#I was looking through my texts with one of my friends for a specific screenshot and found this instead

[mattscoquette]

hi all, i wanted to make one final and formal apology before i go. i’ve been trying to stay off tumblr for the last few days, but i’ve been seeing a multitude of people saying they want me and the other former members of the tripouts gc to deactivate to show that we truly are sorry. personally, i don’t see the reason in that, i think deactivation makes it look like running from the situation. however, i understand why people would want us to deactivate - to show we are sorry and don’t just care about our image.

i’ve been back and forth with the idea of deactivating since yesterday morning. i always said if i ever left tumblr, i wouldn’t deactivate because i want to keep my fics and other writings up. i still agree with that, and for that reason, i’m not deactivating, but i’m abandoning this blog. i was planning to just private all my posts, but i felt like that is the same as deactivating. i can’t say for certain if i’ll return and post on a new account, but i can say with nearly 100% confidence that i’m done posting on mattscoquette. as much as i wanted to leave tumblr on my own terms, i only feel that this is the right thing to do. thank you to everyone who supported be over the last year, i truly took every kind word and compliment to heart. i’m so appreciative for the friends i made on here, whether we talked once or everyday.

before i fully get into it, i just would like to say i am so so SO sorry for how i acted. i didn’t handle any situation in a correct or mature manner. i’m sorry if anything i’ve said made me come off as disingenuous, or like im trying to push this situation off and blame it on association.

i shouldn’t have immediately come to my friends defense when the slur was first posted, even if i thought she was allowed to reclaim it. it was wrong, and i’m sorry. i deleted and left the group chat, so i don’t have any original screenshots, but i can say that i didn’t respond to the text with the r slur. although there was more than one conversation going on at the time, it still doesn’t make it right. it was a stupid mistake that should have never been said or posted. with that said, i’d like to make it known we didn’t call chris the r slur. i don’t think anyone should ever be called that word, joking or not. i can speak for myself when i say i love him, and his brothers, to death. i always joke around about them, but at the end of the day i always go back to them. i wouldn’t have been writing and posting about them for so long if i hated any of them the way tumblr thinks we do.

as far as the group apology goes, there was no ai used. we did check it through grammarly, and used that, which is often flagged for ai. but the original post was not ai, nor were any of my apologies post. i can’t speak for everyone in the group, but mine and the group account’s were not ai.

i would also like to say i’m sorry to anyone my actions or my friend’s actions may have hurt in the past. specifically to cherry (@luvs4matt) and the girls in the sturnholics gc. although i didn’t personally partake in any hate towards that groupchat, it was still given on behalf of a group i was in, and i’m sorry. i’d also like to say sorry to cherry and for the way i treated her, she is a minor and i publicly accused her of copying me when i should’ve handled it privately. it was immature and stupid, and i regret my actions greatly because she still receives hate messages in her inbox on my behalf. i feel terrible for how i acted and handled that situation.

i don’t want to say names either, but there are a few close friends who this situation and hurt greatly, and i’m so sorry to them. i never ever wanted to make friends upset, and i greatly apologize. alongside that, i’m sorry to any mutuals, followers, or ANYONE i have upset with both my actions and the group’s actions.

i will say, however, although i do own up and admit to all my mistakes, i find it very unfair there are people on here trying to run both me and the other members off the app. i’m talking specifically to the tripoutsweirdos account, and rose (@bernardsbendystraws). we made a mistake, owned up to it, and apologized. there is no need to make continuous posts of hate directed at any of us. i turned off my inbox because i was being sent multiple hate messages and threats. targeting people for a mistake that they apologized for is not only wrong and immature, but extremely damaging to the people who were directly affected by the situation at hand. fighting this issue with more hate doesn’t do anything but create more drama, and make tumblr less enjoyable. dragging this out and making it more than it needs to be does no help at all.

in the end, what’s done is done, and there isn’t anything anyone can do to undo it. the only thing is to learn from it, and improve behavior. i am a firm believer in your actions speaking louder than your words. i can say i’m sorry until i’m absolutely blue in the face, but i feel that apology won’t be accepted until there is a visible change in my character. i’m choosing to leave this account behind to show it isn’t about the “clout” or the “fame” one gains from sturntumblr. i still love the triplets, and love to write, but i can do that on other platforms or another account. as appreciative as i am for the space i created on tumblr, i think it’s best for me to leave it to rest now. i always preached about making my blog a safe space for everyone, and i’m sorry if i ever didn’t make it seem that way.

again, thank you to everyone who supported me, and to everyone who held me accountable in this situation. it gave me chance to reflect on myself and really think about how i present myself online and who i surround myself with. i love you all, and thank you for listening.

-rylee

[reese1128]

bc i’m bored at work (i’m a game master at an escape room), here’s how I think the bad kids would do at an escape room

Adine is so into it and excited. every time she finds something she goes “fuck yeah!” and oh boy does she find stuff.

Riz is also super into it but he’s not as good. both bc he’s just too short and bc he’s cursed by the dice gods. he’s so frustrated like. i’m literally a licensed detective what the fuck. he keeps reading all the filler text around the room. he has to climb on fabian’s shoulders to get more height

Fabian doesn’t get it. he was dragged along for found family bonding time. he’s like we solve mysteries all the time with actual life and death on the line. why are we doing this for fun. he keeps asking for hints way too early and looking into the camera like the office.

Fig is weirdly into it. she doesn’t solve or find a bunch of stuff but she hypes everyone up who does. she’s so in character. if they’re in a pirate escape room u better believe she’s sayin arrrrg and making puns. if they’re secret agents, she’s calling everyone agent. she’s having such a good time wether or not they actually get out.

Gorgug is also just here for a good time. he’s finding some things but he’s never confident enough to voice his theories bc he thinks they’re dumb (they’re not he’s 100% right every time way before everyone else and it’s driving the gm insane) he’s mostly playing along with fig in character and having a chill time

kristen is honestly just fucking around creating elaborate backstories for their characters. her guesses to solving the puzzles are straight up impossible and she keeps looking for things where nobody would hide anything. until she casually finds the final key out of nowhere like a fucking maniac

[oc-ology]

How to get past the fear of OC posting

People should create for the sake of creating but people post to engage with the community. However, posting can be intimidating and anxiety-inducing for a lot of people. It’s easy to say “do it scared” but much harder to put into practice. So, I’ve put together a few steps that lead up to doing it scared. These won’t work for everyone and this is meant more as general advice.

Step One: Why are you scared?

The first step is to figure out what about posting is scary for you. Oftentimes, it’s not as simple as “what if my post flops” or “what if people think I’m cringe”. Once you’ve figured out the surface-level reason, dig a little deeper. If your post flops, does that lead to you doubting the worth of what you’re creating? If you’re worried about what people think, is that because you’ve experienced judgement before or are worried your inbox will be flooded with criticism?

Identifying why you’re scared will not only help you understand yourself better (yippee!) but you can also then work on the source of your fears and anxieties at your own pace.

Step Two: Find ways to lessen your fears

One way of working through anxiety online is to find ways to mitigate the specific source of your fear.

Some fears have easier solutions than others. If you’re worried about people criticising your work, you can turn off anonymous asks (as most people are less likely to be haters when there’s a name attached to it) or turn asks off entirely, as well as limiting replies to those who have been following for a week. This way, if someone does want to be an unpleasant individual, it’s a little harder for them to do so.

A lack of engagement is a little harder to remedy. Here, the only real solution is to try and divorce the idea that engagement = worth. Remember why you’re creating an OC. Because it’s fun! It’s an act of creation! Because you want to find a community…? A community or OC friends will never just drop into your lap. You need to seek them out yourself. Look into discord servers, forums, tumblr networks (are they still a thing?), fandom events and exchanges, and most importantly: go out of your way to send asks/questions to others and build friendships with them! If you’ve got social anxiety like me, this is going to be a big challenge. Which leads to the next step…

Step Three: Start small

It doesn’t matter how small your first step is - so long as that step is forwards! If you’re nervous about OC posting, find the smallest thing about them and post it with the expectation of getting no notes. That’s right, I want you to go in and expect it to flop. Anything over one note is an automatic win. This first post isn’t about engagement - it’s about getting over the initial fear of posting. 

It can be tempting to just go right out the gate with elaborate explanations of backstory, lore implications, power levels, everything. But the trick really is to start small. Most people scrolling tumblr aren’t going to read a few thousand words on something they’re not invested in yet. TL;DR is a curse that I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to. 

Instead, break up information about your OC into small pieces that can be posted one by one and have some kind of visual piece with it. People are usually more drawn to images than text. For example, which of these two things are more visually interesting?

What Perseus keeps in his bag:

Amulet

Tinderbox

A broken blade

50ft of hempen rope

25gp of silver powder

Waterskin

Rations (cheese, bread, sausage)

OR

Obviously this comes down to personal preference but a lot of people would find the illustrated version to be more interesting. You don’t need to be an artist to do this either! You could make a version of that example in photoshop or a similar program. Picrews, moodboards, edits, game screenshots and photography can all be used to add a visual element to your posts.

Step Four: Why am I still scared?

Fear is not easily stamped out. Anxiety is definitely the kind of thing that lingers. These steps aren’t meant to immediately make OC posting not-scary. That’s something that will only come with time as you get used to it. Again: Do it. Do it scared. Gradually, it’ll be less terrifying and in the meantime, you might be able to make a few friends who also want to talk about your blorbo.

[writteninlunarlight-years]

HI, LET'S TALK ABOUT ART THEFT

Hello, my name is Luna; I have gone by Luna for ages and have been friends with some fantastic artists here on Tumblr. One artist is @heart-of-the-morningstar

A few days ago, it was brought to our attention as a friend group that someone had reposted her entire work, and only in the small author note pointed out it was hers, and they were only doing this because the account has errors (Which it doesn't but we will get into that later)

The account in question for doing this is known as @luna-naoffcial

Now, from one Luna to another, stealing other authors' writing, purposefully taking art, and getting rid of the artist's watermark is wrong.

I have compiled a long list of proof of all the transgressions and my own personal grievances regarding what has happened and continues to happen in the artist community.

First off, story stealing:

To accomplish this, I went through every single story and copied not only the summary that this person wrote on their master list but also the first few lines of the text.

With this, I placed it in a Google reverse engine search and managed to find the accounts with the actual stories, all of which, from my understanding, do not belong to @luna-naoffcial.

They are as follows:

Masochism Tango: https://www.wattpad.com/story/365788359-masochism-tango-alastor-lucifer-vox

Molting Season: https://www.wattpad.com/story/365592419-%F0%9D%90%8C%F0%9D%90%8E%F0%9D%90%8B%F0%9D%90%93%F0%9D%90%88%F0%9D%90%8D%F0%9D%90%86-%F0%9D%90%92%F0%9D%90%84%F0%9D%90%80%F0%9D%90%92%F0%9D%90%8E%F0%9D%90%8D-radioapple

To Love A Killer: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46501777/chapters/117090241

Insanity: https://www.wattpad.com/story/361200644-%F0%9D%90%88%F0%9D%90%8D%F0%9D%90%92%F0%9D%90%80%F0%9D%90%8D%F0%9D%90%88%F0%9D%90%93%F0%9D%90%98

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

These are all stolen writing works, not to mention the one stolen from @heart-of-the-morningstar

We will move on to stolen artwork and the watermarks intentionally cropped out of view.

I opened a Google engine bar and an image search to find these. You can then download or drag and drop the image you are looking for.

With out further ado:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to dive into the 'apology' given out and the oddities I have found.

I don't know how many people on Tumblr are familiar with the Cait Corrian drama that happened a few years ago.

She was found creating many fake accounts on GoodReads and trying to ruin the chances of her other YA Authors' getting accredited.

She is also notorious for making fake discord messages to try and cover up her deciete

I post this specific account of the story and these screenshots to highlight the oddities of the following messages shared between @luna-naoffcial and her 'friend' @lia65lana towards a third individual named Kate. What is off to me is that there are a lot of odd things involved in this message exchange

For example, Lia is messaging Kate off Luna's account. Why not off your own account? On top of that, why is Kate on Luna's account? I trust many of my friends but would not hand over my account.

This conversation thread looks very similar to the Cait Corrians. Not only that, but the people in the conversation sound and talk very similarly. The grammar, spelling errors, and odd placement of some nouns and verbs are fluid between all 'three' people.

However, I am willing to step back and say it could be a dialect thing, as when I look at the @luna-naofficial account, my Google Translate automatically wants to translate from Mandarin.

What really struck me as odd however was the responses that both accounts posted as apologies

Lia's account is red, and as we have seen, Luna's is green.

Both accounts posted the EXACT SAME MESSAGES. Only Luna's had an additional ending.

As I was investigating for my friend, it changed again

Again, many of these messages don't fully make sense. There are many grammatical and spelling errors, all very similar to the original picture I added first. All of these 'three' people sound, talk, and make the same errors in all the same ways. I would like to play the benefit of the doubt. In these messages, there is talk of depression, death, and anxiety, all things I personally also struggle with and I understand are hard. However, they are not excuses for purposefully stealing other people's hard work and taking credit for them.

You blatantly take credit for others' work, which is wrong and disheartening.

Side note @alastorsmiles1930: The response and messages are also odd and read the same as all these others. This account is also the ONLY account that followed @heart-of-the-morningstar and the others in my friend group. I want to point this oddity out however I hope you are just an innocent bystander

From one Luna to another, please stop this and apologize. Not just to @heart-of-the-morningstar but to everyone you have been stealing from.

Thank you for listening My Moons

[theladybrownstarot]

ASTRO/TAROT COMMUNITY ⚠️

Kink-Satisfaction in return for a free Astro reading From @purplecyclefox !

[His another account is @tripurantaka] People have revealed this to me but requested not to expose them also that they have stated the person committed this act with many underage girls too .

[SCREENSHOT FROM THE PERSON]

This post is about what my friends faced when they went for a free birth chart reading offered by the astrologer turned out asking to - Degrade and insult him in order to get a reading when such a condition was not stated in the post too .

@generalcoldphilosopher @shadowyphilosophergentlemen

They have shared their experience and evidence through me to connect with you .

Generalcoldphilosopher :

I was quite confused at first when he said that he wanted to do a role play... it was like according to Me as if he wanted to make it fun and more ... also since I'm not that much Into sexual talks and things it was first quite confusing for Me too understand... I didn't wanted to look down on him because he was quite feminine but later I understood that it meant something else ....

Shadowyphilosophergentlemen :

I didn't knew anything about it like I went through their post and they didn't demanded anything there but the moment I texted them they agreed on one specific condition of getting them degraded. Like wtf ? I was confused till he said that it's his kink and I need to do it if I want to a get reading from him . At same it's quite shocking when he said , "other girls are doing it" like what the hell I didn't this is way wrong!

Do you people really think this kind of behaviour is acceptable? Like what the hell is going on in this community ? How long will this keep going here? Is this the ethic of the prestigious community should be like ?

[writeblood]

What type of tumblr user Hogwarts Legacy characters would be

Note, I haven’t actually been part of tumblr culture since the 2010s

Sebastian

cursed memes, infodumping on extremely niche topics, and extremely tumblr style humour.

The guy who knows precisely how to respond to someone saying ‘I like your shoelaces’.

He’s never watched Supernatural in his life but read up on all 25 seasons when the superhell penultimate season finale hit.

Gets into drama with anon asks.

political takes that are usually decent and anti-capitalist, except for one opinion that got him canceled

Sebastian once spent a night accidentally reblogging NSFW content to his main blog instead of his side one so now 50% of his fetishes have been exposed.

Every photo and video he posts/reblogs, he adds a description caption so Ominis can also be subjected to his taste in memes.

Ominis

primarily text and music based, but will occasionally have videos of nature or architecture.

A lot of quotes from angsty classical literature and MCR.

His tagging is methodical and precise.

He has a huge following because one time he posted a photo of himself (taken by Sebastian) and it went viral.

Has his asks turned off and follows less than 30 blogs.

Someone once posted an expose on him, calling him a trust fund kid, but since it was mostly screenshots without description captions he never came across it.

Anne

she has one tumblr that all her friends follow her on and one secret tumblr that’s the dark side, depression, venting diary kind of stuff.

When the site went through another round of content moderation, she deleted it.

she also accidentally deleted her main blog oops...

Her normal tumblr is skateboard trick videos, small fandom media, and a mish-mesh of whatever catches her interest for the month.

She really likes the elaborate, artsy makeup looks even though she herself rarely wears it.

reblogs posts related to chronic illness and eye related disability

Her humour is ‘just girly things: waking up covered in blood’

Poppy

sooo many cute animal videos.

Has a very cutesy layout with an animal cursor.

Some people hate her blog because it has an autoplay music widget playing MARINA/Olivia Rodrigo.

She has anon asks turned off but will respond to account asks.

Occasionally reblogs a vegan/animal activist post.

She has a few close friends and will not hesitate to reblog their posts with encouraging comments.

Natsai

on the multi-lingual side of tumblr– english, french, and swahili

Lots of funny personal anecdote stories

Reblogs feminist posts that either deal with actionable things (protesting, community organising, safety) or talking about feminist public figures

Reblogs black hair tutorial/pics with the mindset that she’ll try it out but never does.

martial arts videos but the realistic ones

Likes a lot of special effects art in movies/tv shows so if you follow her with SFW filters turned off, you might see some fake blood.

Amit

studyblr, langblr, and a little bit of geeky stuff

okay, it's a lot. He's a fan of non-DC, non-Marvel comic and Star Trek

will write a 900 word breakdown of that one specific scene and its symbolism

too ashamed to openly admit he reads fanfic but reblogs a lot of posts from accounts who do

Imelda

1 post complaining about the complexities of using tumblr

3 posts related to women's football (soccer for americans)

1 personal video of her scoring the winning goal for her team

1 post and response to clowning on Garreth

'last posted 1 year ago'

MC

I’m using my OC Anesidora Fig from Shadow consumes the Sun (link in profile)

Used to have one of those semi-anonymous blogs where it’s filled with aesthetic photo compilations (light and dark academia, romanticising living in old cities, tea and coffee photoshoots despite not liking the drinks), but then she went ‘lets be mutuals, Ominis :)’ and realised…

So she panic nuked her blog and started over.

Now it’s full of studyblr, tagamemnon gossip over dead ancient roman poets, and love/romantic poems/excerpts.

english and french language included

went viral when she posted a class project video where she edited how to train your dragon but the dragon was replaced with her pet reptile a la "Jurassic Park but with a Cat" (OwlKitty)

When she starts to fancy Ominis, her reblogged love quotes start to focus more and more on his specific attributes

Since the texts she reblogs don’t have crass language or kinks, she thinks it’s entirely SFW. However, Ominis has learnt not to open her blog when he’s not alone or someone will ask him why he’s red in the face.

Her asks are open but she ignores them 90% of the time.

[mothswritingeye]

So I have prophetic dreams. The way they go is I have a dream as a little kid and think nothing of it, and then have that same dream years later and realize “wait, that dream that I first had several years ago references a thing that only came out recently”. The dreams are mostly nonsense, but they do reference characters/locations/people that I only learned about recently.

Three examples of said dreams to prove that I’m not just making stuff up:

1: I end up in a copy of my old middle school that has a game like super smash bros ultimate, and I have to fight master hand (although the game is wrongly referred to as super smash bros brawl). I first had this dream before I went to middle school, before I met a teacher featured in the dream, before I knew the super smash bros franchise existed, before I knew of characters featured in that game (hero and master hand), before super smash bros was even revealed, and possibly before super smash bros brawl came out, although I’m not sure on that last part as I’ve never played that game before.

2: The five dragonets from the wings of fire series discovering a different continent and meeting a dragon named Rappa. I first had this dream before I knew about the wings of fire series, before they decided to introduce a second then-unknown continent, and before a character from an unrelated video game Honkai star rail was revealed named Rappa. Honkai star rail also didn’t exist back then, maybe not even Honkai impact third, and I didn’t know about Mihoyo or their other games.

3: I have to go to an alternate dimension to occupy members of the president’s security’s bodies to get him to a specific location. When I first had this dream, Obama was president, and I thought my brain had just made up a president. The president featured in my dream was Joe Biden, who I didn’t know existed when I first had this dream. We have to go through a high school in the quest to occupy the security’s bodies, and two students look significantly like Janis and Damien from the original mean girls movie, which I’ve never watched and didn’t know existed until recently. After a certain point, the president and a non-descript friend that’s helping me with this plot is depicted as a stick figure, specifically the one from animator v animation, which is a series I have never watched and have only seen one screenshot of very recently. When we first start occupying the security’s bodies, I’m holding a water for elephants plushie that was only produced for the recent musical, that only debuted earlier this year, that I saw less then two weeks ago and that I brought. (Proof I brought the plushie below). I also didn’t know about the book or movie until I saw the musical very recently. The members of the security team whose bodies me and the friend inhabit are also characters from dragon ball, an anime/manga that I didn’t know about until a few years ago, after I had the dream, and I’ve never watched or read dragon ball. (I think the characters are vegeta and goku, but I really wouldn’t know).

Proof I have the water for elephants plushie:

So you might be wondering, why exactly am I telling you this? Well, recently I had a dream about Angel and Husk from Hazbin hotel that I first had several years ago, and there was a specific shot that I believe may end up in a song in season two, as well as being confirmation (we could guess this, but still) that Husk is getting a love song with Angel.

(The text says:

they fall from reality

Husk is singing

He rows right

Note: Body swapping hijinks?)

(I would also like to advise you to take the body swapping stuff with an ENTIRE PITCHER of salt. I think that has a less then one percent chance of actually getting in the show)

I’m aware that only I have tangible proof that these dreams are prophetic, but I want to post this now so if the shot ends up in the actual episode I can say ‘I told you so’ and hopefully use this post as proof I have prophetic dreams.

[mer-acle]

Silent Wars Apartment -V3

you know the drill, text and screenshots under the cut :)

Hello everyone,

We are back at the Silent Wars Apartments, version 3. As you can maybe tell, we had some changes in layout. So as you can maybe tell, we had some changes in layout, which is specifically that both of the bedrooms are a little bit bigger and we have this fire escape on the side. There's nothing on it. It’s just a fire escape, and I don't think they’re allowed to put stuff there. They can enter or exit via the window, which I hope makes sense (edit: no, needs to be adjusted for accessibility, Athena will get a door instead of a window)

Athena's room used to end here, so she gained one tile row here, and her room is now a little bit bigger. Ares also gained about the same on his side, though I don’t quite remember why.

Okay, so let’s just get started as usual with the entryway. There are only mild changes here. @persony-person873 inspired me to do this, because I also didn’t like that the pride art was very repetitive, so when they put other art on top of it, I did the same thing. Otherwise, there are no significant changes, except for these two art pieces. I added some detail, like a buzzer where you can let someone in from the front door, and I added a light switch because why not.

Moving on to the living room – this is where we made some changes. I recently bought the Growing Together Sims pack. It was cheaper than usual. It was 12 euros instead of 40, so that was great. No regrets, except very mild regrets because we didn’t really need the pack, but we have it now, and it has these frames where we can put pictures. I'm not the biggest fan of how it looks right now because it feels empty, so I actually think I prefer my old version, but I changed it anyway.

We have a puzzle on the table, which is also a Growing Together activity. I think Athena would enjoy it, personyperson also did this. I also put some board games and puzzles around, which are fun. I changed up the poster too. It's a sad cat poster, which I thought was quite cute.

Next is the kitchen. I finally gave in and added the beautiful blue stove that nobody knows where it came from. I also added a stand-in for the caffeinated owl chart. Otherwise, no changes in the kitchen, except I still don’t have a dish rack. If I did, I’d probably move the microwave.

Back to the living room corner, we still have the sad cat poster which actually could be a calendar maybe… maybe this is like their family calendar almost.

Ares' room – As I said, Ares gained some space, specifically on this side. The layout of his room is a little different now. His desk used to be by the window, but it's not anymore because the window is further behind. Finally gave him a punching back, which fits now bc the room is bigger. Every time I do his room, I change what kind of shelving he has, I'm never quite happy with it, this time I just took these three identical shelves.

I remember that @persony-person873 was like, „oh, that's a picture of him and Aph.- It's an apple!“ which I thought was very funny. So maybe it is that as well.

I added like a clock here and I had to add this little piece to hide the bed that is clipping through the wall, but now he has like a little cabinet here and some storage.

so this window seat area is supposed to just be a space where you can sit, there's like a blanket and some pillows on top of it, which would be super nice for Aphrodite or like in general when he has friends over, he just has more seating. It's kind of fun because it's very soft and it contrasts a little bit with the rest of his room, which is just very, „I'm a guy in my late teens“ and a window seat is just nice. I would love to have a window seat, I barely have a window.

Athena's room:.

As you can see, Growing Together came in clutch with this little owl family, which we love for her.

And also very ashamedly, I have to say that I used CC for this. I don't really like using CC for my builds, I usually do upload them to the gallery. Not this one because it's not functional, but still at the same time, also for personyperson, because on console, I don't think you can use CC, so it feels a little unfair.and I'm sorry, but we don't have a sewing machine in any pack, I just wanted to see the vision. And Athena does have a sewing machine and she fixes her own clothes, so it just made sense.

We have very few changes over here. I think this whole area, the way it's laid out, as like a modular wall is new. There's my other piece of CC, which is a little owl plushie. And we have Athena’s graduation certificate and a ribbon on the wall there.

Anyway, there's like a tile left here, this is a laundry basket, right behind the bed, there's like a one tile where I would imagine Athena tends to sit.

No changes in the bathroom. Here’s their storage space, it's very small, I didn't bother to furnish it or like fill it because I have nothing specific for now, so I didn't like bother to fill up the shelves or something.

Persony Person, your turn :3

[noxiatoxia]

SDR2 Debugging Menu: Ongoing Mystery

On July 24th, 2017, a post was made to Reddit with the following screenshot:

The post title read, "This menu appeared in SDR2 when I pressed random buttons?"

Commenters were quick to point out this looked like a Debug menu, and asked OP how they had managed to open it.

Op had this to say:

"I was using a PS4 controller. I pressed Triangle,X, and both L1 and R1 at the same or close times in general, but I don't know the exact combo"

It has been 8 years since this post. To my knowledge, nobody since has talked about this, nor has found a way to replicate what u/Nargieo managed to pull off.

Let's talk about it.

Firstly, you may ask, is it a hoax?

Obviously, the chance is never 0, and I'll take the L if it is fake. But I personally believe it to be real.

The OP's account is suspended now, but using the Wayback machine, they seemed to be a fairly standard user who was a fan of multiple games and anime, Danganronpa just happening to be one of those things.

Furthermore, the font seen in the screenshot matches the debug_menu.ttf font file found inside the files of SDR2.

The words on the menu themselves also match how certain aspect are referred to in files only. For example, in the games files, Island Mode is called "SV" or "Survival Mode", matching the "Surv_Char" and such we see on that menu.

According to a friend of mine that knows more about game dev than I do, it is apparently common to use the controller of a "bigger" console (a PS4 opposed to a PSVita in this case) to play test games. A Debug menu being coded in specifically for this controller but not the Vita controller would be normal, they said.

Obviously, the chance of it being faked is possible. But considering all the errors and things left inside the Dangan games by mistake as it is, this seems apt. I believe it is real.

Why has no one talked about this in 8 years?

That's a good question. I don't know. But I feel it should be looked into more than it is now. Having access to the Debugging menu could give us more insight into the game than simply rifling through the files could. It is also just a cool thing to have.

By the way, considering how SDR2 is built, finding the debug menu for it likely means whatever button input will also work to open the debug menu for DR1.

What we know:

This took place on the PC version of SDR2. Based on the date being 2017, it is likely the newest Steam build which came out in Sept. 2, 2016. Build ID is 1312489.

Since the mouse icon is still used in the textbox to prompt the user to advance text, they had Keyboard and Mouse enabled for control hints. Not Gamepad, despite using a PS4 controller.

Speaking of, the user recalls pressing L1, R1, X, and △ in some order. This should be taken with a grain of salt, as they may be misremembering or have pressed something else without knowing. Just keep an open mind that other buttons may have been used.

Since we see a character (Kazuichi) speaking, we can assume it is unlikely (but not impossible) that the Options or □ button were pressed, as both these buttons open a new screen (the "Help" screen and Student Handbook respectively).

As the User said, they achieved this by pressing "random buttons" and were shocked to find this. Meaning something very important: This screen is something one could find on accident. That's important as it rules out any long codes that would be near impossible to input on accident, or use of the PS4 touch pad in the case of writing something specific.

The question is now: how do we replicate this?

That's the million dollar question. I, personally, have spent 3 hours so far in the middle of trials pressing random buttons and any combination of L1, R1, X, and △ that I can think of. I haven't had any luck so far.

I can't do this by myself, obviously. So I implore everyone who is interested (and has access to both SDR2 on Steam and a PS4 controller) to try this themselves. If you have any insight on Game Development, please add your thoughts.

However, accessing the debug menu without knowing how you did it is pointless. So here is what I suggest:

Open SDR2. Make sure it is not full screen. Have it off to the side.

Use the website Gamepad Viewer to visualize your PS4 controller.

Screen record as you play. I suggest OBS if you don't have a screen recorder, but anything works.

If you don't get the debug menu and you feel like you're done playing, just delete the video file. If you do get it, you can stop recording and look back at the footage to see what exact combo of buttons you pressed.

It may look something like this, set up wise:

If nothing else, I hope this post gains traction so knowledge of this re-enters the Danganronpa community. It would be a shame to leave this to fade into obscurity.

[transflynnscifo]

Words with deeper meaning- Yuri and The Second Star

If you remember a post I made some time ago about a certain something that Flynn says, well, here is what I would call "the Yuri version"! I've decided I wanted to tackle his iconic sword Second Star. Shoutout to my friend Choc for discussing it so extensively with me, and for also providing good ideas for thought :)

This goes without saying, but everything further down the post includes spoilers for the game! I also ramble semi-extensively about language, like I have the previous time.

So let's take a look at the sword! For the unaware, the guaranteed way to get it is as a drop from fighting Estelle (which is overall one of my most favorite parts of the game).

My own screenshot, in English. Here is the flavor text:

Second Star “The first one is for him...” A sword named with a deep message.

Skills you can unlock for this are "Special" (a requirement to perform mystic artes) and "Combination 2", a skill used for combo building. Given this is more or less what I would call his "canon" sword (as it's seen in multiple illustrations featuring Yuri, and even the opening of the game), the availability for his mystic arte through this checks out. Otherwise, nothing too notable yet.

There are two ways to read into what "the first one" means:

This could be referring specifically to Flynn's sword, Radiant Star. Here is my screenshot of it:

flavor text:

Radiant Star A sword designed in the image of an especially bright star. The star at its tip is a mark of its strength.

The skills here are "Hero", "Rival Surge" and "Rival Surge 2". The first skill is unique to Flynn and how he plays against non-humanoid enemies, with the latter two skills being different boosts based on Yuri's actions in battle.

And of course, in order to gain access to it, you need to win the 100-man melee as Flynn. (It's particularly fun because you need to face off against Yuri)

Further comparison between the two swords will be done further down the post.

2. "The first one" could represent Flynn and Yuri's feelings about him.

My friend Choc says that in this case "the first one" is not truly a specific object but an abstract concept that illustrates Yuri's feelings on Flynn and himself. And I agree with it wholeheartedly.

Based everything the narrative puts down in the game, this is simply another instance of the fact Yuri considers himself second best to Flynn, while simultaneously putting Flynn on what I love referring to as "the pedestal". Even the game itself, through flavor text and descriptions, loves reminding the player that Flynn is essentially the hope and shining light for the knights. This is also, in my opinion, an indirect reflection of Yuri's feelings.

2.5 I'm opening this point based on an idea suggested by Choc:

Let's first recall the legend behind the Vesperia star: and how it's about a brother that went to save the world from the end of the world, while his sister stayed behind to protect the world. The game eventually reveals that this is a fantasized way to say that Zaude is the core protecting the world, while the Vesperia star is in fact the blastia that hid the Adephagos out of sight, keeping it at bay. But what is also worth noting is that this is supposed to draw a strong parallel between Yuri and Estelle with those fictional siblings.

(hey, if you want to feel emotional, the track that plays during the Estelle boss fight is called "The Full Moon and the Morning Star")

Why am I mentioning this? Well, one fun thing that Choc has pointed out is that the audience becomes explicitly aware of that intended parallel, and particularly of Yuri's comparison to the brother who sacrifices himself for everyone else. The hero that steps up and leaves his family behind. Compare that to Yuri's tendency to sacrifice his well-being and tendency to "do the job no one else wants to do."

However, let's imagine we're in Yuri's mental headspace for this. Is it possible to argue that Yuri would hear such a legend and have his own interpretation of it? Choc has proposed that it's one where Yuri thinks that this kind of hero would befit someone like Flynn, instead. He obviously isn't aware of how the narrative intends the legend to be perceived in regards to him, and on top of his (eventual) idealized look at Flynn, it certainly seems worth considering.

As to whether 1 or 2 is the correct answer, it was actually a trick. I believe both are ideas that can coincide here.

Now, let's go to the Japanese flavor texts to further discuss the swords!

flavor text for Second Star:

ニバンボシ 一番はあいつの為にとっておいてやるさ…… ……ってワケでもないが意味深な名前を持つ刀

flavor text for Radiant Star:

レイディアントスター ひときわ強く輝く一つ星。そんな思いをこめて作られた剣。剣先の星が強さの証

I will try not to go too much into the language use here, because this post would otherwise get even longer than it is.

But for the sake of comparison, while both sword names use the Katakana script, Flynn's sword is English transliterated into Japanese, while Yuri's is in Japanese, but using Katakana.

(many weapons in Vesperia, including ones with Japanese names, are written with Katakana, as opposed to Hiragana and Kanji. It's mostly done for flair/style.)

Here's where it starts getting interesting. Let's look at the Japanese closer:

レイディアントスター ひときわ強く輝く一つ星。そんな思いをこめて作られた剣。剣先の星が強さの証

ニバンボシ 一番はあいつの為にとっておいてやるさ…… ……ってワケでもないが意味深な名前を持つ刀

I've marked certain instances that I will be discussing here.

一つ星 (hitotsu hoshi)

Now, the flavor text for Flynn's sword uses this, which is translated as "single star" or "a star". In the dictionaries I use, this also translates to "evening/morning star", which seems to invoke the fictional Vesperia star again.

I need to mention the fact that Japanese has a lot of possible variations for counter suffixes. for "一つ", this is using the the general one.

2.一番 / ニバンボシ (ichiban / niban boshi)

Do not mind the fact they're using kanji and katakana respectively. Under normal circumstances, ニバン would be 二番.

These are two counter suffixes in Second Star's name and flavor text! "First" and "Second", these are used to count an order for things.

What I particularly enjoy about this here is that Radiant Star's counter suffix is not used to invoke an order for first, second, etc. It's a single bright star. So it's only with Second Star where the order is invoked, indirectly through Yuri.

Let's look at the two other interesting instances of the text in Second Star!

3. あいつ (aitsu)

This goes without saying, but Yuri is extremely impolite in Japanese. He uses a lot of informal/short forms in sentences, many of which are considered very rude. I won't dissect every instance of Yuri opening his mouth to prove this, but one notable instance is this word (and variation) that Yuri enjoys to use regularly. He uses it for people he isn't close with, he's used it for people he's close with. I've found an instance for him using it with Judith, so he doesn't even limit it to gender. And, of course, he's used it to refer to Flynn.

Now, what does this word even mean? Well, it comes in a set of three, こいつ, そいつ, あいつ. (koitsu, soitsu, aitsu), which are informal/rude ways of referring to people. The main difference between them simply depends on the position of the subject. In the third one's case, it's referred to someone who is "far away from both the speaker and the listener".

Fun fact, Rita also regularly uses these words when she speaks.

Anyway, I just wanted to translate the phrase "あいつの為に", because it's basically "for that guy's sake/for the sake of that guy". thank you

4.ワケでもない (wake demo nai)

Now here is the part that stumped me while reading the flavor text. Normally, this phrase would be written as わけでもない, but the marked in green is in Katakana! でもない is a form of negation, and I've grabbed an example of it from this website:

梅雨時でもないんだから、傘は要らないんじゃない。 "Since it's not the rainy season, there's no need for an umbrella."

ワケ/わけ is most likely 訳, which can mean conclusion/reason/judgement.

When I was looking into the phrase, I also came across "わけではない" (wake dewa nai), which from what I understand is a variation of the negation above. It's used to indicate "It doesn't mean that..."

So, because I wanted to challenge myself, I also wanted to try translating the Japanese flavor text!

warning! amateur translation! (and if it's got a severe error please feel free to let me know) (shout out to the multiple dictionaries I've used)

一番はあいつの為にとっておいてやるさ…… ……ってワケでもないが意味深な名前を持つ刀

"The first one is set aside for him (that guy) / his (that guy's) sake..." Even if he said it had no meaning, the katana carries a meaningful name.

The flavor text offers us the option that Yuri essentially said "The first one is for him" casually, but in reality, the naming of the sword holds a deep meaning to him. The localization shortened it, but ultimately carries the intended message.

I assume this was done to cut out the repetition found in the usage of the word "meaning". Japanese has several ways of saying it, but English is much more limited.

Finally, let's actually move away from the two swords, and point to something closer to late/endgame. Vesperia No.1 and Vesperia No.2! Screenshot from Hyouta:

What I wanted to point out is that the party never ends up using Vesperia No.1 as intended, right? Because it is at a point in the game where Flynn needs help on Hypionia. Yuri, in a surprising turn of events, makes his first selfish request from the others, doesn't he?

That's right, he asks to use the first one, for him.

And later on, when Rita repairs and perfects it, No.2 becomes a sword that Yuri can equip in battles!

So now you can sit with this knowledge too.

Thank you for reading this post! Yuri Lowell is gay

[thesnazzysharky]

Waffling about/reviewing Trevor Henderson's Cryptids because I think they're cool (Part 1)

Today!.. well... you can read the title can you? There will be a total of 10 cryptids included in this list. Some I will have more to say than others. I'll be reviewing these weirdos based on things like their design, additional info or lore, scare factor, and overall quality of their image(s) and I may offer some theories here and there. If the cryptid has more than one image to it, I will be stating which one is my favorite. I will most likely be making more parts to this where I review even more.

Before we get into that, I do want to establish some things. 1. This list and the following lists will not be going in any specific order. All of the cryptids chosen and their placements will be random aside from maybe the very last one. So don't view this as a ranking list.

2. A lot of Trevor's creations do not have official names. Most are either given a name by fans or they straight up don't have a name at all (or at least not one that I could find). I'll be making sure to specify on whether a name is official, was made by fans, or was made specifically by me. For example: "This creature is officially known as...", "This creature is known by the fans as...", "I personally call this creature..." You get the point. 3. When it comes to the more indepth cryptids (like Siren Head, Cartoon Cat, Long Horse, ect). I may have to talk about those in their own separate post because there's a lot more images and captions to go through and analyze. 4. Trevor has multiple different social media platforms where he has given out information about his creatures. With some of those platforms being deleted or made private in the case of his Twitter account. This makes keeping up with and trying to gain information about his creatures tedious and confusing. Some info on one platform may not be available on the other. Or it may not exist anymore due to succumbing to link rot. Misinformation about these creatures thus spreads easily. Making it not easy to tell what's official and what's essentially just headcanon. The Trevor Henderson Wiki and its unprofessional and abandoned state is a big example of this.

I'll be making sure that the info I have is as accurate as possible and comes from a primary source somewhere. Even if that source has succumbed to link rot, I at least know that it existed at one point. If possible, I'll also be providing additional screenshots if they're available so I don't sound like I'm talking out of my ass.

If I make a mistake or you think I should add something, please let me know so I can change or add it. With that, lets get started!

10. The Smile Room

"07/27/06 - Two teenagers go missing after breaking into the "Neb's Fun World" bowling in Oshawa, Ontario. A friend finds a cell phone while looking for them and turns it into the police after finding this photo. Upon investigation, "The Smile Room" is not a part of the building."

A lot of Trevor's creations look like freakish abominations or eldritch horror beings. He sometimes goes for a more simple approach though. This being officially known as The Smile Room is a pair of teeth within a door. Yet that's all it needs to be a very cool design. Seeing something like that paired with the text above the room ominously and vaguely stating "THE SMILE ROOM" is incredibly bizarre as it is disturbing. The darkened gums, apparent saliva, the crooked teeth. A huge nope right there. Somebody get this thing checked out to a dentist ASAP. The caption states that this "room" made two teens go missing and that when the police went to investigate further, the room was gone. So there's that fear of the unknown factor. What is this thing?

A later image depicts the mouth being able to pull itself out of its room with tendrils, which looks very disgusting and discomforting.

Then we get this crazy ass image that's simply captioned "smile room host".

So not only is the mouth thing able to physically move itself around, but it can also have a "host" akin to a parasite.

Trevor later went to state the following about this thing "A wormhole between our universe and the mouth of some sleeping, near-dead entity of unfathomable size, any abandoned room or space could become a "smile room". Anyone drawn in is decimated (much like a black hole), though it may make ambulatory hosts as a last resort."

So the Smile Room we're seeing is only a small portion of... whatever it is. It's a dying beast making its way into our world so it can feed out of desperation. When asked why its close to death, Trevor responded...

Entropy meaning lack of order or predictability. We don't know what type of entropy the Smile Room is going through, but my guess is that it has something to do with its home universe. Something really bad must have happened there if this beast had to resort to eating smaller beings in a whole different universe. Makes you wonder what horrors are going on in that universe.

Damn strong start here. I like the Smile Room a lot. It's a simple yet unnerving design with some perfect mystery to it. All of its artwork is banging and nice looking too.

As for my favorite illustration of it, I really like the one depicting the Smile Room Host. The design is unnerving and the red lighting in the background, as if to signify that you're in serious danger, is great. Although I have to go with the first and original one when it comes to being my favorite. It's simply perfectly and effectively ominous. Not to mention that the story behind the background itself is interesting.

The gums and teeth are fake obviously, but the text above the door is surprisingly real. The Smile Room is a real life thing that originated from a now abandoned asylum. Dating back all the way to the 1920's!

You can even find a 26 minute video exploring said abandoned asylum right here. It's a wonderful watch that manages to be both serene and unsettling (considering how unethical asylums were back then). The camera work is great, the pieces of soundtrack here and there are atmospheric, and the two dudes in the video exploring the asylum aren't annoying. When you have the time, give it a watch!

Just a very cool creature. 5/5

9. Photo-Booth Man

"For a period of roughly three months, from April to mid June of 2002, a public photo-booth at the Steltson Oaks Mall in the San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles only produced photos of the same man, regardless of who was using the machine. The man was always facing dead ahead, with an expressionless face. It was hard to determine what age the man was, though he appeared to be in his late teens to early 20's. By early June, photos of the man were being produced much more rapidly, and they had begun to change. Photos of the man increasingly came out warped, with staring eyes and deformed features. Eventually, the machine was decommissioned due to customer outcry, with many complaining of being so alarmed by the photos, they would dream of the man. It's current location is unknown. Existing photos of the photo-booth man are said to fetch high numbers at very specific auctions, held for people who specialize in finding such things."

One of Trevor's older creations. This one is pretty straight forward and simple, but I like it a lot. Officially known as Photo Booth Man, the images of this guy are well made, managing to strike the uncanny valley effect for me. You can tell he's supposed to be human, but something about him just feels... very wrong. I especially like this specific illustration of the man.

The idea of a photo booth popping out weird and creepy pictures of someone you don't recognize is great and it makes you question the paranormal nature going on here. Why is this photo booth producing photos of this man? Did something happen in or near the photo booth? The deformities of the man's face in the later pictures could imply that something gruesome happened to him. Leading to him looking like... that. To speak about the caption provided to the illustrations, it does a pretty good job at making them all the more chilling. Something that I find interesting and made a mental note of is that a good chunk of Trevor's earlier work were more willing to have lengthy captions or at least be more descriptive when it came to giving a bit of info about the cryptid. Trevor would later lean on the more vague and cryptic side when it came to the captions in his later illustrations. I assume because leaving things more vague makes these creatures all the more scarier. I think the more detailed caption works well here nonetheless. I like the little story it provides and the bit of mystery is pretty cool.

There's definitely more scary or interesting cryptids, but still pretty decent. 3.5/5

8. We See You

"Tape found by the side of the road in the Colorado desert in November of 2012. Footage is the same three minutes of footage on a loop, with the camera recording out the passenger side window as the driver and passenger panic. Unknown figures wave to the car. While at first the tape appears to be made of the same few minutes on repeat, and the dialogue is the same, it appears that each three-minute segment bears small differences from each other, such as the pattern of clouds in the sky and the number of figures."

Okay, this one is really disturbing and I love it. Simply because of how this feels like something straight out of surreal nightmare. These poor souls ended up in this "trap" as one of them calls it as seen in the image. Considering how the tape plays out, I assume that they were just going on a drive in the desert, before realizing everything around them felt like it was stuck in a loop.

That was when they began to panic and when the waving shadows started popping up. Something then eventually happened to them that caused them to disappear and that tape being the only thing left of them. There could be other possibilities and interpretations as to how the exact events played out though.

Nonetheless, this one is really creepy and good. Anything involving getting stuck in a repetitive loop is horrifying and this is a good example of that. The waving shadows are unnerving, the dialogue seen in the image where the driver and passenger are in fear and disbelief as to what's happening is well done, and the "WE SEE YOU" text in bright red on a billboard (hence the name I've given to this entity) brings everything all together.

You do wonder what happened to the driver and passenger. I can't imagine that they went out in a peaceful way. Either that or maybe they met a fate worse than death.

Very good 5/5

7. Mr. Bag

"mr.bag"

Officially known as Mr. Bag, this is easily one of my favorites among Trevor's cryptids and it pains me how underrated he seems to be. We're first introduced to this thing by the image seen above. Simply captioned "mr.bag". Not much info to gain for now, but this illustration is already a great introduction to him.

This dude is creepy as all fuck, especially with his pale face, closed eyes, and lack of any expression or emotion. But then it gets worse once you realize how disturbingly tall he seems to be. Further implied by the simplistic drawing behind him. More interestingly though, the second simple drawing depicts a person going towards a small house or shed. With Mr. Bag presumably being inside.

Things only get more interesting when we see the other images and the info they provide.

This image of Mr. Bag would be posted after the previous one. Depicting what is presumably a young girl that is "friends" with Mr. Bag. She seems to have drawn this artwork for her friend or maybe to show off to her parents.

We get some info that we already knew. Such as how his trash bag body is shiny and how he's so damn tall that he could easily sign up for the NBA. But then we get some disturbing new info. The "WRAPPED UP INSIDE" text with the artwork depicting a dead person inside Mr. Bag.

This explains Mr. Bag's complete lack of expression in the first image. He's dead... yet he's still alive at the same time somehow? Also curious as to how Mr. Bag is able to move at all, since the artwork clearly shows that the dead person inside the bag doesn't fully fit their "casing". Is Mr. Bag supposed to be the dead person or the bag itself? Odd but very interesting. Let's go to the next illustration.

“Hey Dad. It’s going ok. Yeah. I can tell it’ll take a lot longer to clean than I thought. I haven’t even touched the basement yet. I thought I heard an animal down there! Yeah, I know you warned me. It’s ok. It’ll give me a chance to say goodbye. Yeah. Love you too. Bye.”

The caption here implies that whoever is texting their father is moving out of their household. Perhaps it's the young girl that made the crayon drawing we saw earlier, now all grown up.

That aside, they state that they heard an animal down in the basement. And how "it" will give them a chance to say goodbye. The illustration depicts Mr. Bag in said basement who, strangely, changed a bit in appearance. Looking to be a bit taller.

A very ominous and unnerving image right here. Considering the fact that Mr. Bag was apparently making noises that could be mistaken for an animal and that the speaker's father warned them about going down in the basement with Mr. Bag; something tells me Mr. Bag isn't too happy that the "friend" they knew since childhood is planning on leaving him. And so we get to see what exactly happens when Mr. Bag is upset in the next image.

“It followed us even when we fled the house. I saw it for the first time while stopping for gas. We’re still driving. I’m afraid to stop for more than a night. It’s always close.”

Annnnd this folks is why becoming friends with a haunted corpse inside a trashbag is probably NOT a good idea. As expected, Mr. Bag didn't take the goodbye so well, and now he's straight up stalking the speaker and presumably the rest of the family that were living in the household.

What's incredibly unnerving here is that Mr. Bag got taller once again. He's gigantic now. That's because he has killed a few things at this point while chasing down the speaker. Under the original image on Twitter, a user theorized that Mr. Bag kills people by wrapping himself around them; to which Trevor responded with "Nailed it!" Not just that, but he's either insanely fast or can straight up teleport. As the speaker states that "It's always close." No matter how much they try driving away, Mr. Bag is always near. Unfortunately, I don't think the speaker nor their family were able to make it after this.

Okay. Now it's time to talk about why Mr. Bag is the coolest fucking thing Trevor has ever created. Mr. Bag is very interesting compared to some of the other cryptids for one simple reason: he has a personality. Something that you very rarely, if ever, get with Trevor's cryptids.

Mr. Bag can be befriended (as stated in Trevor's danger tier list) and assuming that the speaker in the illustrations was the same little girl who made the crayon drawing, he can be a friendly and perhaps even harmless fella for a long time, as long as you're his friend.

He's a very clingy and quick to anger bastard though the moment that you try to leave him. All the fun and memories you had with him get thrown out the window. He gets emotionally hurt. He gets angry. He gets murderous. He's pretty much that one friend or abusive ex who gets all pissy and uptight when you try to leave them. They won't accept any goodbyes. They want you to stay with them. It's a vicious and tragic cycle. One that Mr. Bag has been apart of for a very long time considering the date on this illustration.

It really makes you wonder why Mr. Bag is this way. My personal theory was that he was once a man who met a tragic fate through unknown means and thus he ended up in the bag he's in now. After possessing his own corpse essentially, he was filled with sorrow and misery, but something that did bring him some happiness was making friends.

Making friends is all he wants in his current life. Since he can't really live a normal life anymore due to the state he's in. This is why he becomes angry and murderous when his friends try to leave him. He wants eternal happiness. He wants to find the perfect friend. Perhaps when he was still human he either had no friends or had serious attachment issues. Leading to what he is now.

Whatever lead to his creation, this guy is a wonderful and perfect horror monster. The little story that is formed through the captions of his images is perfect. To this day, I think he is easily one of the most horrifying cryptids among Trevor's roster. Something about him is just so damn creepy and unnerving to me. I don't know if it has to do with his uncanny face, his insane height, the captions, or the fact that he can go from friendly to murderous on a dime. Or maybe it's all of those things.

As for my favorite illustration of Mr. Bag, I really love the one depicting him in the basement. As stated before, it looks and feels so ominous, especially with the caption alongside it. Despite Mr. Bags lack of facial expressions, something about that particular image gives off the vibes that he is not happy at all. It's awesome.

Extremely underrated. SIX out of five. 6/5

6. Pole Bugs

"They were as slow and harmless as stick bugs, but once you saw one in a neighbourhood, you could count on a whole mess of them showing up. They get up on the poles and good luck making a call. Just white noise and voices from then on."

Known by the community as Stick Bugs and referred to as Pole Bugs by me, these silly boyos are 100% harmless according to the danger tier list.

One thing to appreciate about Trevor's cryptids is that not all of them are dangerous. In fact, a decent chunk of them are harmless as stated by Trevor himself.

Design wise, the Pole Bugs are still pretty creepy. Pale humanoids with two sets of arms that can also double as legs to crawl around with. Akin to a... well... bug.

The caption is also pretty interesting too. Pole Bugs seem to be treated like annoying pests more than anything. Whole groups of them can show up, screwing up telephone poles and thus making it impossible to call anyone. As all you'll hear is just white noise and voices.

Nothing too spectacular about their designs which brings them down a bit, but the caption and the variety they add by being harmless but still annoying pests is really cool. 3.5/5

5. Milkwalker

"I drew the Milkwalker, the best mascot ever. Yes, he’s real."

This is Milkwalker.

I like Milkwalker :)

...

Honestly was thinking of just ending it there lmao. Anways, officially known as Milkwalker and widely known as Milkwalker Ambassador by the community (as I don't recall Trevor ever adding the ambassador part), this is technically not an original creation by Trevor. As Milkwalker has existed way before this illustration and he has some interesting history.

Darigold, an American dairy agriculture company that has existed since 1918, had a mascot that was known as Milkwalker in the 1980's. Appearing on milk cartons where... he looked quite strange to say the least. The text next to him didn't help matters either.

How anyone at the company looked at that thing and thought "Yeah! The kids will love this!" is a complete mystery to all of us as a species.

To make things even stranger, we have zero idea on who the creator of Milkwalker was. Despite attempts to question Darigold themselves about it.

Nonetheless, Milkwalker would make a revival into meme culture after a now deleted Tumblr blog known as Heck-Yeah-Old-Tech posted the image above where, presumably the poster, is holding a milk carton with Milkwalker on it. The image came with the following caption.

"There are some weird advertising characters out there. This is one of them: Darigold milk during the mid-1980s was putting Milkwalker, a pint of milk with arms and legs (and rather scary ones at that) and huge soul-gobbling eyes, on its boxes with tips on how to live your life safely. Those hinge knees, man. I’ve found no origin story, no other record of his being a thing that answers any questions about what Darigold was thinking and how long he was (to them and the schoolchildren who saw him daily) a thing."

Cue this thing appearing on multiple different social media and even getting a little fandom on Tumblr (because Tumblr has a fandom for everything apparently).

That's pretty much the whole story behind Milkwalker. Not much scare factor or anything deeper than that, but he's still pretty cool with a neat design and I like him a lot. Nice mix between being goofy af yet still slightly creepy.

Silly lil guy. 3/5

4. The Apartment Guest

"As summer gave way for autumn, he started to notice how empty his building was becoming. He'd always been friendly with the other residents, other elderly people like him, so it was strange that so many of them had left without seemingly saying a word. As he sat thinking about this, the wind blowing hard against his window, he heard noise from down the hall. Someone was knocking on each door and then moving on. "Looking for the last person left", was the thought that crossed his mind, as the pounding began at his door."

I've seen this thing go by a few different names in the community, but I simply refer to it as The Apartment Guest. The illustration here is simple but very effective. An uncomfortably up close shot to this humanoid with a black body and pale face. Their mouth and eyes just being empty voids. Disturbing.

Trevor could have just left it at that, but then there's that caption. Holy shit. The fucking caption.

Being up late at night, just casually scrolling through Trevor's Instagram page to search for some cryptids, and then reading "Looking for the last person left", was the thought that crossed his mind, as the pounding began at his door." was, quite literally, spine chilling. Especially visualizing being in that position. Hearing knocking on doors, the noise getting louder and closer to you, and then hearing pounding on your door? Why? Who is that? What are they going to do to me? The amount of horror that I would feel in that moment. Jesus christ.

This particular cryptid is a perfect example on how the captions that Trevor adds to his illustrations can make them all the more better, or in this case, all the more scarier. Not too much is told, but not too little is told either. It's the perfect amount.

Not much else to say. It's just very good. 5/5

3. The Wandering Faith

"* emergency storm warning * all residents please remain indoors and wait for further dispatches"

Often incorrectly referred to as Day 17 by the community due to a Gmod model of it going by the same name. Officially though, the name of this creature is The Wandering Faith.

The Wandering Faith is very interesting as it's apart of its own group of cryptids known as the Giants. The Giants presumably are in their own universe separate from the cryptids we usually see from Trevor, if this post is anything to go by.

Speculating about the Giants and their universe can be its own separate post, so lets focus solely on the Wandering Faith for now. What is this thing?

Well it's certainly fucking big that's for sure. So big in fact that its N E C C goes all the way up into the clouds and we have no idea what its head looks like. Interestingly though there seems to be tendrils of sorts on its N E C C. Looking at illustrations of some of the other Giants, these tendrils are also visible.

This lead to some theorizing about what was the deal with this thing and the other Giants. A big one being that most of the Giants are actually angels (hence why Wandering Faith has the name that it does). The reason why they have tendrils on them being that they use them to bring those worthy enough into heaven. Trevor would later confirm this theory.

So the Wandering Faith isn't malicious or harmful (at least not intentionally), it just wants to bring you into heaven, if you're lucky and deserving of that.

I never thought the Giants were scary or creepy (aside from maybe Breaking News). Always found them interesting more than anything. I really like the whole angel aspect with them and how later lore implies that some Giants are tasked with bringing the worthy up to heaven while other Giants are tasked with bringing destruction. Purging the world of sinners once everyone else has got their chance at an eternal vacation.

It really does feel akin to Noah's Flood for example. Except instead of a flood purging sinners, it's giant beings of mass destruction. It's really cool.

Overall, nice lore, awesome name, and a basic but still neat design. 4/5

2. Bridge Worm

"bridge worm"

Officially known as Bridge Worm, an illustration of this worm is posted with a caption that simply states its name. Depicting a large and white worm with humanoid arms and a sorrowful expression on its face. A lot of people's reaction to this image was that compared to all of the other cryptids? This lil guy looked pretty cute. And he does! Nothing about the image really implies that this thing is a threat. You would think this would be another one of those cryptids who were actually harmless, but you would be terribly wrong...

This image of the worm reveals that the cute and sad looking face we saw in the previous image wasn't its real face. It was a false one. A way to deceive you. In actuality, there's a freaky ass face under there, and we get to have a more closer look at it in the next image.

"The bridge worm will sometimes venture far from its nest if prey is hard to come by, instinctually hunting at night and in abandoned areas to avoid discovery. Photo below: The adolescent bridge worm folds back its false face as it prepares to feed. RIP Photographer Tomas Pearcing, missing and presumed dead. The scientific community thanks you for your service."

As we can see, the worm can fold back its false face, revealing a fleshy and oddly human looking face with bri-ish ass looking teeth and uneven eyes. The face that only a mother could love... people were still calling this thing cute though lol.

That said, there's some things to chew on with the caption provided here. Firstly, despite the name, the Bridge Worm can venture away from where it usually is when it's desperate. Secondly, "adolescent bridge worm". So this thing not only seems to be a species rather than a singular being, but the one we're seeing now and the previous one we saw earlier are just teenagers. So what the hell do the adults look like? We'll get back to that one. Thirdly, "The scientific community thanks you for your service." That line really intrigued me and got my brain going. What scientific community specifically? Are there people trying to study these worms and the other cryptids too? How is that like? How does that work? Even if that's not the case, this community now has knowledge and evidence of a strange and abnormal creature. So what will they do now? Are we actually getting some world building here? That rarely happens.

Some intriguing stuff there. Going back to questioning what an adult Bridge Worm looks like, there is this.

Here we get to see what an adult Bridge Worm looks like, which has also been referred to as the Highway Worm by the community. As they mature, they loose their limbs, become a sorta beige/brown color, and the false face seems to disappear as well.

This has most likely been retconned after some time however. As Trevor would later go on to post the patron saint image of the Bridge Worm on Twitter. Stating that their faces become more refined and human-like as they age, which is what we see below

"Patron saint of dark places, of hungry life, of spotless bones."

Yep. I'm officially having nightmares. Dear fucking god why does it kinda look like another one of those memes where they take the face of Thomas the Tank Engine and stretch it out of his body to ridiculous lengths.

Anyways I really like this weird worm fella! There's some cool biology stuff going on with this one that makes it stand out a bit. Definitely feels less like a paranormal creature and more like just a really weird and dangerous animal. I love the idea of it trying to mimic human faces too. It seems kinda silly at first. I mean, I'm pretty anyone with more than 2 functioning brain cells is gonna treat that trick the same way they treat a girls OnlyFans account: they're not buying that shit.

When you look at it being a stunted evolutionary tactic though, something that Trevor supposedly confirmed, it becomes a whole lot cooler. Nature isn't perfect of course and sometimes there will be fuck ups in evolution (like how our species suffers from back problems due to our quick jump from walking mostly on fours to walking solely on two legs).

As for my favorite illustration of the creature, I'd have to go with this one.

It's just so horrifically detailed and really shows how terrifying this thing is. Its fleshy face looks like its melting or can barely hold itself together. It's off putting that it looks so human when it's clearly not. As for the eyes, I like how they're done here. It was hard for me to find the previous illustration with the Bridge Worm's true face revealed to be scary. The eyes just made it look too goofy. Here though, they're executed way better. Coming off as more disturbing. I think it may have to do with how more realistic looking the illustration is overall.

In summary? Awesome worm boi. 5/5

1. The First One

"They'd said to avoid the back highways at night. People get turned around, get lost, go missing, turn up dead. Turn up alive but miles from where they thought they were. It happens all the time, they said. Bullshit. He had no time for that nonsense. He would take his chances."

April 4th, 2018. Trevor would post this to his Instagram account. I call this The First One. Why? Because it's Trevor's first cryptid! Of course, Trevor has been making art long before that, but this is the first artwork he made that went for the found footage aspect that he would later become famous for.

You can definitely tell this was Trevor's first attempt at trying to get the hang of this. The background is actually drawn instead of being a real life image taken from somewhere, something you can see with some of the other earlier works of Trevor as well. Yet it still tries to go for a realistic feel, which for a first attempt at this type of horror, doesn't look too bad.

The cryptid is very simple but still creepy design wise. An entirely grey humanoid whose body is not visible due to its height and it also seems to be floating slightly in the air. The caption here is simple as well, but it works. Adding some substance and horror to an otherwise basic monster.

Interestingly enough, Trevor would later revisit this illustration and tweak it a bit.

"Back from Chicago, time to get back to documenting the found footage of the last moments of the lives of various hitchhikers and urban explorers as they encountered deadly and unknowably monstrous supernatural forces."

I guess this was his attempt at making the illustration a bit more convincing. I like it! The vintage camcorder effect here is a nice change.

Overall, it's interesting to go back to many of Trevor's earlier illustrations and see just how much he has improved overtime. To look at this and then look at his more recent work, the jump in quality is insane.

The illustration itself isn't perfect, but it's still pretty solid, and it's interesting to see what the first cryptid was like. 3/5

Conclusion

Well! That wraps things up for now! I absolutely adore Trevor's work and I feel like in modern times he doesn't get the appreciation he really deserves. The designs he creates for his monsters are terrific and unique. The found footage artworks are amazing and only get better as time goes on. But of course, his regular and non-found footage artwork is amazing too. Just look at how horrifically beautiful this is.

I wanted to make a post like this because it pains how aside from badly done lore videos that just give you misinformation about the creatures (aside from Ancient Horror and Billy Styler, they're the goats), Trevor's creatures rarely get talked about and analyzed like this. You know what they say. "Fine, I'll do it myself".

I spent a long ass time starting from the very bottom of Trevor's Instagram page to climbing to the very top (almost at least, still have to go through a few more illustrations). Bookmarking cryptids, giving some of them names of my own, and just overall having fun looking at these designs and the captions provided with them. The reason behind that being that I don't want to focus solely on the popular cryptids. The lesser known ones deserve appreciation too! I would've never known what Trevor's first cryptid looked like if I didn't take that extra step.

So yeah, this was fun! Looking forward to doing more of this at some point. Thank you for reading and have a snazzy day!

[laggs-cringe-corner]

now i know, I KNOW the actual intent of the night of knives is for the person that Slayer's talking to to be the audience stand-in, considering he literally explains himself to be a vampire in the opening sentence. [x]

BUT! But. Wouldn't it be fun if the person Slayer was explaining this story to was Venom? Either by tweaking this version to make Slayer sound more acquainted with the individual he's talking to, or to have a second version that parallels/references this one?

Venom's win quote against Slayer shows that he'd be interested in hearing about whatever Slayer's learned over the years;

But for this post, specifically, I'm talking about Slayer's offer of help to Venom at the end of Venom's Revelator storymode. (screenshots below video link if you dont wanna watch the whole thing)

To my limited knowledge, we're never shown in what way Slayer assists Venom. I did look at every scene that Venom appears in for every single storymode in every single game Venom appears in, but I haven't done the same for Slayer, so maybe I missed something.

Ergo, my personal theory is that Slayer tells Venom about his observations about a 'living doll'. I further theorise that Venom recognises the description of a 'doll' as one of those robotic replicas of Ky Kiske that he fought back when he led the guild in a fight against the PWAB in the Accent Core Storymode.

(Assuming that's canon, anyway. Actually, I'm nearly 100% certain I'm spouting non-canon gibberish, so feel free to point out my many glaring inaccuracies if that tickles your fancy).

Why would this matter? It doesn't! The story still functions if this detail is never addressed, and honestly my ideas for how it all could connect wouldn't be necessary for the emotional beats to hit even if they were already in the text. The only reason I'm arguing for it is that I like pointing at things that resemble other things, and I personally think it would be cool to have.

Well, you've already seen the scene that I wanted this to affect, but I'll give the link and screenshots just to be thorough.

"Yeah I had a friend and now I have nobody and I'm constantly alone. Don't worry about it, you're a human so I'm sure you have plenty of connections to other humans and wouldn't know what I'm going through. Anyway, we should just focus on the mission haha."

"...(Ohh he just like me fr)"

[olderthannetfic]

Reading for Context

I don’t really feel like scrolling through community profiles has taught me anything. People tend to just post normal tumblr posts and not tirades about shipping. I was told to just scroll OTNF go understand, but OTNF’s feed is just screenshots from a K-drama and idiots pestering him about pronouns for some reason. Is there like a specific way to do it? So… i’ve actually never understood the social conventions of other people in any group i’ve been in. I haven’t really had in real life friends since middle school.

This is actually kind of an interesting question.

First, let me be plain, what you've been asking repeatedly over the last couple of weeks or however long it's been is this:

How does a neurodivergent person who fundamentally is not good at social nuance, reading comprehension, and picking up on context get better at those things?

I've known people whose parents hired coaches to work with them on a weekly basis for years. "How does socializing work?" is not a simple question.

Teaching reading comprehension is hard too.

I vaguely remember a lot of times in school where English teachers spent whole semesters trying to get us to understand not only what figurative language meant in context but how to detect that it was present in the first place. I still remember this one 9th grade classmate wailing "But why does it have to be a metaphor?"

What you're asking about is something most people work on for decades, yet you want randos to summarize it simply in a few sentences.

--

The first thing that jumps out at me here is the superficiality of how you're describing engaging.

When people say to lurk, they're talking about a deep engagement with a community. They're talking about reading closely, including comments, for a month, not scrolling back through a week and just skimming the top-level posts.

Did you open the replies on my tumblr posts where other people besides me are discussing things? Did you look at the reblogs with content, and not just the ones I reblogged back onto my own tumblr?

Beyond the exact number of days you should read or the exact procedure, people are talking about a very in-depth kind of engagement in general. The point is that it's difficult to just come into a new space and know how it works without studying it.

For example, I talk about oldschool fanfic stuff a lot. A logical default assumption is that I'm a woman. Are you not familiar enough with fanfic spaces to assume that, or are you coming from Spacebattles or something?

Why on earth would you default to 'him'?

I'm not insulted: it just shows a staggering lack of clue about the context you found me in.

I've linked you to my patreon where you can see my pro writing pseudonym, which is obviously female. My tumblr itself links to my pro writing and gives my actual name, which is also fairly obviously feminine. I've also recently talked about being pregnant. Yes, it was oblique and I only confirmed it in the replies, not a top-level post, but plenty of regulars noticed. (Yes, yes, biology is not gender, but still...)

There are plenty of clues I'm not a "him", but you missed them all. I don't care about pronouns, but I do care about people who don't bother to or aren't capable of reading closely.

Quite a few people have sent me asks asking what I'm watching. I have repeatedly said that it's DMBJ and described it as "the Chinese tomb raider franchise". Yet you assumed it was Korean for some reason. This suggests that you just scrolled through quickly and did not actually thoroughly read the text of the posts or the replies. It suggests that your eyes skipped over the boring-looking short text posts in between the picspams.

It suggests you didn't bother to google what I was watching when I did say the name because you don't give enough of a shit to bother. That doesn't suggest a very high level of interest in my blog or any reason I should cut you any slack or pay attention to what you think.

It also suggests that you didn't look back all that far. I've been posting a lot about DMBJ, but I only started downloading Ultimate Note on July 15th and Tomb of the Sea on August 1st.

--

If you want to understand a community, scrolling hurriedly through one month of content and not actually reading it closely is insufficient.

This is what people mean when they say you're not willing to put in the work and want other people to do it for you.

[viofficial]

[id: a digital illustration of mizuki akiyama and mafuyu asahina. they are standing in place, looking at the viewer, wearing a black dress. part of the dress is see through, specifically the sleeves, that are also decorated with black flowers. mizuki is smiling whilst mafuyu has a surprised look on her face. The background behind them is white with brown splotches and sticks with fruit on them. end id].

hello everyone !! this is prolly one of my first analysis posts, at least on this acc. I’ll be using screenshots from the game to illustrate my points, and separate the post into sections, as well as providing image descriptions and plain text for low vision ppl!! I will also be using she/they for mizuki and he/she for mafuyu, so if u dont like that then shoo. they r transfem (mizuki) and transmasc (mfy) respectively. Also spoilers for most of the events so uhh u shouldnt be reading this if u didnt read all of the mfy or mizu focused events. without furtho ado, let’s start!

Hiding One’s True Self

[plain text: hiding one’s true self. end plain text].

this is kind of an obvious observation, and it’s ofc for diff reasons, but both mafuyu and mizuki hide aspects of themselves to both niigo and the world. mafuyu’s is more subconscious, while mizuki is (for the most part) aware that she hides herself, esp from niigo. they’re both in a situation where it’s difficult to get out of, mfy with her abusive mother, and how her mother pressures her to conform and mold to how everyone, including her classmates, wants her to be. he’s seen as the perfect daughter, the perfect student, with no interests, opinions, anything of his own. mizuki, on the other hand, is very clearly transfem which i am not accepting critique on, and because she goes to great lengths to express her gender identity, even going so far as to change from the male school uniform to the female school uniform, ppl ridicule them, which causes them to not have many friends, esp not ones to freely talk abt their gender with. mizu’s relationship to ena mirrors mafuyu’s relationship with kanade, and they both serve as support to mfy and mizuki respectively. they specifically focus on wanting mfy and mizu to become their true selves, with kanade going so far to try to “save” mafuyu (which i have a Lot of opinions on but thats another analysis for another day). in the song samsa, from the event immiscible discord, there are lines sung by mizuki and mfy at the same time which further highlight these similarities, and go into what’s going on in the narrative.

[id: a screenshot of lyrics, several color coded text in front of a black background. Kaito’s lines are outlined in blue, mafuyu’s in purple, ena’s in beige, mizuki’s in pink, kanade’s in red. some colors are combined, such as mafuyu and mizuki, kanade and ena, and kaito, kanade and ena. The lyrics read: It throbs, throbs, throbs (I throb in pain)

It aches, aches, aches (it aches, aches)

It throbs, throbs, throbs (I throb in pain)

It throbs, throbs, it aches

Change...

Throbbing, throbbing, throbbing painfully

Everyone barely escapes with their souls

It throbs, throbs, throbs

Eaten away by all the pain and the wranglers–taratta

But even so, I wonder why it still

Throbs, throbs, throbs (throbbing painfully)

It's as if you're biting into the apple, Sa-sa-Samsa

end id].

as u can see, mizuki and mfy are the only ones who sing the lines “i throb in pain,” “it throbs, it throbs, it throbs,��� and “but even so, i wonder why it still.” kaito also joins in with singing the line, “it’s as if you’re biting the apple, sa-sa-samsa.” kaito is a manifestation of someone who’s trying to tell mafuyu the truth of his mother’s intentions, which mirrors meiko’s role in the event my footprints, your destination. while this event was a kanade and mfy focus, i have every reason to believe the song also parallels mizuki’s issues. while mfy and mizuki have sought refuge in niigo, they still are unable to fully open up. mfy feels she’s unable to become her true self and stand up to her mother, while mizuki is unable to disclose her trans identity. which brings me to my next point. 

Refuge

[plain text: refuge. Plain text]. 

after a while of working with niigo, both mfy and mizu find a safe haven with kanade and ena, enough to be able to open up to them slightly. this is indicated in the videos of two events–and now, the ribbon is tied, and secret distance, two mizuki centric stories–that i’m about to share. it also shows how in a way, she relates to mfy’s struggle and feelings re: niigo. 

[ENG] And Now, the Ribbon is Tied - chapter 1 [Project Sekai event story]

when mfy mentions she feels at ease when working with niigo, mizuki takes note of it. she later says, near the end of the chapter, that they feel like they’re the same as mfy and think abt their past self. 

[Project Sekai] Event Story - Secret Distance [ENG Sub]

in this event, mizuki realizes that while they make music together, they don’t rlly know each other. so they set up an outing for the group to bond whilst stepping outside their comfort zone. after the outing, mizuki realizes how important they are to her, and how she finally feels like she’s found friends she feels comfortable with, enough to say she wants to do this next year. 

Relationship w/ School

[plain text: relationship with school. end plain text].

it’s said now and then that because of mizuki’s trauma, they consistently skip school. while mafuyu consistently goes to school unlike the rest of niigo, it’s clear he doesn’t like it and would rather make music with his friends and forge his own career path. when he had to go to cram school, he instead skipped school to be with her friends at fenilan. 

[ENG] Guiding a Lost Child to What Lies Beyond - chapter 5: The lost heart

Running From One’s Problems

[plain text: running from one’s problems. End plain text].

[video description: the music video for kitty by niigo. Mizuki is wearing a black hat as well as an entirely black outfit, her hair down. Her fingers are curled like a cat’s claws. The layout looks like a camera on one’s phone, the options being mizuki, mafuyu, ena, len, and kanade. The video switches to mizuki’s current self and middle school self. Mizuki’s past self wears a red male school uniform, a pink ribbon, and her hands are on her cheeks, staring in horror. Mafuyu wears a ponytail with her bangs swayed, wearing a blue and red sweatshirt. Her child self has longer hair and holds a stuffed bunny. The video ends with len, who wears a sweatshirt and makes the same pose as mizuki. end video description].

before i get into that… lets take a break to see THIS part in kitty bc???? Oh my god??? 

okay anyway lets get into the most recent-ish (bc saying goodbye to my masked self has recently come out) event, our escape for survival. in this event, niigo is trying to find a way to help mfy and reach her as her laptop and synthesizer has been confiscated. throughout the story, mizuki compares her situation to mafuyu’s, and while it’s not the same, they still have similar while also having opposite issues. when they have a conversation with luka, she comes up with an idea to help mafuyu, as she does smth similar. during the hangout with mafuyu the next day, she tells him that it’s okay to run away, which ends up happening in goodbye to my masked self. while mizuki says that it doesn’t solve problems, i do feel like it mirrors mizuki’s situation, albeit in a different way. mizuki skips school and refuses to tell niigo abt their transness, just like mafuyu who initially couldn’t accept her mother being abusive, and chose to live in denial until kaito and the rest call her out. mizuki can’t accept the fact that others are able to love her for who she is, and so hides that aspect of herself. 

[id: mizuki akiyama’s “the words i can only convey” untrained card, from the event our escape for survival. They look at the viewer, smiling whilst surrounded by lights and a crowd of people. End id].

Conclusion

[plain text: conclusion]. 

so yeah!! I feel like their dynamic is severely underappreciated and underwritten, and i’m so glad our escape for survival highlighted their parallels even more. i rlly hope that the game and the fandom thought abt them more, and not just in a ship sense, bc theyre a lot similar than u think. also purple and pink go so well together LMFAO also i love their area/side story convos. Like:

[id: screenshot of “a moment of jest” second side story that reads: 

Mafuyu – “Amia. Why do you care so much about me? K promised to compose a song that will save me. But neither you nor Enanan have any reason to care about me that much. So... why?”

Mizuki – “Why, huh...? Don't be such a stranger. We're friends, aren't we?”

Mafuyu – “Friends? I thought we were only members of the same songmaking group?”

Mizuki – “Don't worry about it. I'm doing this because I want to. So you don't have to think too deeply into it.”

Mafuyu – “I see. I'll take your word for it, then.”

— "A Moment of Jest" second side story

End id].

[id: screenshot of an area conversation in the empty sekai that reads: 

Mizuki – “Huh? What are you doing here in the afternoon? Don't you have school?”

Mafuyu – “We have tests all week, so we only have half days. What about you? Are you skipping class again?”

Mizuki – “No, I actually came to school today. Class was just super boring, so I decided to come here♪”

Mafuyu – “Hehe. In other words, you're skipping. Maybe I should let Miku know so she'll send you back.”

Mizuki – “Huh?! Oh, hey! How about we write some music together?! What do you think? Sounds fun, right?”

— Area Conversation in Empty SEKAI

 end id].

Yes i got this from the mizumafu shipping wiki don’t judge me fhdjkghfhj but yeah!! Lemme know what u think in the replies, i love discussion esp discussion of these characters. And if i missed anything pls let me know, i’m willing to correct/edit some things!! anyway byebye stan mafuyu and mizuki they r . transmasc transfem solidarity <3 (heart)

[theintrovertbean]

My statement about the drama

Hello!

This post will be about the whole Rai drama that they orchestrated against @asrabounding. But first, I would kindly ask anyone who hasn't read the post by @iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia, aka brainrot, to do so. It can be quite triggering, so please, be mindful of that and make sure to put yourself first. The same warning applies to my own post.

First, I want to apologize. I did bad stuff, and I've been doing my best to mend my mistakes. I'm very sorry about the things I've done, but especially about the things I could have prevented. My friends got hurt because of something I was a part of and could have avoided if I wasn't scared to stand up for others and myself.

This is going to be a long post. Sorry about that too, but this whole drama was simply a lot.

Brainrot's part perfectly sums up what happened, but since I was there from the beginning of the drama, it would be fair to add some things from my own POV. It isn't nearly as professional as brainrot's statement, and it's more about my personal experience, which I think shows how this drama affected the well-being of the people involved. Again, this is my experience, but we all share the feelings.

The first time I posted from this account on Tumblr was in July 2022, and Rai reached out to me on November 1. Apparently, I was too intimidating, but as it turns out, Rai just needed me (and other people) for their plans. They specifically wanted to involve mainly Nadia fans, so it was only a matter of time before they messaged me.

Why Nadia fans, you might ask? Well, we could sit here all night and take guesses because no one knows for certain. Rai only pretended to like Nadia (because wanting to kill her is enough proof that they didn't like her), so their reason must have been something psychological. But again, we can't know for certain. Sadly, their actions put us Nadia fans in a bad light, and their friendship was never genuine.

I have a guess that Rai had been stalking a few bigger creators for a while and just waiting for one of them to make a mistake. Asrabounding (AB from now on) happened to be the unlucky one.

Honestly, I didn't know AB at all. We never interacted, and the first time I ever heard about him was through Rai. At the beginning of December 2022, Rai told our server about AB and how he and his girlfriend were harassing their "boi," Panda, who was completely incapable of taking care of himself, at least according to Rai.

I spoke to Panda a few times during the drama; he is nothing like Rai described, which You can tell by the screenshots as well. He is overly friendly and tends to overshare, and I would say he is pure evil, but that adjective would be far too generous in his case. I also have to add that there is no evidence of Rai and Panda being two different people. I've looked through my DMs, and a few servers that Rai is/was in and found zero traces of them ever having a conversation. I also asked around, and no one has ever seen these two interact with each other. Once, we even asked Rai to invite Panda to their server because we all wanted to get to know him, but they immediately refused, saying he is too soft and all kinds of weird things to say about one's partner. I suppose it would be hard to text from two accounts simultaneously.

The private server that Rai created was made in November, around the time when the drama began. It's crucial to mention that none of us knew AB. This allowed Rai to portray AB however they wanted.

There are screenshots in the pdf from the DMs between Rai and me. They told me quite a few things but purposefully left out important details. The screenshots Rai sent me were always sent in a way that would make AB seem like the worst person to ever exist. I (and the server) also received altered versions of AB's art, which were edited in a way to make it seem like AB was making Asra whiter or orange. Additionally, Rai maliciously gathered personal information about AB and his loved ones, which is both legally and morally wrong.

The call-out blog happened and didn't gain much attention, which was quite disappointing to Rai, but failure didn't stop them. They recruited more people for the sole purpose of hurting AB. We retreated to Rai's server until the previous drama, where Rai popped up every once in a while to stir up our anger and disturb our conversations.

Then we arrive at the latest drama. Rai's efforts paid off. One of our friends did a call-out post, and things went crazy. I don't have to describe what happened because it's in brainrot's statement, but there is one thing that I really want to highlight. Rai did nothing. Everything we did was because of them and their "boi," and they just watched us all get burned.

At some point, brainrot presented us with an opportunity to make peace with AB. Two of us even volunteered to talk to him, myself included. Rai didn't even react while everyone else was looking forward to ending the drama. Actually, Rai was unusually quiet. They gave us an excuse for being less active and just left us to deal with their mess.

When brainrot left, I almost immediately reached out to him for two reasons. 1. He is my friend. I was concerned about his well-being and wanted to make sure he was alright. 2. I was physically and mentally sick of the drama and considered leaving the server myself. There were days when I could barely function because of the anxiety I felt. I was a mess. Everyone was, but never Rai. I felt like I was in the middle of a battlefield, watching my friends get slaughtered while the person behind it all, Rai, was having the time of their life far away in a luxury tent. I desperately wanted to end that.

On multiple occasions, I muted the server for hours and sometimes even days because I could not deal with Rai. There was a clear hierarchy, and Rai would constantly try to compete with us and bring us down. Everyone else was behaving like normal human beings, and then Rai would randomly show up to pollute the air with their "hee hoos" and disturbing stories they claimed were true.

The same person who said they were gathering courage for months to text me never showed any care, remorse, or fear during our nine months of "friendship." Also, the very same person would go around texting random people on Tumblr, checking how intelligent and "mentally stimulating" (they said that, not me) they are, and trying to figure out if they hate Dorian and/or Asrabounding. They were also looking for people in a more vulnerable position, such as those who were new to the fandom and/or lonely. When everything on the list was ticked off, Rai invited them to their server. For privacy reasons, I'm not going to say an exact number, but about ten of us were "recruited."

Brainrot and I talked a bit, we both vented, and we eventually reached the point where I said that I would talk to AB just to end this madness. And so I did with brainrot's help, even though it horrified me, but I knew I had to do it for others. I expected AB to be just as Rai presented him to us, but he wasn't. The AB I was talking to was kind, understanding, cooperative, and tired of everything that had been going on. It often made me wish I met AB sooner than Rai. Our conversations with AB were and still are civil and friendly, and I am nothing but thankful to him. We compared our notes, then brainrot and I went back to DMs for a while to discuss everything.

We realized that 1. Everything Rai said about AB was a lie, and Rai just wanted to hurt him. 2. Rai lied to us and used several manipulation tactics on us. 3. Our friends were unsafe.

To include a lie, once, Rai texted me to ask if I wanted to know their legal name. They told me that they were named after a character from an anime. Later, I found from a friend that Rai told her their name too. It was from the same anime but a different character's name. This was just one example.

So we made a plan, and we had to act fast. I quickly gathered a few screenshots from the server that we could use, then we texted everyone involved about the news. Thank gayness, everything instantly clicked for the vast majority of our friends. It was tough, exhausting, and very emotional. Being betrayed by someone we considered a friend was no joke. Honestly, have never felt so much anxiety in my life. It was suffocating.

Then, three of us deleted every channel in Rai's server (every member had maximum permissions). In the meantime, we made a server of our own, a safe place where we could heal together, continue our friendship, and discuss what we were going to do next.

And that's how we got to brainrot's post. I created a document and put in whatever screenshots I had from Rai's server and my DMs. Then I asked everyone to send me all the screenshots they wanted us to include, and I put those in too. That pdf is the fruit of multiple days of work and immeasurable disgust. Even putting it together almost made me throw up more than once. It was available to everyone involved (our friends and AB as well) from start to finish. They were all free to make edits, give suggestions, and add screenshots if they wanted. AB added the anons he received and a bunch of other screenshots. Brainrot wrote his statement, and I did the group's, which is one of the reasons I didn't want to make another one. In the meantime, we found out more about Rai, and it was not pretty; the screenshots prove it all.

This wasn't the first time Rai tried to take someone down, and they bragged about it multiple times. They were also quite proud of how they were able to manipulate people. I mean, just look at what they said about how they got together with their "boi." We know of two people in the fandom who were hurt by Rai. From what I know, unlike AB, they weren't content creators. My assumption is that doing the same thing over again wasn't giving Rai the same thrill anymore, so they wanted to target someone bigger. Bigger drama = more pleasure for Rai.

There was one person who got kicked from the server because they didn't hate Lucio. Rai provoked them to make them act out of character, which resulted in a kick and ban. There were others that Rai wanted to kick out but didn't because they were still needed for the drama.

The things Rai sometimes said about characters and the people who like them were sickening. They constantly described Lucio as a mass murderer and a r*pist and harassed anyone who didn't agree with their opinions. Rai also headcanoned that Lucio SAd Nadia during their marriage. And a lot of other things...

We had to tiptoe around Rai all the time because being kicked out of the server wouldn't have been a big deal, but being separated from our friends against our will was not something any of us wanted. That small but loving community we created for ourselves (Rai excluded) was why we stayed on that server in the first place.

But also, we were scared. Whenever Rai was present, they turned us into an angry mob. I don't know when we started to feel this way, but we were uncomfortable and wanted out. However, when we looked at each other, the angry mob was all we could see. Even when an individual was in doubt, the others still put on their angry mask, and that one person felt alone. I often felt like that too, but we all knew what Rai was capable of. We were already hurting, and we didn't want to unleash the angry mob against us. If Rai were to come after any of us, they would most definitely twist everything in a way to make themselves seem like the victim(s).

Soon after the server was gone and I was no longer talking to Rai, I realized that the hate I once felt wasn't my own.

Once again, I'm sorry about what happened. We all are. I apologize for the hurt I caused to everyone and take full responsibility for my actions. I never intended for things to escalate things this far, and I regret everything I've done. The things we did were not done with a clear mind. If it wasn't for Rai and their mind games, none of us would have done anything like this.

And Azi, I'm especially sorry to you. Despite everything we've done, you treated us with kindness and worked together with us to make the fandom a safer place. You have no idea how much this means. I'm thankful for the chance of getting to know the real you.

I also apologize to my followers for bringing drama onto my blog. While I'm open to questions about what happened, I would like to get back to writing my silly little headcanons like I did before. I'm an open book, but simping for Nadia is why I made this blog in the first place. The good thing is that now I'm able to do the things I've always wanted without Rai constantly reminding me why this and that is so bad. And who knows, maybe you'll see me bring some Nadia content to a different platform as well...

Our friend group, I apologize to you as well because I didn't protect you when I could have. Things would have been different if I wasn't so scared.

Azi, Brainrot, and friends. Thank you for everything. Your support and cooperation helped all of us through these hard times, and I hope we can continue to heal together.

I don't expect forgiveness from anyone because what happened is truly horrible. While countless lies and manipulation were involved, a simple apology won't undo the harm we caused. We have been doing our best to make up for our mistakes and will continue to do so in the future as well. However, please, please be careful. Rai is still a threat, so if you see them anywhere, just run. Protect yourselves and, if you can, others as well. Please, stay safe and learn from our horrible mistakes.

-Eszter

[alasy]

I have a friend who I barely speak to, we communicate almost exclusively through memes and laughs. He graduated and didn't tell anyone, he's almost finishing his masters and I just found out he had even started at the program because he was telling me he's probably going to the states for a few months. We tell each other big things, though it's on our metrics. I watched him defend his thesis two years ago through zoom, even though I could not comprehend a word I stayed until the end. We're always texting each other "MOON!!!!" to tell the other to go outside and look at her, despite living in different states. He bought me the first volume of my favorite manga and a shark suit because he saw it and it reminded him of me. Sometimes it takes me months to text him back (it happens quite often), but he's always the chilliest about it and never made me feel remotely guilty not even once. I send him reels, screenshots, twitter links and tumblr posts, all through text, because he only has discord and nothing else. I kept asking him to create an instagram profile for my own commodity to send him reels with more ease. Everytime he laughed and said that he would. "One day". A few weeks ago, the day came and he sent me the link of his profile. "I promise to try to check on it as often as I can." It has his nick ingame and not his name, no profile picture, nothing. It's been weeks and he still follows only my account. I send him reels there and he sends me memes i have no idea where he finds. He replies faster than I do, and it's insane to think of it because he does not have the app downloaded on his phone, which means he keeps purposefully remember and goes check if I, specifically, sent anything.

I have a friend who I barely speak to, but still, he is one of the most truthful friends I've ever had.