#he may have only been a streamer but he made such a big impact

[xoxoemynn]

For OFMD Tumblr friends who want a S3 and are scared of Twitter

First, no judgment from me. I very much get it. I resisted Twitter for a long time, and even though I'm now a bit more comfortable on it, it's still not my Fandom Home. There are a TON of valid reasons not to be on Twitter, but if you REALLY want to keep OFMD visible right now and help its chances of returning for a third season, Twitter is the best place to do it. Like it or not, Twitter is still the best social media platform for raising awareness and for instant news updates.

Tumblr posts don't make headlines. Topics that have been trending on Twitter do. And if we want this show to come back, we need to make OFMD impossible to ignore.

By now you've probably seen just how close we came to a S3, and if you're like me, you are RAGING and donning your battle jacket. But I get it can be intimidating to get on Twitter for the first time, so I thought I'd address some common anxieties I see. I'll put below a cut because this got a bit long, but I promise it's a quick read.

I don't know what to say! Where do I even start? That's okay! You don't have to create your own tweets (although it's great if you do). Amplifying other people's posts is also important. Go ahead and like/retweet/reply to other people's posts. This may also help you get an idea of what you may like to say in your own tweets.

Hashtags...yes? Yes! Although don't use too many or you may get flagged as a bot. The biggest one that seems to be emerging is #SaveOFMD. Other popular ones are #RenewAsACrew, #RenewOurFlagMeansDeath, and of course, #OFMD and #OurFlagMeansDeath.

Should I just be tagging all the streaming services? Per @renewasacrew, no. It's counterproductive. You'll want to tag one streamer at a time and be specific. Below is an example of a tweet I made the other day -- use specific reasons why that that particular streamer may benefit from picking up OFMD.

I'm scared. People are mean. Yeah, people are mean. But I will say the vibes over at OFMD Twitter are currently the best I've ever seen them. People seem to have united for the greater good and are being overwhelmingly positive and just trying to do whatever we can to save the show. (That said, again, I already had a pretty curated feed, and was very liberal with blocking users/terms I didn't want to see, but I've been able to spend so much more time in the For You tab than I ever have without being jump scared by something.)

But I don't know anyone there! Wouldn't I just be shouting into the void? Not if you use the hashtags! Fans are being really good about following those and engaging with the tweets. Plus, [Stede voice], I'm your friend. I'm xoxoemynn over there as well, I'll follow you back and engage with any of your posts that I see. Plus, what's been REALLY lovely to see is that SO many lurkers have come out of lurkerdom to support the efforts, and they are being welcomed with open arms, so you will not be alone. Again, I am telling you, vibes? Best I've ever seen them.

I can't get sucked into another social media platform, I don't have the time. The beauty here is you don't need to spend a lot of time. I've been on Twitter more in the past week than I have in the entire year I've had an account, and I'm still only on for maybe an hour total the entire day? I open the app, I check a couple accounts, I engage with a handful of posts, and I close the app. It takes all of five minutes. It's an extremely small lift that can have a very big impact.

My bet is on Zaslav expecting us to be upset, and that there may be a day or two of outrage, but then we'd move on. I'm sure right now he's trying to convince everyone that this is a fluke, and that it'll blow over soon. Don't let him win. Keep OFMD in the news. Be loud (but polite) and make Max and other streamers take note of what a passionate, loyal fan base this show has. Make their stocks continue to drop. Make it clear this is NOT just a fluke, it is NOT business as usual. It's a BIG fuck up with lasting consequences.

Twitter, for all its sins, is the best place to do this.

Now let's get our damned show back.

[nonsubstantial]

MARCH 2024 DIARY POST

I'm keeping up the habit of writing a monthly post to catalogue all the things I've been obsessed with in 2024. At the end of the year, I want to be able to look back and remember what was making me happy all year long! If you are reading this, I hope you will enjoy hearing about these things or checking them out too! First, a chaotic collage of those things!

VIDEO GAME: As you may already know, Splatoon is probably my favorite video game franchise of all time. I really cannot overstate how important it is to me. Naturally, I was highly anticipating its new singleplayer DLC, titled Side Order, but when it finally came out at the end of February, my elbow was fractured in a way that made it painful for me to play. So, I had to wait until about a week into March for my elbow to heal a little. Then, I spent about 10 hours obsessively playing it, and I loved pretty much every second of it. It featured by far the most difficult levels ever seen in a Splatoon game, which was a treat to me as a player who was disappointed by the rather simplistic story mode of the base game. Splatoon 3: Side Order took the form of a roguelite battle tower, similar to Salmon Run but with new enemies, unique (and sometimes puzzling) stages, and customizable weapon builds. Even players who find it a bit too challenging at first can eventually mod the difficulty to an extent that (hopefully) makes it doable. The story was nothing crazy, but the gameplay and visuals were so unbelievably good that I honestly wished I could erase it all from my mind and play it again from the start. Just yay 💕, I love Splatoon so much.

TWITCH STREAM FAN EDIT: If you don't already know who Jerma is, he is a prolific video game streamer that I became a big fan of a few years ago. His unique humor has consistently impressed and appealed to me, and his fan community has proven itself to be both creative enough and motivated enough to persistently churn out edited “best of” versions of his streams. For better or for worse, Jerma announced his retirement from streaming last year, leaving his eager fans with nothing but his earlier content to dredge for, well… content. One such fan edit that was released this year, post-retirement, was a massive compilation of all his Nancy Drew playthroughs (save for one). This edit in particular was one that I found overwhelmingly funny and good, and it inspired an ongoing fanfic that I’m still currently working on writing. Oddly enough, watching this caused a domino effect that got me back into writing in general and has given me the surge of confidence and inspiration that I needed to keep working on creating the fiction that has lived inside in my head for years. I really hope this feeling never dies. You can watch the stream that inspired me, linked here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Peach Kelli Pop is probably tied (with a few other artists) for the title of my favorite band of all time. Their entire discography is only about 2 hours long, but they were still my most listened to artist for several years in a row. It’s due to the consistency of the vibe across all of her work: upbeat and positive while still delivering a profound emotional impact. I've been able to just listen her entire catalog of music over and over and over again on shuffle. I might describe it as DIY rock, or feminist punk, and if you haven't heard it before, Gentle Leader is probably the best album to start with. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: After listening to nothing except Peach Kelli Pop for about a week straight, I started to look into similar bands that I hadn't already checked out and found one that really caught my interest. That's how I was introduced to Tacocat! Their band name is both a palindrome and euphemism, and their album Lost Time was love at first listen. They have cozy lyrics about aliens, birth control, and creating your own values, and their music has left me in a good mood every time I've thrown it on. You can listen to the first song that I heard, linked here!

SONG: It's Don’t Rain On My Parade, by Barbra Streisand!! I still haven't watched the musical that this song is from, but the drag queen Plasma mentioned it on RuPaul Season 16, which is how I ended up hearing it. This song gets an individual mention because I was absolutely blown away by this one individual track! It's brilliant and catchy right out of the gate, "Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter! Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!" It's from 1964, but its recording sounds crystal clear and it channels its intended emotions perfectly. I felt compelled to listen to it over and over again, because it really is just so cheerful and artistically inspiring. I feel like it's a perfect piece of music. Listen here!

SONG: I have to give another song an individual mention! It's Mood Indigo, by Nina Simone!! I’ve been a big fan of Nina Simone for years now, but more often than not, I've stuck to my favorite album, Pastel Blues. I did branch out and listen to this song a few times in the past, but it only recently dawned on me just how perfect it is. Wikipedia says that it was recorded in 1964, about the same time as Don’t Rain On My Parade, and while it's technically a cover of an old Duke Ellington song, Nina Simone’s version has a totally unique vibe, evident from the first few bars. Its lyrics are meant to be cathartic, as they discuss suicidal ideation, while the drums, bass, and piano create a beautiful and upbeat swing melody that perfectly juxtaposes and rebuts the content of Nina’s vocals. It's menacing, catchy, uplifting, and truly perfect! I now believe it to be a landmark in Nina Simone’s career, and the whole of music history in general. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Okay, one last music rec, I swear!! I was really feeling the vibes this month (but mostly just listening to bands that I already know and love). Along with Peach Kelli Pop, another one of my favorite bands is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Ever since 2017 (aka, the year of the gizz) they have probably reigned supreme as my #1 most listened to band. They just have so much music, with so much variation, that I can usually find at least one of their songs that appeals to me. Since the start of this year, I've been collecting and organizing a playlist of my favorite songs by them, titled 31 Days Of Gizz. Not for any particular reason, but just because I find it fun to make lists! At the last minute, I decided that I would organize the songs, specifically in the way that I would play them if I were introducing someone new to the band. So, if you haven’t heard their music before, maybe it’s time I introduced you? But no pressure, I just like their songs and I made my playlist just for me! I'm linking to it on spotify, HERE, if you’re interested! (forgot to put this one on the collage, lol)

VIDEO GAME: Right before the month ended, I bought the new fantasy tactics game, Unicorn Overlord, and I am fucking in love. I’ve been a longtime fan of the fantasy tactics genre, so as soon as this game started making waves, I begrudgingly accepted that I HAD to play it. I really don’t have a lot of time in between trying to take care of things at home and working on my writing, as I mentioned before, but I briefly dropped all my other hobbies and managed to fit about 10 hours of gameplay in before the month ended. I really wish I had time to obsess over it, because I feel like it is a masterpiece, even if the rumors about there being gay content ended up being a disappointing exaggeration (the game was developed by Vanillaware, but was published by homophobic giants ATLUS and SEGA, so I’m not surprised). Despite the story being pretty much dog shit though, I believe the gameplay is damn near perfect, and even revolutionary within its genre. I’ll probably be sinking all my game time into it until the new Elden Ring DLC drops. If you’re a person who also likes fantasy tactics, then I highly recommend playing it (I got it for the Nintendo Switch, where it seems to run perfectly).

(that’s it. It is now APRIL!! There might be some repeats this next month, or I'll leave them out... we'll see. Hope you have a good day! ♡)

[am-i-a-void-you-tell-me]

Thank you for all of the good times. May you rest knowing you made so many people happy. But as we all know Tecnoblade never dies. Thank you, rest in peace Techno👑🐷❤

June 1st 1999 - June 2022 👑🐷❤

[orionshounds]

I’ve been knee deep in dsmp lore streams and I just want to ramble about it

Dream smp lore is so good, it’s so good!!! Not only is the story itself just fascinating, but how it’s presented so uniquely through the medium of minecraft of all things is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of the lore is seeing how everyone on the smp has their own “style” they present it in, and watching them find the way they find the most enjoyment in is so cool. Literally no two streamer’s lore stream quite like each others and it’s just incredible! It just speaks to the flexibility of roleplay as an artistic medium and really shows everyone’s individual personalities. 

Wilbur was dramatic as hell and wrote eloquent speeches. He started a drug operation under the guise as a country, and it lead to a revolution in which he was able to explore the spiral of a man who loses control of everything he had built. And after his arc and he wanted a break from the server? He created ghostbur, an amnesic comic relief with just enough touch of tragedy that he is still able to make heartbreaking monologues when he wants to.

Tommy is able to run around with his friends and cause as much chaos to his heart’s extent, but there is so much more than meets the eye. He is incredibly social and isn’t afraid to start conflict with a lot of people, bringing them into the roleplay. He doesn’t back down from storytelling either. His character goes through terrible situations and he fully explores the trauma that comes from those experiences. His character goes against the “stereotypical” trauma I see alot in media; instead of being shy or scared he’s reactionary, he’s angry, he’s violent, he’s depressed. I’m actually really impressed with the heavy subject matter this 17 year old teen has managed to portray (I’ve connected with it quite personally at certain points), while still being able to keep the light hearted fun that’s so intrinsic to his personality. 

Tubbo isn’t really interested in serious lore as much. Even in dire moments he tells jokes and just has fun. So, in his recent lore, he just streams as normal while putting mysterious writing on screen that he doesn’t acknowledge or have to explain, which I think is just a genius work around for him to participate in lore. He still has his dedicated lore streams sometimes, and when he is in the acting zone he has some of the most powerful moments out of everyone on the server.

Ranboo, while having stake in the greater smp lore, is much more character focused. He presents his lore through long monologues and fucking heart-wrenching voice acting. He loves working in themes of horror and causing a specific feeling in the viewer. So he chooses specific music as a themes for events/characters and creates visual queues in his overlays to draw out that desired reaction. He also values improve a LOT, if something unexpected comes up he just runs with it and he has made huge changes to his lore as early as 30 min before a stream.

Technoblade, while arguably one of the most powerful people on the server, prefers a more light-hearted yet dramatic approach to lore. When Dream was at his house looking for Tommy, Techno had no problem joking around and making fun of him for being homeless. He tore down an entire nation on the server and had so much fun doing it! He’s more of an antagonist than a true villain in my opinion. And lets not forget how dedicated he is to the game, he’s cracked at the craft. He spends hours grinding and creating farms on the smp, for amazing pay offs (his several vault reveals, the withers, etc), most of which weren’t even on stream!

Karl Jacobs is extremely social, so he created Tales from the smp as a way to involve TONS of people in lore while exploring the past and future of the server (it was also a way for viewers who weren’t that well versed in dsmp lore to join and not have to worry about it!). And through this premise, he took the opportunity to develop his own character on the smp; making an incredibly tragic story of a time traveler trying to save his home while slowly loosing his memories. Not to mention the beautifully shot cutscenes of the Inbetween and the Other Side. He includes so many people behind the scenes as well, collabing with other members on lore, hiring building teams and people to make intros and credit scenes, and promoting fanart and fansongs from the community!

Quackity explores his lore through heavily scripted events and amazingly shot cut scenes. While the way he expresses his lore comes at the cost of improv, the payoff of the visuals and story is well worth it! The shots he makes of the smp is downright gorgeous, no to mention he’s the first person to include irl footage in his lore (not counting facecams)! He’s not afraid of thoroughly examining his own character, being one of the only people I can think of that shows us “past events” leading up to something that has already happened.

Badboyhalo, Antfrost, Ponk, Skeppy, Captain Puffy, Punz, Awesamdude, Hannahxxrose all work together on shared lore and the payoff is amazing! By introducing the Egg, a constant antagonistic force that constantly pulls on character’s relationships with each other, everyone is able to stream together to battle for or against the egg! There’s also plenty of room for people to do individual lore that's more intimate to their respective character. They spend hours changing vines, putting up posters, slowly shaping the smp in a way that makes it exciting to watch streams to see just what has changed everyday. Because there’s so many people necessary to tell the egg’s story, it does comes at the cost of time (the egg has been around FOREVER). However, they all work together super hard and I just admire their commitment to the story they’re trying to tell!

And Sam! He has several different “Modes” his character is in (and an entirely separate character, Sam Nook) that he gets to explore lore with. He’s a terrifying warden, he’s a money motivated businessman, he’s a conflicted lover, he’s a traumatized victim of the egg, and just so much more. Through having so many different “roles” in the rp he gets to explore relationships and plotlines with a whole array of people. Not to mention he’s absolutely cracked at redstone and has some of the most impressive builds on the server.

And Puffy! So much of her lore is calling into question the morality of the server and really makes you step back and think critically about the characters. Her character also has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting relationships with Dream, the main antagonist of the entire server, which is just fascinating to watch unfold. Not to mention she’s one of the first people to start exploring the backstory of her character!

George doesn’t exactly do lore. In fact he’s slept through so much of it it’s become a meme. And you know what? That mad man took that and ran with it. He explains his absence in the story by having his character literally being asleep through it, creating mystery where there used to just be an absence. He’s able to goof off with his friends and have borderline nonsensical streams, then at the end sucker punch the audience emotionally by “waking up” and have the viewers question just what was real and what wasn’t?

The smp has the freedom for people who want more independent lore to be able to explore their character’s that way as well!

Hbomb, Connereatspants, and Purpled don’t have a lot of lore on the smp, generally only coming on to have fun with everyone, but when they do have their moments it unfolds in very interesting ways!

Sapnap, Eret, and Schlatt maybe aren’t as active as some other people, but when they are on they actively participate in lore and have lasting impacts on the story (Ex: Eret’s betrayal, Sapnap’s visit to dream in the prison, Schlatt becoming president).

Philza mostly does his own thing, improving the server or making some bomb ass builds. He has incredibly devastating roles in lore (killing wilbur, blowing up L’manberg for the final time, starting the syndicate with Techno), but he also has quieter moments that speak to the depth his character has, such as fishing with fundy or reminiscing about his dead son and how it went so wrong. Like Techno, he doesn’t like to take lore completely seriously, often laughing no matter what’s happening or teasing chat after something big goes down, but his character is solid with a lot of potential for future lore.

Foolish has only started on his character and its already super interesting. The hints at his dark past as a “god of death” and his current conflict with the egg are intriguing as fuck. Not to mention the MASSIVE builds he does for everyone, helping to progress their lore as well.

Fundy has a lot of freedom with his character to participate however much he wants in lore. While generally he’s a trickster who loves to prank people he has enough tragedy build into his backstory he’s able to break the viewer’s heart with a flip of a switch. Not to mention his recent, almost surreal, stream that explored his character’s disturbing dreams that may or may not predict the future.

Niki is very character driven, exploring her character's grief of losing her best friend and her anger of being ignored in the very country she helped create. She has incredibly emotional moments, and even though she’s on her own building an underground city she still participates in other lore via teaming with jack manifold or the syndicate.

Jack Manifold’s lore is VERY character focused, and while he’s described his story as a “B plot that occasionally intersects with the main plot”, the story he tells is still fascinating. Being pushed aside not taken seriously his whole life, his character develops into a fun cartoony-esque villain who begs to be taken seriously, that has the depth of a truly conflicted person who is torn between wanting revenge on everyone who’s done him wrong and just wanting a friend.

Last but not least, the man himself, Dream. The most fascinating thing about his lore is that absolutely none of it is from his pov. All we know about his character is only from what we see from everyone else’s povs, and in his case it leads to a very intimidating villain! Not to mention, mans owns the damn server and yet has made himself the main antagonist! He is the only character I consider a “true villain” on the smp. His voice acting and writing is downright sinister. I could write a fucking essay on how his character’s obsession with power has led him to the point he thinks himself an unstoppable god

Everyone on this server is stunning and I love all of them!!!!!

[welcometomy20s]

July 28, 2022

Mayuzumi Kai

Commencement Speech

I’m not sure about the first VTuber graduation I witnessed, but the first VTuber graduation that impacted me was Izumo Kasumi. 

The first time I knew Kasumi was in the original Nijisanji Quiz Tournament, but the second time was in the draft of the 2020 Koshien. It was odd to me that second time, because by then Kasumi had already graduated, and as they were talking about her, it felt odd. And that was the first time that I really experienced the odd feeling of the ephemeral nature of the VTuber.

This thought came back when this year’s koshien draft happened and I shook my head when Mayuzumi gave the go to use him as a character, and therefore would be the last ‘appearance’ of him as a member of Nijisanji. I didn’t realize how important Mayuzumi Kai was.

In one of his last collabs, Mayuzumi and Yuuhi Riri talked about Izumo Kasumi, since they were part of a group that was central to Mayuzumi’s lore. And Mayuzumi said, ‘Unlike Kasumi, I’m trying to not leave things behind as I graduate.’

But by his sheer presence, Mayuzumi Kai is leaving behind far more than what most other VTuber will ever leave behind. He thought he could finish his living funeral stream in one go. It went for 24 hours and featured 96 guests, from all over the VTuber industry.

That’s because Mayuzumi Kai was one of the most vital members of Nijisanji. He was the overseer, he had good knowledge and soon connected to pretty everyone in the industry. And his dry humor and wit and his brilliance waving together stories and ideas was instrumental in building the groups and ideas for many people across the industry. There is no other story-maker than Mayuzumi Kai, who can make up a world featuring 100+ people while peacefully playing Animal Crossing. If Natsume could write a book and get it made into manga before the second volume is even published, I’m sure Mayuzumi Kai’s novel would have become an international bestseller and be made into a AAA Hollywood movie.

I’m sure he could do that after he graduates. I won’t be surprised if I hear the famous ‘dou-mo’ when the new Hollywood sensation pops up, sweeping both the box office and the Oscars.

But perhaps I’m selling too hard on him. Even if Mayuzumi Kai was just a little-known VTuber from a little-known company, he would still have been something special. He was instrumental in providing the balance of comedy, giving the right amount of sanity in the oddball world.

He was quiet and demure, but he was often the funniest man in the room. His ideas were just the right amount of outside thinking, nothing too wild like Haachama’s COEXIST arc, but still something unique and special nonetheless. And his ideas were things that could only be done by him, someone who had the knowledge and expertise to pull things off.

He really was a one-of-a-kind and Nijisanji truly will be different without him. Nijisanji needed someone like Kai to hold the group together, without him, Nijisanji is heading to the great unknown. The signs are visible now, VTA, Salome, and the burgeoning English branch, but who knows what the future without Mayuzumi Kai would bring.

Goodbye Mayuzumi Kai. Thank you for everything and may your next life be great as now.

P.S. - Looking back on his lore, I think it was clear that Mayuzumi Kai did not think this was going to be a big thing, and that he would be such a big part of the VTuber world. He auditioned because it looked fun and he had an idea… I wonder if the rumors are true, they actually want to return with a different avatar, where they can be more comfortable as a regular streamer… perhaps the compounding of the Salome theory makes me think that way.

I think Gibara also thought so too. I’m mentioning her since a lot of other people are, including Akina in a particularly tearful moment, so she’s on her mind, and also the fact she is reincarnating… which means two of the biggest graduates in Nijisanji ‘returned’ about two weeks of each other, as if they all realized VTubing was going to stay.

[alpha-window-9]

Ranking Dream SMP members by how likely I think they are to be thrown into the big prison. I did exclude some people who don’t stream often.

::no way, impossible::

Ghostbur: everyone loves ghostbur, he can do nothing wrong [meta: seriously, there’s no way]

::extremely unlikely::

Awesamdude: he’s an extremely neutral party, he’s also one of the only people who knows how to break out, not a good idea [meta: he doesn’t really have a character]

BadBoyHalo: he can be a bit chaos centered, but keeps to himself and hasn’t made many enemies, especially of Dream or his friends [meta: he seems more interested in having fun than anything else]

Skeppy: pretty much the same as Bad, keeps to himself too, only higher than him in case the egg plot comes back [meta: I’m 90% sure he’s just here for content and clout]

::unlikely::

Technoblade: unpopular opinion to put him this low, but Dream is very supportive of what Techno does and all their conflicts have been because of their allies [meta: I don’t know why, but I just really don’t think it’ll happen]

GeorgeNotFound: Dream is unlikely to lock up his friends, especially George, who is much more laissez faire [meta: he’d sleep through getting thrown in jail lol]

Punz: he is Dream’s most loyal ally, and Dream is very protective of him, he also doesn’t get involved outside of that, only higher than George because of something that comes later [meta: he doesn’t really have a character or stream]

Sapnap: again, Dream probably won’t lock up his friends, but Sapnap is more volatile and likely to get into trouble [meta: he could honestly get up to anything if he wanted to]

::no one cares about them::

CaptainPuffy: she hasn’t gotten into much conflicts since she joined and is a generally nice, agreeable person [meta: she’s just kind of nice]

ConnorEatsPants: also hasn’t gotten into much conflict, people don’t love him, but he’s harmless [meta: he doesn’t seem the type]

KarlJacobs: hasn’t done much, but he tries to, which might land him in hot water [meta: did he give up, he might’ve]

Ranboo: though he doesn’t start conflict, he’s often involved, however his opposition to sides and anxiety make him very much not a threat [meta: he seems to be becoming more of a main character recently, he might get up to something]

Nihachu: she’s weak and doesn’t start conflict, but very strong willed and opinionated, the type of person to start a coup [meta: I think she was inactive when they started making the prison]

Eret: he hasn’t been up to much, and Dream has already proved his power over him, but he could use his position and strong values someday [meta: what even is his relationship with Dream]

::somewhat likely::

Philza: his natural leadership and extremely thorough knowledge of the game is kind of intimidating, but he’s doesn’t often get directly involved and is currently sided with Techno [meta: I don’t know if he wants to get involved in major conflict outside of allegiances]

Fundy: hasn’t started much conflict, but is often involved and makes impactful decisions [meta: honestly, he’s only this high because he’s pretty much a main character]

Tubbo: strong connection with Tommy, Dream’s main opposition, and holds more power than he realizes, even without presidency, but he’s relatively easy to manipulate [meta: I don’t see it, I don’t know why]

Wilbur: if he got brought back, there would likely be a move to make him pay for his crimes, and if he’s still crazy, he’d get into something soon enough, especially because of his natural leadership, but we don’t know what he’d be like if he got brought back, especially now that L’Manberg’s gone [meta: getting back into the story only to be immediately thrown in prison, it’s unlikely]

::very likely::

Quackity: he may be an oddball, but he’s passionate about his opinions and takes charge to make things happen, definitely a threat [meta: he’s much more important than people give him credit for]

Jschlatt: if he gets brought back to life, people will be angry, he’s also power hungry and kind of crazy, can’t imagine him being buddy buddy with Dream either [meta: same as Wilbur, double anticlimactic]

Tommy: practically Dream’s archenemies at this point, Dream’s already shown his desire to restrain him, he always gets into trouble and causes problems, especially for Dream, locking him up would prevent him from taking the discs [meta: he’s pretty much the main character and one of the most popular streamers, I don’t think they’d put him in a prison forever]

::most likely::

Dream: so, this seems crazy, but he is the most likely to be put in prison, no one likes him, he does terrible things constantly, which he’s admitted to, but also, it’d be a very good play to put himself in prison, wait until everyone is relaxed and calm, then break out, which he could do because Sam might’ve told him everything, firmly establishing himself as the most powerful person on the server and striking unimaginable fear into everyone [meta: also, he could put someone else in prison, then in the grand finale get put into prison in a cruel twist of fate, which would negate his mysterious canon lives]

[yeochikin]

halloween grump. | p. seonghwa

a/n: thank you anon for requesting this fic! hope you enjoyed this. also, i suck at jealous scenes so uh,,, j just pretend you didn’t see that sdhfjsj

word count: 2.5k+

main focus: seonghwa x fem. reader

warning(s): there might be some inaccuracies in this as i have NEVER celebrated halloween before, so i do apologise for that. also, maybe a really short scene of hwa being protective.

seonghwa never really understood this particular… celebration, you had brought up.

sure, he knows that people of all ages would love to dress up during halloween so they would go trick or treating from door to door in the neighbourhood, along with their friends or families by their sides. 

not only that, said male would even notice the variety of decorations being hung up on the walls or windows of their houses, and on their lawns. from fake spider webs hanging on the neighbourhood porches to the carved jack o’ lanterns laying idly on the front lawn he had noticed after making a quick trip from the grocery store with you earlier this week. 

but honestly? that was it. the holiday never really excited him in any way possible, thinking it was the same old thing over and over again every year. 

however, from the way your eyes glinted a certain excitement in them when you had brought up about the topic while the two of you were cuddling in the living room one day, both of your hands holding the matching mugs filled with hot chocolate, seonghwa knew he couldn’t object the idea of you wanting throw a little costume party during the day of the event with the boys and some of your close friends. 

at first, he wasn’t really into the idea that much. imagine the time the both of you have to spend decorating the house to fit the theme, or even worse, cleaning up after the party? heavens above knew full well what could happen every time you would throw a little occasion at your shared apartment with the boys and your friends. honestly, why spend so much time when the two of you could just have a normal gathering for hallo-

“honey, can you please get those balloons up there for me? my hands are quite full.” 

your voice interjected his thoughts, shaking his head mentally to regain his consciousness back to reality to see you pointing up at one of the many shelves of the halloween store the both of you had walked in earlier. 

he couldn’t help but to release an amused chortle at the sight of your hands filled with the many decorations, wondering to himself just how long has he been in his mind to have failed to notice you picking up every halloween themed decor your eyes landed on. taking some of the decor from your hands to give your tired arms a little relief, your lover reached up to grab on the balloons that you had mentioned, noting how it had little bat patterns from the little picture printed right at the front of the package. 

“just how many more decorations do you need to get?” he grumbled, now following you as soon as you started to move once he grabbed the said item in his hands. 

“until we have enough, you grump.” you giggled just before stopping in front of the section just where the many pumpkin shaped candy buckets were displayed, eyes shooting up to meet with seonghwa’s unamused ones. 

you knew that the idea of halloween would be at your boyfriend’s distaste, but you had completely understood the reason why due to the fact that he never really celebrated the occasion throughout his childhood. hence, why he had seemed to look rather reluctant to hold the party you had suggested. and with you being a huge enthusiast of the said holiday, you were determined to give him the best halloween he had ever celebrated in his life during the party tomorrow. 

so, here you are, in the middle of the store shopping for halloween decorations with your grump of a boyfriend. 

seonghwa merely shook his head yet you could see the faintest of smiles playing over his lips as you stuck your tongue in his direction, yet he continued to follow you around the store, eyes busying themselves by looking at the various decor the store had provided. it would be a lie to say he wasn’t impressed with the amount of choices the place had. 

it took the both of you a little while more to finally walk out of the store, seonghwa offering to carry the bags in your hands. but the both of you knew deep down, your boyfriend merely wanted to hold your hand in his as the both of you made your way to the grocery store before going home. 

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

“love, i'm going to check on the cookies in the oven for a bit. can i trust you to not fall off the ladder while you do this?” 

seonghwa asked, his hands resting on your waist to steady yourself on the small step ladder as you busied yourself by hanging the bat patterned balloons on the wall in the living room. smiling, you leaned down to press a quick kiss against your lover’s lips, to which he returned almost out of reflex. 

by now, almost the entirety of the living room somehow managed to look like a haunted house you had initially wanted to do. the window panes were decorated with fake spiderwebs, a couple of big toy spiders being stuck on said webs. the doorway had a huge sticker of some type of graveyard with a haunted manor next to it being stuck along the walls. and the night before, seonghwa and you had decorated the ceilings with the orange and black streamers.

“don’t worry about me, honey. it’s not like i could hurt myself.” you chided, seonghwa deadpanning at your words before slowly releasing his hold on your waist.

“says the one who slipped in the shower earlier.” he retorted, eyeing the little bruise on your skin, just a little above your knee.

seonghwa simply chuckled afterwards upon catching sight of your playful pout as you sulked, mumbling that it was somehow… the tiled floor’s fault for being too slippery in the morning. with a roll of his eyes, your boyfriend lightly gave your bum a light pat before making his way into the kitchen, you watching his retreating figure before moving your gaze to the wall, remembering your initial intent earlier on. 

carefully leaning up on your tiptoes, you gently attempted to stick the balloons against the wall with the tip of your tongue peeking out of the corner of your lips, a habit of yours whenever you were placing your full concentration towards something. this one, being the bunch of balloons. 

leaning back ever so slightly, your irises were set on the position of the balloon, making sure they were in the symmetrical position as the ones next to it. your lips pursed themselves in distaste as the position was a tad lower than you thought, leaning back in to fix the position to make them hang just a little higher from the current position.

however, you seemed to have leaned a little more than you intended to as you lost your footing on the step ladder, letting out a little shriek as your eyes shut instinctively, waiting for the impact to come. yet, it never came. instead, a pair of hands were quick to rest themselves on your waist, effectively breaking your fall.

“i really can’t leave you alone now, can i?” a deep voice reached within your ears, an eye peeking open to look at your savior.

you merely smiled sheepishly up at your lover, encircling an arm around his neck before pulling yourself up to press a gentle kiss on his lips, murmuring a small apology against his lips. with a shake of his head, seonghwa gently lifted you off of the ladder, setting you down on the floor instead.

“why don’t you decorate the cookies while i finish up here, hm? i know that you’ve been wanting to do so when we started baking them earlier on.” he mused, expression softening up at the sight of your features perking up. 

with a playful salute, you made your way into the kitchen, seonghwa shaking his head at your antics as a tiny chortle left his plump lips as he started to fix whatever you had left. 

it was after a little over half an hour, that the living room was finally done, filled with the various halloween themed decorations being put up by the both of you while the little snack section in the room had plenty of food the invited guests later on tonight. both of your hands rested on your hips as you stood next to seonghwa to give the living room one more glance, a proud grin spreading itself over your lips at the sight. 

“now that this is done, i think it’s finally time we get our costumes on!” you chimed, earning a confused look from your lover.

“but we don’t have costumes?” he asked, tone full of confusion at your sudden claim. but with the way your eyes twinkled with the familiar mischief in them, he knew that you had something hidden up your sleeve.

“i may or may not have bought a matching costume for the both of us tonight.”

“love, i-”

 but i swear it’s not anything bad!” you quickly added just before your boyfriend could protest.

clasping your hands together and putting them underneath your chin, you gave your lover your best puppy-eyed look.

“please, honey? just this once. if you don’t like it, we don’t have to do it again. i promise!” you pleaded, palms now pressed against your lover’s chest as you still kept the certain gaze on his own serious ones. 

seonghwa stared at you in silence for a few seconds before emitting a low sigh out of defeat, leaning down to brush his lips against your forehead with his arms encircling your waist. of course, he just couldn’t say no. especially not when you looked like a kicked puppy with your pleading. 

“fine, but if i don’t like it, i won’t do it again.” he grumbled, you giggling in return.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

“woah, seonghwa is one lucky man!” wooyoung exclaimed.

the boys had come surprisingly early to your place. you cooing and giggling at the boys’ costumes. hongjoong as a pirate, mingi, yeosang and yunho as hogwarts students, san as a doctor from his favourite drama that he kept impersonating, wooyoung as a police officer, while jongho went as a zombie.

upon seeing seonghwa all dressed up as soon as they walked in, the boys couldn’t help but to tease him, the woosan duo playfully asking if he was allergic to garlic, much to your amusement. 

it didn’t take long after that for the other invited guests arriving.

you couldn’t help but to laugh sheepishly as you felt seonghwa wrapping his arm around your waist while the two of you went around giving the guests the food you had prepared earlier. the both of you were dressed in a matching vampire costume, as cliche as it looked.

yet, no matter how cliche it was, the both of you somehow managed to pull off the costume well judging by the compliments you received tonight as you interacted with the guests.

 “might i say that you look good tonight, my love.” you heard him whisper into your ear as the both of you made your way back to the kitchen to refill the snacks, you lightly bumping your hip against his.

“likewise, honey.” you winked, bringing the bowl of chips back into the living room while seonghwa stayed back in the kitchen to work on another batch of punch. 

arriving to the little food section you had set up, you made sure to clean up some of the spills that had somehow gotten on the cloth of the table until you heard someone clearing up their throat behind you. turning around, your gaze was met with one of your close friends’ friend, kim hyunjae. the both you weren’t entirely close but the both of you shared a few classes on campus.

“oh, hyunjae! i didn’t know you came.” you grinned after throwing away the used napkin into the little trash can next to the table. 

“oh i came with donghyun.” your lips formed into a small ‘o’, realising that this was the friend one of your close friends had mentioned he was bringing on the way here.

“plus, i haven’t seen you much lately.” the male playfully pouted as he nudged your side, causing you to laugh.

“sorry, sorry. been busy with my assignments, ya know?” you retorted. 

and with that, the both of you started talking and catching up with whatever had happened before this party. occasionally, the both of you would share a series of laughter at whatever joke he had said. 

unbeknownst to you, a certain pair of eyes watched both of you quietly from the side as he kept a close eye on you, smiling faintly to himself at the sight of you enjoying the night. however, he couldn’t help but notice the other’s eyes glancing down at your body. 

seonghwa thought that they were only a mere coincidence of some sort but with how many times he caught the other kept glancing a little too often, along with the slight uncomfortable expression on your features as the other stepped a little too close to you yet you continued to ramble whatever the topic you were talking about, seonghwa knew that he needed to step in.

while you were busily talking, seonghwa crept up behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist, feeling you jump ever so slightly before relaxing as you realised who it was. smiling at the feel of his pair of lips pressing against the top of your head, you tilted your head up as an attempt to meet his gaze.

instead of the usual warm pair of eyes, you were met with serious ones, yet they were focused on the young man in front of you. it was a look you knew too well. 

as if feeling awkward, hyunjae excused himself saying that he wanted to find his friend, bowing his head before leaving the two of you alone. 

with a roll of your eyes, you turned around in seonghwa’s arms to wrap your own around his neck, seonghwa merely sent you a gentle smile with a shrug of his shoulders, slightly swaying the both of you in place to whatever song that was playing through the speakers. 

“are you enjoying the party, honey?” you murmured, a hand reaching out to give his cheek a gentle caress. 

turning his head, seonghwa brushed his lips against the skin underneath your wrist. “except for whatever had happened just now, i surprisingly am enjoying the party.” 

those words were enough to make you grin brightly, leaning up to quickly press a chaste kiss upon his plump lips that just can’t get enough of, emitting a low squeak from the gentle squeeze on your waist. 

it might not be an overly interesting way of celebrating halloween with you, but seonghwa knew just how much halloween meant for you with how your features brightened up throughout the whole remaining hours of the party. 

who knows? he might even dress up again next year with you.

[swordandshield-aceintheholeblog]

Ladies and gentlemen! I know that everyone gathered here...And everyone watching from home have all been waiting for this big moment! It is my pleasure to announce that finally— the Galar region Gym Challenge will now begin! Yes, the Gym Challenge! Participants must defeat the eight Gym Leaders...And gather the eight Gym Badges to prove their skills as a Trainer! Only the most worthy will have the honor of challenging the greatest Champion in history! Now, I would like to invite the Gym Leaders to show themselves!

The fighting farmer! Here’s the Grass-type expert, Milo!

The raging wave! It’s the master of Water types, Nessa!

The ever-burning man of fire! Here comes the Fire-type veteran, Kabu!

The Galar karate prodigy! Nobody’s better with Fighting types than Bea!

The silent boy of mystery! Allister, friend to Ghost types!

The master of a fantastic theater! It’s the charming Fairy-type user, Opal!

The hard-rock crusher! Please welcome the Rock-type master, Gordie!

The ice-cold professional! Please welcome the Ice-type master, Melony!

Gym Leader by day, Animation streamer by night! Our own electric-type master, Ace!

And last but not least, the tamer of dragons... It’s Raihan, the top Gym Leader!

Unfortunately, we’re missing one, but…These are the Gym Leaders that we in the Galar region are proud to call our own!

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

Welcome To Galar! A pokemon region full of new and exciting pokemon and trainers to meet! (Pokemon Sword and Shield AU Askblog run by Mod Hunter, read rules before interacting please!)

Rules: 

Keep asks appropriate depending on who you're talking to(EG. Keep asks for Allister and other characters under 18 PG13.).

Keep this sfw.

Be nice, no hunting anyone, no anger bait(Mainly this rule is for Ace)

CALL EACH CHARACTER BY PROPER PRONOUNS.(Ace is main character this impacts, but I prefer for all) 

Asks and messages are just that: Asks and messages. Unless express permission is given, asks will not be able to physically interact with the characters. Also, Asker and character ships are NOT ALLOWED.

I know some people may simp for some specific characters from this, but please try to either contain it or not show it. Sorry if this sounds rude, it’s just happened on a lot of my previous askblogs and it’s made me have to revamp the stories a bit to fit with the simping. So please, try not to force relationships, it makes me kinda uncomfy and it forces me to rework the story kinda. This is a HARD AND FAST RULE THAT WILL NOT CHANGE. Sorry, I just don’t like having to rewrite shit.

PLEASE DON’T HARRASS THE MOD ABOUT SHIPS. IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND HE HAS FELT SICK BECAUSE OF IT.(Basically someone thought I only liked my OC x canon ships when that wasn’t the case) SO PLEASE; DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE ABOUT SHIPS. YOU CAN SHIP OFFBLOG, BUT DON’T HARASS ME ABOUT “BUT THIS SHIP IS GOOD, YOU’RE JUST BEING MEAN!!!1!!!1″ SOME SHIPS JUST MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE. IF I DON’T SHIP SOMETHING, RESPECT THAT. I MEAN IT. ANY ASKS FORCING SHIPS WILL BE DELETED OR IGNORED. THIS IS A HARD AND FAST RULE. JUST DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE.

ALSO! DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE TO THE CHARACTERS. AND IF A CHARACTER ASKS FOR SOMETHING TO BE DROPPED, UNLESS IT’S A SERIOUS CRIME, PLEASE DROP IT. AND DON’T BRING UP PAST EVENTS TO PAINT SOMEONE AS A VILLAIN. PEOPLE DO STUPID STUFF SOMETIMES.

Also also! ACE IS SELECTIVELY MUTE FOR A REASON. HE WILL NOT EXPLAIN UNLESS IT’S SOMEONE HE HIGHLY TRUSTS, SO DON’T BOTHER ASKING WHY OR ASKING HIM TO TALK, THAT IS INCREDIBLY RUDE. 

Enjoy! 

Oh, and BE. PATIENT. Mod Hunter is in school, so that takes up a good amount of his time. He does NOT Need to be stressed out! Mod Hunter's pronouns are He/Him. Pronouns for Gym Leaders Are: Milo: He/Him, Raihan: He/Him, Nessa: She/Her, Melony: She/her, Allister: He/Him, Kabu: He/Him, Opal: She/Her, Piers: He/Him, Gordie: He/Him, and Ace: He/Him. Transphobia will NOT BE TOLERATED.

[bean-n-shroob]

The Origami King Review/Opinion

(I sorta hate that it has the word The in it cause when I did impressions or this review, it sounds strangely official)

I’m gonna review but if people don’t want spoilers here’s some Pros and Cons that I felt

Pros:

+ Music is fantastic! I love how the battle theme changes with every area/sub-area you go to.

+ Writing is good, it gets you invested in enough to sorta care. Humor is top notch as expected!

+ Olivia is a sweetheart! I love her so much and how she’s so marveled by everything.

+ Boss Battles are fun to figure and deal with.

+ Finding Toads is actually kinda fun, I enjoy figuring out where they’re hidden

+ Badge system is intriguing if not a bit clunkly put together (sorry, this is suppose to be Pros)

Cons:

- Regular Battles get old quick if puzzles aren’t really your thing and its a bit too easy to just not depend on the coins, thus making them pointless.

- Story sorta flops, it starts strong but then just sorta fizzles and all we got left is... fun experiences (I know this sounds like a Con, but while the experiences are fun, it is disappointing the story sorta flops hard)

- Character Design is very meh. The most well written character can’t save it from its extremely generic design

- But also Olly is not... that well written... so...

- Partners and Vellumentals are kinda under utilized to a disappointing degree (baby steps, baby steps ugh)

Anywho, that’s all my feelings (that I can remember and feel I can say without spoilers)

6.5/10 (I’ll explain the scoring under the cut)

Spoilers Under Cut

Hello and welcome to the Spoiler Bits of this Review/Opinion

Buckle in, this is a long one

Now y’all may be a bit curious as to why, with so much big things (music/writing/bosses/Olivia) being good and so little being bad, why a 6.5/10?

Well, I felt a 7 was too generous and would make people think “Oh, its good!” but a 6 is like “Eh... its mediocre” and a 6.5 is more like a “Its Good, But” and I feel that But is important! I know how this may sound, but TOK could’ve been WAY better and Chapter 2 was an example of how good this game could’ve been!

You know how people always bring up Huey, or the “Morton Leston” joke, or the “I would do things that would raise this game’s rating” line as examples as why Color Splash is actually really good and we’re all in denial?

I feel Chapter 2 will be that for TOK and its all because of Bobby! I like Bobby, I like Bobby a lot! I wish he stuck around! I loved how he and Olivia interacted together and how they formed a bond!

But

I sorta hated how overall useless he was to the action and adventuring. He’s the most useless partner that somehow leaves a deep impression on the player!

He leaves such a deep impression that I don’t think anyone noticed how badly written Professor Toad was! He was such a let down as a follow up to Bobby! And worst of all, he was like way more useful than Bobby! He can dig holes, he can wipe out a whole role of enemies, he has a function outside of battle and story.

Seeing how useful Professor Toad was, sorta put into perspective Bobby and his eventual sacrifice to save Olivia (I told ya this was spoilers). He just dies, in a shockingly emotional moment, giving a speech about how Bomb-Ombs live relatively short lives and are always trying to make the most of it.

Wow... I really wish Chapter 6 didn’t have a segment where you were half hazardly shooting bomb-ombs out of a cannon, cause otherwise, this could’ve been way more impactful!

But it also made it seem like "we can't make Bobby too useful, he's gonna die. So just keep him extremely simple and useless in every other aspect of the adventure, besides story."

I don’t get how TOK started out so strong! The intro and Chapter 1 introduced us to the basic loop how what we’d have to do and how stuff will play out and Chapter 2 took that and showed us how far we could go with this loop and how involved the world will be with this loop!

Only for Chapter 3 to just give up on everything and give us 1 expansive dessert to explore, a very one note partner who doesn’t leave a lasting impression, a boring quest of solving an ancient riddle and a very annoying boss dungeon segment that went on longer than it should’ve! And above all else, a very half-assed excuse for why he won’t be joining your journey! Especially since Chapter 4 doesn’t have a partner!

Chapter 4 feels like an overly-long intermission of Mario n Olivia’s adventure to Chapter 5. Legit the purple streamer of 4 could’ve been the green streamer of 5 and it would only flow just a little bit less smoothly. Chapter 4 has this weird send off to the Vellumentals, with the boss dungeon being a mixture of the last 4 Vellumental chambers you’ve explored. Which feels out of place especially since there’s like 2 more chapters of stuff happening afterwards! And like a thunder elemental like boss fight in 5 but I guess they just couldn’t be bothered to create a Thunder Vellumental fight to tack onto the story and just gave it to this Origami Sumo Bro! Okay!

And then the Bowser Castle segment is right when they decide to get creative with enemy encounters, but only 2 enemy encounters (you can fight these two multiple time if you’re neither a chicken nor annoyed with the battle ring system) but then just stop right after cause Scissor makes cut out soldiers was the only excuse why that happened.

Again... I like TOK, I do. If I didn't, I'd rate it a 4 or 5 outta 10. I'll talk about the good, I will, but lemme just rant about 1 thing first! Its actually 2 rants but its gonna be about 1 topic I'm rather passionate about.

Character Design

I hate how generic the Legion of Stationery are! Once again, Chapter 2 wins by giving Rubber Band a very unique design, but everyone else is so generic looking! Remember how I said the personalities couldn't save them from their generic design? The Legion have such fun personalities, its so tacky and fun! But I cannot get over how it contrasts with the fact I'm staring at an object hoping in place or wiggling or jiggling as they talk! It kinda sucks, honestly!

I wish these guys had more creativity behind them, and truth be told it wouldn't have bothered me had Rubber Band not been an outlier! Why them and not everyone else! Its baffling!

But above all else, the worst offender, is the Origami Craftsman! The dude who folded Olly! Is a TOAD! That's it! A toad in an apron! WHY

And I get it, there's story reason behind it! Olly wants all Toads gone cause they all look alike and thus everyone reminds him of the Craftsman who wrote (a very touching message) on him!

And that SUCKS!

(uh oh, i forgot about Olly and his terrible terrible motive to be evil)

Speaking of Olly! Remember when I said he wasn't well written? Well besides being an evil prick who enjoys messing with the heroes (i dont mind that, evil just to be evil is fine), it sorta randomly just comes up that he hates Toads near the end! It just comes up!

And I THINK it was suppose to be hinted at by the fact all the Toads gets attacked and folded by Paper Macho and Folded Soldiers. But my problem with this is:

1. Would they have been daring as making Folded Toads as enemies? Thus the lack of Folded Toad enemies should've hinted at this

2. The enemies were origami version of Mario enemies! So enemies still being enemies but folded would've just strengthen the fact we'd be fighting bowser minions again, making the previous Toad hint moot.

3. Toads have always been in peril in previous PM games so the fact they're in peril again wouldn't have been a point of interest!

I GUESS the fact Folded Peach specifically asks whether Toads should be silenced could've hinted at this, but people just took it as "hah lol Toads annoying" and not "oh, this villain has a thing against toads~". Its just, who else would the villain have pointed out? There's only Toads here! Maybe if there was a bigger variety of npcs and we saw other npcs either becomes folded soldiers or be spared from the folded attack, we could've wondered "hey, why are only the toads getting stuck in places?"

But we don't!

Anyways, huff! Lemme count all the good, spoilery things in the game (that's not in Chapter 2) to end on a good note

I love how Olivia is so sweet, no one could bring themselves to be mean to her (except Olly), even Kamek has a hard time being mean cause she's so bubbly and caring (except for that weird bit in the forest where Kamek had to be all rivalry about it but I digress)

Bowser backtalking Olly was very funny, I loved it a lot!

The fact Olivia asks Olly to come to his senses before Mario smashed his face with the Olivia hammer (i need to specify this cause otherwise it'll look like Mario interrupted this scene with a hammer smash but no, Olivia fully knew her hammer weight was gonna fall on Olly's face and just gave some last words of pleas before not even letting him respond) I loved that.

I liked how sweet Olivia was to Luigi despite how much he kept screwing up (i forgot to rant about that but tl;dr, he's a bit of a buffoon and its a bit annoying) i thought it was very touching how Olivia kept rooting for him regardless.

The Tape talking like a Gangster was actually really funny, I liked that a lot.

Bowser's pep talk to Olivia was very funny, it was basically "dont be sad, look at me, my muscles are massive and I can punch through walls!"

As jarring as they were, I actually liked a lot of the singing and dancing that occurred through the game.

Olly having his own color scheme for his Vellumental forms was super cool!

The ending was really touching. Olivia wished for all of Olly's creations to be undone, and because you find out in Chapter 4 that she's also a creation of Olly, she is undone too. And they don't spell that out! You just find out she's not around and connect the dots. I think that was very well done.

And these are some of several reasons I liked TOK and why I couldn't rate it lower than 6. It has a lot of things that just doesn't live up to Chapter 2 and its disappointing to realize halfway through that the game peaked in Chapter 2. Its so weird, they showed us how good it can be and then never lives up to the expectationd set by Chapter 2. I wish it did

Thats why I rate it a 6.5/10

[letterboxd]

How I Letterboxd #7: Cinemonster.

Hooptober’s head honcho opens up to Jack Moulton about his love for Texas-born horror director Tobe Hooper, the joys of running Letterboxd’s most beloved Hallowe’en community challenge, and the “terrifying, magical” experience of seeing Frankenstein at the age of four.

“You can’t spell October without Tobe.” —Cinemonster

Cinemonster, known to his family and friends as David Hood, is a restaurateur in Pittsburgh by day, and the head honcho of Hooptober by night. Now in its seventh year, the horror film challenge sees participants set their own 31-day viewing agenda of 31 films, curated according to a list of criteria set by its creator.

‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (1974), directed by Tobe Hooper.

With over 5,000 films logged on Letterboxd and a growing collection of posters, DVDs, Blu-rays, laser discs and film memorabilia, Cinemonster is a literal monster of cinema. He has created more than 500 lists, including a ton of year, director, actor, actress, franchise and memoriam lists.

What brought you to Letterboxd? I found Letterboxd while I was doing a Google search for a horror film that I had forgotten the name of. I ran into a list that Hollie Horror had made and wound up starting a profile and it went from there. That would have been a little over seven years ago.

How freakin’ cool is last year’s Hallowe’en Easter egg with the dripping blood from our logo? [Pro members get this added to their pages by mentioning #horror in their bio.] I’m a fan.

Unfortunately I haven’t heard of a single one of your four profile favorites! What’s urging you to highlight these films? They are just lesser-seen and have something good or great about them. Eyeball is a great little underseen Umberto Lenzi film. Death Machines is an awkward, weird and wonderful film with kung fu and blood. Massacre at Central High is one of my favorite films and sadly lacking a disc release of any kind—anyone who has seen Heathers will recognize a couple of things if they watch it. Rituals is a criminally underseen stalked in the woods film from the ’70s.

In this this list description, you explain how the original Frankenstein (1931) hooked you into horror at four years old. Can you describe what you most remember about that life-changing experience? It was both magical and terrifying. The space, the creature, the little girl. I had trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards. No matter where I am in the world, if there is a screening of Frank, I’ll go. I watched most of the major universals by the time I was six or seven. I saw Alien and Jaws 2 with my folks and those stuck with me. Cable and a local UHF station showing Hammer films on Saturdays are what really allowed me to get sucked in.

‘Frankenstein’ (1931), directed by James Whale.

The horror films of 1980 and 1981 were the most impactful and are the ones that mean the most to me to this day; Fade to Black, Night School, Motel Hell, The Fog, Alligator, Altered States, Terror Train, Death Ship, Scanners, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, The Funhouse, Dead & Buried, Hell Night, Wolfen, Ghost Story, The Pit and Evilspeak. I saw all of them five to ten-plus times on cable as a kid. They’re still all high on my list. I am glad that Fade to Black is on Shudder. People need to watch it. More relevant now than then.

What exactly provoked you to start Hooptober seven years ago? I moved into an old spooky house and had a backlog of Blu-rays to watch and the 4K of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was about to come out. I’d done some interactive stuff on Letterboxd previously and had a decent amount of people involved. I was also at a point in my life where 31 films in 31 days is tough, as it is for a lot of us now. So I thought ‘Why don’t I do something that starts a little early, clears some of my list out, and has some parameters that don’t feel like I am handing out an assignment?’ I grew up in Texas, Tobe [Hooper] is close to my heart, and with all the Hooper I owned and the 4K coming out, I decided to christen it with his name. You can’t spell October without Tobe.

What’s the most members that have participated in a Hooptober? The number of people who participated was a little more than I expected, but that wasn’t what I was surprised by. I never thought of it as a recurring event until I started to hear from people the following summer about ‘the next one’. I just kinda chuckled after about a dozen people had asked and I said out loud to no one, “I guess I’m doing another one of these”. We are well over 700 this year, and still climbing.

‘Fade to Black’ (1980), directed by Vernon Zimmerman.

Where do you get the ideas for the rules for films to consider watching? At this point, I look back at past years so that I don’t repeat myself. I look to the current year for inspiration. Is there a film from a sub-genre that was prominent? Was it a strong year for output from women, Mexico, Asia, Black filmmakers, something cultural, and so on? I may focus on effects creators, an actor or writer on a whim. I try to keep an eye out for blind spots I haven’t covered. Shudder, archive.org, the big streamers are all resources. Sadly, rarefilmm no longer exists.

In last year’s interview with Merry-Go-Round magazine, you mentioned plans to turn Hooptober into a film festival. How’s that going? In a post-pandemic world, how can we keep independent niche film festivals thriving? The world has not been agreeable, obviously. I’m not even sure how viable something like that will be next year. I’ve been taking a look at streaming options. Post-pandemic will require more creativity and outside-the-box thinking, and will probably continue to feed some drive-ins. Been a while since more than a handful of people wanted to put money into a drive-in, which is nice to see.

I’m going to do a tweet along to The Witch Who Came From the Sea in October, and I’ll give you an exclusive here: The George Romero Foundation and I are doing online Horror Trivia on October 11. I had been doing it live with them here in Pittsburgh until the pandemic.

Based on this year’s rules and conditions, if there was one essential you-can’t-miss film you could force all your participants to add to their challenge, which film would it be? Demons, Eve’s Bayou or The Witch Who Came From the Sea.

‘The Witch Who Came from the Sea’ (1976), directed by Matt Cimber.

What have been your own greatest film discoveries through your Hooptober adventures? A Tale of Two Sisters, I Drink Your Blood, Blood Diner, and though it is a bit of a cheat to list this one, The Amusement Park. It’s cheating because it didn’t exist as something that I or anyone else could have watched, prior to when I saw it.

Do you have any acclaimed horror movies still lingering in your list of shame? Eyes Without a Face, Upgrade, Cure and Scream 4.

Have you ever completed one of your own Hooptober challenges yet? Errrrrrrrrr, one. I’m on track this year.

What about the participants over the years—any Letterboxd friends you’ve made who would you like to give a shout-out to? Aaron, Sarah Jane and Chris Duck are people that I talk to outside of Letterboxd. There have been a few others over the years. Slappy McGee has helped me with Hooptober the last two years. They are great. Javo and David Lawrence are pretty great, too.

Before Hooptober, many of your lists invited discussion with your followers. In what ways is Letterboxd the ideal forum to foster a community of film fans? Fans exercise their fandom in so many ways. The platform is so flexible that it allows you to utilize it in a small and personal way, in a promotional way, or to dive into the community pool and see who’s out there that shares something with you or can show you something. The more people that we are exposed to and listen to, we are all the better for.

Which of your review—from any genre—are you proudest of? The Invisible Man or The Hustler, probably. I have a capsule of Hud that I like.

So, you’re the horror guy. Nobody is denying that. You are Cinemonster, after all. But when I look at your top movies list and see that Singin’ in the Rain is your all-time number one, I’ll need you to explain yourself. I go back and forth between that and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They are 1A and 1B in some order. Singin’ in the Rain is a perfect film and the studio system at its best. I will ignore your implied insult. ;)

‘Fear of a Black Hat’ (1993), directed by Rusty Cundieff.

It’s true, even a horror aficionado needs some levity in their life. What other comedies pick you up from a dark place? Fear of a Black Hat always does the trick. Same with The Awful Truth, Murder by Death, Hollywood Shuffle, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Blazing Saddles, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Black Dynamite.

Who has been keeping you company during this tough year? I have watched thirteen Spike Lee films so far this year. I’ve taken a break the last few months, but I’ll probably knock out five or six more. With the exception of 25th Hour, everything is a revisit. It’s been a joy to go back through everything. Crooklyn is much stronger than I remembered, and Bamboozled just gets better and more impactful as time passes. I have loved Spike since the day I saw School Daze. His films have always connected with things that are important to me and to those that have been around me. Lee is still grossly under-appreciated as a narrative film director and a documentarian.

We’re bowing down to your epic Blu-ray and DVD collection. Which ones are your most prized possessions? Make us jealous. I have an Anchor Bay DVD of Dawn of the Dead signed by the cast and George A. Romero, a steelbook of Battle Royale, the first Slumber Party Massacre set before they had to reprint the box, the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu. I’m sure there are things I’m not thinking of. I have a lot of out-of-print and laser-only stuff. I’ll never get rid of my Holy Grail, Ghostbusters and Akira Criterion laser discs.

A selection of Cinemonster’s signed memorabilia.

I have a copy of Painting with Light signed by John Alton, John Waters and Steven Soderbergh I’ll send you a picture of. I used to collect movie posters, and I have the original Revenge of the Jedi one-sheet and the Drew Struzan Squirm poster. I do love those.

From your top directors list, let’s put one horror director on a pedestal. Who does the genre better than anyone else and why? George. They’re always topical, intelligent, thoughtful, personal and sometimes prescient. At their best they hold up both a mirror and a crystal ball. He was writing found-footage scripts in the early 70s, for god’s sake. Tobe is grossly under-appreciated. James Whale and Mario Bava could scare you in so many ways.

So, thinking beyond Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Jordan Peele, which up-and-coming horror directors are you most excited about? Issa López, Gigi Saúl Guerrero, Benson and Moorhead, Shinichiro Ueda, Na Hong-jin, Julia Ducournau, Nia DaCosta, Jeremy Gardner and Leigh Whannell.

The 2010s were a great decade for horror. We have more money on-screen, moving away from the low-budget films of the 2000s. Which favorite horror film of the last decade inspired you the most? Get Out. What Jordan did for generations to come is unmatched in this century.

Chucky from ‘Child’s Play’ (1988).

Which probably-too-long horror franchise gets too much flak and is top-to-bottom a great time? Child’s Play. Chucky has always been treated generally as second tier. [That franchise] has tried a lot of interesting and out-there things during its lifespan that had no business working, but did.

I know it’s been a slow year but you haven’t logged many 2020 movies yet! Which is your most anticipated horror movie of 2020 or 2021? Peninsula, for sure; I love Train to Busan. Then Candyman, The Dark and the Wicked, Grizzly II: Revenge, Bad Hair, #Alive, After Midnight, The Platform, Bulbbul, Underwater, Shirley and Swallow.

Interview by Jack Moulton. Follow Jack on Letterboxd.

[ducktracy]

132. fish tales (1936)

release date: may 23rd, 1936

series: looney tunes

director: jack king

starring: joe dougherty (porky), billy bletcher (fish)

let the fun of the jack king porky cartoons begin. in truth, he didn’t direct that many at all. maybe 4 tops, but they’re so strange (and this one terrifying) that they left such a mark on me. i said i’d never rewatch them again, and here i am! they’re not AS BAD as i make them out to be, and they’re certainly ambitious, which i give king credit for. yet they’re certainly... offputting, and this one is the most disturbing in my opinion. so, with that warm, happy, promising introduction: porky heads out to the lake for some fishing, but once he falls asleep he has a surreal dream that the fish are catching HIM instead, and it’s up to porky to escape before turning into a pig roast.

any day is a happy day for porky. we open to our porcine pal strolling along, fishing rod in hand, whistling merrily. life is good. he passes by a tiny hole in the ground, where two little worms poke their heads out. they both follow porky to his boat, tied to a stake in the ground on land. porky climbs aboard and notices the worms, sticking his can out so they can climb in. typically worms don’t WANT to be used as bait... then again, this scene feels particularly disney-esque, as all jack king scenes do. one of the worms hops in and signals for the other to join, the other strutting around à la mae west (for reasons unknown) until the first worm yanks him inside. the animation of the worms, and in this cartoon in general, is very fluid and enjoyable.

porky cranks the motor on, and the boat sputters to life. unfortunately, there’s one caveat: the boat is still tied to the stake in the ground. evidently the motor’s got quite the oomph to it—some lovely animation as porky’s boat threatens to drag the entire land behind him. instead, the boat is swung around in a circle, the rope eventually wearing thin and snapping, sending porky catapulting across the lake. seeing as bob mckimson gets an animation credit, i wonder if this is his work: very solid, top notch, mesmerizing animation.

the engine roars on, the ship now completely out of control. a sharp veer towards the left sends porky headed straight for a battle ship. he moans in agony and covers his face, preparing for the impact. but, with a good dose of cartoon logic, the boat takes a sharp turn downward, plummeting into the lake, under the boat, and rocketing back towards the surface again. speed is very strong and tactile, and could very much be likened to tex avery’s knack for speed.

unfortunately, porky’s relief is only temporary. though he narrowly avoids crashing into the ship, his boat is once more hurtling towards the ship. this time, he doesn’t dodge it—he flies straight through, cutting up a dining table (the next porky cartoon, fittingly enough, is shanghaied shipmates, one scene in particular staged very similarly to this one) and zooming out through the other end of the boat. the ship sinks in the distance while porky continues his wild goose chase of a ride.

the animation and speed combine to make a very exhilarating experience. the drawings are three dimensional and almost make for a sense of motion sickness as he zooms across the screen. though this cartoon is a strange one, it’s certainly ambitious and takes many risks, and king deserves credit for that alone.

after whirling around like a torpedo, porky finally realizes that maybe, just maybe, he should reach for the brake. he feels around aimlessly with his foot and finally stomps on the pedal, and the boat spins around in a flurry of activity to a halt at last. dazed from the impact, porky slumps over the boat to recover from his vertigo. in the process, he accidentally swallows a fish and snaps awake, spitting it out. he feels his face and collects himself, making sure he’s truly in the clear.

and, just like that, porky reaches for his fishing rod and finally sets out what he intended to do in the first place: fish. already he nabs a big bite, and prepares to reel in for the long haul. instead, he reels in a mounted fish head (if the cartoon were made in 1999-2000, perhaps the fish head would’ve been a singing big mouth billy bass. just what everyone needs.) clearly displeased, porky frustratedly tosses his catch back in the water. next time, he reels in a REAL catch. to deposit his win, he stretches a bucket out like a long tube and places the fish inside, the bucket returning to its natural state. the gag would have been funnier if it were more apparent, but it’s handled a little too nonchalantly and thusly reads as more incoherent and arbitrary instead of funny.

already, porky grows tired of fishing, literally. fashioning some rope as a makeshift pillow, porky lies down and settled in for a nap. we pan down to the waters below, and spot a quite frankly terrifying fish who’s ready to do some fishing of his own. he opens a picnic basket and rifles through, attempting to find suitable bait: a donut will do. he stuffs the donut inside a rifle and shoots, the donut attached to a string. very similar to the rifle/fishing rod/grappling hook invention featured in gold diggers of ‘49.

in an almost identical manner to the terminally boring old glory 3 years later, porky’s “dream self” rises from his real self and takes the bait. i think this is a big downfall of the cartoon—spoiling the surprise halfway through. if you’re going to go the surreal route, stick with it and don’t spoil the audience that he’s already having a dream. wait until the end for him to wake up for real to imply that it was already a dream instead of explicitly stating “this is a dream, folks!” keep your audience on your toes by tricking them into thinking it’s real. but i digress. the fish reels in his catch, sending porky hurtling down into the water and scooping him up in a net, removing the donut from porky’s snout where it had been clamped down.

the fish carries porky by the feet and waddles along to his humble abode. he signals that he’s home (by making a really strange noise—the only way i can describe it is that it sounds like an abbreviated version of porky’s ostrich from porky’s pet), and two of his children excitedly run out to greet him. yet first, they swim inside merrily to their mother, exclaiming in incomprehensible chatter that their father is home with a big catch. the entire family crowds around porky, one of the fish children poking him and giggling. like a real fish, porky jitters around, and it’s enough to scare the children. they run inside the house and dive inside the laundry hamper, both of their heads covered by a bra (well, not LOTS, but bra humor would sometimes pop up in the 30s cartoons. porky’s party comes to mind when a sheepish porky tosses away a bra.)

here’s where things get delightfully (or not) strange. the fish takes his catch inside and “skins” him, cutting off porky’s sweater. he places the naked, writhing pig inside an aluminum pan, dressing him up so he makes the perfect pig roast. thanks to a hearty helping of pepper being doused on him, porky sneezes and propels himself across the counter, the fish responding “gesundheit!” and positioning him back in the pan. well, he’s polite at least! there’s no voice credit for the fish, but the deep voice leads me to believe that it’s billy bletcher. he garnishes his potential meal and slaps another pan on top to cover him, and places him in the oven.

thus sparks the infamous, disturbing, uncomfortable and quite frankly hilarious scene of porky roasting alive in the oven, coughing and sputtering (and stuttering) “LEMME OUTTA HERE!” porkys manages to buck the lid off of him, pushing the oven door open and making a break for it.

it seems that even nature is against porky as he traverses the unknown waters (i guess he was fishing in the sea instead of the lake?)—an eel threatens to tie him up and restrain him, chasing him around. porky manages to sock the eel in the face, with enough force that the eel ties itself up in a knot. of course, the eel unravels itself and chases porky with more determination than ever.

the chase leads to a sleeping fish (perhaps the same one from before, i had always been under that impression but now rewatching it i don’t think it is), porky and the eel swimming into its mouth. the fish blows the eel out of its mouth like a party streamer, now awake, both the eel and porky swimming back out of its mouth. the fish only looks on in bewilderment. elsewhere, a swordfish threatens to slice porky in two. thankfully, it gets its nose lodged in a spare wooden beam. porky uses this opportunity to grab a mallet and hammer the swordfish’s nose in, bending the point.

while attempting to make his escape, porky comes across a particularly angry octopus, who captures him in its tentacles. some nice, stretchy animation as the octopus spanks porky, porky slingshotted into the distance and flying back into frame thanks to the octopus’ iron grip. now, the octopus attempts to do what the eel couldn’t: strangle him. as porky fights for his life, we fade back into reality, where porky is, for reasons unknown, NAKED and coiled in his rope. he wakes up and collects himself, wrangling himself out of the rope. determined to never see a fish ever again, porky throws all of the fish he caught out of the boat (even though we ever see him catch just one fish.) iris out as a terrified, naked pig zooms into the horizon in his motorboat.

i’m actually glad i rewatched this one, because i’ve definitely re-evaluated my stance on it. i still don’t like it that much, it’s not very funny and more uncomfortable than anything, but at the same time it’s unconventional and has some great bursts of animation. jack king was certainly experimental, but his experiments rarely ever worked out in his favor. i’ve never classified his cartoons as funny, especially in comparison to tex avery, friz freleng, and later frank tashlin (who’ll be coming into the picture soon.) he DOES have at least some sort of eye for cinematography, playing around with camera angles and close ups, which i admire. this cartoon was strange and was meant to be strange, so i appreciate that he took a different route. it’s still overwhelmingly offputting, but it’s not as terrible as i had thought it was before. there’s some great animation, especially the beginning half of porky’s wild boat ride. the cartoon was meant to be disconcerting, and it more than succeeded. i don’t think i’ll be watching this again soon, i still don’t particularly LIKE it but i can appreciate it more. because of that, i’m ambiguous on the recommendation. it’s just so strange that it could constitute a watch, but if you’re looking for something funny and/or charming, this isn’t your best bet. but, with that,

link!

[yastaghr]

Rounded Going Round

@kirinsaga commissioned me (During @sansy-fresh Art Drive) to do a little one-shot with some pregnant #sanster angst! You can find the finished work on Ao3 here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21411682

Enjoy!

Sans tried hard not to wince when yet another door slammed behind him. It was hard not to take it personally after the first five times. He'd totally given up by the 11th. He'd stopped counting at 23. This was somewhere in the depressing realm beyond that.

It took him some time to gather himself enough to walk through the lobby of the hotel. He knew there were tears streaming down his face. He could feel them as they impacted with his gravid belly. His shirt was probably more like a lantern than a cover up now, but he had to walk through this lobby with all the confidence and ease he could. This hotel was deep in human territory, and a monster showing signs of weakness (heh. He was a living sign of weakness and he knew it) was in serious danger of being jumped. He did not want to become another hate crime statistic today. He couldn't bear to do that to Gaster, not on top of everything else.

Once he was not in that lobby Sans almost ran to the nearest alleyway. He needed to be safe somewhere where he could cry and cry and cry and not have to worry about people staring at him or judging him. Heh. He, the former Judge of the Underground, was afraid of being judged. How the tables turned.

He ducked behind the overflowing dumpster of the Thai-Spanish fusion restaurant, skidded on a smear of Thai iced tea flan, and crashed into the brick wall of the alley. He picked himself up out of mess of cultures and foods, shivered at the feeling of something leaking down the back of his neck, and teleported straight into the bathroom of the flat Gaster and he shared. Blue magic filled the room. It turned on the shower all the way to warm, untied his soiled dress shoes, stripped off his stinking khaki pants and blue button-up shirt, and locked the door. He did not want Gaster to see him like this. He needed to be clean first. He just did.

As he climbed in the shower, Sans reflected on the face of the human as he was told, for whatever numbered time it was this week, that the position he was applying for had already been filled and, while appreciated, his resume was surplus to requirements. Not every human had phrased it the same way, of course. Some were much more open about their speciesism. It was, after all, still legal. But one thing they all had in common was a certain amount of glee as they watched him fall apart.

Even now Sans couldn't stop the tears from coming. And why would he? It was healthy to express your emotions, and, moreover, he was pregnant and a monster. They both got a pass. Or at least…they did among those who actually cared about monsters. And pregnant people. To bad he hasn't been dealing with either of those.

Sans grabbed the bottle of body wash and poured a generous dollop of the stuff onto his body poof. The smell of cinnamon filled the air. Like always, it soothed him. The smell of cinnamon always brought him back to the first time he and Gaster had walked into the Snowdin Shop. The shopkeeper had just finished baking a fresh load of cinnabunnies. They’d tasted like absolute perfection, warm and sweet on his to- damn it. Now he wanted cinnabunnies. He’d have to text his lover once he got out of the shower. Denying his cravings only made him miserable.

At least he could relieve some of that misery right now. He scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed at the stains of mixed-culture food that covered his body. He stopped just short of rubbing his bones raw. Gaster always got so worried when Sans did that, and it always took so long to heal. He really couldn’t afford the wound right now. Heh. Figuratively and literally.

Finally Sans could look at his own bones and not see the multicolored stains. He was back to being clean, which was good because the hot water had just run out. He rinsed off the soap, turned off the water, and went to grab his towel.

A familiar hole-y hand passed him one of the biggest ones. Sans jumped back, slipped, and ended up sitting on the wet floor of the tub with a thud. A cracked skull instantly peeked through the curtains, worry evident in every line of his expression. Gaster apologized profusely. “I am so sorry for scaring you, Sans. I thought I’d made enough noise to alert you, but the sound of the shower is highly likely to have drowned it out. Do you need any assistance?”

Sans chuckled. Yeah, that was his Gaster. Always quick to apologize over the slightest reason. “it’s okay, g. you didn’t scare this old bag of bones too bad. but, i, ah...might need a little bit of a hand up? this belly really gets in the way.”

Gaster quickly set aside the towel and helped him up. “Of course, Sans. Come here, let me dry you off while you tell me about your day. I wasn’t expecting you home for another hour or two. Did something happen?”

Sans tells him about his day in detail, leaving out not one rejection, tear, or alleyway. Gaster nodded along, but Sans could tell he wasn’t as worried as he had been the last few weeks. His large, round eye sockets narrowed. “gaster. aren’t you paying attention? i still haven’t found a job, and the baby will be due in a few weeks, and-”

Gaster smiled up at him excitedly. “-It will be fine, Sans! I just finished setting up the party in the living room. The others will be arriving in a few hours, but I really wanted you to be the first to know. Come get dressed so I can show you!”

Sans sighed, but slipped into a clean t-shirt he had stolen from Gaster’s pile and some old gym shorts. He shuffled his feet into his signature pink slippers and shlepped after Gaster. He was lead into the living room. When they got there, his jaw dropped. There were balloons and streamers, cheerful music was playing from the speakers, the smell of baking treats wafted from the oven, and a custom cake sat proudly on the counter. Sans gravitated towards it. The cake was blue on the sides and had a night sky of sparklers scattered across the flat top. It also had, in white lettering against the dark background, a message. It read, “Home Loan Acquired!”

Sans felt tears roll down his zygomatic process. He wiped them away and turned to Gaster. The other took a step back from the upset fury radiating off of Sans.

“how could you. we can’t afford all this, not and still make the payments. and we don’t have a home loan! that human bank said they wouldn’t lend to us unless we both had a job, and i keep getting turned away! this is all...all…” Sans broke down into tears. Why did this hurt so much?

Gaster wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his back gently. “It’s okay, Sans. I should have told you sooner. I was talking with King Asgore today over lunch, and I happened to mention our difficulties with the loan. He was sad that the human banks were being so prejudiced, but not overly surprised. I, on the other hand, was struck dumb when he offered to give us a loan from the Royal Bank. I tried to protest, but he insisted. He said that’s why they set up the Royal Bank in the first place: to help out monsters in positions like ours. So we do have a home loan, and at a much better rate than the humans were offering us. And there is no requirement for you to find work. He was very upset that they would force something like that on us, especially with you so pregnant. Queen Toriel could barely function while she was carrying Prince Azriel. So we don’t have to worry! We can get the house of our dreams and be moved in before the baby comes.”

Now Sans’ tears were ones of happiness. “i can’t believe this. it’s a dream, right? there’s no way we could be this lucky.”

Gaster nuzzled his forehead. There was a huge smile on his face. “It is real, love. We’re really going to do it. In a few days we’ll be adding books to the shelves in our new living room. We can pick out the perfect dining room set. You can read me the instructions while I build our new crib. Are you happy about it?”

The pregnant Sans nodded, the tears still flowing as hormones got behind the emotion and shoved. “i am. i’m so happy i just…” He breathed in a huge sigh of relief. No more rejections from speciesist humans. “i’m just so happy.”

Gaster smiled, squeezed him carefully, then released him from the hug. “That’s good. Now, do you want to help me set up the extra bean-bags in the living room for all our guests? I...may have gone critical in my excitement. There will be 14 people joining us to celebrate. The Royal family, of course, and your brother and his fiancee. Dr. Alphys and Undyne, obviously, and my followers. They’d feel so sad if they were left out.”

Sans chuckled. “good thing we’re going to be moving into a big house. we’ve got too many friends to fit in a small one.”

His husband laughed his clarion laugh. “Good indeed. Now, do you want to...actually, why don’t you work on the food while I move furniture? We can never be too careful. Our little one’s life hangs on the balance.”

“sure thing, drama queen,” Sans said fondly. “i’ll get started on some more snacks.”

[yuzurk]

「 Big Yikies 」

As you enter the company building this morning, you’re being pulled to the side by a member of the staff. He tells you to follow him and picks up one of your fellow trainees, Lee Hwichan, along the way as he leads you down the long hallways. The three of you stop in front of an office. Inside, there is a PR manager already waiting for you with a disgruntled look on her face. Once the staff member takes his leave, she motions for the both of you to take a seat across from her. “I don’t know if the both of you know why you are here,” she starts with a heavy sigh, “but there are a few things we have to talk about.”

She doesn’t spare you another look as she speaks and turns her attention to the tablet in front of her, instead. “As you may know, there is an article circulating around online about some idol couples. It has caused quite the stir amongst netizens.” She pauses and looks at the both of you with a stern expression. “Of course, the both of you know about it since you took the time to comment about it on social media.”

Sliding the tablet across the table, she looks at you first. “You might think what you posted online is harmless, but not only did you involve yourself in ‘online drama’, you actively spread it by sharing the link amongst your followers and causing more people to pay attention to those rumors.” Then, she looks at the trainee sitting next to you. “And you didn’t manage to keep your opinions to yourself as well. I say this only once – we do not tolerate our trainees participating in gossip. It’s not a good look for you and especially not for your company if these were to get out.”

She switches between both of your twitter accounts for a last look on your latest tweets before putting the tablet back to her. 

“Even now as private trainees, your opinions can impact your image and ours as well. You have to be careful about what you say to others and post online since it can reflect on us negatively in the future and taint your career. How can we be sure that you will keep quiet when Royal Entertainment is involved in such an article if you can’t even mind your own business when another company is involved?” She clicks her tongue. “If you’re so desperate for attention, maybe you should put your energy into your training. Once you debut, you will get plenty of attention without pulling something like that.”

OOC NOTE: Both Yena and Hwichan are under an SNS ban, as is the rest of the company because of their careless actions. For more information about the extent of the ban, please refer to the announcement post made on ROYALS’s blog and wait until you receive further instructions.

She’s confused when they pull her aside first thing in the morning as she arrives with Gahyeon, a gaze casted back at her who mirrors her confusion. Even more so is she confused when they pick up Hwichan along the way. She still flashes a toothy, yet not quite smiling grin at him, shoulders raised to indicate she was very much clueless as to why they were walking together. Yuzu knew little about him but her mind wanders through all possible worst case scenarios. Were both of them dating? Did they look into relations of convex boys and uncover her and Sehun after all? Her brain goes a mile per hour and she’s quite honestly shaking in her boots but when they tell her she was here because of one of her tweets, she can’t help but let her shoulders deflate slightly as she breathes a subtle sigh of relief.

This was something she could deal with.

It wasn’t very ideal and she still felt bad about the thing but she literally didn’t know better. Exhaling a sigh, Yuzu rubs at the back of her head. The last comment makes her twitch just lightly cause she doesn’t appreciate being called an attention hoe but for once, the female actually decides to speak up for herself rather than put her head down and bow to the system.

With her hand raised she looks at the important people in the room, eyes questioning but resolute. “Can I speak for a moment? I want to apologize and explain.” With no one responding to her in a disagreeing manner, she takes that as her sign to go ahead.

“I wanna just say I really ain’t mean harm with that one. If yer aware of ma uh- my twitter, yer- you’re probably aware of my occupation as a streamer;” she begins, trying to actually use proper korean here to not look disrespectful.

“You may have found out I’m real- really good friends with Convex’ Jace because of this. My community has the running joke of shipping us. I made the tweet to tell ‘em- them to stop doing that. Since I ain’t- uhm... didn’t want to get him in trouble or reflect badly upon royal. If that person dug up information about one trainee, I really don’t want them revealing my status as a private trainee under Royal.” She inhales deeply, pursing her lips together once to not get her tongue twisted this time. 

“I just want you to know about this. I’m not dating him. We’re just good friends and have been for a long time. So if anyone should dig up material of us gaming together, hanging out together or poking fun at one another, rest assured it is 100% platonic. I made the tweet to avoid unwanted attention, not gain any,” she adds at that point, unable to add that grain of salt to her otherwise neutral explanation. “I don’t know much about how this whole censoring yourself in the Korean entertainment industry works just yet but I will learn and adjust my tweets accordingly. I’m not used to having someone take care of my business for me since I worked without a manager all these years. I apologize again, I’ll reflect and learn. But could I maybe-,” the glare she receives as soon as she says “but” makes her shut up, palms raised. “Okay, okay~ I’ll shut up now. That’s all I wanted to say.” Turning on her heel she kind of speed walks out of the room, kind of pushing Hwichan along and only stopping when the door is securely closed behind them.

Only then does she exhale a deep groan, looking back at her sunbae, hands on her hips. 

“Well... shit!”

[kelseyraiyne]

Neo-Liberalistic Society, Online Identities and Gift Economy

The Hunger Games and a Neo-Liberalistic Society

The Hunger Games originated as a trilogy of novels but was made into a 4-part film series due to its popularity. The series can essentially be described as a science fiction dystopian adventure. At its core, The Hunger Games is about a totalitarian society where the masses are used and abused for the gain of those that in the Capitol, the place where citizens get to live in luxury whilst the surrounding ‘districts’ live in poverty and slave away to provide resources to the higher class. However, they do so with the hope of them being able live a better life by being chosen to compete in the hunger games – a real life survival of the fittest-esque arena game.

Panem is a metaphor for a global economic system, very much based on the neo-liberalism that we face in our society now; using Marx’s theory (1886), the bourgeoisie control the fates of the proletariats, they choose who survives and who will fall, they play God to the lower class who have no option but to look to the elite for guidance and survival. Neo-liberalistic views from today’s world apply to this; for example, our society will happily use technology made in China or wear clothes that have been made in Asia. However, it isn’t just the elite upper class that treat others below them badly, the middle class take advantage of those in less-fortunate third world countries and the cheap services that they provide.

Dystopian future themes are still growing increasingly popular even now, for example Divergent, The Maze Runner, even the X-Men franchise – and they haven’t just been produced in recent years either, past examples being The Matrix, Battle Royale, Lord of The Flies. All of these films show a higher authoritative governing presence that gets to dictate and rule those that are deemed unworthy and classed as common working folk. There isn’t any form of satire used in these production pieces either; especially with The Hunger Games, there is a very propagandised overlay that shows one individual being the face of a revolution and another being the face of capitalism, for example this being Katniss Everdeen and President Snow in The Hunger Games. They square off to one another many times throughout the film and book series, as if this will solve all the problems. What this does it convince the audience that one governing presence that gets to live a life of luxury is not ideal for our society whilst the working class has to slave away in order to survive with the bare minimum.

One article from The Guardian (written by Ewan Morrison) debates on the impact young adult dystopia has on children and teenagers. The underlying propaganda influences lead children to believe they should “question authority” and to be wary and suspicious of it. Whilst dystopian futuristic genres can offer some insight into a neo-liberalistic society that can relate to the ones we live in now, often enough they tend to be a very hyperbolic version of this intended realism. Another article from The Postcolonialists talks about the presentation of The Hunger Games, namely that it could be “a hyperbolic representation of youthful disobedience and rebelliousness … that can be easily confused for the hard work required for a social revolution” (Khader, 2014).

It makes one wonder what the intended reading of The Hunger Games really was. Was The Hunger Games intended to slate our very own neoliberalist society that we currently live in, and convince others to not settle for it? Or was it just simply a story with no underlying political or propagandised ideals within it?

Commodification of Identity Online

Throughout the years, especially with the ever growing developments and freedom of technology and the Internet, human identity has been “transformed from a ‘given’ into a ‘task’ and this “self-realisation” becomes a driving force that promotes consumption” (Palmer, 2010). Society is always changing, humans adapt themselves to become more flexible, they remake themselves to suit the current society and economy that they live in. This neo-liberalistic society heavily relies on and makes use out of the commodification of people and their identity – self-branding, micro-celebrities, life streaming, all these new terms invented for a society that wants to be someone they’re not. People are no longer happy just existing, they want to be able to be who they want, so they turn to social media to reimagine themselves, either to become a “micro-celebrity” which is someone who becomes mainstream and gains a following via social media or to find their true identity using the means of social media. The development of Web 2.0 hasn’t helped means there is even more diversity found online which gives the audience opportunities for self-identification and expression. Now more than ever, personality and identity online has become such a huge factor in our lives that is even used by employers to find out about potential employees.

Back in 2015, Shawn Megira was a big deal on Instagram, being deemed “insta-famous” and a micro-celebtrity at only 15 years old. A short documentary, Instafame, was made about him and his 81K followers. In the documentary (Instafame, 2015), Megira talks about how all he does is post photos on his account and suddenly everyone is following his account and liking his posts, he’s getting stopped in the street by fans and asked for autographs and pictures – all because he has a lot of followers on social media. Due to his popularity, brands and companies began approaching him with job offers and opportunities for paid advertisement via his social media; Megira became a commodity, a means to an end of becoming known, popular or famous yourself rather than an actual human. This is because the advancement and development of technology and social media means that people can escape their ordinary lives and have a chance at becoming someone new, whether this is a micro-celebrity or not, using methods such as endorsements, company branding or even self-branding (which is most commonly found on Instagram).

KittyPlays is a live streamer, gamer and a lifestyle vlogger. She is quite the opposite of the ordeal that Shawn Megira was. She is very open with her viewers about her life and invites them into it; she asks them for advice, show vulnerability and offers guidance on matters that her viewers may ask about. Due to this, many of KittyPlays’ viewers find they are able to find their identities when watching her content, they can open themselves up to the inspiration and guiding presence in order to find who they are. It may be debated that how we choose to present ourselves online allows individuals to become their own producer, director, star and critic, therefore there is the argument that vloggers aren’t showing us their true selves and instead choose which aspects of themselves and their identity they want to share, as all media is an extension of ourselves (McLuhan, 1994). On the other hand, KittyPlays has developed such a strong and loyal community and made a career out of this ‘serious leisure’ activity that she doesn’t feel the need to hide her true identity. If she is sad then she will tell her viewers this, she will cry, she will get angry and she will be happy.

The Internet has “provided a space for an ever-accumulating archive of personal visual experience, memory and emotion” (Palmer, 2010) where users are free to be themselves. The problem that needs to be addressed by this however is that users then become comfortable with the idea of becoming a micro-celebrity so are open to commodification of their identity without realising this. The fact that the internet is now a “mainstream, highly-developed commercial structure” (Marwick, 2005) however does not mean that all online identities are commodified and branded. Many social media celebrities, streamers, or vloggers such as KittyPlays manage to evade this neo-liberalistic market force and form stronger communities because of this.

The Gift Economy vs. The Rational Consumer

Following neo-liberalistic ideologies, it is highly appraised that we as a species are rational consumers; we will make decisions and choices based on those that will be most ideal, advantageous and utilisable for us as individuals. Market forces are huge driving factors in society even now, with them continuing to grow and develop into new areas. However, the idea of the gift economy has threatened the ideals of this neo-liberalistic stance on consumers with the introduction of services such as crowdfunding, free-cycling, Creative Commons licenses just to name a few. This wasn’t something that was expected to happen in this economy, but this idea of a gift economy has shown to be hugely popular and successful with the public and has slowly begun to change the way that consumers act.

A Creative Commons license is a way for the public to enable free distribution of otherwise copyrighted work. This is hugely used in the video game industry, for example with SCP: Containment Breach. This game is a free and open source indie supernatural horror video game developed by Joonas Rikkonen, based on the paranormal fiction stories found on the SCP Foundation website. Other examples of a Creative Commons license include music, short animation clips, images or graphics and logos that may be found online. In return, most creators tend to ask that they just get credited for their work in the video description for example. In his work, Post Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future (2015, p.276), Mason talks about how developments such as crowdfunding and the use of Creative Commons licenses shouldn’t be something that people become affixed and accustomed too fiercely to the non-profit parts of the activities relevant to them. Instead Mason believes it is all a part of a larger ever growing system of peer to peer transactions that are making the old ones appear as ineffective and cause them to slowly die out. In relation to the Creative Commons license, this is definitely accurate. People are more attuned to finding a good advantageous opportunity for themselves, as is the norm for rational consumers, that coming across a suitable or valuable piece for them that features a Creative Commons license is an opportunity that they can’t afford to miss. SCP: Containment Breach offers users a chance to play a full game for free using its Creative Commons license and allows it to be distributed freely to become more widely available for any potential consumers.

The gift economy in general is ideal for rational consumers; there are many opportunities for them to receive pieces and opportunities that suit them as an individual and will be the most advantageous. Furthermore, it begins to introduce a new system that proves the old economic systems and models ineffective and socially unjust. On the other hand, the gift economy does mean that those content creators that offer this free service and free valuables don’t get anything in return.

References:

IMDb. (2018). The Hunger Games (2012). [online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/ [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].

Instafame. (2015). [film] Sylvain Labs.

Khader, J. (2018). Mockingjay Delusions: The Hunger Games and the Postcolonial Revolution to Come - The Postcolonialist. [online] Postcolonialist.com. Available at: http://postcolonialist.com/civil-discourse/mockingjay-delusions-the-hunger-games-and-the-postcolonial-revolution-to-come/ [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].

Marwick, A. (2005). Selling Your Self: Online Identity in the Age of a Commodified Internet. p.169.

Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1886). The Communist Manifesto. International Publishing Co.

Mason, P. (2015). Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future. London, Penguin, p.276.

McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media. 13th ed. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press.

Morrison, E. (2014). YA dystopias teach children to submit to the free market, not fight authority. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/01/ya-dystopias-children-free-market-hunger-games-the-giver-divergent [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].

Palmer, D. (2010) ‘Emotional archives: online photo sharing and the cultivation of the self’. Photographies, 3 (2): 155-171.

 Scpcbgame.com. (n.d.). SCP - Containment Breach. [online] Available at: http://www.scpcbgame.com/ [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].

Twitch. (n.d.). KittyPlays - Twitch. [online] Available at: https://www.twitch.tv/kittyplays [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].

Yates, N. (2018). Instafame: The Rise of the Microcelebrity. [online] Social Media Week. Available at: https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2014/04/instafame-rise-microcelebrity/ [Accessed 22 Mar. 2018].

[welcometomy20s]

February 8, 2021

Welcome to the final part of the Introduction of Nijisanji. Thanks for going through all of them, if you did. It was pain to work with so much and so little. This part would cover everyone who has debuted in the year 2020.

Nijisanji IN 1st Gen

Aadya - The name means beautiful. 21 year old, who likes to play games and sing. Does dancing as a day job, so acts as a gaming nightingale. She has a knack for games in my cursory view, but that might be just the competitiveness.

Vihaan - The name means breaking dawn, kind of. Likes gaming very much, and plays them very loudly and complaining... which to be expected from this crew.

Noor - The name means light. Likes BL, coffee and beer, BL to the point she learned chinese from watching a BL drama. Basically a middle-aged man at heart, including a very nice husky voice. Does talks and games. Sings randomly and looks up to Rion, of all people. Ange mentioned her, Ange likes to mention foreign people.

Nijisanji KR 1st Gen

Min Suha - Knows the culture through their parents and has a nice voice. Sister Claire likes him, and who doesn’t? He’s freaking cool, man!

Shin Yuya - College student in virtual Seoul. Always has a smartphone at hand, does self-searching on a constant basis. Definitely has otaku knowledge, likes singing, drawing and cute things. Doesn’t like horror games, but played a lot on stream.

Plays a lot of different games, including FPS like Apex, and this is where she gets to collaborate with Japanese senpais, which is always fun to see.

Gaon - Originally Moarin’s brother, but Moarin left, so the lore changed. Has a twintail for attention purposes. Only member of Nijisanji KR to work as a job, but quit as the end of 2020. He’s pretty cool. Not nice, but definitely not a mean person either.

Han Chiho - He’s a time-displaced psychic, and so speaks with a high register. High register is usually seen as old, people don’t use it anymore, but it’s usually perfectly understandable... it’s an interesting quirk. Other than that, pretty normal streamer.

2020 Part 1 (Jan-Apr)

Furen E Lustario - During debut, expressed a liking choking oneself... so we know who we are dealing with. Has to add using fingers, as to illustrate her math prowess. But overall a fun person to watch, and has a pretty good variety of streams.

Melissa Kinrenka - Wants to be a songwriter, but still needs help. But she is a great singer, and can write and mix songs. Usually called Meli. Has a deep side, basically.

Ibrahim - Originally an oil prince, but now runs an onsen. Acts like a child at times due to his supposed past, and he is muslim, as the lore and name implies. But overall, fits right in with the child-like male of Nijisanji... kind of.

Nagao Kei - He’s an exorcist, but really does any job. Pretty good at all kinds of fighting. Pretty old in terms of human member at the age 26. Very much like Ibrahim, but much more bishonen, which melts a woman's heart. Oh, he’s good at learning stuff. Like he tries to learn morse code, and completely memorized the KTANE manual. Just to make Fumi, one of his seniors, happy for a while. That’s some big dedication.

Genzuki Tojiro - Works as a secretary for the gods. Has that unmatching haircut. Very good at making songs and does mixing for Nijisanji events.

Kaida Haru - A demon researcher, but too lazy. Quiet and nice voice leading the viewer to see him as a mother figure, but as you guess, he doesn’t like it due to the work. Oh, said a slur on stream but got banned less than Yumeoi, which is quite sus.

Nijisanji ID Gen 3

Azura Cecillia - An alien angel. Has a sword with a really long name, but calls it Chonsuke for short. She’s pretty cute and a little bit ditzy, from what I remember. Got mistaken as a boy, which is such an odd thing, but maybe it’s the deep voice?

Nara Haramaung - A princess of a tribe. Originally released as part of 1st gen, but got delayed here, but the gen mates fit together very well. Sings spontaneously sometimes.

Layla Alstroemeria - Time-traveling history major. Definitely more airheaded of the group and most child-like of the generation. But she’s pretty fun to watch, regardless.

Nijisanji KR Gen 2

So Nagi - Traveling virtual Japan, speaking fluent Japanese with a nice clear voice. Likes Ange Katrina, which she readily repriocates. Seen as the top seed in Nijisanji KR.

Lee Siu - A female kitsune, and yes from the same illustrator as Fubuki. Likes dad jokes and an endurance player and does speak three languages. Roha likes her. Occasionally can hear the apartment announcement, which is always a fun moment.

Chae Ara - She’s an angel, and a great singer. And likes to people-watch. Has a cute voice, and good at hosting. I really liked her in the streams that I watched. There’s something about her personality that speaks to me.

2020 Part 2 (May-August)

Sorahoshi Kirame - Made her name through twitter, and traded fan art with KR members. Has the same illustrator as Kanata. Couldn’t stream due to money purposes for four days, got his PC after a month of hard work. Overall a poor and diligent girl.

Asahina Akane - 1st year high-schooler. Very energetic and follow people well. Likes a Jpop band, and likes to travel as well. Also does a lot of collabs with senpais.

Suo Sango - The youngest member of the theater club, which is the theme of the latest generation. Has a wide range, and likes Sanrio and tomato. Very motherly calm voice.

Like girly anime, you know Pretty Cure and stuff. Likes western pop music as well.

Todo Kohaku - Third-year high schooler. Said she’s a lady, but she’s definitely just a normal girl. Had a good cover of Mela, and overall a decent streamer.

Kitakoji Hisui - Middle-school transfer student. Likes a lot of different things, but Minecraft is what she is most known for... I guess it makes sense.

Nishizono Chigusa - She’s the troublesome one of the theater group. Very frequently makes sexual quips. Also I thought she was a boy when I first saw her. Definitely my favorite of the newest group, and also did a stream with Matsuri as well.

And that actually has a history. You see this is not Chigusa’s first rodeo... as it is apparent, and during her previous life Matsuri and her did a sleepover, and was quite close as well... so this is actually a really nice reunion. I didn’t know that until now.

Nijisanji KR 3rd Gen

Nun Bora - A second-year high schooler, likes drawing and playing the recorder which she has a battle with So Nagi. Quick learner, apparently. Plays APEX and Fall Guys, but is competent in pretty much any game. Definitely top tier APEX player.

Akina Ray - Japanese streamer who streams in virtual Seoul. Does a morning talk show, likes baseball, since she’s from Hiroshima, and Shadowverse. She’s actually an art student and a meat lover. But overall, the most seiso art student of Nijisanji.

Lee Roha - Idol trainee from outer space, a mixed race. A bit of a ditz, with the appropriate thumbnails. Streams in Japanese on YouTube, in Korean on Twitch. Does a lot of League of Legend on twitch, and does evening piano stream. Likes Lee Siu.

Nijisanji ID 4th Gen

Etna Crimson - Half supernatural, likes to make everyone happy. Definitely not Amber from Genshin Impact, because Amber is Kizuna Ai. Okay, bad joke. Yeah, she’s good.

Bonnivier Pranaja - Originally a fisher, but quit after being swindled. Usually appears with KR streams, actually. Maybe likes Hana? Who knows.

Siska Leontyne - Security officer for shady company. Pretty good at games involving killing... make sense considering her profession. Pretty cool and laid-back.

Nijisanji KR 4th Gen

Ryu Hari - Likes to collect nightmares, likes reading and playing the electric guitar.

Shin Kiru - A 25-year old NEET, has an odd way of speaking and strange topics. Likes Rock and horror movies. He seems pretty laid-back as well.

Yang Nari - 19-year old girl from a different world who now lives in the countryside. Pretty good at hosting with her cute voice. Likes sewing, and talks in high status. She has a thing of suffering, and that kind of comes out from lore.

Oh Jiyu - She’s a female vtuber, although she looks and sounds boyish. Third-year college student representative. Speaks Korean and Japanese, and like gacha and also singing... so maybe a boyish Suisei? I’m sure she’s more normal, though.

Nijisanji ID 5th Gen

Nagisa Arcinia - Wannabe fashion designer, speaks a bunch of languages... but that’s normal for ID... yeah, she’s cute and might be a little psychopathic. Typical.

Derem Kado - 16 year old girl going to magical school, always looking for a cat, but a special cat that makes contracts and stuff. High pitched scares and gets lost.

Reza Avanluna - He’s a world chronicler, he visits and chronicles worlds in his dreams. Has a ship going on with Hana, I think? I’m not sure. Please correct this, if untrue.

There you go! All 139 extant members as of February 8th, 2021, which is the third anniversary of Nijisanji... that was a long post... even though it was in three parts. Sorry for filling the days with this... I have been busy with collecting data and so on. But I hope you have a good inkling of the landscape that is Nijisanji.

[stardust-and-blades]

Keith’s First Halloween

This is for the voltron games I’m participating in! Team: Red Lion Round: 1 Challenge: 3 with Shiro, Keith, and Adam

Summary: After finding out Keith hasn’t celebrated Halloween since the death of his father, Shiro and Adam invite him for some pumpkin carving and caramel apples! ----------------------------------

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

“You’re kidnapping me. You’re kidnapping me and going to sell my organs on the black market, aren’t you?”

Shiro barks out a laugh, veering away from a slowing car ahead of them, but maintained hands on the wheel. Shiro is great at flying, but sometimes Keith questions how he got his license with all the risks he takes. “Patience yields focus, Keith. Relax, it is nothing bad.”

Keith quirks an eyebrow, but nonetheless allowed Shiro to take him to God knows where. Since his arrival at the garrison, he has been living there rather than the group home. His roommate wasn’t particularly fond of him, what with his bad temper and representation for being a discipline case. But it was better than where he was, an invisible boy unable to find a home. Unable to be seen by a family as worthy. The only person who ever truly loved him has left the land of the living, leaving Keith wishing the fire never occurred. That his father never ran back into the building, though he knew it was a selfish wish. A child is alive today because of him. As much as Keith wanted to keep his father, at least he died a hero. His hero.

Shiro glances at Keith, the sixteen year old looking out onto the road with a far off gaze. He is leaning on his right, arm propped up on the arm rest and a fist to his cheek. His usual stance when he is deep in thought. 

He didn’t say anything, but he knew what Keith was thinking. Most likely his father, maybe his future. It was only recently that Shiro found out Keith hasn’t celebrated halloween for awhile, what with the death of his father severely impacting his joy in holidays meant to spend with family or friends. Keith’s only family passed away, and as far as Shiro knows, he hasn’t been able to make any friends. Students and teachers of the school are weary of him. They believe he represents nothing but trouble, and the higher officials at the garrison severely question Shiro’s judgement. Iverson going so far as to say he made a mistake by bringing Mr. Hotshot to the school. 

What they didn’t understand was he is a kid. A child who felt abandoned and dysfunctional. 

And every kid deserves to have some happiness in their life, at the very least.

So, Shiro talked Adam over having Keith over, explaining his background and how excellent he is in the garrison flight simulator. Adam was skeptical at first--not of Keith being a good kid--but of him willingly coming over. Shiro has spent more time with him than Adam, who unfortunately had no classes with him and only passed by the kid every now and then, greeting them on sight and Keith waving silently as a means of respect. 

Despite Adam’s opinions, Shiro has a gut feeling this is what Keith needs. And who knows, maybe he will take a liking to Adam and the treats he has in store. --------

As they approach the house, Keith turns to him, confused.

“Um, is this your house?”

“Yup.”

“Uh...” He looks around, waiting for Shiro to continue, but received nothing. “What are we doing here?”

“We,” Shiro begins, reaching behind his seat and grabbing some plastic bags full of groceries he picked up earlier. “Are going to prepare for Halloween.”

Keith looks uncomfortable. “I don’t really celebrate halloween. Or any of the holidays, for that matter.”

“I’m aware,” Shiro said, leveling him with a kind look. “You mentioned it when we had lunch the other day. But we need a helping hand with the pumpkins.”

“We?”

“Yeah, me and Adam. He’s my--er--He’s my boyfriend.” Shiro can feel a blush creep on his cheeks. He neglected to tell Keith of his and Adam’s actual relationship. It wasn’t that he was ashamed, it’s just he totally spaced on the little tidbit. So much for making the kid less awkward.

Keith doesn’t blink, cocking his head to the side. “Professor Adam? Doesn’t he hate me along with the other instructors? You’re getting serious flack for getting me into the school.”

He shakes his head. “Nope. In fact, he was more concerned on if you would show. I told him about you. He is looking forward to getting to know you as both a pilot and person.”

“I still don’t think this is a good idea. You should just--”

“Nope!” Shiro interrupts, snatching a pumpkin in the back and plopping it on Keith’s lap. “You’re a kid, and kids should be having fun. Not brooding in their room at night while halloween is just around the corner.”

“I don’t brood.” Keith exclaims, his lip jutting out in a pout.

“Right, and I have white hair.” Shiro said, sarcastic. “Come on, up and at ‘em. And don’t even think about stealing the car. I have the keys wrapped around my fingers.”

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

It was a little awkward, Shiro admitted. As Keith lugged the largest pumpkin Shiro gave him and entered the house, Adam emerged from the kitchen to greet the two, kissing Shiro on the cheek. He smiled down at Keith, introducing himself and holding out a hand to the tiny boy. There was a moment of silence, Keith not used to friendliness outside of Shiro. He half expected Adam to pull Shiro aside, meaning to be out of ear shot so he could chastise Shiro for bringing the “problem” child in their home. But he just gazed down at Keith, soft brown eyes never breaking from the starstruck indigo. Not until his expression morphed into that of discomfort, not sure what to do since Keith wasn’t responding in any way.

As he lowered his hand, Keith shifted the pumpkin to one arm and on his hip, carefully reaching out to grasp Adam’s hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, sir. I’m Keith.”

Adam smiles, toothy and proud. “Please, call me Adam. I’m not one for formalities.” He motions to where the kitchen is. “Come along, I was getting the newspaper ready for the pumpkin carving.”

They followed Adam, Shiro’s boyfriend asking Keith many questions as they prepared and began to pumpkin carve. He stuck to his interests, avoiding any semblance of questions having to do with Keith’s past. Shiro had already informed him of the touchy subject and to approach it if Keith chose to open up. To which, he eventually did, mentioning how his dad was never good at carving pumpkins and sometimes burned the seeds when they would roast them for a horror night. It was a small tidbit he lent; a sliver of his childlike, nostalgic side, void of sadness and regret. As Adam asked if he was good at carving pumpkins, Keith gave a small smile and said he was, sometimes using the knife his father gave him. Shiro watched the two interact, a fond and loving smile gracing his lips as he forgot about his pumpkin and focused more on the two bonding.

Shiro hadn’t seen such a big smile since he taught Keith how to land the hoverbike perfectly from jumping off a cliff in the desert. His eyebrows raised, eyes dancing in the florescent lighting, galaxies and mirth erasing the secret darkness he held whenever he is seen. The child Shiro encountered in the classroom, the boy who sadly looked out the window and strayed from the other children, not bothering to line up for the simulator, was overtook by a sense of peace. Meanwhile Adam, who expressed anxiety over the young teen hating Shiro’s idea, ruffles the raven haired boy’s locks and joked about how Shiro does that all the time, eliciting a squawk from Shiro. 

“I burned them once! Once, Adam!”

“Once was enough to make sure you never touch an oven again.” He jokes, laughing as Shiro grumbled about being betrayed by his own lover.

Adam leans towards Keith, a hand coming to partially cover his mouth as if to tell him a secret. “He may be a pro at flying now, but he crashed the simulator three times in one go in our cadet days.”

“Don’t poison his mind with lies!”

“It isn’t a lie when history is true.” Adam counters, grinning. 

“Oooooo he got you there.” Keith joined. Shiro shook his head, dipping his hand in the orange fruit and flicking it on Keith’s nose.

“Respect your elders, kid.”

“You’re 24.” Adam stated, Keith wiping his nose on his sleeve and chucking a large pile of orange goop at Shiro. Suddenly the three were engaged in an all out pumpkin guts fight, streamers of fruit coating the kitchen and their clothes. they were all laughing, Keith and Adam teamed up against Shiro as they hid behind the table, whispering strategies as Shiro gunned for another chunk of seeds and squash. Before he could land a hit, he is pummeled by two flying chunky globs, one hitting his chest and the other his neck. He chucked the stash in his hand, landing a hit on Keith’s tiny head. The atmosphere, so used to the voices of two, range with the laughter of three. They ran around the small kitchen, their pumpkin war ending only when they ran out of fuel from the three pumpkins Shiro brought home.

They laid on the floor, tired from their food fight but letting out a couple of giggles every now and then. Shiro noted how the two were smiling so wide, he couldn’t help but smile himself. Yes, this is what Keith needed. A sense of being a kid. A sense of having a family, whether it was a mother and father, or a brother figure and his boyfriend. Keith’s walls were up, pure stone covering the tenderness of his bruised heart. But now, they were down. Keith’s heart was wide open, the burden of his past forgotten and filled with glee he hadn’t felt in years.

Adam stood up and began to clean up, announcing they will make some candy apples after they all scrubbed the place clean. Keith didn’t put up a fight, he really didn’t mind.  He was chivalrous in his cleaning, asking Adam and Shiro if he missed any places. 

He is a good kid. His problem lies in trusting others, in trusting the human race. But when he ignores the darkness of humanity, he is a quiet teen who wants to have fun and acknowledges when there is chores to be done. 

He isn’t a problem child. He just needs to be given a chance.

The night ended with Keith curled up in the couch, a half eaten caramel apple on the coffee table in their living room. Shiro gingerly lifted his head to place a plump pillow under his dark head, and Adam covered him in a red fleece blanket he had stashed in a closet. Tiny snores escaped Keith’s nose, his face in a state of peace and content.

Shiro doesn’t regret giving him a second chance in the least.