#but the most I think of is when people are all synthesizing what they know and coming up with plans which is a group effort

[kakerutori]

I think one thing that makes Byler so distinct is the way that they complete each other’s thoughts without even trying.

“You know on a- a view-master when it gets, like…” “…caught between two slides?”

“We can’t take any chances. We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer is back.” “Yeah. And if he is, he’d want to attach himself to someone again.”

“Well, no, it’s not just a video game, it’s a video game console.” “It’s basically America’s answer to Nintendo.”

“Some sort of facility.” “A fence, a building.”

“Are you really questioning Suzie, right now?” “She’s a genius, Jonathan.”

Seriously, you could read these quotes one after the other and assume that they came from the same person. They’re like couplet statements then clarifications. And they do it all the time in season 4. I wonder if this is a subtle reason why Byler had a rise in popularity after s4 - they’re so in sync without even trying (couple behavior)!

[disgustingtwitches]

MDNI

141 as your drug dealer boyfriend

Ghost- Let's be real with ourselves, Ghost is not a good man. He doesn't care who he hurts, as long as he gets his. He will do anything to get what he wants and there is no stopping him. It's what made him a great soldier, and it's what makes him a great kingpin. He moves weight to put it lightly. There isn't a moment where an uncut key is unmoving; from a warehouse, to a plane (or car, or train), to a distributor, to a pusher, to up someone's nose. He'll try to do some damage control, make sure things aren't cut with fent, but that's only to make sure customers keep coming back. He likes to keep his hands clean, in the sense that he'll never be the one to pull the trigger on anyone that's out of line. Living up to his name, no one knows what he looks like. Hell, a lot of people don't even think he's real.

But when it comes to you, Simon's a different man. No talk about work, just you and him. Other than the multiple hidden guns around the house and Glock he sleeps with, life is normal with you. Holiday homes in the French countryside and Bahamas. Designer everything. Sports cars in all your favorite colors. You want for nothing. It's the life he wanted for you. After all those years of crying and hurt when he was away for weeks or months, you deserved the world. Want the new Hermès bag? You got it. Can't choose between the black or white louboutins? Get both. Stop eating you out because you can't feel your toes anymore? Sorry love, only thing he can't do for you.

Soap- Johnny is a small business owner. Weighs everything out by his own hand. Presses his own pills. Let's you help baggie everything up. A social butterfly, this man is at every concert, rave, or music festival. Sometimes he has a friend help push his stuff when he just wants to stay home with you, but for the most part he's his own salesman. And a damn good one. Never has overstock. No matter how much he brings with him, he'll always sellout.

Has a supernatural sense of being shorted. Can tell if a bag is even a few grams off just by holding it.

"Ye'r an idiot if ye think ye kin short me."

And when the other party denies, he always keeps a pocket scale on him, setting the parcel on it. And sure enough, he's always right.

He'll come home with a few grand, the only job you have is to sit there and look pretty. And roll his spliffs. Sitting in his lap, tucking the rolling paper into itself and licking it closed while he counts out a fat wad of cash. He hands you a fat stack,

"A've never bin good wi' money. Ye know how to spend it better than me."

He never touches the stuff he sells, no need to when all the dopamine he needs is right between your legs.

"Ten times better than any o tha' shite, anyways."

He pants in your ear while folding you in half, firm grip on your throat.

Gaz- When it comes to psychedelics, Kyle is your go-to man. He's a fucking genius, synthesizes his own DMT and LSD in a lab. It's a state of the art facility, clean with the latest and greatest equipment available. He supplies the whole Northeast. If it's a hallucinogen, it's most likely Gaz's product. And if it's good, it's definitely his. He has a cozy set up with some "organization" that he cooks for. Steers clear of actually selling to people, no need to when his clients line his pockets so well. Never brings work home, he even wears different clothes when he's in the lab.

He has a set schedule he has to adhere to but sometimes he's able to take vacations with you. And that's how you ended up bent over a balcony watching the sunset in Punta Cana,

"I work so hard to make you happy, now it's my turn yeah?"

A breeze sends a shiver up your spine while he kisses your shoulder,

"I know a private beach where you can even out those tan lines,"

Of course he doesn't give a shit about that, he just wants to fuck you silly on the seaside (and show off to anyone who might be watching.)

Price- Caring and nurturing, the man naturally has a green thumb. And alongside his prized heirloom tomatoes, he grows really, really good weed. Has a whole growroom in his basement, decked out with proper ventilation, ACs, UV lights, the works. The man grows medical grade weed that private clinics buy from him. He's legit. And of course he serves the public as well under the table, sells only to people he knows and established clients can refer others to him. He treats his plants like his babies, even going as far as to play music for them (according to him classical music helps them grow better???). You don't know where he finds the time, but he also made you rose garden for your anniversary. He brings up the idea of a family every so often. He'll finish as deep inside of you as possible,

"Let's replace that plant nursery for a real one, yeah love?"

Gonna write actual stories for each one if y'all like this ( . * 3 * . )/`

[localcuttlefish]

You know what. Fuck it. Classic horror AU Edward Little. Everyone sit down. Today you learn.

The scaffolding of Werewolf Edward Little:

Remember that dog that bit his hand as a boy? Not a dog. That was a whole ass werewolf mauling. He was lucky to have survived, and his father made a point of instilling the idea that he had to make something worthwhile out of his now cursed life, because who else gets a second chance like that.

(I bet the reason why he ALLEGEDLY threw hands and was involved in a court martial during his time on the HMS Dublin was because someone called him the Beast of Gévaudan or something on top of being called blackguard.)

Crozier, regardless of whether or not Ned is the only supernatural entity on the expedition (which he more than likely is not), would know Little is a lycanthrope. You can’t sneak that past Captain Francis Rawdon Moira “it’s not paranoia if I’m right” Crozier. The notion that the crew takes silverware aboard the expedition is also more notable— it’s insurance in the event of a werewolf attack.

Several scenes Edward can be interpreted as showing restraint or bottling up anger. Werewolves don’t only transform under the full moon in many modern iterations— they can transform under extreme stress, anger, fear, or even misery and sadness. He’s not just bottling up anger, he’s preventing himself from becoming a damn horse-sized wolf-monster on a ship barely big enough for most of the men to stand upright in its largest rooms.

(He’s not a violent dog, he doesn’t know why he bites.)

Fanbase characterizes Ned as a guardian dog a lot. It’s a really fun subversion of expectations for Edward’s “lunacy” as a wolf just being an overactive, twisted, violent, haunting need to protect, instead of a merciless bloodlust. He’s a resource guarder. It just so happens the resource is men aboard the expedition. It actually makes him quite a good Lieutenant when not in a massive tragedy, since he takes into consideration the importance of group survival, coordination, and safety.

The months where the moon is just spinning overhead in the Arctic are the worst of it. His skin itches from the inside out and he wants to peel himself to shreds to shed everything he recognizes as human about himself just for sake of his comfort. He can’t go outside. He can’t see the full moonlight.

Scientifically, it probably burns a TON of calories to transform from human to massive wolf thing. He’s spontaneously creating and reallocating muscle and bone. Realistically, he would need a lot of those lead-lined tins of meat to survive and not start looking to. Other meat sources. To stay alive. Which is why he’s so devastated and horrified to find out how all of the tins were poisoned. He needs to keep poisoning himself to keep everyone else safe.

The ending desperation and starvation hurts more if you consider the fact that most of the crew probably expect him of all people to snap and eat a sailor. But if we just change those watch chains from gold to silver… then he’s fighting to the end to remain human, remain calm, and not let the horror and hunger overtake him. And he succeeds in the end, actually.

I bet Le Vesconte told him frank that if the resource shortage continues, they won’t be able to trust Ned not to go feral. Ned takes initiative to PROVE the men can trust him and pierces his face with silver to poison himself and stay human.

Cainids can synthesize their own vitamin C. Scurvy was never going to be an issue for him (part of what made him good on the sea)— it was always going to be caloric deficit, starvation, thirst, and exhaustion. When Crozier finds him, Crozier can tell Ned is too weak to go feral with hunger if Ned transforms. Crozier can take the silver chains off Ned’s face. Ned can stop tearing at his skin and just be the monster everyone thinks he is, and he lies there, wolf head in his captain’s lap, whining with every weak exhale until he stops breathing.

[mollysunder]

The Medarda Family and the True Goal of Shimmer

Nature has made us intolerant to change, but fortunately, we have the capacity to change our nature. -Singed

For most of s1 the only versions of magic the audience really gets familiar with are visualized through hextech blue and shimmer pink, but we can't trust it to represent what actual magic is like on Runeterra. People from PnZ are incredibly unfamiliar with magic, it was banned for centuries, and they're mostly retracing steps and doing guess work. The best metric to understand how magic works is to look at characters and regions that are actually inclined to magic, and the Medardas may be the best example yet.

When Ambessa accepts the Wolf totem from Lamb one half of dual aspects of death, her body is enveloped in a bright purple transformation before being reforged into a red that resembles the kind her ancestors and the Lamb wear.

It's the same bright purple that consumes Sky in Viktor's last experiment with the hexcore in s1.

I think this purple represents magic at its most malleable state, where it can be refined or change others into final products with a proper catalysts. By s1's final scene, we know that Mel possesses magic and likely uses it through her golden armor. We also know it's possible for magic to be a hereditary trait that can be passed down (not perfectly) through family lines, which is prized in Noxus (and Ixtal?).

So if Mel has magic that likely means the Medardas family in general has latent magic that flows through them naturally, but what does this have to do with shimmer or PnZ in general?

The Medardas are relevant to PnZ because Zaun's leading minds, Silco and Singed, have spent their capital trying to replicate what the Medardas can do!Shimmer doesn't exist purely as a bioweapon, that's frankly secondary to it's point. Shimmer exists as a means to artificially make the users capable of performing magic, or at least shift the user's biology into something that can tolerate magic. Hextech as a solution to the mystery of magic completely sidesteps the relationship between magic and the user by using machinery as middleman, while shimmer takes a more direct route.

Singed can't literally biohack nonmagical people into mages all by himself. Singed instead developed what's essentially a hormone therapy to give users temporary magic abilities by synthesizing shimmer from these mysterious plants that resembles the color of the magic within Ambessa before her deal with the Lamb.

Why didn't Singed and Silco just give people the magic purple plants directly if it's capable turning them into mages? Sky and Rio might be the best examples for why you don't do that. When young Viktor feeds Rio the purple plants we see Rio immediately lose vigor, as an audience most of us assumed that was simply Rio's pre-existing condition acting up, but the relationship is more simple. When Singed said Rio was dying, he said it with surety because Singed KNEW the exposure to magic was killing Rio. And Sky was DISINTEGRATED upon being exposed to the hexcore's magic.

In that vein, Singed used Rio as a work around. From what we see non-mage humans absolutely cannot tolerate exposure to even base magic, but Rio was able to last longer. Instead Singed and Silco exposed Zaun to a version of those magic flowers that was broken down by Rio's metabolism into a version that non-magical humans can tolerate.

The wild thing is that all this effort is to get non-mage users to Ambessa's UNREALISED state, the purple is just the base magic that exists in mages. Even still, Singed seems to have developed the kind of strain of shimmer that's the closest he's ever come to real magic, and Viktor and Jinx used it.

Viktor's own magical transformation has been facilitated by the hexcore in the same way the Lamb facilitated Ambessa's transformation. Do i think Viktor has essentially created his own Aspect through the hexcore? NO.

But in the same way shimmer is facsimilie of magical ability, so too is the hexcore a subsitute for living magic. And by living magic I don't mean unicorns or mermaids, I mean magic that is given consciousness and shape by being tethered to human concepts. And the hexcore's basic purpose is supposed to be magic that thinks and Viktor has tethered it to the human plane with his blood.

This all begs the question about what could exposure to the hexcore do to long term shimmer users? What WILL it do to Jinx? We all know that's inevitable next season.

You see, power, real power doesn't come to those who were born strongest or fastest or smartest. No. It comes to those who will do anything to achieve it. -Silco

Tldr: Shimmer is a large-scale project to turn the population of Zaun into mages, or magically tolerant, by essentially microdosing the population with magic through shimmer.

[problemnyatic]

I think a major obstacle many many people face when learning new things, building skills, or trying to change themselves is literally just panicking too much. Especially americans; all that shit our schools don't teach us is replaced with being taught to fear authoritarian and social punishment for ever being wrong or even thinking wrong.

There's a widespread impulse to want to "get things over with" that leads to people making wild guesses and stabs in the dark when trying to grasp something new, and only building their sense of fear and panic whenever they miss. Which becomes a very powerful feedback loop, because this approach is a very good way to fuck up many times in many ways with little to show for it.

Learning itself is a skill, and apparently the schools in the US are actually teaching even worse approaches for learning how to learn than when even I was a kid, which really, really was not that long ago.

Kids are taught, not necessarily in school, but by how society treats them and their actions, that not knowing is a failure, and that there are "objectively correct" ways to view everything, with pretty nasty consequences for deviating from that viewpoint. It leaves peolle desperate to find the "correct" framing of everything, discarding everything "less correct" as dangerous and wrong and bad.

Not only does this lead to a horrifically damaged sense of curiosity and capacity to learn and synthesize new information, but it leads to an incredibly powerful sense of second-hand doom whenever other people or the world around them does not also conform to the Correct thing. I'm sure I don't have to outline how that can lead to just, so much trouble.

Not only does this lead to thought-terminating panic and a desperation for easy answers, it means that most people, even when given good information, actively seek to derive as little as they can about it, because they're taught to believe that knowing more than they're "supposed to," especially if it contradicts what authority wants from them, is contemptable and likely to be met with punishment.

The challenge the youth of today, and all of us face, is learning how to sense panicked thought, that wild guessing and strong urgency, and slowing it down enough that we leave ourselves room to think carefully about all angles of something. What do we know? What don't we know? What can we learn from these differences? What questions do you have about this thing? Lets try to answer some of those questions with research (not chatgpt. no.) and experimentation.

It is normal not to know things. The default amount of knowledge to have on anything is 0. It is not a moral failing to be wrong or ignorant. It only becomes a moral failing when you try to hide or excuse your ignorance when you could be learning instead.

[iatrophilosophos]

I think a thing that i find deeply frustrating from every political & philosophical perspective is a deep lack of engagement with medicine. I think at the very root of it is a sense of professional/expertise/authoritative domain. Most people do not talk about how to make medicine happen, they talk about creating conditions conducive to producing an effective medical class +/- production appartus. Anarchists are just as guilty of this as communists as reformerists: you can't tell me that most of the people who gesture at projects like four thieves, open insulin, boobs not bombs (don't get me started), and various street medicine projects aren't also just invoking the image of a detached force of competent agents.

I'll be a hater until the end of time but sometimes it is kinda hard to blame ur average disabled civvie's knee-jerk "what about my meds" because the question is conspicuously absent or relegated to ignorant grandstanding so, so often. Anyone actually critically examining the projects we often cite as easy, publicly available examples will quickly note that they *do* have deep flaws and vulnerabilities. Medicine is conspicuously absent from the texts we cite, pearlman doesnt talk about it, postciv! doesnt talk about it...because these works, no matter how much love I have for them, are really not actually concerned with disabled people all that much.

Most anticiv ppl i know are disabled/medication dependent ourselves & working on it, it's just like really fucking hard, and really hard to generate Texts(tm) while also doing the thing. It's a weird, long, slow process that I'm getting progressively better at & have been for years, but it's also something that happens in conversations and relationships and it's hard to iron out and commit to paper when honestly, synthesizing an effective, sustainable, bioregionally feasible medical MO in current times IS a field in its infancy AND one that looks radically different for every cohort because we are located in different places and starting from a point of different needs/conditions of priority.

Acting like the people who prioritize this just Have It on lock and will get it figured is doing everyone a disservice--it's a paper thin posture that disabled ppl are gonna see through, and it's reinforcing the idea that the average person in the imperial core doesn't need to have any concept of what they'd do with, idk, kidney stones or conjuctivitis or Whatever because they can Just See A Professional About It, even though we ***know*** that that idea doesn't hold up for tons of people NOW, let alone as collapse continues.

[wrenwhite]

some random doodles, and a comic. explanation for it is under the readmore if you're interested.

april 6, 2025

you probably didn't notice, but the date written on the comic is for january of 2025. that's cuz i initially sketched and drew the bubbles in january. i didn't really know if i wanted to finish the comic at the time because i wasn't sure how to explain it. writing comics about how i conceptualize my identity requires a pretty long measure of explanation when exactly zero percent of what's happening in the comic is literal.

what inspired me to draw this was, at the time, i was remembering what it was like to be myself when i was 18. i heavily dissociated during pretty much all of college. it was a uniquely miserable time for me, while also having many bright spots of joy sprinkled in here and there. it was probably the most contrasting emotion i've ever dealt with in my life. but i did kind of repress a lot of those memories because it WAS very painful. i didn't really remember what "Rhie" was like. she was my "truesona" when i was an teenager (she existed alongside Funnelcake), so she was more literally me. because i dissociated so much, and because that was a weird time in my life, i almost never think about those days or, frankly, her.

i feel like Rhie's existence was fully ended by the time i returned home from my first semester of college. so, you can imagine how shocking it was for me to realize that i could summon up what it felt like to be her after spending years assuming i'd buried that experience too deeply to ever recall it with any clarity. if there was any period of my life that felt truly "dead" and unreachable, it was that period.

basically, in this, i wanted to express how, when i was a child and teenager, people around me would often talk about me like i wasn't in the room. or they would talk AT me like they didn't expect or even want an answer, the way someone talks to a dog. i found that the way i'd been thinking about Rhie was in a similar way, and i thought that if she was real, she would be unbelievably pissed off by that. she's mostly just quiet and sad, but i've always had a temper, so she can get pissed, too. whitewood and starling reacting to her the way they do is just me giving voice to my surprise that i was still capable of summoning up those old memories.

i think maybe you can sort of start to understand how i transmute my feelings and memories into literal depictions based off abstractions. i don't know why, but using character interaction and personality development to synthesize my jumble of thoughts into something that can be followed like a story is just how i cope with being who i am.

it was only recently that i realized that i'd developed a strong aversion to thinking about my life in that way, like it's fictional, or a story, when it's just something i've done all my life. there's nothing wrong with it, and my experiences aren't cheapened by this behavior. i like to understand myself, i like the little people i've created, and i like to draw them, too.

[pseudoquiddity]

Me ruminating on the Stamatins and their religious faith again/their relevance to the Bible. Here goes:

In P2, Peter makes allusions to faith, whereas it's mentioned in the design documents that Andrey is a "staunch atheist." (The Stamatins in P2 seem to be in constant, opposing conflict over things. I wonder how that single-soul candle is working out for them)

But it's pretty clear that Peter isn't religious, per se, he's just desperate - which is something I'd imagine Andrey would take greater issue with than believing in God, but we'll get there. Peter thinks abstractly, not tethered to any real religion, about Heaven and Hell because "it turns out, all this was my hell after all." Peter comes across as someone who desperately wants to escape the torture of his own mind and body and so looks to Heaven as that escape, hence that "Never allow yourself any time to think. That's how you get to Heaven" line. Peter is wracked by a guilt that may be inspired more by suffering than regret. As a man who spontaneously considers suicide, it's safe to assume he doesn't imagine himself living very long. If he can't have oblivion in life through alcohol, he wants it in death, but Hell probably doesn't offer what he wants and now that he's on the maybe-precipice of judgement, he's suddenly contemplating Heaven and realizing he's not done a lot of good deeds.

Sort of the opposite of Raskolnikov's epiphany that religion isn't for scrubbing a person's soul pure and clean, and religion can be epitomized even in sinful people. Peter's grasping for help and doesn't really believe in it.

(Peter also prays when Grace is in danger, and the exchange he has with the Haruspex explains how Peter is using psalms more as a charm than as real faith).

Okay, Andrey? One of the most revealing conversations about his (P1) character is in the Changeling's route, and you have to ignore several Clara responses that are just her saying please stop yelling at me! It's great.

It's already initially interesting that Andrey is angry he and his brother are accused of being faithless. I don't think that Andrey is necessarily saying he is religious, but...

"the greatness of God's design" out of Andrey Stamatin's mouth, can you imagine. He is saying that he might be, that he knows more about God, cares more about God, than Clara does - and that the Polyhedron isn't a revolt against faith. It can grow alongside God, in the same way that we all live with technological progress but many people still keep faith and don't feel it's been disproven. Clara proceeds to stumble back to the Rod and says mama, "Andrey ruined everything."

People riff on Andrey for his hole spiel and that's good, that's deserved, that's drunk philosophy, but this block of yelling is maybe one of the most reasonable and coherent ideas Andrey has that stands (correctly) in the face of Katerina and Clara's views of God. Can you believe it? Andrey has a wonderfully synthesized point of view on religion and how it relates to himself and his actions. He's not the traditional heathen he's made out to be (Katerina isn't completely wrong about the Stamatins, she does accuse them of hurting the Earth).

There's this line in the Marble Nest where your response is a choice. You can make Dankovsky say he either believes or disbelieves in God, and I think a Dankovsky who does believe in God feels just about the same way Andrey does - that progress doesn't mean defiance, that he isn't trying to become God or spit in his face. He's just doing his own thing for the good of the people around him. Curing tuberculosis was once thought impossible and nobody thinks those doctors are heathens now. I wonder if this P1 view will carry over to Andrey in P2/3 or if he's too much of an Italian/Cellini.

[ Slapping my red-string corkboard ] So, JACOB'S LADDER. A man named Jacob in Genesis dreams of a ladder extending from Heaven to Earth. It's been interpreted that each rung is a virtuous step toward Heaven, that Heaven is reachable from Earth with enough dedication toward a more righteous self. Jacob's ladder is sometimes also a staircase.

Peter and Andrey were named after two brothers in the Bible, Simon (later named Peter) and Andrew, the "fishers of men," "Peter, the rock on which I will build my church." Very cool, but lay them aside and think about Jacob and Esau instead.

Jacob and Esau, in Genesis, were twins. Esau was the first-born, who grew up to be a hunter. The name Jacob was given to the second-born because it translates to "he who follows upon the heels of one," "heel-catcher," "restrainer."

In Genesis, Esau gives over his birthright as the eldest to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Later... their father favors Esau and wants to give him God's blessing. Before this happens, Jacob finds out and dresses as his twin in order to trick their blind father into blessing him. This is done successfully and because of this, the youngest brother has prominence over the elder. Their father says to an angry Esau: "By your sword you shall live, but your brother you shall serve; yet it shall be that when you are aggrieved, you may cast off his yoke from upon your neck."

Esau as an individual never "casts off his yoke." He's forfeited his position as the eldest and as someone worthy of special favor. He is often seen as less pious than Jacob, who goes on to have visions, fight an angel and win, and sires a nation.

So, that echos Andrey and Peter... as is obvious, but also in Andrey's statement in P2 that Peter will long outlive this town, including Andrey; "I can kick the bucket, so be it, but my brother must live. He is a genius."

Peter, trying to find some winding way to Heaven through his staircases, as a person who already reflects the Bible in his relationship with his twin brother, a pair of twins who never really make up for what [Peter] took and still takes from [Andrey], and yet simultaneously [Peter] complains of his persecution by [Andrey], a man depicted as a fierce hunter... etc. etc.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi! I'm trying to get into writing twst fanfiction, but I'm having some trouble with keeping the boys in-character. What do you think are their base traits? Like, what's the foundation of their personalities?

Hello! I spent a long time debating about whether to respond to this ask or not. Ultimately, a lot of the thoughts I would include in my response are the same as what I have already expressed here. However, I've noticed that this has become sort of a recurring issue, so I'd like to address this more seriously.

I've recently been getting a lot of people requesting that I basically tell them how to write the Twst characters. Tens and tens of them, in fact (too many to include all in one post). Sometimes it's an ask like, "please list out strengths/weaknesses or a summary of their character traits", and sometimes it's more specific like, "here is a prompt I am working on; how do you think [character] would act in this situation?" I'm NOT comfortable with either type of ask and refuse to answer asks of this nature.

I want to be clear: this is NOT the same as asking for general writing advice; this is literally just asking to be spoon-fed the answers. There is a difference between seeking advice on how to overcome writer's block or asking what are techniques to show, don't tell (which is general writing advice) versus asking someone to specifically instruct them on how to write Leona Kingscholar from the hit Disney mobile game Twisted Wonderland. The former is okay with me, while the latter is not.

While I am flattered that people care about my opinion and hold it in high regard, I am not here to be a cheat sheet, and nor are my opinions the "most correct". There is no single "correct" way to write a character, and even if there was, it's certainly not mine. Only the Twst devs themselves are the "most correct", as whatever they produce is what ends up as canon.

As I have said in my previous post on this topic, having someone else tell you how to write does little to help you. Writing is a skill, and skills are not inherent. They are something you train in, practice, and learn. Looking at a bunch of adjectives will not help you write or understand the characters any better than you currently do. If anything, it just means you don’t develop or practice your critical analysis skills. In a worse-case scenario, it devalues what a writer does, as it places the burden on them to condense what they know into a laundry list of characterization--as if it doesn't take us tons of time to hone those writing skills. The only real way to get the results you want is to do your own research, develop your own interpretations, and practice, practice, practice. There is no magic pill or shortcut or streamlining or easy way to do it and come out with a quality result. You have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to learn a skill, and that extends to writing, be it for this fandom, another fandom, or even for non-fandom writing. Think about it like this: when you're writing a good research paper, do you go and ask a single other source to gather all your data and summarize it for you? Of course not. You have to go out and manually collect the resources, do the reading, take notes, and gain an understanding of those resources. Then you use your newfound knowledge to summarize and to synthesize your own conclusions in your research paper. The same logic applies for writing in fandom.

I'm not sure why there is this sudden interest in shortcuts. Is it social media shortening our attention spans? Is it the rise of A.I. like ChatGPT making people more reliant on and more comfortable with summaries? Is it that people are concerned with nailing characterization or instant success the first time around? Is it that the internet's so much crueler with comments + feedback that we want to avoid OOC-ness as much as possible? Is it that I just so happen to like talking about character analysis so people think I must know everything? It could be any of these reasons or a combination of them--but whatever the reasoning is, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's concerning to me that it seems like people are becoming less and less interested in thinking for themselves and instead are increasingly reliant on others telling them how to create. You NEED to fail and get stuff wrong. You NEED to be able to have the courage to try things on your own. Don't be afraid of failure--failure isn't inherently a bad thing, it is how we learn, grow, and shape our own styles and ways of thinking! I definitely was not perfect when I first started out. I had to fail and stumble and struggle to get my craft to where it is today. So did every single one of your favorite creators. Artists had stick figures, writers had their first words. No artist or writer started off making masterpieces. Arguably, they still don't. Every creator is continuously learning and trying to improve their craft. It's not as though they hit perfection one day and decided to stay stagnant. I feel that it devalues what we make when we try to boil down all the skill we've developed into easy "answer keys" for others to digest. Again, you can ask all you want and seek out as many shortcuts as you like, but that's not going to be properly absorbed into your brain unless you walk the walk for yourself. You can't assume that learning these things will be as easy as reading a summary, memorizing a tutorial, figuring out what brush someone uses, etc.--it wasn't for the people you're asking for this advice from either. Failing is normal and expected. You will also never be able to create something that pleases everyone or something that everyone agrees with--so instead of trying to appeal to an unseen audience, please focus on creating what makes you happy. You have your own creative journeys ahead of you, so don't be scared to walk that road! It can be tough and you'll hit roadblocks and challenges--but overcome them, and you'll become even stronger and more skilled than you were before.

Best of luck!

[icedbeverageenjoyer]

(📺🖤📺🖤📺🖤📺🖤📺🖤📺🖤📺🖤📺🖤)

Mr. Puzzles has manufactured everything about himself, including his voice: (A long post!! 📺)

A thing I've noticed is just how often his voice changes, most notably when he's switching from his deeper narrator voice to his more energetic showman voice in the promo trailer. ^^^

Here's another example from the song. Both lines are said in two distinct voices, none of them being the usual one we hear from him. One has a more pronounced Transatlantic accent and the other has an American one. We can assume someone else is talking and he just overlays himself on top, but he is explicitly the one shown to speak in that moment. ^^^

This next one might be a stretch, but I think the supporting female vocals could be him as well. It is heavily implied he works alone and doesn't trust others with his vision so it kinda makes sense that he would also sing the song on his own. (If that's true damn does he have a good voice) ^^^

Even the critical podcast host could be him. The first voice is deeper and rougher while the second is more sly and has a distinct influxion that is unique to Puzzles, so they could be just his inner thoughts and insecurities audibly manifesting through some complicated technical means.

He is alone in his office, staring at all the monitors that display his hard work. And he is not satisfied. His mind begins to wander and his self doubt begins to manifest out loud in the form of others criticizing him, further fueling his crippling perfectionism. ^^^

Also here, when his lifelong dream is finally met he can't contain his (ever so slightly malicious) glee, and his voice deepens and begins to glitch out. ^^^

Also a bit unrelated but did y'all notice that when he says 'crying' he is shown with his crazy big smile? You know, his main expression on all the promotional material.

Conclusion?

I think his upbeat showman voice isn't how he usually sounds, but what he thinks others would like him to sound like. He has to keep up the energy that the audience has come to expect of him so he manufactured the perfect tv host voice to keep as many tuned in as possible.

I headcanon his real voice to be deeper, raspier and very monotone. I think that while he was smoking he had to turn off his voice synthesizer so the smoke won't damage it, which is why he doesn't talk in the scene. He has lost every bit of himself by molding into what he thinks people would like, and any reminder that he was once someone else makes him uncomfortable.

I'm going insane chat.

[bogkeep]

forgive me father for i have once again listened to a podcast episode discussing a topic that makes me go >:( and now i must write a blog post about it.

the topic was, i guess Learned Helplessness although they never really used that term. the whole talk got very Kids These Days-y in a way that just. does not sit well with me, very generalizing and victim-blamey. but it IS a complicated topic, because there are many things i DO agree with:

- learning to sit with discomfort, inconvenience and conflict is a good and necessary skill

- anti-intellectualism is bad, and challenging yourself can be very rewarding

- people do have a certain amount of agency and responsibility for their actions

- being in community is good and hyperindividualism is not so good

but oh... how do people argue for how everyone should be constantly challenging themselves and be responsible for everything in their lives, in the same breath as decrying self care (or "self care" with the quotation marks) as hyperindividualist?

is this a los angeles thing. do all podcasters live in LA or something

do i have a different definition of community??????

one of my fundamental philosophies that i've carried with me through life is that not everyone can do everything, and nobody does everything the same. we have different strengths and limits, we do things at different speeds, and in community we can compensate for our differences. and most importantly, nobody needs to be "deserving" of help and resources - everyone should have a right to help and resources.

i volunteered at my local queer youth organization for several years. i did what i could when i could do it. for a while i was the only one with access to a car, so i helped out a lot when moving offices, or when we travelled to a rural town to help out with their first ever pride parade. when i moved out i no longer had access to the car. at every parade i was at, one thing that was made clear in all the speeches was that when we march, we march not only for ourselves, but for everyone unable to join. there was never any shame in being unable to join. be it because of safety reasons, or disability, or just plain availability - not everyone can join! not everyone wants to join! enough people do that we have a parade regardless.

something that became pretty difficult at one point is when the leader of the local chapter started taking on too many tasks and delegating too little, essentially bringing the whole organisation to a halt when she was unable to do the tasks and nobody else had access to them. not knowing your limits makes you a choking point.

and like, okay. i'll be the first to admit that i take the whole sentiment of "you're not trying hard enough" a little bit personally. me, and probably every other disabled and neurodivergent person who has had to hear it a million zillion times while they try and try and try and it just does not yield the results - or they yield only at a great cost.

i have several painful memories of my mother, a woman who gets huffy if she has to stand in a queue for too long, implying that i am unwilling to leave my comfort zone. i've grown up thinking that i'm a weak willed and sensitive soul due to personal failing, or maybe a failing to break a bone in my childhood, and hey, maybe it's true. though i AM starting to suspect someof the challenges i face are like, actual challenges, mayhaps due to being autistic and marginalized in a hostile society.

i can't speak on behalf of all disabled people, but i suspect many are familiar with the experience of not being believed when they say they can't do something.

so... okay. how DO we synthesize the 'learned helplessness epidemic' with the fact that people have limits. surely there's a middle ground between "you're not helpless, you can do anything you set your mind to if you just try harder" and "you're not responsible for anything ever and owe people nothing".

i don't know! i just don't think there's a one size fits all solution. making yourself be active and go out is good if you've got depression, and not good if you've got severe burnout. there are times when you may need to push yourself, and times when you need to be forgiving and let yourself rest. is scrolling on your phone for three hours rotting or resting? it depends! it just does!

i think there's great power in knowing your limits. knowing what you can and can't do means finding solutions - sometimes you find an alternative way of doing something, sometimes you need someone else to do it, sometimes you can learn and practice how to do the thing, and sometimes it doesn't need doing. i don't think it's necessary to have to do everything in the most challenging or normative way possible. if it's difficult to throw away trash, maybe you need more available trash cans. i think it's far, far more responsible to be honest about what you can do than overpromise only to crash and burn.

i'm just!!! so exhausted by the idea of constantly pushing yourself, as if improvement can only happen through exertion.

(quick rundown examples brought up in the podcast that made me grind my teeth:

- "unless you have a LEGITIMATE REASON i think picky eating is a moral failing" ghhgrghhgghhhhh

- the whole "americans are getting worse at reading and they only read garbage" as if all reading must be Intellectual and Challenging and that's the True Purpose Of Books. also, not to be like "the american school system has failed you" but the american school system has been failing to teach people to read. like that is actually a thing. i know anti-intellectualism is on the rise and there's a myriad of reasons behind it. but it's weird to me that nobody brings this up!

- "a fifteen year old feeling uncomfortable with this pop star because she's so sexualized" yeah they're fifteen. do you remember how uncomfortable it is to be fifteen and dealing with your body and sexuality in a society that's simultaneously pushing sex at you at every turn while also being extremely weird about sex due to religion probably. im willing to cut all teenagers a lot of slack for being weird about sex and sexuality tbh

- implying people mostly order food/grocery delivery because they're lazy and anxious. Surely People Do It For Myriads Of Other Reasons

- brief mention of "people have less sex than before". stares into the camera asexually

- they didn't actually bring up Therapy Speak but it feels very much in the same vein, you know? a lot of talk about people using mental illness and trauma as an excuse for avoiding things, but you know what might help with a lot of that? therapy. probably. i would hope. like trauma does in fact fuck with your conflict resolution skills, and a lot of people have plenty reasons to be traumatized. Considering)

anyway that's all for now

[angelpointe]

“ You’re Already a Twink , e .. ”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

˖ . ݁𝜗𝜚. ݁₊ A blog for my shenanigans ! and Art , I guess . .

࿐ ♡ ˚ . Hi ! My name is e or Ink ! Though you can also call me Angel if that makes you comfortable !

I’m AceAro , identify as The Binary , He / She , and am in a loving QPR with both Jamantha Sira Sprinkle and Cynothy Bicicleta Cycle !

Check them out ! @sirasketches @cursed-creationist 💕

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

Stating some things about myself for transparency ;

・ I am a College Student , I make art as a hobbyist !

・I am Hard of Hearing and have frequent problems involving my ears . I was deaf for a majority of my early years , please be aware of that when it comes to audio content .

・I do not see myself as a part of the Kin community ! I respect kins and I think they’re neat , but I am not a part of the community and do not like being grouped in with them . .

・For personal reasons , I don’t openly talk about or engage with many controversies , issues or serious mental health talk . At most , I will like or reblog things on my side account — but understand I am not in any place to discuss topics like these .

Thank you . .

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

Mini QnA ! ;

˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ What things do you like ?

.

I really adore content centered around general cutesie and girl-ish material ! Especially when that is turned on its head , creepy cute , cutely misleading horror , etc.

Generally ‘coquette’ aesthetics make my brain happy , especially with Porcelain dolls and angels ! Something about the melancholic nature of ‘purity’ is something I’m drawn to and identify with .

I like Art ! Especially illustrations with deeper meanings - I love performance art , things like ballet , musicals , plays , choir , ( band not as much ) but I treasure art !

I love love LOVE interacting with others and talking about different fandoms , characters and medias ! I could listen to people ramble on and on about the stuff they enjoy for HOURS - bouncing ideas back and forth with people is just really fun ! ( Can you tell my love language is quality time ? Hshsjhsss,, )

˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ What things do you NOT like ?

.

Cheese . Cheese . I hate cheese .. most dairy products actually - and most things that come from Cows at all ..

I don’t like yellow , it’s the worst color . (Take this with a grain of salt , I’m colorblind)

Whatever the fuck is going on with today’s children’s clothes !! Politely , BE NORMAL .

Targeted harassment - harassment in general ! Even self-proclaimed self-righteousness people - that is not the way to solve problems nor get anyone to agree with you ..

Generative Ai . From what I’ve already stated about my love of art and expression , you can likely gather why !

˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ What Fandoms are you in ?

.

I’m in the Utmv fandom !! ( Shocking , I know .. )

I also am in at least 2 Sanrio fandoms , Aggretsuko and Onegai My Melody .. I LOVE PRINCESS TUTU !! In the Vocaloid fandom and other Voice Synthesizers ! I avidly play Royale High ,, I’m very passively in the Mario Fandom !! Avatar: The last Airbender , Death note . . . I also used to be big into Ena , which I’m hoping to get back into after a while .. lurking in a few spaces , but generally I’ve been everywhere !

˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ Do you have any rules for Asks/Requests ?

.

Yes ! Very general rules — Do not send me weird or freaky things !! I’m okay with most questions , I don’t mind answering things about myself as long as they are respectful ! And for requests I ask , please , do not ask me to make fetish/nsfw/overly disturbing content !! This blog will only be vaguely suggestive at most , any and all inappropriate content will be deleted from my inbox .

Also please be aware I am a very busy individual ! Requests may be completed out of order — depending on availability and motivation — or not completed at all ! Don’t be discouraged if I haven’t drawn a request of yours , I may have simply ran out of the energy or motivation for it ..

˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ What’s with the spacing thing ??

.

Force of habit !! I learnt it passively somewhere and just never stopped — Some may call it a typing quirk , which it could very much be ! I don’t notice it much and it just makes it easier for me to see the punctuation better .. you may notice in any fics I make later on , it will disappear - I still wrote it all , I just didn’t want the silly little habit to detract from my writing .

˚ ༘`✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ Can I use your art to . . .

.

- Use as a Pfp , banner or graphic ? Yes ! Just please credit me

- Use as Inspiration for my art/fic ? Yes ! Feel free to let me know in some way as well !! I like seeing things people make !

- Use for a comic dub ? Yes ! Just please credit me

- Edit/Adjust/trace over ? Please do not Post modified versions of my work ..

- Repost on another site ? No !! And do not trust any other account claiming to be me ! Tumblr is my only active social media at this time and I don’t wish for my art to be posted on anything else at the moment .

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

DNI ;

- Y’know the drill , basic dni criteria

- Pro/com/darkshippers , any other variants of the term ..

- Enablers

- Ai “artists”/ Ai bros .. side note , I do not wish for any of my art to be used for Ai image generation

- Hazbin Hotel centric blogs/Asks/comments , its personal , I don’t care if you follow me or like my stuff , just please don’t speak to me ..

꒰ ୨୧ ─ ・┈ ・ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ─ ・┈ ꒱꒱

Tags for navigation :

#e whispers — Just me yapping , text posts

#Pointeblank Answers — Ask tag , requests and whatnot

#Angelpointe Art — My art tag !!

#Vellum Papyrus — All posts about or with my little Au Papyrus

#Pointeverse — Everything to do with PointeVerse , my little original multiverse

#Underbucks — Everything to do with my shitpost Starbucks au

#Friable Utmv — . . Coming soon , actually . All the content for my ‘Domestic’ au , be weary of content warnings .

#Ink sans — All of my Ink content ! Don’t get lost !

#Errorink — All my Errorink content .. there’s a lot

. . . More on this later ! Maybe .

Bye bye ! :3

[friendsinsolitude]

Truly Rui’s a fucking hypocrite when it comes to his relationship to Mizuki. Rui demands—I mean, Nicely Asks for a sort of emotional vulnerability from her, for her to be Honest about how she feels (miserable), “akin to” (it’s different) how she didn’t bother to hide her misery when they knew each other in middle school, cause Rui feels most at ease with her when she’s reliant on him for something he can provide. In middle school that was pretty much just existing near her while not scorning her since literally nobody else in their shared environment was willing to do that, but in the present moment there’s absolute jack she wants from him, cause everything that was nice about that fucking rooftop she gets elsewhere now. A place to belong, people who understand her? Niigo. Someone who knows her secret and treats her like anyone else? An. Rui’s been replaced pretty much entirely, cause he was a stopgap in the first place.

But Rui likes being relied upon, it’s like the only formula for relationships he’s confident in his ability to synthesize. So even though Mizuki Doesn’t Fucking Need Nor Want That Shit From Him, he still asks her be emotionally vulnerable with him, because it’s familiar, and all they have is familiarity. And it’s hypocritical because he absolutely never intends to be emotionally vulnerable with her. In large part cause he’s stupid and doesn’t realize he has Emotions to be Vulnerable about. Despite their relationship ostensibly being founded on mutual misery, all of Rui’s misery is communicated by Mizuki reading in between the lines and drawing blood from a stone, rather than Rui literally ever volunteering the concept that he’s anything but fine. And Rui flounders when that’s reversed, when he has to read between the lines and draw blood from a stone. And he’s not nearly self-aware enough to know he does the same thing, so he still asks her to vivisect herself, cause not knowing, not knowing what’s wrong, not knowing her, is the most uncomfortable thing for Rui. And see, I think Mizuki might have a different opinion as to what’s most uncomfortable for her, like, say, being vivisected, being known.

[sleepberries]

28 for Peter and Jason pls 🙏🙏

28. pulling someone in by the waist

The thing about Peter Parker, Jason had learned over the months they'd been together, was that he had absolutely no sense of personal space when he was focused on something. Which was how Jason found himself watching from the doorway of their shared apartment as Peter stood at the kitchen counter, completely absorbed in whatever chemistry experiment he was conducting with what had once been their dinner ingredients.

"You know," Jason said, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, "most people just order takeout when they can't cook."

Peter didn't look up from where he was measuring something into a beaker with scientific precision. "I can cook. I'm just... improving the nutritional density of the pasta sauce."

"By adding what looks suspiciously like the contents of your lab kit?"

"It's perfectly safe," Peter protested, finally glancing up with that earnest expression that never failed to make Jason's chest do something complicated. "I'm just synthesizing some additional vitamins. You said you weren't getting enough iron in your diet."

Jason stared at him for a moment, because of course Peter had been listening during Jason's offhand complaint about feeling run down after patrol. Of course he'd decided to solve the problem with science instead of just buying a bottle of supplements like a normal person.

"Parker," Jason said, pushing off from the doorframe, "you're insane."

Peter's face fell slightly, shoulders hunching in that way they did when he thought he'd overstepped. "I can just—if you don't want me to—"

Jason was moving before Peter could finish the sentence, crossing the small kitchen in two strides. His hands found Peter's waist, fingers curling around the sharp juts of his hipbones as he pulled him close, away from the counter and whatever mad science he'd been conducting.

"I didn't say stop," Jason murmured, watching the way Peter's eyes widened behind his glasses as their bodies pressed together. "I said you're insane. There's a difference."

Peter's hands came up automatically to rest against Jason's chest, fingers splaying over the worn cotton of his t-shirt. "So you're okay with me potentially poisoning you in the name of better nutrition?"

"Wouldn't be the weirdest way I've almost died," Jason pointed out, his thumbs tracing small circles just above Peter's belt. The contact made Peter shiver, and Jason filed that reaction away for later use.

"That's morbid, even for you," Peter said, but he was smiling now, that soft, private smile that Jason had decided belonged to him alone.

"Says the guy who thinks adding mystery chemicals to marinara sauce is a reasonable dinner plan."

Peter's laugh was warm against Jason's throat as he leaned into him, all awkward angles and careful touches. "It's not mystery chemicals. I know exactly what I'm doing."

"Famous last words," Jason murmured, but his arms were already tightening around Peter's waist, pulling him impossibly closer.

This was the thing Jason was still getting used to—this easy intimacy, the way Peter fit against him like he belonged there. For someone who'd spent most of his life keeping people at arm's length, the casual closeness should have been suffocating. Instead, it felt like coming home.

"We could just order pizza," Peter suggested, his voice slightly muffled against Jason's shoulder.

"And waste all your hard work?" Jason pulled back just enough to meet Peter's eyes, one hand sliding up to cup the back of his neck. "I don't think so. Besides, I trust you."

The words hung between them, heavier than they should have been. Peter's expression softened, something vulnerable flickering across his features.

"Yeah?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Jason confirmed, sealing the promise with a kiss that tasted like trust and tomorrows and the particular kind of home that Jason had never thought he'd find.

When they broke apart, Peter was smiling again, brilliant and slightly dazed.

"Okay," he said, voice rough around the edges. "But if I accidentally give you superpowers, you're not allowed to complain."

Jason laughed, the sound surprising him with its genuineness. "Deal, spider-boy. But I'm picking the toppings for the pizza we're definitely ordering later."

"Later?"

Jason's grip on Peter's waist tightened, possessive and sure. "Much later."

[nohoperadio]

In the second week of April 2016 the most important friendship of my life definitively ended (my fault). This was, among other things, bad. Another thing that happened in the second week of April 2016 was that Homestuck ended. I was both early and late to the party regarding Homestuck, I got into Problem Sleuth while that was still in progress so I was there for the beginning of Homestuck in '09 (including the brief Flash "beta"), but quickly got sick of trying to follow it through incremental updates and after a month or two I gave up and made a mental note to come back to it when it was complete. Seven years later, having just destroyed what I was then wont to think of as being the only source of good in my life past present or future (astute readers may be able to intuit subtle indications of what was perhaps not entirely healthy about the friendship in question), I was suddenly able to action this mental note.

The timing seems ridiculously providential in retrospect. The two things happened exactly back-to-back. Obviously I was in need of a good distraction at the time. And as well as having the useful demerit of being a billion pages long, I think Homestuck might be the only single piece of media in my adult life that I've successfully become truly obsessed with, which I know is something that comes naturally to a lot of people but it doesn't to me. Obsessed in the sense where it was the main content of my thoughts for several months. After I finished it I found all the liveblogs I could and experienced it again and again via other people's reactions. You could make an argument I was in a state of mind where I was primed to imprint on anything that could competently hold my attention, and there may be something to that but also Homestuck is kind of an excellent purpose-built attention sink right? I mean as long as the basic vibe is something that speaks to you. It's made such that you have to be willing to get quite obsessed with it just to experience it at all in any kind of adequate way, it forces you to synthesize ridiculous quantities of plot material largely on your own initiative, because somehow despite the length and slowness it manages to be exquisitely underwritten in terms of like, what is actually happening. If you're willing/hoping to not have much brain space left for real life, it's a good way to achieve that.

What was the point of this post? Nothing I think; actually I'm pretty sure the thing that got me thinking of this to begin with was that I suddenly remembered one of the livebloggers, who did their read-through in the form of commentated youtube videos, which was already a crazy idea and that must have been hundreds of hours of content, but the specific thing I remembered was that they stopped the series abruptly literally a few pages before the ending because they thought the Davepetasprite thing was too stupid to abide. Which is kind of an incredible power move when you think about it. I looked for their channel again a few years later and they'd deleted the whole thing.

Somehow I'd never seen those symbols for the zodiac before (or probably had but never really processed or retained them in my mind) and I thought the designs were original to the comic, experienced a surreal moment when I first saw them in a different context. I don't even know where he lives anymore. I really hope things are good with him.

[project-sekai-news]

A Strange Blue-Twintail Ghost?!

Hello, and welcome back to Project Sekai News! I'm Hoshino Ichika, and this is our faithful journalist, Tenma Saki!

Hi everyone! Glad to finally be back after such a hiatus!

We apologize for being gone for so long. Though this is no excuse, school has become stressful lately, as we are second years. Nevertheless, we are back to report on events around Shibuya Sekai.

As for today's report, I'm sure you've all heard of Hatsune Miku, Sekai's beloved virtual idol.

I have, Ich - Hoshino-san, but what about the people that haven't? Care to share with us who she is?

Of course. She's something called a Vocaloid, developed by Crypton Future Media, and codenamed CV01. A Vocaloid, according to the Vocaloid Wiki, is "a singing voice synthesizer software product." Basically, a software that can allow users to synthesize a singing voice. Hatsune Miku is depicted as a sixteen year old girl with long blue twintails, though there is debate on what color they actually are. Some people say they're teal or green. She was released in August 2007, and since that has become the most popular, cutest girl ever, able to spread hope to all of her fans across the world...

Haha, Hoshino-san! You're getting carried away!

A-ah, sorry! Um, anyway... people have been claiming that they've seen Hatsune Miku around Shibuya Sekai, walking around as if she were a normal human being. Obviously, this isn't possible, since you can only see Miku on a screen. They report they only saw her out of the corner of their eye, and when they tried to look at her directly, she vanished.

Woah?! Are we sure they're not hallucinating?

Most of the people who saw her have never hallucinated anything before, which is strange. A first year high school student reported that she thought she saw Miku behind the corner of a building, watching her, but when she blinked, Miku disappeared, as if she were just imagining it. Multiple people reported a similar situation, actually.

But considering the amount of sightings, it's probably not her imagination, right?

No.

Is it not a cosplayer, or someone that just happens to look like Miku?

If it was a human, no human should be able to simply disappear like that.

Then is she... a ghost?!

Not exactly - she could be a hologram. Miku is a robot, after all. Though how she's appearing throughout Shibuya is a mystery. But since it's Miku and not Kagamine Le - I mean, some really creepy monster from the Backrooms - I assume we don't have anything to worry about! After all, Miku could never cause any real harm to the citizens of Shibuya Sekai.

What did Len ever do to you -

The police are trying to investigate this sudden apperance of Hatsune Miku, but so far have no luck regarding figuring out what exactly she is. We ask that for now, do not approach the Hatsune Miku hologram and report any sightings of her to the police immediately. Until we know what she is, we need to take the utmost precaution.

Even if she is your favorite idol!

U-um! Ichi - Hoshino-san, Tenma-san - is that over there - the Miku hologram?

Where?! - Azusawa, that's red hair, not blue. Oh - it's gone. Well, the vanishing part wasn't a lie...

N-no, there was blue right next to it, I think..

I saw it too...

Um, Ichi? Why do you look so scared?

...

Ok, signing off! Bye everyone! It was nice talking to you again!

Goodbye!

Kohane, turn off the camera right -

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Hey, did you see Project Sekai News' report on the Hatsune Miku ghost?

Yeah.

I did! I'm glad they're back, but it was a really weird report, wasn't it? I haven't seen Miku as a hologram yet... and what happened at the end?

I rewatched the video multiple times, but I couldn't see anything wrong. We can ask Amia about it when she arrives. Maybe she'll know something.

...

Is something wrong, Yuki?

Nothing.

...Okay. I'll get to work, then. I'm almost finished with the demo...

Alright.