#guess who. like. was halfway done with one version of this and then SCRAPPED IT to start over

[wisted-twonderland]

and when you break the surface, oh, without me

please don’t return me to the dark of all the memories

-

THIS IS MY HEADCANON FOR @blondeaxolotl's TWST X LITTLE NIGHTMARES AU THAT I AM NORMAL ABOUT RARGHHH

[jennyeverywhereday]

A Special Announcement

Hi guys. Jenny here.

I know — crazy, right? It's not usually me doing these. Spoils the fun, doesn't it? Like hosting your own birthday party. Then again, I've done that. But the point is, there's something I've got to tell you.

Gosh, I don't know where to begin. Change… It's scary, right? Even for a girl like me who's always changing, story to story, world to world.

The short version, I guess, is… I've got a new guy looking after my affairs in this dimension. Bit stuffy, that phrase, but it'll do. Look, this website you're on right now, jennyeverywhereday.com… it used to be run by this bloke I know, Benj. Benj Christensen. The coolest, sweetest guy. He used to make comics about me. I love all my biographers, in every dimension — talk about making a girl feel special! — but he was proper special. Is proper special; he's not dead or anything, don't worry.

Every August 13th, he'd work day and night to collect all your artwork and stories about me, and keep it all organized. Fifteen years he did this. Fifteen. Years. Like I said, proper special.

But everything has its time, even things that go on forever. It comes and goes, waxes and wanes. Last year's JED didn't go quite as planned. After a day's worth of wonderful posts, Benj went to bed and then he never logged back on. Don't worry, he's alright, but… bit of the ol'burnout. Happens to the best of us. I'd never want any of you guys to wear yourselves out in my name.

Benj is better now, but it showed him… it was time. Time to pass the torch. Maybe you'll see him again around here, as an artist, just one more volunteer. I hope so. And you can still say hi. But he'd done his time running this place all by himself.

Hence — the new guy.

Don't worry, he's not dead either. That's just how he draws himself. A skeleton with glasses, wearing a top hat. He couldn't tell me why; he just does that. (You'll be happy to know he does at least own a top hat, but even then, he doesn't wear it much.)

He goes by Aristide Twain, and he's written an awful lot about me, too. Especially that me who's moved in with the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. Though he insisted I tell you that in his own opinion, he's not nearly as good at drawing me as Benj was. And he's also in charge of the Jenny Everywhere Wiki, so at this point, it's fair to say I'm all over his resume.

But hey, you'll get to know him soon enough, if you don't already. Just look at him go! He's already been doing some refurbishing around here, spiffing up the FAQs and whatnot. I have an index now! Love an index. It's why I've got two on my hands. Right after you see this message, he'll be running through the backlog from the 2024 JED that halfway-wasn't; better late than never, I always say, especially when you've got infinity ahead of you.

And next August — that sounds so far away, doesn't it? but mark my words, it'll creep up on you — next August, he'll be the one running the sixteenth edition of this lovely little holiday you guys made up about me. Hopefully the first of many, many more, just so long as no one blows up the Earth.

For now, let's say goodbye to Benj, with honor, thanks, and love. There's something fitting about his final transmission, even though he didn't know that's what he was writing. I'd like you to read it again, now. Especially this bit:

I wanted to say a few things before I go. Firstly thank you to everyone who submitted this year. I really appreciate all the interest in our little Jenny and I’m so happy that she’s still out there getting in scraps.

Oh, and also that bit:

Again, thank you to everyone who submitted. You are literally what makes this event possible and I couldn’t keep it going without you.

Right back at ya, Benj! Enjoy your rest; you've earned it!

Shifter, out!

[yutzen]

Castles in a Black Sky

Seven clans, seven banners, seven versions to make one. Indeed, the story that follows has been compiled from Bannerbound sources, much to the presumable chagrin of some of my readers in the Great Dust Gyre. To them I say: I apologize, but I know a common narrative when I see one.

If it helps, I must commend the effort each of the seven clans put into the preservation of their particular version. All the usual work of collecting the scattered scraps, combing through the dust and dirt of pre-Refuge history and scouring the embellishments of overenthusiastic or agenda-driven writers and tellers? All practically done for me before I got started. It’s preservation done right, in a way a jaded soul like me can appreciate and even celebrate. I will say: If retaining all you can of who you used to be is truly what the Seven are looking for, you are doing it right.

It’s thus almost a shame that the work I had to do was to find the parallels and common themes, and step forwards with the apparent sacrilege of weaving them into one. All I’ll say is this: Someone had to.

They say death is one of the only things we all have in common, but they barely know how right they are! It hardly matters where you were born, where you moved, where you died, and where you’ll go, everyone gets plucked off the world. And more importantly, one thing we can all agree on? We all get reaped by the same Harvester[1]. Pits, Skies and whatever else the others have, wherever you’re going, you’ll be sent on your way by the exact same fellow as everyone else. And she’ll[2] find ya anywhere and everywhere.

But is that all she is? One who lives for the job and nothing else? You would think so, and dare I say even she might have, once. But in those rare lulls between each passing? In those quiet times between wars where all flourish, or in those places where there’s nothing left to drop? In those time well before us, even? Turns out there’s a lot of time to fill. And even those diligent, stone-minded sorts who live to work have to find something to do in those bits of meantime.

Of course, someone like her took a long while to realize this. Still well before our time, but plenty had stood up and fallen by the time she started to wonder, maybe there was more to these interims than waiting. One can guess the thought caught her right as she was looking at the bones of someone she’d sent off a little later than usual, on a busy day. Maybe a catch-up sort of day. It was one of those fellas that never got sent off right, though, that one’s clear[3]. One of those fellas that scatter their bones all over her foyer, so to speak, because they came right along with the part of ‘em that mattered most. She just shooed ‘em along before that, made the lot take those bones with ‘em to whatever came next. But that one time, something must’ve happened for her to start wondering, maybe she could do something with those, with the wait ahead of her.

Quick as she is – don’t need to waste time moving when you’re already there – she’d have them tucked away before the next one came in, saving them up in some forgotten corner, some place so dead, so bereft of anything that she had to pluck it from the rest of the realm like a common soul. But the pile seemed disorderly, chaotic, didn’t seem like it was making the most of its space, so she tidied it up. Then did it again, after the thought there’d be more bones crossed her mind, they’d need to fit somewhere, may as well make them support each other! Halfway through making the base of a decent pillar before duty called again. Or at least, that’s what she saw it as when she got back to it later… How much later? Doesn’t matter. What matters is she had another handful of bones with her once she did, from another poor fool who dropped dead where no one but her would find ‘em.

Something about this caught her, practically entranced her. Maybe she finally realized there was something else other than her job and the wait. Or maybe she saw a future in these shapes she was putting together, or the potential ones in her head now that she had something to think about. But before she’d realized, she had built herself a room. A proper, actual foyer, where the metaphorical one had been. That’s the one you see in paintings[4], though she’d done work on it since then. And she thought what any of us would’ve, by then: “Maybe I could build a big house to go with this”. And so, she got started on that, and what was once a house became a manor, and then a proper Castle. Oh, she had to wait for wars to sweep across the olden lands for it, for drought and ice and plague to sweep by a few times, but sooner than she or anyone would realize, she had a Castle to herself, that would put anything we’ve built to shame. All of it from the bones of the forgotten.

As she who reaps us all took a moment of peace once the living had found accords, and the passings slowed down, she started to notice a few things amiss. For even the cleanest, most bleached of bones still have their scraps – bits of carrion, the little pests that feast on it, whispers of mourning, all wisps of clingy life. Very little of it manages to hold on when passing into her realm, but something always does when you move enough bones to dwarf even the tallest of Ironbound Keeps[5]. These scraps of rot and life had piled on enough that she could see figments of actual life in her realm, skittering and wandering the halls, taking shape little by little as it found more to shape itself. And the more scraps they found, the closer each little wisp could get to becoming something…

And it fascinated her. As someone who’d seen life come and go, but never stay, the keeper of a threshold where no one lingered more than a few moments, the idea of having something in her realm even remotely close to alive was thrillingly new. She had something to look forward to beyond her job now! Even if every realm fell, and her work came to an end, there would be something still!

So she committed to these collections, these architectures, more than ever before. She looked forwards to those neglected souls that weren’t sent off right, because there would be more for another Castle, one greater than the last. More scraps for the entities that slowly came to be within these structures. Now even a simple delay could mean she’d get there before the mortals could do their part, and rake as much of life’s detritus as she could into her ever-greater foyer.

Well, it paid off. Castle after Castle arose by her hands, each far greater and more luxurious than the one before it – luxurious as bone can be, at least. But when the time came to assemble her next masterpiece, with a bundle of ivory where her shears usually were, she turned around and found there was no room. She’d gotten deeply invested in these Castles when there was no harvest to pursue, that she had utterly filled her own liminal realm. It seemed so utterly empty once, she never thought it would happen!

Then she looked back towards mortal lands. Not towards those places where all the dying had been done – those were hers already – but those that were almost there. Those that just needed a few more lives to go, a little push, and they would be right in her realm, too dead to contest. She turned her gaze towards one island in particular, surrounded by so many, greater than the rest and yet so much emptier, with but a few souls still standing upon it.

She reached for her shears once more.

And just like that, the island was gone[6].

The Castle she built after that was magnificent, and perhaps the liveliest of all. After all, it had come pre-inhabited, hadn’t it? And there was still plenty of room left for more. She had the ideas, too, the grand architecture for the next one whirling together in her immortal mind. All she needed was material.

You wonder why we take all the time and measures with the dead, no matter who? Strangers on the roads, enemies slain by our hand? You ever asked yourself why we bothered? This is why.

[1]An aggregated sort of translation from various different terms, with most referring to one whose job is to cut down and gather crops once grown and ready. Zau and Issouf are exceptions, both going with something closer to Gardener, with emphasis on trimming rather than reaping. In this, I am afraid I had to resort to the majority “vote”.

[2]Most of the seven Clans (Zau, Heese, Norrish, Vesnor) refer to this Harvester by female pronouns and terminology, while the remaining ones either use gender-neutral terms (Vesh, Issouf) or go far out of their way linguistically to not bring the matter up at all (Sofize).

[3]A branching point, with every clan referring to a different funerary method as the proper, loss-less way to send off the dead; all of them either permanently confine or destroy the body entirely. Levels of acceptance for other methodologies varied, but non-Clan methods were generally seen as passable, just not ideal.

[4]There are no less than 15 known artworks by the title of Atrium of the Harvest in the history of the Urul Peaks Clans and their predecessors, and it receives repeated mention and description in their fiction. Descriptions and details vary wildly beyond the ample use of bone, and even individual clans don’t have a unified vision of how it would look.

[5]Similar terminology is used in Bannerbound language to refer to the Ironbound Keep that gives their capital its name. The way it’s used seems to imply Ironbound Keeps were a class of fortification outright, and while the one the Seven currently occupy is the greatest of all, it’s by no means the only one (assuming, of course, that the ones in their realm still stand).

[6]This coincides with certain tales from Sofize, Norrish and Vesnor about “Azure Barrens”, a patch of water at the center of an archipelago where no wind stirred the waves, and where by all metrics there should be land, but they couldn’t find any. Given the current glacial state of the Urul Peaks realm, I imagine it’s become something of a moot point since then.

-Excerpt from “Who is the Lord Below? A Treatise on the Radiant and Cthonic”, authored by ‘the Ever-Restless Nirrhamidh’ (assumed pseudonym; author not yet identified and under active investigation)

[saphushia]

|| part 1 || part 2 || part 3 || part 4 coming soon... ||

the update!! is finally!! done!!! holy shit i'm so glad i can finally post this aubdskjg. it was so fun seeing everyone guess what ace was gonna do after the last part! turns out, he can be silly AND pissed! who knew he was so multitalented~ i do wonder though- with the abilities they had when they were 17, who would win in a fight... >:3c

if you're wondering why this update took so much longer to come out than the last one, well... i got halfway through making it and then scrapped everything and started over completely... ah eto... bleh >v<

if you're curious what the initial version looked like, or want to see the pages without speech bubbles, they're both below the cut ^-^

so! first off! the scrapped pages:

the reason that i scrapped it is because... well. it doesn't flow well at all. i tried too hard to cram it to 4 pages which resulted in both the layout and the story flow feeling cramped. for the most part both versions cover the exact same beats but with the dialogue and timing/spacing tweaked. compare page 1 here to the first 2 pages in the final- it's the same exact scene but the final has way more impact because the larger panels give a 'pause' at emotional beats (such as ace's realization) that lets them sink in

my only regret is that i had to scrap sabo's expression in the first panel of page 2 aubsdkjfgb.

here's all the pages textless now ^-^

[shijiujun]

hey so uh, it's 110% Not Your Job, but can i ask for like a crash course on these chinese bl series that are everywhere around me but i don't know them. like i'm familiar with the untamed or however many names it has but i'm seeing two or three more???? help please if you can thank you

hello!! oh no worries, i happened to be looking for a distraction too so this was timely hahaha although it’s a pretty broad question since there are so many new live adaptations coming out (and some which have already come out which are featured as bromances), but let me see if I can like round this up for you a little. 

*i may be giving you a bit more than you need or like irrelevant stuff, but i guess i’m bound to hit something hahaha

Okay so the chinese BL series you’re talking about is The Untamed, and since you said you’re familiar I won’t get into it in detail, BUT just for like flow’s sake:

The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling) is based on the danmei (BL) novel written by MXTX, called Mo Dao Zu Shi (and yes however many like English translations to this title there is), or MDZS for short. You watched the live-action, and there’s like a lot of other versions of it e.g. the anime, the chibi anime, audio dramas etc. etc. the list goes on. In case you still haven’t seen any of those, just glance through this masterpost made by @the-social-recluse​ - In any case, right now everything is sort of already out EXCEPT:

MDZSQ - chibi donghua, cutest shit you’ll ever see

More MDZS merch 

Some teasers from MDZS mobile game which has been one year and developing

Now moving on to other BL series floating around so frequently - MDZS is the second book that MXTX wrote. So there’s SVSSS (The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving-System), which is also called lovingly by others in the fandom by Scumbag System/Villain in short, this is MXTX’s first danmei novel. Right now if you’ve seen this on Tumblr, it’s the anime (donghua) version - 10 episodes only for Season 1, available on WeTV with subs, finished airing like a few weeks ago. Translations of the novel are definitely out in full somewhere.

An absolute mess, but an organized one

Tried to do a manhua but failed

Everyone thought the donghua wouldn’t air on time either (it has a history of dropping development halfway) but it did

Would probably be the most entertaining if ever dealt with a live-action

And then there’s arguably, the most beloved child out of all three novels (at least right this moment) - TGCF (Tian Guan Ci Fu, or Heaven Official’s Blessing). This is the third and so far last (???) danmei novel MXTX has written, main pairing invented love. Strawhat-wearing scrap collector smiley angel with devoted kid-turned-adult-turned-ghost-king who follows smiley angel for like many years because he loves him. Anyway, if you’re seeing this, once again on Tumblr a lot, it’s the donghua version you’re seeing. Still airing, I think we’re midway through the whole season, the yelling starts Saturday (Asia time zone) and then extends into Sunday, sometimes Monday.

There’s like a god-tier Eng translation in full for TGCF by Suika

There is a manhua for this as well, only like 45 chapters in, but the time Jan/Feb 2021 rolls around, the donghua would have overtaken the manhua progress on the storyline HAHAHA

Apparently the director/production team who did CQL/The Untamed managed to get the rights to filming its live-action, but heh nothing much about that just yet aside from casting rumours and fans worrying that the casting will be done wrongly and also that they won’t be able to do justice to the story.

Alright now that we’ve more or less cleared MXTX and what everyone is hyping over (for good reason), let’s move on to the other CHINESE BL stuff you could be seeing (although I feel like you might not actually be asking about this), and these will all be live-actions (I’m also only clearing SOME of this year’s stuff, so none from before 2020, don’t ask me why I didn’t leave Guardian or SCI up here):

✨✨✨ Already aired, done and dusted or maybe ongoing, just ones I see on my dash and notifs so I definitely am biased ✨✨✨

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (Cheng Hua’s Fourteenth Year) - Many episodes, much bromance, base novel is gay af, but live action is cute af. Read more here and full translation is not yet done I think

My Roommate is a Detective - THIS IS A SPECIAL MENTION. NOT BL. Doesn’t even have like a book to go along with it, it’s just I’ve seen people getting into this again and creating content, so idk, imma just leave this here. It ain’t BL but it got the most glaring BL-esque relationship I’ve ever seen in my life. You’ll get what I mean if you watch it

The Lost Tomb Reboot - AGAIN another special mention, because many handsome young-ish men who you know, head into tombs, much bromance. Based on a huge series of novels, totally not BL, but as always with like a lot of men put into one story, ships happen. This year as well, in case you’ve seen it floating around

✨✨✨  Upcoming Chinese BL live-action adaptations, confirmed + casting + filming. You may have seen some of these because like posters were recently released etc. - As far as I know these are all slated for 2021 ✨✨✨

Faraway Wanderers (Tian Ya Ke) - A danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up, should be airing soon. Leads are pretty cute, although I’m sure they’ll turn this bromance. One of the male leads is known for a lot of period web dramas, and Gong Jun, the other male lead, is known for more contemporary modern dramas, but damn Gong Jun’s jawline

Winner is King (Sha Po Lang) - Another danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up recently as well if I recall? Posters recently released, and this is arguably Priest’s most famous and popular danmei

Immortality (Hao Yi Xing) - A super popular danmei novel called 2ha or The White Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meat Bun. Filming also... wrapped? I think, because posters came out the next day and everyone from Earth to Pluto went mad, definitely one you should look out for next year spring i think, but I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be a hell lot more teasers, posters etc. coming up and then half of danmei Tumblr will probably go into cardiac arrest

The Society of Four Leaves (Zhang Gong An) - Ehhhh I think this hasn’t yet been filmed but casting was recently confirmed (contentiously).  Concept posters are up though. This technically isn’t classified officially as a BL. There are no CPs officially in the novel, but apparently it’s very like idk flirty etc., also slated for next year

*There are a few more by Priest, e.g. Liu Yao, but no concrete news that I’ve seen (by now like at least 60% of her danmeis either have a live-action contract or a donghua contract or both lmao)

✨✨✨  Upcoming Chinese BL donghua adaptations (2021-ish). All by Priest✨✨✨

*Throwing this in just as a by the way thing, because these are also recent news (these two weeks). There might be more but I haven’t seen anything yet personally :D

Imperfection (Can Ci PIn) - Space AU, the novel won like two national literary awards if I recall like last year? Anyway a brief trailer recently came out last week I think, and main lead is handsome af, and once again it’s space and space wars so it’s pretty cool

Silent Reading (Mo Du Zhe) - Novel is called Mo Du, and honestly I think the donghua has been like teasing fans for like idk years, but it looks like we’re finally getting to the donghua as the team previewed the first ep like... two weeks ago live to an audience? Modern crime thriller thing, there’s a masterpost going on Tumblr

Lie Huo Jiao Chou - Another Priest fan favourite, a historical + modern danmei combination. Much angst from what I’ve seen, but donghua teaser looked good also, released also last week

---

anyway hopefully some part of this or at least one part answers your question? if not, just send me another ask or like, DM me hahahaha

[queen-scribbles]

Shepherd’s Honor

This oneshot brought to you by the mental image of Trouble carrying Trick piggyback that wouldn’t go away. :D Not that I tried all that hard.

----

Patrolling Haven was boring. Usually. Trick couldn’t say she cared much for how today chose to make itself an exception to that rule.

Namely the sharp, familiar pain that spiked through her right shin. It had her bracing one hand against a nearby wall for support even as her gaze tipped skyward.

Trouble must have heard her harsh breath in, because he stopped and swung around to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Trick said, not finding what she’d expected in her scan of the pale blue sky. She pushed away from the wall and fell in step next to him again, but only made it a few paces before a follow-up ache cramped her leg and made her flinch. “Okay, maybe something...”

Trouble shot her a look caught somewhere between confused and concerned.  “What?”

“Well, first off, it’s gonna storm later,” she replied, leaning against his shoulder for support as she tried to shake out the cramping muscles.

That made him frown up at the cloudless sky. “How can you tell?”

“I’m magic,” Trick deadpanned, cautiously setting weight back on that leg.

Trouble snorted. “Shit, I know that. Seriously, Trick, how can you tell? An’ are you alright?”

“Yes, to the second,” she assured him when her leg held weight, “and short answer for the first is I broke my leg real bad when I was younger an’ now it aches when rain’s comin’.”

His nose wrinkled. “That’s... bad. But also kinda cool.”

She laughed. “Tell me about it; all in lookin’ for the silver lining. I don’t like that my leg hurts, but it really comes in handy to have a warning about that kinda thing when you’re debatin’ if you should move on from a town or stay put one more night.”

“I’ll bet.” He cocked his head. “You okay to keep going?”

Trick nodded. “Kinda hafta be, don’t I? We’re only halfway done.”

Trouble rolled his eyes. “Like I’d make you keep walkin’ on that leg if it was hurtin’ you that bad.”

“Sweet of you,” Trick laughed, flipping her braid back over her shoulder. “But it’s fine for now. I’ll let you know if that changes.”

He grinned and nudged her shoulder. “Promise?”

“Shepherd’s honor,” she grinned back. “I promise.”

They made it another quarter of the way before it changed. Not coincidentally, that was when the first dark storm clouds appeared on the horizon. Trouble noticed those two things in the opposite order Trick did; saw the clouds and turned to look at her.

She was limping, she knew, just noticeably, and flashed a sheepish smile. “It doesn’t hurt. Not that bad. Only thing that might be a problem is stairs.” The words had barely left her mouth  when they reached the first (very long) flight of stairs back down to Ashtown and the Shepherd compound. “This just isn’t my day, is it?” she muttered wryly, and kicked a pebble off the top step.

Trouble scratched the back of his neck. “Want me to carry you?”

“What, like piggyback?” Trick snarked, touched by the offer but unsure how well it would work.

He shrugged. “’Less you wanna bang your head against the wall every few steps, that’s prob’ly the best way, dontcha think?”

“Yeah, but...”

He winked at her. “C’mon, Trick, you can’t be that heavy.”

Not for you, at least, she thought dryly. “It’s not that! I just know how fast carryin’ weight--any weight--can tire you out on stairs.”

Another shrug. “Better that than makin’ you walk on it.” Trouble grinned. “I’m not gonna drop you.”

Trick laughed. “Promise?”

His grin widened. “Shepherd’s honor.”

She only hesitated a couple seconds more. “Oh, fine.” It would be better than fumbling down on her own, no matter the loss of dignity. And they were pretty close in height, it was easy enough to wrap her arms around his neck and boost herself up. Trouble jokingly staggered sideways as he settled his grip under her legs.

“Muti,” Trick growled through a laugh as she freed one arm to punch his shoulder.

“Just teasin’,” Trouble promised with another grin.

“I know,” she said, resting her chin atop his head. His hair smelled like sun and charch and she smiled at the familiarity. “I’m good when you are.”

“Right.” He shifted ever so slightly so his hands were closer to the backs of her knees, and started down the steps.

It was trickier than either anticipated to keep their balance, but they managed to get to the bottom without killing themselves. There were two or three more similar flights to go, but Trick insisted on walking in between so Trouble could have a break. “It doesn’t hurt that much,” she promised. “More like a really strong cramp than anything.”

“You say that like it’s any better than your leg actually hurtin’.” he muttered.

“Trust me, it is,” she sighed, running one hand along her braid. I know from experience.

Trouble kicked a pebble, and they watched it skitter ahead of them. When they caught up to it, Trick kicked it further. This time it veered sideways when it ricocheted from the edge of a cobblestone and out of reach.

“So, how exactly didja break your leg so bad it helps you predict the weather?” he asked when they reached the next flight of stairs, longer and narrower and curving left.

Trick laughed as she hoisted herself up on his back again. “Oh, it was very exciting. I fell off a ladder.”

Trouble barked a disbelieving laugh of his own. “Really? That’s it?”

“Well, I may have been runnin’ from some people...” she allowed, tightening her grip when he started to turn and look at her. “Trouble, watch where you’re goin’.”

“Right, right.” He hesitated a beat. “Who were you runnin’ from?”

“You want the long version?” Trick chuckled. Even that wasn’t a terribly exciting story, in her opinion, but he was carrying her down steps without a word of complaint. She’d spin him any damn tale about herself he wanted.

“Sure, why not?” Trouble grunted, shifting his grip. “If you don’t mind, anyway.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” she promised, wriggling higher when she realized she was sort of strangling him in her current position. “So, there’s this merchant. Decided he wanted extra muscle for the trip from Capra to this town out near Lindell, which makes sense. He was offering good money and I needed work, so I signed up. It’s a pretty long trip, we had to scare off a couple groups of bandit, actually kill some mean-spirited critters, so I more than earned my lyss this time ‘round.”

“And?” Trouble prompted when she paused.

Trick snorted a laugh through her nose and rested her chin atop his head again.  “And the kisich tried to weasel outta payin’ me. Dunno if he was just a skinflint or had something against Diminished or whatever, but when I stood my ground instead of cavin’ like he expected, his men went to force the issue and we had a... uh, scuffle.” She chuckled. “Got the mother of all beautiful black eyes from that scrap. Anyway, partway in, one gets the bright idea to taunt me with the coin purse holdin’ my pay. Guess he thought it would rile me up so I didn’t think straight. He forgot how hard I am to rile. And how quick I can be.” She grinned, her fingers digging into Trouble’s collar. “Punched him in the nose and took off with my money when he dropped it.”

Trouble snorted. “Lemme guess, they came after you.”

“Like yiwari after a rabbit,” Trick confirmed, sliding off his back as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “But I had a really good head start.” Her leg cramped and she glanced up at the much closer storm clouds. “And I made it even bigger ‘cause the outskirts of the town had the houses all built close together, y’know, where you can jump pretty easy roof to roof?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“There was a ladder to the roof every so many houses, so I went up the first one I found and zigzagged my way along the outskirts, jumpin’ alleys an’ hidin’ a couple times ‘til I lost ‘em.”

“Good thing you didn’t fall,” Trouble commented

“Oh, very good,” Another of those silver linings. Trick agreed wryly, scanning the side streets they passed for anything off. It seemed all clear. “Would not have been pretty.”

“Why didn’t ya just tell somebody that kisich was tryin’ to cheat ya?”

She snorted. “Maybe I woulda if I weren’t so obviously Diminished.” She watched his gaze flick to her hair, then back to the street. “They had an.... unlovey reputation regarding how they treated my kind.”

“Oh.” Trouble cracked his knuckles. “I’da kicked their asses. The merchant’s men, I mean.”

“I know,” Trick said with a smile, bumping her shoulder to his(harder than she’d meant to, her limp was getting worse). “If I’d had you backin’ me, I mighta gone for that myself. As it was, I didn’t really wanna fight them. Not there. Just wanted my money. An’ I got that.”

This last stretch of road was a short one, and they reached the final flight of stairs much more quickly than the previous ones. The clouds were actually starting to dim the sun as Trick climbed up on Trouble’s back again, and she hoped the approaching storm held off long enough for them to reach the compound.

“So where this ladder you fell off figure in?” Trouble prompted as he started down the steps.

“Right.” Trick pulled her attention off the sky and back to her story. “Getting down. I waited a good... half hour in my last hidin’ spot to make sure they were gone. The sun was startin’ to set when I finally felt safe comin’ out; the shadows kept me from seeing the, uh, condition of the closest ladder. The wood was all dry-rotted, fourth or fifth rung down broke the second I put weight on it. I fell maybe fifteen feet? Somethin’ like that.”

Trouble gave a low whistle. “Ouch.”

“Tell me about it, I’m lucky my leg’s the only thing I broke. But it was bad enough to more than make up for being the only damage--bone ripped through the skin and everything.”

“What didja do?” he asked, boosting her higher as she started to slide.

“Limped--well, hobbled is prob’ly better--around til I found a healer. Fortunately didn’t take too long,” she shrugged. “Hadn’t scrapped together enough know-how to fix somethin’ that bad for myself yet.” She wiggled her finger significantly and snorted. “Barely had twenty lyss to my name after payin’ the man. And even with his help, it still scarred real nasty. ‘Bout this long.” She let go with one hand to hold thumb and index finger four or five inches apart in demonstration. “An’ now I have a surefire way of tellin’ when it’s gonna” --a fat, wet droplet hit the back of her neck and made her flinch--”rain.”

Trouble swore as they reached the bottom of the steps and he let her down.  “Was hopin’ we’d make it back ‘fore that got here,” he admitted as rain freckled both their shirts.

“You and me both,” Trick said wryly. She grabbed his wrist. The compound was in view down the the far end of the street. “C’mon, if we hurry, maybe we can at least avoid getting completely drenched.”

He laughed and let her tug him into motion, but was nice enough to not outpace her when her limp slowed her down. Which meant they both got drenched when the skies opened up just before they made it through the Shepherd compound gates.

Trouble swore again, but he was grinning when they ducked under the cover of the entrance and he shook water from his hair like a dog.

“Sorry,” Trick said through a laugh, only slightly sheepish, and squeezed water from her braid. “But thanks for the help. And stickin’ with me.”

“Don’t mention it,” he winked, thumping her on the back with one hand while he raked hair out of his eyes with the other. “It’s what you do for friends.”

“Still.” She lightly punched his shoulder. “I appreciate it. And I appreciated even more that you didn’t drop me.”

“Hey, I promised, didn’t I?” Trouble said with a laugh. “Shepherd’s honor an’ all.”

“And I’ve encountered enough people who didn’t keep their word to make me appreciate when someone does.” Trick glanced toward the courtyard, rain now falling in sheets. “You know we still have to make it across that to get to our rooms, right?”

Trouble’s grin widened. “Need another ride?”

Trick’s leg twinged even as thunder rumbled and she snorted a laugh. “Wouldn’t turn it down.”

““Alright, then.”

Neither of them cared if anyone saw their pell-mell run through the downpour for the dormitory wing of the compound, Trick’s arms locked around Trouble’s neck and both laughing the whole way. Trouble kicked the door shut behind them and Trick tightened her grip in a backwards sort-of hug before sliding off.

“Thanks, Trouble,” she grinned, bumping her shoulder to his.

“Welcome, Trick,” he returned, also grinning as he returned the shoulder bump before they headed for their rooms to dry off.

Trick found herself smiling as she stripped off her wet clothes--and not just because her gun had escaped getting wet. While her leg flaring up and then getting rained on wouldn’t have been her first choice for how to break the monotony of patrol, at least handling it with a friend--especially one strong enough to carry her--had kept it from being entirely awful.

Honestly, she had to admit as she dried off and reached for fresh clothes, it had almost (almost) been fun.

[generallypo]

“I heard your voice, so I came... Aoba-san.”

Hooo-boy, if that doesn’t get me emotional every single time. Call it my bias for eccentric bundles of sunshine and softness, or my crippling weakness for the secretly-handsome-and-devastatingly-earnest type, but you can’t change my mind: Clear is, hands down, DMMD’s best love interest. Character development-wise, thematically, romantically, he nails every trial thrown at him, gets his man,  and proceeds to break your heart in the tenderest, sincerest way possible. I am hopping with Huge Fan Energy, so this post is gonna be unapologetically long and self-indulgent and grossly enthusiastic. Yeeeee.

———— 

Look, DMMD meta analysis has been done to death, I get it. This game is old. But I think it stands as testament to its excellent production that it’s still a game worth revisiting years later — especially during these times when social contact is so hard pressed to come by and we all rabidly devour digital media like a horde of screeching feral gremlins. (Have you seen Netflix’s stock value now? The exploding MMO server populations? Astonishing.) It’s pure, simple human nature to want to connect, to cling to members of our network out of biological imperative and our psychological dependency on each other. As cold and primitive at that sounds, social contact also fulfills us on a higher level: the community is always stronger than the individual; genuine trust begets a mutually supportive relationship of exchange and evolution. People learn from each other, and grow into stronger, wiser, better versions of themselves.

Yeah, I’m being deliberately obtuse about this. Of course I’m talking about Clear. Clear, who is a robot. Clear, who is nearly childlike in his insatiable curiosity regarding the human condition.

And it’s a classic literary tactic, using non-human entities to question the intangible constructs of a concept like ‘humanity’ — think Frankenstein, or Tokyo Ghoul, or Detroit: Become Human, among so, so many works in various media — all tackling that question from countless angles, all with varying measures of success. What does it mean to be human? To be good? Who are we, and where do we stand in the grand scheme of things? Is there even a scheme to follow? … Wait, what?

Jokes aside, there are so many ways that the whole approaching-human-yet-not-quite-there schtick can be abused into edgy, joyless existential griping. Nothing wrong with that if it’s what you’re looking for, except that we’re talking about a boys’ love game here. But DMMD neatly, sweetly side steps that particular wrinkle, giving us a wonderfully grounded character to work with as a result. 

Character Design — a see-through secret

Let’s start small: Clear’s design and premise. Unlike so many other lost, clueless robo-lambs across media, Clear does have a small guiding presence early on in his life. It takes the form of his grandfather, who teaches Clear about the world while also sheltering him from his origins. It means he learns enough to blend sufficiently into society; it also means that Clear has even more questions that sprout from his limited understanding of the world.

Told that he must never remove his mask lest he expose his identity as a non-human, Clear’s perpetual fear of rejection for what he is drives much of his eccentricity and challenges him throughout much of his route. As for the player, the mystery of what lies underneath his mask is a carrot that the writers get to dangle until the peak moment of emotional payoff. Even if it’s not hard to guess that there’s probably a hottie of legendary proportions stuck under there, there’s still significance in waiting for that good moment to happen. And when it does, it feels great.

His upbringing contextualizes and affirms his odd choice of fashion: deliberately generic, bashfully covered from the public eye, and colored nearly in pure white - the quintessential signal of a blank slate, of innocence. Contrasted with the rest of DMMD’s flashy, colorful crew, Clear is probably the most difficult to read on a superficial scale, not falling into the fiery, bare-chest sex appeal of a womanizer, or the techno-nerd rebel aesthetic that Noiz somehow rocks. Goofy weirdo? Possibly a serial killer? Honestly, both seem plausible at the start.

And that’s the funny thing, because as damn hard as he tries to physically cover himself up from society, Clear is irrepressibly true to his name: transparent to a fault. He’s a walking, talking contradiction, and it’s not hard to realize that this mysterious, masked stranger… is really just an open book. By far the most effusive and straightforward of the entire cast, his actions are wildly unconventional and sometimes wholly inexplicable. But given time to explain himself, he is always, always sincere in his intentions — and unlike the rest of the love interests, naturally inclined to offer bits of himself to Aoba. It doesn’t take the entire character arc to figure out his big, bad secret — our main character gets an inkling about halfway through his route — and what’s even better is that he embraces it, understanding that his abilities also allow him to protect what he cherishes: Aoba. 

So what if he doesn’t fit into an easily recognizable box of daydream boyfriend material? He’s contradictory, and contradiction is interesting. Dons a gas mask, but isn’t an edgelord. Blandly dressed, but ridiculously charming. Unreadable and modestly intimidating — until he opens his mouth. Even without the benefit of traversing his route, there’s already so much good stuff to work with, and sure as hell, you’re kept guessing all the way to the end.

Character Development — from reckless devotion into complaisant subservience, complaisant subservience into mutual understanding. And then, of course: free will, and true love. 

At its core, DMMD is about a dude with magic mind-melding powers and his merry band of attractive men with — surprise! — crippling emotional baggage. Each route follows the same pattern, simply remixing the individual character interactions and the pace of the program: Aoba finds himself isolated with the love interest, faces various communication issues varying on the scale of frustrating to downright dangerous, wanders into a sketchy section of Platinum Jail, bonds with the love interest over shared duress, breaks into the Oval Tower, faces mental assault by the big bad — and finally, finally, destroys those internal demons plaguing the love interest, releasing the couple onto the path of a real heart-to-heart conversation. And then, you know, the lovey-dovey stuff. 

Here’s the thing: as far as romantic progression goes, it’s really not a bad structure. There’s room to bump heads, but also to bond. The Scrap scene is a thematically cohesive and clever way to squeeze in the full breadth of character backstory while simultaneously advancing the plot. In this part, Aoba must become the hero to each of his love interests and save them from themselves. Having become privy to each other’s deepest thoughts and reaching a mutual understanding of each other, their feelings afterwards slide much more naturally into romantic territory. They break free of Oval Tower, make their way home, and have hot, emotionally fulfilling sex or otherwise some variation on the last few steps. The end. 

That is, except for Clear. 

Clear’s route is refreshing in that he needs none of these things — the climax of his emotional arc actually comes a little after the halfway point of his route. When Clear’s true origins are revealed, he comes entirely clean to Aoba, fighting against his fear of rejection but also trusting that Aoba will listen. It’s a quiet, vulnerable moment, rather than the action-packed tension we normally experience during a Scrap scene. 

That doesn’t mean it’s prematurely written in — it simply means that he reaches his potential faster than the other characters. Because of that, he’s free to pursue the next level of his route’s development much, much sooner in the timeline: he overcomes his fears of his appearance, he confesses his love to Aoba, he leaves the confines of a largely dubious master-servant relationship and allows himself to be Aoba’s equal. Clear’s sprite art mirrors his emotional transformation all the way through, exposing him to the literal bone — and Aoba’s affection for him doesn’t change a single bit. Beautiful.

The whammy of incredible moments doesn’t just stop there, though. I don’t exactly recall the order the routes DMMD is ideally meant to be played in, but I believe Clear’s is meant to be last. And if you do, I can guarantee that it becomes a hugely delightful gameplay experience — in order to achieve his good ending, you must do absolutely nothing with Scrap. It doesn’t just subvert our player expectations of proactively clicking and interacting with our love interests; it grabs the story by its thematic reins and yanks it all back to the forefront of our scene. 

In every route besides Clear’s, Scrap is a tool used to insert Aoba’s influence into and interfere with his target’s mind. Using his powers of destruction, Aoba is able to prune whatever maligned thoughts are harming his target; in any conventional situation, using Scrap is the right choice. 

But one of the central problems in Clear’s route is his conflict between the impulses of his conditioning and his desire to live freely as a human would. Breaking free of Toue’s programming is what initially made him unique; growing beyond the rules imposed by his grandfather is what makes him human. In the final conflict scene, Clear’s decision to destroy his key-lock is an action of true autonomy, made with perfect understanding of the consequences and a sincere, selflessly selfish desire to protect someone he loves. In order to receive his good end, you have to respect his decision. It doesn’t matter which option you pick — by using Scrap, Aoba turns his back on every positive choice he made with Clear and attempts to exert his authority over him. This is Aoba becoming Toue; this is Aoba trying to reinstate himself as ‘Master’ right as he approved Clear as his equal. That’s blatant hypocrisy, and it doesn’t matter if Aoba is trying to do it for Clear’s ‘own good’ — that’s not Aoba’s call to make. If you truly wish to respect Clear’s free will, you will stand by. This is the truth of the moment: Clear has no emotional blockages that Aoba needs to fix. Believe in him, just as he believed in you.

The path to his heart is, and always has been, clear. Scrap was never needed from the start.

While Aoba might be the main character, Clear is undeniably a hero in his own route just as much. Tirelessly earnest and always curious, he leaps headlong into the unknown and emerges with his newfound enlightenment. He’s unafraid of weathering trials, even to the point of accepting death, and returns anew from oblivion to a sweet, cathartic ending. That’s about as textbook hero’s journey as it gets — if that doesn’t make him unquestionably, certifiably, unconditionally human, then I will scream.

And only finally… there is the free end. The final CG is like a throwback to our first impression of him: indistinct, purposefully obscured from proper view. But this time, we know better — and so does Aoba. Looks were never what mattered in Clear’s route. If you were patient, and you were open-minded, and you listened… well, what we realize now is that Clear was doing the exact same thing for you, too.

From a carefree, aimless robot-man with only the gimmick of “eccentric ditz” to carry him forward, we get a supremely more interesting character by the end: a man who has graduated from the well-intentioned but claustrophobic conditioning of his childhood; a weapon who has defied the imperatives placed on him by his creator’s programming; a wanderer who has, through unconditional patience and empathy, discovered love, and striven to become a better person for it. Who was it that ever doubted Clear’s character? He’s the goddamn goodest boy that ever wanted to be a real boy. Of course Clear is human. And in fact, he does it better than every single one of the actually human love interests. You can’t change my mind.

The Romance — kindness is really fucking attractive, okay.

Like I’ve said earlier, I have my Big Fan Blinds stuck on pretty tight. I might be conjuring sparks from thin air. But I think every choice was a deliberate creative decision on the writers’ part, and they deserve all the kudos for it — I’m just the lucky player who gets to enjoy it. But aside from Noiz (who I also think is a perfect darling as well — I could go on and on about him), Clear’s route is a model example for consent and healthy relationships in VN storytelling. This is reciprocated on both sides: never does Aoba infringe on Clear’s boundaries, and neither does Clear. They’re sensitive to each other’s needs and concerns; they ask for permission and stop when it isn’t granted (and when it is, boy do they get frisky — I’m not complaining!) I don’t need to say much more, because I think that consent is both fantastic and yes, incredibly hot (the scene in DMMD is tons more sad, go play Re:connect!). Good writing shows off the massive erotic potential enthusiastic consent puts into intimacy, and Aoba’s and Clear’s relationship is honestly a dream playground. The point is, I think Aoba and Clear genuinely do find equal balance in their relationship by the end of his route (and certainly through Re:connect). If you follow through Re:connect’s storyline, there’s even more thematic richness that comes through in the form of Clear’s greatest asset: communication. The couple get to discuss the long-term implications of them being together; they both offer concerns, points, and assurances to the other, and it’s just a soft, honest moment not so unlike the worries of a real relationship. Hearing is kind of Clear’s motif sense, but it’s really great to see that Aoba also subtly picks it up, really flexes his own communication skills to better engage with Clear. 

Point is, Clear’s route spoke to me on a lot of little levels. Design-wise, he’s already got a ton going for him, and his story builds upon it rather than against it, enriching his development and grounding him a little more solidly in the DMMD universe (and in my heart). His route, aside from being emotionally ruinous, carries a pretty solid chunk of world-building (only beaten out by Mink’s and Ren’s, probably), and the romance feels organic, healthy, and realistic. He’s not the only one with an excellent route, but he’s my favorite. If you read through all of this, you’re a real trooper and I’m extremely impressed. Thanks for tuning in. Peace.

[libermachinae]

Schematics [Or, Another Chance] – Ch. 4, Sensory

Also available on AO3! Notes: Day 4 of @prowlweek and I went a bit squish. Scav’s a good-ish boy.

⏳ 🚧 🚓 ⌛ 🏗 🚧 ⏳

Scavenger apologized probably somewhere around a hundred times. Hook couldn’t keep track of them all, and even Prowl must have been satiated, because he gave up on his lecture halfway through and kept it to a crisp, “Do as you’re ordered.”

“Mixmaster and Scavenger, you’re coming through this time,” Prowl announced as he loaded up the terminal with their next set of coordinates. “Long Haul, you’re anchor.”

“What? Why me?”

“Because that’s your order,” Prowl said.

“Bonecrusher’s the one who caused problems the last time, shouldn’t he be the one stuck behind?” Long Haul’s shoulders were squared and his plating flaring. Though he resented the reaction, Hook could understand where it came from: after being put on guard duty twice in a row, their resentful transporter was probably starting to feel like his skills were being undervalued.

“I’m the leader of this mission,” Prowl said, turning to stare Long Haul down. “If you take issue with my command style, you’re welcome to leave.”

“I’m not gonna do that and you know it,” Long Haul snapped.

“Precisely.” Prowl turned back to the console, as though that constituted a satisfying end to the argument.

Hook tried to get a steadying hand on Long Haul’s shoulder but was pushed off, the larger mech stalking away. Not that there was far to go. The present had been confined to the space of the cave they stood in, their only indication that real time was passing the changing light that filtered in through the ceiling. Their chronometers had fallen out of sync with each journey, but it was pointless to reset them every time, when Prowl had them going back in just minutes after they returned.

He finished punching in the coordinates, the timestream shimmered to life, and the team lined up behind him. Only now, Prowl didn’t bother to specify the order they would travel in. He took the lead, Scavenger slipped in front of Hook, Bonecrusher and Mixmaster lagging behind, and a silent agreement was passed not to bring it up as an issue. If Prowl was relaxing his regulations a bit, that could only mean fewer opportunities for them to mess up.

Part of Hook wondered if they should take a break soon, give everyone a chance to fuel up and ease off, maybe even have a chance to get caught up on everything they had missed. That’s how they’d done it with Scrapper, but he stopped that line of thought before the pang in his spark got to be too strong. This wasn’t the right time to bring it up, anyway, so he put his focus to keeping his processor under control as he stepped into the timestream.

He did a better job of it this time, practice having made him more accustomed to the feeling of time rejecting their intrusion. He reached forward at once point and took Scavenger’s hand, keeping him from rushing ahead like he had the first time, and in response felt a squeeze that held until they nearly reached the exit. This time, Hook could see what they were approaching, but the only thing he was able to make out was that it was dark. Not like the cave, though. There was something familiar about it.

At Prowl’s signal, he let Scavenger slip free of his hand, then followed shortly after, emerging among the roots of another long-lost Cybertronian city.

“An abandoned sector?” Hook said as he peered around. Compared to their last stop, the streets here were barren, lights only distantly visible through the breaks between buildings. Someone turned on their headlights and illuminated the building across the way, its large doors slightly ajar.

“What would the time killer want with this place?” Scavenger asked as he crept closer.

“The what?”

Scav grinned at Prowl.

“The time killer,” he repeated. “We’ve got to call this guy something, don’t we?”

“He hasn’t killed anyone.”

“He’s Cybertronian?”

“Yes, but—”

“There you go! Killer.”

“It’s got a nice ring to it,” Hook said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Prowl said. “Come up with something better. Bonecrusher, you’re on guard duty. Scavenger, Mixmaster, Hook, with me.”

The named mechs followed Prowl into the nearest building, staring up at tall ceilings that only served to offer more room to an incredible collection of junk. Scrapped sheet metal, rusted beams, and all manner of useless spare parts filled the space, a warehouse that had been made to a cheap and convenient dump for some unofficial industrial venture. The whole thing rung familiar to Hook, but it was the rumble of and engine in need of a tune-up that caused his processor to alight in recognition.

“Wh—seriously? Since when do you all show up early?”

Hook whirled around, his spark spinning with way too many emotions to process at once.

“Scrapper?” Mixmaster choked out.

“But no Long Haul. Great. I guess we can just start building the arena on top of the scrap piles, that’ll stand just fine.” Scrapper wasn’t paying any attention to the mechs he was addressing, too wrapped up in his planning and calculations to notice anything amiss. The casual ignorance of a mech who was so profoundly gifted in his ability to notice details struck an emotion in Hook that he did not have the words to describe, and he found himself stepping forward.

“Scrapper—”

“Scavenger, stop standing around,” he said, possibly ignoring Hook, though more likely failing to notice him. “I need you to start sorting through this mess and figure out what’s useful. Mixmaster, help him excavate however he needs; your skills aren’t going to be any use until we get this cleared and Bonecrusher gets here to set up the foundation. Hook, you review the blueprints last night?”

“Of course, sir,” Hook said, forcing himself out of his stupor and back into the role of the perfectionist second-in-command he had played for four million years. The changeover was so natural, he forgot he was lying.

“Start laying out the perimeter. Give us a sense of the space we’re working with,” Scrapper ordered. “Once you’ve got that, I’ll need your help with the fine details, make sure everything’s to Megatron’s specifications. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Scrapper turned and walked off, optics fixed to the datapad he’d walked in with. Hook stared at his frame as it retreated, taking in the way his legs bent and arms swung, the cant his helm adopted when he was deep in thought. The last time he’d seen Scrapper functioning had seemed like such a non-event, it hadn’t occurred to him to savor it like this. Now, every frame was saved to his memory, copied to multiple folders and heavily encrypted.

There were so many things he wished he could do to that frame. But, if they really were all the way back to setting up gladiator arenas, then the team wasn’t really a team yet. There were rumors about Scrapper and Long Haul, evidence of Mixmaster and Bonecrusher’s late night ‘science projects,’ and a few nights spent fantasizing ceaselessly, but nothing at all like what would come later. Hook, he reminded himself, wasn’t even the second yet. At this point in the timeline, he’d only recently been assigned to Scrapper’s crew and made up for it with a kiss-up habit he was still struggling to break.

He wished there was time; the things he wanted to do to that frame. Scrapper disappeared through the far door, and Hook made to follow him, reclaim lost days he’d never imagined would be significant enough to miss. A hand caught his arm, he turned to Mixmaster’s optics, and was reminded of their reality.

“Prowl says we should go,” Mixmaster said.

“Oh.” Hook didn’t remember setting his vocalizer that low. “Where is he?”

“I’ve got him,” Scavenger said. He’d been leaned over a pile, sensitive digger arm extended in from of him, now revealing that Prowl had been hiding beneath it. “It’s good we got Scrapper while he was still in planning mode. I don’t know if this will work again if he comes back.”

“It’s not worth the risk,” Prowl said. “You’re all compromised and there is no sign of the target, so we’re going back.”

He led the way back out of the building. Mixmaster complied without much fuss, surprisingly eager to get back to the time portal, but Scavenger lagged, glancing over his shoulder to the place Scrapper had disappeared to.

Hook paused to wait for his teammate.

“Hey, c’mon, Scav,” he said, offering out a hand. It was all he could do to close the distance, because he knew if he went to Scavenger right then, he might not be able to stop his legs from carrying him all the way back.

Still, the mech hesitated.

“Is there a problem?” Prowl asked, back at his side.

“N-no, Prowl, uh, boss,” Hook said, trying to hide how the mech’s reappearance had startled him.

“It’s him,” Scavenger said, with a reverence that he usually saved for just one mech at a time. He glanced back at Prowl, optics bright with something. Realization? Hope? Primus, don’t let it be that. “Prowl, could we—”

In two strides, so quick and silent he might have teleported to Scavenger’s side, Prowl pushed himself into the mech’s space, silencing him with presence alone.

“No,” he said, his voice the blade that cut off Scavenger’s fragile buds of hoe. “No. Scavenger, on this day, four million years in your past, Scrapper had a normal day. He worked with you and the rest of the team, erected Megatron’s next arena, and forgot about it among every other day he spent doing the exact same thing. He did not get removed from his place in time, nor did he mention ever encountering a different version of you. This is how things happened, and we can’t change it, no matter how badly we—you want to.”

He was leaning far into Scavenger’s space, closer than Hook had known he was capable of. And although the display was apparently meant to be domineering, show that Prowl was the one in control, there was something else to it, captured in the way Prowl’s hand reached up and touched, so gently, the excavator’s wilting backhoe.

“That’s four million years ago. More recently than that, Spike Witwicky tracks him down, isolated in an Earth construction lot, and kills him. We can’t undo that, either. It’s not ours to change.”

Scavenger’s whole frame perked up under the surprise touch, subconsciously tilting his stick into Prowl’s hand. Hook watched Prowl’s gray fingers stroke with surprising care, a jealousy coiling in his spark that he was only able to tamp down with the knowledge that Scavenger would be delighted to share the memory when they next combined.

Prowl said something else, so soft Hook couldn’t hear it. When he leaned back, he and Scavenger’s optics were locked, the latter nodding in some private agreement.

“Now move it, both of you,” Prowl said, voice returned to its usual commanding timbre. He turned and proceeded out the way he’d been headed before, leaving Hook and Scavenger to follow. It wasn’t a problem this time, though they walked after him on legs that felt suddenly weak. It still took a great deal of will on Hook’s part not to cast a final glance backward as they left, but he managed it, keeping his optics ahead of him, on the doorwings that swayed with each step Prowl took.

[ghostsray]

(Merry Christmas Truce, @purpleillusn​ ! You asked for something wholesome with Dani and/or Jazz, and, well, I hope this is good enough.

Warning: Slight body horror I guess?? because of Dani melting)

Word count: 3038

     Jazz’s grip tightened around the book in her hands as she tried to drown out the sounds of her parents arguing. Last Christmas, the two adult Fentons had agreed to forget about their yearly arguments over Santa Clause. Unfortunately, they somehow moved on to arguing over Santa’s elves, which meant that the Christmas tradition of fighting over useless topics persisted, much to the exasperation of their two children.

     She could tell that Danny was trying his best not to be a Grinch after the events of last year, but after listening to around five minutes of how there was no way elves could survive the freezing north pole’s weather in those silly costumes of theirs unless they had fur or blubber, he eventually made the smart choice of spending the Christmas day out with Tucker and Sam. Unfortunately, since she had no close friends of her own, Jazz was unable to experience the same freedom. That was why she was in the living room now, sitting on a couch by herself with a book in her hands as her parents argued away.

     It became evident, once she had to reread the same sentence for the fifth time, that reading in the same room as her parents was impossible. She sighed and left the room, heading toward the stairs. She would have made a comment to her parents, but she doubted they would hear her when they were so invested in their debate.

     Halfway up the stairs, a sudden indoors breeze made her shiver—then something cold and wet landed on her shoulder. Of course, it couldn’t be snow because she was indoors and there didn’t seem to be any ice ghost around. Confused, she turned her head to look at what could have touched her shoulder. A small lump of glowing green goo greeted her.

     She jumped in surprise, nearly tripping down a step, before quickly wiping the substance off her shoulder. A green stain on her sweater was left in its place. She flapped her hand to shake the glowing goop off, and it was then that her eyes caught another stain on the stairs a few steps down. As her eyes traveled farther, she saw more and more green blotches roughly leading to the kitchen.

     She didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that this substance was ectoplasm. Why it was dripped in a trail inside her house was another matter entirely. From her experience hunting specters, she had seen only two forms of ectoplasm which leaked from ghosts. The first kind was in the form of saliva drooled by animal ghosts (which was unlikely to be the case, since there didn’t seem to be any canine phantom around). The second kind was in the form of a ghost’s blood.

     She felt a weight settle in her chest at that thought. Was this Danny’s blood? Did he get injured in a fight? But he said ghosts won’t attack on Christmas. Could he have been wrong? She cast a quick glance to the living room at her parents, but they seemed unaware of the ectoplasmic stains on the floor. Bringing her focus back to the stains, she bit her lip before deciding to follow them to the kitchen.

     Nothing was there, but she did see two more blotches on the floor. It was hard to tell because they were spaced apart, but they seemed to lead toward the basement, so that was where Jazz went. As she reached the basement’s door, she thought she heard clattering coming from below, and she hesitated, wondering what its source was doing. Steeling herself, she finally pushed the door open before cautiously stepping inside.

     Since nobody used the lab on Christmas, the lights were switched off. However, that didn’t mean the place was completely dark. Neon light came from the various ectoplasm in the lab—from the portal behind its striped blast doors, from the ectoplasm-storing weapons, from more stains scattered across the lab and from the thing these stains led to, which was…

     Jazz had to swallow back the bile that rose up her throat. There was a ghost in the basement, but a ghost of what, she wasn’t sure. It looked like it may have been humanoid at some point, but it was melting. Drops of bright ectoplasm fell from parts of its body which it failed to hold together, staining the floor where they hit. The melting ghost was frantically searching through her parents’ inventions, throwing metal scraps off tables and shelves, and Jazz realized that was the reason for the clattering she heard from the kitchen.

     She didn’t realize that her body was moving down the basement stairs until she accidentally skipped a step. She caught herself, but a loud sound echoed from her footstep as she did, alerting the ghost to her presence. It whipped around to face her—

     Jazz had to catch herself after seeing the ghost’s eyes. Though green eyes were not entirely uncommon among ghosts, there was something about the vivid, lime glow in this one’s pair that reminded her greatly of Danny. And they seemed scared. But before she could confirm if this really was her brother or not, the ghost vanished from sight.

     Jazz blinked. It was difficult to see in the dull glow of ectoplasm, so she reached for the light switch and flipped it. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling overhead turned on, giving her a clearer view of the mess that had been her parents’ lab. The girl turned her head in every angle in search for the disappeared phantom when a soft plop snapped her attention to a corner behind a shelf. There, another small blob of ectoplasm had fallen. More drops joined it in a small puddle of green; they were dripping from what appeared to be nothing, becoming visible as soon as they left the ghost’s main body.

     Slowly, Jazz made her way toward the spot. A smear in the green puddle told her that the ghost had moved, so she swiftly held up her hands in what she hoped was a placating gesture. “It’s alright,” she said. “I won’t hurt you.”

     There was a brief silence, and for a second Jazz wondered if maybe the ghost had left. But after a while, she heard an echoey voice ask, “You won’t?”

     It was a girl’s voice—a young one. She even sounded a bit like Danny when he was younger. Jazz turned to where she thought the voice came from and gave a gentle smile. “Just because I’m a Fenton doesn’t mean I’m as impulsive as my parents. If you want to talk to me, I’ll listen,” she told her. She wasn’t sure why she was being so gentle with a ghost—maybe it was because she reminded her somehow of Danny, or maybe it was because of the fear she saw briefly when their eyes met—but she had a feeling that this ghost was innocent and just wanted help.

     Another beat of silence. Jazz could almost feel the hesitation coming from the young ghost. Finally, the phantom let herself become visible again and floated in front of Jazz.

     Now that she was right in front of her and wasn’t disappearing from sight, Jazz was able to observe her appearance; and she found even more traits she shared with Danny, or at least a younger version of him. It was hard to pick them out at first due to all the melting, but she saw, in addition to the glowing green eyes, snow white hair and a faint splash of freckles across her face. She also wore a black-and-white suit akin to Danny’s, although her design was slightly different.

     As Jazz wondered why this ghost looked so much like Danny, a memory clicked in her brain—a story of one of Danny’s adventures which he had relayed to her one day. She remembered how she felt so fussy over her little brother after hearing what happened to him, and how angry she was at Vlad for having done such a thing. But her brother had shrugged it off and said that, on the bright side, at least he had a likeable half-ghost “cousin” now—the same cousin, Jazz was sure, that stood before her now.

     “I know, it looks kind of bad,” Dani said, pulling Jazz out of her thoughts. She had a sheepish smile on her face, although it looked like only half a smile since the other half was literally melting—which, by the way, her face was melting and yet the girl seemed fine by it. Jazz watched as she brought a hand up in a ‘wave it off’ gesture, and she had to swallow back bile when it caused ectoplasm to spray from her hand as she waved. “But don’t worry,” the ghost girl said, ignoring the amount of substance her body was losing, “I’ve totally got it.” Jazz didn’t seem convinced.

     “You’re melting,” Jazz pointed out, still horrified by the sight before her. The younger girl chuckled and brought a goopy hand to rub at her neck.

     “Yeah, I guess I am,” she admitted with a shrug. “…Okay, so maybe it is pretty bad. I’ve kinda been hoping I could find something here to fix me.” Quieter, she added, “Danny did last time.”

     “‘Last time’?” Jazz questioned, having heard her sentence. “So it’s not the first time this happened to you?”

     Dani looked away. “I’m…unstable,” she said after a moment. “Normally, I can keep myself together…but apparently not forever.”

     Jazz felt a surge of sympathy for the young girl, who currently seemed to be sinking lower into the ground as her body spread across the floor. Right. She was still melting. “You said Danny helped you last time,” Jazz pointed out. “How did he do that?”

     Dani scrunched her face (or what was left of it, anyway). “He used something called…Ecto Dejecto, I think,” she stated. “It sort of un-melted me.”

     Jazz nodded. Ecto Dejecto. She knew where that was…right? She always tried to pay careful attention to all her parents’ inventions in case they ever use it on her brother, but lately she’s been focused on prepping herself for college, so she wasn’t as attentive as she used to be. Her brows creased with worry as she tried to recall what Ecto Dejecto was and where her parents may have placed it. From the corner of her vision, she saw of Dani, who was more puddle than person now. The sight made her heart quicken its pace. She had to find this Dejecto thing now.

     She walked in big strides to one of the shelves and scanned the things sitting there. It was then that she realized she still didn’t know what the thing she was looking for looked like, so she turned to Dani (ignoring the churning in her stomach when she saw her) and asked, “Do you remember what it looked like?”

     “It was a liquid, in a needle,” she helpfully supplied. “Could you find it quickly, though? ‘Cause…” She didn’t need to finish her sentence.

     Jazz’s eyes zoomed past the entire shelf, but there wasn’t any needle she could find. She was missing something, she knew, but what? She shut her eyes, trying to remember anything about this Ecto Dejecto—and she did.

     With a bright glint in her eyes, she rushed toward a box in the corner of the lab where her parents dumped all their failed experiments. She rummaged through its contents, and when that took too long, she dumped them on the floor then rummaged through them again. There! A needle with a tape on it labelling it as Ecto Dejecto. She picked it up, hurried to where Dani was, felt startled when she saw that she had become no more than a green puddle, shook away her fear, and pushed the needle’s contents into the puddle that was Dani.

     At first, nothing happened. Then the puddle started to bubble. It continued to bubble, and Jazz began to fear that maybe she got the wrong needle in the dark—or, worse yet, that her parents might have perfected its original purpose of dissolving ghosts. But just as her heart was pounding and tears were beginning to form in the corners of her eyes, the green liquid began to rise, shaping itself into the form of a small girl. Jazz let out a deep breath she didn’t know she was holding, and the tears in her eyes did fall, but out of relief.

     As she watched, green turned to black, white, and tan, until Dani was once again herself, in one piece and fully solid this time. The ghost girl looked down at herself, flexed a hand experimentally, and when she was sure that it worked, a large grin broke out on her face. “Thank you!” she cried to Jazz, and she seemed to hold out her arms for a second, but then she hesitated and dropped them by her sides. Sensing her wanted embrace, Jazz smiled and pulled the girl into a hug. After a moment, the girl hugged back.

     “I’m just glad you’re fine,” Jazz said, “Danielle.”

     Dani pulled out of their hug to give her a surprised look. “You know who I am?”

     Jazz laughed. “Of course I do! Danny told me about you.”

     “Oh,” Dani said, then smacked her own forehead. “Right. Of course he did—you’re his sister.”

     Jazz giggled, enjoying the dumb expression on Dani’s face. “But hey, I guess that makes us sisters, too, right?” she said once her laughter died down. “I mean, Danny said you’re his clone, and I’m not an expert on genetics, but…”

     Dani thought about this and smiled. “Yeah…I guess we are,” she replied. She let a ring of light form around her waist, which then split and traveled up and down her body, turning her hair black, her eyes blue, and replacing her monochrome suit with a colorful hoodie and shorts. Jazz found herself faced with an almost-exact copy of a younger human Danny, wearing a smile that reached her eyes. “Sisters. I like that.”

     After getting over the surprise from her sudden transformation, Jazz smiled back. She understood, now, why Danny was willing to forget what Vlad did back then as long as it led to the creation of Dani; though she only just met her, she could tell that Dani was a sweet girl. Then Jazz broke their eye contact to look around at the lab, and she winced at the sight of scraps and gizmos scattered across the floor. “Yeah, we might have to clean this lab up pretty soon, or Mom and Dad will want to know what happened.”

     “If we’re sisters, then does that make them my mom and dad, too?” Dani asked excitedly, still wearing that grin on her face.

     “Well, sure, genetically,” Jazz said. That must have been a wrong thing to say, because Dani’s smile faded. Realizing what she said, Jazz quickly amended, “We could get them to adopt you, though! Just think about it. We could be real sisters, and you won’t have to live without a home anymore.”

     “Did Danny tell them his secret?”

     Now both the girls’ smiles were gone as that question sunk in. Of course, if they wanted to adopt Dani, then Jack and Maddie would want to know who she is, and there was no way they could answer their questions without revealing Danny as Phantom. Silence hung heavy around the two girls.

     Dani broke it with a shuffle of her foot and a saying of, “I can clean the lab. I’m the one who messed it up in the first place, after all. You should go back to your parents and celebrate Christmas or whatever.”

     At this, Jazz scoffed. At the confused look Dani gave her, she held up her hands and said, “Sorry, but no one would want to be around Jack and Maddie Fenton on Christmas. They argue all the time this day over nonsensical subjects.”

     “Huh,” Dani said. “That explains the yelling I heard when I came in…but I thought Christmas was a time for family bonding.”

     “It is, for most families. But the Fenton family isn’t like most,” Jazz informed her with a sly grin. After a second, her smile receded, and she observed Dani for a moment. “…Have you ever celebrated Christmas?”

     Dani shook her head. Then, smirking, she pointed at herself and said, “This baby is only a few months old. Today is literally the first Christmas ever in my life.”

     “Really?”

     “Yeah.” As her arms lowered to her sides, she looked away and said, “Not like I have anyone to celebrate it with.”

     Jazz frowned. Then she set her face into a determined expression. “That’s not true,” she announced. “You have me. And Danny.”

     Dani looked up at her. “But what about your parents?”

     “I already told you, no one wants to be around them today. Besides, we see them every day. I’d rather spend the day with you.”

     That seemed to put the smile right back on Dani’s face. But then she looked around uncertainly. “What about the lab?”

     “Oh, that.” Jazz took in the sight of the messy lab, then turned back to Dani and shrugged. “I can just say a ghost came in and destroyed it.”

     “Well, it wouldn’t be a lie,” Dani responded with a smirk as she allowed herself to transform again into her phantom form.

     Jazz’s smile stretched across her face once more. Then she got up and held out a hand to Dani. “Coming?” she asked. “I’m thinking about finding Danny and forcing him to celebrate Christmas with us against his will.”

     “Isn’t that kind of rude?”

     “Hey, it’s a sibling’s job to be rude. You’ll learn soon enough.”

     Dani laughed. “Alright,” she said, taking hold of her older sister’s hand. “But we’ll have to sneak past your parents.”

     “I don’t know. I bet they’re still arguing over elves and what they should wear to work.”

     “Wow. Those really are nonsensical topics.”

     Laughing, the two made their way up the basement stairs. “Oh, and Dani,” Jazz said, catching the younger girl’s attention. “You can call them your parents, too.”

[madokasoratsugu]

therefore you and me post-production notes (or: murphy’s law as a project that has been two years in the making)

ive had this idea for ‘therefore you and me’ and Fritz ever since i first played CindPhenon. nothing ever fell into place until i played Evermore though, so here we are!

drafting this project was pretty easy tbh (see: hubris). the parallel imagery and everything about the lyrics was right up my alley aha.

fun thing with the lyrics: TadanoCo uses ‘要る (iru)’ in the line ‘Which do you want (iru)? Or do you want neither (iranai; aka negative form of ‘iru’)?’

‘ 要る ‘ as a verb can mean ‘to be wanted’ or ‘to be needed’. 

hence, the line can also be read: ‘Which do you need? Or do you need neither?” or any other variation of the verb’s usage. 

it’s halfway through drawing the lineart that murphy’s law began. 1) i drew ~15 panels on the wrong dimensions, and had to redraw them all (lol), re-grey tone (LOL), and re-ink (LOLOL). it was not a fun three days.

then i lost momentum because of lunar new year (happy late lunar new year btw! happy year of the ox :”) )

anyway: the moment i regained momentum for the project again, i hit a roadblock in the form of overconfident, sloppy drafting (see: hubris is my downfall). 

because of the lack of clear drafting for certain panels (and changes to previous panels), i had to redraft two different sections of the PV while keeping in mind that there was the bridge still to be drafted. fun ! 

i decided to simplify the bridge. can you believe it was supposed to be another animation. i can’t. so i scrapped it.

(slight tangent. Evermore’s release honestly cleared up a lot of uncertainty regarding the direction of the PV and whether or not to include Fritz’s mother (who I still fondly call Beatrice). im really happy the PV never came to fruition before Evermore’s release, as im not sure i would have done half as good a job without Evermore’s content.)

back to the hubris of proceeding with a messy draft - there was a lot of push and pull internally for me as to how much i should keep to the original PV and how much i should just put my spin on things. i ended up doing a bit of half-and-half, i think. 

but really, it only delayed things as i ended up redrafting and having multiple drafts of certain panels haha//

the last two choruses were honestly my favourite parts to draw. the shift from Varg’s clothes and colours to Fritz, Fritz’s acceptance of Varg and the soft way Varg looks at Fritz (and no one else). there’s something cathartic about acceptance and acknowledgement. i think that’s what i aimed to really capture.

also: in between drawing all the panels, murphy’s law 2) my Evermore itchio game file ? got deleted off my computer ? 

it’s a very old, barely functional brick so im lowkey unsurprised but at the same time it was a crazy experience and setback when i needed to reference certain scenes. oh, and Steam decided to not download Evermore too. i still haven’t fixed that one. haha. ha.

i have screenshot posters to thank for uploads of certain CGs, although im still pretty sure its best not to post a ton of those publicly at one shot?

also, i had to scrap the recreation of the famous ‘did you love Varg’ scene because of this aha. looking back now, i think it worked out. 

(another tangent: using referencing as an excuse, i actually took the opportunity to replay Fritz’s route for the third time. i ended up checking nothing at all and falling in love with the masquerade scene again.) 

up till the very end, im still not sure if everyone got that the line “You are love itself.” was meant to be said by Lucette to Fritz. i colour-coded Lucette with her own unique blue for the PV, which was the same hue as the line. i hope that it got across, aha.

with that said, video production was a whole entanglement in and of itself. i think murphy’s law really took up a hammer and swung hard at this stage.

timing was actual hell. im usually not this bad at it, but this project in particular was tricky bc TadanoCo uses a lot of background beats that aren’t overt, which his PV also matches - i think? or maybe im just not good at recognising beats from lack of video/music production haha//

hence there were certain scenes i was stuck at and kept revising because i wasnt clear where the beat was meant to be, what transitions i should use, and when the transitions should be.

subtitling was actually really fun! until i rendered my first version and realised all the subtitles were completely off and blurry.

turns out my project properties were different from my video properties, hence the off-alignment. huh. didnt know those were Actual Things(tm). 

also, quick tip to all vid-making amateurs like me out there: you may have to double the dimensions of the font’s media properties if you dont want them to come out fuzzy. another thing i didnt know lol. 

anyway all this lead to: me needing to spend another evening to redo subtitles. haha. it was not a fun two back-to-back 3am nights + extra evening afterward.

in between all this was countless rendering tests to guess-and-check what’s causing numerous errors in the video btw.

and with those rendering tests came: glaring mistakes in the panel art that i only now spotted and had to fix, and refix, and refix again. then reimport into sony vegas, put it into the video, render and double check if it’s alright. rinse and repeat countless times ! haha ! PV making is fun !

i think i nearly redid a certain scene with the exact same panels once. like i said: not a fun two 3am nights.

that said: i dont know how all this technical issues (and more) popped up and were resolved over two 3am nights and one evening. im not about to question it either. 

at this point: panel art - fixed ! subtitling all redone ! render works fine, everything checks out.

i make the mistake of uploading it directly to yt instead of leaving it unlisted first.

murphy’s law 3) when im watching the vid on yt, the yellow parts in the second verse were completely unable to be seen. 

panic put it on unlisted. people are already watching it and leaving (very sweet) comments. panic delete it.

btw if you’re one of the first three commenters reading this: thank you for the quick response !! it means a lot and made me really flustered in a good way :”))

cue me re-colouring those scenes, redo-ing the section and oops, is that a panel in the masquerade scene where Fritz literally is missing his mask ??? 

i think i lost my mind entirely at this point. from then on i was fueled by spite to complete this cursed project.

at thereforeFINAL.mp4, (version five of the full PV, version maybe 10-11 of all the rendered videos, including tests) finally. finally it is done. 

i upload it.

the end !

(except, not really. because here you are at post-production notes detailing the worst luck i’ve ever had with PV making. 

i learnt a lot from this though, and honestly on hindsight i should have learnt all these from my first PV but nothing went wrong at this magnitude so i kinda just...shelved it aha//

but really, im relieved it turned out well, and that i took the time to redo scenes until i was satisfied. for a PV that’s been waiting in the background for two years now, i think this is the least it deserves. 

if the comic about Fritz and Varg (which i referenced in one of the last choruses, i wonder if anyone caught that?) was meant to be a love letter to Fritz’s route, i think this PV ought to be a tribute to the character himself. 

although - hm, this isn’t quite as good a tribute to Fritz as it is to his route, maybe? i don’t know, haha ! maybe it’s just myself wanting to make excuses to create more for him//

i was thinking of continuing on about the PV and it’s significance to Fritz and Varg, but hm. maybe not on this post. maybe some other one, some other time.

but at it’s core, at it’s simplest, most raw - i think i just wanted to explore what it means to Fritz to ‘want’ and to ‘need’ with this PV.

thank you for watching the PV, and thank you for reading this.

- blu.)

[usashirtstoday]

Unicorn Sometimes One Middle Finger Isn't Enough To Let Someone Know How I Feel That's Why I Have Two Hands Shirt T Shirt

OF US AND THAT’S GOING TO CAUSE SHORTAGES SO IT IT HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC IN CERTAIN WAYS AND ALSO WE HAVE OTHER SOURCES THAT YOU CAN EXPECT SOME SHORTAGES OR BASICALLY SHELVES BEING EMPTY THIS FALL AND MAYBE IN THE NEXT YEAR SO IT’S SOMETHING I THINK THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF AND BASICALLY PREPARE FOR SECTIONS START OFF WITH A Unicorn Sometimes One Middle Finger Isn't Enough To Let Someone Know How I Feel That's Why I Have Two Hands Shirt T Shirt GREAT VIDEO IT’S THE FORBIDDEN DISCOVERY IT’S A DOCUMENTARY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE DEVICES AND THE OUT OF TIME TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFACTS SO WHAT WERE FINDING IS IN THE ARTIFACTS WERE FINDING SOME AMAZING TECHNOLOGIES THAT EXISTED AND THEY’RE TRYING TO PUT THE STORY TOGETHER OF JUST WHAT THAT MEANS AND WHAT THEY ARE AND ESSENTIALLY WHAT THAT MEANS IS THERE ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS. Is going on I always felt smog like in LA nation encoders working guys encoder issues a little earlier know this will we get into topic number one what is the show works okay I can start working on the show like five or six the morning that a right shown us a graphics together Texas but togetherand we gotta get there notes I know that I need to come in around 10 o’clock sometimes just not a big piece of news breaksand we can get into the graft everything will happen today wonder woman for me to steal to to big business I guess wonder woman is going to be in a steel to she’s been asked one woman is none other than fastand furious is gal guy know I believe that’s a pronounced trainingand now so correct me if I’m at the station for names it says asked to confirm that it is officially confirmed this is our new wonder woman so she is still in this is our wonder woman this is out of nowhere now there was a rumor number we show that there were three women going into test for rolling ministerial to speculated I was for one woman but we did all three was gal it was monetaryand go there is a third actress I can remember thinking at the time of these would fit to be one woman so it will be for another role that they’re all going in for turn as wonder woman are going in for they selected her now before I give my opinion about this let me preface what I want to say with this I’m going to give this a shot when the movie opens going with check my prejudices at the door check my preconceived notions at the door going space a movieand I’ll judge it on some errands but since were talking outand we just heard about it I get my first impressions this is terrible terrible casting just awful for several reasons number one I was one of the simpler things out of the way I want 95 pound one woman dies a beautiful woman absolutely that’s gracious got exotic looking at one for woman what all I kind of stuff what incarnation when we look at where this accomplished animated movies or whatever one only 95 pounds we need somebody a little bit more like oh the enemy fire they were just type the other day who seems to some aluminum or physically do like her now rated you can get her on the horse steroids get her pumping iron as fast you can put aluminum ocelot but her frame I’m sorry that is not one of the other reason I have a problem with this is fastand furious she has been acceptable for the role she was playing but I’ve never look at her snatch something this actress cannot only play in a small sign role this actress put on her own shoulders carry a franchiseand you know that DCand Warner Bro are just planning on using a wonder woman just as a little side character ministerial to another user is now our wonder woman for the Justice league universe moving for you know the wonder woman franchise now based around her I never believed that she is the type of actress who carry a franchise sell for for those plus she’s language a little bit so for all those reasons physically I don’t think it’s a criteria I don’t think she has that level of acting ability to carry an entire major league franchise on her shoulders I just don’t see now maybe we’ll go see ministerial two 2015and she will blow our socks off we got it open the possibility it’s very possible escape our fingers crossed I like the casting decisions Warner Broand Zach Snyder made so far so we give them the benefit of the doubt my initial reaction is this is awful anyway we Campbell got back to town select training in the mail sort is not that I’m good to give her the benefit of the doubt I think whether she’s a great actress in the fastand the furious actorsand actresses always had to do different roles so if they saw that the actor you come up with your character firstand then go get the best actor for what were saying I not giving disclaimers to death here she might end up being awesome we have to remain open to that possibility comes from an island of Amazon’s who’s to say that all the position you incarnated in the same site as my or my quibbles with thisand she’s gonna bulk up she might not have the building frame of what’s the idealized version of one woman but in a mean that’s neither here nor there for me as long as they keep true to the actual characterand make a really cool character out of this version of oneand that’s all that matters in a I’m sure that they got it under control so I’m yes if I just as you were to hear that they cast downand out but now I’m in a just like Ben Affleck for minerals like wineand as I now is actually that makes a lot of sense so welland hope hoping I’m I’m right I wanted to be horrible here today I’m I’m I’m very negative on this I think this is a terrible decision but there is not entity anybody more hoping that they this was this that this is a stroke of genius I would hope that this is a stroke of geniusand that she can knock our socks offand is going to be awesome keep our fingers crossed my enthusiasm to love our lives who are official first topic today how long are you going to acquaint before considering the other to to the will of the over Email the other day we talked about where to’s go from hereand a list of three options that they had this was one of the options not because I don’t think it’s it’s a valid option facility because I never dreamed in 1 million years universal consider being already halfway done filming scrapping of they got reworked the scriptand start again that’s what they’re doing okay with it actually I’m totally okay that like logisticallyand makes life a lot simpler despite the fact that start over again then say trying to patchwork in makeshiftand very awkward departure of the Paul Walker character out of the film because it is not like they were 90 done filming they just had finished his last couple of scenes all that kind of stuff now once again on the actual options is not having their party replaced with another actor I will still firmly stand on the ground that you replace them with another actor absolutely replaced with another actor I mention this the other day but it bears repeating their some people say respect for Paul Walker you don’t replace them that’s bull crap that is absolute stupidityand nonsense because if you’re a guy like Paul Walker reported your heart passion mine soul strength everything into that characterand in that role you honor him by making it the best fastand furious ever there was some guy who is an architect right now this dream of a building this story skyscraperand when it was 60 stories tall he passed away he wants to go welland respect for him to stop it at 60 stories now you honor him you take that building all the way to where was supposed to go on the shoulders of what he built Paul Walker fast appears as important as the rock is become fastand furious is about Domand Brian this franchise is about is about Domand Brian anything planning to take us to fastand furious nineand 10 with Domand Brian on Paul Walker you take it to nine or 10 with Donand Brian this some people say well you know I will deal with you some Your Pl. Are troops Donald Trump supports our veterans you want to ask Donald Trump is paid all the taxes that he’s deemed not take the letter honestly it is a are troops I understand my order changes I understand what you want to change the subject and learning be very clear on this Russian thing the larger question here is someone we’re dealing with is is the and others an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies just hibernates in the truth the matter is that we can feckless foreign policy Hillary Clinton Barack Obama has awakened an aggression in Russia that first appeared a few years ago with her mood in Georgia now their move into crime

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Unicorn Sometimes One Middle Finger Isn't Enough To Let Someone Know How I Feel That's Why I Have Two Hands Shirt T Shirt For Men and Women

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i logged back in for the first time in 8000 years to document my big drv3 chapter 4 conspiracy theory somewhere, spoilers hello

So, I like DRv3 a lot, but there was one thing I noticed PREVALENTLY in it that I did not notice so much in the other installments.

DRv3 has a lot of traces of early ideas that didn’t make it to the final cut, but were not properly axed from the script.

A case 5 example: in the bathroom, you find a bottle. You find the bottle with “POISON” labeled on it and blood smearing the rest of the label. You are meant to assume that this bottle is a poison. You also find a series of antidotes on the desk in the Detective Lab, along with some poisons on the shelf - one of which is missing some of its contents.

It turns out that the bottle in the restroom is actually an antidote. You would expect this to be one of the twists uncovered in the trial: that the word POISON is there because the bottle actually said “XXX POISON ANTIDOTE” but the key word ANTIDOTE had been obscured, and the actual source of the poison was the bottle in the detective lab missing some. The source of poison was a different thing than the bottle at the crime scene labeled poison! What a twist!

However, the way this is ACTUALLY uncovered in the trial is Maki just telling you she brought some antidote and tossed it in, and the fact that the bottle is labeled as poison is simply never addressed.

The intentional smearing of blood to mislead you into thinking the antidote was actually the poison is never brought up. I assume that line of reasoning was cut out because the trial was already plenty convoluted with twists and turns, and they wanted to streamline it a bit. Maybe they were considering a whole to-do about who brought the poison bottle in or something before revealing it as an antidote and then scrapping that.

Whatever the case, they really should’ve removed the whole bit about it saying “POISON” and just had it clearly be an antidote from the start. My long-winded point here is that the asset implies that the writing was originally going to have us unravel a certain twist that eventually ended up being cut from the script for whatever reason.

Now….. allow me to focus my attention on case 4.

I do not believe for one second that Case 4 was intended from the outset to pan out the way it did. Which, of course, is fine - changing your mind about things is part of the writing process. But the finished script in Case 4 does not cover its tracks here very well.

I’m going to start off by listing all of the things I noticed that I’m surprised didn’t go anywhere, and then talk about what I think those might imply, and then after that I’ll make some conjecture on what I think might have been intended or what I think might have been cool to see. But FACTS FIRST.

At the beginning of the class trial, Kokichi pointedly asks Monokuma what happens in the event of a tie. Monokuma then responds that as long as one of the two selected is the blackened, it’s fine. This NEVER COMES UP AGAIN.

Two key points in the case are that Kaito was forcibly logged out, and that Kokichi had a bottle of poison planted on him. In the trial it’s decided that the only person who could possibly have orchestrated these events were Miu, the last to log in and the only one with a cell phone. The trial NEVER ONCE acknowledges that Kokichi, who was in the parlor, could have forced Kaito to log out from the parlor phone, or that he could have planted the poison bottle on himself. It’s not that these are brought up and dismissed - they’re simply never brought up in the first place.

Kokichi is very obviously and patronizingly leading you throughout the entire first half of the trial. Any deduction you make just seems like it’s following an obvious bread crumb trail he’s left for you. He feels in complete control.

In one of the big trial turning points, you lie and say that you went into the parlor and saw that Kokichi was absent. Kokichi then asks everyone, “who do you believe? me, or Shuichi? I say I was in the parlor, he says I wasn’t.” Everyone responds with FULL AND COMPLETE FAITH in Shuichi - a beacon of truth and honesty, a foil to Kokichi’s lies and deceit. You are telling a huge bold-faced lie to his face and everyone is commenting on how you, Shuichi, the detective, would never tell a lie. THEN! Tsumugi actually CATCHES you in that lie: she points out that she should have seen you walk past her if you actually went to the parlor, but she didn’t. It’s an incredibly tense moment in the trial. Tsumugi immediately redacts her statement, everyone believes you, the trial proceeds, and no one ever calls you out on lying ever again and you get away with it completely.

You may be thinking: “the trial undertakes a turning point immediately after that where Kokichi just names the culprit out of spite, so it’s obvious some things leading up to it might not go where you think they would.” But hear me out here… where trial 4 ends up going makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE given what we later learn about Kokichi as a character. He, apparently, genuinely wanted to end the killing game…. so what purpose, exactly, did manipulating Gonta into killing someone else, and then leading Shuichi to that conclusion to get him executed, serve? Trial 4 could’ve been a huge turning point in the game, and I think that DRv3 originally intended to do some WHACK shit with Kokichi (that they later revised/rewrote), and that case 4 was going to set the stage for it.

I will now present my Big Woke Galaxy Brain Take on what I think case 4 was originally going to do, and then break down why I think I’m totally right about everything.

I think Kokichi’s goal was to orchestrate a murder (by someone else, as happened in the final version) that implicated 2 people, lead the trial/Shuichi to the 2 possible culprits, and get the correct verdict by a 50/50 tie, in order to prove that the whole truth is not necessary in order to win - further dialogue in the truth vs. lies theme of the game. Then YOU, as Shuichi, would notice his own manipulation of the crime, and find the greater truth of his own involvement, and pinpoint the actual exact perpetrator, leaving no need for a tie and having full confidence in your truth. It would be a clash of Kokichi Values vs Shuichi Values.

I think Case 4 was going to be less about “how could you do this to Gonta” angst and more about “take a good hard look at this truth you value so much”.

It would make more sense for Kokichi: as it stands, he apparently orchestrated a murder to… uh… fuck with you? I dunno, but he didn’t really gain anything from it other than getting Gonta offed - he CLEARLY intended for Shuichi to deduce the perpetrator from the outset, so it’s not like he wanted to get Gonta to graduate or to actually kill everyone else. Maybe he just wanted to thin the cast out until it was a number he could manage for the shit he ended up pulling after. I guess he did get to test out whether or not he could bait Monokuma into helping him, which was useful. BUT, in a case that is so heavy-handed on how he’s pulling all the strings, I think it would have made sense for him to get some hard metagaming out of it like he did in case 5 - this combined with his pointed question to Monokuma makes me think he was originally setting up something a lot more convoluted to see how he could game the class trial system.

The case also felt like it was setting up for Kokichi to alienate Shuichi from the rest of the cast. He forged an intentional rift between you and Kaito during the investigation, and kept calling Shuichi his partner… Kokichi then baited Shuichi into lying to incriminate him during the trial, and set up a “who do you trust - Shuichi or me?” split when they were both, in fact, lying. IMAGINE if Shuichi had ACTUALLY BEEN CAUGHT in that lie? It would’ve shattered everyone’s faith in him, allowed Kokichi to resume control, and you would’ve had to prove with cold hard evidence to back up everything you said the rest of the trial, making the stakes feel higher, and honestly the Kaito/Shuichi rift thereafter would have felt a lot more ingrained in the story’s themes than “I’m mad at you for being right”, because there would have been a really deep cutting loss of TRUST. As written the rift was good but not all that impactful in the grand scheme of things.

(I kept wondering when the game was going to bring up the fact that Kokichi, not just Miu, could have framed Kaito - by forcing him to de-spawn from the parlor phone and bringing the poison bottle himself - as an excuse to distance him from the investigation. It never did.)

Basically, the trial feels like it was setting up for some bigass Kokichi bullshit, and then halfway through decided to be something else completely. Trial 4 was still GOOD, and I honestly really liked the concept of “douchebag reveals the unknowing killer and you’re forced to follow the logic that they’re right even if you hate every second of it,” but I get the sense that the direction it ended up going wasn’t necessarily the direction planned at the outset.

This has been my Chapter 4 Conspiracy Theory. I just refuse to believe some of this was unintentional. I think it was intended, then the script revised, and some remnants of that earlier intent are left behind……

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BIG BRAIN EDIT: It just occurred to me.... what if Kokichi originally intended himself and Gonta to be the 2 possible culprits? The fact Kokichi couldn't have done it because of that code Miu added could have easily been a late addition after the script was revised - without that, either Kokichi OR Gonta could have ultimately pulled off the murder. BAM - two equally possible suspects, hence his question at Monokuma. owo

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BIG BRAIN EDIT EDIT: Thinking more on this.... if I'm right, it actually makes complete sense why they chose to scrap/re-write this. "Two possible culprits" might be too similar to the "two possible victims" in case 5 and it could be they decided to just axe that idea to avoid the two consecutive trials coming off as too same-y. (Alternatively the concept was lifted from this trial and tweaked to be implemented in chapter 5 INSTEAD of this trial.)