yui

2 hours ago, LordCowCow said:

All the Aeons come up to you offering to give you the power of their path. You don't know how the power will manifest or what will happen once you accept what do you do?

So this is actually a fairly difficult question and I kinda have to play process of elimination with it. Because I certainly don't mind taking the offer, but there's a lot to consider.

I'm gonna start by eliminating all the dead Aeons on the assumption this would be in-universe at the time of Star Rail, so right out the gate, Ena, Long, and Tayzzyronth are out. I'll cross off Akivili and Idrila as well, even though we don't KNOW if they're dead, but it's generally assumed in-universe that they are.

Next, I'm gonna remove from the picture any Aeons or Paths I simply don't want to be associated with. Which means Yaoshi is out because I don't want the Xianzhou gunning for my buns, and Nanook is out for similar reasons. I'll also be removing Xipe, Mythus, and Fuli because I don't trust them, and Oroboros and IX because their Paths don't sound like ones I'd want to follow. Sadly, this is also where I need to take Aha out of the picture. If you'd simply echoed back what Path I think suits me best, it'd definitely be Elation, but I simply don't trust its Aeon.

With that done, I'll knock out from the remaining four, any Aeons whose Path seems like it simply wouldn't give me any sort of power I'm interested in having. That means Qlipoth, Lan, and Nous are out of the race.

Leaving us with only one.

I'll take HooH up on the offer! After all, the universe should be in Equilibrium.

bump fun fact: sheeps have wool because they are unemployed, and so they cannot afford something more expensive like silk or velvet

which path in Honkai: Star Rail do you think suits you best? not in terms of like the gameplay but, the principles and ideals of the path. this does mean you can also pick ones that aren't playable in HSR.

somebody opened the box

the cat has escaped! i don't know where he went, so if anyone finds him, please inform the authorities so he can be put in a new, better box. he looks like this.

So I got curious and decided to give this a looksee. I'm not gonna watch a 30-minute youtube video just to reply to a forum post because there's no topic on or beyond this earth that I'm that invested in, but from what I gathered reading your post on the matter...

Seems kinda silly, don't it?

Much as I'd love to make a nice beefy post about this, I know I'm not gonna be able to do so without going into several sidenotes that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, so I'll keep this nice & concise. The notion that we'll be mostly interacting with AI in the future is frankly absurd. We are social primates after all, and if a robot that can mimic language is all it takes to change that, we would have fallen apart as a society long ago. I want to say AI used for creative purposes will ultimately end up as a fad - albeit one that stays in the spotlight a fair bit longer than it should, much like NFTs did - but it's just as likely they become a long-term problem like the many -isms and -phobias out there. The future is, after all, infamously unpredictable, and I'm not one to speculate on real-life unknowns like that.

I don't really have a satisfying bow to tie this post off with so uh... yeah.

don't open the box because if you do he might be dead

THE BOX (don't open it)

With Sabrina retrieved, the plan was now to bring her back to reunite with the rest of the party. However, Abby was also very much not the type to rush the checklist. If there was a bit of sidetracking worth doing on the way back, she certainly wasn't going to stop Sabrina from going for it. Within reason. Peeking out to see what was behind door number two, and perhaps dealing with it if it was an enemy? That seemed pretty reasonable.

And behind that door? A hallway! Abby was, despite everything, somewhat surprised at that. Further down the hall, however, they could hear footsteps. Footsteps that were, unlike every other footstep Abby had heard since getting here, more metallic in nature. And, for a probable want of robots in this world, that only meant one thing. Armored enemies.

"This time I'll make sure to look much cooler..."

"Just try not to do anything too reckless, m'kay? I'll lead the way from here."

As Abby took point and led the not-quite-an-expedition further down the hall, calling forth her hammer in the process, the guess turned out to be quite right. Not just one armored enemy, either, but two of them! Two armored drengr awaited further down, one armed with a halberd, and the other with a sword. Not only that, but they had a sort of... coyote-warg beast type animal with them. And once the Exalted and the drengr locked eyes, it was on sight. Without a moment's hesitation, the coyote charged and leapt forth.

Woah, fast boy!

Abby would have preferred to get a good swing of the hammer in retaliation to this sort of aggression, but sometimes, you just didn't have the time to figure out how to get a good swing. Met with such a circumstance, Abby elected to do the next best thing she could think of at present. She took the head of her hammer, and rather than swing it in an arc, simply thrust it forward to intercept the attacker. It did successfully intercept, but the unusual attack didn't seem to hurt the coyote very much, and the beast was already raring to go for round two.

Only this time, it had its friends with it. The coyote leapt forth once again, this time accompanied by the tag-team of drengr, with the halberdier of the pair taking a clean swing at Abby's side. The swordsman, meanwhile, was making its way to Sabrina. And if Abby could help it, she'd slow the advance some to buy her own tag-team buddy time for a better advance, or at least reduce the pressure on herself. Abby pulled her casting hand back as the mark on it lit up a brilliant green, then shot it forward with a gust of wind that pushed the coyote back, further than her bunting attack from just a moment ago did. However, in so doing, she was unable to prevent the attack on her side.

Fine, she could get to him next!

It was settled, then! Bridget, who had been left behind by her former teammates, would join up with these two, who had themselves lost a teammate this very morning! She wasn't really one to believe in fate, but if there were such a thing as a serendipitous coincidence, she was certainly staring at it right now. Newly re-equipped with both Arthur and some human companions, the shadow looming over her mind had been cast away, and she was once again eager to see all that Korova had to offer. And to take notes on her discoveries and adventures, of course. As Quinn and Nathaniel introduced themselves and their pokemon, Bridget popped open Arthur's poke ball, returning the creature to his spherical domain, so as to give her new team her full attention.

“I will let Nathaniel introduce himself, but as I said before, this is Cassiopeia, my partner and tether. My name is Quinn. I am an artist, fortune teller, new Pokémon trainer, and a ghost!”

“This is my best bud, Peat. He’s the only Pokémon I got right now, but he has enough personality for a whole team! We’re aiming to be champions!”

"Pleasure to meet both of you!" With an introductory wave, Bridget went on to introduce herself in turn. "You've already met Arfur. And I'm Bridget. I'd like to be a pokemon professor one day, so I came to Korova to do some up-close field research on pokemon and their surroundings. D'you mind if I take some notes on the two of you as well, actually?" Casting an excited glance to Quinn in particular, she further elaborated "I've met ghost-type pokemon after all, but never a human ghost! Not every day you can say you had an encounter like that, now is it?" Then one to Nathaniel. "And watchin' someone fight up the ranks is a great way to learn about the bonds between humans and pokemon! If you don't mind me jott'n down some ideas and feories, of course."

Bridget quickly looked behind her, at the rest of the route going on in that direction. She hadn't really had the chance to explore the rest of what all was in that direction. She was busy having her Trapinch stolen then trying to get him back, so her usual activities had to take a back seat. But now? Now she could get back to doing what she did best! "C'mon, let's walk 'n' talk."

bump fun fact: the sky is blue because the feds just really like that color

if i minimize everything my double-screen setup looks like this. it almost looks like a before & after of if i added all the shortcuts lmao

It depends on the game imo. I presently have three controllers (if you count "mouse & keyboard" as a controller (i do)), and have owned many more over the years, and like each one for different purposes. If I had to pick a general best one of all time, though? It's pretty hard to compete with the Dualshock controllers used on PlayStation consoles. At the risk of sounding like Death the Kid, the symmetrical layout makes it easy to use, and its thinner frame compared to its Xbox counterparts makes it easier to hold I think.

Although, call it nostalgia, but there's also just something special about the Gamecube controller. The big-ass central A button makes it easy to access the other buttons from its location, the octagon shape for the joystick areas make it a lot easier to keep the joysticks in inter-cardinal directions, and the mechanisms in its L/R shoulder buttons always clicked with me more than the left/right triggers on Xbox and PlayStation controllers.

3 hours ago, Enguin said:

thoughts on the falling pizza thread https://www.cardmaker.net/forums/topic/423450-a-tyranny-of-inches/

It has got to be the single most hilariously pathetic thing I've ever seen on YCM, and I've both seen and done some shit. Somehow even funnier than the "Loyalty" thread, and the most interesting thing to have happened on there since said thread. Looking forward to another unhinged "Falling Pizza" rant after another three and a half years.

bump fun fact: scented candles are fairies in disguise, which is why they smell like things such as fruits and sea breezes

A long road, a bunch of trees, and one girl walking down the road. The black hoodie and tracksuit pants were functional yet cozy, and the large backpack slung over her shoulder carried everything she had to her name, save for her phone, her wallet, and the latter's own contents. That wasn't to say she was destitute or anything, just that Kiara was the type to travel light and live an extremely minimalistic lifestyle. Maybe one day she'd settle down in one place and let herself buy extra bells and whistles, but she had more important things on the mind at present. Today most of all. She'd woken up at the crack of dawn in a cheap motel room at the edge of Erie, grabbed her bag, went to the nearest restaurant to get some food for the road, then started walking.

After all, she didn't want to be late for tryouts at some fancy government job did she?

The potential value of working for the JJA aside, Kiara just valued punctuality. If she could make it early to something, she preferred to do so, which was easier said than done when your only mode of transportation was your own two feet. She took a sense of pride in that, though. Not because it somehow made her better than people who made it early on a bike or a car, but because the amount of people who'd been all the places she'd been, and got there mostly by foot, must have been incredibly small. It was also good casual exercise. That said, she'd been going for some time, with very little in the way of actual breaks. She'd been in Tennessee when Kiara got the call about potentially working for the JJA, and while Memphis to Erie was very doable within a couple days by car, going on foot meant she basically had to get going as soon as the call ended, even employing her cursed technique to speed things along when possible, and hitchhiking every so often. Which brought her back to today's scene, as she absentmindedly grabbed a strip of bacon from inside the to-go box and idly munched on it, taking in the scenery around her.

Some distance outside of Erie, a lone girl walked down a Pennsylvania backroad. She’d done a lot of that since taking off on her own quest, the more she thought about it. Walking. Down backroads, across sprawling urban landscapes, into the middle of the woods, through mud and snow - sometimes both at the same time - in sun, wind, rain, or otherwise. If there was one constant, it was walking. Which was fine by her. It was good for her, and this kind of walking - down the highway with no distractions of civilization, yet a literal paved path to her objective - was her favorite. Still, the trek up here had been nothing if not long and arduous, and Kiara was at this specific time getting a bit tired of walking.

Eventually, a beat-up station wagon pulled up beside the girl. Leaning over, the driver laboriously cranked down the passenger window, poking her head out, “Need a lift into town? I’ve got somewhere to be but I could spare a bit of time.”

“Gwen. Good luck Kiara, not that it seems you need it.”

“Same to you.”

While Gwen drove off, presumably to find some parking, Kiara eyed up the building before her. Pretty fancy-looking for something out in the middle of the woods, to be sure. Not one to stand around considering what the inside might be like instead of just going in and finding out, Kiara went inside. It was very much in line with what she expected. Following the sign into the next room, Kiara took a seat at the back row and occupied one of the seats next to her with her bag, simply so she didn't have to walk as far before sitting and finally giving her legs a well-earned rest after the trek across nearly half the damn country. Some other sorcerers were already assembled here, though she did have to wonder just how many people the JJA could have possibly hired in one go. They clearly cast their net wide and didn't leave much in the way of unturned stones, if she of all people was attending this meetup.

She had to admit, this place wasn't half-bad.

After a bit, Gwen from earlier even made a rather loud entrance.

“So, do we just line up at one of those Test Your Strength carnival games to see who’s special grade and who’s getting neuralyzed, or what?”

"If a good punch is all it takes, I must be the strongest sorcerer in the room," Kiara laughed. "Long as they don't say some crap like "tell us your name and a fun fact about yourself," I'll play along."

1 hour ago, LordCowCow said:

Which touhou could you take in a fight

None of the named ones, that's for sure. Best I could realistically manage is probably some generic unnamed fairy.