#I don’t know how old Layton is but I do know he is older than me

[probablygayattorneys]

It’s funny - not haha funny but like makes you think funny - that if we take the holy trinity of my childhood heroes, those being Professor Hershel Layton, Attorney Phoenix Wright, and … door to door salesman (?) Kyle Hyde, and if something happened, how I would react to their reacting. If I was with Kyle, I would feel like he has no time for nonsense but will keep me safe as long as I do what he says. If I was with Phoenix, I would feel like oh my god, I have to be the adult in this situation, I have to keep him safe instead, and if I was with Layton… I would just break down crying because I would feel so safe and so comforted and I would know that I am in such good hands.

[islaytonlost]

What Have I Done? LB;MR Fic

First Part, Previous Part, Next Part

Disclamer: Alfendi isn't a representation of DID.

------ The Reinhold fortune wasn’t something Lucy really needed but it was enough to keep the Layton’s out her way. It’d been no accident finding out that these people were automated, she would just have made a brilliant detective. Shame she’d been robbed of that.

A poster of the theme park with a young girl who looked a lot like Flora had revealed the apple shaped birthmark on her neck, which had led her to the paining and then the passage. She knew what’d happen if she took the gold off the platform, destroy the entire village of clockwork people. Destroy what Flora had to hold dear, otherwise she’d have taken the gold for herself.

Flora drove like a madman. She’d visited her village more often than she’d care to admit and by now she knew how to get there like the back of her hand.

Hopefully Alfendi would be able to figure it out, and maybe Katrielle her younger siblings were smart and they’d been being told Professor Layton’s adventures since they were babies but they’d have to figure out the clockwork village was real and find it. Hopefully they remembered what it was called. She didn’t want to be there alone but every second wated was a second Lucy could be hurting one of her villagers. Villagers her father had made, some with the faces of her deceased family. She ran, like a bat out of hell across the village to the mansion.

Her old home.

The place that homed the likeness of her mama. The portrait was open and Mama was staring at the hole, she turns to Flora, “do you know what this is about?”

“No,” she stares in there, “well not really, look mama.”

“I am not your mother.”

“Right, sorry.”

“Do I look old enough to be your mother?”

“No…”

Matthew rushes out, “Flora, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” he hugs her, Flora leans into the hug, her clockwork villagers, her clockwork village. She didn’t know if she could go through the portrait. She didn’t know if she could face the end.

“Now Delilah, stop making such a fuss,” he chastises the likeness of her mama, “anyone would be proud to have a daughter like Flora, look how grown up she is.”

“He’s right about that, if I were older maybe I’d wish I had a daughter like you,” she tucks a strand of Flora’s hair behind her ear and kisses her forehead, “now, I think you should investigate, Matthew refuses and I simply can’t.”

Flora stares at the portrait, “okay,” she gives Delilah’s hand a squeeze, “okay, you both know I love you, right?”

“Of course Flora,” Mathew gives her a reassuring smile.

Flora walks through the hole in the wall, knowing she was entering a new world, knowing this was the end.

“Hello Flora.” Lucy greets her, she sat on the ground next to the pressure plate, her gun still in her holster but she didn’t needed, all she needed was to grab one of the gold bars right next to her. “I don’t think we’ve ever had the pleasure. I’m Lucy Baker. Apparently I used to be Alfendi’s friend.”

“He has told me about you, he’s very worried. He wants to help you, he may have acted rashly but he’s a good person.”

“Could you forgive someone who ruined your life?”

“He didn’t mean to!”

“I don’t mean to either, I just want some gold!”

“No!” Flora steps forward. Betraying how much she needed her village to stay standing.

“I need you to do something for me Flora. Your village will survive as long as you do this.”

“What?” Flora didn’t trust Lucy and she didn’t want to hurt Alfendi but this was her village. She was willing to weigh up the odds.

“Nothing much, I just need you to get shot!”

No one got hurt, well no one other than her. Flora was willing. She couldn’t let them die. She’d take their place. One life for many clockwork ones. Easy.

[quibbs126]

Something I just noticed, but there’s something interesting about Professor Sycamore’s design. Namely, the fact that he doesn’t seem his age.

Now yes, we don’t know specifically how old he is, but what we do know is that he’s older than Layton, and at the time of Azran Legacy, Layton is 36. Desmond’s likely a older by a few years, the general consensus I’ve seen being 3-5 years. For the sake of argument, let’s say he’s 4 years older, making him 40.

Now, look at Professor Sycamore. Tell me, does he look like he’s around 40?

No; if I had to guess just by looking at him (though to be fair I’m pretty bad at guesstimating ages), I’d say he’s in his late 20s to early 30s, not 40.

And it’s not just his appearance either, I’ve also noticed in the scant voiced lines he has (as Sycamore), he doesn’t really sound his age either, it’s a bit too high pitched. Of course, that could just be me, but he definitely doesn’t sound older than Layton, that much I can say.

So, what’s up with this? Well, there’s something else I feel I should bring up too. We know his wife and daughter to be dead, and in a later scene (I believe it was one of those extra episodes, but unfortunately all I could find was a clip of the conversation on YouTube) he says that it was that day they died that Desmond Sycamore died too.

Now we don’t know how long ago that was, all we know is that his daughter would have been (I assume based on Umid) in her early teens by this point and that it’s likely been some years between then and now, but interestingly, that could very well be the same difference between Sycamore’s perceived age and his actual age.

What if the reason behind this discrepancy is because this is an imitation of the Sycamore from that time, still stuck in the past? Like he says, Desmond Sycamore died years ago, so there’d be no change from then to now; still the same as he was years ago, never allowed to change because all Sycamore is is an empty husk, Descole is the only one left.

Because Descole definitely seems his age, he’s the one who’s been here all those years since.

Maybe that’s why in that final scene of him, when he chooses to find a new path in life, we see him put on his mask as Descole. Because Sycamore’s gone, he’s been gone a long time and now he’s just a shadow of the past. It’s only by letting go of his past that he can truly move forward in his life.

[4ragon]

Okay I need to ramble about Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright for a few moments, don't mind me.

And I’m putting this under the cut because Oops All Spoilers

Because the more I think about this godforsaken plot the more I realize just how deeply fucked this whole thing is, you know? Like, just due to the basis of the plot, every single character has to have some sort of horrible tragic backstory, right?

Like I think about this constantly. Who were these people? Why would they willingly give up everything to live in a fucked up reality with no memory and no real control of their lives? Like, clearly they didn’t sign on with the express intention of being trapped in the witch trial hell dimension, but they DID sign up to have their memories rewritten. 

“They were all dissatisfied with their lives and wanted to start anew. Forgetting about their mistakes, forsaking unwanted identities.”

LIKE

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE

WHAT DID THEY WANT TO FORGET!!!! I’M GOING FERAL I’M TEARING MY HAIR OUT ZACHARIAS BARNAM WHO ARE YOU????????? WHO IS THE JUDGE????? WHO ARE THESE CHILDREN???????????

Like. Holy shit. Being willing to abandon your old life. Being willing to start a new life somewhere else. Where did they recruit these people? Did they approach people they thought would be willing to join? Was this advertised somewhere? This feels like some predatory shit just at a base concept.

Like. What reasons would people be willing to do this. Debt? To reduce a prison sentence? They were just depressed and had no family? Homelessness? Escaping a bad family situation? Like. Jesus fuck, what happened in these people’s lives that they just wouldn’t be missed?? Was no one looking for them??? They couldn’t exactly tell these peoples’ families that they were at a secret government research facility.

Or like. How many children were born in Labrynthia? How many people met each other and fell in love in Labrynthia? Were families started in Labrynthia? Were SECOND FAMILIES started in Labrynthia? Was there anyone who didn’t realize they were married and got remarried in Labrynthia? Did the children born there have birth certificates?

Or like. Jean Greyerl was older than ten, but still clearly a CHILD living in Labrynthia. That means she was born in the real world and brought to Labrynthia with her family. I guess they just signed up as a family? Why were they this desperate to start over that they’d willingly allow the British government to experiment on their CHILD? I don’t know the logistics of British law, but can they do these experiments on children? Did they just need their parents’ permission? Did that roll over to any children born in the town, or would they need to be taken out of the hypnosis and resign a contract?

And then, I know they had a real actual doctor living in the town, but general medicine isn’t going to work for every ailment, what if someone needed treatment in a hospital, were they smuggled out of Labrynthia? Or if someone’s contract terminated and they wanted to leave, would Cantabella just ERASE them from people’s memories? What would happen if a real crime was committed in Labrynthia? Could the witches court take real criminal cases, like, legally?

Sometimes I just stare at the characters on screen and wonder: Who are you? Who were you? Which parts of your memories were retrofitted from old memories and which is real? Zacharias remembers going to elementary school with Miss Primstone but that’s not possible, right? They just get a list of facts about themselves and their brains fill in the blanks, so their personalities must stay at least somewhat intact, right? But how much? Does Zacharias have a family in town? Does he have a family he remembers but thinks they’re dead or gone? Has he just really never considered that he ever had a family? It just never occurred to him to think about it? ZACH WHO ARE YOU????

Like I have some guesses and headcanons about the characters but they never even think to expand on things in the actual material, and I’m just left having to take bits and pieces about these characters and wonder forever.

And the worst part is only twenty people have ever played this game. No one else knows my pain. No one else knows my suffering.

[snowpiercer-recaps]

Season 1, episode 8: You're a Filthy Liar

Spoiler alert!!! This is a rewatch recap of Snowpiercer s1e8: These Are His Revolutions. Naturally, it is full of spoilers for that episode. However, it also contains spoilers for some other episodes of season 1 and season 2. You have been warned!

Ruth polishes silverware and gushes over how brilliant Mr. Wilford is in this episode’s opening monologue. She can’t understand why any passengers would challenge him! Oh, Ruth. Sweetie, you’re in for a rough few days. 

When Ruth pauses, we cut to Miles wandering around the engine in pyjamas (which don’t have trains all over them this time - boo!). He presses a button that turns the lights on and off in at least eight carriages. Subtle! LJ sees the flashing lights from her window. But, most importantly, my favourite guest star has returned! Snowpeter even gets a line this episode, which he delivers perfectly (purrfectly). Where was his Emmy nomination?

This scene also gives us some more clues about the train’s geography: the Folgers’ car is far enough away from the engine to be able to see the front of the train when it’s coming around a curve. At least forty cars, I’d guess? I’d be willing to bet Lilah was NOT pleased to find out Martin’s family’s car was so much higher up than hers.

Miles lets LJ into the engine. Because she’s LJ, she immediately discards all instructions and heads straight for the driver’s seat. Javi is at the helm, out of uniform, listening to music and reading a book. There’s some very tense music in the soundtrack, but LJ doesn’t get caught. When they finally get back on track (train pun!), Miles shows LJ around his new bedroom. LJ steals a picture from Miles’ fifty-year-old roommate (totally normal! do all the apprentices share bunk beds with mentors older than their parents??), and then leaves. 

On her way home, LJ passes Ruth in the corridor, so that Ruth can finish up her opening monologue.

After the opening credits, a new character walks through the Chains to deliver a note to Clay. A new person introduced in episode eight? And the word ‘revolution’ is in the episode title? Well, we know they’re gonna die.

Clay takes the note to a revolution planning meeting, where Layton, Till, Audrey, Jakes and a bunch of others are poring over blueprints of the train. They make some kind of battle plan, but the most important part of this scene is Miss Audrey’s revolution outfit.

It’s been a year and a half since this episode came out, and I have still not recovered.

Till puts on a deep voice (which I’m not complaining about - just confused!) to tell Layton that she’s still not sure which side the Brakemen will take. Layton responds by ominously telling her that there will be casualties. Oh shit! That reminds her! Till pops home to tell her wife to stay home today, safely away from the secret war where she might die. Jinju and Till then establish they’ve both been lying to each other for the entire ten minutes they’ve been married. When Till tells Jinju that Melanie tortured someone to death yesterday, Jinju practically admits to knowing about it by replying, “Please don’t make me choose between you and the train.” 

I have never rooted harder for fictional queer characters to break up.

Up in the Folgers’ car, the whole family plus Commander Grey have invited Ruth over. LJ thinks they’re going to blow Ruth’s mind, and Snowpeter thinks everyone should please shut the fuck up at nap time! They tell Ruth that Wilford hasn’t been seen since departure, and there’s evidence that Melanie is in charge. Ruth desperately doesn’t want to believe it. She’s been in love with Wilford for almost seven years, and she’s not ready to consider the implications of all that flirting with Melanie if it turns out Melanie is also the man she’s obsessed with.

Up in the engine, Melanie is teaching Miles lesson #1 in the class How to Drive While Distracted by the Crushing Responsibility of Keeping Three Thousand People Alive. After class, he casually asks Melanie how her daughter died. WOW! Shockingly, Alex died the same way as Miles’ whole family and almost every other person on earth at the time. After they’ve covered that, Miles tells Melanie that he has his Tail mom, Josie. Ha! Not any more, kid! Luckily, Bennett drags Melanie away before she starts to feel too guilty. She’s needed in First.

Oh shit, here it comes! Ruth tells Melanie there’s been a report that Wilford isn’t on the train. Melanie bluffs that she met Wilford last night, but Lilah and Grey demand to see him in person. She asks whether they'd prehaps prefer a phone call to Bennett, instead? But no, they wouldn't. They know she’s running the train. They even have an eyewitness account… from LJ.

Melanie immediately points out that LJ isn’t exactly the most reliable witness. Martin agrees, causing a stir among the First class passengers. But LJ has proof! A picture of Melanie and baby Alex, to be exact. I'd argue all it proves is LJ was able to get a picture - from literally anywhere on the train. But apparently it’s all the proof the firsties (including at least one highly successful lawyer!) need to finally believe Mr. Wilford doesn't exist. 

Melanie lunges for LJ, but unfortunately some Jackboots grab her and hold her back. Very disappointing - that could have been a fun fight!

Scared of missing out, some of the First class bodyguards decide to have their own little fight. One of them even pulls a gun and fires!? I'm really not sure why! When that’s all under control, Grey gives the order to bring all available Jackboots uptrain. Melanie tries to tell him that it’s a stupid idea given the whole brewing revolution, but Grey doesn’t take orders from Melanie any more! He’s not about to let her prevent him from falling into Layton’s very obvious trap!

Downtrain, Jackboot Jefferson (the one who got smashed into a gate by Till in ep 2) receives Grey’s orders. He’s doing his part for timeline detectives by standing under a massive clock. For anyone who cares, it’s 10:18.

Next, we’re treated to the return of another outstanding guest star: Roche’s lunchbox! Roche and Osweiller are enjoying some father-son bonding time in the lockup room, when they’re interrupted by Jackboots running uptrain. They don’t know what’s going on, so they peer around the door together like Looney Tunes characters. No wonder these guys needed Layton’s help for detective work.

The Jackboots also run through the Nightcar, and Miss Audrey is delighted that the rebels’ plan is working.

She tells Clay to, “Do it” (whatever “it” is), then heads behind the bar to tell Till and Layton they're free to move. 

Usually, when Audrey watches someone get handcuffed in the Nightcar, it’s not like this. Layton offers his hands to Till, and she prepares to fake-escort the “prisoner” back to the Tail. 

The rebels begin to send out their signals: little strips of red are hung in windows and from pipes, and one is even delivered to the Tail. Mama Grande announces the revolution.

Up in First, Grey sends everyone to their quarters until further notice. Martin points out that they’re grown ups and Grey can’t just send everyone to their rooms! Grey tells him, “Shut your mouth, boyo.” This guy’s lines! Ridiculous! 

Melanie tries to warn Grey and Ruth that they’re making a mistake, as she’s led away by a Jackboot. Ruth is suddenly very worried that the mutiny she joined might be a mutiny, so Grey suggests that they go and double check that there really is no Wilford. It is absolutely fucking ridiculous that they've gone this far on nothing except a hunch and LJ’s word! Imagine if they stormed into the engine and just found Wilford there, having a bath!

Downtrain, Astrid brings some Halloween costumes for the sanitation crew - today consisting of Lights, Murray, and Big John. Murray complains that feels like a wanker in his Jackboot costume, and I’m not sure whether any of his American counterparts have a clue what he means. Astrid begins to introduce the Tailies to their new buddies up in Third. John is paired up with tunnelman Jakes, Astrid is going to take Lights somewhere else, and Murray is going with Miss Audrey. Strewth!

Melanie has been taken to the torturey hospitality room (which, luckily for her, has been thoroughly defrosted since her last visit). Instead of immediately cuffing Melanie to the table, Jackboot Tyson lets Melanie fetch a photo of her daughter. But really, Melanie just wants to push a button that sets off a lockdown alarm in the engine.

Javi immediately accuses Miles of causing the lockdown, and gives us more timeline information: Miles has been in the engine for two days. “Two days” could just mean last night and this morning (i.e. less than 24 hours), or it could mean there was a whole day between episodes seven and eight. Miles’ change of pyjamas probably suggests the latter, but it’s hard to be sure in this show.

As the engineers rapidly lock down, Jackboots try to open the door to the engine car. Javi is feeling a little dramatic today!

Bennett and Javi scream in each other’s faces about what to do, then completely ignore what each other just said and do whatever they want anyway! Javi lets Grey and Ruth into the engine car, so Bennett responds by punching Javi’s glasses off and shutting him out of the engine room. Grey and Ruth are on Javi within seconds, demanding to know where Wilford is. Javi tells Ruth that Wilford is dead, and her heart breaks.

Ruth wanders around Melanie’s bedroom in shock, and has a little cry. In another demonstration of just how much the idea of Wilford meant to her, Ruth asks Grey, “What will people hold on to, now?” Crushing! Then, upset Ruth gives way to vengeful Ruth. She wants Melanie to pay.

Downtrain, Astrid takes Lights to Walter The Papermaker. He is apparently also Walter The Electrician. Okay then! Lights uses Josie’s friendship bracelet to break into an electrical room. She argues with Walter about which wires are the communication lines, then decides, “I don’t have time for this, I’m just gonna pull!” It’s a highly questionable plan on many levels; I definitely wouldn’t be randomly pulling wires on the only vessel sustaining the last life on Earth. But, luckily for Lights, it works!

Meanwhile, Till takes Layton to the Tail. Jackboot Jefferson’s big clock reads 12:40. That means it’s Layton-punching time! JJ tries to make a call to confirm that Layton is really supposed to return home, but Lights has taken the lines down just in time. As soon as she’s sure he can’t call for backup, Till beats Jefferson up. She definitely enjoys it, and to be honest, so do I. Layton spits on the Jackboot, for good measure. Then, they head into the Tail.

Layton is welcomed home, and Till hangs around awkwardly in the doorway until Layton remembers oh, yeah, he should probably tell his friends not to kill his new little sister! Till’s one of them, now. Layton makes a speech to get everyone pumped and ready to march. He name-checks Josie, Suzanne and Old Ivan. The Tailies have saved something red for Layton to wear: Josie’s invisibility bandana from episode 1. Cute! Then, they begin move out. 

One Train!

Walter and Lights leave the electrical room, and run straight into four Brakemen. Walter apparently attends the same acting class as Till, Miss Gillies and Zarah. Even Osweiller can detect something’s wrong, and quickly recognises Lights from the Tail. Osweiller orders one of the other Brakemen (sidenote: why the fuck is Osweiller in charge!?) to call up to Commander Grey. But the phone line is dead. The Brakeman has to run all the way up to First to relay the message. Lights and Walter are arrested.

Next, we catch up with Audrey and Murray. They’re visiting Creepy Klimpt, who is apparently with the revolution now! It doesn’t make much sense why Audrey (rather than any other rebel) had to deliver Murray to the drawers room, but I’m fine with it because it gives us the opportunity to see her revolution outfit in good lighting.

Up in the Folgers’ car, Snowpeter is chilling with LJ while the others are planning how to take power. The messenger Brakeman bursts into the car to tell Grey that comms are down and there are Tailies running around Third. Grey finally realises that bringing his entire army uptrain while there was a fugitive revolutionary on the loose in Third may not have been his best idea ever. He sends all the Jackboots back downtrain, via the tunnels.

Meanwhile, Ruth visits Melanie in the torturey hospitality room. She asks Melanie not to talk. Naturally, Melanie immediately talks! But when Ruth asks again, Melanie is quiet. Ruth is doubting seven years of tight knit co-working, friendship, and daily flirting rituals. She’s crying by the time she mentions the personal commendation she got from Mr. Wilford. I don’t know how the fuck the show managed to make me feel sorry for Ruth after all her callous classism and de-arming, but I really do! Well done, Alison Wright! Someone needs to give Ruth a hug, please!

Ruth asks whether Melanie killed Wilford, and Melanie dodges the question. She tells Ruth that Wilford was a fraud. He didn’t build the engine - Melanie did. Wilford was just the ticket salesman. He didn’t care about saving humanity: he just wanted to party for as long as possible! And that’s why Melanie pirated the train. She’s sorry for lying, but she’s not sorry for trying to keep everyone alive. 

Ruth decides to get herself cancelled by the fandom.

She’s right, and she should say it!

Before she leaves, Ruth reminds Melanie that her execution is tomorrow. Then, she simply bids her goodbye. DAMN. Take note, everyone: do not lie to Ruth Wardell.

Back at the revolutionary front line, let’s take a moment to appreciate the second-best revolution outfit: Till has removed her uniform jacket and tie, but kept the waistcoat. Y E S. Let's also appreciate that Mama Grande is the first person in line behind Till and Layton! I love that for her! The new character from the opening scene informs Layton that the Jackboots are on their way back downtrain, and that the Brakemen are forming in the Chains.

We immediately get a look at the aforementioned Brakemen. Osweiller is, as expected, shitting himself. He doesn’t want to face an army of tailies - especially not after the way he’s treated them over the years. Roche tells his son employee to get his big boy pants on. That’s not a joke this time - Roche literally says that line! Incredible!

Till and Layton come to negotiate with the Brakemen. It’s a good job they were at the front of the army! Till is brandishing an axe, which begs the question: is she the true originator of the conversation axe? Or is a negotiation axe different from a conversation axe? Anyway, Brakeman Roche tells his daughter employee that she’s a great disappointment to him (again, not a joke! Roche literally says these lines!). Till, in true queer tradition, seems pretty proud of disappointing her parent.

Roche doesn’t want to let the Tailies pass, because he thinks they’ll tear the train apart. And he doesn’t believe that Wilford is dead, either. Till tries to convince him, and makes at least a bit of progress. Layton addresses Third, stating that Third and the Tail need to stop First from taking power. Then, Layton tries to flatter Roche into letting them pass by calling him a “good cop”, and Till plays her trump card: she makes Roche think of his family.

Osweiller’s nerves finally get the better of him. He quits as gracefully as you’d expect: he declares, “Balls to this, man,” and pushes past his colleagues. Then, Roche caves. He believes Till. He orders the Brakemen to stand aside, and let the rebels through.

Up in the drawers car, Strong Boy is awake. And speaking! He’s used his six-ish weeks in the drawers to learn Mandarin! What did you achieve between episodes two and eight?

Meanwhile, Layton and Till are teaching rebel school in a Thirdie classroom. “L is for Layton, M is for Melanie, N is for knife...”

Down below, Jackboots are running through the tunnels. But John and Tunnelman Jakes have set up Big John’s Big Spike Launcher, and it works better than they had hoped! They take out multiple Jackboots on the first attempt, quickly reload, then take out more. Grey (who STILL isn't wearing his fucking helmet!!) is shitting it, and decides to go up and over rather than staying in the tunnels.

But that’s what the rebels were banking on! They're waiting in the Nightcar. The Jackboots arrive to find that the music and lights for the usual mid-afternoon rave are in full swing. However, the Nightcar is suspiciously empty. There's also a suspicious cardboard box in the middle of the floor. How did the rebels know the Jackboots love to steal unattended Amazon packages? The Jackboots cautiously approach the box - they've seen enough YouTube videos to know that it could just be a glitter-based trap. Commander Grey takes a peek inside, and finds Jefferson’s decapitated head. At least it wasn't a glitter bomb!

Then, the music pauses. From the First class balcony, Layton calls out to Grey, then orders the rebels to attack.

Most rebels fight Jackboots on the ground, but there are also a few archers firing from the balcony. Till and Layton guard the stairs, protecting the archers. With all the flashing lights it’s difficult to follow the fight, but there are brief glimpses of various recognisable Tailies and Thirdies. There's plenty of blood and death, but I think Patterson is the only named character killed in the battle. His death is followed by a slow-motion montage of Commander Grey screaming and Till and Layton axing a lot of Jackboots.

Then, Grey calls retreat. He grabs a hostage - it’s the Thirdie from the start! They're finally gonna die! Layton tries to get to Grey, but Grey slits the hostage’s throat and pushes them down the stairs into Layton. Meanwhile, the surviving rebels cheer - they did it! The Jackboots have retreated!

Down in the tunnels, Big John is out of ammo. He orders his squad to take the weapon back to the next barricade, and buys them some time. The Jackboots launch themselves through the barricade, one at a time. It looks like John takes out a total of five Jackboots, all by himself!? It’s very impressive, and leaves me wondering whether these Jackboots ever had any training? No shade to John, but one sick man shouldn’t be that difficult for a team of professional soldiers to handle!

Back in the Nightcar, the floor is covered in blood and bodies. Survivors (including Till, Pelton and Audrey) are tending to the wounded. Santiago closes Patterson’s eyes. Layton tells Santiago to keep pressing on the Jackboots, and Santiago begins to gather a group of rebels, including Clay. They move towards the bar, while Till calls out the order to gather weapons from the fallen Jackboots. But then, the retreated Jackboots return. They throw gas grenades off the balcony. Many of the surviving rebels escape back to Third, but those closer to the bar - and presumably many of the wounded, too - succumb to the gas. The Nightcar is already lost.

The escaped rebels retreat, then weld shut the doors behind them. In better news, Jakes informs Layton that the tunnel barricades are holding.

There’s a quick scene showing Melanie, alone, cuffed to the table in the torturey hospitality room while the sun sets behind her. Then, we catch up with Murray and Klimpt in the drawers car. They’re still waiting for the rebels to turn up. They have no idea that their comrades have just welded themselves into Third. Not knowing what else to do, Klimpt and Murray continue waking up the prisoners. Murray says they’ll wake Pike next. It doesn’t make much sense that they didn’t start waking him earlier, until we discover that it’s for dramatic effect: Murray opens Pike’s drawer, and discovers it’s empty.

Pike is up in First, enjoying chocolate-covered chocolate cake and hot chocolate. After seven years eating nothing but bug bars and human flesh, I can hardly blame him. Grey (who has the time to sit around and watch Pike eat, but hasn’t bothered to give his blood-drenched face a quick wash) asks for information on Layton. Pike tells Grey how he and Layton used to date:

And he promises he’ll give his ex up for another piece of cake.

In the final scene, Layton wanders through cars of injured rebels in slow motion. He’s covered in as much blood as Grey. Audrey and Till (both also bloody) make eye contact with Layton as he walks. Zarah is also covered in blood - presumably from tending the wounded, rather than fighting - and passes in front of Layton wearing a haunted expression. Meanwhile, Pike’s conversation with Grey plays as a voiceover. Layton doesn’t handle failure well. Grey just needs to keep pushing, and Layton will crumble.

For someone who promised “never again” re. cannibalism, Layton sure has a lot of human blood on his mouth!

[evalieena]

Six Times Hershel Layton Remembered, Plus The One Time He Didn't - a Professor Layton fanfic

“Everything was fine. They lived happy together as a family. But the next moment, everything disappeared, as if gone up in smoke. Hershel Layton felt lost, and then he was lonely. There was a new family around him, but it was not the one he wanted. And then everything slowly started to fade away. Until he remembered once more.“

(available here as well: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28770816)

- -

Later That Day

Confusion ran through Theodore’s head. Who were these strange-looking men who just left with Mum and Dad? Where were Mum and Dad? When would they come back? And why had he overheard people screaming so loudly? He didn’t like it when people were fighting; it only meant that something bad had happened.

Soon, hours had passed, and still there was no sign of their parents.

He kept asking Hersh about their parents’ sudden departure. Every time, the same answer. Hersh only said that everything would be okay. He needn’t worry. Everything would be okay…

The four year old didn’t understand a single thing of what just happened. Why should everything be okay if people had screamed?

Mum and Dad were in trouble. He just knew it. Still, Hersh didn’t want to acknowledge it so Theo wouldn’t be worried—everything to take care of the little one. But even everything didn’t seem to be enough.

Nothing happened the way it should have. But perhaps it was a bad dream. That was what Mum always said when he woke up crying and afraid that everyone had left without him; nothing was real. Everything is going to be okay.

Nothing could be okay and Theo was still confused.

Two Days Later

Theo was sad. He’d noticed a change in Hersh’s heart—he didn’t behave the way he used to only two days back. There was no optimism left in him. He didn’t say Everything will be okay Theo you just have to wait they will come back you don’t worry and we can play together if you’d like they’ll be back before you know it anymore.

Their parents were gone. It didn’t look like they were about to come back anytime soon. They’d never left them alone for so long. Sure, Hersh could take care of his little brother for a while, but there was only so much he could manage to do in their parents’ stead. He was no father, no mother. He was just the older brother. He was the one rushing to Theodore’s side whenever the youngest showed that he needed it; he was the one ready to provide comfort at night, when he heard Theo crying after a bad dream and didn’t want their parents to be woken up.

But now, the both of them sat in the couch in the living room, side by side, in the dark. Alone. There were no laughs, no cries, no warm atmosphere anymore. Even the most caring brother wouldn’t replace the past—a past which seemed to be so close, yet it was already so far. The brothers waited endlessly for something that, one of them had started to get used to it, would never happen.

Hershel was sad, and so was Theodore. They had nothing else left.

One Week Later

Theo was afraid. Who were the Laytons? And why did Hersh start packing his bag? Why did he look so relieved, in spite of the awful nights they’d just spent?

Something was not right. Something was about to change. Hersh couldn’t stop talking about this family who would be so happy to have him, and how he needed to be careful, always remember that he’s Hershel now, and not Theodore. He acted like such a grown-up; it was a lot to take in.

Theo couldn’t understand. He was Theodore—that was the name he’d been given all his short life. Why should he pretend he was named Hershel all of a sudden? And why his brother wasn’t packing his own bag as well?

So much questions, yet so little answers.

A while later, a couple was standing on their porch. They looked awfully happy for people who were about to intrude into the brothers’ lives.

Before Theo realized it, he was taken away by that odd couple; he was taken away from Hersh, and nothing felt right. He didn’t want to go away. He didn’t want to go with them. And why didn’t Hersh move an inch? Why wasn’t he going with them? Why-

“I hope you’ll feel at home with us, Hershel.”

Theodore Bronev, or whoever he was supposed to be, was afraid.

One Month Later

Theo was angry. For a month he’d been following the ones who wanted him to call them Ma and Pa all around, but he just couldn’t get used to it. He hadn’t heard from Hersh in a while, either. Whenever would he join them? Where was he?

He didn’t want to stay here. All his life had been peaceful, and all of a sudden, everything started collapsing right under his nose. And there still wasn’t anyone able to provide him with answers he couldn’t dare to ask. Because he did not understand.

Theo didn’t talk much, but Roland and Lucille had gathered from the way the child looked at them that he didn’t like it, here. He barely managed to tell anything other than yes, no, maybe, where is my brother – and the couple had started to fear that nothing would ever change.

Theo was angry and uncomfortable. The only way he’d found to express all these feelings was to throw a tantrum, one his parents would never forget.

Two Years Later

Hershel was happy. The weather was calm and sunny, and they were about to go out for a walk in the center of London. He’d go out and play in the park with other children.

He liked the Laytons. He liked his parents. They were always so patient, so kind-hearted; they were ready to sacrifice everything for their child’s well-being.

Hershel didn’t ask for much. He was always a collected and lovely boy. The beginning had been tough, but little by little, his parents had been able to see him smile even more often. His anger and his fear seemed to have left him. Nothing months, then years of patience and love couldn’t erase, as they’d predicted and hoped.

Hershel loved it here, in London. He’d felt like he had lived here all his life. That day, Roland and Lucille knew they’d won the fight. But there was still a long path waiting ahead of the three of them.

The only thing that ever mattered though was that Hershel Layton was happy.

Thirty Years Later

Hershel Layton was puzzled. A funny emotion to feel for someone who loved puzzles that much, but nothing could ever describe better the way he’d felt for hours now, hours that seemedlike ages.

So much did happen in the span of a few hours.

First he’d learned his parents could be targeted by Targent, then Aurora had made it clear that she didn’t want to live anymore, all so she could protect them. Then Desmond—no, Descole—had taken the key from her hands, and revealed himself as the dangerous scientist Layton knew him to be.

Then they’d fought. Despair was filling the air, though Hershel didn’t understand what Descole meant when he cried that the Azran legacy was all he had to live for.

And as if there hadn’t been enough betrayals as it was, Emmy was soon to follow. Luke had been abducted. He’d had no other choice than siding with Descole to prevent Bronev from unleashing doom on Earth. Misery didn’t seem to end.

Just when he’d thought he’d finally be able to change things, Descole had been ready to sacrifice himself to save Luke. And then…

Then everything just collapsed.

He held his agonizing brother in his arms; the one who’d wanted so hard to take him down only a few hours back was now confessing, fearing death was on the way.

Some images were flowing through his head, though he didn’t yet understand quite clearly what it was supposed to mean. But he had a brother. Ma and Pa… they weren’t his true parents. Leon Bronev was his biological father? Nothing made any sense. Hershel—or whoever he was supposed to be—just wanted this to end.

Confusion, sadness, anger, happiness, shock. And so much more—so much thoughts and sensations he couldn’t voice. He’d started experiencing a bunch of emotions he wasn’t used to feeling anymore. But such a puzzling state of mind would not last. It was a true gentleman’s duty to figure out every mystery, even the thickest ones; even the ones that involved himself.

Except this time, he’d sworn to himself that he would not forget.

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Time for my feels dump thoughts on Diabolical Box...! y’all, this game. this game. I don’t think people give it enough credit for... a lot of what it does, despite the messiness of the plot reveals... but it’s so special and unique, in ways I’m only now appreciating. also this is gonna be really REALLY fucking long I am so sorry, but I have a Lot to say about the ending parts... i just love this game so much...... so i wrote a fucking novel bc of course i did.

also i played this in October, completely unintentionally, so that’s noice.

The amount of voice acting and cutcenes in this compared to CV is amazing, I love it so much, even if it is funny sometimes the dialogue they choose to voice and then abruptly cut off a few lines later.

I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Luke jumping on Chelmey and trying to rip his face off and it’s just the funniest fucking thing omg; Hershel in the background going “NO LUKE THAT’S HIS FACE” is comedic gold.

Will we ever know what Hershel was going to say when Chelmey asked him what Luke’s relationship to him was... dammit Luke why’d you have to cut him off.

Hershel calling the hamster “generously proportioned” is amazing. also “I’ve always said that helping rodents in need is among the duties of every true gentleman” Hershel... please tell me what other situations have made you say that... please...

Why is there an entire subplot about finding this Karen’s dog, just to make Chelmey look like even more of an idiot? if they needed to pad the game out more, they definitely could have done it with flashbacks or in places that I’m... ahem... emotionally invested in

Flora’s treatment in this game is so infuriating to me, like... why did they think this was a good idea? What was the point of bringing her into the plot for NO other reason than to be kidnapped and impersonated? Was it literally just because they needed a way for Hershel and Luke to run into Don Paolo and get the box back from him??? Why couldn’t, idk, Katia run into him in Dropstone and get the box from him and save Flora, that would still get the box to her and keep Flora in the group, and it would tip them off to Katia being related to all this even earlier, and Don Paolo could still be shown there if he absolutely has to make an appearance in each game. I know it’s because he has to be built up and then revealed, and because Hershel always has to have a dramatic point-n’-reveal every game, but whyyyyyy does it have to be at the expense of Flora. :))))) It would have been interesting to see her reactions to Folsense and Anton and everything, and not have Katia be the only female involved in all this; maybe she could, you know, actually have a personality!! hahaaaa who am I kidding...

beluga: “it’s already been a year since she passed away” me: whythehellyoucryingsodamnloud.jpg

Anderson talking about Dropstone and the sacrifices made to found it and how it can’t die out like “other towns”... with the song playing... whythehellyoucryingsodamnloud.jpg

The sheer coincidence of Katia going to Folsense on the same day that Hershel and Luke would end up in Dropstone and then there, and on the 50th anniversary of the town... not a likely one.

Didn’t some versions of the game come with a real version of the train ticket to Folsense? I want it D:

i also want a real Elysian Box, like can i commission someone to make one minus the whole you know actual gold, please, i’ll pay aNYTHING- *sobs*

LUKE HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT HERSHEL IS AN ARCHEOLOGIST, AFTER ALL THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SHIT YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH

Hershel to “Flora”: “you’re as white as a sheet!” Don Paolo, minutes ago while the others aren’t looking: *furiously powdering his face mask or some shit*

Why was Anton’s diary lying in the street though... it doesn’t make sense that Katia or Beluga would have it, and they couldn’t open it anyhow. probably just a gameplay thing that should go unquestioned but I want to knowwww lol. Also wish Hershel and Luke had reactions to the entries.

Ilyana tho. Also bootleg Clive asdfghjkl

I LOVE THE TOWER OF HANOI PANCAKE PUZZLES

Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the obsession with the tea set... like yeah it’s fun to serve tea when you actually get it right, but I’m stuck with like two recipes missing and getting frustrated just trying and trying countless ingredient combinations on end because some of the npcs are NOT helpful enough in telling what to make :))))

Obviously Katia can’t reveal anything or say anything about why she’s there at all to keep the suspense till the end, but it would have been cool to see her working together with them and making a plan to get into the castle and help Anton aka I just wanted more scenes with Anton being nice and not flying into a rage over a misunderstanding ugh

It’s honestly pretty impressive some of the deductions/connections Chelmey makes in this game, despite his... other incredibly stupid ones lol

“iSnT iT oBvIoUs?”

WHY DOES HERSHEL RISK KILLING LUKE (AGAIN) WITH THE BOX. And why tf does it not do anything to them since they assumed it would...?

The biggest mystery of the series is how Pavel gets where he does, truly

The music in the forest is truly one of the best osts, god I love it. I also adore the Herzen Castle ost now, I never really noticed it before but it is WONDERFULLY creepy and heavy and melancholic and just... idk, those harpsicords go hard. damn.

Opening the Elysian Box is the best puzzle in the series, because of the meaning behind it. Or at least, it’s my favorite for that reason :^)

Alright folks so I’m gonna be completely, unabashedly honest here, and reveal myself to be the superficial, shallow fucker I am lmao: Anton is super hot and I’m still attracted to him even now, and I hate that we get so little time with younger him dklslskdfkflssd I AM SORRY I CAN’T HELP IT OKAY. BLAME THE VOICE ACTOR, HE HAD NO RIGHT TO SOUND SO UNEXPECTEDLY DEEP AND INCREASE ANTON’S HOTNESS LEVEL BY 1000%... just. god damn. damn. the dining room scene. the lighting. the way he puts his hands down and closes his eyes at one point. the way he says Herzen. the freaking sass with “chalk it up to my bad taste then.” the little clap. his entire design which just oozes Victorian era anime bishie beauty. kudos to the character designer who was like “well they said make someone cool and handsome and i wasn’t sure what to do but i tried and i guess it worked out” GOOD SIR BOY DID YOU SUCCEED. how dare this man turn me on so much, fUCK. And I know it’s super shitty of me to not like his old design as much!!! but just!!! why the beak nose.... why.... he was so gorgeous and then you give him the Bronev nose treatment..... i’m already so sad over the ending but you make him look so much sADDER, THE SADDEST POSSIBLE DESIGN FOR OLDER ANTON. It’s not that I mind him being old, I just wish he looked more like himself... there didn’t need to be such a drastic change. But I know I’m just being petty lmao. anyway stan Anton for most beautiful PL character always 🙏 Descole and Clive’s hotness have nothing on this man

*ahem* But to get back to serious topics, replaying this now when I’m older, with the ones after it in mind, I think I finally realize why this game stands out to me so much from the others, making it my favorite. To put it as best I can, Diabolical Box, to me at least, just has a different feel from all the other PL games. Yes, it’s still definitely a Layton game, you still investigate a mystery, there’s still puzzles everywhere, it still has a relaxing city or country feel to the atmosphere, there’s still lots of charm, but once you hit Folsense and the climax and the ending reveals, the tone sort of... shifts? Not drastically, but enough that’s different from any point in all the other games that I can remember; I feel like Last Spector might have the closest kind of atmosphere to Folsense at certain parts, but even then the plot of that game is nowhere near to having the same tone as this one. Diabolical Box, when you really look close at it and think about it, is dark. Dark in a way that none of the other games are, despite the darkness some of the others do have. And I think part of that is because almost every other game/movie is connected to the overarching story involving Hershel’s past and people involved with him, and so the drama and angst is very much grounded in London or other places Hershel would be/was, and in his time, but Diabolical Box is unique in that the story and characters in it have nothing to do with him. And to reflect this, Anton and Sophia’s story is based in the early 1900′s, the Victorian era, in a city so far separated from, again, everything to do with Hershel, that if you were to just watch their story by itself and take the professor and Luke out of it, and you knew nothing about the series, you could reasonably argue that it isn’t from a Professor Layton game at all. What I mean is that Anton’s story could be an entire anime all on its own surely it’s not obvious how badly I want that, nope, not at all, completely separate from this series, and it would work; it could be its own period era-esque drama series, still with all the supernatural shit intact later on. I can think of a few existing anime similar to what I’m imagining. 

And I really do think it would be amazing, because like I said this story is terribly, terribly dark, and sad; as a PL game, like a lot of the other ones, it can’t go deep into the nitty gritty of what makes Anton’s story so fucking depressing, but just like... Imagine it. Imagine being alone, for so long in that castle, so long that you don’t even know how long it’s been anymore, with virtually no one, after having your heart broken and being abandoned by the person you loved the most, and who you thought loved you, and getting no closure about it. This long post goes a ton of detail about Anton’s character and things he was probably feeling/reasons for his behavior, but in short, Anton’s mother is never mentioned, so combined with how distant he was from his father and the fact that he feels alone in his role in society and that no one truly sees him as a real person, it’s quite possible that he clung to Sophia unconsciously as a mother figure, and, in general, she was the only person who made him feel seen, and loved. The only exception was Beluga, but Beluga leaves the town and Anton behind after quarreling with their father, so... It’s just extremely apparent when you read the diary entries and his dialogue (with the voice acting) that Anton was always alone and terribly insecure, and that Sophia made him the happiest he ever was - and so her leaving him was devastating to him. He was alone for fifty years (and who knows how long it actually felt, to him), in a lonely castle and emptying town, his entire family either left or dead, his body slowly aging without him even knowing it, while he had a daughter and granddaughter born without even knowing it, and all the while he’s left with the misunderstanding that Sophia might have loved someone “better” than him all along, never getting answers, having to live with all that grief and guilt and blame and jealousy and self-hatred over a situation that wasn’t even entirely true. Imagine what your MENTAL STATE would be like, jfc it’s a miracle he’s as sane as he is in the game!! Not to mention everything that crashes down on him within TEN MINUTES AT THE END. Yes, Unwound Future and the prequels very purposefully heap the angst on with Clive/Dimitri and Descole respectively, like “we are trying so hard to make you feel for this guy cry cry cry” and I fall for it like the trash i am love them too, don’t get me wrong, but Anton’s tragedy is much more understated but in my opinion is by far the absolute saddest of them all. I just... i’m crying y’all, this poor man. give him a fucking HUG. Anton Did Nothing Wrong 2k20; he doesn’t even hurt the people he lures in with his vampire scheme!! he lets them go without a scratch!!! what a guy... give him a hug and blankets please i love him so much, him and Sophia- *sobs*

and also as a side note, I honestly think Descole/Desmond would fit perfectly into this game for a lot of these reasons, in the trend of “trying to fit Descole into the first trilogy”; he’s got the right Aesthetic™ for one thing, but mainly just he and Anton have a LOT in common...! actually, now that I think about it, Randall and Anton do too, but I much prefer the notion of Descole and Anton interacting. honestly, I’m toying with the idea of an AU where Desmond and resurrected Aurora end up in Folsense and solve that mystery themselves instead of Hershel and Luke; i think it’d be fascinating.

However, by the same token, as much as I LOVE this game and characters for all of those reasons... it also makes no fucking sense ahaha. How the FUCK does the gas work. The illness that started killing people when the ore was first unearthed and is the reason everyone starts leaving, is THAT from the gas I assume?? but like why?? cause eventually it just turns to making the town appear as it was years ago and keeping people young, so...? ARE ALL THE TOWNSPEOPLE NOT ACTUALLY THERE, OR THEY ARE AND ARE JUST YOUNG LIKE ANTON; I’m still not clear on this!! because Hershel at the end says they’re illusions, and yet when you talk to the npcs so many of them complain about being tired and feeling old, so what is the truth!! It would make sense if newcomers see the town as it is in the pictures, but there’s no reason for them to not age... in fact, I don’t understand where the not aging thing comes from at ALL, since if the idea is that the gas makes what you think will happen happen, how tf did that even come about in the first place??? There’s no way everyone who inhaled the gas would think the exact same things and have the exact same hallucination. And if fifty years passed in reality, how long did it feel like to Anton/others; surely it couldn’t have been that long if they never questioned why they weren’t aging? If the gas in the box put Schrader in a coma, what was his theory about what would happen? Why does nothing happen to Hershel and Luke upon opening it when they clearly assume something will happen? Related to other things, how does the box become the source of a rumor, and how does Schrader even get it? Do people just assume Anton is dead or otherwise gone, or do they know/assume he’s still in the castle but don’t try to see him because of the vampire? Does Beluga know Anton is still there, if he does it’s pretty shitty of him to ignore him, and why does he think the box has to do with the fortune of all things if he possibly knew Sophia wanted it and knew it had something to do with her and Anton (seriously I don’t understand Beluga, I really wish they’d done more with him; he looks so shitty even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he knew the least amount possible)??? Did Sammy know that the drugged flowers related to getting into Folsense? Did Katia know how to get into Folsense, and what was she planning to do if she never found the box in order to prove she was who she said she was? Why do some of the npcs act like they know the deep dark secret of Folsense and keep saying Hershel and Luke don’t need to know, and keep talking about the town being cursed, like do they really know the truth?? Or not??? LEVEL-5 I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND I’M TOO DUMB TO FIGURE OUT THE ANSWERS. EVEN LAYTON VS. WRIGHT’S STUPID REVEALS MAKE MORE SENSE THAN THIS AAAAAHHHH

anyway DB best game anton hot Even with all the weirdness though that makes this game the most Layton the Layton series has ever Layton’d lmao, I still love Diabolical Box so damn much. I love it so much, guys. It’s not part of a huge narrative, it’s not connected to the main characters; it tells its own little story and it does that perfectly. It’s so unique from all the rest, like I said, the plot has so much depth I don’t really see talked about, Anton and Sophia’s story is so beautifully tragic and underrated on a mature level that none of the other games really reach, and despite how upset I am we don’t get to see more of them, their love story is so impactful and emotional just from what little we do see, despite some of the oddities of how it plays out... they’re so sweet together and I cry so damn much over them ಥ⌣ಥ Iris is one of the most beautiful and touching songs in the series, too, and my favorite. And I’m a sucker for the Victorian era and cute romance lmao, so it just gets me like nothing else does... it’s so wonderful. saddest PL game, I will die on this hill. Even if I seem to talk a lot more about some of the other games/characters simply because there’s more content to talk about and there’s more to say about the more flawed content. you can’t improve perfection *chef’s kiss*, deep down, I think, this game will always be my favorite. ❤️

[teenytinyapprentice]

(same headcanons anon) honestly i'd die for that kind of long post sdhfbsjhgbjfd but how about the main cast? layton, luke, flora, and emmy (and perhaps others you'd consider as part of the main cast), i'd really love to hear your thoughts!

GhKdjsfhds UH sure I’m not even sure how to go about organizing any of my thoughts so how about I just give you a whole bunch of random thoughts about the puzzle family + co  in jot note form (sorta)  and you can take from it what you will … disclaimer: Im sure some of these contradict canon and I’ll forget I even came up with them/said them in this and contradict myself but also I am just having fun here and don’t care sfdhkjfhskjglgf

Hershel has an unusually small appetite and prefers lighter dishes to anything heavy or too rich

Emmy and Desmond are both pretty artistic. Emmy mostly focuses on her photography but also enjoys drawing while Desmond actually enjoys painting (mostly water colour) although he’d loathe to let anyone but Raymond know about his hobby until he’s much older - Hershel on the other hand can’t draw For SHIT.

Desmond hair turns totally grey pretty much overnight when he hits his mid 60s while Hershel’s hair doesn’t turn white (slowly but surely) until he’s almost 80. It’s a sore spot.

Luke has his picture on walls of restaurants pretty much everywhere he goes from winning those “eat this giant meal and get it for free” competitions - he wins them on accident most of the time and has forgotten about a lot of them

The Puzzle family will spend at least one major holiday in Monte d’Or with Randall, Angela and Henry - it’s always a huge event and they all look forward to it

Emmy reunites with Layton and the rest of the puzzle family shortly after the events in Unwound Future having heard about the attack on London and realizing delaying seeing the Professor again might mean she just /never/ sees him again (considering his preoccupation for danger) - she just misses Luke leaving but does get to meet Flora and is a huge influence on her becoming more independent and standing up to the Professor

Desmond reunites with the Puzzle family partially on accident after Diabolical Box. He sort of planned to drop in on Hershel and give his little brother a heart attack but it ends up being less smooth and more awkward and difficult than expected… he drops in on occasion but doesn’t make a habit of sticking around too long until much later (influenced by rebuilding some kind of fragile relationship with Lucille and Roland)

Alfendi grew up in orphanages - he’s aware of his biological mother but has no relationship with her. He meets Layton and Flora as part of an investigation (no I haven’t put much thought into exactly what) - he and Flora strike up a funny friendship and when Layton hesitates to have Flora really join in on the investigation Alfendi and Flora do a mini-investigation of their own. They both end up proving to be formidable investigators, but mostly really befriend one another… which in turn strongly influences Hershel to ask Alfendi’s permission to foster and eventually adopt him

Flora does learn to cook later in life but excels more in baking - Katrielle helped her often in the kitchen growing up which is why she loves sweets so much

Flora has a growing interest in robotics that really kicks off when Gizmo (the robot dog from Curious Village) first breaks down when she’s home alone and she has to repair him - Desmond specifically encourages this and helps teach her, Hershel signs her up for a robotics camp upon her request realizing how much she enjoys it

Hershel thinks it’s HILARIOUS that Lucy calls Alfendi “Prof” and literally never stops giving him a hard time over it 

Flora and Alfendi learn to fence, Flora is the better of the two of them. Luke takes up karate inspired by Emmy’s fighting style (and is a terrible, terrible fencer. Just plain awful). Katrielle tried a variety of sports growing up (acrobatics, track and field teams, soccer, floor hockey, variety of dance classes etc.) but never really stuck to anything

Alfendi used to smoke but quit after Forbodium and was never able to get back into it

Emmy used to sneak Alfendi and Flora into horror movies against Hershel’s wishes before Flora was old enough to sneak Alfendi in herself

Flora hit a major growth spurt bout a year after UF and towers over Hershel (and most of the family) at 6”0 tall. Alfendi is a bastard and stole her thunder by matching her height by the time he was 15

Hershel and Flora are both autistic

Flora still visits St. Mystere on occasion - more so when Bruno passes to keep an eye on the residents of her hometown. Her and Lady Dahlia have a complicated but still loving relationship

Luke writes a LOT of letters when he first moves to America to keep up with his friends in England (and all over) - this dwindles down over time but he sends monthly letters to Hershel, Flora, Arianna and Crow until he eventually moves back

Alfendi used to dye his hair black as a teenager but had terrible upkeep and lots of roots showing so he grew out of it in a year or so

Alfendi suffers from chronic migraines and pain exacerbated by Forbodium, which is why he really hates leaving the house/office unless absolutely necessary (he also just isn’t a people person) 

The amount of people the Layton’s refer to as their aunt/uncle is confusing as hell. Lots of the Professor’s old friends get aunt/uncle status (for example Uncle Randall, Uncle Henry, Aunt Angela, Uncle Desmond, Aunt Emmy, Uncle Wright, Aunt Maya, Uncle Andrew, etc.) - specifically confusing around Luke who’s referred to as both brother and uncle

Raymond and Alfendi are actually very close

Luke moves back to London to officially work as Layton’s assistant after he graduates high school in America but also travels independently more often

Raymond has been Desmond’s primary caretaker since his pre-teens. He’s the closest thing he has to a father-figure but they’d never call it that, but it certainly a strong familial love and loyalty - and Des did end up adopting Raymond’s last name “Sycamore” and keeps it post canon when he officially hangs up his persona Descole for good

Flora works a variety of odd jobs before she follows through on her passion of robotics and electronic design

Hershel and Alfendi both have terrible fashion sense

Hershel eventually does tell all of his children (and Desmond, Emmy, Randall) about Claire. It doesn’t get much easier to talk about, but he’s always relieved when he says it

Hershel still has some kind of relationship with Dimitri and Clive. It’s… complicated. Real complicated. But present.

Emmy doesn’t have a relationship with Bronev after the events of AL - she does try but ends up needing to cut it off for her own sake

Luke writes stories inspired by his and the Professor’s adventures - but he tries to keep it a secret while he’s writing, too self-conscious to think of letting anyone let alone Layton read them just quite yet

Desmond actually really likes working with children, finds their presence refreshingly honest (even when they’re little shits) - and really only remembers this when he’s surrounded by Layton’s children in the future

Flora calls Hershel “Dad” or “Professor”, Luke alternates between “Professor” “Hershel” (occasionally “Dad”), Alfendi calls him “Father” or “Hershel” (occasionally “Dad” as well) while Katrielle almost exclusively calls him “Papa” 

Hershel actually once genuinely almost forgot his name was Hershel because of how many people in his day to day just call him “Professor” or “Layton” and its a little jarring hearing his first name sometimes 

Flora was homeschooled while Alfendi and Katrielle attended classes at public school - Alfendi and Katrielle were both notorious trouble makers but for very different reasons

All of the Puzzle kids (Luke, Flora, Alfendi and Katrielle) are trans and are like the perfect sliding scale of The Type of Name You Choose For Yourself When You’re Trans from exceedingly normal to obscure

Luke’s full name is Lucas but literally no one calls him that 

Alfendi’s two personalities go by “Al” and “Fendi” (the latter being the post-Forbodium personality) respectively, but will respond to “Alfendi” regardless of who’s fronting 

Hershel, Emmy and Katrielle have lovely singing voices. Alfendi cannot sing at all.

Luke and Flora both learn to drive while Alfendi and Katrielle never do - Luke learns to ride motorcycles but will still scream the whole time if Emmy takes the wheel of ANY vehicle

Luke in all sincerity owns hiking heels and its the worst thing he owns probably

AND OK. thats all I feel like writing right now but sure take that hopefully some of these are at least a bit funny or interesting to read fhdskjghsd

[miximax-hell]

As always, it’s been a hot minute. But, uh, hey! I hope you’ve all been fine!

Can you believe that this is actually my 20th reference sheet? That’s crazy. I am hecking slow, but I honestly thought I’d have stopped doing this (way) before I reached the double digits. But, hey, I’m still kicking!

And, to honour such a number, it was about time to add another Raimon baby to this blog, so I’ve gone for one of my very favourites. Shishido is very dear to my heart for a variety of reasons (that I will make sure to explain thoroughly when the time for it comes) and I’ve had this miximax in mind for a very long time. In fact, I’ve been ruminating on it since @raynef-art (btw, today’s Raynef’s birthday, so go and wish her a happy birthday if you can!!) and I talked about Shishido on Skype years ago. When was that, even? 2016? 2017, perhaps? In any case, it sure has been extremely long. But, thankfully, all of that ruminating led to one of my favourite pairs in this whole project! Katrielle Layton is a fantastic fit for Shishido, and I will do my very best to explain why this is the case in this post.

So, for more on ShishiKat, please check under the cut!

As always, I like to use this first paragraph to talk a bit about random stuff, so feel free to skip it if you want. Long story short, I’ve spent the last few months (since mid-May or so) job hunting like a beast. Big ol’ companies from all around the world, like Rockstar, Revolution, The Creative Assembly/Sega or Build A Rocket Boy have shown interest in me, but it’s led nowhere so far, which is extremely frustrating. Heck, there’s a company who contacted me first and they still didn’t give me the job in the end. >:| But I did an interview last Thursday and I should get an answer soon, so let’s hope that goes well...! It’s an awesome job, close to where I live (so I wouldn’t have to move), the company is super successful and two friends are already working there. It’d be incredible to join them and keep progressing in my career. And, well, money doesn’t hurt at all either. Gotta get into the wheel of capitalism. Anyway, job matters aside, I’ve recently finished some games that have become personal favourites of mine, like Valkyria Chronicles and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star (even if the first one was arguably better), but the one that undoubtedly takes the crown is Marvel’s Spider-Man, which shaped up to be a game as brilliant as Insomniac’s previous titles, if not even more so, and has become one of my favourite games of all time. Sadly, Spider-Man isn’t originally a videogame character, so I won’t be including him in this project (as much as that pains me). So we’ll have to take other routes if we want to have a Marvel miximax here... I’m on it, but suggestions are still accepted.

So, Shishido! Who doesn’t love Shishido? He’s just so lovely. Look at him! Look at him right now! How can someone without visible eyes be so PRECIOUS? Don’t you just want to channel the annoying aunt within you and pinch his cheeks and nose? Well, we still can’t do that, but we can try and do him justice by giving him a truly awesome miximax. (The quality of the art that accompanies said miximax may vary in quality, but that’s not Shishido’s nor Katrielle’s fault--it’s entirely mine for not being better.)

So, friends who have been here for a while and have a good memory may be thinking, “Hold on a minute, you! The Professor Layton franchise has already been represented within this blog--you miximaxed Fudou with Hershel Layton himself!” And you’d be right. You might even be thinking I’m betraying my own rules by using two characters from the same franchise. Well, that isn’t the case, as PL is a Level-5 franchise and I may (and tend to) use up to two characters from each franchise made by L5. It’s all here. But, even with all of that, there’s still a question that remains and that I figure many people might have in their heads: if Fudou is already miximaxed with Hershel, isn’t Shishido basically a copy? Does Katrielle really add anything to the table?

I’m glad you asked. Well, I’m glad I asked, because that’s what led to all of this. ww And, thankfully, yes. Yes, she does. But before answering that question, we have a much more important question to ask:

Who is Shishido Sakichi?

Hino, that lovely piece of work, is actually really fricking good (when he actually tries) at something I’m unable to name, hence why I will refer to it as “scattered storytelling.” It’s similar to environmental storytelling in the sense that we’re never directly told many things, but we can still figure them out thanks to the looks of a character, the scenarios we see, audio queues, etc. Video games offer many resources to build up rich environmental storytelling, but what Hino (and probably many others--it’s not like he invented the wheel!) does is give us hints scattered across different pieces of media to try and figure out what some of his undeveloped characters are all about. And let’s be real: original Raimon is a lovely collection of undeveloped characters. So let’s check out a few things about Shishido and see where they take us.

Shishido was one of the first members of Raimon, being one of the 7 players the team had before they were forced to look for more people to have a match against Teikoku. He was, however, replaced by Kidou when he joined the team, and he stayed as a benchwarmer until he got injured by Gemini Storm. Then, as he joined the Dark Emperors, if you talk to him in the game before the match, he mentions how he’s been pushing himself past his limit for a long time, only to keep feeling like he’s mediocre. Finally, during the match between Raimon’s older and newer members, he is shown facing Kidou and getting past him despite how afraid he was of engaging directly with such a big rival.

On top of that, his in-game descriptions go like this: “He is becoming the team’s key-man by developing his own pace,” (IE1) “His laid-back personality can make him the butt of his team-mates' jokes“ (IE2) and “The Aliea crystal has given him an invincible self-belief“ (IE2 DE). Let’s admit that it’s not a lot to go by, but maybe we can get something out of all of this.

As usual, I explain this better in the heat of the moment while talking to someone who’s ready to listen, so Raynef or my girlfriend probably got the better version of what I’ll be trying to explain now. However, those conversations are so old that I'm having trouble retrieving them, so... welp. ww Let me try anyway.

Judging by what we know about Shishido, we can try to figure out what his character development has been like. We get his first in-game description as soon as we can see him in our in-game menu; that is, before the first Teikoku match even takes place. At this point, aka at the very beginning of the game, Shishido is a player that is “becoming the team’s key-man.” Slowly, perhaps, but he is on his way. However, this process is halted abruptly when Kidou joins the team, as he replaces him as a regular first-team player. Now, a valid question would be, “why did Kidou replace Shishido and not any other midfielder?”

It would make no sense to get rid of Someoka or Kurimatsu to let Kidou in the pitch, as he’s not a forward nor a defender. But, among all the midfielders in the team, why Shishido? Why not Handa, Shourin or even Max (who is technically a forward, but has been playing as a midfielder, so it’d make a lot more sense to bench him)? The most obvious answer would be that everyone else has abilities that Kidou can’t properly replace/mimic/make up for; or, in other words, that Kidou is like an upgraded version of Shishido more than he is an upgraded version of any of the other characters. And what is Kidou, exactly? A brilliant midfielder with incredible control over the ball and a great strategist overall. It’s this last part that we’re most interested in: he’s a strategist. A game-maker, that is. What one could easily call a vital part of a team or, even, in more poetic words, a key-man. What Shishido used to be, or was going to become, before Kidou showed up to steal his spotlight. Not to mention the incredible pain one must feel upon being replaced like that... (This was best explained by @mimiflieder on her fic, Change of pace--it’s about Handa and Ichinose, but the same thing applies. I totally recommend checking it out!)

This theory is further supported (in sad ways) by his in-game description in IE2. His personality remains the same (laid-back and doing his at his own pace), but he has gone from being a key-man WIP to the butt of his teammates’ jokes. Sure, the jokes are blamed on this laid-back personality, but something doesn’t quite add up. Check out his quote while he’s a Dark Emperor: he’s been pushing himself too hard to achieve nothing. Is that really what you’d call ‘laid-back’?

In the best case scenario, everyone sees him as being laid-back and chill to the point of being funny: he’s not making a fuss about being replaced in front of his teammates. However, he’s been trying as hard as possible in secret to become the best he can possibly be... only to still be eclipsed by Kidou and the other talented members of the team in every sense.

In the worst case scenario, his attempts to improve are very much obvious to his team, and the lack of results or the gap between the two key-men not becoming any smaller is what makes him the butt of jokes (but I hate this scenario because Raimon babies are all sweet and supportive boys who’d never do this. I DON’T CARE IF TEENAGERS ARE CRUEL AND STUPID BY NATURE. RAIMON BABIES ARE BETTER THAN ACTUAL TEENAGERS, OKAY, AND THEY’D NEVER DO THIS. THEY ARE PRECIOUS LITTLE ANGELS.)

In either case, he was destined to be--heck, he might have already been in non-spoken parts of the game--Raimon’s game-maker, but when Kidou came around with his superior skills, Shishido became, simply put, obsolete. That made his self-esteem sink and eventually threw him in the arms of Aliea in a desperate attempt to finally be better and stand up to Kidou. That’s why his in-game description as a DE talks about his boosted self-esteem, much like Handa’s talks about how that jack-of-all trades is using the meteorite to become master of all.

And, of course, this makes that scene during that final match ALL the more relevant: not only does it signify the triumph of hard work and resolution over sheer talent, fleeting as it might be, but it’s also the end of a long, long journey of self-deprecation, self-improvement, guts and sheer fear. Shishido was literally SHAKING when he saw Kidou running towards him, but he pulled himself together and won. He was no longer the inferior one, the replaceable one, the laughing stock. Little and unexplained as it may be, it’s a truly emotional finale to his personal and unspoken journey.

(Another and more positive way to look at it is that Shishido is meant to become Raimon’s game-maker and key-man AFTER KIDOU LEAVES, so all this time by his side has been a massive training camp of two years to learn his ways and then add his own twist to everything he’s learnt. This leaves some issues hanging, but it will at least let me sleep tonight.)

What we have here is a pretty solid theory pointing at Shishido having what it takes to become a game-maker. But, hey, that’s just a theory! A GAME THEORY! ...And what this means is that there’s evidence supporting it, but we have no way to confirm it unless one of you guys can go and casually interrogateview Hino (and if you do, that’d kind of come in handy, actually). However, the pieces fall together a bit too well to be just a coincidence, right? At least, I think so. And even if they don’t, we don’t have much more to go by, so... it’ll have to do.

Anyway, we’ve (somewhat) answered the question about who Shishido is. It is, therefore, about time to answer the main question this post laid on the table: is Katrielle a good aura to use when her father is already part of this project? And, even if she is, why would Katrielle be the best match for Shishido? Let’s start by explaining what makes Katrielle non-redundant despite bearing her father’s surname and being very similar conceptually.

In essence, Katrielle and Hershel fulfill very similar roles: a smart person who likes puzzles and is hired to solve mysteries no one else can solve. But anyone who knows anything about these characters will know that, really, they are absolutely nothing alike.

Hershel is the perfect gentleman: well-behaved, modest, calm and cold-headed regardless of the situation, polite to a fault, boasts perfect manners, and he manages to get along with even the most unfriendly people in the world thanks to his infinite patience, unwavering kindness and the smile he has on his face whenever he greets someone. Not to mention that his investigation process is long-winded and meticulous, and keeps telling Luke to not make quick assumptions when he jumps into conclusions ahead of time.

Meanwhile, Katrielle is pretty much the polar opposite: proud (heck, the first episode of the anime has her saying her skills are better than her father’s!), funny, dramatic to a fault, jumps to crazy conclusions so fast that everyone around her is always surprised by it and doubts she even put any thought into them, has a quick temper sometimes, she works as a detective just for funsies (and glory, to some extent, as she’s constantly struggling to be taken seriously by people who’d rather talk to her dad), she’s easily swayed by yummy food, instinct and imagination move her much more than hard evidence... This alone is enough to make the personalities of ShishiKat and FudoLay totally different, but, of course, this train doesn’t run on personalities, but on powers and skills. So let’s discuss not what Kat offers, but what Shishido needs.

We’ve established that Shishido was a game-maker in progress. Now, let’s keep in mind that this project includes all of the main characters from IE, IEGO, IECS and IEGalaxy, and they could all potentially be sharing a side of the field with Shishido, so let’s see whom he is competing against.

Of course, we have Kidou, the genius game-maker, the absolute commander of the pitch and, well, a living legend trained by another living legend: Kageyama. He has a miximax too, but you guys have not seen it yet. In due time.

We have Fudou, whose natural intelligence is (arguably) on par with Kidou’s and has received some training by Kageyama as well, even if he didn’t reach the same level of legend nor acted as a game-maker nearly as much as Kidou did. Fudou is, however, enhanced by Hershel Layton, whose influence upon mixitransing helps Fudou stop being such a little shit. That allows him to focus enough on the game and on his teammates to surpass Kidou as a serious and cold-headed strategist who is able to treat every situation as a puzzle and find the precise moves needed to solve it. Not to mention that, of course, Layton boosts Fudou’s intelligence as well.

Shindou has his miximax, which turns him into a "gamemaker of truth who can appraise people and the general situation, while combining both stillness and motion." Pretty self-explanatory.

Taiyou and Hakuryuu, upon mixitransing, become "midfielders of unparalleled accuracy, who can see into the future and attack the enemy's weak spots with their analytical reasoning." These two aren't technically game-makers in Chrono Storm, but Zhuge Liang was a frigging strategist and these two are given analytical reasoning through their miximax. Not to mention they were probably game-makers when they were part of their original teams.

The way the canon tried to keep Shindou and Taiyou/Hakuryuu from overlapping was by casually disregarding Zhuge Liang’s strategist side and focusing on her Keshin and ability to see the future/what no one else can see, so we can scratch Taiyou and Hakuryuu, as they won’t easily be taking the role of game-makers anymore. We can also discard Kidou, as FudoLay completely outclasses him for the time being. (Look at me, I sound like I’m writing an article on Electrode for Smogon--) So, ShishiKat’s only real challengers are FudoLay and, uh... does Shindou’s miximax have any kind of fandom name? I heard people refering to Kirino’s miximax as Kirino d’Arc, but that’s about it. Anyway, to keep it simple, I’ll call it ShinOda until someone brings up something better.

So, yeah, ShishiKat is competing against ShinOda and FudoLay. ShinOda focuses on a complete control over when to move and when not to move, arguably to preserve his teammates’ and his own stamina and maximise what everyone can do with their natural reserves of energy. FudoLay, on the other hand, uses analytical thinking to find the most efficient moves in any given situation. As I mentioned, he treats every situation as a puzzle, and, as Layton would say, “every puzzle has an answer.” One specific and perfect answer that FudoLay excels at finding, using the minimum number of steps necessary and turning the solution into pure art. He is, however, still Fudou, so he’d probably push his teammates to the limit in rough ways in order to achieve that perfection he is aiming for. And it’s still Layton, so we can expect some long-winded thought processes that take long to pay off--but when they finally do, HOO BOY.

It's good being analytical and smart, but perhaps, just perhaps, Shishido could use a little something to make him different and stick out among his peers. Something that is a bit more... proactive. Unpredictable. Slightly impulsive. But still as witty as one can ever be. He needs to combine the brains with the brawn, and blend it all together with much-needed cheerfulness, since all the game-makers we’re dealing with here are cold or outright pricks.

Shishido needs to improvise to the point of making things up for no reason and eventually making them work in almost miraculous ways. Focus less on what’s in front of his eyes and more on what other possibilities could be there. Act more on instinct than on careful observation. Give commands that are a lot more roundabout that those of Shindou, Kidou or Fudou, but end up paying off in ways that not even he could always predict. Jump into the problem head-first and solve it in-situ instead of looking at it from afar and pondering for long periods of time. And, of course, among all of that, he needs an enormous self-confidence to pull it all off, as his premises may seem utterly ridiculous and he must believe in them whole-heartedly to convince everyone else.

Katrielle Layton checks every single one of these boxes. It’s Katrielle, and Katrielle alone, who can turn Shishido not just into a replacement for the times when Kidou and Fudou aren’t around, but into a true force of nature that can assist the team at all times. It makes Shishido useful and non-redundant--which is, of course, much more than the anime did for him. Let alone the manga, where Shishido didn’t even appear. (I mean, the manga gave us Tamano bby, but still--)

And the best part is that they don’t step on each other. ShinOda is fantastic (and I won’t comment on my own ideas), but no one is objectively better at being a game-maker than the rest. Different situations will call for different approaches, so their relevance will shift as the rivals change or as the rivals adapt to one style or the other. Or, heck, they can simply all work together to keep their rivals guessing and come up with even greater strategies that combine everyone’s fortes.

Also, I’m watching Katrielle’s anime with my girlfriend and that is what made me consider her for this project in the first place, so props to her! (But sorry for butchering the design, dear ww)

[askaceattorney]

Dear ellipis-ultima,

As much as I like the joke of Phoenix joining Smash, it’s the same thing of everybody in the PL fandom want’s Professor Layton to be in the game. They have the same possibility, but the majority of people either don’t know the characters, don’t know the capability of the characters, or don’t care about either. Now, about the game as it is...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Kumatora Kumatora Kumatora! Ku-ma-to-ra!! I’ve always been a Lucas main, but I’m DEFINITELY going to main Lucas, JUST so I can see Kumatora in his final smash. And the Inklings! I wanna play them so badly!! I’m SO hyped!

Dear ellipsis-ultima,

It’s funny you should ask -- I already made a comment about it using one of Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” comics on my other blog:

Needless to say, I’m quite excited at the prospects of a Smash Bros. game that includes every flippin’ fighter from previous games.  It does make me wonder how much content we’ll get in terms of the music, stages, and storyline (if there is one), but it’s still an intriguing thought.

And if, by some miracle, Phoenix appeared on the roster, my reaction would probably be the same as the one I had when they announced the new Ace Attorney game for the Switch:

Dear Afool Ishdud,

Fixed it.  Mind if I borrow your name for a little while?

Dear Inferno,

...Whelp, that’s a book to add to my reading list. If we’re giving out legal book recommendations, I recommend to everybody “Black Jack Justice” by Gregg Taylor. It’s based on the podcast of the same name, and it’s about an old-timey detective and his... perky girl detective partner, and how they first met.

Dear Inferno,

I’ve only read his first book, A Time to Kill (and seen the movie adaptation), and from what I remember, it was pretty great in terms of plot buildup and suspense.  I’m admittedly not much of a book-reader, but if his other books are as good as that one, I’ll definitely check it out sometime soon.

(Referenced News Report)

Dear Tanlerst,

Unsurprising.

Dear Tanlerst,

Word.

(Previous Letter)

Yikes...  Thank you very much for finding that for us, as well as finding a better link (and another link after that one).  Considering how many other links are on this blog, it might be a good idea for us to hire a quality control person.  Do you know anyone with a palindromic name?

(Previous Letter)

Dear Guquis,

Possibly, but I'd say it was worth it.  It isn’t the first time Athena has made a generalization about men, plus, as a member of that group myself, I wouldn’t say she’s too far off.

Dear Laura,

I’m so sorry I missed your birthday! Happy Birthday anyways! Sorry, I was so caught up with my own things. My friends and I are working on numerous things IRL, plus I’m waiting for a job application to go through, and a lot of other IRL nonsense. :(

Dear askaccurateaceattorney,

Dear Fulbright,

I haven’t been following Pokemon very much lately, so let me just take a quick look at it...

Hmm.  Gameplay-wise, it seems like it’s playing the nostalgia card for the sake of older Pokemon fans, but even so, I like how the music sounds, how the multiplayer system works, and how much more real they’re attempting to make raising Pokemon.  If I had one of those real-life Pokeballs, I’d probably be petting it all day.  As someone who isn’t a hardcore Pokefan, I’ll withhold judgment of it until I see more, but I’m guessing its popularity will mostly depend on which features the developers decide to focus on (hardware, gameplay, graphics, etc.).  Who knows?  It might end up being great.

I’m also waiting for the Switch’s price to go down a little before I buy one.  It looks pretty entertaining from what I’ve seen, but I’ll probably keep clinging to my Wii U until the Switch is within my grasp budget-wise.  I’ve also been a fan of the 3DS for a long time (true, I stopped using the 3D feature a while ago, but it’s still amazing), so I hope it retains its popularity for at least a little while longer.  The funny thing is, I was lucky enough to find a used one pretty cheap, but I still think it was worth way more than I paid for it.  Sorry for ripping you off there, Nintendo!

Dear Pinky the Artist,

I LOVE fan art! It’s, in my personal opinion, one of the best things about any fandom!

Dear Pinky the artist,

Do I?  DO I!?  I wouldn’t make fan art myself and not accept it from others.  Send it on in!  (Assuming it’s tasteful, of course.)

And while I’ve already explained this over on my blog, I might as well explain it here so everyone can see it:

This blog was created by someone who called herself Ace Admin (a very clever name, in my opinion).  She later handed it off to a guy who called himself the Mod (short for “Moderator”), who ran it up until about a year ago.  At that point, he held an audition to pick a new moderator, and the winner was my good friend, who goes by The Modthorne, and she later allowed me to join her as the Co-Mod.  (We both picked those names for ourselves, by the way.)  The Mod said he was planning to stop by every now and then to answer a few letters, but we haven’t seen him in quite a while, so the blog is now run by the two of us.

However, as I mentioned before, it’s really the writers who provide “fuel” for the blog.  We’re just the pilots.  We hope you’re enjoying the ride so far!

-Modthorne and Co-Mod

[bearofohu]

How old do you think LMJ Luke is? He doesn’t look much older than Clive from what we could see.

to be absolutely honest, luke looks way younger than he should be by the widely-assumed idea that kat and alfendi were born (assuming they’re not adopted) after unwound future and onward. i don’t mean to get over-theoretical but this actually leads me to believe alfendi and kat might’ve been born before unwound future but this admittedly doesn’t hold a lot of water. still though, luke and even layton still look relativley young. i don’t think it means all that much, its probably just to keep the past characters (especially luke) attractive..? i guess, i really don’t know. he does look pretty young though, i’d say around clive’s age at early 20′s, maybe middle. I personally think he’s 23.

[pixelgrotto]

D&D With My Bro: The Case of the Almost Assassination

For the last four months, my brother and I have been playing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I whipped up called The Case of the Almost Assassination, and we came to a triumphant finale the other night. My bro’s called it a “steampunk mystery set in a fantasy world,” which is a good description, but on a more detailed level, the campaign was also heavily influenced by the Ace Attorney and Professor Layton games and exists in the universe of The Thirteenth Hour, a series of fantasy stories self-published by my brother that are inspired by 80s movies and cartoons. So the whole thing is one huge ball of fun nerdiness, and figuring that it might be cool to chronicle the campaign as we played, I captured each of our sessions on video. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube here in convenient playlist format (listening to it in the background like a podcast is also pretty nice, I gotta say), and there’s over 20 hours there, which is longer than some of the video games I’ve blogged about! 

This wasn’t the first time that my brother and I had played D&D, since I’d previously introduced the game to him via a small four hour mini-campaign last time I visited his house. (He’s written some great thoughts on that adventure, as well as the experience of missing out on D&D in his childhood but getting the chance to discover it as an adult here.) But this was certainly the first time we’d played something long that continued from week to week, and it was also the first time we’d used virtual tabletop software - in this case the very useful Roll 20 - to play online. Minus a few minor internet hiccups, it ran smoothly, and I think both of us had a great time. The experience also made me ruminate on three interesting facts about D&D that I think not enough people write about, and I’m going to jot off a few thoughts on them here. Without further ado...

1) It is perfectly possible, and sometimes even more fun, to play D&D with just one other person. 

Normally, Dungeons & Dragons conjures up images of a bunch of people - usually three or four at minimum - sitting at a table listening to instructions given to them by the Dungeon/Game Master, or DM. But the hardest part of D&D isn’t juggling rules or even fighting Challenge Rating 30 monsters - it’s getting a group of three or four people to meet up together on a consistent basis! This is why you can tell that anyone who still thinks of D&D as an activity for anti-social basement dwellers hasn’t actually played it, because in truth, the game is a demanding social commitment, especially for adults.

Thankfully, while it might be a less common way to play, you can totally enjoy D&D with just two people. Usually this means that someone more familiar with the rules has to be the DM while the other person acts as the player, which is what my brother and I did. Sometimes, the DM will also have to create a player character for themselves, and I did that in order to assist my bro with various battles and tricky scenes. This is more work for the DM, since they’ll have to juggle both their own character as well as the various non-playable characters (NPCs) encountered in the story, but if you’re up for it, it’s a rewarding exercise.

The best thing about playing D&D with just one DM and one player is how efficient it is. Three or four player D&D (to say nothing of five, six, or even more players) can get slowed down by arguments about how to progress or share loot, not to mention downtime in battles when a player who has a bazillion spells at his disposal deliberates on the one he wants to use that will both do the most damage and look the coolest. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love these sorts of interactions, but it’s also nice to strip all that fat away. 

When it’s just one player and the DM, the DM also has the chance to make that player feel pivotally important by basing the story around them. Usually, the “unit” of D&D is the adventuring party, but in a one person + one DM game, the player gets to shine as the main character. Thus, it’s a good idea to choose the sort of story that can emphasize the important actions of an individual, and in my opinion the best ones for this are heavy on role-playing and character interaction rather than dungeon crawling and monster slaying. For example, a rogue adventure in an urban environment might fit the bill...or maybe even a mystery. Which leads me to my second point...

2) If you’re a DM making a homebrew campaign, try utilizing a setting that your players are already familiar with.

When my brother initially agreed to play a long campaign with me, I first thought that we might attempt one of the many published Forgotten Realms adventures that have been released for 5th Edition D&D. But then I realized that while my brother is mildly familiar with the Forgotten Realms, thanks to old comics and fantasy art from the 80s and 90s, he’s much more familiar with the setting that he created for his own fantasy novel, The Thirteenth Hour. My bro originally wrote this book when he was a high school kid and finally published it a few years ago, and in the time since, he’s written some short spin-offs and outlined ideas for a sequel. In the mini-campaign we’d played in October, his character was actually a half-elf ranger named the Wayfarer who’ll play a pivotal role in book two, and I initially pitched the whole idea of D&D to him as “Hey, this can help you brainstorm your sequel concepts before you put them down to paper.” 

Once I began toying with the idea of making a homebrew campaign set in The Thirteenth Hour world, I started worrying that my brother’s universe was limited when compared to the “fantasy kitchen sink” setting of the Forgotten Realms. I mean, my bro’s book didn’t even have orcs! Or dwarves! What was I gonna do! But then I stopped being reliant on fantasy tropes and actually re-read The Thirteenth Hour, quickly finding that there was plenty I could work with.The universe that my brother created doesn’t have all of the races that Tolkien coined, but it’s still full of magic and wonder - a place where crafty old wizards inspired by The Last Starfighter’s Centauri run amok, strange technological anomalies like hover boards occasionally pop up and an otherworldly gatekeeper known as the Dreamweaver lets the spirits of the deceased visit their loved ones in dreams. And there’s also a large kingdom called Tartec ruled over by a vaguely Trump-esque king named Darian, who thinks he’s found the elixir of immortality when actually all he’s discovered is coffee. (If you think this sounds amusing, you can pick up a digital copy of my bro’s book on Amazon for less than a cup of Starbucks!)

Darian’s a funny character, and in one of the spin-off short stories that my brother wrote, an older and slightly wiser version of him reflects on how an assassin nearly took his head off with a dagger. This one sentence got me thinking who that assassin might be, and before I knew it I’d come up with the basic hook of a campaign. At the time, I was also reading Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, a D&D book that introduces 5th Edition’s Inquisitive subclass, which is basically a fantasy Sherlock Holmes. Suddenly, the ideas began bubbling in my head - the campaign would be a detective story set in Tartec with two leads trying to determine the identity of King Darian’s would-be assassins. Once I had this hook, I decided to draw further inspiration from the two video game series I think of when I hear the word “detective” - the Professor Layton games (which I like the style of but am rubbish at, since puzzles confound me) and the Ace Attorney series, which I’ve written about before. My brother would be the main character Lester LeFoe (patterned slightly after Phoenix Wright, the star of Ace Attorney), and I’d be the spunky female assistant Claudia Copperhoof (a little similar to Phoenix’s assistant Maya Fey). 

I hoped that situating these characters in my brother’s world would breed a quicker sense of familiarity than he’d get from playing a generic warrior in the Forgotten Realms, and I think it’s safe to say that the experiment succeeded. Thus, even though 5th Edition D&D products all use the Realms as their default setting, it’s worth remembering that you don’t have to follow this lead, and can always tailor your campaign to a world that your players are already familiar with. In my brother’s case, he’s a writer who made his own world, but for someone else this can easily be Middle-Earth or the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard’s Conan books. The D&D Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide actively encourage modifying published adventures to appeal to your players’ favorite settings, in fact, and not only will this potentially help to decrease the amount of lore you need to explain as a Dungeon Master, but it’ll also help keep the attention of everybody listening to you. Because who wouldn’t want to insert themselves into their favorite bit of genre fiction as a legendary figure? In many ways, the whole point of D&D is to give people a framework to do that!

3) If you’re DMing for someone who doesn’t have much time to play, remember that a linear campaign is not necessarily a bad thing, and simplify the more complicated rules - making stuff up whenever necessary!

On page six of the 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, there’s a whole section entitled “Know Your Players,” which is all about altering your game to appeal to the personalities at your table. If you’re DMing for people who like acting and appreciate in-depth stories, give them plenty of role-playing opportunities and narrative twists, for instance, and if you’re dealing with folks who’d rather just make their characters look cool, try having them fight lots of monsters who reward snazzy armor and weapons. 

There should really be a sub-section there entitled “How to run a game for players who are low on time.” Because that’s my brother in a nutshell. He’s a late 30s dude who works a demanding job and has two small children to take care of, one of whom is barely half a year old. (You can hear my nephew gurgling in the background in a few of our videos, and sometimes we’d even have to stop playing when the baby woke up from a snooze, which is a situation that I’m sure all new parents can relate to.) I know for a fact that my brother is also the type of guy whose eyes will glaze over when presented with a lot of complicated rules - as is probably the case for anyone who only has at most an hour or two, often in the late evening, to sit down to play a game when the rest of the family is in bed. 

In my opinion, the way to tailor your game to such a player is to make a brisk, well-paced story that they can actually see to a satisfying conclusion. This means that the campaign might be fairly linear - a word which seems to have bizarre negative connotations to some D&D players out there, who are always ranting about “railroading,” which is when a DM puts players down a predetermined path without any wiggle room. I think it’s important to note that “linear” does NOT necessarily equate to “railroading,” however, and that a sprawling campaign with a trillion different outcomes and choices to make at every interval isn’t necessarily the best approach for someone who can only play a little bit each week and might get bored if they feel like they aren’t making tangible progress. 

Let me put it this way - the campaign that I made for my brother was tightly designed. Instead of giving Lester and Claudia a vast landscape to explore, everything was confined to the city of Tartec, and I made an effort to nudge the characters towards certain objectives that they had to complete in order to solve the mystery, such infiltrating a manor house in the upper class section of town. But I also made sure to flesh out these few areas (quality over quantity) and allowed a certain degree of freedom in how the objectives could be cleared. For instance, I initially thought that Lester and Claudia might sneak into the manor house through the sewers. But as I was brainstorming strategies with my bro, the topic of disguises came up, because Claudia owned a disguise kit. And eventually we decided to infiltrate the party with Lester masquerading as a nutty old lady and Claudia as his keeper, which was a fun improvisation that I never would’ve anticipated - but still a viable way to complete the main objective that didn’t negatively impact the story’s pacing. 

On the topic of keeping the pace of the story brisk for a player low on time, I feel like it’s also important to minimize the number crunching and reduce D&D’s more complicated rules whenever possible. In practice, this meant that I took care of as much behind-the-scenes stats management as possible so my bro wouldn’t have to, though I did always try to explain to him what was going on (and what all of those funky dice rolls meant) so he’d have some understanding of the game’s mechanics. Also, whenever we were in a situation where I wasn’t sure of a rule, instead of wasting time looking at the Player’s Handbook, nine times out of ten I’d just make something up on the fly. For example, our adventure had a friendly NPC orangutan in it (specifically chosen because I know my brother likes backflipping primates) and she was supposed to be a super strong, unpredictable force of nature in the final battle. I’d lost the stats that I’d used for her when she first appeared, and instead of looking for them, I decided to just roll a d20 for her damage, figuring that the end result would be close enough. In that same vein, there were a few instances where I made mistakes, since I’m still a relatively new DM. Once I totally miscalculated a character’s special attack, leading to a funny NPC death (which I’d expected but not exactly in that way) and on multiple occasions I flat out forgot to apply modifiers to attack rolls. But instead of going back to redo everything I’d either just laugh it off or forge ahead, hoping that my bro didn’t notice, which he never did. 

Ultimately, my philosophy for DMing is to not sweat the small stuff TOO much if it probably doesn’t matter in the long run, especially if you’re running a game for just one person whose free hours are precious. I believe this sort of approach might be sacrilegious to some of the more rules-oriented DMs out there, like the ones who spend hundreds of words arguing over damage variables on the D&D Subreddit. But I’m not one of those folks, and I’d prefer to follow the advice of Sly Flourish, a DM who has a great website where he advocates a “lazy” style of Dungeon Mastering which de-emphasizes nitpicking over rules in favor of just having fun. 

At the end of the day, having fun is what D&D is all about. It’s a game of make believe that can really bring out your inner storytelling-loving child, and in an era where very few adults are encouraged to even consider the concept of “make believe,” it can be a truly wonderful breath of fresh air. And if you don’t believe me...I encourage you to watch The Case of the Almost Assassination and try not to crack up at some of the situations that Lester LeFoe and Claudia Copperhoof found themselves in. :)

The pics above are either art that I assembled for our adventure or screenshots that I took while we were playing! The little figurines I designed via HeroForge.

[wayfaringpanda]

As soon as Barb crossed the county line, she could feel the difference. It was probably just in her head, she knew, but she rolled down her window anyway to breathe in the crisp autumn air.

The landmarks came as she got closer to town - the fruit cart in front of the seasonal corn maze, the aspen grove, the dilapidated old barn where the kids always had their “secret” parties. Each one had the excitement sitting in her chest burning stronger and stronger.

A meow drew her attention to the passenger seat. “Almost there, Mochi,” she said, reaching over to scratch at the fat orange ginger pressed against the carrier door. The cat glared balefully before turning around as best he could. Barb chuckled then turned her attention back to the road.

The town was no where to be seen, and then suddenly there it was. There was just one sign for Layton, half-hidden behind a tree, and the county highway passed high above as the exit led down into a valley. The heavily wooded streets disguised the size of town, almost thirty thousand in size.

Barb took the exit, navigating the roads to downtown with a muscle memory she’s secretly feared would’ve disappeared in the fifteen years she’d been gone.

“We’re going to make a quick drop to get a homecoming gift for mom and dad,” she said to Mochi as she pulled into the parking spot in front of the drugstore.

Stepping into the drugstore was like stepping back in time. The products were new, but the shelves and paint on the walls were the same as the last time Barb had been here. She found her way unerringly to the wine shelf, and snagged a bottle of a local vintage she knew were her parents favorite.

She did her best to tamp down the glee on her face as she made her way to the counter. It was manned by Mr. Grant, who always dressed like he was running a saloon during the California gold rush.

“Just passing through?” he asked as he rang her up.

“Nope,” Barb replied, and couldn’t keep the grin in anymore. “It’s me, Mr. Grant. Barb.”

A beat, and then Mr. Grant burst out laughing. “Barb!” He came from around the counter to give her a hug. “What’s it been, twenty years?”

“Only fifteen,” she replied, smacking him lightly on the shoulder. “I don’t look that old, do I?”

“I stopped being able to track time a hundred years ago,” he chuckled. “I couldn’t even tell you my wife’s age, even if she wanted me to.” He peered eagerly at her. “How was it out there? It was your first time, right?”

“First time for more than a couple of weeks,” Barb replied. “First time to age. I’d originally just planned to go to college, but I was having such a good time, and then I got married - one thing led to another.”

Mr. Grant nodded sympathetically. “That happened to our Lila. She ended up having a whole life before coming home. Now when we travel, people think she’s my mother! She gets a real kick out of ordering her father around.”

Barb laughed. “Well, I think physically my parents still have twenty years on me, and I’m back for a while now.”

“And buying them the Grigio they like - such a good daughter,” he teased. “Well, I’ll ring you up. They’ll be excited to see you, we shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

Barb reached into her purse for her wallet. “Any word on Janelle? She still out in the world?”

He eyed her knowingly. “She’s been back working the orchard with her brother for... well, I don’t know how long. The whole time thing. But I saw her the other day, she seems close to your age, so probably not more than a couple of years.”

Barb knew she was blushing, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that then leave. “Thanks, Mr. Grant.” She grabbed the bottle of wine. “It was good to see you.”

“You too!” He waved her off.

Barb got back in the car, tucking the wine into the tote of snacks she had brought for the road trip. “She’s here, Mochi,” she said in a tiny, excited voice. “She was ten years older than me growing up, so she never even paid much attention to me, but she came back after college for a couple of years and now... now I think I might even be older than her. Just a bit.” She sighed, and poked her fingers into the cage to stroke his fur. “Maybe now she’ll see me.”

She started the car, and headed out of downtown towards her parents house. “I have a good feeling, Mochi.” Barb started to hum.

You grew up in a small town, but always dreamed of city life. So you moved away as soon as you were old enough, leading a long and successful modern life. Finally, you’ve returned to your hometown… and nobody has aged a day.

[northelypark]

Hey, I hope your hellish weekend is going A-Okay(tm). Just think, what would Clive do in bad times? Destroy London. Nevermind, bad example. But I hope this ask makes you feel better 👍 2, 7, 8, 13, 15, 22, 24, 25 and 30~

2 - What time of day do you think is the best to write?

My schedule is a bit weird, so I write whenever I can find the time, whether it be early morning, late afternoon, or after midnight. I don’t think a particular time of day is better than any other. As long as it’s quiet and I can relax without any pressing schoolwork or other obligations I need to worry about right at that moment, I’m good to go.

7 - Which character that you’ve written is most like yourself?

Probably Amelia because she’s 1) the protagonist and 2) written in the first person, so a lot of my personality, thoughts, and feelings have gone into her development. Even before writing Lamplight Letters, there were some similarities between me and her character in Eternal Diva: we’re both introverts, both loners to an extent, both always thinking and asking questions, and both have blonde hair and owlish eyes (more as a kid, as an adult I just have tired, serial killer eyes). It’s funny because even as I’ve shaped Amelia with my own personality, she’s also shaped me. I had only a passing interest in chess before writing L^3 and now I love chess and have started (very, very slowly) to sharpen my skills and better appreciate the game and its history, in general. 

8 - Which character is your favorite to write?  Why?

The main four are all fun to write for different reasons. Amelia because she’s a lot like me and I can relate to many of her experiences, at least in how she deals with them. 

Gemma is fun because her dialogue is always so spontaneous - I can really get creative with it and have her say things the other three would never say. Gemma interacting with everyone is also a blast to write because she’s the heart of the group, the one who keeps everyone from retreating into their thoughts.

Clive because of the challenges his character presents, knowing what’s he’s been through and where he’s eventually headed and how that connects to who he is in the story currently. Writing him is always intimidating, especially because I have to write him through Amelia’s eyes instead of getting directly into his head. There’s a lot going on beneath the surface with him, a lot that the reader (and Amelia) can only guess at. It’s difficult, but fun, especially when I get to write his more dorky, softer side that emerges with his close family and friends. 

And Bernard because he’s Bernard. He always gets the best dialogue and I always have too much fun writing it as I cackle, wishing I could be as snarky and deadpan as him in real life. 

13 - Which authors or styles do you try to emulate in your writing?

I think every author I’ve read has rubbed off on me one way or another. Every book has left its own impression on my skills, shaping my writing style over the years. There are also quite a few authors in particular who I’ve intentionally emulated (and who’ve also undoubtedly influenced me well beyond of what I’m aware).  Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Trenton Lee Stewart, C.S. Lewis, Lemony Snicket, J.K, Rowling, and Richard Addams to name a few.

For Lamplight Letters, I’ve tried to write in a style that seems like it would fit with the Layton world. An older style, with what I hope is more of a timeless feel. Though writing in first person, I also like to incorporate some modern elements like a few stream-of-conscious moments for intense situations and playing around with sentence structure to mimic how Amelia might think in a particular situation. I also try to keep the idea in mind that Amelia is telling the story after a number of years, as if she’s looking back as an adult which would explain why the style is maybe a bit more polished and mature than it might otherwise be for a 14-year-old. 

15 - How do you plan your writing?

It’s hard to know where the process begins and ends because in planning out one chapter I’m also planning for future chapters by throwing in hints and foreshadowing and set-ups for conflicts and consequences to come so it’s more like a never-ending chain of dominoes I have to keep from spiraling out of control, especially now as I near the end with a lot of the set-up behind me and tons of big reveals ready to go off like bombs in upcoming chapters that all need to be carefully managed.

 But. Anyway. I start with a rough outline of a chapter, just a brief little summary and how it fits into the story at large. This I roll around in my head for awhile, adding this or that until I’m ready to write a proper outline. I’m not a huge outline person, as in I don’t go for the long, detailed outlines. There’s got to be some spontaneity to the process, as well, so I try to keep my outlines to the basics - the big events in the chapter that have to happen and that will move the story along. If I happen to think of a really clever piece of dialogue or a little character moment along the way I’ll throw that in so I won’t forget. Once I have the outline I’ll either start on the rough draft or do some research depending on the chapter itself.

I also have several extra documents with important information, research, detailed summaries of all of the mysteries, how they connect, and every single reference to them in the story so I know exactly what the characters know. Wow, I’m tired now. 

22 - Do you listen to music when you write?

I’ll listen to music when I draw, but I can’t do it when I write. I like to have silence save for my fan. Music is important during the planning process, though. I like to go for walks and listen to music that has helped inspire the story and just let the ideas flow. I actually plotted the initial (very rough) outline for the ending of Lamplight Letters this way. That was an intense walk. 

24 - Do you prefer first or third person?  Why?

Both. Both is good. I think first-person is easier to write, because you have that direct connection with the protagonist, while with third-person there’s a bit more distance. First person also has more of an intensity to it, especially if you choose to write in the present tense. Third-person, though, can be more versatile and it’s easier to switch between characters. I think if I ever wrote an L^3 sequel I might write in third-person and include chapters from the perspectives of all of the main four, instead of just Amelia. (I know, I know. Why am I thinking about this? Focus, brain. Still 14 more chapters to write). 

25 - How do you defeat writers’ block?

I just try to keep writing. If there’s a particular part of a chapter that’s proving to be a stumbling block, I’ll write the poorest, quickest excuse for a scene and move on. Once I’ve got the rough draft completed, I’ll come back to it. Seeing it in the context of the whole chapter somehow makes it less intimidating. An example would be the scene in chapter 25 where Amelia summarizes part of the tournament and the whirlwind of matches she plays. That scene took forever because of the research that went into it and also just the struggle of making it flow smoothly. But instead of agonizing over it, I wrote a terribly sketchy collection of paragraphs that provided adequate if not clunky transition and moved on to something not as difficult that bolstered my confidence and made it easier to return to that bad section.

30 - What’s your favorite part about writing?

That’s a hard one. I love writing in general, so it’s hard to break it down and find that one element that sticks out more than the rest. I love creating and developing characters and worlds and storylines, bringing them all to life, the satisfaction of finding just the right word to use, looking back and seeing how my skills have grown, sharing my stories with others and hearing about the impact they’ve had. I also love using writing to explore my own thoughts and feelings, to ask questions I can’t really ask anywhere else and to help me make sense of things I struggle with in my own life. I also love thinking of new ideas and planning new chapters and the hours of enjoyment that can bring. Also, meeting other writers, finding new inspiration…etc. Think I could write a book about it all ;) 

[poweredbydietcoke]

Favorite books of 2019

A *very* late continuation of my annual tradition … finally got a push to finish this in case you’re looking for book ideas while we find ourselves with plenty of extra time during quarantine. I read a little less in 2019, maybe because I’m working on something new (and have a new kid) or maybe just because I’m getting lazy as I get older? 48 books total, of which 4 were tree books and 23 were audiobooks—I did spend more time in transit last year (yes, it’s possible to listen to audiobooks and talk to ATC at the same time!), but it felt more productive. 

Without further ado, my favorite books. (affiliate links get donated to charity at the end of the year). I’ve included some highlights from Kindle books, but many of my favorites this year were audiobooks, where I haven’t found a great solution to highlighting (especially those I get from the library on a variety of crappy - but free! - services).

Destiny Disrupted, by Tamim Ansary - this was probably my favorite book of the year. I liked it so much I cold-emailed the author and invited him over for dinner, and we had a wonderful time with he & his wife and a bunch of friends. Fundamentally, the book is a history of the world told from the point of view of Islam; the point he makes, quite compellingly, was that there are really two (and probably more) different histories of the world, with the same facts, that just depend on your narrative. This is starting to play on a lot of things I’ve been trying to understand recently, including Ben Hunt’s Epsilon Theory and specifically, his idea of the Narrative Machine, and all of the theory of Common Knowledge that includes. And he does all this with an easy-to-read but well-researched writing style. If you like this one, I’m still working my way through his next one, The Invention of Yesterday, and so far so good.

A ruler can never trust a popular man with soldiers of his own. One day, Mansur invited Abu Muslim to come visit him and share a hearty meal. What happened next illustrates the maxim that when an Abbasid ruler invites you to dinner, you should arrange to be busy that night.

On the Sunni side, four slightly different versions of this code took shape, and the Shi’i developed yet another one of their own, similar to the Sunni ones in spirit and equally vast in scope. These various codes differ in details, but I doubt that one Muslim in a thousand can name even five such details.

Let me emphasize that the ulama were not (and are not) appointed by anyone. Islam has no pope and no official clerical apparatus. How, then, did someone get to be a member of the ulama? By gaining the respect of people who were already established ulama. It was a gradual process. There was no license, no certificate, no “shingle” to hang up to prove that one was an alim. The ulama were (and are) a self-selecting, self-regulating class, bound entirely by the river of established doctrine. No single alim could modify this current or change its course. It was too old, too powerful, too established, and besides, no one could become a member of the ulama until he had absorbed the doctrine so thoroughly that it had become a part of him. By the time a person acquired the status to question the doctrine, he would have no inclination to do so. Incorrigible dissenters who simply would not stop questioning the doctrine probably wouldn’t make it through the process.

If a man commits a grave sin, is he a non-Muslim, or is he (just) a bad Muslim? The question might seem like a semantic game, except that in the Muslim world, as a point of law, the religious scholars divided the world between the community and the nonbelievers. One set of rules applied among believers, another set for interactions between believers and nonbelievers. It was important, therefore, to know if any particular person was in the community or outside it.

Range, by David Epstein. Thomas Layton recommended this to me (he was reading a derivative work on how to coach basketball while applying this theory), and it was fun. The fundamental thesis is that you can split environments into “nice” and “wicked” learning environments. In nice environments, feedback is quick and accurate, and rewards specialization early (eg golf ... you can practice every possible shot by yourself). In wicked environments, feedback is delayed (if available at all), and the rules — let alone the situation — are fluid. This rewards “range”, or a variety of experiences (Epstein uses tennis as an example, but much of life is even more obvious). The return of the Renaissance Man (or Woman) — yay!

When I began to write about these studies, I was met with thoughtful criticism, but also denial. “Maybe in some other sport,” fans often said, “but that’s not true of our sport.” The community of the world’s most popular sport, soccer, was the loudest. And then, as if on cue, in late 2014 a team of German scientists published a study showing that members of their national team, which had just won the World Cup, were typically late specializers who didn’t play more organized soccer than amateur-league players until age twenty-two or later.

A recent study found that cardiac patients were actually less likely to die if they were admitted during a national cardiology meeting, when thousands of cardiologists were away; the researchers suggested it could be because common treatments of dubious effect were less likely to be performed.

Whether or not experience inevitably led to expertise, they agreed, depended entirely on the domain in question. Narrow experience made for better chess and poker players and firefighters, but not for better predictors of financial or political trends, or of how employees or patients would perform. The domains Klein studied, in which instinctive pattern recognition worked powerfully, are what psychologist Robin Hogarth termed “kind” learning environments. Patterns repeat over and over, and feedback is extremely accurate and usually very rapid.

...

In wicked domains, the rules of the game are often unclear or incomplete, there may or may not be repetitive patterns and they may not be obvious, and feedback is often delayed, inaccurate, or both.

When younger students bring home problems that force them to make connections, Richland told me, “parents are like, ‘Lemme show you, there’s a faster, easier way.’” If the teacher didn’t already turn the work into using-procedures practice, well-meaning parents will. They aren’t comfortable with bewildered kids, and they want understanding to come quickly and easily. But for learning that is both durable (it sticks) and flexible (it can be applied broadly), fast and easy is precisely the problem.

Programs like Head Start did give a head start, but academically that was about it. The researchers found a pervasive “fadeout” effect, where a temporary academic advantage quickly diminished and often completely vanished. On a graph, it looks eerily like the kind that show future elite athletes catching up to their peers who got a head start in deliberate practice.

Hilariously, predictors were willing to pay an average of $129 a ticket for a show ten years away by their current favorite band, while reflectors would only pay $80 to see a show today by their favorite band from ten years ago.

In the spring of 2001, Bingham collected twenty-one problems that had stymied Eli Lilly scientists and asked a top executive if he could post them on a website for anyone to see. The executive would only consider it if the consulting firm McKinsey thought it was a good idea. “McKinsey’s opinion,” Bingham recalled, “was, ‘Who knows? Why don’t you launch it and tell us the answer.’”

There was also a “perverse inverse relationship” between fame and accuracy. The more likely an expert was to have his or her predictions featured on op-ed pages and television, the more likely they were always wrong. Or, not always wrong. Rather, as Tetlock and his coauthor succinctly put it in their book Superforecasting, “roughly as accurate as a dart-throwing chimpanzee.”

Deep Work by Cal Newport - this was an easy listen while on a couple of long runs in Palm Springs during Indian Wells weekend, and definitely worth it. Like classics such as How to Win Friends And Influence People, there’s not a lot fundamentally groundbreaking here, but he articulates some really fundamental principles well enough that you stop and take notice and ask, “I know that ... why am I not doing that?” Now I just need to review my notes...

Age of Ambition, Chasing Fortune in China - Evan Osnos. I think Scott Cannon originally recommended this book to me, and it was fascinating. It’s a bit of a long, slow read but a lot of insight into China’s evolution over the last few decades. I’m not sure what I’ll do with this knowledge (or the many other China books I’ve read recently) but it feels important for the coming decades. If only I could learn Mandarin like Matt MacInnis 

Every country has corruption, but China’s was approaching a level of its own. For those at the top, the scale of temptation had reached a level unlike anything ever encountered in the West. It was not always easy to say which Bare-Handed Fortunes were legitimate and which were not, but political office was a reliable pathway to wealth on a scale of its own. By 2012 the richest seventy members of China’s national legislature had a net worth of almost ninety billion dollars—more than ten times the combined net worth of the entire U.S. Congress.

But unlike Zaire, China punished many people for it; in a five-year stretch, China punished 668,000 Party members for bribery, graft, and embezzlement; it handed down 350 death sentences for corruption, and Wedeman concluded, “At a very basic level, it appears to have prevented corruption from spiraling out of control.”

The Central Propaganda Department let it be known that reports that suggested a shortage of happiness were not to receive attention. In April 2012 my phone buzzed: All websites are not to repost the news headlined, “UN Releases World Happiness Report, and China Ranks No. 112.”

Over the years, the risk of being blamed for helping someone was a scenario that appeared over and over in the headlines. In November 2006 an elderly woman in Nanjing fell at a bus stop, and a young man named Peng Yu stopped to help her get to the hospital. In recovery, she accused Peng of causing her fall, and a local judge agreed, ordering him to pay more than seven thousand dollars—a judgment based not on evidence, but on what the verdict called “logical thinking”: that Peng would never have helped if he hadn’t been motivated by guilt.

At one point, Chinese programmers were barred from updating a popular software system called Node.js because the version number, 0.6.4, corresponded with June 4, the date of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

he vowed to punish not only low-ranking “flies” but also powerful “tigers.” He called on his comrades to be “diligent and thrifty,” and when Xi took his first official trip, state television reported that he checked into a “normal suite” and dined not at a banquet, but at a buffet—a revelation so radical in Chinese political culture that the word buffet took on metaphysical significance. The state news service ran a banner headline: XI JINPING VISITS POOR FAMILIES IN HEBEI: DINNER IS JUST FOUR DISHES AND ONE SOUP, NO ALCOHOL.

...

It didn’t take long for the abrupt drop-off in gluttony to affect the economy: sales of shark fin (de rigueur for banquets) sank more than 70 percent; casinos in Macau recorded a drop in VIPs, and Swiss watch exports dropped by a quarter from the year before. Luxury goods makers mourned.

Economists point to a historic correlation between “world’s tallest” debuts and economic slowdowns. There is no cause and effect, but such projects are a sign of easy credit, excessive optimism, and inflated land prices—a pattern that dates to the world’s first skyscraper, the Equitable Life Building. Built in New York at the height of the Gilded Age, it was completed in 1873, the start of a five-year slump that became known as the Long Depression, and the pattern repeated in decades to follow. Skyscraper magazine, a Shanghai publication that treated tall buildings like celebrities, reported in 2012 that China would finish a new skyscraper every five days for the next three years; China was home to 40 percent of the skyscrapers under construction in the world.

Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright & Bradley Hope - Mike Vernal told me to drop most things to read this, and he wasn’t wrong. A well-written account of the 1MDB scandal that I’d only vaguely followed, and tries to put it into context when it basically can’t … something like $5.XB stolen over the course of a few years.

Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky & Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain - I put these two together, both recommended by Robert MacCloy, because they’re quick and fun. I listened to both on audio and they were both “mindless” but interesting…sort of the inside baseball of both the hospitality and restaurant industries. Don’t use a UV light...anywhere.

Smokejumpers by Jason Ramos - recommended by one of our fire captain neighbors at Oxbow and figured it would be good to understand a little more about wildland firefighting … this took me down a long digression of firefighting books that were interesting but if you want one, this one’s fun.

American icon by Bryce Hoffman - great audiobook that Scott Cannon recommended about Alan Mulaly’s turnaround of the Ford. The single most memorable part — after a couple of years working on turning the company around, a reporter asked him what his priorities for the next year were, and he responded with the same three things he’d said from the beginning. The reporter said something to the affect of “I can’t write about that again, it’s boring, you need something new!” And Mulaly responded “when we’ve got these three things done right, then we’ll have something new. We haven’t finished them yet."

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - my wife raved about this book after she listened to it, and it was all the rage, so I did too…and it lived up to the hype! Fascinating but managed not to be a tabloid-y gossip-y tale of excess so much as a “yeah, each individual step was only a little over the line, and look where it lead them.” A surprisingly poignant reminder about how “fake it til you make it” in Silicon Valley can be idealized until it’s not. This is the next generation in a line started by Barbarians at the Gate and continued by Smartest Guys In The Room.

[andromedahawking]

NaNoWriMo Day 2

Day 2, 3,334 words total, complete! Have a look at today’s 1,667!

“Right…” she said. “…I’ll get it out of the way, you and I are both thinking about election day, right?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I’m not looking forward to it. It’s going to be one of the closest in recent history.”

“Closer than ’64, do you think?”

He frowned as he thought about it. “On an electoral level, probably not, but popularly, it’s going to be very tight. It could go either way.”

“I’ve been trying not to think about it, but… it’s hard,” she said. “I turned off my WiFi in October.”

“Same here,” he said, laughing weakly. “God, it’s just… it’s so much to think about. I want it to be over.”

“It’s never gonna be over,” Maria said. “They’ll be talking about this 'til the day we die.”

“Well, at least they’ll have less to speculate about by next Wednesday,” he said. “We’ll have a winner by then, and they can only analyse so much stuff.”

“Let’s hope so,” she said.

They ordered their meals, as well as some wine.

“So, that’s the elephant in the room out of the way, I guess,” John said.

“Yeah,” Maria nodded. “Good thing it got out quickly. I hate not talking about things like this when they obviously need to be talked about.”

“I agree with you,” he said. “It’s better to just get it out there, and spoken, so that way you can forget about it and you don’t have to deal with it later.”

“Exactly! I’m glad at least someone understands that.”

“Do you deal with a lot of people who don’t do that?”

Maria laughed. “I could write you a list a mile long with the names of all the people like that in my life. Nobody seems to want to talk about anything important! It’s all just, the weather this, and how's your sister that, and blah, blah, blah, nothing of importance is ever talked about! I could spend my time watching paint dry and get just as much out of it.”

“Goodness,” John chuckled quietly. “It sounds like you’ve had to endure this for a long time.”

“Years, John. Years.”

“Well, not to make you jealous, but thankfully, I spend a lot of time around straight-shooters,” he said, sipping his wine. “The curse that seems to follow me around wherever I go is that nobody ever takes me seriously when I want to be.”

“Ugh. That’s no good.”

“No. The only time anyone listens to me is on Sunday mornings, and even then a lot of the pews are filled with blank stares and moving hands.”

“Oh, is that what you meant when you said you have church stuff?”

“Yes, I have to get back home for the Wednesday service at my church.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Most people here don’t go every day.”

“I got lucky, I suppose.”

“That’s good. I sort of contribute to the problem,” she said. “I go on Sundays, but the rest of the time I just sleep in.”

“Well, that’s better than not going at all,” he said.

“Yeah, but… it feels like I’m being fake. Which would be an extra helping of guilt to add on, seeing as I converted instead of being born into the faith.”

“Your parents aren’t Christian?”

Maria smiled, tightly. “No. They are not Christian.”

John’s mouth twitched upward a tiny bit. “It sounds like there’s a story behind that.”

“There is,” she hissed through her teeth. “I’m assuming yu’d like to know what it is?”

“If you wouldn’t mind sharing it.”

“Okay then.” She cracked her knuckles. “This one is gonna be fun.

“So, both of my parents were raised in religious families. My mother was born in New York, and she grew up in a Protestant family that didn’t really take the whole thing too seriously. So she just sort of called it quits when she moved out, right? Then my father, he was born in Ohio, and grew up in a Catholic family that took it very seriously, which isn’t really that big a surprise, because Catholics, right? So naturally, he hated it, and when he moved out he also ditched the faith.”

“Sounds like two sides of the same coin,” John said. “Your mother lapses because it wasn’t taken seriously enough, your father because he felt it was taken too seriously.”

“A match made in heaven,” Maria said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “So when they got married, they agreed their kids wouldn’t be raised under a religion, but under the absence of religion! Isn’t that neat?”

“Oh no. Don’t tell me they raised you as an antitheist?”

“Mom didn’t give a damn either way,” Maria said, “but Dad. Holy shit, he hated the idea of me or Thalia joining any sort of religion. We were raised in a godless house with no access to anything of the sort. I couldn’t even buy a Bible just to read it for the sake of curiosity!”

“That’s just not the right way to raise your children,” John sighed.

“I’m glad you agree,” Maria said. “So of course, aside from all the other shit that I had to put up with from them, I couldn’t breathe a word to them about maybe kinda sorta believing in something other than the hellish emptiness of death that supposedly awaits us in this godless universe. No, I had to keep my pretty little mouth shut. It was pretty much the only thing I didn’t tell them about, even after I left.”

“So you converted when you were a teenager?”

“Mm-hm. I got baptised when I was 17.”

“What about Thalia?”

“She doesn’t really care enough to think about big questions like that.”

John laughed. “That sounds like her.”

“Yeah, there’s me, the uppity bitch who’s always doing things, and then there’s Thalia, who’s somehow just as uppity, but can’t be bothered to do anything herself,” Maria said. “And people wonder why I drink.”

“Taking care of a sibling by yourself is hard work,” he said. “It’s only common sense that there’s going to be tension in the relationship beyond normal sibling rivalry.”

“I guess you’re right. And most siblings aren’t disabled.”

“Right.”

“At least she isn’t, like, paralysed or something. Blindness is easier to work with on a social level than a wheelchair.”

John gave her a look. “Well, that sort of depends on who you ask, don’t you think?”

“Honestly, John, I’m one person,” she sighed. “I know that I grew up dealing with this, but I honestly think that having her be blind is less of a problem in society than if she had some other disability. She can rely on her other senses to do the work her eyes can’t, which isn’t possible for someone who has, I don’t know, diabetes, or a spinal cord injury, y’know?”

“It's a fair point, I’ll admit, but at the same time, disabilities aren’t created equal, so trying to compare them is a cyclical argument,” he said.

“You obviously need either more wine or less, saying something like that.”

—

They ended up walking around San Francisco after lunch for a couple of hours. Then John had to get to the Hyperloop station, and Maria’s phone went off with her reminder to go to the grocery store, so they said their goodbyes and quickly hurried on their ways. Maria still wished that John could’ve stayed the night, but now that “church stuff” actually had a description it was harder for her to be upset about it.

She got the groceries, and returned a little bit before 17. The sun kept getting caught in the rearview mirrors of the car, which pissed her off to no end. Then there was thinking about Thalia, which was an exercise in getting pissed off just by thinking, so by the time she got out of the car and went inside, she was in a pretty sour mood.

“Mornin’,” Thalia called out from the living room. “How was school today?”

“Thalia, I’m not in the mood to deal with your attitude right now,” Maria growled. “I got the groceries, did you shower like I asked?”

“Maria, I told you, I showered before you even texted me!”

“If I check upstairs, will Ms. Layton tell me the same thing?”

“Yes!"

“Okay.” She set down her backpack with a loud thump on the dining room table. “Just making sure.”

“What’s got you so ticked off today? Did you walk into a pole or something?”

“No, Thalia, I’ve just had a lot going on today, and my patience has long since been worn thin, so I’m trying not to lose my mind,” she said, pulling out her computer. “You can ensure tonight’s nice and quiet by not being a pain in the ass, m’kay?”

“Fine, Jesus Christ…”

“Hey, what did we talk about?”

“Sorry!”

Maria buried her head in her hands. “I can’t fucking win…”

—

In the end, the day could’ve turned out worse than it did. No group project work in History, meeting up with John went well, and all in all, the afternoon wasn’t the worst thing in the world either. Thalia kept pretty quiet and did her homework without a huge amount of bitching and moaning on the side, and Maria didn’t overcook dinner like Saturday night. By 21, she had finished up her homework for Wednesday, and had a few hours to kill before she absolutley had to be in bed.

So naturally, this was where dumb decisions were made, and she opened up the liquor cabinet.

“Breaking out the vodka, sis?”

“Shut up, Thalia. You’re not my nanny.”

“Thank god I’m not.”

“Thalia.”

“Thank goodness I’m not.”

“Thank you. And yeah, thank goodness you’re not, because I don’t think I could handle a 15-year old being my nanny.”

Thalia laughed at that. “It would be pretty weird to have someone younger than you looking after you.”

“Like having a boss younger than you.”

“Yeah. I would be so weirded out by that. Like, someone accomplished more than me, sooner, and they’re overseeing me? I wouldn’t like that.”

“All the more incentive to do well in school, so you never have to deal with that,” Maria said, pouring her glass. “Heck, you could be the young boss surrounded by older people.”

“Okay, I can get behind that. I would enjoy asserting my power over the elder masses.”

“You would, wouldn’t you.”

“What, like you wouldn’t?”

“I would,” Maria admitted. She downed her shot. “But then again, once you’re in your 30s, age stops mattering so much, so you wouldn’t really have as much of a power play.”

“Really?”