#also since i don't know how to just record audio(it use to be a whole thing phones could do even simple ones) expect black screen video

[drjdorr]

I'm trying to do a bit of practice with girl voice and(probably against my better judgment) decided I'd ask you all for stuff to say.

I'll try to say, record, and reply with as many reasonable things I get for it.

[menlove]

[image id: an ask from @harbingerofskulls that reads: "im gonna b real i only knew the jerking off i would love to hear you elaborate more if you want to go on the whole situation" /end id]

answering here so i can save as a draft without risking the ask disappearing bc tumblr's been doing that lately but

oh god </3 for everyone else- it's talking about this post. sooo i'm gonna go through each one bc i've been feeling insane for several weeks. i'll do my best to cite my sources lmao

i don't know (johnny johnny)

this is referring to this unreleased VERY early beatles track from 1960. the audio quality is absolute shit & as such unfortunately people love to put words to it that don't make much sense in either direction (i.e a lot of mclennon fans want to hear "you're in love with me" and a lot of people that hate mclennon will just make up the weirdest lyrics that make 0 sense so it's Not Gay). some of the lyrics that ARE clear make it obvious this song is about the two of them running away together- at one point i'm fairly certain paul says "how am i gonna tell my father that we're leaving town?" probably referring to them leaving to hamburg. which would be fine but some of the other lyrics areeeee..... very..... Hm. like multiple times paul refers to john as "my boy" and there's bits of them talking about not knowing what to tell their friends & wanting to just run off together alone. if i were the other members of the band having to record this i would have killed them with hammers <3 also the entire end is just paul going "oh johnny" like 1 million times. okay. sure. also since the lyrics ARE so garbled i mean i guess people could be right about it saying "how am i gonna tell my father you're in love with me" but i just don't hear it. still, a very gay song about running off together and getting away from everything and everyone, complete with moaning the other's name </3

2. paris

this one is a huge part of McLennon Fandom Lore lmao but for good reason. not citing sources on all this bc it's one of those that's just Fact & can be found in like any beatles biography or thebeatlesbible.com (my savior) but. for john's 21st birthday, he got 100 pounds from a rich relative. instead of taking his girlfriend or any of his other friends, he decided to use the money to take paul to spain. but they stopped in paris on the way and just decided to stay there. which i mean like. taking your best friend over your girlfriend to the city of love is a little weird but it's not THAT weird. it's everything else that makes people want to chew glass about it. including some of the other things on this list. like this audio of john just goofing around singing about paris and paul, with such hits as "my cheri, my pau pau my pau paul." which is :| okay best friend. and paul has this picture hung up in his house that he took of john sleeping in paris. okay. sure. why not. (although ig there's some doubt about if the photo is from paris? either way it's a picture paul took and has framed in his house which is incriminating enough my man). also NOT in the original post but may pang, a woman john had a brief affair with in the 70s, wrote a book called loving john. in it, there's this quote:

After a late lunch, Linda launched into a long paean to the joys of living in England. When she was finished, she turned to John and said, “Don’t you miss England?”

“Frankly,” John replied, “I miss Paris.”

okay! also in an interview once he said:

The thing was all the kissing and the holding that was going on in Paris. And it was so romantic, just to be there and see them, even though I was twenty-one and sort of not romantic. But I really loved it, the way the people would just stand under a tree kissing; and they weren’t mauling at each other, they were just kissing.

(interview with david scheff for playboy in september 1980)

3. if i fell

this one i already made an insane post on that started my spiral into posting about the beatles publicly </3 but, essentially, the song "if i fell" by john is..... well it's most likely about paul. he said it wasn't about his wife but that it was auto-biographical and he never really had any public affairs that weren't flings, certainly not a lover. but most damning is he wrote the complete lyrics for the first time on a valentine's day card addressed "to paul with love" with some hearts and arrows pointing to where the lyrics were written. absolutely insane. made me insane.

4. oh! darling

rawest paul song of all time if i do say so myself lmao. but it's just.... Highly Suspicious, that's what it is. a Lot of beatles fans/historians will admit this song is most likely about john but they won't admit that it's fucking romantic if it is. like.

like that is so blatantly romantic idk what to say other than that. also, in the official recording on abbey road, there's Several points where paul says "darling" that sound more like he's saying "johnny" which is what he called him. people brush it off by saying it's his accent, but there's a very clear difference between when he's saying "darling" and when he's saying "johnny". i mean the Lore behind this is that it was written right when things were splitting up between them (& the rest of the band) so it makes sense and it's why most people are willing to accept it's about john. it's just insane to me that they'll accept it's about john without considering the implications of that.

5. the real life demo

this one made me want to light myself on fire i won't lie to you. but here it is! john had a song called "real love" and this is a very early demo of it. but instead of the lyrics that came to actually be in the song (which are thought to be about yoko but let's not get into the fact that it was on a tape labeled "for paul" but whatever), it includes john fucking crying as he sings saying:

"was i just dreaming or was it only yesterday? i used to hold you in my arms. and now a baby and another on the way... la la la la farm..."

which can quite literally be about no one else but paul, as this demo was recorded when he'd just had two children with his wife linda and linda was pregnant with their third child. they'd moved to a farm in scotland. hearing this audio clip did genuinely make me want to lie down in the dirt for a week. also "i used to hold you in my arms" just... yeah. god. when people think it was unrequited idk what to say, really.

6. If Paul Were A Woman-

shoving these two together but. in april of 85, paul said in an interview about john and yoko's relationship:

"I mean, I couldn’t stand in the way of someone who’d fallen in love. You can’t say, 'Who’s this?' You can’t really do that. If I was a girl, maybe I could go out and…"

okay bestie <3 and what would make your relationship different if you were a woman? interesting! and yoko had something similar to say. in this audio, she says:

"I’m sure that if he had been a woman or something, he would have been a great threat – because there’s something definitely very strong between John and Paul."

just reminds me of being a kid and telling my best friends "if i were a boy i'd date you" lol. incredible. does anyone here know about bisexuality.

7. stuart!

not much to say here except that john had a best friend, stu sutcliffe, who died young & before that had been the bassist in the band. paul fucking hated him sooo much oh he SEETHED. a lot has been written on that relationship but it was.... very interesting to say the least. it could have just been about the band, or just jealousy over john's friendship, but take that with a lot of john biographers suspecting john had feelings/even a sexual relationship with stuart and it paints a very Interesting picture to say the least

8. john's bisexuality

here's a compilation of quotes about it, but john was more than likely bisexual. which has nothing to do w paul, really, but more to do against people that like to claim they were both Heterosexual Men. although an interesting quote in this compilation is him saying he's "had paul" lmfao

9. paul's post-beatles work

there's just.... there is so so so much here i don't even know where to begin. @ringompreg has a good compilation of paul songs here. a lot of them do take a bit of Lore but like..... it comes down to the fact that both him and john have/had admitted many times to using their lyrics during The Breakup Years to talk to/reference each other and sooooo many of these lyrics are insanely blatant. the two i mentioned were tug of war and let me roll it, both of which are acknowledged to be about john by most people WITH NO ONE BOTHERING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT which..... tug of war has this:

we could stand on top of the mountain with our flag unfurled? dancing to a beat played on a different drum? this is what gaylors think gaylor conspiracy is but paul mccartney is really out here saying this shit.

and let me roll it is so fucking blatantly romantic but every reviewer is like haha! what a cool song that's "making fun" of john and clearly in his style! like are straight people stupid genuinely. anyway:

bonus to that but about JOHN'S solo work :)))))) he wrote a song called "watching the wheels" and when you consider he very much responded to MANY of paul's solo stuff it's :)

which as a response to let me roll it would just be... so devestating but it may be a stretch idk if i'm onto anything there it's just worth Mentioning

and there's a lot of others, a lot of them in that post up there. like far too many where paul mentions falling in love with a friend like Alright.

10. paul's first lsd trip with john/"i know" "i know"

this one is less blatantly romantic but it is just insane. here's an article. and a quote from george martin about it. the first time paul tripped on acid w john was bc john accidentally took some and he took him home & then took acid w him bc he didn't want john to be alone on the trip :( but, notably:

"And we looked into each other’s eyes, the eye contact thing we used to do, which is fairly mind-boggling. You dissolve into each other. But that’s what we did, round about that time, that’s what we did a lot," the singer recalled, "And it was amazing. You’re looking into each other’s eyes and you would want to look away, but you wouldn’t, and you could see yourself in the other person. It was a very freaky experience and I was totally blown away."

he also apparently saw john as the, and i quote, "emperor of eternity" during this trip??????? okay

SOMEWHERE i can't find it rn and i'm getting lazy but somewhere they (i think paul?) talk about the fact that they used to just stare into each other's eyes and then say "i know" "i know" which. considering john's song "i know (i know)" makes me crazy

11. in my life/i will

these are really just some devastating songs with lyrics that make you really raise your eyebrows. for in my life, written by john, it's just an incredibly romantic & sweet song that is again, not about his wife. given that the lennon estate is still out here posting pictures of paul to those lyrics i have to say it's a liiiiittle suspicious. and i will is...... it's one that paul insists is not about his girlfriend at the time, jane asher. and when you look at the lyrics vs how him and john met.... like. the song goes:

and the story of how they met was that paul saw john repeatedly before they ever met, when he didn't know who john was other than that he thought he looked cool & admired his sideburns (lmfao). and when they did finally meet, it was when john was singing at a garden fete (party) and paul was in the crowd just Mesmerized. so. well. you can see.... you can see how fitting that is. makes me crazy makes me want to chew glass actually

12. "we were each other's intimates" and other insane quotes

"we were each other's intimates" is a paul quote about john which is just insane but that's not even the tip of the iceberg. here's a ton of quote compilations.

13. "literally everything else"/honorable mentions

some honorable mentions go out to: john going on stage w elton john & playing i saw her standing there and introducing it as "a song by an estranged fiance of mine" okay! the "just like starting over" demos. okay! which isn't even to MENTION the fact that paul locked himself away in the studio listening to "just like starting over" on repeat for DAYS after john died like???? john saying repeatedly that he considered paul & yoko to be his two major partners in life including in an interview the literal day he died. a whole ass rpf movie where they kiss & talk like they're ex-lovers and dance in central park (two of us) made by the same dude that made the let it be movie like. he knew them personally? he worked with them closely? and the only thing paul had to say about it was just essentially that it was what he wished would've happened like???????? i can't find a super reliable source for this so take it w a grain of salt, but apparently paul referred to mclennon fanfiction as "beautiful stories" and doesn't mind them being written. paul also had a cat that had kittens & he named two of the kittens pyramus and thisbe after fictional lovers he and john played and he gave pyramus (the character paul played) to john :|

and literally so much else like all of this and it's not even all of it. it's not even close to all of it. i didn't even get to talk about the way in "get back" the documentary, paul started talking about john leaving the band for yoko and how john would choose her over them and then he got teary eyed, started choke laughing, and then started singing "build me up buttercup" before looking at the cameras and stopping. what the FUCK was that about! IT'S NOT EVEN GETTING INTO THE SONG "TWO OF US" THAT'S SO OBVIOUSLY ABOUT JOHN THAT IT HURTS. it's. it's not even scratching the surface. they were just genuinely insane about each other.

[sgiandubh]

Chère Madame Connasse/ Dear Mrs. Fuckwit

First of all, please excuse the length of this answer (you have also been blocked, incidentally speaking). This deserves its own audio. In French, since the French connection is so fucking tenuous:

Here is the English translation, since I am pretty sure Madame Connasse does not speak any French:

'Dear Mrs. Fuckwit,

Oh, well - how may I put it? I also find interesting that such an idiot would lose her time sending such enormous things to a page she hates and which, in return, cordially tells her to go fuck herself.

I usually am entitled to some pretty mighty garbage, but you do have enough vocabulary as to use words like 'hubristic' and 'vortex'. That makes you, by the way, very vulnerable and also more exposed than Uganda's current budget.

But why not you, after all, like so many others? The more, the merrier and you do write, not without some chutzpah, that my French connection is tenuous, as is my legal expertise and that I make you laugh, along with all the rest of the shipper community. Which, to be honest, is as untrue as possible. But it must be such a pain in the ass for you to see that people read me, that people like what I write and that, who knows, all those people (of which there are many), have a better day, in this bizarre environment.

I have already shown you some pictures of myself, including at official events. It was not enough.

I have already shown you my car, my office, my desk and my diplomatic passport. It was not enough.

With just one click you could have checked all the (very transparent) clues I have patiently scattered in my posts, in order for you to find me. Some did. They know perfectly well that you lie and you know it, too.

So, here's the deal, you stupid bitch: your cackle will turn sour when you'll see this very official paper:

This is just one of my law degrees - my Public Law BA at the Paris II University, in June 2001, as you can see by yourself. I have worked so hard and so passionately to get it, that I don't give a flying fuck about the fact that a nobody, and a coward to boot, doubts me. I have nothing to prove, nothing to demonstrate and I owe you nothing. However, sometimes one must set the record straight and I am a very impulsive person, after all.

I shall spare you all the rest, dear Mrs. Fuckwit. There is much more, but I am afraid your self esteem could never bear it. That being said, think twice, the next time you'd try to humiliate someone you do not know. Internet is so wonderfully sketchy that you never know (pinky promise: like never, ever know) to whom you're really talking. People lie very easily in here: I find this ridiculous and useless, in 2024, when one can find more or less everything about anyone. In no time at all, provided one knows exactly how to do it (between you and me, it's not even that complicated).

You and your posse of Pointless Underlings have insulted and intimidated dozens and dozens of people of our community, with an absolutely revolting ferocity. You have been doing it for years, with complete impunity and the strong belief that you were protected by a particularly perverted context, by some obscure agendas and by the indifference of the Two Main Characters. I am here to tell you I am not afraid and also that I couldn't care less about whatever you'd write or think. You will do it again, of course, because I think your obsessive universe is limited to the tiny window of your delusions.

But don't worry, dear Mrs. Fuckwit: until further notice, I shall make mine what a distant descendant of Irish Rebels, marshal of France Mac Mahon, said during the Crimea War - I am here and I am here to stay.

Also, you know: she who laughs last laughs the best.'

[djljpanda]

(Minor Story Mode (Ep1-8) + Major Tower of Sweet Chaos Spoilers Ahead)

Hydrogen Anon.

I've seen the people over at self aware genshin mention this idea multiple times, so I thought I would talk about it in the context of self aware crk - this has most likely been done.

Imagine if the cookies can hear what you put in the background as you play?

Listen to documentaries? They're gonna think you're some kind of archivist, especially since you seem to randomly watch them during important moments.

Music? They're gonna assume you had a hand in it.

Commentary Videos or those Reddit videos? Back to thinking you're some all knowing archivist, even if these particular events are day to day goings of average people.

Pop on a crime podcast? They're freaked it's not getting a reaction out of you if they don't realise what it is (to that in a second)- would they assume you're being briefed on some crime??

When you get to Earthbread you might not even be able to convince them for a long time that you really didn't have a hand in any of it. Depending on how much admiration they actually hold for you, they might just wave it off as you being extremely modest or even slightly self deprecating.

Now that I think about it, although mobile phones are seen in ovenbreak promo material (I think?), I don't *think* it's mentioned in crk, and considering the use of letters in story mode + envoys in the Creme Republic, they might not even know all the audio is pre-recorded. They might assume whatever you're listening to is in the room with you.

Oh god, what if you listened to audio of crk Cutscenes as you played crk. Imagine listening to Tower of Sweet Chaos and accidentally revealing that not only are White Lily and D.E are the same person, but that the witches ate cookies. Simultaneously traumatised every single cookie you've gotten so far. Also-- if they're not aware enough to realise they're fictional characters, you've basically time travelled from their perspective. Wtf???

I personally listen to a combination of commantary and folk music, so I'd imagine it'd be weird asf to hear about modern topics, then suddenly sing about mythology, and considering Earthbread has magical beings, they'll probably assume the mythology is grounded in some truth, or that you're even involved in//witnessed some of these stories.

Overall, it depends where crk is technologically. If they don't have devices with the ability to record audio, then you might have a lot of explaining to do.

The cookies are either scared or confused maybe even both.

But I can how some may call baker “The One With Many Voices”, then thinking that maybe your telling stories or events that already happened or going to happen, like a prophecy.

Oh just imagine the chaos when they hear their voice and get spoilers for future events. That’s one of the many reasons why the cookies see you as some form of god can see into the future and tell prophecy’s.

If they don’t have stuff like taboo or audio recordings then yes Mc has a lot of explaining to do, you might even make radios and audio recorders and these cookies will treat them as the greatest treasures.

If they do have that stuff some may ask what channel, station, or just where you heard them from. They want to have this thing you guys call “Reddit”.

[pineapplefulfillseveryneed]

Annette (the original Sparks pre-movie 2013 version)

I've been waiting for this to be released since my early days as a fan! I've not seen enough hype about it out there and I think that is because there's not been a lot of info about this to put things into context for newer fans. So let me remedy this!! (I know they've added some more info in the newsletter but I don't know if everyone gets that.)

At the end of the THOM era Sparks started teasing us about "the new album", which would be in a similar format to Bergman as it was also a full story in audio format. They were fully intent on touring it as a 3-people live theatrical performance with them + Rebecca Sjöwall performing the roles. (They would've liked to tour Bergman as a live performance as well, but logistically that wouldn't work so they were excited about this.) … And then we stopped hearing about it. Until the first news about the film came out!

I've seen people refer to this as a demo or even a mockup album (?), but let me set the record straight: what we have here is the FINISHED Sparks album for Annette! This is what would have been the new album in 2013, the original story for Annette, exactly how Sparks themselves created it (before the film collaboration with Leos Carax). For the film some things were changed, for example I think Carax said that a lot of the irony and humour wouldn't work in a film so that aspect of it was mostly taken out. AND NOW WE GET THE VERSION WITH THAT IN IT! I kid you not I had to be one the phone with a friend to yell about it for 2 hours straight, this is one of the most exciting things to happen!!! (Also, Annette being a literal singing pram? R&R remain the funniest guys alive - this is SO GOOD! I'm so hyped about the beautiful art by Galen Johnson, too! (Who also did the art for the THOM era, and was one of the directors for some music videos over the last few years.))

What we get with this release is Russell as Henry McHenry (and believe me, YOU WANT TO HEAR RUSSELL PERFORM AS AN EVIL GUY), Ron as the conductor as well as some other voices (RON ON VOCALS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!), and the wonderful vocal performances by Rebecca Sjöwall as Ann/Annette (she was the Hollywood starlet on Bergman and she also sang on Life With The Macbeths - a highly relevant song in reference to this release we're getting, I think, "each murder the ratings soar"). I am a huge fan of the Bergman album, but I'll be very honest and say that while I love their choice of accurate voices to tell the story - the most beautiful voices out there are Ron & Russell's and that's the only thing that might have made me love the sound of The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman more. And now we're getting that! This is them taking on the roles of the characters they wrote! I love it when they're acting, because honestly they are really really great at it!

[SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH] Russell Mael - looks like a cinnamon, can actually kill you - will be committing murders, Ron - looks like he could kill you, actual cinnamon roll - will once again not get the girl as the guy portrayed by his brother takes her away from him in more ways than one. (Fuck I still so wish I could've seen this on a stage.)

Also there will be songs we've not heard at all, there will be songs that might sound very different than what we've heard in the film, the story ends differently (and I personally really like that). …I don't know what I'm most excited about, I JUST CAN NOT WAIT. While I'll forever be curious what their stage performances would have looked like, I'll not have to remain curious about what the album and their original version of Annette would have been like. Because here it is!!! :)

I say this without slandering the film, but this version of Annette is the one that's going to hit me hardest. (I am calling my 2013 self to tell them the good news, holy hell!)

As a final note, here's something they've shared in the newsletter:

"Writing in the sleevenotes of this boxset release Ron and Russell Mael have said "...we feel that this earlier version of Annette should be listened to not as the preparatory or demo step toward a filmed version, but rather as a complete and alternative version in itself. We are very proud of it.”

[the---hermit]

19|09|2023

I am fully back into my studying routine, and it's going smoothly so far. I was a bit intimidated at first because I was afraid I would stuggle after these months of rest, but honestly everything is coming very naturally. I am still paying very close attention to give myself time to get used to it again, so I take all the breaks I need even if I just need to get up and walk around the room for a couple of minutes, but I feel good about being back into the routine. It doesn't feel like a trap, it's just my comfortable productive habits. Today I continued working on the recorded lectures of last semester, I check the exam dates and for some reason the exam for this class will be later than expected. It will be in January, but honestly it's fine so I'll have time to do everything and study for a couple other classes in the meantime. I never realized how much I took for granted ppt presentations during lectures, because this class has only audio recordings and I am wasting so much time stopping and replaying things because I am not sure about dates or names. Despite this, which will surely make my progress a bit slower, I am liking the class. It's definitely more challenging than I was expecting but it's very interesting. Also an highlight of the day was my dad bringing me a cup of tea because he didn't see me in the kitchen at the usual time since I was working. I am a creature of habit and my day is indeed divided by my tea times.

cozy hobbit autumn activities and productivity:

6 am morning routine my beloved (I love I went back to this as days are getting shorter because waking up while the sun isn't up yet is one of my favourite things in the world. I don't know why it gives me internal peace)

read first thing in the morning while sipping my waking up tea (aka a blend of green tea and mint)

checked infos I needed on some classes

read and answered emails

worked on two lectures of my theories of men and power practices in the modern era class

polished my notes adding highlights and key words

had an amazing second breakfast (it's a hobbit list of course I am including this)

wrote a couple of book reviews I will post soon

really got to relax my brain during my lunch break so when I got back to work in the afternoon I was super energized

daily Irish review on duolingo

wrote my to do list for tomorrow

continued working on my crochet mushroom cardigan while catching up with podcasts (this time it was book unbound and re:dracula)

📖: Of Ghosts And Goblins by Lafcadio Hearn

[peachm1lkk]

『 A Special Donation 』

Synopsis — Marcus gets a unique requests regarding his favorite-least-favorite pain pig

Warnings — NONCON, Size Difference, Belly Bulge, you wear a Collar, Degradation, reference to past Torture, choking, Abusive Relationships, past Stalking mentioned, Mild Painplay, Face Slapping, Canon-Typical Behavior, Porn Without Plot, Facials, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, He cums in your hair, Verbal Humiliation, You're not a good person lol

Pairing — Marcus x Reader

A/N — Cross posted this on AO3, I love Marcus so much... My second favorite ball of hatred who'd I'd let break all my bones.. Can you tell this is loosely based off his Patreon Audio?? Maybe

It's uncomfortable, you note— The collar snugly tied around your neck. Another thing you note, other than the fact that you probably missed a ton of work in your classes, was that he hasn't been back in a while. You weren't really used to this… silence, that overcame the apartment when you weren't sobbing or pleading with him not to hurt you.

You glances down at the amateur attempt to wrap broken fingers, your begging never really worked. A soft sigh escapes your lips as you stand up, wobbling slightly from the bit of malnutrition you've been experiencing from eating only microwave meals and cup noodles— the brief dizziness isn't helped by the fact that you usually don't eat much anyway.

On the bright side, if you can even call it that, you've been picking up baking! Making a variety of sweets whenever he wasn't paying attention to you, those days tended to be the best because other than a few random photos he left you to your own devices.

Just as you were about to walk to the living room, the door to their shared dorm rattled, a few frustrated attempts being made before Marcus finally opened it. He was probably fumbling with the keys.

“U-uh… welcome home,” you softly said, keeping your eyes on the floor.

Marcus grunted in response, tossing his backpack onto the couch. “Your friend asked where you were today.” He informed, walking up to what used to be your camera to examine how long its been recording. A hint of a smile on his face as he hit the mute button, “It's actually kinda funny how worried she seemed… Do you think she knows that she used to be featured on your blog?”

Oh he’s in that mood it seems like, you don't even know what to say. What could you say? Usually any time you spoke— whether it be to apologize or say some shitty excuse it ended with you on the floor crying.

Thankfully, he seemed content with your silence, “You can speak y’know, they can't hear us speak right now… you're little white knight saviors I mean.”

You swallowed hard, your throat dry and constricted by the collar. you kept your gaze fixed on the floor, afraid to meet Marcus's eyes.

"I... I don't know," you whispered, your voice hoarse from disuse. "I never told anyone about it."

Marcus chuckled darkly, stepping closer. You instinctively flinched away, but the wall behind you left nowhere for you to retreat.

"Oh, I'm sure you didn't," he said, reaching out to run a finger along your collar. "Our little secret, right?" His touch made your skin crawl, but you forced yourself to remain still. Any reaction could set him off.

"You know," Marcus continued conversationally, "Someone made a donation today— A uh, what do you call it again? A commission, right.” you eyed him nervously as he walked over to the computer reading over past comments and forums regarding the live stream.

“Hey Piggy, you ever had sex before?” The question was as sudden as it was startling, “Pardon..?”

“I'm assuming you've had sex at least once since you have an ex and all that, but y'know… you're also you so I wouldn't be surprised if you've only seen two dicks in your life.” He goes on, much too casually for how personal the subject was— But maybe you didn't have a right to complain about privacy, god knows how many other people's privacy you've violated on those now privated posts.

“Hey pig, answer me.” The irritation in his voice has you tripping over your own words to get an answer out "You're right u-uhm… only done it with my ex.” you stammered, messing with the hem of your shirt with your good hand. “ No one else after that…”

Marcus's eyes gleamed with a mix of cruelty and excitement that made You's stomach churn. You could sense something terrible was coming. "You know how many times I thought about killing you when I found your little stalker forum?” He said changing subjects, grabbing the camera perched upon its stand. “I mean— It's disgusting, even now I still think about strangling you to death… Just the thought that you probably touched yourself to my photos makes me sick.” He takes a deep breath, his finger hitting a button on the camera that you couldn't remember the function for.

“How many times have you cum at the thought of my dick inside you?”

You felt sick, knowing that he wasn't entirely wrong “M-Marcus I'm sorry,” you whispered, even knowing it was futile you can never get rid of the instinct.

"Well, looks like today's your lucky day," he said with a smirk. "Our generous donor wants to see you fucked." Your eyes widened in horror. "What," you whispered, your voice trembling. "I-I can't...”

Marcus ignored your plea, grabbing your arm roughly. “And even if I can't kill you— I might as well fuck you like I'm gonna, right?”

He dragged you towards the bedroom, You stumbling behind him as you tried to resist. But months of captivity and malnourishment had left your weak and unsteady.

"Please, Marcus," you begged as he shoved you onto the bed. “I’m sorry I'm so sorry— please don't do this."Marcus laughed coldly as he loomed over your trembling form on the bed. "Sorry? You're sorry?” He mocked, “Sorry doesn't fucking pay for all the gross ass photos you’ve taken of me does it, pig?"

He set up the camera on the nightstand, angling it to capture the entire bed. Your heart raced as you heard the telltale beep of it starting to record.

“C'mon, Let's give our viewers a good show, I know how much you love their attention after all." Marcus whispered against the shell of your ear, You shuddered as Marcus's breath ghosted across your skin. Your mind raced, desperately searching for a way out of this nightmare, but you were trapped - physically and psychologically. Months of captivity and abuse had worn away your defenses.

"Please," you whimpered one last time, even as Marcus began pulling at your clothes.

He ignored your feeble protests, methodically stripping your bare. The camera's unblinking eye recorded every moment of your humiliation. You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to retreat into yourself, to find some quiet corner of your mind that this wasn't happening. But Marcus wouldn't allow you that small mercy. He grabbed your face, forcing you to look at him. "Eyes open," he growled. "I want you to see exactly who's doing this to you."

Tears streamed down You's cheeks as Marcus positioned himself over your. Tugging his own pants down to let his thickness free, “Ha… ha— You're just meat…” He mumbles slowly stroking himself to full hardness, “Meat that was born to be taken advantage of, it was only a matter of time before someone found out… I was just the less cruel option.”

You choked back a sob as Marcus's words cut through your like knives. you wanted to argue, to insist that you weren't just "meat," that you were a person with hopes and dreams and dignity. But Maybe he was right. Maybe this was all you deserved. Marcus lined himself up, his eyes locked on You's tear-streaked face. "Remember," he whispered, "you brought this on yourself."

With that, he thrust forward brutally, burying himself inside your unprepared body. You cried out in pain, your back arching off the bed. It hurt - oh god, it hurt so much. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the crushing weight of shame and despair.

"That's it," Marcus grunted, placing a hand on your lower stomach "Cry for the camera. Show everyone what good rape bait you are.” He cooed, setting a brutal pace forcing his cock as far as your gummy walls allowed it — “ For once you being small is actually a plus,” he panted in between thrusts, watching the small bump in your stomach appear and disappear in time with each thrust.

His eyes glanced over at the camera, a part of him feeling truly disgusted at the type of people watching— But at the same time it made his dick throb so much harder, “You like that? Showing everyone that you're just a flesh light, hm?”

Your body shook with each brutal thrust, pain radiating through your core. Despising how despite the pain his deep fucking was enough to tickle the instinct out, to pull wetness that with each slap of his pelvis pressing against your ass a damned embarrassing wet squelch was made.

"Answer me," he snarled, grabbing your hair and yanking your head back. "Tell the camera how much you love being used like the worthless cum dump you are."

A strangled whimper escaped You's lips. "I-I..." you gasped, barely able to form words through the pain and humiliation. "I luh—love being- being u-used."

Marcus's pace grew even more frantic, his grip on your hips bruising. "That's right," he panted. "This is all you're good for. Just meat to stick my dick in…” Holding your hips up with one hand his free hand snakes down to your throat- applying pressure slowly

“Meat that doesn't need to—shit—breathe.” He mumbles, You's vision begins to blur as Marcus's hand tightens around your throat. Her lungs burned, desperately craving oxygen. Panic overwhelmed you as darkness crept in at the edges of your sight. Just as you thought you might lose consciousness, Marcus released his grip. You gasped and coughed, gulping in air. The brief respite was short-lived as Marcus resumed his relentless assault on your body.

"Fuck," he grunted, his thrusts loosing pace and becoming erratic. “You felt so tight just then, do you really get off to me raping you? Are you that cock hungry?” He teased, letting his hand fall to your puffy clit- rubbing cruel circles all over the ball of nerves “Fuck… I'm close. Where do you want it, pig? Where should I mark you as mine?"

You couldn't answer, still struggling to catch your breath. Her silence seemed to anger Marcus further. The burning sensation of his hand registering first before you realized he'd slap you, cruel fingers digging into your cheek, forcing you to look at him. "I asked you a question," he snarled. "Where. Do. You. Want. It?"

With pained moans you refused to believe came from genuine pleasure you stammered out a shaky response, “O-out— puh-please, not in- in me.” you sobbed,

Marcus's eyes glinted with cruel amusement. "Not inside, huh? Well, since you asked so nicely..." With a final brutal thrust, he pulled out of your abused body. You barely had time to feel relief before he was straddling your chest, his hand gripping your jaw tightly.

"Open wide," he commanded, stroking himself furiously. Too broken to resist, You parted your lips. Marcus groaned as he reached his climax, his release splattering across your face and into your open mouth. You gagged at the thickness and slimy texture, but Marcus held your still until he was finished.

"There," he panted, wiping himself clean on your hair. "Now everyone can see what a filthy little whore you really are."

He climbed off your, tucking himself into his pants. And walking over to the camera to stop the recording, leaving You trembling and soiled on the bed. you curled into yourself, trying your best to tune it all out and just go to bed.

“Oh, piggy—” He started grabbing your attention, “You have an essay due or something, your professor stopped me earlier today to tell you that.” He casually explained, as if he didn't just rape you.

“I should probably go work on that project... Pretty sure it's due soon,” He said to himself, lifting the camera up to eye level. You flinched at the familiar clicking sound of the camera, trying to keep your soft crying to a minimum even after hearing him mumble something about the picture probably not printing well. You lay motionless on the bed, your mind struggling to process the trauma you had just endured. Every part of you ached - your body from the brutal assault, your throat from Marcus's choking, your very soul from the depths of degradation you had been forced to.

you could hear Marcus moving around the apartment, the casual sounds of everyday life a stark contrast to the horror of what had just transpired. The urge to scrub yourself clean was overwhelming, but You couldn't bring yourself to move. you feared any motion might shatter what was left of your fragile psyche.

Time passed in a haze. You drifted in and out of consciousness, your exhausted mind seeking escape in fitful snatches of sleep. You were vaguely aware of Marcus returning to the bedroom at some point, muttering about needing his textbook.

"You should really get started on that essay," he remarked “It's due in a few days.”

[kaiowut99]

Duel Links Re-Translation Mod Project (Announcement post I guess?) - Dark Yugi In-Duel Line Re-Translation Test (WIP)

(Alternate project tagline: #LetYubelSayLove)

(Forgive some video stuttering, my Nvidia game recording thing was a bit buggy 😩)

~~~~~~~~

So. For the longest, I've been hella curious to figure out where the text for Duel Links is in the file assets, the in-duel lines in particular--as I'm sure most folks know, the English dubtitle text applied for the English dialogue is, nine times out of ten, inaccurate or decently simplified vs the Japanese audio played on the same line, and it's a bit wild that we still don't have a second English option for a more faithful take this long after Konami gave us the Japanese voices natively on Steam and made modding the game to get them a thing of the past. But for all my occasional searching through the files, I had little luck due to encryption and junk; at some point in September, I got curious and did more digging and was able to find some card text, at least, but nowhere near as much as is in the game now, and still no dialogue lines.

And then, 2-3 weeks ago, I saw that Aura (Octomaidly over on Twitter, part of @entamesubs handling Studio Bridge-era YGO fansubs for SEVENS+) had been working with a couple of folks to decrypt and re-translate the in-duel lines for SEVENS characters and came across her video on Twitter sharing her progress; I immediately reached out to find out how they're doing it and mentioned how I'd like to try and re-translate pre-SEVENS stuff, lol. (You can watch her latest video demoing her re-translation for GO RUSH world here; find her work as it develops on the NexusMods page for it.)

After connecting with Aura and the folks helping her and getting set up to work on things, I set up a quick re-translation for Dark Yugi's lines, had it all imported for a test-run, and recorded this demo test vs Kaiba to see 'em in action; I did fix a few things since recording this, like some line breaks here/there, but also fixed the one mention of "Dark Magician" in the cut-in shot since this was a test of my OCG-name translation (more on that below) and thus "Black Magician" should've been there--but all told, it looks pretty good overall!

All that to say that this is now another lil' project on my list 😅 It's very cool that this is finally doable and I'm looking forward to working with Aura and co to make it happen--though do note that it'll be at a bit of a slower pace since work on my finalized GX subs (currently revision work on 117-119 is underway) and Tag Force Special is a bit higher priority. That said, the nice thing is that working on in-duel lines in TFSP kinda does half my work for me here, lol; maybe half of Dark Yugi's lines, for example, are recycled verbatim from TFSP--the only difference being that Shunsuke Kazama is actually voicing him--with the rest being lines newly added for him in DL, from lines for dueling other characters to cards he didn't have lines for in TFSP, and this should be the case across the board for anyone who showed up in TF[SP].

My intention is also to work on two translations: one with OCG card names and one with the TCG names, as we're doing with TFSP, and I'll be starting this off by working on the first five characters from each series that appeared in TFSP, since that's how I'm working on the story events there (so for DM, working on Dark Yugi, Kaiba, Jounouchi, Ishizu, and Mai first), and then once done through VRAINS, that might probably be the first version of the mod I'd release. Or maybe I'll release a version as I get each set of five done; we'll see lol. I do plan to contribute my translations to Aura's project, as well. (Also we just recently dug up event dialogue text so those will be re-translatable, too; doing this for the older series' events that likely won't get reruns will at least be worth it since you can spend Gems to get those event scenes)

But overall, it's pretty encouraging--stay tuned!

[yuurivoice]

I've always felt like a spanking centered audio could be good for Alphonse, with listener either giving or receiving said spankings. Since you mentioned a Bully Alphonse though...

Depending on how much/what type of a bully you're thinking of, him bullying listener for getting off on getting spanked could fit nicely.

You're cooking here Anon......

Unrelated but also, super related, I'm looking into licensing a pretty comprehensive collection of NSFW SFX, which actually includes a whole folder for spanks.

The sad truth is, the reason there has been minimal SFX in the spicy stuff is because it's such a hassle to get to sound good if you're recording fresh stuff every time around. It recently occurred to me that I could simply.........stop struggling.

Spanking would probably be a top 3 occurrence in my content if I didn't have to worry about the sounds. So, needless to say, that might be a thing!

As for what kind of bully Alphonse might be, I think the best way for me to wrap my head around it is perhaps using one of my least favorite tropes ever......miscommunication! I like the idea that Alphonse is a real prick because of something the listener did, but they don't know wtf he's talking about and assume he's just an asshole. So it never comes up. Turns out, some OTHER kind of asshole bully is responsible for making it seem like listener did whatever they supposedly did to Alphonse. We resolve the arc with Alphonse being protective and friendly...but along the way he discovers that the listener has a crush, and lowkey......likes the bullying.

Voila. Simple. Clean. Doesn't involve actually abusing anyone in the most toxic ways imaginable and has a resolution that makes me not feel gross!

In the same way I work with Yandere stuff, I don't ever feel quite right just leaving it at "they're really fucked up and it's fucked up and that's all folks!" even though I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's a comfort thing for me, and also just understanding how people conflate oneshots/au stuff with canon, it doesn't hurt to use some additional restraint in case someone gets emotional whiplash.

We didn't get a lot of time with Alphonse in his abrasive prick era, so writing him in that way would be a lot of fun for me.

[an-spideog]

haigh a chara tá siúl agam go bhfuil tú ceart go leor! i was wondering do you know any resources for learning Gaelainn? despite being from munster, in school we just learnt standard irish, but id really love to learn more munster irish. is breá liom do bhlag btw tá sé an-cabhrach <3

Míle baochas :) I do indeed know several resources, I made use of a lot of them lol, there's kind of two categories - Stuff about the dialect and stuff in the dialect. I'll start with 'about'.

Info about West Munster Irish

There's only 1 modern textbook I know of which teaches munster Irish, and it's kind of a rough read lol. This is Teach Yourself Irish (1961) (audio). The book is really really dense, one paragraph will contain a lot of information, and that can make it pretty easy to miss things, but it's still a very useful book - and much easier to use if you already have some Irish. It teaches Cork Irish but Cork and Kerry are quite similar (Kerry has a stronger Gaeltacht though so you're more likely to hear Kerry Irish). This book also has a weird transcription system for how to pronounce words, ignore it, learn the sounds of the language separately, and listen to the recordings that come with the book. Their system is buckwild and nobody else uses it.

You should also skip the sections labeled "rules for aspiration" and "rules for eclipsis", rather than reading them right at the start and use them as a reference if you ever need to.

An Teanga Bheo - Corca Dhuibhne is a great book to get some knowledge on Kerry Irish as long as you can read Irish pretty well, since it describes lots of the important features. But it's a reference text and an overview, not a textbook. If you don't feel that comfortable reading in Irish or want to be able to search, you can use this online translation

Shameless plug, I talk about Munster Irish on my youtube channel, and I try and share info which people wouldn't find easily otherwise, new video maybe out this weekend maybe. An Loingseach on youtube - He sometimes gets bogged down in the linguistic weeds and doesn't edit his videos at all lol, but he knows his stuff.

There's a blog called corkirish.com and it has some useful info on it but the guy who used to run it is an awful shitter, I'm hoping that with more other people sharing resources we can make that blog irrelevant.

If you're at all interested in linguistics, there's more technical books describing the dialect which can be useful as references.

The Irish of West Muskerry - This is a book talking about the pronunciation of Cork Irish, in English, but using a lot of phonetic terms and symbols. Quite useful if you know how to read them.

Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne - This is a book talking about the pronunciation and structure of Kerry Irish, in Irish, again using a lot of linguistic terminology. This one will be getting an updated English version at some point soon, hopefully.

The Linguistic Atlas and Survey of Irish Dialects (LASID) is a series of books showing the results of surveys where they went around to different Irish speaking regions and asked them what words they'd use for specific things, it gives you really cool maps like this: (Showing you how "Gaeilic" is used in donegal, "Gaeilge" is used in Galway, and "Gaelainn" is used in Kerry)

This map is actually from a web version of the first book which is quite handy. The second book isn't available as a site but there are pdfs and it only focuses on munster so you can see some differences with in munster.

Stuff in the Dialect

Things to Read

We're probably the luckiest in terms of things to read when studying the Munster Dialect because there have been so many authors, and so many authors who write very dialectally. So a lot of munster features you see very prominently in writing.

Books by Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé (a lot of fiction as well as one autobiography)

Books by Peig Sayers (There's school editions of at least her main book (Peig), try to avoid those and find the dialectal version in a library (Peig - a scéal féin), and she has written other books)

Books by Pádraig Ó Cíobháin (I haven't read any of these yet personally and I've heard they can be quite hard by nature of being very poetic and sometimes abstract)

Fiche Blian ag Fás by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (similar to Peig, this is autobiographical)

Books by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (similar to Peig and MÓS these are autobiographical)

Books by Peadar Ua Laoghaire (Fiction, these are quite old - 100 years - and that can make them more difficult, but they can be pretty good)

Béaloideas and Dúchas.ie - these ones are harder to read than the others for various reasons but can often be a lot more interesting. Béaloideas is a journal of Irish folklore which you can find on JSTOR for free, and dúchas.ie has typed and handwritten stories collected in ireland, overlapping with Béaloideas to some extent. They can be harder to understand since sometimes the writing is intentionally over-dialectal to preserve the traits, but it's often more interesting since you can find fun little stories about different things. Stories from these collections are also sometimes put into smaller books or collections. (Béaloideas ó Chléire, an Seanchaidhe Muimhneach) you can usually find those books on Archive.org

Things to Listen To

Beo ar Éigean - Chatty podcast, one of the hosts has kerry Irish

Saol Ó Dheas - Munster Gaeltacht news show, not the most interesting if you don't live in the munster gaeltacht but there's a lot of it and the host has really good Irish, so you can focus on that even if the stories aren't gripping lol

Cartlann Bhóthar na Léinsí - Munster Archive show, they pull out older recordings of even more traditional speakers, and the host has very good Irish too, the older recordings are quite challenging to understand, but can be good.

Things to Watch

Seal le Dáithí - Talk show on TG4, host has Kerry Irish

Ros na Rún - Some of the characters have Munster Irish, it's a minority though

What did I do?

This isn't necessarily a guide, it's just what I did specifically.

After learning standardy Irish at school, I started talking to people on discord (Craic le Gaeilge and Celtic Languages), this was really helpful because I got to talk to a lot of knowledgeable people and get conversation practice even without being near to Irish speaking areas or events.

I also started listening to Beo Ar Éigean to practice my listening. I stuck to standard for a little while here and got to grips with basic grammar stuff because I was focusing on exams and stuff, but eventually I was taken with Munster Irish because some of the people I talked to a lot used it and because I liked synthetic forms. So I started working through Teach Yourself Irish with the help of people on discord, and that gave me a good basis in munster specific grammar and forms. From there I asked lots of questions (v important) and read the Irish of West Muskerry because I'm a nerd, wouldn't really recommend this if you're not that interested but it is kind of fun if you are. That helped me get a better understanding of Irish pronunciation (and spelling as a result of that). (I also read Peig at some point here) After that I started listening to a lot of Irish, trying to do at least 2 hours a day over one summer. An Saol Ó Dheas every day on my commute to work, and other stuff too, just trying to get as much exposure as I could. I use the host, Helen Ní Shé as my "language parent" - that is, I try to model my speech after hers. And currently I'm still focusing on just getting more and more exposure, and I've been reading more books in Irish.

[ahamkara-apologist]

Oh thank god now that Echoes is finally out I can talk about the Faith-Keeper loretab

First off: I'm not really sure who it is exactly, but we've got a Hidden agent listening in on a discussion between Eido and the Spider about Eramis. If I had to guess, this agent is likely Ikora, since Misraaks asked her to look after Eido at the end of the Lost in the Light quest post-FS campaign, but we don't really get any clarification here. In my heart its Ikora, though.

First off: I LOVE the callback to Eido's shitty datapad security from Season of Plunder. Remember when she was recording her audio logs and Eramis just dropped in unexpectedly to talk to her behind Misraaks's back? Looks like she hasn't fixed her security breach well enough to prevent others from doing the same. Which is deeply funny to me- babygirl, your father is a Splicer. His whole entire job is being a top tier hacker!! You need better security than that!!!

Eido babyyyy, I'm not sure why you think you can blackmail a crime lord, but I admire your efforts! I'm not really sure what Spider is doing here, maybe moving closer to her? Either way I love how his whole 'fake caring' shtick got immediately dropped to the side as soon as Eido laughed at him. You're not winning any uncle points here, Spider. The note about Eramis having been given up by everyone around her, however? This is both a good and a bad sign. Good because it means that the forces of Darkness that got her into this whole mess no longer give a fuck about her and aren't there to push her into poor decisions again, bad because Eramis is historically notorious for making terrible decisions when there's nobody around to influence her anyways. Given the fact that she was outright suicidal the last time we checked in on her and that means that we have a limited time frame to get Eido to soften her up before she starts putting her neck on the line again (which has me very nervously side-eyeing Revenant; I don't believe that she would want to join with Fikrul given her prior experiences with the Scorn, but it can also go either way if she's pushed. Eido could convince her to give her assistance to prevent him from spreading Dark Ether...or Fikrul could sway her to look away from what he's doing by promising to bring back Riis with the power of the Echo)

Not gonna lie, my first reaction when I read the 'staccato clicking' noises coming from Eido was 'DID SHE JUST PULL A FUCKING GUN ON HIM??', followed by wondering if she was threatening him in some way- then a friend pointed out she was likely crying, which made me go back to reread and realize that the wheezing noises were coming from her, not Spider (in my defense, he's a wheezy boi). So, yeah, she's crying. Poor sweet girl, I've been there before. I know that Misraaks set Spider on her to try to set her straight (which is deeply funny to me- he must be desperately worried for him to have Spider handle her, of all people), but, well...it's the Spider. He's a crime boss. 'Gentle' isn't in his nature

This does give me great hope for an Eramis redemption arc in the future, though. Compared to everyone else we've faced recently, Eramis hasn't even come close to the level of awful that the Witness has done, and she's outright helped us in several instances. There's no reason why we can't try to form an alliance with her- the main thing stopping us is because Eramis herself doesn't think that she's worthy of redemption. If we can barter with Savathun- whose desires are ultimately selfish even if they were momentarily aligned with our own- then we can certainly assist Eramis, especially if it means getting the remaining Houseless Eliksni off our back and in a safe, guardian-free refuge of their own (WITHOUT being tricked into being pawns of the Witness)

Also- absolutely love Eido's little speech here. Her insistence on clinging to optimism is probably what made Eramis see Eido as the guiding light for the future of the Eliksni people, and in a way, it's perfect to fit the Traveler's motif of forgiveness in the Light. Makes me wonder if the theory that Eido is the Kell of Kells may be hinted at here, since it's Eido alone of all other Eliksni who refuses to give up on a person's ability to change for the better. Even Misraaks can't do that, despite creating House Light and its open-door forgiveness policy.

I TOO WOULD LIKE GREATER CULTURAL CONTEXT ON ELIKSNI NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION. I wonder who EKS-443 is- I would love to harass them for more information on what certain Eliksni vocalizations mean. I'm so starved for more worldbuilding on their biology and cultures, I'm hoping this is a sneak peak into what we might be getting in Revenant.

But also. Uh-oh bestie. The Vanguard should probably keep their claws out of this if they want diplomacy to succeed, because Eramis is not going to be happy if we stick our soft little monkey paws into Eliksni business again. We're going to have to back Eido up but let her do most of the talking/persuading, or shit can go south really fucking quickly- just like trying to pspsps a wary old ally cat into the safety of a home after years of extensive abuse. Waiting with bated breath to see how this turns out!

[everythingiloveblog]

Is Only Friends Slut-Shaming Boston?

"Sometimes bad people don't need a back story, they're just born sluts" Jojo Tichakorn

"I can’t (have sex with someone without knowing them), I’m not like Boston" Mew to Top in episode 1

"Whoever has you as their boyfriend is so unlucky. You’re slutty" Cheum to Boston in episode 4

"Serves you right for being slutty" Nick to Boston after learning about Gap’s revenge porn in episode 5

"Even a heartless slut like Boston has a lover" Cheum in episode 6

"Your slutty ass just sleeps with anyone" Ray to Boston in episode 6

"This asshole sleeps with everything that breathes" Mew about Boston in episode 10

"You sleep around too much and things get messy. Don’t you learn" Nick to Boston in episode 11

The whole Atom plot in detail with @chaos0pikachu

This post from @spicyvampire and this answer from @lurkingshan

And this is just what I remember from the show so I would answer...yes? I don't know how much of it is intentional, but it definitely feels like it, yeah.

...I actually have so many things to say I don’t even know where to start. Is anyone gonna read all that? I doubt it, but I still need to let it out.

Warnings: english is not my native language so have mercy & I’m writing this mostly by memory so I will definitely forget things or get things wrong

I really logged back into an old tumblr account just for this because I still can’t believe how people can’t see it. I know people are allowed to have their own opinions and see things differently but...really?

Many people have already written about this on Tumblr & Twitter so I will also add links and quotes from people smarter and more eloquant than me (I hope I’m allowed to do this. If not I will delete it)

First of all, this is not only about the last episode, it’s about what happened in OF since episode 1 + some interviews of Jojo and Ninew. So rewatching the finale only will not give you the full picture.

"Is the narrative is punishing Boston? Is the narrative punishing Boston because he is a slut? And not because he slept with his friend's boyfriend.

First of all, what is a slut? Sorry for the Wikipedia definition but :

‘Slut (archaic: slattern) is an English-language term for a person, usually a woman or girl, who is sexually promiscuous or considered to have loose sexual morals.’

Who is said to have a lot of different sexual partners or sexual relationships? Boston, Top & Sand (kinda).

Who is shown having a lot of different sexual partners or sexual relationships? Only Boston. We see him with Gap, Nick, Top, Atom & Boeing. And you know what? Let’s add all the pictures of the guys we see in his dark room while knowing that they were taken after sexual intercourse. That’s a lot!

Also big difference, Top and Sand are actively shown to want a committed, monogamous relationship. Sand just sleep with different people to avoid getting attached and getting hurt. Top is a newly reformed slut who "exists only to be Mew's True Love" (see chaos0pikachu’s take on Top, very interesting and sad tbh, he could have been so much more).

However, Boston is currently enjoying the slut life, he enjoys the freedom of being promiscuous. I just think this is interesting to note.

Boston may deserve to be 'punished' for sleeping with Top. Yeah, sure. But don’t you think it’s weird that he is the only one getting punished by the narative like this? And does he deserve this amount of punishment ?

Yes, the difference between Top & Boston is that Top feels remorse right away and Boston doesn’t. So while Top spends the 2nd half of the show pathetically trying to get Mew back (coughboringcough, sorry), Boston gets (and I hope I don’t forget anything):

- his car wiretapped by his jealous friend with benefits, which leads to an audio recording of Top and Boston having sex (also, Nick used the information to blackmail Top into staying away from Boston...weirdo)

- that same recording getting shared by Sand (after he stole the recording by lying and manipulating Nick). So now, 4 people (Nick, Sand, Ray, Mew) have been in contact and passing around an illegal, unconsented recording of ‘the sluts’, with little repercussion tbh

- punched by Ray in episode 6

- punched, almost drowned and told he should have never been born by Mew in episode 7

- Boston is also out of the friend group, but is still ‘allowed’ to be involved in the group project (fair enough)

- Nick telling a revenge thirsty Mew that Gap has illegal, unconsented video recordings of Boston having sex to blackmail him for money, aka Revenge Porn material (for what reasons??? Nick just cried to Boston that he would never hurt him on purpose...I’m still lost)

- Mew doing all that seducing Gap thing to get the revenge porn and threaten to show it to Boston’s weirdass, probably homophobic dad

- Nick trying to talk to Boston during the Halloween party in episode 8, without any apology for what he did, and still defending himself with "yeah but you slept with your friend’s boyfriend" deserves a mention imo (just in case we forgot i guess...)

- The whole Atom plot (really vile, I have no words). From Atom being the one insisting on having sex with Boston and Boston reluctantly agreeing, to the accusations, to Mew & Ray’s gross smiles during Cheum & Boston’s confrontation (sirs, Atom has been allegedly assaulted, what is so funny? Unless you don’t actually care about the truth, you just love to see Boston in that situation, actual monsters.) to Nick and Cheum empathy & compassion going towards Atom rather than Boston. Just, gross.

And it also leads him to be 100% out of the group and jeopardizes his graduation

- Not sure if I should add Nick basically saying "deserved" to Boston after he tells him that his friends left him for good, because I have no idea if Nick is saying because of the Atom thing or not

- And finally, the last episode (especially all the groveling, very uncomfortable)

Overkill much?

Especially compared to the other characters and their ‘punishments’ for their actions, we can clearly see a difference, no?

Here is a good post from @thewayuarent comparing Boston’s offenses to the other characters.

Boston (the only active slut) is the only character who ends up with a bad/sad ending

And what makes it a bad ending? It's not BostonNick not being endgame. It's not Boston ending single. It's the framing. The way the information is being presented.

Boston's last appearance in the show is him being rejected, alone, teary eyed on the floor on the side of the road while the other 4 monogamous couples end up with their unrealistic happy ending. It is super weird. It just feels mean, out of place, moralistic (and kinda boring). As if Boston was what was keeping them from being happilly coupled. And after an uncomfortable round of one-sided apologies to his ‘friends’ on top of that. Just, ew.

I recommand reading these posts :

- Look at this happy ending gifset of Boston by @technicallyverycowboy. He’s thriving, no?

- This post from @neuroticbookworm

- This post from @hellolimitless

- This post from @nozunhinged

- This post from @chalkrevelations

- This answer from @lurkingshan

- This good point from @odd-one-advocate and that good point from @no1petesimp (read the tags)

- This interesting point from @porschesbabydaddy, completed by this alternate universe where Boston’s spirit isn’t broken by @keepthetension, 10/10

This is Boston's bad ending, because it's not what he wanted

The ending Boston wanted was to be Nick’s boyfriend (romantic and sexual) for the 3-4 months he had left in Thailand, while being able to also get intimate (only sexual) with other guys. That is what he wants, and definitely not what he gets.

At least, Nick gets to have the last word, because ending the relationship is his decision, backed by Sand.

Non-monogamy could have been considered

It wouldn’t have hurt to see the characters involved have a conversation about non-monogamy, before the whole Boeing thing. Without framing it negatively, of course. But we didn’t get it.

About Nick and what he wants from Boston

He might have wanted a monogamous relationship from Boston from the start. Even though to me, it seemed more like, while jealous, he especially wanted to be loved by Boston and not only being seen as a sex doll.

Something I don’t really like about Nick’s characterization. He’s so wishy-washy.

"I love him, I don’t care about not being his favorite/number 1, I just don’t want him to hate me" to "the word boyfriend should only apply to me"

"I know what I’m dealing with, Boston is nasty but I’m nasty too" to "why are we (Nick and Sand) attracted to bad people" to "you’re not a bad person Boston" and then back to "I’m nasty too, so we suit each other"

"I love you for who you are, you don’t need to change" to basically "actually yeah be who you are, but without me, let’s go our separate ways" like????

I mean yeah, people are allowed to change their mind, but damn.

About Sand having Nick's back (and Cheum having Top's back)

I don’t know if we can count this as slut-shaming as I’m not sure he’s shaming Boston for being a slut. But Sand is definitely shaming Boston (the only slut).

Sand always has a negative things to say about Boston when he talks to Nick. But especially him saying ‘compared to Boston, you’re a saint’ to Ray (I have to laugh), and the ‘don’t lower the bar’ to Nick? Very icky to me.

And I would have been ok if we saw the same energy from Nick. Sand being like "you love him so much that you don’t love yourself". AND WHAT ABOUT YOU, SIR? Dating a man that calls you a whore every time he gets angry and hasn't apologized for it once? A man who pushes you around so much you end up being bruised? Peak of self love, methinks...

And Cheum being on Top’s side forever and ever from day 1 and she barely knows him.

Boston is just treated very differently. Even Nick, the only person shown to side with him sometimes, is only 50% on his side at most.

Boston had to apologize for what he did but never received a proper apology for any of the horrible things that were done to him

BostonNick post time-skip

Boston and Nick are supposedly main characters, and yet, are nowhere to be seen after the time skip. Boston gets a sentence, Nick vanishes. Their last scene (aka, their ending scene) in the show being the breakup. We don’t know how they feel about that months later. Are they happy now? Did they move on ? Are they single? Are they thriving? Are they miserable? We don’t know anything because we don’t see them. How good of an ending is that for the characters?

The narrative is biased towards all the characters and against Boston.

Now, I’m gonna talk about the directors.

From what I know, Nick’s story is inspired from Ninew’s love experience. And just with that information, I know damn well it’s impossible to get an objective point of view about BostonNick’s relationship. Ninew has no way to know what was going on in irl Boston’s life, his thoughts, etc. Which explains why they didn’t bother with his backstory.

+ Mew was supposed to be a good guy, loved by the audience and Boston, the bad guy. Jojo said "Mew is a guy that everyone is going to be in love with". Meanwhile, to the question about Boston’s lack of backstory he said "sometimes bad people don't need a back story, they're just born sluts" which tells me everything I need to know.

+ they did their best to not ruin the image? likeability? of the other characters:

"We knew we had to cast Khaotung because he is a very empathetic guy so even when Ray is bad, people like him"

"F*ck we didn't realize they would hate Top this much, so we tried to edit things to help reduce the hatred."

During the TopBoston elevator scene, Nick was actually there. But they cut that portion because they thought Nick was being too much of a stalker.

They also mention Mew 's violent dream about Top and Boston that was cut and the Ray blow up scene in YOLO having a more dramatic version which was obviously not aired.

You can’t do all that (and probably more), but still say "At the end of the day, after we're done with our part, the show belongs to the viewers. We love good and bad feedback and know it's [the show] not perfect, but we like that viewers can judge the characters for themselves." It doesn’t add up.

So? The answer?

Boston definitely got disproportionately punished for being a slut because it is heavily implied that his biggest crime was to sleep with Top, and that he did that because he is a slut. And all his other problems were related to having sex, while also being blamed to some extent for them.

While especially Mew, Cheum and Ray (and to some degree Nick and Sand) got off scot free while also being awful people (borderline criminals but not sluts I guess).

"If your writing penalizes the only character who remained promiscuous but absolves everyone who only has sex within their monogamous and tbh heteronormative relationship, that's the messaging you will inevitably give." @paciouspolca

(edit: I guess I have to specify that I don't agree with the heteronormative part of the quote, because I see that it understandably made some people angry but i don't think it's fair to negate the rest of the quote and the whole post because of it)

One last thing: this is the novel BostonNick breakup (written after the series script). From I’ve heard, the novel kinda works like a fix-it version of the series. And while I’m still not a 100% on board with it, this version feels definitely less punishing (and sadder actually, I would’ve cried if it was in the show).

[not-soup-333]

Hobie Brown x Musician!Reader headcanons

While I'm writing part two for the other fic I'm writing (which should be the final part btw!) Here are some headcanons because I'm not letting this trope go as a musician.

Gn!reader, fluff, small mentions of injury but not in detail, tried to keep what instrument you play vague

Right off the bat Hobie loves jamming with you. It doesn't even have to be an actual song, it can just be the two of you going back and forth on your respective instruments. He adores just even getting to watch you play, since he finds something magical about the way you interact with the instrument.

You and Hobie go to various music stores all the time too. It can be a local record store or a small business selling music supplies and no matter what he'll buy some small gift for you. It could be some guitar strings with the promise to make you something out of his old ones when they snap, or an album that neither of you had ever heard before, but no matter what he's buying something. If it's a chain, Hobie will steal the basics needed for any instrument for you, whether it's batteries for a tuner or new drum sticks he's always able to snag you whatever you need.

At your shows, Hobie's always relatively quiet, hanging in the back, but the moment you're off the stage he's by your side telling everyone how he was so lucky to be dating the most talented musician he'd ever met. Along with that, if anyone tries to come up and flirt with you or anything after the show, he can get pretty possessive while still being happy to talk about you and your music. His arm will be around your shoulders or his hand at your waist while enthusiastically telling them about you, making sure to explicitly say you're dating more than once.

If you ever harm yourself while playing your instrument, Hobie's there as soon as he can be. He's nursing your wounds and kissing them softly while simultaneously telling you to be more careful or else it might not be fixable next time. It both drives you crazy and makes your heart skip a beat with how much he cares for you and your love of music.

If you show him the video of the couple exchanging guitars instead of rings at their wedding, he's automatically starting to search for one as a gift for you. Even if you don't play, he's more than happy to teach you. One day, a few months after you show him he appears at your doorstep out of the blue and gives you a guitar that already has some stickers on it. "I wanted to leave you space to make it your own, but also give you something of me." Is his response when you ask him about it in the future.

During his gigs, you're off to the side of the stage watching most of the time, it's not the best for the audio, most of what you can hear is the PA (The speakers used so the band can hear the music) but you prefer the seat, since between songs any time he looks side stage you know it's you he's glancing at.

Hobie constantly makes you gifts out of old or broken guitar equipment, since a big fan of upcycling things, you have more than one pick necklace for sure. However, this also means that your apartment is piled up with broken shit until he finds the time or remembers to make it, which is usually when something else breaks.

Along with the previous one, any old band t-shirts are saved to recycle the fabric for patches, and the designs get pinned to the wall to act as sound dampening for recording.

[ai-the-broccoli]

AIKA (Love / Elegy)

I sang and recorded this in several hours of karaoke sessions over two days during the summer. my throat was very sore throughout, and I caught a fever after that, but I think it was halfway worth it.

I wrote the lyrics myself.

the music is from a certain song that you may very well have heard of (okay, yes, it's a parody of "Love Story").

It was record with mobile phones.

I really do not know how audio editing works.

the song is a bit high for my vocal range "comfort zone", also like I said my throat got very sore after the first few times (and because it's my own lyrics, I needed some tries to adjust to singing the entire thing)

the album picture you see above is a piece of fanart, drawn by me, of Himena Aika and San Kagura. it is not that directly connected to the content in this song (since this song is technically more about Himena and Hiko) but it feels like an idol album cover sort of thing if that makes sense lmao.

While the song was written for a certain Magia Record fanfic of mine, you 100% don't need to have read the fic (or even know MagiReco, really) to listen to it lol

my lyrics under the cut:

(note: this is the lyrics of the original version of this parody song, the one in the fic; the karaoke remix version has some slight changes due to it being karaoke and also remix [w/ like parts of 6 different takes layered over each other])

AIKA (愛歌・哀歌)

[Himena] We were both young when I first saw you I close my eyes, and we think back as one:

[Both] Let’s take a trip Down the resounding lane

[Hiko] The school bell rings, I’m walking on my own As you light your way through the crowd And wink at me…

[Himena] Little did they know —

[Hiko] ‘Cause you were Himena, you could outshine the Sun And all your friends orbited your glowing crown In shadows I stood alone Till you tiptoed to join me…

And you sang —

[Himena] “Hiko-kun, let’s go, find us some paper strips, I'll be wishing, for our love to always live. Stars in the sky, we’re Vega and Altair, Just like a love song — we’ll resonate forever.”

<music>

[Himena] I sneak out to see you; don’t wanna face the music We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they hear ‘Cause they don’t get…

[Hiko] That true love doesn’t care

[Both]

— Oh, no!

[Himena] 'Cause you were Hiko-kun, and I noticed too late, All my friends laughed, chanting, “Just move on!” But you were everything to me I was begging, "Don’t do it — no!"

And I sang —

“Hiko-kun, let’s go, find us some paper strips, I'll be wishing, for our love to always live.

[Hiko] Stars in the sky, we’re Vega and Altair, Our tragic love song — shall pass down forever.”

[Both] Hiko-kun, don’t let them, decide how we truly feel (Himena, don’t let them, deny what is truly here) This love is different, but it's as real (This tune is difficult, but it is haunting!) One and the same, we’ll rise above the crowd (One and the same, our rhythm over them all) In this jolly love song, we harmonize together (An elegy we lament, be resonant forever)

<music>

[Himena] I got tired of searching Wondering when I would hear you again My one true love was fading Away into silence no one could bear

And I sang —

"Hiko-kun, how dare they, be so loud they drowned you out, I keep listening, but your voice has disappeared. Not an echo comes back, however much I may shout," And then at long last, you spoke to me and sang —

[Hiko] “Here I am, Himena; you never have to sing alone, I am you, and

[Himena] None can ever tear apart!

[Hiko] No more wishing papers,

[Himena] Do we need from now on,

[Both] Let’s harmonize forever — A one-and-only love song!”

<music>

[Hiko] ‘Cause we were both young when you first saw me…

[cosqf]

An Alastor redesign!!

alright i have many thoughts abt this funny fella. keep reading for the design process + lots of ideas

ok so. i think he has too many "themes" going on - deer, radio, voodoo, shadow powers, tentacles, deal making, the list goes on. To have a balanced character one must make their "deal" clear and stick to only a few themes! So, based on that i chose to focus on the radio and deer aspect and then sprinkle some of the rest here and there.

To start, i wanted to make the main themes - radio and deer - crystal clear from his appearance. So i gave him some bulky headphones, similar to the ones radio hosts would use when broadcasting (and he's always broadcasting! more on that later) and painted his skin in deer-like patterns (freckles like deer spots!!! cute). i also gave him antenna/radio towers for his deer antlers.

Secondly, i got rid of his hairstyle and ears. but those are his main thing! i know but look it just doesnt fit much. Alastor is a mixed polite gentleman radio host in the 30's, and his hairstyle should if not directly reflect his past life, at the very least it should hint at it, and that bob cut is way too modern. what about the ears then? personal biased choice, really.

i played around with multiple ideas, throwing shit at the wall and seeing what stuck. i liked the idea of his hair having some curls like an old telephone wire and tried to mix that somehow with popular hairstyles for men in the 30's. don't mind the quality of the sketches

Next, his outfit! (the picture has the outdated hairstyle, which i changed cause i thought it didn't fit his gentleman vibe, despite really liking how it looked)

most of the changes i did were either because of personal opinion or because i had an interesting idea. i also wanted to keep the red suit going so that i did.

i gave his little mic little antlers and also a little "screen" that shows the radio waves it's recording, cause i think that's a neat look. some stripped pants cause it seems it was popular in his time, and his buttons are actually radio dials! i also kept the bowtie.

Alright, for the fun part now! when compared to Vox, who's the tv demon and quite literally a tv, Alastor sure didn't enough radio elements in his own body. so i had this idea, what if he had a radio built into his chest? instead of his voice (or whatever sounds he wants) coming out of his mouth, it would emanate from this radio, still with that old-timey effect he has. i also gave him a radio frequency dial that would change on it's own, maybe depending on his mood or when he's using his powers in a certain way, i havent fully decided yet.

Now, about his powers. most of them would work the same way, with a few tweaks. Since he's mouth-mute and is broadcasting his voice through the radio, i think it'd be cool if he made his voice echo from all nearby speakers - phones, tvs, whatever, he'd hijack them to ensure he's properly heard and grab everyone's attention, using the power his mic grants him. he could also be able to eavesdrop on audio transmitted through radio waves, so no phone calls or tv signals would be safe or private near him. when he wants to reach more people or crank up the volume his antlers would grow, extending the signal's range. with this, when he's angry or wants to look threatening, his antlers would shoot up, feeling like he's shouting at you from every direction. he'd fill the air with static, making your hair (literally) stand on end, and distort the sound around him to make sure only his voice is heard if he wants it to. these moments are when i imagine his frequency tune dial and button-dials spinning erratically on his body.

now onto his shadow and tentacle powers. i felt they didn't quite match his overall vibe BUT since they're such a core part of him i couldn't get rid of them. so i figured they could be like extra power granted to him after he struck the deal for his soul, very convenient and powerful but not entirely his own. breaking the deal would also mean losing that power which could be interesting for him considering how power-hungry he usually is and how truly desperate he would have to be to break the deal anyways. And so, since his shadow puppets (the ones he uses to fight adam and have the wall fixed) wouldn't be his this way, i changed it so they'd look like deer instead! and its part of his own power set. when the souls he owns and he "teared apart" aren't screaming on the broadcast he could summon them in and they'd help his fights out, just like normal.

heres some more sketches!

as some final notes, after his battle with adam some fun things would happen. with his mic broke and his wound fucking up the radio he has on his chest he'd have no way to broadcast his voice out, which would mean our beloved radio host would be unable to speak until he either fixed his mic or managed to heal up completely. fun stuff :)

thank you if u read all of this or just scrolled for the pictures, im grateful anyway. i want to make it clear i didnt make this redesign to "be better" than the original but rather as a fun creative assignment i gave myself, to enhance what i like about Alastor and smooth out the hard edges. i also wanna say i took inspiration from many things in the community - other redesigns, theories, rambles, they all helped me come up with this one. shoutouts to u all too

[cherrifire]

Archived in the Southlands: Martyn's Mix

Case #0211905-C

Original recording from Martyn Littlewood's personal supplemental tape.

[Martyn] Ello, ello! I'm Martyn Littlewood, also known as the Archivist. I reckon I've had that title for about 3 years now? And this is my new personal supplemental tape.

Word count: 2244

Be sure to read Case #0211905-A and Case #0211905-B before this one.

[AU Masterpost]

[Click]

[Martyn] Ello, ello! I'm Martyn Littlewood, also known as the Archivist. I reckon I've had that title for about 3 years now? And this is my new personal supplemental tape.

But to start, this tape is NOT meant for research or theories. I get enough conspiracy theory rubbish at the Institute. Something destroyed the place I was living at with BigB and Grian. And if I have to think about that case one more time, I'll crawl into a grave and let the Buried claim me.

I genuinely just needed a personal tape of my own to ramble on to. Lots goes on in this massive brain of mine. I just need something to talk to and get those thoughts out. This could technically be used as a memory log? Something for me to just look back on later down the line. I actually used to keep a log like that before the Archives and I kind of miss it.

I'm going to leave this tape in my flat so I don't get it confused with the hundreds of other tape recorders floating around the Archives. Maybe I'll be able to catch some fun stuff of my new flatmate too.

Speaking of Ren, I'm going to try and convince him to grow more than just roses. He seems to know a lot about caring for flowers, so I wonder if I could throw him off his game with something completely different. Oh, maybe something we can eat would be cool! I'll mention it next time I see him.

Though, I'm not sure when that'll be. I've noticed he tends to go out a lot, but that doesn't surprise me. He probably gets invited to all sorts of parties and events. Probably for the best.

(a pause)

Oh, good grief! For the record, I am NOT turning this into a gross emotional audio diary either!

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] Someone knocked on the door today looking for Ren. I'd never seen him before but he said his name was Doc. The name reminded me of someone I used to know, but again, I'd never seen him before.

It's not unusual, people come by looking for Ren all the time. It's actually really sweet how many folks just stop by to check on him.

So sweet, it makes me sick. He's usually never here, but I always like to take messages and relay them back to him when I see him. It's hard to forget things nowadays, so it's not an issue. Though, I guess it doesn't really matter, since I like to change the message anyway, just because I can.

When Ren gets home, I'm going to tell him that Doc wants to make a diss track with him about Grian.

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] I wouldn't do it.

(Jimmy's voice is coming through a phone speaker)

[Jimmy] Martyn, I promise you, I'm quitting if you do it.

[Martyn] (laughing) Right, but I wouldn't do it.

(Movement is heard as Martyn starts to look for something.)

[Jimmy] (frustrated) No- but you're saying it like you are going to do it!

[Martyn] But I wouldn't though!

(something falls, making a 'thud' sound as it hits the floor)

[Jimmy] I can hear you rummaging through your things!

[Martyn] (wheezing) But I-

[Jimmy] If I walk into the archives tomorrow and you scare me with a stupid party popper again I promise you I will leave.

[Martyn] (wheezing) I just wouldn't though.

(another object falls)

[Jimmy] Martyn.

[Martyn] I wouldn't.

(something else falls. Martyn is probably doing it on purpose)

[Jimmy] STOP!

(Martyn laughs)

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] I think my favourite thing about Tim is that I could tell him anything and he'll think I'm messing with him. I told him today that I was looking into a case about a cult dedicated to darkness. His immediate response was:

(mocking) "That's not funny, Martyn, stop it!"

(Martyn laughs)

(a pause)

I’ve known him since we were kids, but Jimmy doesn’t know me enough to tell when I’m joking, I guess.

(static)

Ah, wait-

(a pause then a light knock on the door)

Come in!

(door opens)

[Ren] Hey dude, is there a reason your rent paperwork has a completely random name on it?

[Martyn] Oh, Martyn Littlewood isn't my legal name. It just sounds cooler.

[Ren] That checks out. I looked at the name on this thing and was like "who is this loser?" 

[Martyn] (laughing) I'm a different person now. My loser days are behind me.

[Ren] Well, thanks for letting me know, Phillip Watson.

[Martyn] Don't you dare!

(Ren laughs as he closes the door.)

[Martyn] If he starts calling me Phil, I swear to God-

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] That play Ren's been rehearsing, The Rise of the Red King–it's starting to grow on me. I remember helping him practice a little the day I moved in, but I'm forcing him to let me help more since I caught him rehearsing it on his own again.

He was in his room just repeating the lines quietly on his own. I imagine he was only holding back so as to not disturb me, but the unfortunate curse for the beautiful Archivist is I hear everything.

Which means I heard the awkward silence between each line he read out. So I took it upon myself to start responding, to fill that gap.

He said something like, "and as you know, every king must have a hand."

And I, charming as ever, poked my head in and said, "two is preferable, so you can hold things."

Then he continued, "I can think of no greater person than you." 

And the accent he chose for this character was like a mix between Scottish and Irish with like a bit of pirate. It was so bizarre. I'm doing the best I can to imitate it but I just can't do it like Ren. And I-

(door opens)

[Ren] Good afternoon, Martyn.

[Martyn] Good day, my liege.

[Ren] Martyn, will you do the honour of being the Hand of the King on this fine day?

[Martyn] Oh my word. Do I get a little pin badge?

[Ren] Definitely, dude.

When a kingdom is formed, loyalty must be proven. Later there will be a test for you. And if ye pass, it'll be ye and me to the end!

(Ren clears his throat and returns to speaking normally)

It's shopping, your test is grocery shopping. I'm heading out, did you want to come?

[Martyn] Only if you do that voice in public.

[Ren] You're insane, dude.

The King likes it. And you shall follow in his footsteps! Today, both our mettles will be tested.

[Martyn] Oh geez. I don't think my metal is very dense, so I'm gonna struggle.

[Ren] Alright, chat over. Let's get out of here, dude. But um- are you recording this?

[Martyn] Ah-! 3 years and I still always forget to turn these-

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] Good evening, my liege.

[Ren] Hand of the King. To what do I owe the pleasure?

[Martyn] The carrots, m'lord! It will be a bountiful harvest!

[Ren] Oh, dude! No way! Show me right this instant.

[Martyn] I took your teachings and successfully grew a small handful of carrots. Come see!

(a pair of footsteps then a sliding door being pushed out of the way)

(Sound of dirt shifting as a carrot is pulled from the soil)

Ta-da!

[Ren] (excited, high-pitched) Oh! Dude! Look at that!

[Martyn] That's right boss, fresh produce right here in our garden. They're a little small, but size isn't everything.

[Ren] Let's get these out of the ground and wash them. We could make a carrot cake with these!

[Martyn] This is why you're the boss. I would have never thought of that.

[Ren] (laughing) But what's a King without his loyal Hand?

[Click]

-

[Click]

(the recording starts while Martyn and Ren are in the middle of laughing)

(there's the sound of cake batter being aggressively stirred underlining the recording)

[Ren] Martyn, you're wasting batter!

[Martyn] You said to mix well!

[Ren] Dude! Not that well! You're getting cake giblets all over the kitchen! Stop it!

(Martyn and Ren laugh)

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Ren] (mocking) Statement of Ren Diggity Dog

I have no idea what you actually do at the archives, but I bet that's what you sound like.

[Martyn] Dude! What are you-

[Ren] Yes, I'd like to talk about my strange roommate-

[Martyn] Ren, don't even joke like that! Now give it here-

[Ren] You always use this to record me anyway. Why? Is it your personal audio diary?

[Martyn] No! That's not what that is!

[Ren] Then what is it?

[Martyn] How about you just hand it back and-

[Ren] (laughing) You're deflecting, dude! Oh, this is definitely a diary.

[Martyn] (laughing) Ren, give that-

[Click]

-

[Click]

(all sound is muffled as if through a wall)

[Scar] Knock knock!

[Ren] Scar-

[Scar] Ren! It's been a while!

Oh man, I missed this place. It's been, what? Four months since I last saw you?

(a pause, then Scar laughs)

As talkative as always.

How's your new roommate? I haven't seen the Archivist in ages! Is he good?

(a door opens and Scar's voice is no longer muffled) 

Oh wow. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here.

(Scar hums something as he thinks)

(he starts to rummage through Martyn's things)

Ah! There it is.

Ren, you won't miss these, right?

[Ren] No- No, you can have them.

[Scar] Wonderful. Pleasure doing business with you, Ren.

[Click]

-

[Click]

(extended silence)

[Martyn] I thought I could trust him...

(a pause)

(Martyn makes a frustrated sound and tosses the tape onto his bed)

(fading as he walks out) Ren, did you touch the thermostat again!?

[Click]

-

[Click]

(door opening)

(silence)

[Ren] Sorry, Martyn.

(Ren sniffs the air then he enters the room)

(extended sound of papers being rummaged through)

[Ren] There you are- erm, whatever you are.

Statement of Pearl Moon. Okay. I can work with that.

(a pause then footsteps approach)

[Ren] When did this turn on?

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] (whispering and panicked) Ren has been standing on the other side of my door for an hour now. Waiting...

I don't know what he wants. I know he's been taking Hunt statements, but I have no idea why. I can't even tell how far gone he is or why he's hunting m-

(a knock on the door)

(Martyn holds his breath)

(extended silence)

(distant footsteps as Ren walks away)

Yeah, fuck that. I'm not sleeping tonight.

[Click]

-

[Click]

(distant sounds of screaming, everything muffled as if through a wall)

(there's a collection of a dozen heavy footsteps all quickly getting further away along with the screaming)

(Ren and Martyn are also muffled through the wall)

(Ren is laughing, hysterical and manic)

[Martyn] Ren, get a hold of yourself!

(Ren continues to laugh)

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Martyn] Hang on, I'm just going to grab a few random statements then we can go!

[Ren] (distant) Take your time!

(sound of a small handful of papers being picked up)

[Martyn] It's going to be fine...

(Martyn takes in a deep breath)

(he releases his breath, quivering like he's cold)

(a pause)

Fuck...

[Click]

-

[Click]

[Ren] (whispering) Martyn passed out the moment his head hit the couch. The statements he read helped heal his wounds a little. They're still... bad, but at least he's sleeping through it.

Me, though? I think I'm going to be awake for a while.

So I'm trying what Martyn does. Talk complete nonsense into a tape just to turn thoughts into words. I had to grab his audio diary from his room since the one we had ran out of tape. I'm sure he won't mind this one time. Plus, I know he listens back through this one all the time and I...

I kind of want him to hear this.

I guess first, Martyn looks terrible. I'm staring at his filthy face right now from across the room. He's covered in dirt and his sweater is completely ruined. Although, I guess that's my fault. But he's been wearing that same sweater for months now. Good riddance, I say.

I'll find him a proper style when he's ready to go out again.

(Ren chuckles to himself then pauses)

Only if he wants to, of course.

(another pause)

I think... I think he's stuck with me now. After my... change, he said the hunt was over but... I know he only put it on hold. I can feel my blood waiting, itching for him to run so I can chase him down again. He said he wasn't going anywhere but...

[Martyn] (groggy and distant) Ren?

[Ren] Oh- Martyn. I'm sorry, did I wake you, my friend?

(movement as Ren gets up and walks towards Martyn)

[Martyn] No. I've been up this whole time. Listening.

[Ren] I didn't mean to keep you up, dude. My bad.

[Martyn] Can I have the tape?

(the recorder is passed to Martyn)

Ren, did you know the cold is typically an attribute of the Lonely?

[Ren] So what's your theory on the snow back at Dogwarts, then..?

[Martyn] My current theory is that you're too much of a social guy to be attracting the Lonely.

(a pause)

[Ren] Oh, Martyn...

[Martyn] I meant it, okay? I'm not going anywhere. I'm with you.

[Ren] It's you and me to the end.

[Martyn] Yeah. To the End.

[Click]