|| No no, guns aren't for moombas. || ANGRY BABBLE v.6

ARCHIVES
(what did I do last summer?)

BLOGGY GOODNESS

ifsogailsi realm of (in)sanity meril andreal oblivious emily spent casings viva hate little.yellow.different memepool neil gaiman (!) yvette beneficium digitized existence bitter strawberry sakura art of remix kujikeru		kya-chan rachelle rachael juri-chan gregly-kun priya-saaa kristi talya becca catsy thea tin meg xiola odo tanzy emi-chan
WEBCOMICS
rpg world adventurers! 8-bit theatre penny arcade megatokyo player vs player		okashi na okashi acid reflux sinfest tei & riki user friendly sluggy freelance
PERSONAL INFO kris wolfe : name 20 : age dunno : ethnicity university of iowa : school japanese : major LIKES: yaoi, manga, video games, comic books, punk music, game music, techno, reading, fantasy, web pages, writing, anime, drawing, hot guys, cool girls, cuteness, badassness, ecchiness, punkiness, fun DISLIKES: mean people, wasabi, allen schezar, selfish bastards, newbies, math, science, people who graduate and can't spell, people who value looks over content, homophobes, racists, boredom, mushrooms. more about me ( if you care) i'm a cancer my boyfriend (how he really looks)
WEBSITES OF INTEREST (mine) the angry cow megitsune.net niko-niko.net genkiland anime turnpike seanbaby something awful buy.com ncsx.com express.com aestheticism hentaiFREEfree peacefire ex online magazine the onion salon.com rpgamer j <=> e kokugo get a pita!

Saturday, June 16, 2001 06:05 p.m.
kristish: I keep forgetting to blog to you, and you aren't in #Y enough, but I'd be happy to help you with your Geek project if you want (you said you want someone to go over the articles and so on..?). If you think I'd be helpful, anyway. Also I have to agree with you on sex offenders vs drug offenders. IMHO I'm annoyed by the government. Why do they bother putting nonviolent criminals in prison at ALL? They're filling up those walls with people who we don't need walls to protect us from. You know, I know TONS of kids who smoke pot or do worse drugs, even a few dealers, and ya know... they're not bad people. The only ones they're hurting is themselves. While this isn't really ideal, there's no need for them to be locked up for it, either. A friend of mine was pulled over and arrested for smoking pot in his car, and you know what deterred him from wanting to do drugs so often anymore (and not in the car)? It wasn't the time he spent in jail, though he didn't like that.. it was the humongous fine they laid on him. Over $1000. My point here is that taking the little money that drug users HAVE is pretty much going to cripple them for anything, including going to school or doing a lot more drugs (those things are expensive). They'll just lay around and be lower-class refuse with lives so shitty they WANT to escape from them via drugs, but without money they won't be doing much. Ah, what am I supporting here. I dunno. These people need something else in their lives; you don't smoke pot daily because you're addicted. It's because you're fucking bored and you hate your life. Locking you up in jail will only incite you to hate the government who locked you up for hurting nobody but yourself. Taking your money away will give you less opportunity to do anything constructive with your life.

And filling the prisons with non-violent offenders who weren't really even doing much damage to themselves (pot is NOT more harmful than tobacco, and it's not addictive) is just retarded, because as you say, REAL dangerous criminals who should be hated by society get more leeway. This is because for some reason severity of crime doesn't seem to matter. Drug dealers, those who sell stuff and aren't really maliciously trying to harm anyone but rather, just trying to make money, get just as long in prison as rapists. The legal system is trying to scare people out of drugs, but those who are on addictive drugs won't stop, and those who aren't, well, they probably won't either, sad to say. It's like Prohibition, and I'm sure we all remember how well that worked. This puritan society really annoys the hell out of me sometimes. What I beleive is that everyone should be educated as well as possible (don't get me STARTED on the shitty education system in thie country) and then, well, allowed to do as they like as long (to a point) as they aren't hurting anyone else. But right now in this country it's probably illegal to commit suicide. -_- It's like they say about parenting... you can try and try to raise your kids the way you want them to be, but eventually one day they'll grow up and you've just got to let them go on their own and hope you raised them right. Blah, what am I talking about here, I don't wanna talk about this. You more educated people can debate and I'll read loyally. ^_^

Later. "I fought the law and the law won, I fought the law and the law won..."

Saturday, June 16, 2001 02:14 a.m.
And a few MORE links. First up: Nadia: Secret of Blue Water vs Disney's Atlantis. I knew they were somewhat similar, but I'd never realized HOW similar. This is SCARY. I can't believe Disney's not being sued for outright plagiarism. @_@ Bleh. You know, I've never seen Nadia and I always wanted to. Sigh. Secondly, here is a humourous editorial about how the concept of "free guys" should be worked into Final Fantasy games. Lastly, here is a FAQ of Vagrant Story with MAPS *_*. Oh, and here's a FAQ about ALLLLL the different ways to combine armor, weapons, and so forth in Vagrant Story, by forging them together (you've got leg armor, arm armor, body armor, head armor, and 8 different categories of weapons). It's over 100 pages long. I HATE THE WEAPON SYSTEM OF THIS GAME! RAR! I like the battle system well enough, it it very unique and kinda fun when you get used to it, definitly not boring. I like the plot and characters a lot. The dungeon crawling really isn't that bad, it's like what I've done in comp games and isn't fascinating, but isn't awful. But the WEAPON AND ARMOR SYSTEM! RARRRRR! It's one thing if this was optional, like you could do this as a side quest if you were really interested in the game mechanics more than the game (since there are, after all, people like that)... but no. They FORCE you to do this, or else you'll be weak and wimpy and die quickly and take forever to kill bosses doing 3 damage per hit. Rar, again. It's the one really, truly, horribly annoying thing about VS. (Other than all the dungeon crawling, which might piss some people off, I guess.)

Tonight Erin came over and played FF7 and got past the part where Aeris bites it. She reset the game and watched it over again, just to see Sephy. She's obsessed. ^^; Her reaction to the scene? Reaction #1) "What... no blood? O_o;;" Reaction #2) "Aww... you know, I didn't like her much, and she was annoying, but she wasn't THAT bad. She didn't deserve to die. Poor thing." Reaction #3) [2nd time through] "HAHA! DIE, BITCH! Ooooooh, Sephiroth, you're pretty aren't you, yes you are, show me those gorgeous eyes... *_*" Heh heh.

Later. "Cloud... you are.... a puppet." -- jenova

Friday, June 15, 2001 04:20 p.m.
a few more fun links: my vagrant story art which features Sydney singing about Ashley's underwear (we all know what kind of underwear it is because Ashley wears shorts with the ass cut out). Also, you will want to see the Matrix, IRC-style. Lots of fun jokes about AOL and DalNet. Silliness with a screencap card. Go forth!

Later. "thong th-thong-thong-thong...!" -- sydney

Thursday, June 14, 2001 05:08 p.m.
one last entry for the day (I swear): the list-o-links. I havne't done one of these for a while, but i've found a whole NEW bunch of fun things to look at and play with on the net. Here we go.

Vagrant Story winamp skins. I'd be happy to find any skins... and these are actually NICE skins. I especially like the Sydney, Ashley, and Ashley & the girl skins (yeah, okay, I forgot her name already, I admit it). Want more VS fun? Try this fanart site. Not really, actually. This girl has some really cute chibis for a variety of obscure games, but the big draw of this page for me is the absolutely hilarious (and cute) 3 comics on the left side for VS. I was cracking up in the lab. Above links donated by Priya-saaa via IRC, sankyu!

Okay, non-VS links. Kick-ups is the newest really impressive thing I've seen online. It's pretty, it's fast, it's annoying and yet strangely fun. What is it? Memepool described it as "hackey sack for geeks" and I think the guy there is perfectly correct. Beware, takes a while to load (and I'm typing this from a T1).

Okay, I know you all like silly flash animations and music videos. Accordingly, I'm linking some. First: ever wonder what happened to 8-bit Link when Legend of Zelda was over? (BTW: theorists tell me that Zelda games go back in time plotwise, which is why Ganon is always in them and why Link's hair is lighter with each successive game -- apparently they're all his ancestors and the events of the past. How does "LoZ: Link's Awakening" for the gameboy fit in with this? I don't know.) Okay, next up, in the 8-bit vein: you remember the first time you played Mario brothers? Get nostalgic. Note: for those who didn't play Mario with their friends back in the day, this video will not be very good.

All right, set to the annoyingly stupid yet catchy song of the same name, who let the dogs out? Apparently it was uglypeople.com. Sometimes I'm amazed by what people make a site for (and register a domain for). Thanks to Jared-kun for identifying the site which was no doubt a major contributor to this flash video. (He said he recognized some of them and I'm like... why the hell did you go there inthe first place?) Though I wouldn't doubt that some of the pictures also came from treasure troves like Fat Chicks in Party Hats or Cliff Yablonski's site.

Onto a more pleasant subject, When I am King is a really glorious example of how web-based comics can really be art. And be silly and funny too, of course. I reccomend you go there right now. Yeah, I'd like to make my own manga-style webcomic. I bet a lot of you would. Everyone wants to be a director. And in this day and age you don't really need any actual artistic talent to do a popular comic. Still, you might need a little help. That's why knowing some useful URLs is good. Need comic fonts? Check Blambot Comic Fonts. Don't actually know how to draw or photoshop? Some good tutorials at Polykarbon. And get the scoop on what famous famics analyst Scott McCloud (author of "Understanding Comics") thinks about online comics. Might be interesting, at least, even if it's not what you'd call helpful. Oh, and in case you're thinking of using standard comics sound effects like "gdong!" or "thap!" you should go here to see how they've been historically used in comics previous to yours. (And also to see what some people do when they've got too much time on their hands.) Anyone wanna do a similar project for Japanese giseigo and gitaigo words? ^_^;

Lastly some Neil Gaiman support. ^_^; You've never heard of him? Shame on you, what kind of geek are you? He wrote the spiffy american comic Sandman (yes, you Yoshitaka Amano freaks, that book Dream Hunters is the last in the series) from DC Vertigo, as well as books like Neverwhere and Stardust (of which I have the original comic editions). He also was responsible for the English dub script of Miyazaki's anime movie "Princess Mononoke." If you want to sample his writing, here's the first chapter of his new book, American Gods. Get reading.

Later. I still can't think of a quote.

Thursday, June 14, 2001 01:37 p.m.
in case you didn't look the other day, since I blogged again not long afterwards, I posted this new fanart. Mary and Terry. Kawaii. Shouldn't have done the background. >.< Comments?

note to all: this blog entry isn't about Vagrant Story.. just this first paragraph. ^^; Anyway. goddamn it, I'm thinking about getting a guidebook for Vagrant Story. I hate mazes. I like maps. Priya, thanks for the tip on boss battles via rebound damage. ^_^ I'll have to put those defense break arts on. (Right now I have Damage @ 50%, the one that steals MP, and uh... I forget, something else. I'll have to stick "rebound 40%" or whatever it is on the circle button. Though I'm not sure I want to fight boss battles completely that way.. I like chain attacks, when I manage to hit them, anyway.) Anyway, I'm in the middle of the catacombs. I think when I get out of them, I'll be in the Long Lost City of Raymond ^_^ and I'll be very happy. So far one thing I heard about this game a long time ago is true: It's got an interesting plot (25% of the game) interspersed with real old-school dungeon-crawling (75% of the game) that makes you want to scream after a while. Basically I was told that if you can stick out the hours of dungeons, the plot is worth it. It really is old-school dungeon-crawling though. I feel like I'm playing some old computer D&D game. The over-complicated battle system doesn't help dispell this feelng at all. (Plus the fact that the menu system is all backwards from Skies, which is what I'm used to, is not helping.) But you're right: the sad extremely villainous asspanted dawn rabbit of Raymond IS very likable. I hope something okay happens to him. o.o Tanzy, don't spoil anything! XD

Kya-chan has deserted me to go hang out with catsy for the week. I'm warning you to stay in contact, h0! J00 are belong to us! And don't j00 forget that, b12n47ch!

Rachelle... DUDE! BUY ME STUFF! *_* Er, or not. I'm so poor. ^^; Well, actually, if you ever see a used copy of the game "Twinkle Star Sprites" (on the Dreamcast) or the game "Magical Drop 3" (on the PSX) and they're not prohibitively expensive, buy for me, I'll pay you back. *_* They're really fun, you MUST come see me sometime (I'll get them somehow, no matter what) and we will play them. (Actually, if they're in an area that's easily accessible to you on homestay, just tell me and I'll send money before you actually buy them so you don't have to use yours.) You don't have to send me stuff if postage is heinous, I'll wait 'till you get back this fall. (And for christmas/your b-day, I should obviously get you something american. @_@ that could be tough.) We need to hang out sometimewhen you come back, before school starts for you (how much time will you have in CR?).

You know, lately there's been a lot of little blog spats and confrontations and accusations and so on. Blogging used to be a fun way to meet people online and something to do when one is bored, but it's getting to be like an extended version of high school. I think the way of humanity must be to act over-dramatic at all times. And ya know, while it's all fairly immature, I don't mind it. I mean, frankly, I was always one of those people who liked to see all sides of arguments I wasn't involved in, just because the process of arguing is interesting to watch. Dare I say it's even entertaining? It must be, since arguments, misunderstandings, grudges, and revenge are some of the biggest themes to power the plots of modern books, tv shows, and movies. Anyway, if I were mature I'd say that these stupid blogfights over chunks of webcode, who said what about who, what _____ said about _____, criticism of webpages/fanfic/content, and so on are stupid, and we should stop fighting amongst ourselves. After all, are we not a community of people from all over the world, capable of amazing things when we work together? Are we not all interested in similar things, and often are we not from the same general social backgrounds, all cultural things aside? We should all discuss things like rational adults and have well-argued debates instead of flame wars where we yell at each other and present our points in a fury of anger instead of with the calm attitude we SHOULD present them with.

Well, I'd say that, but it's not really true. I enjoy reading emotional bitchy flamewars. They make me glad to be not in them, for one thing, and for another, they're just entertaining in and of themselves. After all, you can always stop reading them when you're tired of them. It's like fiction. More to the point, though, those kinds of fights may be neither adult nor rational most of the time, but they are filled with emotion, and it's often so hard to get emotional content from the net. A lot of things are so dry, so logical, so adult... it feels sad and like people are restraining themselves in a way they wouldn't IRL. So to a point, reading blog wars or participating in them is a feeling of release of your own emotion, and maybe a feeling that you're really arguing with a person and not just a webpage. ^^; Then again I can't really say i support them either, because at their base they're stupid. But they can be fun to read. Which is why hits always go up for everyone involved in one. ^_^

Later. "what is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more..." -- haddaway

Thursday, June 14, 2001 12:54 a.m.
this is a short blog, the real one's below this. This is just my beginning game blog for Vagrant Story. Feel free to not read it if you 1) don't care or 2) want to avoid spoilers.

VAGRANT STORY STORY!
Uh... okay. Basically you play as Ashley Asspants, a tough soldier working for (I think) the royalty; he's a Riskbreaker, a special kind of soldier who works for this agency connected to the monarchy. Ashley lives in a fairly warm city; he doesn't feel the need for a shirt other than some armor plating on his back and stomach, and he's wearing shorts with big holes where the butt should be. You can see his tight leather jockstrap. As stated by a review somewhere I can't remember now, the theme of Vagrant Story is the alternative leather fetish culture. Er, at least the fashion theme.

Anyway, Ashley's wife and kid were killed some time ago and now he's all alone. He's in his late 20's, so he must have been married pretty early in his life. Ashley seems like a pretty cool guy... he's cute (prettier when he was young and happy though), with his wacky clothing and this insane hairstyle that has these two zig-zaggy bits that look either like rabbit ears or antennae, and he's got a decent personality so far; he seems nice and wants to do the right thing. And he says funny things like, "I AM the reinforcements." However, I fear for Ashley's future sanity.

Ashley's current nemesis is Skinny Sydney, AKA Sydney Losstarot. This guy is a blond metal-armed cult leader who seems to be working with this duke who's pulling the strings at Parliament... but maybe not? Who knows what he's up to? Not me. Some people think Sydney's cult is all a front and he's not really the doomsday prophet he acts like... but he certainly has some weird skills for a "normal" guy, like coming back from being dead, being able to see into other people's pasts, summoning dragony things, and of course, somehow keeping his pants from sliding right off his hips. THAT is a skill. (I'd also like to know how he keeps himself from popping out the front of them, and why he's not cold when he doesn't wear a shirt.)Poor Ashley; Sydney is mentally abusing him by dredging up his painful past and mocking it, by confusing him, by showing him horrible things... will Ashley ever learn the "truth"? I sure hope so. o.o;

There are two introductions to the game, plus an FMV intro. The FMV intro has a girl in it. I don't think I've seen her yet. There's only one girl and she seems to be a completely pointless chunk of plot so far. Anyway, something about the graphics of this game: they're good, but bad. This game is similar to Skies of Arcadia in terms of what they were trying to do with graphics: fully rotatable 3D dungeons, large character sprites with facial expressions that change and mouths that move when they talk, perfect integration of characters and backgrounds... it's all some of the best I've ever seen on the PSX. And there's the problem: trying to do something like that on the PSX just isn't possible the way it was with Skies on the DC. Polygons are everywhere, and there's a constant "shimmer" to all the people's faces and bodies as the system tries to deal with their very human movement and expressions... after playing a game that did similar things on a better system, I can't help but notice. Still, you get used to it, and for the PSX the graphics are really good. The game is definitly innovative.

Speaking of innovative, the battle system is complex. I can't even describe it here. I'm finally getting used to it; I'm learning to chain attacks and defend myself. (My highest chain so far is 11 chains, BTW.) I haven't really tried my attack magic yet. Anyway, nice things about the battle system are that it's something of an ARPG system; you actually move around the room yourself, and you have to get timing right to chain and defend, and you can't just get into battle and hit a button over and over. It's a little draining to play a game like this though, since it requires constant thought and attention, but that's cool. It had something of a learning curve; for a while at the beginning I didn't get it at all and kept suffering major damage. Luckily Ashley recovers HP and MP at a constant rate outside battle.

One thing I'm already starting to hate is the weapon system. It's TOO complex, TOO specific. Weapons and armor have "affinities" for various kinds of monsters which they "learn" as you fight... plus, there are 8 different types of weapons. PLUS to make better weapons you take your old ones apart and put them together in different combos. Frankly I absolutely hate it, but it'd be tolerable if the weapons and armor didn't "learn" affinities for types of enemy and types of magic. However, since they do... what should I do? Use the new stronger weapon I picked up, or use my old sword that's got a 25 affinity for Humans? It's annoying. I just want to fight, advance the plot, maybe customize my weapons a bit with the stones you can put in them that have various qualities... that's all. This micromanagement is stupid. You can change weapons, armor, ect. in the middle of battle, but why would you WANT to? This game is an absolute hell of menus.

The other thing about the game that I'm not sure I like is the crate puzzles. A few I understand, but the crate puzzles in this game, which involve you, well, moving crates around to solve puzzles, are getting harder and they're not usually optional. I can see them getting very annoying in the future.

But it sounds like I don't like the game. That's not true; so far the plot has confused me and the characters are all mysterious; the graphics are nice (if all rather dark and dungeony)... the music, well, really I just don't notice it. This game doesn't rate very high on my "funfactor" scale yet though. I'm getting better at battle (it utterly confused me at the beginning; it's something like what you'd get if you mixed Parasite Eve's system with Seiken Densetsu 3's system with Flashback's system). I died 3 times before I managed to kill the first boss, but I haven't perished since (though I came REALLY close a few times...). I do have to say: this game is HARD. This is a hard game. Yes. Maybe it's easier for action gamers, but I find it pretty challenging. It's been a long time since I was worried that an RPG was too hard for me to beat (last time it was Alundra... and you know what? It WAS. ... I should go back to that sometime). I hope I can beat this because I'd like to know what the hell is going on.

The yaoitic implications in this game are also striking; Ashley might not have any interest, but Sydney is a screaming uke. "Ashley, let's play a game. You are the hunter; I am the hart. Come and catch me." Of course Sydney is acting like a complete toolsmack right now... if I were Ashley and I got my hands on Sydney after the things he just said about my family and about me, and the things he put me through... I'd slam my knee into his nads and then I'd put him in a bag and drop him in a river someplace. After I took his metal arms away. I would NOT let him have any kind of access to my asspants. ^^; I can only hope Sydney improves or his motives become decent or something, because they're both very yummy and I'd kill for some nice yaoitic doujinshi.

Later. "Show me your soul." -- Sydney to Ashley

Wednesday, June 13, 2001 03:34 p.m.
word: I updated my fanart page last night. I added the things I've posted on this blog for the past month or so, and also a brand new, never-posted-here artwork of Mary and Terry from KoF. (It's not that good, but go look at it anyway, cuz it's NEW~~~~.)

god, this blog is boring. I can't imagine why people who don't know me link to it. Unless of course they like video games, since I talk about those all the time. Probably for a fellow video game fangirl this blog might be kinda fun. Then again I've been talking about a game lately, Skies of Arcadia, that is only for the Dreamcast and can be a little hard to find, so it's possible that I've even been boring to gamers. Bleh. Well, there's not much I can do to be interesting, so I guess I'll just have to suffer with low hit amounts.

That said, I'm gonna babble! Michelle, Rachelle is my friend from high school, probably the oldest friend I have. We've been pestering each other with genre fantasy novels, video games, and creative writing ever since we met, which was in like 8th grade. She is my oldest friend, I guess, and very dear as well. I'm glad you find her interesting. She isn't in the blog community really, so not many people know about her blog. ^_^ And yeah, she's studying in Japan this summer, because she is a SUPAA-BRAIN. (that's why she went to a fancy college and I'm at the public university... but we have a vastly superior japanese program so it's okay. XD)

It's fun when people you know in RL get blogs, or when you meet people in RL that you've met on blogs... you know, a blog is really the personality behind a website... but it's still not a substitute for really meeting someone. Even meeting them just once can make reading their blog so much more meaningful and so on. ^_^ It's really the same with any online chat program or BBS, but there is similarity after all... at least with the people I know, who know how to write dialogue and so on well enough to make their personalities felt via text-only communication. Of course then when we all meet in RL we're like... giving each other these looks... and you sit there wishing, "GOD, where is my giant sweatdrop sign, or my XD sign, or my o.o;; sign or my >_> sign? How can I communicate my emotions WITHOUT EMOTICONS?! Ahhhh! Where's my command line?!" and so on. Silliness indeed.

I said I was going to blog about being an only child so I will. I am an only child (I'm also adopted, but that's the subject for yet another rant). People are often envious, but in truth it's not all that fun. I'm often very jealous of people with brothers ans sisters. Being an only child is lonely (and it's worse if you grew up in an area with no other kids in it, like I did). I know some parents of only children spoil their kids, but mine didn't really. However, there are some basic privileges that you have. For example, you get what you want. This is not because your parents are spoiling you more than parents of multiple kids; it's just because if YOU want a PSX game, and your parents are willing to buy 1 PSX game, all is well. You never have to fight over limited resources with siblings, or give things up for siblings, or share with siblings; so you always get to make choices about the things you want and get those things, since there's nobody there who has to share with you who might argue. But that's not really the boon that it seems like. A lot of parents of only children buy them a lot of toys and so on, and the kid gets the ones s/he wants for the most part... but the reason for this is because the kid is often bored or lonely. Even when you live around a lot of other kids (I did, for about a year), there are still times when you just can't hang out with your friends, like late at night, or in the morning, or when they're busy or away, or when the weather is really bad, and so on... you're bored and miserable. And despite having all those toys or whatever, they're not as much fun if you don't have anyone to play with. That's why I personally took up reading, drawing, and playing RPGs to such a great extent; they are solitary activities that you can have fun doing by yourself. I'm not sure exactly what other only children feel like, but that was my personal solution.

And of course it's also a stereotype that only children are kind of antisocial and don't have great social skills. Well, of course not. When you spend your life not really arguing with anyone but your parents (who are figures of authority, not equals), and you spend a lot of time alone... what can people expect? You learn to do things by yourself and be suspicious of things done by others; you don't learn to work well in groups unless you're the organizer, you don't play well with others if they treat you in a way you're not used to being treated (however that may be), and you're not quite sure how to deal with your peers because you just don't really do it that often. Especially not large groups of people. Not that you're anti-social, but you're very used to taking care of yourself, answering to yourself, and entertaining yourself, so when you get uncomfortable with your peers you fall back on that instead of being forced to get used to it.

On top of that, I personally at least have always wanted a brother or sister. I know some people have really horrible siblings, but many more people I've talked to are glad they have their siblings, in the end. It's someone to be supportive in bad family situations, someone to talk to sometimes, someone who is familiar in new places, someone who might even be a friend (I think a lot of people don't have this stage till they're older though... at least that's what I got from talking to people ^^;;). Being "spoiled" and not having some annoying sibling barging in on your at all hours, taking attention from your parents, fighting with you, and so forth might seem really nice to some people, but I find it kinda sad myself. However, I really do think there are pros and cons to both sides... but I usually still wish I was on the other one. ^^;

Well, er, I totally forgot why I decided to write this anyway, but any other only children, or any people with siblings, wanna comment?

Note to all: Priya threatened me with rusty dismemberment by the extremely villainous asspanted rabbit of Lea Monde if I didn't start playing Vagrant Story, so I'm gonna start it tonight (barring interruptions, of which there are sometimes many) and see if I can push through it in under 6 days. Then! We'll start FF9! And Priya, since you and I should be done with VS, YOU will play FF9 also! It'll be 3-player game blogs. XD Wai!

Okay, and one last thing, I added a new webcomic to the side there: Acid Reflux. I read ALL the archives yesterday (it was a very slooooow day at work) and even though I had to view it with only 256 colors (which, believe me, made everything look bad), I really liked it and reccomend it as a fun little read. I need to do some fanart for various webcomics I like. That is all.

Later. "I turned the volume up this morning... till it was ringing in my ears... haven't felt this good in years.." -- verve pipe

Tuesday, June 12, 2001 01:27 a.m.
today I worked and stuff. I'm dropping my morning class, so instead I'm thinking of going to the ninensei japanese class and sitting in and listening. Means I'm gonna have to stop staying up till 5 am. Anyway, today Erin came over and I beat Skies, and then we played Puzzle Fighter and Bust a Groove 2. We're really at the same level in BaG2... something like 2/3 of our games ended with double fever times. Scary. After we got a good 6 or 7 of them in a row we quit and did Puzzle Fighter, where I am better, but not by very much (lots of rounds where the timer came up and forced a finish).

A family of tiny gnatty insects has apparently taken residence near their god, my computer moniter. In the last 5 minutes I've squashed 17 of them (yes, I counted). o.o;; It's kinda gross when you think about it, which is why I'm trying not to. anyway, the final skies blog ahead.

FINAL SKIES OF ARCADIA REPORT!
MASSSSSSSIVE SPOILERS! (duh!)
Soooo, where was I last time? Oh, right, about to go after Galcian. Okay, so me and my huge bunch of supporters go barging in. I got to Galcian without a problem, but I underestimated his ship; he did a ton of damage to me in one round and I was about to kill him (ONE MORE HIT!) and he killed me. Badness. Very embarrassing. I haven't died in this game since the first 15 hours and I perish in a ship battle? His damn cannon seemed to get more powerful though; the first time it hit me was for about 11,000. The second time it hit was for about 11,000. He didn't cast any strength spells on him or any weakness spells on me, but somehow he pulled the damn thing out twice in the final round and it did about 20,000 both times. Is that fair? NO. Anyway, I bounced back and raped his ship the second time I fought it. Then he tried to run away... and Belleza's ship came out of nowhere, and with some surprisingly good (if concise) voice-acting, she killed him and herself. It was very sad. I was like... NOOOOOOOOOO! ;_; Poor Belleza...

Anyway, THEN! The SLASH! Ramirez was all alone in Soltis and he suddenly jerks his head up... and he knows Galcian is dead. So. He collapses the the floor with an inarticulate scream and starts beating it with his fist; what you can see of his face is a greif-filled mask. Then! A TEAR rolls down his cheek as he screams, "No! NOOOOOOO!" and hunches on the floor like someone who's just been sick, someone whose insides have fallen out, trembling with grief and anger... and I'm like, "Okay, this is not fanslash. This is CANON slash."

So I fought my way into Soltis and picked up the last 2 chams and got my "FAINAL PET!" (according to the VMU screen) -- Final Cupil. Who has an attack rating of, get this, 500. I mean DEAR GOD. Vyse's best weapon has an attack rating of 200, and everyone else's are around 167 or so. Obviously, for regular attacks, Fina is now the buffest member of my party. Of course since her SMs don't use her physical strength for damage, Vyse's "Pirate's Wrath" move is still the big damage move, since it DOES use his physical strength and he is BUFF. But it's nice to do about 1,000 damage to a boss by doing Fina's regular attack. ^_^; And of course Final Cupil is just amusing. I think my favorite form is still the "Cupil Pan," which was this giant frying pan that would whack the enemy in the head and cause little stars to come out, but Final Cupil is also great.. he sucks in the enemy, blinks a few times, and spits them out again.

Soltis was a short dungeon; the first part was this maze-like thing that would have been a lot shorter if I hadn't spent so much time trying to find the cham there where I first heard the beeping sound... -_- and there were LOTS of enemy encounters there, even with the white map on. Then the tower, which was almost enemy-free. I fought Zivilim Bane for the last time and got the last treasure... and I'm thinking, "What the hell am I going to do with this? I'm about to the final boss fer god's sake!" So I went up and there was Ramirez and the second I walk in... he looks up at me (he's still collapsed on the floor under the silver gigas), and the first thing he says is, "Why?! WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!?" and goes on to accuse me of murder. His eyes are red and puffy and the rage on his face is very clear. The boy is obviously in an anguish of loss over his dead... general *coffcoff*.

Fina's like, "Ramirez... please...we're here, it's all over now, please come with me..." and he's just all maniacal... I felt sad because I think she really loved him and he obviously doesn't care for her anymore, just for Galcian. It was very sad. Anyway, then we fought with him. He talked some in battle when he did his moves... his voice is WAAAAY too deep for him. I had noticed that earlier in the game, but I never heard him talking as much as he talked in battle, or as clearly. His voice was just really WRONG for him... way too deep and manly, frankly. I'm not saying he should have had Quatre's voice, but a guy who looks like Ramirez and a voice like that don't mesh. He looked REALLY GOOD whilst doing his healing spell... he did it twice, and I didn't mind at all because it was pretty. (Then I killed his ass with 4 Pirate's Wraths.)

I thought that would be the end of the game, but then I had to fight the gigas (which I suppose I should have expected). I didn't expect what Ramirez did when I beat him... I was surprised somehow. He must have REALLY loved Galcian. It's really sad when you think about it; he probably wasn't at all an evil guy before he met Galcian, and it was Galcian's influence and his feelings for Galcian that made him the little nutpunch he turned into. I was sad when he was like, "Fina... the Ramirez you knew is DEAD!" Anyway, so, I fought the Death Star, er, I mean silver gigas. It seemed to be an easy fight, and I was about to kill it... one more hit, it barely had color left in its life bar... and it killed me with, just like Galcian, special moves which were suddenly a lot more powerful than they'd been a few turns previous, and for no real reason... VERY annoying. However, the second time I did that battle, I kicked its ass. So that was okay too.

It fell apart in the prettiest and coolest way I've ever seen a boss die in any game. And THEN... one more fight with Adel/Rinoa... er, I mean Ramirez. I kicked his ass again, even though he kept making Guilder do his special moves on the rest of my party. -_- Annoying, but hardly deadly. Then after that fight, I finally beat the game.

It was a good ending, everyone talked (but why didn't we get to SEE Daigo when he was talking? ;_;). My Dad... he said... he said... he said he'd be proud if I called him "Dad." XD XD XD I was so happy! All game I've wanted him to acknowledge that I'm growing up, that I'm Vyse the Legend... and he did! XD XD XD It was so wonderful! Anyway, my new ship looked fucking KICKASS, Fina's new outfit was insanely adorable, Cupil's new outfit made us laugh, and most of my crew left me. ;_; I loved the little "This is what happened to them" thing in the credits for EVERYONE in the game who was of any importance (IOW, all the crewmembers and a number of the NPCs). That ruled. More games should do that. I was sad I didn't get a Granstream Saga-style choice of which girl I wanted, but then again that's good since I wouldn't want the other one to have to die like in that game. I love them both dearly even if I want Aika with Vyse. Though frankly... writing Aika/Fina would NOT be hard at all. ^^; Or even a 3-way, I think the main problem would be convincing Fina. ^^; Well, I'm a "grubby little ecchibi" as Talya put it ^^; Can't help thinking this stuff. But I just want them all to be happy. Damned love triangles. I love Aika though. I LOVE AIKA! WOO! ^_^; Okay, enough of that. Anyway, here ends the Skies blog, and I'll leave you with a tiny excerpt of the Skies fic I'm considering writing (with erin's help, at the rate I'm going... -_-).

Lawrence looked around the room from beneath his fall of satiny brown hair, keeping his arms crossed. There was the comforting hard shape of a knife hidden under one of his hands, buried the folds of his dark purple velvet coat. He could hear the muttering and see the disapproving expressions aimed his way; how annoying. He sighed and looked once more to the scarred face hovering hopefully before him.

"Vyse, I'm not really interested in the position."

"Come on, Lawrence," Vyse entreated, his light brown eyes sparkling. "It'll be fun. Man, come on, I need you. You're the best helmsman I know of, and we're going on a major adventure. I don't need a full crew, but I can't stay up at the wheel all the time if I'm exploring dungeons or whatever. I need you to come with me."

Lawrence shook his head slightly, more of a breif twitch of his long dark locks back and forth than a real movement. "Vyse, last time I was hired by you I was almost killed. Besides, hanging out with you is no way to keep a low profile."

"Come on, I'll pay you really well. Don't be such a grouch. I'm ROLLING in cash. Name your price, all right?" Vyse smiled at him, that infectuous expression that made the girls (and some of the boys) swoon, and made his crew and friends as loyal to him as they were to their own mothers. He looked so damn trustworthy and kind. Lawrence closed his eyes for a moment.

When he cracked one open a moment later, Vyse had dropped to one knee in front of him; the pose looked somewhat submissive, but there was a slight tilt to the boy's head, one eye gleaming up at him mischeiviously, waiting to see what he'd do... Lawrence shut his eyes again to block out the sight, but he couldn't shut out the voices around him, which seemed even louder when he had his eyes closed.

"What's going on over there? Isn't that... isn't that Vyse the Legend!?"
"Yes! What's someone like him doing talking to that... scruffy wanderer?"
"Why's he down on his knees?"
"I think he must be asking the guy for a favor..."
"What a rude thing to make Vyse do... I can't believe the nerve of that guy! Doesn't he know Vyse the Legend saved us all by killing that renegade general?"
"Yeah, I can't believe that guy either! Who does he think he is, anyway? Not respectable, I bet that much..."

These voices were pushed into the general background noise by someone speaking much closer to him. "Please, Lawrence... I'll offer you fifty thousand if you'll just come with us. Look, man, I'm begging you here."

Vyse didn't really sound like he was begging, but he did sound very sincere about his offer. Lawrence squeezed his eyes shut even tighter for a moment, raising a hand for a moment to touch his forehead, then opened them and looked down. Vyse was still in a half-kneeling position, his back bent, and still had his head cocked like a bird, just barely looking up, that boyish half-smile on his face that he wore so often. Lawrence groaned. If he said no, especially after the act Vyse was putting on, his reputation would be ruined in Valua for weeks. The rumor might even spread more than that, and he didn't need the attention a rumor like that might get him. He was trying to keep his presence unnoticeable.

And Vyse knew what he was doing, too, the bastard. He didn't know Lawrence's reasons for doing things, but he could still guess the best way to turn his crank... the kid had outwitted him at this point. Saying no would just lead to scandal, whereas saying yes... at least it'd get him back in the air, away from somewhere he could be located easily, like the city. And fifty thousand gold was a huge sum; he had trouble believing in it, but he knew Vyse could probably afford it. It still boggled him. Fifty thousand? For me? Is he crazy?

"All right, all right, you win, I'll go..." Lawrence pressed back against the wall as Vyse suddenly rose to his feet in one fast, smooth motion, a grin cracking his face. He grabbed Lawrence's hand and shook it.

"Thanks! I really appreciate it, Lawrence. Meet me at the ship in a couple hours; it's at the docks, you'll recognize it." He let go of Lawrence and turned to leave. Lawrence reached out and grabbed the loose blue material on one of Vyse's shoulders and yanked him backwards; the young Captain stepped backwards a step or two without turning his head. Lawrence tipped his head in towards Vyse's.

"You weren't seriously begging at all, were you?" he asked, in an undertone.

Vyse turned his head halfway, shrugging out of the loose grip on his shirt, and caught Lawrence's gaze with one of his own sharp eyes. "Sure I was." He smiled again, and Lawrence knew he was one of the only people who'd ever see the true trickster behind that mask. So easy to forget the boy was a born pirate. "I mean, I must be pretty desperate to offer that kind of money, eh? Anyway.. I'll see you at the ship."

What do you think? Pretty bad so far? OOC? Melodramatically cheezy writing? Yes,I guess it is. Eh, I'll make it better later, if I decide to write it at all. I have ideas, but nothing really concrete. Bah.

Later. "If you wanna kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel.. On your knees boy!" -- U2

Monday, June 11, 2001 01:08 p.m.
bah, the side of the blog is broken. I know how to fix it but I'm too lazy to do so right now, I'll do it when I get home. So, I didn't get to play Skies yesterday due to actual human beings making me do stuff with them, so no Skies report. Instead, I will make this entry very long and dull vie the time-honoured technique of talking to other bloggers in it. Ph34r me. I'm boring. XD Here we go:

Kya-chan: dude, Ryan-kun is getting his own blog. Rather he already has it. Nothing there yet so I won't link, but I said I'd help with some kinda design. He has fully supported the concept of driving up to see you. Nyohoho. We were discussing randomly leaving Iowa City last night and coming up to see you, throwing rocks at your window at 3AM whilst hopped up on no-doze. but then we just sat around and played Rival Schools 2: Justice Gakuen instead. You MUST GET THIS GAME. It is a HILARIOUS Capcom DC game, has some MPable guys, and is just silly. My problem with it is that it's insanely slow at times... response time is bad... but it's very fun and I know you will like it. It's sold in the USA as "Project Justice." But Dom told me it's Rival Schools 2, and the opening screen yells, "Moerou! Justice Gakuen!" Ryan-chan brought it over randomly the day after Dom threatened me with death if I didn't play it, so that was cool. Anyway, we're coming up to see you sometime and I want to organize a IL-gumi paati. It'll probably be around the weekend of my b-day sometime since drinking will be in order (ain't that right, priya-saaa? XD). We'll work it out, be online more. Oh, and Ryan will tell you about his new roommate problems, which are somewhat soap-operatic.

Gregly! I've been trying and trying to talk to you but you're never online. I have a utility to send you which will let you watch all the FMV on Chrono Chross, FF8, FF7, and other games as well. You can watch the nekkid serge video all you want. Hell, you can even get screencaps. I do wish I could find a way to full-screen it though. anyway I'm glad you like CC, although the games 2 biggest flaws are: 1) too many characters, and 2) the plot is great and flows all interesting for 95% of the game... then they drop big buckets of confusion on you for the last 5% (and that's if you've actually played CT). They use funny phrases like "inseminate my planet" to distract you from the fact that, much like FF8's ending, it doesn't quite make any clear sense. I'll have to play through again and figure it out sometime though. I love New Game+.

Calliope: in reference to your rant(s) a few days ago... it's nice to see someone just come right out and say what I'm thinking sometimes. For the first rant... personally I would like to be asian since then I'd weigh about 90 pounds, like my senseis. @_@ Seriously though, it doesn't really matter what race/nationality you are, something will always appeal about being someone you're not. But since you can't change sitting around thinking about it is dumb. Anyway, I'd really like to know Japanese, for example... but not at the expense of knowing English. I love knowing english; it's very useful and I just love the fucked up way it works. So being born Japanese wouldn't help me at all, with the exception that I'd like my own pop culture a little more and I could buy cute clothes. However, when I think of all the things I like about the English-speaking world and cultures and pop cultural whatnot I think I'd miss it. That's why I want to know both. Besides, English is harder to learn than Japanese on the world difficulty scale, so it's a good thing it's my native language, eh? ^_^; Also, wanting to be Japanese simply because you love anime/manga THAT much sorta... weirds me. Japanophiles weird me. It's like... yeah, I like it too, it takes up a big chunk of my life.. but I know there's much more to the culture and I don't assume that Japanese culture in general is superiour to mine, or anything stupid like that. But I guess you like what you like. As to your second rant about people who don't know the value of money because they're rich, or who don't understand the value of their money because they didn't work for it, I totally agree. My dad was a businessman who made me work for money as a kid (no allowance here) and even though I'm an only child I wasn't "spoiled" like people think (a rant on being an only child tomorrow, I think). Anyway, I worked for my parents at their business and later got a job and bought all my game systems, my TV, my movie collection, my comics... dad did buy me books though. ^^; I treasure my stuff and it's all in really good shape, I keep it scratch-free and safe (if a bit dusty ^^;) and in general I have always been very responsible with my possessions and anything I borrow from others. Whereas I notice a lot of kids whose parents just give them things, or give them allowance, or who are rich... they treat their things like crap. Game discs with scratches, grime all over their systems, books with crumpled pages and ruined covers... it really bothers me, I guess, since unlike them if I treat things without respect I can't just go buy another one. I suppose it's only the poor person's complaint though, since after all, they CAN buy new things. Supporting the economy even. It's still annoying though. (Especially when they borrow YOUR stuff and treat it as badly as they treat their own stuff.)

Michelle: dude, the Terry Pratchett books you read were NOT examples of his best work for the most part. They're not bad, but many discworld books are just so much better. "Equal Rites" is pretty good, that's when the Discworld books started on an upward trend IHMO. I'm not a huge fan of the first 2 (Light Fantastic and uh.. forgot the name). It probably didn't help that of all the discworld books, you picked the ONLY one to read which is a direct sequal to another one (Light Fantastic). Anyway, there are 5 different kinds of Discworld books. the Death series (my 2nd favorite!), the Watchmen series (my favorite! Waiii!), the Rincewind series (eh, it's okay), the Witches books (again, eh), and the individual books that share no characters. I reccommend highly the watchmen books, which should be read in order (of course): Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay (I didn't like Carpe Jugulum as much). Then the Death series; Mort is the first, but not all that great. Reaper Man is where those start getting good, then Soul Music, then that surreal book, Hogfather (I really like this one). Of the witch books I highly reccomend Lords and Ladies, and the opera one I've forgotten the name of right now. Anyway there's a lot, probably you can find them at the library. Some aren't as good as others, definitly. But I like them more than the Hitchhiker's Guide because in the end, that was just the random adventures of Arthur Dent and was meaningless (which was the point of it); Discworld is satire and usually has some kind of point, and the characters develop sometimes (depending on who they are). I like them both, of course, but still... Anyway.

rachelle: DUDE, I'm so jealous. ;_; Rar.

whew, that's it I guess. Oh, and I dunno if I mentioned it the other day, but to all applicable #Y people, I got your card in the mail... thanks. It brightened my day. We will all DEFINITLY have to hang in a few weeks when I've got enough money to do so. I dunno about before then, but by my b-day at least I should have enough money to do something fun in chicago, like rent bad h3nt4i and eat at denny's. So dammit we will all see each other then if not before! Do I make myself clear?! Oh, and kya, when do you leave for Japan? you're not going before the con, are you? As soon as I've got confimation on who all is coming I'm gonna e-mail them and volunteer us for a yaoi panel ^_^ and possibly web design panel (says the girl with the broken blog layout. >_>). Oh, and Juri, Greg: your fonts look tiny and hard to read on this crappy mac I'm using. ^_^

Later. "If I had known how big this job would be, I would have asked for more than 10,000 gold." -- Lawrence

Sunday, June 10, 2001 12:02 a.m.
Myself, Eri-rin, Holly, and Shane (her fiancee) just went to see Shrek. It was a fine movie and just as the #Y people told me it was: cheezy goodness. We walked in knowing nothing about the movie except that our friends liked it, but several parts caused outright laughter and a good time was had by all. I didn't know it was computer animated... the animation was pretty decent. Especially once you got used to it; right at the beginning my hands were itching for a game controller because I felt like, as soon as those ogre-hunters got to his house, the opening FMV would end and the player would have to take control and get Shrek out of his situation, probably with lots of belching, farting, brute strength and so on, in a platformer reminiscent of Oddworld. ^_^;; Buuuuut, then it just kept going and I was like, "Oh, yeah, it's actually a movie."

Anyway, it was a pretty good film and I'd cheerfully see it again. Maybe I'll even buy it. Anyway, we walked around the mall before the movie and I gave in to temptation and bought stuff. I now have a DC keyboard, Sonic Shuffle, and Vagrant story. I got them all for $20 each. Anyway, Kya-chan, you won't BELIEVE what I saw at Best Buy. Mr. Domino for $5... but that wasn't the unbelievable thing. They had multiple copies of KoF'99 Evolution... for $9.99 each. O_O;;;;; I was like, WHAT?! 3 months ago these were impossible to find and cost 4 times as much... O_O;; weird. Anyway, I spent most of last night and a good chunk of today playing Skies of Arcadia, so here's my next-to-last Skies blog.

SKIES OF ARCADIA REPORT -- NEAR THE END!
MASSIVE SPOILERS ALERT!
Okay, so, when we last left off I was about to go to the Maw of Tartas (under Valua). First I decided to finish up that side quest where you reconcile that woman with her mother, which was a lot of flying around giving messages, mostly. So she gave me an Abirik cham, the last one. I checked a Cupil FAQ and it said that the last 3 chams were two at Soltis (wherever that was) and one on the download island and I realized that I'd gotten every single cham up to that point just because I like to explore throughly... and I thought, "I'm sure I'll find the last two also, so... maybe I should download the damn island and get the last one and get Final Cupil, even though I don't NEED a weapon of mass destruction."

So I shut off SoA and tried to figure out how the damn DC modem thing works. I went through the info process and managed to get online fairly quickly so I thought all was good; I tried getting the downloads but couldn't figure out how to find them online. So I spent some time looking for that. Then I looked in the Skies manual and the picture showed the "homepage" option under "continue" on the start screen, and I thought, "D'oh, I'm an idiot." So I quit the browser and put in Skies, but... the option wasn't there! As you can imagine I was befuddled. After switching back to the browser, then back to the game and so on, eventually I remembered that I'd seen that option when I was playing before... on the first disc. So I put that disc in instead and... voila! There it was! I DLed the DLs, and then managed to erase them by accident by hitting the power button on the DC instead of the "open" button (I had to put disc 2 back in). D'oh. Anyway, eventually I got them. I fought the giant looper, didn't bother buying the weapons (the ryu-kan weapons I have now are much better), and went to Hamachou Island. Lemme tell you, THAT was cute. I think my favorite part was the drunken hamachou party, but the "Chirpilass Chirpy!" one was excessively funny too. I got my cham, found out that I've been in well over 2500 battles, I've never run away once, that a character has died in battle about 6 times, that so far i've found 80% game treasure, and that my collection of fish is worth about 11,000G. That was fun, I'll have to go get my stats right before the final battle if I can.

Anyway, then I went to Ilchymis's Island because I wanted to get him (plus there was a cham at his place). Imagine my surprise when.. he turned out to be REALLY good-looking. I was like, "PLEASE join my party... you can play doctor as much as you want!" XD But he wouldn't. Stupid Enrique hadn't mastered silver yet. But he was 45 points from it so I went out and got in a few fights and came back, and Ilchymis joined me and set up shop in my cave, and I gave both him and Ryu-kan money so they could become l33t. Then I went to go under Valua.

The Maw of Tartas turned out to be a ship dungeon, but it was really short, I was at the end almost before I knew what was up. I had put the White Map on Vyse and forgotten about it so we hardly had any enemy encounters, but that was fine since I sure don't need the exp. Anyway, there was the yellow gigas, and although Vyse-tachi didn't WANT to wake it up it was obvious to ME that we'd end up fighting it, which we did. Short fight, not very tough. I didn't end up getting a chance to use my moonstone cannon, but I finished him off with a hit for 22,000 anyway (both my secondary cannons, the main cannon, and the torpedo hit him all at once). So I got my final crystal and went home, where we had a meeting. Then we went to the deep sky base of Dangral Island and invaded. Again, it was a surprisingly short and easy dungeon. I stole ship plans. What a cute little theif I am. Heehee.

Just previous to my schematic-snatching, there was a cut scene. Galcian was choosing mutiny and Ramirez was going with him... and the slash was SOOOOOO OBVIOUS, much more so than ever before. I mean, they were slashy before. But NOW... Ramirez was like, "I'd follow you anywhere, Lord Galcian," and "I'd do anything to assure your victory, Lord Galcian," and "I'll never leave your side, Lord Galcian." It was just... I mean DEAR LORD. It's really too bad too because I would REALLY like to put Fina with Ramirez since they've got the childhood-friend thing going, look good together, and would have a decent personality mesh if he wasn't a complete asshole (which I imagine he wasn't, previous to meeting Galcian). But with Galcian there I can never have a happy Fina/Ramirez thing going, which sucks since I DO NOT want her with Vyse, but I want her to have someone, since she's very nice and cute.

Actually, Alphonso surprised me by being loyal to the queen... and the way Ramirez was looking at him I couldn't help but think of slash between them too. It was really obvious at one point. I decided some time ago that I like Alphonso... even though he's an ego-inflated dweeb. But he's semi-honest, loyal to the queen, and of course he's just really funny. I don't love him or anything, but he's a fun character, and fairly good-looking. There was a scene after the meeting with Belleza which I found sad... she likes Galcian but of course he's got his little butt-boy and he's just using her. He told her to go see the Queen, and his plan was to use the Rain of Destruction on Valua first... I really think he wanted her to die. That ass. I'm NOT a Galcian fan... villains who just want power are always kinda dull to me. Villains who have some decent motive, or are crazy, or are in love or something (like Ramirez) are much more interesting, IMHO.

So I stole the plans and got out of there... but that cool old man protected me so I could escape. I always liked him even when we fought before because he was so obviously a loyal man who really cared both about Enrique AND his hordebeast mother. I think I may have gotten teary-eyed when he died. ;_; At least Galcian still has his honor; I do like that about him. I like him pretty well for a villain.

Then I went to the Vortex. *_* It was SOOOOO PRETTY. Especially the area right below the clouds, with the lightning and the ruins on the ground and the roiling sky... it gave me some more plot kitties. I'm kinda in the mood to write some epic game-sequel-fic, which amazes me. o.o;; It was so pretty between the clouds and the earth... and the Dark Rift music was back. So I got the velorium and fina's ship, took both back to my base, and we partied! Enrique had left my party just before this at Sailor's Island. He missed out on all the fun. However, Guilder was there when I got back so I was very happy, since I vastly prefer having Guilder in my party. All was happy... but then at the end Fina looked sad and Vyse went to talk to her... -_- and I was like "Noooooo! Don't be all cute together!" but before he could... Ramirez attacked and she fell into Vyse's arms (that made me even angrier at Ramirez than I was for him attacking my base).

So I ran outside and had a short battle with some wussy soldiers. My base was BURNING! My beautiful Yafutoman-style base! BURNING!!! I was VERY unhappy, shreiking imprecations at the screen. How DARE he invade and burn MY BASE!!! Shades of my hometown came back to haunt me as I stood there. Then Ramirez came down and was all assy at me and tried to kill Fina! I was glad that the person who caught Fina and held her was Aika. I gave him my crystals. ;_; It sucked. I was VERY UNHAPPY~! I screamed at the screen and was like "DAMN YOU RAMIREZ!!! YOU'RE GONNA PAY!!! RAR!" Few game villains have ever worked me up this much, but I was just MAD! But there was nothing we could do. ;_;

Then my base was all trashed and stuff. I talked to people and we started rebuilding... watching Lawrence chase chickens around the screen made me laugh and laugh and laugh. He started being a little more supportive while standing in the dog food room too. Heehee. I was happy about that. So then nobody would sell me anything, and I had to go to the Silver City to find out the Truth. (Insert dramatic music.)

The Silver City was... beautiful. The glass walkways you could see through were so pretty... it was like being inside a glass computer or something. The beginning where you were upside down was so cool too, but I'm glad you didn't stay like that, I was having trouble walking straight. Anyway, I talked to the Elders and gave them a piece of my mind and then Ramirez and Galcian showed up and took the Elder's silver crystal... and Galcian was like, "We had to get one, and I couldn't take the one in Ramirez... he's much too valuable to me." Which was pretty much what I thought. Dear GOD are they slashy. So then we went home again to Crescent Island and I had to go back to Dangral Island and stuff. But first... I got my Velorium weapon for Vyse, and I spent my accumulated 600,000G all on seeds from Ilchymis. Then I l33ted my guys up like nobody's business (though frankly they were already really buff, even Guilder who is 10 levels behind). Heeheehee. Then I set out.

I had to fight Vigoro again and he hit on Aika again. I have to applaud him for his good taste in women, but she will NEVER be his. He realized that after I beat his ass. The funniest thing about Vigoro is his, er, crotchly symbol of vigor. He's wearing spandex pants and looks like he's got a big block of wood right in his area. Now either the man has a constant boner, or else he's got the world's biggest jockstrap.

So I arrived in Soltis just in time to be too late, which is standard in RPGs. I fought a robot boss. Vigoro was a lot harder, since he had this one attack that would take off 3/4 of Aika's HP (he only used it on her for some reason). Anyway they raised Soltis and I had to run away on the rails, which gave way to some amusing comments and facial expressions from Aika and Guilder. Then Galcian bombed Value and Belleza and Enrique were almost caught in it, and Alphonso was killed ;_; and so was the Queen XD XD XD. I like Belleza and always have ever since I beat her the first time, so I was glad she was with Enrique. Then I went home to my base, where Vyse finally gave way to depression and felt all helpless.But then! The best part of the game so far! EVERYBODY came! It was the best feeling... nostalgic joy filled me as people came to help me fight the Armada!

Moegi thought Enrique was dead and fainted into Fina's arms, and all I could think was, "Wow, Fina, someone wussier than you!" But they're both cute. So first Enrique and Belleza showed up to show me they weren't dead and Moegi perked right up... she makes Enrique seem so incredibly manly when all the other girls in the game make him seem like the little fop he is. I find that funny. Then... EVERYONE showed up! I was cheering as people just kept coming in! Clara showed up with her hilarious pink ship! The fat pirate and the Black Pirate Balgor (or whoever) both showed up with their ships! Elton John, I mean Centine, showed up! XD XD XD The TENKOU showed up, and so did Daigo, and I swooned again from his awesomeness! And then! And then! The BEST BEST BEST PART! I shrieked in utter joy when I saw that familiar flag... MY DAD SHOWED UP!!! I ADORE my dad. He is so cool. And he said... he said I'd grown up and he was all proud of me and stuff! I about died of joy.

This game-induced happiness must have looked really freakish to Holly and Shane, who came in right before that and were watching me play. ^^; Anyway, after that we all got a good night's sleep, except Vyse, Aika, and Fina. I went to go reassure Aika first.. I always talk to Aika first because I lub her. Anyway, Vyse told her he was scared too, and they had a simply ADORABLE little moment... and then... SHE KISSED HIM! XD XD XD XD XD I was shrieking again and I'm sure I looked fruity, but dammit, I waited so long to see something adorable like that! (I was also cheering my head off back at the undercloud island when Vyse leapt off the falling rail and Aika caught him and he was lying on top of her... heeheehee... god, that ruled.) It was just on the cheek, but he looked all surprised and put his hand on his cheek... and I was like... "VYSE! Moons to Vyse! Come in Vyse! Your best friend is a GIRL and she LIKES YOU. That was a girl, do you know the difference between girls and boys? It's not just their magic rating." Anyway it was so sweet.

So then I went to talk to Fina... she told me how she missed the Ramirez that had been her best friend and how much she missed him, ect, and I was thinking again how unfortunate the whole Ramirez thing was. Anyway then I got two choices: 1) comfort her with words, or 2) say nothing and put your arm around her shoulders. Of course I picked choice 1... I try as often as possible NOT to be "Vyse the Pimp." And of course I had just had my sparkly Vyse/Aika moment and did NOT want to ruin it with a crappy Vyse/Fina moment.

So that's where I am right now; I'm about to go to Soltis with my merry band of people who either are my friends, or who hate Galcian more than they hate me, and hopefully I'll finish the game tonight! The last blog entry awaiteth!

Later. "Go forth into the breach!"

Saturday, June 9, 2001 04:34 a.m.
just a short entry: kya-chan, kristi hasn't played Skies! Since you're seeing her, maybe you should take it over to her place and loan it to her? We should get more people into it. It's giving me crazy fic urges. Anyway, I just played it for like 6 hours straight so I got through a bunch of stuff. I'll blog tomorrow from work, but I've got to go to bed right now. Oh, and D-chan and Ryry-kun, if you wanted to hang out tomorrow night, that's cool. Atkins-dono, I know I didn't really get back to you since yesterday or whatever, but you know me, whatever..

Later. FF8 is a good game.

Friday, June 8, 2001 03:59 a.m.
archived. New layout. What do you think? This is one of my favorite pictures from ANY of my doujinshi I own... it's just that cool. I guess I should add where I got the picture and the circle to the side of the blog, I'll do that later. Anyway this layout gave me a massive headache; scanning and coloring the picture was pretty fast, but then I could not for the life of me figure out what to do with the picture. I also felt guilty about the pic since I've already done a FF8 layout for this blog (v.2, I believe). But dammit, the pic rocks, and Laguna looks REALLY GOOD, and dear lord, there is NOTHING cuter than moombas. They are fscking ADORABLE. Waaaah! Just looking at the cute moomba makes me happy! **collapses in a pile of sparklies** Anyway I hope this triangle layout seems cool; it took me forever to think of something to do with the pic... Layout's still got a few bugs, sigh, but mostly I think it'll be okay... it's usable, anyway.

priya-saaa, I ADORE your new layout. Not only is it FF8, but it's just so hilarious. I'm impressed you made that layout from the scan you showed me. XD I think my next layout will either be the one I originally planned for this layout (as soon as I find or draw a pic of shingo asleep, or find a suitable substitute character) or else this Chrono Cross layout floating around my brain.. but I might use that for something else before then. As usual I expect my layouts to stay up for a while since I suck at making them.

Well, anyway, in 3 weeks or so my blog will also be a year old! Woo! So this is sorta commemorative. Omedetou, kya-chan's blog. Heh. Anyway, Kya, we should discuss cosplay for AIowa, and also... depending on who's coming, I want to e-mail them and volunteer us all to do a yaoi panel and a website panel... I dunno if those will be popular panels at a con like AIowa, but they both seemed successful at ACen. Anyway, uh, this is pretty much a test entry so I'll wrap it up.

Later. "but I asked her out, I told her we could have fun; she laughed at me like a honeymooners rerun.." --blessid union of souls