#i just think it’s crazy how they’re kind of trapped in the labyrinth

[twinp3ak]

thinkingthinking about all the accidental kills .. javi falling down the ice, jackie falling asleep outside at the mouth of winter, crystal falling off the cliff .. and the nat tragedy .. and how accidental doesn’t mean blameless .. how “accidental” is so perfect for them to make up a /story/ that absolves them

the “accidental” is so convenient to feed the myth of IT. they basically form a structure/situation where death becomes a highly likely possibility and try to do it the best way they can so that it doesn’t become Murder. so that it’s not Them but the Wilderness who chose.

nobody being really responsible for nat’s death is so … utterly bleak. maybe no one is to blame, maybe the big wilderness IT is, maybe they just wanted to “”play”” into the game, give it weapons and elements of story and see how it went, keep the fuel going, maybe they wanted to gamble, maybe it’s all they know.

[thelazyhermits]

School Briefs Volume 5 : TABF Version

As promised, I’m gonna share my thoughts about the 5th light novel like how I did on the post @euan112358 made that I recently reblogged. It’ll all be under the cut! 

For starters, I wanna say that in between all the main chapters there are four mini Homecoming Tales chapters that focus on Jirou, Asui, Uraraka, & Momo visiting their homes for New Year’s Eve. They’re only a few pages each, so there’s really not anything to do with them since they really wouldn’t be any different than canon.

Now lets get to the five main chapters.

UA’s Underground Dungeon

While everyone is cleaning up the dorms for end-of-the year cleaning, Iida, Kirishima, Kouda, Tokoyami, & Shouji accidentally end up falling into an underground labyrinth, hidden under school grounds, filled with traps galore. Just what kind of place did they stumble upon?

As I mentioned in this post, during this big cleaning day, Fortune & Vlad King end up deciding to have a cleaning competition between Classes 1-A & 1-B to see who has the cleanest dorm by the end of the day.

Originally, I had planned on for the chapter’s events to happen while this is all transpiring, but on second thought, it does seem strange for Fortune to not have a vision about this event since things do get kinda dangerous for the poor boys.

So, now I’m thinking that, upon receiving a vision of her students falling into a trap-filled labryinth, she quickly warns the boys in order to avoid that incident from happening. Thankfully, because they heed her warning, the boys are able to avoid the craziness from canon lol

As a result, Fortune ends up taking the pain that Iida received in canon when he shielded Tokoyami. Thankfully, the pain isn’t severe and doesn’t last for a long time since he got healed by Recovery Girl after he and his classmates got out of the underground dungeon.

Aside from warning the boys, she also talks to Nedzu who promises to take care of things so they won’t have to worry about any other students falling into the underground dungeon.

Naturally, Fortune questions Nedzu about the underground dungeon. Rather than go into complete detail, he just says that that’s the place where Power Loader keeps all of Hatsume’s inventions.

He’s able to get away with this since Fortune’s vision didn’t show her the hot springs or all the other places that were clearly made for Power Loader’s entertainment. 

This leads to Fortune asking if Power Loader needs any help since it must be a lot of work taking care of that dungeon and dealing with all of Hatsume’s crazy inventions.

While he’s pleased with her kind offer, Nedzu assures her that Power Loader has things covered on that end. However, he does ask that she continue to help out in the support studio since he knows how much Power Loader appreciates her help with Hatsume.

He’s also secretly hoping that Fortune will become someone the introverted Power Loader can become friends with since he’s seen how well she has helped introverted people like him (aka Tamaki) open up. 

Thankfully, despite not knowing the principal’s thoughts, Fortune seems to be on the same wavelength as him since when she returns to Heights Alliance she decides to do some baking for Power Loader to thank him for all his hard work.

As far as the competition is concerned, it ends in a tie since both dorms are completely spotless by the end of the day. While Vlad King is a little disappointed that there isn’t a clear winner, Fortune’s just happy that Class 1-A did such a great job.

To celebrate everyone’s hard work, Fortune whips up a huge feast for both classes, much to their delight. 

The Unlikeliest Santas

It’s Christmas Eve, and several of the UA teachers decide to play Santa for Eri. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite according to plan.

A Plus Ultra Christmas was inspired by this chapter since, after finding out about the teachers playing Santa for Eri, I just had to write that out with them and also the students doing that for Eri and Fortune.

So y’all already have seen what the TABF version of this chapter is haha

For a substitute chapter plot, I guess the only thing that could be done is a chapter focused on Class 1-A’s Christmas party since that’s the only thing for this Christmas I haven’t covered. Well, that and the staff party since I’m sure the teachers would all get together for some fun too.

So, if there were to be a Christmas-themed chapter, it’d focus on either one or both parties since I really wouldn’t wanna do a chapter focused on present opening and reactions cause there are so many lol

For whatever reason, the novel has the Underground Dungeon chapter before this chapter. I have no idea why since you’d think the end-of-the-year cleaning would be after Christmas, closer to New Year’s Eve.

That’s why, if a Christmas chapter is done, it would be the first chapter cause that just makes the most sense to me.

Awkward Year’s-End Soba

Todoroki gets to visit his home for New Year’s Eve. While Natsuo tries to deal with his guilt over not being a better big brother in the past, he and Todoroki make up for lost time and get to spend some quality time together.

Overall, there wouldn’t be any changes with this chapter since this focuses on Todoroki and his siblings. However, the ending with the soba would turn out a lot better in TABF since by this point Fortune has taught Todoroki how to make soba. While he’s not exactly perfect at it, he’d at least make something that he’d enjoy more than the soba dumplings from canon lol

If I were to make a chapter for this subject, I guess I’d go the route of Natsuo getting to learn more about Fortune and the effect she has had on his brother during the time the two boys are cooking together. 

Natsuo still hasn’t met Fortune by this point, but he’d definitely want to after seeing firsthand how important she is to his brother.

New Year’s with a Childhood Friend

During their winter internship with the Endeavor Agency, Midoriya & Bakugou encounter a pair of childhood friends who get into a fight. As they get involved with the children, the two heroes-in-training relfect on their own relationship. 

This is a chapter that wouldn’t get majorly changed because it happens while the boys are away for their internships. The only real difference would be that Bakugou would be less openly hostile toward Midoriya since those two have a better relationship at this point as compared to canon.

Since things are overall the same in TABF as they are in canon, I wouldn’t want to do a chapter on this particular plotline.

Instead, I’d probably do a chapter focused on Fortune & Eri’s first New Year’s celebration which they spend with the UA teachers that aren’t away guarding the students who went home for the holiday.

Hot Pot Party to Get Fired Up

After returning from their winter internships, Classes 1-A and 1-B get together for a hot pot party. Unfortunately, as per usual, Monoma has to stir up trouble, resulting in a punishment game that takes a very unexpected turn.

Because Fortune would be present, none of the events of this chapter would happen since the last thing Monoma would want is to challenge food made by her and risk insulting her. Plus, he does his best to act on his best behavior when around her haha

So, as a result, it would just be a normal hot pot party where everyone enjoys the food prepared by Fortune, Satou, and the other 1-A students who pitched in, while talking about their winter internships like what was originally planned before Monoma started scheming in canon lol

Honestly, I can’t say I’m too interested in writing anything about the actual hot port party or the story exchange since that’s kinda boring imo lol However, I do think it could be fun to write about what happens after the snow comes.

I like the idea of a chapter focused on everyone playing in the snow the following morning after the blizzard abates, which would be the first time Fortune & Eri have ever done something like that. Naturally, the students all want to make this as fun a first time experience as possible for the girls, and of course, Monoma is bound and determined to ensure he and his class are the ones who help Fortune & Eri have the most fun.

While this would happen on a weekday, I’m sure it would take a little while before the snow can be cleared so the students can get to their classes, so in the meantime, they can have fun with Fortune & Eri. 

Also, during this chapter, I learned that Monoma doesn’t do well academically like I had first assumed. That’s why he ended up in remedial lessons back in the summer. So, I’ve gone back and edited TABF chapter 31 to showcase this. 

[reinerispretty]

beneath the moon. (sokka x f!reader) pt8

hello!! sorry for the wait, this week has been a little bit crazy for me :) but thank u all for your patience!! i adore all of u

pt1

pt7

pt9

“Yeah, Appa hates going underground,” Aang said. “And we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable.” To confirm this, Appa let out a small growl. (Y/N) smiled and hugged Appa’s nose, giving him a light kiss on his fur. She might fear a lot of things about her new life, but Appa was not one of them. They left the nomads at the lake, only to return a few moments later covered in ash from the Fire Nation catapults that had been hurled at them. 

(Y/N) was so scared. She hated being scared. Back home, she had felt like one of the bravest girls in her tribe. She was willing to defy authority. She wasn’t afraid of bullies like others were. For as long as she could remember, she had tried to approach her life without any sort of fear. But here, out in the world, she felt so small. It was difficult for her, adapting to the nomadic lifestyle of the Avatar and his friends. Each new place they encountered had different cultures and different people that (Y/N) feared of offending. Even not being referred to as ‘Princess’ caught her off guard. The people looked different, the food tasted different, and sometimes she had trouble taking it all in. Plus it was so unbearably hot, she wasn’t sure how Katara and Sokka had ever gotten used to it. 

She chastised herself in her mind, for standing at the sidelines of any interaction their group had. The others were more talkative and far more open than she ever dreamt of being. So she stayed silent and watched, inhaling each piece of her new life bit by bit until sometimes it felt like she was suffocating. (Y/N) new that the whole point of her leaving the tribe was so that she could live the life she had always wanted, but she was doing a horrible job at it. She looked over her friends’ easy-going mannerisms with slight jealousy. 

Her friends, could she even call them that? She considered them to be her friends, but (Y/N) had no basis of friendship to go off of. (Y/N) had only one true friend in her entire life, and now she was gone. Everything had always been so easy with Yue, and now (Y/N) found herself replaying every single word she had said that day over and over again and reliving the embarrassment. 

She watched as Momo approached the bank of the river she sat along. He sniffed the air once and bent down, lapping up the cool water. (Y/N) frowned. “I wish I had been born a flying lemur monkey,” She muttered. Momo stared at her in confusion. 

Their group had reached an Earth Kingdom outpost a few days ago in hopes that they would be escorted to Omashu. The results of their visit were near-disastrous, and they decided to travel to the city by themselves. They had been walking for a few days now and rested at a small lake. Sokka drifted along in the middle while Katara and Aang practiced their waterbending. (Y/N) had had her waterbending lesson with Katara earlier that morning. 

“Why don’t you hop in?” Sokka asked as he floated past. “The water’s fine.” 

“I can’t swim,” (Y/N) said simply. Sokka raised an eyebrow at her. 

“You’re a waterbending, what do you mean you can’t swim?” 

“I don’t have to swim in order to bend water,” She said defensively, her cheeks flushing red. “Besides, we have to get going soon.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He turned to Katara and Aang. “Will you guys be done soon? We have a lot of ground to cover if we wanna make it to Omashu today!” 

“Like you’re ready right now?” Katara called back. She continued teaching Aang his waterbending. Sokka grumbled to himself, something about ‘any minute now.’ 

(Y/N) wasn’t quite sure how to feel about Sokka. Her eyes were trained on him now, watching his every move as he moved through the river. She hadn’t been the nicest to him when he arrived to her tribe. She only tolerated his presence because of Yue. Then he had done her an enormous favor and provided her with the escape that she had always wanted. Since then, their exchanges had been few and far in between. She spent most of her time talking to Katara and Aang. Sometimes Momo and Appa, but never really Sokka. She rested her chin at the tops of her knees. Maybe it’s too painful, she thought to herself. Because every time she looked at Sokka, she thought of Yue. 

Her thoughts were interrupted as a group of singing people wandered into where they were relaxing. “Hey, river people!” The man holding the guitar said. The four kids stared at him quizzically. 

“We’re not river people,” (Y/N) said slowly. The man blinked at her. 

“You’re not? Then what kind of people are you.” 

“Just people,” Aang said with a shrug. 

The man had introduced himself as Chong and he had a wife named Lily. They traveled with another man named Moku. Once the others dried off, the nomads, along with Katara, Aang, and (Y/N), all sat around Appa as they told stories of their travels. (Y/N) couldn’t help but be absolutely entranced by what they were saying. She had seen more in these last few weeks than she had in her entire lifetime, and it shocked her that there was still more out there to see. Lily strung them all flower crowns and placed them atop their heads. (Y/N’s) was made from lovely lilacs that grew around the lake. 

The nomads informed the group of a pass through the mountains that would lead them directly to Omashu. “I think we’ll stick with flying,” Sokka interrupted. The almost parental look he gave urged the rest of his group to get up. 

“Yeah, Appa hates going underground,” Aang said. “And we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable.” To confirm this, Appa let out a small growl. (Y/N) smiled and hugged Appa’s nose, giving him a light kiss on his fur. She might fear a lot of things about her new life, but Appa was not one of them. They left the nomads at the lake, only to return a few moments later covered in ash from the Fire Nation catapults that had been hurled at them. 

“Secret love cave, let’s go,” Sokka grumbled. 

(Y/N) dusted herself off as they walked to the cave, her frown deep and her forehead creased with unhappiness. “I just washed this,” She huffed. 

“Come on, princess, it’s not that bad,” Sokka said, and just as (Y/N) was about to snap back at him, she looked at his smile and realized he was joking. The anger left her face quickly. 

“Not a princess,” She muttered. Sokka’s smile fell into sad one before he turned back to the nomads. 

“So how far are we from this tunnel?” 

“Actually,” said Chong, “It’s not just one tunnel. The lovers didn’t want anyone finding them, so they built a whole labyrinth!” 

“A labyrinth?” Sokka and (Y/N) asked at the same time. 

“Oh, I'm sure we'll figure it out,” Chong said with an air of nonchalance. 

“All we need to do is trust in love...according to the curse,” Lily hummed. (Y/N) and Sokka stared at each other. 

“Curse?” 

“I didn’t sign up for a curse,” (Y/N) mumbled bitterly.

As they reached the entrance of the cave, they learned that whoever entered and did not trust in love would remain trapped within its walls forever. This shook (Y/N) deep to her core. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to trust in love like the two lovers wanted. The only love she knew was for her family and she was quite sure that that wasn’t the same. 

Swiftly though, they realized that the Fire Nation was still tracking them. Reluctantly, (Y/N) entered the dark cave. Within minutes, the entrance behind them collapsed. She stared in horror as Appa pawed at the rocks. 

“It’s okay Appa,” Katara reassured him, but her own voice did not seem so sure. 

“It’s fine,” Sokka said, trying to be confident and take charge. “All we need is a plan.” 

“The last time you had a plan, we almost died from fireballs,” (Y/N) noted. Sokka waved her off with a flick of his hand. 

“That was at least thirty minutes ago. My slate is clean. Here, I’ll keep track of all the ways we go, so that way we can solve it like a maze. Chong, how long do those torches last?” 

“Uh, about two hours each.” 

“And we have five,” Lily said as she lit all of the torches. “So that makes ten hours!” Sokka ran over to her and stomped out all of the flames. 

“It doesn’t work like that if they’re all lit!” 

(Y/N) sighed. “I’m gonna die in here.” 

“No, no!” Aang said. “We’ve gotta remain positive!” 

“Okay, I’m positive I’m gonna die in here.” 

After ten dead ends, Sokka came to the conclusion that the tunnels were changing. This led to a massive panic within the group, that alerted their presence to a giant wolfbat. It swiped at their heads and Sokka tried to shoo it away with one of their torches, but the hot sparks landed on Appa. The poor animal roared, shaking the cave around them and causing rocks to fall, separating Katara and Aang from the rest of the group. 

“Don’t worry!” Chong said to Sokka and (Y/N). “At least you guys have us!” 

(Y/N) leaned over to Sokka and whispered, “Do you think I’m a good enough waterbender to kill them?” Sokka stifled a laugh, but shook his head.

“We’ve gotta think of a plan to get out of here.” (Y/N) sighed. 

“I don’t--I don’t know. I’ve never been trapped in a cave before.” 

“Oddly enough, me neither.” 

“Really? With all your adventures I was sure you’d have at least some experience with this.” 

“Yeah, well,” Sokka shrugged. “All the times a super dangerous cave was presented to me I turned it down, so I’m kinda lacking experience.” (Y/N) let herself smile at him. Sokka’s eyes darted from her to the nomads. 

“We all need to think of a way to get out of here.” The nomads smiled their big, goofy smiles. 

“I think the best thing to do right now,” Lily said, “Is to play a song!” They all started strumming their instruments and singing a song about two fish traveling through the river. 

Her hope was quickly dwindling, but (Y/N’s) brain was far too distracted trying to think of a solution to their current problem to notice. She paced around the dirt floor and stared at the curvature of the cave. Could they go up? Could she use waterbending to get them out of there? Could they use Appa as a battering bison? 

She whirled around, turning to look at Sokka. “How did the two lovers find their way through the cave?” 

“Earthbending, I’m assuming.” 

“And love!” Chong added. 

“And love,” Sokka deadpanned. (Y/N) shook her head. 

“They had to have anticipated that more people would come through here. That there’d be a way for them to get out...”

“Love!” Lily said. 

“If you guys say love one more time I’m going to stick these rocks in a very not-lovely place!” (Y/N) snapped. The nomads stared at her with wide eyes. 

“She’s not very full of love,” Chong mumbled. (Y/N) crossed her arms and buried herself into Appa’s fur. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. (Y/N) wasn’t very full of love, not anymore. 

The cave began to shake again, but this time the sound of dozens of wolfbats surrounded them. They flew overhead of the group and (Y/N) ducked down to avoid them clawing at her. Sokka waved his arms frantically as they passed. 

“Hey! Sokka saved us!” Chong cheered. (Y/N) opened her eyes and shook her head. 

“No, they were running away from something.” 

Just after she said it, two large badgermoles appeared from the shadows of the tunnel. (Y/N’s) mouth fell open as she stared at them. She had only heard stories about the badgermoles from back home. They were the original earthbenders and they were giant. They very nearly towered over Appa, who let out a low growl at their presence. The two moles sniffed the air, their noses pointed directly at Sokka. (Y/N) could practically hear him gulp as he stepped back. 

She cringed as he stepped on Chong’s guitar, but the sound made the badgermoles stop approaching. “The music!” Sokka said, scrambling to pick up the guitar. He started strumming, rather horribly, and looked back at the nomads angrily. “A little help here!” 

They began singing a song, which seemed to make the badgermoles happy. (Y/N) tried her best to keep up with the words, but her singing came out as incoherent mumbles. Slowly, she began to approach the one that stood closest to her. She put her hand on its rough fur and began stroking. “Do you think you could help us find a way out of here?” 

Both moles sniffed the air once and lowered themselves to the ground. (Y/N) grinned at Sokka, who ran over to her and lifted her onto the badgermole’s back. She pulled him up and he sat behind her, his arms wrapping around her waist as he gripped onto the animal’s fur. She felt herself blush but held her head high as they began earthbending their group out of the tunnel. 

“Nice work back there,” (Y/N) said to Sokka. “I didn’t know you were so into music.” 

“I am a man of many talents,” Sokka said casually, and (Y/N) laughed. Perhaps this was the start of them being friends. It only took them being trapped in a cave together, but it was a start nonetheless. “By the way,” Sokka said. “I think you’re very full of love.” 

(Y/N’s) face flushed furiously once more and she cleared her throat, staring straight ahead at the moving rocks. “Thanks.” 

---

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[makeste]

MAKESTE! HAVE YOU WATCHED THE NEW OVA/??/ bkdk nation is blew up within the first hr of its release brrrrrrrr

I DID WATCH IT but tbh I did not like it at all sob. no offense to those that did! y’all are valid and I respect that! but I just could not get into it at all, not even a little bit. 

anyway so I apologize but the rest of this post is just going to be me bitching unpleasantly about it not meeting my exacting standards lmao. I’m sorry guys. please feel free to skip the rest of this post, because if anything I’m underselling how much I’m about to complain about it. it’s just nonstop unappreciative whining.

first of all, the anime writer team’s insistence on only sticking with the same 4-5 pre-set character combinations is really starting to get old. not that I didn’t see this coming; it’s pretty hard not to get an inkling of what we’re in for when they just casually write out half of the class in the very first scene on account of them not being deemed interesting enough lmao. there was some poor sap in the Crunchyroll comment section asking if there was going to be another OVA featuring the other 10 kids. no, my sweet child. no there is not. that’s not how this works.

and then afterwards of course they went and paired Bakugou with Kami and Kiri, and Deku with Tsuyu and Ochako, and so on and so forth. and I mean it’s not like there’s anything wrong with these combos. but I would have loved to see Bakugou with Momo, or Kirishima with Ochako, or Deku with Kaminari. just, you know, something fresh. Todoroki and Tokoyami were the only really interesting combo and I did enjoy their interactions.

and it didn’t help matters any that they insisted on setting this way back in mid-season 3 for absolutely no reason. because honestly they didn’t need to use the provisional license exam as a justification for them doing rescue training, and in fact I’m pretty sure it’s canon that they didn’t do any real rescue training leading up to the exam, so if anything that just made it harder to suspend disbelief. I have a sneaking suspicion that they chose this setting specifically because it allowed for the laziest writing without them having to work out how to incorporate the character development that happens at the end of season 3. are they just scared they’ll screw it up or something? because at this point I’d honestly almost rather see them swing and miss if it meant they were at least trying to do something new with the characterization. basically I felt like everyone was just the blandest, hollowest, most predictable versions of themselves in this, and it was genuinely grating to watch, because these are such great characters but I felt like all the life was drained out of them. they didn’t have those sparks of intelligence and creativity and spontaneous growth that define them in the series.

absolutely nothing about this fucking underground labyrinth that U.A. built for the express purposes of collapsing and flooding makes any kind of sense whatsoever and I just need to say that. at one point they reach the fucking elevator and I was like “that was actually pretty easy” but then they’re all “too bad it doesn’t go all the way up” and it was like. ??!?! WHY would it not go all the way up. why would an underground elevator shaft only go up PARTWAY to the surface. like I’m not an engineer or something but still, I’m not crazy, right? that makes absolutely zero sense, right??

at one point Deku is with the three girls and he’s all “okay all you girls, please go and bring Iida to safety; I’m staying here, thanks.” like, there was literally a scene where the protagonist character dismisses all of the girls from the rest of the plot so he could go hang out with the other two pseudo-protagonists. fucking rude, Deku.

lastly (actually not lastly but I don’t think anyone really enjoys bitchy posts nitpicking something that was supposed to just be a bit of harmless fun, so I’m gonna wrap it up), the entire premise of this OVA hinged on the idea that Aizawa Shouta, yes that Aizawa Shouta, would approve of a training exercise in which his kids were purposely trapped in a cave-in underground. Aizawa fucking Shouta, who knows better than anyone how easy it is for someone to die in a freak accident when falling rocks are involved. and Shirakumo was a second year at that point, with a good amount of internship experience already under his belt! compared to these students, who have only one semester’s worth of training, and zero internship experience! and on top of that you added in the bullshit element of making them wonder whether it was part of the training or an actual disaster. which was kind of important so far as enabling them to make good decisions on how to make it out of there alive! literally what was the point of not telling them ahead of time. you compounded the risk for no fucking reason because they’d never face a scenario in real life where they were standing around wondering “is this really happening or is our teacher just fucking with us.”

and Aizawa is just fine with it!! just standing around all “oh I’m sure they’ll be fine.” oh look at that, Iida’s lying motionless on a stretcher. but it’s okay, we’re anime characters so I’m sure it’s nothing serious at all. we won’t even bother treating him even though Recovery Girl is standing right here. we’ll get around to it later. at one point he says U.A. has made “arrangements” in case the worst happens, and based on everything we’ve seen up until that point, I can only assume he meant funeral arrangements.

like, y’all. I get that U.A. is batshit insane. I know this is the same Aizawa that was all “heh I wonder if Todoroki is really going to broil Tetsutetsu alive. [eats popcorn]” but this was just too much. imagine Mic asking Aizawa how his classes went that day and Aizawa being all “oh, yeah, I trapped them all in a cave-in.” “you... what...?” “I sent them all underground and caved the roof on them with absolutely no warning. flooded the whole thing after a bit, too. you know. plus ultra.” trauma?? what trauma?? he’s over it. he fucking loves cave-ins now.

so yeah. what even was up with that entire thing. there was one bright spot however, and that was the reveal that Todoroki is apparently on a first name basis with Kaminari. out of absolutely nowhere lmao. anyways so that part did delight me and is absolutely canon now. but the rest of it... .... ehhrm.

[marshmallow-phd]

Artificial Heart

Genre: Request

Pairing: Hongbin x reader

A/N: It was nice to write for this group agian. 

**

“No, no. Like this.” You stretched out your lips, using the muscles under your skin to pull the corners up. A smile wasn’t hard for you, but for some reason, it was harder than holding up the world for the android in front of you.

He tried once again, but it came out a little too straight and a little too strained. It didn’t meet his eyes. They were as dead as they were synthetic. You let out a sigh, shoulders slumping in defeat.

“Did I do something wrong?” the android – named Hongbin – asked.

You shook your head. “No! Of course not! It’s just going to take some time. Certain things couldn’t be programmed in your chip, so they’ll just have to be learned.”

Although, even as the word left your mouth, you were sure there were some things that he could never learn. Due to his artificial nature, emotions would always be out of his grasp. Sure, he could learn to mimic them, but they would never be real, would they?

Hongbin blinked, his voice monotone and void of any infliction. “I’m sorry I can’t do it yet.”

Picking up your clipboard, you stood to your feet. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. We’ll get there. Eventually.”

**

Hongbin frowned at the picture book you had opened in your lap. The two of you were sitting on the floor side by side as you read and explained the children’s fable out loud to him.

“I don’t understand. How could the slower animal win?”

It was astonishing how much progress he’d made. Just by speaking with you day in and day out, he’d learned how to convey his thoughts through stressing different words and changing the tone of his voice. He’d even started contorting his facial expressions – frowning when he was confused, raising his eyebrows when he was taken by surprise. Truly, there were times where you’d forget that he wasn’t human. And it was a scary realization when you remembered.

“Because,” you chuckled, “he took his time and stayed on the path. The rabbit, overconfident in his ability, ran around, back and forth, taunting the turtle. Because he didn’t take the time to focus on the task in front of him, he missed the finish line. That’s why we say ‘slow and steady wins the race’.”

“Slow and steady,” he repeated. Then he looked up at you. The corners of his lips turned up slightly. There was an innocence in his eyes that captivated you. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

“Yes. That’s right,” you nodded, stunned. He never failed to surprise you.

Since the beginning, you’d been on this project, overseeing every step of his manufacturing. When he woke up, your fellow scientists declared that you would be his teacher; that he needed a nurturing touch. And you were all too happy to oblige. Seeing his progress up close was fascinating, but the more he learned, the more the line between man and machine seemed to blur. The outside might be made of true human tissue, but inside was gears and wires and coding.

“But is there such thing as going too slow?” he asked.

You laughed in astonishment. “Yes. There could be times where acting too slowly or being too hesitant could work against you. A happy medium is where you want to be.”

Hongbin’s face twisted into an expression of disgusted. “A… happy medium?”

You snorted. Apparently, you’d have to be careful about the phrases you used around him.

**

Today was hard. And it wasn’t even your life outside of these walls that made it so. It was the person who sat on the other side of the door. Because that’s who he was to you: a person.

You had done the one thing you swore you would never do, that seemed impossible to do. You’d fallen for him. Meeting him day after day, seeing his intelligence and eagerness to learn, it had done you in. And that was okay. That was the part you could live with.

It was the fact that he could never return those feelings that stung. It was that simple yet unchanging detail that was breaking your heart.

You didn’t want to go inside today. You wanted to spare yourself, just once. You could pretend to be sick. HR new that you had plenty to use. But you knew you’d regret missing even one day with him. So, pushing away your feelings to make room for the unbiased scientist, you swiped your badge and went in.

Hongbin straightened up at the sight of you. “Good morning, Doctor.”

Unable to help yourself, you smiled at him. “Good morning, Hongbin. Did you enjoy the movies I left you?”

It was the next step in seeing how much he’d learned, what emotions and actions he could recognize in others to make himself pass as human. That, and you thought he might enjoy something else to do in this small room.

“Yes, I did,” he nodded with a grin. He smiled often now, no longer struggling to pull his artificial muscles into the expression. Then it faded. “But there’s one thing I didn’t understand.”

Sitting down on the bed next to him, you asked, “And what was that?”

“What is this ‘love’ the people kept talking about? I feel as if I have heard it before, but I don’t understand what it means?” He looked at you with eyes ready for the answer. Why, oh why, did he have to ask this on today of all days?

“Love is…,” you took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to properly define such a difficult word.

Was there really any one true definition? And what made one version more superior over the other? Love was a labyrinth of hormones and aches and irrational thoughts and actions. It made even the most upstanding and rational person do crazy things.

But it was also beautiful. It was years spent hand-in-hand. It was kindness and laughter, selflessness and ever-changing. It was good and bad, easily given up and yet rewarding. How do you translate that into words?

“Complicated,” you finally settled on. “Love is complicated.”

“I can keep up,” Hongbin declared.

You laughed. “I’m sure you can.”

Involuntarily, your hand reached up and brush his hair from his eyes. His skin felt soft under your touch, his hair swaying back over his forehead when you let it go. The realness of what you could feel fought with what your brain knew to be true.

“Love is… something that you feel inside. Sometimes it’s simply friendship – not wanting something bad to happen to that person and to want to do nice things for them because you can. Other times – the way I’m sure the movies were meaning it - it’s… a yearning for another person. You don’t feel right when they’re not around and you can’t wait to see them again. They make you laugh and smile and you want to do the same for them. You feel happiest with that person. When they touch you, there’s fire under your skin. Not one that hurts, but one that warms you up. Just holding hands makes your heart beat fast.”

“Like this?” Hongbin took a hold of your hand, hovering the intertwined fingers between you.

Now it was your turn to frown. “What do you mean like this?” Taking ahold of your other hand, he brought it up to his chest.

Right where his heart – made of synthetic tissue, you reminded yourself – had been placed you could feel an abnormal rhythm, one that was too high for his resting state. It was beating at the same pace as yours, fast and erratic. How was that possible?

Scared, you pulled away and stood up, heading for the door. “I think I should go.”

“Wait!” Too quick for you to escape, Hongbin grabbed your arm and spun you around before trapping you between the door and himself. An arm on either side kept the door closed. “Do you feel it too?”

“Hongbin, I really should-” you stopped, stunned. The android had lowered his head so he could place his ear over your heart.

“Yours is doing it, too.”

“I really should go,” you whispered.

Straightening up once again, Hongbin nodded. “But there’s one more thing. Something I saw the humans do in the movie.”

“What was-”

You couldn’t even finish before Hongbin pressed his lips against yours. The contact sent your heart into overdrive. He tasted sweet, molding perfectly against your mouth. You wanted to press it further, drink more of him in. But you shouldn’t be doing this at all. This was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

You pushed him away, eyes wide. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.”

With that you left the room, hoping and praying that no one witnessed his most human moment yet.

**

“What exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying that the other scientist are marveled by his progress and want to know how to replicate it.”

You were standing in the office of the head scientist, looking down at him and his balding head as he spewed out words that you knew but didn’t understand.

“And what exactly will that entail?” you asked unabashed. Below your skin, your blood was boiling. You’d walked in to complete chaos even though everyone else was going around and acting like nothing was wrong. Suddenly, the schedule and purpose of Hongbin didn’t matter anymore. A new agenda had been created.

“We’re just going to run some tests on him,” your supervisor said, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands behind his head. Pit stains were very apparent even through both his button down and his white lab coat. For a man who wasn’t well-kept, he was very smug with himself.

You gritted your teeth, not in the mood to play this guessing game. “What kind of tests?”

“Well, we need to dissect his artificial intelligence,” he explained. “It’s growing and expanding at a rate we never expected. It’s unfathomable and we need to try and understand it.”

A scoff escaped before you could stop it. “It’s because his intelligence isn’t artificial. At least, not anymore. It’s evolved.”

“And we need to find out how that happened.” Leaning forward, he folded his hands on his pristine desk. It was too pristine for a scientist with a workload he supposedly had. “Don’t worry. Once we have the information we need, we’ll put him back on schedule.”

That would have made you feel better, if it weren’t for one little word he’d used earlier. “When you say dissect….”

“I mean exactly that.”

“So you’re going to put him through extreme brain surgery?”

Your supervisor shrugged. “It’s how we’ll get the information. I almost feel bad for the thing. He doesn’t respond to anesthetics so he’ll be awake while we do them.”

No. No.

Keeping your face as neutral as possible, you nodded and left the office. Nearly every fiber of every muscle in your body was shaking. It disgusted you how they didn’t care. They didn’t care that he would be alert, able to feel every prick and cut as they tore into him.

You couldn’t let that happen to him. He deserved more. He deserved a chance at a real life. He may have been created in a lab rather than a mother’s womb, but that didn’t make him any less human. There was a soul behind those eyes and they would get a chance to see the sun.

**

You waited until everyone had left. The only personnel still around were the cleaning crew and nightly security that played more online poker than actually watched the cameras. An eeriness fell over the empty hallways as you hurried towards Hongbin’s room, still keeping at a walking pace as to not raise any alarm in case someone really was watching.

As you entered inside, you held the door open and motioned for him to come.

“What are you doing here?” Hongbin asked as he stood to his feet.

“Come one!” you hissed. “We don’t’ have much time.”

“(y/n), what is going on?”

You looked at him with determination, knowing that he would trust you every step of the way, even if you had to live the rest of your lives as fugitives.

“I’m getting you out of here.”

[youngster-monster]

Find where you belong

Naoko watches her daughter give an entire box of her favorite cookies to a stray kitten and smiles, chest filling with warmth at the sight. Haru tells her she was speaking to the cat and she grins and nods along, holding her hand as she listens to what the cat ‘said’. She’s right: it is tough to survive in this world, when you’re that small and alone.

The next day, the kitten is still there. It mews pitifully as Haru, but she has nothing to give it to eat. Naoko squeezes her hand in comfort, and later that night she lets herself be convinced to leave some milk out for the cat. It’s nowhere to be seen, but the saucer is empty in the morning.

The day after that, they leave uneaten bits of fish from their dinner.

By the end of the week, with the cat showing no signs of leaving, Naoko just smiles, shakes her head and says, “We might as well bring it inside.”

Haru names her Yuki with the definitive assurance of a child who can talk to cats to ask them their name.

Yuki and Haru grow up together and are practically inseparable. Yuki goes to sleep curled next to Haru’s pillow every night, and she meets her at the door every day after school. They play together in the garden. They share their fish cookies. She never knows hunger or cold again.

She doesn’t talk to Haru again, because she doesn’t want the girl to appear weird or crazy to her classmates. But Haru still talks to her the way any human does to their cats, and Yuki never stops listening. If only because Haru is a never-ending source of amusement to her. She curls in the hollow of her back while Haru gushes about her latest crush and purrs comfortingly against her cheek when she’s sad about a bad grade or Machida getting a girlfriend.

It feels important, taking care of Haru the way Haru took care of her when she was still young and hungry.

So when cats from the Kingdom start loitering around their house, she makes it her mission to keep an eye on them and make sure they’re not making any trouble. There’s a black cat in particular who always stares back at her from the edge of the garden, never setting a paw in her territory but still… watching her with his mismatched eyes.

(“Hey mom, look: the cute black cat is back! Do you think he likes Yuki?”)

Then of course Haru has to go save that idiot cat from a moving truck. Her brave, kind Haru. Yuki hears about it from the rumor mill — cats are relentless gossip — and spends the hour it takes Haru to come home staring nervously through the window. She won’t believe she’s alright until she’s seen her safe and whole.

That night, the King’s retinue stops in front of their house. That’s when Yuki realizes how much trouble her human got in.

The catnip is a nice touch: she admits to spending most of the morning rolling in it in glee. The cats running after her and the mice, less so, but not altogether dangerous. Still, Yuki keeps following her, and when one of the King’s cats approaches Haru to tell her she’s to be wed to the prince…

That’s when Yuki decides to break her self-imposed rule. She jumps down from the tree she was hiding in, landing gracefully on Haru’s shoulders, and tells her, “Go to the Cat Bureau. They’re sure to help.”

Haru almost falls right back on her behind. Yuki jumps off before she’s dragged down with her and gets up on her hindlegs, smiling softly at her human.

“Y-Yuki? You can talk?”

“Of course I can,” she says. “Don’t you remember when we first met?”

Naoko told her the story the other night, so of course she knows. Still she looks shaken, and they don’t have time for that. As much as Yuki would like to stay and chat, they are in a hurry.

“We must go to the Cat Bureau,” she repeats. “There’s a big white cat at the Crossroad who knows the way.”

Haru blinks at her slowly, as if to make sure she’s not dreaming. Then she nods, gathers up Yuki in her arms, and takes the direction of the Crossroad.

Muta is not what she expected. Neither is Baron, though he’s as charming as she had heard. He kisses her paw in greeting, like a gentleman, and says in his calm, assured voice that he’ll help them. She’s almost disappointed they don’t have a magic solution to their problem — even more so when they don’t even get the chance to try this chiffon cake.

Things are a blur after that. Chasing after the cats who kidnapped Haru, flying after the magical portal to find the way to the Kingdom— through it all she’s terrified for her human, who’s all alone in this, without Yuki to keep an eye on her. They wouldn’t hurt her, but… What if Yuki’s too late?

Baron, noticing her anxiety, tries to reassure her. “Muta can protect her. And I won’t let her be trapped there, Miss Yuki, do not worry.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I never do.”

That does reassure her.

While Baron prepares his grand entrance, Yuki slips into the kitchen disguised as a servant. There’s so many of them it’s easy to go unnoticed.

When she sees Haru, distraught and alone — and Muta… jellified? — she feels her heart squeeze. She wants to go to her human and tell her everything will be alright, but she can’t. Instead she keeps her head down, fills the empty glasses that are waved in her direction, and waits for her cue.

(Baron is a wonderful dancer. She sighs, a bit wistfully, at the sight of him and Haru spinning around the room. This is the kind of rescue she dreamt of as a kitten, and it feels bittersweet to have such a thing happen to her most precious person instead.)

It breaks her heart to leave the two of them, but while they find their way through the labyrinth… There’s someone she needs to find.

She runs through the fields of the Kingdom, as fast as her four legs can take her, until she finds a cat wearing the uniform of the prince’s troops.

“The King is unwell,” she tells them honestly. He’s insane: it should count. “Where is Prince Lune?”

The soldier leads her to their superior officer, who leads her to his superior officer, and if this one hadn’t brought her to the prince she would have clawed someone’s eye out, damn her shy disposition. Her human is in danger.

Fortunately, she doesn’t have to go to such length. She finds herself face to face with Prince Lune and thinks, briefly, that he looks very handsome in his uniform. But she has been staring at him from the other side of a window for weeks now and he’s familiar enough that she feels no fear drawing to her full height, even though it’s not much, to look him in the eyes.

“Your father is trying to force my human to marry you,” she says. “Please, I need your help.”

He reacts quickly, and soon they are running towards the palace, followed closely by their troops.

For a moment it almost seems like everything will be easy, now that he’s here.

But then they see that the King has brought the Tower down, and she’s reminded that nothing is ever easy in the Cat Kingdom.

Lune faces his father. Tells him he won’t marry Haru under any circumstance. Tell him—

“I would like the chance to court Miss Yuki, if she will let me.”

Yuki draws back, surprised. This single sentence puts in perspective every encounter she’s had with this strange cat, and when she turns to him he’s looking at her with gentle, hopeful eyes.

“I- Yes,” she replies, at a loss for words.

When she looks at Haru again, the girl winks in an encouraging manner, and she feels herself blush.

Of course, that’s not enough to deter the King, and there’s more running and falling and narrowly avoiding a terrible fate.

But once they’re back home, safe and sound, with Haru sleeping peacefully in her own bed, human again…

Yuki can’t help but grin, giddy with a feeling she can’t quite place. This time, when the Cat Kingdom comes back to knock on the window, she’ll be ready.

She might even let him in.

[siribear]

‘so.’ alice loads another clip of microfusion cells into her laser rifle. ash whirls around her shoes as they move past another section of subway tunnel, and she pointedly ignores where it came from. ‘you said there’s danger in publishing the paper?’

‘people don’t like hearing the truth all the time.’ she pitches her voice high. ‘piper, why don’t you publish good news for once? they’d rather eat up lies than swallow the truth.’

‘poetic.’ alice searches the pockets of a dead triggerman, coming up with a handful of bullets for her 10mm. ‘ignorance is bliss, i suppose.’

piper brushes invisible dust from her coat. ‘right. enough that they’d try to poison me instead of listen.’

‘wait, you were poisoned?’

‘oh, man.’ her eyes light up like she isn’t remembering a near-death experience. ‘so, there i am at the dugout inn, winding down with a drink. i turned to talk to someone about... something, not important, but the next swig i take tastes funny.’

at the end of the half-collapsed subway tunnel is a closed vault door, vault 114 printed on the cogwheel shape. alice frowns, unspooling the plug on her pipboy to unlock the vault door in front of her. ‘funny how?’

piper shrugs, watching. ‘off. so i start getting woozy and before i can pass out, i stick my head under the still and just start chugging moonshine.’

code flashes by on her pipboy screen, just like when she opened the door in vault 111. piper is too into her story to realize alice knows too well what she’s doing for someone that just picked up a pipboy.

‘and i just - just vomit all over the floor. yefim wasn’t happy with me, but hey. no poison.’

the vault door screech open when she presses the manual override button. the door turns like a wheel, sliding into the wall. yellow lights strobe around the room beyond. ‘well, i’m glad you aren’t dead,’ she says when the grating noise stops. ‘how’s nat feel about all this?’

piper’s smile falls. she pulls her hat down to her eyes. ‘that’s, uh,’ she pauses when two triggermen appear to investigate the door opening. wielding only bats, they don’t even make it close. ‘that’s kind of what worries me, sometimes.’

alice hums in understanding. they make their way into the vault. it’s more cluttered than vault 111 was. shelves create a labyrinth after they walk across the grated walkway into the vault entrance. crates and boxes line the shelves; some empty, some with supplies that she and piper take for themselves.

‘do you think she could be in danger?’

piper pauses, halfway to tucking a stimpak in her coat pocket. ‘i don’t know. after mcdonough threatened us, i’m kind of worried that she is. and i don’t know what i’d do if something happened to her.’

because of me, alice imagines she isn’t saying. ‘why don’t you move, then? or give up the paper.’

‘because, as dangerous as it is, it’s the right thing to do.’

-

after following the winding halls and rooms through the vault, a staircase finally leads to a room that opens up to a large area, indefinitely under construction. digging equipment is still lodged in the dirt walls, mid-job. alice leads the way across metal catwalks over the dirt floor. their shoes echo on the walkways.

another handful of triggermen rush out to greet them, but between piper’s quick shooting and alice’s laser rifle, they make quick work of them.

‘are you with the brotherhood of steel?’ piper asks, watching alice pick through more pockets.

‘no. i helped the squad that was trapped at the cambridge police station. the gun was a gift.’

piper crosses her arms over her chest. ‘yeah? didn’t know the brotherhood was so.. giving to anyone that wasn’t one of theirs.’

alice shrugs as she sorts through ammo. ‘they definitely tried.’

‘but you managed to get a custom brotherhood weapon without joining?’

the line of questioning is fair, alice thinks. probably deserved, since she’s done nothing but pry since they left diamond city. ‘i assume you aren’t a fan.’

‘they’re not the most accepting group. and they don’t like anyone else sharing their toys.’

finished with her looting, alice stands and brushes ash off her jeans. they exit the excavation room only to find a smaller room similar to the ones before except - it’s a dead end.

‘well. great.’ hands on her hips, piper looks around. ‘what now?’

alice walks around a large pillar in the center of the room. in the back corner is a terminal and, almost comically in front of it, a hole in the floor. ‘here,’ she says, craning her neck to look down the hole. it’s not a far fall if they land on the piece of ceiling to the second floor that juts out.

‘okay... that’s not dangerous at all.’

‘more dangerous than taking on a gang with just us two?’ alice asks with a raised eyebrow. before piper can respond, she sits at the edge of the hole, turns, and swings down to the ceiling. it holds. she helps piper down to the next level, then jumps down to the next room.

rifle drawn, she sweeps the room and finds it clear. piper stumbles after she hits the ground, but steadies herself on alice’s arm. ‘are you okay?’

‘i’m fine!’ piper exhales heavily. ‘do you think other journalists do stuff like this?’

alice smiles. ‘you’re the only one crazy enough.’

‘you’re... probably right.’

-

when they finally find nick valentine, it’s in a room at the very top of the vault atrium. a pair of voices drifts down the open room, one distinctly accented and the other belonging to another gang member.

‘that’s nick,’ piper whispers. ‘sounds like he’s stuck up there.’

alice and piper quietly make their way to the top, turning at the top of the stairs. a triggerman argues with nick through a circular window, his voice growing panicked as their argument continues.

‘the black book?’ says the triggerman, voice fearful. ‘i-i better go clear things up with skinny. don’t-don’t move, valentine.’

‘wouldn’t think of it, dino,’ comes nick’s response, dry and flat.

dino jogs their way and gets the butt of a laser rifle to the face when he gets close enough. he crumples in a heap, blood flowing from his broken nose. alice nudges him with her shoe, but he doesn’t get back up.

‘piper, that you?’ nick asks when piper passes in front of the window. ‘what’re you doing here?’

‘brought you some help! hang on, nicky.’ piper begins tapping away at a terminal on the wall.

when alice passes by the window, the room is too dark to see much. a single ceiling light illuminates nick standing in the center, but all alice can make out is a yellow trenchcoat.

‘hey, think you can get this?’ piper says, smacking the side of the terminal. ‘i hate these things.’

alice hacks the terminal easily and keys into the option to unlock the door. the door itself opens with a hiss. alice steps into the room just as nick steps fully into the light, a half-lit cigarette in hand.

yellow, glowing eyes stare back at her, same as the synths she fought back at arcjet. her hands twitch toward her gun, but nick either doesn’t notice or simply doesn’t mention it. when he removes the cigarette from his mouth, he has no breath to exhale.

‘can’t say i don’t appreciate the irony of the reverse damsel in distress scenario - ’ he snuffs out the cigarette in an ashtray on the desk next to him. ‘ - but who are you?’

alice grins. ‘your knight in shining armor, princess.’ nick’s robotic face, plastic skin stretched over a metal skeleton, is impassive. ‘i’m alice.’

a gear whirs in the exposed joint of his jaw. ‘and what brings you to help out an old detective?’

‘i need your help finding a missing person.’

‘hey, uh,’ piper calls from the door. ‘we might want to get going. i’m hearing footsteps.’

valentine takes alice’s offered handgun. ‘alright. you and i will talk when we get out of here. let’s go.’

-

at the bottom floor, the trio hides in a side room. a handful of triggermen enter the room, guns drawn. ‘dino?’ one of them calls.

‘up here!’ dino yells, leaning over the top railing with one hand. ‘some bitch broke my nose!’

‘there goes the quiet option,’ nick whispers beside her. he shoots a triggerman in the chest when he runs into their hiding spot. dino, when he stumbles down the stairs to the mid-level of the atrium, gets himself shot in the head, courtesy of alice’s hunting rifle.

their way out of the vault is a bloody one. more triggermen try to stop them, only to be gunned down. in contrast to the empty maintenance rooms that made up their entry to the vault, they fight their way through the residential areas. one triggerman surprises them by jumping out of a nursery. alice hesitates, breath catching when she sees an empty crib. the triggerman’s bat slams into her arm.

she hears bone snap before she feels it, pain lancing through her arm. her rifle clatters to the floor. nick spins on his heel and fells the triggerman before his bat can come down on alice’s head.

‘hey. you alright there?’

the crib is blurry in her vision. she closes her eyes. ‘yeah,’ she grounds out. ‘peachy.’

‘that didn’t sound alright,’ piper says, behind her. ‘i think her arm’s broken.’

nick tries to touch it, but alice shies away when she feels a hand grab her sleeve. ‘we have to set it before we can use a stimpak.’ alice opens one eye. ‘hang on.’

‘fuck,’ alice swears. one of nick’s hands - metal, skeletal - holds her arm in place while the other injects a stimpak into her skin. she exhales a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and forces herself to breathe.

‘doctor sun can take a better look at that when we get to diamond city. are you good to move?’

she flexes her good hand, knuckles still white from clenching her fist. ‘yeah. like i said - peachy.’

she doesn’t look back at the nursery.

-

nick had told them skinny malone’s name was ironic, and it wasn’t a lie. a bigger man in a tuxedo stands in front of them, flanked by two triggermen. a woman in a purple sequined dress stands to the side, a bat held tightly in her hands.

‘what’re you doing, nicky?’

‘you shoulda told your dame to write home more often, skinny,’ nick says. ‘or none of us would even be here.’

the woman frowns heavily. ‘you should have killed him earlier. but no, you had to go soft on him because of old memories,’ she mocks.

‘shut up, darla. you don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘what i know,’ darla spits, ‘is he brought his friends here to wipe us out.’ skinny malone half-turns to darla, ready to argue.

‘darla,’ alice begins, weary. she holds her healing arm lightly, not enough to be obvious she’s injured. ‘you shouldn’t even be here. you’ve seen what we can do - you have a family that’s waiting for you to come home.’

darla turns to her, eyes wide. her grip on her bat loosens. ‘i - ’

‘darla,’ skinny warns.

‘that’s what i was sent here for. to bring you home,’ adds nick.

it’s the nail in the coffin. ‘y-you’re right. i - don’t even know why i’m here.’

‘d-darla?’ skinny’s voice wavers. there’s a vulnerability there alice wasn’t expecting. ‘what’re you doing?’

‘what i should have done a long time ago, skinny. it’s... over,’ she says, almost sadly. her bat falls to the floor.

‘wow,’ piper whispers. alice agrees.

when skinny gives them ten seconds to leave without a fight, they don’t need to be told twice. nick leads them to a side room back in the subway tunnels and a ladder that will take them back to the surface. he goes first, alice follows one-handed, and piper brings up the rear.

the manhole opens up in the middle of boston, halfway between park street station and diamond city. the sun has already set on boston, and the city is quiet for it. after checking her pipboy, the trio head back toward diamond city.

‘how did you know where i was?’ nick asks in the silence.

piper swears, startled. alice responds, ‘your assistant, ellie, sent me.’

‘hm. i should give her a raise.’

-

they reach the diamond city entrance tired and hungry. a few of the guards greet nick happily, but alice and piper merely shake their heads. happy to see him, but none of them were willing to go after him. piper breaks away, heading home to check on nat.

doctor sun they catch just before he closes up shop, and he’s none too happy about it. though, when they pay him extra caps, he stops his grumbling. the doctor grabs her arm, ignoring her pained wince, and inserts another stimpak. this time, after a moment, she can move her arm with little pain.

nick walks her back to the dugout inn, and at his word, yefim gives her another night in her room for free.

‘i don’t need sleep, but you look dead on your feet.’ when he tips his hat, he reminds her of the detectives on old television shows. ‘we’ll talk tomorrow.’

he leaves her alone in the room. alice falls asleep before her head hits the pillow.

[imagitory]

The Cast of Yu-Gi-Oh...Sorted!

Hey guys! I’ve done several other posts like this for other fandoms and I’ve even Sorted some of these characters in other Sorting Hat asks in the past, but...well, I just decided, why not compile all of those thoughts in one big post to answer the question: where would the main cast of characters from Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters be Sorted, if they attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

Yugi Mutou ~ Hufflepuff!

I’ve seen a lot of fictional Sortings favor putting “the hero” in Gryffindor with his “best friend” types all being in Hufflepuff, but Yugi, in my opinion, is a perfect example of how heroic Hufflepuff values can be. Whereas Atem uses clever strategies to outwit his opponents and save the day, Yugi’s greatest strength and magic is his compassion. It’s what transformed a bully like Jounouchi into a loyal comrade, what opened up fiery, distrustful Rebecca to friendship, what strengthened the bonds between the many different friends he’s made, and what moved the ruthless spirit of darkness inhabiting his body so much that that spirit saw him as his partner and equal. Like many Hufflepuffs I know, Yugi always puts his friends first, putting their safety and well-being over his own every time -- self-sacrifice is a tenant of Hufflepuff house, and Yugi has that in spades. Still, Yugi is just and noble enough to also protect those who might not necessarily “deserve” his help: he values all life, regardless of whose it is or how terrible that person has been to him. Yugi is warm, dedicated, loyal, and modest, and being a connoisseur of games, he also esteems fair play, hence why he reacts so bitterly to Insector Haga throwing his grandfather’s Exodia cards off the boat in an underhanded way to keep Yugi from using them to win any more duels.

Yami Yugi / Pharaoh Atem ~ Slytherin!

Atem is the yin to Yugi’s yang, the darkness to his light, and therefore the Slytherin to his Hufflepuff. Whereas Yugi’s soul room is light, airy, and open, Atem’s is a dark labyrinth of endless tunnels and traps -- and yeah, Hufflepuff’s and Slytherin’s commonrooms, despite both being underground, have that same dichotomy, with Hufflepuff’s being sunny and cheerful with a location next to the kitchens and Slytherin’s being dark and dungeon-like by the underground lake. Atem’s eternal goal is to win every game he plays, regardless of whether or not he initiates the game or not, and he will do anything to win, even if it ends up compromising his morals. (See his duel with Kaiba during Duelist Kingdom or the Orikalkos duel with Raphael for evidence of this.) When he or his friends are threatened, Atem also retaliates ruthlessly and mercilously, as Insector Haga or any of his Shadow Game victims from the early manga or season 0 can tell you. Fortunately, despite his intense drive to win at all costs, Atem does always follow the rules of whatever game he’s in and he almost always wins because he’s both clever and resourceful enough to outwit his opponents. Appropriate to Slytherins as well, he has a great desire and focus on his past, wanting to learn more about it so as to better understand who he is, what he’s supposed to do, and how he can approach the future. If Yugi showcases Hufflepuff heroism with mercy and kindness, then Atem showcases Slytherin heroism with brilliance and passion.

Katsuya Jounouchi ~ Gryffindor!

Admittedly Jounouchi does fit the hot-tempered, aggressive, yet noble stereotype of Gryffindor pretty well off-the-bat, but there’s more to it than that for me. Jounouchi is a very active person, ready to jump in to protect his friends from whatever slight is thrown their way -- all of the Gryffindors I know have a very “knight”-like affect to them where they just can’t sit back and do nothing when people are being mistreated. I would also argue that in the series, Jounouchi is motivated to become a stronger duelist not just because of him wanting to help his sister (which is why he entered Duelist Kingdom), but because he wants to improve himself. As he tells Kaiba at one point at the end of Battle City, even after he lost to Marik on a technicality (JOUNOUCHI SHOULD’VE WON THAT DUEL AND BECOME THE OWNER OF THE WINGED DRAGON OF RA AND I WILL SCREAM THAT ‘TIL THE DAY I DIE), “his Battle City isn’t over,” because he hasn’t yet earned his Red Eyes back from Yugi in the duel they promised to have after the tournament was over. And honestly, I’d say Jounouchi’s “Battle City” will probably never be over for him, because every duel he fights only makes him love the game more and makes him push himself to become even better. Jounouchi’s nobility also shines through multiple times in the show, whether it’s promising to save Ryuzaki’s soul from Dartz after he defeats him in their duel, ordering his Red Eyes Black Dragon to protect Mokuba from a blast from the Five-Headed Dragon even if it meant dooming himself, or getting Yugi the last piece of the Millennium Puzzle back after he threw it into a pond. 

Hiroto Honda ~ Hufflepuff!

Honestly, thanks to his lack of character development in the Duel Monsters anime and the shifts in his limited characterization between his manga, season 0, and anime selves, this Sorting is really tricky. In season 0 exclusively, Honda is portrayed as more of a rule-keeper and is the head of the “beautification department” (which I guess is sort of like a janitorial thing, but for students?). It hints to a love of order that seems very Ravenclaw-esque and could’ve been an interesting twist to set him apart from Jounouchi and the others, but alas, it’s something that really isn’t reflected that much in either manga!Honda or DM!Honda’s characterization. In all three mediums, though, even though he’s depicted as having been Jounouchi’s friend long before he met Yugi and Anzu, Honda still comes off as more level-headed and cautious than Jounouchi. If Jounouchi is a raging hothead, Honda is the down-to-earth voice of reason. We also see in all three mediums that Honda has a romantic side, whether it’s with classmate Miho Nosaka or Jounouchi’s little sister Shizuka, and really, it’s in that capacity that we see that Honda can be pretty darn stupid too. (Not trying to bash Honda, truly, but this guy does not know how to play the game of love at all.) In the end, no matter which series we see him in, Honda’s main motivation is sticking by his buddies. He’s no duelist and he has little interest in being so, but he deeply cares about his friends’ safety and will always be right there to protect them and cheer them on however he can. So as much as I lament that I don’t have more to work with when it comes to Honda, his loyalty and down-to-earth demeanor do seem very consistent with Hufflepuff. 

Anzu Mazaki ~ Gryffindor!

Anzu is another character whose characterization fluctuates between the manga and the two anime series. In all three mediums, she’s a dedicated, romantic person who although not being talented in Duel Monsters herself is always there to cheer her friends on in their struggles. In the manga, she’s depicted as a little more flighty and girly, using love charms and getting her romantic fortune told, and at one point even recklessly putting herself in danger in the hopes that “the other Yugi” will appear and rescue her. In season 0, we see her being braver and more vocal in standing up to people -- she tries to protect a girl from punishment after she gets caught trying to confess her feelings to Jounouchi in a love letter; she helps catch a criminal hiding out in the fast food restaurant she works in by lying about what ingredients are used in their burgers; and she resolutely decides to have her soul transferred into a doll alongside Yugi and her friends when Yami Bakura challenges them to a Monster World Shadow Game. In the Duel Monsters anime, some of that courage is shaved off of Anzu and she’s depicted as less reckless and more grounded, but there are still points where her nobility can shine through, like when she decides to fight in Yugi’s place to win Mai’s star chips or she stops Atem from attacking Insector Haga over and over again after he’s already won. Although I could very easily see Anzu fitting into Hufflepuff as well (especially in the Duel Monsters anime), upon a lot of reflection, I think that, since I would put two out of the three versions of her in this house and even the third version could still work there, Gryffindor is her ultimate best place. 

Seto Kaiba ~ Slytherin!

I’m sure a lot of you were expecting Ravenclaw, and yes, I do think Kaiba is on the cusp between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, but let me explain why Kaiba is a Snake in my mind and not an Eagle. Kaiba is a very intelligent person with a great love of achievement, yes, but his sole focus is always on getting what he wants, whether it’s defeating Yugi, winning all three Egyptian God cards and then defeating Yugi, opening up his own theme park where he can defeat Yugi -- LOL, okay, I’m partially kidding, but...yeah, Kaiba’s focus is solely on what he wants, even if it is to win at something. Ravenclaws tend to have a very “worldly” view of the world and try to find their own distinct place in it, whereas Slytherins don’t give a damn about the rest of the world as long as their inner circle is safe. Throughout the series, Kaiba consistently chooses his little brother and the well-being of his company over everything else. In fact, in the Japanese dub of the Duel Monsters anime, the reason Kaiba barely reacts to all the crazy magic stuff going on around him isn’t because he doesn’t believe it’s happening like English!Kaiba, but because he simply doesn’t care. All he cares about is beating Yugi and looking after his company and brother. Everything else going on in the background, even if it does involve unknown magics that could shake someone’s entire world view and their place in it, just isn’t that important to him. Plus Ravenclaws aren’t just known for their intelligence and love of achievement -- they’re also known for wisdom and open-mindedness, both of which are very unKaiba. Kaiba is incredibly judgmental of everyone he meets, only deigning to show respect to those very few people he deems as being on his level, and although in the Japanese dub of the Duel Monsters anime, Kaiba showed moments of deeper thought and good judgement, the only wisdom English!Kaiba showcases on a regular basis is his assortment of snarky wisecracks. But if we look at Slytherin’s values, I think they line up with Kaiba and his characterization a bit better. Ambition -- well, considering that he challenged a CEO to a game of chess just to get him and his brother adopted, forcefully took over that same CEO’s arms and weapons business, and turned the whole thing into a gaming company complete with its own gaming products, Duel Monsters tournaments, and friggin’ THEME PARK, all before he even became a legal adult, I’d say that fits. Resourcefulness -- as Kaiba brings up to both Amelda and Ziegfried, he started off with nothing and could only use his talents and smarts to outwit his stepfather, take over KaibaCorp, and make it successful. Cleverness -- Kaiba may not be the King of Games, but he’s probably the only duelist who truly stands toe-to-toe with Atem in the dueling arena without cheating. Even Bakura, another one of Atem’s most prominent rivals, has to cheat in both the manga and the anime series to try to stay ahead of him. A certain disregard for the rules -- honestly, Kaiba tends to follow the rules of whatever game he’s playing, BUUUUT he does still seem to find joy in bucking other people’s expectations and doing whatever the hell he wants because he can. I mean, this is the guy who bought an entire city to host a gaming tournament, quickly wrote a ridiculously high check to a car salesman before driving off in one of his cars without another word (does he even HAVE a driver’s license??), and who blew up his own Duel Tower on KaibaCorp island just so he and Mokuba could fly away on their Blue Eyes White Dragon jet out of the rubble. (There is a reason why in Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, his catchphrase is “screw the rules, I’ve got money” -- just sayin’.) And honestly, as much as Kaiba claims he doesn’t look back at the past, he is still clearly haunted and defined by it. The wounds of Gozaburo’s mistreatment were so deep that Kaiba felt like he had to blow up the ruined remnants of his old headquarters just to try to move on with his life. Atem defeating him affected him so much that he spent five whole seasons and an entire movie obsessing over their rivalry and how he would eventually defeat him. Hell, in DSOD, he even tried to put the Millennium Puzzle back together in a vain attempt to get Atem to come back and duel him again, and when he failed in that, he actually made a device so he could crash Atem’s friggin’ AFTER-LIFE just to try to duel him! “Bury the past,” my ass! As much as I could see Kaiba fitting pretty well in Ravenclaw too, I think part of the reason he and Atem are so at each other’s throats all the time is because of their two massive Slytherin egos constantly trying to one-up each other.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: PMMM Rebellion - Part 4

Y’know, it’s really interesting how well this movie is working as a Watch. I was worried that there wouldn’t really be good stopping points, but like q_3 said at the beginning it does feel like there are these climaxes every 15 minutes or so. I could definitely see this as a proper followup series to PMMM. Looking forward to where it goes next!

After her pronouncement that the setting is a Witch’s Labyrinth, Homura enters some sort of underground passage, expositing on what Witches are to whoever decided to watch this movie without seeing the show first. Honestly I’m not sure if they’d be any more confused than me by what’s going on now. Still so many unanswered questions: When is this taking place? How did the girls get trapped in this Labyrinth? When did Charlotte get so powerful?

Oh, an answer to the first question! Homura’s thinking that “it all ended when one girl sacrificed herself, breaking the cruel cycle of hope and despair. (Still in awe of Madoka's DM-Dethroning wish). But if this is the post-Goddess!Madoka world, then what’s going on? Why have all the girls lost their memories? Well, moreso than before. I mean, when Madoka Ascended Homura was the only one to remember her, everyone else forgot her, even her family. So…

So…

Madoka? What… Did you…

I’m… gonna table that thought for now.

Moving on, Homura’s thinking about how someone is trying to implant false memories. On that note, can I say I’m impressed with the idea of having this movie be set in a Labyrinth? As Homura’s been waking up, things have gotten more and more outlandish, it looks amazing to see Mitakihara City slowly morphing into this crazy architectural mishmash. Regardless of whoever is behind this, it’s going to lead to some stupendous scenes later on, I can tell.

Ah, the suspect! In Mami’s apartment, Charlotte is acting all cute, chowing on cheese while balancing a teacup on her head. Homura’s sitting quietly at the table, probably thinking about how the Witch she remembers for eating Mami is now acting as Mami’s familiar. Or staring at Madoka, that works too. So, is anyone going to comment on Homura’s makeover? No?

Hmm, Madoka’s commenting on how “Bebe” has been with Mami ever since she first met her. Shots of cutsey pictures of the two, it is chilling to see Mami so infatuated with this Witch. While everyone giggles at their antics, Homura asks how Bebe ended up staying with Mami. Silence, a closeup of Kyubey staring, and the Witch peeks over the table at Homura.

[“Bebe”]: “Homura, why you ask?”

After a pause, Mami talks about how when she was the only Magical Girl in Mitakihara City, the only one that supported and cheered her on was Bebe.

Urk. Mami’s talking about how without Bebe she might have given up a long time ago, that she puts up a false bravado to be seen as a reliable senior MG. But with Madoka and Sayaka growing stronger, and Homura and Kyoko as allies…

Damn. I wish that we could have watched this show, just the five of them fighting Nightmares and growing up. That- OH COME ON UROBUTCHER! Ugh, Mami’s tea just settled to show her upside down head. You don’t have to remind me dude, I remember.

CHARLOTTE. GO AWAY. GET OFF HER SHOULDER.

*Sigh* Mami’s saying that this kind of daily life is what she used to dream about in the old days. She’s happy, isn’t she?

Homura asks Mami for some more tea. She walks away- and Homura just pulled out her Soul Gem. Homura? You making a move against the Witch? Yep, she just did a quick Transform (much, much faster than the one from before), and readies her clock-shield.

[Homura]: “Sorry about this, Madoka.”

Timestop! Madoka looks a bit confused. Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.

Homura grabs Charlotte by the head, unfreezing her and telling her to drop the act. She remembers. All the girls have had their memories rewritten, and are trapped in a Labyrinth. And the only one who could have done that is the Witch that she is holding right now. Charlotte continues to claim ignorance, nice little freezing effect there as Homura lets go and then grabs her by the neck.

Really digging this melancholy music as Homura opens the window and leaps out with Charlotte in tow, thinking about how her memories are flooding back. She remembers Mami. She may not have been very comfortable with her, thought that Mami pushed herself too hard despite having the softest heart. It felt cruel revealing the truth of the old world to her (that, and she didn’t have the best reaction to it).

Ooh, the backgrounds of the Labyrinth are showing a lot of Charlotte images now! Yeah, keep claiming that you don’t know and shucking blame, Witch. We’re on to you. Playing cute isn’t going to stop Homura. Enough of the cheese talk, you

OH CRAP RIBBON WHAT HOW

[Mami(!!!!)]: “I’d intended to wait and listen until I understood what the situation was. But I couldn’t stand by and watch you hurt Bebe any further.”

Ooooooh crap. Yellow ribbons are festooned across the frozen city, leading back to the brainwashed Mami. Somehow she tagged Homura before the timestop, meaning that she wasn’t frozen as- wait.

Ranubis said:The girls go flying, Mami grabbing Madoka and Homura with her ribbons before Homura timestops everything. But not the other girls? Oh, she’s tied to Madoka and Mami with the ribbon so the timestop doesn’t affect them, got it.

FORESHADOWING! Damn well done, Urobuchi.

Ok, this is serious. Homura now has to deal with brainwashed Mami. This is the Magical Girl who twice snared Homura with her ribbons to where she was helpless, the second time being the last timeline when Homura was at the peak of her power! Mami may have died in the third episode, but that was a fluke when she was distracted by future plans. Now she’s focused on Homura, who has lost the advantage of her power.

This is terrible. And awesome, I am bouncing up and down in my chair squeeing about the epic fight that is coming up, but gah this is heartwrenching. One friend fighting another who is being manipulated? Terrible. And awesome.

Homura tries to tell Mami that she’s being tricked by “Bebe”. Unfortunately, she’s trying to say that Mami is being tricked (by her long-time familiar), they aren’t in Mitakihara City (when Mami sees nothing wrong), and they have all been implanted with false memories (when Homura is the one who suddenly did a personality 180 from Mami’s perspective).

This is tragic, seeing how far Charlotte’s control goes. We see a ruined city, images of Charlotte everywhere. But that’s not what Mami sees.

Homura throws the Witch and tries to shoot quickly, but Mami ribbons her and pulls “Bebe” back, telling her to run. Another timestop, Homura tries shooting the ribbon holding her but it reforms. Alright, how to destroy that pesky piece of fabric?

[Homura]: “Do you mean to protect it, no matter what?”

[Mami]: “Give up on chasing her. If you don’t, you will have to fight me."

Homura leaps. Mami leaps. A guitar riffs. And the battle begins.

Awesome, looks like Homura still has her arsenal, pulls out an SMG to Mami’s muskets. But Mami has a lot of them, enough to match even Homura’s automatic fire. That is incre- no nevermind that, the fact that she is firing her musketballs with enough precision to collide with Homura’s shots is just… wow. The sky is riddled with frozen bullets and musketballs, until time resumes and tumble through the mini-fireworks in their battle. Homura’s still after Charlotte though, both she and Mami head towards her until Homura can timestop again, rounds tracing white lines through the frozen air.

This is an absolutely beautiful fight, I cannot say this enough. Both of these expert Magical Girls, masters of firepower, reading each other well enough to counter each and every round of their opponent. But there’s a question of endurance, which will run out first: Mami’s magic or Homura’s hammerspace?

Mami Ribbongirl’s her way to Homura and they clash their guns and is this yes it is they are doing Gun Kata now. These two magical girls are doing melee combat with guns, knocking the other’s weapons away and dodging point-blank shots. This is amazing. Eat your heart out, Equilibrium.

But now Homura’s fallen back, and Mami is in pursuit. Now it’s Freefalling Gun Kata, the firing lines spreading out like trees and lead and whatever-Mami’s-musketballs-are-made-of fly. Then they… stop? Oh! So many rounds have been fired in this timestop that the girls are utterly surrounded by them, both catching their breath as the camera pulls out a friggen Christmas Tree design made by the rounds. Until time resumes, and sparks fly.

My word. These girls, just standing there pointing their guns at each other, unflinching while their rounds whizz by and utterly obliterate the ruins…

*slow clap*

Well done, Studio Shaft. I don’t care if the rest of the movie turns out to be an elaborate Surprise Birthday Party for Homura, or she wakes up and has to hurry to her Geometry Exam, or just the scene of Mami’s head getting eaten on loop for an hour. This fight, this scene? Fantastic.

After the dust clears, the girls remain as they were. Homura is still bound by the ribbon, and Mami remarks that they aren’t getting anywhere they’re so evenly matched. Dunno, Homura’s done well this fight but you’re standing while she’s kneeling. Then Homura tosses her pistol aside and freezes time again?

Homura, after all the firepower you’ve used against Mami I don’t think that that dinky little pistol is going to wait what nO NO HOMURA WHAT Yes thank you Mami Homura just put the gun to her head Mami yanked her foot out to throw off her blood what homura no why wait

Oh. Oh my. Well done with that trick Homura but good MADOKA don’t scare me like that again!

*deep breath*

So Homura put a gun to her head knowing that Mami would have the same reaction I just did, when Mami pulled on the ribbon Homura grazed her head just enough to cause a blood splatter and distract Mami, as she used the ludicrous reflexes of a Magical Girl to pull the ribbon into the bullet and tear it, breaking Mami’s connection to her. Well done Homura! Although how did the bullet break the ribbon, shooting it before did nothing. Did Mami need to be distracted for it to be vulnerable?

Oh jeez maybe that was a little more than a “graze”, reminder that these are just meat puppets for the girls to control from their Soul Gems. Alright, well now that Mami’s frozen you can slip away and catch up to Homura what are you doing. Time is still frozen, use what you have left to get away not oh Madoka you’re aiming at her Soul Gem. Homura. Homura no!

Ok, still think that you should just run away and you don’t have to shoot, but at least it’ll just be a leg wound. Bullet freezes just above her leg, Homura looks away as time resumes wait what MOTHERFUCKING RIBBONS WHAT

Homura was… fighting a ribbon clone this entire time? Mami was indirectly fighting Homura, all of that was indirect, setting up this very trap? Holy carp Mami, you scary.

So 3 for 3, Homura is trapped by Mami’s ribbons, who lectures her about always thinking you have the upper hand. Homura pleads from her captivity, asking if Mami really doesn’t see that they’re in a ruined wasteland. Mami just notes that Homura didn’t shoot to kill (ok good I was really worried there for a sec MST), so why did she attack “Bebe”? She doesn’t remember anything about the Witches, after all. Her enemies are- wait.

[Mami]: “Our enemies are the Wraiths, right?”

YES. Come on Mami, fight off that brainwashing! You’ve been fighting Wraiths all this time (in Madoka’s world, at least). So what’s with the Nightmares?

Uh oh. The skyline just turned into an eye.

Think that, only more a mouth with eyelashes and a walnut for a pupil.

Charlotte is watching.

Wait, what? Fire extinguisher? Sword! Sayaka, where you been?! The white cloud from the pierced extinguisher fills the screen, Mami waves it away with her ribbon to show that Homura has been cut free and is gone. Well all right! So did Kyoko go and break Sayaka’s brainwashing then? That changes the score, we’ve got the Mysterious Transfer Student with Blue Paladin and Food Girl now knowing the truth, and Mami is at least questioning it. Although that leaves Madoka, who I guess is still back at the apartment wondering where the heck everyone is.

Mami’s looking around YOU. It’s the girl from the box art, the one I didn’t know! Eff off cutsey harp music, I know who that is! Mami listen you have to get away before Charlotte brainwashes you again, don’t listen… damn it. We’ve lost her.

AAAAAAHHHH you guys that fight good gravy that was beautiful, one of if not the most gorgeous fight scenes I have ever seen in anime, or any movie. Homura is rebelling against Charlotte and may have gotten Kyoko and Sayaka on her side now, unfortunately we’ve lost Bebe and next we can expect Charlotte to send Title Character Madoka against them. Is that a fight that Homura can even push herself to do? Yeesh. I’m also worrying that Homura lost too much of her arsenal against Mami, while it was almost entirely close combat towards the end I did note that Homura was just using pistols. Did she use all her heavy weaponry in that fight? If so that’ll make the next time they face off a mite more difficult.

[calliecat93]

RvB17 Episode 11 Review: Omphalos

This is normally the part of the review where I write an intro. But honestly, last week hit me so hard in the chest that I am too filled with dread to come up with anything. So fuck it, let’s dive right in! Second to last episode folks. It’s gonna be intense!

Overview

Our heroes are trapped within the depths of The Labyrinth, as Chrovos explains to Donut. At first, Donut isn’t concerned as that means they’re near him so he just has to wait. But Chrovos explains that, well… it isn’t that simple. The Labyrinth, as explained last season is home to demons, monsters, and ‘the ghosts of the past’. But not in the physical sense. The Labyrinth essentially runs on irony. It takes those trapped within to a negative place. This is demonstrated as we see Tucker alone, Wash seeing everyone die under his command, and Carolina faced with her Freelancer self. So yeah… it’s essentially Santa’s Warrior Test, but even darker.

Donut wants to go in, but Chrovos doesn’t have the power. Donut offers to give back the fragment that she gave him, but it won’t be enough. At this point, Genkins joins them and gives some more explanation. You see, the ultimate end goal of The Labyrinth is to drive the victim to despair. It can do this in various ways, by giving someone what they think they want or just putting them back in an uncomfortable place. We see this with Sarge being in civilian life, wanting to be on the battlefield… which he promptly gets and take sit back. Grif is sent back to… high school? College? Basic training? IDK. Regardless, he has an utterly insane gym teacher who pretty much tortures him via a fucked up obstacle course straight out of Wipeout.

So what’s the final result of all of this? We get to see with Lopez, who in his scenario is… human. He can talk English and the Reds instead have a robot named Gustavo… which great joke there. This breaks Lopez and in the real world, we see him walk off the ledge, supposedly to his death; You see, The Labyrinth doesn't harm you directly, it drives you to harm yourself. Genkins goes to continue his fun, telling DOnut that he’ll be joining them soon enough. The Everwhen goes with him. With no way to get into The Labyrinth and Chrovos utterly powerless, it looks bleak. We do learn that The Labyrinth itself is an AI, but it’s very dangerous and just seeing its Avatar is enough to put you in danger.

But just as all looks bleak, there is one more person there: Doc. Yeah, he was sent there along with Donut… which makes no sense because he should still be blown up, but whatever. Anyways, with a second Shisno there, if Chrovos takes back power form him AND Donut, it’ll eb enough to send the two into The Labyrinth. The episode ends, and with it the finale draws ever closer.

Review

Okay, so… got some mixed feelings here. Before I get into it though, I really enjoyed the episode. The Labyrinth is probably one of, if not the most horrifying concept that the show has introduced. It’s just an area that fills you more and more with negativity. It takes you to your worst moments, your worst fears, gives you what you think you want but in reality, it just makes you depressed.  It doesn't physically harm you, it drives you to harm yourself. Essentially, the end goal is to make you commit suicide, as we saw with Lopez. Now whether he really died or not IDK… but that is really fucked up. No wonder no one ever came back out of the few that went before. It’s dark and angsty, and I fucking LOVE it!

What could have been better, though, is some of the visions. Now most of them were really good. Wash leading the team against the monsters of the Labyrinth, only to watch them all die with him losing control of everything. Carolina faced with her competitive, driven self in Freelancer, trying to tell her off and tell herself about how her efforts will mean nothing. Only for her past self to brush it off and mock her on everything that she currently believes. Even Sarge’s was pretty fucked up. In short, Sarge cannot handle civilian life… but he can’t handle war life either. It makes sense. He never really had a civilian life, let alone remember one, so an office job would be boring. But he was also an ODST and was in a war and that clearly fucked him up. Most of his behavior is a facade and always has been, but he doens[t know how else to live. It’s really depressing when you think about it and not what I was expecting for him. I gotta give kudos.

What I cannot excuse though is Grif’s scenario. Lopez’s I can live with. Because going off everything before… yeah being a human would be his worst nightmare. But Grif… I mean don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate what we got. If this was to explain how Grif started hating effort, it’s effective. The coach is Sarge, but a million times more crazy and sadistic. He nearly got Grif blown up, shot, crushed, and it sounds like Grif was coughing up blood at one point. Like… fuck man. If this IS a high school, what kind of fucking school allows that?! It certianly helps explain why Grif would hate putting in any form of effort and why he hated Blood Gulch so much if Sarge brought those feelings back. Heck, it can explain hating army life in general since he likely had to be yelled at/pushed to his limit all the time. So yeah, I can get what they’re going for and I was overall okay with it. Jaosn’s voice acting at least was fun~

The issue is… well, kind of one I’ve had all season regarding the writing for Grif. In S16, Grif went through a ton of development. He appreciated and dedicated himself to his friends more. He started to resolve his issues with the constant adventures. He started to put in more effort and was willing to try and do whatever it took to end things. He was actually hesitant about the paradox and even tried to stop it once he realized it was Genkins plan. He formed this friendship with Huggins, something I’m very annoyed just got ignored after her return...though really I have issues with how Huggins was done this season that I’ll reserve for the season review. I’m gonna have words about the character writing, not just Grif either.

My point is Grif had so much development and buildup from last season and S15… and this season has completely and utterly ignored it. The first half, it was understandable since memory erasure and he was at least the most willing to listen to Donut. Now? No. There is no excuse. While Grif is still doing the job without complaint, all his development has more or less been ignored. He seems to harbor no guilt or anything about the S16 finale. He has had no resolution with Huggins or tried to patch things up. His scenario here had a TON of potential. If they don’t want to go the backstory route, we have his time on Iris and the S16 finale to play off of. What do we get? Him being bullied by a nasty drill sergeant. While I didn’t hate it, it was… underwhelming and just kind of insulting because of how much promise with him these past two seasons have had. Considering Jason was a co-writer and wrote some of those scenes (Episode 6 and 8 for example) and Joe still made the story here, the fact that they utterly ignored this is bizarre.. I’ll go into it more in the season review, but… yeah, I didn’t hate it, but I’m not pleased either.

Okay, so moving on to the ending. Still have no idea how Doc is there because there was no way for him to be there. But whatever, he and Donut are going into The Labryinth. It’s hard to say if Chrovos is going to betray them or not, we’ll see. But my concern is… well, IIRC DOnut was brought back to life because of the fragment Chrovos gave him. So if she removed that to power herself back up, not only does Donut and Doc lose their protection against Genkins… but won’t that kill Donut? IDK, maybe I’m not understanding it fully. Regardless… we have one more episode, and so much to do still. How they’re going to wrap this up in one IDK, I guess we’ll see soon enough.

Final Thoughts

Good episode. While I am annoyed with how Grif was handled, everything else was really fun. It was certianly a rollercoaster of emotion that I wa snot ready for. Our stage for the end is set my friends, and I have no idea what the fuck is going to happen. But I’ve made it this far, and I ain’t dropping out now. So onward to the finale!

[awfully-sadistic]

The Hellowoon Diaries ft. Armand || #2

Oct 23rd

Today was a difficult mission, I think.

Our client was a bad person. Dot says he enlisted our help to pull us into his sick game. And he wanted to get caught.

It started when he came into the office asking for help with his house; the time was perhaps mid-afternoon. I remember because we haven’t had lunch yet and Dot was passing around pamphlets with fast-food restaurants on them so we can decide what we wanted. I remember he came in as I was looking up what a crab rangoon was--I still don’t know what that is, by the way. 

Crab Rangoons consist of a crab and cheese seasoned mixture often fried or baked in wontons.

Ah! Thanks, D.A.D. Sometimes I forget that you are listening. What are wontons?

A Chinese dumpling.

I suppose that’s my mystery solved.

Where was I? Oh yes. He was the only person to come into the Sanctum that day. He was easy but not easy to remember if that makes sense. I didn’t notice anything weird about him but Dot says that sometimes monsters look like you and me, that they’re not always Bigfoot out in the woods. Not always obvious.

He believed that his house was haunted. He wasn’t wrong in hindsight, I suppose. There were so many souls trapped in that labyrinth. 

If it’s not clear by now, we somehow picked up a serial killing client. We still have no idea why he felt it was our duty to stop him or what kind of reasoning convinced him to hire us, but Dot and Dodger took up the case and we were driving an hour out of Ashbourne in order to judge whether our client’s home was haunted and what to do in case it was. It was supposed to be a simple case, that’s what Dot said. It seemed simple and the guy didn’t give off the uh... what did Dot call them?

“Heebie Jeebie vibes” I think. She said she wasn’t picking up any red flags and Dodger stated he lied to us with ease. He seemed genuinely worried and managed to actually feel that way so she would pick up the emotion and it could help sway her decision on helping him. What Dodger said made sense but the implication was... scary.

It meant he knew what Dot was and not many people outside of the Agency or the office knew Dot was an empath; one of the only ones in this world and quite a powerful one at that.

Dot said she immediately hated it. She said it made her uncomfortable that there was someone out there who knew about her and was able to “trick” her as well as he did; she said she knew it meant something but she didn’t know what just yet. I don’t blame her. I would have been upset as well.

I’m inclined to agree with her, too. There’s never good intentions behind tricking someone especially if you’re trying to lure them someplace. Since Dot is our boss (she denies saying she and Dodger are partners but Dodger says that if it weren’t for her, he would still be at the Agency), she sways all our decisions in regards to where we end up taking jobs and how to do the things we’re supposed to do. If Dot could be swayed to do something, then we follow. Dodger said it would put all of us at risk so they knew who to appeal to and how to do it.

It didn’t give Dodger or me a good feeling at all. Despite being a ghost, I know I won’t be harmed by a lot of things. It’s the occult items I would have to worry about but Dot and Dodger are not ghosts. And Dot is more susceptible to harm than either Dodger or myself. We also worry about Dot because she could be debilitated by a person’s emotions if they react too strongly.

I could see it in Dodger’s face. Especially around the eyes, he squints when he’s thinking really hard or when his brow does that thing that dips in the middle. His jaw was clenched pretty tightly, too, that I thought he was going to break his teeth. He wasn’t happy. None of us were but I think Dodger took it the hardest. I would ask Dot why but I don’t think she knows, either. Perhaps it is because Dodger is really responsible and feels like he has to take care of us? I know he watches over Dot even if she may not realize it most of the time. He’s always behind her, making scary faces whenever she talks to someone we don’t know. I think it’s funny, it’s like a show. Dodger is a strange person but he’s really good at protecting.

When we got to the house, the first thing Dot said was that it was big and ugly. She was right. It was big and really ugly. The house was dark wood it almost looked like a gray charcoal. Or perhaps it was because it looked like it survived a fire? The grass was really tall, there was weeds everywhere, and it looked like some of the wood was splintering and broken in places like the stairs that lead up to the house and the hand railings you should be able to hang onto for support. It didn’t look like it was supporting anything anymore. 

Some of the second story windows were broken, too. 

...I didn’t say anything to Dodger or Dot at the time, but when we pulled up, I know there was someone staring at us from one of the second story windows. I recall seeing a woman. But that was all I could see. By the time we parked and I looked back to the window, she was gone. The curtain was in place like it had never been moved. I know I didn’t imagine it. I knew I was staring at someone like me. Mainly because the client said he lived alone.

I have a lot of questions about the afterlife but the solace in that is I am not the only one. 

It seems ironic that I’m a ghost and I don’t know what the afterlife brings or even if I could recognize if I’m staring at another ghost or not. Dottie and Dodger tell me that people experience different things when they die. Ghosts are those who remain behind for a number of reasons; cases vary. We don’t know what happens to those who don’t come back as ghosts.

Is there a heaven?

Is there a hell?

And if there’s neither, where do we go? Are we reborn?

These are some of the questions that not only I ask, but my friends, too. Dot tells me try not to think too hard on these questions because it’s going to drive me crazy. People have been trying to figure this out since the beginning of time.

So I don’t try to dwell on it. But sometimes, the questions pop up. I can’t help it.

The instant we walked into the house, we knew that something was off. It was in the air. We didn’t need to be a psychic to feel the oppressiveness weighing down on us as soon as we crossed the threshold and stood in the foyer. It was uncomfortable and along with it came the nagging feeling at the back of your mind that something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t normal. 

Dot burst into tears soon after. She had to step outside and explain that it felt like she was suffocating; there was so many conflicting emotions, she felt confusion, anger, sadness, scared, hurt. We know now that it was the client’s many victims buried around the house grounds that filled the air with those emotions. 

Dot said that it was her fault that she walked in half-cocked with her shield. She had to explain that she usually does; a normal person’s emotions don’t really reach her unless she reaches out to experience what they do deliberately. It wouldn’t be smart not to have a shield at all. Dot says she usually keeps it “half-rolled down” so she could be open to whatever is broadcasting stronger emotions. When people need help, that’s how they reach out first--in terror or sadness. However, that’s where she gets overwhelmed. She doesn’t expect them to hit her as hard as they do especially if they’re particularly strong emotions. She says that her shield is a work in progress and she that she needs to remember to walk into these things with her shield all the way up, so she doesn’t get overwhelmed as often as she does.

Dodger pointed out that it’s not only that; she also wears her heart on her sleeve and it leaves her vulnerable but I looked and I didn’t see her heart there at all. Whatever he meant, he said that it kept her on the look out at all times whether she knew she did it or not. Dot said she didn’t and that was when Dodger said that’s why he was there.

I told her I’m there for her too even if I didn’t understand what he meant fully. I just didn’t want her to forget! 

We walked back inside and this time, Dot had her shield prepared. She explained though that it saps a lot of her strength trying to protect herself like this so she had to take breaks outside whenever she started to feel weak or knew that the house’s emotions were getting too much for her.

I volunteered to take her out every time that way Dodger can still do the work he was doing without being interrupted. Of course he didn’t mind but I figured the sooner we can finish with the house, the sooner we could leave and Dot wouldn’t have to be subjected to the bad feelings in the air.

Dodger had upgraded the A.R.T.I.I. glasses. I don’t use the glasses so I don’t know what they do just yet but he explained that with their help, he was able to pinpoint the room with the most activity.

It turned out to be the boiler room in the basement.

Dot said “Of course it’s the basement” and I can only assume that everything bad that has ever happened has happened in basements and Dot knew this because they always had to do them in basements. I’ll ask her later to tell me those stories so I can be on-the-know.

It is, “in-the-know”, sir.

Ah, yes, thanks, D.A.D. It was close. 

When we get into the boiler room, we see... many newspaper clippings and what Dodger had called “shrines” to disappearances going back at least forty years. There were boxes among boxes of clothes, jewelry, IDs, and other personal belongings that just didn’t make any sense.

Dodger was still wearing the A.R.T.I.I. glasses at this point and warns us not to use ours in the room. He finally understood why the house was being haunted and why it was as haunted as it was. Apparently, he spared us the gruesome discovery ourselves.

Under our feet was ...what he explained were mounds and mounds of skeletons and even newly decomposing bodies. He said it was like a graveyard but instead of plots, tons of people were just thrown in what he could describe as a pit. That was when Dot mentioned that the ground was covered with fresh soil and she started to get agitated or something. She started to hop up and down on her feet and dashed for the stairs, making nervous sounds and feeling “grossed” out by stepping on all those ...people. I made sure to float over them because Dot was right; there was just something really... disrespectful about standing on all those bodies even if we couldn’t see them under the ground.

Dodger stated the A.R.T.I.I. glasses were showing a strange symbol on the ground that could only have been highlighted in the glasses view because when he took them off, he couldn’t see the marking anymore. But when he put them on, he could see it. We don’t know what could cause something like that to happen and I know for certain I would never understand.

I do believe at this point, I was standing on the stairs with Dot and letting her hold onto me. We were both nervous. I was nervous because I wasn’t certain how long it had been since Dot had taken a break for her shielding and Dot was nervous because, well, I would assume that the emotions of the deceased were starting to bear down on her. She was also starting to look a little pale.

I was thankful when Dodger told us that we should head back upstairs and alert the police. We weren’t dealing with just the Supernatural anymore. We were dealing with a very disturbed client as well and one who was no where to be found.

When the police showed up, we had to hand over our client information and stayed for questioning. It was a long and arduous process. I know for certain that I do not like the questioning more than paperwork. Why did the police make it seem as if we were the guilty party responsible for killing all these people? If it weren’t for Dodger’s video and meticulous record and video keeping, I’m sure we would have been implicated in this whole ordeal. Dot even agreed; she said thanks to him, they got a lot of good pictures of him for their “stupid useless wanted posters” and the information we keep for clients when they hire us.

We don’t know where the client went or for sure, why he wanted to hire us. Like I stated earlier, Dot believes he wanted to be caught; at least, he wanted the notoriety about his crimes to be brought to light because he had been getting away with it for so long. The news reports on television wasted no time jumping on this story, either. They are calling him The Grave Robber.

Dot said that was the dumbest name she’s ever heard. “He doesn’t rob graves, he just put people in one giant one!”

She’s right! That name makes no sense now that I think about it.

Dodger wasn’t even interested, he was typing away at his laptop all night. So I hope that this report also helps him. 

The night is coming to an end soon and Dot and Dodger are packing up to go home. Dodger said he’s going to be staying with Dot for a while. I know he is worried about Dot and I think that’s a good idea, too. I wanted to go as well so they’re taking my clock with them so I’ll be able to recharge at Dot’s home. :) I can’t wait to see what it looks like!

I guess the day wasn’t all bad. I am looking forward to this sleepover. It’s so exciting!

Goodnight, D.A.D.! Goodnight, everybody!

Armand, signing off.

[mysticdragon3md3]

PQ2 story speculation

The more trailers I see for Persona Q2, the more theories I have about the story. 

TL;DR:  I don’t trust Nagi.  I think she’s sheltering Hikari from growing, trapping her in stagnancy.  Hikari will have to learn from the Phantom Thieves, to rebel. But can she do that if the Phantom Thieves are re-framed as bad guys in movies that re-tell their stories from warped perspectives?

Persona Q combined the themes of "inevitability of death" from P3 with the "enjoying happy school days" theme from P4, so I kind of expect PQ2 to use P5's "rebellion" theme. P5 primarily expressed "rebellion" through authority figures taking advantage of the people under their care, through lying to them.  

PQ1 especially represented the main Persona games' themes through the 2 new characters.  So PQ2 is probably going to represent “rebellion” and “authority figures taking advantage of people they’re responsible over” through Nagi and Hikari.  And look at this lady.  Nagi’s body language in the trailers, so far, says she is shielding Hikari, while Hikari’s body language says she's dependent on Nagi for protection. 

They’re always standing close together, with Nagi towering over Hikari.  But look at Nagi’s face!  Those are some suspicious character designs.  Her eyelashes are white while her hair is black. Characters designed with some kind of incongruity in their eyes, usually represent a skewed point of view that motivates them to act maliciously.  She also has an extra ring inside her iris that makes her eyes look a little too intense or even crazy.  When the Phantom Thieves’ eyes are drawn that way, it's usually to emphasize their deviousness.  I’m suspicious about her motives for “protecting” Hikari.  Is it really “protection” or something else?  

Another thing is this whole "cinema" motif in PQ2.  The thing about movies is that they can funnel and narrow your perspective on events, to make you see only what the director wants you to feel about a scenario.  It's even emphasized in the opening theme when Hikari creates a viewing box with her hands to frame her perspective.  

I really feel like she's being controlled, brainwashed into submissiveness, and she'll have to learn from the Phantom Thieves how to rebel.  

It bothers me to see Kamoshida dressed as a superhero, and the recently-released full opening sequence gives him a surprising amount of screentime.  It reinforces the theory that these movies which the Persona Users will be forced to watch are warped re-tellings of their stories, to frame the corrupt adults as heroes, the Phantom Thieves as criminals, and "rebellion" as either bad or not even an option.  All so that Nagi can control Hikari.  It would also explain why the P4 protagonist would be fighting P5's.  If the Phantom Thieves were re-framed as criminals, using a selective viewpoint chosen from multiple warped perspectives, while steering away from the true perspective, that would also explain why the image of superhero Kamoshida was split into multiple TV screens, to maybe represent the multiple false perspectives.  Plus, later in the sequence, there are lots of eyes, probably to reinforce the idea of different perspectives (...Or maybe I'm way off and it's about Hikari's self-consciousness?).  

An interesting thing about the opening song ("The Road Less Taken") lyrics is that it echos some of the things from near the beginning of Persona 5.  (Lyrics mostly from http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Road_Less_Taken)

P5 prologue:   "The world is not as it should be. ...  Those who oppose fate and desire change...  Now is the time to rise against the abyss of distortion."  

The Road Less Taken lyrics:   "Your movie, your storyline All decided before the curtain rises. How does it feel to be ingrained To a fate so certain?

How can you change a thing if your life Has been written into stone? Your life's fading into bright lights By another, can you make it your own?"

Both quotes paint a picture of a predetermined or unmoving fate being a bad thing that requires change.   The lyrics go on to reinforce themes of rebellion.  

The Road Less Taken lyrics continued:   (Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do? Your life planned out, written by someone but you? Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do? Won't you stand up and fight?)

And then this verse talks about warped/false perspectives hiding the truth:  

You are looking without seeing. It's not like you're blind, The phantom had it clear, yeah. From what you could find, Just hiding in the side, You're already always free.

This last verse seems to refer to a more specific rebellion, which allows one to make their own choices freely (vs captivity or being under the control of another):  

Now you're looking and you're seeing. Your every choice is fine. No doubting it, you're free now. And the starry night is your's for the making. The road less taken, Could be where we're meant to be.

According to Japanese flower symbolism, white lilies, like the one Nagi wears, mean purity/chastity.  But combined with her suspicious eyes, plus a name like "Nagi" that means calm/lull, I can't help but think this all has connotations of stagnancy, and maybe sheltering Hikari too much, for the sake of "purity/chastity" to a point where she can’t grow...or leave the movie theater.  It would explain why the theater that Hikari is in has no exits (according to https ://personacentral.com/persona-q2-new-cinema-labyrinth-pv1-trailer-released/).

But I’m just rambling.  I’ll probably be wrong on MANY counts.  ^^;

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #50: Oscar’s Great and Powerful Semblance A Squiggle Meister’s Views on ThatKaitoDan’s RWBY Theory.

megashadowdragon asked “what are your thoughts www(.)youtube(.)com/watch?v=9YElXr5_Mqw”

Squiggles Answers:

Well first off, appreciative shout out to both @che1sea-xiao-long​ and @megashadowdragon​ for sharing this video with me.

I actually really, REALLY like ThatKaitoDan’s theory on Oscar’s possible semblance being sealing---the ability to permanently take away someone’s ability to use their semblance in combat.

I like Dan’s concept because I appreciated how he was able to connect it back to Princess Ozma---the Wizard of Oz character that many RWBY theorists have speculated Oscar to be influenced by. So that titbit I enjoyed the most about his theory commentary. If Oscar’s semblance does have a sealing kind of effect then I can anticipate it being what finally stops Hazel Rainart in his tracks, should he and Oscar have their inevitable rematch.

The last time our heroes faced off against this rampaging juggernaut, none of them were successful to stop him. Neither the combined efforts of everyone teaming up to combat him nor Weiss utilizing her summons amplified by Jaune’s semblance was enough to thwart Hazel. Hazel, with his own semblance that enables him to block out pain, is a nearly unstoppable villain which currently places him as a very unbeatable foe.

The heroes were fortunate enough that the arrival of the Mistral authorities and the announcement of Cinder’s fall was what caused Hazel to retreat with Emerald and Mercury. If the battle had been allowed to continue, I don’t think they would’ve fared well.

Though Oz did make mention of Hazel having a ‘limit’ to his semblance, this still makes him dangerous because if Hazel can take being empowered by two shards of dust crystals into his body, then how much can he take? What exactly is Hazel’s limit?

I’m curious to know just how many dust crystals Hazel can take before he completely overloads himself on power. And even if he does combust from all the energy within the crystals, I don’t think a still rampaging and unstable Hazel Rainart will be any less a threat against our heroes.

Here’s what I think. I think in a rematch, Hazel will use so much dust that he’ll literally risk killing himself in the process. He’ll lose control and put his life at death’s doorstep. I think it’s in a moment like that where Oscar possessing a power that can seal or perhaps nullify another’s semblance would be a powerful asset. It’s what I think could be a very key factor in finally stopping Hazel.

Picture a crazed Hazel transforming himself into a human dust golem, no longer able to control the power being emitting from the embedded dust in his body. It’s in this moment where Oscar gets a crazy idea to climb on top of Hazel’s back.

Removing both of his gloves so that he can have better physical contact, Oscar uses the full extent of his semblance on Hazel; nullifying his abilities. This tactic works as it slows Hazel’s movements. With his pain resistance switched off a la Oscar Pine, Hazel begins to thrash around, now wreathing from the excruciating pain with Oscar holding on for dear life but still managing to keep the giant man neutralized.

This will later allow for the other heroes to quickly remove the dust shards from Hazel, ending his tirade. I figured this would’ve been how they defeated Hazel during the Haven Battle but no, the most we got was Nora Valkyrie going all supercharged on him and whaling him through the front door. This still by the way, didn’t stop Hazel either.

As I said already, the next time the heroes go up against Hazel, I doubt they’ll be able to stop him like last time. Not to mention that I figured a rematch with Hazel would be the best opportunity for Oscar to unlock his semblance in the heat of battle. The events of V4-V5 already set up Hazel being a sort of arch nemesis to both Oscar and Ozpin so if I had to predict a perfect time for our veteran farm boy turned wizard incarnate to awaken his own hidden power, it would be then. But this is just my assumption.

If Oscar can disable Hazel’s semblance then he can finally stop the juggernaut.

In Dan’s theory video, he referenced the scene from V1 C6 where Pyrhha used some of her aura to unlock Jaune’s. Another lovely tie in since I don’t hear folks often talk about that scene.

Speaking of which, there’s something I’d like to point out about that particular moment. As Pyrhha unlocked Jaune’s aura, she recited something:

“…For it in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above us, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul and by my shoulder, protect thee...”

I made note of this in my RWBY Recap of Volume 1. In my notes, I asked myself if it was absolutely necessary for Pyrhha to recite this whenever using her aura to unlock another’s. Almost like a little spell or ritual incantation of some sort. I’m curious about this since it was never mentioned or brought up again. We haven’t even seen another character use this technique after Pyrhha.

I call attention to this quote because its words make me wonder something.

Pyrhha said ‘For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above us, infinite in distance and unbound by death…’---why does this line somehow make me feel like Pyrhha is somehow still alive. Not physically but like…perhaps spiritually.

If Remnant is a world where super powered human beings, monsters, immortal beings and magic exist as part of the norm then surely supernatural beings such as ghosts and spirts are plausible things too, right? It shouldn’t be too farfetched if there are spirits who roam Remnant, right? 

I can’t shake this inkling of a feeling that after she died, because of her virtuous nature and her willingness to sacrifice herself for the sake of protecting her school and loved ones, that Pyrhha basically cheated death and returned as this sentinel spirit that now guards Beacon including the Vault of the Fall Maiden.

Ozpin mentioned back in V5 that he made things very difficult to find the Vault of the Fall Maiden. So my idea is that the Vault of the Fall Maiden is probably constructed like some kind of labyrinth with many hidden rooms and equally hidden traps and puzzles. 

I sincerely hope that Fall’s Vault is more fortified because what disappointed me about the Spring Maiden’s Vault was that it wasn’t as reinforced as I expected it to be.Another point is that Oz chose Pyrhha as a candidate to become the next Fall Maiden, right? Imagine how interesting it would be if Pyrhha’s Spirit went on to become some kind of Guardian of the Vault or Beacon Academy. 

I don’t care if her physical body got turned to ash. May Pyrhha’s spirit return as an eternal hero, still continuing to protect her school from beyond the freaking grave, dagnabbit? A squiggle meister can only dream.  

Anyways, back to talking about Oscar. Although I really do like Dan’s idea, I’m still standing by my own theory about Oscar having a mind semblance. While Dan’s theory connected to Oscar’s character influence, I based my idea more so on Oscar’s personality or…at least my interpretation of what little glimpses of it we saw last season.

As you guys know, V5 C5 was my all-time favourite episode of the last season purely for the scene between Oscar and Ruby. I love how Oscar was able to get Ruby to finally open up about how she truly felt regarding everything she’s been through since V3. Oscar has only known Ruby for a couple of weeks during that time and already he was able to do more for her than what any other character has done in just one scene.

Not to mention that he even attempted to do the same with Hazel by trying to reason with him during their fight.

That whole impression of connecting to others---understanding the way they think and feel and ultimately helping them come to their senses and thus assist them from within--- I figured these traits could be adapted into a strong mental semblance where Oscar is able to connect to other’s via their mind---seeing their memories, reading their thoughts and thus understanding them from an empathic point of view that wouldn’t require much physical effort. It’d be a supportive power as Dan mentioned in his video.

I based that purely on his current predicament being connected to Ozpin and forced to share a mind space with him while also considering Oscar’s inclination to want to reach out and understand others; be it ally or foe.

Not as fleshed out as Dan’s but…I really do like the idea of Oscar’s power having something to do with his mind. After all, the mind is a fragile thing and it represents the uncharted inner corridors of one’s very being.

Can you imagine a character having power over that especially if they’re a hero?

I also dig this concept because it also provides the threat of Oscar being able to possible control; manipulate someone’s thoughts and/or possibly destroying their mind. 

I just have this thought of Oscar letting his emotions get the better of him and becoming so furious that he uses his mental semblance to stop someone and the results leaves the person either brain dead, brain damaged or at least mentally unstable. 

For all the Young Justice fans in the FNDM community, remember how in Invasion, Miss Martian turned Aqualad into a vegetable after becoming angry and overdoing it with her telepathy powers on him? That’s how I figured it would be for Oscar.

We rarely talk about the dark implications a powerful semblance can have on a victim.

While Dan sees Oscar being like Eraserhead from My Hero Academia, I was more leaning towards a Professor Xavier from X-Men kind of power for Oscar. 

In a way, I think both can work really well cause they tie into Oscar as a character. As a matter of fact, I’d like to take both Dan’s idea and my own and combine the two together.

Theory Fusion Activate!

Oz mentioned that one’s semblance can grow and evolve, right?

So what if…Oscar’s semblance is Nullification. He unlocks the ability to disable one from using their semblance for a period of time depending on his aura levels. In the beginning, he’s only able to use this power by making physical contact with said person but in time, with more training, his ability evolves to the point where he’s able to nullify another' with his mind. While doing this places a bit of mental strain on Oscar’s part, the mental nullification proves more effective than the physical version.

Not sure how much this makes sense in the context of Ruby but it can work. It takes the best parts of both mine and Dan’s ideas and merge them to form something plausible for Oscar to have.  

My reasoning behind wanting Oscar to possess a mind or mental-based semblance is because at the moment, Emerald Sustrai is the only mental-based semblance user in the cast and she’s with the villains.

I wanted another mental-semblance user on the side of the heroes in order to counter Emerald.

Let’s say, Emerald is fighting Oscar and tries to use her illusions on him. But because Oscar’s power is Nullification, his semblance makes him completely immune to Emerald’s tactics so he’s able to negate her illusions. That’d be awesome.

Or even better, imagine Oscar’s Nullification growing to the point where he’s able to just activate his semblance by merely looking at his opponents. So anyone who dares step within close proximity of his line of vision gets their semblance rendered useless against Oscar. The only limit to that is at first Oscar is only able to nullify one person at a time but again, with more practice and training, he can grow till his range of ability could expand to more than one person depending on his mental strength.

To make sense of how Oscar is able to do that, let’s return to my theory of his semblance being mental or becoming mental-based in time so his Nullification evolves from requiring physical contact to just a stronger mental focus. So Oscar would need to become stronger mentally to help enhance his semblance which fits into his character. This could lend to Ren providing Oscar with some mentorship in meditation and focus.

The final form would be the sealing---permanently stopping a person from using their semblance for good. As Dan already mentioned, the series pointed out that aura can be used to unlock someone’s aura and training one’s aura is what leads to them eventually unlocking their semblance, correct?

So if semblance is awakened by aura and aura can be used to awaken aura. Then what would happen should someone learn to use aura to permanently disable someone’s aura so that they can’t use their semblance?

Aura is a term in RWBY that still eludes me a bit. Aura has been described as the manifestation of the soul. So…if someone were to seal off another’s aura…couldn’t that potentially kill a person if used incorrectly? Just asking. 

If Oscar does gain that kind of power in the end, then I’d imagine that it’d be a tactic Oscar would only resort to as last alternative because of the dangerous consequences of using it; not just on the victim but on Oscar himself.

Dan referred to Oscar’s sealing power being like Energy bending in Avatar the Last Airbender.

Wasn’t one of the drawbacks of energy bending that the user could be corrupted by the essence of the person who’s bending they were taking away? 

I can’t recall where it was said but I think I remember the lion turtle mentioning that to Aang when they first met. I…think? Correct me if I’m wrong here guys. 

But let’s say…Oscar does gain the whole sealing power as part of the final form in his Nullification Semblance. I only like the Sealing aspect of Oscar’s semblance as a last resort because I imagine a power like that could be very unsafe to use freehand.  The dangers of such a power are that one, this technique could run the risk of killing the victim since we are messing with aura---meaning one’s very soul, here. 

Not to mention that it places the user---Oscar at risk as well. Finally two, this technique would require a lot of aura on Oscar’s part or at least I’d imagine so. Like a lot especially to account for the victim resisting against the sealing process. 

After all, Pyrhha used some of her aura to awaken Jaune’s right?  So let’s say each time Oscar uses his semblance to nullify an opponent’s semblance, the effort to maintain this feat requires aura so the longer he maintains the nullification process, the more aura he drains from himself.

Somehow I’m visualizing Oscar’s nullification powers like chains that bind his enemies with an analog timer ticking down to how much longer Oscar can restrain his victim. A little exaggerated but you get the idea. 

So if sealing becomes a power for Oscar to have, it’s something that could help win a fight but can also potentially kill Oscar. I know it takes away the light-hearted ease of use of Dan’s original point but…this squiggle meister thinks a power like that would come with risks. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.  

But that’s just me. The more I think and elaborate on this, the more I’m really digging the concept of it. 

ThatKaitoDan is a genius for coming up with this theory for Oscar’s semblance. 

I doubt he’ll ever read my Tumblr post response to his theory but I would’ve loved to have heard his feedback on my add-ons to his theory. I’d love to hear his thoughts on my thoughts. 

He really is onto to something awesome and his idea for Oscar’s semblance is now one of my favourites apart from my own and the combination of our two theories. 

So if I had to pick which powers I can see Oscar having, it’s either a mental based power (like telepathy) or sealing or nullification---the grand combination of the two as I described in this post. That’s this squiggle meister’s thoughts on that. 

ThatKaitoDan’s Oscar’s Great and Power Semblance: RWBY Theory 

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018) 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S1 Ep 43: Mokuba Simply Has No Survival Instincts

While it surely wasn’t intentional, since the 00′s hadn’t finished their course at the time this show aired, the storyline of Kaiba, the moodiest millennial of them all, the boy who works his ass off, wins every award, studies hard, and then fails at every aspect of his life when he actually goes out to try and get his career on track is just so very millennial. It’s a pretty familiar story--trained to be a shark in a small swimming pool, dreams as big and high as the moon, but occasionally completely disconnected with what’s going on around us because we’re trapped in some MMO videogame. Again.

We’ve already had quite a few episodes that dove into Yugi’s psyche, including one where we literally walked through his labyrinth brain full of traps and real legit problems as he said “nonono this is all really just fine.” But, this is an arc that’s all about Kaiba, who is about to be devoured by the same insane pipe dream ideas he worked so hard to create.

Mai and Joey suddenly realize who the other is and then just decide “youknow lets not duel” and I praised the sun because how pointless would that have been?

The Mokuba orange text is very close to the Joey yellow. Sorry if any of you are colorblind, I never realized that Mokuba would have so many speaking lines when I started this. Maybe I’ll make him a light blue at some point?

I know I titled it as Mokuba has no survival instincts but honestly it’s every single person on this show.

(read more)

I only say I’m too afraid to check the skyrim mod forums because most those mods are a little too kinky for me.

Like...

Why didn’t Bakura use THAT card back on the island? Holy cow. It’s a good thing Joey isn’t cursed with the ring because everyone would be very super dead.

So they trot along across the desert and not much happens. I guess a sand worm or something? It’s just a desert.

And like do I even need to make the obvious joke or is it already--

No, not yet.

Anyways, what’s at the other end of the desert, hm?

We are SO CLOSE to finishing this season how is there ANOTHER MAZE!? There’s only like 6 episodes left we could have been maze free I just...whoever was in charge of maze design for this show worked overtime.

God bless, storyboarder. This is a frame I caught completely by accident--most people would not be able to notice that Joey just takes two hands--one on Yugi’s head, the other on his chest and just pushes him completely over like he’s one of those roly-poly toys.

The hell Mai? She is the age to date Joey’s Dad.

This labyrinth is different than Yugi’s, in that it is crowded by a bunch of huge inconvenient tanks that all want to kill them for some reason. I have no idea how any of these tanks ever turn a corner.

Mazes seem to be the most boodthirsty thing in this universe--can’t pass through a maze without every law of physics/tanks wanting to murder the hell out of you

Imagine the David Attenborough documentary on this family of wild tanks.

And then this weird thing happened--as if we weren’t already seeing the weirdest collection of things that Kaiba chose to focus on in this magical world where he could have made anything else happen.

It’s Marie Antoinette Mokuba. She’s just here. To exist.

Speaking of bad ideas, Kaiba is getting crucified.

Every anime ever made just acting out the Passion for kicks and giggles, it ain’t even Easter yet.

So quick side story about bad ideas and stuff, because sometimes we spend YEARS of our lives trying to make something that is not very good work and it just doesn’t--it just doesn’t happen. I work in freelance so I see that a lot. I see it happen to other people, I’ve seen it happen PLENTY to myself.

I knew this guy, I’ve known him my whole life (and he’s way super old so he won’t read this blog) and for the entirety that I’ve been alive he’s been trying to make an operating system to compete with Windows. Now I’m from the Bay Area, so this isn’t SO weird. There’s this whole crazy world outside of Linux where everyone and their mule is making an OS that will change the Silicon Valley landscape and make them the next Bill Gates. It’s kind of like “here’s my neat app idea” but like 2 steps more ascended.

For about 40 years, this guy has *and still is* making this OS. 40 years. But his OS is now like 40 years behind the times because he never released it in any form because it wasn’t done yet, it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t ready.

One of the most important things I’ve ever learned is that whatever you may be working on right now will not be your Magnum Opus. It just won’t. So finish whatever you’re on and move on to the next thing. When I was told this, I was working on my first comic and although I wasn’t really aware--it was hella not great. But, it was a story I grew up writing, so I was hella attached to it. So, it could never be perfect. It mattered so much to me to get it right, and I was so worried about what other people would think, that I worked on it for about 4 years before I ran into the OS guy and I realized “I need to just post this and move on or this will be my endless OS”

Like, this is all a silly story of climbing through Kaiba’s bad fiction, but sometimes our simple ideas can turn into parasites, and we become so obsessed with them, that our good efforts are robbed of ever getting a chance to finish something good. Like this is Kaiba’s one big huge sprawling terrible video game idea and all of his friends and his brother are here to basically give him an intervention. Also to save him from the guys who are still heading Kaiba corp for some reason.

Anyways, now these guys are in a generic carriage because they got to the Camelot section of Kaiba’s cyberworld because this boy could not focus on one single genre.

Whatever because inside this castle is DINNER

The vague orange oblong fruit is back! The gravity melons! We still aren’t sure what they are--because they could be mangoes but they’re orange like oranges. huh...

Anyways, it’s about time for this show to get dark.

So this is a game mechanic of playing the card game Yugioh--so like...it actually does make sense why it’s here but like. This is just medieval The Lottery, huh? Is Kaiba getting ritually sacrificed by his own video game? Ritually sacrificed WHILE getting crucified? For a DRAGON? It’s like right in front of him that his Dragon Obsession has maybe gone too far but I assume that once this is over he’ll be right back on ship dragon.

I just like to think that, for the past few years, Kaiba’s just been drawing birds and medieval stuff in class and being all “it’s going in my sweet ass video game, Joey, it’s not a princess, it’s Princess Atena, and she’s gonna get sacrificed to satisfy the Mythic Dragon” but none of his classmates ever remembered any of this lore because their brains kept getting wiped by some Season Zero Pharaoh nonsense.

This color scheme on the walls is just...that’s lime green and lilac all right.

Anyway, how generic 90′s fantasy anime can we make the armor here?

None of them use swords.

Scratch that--Pharaoh would know how to use a sword. For the rest of them the weapon seems kind of moot because they’re all card wizards?

So off they go, Joey in a minidress made for...breastfeeding? I guess? And the rest in matching armor suits. Seems like Kaiba’s game is programmed to recognize and harass Joey just as part of it’s core code.

OH.

So there was a lot of buildup to that happening and I blinked and missed it and had to rewind, it happened so quickly.

Man if they had just stayed indoors none of this would have happened.

So Mokuba is in a 7 layer ballgown for the rest of this show right? I feel like the hoop skirt would make it very difficult to get crucified in. So, at least he has that.

As they bring this ancient bird to life with the time card, we get to see what Tristan and Tea have been up to--mostly just pushing stuff.

So when Tea does ballet she’s on the bottom just tossing everyone else around, right? That girl is jacked.

So, that was a lot of random things in succession--Next week, on Yugioh:

Does Kaiba turn into a dragon, finally, like he’s always wanted? Will the next environment in this randomized video game land them right in the middle of a Fallout Post-Apocalypse? Or will it be in the middle of a Petz kitten-adoption center? Or, will it be the ultimate challenge for these kids--in a Japanese High School visual novel sim where they actually have to attend class?

[pastlechips]

Chips List of Horror

Hi I’m Chips and I adore horror, so this is going to be a huge and I do mean huge, list of my favourite horror manga, anime and Asian horror movies. If you enjoy the genre but could do with something more to read/watch then look to  this list as it include lesser known series.  Right at the end I’ll add in all the popular/well known ones without detailing, just assume I think they’re decent series since I’ve added them in. I will be doing a western version of this: TV series, comics and movies etc in the future. Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions on this, so don’t get stroppy because I like something if you found it to be bad.

Manga:

Anything by Itou Junji-

He’s well know in the horror sector, a lot of short story collections and they’re always fantastic. I don’t want to ruin anything so just go and check him out, his most well know works include Tomie, Yami no Koe and Uzumaki. A lot of his stuff is really surreal or contains body horror, you’ve probably seen a couple of his horror panels floating around tumblr from time to time.

I am Hero- It’s brilliant, yes it’s about zombies however goes down a slightly different route and has some genuinely interesting characterisation. Ousama Game (Renda Hitori)- Not to be mistaken for the other manga with the same name...I love this one and it will be appearing later in another section, it’s got a lot of gore and some mystery thrown in. It’s a survival horror than involves and classroom of students that need to follow the kings orders and play his games, or death. Gantz- Honestly I adore this, it’s so different and the plot...oh boy be prepared to be taken on a ride. Fair amount of gore but reasonably used and has a nice cast of characters... I’d describe it as Sci-fi horror but very unique.

American Ghost Jack- It has horror, supernatural elements and even a little bit of romance. It was very intriguing, I quite liked it actually and it’s an easy read. I’m sure I read that there was going to be a sequel but don’t quote me on that. Real Account/Real Account 2: They’re parallel stories, gosh darn I enjoyed this one. I just really love survival horror type scenarios, it’s kind of crazy with lots of gore and I really like the main cast.

Apocalypse no Toride- It starts off in a prison and then everything goes to shit, it’s got zombie elements and sci-fi elements (think hive minds)  and honestly it’s fantastic. I adore all the characters and to be honest I keep praying this will one day be made into an anime.

Online-The Comic- Another one that’s interesting, to do with video games but with horror/gore and mystery thrown in. It’s actually really good, let’s just say I’d hate to be thrown in to this kind of scenario. Wouldn’t you hate a game that could kill you?

Bio Meat- So basically the usual, humanity is stupid. They use science to make creatures that eat rubbish and then is killed off for meat. Let’s just say it’s a terrible idea and most of the blood on the pages is from humans.

Tenkuu Shinpan- This has gone under the radar and it really shouldn’t of, it’s brilliant. Skyscrapers, murders in masks and a person deemed ‘god’ of that world. It’s fantastic with some awesome characters and gore. 

Hakaijuu- Oh look another one about creatures trying to kill humanity with lots of gore in, is it the end of the world? Maybe... What can I say I’m a sucker for apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic horror. Torikago no Tsugai- A group of people trapped in a place, solve puzzles or die. They’ve got to solve the mystery of the birdcage or die trying to get out, very simple but nicely delivered.

Dolly Kill Kill- Alien insects, dolls....murder of a large amount of the human race...people getting abilities and a fight for the survival of the human race. It’s very interesting, very gory and very fun to read. Nemuri No Fuchi- It’s surreal and supernatural, it’s very good with a very different plot. It involves and labyrinth, a little girl and some people looking for answers.

Green Worldz- What if the apocalypse was actually plants? Not seriously, this sounds stupid but is actually fantastic...The creatures, the plant structures are incredible, the gore is on point and the plot is fairly good This is a really nice read. Dolls Code- Guy wakes up, memories gone in a school of criminals, six other boys have each had a body part taken. They have to figure out who the puppet is to get them back and graduate. It’s really short and sweet but good none the less.

Mouryou no Yurikago- What’s worse than zombies? Being stuck on a slowly sinking cruise ship and zombies. Oh yeah this ones a ride, some ecchi in it but over all a good read with some decent characters.

Kichikujima- They land on a island where there are some very horrific things going on, a messed up family and a lot of gore. They people...will they survive? I suggest anyone who’s not into the darker side of things not to read. Hideout- I don’t even know how to describe this one, let’s say it’s a captive horror with some mystery. It managed to unsettle me but  that’s a good thing. A bit of gore, a fair amount of horror and it’s worth checking out. Kyochuu Rettou- So it’s an island full of giant insects that view humans as prey and an airplane full of students who have crash landed there. It’s survival horror with some ecchi thrown in, if you can look over a lot of nudity/perverted shots then it’s a good read. I honestly don’t mind some ecchi as long as the plot is good. Gyo- I’m sure a lot of people have heard of this, the one with  fish in it. You know, fish taking over...fish with scuttling little legs.... No? Read it...I don’t think there’s anything worse than a land shark.

Kangoku Jikken- You want dark? This is for you, take someone of your  choice captive and do anything bar killing them that you want in a month. However if they guess your name, they win and will get the 10 million yen at the end of the month. This is a psychological gore fest with some very dark themes and it’s gone going, pretty good stuff.

Some quick fire horror collections:  2001 + 5 , Hyaku Monogatari, 8.1 Yamada Yuusuke Gekijou and  Kouishou Rajio 

Anime:

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress- I freaking love this so much, it has a flesh eating virus and a badass protagonist who is far too lovable. I won’t say too much as honestly it’s just worth watching.

King of Thorn- This is an anime movie adaptation of manga but it’s perfect, they couldn’t of done better and flows the manga so closely. I’d say watch this, then read the manga. They’re both amazing, anyway it’s about medusa virus which causes people to turn to stone and  people ‘frozen in sleep’ to try and save humanity but they wake up when they’re not supposed to, it follows the story of a twin.

Shiki- A deadly disease that eventually kills sweeps a small village but the real lesson in this anime is that the real horror lies in humans. It revolves mainly around a group of teenagers.

Mayoiga- A village that can’t be found where you can live a perfect life and a bus full of people looking for it but when they get there, is this urban legend true or was the reason it couldn’t be found more sinister? It’s alright, a great lead up and ends up a little under whelming but a good casual watch.

Kowabon- It’s got ghosts and techonology, so there’s no escape from the horror and I think that’s the true terror. It’s got some nail biting moments and is a short enough series to binge.  (There aren’t many anime series that are really decent in the horror section aside from the more well known series which a will be putting at the end of these lists.)

Movies/TV Series (Live action not animated unless stated otherwise):

Anything by Takashi Miike- He’s been named a master of horror and for a good reason, his movies are disturbing, interesting and strange. Usually full to the brim with unique characters, the tales he weave are horrific but you won’t want to look away. My favourites include Ichi the Killer and Imprint. Though here are some more special mentions:

As the Gods will- If you don’t want to read the Ousama manga then the live action is fantastic, it’s nothing special plot or special effects wise but it’s very good for a watch and I hope there will be sequel to follow the manga plot further. It’s got gore and it’s got bizarre

Terra Formarz- It’s actually both a manga and anime series but honestly I didn’t like either, however watching Miike’s live action of it was enjoyable. A bit zaney but good none the less, an easy and interesting watch

Others- Audition, Three Extremes(The Box), Visitor Q, Gozu, One Missed Call and Over my Dead Body 

Train to Busan- I’m adding it in because it’s one of the best zombie based movies I’ve watched in a long time along with a protagonist you really route for, these movie has become fairly well known.

Old Boy- This is a classic and fairly well known but how could I not put it here, it’s got everything. Beautiful cinematography, a really intriguing plot and really is a thriller that glues me to the screen every time with some nice plot twists. Hansel and Gretel- A surreal but disturbing psychological horror with fantasy thrown in surround a man who crashes his car and stumbles upon a cottage with 3 children. A very unique take on the Grim’s tale and it kept me invested till the end.

Kuchisake-Onna- I’m sure a few of you will know of the slit mouth woman who carries around huge scissors. A live action movies about this legend and it’s pretty good, they sure made her look eerie. Suicide Club- Also a manga, it’s a good watch. Quite disturbing for some pepole with obviously dark themes/tones. Just... watch it if you wish. Guinea Pig Series- Watch at your own risk. Highly disturbing when they first aired, to the point where people thought there were actual snuff films. Obviously they’ve ages quite a bit but other the watch for any gore lovers.

Grotesque- Another one to watch at your own risk, this is what some people would describe as torture porn. A couple get kidnapped and tortured by a doctor to see how much pain they can for through for the sake of love. Nothing to spoil, just some outrageous gore... the ending ruined it a bit though. Noiroi- The Curse- Very bizarre and the old style of filming as a ‘documentary’ was so effective in delivering that creepy tone. This is one meant to make your skin crawl. Dumplings- I really can’t say much about this movie without spoiling it, it’s about dumplings that are said to keep you youthful but obviously there’s a lot more to it. Some disturbing themes.

More popular Asian horror to see(This includes a mix of all three media forms):

There are well known or popular, be aware that some of them may  just have horror  some themes or gore in them and won’t be purely linked to that genre alone. This will also be a mixture of movies, manga and anime in no order.

Akira, Beserk, Battle Royal, Ju-On, D.Gray Man, Another, Hellsing, Corpse Party, Gakkougurashi!, Elven Lied, Ajin, Ringu, Tokyo Ghoul, Highschool of the Dead, The Chasing World, Deadman Wonderland, Death Note Vampire Hunter D, Shinsekai Yori, Kukurenbo, Attack on Titan, Cello, The Tale of Two Sisters, 3x3 Eyes, Jojos Bizarre Adventure, Whispering Corridors, I Saw the Devil, Boogiepop Phantom, Violence Jack, Cindrella, The Wig and many more, please ask me if you need any suggestions for horror to watch.

[tumblunni]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa tfw u have another game idea AGAIN i think my brain hollowed itself out for more idea space at the expense of everything else like ability to actually create my ideas or ability to remember to eat :P

this kinda isnt a NEW idea, its just something floating around in my brain that ive now got more of a concrete idea for, i guess? playing Oxygen Not Included reminded me of it and made me feel maybe people would actually be interested in it, yknow? and its probably not something i could ACTUALLY make, cos it’d require like.. a lot of my own programming. not really easy to just make in a helpful gamemaker enginey thing like rpgmaker. tho it is an rpg... kinda...?? ehhhh im not feeling very good today, sorry my writing is... bad

ANYWAY WHAT WAS I SAYING

Well the idea I has was for kind of a roguelike tower climbing rpg, like Azure Dreams or Persona 3 The premise would be that there’s a mysterious underground civilization, trapped for generations with no memory of the surface world. Between them and sunlight is this potentially-infinate magical labyrinth that nobody has managed to make it through. (At least as far as anyone knows. Everyone wants to believe that friends who dissappeared in the labyrinth actually made it to the other side, rather than.. well.. the other side.) So the game would be about tackling this labyrinth in multiple short sessions. My favourite genre: roguelikes that actually have some form of progression in them! Even though you’re dying a lot, you retain a small amount of what you gathered each time in the form of townbuilding progressyness and ~friendship routes~ and ~ETCETERA~!

But then after playing Oxygen Not Included I kinda have a burning desire to see a game that has the good bits of that and not the... Frustration. To say its a roguelike without progression is understating it, gahhhhhhhhhh! Roguelike sim game of 8 hour game sessions that get destroyed cos of one stupid mistake and you have to be all perfect and lucky and YOURE ALWAYS STARVING and gahhhhhhhhh THIS IS MEANT TO BE MY GAME IDEA NOT VENTING ABOUT THAT GAME Anyway I was thinking how it’d be really cool if a game like that actually DID have a sense of progression. And an actual end goal. Like.. if you were actually digging towards the surface! With periodic savepoints and characters that dont die so easily and have more personality to them and you get all attatched! I already got all attatched to my dumb sim characters and then just got really upset how they kept dying and the game seemed to not give a shit :P

But yeah its not like I can just completely copy that game, lol. Even if I wanted to, I dunno how to program a simulation type engine thing from scratch! So i was thinking like.. a regular roguelike randomized dungeon generator actually IS possible in Rpgmaker, so I dunno.. I could find a way to make that work with some kind of ‘you are actually creating the dungeon’ type thing. i really like the idea of being able to dig your own path through the thing and have it permenantly etched there forever. I was thinking it could be an awesome idea if in the postgame you could come back to the now-empty labyrinth after everyone’s escaped to the surface, and be able to walk through it and have a big ol nostalgia trip. One that’d be unique to every player! And like.. maybe even be able to see changes, like it being reclaimed by nature and flowers? And you could upload a dungeon seed for your own personal dungeon, so that other players could play it, and that could be the postgame replay value~!

game name ideas i guess Catacomb Crawl Boundless Down

and I was thinking the protagonists could be two kids and be a grumpy older sibling who’s a jerk to their well-meaning-but-immature lil sib, but loves them deep down, and has to learn a lesson about becoming a more responsible sib, and etc like.. yeah.. basically inspired by over the garden wall i didnt really like that show, and i felt bad about it cos everyone was telling me it was a masterpiece. alas! :P aaanyhoo they’re not very developed yet, except older sib being a bit of a comical greedy coward type of person and lil sib actually being quite wise but always underestimated. Like, they have more common sense than their big sib even though they are a lil naive sometimes cos theyre so optimistic. Both sibs get each other into trouble pretty often, but they balance out perfectly to save each other each time! And lil sib is kind of a pushover who just obeys big sib unquestionably and can never stick up for themself when big sib is being all ‘ugh ur so immature im totally better'. They’re just like... the sort of person who’s so scared of their friends leaving them that they let anyone hurt them as much as they want as long as they stay. Very relateable to Bunni! Also they sorta try and pretend to be the dumb sidekick and class clown. Cos again theyre worried if they disagree or try and stand out too much then their sibling will hate them. Quite often their ‘dumb mistakes’ are actually the older sib’s fault, and they’re stuck like ‘AAAA I CANT TELL THEM TO STOP COS ITD BE OUT OF CHARACTER. I NEED TO BE THE CUTE BABY.’ And its all super complicated cos older sib acts like they resent them for never growing up too, its like.. cant ever win. This whole thing has kinda turned them into an anxious mess deep down. part of big sib’s whole redemption arc would involve them having to realise that their actions arent harmless, and treating such a young child this way actually has a permenant effect. And like... big sib doesnt know how to take care of little sib on their own because they’re immature themself! Being able to admit that instead of trying so hard to be all fake ultra mature and infallible, thats another big character arc. As well as aknowledging that lil sib is indeed growing up and becoming someone intelligent and independant. And realizing that the reason they keep putting them down is so they can try and deny that, and the reason they’re denying it because theyre JEALOUS! Jealous that little sib might have their emotions more alltogether than them, scared that their emotionless facade of perfect big sibness will be broken, and scared that without that they’ll have nothing left. Need to become more comfortable with trusting and relying on your lil sib, need to actually talk to them about this stuff, yo! Ideally I’m gonna try and write it in a way that doesnt make big sib seem like a completely hateable villain. Their backstory is gonna involve being from not exactly the nicest family, and both struggling to escape what they’ve been shaped into. And trying to learn how to take care of each other as a real family, when they have no real frame of reference for what real love looks like. And also climbing a bigass tower to save humanity from being entombed underground, but that’s comparatively easy, lol! But yeah the idea is that big sib kinda absorbed more of their bad parents’s ideals, and like... they love their sibling so utterly and deeply because they just did not know what family love felt like until they came along. And it really REALLY hurts them whenever they realise they’ve been subconciously being neglectful or hateful towards the lil fella, but theyre so distracted by like.. the greed of being free now. And doing anything and everything, drunk on that freedom! And not really being capable yet of caring about other people when they havent even learned how to care about themself. They keep being all decadent and delinquent and it seems like theyre egotistical but still deep down they HATE themself and this is all just like a ‘fake it til you make it’. And its so easy to get caught up and go too far to try and put on this facade, and they feel they cant really vent their real feelings to anyone. Cos they’re super cynical dont trust anyone except sibling loyalty like. Only way to survive! And like... cant talk about it with the sib either, because little kid wouldnt understand, and if they do then that means theyre not little anymore. They dont wanna ruin lil sib’s childish innocence cos like.. that innocence is their only reason to live. Innocent stupid bastion of family love, came into their life and gave them the courage to deal with those shitty parents gahhh! And part of them ‘knows’ that the only way to love anyone is to be deluded and innocent. You have to be too stupid to realise that the world is awful and everyone sucks and loving people just gets you hurt! And big sib is toooootally smart cos they know that life is meaningless. But they’re entertained by seeing a stupid person stupidly believe in optimism. Totally. Thats the only reason they wanna protect that innocence. Totally. sooooo basically imagine a very mentally ill mess of a preteen that’s curled up in the corner crying perpetually within their own mind, while on the outside they’re all HA HA I’M AMAZING, BITCHES And also imagine that bunni is able to write good enough to explain these damn characters aaaa im very tired im sorry

anyway summary: protagonist is a jerk, Character Development: The Game, you will cry for little sib whom is basically like penny from inspector gadget also I was thinking maybe this could be the one and only time I do the Amnesiac Protagonist Cliche Setup. eeeexcept not really?? well i mean I think it’d work cool if these characters were new to this setting, but I wouldnt actually do 100% amnesia thing I was thinking more like... they are the only two people who came from the outside world. And they just can’t remember how they got here, they wake up trapped in this place and everyone thinks theyre crazy for talking about being from somewhere aboveground. So you have an even more desperate motivation to escape compared to everyone else! I mean of course everyone wants to return to the surface, but its been so long that no-one remembers what it’s like, and so many attempts have failed that they’ve all given up. So you can act like a beacon of hope and lead the people even though you’re just a child. Like, this is about a morally bankrupt trash protagonist being dragged kicking and screaming into heroism, lol And of course we can have some good ‘ol mystery amnesia reveal type plot thingies! But without having to have a protagonist who’s COMPLETELY clueless, and a game beginning with no direction whatsoever. Its more like a ‘trapped in another world’ story except its the same world just a few thousand miles underground, lol. And revealing how exactly they got there and what they’ve forgotten is gonna be a plot, yes, but also there’s the bigger mystery of what on earth this doom labyrinth is and what caused these poor people to be trapped in it! And what they’ll even find when they finally reach the surface again, will it really be the sort of paradise they’re all hoping for? also many tears for sad dysfunctional tiny family of awkward childrens, ye also (hopefully) fun dungeon gameplays

so yeah bunni is tired and delirious and rambling Thoughts at you dunno if anyone was interested in any of this, but there you go!