#I kinda got a bit deep with Celeste's lol

[louiesselfshipramblings]

Danganronpa Yume Thoughts

Gonna be real: I have NOT directly played any Danganronpa game. I have, however, watched a friend play both most of 1 and parts 2, plus I've seen a bit of gameplay for V3, so I have a grasp on it for the most part. That said, the series has attractive gals, and just my luck, all my darlings meet untimely fates. Boo hoo :[

SO! I wanted to just ramble on some thoughts for each one. Gonna have a different s/i for each gal, for simplicity sake. I'll also be assuming either the Killing Games did NOT happen, or best-case scenario happened where everyone gets out alive (which I think is the ending of 2, anyways). So, uh. Mild spoilers. Mainly characters specific.

Celestia is very interesting, as I really analyze her. Her whole persona as "Queen of Lies" is just a front to appear special, to be more than just plain old Taeko. It's not enough to just be the Ultimate Gambler, she has to be this spectacular, strikingly dressed French woman, with desires for a classic European castle and a harem of vampire boys, heh. It's kinda funny to think of, but also quite sad. Maybe she didn't want everything she said, but perhaps in her lies remains a kernel of truth about what she really wants.

I think of em all, Celeste is the hardest for me for making an s/i. Maybe Ultimate Actor, to compliment her? Maybe Ultimate Empath, to help her? That's really what I want; to help her feel...how to say this...to feel right. To examine who Taeko is, who Celestia is, and come to who is real for her. Maybe it means a quiet life as a small time cardshark, maybe it means a prestigious life as the head of a casino chain. Whatever it may be, I want it to be something that makes her happy, something that makes her feel special, and something where we can do it together. I think she deserves it. Hm...maybe I hide my true talent, sorta like Makoto did. The Ultimate Guide, perhaps? I dunno, still a work in progress.

Comparatively, and I mean this is the nicest way possible, Ibuki is super simple. She is! She's just a silly girl who wants to rock out and sing and make people smile all around the world. That's the goal of any musician. And she should be able to! I'm talking world tours, baby! Solo act across Japan, China, India, Europe, African, North America, South America, and sure Austrailia if there's time. She'd want to bring her music to every corner of the globe...and maybe also try a bit of food there. Get a bit of a regional appetite, ya know! So what if she gets fat; she's punk, and fat is punk >:]

Firstly, was kinda thinking like...the Ultimate Groupie as my s/i lol. Seemed a lil silly. Maybe the Ultimate Manager? The Ultimate Supporter? Ya know, just SOMETHING that will make getting the Ibuki world tour easier to get off the ground. Not that she couldn't do it herself, but always nice to have a hand, yeh?

Kirumi...now, I find her interesting, as she straddles a middle ground. Not as simple as Ibuki, but definitely having more complexity akin to Celestia. Kinda just the dynamic of culprits to victims, I suppose. Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, buuuuut...I don't think Kirumi would wanna be prime minister? Don't get me wrong, she's talented, she's capable, but she's young. Like, what, hardly in her twenties, and she's responsible for the well-being of an entire nation? Yes, she does take her duties as the Ultimate Maid seriously, but just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean ya GOTTA. It's like putting a gifted kid through a special program; they can prolly handle it, but is it gonna help em through the long run? Prolly not. I feel she'd be much more content and happy (even if she doesn't fully get it) being a maid to a family as is, and see where she goes from there. I think she should get that choice.

As for my s/i with her, this one is easy. I'd be the Ultimate Butler, her perfect counterpart. Why? To spark some drive in her, some friendly competition. To pull out some emotion, some pride, some cockiness, even...some romance? Just someone who can keep up with her, and break down that icy wall around her. Or at least, have it come down on her off hours, ya know, ehehehe...

[gyaru-tau]

Any specific notes you’ve got on the thought process behind each student’s new uniform changes for the THH cast? And are you planning to do some for the SDR2 and V3 cast as well?

Note: Anon is referring to these designs!Hmm kinda! There are some choices I made more deliberately than others, although not many characters go as deep as the one note I had about Taka's design. But I'll happily go through the ones that I didn't!Mondo - I initially didn't have Mondo's blazer be embroidered, but considering it's such a stick-out feature of his canon design, it felt wrong not keeping it. Additionally, Mondo is a little bit scrawnier here, for lack of a better word, and that's deliberate! These are supposed to be the students at their first year of the academy, so I wanted to make Mondo seem a little younger!

Taka - I'm not gonna reiterate here so instead here's the post where I talk about him a lil. Lol.

Celeste - Girl is absolutely fighting for her LIFE with this uniform, and for what its worth she found a pretty good balance! The dress underneath is a JSK of her own design, and kinda meant to be reminiscent of earlier EGL styles. She is supposed to look a little bit "ITA", even. I also brought back the hair ribbons from her beta design, and the butterfly hairclip takes from the pattern on her tie in canon!

Chihiro - I have a couple notes on Chihiro! For starters I honestly wanted to make her look a little bit dorkier lol. I gave her the little headband and the glasses for that reason, but the glasses were also to make her match her Dad even more! I wanted to give her a massive backpack too so she always has a spot to keep her laptop and other equipment (yes she has it on her at all times). And finally I gave her a little sweater vest with a dandelion on it, since one of her favorite gifts is the everlasting dandelion! It's supposed to be embroidered on, heehee.

Sayaka - As much as I love her, Sayaka's design isn't actually all that deep? lol. I've always had an affinity for drawing Sayaka with cute little designer hats. i honestly think she has a few of them that she can whip out to give any look a little extra panache. Not to mention the constant inclusion of TONS of pink. I also gave her the flower hairclip from one of her beta designs!

Aoi - Hina is honestly one of my favorite designs in the roster! I just really like her silhouette, idk. I always knew she had to keep the shorts, so she gets the shorts!! Her typical tracksuit is around her waist instead, her eyes are a darker blue for the sake of my sanity, and her ponytail has a kinkier shape! My favorite little detail that I'm sure nobody noticed is that the thing tying her hair together is a coil scrunchie, since they're super good for wet hair in particular! I used to use them a lot back when I used to swim!

Sakura - Honestly, I just wanted Sakura to look at ordinary as humanly possible. She gets a really normal looking uniform- little to no modifications made aside from wearing her usual shoes, the armbands, the bandages, and the striped socks that I took from one of her beta designs!

Hifumi - Hifumi didn't really change all that much either, aside from getting the orange pants to match his orange tie! I do think he painted the arrow on himself, and it looks INCREDIBLY scuffed, lol. Honestly, my main priority with hifumi was to do him some actual justice on the anatomy side, lol. I hope I did an alright job!

Makoto - Makoto also doesn't really change all that much... Really, all that got altered was the blazer and the pants, although I will note that the pants are rolled up because he ABSOLUTELY ordered the wrong size by accident.

Kyoko - Going into this, LONG before I started drawing her I knew that Kyoko needed to have pants, even if it killed me. I just always thought that it'd better suit her usual design to have pants, or at LEAST a longer skirt. It always just looked kinda off to me that she had this big long sleeved blazer and then a short pleated skirt?? Like at least allow her the luxury of like. A pencil skirt. Lol.

Byakuya - Byakuya also doesn't really undergo much change. Really, all i have to say regarding him is that hes got a tall collared button-up and that he kept his usual necktie...

And that's everyone until I sit my ass down and draw the rest! I'm sure I'll eventually get to it... Possibly.

As for the other games, currently I have no plans to do anybody beyond the thh cast. I MIGHT do sdr2 at a far, FAR later date, but I don't think V3 will ever be on the table since quite frankly, I couldn't be assed. Sorry if you were hoping for them!

[joecial-distancing]

2019 in review in review:

A few years ago I started tracking yearly goals, books read, movies watched etc in a year, along with overview blurbs, in private posts. End of 2019/beginning of 2020 I was really frazzled/burned out about a lot of stuff and just never finished up making the thing. 8 months later, got the urge to read back what I’d got done, then figured I’d maybe go ahead and see about finishing. 

Media tracking below the break. thoughts/blurbs written in 2020 italicized, 2019 not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_____________________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Didn’t do so hot on explicit personal goals, but had a lot of stuff go ok around them this year.

School’s been fine/better than fine.

Job’s probably the biggest failing. Still with same job, haven’t made the firm moves to jump off, dragging my feet too much on exploring stuff w/ Columbia/NASA GISS.

Did not get better with covid, lol

Dating life still non-existent, but I’ve registered on apps, gotten more comfortable with selfies, improved general social life dramatically, been flirted with, updated my wardrobe, and generally started to get comfortable accepting that I’m a hot person.

Somehow got extremely better during covid.

Books

Grant (finished)

We stan a taurus legend

Guy was good at exactly one job, and was fortunate enough to have been in the right place/right time to get to do it.

Mort (discworld)

Definitely best discworld I’ve gotten to so far.

Don Quixote p. II

Really entertaining in a way that part 1 wasn’t; I was shocked how much the meta element landed for me.

Consider the Lobster (DFW collection)

had zero context on who DFW is/was when I read, and still don’t exactly tbh. Wanted to wait for a pause in The Discourse before diving into more of him, but dunno if I’m ever going to get that.

Crime and Punishment (revisited)

Weirdly didn’t get much more out of this than I did the first time I’d read it

Better Than Sex (HST Gonzo papers)

Xerox/widespread fax accessibility opening citizen access to mass media in a manner really reminiscent of what social media would go on to do at a much larger scale. Has a much more deliberate narrative arc than the other gonzo papers collections, also has that excellent HST richard nixon eulogy

The Brothers Karamazov

SPQR

Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Didion collection)

Pet Sematary

Not my favorite King, but not bad

Sourcery (discworld)

still funny/charming, but Mort really made clear/reminded me how much the hapless sadsack Rincewind mold of protagonist wears on me after a while.

The Devil's Teeth

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Liked it a lot more once I realized it was doing a Fear and Loathing thing.

Homage to Catalonia

This should be the Orwell that gets taught in schools. Make it a followup to All Quiet on the Western Front or something, jeez.

Lyndon Johnson I

Having now finished all of them, this one’s probably the least-interesting but sets up a bunch of important context that the others still then feel the need to retread.

The Razor's Edge

Recommended to me as a “white guy discovers eastern mysticism” book, but also is more interesting in its treatment of that than I’d expected (helps it was written in the 40s). 

Cat's Cradle

There’s a part in this where Vonnegut’s making fun of people who try to bond with strangers over being Hoosiers, and my dumbass immediate thought was “ooh, Vonnegut’s a hoosier? Me too!”

Lyndon Johnson II

Robert Caro felt compelled to apologize for spending so much words lionizing Coke Stevens, segregationist opponent to Johnson’s senate run. His goal was pretty clearly to show lbj’s lack of campaign charisma by contrast, definitely definitely overcommitted in his own narrativising.

Libra

I want to go back to this after reading some more De Lillo.

Gravity's Rainbow

This book absolutely kicked my ass

Overstuffed and referential in a specific way that really keeps me hooked in instead of put off. When I learn about some piece of cultural context that I retroactively recognize as being referenced in this, I want to go back and reread the entire thing.

From Caligari to Hitler

Kind of fails both as film criticism and cultural analysis, but absolutely made me want to run for the hills when considering current relationship between mainstream movies and demands of pop culture.

I took a class on Weimar cinema in undergrad that I now realize was probably biting pretty heavily from this and never once referenced it.

Movies

Venom

Movie itself is not as fun as the Tom Hardy hype coverage. PG13 was the absolute worst space to aim for, PG- or R- versions of this could have been a blast.

Harryhauser Argonauts

Was tripping when I put this on, and it was all kinds of fun.

2001: a Space Oddyssey

First time seeing this, all-time classic for a reason!

A Good American (the NSA doc)

Dr. Strangelove

Mel Brooks History of the World p. I

Not my favorite Brooks, best joke was at the beginning.

In Bruges

Had been a while since I saw a proper dark comedy.

Spiderverse

Fukkin awesome!

Visually great, and extremely better than usual superhero stuff for being aimed at PG instead of PG-13.

You Only Live Twice

Highlander (Revisited)

I watched The Old Guard on netflix recently and it mostly just made me wish I was watching Highlander instead, because at least Highlander knows exactly how goofy it is

Moonraker

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Much like The Shining, I though this would have been 100% spoiled for me by cultural osmosis, but turns out it wasn’t, and even the scenes I had seen *totally landed* in-context still.

Kung Fu Hustle

Ichi the Killer

Really gross, really fun

Matrix Reloaded (watched thru highway scene) (Revisited)

The highway scene was not nearly as cool as I remembered it being.

John Wick 3*

Probably dumbest plot of all of them, best choreography. I like how every single fight had its own distinct flavor. “Knife museum fight” “horse fight” “halle berry dogs fight” 

Akira

A classic

Pet Sematary * (ugh, bad)

Why can’t john lithgow be in good movies anymore

The Revenant

MCU Spiderman

Fuck this was awful.

MCU Spiderman 2*

Really weird, complete Rorschach Test of a movie: it’d be totally valid to read into this that global warming is Fake News, for instance.

Lmao this was completely awful

Rites

Dredd (non-stallone)

oh hey Lena Headey’s in this

For All Mankind!

Watched in honor of moon landing anniversary

Lion King *

Watched it way too stoned, was like dark side of the moon + wizard of oz except instead it’s a lion king script reading + nature footage edited for lip syncing.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood *

Many scenes of very long setups for really stupid shaggy dog jokes, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. I do kinda want to rewatch now knowing more about manson, which I knew pretty much nothing about beforehand

Blowout

A good john lithgow movie

also I think I like travolta in things.

Lord of War

A Good cage movie

I like when Eamon Walker shows up in stuff.

Taxi Driver

A classic

Snowpiercer

Watched in a bar with only one speaker working, which is the correct way to watch. Weirder and funnier than I thought it was going to be, which still doesn’t make it good, but,

dbz big green dub

Exorcist III

Brad Dourif just tearing it apart

Deep Red (argento)

Suspiria (1977)

Watched the remake in 2020, which was ok, but nothing tops the Goblin score.

Elf Bowling

Thanks, Gnome

Parasite *

Interesting to me that this one seems poised to hang around people’s good esteem for a while

TV

FMA: B

Rick & Morty

Saw some episodes, generally pretty funny, some misanthropy that’s probably appealing to a certain type of teen al a something like House, but ultimately I don’t totally Get the intensity of discourse about it.

Leterkenny

Mob Psycho 100

One Punch Man

Deadwood

Watchmen

Only watched like half of it. Was playing around with a lot of hefty imagery/thematics, but didn’t really seem ready to rise above playing (tho also I feel like it’s weird on some level to *expect* them to rise above that in the first place)

Music

New Avantasia

HEALTH/ show

lol remember concerts

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard/ show

Just learned about King Gizz in 2019 and got completely obsessed with them. I don’t tend to expand my music selection very readily, and a lot of what I currently *do* know is old/inactive stuff, so it was/is incredibly exciting to have an active group with good momentum just immediately win me over like that.

Mistimed the edibles and ended up with a really good finale and a really long subway ride home.

New Yeasayer

Sad they split up

Steve Wilson Tull remixes

Aqualung’s a good album and the sound mixing’s kinda bad, so I liked this project.

Stonefield

Opened for Gizzard. Really good as studying music

Video Games

Civ VI: Gathering Storm

Hades

Turns out Supergiant’s design proclivities all work *extremely well* on a roguelike

Baba is You

Untitled Goose Game

Cute, if maybe a bit overhyped

finally fucking finished Pillars of Eternity

Had fun with it, but too long, and really dour for how long it is.

Pillars II

Kinda drifted off it eventually, but I do genuinely like that the flavor of the fantasy is colonial era rather than medieval.

There’s a Balancing Bastard Factions element where it’s like the writers are just being smartasses after a while. Having to go extremely out of their way to make siding with colonizers seem like a competitive option.

Pokemon shield

Cuphead

pisses me off, which was a nice outlet when I was stranded by flight cancellations during thanksgiving

Celeste

Also very difficult, but really easy to stay patient with, which is nice.

Disco Elysium

None of the discourse made me want to play this, but people talking about the mechanical stuff it did got me extremely interested. Mostly Delivered IMO.

Breath of the Wild

You can approach the nodes of the main quest in the order you choose, and the second one I chose made ninjas start fucking spawning everywhere when I’m just trying to explore, and there’s no way to make it stop. May go back to it one day.

Podcasts

Relentless Picnic Patreon feed

The treats really helped me start distinguishing individual personalities, compared to the regular eps.

Picnic Discord!

<3

FatT Counterweight

Fun, but also I think Mechs are not my shit.

FatT Spring in Hieron/ end of that particular world

8 months since I’ve last tuned into FatT. ah well.

Law School

He’s in everythiiiing!

You Must Remember This: Manson family

*There’s* the context

Misc.

Kindle train guy

Times Square sleeping guy + kids taking selfies w/ him

toddler singing along after Psycho killer (a, ya, ya ya, ya)

drunk and dragged to a drag show

Central park football family

Soft Steel Drum Subway Busker

Weird old lady going to grand central for oysters

2018 in review (cards):

MySelf (CC)

Self: Tower

Blocked: 10 Cups

Ethereal/subconscious: 8 Swords

Material: 3 Swords

Past: Justice

Future: Page Wands

Attitude: Sun

External: King Swords

Hopes/Fears: 5 Coins

Trajectory: High Priestess

Also Self:

Hierophant

7 Cups

7 Coins

Blind Spot:

(self & others): 5 cups    ||    (others not self): High Priestess

(self not others): Moon   ||    (nobody): 3 Cups

[lilbit-of-kizzy]

I don't know your ocs either but! 2 for the one who would never be asked it, and 34 for the one you love the most!

Ok let's see lol

2: Tea, coffee, hot chocolate or other?

I'll use Unnamed (he's not allowed to have one for reasons and now that he can he hasn't had time to choose, or remember 😉...annnnyways) yeah he'd be completely floored by the question, Elena would probably ask it as an aside one day while fixing drinks, but he'd honestly probably go buck wild for some really good spicy hot chocolate!

34: Can your character drive? If so, what kind of driver are they? If not what's their preferred manner of transport?

Oh jeez uh...the one I love most hmm that kinda changes depending on which I'm currently working on but I'll go with Evie since she was one of my first (and since she's one of the only ones from modern times lol) She's a speed demon, she has to be, but she actually loves the freedom of driving and, when she's not running from/to something, is actually a very good driver (if not a little nauseating around curves) she's the "ok but did you die?" kind of driver

(a scene for you since describing it kinda...turned into it's own story lol and thanks for sending me an ask!!)

Celeste warned Damien...she really did! Not her fault he didn't believe her!

As she floated over the now parked car she saw him stumble, out hands on his knees as, she was sure, he let the world around him right itself. Evie calmly got out of her side, making to rush into the house they'd finally tracked down, when she noticed him, now stretching back on a deep breath to stare at the sky.

Celeste just gave his glare a knowing smile, while Evie bristled out, "What!? Come on we need to hurry!"

He looked back over towards Evie, a look Celeste couldn't describe in his eyes...contemplative mixed with his usual teasing eyes mixed with...nope she couldn't place it...

"You know when you get on a roller coaster for the first time, and you have no real idea what you're in for? And during it you're scared as shit but after, when the adrenaline's still pumping, but you're safe on solid ground, you go 'woo!!' Then someone asks if you wanna go again?" Evie looked at him like he was insane but nodded "Yeah I always said 'no!'"

He'd said that last bit, not in the dead pan Celeste expected, but really excitedly. It confused the fae but Evie, after a pause to register, burst out laughing in a way her companion hadn't heard in decades.

Celeste started in awe at her charge, standing there, hands wrapped around herself, giggling like a school girl

"It wasn't that bad!!" Evie said around her fading giggles,

"It was," Damien said, softly smiling at her, that smile that always made Evie stop and blush a bit before stammering out a reply, "but you're right we're in a hurry, my stomach'll just have to suffer I suppose"

The smile had cut off Evie's laughter completely, but the tease had her lightly punching his arm before urging, "come-on, big baby" with a wink they started into the house.

Celeste stayed above, watching as always, ready to alert to any danger, thanking whatever gods still watched that she'd chosen his world, his house that fateful day.