The enemy of my enemy is my friend 😈🤝😒

I had a hard time waking up today, the bed was just too comfortable ha ha. I went to swim practice, today we did 5x200 meters with 20 seconds of rest between each, for a total of 1000 meters. After that, I did 2x75 meters at full speed with fins while the team was still doing their 5x200. Once I finished the 2x75, I swam another 200 meters until the group completed their 5x200. Then everyone did 6x25 meters and 6x50 meters together. After swim practice, I went to the gym, I felt exhausted and it took a lot of effort to get through my workout routine. I spent the rest of the day feeling drowsy, doing two workouts back to back is tough and since the week is almost over, the fatigue hits even harder.

Evil_5, Oscar the Dark Knight or Swordsman in the Battler folder, he didn't change much and since Battler VX Ace looks a lot like the face/bust version, I made one for both. So, in order, there’s Battler VX, Battler VX Ace + Bust and the Character. His design remember Sephiroth from FFVII, he starts out as a good person, but becomes a villain later on.
This kind of trope reminds me of other characters who tend to have two sides (good and/or evil), like Magus, who starts as an enemy and becomes an ally against a greater evil in Chrono Trigger. Looking at some of the RTP designs where characters could play these "changing sides" roles, possible examples could be:

RMUnite - 009_Actor, 023_Actor, 024_Actor, any Evil, 034_Demihuman;
RMMZ - Actor1_3, Actor2_5, Actor2_8, Actor3_2, Actor3_3, Actor3_5, none Evil;
RMMV - Actor1_3, Actor1_4, Actor1_5, Actor1_7, Actor2_1 Actor2_2, Actor2_5, Actor2_6, Actor2_8, Actor3_1, Actor3_2, none Evil;
RMXP - 004-Fighter04, 018-Thief03, 041-Mage09;
RM2000&2003 - Actor4_4, Monster2_3, People3_7...

I’m blaming the shirt I wore 🤡

Yeah... I couldn't do more than 9 reps pull up today. I think it was because of the shirt I was wearing, it was a long-sleeve one and tight, I feel like it got in the way of my pull up form, I wore that shirt because I ran 2.5 km in 16 minutes and 21 seconds and it was really windy. Even though winter's over, we've had a cold front for the past days and the wind has been strong and chilly. It's not ideal for running, especially since I sweat a lot.

As for Evil_4, 邪教の信徒 (believer in a cult or cultist) in Battler is Fanatic, out of all the Evil, it was the one I liked the least. There wasn’t much variation, I even started wondering if it's really worth doing them all...

I need to buy an electric shaver, the razor with blades is starting to bother me... 🧔

Today I swam 2000 meters, 300m warm-up swim, 700m with a parachute, 200m crawl kick with a kickboard, 300m swimming with a special glove that keeps the hand more open to make it harder and 500m freestyle to finish. After all that, I thought wouldn’t be able to do any pull up, but I managed to do 9 reps, almost made it to 10! I hope tomorrow I can do more than 9 reps once I’m rested, since I only swim on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

This one was my favorite, because each Evil_3 design is different, following the same order as the previously mentioned designs. The Assassin, since each version has a different color, could be placed in different themed environments like ruins, deserts, the dark alleys of the kingdom’s cities...

They shrinkflation my popcorn 🍿🤬!

I woke up early on Saturday, I almost lay down on my bed again, but ended up motivating myself because of the heat and an upcoming swim event in November that I’ll be participating in. After swimming 4,500 meters, I decided to hit the gym, even though I was really tired. I was so tired that I dozed off after my afternoon coffee and woke up at night. I watched The Naked Gun with Liam Neeson, it was good entertainment. Not every joke made me laugh, but I did laugh at some, even the silly or nonsensical ones. While watching the movie, rain finally came to cool off the night.

I took Sunday to rest and watch the ongoing animes season sequels:

To Your Eternity, what an episode ending, I'll anxious by what coming next.

Spy x Family, I liked seeing Loid’s past. Wars are complicated, especially for those on the front lines while the leaders are not. It reminded me of something my father once said, "give each leader a stick and let them fight it out themselves, the people don’t want war, only live ours lives".

Contrary Evil_1, Evil_2 focuses more on the Bandit who rob travelers. The order of the designs follows the same pattern as Evil_1: 1. Art Bomb Inc. ; 2. Miho ; 3. Fumio ; 4. MACK...

When I was preparing the steaks 🥩, I think I might have added a bit too much salt 🧂

I woke up really early today, before the alarm. It’s gotten really hot again here and if I leave the window open at night, mosquitoes come in and keep me from sleeping, so I have to sleep with the fan on. Since I was up early, I made my coffee and omelet, that’s my breakfast every morning before I work out. I went to the gym and after finishing my workout routine, I decided to run back home. It was 11 minutes and 43 seconds of nonstop running for 1.84 km or 1,840 meters, according to watch. When I got home, after a good shower, I chopped up a banana, papaya and apple, put them in a mug with honey and plain yogurt. I do that to avoid eating cookies or other unhealthy stuff 👉👈...

I worked during the day and at night I studied and reviewed what I’d gone over during the week. My grandfather went to the hospital this morning while I was exercising, to undergo a complicated procedure, but he’s doing fine... Age comes for all of us. Sometimes I think about what my health will be like when I’m 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90.

Once I finish reviewing the Actors, I’ll move straight on to the Evil.

Evil_1, its file name is Rogue. The four design variations, from left to right, are:

1. Battler by ART BOMB Inc. in the VX Ace version;

2. Battler by Miho Midorikawa in the VX version;

3. Face by Fumio Minagawa for both versions;

4. Character by art directress MACK, who classifies him as “ゴロツキ” (gorotsuki). From what I researched, it has several meanings beyond just “bandit,” since Bandit is already Evil_2. So this green-haired one would be more like a gangster or thug, his clothes suggest a more modern, urban criminal, while Evil_2 is someone who ambushes travelers on the road.

If I were to treat the four designs as unique characters, I think I’d choose the VX Ace version as the gang leader.

Is getting accidentally hit in the calf considered a foul 🙄?

I’m already feeling better from the colded, cured! Today I thought I’d be able to swim well and hit the gym right after, but things didn’t go as I imagined. We had water polo instead of the usual training and my team ended up losing 🤽‍♂️. I find water polo exhausting and I’m not very good at shooting the ball, but I’m good at blocking, stopping people from shooting and stealing the ball.

Finishing the Actors:

Actor5_7, a male sage, the difference lies in the colors, shoulders and tiara, it’s not very noticeable...

Actor5_8, a female mage, she wears a belt with suspenders attached to a kind of purple tights. She clearly seems resistant to cold and harsh weather, probably has magic specialized in that. The database lists fire and ice element magic, that explains it now.

🤕 What pain is this?

I woke up with a headache today, but it went away right after I made my coffee and omelet. I only went to the gym today and after finishing, I ran back home, but I couldn’t run the whole way, so I stopped before getting there and walked the rest of the way. According to my watch, it took about 8 minutes and 54 seconds, covering around 1,200 meters running non-stop...

Actor5_5, the cleric, he darkened his hair and his robe’s bust area. I liked the color scheme that imitates church /stained glass, I’m just not sure if it’s noticeable to players. He also seems to wear a piece of cloth that covers his chin, something I’ve seen a lot in nun character designs.
Actor5_6, the priestess, she didn’t change much either, just a few details like earrings and the cloth over her head.

Conservation collecting or compulsive 🤔❓

Today I woke up feeling unmotivated, but I still managed to finish my entire swim workout, starting with 500m freestyle, then 8x25m crawl with a kickboard, 500m freestyle with a pull buoy and finishing with 300m freestyle. We had a little celebration with the swim team and then I hit the gym to lift some weights, since I had eaten too much, it took me a while to get into the rhythm at the start of the workout haha. After that, I went home, worked, had lunch, and studied... Today, a friend of mine on Discord sent me a link of old forgotten source on the internet with materials for RPG Maker 95 by a well-known artist in the community. Most of these materials had been lost from her old 1998 website and later from J-JSoft via Web Archive, where I had previously managed to recover some parts. Now I’m close to completing the collection, still missing the separated materials that were distributed by her and him assistant back then for RPG Maker 2000... in the year 2000. :p
Before you ask, I like collecting quality materials from many artists, the ones that were and are freely available. Sometimes, when I have doubts about the texture, angle, lighting or shading in the pixel art of a specific object or a outfit, I like to check those resources to see if they spark any good ideas for creating something new, without using copy-paste. For example, with different hues from the base palette to create shadows or use hue-shifting techniques.

Actor5_3, the thief, doesn’t change much, in his bust portrait, he always looks like he’s been hurt, with scars on his face.
Actor5_4, the female thief, is the only one among the RTP Actors who has a Battler matching her Face/Bust. The difference between her and the smaller sprite is in the pants and some other small details, she also has a ponytail in her Battler image.

A excercise addict!? 🏊‍♂️🏋️‍♀️🏃‍♂️

Saturday was exhausting, I swam 8000 meters, almost 3 hours of training, split into 2000 + 4x1000 + 2000. After that, I took advantage of being there and hit the gym, yes, the gym is right close to the pool. Later, I had visitors at home. They took a while to leave and since I had left the windows open to ventilate and keep the house from getting stuffy, a bunch of mosquitoes came in. I spent a good part of the night killing them with an electric racket before going to sleep. I think if I were in an RPG, I'd have earned the title Mosquito Slayer ha ha ha. But even after lying down, a few still showed up in the middle of the night, so I slept poorly on Saturday... Because of that, I woke up later and Sunday turned out to be a good day to rest.
This morning, I managed to do more pull-up reps, I think I'm improving. I wanted to go for a run after the gym, but it was drizzling and since I’m just now recovering from a cold, I didn’t want to make it worse again... I went back to work and studied again at night. I saw that One Punch Man Season 3 started, I only saw the 1st episode and I don't want to see anymore, I'm selecting my entertainment better, I don't want to waste my time with bad works.

When RPG Maker VX Ace came out, I used to think Actor5_1 was a woman, but...
Actor5_1, the archer, wasn’t a woman at all, he’s actually a man, since his larger bust shows a chest guard where the bowstring rests, protecting him from friction when shooting an arrow. The main difference is the vest and the “alternate” color of the clothing underneath.
Actor5_2, the female archer, I only noticed she had an cloth or fabric beneath her main outfit after seeing her larger bust portrait.

Pull-up 💪😣

Another week coming to an end... time flies so fast. I went to the gym and tried doing pull-ups with weights on my legs, it reminded me of Goku training in the afterlife in Dragon Ball. I came back home, worked and studied at night. Yesterday I watched the last episode of Peacemaker, I was disappointed, I expected more to happen in the 8th episode, it felt like the weakest one. It even seemed like the 7th episode was meant to be the season finale.

Now, about two characters with feudal Japan, style designs, "samurai". It’s interesting how some users classify a samurai only as the fully armored warrior in Japanese-themed, while those wearing kimono(🤔?) outfits are labeled as ronin. But in reality, I understand that samurai is a title or class for warriors, so both types fit. Still, it seems there’s a naming distinction, bushi for male warriors and onna-musha for female.

Actor4_7, class is "samurai" in the database, unlike the smaller character, looks a bit tan (probably from spending months on a ship traveling from the orient to occident under the strong sun) compared to other RTP VX Ace face/bust graphics.

Actor4_8, in her smaller sprite, seems to wear armor from shoulder to wrist and her outfit differs by having more white than pink.