. She returned as the stage 3 midboss of Hidden Star in Four Seasons.

Ability

Announcing that spring has come

Lily is able to announce that spring has come. Although it's unclear what this ability entails concretely, Gensokyo's residents are made to feel the actual feeling of spring's arrival which makes her very popular with florists. It seems like she is able to provide impetus for flowers and other plants to bloom. In chapter 8 of Strange and Bright Nature Deity, there was a depiction of the place she passed by instantly becoming spring.

She can still attack with said ability, but it's mostly due to excitement about the spring as she's not very aggressive. While it's advised not to stay around when she attacks, she has a good relation with humans. She doesn't seem willing to attack even if they catch her. Likewise, humans don't see her as a threat, but rather as a symbol of good luck.

The Prismriver Sisters (プリズムリバー三姉妹 Purizumuribaa San-shimai) are three characters named Lunasa Prismriver, Merlin Prismriver and Lyrica Prismriver, together appearing as the stage 4 boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom. Lunasa, Merlin, and Lyrica are collectively called the "Prismriver Ensemble" and perform at parties and festivals. At first sight, their instruments (Lunasa with the violin, Merlin with the trumpet, and Lyrica with the keyboard) may seem scattered and disconnected, but they still perform magnificent music. There is also a fourth Prismriver sister, named Layla Prismriver.

These three sisters are poltergeists, made by Layla Prismriver to have the appearances and personalities of her three older sisters from whom she had been separated. Thus, they are technically all the same age since they were presumably created at the same time. They only act out the roles of oldest, middle, and youngest sister based on whichever one they were made to resemble.

It is known, based on their official profiles and from comments by Eiki, that none of the original four sisters are still alive today. However, it's unknown how long ago the events that spawned these three poltergeists occurred.

Ability

Performing on musical instruments without hands or feet

In Perfect Cherry Blossom, this is the main ability that all three sisters have been specified to have. This probably derives from the ability poltergeists have, put to specific use in performing with musical instruments. By manipulating the spirits of instruments, they're able to manipulate the spirits of notes to create sounds. Since they needn't have direct contact with the instruments, they're able to play music impossible to play by hand.

Since the three sisters' musical performance is something that they have learned themselves after Layla's death, their previous abilities were probably along the lines of "moving things without hands or feet" or "making sounds without hands or feet". The former is because poltergeists in general can move things and make them float. The latter is because in the general phenomena of poltergeists, they can be heard from anywhere (a rapping noise, for example).

Youmu Konpaku (魂魄　妖夢 Konpaku Youmu) is a half-human half-phantom who lives at Hakugyokurou in the Netherworld as a gardener and swordplay instructor, who also serves for Yuyuko Saigyouji. She first appeared as the Stage 5 boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom, the seventh installment of the Touhou Project, and has since become a recurring playable character.

In Perfect Cherry Blossom, she gathered all of Gensokyo's spring at Yuyuko's instruction, which was the reason Gensokyo's winter did not end. In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red and Chapter 13 of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, she took on the responsibility for collecting and returning the phantoms that wandered around Gensokyo as a result of the boundary of the Netherworld being thinned.

She belongs to the subspecies of phantoms called the "half-human half-phantoms" (半人半霊 "hannin hanrei" or "hanjin hanrei"). Half-human half-phantoms are the mixed-race of phantoms and humans (幽霊と人間のハーフ), which have a largish phantom accompanying them and a relativity long life span compared to humans. The phantom that always follows them is called the "half-phantom" (半霊[1]、半幽霊[2] hanrei, hanyuurei), and they are the other half of their body.[3] In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, it was supposed that Youmu's human half manipulates the phantom half consciously. Youmu's human half has a lower body temperature compared to normal humans, and her phantom half's body temperature is not so cold compared to normal phantoms. In the Imperishable Night manual, it was written, "she has two kinds of body: human and phantom," showing Youmu to be "human" and the phantom to be "phantom."

Half-human half-phantoms are long-lived, but in Seasonal Dream Vision, since it has still not been 60 years since the time she was born, in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, she was not very knowledgeable about the "flower incident that occurs once every 60 years."

Personality

As she has a straightforward diligent personality, she is often manipulated by those around her (especially Yuyuko).[2][7] For this reason, she often fails at her task, but that does not mean that she has no real power, and she particularly excels at instantaneous force and concentration power.[8] In Immaterial and Missing Power, as literally stated by the shishou, "truth-slashing is something which you know", so she often performs tsujigiri-like moves, but Suika Ibuki pointed out that she does not think that Youmu understood her shishou's teachings.

She has strong sensitivity, and in the good ending of Imperishable Night, her human half was unable to resist the insanity-inducing effects of the true Moon, causing her to become "half-insane". Ironically enough, considering her species, she is afraid of ghost stories, dares, and darkness, but she is calm around phantoms since she is half phantom herself. In Imperishable Night's Extra. After defeating Fujiwara no Mokou, Yuyuko pretends there is a ghost under a tree, earning a terrified shriek from Youmu. Much further on in Ten Desires, as a result of being mistaken as a hermit, she temporarily mistook herself as being a hermit. Due to artworks and her sprite in the fighting spin-offs, Youmu may be ambidextrous.

Yuyuko Saigyouji (西行寺　幽々子 Saigyouji Yuyuko) is the main antagonist of Perfect Cherry Blossom. She's the ghost "princess" head of Hakugyokurou in the Netherworld.

She first appeared as the Final Boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom, later becoming a playable character along with Youmu Konpaku (as a duo) in Imperishable Night and showing up as an expansion character in Immaterial and Missing Power, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, and Touhou Hisoutensoku. She would eventually also appear as the Stage 1 boss in Ten Desires, and as a Day 4 boss in Impossible Spell Card.

Unlike many departed spirits, Yuyuko resembles a living human; a humanoid. She is very cheerful and friendly: Her playful, good-humored personality, otherworldly beauty, and courtesan charm can have a disarming effect. She often makes bizarre and apparently nonsensical remarks and sometimes seems to overlook the obvious, leading to her characterization as an airhead or a ditz. As an instance, in Touhou Bougetsushou, she toyed with Youmu Konpaku as a daily occurrence even with Ran Yakumo present.

However, at other times she will reveal an extremely cunning and perceptive side and will also sometimes display an extraordinary level of knowledge. For instance, in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she was the quickest character to identify the culprit as Tenshi Hinanawi when the incident was in the omen stage (Yukari Yakumo spoke of the dwindling of phantoms as Komachi Onozuka's negligence, but Yuyuko guessed correctly). Additionally, in Ten Desires, she obliquely informed the playable character about the location of the incident regarding the divine spirits. She is also known for her incredible appetite.

Ability

Manipulating death

This is the ability to, without exception and without permitting any resistance, end the life of any living being, whether it be human or youkai. The only kind of creatures immune from this are Hourai Immortals. Clearly and simply, it is an unusually and dreadfully powerful ability. Although this ability is what drove her to commit suicide and become a ghost, it seems that she hasn't forgotten this ability since then, and it seems that she can use this ability in a carefree manner (though she doesn't act carelessly in the usage of this ability). However, whether she's able to end life only to the extent of fainting, or if she invites one to death gently, is unclear. During her lifetime, the latter was true. Her Last Word "Saigyouji Parinirvana" is said to be the very incarnation of this ability.

Manipulating departed souls

This is the ability that enables her to manipulate ghosts and spirits, an ability she possessed even while she was alive. Although it's unclear what one is exactly able to accomplish with this ability, it seems to place Yuyuko on the role of the manager of the ghosts who stay for a while in the Netherworld. Because of this ability, she is able to let those from Hell stay eternally in the Netherworld.

Secret Bosses:

I can't post anymore images lmao so just search them up

Ran Yakumo (八雲　藍 Yakumo Ran) is the kitsune shikigami of Yukari Yakumo and is in turn the master of the bakeneko shikigami Chen.

Ran first appeared as the extra stage boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom, where she also appeared as the Phantasm stage midboss of that game, so she has the strong image of being a midboss, but even as an extra boss, she also had abilities not to be ashamed of, as she is also a long difficult battle.

She frequently appears as an attack option in the fighting games for Yukari Yakumo and has appeared in Imperishable Night as Yukari's attack.

Ran is described as being a gentle youkai, who won't start a fight unless provoked. Although Ran is a shikigami, she sometimes "forget" her position as a servant and acts of her own volition, like deciding to attack the heroine in Perfect Cherry Blossom to avenge Chen. Because of this, Yukari punishes her to remind her who the master is.

(still can't post another image)

Yukari Yakumo (八雲　紫 Yakumo Yukari) is a legendary youkai who is able to manipulate boundaries. She is the master of Ran Yakumo. She is called the "gap youkai" (すきま妖怪 sukima youkai), although "gap youkai" is not the name of a species, as she is more of a one-of-a-kind type of youkai. Regardless of her power, Yukari appears to be the most well-informed being in Gensokyo of any kind and usually achieves her goals through manipulating events rather than direct combat.

Yukari first appeared as the phantasm stage boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom with Ran Yakumo serving her as shikigami. Despite being a high-class boss compared to other Extra and Final stage bosses, she's made occasional appearances in later games. She was a playable character in Imperishable Night, partnered with Reimu Hakurei (and supported her in Subterranean Animism), and was playable in the fighting games, but was only a cameo in the background of Hopeless Masquerade. Also, she was also an Extra stage target in Shoot the Bullet and appeared on the Final Day of Impossible Spell Card.

She is one of the oldest youkai in Gensokyo, one of the strongest of youkai, and is praised as one of the wisest of youkai.[3][4]. She was one who proposed the Great Hakurei Barrier, which covers Gensokyo, and is therefore tied to Gensokyo's creation. She is the only known youkai who is able to pass this barrier in order to access the Outside World, although there are a few instances like Mamizou Futatsuiwa who's passed it. She also performs surveillance and safety administration (mainly for Ran Yakumo). She is simply one of the most mysterious youkai living in Gensokyo.

Personality[edit]

Yukari is known for being a very youkai-like youkai who sleeps all day and lives for the enjoyment of life. Though she rarely leaves her house, she's well-connected and is acquainted with most of the most powerful youkai as well as anyone having anything to do with the Great Hakurei Barrier or the outside world, although she rarely attacks humans.[3] She has a tendency to toy with her opponents rather than use her full power from the start. If anyone is suited for the role of "mastermind", it's Yukari. She excels at mathematics and is experienced due to her long life.

She possesses superhuman intellect and especially surpasses in dealing with numbers. In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, as Ran Yakumo said, this intellect is something that even Ran is not able to understand, to the extent that for example that she is able to determine the depths of the darkness of Avici or determine in an instant how long it would take for Ursa Major to devour the North Star, as it seems. Concretely to what extent this amazing intellect goes is hard to know, but it would be no mistake to think that this intellect far surpasses that of humans.

She often has a great deal of insight and understanding about whatever happens in Gensokyo, and possesses considerable intellectual prowess, as well. Though she seems flaky and unreliable most of the time, when the safety or security of Gensokyo is at stake, she won't hesitate to get involved, even if it means using others to do the work for her. For example, in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she treats Tenshi Hinanawi with much hostility after finding out the plot of the Heavens. She could easily be either a villain or a heroine, depending on her whims.

Yukari deals with problems by manipulating others to act to resolve things for her. She seems to rarely act directly except in particularly egregious situations. In all cases, she rarely lets anyone know what her true aims or goals are and sometimes these goals are extremely abstract. Yukari has a well-deserved reputation of being fickle, whimsical and lying often and thus many characters in Gensokyo dislike her. For whatever reason, Yukari takes it all in stride and does not seriously deny any of those comments. She seems to actively try to keep her more obviously-altruistic actions a secret, such as her donations to the Hakurei Shrine in Strange and Bright Nature Deity. She possibly cultivates this image to ensure that people continue to fear her as a youkai, as this is what her true goal for a particularly complex gambit is revealed to be at the end of Cage in Lunatic Runagate.

Abilities and strength[edit]

Yukari is with no doubt one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. She has been described as an extremely powerful being more than once,[5][6], with easily enough power to destroy all of Gensokyo if it's needed.[7]. In Silent Sinner in Blue, Yukari claimed Watatsuki no Toyohime was stronger than her and avoided a direct confrontation with her, although at the time she was purposedly letting herself being captured.

Her physical strength is what you'd expect from a youkai. While the extent of an average youkai's strength is never really specified, their bodily ability is typically very high, so her strength is still far from that of a human. There are some examples and statements which show Yukari's physical prowess:

In Curiosities of Lotus Asia Chapter 12, Yukari's hand is able to effortlessly block and brush aside a mallet swung by Rinnosuke Morichika with all his might, leaving him shocked that a small slender feminine hand was able to pull off such a feat. Rinnosuke said that it feels like he hit a pillow.

Hong Meiling, in one of her Touhou Hisoutensoku win quotes, notes that she felt a odd resistance from Yukari's body (presumably after punching and kicking her a lot), to the point where she wondered if Yukari was wearing something else under that presumably delicate dress of hers.

Yukari states in her own win quotes in Immaterial and Missing Power that she has no weaknesses, and even shooting, cutting, stabbing, hitting, or killing her is useless.[8]

By mostly moving around in gaps, one would usually not see her as doing much physical labor at all, and according to Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, since she ends up in blurting out herself such sayings like "to do mountain climbing at such an age", there is the image that she is like an indoors-type youkai, but in the end, she is still a youkai.

Manipulation of boundaries

Yukari's "Danmaku Barrier", as illustrated in The Grimoire of Marisa.

Yukari using a border for transportation in Silent Sinner in Blue.

Yukari's main ability is manipulating any kind of boundaries.[9] This ability has been described as logically being able to affect essentially anything.[10] In her monologue during A Beautiful Flower Blooming Violet Every Sixty Years, she explains that this power allows her to control or remove the boundaries between any and all things, like Gensokyo and the Outside World, the worlds of the living and the dead, humans and youkai and even the day and the night. [11]

The most common and visible application of Yukari's boundary manipulation abilities is opening "gaps" (すきま sukima) which act as portals between two places, where she's able to hold, sit on or emerge from such gaps. By manipulating borders in space and creating a chasm, she is able to link together separate places. Because of this, she's able to show up at any place and can freely travel to places like the Outside World. Within these gaps one can see a lot of eyes, which according to the description of Yukari's Magic Eye "Laplace's Demon" spell card she can also use to see. Although Yukari's gaps can ultimately connect any kind of place, in Silent Sinner in Blue she could create a gap to the "fantastic" version of the Moon only during the full moon, which is the only period of time during which the passage is open. For some unknown reason she is unable to use her powers to bring a living being on the far side of the Moon, which is where the Lunar Capital is located. She is, however, capable of freely travelling between Gensokyo and the Outside World. Yukari can create gaps through which only she can pass, or which anything can pass through.[12] Moreover, while the main use of gaps is travelling to different plances, Yukari also uses them in battle either by virtue of being able to use almost any object (such as tombstones, road signs, and even running trains) as a weapon,[13] by retreating inside them to avoid being hit or land unexpected attacks,[14] sucking in an opponent's attacks to throw them back.[15], or merging different gaps to create harmful spatial distorsions.[16]

In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, manipulating boundaries is described as a terrifying god-like ability with no weak points which there is no defense or countermeasure against, capable of fundamentally undermining reality itself and as one of the most dangerous abilities that youkai are known to possess, while Yukari's manual profile in Imperishable Night says that "the danger and potency of her ability is beyond imagination".[17]

Ultimately, everything is built upon the existence of boundaries; if there were no boundaries everything would effectively exist as a single enormous object. Because of this, the ability to manipulate boundaries is logically an ability of both creation and destruction: by making a new boundary is to create a new existence, and to destroy a boundary is to negate an existence. For example, as said in Perfect Memento, if there was no water surface there could be no lake, if there was no sky line neither mountain nor sky could exist and were it not for the Great Barrier even Gensokyo itself wouldn't exist. Furthermore, it seems that not only are physical boundaries, but also the general idea of boundaries can be manipulated and it seems like she would be able to manipulate the boundary between dreams and reality, which could very well be how she was able to drag the real Sumireko Usami out of the Dream World in Antinomy of Common Flowers. Yukari is also capable of seeing (and seeing through) boundaries that are normally invisible; when the Human Village was displaced from history by Keine Kamishirasawa, Yukari was completely unfazed and still able to see it.[18][19] She also tells Marisa that it would easy for her to manipulate the boundary between Winter and Spring.[20]

It's shown that Yukari can control the boundaries and bend them to her will as seen in Immaterial and Missing Power when she adjusted the sky by manipulating the border between the daylight and moonlight to unite the day and the night.[21] According to Marisa Kirisame, Yukari can even control the boundary between "a danmaku for play and a danmaku for battle".[22]

Yukari is also capable of sensing and repairing damage to the Great Hakurei Barrier, and although in Perfect Cherry Blossom Yuyuko Saigyouji doubts Yukari could make such a strong barrier,[23] she has been refered to as its creator in various occasions.[24][25] To add to all this, Hieda no Akyuu writes that "manipulation of boundaries" is theoretically a godlike power which would allow Yukari to create or destroy anything, but that all the stories about it are impossible to confirm.[3]

Examples of the usage of this ability:

Neutralized Suika Ibuki's ability by forcing the oni, which was spread as mist over the entirety of Gensokyo, into her normal form so that she could be seen and interacted with by others.[26]

Adjusted the sky by manipulating the border between the daylight and moonlight, to unite the day and the night. Possibly, this also allowed Yukari to stop the night in Imperishable Night.

Manipulation of the boundary between the true and illusionary moon, which allowed her to open a gap, that lead from Gensokyo to the Moon, on the lake surface. (Lunar War, Silent Sinner in Blue)

By creating the Boundary of Fantasy and Reality, she estabilished the Outside World as the real world, and Gensokyo as an illusionary one, allowing youkai to disappear from the former and thrive in the latter. (Youkai Expansion Project, over 500 years ago)

She is widely acknowledged as the creator of the Great Hakurei Barrier, which isolates Gensokyo from the Outside World. (The Great Barrier Disturbance)

Upon Yuyuko's request, weakening the Border of Life and Death between the world of the living and the Netherworld, making it possible for denizens of both world to easily cross it. (Perfect Cherry Blossom)

When the Great Hakurei Barrier has loosened, she returned Rinnosuke Morichika to Gensokyo who has been ejected into the outside world (Curiosities of Lotus Asia)

Dragged the real Sumireko Usami out of the Dream World (Antinomy of Common Flowers)

By manipulating the border of master and slave during the Perfect Possession incident, she thwarted Joon and Shion Yorigami's scheme that allowed Joon to win any battle by forcing Shion as the enemy's slave (Antinomy of Common Flowers)

Many of her Spell Cards and attacks allude to various circumstances involving boundary manipulation or creation, such as: Barrier "Balance of Motion and Stillness", Barrier "Mesh of Light and Darkness", "Boundary of Humans and Youkai", Barrier "Charming Quadruple Barrier", between many others. The description of Yukari's "Boundary of Intellect and Feet" states that she would be able to cut anything by using boundaries, a motif also used in her Splitter "Thing That Splits All Into Two" Spell Card.

According to herself, when humans have noctambulism it's because she manipulates the boundary between sleeping and being awake.

Yes this was all mostly from the Touhou Wiki because I can't explain this any better

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