#(6+ IN FACT IF WE'RE GOING BY THE NOVELS)

[burrythebusy]

I love going back to reread hrkg because I just learn something new every time even without the influence of the recent chapter. I particularly love analyzing Kagiura’s character. His view on love and romance and family and marriage was just so interesting before. It was so innocent, meaning he didn't think of it any more or any less than just "I get to stay with him, only me". Like that's not the average thought for a crush. And Niibashi tells him that, he's like do you even view him romantically, or do you simply just wanna keep him close? It could be interpreted as so many things. Like aroace spec hrkg is such a real interpretation.

And it gets me even more when I view it in reference to his past relationship. Like his most Romantic™ action ("What lovers do") is a lap pillow. Because she was his girlfriend and that was the reason given for it. We're dating so this is something that people thay are dating do. So his middle school self is like oh okay. And it happens and he's stiff. And he doesn't think it feels right. And that follows him to high school bc if we're dating and this is something people that are dating do, why doesn't it feel right? But yes. That's literally it. That's as romantic as it goes for him until Niibashi mentions kissing. Which he didn't even think about. He claims it's an influence of never really seeing his parents kiss. His view on love IS his parents. It's influenced by those around him (ooh). But it's also because marriage is supposed to mean you're in love. And his parents are in love and act like best friends and rarely kiss so that's what the young Kagiura thinks of love to be like.

Now I don't know what influenced him to get with his girlfriend per se. Because (!!light novel stuff!!) I think it's implied that his view of love and marriage comes after his girlfriend, not before, which would make sense considering his relationship didn't work out. It also makes sense if it came before. Because why did it start? I genuinely think that he might have liked, and i think that's what was said. But i think he liked her as a friend, and he's expected to get with girls, and if his view on marriage was getting started at any point then. That's literally a prerequisite. A relationship like best friends. So he dates her and it just doesn't feel right. And it could've been because he treated the whole relationship like a friendship with a different label which wasnt what his girlfriend wanted. And then the one "traditionally romantic" thing that comes along, close physical contact, still doesn't feel right.

Going off of context clues here. It's safe to say they never kiss or even hold hands really. It's probably the only thing they ever did, the lap pillow. It's what Kagiura thinks about when he thinks of romance and what lovers do because it's the one thing he failed to FEEL right about. And if he liked her. Why didn't he?

Obviously everything isn't surface level either, on one surface. Because Kagiura’s personality comes into play too. There's probably more to be said about his politeness, how we don't see him really challenge anybody on what they say (except Hirano for obvious reasons). If his girlfriend said dating -> lap pillow then he's gonna say okay. Sure. Even if he's unsure about it. But we don't get much of his personality from then. We only know this snippet, and the fact that it bothers him.

But we also know WHY it bothers him after ch. 6 and 7, and in 16a. Kagiura doesn't think about kissing Hirano because his view on love and romance is limited to how his parents show it, and how his ex girlfriend showed it. He hasn't developed it on his own yet, at least not consciously. He likely never kissed his girlfriend (and if he did it doesn't stick with him at all since the first thing he thinks about is literally the lap pillow) and he doesn't see his parents kiss so Niibashi asks him about kissing hirano and he's like "idk lol". Hence why, does he even like Hirano romantically? (And though you can be in a romantic relationship without kissing, the question still remains as to how he sees his feelings for Hirano, considering how juvenile they seem*)

But the difference here is that, without thinking about it, Hirano and Kagiura were becoming best friends. Kagiura didn't go into friendship with Hirano thinking he's a love interest the same way he might have with his girlfriend. Hirano treated him really well and they developed this natural thing and Kagiura started to develop a natural Kagiura version of a crush. But still, every action after that wasn't with the deliberate intention of his outlook on love. It remained natural. So that "prerequisite" was already fulfilled (and honestly, it could easily be viewed separate of how he sees romance from his parents. Again, it all happens so naturally and easily for him).

So in chapter 6, he thinks about what Niibashi said more and then the urge comes. To kiss Hirano. The first time he's probably thought about kissing anyone. So it's already an outlier to how he views romance anyway because kissing never had to be a part of it but now it is. BUT WAIT THERES MORE!

Because next he decides to indulge in something he can easily call back to. His girlfriend and their experience. People that date do lap pillows. How would that feel with someone I'm in love with, someone I now know I want to kiss? And I truly don't think he expected much from it because of his experience of not really liking it. Of it being "off". But Hirano lies in his lap and his mind blanks. And then he lies in Hirano's lap and he can't do it. Not because it feels off or wrong. But because he felt too much. A LOT in that moment. Cue his sexual and sexuality awakening/crisis. It literally scares him out of being NEAR Hirano for extended periods of time. Out of touching him. Because this new attraction is foreign to him. He now actively wants to touch him, actively wants to kiss him and at this point he already knew hirano doesn't see him that way so what do you do?

Then 16a comes. They're starting to touch for ten seconds a day because Hirano said he would try, and Kagiura’s largest guilty pleasure is literally just physical contact. Particularly with Hirano. Which he used to do so casually but can't bring himself to. So he asks hirano when it's okay and they agree to ten seconds.

To me, this is when he comes to terms with the fact that he never romantically liked his girlfriend in the first place. Because he knows hirano isn't in love with him at this point despite Hirano agreeing to try. He knows what they feel is different. Which is exactly what happened with his girlfriend. That's why he's afraid he was making Hirano feel how he felt with his girlfriend back then. Uncomfortable. "Off". And when I view it in context I always come to the conclusion that he didn't like her (let alone love her). This may not be his first relationship but it is his first love.

All this to say... literally nothing. I just love digging into Kagiura’s character, how his past does end up influencing the present in really subtle ways. I mean think about it, he feels so guilty for wanting to touch Hirano that he limits himself to the ten seconds. Like every time before chapter 14 that they touched just because (locking arms, holding his shirt or his wrist just to grab onto him, that natural gravitation) is just gone. Because now he loves someone who doesn't love him so how could he possibly put the pressure on him to touch him in the same way? He gave away his right to do that. But it hurts him. (And it hurts Hirano too). Another problem. But that guilt doesn't come from nowhere. He doesn't want Hirano to feel how he felt with his girlfriend. He doesn't want to make him uncomfortable or push his physical boundaries and make himself a sad memory in Hirano's high school years.

Kagiura is experiencing this extent of love and a crush for the first time. He lied in his girlfriends lap hesitantly but did it because they were dating and didn't like it. And I feel like a great fear of his is making Hirano feel that way too. So he wants Hirano to feel the same way desperately without pushing the physical boundary that has once made him feel unsure and weird. He loves Hirano so much that he'll limit himself as much as he can bear in this process. (Which, isn't the greatest thing. It's almost contradictory). But that's his experience. That's how he's letting it influence him. And it's so interesting to me.

Erm this is long anyway I love doing Kagiura character study. Obviously this is my interpretation and how I view his character to be. And we are all influenced by our environment in the end, especially those that have an important place in our lives (hint hint wink wink iykyk) but some people still build their own wants and desires with that as a foundation. Kagiura took his parents as the blueprint itself. THE guide, THE directions. So now I think he's on a journey of defining love for himself too.

[cormorant-red]

I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!

If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.

Transcript below the cut:

Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"

as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me

Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"

Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets

-----

Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck

Storm: kshgushhsg

I take it you're having a good time then

Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root

so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!

Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate

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Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun

Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.

After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.

i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending

Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions

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Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots

I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…

That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root

I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet

Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything

Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong

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Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?

Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”

Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”

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Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three

i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!

santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone

me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math

reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice

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Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?

Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him

Snake died before I before I could say two words to him

Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t

I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?

Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going

Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu

Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”

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Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis

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Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!

They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.

As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.

Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”

Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY

Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!

Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game

june and ace could have done it just as easily

Storm: they could have! good catch

maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,

Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,

and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap

Storm: load bearing bookmark

Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe

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Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time

of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody

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Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...

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Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death

puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.

Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy

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Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...

i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?

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Cormorant: called it!!!!

Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”

Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”

Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe

what i’ve been saying!!

Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”

Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”

Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”

Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”

Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”

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Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending

glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?

0=6. how much do I read into this

still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots

Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things

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Cormorant: O FUCK

Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”

Clover: “What about it…?”

Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”

Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”

Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”

Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”

Snake: “The answer is easy.”

Storm: B)

Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8

Storm: B) B) B)

Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)

Storm: they hid it soooo well

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Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X

i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!

[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box

Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!

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Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]

"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me

Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect

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Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"

hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]

Storm: Y E A H

Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing

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Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki

the baseline was NOT where i thought it was

Storm: no one does it like her

[millylotus]

I got the full We Are Robin series for chirstmas! So here are some random silly things I noticed

Though I don't have any of the Robin War crossover or tie-in issues, which is a bummer but still.

Duke is like a self certified adrenaline junkie & says as much within like the first few pages

So yeah I get it. Mortality. It's about survival. Spent so much time surviving lately I feel like I've gotten addicted to it. To the Rush. I mean, I know why. It's all endorphins and adrenaline. I shouldn't trust it I shouldn't love it this much in all it's chemical falseness. But I'm a junkie now. worse stuff to be hooked on I guess. Issue #1, Page 4

Riko like definitely had a crush on Duke at some point and the angst is only further fueling my mind

Not crazy about the alternative cover to Issue #9B[right], it's cute but it feels like it belongs to another plot idea, #9A[left] looks more inline and it's just genuinely one of the coolest covers for this series

I really liked how it felt like all the Robin kids where pretty equal in page time & relevance to the story, I would have like some more of Riko in the later Issues but she did get a whole one to herself with a completely different artist

Focusing on that, Issue #4 is fucking gorgeous, like Jorge Corona's style is so much fun and comicy but the combined work of James Harvey, Diana Egea & Alex Jaffe brings to life a completely different type of very comic/graph novel style. Along with the fact the busyness of it reflects off of Riko's own personality & mentality. The two page spreads, the lack of barely any panel lines b/c each panel just looks that different from each other, the colors & pattern overlays, it's gorgeous and I could go off on a separate post about it another time. It's a shame I don't have all the covers with their style!

Though having Babs specifically be Riko's batgirl doesn't make much sense in a real world timeline but this is comic time soooo, i still would have like Steph to be her batgirl!

Duke has watched the Hobbit, and he thinks of himself as himself as more of the sword guy but he also like Legolas b/c he thinks he's cool & honestly that says alot about Duke's personality

Always thought of myself as more swarthy sword-weilding badass with the five-o'clock shadow. Or at least that elf dude. Yeah... that elf dude had style. Issue #1 Page 3

I've already read these volumes a couple months ago, so coming back to them was refreshing and I'm glad to have them physically, makes them alot easier to read and understand when I have 'em there physically

Also made me learn more about Troy, I thought he was a bit full of himself at first but he was genuinely just a good kid trying to do good, and his failure to do so resulted in his death and it's one of two things that breaks down our group of Robins [the other being Gordon's robo-batman denouncing the We Are Robin movement as a whole]

Troy Walker...Above average student with interests in political activism, history, and philosophy. Issue #4 Back Page 2

I'm pretty sure Duke is the youngest of our group of Robins, like the character summaries at the back of Issue #4, Duke-16, Riko-16, Dax-17, Izzy-17, Troy-17, Dre-17, which I think is one of best realizations I had about this story

No Duke isn't really the leader of WaR I'd say but the end of the series he's more just a working member of the most active group of Robins

By #12 they're very much a "We" "Us" "All" sort of group and saying they have a distinct leader would do them a disservice, though if I remember correctly there was some sort of hierarchy mentioned in the Robin War crossover issues, but we're gonna work around those for a second, at least until I get me hands on them/reread them again

I'd say the leaders are who ever is most determined to be a Robin within the moment, which Duke isn't at the beginning but is later on [round #6 #11 & #12] and even then he's often sharing that drive to be Robin with another Robin [usually Riko honestly]

And I'd say the Robin with the biggest & consistent want are Riko, Shug & Dax, in that order but mainly cause Dax had an era of doubt after Troy died & Robo-Batman denounced them

Riko hallucinates Batgirl and I need that to be talked about, like the hallucination isn't all that strong, purely visual, but it's high-def and it moves like a person and reacts to what she says to it [in the middle of class while a teacher is trying to get her attention mind you] I think the spread where it happens is the 2nd one I put up top

Izzy is actually a very emotional person, and I think she's the first character to cry in the series, [they are literally disarming a highly dangerous explosive and I think that's so valid for her] and honestly non of her emotions are like unwarrented, she's constantly on her last fucking leg, between late nights at her family resturant, combined with homework till 3 and chronically late to school to the point it might get her held back or expelled she's pretty tired with it all

I think my favorite moment for her was when her brother Hector [who she despises but also that's her brother so like] died to that weird Owl-Man Talon thing [which like I'm pretty sure died in Robin War], and when Talon-Man was about to kill Duke & Riko, like her black mascara/eyeshadow tears as she held that thing at gun point where devastating, not to mention it's goading her on & Duke & Riko are trying to get her to drop the gun aswell

Talon: Yes! this one understands the true nature[kill or be killed] of things! Izzy:...Gonna...gonna bury this creep. Tryin' to sell us the future Duke: C'mon, drop the gun! Talon: Pull the trigger, my beautiful killer. Take your first step towards a new world. Izzy: I'll so it...come any closer an I'll-- Issue #6 Page 7

This Issue also cements our Robins and their relationship to batman some more

Riko, Duke & Dax are the leaders in this Issue, more so the 1st two cause Dax doesn't have much page time, but still the sentiment of them not being wannabes/worshipers Batman's like everyone thinks and instead their own group is important here

Talon: Your code...the Bat's code...it is folly...He won't help you. Issue #6 page 5 Riko: Robins don't kill Izzy. You know this. Remember who we are. Talon: Young fool! Your false idol will be your undoing. Riko: Not trying to be like Batman. Trying to be better. Issue #6 page 10

I like Dre he's actually a really interesting guy, and you have to look past all the walls he pulls up [which are interesting in'n'off themselves] and see a kid who wants to be a vigilante, he's one of the leaders for Issues #9 & #10, being his own vigilante & operative after the Robin Laws are passed, he doesn't back down one bit & stays steadfast in his want to help people, going against Smiley in his Joker era as the first Robin to do so

He's just honestly cool, and I like the way he starts as a pessimist to the idea of Nest, but that doesn't fully stop him from wanting to help people, he gets back into it the moment he pulls himself together

I don't think I've brought up Dax properly yet but he's definitely one of the connectors of the group, [the others being Shug & Riko], once he gets out of his early bought of pessimism after Robo-Bat disavows them he is a consistent leader within the group and pushes the others to fucking do something, but his connecting work is mainly done for Izzy & Dre, Izzy when she's in her slump later on, & when Dre when he's running solo without the others, he pulls the wayward birds closer to the rest of the flock

Having read this series & reminiscing on "Batman & The Signal" & "The Outsiders" I don't like the way they portray Duke much at all

Lee Bermejo gets Duke in a way I don't think the other writes really do, this Duke, WaR!Duke, would not have become The Signal, he would have been Lark, and I mourn the lose of what he could of been had he not been pushed into become The Signal, it would have been interesting to see Damian & Tim share Robin with a kid they had to actually deal with, it might have actually forced Tim to move on completely from Robin, it might have gotten Damian more friends, it would have given Duke a more interesting story in my opinion

Okay I'm tired now, so i'm just put my fav covers of the ones I have from this series in left to right descending order of favorite-to-least favorite.

Goodnight! & Happy Holidays everyone!!!!

[wannabanauthor]

Buck and Tommy were having regular sleepovers

And Tommy all of a sudden doesn't want to move in with Buck?

Let's not forget the parking space before the breakup. The only reason why Tommy would want to keep his spot is if he planned on spending the night at Buck's. If he was going to go home after the movies, he would just drop Buck off, so there'd be no need to keep that parking space.

And Tommy didn't have anything on him when he arrived. So he has clothes and toiletries at Buck's place. He's way bigger than Buck, so he'd definitely need his own stuff.

But Tim Minear wants us to believe that Tommy was too scared to move in with Buck. With their intense firefighter schedules, they were probably spending their off days together.

I can understand the request scaring Tommy because he's been through this before, and Buck not using the right words to explain what he was thinking/feeling.

Tim, you are making it so much harder for me rationalize your decisions for this couple. You're lucky I was able to use PTSD to explain Tommy's reaction. But there's no amount of creativity possible to explain that horrible date earlier in the episode. Buck not getting Tommy a present, Tommy not knowing Buck hates basketball, Tommy being engaged to Abby for 2 years and only telling Buck 6 months into their relationship, and Buck not knowing what the Kinsey scale is. After 6 months, all that information should have already been known. Both of them like to talk and open up to each other and infodump, and you're really trying to sell the fact they didn't talk about these things before now?

My brain is working overtime to help you, and you just suck at your fucking job. What else is new? Black lesbian tries to explain a mediocre cishet white man's intentions in fiction. I'm supposed to be taking a step back from helping anyone who is not black (courtesy of the election results and exit polls, black folks are done helping others and being ignored when we need help).

The only reason I'm even attempting to make your garbage writing make sense is so that my fellow shippers have something to grasp onto while you fuck around with our feelings while we're scared of losing our rights.

I hate you so much right now.

At some point, I'm going to publish a romance novel just to spite you. I'll make sure to add in some jab in the acknowledgments. Something like "mediocre white men get paid more to write shittier storylines, so write that novel".

Sincerely, fuck you Tim Minear

[pastafossa]

Happy Birthday and a merry 6 years to TRT! 🎂 🎁 🎈 🎉 🍰

🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯

Some FUN TRIVIA FACTS:

TRT's sun sign is VIRGO and its moon sign is LEO!

After 6 years, its current wordcount is 932k words. If you put that in size 12 arial font, single-spaced, this would come to about 2000 pages, and even more if the pages were the usual mass market paperback size!

TRT is now 40 in cat years!

The Man in the White Coat is my tribute to the Mad Scientist trope common in scifi, which is one of my favorite genres!

It is old enough developmentally to tie its shoes! Keep going, TRT!

Ciro is partially inspired by John Marcone from The Dresden Files!

TRT shares a birthday with literary great Agatha Christie! Maybe I'll introduce poison-based murder into the fic in her honor...

The idea of seeing threads came to me after seeing a meme about red threads tying soul mates together. Everything that came after - the other threads, the thread world, how it works, is unique to TRT!

TRT is now longer than War and Peace, and Crime and Punishment combined! So if you've read all of TRT so far, then you have the perfect middle finger to anyone who tries to say you can't focus on longer stories!

The inciting penguin documentary that Foggy drunkenly watched (which led to him declaring Matt and Jane 'penguins') was about Adelie penguins specifically!

Jane has a leather jacket because I love leather jackets and think all badass characters should have a leather jacket! And so you should you! EVERYONE DESERVES A COOL LEATHER JACKET.

The long hiatus between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 was because I had life things pop up. During that hiatus, I realized the plotline/ending needed some work, so I spent those two years outlining, and I also wound up doing a bunch of additional novel writing classes just because I wanted to learn. A lot of this wound up influencing TRT!

The grey threads are one of the only threads that no one has solved yet!

There are absolutely some bad people working for Cyrus James. There is also a guy named Kyle. He is there not for Evil Purposes (tm) but instead because this was the only place he could work that would allow him to pay off his student loans.

When I started TRT, I thought maybe 5 people total would read it. I was told five people total would read it by some shitty people. So I wrote it expecting five total people would read it, and told myself at least I'd enjoy it, and I could use it to learn. In other words: I had ZERO idea TRT would take off like this. None. Nada. Zip. AND LOOK AT US NOW, BABY. FUCK THE HATERS, 6 YEARS AND GOIN' STRONG.

Based on my outline, we're a bit over halfway to the end!

I hope you enjoyed these TRT funfacts. And I hope you know: this fic isn't just me. It's you, too. This fic has become so much larger than just me. It's the TRT playlist you've sent songs in for that keeps me inspired when writing. It's the fanart I look at to give me a boost. It's your sweet comments and likes and kudos and messages that encourage me when I'm sick or depressed. It's the people who've made friends over this fic, or who've been inspired to write fic themselves, adding beautiful works to the community that we all use to keep going. It's all of this love for both TRT and Matt, and I'm so happy that I've been able to contribute in at least a small way in keeping Charlie!Daredevil love alive even after the show's been gone for years now. I love you all so, so goddamn much. I love this fandom. I love TRT with all my heart. Thank you so much for being a part of these past six years through cancelations, through your high school and college years and beyond, through my ups and downs of moving and sickness and fiberglass and pandemic craziness, through late night chapter drops and wild twists and turns.

And I hope the next few years as we enter the second half of this story are just as amazing!

[hermiola]

Writer's Meme, 2024 Edition

I've been tagged by @turquoisedata 💜

-------------------------

How many works do you have on ao3?

14. 6 Good Omens + 8 MCU, but we have to go back to 2014 and 2016 for those. I also used to publish on an Italian fanfiction archive where I have 70 more fics (I went back to check and count them after approximately two thousand years and HOLY SHIT, I didn't remember them being so many! My first fic is more than 20 years old WTF).

What’s your total word count?

150.000 words on AO3. But I'm guessing it's waaay higher than that (the Italian archive doesn't show the word count 🥲).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My GO fics have the most kudos (given the popularity of the fandom + the fact that they're written in English and not in Italian). I have 6, so the top 5 is basically all of them:

Take a Little Love From Me (Pretty Woman AU)

Final Breakthrough (Now!) (Post-Season 2 Fix-It)

Crazy Little Thing (Called Love) (Non-S2-complying silliness)

When Hell Freezes Over (Human AU with magician!Crowley and critic!Aziraphale)

Let There Be Rock (First meeting after 1967)

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do! I don't get that many, so it's not overwhelming, and I just like to respond. As I said somewhere else, my experience in the GO fandom has been mostly a solitary one (recently not so much though!) so I just like to interact whenever I can.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I'm going to consider only the GO ones because I feel like the others have been written by another me entirely (also I'm not sure I even remember them).

So it's definitely Let There Be Rock.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I'd say all of them, but Take a Little Love From has a proper epilogue and everything. I guess their happiness has more space there than elsewhere.

Do you write crossovers?

I have in the past, but not anymore.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not that I know of.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not really. I LOOOOVE reading smut (especially in those chonky slow burn fics), but I can't bring myself to write explicit smut for some reason. I love describing the tension and the heat of the moment (I love UST so much I'm going to marry it tbh - like nothing makes me happier/hornier than two people who want to fuck each other but can't for some reason - am I edging myself? IDK) but when it comes to my own writing I feel like spelling out the details just ruins the moment. I do think it's my ace showing in some way. But, anyway, I read the filthiest filth so this definitely doesn't apply to reading. And who knows, maybe one day I'll try! I'm not ruling anything out.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I used to translate HP fics back in the day (from English to Italian). We're talking 20 years ago. And it's funny when you think about it, because I translate novels for work now 🤣

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, always back in the day with HP. I'm still friends IRL with the girl I wrote them with (we actually met because of HP) (this is as good a time as any to say FUCK YOU JKR).

What's your all-time favourite ship?

This depends on the hyper-fixation of the moment. I cannot multitask with my OTPs. If I get obsessed with a new one, I retire the previous one. Like I could split my life into different time periods just based on my OTPs. Ron/Hermione has been my personality for YEARSSSS, but now I can barely think about HP without cringing. Another BIG ONE was Clint/Natasha from the MCU (which explains my look here on Tumblr), but the MCU as a whole has gone a bit stale for me (with few exceptions). And now it's all about Crowley/Aziraphale - it's so bad I had to unretire from fanfiction writing after almost 10 years LOL.

(I like many other ships but not to the point of *obsession*).

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

The only one I can think of is a Clintasha Actors AU, but I don't think I have it anymore, and I wouldn't finish it even if I had.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogues and banter are my favourite things to write, and I think it shows.

What are your writing weaknesses?

English is not my first language, so my writing lacks variety I think. I feel like I have always the same phrases stuck in my head, so it's probably kind of repetitive, especially when compared to some of the fics I read. (But when I started writing my first GO fic in English I wasn't even sure I could *actually* do it, so I'm proud of myself either way!).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's okay! I personally would ask a native speaker to help me (if possible) instead of going the Google Translate route. Being Italian and watching/reading almost exclusively in English I know how silly it sounds when the characters start speaking your language and they're saying nonsense (but no harm done even in this case, imo, especially in fanfics. In movies, though, it's just lazy!).

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

HP, back in 2004 (welp).

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

None, thankfully. If I'm writing fanfic it means I'm in the late stage of hyperfixation and I don't wish that on myself if I can help it. Like I used to read 50+ books a year before GO S2. It's bad!!!

What's your favourite fic you've written?

Take a Little Love From Me mainly because it's the one I've spent more time with.

Tagging some people if they feel like doing it (but no pressure at all!): @beerok23 - @sabotage-on-mercury - @gaiaseyes451 - @leviosally

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 6/11/2024

sibling visit!!!!!!!!! but who cares about that my cats finally greeted each other calmly and politely!!!!!!!!

listening

WET DREAM by SNOW WIFE, off one of my sister's playlists. i have since added it to my playlist titled "SOMEBODY COME FUCK THIS (GAY)". sounds like early kesha?

-

reading

oh right i read a brace of temeraire books last week. we're in australia now. excited to see what sort of bullshit we get up to. i do really love these books and am astonished at home much they Feel like period-typical books, but i am too busy going :D :D :D while reading to have tuesdaypost thoughts about them

-

watching

thank you @rae-being-naughty for this rec bc i inhaled A Murder At The End Of The World in one evening. limited series on hulu that is set in Legally Not Elon Musk's Compound with Legally Not Elon Musk.

"A Murder at the End of the World" is a mystery series with a new kind of detective at the helm -- a Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker named Darby Hart. In the new limited series, Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must put to use all of her combined skills to prove it was in fact murder, all against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.

oh my godddddd do i love a horrible little woman. sopping wet cat pathetic fuckup of a woman. enormous friends at the table clementine kesh vibes here but slightly lesss malicious. now! normally i am a girl's girl. i love women. but my god did darby royally fuck up her former lover.

one of the better hetero-appearing romances ive ever seen-- we fall in love with bill just as much as darby did, and his death drives the show in a way a fridged wife would in a different show.

i like how it is not a show About hacking, and darby became a hacker somewhat incidentally bc she needed to hack to get what she wanted. super tense, beautifully shot, balances current-day and flashbacks well, the twist is honestly bonkers but it is a very fair mystery.

-

playing

got clorinde :) now i have to collect one billion starfish to level her up :(

her story quest was so cute! a really fun visual novel take on ttrpgs/larping! everyone got little character art! i like her more uniform-braid-style outfit in the character art more than her actual outfit but oh well. im sure they'll release that one as an alt outfit at some point

also pulled dehya! pyro claymore wielder! goodbye diluc u were a mainstay on my team for a year but there's a hot girl who fills your same niche now

-

making

my sister was here so a lot of sibling bonding (going to lesbian bars, moving furniture up my horrible stairs, art museums, weeping over impossibly well tended five hundred year old tapestries and carpets, etc). i had an Excellent slice of key lime pie cheesecake at House of Pies-- i do not typically enjoy cheesecake, i feel like it's often too rich and leaves a weird coating on my tongue. alarmingly green but the tartness offset the cheesecake in a very pleasing way.

look at my new desk's woodgrain again

[a-canker-in-a-hedge]

the sequel to this, have this:

your honour he's so dave malloycore. same deal as before, curator's notes below the cut! read on to see my entirely correct little opinions

Pierre, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

Starting off with a fucking bang and also an extremely obvious choice, but come on. Pierre is a really fascinating character in GC from a dramaturgical perspective, because while he's our viewpoint character and arguably the main protagonist of Was & Peace, his narrative arc doesn't begin until the musical itself is over. This is a song about being stuck and feeling old, and if that's not frmc-core I don't know what is (Fun Fact! In the novel, Pierre is like 23 at this point! Like calm down sir your life isn't over you're just in grad school). I'm going with the off-Broadway cast here, because I like the orchestration better, but also because my opinions on who would get Grobaned are well-known, and it's not Crozier.

2. Four Friends, Ghost Quartet

Drinking song! About whiskey! The beautifully round way the arrangement builds! Fuck yeah! Ghost Quartet is so weird and hard to explain if you haven't listened to it. If you like The Terror, you'll probably like Ghost Quartet. I love Ghost Quartet. This song is also bisexual as hell.

3. Marry Me A Little, Company

First non-Dave song. Company my beloved, and this is my favourite recording. This song closes the first act, and let me tell you, Bobby is not as ready for marriage as he claims. This is a song about not really understanding what you're asking for or what it would mean for the person you're asking.

4. Good Evening, Bonne Soiree, Onegin

Agenda? I hardly know her! This is a little Canadian show that I saw in it's, I wanna say 3rd production ever? I have mixed feelings about a lot of the music, but this is one of my favourite songs off the album. We're opening the 2nd act with this one, and it's a lovely reflective start. It does a really good job capturing the feeling of not knowing how to fix what's wrong with you. Spoilers for an 18th century narrative poem, but there's about to be some very explosive action that all parties involved will regret.

5. Franklin Shepard, Inc., Merrily We Roll Along

It took me so long to find a recording that had the right vibe for this playlist, but this is a classic breakdown song. Not to be too on the nose, but this is the Sir John Franklin song on this playlist. Friendship's something you don't really lose...

6. Tchaikovsky's Child Song, Preludes

Back to Dave once again! Preludes is about Sergei Rachmaninoff's mental breakdown. Rach has been idolizing Tchaikovsky for the entirety of the show up to this point, and here they have a chance to meet. This song for me encompasses the periods both of Crozier's worst alcoholism and recovery. The little 'hi-do's in the background? In my heart that's my sweet boy Jopson.

7. Talking Chess, Chess

Ehehehehehehehe!! Back on my bullshit! In context, this is a moment when two rivals are able to speak honestly to each other as essentially the only person the other respects. You understand me. You Get It!!!

8. Le procès : Comment faire? Les misèrables

Busting out my favourite cast recording for Les Mis and going to the French version of 'Who am I?' This song is here in conversation with 'Pierre,' because imo 'Pierre' is kinda In conversation with it. Great Comet expands on some very similar emotional notes to what Valjean goes through in the compressed space of the first act, and this song is a culmination and release of those feelings. Here it slots into the beginning of Crozier's endgame; he's passed through the gauntlet of detoxing, and he's opened himself up not just to caring, but also to experiencing sincere emotion. He's growing up.

9. I'd Rather be Sailing, A New Brain

My William Finn agenda continues. This is the first of a trio of Fitzier song choices. This one is quiet and hopeful, dreamlike even. For me, it's a fantasy, a conversation in the tent about an uncertain future. The ending hasn't changed, but I can't help it. I want them to have dreams anyway.

It's also, not gonna lie, just a good song about boats.

10. What More Can I Say?, Falsettos

Sobbing weeping on my bullshit. This is a pair with a song on the Fitzjames playlist, but I also like it for its groundedness. This one lives in the moment, even if the moment is only a prelude to the end. What's that line about the love was there?

11. Wait for Me, Hadestown

This is one of the few songs I like from Hadestown (we can talk about my beef another time). Here, it ends the Fitzjames portion of this playlist. He's gone and they're all gone and you're left behind, and no matter how much further you walk you can't catch up with them. And yet, you keep going.

It's also, not gonna lie, just a good song about walking.

12. Edges of the World, Fun Home

Raise your hand if you love despair and dying! I think Michael Ceveris would make a great Crozier in the Disney animated Terror. This to me is a song that sits in that moment just after Silna's left, before Ross shows up and Crozier makes his decision to disappear. It's spinning in confusion, it's all the choices and sacrifices that have led you here and the dreadful futility of all those decisions in the face of what really matters. The weight of your life on your shoulders.

So, you know. Good luck with that, Frank.

13. The Field, Octet

Returning to Dave again for our final note. This is the finale of Octet, which is a chamber musical about getting cancelled on the internet. I don't know how I feel about that, but this song feels resonant with the final few shots of the show to me. It's more a sonic resonance than anything else, but it feels like Crozier's decision to disappear combined with his decision to live. It feels like a promise and like memory. It feels like the camera pulling back.

[lgbtlunaverse]

Thinking about the fact that during the gusu lectures arc Huiasang has apparently been going every year for the last 3 years, but he isn't older than the others. He can't be any older than Zixuan because Meng yao is canonically younger than Zixuan, yet Huaisang calls him "san-ge" which means Meng Yao is older than Huaisang. So maybe Zixuan is way older than the other kids there, except in the novel it was mentioned that they were all around 15 to 16. And Huaisang also calls himself around Wei Wuxian's and Lan Wangji's age. Which means Nie Mingjue has been sending Huaisang to gusu summer camp since he was like 12 years old.

I'm relatively sure that you're just supposed to chalk that up to nmj's general gung-ho-ness about Huaisang and training like wowww he's so intense! HOWEVER. We are not here to take the easy route we are here to overthink. So I have 2 alternate headcanons.

1. Nie Mingjue went to the gusu lectures at an unusually young age himself.

So we know Nie Mingjue's father died when he was between the ages of 10 and 15, generally assumed to be a little on the older side of that spectrum, 14 or 15-ish. Considering that he was, you know, allowed to acually inherit the sect and it didn't topple down, nor did a coup occur or did any of his advisors use him as a puppet ruler. And I'm not sure a 10 year old is capable of handling all of that. We also know that Nie Mingjue's father got wounded in a night hunt that Nie Mingjue was present for, as he saw his father's saber shatter himself, and that it took 6 months for Lao Nie to actually die from his injuries. During that entire timeframe, and afterwards- as I presume sect leaders don't exactly have the time to leave their sect for multiple months to go study- Nie Mingjue could NOT have gone to the gusu lectures. It could be true that he didn't go at all, we're not told this. But IF he ever went, he must've been unusually young. 13 at the eldest.

If that's true, it'd provide him a reasonable motivation to send his brother at a younger age as well. "I did it too and I was fine, Huaisang! It's not that hard if you actually work for it"

or, alternatively:

2. He didn't want him to be in gusu in the same year as the Wens.

Nie Mingjue has a longstanding grudge againt the Wens for his father's murder and very good reasons to NOT trust them with his family's safety. He definitely wouldn't like his little brother to be out of his sight for a multiple month-long stretch with one of Wen Ruohan's sons right there. We don't know Wen Xu's exact age but since he wasn't in the archery competition he's at least 1 year older than lan xichen, which means he's at least 3-4 years older than Huaisang, so sending Huaisang early would mean avoiding Wen Chao, who was his age, without running into Wen Xu. Sadly, due to Huaisang failing the 2 years before, he's ended up in the same class as Wen Chao anyway. And not sending him again after failing for 2 years would mean giving up, and was probably considered a disgrace, so Nie Mingjue had to bite the bullet.

There's definitely other options I'm not seeing but both of these are fun to play with and rotate around in my head.

[friendsim2]

We think the cat is sufficiently out the bag on the fact we actually included a full 70K word visual novel INSIDE OF our existing visual novel - so let's dig into that a little and answer a couple FAQs!

Q: What is this? A: A college dating sim set in a non-canonical alternate reality where everyone is supposed to be a human. If you haven't played volume 12 yet, don't worry about it! Or do - I'm statistically unlikely to be your mom

Q: Can I play this by itself? A: Yep! Just go to the options menu, scroll all the way down to the bottom, and click "unlock bonus game" - it will then be available at any time from the main menu. It will also appear on the main menu once you beat Volume 12.

Q: Do I have to play Friendsim 2 to play this? A: No! Although we recommend encountering it naturally as you play the game (IYKYK and if not you'll see!), but if you want you can unlock it from the main menu as soon as you install Friendsim 2!

Q: Does playing from the main menu change stuff? A: Oooh yeah! If you play via the main menu you're accessing a special version of TechniColor Heart designed to act as a stand-alone experience. It changes some of the framing and adds a LOT of new content!

Q: You can date people? A: Yep! In the base version there's 6 romance options, and the stand-alone version adds 2 more! You can also do non-romance relationship plotlines with a few people!

Q: Is this because of the April Fool's Day bit? A: No, it's because of the "we'll add sex to the game" bit. The April Fool's trailer was just basically a trailer for this with "April Fools!" slapped on it.

Q: But... is there sex? A: Actually, yes... it's not explicit (it fades to black), but you've got the option of doin' the ol' freaky-deaky with most of the romanceable characters. There's also a non-sexual romance outcome for each character, if you wanna take things slow.

Q: Okay, but who can I date? A: Chixie, Lynera, Skylla, Mallek, Lanque, Vikare Stand-alone mode adds Xefros and Marsti Keep in mind everyone responds differently to how you act towards them - there's no one-size-fits-all formula!

Q: Is there non-romance stuff to do? A: Yeah! A few of your friends could use some help navigating life, and if you play on stand-alone mode there's a whole plot involving a murder and the sins of the past!

Q: Is there other stuff to do? A: YEAH! There's, like, eight different mini-games including a One Finger Death Punch style beat-em-up, a Flappy Bird clone, a surprisingly accurate version of Game Boy Tetris, and a custom Game Boy game called Fire Fling! (and more!)

Q: Tell me more about this wonderous experience! A: It's got a day/night cycle! Dialogue trees! A scheduling system! You can buy gifts online to give to people! There's a dating app! Intrigue! Romance! Scandal! Murder most foul! You can pet cats!

Q: I hate Friendsim 2 but actually love TechniColor Heart - can you forgive me? A: Yeah, we're cool.

[spooky-something]

WARNING;

we're about to seriously yap and put out some hot fucking takes about Phantom of the Opera, so if you're sensitive to that/don't wanna hear that, scroll.

We finally finished POTO, and what I can say; hot take; This is a fucking nightmare that just DOESN'T deserve the fame it has. It's awful . /Hj The writing itself is okay, it can be really good at times, but I hate the way it's framed; having Leroux litteraly self insert himself as the narrator, which could've worked, but for me, it just doesn't. It would've been great, had that narrator not litteraly been himself, but because it's him, it not only takes away from the realism he tried to built via this, but also comes ass as SUPER, SUPER annoying at times. The story itself is just cluttered, way too cluttered; the unnecessary details, events, attempts at shifting narratives that could've been better done/explained quickly and more efficiently, it's a lot. Some examples are the "Rat Catcher"; entirely unnecessary additional, why the fuck was he even there (It was so bad, we started cackling mid class because it was so fucking random)???? Or the random "apparition" added, again, for no reason. None of these were mentioned before, nor explained whatsoever; the "apparition" litteraly being wrote off by LEROUX HIMSELF as "something I cannot explain". Which, in my opinion, is extremely stupid. I don't care if it's for the "mystery factor", because, considering there was already far too much going on, and plenty of OTHER mystery elements, adding something just because with no purpose was and IS obnoxious. All it does it make the story you're trying to tell more convoluted, which was exactly what we felt while reading. Yet, the MAIN issue, the characters, and by extension, the message Leroux is so DESPERATELY trying to convey with them. I am going to say the hottest fucking take known to man; I fucking DESPISE Erik, and litteraly, ONLY kept reading because of the fact I knew he'd die at the end, and I wanted that satisfaction (was so disappointed his death was so vague and lame...). I understand why people can feel bad, at least, PARTIALLY, but the amount of fucking love and DEFENDING I see for him is ACTUALLY INSANE. Erik is

A. A fucking murderer

B. A stalker

C. An abuser

D. A manipulator (And, gaslighter, by extension)

E. A thief

F. An (ALMOST) terrorist (litteraly tried to blow up the entire opera)

G. A liar

H. A kidnapper

And

I (This stands for:). An incel (This one's more of a "joke", as the rest are all litteraly book canon, but he is literally an incel; he checks all the boxes), and yet, people out pour him with support; the amount of apologists is crazy. I've even seen people compare him to THE CREATURE (Frankenstein) which is just NOT CORRECT AT ALL???? They have similarities, yeah, but the amount of differences is insane.

1. Erik is a litteral millionaire (Yeah, I did the math for the amount of francs he got then for American dollars, now, and it was at LEAST, like 2 million...)

2. Erik IS human, biologically; yeah, he was treated differently, but he still had the COMFORT of knowing he was a human, that he was, in at least some form compared to the Creature "natural"

3. Erik was raised by his family (yes, they were abusive, and I'm not saying they weren't, but he HAD PARENTS, AND AN EDUCATION; I think, idar if he was educated or not, but my point still stands: he had a family)

4. Erik, despite the novel trying so hard to say otherwise, was HIGHLY respected; HE LITERALLY WORKED WITH ROYALTY????

5. Erik HAD FRIENDS???? Once more, not only did he work with royalty, he had the Persian/Daroga, which, again, despite how much the novel tries to say otherwise, was very clearly a friend; very clearly someone who DID care about him (if he didn't, why would he save his life even AFTER LITTERALY TORTURING PEOPLE???)

6. Erik, AGAIN, is denied humanity nearly as much as it's painted; he litteraly mentions how he wanted to be normal, and so, applied for a normal ass construction job at the Opera, AND GOT IT NO QUESTIONS ASKED???

[diabolikpersonals]

Heyyy, just an interesting question I had, do you think diabloic lovers could’ve been more popular and better if it wasn’t a “romance” thing, for me I feel like it would’ve been wayyy better if they were to choose the healing from trauma route for the franchise, esp since it would’ve made sense since the vampires had traumatic childhoods. Not only that the “romance” isn’t even romance it’s straight up (TW: SA, abuse and manipulation) and it’s hella weird that most of the characters are minors. Sorry for blubbering so much but just a thought I had 😭😭😭

You and I just aren't members of the target audience, anon, but dialovers is plenty popular because it's a dark romance. I get that the eng-speaking fandom isn't all that active, and things are especially quiet because we're in the middle of a long hiatus, but it's a fairly popular otome game series with lots of dedicated fans, u know? And the thing everybody knows it for, and the thing that the fans are always talking about, are its dark romantic fantasy sexy vampire stuff. Getting preyed on by a hot vampire guy is a pretty normal & common fantasy to have, imo. so I don't think it needs to change to become more popular or anything, in fact I think it'd become less popular fsdghfh

But I hear you, because I'm not part of the target audience either (opposite end of the spectrum, personally...!) and I'm mostly into it for plot n character analysis. (I know that sounds so pretentious but I can't help being a nerd about this stuff ok.......I definitely have my ships too) I've definitely felt, as I was playing and reading, that this is an amazing story that is kind of held back because it's an otome game and the law requires them to stick blood-sucking scenes into almost every single chapter.

I'd argue that dialovers already is steering itself in a direction where it's focusing more on character-driven plot and less on romance. A lot of people complained about LE for this exact reason. Personally, I like it...! I know it's because I'm not the target audience but when I'm playing these games, getting through the bloodsucking scenes is such a chore, especially when I'm like "GUYS there's a demon war going on!!!" lmao. I thought this was an unpopular perspective to have in this fandom, but I've met some people who share the same opinions as me, and I think both parties can be satisfied (and I'm putting this in bold because I'm so so serious) if dialovers released a series of light novels.

This is my newest thing I'm campaigning for bc I think it would be the perfect supplementary material for dialovers. The best blood-sucking scenes are gonna be in the game, since they've got the visuals and the voice acting. Novels aren't structured like the games, so while they'll definitely still have blood-sucking scenes in them (duh), they won't have to interrupt important plot points to have 5 or 6 unnecessary ones. It's a retelling so you can take the scenes from the games and describe them in way more detail! Dialovers as a tighter story! More insight into how the characters act, and what they're thinking and feeling! Intimate scenes described in prose! Cool new art for the covers! And rejet makes money without the need for voice acting, so it can be done during the hiatus! Everybody's happy, right??? rejet pls hear my pitch.......

[afterthesequels]

AfterTheSequels™ "Behind the Scenes" Podcast on YouTube - "The Lovers Chat" with our #BenSolo & #Rey - Episode on 7/22 @ 3 PM Pacific / 6 PM Eastern

Join us for an exclusive look at our film's main love story with our own BEN SOLO and REY --- Actors Daniel Davenport and Madeleine Norton --- as we dive into the importance of love in storytelling as a whole, in Star Wars, and the deep fascination we have with some of the franchise's lovers. We definitely will discuss the parallels of Ben and Rey to ANAKIN SKYWALKER and PADME AMIDALA --- you don't want to miss it! We will keep these discussions as spoiler-free of our movies' events as possible, but as revealed in our teaser trailer, Ben Solo is RESURRECTED! Alongside Dan and Maddie, we will also be joining by our very own POE DAMERON --- actor Tony Rescigno --- to talk about the complexities his character has had within stories that most folks never got to see, most specifically his 6-7 year love affair with the scoundrel/spice runner, ZORII BLISS. WARNING: This topic will contain SPOILERS about the CANON novel "Poe Dameron: Free Fall".

And we cannot forget the amazing story of "finding love amidst the tragedy" tale told in the trilogy of novels "Aftermath" of the later-in-life couple, WEDGE ANTILLES and NORRA WEXLEY. To dive into that relationship we are joined by our amazing stage and film actors: Charles Wilson and Donna Heffernan who bring these two characters to life for us. WARNING: This topic will contain SPOILERS about the CANON trilogy of novels "Aftermath".

And of course, Executive Producer/Writer/Director Maria Espino will be discussing that wild and crazy revelation that CAL KESTIS and MERRIN are in fact a couple! A Jedi and a Nightsister, together again. WARNING: This topic of the show will contain SPOILERS about the CANON video game "Jedi: Survivor", the sequel to the amazing "Jedi: Fallen Order" video game. As Maria is very much a part of the video game industry and owns The Last Prophecy Gaming, Inc. --- a video game development studio --- she has great insights!

And with finish off with a discussion around the lore of Star Wars by diving deeper into the views the Jedi and the Sith both had on love. Why was it so hard for these two groups to "just follow the rules"? ITS A LOVE FEST OVER HERE!!!!!! <3 <;3 <3 You don't want to miss it! Be sure to click on our logo below to visit our YouTube channel! Subscribe and set up notifications. You'll be notified as soon as we post a video or go live with our podcast and other series of goodies we're bringing to you.

[silviakundera]

The Spirealm episode 7 reaction

fair warning: in these episode reactions I'm not gonna pretend I haven't read the novel. in fact, I purposely finished the novel before viewing, to get The Full Experience. thus novel spoilers, including twist end, included.

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I feel like the drama has made LQ much more empathetic and also a bit more clever & assertive (vs reactive) than in the novel.

I think there are 2 reasons for this:

One has to do with theories on the ultimate narrative thread, so I won't dive into this yet, other than to note that repeatedly we see LQ connecting to the emotions of NPCs and inspiring the group to solving situations by treating NPCs as people.

The other is that in a live drama you miss the humor and subversion of expectations in the protagonist's inner thoughts. The cold distance and lack of curiosity (and how that all perversely ends up making him better at the game) is very difficult to effectively portray in a drama without a frequent VO (voice over). So they decided to go a different way, while still trying to stay true to the heart of the character.

Anyway, we get our proof that LQ never believed RN's excuses in the last episode that he didn't show up to this door just for LQ. When there are minutes left and he thinks they might be done for, LQ's move is to turn to the man who wants to be his partner and simply says, "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"This is my door. It has nothing to do with you. You came because of me."

RN's silent pause speaks for itself, though he offers comfort with, "...Not entirely because of you."

"What a pity I haven't joined Obsidian yet" is like code for SO MUCH" (too bad we didn't get more time to know each other)(i regret not getting a chance to truly start a friendship)(unexplored gay longing)

lol while they're having A Moment, miss Best Actress leverages her single status to rise above the moment and actually throw out a solution!

(this whole bit reminded me of how in the novel, other characters would often be like wtf we're all gonna die, I'm in hell, so why am I having to eat all this dog food asdfghjk just disgusted at all these touching couple-ish moments RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR SALAD during mortal peril)

Ruan Nanzhu stepping up to get dangerous 🔥

More pathos, as the drama lays the groundwork of seeing the NPCs as deserving of compassion and having feelings 🤔

The necklace again, this time without protest.

"It looks good on you."

"See you at Obsidian."

(we get a scene after they leave that is VERY INTERESTING to me, in context of the novel's ending - in the climax, LQ is presented with a version of reality where everyone he'd seen suffer in the doors is there and all of the dead resurrected... and here is a vision where the tragedy has been wiped clean) (just makes me think again of the ultimate question, is this is indeed a virtual existence of personified data, true AI, or the supernatural 12th Door)

Another quick glimpse into the door exploring competitor X. Blah blah we think we are very important.

LMAO RN still tempts him into moving in with Chestnut's affections 😂😭

To be fair, that is an incredibly fluffy and cute cat. I too WANT TO PET.

Ok so now they establish that the doors can be months and years apart. I liked this bit in the novel, as the doors allow you to cheat or at least delay death. So as you pass them, the more difficulty the bigger the reward - reward being TIME. (the most precious item of all)

"My cat is quite close to you."

"What's yours is mine. What's mine.... is still mine." 😏

Can we stop the tyranny of iqiyi subs not displaying "Ge", especially when it literally is a discussion point?! He's saying don't call me Ruan-Ge, not don't call me Ruan!!!! 😤

Then the first moment of Lin Quishi seeing that RN is Can Be Hurt and being confronted with the difficulty level of the 6+ doors. RN declined LQ's offer to accompany him and now his door companion is dead.

Ah, competitors X are at it again. The drama really feels like audience needs an external antagonist. Not sure I agree but whatever.

Now LQ, like in the novel, is feeling protective and doesn't want a recovering RN coming with him to the next door.

lmao they've become Those People who gravitate to each other. Whole house of people and LQ is the one hanging out at his bedside and helping him down the stairs.

Cheng Yixie to Cheng Qianli: "If I cared about other people's lives, yours would already be over." (This hits different for novel readers.)

[malinaa]

TOP 9 BOOKS

tagged : @hmsharmony ty jennifer this was SOOO hard oh my god like. genuinely agonized me for days to think about what to choose but it was SOOO fun tho <3 tagging : @rosesau | @evcndiaz | @pendrgcn | @gayarthur | @the-tenth-arcanum | @oretsev | @wherepoetsdie | @bellamyblakru | @ryekat & anyone else who wants to do it !!! rules : list your top 9 books obviously. i cheated a little and put series as as one option because that's just who i am as a person. most of these i chose at random from my 5 star reads from the past few years btw

1. percy jackson and the olympians (series) by rick riordan

i was never a big reader in elementary school—or at least not to the extent that my classmates had been. my sixth grade english class required us to bring a personal book from home for silent reading and i stole my brother's spine-cracked copies of pjo and brought them to class. i finished the whole series in less than a school week (i had to scramble to the library to pick up another series because the single novel should have lasted me at least three weeks). pjo literally kickstarted my love for reading as a hobby and i truly don't know how to state the importance it had on my little ten-year-old brain fr

2. on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

i have never read a book more beautiful in prose and so uncommonly human than this. there's just something so incredibly heartbreaking knowing this whole book is the narrator's letter to his mother who can't read! like what the fuck

3. alone with you in the ether by olivie blake

this came as a surprise to Me when i first read it. i meandered through the first quarter, loving the writing style but feeling disconnected from the characters until the Church Hand Scene™ and it was hook, line, and sinker at that point (i have since come to love the disconnectedness in subsequent rereads, knowing that the feeling was the Point). i have read this book four (4) times since i read it first last year. LAST YEAR!!! olivie has like... fundamentally altered my brain chemistry or something because i feel like everything i have written since having read this book has been somewhat influenced by it.

4. much ado about nothing by william shakespeare

what can i say! this is theeeeeee romcom ever. i have watched so many adaptations of this play, read it countless of times and can recite some iconic lines, and still the banter between benedick and beatrice is sooo elite. cannot be topped!!

5. a place for us by fatima farheen mirza

fun fact: seed rec'd this book to me and has been reccing it to anybody who would listen. the prose is so lush and melancholic. it's one of those books where nothing Really happens, but you feel Every Emotion Under The Sun and you're just like. altered by reading it

6. the song of achilles by madeline miller

obviously.... OBVIOUSLYYYYYYY this had to go here. if i had two nickels for every greek myth retelling i read during school that fundamentally changed me etc etc u get it. i read this as a junior in high school when we, yet again, had to bring a personal book to read durin class. i think at that point of my life, i've never read something that tragic yet so beautiful at the same time and now i am always looking at the beautiful and tragic in media. so! there u go! brain cells rewired and whatnot!

7. the grisha trilogy by leigh bardugo

this is funny because i . technically did not rate any of these books 5 stars i'm sobbing. but like, considering the fact that my url is what it is and the way i always have them in the back of my mind, it's no wonder that i put them here. i have such an odd attachment to these books and these characters. i had copies of these books since their release but didn't touch them until ... before the sab tv release which is so fucking funny. like i don't know what i would be like if i read this as a t(w)een. i would've been so fucking insufferable ngl

8. when my brother was an aztec by natalie diaz

i actually read this for an assignment and had to write a report on it and i had SO much fun doing it. diaz plays a lot with hunger and her imagery is literally unmatched. i think about the way she contructs sentences and am filled with such envy. my beginning sentence for my paper was a nod to her style (though i failed miserably). it was: "in a paradoxical sleight of hand, hunger feeds in natalie diaz's debut." she is just. so fucking good at words i need to CHOMP on it

9. sharp objects by gillian flynn

you know the thing where you see a really popular author for a really long time and they have their work adapted to the screen and it's so good but you still haven't read their actual writing? yeah, that was me with gillian flynn (specifically about gone girl). i read gone girl, i read sharp objects, i read her short story the grownup, i'm currently reading the last novel of hers that i haven't read, dark places, and flynn is just so... incredibly good at constructing harrowing stories. it's no wonder why all three of her novels got adapted to the screen! her prose is so grounded. vivid. there's this ease to her writing that, whenever i concurrently read another novel, i always find the other piece to be lacking. i slink back to flynn's prose and immerse myself in her awful, human worlds.

[cringecompanionapologist]

Enlightenment Novelization Recap Part 2

I'll start by saying I made a bit of a mistake at the end of the last entry. I said the Enlightenment novelization had 16 chapters, 4 for each part. It actually has 12 chapters, 3 for each part. I have no idea how I fucked this up as the screenshots I used were labeled by chapter and the fact that they only went up to 12 was literally right in front of me. So, that was a weird mistake. Oops.

So, I had so little stuff for chapter 4 anyway that it didn't really matter. But the "we're on a spaceship" cliffhanger is the end of chapter 3, not chapter 4. So we're backing up a little.

Though not by much, since I only had one screenshot for chapter 4. In fact, chapters 4 and 5 mostly just have Turlough wandering between the Doctor and Tegan's plot points. His arc is mostly paused until chapter 6.

Anyway, this bit from chapter 4 is here because it's cute:

The two of them stand close together, not aware of how close they are. Cute.

I only have one screenshot for chapter 5, and it's mostly just there to set up chapter 6. Because he's wandered between plots, Turlough has been alone in the halls of the ship before chapter 6. But, this makes the bit where he summons the Black Guardian in that chapter seem a little confusing.

This seems to imply that Turlough didn't think he needed the Black Guardian for his survival until this point. I think the turning point was this bit of chapter 5:

The Eternals can't die, so they can gamble of this stuff but the mortals can't. This ship could just randomly crash, killing everyone capable of dying. So, though Turlough was anxious before, now he's basically calling on divine intervention.

So, chapter 6. The Black Guardian makes his appearance. Turlough both hates and fears him but he still feels like he needs him. The Black Guardian just wants him to kill the Doctor already.

The Black Guardian condemns Turlough to everlasting life on the ship, not, as one would expect, death. Turlough's motivated by his own survival, so why would life be worse than death?

When the Doctor and Tegan find Turlough, Tegan notices the signs that Turlough was attacked.

The Doctor seems really dismissive here. The televised version at least as him briefly ask if Turlough's alright.

However, the dismissive attitude is part of the Doctor not putting pressure on Turlough. It's really obvious that Turlough is lying here. Someone attacked him and he's covering for them. If he's covering for someone who attacked him, odds are the attacker was either someone he otherwise cared about or someone he was too afraid of to tattle on. The Doctor knows that questioning Turlough further won't lead to any new information. It'll just cause him to panic. So, he acts dismissive to cue Tegan to drop the subject.

They go back to the TARDIS, but the Eternals have the TARDIS. This gives us an interesting detail about how Eternal telepathy works.

So, since Turlough is scared basically all the time, shouldn't that make his mind easy to read? Why does Wrack have trouble with it later on? We'll get there when we get there.

So, up on the deck, the Black Guardian starts bullying Turlough again.

The televised version has some dialogue going throughout this.

This dialogue slightly changes the implication of why Turlough jumps.

The specific line "I'll never serve you again" is Turlough defying the Black Guardian. This implies that Turlough is sort of sacrificing himself, willing to die so the Black Guardian can't use him anymore.

In the novelization, we don't get that line. We also don't have the earlier dialogue with the Doctor, so the whole thing is playing out inside Turlough's head. It's more of an impulsive action. He has to get off of this ship or he might never and he wants the pain to stop.

This actually makes the instant regret make more sense. Turlough doesn't want to die, so it'd make sense no matter what, but the televised version has Turlough make a decision and immediately regret said decision, while the novelization doesn't seem as decisive. Turlough panicked, jumped, and then continues to panic over that.