Is it terrible that I'm only in this for the wardrobe items and the story?

...and if it is shinwa she can go find her own jewelry for once...

@Sopheroo
My own personal that the being is somewhat sociopathic, and is trying to gaslight in order to try and pass off the blame for the pain they cause to a 3rd party. In other words, they know what they're doing and don't really care as long as they reach their goal. End justifies the means, if you will.

That said, I do agree that they're blowing a lot of hot air.

@jensen
Makes sense, even if it is still circumstantial. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

an overly generous reading would be that whoever it is, is severely underestimating the pain they're causing when they take control of the body... but i'm assuming they're either lying, or delusional.

also i'm pinning all my guesses on the big bad being whatever's possessing this mouse :p

What's up nerds we be analyzing

Vanya:

"...Oh, dear, oh my... I am having such a pain in my head. I do not know what happened. One moment I am carving little wooden shoes for puppet, the next BANG! I am hearing terrible voices and my hands... they won’t stop moving, stop building. Terrible. I not remembering well things voice say, but it was angry. Angry and pushy. Thanks to you I am thinking clearly now."

Terrible voices, angry, pushy. That doesn't sounds like someone willing to collaborate - they want their way.

Elsie:

"Elsie collapses to the ground as whatever force had a hold of her releases its grip. Elsie looks from the rolling pin in her hands to you with horror in her eyes. She quickly tosses the weapon away and hugs her knees to her chest."

Her first emotion is regret and horror. She wasn't down for this either.

Garret:

"Ugh, I feel like I’ve been trampled by a herd of sheetas. Vic’s okay, but she’s feeling pretty out of it, too. Thanks for the help, though, truly. I can’t believe I trashed my own workshop. And all of our research into combating this thing just... gone! When I get my hands on the jerk responsible for all this.."

Again, physical pain for both of them, and Garret isn't exactly pleased.

Cinthia:

We're gonna look at our villain's words this time, because Cinthia is the outlier - her ability to cut off contact on her own means that she got less negative consequences.

"However she was — as much as it pains me to say — too smart for me to handle and broke the conditioning without the need for intervention. "

YEAH DID YOU TRULY BELIEVE THAT THE VICTIMS WERE LET GO WILLINGLY? BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT. surprise surprise, our possessor is *lying*, and unaware of our fourth wall breaking abilities.

Esther:

"Nnnnh... what an awful experience! I can’t thank you enough for snapping me out of that trance. I’ve heard what’s been happening to everyone, but to actually go through it myself... There was so much resentment and hate! I don’t know what we CAN do, but we’ve got to start being proactive somehow. I don’t want anyone else to have to experience this."

Yeah, the NPCs are grateful that you're freeing them. Vanya said it, Garret said it and now Esther. So yeah, we're not "hurting them".

Mattieu:

"I want to do whatever I can to help you as you’ve helped me, but I find it hard to write a coherent thought. It’s as if my memories are being pulled out of my mind. This was something that the other victims discussed feeling after their possessions, so after you freed me, I knew I had to write down anything I could. Unfortunately, what I wrote no longer makes sense to me."

So the melding is causing mental anguish and partial amnesia. Yeah, with the fact several NPCs have mentioned physical pain as well, the entire "it's painless" part is also complete BS

Argh, stop making it so I need one for the challenger, and one for the wardrobe! xD Seriously though, I love the skin, and the challenger artwork :D

"I've become worried again. Unless they decide to throw us off, I have a feeling I know who might be the victim this month (or even along with one or two other people) and I'm worried that whoever this possessor is will end up hurting them as an attempt to scare us from trying to fight any more. Unless even though we still use the same battle method, the story will change so that we try to go easy on them and try to save them less violently? "

Us being the bully is what they want you to think. We're being gaslighted by the NPC.

I've become worried again. Unless they decide to throw us off, I have a feeling I know who might be the victim this month (or even along with one or two other people) and I'm worried that whoever this possessor is will end up hurting them as an attempt to scare us from trying to fight any more. Unless even though we still use the same battle method, the story will change so that we try to go easy on them and try to save them less violently?

i was going back through the old item descriptions and news posts and most of them talk about how awful it felt to get possessed so whoever this is, is a terrible liar :u

@Starscream
the silly version is that i joked that if it was trying to blow up shinwa, i was fine with it, then amber said we shouldn't let her get blown up, and now several of us are team #just blow up shinwa

the less silly version is some of the news posts/item descriptions could be argued as pointing to her temple, so she's a likely target :0
(july news post) “Dear friend, I want to do whatever I can to help you as you’ve helped me, but I find it hard to write a coherent thought. It’s as if my memories are being pulled out of my mind. This was something that the other victims discussed feeling after their possessions, so after you freed me, I knew I had to write down anything I could. Unfortunately, what I wrote no longer makes sense to me. “Hard to see, can make out vague shape. Human? Glowing,” “Shadowglen, twisting trees,” “The floating market in Shengui Guo,” “Pillars in the desert,” “Dark cave, filled with magic,” “Firey aura, but it’s so cold,” “Broken swords, broken spirit. Punishment. Anger.”

Possessed Paintbrush Description: I’d forgotten all about the Omen Islands, it’s quite beautiful. I came here intent on contacting Merana through this Islander woman, but apparently she broke free some time ago? I’ve been out of the loop for too long, it seems. Shame, she’d have made for an excellent ally. Ah, well, at the rate things are going, I won’t need allies. The trip wasn’t a total loss, though. This new toy is a fun little troublemaker. I think I’ll send it out to deface a few haughty statues…

the thing's got pillars, is in the desert, and has a pair of giant statues of shinwa, and if you hate shinwa (and most of the post-possession interviews mention resentment and hate), you probably think that whole setup is obnoxious :p

I extremely love this skin!

Also count me in for the shinwa hate party boat.

OOOh i love this funguy, also that skin is so cool.

This guy knows I’ve sicced my pets on old ladies and amputees, right?

@Amber what has she done for us lately?

(pls don't put me on her quest prize blacklist)

I'll admit I'm kind of curious as to why Shinwa is being fingered as the individual this being is going after, as the being isn't really naming names so far.

Took them past 10 wins 'cos some of these icon ranges looked suspiciously like 2nd attacks, but found no correlation between the amounts, so I guess they're just weird... :P

Not really hating Shinwa..., just not as in love with her as she is of herself. Seriously, even Maleria is usually more generous with Sp rewards, than Shinwa is with prizes. (and she doesn't expect us to be grateful to just be able to look at her)

For some reason a few years ago Shinwa's Bow got to be over 100K in user shops and I had no idea why, I just took the opportunity to make a few hundred thousand sP until people realized that shouldn't be the price.

if we had one of these that said "i hate shinwa" i would put it on every time she gave me a junk reward, which means i would be wearing it approximately 98% of the time

@Amber

A lot of people are salty that she gives so much junk from her quests

Would be nice to have a couple new drops from her tbh.

i can't believe how many of you are shinwa haters

Hmm. I'm still on the Liara train tbh but I do admit, she does have a point with us siccing our pets on them, but then again, we wouldn't do that if her possession didn't make them so aggressive (scratch that, we wouldn't do that if she didn't possess them at all).

And as I recall she didn't have many good words about Cynthia, one of her "volunteers."

@Holden

I agree

An interesting twist to the story... but about the note being disintegrated, I imagine it then regenerates in front of another user otherwise only 1 person could read it ;)

Can I have mortobello as a pet please? 😍 Kudos to the artist!

Volunteers, my butt!

Anyway, I decided to look back at all the possessed people so far (with the help of the Cash Shop challenger drops) to see if there's anything in particular about them, because I've been wondering about it all year. And guess what?

No idea who the 'her' might be, but I too think it might be Shinwa.

That's neat. It looks really cool.

@Holden
I'm thinking Mushroomon is the digimon you're looking for?

It'd be nice if this character became an NPC, because the art is great!

This staff artist did an awesome job on this one! All the Cash Shop challengers' art is always great.
I love the little minion and the skin is pretty. Now I have to buy two. :)

"I value each one of my volunteers" ?? Yeah, Riiight, that's not what you said about Cynthia...,something more like "....despicable little GREMLIN." if I recall.
Still, If you are planning to take Ms. Bask-In-My-Beauty-Shinwa down a few pegs, I don't care who you are. I'm still hoping she's Blake's Butterface come back. That plot had so many unanswered questions at the end. I've been hungry for more for a while.

Does anyone know who are the artist(or artists)behind the cash challengers' arts? This is SO professional and well renderized, I wish I could know their names or their pseudonyms.

That's what the psychos always say >_>

The skin is beautiful but the loot is a huge letdown.

I'm 100% on board of the Liara train. I mean, she was princess of the Sacred Lands, was banned by Shinwa and all.

Those stats gave me a good fright and it's not even Morostide yet! I guess I'll have to buy that burger because I'll never win it with my pets' stats! *Sits and counts sP and watches the price*

Oh wow, I might have to get two so I can wear this!

He reminds me of a digimon in the best way.

Excuse me, this challenger is glorious.

'If they knew my reasons' yeah if they were good reasons we would have heard about them already. This thing can't even tell good lies.

Can't wait for the next encounter with it!

he's just a little guy

he's a little birthday boy

Another amazing challenger, item and wearable art.

That wearable preview is absolutely gorgeous. The color combo is wonderful :heart_eyes:

... I hope its angry Amy ghost... let it be angry Amy ghost...

Goodness that's one adorable little dude.

Maleria still seems too obvious, but this is looking more and more like her, unless it's intentionally a red herring. I've said before that it could be Mori, having found a way to possess people during the day, and maybe she doesn't want to reveal herself because then we could get Nori to help.

Wait wait wait. The disembodied voice thinks we didn't want to beat all these people up?
Oh, she is going to be in for quite the surprise when we finally get the chance to talk... ;)

Also, it would be hilarious if this whole thing had nothing to do with the main girls: Maleria, Shinwa, Oracle, Merana & was, instead, about some other random NPC.
Like, maybe this voice really wanted to run the beanbag shop, but then Shanti got the job instead? Or perhaps Aspen was the one who introduced the Darkheart Phantom to those big hairy guys that live in the woods & this is just former Princess Liara ~forever mad~ she lost her boyfriend? :P
_{(but, seriously, if it is Liara & she wants to kick Shinwa out & take back her home? It is eviction time, baby~)}

Jellies!!!!

oh no, a pretty full body item! D=
Great art, as always

@KiaArra @jensen
That actually looks much better! The art is cool and the play with lights and shadows is genius, but not my cup of tea. I prefer more... Corporeal? Skins like the robot or the marionette.
Of course nothing of that could stop me from grabbing a copy immediately. :P

Ooh the skin is gorgeous!!

That skin reminds me of how Calcifer was decribed in Howls Moving Castle (unlike the movie, where he was super cute). The art is amazing!

@Amber
if she wants help, she needs to start giving out better goods than her old shoes!!

@dude
have you tried it on a dark background with no base behind it? i don't think the hover preview does it justice ^^;
No outfit found

I'm willing to negotiate a protection arrangement with Shinwa but she has to be willing to play ball and be a bit more generous with her boosters. ;D

This looks like a Digimon

OMG this guy is so cute! I wanna be in it's adventuring party.

@dude - It looks better sans-base, the dark avatar line makes it look a bit odd, but plunk it on a dark background, it's gorgeous, I think at least!

omg shinwa is doing her best @jensen don't just let her get blown up!!!

ahahaa this challenger, ummmmm, ahaha ... can i, umm... can i get their number?? hahaha i mean-- asking for a friend 🍄 😳 🍄

i love this mushroom wizard

anyway lmao we're just supposed to believe the ghost is running consensual, perfectly a-ok possessions? yeah right

that said, if this is to blow up shinwa, the ghost should just say so because then i will sit down and pretend i do not see it.gif, that lady is stingy and never gives me the good boosters when i track down all of her stupid bracelet pieces, she's on her own vs mx. ghost

Omg that challengers is so cool!

:sob: Gonna have to spend 400CSC... need the battle opp and must have this for HA!
Well done Artist Well done! :)

Hmm... interesting lil note. ;)

The HA preview reminds me of Blue Meramon from Digimon.....

congrats this challenger art looks great

EXCUSE ME the opponent art is 10/10, A++, would recommend to everybody.

A bit disappointed with this skin. ):