#We Came to Welcome You

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Fiction: Genre-Mashup Horror Novels

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Model Home by Rivers Solomon Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens

[the-final-sentence]

'Want me to put in a good word?'

Vincent Tirado, from We Came to Welcome You

[vincentvalmontvandel]

[whatcha-reading-today]

ARC Review: We Came to Welcome You | Vincent Tirado

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

A queer couple moves to a new town and finds the town less than welcoming. There was a lot about this that I liked. I thought the writing was strong, it was sufficiently creepy throughout giving wonderfully uncomfortable vibes, but I did find the ending sort of abrupt and would like to see a bit of a more intense conclusion. The style it is now may work for folks, but I wanted a bit more.

Overall, excited by Tirado's work and excited to see what they do next.

Also, special commendation to the dedication, that's HILARIOUS.

[hydrangeawolfreads]

October 2024 Reads

It takes a lot of my pride to close a book. 

Not closing in the sense of “I can’t read this right now” but to close the possibilities of the book. Almost as if I’m Susan Pensive, trying desperately for the wardrobe to open back in Narnia. 

What I’m trying to say is, it takes a lot of pride and energy out of me to DNF. Which is hilarious because the vibes need Goldilocks just right, for me to get really into something. 

Like Amazon subscriptions I put on hold, I delay getting into books until I’m in the correct headspace, vibe and craving. 

Maybe that’s why I’m finally using this side-blog. Because in the last few weeks, I’ve devoured three novels (well 2 ½ at the time of writing this) and I’m happy. So here’s my recent recap.

When I realized that Vincent Tirado was coming to the Boston Book Festival, the speed I clicked on the panel details could’ve rivaled the Flash’s. Then the shock when I learned they wrote a new book I haven’t gotten my hands on was deep. 

I ran out to get it and finished it in 2 and half days so I could properly explain why Tirado is an immediate buy to all. But to realize they had taken one of my favorite IPs and crafted an eerie thriller that danced on the line of “Is it Supernatural or just Anxiety/Paranoia?”  

Going off that last question brings me to “The House Across the Lake”. Riley Sager is that author I read when I need to read an “adult” novel. I try to stay within YA/NA or anywhere that my curiosity takes me. I still remember being hunched over my phone, reading “Home Before Dark” which was my first Sager novel. 

There were countless twists, each one kept getting me closer to the edge of my seat and one that had scooting back. But this definitely made my October spooky. 

My current read, “Your Blood, My Bones” is an interesting one. This brings me back to how I opened this post. Andrew’s first novel, “The Whispering Dark” lured me in like a Siren singing. 

However magical realism/spooky sci fi is difficult to get into. I tried, I think four times to get into the book. It broke my heart, as it adores disabled or differently abled MCs. As someone with mild cerebral palsy, I’m done reading novels with Bella Swan copycats. 

I didn’t even realize the author was the same until it arrived. “Your Blood, My Bones” reminded me a lot of “The Raven Cycle” and OTGW which gave me time to shift what I knew and stitch the new to fully visualize the entire novel. 

As a teenager who was obsessed with Sarah Dessen’s novels, I love interweaving worlds. All this, to say I’m gonna give “The Whispering Dark” another go–especially now that I get…some of it. 

It’s funny, I keep picturing the forest as a shadow puppet version. Think of the 2004 credits of A Series of Unfortunate Events film. 

Hopefully this made sense. This is the first kind of actual online presence that I’m attempting.  

I can’t promise I’ll keep this updated but I’ll do my best. Knowning me, this is gonna be a rant/vent blog with reviews sprinkled in. 

(Primarily since everyone else in my immediate life to too busy for me.) 

(c) hydrangeawolfreads

[catliker49]

Surprise!

Quite literally! I have Finally drawn again! I am so Happy! My style is a bit rough.. or perhaps I should say... ruff! (Haha, sorry!) but that's just because I have not drawn anything other than my Final Piece for the past few months!

OH!! SPEAKING OF! I GOT DISTINCTIONS IN EVERYTHING! HAHA! (The highest grade for everything! Yay!) OOH! And! Final thing.. I am starting to use my name for my Signature, so, if you can spot it, that is why it does not say Catliker :O)

[wheatcak3]

Im doing doodle requests again for the next few hours!! :3

RB with your favorite character and ill do a little doodle of them being happy/silly ✨ Id love to hear a bit about them too if you would like to share! (Again nothing inappropriate please 🥺)

If you cant think of anything but want something I can draw you a little cat just lemme know!

Also if you'd rather stay anon you're welcome to send a request as an ask!

To start off here's a little twilight sparkle because I just think shes neat :3

Update: I'm finishing up for the night!! Thank you for another fun night :3

[front-facing-pokemon]

[silverskye13]

I had a dream last night that me and Docm77 were trapped in a warzone and he tackled me to the ground to save me from gunfire and then together we took out like ten guys.

I'm sure this says something about my psyche and that something is that if I ever met Docm77 in real life I think we would commit war crimes.

[fallen6253]

Why did Kim Rok Soo live like Satiama.

Hear me out:

The guy lived on the outskirts of town, basically isolated from civilization unless he was working (which probably built on his depression as social interaction is a very valuable thing to mental health). His work includes defeating monsters that threaten human life, and before he got good at it, he used to lose a lot. In fact, he got hurt a lot. He didn't let that part bother him too much because it was part of the job and it meant he would reach his goal. Saving people. Building strength to take down any enemy. Says he doesn't have a lot of money, yet may, in fact, be very rich (Krs was definitely rich and just lied, and while he doesn't exactly start out having actual income that I know of, he doesn't pay rent, and now Genos gives him money).

Thinks his problems are his own, and doesn't realize that whenever he meets people that don't hate him, he feels a bit better about life.

[racingliners]

If anyone is having a rough day, please know that I just jumped in a massive cardboard box to see if I could fit in it (I could) but got stuck in there for a couple of minutes.

[gilliontidestriderchampionoftheu]

can you IMAGINE if marshal john turns out to be the traitor? i think id be more heart broken than if it was caspian

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

Hello! If it’s okay, I’d like to know your thoughts on the Trikoto theory (3+ alters). I think it’s a cool theory! And pretty likely, honestly. (Here’s a document about it in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. I didn’t make it, and I unfortunately don’t know who did, I just found it in another blog)(I really hope that link works lol)

Hey FF! I was wondering when you might send something in. Not the topic I expected, but I'm here for it!

I've definitely heard of this theory before. I can't say I know for sure where it originated, but I've always been under the impression that a blog called @bertrandcaillet started it as they're the first one I saw talk about that theory and they told me about it a while ago. They've since deactivated, though, so I can't really check with them to see if that's true.

I think the trikoto theory is interesting, and I fully agree with what's said on the document about how it would be nice if Milgram is showing a system with more nuance than just having two alters.

That being said, I personally don't believe this theory for a number of reasons. I'm going to do my best to explain why here. I do want to say going into this that while I do have extremely minimal psychology teaching (as in, undergrad psyc MINOR), I do not claim to be that educated on DID or similar struggles. So, anything that I say will be focusing much more on Milgram as a piece of media from a writing standpoint, because that's what I have much more extensive experience in.

I will say that I am very aware that most systems have more than 2 alters. That being said, I think I also remember from my psyc class that the average number is, like... 16? I'm not at my dorm right now and that's where my notes are, so I can't check, but I remember specifically thinking about it in the context of Mikoto and trikoto theory, so I'm pretty confident it's Above Three. That means that either way, it's not like we're doing The Most Common Number, so I think two versus three is largely irrelevant on that point.

For the sake of clarity, I'll be using the names in the doc (Akakoto, Midokoto, Aokoto), but I only personally believe that two of them (Akakoto, Aokoto) exist. I've taken to calling them Orekoto and Bokuto, but for this post, Akakoto and Aokoto it is.

At its base, my problem with trikoto theory is that I don't see a lot of evidence for it. Most of what I've seen has been talking about the implications of it if you assume it's true, but I've just never really been convinced in the first place. I'll just go through some of the main reasonings real quick:

The RGB Colors

I do acknowledge that I'm very much not a visually oriented person, so the color shifting is something I'm less inclined to notice. However, while the background of the room is blue and the train station and apartment are pretty green, I don't feel like there are ever really any red backgrounds (other than when the headspace becomes red as ooposed to blue). Because of that, I have a hard time believing that the backgrounds themselves contribute to the idea that there are three. I definitely think the red/blue coloration in the eyes and such are indicating different alters, but I don't think that specific fact supports there being three of them.

The Voice Changes

This might be a me issue, but I only really hear two different vocal inflections. I understand the point about there being some harsher (?) sounding vocals that don't have the growl, but personally, I still think the tone matches the one described as Akakoto enough to count. Similarly, the parts towards the end that are picked out for Midokoto ("I'm probably not to blame," etc.) actually sound more like Aokoto to me even if I do try to track the three voices.

I'm hesitant to go too hard in believing the different voices because to me, doing so would severely limit the amount of control Natsuki Hanae would have over the emotions he wants to put into the song. The vocalists in Milgram do a fantastic job at using specific vocal intonations to convey deep layers of emotions in their songs. I feel like it would be very limiting to only be able to use certain vocal effects (ex. growl) in specific places due to the limitations of the characters. If there are two, the two voices are far more separate, which gives more space for customization within the bounds of each voice.

This is also a little bit iffier on evidence, but there's the Es cover of MeMe. I don't know how much Yurina Amami knows about Mikoto's story and the entire video is in grayscale, so take all of this with a grain of salt, but to me, I feel like Es uses two voices here, not three. Notably, they even have a bit of vocal growl on the "switch" and on "split and half, make that heart beat," which are both squarely in the Midokoto tone. They do still have the two voice split, sounding a bit more apathetic and aggressive in the Akakoto parts and cuter in the Aokoto parts. To me, that signifies that there's suppose to be two voices going on, not three, but you could argue that that's just Es' perception of Mikoto, so it's not decisive or anything.

Mikoto Fighting Es

Yes, in his first audio drama, Mikoto is able to beat Es up until Kotoko stops him. Yes, that's inconsistent from what we've seen from Futa and also t2 Amane. I agree that that's because the Milgram rules only apply to one or more alters, and thus any others that may exist can get around the rulings. We saw this between trials, too, with how Mikoto (seemingly Akakoto at the time) was able to avoid being restrained despite his guilty verdict, likely through the same loophole.

(Side note: this implies to me that Milgram's system for restraining guilty prisoners is, like the protective barrier around Es, somewhat magical and isn't a physical thing. Thus, if we were to, say, vote Amane as guilty, I am fairly confident she would be unable to harm any other prisoners, as we've already seen the barriers are able to prevent her from attacking others. I still lean Amane innocent anyways, but I wanted to point this out.)

Anyways, I don't think that this is actually evidence towards trikoto theory because it works perfectly fine with just the two of them. Aokoto is the prisoner in Milgram and Akakoto isn't. This doesn't necessarily mean that Aokoto is the one who was fronting while the murder happened, though; the rules of Milgram just necessitate that the prisoner is involved in/related to a death. It can be indirect.

I think that that's exactly what Milgram is asking us with Mikoto. The question is, how do you fairly hold a system accountable? Can you blame one alter for the other's actions?

Milgram loves to complicate these, and I can see the appeal of a complication being learning about a third alter. Personally, I think it's much more likely that the route Milgram is taking is looking at how much knowledge the alters have about each other and asking how much Aokoto would have to know to make him an accessory to Akakoto's murder plans. It could go either way, though.

Some Bonus Points

I think the strongest piece of evidence brought up is the use of threes in Mikoto's design. Other than "they just liked it aesthetically," there isn't much of a counterargument I can make about it. My best one would be that they might be going for a "switching between black and white" type of thing, which would work better with more stripes, but that's pretty weak. I also had the idea that the first character of his name looks like three stripes, which might be a better or worse explanation! You get to decide, I have no idea.

The cake sells me less, though. It's true that Kazui's is a perfect 50/50 and that Mikoto's isn't, but that's because they're representing different things.

Kazui's is half and half because his song is called half, and it could also be a sign of how he and his wife didn't actually connect more in a marriage sense; they're still two fully separate people rather than being a unit.

Mikoto, if he has two alters, is still physically one guy. Mikoto is mostly sitting on the flower designs. I'd argue that the flowers are meant to show Mikoto as a whole: the connection point of the two alters.

That's pretty much all of what I have to say on the doc (in terms of the trikoto aspect, whether I believe it or not there's some good work done in character/lyric analysis that applies to two or three alter theories), but I'll go over some of my reason for why I actively believe there to be two, because there are some reasons.

Reason 1: The Song Titles

The doc explains what the meaning of MeMe is in trikoto theory, but it definitely still works with two, more obviously so. That's not evidence, though, because the trikoto theory has a viable explanation too.

I have no idea what they'd be doing with the song title Double, though. I guess it would be a play on somebody being someone else's double, meaning they're someone like them, which is no doubt part of the song title either way, but I think it's difficult to ignore the meaning of Double that means, y'know... multiplied by 2, or:

But that could very easily be a diversion and we haven't seen the second video, so I'd let that slide. However, that brings me to the bigger problem:

Reason 2: Upright Versus Reversed

AKA, the tarot cards.

Tarot cards can be read two ways, Upright or Reversed, based on the orientation of the card when it's placed/picked up/whatever. I already went over in my original theory (which is pretty outdated, I could do a way better job but I wrote that one literally first out of my milgram thoeries and I hated not having a good name scheme for the various alters) why I believe Akakoto to be the Hanged Man (Upright) and why I believe Aokoto to be the Hanged Man (Reversed).

I struggle to imagine why the devs would pick tarot, something that clearly has two meanings to it, when there are actually three alters. Maybe it'd just be to throw us off the scent, but it feels a bit too intentional to me.

Plus, if it was meant to throw us off, I'd expect we'd get a different metaphor/symbol for the second MV (as we have been with pretty much everyone). However, the association between Mikoto and "reversible" things has continued into trial 2, even before his MV has come up.

I say this because of his trial 2 cover song: Reversible Campaign. Funnily enough, I actually thought this song would go to Kazui before it was announced as Mikoto's, but then I looked again and understood why they wanted it for Mikoto.

My thoughts get confused and fight with each other

Very Mikoto, works for either two or three alter theories. However:

I just want to waver between black and white

It's turned me upside down

There's more that seems to paint Mikoto's mind as a dichotomy, not a... trichotomy? Is that a word? I don't actually know.

The Song Lyrics of MeMe

This is sort of an extension of the above part, but there are also definitely song lyrics in MeMe that sound like they're heavily implying two. Again, you could argue that that's trying to throw us off the scent, but some of them are, in my opinion, actively difficult to justify for trikoto theory.

Split in half, Make that heart beat

I cannot for the life of me understand why any of the three alters would say "split in half" if there are three. I guess if any of them were aware of one of the other alters, but not the other? I don't think that's what was being argued, though, sorry if I missed that.

I’m already the fake one

Little harder to argue this one because I don't know how definite versus indefinite articles work in Japanese, but saying the fake one really sounds to me like there is one fake and one real. If you were just having a moment of existential crisis, in most situations, I think you'd opt for "I'm already fake."

The Mirror

This is sort of the same argument as the tarot cards, but there's also the use of mirror imagery in Mikoto's MeMe MV. Mirrors have two sides and are a reflection. You could use Haruka logic and say that it depicts self reflection, I guess, but considering the reflection acts differently, I think it's much more likely that this is meant to show the two alters.

Conclusion

Hopefully this all made sense? I respect trikoto theory and I could easily be super wrong about it (see also: my original opinions on gay Kazui theory and police Kazui theory), but I've just never really been sold. It's possible my opinion would change if I saw evidence that I felt worked better for trikoto than... twokoto? theory, but personally, I feel like most evidence I've seen for it is still better explained by there being two alters. Let me know what you think, though :)

[acebytaemin]

the way my boss pulled me away and told me ‘okay stupid question but. what are you afraid of? you always do everything so well so what are you afraid of?’ and it was so funny i was like i didn’t know he knew me like that. also damn it’s imposter syndrome not like i can help it !!!!!

[sunflowerseraph]

This is a difficult post for me to make, but to anyone whos commissioned me and is waiting on it, it may take a little longer than I wanted. My cat, Sammy, passed away last night and its really taking a toll on me and my mental health. Its difficult to work through but I'll be doing my best. Thank you for the patience so far with it all, and I'm sorry to ask for more of that patience. Thank you for understanding. Let me know if theres any issues regarding the wait, sorry again.

[willow-lark]

"tag spoilers when the pjo show comes out!!" this story has been in the world since 2005. you want me to tag spoilers for obi-wan chopping anakin's legs off too?