#!/dev/haru

@Reinfleche

So it would seem!

Anyway, I'm mostly here because I have a Discord bot with a built-in RPG, it's on Serenes Forest Discord now, and a bunch of its players realized/remembered I had an SF account and voted for me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Should I not be?

1) a 2) Both can be fine -- it's more about self expression than any particular preference towards how one expresses themselves. My member title, Cogito Ergo Nukes, came from a game of AI War: Fleet Command where @Integrity, @Parrhesia and I had the 'infinitely'-powerful AI enemy on the ropes, but our final push got repelled, which... in AI War, the difficulty of the enemy scales on how much they notice you; a failed homeworld attack is crippling, so we may well have been doomed. But I had a backup plan, and warped in a Mk II Nuclear Warhead in to destroy and cripple the AI homeworld (and the surrounding worlds; nukes in AI War are serious business, not to be taken lightly) so we could do a followup surgical strike before the AI could muster up its defenses. (For reference, just exploding the nuke doubled the AI threat level, and we would've been dead in minutes had we not struck immediately; AI Wars campaigns take many hours). So in that case, it was both sheer firepower and technique, while also being the ultimate move of self-expression. 3) Because they've always got more fatigue available. 4) I answered this earlier in the thread! As I said there: I can do top 3. I don't tend to really expand things beyond that -- my preferences change based on my mood and everything else is too broad-strokes. 3 - Reimu Hakurei - Well, there's a reason my bot's got a Reimu picture and motif. I love the aesthetic, and the general approach of 'view every problem as exactly the same'. 2 - Marisa Kirisame - She's pretty much me, tbh. Explosive, aggressively weird and not insecure about it, curious, fairly unkempt, and extremely creative in the strangest ways. You can probably thank @dekw for her making my top 5. 1 - Utsuho Reiuji - She's aesthetically perfect (incredible surreal cape, nuclear power, flight, fire, all of the Haru checkboxes hit in one). She's also fairly simple, and motivated by a desire I can relate to, which is just to have home the way she remembered it. 5) I just like it because it's bright, in-your-face, and the stereotypical fire color. FF0000 red has become my brand.

I like these questions in particular quite a lot. 1) Never, not once. Nope. 2) It probably depends on who you are. For me, it's just a matter of treating myself the same way I treat everyone else, which is to say, with respect and dignity. 3) The first answer that came to mind was... "Few, because I also had few hopes and dreams growing up, and I think you need something to lose to have something to fear. Maybe a bit (or extremely) weird, but that's how I am, I suppose." And it's mostly true, but on thinking about it a little more, I remember I was a compulsive liar back then, and I developed sort of a... reflexive fear of multiple parts of my lives meeting with each other, in case I'd been inconsistent in the web of lies I'd woven. Of course, I was never nearly as good at lying as I thought, and those days are long past. Suppose it says something about how much escapism there was back then that the only thing I was afraid of losing was fake anyway. 4) The ones I can remember. I retain dreams so very rarely. 5) This is gonna sound weird, because the community is frankly memetically bad where it's bad, but... the community. Not the icky parts people think of, but the parts that make entire games and romhacks, beautiful art, music, quality fanfictions, etc, based on this weird niche bullet hell shooter and its setting. I like the setting a lot, too -- in a way, Gensokyo has been kind of formative in how I write my own fantasy worlds -- a lot more subjective, a little harder to grasp... and kind of their own characters, in a way. There's a lot of character that, to me, remains fairly consistent across many different visions of Gensokyo in fanworks, and I appreciate that and use elements of it in my own works. 'sides, the aesthetics are on point. Have you seen Utsuho? She has an arm cannon that fires suns, her cape is the universe and she has wings.

I am nothing if not fiery and reliable. Fireliable.

yes yes, but even moreso

XI) Casting from HP is a fairly cool system that I don't think has ever been quite pulled off, or I'd choose SoV. That said, I guess I'm just not all that attached to any of them? XII) Rapier, no contest. Have one in real life. XIII) Ninja. Not the Hollywood full black costume and mask ninjas, but the combat pragmatist 'dress in plain clothes to blend in' type. XIV) Western. XV) Probably just somewhere I could visit friends, honestly.

11, 12, 13, 14) a 15) I had a dog named Miranda for about ten years. She was a good dog but occasionally we would hear a THUD from the backyard and it would indicate that she was chasing squirrels along our fence and barrelled into it at the corner. This happened enough times that we had to reinforce the fence with steel, because it broke apart in several places.

I couldn't tell you what the future holds. 17) 18) Never heard of 'em. Give me a recommendation. 19) It varies, but pretty consistently near the top is Lullaby of a Deserted Hell. 20) Yeah. I'm a big fan of Order of the Stick, which, as it turns out, has fairly excellent writing besides also being a pile of D&D jokes. I also like Manly Guys Doing Manly Things (though I believe the writer is taking a break), SMBC, and xkcd. In the immortal words of HaruBot,

6) A bunch of design space opens up in using S-Ranks as 'weapons which can't get stat modifications from forges'. 7/9) These two questions make me laugh. Dodge tanks cause salt, but the update penalized them too much, in peoples' opinions. The main reason people don't like fighting dodge tanks is that a miss is a lot more unsatisfying than a hit for 1 damage, even if effectively the mitigation is pretty much the same. In short, I think small/lower CON units should be afforded a bit more offensive identity somewhere, but I don't think it's too poorly balanced, and I think it's extremely risky to give them too much more than they have. 8) Zero. 1) You can do anything with a Discord bot that you could do with anything else, so long as you have the time and inclination. 2) I'm not much of a music person. I like music most when it's associated with something -- a scene, a world, a location -- so that it can hold a bit of that thing's tone. To that end, I appreciate game soundtracks more than anything. 3/4) Can't say I have particular attachment to any given tropes or archetypes. I've always had some appreciation for whenever the world is made to feel a bit more full and real, when, for instance, the characters of focus encounter another character who's clearly on their own quest, in the middle of their own story, and they never meet again. 5) Good, as ever.

I've always been more a red mage kind of gal, but probably white mage? 6) Third shrine boon should help. Not sure yet, though. 7) I think the balance is fine; they look worse in the early game but I don't think they're actually bad. Aris (Troub > Paladin) was one of my best characters. 8) Yes. :) 9) Well, this one time, I was a compulsive liar ('this one time' being for the first twenty...?ish? years of my life). Then he pointed out that he couldn't really operate around that, so I stopped cold turkey. I think it really confused him. To quote him: [5:16 PM] dekw: ?????????????????????? 10) I certainly can. How many times will you fall into the same trap? VI) Suburban. VII) I enjoy all places for different reasons. I didn't use to like urban, but living in NYC for a few months kinda sold me on being able to go out at 3 AM to get a sandwich at the local deli (where I spoke the same language as no one). Suburbia is a nice middleground of 'being near stuff' and 'being far from stuff', and rural -- while it's killer for my allergies -- tends to just be very calm and beautiful, which I appreciate. VIII) There are five conditions which will force a draw in Chess; In a case of stalemate, a player is unable to make a legal move on their turn. Draw by threefold repetition occurs when the same position is returned to three consecutive times. A draw will be forced when no piece is captured or pawn moved in fifty moves. A draw by colony drop occurs when humanity becomes too horrified by the atrocities committed in the name of independence to continue. Finally, draw by insufficient materiel occurs when checkmate is impossible to force with the pieces on hand. IX) Winter. Only season my allergies don't explode. X) The only part of Myers-Briggs that I can really identify with is 'Introverted', and that's just because people tire me out quickly. 'Sensing' and 'Intuition' seem pretty much the same process, 'Thinking' and 'Feeling' are two completely different but valid ways to work through information, and... well, I'm not very judgmental at all, but that doesn't mean I'm incapable. I dunno, it's hard for me not to see MBTI as fairly nebulous and ill-defined.

1) It is as it should be. 2) Spoilers, Spoilers, and Bookends on the Path to Everywhere. 3) I could! 4) Not very, I'm feeling quite sick. 5) Another friend of mine used to do that. Then I started doing it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 12) Fuck, don't remind me. 614 accepted, 150 pending. I need to get someone else to be able to curate. 13) I've seen at least fifteen. 14) No idea! Probably at least 10%. 15) Didn't I already answer this one? 16) The rumor that you needed as many classes/weapon types unlocked as possible to unlock Master Knight and Baron made me laugh. Maybe also that time people quested with broken weapons intentionally to game Karma. I have no idea what this means, sorry My game Probably AI War: Fleet Command.

Selphina and Selphina's -- Damn, you already covered the obvious Okay so hear me out Fiana Braves banner - Orsin, Marty (who drops to 3*, not even 3-4*, but is insanely good at 5*), Eyval, and Finn (they did Kaze again, they can do Finn again) but with an actual refine. GHB: Seram, and the map has random warp tiles TT: Dagdar

1) From your avatar and such, you appear to have an affinity for spook, so I'll attempt to go on that one and show you one of the glossary entries. Also, hey, if you ever wanted to make your own Fire Emblem character and not have it be an amorphous statball of boring brokenness, here's your chance. 2) I have some friends who live in Estonia, so Estonia. 3) I don't really collect least favorites of things. 4) I did! Here's another, then. If you like that one, let me know, and maybe I can convince you to look into HaruFE with a little story about a shrine. 5) Not much of a moviegoer! Some Disney or Pixar thing, probably. Ooh, actually, I kind of enjoyed The Martian. And Dr. Strangelove, for several reasons. 1) Fire, and fire. 2) Temperance, I guess? I'm pretty minimalist. And, lust, clearly. 3) Cold is nicer. 4) I love learning about just about everything. History is vivid and fascinating no matter where you look. Mythology I'm a little less keen on in general but still appreciate it. 5) Why are you asking me? I'm not the one who turned all those Truthstone Shards into the shrine to let it erase itself.

Oh. Yeah, definitely give that a Wo Dao so you can have Mini-Aether.

Followup post mostly to post Eliwood but also to answer DF's second wave. 6) Ask less, listen more. 7/8) There is a meaning, but the search is part of its meaning, so to answer this and the next question would render it meaningless. 9) There's an element of truth to everything. Or maybe an element of Truth. Who knows? 10) Dunno, post him. Anyway:

1) Oh dear god yes. I was under the impression for up until later testing for the SSS run that the Reinhart chapter just literally wasn't skippable because -- and my memory is foggy on this, so I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I warped someone over to the end area (planning to rescue back, iirc) and my turn ended. I think I was just clumsy with a menu but I'd just assumed the chapter was literally the worst thing ever for like a year after that debacle. Also, warp tiles for days. I think I spent a week on that map. 2) Dark Souls 1, easy answer. The atmosphere was just right, and the mechanics made you feel like you were descending into hell alone. Bonfire warping really screwed up the tone of earlygame Dark Souls. 3) I have no idea but it's hilarious. 4) No. 5) Axe, followed by Lance. 1) I'm someone from the Ancient Times, before things like 'common sense', 'gravel', and 'Fire Emblem: Awakening' were invented. We had rocks and the SNES/GBA Fire Emblems and we liked it. (No, but actually I'm just from Serenes Forest way back when, don't usually actually hang around here, mostly stick to Discord.) 2) HaruFE is my Discord Bot game, playable simply by joining, for instance, the Serenes Forest Discord. You can make your own Fire Emblem character and level it up and get items, it has a full combat engine, there's an arena patch coming and an emergent story, and it even has a full original soundtrack. Here's a sample! 3) Binding Blade was, mechanically, possibly the simplest game in the whole series, and immediately followed one of the most complicated, tonally interesting games in the series. To me, it was just a huge disappointment and a departure from everything I loved about Fire Emblem, particularly when I was younger and expected every game to be 'the same as the last, but better!' Many of its mechanics could've been handled many times better and none of the characters really gripped me, except Gonzales, who rules. 4) Laevatein, no contest. I'm also known to have a very, very dangerous 40+10 Olivia and Eliwood, along with the legendary RED FINN and BLUE ZEPHIEL. My Thing in FEH is mostly 'completing all content with only red units, where possible'.

I'm not surprised a 1) RNG nonsense is great and forces people to adapt their approaches 2) I don't really have heroes. Many people have qualities that I respect and appreciate but no one is perfect. 3) Maybe. Time is a thing. 4) :) 5) Anyone over 100 6) Not much of a poetry person, but I always liked Silverstein when I was young. I barely remember it, but my favorite book (and comedic book, as well) was probably Restaurant at the End of the Universe. ...Frankly I'm less of a movie person than I am a book person, but my favorite movie is probably a Disney or Pixar movie. Atlantis: The Lost Empire, maybe, just because the technology and atmosphere were always wondrous and I loved the characters and the feel-good of the plot near the ending. 1) I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't recommend to people based on my interests, I recommend based on theirs -- if they're into weird political intrigue and/or can appreciate the fairly dark tone and animations, absolutely. If they like fairly janky mechanics and open-ended character customization, maybe. Otherwise, it might be a hard sell, because it's a bit of a weird game -- they'd certainly have to be a patient sort, particularly with some of the bullshit like the Wiegraf fight. 2) Not to be rude, but if you can't beat the game without that character, you should go back and play through again, try some new things. Game has a lot of fun mechanics. Personally I'm particularly a fan of the 1.3 patch, but it's got some really unforgiving scaling and isn't for everyone. 3) I have not. Never found the time or interest. 4) Sadly, no. 5) The meaning of life is that which we assign it. 1) I would want to be able to generate a new, comfortable, perfect pair of socks any time I wanted to. It would be a low-key superpower -- I'd rather not throw off the balance of power of the world, I don't think I have quite the perspective to handle that responsibility -- but it would mean I could wear a new pair of socks every single day of my life, and socks are probably the most important/underappreciated piece of clothing to donate. If I had to not be stupid about it, teleportation would be useful and could probably solve some world problems, but god that's boring and I have better things to do. 2) I have a fairly good imagination, so I could definitely see it happening. I don't ever have any expectations, though. 3) The answer to this one is, I'm afraid, fairly boring most of the time. The last week or so have been "I updated <this and that> infrastructure in a way the players will never really notice that helps me do future things!" ...Except today, when I literally made it so I can generate new arenas in like a minute. So that's pretty cool. Once the infrastructure's done -- probably another three or four productive hours? Could take a while but I hope not -- I can finish about four different plotlines and we can really get rolling. 1) It's thirty Electrum Rings and a Seraph Robe. 2) Sort of a weird vision of Shinto spiritualism. 3) Not in any near future. 4) I have a soft spot for the Holy Avenger as my first real artifact, but my favorite is the Cloak of Poisonousness for the name.

1) The best Ravnica guild is Selesnya, and Golgari is my favorite because Boros is based on the black/blue spell synergy and milling, which synergized well with the Orzhov mechanic of -- actually, strike that shitpost, I literally don't remember the Orzhov mechanic from Ravnica 1. 2) DOG backwards is GOD 3) The SSS in Thracia 776, and "IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE" in AI War: Fleet Command. 4) Well, you see, Train B will attempt to drill through the back of Train A, but Train A, being galvanized by fire, will simply assimilate Train B and due to the properties of fire momentum, the trains will thereafter hurtle along the tracks together at 90^135 KPH (which is about 2.2 * 10²⁵⁵ times the speed of light, thus resulting in the End Of All That Is and the creation of the universe). 5) That's a hard one. Watching one of my friends pull all the way out of depression was a unique experience that I've never seen before. For the most part, I don't assume enough about what people will do to be surprised.

To answer this one: I don't retain anything I see flashing past. I let people keep their privacy and don't keep track, and HaruBot only keeps persistent logs of command usage except in extreme situations. I do quite often watch people (particularly @dekw) mistype commands repeatedly and then get annoyed, and I also occasionally see people just dueling the same person over and over again for one reason or another. People thanking the bot is another favorite.

1) get gud 2) Eh. 3) Yeah, eventually. Infrastructure is in place but I have much bigger things on my plate. 4) It's in one of the many small flower patches growing out of Eira's dragon form. Don't ask how it got there, or do, if you want. 5) I like coffee (black, or with cream) and I like seafood, particularly non-fish seafood like calamari and scallops. Anything spicy is good, too. I'm not fond of anything sugary.

Oh. Haru started as a Mage Fighter and the only stat I added (shrine boons aside) was LCK. +CON is fairly good if you want to do the siege build, and +RES is great for an all-around magic-focused hybrid and seriously underrated. Frankly, the defensive boons in general are seriously underrated.

9) I think we're on... five? people? Don't quote me on that. 1) Ye. Been a while, BLS. 2) Probably just following up on some stupid FETO thing or someone linked me via IRC or something. I do not recall. 1) Literally considering it already. 2) Probably just the addition of a skill to the starting kit. They're better than people think they are. 3) If we don't count Little Bobby Tables, it's... uh... ...Frankly, I have no idea. There are too many characters and people abandon the bad ones way too quickly. I've definitely seen worse than Sborge, though. 4) Well, one time I made Strike Twice proc itself, and at the same time, there was a bug that made it forget to remove the 'striking twice' status from the character and prorate the damage, which resulted in me doing this to FINALDUMMY and defeating it after about 960 hits. That was fun. 5) I would have no idea. 10) yes