momiji

Because I really need to start keeping track of them for the lulz posterity, and each dinner meeting of the cosplay group seems to generate new ones. Tonight's Bad Reno Idea: Reno + stripper cake + 'Happy Birthday Mr. President'. Bonus lulz for President Shinra Senior.

Previous Bad Reno Ideas:
-Fan dance!
-Slap Reno, 5 gil
-Reno + Napoleon Dynamite + 'Vote for Rufus' in body paint

So getting drunk on Bailey's last night and then staying up 'til three am reading FF7 fanfic was apparently not a great idea, because I feel crappy today. Not even really hungover-crappy, just...out of it and in a funk. Thus why I am sitting here morosely sipping at my tea and playing Flash minigames on MSN Gaming Zone.

I dunno, I just have this looming sense that I've horribly overcommitted myself again. Four classes this term, which are all interesting but fairly intense (one of them is actually a graduate-level class hahaha), Tuesday night gaming - I'm starting a campaign of my own up again, a comission for Mara-cookie I'm kind of tearing my hair out over, waiting to hear back from another job...I'd like to take a martial arts class but am terrified of looking like a total tool (and weeabo, out here - they don't joke about 'UBC' standing for 'University of a Billion Chinese' for nothing), and it would cut 'nights I can raid' down from like...two or three to none. I enjoy WoW, but...I think even with getting home before 7:30pm every night I still totally don't have the time for it.

QQ, fml, etc. I did get a little more writing down before the ennui and angst kicked in, so fic just needs some bits and pieces to connect the middle to the ending properly and some heavy editing. It is the longest piece of fiction I think I've written ever.

First, a neat little Shinra-centric AMV - I'm not actually a huge AMV fan, as I think many of you know already (attention span of a goldfish, here), but this one is well-put-together.

Second, a combination of introspection and food for though for some of the Rufus-writers on my flist. I've been reading through the BC scripts a little more thoroughly than I did when I apped Tseng for City of Mako many years ago, now (I also think that at the time, like...only the first five or six were translated), and I've come to the realization that BC!Rufus is a huge dick to the Turks. First he gets Veld reassigned, then he orders Avalanche to kill the Turks when they're standing right in front of him, and then basically throws Veld under the bus to save his own ass. Now, as I am a huge Rufus/Turks shipper in general, I realized I need to find a compelling reason for the Turks to stay loyal to him. Because honestly? Given the way Tseng is characterized in BC and CC, I can't see why he'd stick around after Weapon to take care of Rufus's sorry ass.The two possibilities Jon and I came up with is either Rufus doing something totally altruistic in secret and the Turks finding out about it, or putting himself on the line to save one of them. Any other brilliant ideas?

Also, two fun Turks facts for writers - they apparently have company housing within the main Shinra tower, and there is a hidden room inside the Turks offices where Rufus is held temporarily following his secret arrest. Yeah, that second one sounded like a set-up for porn to me, too.

Fall is here, with stormy weather, cool days, and school. I have worked what is, with any luck, my last day ever at my awful grocery store job, and...am actually looking forward to school starting again. Ahh, the differences between being in high school and being in college. This is also possibly my last summer vacation ever - I should be graduating this year, and I'm not actually looking at pursuing a higher level degree any more, so. I feel like maybe have made more of it, but ah well. I managed to get back into some creative pursuits, which is good.

I also reactivated my WoW account, because Blizzard owns my soul. So much badge farming to do, QQ. But my baby pally has gained five and a half levels since last week. Soon she'll be a big pally!

-The approximately three people reading this who understand the reference will find this hilarious: Ally the Turk. She is this team's Reno. I give her roughly ten minutes before the Fearless Leader attempts to strangle her in frustration.
-New Rufus boots = surprisingly comfortable! The downside is that they were made with someone with larger ankles than me, so the heels rub a little without insoles
-Fifteen yards of wool-blend suiting = ~20 pounds. Now I understand why they wanted $45 to ship it to Canada
-Looks great, though - a little higher color saturation than the stuff I originally used for Jon's first suit, which I think will actually work nicely
-My Elena got a job, and thus is actually coming with us omg omg omg. Seriously she will be adorable.

This pile of awesome makes up for the fact that I am going to hate myself tomorrow (initial chiropractic exam, ie, lots of prodding, plus walking around campus lots, plus staying up past my bedtime)

You know you're playing an Atlus game when you hit the difficulty wall three bosses in (in this case, Shadow Yukiko). Unfortunately I am fail at planning and waited until the last day to do Yukiko's dungeon, which means that while I desperately need to grind like another two levels on each character, I don't actually have basically any recovery items. I've gotten her down to like 10% at least three times now, but when she gets low she casts AoE attacks like every round and owns me. Anyway, general non-spoilery thoughts on gameplay and such:

-Combat system is fun, although I really wish there were turn icons like Nocturne and DDS have. But I like the special pile-on attack that triggers when all the enemies are knocked down.
-Going in, I wasn't sure if I'd like the S.Link/life sim bits of it, but...they're actually surprisingly fun.
-Chie is so awesome XD And Teddie is hilarious but also creepy.
-Jon pointed out the ironic inversion that right now, out of my three person party, the girl is the only one who can't heal.
-Oh god why can't I skip the super-long scene before Shadow Yukiko I've seen it like seven times now whyyyy

And kind of related - I'm starting to really hope Tseng gets kidnapped for the Desai Midnight Channel plot, because playing Shadow Tseng would be creepy and interesting and awesome. Basically, my Tseng hides two things about himself. The first is that he's sort of a borderline sociopath - not only does he not really feel guilty about the fact that he kills people for a living (the exception being Sector 7, and there it's more 'that was not right' and regret at having made the wrong decision), a part of him enjoys the violence. And he hides a lot of that, and hides his fear that the inner Beast is most of what he is.

The other thing he hides is his fear and shame about his sexuality (my Tseng being pretty much 100% gay) - he was raised in an extremely conservative family in a rather conservative culture, and while he moved to Midgar as a teenager, being gay in Midgar is not so much welcomed as it is tolerated. I think this goes for a lot of cyberpunk cities - it's less 'it's okay to be gay!' and more that people just don't give a shit who you're fucking. But I personally see a lot of the Midgar upper-class, as well as the upper echelons of the company, being very much 'wife and two kids', and that there aren't a whole lot positive depictions of same-sex relationships in the media. He hides his sexuality, but if confronted about it wouldn't deny it - he would deny the feelings of shame, that he's unnatural, that his love is ultimately damaging, because he has a certain amount of pride and self-confidence.

So yeah, Shadow Tseng would be kind of a super-creepy over-the-top sociopath with that slightly feral gleam in his eyes, possibly combined with elements of the good old Predatory Gay stereotype.

( ZOMGSPOILERS )

And a brief, non-DMC thought - Eliot from Leverage has a great deal in common with my Tseng and Rufus, I think. He's just a bit rougher around the edges.

Because my roommate is chill and borrowed it from one of our friends, and then installed it for me while I was at work today \o/

-Dante gets impaled on a sword in the first mission. He really does totally get off on that.

-I am sad they missed a great opportunity to use the phrase 'the legendary dark knight Sparda', although they came close.

-Five bucks says Credo is evil >.> He has the little evil goatee and everything.

-Oh DMC scriptwriting and voiceacting, you never change (I leave it to the reader to decide if this is a plus or a minus)

-Neither does the music (I feel this is a minus)

-Gloria is badass, but oversexualised to the point where it passes through creepy and in to absurd. I really hope that it's supposed to be ironic or...something

-I am liking the new combat system - unless the style moves, I actually use the devil arm.

-GO GO OBNOXIOUS MISSION 2 END BOSS. Okay, so he wasn't quite as bad as Cerberus.

-The missions in this one seem a lot longer than DMC3.

Distant Worlds was on Friday \o/ Jon and I did end up dressing up in cosplay, and ended up being two of the like...four people who did, but instead of making me feel like a dorky tool, this actually made things even more awesome and full of win. So, point form, because I cannot write coherently right now.

The Awesome:
-Concert itself - the song line-up was amaaaazing. I think the piece that impressed me the most was the opera from FF6, as they actually had three opera singers doing it.
-Getting high-fives on the way to the venue
-The guy who came up to me and very solemnly said said 'Do I have the honor of addressing the president of Shinra?' to me, and then, after shaking my hand, turned to Jon and added 'And the leader of the Turks as well?'
-Having an ex-military guy first recognize my outfit, and then recognize the tactical gloves I bought for said outfit, and then spent the next five minutes telling me how they were the most awesome shooting gloves ever.
-"RUFUS I LOVE YOU" from the Sephiroth girl from AE - she looks waaaay different without the wig
-Sitting in the sekrit composer section - seriously, Nobuo sat a row behind us, and Jeremy Soule was two rows back. Crazy.
-FF Distant Worlds in Vancouver in October omggggg

The Not-Awesome
-Getting stuck with a Dodge Caliber from the rental car agency - thing has a tiny back windshield, awful sight lines, and the turning radius of a stoned cow.
-Having to wake-up at six-thirty to get aforementioned rental back in time (one day rental)
-Having my new Underworks binder (which btw is pretty sweet, more on that at a later date), after several hours of driving around, and walking around Kinokuniya and being fine, suddenly start digging in really badly half-way through after-concert dinner.
-Freaking out about parking at Kinokuniya (we had some trouble finding the lot, and I can't parallel park, so panic ensued)

Some photos and stuff from the last week or so, because I am sleep deprived and it amuses me.

- lol geostigma nectarines (that was the second thought that crossed my mind, the first being 'ew, this nectarine has pus D:' - for some reason the juices from the bruises were seeping up through the skin to the outsides)
-My beatiful heirloom tomato display at work (I know, it would be more picturesque if they didn't have the code stickers on them)
-My awesome new phone 2 - first is locked, second is my main desktop (yes, that's Midgar. Yes, I have the victory theme as a ringtone. And a seperate Turks theme remix for my Turks - does Bree want in? - and the menu confirmation blip as a notification ding. Yes, I am a huge, huge nerd.)

Also, Desai fills me with happiness and glee, thank you Kara ♥

BONUS! Amusing convo with Jon as I was typing this up:

Me: ...Some day I'm going to get 'stigma' and 'stigmata' confused at the wrong time, and it will be very bad
Jon: heh, social stigmata
Me: My brain always thinks 'geostigmata'
Jon: ... isn't that kinda the last stage of the disease?
Jon: You start showing the signs of the messiah?
Me: Ahahaha XD