terabient

Title: these vices are my service
Fandom: Persona 4
Characters: Yu Narukami, Tohru Adachi; Adayu
Rating: T (mild sexual content, consent issues)
Words: 1100
Summary: A late summer evening. Adachi presumes too much, and Yu doesn't know how to respond. No direct references to P4's ending but I'd consider it spoilery all the same.
Notes: I literally do not remember writing this but it was in my Google docs, so ??? I also do not remember the Marie-Adachi scene mentioned at the beginning; it might have been from the mostly terrible anime adaptation, idk.

( I didn't mean to scare you. )

Hello there, DW friends! For once I have a lot to talk about! First, some real life stuff:

( My weekend, cut for TMI regarding bodily functions )

so anyway i had to take monday and tuesday off to recover.

In less, uh, vomit-y news, I had my yearly performance evaluation this morning and it went as well as it possibly could. I got a dollar raise (which was way more than I was expecting) and my supervisor said clients specifically request me to come in, which is really nice to hear; I spend a lot of time worrying that the opposite happens. Also, I guess my supervisor applied the pay raise last week (?) so I should see it in my paycheck this week....woo!

With that out of the way, here's some of the anime/gaming stuff I've been up to in the past few months:

★ I watched the first season of Love Live (I really enjoy the phone game, go figure) and...tbh I wasn't expecting much, given that the phone game's 'story' is something below basic, but it was pretty well-written, especially given the somewhat silly premise. The first 3 episodes, in particular, follow convention closely enough that ( spoiler ) I find the school director's actions kind of hard to understand, and the music doesn't particularly grab me (and I'm usually pretty open to songs by bubbly j-pop girl groups) but those are my only issues.

My faves are the 2nd years (esp. Kotori) and Nozomi because in an anime with relatively stock character types she's this...off-beat lesbian pagan type haha. I don't really dislike anyone, though...I guess I'm not big on the first-years, but they don't get a lot of screen-time after their introductory episode in season 1 so that may change if they get more attention in season 2.

★ Since it is Halloween Month I have been playing a lot of Deathsmiles and Trouble Witches Neo, and I've been thinking of streaming one or both of them at some point...? Especially Trouble Witches Neo; it's a solid game that was inexplicably localized with an atrocious dub--I mean, spectacularly bad; the dubbing's actually a little worse than the lazy stuff that came out in the early 90s. But I don't really know if any one would be interested in watching something like that. Also setting up a stream will probably take more effort than I want to expend, so...

★ Persona 4: Dancing All Night still has a firm grip on my soul. I admit I double-dipped just for the dub, because JYB as Yu gives me that many feels. Also, not hearing Laura Bailey as Rise...upset me more than I thought it would. Like, I know it's not her fault or Atlus USA's fault, and her replacement does a fine job, it's just...Laura Bailey fit Rise so well, and is honestly one of the reasons I was so drawn to Rise in the first place. I guess disappointment was inevitable. :(

★ Speaking of Laura Bailey, I somehow did not realize she was voicing Fiona in Tales from the Borderlands until someone else mentioned it to me, haha. ANYWAYS TFTBL is incredible and hilarious and far more entertaining than Borderlands TPS, and it's good enough that I would recommend it to people who haven't played any Borderlands game but enjoy...uh...I guess Mad Max/space western science fiction??? IDK if anyone on my flist is also playing TFTBL, but if you are please let me know because I need someone else to squee with.

FWIW, my favorite scenes as of Episode 4:

-The eyeball thing (Sasha's tentatively enthusiastic "Just...stick it in his face!" and Fiona's "Why did you have to say it like that?" is some of my favorite voice acting in recent memory. The ending twist to the whole thing was staged really well, too. A+++++ all around.)
-Face Pizza Party (seriously, I laugh just thinking about that phrase. Then throw up, because the whole scene is even more disgusting than the eyeball one. That everyone's delivery of 'face pizza party' changes constantly is also hilarious.)
-Accountant finger-gun fire fight
-All of the robots (Loaderbot, Gortys, and Dumpy) are excellent, but honestly I will never get tired of watching Dumpy wobble onscreen, scream in bursts of static, than clumsily shock someone. <3

Phew, I think that's all for now.

was kinda tagged by a tumblr pal with this meme:

List 10 favourite characters (1 per series/fandom) and then tag 10 people

( Favorites, and semi-coherent reasons for why they are so )

and now it's time for the tagging game!

the 'i already tagged you on tumblr, i'm pretty sure, but here's a second one, 'cuz you're cool' group: hamimi_fk jack_of_none kotesu

the 'i should talk to you more often, 'cuz you're cool" group: arcanelegacy badgal chibichan ein_papier gemais john_egbert rutato sirvalkyrie tyger ukefied weber_dubois22

that's more than ten i think but whatever, i wanna hear opinions and leave comments on other people's journals, so. :)

A forum I lurk at posted a '3 in January' challenge, which only asks that participants finish 3 video games in January. Since I'm pretty good at starting games but terrible at finishing them, it's like this challenge was made for me!...if I can decide what games to work on finishing.

Tentative three:

Persona Q
I was going to finish this in the near future, regardless, and I'm getting towards the end, sort of; I'm on the 3rd floor in the Inaba Regional Exhibit labyrinth, and I think there's only one more dungeon after this one. I had to take a break because IRE is one long, one-note gay panic 'joke' and I couldn't stomach the prospect of another cutscene starting with Yosuke baiting Kanji and everyone freaking out over the existence of burly gay men. The puzzles are also pretty involved at this point, and I'm stuck on one particular piece of one very large puzzle, so holding off for a few days seemed like a good idea. I just hope the last dungeon isn't as gigantic/puzzle-heavy as the IRE because ugh that would be unpleasant.

I'm gonna grind it out, though, if only to drown in the feels after my ship-of-the-month (Minato/Yu) inevitably has to part, never to see each other again.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
This is probably cheating, since I've beaten the main storyline in New Vault Hunter Mode already, but I won't feel like I've truly completed it until I get my character to level 50. There's also the matter of Tiny Tina and Brick's TVHM-only commentary as a draw, but ugh there's like nothing to do but the main quest from level 45-50 and that's when the exponential level scaling really starts to have a significant negative on under-leveled equipment. That coupled with the general lack of fun areas for treasure hunting, doesn't make me super-excited to start playing again...but I want to fight the raid boss. I actually love playing as Claptrap (he might be my favorite character in the whole series just because he's so fun to use in TPS) but there are so few areas and bosses worth fighting again. In BL2 there were lots of places that were fun to load up and run through just to kill stuff and check treasure chests for new equipment...oh well.

Caladrius Blaze
This is a pretty obscure shoot-em-up (actually...are there any non-obscure shoot-em-ups in this day and age?) that I bought just before Christmas and is totally embarrassing because one of its selling points is that you rip the clothes off of the bosses as you injure them (it's even called a 'Shame Break', gawd) and if you manage to beat the boss without getting hit yourself, you're...rewarded...with a picture of the boss miserable and in strategically placed tatters. Your character's clothing is also shredded up as you take on more and more damage, so, um, yeah. A lot of mildly risque stuff. I mean, I knew that going in, but I'm still kind of embarrassed to play it even though it's enjoyable. There are a lot of characters and each one has 3 'spells' they can use in addition to their main shot, and those can be upgraded by items you collect while playing. The bosses have some really cool (and difficult) shot patterns and the music is pretty nice although that almost goes without saying for a shmup.

I've technically finished this game already, but only in the sense that I've cleared the first 5 stages with one character, while credit-feeding. I won't consider it 'finished' until I've used all the available characters and have reached the final stage/boss.

---

I guess that's my fun goal for January. (There's a lot of real-world shit that needs to get done this month, but ugh who cares.) Here's hoping I don't just give up on all of these right after posting about them like I normally do. :P

My (fandom) life is all about Persona right now. I have nothing of substance to say, just a lot of OMG HOORAY, especially since most of the Persona stuff has yet to be released outside of Japan. BUT SO MUCH IS CLOSE.

★ Persona 4 Ultimax is coming out on Tuesday! I have it preordered, which means I get, um, a Teddie bop bag??? Which is cute, I guess. It also comes with 11 Tarot cards which is neat, but I do wonder if there will ever be a full set released and if so, what its availability will be. Having roughly half a Major Arcana deck bothers me, it just seems...pointless?

Whatever. I have no idea who to play as first--I didn't really have a main in P4A, although if I had to pick I guess it would be Yukiko. I'm leaning towards Yukari or Rise, but they both look rather technical and I'm SO BAD at 2D fighters and P4A in particular, so I'm wary of trying them out and becoming frustrated quickly. On the other hand, they are favorites. (So is Mitsuru but she is like hella popular online and I have this ~~thing~~ about popular characters, like, I feel uncomfortable using them for some reason.) Also: Ken and Koromaru look adorable and rather fun, so...I DON'T KNOW DECISIONS ARE HARD.

The story mode is supposed to be similar to Blazblue CPs, in that you pick episodes and I guess play as all the characters depending on what happens in the plot, so maybe I'll just play that first, instead of Arcade mode like I usually do, and see who feels best. Maybe I'll end up playing Junpei AHAHAHAAA PROBABLY NOT.

★ Also preordered Persona Q, and I've been debating whether or not to pick up the limited edition PQ-themed 3DS XL that should come out around the same time. I'm still using an original 3DS, and while it works reasonably well, the camera doesn't work--which isn't a huge deal, but I can't use those quick scan codes which is sad when you are still playing Animal Crossing daily and have a bunch of custom patterns you want to scan. :c The touchscreen is getting rather iffy on the left side as well, so an upgrade is due--but now that there's supposed to be an ~even better!~ 3DS model coming out at some point in the near future, I'm torn between having a super special awesome limited 3DS XL model, or waiting for a much improved LL model in 2015. I feel like--having waited this long--I should just tough it out and wait for the LL version, but...dat limited edition Persona 3DS looks so nice. First world problems, I have them.

★ The new Persona 4 Dancing All Night trailer is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen because it has a dancing Kanji and Chie and okay, Yosuke is acceptable I guess, and also the trailer features a Your Affection remix by Daisuke Asakura of Dance Dance Revolution fame (or infamy???), which I have played over and over despite it only being, like, a minute long and having to endure Teddie's, erm, unique Japanese voice. Of all the upcoming Persona games, this might be the one I'm most excited for, because I'm a dork with no taste. :Db

★ Persona 4 Golden Animation went from being disposable fluff to actual, serious drama when they spent two episodes on Adachi's social link and added a whole assortment of weird, creepy Adachi moments that I won't get into right now because I'm lazy, but wow. There's a scene involving Yu's boxed lunches that is extremely short, but made me scream internally because oh gawd Adachi you are so messed up.

Then it went back to disposable (but enjoyable) fluff, and then it became serious again when Marie's dungeon showed up, then it became a tsundere fest and yeah, the mood shifts in the anime are pretty intense and the animation is mediocre at best, but I enjoyed the vast majority of it despite all that. I'm easily pleased, for the most part.

So a few days ago I got the Accomplice ending in P4G (super late to the party, I know) and I just do not know how to process all these feelings I am having.

word vomit about video game feels under the cut, major spoilers for Persona 4 Golden.

( fuck you, Adachi )