#NEED a bigger version of this picture for totally normal reasons

[beauty-proof]

Have you seen that Sam Spruell clip on youtube where he’s in Starred Up and??? gets choked?????? and gets handed what looks like a collar???

I’m shocked but also 😈

Oh, um, well, you see. I looked it up after reading this message and then watched it no less than a dozen times. I think the collar might be a 'humane' restraint used in prisons. So, basically, a leather wrist cuff.

[physics-of-one-piece]

Welcome to Doffy's Physics Lab.

In this post, we'll calculate how big Doflamingo's hands are and how long his fingers are.

Let's dive right in!

Okay, so the thing Oda did very very well is capture how long Doflamingo’s limbs are. He has a very strong chest, and his arms are as previously calculated 1.5m. What I say Oda captured well is actually (after some checking) that the proportions of Doflamingo’s body are not THAT bad compared to irl logic.

The man who has the largest hands in the world is Sultan Kosen (Turkey). His hands are 29 centimeters, but his height is 250 centimeters. Mr Kosen has gigantism and acromegaly, this is why he’s so tall and this is why his hands are bigger. Hands are usually 10% of the body height, so his hands should actually be 25 cm, but biology comes into play here, and after seeing some pictures, his hands look very normal for his size. They fit him. When I say how large the hand is, it means the length of the hand from the wrist to the middle finger.

So, this means, taller people’s hands most likely are not 10% of their height, but 11%. You may be wondering why I only heightened it for 1% percent. 1% proportion increase is about 4 cm increase on the real hand already. This fits for how big Mr Kosen’s hands are and follows bone structure that he has, which we can use to then calculate Doflamingo’s.

Also, body mass and body build goes into account. Even tall people have bigger hands than they should sometimes. Skinny people who are tall may have hands that aren’t 10% their body height, so the mass influences the proportion. The reason behind this is genetics and the aforementioned body structure. So, yes, it can depend! Not everyone has 10%! It doesn’t mean you are not healthy, it varies from person to person!

So, for tall people with a larger body mass, let’s put 10% for now; he is weighty but he is also lean in the arms and legs.

This is how we calculate:

10% proportion

Hand = height • proportion

hand = 305 • 0.10

hand = 30.5 cm

This is already huge. Absolutely huge. His hand is bigger than an average human’s head. His hands are 1.5 cm longer than an A4 paper. Yeah. Awesome! That’s awesome.

Sorry, geeking out and fangirling, please stand by.

Okay, we’re gonna do it with Oda’s proportions now. We’re gonna make it 11%.

The anime makes his hands so big. He a big boy.

This with 11% is the most accurate I like to believe.

0.11 • 305 = 33.55cm

We’ll call this next one the extreme but still possibly accurate version

With 12% body proportion (this is extreme of extremes I think this is too much, but fuck it, One Piece doesn’t follow rules so neither will I)

Hand= 305 • 0.12

Hand = 36.6 cm

These are all big.

Okay, now for the fingers. The anime keeps them good on proportions! Oda, as well! They look outta proportion to us midgets but they’re normal size for Doflamingo.

(rubs hands giddily) Hehe, I wanted to know this for AGES.

For this, we use the length of the hand and then anatomical proportions.

Middle finger is 35-40% of the total hand length

Index finger: 30-35%

Ring finger: 30-35%

Little finger: 30-35%

Thumb: 22-27%

Yeah, for normal people.

Not for One Piece, me thinks. I always imagine Doflamingo’s middle finger is half the length of his entire hand. Big boy has long fingers.

But fine, we’ll go with this first. And THEN we’ll have fun in the One Piece proportions.

Okay, so this is where we need to know the finger-length type classification of the hand. There are 4 types.

Most artists, Oda included, draw the hands with the mountain type ie middle finger is the longest. If there are any artists who can confirm/deny so I can later fix it, that’d be great.

Based on this study with men, their index finger is longer than their ring finger, and only by a few mm. We’re gonna put everything in the middle. We’ll make his index finger 1 cm shorter from his middle finger. Ring and index finger are gonna be the same length to get that “mountain” curve.

Now we will go with his hand being 30.5 cm ie with 10% proportion.

Warning, I am breaking dreams with this one, and once again, I like to think his middle finger is 15 cm long! Is it too long? Maybe. Do I care? No. The fun thing about knowing rules is knowing how to break them.

Formula:

percentage • hand length = finger length

30.5cm hand

Middle finger = 0.40 • 30.5 = 12.2 cm

Index finger = 0.35 • 30.5 = 10.67 cm

Ring finger = 0.35 • 30.5= 10.67 cm

Little finger = 0.325 • 30.5 = 9.91 cm

Thumb = 0.27• 30.5 = 8.23 cm

To put his thumb into visual, 8 cm is the average length 180 cm tall men have of their middle finger.

Okay, now onto the official One Piece proportions the 11%. We just need to have his big hand size, he has HUGE hands. Okay.

33.55 cm hand (most likely to be Doflamingo’s hand size)

Middle finger = 0.40 • 33.55 = 13.42 cm

Index = 0.35 x 33.55 = 11.74 cm

Ring = 0.35 x 33.55 = 11.74 cm

Little = 0.325 x 33.55 = 10.90 cm

Thumb = 0.27 x 33.55 = 9.05 cm

Last Possible Version (Extreme Version)

36.6 cm hand

Middle finger= 0.40 • 36.6 = 14.65 cm

(chokes) Holy Mariejois and celestials. Okay. Okay.

Index finger = 0.35 • 36.6 = 12.81 cm

Ring finger = 0.35 • 36.6 = 12.81 cm

Little finger = 0.325 • 36.6 = 11.89 cm

Thumb = 0.27 • 36.6 = 9.88 cm

Woah, his thumb is huge 🤣🤣🤣 (I have a 30cm ruler sitting on the paper rn so yeah these are crazy numbers)

And there you go.

Okay, now width of fingers, we have no way of calculating it except to use known information.

For example, palm width of a hand of 19.3cm long is 8.9cm. let’s cut our losses and divide that to see how much smaller is the palm (this is cheating btw but it gets the job done). Usually your fingers are half the length of your palm. Sth like that. The palm is drawn mostly as a square or a curved parallelogram depending on the angle in which it’s drawn in. I am going with the easier option where all sides are equal.

We got 2.16

So we can say…

Average Palm width without adjusting for OP proportions

for 30.5 cm hand = 30.5/2.16 = 14.12 cm

Doflamingo’s Palm Width (adjusted for OP Proportions)

33.55 cm hand = 33.55/2.16= 15.50 cm

(I just realised I can just go minus his middle finger because that is how we got the length of his hand omg I am an idiot, no need for complex stuff)

33.55 cm - 13.42 cm = 15.13

(Okay, this is the better and easier way and makes good sense!)

(Whispers) Jesus fucking Christ

Extreme Palm Width

for 36.6 cm hand = 36.6/2.16 = 16.96 cm

Dear fucking GOD.

I really like the 30.5 cm from an accuracy standpoint but also, usually, hands are bigger than the average, and the taller you are, basing on your body type & genetics, that proportion can shift slightly.

So 33 cm isn’t a far reach at all for Doflamingo. He absolutely can wrap his single hand around a woman’s throat depending on the circumference of the woman’s throat. He cannot wrap them around a man’s neck fully to enclose it. He can, single-handedly with a 33 cm hand, absolutely completely envelop a woman’s neck.

There’s that. His finger thickness is probably 2-3cm.

And that's it!

Taglist: @fanaticsnail

[goldensadnessdolphin]

That is because gaming keyboards used to be optimized for MMO play. They generally had at least one set of macro buttons you were meant to define yourself. Something like this:

That keyboard had a set of ten macro keys to the left of the letters, another 12 above the F-Keys, media keys to the right of the numpad and (because they could) the four light keys to the left of the escape key. Those would be definable light settings for your areas (everything on that picture that uses the same colour is part of the same area). That model is over a decade old, so I think it might've been one of the early lightup keyboards with definable colour variety. Maybe it was just a cheaper version, idk.

Point being, those were actually gaming specific keyboards and had features to that end. This whole field has regressed. This is the same line of keyboards, and here is the one with the most buttons:

That's at best a normal keyboard with some laptop double function keys. No media keys at all anymore, massive reduction in macro keys.

I'm gonna be honest, I never used all macro keys. Even when I most heavily used the extra features, it was "only" all media keys, a total of 8 macro keys and two light settings. And I didn't even play MMOs, I used those to switch between shortcuts I couldn't bother to reset muscle memory 5 times within 3 hours. But that still would be too much to ask for that new keyboard, not to mention that the macro keys are in the worst possible place for gaming macros. The macros were to the left and above the F-Keys because those where the shortest reasonable paths for your left hand. There's a big difference in effectiveness (and with it ease of use) if you can just focus on one keyboard hand. With the macro keys put above the arrow keys, you'd either have to stop using the mouse or move your left hand aaaaaall the way over, defeating the purpose of them being shortcuts.

To end this rant: I don't dislike the general switch in style (those hot swappable keys look amazing and much easier to clean than the in-set the old keyboards use). The change is also due to how people use keyboards. The market for gaming keyboards used to be much smaller, and MMO players were a much bigger slice of that niche market than they are today. What I do dislike is that this again means enshittification of the product. The first keyboard I showed? That is my actual model which has not budged in usability after over a decade of very heavy use and stuff like repeatedly smashing my fist down on it. If I could have all the media keys, at least 10 stand-alone macro keys, same durability and an otherwise full keyboard I'd be willing to shell out that kind of money. I've been looking for a new keyboard for a while and I know I need to change anyways at some point. But so far no dice. Shame because that with the type writer style of that first keyboard would be my absolute dream

Somehow stumbled into an Overpriced Keyboard Zone and everyone look at this thing

[yutahoes]

Sakura

(Part Two)

One - Two

genre : Chaptered, Fluff

pairing : childhood friends: soccer player! Nakamoto Yuta x single mom! Reader (Y/N)

word count : 2.3k words

You’ll always be his Sakura.

taglist :  @ailoveyuta @loona-4-eva @aiforyuu @2-3-t-i @cosmiclatte28 @url-lindo-sexy @nuoyipeach @aaasteroidsky  @readers-posts @delightfultacobread @bby-kji9 @a-bts-world​ @mel-yjh​ @yeolsechanhun​ @yutazen01 ​

It was the summer before his third grade when his dad announced that they will be moving to Seoul because of a business opportunity. The then eight-year-old Yuta hated that he had to leave his friends just because he can't stay in Japan. He hated that he had to transfer schools and learn a new language. Why do they have to move to another country? Why not move to another city instead? 

When the teacher introduced him to the class of third graders, he just glared at his Korean classmates who were looking at him in wonder. He doesn't want to be friends with them. He doesn't want to talk. He doesn't want to learn a new language. He's Japanese, why would he speak Korean? The teacher told him - or at least that was what he understood - to sit on a vacant chair at the back of the class. His classmates were staring at him. He's the new guy, it's normal. But he hated the attention. 

It was lunch when he decided to eat on the school's rooftop. He wasn't surprised that it was locked but a girl was drawing on the door of the rooftop. Isn't she in his class? The girl seated in front of him? A crayon drawing of stick figures made him curious, what is that? 

A certain symbol caught his attention, a straight line with a beak-like image and wings at the end held by a stickman he believed is a girl because of the triangular picture below her body. "Sakura?" He asked and the girl jolted in surprise, quickly hiding what she was doing. "Cardcaptor Sakura?" 

The girl was wide-eyed, looked at her drawing then at him. He noticed how her eyes twinkle at that even if the area isn't well-lit. Or is it because she just cried? "You're that Japanese guy." She said in Korean and he only caught the words 'Japanese' and 'guy' so she's probably referring to him. "Do you know Cardcaptor Sakura?" He only nodded. It is a hit in Japan, everyone knows Sakura. "I like Cardcaptor Sakura!" She exclaimed with a bright smile. 

That was the first time he saw that girl who loves Sakura. The first classmate who talked to him as if they spoke the same language. He remembered handing her a comic of her favorite cartoons the next day and she introduced herself as Y/N, even asking him along the lines of 'Can you teach me Japanese?' and 'Do you want to be friends with me?' 

His initial plan of not knowing Korean or not talking to people backfired. He wanted to have a real conversation with this Sakura girl. His first Korean friend. 

Yuta would remember teaching her hiragana every lunchtime, on their own place by the door of the rooftop and she would teach him hangul in exchange. Before class, she would tell him stories about what happened to Sakura from the episode yesterday as if he didn't watch the same show. After class, they would spend some time in the playground waiting for her mom to pick her up. 

She was also the person who encouraged him to try out for the soccer team. Unlike in Japan, soccer isn't a required PE in Korea so his classmates were amazed that he knew how to play soccer, even defeating some older kids. "Yuta, sugoi!" She exclaimed that made him smile, a real genuine smile he never showed to everyone. "You're handsome when you smile. You should smile more often." It was her who made him smile more. Just because he wanted her to call him handsome once again. 

In fourth grade, the two were so close that she spent time in their home and him on hers. Sometimes she would even sleep at their place when her mom has to stay all night in the hospital. He found out that she doesn't have a dad, he left them when she's just a baby and that she would always cry in her sleep looking for her dad. Kids weren't very welcoming with the idea of a broken family either and he would often see her crying on the stairs to the rooftop. 

And now, she's the one who has children. A mom. He never imagined that he will see her as a mom in the future. He wondered if she still cries for her dad. He wonders if she still knew how to speak or write Japanese. He wonders if she could call him 'handsome' again. 

Yuta promised that he wouldn't stay that long in Korea, he wanted to leave as soon as the wedding was over and he had every reason why. But Mark Lee, his secretary, thinks that he needs to stay for a couple more days and think of it as a vacation before the big soccer leagues happen. 

"Your alma mater is inviting you to teach the soccer club," Mark noted as he stared at the email by the administration of his former elementary school. The place where he honed his soccer playing skills. 

The place where he met her. 

The younger guy was surprised when the soccer player agreed to the said invitation. Even forcing him to do it today before he changes his mind. Luckily, he doesn't have any schedules that day.

The school changed a lot. Well, it's been years since he last visited the place. A lot of buildings surrounded the soccer field and he watched how elementary kids played. They look so small or is it because he's used to watching the adults play? The principal greeted him and introduced him to the soccer coach who looked so cocky. But instead of heading to the soccer field, he asked the principal if he could look upstairs. 

His feet dragged him to the staircase to the rooftop. Their meeting place. The door changed color, erasing her drawing that they maintained for years. From the stick figures to an actual 2D drawing of Sakura and Syaoran. 

He wished he could just erase his memory of her as well. The same way as the drawings are erased. 

It was free period when he went down to the classrooms and saw little kids in the school's hallway. Are they this small? "It's because you don't have a dad." He heard a child say and saw that it's a huge kid, probably a third-grader, in his jersey. "The soccer team doesn't accept kids who don't have dads." Well, elementary didn't change. 

When his gaze caught the smaller boy he's talking to, a sudden feeling of recognition hit him. Jae. Y/N's son. "My dad lives abroad." He nodded, he's correct about that. 

"Dads should watch your soccer games." The older kid claimed, making Yuta shake his head. Are children’s behavior like this? Well, he really should refrain from making one of his own. "Accept it, Jae. You can never be good for the soccer team." 

"Yah!" Someone shouted from the side. "Stop bullying my brother." Yuta smiled as he watched the mini version of the girl occupying his mind shout at the bigger kids who were hurting her brother. She's totally different from her. "Did your dad teach you that?" 

The bigger kid only glared when the soccer coach called for him, and he quickly called him 'daddy'. So that is where his confidence came from. His gaze returned to the siblings, Jae was holding his sister's arm saying sorry that she had to get angry. Yuta smiled, that's their mom's attitude. Always apologetic. How can these two be a spitting image of her? Truly, they're her children. 

"Yuta Nakamoto," Jae called before he could flee the place. He greeted the young boy then smiled at the girl who was looking at him in curiosity. "I told you he's eomma's friend, noona. He knows my name." Yuta chuckled at that. He just met his youngest fanboy. 

The younger girl pulled her brother behind her that surprised Yuta. "Eomma said not to talk to strangers." The older smirked. She's really different from her mom. 

"Should we call your mom? Can you give me her number?" The girl shook her head and Yuta nodded, already texting Taeyong. He responded with her number and Yuta quickly called the said phone number, "Hi Y/N. It's Yuta." Both kids were staring at him, "I'm here in Jae's school. Can I bring them to the mall?" 

"Ahjusshi, can I see if it's my mom?" The girl asked and Yuta handed his phone to her. "Eomma?" The girl stared at him in wonder as she heard her mom's voice. "Then can we go with this ahjusshi?" She glared at him for a moment then nodded as if she’s talking to her mom. “She wants to talk to you.” 

“Yuta, you don’t have to do this if you’re busy.” But he wanted to. He wanted to spend time with them and learn about her as a mom. “Just message me where you are. I’ll pick them up.” He agreed. If only he could spend time with her as well. 

It was Jae who’s most excited when they reached the mall. The older girl stayed a few feet away from the two of them. Maybe she’s not interested. But really, she’s a tough nut to crack. He discovered that Jae wanted to play soccer but his mom doesn’t want him to, saying that he’s too young to play. So Yuta brought him to a shop where they sell sports shoes. “I’ll go talk to your mom. But for now, wear these soccer shoes,” he claimed while tying the younger boy’s shoelaces that made him beam. Jae hugged Yuta, thanking him for the shoes. “You’re welcome, bud.” 

Yuta realized that he didn’t know the older girl’s name. What was it? Did Y/N mention her name? To be safe, he just asked Jae about it. “Cherry,” he called then walked to where she was, staring at the skating shoes. “Do you want one?” She shook her head mumbling that their mom would get mad. “Besides, it’s not snowing.” He nodded. 

“We can go ice skating...” 

“You’re not my dad.” That made Yuta stop. Of course, he’s not. “Stop acting that you care about me or Jae. You’re just like the other guys.” Other guys? “You’ll leave me and Jae. You’ll leave eomma.” She’s a difficult nut to crack. 

Yet she’s so different when she’s next to her brother. The cold eyes were changed into warmness when her brother asked if they could play in the ball pit. She looked like a child, smiling at the younger as they bounced at the trampoline. She looks exactly like her. How can two children, both from the same parents, have so different personalities? 

He was just watching them, texting Y/N where he is, checking from time to time the two kids playing with the others in the ball pit area. "Hey," Y/N called, sitting beside Yuta on the mall bench. She smiled seeing the two playing. "Did they tire you?" 

Yuta laughed. "It's fine. They're cool." There was silence, a comfortable silence. It's awkward to see her now. A lot of things changed. "Jae has the same personality as you, that's cute." She giggled. "Cherry looks like you." 

Y/N nodded. "I'm glad she talks to you." 

"It was hard, honestly." He confessed and again, she giggled. That sound. He missed her laugh. "I think she wants to go figure skating." That surprised Y/N. "And Jae wants to play soccer."

"He's too young. He'll get hurt with the bigger kids." Yuta was about to revolt at that. "I remembered when you played with the bigger kids back in eighth grade." That was one of his worst plays ever. Until now, he can feel how hurt he is. 

She confessed that she doesn't know anything about sports that's why she's a little worried about sending her kids to the sports clinic that made him smile. She's such a mom. "I'll train Jae," Yuta announced that made her look at him. "I have to stay in Spain for two months for the league then I'll come back and teach Jae soccer." He explained. "I'll help Cherry too." 

"Yuta, you don't have to." 

"I want to." He held her hand. "Please." 

"Why are you holding hands?" Cherry asked that made Yuta let go of his hold on her. 

The older just gave her daughter a glare that made Yuta laugh. They look alike, the resemblance is too uncanny if you see them now yet they’re so different. “Eomma!” Jae called, reaching out to hug his mom. “I had fun today.” And she smiled at him. “Yuta samchon is so cool.” 

“He bought you shoes?” She asked, checking the new kicks on her son’s feet. Jae claimed that he also bought Cherry one that made the older girl glare at Yuta. “Did you say thank you?” Both nodded. 

Yuta smiled at them. They do look like a happy family. “I’ll get going. I’ll see you when I get back from Spain.” Y/N nodded. Yuta asked for a hug and Jae was the only one who’s ecstatic to hug him. Cherry rolled her eyes that made the older guy laugh. As expected. “Come on, Y/N, a hug.” He said, hands extended for the older girl. 

The girl giggled before giving him a tight hug. His hand rested on her back then the other on the back of her head, caressing her hair. “You’re doing a great job being a mom, Sakura.” 

She laughed before muttering the words, “I’m proud of you, Syaoran.” 

Watching the three of them head to a different way opposite him, he wished he would have another chance to bond with them. He would love to be with them. Maybe having children isn’t too bad. 

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Three

[jiminrings]

honestly i could talk w band!hobi abt numbers all day, like i wouldn't even mind. what are ur thoughts on 27 hobi? i think they a bad bitch. also UM might i request a drabble abt like a film major! yn (that is very enthusiastic abt films and the aesthetics + cinematography and whatnot) w like,,, a theatre kid?? any of ot7 works fine and it's all good if u can't or don't want to! thankyouu 💜

muse of mine

pairing: namjoon x y/n

wordcount: 4k

glimpse: namjoon’s always been a little sensitive to feedback whether it’s positive or negative, y/n’s an endearing type of talker, and smuggled snacks to the theater haven’t ever tasted this sweet :D // gif from pinterest!

notes: i kinda switched it up a lil bit and made them more established in their respective fields bc my mind went berserk on this concept!!! also this is mayhaps my oNLY piece that’s just pure fluff

“27? The number? Hmm. That sounds... sexy.” - band!hobi

this been’s bugging you for the past half hour

this whole experience feels oddly familiar

you’ve been in this theater for half an hour so far to watch this play!!

lmao ur gonna admit RIGHT off the bat that theatre’s definitely not it for you

your slight unfondness for it is deeply-rooted back to university and for four years, you’ve consistently taken dumps on theatre kids even if it’s under your breath

alright it’s possible that you don’t hATE the actual people ( only some of them ;D ) themselves but rather this whole type of cockiness and the “i’m a direct descendant of shakespeare himself. trust me bro. on god” energy that they always seem to exhude

but realistically, maybe this deep-rooted hate stemmed from seokjin

he was the guy you’d share the exact same elective class with him for two straight whole semesters and you’ve been seatmates from time to time

homie took foreign language as an elective?????

the language is korean?????????????????

“wait b-but i — aren’t you — n-no but i really???”

that’s what you first sputtered to him in realization when he took his seat beside you

the two of you have only ever shown each other notes bc the other was dozing off and the occasional sharing of gummy bears that’s already pre-opened to not make any noise

but for some reason, it’s only dawned in you why seokjin’s a god in this class and he answers your questions without even looking at his notes by hALFWAY through the whole semester of foreign language

one day, u are gonna find a way to bodyslam yourself and never recover from it ever again

“mhmm. don’t sweat it, sweetheart. i personally think it’s very don quixote of me to y’know, take something as impractical and amusing as this.”

you snort at his choice of words because honestly!! you barely remember don quixote and jin’s use of it as an adjective jigs up a refresher course on your brain

who was he again?? 

was he the donkey

.. or are you thinking about shrek again because of your film analysis

you sWEAR there was a donkey in that story

it’s good fun to talk with jin even if he keeps sliding bourgeoisie words here and there and you’re a lil confused with all these references that he makes but that’s okay !!!

atleast even him saying it in a long-winded way that he was like someone from the merchant of somewhere, you know now that he pretty-pleased and charmed his way to the registrar for him to take korean as an elective

...

two weeks later, jin sits next to you in class 

in ACTUAL non-elective, non-native language he already speaks class

now that you’re squinting a bit more, jin does look a little uh?? different

his hair that was once a hybrid of lavender and peach and pink and then blonde was now wholly black and it’s probably his original hair color because it matches with those eyebrows of his!!!

his combo of a black bomber jacket with a silk button-up underneath honestly SLAPS and it makes you forget how he used to exclusively wear only knitted shirts and argyle-patterned cardigans

you have ur jaw dropped because you totally would’ve fallen for seokjin jAW-FIRST 

— if only he didn’t strike you as the brother type when he smacked the back of your head because you were falling asleep on class again and uhhh you mUst be forgetting that the two of you were sitting in front

you had no time to reevaluate whether you should develop a crush for him or not 

he’s immediately slapping his hands on his knees, looking at you so intensely before pointing a finger at you with so much conviction, and then scoffing to himself

“switched majors to film. theatre was gonna be the death of me!!! y/n, if you even think about trying to switch to that cheap, amazon-ordered quill and tanning lights for stage lighting major, you’re absolutely dEAD to me-”

you’ve never had a conversation this striking nor long with jin but you genuinely have no complaints at all

seokjin talks pure shit about theatre and theatre junkies and everything in between for the WHOLE day 

trails beside you for every single class you had, which was convenient because he can then sweet-talk his way again (if anybody even dared to question him) that he’s just newly-switched 

sat with you for lunch and him not eating because he just needS to tell you all about it and you trying not to choke on your pasta as you try to reply to him

followed you back hOME and decided to crash the night there

yeah, that. your unfondness for theatre’s rooted on that one

uh-huh safe to say that you’ve become best friends with jin ever since that day

you’re a sponge for your friends and jin’s the closest one you have, so it was only natural that you soak up his distastes and whatnot

not to brag but aha :D

you add salt to the water while you boil pasta so u may be a little bit of a masterchef or somewhat, no big deal :D

he’s absorbed your fascination for all kinds of lights and fixtures that he has about seven different nightlights in the form of squishies or neon and everything else on his bedside table, in which he turns all of them on at night

fun fact: he’s capable of sleeping in the dark

jin’s the whole reason for your stance on this

he’s adamant about his points and you’ve graduated uni four years ago!!!

which is why you DON’T get why jin would give you a scented black envelope, with “don’t come to this” scribbled in gold at the front, carrying a single ticket to this play with a sticky note saying “don’t watch this at 7 pm, wearing your boss lady year-end award show type of clothes, sitting at the ninth row from the back and two seats from your right.”

because of course!! what the hell did he expect you to do? NOT come to this play at 7 pm wearing your boss lady year-end award show type of clothes then sitting at the ninth row from the back, two seats from the right???

OF COURSE YOU WOULD

your goal in life is to do exactly the opposite of what jin tells you. there’s literally nothing else in life you’d want to fulfill

he’s made it quite easy for you to spite him and although you wouldn’t admit it.,,.,., you may be a little petty ok

he’s the even bigger goof out of the two of you and you can never have the final say!! it’s always him and his wit and yOU being the dunce

it’s a lil sus that jin’s basically ASKING for it with his instructions but whatever

whatever it is, this is finally your chance to enact the final say and you’re gonna pull ALL the stops

all you know about theater-goers is that they dress fancy and wear these mini binoculars and that’s about it

there’s not even one film you know that you see anyone in the audience wearing a worn-in cardigan or even a puffer jacket even if the theater’s mad cold

all the people bring are scarves and shawls???? thee thinnest version of a blanket that won’t warm them up against the frigid airconditioning

that whole dress code sounds ridiculous!!! great please ring out this thousand-dollar dress im gonna wear to the theater thank u

you’re a little worried that you’re not gonna blend into the crowd, but after some digging about the invitation, formal wear is most definitely recommended

it’s an exclusive invite-only play which would be later released to the general public later on so yeah the situation dOES call for a gown thank u very much

also how could you forget that jin explicitly told you not to wear this type of attire

if you’re being humble right now, which you always normally are, even if that jUST sounded boastful talking about how you’re humble all the time —

you do look pretty breath-taking :-)

even when the doors weren’t opened and everyone’s just collectively loitering outside the hall, you’d feel glances at you

the sweet security guard did a double-take at you and mumbled a “very very nice evening to you, miss :D” instead of his normal “enjoy the show!” to the other patrons before you

you’re gonna soak all the silent compliments up and try to remember all of them before writing them on your journal later hee-hee

your midnight blue satin dress that’s floor-length and off-shoulder is dEFINITELY in your favor :D

your dress still glimmers even if the spotlight isn’t on you and you wish you weren’t shy to ask a random stranger to take a picture of you

going on self-timer isn’t ideal either when there’s like a hundred other people in the room

they probably wouldn’t even care if you took a picture of yourself!!! but in your head they probably think that you’re laughable so you’d rather not.. do that

the theater’s dark as hell if that wasn’t established

it is literally pitch black in the room and the ushers at each row holding the flashlights that are meant to guide the patrons aren’t exactly helpful

big kudos to them though,, must take a lot of self-control to not wave their lights like it was a rave :D

a flashlight tHAT bright?? whew pls is this what ships feel in the night

the last time you were in a rave, your thirty minutes of fun was cut short when seokjin immediately got hammered and wouldn’t stop throwing a fit if you didn’t drive him home that instant

his energy seemed to compelling everyone that he’s managed to somehow suck the energy out of a WHOLE rave so you took him home for everyone’s enjoyment :(((( except yours apparently

you’re trying hard to focus on the play that’s happening because for the past twenty minutes, all you’ve done is zone out randomly with ideas all of a sudden 

you NEED to listen

....

uh-huh...

UH-HUH......

wait this is actually.. good

you find plays hard to follow and absolutely boring when you don’t immerse yourself in a run-down PRIOR to watching it in order to get

it’s the same analogy as reading the plot of a movie on wikipedia before watching the movie at the cinema.... absolutely useless

it sucks out the fun from something you weren’t supposed to know

watching plays is two hours of you being confused, going home to read the plot and only understand it by tHEN, and never coming to the theater again because you’d waste your money.... watching something cluelessly in the theater..... for a plot you’d grasp at home

but no

because this one

actually this one that you’re watching...

it’s not bad

it’s nice, actually.

within two minutes, you managed to grasp that it’s a story about a never-ending spring between these two lovers

there’s something about the whole setting of it actually that just sucks you in

in some plays, the outfits would seem so forced even in the given context that it reminds you of uh a particular superhero movie

and yes ur aware that stage makeup has to be enhanced so that people all the way to the back row would see

but there’s just something in this scene that’s laid out right-now that actually gets you in awe

it’s of the couple in the back of their pick-up truck and everything about it seems so natural

the background straight up looks like what it’d be if you were to go outside

the guy’s arm around her shoulder seems so natural and in nature that it doesn’t feel like a random cue in the script

the girl twinkles and it doesn’t even feel like a forced type of laugh you’d cue in attempt to warm the audience’s hearts

it’s of a plot where the the guy eventually falls out of love with the girl, while girl gets even more smitten with the guy at the same time

it’s what you take from the past ten minutes that you watch in dead silence, and you don’t even remember in the back of your head that you’re supposed to hate plays

“no way.”

you mumble in disbelief under your breath, head shaking profusely

is your mind playing tricks on you???

you’ve got too used to seokjin sitting beside you that you immediately turn to your right, whispering out your concerns 

“is it just me or is she wearing a different shade of pink?”

you don’t even buffer for one second when you ask the stranger beside you

you’re so concerned that you’re looking at him intently while waiting for his answer that could either console or despair you, a random theater-goer that’s too noisy with her questions for her own good

it’s absolutely dARK as fuck in the theater but after awhile your eyes adjusted slightly

and the first thing you look at after the stage is him

him as in the dude in your right that you just asked all of a sudden

you could only see his silhouette and the faintest features of his face along with his well-dressed suit but god

... you are totally not lying if you say that even the barest silhouette of him doesn’t look handsome

you’re expecting him to tell you off for being so noisy but instead, he’s the one who takes you by surprise

“how did you notice that?” 

:O

“oh my god!” you exclaim almost too loudly that you yourself even jolts, the guy even making you duck with him slightly for a brief second, “im sO sorry!! am i accidentally spoiling it out for you?”

the guy blinks twice, lips slightly parted before shaking his head no

“no, no... this is the first screening — i mean uh, how would you know that?”

oh boy

you’re adjusting yourself on your seat, bum now warm as you try to explain and not be nervous because what if you just made a wrong assumption about this play and you’re sitting next to a goddamn tHEATRE BUFF???

“well i —uh, uhm what’s your name?” you’re flustered and the FIRST thing you ask is what was his name.,.,,

he seems equally as flustered before he adjusts his glasses, “o-oh uhm i’m namjoon...?”

alright! handsome guy is namjoon!

“you see, namjoon — okay it might just be in my head, but i tHINK it looks deeper with the light somehow. but uh...? the spotlight’s not following her and — is it just me or without the light, her sweater looks brown?”

you’re squinting and if u squint even more, maybe your contacts would just crumple by then

hold on a second

“brown, like — oh my gOD LIKE-”

namjoon puts a hand over his mouth before you could even gasp, hand reaching out for your forearm even before you manage to grasp his shoulder to take it in realization

was it under your nose the whole time??

“... fall.”

:D

holy fucking shit

namjoon looks positively euphoric looking at your face of realization, his once-heavy chest about the whole scene becoming completely devoid of weight

“exactly!!”

his confirmation makes you inwardly squeal, grinning as you point at him and the stage back and forth

“i think this is the first play i’ve become ever interested in watching.”

okay what now

his ears perk up at that, your first sentence that you’ve said after your pink sweater that looks like spring also looks brown like fall in certain scene because of the lighting realization

“it is?”

he takes the chance to look at you as best as he could, trying to play his squinting as cool as he can

namjoon’s far sighted and the glasses he’s wearing are nOT up to date with his current grade bc he’s pretty sure his eyesight’s worsened the past month

he can’t make you out wholly, but he does know that you’re pretty

his eyes don’t linger on you because of the snacks you’re fishing from your purse while you talk that are absolutely illegal in this theater house lmao

but instead, his gaze lingers on you because you’re so pretty

the minimal light that’s bouncing off the stage is enough for him to see a faint outline of your features, highlighting your smiles just right and your dress to glint underneath

“mhmm. i actually hate plays,” suddenly, you’re not scared if namjoon happens to be some sort of theatre buff and you’re offending him because honestly, you feel at ease. “crunch?” you’re holding out the mini bar of chocolate out to him, one he politely declines to because his eyes are bulging out the next second

“you do????”

his genuine reaction indulges you, making you grin ultimately that you put off eating snacks for now to focus on him

“yeah! this is my hate outfit :D”

namjoon giggles as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard

you automatically scoot closer because this time, it’s yOUR turn to shush him

this is totally for just the reason of talking more discreetly and not distracting anyone and is totally not an excuse to be closer to the next guy and touch shoulders with him then get a whiff of cologne because it’s rare for a guy to be handsome and aLSO smell good

your eyes get used to the darkness and eventually, you could make out features of namjoon beside you

he has the prettiest eyes you’ve ever seen

and the way he looks at you makes you feel safe and even your height difference is visible with how probably lonG his torso is compared to yours, his gaze doesn’t make you feel small

namjoon’s still (unsurprisingly) far-sighted and ur so close that he’s a lil cross-eyed 

fuck it he’s gonna go to ophthalmologist FIRST thing in the morning tomorrow

“then why are you here?”

“my friend seokjin,” you lean back upon realizing the original reason why you’re here, the situation being so ironic that you puff out a smile

your friend’s named seokjin?

cool :D kim seokjin is namjoon’s of his favorite directors eVER!!

second best for him actually though.,., no one could quite compare to his first

your explanation makes him cackle several times, a swell of pride recounting why you hate (it’ll be past tense probably after this one) theatre 

“what about you?”

you turn the question to him, making his dimples disappear effectively that you think you’ve just spooked him

“i uh, well i always wanted to see a story that went like this, so i’m here.”

“you’re a critic? oh god. please don’t tell me you heard all my mumbles.”

no this is even WORSE

namjoon’s not a theatre buff

HE’S A CRITIC????????????

god im coming up

“don’t worry, i also think that the drapings must probably be dirty.”

he breaks out into a smile recounting how you were talking to yourself earlier, a snort escaping him involuntarily 

“RIGHT??? it’s like how do you even clean them?? do they fit in washing machines or-”

my god he’s such a nice guy!!!

in fact, he’s everything you want in a guy

you’ve went through atleast twelve facets of emotions for the past hour and you’re not even dating!!!!!!!

“my thoughts exactly!! and if it’s by hand, how do you even scrub the entirety of it?? or wring the water out??”

namjoon KNOWS exactly what’s up :’)

“is there even a clothesline that’d bEAR the weight??”

the two of you are so happy that you just look at each other laughing, a moment in time before namjoon nudges you to lean back because the ending’s happening

you don’t even question him how he’d know that it’s the ending and not just another opening to a new scene, just listening to him

you’re so happy

the play made you happy but namjoon made you even happier :-)

“if you are a critic, you should probably open up your review with this chatty play-hating girl beside you, then at the end, close it off with how she loves it.”

it’s the parting conversation as you realize and holy fuck you are nOT ready for it

you r gonna drag this out for as long as you could <3

......

and namjoon wants in too <3

“noted. if i was a playwright, i’d even make you the lead. which detail should i include? offering me wrapper-covered rice crispy snacks, or asking how you’d watch it while going thru the bathroom?”

this feels so natural

as natural as the couple in the play you’ve just finished watching :))

“you’re hilarious,” you’re not even the slightest bit annoyed and your restrained smile tells him all about it

yea you may have brought in snacks illegally but you aRE gathering your trash up as you’re a decent human being

namjoon wishes you’d pick up after yourself slowly, standing up from his seat as he has the plan of picking up trash that isn’t even his

“what name should i put then?”

you’re silent and oh god he thinks you found his company stupid and would definitely not give him your name

you’re not ignoring him though!!!

his words are still stuck in your head, realizing it lately with his “which detail should i include?”

“me wanting to turn this into a film, actually.”

you test the words out on your tongue, nodding to yourself after a few seconds that you seem so sure of it

“yeah. i wanna make it into a film.”

the lights turn on after being dim for so long, namjoon’s eyes going wide trying to digest what you’ve just said

“w-what?

.....

no fucking way

HOLY FUCKING SHIT SWFRWFBWRHGBRBVWRV SWBHJSDB SHJAVBHGJDS BWHRGHBSVWBGRH

namjoon’s malfunctioning as he’s looking at you from eye to eye, bottom lip trembling while he’s so keen at pointing at you

“y-you’re miss y/n!!”

....

right

oH RIGHT

he’s a fan of yours??

namjoon’s fanning his face because he’s about to literally burst into tears

how could he nOT???

how could he not be emotional when all along, he’s been talking to his number one favorite director????

you and your films are the absolute gems of his life namjoon’s not even kidding

your films were world-renowned for being so natural and sentimental without loading too much into it!!!! you’re known for being so humble through the multiple back-to-back awards and praise you get!!!! 

he cannot calm the fUCK down when you’re rubbing circles on his back

“you w-want to turn my play into a film?”

oh my gOD

you’re fumbling for the envelope and it’s only nOW that you realize that it’s not from seokjin in the first place

spring day a play by kim namjoon an invite for director y/n y/l/n

“it’s you!!!!”

“no it’s YOU!!”

jin’s plan worked alright :D

he’s just FOUR rows behind you lmao

it was just two weeks ago when yoongi, the executive producer of his film that he was directing, let it slip that he was co-financing a play

he met yoongi some semesters later after he became close with you, and he’s aLSO converted yoongi into hating theatre then he fit right in to your little posse of theatre kid-hating film students

that gave jin the laugh of his laugh and yoongi was not joking at all

“no, no. i’m telling you man. it’s different! i even have the script that i’ll let you read.”

and holy shit it IS different

if you see a couple tears on the last seven pages of yoongi’s copy of spring day’s script then mind yo oWN fucking business

then two weeks later, here he is :D

jin managed to also convert you to love theatre even IF it is namjoon’s play that did all the work

( also coincidentally found you a future boyfriend because he’s tired of seeing you alone and the closest you’d get to having someone is projecting your yearning into writing the scripts for the films you’d make )

he’s also secretly co-financed the whole play along with yoongi and he’ll drop that bomb later on lmao

“and that must mean i looked like a total FOOL beside you oh my god im so sorry!!”

namjoon panics at that, about to cry when another realization hits him when he’s about to put his head on his hands

“then that means the friend who gave you the ticket was-”

SEOKJIN VBFHSBVHSFBVSFHDVBSJFV SFJVJSFVSJVSSV SSV V FS FSV SFBVRBVRSVSWVGU

he cries to your shoulder and you never expected to be hugging and consoling someone you’ve just met two hours ago, a more than fond smile on your face he takes advantage of when he sneaks in the chance to ask you

“do you mean that?”

“now why would i lie to the playwright who’s been listening to me talk shit, then theorizing, then crying for the past hour?”

it’s true though

namjoon’s seen it all

he’s still handsome as ever even when he sniffles, his dimples on display when you return his question

“now did you mean it? writing me into your play?”

why are you even ASKING

:D

he’s the biggest fan of u

namjoon’s made notes of your work, dedicated scripts to your movies, and he’s thinking about how it’s not yet hitting you how your whole epiphany about the pink sweater turning brown on his play,,, was entirely inspired from you and your affinity for lighting in your films

he thinks it’s still a little early to kiss you on the cheek even if you’ve already hugged, instead settling on pinching your cheek with satisfaction present in all corners

“you’ve always been my muse.”

[elencelebrindal]

Heyy with your takes on female Cloths (I enjoyed reading them so much!), can I ask for your input on something on the opposite side? Surplices. Some are great for protection (not you Cheshire) but when I look at some I genuinely wonder just HOW whoever is inside is even able to move. Take Minos for example, how does he properly walk without hitting his legs at the “skirt”-ish part of his Surplice at every step? (1/2)

(2/2) Why are wings some sort of a standard at some point even if the “source” creature has nothing to do with flying, like Acheron or Alraune? Can the Spectres at least actually fly to compensate for the wings being so bulky and uncomfortable? If not, what's the point in having them in the first place? I have so many questions about the designs it’s not even funny.

(I put the second half of your ask here so I don’t need to make two separate posts)

I guess it’s time for me to write something about them, uh?  Brace yourself, this is another long post. 

My answer would be: their bodies adapt to the Surplice, so they can freely move around in it without being bothered by the ridiculousness of the thing. It is a bit of a stretch, but it’s either this, or the Surplice has like five thousands joints and moves accordingly to the body.  Which, honestly, seems way more unrealistic to me. Yes, I just said that their bodies adapting to the armor is more realistic than jointed pieces. Welcome to Saint Seiya!

The real world instances of, following your example of Minos, that “skirt” thing he has on his legs is very close to the combination faulds + tassets. Not quite the same thing, but close to it.

This, basically. Obviously, in real life these things are overlapped lames of metal that give the wearer a lot of mobility, and they are - generally - shorter that the ones we see on the Specters (in this case, Minos).

I’m saying this because on one hand those pieces of armor are supposed to grant mobility to the person wearing them, but on the other hand it’s clear that Saint Seiya doesn’t treat them with a realistic approach, so I generally believe that they can easily move around because their bodies adapt.  But even with that, it’s still pretty obvious that a Surplice has a great deal of mobility and flexibility. We do see a lot of the characters move in ways that should be impossible if the armor doesn’t accompany their movements enough. 

I don’t think this is well portrayed in Saint Seiya, and I totally understand it; this is an anime and a manga, not a movie that needs real people to walk in real armor. But, at the same time, it can have an explanation. I say can because this is just my explanation of it, it’s nothing even remotely official or - admittedly - of real importance.  I’m just a small blog writing these things, after all. 

What Minos has going on is a fantasy exaggeration of those things, at least as far as I can tell. The lower part of his cuirass could be based on faulds and tassets, but I have no way to know for sure.  I can only throw out some hypotheses based on what bits and pieces or armor knowledge I have. 

A bigger problem for this Surplice, rather than the hypothesized faulds and tassets combo, could actually be those big wings he as for pauldrons. They seem flexible enough, as they actually look jointed, but they are really in the way. Those could actually hinder his movements way more, at first glance, not so much with bending, but more with up and down arm movements. However, this is not something I will tackle, because Saint Seiya often shows how a lot of characters deal with those exaggerated fantasy pauldrons, and as unrealistic as some of their movements seems I have to give them a pass. There’s no way of explaining all of them in a realistic matter. This is a problem of a good deal of fantasy-style pauldron, though, real ones

Real ones are way less cumbersome and have a ton more mobility, they are made for the wearer to comfortably move their arms with them and to offer protection at the same time. The photo I’m showing you is just a replica I found while looking for good pictures, but it’s still close enough to how the thing works.  What Minos has could be functional, but it’s so exaggerated that I have a lot of doubts about it.  Still, I won’t hold it against the show/manga. Fantasy-style pauldrons, again, tend to be unrealistic for the sake of aesthetic. There’s nothing we can do about it.  A good representation of this piece of armor in fantasy setting can be found in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. At least, most of the armors are well designed. 

Since I’m here, let’s have a look at the other two Judges as well, and then I’ll tackle the second part of the ask. 

The design of the Garuda Surplice is something I can definitely judge a bit more well made in terms of mobility.  It has the same base pieces going on, but in this case the pauldrons look like pieces that can offer a good deal of mobility. Still, the way they attach to the Surplice is questionable, but in terms of shape we’re getting there.  Even the two horns are correct, since they’re facing outwards; you don’t want spikes or horns with the points facing inwards, that’s a shortcut to disaster and severe head injury. 

This is were mobility and flexibility peaked, when it comes to the big three. The combo faulds + tassets is not obnoxiously long, it gives protection without being a hindrance (yes, there are also instances of faulds and tassets with that shape, you can maybe understand why it was done at the time though), and the pauldrons look amazing. They look like they provide good mobility to the arms, and the way they attach to the Surplice is pretty correct. There’s space for Rhadamanthys to lift his arms, as you can see. Brilliant.  His boots don’t make a whole lot of sense, but... again, the body adapts to the Surplice, so there’s that to take into consideration. Maybe it’s tremendously painful to walk in some of those shoes, but for them it feels normal. 

However, back to Minos:

The TLC version of him is actually unable to move. There’s not a single excuse here, that thing restricts him movements. Period. The pauldrons look better, it seems like they can provide better arm mobility, but the lower part of his armor is literally a solid piece of metal. Maybe the side pieces can move, but he’s literally wearing a metal skirt there. I have no other words to describe it, it’s just bad. 

And now, onto the next part. 

Why does everybody have wings? Let’s go in order here, with all of them (I’m going to restrict myself to the anime, because otherwise I’ll stay here all night). 

Of course, the Judges are supposed to have wings. 

Garuda, griffin and wyvern all have wings. There’s nothing to say about them. 

Myu (who has really good armor, admittedly) is literally a butterfly. His wings are approved, and are not even that much of an hindrance. They’re not wings made of armor, and they seem incredibly delicate. He’s probably the most comfortable with his wings, honestly. 

I have to point out that the majority of the Specters with wings (not all of them, obviously) are Celestial Stars. But let’s not lose ourselves.

Charon having wings doesn’t make sense, but I don’t know if those could be called wings. I’ve always thought them to be a nod to those traditional Venetian masks, much like the design of his Surplice. 

Specifically, the Jester masks, with pointy fabric and bells coming from them. To me the inspiration seems pretty obvious. Maybe those wings could represent them a bit more symbolically, or maybe I’m looking way too much into character design and they’re literally just aesthetic.  If you want some explanation of why he has wings, though, here’s mine. I find it kinda weird that Charon is not even from Venice, in the show, but... what can we do about it. A gondola is a gondola, after all. 

The Balrog Surplice having wings is... ahem, questionable. I’m sure that if there’s any Tolkien fan reading this, they know what’s up. They know the debate going on in the community. Long story short, we have no idea if the Balrogs have wings or not. The movie depicts the goddamn Valarauka with wings, the books don’t describe them all that much.  Let’s try not to look too much into it, okay? He has wings, it could both make sense or not make sense. This is Schroedinger all over again, just weirder. 

He kinda makes sense, though those wings are tiny. They resemble the kind of wings Ancient Egyptian used, for example, for the winged scarab, Maat, and Isis. 

Since his Surplice is based on a Egyptian theme, and Pharaoh himself is Egyptian, they have a pretty self-explanatory reason of existence. 

And now we come to what to presented to my attention, the Alraune (aka the Mandrake) Surplice.  Those, my dear anon, are not wings. Those are either petals or leaves of the mandrake, not only a plant birthed from the mind of ancient authors or questionable fantasy writers, but also a real life plant. That has flowers like these:

It’s a similar shape, eh? This led me to believe that the Surplice worn by Queen has this as a main inspiration, opposite to the one worn by Fyodor in TLC, something that’s visibly based on the fantasy approach to the plant.  What I’m trying to say here is that yes, it makes sense for this Surplice to have “wings”, because they’re not wings. They’re something that links the Surplice to its probable inspiration.  I’m going off of visuals here, so don’t assume I’m correct. 

Shilfield here doesn’t make much sense with wings, right? After all, his Surplice is based off the basilisk, a giant venemous snake with eyes capable to instantly kill.  Well... technically yes. But:

This is the cockatrice.  A basilisk is born from an egg lais by a rooster and incubated by a toad, but it’s said that a cock egg (an egg with no yolk, as such it was believed to be laid by roosters) would hatch as a cockatrice.  Basilisk and cockatrice became synonyms when the De proprietatibus rerum, which featured a basilisk in it, was translated, and the basilisk changed to a cockatrice.  If the Basilisk Surplice counts both as a basilisk and a cockatrice, then there’s your explanation of why the armor has wings. Because the cockatrice has wings. 

The Harpy Surplice is self-explanatory. It has wings because harpies have wings, plain and simple. The shape of the wings resembles a heart because of Valentine’s inspiration, but the weirdness ends there. 

As honorable mentions, we have:

The Bennu Surplice, with another good reason to have wings: Bennu is an Ancient Egyptian deity in the form of a bird, probably the origin of the Greek phoenix myth. 

If I recall correctly, his armor is based on Lucifer, who we all know is a fallen angel who probably had a ton of wings, given what angels looks like.  So, even if this is Hades, wings have total sense on his armor thanks to the inspiration behind it.  Also, his armor looks like a 4/10 for practicality and mobility. You’re better than this, Hades. 

This was VERY long, I know. But I hope I answered your question as thoroughly as I could.  Thank your for reading by kilometric essay, and see you next post. 

[wirewitchviolet]

Hate Mobs Gotta Go

Last night, I did something I have never expected to do, and just full on gave up on a fun RPG writing assignment. Which I had to do because I hit a point where it was so overdue and unfinished that I was falling asleep sitting up and stress vomiting and other such things. There’s a whole lot of factors behind that. Other health issues, the toll of being on total pandemic lockdown for months, with neighbors just straight up open mouth coughing at my door, emergencies with friends and family, multiple fires and hardware failures, but the main thing was, and still is, the constant harassment from a militant hate mob, completely out of touch with reality.

Years ago, I remember there was this thing the internet at large was fond of doing with foaming at the mouth far right religious extremists- Mercilessly ridiculing them in public to expose how disconnected everything they said or did was from reality. Remember seeing this one float around and laughing your head off?

And if I mention the Westboro Baptist Church, you immediately picture a single family of raving bigots picketing funerals and such with their big homophobic signs, with a bigger crowd mocking them, right?

For some reason, the modern version of that particular flavor of fringe weirdo doesn’t get that sort of ridicule. Presumably because they’re focusing almost exclusively on trans people, and most people have this weird thing where like if you stick up for trans people you get cooties or something and never dig into the real juicy ridicule fodder. But for real, this stuff is OUT THERE. Just look at a few examples here.

Come for the weird ravings about harvesting baby organs. Stay for the... adult woman who apparently believes breasts get their shape from actually being sacks filled with milk under women’s skin? Now, how about this colorful comparison?

For anyone who wasn’t aware, pronouns are words like “I” “you” “he” “she” “it” and “this,” while rohypnol is colloquially known as “the date rape drug,” so this is utter gibberish. The full context of course is that this person is trying to make the argument that forcing this bigot to refer to women she’s prejudiced against as “she” instead of arbitrarily tossing around “he” or “it” is... raping her brain, I guess?

So... this is pretty clearly some creep’s weird little fantasy. The obvious giveaway is pretending that trans women “aren’t in the correct bathroom” when going to... the correct bathroom, and that the non-existent law about this is somehow enforced by... random bigots opting to deputize themselves. What DOES happen for real though is bigots like this being arrested for barging into public restroom stalls with camcorders aimed at the crotches of women on toilets and trying to defend themselves by insisting they have some duty to check what their genitals look like. On which note...

That’s just disgusting. It’s also as close as I feel comfortable to posting all the graphic fantasies I see from these people about the barbaric genital mutilation they imagine trans women subject ourselves to which really has no basis at all in reality. Well maybe I can post this one.

I’m not going to go through and itemize all the baldfaced lies in that, because I really kinda hope I don’t have to, and also because the person who slapped this together was kind enough to break it up in such a way that I legitimately can say “every single line of this is a completely baseless lie.” Also the art in the corner is stolen from a child-friendly comic whose author is trans, so, that’s extra slimy. Also wow that “bone scans” bit is actually one I’ve never seen. Where the hell do they even get these ideas?

Also this one needs some setup. If you have time, this right here is a freaking journey, if not, I’ll try to summarize.

So a while ago, this one particular unhinged bigot decided the most productive way to spend all her time was to get in touch with a bulk sticker printing business and order thousands if not millions of these weird gross poorly framed slabs with a really crude drawing of a penis and bunch of gibberish she really wishes were the names of popular twitter hashtags that nobody else but her ever uses. And then after receiving these, just... wandering around the city she lives in all day every day plastering them on phone booths and power poles and the mirrors of bathrooms in like.. elementary schools and park benches, just everywhere. And then makes multiple passes a day apparently to make sure nobody has tried to remove any of them, as detailed in this amazing thread I’ll link again.

So the latest break in that particular saga is that same zealot going around plastering stickers like this around too, to make it seem like “both sides do it.”

It should be obvious that that’s a “blacks rule!” sort of fake between the baffling text and using the extra inclusive, particular emphasis on supporting people of color, general purpose LGBT+ flag, but also, like their fellows on 4chan, they plan this sort of “false flag” crap in broad daylight:

I should really properly credit the whistle-blowing on that particular oddity, and I should also note that aside from the breast milk sacks, this is all just stuff I saw TODAY catching up on my twitter feed, but my main point with all this is to illustrate that we really are dealing with Jack Chick/Westboro Baptist-level unhinged zealotry... but again, nobody’s out there pointing and laughing. And it turns out, when you don’t have people pointing and laughing at this sort of thing, you get people taking it seriously. So... when I went to quickly search for a news story to link with the bit about creeps barging in on women with cameras, the results I got were... this.

That... sure is a lot of stories about totally innocent people in a demographic I belong to being murdered by total strangers goaded into blind murderous hatred by the sort of people I’m pointing and laughing at! Ha ha! There’s a very real chance of that happening to me every time I step outside, for any reason! Tee hee! I live in a state of constant fear! Whoopsie!

And it’s not just stuff like that. The people posting these rambling tirades about “breast milk sack implants” and putting crude penis stickers everywhere, never being called out as the unhinged weirdos they are, either have the world turning a blind eye to all this crap, or have everything they do downplayed in the media to the point where outright sexual harassment, doxing, and slurs I don’t want to repeat get headlines like “so-and-so made comments that some fringe trans activists on the internet deem ‘possibly transphobic’” and that’s AT BEST. More often you get stuff like the one incident I managed to bring a lot of public attention to way back when, where some bigot just literally walked up to someone on the street, grabbed them, savagely beat the hell out of them until pulled apart, had friends film the whole thing, and bragged after the fact about it, and every story that appeared as a result claimed the assailant was the victim, because they were all written by her friends.

Face obscuring provided by me here, by the way.

And that isn’t a one-off incident. Because, see, most of these unhinged weirdos spewing out all this transphobic gibberish are not, as you would think, a bunch of barely educated Trump hat wearing members of some fringe religious congregation. They’re editors and producers in major British news outlets. This isn’t me shouting conspiracy nonsense either, this is well-documented. Like, The Guardian gets public internal protests over this crap. So does the BBC. Yes, other respected news sites cover this. Media watchdog groups do their best to reign this in with hearings and such, but, don’t actually have any power to enforce anything really. So when there’s “reporting” on this crap, it’s coming directly from the “breast milk sack implant” people. Oh and here’s some screenshots of the headlines of those stories you’re too lazy to click through and actually read:

And of course, sometimes when they want to really come across as respectful, they try to find “scientists” and “doctors” who back up their ravings but all they have to fall back on are disgraced quacks who spend most of their time on activism work to normalize pedophilia.

I’m not bringing that point about Cantor up to discredit his writings about trans people by the way. He doesn’t really HAVE any writings about trans people. He just pasted the names of a bunch of random studies from the 70s about whether playing with barbies makes you gay into his blog a few years back and this crowd was so desperate for validation they declared him an “expert in the field” and started passing out links to his.... pro-pedophila blog. Which is part of this whole pattern, but I’ve written about that before. Oh and the governments of multiple countries manage to treat all these people as “experts” and make policy decisions based on their ravings. That’s fun.

Anyway, aside from encouraging random people to, you know, just randomly murder anyone they see who looks like maybe a trans woman, every so often this weird little cult pulls in an actual celebrity who then has a public meltdown as they post all this gibberish to a wider audience. Currently this is going on with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling (who’s actively promoting the pedophile guy up there on Twitter), and I think also William Shatner, but I haven’t really looked into it. The last big one though was Graham Linehan. Who you might remember from co-writing some sitcoms that were popular decades ago in Britain, or from being the weird cartoon villain who tried to kill the funding of a children’s charity, prompting this strange pledge drive marathon of Donkey Kong Country.

You might also know him as one of... I think honestly just two people who have ever managed to be such out of control stalking hate mongers that they were actually given a permanent no possible appeal ban from Twitter. Personally though I know him more as, you know, that one absolute creep who’s been obsessively stalking me for like 5 years and never shutting up about his weird personal obsession with me.

I WOULD link the recent freaking filmed interview he did where he spent forever rambling about me, but I’d have to actually watch it to confirm I had the right link, and also the only place I could quickly find a link to it would be on his twitter feed, which as stated, no longer exists. Oh and random side note there, despite being personally, by name, the person he was explicitly targeting all his hateful ramblings at, he wasn’t banned from that site for any of the disgusting stuff he said to me. He just slipped up and mentioned a cis woman with a professorship while shouting about this crap recently and that caused people to actually take action. I do so love being invisible.

Anyway, point is, prior to Rowling grabbing the baton from him as his social media presence went up in flames, this guy was name-dropping me a LOT. Presumably he still is, just in places fewer people see it. And when you have as big an audience as he did, and that audience is as full of hatemongers as his was, that has a pretty noticeable effect. I’ve been deluged with so much hateful garbage for so long it’s impossible for me to put any numbers on it. The closest I can do to quantify it is note that hate dump was big enough that I was also flooded with more weird messages intended as support from total strangers than I could deal with, totally losing access to social media feeds and my e-mail from the volume for a good bit, and THAT flood was big enough that I got this whole second wave of creepy stalkers who’d built up this whole weird fanon where this stalker here is like, someone I used to date or be business partners with and not just some creepy dude like twice my age stalking me over the internet, from a completely different hemisphere.

And I mean... in the broadest of strokes, I can kinda laugh all this off. Because... these people are completely ridiculous, out of touch with reality, and mostly live in other countries. But... all the threats and shouting are very real and very constant and like.. picture someone outside on the street shouting at your windows about how they’re going to break in and kill you. You really can’t ignore that. Even if they’re unarmed, and all they’re really capable of doing is shouting and pounding on your door, you can’t really just ignore that shouting and pounding and just watch a movie or play a game or write this article you promised would be done 3 months ago. You can certainly try, but a pretty big part of your brain is going to be occupied with thoughts about how maybe you should call someone to see if they’ll escort this violent person away, or maybe you should barricade your door in case all that pounding does something.

And I mean this isn’t a bad metaphor for how all the constant threats and stalking I’m dealing with thanks to celebrity bigots personally obsessed with me impacts my life, but it also does a pretty good job of describing how my night went pretty recently when I ACTUALLY DID HAVE SOMEONE POUNDING ON MY ACTUAL REAL PHYSICAL DOOR SHOUTING ABOUT STABBING ME TO DEATH, and no, there was no resolution to that beyond the sound of sirens causing that person to back off.

I also had an experience not too long ago where I was supposed to take a cab to a routine appointment, a car showed up with the cab company’s name on it, somewhat early, and proceeded to drive me... out to the middle of the freaking woods like an hour from where I live, and when my phone rang with my actual cab asking where I was the driver freaked out, had me get out of the car, and took off leaving me just... stuck in the middle of nowhere freezing to death and trying to find a landmark an actual cab could pick me up from. Still don’t know what the hell that whole thing was about and whether a cab driver just REALLY didn’t know what he was doing and panicked or what, but I do know that talking about it publicly in the vaguest of terms lead to a bunch of unhinged shouting from... apparently some unconnected ride share driver with a habit of dumping trans women between stops when they try to get medications or something, convinced I was calling him out for that.

So.... yeah. Things aren’t exactly going great in my neck of the woods. I’d really appreciate it if people would properly treat these unhinged violent weirdos like unhinged violent weirdos and not respectable members of society so they quit getting so bold and public with the violent stuff, and people who listen to them get properly shouted down for doing so.

[timeagainreviews]

The surprising similarities of Doctor Who and Twin Peaks

Earlier today, a friend of mine asked me why I chose to do a blog about both Doctor Who and Twin Peaks. He thought it was a very odd pairing. While explaining to him some of my various reasons, I realised that it would actually make a rather interesting article to talk about the similarities between both shows. Believe it or not, there are several. My hope is to possibly garner new interest in either show for Whovians and Peakies alike.

I know a lot of you are here for the Doctor Who content, but I would like to think that a sliver of you are also interested in the Twin Peaks content. That being said, this article will contain some minor spoilers for both Twin Peaks and Doctor Who. Though I will try and maintain the central mystery without giving too much away. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing articles about Twin Peaks outside of episode recaps, but I’ve always shied away for fear of spoilers. Consider yourself warned!

A tale of two pilots

I’ve gone over this in previous blogs that both Twin Peaks and Doctor Who have two separate pilot episodes, albeit for totally different reasons. In the case of Doctor Who, the second pilot was filmed after it was decided that the first one failed to capture the correct tone for the Doctor. Because of this, a reshoot was done, softening the First Doctor’s irascible temper to something more relatable. His cantankerousness was dialled back to rebelliousness, and our protagonist began to feel less like the villain.

In the case of Twin Peaks, the second version of its pilot episode was filmed for the sake of European markets. Having had a rather profitable year, the network ABC was willing to take a gamble on a dark horse in the form of a little project from Mark Frost and David Lynch. However, they only ordered the one episode upfront. Figuring it may never see more than a pilot, an extended version of the episode was filmed to include a conclusion of the story for European markets. While this version of the pilot was not aired in the states, it is widely available on DVD release.

This may seem like a tenuous connection at best. But both of the unused pilots can be viewed as a means to further understand their respective shows. Seeing the Doctor act like a jerk gives a bit of insight into just how far is too far. People may complain that the First Doctor is a cranky old man, but seeing the original pilot of "An Unearthly Child," really illustrates the delicate nature of that balance. Similarly, watching the masterful work of David Lynch’s perfect introduction of Twin Peaks wrap itself up in a clunky, tacked on extra thirty minutes feels just as hollow. People may complain that Twin Peaks leaves too much to mystery, but seeing it end in a shootout makes you appreciate the ambiguity of later episodes. Both pilots prove that sometimes less is more.

Time Off

Both TV shows were cancelled and subsequently brought back to air years later. After 26 seasons of travelling in time and space, Doctor Who had been booted by the head of BBC. After only two seasons Twin Peaks was cancelled by ABC, far before its time. Later, both series attempted a sort of reboot, or revival in the form of movies, both of which were panned by critics. At this point, the only places either show really existed were within the hearts of fans. You may have seen the occasional convention, magazine, or book, but it would appear that both beloved series were dead in the water.

However, it is that very flame kept lit by the fans that gave each series its respective cult status. After years of fans wondering if their favourite shows would get the revivals they so deserved, it would seem their prayers were finally answered. Oddly enough, neither show was a complete reboot, with each acting as a continuation of their original storylines. While each revival has its share of detractors, purists who prefer the original show, overall they were both considered very successful. Much of this is owed to the fact that the creators opted not to be slavishly devoted to the source material, but to instead make something new that still managed to respect the past. Instead of purely playing into nostalgia, they make a case for their own existence by being something new.

Some not so familiar faces

One of Doctor Who’s greatest strengths is that it was able to inject longevity into the show by introducing the concept of regeneration. While most shows die when their actors leave the show, Doctor Who was able to write replacing the actors into the narrative by making it a biological function of the main character. Like Mary’s claim of a virgin birth, its an idea so unique that you can only get away with it the one time. Anyone who replaces their actors in such a way would just be copying Doctor Who, right?

Enter Twin Peaks. Aside from outright replacing actors, as in the case of Donna Hayward in “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” David Lynch has taken a rather novel approach to replace actors who have either died or refused to return. Take, for instance, the actor Michael J. Anderson who played “The Man from Another Place,” (or the Arm) in both the series and the movie. After a payment dispute, Anderson claimed that he was “irreplaceable.” And when you consider just how deep his character goes into the mythos of Twin Peaks, it’s hard to disagree. That is, unless you’re David Lynch.

Lynch’s solution to losing Anderson was to simply replace him with a central nervous system/tree with a brain like a wadded piece of chewing gum for a head. And you know what? It actually worked. Referring to it as a sort of “evolution,” the audience needed only to take a moment to bask in the brilliance, and then move on. The same method was used to replace David Bowie with a machine that resembled a tea kettle, or the villainous Bob with a floating black orb containing his face. No actor? No problem.

The surprising fact is that the mythology of both shows was able to sustain what would normally be considered insane narrative choices. As opposed to jumping the shark, these changes actually deepened the mythos of either show. From their conception, both Doctor Who and Twin Peaks are so unique that they have been able to write, and rewrite their own rules.

Relative dimensions in space

Whether it’s a blue police box that is bigger on the inside or a convenience store that disappears like a TARDIS, neither show seems all that interested in obeying the laws of physics. Physical space is a minor obstacle to be manoeuvred around with an almost godlike technology bordering on magic. We see creatures using otherwise mundane objects to completely sidestep reality. Pictures hanging on walls are portals into entire worlds. Stuccoed buildings act as gateways opening up to boxes floating in space. Portals open deep in the woods to take us into terrifying dimensions that boggle the mind.

Interestingly enough, both shows approach these elements seemingly from opposite ends of the spectrum. With Twin Peaks, what has been hinted at possibly being aliens, may actually be something more spiritual. With Doctor Who, something that is hinted at as spiritual is usually aliens. Regardless, in both instances, matter is simply a plaything of beings far more advanced than we mere mortals.

Time and time again

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff isn’t just a thing that affects the Doctor. The heroes of Twin Peaks also experience their fair share of time displacement. Whether it’s a hole punched into the universe by an atomic bomb that imprints the 1940′s onto a dimension visited by Lewis and Clark, or a trip in the TARDIS to the time of Lewis and Clark, both storylines are tangled in a web of timelines threatening the fate of everyone involved.

As we learn with the Doctor, so too do we learn in the case of Dale Cooper that toying with timelines is not an exact science. Distortions happen. Things change. People tend to disappear. Once you cross that threshold, it could all be different. Even with the greatest of plans, our heroes in the fight between good and evil may find themselves in a never-ending battle. At the end of the day, even the best of intentions can be undone by a simple time loop.

They both changed television forever

From their very first episodes, both Twin Peaks and Doctor Who aimed to be something different. I’ve said in the past that Doctor Who operates on a level of surrealism rarely seen in science fiction. In a similar manner, Twin Peaks injects a heaping dose of the surreal into both the soap opera and police procedural genres. Because of this, they each come off as incredibly unique stories that stand apart from everything else. Many imitators have come and gone in the years since, but very few have achieved the same degree of success.

These aren’t just lighting in a bottle moments either. The unique nature of either show acts as a response to what came before it. These are deliberate choices to make something different. Sydney Newman’s edict of “no bug-eyed monsters,” while widely ignored, actually speaks to a greater desire to make something of substance. Much in the same way, Twin Peaks exists as a comment on the shallow nature of murder mysteries of the day. Instead of focusing on the murderer, it focused on the victim and how such a crime can destroy a small town.

In their own ways, Twin Peaks and Doctor Who aimed for something deeper. Audiences weren’t just asked to experience terror. Violence was not just a thing to ramp up the tension. Along with the darkness, came a lot of light. The relationships between people were just as important as those between good and evil. Pure joy is a thing to be celebrated, and not scoffed at through pessimistic edgelording. The full spectrum of human emotion is not ignored to service a “clever,” plotline. Even though both shows occasionally lost sight of this principle, they were always at their best when, at their cores, they celebrated life. It is as the Second Doctor said- "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things that act against everything we believe in. They must be fought.”

[figureviews]

Review: Nendoroid 803 Conan Edogawa

For some people anime conventions are a chance to have fun... for my wallet they’re the reason he’s emptied due to me getting new Nendo in my collection.

Conan Edogawaf rom the popular anime series "Meitantei Conan" based on the homonym manga, came into my collection exactly when I spotted him (along with other Nendos I’ll talk later on) in an anime convention... (below in an official photo).

I’ll be frank, I was a little hesitant in getting this little guy because I love the manga but I wasn’t sure a Nendo version of Conan would work well since Conan is... well, already chibified so I feared it would simply feel like having a copy of him more than a cute Nendo.

Well... copy or not I’ll admit his Nendo version is still adourable so I’m happy he came home!

His package is... of the old standard size but with a larger window showing him compared to the old standard model. It not only has the Good Smile logo but also the made at GSC's 'Lucky Factory' in Tottori, Japan logo. I guess they were afraid if they were to make it in China there would be too many bootleg of such a popular chara. Try to avoid them as well, the original is so much better.

If you’re not familiar with the old package here there’s a comparative image.

They’re not terribly different but still you can see how the window showing Conan is larger. I wonder if this is the standard package for Nendo made in Tottori as Chris Redfield which I previously reviewed, also made in Tottori had it as well and the same goes for Tanya Degurechaff and Sakura Miku Bloomed in Japan which I’ll review in future and which are also made in Tottori.

Anyway, going on, let’s give a look at Conan’s blister pack.

As you can see the plastic wrapping is the same of the other blister pack, here, look at him without all that wrapping for a better view.

As you can see already he comes with a good amount of spare parts. Nothing over the top but it’s clear they gave him many options for posing.

The stand and the brace (let’s get over with the boring part immediately) are the standard ones.

Of course we’ve instructions in English and Japanese.

And now let’s move to more juicy stuffs, let’s look at all of Conan’s disassembled parts!

Quite a difference in amount compared to Okanehira, isn’t that right? Really, if I compare him and Conan I feel sorry for him.

So, going with order we’ve:

Legs first.

Conan comes with a total of 5 legs, which are meant to be 3 right legs and 2 left legs.

Although you can see bent legs they aren’t actually for sitting, just for kneeling. They don’t really work that well on sitting due to Conan’s short which hint at how his legs are in a straight position. In fact the only slightly bent leg is the one on the left (which Conan uses to go on the skateboard) which, to work, has on its top an extra part that hints at how the fold of the pants get bent.

As I was pretty curious about the working of that leg I couldn’t help but immediately try it out.

Uhum... up close you might notice how the folding of the pants on the leg doesn’t perfectly match with the pants (unless I had a defective leg?) but it’s still something that can work.

Anyway 5 legs are a good selection which gives him mobility options.

Arms and hands now.

6 harms, 3 right and 3 left but with an addition of 2 extra right hands and 1 left hand for definitely A LOT of posing.

It’s also worth to note that you can detatch the bowtie from the hand holding it so you can use that hand for other posing.

As it happens often with chibified figures, proportions of objects change according to the characters holding them or wearing them. While hats or helmets become much smaller when a Nendo hold them opposed to when he wears them, in the bowtie case, the bowtie Conan hold is much bigger than the ones he wear... in fact this Nendo comes with two different bowties, one for wearing and one for holding.

In fact if you look at the upper part of his body...

...you can notice the bowtie can be easily detatched so that Conan won’t look like wearing his bowtie while holding his bowtie.

As the position for speaking in the bowtie still covers the part where the bowtie is, it succesfully hids the slot in which the bowtie would need to be inserted.

The photo don’t really do justice to the colour of Conan’s clothes but they’re bright and ‘television-like’. Sure, they’re very simple and essential but I still love how they come out.

Faceplates now!

They’re the standard amount, 3. The interesting part is that, apart from the serious version, they’ve a sideway look, a hint that Conan is normally better when displayed not straight but slightly turned.

And, of course, Conan has his eyeglasses.

The shape of Conan’s hair allows the glasses to remain firmly on Conan as the tips of the frame can attach to the frontal part of the hair, while the frontal part of the eyeglasses is further insured in it’s stillness by both by standing on top of Conan’s nose (they don’t quite rest on it but if they come slightly lose it would stop them from sliding down) and also by having the hair covering them slightly. Mind you, it isn’t pressing them down, it’s just stopping them from getting distant from the face.

So let’s look at the hair.

If you want the hair isn’t really shaded, they’re mostly a single colour but it’s also a faithful and good reprodution of Conan’s hair. And yes, if you need to, you can detatch the strand of hair at the top of the back part of the head.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Conan also comes with his skateboard which is really faithfully reproduced.

In case you’re curious this is the original.

And with the skateboard we’ve finished Conan’s accessories.

If I’ve to be fully honest I wish they had given him a soccer ball and a pose for him to kick it as not only Conan often uses a soccer ball to knock down escaping culprits...

...but playing with it is also is favourite method to relax himself.

An alternate pair of glasses with the radar included would also be nice.

... while I think it would have been difficult to use the pose for when he’s using his watch (in his small Nendo size the watch is not even visible)....

but well, although I’m saying so, I still think Conan has enough parts that allow him to make enough poses. So while extra would have been welcomed, he’s already a fully furnished Nendo.

So let’s look in deep to those poses. Conan has many poses that are recurring in the series... but in many variations. Due to this I couldn’t quite find the perfectly matching pictures.

For example the first pose Good Smile proposes is a mix of this two poses.

The bowtie pose is performed actually in various way during the series which include kneeling but also standing or sitting.

As for the skateboard pose... both the manga and the anime presents us with some HIGHLY dynamic skateboard poses so the pose Good Smile suggests feels rather tame but it still works.

The “Only one truth prevails!” pose also comes in many variations.

And the dumbfounded pose also comes in many variants.

Overall the poses are all good and you can vary them to make them more appealing as Conan, as said before, comes with many spares.

Overall I think it’s a really good and well furnished Nendo.

Would anyone who’s not fan of the series, want to buy him?

Hum... maybe.

While I think Conan is really good as a reproduction of his own character, on the whole he comes as a Nendo with the body of a child and with clothes a bit peculiar. You might want him if you plan to custom make a child... otherwises... hum... I’m not sure.

Still, I love this little one!

On an interesting addition I’ll mention Re-ment too also released a Meitantei Conan set, the small day collection.

Accessories don’t involve just Conan but also the rest of the cast... but if you want to give a better look at the Conan accessories here they are... and they include the soccer ball!

[yurireview]

Ambition and Affection the drama of Croix and Chariot

it's been 2 years since the LWA premiere and I still like the dynamics of Croix and Chariox even though the dynamics of Diana and Akko is very good, I think the engine of the series were the two teachers who took separate paths ... that said I will begin the review in honor of my favorite dynamic and for the anniversary of the series

Litte Witch Academia is probably one of my favorite anime has all the elements for a good story, the focus is fun, true friendship and a path of the “hero” well simplistic but with great development, it can be said that it is one of the few Current projects that do have a soul unlike the current anime, but in the middle of this show there are 2 characters that really give a maturity to the show

Croix and Chariot were the reason why half of the season was the best part, it had an incredible development and it really made me wish that the anime had focused on that issue from the beginning to show us a lot more, but let’s continue with the review

Croix and Chariot

I hate that in the Fandom they tend to simplify their connection with saying “They’re like Diana and Akko if there was no jealousy” which is ridiculous if they can really figure out how deep Chariot and Croix’s relationship is not that they do not have parallels but that It is very different because of the context of their situations.

The anime leaves a lot of them in the mystery but what little it shows is quite revealing, to start with Croix was an excellent student and did not get together with other people because she did not care and did not need it. This image summarizes what Croix was then and his contrast with Chariot even before she met her.

Croix’s life was just becoming good enough to excel and achieve his goal that was all, only had his knowledge … but look at the change of Croix to meet Chariot, this shows us how special this girl meant to her.

Many in the fandom have wondered that it took an introverted girl to join Chariot who was the opposite of her and that probably Chariot’s dream would have seemed naive and stupid.

The answer to this is given in chapter 23 in the conversation of Diana and Akko, which point to one of the main points of the series as a whole and this is that many were fascinated by the magic of Chariot, but few realized that the first to fall in love with that cheerful and silly half-wit was Croix, even in the midst of all her seriousness and cynicism she was attracted to Chariot’s cheerful and problematic magic and encouraged not to give up and what makes this better is that it was Croix who in the end was the one who tells him the famous words “Believing is your magic”

Many have referred to this anime as the “Harry Potter in anime” which is inaccurate … but I must focus that Chariot and Croix’s part is like a less dark version of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, if they realize in spite of the “Friendship” of the two young magicians that really united them was the attraction of the Deathly Hallows were ambitious young but clear with different goals…with Croix and Chariot is basically the same, even in spite of that instant connection Croix ambitioned the “Magic to change the world” and influenced Chariot to help her look for it but each with different goals

it must be a tremendous irony that Chariot took Croix words as a personal motto while Geller took the words of Albus as his personal motto

“Believing is your magic” “For the greater good”

After becoming close they went to look for the wand … each one with their respective dream to neither of them the dream of the other seemed stupid, until Chariot was chosen, that was the beginning of the problems since for the first time Croix looked at Chariot with frustration and anger as he had ruined all his goals and I must say that this reaction is normal in someone like Croix

But if we continue the scene when Chariot cries exclaiming that he did not want that and thinking that Croix hated her, after seeing her cry Croix hugs her and swallowing her pride, her anger, her ambitions just for not seeing her cry … she trusted in her and encouraged Chariot to move forward at that time his affection for her was greater than his ambition which unleashed one of the Words and as we saw in the case of Akko this word has to be with a special person and clear a feeling of immense gratitude both parties.

Although I must say something curious Croix is ​​the only witch who is not even allowed to touch the Shiny Rote and this is because Croix is ​​the kind of witch that is supposed to be protected by the Grand Triskelion … What would happen if she used the magic of world reconstruction with its ambition to become the most powerful witch? Taking your dream to the extreme and transforming into something else

People like Croix are very explosive and their dreams are quickly transformed into very unpleasant things, in the whole series we see that their only emotional link is to Chariot and otherwise had no remorse, just imagine:

What would happen if she unleashed the words or found a way to dominate all the power?

Here again I can make an accurate comparison with Harry Poter … just imagine how many deaths would have been saved if Gellert Grindelwald could not have obtained the power of the Deathly Hallows for magical protection, as Dumbledore himself said. “He lost the control when receiving power ”

In the incident of the Shiny Rote and the “chosen” was something that created a big wound that would affect both long-term, but as we see in chapter 12 of Akko vision, there Chariot is with the Shiny Rote next to Croix who looked at her and applauded him, sharing a nice moment what basically eliminates those who say that right there they stopped spending time together.

I must say that this memory is very romantic

Although Croix was half resentful, he had not turned away but his relationship with his special person, to see the way Chariot executed his mission and truly the distancing worsened when Chariot became an “Idol” and the famous “Shiny Chariot” was born “

If you remember chapter 23 Croix tells you that thanks to the Full Dream Spirit his plan is now possible, but if analyze Chariot little Flashback this is a lie, after several months of using the Full Dream Spirit it was confirmed that it was a Total success and Croix told him the effects, but really Croix if he wanted to help his way with that spell because Croix thought that was the way to get the Seventh Word that’s why he let go of his frustration when Chariot said “I do not want that power” , is angry that the “Chosen” is a stupid who does not see the “reality” of the magical world, it is more Chariot stopped looking for the last word in concentrating on his show.

One of the reasons why Chariot believes she is responsible as Croix for the theft of magic is because he knew in his heart that Croix had become selfish and ambitious for power through her, but decided to ignore him and trust in his methods…because of her affection for her, she pretended that everything was fine, but in the end that caused much more damage to both of them and to the people who lost their magic

After their fight even when they separated Croix was watching her as her career was broken and even with everything that happened between the two Croix worried and was very surprised to see how Chariot destroyed herself because of all her problems and pressure that it was carrying … although the reality is that Chariot became selfish and that made Rote reject it.

Returning to the current events in the series, you will notice that the day that Chariot retired was when Croix truly went on his way and a plan to carry out his mission and if we see the bigger picture, Croix had already surpassed Chariot in terms of “Achievements” when they spent 10 years each separated by their way, Croix was admired and they said that the future of magic was on their shoulders, since she was a revolutionary in “modern magic”

In the incident with Akko in Chapter 15 where Chariot confronts her, she says this very revealing phrase:

“You have not changed in anything, you are always trying to get things for yourself”

Chariot sentence proves what I mentioned before and makes a lot of sense with the guilt he has for the Theft of Magic because she let herself be deceived and ignored the truth until Croix herself confessed it, although ironically Croix revealed this information because she thought that Chariot was not going to be an “Immature” because from Croix’s perspective “Good justifies the means” for her. What good is it for a few to preserve their magical talent if the magic in the world were to disappear?

In all their interactions there is a kind of tension that only people who liked in the past possess, are practically enemies and have different goals and ideologies … but in their confrontations, none of them actually seeks to hurt the other because they can not .

If Croix had wanted to kill Chariot, he would have done so long ago and the same with Chariot, she could stop Croix before he started his plan, only that he did not really want to confront her and not give her away even without knowing his plan.

Why do you think I did not give it away? Why do you think he did not tell Akko about Croix? again I can use something from Harry Poter … when Dumbledore was asked to face Grindelwald he did not make his decision in 5 years where there was a lot of confusion and chaos in Europe, where he said “I had an emotional bond for man”. … basically Chariot had the same dilemma with Croix, she really wanted to stop her without having to face her directly and her internal conflict is very well done.

Although Croix is ​​not better, he had the same weakness for Chariot and this is clear in chapter 21 where he was holding Chariot to arrive with Akko

When one of her attacks left her unconscious and Chariot was going to die in the fall, Croix did not hesitate 1 second to go and save her in a state of panic, forgetting all her goals.

A simple and powerful scene that gives us a good background of both

The moment Chariot reacts and stares at Croix for the body language you can determine that he was feeling our “villain” and asks him to stop trying to save Akko to which Chariot refuses knowing that Croix was not going to stop her anymore.

Chariot just decides to stop Croix when he hurts Akko revealing the truth in the worst way crushing the dreams of his special student and fuck if it was such a well done scene

In the only real showdown in the whole anime was between Croix and Chariot in chapter 24 when both abandoned all their emotions to fulfill each his dream, even though it lasted little I would say that Croix won by managing to stop Chariot and defeat her

When Croix breaks the seal and thinks that he already won by getting the magic that changed the world, upon receiving it he realizes that not only can not use it but it is not what she expected … something curious about Croix is ​​that it is the Witch who has an ambition of real power not “smiles” and see that the “Great magic” was about that left her shocked

In this part he shows us how his own egoistic dream is in constant conflict with and I dare to say, the love that Croix has for her. That is why in the series this is what leads to their contradictory actions. She can never really settle on either, no matter how much she tries on herself. She may think that she knows what she really wants, but in fact, she has no damn idea and the moment Woodward appears she reproaches him that nobody is guiding her and that she felt set apart.

Being stripped of her dream and consequently of her ambition, the other great thing she had left was the feelings towards Chariot and that is why after her magic gets out of control she asks Chariot to leave her and to save her several times, showing true repentance for what he did and recognizing that it was all his fault.

When Akko uses great magic the result is something that Croix never came to expect since honestly it is such a joyful magic that I really do not think Croix would have imagined something like that.

Understanding this should not be surprised that Croix helped Chariot and the little witches or the speed with which Chariot forgives her and re-establishes what they previously had … it can be said that Akko not only revived the magic in the world and he gave the redemption to Chariot but he made Croix understand what really mattered about magic and about his own feelings.

In the final scene of both that I must say is my favorite because it symbolizes a new beginning for Croix and Chariot that has a lot of romantic charge in his farewell especially by Chariot his facial language to the departure of Croix is ​​amazing and his final words are even better “! Croix will be waiting! … I’ll be waiting for you”

No doubt a great conclusion and definitely the only couple (lesbian) of the series

[evartandadam]

I want to write a thing about Sasuke’s development throughout Naruto- and where Kishimoto failed his character. (I have been asked about my opinions on Sasusaku, but before I can remotely get to that, I need to establish what I think of Sasuke as a character by himself. He is a very interesting character, and he deserves his own rant.) 

There are two important points in Sasuke’s life, and both of these points establish the main theme Kishi wanted Sasuke’s character to feature.

The first point is when Sasuke leaves to train under Orochimaru, and the second is when he is approached, and changed by Madara/Obito. 

Point 1: Taking the Path of an Avenger. (Main Theme)

In Naruto:

Sasuke’s main theme throughout the series is slowly succumbing to the darkness for power. 

He leaves his village and friends behind. Does this mean he doesn’t care about them? Of course not. He cares. But the point is that he chooses his revenge over his potentially fulfilling life with his friends. He would have been much happier if he could have just let his revenge go (and he knows this), but he didn’t. This is the point Kishimoto wants to drive home about Sasuke throughout Shippuden. Sasuke chose revenge over love (and forgiveness).

And who can blame Sasuke? His brother, after murdering their entire clan, DARED Sasuke to kill him. Sasuke, as a 7 year old, was faced with a responsibility to take care of family business, something no child should have to wrestle with. But it happened. And growing up, he feels it is his job to kill his brother. He listened to Itachi, was molded by Itachi. A traumatic external force in his life effected him greatly. Killing Itachi is now his DUTY.

The problem is that Sasuke is now only 13, and still developing mentally and emotionally, so he isn’t necessarily going to make the best decision about fulfilling this duty. 

He knowingly goes to a terrorist S-rank criminal who wants to use him as a vessel, instead of staying at the village with Kakashi, whose power almost rivals said criminal. 

Sasuke doesn’t know really anything about his own village, obviously.

He doesn’t know anything about Kakashi or his abilities. How strong and famous this man really is for being a ruthless killing machine by the age of 13, like Itachi!

Kakashi would have been a great person to learn from. That’s why Kakashi wanted to teach him.

But Sasuke assumes that because Kakashi is a “good guy”, he is weaker than Orochimaru. And this is his mistake. 

Because his brother is “evil,” and very powerful, that must mean that evil people are better ninja, right?

Sasuke acts on what he does not know. And he does this all the time!

Ok so he’s 13 and kind of lacks basic foresight and judgement. So he goes to Orochimaru. And we skip forward 2 and 1/2 years. 

In Naruto Shippuden:

Sasuke is much stronger.

He has held onto his core beliefs. (he refuses to kill innocent people for personal gain.)

Sasuke at this point is super cool, cause he’s edgy, but not a terrible person. Everyone loves Sasuke at this point. He’s got a cool top that shows off those pecs he’s been working so hard on. And he gives less of a crap than ever before.

He is mysterious, because the author purposefully doesn’t let the audience see his thought process or emotions. But we know enough.

But then what happens? He kills Itachi, as he planned all along. What he doesn’t count on is that Itachi isn’t the evil entity he had pictured in his little kid brain. And someone brings this to his attention. Makes sure he knows.

And this brings us to the second point.

Point 2: Manipulation from External Forces (Extension of Main Theme)

Before we get back to the Naruto timeline, let’s go over what makes Sasuke fall for this external manipulation:

"Sasuke is basically a very pure person who doesn't think about whether what he does is good or bad. He just does what he wants to do, which causes trouble for others" - Masashi Kishimoto

Itachi describes Sasuke this way:

And I love this, because it does describe him perfectly. I think this statement stuck out to many readers. 

What Itachi means is that Sasuke: 

lacks the ability to look ahead and judge things clearly. 

He is easily influenced- gullible, even. 

And even though he managed to cling to some moral standard up until Itachi’s death- not killing innocent people- everything else is easily replaced on a whim.

By focusing solely on killing Itachi, Sasuke left himself wide open to attack. Not physical attack. Something even more dangerous: emotional manipulation. He neglected every aspect of himself other than the physical- and the desire for revenge. What I’m saying is that Sasuke is extremely emotionally stunted. And people recognize this, and use this to their advantage. Anyone can come up to him and plead to his cause, and he will fall for it, against any better judgement he may have. If he were a character in a video game, he essentially maxed out his stats in one area, and left every other area under-developed and weak.

His ideals always outweigh his reality.

So, how does this aspect of his character get him in trouble? Well, let’s discuss a very big shift in Sasuke’s character.

Madara’s influence:

Back to the Naruto timeline:

The truth about Itachi totally shakes Sasuke’s world. And “Madara” is totally loving this. He’s going to use this to his advantage.

So. Sasuke feels that he has a new duty. He must now somehow avenge his brother. And this means he should kill the Kage- wait, what?

Oh right. Madara is talking into his ear.

“Itachi literally lived and died for this, so obviously he wouldn’t want what I’m suggesting, but you should totally do the dirty work for me and destroy everything Itachi believed in. That way, you can avenge him. I’m totally like, empathizing with you right now. I’m definitely not just saying this to get you to do what benefits me.”

Ok, so of course, Sasuke blindly listens. 

And this is the second part to the main theme that Kishimoto explores with Sasuke’s character. What happens when a person, devoid of anything in the world besides revenge, falls into a false sense of justice? What happens after that quest for vengeance is fulfilled?

And at this point in the show, we see a new Sasuke. This Sasuke is very different from before. Why? 

Sasuke is throwing his past moral compass out the window. 

He’s going to kill people he doesn’t even know are guilty of anything. (Danzo definitely saw it coming, but Tsunade? What has she done to Sasuke? She is a great Hokage! She has nothing to do with Itachi. Neither does Gaara, or the rest of the current Kage.)

But Sasuke doesn’t care about this! Madara convinced him that they are evil, because of their position. 

The Kage are automatically evil, because they represent authority. And it’s important to recognize that Sasuke doesn’t care about past authority or current authority- it is not his authority, so therefore, it is bad. It needs to be purged.

Sasuke is putting his problems on unrelated people. 

And this is when Sasuke really falls into some dark stuff. He is actually becoming more of a villain.

The Final War:

By the time we see him in the war, he is ranting about “revolution.” 

Sasuke is very deluded. And it’s due to outside influence. He is young and brash, and his world is very small. So so very small. All he knew up until this point was revenge and his brother. He doesn’t know how to live a normal life, or how to let things go. It’s like he was asleep until this point, and he finally realized that there’s a bigger world out there, and he needs to do something about it!

Sasuke is rather pitiful. But very zealous and dangerous. And I think people in the fandom downplay this too much. People want to like Sasuke- resonate with him. Up until recently, everyone is nodding their heads like “we feel you Sasuke, this sucks.” But people need to recognize when pity needs to stop.

Sasuke’s best trait is hyper-focusing on his goal. And this is also the most dangerous thing about him. He is easy to manipulate, as I have established earlier. And he is on the far end of fanaticism. He isn’t thinking about individuals anymore. He is only thinking about the collective... kind of like... the Akatsuki?

After all, didn’t the Akatsuki want to create world peace by killing a bunch of innocent people and enforcing lack of conflict through silence?

And we all agree that the Akatsuki are totally missing the mark, correct? 

After all, is it really for the greater good? Sacrificing innocent people for one’s own idea of peace? Kind of narcissistic to assume one knows best.

Sasuke is talking about doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to “change the world” to make it “better”. Whatever his version of “better” is. And this is totally wrong! How is becoming what you hate most supposed to prove that your version of peace is correct?

Sasuke is getting high on “justice.” And by justice, I mean elevating himself into the god plane. He thinks he is better than everyone else- his opinion is the only one that matters. After all, these pathetic people can’t possibly think for themselves. He must force them to see the truth!

And he thinks this because his world is so small, and “Madara”, implanted an idea onto his “blank canvas.”

This is literally what’s going through Sasuke’s mind during the final arc of the show. It is extreme, and exactly the opposite of what Naruto, our protagonist, believes. So obviously there is going to be a clash.

This is where I think the author screwed Sasuke over.

Ditching the Main Theme of Sasuke’s Character:

Sasuke up until this point only knows a few things: His first reason for existing was based on a lie, and he now thinks he is fighting for the truth- that Itachi died for nothing good, and it is up to him to change the world.

Naruto fights Sasuke, and when Sasuke realizes he can’t beat Naruto in a PHYSICAL FIGHT, he suddenly changes his drastic opinions on everything he believes in. He says “Sorry, I was crazy, let’s start over.” And that’s it. End credits start to roll.

Kishimoto took Sasuke’s character on a very long journey. And it was all leading up to this peak- the point where Sasuke literally bursts. Sasuke resembles a very specific type of person- a particular path one can take in life. It is about a boy who chose the life of vengeance over happiness and positive personal growth. And the consequences of that decision.

During the entire show, I am expecting something drastic to happen to Sasuke. He is a drastic character. He is a flawed character- a beautiful example of what revenge can do to a good person. As an author, it is important to make this character’s fate what it is being set up for- tragedy.

So there were two (good) writing options here:

Sasuke either needed to die, because his mind could not be changed and he was a danger to innocent people, or, he needed to be redeemed over a decent period of time.

By the time Sasuke enters the war, he is far gone. Is it possible to change his mind again? Sure. He is still young and bendable. But it wouldn’t take two seconds.

Madara didn’t change Sasuke’s mind- he filled blank space. Implanted an idea. He put something on a blank canvas.

Naruto, however, has to undo all of this brain washing. He has to change his mind.

There is a difference here.

Covering a blank canvas with color is easy. But covering those old colors with new ones is hard, and takes time.

As in, Kishi really needed to rethink his timeline for his manga.

The best thing he could have done, since he obviously wanted Sasuke to be redeemed, was to make Naruto fight Sasuke BEFORE the war.

Here’s an alternate timeline:

Naruto finally catches up with Sasuke before the war, and they fight it out. Sasuke loses, but only by a bit. And Naruto actually talks to him. Not the usual “this is my Dream”, but listening to Sasuke and discussing his experiences, and countering his opinion in a personal manner.

Naruto thinks he can’t change Sasuke’s mind, and he worries that if he doesn’t kill Sasuke, something bad will happen to those he cares about in the future. And Kishi puts a lot of time and emphasis on this encounter. This exchange of opinions. This is the cornerstone of their relationship up until this point.

But Naruto decides not to kill Sasuke, explaining the concept of unconditional love to him. And he leaves him.

And Sasuke spends time thinking on this.

And then the final battle begins, and Sasuke drops in, deciding on helping Naruto after all. Thus concluding the Naruto/Sasuke conflict.

This order of events would have been much better. Naruto and Sasuke fighting after the war seemed unnecessary, and it just didn’t flow. It made Sasuke look extremely fickle, when he is actually very stubborn.

Based on this sequence of events, why would Sasuke help Naruto defeat Obito? When Obito was literally trying to change the world “for the better,” just like Sasuke was. Maybe Sasuke didn’t agree on the method. Sasuke would rather kill everyone and start over with him as supreme leader. (Which is... worse than what Obito had in mind? Obito wanted everyone to live in a peaceful dreamworld, where everything was good.)

So, I guess my point is that Kishimoto had a path for Sasuke, and a few points to make about his choices. But he then ditched the consequences of those choices. Ignored the theme he created from the very beginning. In the canon timeline, we as an audience didn’t really learn any lessons from Sasuke’s journey. Sasuke’s part in the story kind of fizzled out. It didn’t have the zing I was hoping for. 

Sasuke deserved more attention. More focus on the climax of his personal journey. And more time for the falling action after this climax. 

For me to want to see him back at Kohona, I wanted more of his thought-process and journey. It would take time for a person as damaged as Sasuke to fit back into the social confines of his old village.

I would love additional thoughts on this! :)

[theseaver]

Adventures with GSC’s Nendoroid Face Maker, Part 2

Part 1

Ordering Costs and Shipping Times

I know if I was reading this, I’d want to know the logistics of ordering right about now.  So here we go!

The faceplates themselves cost 1480 JPY = 13.15 USD.  As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a shipping cost to ship them within Japan, or the shipping cost was built into the price.

Once the faceplates arrived at the DeJapan warehouse, I paid 2100 JPY = 18.66 USD.  I used EMS shipping, which was pretty middle of the road when it came to costs.  There were both more and less expensive options, but only a few hundred yen in either direction.  No real reason why I chose EMS, I just know I’ve had good experiences before.  I appreciated DeJapan’s transparency here, because using AmiAmi or GSC, they never estimate all the different shipping options for you.  The cost is always a surprise when they demand the payment.

What I didn’t appreciate is they tacked on a 100 yen “consolidation fee” when I submitted the form for the faceplates.  Supposedly, there was an option to opt out of this, but I didn’t know and the consolidate option is the default.  Basically, if you’re expecting multiple items, they will pack it all up in one box to save you shipping costs.  It’s very nice, but I only had the one order and still had to pay the fee anyway because I checked a box incorrectly.  Oh, well.  I’ll be more careful next time.

So you’ve ordered your faceplates and you’ve paid!  How long can you expect to sit next to the mailbox, eagerly awaiting your delivery?  I ordered my faceplates on October 11th.  The DeJapan blog had estimated 2 weeks for the NFM to make the faceplates and ship them, so imagine my surprise when the NFM emailed me on October 15th to say (I can only assume, since it was in Japanese) that my faceplates shipped!  DeJapan emailed on the 16th (LATE at night, so for this and the next few emails, it was the next day in Japan) that my items had made it to their warehouse.  This was when I had to confirm that I didn’t want to consolidate my order.  On the 17th they requested my payment to ship, and on the 18th they confirmed that my package was on its way.  (During this three day span, I took the requested actions within 15 minutes of them emailing me every time, but it still took another 24 hours for them to move to the next step. Not complaining, just giving you a clear idea of the timeline.) I received the package October 23.

So, to sum up, if you didn’t want to read that long-winded explanation:

I spent a total of 3580 JPY, or 31.81 USD, on the two faceplates. The faceplates took about 12 days to be delivered to my house.

Maybe $31.81 seems like a lot of money for two faceplates.  Heck, it’s like half the price of a whole new Nendoroid, depending which one you’re looking at.  But... I take pictures of my Nendos and update my Tumblr almost weekly.  I figured I’d get some good use out of them.  Or maybe they would look horrible and this was a waste of time.  But at least I could help educate some other people out there.  

But you’ve waited long enough.  Let’s get into...

The Faceplates’ Arrival

Alright, the moment we’ve all been waiting for!  I grabbed some scissors, opened my package, and...!

Okay!  I’m not going to lie, the first time I opened that box, it was pretty exciting.  After staring at an animated version of my product for almost two weeks, it was super cool to see it in 3D laid out in front of me.  My first impression of the faces was really positive, especially Victor’s face, which I expected to look super weird with that light blue pupil.  I was so happy the actual face didn’t turn out that way!  Alas, though, my excitement was to be short lived.  Let’s compare.

So that’s NFM Yuuri on the left and Real Yuuri on the right.  I don’t know how well it comes across on the pictures, but the eye color is way off.  Real Yuuri has these reddish-brown eyes, and NFM Yuuri’s are definitely more brown-brown.  Also, the skin color is pretty different, too.  NFM Yuuri (and Victor) have a pinker shade of skin than their genuine counterparts.  Next time, I’d scale the eyes up a little bigger, too.  And... idk, the eye shape still gets me.  It’s pretty close, but... something’s still off.  Let’s look at Victor.

NFM Victor on the left and Real Victor on the right.  Again, you’re going to have to take my word for it here... those eyes look suuuuper aqua in real life.  Like, way, way more green than this picture shows.  The eyebrows, which I could not get thick enough no matter how hard I tried, are this weird brown-grey in real life.  And, again, the skin color isn’t quite right.  The eye shape is pretty spot on, though.  I can look at this face and tell it’s supposed to be Victor.

Quality

Both faceplates came with head bases and neck joints, pretty much everything that you need besides hair.  Of course, I have enough head bases and neck joints already attached to my Nendos, but it’s always nice to have extras.  Here’s a view of that noselessness I was talking about before.

(Real Yuuri on the left, NFM Yuuri on the right)  You can see the skin difference a little better there, too.

It’s pretty clear that these eyes were printed on.  They have a grainy, almost pixel-y look to them when you get up close.  They’re definitely lesser quality than official GSC stuff.  But you have to get pretty darn close to notice.  From a normal distance, it looks fine.  You can also see the weird brown-grey of the eyebrows better in that picture.

Both faceplates fit pretty well into the existing Nendos.  Let’s take a look, maybe they’ll look better with hair.

The Finished Product

NFM Yuuri on left, Real Yuuri on right.  With the glasses on, it’s becomes clear that the eyebrows needed to be raised a bit, because right now they’re hiding behind his glasses.

NFM Victor on left, Real Victor on right.  He’s a lot closer to looking real than Yuuri is, I think.

Final Thoughts

I dunno, guys.  I think they look like bad bootlegs, personally.  I don’t really know how to salvage these.  I don’t think I’d use them on my blog.  They look too weird and they’re squicking me out.  I might have to call this one a wash.  At least I got a good blog post out of it, and it was really fun.

How I wish the NFM would just let you use the eyes of characters that are already designed!  I wish I could just take Yuuri’s face and change the expression.  I’m sure that would violate all GSC’s licensing agreements, so legally they couldn’t do it that way.  But it would have turned out so much better for me.

Now, does this mean I wouldn’t recommend the NFM to Nendo fans?  Actually, I fully intend to use it again.  I have a face saved already that I plan on ordering.  But here’s the thing: it’s useful for crazy faces only.  Weird ones.  Sleeping ones.  Blushing ones.  Face tattoos.

But if you’re like me, and you’re trying to make a serious face to replace an existing expression, you’re better off going in a different direction.  Personally, I may try to find extra official faceplates and repaint the smile.  I think I’d have better luck.  We’ll see.

Part 1

What do you think?  Are these faces passable or creepy?  Have you used the Nendoroid Face Maker yourself?  If so, please send me a picture, because I love seeing Nendoroid customization.

[sandwichpress]

Data Objects Day 10

Warning! Super long monster post ahead!

Today’s blog, for the most part, is going to be a picture dump. I try to make slightly higher fidelity prototypes than what is possible with some paper, toothpicks and tape. Today’s activity is also about testing multiple things with one of the mediums we are using, chocolate. I’ve eaten chocolate before and I love the stuff, but I’ve never really attempted to work with this medium before so this is going to be a first.

This is also going to be interesting for me as I love to cook meals, but I generally try to avoid desserts/ sweets as that is normally my sister’s area of expertise. I’m kinda curious to see if I’ll add sweet stuff to my recipe making radar. 

Before I begin with pictures I want to point out some problems I had at the beginning:

One of which was the fact that I did not have a thermometer to check the temperature of the chocolate. While not a big deal by itself; chocolate is generally fine with temperatures a fair bit higher than its melting point, sugar on the other hand is not. Taking what I know from cooking it is extremely easy to burn sugar while attempting to caramelize it, so if we are going to create our own hard candies we definitely need a cooking thermometer and a reliable way to control the temperature of our cooking surface.

Another problem that the lack of a thermometer brought was when I tried to research what was an appropriate temperature to melt chocolate at. This journey through the internet revealed to me a term that I haven’t heard used alongside chocolate before; tempering. I did not know that chocolate could be tempered, and that in general chocolate buttons are already pre-tempered, I was lead to believe that melting them would cause them to lose their temper. Untempered chocolate melts easier and has a duller sheen than tempered chocolate, something that I’m pretty sure we don’t want in our final product.

With these two considerations, I accepted the fact that the chocolates I made today will most likely melt easier, take longer to harden and will most likely have a dull sheen.

I’m almost getting to the photo dump! I just have a few more things to add. Our current plan is to add pop rocks to the chocolates; as I stated in my previous post this version of the prototype has them replaced with crushed pretzels instead, mostly due to cost and the fact that it is very unlikely that the pop rocks would melt due to the low temperatures I was working with. ( I spilled chocolate straight from the warm bowl into my hand multiple times, the temperature was pretty low. )

I also used 2 different types of mold, I didn’t really have any appropriate molds on hand. So I used a small, paper cupcake mold and a slightly larger silicone cupcake mold. I guess this would also be a test to help see what a good material for a sweets mold would be.

Pictures time! It’s gonna be a long post cause of this but I want to keep these pictures as a sort of step by step guide through my process. ( and also as a starter guide for myself in the future. Just in case I want to make more chocolates (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧)

My ingredients, kept in the fridge for a bit just to make doubly sure that they didn’t melt. I’m using both milk and white chocolate buttons because I want to play around with them and see what I could do. I also wanted to see if there were any noticeable differences between the two types of chocolates.

A quick picture of the molds I’m using, the two piles on the right are the paper ones and the two piles on the left are the silicone ones.

The chocolates being melted in a double boiler, and the temperature being set to as low as the stove would allow.

The melted chocolate buttons.

The first chocolate I made. It’s actually the first half of one of the “centers”.

As seen in the previous post we had many ideas on how to place the poprocks on the chocolate. Here I am placing the “poprocks” on top of a half filled mold and am waiting for the chocolate to cool before pouring more on top of the “poprocks”.

I tested out a couple configurations:

Control: Just a straight up dollop of chocolate in the mold.

Center: The “poprocks” are in the center of the chocolate, ideally none of them should be visible from the outside.

Layered: I try to create layers of “poprock” then chocolate, repeat until mold is full.

Mixed: Where I mix the “poprocks” among the chocolate, giving a bumpy appearance.

Half n’ half: Where there is a bottom layer of milk chocolate and a top layer of white chocolate.

Covered (Milk Chocolate only): Where I cover a central core with alternating layers of “poprocks” and chocolate.

Button Center ( White Chocolate only): I have a central “pillar” of milk chocolate buttons surrounded by white chocolate. Was sort of a spur of the moment thing to see if it could work.

The core of our “Covered” prototype. My sister told me that my original plan of using a piece of broken pretzel was bad as the core would have been too small. Instead she glued (with melted chocolate) two of the buttons and a toothpick.

First coating of the “covered” prototype. My sister was demonstrating to me the idea for this.

Second coating of the “covered” prototype.

Third coating of the “covered” prototype. As you can see the core melted as I attempted to add more chocolate. This is why this prototype was only created with the milk. What was needed was a fairly large, non-melting center. Like a nut. Something I did not have on hand.

This did however got me thinking about allergies as there are people with lactose and nut allergies. This should affect our target audience and should have probably been something we thought about when starting out this project. I think nuts are going to be a big no-no as that could potentially kill someone and they are generally hidden inside the choco. Chocolate on the other hand? I think is straight forward as it’s pretty obvious that it is chocolate. Same with a hard candy. Still, it is something we have to think about.

This whole train of thought just reminded me that Chris wanted to try to put some kind of liquor in the sweets. It’s most likely the same kind of consideration we have to think about. We need to make sure people are ok (or in the case of alcohol, legal) to eat the stuff we’re giving them.

The mostly completed set of milk chocolates. There are 3 “centers” as I was generally not happy with the first one I created. The remains of the “covered” can be seen with the toothpick, and the “mixed”. I gave up and poured it into the “mixed” as to not waste anything. There are also three “controls” as one of them will have white chocolate poured on top later on.

The white chocolate being melted the same way the milk was. I did not notice anything substantial between the two when it came to melting.

With everything else pretty much the same for the white chocolate, here is a photo of the “button center”, the pillar of buttons stabbed with a toothpick so that they don’t shift about. I noticed that the milk buttons in the middle did melt a little, as the toothpick had a tendency to lean to one side or another. Though it did end up cooling fine in the fridge after some time. When cooled I removed the toothpick.

A photo of the completed white chocolates (excluding “half n’ half” I forgot to take a picture of that one)

The chocolates cooled, labelled and packaged. I’m planning on bringing them to my group on Monday so we can all see how they turned out. Should be much easier to communicate to the rest of the group with the actual physical objects instead of pictures. I’m just hoping they survive the journey to Uni.

So, what did I learn from this endeavor?

When working with sweets, such as candy or chocolate. Appropriate equipment is required.

Chocolate, albeit fairly messy to work with can be pretty easily molded.

Chocolate has a temper that affects its thermal properties and appearance.

Unset chocolate is difficult to work, with any sort of precision. Anything short of a mold can end up either being clunky and imprecise or messy and time consuming. 

You can use a piping bag to help shape melted chocolate. (My sister told me this AFTER I had finished pouring all of the chocolates into their molds with a spoon)

So far I think that we can map our data to chocolate with a fairly reasonable degree. It would just take time, patience and a thermometer if we want our chocolate to be tempered. As a medium I think chocolate is pretty good, it’s inexpensive; the two bags of buttons I got were around 5 dollars in total, with the right molding it can be shaped pretty accurately and is easy to work with (hard to burn, requires only low heat, etc.)

I do think however that there is one caveat. In order to map the data properly the chocolates should be a fair bit bigger.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Yume Twins Nov 18

Before we begin, I wanted to let anyone curious to know that I put in my order from Blippo.com. I was cheap though- so I’m not actually sure when it’ll be delivered!

This months theme: Twinkling Transformation

“Have you ever wished you could transform into something different? Like maybe a magical girl, or even your pet for a day? We certainly daydream about being whisked of into a new exciting world where we get to shapeshift into a something different ourselves! So this November we’re bringing you the Twinkling Transformation box, with some kawaii items that transform literally, an items that will change your surroundings too! The word transform or change is “henshin” in Japanese, so we hope you love your super kawaii items in this months box and that they will allow you to fulfill your henshin dreams!“

The prizes for this months photo contest feature a variety of cute Korilakkuma themed items.

While the Yume Prize box contained a variety of Kuromi and Keroppi products.

Sumikko Gurashi Peg Set

Our first item are these adorable little pegs/clips. These types specifically are the ones people usually use to hang up with some string decorated with ornaments, pictures, notes, etc, giving the area a cute but mature feel.

There are 4 sets available, each with 3 pegs.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

These are really cute little ways to add decoration to something usually so plain and basic. The little pieces are entirely made from wood and the glue is very strong, so I’m pretty sure they’ll hold. These are kind of small but they’ll have no problem doing their duty, I’ve seen tinier ones do it fine.

 Right now I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with them... but I am very happy happy I got Neko x3 besides Shirokuma, he’s my favorite.

Kawaii Changing Pouch

Our next item is a pouch based on a the popular changing sequins trend that’s been going on lately. I love sequins and the idea appeals to me, but besides this I only have one thing featuring it.

Now, these were mostly Sanrio based, but they also have a Doraemon. There was a total of 6 the subscribers could find. As you can see I got the Kuromi and My Melody version. I’ll probably end up keeping it as is in the picture since I like how it looks.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As cute as this is, the awkward way the pouch opens kind of bothers me. It unzips down one corner and side, due to a flap on the inside, which in a way I kind of like, but on the other hand it’s weird. I’m a bit conflicted on whether I like that or not, but I can definitely use this for stuff so I do like it.

My other complaint is that there are so many white accents (you can probably tell in the pic) and it makes the design look a bit messy. But that’s probably just my opinion.

Costume Pet Plushie

Our third item is perfect for the transformation theme :3 every magical girl needs a companion~

This plush set includes a variation of 10 possible dogs or cats you could get, including ones in full costume or just those with a hood, like mine.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why it’s on it’s side... it needs some “cleaning“ done because somehow it got dirty, even though kept it in the box and it was clean. Also, it’s just easier to get a picture this way.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As much as I love plushes, I’ve seen cuter. Like it’s cute, but I wish it was more... inline with what you would actually see in Magical Girl series. I was also kind of perturbed over its condition and messed up whiskers (probably can’t tell in the picture, but they are very crazy and bent).

Sheep Microfiber Cleaner

This item, practical item is infused with bamboo charcoal to not only pick up dust, but absorb any nasty smells and deodorized wherever it gets put; for example, on the back of the wrapper it shows 2 of these within a pair of shoes.

Besides this brownish color, it’s also available in white and a pinkish-orange.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Not only is it the most kawaii cleaning buddy ever, but it works great!

Today we brought in a carpet to put own on the living room floor and we found so much dust and dirt beneath the couches and corners of the room we haven’t seen in forever- and I’m pretty sure I mentioned this, but I have dust allergies and they were having a field day. So I used this little sweetie to help pick up some of the dust.

I didn’t get a chance to test the scent thing though, I didn’t really get any sleep last night so my mind was elsewhere and it never occurred to me. But I did notice it seems to have it’s own little scent, so I’m pretty sure it could pick.

Sailor Moon Cleaner Cloth

I love when they include Sailor Moon items in the box x3 and this is a very practical item for me which makes it even better. Besides cleaning screens, they can also be used on glasses, or a make-shift hair tie in an emergency if they are the normal square ones (like if you have wind blowing your hair all over the place and you don’t have any actual hair things on hand.... I know from experience.)

This was available in any of the 5 main sailor scouts, and I actually think all 5 variations are pretty, so any of them would have been nice. They all have the same design, the only difference being the name written on it.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

On a side note... It actually killed me separating these two items. I know it’s silly but I loved how this packaging looked, I didn’t want to destroy it.

But as it turns out it was super easy to un-assemble and put back together. The bow on the back is just held together by flaps and the cloth is folded and partially sticking in a slot. So if I ever miss it I can just reassemble it. Word of warning though, the points of the ribbon are very sharp >3<

Uh, in terms of the cloth itself... I mean you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. It’s very silky smooth, a bit thick, and after today my laptop screen really needed a quick wipe.

Kawaii Mini Mini Memo

Available with Mochi Mochi Panda, Yeast Ken, or Animal Life, these mini memo pads are the perfect companion to the sequin pouch we got to look at earlier. Or just for putting in your pocket if you feel like it.

It has a nicely textured spine and a little information on the series/character on the back. The pad also has two styles of sheets, one vertical with a list format and one horizontal with designs like those on the cover. 

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I know this isn’t the most exciting review, but I had a long day and I really wanted to get this taken care of before bed because after all the work I did today, I won’t be doing anything tomorrow.

But to be fair what can you say about a notepad? I get them all the time from these boxes and you can’t really judge the quality of notepad/memo pad paper because you know it works. It’s paper.

♡ Cutie Ranking ♡

Content - 4 out of 5. I like what we got and I was very happy with the practicality and variety of it.

Price - 3 out of 5. I don’t know what all of these items cost, but most of the items are on the small side, paired with 2 bigger items. So I wouldn’t say it was worth it, but the reason the items usually cost so much is because of the name branding.

Theme: 3 out of 5. This box was pretty much a play on words, like rather than items that would cause personal transformation- these items bring transformation to our things. All items but the memo pad (which is a partner to the pouch pretty much) fit that idea, but... I don’t know, as a magical girl lover I really wish they did something more. 

Total Rank: 7 out of 10. I like the content well-enough and I’m not displeased by the box or anything. But at the same time, something about it just left a little to be desired to me. It’s boxes like this that remind me of how much I liked the Yume Twins I signed up with a few years ago. We got around 10 items, there was a wider variety, (the mascot twins who I still miss), they would include things like blind box re-ments or charms or accessories....

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the box, it’s just that sometimes I find it hard to entirely like it as much as I want to. I always want to love my boxes, and I genuinely like them at the end of the day, but not every single one will appeal to every single subscriber.

♡ Cutie Scale ♡

1. Microfiber Sheep - I’m thinking of naming it Puffy, or maybe Wheats, cause that’s what I end up thinking of looking at it. Anyway it’s so cute and fluffy, I love how soft it feels. I’m not sure I could stand to try to use it to see if it actually removes stench though... I’d feel kind of bad.  

2. Memo Memo Pad - I love Mochi Mochi Panda, it always makes me happy to look at. I wanna squeeze it’s stuffed cheeks~

3. Kawaii Changing Pouch - I really wish the booklet showed both forms of the pouch like I did in my pic. A few of them are obvious without seeing the other image, but not all of them. I also wish the sequins were a bit more cleaned up, as I noted during my review of the item.

4. Sailor Moon Cleaner Cloth - It’s pretty and sorta elegant looking to me, I really like how it was packaged too, it’s so creative!

5. Sumikko Gurashi Peg - I’m glad I got Neko but the poses are very basic. I’ve seen them on tons of things I got from these boxes and I kind of wish they were more unique. 

6. Costume Pet Plush - it’s cute and really soft, but I still can’t figure out how it got dirty...

Alright guys, that will be doing it for this review. I’m sorry it’s kind of lame this time, but I just couldn’t think of much to say about the last few items. I feel like they were so obvious that it took away much opinion you know? Like if it works it works, if it’s cute then it’s a great bonus :D I promise to do better with the Kawaii Box review I’ll be tackling next, so until then remember to continue unpacking those cuteness boxes~!

[spideyboyz]

IF YOU INSIST

The one where we pretend that Jason is alive and well and is completely aware of Cheryl's crush on Toni, even if Cheryl herself is not. We're also pretending that the Blossom's and the Cooper's are not related nor do Juniper and Dagwood exist.

As much as Cheryl loved her brother, Jason, he was the embodiment of infuriating.     It started with a smirk. It was the smirk that melted onto his lips whenever he knew something that she did not. Being a twin, many believed that they could read each other's minds and as children the two of them had played along with it. Unfortunately she was clueless as to what was going on in his head.

    Cheryl had been in a foul mood all day. What had once been simply Riverdale High had become Riverdale Hell and it was all because of the serpents and their leather jackets and their stupid snake tattoos and that gorgeous girl with the pink hair and -

    Anyway, the serpents strutted the hallways as though they had every right to be there which, for the record, they do not. Queens like herself do not associate with peasants like them.

    They were everywhere. They roamed every corridor, sat in every classroom and took every seat in the cafeteria. No matter where she went or what direction she turned her head, they were always there. It was as aggravating as Jason's all-knowing smirk. 

    The sight of them alone was enough to make her blood boil.     The sight of that damn girl with her stupid pink hair and her serpents jacket and her cute - no! annoying - smile that was always on display when she was with them ragamuffs. What did a girl like her see in boys like them? The very question made her roll her eyes.

    By the time the final bell rang for the end of the day, she had found Jason, who had been with his girlfriend, Polly, of course, dragged him away from his locker and started her monologue, listing every reason and contribute that lead to her foul mood. 

    Cheryl had many ways of blowing off steam. Usually she just ranted at Jason who would listen, nod and remain silent. She liked that he listened. Most people would interrupt or try to shift Cheryl's feelings as though they had the right to correct her. She knew how she felt. She didn't need some impecile to convince her otherwise.     That's how their afternoon began. An hour had passed since she found him at his locker and she was still angry. They had both decided to sit in her bedroom. He was at the end of her bed while she had her back pressed against the head-boards.     "Terrible, just terrible," he said. His voice was distant as though another thought was clouding his mind. Normally she would snap and tell him to listen but she just wanted to talk regardless of his attention span.     "Do you remember when that sapphic serpent first came to our school, J.J?"     "Sapphic serpent? Who's that again?"     Oh, so he is paying attention, Cheryl thought silently.     "The one with the stupid pink hair and hangs out with the hobo!"     "Oh yeah. Her. I remember."     The smirk widened. For now she would simply ignore it. She was not done with her rant.     It was simple enough. When the southsiders came rolling into the school she had made her grand entrance and firmly put them in place. Warned them that they better not ruin the reputation that Riverdale High had spent decades building. That included the overall 4.0 GPA that she took pride in maintaining.     "Why don't you come over and say that to my face?"     A girl had emerged from the crowd of serpents. She was a petite woman of five foot three with curling pink-streaked hair, dark skin, curved eyebrows and a soft looking face. She was not at all what Cheryl had initially believed a serpent would look like. For starters she believed that the serpents was a boys-only gang. Then there was the softness in both her face and her eyes that her surrounding peers seemed to lack. The boy with the neck tattoo had a bulk figure and eyes that could scorch. He could have passed for one of the Bulldogs if he wore the letterman jacket. But the pink-haired girl was different from him. She bore a fierce yet delicate persona that had Cheryl intrigued.     "Happily, Queen of the Buskers."     Queen? This girl is far from a queen. Attractive, yes - no! - but not a queen in the slightest. Even buskers had some decency.     "Clearly her south-side upbringing caused the lack of basic intelligence to realise that she has made a big mistake talking to me like that," said Cheryl after reciting the scene to him.     "They're not all bad."     Hearing that caused her snap her gaze up at him. He was scrolling through his phone, occassionally tapping his thumb against the screen. Assumingly he was scrolling through Instagram.     "Are you serious?" she asked in a harsh whisper. Most people were accustomed to the loud and snappy way she spoke to those around her. Whenever Jason steered towards her bad side he only receieved the watered down version of it. She took no joy in seeing him flinch.     "Would I lie to you, Cheryl?" he said earnestly.     Shifting, he brought himself a few inches closer. He lay his phone next to his lap. The smirk was till there but his eyes had softened. She both loved and hated how much she trusted him. No one knew her the way that he did. He knew what to say and how to say when it mattered the most.     Cheryl didn't need to be Sherlock to know what most of Riverdale High said about her and Jason. Most thought that her fondness of him was...strange. Those people needed to stop watching Game of Thrones and making assumptions. He just happened to be the one person Cheryl could stand in his Godforsaken town.     "What have those Southside Scum ever done for you?"     "Well," he began. "Sweet Pea - the one with the neck tattoo -"     She couldn't help but laugh. "Sweet Pea? That guy is called Sweet Pea? Is that his real name?"     Jason shrugged. "I dunno. I haven't asked. Anyway, Ms Burkowitz had assigned us to sit next to each other in biology and we started talking. Turns out that we have a lot in common."     "Such as...?"     Not in a million years could Cheryl imagine her brother being friends with someone from the southside, especially someone who called themselves Sweet Pea. What kind of name is Sweet Pea? Surely if he wanted to be a tough gang-member he'd pick a more appropriate name, like, Snake?     "Well, we both like video games. When we learnt that about each other and then we both started talking about our favourite games. He mainly plays all the Batman games - he's a total DC fan - and Arkham Asylum is his favourite. He also happens to be very close with the pink-haired girl..."     "Toni?"     "Ah hah!" said Jason. The smirk was back and bigger than ever. "So you do know her name?"     The need to get defensive suddenly flared within her. "Only because I see her every day and we share classes."     "You see her everyday?"     Cheryl frowned. "Yes. In case you weren't aware, J.J, we're both students at Riverdale High. And that means I'm forced to breath the same air as everyone else, including that sapphic serpent."     "Sapphic serpent, eh? Isn't sapphic a word for, uh, lesbian stuff?"     "Comes from the Greek poet named Sappho, who's poetry all happened to be about her female lovers. God, everyone knows that."     Raising his left eyebrow, he replied, "Do they?"     "Yes."     Reaching for her phone, she typed in her passcode and went onto Instagram. The first thing that came into her feed was a picture of the serpent herself.     Admitting to no one, Cheryl had started following Toni's Instagram three days after their first encounter at Riverdale High. She tried telling herself that she was doing it out of kindess as Toni Topaz (when did Cheryl know her last name?) and that she ought to feel honoured the the Queen Bee wanted to look at her content. But then she started scrolling through her account all the way until she reached Toni's first ever post - which had been a picture of herself, Sweet Pea and a soft-faced boy who seemed to be with them a lot. Her heart had gone into overdrive when she realised that she almost liked it.     The picture on top of her Instagram feed was of Toni, Jughead and Betty. Jughead and Betty were in a sort of sideway embrace, gazing into each other's eyes while Toni was facing the camera with a cheeky smile. The caption below read: "Always third wheeling these lovebirds."     On instinct she double tapped it. When she first followed Toni she had tried avoiding it but at this point she knew that Toni was more than aware that Cheryl followed her on Instagram. She even had the nerve to point it out during class once. They were arguing about something or another - nothing new - when it was brought up.     "Save it, Bombshell - or should I say CherryBombshell. That is your Instagram name, right?"     When people liked Toni tried to smart-mouth her, Cheryl usually had her comebacks piled up like a stack of notes in her mind. However, when her eyes drifted to Toni's lips as each word formed from her mouth, the stack of notes drifted and the only pages she had left were blank. Her mouth gaped open and her cheeks grew hot.     Her immediate thought had been to deny it and then either block her or delete her account entirely. Then she replied with, "I - I don't know what y-you're talking about."     The moment the bell rang she bolted from the classroom. And of course Cheryl had the worst luck and had to return seconds later because she had forgotten her bag. Toni was still there, of course, packing her things away. Though she did not say a word, her eyes and face were very telling. She found Cheryl amusing. She found Toni annoying. Her heart had been stuttering the entire time. For some reason it was as though the notes had been blown away by a fan and suddenly her brain had become scattered. Cheryl prided herself in being put together and having her life in neat tidy boxes. She hated how messy Toni made her.     She didn't realise how long she had been staring at Toni's photo until Jason appeared beside her and nudged her lightly.     "You should ask her out."     Had Cheryl been sipping on a glass of water, she would have spat it out. Instead she gagged and then tried to shift back into her nochalant position.     "Who?"     "How blind do you think I am?" asked Jason.     "It's a debatable answer."     "Regardless of what you think, I have eyes and I see it all. I've seen the way you look at her, and you look at her a lot."     So this is what the smirk is about?     "She's an eye-sore," replied Cheryl a little too quickly.     "If you insist."     She could tell that he didn't believe her. It didn't matter if she did or not. The truth was that Toni Topaz was a sapphic that she wanted nothing to do with....Even if her eyes did linger a second too long or if had fantasised about kissing her and -     Cheryl was ripped from her thoughts when the sound of a ping entered her bedroom. Jason picked up his phone.     "It's Polly," he explained. "She wants to meet at Pop's for shakes. I'll see you later?"     "Sure."     "I'm serious." The geniune softness returned to his eyes. "Ask her out. I know how you look at her, Cheryl, and you should know," he leaned in closer, dropping his voice into a whisper, "her eyes linger on you, too."     And then, as though he had been talking about the weather, got up and left Cheryl's room.

[ryouverua]

Final Answer (3)

I mean, to be fair, with your track record...

1 is here / 2 is here

I... I don’t want it to be true, not just because that takes away layers of his character but also because he’s been so openly suspicious? Is that a weird way to feel?

But here he is, outright saying he’s the mastermind... in chapter 5??? Is, is this allowed - 

I’m trying to imagine the facial contortions it must take to swing so wildly from such a cute, childish face to this nightmare fuel and man, Kokichi’s cheeks must hurt.

Kokichi’s chirps are on point as usual.

Uh..... what is that....?

OH WHAT THE HELL KOKICHI

also damn what gives you the right to be so cute in this picture jeez

I... I WILL SAY... THIS IS... PRETTY COMPELLING EVIDENCE IN KOKICHI’S FAVOUR...

YEAH THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING!!!

But... but he does have the exisals??? How in the world does he have the exisals under his control otherwise???

I’M WITH YOU, SWEETCHEEKS

I’M SO TORN RIGHT NOW...

But... they did??? Shuichi confronted you about it, and you denied that it was your doing???

But you could have just denied it again, and also the exisals?!?! And hold on, why are you scolding them about not preventing more deaths??? If this is gloating, there is definitely something ringing false about it!

If - and this is still an if to me, even though the remote control bit is pretty damning - you’re the mastermind, then why would you have been egging us to doubt each other more? Sure it could be a way to sow seeds of distrust, but.... but....

DAMN that was a direct hit in the waifu

But... but why??? Why are you revealing your hand now, then??? Why would you tell us you’re the mastermind at this point? Sure you have the exisals, but if you continued to hide Monokuma that ever-growing target on your back wouldn’t be so bad! Maki’s probably going to attempt to punt you outside at this rate!

And who better to organize something with such a high degree of skill than the Ultimate Supreme Leader, is that what you’re saying? Hmm....

S... Somehow Kokichi using ‘u mad’ is even more egregious to me than this whole killing game affair.

aslkdfjsdf

Oh Kaito, if you didn’t have bad luck you’d have no luck at all.

a-also did you forget who gave those to you or -

Were you?!

Man, Kokichi, your poker face is stellar. Or faces? Maybe that’s the key - swing wildly from one act to another and you just can’t get a read on him at all! I guess if he had used one himself to get through the tunnel in the first place, he’d have a rough idea of how long they would last?

Also Kaito it, uh, didn’t really work well for you last time so please don’t punch him again. D: I really don’t think you have the strength to, at this point! Even forgetting how it went last time, you just went through an obstacle course from hell (even if you were finally well-equipped for it this time) and you literally just got up after collapsing - because you were exposed to the toxic air from the outside, which definitely irritated your lungs, which are already being ravaged by disease!

As usual, he knows exactly what to say to hit you hard right in your emotional weak points. Maybe he likes lies so much because the truth hurts...

KAITO NO THIS ISN’T A SETTING WHERE SHOUNEN ACTS OF HEROISM PREVAIL -

Then again, what the hell does he have to lose at this point if he’s most likely going to die within the next week? FUCK THOUGH I REALLY DON’T WANT HIM TO HURT HIMSELF AGAIN -

MAKI SHUICHI COULDN’T STOP HIM AREN’T YOU FASTER THAN KAITO DO SOMETHING DAMN IT

!!!! Shit!

aaah fuck, aaah you bastard, shit shit Kaito!!!!!

ARE YOU SURE?! ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY SURE?!?!

C-Can you let him go then, please??? Please?! You’ve shown us what you can do, and Kaito is really not faring well in general right now!!!

U-Uh, Maki, your hair is... doing..... something interesting there....

HOLY SHIT MAKI I THINK YOUR HAIR IS ALIVE

HER EYES, HER HAIR, HER HANDS, HER CLOTHES, HER LITERAL EVERYTHING IS SCREAMING MURDER, SHUICHI!!! THAT IS A HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!

I DON’T THINK SHE’S JOKING THIS TIME, SHUICHI!!!

D-Damn Shuichi... you’ve gotten stronger in all of this, at least. I imagine he wants to help Kaito too, but he understands that he’s got nothing on the five exisals, even if Maki may stand a slim chance.

And honestly? I bet Kokichi is waiting for an excuse to retaliate against Maki. He’s probably itching for revenge after being thrown around so badly by her.

Another relationship, broken...

Still as enamoured with Shuichi as ever, huh.

As happy as Shuichi would normally be about that fact, I’m pretty sure this particular victory must ring rather hollow to him.

Himiko raises a good point, actually! Exactly what do you have in mind for everyone, Mr. Mastermind? Is this where a supposed new motive comes out?

............... Huh.

Despite.... setting a rule, as Monokuma, that the killing game would end with only two people left?

Also I shouldn’t find that whole ‘sorry about that, guys’ hilarious but I do - it’s like he’s telling his friends he can’t show up to the movies a day before they were planning on going because he’s ‘not feeling up to it’, but instead of the movies it’s a damn killing game.

This....... doesn’t...... feel right, does it? Are you satisfied? Why would you be satisfied? What about this is satisfying to you?

I-Is that really the crux of the issue right now Tsumugi?!

?!?!

And with no motives being thrown their way to encourage the killings?

................................ I’m holding judgment right now.

This is Chapter 5. The ‘mastermind’ appears in plain sight, despite setting the rules of ‘until 2 people are left, the killing game will continue’, and declares the killing game over. There’s one chapter left after this. He’s telling everyone they can live or die together, but they have no obligation to him to do either. They’re free to live or die miserably if they would like to. He won’t interfere with them. The killing game is over, so that means he won’t offer motives or encourage them to kill each other anymore. And also - also, I just won’t forget this - he was negotiating with Monokuma in Chapter 4, which is something I just can’t see the real mastermind doing. I know Monokuma is supposed to be an AI, but why would the mastermind of all people need to negotiate with his avatar? Monokuma should be acting as his right hand, right? Is this just an even bigger, bolder version of him ‘confessing’ to being the culprit during all the previous trials? But if it is, why? Why would he do this? Is this his version of winning? He just wants to take absolute control of everything?

But on the other hands, how in the world does he have control of the exisals? He may have gotten his hands on the keycard, but he’s put together so much information that he shouldn’t have access to on his own - when we were searching earlier and found things like the Gopher Project files, he wasn’t with us. So how did he find out about those things, barring him already knowing it all going in aka being the mastermind as he is claiming?

You mean you want to have a hostage in case Maki tries anything, right?

Wait.... 

...

Wait, wait wait.

No, that’s an odd thing to say. What do you mean, it might start up again if he runs around? Why would it, if you’re the one in control? Kokichi, if you’re the mastermind, how could the game start up again without your ‘okay’?

......

Kokichi....

I’m just getting more and more doubtful by the minute now -

Are you lying to us right now?!

“It also happens to be one of the new areas of the game for the chapter, but I’m sure that’s just a total coincidence and totally won’t be where the next body is found!”

I’m so sorry Maki but your red-eyed glare just cannot match the sheer terror Kokichi’s troll face invokes.

I think what feels like 100 years ago I said that I’m less inclined to believe the guy who proclaims himself a liar and then also calls himself THE SUPER MOST AWFUL, TERRIFYING SUPREME LEADER OF EVIL!!! within the same breath a moment later.

I........ I don’t know. I wonder if I can apply it to this situation as well. He’s saying plenty of right things, but it’s almost like...

You know when people tell you that tone matters, and that if you say nice things to someone in a dismissive or outright awful way, your initial intent is lost? It’s like he’s doing that on purpose. The lies aren’t in the words - they’re in the execution of those words.

But still, it’s that damn exisal remote that’s throwing me off!!! Kokichi has something only the mastermind would have, and he has the power of the exisals - the mastermind - behind him! Oh, and of course, Monokuma hasn’t shown up to refute any of this, and you’d think he’d be more than happy to pop up and say something right now! I’d say he might not have the range to go this far out, but I can’t think of a reason why he wouldn’t be able to travel this far! By Monokuma not appearing, he’s basically acknowledging that this is true!

Cancelling the killing game, though? I don’t care if you’re bored - the rules were explicitly set to only have two survivors left, and if you were really determined to let humanity kill each other off, you’d let this go to the bitter end! There is something seriously screwy going on here!

“Just so you know, you’re seriously wrecking our Saiouma potential.”

“Shuichi, sweetie, does this look like the face of a guy who isn’t down for a good hate-ship? Also I have Kaito now so you know Tsumugi’s going to be writing some damn good Oumota drabbles as she cries herself to sleep tonight.”

the power of escapism is real

Kokichi’s gone. Kaito’s gone. It’s just... the five of us left. Holy crap. The only way a murder could possibly happen would be with, uh, well, Kokichi as the victim - but no one has to commit a murder at this point either, right?

But Kaito is probably on his deathbed too... a-aaah jeez, I’m really worried about him. I don’t know how he’s going to get out alive from this.

Actually, for that matter, if we’ve got almost all the answers - and I feel like there’s a bit missing still, but we’re nearly there - what in the world could even happen from now on? Where is there to go from here, when there’s nothing left to even fight for? Everyone is dead! And their mission completely failed! Seriously, what is even the point of doing anything now, except living on quietly until they die?

And man, I’m suspicious as hell about Kokichi’s declaration of culpability but honestly, that could still just be me being stubborn. This entire affair could easily end with Kaito winding up dead, and everyone having to overthrow Kokichi next chapter. Having the villain announce himself a chapter earlier... well, that would be a twist in a DR game - but what does that leave for the next chapter? if someone says despair one more time I will end them