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  Chapter 20: Tomi Kisaragi 1 Music: Bright Days Ahead (Azusa Chiba)       They’ve already got like four at the intersection.    That bus is so… old! What am I even looking at? And all these cars are so… blocky! They look so weird.  I think I’ve seen signs like that before…  This is kinda surreal!   Oh, hey Gouto. You’re looking hale and hearty after getting shot by Megumi. Actually, wait, this is almost certainly before that happened. Oops.  They seriously haven’t invented smartphones yet? Ahaha! This is so crazy! How do they even talk to each other?I’m going to spare you a hackneyed joke about zoomers bein’ on that phone, okay? We good?    I can’t *believe* that hair.   What even is that? A pompadour? The Showa era’s so weird.  Huh!? Your hair, duh. I just said. You tryin’ to start poo poo? *sigh*I’d just like to point out that Nenji Ogata does in fact have the same English voice actor as Josuke Higashikata. Nothing I can say here will be funnier than just acknowledging that.    I’m afraid she’s a little… Well, she has difficulty with social interaction. Hey! Don’t make me sound like some kinda weirdo! Please, carry on. I’ll give her a talking-to once we’re home.   You realize we’re only here with the help of this era’s facilitators. We’re essentially foreign refugees. Don’t forget that. It’s the same school. I expect you’ll adjust quickly. That is *not* my school. Everyone from that class is old enough to be my mom. Don’t act like it’s the same. We left mine back in 2025. Consider 2025 (So in 2025, I would have turned 16 next month. But now… I’m way back in 1985. So, like… How old am I, technically?) I understand your situation. But I need you to cooperate. Use Facilitators on Renya Gouto  You mean Shikishima, the military corporation? You sure we’re not being used? That is not your concern.Consider Shikishima Industries (I remember seeing that company in the news back in 2025. They make everything, from fridges to missiles. They’ve got tons of factories across the world.)Use 2025 on Renya Gouto  I thought I explained this already. The world was destroyed. I’ve still gotta go help my mom and dad. They won’t be there. It’s already too late. I doubt you’d get the clearance to timejump anyway. That another one of their orders? …… I didn’t want to get dragged into this. Am I supposed to just take it? Whatever you say? Precisely. You should count yourself lucky to have escaped with us.Consider Ruined World (I never saw it myself. The world was destroyed, apparently. What do I even say to that? “Yeah, cool, got it”? Still, even if I begged to go check it out… Something tells me they aren’t gonna let me. What I need is a little leverage over them. I gotta make them an offer they can’t refuse…)My choice now is to reference The Godfather, which I haven’t seen, or the classic TNT series Leverage, which I have watched two episodes of and probably would not play as a reference for any of you. Or I could take the third option and make a bad meta-joke about it, as always!  Do not act on your own. Remain inconspicuous. And for now, simply attend school as usual. Am I clear?Music: Halcyon Days (Yoshimi Kudo)  Consider Ruined World (So everything back home’s been destroyed? Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see it. I gotta get leverage and go back to my own time…)Consider Shikishima Industries (Shikishima’s a conglomerate with political ties. They made it big during the Meiji modernization. You always see their branches on “Employer of the Year” lists. Back in the Meiji era, they were shipbuilders… But they expanded into aviation and a bunch of other things. During the war, they did a lot of weapons R&D. And now, they make everything from home appliances to rockets. Shikishima Industries is just one of those branches. Their machinery’s known all over the world.)  Did you check out all those books? What are they? They’re not that interesting. I just want a peek. Business Quarterly? Corporate guides, economic reports…  Are you studying for a career in business? Uh, not really… I was kinda looking for some leverage. You know, dirt on some big shady corporation. So then I could, like, control them a little. Huh? Usami-chan, that’s a little… weirder than I was expecting.  How does one person sleep that much?  Manually searching through books is so inconvenient. Oh, uh, like… This game rules. …Or something.Consider Business Books (I scoured the whole library for reference materials. Wasn’t hard to find things on Shikishima, but… It’s just like… stock market stuff. I should’ve known. Nothing I could use as leverage.)  Shall we go there after school? Sounds good! Those crêpes from yesterday are gonna be hard to beat, though. Back home, they went a little too crazy with the toppings. Sometimes, simple is best. Crêpes would be nice too… Do you think we could get both? …… There’s this company called Shikishima Industries. You know anything about them? Shikishima… They’re the ones who make ships and things, right? Hm… I have this old friend… His father works for them, I think. Seriously? Miwako, can you do me a favor? I want you to introduce me. Sure! (to self) Those big megacorps always have shady stuff hiding in their HQ. One step closer to getting the dirt.Music: Bright Days Ahead (Azusa Chiba)   They’re still not here. Did you get the meeting time wrong? No…  Don’t worry. He’ll be here soon. He’s not the type to break promises.     This is my old friend. Nenji Ogata. You’re kidding.What a farce!  You said some girl was lookin’ to ask me out? Well, um… That would be her. Usami-chan.  Gross.  What does that even mean, Nenji? The heck is that supposed to mean? Way ahead of you, Tomi. I take it you’re not calling me a cute puppy. What did you say to this guy? Just that a girl I knew wanted to tell him something… How dumb *is* he? I’m standin’ right here.  Please, can’t we all calm down…?    Ah!          You weren’t waking up. I thought you might have died… Music: Impending Doom (Mitsuhiro Kaneda) I don’t know… There was some kind of flash, and… Then we were here.  My name…  Get it straight, dogface. Oh, excuse me, Captain Pompadour. I’m Tomi Kisaragi. Don’t give me any stupid nicknames. All right, smartass—   It’s like… We were attacked.   I know the city got leveled. You saw that flash, right? Musta been a nuke.  Isn’t this downtown? Way I figure it…  Okay, never mind. You’re just a moron. Hey! I bet you could survive a nuke, no problem. You got a better idea? What the hell else coulda happened? If we’re here, then… No way…  There’s radiation everywhere! We’re going to die! We have to run, or get cover, or— Deep breaths, Miwako. I’ll try…   Keyaki-cho.   The hell? You know how far that is from school? But nobody else is here. Think they all evacuated? Where’s everyone else? Miwako…  Consider Ruined World (The world got destroyed in my time. According to what Gouto said, anyway. So maybe…) You hear that? A rescue helicopter? No, it’s… Music: The 13th Sense (Rikako Watanabe)    No way. The thing’s huge.  Whatever it was, I got a bad feeling about it. It’s a kaiju… Use 2025 on Nenji Ogata  It’s hard to tell with everything messed up like this, but…   Nenji, don’t make that face. What if it sticks that way? This is my home. Well… *was* my home, I guess. oh god the face got worse somehow      Tomi “Usami” Kisaragi is voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris, who is Sothis in Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fie in Trails of Cold Steel, and of course, Morgana in Persona 5.  This time, we’ve added a new bit to the conspiracy board, cataloging the ongoing mysteries we’ve discovered. Expect this to only get bigger, folks.   Most of these are self-explanatory. “Miyuki Inaba” covers Shu’s Poltergeist phenomenon, “What Are The Dreams” covers the dreams several members of the cast have been having, etc. I’ll just explain the ones that might be confusing.
 I’ll be adding to this liberally, but feel free to throw out any questions I missed and maybe I’ll put them on the board! Anyway, poll time! Our current options for next update are: Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) Ei Sekigahara (Locked behind Natsuno) The poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Nov 21, 2022 |
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Mar 6, 2021 02:03
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Nenji Ogata is a good boy.
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Mar 6, 2021 05:41
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Nenji and Tomi have an impeccable dynamic.
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Mar 6, 2021 06:54
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I haven't listened to it myself, but I'm told Let's Steal a Podcast is a good way to experience Leverage.
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Mar 6, 2021 13:52
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Yeah, the way Nenji and Tomi interact with each other is really great.
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Mar 6, 2021 15:14
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OOrochi posted:Yeah, the way Nenji and Tomi interact with each other is really great. Hands down my favorite character dynamic.
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Mar 11, 2021 08:38
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Low humming noise? Leveled cities? Giant bugs? I see the Reapers have awakened.
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Mar 12, 2021 06:36
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wologar posted:Low humming noise? Leveled cities? Giant bugs? I see the Reapers have awakened. There's a much better game franchise option. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2iao4WSFrQ On sale on Steam today! Best experience in co-op, either splitscreen (on a console at least, not sure if there's PC splitscreen) or online, though it might be tough to get a reasonable online server going since what online players there are are all probably playing with maxed out weapons on the highest difficulty.
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Mar 12, 2021 08:33
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  Chapter 21: Juro Kurabe 3 Music: In The Doldrums (Rikako Watanabe)    Let me guess. Amiguchi-kun’s not there? He’s probably at the cafeteria? Thanks for makin’ my life easier, man. Cool, let’s grab our stuff and head over.  Usami-chan. Let’s check our flowchart again real quick before we do anything. Here, we can see the way to get to this branch is to eavesdrop on Miwako’s conversation like a creep. We won’t always be told how to unlock branches, just for a couple of Juro’s segments because he’s the “tutorial” character I suppose. That said, Juro kind of needs these hints because his are actually somewhat complicated to figure out. With that said, let’s listen in on Miwako and Tomi.  I’d love to, but… I’ve kinda got somewhere to be. Aww… Okay… Consider Issues at Home (Minami-san suddenly showed up at my house… And then brought over Miura-kun out of nowhere. As if I didn’t have enough problems with Yakushiji around. I always dreamed of living on my own… So much for that.) You’ve been acting strange lately. Are you okay? You seem kind of… stressed out. But you’re just fine, right? Hey… I’m worried about you.  Sorry, I have plans… You too…?Poor Miwako.  Sorry, Miwa-chan. It’s okay. I’ll go home by myself. Okay, that’s a little creepy. If you’re looking for him…   Yeah. Crap! I gotta get going. I should head out too. See you, Miwa-chan. Later. Bye! Use Break Area on Kyuta Shiba   Huh? You mean that place with the vending machines? Let’s check it out!  If we’re too slow, we’ll lose him.  Juro! You’ll be home for dinner, right? I’ll cook something for you. And Shiba-kun’s here.  No time for smalltalk, Yakushiji! To the break area!  Music: Ennui Vibes (Yoshimi Kudo)      Hey, Okino!  Bye, Okino!   What’s up? Could we hang out again today? You got it. Let’s see… Why don’t we go to your place this time? Wait, Juro’s place? Nooo! I wanna check it out.Use Issues at Home on Shu Amiguchi You actually can’t progress to the correct branch here without having first gained the “Issues at Home” keyword from the branch at the cafeteria. The branches are a lot more linear than they initially seem.  His TV’s a piece of junk.Shut up, Shiba! Well, right now… I have a guest staying over. Things are a liittle awkward, so… Sorry. It’s just not a good time. Well, all right. Thaaat’s my man! Thanks.    Oh jeez, you guys are standing a little close there. Back off, I’m getting claustrophobic. Music: Some chiptune thing from Shiba’s game     Any game you wanna play, he’s got it. He really is a rich kid, huh? I’m jealous. Heh.   You’ll break my concentration! You cool with soda? Drink Canned Soda  Whew… I need to try that again. If I die this time, I’ll switch with you. We should probably go get dinner soon. You’re coming, right? My treat. You already paid for my ramen last time… I feel kinda bad. Then what, you wanna call it a day? I can still tag along. I’ll just pay for my own food. That means I’ve gotta pay too.Why is Juro friends with this guy?   The TV shelf is full of things too… Looks like LaserDiscs. This is incredible.  Did you watch the video? Did you already finish it? What did you think? Kind of a campy plot. You’ve got this mad scientist who loses his real body… So he builds a new body and sets out, bent on revenge! …It was interesting, but definitely not for casuals. *laughs* For a B-movie, that just proves it’s a masterpiece.   Just learning something about you. I figured you were only really into Western music. Never thought you’d be into the idol scene.  She’s been really getting big lately, hasn’t she?  Did you want to just grab dinner and go home? Actually, um… Do you think I could stay a little longer? I’d really appreciate it. And I’m all by myself here. Stay as long as you want. Thanks. Say, uh… Any specific reason you don’t want to go home? Well, the person I’m living with is— …… (to self) I’m the one with a problem. If I’m around her too long, I might—Oh?    Hold on, I’m almost done! Pick up something new to watch. Oh, speaking of…  Is that the sequel to that sci-fi flick? We can watch it together. I’m… gonna have to pass. Oh? Not in the mood for horror? That’s not it… Sorry. It’s just… I think I’ve been watching too many movies lately. I’m getting kind of scared. Again? Did you have another crazy dream? What happened in it?Use Terrible Dream on Shu Amiguchi  I went insane. I killed everyone around me…  ……Jeez, Juro. You’re such a downer.  So now, I feel anxious whenever she’s around. I’m scared… I might end up actually killing her.Music: Lonely Struggle (Rikako Watanabe)   You killed everyone… How could you do such a thing? You… You came to the future for this?   What? It’s your nanomachines. You all have them. That’s what’s calling the Deimos here. As long as you kids are alive… The hordes will keep on coming until they’ve destroyed all time and space. You’re lying. I’m sorry.    No… No…!    The pain will only last for a moment. It’s too late to back out now. I must kill my doubts… and finish the job. In order to escape from this eternal cage… It must be done. You’re persistent, Ida. Don’t worry… I’ll put you out of your misery. Guh! Oh hey, Morimura has the Magical Gun™!  What have you done, Juro? Where’s the wound? Let me see it.  …was all… for you. Morimura…   Dark! At least now we have the answer to the “Why is Juro being such a dick?” “mystery.” I didn’t put that one on the board for obvious reasons, but it’s still good to have an answer. Our options: Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) Ei Sekigahara (Locked behind Natsuno) The poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Mar 13, 2021 19:48
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I always remember the end to this segment quite clearly as I had just started and had been focusing on Juro's route so this was quite a lot to take in.
Hunt11 fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 23:10
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Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto) Chapter 22: Destruction 2  Well, let’s jump back into the fray.  This is our first encounter with Brain Overload, which as mentioned earlier prevents us from putting afflicted pilots on the attack or defense teams.  For Megumi, we’re going to unlock and equip her Forced Cooling Device and Multi-Lock Missiles. We’re also going to upgrade her Arm-Mounted Pulse Lasers to +1 (Number Fired +1, POW +4) and Multi-Lock Missiles to +2 (Number Fired +0 to +6, POW +2 to +4).  We’ll also be upgrading Hijiyama’s Demolisher Blade (Number of Attacks +2 to +4, POW +3 to +6), Leap Attack (Lock-on Distance +0 to +80, Lock-on Range +0 to +60), and Rush Attack (Number of Attacks +0 to +1, Setup Movement +0 to +50) to +2 each.  Tomi gets her Main Battery Heavy Railgun unlocked and upgraded to +2 (POW +0 to +100, WT 6s to 5.8s). She also upgrades her 6 Multi-Launching Rapid Cannons to +1 (Number Fired +0 to +1, POW +0 to +7).  This is the team we’ll be using for this battle. Ogata, Hijiyama, Ryoko, Kisaragi, Yakushiji, and Amiguchi. I didn’t even notice the bonus objective requires Kisaragi to be on the strike team, that was just a stroke of luck on my part, heh. Anyway, let’s get to it. Video: Destruction Wave 1-3 Music: (VALINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)      It’s basically just a huge crane, though, right?  The plasma cannon’s what you need to watch out for. Sentinel armor doesn’t stand a chance against it. But it’s just a big dumb crane! Why’d they put all the weapons on it? Once they started facing resistance, they updated their designs. Trying to match our own force. Wait, you mean those things only have weapons because the Sentinels showed up? Maybe, but we can still take them down… At least, we probably can… How do you know that, Megumi…? They’re coming. Be careful. We’re toast if we don’t win here, right? So… let’s get out there and fight back.  Quick word of warning: I actually reloaded after my first take of this fight because I got a D rating! Four of my pilots almost died and the terminal defense was below 50%! This is actually the first moderately challenging fight in that you have to think at all about what you’re doing.  Let’s start with the classics, though. Shinonome’s Sentry Guns will be pretty useful.  As you can see in the top-right, this battle is a little unusual in that we start with a pretty massive horde already spawned in addition to more enemy drops.   Those drops largely come in the form of more Hi-Quads outfitted with missiles and plasma cannons to attack anything nearby, so watch out.  Multi-Lock Missiles aren’t great for taking down Hi-Quads. They’re just too weak and barely scratch their armor. However, they’re pretty well-used defensively to shoot down missiles while also attacking anything near the Hi-Quads.   We’re gonna get some use out of Megumi’s Shield Matrix, even if it only lasts for 6 seconds. I’m not actually sure if it’s even possible for enemy attacks to penetrate these shields while they’re active. They’re pretty strong, is what I’m saying.   Hijiyama and Ogata’s main goal at the moment is running around and using Demolisher Blade to break the several active Hi-Quads open and feast on the tasty Meta-Chips inside.  Ogata, unfortunately, is largely stuck using Leap Attack here to move around and sweep up ground enemies because of bad placement on my part.   During all this, Tomi is firing off railguns. They’re not much use against the Hi-Quads, but they can at least get the enemies around them pretty well.   And Hijiyama gets another one.  At some point in the chaos, a horde of Drillflies appears. They’re going to be the primary threat for the rest of the battle, and will take more than a few Multi-Lock Missiles and railguns to eliminate. We fly in Shu and Megumi to take them down, but they’re at risk from the missiles being fired.   Ryoko can at least fire off some Multi Rocket Launchers from a distance to soften them up, though. They’re still firing off their own missiles at the same time, however…   I’m fine…! It’s not as bad as it looks.  Come on… Just don’t be a hero, all right?This is a warning message, which will play whenever a Sentinel’s HP becomes critical. They’re unique to each character, but they’re pretty short and to-the-point.   Anyway, let’s use this Shield Matrix on Shu to keep him from needing to withdraw.  One of our main priorities now is protecting the rest of our pilots from missiles, if only to preserve our S rating by not taking too much Sentinel damage. Railguns, rapid cannons, and Multi-Lock Missiles all serve a purpose there.  Ogata and Hijyama’s job now is just to take down the two remaining Hi-Quads.   Unfortunately, I make a critical error by not paying attention here and accidentally Leap Attack Hijiyama directly into the path of some incoming missiles! Oops! Thankfully, Shu is nearby and can just use Multi-Lock Missiles to get rid of them.   The Drillfly swarm is almost gone at this point.   Hijiyama and Ogata also manage to destroy the last two Hi-Quads in a third of a second. Nice sync, boys!   And no more Drillflies!   We take down the last G-Moler with Ryoko’s Heavy Knuckles to end the fight.     Dammit, the whole city’s on fire…   We have evacuation measures in place, but they’re far from perfect. And the efforts still lack direction. We tried to reach out to governments and financial institutions through Shikishima… for all the good that did. We’ve got kaiju signals popping up nearby another terminal… We got tons of civilians over there, thanks to all the highways being backed up. Come on, Miwako… Please tell me you didn’t take a bus… Hey, maybe we could send a drone out to check on Miwako? On it. Worth a shot, anyway… Hope my mom and dad made it out. I told them exactly what to do…   It’s always a little funny when you see the MVP and it’s a 2nd-gen who did very nearly nothing getting boosted by all the kills their Sentry Guns got.  Oh, Ryoko got a new Pilot Skill.       Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)   We’re going to upgrade Ei’s Demolisher Blade to +2 (Number of Attacks +2 to +4, POW +3 to +6) and his Rush Attack to +2 (Setup Movement +0 to +50).  We’re also going to increase the Meta-System to Level 5 and the Score Multiplier to Level 3.  Finally, Gouto gets Shield Matrix, which exhausts our Meta-Chip supply. Time to go get some more!  This is the skill Ryoko just unlocked, by the way.  And with that, we head once more into the fight. Video: Destruction Wave 1-4 Music: (VALINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)     What, these wheely guys? Are they really that bad?   Its entire body is filled with RDX. Once a target’s within blast range, the whole kaiju detonates.  A single Drum Mine self-destructing could cause incredible damage to our Sentinels.  True. If we knock them away just before detonation, that could wipe out a whole swarm of kaiju at once. We use their own weapons against them…! But is it really going to be that easy? Now you’re talkin’. We’ll give ‘em a taste of their own drat medicine.   These are Drum Mines. They’re not actually mines because they’re not loving stationary, they just explode like mines. By the way, you know that devious strategy the team devised a second ago? Yeah, ignore that. We’re just gonna rush these things down as quickly as possible, and if by accident we pull that off once or twice, so be it. Drum Mines do appear to have a pesky quirk, visible in the fight video, of occasionally catapulting themselves over to the nearest Sentinel, but they don’t have enough HP to make this a credible threat. The one time I noticed this happen in the video was one rushing over to Juro at about 1:51 remaining on the fight timer, but it got instantly deleted by two Sentry Guns firing at the same time.      We start with some Sentry Gun placement, natch.  And some Flare Torpedoes, why not?  One mistake I make in this fight is moving Iori around too much because I forgot what her skill does and misremember it as having something to do with being near Ei.   Whatever, she takes down the last enemy herself. Wait… the last enemy? Already? Geez. That fight was dirt simple.      Dammit… Hope everyone got out okay… It’s never easy to see your own home up in flames… I know this must be hard. We’re fighting to defend our homeland… We knew going in we wouldn’t come out unscathed. Even if we win this fight, how many people are we gonna lose? Goddammit, is any of this city even gonna be left!? Get ahold of yourself, Ogata! If we lose here, nobody makes it out alive. Even if it ends up tearing this city apart… What else can we do but fight back? One cute thing about these scenes: pilots who have Brain Overload aren’t in their Sentinels.   Wait, Miura is the MVP? Huh. A bit surprising, but if you review the footage it makes sense. Despite the message about knocking them back, long-range Sentinels are pretty well-equipped to take down Drum Mines quickly and efficiently. That plus the Sentry Guns meant our 1st-gen pilots might at well have not shown up, because they couldn’t even make it to the Drum Mines to kill them.    Three new skills. We’ll check those out when we get back.          And those are the skills we unlocked. Well, that wraps up this edition of Destruction! What next? Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) Ei Sekigahara (Locked behind Natsuno) The poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Mar 24, 2021 16:34
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For what it's worth, the drum mines trigger their self-detonation after they jump on you, so if you knock them back with a melee attack after that they will no longer move towards you and explode in a few seconds. It's not, like, the best thing ever but it's a simple enough way to kill them if you have melee characters in their range.
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Mar 26, 2021 03:59
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Another tie this time. I actually found a coin and flipped it to resolve this one! It landed on heads, and so next we’ll be continuing the story of…  Chapter 23: Natsuno Minami 3 Music: Good Times (Azusa Chiba)     Someone’s trashed our room again. Also… Watch this. Shh. Stand over here, quietly. Watch the laundry basket.   You know what I think this is? …… It’s a spy camera, from a peeping tom. *exhale* It’s the same creep that trashed this room. He must have set this up.Well, that’s a relief. Glad the track captain’s only slightly less of a moron than Natsuno! Consider Yuki Takamiya (I can’t believe my one and only Yuki-chan… She’s working with the men in black. That means she can’t know… She can’t know about BJ.)I must protect the BJ secret.   Yours? Yeah, it’s a… It’s an alarm clock. A clock?I cannot believe she is even entertaining this nonsense.    This is confidential information, after all. Use P.E. Bag on BJ  Yeah, well, the thing is, I… Isn’t it kinda… big?How is this working!?    Uh… Yeah, I’m just in a hurry, so…   Well, let’s head out. Music: Bad Omen (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)    We can’t go out there while the MIB is waiting by the entrance. So…   …just wait until he gets bored and wanders over to a different spot! Bing bang boom!      Music: The Tower of Knowledge (Hitoshi Sakimoto)   Where should we look this time? How about Sector 1? Sector 1 has been searched. No Sentinel found. I see. Bummer…  What about Sector 2? 2065. We have been there. That’s where we saw the Tripods… It’s too dangerous. What’s that one at the bottom? Sector 5… 1945. Whoa, so we can travel to the past too? Hey, that’s the year the Pacific War ended. Let’s check it out!      But it smells like fresh wood! They must’ve just built the place. BJ jumps out of Natsuno’s bag.   Check it out, BJ. It’s my school in the past! You really can jump back and forth through time, can’t you? Natsuno. I know, I know. We have to be careful not to change anything in the past. Or else we’ll totally screw up the future! …then Dad’s only 3 years old. He’s probably at Grandma’s house. I’d love to see that… A quick peek wouldn’t hurt, would it? …The Sentinel, Natsuno. Man… okay. I’ve detected a drone signal. An active Sentinel is present.  The sign looks a little different, though. We’ve gotta hide.    Music: Bad Omen (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)      Are these… the same ones I had last month? …Why do you ask? The pills you’ve been giving me… They let me see the future… But these new pills are different. I feel awful when I take them. And they make me forget what I’ve seen in my dreams… You must continue your treatment. They’ll completely eliminate your nightmares. …Nightmares? These don’t feel like— Trust me. They’ll help you revert to your original state. We’re putting an end to this operation.   It’s our only hope of survival… …… It’s no use… I can’t remember…    How could he be here… 40 years in the past? Maybe it was his grandpa. Looked just like him…I’m sure it was, Natsuno. A Sentinel at Ayame Pass… Huh? The place that woman mentioned… Oh right, Ayame Pass… Wait, you mean where the park is? There is no park in 1945. Let’s go.Use P.E. Bag on BJ   Music: Between The Lines (Kikuchi Yukinori)     See, the line here as written says, “to not,” but the VA says it “not to.” That’s not important in any way.  What if they find us?  It’s huuuge! How does someone lose something so freakin’ big…? The Sentinels are linked to the shifter. It was shifted here. Crazy… Anyhow, I’m just glad we found it.  Number 19? That’s… the one Miura’s using in Destruction, no? Use Sentinel No. 17 on BJ  You said No. 17. Correct. We’re searching for Sentinel No. 17. I cannot pilot his Sentinel. I have confirmed a cease in his vital functions. Do you mean… he’s… …… Correct. He is dead.Okay, this might seem like a weird time to bring this up but there’s officially something sketchy about this robit. I think it’s evil! Calling that one right now!  A critical change has been detected. …… The Sentinel’s primary system has been altered. Someone bypassed and rebuilt it. I don’t really know what that means. Maybe one of the people here did something to it. That would be impossible with the technology of this era.  Use P.E. Bag on BJ       And I have no problem taking it to the front lines. Even there, I can perform at full power.  I’m starting to sound like Takatoshi-san. Nothing to get riled up over. I’m sure the people in charge have their reasons. And even if it never does… I’ll still be ready.      Oh, hey Okino! What’re you doing here?   Let’s have a look at you… Well… It looks like an alternate route was successfully created. It actually worked. And on my second test subject, no less. Nanomachine reconstruction agitates the brain… but you endured the process without losing your mind. Also on the subject of potentially-evil folks: not so sure about this Okino chap! Just saying, anyone with the explicit goal of doing something called “taking over the Sentinels” is probably not on the up-and-up! …Goodness. I should be on my way.  As promised, I’ll remove the lock on the Sentinel. And there’s one more thing I’d like to do. Just for good measure. …There we go. As long as they come into contact with Miura-kun… the data should spread to the others.   You want to know that, I want to know why neither of those dudes could stop talking to themselves.  Let’s hurry. Yeah, you’re right…     Music: Sneaking Suspicions (Kikuchi Yukinori)      I suppose negotiating with the professor was the right choice. …The settings have been tampered with. *looks around* Was someone just here? I’ll set it back to its original key. I’d best take my leave.    …Is he an alien, too? He changed the key. I can no longer shift. Seriously…? We can’t go home? I can’t stay here that long! Can’t we find another way back to the future? The gate and the Sentinel are the only safe methods of shifting. The Sentinel…Cool, let’s go steal it! BRB BJ, got a massive robot to jack.   Use P.E. Bag on BJ      Maybe I saw a visiting god? …Not likely. It’s already night. Chihiro’s probably worried about me… Shhh.  I know you’re there.   And the rest of this encounter we’ve already seen play itself out in Miura’s prologue. But we still don’t know how Natsuno gets herself back home! Could this be the disappearance Yuki is looking into?   We can unlock this next plot block for Natsuno at any time if we so choose. But as much as I might enjoy it, you guys probably won’t pick her twice in a row… right? Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) Ei Sekigahara (Locked behind Natsuno) The poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2021 22:56
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420 Natsuno Minami erryday
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Mar 30, 2021 23:58
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Arist posted:
That's somewhat worrying. Whatever Okino's doing worked on his second test subject, so who was the first and what happened to them? quote:
This seems like it's related to the end of the first update: Juro saw Miura's forehead glow and touched it, his hand started glowing as well, and then he somehow summoned a Sentinel. Kyuta even blamed "Okino's drat code" for the event.
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Apr 2, 2021 13:20
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Last saturday I read the first two updates of this LP and immediately bought it. I finished it yesterday.
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Apr 3, 2021 16:58
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   Chapter 24: Natsuno Minami 4 Well, uh… you actually went and did it. You picked Natsuno again. I was just trying to fill space, but I guess you guys were more pliable than I anticipated. I promise to use my godlike control of your puny minds with the utmost care and responsibility. Music: The Chills (Yoshimi Kudo)      Up on top of the Sentinel, BJ emerges.  Ouch, my back… It felt like I was inside a washing machine. That freakin’ inspection hatch… Definitely don’t recommend. I hit my butt so many times…    Oh, right. The thing I used to get up here in the first place. Just the thought of slipping and falling all the way down…    It is 1985.  Alien technology sure doesn’t disappoint.    You mean he’s somewhere out in the city right now? That’s not good. What if those men in black get ahold of him? They probably wanna take him to Area 51… Our situation is more critical than his.   A bunch of police cars are starting to gather down there. I guess we did kinda destroy the building… Oh man, we’re gonna get arrested, aren’t we? Yeah. Okay. Natsuno. Right, first things first. Let’s get you in the bag. Consider Sentinel No. 17 (Sentinel No. 17. Created to fight against the Tripods. It’s also the robot that BJ used to pilot. It’s even capable of time travel!)Only the last sentence there is new. Use P. E. Bag on BJ   Music: Good Times (Azusa Chiba)   BJ’s quite the little mischief-maker. At least he didn’t trash the room this time.  I’m sorry I have to lock you up, BJ. But those men in black are still wandering around.Consider Keitaro Miura (I’ve searched for quite a while. But I couldn’t find Miura-kun anywhere. I bet he got captured by the men in black… And it’s all because of me.) Okay. We need to get out of here before someone sees us.  *looks around* My notebook’s not in here. Consider Research Notebook (My research notebook on aliens. Where did I put it again? I was writing in it during class today… Oh, yeah! I took it to the audio-visual room. Crap, I totally left it there, didn’t I?)Consider Research Notebook (It has all sorts of records on alien BJ too. It’d be a disaster if someone saw it.)  Use P. E. Bag on BJ    Music: Bad Omen (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)     Just like last time, we wait for him to leave, then run past.  It’d be bad if someone saw my notes… I gotta get my notebook back. No matter what.  All right, Minami. Listen up! All top-secret documents need to be kept extra-secure from now on. We can’t afford leaks! Put them somewhere safe and keep a sharp eye on them!  I know, I know. To the gate, right? No.Music: Cognitive Dissonance (Rikako Watanabe)  It’s coming this way. What is it? Unable to identify. Leave this area. Now. D’okay.    I can’t use those stairs. Better take a detour. I can go from the opposite side.  Wait… Oh gently caress, it’s happening, I’m not ready  No… Music: Metal Demon (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)    Natsuno… Run.    What? So she’s an impostor? No. It’s an android created in her likeness. …Oh, I get it. Those evil aliens are after you. So they made a robot to track you down. Where are we now? I ran into the bathroom… This is a dead end. There’s nowhere to run. Not helping… …It’s too late.    What do we do?      Please don’t make me use force. Just do as I say, and come out quietly.   …Someone else is here. What a surprise. …Aiba? No, wait… Tamao!?  …but its signal led me here. …… …I can’t just walk away. Whatever you have planned… I won’t let you go through with it. You know Ida was full of crap, don’t you? And you *still* have something against me? Many people fell victim to you. That much is still true. That’s why I have to destroy you here and now. You’re awfully dramatic for a machine. Music: 466f756e64205521 (Mitsuhiro Kaneda) (Yes, that’s the real name of this track. Converted from hexadecimal to ASCII, it reads: “Found U!” Heh.) …And I’m awfully strong, too. Well… This body really is falling apart. I can barely hold my gun straight.Sounds of violence continue from outside of the stall. Didn’t think I’d ever see you resort to violence. I never would have expected it, knowing who you were. I guess… even your heart… is just a machine now… You’re a monster yourself… No different from me… The sounds grow more and more intense. Natsuno continues to tremble within the stall. (weakly) …Whatever. Makes it all easier…There’s a soft metallic sound, followed by a short, low-pitched whirring, and then finally silence. Ah! …… What the heck just happened? It seems quiet now…    Oh, jesus!   ……     It really is a robot. It looks just like Usami… And… this… Did you do all this? BJ jumps out of the P. E. bag.  Hey, don’t jump out like that.Music: Double Bind (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)  Created in Tamao Kurabe’s image. She’s a robot, too? I’m the one who called her here. However, as of a few moments ago…   ……  I’m sorry, what? I see… You switched bodies.Huh!?      Say something!  Why did you come for him?  Now that we’ve gotten a good look at it… is that the Magical Gun? What…? Those monsters, the ones that destroyed the city… They have a new commander.  So, starting now… I’ll be the one giving you orders.      What the… What am I doing here? And what the heck happened? I’m not sure. That’s right…  And then… I feel like I saw Usami… Uhh… Man, I can’t really remember what happened here. …… Yeah, you’re right. Come on. We can’t let anyone see you.Use P. E. Bag on BJ    My cheek kinda stings…    So… that was a lot. Back to the board!  We’ve actually got the answers to “Two Tomi Kisaragis?”, “How did Miura get to 1985?”, and “Destroyed Bathroom” now, so let’s remove those from the board.   We’re also going to add a few new questions. I’m curious about the “Magical Gun.” Maybe it’s not magical at all! But it’s definitely got some connection to both Fluffy and this 426 character who was inhabiting the Tomi android and is now in the Tamao android. We’ve added “426?” and “Androids?” to the board as well. There’s some new stuff here that I’m not even sure how to frame as a question. What is the connection between BJ and Miura 426 was hinting about? And Natsuno is the commander of the kaiju? What? We've also added "Okino's Code?" because we didn't quite get to the bottom of that one last time.  Finally, we add a “426” character to the main section, because I sense they’ll become very important very quickly.  So, we’re free again. We’ve also unlocked Ei’s next scene now that we’ve seen “Exterminator.” What next? Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Ei Sekigahara Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) The poll is here. Also, if you want to watch a video of that last scene because it was really excellent, here you go. Arist fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Apr 7, 2021 20:28
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I stand by my post in Discord that half of this LP for me is Psyduck_Confused.gif and the other half is Psyduck_Gasp.gif. It's an experience.  I think I'm following so far, but who could really say for sure.
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Apr 8, 2021 08:16
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I just want to note how incredibly well animated and directed Natsuno cowering in the bathroom stall is.
Clarste fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Apr 9, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 08:31
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It is incredibly well done and I’d recommend actually finding a video if, y’know, that wasn’t likely to lead to spoilers.
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Apr 8, 2021 09:35
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Jen X posted:It is incredibly well done and I’d recommend actually finding a video if, y’know, that wasn’t likely to lead to spoilers. If you guys wanna see the bathroom scene in full I could go put up a video of it, it's really no problem. It's a great scene, just let me know.
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Apr 9, 2021 18:30
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Arist posted:If you guys wanna see the bathroom scene in full I could go put up a video of it, it's really no problem. It's a great scene, just let me know. Do it, it's one of the best scenes in the game imo
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Apr 10, 2021 08:09
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Here's the video, I'll add it to the end of the update.
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Apr 10, 2021 18:18
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As someone who doesn't have a PS5 and has been really interested in what I've seen of this game, thank you so much for doing this.
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Apr 10, 2021 23:35
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Another tie, this one three-way. So I decided to roll a die. First choice on 1 and 2, second on 3 and 4, and third on 5 and 6.  And we got 5! That means…    Chapter 25: Ei Sekigahara 3 Music: Forty Winks (Rikako Watanabe)   Positive.  But I haven’t seen them at all this afternoon. Do you think they left? I seriously hope so.Consider Operation Aegis (Chihiro Morimura’s objective. One with great implications. Especially for those from another world, like me. If Operation Aegis succeeds… we’ll never be able to leave this world. That must be it… That must be why I killed her.)Consider Iori Fuyusaka (She seems to have a particular fondness for me. It appears she confessed her feelings to me… and I have yet to give her an answer. What was I going to do…?)  Will that be a problem? Oh… I don’t know. Will it? …… But you shouldn’t worry, especially with that uniform. It may be from the future, but it’s still a Sakura High uniform. So you don’t have to feel like a stranger.  What’s Sakura High like in the future? …In the future? Well… There should be a new building up and running. …*Should* be? Yes, you’ll see it for yourself someday. Aw, no fair…   Well, there’s no teacher there, so it’s closed right now. …… Leave it to me! I’ll figure something out.   What’s up? Hey, Usami-chan! Well… He wanted to check out the school. So I’m just showing him around. …… O-Oh, cool… Yup! Anyway, we better get going. All right, see you later…   Wonder what that was about. Well, let’s just head inside, then.  *turns around* …!  Looks like Ei noticed Yuki.  And we run after her. Guess Ei’s curious about how she knew him, after all.  Unfortunately, we lose her. That had to be her… The girl who delivered the message from myself…    …Nothing. No, I’m fine. Must’ve been my imagination. Let’s head to the nurse’s office for real this time.  (from outside) *unlocks door* The door’s open.    And all I had to do was lie to the teacher. “Please! My classmate skinned her knee!” Hehe…Devious. You’re a regular criminal mastermind, Iori.  What’s wrong? Well, um… I-It’s just the two of us in here together… all alone… …… Ei Sekigahara: Master of tact. Let’s just examine the desk.    Oral NM…    These drawers are locked up tight. What are you looking for? ……   Nothing else really stands out here. *shakes head* …… Are you looking for something, Ei-kun? It must be really important! Let’s see… There has to be a spare key for that desk. And it’s probably somewhere in the teachers’ lounge. Okay, I’ll make up another excuse. Then I might be able to get my hands on it. Consider Oral NM (The label’s a bit different, but it lists the same medication: Oral NM: C0204.” Just like the bottle I picked up before…)   Ryoko Shinonome… Looks like she was given C0204… Use Oral NM on Chihiro Morimura’s Desk  She’s been administering this drug to these students. Ryoko Shinonome… There are more… Shu Amiguchi… and Juro Izumi.   Gah, gently caress. It’s Megumi Wick. What do you want? I got my own problems here, like whether or not that reference actually scanned.  Come back when— Music: Bleak Pressure (Kikuchi Yukinori)  Megumi looks awful shocked to be in a Mexican standoff despite the fact that she drew first. What’s going on here? Those men that are after me… Are you working with them? …What *I* wanted?  Don’t shoot! What are you thinking!?   What in the world just happened with Megumi? Not a thing…  And you’re wandering around by yourself? Where’s Iori? …… What’s your problem? *shocked gasp* I’m going to look for Megumi.  I know I’ve seen her somewhere… But where? drat it… Come on, think. That’s right. She’s…Music: Track Down (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)      Quite a bit of android information here. This all looks like research date… Ah, here we go. Shikishima Tech Lab #6… 6th level underground. So, this is a Shikishima facility. Current year is… 2104?   Is that what this place is being used for? What the hell… I keep getting these terrible headaches.  Music: Metal Demon (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)     Think fast, Ei!  Surely you can do something!  Uhh…  Welp, we’re hosed.        Go up there, and you’ll cough up blood until you’re dead. Well, clearly… I’m just a hopeless busybody. …… I inspected the Sentinel that was transmitted underground. How much do you understand about the current situation? I have no idea what happened. Then allow me to fill you in. I’ll start from the end.  Music: The Chills (Yoshimi Kudo)   Seems like whoever shifted you was in a hurry to do so. Otherwise… There’s no way a Sentinel would end up here.Use DD-426 on Strange Girl  It’s a program that’s been implemented into you. Well, into the nanomachines in your body, to be specific. Its main function is to sever a portion of the nanomachine. The part that’s cut is physically connected to the brain. And that region of the brain is where memories are stored. Your brain suffers damage each time a connection is severed. *anxious, pained gasp* You can lose your memories, or worse… become a husk.Is *that* how Ei lost his memories? Seems likely! Is that why I’ve been getting these headaches? I’ve had them ever since I got here… Consider DD-426 (This is all so sudden. I’m not entirely sure I can believe her… But I *do* keep getting these headaches. And I definitely don’t want to become an empty husk…)  Is this irreversible? Can I try deleting the code? …That’s not possible. Access to your nanomachines is restricted. Once a code or program is implemented… there’s no way to delete it. How long… How long do I have before I become a husk? Depends on the intensity of the infection. Or how much time you spend inside the infected Sentinel. The longer you’re in there, the worse it’ll be. Let’s assume the infection is moving slowly. To spread to your entire body, it’ll take about a month. That’s the best-case scenario. Worst-case would be within a few days. A few days…  …but there *is* a way to delay its effects. I found it by analyzing the underground mainframe’s data. It *is* a facility that researches future technologies, after all. I can create a code that’ll temporarily stall the effects. …You can? First, let’s make a deal. …What? I need a small favor from you.  Not anyone can use the shifter. Only those who possess nanomachines can use it. ……Use Android on Strange Girl  What’s a young girl like you doing in this place by yourself? He’s looking at her blatantly exposed robo-leg, for the record. …I see. The androids here are wrapped in a human-like skin. …Just like you. Yeah, it’s pretty easy to see the damage on this skin. Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag now. He said some AI stole an android and escaped… Tsukasa Okino, huh? You should ask him about DD-426. No one knows more about it than he does. Is that so? So, how does my offer sound to you? I don’t really have a choice. Then it’s settled.    Spooky.  We’ve removed “How did Ei lose his memory?” and replaced it with “DD-426?” Assuming that the escaped AI is 426, how might these two be connected? So, what now? Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Ei Sekigahara Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) The poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Nov 22, 2022 |
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Apr 15, 2021 17:57
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Poor Ei, he really doesn't have much luck with stuff in general does he?
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Apr 19, 2021 13:52
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 You guys voted for Megumi next, but we first need to unlock more Mystery Files.  This is one we already unlocked, now updated to be slightly less of a waste!  I unlocked this one offscreen, I believe.   Didn’t even notice that Morimura had the Magical Gun in Juro’s killdream. Interesting.  But now, it’s time for the most important unlock of all…    Heh.  And that was enough to get us to 6.   Chapter 26: Megumi Yakushiji 3   I guess Fluffy isn’t here either. I should get dinner ready.     Use Spatula on Kitchen   Time to cook some Hamburg steak.     Did you make all of this? Amazing… We’ll eat once Juro gets back. Why don’t you go wash up while we wait? Miura runs out of the room to quickly wash up.    Sounds like you’re pretty hungry. It’s okay. I will wait. Go ahead and eat before it gets cold. No, I could never. Please, I insist. Go ahead. A-Are you sure? But what about you, Megumi-san? Don’t worry. I’ll eat with Juro.Does Juro know about that? I see… *stomach growling* Some time later…  It was as delicious as ever. Can I help you with anything? That’s okay. I’ve already put away the cutting board and everything. Why don’t you go watch some TV and relax? Oh, Miura buddy, you’re about to have your mind loving *blown*. That’s better. …… You don’t have to wear your hat in the house. The surgical scar on your forehead doesn’t bother me. Did I tell you…?Uh oh, think fast Megumi! …! W-Well… It, um… Just a lucky guess. I see…   Let’s consider Miura’s secret.   (It all happened right here…)Music: LONER (Azusa Chiba)     You can’t overlook him just because he lives here. But Juro could be home any minute. Does it have to be now? Yes. Right now.   The video store explosion that occurred today in Keyaki-cho. …! An investigation found that the accident was the result of a gas leak. This is what happened before…     Hurry up and shoot him, right in the forehead! ……  You always wear your hat, even when you eat.\ Megumi-san? Why is that? I have a scar on my forehead. I thought it might be unpleasant… Oh, you don’t have to worry about that… *approaches* Miura retreats!   How do you know about that…?Use Magical Gun on Keitaro Miura  I’ll tell you. But can you show me your forehead first?Why, sure! I can see no reason why not! ……    This will hurt. But you’ll soon forget.    Oh no, more of the ol’ glowy forehead. I’ve seen this before. Music: A Clause With Claws (Rikako Watanabe)  There’s a component embedded in his forehead. It forces them to use their magic. Who would do such a thing?Probably Okino, considering what he said back in Natsuno’s story in 1945. Besides, he’s that kind of rear end in a top hat. Humans, obviously. There’s many that greatly covet this power.  This is a good catch. The curse? Yes. He is able to use magic… and not suffer the same fate as Juro. …! It won’t be long before he wakes. I’d get out of here if I were you.  Back in the present…   …on the gas explosion in Keyaki-cho. …!? The administration claims these explosions are being taken seriously. Gas companies have been put on immediate notice and instructed to be vigilant in their inspections. Something doesn’t feel right…   …!  Dinner’s on the table for you. It’s fine. I’m not hungry actually. Come on, I’m sure you’ll change your mind once you start. Why do you care about me so much anyways? Oh, is that… bad? Just quit treating me like a child.   …I’m sorry. But there’s somewhere I need to go. I won’t be long.   In between screenshots, Fluffy climbs onto the TV.  You’re going too drat slow. (annoyed) All right, sorry.  Striking stupid poses with your gun doesn’t accomplish anything. When it comes to things like this… You need to do the deed quick. Quickly! You got that? …… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. (annoyed) Got it.What is it with smug, annoying black cats and my LPs?  But you better not screw up this time. This time? He’s also a witch. You should still have some bullets left.  …… I’ll get it done.Music: BUDDIES (Azusa Chiba)  To see everything in this scene, I had to stitch together a number of different takes. Don’t worry about it.   …… Fine. You were waiting for me on purpose, weren’t you? …… I keep telling you. If they find out… (simultaneously) We’ll get expelled/We’ll be expelled. …! Yeah, I know. Right…   Morning. Did you leave your motorcycle nearby again? Sure did. But won’t it be bad if the school finds out? Nah, it just looks like a motorcycle. But it’s a regular bike. Really?Juro, you dumbass. It’s obviously a joke. *laughs* I didn’t bring it into school, so no big deal. You can still get in trouble. Whatever. Our school doesn’t care. I was wondering. Can I come over today? Sure, why not. Great.Megumi, there’s a lull in the conversation! Approach! Now’s your chance!    Juro seems real annoyed. As he probably should be. …… I’m not here to talk to you, Kurabe-kun. It’s you I’d like to see, Amiguchi-kun. Me? I am. My name is Megumi Yakushiji. Cool. So, what can I do for you? Well, I don’t really want to talk about it here…  Juro’s really annoyed now!  How about after school? Let’s say… the roof of the new building? The roof?     N-No. Bye! And then Juro… runs away like a complete idiot.      I won’t fail this time.      Ugh. Terrible. Man, pop quizzes just aren’t fair. Hey, you know Amiguchi? He’s a first year, like us. The girls fawn over him, he’s great at sports… And his grades are higher than those nerds that study all the time. Wow, he’s really got it all… Totally unfair, man.  Apparently, they used to be a lot worse. I heard that too! My senpai told me. Ogata-kun from 1-D really reformed them. But isn’t he a delinquent too? Yeah, but he’s different from the others. Plus, Amiguchi-kun hangs out with him… Oh, he is sooo dreamy!Consider New Building Rooftop  (Shu Amiguchi… I wonder if he’s already on the roof.)Music: LONER (Azusa Chiba)   All I have to do is shoot him. I thought you were told to stop posing. Okay. Here we go. Just got poo poo on my mind. What about you? You look like hell. Somethin’ weighin’ you down? Yeah… You could say that. Oh, I totally forgot. Welp, let’s get right to it then! Use Magical Gun on Shu Amiguchi    Suddenly, Nenji lunges for the gun!  You’re one dangerous girl… I need to wait for the right moment. It was all just Megumi’s imagination. Let’s not do that after all.   What’s happening…? Oh, this is Yakushiji-san. From 1-C. Told me she had something to talk to me about. This poo poo again…? Sheesh… Sometimes you’re real annoying to be friends with. …… Oh, just stuff from middle school. Girls used to confess their love to me in front of him all the time.  I’m sorry, really… But I’ve got feelings for someone else. …That’s not what I came here to tell you. Oh, sorry. Awkward. So, what *do* you need?loving lmao, what a dick. I’m gonna enjoy this. Use Magical Gun on Shu Amiguchi Music: Lonely Struggle (Rikako Watanabe)  This might hurt a little, anyway.         Shu disappears into the Sentinel, which starts to… take off into the sky!?   Well, poo poo.  Juro…  You…  And then a giant robot appeared… You saw everything? But why did you…? Where did it fly off to? Run, Megumi! Looks like we gotta skip town!   Fluffy… drat it. How irritating… Juro, he… He saw me do it. I’ll take care of it. I need to manipulate his memories… And make him forget everything he saw. You think I can do that with you hanging around?Really wouldn’t know, cat! Take a hint and scram!   Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Ei Sekigahara Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) Well, that was a lot. What do we do now? As always, the poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 02:17 on Nov 23, 2022 |
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Apr 24, 2021 19:13
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I haven't updated the second post in a while, and I'm wondering if I should just do something else with it? Like, maybe I could summarize each character's story so far in it, if people need that?
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Apr 24, 2021 19:17
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Yeah, offering a slightly more in-depth or quirky summation of what sides of the characters we've seen and what their plot's entailed so far could make the second post a bit more fleshed out! I feel rather sorry for Megumi and do quite like her, but she does deeply need help getting past her fixation on Juro. Everything that's happened to her probably hasn't helped, and she can't exactly go see a therapist. Then again, that's a lot of anime plots, isn't it? "We can't see a therapist for world shaking reasons and thus deal with a lot."
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Apr 24, 2021 19:26
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The very last non-Fluffy portrait in that update is Juro instead of Megumi, just FYI!
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Apr 24, 2021 19:56
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Arist posted:I haven't updated the second post in a while, and I'm wondering if I should just do something else with it? Like, maybe I could summarize each character's story so far in it, if people need that? Your call, of course, but it’s probably a good idea with 13 different protagonists!
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Apr 24, 2021 20:00
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Miwako is very accepting of her schoolmates acting like wackos in front of her.
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Apr 25, 2021 14:24
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When did Miura start living at Juro's? Why is Juro collecting hobos like they're vintage beanie babies?
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Apr 26, 2021 07:11
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the first update in this thread was enough to confirm i was going to buy this game. i've been devouring it for the past four days.WarpedLichen posted:When did Miura start living at Juro's? Why is Juro collecting hobos like they're vintage beanie babies? that's two more cards for the Ongoing Mysteries Corner e: vv okay, one more Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Apr 26, 2021 |
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Apr 26, 2021 17:40
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WarpedLichen posted:When did Miura start living at Juro's? Why is Juro collecting hobos like they're vintage beanie babies? When Natsuno blackmailed him into letting Miura stay there as seen in Juro's second story section.
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Apr 26, 2021 17:48
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Arist posted:
I replaced the second post with this recap. I had to link it via the testposter because it's already 20000 characters and it's only going to get more massive. Hopefully this helps some of you.
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Apr 30, 2021 04:00
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DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP ON THE LP
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Seriously thank you for the recap. Super helpful!
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May 3, 2021 07:30
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Another tie this time. I resolved this one by challenging my dad to answer the hardest riddle I could devise: pick a number between one and two. This is what he chose. Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)  Chapter 27: Destruction 3 Once more unto the breach.  Boss wave this time. Scary.  Oh no!  Oh no!  Oh boy!  Sweet, an opportunity to play with some fancy EMPs. We’re going to unlock a few gizmos before we set out. Nenji will unlock and equip EMP Attractor, which he’ll also upgrade to +1 (Lock-on Range +0 to +50). He’ll also upgrade Demolisher Blade to +3 (Number of Attacks +4 to +6, POW +6 to +9). Ryoko will upgrade her Sentry Gun to +3 (Lock-on Distance +60 to +90, POW +100 to +150). Natsuno will unlock and equip Forced Cooling Device to increase her WT recovery. She’ll also upgrade 6 Multi-Launching Rapid Cannons to +1 (Number Fired +1, POW +7), Main Battery Heavy Railgun to +1 (POW +50, WT 6s to 5.9s), EMP Stunner to +2 (Lock-on Range +0 to +100), and Long-Range Missiles to +1 (Lock-on Range +0 to +20, Lock-on Distance +0 to +50). Finally, we’ll upgrade Megumi’s Arm-Mounted Pulse Lasers to +2 (Number Fired +1 to +2, POW +4 to +8) and her Shield Matrix to +1 (Lock-on Range +0 to +15, WT 6s to 5.9s)  And this is our team. Yep, just four members: Nenji, Ryoko, Natsuno, and Megumi. This is because of the first bonus objective, visible in the bottom-right: only four members allowed on the strike team. Yikes. To make matters worse, I might not have picked a great lineup for this particular mission, but we’ll get to that. Video: Destruction Wave 1-5 Music: [RIBOSE] (Mitsuhiro Kaneda) Yes, this track’s name is actually in square brackets instead of parentheses. Go figure.       I like how the Sentinel they helpfully provide for scale is just totally useless here because the thing is presented from above for some reason.   Oh, that Interstellar Development stuff we saw! Back in the dead kaiju… Yeah… Can we get any more info out of the Sentinel computers? Looks like we’re seeing a Terra Carrier… It’s a transport craft for carrying resources. Okay, but what’s it carrying? This thing’s gotta be more than just a big-rear end turnip truck… Says here it can take atmospheric movement and reentry. The hull’s surrounded by magnetic repulsion. A magnetic field? So like… it’ll deflect our shots?I have no idea what Tomi is talking about here, it does not actually seem to do anything wonky to incoming attacks.  Whatever the hell it is, it ain’t gonna be fun. Let’s take it out before it can drop the goods. Spoiler alert: there’s gonna be more than just this one.   Okay, let’s get to it.  First things first, let’s examine the Terra Carrier. It has machine guns, can shoot homing missiles at nearby targets, and it can also release a slow stream of Hunters. Notably, unlike pretty much every other Big poo poo enemy in this game, it’s not actually armored. That means we can do respectable damage with pretty much anyone. At worst, we probably didn’t even need Nenji beyond having someone else with an EMP skill. But even missing that wouldn’t have been the worst thing, because Yuki has Leg Spike, which fucks big guys right up and can hit fliers. That’s not to say Nenji isn’t useful; he’s honestly probably the strongest pilot in the game. But when you can only have four pilots and he has to use an EMP every 10 seconds in order to hit anything, his weaknesses start to show.   We start off with several Hunters already in the air moving toward the terminal and several more Workers making their way over a bit more slowly. We’ll need to pick most of those off before they get too close. Helping us do that is Ryoko with her ever-handy Sentry Guns! We place one at max range north of us so it can hopefully shoot both the Terra Carrier and anything approaching the terminal.  Here’s Nenji’s new skill, EMP Attractor. It drops any fliers it hits, and deals minimal damage as well.  As you can see from those dotted lines, it also pisses all those enemies the hell off. They’re going to make loving up Nenji their immediate priority. But they can’t really do much of that sitting on the ground, so neener neener.  Megumi’s Shield Matrix only lasts 6 seconds, but it’s still fairly handy, especially if a pilot is taking aggro or in a jam.  There’s a couple ways we can approach this mission. One way, which is pretty safe, is to let most of the enemies come to you and pick them off as they approach. The Terra Carrier, also unlike a lot of other Big poo poo enemies, actively approaches the Terminal, so you can actually just wait for it to get closer. More enemies like G-Molers will spawn if you take too long, however. We won’t be doing that, for the record. I do briefly hold my fleet back a bit while the Hunters and Workers are still close to the terminal, but Nenji is completely useless at range, Ryoko and Megumi are not actually that much better (especially Ryoko, who doesn’t have any kind of ranged cannon or laser), and the entire reason I brought Natsuno is for a skill that’s localized to an AoE around her Sentinel. So basically, we’re gonna push forward to the point I utterly forget why I generally keep a pilot or two around the terminal for safety, or even that I do that at all. Anyway, this is just a shot of me moving Ryoko up so I can put a Sentry Gun or a Guardian closer to where the Terra Carrier is.  Likewise, here’s me moving up Nenji to get the enemy into EMP Attractor range.   Here’s that second Sentry Gun from Ryoko.  We’re also going to move Natsuno up for… reasons that have nothing to do with my having had to replay this wave over because I got an A instead of an S and thus I memorized the enemy spawns. Nothing at all to do with that. Worth noting, though: 3rd-generation Sentinels are slooooooooooow. They’re easily the slowest generation to move around the field.  Somewhat unusually, I’m actually going to have Nenji defend here to recover some EP. He’s not missing that much, but this Terra Carrier is already at almost 50% HP just from Sentry Gun shots and it’s not really much of an immediate threat.  I do use Shield Matrix though, because some missiles are incoming and what else is Megumi gonna do?  I also have Ryoko defend, because she’s actually out of EP.  Before Nenji’s done defending, I manage to get Natsuno into range to drop this beast with EMP Stunner, which drops every enemy in a fairly large radius around the Sentinel. It’s still a bit annoying to use sometimes because, again, her machine is no speedster.  This thing’s already on its last legs, I’m not even gonna bother using Demolisher Blade. Just a waste of EP.  And it’s down.    Oh no! More showed up! Who could ever have foreseen this?   The flying kaiju will lose control and drop out of the sky. If you get surrounded, it’s a good fallback. Good for me, but what about the city…? Thanks, Okino, but I’m not actually going to take your advice here. We can do this ourselves.  A lot more Hunters just spawned in addition to the two new Terra Carriers, so we have Megumi get to work on softening them up.  And again, EMP Stunner not quite large enough to do what we need at the moment. Oh well, we’ll just have to move Natsuno up some more.  That or have Nenji yell at them real loud, that’ll work too.  Nenji’s actually in a minor bit of trouble right now. We’ll move Ryoko up so she can put down a Guardian and lighten the load. Why not just another Sentry? Well, Sentries cost 250 EP and Guardians only cost 100, and defending… doesn’t actually restore that much EP! It kinda sucks, honestly! edit: I don't think you can actually break out of Defend early, which means that Ryoko probably just got knocked out of it some other way, maybe with an enemy EMP or something. doesn't really matter. Anyway, a full duration Defend will restore 30% of the pilot's EP. While we’re doing this, Megumi has enough EP for exactly one more round of Multi Lock Missiles, at which point she’s basically useless for the rest of the wave. We do that. We also have Nenji quickly move out of range of the attacks coming toward him so he can run around behind the grounded Terra Carrier and Demolisher Blade it for 6300 damage right in the butt. Personally I don’t see the big deal, I take at least that much rear end damage every time I use the toi—*shakes self awake* What just happened? I feel like I was about to write something unspeakably hacky.  Ryoko finally places that Guardian, nice.  And then Nenji gets in a Rush Attack to finish off that Terra Carrier.   There’s still another in the air. It’s at this point that I wake up and actually notice that there’s a few isolated Workers approaching the terminal, and focus Natsuno’s cannons on taking them out quickly.  I probably didn’t even need to bother, though; the terminal defense squad already had a couple missiles inbound. The defense team can’t do much damage or kill that many enemies, but against less than a half-dozen Workers approaching single file they’ll get the job done.  After Nenji successfully knocks down the last Terra Carrier with EMP Attractor, I notice it’s already fairly weak and that I can probably kill it with Ryoko’s Heavy Knuckles. Which is good, because Ryoko, Natsuno, and Megumi are all running on EP fumes, and Heavy Knuckles doesn’t cost anything.  Unfortunately, I don’t check my target correctly, so the first hit goes to a random grounded Hunter, preventing Ryoko from getting the kill. Looks like Nenji’s gonna have to do it again.  And it’s done.    Thankfully, defeating the last Terra Carrier is all it took. Aegis activates, destroying the rest of the kaiju.  The terminal is now completely sealed off. They’ve changed targets. The next terminal is just over there. They’re already on the move. …… I haven’t hit my operating limit yet… but I’ll be dismounting the Sentinel temporarily. Whoa, hey—then who’s taking point…?  Sentinel: Activate. I won’t be long… I’ll leave the rest to you.   I’m noticing now that the formula from which MVP is derived is very strange. It’s not just your damage dealt minus your damage taken, it actually seems to be something more like (percentage share of damage dealt, as compared to the person who dealt the most) minus (percentage share of damage taken, as compared to the person who took the most). Obviously this can’t be the whole story. These numbers must have some arcane weighting system attached to them or the MVP would be completely insane every time (or at least just the person who fired the most Sentry Guns, which it usually is anyway). That said, if I’m right about this it’s entirely possible Natsuno was closer to being MVP than Ryoko was, which is hilarious considering the raw numbers.           Let’s check our new skills now. Nenji’s “I Die Hard” lets him survive one (1) killing blow with HP remaining. Honestly not super helpful considering A: how fast you can go from zero to critical in this game when unprepared, especially without even noticing, and B: how you’re probably not just getting hit by one attack at a time.  Natsuno’s “Sprinter” lets her move faster when not piloting a Sentinel. I mean… sure, I guess? I know I complained about her Sentinel move speed earlier, but it doesn’t feel like the solution I want is to have her be in the Sentinel less. Also, it’s hilarious to think that Natsuno can just loving run faster than this giant robot can walk.  Finally, Megumi’s “My Sole Best Friend” increases her WT recovery speed if Tomi is in the strike team with her. Sweet. So, that’s gonna do it for this edition of Destruction. I figured it makes more sense to do 2 waves, 2 waves, and then the boss wave for now. Now what? Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Ei Sekigahara Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) As always, the poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Nov 23, 2022 |
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May 6, 2021 23:54
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  Chapter 28: Tomi Kisaragi 2 Music: Impending Doom (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)  Consider 2025 (This place isn’t what it used to be. Back in 2025… It was my home.) Let’s talk to Miwako, currently watching over our mysterious stranger.  Oh hey, is that Ryoko?  She was struggling for a while… But I think she’s calmed down. We need to get her to a doctor. Maybe, but how are we supposed to do that? Do you think she came here at the same time? We’ll figure it out when she wakes up. Anyway, once that moron gets back… Let’s decide what to do from here. Okay… Consider Shinonome-senpai (Shinonome-senpai… I saw her hanging around Gouto. Maybe she’s from the future too…) Let’s head outside and wait for “that moron.”  Ah, speak of the devil.   Nenji-kun!  What? I take my eyes off you for one second… And you just go running off looking for your own house? Yeah? And how’s that sickly-lookin’ second-year? Well… She hasn’t woken up yet… You were stuck here either way. You’re really gonna give me that?  Copped it from a busted vending machine.     It ain’t cold anymore, but it should be fine.Drink Canned Soda   Hey, I found a calendar when I was diggin’ around. The year on it was 2025. Guess this really is the future…  It’s no different from here. But I’m tellin’ ya, there was some crazy poo poo out there. Like what? Dead ones. Everywhere. Use The Ogata House on Nenji Ogata  You could say that. But it wasn’t there anymore. Guess it got replaced by some skyscraper. Wasn’t lookin’ so hot, though. What about my place? Sorry, but it’s the same deal. Place is nothin’ but a giant parking lot. What about Mom and Dad…? If this is 2025, that means 20 years have passed. Your guess is as good as mine. I wonder what happened to my place. Use Dead Kaiju on Nenji Ogata  Another one was real stocky, the size of a drat building. They were just lyin’ all over the place. I never liked creepy crawly things. I couldn’t stand to look at ‘em too long.Heh, Nenji’s afraid of massive, fifty-foot, all-consuming bugs. What a wuss. How did you know they were dead? How do you think? They were torn apart. It was pretty obvious. …… What? You need to see it to believe me? We have two choices at the moment. We can check out what’s left of Tomi’s apartment, or we can go investigate the dead kaiju. One of these seems much more interesting than the other, so we’ll pick the dead kaiju. Use Dead Kaiju on Nenji Ogata         Consider Dead Kaiju (Morimura… Megumi… Were they planning on fighting those things?)   Come to think of it, I was talking to Natsuno… Maybe this thing’s a big alien weapon. Please don’t indulge Natsuno, Tomi.   Hm? For an alien machine, it looks pretty familiar. Guess we’re not so different. Hey, where’d Nenji run off to?   Nothin’. Just thought I saw someone. Over there, in the rubble.  Nope, nothing here.  I swear I saw it…      Music: SEEKER (Mitsuhiro Kaneda)   Get back in here!  ……  *sigh* It’s gone. How should I know? But one thing’s for sure. It’s bad news. That thing was straight outta the movies. “Exterminator,” right? It sure did look like it.  Hey… Look at this. Huh?   Shikishima made ‘em? It was a man-made one. But why?   What the… It’s from the kaiju’s computer. Guess it’s not broken after all.        Maybe you’re doin’ it wrong. Let me try.    Board member? Like… Shikishima board member? Maybe ‘cause my pops is an exec. Wait. You’re a rich kid? Music: Cognitive Dissonance (Rikako Watanabe)  Huh?     Surface Excavation Unit, “Giant Moler.” If that’s true… These machines were made for planetary development. What are they doing on Earth? Especially in the past? Hell if I know.    And Nenji is finally available for us to play with. But first, we haven’t made any major changes to the board in a while. Let’s fix that.    First things first, let’s remove “Okino’s Code?” and “Miura’s Scar?”, which we got satisfactory answers to in Megumi’s last chapter. We’ll also add “Man-Made Kaiju?” to the board.  And then we do a lot of new yarning to fill out the various character relationships, including finally getting all thirteen of our Sentinel pilots on the board.  Plus Miwako. I would have added Tamao as well, but… I forgot. Oops.   Most of the new relationships are just yellow for friendships, orange for loose connections, or blue for people who done got shot with the magical gun (so Gouto, Miura, and Shu by Megumi or Natsuno by 426 in the Tamao android). I also added two orange connections between Megumi and Ei, because she’s failed to shoot him twice now and don’t think I’m not keeping score, missy!  I should probably also have added a link between Ei and 426 because I’m pretty sure the AI who helped Ei in his last chapter was 426 in the Tomi android because who else could it be, but I forgot that too. Maybe next time. Anyway, that’s gonna do it for us today. Juro Kurabe Iori Fuyusaka Megumi Yakushiji Natsuno Minami Yuki Takamiya Shu Amiguchi Keitaro Miura Tomi Kisaragi Ei Sekigahara Nenji Ogata Destruction There's also: Takatoshi Hijiyama (Locked behind Ogata) The poll is here. Arist fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Nov 23, 2022 |
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May 10, 2021 18:49
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Man, aside from Arist, people are pretty quiet.
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May 10, 2021 19:12
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