OK GET MYSELF TOGETHER im posting so scarcely again these days—i used to do callout posts like this at myself more in the past, it’s ridiculous but i get shy abt posting... my art. on my art blog. which ur following to see my art. hello???xD

2, 5 & 14 drakengard

4, 9 & 16 d/ds

6, 7 & 12 saints row

Feel free to skip some if you don't feel like answering all of them!

WE ANSWER THEM ALL! Sorry it took so long for me to reply!

Thank you so much for the ask! I'm going to put it under a read more though because since I am answering for three self inserts it's going to be pretty darn long! (post is ok2rb btw if anyone wants too!)

Drakengard Self-Insert

2 - when in canon does your self insert come in? do you have a scene in mind for your entrance?

Kaden isn't introduced until Caim and the party get close to the Forest of the Seal. Kaden was in the midst of actually…getting married to an elven man although Kaden didn't really want to marry them. The elven man didn't want to marry Kaden either but there was a lot of chaos and blood-consuming every aspect of the land and these days happiness was hard to come by. (Self insert did the whole Yuna marry Seymour for a moment of happiness bit) except it didn't get that far. Before Kaden could even get down the aisle they bolted but they strayed too far and the imperials catch them. Safe to say, Kaden would not survive the encounter. Weak and covered in blood they now lock eyes with another man, a man who cannot speak. it was Caim. He tried to assess the wound but they were too dire. Caim's facial features said it all. Kaden was dying. (Caim cannot do anything about it so he basically just leaves them to die in the forest lol. Then of course Calix finds them and the pact is formed.) Kaden doesn't meet Caim again until just after the forest bit and he's shocked to see them, that is until he learns that Calix saved them.

5 - does your self insert have any special powers or abilities?

YES! Thanks to the pact with the Drake Calix Kaden has these special abilities: Nature Manipulation: The ability to control and manipulate elements of nature, such as plants, vines, and possibly even the weather. Enhanced Physical Abilities: Increased strength, agility, and endurance, making Kaden more formidable in physical combat. Communication with Nature: The ability to communicate with and understand animals, plants, and other aspects of the natural world. Regeneration: A heightened ability to heal and recover from injuries faster than a normal human could. Environmental Affinity: The ability to blend into and be protected by natural environments, making it easier to hide or evade enemies. Drake's Breath: The ability to breathe a specific type of energy or substance related to nature, such as a breath of life, poison, or corrosive elements. (Not really literal breathe tho.. hey can make this stuff pour out their hands if they wanted to lol)

14 - what hobbies does your self insert have?

Herbology is a big one. They study all plant life to make potions and remedies!!

Cooking! My self-insert absolutely loves to cook and can pretty much make anything!

Digital Devil Saga Self-Insert

4 - would you be considered a main character, side character, villain, or something else?

Def a side character, I don't ever really like putting my self insert into the shoes of a main character. Kaden is there to support their friends and they are there when needed but most often than not they aren't really a main focus in canon! (Although they are slipping into villain territory if they aren't careful… please see 16 lol)

9 - who are your self insert’s closest friends?

gale gale gale gale gale gale AHEM So anyways, Gale is a good friend! Luna is their bestie (Yes I'm adding you. you can't stop me!) Pretty much everyone they get a long with but they're closest to Gale and Luna as a fren~! :D Also Kaden really loves Cielo vibes and you can see them both goofing off together some times XD

16 - freebie! name a fact about your self insert you want everyone to know.

So they secretly really love "consuming" let's call it that.. lol They don't tell anyone because they can play it off as "having to survive" but they actually have a serious hunger that never really goes away even if they are full. They secretly love the bloodshed it gives me an adrenaline rush like nothing else and eventually someone is going to catch on because it's getting a lot harder for them to control but for now, Kaden is happy to keep it a secret.

Saint Row Self-Insert

6 - does your self insert have any pets?

YES! Kaden has of course the cutest more adorable ball python! His name is Ebenezer Squeezer or Eb for short lmao Kaden also has a doggo named Ghost, she's a German Shepard~

7 - would any other characters (besides your f/o) have a crush on your self insert?

I'm gonna say Josh Birk (and by extension probably Matt) just because in universe Kaden does really enjoy Nyte Blayde they aren't a huge super fan like Matt is but they still like it a little more than the average person. Kaden actually doesn't like Josh or Matt xD maybe as friends but never anything more than that because they think Matt's weird and Josh is too full of himself. lol

12 - how would the fandom view your character?

I like to think they would view Kaden in a positive light. Maybe at the start they aren't very fond of them but over the course of the game fandom warms up to them because they go through a lot of character development. They go from some weak person who cannot fend for themselve to save their life to being able to kick ass and voice whenever things aren't right.

Tagged By:

THE homie @ssoheartbreak :D (I miss you!!! ♡)

Favorite Ship Ever:

It’s been so long since I’ve been in a fandom for a work of fiction that I don’t think I have any ships anymore?? I know I definitely had some, probably a lot, but I can’t really remember most of them? Like I know I used to ship Retsuko and Haida from Aggretsuko, but I haven’t watched it since season 3 in 2020 so I don’t know if I still ship them or not bc I’m missing canon info lmao

Last Song:

Through actually listening on my own: either Work Harder - Widdly 2 Diddly & Marina Hova or Blowout - Noisemaker (both are part of the LISA OST) but the actual most recent song I listened to was a Pepper Steak remix by All Levels At Once on one of Wayne’s streams (originally by Alias Conrad Coldwood if the internet is answering my questions correctly lol also part of the OFF! OST)

Last Movie:

The last movie I *willingly* watched was The Ballad of Buster Scruggs back in early December, although I was forced to watch Christmas movies after that happened so (not counting them though bc I didn’t pay attention to them and don’t remember what they were lol)

Currently Reading:

Do tumblr posts count? Bc that’s about it haha

Currently Watching:

Lots and lots of VODs/YouTube comps of streamers I enjoy! Mostly been watching WayneRadioTV, Socpens, and Jerma985! (Current fave VODs: Wayne’s Pizza Tower stream, ANY of Scorpy’s Sims streams (Sims 2 DS/GBA are v good), and Jerma’s Wobbledogs stream)

Currently Consuming:

At this exact moment I am drinking an Ultra Sunrise Monster Energy, and I’m probably gonna eat a key lime pie flavored Chobani Flip later :) my go-to foods/drinks lately though have been Monster (Ultra Sunrise/Ultra Paradise/Pipeline Punch/Pacific Punch are my faves ^_^), Polar Seltzer (cranberry lime sweep!), Dr. Pepper, and Chex Mix (bold uwu)

Currently Craving:

A top tier nap, absolutely 10/10, fully rested and relaxed, no stiffness, pain, or agitation upon waking up, just completely rejuvenated and recovered ;w;

Tagging:

Literally anybody who sees this and wants to do it, as well as @wavecrester7 lol

(Mutuals I am compelling you to do this >:3€)

VK Science II - Odds & Ends

So I thought about it, but I hope my straightforward answers don’t come across as condescending! Aside from being blunt, I try not to write too much, but I guess it’s not a problem now? ’(^_^) In any case, before I get to the next theory I want to respond to some of your points :)

Your answers didn’t come off as condescending at all, don’t worry! You just seemed like a typical science-oriented person wanting to make sure everything was accurate before proceeding, which I completely respect.  (I have a thick skin anyway, and I’m fairly blunt myself though without as lofty a reason, fufu. ;D) But yes, feel free to write to your heart’s content, as long posts are a speciality of my blog anyway!

Pureblood Pregnancy: The reason why I can’t answer this is because Hino has full creative freedom to create whatever duration of pregnancy she would like for humans birthing Purebloods :/ Would you expect it to be longer? Probably. Honestly, though, I already don’t agree with her concept of Purebloods having a range of duration of pregnancy rather than a set time as most other organisms do (O_o)

Teething: This could be another reason why the Purebloods were scattered as I would think that this process would terrify their parents and even lead some to, sadly, label their children as “monsters,” abandon them, and leave them for death.

Well, of course Hino can do whatever she wants with the narrative elements; she could go off the rails (and has) if she wants and we’d be stuck having to try to pretend it makes sense. I honestly found her making the pregnancies 2-4 years to be just a ridiculous method to excuse Yuuki’s teen pregnancy and allow her to give birth in her twenties. I don’t think when Hino originally came up with VK that she ever intended the pregnancies to last longer than the human terms–it’s just that Hino needed to make the accident pregancy “acceptable” to shoujo audiences. This is just my personal theory, but for the sake of the story I’d say that the reason Pureblood pregnancies last longer is probably due to maladapted hormones of some kind that require the fetus to gestate longer in order to fully develop. Originally, before the Kaname magic pregnancy, Hino made it clear in arc 2 that Purebloods had a difficult time conceiving (hence why Haruka and Juri only had two kids despite living 3K+ years, and why the Pureblood numbers were shrinking despite them being immortal). That’s just my current thought from where we are, fufu. Really, though, I think it was just Hino trying to make Yuuki’s unacceptable teen pregnancy more palatable. =P

The Vmpr gene: In regards to your question… I’m not exactly sure since we’re not shown any examples. Not just that, but I intend to view human-turned-vampires (I always wonder if I word this write .-.) from a disease perspective. Based on my theory… I guess they would always code for humans since it’s a disease acquired later in life. In Zero’s case, I want to say that they would be human since the majority of Zero’s genes code for human and, again, I do not view the Level D’s as carrying the Vmpr gene, but… Well, maybe my next theory will help ’(^_^)

My thought was in line with yours that Zero (and any other Level Ds/Es) would code for human if paired with a human partner. Yuuki’s Pureblood would obviously be dominant, which would probably place Ren as a Level C or perhaps a Noble at best. 

Charisma: OHHH (O_O) Yeah, I just viewed those scenes as “hypnotism” rather than “charisma.” I see people’s willingness to listen to and follow Kaname as a result of charisma rather than Rido manipulating (hypnotizing) Aidou - they’re two completely different cases. As far as Yuuki’s charisma, I saw it as how she was primarily raised human and wasn’t sure how to act as a Pureblood princess (an authoritative position), so she lacked the same noble nature Kaname and even Sara exude that would attract others. In short, I think it comes down to how you define “charisma” in VK XD

Well Hino’s notorious for not directly explaining things and leaving things up for interpretation, but she makes a point of having the nobles fawn over Kaname in the first arc that he doesn’t use his charisma against the other vampires, implying that it’s an actual ability (if I remember right; it’s been a while since I’ve revisited arc 1). This would of course imply that his personal magnetism could be amplified to control his fellows (which he actually does when he murders the council). But this is assuming of course that charisma isn’t a social construct that the nobles have imagined due to their historical worship of the Purebloods. If it’s actually just in the nobles’ heads, then we’re just working with natural charm and Rido’s and Sara’s abilities are separate from the charisma. Either way, you’re spot on about Yuuki I think. Either she’s just deficient in charisma because she was turned back into Pureblood later in life, or because the Nobles saw her as human first, they can’t go into worship mode for her. Same results either way I suppose. XD

Mixed Children: …This is a weird title for this point considering how I am mixed LOL XD Technically, I can’t answer this, which goes back to why I was salty (=__=) In any case, I don’t think they would birth humans because vampirism is dominant. Due to the percentage of vampiric genes a Pureblood would be bringing in, it’s unlikely they would have a human child. The only evidence that kind of supports this is that it is implied (to my knowledge, at least) that the rise of the Aristocrats came from the Progenitors mixing with humans, which would follow the Night class’s explanation of the higher levels of “human blood” aka DNA as you go down the hierarchy…

Sorry, I couldn’t think of a better simple paraphrase to cover all the potential pairings. XD Hope I didn’t offend, lol. But okay, that makes sense that the vampiric gene would be dominant, so you wouldn’t have any human children cropping up unexpectedly (unless I guess there was another environmental shift that reversed things). 

NaCl: (  O_o) Ah… But are there Purebloods that have some human blood? Is that why the Kurans are powerful? …Because they have none? Wait… What? UGH that changes everything! This is why I gave up on figuring out the inheritance of genes! X( And in the first place, WHY would the Kurans be the only ones? Huh? Huh?! Did everyone else just “conveniently” die? And I’m not supposed to side-eye that? Yeah, ok, I see you Hino (  T_T) *diffuses in high concentrations of Na+*

Haha, oh no, I don’t think I meant to imply that Purebloods have any human blood, only to question whether or not it was possible for them to birth a human child if the recessive traits lined up right I think? Obviously they’d have no human blood in them as they’d be the purest expression of the vmpr gene, right? Sorry, I got wound up with speculating what the story would be like if two Purebloods accidentally had a recessive human child or if there was a character who was a more human expressing Pureblood/Noble (such as, say, a Noble who had all the traits except no powers manifest, or a Pureblood who had bloodlust but no fangs, or short lived Purebloods, etc.). That was more speculation about where Hino could have taken the story. ;D (See, and here’s where my narrative theory tangenting comes into play, so just smack me when I go overboard, fufu.) But no, I think your theories are right on and it’s not an inconsistency on Hino’s part; it was just me rambling incoherently. XD No need for you to become a pillar of salt over it, methinks. =P

Zero: I’m getting ready to review my theory before sending it in a little bit. Before that, since you’re curious about Zero and I’m sure a lot of your followers are, could you emphasize some special traits of his that are mentioned in the story, so I don’t miss any? I’m not sure I’ll be able to cover them since his hunter genes will play a factor. If I can, I might make it a separate submission. I want to point out that I know that you’ll probably point out Zero delaying his fall to bloodlust and descent to vampirism, but I intend to cover this for Level D vampires in general.

Oh sure! The big one of course is that he overcame the twin curse in the womb, allowing his twin to be born rather than devoured (as vampiric twins are and as hunter twins are due to the vampiric genes they carry). The second unique one is that he can overcome the Master/Servant bond (where a Master can hijack and control his actions). The third, and this is only sort of implied by Takuma during the last battle with Sara, is that he seems to have a sort of weird “Pureblood charisma” effect–where he’s basically to the Purebloods what they are to the Nobles. For some inexplicable reason, they’re all drawn to him/entranced by him despite him being about as low class a vampire as you can get. It’s implied that this is all due to his ability to overcome the Master/Servant bond, but if that was all there was, only Shizuka should be interested in him because she’s his Master. 

As for Zero delaying his bloodlust and his fall, I never saw that as particularly unique to him as Zero (but of course we never got to see a normal person get turned and fall, so we have no idea how long the process usually takes). But given how chill Kaien was about it, and that both Kaien and Kaname seemed to expect “when” it would happen, the process Zero went through in this just seemed to be normal Level D experience in my estimation. Happy to hear your thoughts on this of course, but I myself never saw this as part of Zero’s special characteristics. 

Hunters: I know I said I wasn’t going to address this point, but I did look up some things regarding the hunters. Since the first hunters drank the Hooded Woman’s blood, they didn’t just consume her red blood cells, which contain no DNA, but her white blood cells, which do… Although, someone can double check me on that since I had to look that up. As for what that would do and how that fits into my theory scientifically, I’m not sure, but we know what happens in VK, so meh; we’re already ignoring blood types, so why not? I still don’t understand the science and how it would genetically alter a whole group of people, so that’s all I got for this point.

I didn’t know white blood cells contained genetic info but red didn’t! That’s a fun fact. XD /random nerd 

Well we can just assume that what happened was the Hooded Woman ordered her genes to meld with the Hunters’ legacies so they can pass them on to their children (we know the Purebloods have control over their blood within other people, so we can easily allow for the Hooded Woman to have given the order here, or perhaps the cells just did what they do and took over). 

Thanks for continuing this discussion with me! I’ll send in my next theory soon! Until then :)

I should be thank you for hanging in there with me while I dropped out to play games! =) Will be looking out for your next theory!

In what was a rather typical week in gaming for some reason journos gave a lot of air time to that rape game, crap opinions about Anthem evolved and game journos all had the same opinion about Nintendo Labo VR Kit. It continues to be disheartening to us that games journalism just isn't very good still. The broader games industry has a wealth of issues from understanding employment law to widespread amoral attitudes foster on the forums and in spite of this rather than because of it, it produces those games we love to lose ourselves in. Having a respected and professional industry of critics around it would also help a little bit to raise the perception and cultural standing of gaming instead, with rare exception, it's a race to the bottom for coverage of the hot topics and well, why read a hungry hack's regurgitated press release when you can watch your favourite streamer play the thing for four days straight instead. Considered critical opinion is very rare and many of those voices leave to the comics or film industries because it carries with it a shred more kudos and only widespread sleeze, sexual abuse, nepotism and financial mismanagement rather than rampant. There's also the annoying trait that modern journalists have of eschewing any kind of connoisseurship by playing armchair CEO and giving one specific kind of financial success much more weight than it should have. Given that accurate data about games sales is still quite patchy and the fact that people who beg for food/rent money on Patreon in between article commissions perhaps don't have an especially useful opinion on business matters you'd think they'd stick to, you know, developing an expert opinion on the games themselves? Don't get us wrong, we're not asking for those ridiculous 'objective reviews' that incels seem to think could ever possibly be a thing but at the same time it's still refreshing to see evidence of at least two brain cells being rubbed together to create what might, from a distance, if you squint, be considered good writing about games. So although this week had a broad choice of hot takes abut trivial things we'll have forgotten about in three days to weigh and measure good old game journalism against it was Nintendo's announcement of a Labo VR Kit that perhaps saw the shlockiest coverage this week. So naturally we'll use that as out completely objective dipstick. What actually happened? Nintendo announced that a 4th Labo Toy-Con kit and several expansion kits would be coming out in April this year and a price point. The Labo kits are pitched as fun and educational craft kits that come with buildable cardboard peripherals that cleverly use the switch console and the joy on controllers in a range of ways to create, for the most part, shallow but novel gaming experiences. This 4th Labo Kit is themed around Virtual Reality and aside from a few press images of children with cardboard on their faces, not much more is known about the games themselves at this point. How was it covered? Well rather than giving this announcement a bit of space until more details were known or you know assessing it for the very different gaming experience that this Labo series is aiming for, we ended up with the recycling of a limited stock of crowd sourced opinions to make cheap (and for the most part shit) copy of this 'story'/press release. The Opinions From The Internet Are As Follows a] The previous Labo kits now gather dust in the corner after one maybe two plays cf. much more expensive VR peripherals, Kinect (remember Kinect?), Xbox 360 etc. etc. b] Lols cardboard b(b)] Lols Virtual Boy c] The specific phrase 'Nintendo is entering the VR market' d] Something about VR pretty much being dead already but without qualification or links to the two years of articles every games news site dedicated to VR being the next best thing since 3D televisions, cloud based gaming etc. etc. e] Isn't all this cardboard expensive for what it is? Penned by the same guy who has written that contrarion piece about how Anthem might be alright actually because it's a £60 product which might function at a basic level properly in two years and we sort of miss that from whatever Destiny we were on. How Did They Do? Wired perhaps had the shortest but most adult take being that that organ is trying to actual do journalism and isn't quite so Uroboros as the gaming specialist rags are espousing this as a cheap VR kit and Labo's target market.  Eurogamer ran with this trash leaving it to a commentor to read the bottom half of the press release with the actual info in it. Venture Beat has already written it off for everyone from the six press images.  Games Industry. Biz sensibly just ran the press release and on the podcast raised concerns about kids eyesight and the lack of a proper headset(?). Kotaku, well when did Kotaku last do journalism? Gamasutra, WOW. Gamasutra still hanging in there. Good for you. Lastly, Polygon accidentally faxed a Jack of Clubs to a Chinese wholesaler bless them. The TGAM Take Every now and then the industry gets a brain worm and everybody stops thinking. Their eyes move around the jaw moves up and down but they go into default mode. Unfortunately, this happened around VR (again) and despite nobody really being that interested, eye watering price points and almost total lack of a killer game or two, the games press and the industry would not fucking shut up about VR. Three years later and we're struggling to pick out more than 2 VR titles we'd recommend. The announcement of this Labo VR Kit, however, must have given energy to the dormant brain worms and got all the journalists jawing on about Nintendo entering the VR market even when they quite clearly aren't. Instead, in our humblest opinion, the Labo series, much like 1-2-Switch, Nintendo Land, Wii Play Motion and Wii Play before that are quality products that act as a tech demo of sorts to show the potential of their hardware and, and we think this is too often overlooked, create formative and memorable experiences for younger or new gamers or gaming families. Unfortunately, perhaps gaming consumers, the wider industry and worst of all games journalists seem fixed in assessing all games against the latest face shooting games and the potential for commercial success. What we find particularly frustrating is that none of the ideas that Nintendo showcases in these titles listed above are ever really picked up and run with and we've seen on all the DS platforms, Wii, Wii U and inevitably it's happening on the Switch that game developers can't gravitate away from a very conservative spectrum of gaming possibilities. We've written about this before. Tanks! from Wii Play was our ironic game of the year for 2006, 2007 and 2008 simultaneously and barely got any column inches. Similarly, we'd have bought a thousand copies of any kind of game like Star Shuttle (our game of the year 2011) but instead the gravity of game development and general lack of creativity and keeps bringing us back to slightly different flavours of men with brown hair shooting other things with brown hair. Interpreting this announcement as a direction change for Nintendo is especially misleading and we'd like to see more coverage along Wired's lines judging it for what it appears to be at the moment. Not every product has to be a fucking industry changer and have we not learned from failed experiments Kinect and VR that actually it might be a positive thing for consumers to be able to have a little play with tech in engaging ways without banking the whole farm on it? There were and are very few critics amongst the critics who don't just gobble up the latest line about the future of gaming entertainment and then act shocked when studios are shuttering because a gamble was taken on the allure of the new. In short, how games journalists and news sites reacted to the Labo VR Kit announcement is just another microcosm of how games journalism is still hitting wide of the mark when it comes to opinions worth clicking on and for the time being continues to be a bit amateur hour. Same time in ten years for a check in?

http://www.thatguys.co.uk/2019/03/judging-journos-nintendo-labo-vr-kit.html