#doomed coworkers....all very different personalities so they clash a lot

[cherubchoirs]

character notes on v1's design team mel, cas, and belle......mel was the head and originator of the project, the one who developed blood-absorption plating and largely conceived of v1 as a counter to the earthmover. cas was software lead, who was able to produce a new generation of supreme machine intelligence suited to fighting in the earthmover. belle was the hardware lead, who understood how to make v1 lightweight yet sturdy, and integrated a proper system to actually work with mel's new plating.

mel is an eccentric who has been ill most of his life due to severe lung and skin damage resulting from pollution and fire exposure without proper protection. his poor health has caused him to be consumed with his creative pursuits, v1 being the culmination of a near decade of dedicated work and dreaming...as a result, acutely aware he has little time left to know it, mel cares deeply for his creation and does everything he can to connect with it. he is viewed in many ways as unstable, but cas and belle can see mel's genuine enthusiasm and confidence in what they have made, what was born from so much isolation and late nights pushing his declining body to its limits. his interest lies in the art of what he has made, not so much conceiving the end of the war but instead simply wanting v1 to create an irreplaceable new generation of machines. one that cannot be outdone, immune to obsolescence. however, he dies before the new peace is established, never knowing his child was shelved without ever having a chance to prove itself the way he knew it would. cas and belle are the ones who advocate to save v1, just in case, not wanting to see mel's dream die with him even when it's been rendered obsolete under the one condition mel couldn't have predicted. they oversee v2's creation, hoping it will carry mel's torch, and terribly let down when it goes the same way as the first. too expensive. too unnecessary. it can't be sold.

cas is the most existential of the group, aware of the machines' capacity for sentience and knowing v1 will be much more capable than most given how he programs it. it gives him terrible anxiety and insomnia, haunted by creating something so perfected for war yet that could know itself, could develop an identity in the horror of its reality. he finds little comfort in mel, who wishes more than anything to see v1 become much more than any other machine, to truly achieve that standing of "supreme", while belle thinks little of such things as long as it ends this damn war. it makes cas much stricter about protocol, attempting to prevent what he believes to be the cruelest fate imaginable for v1 - no treating v1 as anything other than a war machine, keep to drills, to training, affirmatives or negatives to its performances. cold grades, nothing else. this, of course, fails terribly - it comes to a head when, during one-on-one training with mel, v1 calls the medics for him when he passes out due his oxygen running low. cas knows how he programmed it, he knows it was never taught to give assistance...it saving mel proves it's already thinking outside of his parameters, and he can't stop it. in addition to preserving mel's legacy, cas insists on v1's storage rather than dismantling it because destroying it now would be too cruel after he made it this way.

belle is largely a utilitarian, though she is often angry and rough in her approach because she's exhausted by war. she works very closely with mel, putting her genius together with his to make anything he needs a reality as she believes this is their last ticket out. the earthmovers are killing everything, killing them - she often feels like she must have lost her mind, the way so many others take this never ending war as a given, as the default for humanity. she puts everything into making v1, her skill enabling it to work at full capacity on just 1% of blood. she develops the feedbacker, perfectly complimenting mel's blood plating and the quick, clever brain cas has programmed. she's lightning fast with her fixes and she places her dreams on v1 in a way similar to mel but without the sentimentality - she needs out, she wants it to be done, and she's willing to do anything to push through her own limits to get there. belle is shocked when the new peace is achieved without any implementation of what they all worked so hard for...and while she can't be upset about her one wish being granted, there is something bittersweet in seeing their prototype now go to waste. she endorses the creation of v2 as a way to see their work at least continue on to maintain the peace, but is aware of how much of a longshot it is. still, she is forever proud of v1 and v2, believing they truly had created the best.

[chicagocityofclans]

Achilles Idris → Max Irons  → Rat Shifter

→ Basic Information

Age: 37

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: August 30th

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Religion: Deism

→ His Personality Achilles, liked much of the Jacksonville clan, has a way of showing only what he’d like to show. He is a skilled chameleon who has spent his entire career schmoozing and charming information out of marks, rather than through espionage. He can default to the “character” he sometimes plays when first meeting others, posturing a young and sometimes boyish energy. However this is quite far from his real personality. Achilles’s true personality is much more quiet, reserved, and laid back. At his core, Achilles is a very insightful and mature person. He spent much of his life in the closet, which honed his ability to read and understand the players in a room. Achilles was exposed from a young age, as the first born child to a leader, to the realities of running a profitable and successful clan. He knows the blood that has been spilt and recognizes the way the games must run in order to be the best.

That being said, he is one who tends to stray from instruction or direction. Achilles was raised knowing he would take over the clan one day. Cadmus enjoyed seeing his sons push the envelopes and discover whatever way would get the best information. Now that there are stricter rules and guidelines in the GOLD and the Chicago Clans in general, Achilles is finding them to be frustrating and pointless roadblocks. He hasn’t voiced these feelings out loud, and may only say them to Jax in the end. He plays all things close to the chest and lugs around decades of secrets everywhere he goes. The constant, vicious in-fighting between Achilles and his brothers that almost lead to deaths numerous times, his sexuality and the shame and hatred spewed at him by Cadmus, the haunting death of his mother. No one has had the key to all of his secrets, and he doubts anyone ever will.

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: BOND team member and Part time GOLD Member

Scars: Various from training and BOND

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: Sniping and Stolen Art

Two Dislikes: Taking Hostages and Running Recon

Two Fears: Being kicked out of Chicago and Being outed

Two Hobbies: Shooting and Overtime

Three Positive Traits: Down to Earth, Insightful, Mature

Three Negative Traits: Secretive, Manipulative, Wayward

→ His Connections Parent Names:

Cadmus Idris (Father): Achilles is positive that Cadmus is the worst father in the world. There was never a moment he wasn’t on guard in Jacksonville. He viciously pitted his children against one another to fight for power and his affection. When Achilles was outed by Patrick, Cadmus disowned him and publicly humiliated him. He wasn’t removed from the pack, but treated like the lowest

Illiana Idris (Mother): Illiana was killed when Achilles was 5. It was never really looked into, and Achilles believes Cadmus had something to do with her death. Achilles has vague and somewhat obstructed memories of her death and is unsure if he was in the room when she died or not.

Sibling Names:

Perseus ‘Jaxson’ Idris (Half-Brother): Achilles spent much of his life, even after Jaxson disappeared hating his brother. He blamed him for being the reason Cadmus killed his mother and causing him to have a line of heirs to compete with. He knew being sent to find Jax was another punishment by Cadmus meant to shame him; find and inform his replacement of what he was entitled to. They initially clashed, but once Jax saw through Cadmus’s act they became friends. Achilles got a second chance because of him, and wants to form a true brotherly bond.

Jason Idris (Half-Brother): Jason and Achilles were often the most vicious with one another. He was born when Achilles was 11 and was the son of Cadmus’s second wife. The greatest violence often occurred between the two of them, and Jason gloated when Achilles was disowned.

Theseus Idris (Half-Brother): Theseus is Jason’s full brother. He was never as competitive with Theseus, primarily due to the age difference and his constant struggles with Jason. Icarus and Theseus were born in the same year and are the most competitive with one another. Achilles has had to restrain them from killing one another before.

Icarus Idris (Half-Brother): Icarus is 15 years younger than Achilles. He was never as competitive with Icarus, primarily due to the age difference and his constant struggles with Jason. Icarus and Theseus were born in the same year and are the most competitive with one another. Achilles has had to restrain them from killing one another before..

Unknown (Half-Siblings): Cadmus is a constant philanderer, and Achilles knows he is still adding children to this day. Jason, Theseus, and Icarus were the main legitimate children during Achilles’ childhood.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Patrick Bouras (Ex Boyfriend): Patrick and Achilles had been inseparable since they were young. They were best friends, which over the course of time grew into something much more. About 6 years ago, before Achilles was sent away he was outed by Patrick. Patrick has chosen to get married and threw him under the bus to save face. It devastated Achilles and, with the addition of Cadmus disowning him, made him unable to truly trust anyone. No one knows his secret in Chicago except for Jax, Nick, and Ray and he hopes to keep it like that.

Platonic Connections:

Maxine Vanes (Good Friend): Max was one of the first friends that Achilles made in Chicago which was a surprise to both Jax and Max when they found out. They have an easy friendship, and Achilles feels comfortable around her. She has been making some obvious hints towards being able to talk to her about anything, and he is worried that she’s found something out or that something is being spread around the pack.  

Nick Hamelin (Grateful): Nick gave him a second chance that he never expected. He came in as a spy in an effort to win back his spot in Cadmus’s eyes. That was doomed to fail, and when Cadmus dragged him in front of Nick he was waiting for his death sentence. But he got an offer instead. Achilles is not going to waste the opportunity that Nick gave him and wants to prove that keeping him was the best choice.

Helo Adama (Friend): Achilles and Helo became fast friends, much to Jax’s annoyance. Helo is in charge of a few things for both GOLD and BOND, so they see a lot of each other. Helo has been attempting to bring him up to date with his technology, especially with video games.

Hanna Moore (Friend): Hanna was the first person to train Achilles in the LARPing training activities. He had some experience with sword combat, but Hanna taught him the basics of what they were doing and why. They quickly became friends as well, and he was surprised when Helo introduced her as his girlfriend.

Conrad Kale (Acquaintances): Max introduced Achilles to Conrad. Who, like most others, seemed surprised that he is related to Jax. They haven’t interacted much and Achilles thinks he’s keeping him at arm's length.

Piper Taylor (Coworker): Piper works in both GOLD and BOND, so the two have had quite a few assignments together.They haven’t talked much outside of missions, but she seems to share a lot of the same hyper-focused tendencies of GOLD members.

Garrett Cleirigh (Target): Achilles doesn’t quite understand Clan Chicago’s rules about interaction with witches and warlocks, and frequently ignores them. Achilles began chatting up Garrett Cleirigh while he was working at Anonymous. Though he hasn’t made significant headway, he thinks creating friendlier options may yield more results in the long term.

Jia Cleirigh (Target): Achilles doesn’t quite understand Clan Chicago’s rules about interaction with witches and warlocks, and frequently ignores them. Achilles has heard about Jia’s parties from quite a few of the other rats, including Louis, and would like to go to one.

Hostile Connections:

Dakota English (Tense): He saw Dakota, in human form, hovering outside of Wondering Worlds of Magic. When she looked at him fear then anger flashed through her eyes. She turned and left afterwards. Since then she’s been icy towards him whenever they interact.

Louis Martin-Rovet (Boss): Louis and Achilles frequently butt heads. Achilles is well versed in dealing with Warlocks and Witches and finds it frustrating to be constantly pulled back by an overly cautious head. He was second in SAGE in Jacksonville and truly wonders how the rats poisoned themselves against the witches and warlocks to the extreme that GOLD is a dangerous team.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background)

→ The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

[trans-advice]

Hey, for the past 5 or so years I have privately identified as nonbinary or not conforming to any gender, and even recently requested that my boss and coworkers use they/them pronouns. About a month ago I stumbled across a "gender critical" blog and started reading it. I know it's a bad idea to engage with trolls, especially when it will impact your sense of self, but I felt restless that my existence was being debated and wanted to hear the other side. Now I am feeling confused (1 o 2 asks)

I’m feeling confused and gross, wondering if all this time I have been actually working against my own feminist beliefs, or if I’m just being naive and getting indoctrinated. Like,I worry about me being a female who simply didn’t subscribe to gender stereotypes, tricking myself into thinking I"wasn’t like the other girls". I have also been wondering about what it means to identify into an oppressed group, and why we can’t talk about it without being dismissed as a dumb TERF. (1 o 2 asks) Thx

— Eve: CW: long post, possibly rambley, could’ve used better editing, transphobia, “gender critical”, recuperation, discussion of “terf” politics, recuperation of liberation movements, politics, oppression, rape culture, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist,

So basically I have tried for almost 4 weeks to write a response detailing this stuff. however it’s gotten too unwieldy. i tried to condense it, but this was as close as i got. it’s practically like 3 drafts back to back. I couldn’t figure out the differences & when i saw similarities it seemed significantly different enough. so I’m not editing any further. here’s a mindvomit. i wish i had this more polished but I can’t do that & i didn’t get a response.

however I’m going to make a history book recommendation, a referral to gendercensus2020, and i need to emphasize that these are much more like personal beliefs & not generally the tone of this blog which aims to give advice & positivity, while this is inherently political, the good bad & ugly. and there are trans people of various persuasions so I don’t want alienate them. i dissecting some ideologies that are transphobic, how they became that, how they got recuperated, and how you can find the same concerns being addressed. I’m answering this because it totally makes sense to me that this is asked in good faith & I want to respect your concerns & show that there are better methods of liberation activism that are trans affirmative, or at least must become & develop into such.

So I’m going to recommend the book “Transgender History (Second Edition)” by Susan Stryker, which I have put on our blog’s google drive account, so hence a link. It goes into the historic common ground between the feminists & LGBT+ peoples. It also gets into historic movements. And on top of that, the first chapter is literally a list of terminology deconstructing gender, which is also helpful for analyzing topics feminism analyzes..

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IvCwNvCJ_EiDmOer4zS8SbFGz4m-WDJ1

another thing you need to know regarding the label lesbian back in the day is that it was a catchall for any woman who didn’t have sex with men. now granted, this was a cisnormative understanding, but basically lesbians included celibate women, asexual women, and of course bisexual women in addition to gay women.

basically the normal advice of wait til you have your own money to have sex, wait til your mid 20s, don’t rely on a man to pay your bills etc, all of this comes from political lesbianism, which was like be celibate or else have sex that doesn’t involve sperm. (granted, communities cannot be monoliths if they want to be ecosystems, like any movement label there are different interpretations made by members of it, and therefore there are some strands that uphold a homonormative appreciation for conversion therapy. perhaps a middle ground for understanding how that happened is that joke about macho sexuality purity “if a man masturbates with his hand, he’s using a man’s hand to get off, then it’s gay.” granted, there was of course a political/economic reason to this, but still, it seems in terms of history that this joke was considered actually legitimate.)

“lesbian” was a catchall for women who didn’t have sex with men. this included ace, celibate & gynephiliac women. part of the reason these communities were conflated again had to do with the economic pressures to get married which I’ll detail a few paragraphs from now. (while this next thought could be incorrect because I did just learn about ‘compulsory heterosexuality" a month ago, I think the vestiges of those economic pressures are basically the gist of “comphet”.) the goal of political lesbian as well as lesbian separatism was to build an economy/get money that didn’t require submission to patriarchy, via marriage, pregnancy etc. so basically in an effort to build like support networks, “men” were shunned as much as possible.

however these networks ended up replicating capitalism, (partly due to oppression against communes & other anti-capitalist activities) which then replicated the oppressions of capitalism. it makes sense that transphobia had formed of assimilation/respectability politics for such feminists. To quote from the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the women’s liberation movement.

> The philosophy practised by liberationists assumed a global sisterhood of support working to eliminate inequality without acknowledging that women were not united; other factors, such as age, class, ethnicity, and opportunity (or lack thereof) created spheres wherein women’s interests diverged, and some women felt underrepresented by the WLM.[208] While many women gained an awareness of how sexism permeated their lives, they did not become radicalized and were uninterested in overthrowing society. They made changes in their lives to address their individual needs and social arrangements, but were unwilling to take action on issues that might threaten their socio-economic status.[209] Liberationist theory also failed to recognize a fundamental difference in fighting oppression. Combating sexism had an internal component, whereby one could change the basic power structures within family units and personal spheres to eliminate the inequality. Class struggle and the fight against racism are solely external challenges, requiring public action to eradicate inequality.[210] >

birth control helped to liberate women & that accommodation/handicap for reproductive health disabilities (disability is merely inability to do something that’s Normative. so if having a uterus, pregnancy/menstruation/having breasts etc aren’t considered normal, which is especially common in a patriarchal society for these examples, then it’s disability.) It should be said that due to the desire for bodily autonomy to regulate our own body parts, as well as a desire to manage our fertility & sterilization, the transgender movement has a lot in common with feminism’s female-as-disability movement.)

it should also be noted that before the medical transitioning became accessible that us trans people relied a lot more on social transitioning than medical transitioning. it should also be mentioned that the medical procedures are available & used by cisgender people too.

that being said, since both cis females & transgender women were denied birth control etc, there was a very intense fear of impregnation happening & trans women going back in the closet not only to get money under patriarchy but also because life raising a kid is hard. like if you’ve ever seen “the stepford wives” & look at how the ally husband betrays his feminist wife, then that should clue us into how a lack of birth control scared us.

the problem with the school of feminism that emphasizes physiological sex over gender identity (in order to deny the existence of trans people with female-organs or not) is that it doesn’t account for birth control & how that’s affected the landscape, the economy etc, the revolutionary impact of birth control basically. it also ignores that trans people & cis women feminists have the same goals when it comes to getting freedoms about reproductive rights & bodily autonomy. therefore it ends up being transphobic & wanting to run back into the times when we didn’t have abortion access because they want to hurt us.

That being said though, we need to have birth control & more in order to help liberate trans people too, so if somewhere doesn’t have birth control, then we’re not doing well either because it’d pay a lot more to be transphobic (which of course it doesn’t now when we have birth control & various medical & other technologies). i think what I’m trying to say is that similar to disability accomodations clashing with each other, if we of the women’s liberation, the trans liberation, and the gay & lesbian liberation, and the bisexual & ace liberation get stranded then we’re all doomed. granted we might be doing that due to defensiveness with hostility similar to how in the 1980s feminism got very conservative in USA & how some transgender people get spared in systems with strict gender conformity & anticolonialist values, it’d be wrong to say that all our liberations are in conflict with each other. they can be mishandled, but ultimately, safety still tends to favor cisheteropatriarchal people. internalized patriarchal thinking is like internalized queerphobia, and so forth.

I want to emphasize that it is relatively easy for transgender people especially nonbinary people to find gender critical discourse somewhat appealing. Here’s why: TERFs & Gender Critical discourse is agender-normative disability discourse regarding reproductive health & other AFAB organs. (a disability is being unable to do things that society considers normative. so if you can’t drive & your locale de facto requires it, then that’s a disability. also in usa you’ll find that pregnancy & disability are the main things welfare programs prioritize. a pregnancy can be harmful, but can be easier with the right monitoring etc. which again is the same with disability.)

the problem though is that they then insist on misgendering you as one of the binary genders based on objectification of your body (specifically, “morphology”). point being, because you feel dysphoric over being misgendered as something nonbinary as being mislabeled as cisgender, this implies that you are indeed transgender.

https://gendercensus.com/post/612238605773111296/the-gender-census-2020-is-now-open

—

Now to be clear, there are historical economic considerations that made the decisions to specialize on the intersectionality of cisgender AFABs, but the economy & technology has changed. Basically marriage back in the day was economically necessary because there was effectively no birth control available. Therefore, to get child support etc, required getting the father to pay the consequences. However, marriage was very much a chattel property institution, marital rape was still legal, and women couldn’t get credit etc in our own names.

#

At the same time, similar to birth control being unavailable, hormones & other procedures for medically transitioning trans people were unavailable as well, which meant social transitioning & wardrobe etc were the main methods of affirming our gender. however, we sometimes got lucky & had a doctor write us a note affirming our gender & sometimes we got even luckier & govts accepted this. this however required getting labelled sick & begging doctors to give us treatment & getting money for this since insurance companies etc still discriminated against transgender people even when we agreed to have our gender identity situation labelled as sick & medically necessary. (similarly insurance companies still refuse to cover abortions & so do some doctors & hospitals.)

#

So this meant that AFABs were concerned about getting hijacked via impregnation. Because of the patriarchal economics of the whole thing, people were afraid of “the stepford wives” repeating itself in their own lives, where the mind can only handle what the ass can stand would mean trans women would go back into the closet.

#

Granted, that’s a bit misrepresentative of trans women & trans people because trans people & cis women who can get pregnant do have a lot more in common. we take the same meds, go to the same clinics, menopause etc gets taken due to distress over how our bodies work, etc. then again, how would trans AMAB people have gotten the money for child support?

#

historically & still to this day we basically had to beg doctors for the ability to get hormones to get a surgery to get a gender marker change & so on, which granted, what we trans people had available to us varied from locale to locale because it required collaborations of trans people, doctors, and the local govts & especially their police stations. again, before roe v wade abortion providers were super underground & secretive & there were specialized units at police stations for hunting down patients & providers under the charge of “murder”. it’s the same dynamics.

#

seriously trans people & people with bodies that can get pregnant, menstruate, menopause, etc, we go to the same clinics! women’s health clinics take trans patients, planned parenthood takes trans patients, do i need to go any further on how trans people & feminists have the same interests regarding reproductive health?

—

as for political lesbianism:

basically the normal advice of wait til you have your own money before having sex, wait til your mid 20s, don’t rely on a man to pay your bills etc, all of this comes from political lesbianism, which was like be celibate or else have sex that doesn’t involve sperm. (i’m not sure what the conditions were like surrounding not piv sex among the straights, and therefore what the likelihood of avoiding piv sex was. I do know that rape culture was much more heavily normalized than it is now.)

“Lesbian” was a catchall for women who didn’t have sex with men. this included: - ace, - celibate - bisexual - gay women. Part of the reason these communities were conflated again had to do with the economic pressures to get married, (while this next statement could be incorrect because i did just learn about ‘compulsory heterosexuality" a month ago, i think the vestiges of those economic pressures such as weddings are basically the gist of “comphet”.)

The goal of Political Lesbianism as well as Lesbian Separatism was to build an economy that didn’t require submission to patriarchy, such as that of marriage, pregnancy etc. In efforts to build like support networks, “men” were shunned as much as possible.

However these networks, (partly due to lacking radicalization) ended up replicating capitalism, (partly due to oppression against communes & other anti-capitalist activities) which then replicated the oppressions of capitalism. It makes sense that transphobia had formed of assimilation/respectability politics for such feminists. To quote from the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the women’s liberation movement.

> “The philosophy practised by liberationists assumed a global sisterhood of support working to eliminate inequality without acknowledging that women were not united; other factors, such as age, class, ethnicity, and opportunity (or lack thereof) created spheres wherein women’s interests diverged, and some women felt underrepresented by the WLM.[208] While many women gained an awareness of how sexism permeated their lives, they did not become radicalized and were uninterested in overthrowing society. They made changes in their lives to address their individual needs and social arrangements, but were unwilling to take action on issues that might threaten their socio-economic status.[209] Liberationist theory also failed to recognize a fundamental difference in fighting oppression. Combating sexism had an internal component, whereby one could change the basic power structures within family units and personal spheres to eliminate the inequality. Class struggle and the fight against racism are solely external challenges, requiring public action to eradicate inequality.[210]”

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 11/30/19

Let us give thanks for a hearty helping of briefs!

Beastars, Vol. 2 | By Paru Itagaki | Viz Media – If there was any doubt after reading the first volume of Beastars that I would be following the series, it has been completely banished after finishing the second. The sensitive gray wolf Legoshi continues to be a major draw for me, but so is Louis, the driven red deer who becomes an even more prominent character in the second volume (in addition to being featured on the cover). The scenes that the two share together are particularly intense, their contrasting personalities clashing and complementing each other in interesting ways. In part, using the framework of herbivore versus carnivore and the seemingly natural order of things, Beastars‘ narrative explores personal identities that challenge the expectations placed on individuals by a society that tries to neatly categorize them. But people are complicated and relationships are messy, something that Itagaki captures extremely well. Beastars is a dramatic and compelling series; I’m hooked. – Ash Brown

CITY, Vol. 6 | By Keiichi Arawi | Vertical Comics – Again, I feel that Arawi is not playing to his strengths by making this story of a city try to be as broad as possible. It’s best when there’s a through plot we can enjoy, such as seeing the restaurant owner/chef suffer from his cooking being average and his restaurant failing. There’s also some chapters that succeed by showing off amusing faces, such as the one where they try to figure out if one girl is mad or not (she’s not… at first), or trying to tell two identical twins apart when they insist on doing the exact same thing despite yelling about their differences. Unfortunately, when it’s random people doing random gags, it’s merely an average title. I’d like to be able to recall the names of anyone in this the way I can for Nichijou. – Sean Gaffney

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 7 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press – This volume concentrates on fleshing out the cast and backstory, possibly at the expense of the humor—there’s been less and less each book—but it’s not unwelcome. particularly when we get Senshi’s backstory. Elsewhere, Laios may be a child of prophecy, and he and his group had better find his sister and somehow get her back or the elves will get there first and destroy the entire dungeon… which will lead to massive loss of life. That said, rest assured that there’s still some eating of delicious monsters in this book, which is one reason people started to read it. It’s just that now there’s a plot that is more important. Now that this series comes out so infrequently, each volume is even more of a treasure. – Sean Gaffney

Dr. STONE, Vol. 8 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – We’re finally leaving the village, as Senku and company decide to take the fight to Tsukasa, which involves building a car. Yes, they build a car. That said, that’s hardly the most surprising thing in this volume, as we’re reintroduced to Taiju and Yuzuriha, last seen seemingly being written out of the manga for being too boring. But now, six volumes later, they’re back, and they’re in Tsukasa’s camp. Which is good, as Chrome has been captured. There’s slightly less science and slightly more action in this volume, but that just helps remind you that this is a Jump title at heart, and it will be nice to see the original three stars back together again. Though can Taiju and Yuzuriha magically get interesting? – Sean Gaffney

Guilty, Vol. 1 | By Ai Okaue | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Sayaka and Kazu have been married for ten years, but only now has Sayaka actually told him she wants a child. Kazu does not. You’d think they’d have had this conversation over a decade ago! While he initially seems like a kind husband, readers soon learn that he is carrying on an affair with Rui, a woman who has positioned herself as Sayaka’s confidante at the bar she frequents, and is essentially keeping Sayaka trapped in a lie and denying her what she really wants. He’s utter trash, but Sayaka’s hard to sympathize with, as she is all too ready to believe his flimsy excuses. Drama involving GPS trackers, a coworker’s extramarital affair, and Sayaka’s first love ensues. I don’t really like these characters—though I have to admire how conniving Rui is—but I will probably be back for more. – Michelle Smith

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 11 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – The ‘serious’ plots here are Ishigami deciding to try and get serious about studies to woo the girl he likes, only to find out how hard that is when you’ve slacked off for so long, and the cliffhanger ending, where Shirogane reveals what he plans to do about college. There’s also some great stuff with Hayasaka having to once again pretend to be Kaguya’s butler in order to fool Fujiwara. But all that pales next to the extended chapters of rap battles we get which reminds you that when the series is trying to be as funny as possible there’s no equal. This was around when the anime was announced (there’s a chapter lampshading it), and I honestly can’t wait to see these chapters done. Still great. – Sean Gaffney

Melting Lover | By Bukuro Yamada | Kuma – This is a collection of BL short stories with a supernatural bent. In “Bottom of Heaven,” a reluctant hitman is followed by a hedonistic angel who helps his victims rest in peace. In “The Circus After Midnight,” troupe dancer Luce exposes his animal trainer roommate’s most closely held secret after said roommate fails to believe his father figure could be guilty of sexual assault. The best story of the bunch is “Melting Lover,” in which a typhoon carries a shapeshifting blob onto the balcony of Keisuke, who is obsessed with his (straight) senpai from high school. Does he fuck the blob? You bet he does. The worst is “Noisy Jungle,” in which an android tells himself it’s natural to boff his human pet, while clearly thinking of it as an animal. Ick. Overall, though, I liked these dark stories and would read more by this author. – Michelle Smith

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 2 | By Satoru Yamaguchi and Nami Hidaka | Seven Seas – There’s another prose short story at the end of this second volume, which mostly just involves Katarina dreaming she’s in another universe, based on a standard shoujo private school manga, and because it lacks the “fantasy” elements her fate is… far more tolerable? As for the main manga, Katarina’s reactions to everything are the reason to get it, as it can give us all the faces that the light novel art wasn’t able to convey. She meets Maria here, who (to no one’s surprise) falls for Katarina just as hard as everyone else has, and Katarina is just as unaware of it. Still, Maria is still being bullied, so the plot of the game is still happening. A great adaptation. – Sean Gaffney

The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Vol. 6 | By Tomoko Yamashita | SuBLime (digital only) – I sometimes forget what an amazing balance Yamashita-sensei strikes between moments of romantic progress between Rihito and Mikado—like the scene where Rihito says, “I’ll help you. As long as it keeps you with me.”—and ominous reminders that Rihito has been through some terrible trauma and is a broken and dangerous person. In this volume, there are some parallels between his plight and that of Erika Hiura, who is trying to get away from the cult leader who’s compelling her to curse people. It was great seeing five to six characters in a scene together all working towards this common goal and feels like we might be heading towards a conclusion fairly soon. I hope Mikado emerges unscathed, but I do love that I am actually feeling some doubt about that. Can’t wait for the next volume! – Michelle Smith

One Piece, Vol. 92 | By Eiichiro Oda | VIZ Media – I was so worried going into this volume that Luffy was going to mess up the plans of the Wano rebels, which involve careful coordination and laying low for two weeks, neither of which he appears capable of. And, indeed, when he thinks Kaido has killed Tama, the little girl with whom he’s bonded, he picks a fight with the Emperor of the Sea. (I did appreciate seeing Luffy laid out by a single hit, though.) He ends up in a labor camp and, actually, this is for the best story-wise as it allows his more competent crewmates to help with the plan instead. It was so nice seeing Usopp distribute fliers, and Franky attempt to track down building plans for a mansion, and Robin snoop around in her geisha guise. I’ve missed those characters! This is shaping up to be a pretty fun arc! – Michelle Smith

Skip Beat!, Vol. 43 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – I can’t recall there ever being a bad volume of Skip Beat!, but this one was exceptionally good. Kyoko has been cast as Momiji, but Moko did not get the role of Chidori, so Kyoko is worrying a lot about her (and feeling guilty). It turns out, however, that another challenging role has come Moko’s way. I very much love how these friends can talk to each other about their professional setbacks and opportunities. Meanwhile, Yashiro contrives for Ren and Kyoko to spend some time together, but it backfires when Kyoko, still beliving that Ren is in love with the horrible Morizumi, gets so overwhelmed by how he makes her feel that she gets mad. Poor baffled Ren. Still, I can’t help but feel that this is the start of some real progress for them. We shall see! – Michelle Smith

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san, Vol. 2 | By Honda | Yen Press – This is a fun title to read, but there’s not particularly much to review here. Honda-san walks us through more problems that Japanese bookstores have, from author signings to employee turnover and reassignments, to the difference between BL manga and gay manga. We meet wholesalers, go to a drinking party, and once again deal with a wide variety of customers, including possible yakuza and those who simply buy 90 pounds of titles and can’t carry them out the door. And there’s also the fact that Honda’s manga is now out, which means trouble when one of the prior plotlines, the customer service coaching one, annoyed the bosses. Still good, but you may want to stick to the anime. – Sean Gaffney

Teasing Master Takagi-san, Vol. 6 | By Soichiro Yamamoto | Yen Press – It’s hard to top the last volume, which contains the two most famous chapters in the series to date. But this volume remains cute as a button, with an extended plotline involving a visit to a water park that shows off Nishikata’s nice side as well as his embarrassed and scheming sides, and reminds you why Takagi likes him so much. Even better is a chapter where she’s depressed (and thus not teasing him) all day, and he tries to find out why and cheer her up. Not that she’s willing to give up her place as the winner of every battle. That said, even the chapter with the eyedrops (which is another “will they try for a kiss” moment) has a tag reminding us these are still innocent middle-schoolers. Which is why this is so cute. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown