#I have been just reading tomie most of the time

[galaxynajma]

Oh my god I’m at page 529 of the tomie Deluxe Edition

IM ALMOST DONE

There’s like over 200 pages left BUT THATS STILL A WIN

[al-the-remix]

TikTok Chef!Buck AU: several sentences sunday (or something like that)

I'm close to finishing the fic I've been working on so I finally felt like I could write a little something based off this headcannon without feeling too guilty about it, lol. 2k of mostly crack, please enjoy.

It all starts when Tommy’s stuck on his couch for a week with a sprained knee. He wishes he could claim it happened doing something heroic–or at the very least badass–but in truth it was the result of letting his ego get the best of him at the squat rack. 

Lucy stops by a few times to keep him company, which really means letting herself in unannounced with her spare key, eating all the leftovers in his fridge, and offering an unsolicited running critique of whatever show he’s watching. Today it was Below Deck reruns. 

“If I ever decide to take a vacation on a boat, tackle me, this shit does not look worth it.”

“You really don’t have to be here you know,” Tommy says, leaning over to grab some chips from the near-empty bag she was cradling before they were all gone. He’d been looking forward to eating those for dinner and feeling sorry for himself. 

Lucy just snorts. “Please, if I wasn’t here you’d already be up to something ill advised. I caught you looking up deck chair patterns earlier, power tools don’t go well with injuries, Tommy, even if it’s only carpentry.”

Well, she had him there. 

At least she had the decency to order them Chinese take out for dinner so he wouldn’t have to Instacart a can of soup or something equally pathetic. 

Before she left she made a grabby hand at him. “Give me your phone.”

“Why?” Tommy asks, already suspicious. 

She met his suspicion with boredom. “Don’t ask stupid questions, just do it.”

Rolling his eyes, he hands it over, giving into her whim, and maybe he should find it a little more unsettling that she already seems to know his password off by heart. 

She clicks around for long enough that Tommy starts getting nervous: what was the last text message he sent? Was it embarrassing? Were all his nudes still in that locked folder? Did she know the password for that too? Just when he was going to start asking questions she tosses his phone back. “Here, this should keep you entertained for a while,” she explains as he scrambles to catch it. “My niece wastes hours of her life on this crap.”

“Such ringing endorsement,” Tomy grumbles, she’s downloaded some kind of video app onto his phone. TikTok. Perfect. He’d heard of that one, apparently it was single handedly ruining a whole generation’s attention span and the Chinese government was using it to spy on the inner lives of teenagers with stupid haircuts and a critical lack of social skills. 

“Are you sure you didn’t just give me some kind of virus?” Tommy asks, clicking around the home page arbitrarily, the UI didn’t make a lick of sense. 

“Har, har. You were always good at picking up new skills, I’m sure you’ll figure this out in no time. I have faith in you,” she says, clapping him hard enough on the shoulder to make him wince. 

He finds his profile page by total mistake. His username reads: benchedcockwrangler.

“How do I change this?” he asks, waving his phone at her as she makes for the door. 

“You don’t,” she says, without looking back. “Don’t stay up on that thing all night, it will ruin your sleep schedule!”

Tommy winces as the front door slams and sighs. He’ll figure out how to change it later. After all, beggars can’t be choosers and three days into his mandatory medical leave he’s already so bored he’s ready to stab his eyes out with hot pokers just to mix it up a bit. 

He scrolls through the app, and based on most of what he sees he finds himself unable to justify its existence in the first place. It feels like every video he watches drags him into a deeper alternate universe where everyone’s wholeheartedly competing for the top of the podium at the Darwin Awards. 

There’s a woman digging tunnels under her apartment that Tommy is positive are not up to code (that’s a call just waiting to happen); and two young ladies mixing cocktails of a concerning hue and variety at random local establishments (not necessarily anything that would warrant a trip to the ER but potentially a health code violation); and what seems like an ungodly number of men hosting podcasts (Tommy is pretty sure that even during his darkest days rotting in the closet he had a better batting average picking up women than any of these bozos.)

Tommy’s eyes start to glaze over as he scrolls past comedians, and political commentators, and people reviewing romance novels, and–how has it already been forty minutes?

He’s about ready to give up and throw his phone across the room and leave it there until Lucy shows up tomorrow and he can make her delete it off his phone, when catchy music, an arm roped with muscle, and a criminally tight shirt sleeve catches his attention. 

It’s some kind of cooking video and his first impression is: how is anyone supposed to understand what’s going on with edits that fast? His second impression is: hot man. Man hot.

Soon his brain is catching up with his eyes, kickstarting like a toddler being exposed to sugar for the first time. 

Cooking might be a generous description for what’s going on here. The man is obviously skilled, but the main focus of the video seems to be how hot he looks in an apron (very) and whether it’s possible to bring half a peach to completion by finger blasting the pit out of it (not like, whether or not you should pre-bake your tart crust to achieve an ideal texture). 

Tommy has to watch it twice just to fully absorb everything that’s going on. He’s making some kind of deconstructed peach crumble topped with an obscene amount of whipped cream and steak with fries that looks fancier than anything Tommy’s ever eaten at a restaurant. 

Half way through the video the man wipes down the worktop shirtless with a cloth sudsy enough to make Tommy’s mouth go instantly dry then suddenly wet enough he’s forced to swallow. 

He clicks through to ChefFirehose’s profile just to, you know, get a better sample size. Tommy’s not above letting himself be manipulated by a man with biceps like melons and a cute smile. 

His profile description reads: LA resident, self-taught, putting out fires and saving lives in my spare time. Just here to give the food the appreciation it deserves. Let me show off for you 😉.

Tommy thinks this guy must be new to town, because living nearly a decade even in a city as sprawling and overcrowded as LA, he doesn’t know how he could miss running into this guy on the job. There was no way he wouldn’t remember a guy this hot even through turnouts, a helmet, and smeared in a thick layer of soot.

He starts working his way back through ChefFirehose’s videos, and some are admittedly a little less chaotic than the rest, but all of them are just tongue-and-cheek enough that Tommy feels confident he’s just one in close to a million people in on a joke and not enabling someone’s very real personality disorder. 

He’s stuck somewhere between disbelief and admiration. He definitely wouldn't have the balls to post this on the internet for everyone to see and so obviously thirst over. He braves the comment section on a few of the videos and it’s just a litany of horned-up men and women trying their best to make ChefFirehose laugh, or get in his pants, or both. He replies to almost all of his comments with either a smirking emoji or acting deliberately oblivious when someone tries to bait him into giving up the bit. Tommy finds him funny and maybe a little more endearing than he should after ten videos. 

Tommy can’t really blame them for trying to shoot their shot so shamelessly. ChefFirehose’s wardrobe consists of polos plastered so tight to his skin that Tommy was mildly concerned about restricted blood circulation, dress shirts buttoned dangerously low, and slacks that wrap snugly around miles of long, toned leg. 

Those weren’t Tommy’s favorite looks though. No, every so often a video would start and he’s be dressed down in soft looking sweatpants, a baseball cap pushed on backwards plastering his auburn curls to his forehead, and a white tank top–or if Tommy was really lucky, no shirt at all (sometimes not even the apron which Tommy had mixed feelings about...), his muscled arms and shoulders on full display. He’s got tattoos decorating his forearms that Tommy can’t quite make out, a collection of fine lines on pale skin like thin ribbons of chocolate drizzled over a crape. 

Those videos are most often breakfast related and ChefFirehose is barefoot in his kitchen, the warm sunlight casting his face in gold. He paints such an enticing tableau it’s all too easy for Tommy’s brain to plop himself right down in that scene, imagination running wild. He can so easily picture what it would be like: in that kitchen, feeling the warm cast of sun on his face and getting to watch built, handsome man make him breakfast with that flirty confidence of his. 

Tommy bookmarks a video of him making an omelet, the way he handles the eggs making Tommy blush like he’s a schoolgirl and not a man pushing forty. He feels less guilty about getting hard over it on the sofa surrounded by takeout containers than he probably should.  

The screen goes suddenly black and Tommy’s faced with his own reflection in the finger smudged screen, chin rolls and all. Fuck. He reaches for his charger. God, his life was depressing at the moment, and apparently he really needs to get laid.

So yeah, by the time his two weeks of recovery are up he’s feeling a little stir crazy in an entirely different way than before. He’s never been more glad to get back to work, put some of this weirdness behind him and get some much needed distance from his phone.

That’s only part of the reason why he doesn’t even think twice when Howie calls him for a favor. A big favor. And that was only the first of many surprises the universe had in store for him, apparently.

Even fully clothed in his LFD uniform Tommy recognises him. Evan. Evan, Evan, Evan, (Tommy repeats over and over in his head until it drowns out every other name Tommy’s assigned him the past few weeks: slutty egg guy, ChefBigDick, totally off limits boyfriend material–just to name a few).

“So you’re the guy who’s gonna fly us into a hurricane.” Evan sounds a little breathless, like maybe he jogged all the way here, and Tommy chalks it up to the high that accompanies stealing government property. “Chim said you were the best pilot he knows and good in a pinch, but I still thought there was no way anyone that good would agree to something this crazy.”

Tommy’s definitely starting to feel a little crazy. Evan’s still shaking his hand. His grip is solid, his fingers long and nimble, surprisingly soft against this palm (he must really lather on the hand lotion) and Tommy can’t stop thinking about all the talented things he knows they can do. 

 “That’s me. Though I’m pretty sure I’m just the only pilot Howie knows who's in town at the moment.” 

“You look good to me–capable, I mean.” Evan gives him a solid smack on the shoulder with his free hand. His mouth does something funny like he's trying to hold back the sheer force of his excitement by his teeth. “Solid.”

His eyes are even bigger and brighter in person, smile softer, even taller than Tommy presumed. Howie’s giving them a weird look from over Evan’s shoulder. The other man with them, Eddie, isn’t paying them any attention, checking out the other helicopters parked on the apron instead, and Tommy forces himself to pull his hand out of Evan’s warm grip. 

Tommy clears his throat. “Good to know. I’ll show you guys the bird we’ll be taking. I've got her all gassed up and ready to go.”

He just met his (internet) celebrity crush and the man of his dreams, and now Tommy was going to get him killed in one of the most spectacular ways imaginable. It seems like they’re all headed for the Darwin Awards this time.

[lady-villain-imagines]

Tell Me I’m The Best

Tomie x wlw!Reader Drabble

I just want her y’know. Y’know?

TW for probably unhealthy relationship dynamics, possessiveness and jealousy. NSFW implied

You were sprawled in a stupidly large, comfortable bed, fluffy comforters almost devouring you. Music played softly over a radio placed on a dresser across the room, along with the soft hum of the bedrooms overhead fan slowly whirling in steady circles. The room was a mess, clothing and makeup haphazardly laying around. Several juicy gossip column magazines had been thrown around here and there. You had one such magazine in your hands, lazily reading the salacious dramatized versions of the latest love lives of the rich and famous.

You were in the room of your… well. It was hard to describe what you were. Girlfriend didn’t sound right, and lover sounded stupid. Situationship, maybe? Friends with benefits except you don’t see anyone else? There wasn’t a name for being gal pals with a creature who regularly twisted men to her will, driving them mad with desire and in turn often getting herself maimed in horrific ways.

She was a monster, countless murders were because of her. What she even was was never spoken about. You weren’t sure if even Tomie knew. You knew there were… others of her. She had been very displeased in disclosing that, as if you would run off to find another Tomie. Of course there wasn’t a chance you would ever do something stupid like that. For whatever reason she decided you would be who she let hold her at night when she was so sought after, you counted yourself as the luckiest son of a bitch in the world. Not saying she didn’t have her ‘quirks’.

“You’re really reading that when I’m standing right here?” A shrill voice broke the lull, sharp and commanding. Lowering the magazine to look at the source, the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen was standing at the end of the bed with her hands on her hips. There she was… Tomie. The girl of everyone’s dreams. And boy, did she look pissed.

Her perfect face scrunched up as she glared down at you. You just stared at her for a moment before using your quick thinking to deduce why she was mad (this time). Ah, of course…you hadn’t watched her the second she came back into the room and dared to look elsewhere.

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to read now.” You responded sarcastically, clearly not phased by her attitude. You were used to it.

“You should be sorry. I’m standing here before you, and you don’t even look up? You’d rather have your nose buried in a stupid magazine?” She responded with a huff and a roll of her eyes. You bit back telling her it was her stupid magazine in the first place, “What could be so interesting, huh?”

After that, you were jostled as she flopped into the blankets next to you. You laughed as she had to shimmy & roll a bit to get over to you. She was wearing comfortable clothes, a simple tank top and shorts that showed off her pristine skin. It was always a wonder to you how she had no scars despite the wounds you had seen her with. She has no obvious marks on her skin besides the beauty mark near her eye. God, you loved that beauty mark. You loved all of her.

Tomie looked disdainfully at the trashy magazine before snaking her way into your arms, head on your chest as she got into a position so she could read with you as you held the magazine out for the both of you. She was cold, her hand resting on your stomach where your shirt had ridden up. You didn’t know if she did it on purpose, but she gently let the tips of her fingers slide under your shirt, just enough to rest her whole palm over your lower stomach. It gave you butterflies.

The two of you read through the magazines pages, laughing and gasping appropriately at the drama. You would both make comments (hers far crueler than yours) about people’s outfits. When it came to a page of particularly beautiful women in a fashion show, you feel Tomie’s eyes slide to you. This was definitely a test and you passed by quickly turning the page. Regardless, Tomie was tired of sharing your attention with the pictured women and she took the magazine out of your hands, propping herself up on her elbow besides you. She tossed it to join all of the other discarded items on the floor.

“Enough of those cheap girls. You don’t need to look at them when I’m here.” She was right. You looked over at her, opening up your arms a bit more to invite her further into your space. She leaned forwards, lips brushing yours. Her lipgloss smelled like cherries, her silky hair spilling towards you. Everything about her was intoxicating.

Your lips pressed into hers and she immediately sprung her trap. Sitting up, she pressed her palms against your shoulders to pin you to the mattress as she pulled away from the all too short kiss. Slinging her leg over your body, she sat on your stomach. It was a little uncomfortable but you were certainly not going to complain. After she was in position, she looked down at you triumphantly. If she was a spider, you were a willing fly walking into her web.

“There we go. Now you’re looking at me, as you should be.” Her manicured nails gently caressed your face as you were looking up at her in clear admiration. “Well? Are you going to say something or just stare at me?”

“What can I say besides what you already know?” That was a rhetorical question. You knew damn well she wanted to - needed to - hear you shower her in compliments. “That you’re gorgeous? More stunning than any of those girls in that magazine.. no, in any magazine.”

In response, Tomie hummed on top of you, her nails now grazing down your throat to run over your collar bone. It was also not missed how she lowered herself more onto you, giving a slight grind against you. That was encouragement if you’d ever had any.

“I’m so lucky to be here with you. You make my life as beautiful as you are.” You gently placed your hands on the sides of her thighs lovingly. Her lip twitched, her expression shifting minutely. She struggled hearing actual romantic sentiments. Being treated like a person and not an object of someone’s crazed obsession was a new experience she was trying to cope with. You tried to continue the sincere sweet talking,

“I mean it…I’ve never been with a girl like you-“

At the mention of other girls you had dated she snapped her hands down next to your head and got close to your face with her eyes hysterical. It had been blindingly fast, and the face she wore was chilling in an uncanny way, like it was something trying to be human but let it slip for a minute. It was small reminders like this that wouldn’t let you forget she was not human, not in the slightest.

“Tell me I’m the best you’ve ever had.” Her eyes were practically pinpricks as she bore them into yours. You shivered at the intensity of it, knowing the dangers of the woman pinning you down.

“You’re the best I’ve ever had.”

After your breathless response, she dove onto you in an aggressive kiss. Her hands had practically morphed to claws as she grasped the sides of your face, sliding up to your hair as she caught your lip in her teeth, looking you in the eyes with that same crazed gaze. You winced as blood broke the surface of your soft lip, her blunt teeth breaking the skin with ease. She slid her tongue over your lip, unabashedly tasting your blood. Letting out a soft groan, her hands tightened again before she was forcing your mouth open with her possessive tongue now rolling around yours. Grinding down onto your hips, she was much stronger than she looked. You were both getting worked up, your hands clutching her soft thighs now. Tomie unlatched herself from your face, still keeping pressure on your hips.

“Good girl. Of course I am.” She smiled proudly, smugness rolling off of her. The iron taste in your mouth of your own blood lingered as she swiped a finger over your ripped open bottom lip. She collected your blood on it & had the gall to look down at you with disgust like it was your fault. “Gross. Bleeding everywhere like that.” Despite that, she licked it off her finger anyways.

Even with her weight leaning on you, and you clearly trying to grind against her as well, she just sat there for a moment looking down at you. Her hair was perfect still, not a strand out of place.

“You’re the best I’ve had, too.” Tomie admitted. It was a rare genuine moment from her. Without letting you process that one (AKA say more sappy shit that made her feel something) she leaned forwards again to lock her intense eyes with you. She smiled and it was off, a little too smooth, too wide, to be normal. It morphed into a wolfish grin as her breath brushed against your mouth.

“And I don’t plan on letting you go any time soon.”

[freya-fallen]

Little Dove 5/?

You're Pro Hero Hawks' little sister. Dabi finds out and everything devolves from there.

HawksxReaderxDabi

TW: none for this chapter, but future parts may include, but are not limited to, noncon, dubcon, drugging, forced incest, yandere hawks, yandere dabi, coercion, lying, manipulation, grooming (of an 18 year old character), obsession, gaslighting...

Part 1 Part 6

Keigo is still home when you wake up, a rare occurrence given his hours. You stare down at your phone to read through a few texts from Dabi and look up when you hear an abrupt sound. Your brother is making scrambled eggs wearing your frilly apron and a pair of boxers. You can’t help but giggle at the sight of him whistling a little flourish while he flips the spatula through the air.

“‘Morning, Dove. Sleep well?”

You blush, remembering that you fell asleep while Keigo was preening your wings. You’d woken, tangled in sheets and diagonal across the mattress. “Did I steal the covers last night?”

He grins that heartbreaking grin of his that comes so naturally when he’s around you. “Only a little. I kept plenty warm, considering you were half on top of me.

“I’m sorry.”

He bats away the apology. “If it bothered me, we’d have separate beds. You’ve always been clingy in your sleep.”

To be fair, so is he. It’s a remnant of your childhood, when you were each other’s only real family. You still are, but now you have a stable life to go along with your relationship.

There was a time Keigo left. It was sometime after your father was finally arrested, when your memories become a blur for a while. You know you were hungry and cold and sad. Your mother was annoyed at your complaints, but there was nothing she could do about them. She yelled at Keigo, called him useless, and he took off.

You think you saw him once after that, then nothing. 

For a little while, you stayed alone with your mother. She rarely helped you with clothes or food or anything, really, so you quickly became a mess of a child. By the time the HPSC dropped in to pluck you from Tomie’s grasp, you were in such deplorable state that Keigo became furious when you saw him.

It was in the penthouse, your now-home. He’d fought with the commission to get a place for you, and a separate one for your mother. When you asked why, he always shrugged and muttered something about everyone being happier this way.

Keigo had run across the bare floor and dropped to his knees to look at you. “Did mom hurt you?” His hands were warm on your shoulders, his eyes boring into your own. You shook your head. “Did she feed you?” he asked next, to which you shrugged. Keigo sighed, glanced up at an adult and said, “Go get her something to eat.”

It was the first time you ever heard Keigo give a command. 

Your brother guides you to the table, snapping you from your memories. He has a full plate and orange juice all laid out. 

“Thank you, Keigo.”

 He beams. “You’re welcome.” He has made himself a plate with more food than yours. He spends all day most days out on patrol and apparently flying takes a lot of energy, so he keeps fueled. You’ve always marveled at how much he can scarf down per meal.

Your phone buzzes and he frowns at it. “Just a friend from school,” you explain, though you have the phone upside down, so it’s not like you can see the screen. He hums in response.

“Do you have the day off?” Hope lays thick in your voice. You’d promised to see Dabi later, but he’d understand that Keigo is home.

He shakes his head. “No, I just had a little time this morning. Sorry, Dove. I know I owe you some one-on-one time, but things are hectic at work right now.”

You know what that’s code for. “The commission has you on a special mission, huh?” You hate when this happens. They suck the life out of your brother, promising him the moon for one more little favor. It never ends; you know they’ve sent him to do things he shouldn’t, things he won’t talk about to anyone, but especially you. He could never ruin your image of him; it would break him.

You tell him you’ll love him anyway, but he just shakes his and smiles sadly.

“Yeah. It’s a really important one, though. It might stop a war.”

“Does it have to do with that guy who fought All Might?” you ask. He’s behind bars, but maybe he has some sort of team who can take over his evil plans. 

Keigo bites his lip. “You know I can’t tell you anything about it.”

“Yeah, yeah, secret squirrel stuff.” You raise a hand in defeat. “I know.”

“The secretest.” He puts your plates in the dishwasher after you’ve both cleared them, then pulls you into his arms for a hug. “I told them I’m taking a break after this one. I need it. We’ve all been working our asses off since All Might retired, but the flame man and I most of all.”

His heart is a steady beat against your ear. You wrap your arms around your brother and take in how much stronger he is than you. Even without him feathers, he could throw you over his shoulder. He takes his work seriously, despite his carefree appearance. You squeeze him, aware of how strong some villains are and how small your brother is compared to some. “You promise?”

Keigo rubs your back. “I promise. They won’t get anything outta me for at least a month.”

“A month?” The idea thrills you; you’ve never gotten to spend that much time free with him.

“Yep, just you and me. We can do anything, go anywhere.”

You grin up at him. “I can’t wait.”

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[pickles4nickles]

So I’ve been watching playthroughs of Yakuza games for a while now, but when I saw that the newest game takes place in Hawai’i, the place where I was born, raised, and have lived in for nearly 30 years now, I knew that this was something I had to have first-hand experience with and not let some guy tell me how to feel about it, to put it bluntly.

I went on a month and a half long journey to finish this game, so I sat around for a bit like

Jesus Christ I should write a review on it.

So if you’d like to read about 5k words on what I thought about The Video Game™, here you go.

Overall, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a really really good game. However, as Hawai’i local it was kind of hard for me to turn my brain off to some of the cultural inaccuracies and as someone who tends to play smaller indie games, I clocked in about 110 hours on this and I burned out a little towards the end.

GAMEPLAY

Let’s get into Gameplay first because I think I have the most positive thoughts about it. If you haven’t heard my thoughts about Pokemon lately, it mostly boils down to “It’s the only RPG I’ve really been playing in recent years and the gameplay has been very watered down and I yearn for a decent PvE experience.” This game definitely scratched that itch in more ways than one.

Infinite Wealth’s turn-based combat system revolves around positioning. Some moves have an AoE of either a straight line or a circle. Positioning a character next to an ally will proc a combo move with them and positioning them near items will proc an item attack where you can beat a guy to death with a traffic cone or something.

The job system is robust. Every character starts off with a default class- Ichiban’s is Hero, an all-rounder that can pretty much do anything; characters like Nanba and Eric (I know the game calls him Tomi or Tomizawa, but I’m not the game and “Fuckin’ Eric” sounds way better than “Fuckin’ Tomi”) are magic-oriented, so they’re basically wizards by default. You can change their class to other jobs (Desperado is my favorite because it’s basically gun mage), which unlocks new skills as you level them up. You can also change jobs as much as you want and skills carry over between them, so there’s a bit of moveset mixing and matching that makes my brain feel good.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, (the Yakuza devs, which we’re just gonna abbreviate to RGG from here on out) have always been REALLY good at asset reuse (again, I cast a dirty look to Game Freak). They’ll make a whole-ass map of a region and reuse that same map for several games down the line. Not only do you spend a significant time in Ijincho again and not only do you go to Kamurocho for little bit… AGAIN, but there are two… what I can only call “macro” games that have the best asset reuse I’ve seen in, like, maybe anything ever.

DONDOKO ISLAND

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth comes with a whole-ass Animal Crossing clone that’s also kind of The Sims called Dondoko Island. In this, you rehab an island that’s being used as a dump for some trash pirates (no, seriously, they’re actually pirates, yar har and everything) back into a five star resort. There’s a whole-ass crafting system where you go around the island, harvesting resources, to build furniture and facilities, which include whole-ass buildings which have appeared in past Yakuza games. The crafting system is GREATLY improved over Animal Crossing: New Horizon in that you can skip the goddamn animation and craft multiple of the same items at once. You don’t even have to have all the materials in your inventory, it’ll take it from your storage. Placing items in the world is also in an overhead view and the only grievance I have with the system is that placing paths is really weird and you can only place a limited number of them. But overall, Nintendo, was it really that hard to put into the video game. Why did you make AC:NH disrespect my time in that way?

Once the island has been cleaned up enough, you can start inviting guests over, which all have their own set of preferences for the vibe of your island (rustic, pop, sleazy, etc), their lodging quality, and how much of the island’s flora and fauna (and minerals, I guess??) you’ve discovered.

I really really liked Dondoko Island because who am I to say no to a management mini/macro game with decoration elements. I mostly really appreciate that it doesn’t waste your time. I wanna say I finished it in like less than 20 hours… which is not short for a game within a game (actually, that’s insane for a game within a game), but for a game of this genre, it’s pretty short.

There’s also an entire separate mini-island that further helps you with efficiently running your island by passively collecting resources over time and just being a general stockpile of bugs and fish to catch. But I can’t talk about this part without talking about…

SUJIMON

A returning character voiced by Keith Silverstein in the English dub – yes, that Keith Silverstein, who voices Masayoshi Shido of Persona 5 and Zhongli of The Genshin Impact™ is a professor who documents the behavior of weird and often hostile middle aged men, called Sujimon. When Ichiban goes to Hawai’i, he asks him to also document the native Sujimon there as there’s a prominent Sujimon scene there. Mans wasn’t kidding as there is an underground, more or less ilicit Sujimon fight club called The Sujimon League with its own Elite Four called The Discrete Four.

In the previous game, Sujimon was just your bestiary (literally called the Sujidex), but now it’s a whole-ass game, which I can mostly only describe as simplified Yokai Watch, but a glorified card game. Just so we’re not here for forever talking about middle-aged men cockfights… because I can talk about the mechanics and inner workings of middle-aged men cockfights for a hot minute, Sujimon League basically operates on a 3v3, with an additional bench of 3, rock-paper-scissors kind of system. You’ll need strong Sujimon to get through this macro game and you’ll recruit new guys through four ways- through random fights on the map, through literal Pokemon GO raids, through a gacha system, and through combining Sujimon of the same type into stronger Sujimon (don’t think too hard about that one). I had a LOT of fun with this and, again, it scratched an itch I’ve had for a while. Almost all of the Sujimon are just guys you’ll fight in-game, so, again, an excellent use of asset reuse.

Sujimon smoothly integrates into Dondoko Island in a way that makes Palworld look even more balls-less than it already is. You know that little island I was talking about a few paragraphs back? That’s Dondoko Farm. You can put your Sujimon to work on it! As you’re running around on Dondoko Island, letting it consume your life, your Sujimon will grow crops, scrounge around for resources, and earn some cash for you. The island also has some resources to help with Sujimon League by leveling them up with a small investment of some dondoko bucks and your time, but also a Pokemon-Amie type mini-mini game that helps strengthen the friendship of your current Sujimon team.

Yes.

This game lets you pet-

The sweaty, weirdo middle-aged men.

Don’t think about it too hard.

Especially don’t think about it too hard when you have a Sujimon on your team that uses Xander Mobus’ voice clips.

Anyway, there’s also another minigame called Sicko Snap, which is basically Pokemon Snap with Sujimon. It’s a good one, too.

STORY

I guess… the best way I’d explain my feelings on Infinite Wealth’s story is

Objectively, this is an okay story. Like, it’s par for the course for a Yakuza game. I have a lot of personal grievances with this plot which I’ll fully unsheathe my blade for in the next section, but for now I’ll just say… this game is basically Hawaii Five-O crammed into a Yakuza game and that was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I’m not sure I enjoyed.

Like a Dragon’s main theme is “Even if you hit rock bottom, it’s never too late to get back up again” and that’s something I hold near and dear to my heart.

They have used this theme to my benefit and to my dismay as this also apparently means it’s never too late for ~*Romance*~ which, sure, yeah, okay, true, but did it have to be Ichiban and Saeko?

I’m trying to give the game the benefit of the doubt because… to me, it’s mostly one-sided (as in, like, Saeko’s willing to give him a chance, but isn’t as crazy for Ichiban as he is for her) and, like, dude is allowed to have a crush. But from what I have seen… because I never got around to finishing her Drink Link (I was gonna but I’m like really burned out on the game), they kinda strap C4 to the Bechdel Test and raze a village to the ground with it when it comes to Saeko’s character arc because most of her dialogue and interactions are about The Incident with Ichiban, which sucks because she had more character than just a romance interest for the protagonist in the previous game. If you’re also REALLY not into this plot point like I am, the story DOES NOT let you forget that this indeed happened as it seems to be a plot thread that might continue into the next game as well.

Needless to say, I don’t ship it, and I don’t get to block tags and just walk away from this one.

The game also kinda keeps nudging at, “Hehe, Chitose’s pretty cute too, right?” to which I say

Yes I understand she’s of legal age but she’s only like 21 AT MOST and Ichiban’s like 40-something you stop with that.

It doesn’t feel like Ichiban really had a character arc in this… unless you count “proposing on the first date” to “saying I love you on a redo and then being weird about it again” as character growth. He went to Hawai’i, had some shenanigans, found mom, got backstabbed again, fought the cult (which I’ll be really salty about in the next section), went back home to help Eiji’s character arc. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just… Ichiban went on another adventure. And it was ok. I think maybe the game was sizing him up to, again, take Kiryu’s place and be The Hero, but… we already did that already? And I’m not even sure if the game was able to complete that message by the end of the game.

Kiryu probably got the most character development out of this game and talking this over with my friend Andrew, he brought up that it kinda wasn’t fair that this is supposed to be Ichiban’s game, but he had to share half of it with Kiryu. And I agree. His sections were also really hard to get into if you haven’t been a longtime fan. Again, I have a decent amount of Yakuza knowledge, but with Kiryu’s memories, a LOT of it went over my head.  It seems like RGG’s been trying to retire him as a protagonist for like three games now and MAYBE this time they’ll actually do it after this victory lap they’ve given him. But he did learn that “my friends are my power” and “never ever give up, you still have time to do better.” And you know what, that’s rad.

As far as the villains go, just, I dunno, they’re fine? Ebina and Eiji are very “okay bitch, stay mad, then,” and it’s. Fine? My only complaint is that Ebina’s arc felt like it was under-seasoned before they put it in the oven to cook and they could’ve peppered it on a little earlier in the game or something. Bryce’s entire deal I may have taken a little too personally, but that’s for later. Dwight was literally just Danny Trejo doing a villain role and I have absolutely no qualms with it. He was fun to watch.

The supporting cast was fun as always. Eric I hated at first, but he grew on me in the same way that, like, I’d bully a friend. Chitose I also kinda hated at first, was very sus of, but then she had a character arc that was pretty good. The Yokohama gang didn’t really have character arcs to them, but they were still fun to hang out with nonetheless. We got to learn a little bit more about Seonhee and she’s really fun. Both her and Zhao, who is my favorite for several reasons, are really really fun characters as they are both crime bosses (former, in Zhao’s case) who are BIG FUCKING WEIRDOS and I love them for it.

Joongi Han becomes a party member WAY too late in my opinion that, in a way, he’s technically an optional party member, or at least like getting a Dratini right before the Pokemon League in Gold/Silver/Crystal. He had some fun character moments, but felt kinda like an afterthought.

But also, ain’t no way he got his Hawai’i clothes at Hilo Hattie. There’s no way.

To wrap up my thoughts on the main story, I’d just like to say: the plot point that they sailed to Japan on a little tugboat in a handful of hours as opposed to WEEKS is peak Hawaii Five-O vibes and it infuriates me, but everyone kept telling me “it’s okay, the coast guard picked them up, like, halfway” and I will sit down and not start a fistfight over it. And just. That was the vibe of the game for me. Just… alternating between a J-Drama and Hawaii Five-O.

I don’t really have much to say about the substories except that they’re either almost Oscar-worthy material or they’re a snoozefest that I just tabbed through. I can really only think of three substories off the top of my head that were EXCELLENT, though - Nancy and Olivia, the artificial snow quest (THIS ONE IS EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH), and the traveling aquarium one. The rest I mostly just tabbed through because they were just……. Eh. But I think I’m okay with that since we have Sujimon and Dondoko to make up for it.

THE CULTURAL GRIEVANCES

So as I type this section out, I run my hands over my face to remind myself and say

This is a game that takes place in Hawai’i from a Japanese perspective, written primarily for a Japanese audience and I assume that certain things may come from a place of ignorance, but not maliciousness.

Hey Tumblr.

I want you to read that first bolded sentence again.

Because I know how you guys are with reading comprehension.

But that being said, as a Hawai’i-born Chinese person, there’s quite a lot about the Hawai’i cultural aspects of this game that I have problems with. If you wanna see me roast this game, you can stick around, but if not… Here is your chance to bail.

I’ve tried my best to write this in a way where I look at the thing that pissed me off and ask myself,  “Am I taking this too seriously or do I actually have a problem with it?” and write more or less objectively, but some of it might still come off as overly caustic. Just. I tried.

And after a deep breath,

Ho brah,

We go.

WHAT IS HAWAIIAN CULTURE, ANYWAY?

To start off, I’m not sure if RGG knows the difference between being a Hawai’i local and actually being of Hawaiian blood…? The game mentions at the very beginning that Akane is half-Japanese… and half-Hawaiian, which makes Ichiban one-fourth Hawaiian, which makes ME kinda… squint. Like, we’d need to know more about Akane’s backstory, but if you know anything about indigenous cultures, finding someone who’s half native is HARD nowadays. Akane also looks pretty light skinned for someone who’s allegedly half-Japanese, half-Hawaiian but that’s just my tiny nitpick?

I’m also… not sure what kinda research RGG did on Hawaiian last names because some of the ones I see on random enemies are kinda… 

Who is that

What is that

I have never seen anyone named that in my entire life

Sure, my worldview is a little shut in, but, no, what IS that?

Mililani is not a last name, that’s a neighborhood, why’s she Lani Mililani?

WHAT IS THAT?

The pidgin in the game is also there, but… small kine hit or miss. For those of you who don’t know, pidgin is Hawai’i’s creole, which came from a bunch of cultures who don’t speak the same language eventually falling into a kitbashed language system that works for everyone. Looking at the VA listing in the credits, they did hire some local people (they have Hawaiian names) and some of the VO performances work really well like Obispo in the restaurant side story and the cab driver dialogue that ONLY comes up in the Japanese audio version of the game for some reason. Others… are… hm (I don’t know what’s going on with Jeff the taco truck guy). I feel like the voice director got the intonation on the line reads down pretty well, but on the localization side, the syntax and grammar are a little off. Pidgin tends to come off as “broken english,” but it’s technically not since it’s its own language system with its own rules. So you have a lot of line reads that are in the right inflection, but the way it’s written is wrong for pidgin dialogue.

And it just doesn’t sound 100% right to me.

There’s also some… small pronunciation nitpicks that I have. Ukulele is pronounced the white way - it’s not Yooka-Laylee like the Chameleon and Bat, it’s ook-oo-leh-leh like Tapu Lele, the Pokemon. Some characters pronounce Hawai’i as huh-why and not ha-wuh-ee, which is more right (it’s SUPPOSED to be ha-vai-ee but I’m not native Hawaiian and this is kind of an axolotl situation so, y’know).

But shout-outs to the “Whatchu lookin’ at?” line guy.

Because that one is just, no notes, perfect.

NOTHING CAN BE NORMAL, I GUESS

Something that rubbed me the wrong way in this game is the mystification of a culture that’s foreign to you, that is, taking a culture that’s not yours and describing or representing it in such a way that it sounds so deviant and hard to comprehend compared to the one you’re used to. Think of that one tweet where someone describes hamburgers like a white person would describe asian fruit.

There's the lei substory where the girl needs to make a lei with blue plumerias (which does not exist by the way) because there’s an urban legend that if you give a blue plumeria lei to someone, it’s a way of confessing your true love. Lei are just… things you give as, like, a “congrats!” kind of a thing. Or if you wanna be touristy about it, a “welcome!” kind of gift. There’s nothing mystical about it, most grocery stores stock a few that you can just pick up, grab and go style. 

The entire game mechanic of “shaka to make friends” was so?? Like maybe after 8 hours into the Hawai’i map, I was like, okay, I’ll just… fine. I’ll accept it. But my god did I not appreciate it when Kson came up to me and was like “what’s a motherfucker gotta do around here to make some friends” and told me how FRIENDLY the Hawaiian people were and how you can just throw a shaka to make friends; while me, probably the saltiest, introverted Hawai’i local that throws stink-eye at tourists who can’t watch where they’re going, playing the video game on that day was like, “We don’t fucking do that, hello??” I don’t even know why we shaka?? Most people you ask that question will just be like “idk it’s the local thing, they do it at the end of the 5pm news on KHON2.”

There’s a substory in this game with a character named Nathan, but we were all calling him racist Alpharad because he kinda looks like him (ALPHARAD HIMSELF IS NOT RACIST OR IN THIS GAME I WANNA CLARIFY THAT) and he’s basically, like… a weeb. He’s recording what seems like a PBS special on Japanese tourists in Hawai’i, but he’s kind of a shitter about it. He makes Ichiban choose between local foods and cold-ass rice and becomes upset when he chooses kalua pork over the rice since it wasn’t The Japanese Option. It escalates to making Ichiban play darts with shuriken and when he loses, he tells him to “live up to his dishonor,” slides him a knife and board, and asks him if he wants to take a finger or hara-kiri. To which Ichiban goes “dude, I get you like Japanese culture, but you can’t treat people this way”

To which I look back at the game like

You clearly understand how this feels, so why are you doing this to Hawaiian culture?

Again, I understand that a lot of this game was written with maybe just ignorance, and not malice, and this isn’t really a call-out post to RGG or anything, but BOY…

Okay.

Now we get to my biggest gripe with this game.

PALEKANA CAN SUCK MY NUTS

I’m kinda disappointed in their choice to use a Hawaiian cult as a plot point. It’s not quite a native savages kind of a vibe, but… In the year of our lord 2024, I thought we would know better than to portray an indigenous religion as a bloodthirsty cult? I also don’t like how they’re conflating the Hawaiian religion with what’s more like a Christian/Catholic cult in this.

Palekana is portrayed as “cultists who worship a goddess who lives in a mystical land, forbidden only to her chosen and maybe one day we’ll be worthy of her blessings.” Hawaiian religion is… not… like that at all? They did get the part about “giving back to the community” correct as a part of Hawaiian culture is mālama ‘aina, meaning, you need to care for the land you live on, which is… reasonable? I guess the other basic idea of Hawaiian religion is that certain places, things, and times that are important, and you shouldn’t touch it unless you wanna fuck around and find out. But the game just kinda wildly overboils this.

Like, I don’t claim to be an expert, I’ve only scraped the basics from what I learned in school (a year’s worth of Hawaiiana lessons in middle school, a semester’s worth in college; went to a private Catholic school, took two world religion classes in college), but Palekana has a very Catholic European religion kind vibe instead of a Hawaiian one. And I really, really don’t like that the game conflates the two. The Palekana cultists wear hoods, which is a distinctly European thing (it’s too hot for hoods here!). The beaded necklaces also seem more like rosaries, which, again, very Catholic. The idea that a god-figure will save you is also a VERY Catholic idea. I’m also assuming the goddess Nele that they use in the game is an expy for Pele, which… okay, like, you can do that with locations. Ala Moana Shopping Center represented as Anaconda Mall in the game hurts me a lot, but… to change up the name of the most prominent deity in Hawaiian religion is like

Dude, I’m not Hawaiian, but I know better than to shit on Pele?

Maybe I’m taking this a little too seriously, but it comes off as a little(??) disrespectful.

To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe RGG wrote this plot point in this way to be like, well, they’re the villains, so we’ll write them so hyperbolically evil and wrong so people won’t mistake that for the actual culture? But my gut reaction is that they’re only writing from what they’ve seen in the movies and they wanted to make a story like that.

This was my least favorite part of the plot because not only does the cult aspect feel like it’s in bad taste, but it’s SO MUCH of the story and you REALLY can’t get away from it.

Alright. So now that I’ve aired that out of my system, I’m finally capping off this section with the part of the game that hit the closest to me and that is

CHINESE IN HAWAI’I

Listen. Again.

This is a story about Hawai’i, written by a Japanese team, for a Japanese audience.

Yakuza is a series that often talks about the racial conflict between the Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans. And I don’t expect them to portray any of these groups in anything more than a neutral light in this game about Gang Crime.

But ohhhhh my gooooood did they get the Chinatown section so wroooooooong.

Right off the bat, the big glaring problem I have with this game is. All the guys speak Mandarin. I think they might just be reusing voice clips from Yakuza 7, which, sure, fine, I understand that video games are hard to make and expensive.

In Hawai’i, like, real-world Hawai’i, not the bizzaro Hawai’i this game takes place in, we’re definitely starting to see more Mandarin-speaking immigrants show up, but most of the town speaks Cantonese.

Most of the people here a generation or two above me come from Guangdong or Hong Kong, which are Cantonese-speaking areas. It’s an entirely different dialect that’s really only been represented in small bits in media I’m familiar with, like in Jackie Chan Adventures (the uncle’s chant is basically “no more ghosts, get out of here” in Cantonese) and Digimon Tamers (“Moumentai” is “it’s okay/don’t worry about it” in Cantonese), and it seems really hard to get VAs that speak it, so I’m not… really that mad about it.

BUT. Then there’s Wong Tou.

Wong is the Cantonese pronunciation of 黄 , Huang or Hwang in Mandarin.

So like… clearly they knew?? But?? Decided not to go all in on it??

(And then Daniel Dae Kim is his face model and I just??? Bro’s Korean, hello?????)

And then there’s the name of Wong Tou’s gang. The Ganzhe.

Which is a stupid name.

The Chinese dictionary gives me 甘蔗 which translates to sugarcane, which. I get it. The plantation times. The Chinese and the Japanese and the Filipinos and the Portuguese and whatever all used to work on the cane plantations.

…But you’re out here calling your BIG KNIFE GANG “Sugarcane??”

My guy, you could start a reggae band with that name instead.

SPEAKING OF REGGAE-

No one knows how to pronounce Ganzhe properly besides Eric’s VA apparently? All the other VAs pronounce the gan closer to “van” when it’s supposed to be more like a “gone.”

Yes. That’s right.

Ganzhe is pronounced more like ganja.

You know.

The Marajuanas™

I’m a Hawai’i-born Chinese, first-generation local on my mom’s side and third-gen local on my dad’s. I grew up in Chinatown, so this was a section of the game that was near and dear to my heart. So I THINK and HOPE you’d understand my frustration to see that work needed to be done on the representation of my culture in this game. It was definitely a little fun to see my hometown modeled in this game- they got Maunakea Marketplace and Keikaulike Mall down pretty accurately and some of the motifs on the buildings made me do a double take because they were so familiar to me. BUT, man, this cultural aspect of the game needed A LOT of work.

SO TO FINALLY CLOSE THIS OUT

Japanese people love Hawai'i a lot.

I think Japanese people love Hawai'i more than Hawai'i locals do.

But as for portraying it accurately, I understand that no one can do it as well as a local islander can. Did I personally think they did the best they could?

………………ehh

Like, if you turn your brain off, it's fine??

If you turn your brain off and not let Palekana get to you, this game is fine.

It can be a little campy.

It can be a little Hollywood.

It can be a little Disneyland.

And despite my four pages of bitching about it, at the end of the day. It is fine.

So with that, I’ve hit like ten full pages on this Google Doc. Despite half of this review being me complaining about what they got wrong about Hawai’i culture in this game, I liked it a lot! When the game didn't have me strapped down for an episode of a J-drama or Hawaii Five-O, I liked running around town, fighting guys, making other guys fight other guys, and managing a resort island. If anything, this game actually motivated me a little to make more local-themed stuff, because as I notice people getting older, there’s less and less people to correctly preserve highly specific culture stuff like this. So a lot of that responsibility falls on me, y’know?

Thank you for making it to the end of this review! I know it was a lot. I don’t know what happened. I do recommend this game, but I ask that you do NOT finish the game with the takeaway that you have learned everything there is to know about Hawai’i.

I’ll fight you with a lawn chair (in Minecraft, for the FBI agent reading this) if you do that.

Other than that, I think you’ll have a lot of fun but also take your time because this game is, like, a 100 hour commitment. Not Persona 5 Royal long, but a commitment nonetheless.

[bonesandthebees]

random anon throwing in my two cents (all that’s in my wallet actually) but while i don’t mind in the context of Hanging Rose if wilbur becomes willum since tommy is already tomys, in general i am very leery of name changes. because it’s you, I’d probably still give anything you read a chance since you’re epic, but i usually don’t even touch a fic when a name gets changed. for some very fanon-relevant characters (which sbi definitely are. I’ve read so many versions of who they are /pos), names are often one of the few consistent, binding things, so I feel like if you take that away it’s suddenly just some other guy. a different character. “what’s in a name” and all that. to me, c!wilbur is very different from somebody with all the same characteristics and looks but named walter or smth (there’s a walter white joke to be had in here somewhere. pretend I made it and that it rlly landed good and normal). ive seen similar things occur in different fandoms where the most oc’ified characters get their name changed constantly (hadrian black…….) and it just fails to rlly feel like the same character, superficial though a name may first seem. im attached to the characters, and a lot of a character is defined by name in fics. but when it comes down to it obviously just do what you want and live your best writing life in whatever way is most comfortable for you!

this is a very good point and one I pretty much agree with. in the past I've very much been against the oc-ification of characters in fandom spaces solely because like what you said, I'm attached to the character and it fails to feel the same. this is just... an unusual situation I'm struggling to find the right way to deal with. like, yeah, I think I've done a lot more character work on c!wilbur than cc!wilbur ever did. but I am attached to the character from canon itself.

I do want to emphasize for all that I've been saying the character is mine now, I have always been very focused on writing c!wilbur in a way that feels in line with the character and that's not going to change if I do end up finishing rose. the only reason I've considered using willum as a name is because in the fic itself, rose!wilbur's name is already willum. like, that's his full name and wilbur is a nickname. if I switched the text to call him willum solely, nothing about him as a character would change. I would still be writing c!wilbur. I wouldn't be trying to change him to turn him into my oc. the only purpose the name change would serve would be to help readers have an easier time feeling the separation of c!wilbur and cc!wilbur

also, the main reason I feel like this could work is because an anon helpfully pointed out earlier that, like, 75% of glass divine never called him wilbur. it only called him the pythia. and the readers seemed to have no issue with that so I feel like switching to willum would be more akin to that rather than me trying to oc-ify c!wilbur

I hope that makes sense!

[transhawks]

So, uh, just reread "chapter"all it takes is one bad day" and does Twice have pure white pupils and irises like AFO supposedly does? Like, I haven't seen any clear official art of his eyes, but in the one back cover of him they look like they're pure white?

At this point I'm just going to have to make an entire essay on how we should be reading Japanese media with an understanding of cultural and class markers. No, Jin does not have the same eyes or similar eyes to AFO. Yes, there's connections with Jin and AFO but that's another topic. 1. AFO's eye color hasn't been really confirmed aside from that one WSJ cover that implies they can be clear and white. 2. That's not what the "something about my eyes rubs people the wrong way" means. This is what I mean about the cultural context being missing from most of us Western-readers and how we just don't get reading the manga with no guide to explain small details to us. I also wish Jin was just popular so I don't feel like I'm the only one in the fandom yammering about the ridiculous amount of depth he has as a character and in his storyline. First off, Jin's eyes are sunken in, his features abnormally "chiseled" and rough for an anime character. By the time we meet him he looks like he's had a hard life but we also find out in flashbacks he always kind of looked like that.

He's unkempt - stubbled, has the sunken eyes and dark eyebags the villains are generally drawn with. He smokes, drinks, wears a wife beater, has no eyebrows, and used to ride a motorcycle. All these things are a red flag. This is where "you really need to be familiar with Japanese media before you read BNHA" comes in, Jin, while drawing from several different Western comic characters (John Constantine, Deadpool, Rorschach), is also neatly fitting into the yanki and bosuzoku (sorta) trope. Or Japanese delinquents. What throws people "off" is the lack of eyebrows. Yanki are traditionally portrayed with no eyebrows. This link here explains that at sight a delinquent can be identified with shaved eyebrows. This is why so many villainous or rough characters are eyebrowless. It's like the Japanese equivalent of giving villains twirly mustaches and goatees - something about the imagery of that already implies villain in our minds, whereas the lack of eyebrows implies delinquent/criminal in the Japanese cultural imagination (in modern day settings. Heian-era eyebrow-lessness is a different story/class marker).

He's also blonde, or "chapatsu" which is also another "Delinquent" trope in Japan - many delinquents in the 70s-90s bleached their hair to this yellow or orange color (hence "cha" which obviously means tea/chai). Japanese schools are infamously awful at allowing for self-expression to the point where naturally brown-haired students can be forced to dye their hair, and chapatsu hair was a marker of a rebellious/delinquent student. Twice isn't the only one who Horikoshi uses this trope for. Tomura, for example, really had the "up to no good" look early on even if I think he's more of a homebody.

You know who else?

Huh, interesting, given Takami's a murderous professional career thief alcoholic. Wait a minute, wasn't Jin was one of the greatest Japanese thieves until his accident, I wonder exactly what Horikoshi meant by making Thief Takami have a similarly unkempt appearance, rough rugged facial features, and barely any brows? Wait -

Something to understand is that we've gotten information from Yoco Akiyama in TUM about how the main manga's design process works and apparently the facial feature consistency is really important for the artists. Thus the fact Keigo's parents were designed with: 1. Rough, sunken features (Thief & Jin) 2. Unkempt facial fair (Thief & JIn) 3. Deep eyebags (Jin & Tomie) 4. Similarly disordered filthy homes (Takami fam & Jin) 5. Beer Bottles lying around everywhere (Takami fam & Jin) 6. Small, beady eyes with little pupils (Takami Fam & Jin) 7. Grey-Blue Eyes (Tomie & Jin) 8. Clear mental instability (Tomie & Jin) Was absolutely intentional. For all that we see Keigo's parents, Horikoshi knowingly designed them to resemble Jin. Again, Jin was Keigo's villain to save. Keigo was Jin's hero. Keigo failed because we needed a character to fail to save "their villain". Both Keigo and Jin have clear working-class background and criminal class markers. These things tie them together, these marginalized identifications make their relationship something that should have worked. If we want an in-universe reason for Keigo's focus on Jin, it's absolutely true he likely (subconciously) saw his parents superficially reflected in Jin, and decided to "save" him because he was unable to save his parents. Of course, that was not only presumptuous, it was also wrong because Jin is not a stand-in for Keigo's parents (and unlike them is a decent person). Anyway, yeah, no Jin's design/looks made him look like a "thug" to people in his community. That's why he had issues and that's what his comment meant. People's biases about people who look like Twice made him just get...away less. If someone "looks like a thug" you will try to make connections that justify that bias. That's why things like his motorcycle accident hurt him so much. He was uneducated, likely a middle-school dropout, fired from a job, had a record and had "bad vibes". Who'd hire him? Can you understand why Jin was doomed into having to survive as a criminal? Society decided he was meant to fail years before he did fail. So much of BNHA is about people falling into traps of pre-determined outcomes. Jin's tragically so.

[penwrythe]

I have thoughts around the discussion of mature writing for adult media.

My project World of Relics is for adults, so it's good to see how this discussion goes since I really don't want to struggle writing WOR as an adult webcomic (Rise of Relics) and anthology (The Mundane Realm) series. I think the reason why Hazbin and TADC feels immature that they have the nostalgia of edgy kids and teens media with occasional mature themes being the inspiration, but not really fully embracing those themes from an adult's point of view. It would explain in part why they feel immature for something that suppose to be for adults.

Note: this is an underdeveloped thought, still processing it so critique is welcomed and good thank you.

This is not to say you cannot take inspiration from kids/teens media, this is more to say how does it effect how you perceive/write/create adult media. Is adult media "shocking fact that the characters are stuck somewhere unusual", "randoms s*e*x joke the 5th time in an episode", and "it's mature because shocking thing you don't see in kids media"?

Or is adult media about recognizing both the mundane and extremes of adulthood, with no escapism from certain extremes, understanding the moments of joy, pain, sorrow, etc has more to them than brief moments but instead history and context behind all of that in an adult's life.

Taking a moment to review what I been viewing and reading so that I can understand how to write World of Relics:

--Animated Series--

JJBA - Stone Ocean*

Arcane*

Primal*

Carol and the End of the World*

Blue Eye Samurai*

Blood of Zeus*

Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon*

ONE

--Books (both YA and Adult/New Adult)--

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter*

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin*

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Legendborn Series by Tracy Deonn (YA, but still handles mature themes well)

Oathblood by Mercedes Lackey*

The asterisk is for media I'm not just reading for enjoyment but learning how to handle the form of storytelling it presents. Without making this post too long, I feel gravitated to these media not for ~what shocking situation the character is in~ but the familiarity of their experiences to mine or to other people's life experiences they faced. Some more extreme than others (especially Blue Eye Samurai, Blood of Zeus, The Rage of Dragons, and The Fifth Season), the extremes of trauma, strife, hardship, discrimination, and destruction in these stories have an weight to them beyond the shock of violence or death, or the existential crisis. Like, there's no cry laughing, but there is quiet moments of grief and pain, the yearning of better days, desires of vengeance and justice. There's a substance to them that feels more thought out than what I feel from TADC Hazbin.

Note 2: I'm sorry if I'm being harsh, I love TADC. Yes, there's only two episodes out right now, but like I want more than what it presents.

Note 3: Yeah, I'm comparing apples to grand pianos, but I believe there's no harm in asking for more. I believe adult indie animation can do better, for now we have stepping stones that will help build the foundation for the next generation of adult animation. ~looking at Lackadaisy here since I'm a reader of their comic, that will most certainly be the next step if you know how it goes.

In addition to this, I will admit with my project WOR, I have concerns it might not be taken seriously as adult media, not because shocking edginess (there's a sprinkling of that here and there), but ...my characters are mostly talking object people set in a fantasy world. I have decided on certain things about them: despite them having human souls, sexuality is nearly vestigial in their species so all attraction is romantically driven -they are an asexually reproducing species, and almost all cursing/swearing will sound mostly mundane to us humans -no one says M*therf*cker but will using Blazing Hell, Broken Blades, Rusted Hell, Dirty Rags, etc (similar swears to how The Fifth Season does swearing in relation to earth and fire, WOR handles swearing to the material makeup of Objectkind - as well how biases of Hardy objects have of Fragile objects), and other things.

But, I knew, after awhile of reading and watching, what kind of story I wanted and how it appears to other people. If you like, person reading this very long post, I welcome you to read the following:

// Mild Spoilers for Rise of Relics and a little for the Mundane Realm

Note 4: The characters in Rise of Relics were gods turned to their relics after their realm was destroyed by the Inversion Event. So, if you are familiar with my story, its all baleful polymorph, almost everyone gets turned. If you are uncomfortable with that trope (due to certain past depictions in media), I suggest not reading anything World of Relics please. ~also, I'm Black soooooo, its alright! Everyone's dead lol. I equalized it!

Note 5: Also in the old draft of Chp 3 sample (its updated rn, just look at the Worldofrelics tag), Nicodemus is a crystal ball, Nikey is a trident. The flashback was before the Inversion Event. Just want to put this there in case confusion.

Do these examples of my WOR project:

Feel mature?

Feel as though, despite maybe a shocking thing or too, there's more to what's presented?

What of the characters? How do you feel about them in the situation? What about the implications of the situation they are in?

Does the voice (narration of Altostratus or how the characters in RFR Chp 3 speak and behave) feel like they are adult characters, or characters in general regardless of age, exist in a mature adult setting?

How do you empathize with them in their situation? Do you expect them to just react constantly to the events in the story in one type of way? Or do you expect as they develop over time, they adapt, struggle, and grow beyond just where they started?

If you imagine these characters in real life, would they be like what the story presents them as (in both examples, characters are above the age of 18 - from 32 to thousands of years old (read late 60s -early 100s in human years in relation to this question)?

Does it feel like at any point this could appeal to children (not because talking objects, but other reasons)? How do I improve upon that to appeal to Adults (by not adding swearing or se*xual stuff, but mature themes without making light of whatever topic I'm trying to handle)?

Giant Robot Monster Hot or Dear god, this old girl Flammin went through so much I hope they are happy with their trident wife? (they won't be, lol, oh they won't be)

Do you interpret Nikey as an angsty teen/20s or someone in their early 30s just trying to make sense of the world that died around her? (Okay, not obvious in chp 3, but give me your thoughts anyway)

Sexy Tumblr Old Man or This old man was a criminal and may have hurt people deeply and wrestling with that fact, knowing that one day he will face someone who was hurt by his actions? (still writing out Gwenny's lore, just hinting at this point tho)

Okay, I ran my fingers on this too long lmao. But yeag, tell me what you think. May the discourse begin.

[overnightoverthinking]

I dreamed a dream - The ending of The Junji Ito Collection

The ending of the Junji Ito Collection anime (the better collection between this and Maniac, in my opinion) is a song titled "A Parallel Universe" by the band JYOCHO.

The way this song is used is over an image of a forest or some kind of wooded background and the monsters/antagonists of the story you just watched statically either running around it or peeking from behind the trees. Here is an example.

As a warning... that thing in the thumbnail slides out at around 1:20. Heads up.

Anyway, let me back up a bit now that you have either listened to the above or at least now that you have it.

For those not in the know, Junji Ito stories often deal with horror in the forms of nightmare creatures, worlds, or scenarios. He has written a lot (I have read most of them) and nowadays a lot are being collected thankfully in English. The stories are typically episodic. By that I mean that with the exception of some stories like Gyo, Uzumaki, Dissolving Classroom, and Tomie to name some they are usually just independent stories. Some have connections but typically you can pick up a Junji Ito collection and not need to read any others.

Again, the Junji Ito stories are not really connected, per say, but all deal with these horror worlds/scenarios. Maybe it's the story of holes that appear in the earth and call out for people to enter them, only to continually get smaller and smaller. Maybe it's a story of ghosts seeking vengeance from an alley. Maybe it's a story of people slowly turning into wooden dolls. Maybe a story of a monstrous fashion model that turns out to be a killer.

Okay, back to the song. The main part/opening part of the song (translated by Anime Lyrics) are:

"As usual, by instinct  You consistently create a parallel universe As usual, by instict  You consistently destroy a parallel universe"

The song was written for this anime, and when interviewed about this Daijirō Nakagawa, guitarist and songwriter for JYOCHO, had the following to say:

“When I start creating a song for an anime, I always read the original material, such as the manga, if it is available. In general, I don't speak with the director directly—though we might get feedback or advice through the label on what the anime side is thinking of or hoping for.” “Junji Itodoes make horror, but it's surreal, a little funny and weird. It's not just straight dark horror,” Nakagawa explained. “Writing a straightforward scary or dark song could have been on the table, but a lot of Japanese horror movies and other works have a funny element to them, too. [...] With that in mind, I decided to compose the song with a brighter tone. I set it against Ito's horror aspect to make it more mysterious—more impactful and weirder. That was a conscious choice.”

Ito himself contacted the band to express how much he liked the opening and even drew the band himself. Shown below and previously included on a topic for this blog.

Now, with the idea in mind that Junji Ito himself liked the song for his anime/collection and that the composer/writer did the song after reading the source material... I'm going to dive into the speculation zone a bit.

The way that I like to take this/ read this is that all of Junji Ito's stories actually are connected.

What if they are all part of alternate/parallel universes. Universes that are created from your actual nightmares (hence being surreal, horror based, even a bit silly/whimsical at times). That's why they're so varied and explore different fears. Of course that's what all horror is based off of: exploring the author's fears and paranoias. Either internal (their own fears) or external (fears they observe). But I think that would work...

"As usual, by instinct  You consistently create a parallel universe"

But of course at the end of the nightmare you wake up. The stories tend to end abruptly or as the horror heightens. Not in a bad way... it just reaches it's natural conclusion. The dream (nightmare) is over. You awaken and leave it behind.

"As usual, by instinct  You consistently destroy a parallel universe"

You can leave it behind. You can think of it maybe, in the bright world of waking. Maybe your nightmares aren't as scary anymore (they're glimpses running through the woods of your mind).

I think that's why the ending for the anime if brilliant in a number of ways. I think the ending of an anime (and a show, really) serves as your guide out of whatever emotions you may have been feeling in the show. I think this ending represents you literally leaving those nightmares behind and does it in a fun, almost playful way.

It's fine, the nightmare are gone and you've got a whole day ahead.

At least until sleep the next night.

Until next time.

[ataraxiaspainting]

Snowflake and bone?

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

oh shit... i feel like i'm being put on the spot lmao. honestly anything with yan chrollo i will eat up. my expectations are nonexistent for everything, including fanfiction. maybe @after-witch or @ddarker-dreams? but i feel like most yan chrollo writers are like experts in their craft...

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing? 

a lot of shows/books/movies in general!

-> shows

monster - one of my favorite things ever. seriously. it's so good! the psychological horror of johan, the push and pull of tenma's morality based on what to do in the situation at hand... i love it all! an absolute masterpiece!

breaking bad - what hasn't been said about it already? it's just that good (and meme worthy also). definitely recommend!

hannibal - ah yes. horror shows with queer themes, my beloved. as someone who's going into work related to criminology, i really enjoyed this one a lot! hannibal was especially interesting, though i love the original silence of the lambs too!

-> books

the collector by john fowles - i actually discovered this book in middle school! i loved it a whole bunch, and my english teachers could never stop me from reading it when they were speaking. shoutout to all my fellow quiet kids who got the "most books read" award in school.

tomie by junji ito - this is actually one of the main things that inspired me to write hier encore! femme fatales always get me. i love my morally grey queens. seeing people just wrapped around their fingers is both interesting and horrific to watch.

the stranger by albert camus - i read this in my final year of high school and now once again during summer break! i just love camus' writing style so much and i love how the main character is so apathetic to the point he doesn't care about himself much. i also really like the religious themes that can come into play, as well as potential neurodiversity.

-> movies

midsommar - another thing dear in my heart. my older sister watched it with me along with my mom, but they were too scared by the gore to they just covered their eyes for like 30% of the movie lmao. not me though, unfortunately. i am still scarred, but the cult/indoctrination themes made it so interesting it's like i didn't have ADHD. i was a neurotypical for like two hours.

sailor moon s: the movie - hearts in ice - i love love loved this movie as a kid. i watched it on repeat along with the lion king movies. i really enjoyed the character development luna went through as she learned the necessity of letting go of people who don't necessarily need you in the way you think they need you.

knives out - this one i also watched with my mom and older sister! they liked this one much more too. i love ransom but also despise him at the same time. i haven't watched glass onion yet but i'm sure it's just as good based on what i have heard! thrillers are the key to my soul.

[one-vivid-judgment]

what's your personal ship with kiryu (outside of majima because rgg don't let my man's heart's desires catch a BREAK) if i may ask? cause i love date but kiryu needs a Best Bro (also i'm such a sucker for date/adachi) and date is the BEST of the best. i love the idea that of course he was down bad for tachibana, but because of their lack of just being able to Have Time Together among all the chaos, it just became an unrequited scar upon his piles of piles of self-loathing.

Tbh Kiryu is not my favorite character by a long shot. I don’t hate him by any means! I just find other characters more interesting and like their personalities more. 0 and 8 are peak Kiryu for me, and I think it has a lot to do with the amount of character interactions: he is still learning the ropes in 0 and relies on and interacts more with other people (Nishiki, Tachibana, Oda, even his interactions with Kuze I found pretty cool). In Infinite Wealth, just the fact that he has an actual party to interact with elevated him to me—that dynamic intro where he and Ichiban tag team Wong Tou, or the little moment where he, Chitose and Tomi are filming the video and just... hanging out and being chill for a change, for example. Those little moments made me like him much more when I used to be pretty indifferent aside from like, his interactions with Haruka which I found the cutest thing ever.

Since I was indifferent for the longest time, I never thought much about which ship of his I like most. I really dig him and Kaoru though, but I’m not sure how popular that is 😭 Also, Nishiki, of course! I’m not too picky though, I think I’ve read fics of pretty every Kiryu ship just cause I thought they looked interesting and were well-written. My favorite AO3 author has written Kiryu with Majima, Nishiki, Saejima, Ryuji, even Someya, and I eat up all their fics like nobody’s business.

Man, it’s been a while since I thought about Adachi x Date though 😭😭 I’m more into Adachiwagi, but what little I’ve read of him and Date has been very good so like, potential new OT3 here 👀 Adachi not getting any luck with women but being a hit with old men is such a funny concept to me. They just love this bear of a man, and who wouldn’t?

[honoringthehorrific]

I watched Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the macabre and here's what I thought of each episode 2/3

Here's Part 2 to my review on Junji Ito's new netflix anime! As always Spoilers under the cut Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Review

Continuing on with what i thought of each episode...

Episode 5: Long Hair In the attic Cont. Long hair in the attic, I remember this story and it's always felt sorta...Sad to me? From the way the episode starts and we see them interact it's really depressing...She obviously cared about this man but he seems to toss her out like there's no issue at all. One thing I really noticed was how they draw blood in this one, It looks really nice. However I think Chiemi's head isn't as pretty when depicted in the anime as it was in the manga however the scraping sounds are definitely more cringe-worthy when you actually get to hear them. Episode 7: Tomb Town I believe this one is actually based on the new translation from VIZ Media, Which as of writing this isn't out yet. I haven't read an online scantlation of it but I was fairly excited to see what it was about going in! The story is actually really interesting to me? I thought it would be sort of boring but...It was really enthralling. The twist was wild to me! The use of 3D for the corpse was actually more interesting to me than the use of it for scenery like cars!

Episode 8: Layers of Fear; The Thing That Drifted Ashore A story I've not read. Surprised yet? I'm not. One thing I thought was neat was seeing the iconic layered image in the doctors office! I've seen images of this manga online. I think the concept of someone having skin line a tree or an onion is kinda cool! The image of the peel was sort of cool but at the same time the thought is painful. I remember i had skin on my foot one time that peeled up but it was so deep...It made me think of that time and it made me cringe. the image of her dragging the blade down her skin...This whole scene was vile and made my skin crawl and my stomach turn I think this was one of the best moments of the series so far. Again with the thing that drifted ashore i felt i had read this one before? However that may have just been the feeling of gyo. Another interesting thing is Tadashi is the name of the protagonist from gyo. Nothing else interested me much aside from the idea of human beings potentially being like parasites.

Episode 9: Tomie: Photo I was most ecstatic for this episode! Tomie is a special interest of mine. My wife loves Tsukiko's character so we were both highly critical coming into this episode. They were worried about Tsukiko's voice as they had seen Demon Slayer and heard her voice actress play Nezuko but we were both surprised by the deeper voice acting the actress did for the character as it was always the sort of manner we imagined the character would speak in. Another thing I'm happy about is how this series seems to be taking Tomie almost in order (Skipping the chapter Basement)! First Tomie, then Morita hospital and now we get chapter 4 Photograph! I can't help but hope for another part or even Tomie to get its own anime but for now I was thrilled with this chapter of Tomie's animated story given both My wife and I had qualms with Tsukiko's strange redesign? Her grown out buzz/pixie cut is swapped with a side swept one? As well as her eyebrows being much thicker than remembered initially... I was also mildly off put by how Tomie's voice changed between series? It's still Monica Rial but she's changed how she speaks for the character. It's deeper for some reason? Which while not a bad change still a strange one to me. One of the most disappointing changes in my wife's opinion was the lack of a willy wonka shirt. (RIP tsukiko's willy wonka t-shirt) I also kind of hated that they seemed to cut certain parts or lines? I know that they have to mind time but they miss the scuffle at the door when tsukiko goes to join her mother. They also miss getting to see tsukiko's mother's face as well as learning her father is in the military and at his post. Small details that feel..Like they just flesh out tomie's universe more. While the episode is very nearly shot for shot there's a lot that changed (To someone like me who is...a little obsessed <3) There's almost too many changes to over look.

Part 1 / Part 3 / Review

[rinwellisathing]

You're Awful, I Love You: Part 21

Enver Gortash/Trans Male Tiefling Durge

“Don't look so disappointed, my Dread Executioner. This plan will provide you all the bloodshed you crave, I promise.” Gortash led him to sit down at one of the work benches. “You see, when you showed me your tyrant statue, particularly the crown you designed, it made me think of an artifact I heard about when I was growing up. The man I was...apprenticed...to was obsessed with it. I'll explain it in more detail later, but rest assured, as you told me I am your muse, you've quickly become mine as well.”

Sentry looked up curiously. He wasn't sure he'd ever inspired anything, well, other than fear and silly rumors with his yet unsolved years long murder spree. It felt good, he felt powerful, like he had influence, and more than that, influence over a chosen of Bane. Like puppeting a puppeteer. A smile formed, growing into a toothy grin. “And you say this plan will provide me with plenty of victims...parts...materials?”

“More than you could utilize in a life time.” Gortash sat beside him, reaching for a pen and ink. “Now...shall we?”

Sentry began to fish around in his satchel for the book he'd referenced only to find that Enver had already placed a well read copy on the work table next to the spare parchment. “Hey, you said you only read that in passing.”

“Did I?” He smiled teasingly. “Perhaps compared to some of the other ones, but I must admit, these copper dreadfuls were a comfort while I was growing up.”

Sentry nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Did you read the one about the artificer who creates life from a corpse? I think that one would really speak to you.”

“I did, and you're not wrong.” He nodded, opening the well worn book and beginning to thumb through the pages.

The two sat deep in discussion about what they could learn from the code the killer in the book used and how best to adapt it to their own uses. Hours passed as the discussion shifted between business and their favorite copper dreadful plots. Sentry barely noticed his tail flicking back and forth like an excited dog as the enthusiastic discussion continued well into the early hours of the morning.

Yawning and stretching, The Executioner realized he should probably head home and make sure Fel had properly reanimated as well as deal with the earful he was sure to get from Gabraela for sending him back in the first place (Though really, he had been very clear on the topic of breeding and his thoughts on it.)

“You're sure you won't rest here? You could sleep in my bed while I work.” Gortash offered as he and Sentry climbed the stairs back to the locked room together.

“What, work? You need to sleep too. There is no way you got any kind of rest yesterday before I got here. You're human, your body needs sleep.” The tiefling folded his arms across his chest.

“I do quite well without it most days.” The Tyrant replied dismissively.

Sentry rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, I can tell. You look so well rested all the time.” the sarcasm dripped from his voice.

“At any rate, there should be a gift for you waiting at your temple. The messenger I sent claimed to know the way. Just a little token of affection.” Enver changed the subject as the two reached the window.

Sentry grinned. “Well, I do enjoy gifts. Great change of subject, really.” And he leaned in for a kiss, nipping at his partner's lips affectionately for just a little taste before turning to begin his climb down.

When Sentry arrived home, he found the path to the temple splattered with more blood than usual. Three corpses wearing armor with a serpent emblem were strewn about the path in varying degrees of having been chewed and eaten. A smile crossed his lips, this was certainly a good start to a thoughtful courtship gift.

His expression changed to a gleeful smile that lit up his scarred face when he crossed the threshold to see that Tomi was setting plates of meat down before three large healthy looking gnolls at one of the tables in the common area. The creatures' snouts and claws were matted with blood and they chittered and made those delightful giggling sounds as they sniffed at the offering.

“Oh, welcome back brother dear! I heard a commotion outside the temple and found these darling creatures wandering outside. There was a note on one of those Zhentarim courier corpses and it seems these beauties are to be your new friends.” She explained with a knowing smile. “You must teach me your seduction techniques if this is the kind of gift your plaything gives you.”

“Plaything...yeah...” Sentry managed, walking slowly down to the table and looking over the creatures. “Oh hello, aren't you all so beautiful?” The colors of their fur, the spots where it was falling out. The perfect inspiration to add color to his latest work.

[semper-legens]

193. The Changing Man, by Tomi Oyemakinde

Owned: No, library Page count: 382 My summary: Ife is a scholarship student at the prestigious Nithercott Academy - and she's not dealing with the pressure of being one of the few working-class Black kids in school. But something strange is afoot at the school. Kids are disappearing, and either they come back...different, or they don't come back at all. With outcast Bee and brother of one of the missing Ben at her side, can Ife solve the mystery of the Changing Man? My rating: 3.5/5 My commentary:

I was expecting this one to be a bit more...horror, than it was. That's not a criticism, it was just a surprise. Urban legends and cryptids are an interest of mine, so this story about the 'Changing Man', a being that supposedly lurks around Nithercott and takes lonely kids, is right up my alley. I found it to be really fun, honestly, if a little weird at times. But I'd prefer weird and fun to polished and boring. It was a good read!

Ife, our protagonist, is one of those classic heroines of this sort of story. She's struggling under pressure from both her parents, who expect great things from her, and the school, which might expel her if her grades are poor. She also feels disconnected from her home and friends - an attempt to smuggle herself out to see her best friend fails, and she's increasingly isolated as one of the only Black kids in a sea of white posh kids. If you've ever been a lonely teenager (which, let's be real, most of us have) you will relate to Ife. She's isolated, awkward, and troubled even before the Changing Man nonsense happened. And I find her to be a really credible protagonist. She's in over her head, and has a lot of moments where she's overwhelmed or breaking down over everything she's seen and done. She makes mistakes and further alienates herself from the kids that would naturally be her allies. But she keeps going, she keeps fighting, she doesn't back down, because she sees an injustice and she can't give it up. I loved her a lot, even if her narration was a little selfconsciously teenagery at times, the narrative leaning on a few teen cliches to characterise her in the earlier parts.

I also really liked her friends. Ben is the brother of missing kid Leon who bears a lot of guilt over Leon's disappearance. He's a weird kid, a bit of a delinquent but not a bad person, and adds a sort of quirky charm to the proceedings. Bee, meanwhile, is an awkward ambiguously-autistic nerd who finds herself alone because other people often find her offputting, and she latches onto other social outcasts to befriend out of a sense of desperation. They're both credible teens, and despite how I'm describing them here, they don't really fall into any of the classic Teen Story stereotypes. Sure, Bee is an awkward nerd, but her love of the school's history and self-awareness about Ife being cold to her at first elevate her. Ben is also complicated by his love for his brother and his big heart. They make a really cute trio!

Finally, let's talk about the Changing Man. Not the alien cryptid creature that forms the centre of this story, but the idea of change as a whole. Ife is worried that, being at the Academy and separated from her old friends, they will change without her and grow to not like her. She's also worried that she will change, and be left behind. The kids who disappear come back as pod people who act exactly as they are supposed to, a change that is clearly unnatural. Change is a huge theme, and the shapeshifters preying on the kids just underscore the point. Change is inevitable, and not necessarily to be feared, but too much change too quickly can be a red flag. The messaging is obvious, but not so on the nose that it gets in the way of the story, which I liked. Overall, it was a good story! I'm glad I picked it up.

Next, the pharmacist in a bunker beneath the world is facing a moral dilemma.

[bonesandthebees]

[Did this prompt Tobyn to threaten his life? Yes, but it wasn’t anything Phil hadn’t heard before.] I love this kid too. Should I be worried that Phil has heard many threats upon his life. What has this man done to get where he is now?

[To his surprise, Quackity also petitioned Phil to see him, and took the refusal less gracefully than his counterpart did.] taking bets on his intentions now. Was he going to A) apologise. B) try and get Wilbur to not sell him out. C) kiss him or D) all of the above (I’m sure I missed a few options).

[He’s a lot smarter than most give him credit for] Phil figured. And Wilbur will soon confirm. [Phil didn’t even spare a glance at Tomys.] again this kid is not important to Phil unless Wilbur can gain something from it (like his undying loyalty while he has a crown on his head). This line makes that painfully clear.

[When his eyes met Phil’s though, he flinched.] Hi, I would like to file a formal complaint.

[“I’m sorry,” Wilbur blurted out, looking as though he was struggling to stay conscious. “I didn’t see- I didn’t know-”/“It’s okay, Wil. You did well,” Phil reassured him, resting a hand on his cheek./Wilbur blinked a few times as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard Phil right. Then, whatever tension he’d still been holding onto seemed to snap, and he slumped into Phil’s hold as his eyes fluttered shut.] I am going to explode (I am currently waiting for Icy to read this chapter so I can watch nym explode as well).

[“Your father will be glad to hear you’re alright. He was saying what a waste it would’ve been-”] yk, Phil is not looking at him, but I want to know what Tomys was looking at. Did he see the hug? Was he jealous? Did he want that too. Cuz this would suck. But I’m not sure he would even want a hug from his own father. Especially given the whole “did not tell me I am now a possible heir to the throne” thing. But I do need to know if Tomys saw that hug and what he felt if he did, because I doesn’t really match up with how Wilbur talks about his father.

[“I think I broke my leg,” Wilbur then said, eyes still closed as he grimaced./“We’ll get that fixed for you. Don’t worry,” Phil reassured him, carding his fingers as best he could through the tangled curls on top of his head, “it’s okay now. I got you.”] *distant screaming* also Wilbur’s first line made me giggle so bad. But I am genuinely insane about the hair thing and the parallels. Phil has been thinking about that the entire time and it’s basically the first thing he does.

(I wonder if Phil did not want anyone else there because he did not want anyone to see his weakness, his love for his son, which could be used against him and in turn would bring that son in danger. Or if he really just does not want to share. Part of it is genuine concern too because we knew he was going to let Wilbur sleep first should he have come back when he was meant to.)

Lastly, [It was time to handle Schlatt.] murder Murder MURDER

MURDER

MURDER

(5/5)

-🌲

oh yeah phil has heard a lot of death threats before. gotta love tubbo not giving a shit that phil is literally the consil and instead just being like "fuck you I want to see my best friend"

hmm what were quackity's intentions I suppose you'll see in the next chapter :)

yup, phil doesn't give two shits about tommy in any real way. he only cares about what tommy can offer them in terms of power. tommy as a person means nothing to him. he just wants to make sure his son is okay.

father son reunion yayyyyy poor wilbur 😭

oh yeah, tommy saw the hug. he definitely had thoughts about it, but he was also a bit more focused on seeing puffy again and also his own exhaustion after spending a week in the mountains

I had to include the hair thing again phil might suck at showing emotion but damn if he doesn't love his son

phil both wanted his reunion with his son to be as private as possible, but also he genuinely didn't want to overwhelm wilbur. he knew that niki would want to talk to him and make sure he was alright, and since quackity wanted in as well he had a feeling quackity would do the same. he didn't know how badly injured wilbur was and what state he was in, so he didn't want him to get freaked out by a ton of people clambering around him asking if he was okay.

:)

[classicschronicles]

Hi lovelies,

‘Carmen et Error’- A Poem and a Mistake (aka my Instagram bio). Anyways this quote just makes me laugh every time I think about it because, of course, it belongs to no other than Ovid. I know he says some questionable things, but he writes it so nicely and I like to think that he was just in a silly goofy mood. Anyways, if you hadn’t guessed yet, todays post is all about the Roman poet Ovid. This post is also for @morallyunethicalintellectualtax because it’s her birthday and she is Ovid’s biggest fan, the ultimate Ovid apologist if you will.

Publius Ovidus Naso (also known as Ovid) was a Roman poet born in 43 BC and is most famously known for his works Ars Amatoria and Metamorphoses. He was born to an old and wealthy family in a small town about 90 miles away from Rome. His family must’ve been pretty well to do as his father was able to send both Ovid and his brother to Rome to be educated. Like almost every other poet ever, Ovid had daddy issues, and despite his fathers disapproval, he neglected his studies in favour of writing poetry. Relatable king.

As a member of the Roman gentry (above the plebeians but not quite at the rank of the senate) Ovid was marked out for an official career and even held some minor judicial posts. He soon decided, however, that he was not suited to this position and abandoned his official career to pursue poetry full time. Literally everyone was kind of confused by this decision because he really did have the makings of a great politician. Indeed, when Augustus became the emperor he tried to recruit Ovid as a politician, but Ovid turned the offer down so he could write his poetry instead.

The first work that he published was the Amores (The Loves), which was met with immediate success, and was very shortly followed by the Heriodes (Epistles of the Heroines). Fun fact, it’s because of the Heriodes that a lot of people consider Ovid a proto-feminist and therefore take a feminist reading to works such as Book 3 of the Ars Amatoria, saying that the book is meant to be seen ironically. All of his works seemed to reflect the pleasure seeking company that came with his position as a well established poet. Details of his life can be found in his autobiographical poem Tristia (Sorrows).

With his position amongst the poets secured, Ovid began to move on to more ambitious works like the Metamorphoses and Fasti. The Metamorphoses was almost complete when his life took a complete 180 and he was exiled, by Augustus, to Tomi (near Constanta, Romania). The exact reason for his exile is still unknown, but Ovid states that it was because of a ‘poem and a mistake’. It is widely accepted that the ‘poem’ was the Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), which was a controversial set of three didactic poems, instructing on the art of affairs. Given Ovid’s popularity, this was detrimental to Augusts’ programme of moral reform (the Lex Julia) which outlawed infidelity and encouraged childbirth. The ‘mistake’, however, is less agreed upon. Ovid insists that what he did was worse than a crime but that it was a mistake made by an error of his judgment. Some suggest that his exile was due to his affair with the granddaughter of Augustus- Julia (for whom the Lex Julia were named)- as she was also exiled at the same time. I just want to say that if his exile was because he was sleeping with the emperors granddaughter after whom the laws were named, it is the ultimate ultimate slay, and also biggest fuck you. I love it. However, his exile was the milder form (called relegation) and it did not include the confiscation of property or loss of his citizenship. His wife, who was also born to a rich family, remained in Rome to safeguard his interests and to intercede for him.

Despite Augustus banning all of Ovid’s work from public libraries, the immense popularity that Ovid enjoyed during his lifetime continued after his death. From around 1100 onward, Ovid’s fame (which had eclipsed slightly during the Early Middle Ages) began to rival, and on occasion, overtake Virgil. The apparent ‘Age of Ovid’ began in the 12th and 13th centuries, where his work were seen not only as entertaining, but as educating, and his works were taught in schools. His popularity grew during in the Renaissance, particularly amongst humanists who wanted to recreate the classical approached to thought and feeling. The appeal of his writing to the renaissance audience was because it offered an accessible look into Greek mythology and also because of the humanity of his writing. Literally, read the Metamorphoses, it’s sympathetic and heartbreaking and sensual and just amazing.

Anyways. There you have it. A quick fire introduction to Ovid. I think it’s pretty hard to do any justice to his works without just telling you to read it, so yeah everyone go read some Ovid. Happy birthday @morallyunethicalintellectualtax and I hope you all have a lovely rest of your weekend <3

~Z