#any vocaloid songs (because he hates miku for some reason...)

[thesunmakesmetired]

I know i might have a weird taste for music but i didn't think it was that bad until i gave a lift to my brother and he kept begging be for a normal song after being forced to listen to nyan cat for not even 30 seconds...

And than two trucks started playing...

I just kept skipping through my playlist the whole ride and this is my fun playlist too :((

[epicofevil]

Character Popularity Poll

Epic of Evil page 40-62

After the conclusion of the “Daughter of Evil” novels and the announcement of this fanbook, we opened up a character popularity poll! It was held on Twitter between June 16th and June 30th, and we received a ton of votes. Here we’ll tell you the order, as well as share some of the red hot comments they got!

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1st place with 89 votes

Allen Avadonia (Prince Alexiel)

(Kagamine Len)

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Profile

Age: 14 at death (485-500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Orthodox Lucifenian

Religion: Levin, Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Arth I (deceased), Mother; Anne (deceased), Sister; Riliane, Adoptive Father; Leonhart (deceased), Adoptive Sister; Germaine

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He’s a servant who works in the Lucifenian royal palace, but in truth he is Riliane’s twin brother, Prince Alexiel. During the revolution he is executed in Riliane’s stead.

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-Due to an event that occurred when he was young, Allen as a prince was publicly declared dead. He works as a servant surrounded by his friends.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Len of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

“The Servant of Evil” is the reason I got sucked into AkunoP-sama’s music in the first place.

Allen-kun is the best!

I was really moved by Allen’s kindness at prioritizing Riliane over himself. I think there are probably some people who don’t think he’s kind because he betrayed so many people, but I think “doing it all for the person you want to protect” is itself a different sort of kindness.

Obviously it’s Allen. His words and deeds made me cry my eyes out.

I love how brave he is, and that he was willing to do anything for Riliane’s sake.

He really struck me with how he protected Riliane to the end. I was also about the same age as Allen when I first bought the book, so I was kinda taken in by him being such a naïve young man.

He’s really cool looking!!!

His level of kindness that he devoted himself to his sole blood relative Riliane and ultimately took her place is really amazing…!

He was alright with becoming evil if it was for Riliane’s sake. He did all that for his sister; for Riliane he used his sword to kill people, he can ride a horse, he protected his sister—he’s just really cool!!

What an amazing loyalty he has…Allen supports his sister and the rest!! He’s so awesome, I wanna be like him!!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I rather expected him to be the most popular.

Ichika: Wow, he really was well received.

AkunoP: Unfortunately, he died in the first book, so I wasn’t really able to delve into his character much from the third book onward.

--Rin probably had also moved on from Allen at that point.

AkunoP: I figured things might get pretty dark if I had too many developments that reflected back on the past. I also thought it might not fit with the feel of the third book onwards. However, there’s no way that Rin forgot about Allen, ever. She’s just hesitant to let it show on the outside. And it wouldn’t be all that good for her to show it to anyone, given her position. She’d get found out, lol

--That’s for sure (haha). How about you, Ichika-san?

Ichika: I think he’s sort of like, the most wholehearted character of the main cast. Like coming to help even after he’d already died.

AkunoP: In a certain way, in the latter half he turns into more of a super character than Elluka, lol

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2nd place with 35 votes

Clarith

(Yowane Haku)

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Profile

Age: 21--26 (born 479)

Nationality: Elphegort--Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Netsuma

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father (died when she was young), Mother (died in 499)

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She was discriminated against by Elphe people for being a descendant of the Netsuma clan with white hair and red eyes. She had a negative personality, but that changed when she met Michaela.

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--Though she was quite negative, she was able to become a bit more positive through her relationships with Michaela and Rin.

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*This character was based on “Yowane Haku”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

It’s partially because I really like Haku ane-san, but there’s also her earnest devotion to Michaela, her strength for forgiving Riliane despite having every reason to hate her…I’m not Michaela, but you’re the most wonderful person, for me! Especially how cheerful you were after the revolution in “Praefacio of Blue”, Clarith-san!

I want her to be happy

I like seeing her working so hard.

She feels like the only true “everyman”. So I feel like she’s also the character who “grew” the most. Her meeting with Rin at the monastery on the shore was so sad, I was really touched. I think that Riliane was able to reform as Rin because she had Clarith there for her.

Clarith is so precious, being so negative but also caring for her friends!

I wanna try the brioche that Clarith makes!!

I like everything about her!

I admire her for being so strong.

She’s so dedicated and adorable///

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I think she’s the character who grew up the most through the whole series.

Ichika: She grew the most as a person.

AkunoP: I wanted a character who could see the revolution and the events around it from the perspective of the average person. That was how I came up with Clarith. Actually, she’s a character I came up with even earlier than Elluka, around the same time as the early four. So I’ve gotten pretty attached to her.

Ichika: It feels really good to see her progression from a passive personality to someone who takes action for herself. Also, her catchphrase of “I’m sorry for being alive” is way too easy to use. I found myself blurting it out once while I was working.

AkunoP: That was originally inspired by Daizai. So that might be a bit dangerous as a catchphrase, lol

Ichika: I make sure I only say it when I’m alone in my room, so it’s alright, haha.

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3rd place with 32 votes

Riliane Lucifen d’Autriche (Rin)

(Kagamine Rin)

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Profile

Age: 14--19 (Born 485)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Orthodox Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia Sect--Held sect

Relatives: Father; Arth I (deceased), Mother; Anne (deceased), Brother; Alexiel (Allen) (deceased)

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The princess of Lucifenia. For her outrageous policies she is reviled as the “Daughter of Evil”. After the revolution she lives at a monastery, hiding her true identity.

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--Having survived the revolution, she started a new life in a monastery as “Rin”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Rin of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I really love that scene where she accepts whatever Clarith is going to do to her after Clarith learned the truth, because it shows how much Riliane has grown up over the story.

I want her to live and be strong.

In this story with so many feelings intersecting, she is such a cool and strong fantasy girl who fought without being swept away!

I earnestly love her. Just lots of love. From the heart.

She really is kind! And she has a sense of responsibility! And she’s so so cute!! And she was so cute as a small child too, I love her to bits! She did get possessed by a demon and all, but she’s really a good kid!!

I want her to be happy…

I think she’s a character that I’ve come to like as I’ve read through the “of Evil” series. I want to support Riliane with all my might, surpassing so much grief to grow up like that. I mean, what I’m trying to say is that Riliane is really cute.

She’s the yellow flower of evil in full bloom!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I was really unsure of her role in this. I think the people who listened to the original song were largely split into two points of view. That she was just bad from the core, or that it was the fault of outside influences... In the end, she wound up how she is now.

Ichika: I think Riliane’s another character whose personality and general air changed completely between the former and latter halves of the story. There is the change in environment from princess to nun, but I think myself that Allen is the biggest influence.

--Riliane is one of the characters who grew up in a big way.

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4th place with 29 votes

Elluka Clockworker

(Megurine Luka)

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Profile

Age: Secret♥

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia--Stateless

Race: Leviantan

Religion: Levin Levia Sect

Relatives: NO DATE

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A sorceress with a mysterious air about her, and one of the Three Heroes of Lucifenia. Under request of the great land god Held, she is on a journey to search for the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”.

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--Are her farsighted values, unwavering strength, and the humanity that she sometimes displays the secret key to her popularity?

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 03 “Megurine Luka” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

She’s so strong and smart, and a beauty on top of that! She might seem irreverent but she pulls through when it counts, and always winds up helping people. I also think it’s adorable how bad she is at being straightforward with what she wants to say. She’s surrounded by so much mystery and I’m just caught up in it! I like her and I can’t help but be curious about her!!

She’s strong, she’s so strong, so strong. And that scene where she fought with Abyss was so cool!

She’s mysterious, and when all is said and done she’ll help you out, so I really like her.

Whether she’s making any S-like scowls or looking like a beauty, I love it all!

She’s got this feeling that she’ll pull through when push comes to shove, which makes her really cool.

I’m really enchanted with how, as irreverent as she is, she gets on task and focused in situations where she needs to toughen up and get focused.

She’s a really amazing woman, with a lot of depth. I kinda like how playful she is.

I love how Elluka’s so suspicious.

She acts happy go lucky, but her past that you can glean from the Leviantan Catastrophe and Recollective Music Box is way too sad.

I love heeeer!

That mysterious feel she’s got really kills me! Though I guess I like how free-spirited she is, lol. I really wanna learn more about Elluka’s circumstances!

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Artist’s Comments

--She finally showed up on the cover this time!!

Ichika: Seriously…!

AkunoP: That’s just ‘cause she’s a character that never showed up in the original song. You could say it was inevitable in a sense that she couldn’t come out before this point, lol, but I think the inverse of that is that it’s because she didn’t show up before that she’s been so easy to work with. She’s such a mature character that through the whole series she’s had a sort of feel to her that she’s always got some leeway.

Ichika: Elluka’s been such a steady character this whole series. She’s been alive for such a long span of time that she’s gotta be very well-put together mentally. I like characters like that, so I had a lot of fun drawing her.

--There are a lot of opinions up there that they like how she always comes around to helping people, aren’t there.

AkunoP: Well, she is a bit on in years…Er, nevermind.

Ichika: She does seem very helpful.

AkunoP: She’s got a lot of things on the inside that I haven’t written about yet, probably owing to being a character with a lot of leeway, but in her case I do think that she’ll have a lot of opportunities to show up elsewhere, so…That’s in production, lol

--We’ll wait for the Deadly Sins Series with baited breath! Looking forward to it!

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5th place with 26 votes

Kyle Marlon

(KAITO)

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Profile

Age: 26(claims to be 22)--31 (born 474)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Previous king of Marlon (deceased), Mother; Empress Dowager Prim, Sister; Ney (different fathers), half-brother; Arkatoir (different mothers), countless other siblings of different mothers (all dead)

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The young ruler of Marlon. He’s very vexed at being a puppet of his mother, Empress Dowager Prim. He has a very straight-laced personality with a strong sense of justice.

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--Though his status is as a king, he often stands on the front lines and goes out in disguise.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

His bravery when it comes to Michaela is just too cute!

That he was able to overcome the temptations of a demon a second time, despite knowing a demon’s power and having been reliant on them before, and went out to fight with his own power was just so awesome…!

He may be a troublemaker(?) who inadvertently glosses over his age, but Kyle-niisama really pulled through when it came down to it, and I love him for it!

I feel like he’s the character that gets messed with the most, but I really like him a lot (haha).

My vote goes to the young king who experienced love and hatred, came vast to face with his weakness, and in the end majorly grew up.

He’s so pitiful it’s adorable~ And I think he’s a relatively tasty character!!

I wanna shout it out! I frikkin’ love him!

No matter how he’s wavered, no matter how he’s tempted by demons, in the end he stood on his own two feet. I just love him for that!!

I really like his personality. His conversations with Germaine were really funny!

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Artist’s Comments

AkunoP: I’ll say this now that it’s all over, but in the end I did end up liking this character. Only, I didn’t actually want to write him as being that cool.

Ichika: He participated in the revolution, he fell in love, he transformed into a demon…Now that I think on it, he’s a busy guy.

AkunoP: I feel like he’s the character that single-handedly undertakes the idea of “human weakness”. I mean, I don’t think he’s that cool if you look at just his actions, lol.

--The comments calling him “precious” and “incompetent” really stood out.

AkunoP: That’s cause he’s not a hero at all.

Ichika: Looking at him overall I guess he is pretty incompetent...lol

--There was also a comment calling him the “hunky sad king”(haha).

Ichika: lololol

AkunoP: I think that’s perfect lol

--You can’t even get him to follow-up(haha)

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6th place with 25 votes

Gumillia

(Megpoid)

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Profile

Age: 1028--1033 (appears 16--24 on the outside)

Nationality: Elphegort--Kingdom of Lucifenia--Stateless

Race: spirit--Elphe

Religion: Levin Levia sect (publicly)

Relatives: Held (lord), Michaela (same race)

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A sorceress who was a spirit incarnated into a human. She searches for the “Vessels of Deadly Sin” alongside Elluka as her apprentice. She has a very level and calm personality, but she also has a side that’s very caring about her friends.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Megpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I really love the way she talks. And I don’t think I’m the only one who got excited at her wearing glasses in Praeludium. Her and Elluka make a really good duo. I’m really looking forward to seeing their actions in the Pere Noel period in the novels to come. I’m guessing she’s the one who made that handgun.

She’s so cool and awesome! Her glasses really suit her!

She’s very blunt but I really like how that contrasts with how caring she is for her friends.

Her clumsy broken speech is just so incredibly cute!! And she’s so strong!!

I’m just…really interested in Elluka and Gumillia’s journey after this!

The fact that she put on glasses…And I’m very intrigued as to this “important person” that she decided to stay human for!

I wish she could have stayed with Michaela forever.

Obviously it’s Gumillia!

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7th place with 19 votes

Germaine Avadonia

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Age: 20--25 (Born: 480)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia (erased)

Race: Beelzenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive Father; Leonhart (deceased), Adoptive Brother; Allen (deceased)

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The adoptive daughter of one of the Three Heroes of Lucifenia, Leonhart, as well as Allen’s adoptive older sister. She is the “red-armored swordswoman” who garners acclaim as the leader of the Resistance.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

She’s really stylish. I admire her.

I think it’s so cool that she’s such a gallant woman. I wanted to become someone like her too!!

Those words she said when she came face to face with Rin in the last novel and realized it was Riliane just left me speechless. I really like Germaine’s weak and strong points.

I really love her big-sisterly disposition and compassion. I want her to be happy (。・ω・。)

A woman swordswoman is so cool! She’s so amazing! I feel like she’s the hottest person in all of Daughter of Evil lol. Her line “Just what in the world is evil” in Yellow is my favorite line in all four novels. I want to read how she wound up in Beelzenia after the Revolution.

That line she says during the work about how fast her wounds heal unexpectedly won me over all at once.♪

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8th place with 17 votes

Ney Marlon(Phatipe)

(Akita Neru)

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Profile

Age: 18--23 (age at death) (482--505)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia—Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Behemo sect

Relatives: Mother; Empress Dowager Prim, Older Brother; Kyle, Several other siblings of a different mother, Adoptive mother; Mariam

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Mariam’s adoptive daughter, who takes up a position as head of Marlon’s Special Maneuvers Task Force. From a very young age she was raised by IR as the subject of magical experimentation.

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*This character was based on “Akita Neru”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

Through the work I thought she was a villain the whole time, but after reading Praefacio of Blue I realized that she was actually just a very sad girl. I wish she could have been happy.

The sad end of her life, continuing to be led around by the nose by Prim and a demon, was just tearjerking.

I love her rampaging in the duel scene in Praefacio.

I would be in utter bliss if Ney stabbed me.

I won’t forgive the people who used Ney like that. She’s just too sad. Even though really she was a good kid…

Her crazed expressions, her outfit, I just love everything about her.

She did a lot of horrible things, but Ney was also a victim of the vessels of deadly sin…Also, I absolutely loved Ney wearing Lady Conchita’s dress!

Her crazy face is the best!!!

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9th place with 11 votes

Gast Venom

(Camui Gackpo)

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Profile

Age: 39 at death (461—500)

Nationality: Stateless

Race: Asmodean

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: Little sister; Sarah (deceased)

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A skilled swordsman who bears the moniker, “Demon of Asmodean”. He is searching for one of the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”, the “Venom Sword”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I’m really intrigued by his past. I want to learn more about him, and at the same time I’m hoping we get more info on his excessive sister complex.

You really gotta hurry up with his past mysteries surrounding his sister, Sarah…!! I really like samurai, so I adored the scene where he was fighting with a Japanese sword.

I think he’s really pretty lol. And I liked his how he let Allen hire him because he sympathized with him. During the work I wanted to learn more about the past they alluded to.

It’s too bad he’s only in one book. I wanted to see him do more.

I’m really curious about his sister!

He didn’t show up much but he was really cool!

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10th place with 10 votes

Gallerian Marlon

(KAITO)

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Profile

Nationality: USE

Race: Marlon

Relatives: Wife, daughter

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Kyle Marlon’s descendant. He’s the head judge of the Dark Star Courthouse of the international alliance of USE, founded between the four countries of Marlon, Levianta, Elphegort, and Lucifenia in the year 898. He treasured his daughter, but she passes away in an incident.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I love the greedy juuudge!! Also the fact that he has a kid. I bet he’s a good cook too. I’m really looking forward to the novel for greed in the new series.

He’s so cool! He’s such a kind father, worrying over his daughter! If you want help, show me the money!!!

I really love the corrupt, miserly judge! The fact that he’s a father who’s caring for his daughter that we learned at the end of Praefacio…Makes me wonder if he’s actually a good guy.

I like Gallerian-san.

First of all, I’m just crazy about the middle-aged, fatherly Galle-sama. I can’t help but be enraptured with him as he persists in pushing his own will even until the very end! I hope he can achieve his utopia!

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11th place with 9 votes (tied)

Yukina Freezis

(Kaai Yuki)

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Profile

Age: 9—14 (Born: 491)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Little Brother; Shaw, Younger Sister; Aile

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The eldest daughter of the Freezis household. She is an exceedingly popular novelist who made her debut as an author at nine years old. She has created a great many popular works, and her name lives on in posterity.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid student “Kaai Yuki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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Fan Comments

I like how she’s just brimming with curiosity. And that scene where she reunited with Clarith was great.

I love how strong-willed she is!!!

Actually, I was always watching over Yukina’s adventures with my heart racing, like I was her big sis or mother lol

She’s so cute!! I was so excited when I saw that Gallerian-san was reading the books that Yukina-chan wrote in the distant future!!

She’s really grown up… I really wanna read that “Crow” fairytale that got brought up in Praeludium.

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11th place with 9 votes (tied)

Chartette Langley

(Kasane Teto)

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Profile

Age: 26-31 (Born: 474)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia (erased)

Race: NO DATA

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father, mother

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The head of the Langley unit in the Beelzenian Empire. She is the bearer of extraordinary strength, wielding an enormous sword. She was originally a maid that served in the Lucifenian palace.

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*This character is based on “Kasane Teto”.

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Fan Comments

She has a very lively and simple personality. I think she’d be a fun person to hang out with.

She’s a power fighter who wields a longsword, and I really like her straightforwardness.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I read all four books just because I wanted to read about her gallant figure in it.

She’s one of the few characters in Daughter of Evil to live for the moment rather than being stuck in the past, and it’s really incredible how she’s more about taking action than dwelling on things!

I really love this dummy. Her appearance is adorable but it’s too bad she isn’t at all in how she talks lol

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13th place with 8 votes

Michaela

(Hatsune Miku)

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Profile

Age: 1028—1033 (as a human she dies at 16)

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Religion: Levin Held sect (publicly)

Relatives: Held (lord), Gumillia (same race)

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She was originally a spirit, but she became known as a “diva” when she was reborn into a human. After ending her life as a person, she continued to watch over the world as Held’s successor.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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Fan Comments

I want it so she can be happy with Clarith (>_<)

I was really moved by her kindness *

She was so precious, and she was so kind helping out Clarith

I really like her duet with Clarith. I was a little surprised at her being yuri (?)in Wiegenlied, but I think their feelings towards each other, mutually surpassing a friendship, are awesome. I hope she does her best as the new Held god.

I knew she was going to die. I knew it, but, but…I really wish she could have been happy.

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14th place with 7 votes

Riliane (Lily) Mouchet

(Lily)

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Profile

Age: 25 (Born: 480)

Nationality: Marlon (formerly Kingdom of Lucifenia)

Race: Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Father; Gaston (deceased)

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The original commander of Retasan fortress, with a strong-minded personality. She hates the name Riliane, and so goes by “Lily”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Lily” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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Fan Comments

Gosh I love her ♪(　´０´)ノ

I love her strong-willed personality. The whole time I was reading the book I thought, she’s so cool.

I really love that awesome atmosphere she’s got!

I’m sure I’m not the only one that went all, “It’s Lily!!”. I just love this handsome tomboy general, she’s so awesome. I think it’s her remarks that made it so that Germaine was able to move on ahead. I also love her partnership with Yukina-chan. They’ve got such a great height difference, lol

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15th place with 6 votes (tied)

Keel Freezis

(Hiyama Kiyoteru)

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Profile

Age: 27--32 (Born: 473)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Wife; Mikina, Children; Yukina (eldest daughter) Shaw (eldest son) Aile (youngest daughter)

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A merchant who serves as the head of the merchant trade association. He’s also friends with Marlon’s king Kyle. He’s a doting father, and so when it comes to his children he’s relentless.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid teacher “Hiyama Kiyoteru” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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Fan Comments

Love his being a sappy parent and his affection for Yukina. And I’m also intrigued by his conversations with Kyle.

That doting father is just the best!!

The disconnect between his harsh, bad-friend tone towards Kyle and his unending devotion to his daughter is so lovable.

That doting father Keel is adorable lol That scene where he gets furious at Kyle for hugging Yukina was just the best lolol

Him being a loving father is amusing, but his face as a merchant and his friendship (mean friendship?) with King Kyle is also just right on point.

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15th place with 6 votes (tied)

Ayn

(--)

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Profile

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Relatives: Father (deceased), Mother (deceased)

Notes: A boy from Yatski village. Had an unrequited love for Clarith. After Clarith and Michaela fled to Aceid, he enlisted in the Elphegort military. During the Green Hunting he ran to the forest to help save Michaela and Clarith after they were cornered, but he was murdered by the Lucifenian army chasing after them.

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Fan Comments

‘Cause he helped guide Clarith and Michaela until the end. But it was so sad that he couldn’t tell Clarith how he felt about her. I hadn’t been expecting him to write that scene with Yukina and the rest praying before his grave in the third book, so I was really happy for that.

Because even though it was Clarith he really wanted to protect, he protected Michaela, and was so kind.

I wish he could have been happy with Clarith!

He was the hottest guy in the whole work. I wish he could have done more.

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17th place with 5 votes

Leonhart Avadonia

(LEON)

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Profile

Age:  38 at death(462—500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: NO DATE

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive children; Germaine, Allen (deceased)

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Allen and Germaine’s adoptive father. He’s one of the Three Heroes, and works as the head of the guard for the Lucifenian royalty. Like Germaine, he likes to drink.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “LEON” published by ZERO-G.

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Fan Comments

I cried when he died.

His interminably direct personality is so cool.

Those kids have him as a dad, or else this dad has them for kids. They’re a family, even if they’re not related by blood.

I love the older guys ha ha I love him so much, I was so disappointed at how quickly he died in Cloture.

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18th place with 3 votes

Anne Lucifen d’Autriche

(SWEET ANN)

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Profile

Age: Died at 42 (457—499)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: NO DATE

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Husband; Arth I, Daughter; Riliane, Son; Alexiel

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The former queen of the Kingdom of Lucifenia who possessed both strictness and grace, and also Riliane and Allen’s birth mother. She was friends with Empress Dowager Prim of Marlon.

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*This character was independently made based on the VOCALOID 2 “SWEET ANN” published by PowerFX.

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Fan Comments

She didn’t get much screentime, lolol but I think she’s great with her dependability and grace.

I would have liked to see a record of her child-rearing work when Riliane and Alexiel were still little ankle biters. Maybe she was an unexpectedly scary mom (and conversely maybe King Arth spoiled them).

I think she was a fantastic queen. I tear up when I think about how the twins’ fates would have changed if she’d still been alive…Also, I’d be really happy if we could see her again in something set in the past.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Mariam Phatipe

(MIRIAM)

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Profile

Age: Died at 32 (468—500)

Nationality: Kingdom of Lucifenia

Race: Asmodeanian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Adoptive child; Ney

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A very skilled secret agent, and one of the Three Heroes. Also a former associate of Gast’s. Her duel with Chartette during the revolution was talked about as the “Battle of the Heavenly Yard”.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “MIRIAM” published by ZERO-G.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Aile Freezis

(Tsukuyomi Ai)

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Profile

Age: 10 (Born: 495)

Nationality: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Big Sister; Yukina, Big Brother; Shaw

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The second daughter of the Freezis family. She takes after her mother in appearance and personality, and so has inherited her mature standing. She’s had a weak constitution ever since she was young, and for a time Mikina would be constantly tending to her.

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*This character was based on the VOICEROID character “Tsukuyomi Ai” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Prim Marlon

(PRIMA)

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Profile

Age: 48 at death (457—505)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Lucifenian

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Relatives: Husband; Previous King Marlon (deceased), Son; Kyle, Daughter; Ney (deceased), Younger brother; Presi (deceased)

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The Empress Dowager of Marlon, and Kyle and Ney’s birth mother. She’s a Lucifenian noble, born from the Rogzé family.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID02 “PRIMA” published by ZERO-G.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Arkatoir Marlon

(?)

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Profile

Nationality: Marlon

Religion: Levin Levia sect

Race: Marlon

Relatives: Father; Previous King Marlon, Mother, Half-brother: Kyle, countless other half-siblings (all dead)

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Banica Conchita

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Age: 29 at death (296—325)

Nationality: Beelzenian Empire

Race: Beelzenian

Relatives: Father; Muzuri, Mother

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The figure who serves as the model for the fairytale “Vampiress Vanika”. She earned great distinction improving on Beelzenia’s food culture.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

Ma

(--)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE

Nationality: NO DATE

Race: Jakokuan

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: NO DATE

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19th place with 2 votes (tied)

The Demon of Gluttony

(MEIKO)

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Profile

Race: Demon of Deadly Sin (takes on the appearance of Banica)

Vessel: Glass of Conchita

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The demon that dwells in the “Vessel of Deadly Sin, Glass of Conchita”. She is trying to become the “Master of the Graveyard”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Abyss IR

(?)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE

Nationality: Marlon--Stateless

Race: NO DATE

Religion: NO DATE

Relatives: NO DATE

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A sorceress secretly working in the shadow of history. She’s the one who taught Prim about the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”, and always carries around a red cat. What is her true identity--?

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Shaw Freezis

(Tsukuyomi Shouta)

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Profile

Age: 12 (Born: 493)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Father; Keel, Mother; Mikina, Big Sister; Yukina, Little sister; Aile

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The eldest son of the Freezis family, and Yukina’s younger brother. He’s cheeky, but he’s also a young boy who puts his family first. He’s studying know-how on modern commerce as Keel’s heir.

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*This character was based on the VOICEROID character “Tsukuyomi Shouta” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Mikina Freezis

(miki)

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Profile

Age: 32 (Born: 473)

Nationality: Marlon

Race: Marlon

Religion: Levin Held sect

Relatives: Husband; Keel, Children; Yukina (eldest daughter), Shaw (eldest son), Aile (second daughter)

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Keel’s wife, and mother of three. She has a very good eye for people, but when it comes to her children she turns into a bit of a worrywart.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID2 Artist Engine01 character “SF-A2 codename miki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Eve Moonlit

(Hatsune Miku)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE (~014)

Nationality: Elphegort

Race: Elphe

Relatives: Husband, children (stillbirth), two adoptive children

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The “Original Sinner” who was the impetus for the creation of the “Seven Deadly Sins” and the “Vessels of Deadly Sin”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Sateriasis Venomania

(Camui Gackpo)

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Profile

Age: NO DATE (~137)

Nationality: Beelzenian Empire

Race: Asmodean

Relatives: NO DATE

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The duke of Asmodean in the Beelzenian Empire. He used a “Vessel of Deadly Sin” to cause the “Venomania Incident”.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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26th place with 1 vote (tied)

Trauben fruit

(--)

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Profile

Producing area: Entire Evillious region

Classification: Flowering vine

Traits: The fruit grows in bunches, and can be made into things like wine.

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We counted 366 votes in all!

Thank you for all the poll responses!!

directory

[yellowocaballero]

You And Me (And Your Friend Daisy)

Thanks for pushing me to finish this, Anon! This is a short, fun, and romantic story written in the verse of my other fics Bell, Book, and Candle and No Sin But Ignorance. Takes place some time post the ending of No Sin But Ignorance. That being said, this is probably very comprehensible without knowledge of those fics, so feel free to just view it as a no-apocalypse au. The majority of this was written while writing Feste - more accurately, when I needed a break from the crushing depression of Feste, so that’s why it’s so cheerful. :)

Yes, it’s named after that Garfunkel and Oates song, because that’s the plot. 

The rest of the story is under the cut!

*******************************************

“Are you going to tell me where we are?”

“You have to guess! And no peeking!”

Jon sighed, slouching in his seat. He hated surprise vacations. He hated being forced to leave work and ‘take a break’ because ‘you’re contractually obligated to use your PTO hours’. And he did take vacations, he didn’t know why everybody acted like he didn’t. He and Georgie took Gerry to Blackpool once a year for Spring Break. That was a whole week off. That was enough for anybody. 

But Martin had been pointedly sending him emails about ‘fun couple’s trips’ and ‘romantic getaways’ in an ultra-subtle act of subliminal messaging. Indeed, the three emailed promotional advertisements listing off fun, relaxing, and romantic things to do with your significant other were so subtle that Emma was forced to listen in on the automated JAWS voice reading them out and then call him a ‘fucking idiot’. 

Whatever. It wasn’t as if Gertrude took any vacations, and nobody got on her back for it. Jon was willing to bet that Dekker never sent Gertrude any passive aggressive emails. He would have to ask him later - they got boba together once a month, he was an excellent conversational partner. He was, of course, slightly insane, both for his fervent adherence to the ancient religions and willingness to come within five feet of Gertrude Robinson for personal reasons, but all the best supernatural hunters were. 

“Well, we’ve clearly been driving north for the past eight hours, judging from the angle of the sun,” Jon said, annoyed. The car radio was playing the Archers in a dull drone, which Jon had insisted upon, because he and Daisy never missed an episode. This confused and frightened Martin. A bag rustled, and Jon knew that Martin was fishing around in the plastic convenience store sack for more Jaffa cakes. “Combined with the time, that can only mean that we’re going to Scotland. I don’t have any close friends in Scotland and I’m willing to be you don’t either -”

“Hey!”

“ - so unless you assigned yourself the task of following up on the Scottish Slaughter Statement without me assigning it to you, and deciding to bring me along, I’m guessing that we’re going to stay in a hotel and do...touristy things.”

“Wrong again,” Martin said triumphantly. He liked keeping track of every time Jon was innocently incorrect about something, just to prove it to everyone else. “I mean, yes, we are in Scotland, you’re right about that, but we are not staying in a hotel. We’re staying in the country.”

“Darling, I would love to sit on the Scottish Moors and stare out into the endless, unceasing fog with you in complete silence,” Jon said lovingly, “but I thought you wanted to do something romantic.”

“That’s not romantic?” Martin gasped, horrified. “Have you even read Wuthering Heights?”

“You and Gerry are two peas in a goth pod.”

“He’s goth, I’m gothic. There’s a difference. And don’t tell me that you don’t enjoy gothic literature - you’re literally a Byronic hero.”

“Oh, here we go,” Jon sighed, as the car bumped over a speed bump. He hadn’t heard another car for hours now, and he knew that they had to be in the middle of nowhere. The weather had grown colder, more humid, and occasionally he could hear the bleat of cows. It was...calming. 

Then Martin started listing off the very many reasons why Jon was a classical Byronic hero, then Jon had to remind him that none of that stuff had technically happened, then Martin began insisting that it happened in their hearts, then Jon got deeply engrossed into today’s episode of the Archers and felt the need to inform Martin about its illustrious and aged history, which prompted Martin to put on Hatsune Miku when the episode was over and indoctrinate Jon into whatever ‘Vocaloid’ was, and by the time the car transitioned to skittering over bumpy gravel they were both entering a heated discussion about the most superior of the ‘Vocaloids’. 

“ - and she created Minecraft?”

“And she’s trans,” Martin said heatedly. 

“Good for her,” Jon said, just bemused. The car engine quieted, and keys clinked and rustled. “Are we here?”

“Yep! Seven hours later.” Martin sighed and made a quiet, satisfied noise, probably stretching, and Jon didn’t bother to fight his smile. Man was like a cat. “I want to show you around and everything, but honestly that drive was exhausting and I might take a nap first.” He sighed happily. “Peace. Quiet. No coworkers.”

“I’m your coworker,” Jon pointed out, opening the door of the car as Martin did the same. He stepped onto gravel, grinding his trainer a little into it, and breathed in. The air tasted...fresh. Clean. Pure and just a little chilly. It was nice. It perked Jon up, as the wind lightly tousled his curls. He stretched his legs too, cramped from being knitted up in the small car. Martin popped the boot and started loading packages into his arms, and Jon walked over and held his arms out so he could help Martin carry the packages. Martin dropped a picnic basket filled with snacks in his arms, and handed him his own suitcase, as Martin dropped his own suitcase on the ground with a heavy thump. “How does a teenage girl create a video game? That’s very impressive.”

“This week you are my boyfriend,” Martin corrected him, thumping the boot down. “No Emma getting on my case about misfiling the papers. No Michael concern trolling me. No Eric judging me for my taste in tea. No Gertrude terrifying me every second of the day. I am free. I am not going to think about work, or anybody related to work, for a single second. No Entities. No fear demons. No monsters, besides my boyfriend.”

“Thanks,” Jon said wryly. “Aren’t we forgetting someone?”

“Oh, darn it!” Martin opened the back door of the car, and pulled out a carrier. The wire door of the carrier cinched open and Tiresias came bounding out, barking madly and running in little circles around Jon, his tail beating against Jon’s leg. Jon laughed, lifting his burden higher in his arms, and let Martin loop his arm around Jon’s and guide him towards what he had to assume was some kind of building. “C’mere, boy. Good boy! You were so good for the trip! You’re getting a hundred snacks as soon we get inside.”

“Are you going to tell me where we are yet?” Jon asked, exasperated. 

Martin squeezed his arm happily as they walked up an incline, shoes scuffing dirt. “I got permission from Daisy to borrow it. It’s her cabin, just outside of Applecross. It’s really in the middle of nowhere, nobody around for kilometers. Just us and a great deal of cows. It’s really gorgeous, Jon, with such clean air and beautiful hills. I can’t wait to go for walks with you. You’ll get so much time to go through your audiobook collection. And we can snuggle, and I can cook for you, and we can listen to more radio dramas, and we can talk about our future, and you can pet the cows…”

“Sounds wonderful,” Jon said honestly, squeezing Martin’s arm back. They paused, Martin rustling his keys again, and Jon heard the grinding of metal before a door seemed to creak open. “I can’t wait to spend this week with you. I could use a little peace, I think.”

“Gods, me too. You have no idea how stressed I’ve been. It’ll be just you, me, and -”

That’s when Martin screamed, and Tiresias barked excitedly and ran forward, almost bowling Jon over, and a familiar voice broke the quiet of the rustic cabin. 

“Aren’t you a good boy, Tiresias? Aren’t you a good boy?” Daisy Tonner’s grin was audible through her words, but it held a familiar tint of ferociousness. “Hullo, Jon. Blackwood. What are you doing here a week early?”

“Early!” Martin squeaked. “I said we were coming up the first week of September -”

“Really?” Daisy said, voice casual. Seemingly. “Because I have it down in my calendar as the second week. This is my vacation. And I’m not leaving.”

Silence stretched between them. Jon smiled happily towards the sound of Daisy’s voice, placing his burdens at his feet, and soon Daisy walked forward and enveloped him in a bone cracking hug. 

“It’s so good to see you,” Jon said, hugging her tightly back too. “I’m sure we can share the cabin for the week. It’ll be fun, like a sleepover!”

“Oh, I think so too,” Daisy said, her voice tinged in a wolf’s grin. “Don’t you think so, Martin?”

“Good fucking christ,” Martin said. 

****

True to his word, Martin was exhausted enough that he immediately made the bed and collapsed into it. Jon lovingly took off his shoes and socks and Tiresias even, adorably, pulled the comforter up around Martin’s ears. But Martin didn’t sleep: he seemed preoccupied in angrily muttering to himself about how he didn’t get the time wrong, she did, this was all her fault, and it was also completely on purpose, devil woman, everybody was trying to ruin everything - 

“Love, if I ask her to go, she’ll go,” Jon said. 

“No! Ugh!” Martin screamed lowly, muffled, and Jon realized with amusement he was screaming into the pillow. “It’s her house, she’s doing us a favor, I don’t want to be rude! I can’t kick her out of her own home!”

“Are you going to be passive aggressive at her until she leaves?”

Incriminatingly, Martin was silent. 

“She’s more stubborn than you are. If you try to solve this with your usual methods she’ll outlast you.”

“I hate her so much,” Martin groaned. 

“Don’t say that,” Jon said loyally. “She’s really come around to you, you know. She hasn’t threatened to chop your dick off in - oh, two weeks now. That’s a new record.”

Martin groaned again. Jon kissed him on the cheek, turned the light off - “Jon, you just turned the light on.” - turned the light off for real this time, and went into the living room/dining room/kitchen to start putting away all the food they had brought. He bent over his suitcase, withdrawing Tiresias’ harness, and whistled to call him over before snapping the harness on. Tiresias stiffened into what Georgie called ‘Buisness Boy Mode’, and Jon grabbed his handle with one hand as he loaded the groceries into the other. 

“Here, let me help.” Daisy lifted the other load from the floor, leading the both of them into the kitchen and opening the fridge. “I know Georgie’s organizational system.”

Jon just sighed, slowly navigating his way to the fridge to put his own load away. They had clothing to unpack, things to set up, and arrangements to plan, but Jon had the sense that none of it was getting done immediately. 

“What were your plans for this week?”

“I normally go up here to hunt,” Daisy grunted, sliding cans into the cabinet. At Jon’s raised eyebrow, she clarified, “with guns. They’re all locked up in the gun cabinet, as is my ammo and knives. Neither you nor Martin have the keys, but the cabinet is in a closet near the bathroom. That should be locked too.”

“Goodness, Daisy, I’m not an errant toddler. I won’t play with your collection.”

“You’re my errant toddler,” Daisy said loyally, giving him a noogie and making him scowl. “Say it. Say you’re an errant toddler.”

“Goodness, Daisy, leave me be -”

Then she lifted him up, like he was nothing more than a bundle of sticks, and held him in the air as he screamed and kicked his legs, trying to get down. Tiresias, the Traitor, the Serpent, the King of Lies, barked happily. “Let me down! Daisy!”

“Say you’re an errant toddler and I’ll let you down.”

“I shan’t. Daisy, stop -!” But then she started tickling him, which was extremely dangerous, and Jon was forced to cackle out in breathless laughter, “Fine, I’m a toddler, let me down, you crazy woman!”

She tossed him lightly onto the pull-out couch, putting away the rest of the groceries herself, and Jon let Tiresias sit on top of him and lick his face as he could almost audibly hear Martin pouting in the bedroom. 

“This’ll be fun,” Daisy said, shutting the cabinet and rustling some familiar boxes. “Can’t believe Tim paid me fifty quid to do this. I would have done it for free.”

“Do what?”

“Never mind. I have your copy of Life, do you want to play?”

“Sure!” Jon sat up, feeling Daisy sit down next to him and set out the game pieces. Then something occurred to him. “Wait. What are you doing with my copy of Life?”

“Georgie lent it to me.”

“...why did Georgie -”

“I was going to leave it here for when you came up,” Daisy said easily, and Jon nodded in acceptance. “Spin the spinner to see whose turn comes first.”

Jon considered thinking deeper about this, but Daisy wouldn’t lie to him. She was the most trustworthy person he knew. She didn’t have a deceitful bone in her body. He shrugged and reached forward and found the spinner, giving it a good twist before rubbing his thumb over the braille. Something occurred to him. 

“Maybe we can ask Martin if he wants to join -”

“I’m sure he would prefer his rest.”

“Okay!”

This vacation was going to go great. Why had Jon been worried?

****

That night they had a delicious barbecue outside, cooked by Daisy. Martin ate it in angry silence, which was quickly broken by Jon’s frequent nudges and directions for conversation. He wasn’t the most socially adept person at the best of times, but Martin and Daisy were two of his best friends and he knew how to get the both of them talking. He was even able to draw them into a spirited conversation about 19th century literature - Daisy preferred Russian novels, while Martin preferred Gothic romances and Hugo and Jon tended towards nonfiction. Afterwards Daisy grabbed her gun, kissed Jon on the cheek, did something that made Martin squeak in fear, and tramped off to go hunt deer or something. Jon waved her off with a blessing, his sixth sense thrumming with satisfaction for the Sacrifice. 

He spent the night cuddled up with Martin, watching Beauty and the Beast on his laptop. Martin was obsessed with Disney movies in a way that explained a great deal about him, and Beauty and the Beast was his absolute favorite. Jon ran his fingers through his soft and feathery hair as Martin squeezed his hand, and Jon’s heart settled in complete contentment. The audio description voice droned gently about the heartwarming falling in love montages, but Jon wasn’t really paying attention: he just felt safe, and warm, and as if he wanted the moment to last forever. 

Then his mobile rang, a clear automated voice saying “Gerard calling. Gerard calling.”

“Oh, I should get that.” Jon straightened, throwing out a hand on the coffee table where he thought he had put his phone, and Martin pressed it into his hand. He accepted the call quickly, putting it on speaker and holding it up to his ear just like, he was reliably assured, ‘an old man’. “Hello, honey?”

“Jon!” Gerry yelled. “Did you get the cabin okay?”

“Oh, so everyone knew but me,” Jon said, amused. “You’re on speaker, Gerry, so say hello to Mr. Blackwood.”

“Hi Martin! Are you guys having a good time? You have to take me next time, I want to see Daisy’s guns!”

“You will not see Daisy’s guns,” Jon said quickly. 

“Hi Gerry,” Martin said, a smile clear in his somewhat strained voice. “Sure, you and Georgie should come up next time. Make it a party. Why not.”

“Told you she’d do it,” Georgie said, and Jon perked up. “Hullo, love. How’s your romantic getaway going?”

“Oh, it’s lovely,” Jon said, excited. “We’re going to walk down to the town tomorrow, check out some of their antique stores. I’ll let you know if we find any interesting art.”

“I’ve been up to Daisy’s cabin a few times with Melanie, it’s delightful. Great place for her to hunt and for me to practice my carrion photography. It’s always nice just to get away from it all! I hope you haven’t touched any work, Jon.”

“I haven’t,” Jon said loyally. He paused a beat. “Do Statements count? Because I was planning on listening to a few recorded ones as a sort of bedtime story?”

“That’s just self-care,” Georgie assured him. “Treat yourself, queen.”

“Thanks, honey. Make sure Gerry gets his homework done? Do you need any help? I have some time now -”

“I got it,” Georgie said, laughing slightly. “I can still help a fifteen year old with his English. I’ll make sure he brushes his teeth too. Just enjoy yourself.”

“Have a good time, Dad!” Gerry called, the affectionate nickname making Jon smile. “Bring me back a cow!” Slightly more muffled, Jon heard him say to Georgie, “Mum, when Jon goes on a romantic getaway, what do you think they -”

“Night, honey! Night, Martin! Love you!” Georgie called loudly.

Jon laughed, unable to stop himself from waving a little, as if they were there. “Night, you two. Love you too. Stay safe.”

“We will! Bye!”

The line clicked off, and Martin’s arm stretched across Jon’s shoulders squeezed a little tighter. Jon extended a foot and clicked the space bar on the computer, starting up the movie again. 

“You’d make a really good dad,” Martin said, almost to himself. 

Jon settled back against Martin, leaning his head against his shoulder. “I feel like one already, honestly. Obviously, I have far more experience with teenagers than babies, but they can’t be that hard. If I don’t drop them…why?”

Martin coughed a little, abruptly flustered. “No reason! No reason.”

“Do you want kids?”

“Can’t exactly have them biologically,” Martin muttered, before sighing. “Yeah, I’d love to...foster or adopt or something. I’ve had my - differences - with my parents, but I’m still glad they adopted me, you know? I’d like to pass that on. But...better. Much better.”

“Georgie is talking about fostering again once Gerard moves in with Eric,” Jon said quietly. The thought of Gerry moving out, of living full time with Eric again - it just seemed weird. Almost wrong, although it wasn’t - Eric adored Gerry, and he was a competent father. It was just that...well, technically, Gerry had been living with them since the beginning of the universe. On a purely literal level, they really had always had Gerry with them. It would be strange. “As a - recipient of the foster care system myself, I’d like to make a difference too.” He smiled thinly. “We’re very compatible, aren’t we?”

“Would it be...you and Georgie…?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

Martin sighed a little. “Is it dumb that sometimes it feels like you already have a family built in?”

Hm. Jon hadn’t quite thought about it that way. “You know those jokes about me and Georgie being married are just jokes,” Jon said reproachfully. 

Martin moved away a little, leaning forward, slipping his arm from Jon’s shoulder. He abruptly missed the warmth. “But you’re partners. You’re raising a kid. And I know Daisy and Tim think of themselves as your overprotective big siblings, they aren’t even wrong.”

“Many people have siblings? And friends? Some even have kids, I’ve heard.”

“I don’t.” There was really nothing for Jon to say to that, so he didn’t say anything. “I don’t want my entire social circle to just be through you…”

“It won’t be,” Jon said firmly, reaching out a hand and brushing it against Martin’s arm. He squeezed it firmly. “You don’t have to be Lonely anymore, Martin. I won’t let you.”

“Is that a promise?” Martin said, as if he was joking, as if Jon wasn’t certain that he wasn’t. As if he needed the reassurance. 

“How can you be lonely when I’m here?” Jon said, and trailed his hand up along Martin’s arm until he reached his neck and he could cup his face. He rubbed a thumb against his wispy stubble, light and thin. “I’m right here.”

Martin kissed him, and then the movie was quite thoroughly forgotten as Jon necked with his boyfriend on the couch like a teenager. They forgot everything, and for a small period of glorious time Jon forgot everything that he knew, in all of its entirety, and his Eye saw only the here and now. 

Then the door thumped open, the wind blew into the cabin, and heavy footsteps thumped into the room. Something dragged behind the footsteps, something that sounded a bit...wet. 

Martin, who was thoroughly on top of Jon and almost done unbuttoning his shirt, froze. Jon just craned his head, trying to hear the sounds of what was likely a dead deer being pulled in through the entrance way better. 

“Hello Daisy!” Jon said, still pinned down. “How was your hunting?”

“Lucrative. We’re eating venison tomorrow.”

“Great! Need any help getting that put away?”

“No, I’m good.” Tiresias barked happily. “Here, boy, you can have a little. Good boy. I’ll probably skin and clean it outside, I just wanted to get my gloves.”

“Take your time!”

Martin sighed and got off Jon, straightening his own clothing. “Yeah, Daisy, take your time.”

“Oh, am I interrupting something?” Daisy said blithely. “I didn’t mean to.”

“You’re fine,” Jon assured her, fixing his own hair from where it had grown tangled. “Want to finish this movie with us?”

“Sure, let me gut this animal first.”

“Great! Scooch over, Martin.”

“You know,” Martin said, “maybe we want to move to the bedroom?”

“If we stay in the living room I can hook up your laptop to the television and we can watch the movie that way,” Daisy said innocently. 

“That sounds good,” Jon agreed. He patted Martin’s hand. “Is that alright with you?”

Martin sighed. “Yeah. Of course.”

That night, Jon curled up next to Martin on the creaky wooden bed, listening to the flies buzz around them and the crickets hiss their lilting song outdoors. 

His earbuds were still nestled in his ears, the soft hum of his Walkman cutting the quiet night, his own pre-recorded voice reading out a story. Martin sat next to him, and occasionally Jon could hear the soft shift of the pages of a book turning. Every so often Martin would gasp, or make a little noise at some exciting event in his book. 

Jon rolled over, throwing out an arm and pulling Martin in close, resting his head on Martin’s shoulder as he let the earbuds roll gently out of his ears. Martin was soft and warm, the cotton of his t-shirt rubbing up against Jon’s cheek, and Jon let his mind gently bliss out and drift away. 

He thought about the breakfast he wanted to make the next morning, and of the soft beat of Scottish sun on his face. He thought about the creak of cobblestones as jumped-up jalopies rolled over them, and of the shifting and groan of old wood. He thought of the bright, sharp summer smell of the highlands, and the sinking and sticky marshland. 

“We should visit the antique store in town tomorrow,” Jon murmured. “Georgie’s been looking for a new lamp, and I think they should have a nice Rococo one for cheap.”

“Oh? Maybe I can pick something up too.” Martin gently scratched Jon’s scalp, making him bliss out even further. “Nice of you to always loop us in on the best deals, you little shopping catalogue.”

They, of course, had not been to the town yet, and there was no reason for Jon to know of the antique store, or the Rococo lamp. Jon hadn’t even thought about it, the information as available and easy as the layout of the convenience store down the street and a left turn from his childhood council flat. 

Martin’s voice broke the quiet, cutting through the buzz of insects. “You know I love you, right?”

“I know everything,” Jon yawned, snuggling into Martin’s side closer. 

“Not what I meant.” Martin hesitated, almost awkwardly. “You’re a literal mind reader and everything, but I’m not, so…”

“Oh, Martin.” Jon reached a hand up and cupped Martin’s cheek. “I built this world from the bedrock of my love for you.”

“Uh - wow! That’s - it’s kind of weird how you can just say that and have it be true!”

“Our lives are weird,” Jon agreed, brushing his thumb over Martin’s lips, and he carefully leaned his head up to kiss him, and they passed the long silent minutes just like that. 

Several hours later, Jon found himself jerking awake. Martin was snoring beside him, and he couldn’t feel any sun on his face, so Jon figured it was likely still nighttime. He carefully slipped out of bed, reaching out a hand and trailing it along the wall until he managed to leave the bedroom, navigate down the hall, and enter what he was fairly sure was the living room. 

“Jon?” A voice broke the night. Daisy, who had taken the pull-out couch. “You looking for the loo?”

It was only then that Jon realized that he didn’t know why he had gotten up. Tiresias snored loudly in the kitchen, adding a subtle undertone to the noise from outside, and Jon found himself shrugging helplessly. “I don’t think so. Did I wake you up?”

“Nah. Hold tight, I’ll help you to the couch.” Sure enough, after the almost silent footsteps echoed through the main room Jon felt a soft hand on his back, and she led him towards the couch. Jon lightly kicked it, testing its height, and gently lowered himself onto it, the springs of the pull-out bed breaking through the night. “What has you up?”

Jon just shrugged again. The bed creaked beside him, and he felt calloused fingers carding through his hair with gentleness that would have been surprising to most people. 

“Am I a bad boyfriend?” Jon asked, surprising himself. He hadn’t even known he was thinking that. 

“Did Blackwood tell you that you were?” Daisy asked sharply. 

“No! No, not at all.” Jon sighed. “I just...I just have different needs than him.” He could already tell what Daisy was thinking, and he shook his head. “Not about the - the you know what thing. I just...I know how much he loves me. I know what he thinks of me, I know his dedication to me. Sometimes I just assume that he’s - capable, of what I’m capable of. Do I not tell him I love him enough? Am I not affectionate enough?”

“You aren’t as perceptive as you think you are, Jon,” Daisy said, amused. “I think you’ll find that Blackwood has quite a few more secrets than you think he does.” She untangled her fingers from his hair and squeezed his arm. “Blackwood’s insecure. All insecure people want mindreader boyfriends. But you force him to use his words and ask for what he needs, Jon. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s good for him. He needs to learn to speak up for himself.” She hummed slightly. “He reminds me of Basira, a little. She’ll never tell you that you bothered her, and she just lets it pile up and up. But then you go just a little too far, and then she explodes all of that pent up anger and frustration on you. She likes to pretend she’s a real robot, but she’s just as human as the rest of them.”

“I’m so terrified of Basira,” Jon said miserably. “Remember when I dropped a plate and she told me that the reason why my gran didn’t love me was because I was an attention seeking nine year old?”

“She’s so mean. I love her so much.” Daisy patted Jon on the back. “Buck up. I’m working on Blackwood. You focus on enjoying your vacation.”

Jon let himself lean to the side, resting his head on Daisy’s shoulder. “I’m worried that Martin will realize that I’m not capable of expressing romantic affection in a socially typical manner and leave me.”

“God, shut up, whiner.” But the bed creaked and Daisy’s head gently slid out from under his shoulder, and Daisy gently helped Jon to his feet. “I’ll get you back to bed. Bitch about your imaginary relationship problems to me in the morning.”

Translated: I love you, I’ll always be here for you, and goodnight. Jon huffed a quiet laugh. “Aren’t the lights off? How can you see anything?”

When Daisy spoke again, a quiet bass growl echoed underneath her words, and Jon grinned with her. He Knew, like how he Knew that he loved Martin enough to destroy the world, that Daisy’s eyes were flickering yellow in the darkness. “Don’t be fooled by appearances, Jon.”

She helped him back to bed, and when Jon slept through the rest of the night he dreamed of nothing but Martin’s weight on his. 

****

“What a beautiful morning!” Martin said loudly. “The birds are chirping, the Scottish highlands are beautiful, I am here on my romantic vacation away from everybody with only my lovely boyfriend for company - and Daisy Tonner!”

“Glad to be here,” Daisy said affably. 

“This is so much fun!” Martin said, still loudly.

“I think so too!” Jon said enthusiastically.

Tiresias barked. 

After a breakfast pointedly prepared by Martin, they all got dressed and saddled up to go walk into the village. It was a quick walk, only about twenty minutes, and Martin and Daisy enjoyed the scenery as Jon enjoyed the warm grip of Martin’s hand in his and the breeze on his face. 

When the trail began sloping further downhill, and their footsteps began to slide against the incline, Jon pulled what Gerry would have called a ‘pro-gamer move’ and moved his grip up until he was clinging to Martin’s arm. Martin sprayed a hand out, resting it against Jon’s back, and helped him down the trail. 

“Whoah! You alright, honey? Careful of your step!”

“Jesus christ,” Daisy muttered. 

“It’s hardly Jon’s fault -” Martin began heatedly. 

“Yeah, Daisy,” Jon said, delighting in setting them against each other like the cold, uncaring god he was, “check your privilege.”

Then they were off, because despite Daisy was allergic to social consciousness, and Jon whistled a jaunty tune, composed in the 15th century and unknown to all but its lonely shepherd creator, as they navigated their way downwards. 

The village was small, nothing more than two streets with cheerful wooden facades and swing porches set out on the decks with wizened elderly people sipping from bottles of Irn Bru and smoking down cigarettes to the dregs. At least, as narrated by Martin, who seemed to already be mentally writing his small-town murder mystery in the Scottish highlands (Martin’s poetry needed work, but his fiction held a certain massmarket appeal). Knowing Martin, the protaganist would likely be either a grandmother with his own personality, or a thirtysomething gay man who had twelve counts of arson on his record and was running from the cops. 

Wait. Wait, Jon should use his words. Ask instead of look. Display interest in Martin’s inner life - which, granted, seemed to be a waste of time when Jon could just Know and not waste his breath, but Georgie had been coaching him in this. 

“You should give the ex-con narrator a boyfriend,” Jon said supportively. “Maybe bring back the gay bar owner from the last book?”

Martin almost tripped over the gravel. “How did you know I was thinking of - Jon, I told you not to read my mind!”

“Lay off, you know he doesn’t do it on purpose,” Daisy said uninterestedly, growling at what Jon guessed were passerby on the street. 

“Daisy, stop telling me how to talk to my boyfriend -”

“Oh, he’s your boyfriend now, is he?”

“Yes! Yes, he is!”

“Let’s get some ice cream!” Jon said loudly. 

“How did you even know there was an ice cream - fine! Fine, of course!” Martin sighed loudly. “Why not!”

As it turned out, they were right in front of ice cream. Jon loved it when things worked out. 

****

Twenty minutes later, after Martin laboriously reading out all of the entirely too many flavors to Jon, Daisy growling at everybody at the store like an errant dog, fighting with the owner of the store extremely politely about his actual dog existing, and finally taking their ice cream outside to sit at a picnic bench and attack their waffle cones, Jon felt content. 

He indicated this by telling everybody everything he knew about emulsifiers, which were extremely neat and a lot of fun! Because nobody was stopping him talking by saying ‘let’s talk about something else, Jon’ or ‘isn’t that a bit boring, Jon?’ he moved onto the history of waffle cones, safe in his assumption that everybody was as interested in the topic as he was. 

“I love you so much,” Martin said, somewhat dazed, when Jon stopped to draw a breath. “Did you know that this is the second time this has happened?”

That stopped Jon short, when nothing else did. “Really? Has it?”

Martin’s spoon scraped his small paper bowl. “Yep. Uh - for my birthday, I think. Me, Tim, and - and Sasha, and you. You ordered rum raisin. I was thinking...did you actually like rum raisin? Or did you just panic?” He laughed, somewhat self-consciously. “You didn’t remember about it even before the whole apocalypse thing, so no sweat, but…”

“Oh.” Jon realized, for probably the fifth time, that Martin held years and years worth of memories in him, and that Jon had only fragments and impressions. He knew that he had everything important, that everything he needed was within him, but - did he? What if he was missing the key to everything, the key to Martin, and all he needed was to just Look deeper? “That’s - I could remember it, if I wanted.”

“It’s fine, Jon,” Daisy said quietly. “Don’t go giving yourself a migraine.”

“I could,” Jon insisted. “I’d like to remember something like your birthday, Martin. Precious memories, or - or something. Give me a moment, I can send a quick prayer, and -”

“You know,” Martin said, and he squeezed Jon’s hand. “I’d rather make new memories right now. Where we are right now, that’s - that’s the most important place, innit?”

Jon smiled at him, and he knew, in the most mundane of ways, Martin was smiling back. “I like to think so too.”

“Ugh,” Daisy teased, although perhaps to an outsider it may have sounded mean, “get that sappy shit outta my face.”

“You’re just as bad with Basira,” Jon shot back, smiling. “You two are in love -”

“Take that shit back,” Daisy hissed. 

“You want to get married -”

“Who told you!”

Jon tapped the lens of his glasses smugly. “A little Eye told me.”

“Beholding cuck.”

“No, that’s Peter -”

“Martin would know all about Peter, huh?” Daisy sneered, and the pressure on Jon’s hand intensified for a brief second before it withdrew completely, leaving his hand cold and empty.

“Jon, can you give me and Daisy a few minutes of privacy, please?” Martin said pleasantly. 

Jon raised an eyebrow, licking the ice cream dripping down his hand. It was Vast flavor. Tasted like...ozone. “Why?”

“He doesn’t know the area, you can’t send him off alone,” Daisy shot back, strangely smugly. “Come on, Blackwood. Whatever you want to say to me, you can say it in front of him.”

“You know what, fine. Fine!” Martin thumped the table, making Jon start and Tireasias stiffen. “I have done nothing that warrants this kind of treatment from you. You are disrespecting me, disrespecting my relationship, and you are insulting my fucking intelligence. I appreciate you loaning us your cabin, but if I knew that it would come with strings attached then I would have paid for my own bloody hotel! Why are you doing this!”

“Tim gave me fifty quid,” Daisy said, like the wolf that had caught the canary. “Plus it’s fucking funny.”

“Done what?” Jon asked, confused. 

“I want you out of my vacation, Daisy,” Martin hissed. “If you won’t leave the cabin, then I am booking my own Air BnB and that’s fucking final! I don’t care if I have to - to fight you in the street about it, I can and I will, you don’t want to mess with me -”

“Sure.”

Martin stopped short. Jon licked his ice cream, fascinated by the drama. “What?”

“I said sure,” Daisy enunciated clearly. “I was waiting for you to fucking say it. I told Basira I’d be home by tonight, anyway. Knew you’d snap.”

“I - what! What! What?!”

“You’re a pushover, Blackwood,” Daisy said. “Your coworkers, your friends, everyone - they just walk all over you. It’s fucking stupid. You are the archival assistant who survived the apocalypse with memories and sanity intact. You lasted longer on the position than anyone since Emma Harvey, and you didn’t have to lose your soul to do it. You looked Elias in the face as you burned his Archives down. You’re not a pussy. And I was sick of seeing you act like one. It’s fucking annoying.”

“I hate you so fucking much,” Martin whispered, somewhat in shock. 

“Well, I hate seeing my best friend date a passive aggressive loser, so we’re both unhappy.” Daisy stood up, feet shuffling against the cement, and Jon felt her press a kiss against his forehead. “You two have a nice day out. I’m going to go hunt things, and head back to London. Take care of yourself, Jon. And cut out the PDA, it’s gross.”

Suddenly, violently, with a crushing realization, the entire vacation was recontextualized. 

“I don’t appreciate any of this,” Jon said crossly, scowling in her direction. “Honestly, Daisy, you don’t -”

“Blame Tim. Love you, Jon. Love you, sweet puppy. See you later, Blackwood.”

Jon and Martin sat in silence as the sound of footsteps receded from Jon’s hearing, and the low murmur of the small village set in around them. Martin still seemed to slightly be in shock, his ice cream slowly melting, and Tiresias yawned sleepily in the sun. 

“I hate her so fucking much,” Martin whispered. 

But Jon just smiled, and reached out to brush a thumb over Martin’s close-cropped hair. He leaned in, whispering into Martin’s ear. “Hearing you yell at the scariest woman I know who isn’t Gertrude Robinson was pretty fucking sexy, love.”

“I hate her so - wait, it was? Really?” Martin coughed awkwardly. “Well, she really had it coming, and it’s not a huge deal, and I know she’s your best friend and I should be nice to her, but -”

“ - but she was right,” Jon said firmly. “An arse about making her point, but she was right. I’m working on using my words. You should too. All of the books say communication is key in a relationship. So let’s communicate, alright?” He faltered a little, uncertain if Daisy would want him to say this. “And - and it was obvious, from what she said, that Daisy respects you. It’s a very difficult thing, to win Daisy’s respect. I think she was trying to help us, in her own - unorthodox manner.”

“I hate her so much,” Martin groaned. 

“It was very sexy,” Jon hinted. 

Martin leaned in and kissed Jon lightly, and Jon could feel his smile against his own. “How about we finish our food,” he said quietly, “walk around town for a bit, buy some souvenirs for your family, and then go back to the cabin and snog and cuddle for a very long time? If that’s okay with you?”

“I’d like nothing more,” Jon said. 

And he was right. It was messy, and weird, and painfully uncomfortable.

 It was perfect.

[x0401x]

Music Natalie Interview with Jin

The reason why he took the span of five and a half years to “reload” KagePro.

Jin announced a new album on November 7th, Mekakucity Reload. Mekakucity Reload is the latest work of the multi-media project developed by Jin, Kagerou Project. This album is a work that he is releasing about five and a half years ever since Mekakucity Records went on sale in May 2013. Why did Jin, who had declared the completion of Kagerou Project back when Mekakucity Records was released, create an album with the name “Mekakucity” at this timing? Here, Ongaku Natalie has asked Jin himself the motive behind his producing of KagePro music once again with the new work “Mekakucity Reload”, which looks back at the walk of five and a half years.

Translations Index >>

“There was simply not enough music for KagePro.”

──In the interview from when the album Mekakucity Records hit the shelves back in May 2013 (see: Jin (Shizen no Teki-P) Mekakucity Records Interview), Jin-san, you announced the conclusion of Kagerou Project’s music compilation.

Yes. It’s already been five years and a half.

──At first, I was dumbstruck when I heard that Jin-san had released an album with the name “Mekakucity” in it.

After I finished making the two other albums, Mekakucity Days and Mekakucity Records, I thought to myself about quiting making music for once. Thankfully, even as KagePro’s musical compilation had ended, the novels and comics were still on-going, so I thought of concentrating on the literary field and on writing, and that’s how I spent these five and a half years. And so, I’d been experimentally writing a light novel that I hadn’t yet announced to everyone and making a series with a mangaka sensei (see: NIRVANA, A JinxSaiyuki Talk). As I progressed with writing the continuation of the KagePro novel editions, I started thinking that there was simply not enough music (for KagePro).

──In the interview from five and a half years ago, Jin-san, you said that you “weren’t thinking about publishing any more volumes of the novel or manga”, but in the end...

I didn’t finish them back then at all, huh (laughs). I ran and ran, yet I didn’t get any closer to the goal I had planned. I also got asked stuff like, “Won’t you make music anymore?” whenever the novels or comics came out, and I had the feeling that the number of things I could express through music increased as the story went deeper. So the truth is that I had been thinking, “I want to make ‘KagePro’ music again” since about two years ago, but I wasn’t able to arrange the environment or conditions for it at all. Once they were ready, I completed “Mekakucity Reload”.

──The light novel version of “Kagerou Daze” ended as its eighth volume hit the shelves in December 2017, and the completion of the comics was already announced as well. I got a devilish impression when you revived the music version of KagePro in that timing.

Hahaha. That’s indeed true. It just happened to be this timing simply because I thought I should properly move the pivot leg from literature to music once I got to the stage of finishing writing the novel. There was also the fact that I didn’t have enough skill to properly make music while writing the novel, and that I wanted to focus on the songs and only write lyrics if I was going to do music.

──After taking five and a half years concentrating on the literature, were there any changes when you turned towards the music again?

I think the portrayals in the lyrics changed a lot. Everything, even descriptions, are part of the work in a novel, but in lyrics, you don’t need to explain every single thing like, “I did that” and, “This happened to you”. Within the way of expressing words through lyrics, which doesn’t have a right answer, I reflected really hard about how to express what I deem as the right answer.

──You say that, but you were still able to write lyrics five and a half years ago, right?

That’s right, but before I would write the lyrics occasionally thinking things like, “There might be better words for this”, and continued making songs while shaking off this kind of anxiety. In contraposition, I’m proud to have written the lyrics of this album with words that I myself am satisfied with. Of course, it’s placed as one of the works of KagePro, but I believe it’s also a work that people who are discovering KagePro will be able to enjoy. If I were a listener, I think I would end up keeping a distance because you can’t quite have fun with it if you don’t know the previous songs. But each of the songs recorded into this album are properly established as a single song, and I feel that I was able to manage this because I focused on my writing work.

“Hatsune Miku probably hates me.”

──Jin-san, during the period of five and a half years in which you have been devoting yourself to your writing work, there were several changes in the scene that had NicoNico Douga as its center, such as the alteration of style in the media mix works that represent KagePro and the uprising of Vocaloid culture during the tenth anniversary of Hatsune Miku’s selling. How do you, Jin-san, view these kinds of movements?

As a user, I really like NicoNico Douga, so of course I’ve always been keeping up with the trends. There’s something I’d wanted to tell Natalie-san regarding Hatsune Miku’s tenth anniversary of two years ago. To tell the truth, I got an offer for an interview from Natalie-san of the “Hatsune Miku’s 10 Years” project (see: Hatsune Miku’s 10 Years ~The New Sights She Has Showed Us~), but I ended up declining it...

──Why did you decline?

The contents of the interview, as the name of the project says, were to “talk about Hatsune Miku”, but in the first place, I thought Hatsune Miku probably hates me.

──What do you mean?

Putting it in a simpler way, the community of Hatsune Miku culture probably doesn’t think well of me. I actually didn’t even have an account in NicoNico Douga until just before announcing KagePro’s first track (“Jinzou Enemy”, which was uploaded to NicoNico Douga in February 2011). For starters, I didn’t have a computer and didn’t have contact with the internet at all. When my band broke up and I was left with no one to sing even though I had the musical compositions, I began using Vocaloids, which a friend of mine had taught me about. From that point on, I prepared the original story and characters, used Vocaloid and announced the series, and that was a differing stance from other Vocalo-P’s (Vocaloid producers). Something I myself noticed upon coming in contact with NicoNico Douga is that Hatsune Miku exists in the heart of Hatsune Miku Culture as a character. But at the heart of my series, there was no Hatsune Miku.

──Jin-san, this is because your series has Vocaloids singing the songs of original characters, right?

Yes. That’s why, even though I use Hatsune Miku, I wonder if I have the right to say anything about Hatsune Miku culture, and I really had the feeling that I’d be raining on the parade if I said anything. So I declined the offer. The only thing I wanted to put out there is that, while staying active as “Jin”, I came to really like the video submission site culture in which I started using Hatsune Miku. I also enjoy it a lot as a user, and many writers whom I admire are there. Of course, I read all of the reports of “Hatsune Miku’s 10 Years” (laughs).

──Thank you very much. During the interview, including the parts that were not in the manuscripts, you often became the topic, Jin-san.

I won’t dare ask in what context I came up (laughs), but I’m extremely honored. After all, I myself have received motivation from my Vocalo-P senpais, so I thought that it’d be great if I could grant some sort of motivation to other creators.

“I don’t want humans in ‘originals’.”

──Regarding stopping your literary work for now and resuming your musical activities, the way that you are now, Jin-san, I think you also had the option of making a series other than KagePro with your music.

I felt that I wouldn’t be able to make KagePro stuff anymore if I ended up starting something new. Even though I’d said five and a half years ago that I was going to “finish KagePro”, there are people who have always continued to cheer for KagePro in this five-and-a-half-year period, and I was simply able to discover countless ideas for songs while writing the novel. So I wondered if making KagePro stuff to my utmost wouldn’t be one of the logical choices. There are indeed things I want to do other than KagePro, but I can make them happen another time.

──Anything you obsess with when using Vocaloids? Your own play-and-sing is included in the Limited Edition B of this album, so you have many forms of expression now, right?

When I’m making KagePro songs, as expected, the image that first comes to mind is of Vocaloid. The uploaders of “uttattemita” videos on NicoNico Douga call their own melodies “originals”, but I have this feeling that I “don’t want human beings in what I call ‘original’”. Like, as long as there’s just a story, characters and philosophy, I don’t need anything else. For example, if I were to play and sing a song settled for the protagonist, there’s an instant in which it sounds to me like I myself am the protagonist. That’s not what I want to aim for.

──Then, Jin-san, what are the intentions behind your presenting of play-and-talk livestreams?

That’s kind of a secondary work (laughs). After all, I sing songs that already have their proper originals. Also, the ways you convey things between when you have people watch videos and when you have them listen to you live in a broadcast are completely different. This is something intuitive, but the feelings of “thank you” that I receive after people listen to my own songs become even stronger. Because of this as well, I tried including my own play-and-sing to this album as an extra.

“Additional Memory merged the philosophies of the two of them.”

──Please let us hear about the songs included in Mekakucity Reload. The musical composition of the song Additional Memory, which has already been uploaded to video sharing sites, has turned out as a mash-up piece of the KagePro songs that had been published in the past, which has been making the fans smile from ear to ear.

Additional Memory is a song I started making out of the thought of creating a work that would blend Lost Time Memory, Ayano no Koufuku Riron and Summertime Record. Specifically speaking, when I thought of the next stories of KagePro, there was a need to cross Lost Time Memory with Ayano no Koufuku Riron. It’s not in the sense of making the two characters meet or something like that, but I started wanting to make a song that merged their philosophies. As I did this, regarding the sound, since Lost Time Memory doesn’t have piano in it, I felt like creating a dialogue between it and the piano sounds that were the main feature in Ayano no Koufuku Riron.

──Then, what was the reason for you to think of adding Summertime Record to this?

The season pictured in KagePro is summer, so when I thought of inserting a phrase that would give it a summer feeling, I came up with a melody that was a variation of Summertime Record. After all, Summertime Record is a song that sings memories of, “Our childhood was fun, huh”, and if anything, Additional Memory is a song about regret. I used it while sprinkling a bit of dark taste to the originally bright melody line.

──Each character in KagePro has a song with them as motifs, so weren’t there any difficulties in combining them?

I solved that merely with subtraction. This also has to do with what I discussed just now about “concluding things with a single song”, but I think having countless characters showing up in one song causes quite a bit of anxiousness to the people listening as well. I was certain that there were things that could be conveyed even without saying them, and Ayano-chan is the only one who appears in Additional Memory, so I wrote the lyrics by cherishing a simple love letter-like image. I’ve been checking the reactions of everyone with my heart racing ever since the video was uploaded, and there are lots of fans who properly read between the lines, so I felt that what I’d wanted to convey was transmitted to them.

──It’s not just in the sound, but in the video as well, several parts that link up with the past KagePro were provided. What kind of advance arrangements did you have with Sidu-san, who produced the video?

It had been a while since the last time I had Sidu-san make a video, but we didn’t talk about revisions of what had happened until that point in our preparatory meetings. It was like, “Let’s work together again with a new song.” and, “Yes.” (laughs). I felt Sidu-san’s fervorous feelings for KagePro even without her putting it into words, so I basically requested her, “I think the videos have Sidu-san’s worldviews, so I want you to pull it along”.

“If it were five years ago, I most likely wouldn’t have written this.”

──Amongst the recorded songs, there are many that connect with the novel version and the manga version of KagePro, such as Shissou Word and Wasurete Shimatta Natsu no Owari ni, and only Remind Blue has a slightly different disposition, right? Its musical composition seems to look back at the story of KagePro, and the viewpoint is portrayed as from the future.

Up until now, the KagePro songs have been cherishing the subjectivity of children a lot. They were the world as seen by children, and sang the emotions of children themselves. What’s clearly different in Remind Blue is that it sings as if from the position of an adult recalling the past. There’s always been the feeling of “wishing to properly turn the Mekakushi-dan members into adults” within me, that’s why I’d wanted to show this side of it to everyone through the song called Remind Blue.

──Speaking of which, the song Summertime Record, which is included in the previous album Mekakucity Records, also has lyrics of which the contents reminisce to the past, right?

Summertime Record has an image of growing up but remembering the past while still being in one’s young years. In contraposition, Remind Blue looks back to one’s youth after it ended completely, you see. My intention was that I wanted to write about how the characters also properly grow up. But I think that, in majority, I became able to write about it because I myself properly turned into an adult. If it were five years ago, I most likely wouldn’t have written this.

──Remind Blue is a song that has one of the Mekakushi-dan members, Shintarou, as its protagonist, but will the grown-up figures of the other characters also be depicted from now on?

I still can’t talk about it for certain, but what I’m thinking is I want to show everyone a story that will be like a “future saga”. I believe I’ll most likely be able to write a novel of it and we might make a manga as well. I also have ideas for a KagePro spin-off and I wanna make a series of videos... Of course, to match up with these, I’ll create a new album too.

──You already have plans for a media mix project.

Yes. In order to develop the next conceptions, with the current timing, in which the novel and the manga have ended, I’ve brought in the song Remind Blue. I’ve reloaded it with this album, so I want people to look forward to the “gunfire” that is to come from now on.

“I was able to create this work because I had my own experiences.”

──The one in charge of the art of the manga annexed to the album’s Limited Edition A was the other member of ZOWLS, Saiyuki-san, who is making NIRVANA together with Jin-san.

There’s a proper meaning to the theme portrayed in this manga and in the fact that I had Saiyuki-sensei draw it. About three years ago, I was really depressed, and there was a time in which I could no longer see any meaning in creating works. During this time, I had a talk with Saiyuki-sensei. Saiyuki-sensei is someone who works with Comic Gene, which serializes the manga version “Kagerou Daze”, and I had read his series, so of course I listened to his talk. Back then, Saiyuki-sensei invited me like, “Why don’t we do something together?”... At that time, my emotional condition that was enough to make me think that I’d “end up being hated by the whole world”, so I was really saved by him coming to talk to me. I truly think that my being able to create music like this right now is thanks to Saiyuki-sensei.

──You also talked a bit about that when mentioning Hatsune Miku, but Jin-san, why do you end up thinking that you’re “hated by the people around you”? Seeing it from the sidelines, you’re a creator who has achieved great success with the media mix “Kagerou Project”, so I think many people have approved of your series.

I wonder why (laughs). I know that there are many fans who cheer for me. Still, I’m a person who was pretty negligent with my surroundings in order to create my work; for example, I haven’t been keeping in touch with my friends from the countryside for the longest time and am not called over to graduate’s reunions, and even having said so, I don’t have that many friends... Sorry, this kind of turned into a depressing talk.

──No, no.

After I started KagePro, I became able to sense that the people surrounding me were keeping a little distance. As the project gradually turned into a big deal and I became busier by the day, there was a time when I thought, “The only one within a 2m distance from me is my pillow”. If I went outside of those 2m, there would be a lot of people and I’d probably have been able to make lots of friends, but I somehow had a sense of estrangeness and wasn’t the one to reach my hand out to others.

──And then Saiyuki-san was the one who extended his hand to you.

Yes. As soon as he talked to me, I asked Saiyuki-sensei, “I’m bashed by a lot of people, you know? Are you okay with that?”. Even so, Saiyuki-sensei said, “Let’s do something together”.

──So, after this invitation, the manga NIRVANA, which Jin-san and Saiyuki-san are writing as the unit ZOWLS, was born, right?

Yes. NIRVANA was a story in which the protagonist, Hitotose Yachiyo, set out on a journey to gather companions named “The Twelve”, but this time, the contents are aware of the subjects from the manga that I had Saiyuki-sensei draw and of the connections between people. The contents are about each of the Mekakushi-dan members are thinking, “What is a friend?”, and I think it’s a manga that I was able to write because I had my own experiences. It’s a very worthwhile reading, so I want the people interested in it to read.

“I’ll write the best melodies in the world.”

──From what you have said, Jin-san, I got the impression that your situation is doing well obviously because you have arranged yourself an environment in which you are able to focus on your productions.

I’ll say this because I can now: the truth is that I created Mekakucity Records in a really tumultuous period. I’d wanted to take more time to make an album, but the adults around me would say things like, “Compromise is necessary in order to publish your work”. Back then, I thought, “It’s definitely not like that” (laughs). I was certain that one can definitely take time to create a work without compromise that would leave them thinking they did everything they could, and I believe I actually managed to do that with this work, Mekakucity Reload. At present, I can say for sure that I’m unable to create any works beyond it and I could muster all that’s important out of me. I think it turned out as the best album, full of songs I myself like.

──You said you were devoted to your writing, and the strength of your characteristic melodies did not weaken at all, but rather, they even gave off a feeling that they became more powerful.

It might sound cheeky of me to say this, but deem myself to be the human being who writes the best melodies in the whole world. It’s not like I’m saying that I’m awesome, but that I’m the one who knows my own taste best, so if I’m able to write melodies that fit this taste, the best melody should be born from that.

──I see.

I’m merely making melodies that I myself like the most into songs and having everyone listen to them, right? As I made music like this, I met lots of people who had me thinking that their hobbies are the same as mine, so as long as those people are looking forward to it, I believe there’s meaning in my continuing to make music.

[askneruandhaku]

You guys have a very nice voice...i saw you awesome cover from a user called Urabe-san! In youtube, he now how to work with yours voicebanks ^-^

Boring non fun PSA in times of artblock

I want to touch on this because I was thinking about it today. I know about the covers from Urabe-san/Tsubaki-kun and there’s another thing mod knows. Spanish.

Sadly, from reading the descriptions, I discovered Urabe-san uses a pirated/pocaloid Hatsune Miku and Rin to produce his covers. That is not ok. This blog doesn’t support pitching down/nightcoring songs or using pirating vocaloids to make derivative covers, it gives Neru and Haku a horrible name and it’s one of the reasons people started disliking them.

If you guys want legitimate Neru (with low Rin config) and Haku covers with project diva PVs i recommend Krystal Petal

Detecting piracy is quite tricky but

+watch out for people who are uuusually from hispanic countries (hate saying this but tbh the promoters of pocaloid and people who run the blog are hispanic, and piracy is not taken seriously there at all. I’m from the spanish speaking community so i know this stuff - -)+mysteriously own a LOT of expensive Vocaloids (he seems to “own” Xin hua, Akari, Yukari, Fukase, Miku, Rin/Len, Flower, Kaito, Meiko, Azuki and Matcha, VY1, Luka, Piko, Kiyoteru, Gakupo, Arsloid, Una, Galaco, Sachiko, Lumi, Rana, Kokone, Unitychan, Nemu, Gumi… come on guys. Not even successful producers who make money from using vocaloid have this amount of vocaloids)+ read the description because sometimes they will shamelessly mention it:

Be careful overall when listening to fanloid covers. Generally, i don’t recommend it, i recommend sticking to original songs. I think people misunderstood the Neru and Haku using other character’s voices -this wasn’t used to make “Neru and Haku covers” but because they needed ANY voice available to create songs about these funny characters and Miku is all they had at the time (and eventually low Rin started being used in Japan as well for some Neru originals when Rin was released). It’s not like they spammed covers or pitched songs for them like we do in the west…

Let’s not forget the fun about fanloids isn’t really the music anyway, but the characters and their personalities! They’re meant to be enjoyed the opposite way of how we enjoy vocaloids. I do enjoy a Neru/Haku “cover” now and again but don’t go hunting for them much because 90% of them are not reliable and probably breaking legality in some way;;

Side note, for fanloid music check out OwataP, YowaneP, NanameueP, KousakuP, YogarasuP, PowercodeP, Sou-san (at piapro), Sekai SeifukuP, AkariP and many more songs you can find in VocaDB if you search for Haku or Neru as vocalists, or nico! Just… mostly anywhere but youtube //sweats

[spookenstein]

Character Meme

@some-cookie-crumbz tagged me in this like an asshole like a week ago (j/k) but I was busy finishing a summer course for college. I gotta pick my favorite characters from 10 different fandumbs so this will be fun.

I’m really inactive on here so the only people I know who may do it are @space-exeggutor, @waytootired, and my horrible husbando @newgroundsguru. I’m doing this in no particular order.

Also this post may contain decades old spoilers so you know read at your own risk, all 5 of you out there in Tumblr land.

Luke Fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss)

It’s hard not to like a character who causes so many people to drop the game within the first 10 hours because they find him so unbearable - never getting into the meat and potatoes of his character. While I hate that he loses a bit of his asshole-ish ways, but the combination of killing an entire town of people and the big plot twist (he’s a clone, and he’s been alive 7 years) it makes sense. He’s both figuratively and literally a child mentally - as he was raised to be a brat in the sort time he’s been around. Watching Luke strive to become better, come to terms with who he is and his own worth, and just bonding with the rest of the cast really makes it worth while. 

Kuron (then Takashi Shirogane aka Shiro) (Voltron: The Legendary Defender)

Prior to season 3, while I enjoyed Shiro - he really started sticking out to me as a character. Kuron, even though a clone, clearly had some of his own little personality quirks that made him stick out to me more. He was more willing to put his foot down and take charge opposed sort of smiling and taking it. Poor precious clone baby, how I will miss you. You will always be a paladin in my heart. Shiro is second only to his clone - it’s hard not like Shiro the best when it feels like he’s the only character who has had any well rounded character development throughout the series.

Relena Darlian/Peacecraft (Gundam Wing)

Moving away from the clone character trend, but staying with the mech show that’s more melodrama than actual robot fighting - the most hated characters of the early 2000′s that I loved. Much like with Shiro, Relena felt like the only character who had a legitmate arc throughout the series and grew as a person. She starts as a spoiled rich girl, attempts to avenge her adopted father but ultimately decides to take on her biological families ideals, is a political puppet at one point, and then ultimately takes up her adopted father’s role. Did I mention she’s only 15? I’ve always felt bad for the amount of flak she gets, despite all she does throughout the series, because of the “Heeeerro come back and kill me” schtick. Also I was torn between her and Duo but I knew if I said Duo it would be because he was my first husbando.

Vegeta (Dragon Ball)

I actually hated Vegeta growing up, and it wasn’t until high school that I really came to appreciate his character. I like the villain becoming a good guy thing, and that in Vegeta’s case he really still seemed more like the “grey” guy then good guy - like he wasn’t necessarily bad anymore but he wasn’t really good either. I like that in a weird way he surpasses Goku in being more human the longer the series progresses - he genuinely cares for his family’s well being even if he’s a little tsundere about it. I’ll admit too, while Super maybe horrible in certain aspects, I really do appreciate Vegeta of all people sort of becoming a voice of reason among everything that happens within the series. Like, it’s hard to believe the former antagonist is in that role.

Todoroki Shoto (Boku no Hero Academia)

This was a real hard pick because I like a lot of character’s from BnHA and I can think of at least 3 more I could say are my favorite all for different reasons. However I think Todoroki would be my number 1 pick. He’s a character who’s gone through a lot and post the sport’s festival fight with Deku, he’s growing. Todoroki could’ve stayed a quiet, anti-social, sticking to his guns kind of rival like so many shonen do but instead elects to grow. Reconnecting with his mother, not squandering his opportunities to use the resources his father has, and willing to crack the occasional joke - it makes Todoroki a breath of fresh air as one of Deku’s growing list of rivals.

Tadano Hitohito (Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu)

I started reading Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu when it was first getting translations because I thought Komi was so adorable, but as time as gone on Tadano really stole my heart. Tadano is the definite of average - and that’s literal, his whole character is being basically vanilla ice cream in 31 flavors. I never truly understood the concept of moe until this character. He’s just a earnest, hardworking guy who’s willing to help anyone - even people who treat him poorly (which is basically everyone considering his standing with Komi, the class idol). Out of all the smile I want to protect, I want to protect Tadano’s the most.

Tangy (Animal Crossing)

Cute, orange kitty cat. I don’t know what to say, she’s peppy, talks about being a super star and she’s an ORANGE KITTY CAT. She’s just too much, too freaking cute.

Gill (Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility/Animal Parade)

I was torn between Gill and Ellen from OG Harvest Moon, but elected to go with Gill because I’ve married him so many times. Truthfully, the type A pretty boy types aren’t normally my thing but I made an exception for him. I like to think that the MC and Gill start off as a couple of convenience - Gill wanting that sweet farming bux and the MC wanting to have a political in. It’s stupid but that’s how I like to play Harvest Moon, by inventing soup opera drama in my head.

Matsuno Choromatsu (Osomatsu-san)

Again, I’m not normally into the type A personality but Choromatsu is almost like the pseudo-middle child so I feel for him. Also, I’m a terrible person so I can relate to feeling like your the least piece of shit in a room of crap (i.e. all my coworkers even though I know I’m not even better). Plus I’m otaku trash and I love cute anime girls (opposed to his idol love). In a lot of ways he pales to the other Matsu’s but everyone needs a straight man, and he’s good at it.

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

She’s cute, she can sing, she can dance, and because she’s different depending on who’s writing the song she’s can be easy to relate too. My bedroom is also decked out with like 10-11 Miku figures so she had to go on here somewhere. My dream is to see her live one of these days.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read my post on characters I enjoy. Even if I don’t know you, feel free to do it yourself. It’s a real head scratcher.

[anyway-heres-enderal]

i couldnt shut up about enderal right now if i wanted to so here’s that prophet ask meme with my prophetess fleur

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1. The basics – name, age, etc…

her name is fleur! i don’t know her last name but that’s okay because she’s kind of abandoned it. both of my vyn protags have line-of-sight, musically-inspired names so after that fuckin nightmare intro scene i had to name her as an homage to the song that was playing in my head the entire time it was happening (warning: disturbing imagery, abuse of some sort that is not shown but is strongly implied)

she’s 26 years old, half-kilean and bisexual.

2. Describe their appearance.

there’s a picture up there but a few other specifics: her hair is actually white, not just very light blonde, and she has blue eyes

3. How do they like to dress?

she jumps at the chance to wear nice clothes. she never got to back in ostian.

4. Do they have any markings (scars, tattoos, birthmarks)?

she has a few scars from a couple scuffles she got into back in nehrim. one of then is pretty gnarly-looking but it’s a diagonal from her lower chest to her left hip so once the events of enderal started rolling nobody who had seen it was still alive. word to the wise: don’t try to 1v1 a thunder lizard when you’re 14.

5. What are they like? Describe their personality (use whatever tools you like- MBTI, D&D alignment, astrological signs, Hogwarts house, words/phrases):

first of all, the only one of those tools that i have even a remotely decent grasp on is d&d alignment. she’s neutral-bordering-on-chaotic good. i don’t make characters with messages behind them (esp if they’re not for anyone’s consumption but mine) but hers would be “optimism with a dose of realism is probably the healthiest way to see the world”--she has the good sense to know when a situation or a person is beyond help but until that point she will try everything to help them. she desperately wanted to be wrong about adila and even as he was preparing his kamikaze attack she tried so hard to talk yuslan down.

to temper this, though, she takes things too seriously and she’s a bit of a crybaby (ok, not just a bit. alessia, my shadowgod, cried three times over the course of the entire main quest. fleur cried three times over the course of the very first quest that didn’t take place inside a trauma nightmare), although you could argue that she just has like. a normal human reaction to trauma, and everything that happens to her in enderal is EXTREMELY FUCKING TRAUMATIC.

since i have an easier time using tools like the ones described in the question to describe personalities, if she was a disney character she’d be rapunzel from tangled but less naive and with meaningful agency and if she was a social link/confidant in a persona game her card would be the star.

6. How would they describe themselves?

she has really low self-esteem but she doesn’t like. outright hate herself so she’s dismissive of any notion that she’s special or pretty. this probably sounds extremely sue-ish but a) i don’t give a fuck and b) every diy protagonist is at least kind of a mary sue simply because they’re the big special chosen one who all the romanceable companions have feelings for.

7. Education level?

uh. Not Any, Formally Speaking. School Of Hard Knocks. Worked For A Historian In Her Late Teens-Early Twenties And Learned Most Of What She Knows That Isn’t On The School Of Hard Knocks Curriculum That Way.

8. What are they proud of in themselves? What are they embarrassed about?

like the one notable talent that she’ll accept having is that she’s really smart and even before the Everything That Happened On The Ship Headed To Enderal she was a really quick learner.

she has ZERO prior experience with romance (she’s not in any way aromantic, she’s just never been in a romantic relationship) and she doesn’t like to tell people that, especially people she likes. she feels like they’ll think there’s something seriously wrong with her and that’s why she’s never been in a romantic relationship at age 26. 9. Do they know any languages other than Inal?

she knows like. kindergarten-level kilean.

10. What, if any, aspects of their mother’s culture influenced them growing up?

she didn’t really “grow up” with her parents, they died when she was six, but she has a strong belief in the importance of diplomacy and that’s pure Mom right there.

11. Name a song (or a few) that remind you of them.

i hope you like obscure musicals and vocaloid because that’s what you’re getting

In All My Dreams I Drown - The Devil’s Carnival Cast

Starchild - Ghost Quartet

Tears To Shed - Corpse Bride

Ever Lasting Night - Hitoshizuku-P (specifically the Miku character)

Lemonade - Sophie (sorry 4 mood whiplash)

12. Speaking of songs, can they sing? What is their voice like? How about instruments?

she’s hopeless with instruments but she’s not a bad singer by any means. sorry 4 relentless youtube links but she kind of sounds like Gelsey Bell

13. What was their life like before coming to Enderal?

it wasn’t good, i’m not going to lie. she and sirius spent a pretty decent amount of time roughing it because towns and cities kind of got progressively more dangerous as time went on, and Because Of Reasons I Won’t Go Into Here they both had pretty good reasons to avoid anyone affiliated with the temple of the creator

14. How did they decide to leave Nehrim?

it was too fuckin dangerous to try to make a life there anymore

15. Describe their relationship with Sirius.

they were siblings in all senses but blood. he got her out of a pretty bad situation when they were kids and she just stuck with him until they had been through so much together there was no other way for them to describe their relationship than “family”

16. Who do they blame for what happened to their family?

herself. survivor’s guilt is a hell of a drug and it doesn’t help that things only got worse afterward. she like. knows the temple did it, but since she doesn’t know why she’ll always wonder if there was something she could have done to stop it.

17. Apart from stowing away, have they ever broken the law?

she would be considered an accomplice to murder because she helped hide a body once (don’t worry, the victim without question deserved it)

18. How honest are they? Under what circumstances would they lie?

basically the only person she directly lies to is herself; if she’s dishonest, it’s usually by omission. the rare occasions she does outright lie it’s usually to protect someone or because there’s no way anyone would believe the truth.

19. Worst memory(s)? Best memory(s)?

Too Heavy For This Post and uhhhh. getting to spend time with her two BFFs/crushes on the Gertrude before everything started really going to shit was an extremely good memory for her.

20. Fight, or flight?

fight unless they’re like. demonstrably stronger. running away from an enemy she had a chance of defeating has always just come back to bite her. she wanted to fight the steel bird in the star city.

21. Describe their combat style.

Best Defense Is A Good Offense, Also Axes = Good. (original playthrough was greataxes and heavy armor but i’ll probably switch to war axes and light armor [or unarmored if i can swing it] when the steam release drops because apparently half-kileans are equivalent to bretons in normal skyrim terms and i can’t abide having played a heavy armor + two-handed breton twice)

22. Have they ever killed before? What is their reaction to combat?

she’s hunted animals but she’d never done more to a human than injure them enough to scare them off prior to enderal. she tries to only harm people in self-defense and may have cried a little bit (ok, quite a bit) after she had to kill firespark.

23. How do they react to having magical abilities? Do they use them?

magic makes her head feel “gross” somehow (read: she’s uniquely sensitive to arcane fever) so she doesn’t use it

24. What do they think of Enderal?

the scenery’s beautiful but the fact that it’s a theocracy and the notion of being stuck on a certain “path” depending on the circumstances of your birth freaks her out for reasons of “hey remember the oppressive religious regime that was responsible for all of your childhood trauma and continued to make your life hell before a mysterious trans power couple plus their direct superior group of outsiders instigated a rebellion that brought the whole thing down? now it controls the whole continent and everyone thinks it’s Good, Actually”

25. Did they do the Biggest Egg Hunt Ever quest?

she would have if my dumb ass hadn’t completely fuckin spaced it out and forgotten about it until it was too late. next playthrough, i swear.

26. How do they feel about joining the Order? What do they think of Arantheal?

she was not in favor of it (see: opinion of theocracies) and basically clung to the green shirts until she was inducted as a keeper. arantheal makes her uneasy but the threat of looming armageddon does a lot to help her shove that uneasiness to the side.

27. What is their opinion of the gods (or lack thereof)?

she’s not inherently against the gods but she doesn’t like organized religion

28. Wine, or pipe?

wine!

29. Do they spare or arrest Hallys, the farmer-turned-bandit in the quest, Deus Ex Machina? Why?

she arrested him after she found out where the money really came from. if it hadn’t been Stolen From A Fucking Food Bank she probably would have let him go.

30. What are their feelings and opinions about the Undercity?

uh...she hates that ark has a “slum district out of sight of the Good And Honorable Rich People” because having been poor and homeless basically until she came to enderal she can’t help but empathize with the residents of the undercity.

31. How do they react to the beggars of Ark?

if tumblr doesn’t stop refreshing the page and deleting my answers every time i switch tabs to look at the wiki or change the song i’m listening to i’m going to throw my laptop off the porch.

she usually reacts by sparing some change because she can relate

32. Where and how do they spend their time when in Ark?

she really likes the museum in the south quarter. she likes learning stuff and looking at relics of the past.

33. What would they do with three wishes?

just...stop the fuckin cycle

make the black stones inert so nobody else gets hurt because of them

this is basically deliberate repression so it’s 100% unhealthy but she would gladly wish to forget everything that happened before she was seven if it would put an end to the nightmares

34. How do they feel about death? Do they fear it?

uh. yes. she very bigly fears death. she kind of had a complete breakdown after the keeper exam until calia reassured her that just because she heard something during her harrowing doesn’t mean it’s true.

35. What (else) do they fear?

deep water (predates game events). also i dont know if it’s necessarily a fear but she hates being surprised.

36. Do they have any secrets?

uh. Yeah. her dad really was as bad as the dreams show. a few other things.

37. How is their behavior around people they like? People they dislike?

she’s about as friendly and affectionate as her shyness will allow with people she likes. it takes a LOT for her to be actively hostile but she’ll only attempt like. the barest superficial politeness to people she dislikes. 38. What is their relationship with the companions? Who, if anyone, did your prophet romance?

they’re her very good friends who she is also crushing on hard. yeah, both of em. she ended up with jespar kind of by default because i wasn’t making an effort to specifically target either of them but i kind of like the contrast between them so i’m gonna leave that in the Canon Playthrough Bin.

39. Was there any non-companion character that they were close to? That they particularly disliked?

does ryneus count? she would have taken him back to the sun temple and had the few green shirts left alive help her build some method of locomotion for him if she could have. also she had a crush on lishari. she didn’t have anyone she strongly disliked other than obvious shitbirds like taranor.

40. How do they feel about myrads?

she thinks they’re Big Cute Dog Monster Boys

41. What dreams or ambitions did they have before coming to Enderal? What about afterwards?

she wanted to be an archaeologist! she kind of got to do archaeologist stuff during her time in enderal but she wishes that she’d been able to do it without an apocalyptic sword of damocles hanging over her

42. Do they like cities? Or do they prefer the country? Is there a region of Enderal that they like or dislike more than the others?

she doesn’t necessarily dislike city life because she often gets lonely so living somewhere with a big population is always a tempting thought, but if she could take everyone she loves and go live somewhere peaceful where there’s no oppressive government or looming apocalypse she would.

her ideal Cottage Away From All The Bad Things would be in the goldenforst but she loves the crystal forest even though if she gets too close to the crystals it makes her feel like her brain is trying to vibrate out of her skull.

43. What do they do to lower their considerable stress?

go on walks in one of the numerous beautiful locations in enderal. take apart inactive mechanical constructs and try to understand their inner workings from their guts. press flowers.

44. Describe their perfect day off.

wake up from a nightmare-free sleep (you said “perfect”), go on a nice walk around the city (paying a visit to the museum of course!), meet up with her friends and find something fun to do that won’t put them in mortal danger, get drunk at the dancing nomad when it gets too dark for wandering around outside the city to be a good idea, and then watch the stars.

45. List three of their favorite things. Three things they hate?

likes:

sugar bread

the color gold

nice scenery

dislikes:

cooked cabbage

mead

bugs

46. What’s in their pockets?

emergency healing potion

herbs for making another emergency healing potion

at least one apple

random flowers that look cool

a ton of those vendor trash crystal coins you find in pyrean ruins. she just thinks they’re neat!

47. Pets? Mounts? Treasured possessions?

she’s never really had a lot she could hold on to and the thought of prizing a short-lived animal or an item that’s easy to lose is frightening.

48. How are their cooking skills?

NOT FUCKIN GOOD

(she can cook meat alright but anything more complex than that? no)

49. Do you consider any particular quest or side quest to be definitive for your prophet? Which one(s) and why?

i bulldozed through the main quest on my first playthrough; i’ll probably be able to answer this question better once the steam release drops and i can replay the game.

50. How forgiving are they? For example, if they were yelled at in a brothel after searching high and low for this little sh*t, how would they react?

first of all, everyone has a different reaction to traumatic experiences and sometimes that reaction isn’t “palatably sad and helpless” so jot that down. that being said, fleur was extremely upset about that because a) she’s also not an “uwu soft helpless cinnamon roll” kind of trauma survivor, b) some of what he said was generally hurtful, and c) that entire mission had already been one big long anxiety attack

but she’s too hyperempathetic to hold a grudge, especially when a) she knows where the person who hurt her was coming from, b) she gets a sincere apology, and c) she is more than a little in love with the person doing the apologizing.

51. What do they think of the Veiled Woman?

uh. mixed feelings. for what it’s worth, her feelings are mixed because they started out negative and then once she actually got to talk to the veiled woman her opinion strongly improved but like...sirius still died right in front of her because of this woman’s actions so they’ll never be fully positive.

52. If they had been a victim of one of the black stones, how would it have affected them? What would they have used its power to accomplish?

[slams huge portfolio of ideas i’ve had about this exact scenario on your desk] well y’see fleur as she is in canon is a brand of yandere that only technically qualifies as such: she won’t kidnap or murder people who reject her advances, but...uh...don’t harm her loved ones and expect mercy.

fleur under the influence of the black stones...well. it’d be very much like this except not Literally Directed Toward A Fucking Relative. esp the “well you found out now all i can hope for from you is to see your face one last time as you kill me” ending. not quite full yuno gasai love-me-or-i’ll-slaughter-you giggling while hacking someone up but. you know. Something Adjacent.

53. What was their reaction to the Black Guardian’s revelations? Do they accept or reject his offer?

she just kind of emotionally shut down. it was a lot to take in, esp for her. she took him up on his offer because by that point she was desperate for everything she’d gone through to mean something.

54. How does their story end?

credits rolled on her sitting on the edge of the star city with jespar. while the credits rolled i was staring into the void thinking about my life. not sure if that’s canon, next playthrough i’m gonna do a hard save before the final decision point and see if catharsis leaves me feeling less empty inside.

55. Do they change over the course of the story? In what ways?

she becomes a lot more confident and sure of herself and even though she never stops being an optimist she learns to stop setting herself on fire to keep others warm.

56. Anything else you’d like to share about them?

she’s so cautiously positive because she was written as a foil to my shadowgod alessia, a textbook nihilist who only got worse after the events of nehrim.

57. Bonus: For you- what are you most excited for in Forgotten Stories?

VEILED WOMAN BACKSTORY

[magicalgirlpropaganda]

Least favorite vocaloids (still love them just not favorite)

1. Kaito (his voice really doesn't work for what people usually use him for. I think I'd like him better if he where used in the right songs)

2. Miku (I can put Miku on this list if I want to shut up it's not my fault she's overrated)(also her personality (I think this is her canon personality) makes her sound like a real doughbag in my opinion)

3. Luka (I love her but she just seems like those generic anime girls that have HUGE tits and are the love interest despite being competent useless. I do love her though SO MUCH)

Yes I know

Yes these are all popular ones but I don't really like the popular ones as much because again, they overshadow the ones I like

Also because THEY ALWAYS GET USED!

I know vocaloid is a company and whatnot but this doesn't change my opinion.

I mean its just that there's a great song (love me, love me, love me) but I never listen to it because Miku sings it and it sounds so wrong with Miku. Not bad just kind of wrong like not the right one. Just too high pitched maybe, I don't know. It's still a good song, and I know it's expensive to get all vocaloids and such but I would rather listen to a cover of it even though it is a great song.

Also because the vocaloid songs I don't like that are SO SHALLOW are usually sung by these vocaloids. They are usually the shallow songs that are compeletely unrelatable. Can't name any specifics but they seem to be popular for some reason.

I don't hate these vocaloids , just would rather not listen to them when given the choice. But I do love them.

[tinyfluffyshark]

I think you forgot you posted an ask thing but you did and haha I have no life I found it. lace, wings, pearl, blush, gloss, kiss, Goodnight Lin, knocks out**

Fae, I reblog SO MUCH CRAP, I actually had to bother scroll down for fifteen minutes to find this. Why?? you can just ask me this crap?

Lace: Describe my best friends (s) eh, for the heck of it I’ll describe you three dorks, fine. Did I focus on positive aspects? Yes. OwO Didn’t say if I had to be honest or unbiased. (No honestly this was the first thing that popped in my head)

Pia: Indescribable. Cop out answer? Well yeah. My best friend is like, you know that scene in Frozen where Anna’s like “I’m perfectly ordinary!” and then Hans is like “That’s right, she is!........In the best possible way!” That’s Pia. Exactly what I’d expect a human to be like, except that’s literally THE ONE THING I have never encountered and do not know how to deal with to any degree. I hope this doesn’t sound insulting, like she’s amazing trust me, funny, cute, creative, I love her art, etc. She IS my best friend so clearly there is something about her I just kinda don’t know what it is?

Kio: Clueless, dense, little insomniac. Tries to be rational or logical but just isn’t so observant or good with facts. Or emotions. I dunno what’s his strong suit? Well he’s nice, good guy. Tries very hard to not be judgmental and understand, puts a hell of a lot of effort into everything, very caring. After years of developing tolerance for each other at least we can vent at each other and get mad and yell and it’s allllll okay. 

Fae: Too soft too delicate. The most reliable piece of fluff, tries to be calm, never gets angry, mothers us all, tries to be a voice of reason, isn’t a psychopath like the rest of us freaks, and actually HAS EMOTIONS THAT HE CAN PROPERLY USE? My god Fae. Honestly the only person I will let mother me without wanting to back talk or smack them, I will only put up with it from you.

Wings: 1) My eyes 2) My personality in general 3) My morality 3) The way I think, I just am actually very happy with my mind okay? Broken it may be. 4) My hands. 5? My smile and the fact I smile so easily.

Pearl: eek. Toooooo many. 

Scent: I like clean smells and fresh smells, but not strong ones. so mint, eucalyptus, rain, etc. Recently it snowed even though it was really warm a couple days before SO ALL THE GREEN LEAVES FELL AT ONCE and I was walking through them in the snow and its like fresh leaves and snow smell?? really nice.

Flavour: Mint. sweet, spice, that kinda thing. still not huge on strong flavours either.

Sound: Laughter, singing under breath to yourself, soft noises, I hate loud noises. Deeper pitches.

Texture: Boogies fur. soft and silky and fluffy and nice.

Blush: Don’t see one. But ideally? Fae no. Sorry.

Blush 2.0: Everything sorts itself out and I’m dead? Okay I’m trying. Uhhhh......Ideally, everything works out for everyone. I get the therapy I need, and maybe actually get back into school? I know everyone is waiting for that and me to get married and stuff and I wouldn’t mind if those two things could get resolved soon too. Be able to get motivated and pick up my hobbies and just be useful to the world again instead of vegetating in my house? Get another job? Because I actually love working? Travel a little and just in general push my self out of the areas I’ve always been in (in every sense of the phrase). Just some resolution, I just want some of this stuff to resolve and settle down.

Gloss: Songs I like, FAE WHY DID YOU PICK LONG EVERYTHING???

1)Best of Me 2)Save Me 3) I Need U  BTS

4)Nothing like us - Jungkook

5) Let Me In Natewantstobattle

6) Breathe Circus-P and NoStraightAnswer’s cover

7) Monster Vocaloid Miku and 8) BBF Miku and Rin by Kira

9) Red by Taylor Swift eh kinda not really

10) Female side of Attention Nightcore 

11)That mash up of shape of you and treat you better

Kiss: Honestly? I want things to settle the heck down, to stop being ANOTHER stressful hurdle right when we thought we were catching a break, to just calm the heck down and give me a chance to find footing. Just, stop being so URGENT and NEED TO CHOOSE NOW, and ugh. AND I WANT TO GET A CHANCE TO GIVE A CRAP ABOUT ME THIS TIME. I just don’t want to have to worry about anyone but me right now.

Stop staying up so late that you pass out. Go to sleep. Take care of yourselves. Goodnight. I love you. Now sleep.

[peemil]

☕ Vocaloid :3c

More Vocaloid Onions ("Unpopular" Variety)

1- i wish more of the classic songs were actually available on services like Spotify. I know streaming services only allow artists to make fractions of a fraction of a cent, but like... it's more than they're making now when the only way for western fans to access their work is to watch and illegally download one of dozens of reposts of "Po Pi Po" on YouTube. Literally what I wouldn't give to be able to stream the original versions of any of those classic songs, as opposed to live versions, remixes, or worst of all... covers *shudders*

2- i don't think i've liked any of miku's boxart redesigns. Where Are Her Arm Cones. Bring Them Back.

3- i've said it once and i'll say it again: hatsune miku is one of the Genders of all time. in my own personal opinion, i think she is a performance of femininity so hyperbolic it becomes inherently detached from (if not situated in direct opposition to) womanhood. she has literally Transcended Gender.

4- i actually don't think any of the vocaloids have gender in the traditional sense of the word. like yeah sure meiko appears to be "woman" and piko appears to be "man" but they have an understanding of gender more advanced than any of us could even hope to have. of course this is just a headcanon

5- i personally hate the "miku made [insert thing with problematic creator]" but not for the reason you'd expect. see, the "miku made minecraft" joke is actually funny as hell. i love the miku made minecraft joke, because it's funny and minecraft (despite being... well, keep reading) is cool and epic. i don't like the "miku made h*rry p*tter" joke though, not because the reason i normally see, which can basically be summed up with "joanne koanne rowbat's morals and politics are present in and inseparable from her work and you cannot attribute her work, which is inherently linked to her beliefs, to some other entity, unlike minecraft, which has no political agenda." minecraft is actually very much a game about settler colonialism and n*tch's antisemitism, even though he no longer is actively contributing to the game, is still very present in the game's features. like, it is very suspect that minecraft is a game in which the player is encouraged to loot, if not massacre and destroy, villages inhabited by indigenous populations whose most notable trait is... large noses and giving you shit deals on gems. like that argument is fucking moot. the reason why i don't think you should say miku made h*rry p*tt*r or whatever stupid shit piece of media you want to say she made that was never good in the first place is exactly that: those are fucking nerd movies and miku would have never made those things, because they suck. whereas minecraft has endermen and creepers and turtles and creatures, and i think miku is cool and i think she would have created endermen, because i think miku is cool and i think endermen are cool. like, the reason saying miku made h*rry p*tt*r is bad isn't because h*rry p*tt*r is inherently transphobic and it's bad to detract from that. it's bad because h*rry p*tt*r fucking sucks and always has and it's rude as fuck to accuse miku of making something so unepic.