#I'll make up for it in a future post I hope

[our-trans-punk-experience]

Trans, lesbians, whatever

Right! Author's note before we begin: So I wrote this first over a week ago and it was incredibly crass and near illegible. I was going to reword this to be more respectful and calm. And I did! I removed four whole fucks. I have been flooded with asks on this, and I've seen the discourse, and yes. I have touched grass. This will be the last I say on it as well, if it comes up again I'll just reblog this. Here goes.

we cannot be having "who's a lesbian" discourse again sit the fuck down. This isn't targeted at anyone in particular but more a general point. This is going to be fairly generic so it can be applied any time this comes up in future. I really hope it won't though in any form bc its fucking pointless. With all the struggles our community is facing right now, even if that's a thought youre contemplating in your head, consider that it shouldn't make the top 36 problems you're willing to open your phone for. I hope we understand each other.

And if you see it don't engage directly no matter your opinion. Don't reblog posts of videos, don't chat shit in comments. Take that energy and put it towards community organising to help trans youth in your area or some shit ok?

having the fight won't change anyone's mind. This is not one of those instances where having the argument is a net positive for the community because someone will see that there are people fighting for their cause. This is just destructive. With everything going on this is not how I want to spend my time and I'm really disappointed with how some of us have prioritised over pride month.

The act of the fight will only cause rifts in the community.

The act of the fight will only cause rifts in the community.

There is no worth here. There is no benefit in the outcome of the fight that outweighs the cost of having it. There is no win to be had. Our community will not strengthen if everyone comes to the same opinion on how to define lesbianism. Arguing in hypotheticals and margins and the degree to which labels should shackle us is a waste of our energy. If someone has a take you slightly disagree with or has a shitty rhetoric behind it, go search for a group you can donate time / money / energy that support queer & trans people in your area. Love to all trans people, love to all lesbians.

United we stand.

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 84 Legacy Posting

Oh boy, here we go dear void. Short entry this time (by my standards at least).

Editor's Notes: First Page: 対峙する二人... [taiji suru futari...] "The two face off..." Last Page: 想い乗せた一撃が届く... [omoi noseta ichigeki ga todoku...] "A decisive blow brimming with emotions reaches him..."

A Declaration

Go, Chihiro, go!

And here we have the ultimate rebuttal to Samura's stubborn insistence on solving everything by himself: Chihiro has a personal stake in all of this as the son of Rokuhira Kunishige. He doesn't have to bear the burden, but he's refusing Samrua's (misguided) kindness and taking everything on.

I do like the framing of all of this duty as the choice of the children involved. Usually there's a heavy tilt towards "children should be responsible for their parent's mistakes/burdens" or "children must choose their own paths", but Kagurabachi threads the needle and says "it's not that simple".

Chihiro chooses to honour his father's wishes. He understands very well the pain that he's taking on, and he's learning that his father isn't the infallible man he looked up to when he was younger, but he decides to do it anyway. Meanwhile, Hakuri decided to tear it all down- and it wasn't framed as him shirking his duty or atoning for his father's sins. It was the right thing to do. So far, Iori wanted to be like Samura and protect him. Her decision might change depending on how this fight turns out, but it's not going to be some heavy-handed message about how she's responsible for what he did.

It's always framed as a choice the kids are making based on what they know and believe. They aren't responsible for their parent's actions but choose to act based on the results of them. I love it. I'll admit my life experience makes me extremely skeptical of stories that try to say kids must fix the problems their parents caused- it's a strong bias I always have. So Kagurabachi framing things as kids consciously choosing to do what they can to make the world a better place is very satisfying. People are trying to say "no you don't need to, live your life" and they're saying "I want to help make the world a better place". Well, Hakuri was denied his chance, but it was a good thing in that case. Regardless, inter-generation cooperation is the way to go!

Echoes

The future is now, old man.

There's something to be said for how goddamn stubborn Samura is. It's beyond reason, right? Like holy shit you're blind not deaf, listen to all the people who care about you and want you to live instead of going on some suicidal atonement mission. Your freakin' daughter wants and needs you in her life! The little girl you promised your ex-wife you'd protect!

As a friend mentioned, Samura's mindset strongly echoes someone who's mentally ill. I'm pretty sure everyone's been down in the dumps once in their life- everything sucks, nothing's okay, and it never will be. But we get over it with some time and (ideally) support. Samura, though, is in the fucking depths. Anyone who's thought the world would genuinely be better off without them, that's him. The mind is a shitshow sometimes and it will tell some of us "hey, they love you, so stop being a burden and make their lives easier by offing yourself already". Which is a bunch of nonsense but it's compelling nonsense that feels right. Nothing really gets through that fog without treatment and a hell of a lot of persistence.

So while it's a bit annoying as a reader to see this guy dig in his heels and refuse the hope that everyone around him's trying to shove in his arms, I get it. He's guilty AF about the past and feels like he can't be redeemed- and that his presence is a burden on Iori. So if he dies and takes out the Sword Master with him then yay yippie everyone can be happy.

It's not that simple nor is that actually a good solution (which I talked a bit about last chapter). It's just the one that feels right to Samura so Chihiro will literally have to break Tobimune to stop this guy.

Which he... might have done this chapter? Maybe he just nicked or fractured it? It looks like Chihiro's will got through to Samura at least a little bit. Only breaking Tobimune in full will really stop Samura in full but maybe damaging it will give Iori and the Masumi an opening to be heard.

The Masumi!

I missed you guys too!

Not much to say other than I'm glad they're in this fight and that Ro pointed out the obvious: if Samura healed his own goddamn eyes, then the Masumi's ninja tactics wouldn't be much of a hindrance to him. But he wants to remain blind (symbolism!) and so he can't see what's really important. But Ro's got a more accurate measure of him now that one of his sunglass lenses is broken. Really nice touch in the art this chapter.

One MORE Thing, Jackieee

Is that Chihiro's "aura", as the kids say?

Samura trying to spare the kids is noble, yes. Gone over that a bunch. And Chihiro's rebuttal is basically an emphatic let us get hurt.

Parents often try to prevent their kids from experiencing the same problems in the same ways that they did- abuse, war, etc. They generally want their kids lives to be better than theirs were.

But.

If those parents who had rough lives don't get help and work on their own issues, they will just pass the trauma on in a different way. Like here: Samura tried to spare Iori, but he just reinforced her trauma of loved ones leaving/abandoning her. He needs ALL the fucking therapy and to give a massive apology to her- then commit to working on his issues.

Because as sympathetic as he is, as understandable as his actions and beliefs are at this point, they're still wrong. He's doing wrong by Iori, Inori's memory, Chihiro, Uruha, the Masumi, even Kunishige's memory at this point. What Chihiro's trying to get through to Samura here is, in my mind, the idea that it's better to live with the pain and stay with what you find hope in than give it all up and assume it'll improve other people's lives. Just fucking live, bro! Iori needs you even if you've got a mountain of grief that makes you want to die. She needs you as you are and who you can be, not who you think you are. Share that pain with her so she can understand and help you.

Obviously this isn't advocating for parents to treat their kids like therapists or act like emotional vampires (been there, it screws a kid up). But being open that you're not okay is okay. Letting Iori know you've got a bad past that you need to overcome is okay. Letting her find ways that she wants to help is okay. Share the past and prevent a warped future in truth. Because right now Samura's just sending Iori (and the other young people who care about him) down a different fucked up path than the one he was on instead of truly creating something better.

Okay... hoping for glimpses of Hakuri and Uruha and maybe even Azami next week, but not betting on it. Take care of yourself dear void- you deserve it.

[dimeadozencows]

Now that things in The Amazing Digital Circus are starting to ramp up, I decided to post my pet theory on what kinger's deal is;

CW: this is sad.

Before anything I should clarify that I 100% believe that kinger was one of/the lead programmer behind the circus, and that it was originally intended to be a sort of medical virtual therapy for severe mental trauma victims and people dealing with memory loss

(I'll be honest I'm not a part of the theorizing community for this show, so that could've already been confirmed or debunked and I could look very stupid rn, but that's a risk I'm willing to take for my take on this)

The reason I believe that it was built specifically for trauma victims and help with memory loss is because the adventures built/interpreted by Caine are either attempts at very lighthearted fun (episode 1, 2, and 5) or depict realistic aspects from the humans lives (episode 4 for gangle, and episode 3 for kinger as I'm about to explain)

The lighthearted ones would be for the trauma victims; an activity completely detached from reality, that they enter the circus for a few hours a day or a few days at a time for, then leave.

And the ones that include familiar and realistic parts of the participants lives are for the people with memory loss; a low stakes environment where some things are very familiar- allowing mental muscle memory to come back slowly.

Kinger must have been dealing with young-onset dementia or alzheimer's, and was hoping that his work on this virtual therapy might help stop or slow down his illness. He might've felt like he was doing something good that could help others like him too, this must have been a passion project.

He looks out for the rest of the cast like a father, Maybe before the circus he and his wife wanted to have children, but he was scared that he wouldn't be able to be there for them, not fully. So he was doing this for both of them, and their theoretical children

He and his wife entered the game together, and everything went wrong. They couldn't get out.

He had doomed himself, the love of his life, and their future together.

The high stress environment worsened his illness and the guilt from what he had done to his love ate at him from the inside. He couldn't be there for her the way she was for him.

His wife abstracted. This place he helped create and brought her to had killed her. In his guilt ridden mind he must feel as though he was her murderer.

It's ironic, isn't it? This place he was so sure would be what would fix him, make everything okay for them both, for their future children, ended up being what destroyed it all.

Tl;dr: kinger was one of/the lead programmer behind the digital circus, it was a passion project of his because he thought it could help him with his early-onset memory loss, and make him a good future father and a better husband. When he and his wife got stuck inside the circus his illness got worse, and without his support, his wife abstracted, leaving him broken and guilt ridden in his lucid moments

[psychopomp-namine]

yingdu episode 5 spoilers

ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.

there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.

like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.

one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.

qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.

post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:

what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didn’t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. it’s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. they’re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they can’t stand existing in each other’s spaces. that’s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. they’re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but that’s just the cherry on top. it’s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.

okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.

but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.

it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.

how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.

also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.

okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrors™ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.

on a brighter note:

VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.

ah and finally. finally:

I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.

edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?

man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show 🙏

[rheakira]

Today, May 23rd, is Robin's birthday!

Happy birthday, Robin!

[accirax]

Project: Eden's Garden Chapter 1 Trailer Analysis

Oh my god it's actually time.

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Team Eden's Garden has finally announced the release date for the fangan's true first chapter: December 20th. And, they did so in a flashy new trailer, which is nearly three minutes long! Naturally, there's a lot of content baked in to those three minutes, so I'm here to take a look at what was flashing by in those rapid-fire montages, as well as make predictions regarding what will happen at the first Class Trial. This will be fun!

And here's hoping I don't run out of images 🤞

The trailer begins with the "mascot" (in this case, Tozu) saying that it's been far too long since we last conversed. Classic.

Next, we see a preview of some locations, both new and old. CAM04: Dorm Hallway and CAM24: Tree of Ignorance were already explorable areas within the Prologue, and CAM08: Damon's Dorm was visible in the Ch1 demo released last year(?). The new locations include CAM32: Hallway A1, CAM35: Pharmacy A1, and CAM39: Pharmacy A5.

(By the way, I'm going to assume that both the numbering of the cameras and the time displayed in the lower right have no particular meaning, because I can't find any connections between them. At first I thought it was weird that Damon's dorm was Camera #8 despite him being 9th in alphabetical last name order, but given that the hallway is Camera #4, I don't think there's a correlation).

While all of the images are intentionally blurry, I'll do the best I can to describe what we can see. The most obvious point of interest is the door at the back of the hallway, under which "CAUTION" is written in big red letters. It also seems that there might be blood dripping down the door, which, if true, would match with the other blood splatter on the floor near the bottom right of the screen. It definitely gives the impression that something happened here before, and that that something was bad. There's also a grate on the wall that's splattered with red, but given that blood is pink in the DR universe, I'm assuming that's rust.

The pharmacies are very interesting to me. First of all, there are two of them. What kind of establishment needs two separate pharmacies? I guess you might if the pharmacies are as different as the two pictured. One looks more like an old-fashioned office or science classroom (it kind of reminds me of v3's Ultimate Detective Lab, honestly), and the other like a scientific research facility. A pharmacy is defined as "a store where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold," so perhaps Pharmacy A1 is for selling and Pharmacy A5 is for creating?

The "A" in these tags could stand for "area," but they more likely stand for "alpha." At the end of the Chapter 1 demo (watch Weeby Newz's video on it if you want the same level of info I have), the students are about to go through the lowercase "alpha" door in the Tree Room to explore a new area. These three areas are almost certainly behind that door-- perhaps with the checkered pharmacy being room #1, and the blue pharmacy being room #5?

It's also possible that the entire area is considered "the pharmacy," and is dedicated to the production of medicine. But, whether that's the case or not, I have to ask, "why?" Out of all the things they could have put into this falsified Eden's Garden Academy, why make two rooms dedicated to creating drugs? Why potentially make up to five rooms dedicated to creating drugs? With very little information regarding the overarching plot of Eden's Garden, it's hard to determine why. The only connection I can make offhand is that this may have been the origin site of the drugs used to knock everyone out on the train.

I do find it very interesting, though, that this is not just a location in the school, but the very first one we're discovering. Normally, I'd think that places like these, which aren't that conducive to students hanging out (like a pool or recreation center) would be reserved for future chapters. It may imply that drugs and/or poisons are a necessary component of the Chapter 1 murder. We'll see!

Our first of the rapid-fire CGs! This one shows Kai pointing at something within a fancy pink room. There's a canopy bed dressed with pink cloth, some floral-looking wallpaper, and two small paintings of what also appear to be plants on the wall.

Given the appearance of Damon's room earlier in the trailer, I find it likely that this is not a new location in the alpha corridor, but instead, someone's room. There are many pink colored characters in P:EG-- Diana, Toshiko, and Kai himself-- as well as Cassidy, whose character color is close to pink, and Ingrid, who has pinkish hair. Of the main three options, I'm guessing that this is probably Kai's room.

People have been quick to diagnose this as a potential BDA image. If that's true, I acknowledge that this being Kai's room would be a wild choice, because it would mean that someone other than Kai was found dead in Kai's room. It would be a THH parallel, though! I just think that it's likely to be his because, well, he's in there, and all of the references to flowers seems fitting for his butterfly motif. However, Toshiko's kimono does have flower patterns on it, and flowers also match up with the ~romance~ of the Ultimate Matchmaker. If this is Kai providing a BDA in Toshiko's room, though... maybe Toshiko isn't dodging those first victim allegations.

If it's not a BDA, though, what is Kai pointing at? Imagine if it's just a spider or something, lol. He does look pretty worried, so perhaps this could be the arrival of something like DRDT's custom weapons? If a weapon suddenly appeared in my room a the killing game, I'd be kind of worried. It could also be a mysterious note, as (spoilers) we're about to see a few of in this trailer.

One cute(?) thing to mention is that, if this is Kai's room, it likely means that Kai was willing to invite Damon into his room to check whatever this is out. That could mean that they're friends! It's not cute if this is actually a BDA. It's also not cute if Kai is becoming Damon's friend just so that it hurts more when he dies in Chapter 1 :(

Woah, it's a note! (/j)

This and the image directly before it in the trailer seem to be of the same thing: a piece of paper that says "to Damon Maitsu" on it. Or, it's possible that the first one just says "Damon Maitsu" and this one says "to Mr. Maitsu"-- they look a little different, although the handwriting seems identical. I don't think there's any paper conspiracy for me to crack here.

To my memory, the prologue included some flashback CGs, so I would imagine that's what's happening here, unless Damon actually kept his Eden's Garden acceptance letter on his person (possible). It could also be a new letter that Damon receives during the course of the killing game if, as I posited, Kai was pointing out a letter he received in his room.

And furthermore, more note content? Why is this hypothetical piece of paper more visible in the trailer than Toshiko?! (/j)

Or, maybe it isn't. This note seems to read, "Meet in [???] at 8:10 p.m. tonight [???] Damon Maitsu." Due to the spacing of the words-- namely, that it doesn't seem like there's much more to this message beyond what we can see-- this paper appears to be pretty small. Combined with the color, I predict that this note is, in fact, sticky. And therefore, not the same as the piece of paper (which also has a different ink color) as the other note.

Further extrapolating from the spacing, the note looks like it's signed "-- Damon Maitsu". Otherwise, there would need to be a word before Damon, the end of which has no letters tall enough to appear next to the D. (It's LGI's "Ms. Naegi" crisis all over again... /ref) If so, that means that we might have an example of Damon's handwriting on our hands! Or the handwriting of someone who was trying to impersonate Damon :/

I wish we had a better lead on where this note was telling folks to meet up, but it's way too vague.

Then, yet another piece of paper! It's definitely different than the yellow one, and probably different from the signed one as well, due to being typed and not handwritten. Then again, sometimes typed letters have a handwritten signature at the bottom, so it's not impossible.

This text's formatting reminds me of how scripts are normally written: both the font and the center alignment are used in standard scriptwriting formats. I actually at first thought that everything after "beneath a" might have been spoken by a character whose name starts with L, but that would mean that their dialogue starts with a lowercase letter. Plus, names on scripts are usually written more like this (imagine it's centered):

LINDSAY beneath a [shoulder] If only [head]

in the sense that the character speaking's name is in all caps. There appears to be a lowercase i after the capital L, so it's probably not a name.

Still, that begs the question of why the top line is so much shorter than the one beneath it. In a normal passage, all of the lines would have relatively even margins other than possibly the last one. Could the wonky spacing be indicative of a poem, or something else written in verse? Due to the script/poem idea, I'm inclined to believe this belongs to the ever-dramatic Tozu, but I could be wrong.

Next is another CG, depicting Damon, Cassidy, and a sneaky Jean in the background. Based on the shape of Damon's ahoge, we can tell he's a little annoyed or flustered by whatever Cassidy is pointing at.

The wallpaper pattern we see in the background is that of the Dining Hall. Do NOT ask me how I remembered this offhand, because I don't know.

Furthermore, based on the wall being to the characters' left, it's likely that they're standing on the left side of the room. (It's possible in reality that it could be anywhere else in the room in front of the wallpaper only, but based on cinematography rules I won't bother explaining this is probably the case.) So, what is Cassidy pointing at? It could be the fireplace, the painting of the jackal, or the vent. Or, obviously, something new that appears in the Dining Hall in Chapter 1.

Based on my theories that the vent will be involved in the Chapter 1 murder, I'm inclined to believe that it might be what Cassidy's pointing out. If that's true, it means that she (and Jean) (and Damon) is dodging the Chapter 1 victim allegations! However, given that the characters are looking upwards, unless they're on the floor, it's probably not actually the vent. Maybe it's something on the fireplace mantle?

Also, based on straight vibes and nothing else, I don't think this is a serious CG. It might just be that it reminds me of v3's casino CG, but I kinda feel like Cassidy is just trying to teach Damon a game while Jean watches, or something. Projector on the Dining Hall walls? "It's more likely than you think," I lie.

The next six images consist of three spooky screenshots of what seem to be some sort of database which say "Ultimate" (and a picture of Damon), and three zoom-ins on what I believe to be paintings found around the school.

The only one I found of particular note was this one, which sort of looks like two people getting married? Both figures seem to have light skin, and the one in the white dress might have some shoulder-length red hair. Cassidy marriage arc??? I can't imagine what context this photo/painting/CG would appear in, but it might be important.

After that a few illustrations depicting the killing game's rules flash by. I won't be uploading all of them because 1) you can probably guess at most already if you're familiar with DR/fangans, and 2) I think these might have been shown in the demo anyways. To sum up, I think the rules can be attributed as such:

Tozu is in charge (and/or participation in the killing game is mandatory)

No destroying school property, with a focus on cameras and NG bracelets

You can't kill/injure Tozu or Mara*

Students can become the blackened by killing

Once a dead body is found, it's time for a Class Trial

... The same thing again? Oh, maybe #5 was about how to trigger a BDA, then.

Um...

Okay, actually, I don't know what this one is. Is this saying that you can't rip paper, or you'll get executed? As in, papers that Tozu gives you? Dude, maybe my "Tozu gives the students mysterious letters" theory actually had some merit to it!

If not that, could this be something about breaching contracts? The Prologue did mention "registration materials" that Damon presumably signed. Those could have been a cover-up for a real waiver the students accidentally accepted. Or, maybe this is the big reveal that all of the characters are actors in a scripted performance. In Chapter 1? Yeah, probably not.

*Technically, only Tozu (who stands between Mara and the student) has an X over him, which could imply that it's only illegal to harm Tozu. However, it's likely that, when the rule is revealed in the e-Handbook, the graphic will cycle between Xs on Mara and Tozu, or something else to that effect. It would be interesting if the rules don't protect Mara, though. I'd imagine the in-universe explanation would be "see what happens if you even TRY to hurt Mara," but that would absolutely feel like a rule intended by the writers to be broken in the future.

I'm sure someone could do a super in-depth analysis of the religious implications of this painting, but that person is not me. All I will say is, "these are the animals of Mara and Tozu." Oh, and, based on the next image, this painting is located in Pharmacy 1.

New locations! Like I alluded to above, the first image is definitely of Pharmacy 1, and I think the second is too.

The third is a bit harder to decipher. We've got a glowing photocopier with an Eden's Garden Academy logo on it, a tiled floor, many green cabinets, a medical kit, and lots of vines. I wonder if this might be a third pharmacy that functions more like a doctor's office...? I don't know what the photocopier is there for in that case, though. I'm assuming that the location behind Jett in the fourth image is in the same room due to the similar green cabinets, and the fact that you can see a similar first aid kit on the wall behind him. If that's the case, there's also a sink in this room. That's not helping me either.

After that, we have a shot of Jean with a proposition in the Dining Hall, some general purposes art which I think we've seen before, and a slick 3D animation with Damon catching a fallen apple. What do they have in common? I don't have much to say about any of them.

Free Time time! Or, at least, I'm assuming that Ulysses' part is part of his first FTE, given that it was packaged in with all this other stuff. With this, we can conclude that Ulysses, Wenona, and Wolfgang will all be available for at least one FTE in Chapter 1. I am very curious about that in general-- with this first chapter release, will we immediately be able to view all of everyone's FTEs? Or will they cap everyone off at, like, two for now? Unfortunately, there's no way for me to answer that now.

The other three images are more intriguing. The first definitely shows Damon's gift inventory, with the Black Forest Cake being highlighted. The interesting bit is all of the chibi pixels to the side, with positive and negative arrows by some of their heads. At first, I thought that P:EG might be going for something like SDRA2's ambitious FTE system, where characters have positive or negative opinions on you based on actions you take and gifts you give. However, on further thought, I bet that this is an in-game way of telling you who will like which gifts. As far as I can tell, many people either look up which gifts to give which characters or save-scum until they get something right, so taking guessing out of the equation is probably a good thing. Plus, now we know that Diana, Jett, Toshiko, Mark, Wolfgang, Cassidy, Desmond, Eloise, and Kai like cake; Grace, Ingrid, and Wenona don't; and Damon, Jean, Ulysses, and Eva are neutral. It's an extra good system if it gives us insight into Damon as well!

The second is surely P:EG's equivalent of the Monomono Machine, with Damon receiving a zen garden from the funky hourglass contraption. The interesting part to me is that the currency is named Marabucks instead of Tozubucks. Yay for inclusivity? Also, I think it's fun that the percentage reads "1,13%" instead of the standard American "1.13%". (And P:EG seems to be, on the whole, an American-coded game, given that the majority of the characters speak in American-accented English and the cast's live appearance was in Texas.) Gives you a little behind the scenes peek at who was coding this section of the game :)

The last thing... uh, what? It seems to be a Pong-like minigame, probably used to earn bonus Marabucks. You bounce the "orbs" through the "pachinko" to... I guess score points against Mara and Tozu? And, probably if you do well enough, you get varying levels of money. Perhaps I spoke too soon, and the Marabuck is simply the lesser Tozubuck.

Up next comes some dramatic zoom-ins through those spiffy remodeled locations. I appreciate them jazzing up the "outdoor" area specifically; the lack of polygons in the doorway arch always bugged me. Even if they kept those similarly unbeveled shapes in the archways to the side... (/lh)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

WE GOT SCENES FROM THE CLASS TRIAL?!?!?!

To clear the elephant in the room, as everyone has been reporting, Toshiko is the only student who can't be seen in the Class Trial at all. Does that mean she's dead? Uh, probably not. As part of a mystery-writing team, I would have to imagine that whoever crafted this trailer would be smart enough to know that their mystery-loving fans would comb through whatever they're given for answers (hi 👋). And, if there's one to be found, they'd find it. Therefore, I'm more inclined to believe that Toshiko's absence is an intentional red herring. Then again, this is very possibly the P:EG team's first time writing a fangan, so if they didn't think about things like that, it would be understandable.

So, who is dying if everyone else is present? To me, there's a big gulf between how easy it would be to fake someone's participation in the Class Trial. Subbing out a death portrait for a regular sprite is easy, recording a fake line of dialogue is a bit more effort, and creating original artwork is really not worth the effort. Thus, we can divide the characters into tiers.

ORIGINAL ART (basically guaranteed safe) Damon, Wenona VOICE ACTING (very likely to be safe) Diana, Grace, Wolfgang, Jean, Eva SPRITE VISIBLE (possibly most endangered) Mark, Desmond, Kai, Ingrid, Ulysses, Eloise, Cassidy, Jett TOTALLY ABSENT (reverse psychology safety???) Toshiko

Damon's unique minigame sprite and Wenona's Rebuttal Showdown art appearing over his face should also squash the rumors that Damon will be replaced before the first Class Trial at least, lol.

Within those tiers, I also want to highlight two outliers: Wolfgang and Eva. Because, of course it's those two.

Although Wolfgang is in the voice acting tier, in reality, I'd say he should be moved upward into the "basically guaranteed safe" tier. This is because his line is shown in Nonstop Debate format as opposed to the regular dialogue format. Although his lines don't have the animated word art thing going on, I still imagine that it would be easier to create a fake line in the regular dialogue boxes than in the minigame. Also, notice that I said lineS. Wolfgang also has two lines, and unless the team is really yanking our chains, I can't see why they would create two fake lines when one would surely suffice.

Meanwhile, while Eva is in the voice acting tier, she's bordering on the "possibly most endangered" tier. It may just be my "Eva could die first" bias speaking, but her line is a whole lot shorter and less specific than Diana's, Grace's, or Jean's. In fact, if you remove the comma, "obviously the case" could easily be one of her stock dialogue lines that plays over unvoiced portions of the Daily Life. If the team were to create a fake piece of dialogue for the Class Trial, sneakily repurposing a line that already exists for other purposes would be the most efficient way to do so.

Expanding on that, what is "obviously, the case" supposed to mean here? I'll once again draw attention to that comma. Grammatically, it's not that some truth is "obviously the case," but that the case is the thing that's obvious. In what context is Eva saying that, though?

Jett: Uhhh, sorry, what are we supposed to be focusing on again...? Eva: Obviously, the case.

Or, could a physical case, like a briefcase, be relevant to the murder?

Grace: But what could the killer have used to fucking store a disguise?! Eva: Obviously, the case.

The only thing I'm remembering offhand that could be a physical case is the medical kit, but obviously there are plenty of locations and props for this Chapter we haven't seen yet. At any rate, Eva's dialogue raised a flag for me. So, I'll be scrutinizing any cases we may see or any pre-Trial words Eva speaks when the Chapter comes out.

Also, Diana and Grace might be a bit safer than Jean and Eva because what Grace is saying seems to be a response to Diana. They both mention peace, and Desmond is striking the same pose in both of their shots. I doubt that the P:EG team would either record Diana expressing the same sentiment that someone else actually expresses, or come up with a fictitious response from Grace that doesn't actually exist. If you want to get really nitty-gritty about it, consider that tier as ranking Wolfgang as the most safe, then Grace, Diana, Jean, and then Eva :)

Under the dual assumptions that Toshiko is a red herring while Eva's dialogue is genuine (such that both of them are safe), though, who's the most likely victim from our "sprite visible" tier?

Well, the only victim option left from my Chapter 1 Killer/Victim theory is Kai. Fan-favorite first victim choice Cassidy is also on the table. Otherwise, I could see Ulysses, given that (if he's not the mastermind) he gives BIG victim energy with his notetaking becoming a central aspect of solving his Trial. I'd expect they'd save a gimmick like that for a later Trial, where it could better be used to shake up the status quo, but I could see it as a good intro case too. I could also see someone taking Desmond out if they were afraid of his weapon-wielding capabilities, although that's... kinda backwards thinking. Desmond's capability to kill is scary if you're trying to kill him, but it doesn't offer much in the Class Trial.

Still kinda convinced it's gonna be Eva, but I'm aware enough to recognize that's probably just the stubbornness of wanting to believe that my old theory was true.

Speaking of old theories coming true, can we rewind for a moment?

Jean: ...but, I'd rather be suspected than be the reason this trial comes to a standstill.

Hey. WHAT.

For anyone who hasn't read/forgot about the Chapter 1 victim/killer theory I just linked, in that post, I argued my case for why Jean would be our unexpected Chapter 1 killer. Needless to say, when I saw this, I screamed.

What does this MEAN?!?! Full disclosure, I was pretty convinced that the Jean!killer theory would either be, like, 100% on the money, or laughably incorrect to the level of accidentally misinterpreting Jean's entire personality or there not even being a hint of suspicion thrown on his name throughout the entire case. To see Jean acknowledging others' suspicion of him in the TRAILER has me reeling.

Assuming that this line isn't fake (which also guarantees that Jean isn't the first victim), this means that there will be a point in the Trial at which Jean will be suspected as the blackened. The line itself could easily be something that a sympathetic and honest spotless would say, or something that a blackened could say pretending to be just that, so we don't get any hints there. What reason would Jean have to be suspected if he isn't the killer? Why and how would anyone choose to frame him? But also, would the P:EG team really want to have their players go into the first Trial already primed to believe that Jean could be the blackened based on the trailer? I feel like this line was included as a cruel (/lh) trick on me specifically, but my theory wasn't nearly infamous enough to warrant that kind of attention.

It's absolutely going to be eyes on Jean for me when the first Chapter comes out. I'm so curious to see the context surrounding this quote. Did I actually call it early? Or will the "evidence" that I stacked up actually prove to make Jean a believable bait, but not the real blackened? (wouldn't be the first time :P /j)

Moving on, there's a very dramatic scene of Tozu looking over the Trial grounds, while Damon looks back. I double checked, and everyone is visible (in silhouette form) in this shot, which makes sense as it was likely created solely for this spoiler-free promotional material. In my mind, the only clues we can pick up here are that Damon is further cementing himself as the true protagonist of this story. He also blocks out Wolfgang as he looks at Tozu...? Could have symbolic significance, but could also just be a result of the pair being opposite each other in the Class Trial seating.

After that is another fast-paced montage. The first screen is the same shot of the Pharmacy table. I don't know why they put repeat info in here, but as far as I can tell, all of the props and textures and whatnot are the same. If my assessment that the murder would utilize the Dining Hall vent is wrong, I wonder if this could be a hint that Pharmacy A especially will have significant meaning-- possibly, as the site of the first BDA. That being said, they also repeat the same image of the photocopier ivy room as the third image in this montage. So, if that's the case, it means both locations will have to be highly relevant.

I feel like this image out of context looks really NSFW. I promise, that was not my intention...

Anyways, this is from the Prologue BDA.

It's Cara's doll legs, as is made extra apparent by that same cylindrical thing in the back. I'm not sure if this was put here because the Prologue case will continue to be really relevant to Chapter 1, or just because they wanted a BDA-looking thing for the Trailer yet didn't want to put in a spoiler one. Based on the different size/shape of Cara's thighs (now I feel NSFW /j), there is a slight possibility that what's shown in the Chapter 1 trailer is (an image of) the real Cara's body as opposed to the doll. However, we know that some sprites and backgrounds have been redone during the hiatus, and that could extend to Cara's art as well.

This knife is also from the Prologue BDA.

You think you're so clever, P:EG team, don't you...? (/lh)

Can you believe the students are going to investigate area alpha in Chapter 1? Or maybe this is Damon telling me I'm wrong about that, haha.

Hey, they rigged a 3D Tozu model! It's looking good. I'm sure they're glad that Tozu's mask meant that they don't have to make a whole mouth rig for the guy, lol. My guess is that this model will be used for Tozu's "punishment time" animation, the equivalent of Monokuma hitting his button with the mallet.

The last thing of note in this trailer (other than the release date) is the Chapter's splash art! The full version was posted to Twitter, which I'll be showing for clarity's sake.

“Strange that one minor event, one small action, can alter the path of everything.”

... You gotta start dodging these allegations better, Cassidy.

Chapter promo art predictions are always a tricky game when it comes to predicting who will die. On the creator's end, I'm sure you don't want to draw additional attention to your first deaths by spotlighting them in the artwork. But, if you want to highlight some of the most important characters of the chapter, that'll often include the victim and/or killer if the Daily Life is well-crafted. Plus, especially for early deaths like these, if you don't put them in the chapter art early, you'll never have to chance.

But, forget all that. Who's actually shown in the poster? Obviously, Damon, Jett, and Cassidy are, but I believe that Wenona's jacket and hair are shown to the left of Damon? If you squint, you can also make out what might be Ingrid's arm on his right. That would be consistent with where he's seated in the Class Trial. Yeah, and then that weird blob behind Wenona is actually Jean and Eva!

See what I mean? Well, if we have 7 characters on the poster, maybe it's not so suspicious for any of them after all :D

And, really, it's 8 characters. I imagine others have made this connection already (even if I haven't personally seen it), but... that's a chameleon wrapping its way around Damon. AKA, Diana's animal motif. That means that Diana is more or less on this poster as well!

As the literal framing device of the Class Trial, the chameleon makes this poster reek of Diana being the Chapter 1 killer. However, even that feels too obvious, at least to my highly-scrutinous eyes. Then again, if this was just supposed to communicate that Diana will be important, why not just put her on the poster...? I really don't know what to make of it.

And... yeah, December 20th! I'm super excited!!! While we're certainly not in a drought of in new and exciting fangans nowadays (read Danganronpa: One Shot here!), productions of this scale-- especially playable ones-- are few and far between, so I really hope that this first Chapter lives up to the hype. I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say about this fangan in a few weeks, so I'll see y'all then for Project: Eden's Garden's true beginning!

...

(Honestly, after all this time in the DRDT fandom, it's just crazy to me that we're going to learn about the victim and killer at basically the same time... (/lh))

[snail-cupcakes]

hypothetical Looney Tunes cover album

so I saw this:

and my brain started racing with the possibilities of these characters doing song covers. So I've compiled a tracklist.

Disclaimers: - I'm not super educated about Looney Tunes - I haven't watched every cartoon - some of the lyrics & style may not fit each character exactly - song pickings are informed by different portrayals of the characters, and I'm probably flawed in my interpretation of these portrayals

Anyway! on to the tracklist! in no particular order:

Scale Up/Scale Down by Louie Zong

sung by Daffy Duck inspired by Duck Amuck (1953).

The Main Character by Will Wood

sung by Bugs Bunny it seems to me that he adores attention from a crowd and is very much the protagonist. the "I ain't done a thing to you" line feels very reminiscent of the karmic nature of his cartoons- anyone harming, or seeking to harm him, is harshly punished.

The Duck Song by Bryant Oden

sung by Daffy & Porky inspired by their dynamic in the early cartoons + recent modern reboot era.

Somethin' Stupid by Frank & Nancy Sinatra

sung by Pepe Le Pew & Penelope Pussycat inspired by the old cartoons where they're lovey-dovey together.

Mambo No.5 (a Little Bit of...) by Lou Bega

sung by... Pepe Le Pew I know the sequencing of this is very jarring. I did it on purpose because I think it's funny. this is inspired by Pepe's personality in the Looney Tunes Show. to describe the situation in his own words: "8th time's the charm".

Mr Sandman by The Chordettes

sung by Lola Bunny (about Bugs no doubt) I absolutely love the Looney Tunes show version of her, can't get enough of her. so I thought it'd be good to give her a 50s song to sing because she never got to be part of that era.

The Whole World and You by Tally Hall

sung by Daffy (to Bugs) I feel like this is very applicable to their dynamic, thinking in terms of the hunting trilogy.

and there we go! I also wanted to find a song for Yosemite and Marvin and other characters, and more songs for Bugs, but I couldn't think of anything, unfortunately.

Additional song ideas below:

Lola songs: - Hey Lover by The Daughters of Eve - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here by She & Him - Bust Ya Kneecaps by Pomplamoose - Sweet But a Psycho by Ava Max - Copacabana by Barry Manilow Daffy songs: - I'm Gonna Win by Rob Cantor - Birds Don't Sing by TV Girl - Mirror Man by Jack Stauber (thinking abt Show Biz Bugs here) and either Daffy or Lola could sing: I Just Threw Out The Love of My Dreams by Weezer (i've got Looney Tunes show's "Dear John" and "You've Got Hate Mail" in mind here). Though some of these aren't completely in character and would be more applicable in a what-if scenario.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

im not exaggerating when i say ive been staring at your newest twitter art for the past twenty minutes. i feel ill Why can i hear them

the thigh size difference, the codpiece, charles drooling and Shaking that man is Gone, mags' smug smile and uh. his uhm . Hes HUGE..... charles How do you take that thing and live to tell the tale... and mags' lil speech bubble, what filth could he be sayin..... much to think about, i think i hauve covid, THEY LOOK SO GOOD, apologies to your bro's sneakers but i for one am very happy with this outcome :3 as always thank you so much for your service 🫡🫡

thank you for the review on my doodles today!!!!! i looked deep into my soul and let it do the rest......

[happidragon]

when Adachi Rei said- wait, i mean when iwoya said - or, i mean THØRNS said, and then Kasane Teto said it, but i'm really talking about when miy_yuu said it, but with subtitles -

[seventh-district]

7am, eating cold leftover teriyaki stir-fry for breakfast and crying over blorbos

[unicornlovers10]

So I want to make homemade pins, out of the plastic rings that you'd usually find on cupcakes (or as an alternative to Trick or Treat candy). It's something that I've been wanting to do for a while now, and I really want to try it.

I have the rings that I want to make into pins as a test run (as shown above). And if they work, I want to do this to the other plastic rings that I have on hand.

I choose some basic pin blanks (with backings), and I'll be grabbing them soon. But I haven't decided what adhesive to use on them. I'll list the options I'm deliberating on under the cut below.

The main options I'm debating on are either a gel super glue or UV resin. E6000 is another option I could use, but I'll explain why I'm hesitant to use that one in a bit.

On one hand, with the gel super glue, I could easily adhere the pin blanks to the plastic itself and I know how to use it. But on the other hand, the glue might not stay for long. However the only super glue that I've tested for longevity is the type with a more watery consistency.

With the UV resin, I've never actually used it before (nor do I have anything related to resin stuff yet). So I'm not sure how well it could be used as an adhesive. I've seen other people use it for shrinky dink or clay pins, but not to secure the actual pin back to whatever the person is using as the visible pin part.

With the E6000 glue, I've never used it before and I have done research on it (for an unrelated project a few years back). The main thing that I'm hesitant on is the fumes. I know that it has to be used in a well-ventilated area, and I would have to use a mask. I'm incredibly hesitant on this specific material because I have asthma. There are other reasons why I have this hesitancy, but it's mostly related to said asthma.

I've probably been over thinking this entire detail about what adhesive to use, but I'd want these pins to last. Those are the main three options that I'm mulling over, but it's those first two that I'm seriously considering. I'm also thinking about the option to have some fabric on the actual backs of the pins, in between the visible parts and the backs, but that might introduce more problems.

I'm not actually sure about the small details such as these, because I've never made any homemade pins before. I've made Perler Bead magnets in the past, but I'm not sure how much of the knowledge I've learned from doing that could carry over to these homemade pins.

[fluffle-writes]

I wanna. Pick them up in my mouth and shake 'em around like a dog obliterating a squeaky toy

[wanopo-daily]

Day 106:

how wanopo advertised SEIBAITAAAASU release on Instagram

it's just half of the mv, i have NO clue what they were doing but well done guys i am mesmerised

[luifaro]

man i hate roblox roleplays that start off as silly little jokes that become more serious because i have a little guy now. a little siffrin variant but their lore is STUPID because when they were born (aka undied) we were still in the jokey phase so literal nonsense happened and i don't KNOW what to do... curse you stardust and your honestly exciting idea. so basically loop turns back into siffrin and siffrin turns into loop.

"but what's so stupid about that, tumblr user louie far o?"

it'll make less sense in context so here!!!!! (note really long and rambly + prolly makes no sense i'm so sorry)

ok you know how loops like a loser or something (idk i didn't play the prologue yet i'm mostly basing this off tumblr osmosis and how i roleplayed them don't kill me!!!!!!!) who ruins everything? WHAT IF absolutely crazy shit happened to them!!!!!

so to start off loop ended up meeting a siffrin they were fairly sure was the real one and fondly nickname them sleepyfrin because they look tired. they also meet hatfrin (sleepyfrin doesn't have their hat, hatfrin does) but don't like hatfrin as much as they like sleepyfrin (loop finds hatfrin annoying), so sleepyfrin's their favorite siffrin variant!!!!

anyway loop and bonnie end up egging the two siffrins on and trying to get them to fight, though of course sleepyfrin doesn't want to because he has like. morals or something boring like that. hatfrin's eager though!!!!

left loop and right loop (sits on the left side of the favor tree) (my loop sits on the right because i was stupid and forgot they sit on the left) end up beefing though i don't remember why (i think it was just a simple "there can be only one" thing but not entirely sure) the stars are fighting man. left loop and right loop are both trying to cook each other... bonnie gets popcorn and shares some with right loop (they absorb it??? idk they still don't have a mouth)

sleepyfrin sadly DIIIEES because they ate pineapple (left loop made them food that contained PINEAPPLE!!!!!) but hatfrin didn't (right loop also didn't because they don't have a mouth)

a little after that, bonnie also got hatfrin some pineapples and they and right loop basically guilt-trip hatfrin into eating it even though loop knew it'd kill him and then he loops, proving that HE'S the real siffrin. (right loop is not happy.)

they like. died because left loop built a BOMB to KILL right loop!!!!! (had glue so they couldn't get it off their hands.) they're told to defuse it but it doesn't really work out like that because the bomb would be very difficult if not impossible to defuse. the bomb EXPLODES so loop their little stardust DIIIE. (they were standing in the blast radius when it went off but on a good note so was sleepyfrin's ghost, so they undie because in this canon ghosts getting killed again makes them undie)

hatfrin loops again but loop is still dead (and now a ghost)

and then loop undies (something about how killing ghosts brings them back to life.) but this makes loop turn into siffrin and siffrin (formerly hatfrin) is turned into loop. this is a confusing predicament as there are already a couple other siffrins (just sleepyfrin at the time but confusedfrin also appears later on) (sleepyfrin's called that cause loop noticed they look tired)

sleepyfrin is ofc CONFUSED about what just happened. loopfrin tells sleepy to not look and that it'll make sense if they don't so they're like "ok." and he turns away for a bit. sifloop suggests that loopfrin pretends to be hatfrin and tells them where to find his hat (it's in the clocktower)

so yeah loopfrin just kinda skedaddles to go steal that hat. they return and sleepyfrin turns back to look at them and is like "what took you so long" (something like that i think) and loopfrin just kinda admits what actually happened, though it's kind of confusing.

so loopfrin renames themself stardust to not be confused with anyone else (but they'll still call other siffrins stardust so it's still very confusing. "Stardust!" vs ", stardust!") at some point confusedfrin appears (can't entirely remember how i think they were just also under the tree?) and they get the nickname confusedfrin because they were very confused at the time about what was going on. after confusedfrin appears the three siffrins aren't sure about what to do (mostly sleepyfrin) but then stardust gets a plan (totally not inspired by the one thing where siffrin and loop swap out every now and again) where the idea is they'll all pretend to be the same siffrin and interact with the party one at a time. stardust goes out first since the other two would rather not.

sifloop follows them. they meet bonnie and they come up with a story about how loop (actually sifloop) is a wish star that fell out of the sky and that they're going to help them get back up there and bonnie's like woaaw. skip a bit (i forgot part before this) and wowza it's mirabell!!!! stardust meets mirabelle and ends up accidentally spilling the beans about being in a timeloop (tldr got confused and thought mirabelle wasn't joking when she said she was trapped in a timeloop so they blabbed thinking they were both trapped and just never said anything to each other) and they feel so BAD and STUPID they RUN BACK to the favor tree and climb to the top where all they're friends are and start crying and freaking out cause they think they RUINED IT and that everyone knows now!!!!!!!!!

other frins try to comfort stardust but it doesn't quite work and at sifloop's suggestion they impulsively decide to run off to the clocktower to run away from their problems a bit. other siffrins chased them i think. they end up in the clocktower and i sadly miss the next part because i went afk but before the part i missed, it turns out isa and bonnie were downstairs and UH OH this is bad!!!!!!! stardust starts panicking and insulting themself because this was a STUPID IDEA and they're FUCKED NOW.

sifloop tells them to QUIET DOWN so the nerds downstairs won't hear them and they try to quieet doown... but end up having to hide anyway because skill issue. so stardust, sleepyfrin, and confusedfrin all end up HIDING and luckily aren't seen?? sadly then i miss a part but from what i saw i think confusedfrin and sifloop were arguing about something. stardust feels like. very terrible about everything and doesn't want to come outta the closet (they were hiding in there). sleepyfrin tries to talk to them but they won't respond, so confusedfrin talks to em and lets them know that they won't leave them behind. yk yk the whole moment is very sweet. (conversation went like this basically: "i'm so STUPID and RUINED EVERYTHING." "ok but i don't think anyone else would've known what to do in this situation." "why not just leave me behind?" "stardust listen. no matter what, we aren't leaving you behind.") stardust reluctantly accepts that confusedfrin just isn't gonna give up on them and decides they have to come out then.

yay the siffrin trio is BACK BABY!!!!!!!!! they come up with a new plan which is to basically pretend they're loop's guardians or something and they just happen to look like siffrin. they go downstairs and try it out!!! stardust gets to show off their charisma and stands on the table because they're cool. once they're done distracting isa and bonnie they RUUUUUUUUNN ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE FAVOR TREE!!!!!

stardust remarks that running from their problems has NEVER felt better and that they should do it more often! sleepyfrin and confusedfrin end up climbing to the top of the favor tree again and they have a conversation, though stardust isn't really paying attention at this point. sifloop suggests they just loop back but yk... they sadly can't because they techincally aren't siffrin. this reveal results in sifloop having an IDEA.... if stardust can't reset despite having physically become siffrin, perhaps sifloop can STILL loop despite being loop. but how to test it out? for a moment stardust forgets they have a dagger, that is, until sifloop reminds them of it. (first suggestion was to feed them pineapple like the first time stardust KILLED sifloop but they don't realize in the moment that it was a reference. dw they'll reference it again later and stardust will realize.) stardust stabs sifloop until they die, resulting in all the siffrins looping back to the meadow (but notably stardust is still a siffrin and sifloop is still loop.)

stardust wakes up in the meadow to have sleepyfrin tease them a bit about being a little sleepyhead, saying they should've been named sleepyfrin instead. as revenge, stardust makes fun of sleepy moments later when they get confused and says maybe they should've been named confusedfrin instead. sleepyfrin talks to stardust a bit about how they're upset they looped without warning the others (and also a little because they stabbed sifloop). they come to an agreement, that being that they'll ask the other siffrins before looping next time. sifloop on the other hand, is off talking to The Horrors (Mal Du Pays). no one properly recognizes mal du pays but stardust gets a little concerned cause mal seems aggressive and could be attacking sifloop. luckily for them, they get to avoid having a confrontation because mal du pays leaves. that is, until sifloop starts a SEARCH mission for them!!!!!!!

confusedfrin (as their namesake suggests), is a little confused about what happened both in and out of character (was afk dw we told em the LORE..) sleepy and confused end up following after stardust and sifloop for a bit before they'd end up searching the clocktower for mal du pays (sifloop saw them in the corner earlier) since sleepy and confused get the bright idea to just. not. and take a break so they can continue the conversation they were having before stardust RUDELY looped.

stardust notices they're gone and starts trying to look for them. they end up correctly guessing that they're back at the clocktower. stardust doesn't realize they were avoiding them and sifloop so no worries! they talk for a bit, stardust and sifloop have a convo where they reveal they no longer hate hatfrin (sifloop) and that they don't really have a favorite siffrin anymore cause they're all their friends now!!!! in this time sleepyfrin comes up with the idea of them having their own parties with a separate captain. sleepy and sifloop are one team, and stardust and confusedfrin are the other. stardust, being the captain of their party, decide that their party will buy sleepy and sifloop time by distracting anyone who were to discover team confusedstars, making it clear that if they're running away, sleepyloop better run.

uh oh Mal Du Pays at four'o clock!!!!!! sleepyfrin approaches mal and tries to free them. in return, they whisk em away to the void while traumatizing them with the voices of their party!! and NOT JUST them either, because poor stardust heard it too. the sound mal du pays made terrifies them so much they run all the way back to the favor tree again, confusedfrin chasing after them.

they're in full panic mode this time. they can't stop laughing, something's so funny they can't stand it. they let It take sleepyfrin. they let it take sleepyfrin. they let- oh heeeyyyy it's confusedfrin!!! they found stardust! yeeah stardust is not looking too good. confusedfrin tries telling stardust to calm down but YEEAH THAT DOESN'T HELP. HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN??? confusedfrin tells them to breathe. they're panting like a dog boiling in the sun. sifloop also tries telling them to calm down. they end up YELLLIING. CALM DOWN??? HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN? SLEEPYFRIN IS DEAD BECAUSE OF THEM! THEY KILLED SLEEPYFRIN! THEY'RE GONE!

sifloop: vro literally just loop. oh right they forgot they could try that. they're unsure though. would sleepyfrin WANT them to loop? should they really? what if it doesn't work? they consult their friends and come to a decision. they'll try out looping again.

wooo!!!!!!!!!!!! the wicked BEAST is GONE! sleepyfrin is BACK BABY!!!!!!! sleepy's kind of confused since once moment they were in the terror void and the next they're suddenly in the meadow again. stardust sees him and IMMEDIATELY rushes the poor guy and HUUUGGGG!!!!!!! they're so happy he's ok they're so glad sleepyfrin is back . in fact they're so glad they actually SCREAMED "SLEEPYFRIN!!!!!!!" when they saw them instead of calling them stardust. sifloop teases them ("when are you going to kiss?") and all the sentimentality is OVER. no more hugs. this is because stardust loves teasing but hates being teased.

and that's it... the... END.

[sysig]

I sure do fill my cup of coffee like I don’t need to descend a flight of stairs without a lid on it

[aspirationalpeony]

Yeah, I don't think I want to keep watching the episode tonight. It's understandable that they'd go in this direction and I hope the next 50 minutes will take things down a different path, but I don't have a lot of hope and it's just... Not interesting to me. It's just disappointing and frustrating. We'll see what happens, I guess, but I'm not interested in keeping myself awake when I have work tomorrow, just to be frustrated and saddened by another incredibly boring heterosexual storyline.