Sternchen in Inaba

One day, I will shut up about this game (or get myself an icon that shows someone other than Raiden), presumably when I've finished it. Until then, you can all be very thankful to the inventor of cut tags. To let my four fellow fans know where I currently am in MGS2 and to amuse everyone else** who might quickly skim over this paragraph to see if I have anything interesting to say: Since last we heard me babble about this game, our pretty little protagonist has a) proven himself to be woefully genre-blind, b) fallen off of burning bridges, and this is unfortunately not a metaphor, c) been groped by the president of the United States (this is not a metaphor either) and d) been accused of having... a heart as empty as his... bedroom? I think that last one was a metaphor. Maybe.

( Raiden still doesn't want to be here. This time, he actually says so. )

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**on the off chance that anyone not familiar with the fandom is actually reading these posts, I've tried to write this one in a way that it should still make sense without the background knowledge. Let me know if it worked?

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At least I'm not the only one who seems to be missing something. XD I've started playing Metal Gear Solid 2 and so far I'm absolutely loving it. Granted, the farthest I've played is the beginning of the plant infiltration, where I saved just after meeting the new save point person, but hey, at least I can give first impressions, right? But let's start at the beginning, more precisely with what I knew before I even put the game into my PS2:

1.) Many people, my reading list not included, seem to say that MGS2 is their least favourite game of the series. We'll see why in a second.
2.) After a prologue, there is a switch in main characters and we run around as a certain Raiden.
3.) The same "many people" mentioned above hate Raiden. With a passion. They seem to have gotten slightly better after MGS4, but that is not what I am concerned with right now.
4.) If there is one character that gets more hate than Raiden, it's Raiden's girlfriend Rose.

So in other words I didn't really knew anything except for 2.) and opinions from a bunch of people I couldn't care less about. (Yes, yes, I know, it's too early to get myself a Raiden icon, but screw that, I wanted one. Ironically, both of the girls I'm most likely to lure into reading this post with the icon won't see it unless they've already clicked over because they're reading this from LJ, where my icon defaults to Maya. Somehow, this amuses me, but as you can see, I am easily amused these days.) Anyway, more detailed first impressions under the cut.

( Where I squee over silly banter (and am utterly predictable), try to introduce Otacon to Aino Minako, laugh too much at the sight of a sequel parodying Sequels and play these games for the plot. No, really. )

Of course it was once again my mum, who, walking into the room and staring at the TV screen for a good long while, saw through the game in an instant when she asked me if I could turn the camera around a little, stared some more and then asked: "Why is that man wearing something that looks so much like a corset?"
Well, mum, I don't know, but I'm sure Otacon has a technobabbly explanation ready if someone asks him and until then, I'm just going to enjoy the view.

- - -

And now I better stop babbling about fanservice videogames and get dressed, because farbenweberin will be here soon. ♥ That and the fact that the weather is no longer trying to roast me alive make me a very happy, bouncy Sternchen. Wheeeeeeeeeee!

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...why is there a walrus in Metal Gear Solid's ending? XD

No, don't answer that one. I know it's just part of the let's-show-stock-footage-of-various-flora-and-fauna-during-the-credits sequence. Doesn't mean that I can't crack up over it. ... Why are you looking at me like that? Between Alaska's wildlife, a message delivered with all the subtlety of a brick to the face and the protagonist & antagonist's apparent need to lose most of their clothes during the final showdown, are you really expecting me not to laugh? XD
Also, from what I've heard I better laugh while I still can and enjoy the Happy End as long as it lasts. Beware, there are sequels. And by "happy end" I mean the Bad Ending.

(The last time you've heard me talk about this game, I was running around in slightly panicky circles because someone thought it would be fun to decide the game's ending with a mini game that you can only win if you can mash the x button very fast. Which I can't. So I've been on the Bad Ending path ever since and I must say I rather like it. No, really, I could've bought this as the game's real ending if I hadn't known there was a "happy" ending too.)

Assorted spoilery thoughts in bullet point format under the cut. ( Liquid, you sound like a Sunday morning cartoon villain. Your voice actor seemed to have had the time of his live playing you too... )

- - -

Also, if one of you still want to do me a favour and give me a drabble prompt: There's still a spot left in the writing game thing from my last post. I've written one drabble already, want to start another that I have an idea for after I've finished this post and generally have a lot of fun with them. <3

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Because this looks like something I can work with (and because I apparently need something to motivate me to write):

I am taking drabbles, seven of them. Give me a fandom, and a sensory image ("the smell of hot asphalt," "the sound of leaves crunching," etc.). Anything I've written about before is fair game** and if you know a fandom I haven't written in but that I'm enthusiastic about, feel free to try prompting for it too. I might have to ask for something else, but maybe it's worth a try?

[Edit: You can specify characters as well, but if you pick one I can't wrap my head around no matter what, I might just go for someone else from the same fandom instead.]

**i.e. anything with a "fanworks: fiction: x" or "original fiction: x" tag on my tags page. Or if you'd rather navigate a story index: fanfic and original fic. I swear this isn't hidden advertisement. (For one, it's not hidden. XD)

1.) Final Fantasy VII, Angeal/Zack - cold snow on skin (for shiun)
2.) Okami, Waka - the smell of ink (for khana)
3.) Avatar, Aang and Zuko - the sound of evaporating water (for farbenweberin)
4.) Final Fantasy IV, the smell of machine oil (for white_aster)
5.) Lost Odyssey, Kaim/Sarah, the feel of soft skin (for lassarina)
6.) Final Fantasy VII, Tseng - the feel of grass between one's toes (for blady)

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Why is it summer? *sighs dramatically and downs another glass of water. It is far too hot. And yes, I like complaining about this every year. I'm very much ready for autumn to come, and it's only the end of June.... Meeeeeeeeeh. *grabs water bottle*

That said, I still don't have a more interesting post to offer, but Halcyonjazz does! She says everything I'd want to say about the... this... uh, thing they call the Avatar - The Last Airbender live action movie. Which I refuse to watch, spiffy kung fu or no.

- - -

Okay, the real reason for this post is that I want to ask you a question! (Oho?) Don't worry, you just have to be a little creative: Under the cut you will find pictures of a character who happens to have, or rather who happens to not have a default name. Not even an unofficial official one. Not even a fan nickname, unless you want to name him after the number in the game's title that shows that it's the eights instalment of the series. So, look at the boy and tell me, what would you name him? (Or, for the two(?) of you who've played his game, what did you call him?)

( A rose by any other name? )

[Edit: I know it's tempting, but I was trying to avoid Dragonball jokes/names. ^^; Just saying.]

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... I just want to rant. About D, my mum's partner, who is an okay guy most of the time but who can be such an ass at others. <.< What makes me say that? Well, see for yourself for an example.

This morning, like every morning when I'm visiting my mum, who is living at D's house, my mum calls "Breakfast!", so I get up, grab a class of milk (because the only milk is in the fridge upstairs), and go downstairs. Glass of milk in one hand, I open the door to the kitchen with the other. At that moment, there's a shout: "BOOOO!" and there is D in the typical arms-raised-saying-boo-to-give-people-a-scare pose. I and spill some of the milk.

I growl**: "You wipe that up."
"Pffft", he made and thought he was very funny. "I'm not the one who spilled the milk."

I did end up wiping it up, just because my mum was about to get up to do it, knowing full well that if we'd leave it to him, the milk would just dry on the floor because clearly none of this was his fault so he has no responsibility to do anything. Or, I dunno, apologise when it's clear that I'm upset rather than amused. And my mum hates dirt, so she wouldn't have walked past the milk for the rest of the day...

By the way, it got worse. A bit later during the breakfast (insert angry silence -here-), he spilled a drop of his coffee on his shirt, which made me snicker.
"Well, at least *I*'m not stupid enough to spill half the cup."
He winked really obviously when he said "stupid" and laughed afterwards, but really, making a joke out of it doesn't make it better. Stupid bastard.

---
(** Yup, growled. I was more angry than you'd probably expect but see, it all goes back to when I was a teen and bullied in school. Three or four of the bully girls would wait near the classroom door, then shut it when they saw me approaching. "Boo!" they'd make, accompanied by the typical pose and then hassle me as I make my way to my table in the classroom, throwing paper planes and/or calling me names. And of course it was all just a joke and why wasn't I laughing? Needless to say I'm reminded of that every time someone goes "Boo!" at me, especially when closed doors are involved. Of course D can't possibly know this, but that s not the point.)

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An older fic that I found just yesterday after I made my post announcing the updated reclist, and I loved it so much that it gets its own post today. The fanfic in question made me laugh tears it's so funny, and then it made me all teary-eyed again because it was so moving. I also squeed and danced through the room occasionally. Unfortunately for all but two of you, this is a fic where canon-knowledge helps a lot; there's a dozen characters and several extras and so many little inside that make the whole thing even more awesome when you catch them. If, however, you don't mind all the unfamiliar names and occasional bits of confusion, you might want to give it a try anyway.

The fic in question goes by the memorable title of "The Fire Bringer or The True And Accurate Story of the Flame Champion of the Grasslands, by His Reverence the Bishop Sasarai bar-Hikusaak ish Harmonia" and was written by Mooncalf.

As in canon, (see also: "Woof!", says the script), the theatre at Budehuc Castle draws people's attention: Sasarai wants to see the titular play performed and assembles a group of, well, certainly not actors, to make sure it happens. Unfortunately for everyone involved, an involuntary temporary resident at the castle, who happened to be there when the historic events surrounding the Flame Champion took place, is very much not thrilled with Sasarai's interpretation of the events. And so begins a tale of chaotic rehearsals, nervous actors and one very annoyed Geddoe. And as for the day the play is finally performed in front of an audience...

Well, you see where this is going. Despite that, the fic is never boring, frequently hilarious and occasionally surprisingly touching. While I'm not 100% happy with Geddoe's characterisation, I absolutely love the rest of the cast, whether it's Sasarai being a manipulative little bastard, Jaques being his usual spaced-out-but-remarkably-perceptive self, Nash on a stage (if you know Nash, you know what that means) or Thomas being nervous, stubborn and somewhat panicky, preferably all at the same time (Thomas is the boy in my icon and my hero and I absolutely adore him.), or if it's just the bit players being amazingly in character with just a sentence or two: all this made me a very happy fic-reading Sternchen. ^.^

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Ha pheeeewwww. I'm still behind on comments, but at least I've finally managed to update my fanfic recs over at delicious, which I had been meaning to do since, uh... last November? At least that explains why there are 22 new recs now.
Totals: 55 recs in 27 fandoms. FFXII has most (8 recs), followed by Suikoden and Phoenix Wright (7 each). There's still a sad lack of femmeslash and I still urge you to read the authors' headers for additional warnings because I only tag for general "worksafeness".)

One of the newly-recced fanfictions, the newest, in fact, (khana, you don't know these specific characters, but you know the world in general and I'm pretty sure you'd like the fic anyway, even though this is a case where canon-knowledge probably helps a lot) led to another moment where I didn't know if I wanted to glare at my mum (Not this again! or go "aww, you're kind of adorable" at her.) At least that means my visits are never uneventful. So, as I was reading, she entered the room to look for some documents in her wardrobe...

Mum: "Oh, you're reading again? What's it about?"
I (trying very hard not to say "porn" XD): "Oh, Fantasy. You know. Travellers at an inn, and now they're paying for lodging and a bath." (This was, by the way, true.)
Mum: "A bath?"
I: "...Yes."

(Silence as she rummaged through the wardrobe, angry because she couldn't find the documents, while I busied myself with the DragonCave instead, wondering if she'd been watching talkshows again - the hosts giving "show an interest in what your children are doing" speeches usually trigger her showing an interest in what I'm reading. After she finally found the papers...)

Mum: "So, did they finally get to take a bath?"
I: "...Yes?"
Mum: "Together?"
I: "Uh, mum, where is this going?"
Mum: "Because I've been wondering if, you know, they're gay, these wanderers of yours, and---"
I (giving her A Look and trying not to laugh - with no word had I mentioned that the wanderers in question were even both male, let alone gay. Which they are, but that's beside the point.)
Mum "---and of course that would be totally okay. I just wanted to say that."
I: "Mum, if this is another It's Okay To Be Gay speech..."
Mum: "It is! Okay, I mean. I just want you to know that."
I: "You've been watching talkshows again, haven't you?"
Mum: "Yes, while I was dusting. How did you know?"

At this point, I actually was going "awwww" and laughing and we were more or less distracted by D. calling from below to ask something. I can't shake the feeling that she is, as she has done since I was fifteen or so, waiting for me to come out to her as lesbian. By now, I'm not sure if I can make my position any more clear than "Mum, if I have a boyfriend, I'll let you know. If I have a girlfriend, I'll also let you know. In the meantime, I'm single, always have been and am happy with that, thank you very much and now let me return to my fanfic for it is tasty." Oh mum.

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Remind me to never let my mum talk me into shopping for clothes again: it'll just end in frustration for both of us.

See, I have to be dragged into a clothes store even at the best of times because the most excited I get over what I find in there is "Hey, that looks okay!". I don't care terribly much about what I'm wearing as long as it's comfortable and not completely eyecancer-inducing. And clothing I would care for? Is the one I'd have to make myself because stores don't carry it at all (or tailored only for men, or for women who are at least slightly underweight).
For example, look at Polly the ever-adorable Apollo in my icon (on DW of course, not on LJ where it'll default to Maya) who's made even more adorable by his clothes. They look spiffy and I want them, even if the local clothes stores, magazines and people on the streets don't agree with my idea of "spiffy". Or I want some variation of what Jale is wearing, minus the silly hat and the bracers. (Which doesn't even look that unusual.) Not to mention my strange infatuation with this thing Hijiri calls a shirt. I swear half of the things my mum wanted to buy for me yesterday looked more like rags than this does.

(I realise that all three examples I pulled out of my non-existent hat are worn by male videogame characters. There are probably plenty of "less revealing than the original but kept in the same style" women's clothing examples I could come up with; these three were just the first to pop into my head during mum's shopping spree.)

Which is, I guess, my long-winded way of saying that it'll be a good long while until I set foot into a clothes store again, especially with mum, as well-meaning as she is, because fashion sense and I, we obviously don't go well together.

But hey! Guess what! I actually didn't walk out of all five stores empty-handed. The one thing I liked and ended up buying that my mum insisted on paying for (Thank you mum! ♥ I swear I'm not as much of an ungrateful brat as I sound sometimes.) is the one that mum hated the most. XD

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News, part 1:
I am once again visiting my mum, so if you want to contact me via the phone, try her number (or my mobile, in case you, like me, tend to forget a phone number three seconds after dialling it). The train ride was blissfully uneventful, except for a few drunk guys on the last +30 minute stretch who insisted on yelling lyrics from Peter Maffay songs at the top of their lungs. Eh. <.<

News, part 2:
Noooooooooooooooo~~~! ;___; Mean cliffhangers are mean. I've watched my way through every available episode of Criminal Minds and have thus reached the end of season four yesterday evening (and way past my bedtime *tired*). When did they say season five would air? In September? Anyway, I remain cautiously optimistic, loved the finale's narrative structure but please, dear person responsible for the camera direction in part 1, stop antagonising the pigs. Not their fault. and am, predictably enough, still madly in love with the show. (With Avatar gone, this is, without a doubt, my favourite thing currently running on TV bar none.)

News, part 3:
Speaking of Avatar, I, uh, got my hands on the "season 1" DS game, which is ridiculously cute and... well. It's supposed to be a kid's game, right? Then why can't I get past the first boss, huh? That thing kills me every. Single. Time. Strange.

News, part 2.5:
By the way, I have strange pairing ideas for Criminal Minds. Which is funny, because I don't really ship in this fandom actively, besides adoring the chemistry between Morgan and Garcia. And... a lot of the other team members. That, however, had to be expected. (On a related note: Where do you girls find your CM icons? I want some.)

News, part 1.5:
Guess who'll drag her mum to the cinema today? Not that much dragging will be necessary, because she was the one who pointed out that today is the last day Star Trek will run at the local cinema (at a reasonable hour (i.e. not at 22:30)), and after telling me for weeks that awwww, nobody will go see the film with her but she wants to seeeee it! it's no surprise that we'll jump at the chance and watch it today. This'll be fun. ^.^

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Music link!
Summoning of Spirits is a 4 CDs album full of remixed songs (some even have vocals) from Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia. While especially lovely if you like the games (and more importantly, their music), this is a pleasure to listen to anyway. <3 Among the 50+ tracks, there's a lot of variety in styles, so you're bound to find something you like. ... ... I sound like an advertisement. >.<

Rant Time!
Please tell me I'm not the only one who wished Loud Twitter (the thing that imports your < 140 characters "long" posts to your blog/journal, combining all twitter posts made in one day(?) into one blog post) had never been invented? I don't care about Twitter posts, which is why I'm not using Twitter. Or, as I said to someone a year or so ago, if I wanted to follow someone on Twitter, I would follow them on Twitter, and that's why I find the Loud Twitter post showing up on my LJ flist so incredibly annoying. I'm sure there are people out there who find this super useful for one reason or another, but honestly? I'm reading your journal, damnit, not your SMS-sized Twitter things. I wouldn't "unfriend" anyone over just their LT posts (and I know I can just scroll past them), but sometimes I'm really tempted. <.<

Other posts!
Are sure to show up in my journal one of these days. I have so much to say about the shiny new Star Trek film, and also bits about a certain plushie, life in general and imaginary critters in red-and-white capsules. XD It's not like I lack topics (or time).

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Hmdgdldbfkfhaöhfcnkyaaaaaaaaaannn!

I never embed youtube videos in my posts, but just this once, I have to. Because, as is the rule with anything this team (Ico? Nico? Trico? *g*) produces, whether it's Ico or Shadow of the Colossus or this, words just can't describe it. Can't.
If you have three and a half minutes of your lives to spare, watch this. It. Just. Hknsnvaöfhapinsxkakyaaaaaan! Words, they fail me. As you can see.





via white_aster's "Screw the pony. I want one of these."

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