#The Archivist's Journal

[autumnalwalker]

ROY G BIV tag

Thank you for the tag, @druidx. This looks like a fun new one.

Passing the (entirely optional) tag to @rickie-the-storyteller, @on-noon, @yourlocalboredprocastinator, @ghost-town-story. @broodparasitism, @itusebastian, @void-botanist, and an open tag for anyone else.

Rules: Search your your writing for the colours of the rainbow and post the excerpt

Red: Empty Names - 14 - Down Low

When Ashan finds her some ten minutes later with a satiated smile on her face and watching the spider pull in their stygian catch from the lake, the cut on Eris’s forehead has already healed.  None of the blood painting her new armor red is hers.

Orange: The Archivist's Journal, Day 78

As long as I’m writing, I suppose I ought to take a moment to describe the landing area.  It was another jutting cliff with an arch on the end, like Siren Overlook and the one we encountered to the west.  Twice could be a coincidence, but three times and I’m convinced the whole formation is artificial, not just the arch, columns, and pool.  It wasn’t nearly so overgrown as the western dock – if anything the columns were in better shape than at Siren Overlook – but whereas Siren Overlook was mostly covered in short grass with the occasional tiny white flower or stubborn shrub this was a veritable field of bright orange flowers broken only by the water lily filled pool running down the center.

Yellow: The Archivist's Journal, Day 60

Doffing my boots and carrying them in one hand, I waded in a short ways as I walked the perimeter of the spring.  It’s curious how unafraid the fish and turtles swimming the shallows were of me.  Most I could practically get within arm’s length before they darted away, and if I stood still for a few minutes, small schools of finger-length yellow fish would congregate in my shadow.

Green: The Archivist's Journal, Day 9

Hurrying to catch up with my young companion I pushed my way through the crooked door only to nearly trip over her.  The morning light had transformed the interior space from a surreal void to an awe-inspiring expanse.  Light filled the central nave.  As green leaf-filtered streams on the high side windows.  As vertical golden rays replacing the prior night’s columns of rain from holes in the roof.  As an iridescent wave coming in from the bare remains of a curved stained glass window backlighting the statue of the Reader.  All this reflected off the broad leaf and moss-filled puddles that stretched across much of the floor, still not evaporated days later.  The side aisles were a tangle of roots from the trees above, quite possibly doing as much to hold the structure up as the pillars separating aisle from nave.

Indigo: Witch's Testament: The Fighter

Weapons are raised and aimed.  The crowd begins to back away.  Someone above cracks a joke about how they should have just skipped to waving guns around if it was going to be this easy to solve the problem.

The crowd only backs off so far though, most that made it through the outer gate are still on the inside of it.  Those still stuck beyond push one another over the wall so some might get a better view.  A lone figure left behind by the receding sea of people remains standing in the middle of the reef of broken and smoking drones, tens of meters from the protesters behind him and the forces before him.  His dark clothes are long and billowing.  His pointed hat is wide brimmed to hide his face.  His serpentine familiar, assembled from scavenged and stolen parts, coils up one arm, over his shoulders, and down the other.

Someone in the line of hired guns makes an incredulous remark under his breath about cosplaying wizards.

The man corrects him to say that he’s a witch and his voice echoes through every loudspeaker, portable device, and auditory implant in the building.

The witch strides forward, his eyes glowing indigo from the shadows beneath his hat and matched by those of his slowly uncoiling familiar.

Someone gives an order to fire and an electrified dart wizzes past the unperturbed witch.  Six more darts miss.  Rubber bullets are loaded and combat implants lock in firing trajectories.

To the eyes of the security personnel, every shot should be a hit but impossibly passes through their target and out the other side.  To the eyes of the protestors the witch is walking through a hail of bullets that are all miraculously going astray.  To the eyes of the witch, every implant-assisted firing solution coming from the soldiers before him is being outlined in indigo and nudged to exactly where he wants it.

The witch has already crossed the security line and is on the steps of the building behind them by the time someone catches on and spins around to aim and fire manually.  His familiar rears up and hisses.  The shot goes wide as the entire security contingent seizes up, spasms, and falls to the ground.

The moment the witch crosses the threshold, every light in the building goes out, every door unlocks save for those to the roof and underground garage, and every camera becomes a witch’s eye.

Violet: A Dream About Purple

We are all too busy watching the game to notice anything wrong until a third team tries to take the field.  Their uniforms are purple and their hair appears to be dyed to match.  All of them wear the same vacant smile that crawled its way out of the uncanny valley and speak with offputting singsong voices. 

It is only then that we all look up and see the storm rolling in, stretching across the horizon with clouds of that same unnaturally vibrant violet.  Eerie music rides the wind ahead of the storm, heralding its imminent arrival. 

[autumnalwalker]

Excerpt from Day 198 of @thearchivistsjournal.

And as advised by the "share an excerpt" tips, here's a link to my intro post with links to the rest of my writing: Writeblr Intro

Lin and Maiko were making dinner when I walked in.  I’m not sure if that’s the first time I’ve heard Maiko laugh, but I don’t think it can be more than the third.  Whatever the joke or anecdote that I’d just missed was they weren’t inclined to share, although the denials claiming it to be “nothing” were laced with more than a little sniggering.  I figure fifty-fifty it was either about me or something embarrassing on one or both of their parts.

Either way, I’m content just seeing the two of them happy, especially with how Lin was yesterday.

Share an excerpt that will make readers say, “Yeah, I ship it.”

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[bopbop171]

Spinoff of Sams Apocalypse Adventure when?

[gummi-stims]

can you make a post for Noe from the case of vanitas

I hope this is good!

🤍-💜-🤍

💜- x -💜

🤍-💜-🤍

[ecargmura]

The Case Study of Vanitas Volume 2 Review

Is it just me or is the second volume a bit thicker than the first one? Anyways, this volume covers the second half of Episode 3 to the end of Episode 5. Like what I said with my review of Volume 1, it’s the same as in the anime, but I can see that, in this volume, the anime did take away a lot of small, important details. You can’t take away small minor details in a Jun Mochizuki story! They’re all so important or the overarching plot or for characters!

I don’t remember if Babel was mentioned in the anime (it’s been so long). I know for a fact that it’s going to be important in the story later on. Because if Babel was an incident that changed the world, it’ll definitely be visited in the future. I know how manga writing works—specifically Jun Mochizuki’s.

Why I say to pay attention to small details is because the anime took away Dominique’s flirty personality! Her being extremely flirty towards Orlok’s female assistant is a vital part of her character. If you didn’t know, Domi is canonically bisexual, and her flirty behavior is an important part of her character that won’t be revealed until later on. Because you can see that she was demure and sweet as a kid in Noe’s memories with Louis, but changed into a flamboyant character who is rather androgynous.

Another small detail the anime took out was that Noe was once raised by an elderly couple that he called Grandpa and Grandma. They died and he was alone. This is why Noe’s rather fond of humans. I don’t remember if this was revealed in the anime, but my reviews don’t point this out.

Okay, small detail ramblings aside, I think this is as good as the first volume because of all the intensity. This volume introduces the vampire world, Atlus. What I liked about reading this volume is the fact that the more I read, the more I realize that Vanitas is a total bottom. He gets manhandled by Noe, bound by Domi, and gets his blood sucked by Jeanne. There is zero top energy from Vanitas. He is a total bottom. Even if you ship him with Jeanne, he’s the one that gets pegged. I really wanted to get this out of my chest. Disagree with me all you want, but it’s true.

There are a lot of Pandora Hearts easter eggs. In Noe’s flashback, there’s a panel where Domi and Noe were playing with black and white rabbit dolls. While they’re different from the dolls in Pandora Hearts, black and white rabbit dolls is a huge easter egg. They didn’t add these dolls in the anime too! These dolls aren’t important in this story, but if you’re aware of the story of Pandora Hearts, you might understand why I pointed out the dolls. I won’t spoil, but Domi, Louis and Noe’s story reminds me of Lacie, Glen and Jack. In fact, I think why I’m so fond of Domi is because she’s basically a ‘what-if’ scenario of Lacie if her situation was switched with Glen. Lacie is also a character I love in Pandora Hearts, hence why I like Domi. She reminds me a lot of her in a way.

I’m sorry if this doesn’t feel like a review. It’s basically 85% similar to the anime. All my thoughts are still the same thing I wrote in my reviews for Episodes 3-5. I bought Volume 3, so I can’t wait to read it soon! If you have read this volume, what are your thoughts?

[sixty-silver-wishes]

so I just woke up to an email from irina shostakovich. so that’s how my life is going

[itstimeforstarwars]

My diary when I was a teenager: I am so angry and this is where I put my rage about how the world is ending and how mad I am about it and how much I hate politicians and the school board

My diary now: here is a recounting of what I did today as well as how I feel about some of the news from today, so that in twenty years when everyone is lying about how the 2020s went I have proof that I'm not insane.

[dante-winning-archive]

was flipping through my journal and found an entry that says 'I got into Devil May Cry' on Oct 21, 2021. So I guess it's been around two years since the brain worms invaded! and now I have a dmc tumblr. incredible

[autumnalwalker]

LAST LINE W/A TWIST

Thank you for the tag, @cljordan-imperium. And your tag as well, @aether-wasteland-s.

Rules: Make a new post and post your latest line from your WIP & tag as many people as there are words.

From tonight's entry in The Archivist's Journal:

No more was said that night.  We wordlessly disentangled upon reaching her house.  I left as she was opening the door.

Passing the tag to:

@poetinprose

@wildswrites

@winterandwords

@oh-no-another-idea

@andromedaexists

@void-botanist

@lovely-ashes09

@on-noon

@writernopal

@hbxplain

@winglesswriter

@anthros-vanitas-archive

@blind-the-winds

@thesorcerersapprentice

@andromeda-grace

@kaiusvnoir

@kahvilahuhut

@doikayt

@writingpotato07

@dontjudgemeimawriter

@nanashi23

[autumnalwalker]

Writing The Archivist's Journal has had its fair share of happy moments (and quite a few unhappy), but when I saw this prompt it's the end of Day 220 that immediately came to mind:

Just got distracted there for a few minutes by laughter from the others.  I missed what the joke was, but it looks like they’ve finally managed to draw Maiko into the conversation and she’s not glancing over her shoulder anymore.  I’m glad for her.  I think today’s been about the happiest I’ve seen her apart from that time I walked in on her and Lin making dinner.  Genuinely excited as we were getting ready to set off from the cove earlier and now at ease and talking freely.  By her standards anyway.  I suspect to a stranger she’d still come across as quiet and somewhere between subdued and standoffish, but having known her for a while now and been living with her it’s obvious.  Especially compared to when we first met.

Okay now they’ve noticed me staring and are telling me to get over there and join them.  I told them “five minutes.”  So, quickly wrapping up:

We spent most of the day rowing (well, our boat rowing, theirs paddling).  Lin and Maiko did most of the work, but I got a few shifts in, and looking over at the others from time to time, so did Cass.

Sticking right next to one another was more than we could manage and might not have been totally safe anyway, but we kept within easy shouting distance.

This island was the only one we stopped at, as much as I would have loved to explore the others we passed by.

We stopped a few hours before sundown.  Maiko wanted to be sure to have time to scout out wherever we stopped to make sure it was safe and see what could be foraged.

After we pulled the boats up onto the beach I loaned the pale ring to Lin so she could go scout with Maiko while Cass and I stayed with the boats.  Didn’t want anyone alone, but didn’t want the boats unattended and those two had the most experience poking around the woods looking at strange plants.

Like I said earlier, nothing dangerous found, and they brought back some fruits that they were both pretty sure were safe.  Apparently Maiko’s a bit more casual about that than Lin, but then again, she seems to have a more tolerant digestive system than the rest of us.

And that brings us to the present.  The present that’s pestering me to finish up already.

I’m lucky to have them.

Share an excerpt where a character is happy

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[emergencysurvivalkit]

My brain can't stop thinking about my poor flawed broken men and the forces that play with their lives. They both manage to make me love the monsters as well as the humans even as they become the other

I know I'm not an artist I'm just a person who can't like things a normal amount, I love them with my whole self (on my fourth-ish listen to Magnus Archives ((started just before the Kickstarter announcemen!)) and my second through Malevolent). If I've missed your favourite quotes or references, let me know!

[elibeeline]

Its uni season and im once again debating online courses i cannot afford

[ecargmura]

I Read The First Volume Of The Case Study of Vanitas And Here's A Review Of It

You know when an anime adaptation is great that they basically animate the first three episodes from the first volume without any major changes. Yes, the anime was great, one of my absolute favorites, but the manga is a whole other magical experience. To be honest, my review for the first volume will be short because there’s not much to talk about since it’s identical to the first three and a half episodes. All my theories will probably in a later volume that doesn’t follow the anime.

To give a run down of the story, it’s about Noe, a vampire, traveling to Paris as he heard word of a mysterious grimoire called the Book of Vanitas being sighted there. When a vampire woman goes on a rampage due to a curse, a young human man calling himself Vanitas steps up and vows to treat her for he is a vampire doctor who possesses the Book of Vanitas and is the only one who can activate it. When his abilities are shown to Noe for the first time, Noe and Vanitas goes on many misadventures to cure vampires from their curses.

Mochizuki’s art is beautiful. I especially loved the airship scene and the scene where Noe and Vanitas were falling off and looking at the moon. She really amped up with the designs compared to Pandora Hearts. I love Pandora Hearts, but The Case Study of Vanitas’s character designs really stand out. Vanitas and Noe are my favorites! However, what Mochizuki has improved the most is the comedic faces. Boy, the funny faces she draws for the characters are HILARIOUS.

I guess the only difference from this volume and the first three episodes is noticeable in episode 1. In the first episode, the story of Vanitas of the Blue Moon was introduced in the beginning, while it was introduced in the middle of the chapter in the manga. That’s the only major difference I noticed. Other than that, the anime did a great job with the pacing and making Mochizuki’s art be even more beautiful in animated form. If you’re curious about the anime, I have my reviews of the anime on my blog—you can click here to read the first two episode reviews as the third episode does have Volume 2 content in it.

My favorite character is and will always be Vanitas as he’s an annoying gremlin with something to hide and I like that aspect of him! He’s a very unique protagonist who isn’t afraid of being a jerk. Though, since this story is told through Noe’s eyes, the jerk aspect could be amped up out of bias.

All I wonder is how long the story will be because it is a recollection of Noe’s memories of Vanitas as he did kill him some time after the first episode. The mystery behind Vanitas’s demise is probably the biggest one of the story. Since Mochizuki is the queen of plot twists, I am expecting a very shocking reveal.

Also, the cutest thing about the first volume is that Hiromu Arakawa, the author of Fullmetal Alchemist, wrote a little comment for Mochizuki that can be seen behind the cover when you open the book! Arakawa is one of Mochizuki’s influences, so I’m sure she was thrilled!

Because I am a biased Mochizuki fangirl, this is a 5-star read like the four Pandora Hearts volumes I reviewed. Do I recommend this? Absolutely. My one goal in life is to collect everything Mochizuki has written and make a bookshelf section dedicated to her works. Also, bookstores, why do you never have volume 2 in stock! Wherever I go, Volume 2 is never in stock! What is your thought on the Vanitas manga?

[mildswearingat4am]

I’m cleaning out my closet and got completely sidetracked by a stack of my old journals. Because like --

I like journals.

As a kid, I liked having something on hand I could pull out in school to doodle and goof off without looking like it. What are they gonna do, get mad I’m writing in a notebook?

Now, I like the idea of having an older version of me preserved in pages so I can see how much I’ve changed and how much has stayed the same. How excited I got over my first experience with something that’s now routine. Wincing at how totally oblivious I was during a Clearly Very Bad mental health situation. Past hopes, past dreams, past music tastes, you know? Sometimes I put a nice leaf in the pages from past autumn.

At the same time, just because I want the record to exist doesn’t mean I want it to be here. In my closet. Taking up space and gathering dust. When something happens my first instinct isn’t to hunt around for a pen and paper, because that feels like a chore. Why do I have to record myself for future dissection? Can’t I just have experiences and accept the me I am now is fleeting?

But I also know how easy it is to rewrite a past you have no record of. Saying oh, it’s always been this way, when in fact you’re getting Bad again. I don’t want kid me to disappear, just like I don’t want to disappear someday when older me can only vaguely recall the mundane stress the 2020s.

But do I want to undertake the arduous ordeal of preserving me? Now? Today? Carrying the past to every new apartment and house and turning it into a personal history museum?

So basically my closet’s still gross and now I’m having an existential crisis

[omg-spy]

2-3-2024

thinking about how if I had known how to archive things properly and take care of a computer I would have saved so much shit I looked up online as a kid glad I know now!

[autumnalwalker]

Heads up seven up / Last Line Tg

Combining the tag from @void-botanist with the tag from @liv-is. Thank you both.

Passing the tag to @ceph-the-ghost-writer, @fearofahumanplanet, @blind-the-winds, @writernopal, @words-after-midnight, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @outpost51, @oh-no-another-idea, and an open tag for anyone else who wishes to participate.

From today's entry (369) in @thearchivistsjournal:

And, yeah, the pushing people away when you know you shouldn't and know you should take up their offer?  I still do that too sometimes.  I’ve even done it to you a couple times when you tried to reach out to me.  Did you notice?  It’s okay if you didn’t.  The other person not noticing is the point.  But you already know that, don’t you?  They still do sometimes anyway.

But here’s the thing.  It does get better.  You will get better.  I did.  Well, I’m getting there.  And it’s taken me years, so don’t beat yourself up too much when you’ve barely even been around for one.

So, I guess what I really want to say is:

You are not useless.

You are not broken.  (Or at least no more than me.)

You are not a burden.

You are cared for.

You can ask for help.

You can open up.

You already do more for everyone than you realize.

You will get better.