#i like her so far! this mc version is super pretty too

[a-cloud-for-dreams]

Meet My MC: Lyra Lexington

I'll edit this to make it cuter and more detailed while I play the story but here's what I have so far!

Nicknames: Ly, Little Miss Valedictorian, Doc, Lady, Queen

Born/Raised: Singapore -> New York -> Los Angeles

Books: Ride or Die, Queen B, Nightbound/Bloodbound, The Elementalists as a well-known Historian, and Crimes of Passion I and II (again, I haven't finished all of these books I just thought of this MC on the go)

Face Claim: Alyssa Raghu -> Naomi Scott/shredz55 (Insta)

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Pansexual

Zodiac: Aquarius

Fashion Style: "Girl Next Door" with a hint of Bohemian Chic

Love Interest: Trystan Thorne

Past Relationships: Logan, Colt Kaneko, Professor Ian Kingsley, Nik Ryder, Violet Hale (OC) Past Flirtationships: Mona, Cal, Vera

Education/Major: BA in History at UC Berkeley; MA in Anthropology and Ph.D in Archeology at Harvard University; Magic Training at Pendergast College of Elemental Magicks

Family:

Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother: Desire and Decorum MC Great Great Great Grandmother: The Unexpected Heiress MC Godparents: Adrian Raines and Evelyn "Evie" Rouge Father(s): Lord Elric; Detective Antonio Lexington (FC: TBD) Mother: Lilavati "Lila" Solaris (FC: Nayanthara) Half-Brother: Tialo Maternal Cousin: My Queen B OC/The Elementalists MC Children (Twins): Amber Marguerite Thorne and Alice Nayeli Thorne Pet: Arcane (A Perrikin)

Backstory

Lilavati left her extremely controlling family after leaving for college to major in Economics, where she met Adrian Raines, and the two became close friends (she was already dating Lyra's father and unknowingly pregnant). As far as her family knows, she's a Board Member/Head of Business for Raines Corporation. In actuality, she's a witch who eventually started working as a kind of supernatural diplomat to ensure peace between supernatural beings, which ended up being for the NYC vampire clans. She's under the vampire clans' protection (but she associates most with Adrian since they're the closest). She was extremely happy for Adrian when he met Evie and fell deeply in love with her. After Lyra is born, she asks Adrian and Evie to be her godparents. In my head, Evie shows up at some point during Nightbound in the Priya Lacroix scene and mentions how much Lyra reminded her of her mother (it took Lyra a second to recognize who Evie was because it's been a while but she knew Evie was a familiar figure). Antonio blames Adrian and Evie (and the rest of the BB crew) for his wife's death and ensures they stay away from his daughter by moving to a smaller home in LA.

Fun Facts:

She's a very talented Carnatic singer! Her extended family wanted her to continue but as much as she loves to sing, she didn’t want to pursue it as part of her future

She is fluent in English and Spanish but proficient in Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, and Dravokian. She learned Spanish from her father and Telugu, Malayalam, and Tamil from her mother. Her parents spoke those languages at home alongside English, but she became less fluent in the languages her mother spoke after she died. And after marrying Trystan, she obviously learned Drakovian

She’s from a wealthy family, or technically her mother was, but she left her old life to have her freedom before Lyra’s older cousins were even born. Lyra herself has an even larger inheritance after her mother died, but her father didn’t feel comfortable using her family money “irresponsibly.” She plans to use that money for her education.

[herotome]

Devlog #125

Hi-ho, Wudge here! Gosh! I missed last week's update.

Happy holidays from Herotome!!

I haven't drawn anything this year-- oh but hmm, I could do a quick edit, here -

Tadah! For anyone who hasn't already seen it, we got those 50 reblogs to make Warden shirtless! A pure version without the christmas lights went up yesterday, just scroll down my blog a bit or check out the #ro: warden hashtag.

I'm pleased with how much mileage I'm already getting from this picture, ha.

Anyway.

Seems like I'm gonna be focused on writing new scenes and drawing expressions for a while. They're some of the more tedious tasks for me, so I'll certainly be looking for every opportunity to do other things on the side - like coding.

Today I've decided that the LI sprites should have their eyebrows on a separate layer from the rest of their face, to offer me the greatest amount of variety in creating new expressions - and I've come up with a naming system for it, too!

I'm looking forward to implementing this. Eyebrow shapes have much, much less variety compared to mouth shapes, so I might even finish drawing every possible eyebrow for every LI sometime soon. I've already gotten a strong start with Warden and Mia's eyebrows.

Speaking of, I did turn in more expressions over on Ko-Fi!

Tadah!! Thank you again to everyone who has donated so far!

I'm realizing that in the set dedicated to Dia, Warden and Mia have the same mouth shape on the upper right side... A fascinating subconscious decision on my part.

Outside of art, I did write... once. Er, it went pretty okay. I'm usually the biggest hater of my first drafts.

I think my goal is gonna be to show off the abilities of all the characters as equally as I can; Warden and Jade have had their time to shine (during the job fair and flying MC home, respectively), and I think MC, Griffin, and Mia are gonna be queued up next.

I'll put the rest under a cut for potential spoilers and further rambling - as always, if you don't see the cut, make sure to check out my blog directly!

I have a good idea of what I wanna do with Griffin (it may or may not involve obliterating your rent debt, and I may or may not have written about that in the first-draft-I-don't-hate).

I've been thinking that this scene would involve a change of clothes btw, and did some fashion concepts for Griffin that I also don't hate;

I'm not super sure what I'm gonna do for Mia's eventual ~special show-off scene~, but I'm sure it will come to me.

For MC, I want to show off her relationship with the city, and showcase how qualified she is for the job in a low-key way. I recently discussed with a friend how Men in Black is a huge source of inspiration for me... Y'all know the scene where Will Smith has his interview and did things differently from all the other candidates?? I kinda wanna capture that vibe...!

And ah... I think that's about it, Herotome-wise.

Wudge-wise, honesty hour - I've had ssssome mild health concerns this year.

I don't want to go into detail; I want to say it's been like... nothing life threatening, thankfully, but a lot of small physical inconveniences that pile up and make it harder to concentrate.

I did rest a lot last week so no worries. <3 It's just that parts of my body have been weird and annoying, and I think it's helpful to acknowledge that the flesh prison can be a weird and annoying place. But I value it! And I'm doing my best to take care of it. Health comes first, etc, etc.

With this new year, I hope you guys take care of yourselves as best as you can, too. The person who's most qualified to take care of you is you!!!

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Imp spoke, “Always ticked Alec off, you know.  That you weren’t any good at holding grudges.  Too focused on the present, when it came to picking your enemies and your allies.  I wound up defending you, even.”

I don't know if this is true.

I recently saw a meta where some asshole in this fandom was criticizing certain elements of the Worm fandom for constructing a 'sanitized version' of Taylor for fanfics.

The specific example they used was someone saying that Taylor wasn't very judgmental, or something, and then going off on how that's totally not true and Taylor is super judgemental and going on to leverage that to attack Taylor on multiple levels and how the fandom version of her doesn't match her.

Now, I think I've made it very clear both on this blog and my main blog that I don't take a 'narrow read' of canon for pretty much anything. I love that lot of interpretations on characters exist, even ones I don't like or don't agree with, I don't try to police them and beyond the really extreme batshit reads on characters that are just bafflingly nuts, I don't really even bitch about them much. I'll often - though hardly always - read stories that have depictions of these characters that I think are off, or don't match mine, but seem rooted in the text.

Granted, there are some characters, usually ones I have strong feelings on either way, where there are some readings of them I'm just never gonna want to read a fic including, but even then, bar the ones that I think are just way fucking off base, I don't think they're invalid.

All that said, I don't actually disagree that A) The particular descriptor of Taylor that this asshole chose to single out and go after was wrong, and B) That there definitely are people who present a version of Taylor that is sometimes sanitized. (Not so much sanitized in terms of morality, but in terms of her weirdness or repellent traits as a character, etc). I don't agree with this asshole that Taylor is actually gotten 'that wrong' by the 'Spacebattles Crowd' as much as he does.

That could be because I'm lucky in which fics I've read - I have been breathing, eating and sleeping Wormfic for the lasts six months, and as I read Worm, I have been able to look at some Wormfics and go 'yeah, I don't really like that Interpretation, yeah that feels off base, etc' and I've even seen some TINO (though I think it is less common than many believe - I think most depictions of Taylor, even ones that get stuff wrong, are still rooted in actual parts of the text, they may just be cherrpicking or doing the common habit of taking a piece of text and taking the interpretation a few extra steps too far, either for effect or because they think it's fair to do so in this case).

I doubt it's actually a function of the fics I've read - I haven't read all Wormfic of course, but I've read quite a spread - and more just a difference of opinion about what sort of extrapolations/extensions of canon are permissible.

But to get back on topic, I think that the 'Taylor isn't judgmental' interpretation comes from a real place. It doesn't come from the particular line that I used as a jumping off point for this extended rant/meta/hit piece against the unnamed asshole/Etc, but it's the same kind of thing. Where characters will sometimes say a thing about Taylor that fits with what they know of her, but is not fully accurate. Or they're taking individual moments where she isn't being judgmental, even when perhaps she should, and making more of them then is fair. Also, first person makes it harder to separate the MC's perspective from perspective of the work as a whole, and sometimes people just... get it wrong on where the separation belongs.

So Imp says that Taylor is bad at holding grudges. I don't agree. Her meeting with Emma in Arc 20 makes very clear, despite what some people have claimed, to my face, that she hasn't 'let go', or that she doesn't hold a grudge. Even her earlier meeting with Sophia is hardly free of the history they have.

Taylor holds grudges. She held one against Armsmaster for quite some time, until reconciliation happened.

But Aisha says Taylor doesn't hold grudges, and said that ticked Alec off... because especially with the Trio, Taylor doesn't act on those grudges.

One of the things that I think is a major source of division in terms of Taylor is less the 'unreliable narrator' aspect (which I really think gets overplayed) is that some people really emphasize what Taylor does and says to people (even when it's clear she's lying, it's relevant what she's lying, who she's lying to, and how she's lying) and others what to emphasize what she thinks. And even then they want to emphasize certain aspects of what she's thinking and then taking a further step and - relying heavily on the 'unreliable narrator card' - what they think that really says.

I don't disagree that Taylor is an unreliable narrator. And I don't think that you can ignore Taylor's own thoughts. But her actions were still choices, what she says and who she says things to are choices, and those choices say as much about her as her thoughts - because after all, unreliable narrator.

And yet, the 'unreliable narrator card' always seems to get played in one direction, that Taylor is worse than other people think she is, or some variations thereof. But I would say that in many cases, the core unreliability of Taylor's POV is her own poor opinion of herself and what she's doing.

This has diverged pretty far from where I started, but just tl;dr - just because someone else's version of Taylor doesn't line up with yours, doesn't mean that they're doing a 'sanitized version' or a 'TINO'. They might be, but it could be they are trying, but getting wrong. They also could have a different perspective that emphasizes different aspects of the character in the text than you do, they have difference of opinion as to which parts of the text are the most revealing of her core character and then different opinions about how to take all that information and extrapolate it into situations the character wasn't in in the canon.

This comes down to some pretty rooted philosophical differences about canon and fandom and fanfiction and transformative fandom versus curative fandom and moves well beyond Taylor and Worm, so not really a thing that's easy to convince people on but just... have an open mind and not be an ass to or about other fans if they're not being an ass first. And even then, probably don't be an ass.

I don't always live up to my own advice, but I try.

[ecargmura]

Bucchigiri?! Episode 1 Review - Hiroko Utsumi Is Back

After the success that was SK8 The Infinity, Hiroko Utsumi returns with another original anime. She sets aside the skater boys and goes for delinquent boys and genies this time around. Will it live up to the hype surrounding her name and trajectory? It’s only the first episode, so I need to see if it’ll be as great as SK8.

From the first episode alone, I liked it. It’s pretty zany, as true to the Hiroko Utsumi formula of having very illogical premises work. The story is about Arajin Tomoshibi transferring to a delinquent high school in hopes of getting a girlfriend and losing his virginity. He then gets involved in school gang fights. Oh, and he finds a djinni who wants to grant his wish. The genie then gives him tremendous strength as a condition to his wish.

You can see that there are a lot of references to Arabian Nights. Other than the concept of djinns and wishes, you can see that Arajin is very Chinese-themed from his outfit to his family’s restaurant being a Chinese one. This is because the original story of Arabian Nights had Aladdin, the character he’s based on, as a Chinese boy. The buildings in this story are all Arabian-inspired buildings. So, this is actually a very creative part on Utsumi. I’m not too familiar with other Arabian Nights stories, so I’m not sure what other references there are.

There are so many characters to keep up with. However, I do like what I’ve seen so far. Arajin is arguably a bit one-sided at first glance as his only defining trait is his desire to get laid, but there could be a reason why he does this when he’s with Matakara. Matakara is this show’s version of Makoto Tachibana, a nice beefy dude who’s childhood friends with the black-haired MC. However, they had separated for five years before reuniting. Matakara seems like a nice guy—the ways Utsumi writes nice guys is that if they’re nice, they’ll always be nice. The other characters are pretty one-note, but I’m sure I’ll see more later on. The character I’m most interested in is Marito, who is very sultry. However, the best character so far is Arajin’s mother. She’s so cute and a super embarrassing but loving parent.

The djinn is actually a lot cuter than I expected. The trailers had him as this hulking spirit that looks all serious and straight-laced, but he’s very cute. Like, he hangs around Arajin and even watches TV in his house. He’s super chill and friendly, contrary to his appearance. Like, I think he might be the dark horse in terms of stand-out characters because I didn’t expect this character to be so freaking adorable.

What surprises me the most is that Utsumi is actually using a female lead, or a heroine, for this story. If you’re familiar with Utusumi’s works, she really likes ‘fujo-bait’ shows. With Free, there are a few female characters but none of them are too significant other than Gou who isn’t the female lead; the main characters are all male. With Banana Fish, there aren’t that many female characters as the main characters are primarily male; Eiji, a male, is arguably the heroine of the show. With SK8, there are some females, but they’re mainly supporting characters as the show is about guys who like skateboarding. I think this is the first time Utsumi is using a heroine for her works. Mahoro is so important that she’s even the main focus in the ending—this has never happened before. However, how important she will be will depend as she’s mainly a sadistic brocon who gets turned on by her brother Marito beating up her potential suitors.

Because this is animated by MAPPA, the animation is very good. I just hope they’re treating their animators well this time. Workplace abuse is a huge no for me. The anime feels very over the top, but also well-animated in that regard. The fights are handled great, but there’s also the mix of the classic Utsumi fan service sprinkled in; she clearly loves back muscles as she emphasized Matakara’s a lot.

The voice actor choices are actually very surprising. You’d assume there would be a cast of new faces, but not exactly. While there are some new faces like Anna Nagase, there are a lot of veterans and voice actors who aren’t well-known. For example, Arajin’s voice actor, Genki Okawa, was in Yugioh Zexal as Mizael, but other than that, he isn’t a big name. Some big named veterans in the cast are Nozomu Sasaki as Marito; he voiced Johan Liebert from Monster, Eriol Hiiragizawa from Cardcaptor Sakura, and Yusuke Urameshi from Yu Yu Hakusho. Other big names like Kappei Yamaguchi (Inuyasha, Ranma Saotome), Makoto Furukawa (Saitama), and Ryota Takeuchi (Elias from The Ancient Magus’s Bride, Ushijima from Haikyu) are casted here but I don’t know who their characters are because there are so many introduced from the get go. The other voice actors are small names, but I do hope they get big. Everyone deserves a chance at the spotlight!

Overall, I’m a huge sucker for Hiroko Utusumi’s works so I might be a bit biased in this review. However, I can say for a fact that her works are always entertaining to watch. I hope this one is the same. If you’re watching this show, what are your thoughts?

[loopingpyre]

Shadow knife dies so hard in the original they forgot to put him in the final dungeon. This might be a bit all over the place. There was a lot. Most of the final two eps are the characters accepting their decision to be better when they get back. Izuru being on the spectrum makes a ton of sense. Not the direction one expects from the cool loner type. Unlike Mifue and Suzuna, Kotono is too straight for the female MC. Tragic. Kinda messed up you can give Suzuna codependency issues though. Shogo's was great. 13 years...and then he gets a chance to do things right the second time. And all of a sudden Thorn with the steel chair making him go through that again in the ending. My man cannot catch a break! Still, points for being the most forthcoming about how it's gonna suck for everyone when they get back. Even at the end before the Mu fight he calls reality hell. Nice reminder that their real struggles are after they get back. I can't imagine the game expected the Marie bit to be an actual twist. I wasn't ready for her transformation though. Where is she keeping all of those bombs... Super cool tie! Shadow knife's eps. If the Eiji death messed him up this bad I can't imagine how miserable Kotaro's would've been. Pretty much was a longer version of his stuff from the tower which I didn't mind. Mu kinda breaks in the second half of his and Wicked's story. Sad. Wicked though. Wtf! I was so unsure what the point of her story was at first. She doesn't really learn much of anything nor does she care to and you barely get more insight into her over the course of it. Reading that she was comatose and then seeing the hospital scene though. It stirred something within me for sure but I don't know if I can word it. Maybe it's that some people in Mobius just can't be helped? Her scars run so deep and she's also not even capable of living and trying like the rest of them when they go back. Then again her grandfather doesn't take the mask off so she's still got a chance if she wakes up? There's hope there but she's so far gone I'm not sure if you're supposed to believe in that. I will say Ike-P's comments when you are in the aquarium with Shadow Knife and Wicked and depressed Mu were hilarious. I felt so bad for him. He's too normal for all that. Thorn was certainly an antagonist. Part of me was expecting a much deeper reason with Ichika but nope just a lost love/friend. Like if they weren't whispering in Mu's ear then they could've been an earlier musician and Wicked could've been the one who wanted to destroy the world. Grand Guignol sucked. Looks awesome but man those hallways were long. Interesting that Mirei didn't need to be brainwashed of all people. Kuchinashi and Wicked being done with reality made sense but I guess there's not much left for Mirei either (in her eyes). Stay in Mobius ending was insanely miserable. As for the actual end. Happy that Mu and Aria can be together again. I will say Aria did grow on me over the course of the game and only a small percent of that was seeing the yuri vision between her and Mu. Trying to guess who everyone was in the credits was a fun little game. I really liked how even the characters who didn't have much of an image problem still presented differently in Mobius. Also liked how they didn't really show anyone's face. Makes them regular people who are back to a regular world. Seeing the musicians interacting with the club members was super sweet too. I wonder if Mirei knew that was Kotono and her kid. While there's a lot of hope, the Kuchinashi one was quite the downer. Feels like the game wants you to play out how their lives will play out including however you defined the mc. A little meta that you don't really see the MC? The person in Mobius is your avatar and when you finish the game you're back to living in reality. Might be reading too much into that though. Quick note on the last few songs. Were there like effects or something? How was she doing that with her voice?? Might have some final things to add once I sleep on it. Thank you for reading my rambling this whole time! 4096 limit.

So the fun part about the Wicked thing is that her character episodes are a bit limited. This is because there's a natural stopper in the form of an official light novel sequel to the game, that's all about her.

You can find a translation here if you're interested. I adore this thing so much, this was written before Overdose was released, so future content couldn't really contradict it. The 12 episode anime adaptation actually gives her more screentime outside of Naruko so it's less of a twist, but that anime is already more of a fun fan thing because it's not a straight adaptation of the game to begin with. The whole thing about reality and hell is that it's trying to play on the game's fancy tagline that uses a special kanji that refers to both of those words at the same time, reality is hell. Thorn is very interesting also because like, their backstory is packed with Stuff that they keep hidden from you and there's so many wild implications in the idea of assuming someone else's guise so they 'aren't dead'. Like, holy shit. I like how the ending is stylised like that. It's rather interesting in that it's an overdose exclusive addition, and Takuya Yamanaka, the game's director isn't actually sold on if it was the best thing to even add because he wanted it to be interpret-able and not just give them happiness, but he also wanted players to get a little bit more out of the characters if they'd already played the vita game. It's one of those things where I think they managed to run a smidge better in the anime due to being able to just do whatever. I like Kuchinashi and Shogo just so happening to cross paths though, that's cute. The last few songs are especially insane, the boss rush in the grand guinol is all new overdose remixes, arrangements by Cosmo@P, who also composed Thorn's theme, Distorted Happiness. They go incredibly hard and I think it has to be a combination of skills to make Ueda's voice go wild. I'm really glad you enjoyed the game! If you ever come up with any other notes about it let me know, it's been a ton of fun reading your stuff!

[animedegens]

A few things I’ve watched so far! (A thread)

1. Red Cat Ramen: Really fun & Cute shows about cats running a ramen shop! This show seems like it’s going to be dialogue and character interaction heavy! Love the attention to detail such as the “cat hair policy”. VA cast is phenomenal. One of my faves after ep 1

Who doesn’t like Nekos?

2. My wife has no emotion: really cute artstyle! I like Mina (the robot), She’s interesting! I’d like to see them dive into how she’s able to use the internet to change like she has.

Male MC is a bit cringe at times.. he makes me feel like I’m watching a Tamer version of RAG. This has been a semi funny show so far! Def towards the bottom of my list rn!

I want to see the other characters interact with them now!

Love the OP, it’s a bop & it fits the show w/ a robotic feel

3. Days w/ My Stepsister

Pretty good 1st ep! It seems like they wanna be serious & not just do it because it’s funny or taboo. Also seems like they wanna touch on the more serious side of things & show the issues that come from 2 older teens starting to live together all of a sudden.

Both MCs seem to have their own issues with themselves. I hope they stay true to what they showed us in the 1st ep & it might accidentally be a decent rom-drama. 50% chance of anime anime-ing

4. Psuedo harem

VA Saori Hayami (Yor & Yukino) shows off that she can do any trope style in this one!

Super fun, esp since Rin is basically a one girl harem act! But she’s not the only outstanding VA! Eiji’s VA (Bakugo & Himmel) really puts on a great performance in the 1st ep too! This should be a fun romcom!

5. Senpai is an otokonoko

One thing that really stands out is their use of the simplistic chibi art style when they’re trying to be funny or drive home a point. I love it!

I’m kinda wondering how deep they’re gonna get with this one? Is it just gonna be a lighthearted romcom? Or is it gonna dive deeper into acceptance & bullying? It’s also fun to note that 2 out of the 3 MCs have both male & female Japanese VAs according to anilist!

6. Alya sometimes hides her feelings in Russian

Really cute art style & show! I like Kuze, maybe bc he stays up late watching anime & playing games. Sounds familiar lmao.

Kinda hope they don’t go too crazy with fan service tho. But I also love that he knows what she’s saying in Russian. Which makes me wonder, who is the Russian girl he used to play with? Pretty funny romcom so far!

7. Failure Frame

It’s the typical weakest class loner dude isekai…

But I do like a decent underdog story. I love seeing them prove all the egotistical bullies wrong lmao.

But, this one is gonna be hit or miss, cause the monsters so far has been noticeably bad.. so I wanna see how they handle the fighting… we shall see!

😈 I’ll have more 1st episode thoughts soon!!

[thesketchyheartist]

02/05

Class Choice Week 1: Perfect Blue

This week I am writing my class's choice piece: Perfect Blue, an 80-minute film released in 1998. This will be my first time watching it.

For anyone curious, this film has a lot of psychological and horror stuff, so please watch with caution. For reference, think of Oshi no ko, but the idol lives and everyone is dying or dead. Because this film will not be too related to our class's current themes, I will focus on my own reaction. Also, I've never watched Oshi no ko, but I have watched some clips and have listened to IDOL song by Yoasobi and a fan-made English version many times, so I will speak on inferences of the show.

The MC Mimi Kirigoe is a pop idol who changed careers to become an actress. The film follows her in her journey from her first scenes to the end when she becomes a famous actress. During her journey, she faces identity and reality distortions. If I wasn't paying attention for even a second, I would definitely be super lost. There were quite a few scenes where we the viewers think she's finally able to speak about her problems to someone, like her manager Rumi or her coworker (I can't remember her name, but she's a famous actress at the time), only for someone to yell "cut!" and we see she's only acting in front of the camera. And I remember throughout the film how lucky Mimi has such a kind-hearted manager who advocates for her, only for her to be the antagonist all along. Admittedly though, I did sense something off about the manager when I noticed how her eyes were far apart like the Me-Mania stalker. I couldn't help but wonder if their uncanny faces are either an insult to the physically unattractive stereotypes of otakus or just to hint at their creepy energy.

But the real pain of the show is the realistic elements. Mimi is not a famous pop idol, and if she wanted to go big in acting, there were sacrifices she needed to make in a brutal industry. Yet, the moment she said yes to the rape scene, that was really when things went south. And the lines between reality and acting blurred because they began to cross over. In today's world where a computer is no longer a giant cube of metal but a part of your person, we the fans have been given too much liberty about people's lives. The celebrities we idolize are not gods who must give their blessings, nor are they gods who should be worshipped. Mimi lives in a traditional apartment with basic necessities. If she cuts herself, she bleeds. And if she's stabbed, she will die. Like Ai in Oshi no ko, Mimi kept assuming she had to be that perfect girl in her fans' eyes to be loved, and she had to do what everyone said so she can have that love.

In the end, the pretty girl with the cute dress will come home every day tired of everyone's expectations. It's only when both Ai and Mimi faced death in the eyes, that was when they were able to find the peace to their lives.

I think this film was called Perfect Blue because throughout her hallucinations, Idol Mimi was seen in her original pink idol outfit, but Perfect Blue refers to the perfection Mimi was seeking, which is the opposite of pink. We can see even when "Mimi" was bleeding, her blood was pink, not red like when she cut her hands, possibly to signify her perfections or just old animation. In the final scene, Mimi wears blue jeans and a yellow blouse, showing her simple yet ideal look as the Real Mimi.

-02/04/2024

[icharchivist]

At present there's three Alter Ego skins for the MC

Do you have a favourite among them or any opinions on them? I'd just really like to know

ooouuuh that's a cool question, thank you for asking!

i think my favorite one is the 2nd one, but as it goes:

The first one has a very good aesthetic in general, it's leaning more on the "extremely corrupted with malice" than the other two imo, which is pretty cool. I do like the crown and the hood on each of them, and i LOVE the strings/puppet imagery of this one.

If anything my problem is more than i don't find the clothes design super interesting. I know it's just a corrupted version of the base clothes, but yeah, Djeeta especially isn't really compelling to me.

And while i do like the "corrupted with Malice" in theory, i think Gran looks better than Djeeta about that and as a Djeeta main i end up getting very tired of seeing this specific sprite.

The second one is my favorite, hands down. I think both designs really rock. But i'm honestly already partial to it because it's based on Belial's design and it keeps the strong elements that makes Belial's design work so well.

I really love the hairstyle on this one, simple but efficient. Their expression is malicious but without being downright deranged in a sense? very liking it.

I also love the idea of Gran having the full apple but Djeeta having eaten her apple, considering the Apple should be based on, yknow, Adam & Eve eating the fruit, this reflects that and it's cool.

and else the details of Belial's design really stand out for the best. The boa, the jacket, it's all really cool, and i love the crop top for the both of them (though they should have made it shorter on Gran too while at it come on.)

Personally i'm obsessed with Gran's collarbones on this one.

And i do really like the designs of the shirts.

I'd say if they were going to give a sexy skirt to Djeeta with the asymmetrical legs design, they should at least have given an asymmetrical design to Gran as well, but i get wanting to have him closer to Belial's design. But as it is i do like even Djeeta's sexy design. If there's any skins that calls for it, it's the "corrupted by Belial" one after all.

The third design, based on Avatar!Belial, therefore still is based heavily on the previous design, but with the same idea as Avatar!Belial to be sexier, and more provokating. For Belial it was because he's pushed in so much pain that he double downs on how he behaves originally, esp on the vulgar-sexy.

But i'd say perhaps that on this one it goes a little too far for me.

Everything that made the previous design strong is still there, personally i just am not fan of the Djeeta decoletage and the pose she takes, even if i get the idea of it.

For Gran, i like it in general pretty well, loving the tramp stamp, but idk, i don't vibe with it as much.

It's like, the first design is basically just a quick corruption type, MC doesn't really get the time to change or anything, it's the corruption of who they currently are. So it has a bit more of an unkept vibe to it.

The second design is much more controled in that sense, it's typically dramatic villainy with a knack for presentation, and it keeps up with the "Belial type of sexy" in a way that is still more controled and elegant.

The third design, by virtue of being Avatar themed, makes it less controlled, more erratic, more vulgar than elegant. on a thematic level i find it super cool, but on a personal preference i vibe way less with it than with the previous one. I still think i prefer it over the first one though.

So that would be my opinion on the Alter Ego designs o7 and in term of preference it'd be 2>3>1 for me!

Thank you for asking it was fun to answer <333

Take care ;D

[daja-the-hypnokitten]

Jukebox reviews part 19! For context, see my post “A Project”     under this same tag. If you want to see a full list of his EMCSA   stories, they can be found here, sorted alphabetically.And if you want to see some of his drabbles, check out his blog at @jukeboxemcsa

Glycerine

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4/30/2011                                     mc mf md

... What got put in that glycerine?! Like, ok, glycerine's pretty amazing as far as cosmetic applications go, sure, and even has some medical applications, but ... it isn't *that* magical. It's basically a sugar alcohol syrup. Ok, ok, I'll put the chemistry away for a bit. I'm surprised at how bold the "wizard of Hollywood" was, to straight up enslave someone on-camera, that just doesn't seem *smart,* but still. eagerness can get the better of anyone I suppose. It's an interesting process, with just a hint too much fear for me to get super into it. 7/10 spirals. 

 Enjoy the Silence

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5/8/2011                                       mc ds

A different style of hypnosis script! This one leans strongly into other kinks - bondage, being gagged, and being hit with a flogger, all mixed up into one script. It's solid, and seriously speaks to my kinesthetic side, especially since I can hear it in my head as I read. I think this would be an amazing recording, if done well, and I'm sure the person it was originally written for did a wonderful job recording it. If you're the sort to get caught up in a script like this, be aware of what I already mentioned, as well as a suggestion to orgasm. 9/10 spirals. 

 The Joker

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5/14/2011                                     mc ff

Heee, Jo didn't learn the first trick of resisting - don't let your mind wander.  Because the minute you engage your imagination, the moment you give it free rein? well, that's when the subconscious takes over and you've already lost. But somehow I don't think she's going to mind having lost all that much - and Chantal isn't going to be the one gaining the winnings, either. I really got a sense of both of them, and gosh, I'm quite entertained by their dynamic, too. 10/10 spirals 

 Good Morning Little School Girl

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5/21/2011                                     mc mf md fd

Some people are just too eager to stop and *think* for more than 5 seconds. Seriously, though, if they're all the right sort to want to control the people around them, shouldn't they also occasionally think that "wait, what if this is a plot?" ... ah well, if they made smart choices we wouldn't have this story, which is overall a quite interesting look around what a mind control school might look like - complete with a totally unethical headmaster. Ah well, can't win 'em all. I'll stick with hypnocons - they're much more my speed, and as far as I know our organizers aren't out to control all the "competition" ;) 7/10 spirals 

 Urgent

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5/28/2011                                     mc ff

... I am *so completely baffled* by this driving need. I just am. I'm too ace to get it, I guess? But it's well described, and I've no objection to the story, it's just foreign to me. But if you like a gal being completely *dominated* by need for another gal, you'll probably enjoy this one pretty well? 5/10 spirals. 

 The Waiting

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6/4/2011                                       mc mf md ma

Heh, I almost wondered if there was going to be a twist that Eleanor was controlling him just as surely as he was (slowly) controlling her, but alas - not that it has the tags for that, of course, but still. It's quite an interesting motivation, and I applaud Kevin's patience, but also dude, how about you just, idk, flirt? seduce her? do this the normal, human way? *sigh* engineers, they just can't do things with anything less than their version of efficiency. And this just doesn't quite hit the spot for me. 6/10 spirals. 

 Give Yourself to Me

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6/11/2011                                     mc mf md ma

There's a lot I like about this story; the sudden change from walking away to being so dominant, the clear indication that it was planned that way all along, teh way he uses her desires against her to make her his... and the formatting works really well for the story told, too! Just, all of it is wonderful, other than my far-too-typical commentary of "ethics, dude!" but well, you can't have everything. 9/10 spirals. 

 Caught Up In You

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6/19/2011                                     mc mf fd ma

I feel like we've seen these two in a previous story, but I can't quite place it. Maybe it's just that they feel so much like Michael and Lynn? Same sort of "these people feel FAMILIAR I had in 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now.' " Ah well, that's fine, I like the characters so I'm not complaining. This is a sweet interlude, of intimacy and submission and just willingly, happily giving to a partner that I really enjoy. A bit sex heavy, but that's a me thing, not an actual issue with the story; the story makes it work. 10/10 spirals. 

 Daydream Believer

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6/26/2011                                     mc ff

The last line of this story just *makes it* for me. It's such a line I would say (as anyone who's been reading along with my reviews could probably *tell*). But in general, this is a good story, seeing someone describe how their fantasy got corrupted and guided and the effects it had on them ... leaving the reader to wonder just how much was an organic daydream to begin with. My guess is not that much. Though me being me, I'm curious as to the circuits our narrator was working on. 8/10 spirals. 

 Come Together

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7/2/2011                                       mc ff ma

The consensual ones are always my favourites (she says surprising 0 readers of her reviews). And this one is just FUN. Stepping into an early conditioning session, with someone who knows the basics of what to do but who is still learning, still practicing, and seeing how she takes to the training? Oh, it's delightful. Little one isn't my favourite pet name for a submissive, but that's seriously my only quibble with this story. The rest of it is just delightful. 9.5/10 spirals. 

[lycan-troth]

Yeah, I can see that. It would be awkward for him in that aspect, and from Kaylee's (in your fanon), it makes sense for her to not feel as uncomfy. It must be pretty awkward to have their dad dating someone around their age, I don't think it'd be good irl, but it's fiction ✨️I really like how you flesh out their relationship,I find it interesting and they have good chemistry, and all based/inspired from what is in the game too 👀 Haha, thanks for entertaining that thought, it could be he'd have one in wolf form, but don't they have no genitals? I've always thought that detail was a bit odd, like they'll show you a decapitated head and someone getting their face blown off, but they draw the line at werewolf bits it's kinda amusing tbh.

That's sad, but it does make sense for your fanon of him, and in canon tbh. He seems sort of lax about it in the game. Obviously, finding Silas would be great, but you're right it's mostly Travis who is pressured and actively goes looking for Silas. Your version of him deep down accepting his curse as being something he's stuck with adds up to me. He needs to keep hoping for the sake of his kids, but it's been years, and still nothing. I don't blame him for losing faith in finding Silas. It's a depressing situation with their family life, mental health, work, trying to keep his thing with Ryan neutral, and the hikers he sometimes has to bury. I think a lot of the fandom focuses on Travis more because he gets more screen time. Therefore, he's more likeable than Chris, who doesn't get much screen time and is depicted as a bit sus and strict during that time. This is honestly one of the things I was disappointed about, I wanted Chris to get more screen time. David Arquette did what he could with it and left me wanting to see some more, so I think he did good depicting him. Also, I realised I'd seen Travis (Ted Raimi) before and couldn't remember where, anyway I was rewatching early seasons of Supernatural and he's in S4 during the episode "Wishful Thinking" it's not relevant to my ask, but I also found the ep name ironic considering Travis yk, but it can appeal to Chris too. I'm honestly low-key, surprised that Travis/Laura fans haven't done an au of that episode yet. His character in that (Wesley) makes a wish with a magic coin to make a girl fall in love with him, and she does, sort of. The coin takes wishes and twists them, so the girl becomes obsessed with him to the point that she doesn't have any autonomy. It gets so bad that she goes and makes a wish too, and her wish was for lightning to strike down the mc (Sam), who wanted him to take back his wish of her loving him. Sorry, I know this bit is super rambly and you probably don't know the show I'm talking about, but idk I feel like Travis/Laura shippers are missing out on a potentially interesting au there, lmao.

I think you're depicting his obsession fairly well atm. So far, we've seen the cracks like you've said, Chris is slipping more and more each day. I can only imagine what he's going to be like when it's out in the open. It's funny I still don't quite get why Chris enjoys watching him so much. Don't get me wrong, the content you're serving us is delicious, and I love it as always, but I still don't quite get it. He's obsessed fr, and I'm living for it. He just loves watching him, ig. It makes me think of this sound on tiktok I saw one time: "Despite his criminal mind, this man is behaving well. His reward is the canoe. This time, he can sit in the canoe for up to an hour." I know before you told me it was about feeding his obsession, of being able to be up close to Ryan but not really. I just know Ryan is gonna like the attention (in theory). The barn scene was so awkward for him, like damn, lmao. And the way you showed us Chris cracking a bit there was great. We could just tell what was lurking underneath it all, and Ryan, too, to an extent. I feel bad for Chris fighting back and forth with himself like he does. It makes sense for him to wanna "protect" Ryan from himself by staying away, but he wants him to come back at the same time. I find that element of Chris, that selfish part of him wanting Ryan to keep coming back, to stay close to him; I find it kinda cute tbh. I feel like it shows what you said about him not really having someone like Ryan in his life, so it's easy to obsess. To have a person that needs him and wants him in the same breath. Tbh, before I was thinking of Ryan being the clingy one, which he totally still is in my mind, but with this insight, I can see Chris being a bit clingy too. I know this is probably maybe gonna be a given since GP is the more obsessive darker route for them, but will we be seeing an openly possessive/obsessive/territorial scene of them? When I say open, I mean that it's not really something they hide from each other like they did in ASB and have been doing more or less so far in GP. Buuut back to the previous ask, Chris willing to push back his selfish wants to prioritise Ryan's wellbeing/needs is the angst that keeps on giving. It's like he (you) are dedicated to making me sad, lmao. Ryan really wouldn't appreciate it much at all, haha, and yeah WCA depicts that very well. Ooh yeah, that most certainly was a dick move on Chris's part. I was thinking the same like "Chris, what do you mean 'shoot me'? He's just killed someone for you, wdym you wanna die now? *sigh* smh." Ryan's refusal to kill Chris in that, and him feeling like Chris wants to abandon him was SO sad. I'm still not over that 🥲.

Aww, that'd be cute! The moving in together au without moving in together, haha. I can imagine Ryan settling in a place near/in town or something when/if he'd get the money to buy his own place. The differences he'd face in the country I can only imagine, haha. I grew up in a busy place/main road, not in a city but yk, we didn't have a garden or amything that was very uh "nature" 😂. I remember going to a forrest/wild nature walk place where I live now, and I was sooo out of my element, haha. The bugs, the animal shit, the smells, the ground hurts depending on the type of shoe you wear, and my sense of navigation is shit. So I can only imagine suddenly living in a place like Hackett's quarry, especially with it being SO hot, I'd perish for sure in that heat, haha. I like the idea of them spending a lot of alone time like that. Aww, it's so cute when Ryan doesn't wanna worry, Chris. He knows he'd go out of his way for him when he probably shouldn't considering their financial situation. feel like there'd be good opportunities for bed sharing. It's not like there'd be anyone to question or hide it from.

Apart from maybe Kaylee or mostly Caleb, lol. Maybe Kaylee and Caleb would finally have somewhere else to run off to when they're sick of being at the house with their grandparents. Imagine Ryan's just settling in for the night when suddenly they just pull up to his cabin and state that they're staying the night. Ryan just gradually gets used to spontaneous sleepovers forced upon him. Poor socially awkward introvert hassled by werewolves, tbh that could be a way he finds about them. Like they just become so comfortable around Ryan that they let him in on their secret, and wouldn't that resolve how they were feeling, or at least how Kaylee said they felt in her letter to Constance? They'd finally have someone to confide in, or at least not hide from. Their whole thing was being upset at hiding from people, so maybe having that one person, a bit similar to Chris being able to listen to them and understand/validate them could be enough to soothe them a bit.

Haha, I think I beat you with my response. It's a bit more rambley and longer than yours, lmao. I get carried away with my ideas/ramblings. There's no judgment here, haha 😂

How do you think Kaylee and Caleb think about Ryan and Chris? In ASB, Kaylee was trying to subtly push them together a bit, so I got to wondering how they view Ryan liking Chris and their dad liking Ryan. This sent me down a mini rabbit hole of thoughts that somehow led me to thinking, "Does Chris have something like a knot like in popular werewolf fiction?" I honestly can't remember how I got to wondering about that, and idk how it'd even work either, lmao.

Then, from that thought, I naturally jumped to the next randomised one, which was wondering about how Chris spent the year when Ryan wasn't there? The tapes he has of Ryan wandering around and staring into space got me thinking that maybe he'd watch those sometimes? They have eachothers phone number, too, so they call like they did a bit in ASB. It was just interesting to think about in the context of GP because the nature of their relationship is different. Chris has his obsession, and Ryan atm isn't quite on the same level rn, but he's still pretty fixated on Chris. With these things in mind, I just wondered how it might change how Chris feels/reacts to Ryan's absence during the off-season of camp.

Then, finally, I thought, "What if Ryan stayed with Chris during the off-season?" Idk what the circumstances would be, but Ryan just doesn't go home or doesn't live with his family anymore? I was thinking about what they'd do, obviously with Chris's parents around, he can't bring Ryan to the house. So they'd be at the lodge, or at least Ryan would be. It leaves a lot of room for potential domestic fluff or smut. Without the campers and counsellors around, Ryan would truly be in the wolfs den. I'd imagine Kaylee and Caleb might visit more without the noisy campers and nosy counsellors there.

i’d say, that they prob don’t think about it too deeply. like, ryan’s crush is pretty clear to everyone, who bothers to inspect his and chris’s relationships for more, than 2 minutes. but while kyalee thinks, that it’s fun and might be good for chris, i feel like caleb sort of avoids the topic. and not bc the hates the idea of it, more so, bc it’s very awkward lol. i mean, he’s the older out of the 3. he views ryan on the same level as kyalee, like as someone, who’s clearly younger than him. and his sister has a habit of having new, non-serious crushes pretty often. so he might assume, that ryan is the same in that regard. like that he’s confused or smth. and then, chris is his dad, who he considers to be good-natured, but a bit lame. not to mention, that ryan is around the same age category as them, and learning that your father is a ‘dirty old man’ surely doesn’t help, haha. so yeah, caleb would try to not dig too deeply into it. and nope, chris doesn’t have it, haha. i mean, in human form surely not. in werewolf one, he prob does, haha. but i struggle to imagine ryan surviving such an encounter tbh. 

ah, that’s a good question. i imagine, that chris has a lot to do around the campground, even when no one is around. then, he and the rest of the hacketts prob try to track down silas and all that business as well. but i feel like, chris doesn’t really believe, that they would ever find him. one would imagine, that it’ll be travis, who low-key gave up on everything, when in fact, trying to kill silas is in part of what keeps him going. compared to this, chris has a more cynical view on it. at least, in my fanon, haha. i guess, i always picture him as a guy, who really wants to help others, but considers himself to be beyond help. or maybe, not even worthy of it. i mean, i feel like while fandom adores fawning over travis’s situation, no one ever considers why chris had to be the one, who runs the camp. i don’t think, that it was a gift from his parents. i actually, assume that he was ‘trusted’ (read conditioned) into that position, bc travis was always a scapegoat of the fam, but in a way, he was ‘let go’. he could do whatever, bc no one cared all that much, which is still pretty bad, don’t get me wrong. but with this in mind, and added fact, that bobby is clearly the favorite child, it would mean that chris was automatically put into position, where literally no one, but him could ‘inherit’ the hackett’s quarry. and where he had to be the one to have a family, and be ‘the ideal man’ or whatever. all eyes were on him, bc there were things expected from him. nothing was expected from bobby. and in a way, from travis as well, but for different reasons clearly. with this being said, i don’t think that chris had it ‘worse’ than travis or smth, it’s just that he had to suffer through different sorts of parental pressure and most likely abuse too. travis has a stockholm syndrome toward his family, and chris was basically conditioned into filling the role, that no one else could. sorry, tangled up, haha. 

but like with all this in consideration, it’s fairly easy to imagine why he would get so obsessed with ryan. and yeah, he for sure would rewatch the tapes, and enjoy phone talks, that they have. he never had anything like this before. a thing to truly look forward to. his kids are adults, so in all fairness, they no longer need him like they used to, and i feel like chris gets very aimless, when there is nothing for him to do, no one to care for, bc he has no idea how to live for himself at all. and yeah, in GP ryan’s and chris’s levels of obsession are a bit different. i suppose, partly bc chris’s mental state is also worse, than it was in ASB. he tries his best still, but cracks are starting to show more and more often. as for how he feels, when ryan is not around for months, i think that it’s a tricky question. chris is party terrified of himself and what he can do, so rational part of him says, that it’s good that ryan is far away from him, and that it might be better if he never comes back. but then, he also always longs for him to be back all the same. need vs care. obsession vs common sense. chris is very morale dualed, haha. esp when it comes to ryan. but i feel like, he’s prob one of the rare kinds of characters, who can overpower his own selfishness more often, than not. like, if i had to put all my supermassives otps into situation, where they had a choice to basically keep their ‘better half’ with them or have a chance to let them go with hope, that they can do better, that it would essentially be better for them, only chris and andrew would be capable of smth like lmao. everyone else, ryan included, would have the ugliest tantrum imaginable. even john with a similar level of self-hatred as chris, wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from being terribly selfish and keep andrew, no matter what it would have taken. this is partly why chris was okay with ryan killing him in WCA. he just assumed, well, it would be better for ryan. kinda a dick move tho. like ryan killed people for him, and he then, asks him to shot him lmao. 

and oh, funny enough, i had un-used plot, where ryan gets kicked out of the house by his mother. idk, where his grandparents are. maybe, they don’t exist in that au or they’re not close. so as result, ryan literally has nowhere to go. he asks kyalee and caleb, if they can hook him up with some temporary place, until he finds a job and will get out of their hair. but naturally, they call him an idiot and say, that he can just stay on the campground during that time, chris won’t mind. i imagine, that ryan would ask them to not tell chris why he’s here, make up some story. it also leaves a lot places for humor, bc ryan is city kid, he doesn’t know much about life in the country. but chris be there to teach him. so yeah, they would spent a lot of time together. just two of them. kyalee and caleb would also indeed have a chance to hang out with ryan more often, show him around and such. for a while everything will be alright with the world. which is smth that i really about the quarry tbh. their set-up is so deceptively cozy.

[fickleminder]

If you’d like to write or talk about your Demons Will Be Demons au and swapping mcs I’m all ears! I feel like Kirana being plopped in that world would be an unfairly convenient situation for the brothers, and au kirana’s lower demon friends would be the ones largely hurt! They lose a friend, and depending on how things play out they very well might be completely sidelined. Au Kirana in canon timeline could be fun for letting out some hard truths at the brothers, but a relationship with her old friends or even purgatory hall will be harder. The brothers are pretty possessive and protective, not only is it an issue of control over Kirana but it’s also about the safety of those outside the household and how in the canon timeline no large specific effort has been put into pushing against class divides?

Anon— Anon you and your big brain— There are so many layers to your ask I am DELIGHTED to talk about AAHHHH THANK YOU FOR THIS!

(demons will be demons AU here and here)

Okay so, a big factor in how things after the swap play out is where exactly in the DWBD timeline Kirana is. I’m assuming you’re coming from when the brothers are in the “groveling” stage trying to make amends with her so let’s start there:

Kirana in DWBD!AU

Hoo boy, the poor lesser demons. So much confusion on both sides when Kirana doesn’t seem to recognize them at all, and maybe they start to think the Avatars have something to do with it, finally having had enough of playing nice and resorting to using magic to forcibly “repair” their relationship with the human they mistreated. They definitely wouldn’t put it past them, but throwing around accusations like that is a sure-fire way to get maimed so they go to Purgatory hall for help.

Solomon can be a good actor when he wants to and I feel like he’ll have no problems getting close to Kirana to determine if she’s under a spell. All he can discern are faint traces of Barbatos’ magic on her (my working idea is that Barbatos fell sick and somehow switched the two Kiranas during a sneezing bout) but other than that she’s acting completely of her own free will.

Kirana’s pretty chill and open-minded by nature though, and while it sucks having to start over from scratch since she doesn’t have all those precious memories of them, the lesser demons have a good chance of rekindling a friendship with her (if they can get her away from the Avatars to begin with).

Speaking of, this is the brothers’ dream come true! The human they’ve had a change of heart about, whose good books they’re desperately trying to get into, suddenly treating them like family? It’s free real estate Sign them the fuck up! And if Kirana and Satan are already together in canon, DWBD!Satan will be over the moon. They know, they know this isn’t the same human who’s learnt to maintain a polite distance from them, but they’re not about to look a gift horse in the mouth and swear to treat this new Kirana like royalty.

Meanwhile, Kirana would be so confused at the brothers falling all over themselves for her (more so than usual anyway) and she can definitely tell something’s off. Lesser demons she’s never met claiming to be her friends (vouched for by the Purgatory hall gang), the brothers not familiar with her habits and tastes, Barbatos down with some strange illness that turns seedlings into trees when he coughs… She’s jumped timelines before so the idea of alternate realities isn’t that far-fetched, but the problem is whether or not she can go home.

And don’t get me started on the pacts oh good lord. Maybe the brothers are being rowdy, maybe Kirana finds herself threatened at RAD, or maybe the Avatars pick a fight with the lesser demons who insist on spending time with her—

Kirana single-handedly brings the seven demon lords to heel and suddenly no one is sure how to feel about this super-powered version of her anymore.

DWBD!Kirana in canon

Mom can you pick me up I’m scared This Kirana’s support system is just gone. The brothers are nice to her, too nice, and she can’t help but think they’ve been replaced by clones again. Satan is an absolute gentleman, speaking to her softly and treating her so delicately, and it’s something from a fantasy she’d abandoned long ago ever since he made her cough up blood from putting Devildom spices in her food.

While the Purgatory hall gang are more than happy to have her over whenever she wants, it’s hard to get away from the brothers who constantly compete for her time and attention. Poor girl is so not used to this and is absolutely confused. She’s too suspicious of their intentions to buy into their sincerity and let her guard down, and at the same time they don’t trust her to associate with people outside their household.

Anon you made a fantastic point about class divides and relationships outside those with the brothers because the idea of Kirana preferring to hang out with lesser demons is simply preposterous! How dare she have other demon friends, they’re not safe to be around unlike us hypocrites so just be a good girl and listen, okay? And even if they could be friends in canon, the brothers don’t give her a chance to try.

Maybe this is the point where DWBD!Kirana finally snaps. She has a mental breakdown over how everything is just wrong and how she wants her old friends back and the audacity of the brothers to cozy up to her when all they did was make her life miserable—

Satan’s pact with her is dormant, and that is the moment he is certain this is not his Kirana. He’s had his suspicions of course, she’s been acting strange ever since she visited the castle to deliver some homemade soup to Barbatos, but now she’s spitting out things that never happened between them and is practically inconsolable.

Pactless and alone in this new world, DWBD!Kirana is straight up not having a good time. The brothers are also horrified at how their alternate selves treated their favorite human so poorly, and even though DWBD!Kirana has no power over them, they do their best to loosen their hold on her and let her seek out her own comfort and safety.

Even if it isn’t with them.

(The swap happening early on in the DWBD timeline is a whole other can of worms asdfghjkl but I’ll save that for another time)

[astaroth1357]

Demigod MC Series: Demeter

Have I been using this series to vicariously punish Belphie for the events of Season 1? I cannot confirm nor deny that statement.

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus, Demeter

Lucifer

Didn't think too much of the "human" when they popped out of the portal. Sure they had a straw hat and a huge basket full of produce but it wasn’t like they were… Wait… No… Were they…?

Oh no. Oh nonononono, this is not good…!!

Demeter is notoriously doting and protective of her children (see her freakout and breakdown after Hades abducted of Persephone as proof) and they've pretty much done the EXACT. SAME. THING. here!!

It was a mad scramble by him and Diavolo to contact and appease their godly Mother Bear before she came roaring down to Devildom herself to turn them all into barley. Thankfully, Zeus must have intervened at some point because though she was indeed PISSED, she didn't threaten to barge in… yet.

She made one thing very clear. Bend so much as a single hair on her precious child's head and there would be WAR…

The MC received a 24 hour security detail after that. Just Mammon wasn't going to cut it, he needed NO chances. It was a full rotation of Mammon, him and Beel for the entirety of their stay (Asmo and Levi both threw hissy fits at the prospect of babysitting, Satan couldn’t be trusted not to kill them just to irritate him, and Belphie was out for… obvious reasons).

In some ways, it wasn’t so bad. The MC was a very mild sort of person, rather even tempered. He’d dare say they were pleasant, mostly content to just tend to their gardens and be out in the moonlight…

But the problem was, he just could not convince them to stay OUT of nature. Including the forests, which were full of hellish beasts fully intent on gnawing their flesh from their bones… and their specialty was plants, not animals, sooo…

Their habit of sneaking out to wander the woods got so bad that he very nearly considered pulling a Belphie 2 and locking them in the basement for their own good. But Devil knows what damage their mother would do if she found out…

At least they make for pleasant company… And Diavolo seems to like them quite a bit himself so the mortal gets a pass from him. Now if they’d only consider their own safety for a change…

Mammon

They make him a KILLING.

Like, no seriously. Their produce is insane!! He’s never tasted food so good, especially stuff that’s come fresh from the ground! It only took a few berries for Mammon to throw on a straw hat himself and start harvesting! He’s a farmer now, baby!!

Weeellll not quite. He’s still absolutely only in it for the money, but anything he brings to a farmer’s market goes so fast that he can hardly care about the labor! He’s never made this much Grimm in his life!! And it’s totally legit for a change!

He bought himself another car, paid off half of his debt, and even got Levi back that 2 or 3 grand he leant him centuries ago. Really, Mammon’s living his best life and it’s all thanks to MC!

It’s a good thing his blatant grifting doesn’t hurt his relationship with them at all, in fact they seem to enjoy having his help regardless. They bring him drinks on hot days or invite him on picnics and stuff, it’s… it’s really sweet. They’re very nice to him and he appreciates it…

But… COULD YA JUST STAY PUT ALREADY???

It drives him INSANE that they won’t stay out of dangerous places!! After he started caring about them for more than just a meal ticket it only got even worse!!

He’s not usually one for monitoring someone’s every move (that kind of control freak behavior is more a Lucifer thing) but he eventually had to set up familiars around the House just to keep them from sneaking out at night...

What was so interesting out there anyway?? There wasn’t any kind of plant that he could bring them himself! They didn’t have any need to be out there!! 

They’d keep telling him they’d be fine but it’s not like he’s going to actually buy that. They were too… nice to be dangerous or anything so why would he believe them?

No more running off, MC! Please, he’s beggin’ ya!!

Leviathan 

Wait, gardening? Like, being outdoors and stuff? Ew. No thanks, he’ll pass.

That was more or less his first reaction when they showed up and it never really got much better than that…

He admits that they’re friendly and it’s not like he dislikes them or anything, but their thing so far from his thing that they just don’t have a lot in common… you know?

For starters, they get So. Antsy. when they’re inside for too long! He tried to invite them to a marathon once, but they could hardly keep still and kept looking around like they were searching for a window… He said, “to jump out of.” They insisted just for some fresh air, but he didn’t buy it...

They’re nice enough to listen to his rants, but they’re barely ever inside for him to do so and like HELL is he going to leave his room and stand around out there for that long. Ranting is at least a one to two hour engagement! What if he gets hot out there? And have you SEEN Devildom bees?? Hell no!!

He has, however, asked them on multiple occasions to reproduce flowers he’s seen in different anime, especially ones that have a very unique look and they’ve done some real wonders with that!

He can now claim to be the only person to ever own a Ruby-Jade Vine plant, straight from the pages of TSL when it was used to brew tea for the Lord of Lechery during his brief illness and-is anyone even still listening anymore?

The point is, it’s a flower so rare it was imaginary but now HE has it!... or had it for about a week until his utter incompetence of all things plant killed it…

He begged the MC for another but they were out of the plants they needed to make it and would have to go back to the human world to find more… He’s still mourning his loss… Poor Henry 4.0…

Satan

Well… He’s called this MC “salt of the Earth” and he does truly mean it. Take of that what you will.

He doesn’t get much in the way of intellectual conversation out of this mortal UNLESS he’s talking about plants, farming, or botany… Interesting topics and complex in their own right to be sure, but that’s pretty much their wheelhouse and they like it there.

That being said, the feats that they can perform are genuinely mind-blowing! They are the ONLY person he has ever met who can cultivate the Devildom’s own ultra-rare Phantom Orchid, a plant only blooms when it reaches a perfect state of undeath (i.e. both taken care of and neglected just enough so that it's only barely alive. The balance is so tricky to master that one hasn’t bloomed down there for centuries!)

There’s also something just genuinely relaxing about watching them work or helping them in the gardens… More so than he’d ever expected from such a simple activity.

He admits that he’s taken quite a few strolls through the flower-filled courtyard of the Demon Lord’s Castle just to admire its beauty... But anything that they can grow just blows all of that out of the water!

They even taught him several magic botanical techniques so now he can grow some pretty mad plants himself. Lucifer never expected to find that giant Venus Flytrap in his closet, but one was there regardless. 😏

Just… out of curiosity one day, he asked the MC if they could make him a new kind of catnip. Not for any nefarious reason! You know… just for research purposes…

The nip they made was so effective that the House grounds were FILLED with nipped-up cats for a whole month! He was in Heaven!! (and Lucifer practically wiped those plants from existence so he couldn’t get any more… asshole...)

That must have inspired them because they apparently made a demons-only version that they told him about WELL after the fact. Had he known, he probably would have burned the stuff on principle... Do you know how dangerous demon-nip could be to them? Experiment responsibly, MC!

Asmodeus 

Ehhhh, gardening SOUNDS like one of those things that should be super Devilgram-able, but then you realize how sweaty and dirty you get in the process and it’s a huge turn off… Sorry MC.

When they first came down to the Devildom, he thought two things: 1) Such a sweet little flower child, as adorable as they were, would never survive; and 2) even if they could, he would never ever see eye-to-eye with them on the “wonders” of getting all up in the dirt.

Well, he was right about 2, but certainly not 1. Personally, he thinks his brothers worry about them too much, they ARE still a demigod.

At one point he saw a pack of hellhounds almost trample one of their vegetable gardens and they lost it. Word to the wise, never try to take on a child of Demeter in their own garden. Those hounds were wrapped up in rose vines before they could even yelp...

Yeah, the MC would be fine.

That being said, while everybody else clamors over their produce, he thinks that their flowers are really where it’s at!

Taking just five minutes in one of their gardens is something else... He’s never seen blossoms as healthy and immaculate in all the Devildom before! Their beauty could (almost) rivals his own! What they do isn’t just a hobby, it’s an art.

He’s taken multiple pictures with their blossoms and they go viral every time. It’s so rare to actually see gorgeous, petal-filled flowers in the Devildom, most of the native plants are of the man-eating variety.

His only complaint about this MC is that they seem to feel much more at home in work clothes and dirt than they do in any sort of party-look he tries to give them… Cute as they are, they can afford to gussy up sometimes can’t they? Mud and grass stains don’t make for a good look, sorry.

Beelzebub 

Beel gardens and the MC gardens as well. Add on that they seem to be able to grow all manner of fruits and veggies and he likes this one. A lot.

They had just finished apple-picking when the portal nabbed them so they had a massive basket of apples at the time. Naturally, Beel more or less stole the thing on sight, but the apples inside were so juicy and good that he almost shook them down for more on the spot!

Imagine his surprise when they, half pleadingly, explained to him that if he got them some seeds they could just grow more… and it wouldn’t even take that long.

To be clear, the formula he saw was this: Get seeds > bring seeds to mortal > mortal grows seeds > mortal makes endless supply of food….

Congratulations MC, you’ve now earned the sixthborn’s eternal loyalty after a grand total of… two minutes. He didn’t even know their name, but he was willing to take a bullet for them (provided he got more of those apples).

The next several months were spent with Beel attached to them to the hip in some way, but honestly? It was just so wholesome anyway…

If he’s helping in the garden, he never complains. He does most of the heavy lifting and actually likes being out there with them (unlike others...)

Many afternoons were spent sitting under fruit trees and talking. Sometimes, they go to the trouble of preparing a picnic or something but it would always inevitably end with Beel plucking the whole tree clean of whatever ripe (or unripe) fruit he can get his hands on with a smile. 

The MC never minded though. That’s just another excuse to grow more, right?

His only problem was when the MC would sneak out to the forest… especially when they get too antsy and just go alone. 

He HATES it when they do that! How is he supposed to keep them safe if they just wander off?? He knows that they have a special connection to nature and all, but it isn’t safe…

He’s flown in and scooped them back up to the House on numerous occasions and his “talking tos” get sterner after every rescue... Please stay put, MC! He’d have so many reasons to be sad if you were eaten… 😔

Belphegor 

Okay, he was looking for a capable, if not gullible, human. Not a shoeless flower hippy!

He honestly wasn't expecting much out of this one... Damn their little heart because they did genuinely believed his lies, it’s just that they weren't… well… They were really good at gardening.

… And it grew kind of hard to keep hating them whenever they'd show up just to give him fresh berries or a bouquet to see him smile… He may claim that his heart is made of nightmares and orphan tears, but who doesn’t enjoy being given a batch of flowers? 

Damn their sweetness too… Right to here.

When it came time to kill them he had a heavier heart than he thought he would, but kind of saw it like putting down the sacrificial lamb. Gotta be done to reach better goals... Stiff upper lip and all that.

Unfortunately for him, they had taken to carrying packets of demon-nip with them as a self-defense measure…

He wasn’t exactly sure what he expected when they shouted “Get nipped!” at him mid-attack, but it wasn’t a face full of some smelly herb! Like, really smelly…! Actually, that smelt kind of good… Hold on.

Turns out murderous rage really doesn’t last long after you get what is effectively ultra-strong catnip thrown in your face. They ended up having to go and tell Lucifer what happened themselves because Belphie was way too blissed out on the floor to do anything... They were legitimately worried they might have fried his brain...

He’s told the effects of the demon-nip lasted three days. He doesn’t know, because he hardly remembers any of it... They described him as like he was high on “weed” and “ecstasy” at the same time but he doesn’t know what either of those are either so it wasn’t helpful…

Truthfully, they were so nice to him while he was recovering that he couldn’t even be mad afterwards so all's well that ends well? Either way, he’s sleeping under their orchard trees from now on. It’s peaceful out there...

They burnt all that nip though. It’s some strong stuff...

[vynegar]

So... finally getting around to (partially) answering @alyss-mermaid-motel with my Marius card thoughts. Thanks for your patience x)

I figured a tierlist would be a fun way to do the short version of my opinions! Below are my explanations and ramblings about each card.

You can see my post ranking Vyn’s cards because the same disclaimers and explanations to my thought process apply, but the main disclaimer is that these are just my own personal opinions!

Btw, I’m pretty sure there are subs for all the cards on youtube (many by Jin Yamashina or Sherry’s Gaming Notes); for some, you just might have to search using the Chinese card title. So go watch them first if you care about card spoilers!

S Rank

For me, this card is worth getting

Fabulous Feast: I’m obsessed with Marius’s formal outfit and I managed to get this card so I’m a little biased, BUT. There are really memorable fun moments in this card, while also being MC’s introduction into Marius’s family lore and his world of hypocritical social politics. It showed that MC can still manage to carve out a place for herself in there and help Marius in her own way, so they can still express themselves.

All Through the Night: Most obviously there’s the iconic drunk!MC scene and him talking about his mother and the story of him in the forest as a kid, but throughout the card there’s just so much of Marius caring about MC in his own particular way, showing how special and important MC is to him. Tbh I haven’t fully read the card until recently, and I think what really struck me about the card was Marius’s understated gestures of affection, like offering MC something to fall back on and spending a family tradition with her. The story is probably tied with Fabulous Feast; maybe the former is there to display him in his professional life, and this card follows it up by showing his private self.

Desert SSR: This card had me SCREAMING with the plot twists oh my god!! The plot of the card is so suspenseful and the main story of it is genuinely enjoyable; it really takes advantage of the AU setting to intensify aspects of Marius’s stories. One of those was showing how Marius has many different sides to him and turning them all up to eleven, while affirming that he’s still Marius in the end. Another is the pressures and risks and loneliness of Marius’s high status being stretched into life-threatening extremes, forcing him to escape in a drastic way (while irl… he does not have the option to escape). But it still really felt in-character the whole time, with some moments almost having a sense of déjà vu with how similar it is to canon!verse Marius (I had written down that it stood out to me how he had his suspicions of MC because she wasn’t trying to get something more from him, which reminded me of Fabulous Feast when he mentions everyone has expectations of him except the MC, and he’s not sure if that’s a good or bad thing). Anyway this card should be ranked higher, but I stopped myself since it’s an AU and technically doesn’t progress the relationship :/ But honestly, probably my second favorite card.

Ancient China SSR: So far this is the closest we’ve gotten to true obsession and enemies to lovers in tot TTTT I love how MC becomes the target of some of the more dangerous sides of his personality, and if the desert card is Marius completely shackled by his identity and status, then this card is if he completely indulges in his emotions and art. I liked how MC was the one who was on a hero’s quest basically, but there were decisions that felt too ooc for her, and the story resolution was a bit abrupt and felt like a copy of the desert ending. Bonus points for Vincent getting a sprite and being friends with MC though, it’s what he deserves!!

A Rank

 it’s a good card and i enjoy the story!

In the Darkness: This is one of the early cards so it still feels like MC doesn’t know Marius super well yet, but throughout the card story they definitely learn a lot more about each other! I like how MC got Marius to open up, and how he ended up the more vulnerable one in this. The main card story was a bit better than I expected too; there’s a bit of genuine mystery as to why the NPCs set up this fake treasure hunt, and why Marius would play along with them, and the answer just ends up being very down-to-earth, human reasons. Also the final card evolution art is probably one of my favorite Marius artwork; his open and longing expression makes me go feral.

Eye of the Beholder: His tone saying “How pitiful! He has no friends” lives rent-free in my mind… This story is still pretty random but it manages to introduce a lot of the tropes that’ll show up in Marius’s route, like a LOT of him acting cute, him being greedy about being the only one in MC’s eyes, him being very forward (sharing a dessert!) while still being very careful and thoughtful, expressing his feelings for MC in art, Mc getting him to open up, his idealism, etc. Anyway, I distinctly remember this story making me like Marius a lot, so I think this really did a good job as an initial SSR! Also the end when he admits to himself that he just wants to see their two names together… I love it when the men are so down bad for MC>….

Anniversary SSR: Honestly I wasn’t sure how to rank this; it could be a few cards lower but I’ll tentatively put it here. The card art and the fact that it’s a culmination of his feelings would help its ranking, but after all, the entire “plot” of the anniversary cards is “he wants to confess” so it’s very simple and short. I think the reason I rank it higher than Vyn’s was ranked is because the Marius’s intense nervousness the night before was cute and refreshing to see, and his interactions with his wingmen Vincent and Payton were amusing. His confession method represented his overflowing emotions in a way that’s very true to him, with lots of small nods to previous events, and it just makes perfect sense. (Opinion of this could improve after I read his chapter 4).

Will of the Trees: I loved hearing Marius talk about Giann (his voice was soooo soft and gentle when reminiscing ;;) And how MC is seriously thinking about what it would be like to be with Marius. It’s kind of a more straightforward story, they travel together and learn about the local legends, but the info about Marius’s brother and childhood and the clear progress that their relationship has made are really satisfying!

Daytime Aurora: The main card story is more on the fluffy side, but the side story involving the old man, and Marius’s past experience, really makes it hit home how heavy a responsibility Marius has and how high of an EQ he has to be able to handle all of it well. It makes my heart ache for him TT

Sweet Fantasy (Dreams of Childhood SSR): It’s a cute story that also gives us more insight into how Marius processed his mother’s passing. I also liked how it directly referenced previous events. Basically it’s a nice story with good, profile-picture-worthy art, and I have no complaints~

B Rank

I have some mixed feelings about the card but I still enjoy it overall

Cozy Couple’s Getaway SSR: His whole speech about possessiveness is SUPER fascinating… I just kinda wish he had done something more extreme to warrant it? Which, the writers are in a tough place about this, bc you don’t actually want to show one of main characters treating the MC badly since they need to be a fantasy partner, but stories still need conflict. (This is why I like his ancient china SSR so much since he actually got to get a little unhinged.) But it’s still an interesting element to have, and having Marius shelve his original plans for the trip to try to make MC feel better is a good way to show his self-sacrificing nature again, in that classic Marius story way.

Revisiting Youth SSR: It’s a pretty cute story (and the card art!!!!!!!), and I love to see jealous Marius (and I like how the reason ends up not quite that straightforward). There’s also extensive backstory of Marius’s high school life that once again reminds us of his self-blame and loneliness… I initially felt like it kind of goes against Matching Tattoos, but maybe it still fits because Matching Tattoos was technically about a college friend, and you could say that it makes sense he wouldn’t talk that deeply about heavy things so soon after getting to know MC…

Tideborne Romance: Whatever he’s paying Vincent, double that salary for making him third-wheel here.This card is super fluffy in the first half, but in the last two parts it gets a bit more serious and shows how free-spirited and Romantic Marius is, how much he believes in those stories and legends and longing for that in his life. This card makes it seem like he’s truly felt alone for all his life, and since at least his college years he’s been wanting to find his True Love, the person who would be that kind of story-like figure for him. I think… there’s nothing really wrong with this card but it just happens to focus on aspects that I’m not as interested in, so it doesn’t rank highly for me.

C Rank

Something feels off about the card and overshadows its merits; or, the card doesn’t have much that is unique about it

Limited Top-up card: Lol this card is for the people who want a spicier story 👀 I think it’s interesting that they’re dealing with the realistic complication of MC dating Marius, that they have to decide if/how they’ll be public. I just feel like the scene at the end is like… too secondhand embarrassment for me since the manager is still RIGHT THERE. Like it’s one thing to not be afraid of going public but it’s another to go… beyond PDA in the middle of what was supposed to be a PR negotiation. So I feel like maybe the resolution was still a bit too idealized where I expected the game to feel more grounded? (But it’s an otome game so maybe I’m the one who’s being unrealistic)

Narrow Road: Pretty straightforward story that shows Marius’s capable, yet very compassionate, business. Since it’s early, it makes sense that they’re establishing baseline character traits (that Marius is not an asshole despite being rich) like this. This ranks so low because it just doesn’t really stand out to me compared to the other cards.

Glorious Coronation (birthday SSR): Maybe I got influenced by the more critical comments I saw about this card, but I agree with those comments TT So warning for a very negative review ahead. It feels more like the artist team REALLY wanted to draw Marius in actual king-like outfits for his birthday card, and then tried to reverse-engineer a story to work with that. For the vast majority of the card, I felt nothing; it just seemed like due to a series of random coincidences and luck, MC ended up in this game with Marius. A few of the lines felt too overtly lovey-dovey to me too, or the card just felt more fluffy/sweet than an actual Marius/MC story. Only the last ten or fifteen minutes give some context that add meaning to the card, but… too little too late? They could have spread some clues throughout the card to make the whole thing interesting.

Matching Tattoos: not Marius calling himself an omega and wanting MC to be his alpha Um anyway, fanfic trope connections aside, it’s a pretty straightforward story with Marius up to his usual tricks, and a friend which causes Marius to talk a bit about his college life in Florence. I feel like his Revisiting Youth SSR implied that he was rather alone for the entire time at Florence (even though the card focused on his high school days), but I prefer this part to the backstory since I want Marius to have had good friends that he was able to feel simple camaraderie and joy with. I also think his return to Stellis is more meaningful if he had to give up so much in Florence. This card still rates low for not being super memorable and bc I really can’t bear to put a birthday card as last ;;

Anyway, I once again question my own thoughts immediately after trying to organize them.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: April 13th, 2021

And we’re back again with more replies so soon, haha. Thank you for the asks!

Your game literally saved me this hell ass year. Thank you so much for the most perfect piece of art I've ever laid eyes on 😫 ... Do you guys have a rough idea when step 3 DLC will be released? I hope I'm not coming off as rude. I just really really love your game.

I’m sorry for the late reply on this! You might’ve already seen the answer by now, but the Step 3 DLC is coming out on the 16th. We’re almost there :D

This may be a silly question but did Jeremy's parents ever find out that Pran had lied about his age and if so, when/how? :3

Pran came clean to them after a couple of years, when he felt secure enough that it wouldn’t ruin the relationship. The Kings were a little embarrassed, the dad more than the mom, but they’re quite good at brushing past those kind of mistakes so it was all water under the bridge pretty fast.

hi! i know you’ve answered a question about alterations in the our life moments by playing them in different orders, but i was wondering if there was a canon order that the moments for each step happen in? i figure with such a customizable game the “canon” timeline for the moments is whatever order the player completes them in, for example in step 1, i like playing the runaway moment pretty early, since cove trying to run away early in summer makes more sense to me personally. thanks!

Yeah, there’s no canon order we’d insist on. Whatever you like can be the official route for you! And that’s a neat way to look at that event.

What if your character isn’t that into physical contact but still wants to be in a relationship with Cove? Would he be offended if you shy away or something along those lines?

He wouldn’t be. Cove knows how hard that can be and is very understanding. If you set his initiative to low, the game always checks to make sure if you want to be touched or not rather than assuming that you do. And if you do choose that you don’t want to, there’s no stress or drama about it. Cove will just say that’s okay!

Hellu! First off, I want to thank you all for such a wonderful game, it's been the best feel-good game I've ever stumbled upon and I can't express enough how much it has meant to me. Second, I've seen lots of people having trouble with making Cove confess before MC which makes me wonder if people will have the same problem in the dlc when you can propose to him. Is it possible to post a guide for that as well when it no longer could count as a spoiler? Again, thanks for such a beautiful game <3

I’m really happy you had such a nice time with it c:. We’ll answer questions about it on tumblr/in the discord if they come up and, if need be, we’ll find somewhere to upload a guide.

Do we get steam key from buying dlc on itch io?

I’m afraid not. That’d be unfair to those who get it on Steam. Plus, Steam isn’t super cool with giving out thousands of keys to be handed out for free on other sites anymore. They can refuse to give us the keys if they feel we’re trying to take advantage of their system.

hi! so if we reject cove's confession in step 3, can we still have MC and cove get together in step 4?

You can confess to him, yeah. But Cove won’t ever try confessing again if the MC turns him down in Step 3.

What if MC acts like someone Cove doesn't like, like Lizzie or Baxter lol

You can’t do what Lizzie or Baxter does to make Cove dislike them. You can play the game and try, but it doesn’t work out. The MC is just too compatible with Cove if you’re fond/crush/love, haha.

Hi! I absolutely love your game, I love the characters they’re all so amazing, thank you for the game haha

I was wondering if you would get the NSFW DLC no matter what Patreon level you were at, or if you would could get it at any level? :)

&

What pateron tier do we need to get the 18+ content for Our Life? It's my new favourite game, keep up the good work!

It will eventually be available at the $5 tier and anything above that! Glad you both like OL ^^

On a scale from 1 (being the worst) to 10, how well do the XOXO jerk squad including JB handle horror?

JB: 8

Everett: 5

Nate: 4

Shiloh: 10

Bae: 10

Jeremy: 8 for non-gore horror, 2 for gory horror

Pran: 9

hello!! i was wondering if any of the boys from the Jerksquad would ever wear a skirt/dress?

None of them wear skirts/dresses out of personal preference. But if there was some kind of reason where they had to do it, none would be that bothered.

How does the jerk squad feel about Christmas? 

Everett: He fucking loves it. That’s the best time of year.

Nate: Commercialized nonsense.

Shiloh: It’s wonderful! So he claims.

Bae: He likes it quite a bit, but only for the joy it brings children/family. He thinks that’s sweet but is too mature to be whipped up into a festive fervor himself.

Jeremy: It’s awful.

Pran: He hates it.

does cove have any pet allergies? yes I know this is a little weirdly specific

He doesn’t! The lucky boy isn’t allergic to any animal.

Very important question: Would Lee and a musical-theatre loving MC run around belting Into The Unknown from Frozen 2? Because I feel that they would 

Probably, haha.

This might seem like a dumb question, so I’m sorry, but with the Derek DLC are we gonna get to hang out with him in person instead of just calling him in step 3? 

The Derek DLC adds events in Step 2 and Step 4. It’s part of his story that you don’t really get to be around him in Step 3. But you don’t need to apologize for wondering!

hello! i'd like to ask if it's possible to play the android version of the game with the dlcs after buying the dlcs from steam. i wasn't expecting my android version to have my dlcs since i bought them from steam, but it had my step 2 dlc for some reason. is this a glitch or does the apk actually detect what dlcs you already have on your pc? if so, how come i don't have the step 1 dlc appearing on android? thanks!

That is some kind of glitch. It isn’t possible for the Android DLCs to be unlocked by having them on PC. Maybe in one of the old builds we accidentally didn’t lock the Step 2 DLC properly. Sorry for the confusion!

Does Derek and Baxter have canon sexualities? Will Derek still flirts with the MC regardless of their gender?

They’re both pansexual and can like the MC regardless of what gender they have.

I was wondering if Miranda had a crush on Cove in Step 3? I'm not sure why, but I got those vibes from her?

She thinks of him only as a friend. Cove isn’t her type, haha.

This is probably a dumb hope, but I hope Cliff find someone he loves after Cove is grown up and everything. Or at the very least he has someone he's very close with after Cove leaves. 

That’s a really sweet thought to have. Cliff stays single, but he’s graysexual and not-particularly romantically inclined. He only dated when he was really young ‘cause that’s what everyone did. Family and friend relationships are more important to him, and he has plenty of that in his life ^^.

Heya! I was curious if there might be a nickname system in N&F? I kind of pull an Elizabeth when I play and choose a different variation of a name like having Rosie in step one and changing it to Rose in step two, then maybe Rosetta in step three for example, but it also feels a little bit odd being scolded using my nickname hehe. That's all I was wondering about, thank you for your time and the wonderful games!

We are hoping to include the option to go by a nickname in Our Life: Now & Forever. But nothing has been programmed yet, so we can’t 100% guarantee it, haha.

Just curious, what would Liz's and Cove's relationship be if MC wasn't around? I feel like they wouldn't get along as well as they do now, especially during the first and second step 

They’d definitely have a lot of friction growing up and they’d likely avoid each other as much as possible. Once they were both older, I imagine they’d be decent neighbor acquaintances. But they still wouldn’t be nearly as close as they are with the MC bringing Cove into things.

What do the customizable eyes look like in the game? Do they look as they are in the creating avatar section? Or do they look different when actually playing the game?

That’s up to you! The doll is just meant to be a general idea. You can apply it to your imagined MC as much or as little as you prefer.

Did Cove go through a "phase" during his adolescence? I don't really wanna headcanon it so I wonder if there's anything (cringy) canon since we missed out on the ages of 14-17 hahaha

Not really, aha. 14-17 Cove is pretty recognizable to his 13 and 18 year old self.

Hello! I'm sorry to bother you, especially with all the messages you get. I was just wondering if the religious wedding venue was exclusive to a church or if there will be different religions of weddings? Also, I love this VN so much, it's so well written and every character is so amazing, thank you for making such a beautiful game.

The church is treated as a historic building rather than anything actively religious, but it’s not the only option like that. There’s a historic synagogue and stuff too! And that’s really nice of you to say <3.

How differently would it play out If MC told their moms about the 20$ deal back when it happened? 

They wouldn’t have been happy and would’ve been far more skeptical of Cliff, aha. But they wouldn’t want to keep Cove away from the MC, so it wouldn’t have been too different in the long run.  

Hello may I ask what Cove's favorite fudge/ice cream flavor would be? Its alright if its not answered 

He appreciates them all, but his top favorites would be the fruit flavored ones and the ones with nuts.

Hi! I really wanted to make mc's house in a game and tried really hard to figure out the floor plan, but I wondered if you have the floor plan of the mc's house so that i can try again with more accuracy?

Thank you a lot for this game, i loved it a lot! (my first play took me 8 hours lol)

I’m really sorry, we don’t have anything like that. But at least you can headcanon that what you did is correct and nothing can prove it wrong, haha.

Hello,I recently started playing lake of voices (I put it off for a long while since I’m usually not very good with horror) and I’m really happy I did!I’m a big fan of your games in general and lake of voices was absolutely great as well.I loved the characters and the dark setting of it,I adored the beautiful art and music and the story was great too,sometimes unsettling and sometimes very sweet.My favorite Route in the game was definitely Lu,I liked his character and was really shocked and distraught by his Route at least two times.I didn’t see the plot twist(s) coming at all!

Besides these ramblings I’ve also wanted to ask if you still remember how to get the lower two CGs on page 5?I seem to always miss them and would appreciate any help.Anyways I hope I wasn’t too much of a bother and I wish the devs a great day!:)

Thank you for all the kind words <3. You get those DLCs by going through the end of the Guide’s character path. You can use the guides on Steam to help you find it/reach the end!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for all of these questions :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[actualbird]

// main story 6.1 spoilers, reactions from 06-03 to LITERALLY THE END LMAO, I BINGED IT I FEEL LIKE I ATE A WHOLE JAR OF CANDY aND THIS POST IS SO LONG OMFGKJFG

HHHHHHH

pls...this is such a sweet thing for mc to say [pleading emoji]

and then im immediately hit by the absolute hilarity that arTEM'S FATHER IS A JUDGE, LMAOOOO. IF IM NOT MISTAKEN, the specific judge mentioned, thats the male judge with the greying hair and the closed eyes we see in murder court, right?? NO RESEMBLANCE WHATSOEVER KAJBFKASJFA

also omg? artem's mom's ENG name isnt the translated from CN server placeholder An Wing but....Kimberly Garner. i got pretty attached to the name "An" but thats fine. what im more interested in is how she kept her surname, girlboss, but also does it have something to do with the whole nepotism shebang? or was it just a personal choice? idk, nitpicky thoughts HAHAKJDSBKFJD

that being said: MANNN, i already talked a lot about artem being a legacy kid from a legacy family but. WHY DIDNT THE RUMORS ABOUT NEPOTISM EVER CROSS MY MIND OMFG. YEAH. ABSOLUTELY, if people knew his dad is a super high ranking judge and his mom is super renowned law prof, ofc theyd think they got to his position thanks to nepotism. very interesting to me!!

AVA KENDRICKS PLS CALL ME, U R SO PRETTY AND PROBABLY EVIL BUT THATS FINE, NOT A DEALBREAKER (I JEST, SHES SO PRETTY THO)

and then boom, another thing thats living in my mind rent free that was very small but STILL

sublimely interested in how neil played into the beginning of this chapter. i hope the story maybe digs deeper into artem and neil's relationship before neil's disappearance....

also wAIT, THIS IS FROM EARLIER THAN THIS POINT IN THE STORY BUT I GOT REMINDED OF HOW INTERESTING I FOUND THIS BIT

all this time i had thought that the og nxx team was just neil and giann vs. the world

but huh! vyn was with them! implied to have been there from the beginning, maybe? this piques my interest cuz like, at first, i thought vyn would only have been connected to giann cuz of the research center. but if he was og nxx, he must have gotten some kind of close with neil too

so like, maybe vyn has personal stakes in the missing persons boogaloo afterall. for Both People

anyway, darius morgan is the funniest person alive

my MAN. U WORK HERE AND UR THE BOSS, HOW DID U FORGET IT'S A NO-SMOKING AREA LMAOKDSJFBSDK

AND THESE AS WELL HAD ME LAUGHING KFJABKS

a SCATHING grade from artem wing and also the most perplexing mid-story debate ive seen thus far akjfbaksjfkas

ugh uuGGGHHHH THE S CENE WHEREARTEM TIES HER SHOES

WHO GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO LOOK THAT CUTE

WHO ALSO GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO SAY THIS ADORABLE TIDBIT

I NEED TO SEE KID!ARTEM WITH HIS VELCRO STRAP SHOES POSTHASTE!!!

and then

jerry and the narrative and mc and artem: the apartment is quite small

the apartment: looks roomier than luke's place kjKHBSDKJFSBDGS

and then

it is CRIMINAL that the story drops on us that artem swims on a regular basis. and we have NOT gotten an IMAGE OF HIM SWIMMING. skadi invite doesnt count, hes not swimming, hes just Standing In The Water, i wanna see artem wing doing a backstroke thru the pool

and THEN

mc: how long can you hold your breath?

artem:

me: haha. this is specific. so artemcore, to give the exact time down to the second. this totally didnt make me go "oh god" cuz i have....certain context i saw from the cn server version 6.2 trailer i watched way back when. HAHA. THANKS FOR THE SPECIFIC ANSWER ARTEM.....

none of these reactions ive typed are intelligent in any manner, i will think smart thoughts on ANOTHER DAY. TODAY, I PROCESS WHAT IVE SEEN AKJBFKJSAFA

[pocketramblr]

other main character meta- Ochako, pt 1

<part 2>

“Could you send me there?” you ask, while i blink, confused. “The world where someone else is the main character? not because i have any hypocritical biases against the one i got, just curious how the fandom meta changes.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” I nod, thinking, before tapping my wand against your forehead. “Let’s start with Ochako.”

"I'm going to warn you now- I will have to slightly adjust the plot like I did with Mirio, just to actually let her be the main character."

"Yeah, that checks out." You nod, thinking about certain arcs where the female fighting teams get no coverage while the dudes get four different backstory reveals and full fight focus.

"Very well."

The show begins with a brief narration by the girl of quirks and super hero fights- all flashy. Then it zooms out to show the destruction, and a small construction team moving in as Ochako explains that just as there are new careers in society for heroes, there's also a bigger market for construction companies, one of which her own family runs.

"I've always wanted to help them with it, and my quirk would be useful"- a tiny, adorable Ochako finally appears, making rocks in a park float- "but to get a work license like that is expensive and selective- you've got to make a lot of court appearances and convince them why is a good idea and won't destroy the economy. It's much easier to get a hero license."

Then she explains: "Of course, once you have a hero license, you can make a lot more money than just by helping the company. Especially if... Your family company isn't doing very well." A series of tired but loving parents are shown working all hours to make ends meet.

"I want to help them- my parents. They've done everything for me, and they deserve a break. So that's why I'm going to be a hero- their hero."

The training montage is quick, using her quirk during school in training, after school in secret, around the house. She saves up money too, and studies, aiming for a scholarship.

She applies and tests for many hero schools, and the exams all vary widely.

The first episode ends with her looking up at UA, her final one, the one she really hopes to get into.

"Oh, that's nice." You nod. "And we even get to know her parents' quirks here."

"Yep." I agree. "In general, there's a lot more of a look at the financial side. It's pretty interesting."

"And the fandom?"

"Well, certain people get praised for the bare minimum, but I'll admit having a female lead is super uncommon for shonen jump." It's an improvement, though it's up in the air how much of one it will be. "There's also, because we saw a lot more hero schools, a ton of "students at different school" fics, either because they were expelled or because of the danger UA gets into."

"I do kinda feel like this universe is lucky for that sort of world building." You nod.

"It's very cool to see the takes on the aus. But, I will say there's a cost for this world building- the AfO stuff reeeeally comes out of nowhere and tends to not be popular with fans."

The next episode starts, and Ochako helps a boy from falling. "Love interest alert!" The fans notice quickly when the cute boy blushes and doesn't manage to say much before she walks away.

"They caught on quick." You note.

"And they aren't wrong." Not that it's any real feat to be right.

The exam starts, and Ochako is off in a flash. You see a few glimpses of future classmates- Iida, Aoyama, Kirishima.

She does well, racking up villain points and rescue points, until she's a little too ambitious and falls into the rubble. Her nausea is well established by now, everyone knows she's at her limit.

She can't get up.

The green haired boy comes back and stops the zero pointer.

And breaks every bone in the process.

Ochako saves him in return, lifting up the rubble and stopping his fall.

And then vomits violently afterwards.

"You know, I think quirks suck, actually." The fandom tends to agree on this after that episode/chapter. "But it is interesting that there's such a price for the powers, balances it really well."

"Ha." You shake your head. "They caught onto that, quicker."

"Yep." I can't even say it's more highlighted here, it's the exact same way it was shown in our universe- down to the sparkling rainbow puke.

"Though..." You can't quite imagine that's the only thing the fandom is saying isn't actually that great.

"Ding ding ding." I nod. "Did our own main character get treated just like a damsel in distress? Sure, she saved him back, but that just meant she could have floated away on her own in that time, even if it made her sick. Better that than dead. Is it the sexism?" I shrug. "Most decide to wait and see a bit, and by the time they work together in the first battle exercise figure it's a pretty even split between them saving each other."

"So no sexism?" You get happy at that thought.

I cough. "Ah, no. Both in the show and the fandom. You wouldn't believe how many grown men complain about the lady mc, even as they keep watching."

"And have her body pillow."

"Please don't make me think about that." I cover my eyes, but don't deny that it's true. "Anyway, yeah. Get ready for a lot of people to point out that even though the main character is a girl, every single other girl is flat as cardboard so far and that she only has developed friends that are guys."

"Hey, they aren't flat-"

"In the first season? Yeah they are. Unless you meant, physically, in which case..."

"I didn't." You protest. "But I guess I can see your point, at the start."

"Right. Let's continue on."

Uraraka goes to Present Mic to offer her points. The man pats her on the head, and skyrockets to the position of fandom dad.

"It's all about Dadmic and then Dadzawa here," I explain. "The fans were very disappointed to learn Mic wasn't her homeroom teacher, but yeah... He got a huge head start before Dadzawa fics got going."

"Nice. And it's all fanon?"

"Yeah, it may be a good thing he's not actually in it much, or they might realize how much they just made up on their own."

Then she gets accepted in, on hero and rescue points- she's third place overall, and she gets the scholarship.

On the first day of school, she actually gets to know her love interest's name- Midoriya!

There's also the quirk assessment, which really leads to the "expelled to another school" au and the "fire Aizawa and replace him with better Mic" aus, the first of which lasts much longer in the fandom use, but the second one was just as passionate for a while.

Iida becomes the second friend, and gives her the "Infinity Girl" nickname- which actually is the fandom assumption of what her hero name will be for quite a while, a la 'ground zero'.

Then it's time for All Might's first appearance on screen, to much applause of the students, and the announcement that they get their costumes.

During the first battle exercise, there's a lot more lingering camera work in the changing rooms. Ochako gets to expand a lot more on how she didn't want her costume to be that tight. It's uncomfortable, especially when she thinks about wearing it in front of everyone.

"Oh, I forgot she didn't like it at first... Does she just, get used to it here?" It sounds horrible for the plot to just say 'get used to it' to the main character being sexualized by costume makers outside of her control, especially as a child.

"Not on my watch." I mumble, waving the wand. "Don't worry, she'll actually get more costume changes each time, like some other characters."

"Oh good."

Mineta, regrettably, still exists. You find the fandom manages to be even more violent in his removal.

The battle does even out the opinions on Midoriya, as well as lead to a boost in Iida's with his charming little attempt at thinking villainously.

And cements Bakugo as rather hated. No one has really liked him, when the first thing he did was blow up at Midoriya, then get revealed to have called him a cruel nickname all this time. And then specifically hunt him down because all he cares about it beating him up.

"Yeah he's not gonna get a lot of fans here huh."

"He sure never gets first place in the popularity poll." I agree. "Most consider him the subversion of the rival trope to show is just stupid and violent and in real life, people like that don't go anywhere."

"Most?"

I look away. "How dumb of a discourse do you think you could see today?"

"Oh please, show me." You lean in. "It's nice to not have to deal with it in my universe, so I don't care."

The discourse is such.

Bakugo is gay-coded for Midoriya, the violence is a result of him being shoved off for a girl's love interest when she should be single and independent, and the homophobic creator is vilifying all gay people by saying they are predatory to poor straight boys with refused.

"They............... What."

"If it makes you feel better, that's a very brief minority of the fandom. My favorite response to it was "he's not gay-coded, he's bully coded you sanctimonious sumph of a shmuck.""

"Oh good," you sigh. "I'm glad we don't have to deal with actual queerphobic tropes like that."

I stare at you.

"What?"

I sigh. "Nothing, put a pin in that until I bring up the predatory bi thing with Toga."

Your eyes widen, and you start to have some regrets.

"Anyway, we can talk shipping later. Time for more."

The 'exit sign Iida' gives him a boost in being shipped with Ochako, (as well as Yaoyorozu) and also the general idea that "Ochako has two hands."

That one hand can have a boyfriend with a lot of cash to spare for her and the other is also played with.

"I missed the main trio, like this." You smile as they walk off into the sunset after school.

"Yeah." I agree. "Anyway, time for some near death experiences."

The USJ marks the start of the gradual, gradual growth of Dadzawa fics. It also focuses far more on Ochako, Mina, Sero, and Iida having to think strategically to get around Kurogiri. It's only after Iida escapes that we cut back to a slightly abridged version of how Midoriya was doing, then the other kids, before help arrives.

He does still through his first non bone breaking punch though, which makes the audience happy.

All Might saves the day. Aizawa is battered afterwards. Many fans start out by saying they were disappointed, since this was supposed to be the first big fight, and the kids didn't do much. Many others say in response that's the point- we're looking at first years, they had to think and help each other, but in the end they had to rely on adults.

And then the sports festival is announced. They want to do well, because this is how they get work-week placements, which could become internship offers.

Ochako thinks about Hado Nejire, the only intern of a top ten hero, and senior at UA, along with a few others who are on the up and up. She's determined.

"Really? You're bringing in the big three early?" You ask, glancing at my wand.

It's not sparkling.

I cross my arms with a huff. "Look. Nejire is at this point the only intern in the top ten, she would have been recognizable to the students for that, even if they didn't recognize the big three (which really means that they aren't actually called the Big Three by everyone, or at least not a wide enough group for it to be as big a deal as it's treated. Anyway.) But she wasn't, even if she should have been the most famous of the bunch, considering the coverage the first years got in just their first night. That's because a certain someone doesn't actually think of his female characters much, but he has to in this universe, so."

"Ok, yeah, that's fair. So does that change the sports festival?"

"Not... Much." I admit.

“What?”

“Well, keep in mind in the first universe, our main character didn’t make it past the second round in the one-on-one’s. So she’s not exactly guaranteed a win here either.”

You have to nod, admitting that is true.

“And the conflict isn’t so much about having to live up to any predecessor or breaking down some people’s walls via breaking bones.” I tap my wand against my chin, thinking. “There really is two- one about Midoriya, and one about Ochako’s parents.”

“Oh?”

“One, there’s been the Uraraka’s not happy about how much danger Ochako’s been in. Its been hinted at in the phone calls, but really shows up when we get to see them at home before the SF for the first time since she moved for school. They aren’t sure if she can stay there herself, or if the right thing to do would be to pull her out and maybe try a smaller school.”

“I suppose that's fair, if they haven't been able to actually see her or her progress.”

“Right. The second one is- well. in this, Izuku’s win of the first round, and then breaking out of brainwashing, is more about really piling on how good his mind is- all that brain power. This adds more pressure when we see Ochako being offered a plan from him to beat Bakugo.”

“Oh that does sound neat.”

“Yep- but of course, she still refuses. It’s held up as a worse thing, strategically, initially- but then she comes up with a plan that Midoriya confirms in the stands is better than his, and proves to her parents that she’s smart and skilled enough to handle continuing at the school.”

You smile. “That is a cool arc to do, i guess, if very not traditional. But what about all the character setup and growth with Shinsou and Todoroki?”

“Oh, Shinsou’s largely gets delegated all the way later for the joint training arc, where Ochako’s team is directly against him. Todoroki...” I begin to giggle.

You wait for me to answer, getting more concerned the longer i laugh.

“Pocket?”

“Sorry, sorry, yeah. He actually tells her himself in this canon, a bit after stain. Oh! right, i forgot- the cheerleader incident.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes. of course they need this merch opportunity! But yes, it happens. The... shall we say, non-body-pillow portion of the fandom, generally saw it as the end of any goodwill to Kaminari, who had previously been seen as a tertiary possible love interest, since he’d flirted with her on the first day. Flirt, but harmless, and unlikely to be important. Then there was that breach of trust and international embarrassment, and anyway he’s basically the second least likely in 1a to be shipped with her now.”

“Wow. So none of that changed?”

“Well, the setup wasn’t under narration from Todoroki about how his mother was bought for her body and how much that sucked and impacted her and the family while on screen we see multiple girls tricked into barring their bodies and its treated as a laugh instead?”

You stare at me. “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.”

“Neither am I.”

“So, the Todoroki reveal?”

“Right. So, first you need to know the Stain thing- the claims he has against ‘false’ heroes focusing on money is better spotlighted. After Stain’s arrest, Ochako hears a couple of sidekicks at Gunhead’s agency-”

“Wait!” you interrupt. “She still interned with Gunhead? Then what was the point of showing Nejire and Ryukyuu earlier?”

I try not to massage my forehead. “To build up to it. She only made it to the first of the final round, she couldn’t get an internship with a top tenner yet. She’s also got to learn how to disarm someone who fights with a knife. These things build up over more time, small steps.”

“Ah.” You’re satisfied, and let me continue.

“Right, so, Overhears a couple of them talking about Stain’s philosophy and ends up just feeling really bad about it for a bit, trying to figure out if she’s actually being selfish or a bad hero for, you know, wanting her family to not be crushed due to capitalism.”

“Poor girl.” You shake your head in sympathy, the freeze. “Oh. did not intend that pun.”

“It’s alright, i know what you mean. And yeah, she bottles it up for a bit, until the second day back at school. Then Iida reminds her that him bottling things up last week got several kids in mortal danger, and she begrudgingly admits that he has a point and tells them about what has been bugging her.”

“And they comfort her?”

“Well, Todoroki also offers to tell off Kaminari because at this point his mention of stain upset both her and iida, but yes, A lot of reassurances.”

You squint. “I feel like shippers.”

“You’re learning! Yes, Todoroki is just a bit behind Iida in terms of popularity shipping with her. and she does basically get shipped A Lot with each girl in her class too, like imagine double to triple the amount with each girl now, and for the minor guys- but yeah. There’s a lottttt of ships. This was basically called ‘todoroki’s introduction into ochako’s harem’ in the fandom.”

Shipping. fandom just can’t escape it.

“So, then she learns about Todoroki’s past? oh, and what about Hosu? Does she- and everyone else- actually think Endeavor saved the three??”

I snort. “Oh, no. Todoroki’s flat ‘yeah my father totally helped us, as you read on the official report’ basically tipped the fandom off that something else had. But nothing confirmed either, you know? Filling in the hosu gap is another trope in fics that is pretty common.”

“Neat.”

“Yep. But yeah Todoroki tells her his backstory a bit after his introduction into her ‘harem’ of friends. It’s really played up more to caution Ochako- its alright for her to want to help her family, and to work for money to do that. But Rei accepted the marriage offer for money for her family too, and it ended up breaking her. Ochako has to accept a balance- she can work to help her family, and its good, but there are some things she cannot morally do to help them, and other things that she shouldn’t do because she has to take care of her own health first.”

“Ohhhh.” You hadn’t quite expected that, but you sorta liked it, now that you thought about it.

I smile. “It is pretty neat, yeah.” I glance at my watch. “Look, i hate to cut you off, but this post is gonna end up thrice the length of Mirio’s and i think tumblr might stop me, so we’re gonna have to do a two-parter.”

“That’s fine.” You are gracious for what you’ve gotten so far, and do have questions that you’re excited to see answered for the rest of the series. “It’s been fun.”

“It has been.” I agree. “Lets take a break, but you can ask me any questions too, before I return for part two.”

<part 2>