#(also when i say ''use the original song'' i mean Any Cover That Uses Real Instruments okay gotta be ringtone style beeps and boops lol)

[show-us-kaidenshenandoah]

sometimes, the impulsive thoughts win. and it is wild as hell that you can really get just about anything commissioned if you can find someone with the skillset and willingness to make it.. 👀

[kaibutsushidousha]

Danganronpa has too many characters so I'll be tackling the "How'd you render their names in Ace Attorney style of name translation" question one game at a time. Here's for DR1.

Please send different ideas if you have them.

Makoto Naegi

Calqued meaning for Naegi: Sapling

Calqued meaning for Makoto: Honesty

Explicit functionality: In Ishimaru's introduction, he praises the meaning of Naegi's given name, so it must explicitly represent a virtue Ishimaru believes in.

Implicit functionality for Naegi: The meaning of Naegi contributes to giving off the image that he's Small Guy Little the Most Harmless Creature In The World. Also ties in with Makoto's and Komaru's image colors being green and brown.

Implicit functionality for Makoto: Truth-adjacent name because he's an investigative VN protagonist.

Realism level: Both names exist.

Futureproofing needs: Naegi is a surname he shares with Komaru, so it needs to be a name that also works for her. Swapping name and surname to get something more usable is often an option but not here. Whatever Naegi becomes needs to still be the surname because of Komaru.

Explicit functionality is always the priority, so Makoto needs to become something like Ernest or Truman. Truman is a name that feels like it needs to be saved for V3, but at first glance, there isn't anyone there who really fits it.

Bush is a real name that connects the small and the green, but it doesn't give off a tone of harmlessness thanks to a few Georges. Stuart Little has me under the impression that Little is also a real surname but it's missing the green aspect. Green is another real name with the opposite problem.

Out of all our options, I'd go with Truman Green for our protagonist, mainly because Green sounds convenient for Komaru's naming needs. I won't settle on a name for Komaru ahead of DRAE's turn because this sounds like a bonus challenge more difficult than any of the mandatory tasks, but at least I'm confident I won't need to come back and change this one later.

Sayaka Maizono

Calqued meaning for Maizono: Dance Garden

Calqued meaning for Sayaka: Not determinable because Sayaka doesn't have kanji but Sayaka generally means dazzling, clear, or audible and her DR2 swordsmanship scroll present spells her name with kanji meaning "Scabbard Flower".

Explicit functionality: A sword-themed present in DR2 is named after her.

Implicit functionality for Maizono: A dance garden sounds like a metaphorical name for a stage.

Implicit functionality for Sayaka: An intriguing mix of direct meanings and ironies. Dazzling alludes to the classic metaphor of idols as shining stars, clear is ironic with how she hides her feelings most of the time, and audible is both. Direct in how Japan is listening to her songs and ironic in how she became an idol because her father wouldn't give her any attention.

Realism level: Fictional but so believable that another game already used this exact name 12 years before Danganronpa did (that's what DR2's sword scroll is referencing)

This is a rare case where we can ignore the explicit functionality if we want to. Claire is a popular given name that conveniently covers all meanings of Sayaka, makes a musical reference through Claire de Lune (another case of a name that would hit differently in V3 but doesn't fit anyone in its cast), and could be used in a sword flash allusion. Dance is a real English surname but it feels too untouched, so I'd Frenchify it into Danse, matching with the French origins of Claire. Claire Danse it is.

Leon Kuwata

Calqued meaning for Kuwata: Mulberry fields

Calqued meaning for Reon/Leon: Clever Gratitude

Explicit functionality for Kuwata: He says in a Free Time Event that he wants to be like the star vocalist Kuwata Keisuke and not like the baseball star Kuwata Masumi.

Explicit functionality for Leon: Needs to be mistaken with numbers when written upside-down, preferably in a foreign alphabet.

Implicit functionalities: Honestly, none. Both names are very in-your-face about why they were chosen.

Realism level: Leon written in kanji is a name that exists nowadays but I can't find evidence that it predates Danganronpa.

The Kuwatas quote can be done with Axl Rose and Pete Rose.

A lazy solution to Leon is keeping it as Leon and helping the puzzle's difficulty level by making Claire Danse's calligraphy suck. There's no authentic way to redo that puzzle, but the closest option is having her write Greek. It's an alphabet recognizable enough to a Western audience even nowhere nearly as recognizable as the Roman alphabet is to a post-Americanization Japanese audience.

Our Greek alphabet tools are 1=I or ι =I or i, 2=ζ=z, 3=ξ=x, 3=Ε or ε=E or e, 4=η=h or e or i, 4=Π or π=P or p, 6=an ugly φ=f, 8=an ugly Θ or θ=th, 0=Ο or ο=O or o, and 0=σ=s. That gives us genuinely subtle and believable options like Fox spelled 306 or Seth spelled 038.

Seth makes for the better puzzle, but going on vibes and the believability level of a Japanese Leon, I'll go with Fox Rose.

Chihiro Fujisaki

Calqued meaning for Fujisaki: Blossom of False Binarism

Calqued meaning for Chihiro: Thousand Depths (poetic term for "1.8288 kilometers")

Explicit functionality: Gender-neutral name.

Implicit functionality for Fujisaki: The unique kanji choice for the name is probably there for the computer theme since TRUE/FALSE responses and binary codes are popular programming motifs.

Definitely accidental functionality for Fujisaki: The Japanese word for nonbinary has nothing to do with this, but it's curiously serendipitous that Fujisaki has a negative binary in his name. A strong irony since a huge part of his personal tragedy happened because his gender views were extremely binary.

Probably accidental functionality for Chihiro: Chihiro was originally a male name but became more commonly perceived as a feminine name since the release of the film Spirited Away. Assuming Danganronpa 1 is set in 2012, Fujisaki would be 8 years old when the movie came out, and that could be what inspired his idea in-universe.

Realism level: Fujisaki is a real name when written with kanji meaning "Cape of Wisterias". The "False Dualities" version is Danganronpa-original. Chihiro is a common name, however.

Futureproofing needs: Chiaki is named after him, so it's better to make the decision for Chiaki now. Chihiro means "thousand depths" as a poetic unit of distance and Chiaki means "thousand autumns" as a poetic unit of time. The space and time duality is not relevant to their characters (it's a false binarism, if you will) so it's only important here that they have subtly contrasting names.

Chihiro is hard to narrow down because any unisex name technically fits. Cody is a unisex name that covers Fujisaki's computer motifs, so that would allow the surname to be entirely dedicated to matching Nanami's but that would just shift the "can't narrow it down" problem to the surname.

Wikipedia's page for unisex names has this nifty list of names grouped by theme, so we can pick Chihiro and Chiaki as a pair of unisex names from the same group. I can't explain why, but having them both named after months, birds, or Kingdom Hearts feels right.

Month route: I'll go with August for Chihiro since that works best with Chihiro's masculine origins. Chiaki could be October to nod to the autumn meaning of her original name but that's not really relevant and October is really ugly as a person's name. May works for her because aside from being a month, it's a word associated with potential.

Bird route: Phoenix works for Chihiro because Alter-Ego is sorta like a revival. Phoenix is also a funny nod to how Chihiro is Mia Fey's name. Chiaki since the name Nanami reflects the tropicality of Jabberwock Island, she should have a tropical bird name and Starling is the only tropical bird name that doesn't suck as a human name as far as I can remember.

Kingdom Hearts route: The Nanami name kinda dictates that Chiaki becomes Kairi here, which works for me, but I'm not feeling any of the Chihiro options. I'm not calling him Marluxia.

Pheonix Pewter feels like the best option, stealing an idea for a computer-themed name from Uchikoshi, but going with the bird route locks me out of using bird names for anyone other than Fujisaki and Nanami. That's a huge resource to lose. I gotta think about the name economy to continue this project long term. On the other hand, losing access to month names for everyone else is not a considerable loss. I'll stick with August Pewter for now but I might come back to this one later.

Touko Fukawa

Calqued meaning for Fukawa: Rotten River

Calqued meaning for Touko: Winter Girl

Calqued meaning for Shou: Fly

Explicit functionality for Shou: The investigators gave a generic male name to the serial killer because they hadn't figured out she's a girl.

Explicit functionality for Fukawa: Shou makes a pun with the name Fukawa since she's fujoshi (lit. "rotten girl").

Intertextuality for Touko: Fukawa's name, talent, and braids are references to Tooko Amano, the protagonist of the Book Girl series.

Implicitly functionalities: None that I can think of. I guess Touko is not a sunny name so it doesn't clash with her gloomy vibe.

Most likely accidental functionality for Touko: The name Touko means "Winter Girl" and the name Fuyuhiko means "Winter Boy" but they don't have any onscreen interactions or major parallels.

Realism level: Fukawa exists with different kanji (more commonly meaning "deep river") but the Rotten River version is made up. Derogatory words don't tend go in real surnames. Touko is a super common name for girls born in the winter.

I'll start with the obvious. Genocide Jack does everything that needs to be with Geno's name. The loc also invents "Jill" because she's a girl but I'll ignore that and keep our Jack as comfortable with her ostensibly masculine name as she is in the original. Now let’s go to what needs the bare minimum of original thought.

Touko can stay as Winter, but I'd prefer using winter in another language just to be less lazy about it. Zima is winter in most Slavic languages and is a real surname. We can work with this if we make our first swap here. Derive the family name from the name Touko and the given name from Fukawa.

So we need a given name that works with the fujoshi pun, which came to me surprisingly easy. Blair -> BL-er. The Blair Witch Project being a big and influential thing also helps putting the necessary gloomy vibes to Blair Zima's name.

Byakuya Togami

Calqued meaning for Togami: Ten Gods

Calqued meaning for Byakuya: White night (as in the astronomical term)

Explicit functionalities: None as far as I remember.

Implicit functionalities: Sounding fucking awesome.

Realism level: Both extremely rare names that technically exist.

This is honestly a little too anything goes, which makes it more difficult than having tight specifications to work with. I'll tentatively go with Artorius Decatheo. Artorius is tryhard version of Arthur, so there's the kingly image association, and shares its word root with Arctic, making a nod the place where the midnight sun (byakuya) happens. Decatheo is just Ten Gods in Greek.

Mondo Oowada

Calqued meaning for Oowada: Fields of Yamato

Calqued meaning for Mondo: Crest Earth

Calqued meaning for Daiya: Big A (as in the letter A from Roman alphabet)

Explicit functionality for Daiya and Mondo: Daiya's gang was named Crazy Diamond after Daiya (Dia) and Mondo (Mond).

Intertextuality for Daiya and Mondo: Their gang name alludes to Crazy Diamond, the Stand of Josuke Higashikata, a character who emulates Japanese delinquent aesthetics in homage to a stranger who saved his life.

Implicit functionality for Oowada: Bousouzoku were a particularly ultranationalistic subculture and having surname containing Japan's "most Japanese" name is probably supposed to reflect that.

Implicit functionality for Daiya and Mondo: A big stereotype about Japanese delinquents from the 90s and 2000s is that they later had kids with ridiculous names often formed by slapping rare kanji together to forcibly form an English word with it. Daiya and Mondo are key examples of these tacky and stupid "son of ex-delinquents" name.

Realism level: Oowada is not a too uncommon surname. Daiya and Mondo really sound made up but Kodaka says he studied with real people named that.

Ok, this one is extremely Japanese both in content and structure. There are too many factors to reasonably really on easy equivalence strategies, we have to play bold. I can exploit the delinquent trend of forcing English names into Japanese and flip it to represent another subculture, albeit a much younger and still developing one. I'm talking about punk weebs. We solve the Jojo reference issue by directly naming Daiya "Jotaro" and Mondo "Josuke".

Special thanks to the punk guy in my city with the baby named Sasuke. You help me here in a manner very fittingly similar to how the brothers Daiya and Mondo from Kodaka's school helped him.

Now for Oowada I don't have a neat solution. American biker gangs had the same origins as their Japanese counterpart (WWII veterans failing to properly reintegrate post-war) and the consequences of that to the subculture (macho patriotism) were the same. But American bikers love using hell and crime as motifs in their names and aesthetics, and somehow Hellman is a real and common surname, so I suppose Josuke Hellman fits. I'm waiting for better ideas in the comments.

The gang name can stay Crazy Diamond in theory, but I think I'd prefer renaming it to Shining Diamond as jokeful nod to Jojo's silly localization practices. I also considered renaming it to Star Platinum since Daiya is Jotaro Hellman now, but I think keeping the name Crazy Diamond-derived is a better fit with how Daiya created the gang for Mondo's sake. (And, on a meta level, with how Mondo/Josuke is the main character among the two)

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

Calqued meaning for Ishimaru: The Stone

Calqued meaning for Kiyotaka: Many Summers Purified

Explicit functionality: None unless you count the Ishida thing.

Implicit functionality for Ishimaru: The Stone carries an idea of solidity and rigidness, which is reflected in Ishimaru's personality.

Implicit functionality for Kiyotaka: Pure vibes, but I think the names Kiyotaka, Toranosuke, and to a lesser extent Takaaki, are all names you can tell come from a traditional family.

Implicit functionality for Ishida: Both Oowada and Ishimaru are decently uncommon names, but when they combine, they form the ridiculously common name Ishida and that's the kind of name joke Kodaka likes a lot.

Realism level: See above for the surname and fusion name. Kiyotaka is a name that exists with different kanji but the version meaning "Many Summers Purified" is unique to Danganronpa.

Starting from the disclaimer: I will not be using the meaning of Ishimaru's name as an excuse to call him Dwayne or Johnson. It's tempting but I promise to restrain myself.

Anyway, the parts using his real names are pretty loose, so we start from Ishida joke as the best place to narrow things down. Oowada being Hellman could have easily segued into a generic surname ending in -man, but in English, it's a lot more natural for people to introduce themselves by their given names, hence why Ishida became Kiyondo into the loc, so I'll work with their first names too.

We're obviously out of options for a notoriously generic English name ending in -suke, so we'll have to take the Jo- from Josuke (Mondo). Since I have Jojo in the brain right now thanks to Mondo, the easiest solution is merge this Jo into Kiyotaka=Nathan to form Jonathan. It works pretty neatly.

The surname doesn't matter as much so I'll take the lazy route on this one. Stone is a real English surname, so The Stone will be Stone. Nathan Stone, that's our guy.

Hifumi Yamada

Calqued meaning for Yamada: Mountain Fields

Calqued meaning for Hifumi: One Two Three

Explicit functionalities: None as far as I remember.

Implicit functionality for Yamada: Satou, Tanaka, and Yamada are the most common Japanese surnames (with I believe Yamada being at the first place at the time of DR1's release), so they're often used in fiction for jokes about names being generic, like how English does with Smith and Doe. Hifumi Yamada's case is about Kodaka liking to pair the goofiest first names with the most generic surnames.

Implicit functionality for Hifumi: His pen name as a doujin author is The Alpha and the Omega, which reflects his name being the first 3 numbers and his birthday being the last day of the year (which is also written using the numbers one, two, and three, but let's not make this harder than it needs to be).

Realism level: 100% the name here with the biggest chance of existing.

Alph Smith is the obvious perfect pick but it feels too easy and too on-your-face. I'd rather go with Uno Smith, that's a real name apparently.

Celestia Ludenberg

Calqued meaning for Yasuhiro: Cheap and Widespread

Calqued meaning for Taeko: Girl of Many Blessings

Explicit functionality for Celestia Ludenberg: Racefaking as white European so poorly that any random shmuck instantly recognizes her name as borderline parodical.

Explicit functionality for Yasuhiro: Her family name is homophonous with Hagakure's given name.

Implicit functionality for Yasuhiro: Cheap and Widespread represents the featureless normie she originally was and the total antithesis of who she wants to be.

Implicit functionality for Taeko: It alludes to how she describes her luck as the active crux of her talent, which ties into [long ramble about her parallels with Makoto].

Realism level: Celestia Ludenberg is a joke of a name even for in-universe standards. Taeko Yasuhiro is perfectly believable, if a bit uncommon.

Celestia Ludenberg is perfectly fine as it is. Grace and Hannah are names meaning something close enough to the "blessings" in Taeko. I'd favor Hannah because Kodaka went out his way to pick the rarer name Taeko over the common Megumi which would have had the same implicit functionality.

Now Yasuhiro needs to be both a surname and a male given name. Luckily, English is a language full of those. As you see below, the meanings of Hagakure's name don't matter that much, so I want prioritize "cheap and widespread" as the core idea of their shared name. This immediately brings me to the names Norman and Jean-Eric, but neither of them works as surnames or fit Hagakure's vibes. Meanwhile, Mondaine looks too French for its purpose being contrary to Celes's ideals and maybe doesn't work as a given name.

Cutting a lot of unproductive thought short, trying to look at things primarily from the "cheap and widespread" angle gave me nothing, but giving more consideration to the meaning and realism level of Hagakure's name, I found a satisfactory answer. I'll explain my logic better on Hagakure's side, but my adaptation of Taeko Yasuhiro is Hannah Arcadian. Arcadism is about romanticizing the farm life of humble peasants, so it fits well as the antithesis to her Celes identity built upon romantization of the castle life of opulent nobles.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

Calqued meaning for Hagakure: Concealed by Leaves (more notably, this is the title of a 1716 book historically considered the most influential manual on the samurai lifestyle)

Calqued meaning for Yasuhiro: Tranquility Comparable to the Lü Musical Scale (the equivalent to this in Western music notation is the Myxolidian scale)

Explicit functionality for Yasuhiro: His given name is homophonous with Taeko's family name.

Implicit functionalities: Both of his names leave a strong impression. Motifs very specific to Japanese history, delivered with distinct and powerful vibes of antiquity. Yasuhiro Hagakure is a name that suggests deep roots. I have a good post about how roots relate to Hagakure's and Celes' characters, you should check it.

Realism level: lol, lmao even. Hagakure is not a real family name. Yasuhiro is a very common given name with dozens of versions, but Hagakure's version makes a point to use the most ancient kanji it can fit, genuinely Heian poetry stuff, creating a version of Yasuhiro that doesn't exist in real life.

Well, I already told you about Arcadian. It's a name that fits in the "tranquility" meaning of Yasuhiro, and the name's overall appeal to classic literature associations to the point of unrealism. It doesn't tie too greatly with his character, but neither does the Japanese original. I'm pretty sure this name was chosen for Celes first and then just randomly slapped appropriate 10th century kanji.

That said, Yasuhiro Hagakure manages to have the most distinctively Japanese name in the series that has a guy named Korekiyo in it, so I think it would be appropriate for his Americanized counterpart to still have one (1) Japanese name. I considering picking a notable family name from the Heian period, maybe Abe or Minamoto, perhaps even Tsuchimikado in reference to Tsuchimikado Yasuhiro, but ultimately I decided to go with Arcadian Emishi to value Hagakure's identity as a hairy man of Touhoku.

Sakura Oogami

Calqued meaning for Oogami: Great God

Calqued meaning for Sakura: Not determinable because Sakura doesn't have kanji but Sakura generally means cherry tree or cherry blossom.

Explicit functionality: People familiar with her martial artist carreer are more likely to know her by the nickname Ogre, derived from the Ooga part of her real name.

Implicit functionality for Oogami: Sounding fucking awesome.

Implicit functionality for Sakura: Cherry blossoms are the flowers most commonly associated with refined femininity in Japanese flower language and that's a really important part of Sakura's identity. The use of hiragana instead of kanji also adds to the image of traditional femininity.

Realism level: Sakura is an extremely common name. Oogami is one of Japan's oldest surnames, tied to an ancient clans of priests and sorceres dedicated to worship of Ookuninushi, but the surname is rare nowadays because most of the clan changed their surname to Miwa in 648. Even then, I'd be surprised if no real person was ever named Sakura Oogami.

This was easier than I thought. Mary naturally comes an answer for Sakura's equivalent to the idea of "most common and tradiotinally feminine name ever". The Oogami/Ogre wordplay was a bit more of challenge. I really wanted to work Ogre in English too, but I still don't have any ideas. I know the Yugioh Vrains dub used the anagram Gore for its ogre-themed character, but I think this lacks the solemnty Oogami has.

Luckily, one of the ogre's closest equivalents is the orc, a creature with a name that easily strecthes into Orcus, the name of the Roman god of oaths. Orcus is also syncretized with Hades, which is a god that really fits with Sakura's sense of responsibility and characterization based on being less scary than she superficially looks, aside from being a lord of the underworld like the Ookuninushi historically tied with the Oogami name. I'm very satisfied with Mary "Orc" Orcus.

Aoi Asahina

Calqued meaning for Asahina: Morning sun? (Note: the question mark is actually part of the meaning, not an indication that I'm unsure about the translation)

Calqued meaning for Aoi: Hollyhock

Explicit functionality: None as far as I remember.

Implicit functionality for Asahina: The morning sun as a symbol of cheerfulness.

Implicit functionality for Aoi: Her name is homophonous with the color blue, associated with water, and consequently her talent as a swimmer.

Realism level: Both names are common enough that this exact combination has a higher chance of existing in the real world than not. One thing completely irrelevant to Aoi's character but cool enough for me to want to tell is that the Asahina family was originally a samurai clan founded by Asahina Yoshihide, and one the main tales about him is that he was so strong that after he died, he almost effortlessly defeated the king of hell in battle and forced him to show the way to paradise.

Ok, I kinda nothing to work with here. I guess I can just throw any combination of brightness-related or water-related names. Sunny Aguado, Aqua Solberg, Joy Fisher, Allegra Blue, Felicia Aquarius, Marina Summers, etc. There's no real element that gives any name option an edge above the rest. I really like Marisol here because it's a name that means "sea and sun" but unfortunately that leaves zero content to make a surname out of.

Aoi Asahina is an alliteration so maybe we can use that to narrow down to options like Aurora Attwater, Ariel Aelius, Mitra Marin, or Lana Luz. My final call will be Sapphire Solano, but there's really hundreds of ways this one can go. I changed the decided answer at least twice during the making of this post.

Mukuro Ikusaba

Calqued meaning for Ikusaba: War Blade

Calqued meaning for Mukuro: Not determinable because Mukuro doesn't have kanji but the word mukuro means corpse. However, if we were to assume the Mu in Mukuro must mean halberd, the most plausible configuration would be "Halberd Black".

Explicit functionality for Mukuro: Combining the Mu from Mukuro and the Jun from Junko, you form Mujun (contradiction).

Implicit functionality for Ikusaba: Tying to her soldier image while having more edge than a military-grade combat knife.

Implicit functionality for Mukuro: "Corpse" accurately describes her in her first appearance after her name is revealed.

Realism level: Zero. The Ikusaba surname is invented by Kodaka, and the name Mukuro comes up in anime sometimes but it's literally illegal to name your kid Corpse.

This is one was surprisingly interesting. Corpse Warblade is iconic and deservedly remained a meme in the fandom for years, so I wish I could keep it as is, but unfortunately it fails the most important functionality. It has to fit with Junko to form a word that can be associated with the mysteries the mystery game wants you to solve.

One of the first decisions I made for this post was to call Junko "Doxie" and look for an appropriate word beginning with Para for Mukuro. Later, when checking Doxie's realism level, I found out it's a rare name nowadays because the name became a word with sexual connotations. Incredibly lucky coincidence, to be honest. I think the meaning of Doxie actually fits Junko surprisingly well as representation of the gyaru subculture in its originating ideas.

But enough of Junko invading her sister's section. The name I chose for Mukuro is Parathion. It's the name of a poison, although not one weaponized against humans. Not great but it's the best the Paradox composition has to offer and I like Doxie too much to look for alternatives.

So, for that, Parathion's last name needs to carry Mukuro's corpse meaning, the tryhard edgelord aesthetic, the soldier imagery, and if possible also fit in the war blade meaning. That's a lot of things for just one name to do. I thought of Bloodshed as a surname that referred to war while doubling as an allusion to how Mukuro's own blood was already shed, but that felt a little obtuse. I ultimately decided to prioritize Mukuro's status as a corpse at the cost of the other aspects, and settled for the name Parathion Bloodless.

Kyouko Kirigiri

Calqued meaning for Kirigiri: Mist Cutter

Calqued meaning for Kyouko: Echo Girl, alternatively Audible Girl

Explicit functionality: None as far as I remember.

Implicit functionality for Kirigiri: Fog is a symbol of mystery so it fits for the detective family to say they sever and end it.

Implicit functionality for Kyouko that's is most likely a stretch but I need something to work with here: Kyouko is a girl who is heard. Whenever she talks, the other characters pay attention and take her words seriously. I can't remember an exception to this from the top of my head.

Silly alliteration: Every kanji in her name starts with a K sound (the g in giri is just a k vocalized with a dakuten).

Realism level: Kirigiri is made up by Kodaka and, as far as I can find, used only by Danganronpa and Genshin Impact to this day. Kyouko is a common name in many kanji configurations, including this one.

For reference, Genshin Impact localization names its Kirigiri sword as Mistsplitter Reforged. Great pick but not too relevant to us since it lacks the alliteration.

I wanted to insist in mist instead of any synonym because of its similar sounds to mystery, but the best name I could get from that was Mistmince, which is significant worse than Fogfeller both in epicness and in sounding like a name. So our alliteration will be on the F.

From this point onwards, we reach almost Asahina levels of "this can take forever and have almost 50 equally correct answers". Our options are every feminine one-syllable name that starts with an F or two-syllable names that both syllables have F. But we have to pick one. Fifer is definitely not a common name, but it has two F syllables and means "piper", which is a sound-related profession and is associated with the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which sorta tied to my stretchy idea of the name Kyouko representing the way she natural leadership, so Fifer Fogfeller it is.

Junko Enoshima

Calqued meaning for Enoshima: Inlet's Island

Calqued meaning for Junko: Shield Girl

Calqued meaning for Otonashi: Without sound (idiomatic expression meaning "lying low")

Calqued meaning for Ryouko: Breezy Girl (if we're working with archaic meanings, can alternatively be Innocent Girl)

Explicit functionality for Junko: The shield (jun) in her name is meant to be part of the word contradiction (mujun), written with the kanji for halberd and shield. Play case 5 of the first Ace Attorney game to know why.

Implicit functionality for Enoshima: Enoshima is a small tourist island in Kanagawa whose main attraction is a giant temple complex dedicated to the worship of goddess Benzaiten, popularly nicknamed Benten. Benzaiten is the goddess of pretty much everything that flows and constantly changes, most notably water, wind, music, words, poetry, knowledge, arts, and beauty.

Implicit functionality for Otonashi: Junko Enoshima sure isn't making any big moves in Danganronpa/Zero.

Implicit functionality for Ryouko: She very much has a breezy personality. No matter how many horrifying situations come her, she'll remain chill enough to drop a hearty and confident "Not my problem".

Implicit functionality for Ryouko if we were taking archaic meanings into consideration (we aren't): Otonashi hasn't done a single bad thing, it was all that weird Junko Enoshima chick she knows nothing about.

Possibly intentional functionality but I'm not sure: The most common configuration of the name Junko is with kanji meaning "Pure Girl", but this Junko's configuration rejects the purity kanji, reflecting the roots of the gyaru subculture as rebellion against Japan's purity culture.

Realism level: Enoshima exists only as the name of a location, not being a real person name. Junko is somewhat common in many kanji configurations (used to be a lot more prevalent around the 60s) but the "Shield Girl" version is unique to Danganronpa. The only non-Danganronpa-related mention of "Shield Girl" Junko I could find online is an early FGO interview where Takeuchi mentions Junko as placeholder name for Mash Kyrielight during development. Otonashi is a dying surname, perhaps much more common in fiction than in real life at this point. Ryouko is pretty normal.

I already covered Doxie in Mukuro's section. Really lucky pick. And the surname for it is just as lucky. This one should theoretically be hard because Benzaiten's domains of eloquence, fluidity, wisdom, and beauty make her a goddess very specific to what compose Junko's character. I don't think there's any Western goddess that covers all bases. The element of constant change, which might be the most important thing, is something I don't think I've seen in any other religion. But somehow Benten is a real English surname so here I miraculously get Doxie Benten as the easiest name in this post. I'm sure that in this hypothetical localization timeline, a lot of people will correctly associate the name Benten with Junko's multiple "transformation" but think the reference is Ben 10.

Now, I'm a huge sucker for dumb and obvious names playing on the word "incognito" and that's the energy I wanted to bring to Otonashi, but I need to do it without laying Zero's twist too obviously. Otonashi is known as the Super High School Level Analyst, so I think I can get away with Bree Cogito, three letters removed from incognito, as her talent can mislead the reader to think Cogito was chosen because it means "think".

[sevenpoyo]

some brooklyn slang ik for all the ppl who wanna write for miles and kilometers‼️

feel free to add more idk everything but i i am originally from there and visit a lot this stuff i hear a lot and if you wanna add slang to ur writing this is a good place to start, not all of these brooklyn or ny exclusive but that’s where a lot of american slang starts and u prolly heard some of it b4. imma list it ne ways

don’t use like 8 of these in one sentence bc it will sound weird and i can’t really cover ny puerto rican slang or any puerto rican slang really bc my grandad is a bum so if you know some add it

the city is manhattan, not the other 4 burroughs, just manhattan, cus that’s where everything’s at

to cut ass is to roast tf out of someone , to get your ass cut is get tf roasted out of you

wyling/wilding is being outta pocket, something being absurd or crazy

yeah nah means no and nah yeah means yeah idk why they gotta make it complicated just look at the second word

good looks is like good looking out

it’s bout to be winter and i’m bout to see mad christmas fics and shit but do y’all know the proper way to describe cold ny winters?

if it’s cold as hell, it’s brick outside, not regular cold, ny winter is like nipples so hard i see em thru the bra cold

ex; “how it’s so brick outside i walk to the store wit my hair wet and it deadass got icicles in it” “yeah it’s fr brick outside today” “i’m not walkin wit u in this brick ass weather for a bacon egg and cheese?” (actual convo between my sister and me last winter break)

fronting seem kinda easy to me but is like acting or pretending i can’t explain it with out an example

“why you fronting like you wouldn’t die if they text you asking u to go out with them” “you can stop fronting like you like cars it cool if you don’t” “don’t sit there fronting like u don’t wanna dance wit me”

being tight over something is just being upset or annoyed

rj is so smart they said “We say tight bc you kinda huddle close to yourself when you tense/stressed or angry” i had no idea i just be saying it i aint know it had a reason💀 it make sm sense now.

“who got you tight like that this early in the morning?” “my momma came home tight yesterday for no reason, she threw a boot at me!” “i’m so tight this damn shift change has me working all closers this week”

jack is like claiming someone or something

i talk old as hell idk what the youths be jacking nowadays

cop is basically to get, used to be mostly 4 drugs back in the day my dad said (he don’t know why im asking him this)

“just copped me some retro 3’s” “bout to cop me a few percs in a minute”

speaking of a minute, mostly for my non americans bc that’s who get confused the most when i say this one. depending on the context this can mean a actual minute, a short time or a real long

“i’ll be back in a minute” is short “i ain’t seen y’all in a minute” is long. idk how to explain the difference besides context

bop is a good song, pretty easy but i see ppl on tiktok use it wrong

bangs/banger goes hard is kinda like bob for music but i be using it for anything fr

“this push pop is banging yo”

mad can be used normal like angry but it also means a lot or really kinda like hella ig? i usually uses hella when i would say mad so ppl can understand me easier up here

dumb also mean very in the same way

ex; “my english teacher give out mad homework for no reason.” “she be giving me mad shit over the smallest stuff” “i just had some mad good wings so i’m cooling rn” “this shit is mad spicy u sure you want some?” ''This shit got me dumb tight'' “you don’t need no jacket it’s dumb hot out here”

smacked is like high as fuck idk how to elaborate ur just high

lit is drunk

“Yuuuur!'' A signal, a greeting usually used to catch the attention of someone or something very fun greeting and very hated by schools, it’s weird anywhere outside of ny kinda at least to me.

being hollywood means u get a little fame and think ur all that or just that u got a little fame and they’re jokingly hating

ex; “i saw u on the news the other day, “the prowlers return” u must be real proud of yourself huh hollywood?” “and here comes hollywood wit his trending tiktoks”

real talk is when ur about confess something or say something serious in a not real serious setting or convo

“real talk we play a lot but i love you, my life would be boring with out you around” “real talk i’d never do that to you foreal”

go together is like go out kinda, y’all kinda match behavior cus y’all a couple, this one need a sentence 2 i think. (THIS ONE IS OLD AS HELL ONLY USE IT IF UR TRYING TO RIZZ MOMMA RIO)

“he want ur number? he don’t know we we go together or sum?” “why she wanna act like we go together, ion even know her?” “don’t we go together?”

i can’t even explain it with a sentence y’all just gotta figure this one out 💀

A bodega/deli is a convenience store ik most know this from the movie but some ppl think it’s all stores or all spanish stores when it’s just a corner store

the owners of the deli closest to my granddad house is muslim. and so we keep track of all muslim holidays when he’s closed

an ock is the bodega man, miles knows the man’s name at the deli we see him visit, but at any other store he’d call the guy ock

dipping on someone is changing ur mind last minute, usually canceling plans

ex “we was supposed to go get outfits together but they dipped on me last minute”

staticky is like wanting to fight or still being pissed after a fight

static is beef or on sight energy

you good can really be anything but imma list ones i can think of

it can mean like are you ok? or don’t worry about it, or how are you, or stop, or do you got a issue? or do you want an issue? it’s all in the tone of how it’s said fr

'Word of my moms/dads I saw/ did/did not *insert topic*'' Honest term, no lying present in statement i feel like (my cousins be putting anything on they momma fr risking shit on her for no reason)

'hold it down'' handle buisness / take care of someone or something. can also be in refrence to criminal who handles ''buisness''

NOW EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU TO @rashadisback BC HE CARRIED ME ON THIS‼️

i hope this helps any writers that don’t live here!

[shadamyheadcanons]

What songs do you think that fits Amy and Shadow?

My knowledge about Shadow is only a few so I'm not sure about him

For Amy, it will be Happy Synthesizer and Ikanaide/Don't Go and various bubbly and lively songs

Combining these two for convenience.

First one - I’m glad you asked!

Love your ideas, especially Ikanaide. It sounds pretty upbeat at first, but then you pay attention to the lyrics, and...ouch. Feeling left behind and trying to pretend she’s okay with it? Yeah. That’s Amy. Here’s a link I found for an English version.

And here’s one for Happy Synthesizer.

As for which songs I associate with them, my Song & Dance tag covers the topic pretty well, especially this post.

Given how often I think about these two, though, I’m always finding more examples. There’s one song that I feel fits Amy better than any other. I wrote a headcanon about it on January 7th, 2022. I correctly predicted in that headcanon that a bunch of Amy-related stuff would happen that year--right down to her getting a new theme song, even!

I still think my song idea works better than the one in the Frontiers DLC, though. That one feels kind of bland to me. Yeah, she trusts her cards, but she’s supposed to be a go-getter! She reads the cards and then blazes her own destiny using them as a guide. Her mild Frontiers theme gives off the vibe of someone who’s letting fate happen to them, not the other way around. Amy is kind, but she’s not passive.

Laineybug04 correctly pointed out in this post that “House of Gold” by Atreyu fits Shadamy quite well, and I included “Wait for You” in In a Pinch, but it doesn’t stop there. The more I listen to Atreyu, the more I hear Shadamy, and I’m glad you gave me an excuse to point it out! “House of Gold,” “Wait for You,” “Terrified,” “Super Hero”...and “I Would Kill/Lie/Die for You” is pretty much spot-on for Shadow’s brand of dedication. It’s more romantic than the title makes it sound, haha.

They’re not all necessarily romantic in nature, but it’s very easy to imagine Shadow singing them about Amy.

I want to call special attention to “Stronger Than Me,” though.

The speaker starts by showing insecurity.

Yup.

He fears opening up and showing his entire self because he thinks others will be scared by what they see.

Yup.

He admits connecting with him might be complicated sometimes, but he remains steadfast because the relationship is important to him.

And, uh...this is from the chorus:

“When I was lost, You were always there, my guiding light, You are my ward, my compass ROSE, my lighthouse in the night”

Do I even need to explain? She’s one comma away from being name-dropped. The song’s title fits perfectly, too. It takes a lot of strength to always look for the best in people and put your faith in the goodness of others. It’s so easy to give up. Shadow would legitimately admire her for it. She deserves to know how special she is for that, and who better to tell her than someone whose entire life was changed by that strength and kindness?

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the song and lyrics. Trust me, you’ll need the lyrics sheet.

Second ask:

Yes, absolutely! I think of him as liking modern rock and metal, and also jazz because it would’ve been all the rage when he was made. I’ve mentioned this before, but if I had to pick one band to be his favorite, I’d say Nine Inch Nails. It’s heavy, intense, angsty, and complex, and it has some of the same electronic, bass-centered vibes as Shadow’s earlier themes. Compare NIN songs like Discipline and The Perfect Drug with Rhythm and Balance (White Jungle’s theme) and Shadow’s original character theme, Throw it all Away, both by Everett Bradley. Trent Reznor also has a deep voice like Shadow and Bradley do. NIN could do a mean cover of Throw it all Away, now that I think about it...

I don’t think it’s the best idea for canon, even the questionably-canon Twitter Takeover, to cite real people/artists. It’s fine for fans like us to do it, but the official franchise is different. Humans are flawed and complicated. When you start including real people, you could potentially do something awkward like, say...connect your series built on environmentalism with someone who uses a private jet.

Y’know. Hypothetically.

That’s why I love what the social media team did with Hot Honey in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. A fictional band doesn’t carry that risk, and they’re seamless within the Sonic universe. Fans like us can’t get caught on whether or not Shadow would enjoy their music because none of us can actually hear them.

Funnily enough, your ask aligns perfectly with what makes Hot Honey so cute for these two. Shadow canonically doesn’t like Hot Honey at all:

No questions asked, no headcanons needed.

The reason he agreed to go was entirely, 100% because Amy asked him to. I think that’s far sweeter than the Taylor Swift thing. And I’ll be able to prove that when I finish writing Sweeter Than Honey. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about it!

No offense to anyone who does enjoy Taylor Swift’s music, of course. Different strokes for different folks. :)

[plazmafields]

Some thoughts about Kerry:

Spoilers ahead, needless to say.

1)

I saw a video comparing the two versions if Chippin' In (Kerry's vs. Johnny's) where someone in the comments suggested the reason Kerry leaned more mainstream rock is because he only wanted to make music for money. I completely disagree with this and here's why:

User Friendly was the last song Kerry put out before deciding he wasn't going to perform live/tour anymore and went into a deep depression. Looking up the lyrics, you can see he was becoming very distressed with the lack of control he had over his career, and the things he says in the song sound like a cry for help that wasn't received by listeners the way he had hoped. We never hear his version of the song, and I believe that is intentional. Vapid, loud, chaotic, almost over-stimulating laser-pop is such a huge juxtaposition to the lyrics, and yet it's the only version we get to hear. Clearly User Friendly meant a lot to him or I don't think he would have reacted the way he did; combined with the cover being done by a pop group groomed by the music industry to sell as many albums as possible, it all went against Kerry's original intent with the song. Then there's the story of how he wrote Bleed the Beat: he was working his ass off for people he couldn't stand and that song was his outlet during that time. He'd play until his fingers bled just to get his frustrations out. Music is his medium for release, just like it was for Johnny.

In Johnny's version of Chippin' In, the phrase "chipping in" has two meanings: getting your first implants, and, the same as our universe, helping out. Johnny's song uses both meanings interchangeably during the choruses, the verse before it dictating which definition is being used. Johnny's arm is (from what I can tell looking at the design) military issue. The song is both about the corpo military forcing him to get an implant, and also about believing he was doing the right thing when he joined by "helping out" the armed forces. Since, in this universe, militaries are owned and/or sponsored by corporations, Johnny views corporate jobs and military service to be the same level of morally wrong (The Ballad of Buck Ravers attests to this).

In terms of how the two songs compare, obviously Kerry's version of Chippin' In is meant to have more wide appeal. Not only are the lyrics more tame, mostly just talking about the implants themselves and only having one verse that even mentions anything "political", but I believe Kerry understood that the best way to get his music to the most listeners was to go for a more mainstream sound and universally relatable lyrics, so he toned it down. Everyone hates corpos, sure, but not everyone wants to bomb Araska HQ. This is probably a stretch, but we can see from the flashbacks that Kerry didn't have any implants during his time in Samurai, so maybe Johnny was like super opposed to implants after having one forced upon him, and Kerry's version of the song is kind of saying "hey if you want implants get implants, they make you look cool don't feel bad about it."

2)

I do support the idea that Kerry should have been bisexual like in the source material. I absolutely get that bi erasure is a big problem, ESPECIALLY with male characters. However, I respect that in the game you can only romance him with a masc V; I'm not going to mod him to he bi, I'm not gonna ship him with women. I see it the same way I see Cullen from DAI: he is canonically bisexual, just not attracted to my male Inquisitor (in Kerry's case, fem V). Maybe Kerry had such a traumatic divorce from his ex-wife that women just kinda scare him right now. We can see high heels and bras and blush littering his house, so we can assume that at the very least women are still getting naked for some reason or another at his parties. Maybe he prefers men romantically, or maybe he's just not ready to date women again, and we as players should respect that just like we would a real person.

3)

Kerry was 100% going to kill himself when you show up to his house. There are shards advertising robotic security systems in numerous places around his house (meaning he fired his human body guards), shards with negative reviews of his last album, there is only one camera and it is by the front gate (none inside the house), he gave his cleaner and cook "the day off" that very day, you see in emails that his ex-wife is giving him the option of all or nothing with custody (you take the kids or you don't get to see them), and he isn't enjoying making music anymore, his one passion in life. He had a gun with him in the bathroom, and I believe by the way his speech slurs and he makes the impulsive decision to get Samurai back together, that he is drunk for that entire scene and has a drinking problem. It is my opinion that the reason he doesn't reveal any of that to V is because he knows Johnny will hear it and judge him, call him weak, or make insensitive jokes like he does to V when he gives you the quest. The only time we see Kerry be somewhat vulnerable is 1. Over text when talking about the crazed fan, since he probably thinks Johnny can't see those (I believe he can) and 2. In the epilogue when Johnny has been removed from V's head (Kerry says he doesn't want to lose V, and during the credits he tells V he just wants their lives to be less hectic so they can spend more time together).

4)

It took me a couple playthroughs to warm up to Kerry, Panam is probably still my favorite romance, but I think Kerry might be the best romance option for a Skreetkid V. He perfectly embodies the plights of Night City at every income bracket: no matter where you are on the food chain, if you're not at the top, you're getting fucked over. He clearly likes living in comfort while still embracing his rebellious side from his youth. But now, he has the cushion of money and status to save him if things go tits up (when you get a wanted level in Westbrook district, close to North Oak, the officer on the police scanner says "I swear, if its Eurodyne again" suggesting that he is very reckless but hardly ever faces real consequences). Maybe he stays in his gilded cage because he fears facing real hardship on his own, without friends, without a support group, without Johnny. He has a strong sense of pride, though, and would never admit to needing Johnny, even if they were best friends. The way Kerry wants to show Johnny a riff he's been working on after the concert, only to be disappointed when V takes over again, I think it really shows that as much as they disagreed, their friendship held the band together.

5)

I don't remember if Johnny hints at it or I saw someone suggest this on here, but the idea that Kerry only "dates" V because Johnny is in his head is ridiculous to me. The first time he called you to deal with the Us Cracks tour gear, he wanted Johnny. Every time after that, he wanted V. He definitely realizes which of the two is helping him; he can tell them apart. The Johnny that Kerry remembers wouldn't have done a selfless thing in his life, lest risking his pride and reputation as Night City's biggest fuckboy. Whether you really schmooze him up or tell him he's going overboard, Kerry appreciates that you helped him. And I think after the concert, when he hands V his gun, Kerry's body language suggests that he wasn't planning to give the gun to Johnny, he thought about it because V was back in control. V helped get the band back together, V helped decide if Denny or Henry should play the gig, V was the one who brought Johnny to Kerry's house. Johnny won't take over to do it himself despite probably being able to. I only wish you didn't meet him so late in the main story, so that his story could have more time and space to breathe.

[thenightling]

Songs that might actually have real magical power connected to them / may double as a spell.

Vocal spells fall under the element of air since we need air to speak and wind is is what carries our voices and our intentions in our voices. The reason some spells rhyme or are in a foreign language different from the native language of the caster is because that makes you focus more on the words and the intention and meaning behind those words. This focus is what gives vocal spells their power. Whether an incantation, chant, vocal invocation, or, yes, a song.

Here in my top ten list of real pop songs that might double as spells or have magick infused into them.

Disclaimer: Some of these are harmless but others might actually be considered dangerous. Proceed with caution.

1. The Witch Queen of New Orleans by Redbone. Often played on Halloween radio dot net this song is a classic. According to legend if you make an offering to the great Marie Laveau and then dance to The Witch Queen of New Orleans you might invoke the spirit of Marie Laveau. She will grant a boon to anyone who can win her favor.

2. Sympathy for The Devil by The Rolling Stones. It doesn't matter who sings this, according to some rumors, any time this song is performed live, someone near to the performance will drop dead. Whether from being trampled, heart attack, or drug over-dose. The song is considered to be cursed. Even River Phoenix's death may be connected to it as a new cover of the song was being recorded for the movie Interview with The vampire around the time of River Phoenix's death. He was supposed to play Daniel Malloy, the reporter, in the movie. The role ended up going to Christian Slater.

3. Heaven is a place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle. Ever since I was little I took this song as a sign someone I knew and loved was going to die. The song doesn't cause it, but I noticed that it would happen to be on the radio, particularly walking in to a store, shortly before someone's death. Some writer on the 2019 Swamp Thing series noticed something similar and had the song tied to a haunting in an episode of the short lived series.

4. Witches' Brew by Omnia. The lyrics to this song are actually words from Shakespeare's MacBeth. The play, MacBeth, is supposed to be cursed. According to one version of the origin for the superstition, Shakespeare got his Weird Sisters scene from observing an actual witch coven meeting and when he used it in his play, the real witches cursed him and the play. It's a popular theatre superstition that you are not supposed to say MacBeth except in regard to the character's name and to only refer to the play, itself, as "The Scottish play."

As the song Witches' Brew by Omnia is just the dialogue of the witches from that scene put to music, the song is considered to have a power of its own and may also be cursed.

5. Bad Moon Rising by CCR. Many know this song from its use in An American Werewolf in London. The song has been on a few Halloween albums and is also considered a rock classic. Some people have considered the song to be the musical equivalent of a mild hex or The Evil Eye. Mild bad luck has been associated with the song.

6. The Ballad of the Witches' Road (Lorna Wu / Pop version) from Agatha All Along. In the canon of the show the song is a protection spell for Lorna's daughter to keep a family's generational curse at bay. The lyrics, out of context, seem to be about the road of life, particularly for a Pagan or Witch, and the importance of love and its eternal and infinite power. With the references to real occultism, the song might have the power to enhance or infuse a spell casting potential if only slightly. Besides being an affirmation of faith in magick and love. Consider it a magical espresso or booster shot, particularly for Wiccans and some other Neo Pagan groups.

7. Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. This is an adorable one. Apparently the song, Ghostbusters, was infused with a lot of positive energy such as the emotions of playfulness mingled with hope and so many people can't help feeling a sudden and unexplained optimism and / or joy when hearing it. Ray Parker jr., himself, believes the song can make you smile even if you've never seen the Ghostbusters movie to understand its context. It just makes you feel good for reasons you may not be able to explain.

8. Remember by Ember from Danny Phantom. This song is considered to be cursed. I don't even like putting it at number 8 on the list. Originally it was written for the TV show Danny Phantom. The song gave the backstory of the ghost Ember and how she died. A fan named Randy Robert Stair became obsessed with the character to the point of delusion and ended up shooting up a local store in 2017. The song is now considered tainted by these murders.

As the song was originally the angsty backstory and battle cry of a vengeful ghost from a kids show the song already had an innate negativity to it despite the catchiness of it. Some people even claimed they didn't like to sing along to it or even hear it because any time they dared do that one of their pets would fall ill within a month and die.

9. Angels by Within Temptation. This one is a slow burn justice spell. The song may invoke spirits of justice and if they deem your cause justified and worthy, those who wronged you will be justly punished within three years of the use of the song as invocation for angels of justice.

10. Locked within the Crystal ball by Blackmore's Night. Just an affirmation of faith in the magick that exists in the elements of nature.

11. Bonus mention: Anything written by Charles Manson including The Beach Boys Never learn not to love. All considered cursed. Anything by Fleetwood Mac / Stevie Nicks is magically infused. Stevie Nicks is a practicing witch. And certain songs by David Bowie are about occultism and Kabbalism.

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

7 11 28 for 2024 asks YIPPEE

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

YES! The Wingfeather Saga, mainly back in January!!

As far as ships go I don’t believe I have? I have some ideas for a fic about a wonderful couple in Wingfeather, but so far I haven’t actually written it. I never feel confident when I write romantic/shippy fics, as I myself have never been in a romantic relationship, have never kissed anyone, and have no interest in getting a romantic partner or seeking one out. So like… I feel like I’m not the most qualified person to write this sort of stuff asdfghjkjhgfghj

What fic was the most difficult to write?

Gonna go with my Interstellar AU because I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS. FREAKING THING. FOR TWO YEARS I THINK? IT IS A ONE-SHOT. IT IS NOT EVEN 10K WORDS LONG. IT IS A ONE-SHOT. IT DOES NOT COVER THE ENTIRE MOVIE. IT IS LITERALLY ABOUT A COLLECTION OF SCENES THAT TAKE PLACE DURING 10-20 MINUTES OF THE MOVIE. WHY IS IT TAKING ME YEARS TO WRITE. PLEASE.

I’m super happy with what I’ve written for it AND I did make a delightful amount of progress on it this year, but it is one of Those fics I am prone to getting. stuck <3. on. so very stuck. just so incredibly stuck. I Don’t understand what it is about this fic that causes me to struggle So Much with it… but alas.

Also Dear Wormwood, but with this one I Understand Completely why starting it/writing it has been so so tricky. With Interstellar it’s just kinda AAAAAAAAAAA

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

Thank you to music artist Brye, because without your song I’d Rather Be Alone the original idea for Dear Wormwood would have never been sparked. Like seriously I had Been thinking a lot about c!Dream & c!Ghostbur’s relationship for whatever reason, but it was this particular song that gave me the very beginnings of what would become Dear Wormwood :)

Also thank you to that random tiktok compilation that popped up on my youtube home page, because without that, the Rest of Dear Wormwood would have likely never been sparked <3 Cannot believe I have tiktok to thank for this. this is dreadful.

ALSO. HUGE BIG THANK YOU TO ��GOODBYE, SWEET GIRL” BY KELLY SUNDBERG. In addition to being the best book I read all year, it also helped me So much with researching for Dear Wormwood. Beautiful emotional book oh my goodness.

Thank you to the series Maid on netflix. I have not. ever watched this show BUT the clips on youtube are very good and this also helped a little with Dear Wormwood :)

Literally all of my thank you’s are for Dear Wormwood… what can I say. I mean it when I said this was one of The Most important and special stories I’ve ever come up with.

Gonna be real: 2024 was not a very good year for me as far as writing goes. Writers block? dreadful. has not gone away since February. Motivation? gone. floated away many many months ago. I did not write nearly as much as I would’ve liked to, and not nearly as much as I’m used to writing. HOWEVER, DESPITE ALL OF THIS, good things did happen—Dear Wormwood being up at the top of my list. I may not have written very much for this AU, but I did come up with many ideas and scenes.

[kingdomkeykitsune]

KHOC WEEK DAY 3: CONNECTION

Okay, so, I only had time to fully finish one of today's art pieces for @khoc-week (and of course I chose the moody one) I might update later with the finished version of the other one, we'll have to see lol. Anyway! While she's friendly with most people there are a few connections C.E. has that really stand out, but I'm putting it all under a cut because this one's a bit long.

Luka (left) and Nao (right).

Relationship Theme: Here's to Never Growing Up by Avril Lavigne

Having known each other most of their lives these three are practically inseparable. Together they make up a group called the Twilight Guardians. Most people thing it's just the name of their skate group (Luka and C.E. skateboard, Nao rollerskates) and/or their garage band (C.E. plays bass, Luka plays guitar/keyboard, Nao drums, and Luka and C.E. both do vocals) but in actuality they call themselves that because they make up the newest incarnation of the Twilight Town protectors. Each unknowingly descended from the original protectors and their families, they unlocked their abilities to fight Creatures of Darkness when they were attacked by Heartless while exploring the Mansion in the Woods sometime prior to DiZ setting up camp there. Because this was such a formative experience for them all they decided to make the winged unicorns that show up all around the mansion their group symbol.

A little info on their abilities:

Luka is a magic user and healer, he can summon a staff weapon that doubles as a melee weapon in a tight spot and can use a few types of elemental magic, namely air and fire, in addition to having strong healing magic.

Nao is a little gremlin of a tank who can summon a giant hammer weapon. She can also technically use earth/stone magic, but she often forgoes it in favor of a brute force approach.

C.E. covers ranged combat, she can summon a revolver that fires magic projectiles. These projectiles are basically concentrated light magic, the upside to this is that she doesn't need to take time to physically reload, the downside is that how many rounds she can fire is linked directly to her MP, meaning if she doesn't take care it's easy for her to drain her reserves and end up in a bad spot.

Like I said, these three are thick as thieves and the very best of friends. Of course, not every relationship is so smooth.

Seifer

Relationship Theme: Not Another Song About Love by Hollywood Ending

It's been said that no one knows how to drive you crazy quite like the ones who know you best, and these two are a perfect example of that. Having grown up as next door neighbors in the same apartment block they've known each other since they were in diapers, and generally tend to get along about as well as the proverbial cats and dogs. They bicker about anything and everything, often to the point their respective friends will wander off together to hang out until they burn themselves out.

And yet... They find themselves drawn back together again and again. No one knows them the way they know each other, Seifer knows about the shelves full of photo albums and scrapbooks C.E. keeps in her room, C.E. knows about the movie that Seifer watches over and over even though he knows the script by heart. They know just what to say to set the other off like a fireworks show, and where they hide when they get lost in their head. If one is in real trouble the other is the first one to come running and when everything is just too much they know they can count on each other for a shoulder to lean on, no words needed. And somewhere along the way childish rivalry began to grow into something more, something deeper.

Not that either one is quite ready to admit it.

Bonus points if anyone can figure out what any of the blurred posters in the background are. Hint: They're all Covers/Official Art for Square games (They're also all things that have influenced the developement of C.E.'s character, but I doubt anyone but me can draw those connections lol)

[project-sekai-facts]

Do you happen to know if there is any standard set by the game for which songs are “canon” written by the units and which are genuinely covers? Are the commissioned songs meant to be written by the groups in game? Because I know during the lives sometimes leo/need will say something along the lines of “this is YOUR song miku” admitting they are covering a vocaloid song. But then which songs do the sekai give birth to? And which original songs are the units allegedly performing when they go on stage/online? I get confused…..

Alright so anything performed in a Virtual Live is canon, which means all comms with a 3DMV actually exist in-universe, and were presumably created by the Sekai. RAD DOGS might also be canon despite being a 2DMV because it’s used as bgm sometimes when VBS perform (however it may just be placeholder music, hard to tell since they never name the songs they perform in the story). Aside from a few instances (mainly in the VBS story), these are only performed in the Sekai and almost exclusively in virtual lives. I don’t know if connect lives are canon, mainly due to the whole thing of breaking the 4th wall to interact with the audience (also the wxs one broke the 4th wall outside of that and the seiyuu broke character), so I can’t confirm if any of the originally-2DMV comms performed in those actually exist in-universe.

There’s also multiple instances of characters writing their own songs. Mainly Leo/need and N25, but Toya and a few side characters have written origjnal songs. Most of these songs are included on the OST, but there are some missing for whatever reason. These are the songs that are usually performed whenever the units are in the real world, with the music notes or exclamation marks in textboxes. The only original songs with actual lyrics are Kohane’s solo song from Kick it up a notch, and RADder’s song that Taiga performs in Light Up the Fire (this is the one the fandom dubbed Caucasian Destination).

There’s a few bgm tracks that are referred to as Miku songs, but most of these are actually just original instrumental songs for the game and not actual vocaloid songs. The only existing vocaloid songs performed in the story (not counting vlives) are Rettou Joutou and Happy Synthesiser.

[catcatb0y]

Honestly though saying (or implying) that vocaloid or vocal synths in general "devalues the human voice" is SUCH an incredibly shit take for SO many reasons.

Like yeah Saki Fujita getting so many other roles in voice acting because of her contribution to Hatsune Miku (the anime cameos and stuff are usually done with her original voice, them modified to be robotic) is a bit of an outlier when most other vocaloid and sythns don't have that influence.

You can even sort of wave off the dozens upon dozens of people who go for realistic tuning- like whenever a synth has any sort of clarity, there are like five people commenting about how real they sound. Clearly people do still care about human sounding vocals, because they go nuts over realistic vtuning.

There are many different aspects of vocaloid that use human voices, too- from Set It Off's duet "Why Do I?", human rap artists using Miku's vocals as background, and the entire CONCEPT of Project Sekai which releases AND COMMISSIONS songs for vocal synths and real people.

But the sheer number of vocaloid producers who use their own vocals as back up (MikitoP, PinoochioP, and I believe Kira off the top of my head), the number of producers who can sing and/or do self covers (again Kira, GIGA, Ayase, Teniwoha, syudou and so many more), and the amount of vocal producers who have gone forward with legit musical careers after working with vocaloid (Kenshi Yonezu, most notably, who did work for years under the alias Hachi)

I mean, hell. There are vocaloid producers who go on to become vocaloid vocals themselves- like nostraightanswer, the vocal provider for DEX, who has made both vocaloid and original songs. Some even duets.

That's not even including creators like JubyPhonic, Rachie, Will Stenson, Lollia, Octavia, Razzy and Co., and SO many other HUMAN cover artists who gained following or honed their skills on none other than vocaloid covers. (And that's just a handful of English Cover artists, not like Sati Akura a Russian cover artist or Ado who has commissioned songs from vocaloid artists)

It's also not including UTAUites who input their own voices to use for covers.

"Devalues the human voice" is such blatant bs. They ARE human voices. They are OUR voices. "You'd think by now that we would have learned, behind every piece if art is a human to be heard." (- CircusP, 'Better Off Worse')

[qllie]

wtf is wrong with this guy he groomed a minor and in his apology he's like "even Kasane Teto won't forgive me for my actions" DUDE YOU COMMITTED & ADMITTED TO A CRIME BE SERIOUS!!!!

Like it's just disrespectful to put a ridiculous reference into your apology for a crime. These are extremely serious allegations and making such absurdly self-pitying remarks is just awful it's sickening. I mean obviously there was absolutely nothing he could say in his "apology" that could make his actions okay, but this is sickening it's just awful.

The Teto thing is just so tasteless. This isn't about Kasane Teto at all, this is about you GROOMING A CHILD. Like saying "Oh no the fictional singing robot will be disappointed in me" like you should be worried about THE REAL ACTUAL PERSON WHO YOU HURT NOT ABOUT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER'S OPINION OF YOU.

His apology also completely minimizes what happened. He says that "it's all because of my selfish strong desires that I just went too far..." like no you told someone you knew to be a minor to send you explicit pictures of themself and sent them explicit pictures of yourself as well. That's not simply just "reacting to strong desire" that's GROOMING A CHILD. Like just say that's what you did don't dance around the issue with such vague terms.

Also this section is just disgusting. It essentially blames all his negative actions with the excuse of "mental illness." Like it's not simply just "mental illness." Like even if he did have some mental illness, you still have control over your actions. He could have deleted his discord server if he really couldn't resist his "strong desire," he could have seeked help, etc etc. He still hurt an EXTREMELY VULNERABLE CHILD no matter what the reason is. No one is feeling any pity for him over this. This just seems like an attempt to deflect blame while including self-indulgent "Oh I'm sooooo terrible I'm soooo bad woe is me." Like just say that YOU did it don't blame "mental illness"!

Honestly it's good that he demonetized his videos and deleted his patron at least. Because yeah he should not be making money off this... Like at least he's gone (hopefully permanently) because so many people who do this type of stuff just deny it and come back....

And the people saying "IDC about the grooming please keep making covers and put your videos back up" are so irritating. Like

The grooming and the covers are actually related? Like he groomed this person using his influence from being a relatively popular UTAU cover artist and having his own discord server. So these things are directly related, so it's necessary that he stops having an online presence so that he stops being able to use his power to groom people.

There are a million other Teto covers, song USTs, etc. Yes obviously every single person has unique covers/tuning/etc, but it's not as if this persons work is completely irreplaceable? Like people saying "I need Kasane Teto" when she's literally the most popular UTAU character (and her SV is one of the most popular voicebanks rn). There's no shortage of Kasane Teto, literally just look up 重音テト on youtube and you'll find a million covers and original songs. There is absolutely no reason you specifically need to listen to a child groomers covers. (Additionally, IIRC he usually covered songs that were pretty popular? So you can probably easily find several Teto covers of those exact songs).

Grooming is actually really serious? This guy took advantage of a minor??? I don't care how good someone's tuning/covers/music are it's not worth supporting them grooming a child!

That kind of attitude bothers me so bad because it's just showing callous disregard to someone who was hurt just for the sake of what??? "TETO'S GROWL GHOST RULE"????

[findpenpalsover20]

I'm ancient, 37 at least! but somehow, still not dead. Married, works in retail, I own a cat, I'll sleep 16 hours a day when I can. I read a lot, usually books about nuclear accidents, miserable graphic novels or weird stuff featuring mushrooms. (Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville are favourites) I watch pre-code films mainly, or old talkies where the dialogue is slightly echoey and stilted. I like any old films though, and I'm a real lover of Star Trek. I think I know someone who may actually be Gul Dukat.

 I take Instax photos because they look exactly how memories do in the confines of my own head. Blurry, soft focus, more the idea of something than how it really looks. Or maybe that's because I'm terrible at taking photos, and I have a really bad memory. Anyway, I can send some to you, maybe?

 I like to knit and crochet, but it takes me years to finish anything. Also, I've long held the suspicion that purling is a hoax and Not Real.

 I have a very scruffy garden in which I pretend to grow food. This charade takes up entirely too much of my time. I basically use it as a cover - when my astroturf-gravel-and-decking neighbours look over snootily, I say, "well my garden is messy because I grow food in it, you know. It's functional, not aesthetic, darling."

 I geocache, with very limited success. The main goal of geocaching, I find, is to try and look as suspicious as you can in front of passers-by. I look a bit foreign, too, so that helps.

I play video games, especially if they're filled with moments of calm tragedy. You know: Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shadow Of The Colossus/Ico, Sable, Kentucky Route Zero, Hyper Light Drifter, the original Link's Awakening...Elden Ring, even. I like a meditative, solitary experience from my games. I rarely finish them, though. If I finish a game that means I have to say goodbye and I don't like that.

 I'm really into the idea of outsider artists at the moment. I've never created a thing in my life and have no intention of ever doing so; ADHD makes sure I have absolutely no drive. But I'm fascinated with the idea of people who decide to make a holy shrine out of tinfoil, or wear a papermache head, create an alter-ego and then get booed off at Wembley for asking who's got Betamax, or write songs about how Spiderman tried to cut them out of 70 dollars and so they felt compelled to beat him with a rubber hose. You know what I mean? These people are all around us and we don't always know they're there. (There's a man who lives near me, in my dull New Town who's covered his house, the outside that is, in his own paintings. I have a terrible urge to knock on his door and ask him what's up, but my husband has implored me not to in case he murders me and uses my skull as an ashtray.)

 I'm quite flippant and usually never serious. If you don't find me funny - which most people don't - then maybe I'm not for you. A lot of people on the internet are so normal, and my penpal attempts have usually fizzled out because these people want to talk about... Grad school, or buying a house, or working in an office... and I want to talk about the sad melancholy feeling when BBC1 used to close down at midnight in the 1990s... Your typical university educated office worker I ain't. I'm not exactly shoplifting from Londis though, either, don't worry.

contact: @rainy-walk

[an-aura-about-you]

starting in on Handbook for Mortals and I'm just going to cover all the miscellaneous beginning crap that this thing is wrapped in before actually starting on the story.

first thing I'm going to talk about is what's on the back of the book because not a lot of people talk about what was chosen for that. usually there's a brief blurb with the premise of the book or maybe some reviews, sometimes even a little paragraph directly from it to entice the reader. that last one is my standby when I need to put a summary for a fic.

Handbook for Mortals went the route of paragraph from the book as well as three quotes from romance author Skye Turner, who also wrote the foreword for the book, and the promise that this book will soon be turned into a movie. which was due to come out *checks my wrist* six years ago. this has not yet happened, but the author is still insisting it will.

anyway, the bit chosen from the book to highlight what we're getting into is a conversation between our main character and her love interest, which is meant to be some enemies to lovers stuff. but honestly I'm a bit uncomfortable at the, "looked like he might hit me, but I knew that wasn't really an option for him," in there. so, we are already setting up our love interest as a person who needs some kind of mental restraining bolt to refrain from violence instead of just, y'know, not being violent. really speaks to his morals right there. absolutely trustworthy, surely his resolve is ironclad.

this also speaks to the genre of the book because there's a lot of talk about this book having magic and being magical but it's the romance we're choosing to set up here. I think it's safe to say magic is going to be present in this book the way coffee is in a coffee shop au fanfic: it's technically true but it's not why we're reading the story and ultimately not important to it.

I'm not even gonna bother with the blurb on the inside of the dust jacket because it's literally just a synopsis of the entire book. even the ending. I'm not even kidding.

now I wanna talk about the autographs my copy came with. the book I bought for $2 off of Amazon was signed by both the author Lani Sarem and actor-potential producer of the movie Thomas Ian Nicholas, and both of them write some pretty weird things to the people they gave this book to. (there were two names in the personalizations as well as a post-it note with those same names. my best guess is one person in the couple preordered the book with Sarem, requested that it be signed, and then never picked it up. hilarious if true.)

I'll start with American Pie guy's dedication first:

"Be the magician who fools magicians."

like. what? what does that even mean?

Sarem's is both worse and funnier:

"Never forget those who do not believe in magick will never find it! Thanks for believing!"

well I guess they didn't believe too much if they never picked up their book. also that just feels so mean-spirited to me. had I written a similar dedication, I would phrase it as, "Never forget those who believe in magic will always find it!" then it's still exclusive without needlessly dragging others down for ~not being able to find the magic in their lives~. not to mention my own personal pet peeve with the whole magick thing, but that is a rant for considerably later.

there is a typo in the book's disclaimer:

"Any similarity to real persons, living or deal,"

but also that doesn't make sense because I know this book has the real life Plain White T's with their real names as well as Carrot Top and Wayne Newton.

there's also proof that Sarem had permission to use all the song lyrics she uses in the story, which are so copious that without thinking I originally wrote the word, "fic," in this sentence. because yeah, this reeks of songfic, the rare example of one where the person writing has permission to actually use the song. look, I've only seen song lyrics work in a book exactly once, and that was Good Omens. and Lani Sarem is not Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman.

(I should know, I just listened to the audiobook for Stardust as a sort of cleanser to remind me what a good book sounds like. it's shockingly refreshing listening to the work of an author who is actually good at their job.)

the dedication is also just. ugh:

"This is dedicated to: The granddaughters of the witches you could not burn and for all those who believe in Magic."

that exists in print in this book. I'm assuming seriously.

I took a peek at how long the foreword is but don't have time to get in on it before I start work today, so this is where I leave things for now.

[corvus-rose]

incredibly silly question about aki.

please describe to me how you think aki as a twitch streamer would go

it's unethical to put Aki on twitch, for the same reason it's unethical to put a fox on the same boat as a bunch of chickens, or unethical to let mr abel theweek.nd make a show about women in the entertainment industry. but allow me to go into excruciating detail.

twitch has a lot of categories nowadays, including music streaming, which is probably the most likely place for aki to start, but I assume the question works best when talking about video game streaming and its ilk. but i will touch on aki's music career too, since that's his real passion.

and, he'd start streaming in a bid to get some attention to his music. first he'd play some party games with his bandmates, super casual, not at the centre of attention or anything, but he is there. and he is very willing to play to the audience. he's not A Gamer:tm:, not the most skilled, but he is entertaining and hot, and very aware of the power that gives him on twitch. dangerously so.

he starts up his own channel, and at first plays whatever the hell catches his interest, but eventually settles on a few things: dbd (or whatever counterpart of it is in GP's 2030s) and rhythm games. He uploads some edited vods of the latter on youtube as the "Actual Musician Plays Rhythm Games" series. (once or twice one of his own songs got into the smaller rhythm games. he plays those too.)

a notable thing about aki as a streamer is that when chat thirsts, he flirts. he is absolutely shameless about throwing fuel on the fire in that sense, and he's not bothered by the attention, at least at first, and only as long as it's not too chaser-y (while Aki has been on T for a while at this point, whether he passes "physically" kinda flip-flops). also he is not remotely shy about thirsting over dbd (or whatever) killers. or other characters in video games.

ultimately, all the attention (and whatever paltry donation money) he gets through these shenanigans is still for his music. the one part of his streaming schedule that he would really, genuinely look forward to is probably a weekly jam session on twitch, either alone or with the band. some random jamming, some covers of songs, some constructing of original tunes, and occasionally, a demo of a song that will get released later. semi-relatedly, he's also absolutely the sort who would sing little songs while playing video games. especially while killing things in video games. he's as proud of his voice as he is of his looks. chat occasionally (often) has people begging him to sing them to sleep or something. (might have turned that request into a late-night soft jam session. he plays to the crowd. the vod of that did numbers on youtube, probably.)

also he has probably done "trashier" one-off or side-series streams like rating (roasting) his followers' dating profiles. only with people who ask him to and are old enough for it of course, but still pretty trashy.

but here comes the curveball. aki is a guardian. guardians on the internet have a reputation for unhingedness and drama, even moreso than other people on the internet, and it feels like all the guardians of a city know each other. Yokohama's guardian scene is no exception. and if you're at all attuned to guardian news in general, you know that Aki left Arcadia in a high-profile Incident:tm: and explosively broke up with Sadako, Arcadia's Golden Girl, at the end of the whole Mari debacle.

despite his otherwise open behaviour, aki never talks about his time in arcadia on the internet, or really anything about his guardian adventures. there are pictures of him in guardian form on the internet, but he's never acknowledged them. I figure he's on guardian social media, but his bios say "semi-retired", which in guardian terms means he's not actively serving any faction or independent interests right now, but still willing to use his powers, and not opposed to becoming "active" again basically. prior to this era, he was famous on social media for his extensive public arguments online and in real life with Sadako over stupid bullshit, and people remember this.

now, if you're really tuned in to guardian news, you know that Aki is rumoured to have been one of Arcadia's assassins. he and Arcadia took great pains to hide that identity from the public of course, but no scrubbing is perfect, and someone had to get suspicious eventually. especially because people in Arcadia knew, and his commander was holding onto the evidence to keep him in the organization. he destroyed that evidence when he left with some help though.

these rumours eventually catch up to him during his streaming career and suddenly random people (drama youtube, true crimers, among others) are making theory videos and posts and whatnot going "was this music streamer an assassin for arcadia?" and laying out evidence ranging from paper thin to troublingly plausible.

aki ignores it. he really, really would rather not acknowledge that time of his life, one because it sucked, two because it'd be a disaster for him. this lets the stuff just bubble in the background, talked about by nobodies gossiping about nobodies, rather than bring it into the open.

but then some other big-shot leads arcadia. not one of the main plot cast I don't think, the world is a big place and not everything is about the main characters, but this guy isn't as content to keep quiet like Aki. they're gonna tell all. and in one throwaway moment of the video, they offhandedly say something that confirms Aki was, in fact, an assassin for Arcadia. this guy's credible. it would be a really weird thing to lie about, considering it was a really small part of the video. and tbh, most of the backlash isn't even on Aki. but boy does the wave hit him. all of a sudden the assassin thing is the only thing his chat can talk about.

he is smart enough to not make an apology video. he does lay low for a while though, and the twitch channel goes dark.

later, he resurfaces on the arcadian defector guy's podcast and finally talks about it. he's surprisingly frank and mature, and kinda states up-front that he's not looking for forgiveness or to absolve himself, he just wants to add to the story. and since after the plot events aki himself is less reckless, he probably cleared the legal results of doing so before going public (tl;dr the worst and most of what he did (murder) was under coercion or duress, which doesn't give him a total pass, but. this is my story i decide whether we deal with legal consequences.)

this doesn't exactly clear his name, but it does give him some goodwill back, especially since he hadn't gotten into guardian drama of his own after leaving Arcadia. he doesn't return to streaming like he did before, but he does rejoin the band and do stuff with them sometimes. in the end, all he wanted in the first place was to jam, and at least he still has that, so.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 1,931

[S] John: Reunite with your loving wife and daughter.

Song used: How Do I Live (Bunny Back in the Box Version) by Michael guy bowman

Storyboards: http://readmspa.org/storyboards/11931.swf.html

Author commentary:

Now we get to "watch" the goofy Con Air animation without the critical musical accompaniment, Bowman's cover of Trisha Yearwood's "How Do I Live." The animation experience is an emotional rollercoaster. A cumulative celebration, if you will, of Homestuck's whimsical essence and its uncompromising spirit of absurdity. Now, here in this book, examining the frames will be more of a somber, meditative practice. I invite you to quietly behold Nic Cage's face for several minutes. Reflect on his visage the way one shows reverence for a religious icon during moments of silence in a church. You will come to understand that this sequence doesn't need funny music at all, and your appreciation of the content will be all the richer for it. This does admirably explain how Rose and Jade got these bunnies as their Birth Objects. It wasn't their own attraction to the bunnies, which wouldn't have made a lot of sense. It was John's attraction to the idea of performing this stupid skit at a highly inappropriate moment, which resulted in them being shipped off to Earth with a couple of ratty bunnies, thus setting the stage for them to grow up and regift the bunnies back to John in the first place. The official Con Air bunny I own is not the [real one Nic Cage is holding]. That's the ruined one at the end of the movie. I don't know where that one is, or frankly, if it even survived the shoot. The one in my possession is the bunny still in its original package, which Nic Cage buys for his daughter at the beginning of the movie. I'm just assuming that at some point in the future, I will have to travel back in time and give Cage the bunny for him to use in the film in the first place. The skit is essentially complete once Rose gets the bunny. But Jade gets one too, as kind of an afterthought. John does have another bunny to spare, so why not? That way these three young ladies all go home with something nice. Jane, however, gets fuck all, since she's offscreen at the moment, having decided to crawl into a man's filthy hat. Karkat is being melodramatic and pretending not to enjoy every minute of this spectacle. We don't know it yet, or have the context for understanding what it means, but at this moment he has a hate crush on John. It was hate at first sight. Every morsel of conversation we have read between these two has been driven by these feelings. What he is doing here now, bonking his own head, is nothing more than an act of powerful sexual frustration. The scribbled sequence above is misleading. By the time the plane crashes into the giant guitar in Vegas, the sports car it was keeping in tow had long since been severed. Also, there's another floating arm. What a great place to sneak an arm in. Generally when I was retconning arms into the story, the more surreal and incomprehensible a location was for John's arm to show up, the better. Not only did this moment not even take place inside the canon of the comic, it didn't even take place in the canon of the movie. It truly happened nowhere. And yet, there is his arm. There is nothing remotely stupid about any of this. John, his name is Bubbles Von Salamancer now. Respect his new identity. Roxy seems to be really getting into that hug there. I think I did a tremendous job in seeding her overwhelming attraction to Egbert men here in Act 4. Stick this fact in your pipe and consider smoking it toward the end of Act 6. There's a part in Con Air when John Malkovich holds a gun up to the bunny during a tense moment and says don't move or the bunny gets it. Or something like that. The rowdy criminals like to keep things loose and fun up there on the jail plane, as you will know if you have seen the film, which you have, at least a hundred times. Don't deny it. At some point in this song cover, there's a guitar solo. But nobody is playing a guitar. It's just some guy making jackass noises with his mouth. So John here is working his air guitar to go along with that riff. Actually it make sense that a Hero of Breath would play an air guitar. I really do think of everything... It's incredible.

[thenightling]

The clues about Abigail's father (Abigail movie)

I watched Abigail for a second time. Originally I thought there were only twp hints that she's Dracula's daughter. Now I realize there were more. The Invitation (2022) was much more obvious with its many blatant clues that DeVille was Dracula. (Note: Deville happens to be an alias Dracula used in the original Dracula novel.) Here are the Abigail clues that her father is not merely a vampire but Count Dracula himself. 1. Abigail's father is a crime lord. If you read the novel Dracula you will notice that Dracula speaks a LOT like the leader of an organized crime syndicate with careful wording and phrases. 2. It's implied (you don't see it happen but it's heavily suggested) that Abigail is the rat running around the house fairly early on in the movie. Dracula is probably the most famous vampire with animal shape-shifting powers. 3. Though Abigail does burn in the sun (in the novel Dracula was able to walk around by day, he was just weaker by day) she regenerates lost limbs like a fast version of Deadpool. This is a pretty advanced power and suggests she is of some high status in most vampire lore.

4. Abigail is far stronger than most fictional vampires. Also suggesting at some high status in the vampire world. 5. The mural in the house resembles Poenari castle, AKA The real Castle Dracula. Bran Castle is used for tourism since it's pretty and easy to access but Poenari Castle is the actual castle that Vlad the Impaler is supposed to have resided in. 6. The mural of what looks like Poenari castle has bat winged creatures flying around it. 7. Abigail implies that her mind control / ghoul creating powers (Sammy) come from years of practice and obviously a newbie vampire can't do that.

8. Early on in the film before the kidnapping, Abigail's bedroom mirror is covered. This suggests that like the traditional depiction of Dracula she does NOT cast a reflection. In The Invitation the bedroom mirror is completely missing and "out for repairs." The Invitation goes more out of its way to point out the missing mirror while the covered mirror in Abigail is more subtle. 9. The gate in the foyer has a family crest that resembles the sigil of The Order of the Dragon. It depictions a dragon. The family of the dragon = Dracul. 10. When Abigail's father shows up at the end he says he has had many names over the centuries. A similar line is said by DeVille in The Invitation but he's more blunt about it in saying that his favorite alias was one that means "Son of the Dragon." (Dracula). 11. Abigail's father looks and dresses like a classic depiction of Count Dracula. 12. The opening song (and apparently Abigail's favorite song) is Swan Lake. On the Phillip Glass soundtrack inserted version of the 1931 Dracula movie, the opening song is also Swan Lake. 13. All of Abigail's father's teeth are pointed, much like Nicolas Cage's depiction of Dracula for the movie Renfield that came out just last year. 14. Abigail can fly, another power Dracula usually has, along with the agility she needs for her ballerina moves. 15. Much like with the novel Dracula, to become a full vampire, you have to be drained, and then fed a vampire's blood. 16. Abigail's father kisses the back of Joey's hand, much like cliche depictions of Count Dracula, and is imitated by Jerry Dandridge in the original 1985 Fright Night. 17. Abigail's father is referred to as the anti-Christ. Dracula translates to Son of the Dragon in the original fifteenth century language but in modern Romanian it has a secondary translation. "Son of The Devil." (Note: Dracula is not literally the son of any devil. His surname come from his father's membership to The Order of The Dragon.) Bonus: Abby / Abigail is the name of the child vampire in the Hammer film "Let me In" which is a very loose (and kind of dumbed down) remake of the Swiss vampire film, Let the Right One In where the child vampire (actually a eunuch boy passing as a girl) is named Eli.