#I make these alternate versions of Roland

[sweetmariihs2]

I love the idea of Cedric not only feeling belittled by Roland, but also envious of him.

"How can he treat me like this and still be praised as the king? I deserve this more than him. I don't mock anyone like he does to me. And who does he think he is? He's the perfect prince/king that can't do any harm to anyone or anything, ever. How can he get all love and attention despite being such a despicable person towards me? How does the universe never turns it's back at him and make him pay for what he did to me? I'm the victim here. He doesn't deserve his titles, the love he receives from people, his castle. I do. That's why I will show it to him, I will show to him and to all those stupid people, that Cedric The Great is capable of being a greater king them he is. And if that doesn't work, I won't be afraid of making them fear me. Because they deserve this treatment. And I deserve to have my revenge. The universe KNOWS that I deserve it."

And everything get's worse if you consider that headcanon of Queen Lorelei (Roland's deceased wife) being Cedric's Sofia before Sofia was born. Because she was the only one who understood and respected him, along with her beauty and kindness, Cedric fell in love with her, but she was in love with Roland. She married him and died having his children too. And if you consider this headcanon, Cedric must have felt absolutely enraged and desolate.

His anger towards Roland is even bigger if you consider that Cedric was in love with Lorelei. She choose Roland over him (which Cedric understood that was totally her choice, and they were both from royalty, they were meant to be. But he got mad at the world, how his life did those things to him, and how again and again the universe kept giving everything that Cedric 'deserved' and wanted to Roland). The love of his life choose Roland over him, but it was okay. Then they got married, Lorelei, being his best friend, spoke to Cedric about wanting to have a family but nothing that she and Roland were doing was working, and even asked him if he had spells or potions that could help. So Cedric knew that one of them weren't capable of having children. After the twins were born, Lorelei died. And Cedric felt like Roland was the one to blame for so many time.

So Cedric carried a deep hatred towards Roland. He was envy of him, of his kingdom, of his role, of the way people treated him with respect, of Lorelei. He hated him, but yet wanted everything that he owned, because Cedric thought he deserved it more than Roland did.

I don't apply any of these to canon though. I like to see them as alternate versions of the main source. But it's nice to think about.

Edit: I was thinking about it and this headcanon kinda fits with Olivia Rodrigo's song "jealousy, jealousy"

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Cordelia Concept Art

Cordelia concept/reference art. Translation notes and image id below the cut.

Translation Notes

The word for "sash" on this page was literally "obi," the type of sash a woman would tie around a kimono. "Obi" is a valid English word, so I went back and forth between what to use, but since her dress isn't technically a kimono + the sash isn't tied in the style an obi usually would be, I decided to go with the more catch-all term.

"White as snow" was a word that literally just meant "white," but the first character and the word in general had some connotations with innocence/purity, so I added "as snow" to try and give that same connotation.

"Simple" as it refers to the fastener might have also meant "casual."

"Once upon a time" wasn't exactly the Japanese phrase for "Once upon a time," but it was fairly close. A more literal translation would be, "In the olden days, it just so happened that..."

"Girl of innocence" appears to literally be the word "witch". However, if you take the first character as a separate prefix to the second, it would mean something along the lines of "pure/genuine/true girl." I'm not really sure if that's how it works, but it seemed to make more sense than "witch," so that's what I ended up going with.

Image IDs

[id: Five images. The first two are the full pages of Cordelia's concept art in Japanese, the other three are translated versions of the text. On the first page, there is a colored and uncolored version of Cordelia's portrait. Underneath, there is an illustrator's note that reads, "Cordelia's overall tone is pale, so I thought it ended up being pretty difficult to choose a shading color. And actually, her initial facial features were much younger, but Mr. Ikushima redesigned her several times to give her the elegant look she has today. (Rina Yoshiura)". The second page is titled, "Morality's Sister (Healing Hands to Protect) Rough Draft". It has a small illustration/comic of a childhood Cordelia and Roland. It has the notes "Country A," "13 year old," and "girl of innocence." It then has a note that says, "I have to protect," with a large bracket beside it that contains the list, "small, dainty, gentle". There is also the word "pure" nearby. Underneath that is the illustration, titled, "Sister and Morality" with the subtitle "about 8 years ago". In the illustration Roland seems to be throwing a caterpillar-like bug aside. It's labeled, "Weird Bug Arm Bar Throw." Roland has some dialogue that reads, "I've for real gotta catch it!" Cordelia has some dialogue that reads, "huh?" Underneath them both, there's a note that reads, "Once upon a time, a warm fuzzy feeling made him think, 'I have to protect her!'" To the side there are several portraits of Cordelia, some full-body (one of which has a note about her braid being brought in front of her shoulder), and two that are labeled as "Bust portraits". One of the portraits shows Cordelia in a simple cloak with the fastener being labeled, "simple metal fastener." There's a top-down diagram of the metal she wears at her dress's neckline, labeled, "Decoration rough draft." On the second half of the page there is a portion labeled, "Working out the sister's hair ornament….." One version has a large flower on it. Next to it is a small portrait of Groma. A note reads, "Big flower, three strand braid. Doesn't she look like Grandma?" Another section is labeled, "Morality Facial Features and Morality's Sister WIP". There are several drawings of Cordelia's face, along with a full body rendition of an alternate design. She still wears the same sash as she does in canon, and nearby is the note, "For women. If they are wearing a dress, the sash should be wrapped like this." At the bottom of the page, there is another illustrator's note that reads, "She had this more child-like sort of look to her character during the drafting phase. But she ended up taking on a more serious role than I had originally expected, and the design was tweaked to fit. I recall she was a difficult character for us. (Yasuaki Arai)" /end id.]

[shinakazami1]

Give me a 12, 13 and 22 for rhys, soldier 🫵

FELLOW RHYS ENJOYER (krotiation I LOVE YOUR ART TOO SM GAAAAH THIS FANDOM HAS SUCH GREAT ARTISTS)

12. What's the funniest or craziest AU idea you've ever come up with?

I have in total, three AUs I have to finally write anything for fhasfsa (I do plan on posting Tales AU first chapter this week tho!!). 1) RHYS AI AU is something you saw me post snippets of - in general, it's an alternative version of Borderlands 2, where Jack kills Lilith and Roland very quickly and survives. Due to mourning for Nisha, Wilhelm and Angel, he one day writes code for a companion based on an imaginary friend he had but also, gives him some trait of each one of those he misses. While Rhys was going to slowly become the silly personality we know and love, this was my typical 'give the character therapy when they don't want it, and end up with them hurting someone else and trying to change'. 2) JUST WING IT AU is my Tales AU that starts with changes in ep 5, with how Rhys handles the news about Jack wanting to get that exoskeleton in him and focusing on exploring Jack's loneliness and adding him as the third character, making sort of second season for the game. The additional driving point would be that Loader Bot would be able to grab Gortys and run off with her, so the search for Vault would become longer Yet the AU I really hope to start exploring in the future, is this one: 3) Loss of what once happened but never before AU. It's a Borderlands 3 Rhack au that would focus on Rhys finding out he is a siren with huge time-travelling powers and the costs that come with it. He would turn back in time, when Jack was still known as John during the nights, and watch some of the consequences happen in the present during the day. He doesn't know though just how strong the butterfly effect will be...

13. What's a character or ship you haven't written/drawn yet but would like to someday?

Characters: Timothy, Angel, Nisha, Zer0, Katagawa, Axton, Moxxi, Lilith, Roland

Ships: Rhysothy, Rhack, JackxNisha, MoxxixTimothy, Rhysagawa, Axton x Turret (cus she is my wife I luv her)

(The list prob isn't finished cus I still have to finish playing the second game and play the third one oifhaiof)

22. Give us headcanons for Rhys

He actually likes fashion and likes casual official style in general.

He has a sweet tooth but pretends to like spicy food in college.

He actually had a heterochromia before the echo eye and decided to keep it.

He admired Jack a bit but he laughed at psycho fans, as he has some critical thinking.

Even a few years after getting Atlas running again, he still tries to make some guns himself, even if he doesn't have as much time.

He was the one dumped by his ex girlfriend even if he didn't like their dynamic because he was actually scared nobody else would be into him.

He spends a lot of time in the morning preparing his hair. It's quite wavy which gets visible in wetter climates but fortunately for him, he lives mostly in dry ones.

He met Katagawa and at first, couldn't believe he had a fan even if he had some boosted ego but felt something off about him. He turned off an invitation to Zanara because he still thinks about his talk with Vaughn about being good at faking cool. That's why he is even more awkward in future games, since while chasing the younger years, he wants to show he matured, hoping that maybe that will bring Sasha back. That's also why he got the moustache - to show he is becoming more serious. Which fails miserably.

He seemed the most confident in his new Atlas CEO stage because he had to look like it. There was nobody else to help him at the time, so he tried his best to do what he had done - acted the plan out.

He still imagines his plans the same way he did in Tales - with fantasies.

[teaveetamer]

Like alright, say what you will about Fates’s story. Love it or hate it, at least we all generally agree on what the fuck happened.

No one is still discussing 3H because the story is just that Deep™️ and Good™️ that there’s always something more to find. People are still discussing 3H because people fundamentally do not agree on key aspects of the plot. And I cannot stress this enough, that’s just bad writing.

Like, can you imagine if we went the entirety of Triangle Strategy without defining whether or not the Roselle were actually oppressed or not, and that plot point was left entirely up to “how oppressed do you want them to be?” The oppression of the Roselle is not only a major aspect of one main character’s arc, it’s also a key detail for the entire conflict of the game. You cannot remove it or alter it significantly without running into some severe writing problems.

Like picture with me, for a moment, a Triangle Strategy wherein, on Frederica’s route, you discover that the Roselle have been horrifically oppressed for hundreds of years and your goal is to break them out. However on Roland’s route, because they didn’t want you to feel too bad about liking Roland, they game said “actually the Roselle aren’t that oppressed and even if they were, enslaving them is a necessity, so Roland has a point, actually. Fredrica is just overreacting.” Not only do both of those viewpoints exist within the game, the developers do nothing to develop the Roselle outside of their one appearance in either ending.

That’s basically how 3H treats the Nabateans. Their genocide at the hands of humanity is not only a key plot point, it’s the entire basis of the main character’s existence. Without it, Byleth would not exist. It should be important. But actually utilizing that or engaging with the questions it brings up would make one of the lords look bad. So the Nabateans have to live in this awkward space where they’re clearly a genocided race, the game says as much, but the game can’t focus on that too much for fear of making their main waifu less marketable. So you have Verdant Wind “my family was slaughtered by humans who drank their blood and turned their bones into gruesome weapons. Everyone and everything I ever loved was taken from me and I’ve been fighting desperately to get it back ever since” right next to Crimson Flower “lol, she’s crazy and evil, whatever, just kill her because I think she needs to be stopped” right next to Azure Moon “Rhea who? Never heard of her.”

The game can’t ever commit to one thing with her because committing to one thing with her risks making another major character come off as fundamentally unappealing (or just plain stupid, depending on which version of Rhea/worldbuilding they commit to). And then just for extra lols, the game literally gives you a library with a bunch of Alternative Facts Worldbuilding and says “idk, just pick which version you like best.” If the game can’t even agree on the basic fundamentals of a character and lore, how are we supposed to? Which is why we keep having the same goddamn arguments over and over. Not because the game is deep, but because the game can’t commit.

[adarkrainbow]

Let's go up the giant beanstalk (2)

I said before that “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Jack the Giant-Killer” are two different tales that should not be confused with each other – but it does not mean they are not related… Indeed the link between those sibling-stories goes beyond simply sharing a giant-opposing Jack. There is a running tradition in Jack adaptations and pantomimes to name the giant “Blunderbore” – which is actually one of the giants of “Jack the Giant-Killer” – and while this seems to have no root in any of the published texts above… the first printed version of the tale, the “Jack Spriggins” parody, did name the giant using a character from “Jack the Giant-Killer”. Though it was not “Blunderbore” – the Jack Spriggins tale rather names the giant “Gogmagog”.

If things were not confusing enough, the giant of “Jack and the beanstalk” is known for his iconic line, “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the bones of an Englishman.” (It is the Jacobs’ version of the rhyme, which continues, with other rhymes saying how the giant will grind Jack’s bones to make his bread). Well, this line is ALSO present within “Jack the Giant-Killer”, but rather sung by a giant named Thunderdell. “Fee, fau, fum (or alternatively “Fe, fi, fo, fum”) / I smell the blood of an English man” – again, continued by rhymes evoking a bread made out of human bones. This line, “Fee, fi, fo, fum”, has in itself a fascinating history because, as with many British fairytales, we can find an old manifestation of it… within Shakespeare’s plays. More precisely, in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy “King Lear”, we find the lines “Fie, foh and fum / I smell the blood of a British man”. This line comes from the very end of the fourth scene of Act III, where the character of Edgar pretends to be a madman by the name of Tom, and thus speaks in mysterious references and nonsensical riddles, and when he quotes this line, he does not do it in reference to any Jack tale… But rather by mixing it to the famous British story of “Childe Rowland”. The actual quote by Edgar/Tom is “Childe Roland to the dark tower came. / His word was still ‘Fie, foh and fum, / I smell the blood of a British man’.” It is very likely to be a comical mix-up of various folktales together, since the line is not traditionally linked to the Childe Roland tale – but it is extremely interesting, because it explains the first word of the seemingly nonsensical rhyme. Indeed, the “Fe/Fee” of later Jack tales is here a “Fie”, aka the archaic onomatopoeia of disapproval, and one that Shakespeare loved to use. As such, it is possible that the original first word of the rhyme was a “fie”…

Mind you, there is an even older record of the line: it first appears in 1596, under the pen of Thomas Nashe, in his pamphlet “Haue with you to Saffron-Walden” (it was part of a series of attacks he wrote against the writer Gabriel Harvey). It is where the line first appears, under the shape of “Fy, fa and fum, / I smell the blood of an Englishman”, but within the same pamphlet, the rhyme is described as being very old, so old in fact its origin has been lost to time…

There is a lot to say about “Jack and the Beanstalk”, but for now I will highlight a final element that participates in weaving this tale in the tapestry of British folklore: the goose. In the version we all know and share, Jack steals three things from the giant. Money, a magical harp that plays on its own, and a goose that lays eggs made of gold. The goose with golden eggs actually dates back to one of the oldest collections of fables we have: Aesop’s fables written in Ancient Greece, by the seventh or sixth century BCE. One of those fables is titled “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs”. In France, it was re-popularized by Jean de La Fontaine’s own collection of fables, which had a modernized version of the story, “La poule aux oeufs d’or”, “The hen with gold-eggs”. But it is from Aesop’s fable that came the European symbol of the “goose with golden eggs”, and various sayings and proverbs such as “Do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg”, which itself was then recut and reshaped into various other proverbs (such as “killing the goose” for a self-destructive action). If you do not know, the fable always end up the same way, though the reasons behind differ – the owner(s) of the goose that lays golden eggs end up killing it due to their greed and desire to have more gold, thus destroying the very source of money they relied upon.

But where the “golden-egged goose” link becomes interesting is within the domain of nursery rhymes. I made a LONG time ago a series of posts about “Mother Goose” (they were in fact my very first posts on this blog). Long story short, Mother Goose did not exist in England until the second half of the 18th century. Indeed, she became known to the English world thanks to the translations in English of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale collections “Les contes de ma Mère l’Oye”, “The tales of my Mother Goose”, in the early 18th century. But from the mid 18th century onwards, publishers of nursery rhymes and other children-aimed books started using “Mother Goose” as a sort of mascot, recurring figure or title-cliché, in reference to Charles Perrault’s fairytale book. As such, soon Mother Goose started becoming a British “emblem” or “symbol” of nursery rhymes as a whole, seen as “Mother Goose’s rhymes”. England invented an entire character based on this single name – and by the early 19th century, she even got her own nursery rhyme/pantomimes (the two were always closely linked and I do not have enough expertise to go into the details). The “rhyme” of Mother Goose was not notably known under the title… “Mother Goose, or the Golden Egg”/ “Old Mother Goose and the Golden Egg”. Because to the character of Mother Goose, “mascot” of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, was added the fable of the Goose that Laid Golden Eggs… And in the nursery rhyme and the pantomimes, who is the third character that makes the link between the mother and the egg-layer? Mother Goose’s son… Jack. Yes, another Jack linked to a mother figure and who ends up with a goose laying golden-eggs – though no giant appears in this version, as this Jack is rather inspired by the various Jacks of nursery rhymes (or so I heard, again, I am no expert on the topic).

As you can see, from one simple story we enter a maze of references, links and cultural inter-weaving tying together a lot of various domains…

[ahmedmootaz]

Since there are AU versions with alternative parents, what about a version where it's the Briah trio? Chesed as the overspoiling dad and Gebura as the strict disciplinarian mom with Tiphereth as the tsundere older sister.

Or in other words, the two dads on the beach meme with Chesed on the chair lounge with one of the kids wrapped up in a towel cuddling and kissing them on the forehead after they're all tuckeres out, and Gebura standing in front the waves of the beach and grabbing one of the kids by the leg dangling em up in the air. Meanwhile Tiphereth is with the other kids digging up a massive hole (as is instinct) and making a giant sand fortification complete with a moat, towers and a bridge.

Dear Anonymous,

Yeah, it seems that there's been a lot of alternative AiP settings within my asks for the past while hasn't it? Not that I'm complaining, as these are always a treat to respond to as well as think of!

In such a case, I think a BRIAH!AiP would be less of a journey of forgiveness and atonement and more of a romcom sort of deal; Chesed, Gebura and Tiphereth have already overcome their pains and their past's fears and mistakes, so there wouldn't be too much in terms of characterisation there, and since Ayin, Roland and X in this timeline would all be turned into kids, I think the story might revolve more around Chesed and Gebura while also delving deep into Tiphereth's trauma with regards to losing Enoch since this experience would undoubtedly remind her lots of him, seeing how he was at a similar age to the de-aged Librarians. I think this, alongside her attempting to finally organise and recognise her feelings when it comes to Ayin and Carmen after so much time, would be the main emotional obstacle she'd have to face, and the main one in general throughout this BRIAH!AiP.

But beyond that, I would rather say it's quite accurate as a description. Gebura would be the strict disciplinarian with a heart of gold who secretly pampers her kids the most, Chesed would be a relaxed father who in reality is almost always panicking on the inside and freaking out whenever something goes awry, while Tiphereth is the link between the two of them and a cool 'elder sister' figure of sorts to her 'siblings'. I think the de-aged Librarians would just call her 'Tiph' or 'Big sis', depending on the Librarian. Still, that doesn't mean she'll be spared from parenthood-adjacent adventures, as she obviously has to help out with ten toddlers and pre-teens running about, eheh.

As for the children's distribution, I believe it can go:

Gebura: Roland, Ayin, Garion, Benjamin

Chesed: Giovanni, Michelle, Elijah.

Tiphereth: Angela, X, Gabriel

I based the distribution by giving Gebura the strongest children in the mental and physical department, Chesed the calmest ones, and Tiphy the two toddlers and Gabriel to help her out, since she's the youngest and, thus, more 'hip with the kids'. Lots of laughs are likely to be had, especially when the older kids suspect that Gebura, Chesed and Tiphy are just one family and that they're all Tiphy's siblings, but that fact is being withheld from them for some reason.

As always, thank you for the fun ask! If you have any more questions regarding this AU, I would be happy to answer them! Until next time, be well, stay safe, and see ya'!

[mostlyinthemorning]

Okay, friends, since we're all suffering with an AO3 shaped hole in our lives, how about something a little different? Below the cut are the opening paragraphs to a David and Patrick story. If you see this post, add a sentence or a paragraph to the end of the story and repost it.

Will this generate multiple versions of the story? I hope so. Will it be absolute chaos? Maybe.

Let's go!

“David?”

“Back here.” The porch swing lurches sideways as David struggles to sit up, sliding to the corner to make room for his husband. Nudging David’s knees apart, Patrick tilts his head back, kissing him deeply before settling onto the swing beside him. “How was your day?”

“Weird.” Patrick toys with the corner of the brown envelope he’s holding in his left hand.

David stiffens at the familiar sign of Patrick’s anxiety, but he keeps his voice light. “Weird as in Roland wouldn’t stop talking about alternative uses for the new salad oils or weird in some other, less disturbing, way?”

[spectrallik]

Specter Learns Guitar, the Hard Way

Big things often start small

I may have made a terrible mistake.

I’m a lifelong keyboardist. Not a great one, but an OK one. And I’m finally comfortable enough with the instrument to write my own music. Just one problem: the kind of music I want to make, the stuff that’s running through my head all the time, is on the dream pop/shoegaze end of post-punk. Now, keyboardists have a place in dream pop, and some of my favorite dream pop acts like Alvvays and Hatchie prominently feature synths. But any genre that descends from punk rock, even something this far-removed, is still fundamentally a guitarist’s genre. Plus, the songs in my head are less like Alvvays and more like The Joy Formidable - no keyboards there, unless you count getting on your hands and knees and playing your effects pedals like a keyboard.

My synth has guitar tones, but they come nowhere near replicating the real thing. And I have some guitar-playing family members who are willing to help me out, but I don’t really know how to communicate my ideas to a guitar player. They don’t read sheet music, they just play everything by ear. How could I communicate how to play a part, or even what tone I’m going for, when I didn’t really know how a guitar works?

The only halfway decent guitar tone on the Roland Fantom, and it only sounds good after you shove a fuckton of reverb and delay after it.

So, I decided that the only way to get that knowledge was to experience the guitar firsthand. I don’t want guitar to become my main instrument or anything, but I want to at least get comfortable with it. Once I understand how a guitar truly works, it will be much easier to write for it. 

Unfortunately, the guitar I want to get - a G&L Fallout - is backordered for a few months. So, in the meantime, I got a cheapo starter guitar to screw around with and hopefully get some of the basics down. I’ll trade it in for a pedal or something later.

This is the Eastrock 39, and it is a piece of shit. It barely stays in tune, the pickups sound thin and lifeless, and the frets are rough. You have to actively fight this thing to get the strings to ring properly. Some of my tone problems are because I still need to build finger strength, sure, but I’ve read reviews from veteran guitar players that say that this doesn’t play easily. Not great for a supposed “beginner” guitar. On the bright side, it came with a ton of extra stuff that doesn’t suck - a nice guitar bag, beginner picks, a solid capo, audio cables, and luthier tools to replace the strings and adjust the action. It even came with a practice amp, but I live in a studio apartment and have an audio interface for my synth, so I don’t have much use for it. 

So… goals. My first goal is to get the basic chords down, figure out how barres work, and learn ONE simple song. I’m not too worried right now about memorizing the fretboard - I’m not gonna do any solos anytime soon - but I need to understand chords to actually play songs. Luckily, guitar sheet music is more commonly written in an alternate form called tablature that is WAY EASIER TO UNDERSTAND THAN TRADITIONAL NOTATION, HOLY SHIT, WHY ISN’T THERE A VERSION OF THIS FOR PIANO!? I’m still not great at reading sheet music, despite my ClAsSiCaL SuZuKi MeThOd training, but it took all of 5 minutes to pick up TAB.

So, what’s my first song? Well, a few months ago, I got a picture of one of my characters playing air guitar and singing along to a song:

As it turns out, this song - Future Me Hates Me by The Beths - is very beginner friendly. 90% of the rhythm part is the same barred power chord shape, and the lead guitar part is pretty reserved and minimalistic by Jonathan Pearce standards. Plus, the guitar I'm waiting on is the exact same model that Liz Stokes played on that record. So it should sound perfect, especially once I get a RAT on my pedalboard.

So yeah, we'll see where this goes. I do want to keep track of my progress somewhere, and I'm planning on getting the fuck off Twitter once and for all, so I guess it will go here.

[jules-has-notes]

New Bern, NC — VoicePlay live performances

Even as they were swiftly approaching the completion of nearly 100 shows at Disney World for the season, VoicePlay popped up to North Carolina for a full holiday concert on the weekend before Christmas.

.

With the amount of travel Americans tend to do between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this comedic medley is extra relatable during the holiday season. If only all of our family sing-a-longs sounded this good.

Details:

title: Road Trip

original songs / performers: [1:27] "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" by Tiny Tim; [1:45] "Orinoco Flow" by Enya; [2:03] "Cum On Feel the Noize" by Quiet Riot; [3:12] "Big Shot" by Billy Joel; [3:25] "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister; [3:34] "Voices Carry" by ’Til Tuesday; [3:52] "Shout" by Tears For Fears; [4:07] "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by War; [4:17] "That Smell" by Lynyrd Skynyrd; [5:00] "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago; [6:25] "We Just Disagree" by Dave Mason; [6:45] "Hello" by Adelle

written by: "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" by Al Dubin & Joe Burke; "Orinoco Flow" by Eithne "Enya" Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin & Roma Ryan; "Cum On Feel the Noize" by Noddy Holder & Jim Lea; "Big Shot" by Billy Joel; "I Wanna Rock" by Dee Snider; "Voices Carry" by Robert Holmes, Aimee Mann, Michael Hausman, & Joey Pesce; "Shout" by Roland Orzabal & Ian Stanley; "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by Papa Dee Allen, Harold Ray Brown, B.B. Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan, Charles Miller, Lee Oskar, Howard E. Scott, & Jerry Goldstein; "That Smell" by Allen Collins & Ronnie Van Zant; "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Peter Cetera & David Foster; "Hello" by Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

Eli starting to doze off and tip over until he's startled awake by Earl's yelp

Tony using his flowy jacket as a blanket

sleepy Geoff rubbing his eyes as he's rudely awakened by the bickering

Earl's little bunny nose sniffing

the exchange of annoyed watch tapping

Layne almost getting Eli to break with the different interruption

Trivia:

VoicePlay made a professionally filmed version of this medley / skit during the 2014 Sing-Off tour.

Layne usually interrupts with "Royals" by Lorde, but sometimes changes it up, as he does here, to try to make the other guys laugh.

.

These guys love The Nightmare Before Christmas, and have recorded several songs from its fantastic soundtrack. But this was the first one to join their live show repertoire.

Details:

title: What's This?

original performers: Danny Elfman as Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

written by: Danny Elfman

arranged by: Layne Stein

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

those lovely opening harmonies

Tony excitedly getting in everybody's personal space

the alternating pliés and relevés to emulate the carolers' vehicle in the movie

♫ "I might possibly go daffy…" ♫ followed by Layne putting a quack in his percussion line

slo-mo snowball fight!

♫ "cozy in their dre-eam ⇓ laaand ⇓" ♫ "That was weird." "Sorry."

their monster walks as they regroup

that sharp, clean final chord

Trivia:

This song was a staple of their holiday shows for many years, particularly during their Disney World residencies for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

They finally recorded it with J.None for their 2017 holiday EP "Warm Up", and filmed a video to go with it that they released at Halloween of that year.

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This bouncy tune is a great way to get an audience dancing in their seats, and VoicePlay alway performs it with gusto. Meet the guys, and hear a little of what they can do.

Details:

title: For Once In My Life

original performer: Stevie Wonder

written by: Ron Miller & Orlando Murden

arranged by: VoicePlay

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

Earl and Tony starting to step-touch together, then just giving in to the groove

everyone else cutting out for Eli's ♫ "won't desert me-e-e" ♫ riff then coming back in behind ♫ "I'm not alone anymore" ♫

everyone getting a moment in the spotlight for an introduction

those jazzy scatting lines leading into the key change

and a lovely ending chord

Trivia:

This song had been part of their live shows since their 4:2:Five days. The earliest clip I've found is from a performance in 2011 when their friend Jarrett Johnson subbed for Ryan.

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Listening to this song is certainly a treat, but watching them perform it is at least half the fun. Sometimes friends being a little competitive makes them all better.

Details:

title: Elvira

original performers: The Oak Ridge Boys

written by: Dallas Frazier

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

Tony startling Earl by skittering his fingertips down the back of his head

troublemaker Eli encouraging Earl to take center stage

that glorious pop timbre in Tony's solo

Geoff reclaiming the spotlight with that extra deep ♫ "mow mow" ♫

the "Earl can go low, too" gag is never not funny

the other guys' expectant expressions in the back during the tense final confrontation

and that big ending is always fantastic

Trivia:

This number was a longtime fan favorite staple in their live shows, including the 2015 Sing-Off tour.

Because the visual component of this performance is such an interaction with the audience, they have never filmed a video for it, but there is an audio recording available through their Patreon.

Geoff also helped arrange the version that their pals in Home Free recorded with The Oak Ridge Boys earlier in the year.

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Anyone who grew up watching the Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated holiday specials knows these songs. But most people have never heard them quite like this.

Details:

title: Frosty the Snowman & Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

original songs / performers: "Frosty the Snowman" by Gene Autry; "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" by Eddie Cantor

written by: "Frosty the Snowman" by Walter "Jack" Rollins & Steve Nelson; "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" by J. Fred Coots & Haven Gillespie

arranged by: VoicePlay

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

Layne letting his inner kid out during the intro banter

Eli's smooth delivery on the opening lines

the harmonic stacking in ♫ "when they placed it on his head" ♫

those syncopated backing vocals during Earl's "Santa Claus" verse

Eli flailing in the back when the other guys start rapping

that crunchy ending section

Trivia:

The boys started performing this mashup during their 4:2:Five days. The earliest recording I've found is from their stint as castmembers in the Polar Express Conductors holiday show at SeaWorld in 2011. (Go hear Layne sing bass!)

It was a staple of VoicePlay's holiday shows for many years, particularly during their Disney World residencies for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

They recorded a swingier version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" with their friend Michael Andrew for their 2012 holiday album "Peppermint Winter".

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It can be easy to overlook even the most talented vocal percussionist in an audio mix. Your ears forget that all those beats are coming out of a human body. But those skills are undeniable when he's the only one on stage.

Details:

title: Layne's drum solo

written & arranged by: Layne Stein

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

that initial deep kick

the random squawk

dropping into a half-time groove before transitioning into a more electronic section

♫ "Ding!" ♫

and the big finish

Trivia:

Percussion solos are a time honored tradition among modern a cappella groups. It can also be fun to hear beatboxers' differing styles when they team up as they did during the 2014 and 2015 Sing-Off tours.

When Layne started up again at the end, he was transitioning them into the start of "A Crimpella".

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VoicePlay don't just have one crowd-pleasing medley of phonations. They've also got a holiday version. There really are a lot of unusual lyrics in Christmas carols, and these guys make them incredibly fun.

(I think I caught everything, but if I missed a song, please let me know so I can track it down and add it to the list.)

Details:

title: "Most of the Songs" holiday medley

original songs / performers: "Mele Kalikimaka" by Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters; [0:06] "Pat-a-pan", French / English carol; [0:08] "Deck the Halls", English carol; [0:14] "Frosty the Snowman" by Gene Autry; [0:18] "Carol of the Bells", English carol; [0:27] "Coventry Carol", English carol; [0:41] "Welcome Christmas" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966); [0:55] "Hava Nagila", Jewish folk song; [1:03] "I Have a Little Dreidel", children's Hannukah song; [1:08] "Angels We Have Heard on High", French / English carol; [1:31] "Up on the Housetop" by Gene Autry; [1:38] "Dominick the Donkey" by Lou Monte; [2:00] "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene Autry; [2:03] "Jingle Bells", American carol; [2:06] "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker; [2:38] "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", English carol

written by: "Mele Kalikimaka" by R. Alex Anderson; "Pat-a-pan" by Bernard de La Monnoye; "Deck the Halls" English lyrics by Thomas Oliphant, set to 16th century melody from Welsh carol "Nos Galan"; "Frosty the Snowman" by Walter "Jack" Rollins & Steve Nelson; "Carol of the Bells" English lyrics by Peter Wilhousky, melody from Ukranian New Year's song "Shchedryk" by Mykola Leontovych; "Coventry Carol" 16th century English Christmas carol; "Welcome Christmas" by Albert Hague; "Hava Nagila" by Moshe Nathanson & Abraham Zevi Idelsohn; "I Have a Little Dreidel" English lyrics by Samuel S. Grossman, melody by Samuel E. Goldfarb; "Angels We Have Heard on High" English lyrics by James Chadwick, to the traditional French tune "Gloria" as arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes; "Up on the Housetop" by Benjamin Hanby; "Dominick the Donkey" by Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg, & Wandra Merrell; "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Johnny Marks; "Jingle Bells" by James Lord Pierpont; "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" modern arrangement by Arthur Warrell

arranged by: VoicePlay

performance date: 20 December 2015

My favorite bits:

Tony's little salsa groove as the beat kicks in

the adorable swaying choreography during "Welcome Christmas"

some Hannukah representation for the two Jewish band members

Geoff's robust "ho ho ho" 🎅

Earl's wonderful braying for "Dominick the Donkey"

Eli's exaggerated air bass at the start of "Sugar Plum"

that final descending drum fill from Layne

Trivia:

This medley also dates back to their 4:2:Five era and the SeaWorld Polar Express Conductors show. (Go hear Geoff beatbox!)

It was a staple of VoicePlay's holiday shows for many years, particularly during their Disney World residencies for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

[roaldseth]

By Design

Type: Fanfiction (Digital Devil Saga 2), Gen. (Embryon & Lokapala)

Summary: A rewriting of the second half of scene no.7, Roland’s expositional cutscene,  for a Universe Alteration. Due to the nature of rearrangement and addition, Roland’s base character is slightly altered.

Rating: Mature (Alcohol, Mild Language, Cannibalism mention.)

Word-Count: 1082 (w/Forward)

Foreward:  “Thanks to us, you can go back to sitting on your asses all day,” Fred boasted as three silhouettes much taller than him followed behind through the open partition gate into the heart of the Underground City. Roland stood in opposition at the end of Lokapala’s setup alongside Adil who was muttering out some kind of barely verbal reaction in disbelief, but Roland remained silent, still, unnerved, yet attentive in awe of the grandeur, because he recognized each of them by their models and numbers: EM-00001, EM-00003, and EM-00005.

... ... ... ...

“Tell me, how did you learn of all this?”

Silence suspended as Roland examined each of the AIs’ expressions, the majority of them void, unreadable. The exception was Argilla—whom Roland had only known as “EM-00003” up until then—whose face was sour since the very beginning of his exposition.

Roland downed another drink to steady himself before he answered.

“I helped program Stage 1 of the Asura Project… and helped create the Embryon, too.”

Everyone else’s expression, except Adil’s behind him, altered accordingly to each individual’s character—even Fred. He had know his father and Roland had worked for the Karma Society, but naivety and lacking information made him assume they were merely technicians or something else less relevant. Then, Roland sighed in reaction to Gale’s sharpened stare.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“You’ve previously stated that Sera had created us. This produces a contradiction between two statements. How can you verify the information’s authenticity?”

“True,” Roland said as he rose from his seat, walking over to his desk, “Sera created the VR’s base source code, four models, and some other things.”—he glanced at Serph and Argilla in between shuffling through a drawer, realizing there was one of them missing aside from Cielo, “EM-00004,” who he and the Lokapala had secured earlier—“But, a team of developers was assigned to manipulate that reality. Do you think she would intentionally destroy her own paradise?”

Roland returned by placing an external hard drive and a DVD-ROM next to his laptop on the coffee table they all sat around.

“These disks… one contains a prototype of Stage 1; the other contains composite data of a complex electromagnetic wave pattern… It’s what turned you into demons.”

“You mentioned that you formed the Embryon…” Gale interjected.

“Fred’s father and I had plans to leave the Project and break away from the Society entirely. Tribe 96 was arranged with our ambitions in mind. You—the Embryon—were our way to study guerilla tactics right underneath the military’s nose.”

Adil let out a chuckled scoff underneath his breath behind them as to say ‘that did a fat lot of help,’ and tried to cover it up with a fake cough afterwards. Roland and Fred noticed it, but as Fred was busy peeking around to eye at the source, Roland continued with his speech unaffected.

“AI specifically for asymmetric warfare… The Lokapala and the Embryon were designed to be the same unit.”

The air thickened to the point where it would have been a surprise to any outlier that everyone was still able to breath, and as much as Roland was surprised as well, at least it was in his favor. Considering no one had been eaten yet, he thought the AI were taking the information far better than he initially thought they would upon being told that everything about them—their actions, judgments, and resolutions—were never truly their own decisions, but were by design, whether it be by the will of the Cyber Shaman or the Project’s development team.

“Why are you telling us this? What is it that you want?” Gale asked; his tone unchanged.

“An alliance… The military wasn’t needed to corrupt the Society. It was vile from the beginning. It doesn’t care about its members, only its goals. I want to help Sera like you do. Bring her here… …Without her, humanity doesn’t have much hope anyway.”

Roland drank from his glass for courage to insinuate the things he did not want to fully admit to; then when the Embryon thought he had finished his speech, the beginnings of a devilish smirk crawled across Roland’s mouth. It was its intent made manifest.

“But, without the Society… …humanity would be much better off. Don’t you think so, too?”

There was some silence for thought, but sitting with the noiseless reverberation of Roland’s tone, his inclination, unnerved Adil a little bit on the inside, so he annexed the benefits to the deal just in case having a mutual enemy was not enough to sway the AIs.

“We’ll give you the infiltration route and all necessary supplies.”

“While Cielo remains captive? Unacceptable. We need manpower.”

Just as Adil was about to bite back, Roland glanced over his shoulder and shook his head slightly once, so Adil got as far as opening his mouth without ever getting anything out besides a wordless noise. Roland paused for thought.

“What if I fight alongside you? Would you agree then?”

It was a good thing Adil was not smoking at the moment because if he were, the cigarette would have dropped from his mouth with ease. Fred’s expression might have mimicked Adil’s unintentionally, but it was because both of their sentiments were the same, genuine exclamation: “Roland!” If paralysis had not stuck him in that instant, Adil would have handed over the AI “Cielo” to them himself.

“Before Cielo joins us,” Roland continued, “I need to know we can work together. You guys are machines designed for war. Us?—We’re all just weak humans… If becoming a Tuner is what needs to be done, then so be it.”

“Why should we believe you?” Argilla exclaimed, “How do we know you’re not going to just sell us out?”

Everything inside Roland seemed to have vanished; no heart for blood, no lungs for air, no brain for thought. Yet, his skin was crawling on every inch of his body, bawling his fingers into fists and mauling his face. Then, a weighted, blackened mass cultivated inside Roland alongside the silence that followed. It was dread. And it kept growing, and growing, and growing, until it crushed him.

“If I fail you somehow, you can kill me. Is that fair?”

Gale and Serph exchanged a brief glance while Adil was off in their peripherals exclaiming “Think this through!” in disbelief to Roland who went unmoved upon waiting for the Embryon’s reply because his decision was set.

Gale turned back to face down Roland.

“Acceptable.”

... ... ... ...

Bonus (Outer-world dialogue changed to compensate for the Universe Alteration):

Roland: Don’t worry, I won’t sell you out. When I left the Karma Society two years ago… I never looked back. We have a liaison, but the rest of them aren’t as friendly to us.

* The “two years go,” along with the distinct usage of “I” instead of “we,” was strictly on purpose to line up with Greg’s death. The account of Greg’s death directly links to severing themselves from the Karma Society and the formation of the Lokapala. Here, although Greg formed the Lokapala, he never was its leader, and Roland had lead from the beginning in his stead and honor. “[Dying] for his men” related to him keeping silent about the names of the other Karma employees that left to align with the Lokapala.

Personal note: I imagine this exit out of the Society being similar to a when-Lucifer-was-cast-out-of-heaven kind of situation, taking “one-third of heaven’s angels” with him and such. This is also why Adil snort-scoffs in the fic, because he was Military before becoming Lokapala.

Roland’s guilt over Greg’s death is from him having saved his own skin by selling out Greg to the Karma Society (eluded in the dialogue “I turned my back on him.”) when they started realizing “unknown persons” started having ulterior motives and plans. Roland saying that he wouldn’t do the same to the Embryon would be his act of atonement, repentance, and ultimately acceptance of what he had done in the past. Alternatively: it could simply remain as survivor’s guilt, if the complex backstory is disregarded.

Extra Notes:

To follow up on Roland (and Greg) creating the Embryon, considering it was not talked about here: how Roland and Greg “purposefully” set up the core four (Serph, Heat, Argilla, Cielo) together was they began noticing a pattern when randomizers were set to distribute AI for tests: the four AI were always being “randomized” together. Roland and Greg knew enough to know they were obviously based off of employees (Serph, Heat, Argilla) and a previous failed Shaman (Cielo); knowing this, they figured they would be the least qualified to pick up military training—like the Lokapala—and prompted queues, ensuring the tribe. Gale was then enlisted directly after by “chance.”

Greg thought of the name “Embryon” from paralleling the World Egg (Cosmic Egg, Egg of the Universe, etc.) with the EGG, and that Tribe 96 is an early manifestation of developing the Lokapala, which he had also named. (One could guess that Greg was one for theology and mythology in DDS canon, so that’s why he gets the honor of naming both Embryon and Lokapala.)

[theradioghost]

@damienthepious replied to your post:

👀 whatttttt what is this. i was already sold and then u said 'gigantic terrifying socialist lizard son' and my soul left my body

oh god. so I cannot recommend reading these books necessarily on the strength of this ship alone because 1. one of the characters involved doesn’t even appear until the third book in this nine-book series 2. said series involves a lot of travel in the early 1800s and my beloved globetrotting saboteur and international man of mystery Tenzing Tharkay dips in and out of the picture for whole books at times, BUT,

these are quotes from the Temeraire novels, which are about an alternate history version of the Napoleonic wars where everybody has (sapient) dragons and dragon-riders, except actually they’re about tall ships and the importance of supply lines in warfare, except actually they’re about the indescribably deep bond between a fundamentally good man with the major character flaw of being Too British and the twenty-ton impulsive socialist firebrand dragon for whose sake he would (and does) make the great empires tremble, except actually it’s about Captain William Laurence’s ever-increasing collection of small children he somehow acquires while literally traveling around the world at nineteeth century speeds and also the world’s most long-suffering and least lucky gay man and his even more impulsive massive spiky firebreathing narcissist, except actually it’s about how Admiral Jane Roland could do literally anything she wanted to me

like literally any media it’s not without its flaws (some of them big) but what it does right it does so right I am haunted by it eternally

also, and I can’t stress it enough, despite everything the canonical ending is that Laurence and Tharkay and Temeraire move in together in Scotland and Temeraire gets a seat in Parliament to terrorize the aristocracy with forevermore, and I cannot complain about that (except that, despite all the jokes about how Literally Everyone writes a fic about the idiots finally kissing in Scotland, there are still far, far too few fics about the idiots finally kissing in Scotland???)

[tears-for-fears-daily]

The Tipping Point!! (Review)

Excuse my absence lately. While I may have been MIA I have of course been following everything leading up to this day! Thought I would give my brief review of each track, and the album as a whole!

The album starts with No Small Thing, which I loved when I first heard it and I think I loved it even more hearing it start off The Tipping Point! From the first time I heard it, I thought this song could belong on Raoul and the Kings of Spain. From the music and even Roland’s voice you wouldn’t notice the difference of which album it was on! I was definitely singing along to this!

Next is the title track, The Tipping Point! Again, I loved this song listening to it for the first time and I almost got goosebumps this time, being the title track and the anticipation and I must admit I am a nerd when it comes to bands saying the name of their album in a song lol! I LOVE the backing vocals as they are very reminiscent of 80s TFF for me. And I love the “Life is cruel” reference as I was an avid follower of Roland on Twitter and anyone else who was knows he frequently tweeted that in regard to old pictures of himself :’)

Next is Long, Long, Long Time! Now something about this song was so nostalgic to me, which made me love it, because I am such a sucker for 80s TFF! What I really enjoyed about this song was the piano mixed with the more ‘modern’ sound. I personally do not care for modern music, but Curt and Roland have managed to make it modern, without it actually sounding like it. The piano playing is so refreshing to me!

After is Break the Man, which is such an interesting song to me because I almost feel like it wouldn’t be a song TFF would write. I am not sure why I think that, but just the feeling I get whenever I listen to it! The music is quite 80s-esque to me and at some points even reminded me of Talk Talk! Curt’s voice sounds SO good in this song, not that is doesn’t on the entire album, but this one stood out.

Next song is My Demons, which had an AMAZING INTRO. I was instantly pulled into this song right until the end, although I just wish it was longer! Roland’s vocals are superb on this one and by far my favourite on the album (although that was a hard decision to make!) Now, stay with me on this, this song had a “dirty” sound to it, and by that I mean, it sounds like it could be played in an underground club and it would fit in perfectly. Roland’s vocals perfectly matched the tone of the song and I have never quite felt almost shall I say...”dirty” listening to a TFF song, but this one gave me that and I must say it’s awesome! It actually almost reminded me a bit of Depeche Mode!

On the next side is Rivers of Mercy! I really felt like they took us on a journey with this one, as it starts quite ‘chaotic’ with the sound effects but takes a total right turn on us and ends up being quite a soft sounding song. You almost don’t know what to expect when it starts but are pleasantly surprised throughout! I got another twinge of nostalgia from the music in this song that instantly reminded me of Woman in Chains.

After that is Please Be Happy, and you ought to have tissues around when listening to this one! I initially heard this several years back when Roland posted it on his Twitter account and I loved it back then and wondered the fate of it. I am so happy it is on the album. After hearing Roland open up about his beloved Caroline’s passing and listening to this once more years later after finding out everything, this song is so heartbreaking and emotional. The saddest song on the album for me, personally. On a lighter note, the sax is SOOO sexy on this song.

Master Plan is next and it is the dream song for anyone who loves TFF’s Beatles inspired songs, which I do! This really reminded me of Closest Thing to Heaven and could even be like an ‘alternate’ or ‘second’ version of it. It also reminded me of Sowing the Seeds of Love, for obvious reasons. I also heard a similar drum beat to both Closest Thing to Heaven and STSOL in this one which I absolutely love! 

Next is End of Night, which is such a great and upbeat sounding song, that it is kind of like the “happy ending” for me on this album. The album is filled with very deep emotions and this song is almost like the light at the end of the tunnel. Like the rest of the album is the ‘dark’ or ‘night’ and this song is the end of that darkness. I don’t know if they intended this song to be the salvation of the others by its placement on the album but either way this song has become a feel good song for me. The only thing I wish is that it was the final song on the album!

Lastly is Stay, which I was obviously familiar with from its release on Rule the World. I still like it as much as I did the first time I heard it and this song for me is like a TFF transition song, as it was one of the first they had released between the time Everybody Loves a Happy Ending has been out and the announcement that they were working on another album. This, and I Love You But I’m Lost gave us a sneak peek of what the new album was eventually going to be and now we have it!

As a whole album, it is just superb and I do believe it was all worth the wait! Everything is so cohesive, the writing is still as eloquent as it always has been and that is why I love Tears for Fears, they always manage to please. They still have that sound that is recognizable as TFF while they evolve their sound that resonates more with themselves today, all while making it work so well! I am so happy to be a Tears for Fears fan today (and everyday) to see how much love they have received and for all the hard work Roland and Curt have put into this album. I recommend anyone who has not listened to it yet to listen to it as soon as possible!

Lastly, while you listen to this today, make sure to listen to Songs From the Big Chair afterward in honour of its 37th anniversary!

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 52 Analysis

Going from the newly aired first anime episode to our latest chapter is some kind of whiplash, let me tell you. XD I meant to get this posted much sooner, but you know how it is.

There is nothing but spoilers from this point onwards, so anime-only viewers in particular will want to read with care.

A couple of you have already pointed out that this version of the scene isn't actually how it happened! Visually everything is much rosier: there are sparkles, bubbles, Vanitas looks extra beautiful, and Noé seems more elegant as well. I was taken aback because Vanitas in particular looks quite different from how he normally does. Meanwhile, the actual scene is this one:

So, what happened? The story is being told through Noé, but often the retelling is indirect and it's more like a regular manga. There are times, however, when Noé as narrator shows through more obviously, such as when we hear his inner thoughts or he summarizes what is happening. This scene reads more like how Noé remembers the event rather than a faithful, neutral flashback. At the time, he wasn't terribly impressed with Vanitas, but everything we've seen up to this point changed that. As such, it makes sense that Noé wouldn't remember it quite right; he's seeing the event through the lens of someone who is actually fond of Vanitas as opposed to someone who simply found him annoying like he did back then.

In other words: he's remembering their first meeting through rose-tinted glasses.

While Vanitas landed a solid blow against Noé, it's not Noé who is really suffering here as I thought he might, which really goes to show the difference between vampires and humans. Still, Vanitas isn't injured because of Noé's actions, but his own, which is really a running theme with his character in general. He's now on his second dose of chasseur tonic ( the first we saw him take being in chapter 50), but his reaction to the stuff is a lot stronger than I think it should be. When Roland took one dose, he was fine, no bleeding from the face or anything. When Astolfo took one dose, he was likewise fine; it was only when he took the second or third that he started demonstrating the problems Vanitas is having now. Vanitas is bleeding from the face after only one dose and then proceeds to take a second.

This makes me wonder if perhaps each dose is created for a specific person? If so, one dose might already be too strong for Vanitas, so taking a second is incredibly ill-advised. Alternatively, he doesn't have a high tolerance for it in general. Regardless, Vanitas is pushing himself towards an aneurysm or some other kind of head injury and that could very well be what stops him as opposed to anything else because it seems unlikely that Noé will bring himself to injure him all that seriously, which Vanitas has been using to his advantage.

This is the first real fight the two of them have had since the very beginning of the series and it's only now dawning on Noé how Vanitas has put his analytical skills to use. "Even the patterns in my attacks that I'm not conscious of... He probably knows them all."

I'm forced to agree. What Vanitas lacks in raw strength he more than makes up for with intelligence.

Noé makes another interesting point that I'll quote here: "He said I didn't know anything about you. He laughed at me, and yet you-- You're always like that! You always act as if you, and only you, know everything. And yet... you never tell me anything!"

I think what Noé is trying to get at here is that Misha behaved exactly how Vanitas always behaves: as if he knows a great secret that Noé isn't privy to. The difference is that Misha actually told Noé something of their past, something Vanitas hasn't done whatsoever. In other words, Noé is enraged that someone like Misha is being more honest to him than Vanitas has been and Misha is the one that kidnapped Dominique and threatened his life. This has been an ongoing problem for Vanitas and Noé and is something Noé vocalized during the Gévaudan arc. He believes Vanitas, so why won't he tell him anything?

Actually, the focus of this chapter was kind of just Noé airing all his grievances. Sure, they're still fighting, but Noé has some stuff to get off his chest and who can blame him? The problem is that none of it is getting through and, interestingly, it's not just because Vanitas is a difficult person.

So, this actually seems like a completely insane thing to do. 8D Vanitas hypnotized himself so that, no matter what, he would kill whoever tried to steal his memories. This is one of those things that sounds like a great idea at the time until you realize you've taken away your own ability to determine your own future actions. I can't... Still, I don't know if this was Vanitas's idea initially. We know someone (most likely Luna) asked him to promise to never let anyone see his memories and I guess Vanitas is fulfilling that promise, but why? What is it that he knows that cannot be shared no matter what? Is it something to do with the Mark of Possession? Something to do with Luna? Because while Vanitas is a private person, this is taking things to a whole different extreme; you don't hypnotize yourself just because you'd like some privacy. You do something like this when the truth can literally be a dangerous thing.

At this stage, it's really difficult to even hypothesize what could be such dangerous knowledge, but let's take a look at what we do know.

1) Whatever this knowledge is was probably gained during his time with Luna since they made the request (probably) 2) Not even Misha can know what this knowledge is 3) Vanitas refuses to tell Misha why he killed Luna 4) Luna didn't want to mark them originally

With this in mind, I can only assume there's something strange about Luna's death, which I've thought for a while now. We also know that Vanitas is trying to wipe away any evidence of Luna's existence by curing red moon vampires. The curse itself is spread through Charlatan.

Okay, some possible half-baked theories:

1) Luna didn't die; they joined with/became Charlatan 2) Luna merged with Vanitas's and Misha's marks or some part of their essence resides there still (the mark is notably still active while marks on Astolfo have faded after a vampire died) 3) There's a possibility another being like Luna could be created and possibly manipulated. Misha and whoever Misha is working for wants to bring them back at least, which means it must be possible. 4) Luna is similar to the Children of Misfortune in Pandora Hearts. In other words, their very existence distorts the world around them causing chaos.

We definitely need more information, though. Moving on, I still think Misha's motives are a little... suspect. He pushed things to this point claiming he wanted Noé to read Vanitas's memories, but this is the same kid that also knew Vanitas put a hypnotic suggestion on himself so that wouldn't happen. Therefore, I can't help but wonder if perhaps Misha isn't being entirely honest; I think he wants to break Vanitas so he has no choice but to stay with Misha, recreating the family he misses. It means he can both have revenge upon Vanitas (because he must know killing Noé wasn't something Vanitas wanted to do) and keep him to himself all at the same time.

We get an update on Dominique this chapter. I find the above interesting because it definitely shows the influence of Misha's Book of Vanitas. Dominique finds herself in an empty space speaking with a younger version of herself. I wonder, could this be a representation of her true name? Manipulated into believing she must jump no matter what, given one, singular purpose. Of course, this could also just be a representation of how Dominique sees herself: she never moved on from when she was kid, trapped in that moment she lost Louis. This representation seems to have some awareness outside of Misha, though, since it finds an alternate solution.

Regardless, we see how potent Misha's ability is. We also see that Dominique and Noé really aren't that different from one another in a certain regard:

They're each phrasing it a little differently, but at the heart of the matter is that neither of them can bear losing the other because they can't handle reliving the loss of Louis. Dominique once expressed worry that Noé blamed himself for what happened to Louis, but the fact of the matter is that they each blame themselves for the event and that neither of them has ever moved on from it. Louis is haunting them and their relationship, but neither can really talk about it. Dominique is suffering from this in more overt ways and it's manifesting itself aself-loathing and what's turning into an unhealthy love for Noé, but lest we forget, Noé's entire motivation for the whole series stems from how he never moved on from Louis: he wants to save curse bearers. The only reason he wants to do that is because Louis died as one.

Neither of them is coping well, basically, and I think we'll soon see Noé handling things about as well as Dominique is right now. Noé, in my estimation, is very good at suppressing things, but they have to come out at some point, and this arc looks like he's being set up for exactly that.

As for Dominique, she takes the only path available to her that will both save Noé and herself from Misha (though not from death) and she jumps. Literally no one expected that, including Misha. I was worried this was the path she would take.

But the chapter ends before we see the results of this decision, so the question becomes: Will Dominique survive?

This is a pretty straightforwad yes or no scenario, so let's consider the possibilities of both

1) Dominique survives. Obviously this would be the preferred option and it would allow Noé and Domi to actually talk about what happened and possibly reach a new understanding. How would she survive, though? I keep expecting someone to show up to break up this battle, and that still seems likely to me. This person could save Domi. Actually, and this may sound odd, but I'm now seriously considering it might just be Teacher that shows up. We know there's something up with Murr, and we know that one of Teacher's descendants is directly threatened (presumably not by his own machinations). He wants Noé to explore the Book of Vanitas, but if Domi dies Noé would likely never want to see Vanitas again. As such, I could see Teacher intervening for his own purposes if not necessarily out of any particular affection for Dominique.

Also, it's still possible Noé himself saves her, either by catching her or manipulating gravity. We'll see.

2) Dominique dies. This would... really shift the tone of the series as well as Noé and Vanitas's dynamic to such a degree that I have to wonder if Mochizuki would really go that route. She definitely could! It just means that the shift between Dominique's death and Noé eventually missing Vanitas in his memoirs would require a great deal more time to explore. Regardless, I think this route would force Noé to explore what could have been with Dominique if he'd paid more attention as well as whether he can bear to work with someone like Vanitas for the purpose of saving vampires. Considering the nature of the series, the answer would have to be "yes" eventually, but it would be a hard decision.

And then there's Vanitas and Misha in the midst of all this. I have no doubt Misha will escape this confrontation one way or another, but how will Vanitas handle things when he finally returns to himself? He has seriously burned some bridges; I'm curious whether he can work up an adequate apology for that and whether he'll remember Noé's grievances. I'm particularly curious whether he'll actually change any of his behavior or not. It's going to be a mess no matter what, that's for sure.

[strykingback]

Okay Imma be real cause Im finna say this. 

Kazura is the textbook definition of a TRUE KNIGHT. While Jaune isnt. 

Wanna know why, because Kazura follows the Medieval Code of Chivalry, mostly the one from the Novelization of King Arthur, which I have spoke a lot about especially made references to it. Now while there are different versions of the Code of Chivalry I follow are the ones from the Song of Roland and the King Arthur story. 

Song of Roland’s Code of Chivalry: 

Fear God and His Church Serve the liege lord in valor and faith Protect the weak and defenseless Live by honor and for glory Respect the honor of women

King Arthurs version of the Code of Chivalry: 

Honor Honesty Loyalty Valor

Jaune one one hand just fails at half of these with the exceptions of Respecting Women, and Faith (Since in RWBY’s canon there are Cults/Religions dedicated to the God of Light and Darkness.)

The ones he failed on are: Honesty, As he had lied to get into Beacon Academy Loyalty, As Jaune went against Ironwood and helped RWBY start the Fall of Atlas, despite becoming a Huntsman. Straight up this can be considered a Half-fail since he also follows his friends.....ugh.  Living by Honor and Glory, Now lets be real, Jaune is not a glory hog and he really isn’t But when it comes to Honor he cant even honor a good fight because Ruby with her Plot Device eyes helped Jaune distract Cinder enough to get a cheap shot in and it wasnt even a good hit. Now I was gonna give him a half-fail here since he honors Pyrrhas death....but since he mulls over it like crazy. COME ON MAN. SHES DEAD MOVE ON. 

Protecting the Weak and Defensless, Okay I can give this a half fail here since he does defend them well, but by Volume 8, he just cant save anyone not even those closest to him because He’s the secondary character that gets an arc......ugh. The thing about this here is that... you cant save everyone. That is understandable enough. And you cant just mull over it like its nothing. 

But even after everything he does get a win from me because he faced off against Cinder and Salem...on Valor. 

The thing is he should’ve started improving after Volume 4, oh and maybe USING HIS SHIELD?!?!? NOT TURNING IT INTO ITS “Greatsword Form” The only ones I can give to him is Valor and Loyalty.  

But for Kazura, being born in Brumel and being taught these virtues from when he started training in Brumel. The thing is there are more virtues to being a knight rather than just those up there. He honors his battles well, he tries his very best to save those who are defenseless and weak,he would not only honor his friend but those in positions of power as well. 

The only thing I see Jaune and Kazura being equal in is when something is not right. That those in high positions of power who abuse it are not above the law. But sadly, Jaune just meets halfway, because instead of dealing with the problem by reporting it to the rightful authorities oh idk. THE FUCKING ATLESIAN COUNCIL. Nah, dude just goes off on his own way to “help” Atlas 

What makes me more pissed off is that why wasnt Jaune just changed to a woman?! Cause it would’ve fit a lot more with his Joan of Arc who is a well known historical figure in the Hundred Years War.

With Kazura while in the end of my canon of Volume 7 he does abandon Atlas to its fate, but after a three month timeskip. He begins to regret what he has done and decides to go back in there. To help those in need, while finding out the truth behind his sword and family heritage. 

Kazura is more of a knight than Jaune and its a shame that the Vacuo arc isnt gonna be like fucking Mad Max....and I’ll be pissed if I dont see some shit like that there. 

What makes me more pissed off is that Kazura is like the Dark Knight story minus the Alternate Self thing, filling one with hope, love, and a reason why they use shields overall , while Jaune is like the Paladin quest line bland and confusing....

[tiarasandteacups]

Teacup’s Name Opinions: The Prince of Wales and his family

I am a Name Nerd. Seriously. I have a two page list of my favourite names that I want to give my eventual children, so I have OPINIONS.

These are my opinions, you are totally allowed and even encouraged to disagree and tell me what you are thinking.

Oh and I am also gonna offer up my own alternate names, because that’s kinda fun. Or at least it will be fun for me 😂

So welcome to Part 2, ecompassing Charles, Diana, Camilla, William and Kate and their kids and Harry and Meghan and their kids

Charles Philip Arthur George

From all the boys name from him and his brothers, Charles’ name is actually my favourite. It flows really, really well. Though for fun:

Teacup’s version: Albert Philip William George

I really like the idea of the Queen naming her firstborn after the name her father preferred. Also the UK would finally get their King Albert. Queen Victoria would be delighted.

Diana Frances Spencer

Stuff that drives me nuts: Give siblings not the same number of middle names: Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia McCorquodale, Cynthia Jane Fellowes, Charles Edward Maurice Spencer and Diana Frances Spencer. Am I the only one who thinks that these name sound like they all belong to a different Family? (Bolded name are the ones they are actually called). Sarah and Jane are like two of them most common names you can go with and then there’s Diana, which is not common at all.

So how about..Emma. And I’ll give her another middle name.

Teacup’s version: Emma Georgiana Frances

Emma is a whole lot more common than Diana, and it has some of that…old school elegance that Sarah and Jane have. Georgiana is after the Duchess of Devonshire who was a Spencer by birth, and we’ll keep Frances after her mother.

Camilla Rosemary

Wow, her parents really bought into the whole Flower name thing, didn’t they? She also has two siblings, Sonia Annabel Elliot and Mark Roland Shand. At least they all have two middle names. But again…how can you name your daughter Camilla and then come up with Mark for a son? These are like…so different. I do love Annabel though. But how about something shorter?

Teacup’s version: Iris Veronica

Iris is a lot shorter than Camilla and matched Sonia and Mark much better in my opinion. And Veronica keep the double flower thing alive, but is prettier than Rosemary.

Albert and Emma with their sons, Arthur and George

William Arthur Philip Louis

William the Conqueror. I bet I can find some tabloid newspaper with that headline. I like the name for a future King. The Arthur throws me off to this day tbh, because the other two have obvious family connotations, but Arthur doesn’t as far as I am aware (Though if you know better, please educate me. I once read that Charles wanted to name William and Harry, Arthur and Albert.)

Teacup’s version: Arthur Albert Philip Louis

Charles gets his Arthur and names him after himself, Philip and Louis Mountbatten.

Catherine Elizabeth

I mean, I guess it’s classic? (Btw, does anybody have any idea why her nickname is Kate and not Cate? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to write it with C, if her name also starts with C?) It’s kinda boring though. But Carole and Mike get two thumbs up for managing to actually create a sibling pairing that works: Catherine Elizabeth, Philippa Charlotte and James William.

Teacup’s version: Victoria Elizabeth

If I needed to rename her, I would go for Victoria, with the nickname Tori, because I feel that’s just as snazzy as Pippa is for Philippa. Elizabeth can stay the same.

George Alexander Louis

Alexander is and will always be one of my favorite names. George is…well, classic and kinda boring, but he’s the future King, so that was kinda to be expected.

Teacup’s version: Alexander Arthur Philip Francis

Alexander is gonna be the first name, Arthur after his father and Philip after the great-grandfather, with a nod to Kate’s side of the family with the middle name Francis, which is also Michael Middleton’s middle name.

Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

Another thing that drives me nuts: masculine and feminine forms of the same name in the same family. Did they really not come up with anything other than Charlotte and Charles? WHY? The Diana honorific was expected, though I always feel like using Frances would have been a much better pick, but they probably did not want the whole connection to Diana’s mother who was a bit…let’s say flighty. But there still must have been some other option right?

I feel like Diana is such a huge name to grow into and even when it’s meant to honor their grandmother, it just feels like such a immense burden to put on a little girl.

Teacup’s version: Helena Georgiana Charlotte Alice

Helena was a daughter of Queen Victoria, Georgiana is a middle name of Teacup!Diana, Charlotte after Teacup!Queen and Pippa and Alice as a nod to Philip’s mother

Louis Arthur Charles

Did Kate and Will run out of names? Is that the reason why he’s left with George’s middle name? I mean it’s a lot less regal sounding than his older siblings. Though I do like Louis as a first name.

Teacup’s version: William James Albert Louis

Alexander, Helena and William are all longer, multiple syllable names, Albert is after his grandfather, James is after Kate’s brother, and Louis after Louis Mountbatten.

Arthur and Victoria, with their kids, Alexander, Helena, and William.

Henry “Harry” Charles Albert David

The whole, give your child one name and then use another exclusively is something that I will never, ever understand. Seriously. Why? Also his name is now stolen by Teacup!Andrew, so he needs another one. With William being Arthur, I think I like George for Harry.

Teacup’s version: George William Richard John

George works well with Arthur and is also a nod to Teacup!Diana, Richard and John are nods to Teacup!Charles brothers and William is another classic name to fill the void.

Rachel Meghan

Her name is fine, nothing is wrong with it per se, I just dislike the name Meghan/Megan/Meagan/whatever other spelling variation there is of that name. It was no. 33 on the US popularity list in 1981 though, so it fits perfectly with the time period in which she was born. If I need to stay with the M.M. thing I do like Melissa.

Teacup’s version: Melissa Loyce

Doria Ragland’s middle name is Loyce and it would have been cute to bring that into her daughter’s name.

Archie Harrison

I also have a thing about nicknames as first names, because I just thing it sounds like something is missing. Maybe Archibald? Though that would have been kinda old-fashioned.

Teacup’s version: Oliver Philip George

Oliver, because I like that cool, laid-back vibe from it and then Teacup!Harry’s name and Philip as middle names.

Lilibet “Lili” Diana

Fun Fact: I guessed Charlotte’s name correctly, but I was totally off with Lili’s name. My last guess was Artemis. Though I also had Poppy and Myosotis. Also Allegra, which was said to have been Diana’s favorite girls name.

Again, the same thing about naming a kid one name and then calling it another. I dislike the spelling of Lili because it just looks less elegant to me than Lily. And I could also get on a soapbox about them using an individual private family nickname, but I won’t. So I think I’ll go with Poppy.

Teacup’s version: Poppy Charlotte Loyce

Poppy with it’s connotation of it being the Californian state flower and also the Remembrance Day flower, Charlotte for Teacup!Queen and then Loyce which Doria, Teacup!Meghan and her all share.

George and Melissa, with their kids, Oliver and Poppy

[hirvitank]

Waste + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I knew Death of the Outsider was coming, and as the Outsider was my favourite character I really wanted to explore the theory of him becoming human—the game hadn’t been released yet so we had no idea how it’d actually end, just that Billie and Daud were working together to kill him. Since the Outsider functioned as a sort of moral compass, I was very curious to try and imagine how his canon characteristics and biases would translate into a human version of him; how would he experience the world? How would he come to terms with such a humbling existence? Where did he come from and who was he? How would he cope with his own mortality, human emotion, the consequences following his choices in the Void? And most importantly; how had his being the Outsider affected his humanity? There was so much I wanted to see explored, things I feel the previous games hinted at but never elaborated upon. I wanted to write a psychological sort of story where we’d really be able to feel and experience whatever passed in his mind, and I tried my best to use my knowledge as well as my own experiences—flaws I either observed within myself or others, ideas, thoughts and feelings influenced by bias, depression, trauma, etc. When in art school, most of my inspiration came from the transience of things; my fear of death. I really wanted to take the subject and explore it through the eyes of someone previously immortal.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I think it was the original ending I wrote down first. I was supposed to write towards a particular scene, but somewhere along the way I’d decided to discard the idea entirely and opt for a happier resolution. I originally intended for the Outsider to die in the end, both to explore the feelings of those around him, as well as his own emotions accepting such a fate. I wanted a way to embrace death, as well as an output for all my bitterness regarding the subject; my anger at the ‘unfairness’ of it all, as well as my own trauma. I wanted to express loss, and in a way try and reveal the beauty of it. In the end, I had already found a way to deal with grief, and I also felt these characters deserved more; the fairness of fiction

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

That’s a REALLY difficult pick haha (does this mean literally a single line, or like a paragraph?). I’ll just share one of my favourite parts, because I can, and because it’s even more difficult to pick a single line from such a long story and I’m honestly horrible at making choices:

I heard the whispers of rats all around me, tiny feet scampering through the pipes; Billie’s gift tucked inside my shirt. My bare feet light, making little noise—as if I wasn’t really there. Perhaps I wasn’t. Perhaps I hadn’t been anywhere for centuries.

Up the stairs, cold stones. The walls decorated, grand and lavish. Empty corridors and lingering traces of hushed whispers—the guards had left their posts. She’d be there. How would that have made me feel? How should that make me feel? Almost, getting closer. My heart pounded in my ears, lungs greedily begging for more air, more—more. I felt like running. Strong currents of energy coursed through my veins, vibrated through bones and tendons. If I lost control, would I explode in a million pieces? Would the energy burst out and take my body apart, like the Void tearing into reality?

Who was I?

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Honestly impossible to pick, I’ll just take this monologue:

“Anton Sokolov: sire to 14 children, but a father to none. A brilliant mind at a terrible cost, enlightenment in exchange for the dark depravity of the soul. Fingers that turn the times into a revolution of progress, the same fingers that touch upon women as they do the cold inventions they craft. Objects close to his heart—objects from his mind.

“The stench of alcohol in his bed, his clothes, his skin. Liquors and paints; on the canvas, dripping from his fingers, in the eyes of the beggar he found in the flooded slums of a place forsaken. The stench of rot still fresh on his teeth as he smiles at young Emily Kaldwin and tells her: ‘Don’t worry dear, here in the tower you are safe.’ Don’t worry dear, for I know the truest evil lies not within the high walls of Dunwall but within my hands and mind, within the flooded basement where a woman screamed and bled until she hung her head and closed eyes from which the dark paint still leaked—forever.

“The human body—like clockwork—taken apart in exchange for coin, for valuables. But those things Anton Sokolov values most lay outside of his intellectual grasp; for all the reasoning in the world he is but a cold, lonely man in search of a higher purpose that is but a lie of his own twisted imagination. A delusion of grandeur.

“How does it feel? One’s biggest regrets are but feelings of little consequence. The true disease is the sickness that allows one to enact true consequence on an innocent in the name of a self-prescribed fate. But I suppose that’s the curse of boredom. That, is the curse of your brilliance.”

5: What part was hardest to write?

The first chapter! There’s nothing more difficult than a set-up imo; establishing characters, pacing, setting and feel. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go, but there was still so much I didn’t know that I had a hard time choosing how and where to start. I think it’s one of the most heavily edited chapters, just because I didn’t have a clear grasp on the characters or plot yet. (Also smut, oh lord help me)

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

There’s the original ending, and I did at one point start on a companion fic to explore Emily’s pov, but decided I better focus on finishing the original instead.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

The fact that it’s finished (hurrahhhh!!), and the themes and subjects.

12: What do you like least about this fic?

My own sense of humour, I always cringe reading my own jokes so I can only hope it hits with others—I genuinely have no idea, and it’s hard at times to figure out where to draw the line.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

WELL IM GLAD U ASKED!! I’ll try and keep this short, but these are some of the songs that carried this fic, not even exaggerating.

1. Lover Don’t Leave, Citizen Shade

2. Happy Life, Roland Faunte

3. Painting Roses, Dresses

4. ID, Charlie Allen

5. High Tops, Del Water Gap

6. Love Song for Lady Earth, Del Water Gap

7. Battle Cry, The Family Crest

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

EVERYTHING. I had literally no idea about writing, apparently. I’ve had no classes in literature, nor have I ever been taught the common rules when it comes to writing. I got to learn most of it thanks to my friends who helped edit (shoutout to @onewhoturns again), and through trial and error. I absolutely loved the experience of it, and I’m so grateful for all I’ve learned, and all I will continue to learn in the future. It’s given me the basis for my own original writing which I’m trying to pursue, and which I hope will someday become reality.

Thank you so much for these! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed answering every single one. ♥