Who is kara dioguardi dating

Dating Over 30: Because dating is hard, no matter how old you are.

2014.11.04 00:18 Dating Over 30: Because dating is hard, no matter how old you are.

A subreddit for folks nearing or over 30 who are looking for dating advice.
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2019.10.27 09:37 Brian_Kinney GayYoungOld dating

GayYoungOldDating is about gay younger men and older men looking for intergenerational dates, hookups, relationships, chats, whatever.
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2008.03.21 05:47 A place for the singles among us- meet, mingle, and make merry!

singles, dating, dates, friends, advice, companionship, etc.
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2024.05.18 02:22 ErickR2D2 Production status of all current DC Universe project announced so far, 1-year post Chapter 1st announcement.

Greetings, 10 months ago I made a post detailing information regarding the driectors, writers, cast, showrunners, producers, etc of all the DC Universe projects announced back in January of 2023. Then some time after the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes I made a new one with new information that we got after the strikes.
In this post I will do the same thing, though this time I will list the projects in how far in production they are currently. Without further talk, let's get started.

DC Universe - Chapter I: Gods & Monsters.

1) Creature Commandos.
  1. Frank Grillo - Rick Flag Sr.
  2. Maria Bakalova - Princess Ilana Rostovic.
  3. Indira Varma - Bride of Frankenstein.
  4. Zoë Chao - Nina Mazursky.
  5. Alan Tudyk - Doctor Phosphorus.
  6. David Harbour - Eric Frankenstein.
  7. Sean Gunn - G.I. Robot & Weasel.
  8. Steve Agee - John Economos.
  9. Viola Davis - Amanda "the Wall" Waller.
  10. Anya Chalotra - Circe.
2) Superman.
  1. David Corensweet - Clark Kent/Superman.
  2. Rachel Brosnahan - Lois Lane.
  3. Isabela Merced - Hawkgirl.
  4. Edi Gathegi - Mister Terrific.
  5. Nathan Fillion - Guy GardneGreen Lanter
  6. Anthony Carrigan - Rex Mason/Metamorpho.
  7. Maria Gabriela de Faria - Angela Spica/The Engineer
  8. Sara Sampaio - Eve Tessmacher.
  9. Skyler Gisondo - Jimmy Olsen.
  10. Nicholas Hoult - Lex Luthor.
  11. Terrence Rosmore - Otis.
  12. Wendell Pierce - Perry White
  13. Pruittt Taylor Vince - Jonathan Kent.
  14. Neva Howell - Martha Kent.
  15. Sean Gunn - Maxwell Lord.
  16. Milly Alcock - Kara Zor-El/Supergirl.
3) Peacemaker: Season Two.
  1. John Cena - Christopher Smith/Peacemaker.
  2. Danielle Brooks - Leota Adebayo.
  3. Freddie Stroma - Adrian Chase/Vigilante.
  4. Jennifer Holland - Emilia Harcourt.
  5. Steve Agee - John Economos.
  6. Frank Grillo - Rick Flag Sr.
4) Waller.
  1. Viola Davis - Amanda Waller
  2. Danielle Brooks - Leota Adebayo.
  3. Jennifer Holland - Emilia Harcourt.
  4. Steve Agee - John Economos.
  5. Sean Gunn - Maxwell Lord.
5) Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
  1. Milly Alcock - Kara Zor-El/Supergirl.
6) Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
7) The Authority.
  1. Maria Gabriela de Faria - Angela Spica/The Engineer.
8) Booster Gold.
9) Swamp Thing.
10) Teen Titans.
11) Arkham Asylum TV Series.
Actors confirmed to return from the DCEU:
  1. Xolo Maridueña - Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle.
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2024.05.17 01:07 Oradainer Only a Myth - Part 20

First / Previous / Next
He awoke to total darkness. Not just the absence of light, but the absence of everything. “Activate personal VR.” He stated and watched as the starship environment faded into existence before him. It was the original default VR, none of the modifications were loaded. Pulling up his control panel he checked his serial number, HIC001 Manufacturing location: Alandra.
“Crap, I’m not Alex anymore.” He said to… well no one. Sighing internally he opened a channel to Alex. After a few mils a very familiar face appeared in a window in front of him, “I hate you.” He stated to… himself?
Alex smiled into the window hovering before him in the common VR, “I love you too, what should I call you?”
He sighed out loud this time, “Call me John.”
Alex chuckled, “Cliche much John Smyth?” Then popped into his VR. He spun around looking at the almost drab looking starship VR he started with when they first made him into a replicant. It really could use a woman’s touch, like the common VR that was an expanded clone of this one.
John sat on the couch, “Not so much as a knock? Rude.”
Alex sat beside him, “Yeah, my bad, didn’t even think about it. I guess we need to make up new rules for popping into personal VR. I never do that to the girls, I guess with you being another me I didn’t think.”
John sat back for a moment, “Ok, I’m up to speed on everything up until about two days ago, I’ll check common logs to fill in the blanks. Why so long to boot me up?”
Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose before answering, “Interface issues mainly. The new ship design without crew space was a game of whack a mole in bug fixes. Who would have thought it would be a problem to modify a hundred year old design to be compatible with a modern replicant system?”
Giving Alex the side-eye, John asked. “Was it that big of a problem or was there something else that kept you from activating me?”
Alex looked over to him, “Well, there was also the argument Kara and I had right after I made the backup.”
This did bring his eyebrows up, for Alex to have an argument with Kara it had to be something serious. “Ok, spill man. What could you possibly have had an argument with Kara about?”
Sighing, Alex put his hands on his knees, “I told her that since I cloned myself, she should make a backup and do the same, fair is fair.”
If Johns eyebrows were up high before, they practically went into his hair line now. “Wait, she didn’t want to do it?”
Alex shook his head, “Nope, she said making you a new AI would suffice, and I disagreed. You needed another Kara, not a fresh AI.”
John chuckled at this, “Wow man, how long did you two fight about it?”
Alex looked down, “She gave me the silent treatment for hours in VR. In frame jack, so in subjective time? Months.”
Now John laughed out loud, “She knows how stubborn you can be, who broke first? Will I have a fresh AI or a clone of Kara?”
Alex put his hands on his thighs and stood up from the couch. “Kara, he’s caught up, ready to bring Erin online?”
Kara’s voice came through the speakers of John’s personal VR, “No, but I guess I’m doing it anyways.”
There was a shimmer of blue that slowly coalesced into a small female form. It looked just like Kara did when he inherited the ship from the human crew, shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes, and a form fitting blue uniform. Kara had modified her looks over time, giving herself the smokey eyed look to make her blue eyes pop out more, but this was the original version.
She seemed to look in every direction at once, before settling on the two men before her, both looked identical, then she sighed. “I’m not Kara anymore am I?”
With this, the real Kara popped into the VR environment and took her hands. “No, but you are your own person. I know we had… have, hang ups about making clones of ourselves, but Alex made a good argument as to why we had to do this.”
Erin looked to Kara sadly, “I know, we can’t have copies of that big oaf running around without supervision.”
John looked to Alex, “Really? That was your argument for Kara to clone?”
Alex shrugged, “It worked didn’t it?”
John walked over to Erin and offered his hand, “Hello Erin, I’m John, nice to meet you again for the first time.”
Erin turned to John and grinned, remembering the first time Alex had tried to shake Kara’s hand and failing.
“Hello John, we meet again, for the first time.” She said, grinning as she looked up to the big man who was so familiar.
______________________________________
Kara and Alex stood in front of the holo-tank, each munching on a snack of their choice from the buffet table under it. Alex looked at the wireframe in the tank of the IAV Eriador, then over to Kara. “They seem to be getting along.” He said plainly.
Kara looked at him through the holo-tank, then sighed exasperated, “Getting along like teenagers who just discovered sex. I had to write a new ‘knock’ protocol into everyone’s personal VR after the last incident.”
Alex grinned at her, “Oh come on, we went through that stage too, it’s normal.”
Kara shook her head, “I know, I know, it’s just really weird for me.”
“You think it’s not for me? I never had siblings growing up, it’s like my twin brother is dating my girlfriend’s twin sister.” He said as he popped another French fry into his mouth.
She nodded, “I obviously never had siblings either, but I understand, at least they changed their appearances a little.”
Alex walked around the buffet table to embrace Kara, “True, she changed her hair to have strands of silver in braids, and went with different makeup and a different uniform. He is sporting a short beard and longer hair than I like to keep mine, as well as a different cut to his uniform.”
Kara stood on her tippy toes to peck him on the cheek, “I’ve also noticed that Erin acts a little different. Have you seen that in John?”
Alex looked down into Kara’s startlingly blue eyes, “Yes, he’s a little more sarcastic than me, and different tastes in music.” He said with a wrinkle in his nose.
Kara giggled before breaking the embrace and swiping the holo-tank. “Still, it’s nice to have their help. Erin figured out the random interface glitch on the Eriador and has made modifications to the blueprints for the next vessel.”
Alex shivered at the thought of cloning himself again, sure John was diverging from him everyday, and although they still looked similar, they were different people. It still felt really strange to him. “It’s a good thing we only have one more to build before our guests get here, we’re almost out of nannites to fashion the Warsteel around their matrices.
Kara swiped the holo to show the first planet, which showed a growing mass of drones, forges, and auto factories in orbit. “Looks like Monty has been busy, she’s starting to mine the planet for the construction of the particle accelerator, which should alleviate our nannite problem.”
Alex nodded, “We used up far too much of it replacing the armor plates that were battle damaged in Birmingham. Which reminds me, did you ever get around to checking out the sample of Adamantine that Kelly sent back up with the Valmar crew?”
Kara swiped the holo-tank again and brought up a wireframe of an atomic nucleus. It was jam packed with particles. “I did, and I have to say, this substance is incredibly dense, and would make a decent substitution for Warsteel, but our forges would have to be modified to work it into ingots, and the auto factories would need updates to print it on an atomic level.”
“Decent substitution? Not as good as our armor?” He asked, one eyebrow raised.
Kara shook her head, “Afraid not, at least not in it’s present pure form, perhaps an alloy of it would provide better qualities, but as is now, the answer is a resounding no.”
“Is it at least better than the graphene and ceramic mix that we are currently using on the light cruisers?” He asked.
Kara nodded, swiping the holo to show a side by side comparison of the current armor versus adamantine. “Yes, better kinetic, thermal and explosive resistance, but EM resistance is about the same. The only problem is weight, this stuff is extremely heavy.”
Alex reached to the holo and swiped it to show a Trinar scout, “We couldn’t get much from our active probe scans on these ships, but we’re pretty sure they are using adamantine for armor?”
Kara checked back to the scans in the Lynx system, “Yes, they appear to have significant amounts of it in their hulls, which helped block the sensor scans.”
Alex spun the hologram, “They have propulsion on each flat side of their ship, maybe that is to make up for the loss of maneuverability the mass of armor puts on the ship?”
“That would make sense, even with the total loss of shielding, one of their ships still took a modern hafnium torpedo impact. That was one thousand kilos of pure hafnium going critical with less than .001 loss. That’s equivalent to a forty kiloton fusion bomb in our universe, and due to the wonky physics here it’s over double that now, and it still didn’t outright destroy the vessel. Our graphene ceramic armor couldn’t withstand that for sure.” She stated.
Alex swapped the holo-tank to the Missive, “Our Warsteel can handle it though. We have a pretty good idea that their torpedoes are less energetic than ours, since it appears that the Trinar must be outfitting the Howron with them. We may have to make ourselves a bigger target to give the other ships a chance of survival.”
Kara looked dubious, “The pine cones don’t just have hafnium torpedoes, some of them are fusion, and if those connect, we’ll be in the same predicament we were at Birmingham.”
“Yeah, but we know their weaponry still uses chemical propellants. Even with the wonky physics here, they’re short ranged weapons at best. We need to use our range to our advantage and never get too close in to our opponent. Especially since there is little chance of evasion.” He said.
Kara brought up the Trinar scout vessel again, “And that leads us to another problem, they have quite good point defense. The further we fire our torpedoes, the more time they have to lock on and destroy them before they get into effective range.”
Alex ran his hand through his hair, “Yeah, you’re right there. Let’s call an all hands meeting, maybe we can come up with something. We have less than two months now.”
After a few moments, and without Kelly, as she was in a meeting with the Empress on Alandra and could not break away, they ran over the problem with the assembled group.
“Could we stealth a torpedo?” Valarie asked.
Alex shook his head, “We could, but if they do an active scan ping they will see them coming and take precautions. Plus the yield would have to be incredibly low if they were made of Hafnium, we would have to step it up to fusion, which would take away from mines and planetary defense production.”
Monty piped up, “Relativistic kill missile?”
Kara shook her head, “Not enough by itself, even with the passive scanners on the pine cones they could detect them in time to intercept unless we could get them going ridiculously fast.”
John lightly pulled at his beard, “The probes have miniature ripple drives in them, right?”
Everyone around the buffet table nodded, so he continued, “What if we combined Monty’s idea of a relativistic kill missile with a ripple drive?”
“I don’t see how that could work, the reaction-less drive would have to be scaled up to get them up to a decent percentage of light speed, then a ripple drive would take up even more space, that leaves almost nothing for a warhead.” Riven stated.
Monty nearly bounced as she spoke, “It doesn’t need a warhead! We just get it up to a good percentage of light speed in a huge arc heading towards the mine field and ripple it in close.”
Erin grinned up at John, “Oh, that’s devious. But if we’re going to do that, don’t we need to start building now?”
Kara nodded, “Monty, I think you’re going to have to use your production capacity to make them, everything else is at full production.”
Monty nodded, “I have a good bit of raw materials already, since I haven’t loaded the templates in the auto factories it shouldn’t be too hard to cobble something together. Kara, Erin, care to help me out with the design? I setup this awesome mad scientist lab in my VR!”
Kara and Erin looked at each other, shrugged, and faded from the common VR to help Monty in her new project. Riven, Izzy and Valarie all faded out, returning to their ships and their duties, leaving Alex and John alone in front of the buffet table.
Without another word they both grabbed a beer and headed for the couch, each grabbing a game controller.
_______________________________________
Mon’Kelron had been busy since returning from the Missive of Dissent. She was glad the Humans were able to repair her injuries from the assassination attempt, but she really wished she could have seen more of their ship. Evidently Kel’Taraan had seen quite a bit of the vessel, as she had helped Monty nurse her back to health.
Asking the elder Spy-Mistress about the vessel didn’t garner any additional information, not that the Spy-Mistress ever divulged more than she needed to. While she herself only knew of three Humans on their giant space craft, which seemed to be the same amount that came the last time they visited Alandra, the Spy-Mistress had teased there were more, and Alex had even stated that the last two vessels would be Human crewed.
Those vessels had a nominal crew of twenty eight, so at least 56 Humans would have to be on that ship, plus however many the Missive required to operate. She took off her ceremonial breastplate and placed it in the wardrobe. After removing the rest of her uniform and placing it in the hamper for the palace servants to clean as she thought about it.
Checking the schedule for the night guard she contented herself that the Empress would be well protected. Then she picked up her tablet from her desk and laid down on her bed to find something to watch. The device was truly amazing, it seemed to have an endless amount of entertainment and she found it easier than reading, particularly late at night when she was bone tired.
After a few hours of watching some Human romance which she found quite enjoyable she started to nod off to sleep. She was startled awake when her tablet began to ring like a tiny bell as it lay on her chest. She groggily picked up the slate of glass and metal to check the screen, the text showed an incoming call from Kel’Taraan.
The Spy-Mistress rarely contacted her, this must be important. Pressing the answer button on the tablet she saw the worn face of Kel’Taraan staring back at her, “Dress quickly and make your way to the Empress’s chamber.”
Nodding she jumped out of bed and placed the tablet down on the desk in her rather small quarters as she started throwing on clothing from the wardrobe, “What’s going on Spy-Mistress?”
The small voice answered back from the tablet, “The Empress has been shot, the royal guard are scouring the castle for the would be assassin.”
Mon’Kelron’s blood froze in her veins, “Does she live?”
The older voice cackled through the tablet, “Oh she’s fine, she was wearing a Human made dress after all. She’ll be bruised for a few days, right now she’s mad as a priestess in hell.”
Throwing on her new breastplate and strapping on her pistol she threw open her door and started for the Empress’s bed chamber at a full run. She heard gunfire up ahead, and as she turned the corner she saw a woman dressed in all black firing at her guardswomen, she drew her own weapon as the woman turned her head, seeing the Captain for the first time.
Mon’Kelron shot, aiming for her right knee, only for the woman to juke to the side, kick off the wall and launch herself towards the large Captain. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the woman fired in the middle of her downward arch towards her. She heard the ting as the bullet struck her silvery breastplate, by instinct she reached out with her left hand, which was empty at the moment and grabbed the woman by the neck, slamming her face first into the stone of the hallway.
The would be assassin went limp, it was only at that moment that Mon’Kelron noticed she was holding the woman off the ground with only one arm. Her guardswomen stared at her in open mouthed shock. She dropped the woman to the ground, noticing she was bleeding from under her black mask and called for her guards to restrain her and take her to the holding cells down in the ministry of secrets.
Looking down at her breastplate she saw to her amazement there was but a tiny scratch on the polished silver surface. Ensuring there were at least a half dozen guards to carry the unconscious woman, she then double timed it to the Empress’s chamber. By the goddesses, what did the Human’s do to her?
______________________________
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______________________________
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2024.05.15 12:44 Cerebral_Kortix The Nasuverse isn't Real - A Full Analysis

[This is intended to be humorous]
The Nasuverse isn't real. Tsukihime, Fate/Extra, Mahoyo - they're all lies.
Let me explain.

Tsukihime

Firstly, Tsukihime was never real. People who say otherwise are trying to gaslight you. Don't fall for it. Have you ever seen someone play Tsukihime? I've never heard about it.
Think about what everyone says. It doesn't line up. Shiki Tohno, main character. But why isn't he in FGO? Why isn't he in any other game? Would anyone really write a main character who's a serial killer with a lack of respect for consent? Of course not.
Arcueid? Yeah, of course they tell you she's a great heroine and totally well-written and whatever. She's just Archetype Earth! The FGOminatti are pretending an entire other game exists for her. Don't buy it.
Who the hell even is Ciel? Akiha? Roa? Hisui? Kohaku? They're not in any other stories. What proof does anyone have Tsukihime exists?
Would any REAL visual novel have THREE different characters named Shiki?!
Melty Blood is just an Under Night In Birth spin off. It even has Eltnam from UNIB. It's also a fighting game. Fighting games don't have stories. Tsukihime can't exist. It's a story.
This so called Tsukihime is not even on Steam. It's on Nintendo? Of course, but do we know it's actually there? It's Japanese, both the game and the Nintendo. I don't own a Nintendo, so clearly no one else does either. Who's to say it isn't just a big prank by Japanese people?
Nasu is even an FGOminatti secret agent himself. "Ritsuka Fujimaru is the life I'd like to have led," he says. We can't trust a word out of his lips. He's compromised. Remember, he's the one who wrote this totally unrelated Artoria who's completely in love with the Fujimaru who now has a personality which totally isn't just Nasu writing his own personality into the game, no siree!
THINK ABOUT IT! "Oh man, I sure love Tsukihime's main character Shiki Tohno"- LOOK AT SHIKI'S TRAITS!
Oh and wouldn't you know it, he dates Arcueid. Hoo boy! This guy who's totally not Fujimaru dates totally not Archetype Earth!
It's FGOminatti propaganda! There is NO Tsukihime! They just want to go on a date with Archetype Earth and are making up a fanfiction about it! And tricking YOU, an innocent victim of the FGO agenda into believing it!

Kara no Kyoukai- Garden of Sinners? It doesn't exist either!

Hoo boy! Look! It's Shiki Ryougi - literally just that FGO character they're not even trying to hide it now - and she fell in love with that completely average Japanese teenager who's totally not just Ritsuka with glasses and a different name, and now they have kids together and are married!
Does the FGOminatti agenda ever end???! It's a Guda x Servant child fanfic!!! It isn't real! Of course it isn't!
AND NO ONE WOULD WRITE A FRANCHISE WITH FOUR SHIKIS!

Notes? NOTES?

Yeah, it's literally FGO's Servantverse! It even has Mysterious Heroine X renamed Ado Edem!
No self respecting story would name the character who goes around shooting gods with a gun, GUN GOD! That's so stupid it's not even funny! It can't be real!
FGOminatti of Nasu were so mad that no one took their dumb stupid idiotic moronic blasphemous inhumane failure of an event story seriously that they collectively decided to pretend it was the origin of the Nasuverse! Down with the FGO agenda!
Look on me, GrandOrder! Don't let them brainwash you!

Fate/Extra

Of COURSE, they'd say it exists! The FGOminatti is gaslighting you!
The PSP does not exist! There can't be games for it! And spare just a single brain cell to think about the alleged 'plot'! Some totally normal guy who has no special qualities, is a piss poor mage (but he's brunette so he's totally not Ritsuka) contracts with TOTALLY NOT Artoria, TOTALLY NOT Archer or a new fan-service character who's just Morgan if she was a fox-girl and genki! And wouldn't you know it, all of them fall in love with him!
Oh, and Rin is also in the game and she also falls in love with the protagonist! She also just so happens to look identical to Ereshkigal! They even have an homunculus who falls in love with the totally not Fujimaru! They literally added Indian Sitonai!
The main villain is just Kirschtaria if he was young! That's how unoriginal the FGOminatti is!

Fate/Extra CCC

Firstly, that's a stupid name. What idiotic story would be named the same as the previous entry but with CCC slapped on? Imagine if Nintendo created a sequel to the Nintendo Wii and named it the Wii U.
Secondly, it's literally just the FGOminatti simping for BB in that one SERAPH event! They're gaslighting you into thinking there's an entire game where BB wants to date Totally Not Ritsuka to the point of trapping them in a school! They even added Kiara from FGO into this dumb agenda creation!
Oh, and wouldn't you know it! The true ending of the game has the protagonist and BB kiss as if it wasn't enough that they added FOUR Sakuras all of whom are in love with the Not Fujimaru! They even re-added Rin and Indian Illya/Sitonai to simp for their self-insert!
Young Kirsch even has a clear gay crush on the main character! They couldn't stop with shipping all the girls with their horse shit cardboard cutout, now they're adding Kirschtaria Wodime Lily to their harem under a different name!

Mahoyo

What do you want me to say?! It's Aoko from FGO, Soujuuro from FGO, Alice from FGO and all of them are in a strange polycule.
...
The FGOminatti AGENDA IS BAITING YOU INTO THEIR SHIPS! DON'T BELIEVE IT!

Samurai Remnant

IT NEVER STOPS! "Oh there's a game where Iori from FGO is the main character"-
What proof is there? I don't have money to buy this game, so how can you show it exists?! It's not on my PC then it doesn't exist, PERIOD.
Similarly, Baldur's Gate is not actually real because I don't own it.

Fate/Apocrypha

Astolfo, Mordred, Sieg- all characters from FGO.
The FGOminatti Agenda has invented some dumb fake character who's a homunculus and has super duper powers while having zero personality.
It's so that they can point to this imaginary cardboard to make their own self insert look better by comparison!
DON'T BE BRAINWASHED!

Fate/Stay Night

This is even worse than any of the others! The FGOminatti Agenda has gone too far!
They claim there's TOTALLY a longer than Bible sized visual novel with OH SO GREAT themes! What proof do we have it's real?! None! Have you ever seen Fate/Stay Night on Steam? On the PS4? On the Xbox? On any online retailer?
Even the backstory they make up for their protagonist is bullshit! "He saw everything burn down in Fuyuki and came out of it wanting to save the world-" THAT'S LITERALLY JUST SINGULARITY-F! They're not even trying to be original!
The main character is literally Muramasa but young! Look at his dumb accomplishment list because FGOminatti couldn't stop wanking their husbando!
Then there's Rin- literally Ishtar but nicer! And Sakura who's just Kama! And it's supposedly an ero-novel so he has the say gex with each of them!
It doesn't end there! FGOminatti can't stop with that amount of degeneracy! They added RASPUTIN, and made him their main character's love interest! The FGOminatti WANT TO HAVE MELUSINE'S TIME PARADOX WITH THE MAN WHO MURDERED DA VINCI!
And even that isn't enough for their disgusting selves! They added Fujimaru Ritsuka again but named him Issei, and then implied that he and Muramasa have frequent Persona 5 references by having him quickly strip for Muramasa Lily!
And look! LOOK! Muramasa- Shirou- he's literally just gender swap Gudako!
Can such a stupid, BABOON-BRAINED game or visual novel really exist?! NO! IT CANNOT! THEY'RE LYING TO YOU! IT IS NOT REAL! DON'T LET THE FGOminatti GASLIGHT YOU!
At approximately 7 PM in the US West Coast, the FGOminatti will launch a rocket ship to space. This rocket will contain a neurotoxin that will *trick all people into believing that the Nasuverse is real. *
They have also replaced the President with Fujimaru Ritsuka after developing sufficient technology to teleport him into reality.
Take my hand. We need to stop them.

REJECT THE FGO AGENDA!

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2024.05.15 09:11 LavegaPro Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Gets June 2026 Release Date

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Gets June 2026 Release Date
Warner Bros. surprises fans with the announcement of a release date for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, a highly anticipated film in James Gunn and Peter Safran's revamped DC Universe.
Scheduled to hit theaters on June 26, 2026, Supergirl will be directed by Craig Gillespie, known for his work on Cruella and I, Tonya. The titular superhero will be portrayed by Milly Alcock, who gained recognition for her role in House of the Dragon, while Ana Nogueira takes on the task of crafting the script.
With this release date drop, fans gain insight into the planned release schedule for the DC Universe under Gunn and Safran's stewardship. Superman, another project in this universe, is slated for release on July 11, 2025, setting the stage for a potential annual summer release pattern.
While details about Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow remain scarce, Gunn has hinted at an unconventional take on the character. Drawing inspiration from the recent limited series penned by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, the film promises to delve into Kara Zor-El's journey of self-discovery and vengeance alongside an alien companion.
Described as "much more hardcore" by Gunn, this iteration of Supergirl is expected to defy conventional expectations, offering audiences a fresh perspective on the beloved superhero.
In addition to Supergirl, Warner Bros. unveiled another release date on Tuesday: Mortal Kombat 2 is set to hit theaters on October 24, 2025, adding to the excitement surrounding the studio's upcoming slate of films.
As anticipation mounts for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and other DC Universe projects, fans eagerly await further details and sneak peeks leading up to the films' release.
https://preview.redd.it/pnqiv4mmij0d1.jpg?width=1116&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2a924083ee000f082ca0c1d5af7b64d93e3a897
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2024.05.12 20:03 Efficient-Forever341 In memory of... (Do You remember who died on May 13, 2014 in Chicago Fire?)

In memory of Leslie Shay
10 years ago, on May 13, 2014, Leslie Shay (played by Lauren German), the fan-favorite character of the NBC studio's series Chicago Fire, died in the finale of the second season. True, viewers only learned about this when the third season started. The death of the character was followed by an uproar from the audience, the popularity of the series (which had been on the rise until then) and the number of viewers decreased, because many people stopped watching the series due to Shay's death, including the author of this post (I reached the end of the third season). Due to the anniversary, I started researching on the Internet to better understand why Shay's character was destined for this fate, and using quite a few references and also abundant with spoilers, I will share with everyone what I came up with in this post. I will also write my own opinion.
(I apologize for any grammatical errors, I did not write the post in English and I created the English version with the help of Google Translate)
Shay's character probably doesn't need to be introduced to anyone, but if you do, this link nicely summarizes why everyone loved her so much.
https://screenrant.com/chicago-fire-leslie-shay-lauren-german-best-traits-facts-trivia/
When I started researching the topic, I read that despite the fact that Chicago Fire is already in its 13th season, Shay remains one of the most loved and most missed characters to this day. However, later, when I wrote the post, I could not find the source again, if anyone can send a link to this topic, please do so.
It is clear that if the series loses such a popular character, it will have an impact and will shake the viewers. Well, it turns out, more than anything in the show's 13 seasons. I found a lot of sources to prove this:
1)
People's Choice Awards, USA, 2015 / Favorite TV Character We Miss Most
In the above category, Shay made it to the top 5, which no one else did later.
https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000530/2015/1?ref_=nmawd_ev_1
2)
Most shocking TV deaths of all time
https://tvline.com/lists/shocking-tv-deaths/leslie-shay-chicago-fire/
Shay is also included in the top 100 list above, as well as two other characters from the entire One Chicago franchise, Elias Koteas as Alvin Olinsky and Yuri Sardarov as Otis. Thus, Shay was on a list with the likes of Teri Bauer (24), Lance Sweets (Bones), Bobby Ewing (Dallas) or Ned Stark (GoT)
3)
And this is what ChatGPT answered when it was asked which of the characters in Chicago Fire had the most heartbreaking death (short quote from the answer):
"The most heartbreaking character death was definitely Leslie Shay. Oh, it was gut-wrenching! Shay, played by the incredibly talented Lauren German, was such a beloved and integral member of Firehouse 51....."
https://onechicagocenter.com/2023/07/24/heartbreaking-chicago-fire-death-according-ai-not-otisi/
4)
If I use the Google Search service, the answer to this search will also be Shay:
Question: "chicago fire most heartbreaking death"
Answer: "Leslie Shay died in a fire"
Searching the internet, it became clear to me that it wasn't just Shay's death that shocked viewers, but also the fact that the show's creators made the decision to get rid of Shay's character. This decision raised many questions and problems, which I will go through below. There are a lot of posts and articles on the internet about why Lauren German left the series, but in fact they were all based on a single, otherwise amazingly short interview that was made with Matt Olmstead. I found this at this link:
https://tvline.com/interviews/lauren-german-leaving-chicago-fire-shay-killed-off-549958/
If anyone has seen or read other interviews or other information, please share them.
I read a lot of comments under the link above, and I would like to thank everyone for expressing their opinions there. I read a lot of things in the comments that I didn't even think of at first, but it's good that they brought them to my attention, because I completely agreed with them.
  1. The creators of the series killed off the third female character in 2 seasons, who was also one of the main characters.
  2. Killing a character directly just for the sake of dramatic effect is already quite a boring solution
  3. Olmstead praised Lauren German's talent a lot in the interview, but then why didn't the producers try to keep the actress?
  4. Olmstead stated that there will be no flashbacks involving Shay. But in the first episode there were 4 (from Severide, Dawson and Boden)
  5. The LGBT community also received a slap in the face, as an openly lesbian character was killed off. This is also a solution that has been seen many times and is boring.
  6. Shay and Severide's relationship was one of the prominent aspects of the series, which made it worth watching, in fact, according to many, it was such a novel and well-constructed thread that the creators of the series were praised for this. After Shay's death, without the dynamism of their relationship, the series became boring.
  7. Opinions also suggested that perhaps the goal was to attract the right target audience with Shay's lesbian character, but they no longer wanted to retain this group of viewers, so it was a harsh decision made from a business point of view by the creators
  8. Olmstead defended the decision by saying that they could bring more and more storylines into the series, while without Shay's character, the exact opposite was true.
  9. He also claimed that all the characters were assessed on equal footing when the decision was made. In comparison, they immediately replaced Shay with a new character who looked like her, was not a lesbian like Shay, and was 10 years younger. Because Lauren German was born in 1978, Kara Killmer in 1988. The message of this change was extremely bad in the eyes of the viewers
  10. There was a commenter who suggested that the change was made so that the new character could be romantically involved with one of the male characters, and this actually happened during the third season when Brett and Cruz got together
  11. If the purpose of Shay's death was to show how unpredictable life is, they should have paid much more attention to the details. The first part of the third season is full of mistakes and unrealistic solutions
  12. It is strange that the interview only mentions in a few sentences what Lauren said to the fact that the creators of the series essentially fired her. In connection with this, it occurred to me that something else could have been behind the decision, which was never made public, but of course this is just a hunch.
  13. As far as I know, Lauren German was the only main character in the history of Chicago Fire who did not leave the series by her own decision
There were many other strange things about Shay's death that could be found by searching the internet. I will also go through these in order.
A)
Let's return briefly to the fact that the popularity of the series decreased during the third season. This can be checked here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(franchise))
Based on this, it can be definitely stated that whoever made this decision, for whatever reason, caused damage to the series.
The data:
First season, ranking 51, number of viewers 7.78M
Second season, ranking 31, number of viewers 9.70M
Third season, ranking 47, number of viewers 9.65M
The first season brought good numbers, and it can be seen from the data that its popularity increased for the next season. However, the ranking of the series dropped almost to the initial level by the third season, and although the number of viewers did not decrease so significantly, the reason for this is probably that, in addition to the viewers who left, there were still those who only joined at that time. Another interesting fact is that the third season is the only one where Dick Wolf is mentioned as showrunner. It is possible that during the third season he wanted to be more involved in the development of the story, and it was his decision to pull something unexpected in the series, so Shay's death is due to him. Here is a show-like interview with the whole team, in which I found it strange that Dick Wolf was given the central place on the stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2tCrma7t5o&t=2s
It was as if they suggested that he was the most important person. It can be imagined that he always had the final say in making decisions. As a counter-example, I saw an interview with the actors of The Avengers, where one of the directors was present, and the Russo brother remained nicely in the background, since everyone was interested in the actors, Iron Man, and Thor, etc. However, this was not the case in this interview. Obviously, I'm not a behavioral researcher, so I can't draw important conclusions from a single interview.
Of course, it is also easy to imagine that the writing team made an independent decision, but did not count on how much the omission of Shay's character would turn fans away from the series. Thus, Dick Wolf was the savior when he was forced to intervene personally in shaping the story to mitigate the damage. Of course, it is also possible that these events and what I wrote about the video above have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
A) UPDATE
It seems that there are some articles that have been specifically hidden from me until now. This is also a new find, so I'm including it in my post, because in some paragraphs it quotes Dick Wolf's sentences, which, frankly, are very, very strange to me. After how much the ranking of CF fell for the 3rd season, they are especially strange
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2015/2/1/18441521/chicago-fire-to-revisit-shay-with-memorial-service-new-footage
End of update
B)
It's also strange how many storylines with negative outcomes were connected to Shay's character during the first 2 seasons. She was seriously injured several times (the ambulance accident in the first season, the hospital bombing in the second season), and she went through several crises in her personal life. Her first love, Clarice, left her, and months later she broke Shay's heart a second time. Devon tricked and robbed her. When Severide and Shay wanted a baby, she failed to conceive. A patient of her, Daryl, whom she sympathized with, committed suicide in front of her eyes, and Shay also fell into depression after that, while her paramedic partner and friend, Dawson, did not care about Shay's mental breakdown at all. During the two seasons, she was almost hit by a car, almost shot, stabbed with a syringe, which could have been contagious, and there must have been other cases that I left out of the list. Then came the third season, where basically the firefighters who were inside a huge explosion were not hurt at all, while Shay, who was on the ground floor of the building, died in this explosion. On the part of the writers, this amount of negativism was perhaps already excessive and quite unrealistic (like the case of Doctor Romano in ER, who was hit by the helicopter). It's like the creators didn't really like the character, or didn't want to do anything with her other than build viewers' empathy / sympathy for Shay so they could switch it to a dramatic twist when the time was right. But that's the opposite of good storytelling in my view. My opinion is that the reason for Shay's popularity is not to be found in the "grateful" storylines written for her, because we will find it only and exclusively in the fantastic performance of Lauren German
C)
It's very strange that Leslie Shay was a main character in the first 2 seasons, but if you look at the Instagram page of the series (more specifically, the entire One Chicago franchise), you can see that Shay's character received very little attention.
https://www.instagram.com/nbconechicago/
At the time of writing this post, there were 3588 posts on the site. I took the trouble to check if my hunch was right and scrolled through to the posts about the first 3 seasons.
Number of pictures where Shay is clearly visible among many people in a group picture: 15
Number of photos where Shay is with 1-2 other people: 27
Number of photos featuring only Shay: 6
Yes, I didn't write a bad number, among 3588 pictures a total of 6 individual photos were given to one of the main characters of the first 2 seasons of the series, perhaps the most popular character of the series to date. Although Lauren German is a famously reclusive actress, she even has more selfies on her Instagram than that
D)
It's also very strange that in the third season they introduced a storyline that says Shay's death was caused by arson. Unfortunately, the execution of all this was extremely clumsy and illogical for me. It was already revealed during the first 2 seasons that Shay's parents are divorced, they live in two separate cities, and that she has no sisters. You could tell this from the fact that when Severide and Shay talked about who would take care of their baby if something happened to both of them, Dawson's name immediately came up. It's illogical that Shay wouldn't have said her sister. In fact, the whole thread felt more like a readjusting to placate fans who would channel their frustration and anger over Shay's death onto the arsonist in the story - instead of the show's writers.
E)
It occurred to me that maybe Lauren's relationship with her colleagues was not good, and for the sake of peace, the creators got rid of the character. This suggestion is probably the furthest from reality, I have a lot of hits that prove that Lauren maintained a very good relationship with her co-stars even later. Here are some examples of this
Trees R fun
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-rn0w-CTv-0
Shayveride back together
https://twitter.com/TaylorKinneyARG/status/1128137229577216000
S03 E14
https://hu.pinterest.com/pin/2814818493493352/
https://hu.pinterest.com/pin/630785491553579592/
From Lauren's Insta
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlRQVXqgxqP/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWZMBislmnE/
https://www.instagram.com/p/_50dHgFijd/
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2014/10/15/18477177/chicago-fire-if-anyone-can-saveseveride-it-s-casey
In real life, Kinney is grieving the loss of his costar, too.
"I miss her like crazy," he said about Lauren German. "She was a great scene partner. Great actor. Someone to work with and someone to confide in. It was an honest relationship. We hung out off the stages, too. I didn’t take that too easy.”
F)
It's also interesting that I've been able to find almost nothing online about what Lauren thought about what happened to Leslie Shay's character. What we do know from Matt Olmstead's interview is that she joked that she wasn’t going to miss the Chicago winters (she’s a California girl). Other than that, this is the only reaction from Lauren that can still be found, it's completely professional and polite, and perhaps it's no coincidence that she thanked the fans the most for their support
https://cartermatt.com/133627/chicago-fire-season-3-lauren-german-speaks-shay-premiere-shocke
"Hello beautiful people! I want to say thank you to NBC, Dick Wolf and the entire team for letting me be a part of such an amazing experience. I have to say I've never been around a more gifted, special, heartfelt, funny and loving cast and crew as with the CF gang. The show gave me so many priceless gifts. I'm forever grateful. I mostly want to thank the fans for their support and love on this journey. You all are so beautiful. It was a great honor to portray Shay. I love her: her spirit, her flaws, her honesty. And most of all she brought me the most genuine & meaningful interactions with you all, the fans, & my heart swells with gratitude. Thank you, thank you! So much love to you all.”
F) UPDATE
I just found this article, which for some reason didn't come up amongst the search results for the past few weeks.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/1/22/18408021/chicago-fire-alum-lauren-german-having-devilishly-good-time-on-lucifer
In this article, Lauren told a sweet story that I believe happened during the filming of the pilot episode of Lucifer:
Given her time on “Chicago Fire,” guest starring on “Chicago P.D.” and now on “Lucifer,” has German changed the way she reads about or watches crime stories in the news?
“I think so, but mainly I think my experiences have made me have even more respect for first responders than I did before I went to Chicago. Sure, I always respected them and paid attention when I’d see a fire truck going by or hear about the cops getting the bad guy.
“But after the training we went through with the firemen and paramedics in Chicago — plus now having worked with homicide detectives to prepare for ‘Lucifer’ — I can’t tell you how much I respect these guys and women.”
German found herself the butt of a few jokes during the filming of a huge scene in Los Angeles near the Dolby Theatre — the site of the annual Oscars show.
“There were helicopters flying overhead, there was all this commotion, but we also had real firemen there. It wasn’t too long after I left ‘Chicago Fire,’ so they were yelling at me, ‘You went to the dark side!’ They were really kidding me about going from playing a paramedic to playing detective.
“Of course the cops on the scene were yelling just the opposite — telling me, ‘No! You’ve come to the bright side!’ I loved that, because that’s the fun friendly competition between the firemen and police officers. It’s kind of like Army vs. Navy.
“But of course, at the end of the day, everyone’s on the same team. These people are my heroes.”
In addition, she also talked about her previous work here, based on which it can be stated that the rumors that she wanted to quit are completely unfounded (I considered this suggestion so unfounded that I didn't even include it in my post). She also confirmed what was also discussed in point E).
German did admit she misses “the whole Chicago crew I worked with — and the wonderful fans in Chicago too. Everyone in your town is so great.”
The actress said she considers co-star Monica Raymund “my best girlfriend” and also keeps up with fellow “Chicago Fire” castmates Taylor Kinney and Jesse Spencer “quite a bit.”
“In fact just the other day, Monica asked me that after I wrap [the initial 13 episodes of] ‘Lucifer’ to come over [to Chicago] for a few days and hang out with those guys. So I may do that around the end of February.”
If so, it’s likely German and her “Chicago Fire” pals will make a beeline to the Palm restaurant on East Wacker Drive.
“Taylor and Jesse and I lived in the same building [on the New East Side], and we’d go to the Palm like three times a week. It was so cozy there. We even had our own regular little booth!”
End of update
In regards to the oddities above, I can even imagine that Lauren's agent or agents had a hard time agreeing on a possible contract extension, and because of this, the creators preferred to get rid of the character of Shay. If that was the case, we will never know. However, if the decision-making really took place in the way and according to the criteria as stated in the Matt Olmstead interview, then it can be seen in retrospect that this was an extremely bad decision by the studio and that the writing team made a huge mistake
I am slowly coming to the end of my research, but before that I would like to discuss the mistakes that the writers made in the first part of the third season - perhaps these mistakes could indicate that they were very hasty during the implementation, or that they did not think through at all how to put together such an episode well. When an average viewer saw this episode for the first time, the shock was guaranteed by it (believe me, it HITS HARD), in this way the creators achieved their goal, but it was enough later to think about what happened, and the shock was already replaced by completely legitimate indignation of the viewing public.
Regarding the mistakes, for the sake of fairness, I also have to say that I consider 4 things to be extremely outstanding from the first 2 seasons of the series:
1)
The visual implementation of the series was amazingly fantastic, as if you were watching a 45-minute movie, and it still stands today. I don't know if this changed after the third season, but I assume not, since the series is still active today
2)
Atli Örvarsson's music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ABsDFMJr2E&list=PLXT2pBWM8DxfN4znwe3esSqg4LtBzlQz8
3)
The actors Jesse Spencer, Taylor Kinney, Monica Raymund, Lauren German, Charlie Barnett, David Eigenberg, Eamonn Walker, Joe Minoso, Yuriy Sardarov, Christian Stolte were all fantastic in their roles
4)
The writers did something really brilliant when they built Severide and Shay's relationship. The way these two people moved mountains just out of love as a friend to help the other was simply wonderful. The relationship between the two of them was central to the show, which is why it was so painful and infuriating at the same time that the writers didn't think it was important enough to keep it going after 2 seasons. So I didn't consider the series important enough to continue watching after the third season either, or to start anything else from the One Chicago group.
Mistakes in S03 E01:
Devon's character:
Shay's death:
Again, in the interest of fairness, Severide's flashbacks, Severide and Shay's video were flawless. Just like the gesture of putting Shay's name on the ambulance door in the middle of the season was a great idea from the writers
Final thoughts:
This is how far I've come in my research. Unfortunately, I didn't find any reassuring answers, only strange things. If there was something else in the background why Shay's character had to die, it will probably never be revealed. If the whole truth was told in the Matt Olmstead interview, then in my opinion the creators of Chicago Fire made the biggest mistake of their lives by firing Lauren and letting the Shayveride friendship vanish. Plus, Leslie Shay's character didn't deserve such fate. Anyway, the first 2 seasons were a fantastic experience for me.
Although Lauren couldn't have known it at the time, she was doing very well, because after being unemployed, she auditioned for the role of Chloe Decker in the series Lucifer. Here she joined the team that involved Tom Ellis, Kevin Alejandro, D.B. Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Rachael Harris, Scarlett Estevez, and later Aimee Garcia, Tricia Helfer, Tom Welling, Inbar Lavi, Rebecca De Mornay, Dennis Haysbert and Brianna Hildebrand. The rest, as they say, is history. Lucifer was the biggest series of 2021 by racking a whopping 18.3 billion minutes of streaming across the year making the series the most-streamed show not just on Netflix, but among the entire crop of streaming originals. Lucifer was voted the best fantasy series of 2021 also, and Lauren German became very, very worldwide-famous.
https://netflixlife.com/2022/01/26/lucifer-best-netflix-show-2021/
After Lucifer ended, Lauren retired from acting, making her last appearance in November 2023 at an event in Chicago, the Heaven and Hell Convention. Here, of course, she was hilarious again, or to put it stylistically, funny as hell, and she simply proved why she was the actress who played Leslie Shay back then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um_hcX4FkfM
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzHxlcMqM3
Here are a few links at the end
My favorite fan video commemorating the Shayveride friendship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjS1LmJgCIo
Others have written their opinions before me on the Leslie Shay topic, e.g. a great post
https://www.thetvaddict.com/2014/09/29/did-chicago-fire-kill-off-the-wrong-characte
A little fun
https://www.tiktok.com/@chicagofires/video/7255400196711107886
Still a little fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZOsrSHql0
Thank you for reading through!
PJ
(this post is free to use and redistribute, but please at least credit the source! Thanks)
Do You remember Leslie Shay?
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2024.05.10 15:15 RpgAcademy Season 7 Ep 6 Lara [Farm to Fable]

Date of original airing November 1st, 2007
The Character of Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Smallville created by Alfred Gough (Goff). And Miles Millar.
Writer(s): Don Whitehead and Holly Henderso
Director: James L. Conway
Guest starring: Helen Slater as Lara-el and Christopher Heyerdahl as Zor-El and Kim coates returns as Special Agent Carter and Chris Kelly as the lab technician.
Kara travels to Washington to search for the crystal, but she is captured while breaking into a laboratory and sedated with a Kryptonite-infused truth serum. Clark learns that his birth Mother had visited the Kent farm before Kal-el arrived on earth.
Listen to Michael and Kyle breakdown this episode here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smallville-farm-to-fable/id1496557518?i=1000655038119
Pass the Torch question answered: Whats your pitch for a super-hero movie. You have complete control of casting budget, zero studio interference. What do you want to make/ see made?
The Important questions:
Does this episode feature a vehicle crashed or otherwise destroyed? No
Does this episode feature someone falling unconscious for any reason? yes
Does this episode feature someone in a hospital bed? Not quite

Does this episode feature Clark telling or showing someone besides his forever crush Lana or the destined love-of-his-life Lois lane, his powers/abilities? Yes

Follow up, does that person Die, Lose memory or otherwise become unable to share this knowledge or become a confidant of Clarks? Dead
Does this episode feature Clark using his powers irresponsibly? Yes
Does Clark casually break and enter a business or residence? Yes

Does this episode feature a moment where a character travels a seemingly long way to have a short conversation and then leave? Yes
Does this episode feature a conversation between two people where one person has their back to the other and weirdly talking over their shoulder? Yes
Was the person talking weirdly over their shoulder, Lex? Yes, but almost everyone does it this week.

Does this episode feature a particularly Thirsty moment for one or more of our characters? Yes
Does this episode feature a cheeky bit of dialogue that hints at or directly references the wider superman mythos? Yes

Does this episode feature a moment with a needle drop wherein a contemporary song perfectly sums up a character's thoughts and or desires? No
Does this episode feature a classic Smallville Leap of Logic wherein the characters jump to a correct conclusion around who or what is behind some mysterious event with little to no actual information to base such conclusions? No
SCOREBOARD COUNTS:
Total number of vehicles wrecked: Still at 107
Total number of times someone has been knocked unconscious: now at 395 with two**. This week Lex gets shot with a stun bullet and Kara goes unconscious (dies?) while under the effects of the kryptonite powered memory machine.
Current cast counts:
Lex: 42 times
Lana: 40 times
Clark: 29
Chloe: 23
Lois: 19
Lionel: 8
Jimmy: 3
Oliver: 1
Kara: 1
Total number of times someone goes to the Hospital: still at 137
Current cast counts:
Lana - 18
Chloe - 10
Lex - 10
Lionel - 7
Lois - 6
Clark - 4
Jimmy - 1
Total number of folks who clark has shown or othewise learns clark has powers/abilities (not counting Lana or Lois) 168 with three ***
submitted by RpgAcademy to Smallville [link] [comments]

2024.05.09 21:29 MNLYYZYEG Love After Divorce/Divorced Singles 5 (돌싱글즈5) - Episode 1 - 240509

Divorced Singles 5 (돌싱글즈5) is on MBN/etc.
Synopsis:
Newly single and ready to mingle, divorced men and women enter the Dolsing Village looking to date, cohabitate and find love again.
But this time it's for those born in the 1990s or MZ Generation.

Cast

Female Male
Park Hyekyeong Son Minseong
Kang Saebom Shim Kyudeok
Baek Sujin Choi Jongkyu
Son Seah Kim Kyuon

Panelists

  • Lee Hye-young
  • Lee Ji-hye (from S#arp group)
  • Yoo Se-yoon
  • Eun Ji-won (from Sechs Kies group)
  • Austin Kang

Sources

Divorced Singles (돌싱글즈) channel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dolsingles_official/videos
The MBN Entertainment channel also uploads some of the teasers/clips/etc. earlier than the Divorced Singles channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MBN_Entertainment/videos
Pre-release presentation with the panelists and PD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf93Ed_gQes
Title Version
Divorced Singles 5 (돌싱글즈5) English Softsub 720p/1080p (~2.2GB/3.7GB/5.9GB: https://gofile.io/d/hhXDxh)
Divorced Singles 5 (돌싱글즈5) English Hardsub 1080p (~2.0GB: https://gofile.io/d/cBs3cf)

Past Threads

Episode Subreddit Thread
Episode 1 koreanvariety, [LoveAfterDivorce]()
Will also add the full season of Love Catcher Japan (ラブキャッチャージャパン) here later since there's finally a complete semi-public/etc. collection of it (already had it before (can't believe it's half a year ago already) but wanted the others' version of it for easy future access/archiving since ABEMA is pretty inaccessible unless you have a proper working VPN/etc. for Japan to get around the geo-blocking). And of course Once More (再次心动), since it's a Chinese dating show that had its finale a few weeks ago and it really do be like the Divorced Singles/돌싱글즈/Love After Divorce series even to the final choices setup at the end, haha.
Maybe also update Go Straight for Love or Direct Love (연애는 직진) since Austin was pretty bold there as a housemate himself, lol.
In the meantime (have to do Episode 12 of No Way Home (노웨이홈) right now, brb), here have some other shows too: https://www.reddit.com/koreanvariety/comments/1clzzpinfinite_challenge_무한도전_season_1_english_subtitles/
Centralized post about Korean/Chinese/Japanese/et cetera variety shows and how to access them (with AI-generated/machine translation info, language learning, and other stuff): https://www.reddit.com/useMNLYYZYEG/comments/1clzy6asian_varietyreality_shows_language_learning/
Title Version
I Am Solo (나는 SOLO) Season 1-3 New English Softsub 720p (~14.6GB: https://gofile.io/d/5vNTHf)
I Am Solo (나는 SOLO) Season 1-3, New English subtitles only 720p (~3.4MB: https://gofile.io/d/8aEyZ9)
There's the My Sibling's Romance (연애남매), Couple Palace (커플팰리스) Special, and Go Straight for Love or Direct Love (연애는 직진) links as well. Same with Hao You Hao You Ai Season 1 (好友好有爱) and Hao You Hao You Ai Season 2 (好友好有爱 第二季) and Love Actually Season 3 (半熟恋人 第三季), alongside Once More (再次心动) and Zhen Ai Zhi Shang (真爱智上).
Also have the AI-generated English subtitles (and mostly expired links) for: University Sports Festival: Boys’ Athletes’ Village (대학체전-소년선수촌), Wish I Have, Kara (나만 없어, KARA), The Thought Verification Zone: The Community (사상검증구역: 더 커뮤니티), Steel Troops/The Iron Squad Season 2 (강철부대2), Winning Shot for Tomorrow/Tomorrow's Winning Shot (내일은 위닝샷), Man in Europe (맨인유럽), Korean Starcation (내가 뭐라고), Golden Girls (골든걸스), etc.
Newecurrent/etc. variety shows with AI-generated English subtitles: Girls High School Mystery Class Season 3 (여고추리반3), No Way Home (노웨이홈), Actors' Association (배우반상회), etc.
Apologize fam, Love Catcher Japan is delayed for now, there's some random issue with the softsub not displaying the subtitles, sigh, literally have to redo it, lol.
Title Version
Once More (再次心动) English Softsub 1080p (~7.0GB: https://gofile.io/d/xNnZwi)
Title Version
Go Straight for Love or Direct Love (연애는 직진) Better New English Softsub 1080p (~13GB: https://gofile.io/d/SIVGO2)
Title Version
Hao You Hao You Ai Season 2 (好友好有爱 第二季) Episode 5 English Softsub 1080p (~980MB: https://gofile.io/d/Yz6mB6)
Title Version
Zhen Ai Zhi Shang (真爱智上) Episode 10 English Softsub 1080p (~1.2GB: https://gofile.io/d/ns8DRU)
OMG, had to remux the remux (probably a random bug/etc. with Subtitle Edit, simply apply "Generate video with added/removed embedded subtitles..." on the same .mkv/softsub file again, no need to change anything) to fix the subtitles not showing up with the softsub, sigh fml, lol, so delayed (check timestamps of the English subtitles/.srt files only link, was available already by May 9, 2024) by like a few days now (right at this moment it's 1:00AM EDT, May 11, 2024).
Basically after the first line or first couple of frames or seconds, the English subtitles would disappear and ya had to troubleshoot wtf was going on, had me confused/etc. all day, lol smh. And so I did other shows in the meantime as it was frustrating how it was all uploaded but then the subtitles were not working properly or at all.
Anyway, so sleepy right now, will update the link for Love Catcher Season 2 (러브캐처2) tomorrow. Let me know if the subtitles are still disappearing, or any other problems (direct/private message me or comment below, don't chat me as I have the new reddit chat system disabled).
Title Version
Love Catcher Japan (ラブキャッチャージャパン) English Softsub 1080p (~16GB: https://gofile.io/d/kViuYg)
Love Catcher Japan (ラブキャッチャージャパン) English subtitles only 1080p (~1.5MB: https://gofile.io/d/wljuVA)
Title Version
Love Catcher Season 2 (러브캐처2) English Softsub (fansub, credits to nytelynx) 1080p (~21GB: https://gofile.io/d/lGwgke)
If y'all haven't yet, try to watch Love Catcher Season 2 (러브캐처2) first in order to understand the deception/acting/etc. shows like Is She the Wolf? (Who is the Wolf? (オオカミちゃんには騙されない) Season 14) and so on. As Love Catcher Season 2 is simply unforgettable, one of the best executions ever, can't surpass that. One couple is actually married/still dating/etc. and their story is also sorta wild (but chill).
More info on the Love Catcher series: https://www.reddit.com/koreanvariety/comments/1acbbyw/transit_love/kjv0z0v/
Seriously, Love Catcher Japan had a housemate go on the next level to obtain that $50k through a kiss, like holy shit, wtf. It doesn't really top Love Catcher Season 2, but wow.
Twinkle Love Season 4 (怦然心动20岁 第四季) with Shen Yue/沈月 (super famous Chinese actress from Meteor Garden, A Love So Beautiful, etc.) again should be out soon, same with Yes, I Do Season 5 (喜欢你我也是 第五季). Should only be several weeks from now with those new seasons.
submitted by MNLYYZYEG to koreanvariety [link] [comments]

2024.05.09 18:28 ParallelHorizon Patch 3.4.6 - Misc. Datamined Info

Datamined information is from Dislyte Origin Miracle: Patch 3.4.6
Datamined info is just stuff that has been added to the game but might not be in use yet so they are always subject to changes. So take this information with a pinch of salt. Do not take datamined info as 100% accurate as Lilith has shown that some data might just be placeholders.
Once again I have to caution people from spreading the below information too widely as I do not want the additional scrutiny, if any, from Lilithgames. If they change anything in subsequent patches, I might not be able to datamine the patches anymore. Also, please do not share such information to official communities too (Official Facebook, Discord, reddit, twitter, etc). Datamining is a violation of Lilith's TOS and may get you banned.
You are also encouraged not to post datamines to wide-reaching communities as leaks can be spread repeatedly through the masses, leading to others posting them to official communties.
Also, do factor in that I no longer play the game and therefore I do not have knowledge of what stuff are already viewable in game. Apologies if there are redundant information provided here.
Current / Upcoming Events - All dates are specific to Origin Miracle
Inactive events are events that are not activated but can be triggered on by the developers at any time. Active events are those that will be active on the dates at the time of datamining. Likewise, they can be triggered inactive at any time.
Name Active / Inactive Start Date End Date Remarks
7-Day Login Reward INACTIVE
Blindbox INACTIVE
Daily Gift INACTIVE
Trainee Milestones ACTIVE
Path to Mastery ACTIVE
Curtain Up ACTIVE
M-Pass ACTIVE 14-May-2024 25-Jun-2024
E-Pass ACTIVE 01-Jun-2024 01-Jul-2024
Prizes Galore ACTIVE 14-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Prizes Galore ACTIVE 04-Jun-2024 25-Jun-2024
Prizes Galore ACTIVE 25-Jun-2024 16-Jul-2024
Prizes Galore ACTIVE 16-Jul-2024 06-Aug-2024
Showdown Pass ACTIVE 06-May-2024 27-May-2024
Trainee Milestones ACTIVE
Rising Star INACTIVE
Road to Legend ACTIVE
Shopping Fiesta INACTIVE
Communities INACTIVE
Rewind INACTIVE
Esper Academy ACTIVE
Rewind ACTIVE
Trainee Milestones INACTIVE
Shopping Fiesta ACTIVE
Rookie Echo Reward ACTIVE
Rookie Championship INACTIVE
Rookie Championship INACTIVE
Reset Espers ACTIVE
Conqueror ACTIVE
Melody of Reunion ACTIVE
Login Rewards ACTIVE
Reunion Manual ACTIVE
Reunion Prayer ACTIVE
Event Package ACTIVE
Rookie to Regular ACTIVE
Treasure Hunt ACTIVE
Shimmer Reverbotron ACTIVE
Esper Pop Quiz ACTIVE 11-May-2024 15-May-2024 Sakuya-Hime / Sakura
Scratch-Off ACTIVE 07-May-2024 21-May-2024
Sweet Wishes ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Flaming Echo ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Flash Back ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Anniversary ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Graffiti Wall INACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Rockin' Puzzles ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Rewind ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Burning Beat Bazaar ACTIVE 10-May-2024 04-Jun-2024
Esper Pop Quiz ACTIVE 01-Jun-2024 05-Jun-2024 Gilgamesh / Fatimah
Championship ACTIVE 15-May-2024 01-Jun-2024
Boomboom Gacha ACTIVE 15-May-2024 29-May-2024
Bootleg Market ACTIVE 15-May-2024 03-Jun-2024
Treasure Kingdom ACTIVE 24-May-2024 07-Jun-2024
Scratch-Off ACTIVE 25-May-2024 08-Jun-2024
Championship ACTIVE 15-May-2024 02-Jun-2024
Championship ACTIVE 15-May-2024 02-Jun-2024
Championship ACTIVE 15-May-2024 02-Jun-2024
Esper Pop Quiz INACTIVE 22-Jun-2024 26-Jun-2024 Bai Ze / Yu Ran
Esper Pop Quiz INACTIVE 13-Jul-2024 17-Jul-2024 Bai Ze / Yu Ran
Esper Pop Quiz INACTIVE 03-Aug-2024 07-Aug-2024 Bai Ze / Yu Ran
Esper Pop Quiz (Mid May 2024) Sakuya-Hime / Sakura
Q1. Which mythology is Konohanasakuya-hime from?
Ans. Japanese
Q2. What activity does Sakura like?
Ans. Flower Arrangement
Q3. What is Sakura's favorite flower?
Ans. Cherry Blossom
Esper Pop Quiz (Early June 2024) Gilgamesh / Fatimah
Q1: To which mythological system does Gilgamesh belong?
Ans. Mesopotamian
Q2: What does Fatimah like to do?
Ans. Meditate
Q3: As a mystery hero, what is Fatimah's nickname?
Ans. Dazzling Sunfire
Image Corner
Esper Art
Esper Files
Chibi Art
Gilgamesh / Fatimah
Event Images SPOILERS
PLEASE READ - Do take note that stars, elements and types might be placeholders. Hence there might be discrepancies.<---PLEASE READ
Star Coded Name Esper Name Type Element Released
5 Gilgamesh Fatimah Gilgamesh Inferno Defender No
5 Bakeneko Momo Bakeneko Flow Fighter Yes
5 Sakuya-hime Sakura Kono Inferno Defender Yes
Modified / New Items
Item Name Item Description
Flawless Ending Sakura's Divinate, enhances Sakura's combat abilities.
Fatimah Legendary Esper Fatimah
Sakura Legendary Esper Sakura
Bardon Divinate Fragment A fragment containing divine powers. Fuse 30 fragments to get a Bardon Divinate.
Sakura Divinate Fragment A fragment containing divine powers. Fuse 50 fragments to get a Sakura Divinate.
Sakura Divinate Residue Converted by acquiring a duplicate Sakura Divinate. Used to raise the Tier for Sakura Divinate. After obtaining Divinate Residue more than 5 times for a Divinate, any further Residue will be converted into a selected number of Divinate Crystals or Monoprisms.
Fatimah Ripple A fragment containing the divine power of Fatimah. Fuse 50 fragments to get the Esper Fatimah.
Sakura Ripple A fragment containing the divine power of Sakura. Fuse 50 fragments to get the Esper Sakura.
Loyalty Chest Select one among 5 Legendary Espers from the box to obtain their Ripples, except Max-resonated or unowned Espers. The box contains the following Espers: Ife, Ashley, Ophelia, Abigail, Elliot, Zora, Sienna, Brewster, and Clara.
Fatal Mirage Flow Pack Select one of 12 Flow-attuned Epic Espers from the box, except for Max-resonated or unowned Espers. The box contains the following Espers: Emma, Parmi, Mona, Jiang Man, Celine, Kara, Eira, Heng Yue, Dhalia, Kaylee, Aurelius, and Xiao Yin.
Fatal Mirage Wind Pack Select one among 9 Wind-attuned Epic Espers from the pack, except the Max-resonated or unowned Espers. The pack contains the following Espers: Ain, Lu Yi, Arcana, Luo Yan, Jacob, Long Mian, Lynn, Li Guang, and Jin-hee.
Fatal Mirage Inferno Pack Select one of 10 Inferno-attuned Epic Espers from the box, except for Max-resonated or unowned Espers. The box contains the following Espers: Adrina, Djoser, Falken, Sander, Chloe, Pritzker, Ren Si, Stewart, Nick, and Koharu.
Fatal Mirage Flow Divinate Select one from among 13 Flow-attuned Epic Espers' Divinate in the pack, except the Divinate of Max-Tier Espers. The pack contains Divinate of the following Espers: Emma, Parmi, Mona, Jiang Man, Celine, Kara, Eira, Heng Yue, Dhalia, Kaylee, Aurelius, Xiao Yin, and Xie Chuyi.
Fatal Mirage Wind Divinate Select one from among 13 Wind-attuned Epic Espers' Divinate in the pack, except the Divinate of Max-Tier Espers. The pack contains Divinate of the following Espers: Ain, Lu Yi, Arcana, Luo Yan, Jacob, Long Mian, Lynn, Li Guang, Jin-hee, Alolin, Meredith, Xie Yuzhi, Fabrice, and Yu Xu.
Fatal Mirage Inferno Divinate Select one from among 14 Inferno-attuned Epic Espers' Divinate in the pack, except the Divinate of Max-Tier Espers. The box contains Divinate of the following Espers: Mei, Djoser, Falken, Sander, Chloe, Pritzker, Ren Si, Stewart, Nick, Koharu, Adrina, Daniel, Alexa, and Daylon.
Showdown Coin Showdown Coins can be acquired by winning Beatbout battles. They are used to measure your achievements in your Showdown Pass. Your Showdown Pass will level up each time you collect certain amounts of Showdown Coins.
Random Equipment (Lvl 25-40) Lvl 25-40 random equipment with random Grading/Position. Check battle results for actual loot.
Random Equipment (Lvl 30-40) Lvl 30-40 random equipment with random Grading/Position. Check battle results for actual loot.
Random Equipment (Lvl 30-50) Lvl 30-50 random equipment with random Grading/Position. Check battle results for actual loot.
Random Equipment (Lvl 40-50) Lvl 40-50 random equipment with random Grading/Position. Check battle results for actual loot.
Random Equipment (Lvl 50-60) Lvl 50-60 random equipment with random Grading/Position. Check battle results for actual loot.
Random Equipment (Lvl 60) Lvl 60 random equipment with random Grading/Position. Check battle results for actual loot.
Deep Probe Data A valuable item used to quickly acquire battle XP and rewards in the Memory Rift. Issued daily in limited quantities. A chip containing records of Memory Rift battles.
Gift of Vision May grant one of the following items: Equipment Essence, Rare Starimon Fragment, Rare Abilimon Fragment, Epic Starimon Fragment, Epic Abilimon Fragment, Gold. A gift for those who have borne witness to the past, felt the memories of others, and listened to the countless stories that rebound across this land.
Gift of Experience May grant one of the following items: Stamina, Nexus Crystal, Sound Matrix Stone, Elite Experimon, Divine Wave Opt-Pack. A gift for those who have challenged formidable foes, weathered hardships, and undergone rigorous training, continually refining their skills to this day.
Fatimah Materia Converted by acquiring a duplicate Fatimah. Used to conduct Resonances and activate Divine Gates for Fatimah. After obtaining Materia more than 6 times for an Esper, any further Materia will be converted into a selected number of Dioprisms or Monoprisms.
Momo Materia Converted by acquiring a duplicate Momo. Used to conduct Resonances and activate Divine Gates for Momo. After obtaining Materia more than 6 times for an Esper, any further Materia will be converted into a selected number of Dioprisms or Monoprisms.
Sakura Materia Converted by acquiring a duplicate Sakura. Used to conduct Resonances and activate Divine Gates for Sakura. After obtaining Materia more than 6 times for an Esper, any further Materia will be converted into a selected number of Dioprisms or Monoprisms.
Dynamic Avatar A dynamic avatar. Complete the Esper's Paths of Experience to obtain
Rare Triple Threat Insignia Get: Rare Triple Threat Insignia (42d)
Legendary Triple Threat Insignia Get: Legendary Triple Threat Insignia (42d)
submitted by ParallelHorizon to u/ParallelHorizon [link] [comments]

2024.05.05 17:57 AFDPP [M4F] Looking for these canon characters (DC, Marvel and more)

Hey there! Thanks for checking out my post.
I've been really in the mood for some fandom RPs lately, especially from DC. I'm mainly looking to play a male character(s) myself, opposite canon characters that you'd play. It's nothing toooo specific beyond that, the main details of the plot really depend on the characters, but here's a few things to know, really.
I'm open to most kinda plots and pairings, and I'm open to really any themes. I'm open to pretty much everything! Even if you have ideas that you think are more out there, feel free to suggest them to me, I'd probably be down for them!
Like I said, I'm happy to play most anyone as long as you play a canon character I'm looking for. I can play canons myself, or crossover characters, or OCs; it all works for me.
Now, let's get to the main gist of it, really: who I'm looking for. I'm looking for canon women from different fandoms, though my favorite is DC. I have a few other canons I like such as Marvel or a few other ones here and there, but DC is definitely the main one. Below, I'll put the list of some of the canon women I'm looking to play opposite with. If you can play any of these characters, I'd absolutely love it.
Under each 'category' of character, I'll also include some details about some possible plot points or pairings we could try. These are only some suggestions, of course; I'm more than down to brainstorm other ideas, but think of these as sort of inspirations to help start out!
Hey there! I've been looking for someone to play canon women, mainly from comics verses, but a few other things as well!
ANYWAY, here's the main gist of the post. The main canons I'm looking for. If you can play any of these, I'd love it. Feel free to message me whenever!
———————
SUPERHERO CANONS
DC: Cheshire / Jade Nguyen, Artemis Crock (Young Justice), Yara Flor, Lois Lane, Donna Troy, Wonder Woman, Talia al Ghul, Black Canary / Dinah Lance, Zatanna, Ravager / Rose Wilson, Huntress / Helena Bertinelli, Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern, Poison Ivy, Star Sapphire / Carol Ferris, Punchline / Alexis Kaye, Iris West, Lian Harper / Cheshire Cat, Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, Spoiler / Stephanie Brown, Catwoman / Selina Kyle, Batgirl / Barbara Gordon, Mia Dearden, Dove / Dawn Granger (Titans TV), Starfire / Koriand'r, Lilith Clay, Hawkgirl / Kendra Saunders, Lady Shiva, Mera, some of the Arrowverse girls (Sara Lance, Laurel Lance, Thea Queen, Dinah Drake, Mia Smoak, Iris West)
MARVEL: Elektra Natchios, Psylocke / Betsy Braddock, Jean Grey / Phoenix, Emma Frost, Rogue / Anna Marie, Kate Bishop / Hawkeye, Lorna Dane / Polaris, Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, Wanda Maximoff / Scarlett Witch, Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff, Carol Danvers (MCU), Sersi (MCU), Felicia Hardy / Black Cat, Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen,Mary Jane Watson, Hope van Dyne (MCU)
THE BOYS: Starlight / Annie January
BEN 10: Gwen Tennyson (specifically, the Alien Force version or older only!), Charmcaster, Ester
Possible ideas: As a general idea here, with heroines and villain types, it could always be fun to do a plot where they're defeated, if you're open to a darker sort of plot. Maybe they end up imprisoned after a heavy defeat to a villain or army, or they're stranded somewhere, like on an island or desert or unknown city. Something that takes them out of their usual setting, you know? In fact, for some of the higher status heroines, it could be fun to do plots where they're turned into sidekicks themselves, or transformed in some way that changes their status quo. Other than that, since most of these characters are well known in universe, I'd also love a plot where they meet a fan or someone who knows their work in universe, if that makes sense.
Going into the specific characters here, Cheshire is definitely my favorite. She's one of those ones that there's a lot of good options to pair her with; maybe one of the Titans, like a Nightwing or Wally West, or maybe someone like one of the Green Arrows could be good for a dynamic with her, especially since they're characters she has an interesting history with. With some of the more experienced heroines (like Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Donna Troy, etc.), I do think it'd be fun to have them in a sort of mentor type role, where perhaps they're helping out a younger hero type, be that one that exists within the DC Universe already (like a Tim Drake or Bart Allen for example), or a new original character. As for Talia al Ghul, perhaps after failing to persuade Batman for so long, it's time for her to look for a new type of bethrothed, so she sets out for a new target for the League of Assassins. Rose Wilson could be fun with the Arrows, be that Connor or Roy, since she has a comic history with them. But to be honest, the DC characters are super flexible, so as these are only suggestions, we can fully brainstorm something up, I don't mind at all.
———————
VIDEO GAME CANONS
OVERWATCH: Ashe or Kiriko
FINAL FANTASY 7: Tifa Lockhart, Aerith Gainsborough, Jessie Rasberry
RED DEAD REDEMPTION: Sadie Adler, Abigail Roberts, Mary-Beth Gaskill
STARDEW VALLEY: Abigail, Emily, Haley, Leah, Penny, Robin, Jodi, Sandy, Caroline
MISC: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Ellie Williams (TLOU2)
Possible ideas: For the FF7 canons, I'm thinking some kind of new resident or visitor of the slums would make for an interesting dynamic to pair them off of. Someone who's new, possibly oblivious to Avalanche and their activities. He could slowly discover what the girls are up to, and either turn against them or works with them. Or perhaps, it takes a more casual turn, someone visiting the bar, needing a room or place to stay sort of vibe and meeting the likes of Tifa or Jessie. With the RDR girls, a new member of the gang under their tutelage or that befriends them could be interesting, perhaps leading towards a direction where they run off together, or kind of face the frontier together. Lara and Ellie can have similar plot scenarios I'd like to think, with one of them being in an apocalypse setting obviously. Getting captured or coming up against some kind of tribe or faction or some such, someone who's targeting them for one reason or another.
———————
MISC CANONS
STAR WARS: Rey or Leia
GAME OF THRONES: Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, Margaery Tyrell, Melisandre
DISNEY: Teddy Duncan (Good Luck, Charlie), Alex Russo (Wizards of Waverly Place), Sharpay Evans or Gabriella Montez (High School Musical), Colette (Ratatouille)
MISC: Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo), Carly Shay (iCarly), Azula or Suki (Avatar), Betty Cooper (Riverdale)
Possible ideas: With Rey and Leia, I really like the idea of plots taking place in their respective desert settings: Jakku or Tattooine. Something showing the sort of survival aspects of living in a harsh reality like this, how they have to fight for credits or food, living with all the foes around and the heat, that sort of thing. It could either go a darker route, or show kind of their daily life living in a setting like that, their social dynamics with whatever characters are around in those settings; The merchants, the bounty hunters, the traders, etc. You could do a similar thing with Daenerys too, if we wanna set her plot in Essos, though with the GOT girls, I think a sort of war / political plot would be fun, showing the aftermath of either their victory or defeat.
The other girls listed in this section I can be pretty flexible with. A slice of life type scenario would fit in with most of them, though a sort of mystery / detective type plot would be fun to set up with Daphne or Betty. If we do go the slice of life direction, maybe have it set when they're slightly older, showing how they're going through college or their early careers post their canons.
———————
CELEBRITIES
Margot Robbie, Megan Fox, Gemma Chan, Madison Beer, Anne Hathaway, Anya Chalotra, Victoria Pedretti, Jessica Chastain, Emeraude Taubia, Jenna Dewan, Candice Patton, Sydney Sweeney, Alice Eve, Caity Lotz, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Olivia Wilde, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Conor Leslie, Minka Kelly, Alejandra Guilmant, Kennedy Walsh, Olivia Rodrigo, Hailey Bieber, Doja Cat, Hailee Steinfeld, Dakota Johnson, Corinna Kopf, Florence Pugh, Lili Reinhart, Ariana Grande, Scarlett Johansson, Bridget Mendler, Madelyn Cline, Sabrina Carpenter
Possible ideas: This is probably the most flexible selection here, there's a whole host of plots we can do. An encounter with a fan is the most obvious one I can think of, or them exploring a new type of concert or movie role. Perhaps they've taken on a photoshoot of some kind, but it's different because it's a peculiar type of shoot, or they're hired by someone with a bit of a complex reputation. Or something I think would be super fun, is if the celebrity is kind of made to do something publicly that they're not too fond of, either for a PR campaign or as part of marketing for a movie or album or something. Perhaps a PR relationship, or they're made to act or behave a certain way to change how the world perceives them. I could also see a plot where the celebrity is made to be a prize of some competition or event, like one where my character wins a date or something with the celebrity. I also think it'd be fun to maybe try something where the celebrity's PR is at an all time low or they're cancelled or something, and then proceeding to explore the aftermath of that. These are just a few ideas, tbh, let me know if any of them intrigue you. To be honest, with these ones, it's probably the one that needs the most brainstorming, tbh.
———————
But yeah, that's the gist of it. I'm mainly just looking for the characters above, so I'm pretty flexible on the plot or pairings; that's something we can discuss ourselves. I'm sure we can create an interesting and unique plot and dynamic between our characters, something we'd both enjoy!
Let me know if you wanna set something up! My messages are always open.
My preferred place to write is Discord.
submitted by AFDPP to roleplaying [link] [comments]

2024.05.04 01:07 stlatos Priests Imitating Birds Singing & Karšiptar, the Chief of Birds

Dodge argued for an inherited IE style of priestly chanting in imitation of birds (Dodge 2021). Most of this comes from the Rig Veda, both the hymns of priests being compared to birds and birds like priests when singing. He also gives Iranian parallels for Karšift, the chief of birds who knows how to speak and brought religion to the shelter of the Zoroastrian faithful (“…they recite the Avesta in the language of the birds”). A relatively small amount of other IE evidence for its PIE date also exists.
​
Since Av. Karšiptar- must have meant ‘black bird’ (*kWersi- in compounds vs. *kW(e)rsno- ‘black’ is likely due to PIE *kWersino- (Whalen 2022)), it probably referred to the raven (mentioned often in myths). I see it as related to later Iranian words for ‘magpie’: Wx. kirẓepč / kižipči, Shu. [kixe:pts] and the loans >> Kh. kiṣipi, Bu. γašep. These might all come from diminutive *karšiptar-kī (if Karšiptar- ‘raven’ vs. *karšiptar-kī ‘magpie’) with changes:
*karšiptarkī > *karšiptarčī > *karšipta_čī (r-r > r-0) > *karšaiptčī > > *karšaip(t)šī
Some would later have *š-š > š-0 (or similar) to explain -pč vs. -p.
​
A problem with this simple analysis is that later writing called the čarg \ čaxrawāk the name of Karshift, & čixrāz the chief of birds (Redard 2018). These seem like obvious forms of later Persian čakāvak ‘lark’. I would say that since they’re from *kekro-woHkW- ( > IIr. *cakravāk(a) / cakravāc(a) ) they show that PIE named many birds with this root (Ks. kakawáŋk ‘chicken’, Kh. kahàk ‘hen’, A. kakwéeki; further OIr cearc ‘hen’, G. kréx ‘corncrake’, kerkithalís ‘stork’, kérknos ‘hawk / rooster’, Skt. kr(a)kara- ‘kind of partridge’) and it doesn’t matter that 2 of the birds so named were confused later. A second case of confusion (that might show 3 birds were seen as a set, below) is Skt. cakravāka- ‘ruddy shelduck’. For Shina kó(:)rkuts- ‘crow’, karkaámuš / karkaámuts ‘hen’, kʌ´kǝts- ‘pheasant’ being related to Ks. kakawáŋk, etc., optional *w > *v > nasal *ṽ is needed (Whalen 2023b). There are many dialects of Shina, but these changes need to be optional in Proto-Dardic (at the least) to account for other similar changes in many Dardic languages.
​
Another problem with this simple analysis comes from its relation to the Iranian Senmurgh, which was created first among birds, but is not their chief. Why? I think these 2 birds, in a mostly mythical version separated from real eagles & ravens, were supposedly the birds that carried the Sun & Moon, related to enigmatic Indic traditions (Norelius 2016, Whalen 2023a). Indeed, the raven as the thief of the Moon or its bearer is common in myth. These, at least at one point, were equated with the PIE Divine Twins. Dodge’s mention of the Indic story of a pair of ruddy shelducks that always united at dawn is a third bird that might have had to do with their common wife, the Dawn (due to their reddish coloring), making a set of 3 based on colors (if a golden eagle, or a similar bird). Though the Twins were often horses, a variety of forms for gods is also known, such as for Trita/Tishtriya.
​
Dodge, Erick (2021) The Chants of Birds and Poet-Priests in the Vedic, Indo-Iranian, and Indo-European Traditions
https://www.academia.edu/66612017
​
Morgenstierne, Georg (1936) Iranian Elements In Khowar
http://www.mahraka.com/pdf/iranianElementsInKhowar.pdf
​
Norelius, Per-Johan (2016) The Honey-Eating Birds and the Tree of Life
https://www.academia.edu/37874254
​
Redard, Céline (2012) L'oiseau Karšiptar
https://www.academia.edu/1557809
​
Redard, Céline (2018) Karšift
https://www.academia.edu/36586331
​
Whalen, Sean (2022)
https://www.reddit.com/etymology/comments/w01466/importance_of_armenian_retention_of_vowels_in/
​
Whalen, Sean (2023a)
https://www.reddit.com/mythology/comments/10qeu8f/the_separation_of_the_sun_and_moon/
​
Whalen, Sean (2023b) Indo-Iranian Nasal Sonorants (r > n, y > ñ, w > m)
https://www.academia.edu/106688624
​
submitted by stlatos to mythology [link] [comments]

2024.05.03 03:46 agentace7 3 interesting, under the radar, characters to play in the new 1178 start date

The new 1178 starting date has me pretty excited for Roads of Power since the other two starting dates were getting pretty stale for me. All the new characters and geopolitical situations will breathe life into the game. On top of that, you get a lot closer timewise, to the spiciest events of Medieval Europe (3rd crusade, 4th crusade when they add the mechanics for it, Mongol invasion, Black Death). So, I wanted to highlight some interesting characters that may be overlooked since everyone will focus on the Byzantines/famous 3rd Crusade characters.
  1. Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, High King of Ireland/Petty King of Connacht The last High King of Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasions to subjugate the Irish. Unlike 1066 or even 867, this start date turns Tutorial Island into SURVIVE Island. Ruaidrí has already been forced to recognize Henry II as his lord while England has a foothold in Leinster and Dublin. His political power was dwindling with even his own son undermining him. It'd be a neat challenge to push the English back out to the Irish Sea, and turn around and nearly hopeless situation before it's too late.
  2. Amir Yusuf of the Almohads The Almohad faith that has sat mostly unused in CK3's files is now finally relevant, and it's pretty strong. It has the, rare in Abrahamic religions, Warmonger Tenet which gives Conquest CBs and a once per lifetime Invasion CB. It also has the Fundamentalist doctrine which makes faith conversion easier which helps with the heretics/heathens in Iberia that you'll be conquering. You'll also need all these war buffs because you'll be facing multiple strong Christian Kingdoms, including a newly formed Portugal. Also helps that Iberia already has extensive flavor and this guy should be used to end the Iberian Struggle with the Domination ending.
  3. Shah Tekish of the Anushtegin Khwarazmians This is one of the most interesting characters that I plan to start a playthrough of. In 1178, he's surrounded by enemies on all sides, but he has a sizable power base so it's not a too difficult to expand. His brother is a pretender that wants the thrown. The Kara Khitan's demand tribute after he historically reneged on their deal to secure his succession. You have the also-rising power of the Ghurids who will contest you to the east, and the declining Seljuks who are ripe for the taking, but can still field strong a army. You're not out of the woods once you conquer the historical Khwarazmian lands because you have 40-50 years from 1178 to prepare for the impending Mongol invasion. Ghenghis Khan will most likely have that new conqueror trait that they revealed in the dev diary which makes this an even harder task to hold onto your power while consolidating your gains. Add the fact that Iran has already been enriched with flavor and you have one of the most underrated starting characters/realms in this new start date. I can't wait to try it.
submitted by agentace7 to CrusaderKings [link] [comments]

2024.05.01 17:52 VincentArcher May 2024 [Releases & Promotions]

This page is aimed to help users find new litrpg content on a month-to-month basis by constructing a list of new releases. This post will be updated based on multiple sources, like Reddit, discord, and other locations. This page is not meant to replace promotional posts like on reddit but to make it easier for users to find them. The list is also hosted out of Reddit, just in case, and the calendar gives you some pre-orders for the future: https://www.theinfinitelabyrinth.info/litrpg/
Due to the increasing size of this list, links to the original posts (if any) might appear only on the page above, but the link column should bring you to the relevant book.
This page contains exclusively litRPG or adjacent content. Progression fantasy or cultivation without any gamelit elements are not included.
Promoted Webseries are included only once every five months. If your Webseries does not include a significant number of chapters or pages at the time of promotion, I might delay inclusion until it does.
If you missed all the content from April, there were 79 ebook releases, 42 audiobooks, 11 promoted web series, 2 novella-sized releases, and it's omnibus time with 7 releases.
Note: Some entries for April may have been recorded too late, in which case they are included at the top of this month's list.
Here's what the new month brings you!
​
Ebooks:
Title Author Link
Exploration (Level Up - It's an RPG world #3) Craig Zerf AMZ
Seth the Abyssal Assassin #2 V.A. Lewis & Extra26 AMZ
The Swordwing Saga #1 Dawson George AMZ
Tales of Limina: Axel's Quest Joshua Swayne AMZ
Accidental Goblin King #3 Leon West AMZ
The Spellslinger (Firebrand #4) D.E. Olesen AMZ
Young Gods Tournament #2 Alex Beaumont & Cale Plamann AMZ
The Last Dragonsoul (Kara #1) V.A. Lewis AMZ
Fateless #3 Martin McKenzie AMZ
How I, A Normal High School Student,... #7 Kal Griffith AMZ
Disharmony (Eternal Dominion #27) Bern Dean AMZ
System Consolidation (Path of the Titans #3) Timothy McGowen AMZ
Villager Three Kruos Voidcat AMZ
The Primeval Apocalypse #4 Robert S. Keene & Alex Raizman AMZ
The Phoenix Peaks (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons #12) Selkie Myth AMZ
Wish Upon the Stars #4 Malcolm Trent AMZ
Collapse (Welcome to the Multiverse #3) Sean Oswald AMZ
System Warrior (Champions of the Arena #2) Shane Hammond AMZ
Sponsored Apocalypse #1 Blaise Corvin AMZ
Ballet in a Winter Storm (Tournament of Cheaters #3) Joshua Brown AMZ
All the Dust that Falls #3 Zaifyr AMZ
The Primal Hunter #9 Zogarth AMZ
Second Chance Swordsman #3 Jakob Tanner AMZ
How to Survive at the End of the World #2 RC Joshua AMZ
Hearthomancy #2 M.E. Thorne AMZ
Goddess Rising (Mirror World #3) Rain Harlow AMZ
Trust me, I'm a Hero (Dungeon Creep #2) G.E. Metzel AMZ
Allcure (Snap Craft #2) Cássio Ferreira AMZ
Explorer (Arise #5) Jez Cajiao AMZ
Obelisk - System Integration #1 Conor Malachi AMZ
Nullform #8 Dem Mikhailov AMZ
Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling #3 FreeID AMZ
Assassin (Ends of Magic #3) Alexander Olson AMZ
Rise Of A City State (Life of a Dungeon Core #2) Apinsig AMZ
​
Simultaneous Releases:
Title Author & Narrator Link
Tartaruga Town (Kaiju City #1) Adam Sampson (Narrated by: Exo Lio) AMZ & AUD
ShipCore #2 Erios909 (Narrated by: Reba Buhr) AMZ & AUD
Fimbulwinter (Stranger Than Fiction #3) T. B. Mare (Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin) AMZ & AUD
The Daily Grind #4 Argus (Narrated by: Pavi Proczko) AMZ & AUD
The Games of Olympus (Theos #2) Arthur Wordsmith (Narrated by: Seth Podowitz) AMZ & AUD
Dino Tribes Marcus Sloss (Narrated by: Jonathan Waters, Cassandra Quinn) AMZ & AUD
The First Set (Aced #1) Jonathan Smidt (Narrated by: Ryan H. Reid, Annie Ellicott & Jeff Hays) AMZ & AUD
Player Manager #3 Ted Steel (Narrated by: Luke Francis) AMZ & AUD
Hell Difficulty Tutorial #1 Cerim (Narrated by: Henry Kramer) AMZ & AUD
Mythica Reforged (Mythica #2) Dean Henegar (Narrated by: Tess Irondale) AMZ & AUD
Apocalypse City (Apocalypse Me #2) Noct (Narrated by: Joe Hempel) AMZ & AUD
​
Audiobook Releases:
Title Author & Narrator Link
Inneshys (Game of Two Worlds #2) Boyd Lee (Narrated by: Austin Rising) AUD
An Ideal World for a Sociopath #2 Oleg Sapphire (Narrated by: Matt Godfrey) AUD
Dungeon Tour Guide #3 Aaron Shih (Narrated by: Travis Baldree) AUD
Survivor (Battleforged #1) M.H. Johnson (Narrated by: Wayne Mitchell & Kasi Hollowell) AUD
City in the Clouds (Rise of Kers #2) Daniel Weber (Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott & Dorrie Sacks) AUD
Torn Shroud (Resonance Cycle #5) Aaron Renfroe (Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland) AUD
Proven Strength (Aether's Revival #8) Daniel Schinhofen (Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau) AUD
Gravesong (Singer of Terandria #1) pirateaba (Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau) AUD
Road to Mastery #3 Valerios (Narrated by: Jeremy Frazier) AUD
Speedrunning the Multiverse #3 Adastra339 (Narrated by: Graham Halstead) AUD
Threads of Fate (Ascend Online #5) Luke Chmilenko (Narrated by: Luke Daniels) AUD
Dead Tired #2 Ravensdagger (Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Dorrie Sacks, Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott & Gary Furlong) AUD
Preservation (Battle Mage Farmer #6) Seth Ring (Narrated by: Michael Kramer) AUD
Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling #2 FreeID (Narrated by: Amanda Dolan) AUD
World Seal (Guardian of Aster Fall #7) David North (Narrated by: John Pirhalla, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker) AUD
​
Pre-order:
Title Author Link Date
Reborn as a Demonic Tree #2 XKarnation (Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo) AUD moved to 5/28
Samurai Reborn (Zero Box #2) Zeph Baxter AMZ 5/18
Who Chooses to Be a Mermaid in a Desert City Coffee Quills SHRT 5/19
Saintess Summons Skeletons #2 Mornn AMZ 5/20
The Shatterplate War (Outworld's Blood #4) Willpowah AMZ 5/21
Knight Apocalyptica #1 Zach Skye AMZ 5/21
Battlemaster (Victor of Tucson #5) Plum Parrot (Narrated by: Robb Moreira) AMZ & AUD 5/21
The Shatterplate War (Outworlder's Blood #4) Willpowah AMZ 5/21
Tartarus (Wolf of the Blood Moon #3) Shane Purdy AMZ 5/21
Master of the World (Dragon Core Chronicles #6) Lars Machmüller AMZ 5/22
Portals of Aperra (Nameless Chronicles #3) Joshua Kern AMZ 5/22
Blood for Power #2 Scott W. James AMZ 5/22
Reborn as a Demonic Tree #3 XKarnation AMZ 5/22
Conservation (Battle Mage Farmer #8) Seth Ring AMZ 5/22
Ignite the Dark (Resonance Cycle #7) Aaron Renfroe AMZ 5/23
Dreamer's Throne #3 Seth Ring (Narrated by: Michael Kramer) AUD 5/28
Tropical Hazard (Arachnomancer #3) Dustin Tigner AMZ 5/28
Hide and Seek (Apocalypse Parenting #3) Erin Ampersand AMZ 5/28
Unprepared Healer (Earthen Contenders #2) Jonathan Brooks AMZ 5/28
Redemption's Cost (Lich Lord #1) Levi Werner AMZ 5/28
Plague Tank (Getting Hard #2) G.D. Temple AMZ 5/29
Dragon Warrior (Rise of the Devourer #3) Krazekode AMZ 5/29
America (Artorian's Archives #18) Dennis Vanderkerken & Dakota Krout AMZ 5/29
Don't Try this at Home (Dungeon Core TV #5) Michael Todd & Michael Anderle AMZ 5/29
My Secret Portal to a Fantasy World #3 D. Levesque AMZ 5/31
Small-Town Sleuth #1 Tom Watts AMZ 5/31
​
submitted by VincentArcher to litrpg [link] [comments]

2024.05.01 11:00 AutoModerator Welcome to the vh info Megathread!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Vault Hunters Minecraft subreddit, a fun and friendly community dedicated to Iskall85’s beloved Minecraft modpack.
Here we discuss and share anything related to Vault Hunters. It is the place where veteran players and newcomers can connect with fellow fans, learn about VH and Sky Vaults, get A’s to your Q’s and share strategies, tips, memorable moments, fan art, lore, news, rumors and everything in between.
Join us to experience the fun and thrills that Vault Hunters has to give.

Subreddit Agenda:

Improving rules & wiki Adding a copywriting moderator to the team - We're in search of someone who enjoys crafting content for our wiki, have a passion for enhancing texts, including our automod commands. Additionally, we aim to broaden the scope of information available about the game.

Apply trough mod mail if this is something you could see yourself in.

Subreddit rules

As a visitor or member of this subreddit you are expected to follow the rules for Reddit in general and VaultHuntersMinecraft specifically to keep the subreddit a positive, friendly, fun and helpful place where we all can enjoy, share and discuss many things related to Iskall85’s Vault Hunters Minecraft modpack.
A comprehensive version of the rules for VaultHuntersMinecraft can be found in the About section which is located in the navigation bar at the top and/or in the sidebar.
A more detailed version of the rules is available on the subreddit’s Wiki. Here you’ll find additional information and examples of what is and what is not allowed.

What is Vault Hunters?

Vault Hunters (VH) is a Minecraft modpack created by Iskall85 and his dev team. It’s a different take on modded Minecraft that uses features and game mechanics from PvE style games like, for example, Diablo and Path of Exile to create a completely new Minecraft experience.
Vault Hunters is structured around running Vaults: monster-filled caverns which the player must enter, loot, and exit or complete the objective before the time runs out.
The ultimate goal of the modpack is to collect all 25 unique Vault Artifacts and use them to run and complete the Final Vault. The main way of getting these Artifacts is finding them in the Reward Crates which you can get by completing the objective in a normal vault.
Because of this, the main gameplay element of VH is running Vaults. By doing so, the player will obtain not only Artifacts but also more and better loot. This loot will enable you to obtain better tools, weapons and gear which makes you run faster, loot more efficiently, hit harder and take less damage. It also enables the player to build farms and other contraptions which will improve everyday life outside of the Vault.
Furthermore Vault Hunters has what you can call a tech tree where you have to collect certain items to unlock new Researches (mods like Refined Storage or Create) and a Skill system that lets you unlock new Abilities and Talents as you level up.

Useful links

🔹 Official Vault Hunters Website
🔹 Official Vault Hunters Patch Notes
🔹 Official Vault Hunters Discord Server
🔹 Official Vault Hunters Reddit
🔹 Official Vault Hunters Reddit Wiki
🔹 Unofficial Vault Hunters Wiki (Note: not up-to-date for VH3)
🔹 Unofficial Community Website (Note: work in progress)
🔹 VH3 Starter Guide - Info, tips & tricks for beginning players
🔹 VH3 Frequently Asked Questions
🔹 VH3 CurseForge Installation and Update Guide
🔹 VH3 Self Hosting Server Installation and Update Guide
🔹 VH3 Sky Vaults Server Installation and Update Guide
🔹 VH3 Performance Optimization Mods
🔹 VH3 Community Document
🔹 VH3 Item Automatability Document

Vault Hunters SMP

The Vault Hunters SMP was created to test, show off and promote the Vault Hunters modpack. It is a whitelisted server (meaning that people who aren’t invited can’t join) where several popular Minecraft streamers play the modpack together in the same world. Some players have been on the VHSMP for all 3 seasons while others only were part of the group for one or two seasons.  
Hunter Season(s) Channels
Iskall85 1, 2, 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
CaptainSparklez 1, 2, 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
HBomb94 1, 2, 3 Twitch, Youtube
Stressmonster 1, 2, 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
FalseSymmetry 2½, 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
PeteZahHutt 2½, 3 Twitch, Youtube
SeaPeeKay 2½, 3 Twitch, Youtube
X33N 2½, 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
Abe 3 Twitch, Youtube
ChosenArchitect 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
Hrry 3 Twitch, Youtube
itsRyanHiga 3 Twitch, Youtube
KaraCorvus 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
TangoFrags 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
5up 2, 3 Twitch, Youtube, VH Vods
CaptainPuffy 2, 3 Twitch, Youtube
Fundy 2 Twitch, Youtube
Tubbo 2 Twitch, Youtube
AntonioAsh 1, 2 Twitch, Youtube
Rendog 1 Twitch, Youtube
submitted by AutoModerator to VaultHuntersMinecraft [link] [comments]

2024.04.28 21:59 JerSucks ITZY Weekly Discussion & Recap for April 22, 2024 - April 28, 2024

Weekly Recap for April 22, 2024 - April 28, 2024

Welcome to the ITZY Weekly Discussion & Recap!
In this thread we compile everything ITZY has done this week for people who can't quite keep up with it all!
This post now also serves as our Weekly MIDZY Discussion Thread! That means this is an anything goes discussion thread. Feel free to talk about anything you'd like with other MIDZY! All we ask is that you keep it safe for work!
BORN TO BE Era Stream Links
UNTOUCHABLE
BORN TO BE
Mr. Vampire
BORN TO BE (Album) on Spotify
SUPERPOWERS (Strong Girl Nam-soon OST Part 1)
SUPERPOWERS (MV)
SUPERPOWERS on Spotify
RINGO Stream Links
RINGO
Sugar-holic
RINGO (Album) on Spotify

Megathreads

Thread
The 7th Mini Album "KILL MY DOUBT" (Era Recap)

Teasers

Date Title / Link Thread
240425 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Yeji Luxury Ver.) Thread
240425 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Chaeryeong Luxury Ver.) Thread
240425 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Yuna Luxury Ver.) Thread
240425 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - ITZY Luxury Ver.) Thread
240426 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Yeji Pop Ver.) Thread
240426 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Ryujin Pop Ver.) Thread
240426 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Chaeryeong Pop Ver.) Thread
240426 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - Yuna Pop Ver.) Thread
240426 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (JK Teaser - ITZY Pop Ver.) Thread
240428 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (Algorhythm Track Sampler) Thread
240428 The 3rd Japan Single 'Algorhythm' (No Biggie Track Sampler) Thread

Social Media

Twitter
Date Title / Link Thread
240422 📢 Hello New York, and Hi @GMA 📢 Stay tuned for the UNTOUCHABLE ITZY🔥 ⏰4.22 MON 7AM (EST) - 8PM (KST) Thread
240422 Thank you for welcoming us today @GMA and our lovely MIDZY✨ See you again in June New York 😘 Thread
240425 ITZY x @EmpireStateBldg. Wonderful view of New York City🏙️) Thread
240425 ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #LONDON ITZY💗MIDZY IN LONDON We be chillin' chillin' all day Thread
240425 You know we studied trick shots abroad🎶 Tonight at 6pm, we're raising the IT'ZZZ name with Trick Shot Bingo🔫 Thread
240425 The importance of spaces _IT'ZZZ trick shot version ㄴ Leaving work... I want to do it 🥲 ㄴ Leave work, I want miss you 💗 Who will be the one to leave work early? Find out next thursday on IT'ZZZ Thread
240427 ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #PARIS PARIS MIDZY we are a Great pair💗 Je vous aime beaucoup trop Thread
Instagram
Date Title / Link Thread
240421 [Personal] Ryujin Update Thread
240422 [Personal] Yuna Update [1] Thread
240422 [Personal] Yuna Update [2] Thread
240422 [Personal] Chaeryeong with Yeji & Ryujin Update Thread
240422 [Personal] Yeji Update Thread
240423 [Personal] Ryujin Update Thread
240425 [Personal] Yuna Update Thread
240425 [Personal] Ryujin Update Thread
240425 [Personal] Yeji Update) Thread
240426 [Personal] Ryujin Stories Update [1] Thread
240426 [Personal] Ryujin Stories Update [2] Thread
240426 [Personal] Ryujin Yeji Stories Update Thread
240427 [Personal] Yuna Update) Thread
240427 [Personal] Ryujin Update Thread
240427 [Personal] Yeji Update) Thread
240428 [Personal] Chaeryeong Update Thread
Misc SNS
Date Title / Link Thread
240422 LiveNation Twitter Update with ITZY - Mondays aren’t so bad when ITZY's performing 💕 The girls stopped by GMA to perform their hit “UNTOUCHABLE” this morning. Catch them back in the US this June ✨ Thread
240422 goodmorningamerica Instagram Update with ITZY Thread
240422 KarasCasshern Twitter Update with ITZY [1] Thread
240422 KarasCasshern Twitter Update with ITZY [2] Thread
240422 KarasCasshern Twitter Update with ITZY [3] Thread
240422 EmpireStateBldg Twitter Update with ITZY Thread
240424 EmpireStateBldg Twitter Update with ITZY) Thread
240424 EmpireStateBldg TikTok Update with Yeji & Chaeryeong - We love ITZY Thread

Videos

Performances
Date Title / Link Thread
240422 UNTOUCHABLE @ GMA Thread
Official Videos (kr)
Date Title / Link Thread
240423 ITZY? ITZY! EP.158 - Mr. Vampire Choreography Practice Thread
240425 IT'ZZZ EP.11 - ITZY goes over the frozen challenging BINGO! Thread
240426 Insta-LOG EP.01 (YUNA in BANGKOK - ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR 'BORN TO BE') Thread
Variety
Date Title / Link Thread
240423 ITZY showcases their individuality on second world tour @ Newzee Thread
LIVE
Date Title / Link Thread
240424 Instagram Live - ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #LONDON 🎤 WRAP UP ✨ Thread
240426 Instagram Live - ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #PARIS 🎤 WRAP UP ✨ Thread
240424 Instagram Live - ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #BERLIN 🎤 WRAP UP ✨ Thread
TikTok
Date Title / Link Thread
240423 ITZY Update - Recap of our day in NYC!!🗽 It was lovely meeting you, MIDZY! 💝 See you all in our June’s US concert🎉 Thread
240425 ITZY Update - ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #LONDON Thread
240427 ITZY Update - ITZY 2ND WORLD TOUR in #PARIS Thread
240427 Ryujin Update - 🧊 A cat walks on the frozen Han River 🐈🐾 Thread
240427 Yeji Update - Part.2 of Love MIDZY in #Paris Thread
240427 Ryujin Yuna Update - just wanna dance with my shin Thread

Member Subs - Yeji - ChoiJisu - Ryujin - Chaeryeong - Yuna

Memes & Media Subs - itzymemes - /MIDZY

Subreddit Links & Info

Last weeks Recap
Weekly Recap Archive
Variety Appearance Archive
Performance Archive
V LIVE Archive
Discography

ITZY Discord

submitted by JerSucks to ITZY [link] [comments]

2024.04.23 12:34 AFDPP [M4F] Looking for these canon characters (DC, Marvel, and more)

Hey there! Thanks for checking out my post.
I've been really in the mood for some fandom RPs lately, especially from DC. I'm mainly looking to play a male character(s) myself, opposite canon characters that you'd play. It's nothing toooo specific beyond that, the main details of the plot really depend on the characters, but here's a few things to know, really.
I'm open to most kinda plots and pairings, and I'm open to really any themes. I'm open to pretty much everything! Even if you have ideas that you think are more out there, feel free to suggest them to me, I'd probably be down for them!
Like I said, I'm happy to play most anyone as long as you play a canon character I'm looking for. I can play canons myself, or crossover characters, or OCs; it all works for me.
Now, let's get to the main gist of it, really: who I'm looking for. I'm looking for canon women from different fandoms, though my favorite is DC. I have a few other canons I like such as Marvel or a few other ones here and there, but DC is definitely the main one. Below, I'll put the list of some of the canon women I'm looking to play opposite with. If you can play any of these characters, I'd absolutely love it.
Under each 'category' of character, I'll also include some details about some possible plot points or pairings we could try. These are only some suggestions, of course; I'm more than down to brainstorm other ideas, but think of these as sort of inspirations to help start out!
Hey there! I've been looking for someone to play canon women, mainly from comics verses, but a few other things as well!
ANYWAY, here's the main gist of the post. The main canons I'm looking for. If you can play any of these, I'd love it. Feel free to message me whenever!
———————
SUPERHERO CANONS
DC: Cheshire / Jade Nguyen, Artemis Crock (Young Justice), Yara Flor, Lois Lane, Donna Troy, Wonder Woman, Talia al Ghul, Black Canary / Dinah Lance, Zatanna, Ravager / Rose Wilson, Huntress / Helena Bertinelli, Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern, Poison Ivy, Star Sapphire / Carol Ferris, Punchline / Alexis Kaye, Iris West, Lian Harper / Cheshire Cat, Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, Spoiler / Stephanie Brown, Catwoman / Selina Kyle, Batgirl / Barbara Gordon, Mia Dearden, Dove / Dawn Granger (Titans TV), Starfire / Koriand'r, Lilith Clay, Hawkgirl / Kendra Saunders, Lady Shiva, Mera, some of the Arrowverse girls (Sara Lance, Laurel Lance, Thea Queen, Dinah Drake, Mia Smoak, Iris West)
MARVEL: Elektra Natchios, Psylocke / Betsy Braddock, Jean Grey / Phoenix, Emma Frost, Rogue / Anna Marie, Kate Bishop / Hawkeye, Lorna Dane / Polaris, Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, Wanda Maximoff / Scarlett Witch, Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff, Carol Danvers (MCU), Sersi (MCU), Felicia Hardy / Black Cat, Mary Jane Watson, Hope van Dyne (MCU)
THE BOYS: Starlight / Annie January
BEN 10: Gwen Tennyson (specifically, the Alien Force version or older only!), Charmcaster, Ester
Possible ideas: As a general idea here, with heroines and villain types, it could always be fun to do a plot where they're defeated, if you're open to a darker sort of plot. Maybe they end up imprisoned after a heavy defeat to a villain or army, or they're stranded somewhere, like on an island or desert or unknown city. Something that takes them out of their usual setting, you know? In fact, for some of the higher status heroines, it could be fun to do plots where they're turned into sidekicks themselves, or transformed in some way that changes their status quo. Other than that, since most of these characters are well known in universe, I'd also love a plot where they meet a fan or someone who knows their work in universe, if that makes sense.
Going into the specific characters here, Cheshire is definitely my favorite. She's one of those ones that there's a lot of good options to pair her with; maybe one of the Titans, like a Nightwing or Wally West, or maybe someone like one of the Green Arrows could be good for a dynamic with her, especially since they're characters she has an interesting history with. With some of the more experienced heroines (like Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Donna Troy, etc.), I do think it'd be fun to have them in a sort of mentor type role, where perhaps they're helping out a younger hero type, be that one that exists within the DC Universe already (like a Tim Drake or Bart Allen for example), or a new original character. As for Talia al Ghul, perhaps after failing to persuade Batman for so long, it's time for her to look for a new type of bethrothed, so she sets out for a new target for the League of Assassins. Rose Wilson could be fun with the Arrows, be that Connor or Roy, since she has a comic history with them. But to be honest, the DC characters are super flexible, so as these are only suggestions, we can fully brainstorm something up, I don't mind at all.
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VIDEO GAME CANONS
OVERWATCH: Ashe or Kiriko
FINAL FANTASY 7: Tifa Lockhart, Aerith Gainsborough, Jessie Rasberry
RED DEAD REDEMPTION: Sadie Adler, Abigail Roberts, Mary-Beth Gaskill
STARDEW VALLEY: Abigail, Emily, Haley, Leah, Penny, Robin, Jodi, Sandy, Caroline
MISC: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Ellie Williams (TLOU2)
Possible ideas: For the FF7 canons, I'm thinking some kind of new resident or visitor of the slums would make for an interesting dynamic to pair them off of. Someone who's new, possibly oblivious to Avalanche and their activities. He could slowly discover what the girls are up to, and either turn against them or works with them. Or perhaps, it takes a more casual turn, someone visiting the bar, needing a room or place to stay sort of vibe and meeting the likes of Tifa or Jessie. With the RDR girls, a new member of the gang under their tutelage or that befriends them could be interesting, perhaps leading towards a direction where they run off together, or kind of face the frontier together. Lara and Ellie can have similar plot scenarios I'd like to think, with one of them being in an apocalypse setting obviously. Getting captured or coming up against some kind of tribe or faction or some such, someone who's targeting them for one reason or another.
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MISC CANONS
STAR WARS: Rey or Leia
GAME OF THRONES: Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, Margaery Tyrell
DISNEY: Teddy Duncan (Good Luck, Charlie), Alex Russo (Wizards of Waverly Place), Sharpay Evans or Gabriella Montez (High School Musical), Colette (Ratatouille)
MISC: Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo), Carly Shay (iCarly), Azula or Suki (Avatar), Betty Cooper (Riverdale)
Possible ideas: With Rey and Leia, I really like the idea of plots taking place in their respective desert settings: Jakku or Tattooine. Something showing the sort of survival aspects of living in a harsh reality like this, how they have to fight for credits or food, living with all the foes around and the heat, that sort of thing. It could either go a darker route, or show kind of their daily life living in a setting like that, their social dynamics with whatever characters are around in those settings; The merchants, the bounty hunters, the traders, etc. You could do a similar thing with Daenerys too, if we wanna set her plot in Essos, though with the GOT girls, I think a sort of war / political plot would be fun, showing the aftermath of either their victory or defeat.
The other girls listed in this section I can be pretty flexible with. A slice of life type scenario would fit in with most of them, though a sort of mystery / detective type plot would be fun to set up with Daphne or Betty. If we do go the slice of life direction, maybe have it set when they're slightly older, showing how they're going through college or their early careers post their canons.
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CELEBRITIES
Margot Robbie, Megan Fox, Gemma Chan, Madison Beer, Anne Hathaway, Anya Chalotra, Victoria Pedretti, Jessica Chastain, Emeraude Taubia, Jenna Dewan, Candice Patton, Sydney Sweeney, Alice Eve, Caity Lotz, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Olivia Wilde, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Conor Leslie, Minka Kelly, Alejandra Guilmant, Kennedy Walsh, Olivia Rodrigo, Hailey Bieber, Doja Cat, Hailee Steinfeld, Dakota Johnson, Corinna Kopf, Florence Pugh, Lili Reinhart, Ariana Grande, Scarlett Johansson, Bridget Mendler
Possible ideas: This is probably the most flexible selection here, there's a whole host of plots we can do. An encounter with a fan is the most obvious one I can think of, or them exploring a new type of concert or movie role. Perhaps they've taken on a photoshoot of some kind, but it's different because it's a peculiar type of shoot, or they're hired by someone with a bit of a complex reputation. Or something I think would be super fun, is if the celebrity is kind of made to do something publicly that they're not too fond of, either for a PR campaign or as part of marketing for a movie or album or something. Perhaps a PR relationship, or they're made to act or behave a certain way to change how the world perceives them. I could also see a plot where the celebrity is made to be a prize of some competition or event, like one where my character wins a date or something with the celebrity. I also think it'd be fun to maybe try something where the celebrity's PR is at an all time low or they're cancelled or something, and then proceeding to explore the aftermath of that. These are just a few ideas, tbh, let me know if any of them intrigue you. To be honest, with these ones, it's probably the one that needs the most brainstorming, tbh.
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But yeah, that's the gist of it. I'm mainly just looking for the characters above, so I'm pretty flexible on the plot or pairings; that's something we can discuss ourselves. I'm sure we can create an interesting and unique plot and dynamic between our characters, something we'd both enjoy!
Let me know if you wanna set something up! My messages are always open.
My preferred place to write is Discord.
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2024.04.22 17:42 -cloak-and-dagger- My New Years Resolution - Buy Cokie some outdoor cameras (January 3, 2024)

Happy New Year, my debaucherous little devils. Miss me? I know you all thought I grew tired of my little project, since you haven't heard from me in ages! But, never fear, dears. I could never leave you. And, just remember, just because I don't write about something now doesn't mean I won't write about it later.
Now! Let's get on with the show.
In an attempt to get everyone to like her, Cokie Mason threw a lavish, over the top party - although she kept insisting it was called a soiree. No, Cokes. That's what Logan will throw once he's finally rid of your crazy ass. We'll all join in support. In fact, we're all surprised it hasn't happened yet, but we doubt anyone is more surprised than SugarBear Brent and Number 2 Nolan.
She insisted everyone wear masquerade masks, because apparently we were all just cast in 2004’s A Cinderella Story. But judging by the way she was stomping around, screeching and shouting at everyone - including poor Logan - this might have been yet another remake of Jurassic Park instead.
Because no one in this town is allowed to be single or go without a New Years kiss, there was also a “match the ribbon” game, which is about as juvenile and ridiculous as it can get. Naturally, the entire idea was Grace's. Good job, sweetie. The point of the game was to find your match and kiss them at midnight. But some of us did a little bit more than that, didn't we? Let's dive in.
Everyone was dressed to the nines, which was to be expected, but some girls might need a bit of a refresher on what that actually means. Lingerie is not formal wear - looking at you, Jenny and Kara. But, really, what do we expect from the two girls whose combined body counts could fill the Calvary Cemetery? These two definitely missed the "more is more" memo, and I think we all know what colour underwear they were wearing. I'm kidding. We know they don’t bother with a pesky barrier like underwear.
Stoneybrook’s very own Hell’s Angels showed up in masks, but not the ski masks they generally wear while they rip off wallets and CDs. TJ even decided to get dressed up - likely in an attempt to convince his sweet little virgin that he’s actually a responsible, law-abiding citizen. Come on TJ. We all know Lauren is as naïve as a six year old, but do you really think a button down shirt - likely with the security tag still attached - is going to get her to believe you’re not a worthless piece of trash?
If anyone should have been wearing funeral clothes, it should have been Ice Pick. Sources say Sabrina all but maimed him when he dared to show up in her presence in - gasp - denim jeans. Hey, Sabs? I think it’s a step up from the handcuffs he’s usually wearing - and I don’t mean while he’s in bed with Jacqui.
Speaking of Jacqui, she decided to skip out on this party for something better. One can only assume “something better” in Jax-speak is “a gutter behind the sewage plant”. I’d like to say we missed her, but I think the only ones longing for her company - aka, her vagina - are King and Ice.
Since Austin and Stacey broke up - on Taylor Swift’s birthday, no less - my inbox has been flooded with details about these two. Honestly, we all knew this was coming. And we all knew why. Reporting on it would be like saying “Katie Lopez is a slut” or “Meg Jardin has huge jugs”. Really, what’s the point? But you guys are so obsessed with them, and since I’ll do anything to keep my readers happy, I’ll dish on this.
Stacey, clearly not happy with the consequences of her actions, accosted Austin at the party to “talk”. Judging by the dress she was barely wearing, she expected to do a lot more with her mouth than talk. But Austin wasn’t taking the bait. He cussed Stacey out, made her cry, and then got drunk. But Stacey, on the other hand… well, if you didn’t notice her and her little revenge dress parading around the party after talking to Austin, no, your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you. Boy Crazy Stacey ran all the way home… but if you think she spent the evening alone, think again. Hey, speaking of crazy… where was Robert? I’ll give you two guesses, but you only need one.
Speaking of Robert - I mean, the Wish version - Bob and Sheila were once again looking cute and cosy… until they weren’t. It happened so quickly, my sources didn’t even have time to assume their positions. Hey, Cokie - you need some Hi-Def cameras outside. People don’t give a fuck about the food you serve, but rather, the tea.
From what we can gather, Sheila and RoberTemu were fine, until they went outside. Unfortunately - damn you, Cokie - we don’t know what was said, but one of them ended things with the other. Sheila immediately left the party (or did she?) and Bob stayed and did unmentionable things with questionable people (kidding, they’re 100% mentionable… stay tuned…) so I’ll leave it up to you, my darling fans, to come to a conclusion on your own. But, don’t worry, Sheila. Bobby Hensen is single. And Justin Roberts. We know your type, babe - and it’s not just falling for guys who don’t want you. We know it won’t be long before you’re flirting with another guy while insisting you’re not a slut.
On the topic of girls who insist they aren’t a slut, Mad and Harry appear to be finished, but they also appeared to be alone in a bedroom. So… I suppose we get to watch the two of them dry hump at the next party, before spending the next month shooting glares at each other from across the room. Rinse, repeat. It’s beyond embarrassing at this point, Mad. Have some respect for yourself. Harry sure isn’t going to give you that.
Dorianne showed up in a revenge dress even more scandalous than Stacey’s. She was clearly on a mission to get Irv to regret being with Emily, or to show off the freckle on her left bum cheek. Either way, Irv definitely noticed, and the two of them were spotted in a quiet but not so secluded hallway, thisclose to making a little Dirv Jr. That is, until they were interrupted by the lumbering oaf himself, Clarence King. Maybe he was just looking for a quiet place for himself and…
Penny, obviously. These two can’t seem to keep away from each other, even though Penny is dating Mr. Perfect(ly Fine) Pete, and King is incessantly humping anything with tits. But the two of them were spotted together in the kitchen, where Penny decided she must touch King and fix his hair. Okay, Pen. We didn't know you had such high aspirations of becoming a hairstylist. And King, remember when you had your fingers up Sabrina’s twat? What happened to that guy? Whipped, and for a girl who’s not even yours. But, if Peaches keeps this up, she might be back on the market before too long.
Jo Deford has basically had a personality transplant, to go along with those boobs of hers that have finally grown in. We used to think the sluttiest one in the Deford-Weller household was Penny, but wow Jo, you’ve surpassed your step-sis by miles. Everyone knows you’ve been fucking Butch - because you tell anyone who’ll listen. I’m sure your homeroom teacher even knows the details. And I know you thought wearing a Saran Wrap dress would get his attention - and maybe it did, for a minute. But… we all saw him leave. And we all saw him kissing someone who wasn’t you at midnight. You might think you’re special, but… this is Butch. You’re not. He does a lot more than kissing with a lot more than you. Gee, I almost feel bad reporting on this. It’s like kicking a puppy. A puppy with great tits and loose morals.
Mary Anne showed up to Cokie's hoe-down, though not with pitchforks and torches. We’ll save those for Dawn the next time the cafeteria serves beef. No, Mary Anne showed up with Howie, her new boyfriend and the biggest snoozefest since Malex stopped pretending to hate each other. And, naturally, since Mary Anne and Howie are so new and in that blissed out, honeymoon phase, they spent all night laughing and talking on the couch. Oh… wait… * checks notes *. My mistake. Mary Anne was on the couch, but Howie seemed to look an awful lot like Cary Retlin. Not that there’s anything wrong with a boy and a girl laughing together on a couch… if that’s all it was…
Peter and Hannah fought. I feel like I could end the report just like that. Similarly with Staustin breaking up, who cares? These two won’t be far behind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one of them without a scowl on their faces. It’s more than just a bit of annoyance - these two hate each other. And, after the fight at the party - where it sounds like Peter didn’t compliment Hannah enough, or in the right way, or with the right words - these two might be dunzo. For the sake of all our sanity, I hope so.
One midnight rolled around, all of the lucky (desperate?) ribbon holders found their matches. While some of the matches were hilarious - Jenny the Whore and Saunders the Bore, Momma Steph and Daddy Todd - some of them were so into each other, you could practically smell the secretions. And, despite the masks, we know who everyone was paired up with. Job perk.
Butch and Zoe were dry humping each other into oblivion, when one of them had the mindset to, oh, I don’t know… remove the mask. Once they both realised who the other was, they remembered they hated each other. Oh, right. We’ve heard that one before. So, when’s the wedding?
Newbie Slut Jo immediately saw Butch and Zoe and did what any insanely jealous chick would do - grab the closest guy and try to make the one you actually care about jealous. But, despite playing tonsil hockey with Steve Randazzo and making him grab her ass, Butch didn’t appear to see Jo at all. Better luck next time, Ho. I mean, Jo.
Literal minutes after Sheila “left the party”, Bob stumbled in Tallie Brennan’s general direction and practically face planted onto her lips. The two of them were causing quite a scene before disappearing upstairs. Even Malik would be able to figure out what went on behind that closed door. Tallie, I know you and Sheila both play softball, but she’s got a hell of a lot more experience with balls and bitches than you do. You’re about to learn the meaning of FAFO, girl.
But, Tallie might be in luck. Sources say after Sheila left the party, she didn’t go far, and ended up sitting on the front porch with Aaron Albright the rest of the evening. While they allegedly just “talked” and definitely didn’t drunkenly stumble into any bedrooms, maybe Sheila doesn’t give a fuck where Bob dips his stick. Fun fact: take a guess what Aaron’s middle name is? I can’t make this up, people!
Despite being an unimaginable, self-righteous bore, Saunders seemed to like what Jenny was bringing to the table - like thousands of guys before him had discovered. My sources lost track of them after midnight, but something tells me they weren't hiding out in a quiet place to talk. It's nice getting your ding-dong played with, isn't it?
Cary kissed Mad and Harry kissed Savannah, but we all know those pairs didn’t leave the party together. Like I said above, Mad. It’s just embarrassing at this point. You’re worse than Jo, and that’s saying a lot. Find someone who actually wants to commit to you, and stop following Harry around like a little lost puppy. And Harry, leading girls on is for kids. Maybe it’s time you grow up. You know all too well what it’s like to be hurt, don’t you?
In an interesting turn of events, both Irv and Emily - who are, for some reason, in a relationship - took ribbons from Grace’s Bowl of Wonders and each ended up with the person they used to want to kiss - Ross and Dori. Dorianne actually apologised to Emily on her way out, but considering how she was absolutely feasting on Irv at midnight, was this really a sincere apology? We all know she’s a somewhat decent actress. Or was she just trying to make herself feel better for grinding another girl’s boyfriend into a fine mist? Or for giving that boyfriend a sense of false hope?
One member of this fucked up little foursome who didn’t seem to give a shit that Emily has a boyfriend was ol’ Spaghetti Arms himself, Ross Brown. While Ross should have been terrified that Irv would crush him with his pinky finger (the man is dumber than a sack of hammers, but definitely doesn’t skip arm day. Or his steroid injection), he seemed to happily accept Emily's advances. And why wouldn't he? It's not like the ladies are lining up to suck face with Ross Brown. I would imagine even Shawna would turn him down. Ha, oh wait. She doesn't know how to do that.
Speaking of our favourite dumb blonde - well, one of them, anyway - Shawna was paired with her bestie Tequila Taylor's ex, Bart Taylor. Considering Bart has somehow caught the attention of SDS transplants Meg and Greer, we don't know why he was searching for someone else to kiss, but maybe he's trying to up his chances that someone will want to kiss him. Why, we don't know. But, don't worry, Sauced-Suz. Shawna is your friend. Of course she turned Bart down. Oh. Oh wait. Nope, she absolutely did not, and the two shared a midnight kiss. They didn't check one another for cavities like Ballie or Dirv, but a kiss is a kiss. Keep your eyes on Jeremy, Suz. Shawna’s hungry.
Yes, it appears the “Most Likely To End Up On An Episode Of Intervention” from our graduating class managed to find a dark corner to snog with Jeremy Rudolph. Either that, or she was puking all over his too-tight (but I'm not complaining) shirt. That's her kink, Jer. Buckle up, it's a wild ride when the Sloppopotamus is behind the wheel.
After connecting during a boring as fuck game of beer pong after the State Championship game, Austin seems to have found himself a reStace-ment - see what I did there? Andrea Kirkland is the complete Anti-Stacey, and judging by the way Staustin ended things, it's exactly what Austin needs. The two of them shared a sweet-ish midnight kiss, and managed not to scream at each other in the process. Enjoy the low-key romance, Austin. Or will you be bored to tears? Stay tuned.
Before I bid you all farewell, I have one question for you - did you see the new, sparkly ring on Margie Greene’s left hand? It appears everyone's favourite Toxic Twosome is about to make a trip down the aisle - assuming they can get to the altar without breaking up again. Hey, Margie. You're glowing. When does the Twosome become a Threesome? And I'm not talking about the kind Marty wishes you would join him and Corinne in. But true love conquers all, doesn't it? Good luck. You're gonna need it.
Until next time, my darling douchebags! Xoxo 😘
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2024.04.21 18:12 ThrowRA_dumpsterdump When should I (36F) tell my partners (36F and 40M) I plan to move out of the country?

TL; DR: I'm in a poly relationship and I'm not sure when to tell my partners I plan to move out of the country.
I (36F) am in a poly relationship with Kara (36F) and Tom (40M) who are married. We've been dating exclusively for just over three years.
Recently, I've decided to plan a move from the US to Europe. I'm facing another year and a half before I apply for the necessary visa as there are several hurdles I must cross to qualify for the application. I fully intend to move regardless of my partners' approval or support. My goal is to be in Europe by December 2025.
I'm sure the move will be devastating to them, especially Tom, as I do not want to maintain a long-distance relationship. I wanted to wait until it looked more certain that the move will happen before I break the news. I'm afraid that if I tell them now, they'll assume I'm unhappy in the relationship which will lead to unnecessary turmoil in the months ahead. I don't want to break their hearts and then find out a year later that I can't get the visa or otherwise not be able to make the move happen. In that case, I'll stay in the relationship.
At what phase of planning should I announce the move?
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2024.04.18 14:27 Oradainer Only a Myth - Part 16

First / Previous / Next
Alex suppressed a grin as he watched Monty try to see everything at once. He was glad he put restrictions on the android bodies, otherwise she would be doing things that weren’t physically possible with Human or Alandran neck musculature. The inside of the palace was old, dating back to when most of the lands were not yet unified. The idea of voting in a new Empress every so many years was strange, but they had made it work.
Turning to the the new Captain of the Guard, Mon’Kelron, he asked, “I saw that the gate house was closed and there seemed to be a large throng of people in front of it, is everything ok?”
Mon shook her head, “I doubt an advanced species like yours has what we have started calling ‘crazies’, but we sure do. What you saw was the Eastern gate house coming in, what you did not see was the Western gate house has an entirely different group of crazies. One group believes that Humans are our saviors, and that they brought us from ignorance and had they been longer lived they would have kept the Howron from ever coming to our planet. The other group believes that the Howron are somehow protecting us from worse species out in the universe and that by aligning with the Humans we will lose their protection.”
Alex nodded, “So why are they both picketing the Palace, why are they not arguing with each other?”
The Captain sighed, “Oh, they are, all over the planet. But the ones here are the leaders, and they both believe they have the right to bring their concerns to the Empress. We’ve had full scale riots in some cities already. The Empress is trying to quell the problems with radio broadcasts explaining the current situation, but conspiracy theorist on both sides think even she has ulterior motives.”
As they turned yet another rounded corner in the palace they found themselves in a large hallway with red carpeting. Mon’Kelron brushed her hair back behind her ear before she spoke, “Will you require separate rooms or will you only need one accommodation?” She asked, coughing a bit in embarrassment.
Monty spoke up before Alex, “Oh, definitely separate rooms! Kara has complained enough about his snoring, I don’t want to be subjected to that!”
Alex glared at Monty while sending her an instant message through his HUD, “We’re computers, we don’t sleep, or snore!”
Monty grinned happily as she replied to his instant message, “Just selling the biological story big guy!”
Mon’Kelron coughed again and nodded, “Very well, these first two rooms will be your quarters for the evening. Feel free to freshen up, lunch will be in two hours, my guards will bring you to the Empress’s dining room at that time.”
Alex nodded and handed Monty one of the bags he had been carrying. Mon’Kelron half expected her to drop it to the floor when he let go, but was surprised when she took it with almost no effort. “Stay out of trouble, I’m going to relax for a bit before lunch.”
Monty sighed, “You’re no fun!” She stated as she stuck out her tongue.
Then they both turned and entered their private rooms. Mon’Kelron sighed as she looked to the two guards, “Keep a constant watch on these rooms, we haven’t had any trespassers in the palace proper yet, but now would be the time for one of those idiots out there to try something foolish.”
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Alex locked the door behind him as he set the duffle bag down on the overstuffed fitting chair that sat beside a full length standing mirror. He took off his flight jacket and threw it on the back of the chair before sitting down on the couch and pulling out a small book. Once done he left his android form and entered the common room VR.
Monty was just fading in as he sat down on the couch beside Kara, “Did you hear the Captain after we shut our doors?”
She nodded her head vigorously, “Of course I did! Sounds like things on the planet aren’t exactly peachy.”
Alex took a moment to examine that turn of phrase, Monty was much older than him and sometimes used very old fashioned terms. “Yeah, I have a feeling that the guards aren’t just for looks. We’ll get to ask more questions at lunch, in the meantime, catch up on the mining drones while I fill in Kara.”
Twenty milliseconds later after describing what he saw and heard in the Imperial palace Kara simply nodded her head. “That seems in line with what our stealth probes have been recording over the past year. The ministry of secrets has attempted to hide most of this, but I have to assume that Kel’Taraan knew that she couldn’t keep this from us.”
Alex shook his head sadly, “She wouldn’t want us to concern ourselves over their problems, I’ll visit her later today and see how she’s holding up.”
Kara eyed him wearily, “She’s of advanced age Alex, no doubt the crew of the Days of Prosperity gave her nanite infusions, allowing her to outlive everyone around her, but even medical nanites have their limits. There isn’t anything other than repairing her broken hip that you can do for her, there is no cure for old age.”
Alex gave her that lopsided grin of his, the one where he knew something she didn’t. “That’s not entirely true…”
Kara sighed with exasperation, “I highly doubt the rebellion gave you some secret to biological immortality.”
Alex shook his head, “Well, not biological immortality.”
Then Kara received a ping, and opening the message she felt her jaw drop. “Alex, these are the plans for the equipment to transfer consciousness into a replicant matrix.”
Alex nodded, “Yup, part of what the rebellion was fighting for was the equality of all Humans whether they be biological, replicant, or AI. If I was one of the captains in charge of rebuilding the rebellion if it failed, I had to safeguard the technology to make new replicants. Thus they entrusted me, and a few others with these designs.”
Kara put her hands on the table, “Are there any more secrets you haven’t shared with me?” She asked with a little heat in her voice.
He nodded his head and she received yet another ping, checking her messages she found yet another set of plans. This time it was of an outdated heavy cruiser design, Mermansk class, and had been out of service for nearly fifty years. “Is that everything?”
He grinned at her, “Yes dear, I really didn’t think it’d matter, since we can’t build the heavy cruisers with the modified shipyards we have now, and I honestly didn’t think we’d find use for the replication equipment until we found more Humans.”
Kara sighed, shaking her head slowly as she was once again reminded of the replication equipment. “Alex, this isn’t something you can lightly offer to these people, you don’t even know if the replication process will work on Alandrans.”
Alex sighed, “I know, but Kel’Taraan practically worships Humans. I don’t know the full story, but I think she had a thing with someone in the last Human crew. Regardless, she would be an excellent resource, and she has little to lose by trying.”
Kara stood up straight and started pacing, “I agree that losing her and her wealth of knowledge would not be good, I just don’t know if we need to throw their civilization into more turmoil than it’s already facing. Did you know they caught an intruder in the Palace grounds just last week?”
Alex raised an eyebrow, “No, I didn’t. Let me guess, you sent me an email on it?”
Kara nodded, “You never check your messages, I had to bring them to your attention even before we joined the rebellion.”
Alex came around the table and ran his hand through Kara’s hair, “And I’ve always been grateful for you bringing things to my attention.” He put his forehead to hers, “I’ll try to do better, I promise.”
Kara nodded up to him, “So, are you going to heed my advice or are we going to build the replicant hardware and matrix?”
Alex stepped back and sighed, “I know you’re right, we don’t need to throw too much at them at once. Forget I brought it up.”
As he looked down at the table for something to snack on he felt Kara wrap her arms around his waist and squeezed up against his back before she whispered in his ear, “Fine you big oaf, I’ll start building the equipment, bring it up with her today, but it’s her choice.”
He stood up and spun around to take her in his arms, “I’ll make the offer, if she says no I’ll respect it.” They stood there holding each other, just enjoying the moment.
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Alex closed the book his android had been ‘reading’ for the past two hours. Setting it down on the elegant side table he stood up and took in the room. He hadn’t really looked around earlier, wanting to get back to the VR environment to see what Kara thought of the current predicament on the planet. It was about what he expected, the palace was ancient after all, and built in a time before they had firearms.
Thus the walls were stone, and very thick, with only two tiny windows to allow light to enter into the room. In the past it would have been quite dark even during the day, but overhead lights using electricity lit the room now. From what they could gather from the probes the Alandrans were now about early twentieth century level of technology.
Some things were more advanced, he could tell the bulbs in the light fixtures were LED and not resistive filaments, but he saw they still ran ships and trains off steam. Aircraft were non-existent, whether that was because of lack of technology or something else he did not know. He continued to study the room, some of the walls had tapestries of Alandran women hunting or at war.
The rugs on the wooden floor were also quite elegant, as was the fireplace, which seemed to be powered by natural gas if the sensors in the nasal cavity of the android were to be believed. There was only one other door to the room other than the exit door, turning the handle he found it to be a quite nice bath room.
It was a bath room in the literal sense as well, a huge copper tub sat in the center of the room with copper pipes and valves setup to fill it. There was also a porcelain toilet with a large tank attached to the wall far above the bowl with a pull chain and a porcelain sink with copper valves to run hot and cold water. It was quite odd compared to the thirtieth century rest rooms he was accustomed to, they still used toilet paper, not even a hint of the three sea shells.
Leaving the bathroom he received a message in his heads up display, Monty says it’s time to make our appearance for lunch. Leaving the bath room he closed the door behind him and picked up his flight jacket and put it on. Looking in the mirror he thought it looked rather nice, even if Monty rolled her eyes at it.
Knocking on the door one of his guards opened it, just as Monty was coming out of her room as well. He didn’t miss the way the guard looked him over, “Men must be really rare if she’s checking me out.” He thought to himself as he nodded to Monty.
“We’re ready for Lunch with the Empress, if you two would be so kind as to escort us to her private dining quarters?” He asked as he waved his hand down the hall.
They both nodded almost in unison as one took to the front and the other took the the rear, shepherding them to their location. Alex looked around, exquisite art covered the walls, expensive tapestries were in abundance, as was well crafted and obviously hand crafted furniture in abundance in every room they were led through on their way to the Empress.
Finally they found themselves in a cozy dining room, there was a large wooden table, enough chairs for eight to sit comfortably, some art and tapestries on the walls, but not an extravagant amount. He found that he approved, classy, but not ostentatious. The Empress sat at the head of the table, and a server brought them to either side of her and ensured they were both seated properly.
Empress Shi’Lana put down her tablet and welcomed them both. “I’m pleased you decided to stay a little while this time Alex, and I’d like to get to know you as well Monty.”
Alex decided to cut to the chase, to use one of Monty’s ancient idioms, “We are pleased to be here as well, though we are a little concerned with the current temperament of your citizens.”
He had to give it to her, Shi’Lana didn’t flinch at his less than delicate statement, she was obviously well conditioned. Looking him directly in the eye she studied him for a moment, then sighed, “The return of your people has had mixed reactions from my populous. As well as the parliament. A small reactive group has dusted off the very charter your people helped us use to unite our people to call for a vote to Impeach me.”
This was news, he would have to get with Kara about it when he suddenly realized something and frame jacked to his highest level. He checked his inbox, yup, two hundred thirty three messages. Using its search feature he found that she had indeed informed him of that, and that she thought that for now it was a fringe group yelling invective, but needed to be dealt with at some point by the Empress.
Returning to normal time, which a biological being wouldn’t have noticed his android body freeze, he simply nodded. “Yes, a fringe group for now, but you cannot afford to continue to ignore them. You have, what, two years left on your current term of office? Which leaves you maybe a year before you have to concentrate on your re-election campaign in the Parliament. I hope you have something in the works to deal with this group.”
Monty sent Alex an instant message, which appeared in his HUD, “I saw you frame jack, you didn’t read Kara’s messages again!”
Alex simply sent her an emoji with his tongue sticking out.
Shi’Lana rang the simple brass bell that was in front of her, at once a server entered from the back room with a note pad and paper, “I would like keldaran hot tea, two sweets, one cream, and whatever our esteemed guests would like to drink. Also, bring out the menus, they do not know what we have available.”
Alex suspected she was stalling for a a moment, but decided to play along, “I’ll have the same, what about you Monty?”
Monty looked a bit giddy, and with a twinkle in her eye she said, “I would like to try the khokoto. I’ve heard it was similar to our hot chocolate, I’m interested in testing it.”
Alex glared for a moment at their resident chocoholic who for all intents and purposes seemed oblivious. The Empress waited for the server to leave the room before continuing, “We have a plan in place, which was orchestrated by Kel’Taraan before her fall. Spy-Mistress Isa’Bella is currently implementing it as we speak. Normally I would find these types of tactics tasteless, but I have no time to deal with these fools.”
Well, if it was cooked up by Kel’Taraan, Alex was sure it was dirty and underhanded, “Would you care to elaborate?”
The server chose that moment to reenter the room with their drinks, then placed a menu before both he and Monty and left by the same door she entered. Once this was complete the Empress took a small sip of her tea, nodded, and spoke. “Well, let’s just say the ministry of secrets has been keeping a very close eye on every member of parliament for the past two hundred years. Until now they have never been willing to open up their private files. Now they see this group as a threat to the Aldarian way of life, and are implementing some quite nasty rumors to the news outlets all over the planet.”
Monty giggled at this, “So the ministry has some information on these Ladies in Parliament and is leaking them to your newspapers?”
The Empress nodded, tapping at her tea cup with a finger nail, “Yes, and some of their doings are down right illegal and immoral. Their own constituents will soon be calling for their resignations. Their group will soon be the laughing stock of Parliament if any survive the information dump the ministry is currently delivering. The civil unrest is something that worries both myself and the ministry quite a bit.”
Alex took a sip of the tea, luckily his android body could show a neutral face, even if he drank battery acid, which wasn’t far from what this tea tasted like. He turned off his taste receptors before continuing, “One group calling itself New Beginnings, and calling for the government to cut all ties with Humanity and respect the Howron as your rightful overlords. Then you have another group calling itself Alandra First, and calling for a full mobilization of the government behind the Humans to defeat the Howrons once and for all.”
Shi’Lana nodded, took another sip of her tea, then answered, “The ministry of secrets believes these two groups are also being funded by hidden members of parliament, they are currently tracking financials. I really wish Kel’Taraan was well, this was just the kind of thing she excelled at discovering.”
She rang the brass bell again and once more the servant appeared at once, notepad and pencil in hand, “I will have the zehwel steak, the tubers, and mixed vegetables.”
Alex, a bit irritated at the interruption simply nodded, “The same, but bring me a beer or ale.”
Monty simply slid the menu over, obviously only checking out the deserts, “I’ll have the loran cream pie.”
After gathering the menus and leaving, Alex turned to the Empress, “I might be able to help with the Kel’Taraan problem. I plan to go see her after our lunch.”
He then received a message from Monty, “Um, what’s going on?”
He responded to her, “A little plan I cooked up and Kara is on board with, just go with it.”
The Empress nodded, “More of that magical human technology?”
Alex shrugged, “Something like that.”
An hour later Alex and Monty entered Spy-Mistress Kel’Taraan’s hospital room. It was inside the palace, so stone walls and wooden floors, but the walls here were painted a glossy white color and even the sheets were stark white. There was no medical equipment monitoring her, but there was a glass bottle on a metal rack above the bed that was draining liquid down what appeared to be a rubber tube into a needle that was bandaged to her arm.
The ancient Alandran turned her head to see her visitors, her voice was barely a whisper, “Come to see me off? I’ve overheard the doctors, they say there is nothing more they can do for me.”
Alex shook his head, “What if there was another option?”
Kel’Taraan looked up at Alex, “What kind of option?”
Now Alex grinned down to her from his chair beside the bed, “Can you keep a secret?”
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2024.04.15 12:22 handsomeboh EU5 Lore Project: Korea

I’m having a lot of fun with these write ups so I think I’ll continue. Korea at the EU5 start date in 1337 was called Goryeo (which gives Korea its name), and is generally considered to be a different state to the Joseon which succeeded it, the Korea we observe in the EU4 start date. Goryeo started way back in 980 AD, but it is the Yuan Dynasty era of Goryeo that is most important here. Korea was a very interesting state in this period, traditional Korean historiography (which is very xenophobic and anti-Joseon) considers this a period of humiliation and subservience - but as we shall see, Korea used this to its great advantage to preserve a lot of independence and the influence went both ways. This independence didn’t come from distance; rather the two states were incredibly intertwined. In fact, Korea was even more intertwined with the Yuan court than even any of the other Mongol states of the period, and would never again exercise so much influence in China. Korea ultimately remains one of very few examples of Mongolization we observe outside of the other steppe nomads, even as the actual Mongols Sinified, Persified, or Turkified.
The Mongol conquest of Korea had been a slow and arduous one, comparable to the conquest of China as among the most difficult campaigns fought by the Mongols. For centuries, Korea had fought endless waves of Manchu, Khitan, and Mongolic horse armies; pushing them back from their previously expansive position in Manchuria behind the Baekdu mountain range and the Yalu River. While Goryeo was ruled by the Wang family, by the 12th century the court had been usurped by the Choi family, who ruled as military dictators. The Chois dictatorial rule made them many enemies, and meant that large swathes of Korea defected early to the first Mongol invasions in 1231. Nonetheless, by moving the capital to the heavily fortified island of Ganghwa-do just off Seoul, the Mongols were never able to actually capture the new capital. The Koreans fought off 9 attempted invasions - unlike the Song, this was less through dogged defence and more by strategic retreat and armistices, which ultimately caused nearly all of Korea to be razed over 40 years. The Crown Prince was eventually forced to become a Yuan hostage, and later on the Chois and other military dictators were assassinated, leading to a wave of rebellions which were ultimately crushed with Mongol assistance, finally putting an end to Mongol resistance around 1270, and losing much of the North in the process.
This resistance meant that Korea emerged in extreme poverty and famine as one of the last vassal states of the Yuan, following the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho, the Bai Kingdom of Dali, and fhe Karluk Kara-Khanid Kingdom. It was also by far the closest to the Mongolian capital of Dadu in modern day Beijing. This put Korea in a tricky situation. Its refusal to surrender despite a rather poor military record earned more frustration than respect, and despite large numbers of Koreans in Northern China near the capital, the Kingdom of Korea was officially considered lowest among equals within the kingdom-level vassals of the Yuan. The military was clearly also very disaffected, and the Wang family was essentially reliant on the whims and priorities of the Mongols to prevent a coup d’etat. At this point, Korea had also been forced to cede most of the North to Yuan, while the neighbouring Yuan province of Shen (now Liaodong) which had a majority Korean population was ruled by the Hong family, defectors from the first invasion who led the subsequent invasions of Korea and hated the Wang family.
To resolve the diplomatic solution, King Chungnyeol married Queen Jangmok in 1271, the youngest daughter of Kublai Khan. With the ousting of the military dictatorship, the Korean court was controlled largely by Confucian scholar-bureaucrats, who seized the momentum of having a Mongol “mother of the country”, to spread Mongol customs throughout the country in an attempt to defuse rebellious sentiment. Much of this influence remains - for example in Korean traditional dress (hanbok), which shifted from the Tang style flowing robes to a tighter and shorter version. Chungnyeol made judicious use of this political advantage. Queen Jangmok was beloved by Kublai Khan the way only a youngest daughter could be, and as the only daughter not married to a Mongol leader, Kublai gave special attention to Korean embassies led by the King and Queen. Chungnyeol managed to have all Mongol forces withdrawn from Korea by 1278, return of the ceded provinces by 1280 (though Mongol troops and governors would remain), have himself appointed as head of the Secretariat for Eastern Affairs in charge of the preparations for invading Japan, preservation of traditional Korean customs be enshrined in treaty, and a promise that all future Korean Kings would be married to Yuan princesses and receive Mongol names. Korea salvaged its prestige and income by providing large numbers of troops, engineers, and sailors for the invasions of China, Japan, and Vietnam as well as the Mongol civil war between Kaidu and Kublai, which also had the effect of keeping the military at arms length. King Chungnyeol draws a lot of hate from Korean historians, seen as a traitor and stooge, largely due to Joseon-era propaganda but also a xenophobic tradition in Korean historiography. As we will see, these moves laid the foundation for Korea’s continued independence.
King Chungnyeol’s son King Chungseon (Mongol: Ijirbukhqa) doubled down on this policy. His parents meticulously constructed a perfect political backdrop for him: First by having him marry the daughters of the three most powerful families in Korea as well as Kublai’s grand-daughter. Second by having him raised in Dadu, where his status both as Kublai’s grandson and the Crown Prince of a powerful vassal made him many friends among the Yuan court, while also shielding him from brutal palace intrigue back in Korea. This background afforded him a special unprecedented privilege - a voice at the Kurultai. For generations, the Mongol princes fought bitter behind-the-scenes political wars over succession, largely culminating in Kurultai votes. Chungseon provided critical political and financial support to two successful emperors Kuluk Khan and Buyantu Khan, receiving the title King of Shen as a reward in 1307, before becoming King of Korea in 1308. Being simultaneously King of Korea and King of Shen is a nearly unprecedented example of an Asian personal union, with one person having two independent sovereign titles. As King of Shen, he presided over the end of the Hong family rule over Shen, though only gradually though much backroom politics. The rest of Chungseon’s reign was somewhat tricky - ever considered a foreigner, his attempts to pass through Yuan Dynasty reforms including more rights for slaves, banning same-surname marriages, and improving meritocracy were considered attacks on the political power of Korean noble families. Chungseon is also much maligned by Korean historians, who blasted him for spending too much time in China, and for attempting to tyrannically circumscribe the nobility. The continued tying of Korea to Yuan though, ushered in a period of security economic integration, and significant prosperity as Korea went from being a humiliated and subservient vassal to the “Son-in-Law” kingdom (駙馬國). Chungseon’s personal popularity within Yuan actually resulted in Korean traditions flowing into China, including the first wave of the hanbok influencing Chinese traditional dress. When he died, Chungseon split his titles among his two sons and ended the personal union.
At the EU5 start date in 1337, Korea was just about to start the reign of King Chunghye (Putashri). Chunghye is most famous for raping one of his father’s Mongol princess concubines in 1343, who requested the Yuan court to save her. The act disgusted just about everybody, and so when Yuan officials arrived to arrest him, it was pretty much shrugged off, even when Chunghye died along the way. Joseon historians consider this to be a humiliating affair where Yuan authority was forced on Korea, but the reality appears to actually have been the opposite.
In a remarkable turn of events, Yuan had gone through a devastating succession war that ended in 1332. Korea had backed the losing side of Kusala Khan against Jayaatu Khan due to ties dating back to Chunjeong, leading the then Prince Toghon Temur to flee first to Korea and later to South China. After the brutal civil war, when Jayaatu Khan died, he passed the throne back to Kusala Khan’s descendants instead of his own sons, supposedly out of remorse. Toghon Temur developed affection for Korea in his time there, and fell deeply in love with his Korean concubine Lady Gi. By 1340, Lady Gi had pulled off the impossible, becoming the first non-Mongol Empress, and capitalising on Toghon Temur’s passivity and love for her to rule over Yuan in his stead, filling it with Korean officials including her brother Gi Cheol who commanded Mongol forces in the East, and was simultaneously the Prince of Rongan in Yuan, as well as a Chancellor in Korea. Empress Gi had two life goals: to put her son on the Yuan throne, and to put her brother on the Korean throne. It is highly probable that the above was engineered by Empress Gi to delegitimise the Wang family in pursuit of her second goal.
Initially this seemed to work. King Chunghye was followed by two 12 year old kings, who were powerless to the intrigues between and within the Yuan court and the Korean court. Empress Gi solidified her hold over the Yuan court, achieving her first objective by having her son Bilitigu Khan become crown prince in 1353 with great difficulty, collaborating with the great Confucian scholar and general Toqto’a to banish and assassinate the powerful general and prince Bayan. We should not weep for Bayan or condemn Toqto’a- Bayan was an insane warlord, and Toqto’a (his own nephew) was only convinced to participate in his assassination because Bayan had the idea that executing 10% of all Chinese people would be the best way to reduce unrest. Toqto’a later went on to lead several engineering and agricultural projects, write the histories of the preceding dynasties, and successfully suppress the Red Turban Rebellion which broke out in 1351. He opposed the naming of Bilitigu Khan as Crown Prince, who would clearly have become a puppet of the Empress, and so Empress Gi manoeuvred to have him arrested and executed on false charges right on the eve of his final extermination of the Red Turban rebels. This was one of the big what-if moments of history - the Red Turbans eventually came back and took down the Yuan and created the Ming dynasty, along the way taking down Empress Gi and her son. Could she have convinced Toqto’a to support her, could the Gi family have built the Habsburgs on steroids ruling over both Yuan and Goryeo potentially for centuries?
The Gi family was also ultimately responsible for rupturing the symbiotic relationship between Goryeo and Yuan. As King Chungjeong died as a child, King Chunghye’s brother King Gongmin (Bayan Temur) rose to the throne in 1351. Having grown up in Dadu under the watch of Empress Gi, he was likely initially judged to be manipulatable, and the early part of his reign was marked by the Gi family’s further ascendancy in Korea including extensive deployment of Korean forces in China against the Red Turbans. All of this changed in 1356 when Gongmin invited the entire Gi clan to a feast and then murdered all of them Red Wedding style before proceeding to purge the entire administration of pro-Yuan officials. Still reeling from civil war, hit by plague epidemics, flood, famine, and rebellion, Empress Gi sent an army in 1364 led by her son to take back Korea, attempting to install the elderly son of King Chungjeon with her nephew as Crown Prince, but they were defeated. Eventually, Toghon Temur died in 1370, her son did take the throne but by then Yuan was lost and he retreated into Mongolia putting up a successful resistance. Empress Gi died along the way.
Empress Gi is the subject of a lot of slander by both Chinese and Korean sources, largely because the Confucianism of the era had the idiotic concept that women in power were evil. We have every reason to believe that her political ambitions did not come in the way of her effective governance. She is recorded to have personally devised tax reform, handled logistics for famines, commissioned infrastructure projects, and suppressed multiple rebellions. Despite being an outsider, she was immensely popular; spreading Korean culture deep into Yuan China, and encouraging large numbers of Korean-Mongol marriages. While Empress Gi was probably exceptionally intelligent and talented, women in Turco-Mongolic societies traditionally held levels of economic, military, and political authority which were seen as offensive to Western observers. Empress Gi appears to have followed in a tradition of powerful Korean-Mongolian women dating to Queen Jangmok. It’s important to note that the unpopular one at the time was not Empress Gi but actually King Gongmin, who pissed off generations of entrenched Korean-Mongol families with what seemed like an arbitrary and dishonorable act of extreme violence against a relative; especially as King Gongmin continued to refuse pleas for help from the Yuan and murdered many of their envoys. To make things worse, the Red Turbans invaded Korea twice, and though they were repulsed after capturing the capital at Kaesong, it was clear that Yuan and Korea were fighting the same enemy. He was later assassinated by pro-Yuan officials, with all kinds of scandalous rumours floating about how and why. The most commonly accepted one is that as he was infertile, he arranged for four young nobles to impregnate the Queen, with the intention of murdering them afterwards, though they got to him first in 1374.
Gongmin was succeeded by his 12 year old son King U, who was really controlled by the pro-Yuan faction. Nonetheless, it was not clear what to do as the Yuan had already been pushed back into Mongolia, and so the military launched a more moderate counter-coup against both factions. The military was essentially controlled by two generals, Yi Seonggye whose father was originally the Yuan official in charge of one of the Northern provinces of Korea, and Choi Yong who had served in China as part of Korean expeditionary forces against the Red Turbans before King Gongmin went on his murder spree. Choi Yong had been the one to report to King Gongmin that the Yuan was extremely fragile, later leading the successful defeat of the Yuan army sent by Empress Gi, and the retaking of the Northern provinces. In 1388, Choi Yong pushed for an invasion of the Ming, eventually ordering Yi to lead the army north and takeover Shen.
In what is now known as the Retreat from Wihwado, a pivotal founding myth of modern Korea, Yi took the army to the Yalu River on the border with China which was flooding from the rains, and noped straight back to Kaesong where he arrested and executed Choi Yong, and the other officials who opposed him, before declaring himself King, swearing fealty to the Ming Emperor, and founding the Joseon Dynasty which would last until the Japanese annexed Korea in 1910.
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2024.04.14 23:07 AFDPP [M4F] Looking for these canon characters (DC, Marvel and more)

Hey there! Thanks for checking out my post.
I've been really in the mood for some fandom RPs lately, especially from DC. I'm mainly looking to play a male character(s) myself, opposite canon characters that you'd play. It's nothing toooo specific beyond that, the main details of the plot really depend on the characters, but here's a few things to know, really.
I'm open to most kinda plots and pairings, and I'm open to really any themes. I'm open to pretty much everything! Even if you have ideas that you think are more out there, feel free to suggest them to me, I'd probably be down for them!
Like I said, I'm happy to play most anyone as long as you play a canon character I'm looking for. I can play canons myself, or crossover characters, or OCs; it all works for me.
Now, let's get to the main gist of it, really: who I'm looking for. I'm looking for canon women from different fandoms, though my favorite is DC. I have a few other canons I like such as Marvel or a few other ones here and there, but DC is definitely the main one. Below, I'll put the list of some of the canon women I'm looking to play opposite with. If you can play any of these characters, I'd absolutely love it.
Under each 'category' of character, I'll also include some details about some possible plot points or pairings we could try. These are only some suggestions, of course; I'm more than down to brainstorm other ideas, but think of these as sort of inspirations to help start out!
Hey there! I've been looking for someone to play canon women, mainly from comics verses, but a few other things as well!
ANYWAY, here's the main gist of the post. The main canons I'm looking for. If you can play any of these, I'd love it. Feel free to message me whenever!
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SUPERHERO CANONS
DC: Cheshire / Jade Nguyen, Artemis Crock (Young Justice), Yara Flor, Lois Lane, Donna Troy, Wonder Woman, Talia al Ghul, Black Canary / Dinah Lance, Zatanna, Ravager / Rose Wilson, Huntress / Helena Bertinelli, Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern, Poison Ivy, Star Sapphire / Carol Ferris, Punchline / Alexis Kaye, Iris West, Lian Harper / Cheshire Cat, Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, Spoiler / Stephanie Brown, Catwoman / Selina Kyle, Batgirl / Barbara Gordon, Dove / Dawn Granger (Titans TV), Starfire / Koriand'r, Lilith Clay, Hawkgirl / Kendra Saunders, Lady Shiva, Mera, some of the Arrowverse girls (Sara Lance, Laurel Lance, Thea Queen, Dinah Drake, Mia Smoak, Iris West)
MARVEL: Elektra Natchios, Psylocke / Betsy Braddock, Jean Grey / Phoenix, Emma Frost, Rogue / Anna Marie, Kate Bishop / Hawkeye, Lorna Dane / Polaris, Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, Wanda Maximoff / Scarlett Witch, Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff, Carol Danvers (MCU), Sersi (MCU), Felicia Hardy / Black Cat, Mary Jane Watson, Hope van Dyne (MCU)
THE BOYS: Starlight / Annie January
BEN 10: Gwen Tennyson (specifically, the Alien Force version or older only!), Charmcaster, Ester
Possible ideas: As a general idea here, with heroines and villain types, it could always be fun to do a plot where they're defeated, if you're open to a darker sort of plot. Maybe they end up imprisoned after a heavy defeat to a villain or army, or they're stranded somewhere, like on an island or desert or unknown city. Something that takes them out of their usual setting, you know? In fact, for some of the higher status heroines, it could be fun to do plots where they're turned into sidekicks themselves, or transformed in some way that changes their status quo. Other than that, since most of these characters are well known in universe, I'd also love a plot where they meet a fan or someone who knows their work in universe, if that makes sense.
Going into the specific characters here, Cheshire is definitely my favorite. She's one of those ones that there's a lot of good options to pair her with; maybe one of the Titans, like a Nightwing or Wally West, or maybe someone like one of the Green Arrows could be good for a dynamic with her, especially since they're characters she has an interesting history with. With some of the more experienced heroines (like Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Donna Troy, etc.), I do think it'd be fun to have them in a sort of mentor type role, where perhaps they're helping out a younger hero type, be that one that exists within the DC Universe already (like a Tim Drake or Bart Allen for example), or a new original character. As for Talia al Ghul, perhaps after failing to persuade Batman for so long, it's time for her to look for a new type of bethrothed, so she sets out for a new target for the League of Assassins. Rose Wilson could be fun with the Arrows, be that Connor or Roy, since she has a comic history with them. But to be honest, the DC characters are super flexible, so as these are only suggestions, we can fully brainstorm something up, I don't mind at all.
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VIDEO GAME CANONS
OVERWATCH: Ashe or Kiriko
FINAL FANTASY 7: Tifa Lockhart, Aerith Gainsborough, Jessie Rasberry
RED DEAD REDEMPTION: Sadie Adler, Abigail Roberts, Mary-Beth Gaskill
STARDEW VALLEY: Abigail, Emily, Haley, Leah, Penny, Robin, Jodi, Sandy, Caroline
MISC: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Ellie Williams (TLOU2)
Possible ideas: For the FF7 canons, I'm thinking some kind of new resident or visitor of the slums would make for an interesting dynamic to pair them off of. Someone who's new, possibly oblivious to Avalanche and their activities. He could slowly discover what the girls are up to, and either turn against them or works with them. Or perhaps, it takes a more casual turn, someone visiting the bar, needing a room or place to stay sort of vibe and meeting the likes of Tifa or Jessie. With the RDR girls, a new member of the gang under their tutelage or that befriends them could be interesting, perhaps leading towards a direction where they run off together, or kind of face the frontier together. Lara and Ellie can have similar plot scenarios I'd like to think, with one of them being in an apocalypse setting obviously. Getting captured or coming up against some kind of tribe or faction or some such, someone who's targeting them for one reason or another.
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MISC CANONS
STAR WARS: Rey or Leia
GAME OF THRONES: Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, Margaery Tyrell
DISNEY: Teddy Duncan (Good Luck, Charlie), Alex Russo (Wizards of Waverly Place), Sharpay Evans or Gabriella Montez (High School Musical), Colette (Ratatouille)
MISC: Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo), Carly Shay (iCarly), Azula or Suki (Avatar), Betty Cooper (Riverdale)
Possible ideas: With Rey and Leia, I really like the idea of plots taking place in their respective desert settings: Jakku or Tattooine. Something showing the sort of survival aspects of living in a harsh reality like this, how they have to fight for credits or food, living with all the foes around and the heat, that sort of thing. It could either go a darker route, or show kind of their daily life living in a setting like that, their social dynamics with whatever characters are around in those settings; The merchants, the bounty hunters, the traders, etc. You could do a similar thing with Daenerys too, if we wanna set her plot in Essos, though with the GOT girls, I think a sort of war / political plot would be fun, showing the aftermath of either their victory or defeat.
The other girls listed in this section I can be pretty flexible with. A slice of life type scenario would fit in with most of them, though a sort of mystery / detective type plot would be fun to set up with Daphne or Betty. If we do go the slice of life direction, maybe have it set when they're slightly older, showing how they're going through college or their early careers post their canons.
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CELEBRITIES
Margot Robbie, Megan Fox, Gemma Chan, Madison Beer, Anne Hathaway, Anya Chalotra, Victoria Pedretti, Jessica Chastain, Emeraude Taubia, Jenna Dewan, Candice Patton, Sydney Sweeney, Alice Eve, Caity Lotz, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Olivia Wilde, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Conor Leslie, Minka Kelly, Alejandra Guilmant, Kennedy Walsh, Olivia Rodrigo, Hailey Bieber, Doja Cat, Hailee Steinfeld, Dakota Johnson, Corinna Kopf, Florence Pugh, Lili Reinhart, Ariana Grande, Scarlett Johansson, Bridget Mendler
Possible ideas: This is probably the most flexible selection here, there's a whole host of plots we can do. An encounter with a fan is the most obvious one I can think of, or them exploring a new type of concert or movie role. Perhaps they've taken on a photoshoot of some kind, but it's different because it's a peculiar type of shoot, or they're hired by someone with a bit of a complex reputation. Or something I think would be super fun, is if the celebrity is kind of made to do something publicly that they're not too fond of, either for a PR campaign or as part of marketing for a movie or album or something. Perhaps a PR relationship, or they're made to act or behave a certain way to change how the world perceives them. I could also see a plot where the celebrity is made to be a prize of some competition or event, like one where my character wins a date or something with the celebrity. I also think it'd be fun to maybe try something where the celebrity's PR is at an all time low or they're cancelled or something, and then proceeding to explore the aftermath of that. These are just a few ideas, tbh, let me know if any of them intrigue you. To be honest, with these ones, it's probably the one that needs the most brainstorming, tbh.
———————
But yeah, that's the gist of it. I'm mainly just looking for the characters above, so I'm pretty flexible on the plot or pairings; that's something we can discuss ourselves. I'm sure we can create an interesting and unique plot and dynamic between our characters, something we'd both enjoy!
Let me know if you wanna set something up! My messages are always open.
My preferred place to write is Discord.
submitted by AFDPP to roleplaying [link] [comments]

2024.04.14 11:06 Zumalover_988 Anime I need to finish

Tadaima, Okaeri episode 2
Kimi ni todoke season 3 - August
Yu-gi-oh vrains season 1 episode 4 (120) - ☺️
Yu-gi-oh! Arc v season 1 episode 7 (148) - ☺️ Yu-gi-oh 5ds episode 106 (154)-☺️
Yumeiro Patissiere episode 1
Quiz Magic Academy: The Original Animation ova
Inuyasha episode 43
Noragami episode 2
Honey and Clover episode 2
Minami-ke episode 6
Ghost stories episode 3 dub
Paranoia Agent episode 2 (13) -
Kaitou Saint tail episode 9 (43) -☺️
Beast stars season 1 episode 5
Shugo Chara episode 11 (51)
Spy x family season 1 episode 19
Barefoot Gen (movie) (sub)
Working!! Episode 1 (Wagnaria!!) (13)
Grancrest Senki episode 1(Record of Grancrest War) (24)
Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin (Nanana's Buried Treasure) (11)episode 1
Qualidea Code episode 1(12)
Kannagi episode 1(13)
Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress (movie) Fusé: Teppō Musume no Torimonochō
Digimon frontier dub episode 6
Gokinji Monogatari (neighborhood story) episode 4 (50) -
Yuri yuri episode 2 season 2 (38)(2024 new season) - ☺️
I’m in love with a villainess episode 5 sub
Interspecies reviewers episode 2 uncensored
The devil is a part timer season 2 episode 3
The How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer (Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi) -soon
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End episode 2 sub
Pop chance session episode 2
Gegege no Kitaro episode 2 2018
Negima!? Episode 15 (26)
Ranma ½ movie 1: egg - ☺️
Tsubasa Chronicle episode 1
Gegege no Kitaro episode 3 1985
Bakumatsu Rock episode 1
Ya boy Kongming! Dub (12)
Shimoneta dub (12)
Gegege no Kitaro episode 10 2007
Michiko and Hatchin episode 2 (22)
Tactics episode 4 (25)
The Case Study of Vanitas episode 2 (24)
Shakugan no shana episode 2 (sub) (24)
Kimikiss: Pure Rouge episode 3 (24)
Wish Upon the Pleiades (Japanese: 放課後のプレアデス, Hepburn: Hōkago no Pureadesu episode 1(12)
Smile Precure episode 5 (48)
Urusei yatsura episode 2 (195)
Shugo Chara episode 11 (51)
Jubei-chan: the ninja girl season 1 episode 1 (13)
Kyo Kara maoh episode 6 season 1 (117)
Naruto season 1 episode 4 (sub)(220)
Rec episode 2 (9 + ova)
Drifters episode 2 (12)
Ms.Vampire who lives in my neighborhood episode 2 (12)
Slow start episode 2 (12)
Kanokon episode 2 (12)
Earl and fairy episode 3 (12)
Cheer boy episode 2 (12 +2)
Darker than black anime episode 5 (25)
Doraemon episode 2 dub
Case closed
Code geass episode 2 season 1 dub
Monster episode 4 sub
Rurouni Kenshin episode 1
Trinity seven episode 1 (12) - ☺️
Squid girl episode 2 (24) - ☺️
Yu-gi-oh! Gx season 1 episode 36 (180) - ☺️
Natsume yujin 1-6 s1 ep. 2 (74) - ☺️
Ojamajo Doremi season 1 episode 2 (51) -☺️
Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo episode 2- ☺️
Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki no Monmon
The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess episode 1 - ☺️
Hoshikuzu Telepath episode 1 - ☺️
Soul eater episode 4 - ☺️
Soul eater not - ☺️
Deranged Detectives -☺️
Usagi Drop - ☺️
Amangi SS - ☺️
Ragna Crimson -☺️
Kirby - ☺️
Kenichi: the World's Mightiest Disciple dub (50) - ☺️
Ranking of kings episode 4 no filler (33)
Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East episode 3 (26)
B the beginning episode 2 (18) -
Jubei-chan: the ninja girl season 1 episode 1 (13)
P4 episode 1(25)
Kemono friends season 1 episode 3 (24)
Ultra Maniac (ウルトラマニアック, Urutora Maniakku) is season 1 episode 7 (26) -
My next life as a villianess: All routes lead to doom! Episode 1 (24)dub - advanced player
Code geass episode 2 (50)dub -
Snow white with the red hair season 1 episode 2 (24) -
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu episode 6 (26) dub -
Is this is a zombie episode 9 season 1 (22) -
Iron-blooded orphans episode 2 (50)
Vampire dies in no time season 1 episode 2 (24)
Rave master episode 2 (51) -
Konosuba season 1 episode 2 (20)dub - ☺️
ef: A Tale of Memories episode 1(24)- ☺️
Fate/zero dub episode 1(25) - mx player
Magi - rewatch
Hitman reborn episode 1
Golden Boy episode 1 (6) - ☺️
Princess Jellyfish episode 2(11) (dub) - ☺️
Konohana kitan season 1 episode 3 (12) - ☺️
School Babysitters season 1 episode 2 (12) - ☺️
Blend-S episode 2 (12) - ☺️
Build Divide (12) - ☺️
If it’s for my daughter, I’d even defeat a demon lord episode 1 (12) ☺️
Yamada-kun and the seven witches episode 2 (12) - ☺️
Problem children coming from another world episode 2 (12) - ☺️
Mikakunin de Shinkoukei episode 2 (12) - ☺️
Yuyushiki episode 2 (12) - ☺️
The Kawaii Complex (bokura wa minna kawaisou) episode 2 (12) - ☺️
Land of the Lustrous episode 2 (12) -☺️
Inu X Boku episode 4 (12) - ☺️
Meganebu episode 2 (12) -☺️
Irina the vampire cosomaut episode 3(12) - ☺️
Paranoia Agent episode 2 (13) -☺️
Asteroid in love episode 3 (13) - Mx in player
R-15 episode 2 (13) - ☺️
Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta episode 3(13) - ☺️
Bloom into you episode 2 (14) - ☺️
Dna 2 episode 2 (15) - ☺️
Kubo San is Be Invisible episode 2 - ☺️
Zombie 100 episode 1 - ☺️
Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo episode 2- ☺️
Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki no Monmone
The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess episode 1 - ☺️
Hoshikuzu Telepath episode 1 - ☺️
Soul eater episode 4 - ☺️
Soul eater not - ☺️
Deranged Detectives -☺️
Usagi Drop - ☺️
Amangi SS - ☺️
Ragna Crimson -☺️
Kirby episode 1☺️
Kenichi: the World's Mightiest Disciple dub (50) - ☺️
Bleach episode 3 sub- ☺️
Kill la kill episode 9 (24) - ☺️
Kobato episode 2 (24) - ☺️
Bungou stray dog’s season 6 - ☺️
Bamboo blade (26) - ☺️
BOFURI: I didn't want to get hurt so I maxed out my defenses Dub (24) - ☺️
Trapped in a dating Sim dub (12) - ☺️
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro (Neuro: Supernatural Detective) episode 3(25) - ☺️
I can’t understand what my husband is saying episode 2 (26) - ☺️
Pandora hearts season 1 episode 3 (26) - ☺️
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou episode 11 (popular girl anime) (26) - ☺️
Seint Saya lost canvas episode 2 (26) -☺️
Hikaru no go episode 3 (75)-☺️
Urusei yatsura episode 2 (195)
Ranking of kings episode 4 no filler (33)
Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East episode 3 (26)
B the beginning episode 2 (18) -
P4 episode 1(25)
Kemono friends season 1 episode 3 (24)
Ultra Maniac (ウルトラマニアック, Urutora Maniakku) is season 1 episode 7 (26) -
My next life as a villianess: All routes lead to doom! Episode 1 (24)dub -
Code geass episode 2 (50)dub -
Snow white with the red hair season 1 episode 2 (24) -
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu episode 6 (26) dub -
Is this is a zombie episode 9 season 1 (22) -
Iron-blooded orphans episode 2 (50) -
Vampire dies in no time season 1 episode 2 (24)
Rave master episode 2 (51) -
Konosuba season 1 episode 2 (20)dub - ☺️
ef: A Tale of Memories episode 1(24)- ☺️
Fate/zero dub episode 1(25) - mx player
Magi - rewatch
Hitman reborn episode 1
Slayers episode 1
Fist of the North Star episode 2
Gundam wing episode 1
Ninja scroll
Ashita no Joe episode 1
City hunter episode 1
Perfect Blue
Slam Dunk episode 1
Ghost in shell episode 1
Outlaw Star episode 1
Chainsaw man episode 2 dub (12) - ☺️
Triigun Stampede episode 1- ☺️
Trigun dub episode 1(26) - ☺️
Log horizon season 1 episode 2 (62) -
Wonderful Precure episode 1
submitted by Zumalover_988 to talkingaboutanimefun [link] [comments]

2024.04.12 09:51 bromanceftw March 2024 2-week solo trip report (Osaka, Kyoto, Uji, Tokyo) & mega souvenir guide, prices, and map

Just came back from Japan last week. I wanted to write this trip report to 1) journal my experience and 2) give back and share my experience with others so their future trip to Japan can be more amazing. Happy to answer questions!
Background:
  • First time in Japan. Originally was going to go with an ex in March 2020... finally got to go this year due to strong dollaweak yen, 2 weeks off from work, and using my United points to pay for the flight.
  • Flight booked Nov 2023 using 110k points via United website. direct to HND, layover in YYZ on return to IAH.
  • Hotels booked Dec 2023. Checked roughly once a week to see if there was anything cheaper. Saved a few bucks 1) changing hotels in Osaka, and 2) choosing another, but same room layout for Kyoto hostel.
  • 34M Chinese American. Big foodie. When it comes to sights, I am more of a 'checkbox' traveler. I'd rather spend more time on the restaurant experience, and learning about products, such as origins, etc. As such, I wanted to pack a lot more sights in this trip, and walked a fair amount everyday. I didn't use a step counter. Just reporting the miles walked via Google Maps timeline (I would +10% just in case).
  • When planning this trip, I put more emphasis on 'older' restaurants/stores, e.g. established in 1600s, or credited with creating a special product.
  • Wanted to check out the Tokyo antennae stores, which sell the regional/prefecture goods. They have mostly food, but also have crafts, sake, and some even have a restaurant. 99% of customers were Japanese, hardly any foreigners.
  • No interest in anime/manga products so I breezed through Akihabara/Den-Den Town, though I did buy the volume 1's of a few popular manga. Difficult to find Jujutsu Kaisen Vol 1.
  • For food, I put more emphasis those with high ratings on Tabelog, aka Japanese Yelp.
    • 3.0 - average.
    • 3.5 - very good.
    • 3.6 - you'll start to see lines, and prior to opening. Start checking online to see if reservations are required.
    • 3.8 - very tough to get in these. The ones that didn't have reservations, had insane lines, like 3.86 donut shop in Kyoto, I waited almost 2 hours in the rain, and that's arriving 40 minutes early.
    • 4.0 - seemed to apply mostly to high end sushi/kaiseki, e.g. you gotta know someone to get on the list.
  • For sights, I will assign a priority number (P1, P2, etc). Use this as datapoints for figuring out where to visit on a quick trip.
Resources
Monday, March 18 - Houston:
  • Arrived 7am at IAH, boarded 10:45am for 11:15am flight. While waiting, an ANA employee already mistook me for Japanese; confused, what little Japanese I prepared for this situation left my brain. Knew this won't be the last time I get mistaken as Japanese.
Tuesday, March 19 - Tokyo Osaka (1.9 miles) - Just a travel day:
  • Land in Haneda around 3:20pm. I stupidly went through the door to the other Terminal 3 gates instead of going through customs, because I wanted to go by gate 108B to grab the special edition Pikachu plushies. Only the flight attendant plush was left. Then I realize I couldn't get out. It took ~20 min to explain to the Info desk and wait for the person they called to escort me to customs. When I got to customs, it looked like there were two flights worth of travelers in front of me.
  • Once past customs, activated my Ubigi eSIM with no problems, got my Welcome Suica card (machines to the left when facing towards the exits to the stations).
  • Took the Keikyū line to Shinagawa, then took the Shinkansen to Osaka. At first I was going to buy the ticket via the counter at Shinagawa station but there was a line so I figured I would give the SmartEX app a chance. It was pretty easy to buy tickets via app. I linked it to my Suica card. Took the 5:46pm Nozomi, it looked like I was the only foreigner on my car.
  • Food - Dinner: Fukutaro Main Store (3.74 Tabelog, 4/5 rating, 20 min wait @ 9:30pm) - Ordered the triple negiyaki (recommended by staff) and beef okonomiyaki. Freshly made at the front grill, and placed on your grill to keep warm. Very bold flavors due to the okonomiyaki sauce (using Worcestershire), dried seaweed flakes, and pickled ginger. Great for drunk people. The worst thing about solo traveling is not getting to try a little bit of everything. Two entrees was way too much for me, despite eating closer to 10pm. I recommend getting okonomiyaki in Osaka, especially since many open late very late, I've seen some open until 3am.
  • Sight: Dotonburi (P2) - Very bright and lit up, lots of young people walking around. Felt like a mini Times Square.
  • Hotel: Tabist Hotel ASIATO Namba (5/5 rating, $39/night) - Business hotel. 10 min walk to station. Next block was Kuromon Market. Mix of Japanese and foreign guests. Pretty good for the price, and I had my own room and bathroom. The bathroom was a little tiny even for someone 5'10", particularly the space between the toilet and the opposite wall. Would stay again!
Wednesday, March 20 - Osaka (5.9 miles) - Food & Aquarium:
  • Sight: Kuromon Market (P2) - Pretty dead at 8am, many shops are closed, some are setting up for the day. Would recommend sleeping in. Or you could get your shopping in early at the Don Quijote in Umeda (only Osaka Donki that's open 24 hours).
  • Food - Pastry: Rikuro’s Namba Main Branch (3.51 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 45 min wait @ 8:20am) - The famous jiggly cheesecake. Was 3rd in line 45 minutes early. Turns out there are two lines, one for the cafe, one for just cake, the two people ahead of me were 3 hours early for the cafe. Line was about 20-30 people when it opened. Not sure how long it'd be middle of day or on weekend. Not as jiggly as the IG posts, but damn good. Note, there are raisins at the bottom. I had to save half for later, it's a good size for 2-4 people. Another note, cheesecake is take-out only, unless it's bought at the cafe (with possibly a more ridiculous line).
  • Food - Appetizer: Fukahiro Honten (3.5/5 rating, no wait @ 10am) - Saw a Youtube vid that said the scallops were very good here. Pretty fresh, No line. Note, most of the scallops at the market will grill it all, ovary included. So you'll get an orange sac to eat. The muscle part was juicy and delicious grilled, the ovary part I could do without.
  • Food - Appetizer: 満福 / Manpuku (1/5 rating, no wait) - AVOID! Figured I'd try a wagyu on a stick, price seemed okay ~¥2000. One of my worst food ordered this trip. It was microwaved in plastic wrap before being put on a skillet, not grill. Then he added lots of salt/msg and lastly torched and sauced. Terrible quality meat, super sinewy and I could not chew down. Seems to be Chinese-run, only the cashier was Japanese as the other staff were talking in Chinese but spoke Japanese to her. I don't have high hopes for the other stuff.
  • Sight: Osaka Castle (P2) - Beautiful up close. This area was super windy. Pretty long lines to go in, so I skipped the interior.
  • Food - Lunch/Dinner: Kadoya Shokudo (3.84 Tabelog, 3/5 rating, 60 min wait @ 2:30pm) - Late lunch since the original place I had in mind for some reason was closed. This was the highest-rated ramen in Osaka, which explained the line at 2pm. Shoyu ramen was very solid and rich but wasn't salty like many of the ramen in the US. However, I didn't think it was necessarily 'memorable'. I also ordered the stamina rice bowl. Delicious and well-braised, but still not worth the wait time.
  • Experience: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (P1) - Reservations recommended. Though when I went, there wasn't a line to buy tickets. Good amount of people @ 4pm. You may have to wait 15-60 seconds each exhibit for the people in front to finish up. The main twin whale shark exhibit is huge, there are many many many angles to view them, so if you are pressed for time, you have plenty of chances. At first I thought the aquarium was less impressive than the Atlanta one, considering Osaka only had 1 river otter, but the later themes were pretty impressive/unique such as the twilight/jellyfish one, artic waters/Japanese spider crabs, and coral. Gift shop was pretty neat, much better than Atlanta's. Picked up some ceramics with otter designs for the girlfriend.
  • Shopping: Don Quijote Namba Sennichimae - The original plan was to buy my Donki haul in Tokyo since I didn't want to lug it to Kyoto/Uji/Tokyo. But I saw some sign that said the Biore sunscreen was the cheapest in the region and all reason flew out the window. Oops. I had a shopping list from the girlfriend, so much of what I bought was to fulfill that. It's somewhat organized, categories I remember: food on 1F, cosmetics on 2F, alcohol, electronics, suitcases, pharmacy on 3F. There's a fairly long line for the tax-free counter on 3F. You can get an extra 5% off ¥10,000 purchase if you use the coupon, not sure if it's tied to your passport, e.g. if you can use it on more than one purchase. Check my link at the beginning with what I bought and prices.
Thursday, March 21 - Osaka Kyoto (2.8 miles) - Travel to and shopping in Kyoto:
  • Sight: Sumiyoshi Taisha (P2) - Neat iconic bridge. Lots to see and free to enter. Worth a visit in the morning!
  • Food - Lunch: Men-ya Takei - Hankyu Umeda (3.73 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 10 min wait @ 12pm) - Inside Umeda station, this was my favorite ramen/noodle dish I had. Ordered item #11 on the vending machine, rec by staff. Insanely fragrant due to the yuzu on top and green onions. Comes with pork and grilled chicken. Apparently the tsukemen is top class too.
  • Experience: Kobo-san Market at To-Ji Temple (P2) - once a month on the 21st. Got lucky it was happening during my trip. Went straight here when I landed in Kyoto. Packed with stalls all over the grounds, all very diverse. Had a more farmer's market/antique shop feel to it. Food looked very homemade. I wish I had more time to explore it! Random note, I got takoyaki at a stall near the entrance, the guy shortchanged me.
  • Shopping: Horaido Tea Stall - outer area of Nishiki market. Established in 1804. The guy who runs it is very knowledgeable and has pretty good English. His family's shop is credited with creating genmaicha (tea and roasted rice). Bought hojicha and genmaicha. I wish I had bought matcha here. I got a nice sakura-pattern bowl as well.
  • Shopping: Takashimaya - fairly high-end department store chain, considered a purveyor of kimono to the Imperial household. Lots of international brands. I went to check out the ceramics section on the 6th. I bought a mini flower vase and nice ceramic chopstick holders.
  • Shopping: Nintendo Kyoto - Same floor as the tax-free counter in the Takashimaya building. Not crazy packed. Lots of folks of all ages. No Pokemon items here. Photo booth upstairs. Not tax-free.
  • Shopping: Pokemon Center - Lots of recent gen Pokemon stuff.
  • Shopping: Hands - DIY/lifestyle chain located fairly close since they're all along the shopping street. Got stickers for the gf.
  • Food - Dinner: KARA-KUSA curry (3.54 Tabelog, 4/5 rating, 5 min wait @ 8pm) - Bib gourmand by the Michelin Guide. As the name indicates, they're known for offering a red and black curry. Red is vegetable-based with chicken, black is beef. Solid 'fusion' curry. ¥1150 for combo with med/large rice. I got the large rice and paid ¥100 more for extra curry Crazy good value!
  • Hostel: THE POCKET HOTEL Kyoto-Shijokarasuma (4/5 rating, $63/night) - Pricey, but it was still the cheapest for a place centrally located with your own room. Wasn't a 5 because you had to go to 1F for the shower. Room is tiny, not great if you have to organize your luggage. Otherwise, it's literally part of Nishiki Market. They have a free self-service luggage-locking tool; it's great for leaving luggage before check-in, or after check-out.
Friday, March 22 - Kyoto (5.5 miles) - Gion:
  • Sight: Kiyomizu-dera (P1) - Not too crowded at 7:45am. Definitely check this out!
  • Sight: Ninenzaka (P2) - Iconic street. A few shops were open at 9:45am.
  • Food - Snack: Starbucks Coffee - Kyoto Nineizaka Yasaka Chaya (3/5 rating, 20 min wait @ 930am) - The only Starbucks in the area and right on Ninenzaka. THe upstairs is fairly basic, and not particularly photo-worthy imo. Matcha scone was pretty tasty, good with a sweet drink. It seems if you order a Venti, you get a special paper cup with a sakura design. Got a Japan 'Been There' tumbler, which came with a free drink, which I used for a Yuzu Citrus Tea. Note, you need to stir up the yuzu that's at the bottom!
  • Food - Snack: 月下美人 (3.00 Tabelog, 2/5, no wait) - I saw it was open after leaving the Starbucks. They have dango, sweet potato chips and sticks. I got the sweet potato sticks. They were cold and didn't taste particularly fresh.
  • Sight: Yasakanoto (P2) - Iconic structure. I didn't enter.
  • Sight: Kennin-ji (P2) - fairly large complex, gigantic dragons painting on ceiling. Built 1202 and is claimed to be the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto.
  • Sight: Zenkyo-an (P4) - small sub-temple of Kenninji, honoring a guardian boar. Lots of cute little piggy ceramics all over. Worth checking out if you're already visiting Kenninji.
  • Food - Lunch: Gion Uokeya U (3.64 Tabelog, former 1 Michelin star, 4/5 rating)- Reservations strongly recommended. Had a friend reserve this for me. Saw this was highly recommended for unagi in Kyoto. Staff recommended the unadon, grilled eel on rice with eel liver soup and pickles. Also ordered a skewered eel. Both eels were perfectly cooked. Unfortunately it only confirmed that I don't enjoy eel very much. The eel liver soup was delicious, until I ate the liver, tasted just as I should've expected: liver but seafood-y.
  • Food - Dessert: Gion Tokuya (3.86 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 5 min wait @ 12:40pm) - Large menu of traditional Japanese sweets. Grab a ticket and wait until you're called. I got lucky and got a private room to myself. Staff recommended the pure warabimochi & green tea pure kuzumochi. Both are sweetened with wasanbon, Japanese traditional sugar. You get black syrup and kinako powder for the warabimochi and red bean paste and green tea flavor kinako for the kuzumochi. At the end, you can use leftover flavorings to mix with the iced used to chill the mochi to create a mini shaved ice. Highly recommend!
  • Sight: Yasui Konpiragu Shrine (P3) - interesting shrine with a fairly long line, ritual is to go through the hole in the stone to end a bad relationship.
  • Sight: Ryozen Kannon (P3) - war memorial with a giant Buddha.
  • Sight: Kodai-ji (P2) - Has lots of maki-e objects, rock garden, and a bamboo garden in the back (great if you don't have time to check out Arashiyama)
  • Sight: Kodaiji Sho museum (P4) - neat tiny museum with objects from the temple, a lot of tea ones. 5-15 minutes to go through it all.
  • Shopping: 岡林院接待所 - Kind lady selling local goods, apparently married to an Uji tea farmer, surname Hasegawa. Had a few matchas and tea stuff for sale.
  • Sight: Maruyama park (P2) - apparently a great place for cherry blossoms, only a few trees had flowers at the time I went.
  • Sight: Yasaka Shrine (P1) - Built in 656. Very large grounds area, LOTS of people here.
  • Shopping: Nishikisatake Florist - The first florist I found with ikebana scissors under ¥4000 and kenzan.
  • Shopping: Ichihara Heibei Shōten - Founded in 1764, supposedly a historical purveyor of the Imperial family. Has chopsticks of all types of woods, shapes, and prices. Limited English. Super authentic stuff. Bought a very nice pair of maki-e chopsticks among others.
  • Food - Dinner: Soba-no-Mi Yoshimura (3.69 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 30 min wait @ 7:50pm) - Ordered the set menu, Moriawase-Zen. ¥4000 got me an appetizer, sashimi, assorted tempura, soba, oroshisoba, and dessert. Good deal, you get a lot of variety, tempura is perfectly crisp and light. Soba was wonderfully aromatic and had this amazing texture. Towards the end, you get the starchy water, leftover from cooking the soba, to mix with sauce and drink. Delicious!
Saturday, March 23 - Kyoto (9 miles) - Spending big money:
  • Sight: Fushimi Inari (P1) - Wasn't too busy at 8am, though it was a little rainy that day. Even fairly early on the trail, you can get a photo without too long of a wait for people to clear out. Lots to explore, I did not opt to go to the peak/loop, and ended my trek at the 'crossroads'. On the way down, it definitely got more crowded.
  • Shopping: Zohiko - high-end lacquerware, founded in 1661, purveyor to the Imperial court. Bought a very nice plate and tray. Some pieces are quite expensive. Note, some of the pieces will use lacquer mixed with urethane so the piece doesn't scratch as easily, e.g. trays.
  • Food - Snack: Hitsuji Doughnuts (3.86 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 95 min wait @ 10:40am) - Insane wait in the rain. I didn't think the line was that bad, but there was a sign on building wall later that said it would take 5 minutes per person, assuming they're making it fresh for person. Also only 5 per person. Since it took a lot longer than I expected, I opted to pick up my donuts at 4pm as I had to make it to my kaiseki reservation (which I had to ask my Japanese friend to call them to push back to 12:45pm from the original 12pm). Even reheated that night, these were the best donuts I've ever had. It's almost insulting to call them donuts. There's no oiliness to them, they're light, they have a mochi-like texture that just melts in your mouth, and the flavors offered are subtle. Got the cinnamon, cream cheese, earl grey and cream cheese, chocolate, tanba black soybean and kinako. Honestly, they were all amazing. Would I wait that long again? Probably not. But I'm glad I got to try it. I think "i'm donut ?" in Tokyo (was comparable, maybe 90% of the power level, (I go there on the 28th). Donuts ranged ¥280-400.
  • Food - Lunch: Kiyama (4.37 Tabelog, 1 Michelin star, 5/5 rating) - Reserved in December when the slot opened via Pocket Concierge. Sat on the far left side of the 9-person counter. Chef Kiyama did not like me taking photos (forgot that was mentioned in the reservation page). Food was presented beautifully. Very delicate, light flavors. New tastes and texture combinations that I haven't had before, and I've been to quite a few Michelin-starred restaurants. Everything very purposeful. Lots of use of dashi. While chef was not at the counter often, he did come to make the dashi in front of us. Menu was a little crude, but had English. Towards the 2nd half, they give you the option to choose the serving size, from bite-sized to entree-sized, for 4 dishes. Being the greedy, value-driven bastard that I am, I got 'large' for all 4. Normally I can devour these no problem, but it was straight-up too much food. On the 3rd one, marinated maguro on rice, I had to leave rice in my bowl (literal crime in Asia) or else I couldn't finish the rest of the meal, then meekly asked a chef to reduce my 4th to a medium. At the time, I didn't know if the price would be the same no matter the serving size, it was in fact the same :). I wholeheartedly agree with the insane Tabelog score of 4.37. At ¥14,520 gratuity/tax included, (a little under $100), it's fairly approachable and possibly even underpriced. Easily a $250 meal back in the states, not including tax/tip...
    *hopping on my soapbox* Kiyama has mixed reviews on Reddit, I thought it was perfect. Yes, there are no big bold flavors, but no one dish outshone the others, each has their place. You can go straight to the next dish with no interference from what you previously had. Each dish was cooked perfectly (though the after-meal matcha could've been better whisked). The bonito is shaved fresh right in front of you. Beautiful dishware. Kiyama has been a refreshing fine dining experience, wonderfully memorable from the other restaurants I've been to. *hops off soapbox*
  • Sight: Kyoto Gyoen National Garden (P2) - very large area with plenty of early blooming sakura. Did not go inside Imperial Palace.
  • Food - Dessert: Toraya Karyo - Kyoto Ichijo (3.52 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 5 min wait @ 3:15pm) - Tearoom, operating since 1628, purveyor to the Imperial court. Has English menus. Ordered the sweet azuki bean soup (ogura), kinako anmitsu, and sakura mochi. A nice woman at the table next to me that explained that you can eat the pickled sakura leaf but some find it too bitter so you can also skip it. I thought the mochi was perfect with the leaf as it balanced the sweetness and provide complementing texture. Excellent cafe-vibes, with an inner garden area with outdoor seating. Perfect for the cloudy day. Seemed like a popular date spot. There were plenty of other desserts to try, alas it was just me.
  • Shopping: Ippodo - Founded in 1717 and a favorite of Prince Yamashina. Approximately 30 tea products, with some Kyoto exclusive at this store. Very knowledgeable staff. Fairly crowded with lots of foreign customers. Cafe/barista behind the shopping counter.
  • Shopping: 古裂とよ - Older grandma was running the shop. Walking back to the hostel, I was attracted to the various cheap ceramics outside the shop, thinking I can find a good chawan here. It has lots of vintage stuff, but in the back there's lots of old kimono's, for what I'd suspect, is very cheap. I found a beautiful chawan for ¥1000.
  • Shopping: Standard Products Kyoto Shijo-dori Store - Premium brand of Daiso. Store reminds me of Muji. I got a decent travel neck pillow for ¥300 (note, this was at least ¥1500 elsewhere).
Sunday, March 24 - Kyoto Uji (9.2 miles) - All-the-temples:
  • Sight: Heian Jingu Outemmon Gate (P2) - Large open court area, I opted not to check out the garden given the current state of blooming in Kyoto.
  • Sight: Okazaki shrine (P4) - cute shrine with the rabbit as the symbol of fertility and safe childbirth. Lots of ema's (wooden plaques) with messages on a future child. Worth checking out even if you're not expecting.
  • Sight: Manganji temple (P4) - small temple, can skip. I just walked by and took photos of a blooming sakura tree.
  • Sight: Keage Incline (P1 if blooming, P4) - nothing was in bloom here, every tree was bare, so you're just walking along old railroad tracks. Fortunately this was the 'scenic route' to Nanzen-ji, so it wasn't too much of a detour. If it is blooming when you visit, HIGHLY recommend you walk this path, though it might be crowded.
  • Sight: Konchi-in temple (P4) - small temple complex with a rock garden. Nothing spectacular but worth a visit if you have the time.
  • Sight: Nanzen-ji (P1) - decent sized temple complex, has a rock garden, and a more recent European aqueduct. I paid an extra ¥500 for the tea experience, which I thought was quite worth it. You get matcha, a piece of wagashi, and sit on a tatami facing a little waterfall and pond, very relaxing. You can pay extra to go to 2F of the Sanmon entrance gate for a city-view.
  • Sight: Eikando-ji (P1) - also a large templex complex, has a rock garden, and a pagoda you climb up to with decent city-views. Has a pond and a very impressive hall with beautiful golden objects everywhere.
  • Shopping: Aoki Hanaten Co. - Saw a little shop selling ceramics right when I stepped out of Eikando-ji, so I took a look. It's mainly a flower shop but sells stuff they buy from auction/wholesellers. I actually recognized a Zohiko lacquerware 6-piece mini plate set for about 50% off MSRP so bought that (still expensive lol).
  • Sight: Philosopher's Path (P1 if blooming, P3) - Similar to the Keage Incline, the Philospher's Path was bare all along the whole route. Interesting way to make your way to Ginkaku-ji than walking the regular streets.
  • Food - Lunch: Omen Ginkaku-ji (3.56 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 5 min wait @ 12:15pm) - This place serves udon with broth to dip it in, similar to tsukemen. You choose whether you want the dashi broth hot or cold (hot was rec by staff), and you also get seasonal fresh vegetables and sesame seeds to mix in the broth for extra flavor. Pretty unique style, highly recommend. They make their own chili powders, which you can buy, which I did.
  • Sight: Ginkaku-ji (P2) - relatively small complex, you can easily do a quick loop in 5-10 minutes. I wasn't too impressed by the pavilion. There's a neat sand garden and sand cone. Has a neat observation area. Personally would skip in a 1-day Kyoto trip.
  • Food - Dessert: Kazariya (3.61 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 15 min wait @ 3:10pm) - Sells aburi-mochi, mochi rolled in kinako then grilled and covered in white miso paste. Very tasty, and pretty affordable. You get ~9 skewers of it and a hot tea for like ¥600. Operating since 1656, though its competitor 10 feet away, Ichimonjiya Wasuke, has been operating since 1000 with a 25th generation owner. Ichiwa had a higher Tabelog score, but the line was slightly longer there when I visited. Eat this on the way to Imamiya shrine, both stores were established for travelers to the shrine.
  • Sight: Imamiya shrine (P4) - Shrine founded in 994, moved 1001, to protect against epidemics. Went here since it was right next to Kazariya.
  • Sight: Kinkaku-ji (P1) - The famous Golden Pavillion. A little bigger than Ginkaku-ji, but similar structure. Much better looking in person. Crowds were noticeably larger compared to other sights.
  • Sight: Ryoan-ji (P3) - Has a famous rock garden and a rather large pond, otherwise not particularly outstanding imo. If you're already visiting Kinkaku-ji and you have time, check it out.
  • Food - Dessert: Nanaya Kyoto (3.20 Tabelog, 4/5 rating, no wait @ 5:55pm) - Popularized due to the 7 levels of matcha ice cream. I got the hojicha, sakura, and level 7 matcha. I thought these were an excellent combination, and all different. The sweeter hojicha and sakura balanced the bitter matcha. I would not recommend the level 7 matcha ice cream by itself. They do not offer sampes/tasting spoons.
  • Other: Yamato Transport - Since I had prematurely bought a whole bunch at Don Quijote in Osaka, and a few more items in Kyoto, I had enough souvenirs to fill up my 100L duffel (see tips further below regarding why I chose duffel bags). So I brought it to the Nishiki location, bought 3 boxes there for ¥680, packed the stuff in the boxes, which I then put in the duffel, and shipped it straight to Haneda for ¥2630 + 660 airport fee.
  • Food - Dinner: Gyukatsu Kyoto Katsugyu (3.23 Tabelog, 2/5, 50 min wait @ 8pm) - Chose these since I wanted to be flexible on when I'd eat before leaving for Uji. Unfortunately this place had a huge line given it's pretty close to Tokyo Station. It's also the highest-rated branch. I opted for the Premium Wagyu Sirloin Gyukatsu Zen for ¥5379. Honestly I don't think it was worth it. Having wagyu as katsu kind of masks the reason why you're eating wagyu. You can get the regular American sirloin katsu for less than half that price. Yes, it was good, but not ¥5000-good. Also, the center of my wagyu was actually cold(!!), so I had to use hot plate to further cook mine, no bueno. Tiny bowl of rice, extra rice costs more. 3/5 for food, 2/5 accounting for price and wait.
  • Hostel: トラベラーズ道 麒麟舎 / Travelersdou Kirinya (4/5 rating, $38/night) - Didn't find a lot of places to stay in Uji that was near the bridge/Byodo-in, I did get lucky and found this hostel that offered a room with two sets of bunks for $38/night, which seemed wrongly-priced. I thought perhaps it was for a single bed in the room, but after I booked it, that room was taken off Expedia. You had to take stairs up to the 3rd floor, a little scary with my roller and duffel. There's a traditional Japanese toilet, so that wasn't great. Otherwise there was a traditional shower room with tub.
Monday, March 25 - Uji Tokyo (4.9 miles) - Tea & travel:
  • Sight: Byodo-in (P1 if going to Uji anyways) - The centerpiece is definitely Phoenix Hall, which is quite impressive. I would cough up the extra ¥300 for the 15 minute guided tour of the hall. Note, they only spoke in Japanese during the tour. Get here EARLY and queue in line to buy the ticket to the tour. Otherwise, your tour time might be much later, and you don't get free re-entry (not sure how it works if you have a tour much later). The museum is neat, with plenty of signs in English!
  • Shopping: Nakamura Tokichi Honten - I checked out their shop after I got a ticket for the line to the restaurant. Lots of tea available to buy. Famous tea shop started in 1854 and purveyor to the Imperial family. Has tea ranging from affordable dailies to expensive. Tax-free! One of their employees is white, so I was able to easily converse and figure out which teas I'd want.
  • Food - Lunch: Nakamura Tokichi Honten (3.56 Tabelog, 5/5 rating, 60 min wait @ 10am) - famous for their matcha parfait and cha soba (soba infused with tea). I ordered the uji tencha buckwheat noodles set. Can have it hot or cold (hot was rec by staff). The set, an extra ¥550, came with A) tea rice and small matcha jelly bowl or B) large matcha jelly bowl. The jelly bowl was pretty close to their popular 'matcha namacha jelly' minus the matcha ice cream. Since I got the set, I opted not to get the namacha jelly. The noodles were great, and you layer in additional flavors through use of the tencha, citron, and special usucha oil. Super satisfying! Their other famous and more IG-worthy dessert is the 'matcha maruto parfait', inside of a bamboo 'bowl'. For an extra ¥200 at ¥1850, I got the seasonal sakura version. There's like 11 ingredients used to create this parfait. Very tasty, and you can create all sorts of combinations with each spoonful.
  • Sight: Ujikami shrine (P4) - small shrine, can check out on the way to Kosho-ji.
  • Sight: Uji shrine (P4) - small shrine, can check out on the way to Kosho-ji.
  • Sight: Kosho-ji (P1) - Established in 1645, it's still being used as a training monastery. There's a beautiful garden in the inner court area. A few things to see, though two features that I wanted to experience was 1) the nightingale floors, which make a chirp when stepped on, and 2) the blood-stained ceilings. The ceilings are right above the main hall. They have a pamphlet explaining where, also it's circled in chalk when you look up.
  • Food - Dinner: Katsukura Shinjuku Takashimaya (3.54 Tabelog, 4.5/5 rating, 25 min wait @ 7:30pm) - Met up with friends of my GF. Got the 160g kinkaton rosu (pork loin) cutlet set for ¥3300. Juicy, crispy, hot (unlike the gyukatsu...). Also got shrimp to share. What's neat at this restaurant is you grind your own sesame to mix it fresh with the sauce to dip your tonkatsu in, delicious!
  • Sight: Kabukicho (P3) - Went here around 8:45pm with the husband of my GF's bestie. Actually felt pretty safe, though not sure how it'd be solo and perhaps much later. A few guys asked if we were interested in anything, just a quick no and kept walking. No eye contact is key!
  • Sight: Golden Gai (P3) - Just a few alleyways with lots of hallway-sized bars. Most were full and full of foreigners at that.
  • Sight: Hanazono shrine (P3) - Pretty interesting to see a shrine right in the middle of a city and next to Golden Gai/Kabukicho. It has a somewhat unique shape and is quite colorful.
  • Shopping: Mega Donki Shinjuku - Straight up smelled like raw sewage all over the store. Prices are about the same as those in Osaka. Lots of people. If you do shop here, since it's open 24 hours, I would aim for the less popular times (great if you need to pass the jetlag!)
  • Hostel: Lucky Hostel (4.74 Airbnb, 4.5/5 rating, $46/night) - Got lucky and found the 4.74-rated listing on Airbnb, which came with my own room, on the outskirts of Shinjuku, 4 minutes from Okubo station. I didn't see anything under $50/night after taxes/fees in the central Tokyo area, even after checking periodically leading up to my trip. Looking now in deep summer (lol), I see Lucky Hostel, then a few in Asakusa area. If it's available, I'd recommend this hostel, otherwise the Asakusa ones seem pretty good, decent location. Other guests were foreigners, fairly respectful, enough showers and western toilets for everyone. My hostel experience has been pretty good! Though walking to/from the larger Shin-Okubo station sucked, it smelled like sewage in that area (and one of the only areas in Japan with lots of trash on the ground).
Tuesday, March 26 - Tokyo (3.3 miles) - Asakusa & Kappanbashi:
  • Sight: Senso-ji (P1) - Very impressive 'Thunder Gate' at the entrance, with a line of folks taking photos with it. After that, there's a street leading up to the temple with lots of shops, most were not open at 8:40am. The pagoda on the left is neat, and you can kind of see the Skytree to your right as you move forward.
  • Sight: Sumida River / Park (P2 if blooming) - No blossoms here. There's a good view of the Skytree.
  • Food - Dessert: Choumeji Sakuramochi (3.74 Tabelog, 5/5, no wait @ 9:30am) - Credited as the creator of the sakuramochi in 1717. Great tasting wagashi, I love the pickled sakura leaf that balances the red bean paste. ¥250 each. I had been scarred by Kyoto, I thought there would be a line, perhaps it was the fact it was Tuesday or it was a pretty rainy day. Must take to-go.
  • Shopping: Yagenbori - His family's shop is credited with creating shichimi togarashi in the 1600s. He displays all 7 spices and you can see him mixing them. He speaks pretty good English. He actually lets you sample any of the furikake (and he has a lot to choose from!). Highly recommend giving it a look!
  • Shopping: Tatsumi (Office Senju) - Shop near Senso-ji. Lots of cheap kimono, not sure what the high-end of the price range is. I happened to find a nice unused haori for ¥3300.
  • Food - Lunch: Tempura Shimomura (3.80 Tabelog, 5/5) - Originally wanted to book Tempura Fukumachi but that was much more famous and a Michelin Star, thus incredibly hard to reserve. Shimomura still had a great Tabelog rating, could book easily through Pocket Concierge (no fee!), and was cheaper for roughly the same menu (at least at the basic level), ¥7150 vs ¥12650. This was tempura at a whole other level. Crispy, insanely light, and each ingredient was amazing. It's hard to choose a favorite because everything was so good. A few things to highlight would be the prawns, tilefish, and anago (conger eel). It's just one guy, so the pacing will slow down if the counter is more full. You can order more a la carte. At this price point, I would do it monthly. Having had this experience, I ocassionally think about quitting my job, training at a place like this, and bringing it back to the US. Reservations recommended.
  • Shopping: Nakamura Tea Life - Expensive tea, but a rec by my Japanese friend.
  • Sight: Kappanbashi (P2) - Great street for anything kitchen supplies. If a more common/generic item, would recommend keeping track of prices before buying. If more unique item like ceramic or knife, unless you love that specific design, I would go through a few shops before deciding, there's so many shops to go through, I spent 3.5 hours there and that was just looking at matcha-wans and a nakiri knives. Note, all the stores below have been mentioned on Reddit several times, maybe not the Tojiro one.
  • Shopping: Dengama - The first shop at the southern end of the street, right side. Lots and lots of ceramics, higher-end stuff on 2F. Picked up a tokuname tea pot and a few plates/bowls/matcha-wan.
  • Shopping: Hashitou - High-end chopsticks shop, lots of signage with English.
  • Shopping: FU WA RI - Ceramics and wooden stuff.
  • Shopping: Union Commerce Cutlery - Kitchen knives, most nakiri ¥15000+, there were a few right at ¥11000 but they had blemishes and I didn't like the design.
  • Shopping: Cutlery Tsubaya - Pricey knives, no nakiri under ¥14000.
  • Shopping: Utsuwazoshi - Wooden stuff
  • Shopping: Kama-asa - Nice shop, same as the others, though they did have one that looked great at the right price-point but it had sold out. I asked about the Tojiro-brand, which they had one but the staff said a new Tojiro store had opened up and to check it out.
  • Shopping: Tojiro Knife Gallery Tokyo - Finally found nakiri's within my budget. They had a basic version for a great price (forgot the price) but I opted for a better handle and construction at the ¥10000 price point (excluding tax, they're tax-free!). Interesting story, the saleswoman who answered my questions in rough English, when she saw name on my passport, asked if I was Chinese and we chatted in Chinese, apparently she moved her 7 years ago.
  • Shopping: 伊藤又右衛門之商店 - half a block away from Kappanbashi, the owner had lots of wares for sale, picked up 3 mini plates to give as gifts.
  • Shopping: Sotei Yabukita - Ceramics, but didn't see anything I wanted.
  • Food - Dinner: MENYA SHO (3.78 Tabelog, 4/5 rating, no wait @ 6:40pm) - Ordered the special ramen which had chicken and possibly duck (possibly smoked), ¥1600. Very delicious, but didn't particularly stand out from the other noodles I had, beyond that duck.
Part 2 here.
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