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floating--goblin · 2 months ago

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On Jutty Taylor and the new era

It's been roughly five months since an alleged victim of Jutty Taylor has come out accusing him of inappropriate conduct. With the dawn of a new era for Ghost and Taylor seemingly having been kept in the band, let us refresh our memory on the story.

This is not going to be an essay in defense of Taylor; I have no stake in this game and win nothing by sheltering a possible predator. I simply want to present the facts, as they are, as logically as possible, giving both sides the benefit of the doubt required, as in a court of law. The decision on where to stand is ultimately yours.

I will preface this with a disclaimer: the alleged victim is fifteen years old. I realize children aren't the most apt at relaying important details about complicated subjects such as a legal case or police investigation, so I will be extra lenient on their relaying of said details because it's entirely possible for a frightened child to constantly misspeak.

That being said, it does unfortunately make the case even more murky. The account should have been handled by the victim's parents, especially after backlash against the victim swept through social media. The fact no legal guardian has stepped in at best paints a disheartening picture of the victim's home life, and at worst weakens the case against Taylor.

As for me, I'm admittedly no scholar and this is a different justice system than my country's own, but I am a law student and know a thing or two which, I believe, would help offer a more in-depth view of the situation.

Finally, I cannot stress this enough: believe victims first. Yes, I fully stand by that statement. I do not however stand for "believe victims always, without or against proof", and while I am again not here to prove one point or another, some details about the case do not add up and it important to get the full picture, all the facts, as they are. That is my entire goal here, I cannot stress enough how little I want to get into a spat about this. This is meant to be a full report and only that.

Moving along-

On October 10th of 2024, the victim, named Grace, made this thread to Twitter, alleging that on March 8th of that year she attended a Drag Talk show, where she met Taylor. While taking pictures with him, she claims that Taylor's hand "fell on her backside", that when she tried pulling away his hand moved to her waist and that he pulled her closer, and that finally he put his hand under her jacket and groped her chest.

This is the only picture of the incident that Grace has provided, and according to her the only one that was taken that night. She also clarified later that behind them is a mirror, not the rest of the room.

Grace's friend Kuro has also posted these threads providing additional text conversations from after the incident, between them and Grace as well as Grace and another friend, where Grace recounted "feeling violated" and obviously distressed:

Thread one

Thread two

After this, several other accounts have come out making various allegations, none of which are of the same severity but which are of course equally important to take into consideration. These are as follows:

A thread by user olliesoleil alleging predatory intent in messages exchanged with Taylor. It should be noted that as of 2024, Ollie was 19.

A thread from another 19 year old named Logan, in which he claims that Taylor made flirty comments toward him.

An alleged message exchange from Taylor's ex girlfriend, aged 23 in 2024, no date or context given for the messages provided. Of note however is that they seemed to have been in a relationship around the time she turned 20.

Of note is also that no conversations with any ex-girlfriends were ever shown.

On November 24, Grace followed up by informing people following the story that the police were informed.

As of writing this post in March of 2025, there have been no more updates on this case. Grace has also urged any other possible victims to speak up and to reach out to LAPD or their local police force, but no one else seems to have stepped up since.

That is the last update we got from Grace.

Moving on to the other party involved, Taylor himself posted this one day after the allegations were publicized, following it with a more in-depth post and apology the next day.

On March 5th of 2025, Ghost has also posted a music video for their first release of the new album Skeletá, which features Taylor, implying his continued involvement with the band. The actual date of filming for the video is uncertain, as is whether or not Taylor's contract with Ghost has been renewed for the upcoming tour, as we all know the Ghouls are tour-only members and not officially a part of Ghost.

Taylor has not posted on his Twitter or Instagram since, and has not had a public presence online. None of his friends/bandmates have spoken about this either.

And now comes the difficult part: dissecting and putting everything in context fairly and coherently.

From the evidence shown, one thing we can reasonably agree on is that Jutty Taylor has a penchant for dating younger women, or is at least not put off by being involved with them. From videos of him and his stage demeanor it is also clear that he skews on the flirtier side, and is infamous for being very physically close with his bandmates regardless of gender.

That being said, all of the people involved here, save for Grace, are of age. Morality of age gaps aside, none of this falls into the sphere of illegality.

Furthermore, Ollie and Logan's claims are based on subjective interpretations of conversations. Logan has not provided as much as a paraphrasing of the "flirty comments" said to him by Taylor, and Ollie's conversation (link 1, link 2) shows them matching Taylor's level of enthusiasm, and in their thread they state that they thought nothing of the interactions at the time, only revising their stance in light of Grace's story coming out. All of which is, of course, valid. However, they were of age, thus nothing in the text exchange is illegal, nor can stand as evidence of predatory intent; it is purely a subjective view.

Similarly, Ferlizee's claims are offered without context or proof, and she was also of age throughout the relationship. Any assertion in the thread surrounding her that Taylor knew her before she was of age are unsubstantiated, as there is simply no source for them. She has since also deleted her accounts, which makes investigating the matter more difficult.

All this is to say, the only conclusion we can extract from these three accounts is that Taylor is perhaps overly friendly, that his sense of humor is perhaps easily misconstrued, and that his preference in partners skews on the younger side- although it should be noted that the only actual confirmed partner of his that we know of is Ferlizee, who was again of age. Any claims that he was or is currently dating Olivia Morreale are pure speculation and have never been proven, and she, too, is of age.

This is important, and I will make an aside about it, because it is a problem running rampant in the fanbase: we don't know anything about the ghouls' private lives. Nothing is black and white, and even the things they share with us may have more layers than initially apparent. Regardless of how close Jutty and Liv seem, we have never received confirmation that they are involved in any way besides being friends, and implying otherwise simply because of said closeness is a narrow-minded, puritanical way of viewing relationships between men and women. It is also massively invasive to dig into their personal lives.

Putting this through a human lens however, yes, it does not build up a case in his favor. If I may be subjective for a moment, it's not exactly the most moral thing to date 20 year olds in your 40s; but it also does not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a child predator. Twenty year olds are also capable of making informed decisions, and while protecting a demographic who has historically been victimized (ie young women) is important, it is also important not to infantilize grown adults. Determining whether or not Ferlizee or Liv are mature enough to be dating a 43 year old would require knowing them personally; in the same vein, determining how mature Jutty is and the kind of power he holds is also impossible, as despite his seniority he does not have the same base level of leverage over a person in their twenties that he would over a child.

So, alright. We've established the other alleged victims' cases are perhaps a bit shaky. What about Grace?

To start, she recounts that the picture offered was taken before the show, which, while uncommon for musicians to do and contradicting with Jutty's own statement, is still possible as either party's memory of the event may be poor. She also claims that there was a mirror behind her and Taylor's backs as they took the picture, in which you can see several people, at least one of them facing the incident. Now, this is important because it gives us witnesses: the friend taking the picture, and at least one person poised to see the event. At the time the picture was taken, Grace recounts that Taylor's hand was on her backside, which is credible as the mirror doesn't fall that far down, making it so the perpetrator could act unseen.

It should be noted that Taylor's arm doesn't appear to be angled toward the victim in a way that would suggest he was touching her, but it is still possible his forearm was bent toward her backside. That is important!

Next, as recounted, Taylor grabbed the victim by the waist, then put his hands underneath her jacket to grab her by the chest. The duration of this sequence of events is not specified, so it's unclear whether this could be passed off as an accident as Taylor claims, or if it was definitively an intentional case of groping. In the latter's case though, this was (once again) happening in the middle of a venue, with witnesses around and the victim's friend either holding or having just held a camera pointed at the scene. The fact no more pictures were taken is of course believable, but the fact no one else- not even the friend that was present- have come out is cause for doubt. A majority of Drag Talk fans have come from Ghost and travel from other states to see the band; they may not be a huge sensation, but they've gained some traction lately that would ensure at least one witness present would have taken to the internet to expose Jutty as a predator.

Messages between Grace and said friend were also very limited and the friend's response was offered incomplete, and it would appear that they remained somewhat lukewarm to Grace's feelings, which is a questionable attitude for someone who witnessed a full on sexual assault. That can however be written off as shock, we're talking about young teenagers here.

In terms of Taylor's own statement on the matter, if we assume these were fleeting gestures and that the part where he allegedly put his hands into Grace's jacket didn't happen, one can make the argument that he was attempting to initiate some friendly physical affection with a fan, which backfired purely by accident with his hands falling where they shouldn't have, a gesture which was misunderstood. This doesn't change the fact Grace felt violated, but it would also not make Taylor the perpetrator of a crime, only irresponsible.

Moving on to the legal case. As mentioned above, Grace claims to have reported this to the police, who have filed a case against Taylor. However given the evidence presented, the police would not have been able to do much beyond filing a report and possibly questioning Taylor about it. The evidence given is not strong enough to build a case on, especially for the LAPD, which is notoriously terrible with sexual assault cases.

To put it simply, the likelihood of Jutty having been investigated at any point is minimal. Even if the complaint fell in the hands of a serious officer, there is nothing to build a case on. It is possible Grace has more evidence that wasn't posted to Twitter, though it is doubtful as she is only fifteen, handling this on her own, and facing major backlash- all of which would have pushed her to offer everything she had, or to at least specify there was evidence she would only give to the authorities. Otherwise this would be a "he-said-she-said" situation, which would go nowhere with the police.

It is also possible however that she misspoke or misunderstood what was happening, and that police were involved, despite charges never being formally filed. In that case, a cursory investigation is the most that could have happened.

The lack of updates over the past five months offers some credence to this theory, as despite the legal system working slowly, if an investigation were to happen and charges filed, Jutty would risk being placed on the sex offender registry, which, while by itself doesn't ban him from travel altogether, would make him unable to enter certain countries- which of course would be detrimental to a world tour with Ghost, leading Tobias to terminate his contract. He has done so with Chris Catalyst over (as far as speculation goes) administrative issues with employing a UK citizen after Brexit, so he's not averse to firing ghouls for purely fiscal matters, should the morality of working with a predator not be enough of a motivator.

It must be reiterated that we don't know whether the music video for Satanized was filmed before or after the allegations, and whether Taylor has been hired for the upcoming tour; but it does stand to reason that, should these charges be credible and should there be a legal case against Taylor, that Tobias would have at least had his cameo in the video edited out or the video re-shot. Again, even if you don't believe Tobias would have done so because of the grisly nature of this crime itself, he would have surely done it to protect the band's image and profits. It stands to reason then that Taylor's presence does not pose a risk as Tobias himself has no reason to consider the allegations credible.

Now yes, being put on the registry happens after a conviction- but again, should there be credibility to this case, Tobias would have fired Jutty before a conviction happened so as to spare himself the financial and legal troubles, as Jutty would not have been able to reliably attend work due to court dates and a potential conviction looming over his head. In short, he would have been a liability that Tobias would simply not take, had this actually gone to the police. So why would Grace make this claim?

A minor additional point is that this case has not been publicized anywhere in any capacity, and that any attorney's first course of action would have been to advise Grace to scrub her account clean as, should justice rule in favor of Taylor, he could then use her posts to sue for libel. This advice is pretty much industry standard.

On the other hand this of course does not change the reality of whether or not he is guilty, as the legal system is massively fallible, especially in cases of sexual assault. I'm certainly not putting my faith in either the police or other men, because we know they tend to protect one another at any cost. Taylor's friends continuing to stay by his side and work with him aren't the strongest judge of his character, as bias exists.

In conclusion, what do we have? What's the TL;DR?

In truth, not much. This came out of left field and rocked the fanbase because it is obviously a horrifying possibility, and I command each and every one of you for the dedication to call potential criminals in our midst out. It takes a lot to demand accountability from someone you admire.

What is my opinion? I am no judge, I can't rule in either direction, and I am not interested in airing out my subjective views. This report has been composed as impartially as possible, using the circumstantial evidence available and doing as little speculation as possible, in order to offer people a full overview of the story. If you only knew of this from hearsay, now you have all the evidence arranged in one post for easy consumption. If you think you may have been influenced in one direction or the other by someone, now you may form an opinion of your own.

Moving forward I think the right course of action would be to stop idolizing celebrities, and to indeed stop viewing them as anything but ambiguous strangers from a moral standpoint. Even working under the assumption that Jutty is completely innocent, he still seems to be someone of more questionable morals than fans initially thought; which, while not a crime, is understandably disappointing. To prevent such disappointment in the future, I think we ought to remember we will never know these people personally, and that people are fallible and complex and that mistakes can happen, and that it's always important to take a critical eye to everything you see or hear.

That's all I had to say, goodbye and goodnight and hail our new Papa V.

#the band ghost #jutty taylor #jutty ranx #ghost bc #swiss ghoul #idk fuckin. more tags! woo tags be upon ye!#please don't send me death threats im so tired #drag talk #skeletour

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loveji · 8 months ago

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jiung as the 5 different love languages 𓍼ྀ

𓍼ྀ genre · simple soft fluff !!!

𓍼ྀ pairings · bf!jiung x gn!reader

a/n: finally deciding to actually post on here after a long while lol so I really hope you guys like it !!! also I cannot get over the out of context teaser ugh jiung looked so good someone hold me back

₊˚⊹ words of affirmation

makes it his absolute mission to constantly reassure his undeniable love for you. never forgets to tell you he loves you before he leaves for work. always there to tell you how proud he is of you during your biggest moments and there to comfort you through your lowest. despite any timezone difference, he makes sure to send a thoughtful, written out goodnight/morning message, followed up by another text expressing how much he loves you.

₊˚⊹ physical touch

due to pda from an outsiders perspective he doesn’t necessarily seem like a physically affectionate kind of guy. although behind closed doors he’s practically all over you. his favorite way to show physical affection is definitely back hugs. giving them or receiving them he doesn’t care! there’s just something about wrapping his arms around your waist, resting his chin in the crook of your neck, taking your sweet scent all in as he starts placing gentle kisses—that does it for him.

₊˚⊹ quality time

jiung is a very busy guy so he cherishes every single moment that you spend together. late night walks with nobody roaming around in the streets besides the both of you. home movie nights with him letting you choose the movie. planning out surprise dates wanting so badly to see your big flashing smile that he knows and loves. even loves the moments where the two of you are doing absolutely nothing but cuddling in bed enjoying the comfortable silence.

₊˚⊹ acts of service

his number one priority is to simply take any weight off your shoulders. after a long day of work the last thing he wants you to do is to worry about cleaning up the whole place. letting you rest despite you insisting on helping him out. took a mental note during one of your past conversations of you talking about some meals you enjoyed making sure to cook up all your favorite meals for when you wake up.

₊˚⊹ giving gifts

oh you know jiung loves his jewelry. everytime he’s shopping for a new addition to his jewelry collection he always makes sure to pick something up for you. every piece he brings home to you seeming to fit you perfectly. rings are also a big thing for him as you can tell. buying matching rings for the two of you, carved with both of your initials on it. both of you wearing them everywhere you go. making your heart warm up everytime you look at it.

reblogs/likes are appreciated tysm!!! ♡

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lintwriting · 1 year ago

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I'm making this post to compile the Weibo allegations against Jullian Champenois, the voice actor for Kim Kitsuragi, since I found navigating the screenshots to be a bit confusing. I've translated some of them to the best of my ability and would definitely be open to others reviewing these translations for errors, as I am Chinese American and therefore could be missing some cultural context. I've linked to Chinese definition websites to explain some of the translation choices that are more inferences.

The rest of the translations are from 阿阮 @woon__ton on twitter, who has been in contact with the original Weibo poster to ask for permission for their translated reposts, as well as permission for my repost here.

Outline of the Weibo Post

The allegations originated from a post on Weibo by a Chinese artist. The body of the post contains a summary of their experience, and attached are:

Screenshots of their personal Instagram DMs with Jullian

A screenshot of an older post where they express feeling weary about Jullian's DMs

Screenshot of vent messages demonstrating how this experience has affected their work.

After posting, other commenters chimed in with similar experiences, and this caused the original poster to update the original post.

They first updated it with a screenshot showing them blocking Jullian Champenois

Next, a testimony from a commenter

A second testimony from another commenter

Screenshots of DMs from that second commenter

*Update: Additional testimony from the original poster

The Body of the Original Weibo Post

Below will be screenshots of the body of the original Weibo post, with translations from @woon__ton on twitter.

(via 阿阮 @woon__ton on twitter)

This text was later edited to update about the additional testimonies and to add greater context. The added context explains how the Weibo poster could tell that Jullian Champenois's DMs were targeted, unprofessional, and sexual in nature, as the poster had gone through a similar situation before with another creator. The updated context is translated below.

* I realized something was wrong so quickly because I had a similar experience at the end of 2019. Scott lobdell, a DC comic writer and screenwriter of Happy Death Day, came back to like my drawings and privately messaged me after I followed him on Instagram. His account at that time was nuked (chinese internet slang for when accounts get banned or suddenly have all their content taken down) [so I can't access the logs anymore], so I don’t remember the content of the chat, but for specific news discussions, you can google the keyword “Scott Lobdell sex harrasment”. This situation is very common in the industry. They deliberately prey on people from their fan lists.

For context, Scott Lobdell, from what I can tell, would hit on young female artists working at the same cons as him, both in person and in text messages, with implications of him holding his position in the industry over them.

Although the Weibo poster can no longer access the log of Scott's harassment of them because his account got banned/deleted (at least, I think that's what the usage of 'nuke' is saying, they could also be saying that their own account got nuked), they note how their chat with Jullian Champenois was reminiscent of the same conversation they had with Scott Lobdell—a man known and 'retired' for his harassment of young female artists.

Lobdell's harassment is a good example for context due to how he demonstrates the inappropriateness of 'flirting' and hitting on young female artists in professional contexts.

1. Screenshots of their personal DMs with Jullian Champenois

Below are the screenshots of the Instagram DMs the Weibo Poster had with Julllian Champenois. Note the profile picture, as his profile picture will look the same across other screenshots with him in it.

Also note the way the conversation starts out polite, focused on both of their respective arts. Then he shifts the conversation to sexual topics, first by mentioning his explicit song, then by suddenly bringing up an explicit art account, @ken_chk, they were both following. The Weibo poster steers the conversation away from these topics.

They also mention this in the comments, but they find the fact that he asked their age, ethnicity, and sexuality afterwards to also be suspicious/sexual in nature. The sentiment being "Why would the artist's age matter?" or "Why would you fixate on me potentially being 17 years old when I've mentioned college graduation finals?" or "Why would you ask that if not for sexual reasons?"

@woon__ton on twitter notes that he is seemingly consistently looking for college aged girls, and other commenters/victims got the sense that the strange insistent questions about nationality were related to "yellow fever."

2. Weibo Screenshot of an older post where they express feeling weary about Jullian's Dms

The next attached photo was a screenshot of a Weibo post the Weibo poster had made in 2023. I'm assuming that in this screenshot that they're talking about Jullian Champenois, since this whole post is about him.

First I'll be transcribing the translation. Then I'll be clarifying the idioms/translation choices with asterisks, before giving an overall summary of the screenshot.

Feel free to skip to the 2. Summary section, as the translation clarification section is a little long.

“It reminds me a bit of my PTSD, the last time I was praised in private [instagram] DMs it was the Scott Lobdell [situation] where [he] later disappeared from the internet for some reason[.] I don't remember the reasoning, but at the time I had suddenly felt that he was kind of creepy so I indirectly lost my interest on Jason Todd(桶 is the Chinese nickname of Todd/Red Hood, Lobdell was the writer of n52 Redhood comic). It was not a good experience haha..." * "I feel that there is a cultural difference where Chinese people may take getting sent private messages out of nowhere a bit harder. It may also be a me problem. Maybe I am a Sakura girl at heart (internet slang, sakura is the culture symbol of Japan so it’s the nickname of Japanese girl, they tend to be a little bit more shy and social in a more careful and polite way to avoid offending anyone, no negative meaning behind this). uneasy desu ('I am anxious' but using the word desu to stand in for "I am")" "I don't remember the timeline, but it seemed like someone in the industry accused him of sexually harassing young female artists." “As a result, even when I am excited, I am still very wary of people because I have become disillusioned."

*UPDATE: I have updated this post''s translation with clarification from the Weibo poster.

I translated a phrase as "pulled up carrot," but it was actually the transliteration of Scott Lobdell's name into Chinese. I translated a phrase as "climbing the wall" "bucket," but it was actually the Chinese fandom term for 'no longer liking' and the Chinese name for Jason Todd.

In addition, I translated Sakura Girl as (slang based on Japanese animation, meaning a delicately stupid young girl) but the poster has clarified that Sakura girl is not supposed to have a deprecating connotation. The focus is on shyness or politeness, not stupidity!

I will keep my first translations in the next few paragraphs in to maintain transparency and to keep some necessary information, but they are no longer accurate. The paragraphs in brackets can be skipped over.

[[[[[The full idiom goes "the pulled up carrot also pulls up mud," or the idea that investigating a criminal who was arrested first can lead to the exposure of other criminals. The same way pulling a carrot out will pull loose some dirt, exposing one person may also dig up dirt on their associates.

With the mention of "later disappeared from the internet," I think the Weibo poster was referencing Scott Lobdell, whose account was nuked and who also had privately DM'd them with praise/sexual advances. The implication could be that the last time they got DM'd like this, it was in a creepy way and they were too afraid to speak out for fear of getting attacked/exposed themselves. Or that he disappeared to avoid getting exposed. This paragraph is a little unclear.

The 'pulled up carrot' situation might also have something to do with the explicit artist, ken_chk, mentioned in the DMs with Jullian. The weibo poster clarifies in a later edit that they didn't censor @ken_chk's handle in the screenshots because ken_chk was also embroiled in a sexual scandal involving targeting his fans.

"*About why I didn't delete the artist Ken mention in the chat history—because he was the reason why I raised the alarm. One of the reasons is that I read something about his character on Weibo about a few months ago. I just forgot to unfollow him on Instagram. I can’t find any evidence about what he did, but the Internet has testimonies, so I won't write it off." "* Regarding the artist Ken, the matter has been issued with the consent of the person involved. According to the person involved, Ken will also select fans to target. Please see the person’s experience for details"

So another implication could be that Jullian bringing up such a shady person in the DMs unprompted demonstrates his shady associations. Jullian is the 'carrot pulling up the mud' by doing so.

For context, the poster had felt the need to disavow ken_chk by clarifying that they had only been still following ken_chk by accident. Jullian still following him and even bringing him up unprompted could be a bad look in light of the similar allegations of misconduct surrounding both him and ken_chk.

I am unsure though, as I am not very familiar with this idiom, nor am I familiar with the allegations against ken_chk listed here. I could be totally misinterpreting this line of the post and the ken_chk edit, as I've had to infer some pronouns and commas that weren't originally there due to the nature of Chinese grammar.

'Climbing the wall,' in addition to cheating, can seem to mean getting over obstacles in various contexts, like getting over the firewall to pirate stuff. However, I've translated it as 'cheating' as there's the word "bucket" that follows it. Bucket is also a word for 'trash,' so it'd make sense to translate it as 'cheating trash.'

Later another victim who responded in the comments accounted that by sexually harassing them, Jullian Champenois was also potentially cheating on his girlfriend that they knew he had at the time, lending more credence to the idea that wall climbing comment is about Jullian, though I am still unsure.]]]]]

2. Summary Section

I think this post was first made right after Jullian first messaged the Weibo poster with the innocent messages about their art back in October 2023, months before the more recent sexual DMs from him on March 30th, 2024.

Despite the polite nature of these October DMs, the Weibo poster was weary of Jullian's DMs in this first 2023 post, mentioning how in the past they had gotten similar DMs from Scott Lobdell, only for those complimentary DMs to later be revealed as openings for sexual advances. Their 'PTSD,' as they put it.

In addition, they note a potential cultural difference between Chinese netizens and Western/English-speaking ones. It might be a bigger deal in China to get send someone DMs. Maybe it's more intimate/intimidating/professional, in contrast to it potentially being more casual in the West.

With the summary out of the way, I do want to say that some Western netizens have responded to the later DMs with the sentiment of "these are not examples of harassment, just flirting in bad taste," but this could be related to the cultural mismatch the poster mentioned here.

Getting flirted with in the DMs is very normal to a lot of people in the West, as 'sliding into their DMs' is synonymous with flirting, but perhaps in China, either this is not the norm or Jullian's type of flirting is not the norm, especially within the context of a professional art account.

If you find yourself thinking the same way as those western netizens, I'd ask you to reframe Jullian's DMs less as a casual instagram DM, and more like a work slack or LinkedIn message from a colleague/client, as the DMs we have been/will be talking about are in the context of their own work or hiring him for work. This should help you get a better sense of why the victims felt uncomfortable.

3. Screenshot of Weibo poster's vent messages demonstrating how this has affected their work

The next attached photo was a screenshot of vent texts. I'm not sure the context of the texts, but the content is definitely about their regrets with Jullian Champenois.

Why shouldn't I just be frank and rant a little? I want to be so woke (as in another way to say clear-headed, not related to American progressive slang) that you'll see me awake, anaesthesia-free on the operating table when they cut me open[.] Do you get me[?] Well Any way you look at it, I'm miserable On top of all this, I've got a big graduation project that's in comic form. That comic was adapting the poem that is currently acting as my temporary nicotine replacement for my disco elysium withdrawals*** So I would listen to [Jullian Champenois's] songs at the time God, it hurts so much Luckily, my nicotine replacement was for another character (they're probably saying that the poem reminded them of another disco elysium character, not Kim Kitsuragi, hence their relief) For a moment there, I was thinking of to talking to him about my graduation project and about disco elysium.

*** So I'm making the assumption that the original poster is talking about a graduation project that they're working on. Since they're an artist, it's a comic that they're making. They then say something about an original poem. They use the word that means "original" in the context of adaptation, like the original book a movie is based off of. So the full phrase is 'the comic's original poem,' which I'm taking to mean that they're adapting a poem into comic form.

This is relevant because I think they're trying to say that the poem is currently the thing they're obsessing over while waiting for more Disco Elysium content. They use the term "meal replacement," which seems to be a Chinese fandom term referring to the content people look at during a fandom drought—like people hitting the end of all the Disco Elysium content out there and deciding to check out Pathologic, since they've heard that game scratches the same itch.

So I think this screenshot is supposed to be them venting their feelings about how this situation with Jullian made them feel. They want to be clear-headed about his actions, even if it makes them feel miserable. And they note how his actions have tainted their experience working on a Disco Elysium-inspired comic.

1. Screenshot of the Weibo Poster Blocking Jullian Champenois

After talking with other commenters, the Weibo poster posted their closing remarks with Jullian Champenois, especially noting how he used their work and their interest in his work as a pretense for flirting with them instead of genuine artistic interest.

2. Next, testimony from a commenter

(translation via 阿阮 @woon__ton on twitter)

阿阮 @woon__ton also notes that "If anyone questions why I didn't release the screenshots, it's because this fan suffered severe trauma and was unable to provide the original chat log."

3. A second testimony from another commenter

Hello blogger, I also suffered sexual harassment from Jullian at the end of last year. Because my friends know that I like Disco Elysium very much, [they] said [they] could give me an autograph. I was very excited and happy at the time. A few days later, Jullian himself said that he could add me on WeChat, so I could directly tell him what I wanted him to sign. I was so happy and felt very lucky. After that, he was always very polite and took the initiative to chat with me, but within a few days he started to sexually harass me. I can't find the chat records from that time, only one or two that were sent to friends. I was very disillusioned at the time…so I blocked him, but he added me on New Year's Day. After I saw your Weibo, I remembered this incident again. He was really disgusting… I loved Disco Elysium so much, but he ruined it all. Okay, I hope you can share this. He is a habitual criminal and has yellow fever, and likes to chat up Chinese girls. At the same time last year, I searched for his name on Weibo and found that many people who followed him on Instagram were greeted by him. Everyone thought he was very nice, but that‘s not the case. When I first added him, I didn't expect him to talk to me a lot. Because it was such a surprise, I expressed a lot of my love for Disco Elysium and Kim. He asked me if I knew about Kim's sexuality. When I told him that I knew, he emphasized that he was a straight man, and then asked a lot about exchanging private information. After he sexually harassed me, I couldn't even tell him off for it because my friend was_____, I was waiting until he left _____ before I could block him. After I rejected him, he was still interested in striking up another conversation. I said that I knew he had a girlfriend, and it was very strange to do this. He said that his girlfriend didn't care and knew that he was doing it, which 'was its own kind of fun.' Made me feel very sick.

4. DM Screenshots from the Second Commenter

This commenter then submitted DMs that Jullian had sent them. The original poster has shared them, noting that the profile pic is clearly Jullian's.

This commenter also commented that the friends they had mentioned also had similar experiences with Jullian Champenois, which could push the number of victims to 4+.

I'd also like to share a comment on the original Weibo post from this same commenter:

"This incident did not affect my playing of Disco Elysium (the voice will be turned off hhh), but I really felt a huge spiritual pain, like my faith was completely shattered, like the statue of the Innocence in the church turned into a smelly rotten rag."

Additions

In addition, there is a testimony from a third person not attached on the post, which @woon__ton posted on twitter. It can be found here, and it outlines how an anonymous user paid Jullian in a professional context to voice for a product for her, only for him to make an unprofessional advance on her. Although the harassment is not directly shown in the WeChat screenshot, his apology for his inappropriate behavior is shown.

This testifier would like to remain anonymous.

*5 Update: Additional Testimony from the original poster on Weibo

The original poster is emphasizing the predatory nature of Jullian's DMs, differentiating them from the "just awkward flirting" narrative that some Western/English speaking people have had in response to these allegations.

First of all, his "yellow fever" aspect of specifically asking about Chinese girls, who are often fetishized to be more shy/submissive/less likely to talk. But in this case, it's also him specifically being inappropriate with people for whom there is a language/cultural barrier, making it harder for them to speak out—either due to a literal language barrier between them and his Western audience, or the plausible deniability of all this being a 'cultural misunderstanding' (which is very unlikely, since Jullian has apparently lived in China and therefore is very aware of the norms there).

Second of all, his usage of a professional/work account to make sexual advances. Again, comparisons to the Scott Lobdell situation should be made, as they highlight why it's sleazy to use their work as an excuse/opening to make sexual advances on someone. Not only does it cross boundaries, but it's also not treating the artist with the respect they deserve as someone just trying to work.

Closing

The Weibo poster would prefer if people not follow them on Weibo over this situation, as they posted the situation on their work/professional art account, and it is painful for them to see too many notifications about this.

They also note that they still love Disco Elysium and Kim Kitsuragi and that the allegations against Jullian Champenois should not reflect on the dev team of Disco Elysium, as there were also women working on the team, etc.

With this post, I've tried my best to accurately convey the sentiments of the original poster of the Weibo without commenting on the proof or the legality or what the ramifications should be or how we should interpret this, etc (beyond a quick mention of a potential cultural clash). I'll update the post with better translations if something comes up or if anybody mentions any suggestions/clarifications.

#disco elysium #jullian champenois #kim kitsuragi

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zeondraws · 6 days ago

Note

ZEON THIS IS KU I JUST SENT YOU A MESSAGE ON THE WIKI DAN PINCHBECK UPLOADED THE ORIGINAL SWTD SCRIPT TO HIS WEBSITE AND IT HAS MORE ROGER DIALOGUE AND FULL NAMES FOR SOME OF THE CHARACTERS!!!

HELLO KU THANK YOU FOR THESE AMAZING NEWS EARLIER TODAY AAAAAA.

Okay Fellas, what basically happened today, was Ku found a script written by Dan Pinchbeck (former Studio Head/Creative Director and founder of TCR). This was apparently all back when the game was in Alpha and just before he left the studio in Spring 2023.

The cool thing about the script is that a lot of these lines can be found as audio files within the game. Some of these are shown in my Muir/Innes video. But finally having the proper CONTEXT to these lines brings them to a whole new level.

We also know the names of Finlay (Eileen) and Brodie (Albert). I am honestly bewildered that his name is Albert.

Interestingly there is a different spelling for McLeary in the script (McClery), which is also a cool small detail (Me going bananas over the smallest details in existence IHIUEDHLIUDHWLIUWS).

I'll leave a direct link to the word file down here and then I'll show a few screenshots and yap for a while!

Fair warning there is slight NSFW content in the script, some of which I'll show as screenshots down below.

Word file:

I was so happy when I saw that Roy is indeed called "MacNair" in the script, like omg so the name shown on the ingame door was correct!!

I am wheezing, the description of Roy someone help me-

And apparently Finlay is a welder!!! Like!!! Also she was a WRESTLER? She'd be yeeting everyone off the rig if someone breathed incorrectly. Mad respect.

Just a huge lore drop of Brodie my jaw is dropping.

Let's not forget the super interesting info of Caz and Suze:

I feel sorry for Suze, she's lost so much, but she's also a fighter. Crazy to think Caz's dad got him into boxing.

Rennick is... holy shit he let two divers die

Hearing how the control room is his domain and remembering Brodie saying "Roper's control room" make me think, dear god what was Rennick stirring up in there. I can imagine Roper must've been smoking much more to handle it, or rolling his eyes so much until they fall out.

Also I swear I am giggling at Scooby after reading some things in the script. And him being called "a total gobshite" LMAOO

I'm doing three backflips while reading this, heeeeeeeeeeeelp.

Two things that make me breath manually is additional dialouge of Roper and this man just has dad energy radiating from him.

Please just... look at this convo.. and Scooby is a fucking ballbag mates. What the fuck hahahah

It goes on for longer, but that's all I shall show for the post. Also Trots being called mum by O'Conner has me exhaling sharply BWAHAHAH.

Also the biggest mystery I have to figure out is Dunbar. If he is the pilot, why is there someone called Archie ingame? Or is that literally just Dunbar? Does that mean I need to merge their wiki pages and make a big text stating what the mystery is about. They call him Dobbar or Dobbie sometimes! This is getting even more confusing!

I see no Dobbie in the script, just Dunbar. So they probably replaced him with another character in that scene later on. I feel like this is a big rabbit hole I need to get my head around.

Also finally knowing and being able to vividly picture the old Marine Control scene makes me so happy. Just look at it!

I like how.. Roper is just pretending he can smoke ewodhweoid. Roper seems way more passive here and friendly. This poor wee lad stuck in a chair and just observing what is happening.

And apparently after this scene is when the Geological scene should've taken place? If I understood it correctly.

I need to stop myself from reading the entire script tonight, because I have therapy tomorrow and that pushes my sleep schedule. Screaming, crying, throwing hands in the air lemme reaaaaaaaaad.

There is more stuff I can yap about, like Dan was apparently in a podcast and talked about the Shape in further detail. I nEEEEDD to listen to that asap.

And I also need to edit Roper's wiki page tomorrow. The silly guyyyy

Okay I won't say more now!! Go and dive into the script and yap about the details!!! We are EATING good this week Fellas.

Also fuck you Rennick, I now have context to one of the audio files but also he was def supposed to eat Muir in a previous version-

#still wakes the deep #swtd #swtd spoilers #roper swtd #muir swtd #caz swtd #rennick swtd #suze swtd #finlay swtd #brodie swtd #AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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moutheyes · 1 month ago

Text

integrating real space and digital space in gelboys

one of my favorite things about gelboys is how it harnesses contemporary social media as a kind of semiotics—how meaning is coded and transmitted—that is rooted in the way young people socialize and perform rituals of courtship in both real space and digital space. for instance, how certain actions can signal interest or affection (making a shared playlist, adding someone to close friends), or keep a person at distance (leaving them on read, blocking obviously). or how moments and actions are simultaneously mutable (deleting a line message, changing a username) and preservable (taking a screenshot, saving a tiktok).

at the same time, gelboys excels at establishing vivid and specific physical locations to anchor the humanity of the characters and storylines. school, siam square, the nail shop, bedrooms, every detail even down to specific charging outlets. in real space, the camera can do its work through blocking, framing, lighting, movement, and the acting itself; this has been the focus of my cinematography posts.

but what makes this show so special to me—and, I think, a lot of others—is the way boss kuno and his team were able to transpose and integrate the semiotics of that digital world into the physical setting and action of the show through innovative visual storytelling. (the sound design was also tremendous, but that's harder to break down without the aid of video lol.)

finding meaning beyond the screen

while the digital world offers these teenagers new modes of expression and interpretation, it is also very much a limited, often self-edited form of communication. first of all, a phone screen is only so big, and many video platforms encourage portrait view, so the narrow physical frame of the device itself can necessarily only show a subjective truth. in that way, the screen acts as a depository where the characters can store their fantasies of who they want to be and how they want the world to perceive them—fourmod playing around with chian's picture to mimic a kiss, bua filming take after take of a dance challenge. and it makes them performers of their own lives and voyeur-observers to each other's.

the show cleverly delineates that exact tension between text (i.e. the content being uploaded to social media) and context (everything that gets cut off in the wider view, or happens before or after the clip) in scenes like this:

the crop overlay visually separates the imagined digital space from real space, so there's an additional layer of symbolism to be found in the context. chian and bua dancing together conveys one meaning for the viewers on tiktok and a separate meaning for fourmod, who is in the frame in real space but not digital space. here he is both the observer (the one filming) and an object affected by the act of observation (the emotional distance he feels as the scene progresses, which is emphasized by his positioning). the way gelboys builds and conveys these layers of meaning by visually integrating digital space into real space is such a treat.

sites of action in digital space

even if digital space is a non-physical entity, that doesn't mean it can't serve as a site of action, and gelboys deliberately stages crucial moments within that virtual realm: chian switching between bua and fourmod on his close friends list, baabin's confession and deleted messages, the zoom summit, to name a few. in fact, thinking back on the scenes that elicited some of the strongest visceral reactions across fandom, quite a few of them stemmed from actions that took place on social media rather than real space. here's a little thought exercise:

is the action shot of fourmod panic-scraping his nails off more or less violent than watching him delete his shared playlist with baabin or create and post an AI video of faifa? (actually wow I might come back to fourmod re: this topic later lmao help) arguably, the audience recognizes the semiotics of those actions—deprioritizing baabin's friendship once he has chian's attention, intentionally doing something to make faifa hate him, not to mention the deepfake part of it—so even though all we're looking at in the exact moment of action is a mouse hovering over the "post" button or an app UI, we still feel as strong of an emotional impact as if fourmod had done something equally appalling in real space.

digital ephemera and memory

people tend to think of social media as a primarily transient mode of communication, and although much of it can be (ignore the data sitting in a physical server somewhere), gelboys shows its characters preserving—and erasing—a great deal of digital ephemera as a mode of memory.

three of the four gelboys are constantly creating collections of messages, photos, etc. (beyond what they post on their accounts) that serve as digital scrapbooks where their truest feelings are kept, and they do it in ways that reflect their individual characterizations. baabin takes screencaps of his conversations with fourmod and hides them away in a folder on his phone, while chian squirrels away his affection for fourmod on a secret account; in this, too, they are two sides to a coin. bua, meanwhile, stores his memories in the form of tiktok drafts—a sort of digital limbo. in his charging gel episode, his phone is running out of storage, an apt metaphor for needing to let go of his friendship with chian. baabin gives him the option of transferring them over instead, but it's unclear whether bua actually ends up doing that. in either case, the collection of ephemera is no longer in his possession.

(fourmod is not really shown doing this—he tends to do the opposite, and is 1000% gonna get his own post about it)

so it's momentous when baabin deletes his entire fourmod folder, when chian airdrops fourmod his old photos and posts his apology as an IG highlight despite knowing he's blocked. like bua, baabin clears out his storage, removing the record of what he once felt for fourmod. and chian is no longer trying to keep his feelings to himself, but rather choosing to show fourmod his collected memories directly; he wants fourmod to remember as well. social media allows us to pick and choose which memories to keep and which to let go, and the emotional changes for three of the four gelboys can be easily tracked by these acts of preserving and discarding digital ephemera.

in gelboys, the importance placed on both real space and digital space, and the visual language used to merge the two, invites the audience to parse the story on multiple levels, but the reward for investing that energy is monumental. it feels like every time I think I've exhausted my thoughts on one topic, a few more pop up. anyway, thanks as always if you read all of this!

#gelboys #gelboys the series #gelboys cinematography #this show has me skimming barthes on a friday night #it's terminal i'm afraid #yes i was a film major

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jinnaizaemon · 2 months ago

Text

There it is, the Big Tsudoi Post!

I reordered by theme and translated claims that were originally compiled on this page. Said page was edited with time, some info reworded or removed, so I used the wayback machine to make it as exhaustive as possible. I've read more facts browsing boards, and I might add them to this list in the future. But this page is the most well-known, and the facts listed here are what comes up most often in discussion and fanworks.

What is tsudoi? It just means meet-up, and it refers to the fan gatherings with the author of Rakuran, Amako Soubee, which used to occur every 2 years. What's relevant here is the Q&A and discussions with the author that led to plot points, trivia, bits that she hadn't included in the story yet or can't include at all, being mentioned during those meets. None of these meet-ups were recorded, so all the info we know about them comes from word of mouth, forum messages, and blog reports. As such, these facts should be taken with a grain of salt, and while a lot of them turned up to be canon (either in the manga, anime, or musicals) in the long run, they are not canon. Consider them food for thought for possible development and lore for the characters if you want, or just context for discussion and fanworks you might encounter in the fandom. There haven't been any such meetings in a good decade, so you'll notice a lot of that info is obsolete or eventually became canon. Additionally, while there's a lot of overlap with the anime, these concern the manga.

Under the cut, you'll find my translation. The text in black is directly translated from the people who reported those facts, and I tried to offer context and additional information in blue text.

Ninjutsu Academy

In general

Among the students of Ninjutsu Academy, there are orphans other than Kirimaru.

In Ninjutsu Academy, students keep the same class and same teachers for six years.

Uniform colors do not depend on the year, meaning that the 1st year will keep the criss-cross and circles patterned uniform until graduation. This was retconned / not true for the anime and musicals. Flashbacks showed the current sixth years wearing the blue patterned uniform in their first year, and the purple one in their fifth year.

Tomesaburou, Sakubei and Kazuma were established as mob characters at first, but the author made them join the main cast after a group of fans begged her to. It’s funny when you look up discussions about this, there’s a lot of anti-fujo sentiment going on because it seems those fans were from a BL doujin circle. Some people claim they nearly harassed the author about giving these 3 bigger roles.. err… I assume Amako Soubei is grown up enough to decide by herself…

There are kunoichi upperclassmen too, but these characters won’t appear or the cast would get too out of hand.

The family situation and number of siblings of upperclassmen (except for Takamaru) hasn’t been really decided yet. Nowadays Tomesaburou, Koheita, Heisuke, and Shuichirou’s family situation are known in canon. Saburou’s family background is mentioned within tsudoi, and his name implies he has two older brothers. (the characters in ‘saburou’ means ‘third son’)

It’s a coincidence that “Taira” no Takiyashamaru and “Minamoto” Kingo ended up in the same P.E Committee. Sensei said she didn’t think about it at all. “Taira” and “Minamoto” are two major clans from Japanese history, whose rivalry would cause the Genpei War, concluding with the fall of the Taira Clan, the victory of the Minamoto Clan, and the end of the Heian Period and beginning of the Kamakura Period.

Classmates share a bedroom in the dormitory. Monjirou and Senzou, Chouji and Koheita, Tomesaburou and Isaku, Saburou and Raizou, Kihachirou and Takiyashamaru are roommates. Has been canon for a long time now! 31-69 explains why Saburou and Raizou are rooming together without their classmate Hachizaemon.

1st years

Rantarou is kind, so he won’t be able to perform assassination and such, and won’t become an elite ninja.

Just like his father, he will become a half low tier ninja-half farmer in the future.

Kirimaru lost his parents in the war, and was picked up by a certain monk who raised him until he entered Ninjutsu Academy.

Kirimaru used to have an older brother.

Kirimaru’s spring clothes were originally Doi’s. Doi cut his clothes and patched them up to fit Kirimaru.

Kirimaru is 140cm tall.

Shinbei’s future is not decided yet.

He might drop out in the 4th year because he has to take over his family business.

In a more recent meet-up, Shinbei dropping out was retconned, and instead all of the 1-ha class will graduate together. (Since Doi-sensei and Yamada-sensei are in charge of them!)

Shouzaemon will become an anaushi ninja, acting like a relay of information for everyone. Anaushi refers to ninja infiltrating a given space by living a regular civil life with a regular job, gaining information by earning the enemy’s trust over a long amount of time. This is why ninja have to learn many skills and crafts, to assume different identities and work different jobs. Senzou takes a pottery class because of this in 18-43, and there is such a ninja in 24-66.

Rantarou, Kirimaru and Shinbei always make sure to give the best seats to the teachers, because “it’s more important to be a polite person than a top student.” This refers to an aspect of Japanese etiquette where everyone is expected to know their seating positions in a given room based on social hierarchy. The most important people will sit the furthest away from the entrance door into the room (or into the most comfortable seat). In a tatami room of feudal Japan, this would be the warmest place, and also safest in case of attack. I assume this works as Rankirishin’s justification for sitting closest to the door in the classroom!

The “The lord who visited me last night~” song that Rantarou and the others sing is actually pretty suggestive, but they still sing it since they don’t understand the meaning of the lyrics :

From volume 42. Doi-sensei is blushing and saying “Come on, now…” Phonetically, the kids are singing: “Yufubekita yobahidono akai fundoshi otoshita Otoshitayara wasuretayara Mata koyouto oitayara” Written properly, it becomes, and is translated as the following: 昨夜来た夜這い殿 The lord who visited me (a woman) last night, 赤い褌を落としていった Dropped his red loincloth. 落としたやら、忘れたやら、 Did he drop it, did he forget it, また来ようと置いていったやら Or did he leave it behind so he can come see me again?

Danzou does not usually wear pants, but he carries a pair around with him.

Maybe due to the influence of his parents, Sanjirou might have some sixth sense when it comes to the supernatural.

Tsurumachi Fushikizou’s “So thrilling!” catchphrase comes from a pair of older sisters being suspected of a crime in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. This doesn’t specify if it’s from a novel or the script of a TV adaptation, and older sisters being suspected of a crime in a Hercule Poirot story does not ring a bell, sadly.

The 1st years’ uniform is flashy so that in case of emergency, the teachers can find them easily. Contradicting the retconned fact that uniforms don’t change by year.

The Equipment Committee stinks of pee because the 1st year members often pee their pants. In the anime, Heita is the sole responsible of this. I'm pointing fingers.

Underclassmen

Shirobei is stupid enough to get yelled at by even Koheita. (ow)

Tounai’s front bangs aren’t curly, it’s bed hair.

Because of bad luck (and being forgotten), Kazuma’s name wasn’t properly introduced. In the anime, he introduces himself in 16-11 after his fellow committee members ask him “Who are you again…?”

4th years

Kihachirou thinks of Takiyashamaru as trash. Kiiiind of retconned with 32-61.

Kihachirou’s grades are average.

Takiyashamaru will find an early death.

5th years

Hachizaemon’s quirk of going “Oho!”, comes from a line spoken by Mifune Toshirou’s character Kikuchiyo in the movie Seven Samurai, pronounced as he was watching approaching enemies. Timestamp is 2:29:55. I think. Kikuchiyo makes a lot of funny noises.

Hachizaemon is a natural optimist.

Heisuke was modelled after what Doi Hansuke would be like in his younger days.

Heisuke is 165cm tall, the same as Monjirou. Hachizaemon has a bigger build than Heisuke.

Heisuke is an airhead. The original text says 天然キャラ tennen kyara, literally an “airhead character”, but when a real person is called a tennen kyara it means they are Pretending to be an airhead for attention/to be cute/etc. I assume OP meant it as in a character who fits the “tennen” trope. Tennen evokes an airhead personality but also someone who goes at their own pace, is eccentric, has trouble reading the room, etc.

Heisuke has “excellent grades”, a “sharp mind”, and is “accomplished at both the pen and the sword”.

Heisuke is a better student than Kanemon, but Saburou is a better student than Heisuke.

Raizou and Saburou will find work in the same castle as sounin, showing effort and success. 双忍 sounin, literally “a pair of ninja”, or ninja working together! Love wins.

Saburou’s actual hair is silky straight. On day offs, he walks around town maskless, and no one recognizes him.

His father is alive and well, and is also a master of disguise, apparently even more skilled than Saburou.

Even though some of them weren’t introduced into the story yet, some 6th years sneak out at night to meet with girls. They get in trouble if teachers catch them.

Sensei looks disappointed that Hachiya Saburou’s name is spelled 蜂屋 hachiya in the anime, and would like it to revert back to 鉢屋 hachiya somehow.

Hachiya might be a discriminating word against burakumin in some regions?

The name 鉢屋 Hachiya was taken after the real life Hachiya-shu ninja clan. The original poster seems unclear on this, so let me add context even though it’s a bit long. This is a huge speedrun and burakumin has a complex history which deserves better than being taught through ninja cartoons, so I really urge you to read about them. In the anime, Hachiya is spelled with the characters 蜂 hachi (bee) and 屋 ya (seller, store, house). Hachiya with that spelling is also the name of a variety of persimmon. In the manga, Hachiya is spelled with the characters 鉢 hachi (bowl) and the same 屋 ya (seller, store, house), and has a richer history. Burakumin are historically stigmatized people in Japan. Back in Muromachi, they would live separately from the rest of society in their own settlement, and were considered lesser due to the jobs they occupied. These mostly involve work deemed “unclean” by Buddhist teachings, relating to blood, rot, and death: they were famously executioners, butchers, and leather workers. It also includes popular, “vulgar” entertainers, opposed to noble entertainment such as noh theater. 鉢屋 hachiya (with the “bowl” character) in relation to burakumin refers to followers of Kuuya’s teachings. Kuuya was an itinerant monk involved in “unclean” practices, such as burying the dead or praying while dancing for the people. His religious dance, nembutsu odori, found more practitioners in the San’in region (North-west of Hyougo Prefecture), living secluded in their own villages called Hachiya. These people worked with bamboo to craft items such as tea whisks, but were marginalized due to their dancing performances. They went door-to-door chanting prayers and making sound by tapping a bowl, and this gave them the nickname 鉢叩き hachitataki (who hits a bowl) or 鉢ひらき hachiaraki(who presents a bowl). Like this, hachiaraki became synonymous with “to beg for money”. 鉢屋 hachiya (still with the same “bowl” character) also refers to a group of entertainers in the same region turned ninja associated with the Amago clan during the Sengoku period. They’re famously known for taking Gassantoda Castle (Izumo Province, nowadays Shimane Prefecture) with an extravagant scheme involving a spectacular parade of dancers and musicians passing through the main gate of the castle, with weapons hidden under their clothes. The ninja who led this attack was named… Hachiya Yanosaburou!

6th years

According to the meet-up in 2006, all the sixth years except Isaku come from a background of the Koga school of ninjutsu. When this was stated, Tomesaburou was still a background character and not properly established, so his background is unclear. The school of Koga is a type of ninjutsu from the Koga region (now Koka City, Shiga Prefecture). The Koga region had sou, villages that were allowed to self-govern (sou are mentioned in Nintama movie 2) in exchange of helping out the local Rokkaku Clan during wartime. They specialized in guerrilla warfare and handling of medicinal herbs and poison, and after retaking Koka Castle from Shogun Ashikaga to the Rokkaku Clan, they started working as ninja for said Rokkaku Clan. This would be pretty modern history by the time Nintama takes place, making the sixth years’ family, except Isaku’s, having a recent history of being farmers/samurai mercenaries recently turned “professional” (in Nintama terms) ninja. Interestingly, we don’t know the sixth years’ family situation in canon, except for the fact Koheita has an army of siblings living in a household large enough to belong to the samurai class (31-65), and that Tomesaburou has two older brothers that are warriors, making him likely to be samurai as well (30-34)

6th years ranked by height:Chouji > Koheita > Tomesaburou > Monjirou > Isaku = Senzou.

Even though some of them weren’t introduced into the story yet, some 6th years sneak out at night to meet with girls. They get in trouble if teachers catch them.

Senzou is the most popular among the town girls. Isaku is the most popular among kunoichi, because he’s easy to deceive.

Among the 6th years, Senzou has the best grades. Isaku has the worst ones.

Koheita is so bad at studying people wonder, “how did you even make it to the 6th year?”. But because of his bad luck, Isaku’s grades are still worse overall.

Koheita has had that kind of personality since the second year. Kind of retconned? He’s shown being his cheery ikedon self back in 1st year in 30-33.

Chouji used to laugh a lot as a kid, but gradually stopped as he got wounded while practicing using the jouhyou rope dart, because the scars on his face hurt him. Also shown in 30-33.

Chouji might be an eccentric person, but he’s kind.

Monjirou has been acting as a hardcore gingin ninja since he was little.

Monjirou’s left and right eyes are different shapes. One is pine-nut shaped, the other almond shaped.

The speech Monjirou makes before and after his meal to pay respect comes from Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei(?) or some other very famous temple (I[OP] can't remember exactly). This refers to vol 42 of the manga. In the anime, he recites this speech in 16-56. OP says they don’t remember well, but Enryakuji is a very likely candidate as it’s the head temple of the Tendai sect, and this speech comes from Tendai meal etiquette. As found on Tendai’s website, here’s the complete speech: われ今幸に、仏祖の加護と衆生の恩恵によって、この清き食を受く。つつしんで食の来由をたずねて、味の濃淡を問わず。その功徳を念じて品の多少をえらばじ。いただきます。 I am now blessed to receive this pure food, granted by the divine protection of the Buddhas and the grace of all living beings. I will humbly reflect on the origin of this food, regardless of its rich or mild flavor. I will pray for its merits without thinking about the quantity. Thank you for this meal. Monji omits the “granted by the divine protection of the Buddhas and the grace of all living beings”, but otherwise recites it word for word!

Monjirou and Tomesaburou often disguise themselves as Rokubu (I[OP] don’t know the kanji spelling, but it’s pronounced rokubu), itinerant monks who travel to offer copies of the Lotus Sutra in 66 different temples. But even while in disguise, they can’t stop bickering. Over things such as whether to take the right path or the left path, etc. OP spelled it right, it’s 六部 rokubu. As they explained, they are monks going on a pilgrimage across the country to offer copies of the Lotus Sutra, the most important scripture in Buddhism, to 66 temples, looking to expiate their sins.

Monjirou and Tomesaburou make good teammates, and when push comes to shove they are able to work together like in the Sonoda Village arc.

Tomesaburou is regarded by fans as handsome, but Sensei didn’t particularly try to draw him in a cool way. But while trying to keep his face consistent with the profile that appears in volume 22, he ended up looking handsome.

Tomesaburou might be manly and handsome, but he’s stupid.

Tomesaburou gets caught up in Isaku’s bad luck because they are roommates.

Tomesaburou and Isaku’s bedroom is split in two. The front of the room is Isaku’s area (that is turning into a small infirmary), the back of the room is Tomesaburou’s (that is turning into a small equipment storehouse).

Their room is the most cluttered with their respective luggage, so it has been divided in two.

Since Tomesaburou’s side of the room doesn’t have an entry door, there’s a little corridor made with a partition screen on Isaku’s side at the front of the room, leading to the back.

As a consequence, Isaku’s area is smaller than Tomesaburou’s. His part of the room being more narrow is also because of his bad luck.

Whether other students partitioned their room the same way or not is unknown. (Or rather than unknown, she worded it more like “it’s not decided yet”.)

(Seemingly from a more recent report.) All the sixth years seem to have a lot of clutter due to their respective committee, so their room is partitioned as well.

Isaku’s name comes from the baptismal name of one of Sensei’s friend, “Isaac”.

Someone asked why Isaku often trips on his feet or into pitfalls, and was told that “He might have a bad leg.”

In the first drafts, instead of being known as the Unlucky Health Committee, it was known as the Poop Committee, so Isaku wasn’t the Unlucky Committee President but the Poop Committee President.

Isaku caring for others comes from an instinct typical of those involved in medical care.

After graduation, faithful to the mentality of the Health Committee, Isaku becomes a “battlefield doctor” who treats people without taking sides. Kinda like Doctors without Borders.

Isaku’s weapons are drugs and poisons, but he can use weapons like swords. He doesn’t seem proficient at using any specific weapon (apart from drugs), as he’s shown using different ones in every fight scene ; swords, bandages, …pebbles…… But he’s also shown having interest in getting better at the sword in 27-13.

Staff

Doi-sensei’s personality is unfit for a ninja. Same for Isaku.

To Doi-sensei, cheese feels the same as nerimono (fish paste products), so he can’t eat it. After the Heian period, due to the rise of the samurai class, the need to transport people and supplies, and war in the larger sense, raising horses became a priority over raising cattle. People didn’t consume dairy anymore until the late Edo period where it was regarded as medicinal food, and it only became an everyday food during Meiji. Who the heck tried to feed Doi cheese? Castella-san’s cheese harassment episode when…

Doi-sensei is 175cm tall. Studies of remains from the early Edo period suggest that the average height of people was 157cm for men, and 145cm for women. Since Nintama takes place before Edo, it makes Doi an exceptionally tall person for the times.

Yamada-sensei recommended Doi-sensei as a teacher to Ninjutsu Academy. Shown in 32-64.

Doi is from a powerful family in the Seto Inland Sea, which fell in the war.

Doi's father was named Tokikuni, and he was a person of character.

He was killed in a sneak attack by someone named Sadaakira.

Just before passing, Tokikuni told Doi “Do not avenge me”. Doi’s backstory is based on Hounen, founder of Jodo Buddhism. It ended up being explicitly mentioned in vol 50. Hounen was born in a powerful clan in Mimasaka province (now Okayama prefecture), and his father, Uruma no Tokikuni, was a military chief who was assassinated at night by a warrior named Sadaakira, sent by the emperor to govern the province. In the manga, Doi’s backstory is merely referred to through Hounen’s own story. It’s kept vague how similar the two actually are. In Ninmyu 12, the father entrusts baby Doi to a servant, so there is no “do not avenge me” bit. The servant runs away but is killed by Kaentake ninja, who pick up Doi and raise him under the name Yogiri. Later, when he learns Kaentake killed his family, Doi runs away, and the story becomes similar to the anime where he is found by the Yamada family.

After the current 1-ha class graduates, Doi will quit teaching and open an orphanage.

Kirimaru, now independent, will sometimes come to help care for the kids.

A Komatsuda fan once told the author “I’d be happy to see him return as an office worker [for the school] or something”, to which the author replied “That sounds fun” and eventually made it canon.

Tasogaredoki Castle

Currently, Tasogaredoki is the strongest antagonistic ninja army.

There’s a ninja village in Tasogaredoki Castle.

Zatto is 180cm tall. Like I said earlier with Doi, that makes him Extremely tall for the time period.

Zatto has between 50 and 100 men under his command. (At first, Sensei said 100 men, to which a fan reacted like “Huh?! So many?!” in surprise, so she lowered it to 50.)

While doing his bandages, Isaku saw Zatto’s unmasked face.

“He might be covering burns?”, Sensei said. Confirmed in volume 50.

After the accident that caused Zatto’s burns, his engagement was called off.

That accident happened when Zatto saved Sonnamon’s father. Shown in 32-63.

Zatto is deaf in his left ear. This is reflected in the second movie, when Zatto reports information to his lord on Jinbei’s right side, but then has to turn to his left to listen to Jinbei’s reply.

Kousaka was Zatto’s chigo. Chigo mostly refers to children left in Buddhist temples to receive an education from monks. Because of the sexual exploitation they could be subjected to in exchange for that education, they are portrayed in art and described as graceful, attractive young men often dolled up like little girls. As far as we know Zatto doesn’t come from a specifically religious background, so his relationship to Kousaka might have been that of chigo and master in the secular sense, so that of a wakashuu (“young folk” ; prepubescent boys considered genderless/not men yet) and a samurai master who offers him apprenticeship, be it in academics, religion, martial arts, etc. Those were purely contractual relationships, supposed to end once the boy comes of age, and weren’t necessarily sexual. …But sexual relationships were prevalent enough that the samurai’s sexual practices with young boys has a name, wakashuudo. As for the nature of Zatto and Kousaka relationship, nothing is specified canonly.

Zatto’s subordinate, Moroizumi Sonnamon, got his name when Sensei told herself “Isn’t something like that good?” Sonnamon’s name is spelled with the kanji characters 尊奈門 sonnamon, individually meaning 尊 son, respect, 奈 na, quince fruit, and 門 mon, gate. I already explained the etymology of his name in another blog post. “Sonnamon” spelled in the phonetic hiragana alphabet, そんなもん sonnamon, means “that’s how it is”, “that’s like that”, “that’s it”... So when she said “Isn’t something like that good?”, it sounds like そんなもんでいいんじゃないの, sonnamon de iinja nai no?, or “Isn’t “sonnamon” good?” .

Sonnamon is 19 years old.

Sonnamon is Zatto’s subordinate number two, and Zatto’s favorite.

Hyougo Navy

The Hyougo Navy crew is modeled after the real Murakami Navy. They were devoted to war lords and close to the samurai class. Suigun directly translates to “navy”, but is an historical term. It refers to groups of pirates robbing goods meant as official taxes, who eventually gained enough power and influence to control a given area at sea. They became sort of “samurai of the sea” when daimyo (feudal lords) contracted them to provide security, transporting goods, set up checkpoints, collect fees, etc. The Murakami Navy operated in the Seto Inland sea, the body of water separating the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.

Atoi is tall because he’s Gilyak. His name comes from the word “atuy” in Ainu language, which means “sea”. Gilyak, or Nivkh people, are an indigenous ethnic group living in the northern Sakhalin Island (north of Japan) and the adjacent Russian coast, by the river Amur. In the Muromachi period, they traded with the Chinese, Japanese, and Ainu people. Ainu are another ethnic group inhabiting the north of Japan, Kuril Islands, and southern Sakhalin Island. The Ainu language is written either in latin characters or Japanese katakana alphabet, making the word for “sea” spelled atuy or アトゥイ. Atoi’s name is written 網問 in Japanese, the kanji characters are used for phonetics rather than meaning: 網(a), 問(toi).

Suiren, the dedicated swimmers/divers of the Hyougo Crew, also perform during battle. This ended up being shown in 31-57, Shige and Miyoshimaru dive to stick explosives under enemy ships.

Whales were luxury goods, offered as a valuable present.

Whale fishing was used as practice for naval battles.

Yoshimaru has a woman in every port.

Kagerou’s eye was shot with an arrow, and when he pulled it out both the arrow and eye came out together.

Kagerou suffers from landsickness (oka-yoi) and vomits going bluuurgh (gerogero), so that’s why his name is Kagerou.

Pirates who got landsick were an actual thing. It is an actual thing for sailors, yes. It’s called Mal de débarquement syndrome.

Kameko will inherit the Fukutomi family business.

Kameko admired Chouji, but will marry Onigumomaru.

Onigumomaru will manage the import and export of goods, while Kameko will work staying on land.

Sekibune are fast, but not sturdy. It can reach a speed of about 16.2 km/h when rowed by hand. Given that the current ships of the Japan Coast Guard can reach roughly twice that speed, achieving this speed with a hand-rowed boat is impressive.

Atakebune have high defense, but are slow. About 2 knots. Sekibune and Atakebune are two types of warships used during the Sengoku period. Atakebune is the larger one. 2 knots is about 3,7km/h.

The price to hire pirates as bodyguards is absurdly high. They’d ask for something like ⅓ of the cargo one is carrying, but there’s no substitute for safety.

In the Hyougo Crew, Yoshimaru is the first to attack during battles. Explained in 20-79, part of the Hyougo Crew Audition Arc.

Others characters

After Doi-sensei ruined the Yamada family’s picnic, little Rikichi felt “damn him!” since he was a cheeky kid. But later, just like how an elementary school student grows affection for his teacher, he became attached to Doi-sensei. Doi-sensei crashing the Yamada’s picnic appears in 30-35.

Rikichi wasn’t a student of Ninjutsu Academy.

A long time ago in the rakuran doujin world, it was believed that Yamada Denzou gave Rikichi a spartan education, this fact being apparently written in an answer letter to a fan by Amako-sensei.

But it��s actually his mother who taught ninjutsu to Rikichi. Shown in 32-62.

Rikichi goes through a seriously turbulent phase in his twenties. The original wording uses the verb 荒れる, “to become violent, out of control”, “to get wild”, “to come to ruin”, implying physical and mental instability.

Rikichi will leave a child he got from making a housemaid pregnant in Doi’s care.

That child will look a lot like Rikichi.

They had a talk kind of like, “That child looks a lot like you.” “...S/He’s an orphan.”

Yoshirou and Kisanta are close friends. Initially, Yoshirou was designed with a short bun, making him look even more similar to Tomesaburou.

Back when the anime’s production started, Sensei asked the staff “Please make sure to give Shousei-san a cool voice, okay?”.

The reason why Shousei-san has such a sexy voice is that since he uses matchlocks regularly, the smoke that comes out of the fuse gets to his throat. Because of this, his voice became lower.　　　　　

Satake’s rifle corps will eventually go under, as every army will have their own rifle corps in the future.

Shousei knows this, but keeps silent as he watches over his men.

In the near future, Satake and Fukutomi will be in conflict, because Fukutomi will do business selling guns to every military commander for the war. While no specific date is mentioned in Nintama, we know it takes place during the Sengoku period, which overlaps with the Muromachi period. “Muromachi” is often brought up within the series, and this period corresponds to the Ashikaga Shogunate, which ends in 1573. The use of firearms, which will become even more widespread in the future of the series, seems to indicate we are near the end of Muromachi, when the matchlocks imported from Portugal in the port of Sakai were imitated and perfected by Japanese blacksmiths. Oda Nobunaga equipped his army with firearms in 1549, slowly setting a standard as they got further improved in the following years.Meaning the story is probably set after 1549 but before 1573!

Komatsuda Yuusaku is not married. He really wants to marry, but he’s still dealing with a recent heartbreak.

Kitaishi Teruyo’s age was a fan’s idea.

She is 19 years old. That makes her a mature woman for the era.

Kitaishi Teruyo is in a position similar to Fujiko Mine, except she always ends up making a mistake at a critical moment, resulting in failure. Not sure what their connection is…. Fujiko Mine is a femme fatale kind of character, from the franchise Lupin the III. A female character working solo amongst an overwhelmingly male cast…?

General setting stuff, misc info

The salary of foot soldiers was between 60~70 mon per day. Meaning that hiring 100 foot soldiers for a month would cost 300,000,000 yen nowadays. At war, one battle would cost 3,000,000,000yen, so Dokutake Castle is pretty rich.

Linen fabric cost 100 mon, making clothes very expensive at the time. As a consequence, laborers such as horse riding couriers wore little to no clothes. Characters like Seihachi or Danzou don’t wear pants when riding horses so as to not damage expensive clothes.

Couriers load heavy luggage on a pole they carry on their shoulder. When that happens, they’d remove their clothes to avoid damaging them. When that happens to Seihachi, he ends up wearing no pants and no top, leaving him looking all sexy. (lol. Oh... Seihachi.)

At the time, wood planks were valuable. Half of Rantarou’s house has bamboo flooring.

Because the wood plane wasn’t invented yet, wood planks would look uneven. The beams of Doi-sensei’s house have that uneven finish to them. Kanna, the japanese wood plane (the tool used to make planks even), has been developed mid-Muromachi, making it a new invention by the time Nintama takes place. Before that, yariganna, a curved blade attached to a handle, was used to work wood. The labor intensity came at cost, meaning advanced carpentry was first for samurai houses, temples etc.

The age of characters is expressed according to the western style of counting ages, not the traditional Japanese one. Rantarou, Kirimaru, Shinbei, and all the 1st years are 10 years old. The western way of counting age is what you’re familiar with: a just born is 0 year old, and will turn 1 after fully completing one year, etc. The traditional Japanese way of counting ages comes from China, and faded out of use after the Meiji era. A baby would be considered 1 year old when born, and everyone would get one year older during the New Year. So for example, all the first years are considered 10 years old in modern times, but would have been considered 11 back in the days.

The pattern on Shou-chan’s clothes is called “suhama”. Literally "sandy beach". It’s a symbol representing a shoreline.

The pattern on Kisanta’s clothes is called “shikiriki”. I couldn’t find any information about this, so I wonder if it was misheard. The “shi” part might come from 四 shi, “four”, the first letter in 四角 shikaku, “square”.

The pattern on Ooki-sensei’s clothes is called “karigane”. It refers to the clothes he wears in the manga, since it’s different in the anime. The twisty shape evokes the wings of a goose. Karigane is originally used as a family emblem, kamon, and it features the bird’s head on top of the twisty shape.

The screentone used for the 6th years’ uniform is “Tone No. 654 LETRASET JAPAN”.

And that's it for now! Phew! Thank you for reading this far!

#nintama #nintama rantarou #op #translation #meta

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walks-the-ages · 8 months ago

Text

Nanowrimo made a half-assed, desperate ""apology"" post

Full text, for when they inevitably try to edit it; as of right now it's August 6th, 2024, around 5:30pm est.

A Note to Our Community About our Comments on AI – September 2024 To the NaNoWriMo Community: In early August, debates about AI on our social media channels became vitriolic. It was clear that the intimidation and harassment we witnessed were causing harm within our community of writers. The FAQs we crafted last week were written to curtail those behaviors. We wanted to send a clear signal that NaNoWriMo spaces would not be used to bully or delegitimize other writers. This was consistent with our May 2024 statement, which named a lack of civility in NaNoWriMo spaces as a longstanding concern. Taking a position of neutrality was not an abandonment of writers’ legitimate concerns about AI. It was an acknowledgment that NaNoWriMo can’t maintain a civil, inclusive community if we allow selective intolerance. We absolutely believe that AI must be discussed and that its ethical use must be advocated-for. What we don’t believe is that NaNoWriMo belongs at the forefront of that conversation. That debate should continue to thrive within the greater writing community as technologies continue to evolve. We apologize that our original message was unclear and seemingly random. Our note on ableism and classism was rooted in the desire to point out that, for people in certain circumstances, some forms of AI can be life-changing. We certainly don’t believe those with concerns about AI to be classist or ableist. Not being more careful about our wording was a bad decision on our part. Our Mission is about providing encouragement to writers and cheering them on as they progress toward their goals. That remains our primary focus. In the future, we will be more transparent about the issues that we are trying to address with any messaging we provide. Finally, we recognize that some members of our community have other questions and concerns that go beyond general context for our comments. We don’t think we can address all of these in a single communication. Additional context here is that we are a very small team (including our Interim Executive Director, who is a volunteer). We want to take the time to read through your letters with the care, attention, and concern they deserve. Please expect more in the coming weeks. In partnership, The NaNoWriMo Team

I sincerely hope their other sponsors bail ship and leave them to flounder at this point lmao. There is no going back from "if you criticize generative AI you're just ableist classist and racist".

They've also once again edited their "What Is Nanowrimo's Stance on AI?" post:

New text, in full; looks like it was updated sometime late yesterday or early today (August 6th 2024):

What is NaNoWriMo's position on Artificial Intelligence (AI)? 13 hours ago -Updated Not yet followed by anyone

NaNoWriMo neither explicitly supports nor condemns any approach to writing, including the use of tools that leverage AI. We recognize that harm has been done to the writing and creative communities at the hands of bad actors in the generative AI space, and that the ethical questions and risks posed by some aspects of this technology are real. The fact that AI is a large, complex technology category (which encompasses both non-generative and generative AI, applied in a range of ways to a range of uses) contributes to our belief that AI is simply too big and too varied to categorically support or condemn. NaNoWriMo's mission is to "provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people use their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page." We fulfill our mission by supporting the humans doing the writing. Please see this related post that speaks to our overall position on nondiscrimination with respect to approaches to creativity, writer's resources, and personal choice. We made mistakes in our initial expression of this position. We speak to those mistakes in this letter to our community, and we've simplified the language on this page to reflect our core position.

If you're wondering why Nano's posting all these non-apologies, its because they started this debacle with seven huge sponsors.

Over the course of the last three days, they've gone down to four.

They have literally lost about half their sponsors because of their support of generative ai.

And, as you can see in the "apologies" above, they're still defending their AI stance, by now claiming that their stance is because they were defending poor, hapless AI users from a horde of harassment and bullying from all sides, and they're not a platform that condones bullying! totally! (sarcasm).

#nanowrimo #anti ai #fuck ai #CRASH AND BURN BABEYYYY #you don't get to use 'Disabled People' as a shield for your shitty AI sponsor!!!!!!#AI is not gonna make me a better writer or magically make anything I write good or better

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wystiix · 9 months ago

Text

talk to me, please

❥ pairing: venti x gn!reader ❥ synopsis: Venti anxiously waits for a text from you to the point where he overthinks and nearly spirals into madness—will you please just fucking reply already? ❥ cw: crack, attempt at humour (kms), fluff maybe?? not proof-read so some stuff may not make sense lmao ❥ additional tags: lowkey kinda revolves around texting, venti's perspective, no pronouns for reader, modern setting, venti is a humanities major cuz i said so, does this count as socmed??? idk someone tell me i need to sleep it's 2am ❥ word count: 955 ❥ notes: bonjour hi hello kumusta. my foot is fucking asleep and my leg feels numb and my back hurts and i'm tired an it's 2am i have school i need to stop. okay so for context i was texting this girl and she wasn't replying so i went crazy, and then i thought "wait i could write a fic about this" and here we are. it was actually kinda fun writing this HAHAHAHAHA but i had to rush it cuz i have other stuff to do so uh it may be a bit quick. (see end notes after reading cuz i said so /j)

The clock ticked. It had been three hours. Venti stared at his phone, impatiently waiting for you just please, please, please reply.

Try to distract yourself, one may say, and mark these fucking words, he did.

He tried everything. From listening to music to doing the dishes, to cleaning his room. Oh, but that was not all.

For the past few hours, he reorganised his notes, desk and playlist, walked at least twenty laps around his dorm, ate all his snacks from the pantry like a fatass, cleaned up his closet and planned what he was going to wear a week from now, learned a new song on his guitar and even counted every single one of his ceiling and wall tiles.

There were exactly 146 tiles in his dorm. That number now forever haunts him.

Practically exhausted from being way too productive than he usually was, he slumped down on his bed and opened the app he used to text you. There was still no reply.

Venti buried his face into his pillow, letting out a groan of frustration.

It was incredibly frustrating and it nearly drove him crazy. Were you seriously that busy? Normally you would respond within a span of seconds, a few to thirty minutes at the latest. But fucking three hours?

He couldn’t let this opportunity slip away. You both had been talking for over a week—he couldn’t afford to mess this up.

But what if you suddenly lost interest? Oh, it felt far too early for that. Was he finally going to have that Mitski experience? Was he going to be those depressed poets who poured their hearts out through their ink on the paper when a single minor inconvenience happened to them?

You were killing him. And it was not softly. Venti felt as if his heart was shattering into a million pieces.

Was this his destiny, his punishment for choosing to pursue such a depressing major in humanities?

How cruel the universe is.

He sighed in defeat, opening his notes app to write and exude a poetic, Shakespearean ballad about this before his phone suddenly buzzed.

Ding! You have received a new message from [Name]!

Holy shit has his fingers never moved so quickly before in his entire life, clicking on the notification faster than he could blink. Your sudden message almost gave him a heart attack, for fuck’s sake.

So much for living and breathing Shakespeare.

Oh, how his heart fluttered. A simple message, yet it had him forget about his lament just a few seconds prior and he found himself swooning, practically glazing your message as if it was the most fascinating piece of literature he had ever laid eyes on.

Venti paused, rereading your message 25 million times, unsure how to reply. Should he respond right away, or would that be too eager? He didn’t want to come off as desperate, but three hours of waiting had been excruciating. Perhaps he should wait a minute or two… No, that would be too long!

God he wanted to punch himself in the face for clicking that notification too fast, now he has to think of a response on the spot or else he’d look like an asshole.

He started to type out a response.

k, i see.

He paused, immediately deleting the message with a shake of his head. Too dry, he has to sound interested. I understand! Would you like to shift the conversation to a less taxing topic? Delete. Too formal. LMAOOO dw dw, what was it about anyway? Delete. ahh hope the essay didn’t stress u out too much!! Delete. i’m madly in love with u Delete. Had he sent that he would find the nearest cliff and leap off.

Venti sighed, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. Why was this so complicated? He wanted to sound interested, but not desperate; casual, but not indifferent. He ended up typing something simple and hitting send before he could second-guess himself again. Sometimes, being simple is the ultimate sophistication.

He fought the urge to chuck his phone across the room. Shit, was that too casual? How long were you going to reply this time?

There were immediate blinking dots.

The tension in his chest eased as he found himself giggling at your comment. He realised the way he was acting earlier was ridiculous, maybe this wasn’t so bad.

Venti felt the weight lift off his shoulders. The conversation was back on track, and he could breathe easy again. Just as he was about to put down his phone, the blinking dots appeared again, and he immediately reverted his attention back to it.

Another message.

What.

What the fuck. Was this real?

He put his phone face down, allowing everything to sink in.

What the fuck. Coffee? Tomorrow? With you? Did you just ask him out? Was this real? Was he real? Were you real?

The anxiety that lingered within slowly ebbed away as he stared at the ceiling tiles—the same tiles that haunted him earlier. However, they now seemed oddly comforting.

“Holy shit.”

Gods above, was this a blessing? Maybe his love life wasn’t so hopeless after all.

Venti’s gaze drifted to his closet, where he noticed that same outfit he intended to wear a week from now. A cozy, soft-beige sweater with a hint of cream peeked out from behind a row of neatly hung clothes, gently draping over a pair of charcoal chinos.

He grinned like an idiot, giggling and kicking his feet like a little child who just received their favourite toy. A string of “oh my god, oh my god” repeated endlessly in his head like a loop.

And for once, the silence didn’t feel so heavy.

❥ notes: hi so yes. yes i did what he did here. yes i counted my tiles, but it was my bathroom tiles instead. there are like 121 tiles in the bathroom, including the hidden ones. in this fic i just added the average number of tiles to that number which was like 25 tiles??? lowkey idk i just estimated. and yes i did plan my outfit a week from now, which is for church. yes i cleaned my room. yes i walked more than ten laps around my living room. i was restless. yes i was productive as hell. lmfao by the time i was done with the fic she replied to me so yay!! win!! also pls get the "you were killing him and it's not softly" reference i hope someone at least gets it or else i'm gonna cry myself to sleep. yeah anyways im gonna sleep gn <3

#i need to stop posting late at night #venti #genshin venti #venti genshin impact #genshin modern au #venti x reader #genshin x reader #venti x you #venti x y/n #☆ wystys ink

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lookismfanfics · 1 year ago

Note

Halluuu! Thank you so much for doing my request ("Are you tired?"), It was so sweet and comforting 🥺♥️

I'm not sure if ur request box is open so please ignore this if it is 😅

May I please request a gun and Vasco (plus any additional characters u like) with a s/o who overworks themselves to the point that they would collapse?

How would the guys react?

-🐮 anon

𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤

𝐆𝐮𝐧 • 𝐕𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐨 Genre: Fluff-ish!

Notes: this is super long overdue. I hope you like it 🐮 anon!!

𝐆𝐮𝐧

🝮 Gun tried to instill a resting period on you. He had printed out schedules in the past and aggressively forced you to follow them.

🝮 He knew that wasn’t the end of it, but he left it be for a while.

🝮 Seeing him while you were working was great. It made you smile a little, helped ease some tension in your back. (Especially since Gun had a habit of spontaneously and roughly massaging your shoulders.)

🝮 Gun was protective (possessive) by default. The moment he saw you collapse for the first time he knew he had to do something about it.

🝮 In the moment he scooped you off the floor and took you somewhere private, offering you water and food like there was no tomorrow.

🝮 “How often does this happen?” He had asked. And while you wanted to reassure him you were fine, you admitted that this happened when you were stressed and overworked yourself.

🝮 This led to texts. So now Gun texts you quite a bit. In the middle of your (job/school) you’ll feel your phone vibrate, and look down to see a couple messages lighting your lock screen.

🝮 In general Gun doesn’t reach out to people very much. He shows up at your house and work/school unannounced more often than not.

🝮 BUT, for the sake of you not overworking yourself, he’ll tell you to sit down for a minute. He’ll initiate texts and calls. You always heed his warnings.

🝮 “How’d today go?” He asks, rubbing his thumbs into your shoulder tissues. He looks down at you mildly.

🝮 “Fine,” you reply, shooting him a quick smile before focusing on whatever you were doing.

🝮 He leans over into the crook of your neck, brushing his lips behind your ear. “Any more incidents…?”

🝮 You reach your free arm up around his head and run your fingers through his hair. “Nope. I was fine babe,” you smile.

🝮 Gun tries to dodge your gaze when he smiles, but he fails. You catch his lips softly curving upward. He’s glad.

𝐕𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐨

🝮 You just felt like there was so much to do… and your body couldn’t keep up with the workload.

🝮 You were lucky, actually, that Vasco was swinging by. This had happened before, so he was aware of your bad habits… or whatever you’d like to call them.

🝮 He watches you bustle back and forth, carry a couple boxes, run your hands through your hair and wipe your sweaty hands on your shirt.

🝮 He furrows his brows, clutching the takeout he brought you close to himself.

🝮 “(Y/N)… is this not a good time?” He asks, eyes wide and innocent.

🝮 Your vision starts to cross a little, and you press your hand to your temple. “Uh… no- Euntae-”

🝮 Your body starts falling… and his body just reacts-!

🝮 🏃‍♂️💨

🝮 Vasco cradles your head, as he usually does. His eyes are even wider now as he scoops you into a bridal carry.

🝮 “Oh no! (Y/N)! You outdid yourself again!” He gasps in delayed shock. As if he hasn’t been carrying you to a chair for thirty seconds.

🝮 You blink up at him. You feel your legs trembling from exhaustion. You really did outdo yourself.

🝮 (That sounds fine in this context 👆)

🝮 Vasco places you down and runs around blindly to get you water. He hasn’t quite established a system with you… and checking in isn’t as easy anymore. His phone skills are a little—

🝮 He cups the back of your head and holds the cup of water to your lips, brows drawn together in concentration. Your hand reaches up and grabs the cup for yourself.

🝮 He kneels by your side for half an hour, asking how you’re feeling and if he can help you.

🝮 The takeout he ordered didn’t spill… so you’re able to eat that.

🝮 You explain to him your habits of overworking yourself again. He seems to understand for the moment. He tells you seriously that you need to “take care of your body. Or else you’ll fall and I won’t catch you.”

🝮 Whenever this does happen, he waits. He only leaves if you ask him for something. Hands will rest gently (and shyly) on your lap. Eyes will remain glued to you.

🝮 He hates seeing you overwork yourself. Bbb wants you to take care 🥺

Thank you beloved Anon for being so patient! I’m finally trying to plow through my requests… and kick writers block in the arse. So expect… things!!

#lookism headcannons #lookism webtoon #lookism #lookism manhwa #lookism x reader #Vasco x reader #Basco x reader #Vasco headcannons #Vasco x G/N reader #euntae lee x reader #gun park #gun park x reader #My requests are ALL OVERDUE #THIS IS LATE

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the-nosy-neighbor · 4 months ago

Text

Religious Language and Symbols in Welcome Home

Edit: i have posted all or some if this under the post "wally is my homeboy." I couldn't find it when i searched, but found it later.

I am going to be pulling from personal experience on this one. My experience growing up was with a Baptist church, so be aware that this is the flavor of religion I will be discussing. I’m not religious, and I don’t care to insert myself in another person’s religious life or beliefs. But: thinking about how we got the cross cufflink, I started thinking about the religious language that is used in the Baptist tradition.

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get here, but there is a lot of language that is used in Welcome Home that is also used in Christianity.

THE CALL

I am going to start abbreviating Baptist Christianity to “BC.” So, in BC, God gives you a calling. A calling is some message, verbal or non-verbal, sometimes even just a feeling, that lets you know what God would like you to do. In particular, people are called to be a preacher or a preacher’s wife, or deacons, etc. I can’t imagine the numbers of people who have attempted to receive a clear message from God. I never felt any kind of calling, though I did know people who have had that experience.

BC uses phone language into their own discussions of religious experience to describe “the call”, like:

Jesus is calling, will you answer?

Answer the call

Jesus calling, how well are you listening?

There are also biblical references of God calling people to him.

When we think about this in the context of WH, we are literally being called. We have had multiple phone calls from Wally, and maybe even one from home (if the one audio clip counts as a call.) Wally can call and talk to us, and share his thoughts, but we are unable to talk to him. We have seen others who are getting the call, but can’t pick up. Q, and presumably The Question Answerer, do answer the call, though we get the feeling that they considered it either foolish or a big mistake. They are constantly hearing the ringing of Wally’s call.

As for us, the audience us, Wally is pretty consistently reaching out to us. He talks to us when others can’t hear him, which in this metaphor makes us on the level of a prophet. We have special access to his communications. Q and QA also have special access, but we seem to have an even stronger connection, hearing text that they are either ignoring or can’t legitimately hear. We also seem to have caught on to Wally’s attempts to communicate through the website much earlier. Q has asked or mentioned before that we can hear it, too—but we have seemed to be in regular contact with Wally before Q managed to figure out that something was happening on the website. Could be denial, I suppose.

Q and QA hold a special position with Wally that we don’t, however. They get direct contact from WH’s reality (whatever we are calling that—area, dimension) while we only have access to what Q shares with us. There are multiple references to documents and/or artifacts that we don’t have access to, such as additional books and records. The only other person so far that has had access to these materials is QA, and they were quickly driven insane by the contact. Well, according to Q they were insane. I always thought that what happened there is that QA, as an archivist, is documenting the strangeness that has taken over the exhibit space, but there are clues that point toward QA starting to doubt that they are experiencing reality anymore.

It is possible that insane is not the correct terminology here, because prophets are often considered to be experiencing things on a plane that normal people can’t comprehend. History is full of stories of prophets and people driven mad through exposure to the full experience of god’s form or voice. Fiction is full of characters who face the consequences of experiencing the full power of a supreme being: mortal Semele asks Zeus to see his true form and is vaporized, Paula sees Castiel’s true form and her eyes are burned out in Supernatural, Christian God tells Moses seeing him in his glory would kill him. (for just some random examples)

Our favorite, TV Tropes, has a lot of examples of this concept of going mad due to exposure to truth, whether it be from God, a god, or an eldritch horror: “Go mad from the Revelation.” We have definitely seen this in the form of QA’s breakdown, which Q somehow pretends not to understand, despite being in the same position (but with somewhat different results). Q says they aren’t sure what breaks QA, but at the same time, describes sitting in front of a TV for 3 months, not realizing that it was longer than a day. It seems like Q and QA are both existing in a spectrum between religious fervor and Lovecraftian horror. Wally doesn’t appear to be God at this point, but it doesn’t mean he is full Lovecraftian horror either. It’s like we haven’t landed in one place yet, so multiple possibilities are open.

Wally signs off, “always know that I love you, very much.” That language is very reminiscent of descriptions of God’s love (New Testament God, anyway.) Closely related to this idea is that Christians generally believe that Jesus lives in their hearts. There appears to be textual references to this, but interpretations are different. Some take it more literally, like you have a personal, physical connection to God through the spirit, heart, chest. Some think of it more like a metaphor, God is your heart, a kind of emotional connection, as we consider the heart the seat of love. There are a wide variety of references to Jesus/God in the heart:

Accept Jesus into your heart (this is the saying for being “saved” in the Protestant tradition)

God’s home in your heart (straight up comparison there)

Home is where the heart is (is actually related to the bible)

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love".

“Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.” “if a man loves me…we will come unto him and make our abode with him.”

God’s home is the church language

Wally is also strongly associated with the heart. He has hearts on his shoes, and Home has a heart underneath. (Barnaby also has heart paw pads, but not sure this is relevant at this point. Julie has been shown to have heart pads of her feet, too, I think.) Wally is consistently telling us that he loves us and that we are important to him.

In the Homewarming record, Howdy says “ It’s about warmin’ the home through their heart!” which is a pretty 1 for 1 reference. You find Wally’s recording about not being able to see you despite us drawing his eyes by clicking the 3 heart drawings. (And there are several doodled hearts around.) A drawn heart takes us to the sound clip of “you-1.” “Can you see me? That’s okay if you can’t. Don’t worry, I know you’re there. You know I’m here too. I will talk to you.” We have a picture of Wally painting Barnaby’s heart pad.

On r/welcomehomeneighbor, u/irrelevant_advices suggests that maybe the heart marks those who are possessed/influenced by Home. This is the best theory for that drawing that I think I have seen. He is painting it blue, which would make it harder to see. Maybe it is a reference to joining the religion or cult, with the heart being Wally’s home/Home’s home. The reference to Wally living in Home seems less random when thinking of it in this religious way.

On r/welcomhomearg, u/Lunami714 posts Wally’s hidden phone clip, and we know that this clip has a heartbeat throughout, louder and fainter.

Wally says “on this funny phone of mine,” funny because it is a direct line to us, we get the call

Wally tells us he knows us and sees us.

The phrase “let me in”

(to be continued)

#welcome home #welcome home theories #welcome home arg #wally darling #welcome home theory

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