Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, Wolfgang has been sent packing. The route split is also coming to an end. The N-Nautilus receives a transmission from the Cygnus. After choosing a rendezvous point, they'll meet up there. Meanwhile, Banjo tells his story. Seems he ended in Al-Warth alone, so we won't see his supporting cast. He has been his down recon here and there, including the Land of Mana. He also found none other than Heero and company, meaning Gundam Wing is also from the same world as Daitarn and Dunbine, and why Show could recognize Gundams and Mobile Suits, as it were. Turns out, the Mariemaia Army has also joined forces with Misurugi. Surprisingly, the Dunbine characters don't know her. I'm guessing their final battle happened before that, then. In any case, more will be told once they meet up with the others. Haha, Show doesn't sound happy to meet up with Heero and Zechs again.

Nia has decided to join the group, and even reveals to Sally she may actually change her answer to Simon's proposal. Though it seems Simon now doesn't want to hear it just yet. Not until he comes a better man, which inspires Maito to promise the same to Sally, aww.

Okay, looking at the roster changes list, seems all five Wing boys, Zechs, and Noin have joined right off the bat. Even Wufei? I guess I can say this now. Endless Waltz here is post-script. The only time it shows up in the VTX trilogy, and they do this. Same applies to Daitarn 3 here. It's post-script, but that's not really a surprise at this point, to be honest. Which means it must be Mariemaia Army remnants, then. Also, the ZZ Gundam cast also joined in the other route as well. Well, not exactly. Seems Iino and Mondo are sitting this game out, and Ple Two has not joined yet. Curiously, Judau is in the Zeta Gundam, not ZZ. With Roux in the Re-GZ. ZZ Gundam is also post-script. In fact, almost all of UC Gundam here is. Seabook mentioning Iron Mask may hint that F91 isn't, since, as he and Cecily being warped to Al-Warth right after defeating him, it's not a confirmation he's dead. Or perhaps, it's right at the end of a tweaked F91 plotline? Hmm...

Sub-Orders have finally unlocked at last! They seem to be the same as V. Two more DLC stages have unlocked too. Gonna do those next, then.

Edited July 15 by Acacia Sgt

[Codename Shrimp]

44 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

Sure, but people are deluding themselves if they believe "life is fair", it isnt. 

Conditions like Autism do exist, and seperate people more than should be, sad as it is.

Should there really be a line for this sort of thing? Birth or not, its wrong.

and we should outright reject ideologies that cause more separation and hate.

Also, Autism is quite different from something like ethnicity and shouldn't be even treated the same

[Armagon]

[Acacia Sgt]

One last detail I forgot to mention. The Cygnus also got a power boost to its Valiancer Combination attack.

So, first DLC map. Banjo and the Wing boys recount their encounter, before Banjo went over to Aoto. They were already dealing with the Mariemaia Army, and being in Al-Warth ended up no different. So the flashback begins...

Duo, Trowa, and Quatre end up in some ruined town after coming out of a gate. From their dialogue, the final battle at Brussels was already happened when they got isekai'd. So, not quite post-script just yet. Still, the fact the DLC stage is named Endless Waltz itself means it's gonna serve as the segue-way to a post-script plot. Anyway, Serpents then show up and start firing at them. So, the fight continues!

AW YEAH, it's White Reflection for the battle track! And does this rendition includes more strings? I think I'm definitely hearing a violin there. Alright!

A turn in, more Serpents show up, but so does Banjo. Hm? He already knows of the world's name. Ah, time differential. Banjo, and the Mariemara Army for that matter, got warped much earlier than the Wing boys did. That's a detail to be relevant for sure. Anyway, the Mariemaia Army has joined up with Misurugi. Seems it's either Doakdar or Misurugi the villains end up teaming up with. I suppose they are the main two antagonistic forces of Al-Warth. Though Banjo says Misurugi more like forcibly conscripts. Okay, we resume.

And now Zogilians show up, with Bizon leading them. But then out of nowhere some mechs get sniped from above. Yep, it's Heero. He seems to have arrived much earlier as well. It seems the Zero System has been warning him about something... hmm...

Though the objective is to only defeat Bizon, I ended up routing. Even if, as a DLC stage, is brings no tangible reward for it. Anyway, Bizon tries to flee. Heero gives pursuit, but then Wufei shows up! Seems he is still with the Mariemaria Army (he's definitely not by the time of the route split since he joins during it, or maybe that's when he deserts?), and covers Bizon's escape before leaving as well. With the enemy gone, Heero goes his own way to continue pursuing Zogilia. And here the flashback ends. Banjo also left while the Wing Boys stayed to do intel on the Land of Mana.

Hmm, here, as well as in the last scenario, Banjo has been musing about someone else also ending in Al-Warth, and possibly coming back to life as Show and the others did. He hopes it won't mean having to fight them, but if it comes to that... in any case, the map ends.

Edited July 16 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Second DLC map. Uh oh, Marie has been kidnapped by Vuitton. She sends a ransom note, demanding Nadia's Blue Water, as befits her phantom thief persona (mostly self-proclaimed since she never really looks the part?) to seek pretty jewels. For all that's happened because of it, Nadia is willing to part with it, to Nemo's objections... and Grandis' fury since she once tried to steal it too, pft. XD I smell a rivalry coming.

Back with Vuitton and Marie, the latter's comment and story about her parents being gone has sent the entire Pink Cats to a gloomy mood. It actually makes Vuitton begin to regret having done this. Though upon hearing X-Cross wants to hand over the Blue Water, she'd still gladly take it, but also truly does want to hand Marie back over unharmed. The exchange happens... only for Grandis to bust in and declare she'll steal it back. Yep, they are declaring a rivalry duel for the Blue Water.

So it's just Gratan vs Snooby. I doubt this will be the entire map, but for now, it is what it is.

I like how Hanson and Sanson just look so done with the whole thing. XD So, a turn in, Vuitton calls the Pink Cats... which makes Grandis call in the Brave Express Corps, likely waiting out having expected that to happen.

Okay, once defeating Vuitton... oh lol, Grandis starts praising her tank, Katherine, which Catherine Vuitton thinks it's about her. It makes her leave in a good mood and no hard feelings, even saying Grandis and she could've been friends otherwise. In any case, both Marie and the Blue Water are safe, so everyone returns to the N-Nautilus. With a bit more talk bringing up more Vuitton and Grandis being compared with each other, the map comes to an end.

And that's it for today. Ah, gonna be back to work tomorrow, so I won't continue until next weekend.

Huh, I just noticed. The Gundam Wing characters can exchange mechs. There's no restriction, so I can even put Zechs and Noin in the Wing Zero. I think some SRW games do allow for this, while in others you can't move them around. Interesting.

Edited July 16 by Acacia Sgt

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, but I tried once again to see if I could get the last Blade in Xeno 2. No joy... again.

Hmm, now what to do...

---

This would've been fitter to put up yesterday, but finale do be like:

 

Edited July 16 by Acacia Sgt

[Codename Shrimp]

Cool Magicians don't look at their target while casting 😎

Edited July 16 by Codename Shrimp

[Interdimensional Observer]

Floating island, orbiting shipyards, same thing.😆 

...Felt like doing a second ES2 run, this time with the Riftborn. Now the mood is fully out of me. Unless I decide to go Hissho again.

 

1 hour ago, Codename Shrimp said:

Cool Magicians don't look at their target while casting 😎

Something something all-seeing mind's eye.😛

Edited July 16 by Interdimensional Observer

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

The tone of this discussion has gotten markedly less civil since I went to bed last night, and I need to stop this now that the week has begun, so this'll be my last round of replies.

less civil...🙄.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

 

Humans are different. *Most* people hold off on having children until they're in stable pair bonds, for the reason that humans are a K-selected species whose offspring require intensive care and resources, which is difficult for one parent to provide. Most current human societies are also monogamous, since that increases genetic diversity and decreases violence within the population. And finally, women have a choice unlike their animal counterparts whether or not to have children.

The two situations are not comparable. I'll concede, however, that developments like monogamy and contraception have been fairly recent from an evolutionary standpoint, so perhaps there was no time for natural selection to take its course.

This is strangely framed as though the human reproductive rate is low enough that the human population is decreasing. It isn't globally, and while birth rates are declining in more westernized nations, I predominately attribute that to economic factors. Anecdotally, all the people from my generation I personally know that have children are those that can afford their own home (which is not many), and from a more abstract approach when you build a population model with a resources based population cap you would see a similar decline as it approaches said maximum.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Today's environment is far, far less hostile and more overtly welcoming towards them than it was 20-30 years ago but the sky high rates of alcoholism and recreational drug use haven't collapsed. Almost like that's not the primary driver today, even if discrimination was originally a big cause. The community has long been notorious for its hard-partying lifestyle, and this kind of behavioral trap is super hard to break once established. New members join the club and their peers are living it up, so they're influenced to do the same, and the cycle continues into the year 2024. And so it'll continue into the foreseeable future.

Thanks for citing the writers a little further down, it let me find out about the data from when they spoke about it at a conference. The sparse data about drugs is based on a review of the literature from roughly 20 years ago (the most recent data they drew upon was from 2008, most was from the early 2000s). That is the issue with basing your conclusion on sparse data, it can lead to bogus assumptions like the ones you made.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

There was an NBC report in June 1982, which confirmed that the disease was mostly affecting gay men, and correctly identified it as a sexually transmitted disease (which condoms prevent, as everyone knew at the time).

The report speculates that the disease might be sexually transmitted, and the variable multi-year latency period (which was not known about at the time) is an important part of how the disease work which impacts how you respond to it.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

 

I'll add that as an issue which affected their community, word of the cause would've gotten around very fast, as soon as this information became publicly available. I don't believe that they were generally unaware of this prior to some government awareness campaign.

Community rumors aren't exactly the best defense against a disease (see the popularity of "bleach treatment" during Covid), and on top of the more substantiated awareness campaign, testing was made far more available and thanks to the latency period a bit necessary towards people properly protecting themselves.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

 

Granted, there's probably an age bias here, since the LGBT community skews younger and the young prioritize marriage less. But with 30% of them so identifying, we have a chicken or the egg question: is the LGBT community as unmarried as it is because it's young, or is the young community as unmarried as it is because it's LGBT?

Or far more likely, that there are other factors impacting the marriage rate independent of the LGBT community or simply being young.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Assuming that you're correct, it seems fairly straightforward to me that a trans person who has not medically transitioned would face zero safety issues using their birth sex bathroom while cis-presenting, as they've done nothing to compromise their ability to cis-present.

And while they aren't cis-presenting it is safer to visit the bathroom of their gender, and that was generally the case. Them having the option of using the bathroom that is safest for them at the time is what those kind of laws are undermining.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Assuming this is true, most self-identified trans women have a hard time convincingly passing. There probably weren't that many who could get away with it in the first place, meaning many would've in practice behaved as though a ban were in place.

Seeing how a fair number of conservatives think trans people only started existing a few years ago, they were clearly passing well enough. Now that people are more aware of trans people, and trying to identify them I have seen enough false positive and false negative results that I find most people are not good at identifying trans people in general. For a bit of a personal litmus test, I want you to think back on all the times you have seen someone you believed was obviously crossdressing (in either direction) in a restroom you personally entered, and then spend the week taking a note of how many people you pass by in a restroom in the average week. You can use that little experiment to extrapolate how well the trans people in your community can pass while going to the restroom, by comparing the number you get to statistics on trans people.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

We're talking about a culture war which mostly played itself out in the past, when HIV was far deadlier than it is now.

Basing this fear, and current policies on a culture war that is so blatantly out of date is unreasonable, and amounts to bigotry at this point.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

I believe you, though probably with a sample size bias. Men are, on average, the stronger and more aggressive sex, and if a pool and men and women hated you equally, the latter would be less inclined to violently escalate an encounter. A biological male who changed their gender identity would most likely identify as a trans woman. On the other hand, biological women trend more towards a vague "non-binary" label, which wouldn't necessarily change the bathroom they used.

The stats actually separated things out by populations, I simplified things a bit for brevity. There was data on transmen, transwomen, Non-Binary Assigned Female At Birth (NB-AFAB), and Non-Binary Assigned Male At Birth (NB-AMAB), the transmen and transwomen data were fairly similar increase, the NB-AFAB had a much higher rate increase, while NB-AFAM had no statistically significant difference.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

This is true in the vague sense that the Kinsey Scale is a thing, and most people are not true 0s. But the low prevalence of homosexual activity before the 20th century, compared to 30% of Gen Z identifying as at least bisexual, proves that latent potential can and overwhelmingly did stay latent. And this was without 30 percent of all premodern humans un-aliving themselves or drinking themselves into an early grave just because they were so bummed at having to be straight.

The "low prevalence" of homosexual activity would more accurately be describe as not talked about in polite society.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Many people are confident, rightly or wrongly, that if they hypothetically wanted to go commit an unsolvable murder, they could. Despite this, the large chunk of self-identified neo-Nazis are not murderers. This means that, despite ascribing to a genocidal ideology, they're unwilling to personally go through with it. This relegates their ideology to "bad thoughts", which must always be distinguished from bad actions. Until the day that changes, they're entitled to the same freedom of speech rights as any other American.

I will point out that the big Charlottesville riot with all the neo-nazis and "nice people" ended with a murder.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

 

In America today, we do have hindsight as to Trump. He was President from Jan. 2017 to Jan. 2021. What happened between the day he took office and the day he left? You aged 4 years, and the country you lived in hardly changed, save for an outpouring of angry partisanship on both sides. He was a mostly normal Republican guy up until the last two months where things got crazy, but TBF in 2016 there were a bunch of liberal celebrities begging the electoral college to overturn Trump's win in a legal coup and install Hillary instead. A scheme that mainstream journos all but endorsed through their use of slanted language.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38340115

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/celebrities-urge-electoral-college-voters-donald-trump-faithless-electors-gop-a7477311.html

https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/

 

You talk about nazi protests as mere bad thoughts, and this is even less substantive than that. A few celebrities asking the electoral college to follow the popular vote instead of its esoteric rules didn't amount to much. Trump tried a similar idea, far more insidiously (and probably illegally) by talking secretly with Georgian state officials with threats as well, with less justification (no argument about the popular vote, just wanting to overturn election results he didn't like) and when thoughts and words didn't work, (I am abbreviating things here, as he tried a lot of different methods for overturning his loss) he moved on to those bad actions. He made sure a bunch of his followers were prepared ahead of time, brought them all together on Jan 6, and then told them all to march into the place where the lawful election results were being certified, and demanded they fight like hell to let those politician know what they felt about that. Those people understood exactly what Trump was saying and responded with the violence he prepared them for, although with no where near enough competency and order to succeed.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

He was a mostly normal Republican guy up until the last two months where things got crazy,

He really wasn't. Normal Republicans don't casually admit to sexually assaulting children on mic and pass it off as boys being boys after the fact. Normal Republican don't call veterans cowards for being captured while fighting for their country. Normal Republican don't lie so blatantly (or at least not at the volume Trump does). Normal Republicans don't separate children from their parents and send them to concentration camps. Normal Republicans don't undermine American interests by reneging on International Treaties. Normal Republican don't actively undermine American interests by making unreciprocated concession to Russia. Normal Republicans don't embrace violent extremist groups like neo-nazis or insane conspiracy theories like Qanon (or at least I hope they don't). Normal Republicans don't have unprecedented control over who is on the Supreme Court that undermined the rights of Americans for years to come. Normal Republicans don't try to violently end democracy in America.

 

8 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

 

Anyway, if Trump gets reelected, another 4 years will pass and you'll once again be 4 years older. I hope when that day comes, you'll look back and realize how unwarranted all this present hysteria was.

Trump has a history of trying to violently end democracy in America, and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that he will try to do so again. None of the effort our balance of powers have in place to limit that worked, congress was too partisan to impeach his ability to do so; the courts moved so slowly on the matter that none about his coup attempt have reach a jury, and even if they did he personally appointed 3 of the Supreme Court Justices who could overturn such a decision. Personally I hope he doesn't get the opportunity to prove you wrong, and hopefully by some nonviolent means.

[Armagon]

"The party of pro-inflation" is certainly a new one.

5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Normal Republicans don't have unprecedented control over who is on the Supreme Court that undermined the rights of Americans for years to come.

Thinking about how McConnell denied confirmation Merrick Garland during Obama's last months because it was "too close to the election" the confirmed Bannet during Trump's last months in office.

Admittedly the Dems have a fault here, part of the reason why we're in this mess is because of RGB's arrogance and her refusal to retire during Obama's second term.

[Hrothgar777]

28 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Normal Republicans don't casually admit to sexually assaulting children on mic and pass it off as boys being boys after the fact

Okay, WTF.

I wasn't going to respond to any of these posts, as much as I want to, because it'll just keep sucking my time forever and I'm busy this week, but...seriously? Of all the either true or out of context but still semi-true things you could've opened with in that paragraph, this is what you went with?

Give me a credible source for this or I'm calling bull.

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Okay, WTF.

I wasn't going to respond to any of these posts, as much as I want to, because it'll just keep sucking my time forever and I'm busy this week, but...seriously? Of all the either true or out of context but still semi-true things you could've opened with in that paragraph, this is what you went with?

Give me a credible source for this or I'm calling bull.

Google Trump and Teen Miss America, pick whichever source you find most credible.

[Dayni]

And with that.... pretty frustrating sequence (Cleared before the 30 second mark), Fusion is done. Samus has (assisted) planetary destruction on her resume, Omega Metroids got a redonk sendoff and SA-X helped I suppose.

Fusion's last shot before the credits is on the real heroes, the critters from Super who saved Samus. Cute.

I have been feeling like going over all the pure 2D Metroids (No Prime or Other M experience), but I'll leave that for now.

Also, cave found on the moon. Any bets what kind of superboss is down there?

37 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I did struggle against SA-X myself, though eventually I got back to the game and took it out. I've heard it said that SA-X is very formulaic, you can more-or-less hit it with a charged shot, then it'll try moving to new spot to shoot you with the ice beam, but that dodging the screw isn't difficult and you can have time to shoot it with a charged shot as soon it lands, and so loop it into a cycle where it never gets a chance to do much. -But I don't think I ever got into this supposed rhythm.

I sure didn't help myself with how I ran about and got hit by more than a few Screw Attacks.

It's also the one 3-phase boss and the second phase looked like it should be more second wind than it turns out to be, felt like I was doomed first time I saw it on next to no HP.

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Hey, it's virtually nobody, not absolutely nobody. 😛

[Lightcosmo]

Trails fandom is way too touchy. You pick at one thing, and everyone feels the need to topple you. 

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 minute ago, Lightcosmo said:

Trails fandom is way too touchy. You pick at one thing, and everyone feels the need to topple you. 

Dare I ask what you said to rile up the bee hive?

[Interdimensional Observer]

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/07/alternative-titles-for-pokemon-ruby-and-sapphire-reportedly-discovered

To think Gen 3 wasn't going to be so gemmy. ...Was Rayquaza even a thing at this early stage? B/c Green had already been taken, and I'm not sure what alternative they could've gone with.

"Team Tunnel" also sounds incredibly nonthreatening but that's one way to win a siege.

 

5 hours ago, Dayni said:

Also, cave found on the moon. Any bets what kind of superboss is down there?

Worry not about a superboss, concern yourself what'll happen when the ancient people sleeping inside wake up.🌕

5 hours ago, Dayni said:

Hey, it's virtually nobody, not absolutely nobody. 😛

-Except if they post about it online, is it really virtually nobody?😜

[Armagon]

79 F with 100% humidity 💀💀💀

If I don't wake up early enough for my daily walk, I just say fuck it and do something else.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

79 F with 100% humidity 💀💀💀

If I don't wake up early enough for my daily walk, I just say fuck it and do something else.

 

Presently 83 and 74% for me according to the Weather Channel. So not quite the same, but kinda relatable?

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Dare I ask what you said to rile up the bee hive?

AT (active turn order) is far less helpful to the player in Daybreak compared to CS, I said this was silly since the player having more info at their disposal (especially regarding turns in an turn based game) is crucial. They argued it was fine because you can "get used to it" and got fairly aggressive about it.

If i'm going to Delay a target for example, I want to know exactly where they are going to land in the turn order so I can plan accordingly, not just guess and check.

Edit: My explanation is likely terrible, so I apologise in advance!

Edited July 16 by Lightcosmo

[Acacia Sgt]

6 hours ago, Dayni said:

Also, cave found on the moon. Any bets what kind of superboss is down there?

Bahamut, of course!

 

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, time to return to work.

Hmm... it does come to my attention. If Trump does gets reelected, there's a good chance my job will cease to exist.

[Armagon]

Honestly with Vance being the VP pick and thus, one cheeseburger away from being the 48th President, a second Trump administration somehow has gotten even worse.

[Codename Shrimp]

13 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Something something all-seeing mind's eye.😛

What i love about Mind's eye is it can be whatever the author/devs wants it to be xD

 

4 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:

AT (active turn order) is far less helpful to the player in Daybreak compared to CS, I said this was silly since the player having more info at their disposal (especially regarding turns in an turn based game) is crucial. They argued it was fine because you can "get used to it" and got fairly aggressive about it.

If i'm going to Delay a target for example, I want to know exactly where they are going to land in the turn order so I can plan accordingly, not just guess and check.

Edit: My explanation is likely terrible, so I apologise in advance!

Your mistake was thinking modern Trails fans care about gameplay

Edited July 16 by Codename Shrimp

[GuardianSing]

IS are such cowards

[Saint Rubenio]

9 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

If you listen closely you can hear Forde passing out.