#goole news

[orbitsuns]

i am once again going back to good ol sumahama ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

[blackpointgame]

[flamboyant-king]

Howdy, I'm still alive. Not many drawings lately, but a lot of ling fun time. I just wanted to share my crafts hehe

My niece had fun playing with the ling plushies, I taught her about the goolings, and she drew Wiwi a couple times. I made her a Wiwi plushie and I'm gonna make a Lewling and a Hoardling too since she really wants her own. Makes me happy. That's what they're made for to make folks happy.

But sewing is so tedious 😵‍💫

[avalondesigns]

POV: you’re about to hear an offer you can’t refuse

[nicokingalmightlyofallnerds]

What the fuck is up with functionalism???

It’s literally boomer-indecision-ism. Ah yes, we shall support this idea because it’s in society and thus is necessary. Not we hate this new idea because it’s not this one. Now we like this new idea because it’s popular and is in society and thus is necessary, not like that old idea.

please just stick to one thing. Like duck new rights, but at least they’ve always been bigots. Bitchy and predictable.

[the-ant-in-amber]

What makes it even better is that the entire events of the game take place over the course of one night, meaning that it's very likely most of the citizens slept through all the craziness that happend

Every so often I remember that the plot of NSR is just showing up to random concerts, beating the shit out of the performer and just fucking leaving after, like to your house. To go make dinner or something.

[anachronismstellar]

OK OK OK I NEED TO SLEEP BUT

in celebration of @notsofrozt teasing art

(omg omg check this out ITS SO GOOL),

AND this fic reaching 35 pages (someone save me) here's more Airplane vs The System!

Let the games begin >:)

---

There was only one thing Shen Yuan hated more than being considered stupid and it was actually acting stupid.

Because why, WHY haven't they checked the bane of their existence, the persona non grata of binary code, the absolute most devilish collection of pixels and fuckery, aka the System?

It was right there, the notification blinking in green, marking it as a mission in progress.

He clicked, actually expecting more trouble on top of the Mobei business, only to be presented with-

Mission in progress: Author's favorite.

UV002 objective: aid UV001

Mission progress: 47%

What. The fuck.

He hadn't accepted any new missions, there wasn't even an obnoxious notification! And what's up with his objective?! Aid UV001?! How?! It didn't give him any other hint of what to do!

Oh he wasn't just angry, he was furious.

To the point that he had almost torn the door off its track when he opened it, the noise loud enough to startle Shang Qinghua into throwing his brush at him.

As if that would help against a real attack.

“Have you seen the new mission?!” He snapped as he entered Shang Qinghua's improvised office, glaring at the other trasmigrator.

“W-What?” Shang Qinghua blinked like a deer in the headlights, eyes puffed red as if had been crying moments ago.

Shan Yuan swallowed his pity, hardening his heart to focus on the task at hand. He closed the door to buy himself time before approaching the desk covered in parchment, slowly putting both hands on top of it to get closer to Airplane.

“Have you seen,” he pitched his voice low so they wouldn't be heard, doing his utmost to convey his fury through whispering. “The new. Mission.”

“Uh,” Airplane blinked again, scrubbing tears away, looking as lost as a puppy dropped from the moving truck. “Cucumber-bro-”

“Don't! You Cucumber-bro me,” he held himself back, closing his eyes to not lose his temper. “We're going to talk about your murderous ways later. Right now I need you to shut up and check. Your. System.”

He could see Airplane about to ask why, but his expression might have been terrifying enough because he just nodded and opened up his system, immediately frowning.

“What the fuck?”

“What? What is it?” Shen Yuan moved to get next to Airplane to better read what he was seeing. It never failed to amuse him how different their systems were: his looked like a proper video game menu, while Airplane's just looked like a lazy programmed blog.

“There's stuff missing. And I can't click on any missions. Like, I could at least check my old stuff? But now it's all gray?!”

“What do you mean?” At this point he was almost putting his face next to Airplane's so he could see, the bland white screen making his eyes burn. “Urgh how can you stand this, can't you change to dark mode? And go check for new missions.”

“As if, your system is way nicer than mine. Wait, do you have a new mission?”

“Yeah, it's called Author's Favorite. But it says nothing, just to help UV001. It's your user, right?”

-------

See you guys in the next update!

[crepesuzette2023]

Mcharrison car key stand off??

            RINGO: There are lots of driving stories. This is how a band gets close: in the van, going up and down the M1, freezing your balls off, fighting for the seats. A lot of madness went on in the van, but it got us together. We had a Bedford and Neil would drive. There'd be the passenger seat for one of us, and the other three - whichever three; the rest of us - whichever three; the rest of us - would sit behind on the bench seat, which was pretty miserable.

            We would go everywhere in the van and the amps and everything would fit in it with us. I remember sliding all over Scotland. It was bloody freezing in the winter.

            JOHN: But we always got screams in Scotland. I suppose they haven't got much else to do up there. Touring was a relief - just to get out and break new ground. We were beginning to feel stale and cramped.67

            RINGO: We never stopped anywhere. If we were in Elgin on a Thursday and needed to be in Portsmouth on Friday, we would just drive. We didn't know how to stop this van! If we had a day off and we were going to Liverpool from London, we would just drive.

            There was only a small piece of motorway in those days, so we'd be on the A5 for hours. Some nights it was so foggy that we'd be doing one mile an hour, but we'd still keep going. We were like homing pigeons; we just had to keep getting home.

            One night I remember, when it was very, very cold, the three of us on the bench seat were lying on top of each other with a bottle of whisky. When the one on top got so cold that hypothermia was setting in, it would be his turn to get on the bottom. We'd warm each other up that way; keep swigging the whisky, keep going home.

            PAUL: Quite an image. People think of stardom as glamorous, and there's us freezing - lying literally on top of each other, as a Beatle sandwich.

            GEORGE: There were a lot of good times in the van; all the rough-and-tumble stuff that happens. And there were some hysterical things that happened. I had a good crash once. We were coming over the Pennines, the roads were icy and I was driving pretty quickly as we came through what turned out to be Goole in Yorkshire. Everything was fine until suddenly I went into a right-hand turn. It was a bit sharper than it looked and we went up onto the grass bank, which then slopped down to the left. The whole van tipped as we went down the embankment, at the bottom of which was a wire-mesh fence with concrete posts around a Burton's factory.

            We bounced along - bump, bump, bump - knocking down all these concrete poles and finally came to a stop with Neil sitting in the front seat next to me, howling, 'Ow, ow, my arm!' The accident had ripped the filler cap off and the petrol was pouring out. We got out and had to shove T-shirts and things into the hole to try to stop the flow of petrol.

            We'd started to push the van back up on the road when, out of nowhere, came, ''Allo, 'allo, 'allo, what's all this then?' It was a cop, and he booked us for crashing. A couple of months later I went to court; Brian came with me for moral support. (He did stand by his lads.) I think they banned me for three months.

            RINGO: Another great van story was when George and Paul were both planning to drive the van; George got into the driving seat and Paul had the keys, and there was no way one was going to help the other. We couldn't go anywhere. We sat there for two hours. When you're touring, things can be pretty tense sometimes and the littlest thing can suddenly turn into a mountain; that was one of the great ones. (From: The Beatles, ANTHOLOGY)

[the-empress-7]

William is forcefully bringing a new the gool old royal mystique that TQ treasured so much. The one that the petulant eejit shattered. Whether the media vultures like it or not, he's going to do things his way. William doesn't give a fuck about what the media thinks. What they are going to do, boycott him? Stop covering his engagements? He'll be more than happy and he can use IG or X to update the public. The noise will not drown his, his silence is louder than all that rubbish

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[aamusedly]

Hancock made himself tough to read outside of the fury etched into the chasms of his face, but only those who truly knew him could see what it was covering up. It was visible for one moment only, and it was as the name Bobbi took him by surprise like a punch in the gut.

Panic. John Hancock was quickly becoming overwhelmed.

He didn't answer for a few moments in favor of silently scraping his jaw off the floor and yanking his heart back down from his throat. "...I told her to keep out of here," Hancock managed. What was supposed to be a dangerous growl came out limp, but thankfully Cass didn't seem anything more than concerned for him.

"Seems she didn't listen. Word has her around North Vegas... not far."

Hancock let his breath out through gritted teeth. Panic was swelling back up from behind his eyes. Everything felt too hot. He didn't answer.

"Are you gonna... uh..."

Go kill her? Send a hit squad? Do something about the NCR trying to pull us apart? Kill your friend? Kill your brother? Hancock thought all of it, but had no words. Instead he raised a hand to quiet the caravanner, and turned heel to walk off. Six would nearly be able to hear how heavy his breathing had gotten.

Hancock was beelining for his Statehouse; not for his office, but for the sectioned off basement serving for storage. His ears were ringing, and his hand was fumbling too much with the doorknob.

Six was, even in all of the voices in her mind, something of an optimist. Things would be better, because she would guarantee however she could that they would be better. She learned well enough how the game worked here, how to stay hidden when she wanted to be, show herself when it was prompted, and what to expect from the other players at the table.

Her suspicion had been right enough -- an assassination of settlers from NCR territory, sowing seeds of distrust and shattering the progress Goodneighbor had so steadily made into something more than a place for no good drifters. That stung plenty, but that wasn't what made her throat close up and her heart feel like it was beating so fast it might fail her.

Only the Courier was allowed to twist her narrative. She was meant to control how people perceived her. Every choice had been premeditative. Every action was meant to endear her to some and unnerve others. The whole point was that nobody truly knew, because it meant freedom in her movements.

To have that taken out of her hands by someone else entirely terrified her, even if she didn't show it. With a tightly clenched jaw and a deep furrow of her brow, it was the cloudiest that Courier Six might've ever looked in front of the disgruntled mayor. Rat Bastard didn't begin to cover it.

Obvious affair. Like it was impossible that she loved him -- it was a fetish thing. A way to use him. Would John believe it? The urge to throw up was building in her throat. Logic told her that the gossip hit-piece had been privately funded. The other part of her feared chasing down Hsu for more answers lest he read it and think of her that way too.

But what if he had already? What if it was too late? Would it make her look desperate? Sharp blue eyes focused intently on the pamphlet that Hancock lit up like it was kindling. She managed to swallow despite the lump in her throat.

"Reckon that's too kind," and that's all she could manage through a forced even tone. It was quiet, though. Careful, like she might've burst into tears if she were any louder. While she wanted to do the same to her copy, Six knew she had to keep it, just in case.

"For what it's worth, the King's been rounding up the ones that come his way," Cass offered, a cross of her arms and a glance across the way, "But the NCR squatters are eating it up." A small pause followed, "But I think you have something else to worry about, Mayor -- heard tell Bobbi's back."

[bunk-bed-blorbos]

Hey No Straight Roads fandom! It's me, your humble Strawberry, asking for a little help with a conundrum im having.

*ahem*

WHAT THE SLIMY POSSUM IS THE TIMELINE OF NO STRAIGHT ROADS???

If you can't read the crazed chicken scratches of a madwoman, don't worry I'll translate.

The start of the timeline is simple enough (at first); The Goolings were a rock band that acted as the sole charter of Vinyl City, before things fell apart and the band split up (source: Tatiana's lore dumps between bosses and during/after her own bossfight) either before Mayday was born or when she was too young to remember them. Fine so far.

Sometime after this, Vinyl City starts expanding, adding new infrastructure, making things shiny and new, all happening while Mayday and Zuke were growing up, evident when you explore the intractables around the city. It's easy to assume NSR is behind all of this, what with Tatiana's goal of eliminating the past and moving on. EXCEPT...

Eve, you bundle of questions wrapped in an enigma you...

According to her Kliff Notes, Eve was the very first artist signed onto NSR, and was directly responsible for the label's rise to power.

But THAT MAKES NO SENSE thanks to what little concrete evidence we have towards the timeline: their ages.

Mayday is 21. Eve is 27.

With that in mind, NSR forming immediately or at least shortly after The Goolings broke up IS IMPOSSIBLE.

There is a sizeable, wobbly gap between The Goolings breaking up and NSR's foundation, a gap where SOMETHING is happening, unless Vinyl City was just plunged into darkness for who knows how many years, WHICH SOMEONE WOULF HAVE PROBABLY MENTIONED, MOST OF ALL TATIANA, WHO HAS EVERY MOTIVE TO REMIND PEOPLE OF A QUITE LITTERAL DARK AGE WITHOUT NSR.

But even if that was the case, it makes no sense that a company or government that isn't NSR to make such rapid expansions to the city, because WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU BUILD SUCH ENERGY-INTENSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE WITH A MASSIVE POWER VACCUM OPEN.

BUT THATS NOT ALL, HEAVENS NO, Because there's a whole lot of questions about sigifigant events WE HAVE NO POINTS OF REFERENCE FOR.

When was the War that Neon J and the battle bots are veterans of? When was the Qwaza invented/discovered? When was DK West's unwitting uprising? WHEN DID BUNK BED JUNCTION EVEN MEET???

I am slowly losing my mind, so PLEASE, for my own sanity, if anyone has any backstage info, or a quote from an interview or an ama, or just found something I missed in game, please, please, PLEASE let me know, so that I can AT LEAST nail down an ORDER OF EVENTS.

[thegoldensanctuary]

Part II : The Room Where The King Dresses(Part 2 A : architecture and overdoor paintings)

2.1 The Architecture of the room

In the end Mansart settled for composite pilasters pilasters for the central salon(fig11),and Corinthian ones for the attic, as a way of remaining consistent with the spirit of the Grand Gallery. The style of the western wall with its three archways giving access to the Gallery was mirrored on the eastern(the one on the cour de marbre side), which unlike its western counterpart is still visible to this very day(fig12). 

Fig 11 : Western wall of the central salon, before 1701, AN O1/1768-A fol. 2

Fig 12: Eastern Wall of the King Bedchamber today, Goole Maps.

While planned as a common room linking the Gallery to both the King and Queen apartment, the premature death of the Queen in 1683(before the completion of the construction), meant that from the very beginning its status would change. Indeed, upon reentering Versailles and rediscovering the palace with its brand-new Gallery, and new rooms, the King decided to annex to his apartment the rooms with view on the Cour de marble, which were originally destined to be part of the apartment of his defunct spouse. He chose the room next door as his new bedchamber(fig13), which soon became too narrow for the increasing number of courtesans attending the morning dress up ceremony. The central salon therefore became the room in which the King is dressed.

At that point there was no plan to turn the salon into a bedchamber, despite its central position behind the Cour de Marbre Avant corps, there was no room left to create an alcove, indeed the western wall had three archways linking it to the Gallery, similar to the eastern wall but with 3 windows instead and, the northern and southern walls on the other hand had two doors each as part of the enfilade.

Fig 13: Blueprint of the first Floor of the central wing, 1687-92 , with the King’s Bedchamber (before 1701) in green, BnF VA-448 (B)-FT 6, IFN-53128547

2.2 The paintings

The list of the paintings present in the room is given by various contemporary authors[7], as well as Painting inventories[8]. The layout of said painting partly known thanks to several elevations and blueprints[9], with 9 attic paintings with three frames on each of the attic walls except the eastern one, four paintings in the frames at the center of each of the four overdoors, and two large paintings at the center of the northern and southern wall respectively. Piganiol de la Force in his 1701 edition of the Nouvelle descriptions des Chasteaux de Versailles et de Marly provides lists the following paintings[10]:

Portrait the marquis of Ayton

Fig 14 Van Dyck, François de Moncade marquis d’Ayton, , 76,3 x 65,3 cm,  Château de Versailles, MV 7315

The portrait the marquis of Ayton by Van Dyck(fig14), depicting Francisco de Moncada y Moncada, a Spanish general and diplomat, it was purchased from the Jabach collection by King Louis XIV in 1671[11]. The portrait in question is a reduction based on a larger equestrian portrait by same artist dated from 1634[12] (fig 15). Piganiol paces it right in from of the Van Dyke self portrait.

Fig 15 : Van Dyck Francisco de Moncada, III marqués de Aytona, 305,2 x 240,3 cm, Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, Inv :494

Van Dyke’s Self-portrait

Fig 16 : Van Dyck by himself 76,5 x 65,5 cm Château de Versailles, MV 7316

Portrait of Van Dyck by himself(fig 16), painted around 1630, it was acquired by King Louis XIV from the Jabach collection in 1671[13].Pignatol places the portrait above the door at the entrance of the appartement which at that time would have meant the northern wall on the enfilade side, which puts the marquis of Ayton portrait above the door on the southern wall just in front.

Saint Magdalene

Fig 17: Domenico Zampieri, dit le Dominiquin, Sainte Madeleine 76,5 x 66,5 cm Château de Versailles, MV 8377

Saint Magdalene by Domenichino(fig 17), the origins of this painting aren’t that well known. A similar painting superior in quality exists at the Pitti Palace(fig 18). Pignatol places the painting above one of the fake doors.

Fig 18 : Domenichino Saint Magdalene, Palazzo Pitti

Saint John the Baptist

Fig 19 : Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (dit il Battistello) ,Saint Jean-Baptiste 80,5 x 63,2 cm Château de Versailles, MV 8326

Saint John the Baptist attributed to Battistello(fig 19); it was acquired from the Jabach collections by King Louis XIV in 1662[14]. Pignatol attributes the painting to Caravaggio, that attribution changed to Valentin and later to Battistello[15]. Pignatol locates right in front of the Saint Magdalene painting above one of the fake doors.

[7] Felibien,Description sommaire de Versailles ancienne et nouvelle . Avec des figures, 1703, p.344-345 ;Pignatol de La Force, Nouvelle Description des Chasteaux et Parcs de Versailles et de Marly, 1701, p.120-122

[8] AN O1/1964

[9] Three of the attic paintings on the northern wall can be seen on an elevation attributed to Blondel dated 1735, BnF,Ms FT 6-VA-448 (B);

[10] Pignatol de La Force, Nouvelle Description des Chasteaux et Parcs de Versailles et de Marly 1701, p.120-122

[11] Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée ,L'inventaire Le Brun de 1683 : la collection des tableaux de Louis XIV, 1987,number 320 of Le Brun’s inventory.

[12] Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, Inv :494

[13] number 229 of Le Brun’s inventory, see note 11.

[14] number 59 of Le Brun’s inventory, ibid

[15] Betatrice Sarrazin, Chefs-d’oeuvre de la chambre du Roi, 2022, p. 25

[blackpointgame]

aabon35

[vasito-de-leche]

;NSR MAYDAY - General Headcanons

Compilation of general headcanons and analysis about Mayday and other Mayday related things.

I just needed an excuse to fleshen out / analyze Mayday and any HCs I have for her bc I'm thinking soooo much about this game <3 there's also Zuke stuff in here because you can't talk abt one without the other lmfao

Aside from music, Mayday and Zuke share an interest for fixing, modding and tinkering with machines (any piece of tech discarded out in the streets).

Their approach to reverse engineering all the tech they get is different - Mayday focuses on recycling to build something entirely new and more powerful, while Zuke focuses on fixing and perfecting whatever it is that he's tinkering with, to make it more precise.

This is most notable with their respective instruments. Mayday's guitar is 100% built from scratch, spare parts and passion, it's also modded and tuned to her liking. This means that she's literally the ONLY person who can understand how it works, and why she couldn't replace her old guitar once it was destroyed at the end of the game. Meanwhile, Zuke opts for using NSR-brand drumsticks - the best of the best in the market - which he mods to work better with his way of playing.

The workshop in their base is attributed to Zuke because he's the one who cleared out the area to have all of their little projects located in an organized spot, since most of their living quarters were filled with unfinished projects, wrenches and bolts everywhere and so on. This is because Mayday has a very short attention span and gets attached easily, so she never has the time to finish anything nor the heart to discard her projects - especially when she keeps drawing faces onto everything.

A lot of their equipment was just made by Mayday herself, since she needed speakers strong enough to withstand the power of her guitar without getting fried after every performance. Many of their mutual friends see Zuke as the genius of the duo, but he insists that Mayday is the one doing most of the carry for B2J.

Both Mayday and Zuke got into music because of their loved ones.

It's canon that DK West is the reason Zuke got into music, and I like to think family was also one of the main reasons Mayday got into music, namely rock. One of her dialogues in-game mentions how her grandma used to listen and sing to the Goolings with her using an old radio, despite not knowing the lyrics nor understanding the music.

Whereas Zuke was influenced by his brother's rap career to give music a try, it was kind of the reverse for Mayday - rock music became a big interest for her from a young age, and her family supported her wholeheartedly. They would take her to concerts, buy merch for her whenever it was possible and basically hype her up. Her father can probably name every different phase and era in Mayday's childhood and teenage years based on the groups she was into at the time.

Judging from dialogue, I think it's implied that Mayday was born and raised in Vinyl City, and that she never really travelled outside. So it's not impossible for her family to attend her first concerts (in small, local venues as a teenager, before she and Zuke even met) and her proper debut in B2J. Her family is also the first ones to receive official B2J merch, shirts that she and Zuke designed and that look AWFUL but that they love all the same.

I think this family aspect also ties in nicely with the base game, specifically Yinu's fight since it's the first moment of tension for Mayday and Zuke in which they realize they might not be the good guys for hijacking concerts.

For Mayday, music is a lifestyle, not something to be forced onto people - she goes directly against NSR because of the EDM enforcement and the rock ban, after all. So it makes sense to me that she becomes a bit too engrossed in fighting Yinu's mother, someone who is directly puppeteering her own child and represents parents who live vicariously through their talented kids, to the point where she also forgets that Yinu is a child. A fact that she also initially brushes aside herself since Yinu is part of NSR.

I don't know, I just like when characters are flawed and multifaceted! Mayday and Zuke should be allowed to be hypocrites, as a treat.

Mayday taught herself how to play.

My personal agenda is to also hype up Mayday for being a music genius at 21, so yeah! I like to think she's 100% self-taught, which parallels Zuke's musical education rather nicely. They're both extremely good in their own unique ways.

She used to play by ear, trying to figure out how to play her favorite songs when she was younger, and later began to actually study music notation and so on.

When spontaneously coming up with new melodies and songs for B2J, she mostly uses her phone to record herself singing, as opposed to Zuke immediately needing to jot down everything.

It took awhile for Mayday to pick up and use Kul Fyra's guitar.

After the events of the game, Mayday ABSOLUTELY needed some time to properly process everything - her dialogue is all about realizing that she was in the wrong and reconsider the reason she picked up music in the first, wondering if she began to rebel against NSR because she couldn't cope with B2J and rock (two things very dear to her heart) being rejected, etc. So she wouldn't have had the heart to use her idol's guitar without coming to terms with a lot of things first.

My favorite headcanon to think about is that the cutscene at the very end, during Tatiana's speech, is of Mayday and Zuke performing after B2J's hiatus, after they both help each other mature and grow up a bit. And Mayday using Kul Fyra's guitar is symbolic of her renewed love in music and taking Tatiana's words to heart - "where I have failed, I want you to go beyond".

Mayday doesn't have any powers unique to herself.

I KNOW, I KNOW - it's kind of UNFAIR since EVERYONE has WORLD BENDING ABILITIES AND WHATEVER. Even Zuke is implied to have inherited DK West's shadow puppets and all, BUT consider THE FOLLOWING....THAT'S THE POINT.....

Every major character in NSR represents a type of musician or figure in the industry - and I'm not sure if it was meant to be read like this or not, but Zuke reads as that type of person who has really good connections with important figures, who had the chance to pursue higher education and afford expensive equipment, who is knowledgeable when it comes to the ins and outs of the industry BECAUSE he was there to see and experience it all firsthand (if we're taking into account the fact that DK West was implied to be a revolutionary activist related to NSR). He's even the one who is the most reluctant to go against NSR and gives them the benefit of the doubt, which can easily be attributed to him being the calm and collected, reasonable half of the duo but also because he personally knows EVE (and DK West if you count him as an important major figure). He's a huge fucking nerd with a degree and it makes sense that he's the one giving ALL the information about the music industry when interacting with all the objects around Vinyl City.

But May? Her dialogue is all about more common things, the way she talks about certain people shows that she knew them personally, that they were friends or acquaintances from all over town instead of the important figures Zuke speaks of. She complains a lot about the fact that from a surface level, NSR does look like a bunch of sellouts and really offers that underdog vibe in B2J. She has NO connections to ANY major character in NSR other than being a fan of Kul Fyra. We know virtually nothing about her backstory too.

So to me it makes sense that Mayday lacks any sort of unique and incredible ability, as she IS part of the little guys that B2J fight for. The underdogs that get brushed aside for whatever reason, because they're not relevant or seen as profitable and so on. She represents the artists who are naive, full of passion for their craft and determination to make their dreams work regardless of how cruel the industry might be.

My personal hot take is that instead of powers and some innate talent, Mayday offers something else: deep connections with people.

This example might not click with everyone since it's how I personally perceived the music and all and I actually know absolutely nothing about music other than It Sounds Good and It Makes Me Want To Dance, but yknow!

When listening to the B2J solos, there are times when Zuke's solo is very aggressive and almost takes over the entire song, which makes sense since it's a solo and they ARE trying to win over EDM. But Mayday's solos blend in so well with the base track of each boss fight, like she really is trying to match their vibe using her own genre rather than fight for the spotlight.

This is most noticeable in Eve's fight - both Zuke and Mayday's solos match Eve's base track perfectly. You can understand why Zuke would match her, since they know each other intimately and when you explore Dream Fever, he's the one giving ALL the in-depth explanations about Eve's vision when creating her sculptures and art. But Mayday would have no reason to match Eve at all, she doesn't understand any of her art let alone know her as a person. And still, the ONE thing Zuke tells Eve at the end of the fight is that if Eve came to know Mayday the way he does, she would like her as well. Zuke is happier being Mayday's friend and bandmate despite the fact that he's Mayday's antithesis, than being part of a big company and records label with his super hot girlfriend.

I like to think that Mayday's solos, the fact that she is Zuke's direct opposite in almost every way, that she's closely tied to the regular people and citizens of Vinyl City and that piece of dialogue from Zuke are a testament to Mayday's ability to really reach out to people through music. Not to say that her power is just friendship, but just the fact that she can adapt and come to understand anyone - as long as it's in a musical setting.

Personally I like it more when Mayday is just a regular girl without unique powers, but you could take these aspect of her and turn them into its own power!

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Thanks for tagging me to do your excellent poll tag game, @myladyofmercy 😊

rules: list 5 of your favourite books on a poll, so your followers can vote which book they think captures your vibe the best

Tagging: @sergeantpixie @jonairadreaming @purplesigebert @mistressaccost @mynameisbirdie @panalegs27

Book summaries from Goodreads below the cut:

Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..." Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow? A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely...

Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go:

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is. Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.

Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked:

Annie's put fifteen years into safe, slightly obsessive Duncan, and now she'd like her money back, please. It's time to move on. But she lives in Gooleness, the north's answer to a question nobody asked. Is she really going to find real, proper, feel-it-deep-down-in-your-boots love on a damp and windy seafront? Or perhaps she should follow her heart and pursue Tucker, the reclusive American rock star, who keeps emailing her his smart advice. But between Annie and her second chance lie a few obstacles. There's Malcolm, the world's most judgemental therapist, and Barnesy, the north's most extrovert dancer. There's what men and women will do and won't do for love. And, of course, there's Tucker...

Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express:

Late one Christmas Eve after the town has gone to sleep, the boy boards the mysterious train that waits for him: the Polar Express bound for the North Pole. When he arrives, Santa offers the boy any gift he desires. The boy modestly asks for one bell from the harness of the reindeer. The gift is granted. On the way home the bell is lost. On Christmas morning, the boy finds the bell under the tree. The mother of the boy admires the bell, but laments that it is broken—for you see, only believers can hear the sound of the bell.

Michael Cunningham's The Hours:

In The Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Samuel, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family. Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, this is Cunningham's most remarkable achievement to date.

[57sfinest]

what is the forbidden harry and jean lore

cracking my knuckles before preparing to type the most deranged post in the history of the world

okay so listen. harry and jean are so unbelievably fucked up. their relationship is TERRIBLE for them both. it's toxic, it's abusive, it's deeply codependent and it's also the only thing either of them has.

here's the thing. the partnership starts off fairly normal- yes, harry is a shithead, he's not a good person, but neither is jean and harry doesn't treat him like shit right off the bat. harry starts off on his best behavior, because here's a new guy who's much younger and who he outranks: this is fresh meat, thrown into his enclosure. another can for him to open. someone new to help him bear his burdens until he inevitably throws them away. he's gotta be let in first, though, so he's playing the role of mentor or chill superior officer or whatever until jean relaxes around him and starts to let his guard down. because despite jean's apprehensions- he's heard about gool ol' dick mullen, after all- harry can be funny, kind, and very good at his job. so maybe everyone was wrong- maybe, to him, harry will be good. maybe this partnership will work out. jean finds himself liking harry and caring about him. harry catches onto this, because of course he does, and the backslide begins.

it starts off minor. more hangovers at work, a little speed off the bathroom mirror. but it's fine because they're still getting work done. harry snaps at him a little, but it's just a rough patch. it's okay. they're not just work partners anymore, they're friends. maybe they're more, although they'd never put a name to it. they go to each other's places and they talk and smoke and drink and shoot the shit about anything they can think of: the world, the pale, the cases. it's an easy thing. a dangerous routine. if jean starts drinking more, to match harry- it's fine. at least it's in company. and all the while harry is getting openly worse, getting completely hammered at work, having more outbursts than actual conversations, lashing out at everyone. jean is no longer safe from it. jean no longer abstains from it either. and it's still jean's responsibility as his partner to take care of him, to keep him going. harry does not usually seem to care about reciprocating, but that's not the point. it's jean's job and, unfortunately, he cares. he's not sure what he would do without harry, now. he's not sure what harry would do without *him*.

harry the can-opener realizes what they've become- codependent, inseparable- and starts spiraling rapidly. he has the freedom to, now. jean talks to him about the drinking, and harry tries to kick it, and jean really believes in him. believes in him when he fails, when he tries again a few weeks later. over and over again until harry stops trying. says he wants to get worse. and jean gets it, at first. only at first. he's depressed too, he understands the suicidal thoughts and tendencies, understands how easy it is to get trapped in an addiction. he knows how important his support is to harry's continued survival.

but it's like everything harry does is to hurt him. screams at him and threatens him and leverages anything he can against him, including very personal things he's pried out of him, then shows up at his door with tears in his eyes and a gun in his hand telling jean that he's sorry, he's never going to do it again, he's going to make sure of it. and jean, still raw and angry from their fights, invites him in, takes the gun from his hand and talks him down and drinks with him, because what else is there to do? jean will never lay down and take it, has no interest in being the better person anymore- he knows every little nasty detail of harry's life by now, and he's not shy about digging his nails into harry's scars- but when everything is said and done, when all the punches have been thrown, he's still going to be there. he's going to be around to bandage the knuckles harry just hit him with because this is it. there's nothing else for either of them.

it doesn't matter that harry lies to him- about what he's been doing, how he's feeling, about where their belongings end up or where the money went, about things he did on a case. it doesn't matter that harry provokes the shit out of him until he's screaming himself raw, then lays down and cries about it until *he's* the one apologizing. it doesn't matter that harry only gets worse, and that somehow he's the one blamed for it. every day they rip each other apart because at least that way they can feel something. it's easy to scream at someone knowing they'll scream back, and then come sleep in your bed anyway. neither of them is going to leave except by death, and they both know it.

there's a complete erosion of boundaries between them. luiga himself confirmed their codependency. if something was jean's, it was harry's too, and vice versa. everything was each other's business. there was nothing kept apart between them. harry cracked jean open and gutted him, so jean did the same to him. they understood each other *too* well, so they knew exactly how to hurt each other, and they did just that. and that's the sad part, that they were so completely exposed with one another- it could have been so good for them. harry could have been a better person and so could jean. they might have been able to heal together. but we see jean's ableist hostility towards harry in the ending: jean has lost all patience for harry. there is no sympathy left.

and you wonder: why, now, does jean call it quits? why, after several years of mutual destruction, does jean draw a line in the sand here? well, obviously- he's been rejected. harry told him to fuck off in martinaise, which of course was not new behavior, but usually harry would come back to cry and beg and plead with him not to leave him. and harry's not doing that. harry doesn't even know who he *is*. harry is running around with this guy he barely knows, and he's functional and they're not having screaming matches, and when harry does finally approach him, he just twists the knife right in by insisting this new guy is cooler. he thinks jean is an asshole now, and not in the way he did before where he thought it was fun to fuck with him. jean is nothing to him, in the most thorough and all-consuming way possible. harry doesn't even know his *name*.

so, fine. harry dumped him. harry's not coming back to him, and he's sure as hell not going to put in the work to rebuild that bridge, not when he should have burned it years ago anyway. and if that's how it's going to be, he's got some things to say. he's going to make it hurt for harry as much as it hurts for him. maybe he doesn't believe every single thing he says in the ending, or not fully, but it doesn't matter. he's going to say everything he can to hurt harry because harry is leaving him, and they already failed each other a long time ago.