#i took some creative liberties on the characters backgrounds

[swampjawn]

What happens when you let a film nerd make an anime?

Fuuga Yamashiro (山代風我) joined Science Saru in 2017 as an Assistant Production Manager during production of "Night Is Short, Walk on Girl." He was essentially Studio Co-founder Masaaki Yuasa's secretary, but he worked his way up to assistant director on "Keep Your Hands off Eizouken" and finally got to direct his own first full Anime series, Dandadan.

Having worked so closely with one of the greatest living auteur directors, you might think he would share that overpowering individual creative influence, but as he has pointed out in interviews himself, it's much the opposite.

Instead of relying on his own creative voice, which he doesn't seem confident about in interviews, he literally collects techniques from his favorite movies, breaking them down into storyboards and adding them to his arsenal to re-contextualize later. And as you may be able to tell from watching Dandadan, his biggest influences aren't anime and manga, but live action film -- something he seems to have studied obsessively.

And when you compare the anime to the original manga (which itself is already filled with references to old movies and TV) subtle adaptation choices make the deft application of techniques borrowed from other storytellers very clear. Every choice is made for a reason and furthers the story being told in some way; nothing is there for no reason. like the simple, controlled camera pans and tilts that make the serpoian spaceship feel cold and sterile, or the crazywackysilly, un-predictable wide-angle camera movements that intrude on that cold sterile world when turbo granny shows up.

In one interview during the production of "Keep Your Hands off Eizouken" Yamashiro pulls out his notebook where he had collected all these techniques and gives an example:

"There's a technique called 'Dolly Zoom', which is a technique that changes the perspective of the background while keeping the size of the subject." […] "In 'Cult of Chucky,' which I saw recently, there is a scene in which a long passageway is filmed in telephoto, while a wheelchair moves forward. The character is 'getting closer, but the viewer feels farther away'. This is the kind of thing I collect." […] "I'd like to combine these things in various ways and do it in animation." (I took some liberties with this, the translation was pretty rough)

And sure enough, that exact same type of dolly zoom rears its head in Dandadan as Okarun sprints away from Turbo Granny and the mouth of the tunnel stretches impossibly into the distance.

It may seem counterintuitive to ascribe too much importance to the creative vision of one person who specifically talks about his own lack of strong creative vision, (and to be clear, he's far from the only person playing a major role) but I think it's precisely that encyclopedic knowledge of film techniques and that pragmatic, meticulous attitude that may have acted as a stabilizing force for Yuasa, and that also provides some needed structure to a ball of pure energy like Dandadan, while still preserving its essence and the eclectic influences that it wears on its sleeve.

Also, mad respect for using the seventh installment of the Child's Play franchise as your example of a dolly zoom instead of, like, Vertigo, Jaws, or Goodfellas.

This is just a sliver of what I talk about in this full video! A minuscule piece of the pie! Some tiny little crumbs for the peasants! So if you consider yourself worthy, go watch the whole video. I think it's good.

Uhh also reblog! I spent way too long on that intro animation, so I need it. Bad.

[cheesuschrist-iii]

Yk what here have this that i made whilst hungover and bored.

I felt the sudden urge to do a height chart of characters from my favourite campaigns using (mostly and roughly) their canon heights.

However i took some creative liberty and made subtle changes like:

To me, Pyke is kinda short so i made him ever so slightly shorter than his canonical height (which i found on the wiki).

Similar vein, Kremy feels shorter and i like the idea of him being fairly short and making up for it with his hat and personality. Also because I felt there should be more of a height difference between him and Gideon idk.

Almost all the Stardust crew don't have their heights on their wikis so some of them i had to estimate and guess.

Other thoughts and comments:

Even though I charted him like this: there is no way Barnabos is 6"6 that is two damn tall.

Certain characters look shorter cuz they're hunched over (cough cough Yorgrim).

I could only find a chart that goes to 7" cuz i was too lazy to search really thoroughly so 8 feet tall characters may be inaccurate.

If you zoom in and see that some of them are weirdly pixelated it's cuz i had to do some shit to remove the background from their character art.

Laboosh is HUGE.

Gideon should be ever so slightly taller.

Anyway i may redo it where the heights look more normal together and I change them to what I think they are.

May ill do the Strahdanya gang at some point.

[thesimquarter]

hello! sims 2 miniopolis update!

first of all, my current sims 2 urbz sims >:3 outside of the obvious change of a default skin, they don't look that different compared to my old versions of them. But! believe me they are better.as well, this time! there's the DS exclusive characters and a few sims intended to be townies. In order, Lloyd, Red Man, Daschell Swank, Chet R. Chase, Bucki Brock's sister, Joe from the Flea Market (yes, he does have a name), Ava Cadavra, and Gordie Puck. Indeed, they're very red.

And an update to the town in general! I've finished most of the easy lots now, mostly having harder lots to do now. Such as the Mausoleum, Circus, Brownstones + Slice O'Life (which I… attempted. can you believe that the map of this game doesn’t follow the laws of physics?), etc.

New lots include: - Junked Schoolbus (which IS connected to the Chopper Garage visually but they aren't the same lot) - Chopper Garage (which i am not going to put underneath the road/jail! it looks cool in-game, but possibly impossible to do in the sims 2 but it makes no sense spatially!! the other side of the garage would just be underground!!!) - Cemetery (Mostly just empty buildings for aesthetics. No graves… yet. and there probably won’t be until the final version of the hood.) - Miniopolis Chronicle (TINY) - Miniopolis Hospital + University (if this was ts3 i probably would have made them separately) - Club Xizzle (what is it supposed to look like on the outside + should there be two?) - Glasstown Megamall - Cinema d'Urbania (how do you make a cinema in this game? big TV?)

I redid King Tower as well, just to make it fill out a 3x3 lot instead of a 2x2 lot, and Café Multiplaya has a new outdoor seating area (to fill in space). The Coffee Shop, the Market, and Glasstown apartments were in my last post, just kinda in the background. The Market has a lot of creative liberties taken to it, as I just didn't like how it translated into the Sims (as in it's made to represent the real-life French Quarter Market more). The Glasstown Apartment has a few other units in it for some of the Urbz sims (more on that in a bit!)

I removed pretty much, all the elevation from the .s4c terrain. It's easy to put back butttt, the sims 2 just doesn't work in a way that's friendly to sloped lots (and simcity 4 for slopes that take <1 unit of distance, you can't make steep cliffs in these games. so, basically, due to the compactness of the city, there isn’t enough room to add in slopes without making it all janky). They may come back at the end if we can Wizard the slopes to work the lots, but for now...

Ignore the weird road off the Sim Quarter. I was experimenting with what could be done with the riverboat. I was thinking about putting it on a beach lot and making a joke about it being temporarily landlocked (read: i already did) and was trying to find a good, functional place to put it. There may be other ways to do a riverboat though… hmmm

Anyways onto housing for the Sims. So, the Glasstown Apartments has a few more units to fit in a few other characters (Lottie Cash (I did manage to squeeze a bowling alley in there), Lily Gates, and Darius) but other than that? Very little! (I did Ewan’s House. however, it’s just a box; i took modest pretty literally). I might make a post soon where I talk about where each Urb would probably live, just as an excuse to talk to myself for a little while.

[red-riot-unbreakable-heart]

Shoto's First Kiss Timeline? Idk let's plot it out together

Gif Caption: Me and Shoto sitting together on the train, vibing. 💕

Hi All!!

If you're a fan of the Shoto's First Kiss series, Chapter 5 dropped at like 3:30 am EST this morning because I am an absolute HEATHEN and decided to have a late night/early morning editing session for 3 hours before posting. This was fun because I decided to add the whole Lisa Frank phone background scene for kicks and add a little more build up to the smut scene (I love a slowish burn...what can I say!?).

@brie-is-cheesy had some great questions in the comments of Chapter 5, I'm going to post it below and answer the best I can! I don't have a full answer to everything and I'm taking some ✨creative liberties ✨ here and there but lets see if I can clear some things up for my lovely readers!

Hiiiii, totally loved it; I was wondering when this is set? Like the timeline, I just got confused I'll leave the list of confusing things about the timeline,, I wrote about how much I love this in my reblog cuz this is awesome!! -since bnha is set in the mid to late 2100s I was wondering if the older songs they're listening to will include songs that are relatively new for us as of now? -when does this occur? Like you mentioned they're in their first year, and its after they've moved into the dorms but it's nearing the summer of next year, so is it after the war arc, or after the events of bnha entirely? Just wanted to ask! Thank you for the update!!<3 - brie-is-cheesy

Okay these are FAB questions and honestly I can't give you a straight answer to all of them!

Here's the background: So this story started out as a one shot - this past year, Shoto hasn't been one of my main MHA favorites. When I started the Red Riot Unbreakable Heart blog, my goal was to focus on what I've been calling "My Big Three." This includes Kirishima (lol thus my username), Hakws, and Hitoshi Shinsou (I love me an emo man). I was sprinkling in smutty one shots here and there involving other characters (ex. BakuDeku Smut: Hooking Up At A Pro Hero Gala and Beneath the Bookshelves | BakuDeku ). Shoto was one of those random one offs that I was like, huh why not!? But then I published Shoto's First Kiss (Part One) this one shot about Reader x Shoto totally took off in a way I wasn't expecting. Shoto resonates a lot with you all and the more I started writing for him, the more I grew to love him. He's so complex and in need of love and care. He has so much capacity for love!! I wanted to explore that more and figure out how he would act in his first encounters with intimacy and relationships. So I kept posting chapters, and started plotting out this wild story!

Timeline: When I started writing the one shot, I wanted the story to ambiguously take place in the 2nd or 3rd year when the characters were a little older. I was kind of working it in an AU where the war had vaguely happened and was over but everyone is okay and no one was injured/died/had their quirk impacted by AFO. In the context of Shoto's First Kiss chapter one - the war doesn't matter (at least if you re-read it I hope you don't find any plot holes mentioning the war!?). Also I have tried to say "Class A" instead of "Class 1A" because as I wrote more chapters, I still hadn't figured out what year we are in here.

Now that we're world building and have a more fleshed out story, here's what I'm thinking. Bare with me, we are going to need to suspend some disbelief here and I might need to go back and make some tweaks to previous chapters to keep everything in line with this line of thinking. But let's say this:

Timeline: The timeline takes place in the character's 1st year. I just combed through this timeline of MHA that someone put together on Reddit. I'm thinking this likely takes place at the end of Term 1. Final exams are coming up, and the students have heard a little about the training camp. Most of the MHA events so far are probably cannon in my fic universe, unless otherwise mentioned. The great thing for me is - most of MHA is in the context of Izuku's experiences, so there's a lot of wiggle room in the timeline for what could be happening between Shoto x The Reader. I haven't decided if the current chapters take place before or after Shoto/Izuku/Ida's encounter with Stain, because I can see some interesting plot points coming from that. I'll think about it!! This may change, but for purposes of continuity I think this could work as I move forward with my plotting!

Age: All the characters are at least 16. Let's just roll with that and take some creative liberties here. I'm aging everyone up.

The Dorms: In this fic universe, I pictured the students moving into the dorms at the start of the year. Like the dorms are just part of the normal UA experience - for all intents and purposes it's a boarding school.

The Songs: Okay this is a really interesting idea! I am literally just putting in playlists of music I like right now, I didn't think much about modern music flowing into the story. Lol would Honenuki listen to BRAT!? Maybe. I love him and think of him as a sweet chill cinnamon roll of a dude, though. I think he would be scandalized by Guess Featuring Billie Eilish. Or maybe he'd love it. He'd def love Chappell Roan, though. Dude is a sloot for Red Wine Super Nova and I just know it!

The Vibe: @ all of my beloved readers - I realize that this story means a lot to people, and I love that!! Even though we explore complex and serious subject matter at times, this is still a goofy silly story that I write for fun! Please don't hold me to these ideas that I'm throwing out in a semi-public brainstorm. I am but a simple fanfic writer who churns out most of the Shoto pages at midnight after I work two jobs. Shoto's First Kiss is a project that I write purely for fun and to build community with other adult MHA fans. I'm not like going to publish this as a book or put it on Patr*on behind a paywall or something. So let's keep it light! That being said, I love interacting with everyone so if there are fun questions that you think would be interesting for me to answer in this story, let me know! I'm very open to hearing thoughts and considering new ideas here :)

Okay okay SORRY FOR SO MUCH INFO! Thanks again @brie-is-cheesy for being so thoughtful in your reading and for asking these great questions! This is def going to help me guide the next few chapters of the story as I plot things out and as we get a satisfying next chapter in The Party arc. I'm going to post this reply on my Master List so we can all keep track of it and come back to it easily if needed.

As always, thanks for reading!! Sending good vibes to all ☺️

XOXO,

Red Riot Unbreakable Heart ❤️

Shoto's First Kiss Series:

Part 1: Shoto Todoroki x Reader | First Kiss ❄️🔥💋

Part 2: Shoto Todoroki x Reader | First Kiss ❄️🔥💋 PART 2

Part 3: Shoto Todoroki x Reader | First Kiss ❄️🔥💋 PART 3

Part 4: Shoto Todoroki x Reader | First Kiss ❄️🔥💋 PART 4

Part 5: Shoto Todoroki x Reader | First Kiss ❄️🔥💋 PART 5

My Master List

Red's Recos: If you're looking for more fun smutty stories from my writing desk, I'll share 3 of my all time favorites from my Master List. These are all fairly long and have a lot of sexual tension/build up with some satisfying smut scenes:

How to Suck Your Best Friend’s D*ck 🍆💋

BakuDeku Smut: Hooking Up At A Pro Hero Gala

A Long, *Hard* Night with Eijiro Kirishima

[kindred-spirit-93]

the falcon and the flower

hear ye hear ye, im planning a short story lol and believe it or not storyboarding is significantly more entertaining of a process than actually having to actually write lmao. whodve thunk.

anyways this post exists for a few reasons, mostly so i can map things out in one place (i plan on posting it here eventually hehe) but also for context and references and insight from yall & general yapping so if ur interested take a seat :3

--

i. inspiration & background info: the idea came to me after watching this short about a painting that depicts the story of a king and a beggar maid who lived a quiet life together. and i think thats neat lol.

the ballad that inspired the painting is mentioned and was popularised in the works of shakespeare and alfred tennyson respectively among several others, old and new. the 2 paintings (1884 and 1898) belong to edward burne-jones.

the maid in the painting is said to resemble burne-jones' wife (dont be fooled he had an affair. also turns out its kinda his signature way to paint women) which made me realise that the way the ballad was interpreted (and therefore immortalised so to speak) was according to the views of the aforementioned vessels and the norms of the time.

and so it struck me and my 0 knowledge of art history as odd for the love interest to just so happen to appeal to the eurocentric beauty ideals of the time (she is described as having dark hair yet is painted in both as auburn?) and by extension the male gaze (esp in the 1884 painting where her clothes are somewhat translucent and she sports a neckline too scandalous for the era lol).

also the king being specifically described as 'african' (by the narrators? the ballad doesnt specify and i havent found any origin for the name) and then proceeding to ignore that completely. or worse. point is old dead white guys and their pesky world views probably thought slapping a single word last minute and calling it a day was a very progressive move. and i took that personally

--

ii. creative liberties taken: point is im giving this my own twist because i can. everyone is entitled to their own views and interpretations (mostly). the beauty of art to me lies in the many ways it can be seen and percieved, and i personally love seeing how ones culture and background reflects in that, so thats what im doing. kinda.

and at the end of the day maybe to someone else my interpretation completely misses the point is biased to what im familiar with. which is absolutely valid and they would be right lol. idk i just wanted to kinda add this as a heads up and a general fyi. we all know how repressed everyone was back then lol. so much so it became a name of a complex. moving on.

--

iii. symbolism and stuff: looked up a bunch of birds this morning loll and settled at first for a starling. i might keep the imagery idk i had a very specific idea for the king but then falcons popped into my head and i was like dang this is cooler. so it stuck!

the flower i first had in mind was rosa abyssinica, then the desert rose, finally i decided to switch to maybe my favouritest flower ever: and *cough* the national flower of jordan *cough* the black iris :D

its pretty and rare and not at all realistic to the events of the story but its mine so leave me be lol. if i can sprinkle some of my culture/ heritage and get away with it i will. sue me :p

anyway the cool and not at all pretentious title is a reference to the main characters; a king who loves birbs and the owner of a small flower stall in the marketplace (both of which are now specified)

--

and now for the tragic backstory poll!

keeping this up for 3 days, since ill probably draft it out next weekend... if i get to it lol. i appreciate ur contribution in advance :3

--

tysm if u read this far lol i didnt expect it to go on this long lol, sorry! will reblog and update this as i go (probably) so yeah. stick around if u want. take care and dont forget to dink ur oiter :)

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Welcome back to "this idiot has a sleep schedule that's burning in a ditch somewhere, so she's succumbing to the brainrot and drawing all the Batfam members instead!" (Previous Installments linked below) Today, my very specific but mildly nonsensical order has finally gotten me to one of the ones who's been around the longest: Barbara Gordon, the baddest b**** in town!

Initial trace where I stylize some and do a kinda half-baked background. I put a lot more effort into this backdrop than normal since computers are kinda Barbara's whole thing, so I really needed the screens in there. Also, before anybody comes at me: Babs can wear a low cut shirt if she wants. Comic books can draw in her a low cut shirt if they want. YOU can draw in her a low cut shirt if you want. I just didn't want to draw her in a low cut shirt, so I didn't! We clear? Moving on:

I drew her as Oracle. I know mainline DC comics has her back to being Batgirl again, but she's always Oracle in my head. As sexist and poorly planned as The Killing Joke may have been, I think her being in a wheelchair and being a super cool kick-butt hero anyway is very important to her character and gave her a lot of growth and development. And there are a bunch of other characters that could gain a lot from being Batgirl and/or are better suited to the Batgirl role at this point. Also, the Batfamily is a disorganized mess, they need someone like her around.

Favorite thing about drawing Oracle is definitely her glasses. I love drawing them mostly filled in so she looks extra scary!

Freehanded version where I stylize using my trace as a reference. And yeah, I put this one on a dark background cuz I could! Babs breaks all the rules of conventional heroism, and she's breaking all the conventions of this art series! This whole project was a very good exercise for me in learning to draw a wheelchair and a character sitting in a wheelchair. I actually really really liked doing it. I had to google pictures of wheelchairs a few times, but this was much easier than most of the mechanical and non-organic stuff I try to draw. I need to draw more disabled characters, cuz this was really fun, and I would love to experiment with different models of wheelchairs and other types of mobility aids!

Characterization pose! Whoa, this is different from the rest of my Batfam drawings! A backdrop? In MY completely freehanded drawing? Yeah, like I said, Babs requires breaking all the rules. Since Oracle isn't a field hero and dresses the same as a civilian, I took a different approach than normal, and decided to draw her doing the things that make her Oracle: working with computers and being the scariest member of the Batfamily. I also drew my version of her "icon" that she uses if she needs to have some sort of face to communicate with people.

You can't tell cuz her clothes are loose, but I drew her super buff because she works a lot on both her arms and her legs to keep herself in shape and to keep her muscles from atrophying. Also, Barbara has like 6 different hairstyles that get jumped between with absolutely no regard for how that should work, so I took creative liberties. I mixed and matched, using her waves and relative length from Batgirl, the little side strands from one of the ponytail styles, and the bangs from the style pictured in my reference photo.

For once, the hero text isn't traced because every comics cover I could easily find has missed the opportunity to use the digital clock font for Oracle's name and I had to correct this absolute travesty.

Other Batfamily Members:

Nightwing Edition

Red Hood Edition

Robin (Carrie Kelley) Edition

Red Robin Edition

Spoiler Edition

Robin (Damian Wayne) Edition

Signal Edition

See ya in the next one, and see if you can guess who's next!

[getoutofbednelly]

so the most recent fics I’ve read on my kindle are the first two parts of the time has come today series by teen_dean (@urne-buriall on tumblr I think). and these are so good. I’ll elaborate more in my fic review but I am excited to share the cover I developed for my kindle collection because I really enjoyed going through different iterations of this cover. I’m just posting the cover I landed on for now, but I think I will share some of the other iterations which include design choices that I cut and edited at length(in another post or reblog later).

Fic review, cover design notes and a small disclaimer under the page break:)

fic review: I’m not always one to love casefics, watching cases passively on screen is one thing, but I can’t always immerse myself in a case to keep interest. I’m more one for character dynamics and the dynamics here are so interesting and introspective and funny I can’t get enough.

When it comes to the characterizations the author really nails it too. They are so close to canon that when I inevitably dissociate from atmospheric chemistry seminars and start thinking about supernatural, I can’t remember if something happened in their fic or on screen. I love these characters and teen_dean obviously does too because they treat their characterization so carefully. The cover I designed references scenery and plot points related to the case part of the fic, but I wish I could have incorporated the deep and thoughtful character analysis that is part of this fic.

And the imagery, particularly the west coast imagery, is. so. good. Very rarely am ever I struck with the desire to draw imagery described in writing, but it struck me at multiple times throughout this. most noteably the cas in the orchard paragraph highlighted in one of my pics towards the end of young hearts (will it be my first castiel fan art??? I certainly hope so.) chef’s kiss.

I really thought I would take a break after finishing young hearts, but I wasn’t ready to not know what happened to teen dean and past-cas in the next fic so I’m reading the rules of have changed today now and I have no regrets.

some notes on the cover design: I’m not sure this translates to the end result, but the glowing text of the title/author/everything-else was meant to represent the flickering lights of neon signage you might see in a dive bar. The description of Schaffer’s bar at the beginning and end of the first part is rich and another example of really capturing the feeling of canon (which I should mention is something the author does really well through scenery too). I don’t think I necessarily got the colors right (I initially imagined a larger color palette), but I’m feeling pretty good about the glowing aspect of it. In a print book format, I’d like all of the red to be metallic embossed.

Its very faint, but I included the silhouette of a mountainscape with silhouettes of dark watchers watching in the background. I think you have to zoom in to see them though. So I included a zoomed in image of two of the dark watchers. See if you can spot the other two!!

The last thing I wanted to mention is that I know arimaspians are typically one-eyed (on their heads). I took a creative liberty and put an eye on the hand.

lastly, a disclaimer: I know that teen_dean already has a cover and print typeset for their fic on their page. I just wanted to add my creative twist on it for my kindle collection and wanted to share it with you all :’). I should say explicitly that this was not designed in communication with the fic author. I do not take any credit for the fic (credit to the story goes to the author and characters to the cw). if teen_dean comes across this I especially hope they enjoy it<3, but if for any reason you (teen_dean/urne-buriall) don’t want to be associated with this cover, please contact me and I will take this down.

[burnin0akleaves]

Ranger Gathering Day 20: Change

Will. Apprentice, commander, ranger, husband, mentor. An orphan and a widower but also a son, brother and uncle. The apprentice of one of the most well-known rangers that have ever lived with a fame that rivals and even surpasses him. That Will. Will No-Name. Will Treaty.

Picked Will for this prompt because, well I am biased, but also because he is one of the characters that goes through change the most. When it comes to Will though I think people focus on the negative parts of change too much. Which is fair, we all love angst. But I think the message of "you get hurt, but you heal and at the end of the day live goes on" gets forgotten a bit, which is a shame.

Sure Will Treaty has suffered from trauma, a lot of trauma. But, he is more than that. I think what makes Will such a compelling character for so many people including me is the fact that he went through so much and didn't let it hold him back.

People focus on a specific point in Will's story and while they do that, they miss the fact that his story KEEPS GOING. He lost Alyss and he will probably never heal, but he can move on. And he does. He is hurt and there is a part of him that might forever feel empty, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy life. Will Treaty wakes up every day knowing parts of him might never feel whole but he chooses to be happy and to live anyway. Staring at all the bad things that have happened to you and deciding to keep going no matter what is extremely hard but that man does it and if that isn't admirable and worthy of respect I don't know what is.

At the end of everything Will Treaty is a happy man. He is a hurt man AND he is a happy man.

(Talking more specifically here, Will is one of if not THE best ranger in the kingdom. Not only does he retain his smarts and courage from his younger years, he is the most experienced he has ever been and there is self-confidence there he couldn't have gained from anything except the passage of time. Will is at his absolute peak performance wise. YES this part didn't have to be included NO I DON'T CARE!! Middle aged Will Treaty is an absolute badass and I need more people to realize it! Change treats him well too.)

Alright finally talking about the drawing here, the background is inspired by how oak leaves turn red during autumn thanks to passage of time. Obviously I took some creatives liberties with it, but that's because I think yellow, green and red are good colors to represent Will in general. Yellow symbolizes energy and youth in most cases, something that was heavily associated with Will even later into his life but especially in his childhood. Green is obviously the color rangers are known for, a part of Will that's extremely important to him. And red is a passionate, brave and even ruthless color. It is also one of the colors of Will's arrows.

Another little detail I want to point out is his nose!! Look at his nose! My nose bridge didn't develop until late into my teenage years, so I wanted to show a bit of his facial structure changing as well. It's barely noticable but it's there I swear, zoom in.

[peanut-tyrug]

Pink City AU: Hunt for the Boxman

Prologue: Part 1 - Admirer to Hunter

TV show host Hoonis Boogie sets out to find his long missing idol, Darles Nemeni. The man who created the one-hit wonder “The Darly Boxman Show”.

—

NOTICE: This AU is partially based on my ideas/interpretation. If anything appears to be inaccurate, I apologize. I tried to work with what little I had to make smth. I also took a few artistic liberties.

Another thing: THE PINK CITY AND IT’S CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME!! IT BELONGS TO GOOSEWORX!! Some canon lore for The Pink City has also been implemented in this story. This is just an AU/story I made based on it. If you’d like to check out The Pink City series itself, check it out here!

—

TRIGGER WARNING: This fic contains the hearing of voices, emotional outbursts, caps, swearing, and family issues. If you aren’t comfortable with these things, please don’t read this.

Something a creative can desire is being acknowledged for their work. Remembered for what they gave the world. Acknowledged by those seeking fame.

Whether intentional or not, it can still happen to those who come across the work of someone now long gone.

Two young siblings in a family of six, Remney and Hoonis Boogie, sit in their homes dusty attic. Remney, the second oldest daughter amongst the quartet of siblings, is scouring through boxes. The youngest and only boy of the four, Hoonis, watches his sister scour.

“…Oh, where are they?” Remney asks herself.

“Where’s what?” Hoonis asks.

“You’ll see, Hoonis.” Says Remney.

Remney continues to look through the boxes. As she opens up her next box, she’s finally found what she was looking for. “Oh! Here it is!” She says excitedly, yet softly.

Remney takes out a few old VHS tapes and sets them on the ground for Hoonis to see. Hoonis glances over what’s been put in front of him. “…What’re these?”

“These are old tapes of a show the others and I used to watch, 'The Darly Boxman Show'.” Says Remney. “I haven’t watched it in ages… it’s been one of the few things to bring me joy. The others though… they don’t like as much, unfortunately…”

“What’s it about?” Hoonis asks.

“You’ll see.” Says Remney. “Help me get these downstairs, please.”

Remney opens the attic door and heads down the ladder. As she approaches the floor, Hoonis slowly hands her the tapes, which she sets on the ground as she receives them. Once the tapes have been set aside, Remney helps Hoonis down and shuts the attic door. She picks up the tapes and the two head over to their small living room. Remney puts a tape in the old TV and sits next to her brother already seated on the floor. It takes a bit, but the program eventually boots up.

The screen is taken up by a bright yellow background. A large, colorful logo then slides into view, 'The Darly Boxman Show'. Hoonis is quickly pulled in at the sight of the character portraits sliding into view.

Darly Boxman, who is literally what you’d think it is, a man with a box for a head with a pair eyes popping out of it. Mimlimim, a woman with offset white eyes and vibrant blue head. And Milkpooch, basically a white dog.

Once the vibrant yellow screen fades, a wide shot of the three characters comes into a view. As the title music comes to a close, Darly Boxman looks to the viewers with bright blue bloodshot eyes.

“Hey, kids! Welcome back to show!” Darly says in a high and peppy tone of voice. “I’d do the normal thing and catch you up on what we’ve been doing out here, but there’s simply NO TIME!” Darly puts his hands up to his box head. He then looks over to Milkpooch. “Isn’t that right, Milkpooch?”

Milkpooch responds to the question in beeps. It moves it’s head around as it speaks.

“Oh!” Darly says as his eyes widen. He glances away from Milkpooch worriedly.

Milkpooch speaks some more in response to Darly’s surprise. Darly looks back at the animal.

Darly glances away from Milkpooch again, and then looks back at it. “…We don’t have to do this right now if you’re really not feeling up for it.”

Milkpooch speaks again.

“Why are you so mad at me?” Darly asks sternly, his voice deeper and less energetic than what it had been before. It appears he’s broken character.

Milkpooch pauses before beeping a single time in response to Darly.

“Okay, THAT’S IT YOU LITTLE SON OF A B**CH!” Darly exclaims, the swear barely being censored. Darly picks Milkpooch up and throws it into the air. As Milkpooch soars, it appears to have hit something. The unknown object then reveals itself to be a white pyramid with eyes on each surface. Darly looks back in confusion.0

Mimlimim then looks forward in surprise at the pyramid. “Wowie! Darly, look!” She says through a text box. “We found Zendamina! Which means we’re near one of the seven concraduous temples!”

“That must be why Milkpooch was so rude to me!” Says Darly.

As the episode continues to progress, another one of Hoonis and Remney’s family members appears.

“Are you showing him that show we used to watch?” Asks Denise, the oldest of the four siblings, looking over to Remney. “How’d you even find those tapes?”

Remney looks back to Denise. “I found them in the attic.” She says.

“Will he like it?” Asks the second to youngest sibling, Puudle, who has also shown up beside Denise. “I never really liked it.”

“Who cares if you didn’t like it?” Asks Hoonis, looking back to Puudle. “I like it.” He looks back to the small TV.

“You do you.” Says Denise. “Have fun.” She walks off. Puudle follows.

Remney then turns over to Hoonis. “Hey, I’m gonna go paint… do you know how to handle the tapes?”

“I do.” Says Hoonis.

“Okay… don’t get tangled in the film reels.” Says Remney. She walks off and heads to her room, leaving Hoonis alone.

Hoonis stares intently at the screen, completely immersed in the world of Darly Boxman.

“…Maybe one day I’ll be able to meet you, Darly Boxman.” Hoonis says to himself. “Be just as good a host as you…”

Eventually, once the episode ends and the credits begin to roll, the show host’s name appears.

'CREATED BY DARLES NEMENI'

Darles Nemeni.

A name Hoonis would remember for all time. A name permanently glued to his brain.

Whether you like it or not, when you make something that someone admires and adores, that someone will always want to meet you and learn from you. Discover how to be a grand creative the people will remember for generations.

Regardless of if you’re even around anymore.

—

It’s early in the morning. Hoonis sits quietly in front of the TV, intently staring at the screen, before a sudden news broadcast pops up. Hoonis is snapped out of his trance, but continues to look at the screen.

“We interrupt this program to announce that Darles Nemeni, the well known creator of the children’s program: 'The Darly Boxman Show', has suddenly gone missing.” Says the news reporter.

Hoonis’ eyes go wide with shock. “…Huh?” He moves closer to the screen.

“Authorities and friends of the celebrity have looked through his home, but he was nowhere to be found. Not even his daughter was certain of his whereabouts.” Says the news reporter.

The shot then cuts to the actress of Mimlimim, Thlouretta Gudds, sitting in a chair. She’s being interviewed. “I tried giving Darles a call, but he didn’t answer��� we had an episode to shoot today.” She says. “…Gee, I hope he’s okay… he didn’t seem too well when he was leaving the studio yesterday…”

The shot cuts back to the reporter. “The whereabouts and fate of the celebrity are currently unknown, and until further notice, Darles Nemeni is presumed missing.” Says the reporter. “Thank you all for your time.”

The TV then cuts back to what Hoonis had previously been watching. His eyes are wide with shock. He sits back. “…WHAT!?” He shouts.

“Hoonis!?” Hoonis’ mother exclaims as she rushes into the living room, the father following behind her. “Are you alright?”

“It’s Darles Nemeni!” Hoonis shouts. “He’s missing!”

“…Who?” The mother asks, before realization hits her. “…Oh, the man that made Darly Boxman?”

“Yes!” Hoonis exclaims. “He’s missing! What if he’s dead!?”

“Oh, honey,” Says the mother as she approaches her son. “I’m certain he’s okay.”

“Heh, I doubt it.” The father chuckles. “That man’s a looney from what I heard.”

“Don’t say that!” Says the mother sternly, now looking back to her husband. She turns back to Hoonis. “Don’t listen to him, Hoonis. I bet Mr. Nemeni is just fine.”

“…I hope so.” Says Hoonis. “Maybe I’ll find him… someday…”

Someday…

Maybe the desire to meet an idol can turn into that of a scavenger hunt for a long lost man.

—

It’s been years. 20 years, to be exact, since Darles Nemeni had went missing. He’s yet to be found. There hasn’t been a single word of him since his disappearance.

Well, barely…

Hoonis Boogie, now a fairly well know and infamous TV show host in the Pink City, has occasionally went around asking citizens if they’d ever heard of the man.

After asking many civilians and getting nowhere, he resorted to finding those who had known Darly.

“Have you ever heard of a man named Darles Nemeni?” Hoonis asks struggling freelance photographer Puggs Nisterly, who was the director of photography for Darles’ show.

“…I worked with him. We go way back.” Says Puggs. “But, I haven’t seen him. Sorry, man.”

~~~

“The weather today is clear now, but some hard rain may be coming in later, so keep those umbrellas high.” Says Marmalo Luzz Jr., a radio host, and the son of Marmalo Luzz, who was an actor on Darles’ show.

“Excuse me,” Says Hoonis, suddenly barging into Marmalo’s recording room. “Have you heard of a man named Darles Nemeni?”

“Huh? What?” Says Marmalo, turning back. “No, man! Get out!” Marmalo gets up from his seat and drags Hoonis out the booth. Hoonis attempts to let himself back in, but to no avail.

~~~

Something that can be hard to stomach is hopelessness. Losing all the confidence you had, and watching it be slammed in a blender.

Hoonis had tried all he could. Digging through old episodes to find others who had worked with Darles, but not being able to find many. Most cast and crew members either no longer lived in the city or had passed on. He’s tried to look into the man’s life too, but there wasn’t much of anything that could’ve explained what had caused him to go missing.

…Other than possibly how insane Darles was. Or acted.

The man had gotten noticeably mentally unstable as his show progressed. Maybe the show had gone on for so long that he was just tired of working on it? If so, why did he not stop? Because he wanted money? Is his insanity rooted from something else? Had he always been like that?

As Hoonis walks down the street, feeling helpless, a poster on a wall catches his eye. He looks up at it.

The poster shows a woman dressed in a gray suit. A happy look lays on her face. Hoonis looks up to see a show title. 'The Bep Nemeni Show', it says. To side of the poster reads a slogan of some kind: 'Live. Laugh. Loathe.' it reads.

Hoonis ponders over the name. Bep Nemeni…

“DARLES’ DAUGHTER!?” Hoonis shouts. “She has her own show?”

Hoonis quickly becomes invigorated with hope. She can help him get more insight on the man.

He needs to get on her show…

But how? Hoonis isn’t certain.

Amongst his thoughts, Hoonis’ phone begins to ring. He scrambles through his suit’s pocket and picks the device out. Denise, now his manager, is giving him a call.

“Hello?” Hoonis asks.

“Hoonis,” Denise says from the other line. “Get to theatre quick. You need to be ready for Ghost of the Year by the time the sun sets. Can you do that for me?”

“OH SHIT— RIGHT!” Says Hoonis. He had forgotten. He’d be hosting the 57th annual Ghost of the Year that night. “I’ll be there! Thanks for reminding me!”

“You’re welcome.” Says Denise, she hangs up.

Hoonis begins rushing to theatre. Amongst his crazed thoughts on his show that night, he keeps Bep’s show in his mind.

He’ll get on her show… somehow.

—

The show appears to be going smoothly. Everyone is happy and Hoonis is doing well.

“Judges! Have you made up your minds?” Hoonis asks.

One of the judges, a glitched and shadowy being with a singular eye, nods.

“Okay! I guess it’s that time of night where we find out which one of these horrifying ghosts will be our GHOST OF THE YEAR!” Hoonis declares, the crowd cheers.

From the distorted being, an envelope flies out of their head and hovers directly into Hoonis’ face.

“Ow! The f**k was that?” Hoonis asks.

The being moves it’s arm and beeps in response.

“Alright!” Hoonis begins. “The Ghost of the year is…!” He pauses, as a big star in above the stage hovers over the various chosen ghosts picked for that year, fixing to chose the winner.

Although, it seems to be taking awhile. A little too long.

The distorted judge seems to be irritated by how long the judging is taking. They expand into a large mass, causing the stage to glitch out. Including everyone there and the show’s host.

Hoonis let’s out a distorted shrill before everything suddenly goes dark and quiet.

—

Hoonis suddenly wakes up. He gasps and looks around.

He’s no longer in the theatre.

Instead, he’s in a hospital room. The only sounds coming from a heart monitor and a small fan in the corner of the room. His head feels like it’s stinging a bit. Hoonis feels his head to realize bandages have been wrapped over it.

Hoonis sighs and lays himself on the bed. Who knew that bringing suspense could wreak absolute havoc on a theatre full of civilians?

…Lord knows how long he’ll be stuck in bed.

…How was he going to get on Bep’s show now…?

Suddenly, a knock is heard. Hoonis looks over to the door.

“Mr. Boogie?” A voice calls.

“…Yes…?” Hoonis asks.

The door slowly opens, revealing the source of the voice. Hoonis’ eyes go wide.

Bep Nemeni herself steps into the room.

Hoonis quickly rises. “…Bep Nemeni!?” He asks. “Is that you?”

“Yes, Mr. Boogie.” Bep replies.

“Oh, call me Hoonis.” Says Hoonis. “What are you doing here?” He asks jovially.

“I saw your live show tonight.” Says Bep. “I really liked it. I wanted to ask if you’d like to—“

“YES!” Hoonis exclaims.

“LET ME TALK!” Bep yells back.

Hoonis is taken aback by the sudden anger.

…Maybe she got that from her father?

“…I wanted to ask if you’d like to be on my show sometime. When you get better.” Bep says.

“Of course!” Says Hoonis. “I’d be honored to be on your show.”

Hoonis then suddenly gets an idea.

“…I have a question for you, if you don’t mind answering.” Says Hoonis.

Before Bep can ask about Hoonis’ question, her watch suddenly beeps. She looks down at it. Her face engulfs in worry. “Oh, I’m sorry. I have a meeting to get to.” She says. “We can talk about your question after my show with you, okay?”

Hoonis quickly becomes washed in disappointment. “…Sure.” He says.

“Good.” Says Bep. “And take this, it has my studio’s address and number on it. Call me when you’re ready.” She pulls out a small card from her suit pocket.

“Thank you.” Says Hoonis, trying to hide his disappointment. He takes the card.

“You’re welcome. Get well soon.” Bep exits the room, shutting the door behind her.

Hoonis sighs.

He’ll just have to wait a bit longer.

—

It’s been a few days since the accident on stage. Hoonis has mostly recovered. He still has bandages wrapped on his head.

It’s fairly late in the afternoon. Hoonis sits on his head, phone in hand. He types Bep’s number into the phone. It rings, before Bep picks up.

“Hello?” Bep asks.

“Hi, Ms. Nemeni. It’s Hoonis.” Says Hoonis. “I’m out of the hospital. I think I’m ready to join your show.”

“Great.” Says Bep. “Come by the studio at 4:30 pm tomorrow, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Says Hoonis.

“Good.” Says Bep. “See you tomorrow.”

“You too.” Says Hoonis. He hangs up.

If he had a mouth, a large smile would be plaster on his face. He bubbles with excitement.

The time had finally come.

—

It’s the next day. And despite him still experiencing headaches, and the odd visions of his now deceased mother, he feels he’s recovered enough to finally see Bep and join her on her show. As he finishes getting ready, he picks up his phone and rings up his father. He’d call Remney, but she’s busy.

“Dad!” Hoonis exclaims. “I think I’m getting close to finding Darles!”

“Whose that?” The father asks in an old and bitter tone.

“…Darles Nemeni? The one who made Darly Boxman? The man I’ve been searching for since I left home?” Hoonis tries to remind his dad.

“…Oh, that one.” Says the father. “You’re still after him? What’s up with you?”

“I have a dream you don’t get.” Says Hoonis. “I want to be just like him. Learn what he learned�� only mother would appreciate my aspirations…” He reminisces.

“Who cares? She’s dead.” Says the father. “But, I know I can’t stop you. Go after that lunatic all you want. Don’t come crying to me or your sisters when he turns you down.”

“I hope I don’t have to!” Says Hoonis. “And stop doubting me!” Hoonis hangs up the phone and shoves it into his pocket. He heads out of his rickety old apartment and heads to Bep’s studio to prepare for the show. He proudly walks down the street.

—

Hoonis continues to walk down the street, Bep’s card in hand, until he stops at a fairly large yet still small building. It’s address matching the one on the card. Hoonis slowly walks up to the door and slowly knocks.

It takes a bit, but someone eventually opens the door. The man looks down at Hoonis.

“…Hey.” Says the man. “…Mr. Boogie? Hoonis?”

“Yes…” Hoonis looks at the man’s name tag. “Bendle. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, sir.” Says Bendle. “Ms. Nemeni’s waiting for you. I can take you to her.”

“Thank you.” Says Hoonis.

“No problem, sir.” Says Bendle.

Bendle takes Hoonis down a few small hallways before slowing into the backstage room. It’s dark. Scattered around are a few cameramen and other crew members holding flashlights. Among them is Bep, who is speaking to a cameraman. She doesn’t sound very happy.

“…Is she alright?” Hoonis asks.

“She does that a lot.” Bendle responds.

“…Do you…” Hoonis begins. “…ever get tired of it?”

Bendle doesn’t respond. He only glares down.

As Bep is sternly and harshly whispering to the cameraman, she turns her head. Her expression quickly changes. She then approaches the men.

“Hoonis!” Says Bep. “I’m glad to see you’re doing better.”

“I-I am too.” Says Hoonis.

“Is there anything I need to do, ma’am?” Bendle asks Bep.

“Yes,” Bep begins. “Go over to the cameraman and teach how to do his job. He can’t do it right.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Says Bendle. He heads off to man Bep had been talking to.

“Are you ready?” Bep asks.

“Ready as I’ll ever be! Heh.” Says Hoonis in an excited tone.

“Just as peppy as you were when I first saw you!” Says Bep. “Get yourself situated. We’re almost ready to go on air.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Says Hoonis as he nods. Bep leaves him to go check on her crew again. He looks around.

Everyone is preparing for the show to start. Everyone must be nervous.

Hoonis is especially nervous.

He’s been waiting forever to talk to someone that knew Darles. Someone that would hopefully have insight on Darles that had never been publicized.

As he wanders through his mind, Bep suddenly appears by him. “Are you ready?” She asks.

“Yes.” Hoonis responds, his voice tinged with nervous excitement.

Suddenly, music blares from beyond the back of the set. Bep takes Hoonis’ arm and drags him out. They enter the set, and in front of them, a large audience sits. Each seat looks to be taken up. Everyone’s claps and cheers echo through the set.

They’re on air.

Hoonis hasn’t been this excited or nervous about a show in years.

As the two hosts go up on stage, Bep releases Hoonis, allowing him to take his seat.

After the music stops, Bep begins her opening. “Hey, everybody!” She says excitedly as she sets herself in a seat. “How are you all doing?” She shouts to the crowd. Everyone claps and cheers.

“On tonight’s show, we have someone very special! You might’ve seen him before!” Bep begins. “Please welcome, Hoonis Boogie!”

The audience cheers again. Hoonis quickly rises from his seat and lifts his arms into the air. “HELLOOOO, EVERYBODY!!” He shouts, letting his inner TV star shine. The crowd cheers even louder. Hoonis sets himself back down. The crowd simmers.

“How are you tonight, Hoonis?” Bep asks.

“My emotions are very conflicted right now!” Says Hoonis. The crowd laughs.

“Okay!” Says Bep. “For those unfamiliar, Hoonis here has been a show host for— how many years?” She asks.

“Around ten years, since I got out of college.” Says Hoonis. “Heh, it was a hellhole, let me tell you!” The crowd laughs.

“I’d imagine it was!” Says Bep, chuckling. “Just like my father!” The crowd laughs again.

Hoonis ponders over the statement… Bep doesn’t like her father? Was it a joke?

“Anyway,” Bep continues. “Some of you may know Hoonis as the current host Ghost of the Year! Matter of fact, he recently hosted one of those shows, but it didn’t go very well.”

“It, in fact, did not.” Says Hoonis.

“How are you feeling, Hoonis?” Bep asks. “After that incident? You didn’t get your funny bone tickled too much now, did you?” The crowd laughs.

“Now, I won’t bore you with the details of my oddly swift recovery, but the visions of my dead mother are finally starting to fade! And thank God for that, am I right?” Says Hoonis. The crowd laughs as Bep nods in agreement.

Amongst the crowd’s cheers and laughter, a faint voice can be heard. “Yeah! I hate my mom!” Says the voice.

“That’s wonderful to hear, Hoonis! I’m glad you’re feeling better!” Says Bep.

“Heh, I am too.” Says Hoonis. “I don’t have to hear my mother’s distorted whispers in the night anymore!” The crowd laughs again.

“Yes, yes, exactly!” Says Bep. “Moving on from that, I have a question for you, Hoonis. What inspired you to become a TV star?”

“Oh! It started when I was young.” Hoonis begins. “A dear sister of mine showed me these old tapes she and my other siblings watched when they were young, 'The Darly Boxman Show'. I’d imagine you’re familiar with it?”

Bep then appears to be a bit strained. “O-oh! Yes!” She says, sounding slightly irritated. “I’m familiar!”

“…Are you alright?” Hoonis asks.

“I’m alright!” Says Bep. “No need to get your gears all stuck in a jam!” The crowd chuckles.

“…As long as you’re okay with it.” Says Hoonis. “Anyway, the creator of the show, your father, he went missing. And I’ve been trying to find him for years. I’ve been wanting to meet him ever since I had been exposed to him…”

“Maybe you shouldn’t.” Says Bep under her breath.

“…What?” Hoonis asks.

“Maybe you shouldn’t go after him.” Says Bep again, slightly louder.

“Why?” Hoonis asks.

Suddenly, Bep aggressively stands from her seat. “BECAUSE HE’S A TERRIBLE MAN!!” She shouts. “All he wanted me for was to continue his legacy, continue his show! HE NEVER CARED ABOUT WHAT I WANTED!! WHAT I WANTED TO DO WITH MY OWN LIFE!! Why go after a man who cared more about his legacy than his own family!?”

Hoonis is taken aback. “…I-I’m certain he loved you very much.” He says.

“HE NEVER LOVED ME!!” Bep responds.

“Are you sure of that?” Hoonis asks. “Did he ever show he loved you?”

“If he ever did, I doubt he meant it.” Bep responds.

As Bep stares Hoonis down, the crowd begins to talk amongst each other. Bep snaps out of her anger and looks to audience. “Haha! We’ll be right back after our commercial break!” She then picks Hoonis up by his shoulder and drags him off stage. Outro music plays as the the crowd slowly claps.

Bep drags Hoonis out of the set and into a hallway. She grabs him by the shoulders. “WHAT DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!?” She yells. “HE NEVER LOVED OR CARED FOR ME!! He just wanted me for his STUPID SHOW!!” She pushes Hoonis away.

Hoonis stumbles back, but regains his balance. He stares Bep in the eyes. “…But don’t you miss him? At least a bit?”

Bep doesn’t answer. She looks down.

“…That’s none of your business.” She says. “Just go.”

Hoonis hesitates, wanting to speak again.

“Please.” Bep says quickly, cutting Hoonis off.

Hoonis steps away from Bep, leaving her alone. As he walks off, he can hear faint sobbing from the nearby hall.

She’s likely not happy that the crowd had to see her in such a state. Another thought sticks to his head.

…She does miss him. Although, not outwardly.

Hoonis doesn’t want to think Darles was a man that didn’t care for his family. He was a celebrity, but hopefully one that actually cared about others. About his daughter.

After all, why would you want to idolize someone who reminded you of your own unloving father?

…Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding on Bep’s part?

The only way to know is to meet the man himself.

…Hoonis is desperate. Desperate to find anything on where Darles may have gone. Who the man was… and why he acted the way he did…

…What if there’s something here that had gone unnoticed?

As Hoonis walks, Bendle appears to his side.

“Hey—“ Bendle begins.

“AH!” Hoonis yelps, startled. “Bendle! Hello! Do you need something?”

“I can wash your vest if you’d like.” Bendle suggests. “We have a washer here. I thought it’d be good to wash it for you. As an apology for what happened tonight.”

“Oh!” Says Hoonis. “Thank you! I appreciate it.” Hoonis removes sparkling violet vest and hands it to Bendle.

“You’re welcome, sir.” Says Bendle, taking the vest. “You can stay here 'til you get your vest back.”

The two men separate. As Hoonis walks, he tries to find a spot where he can start looking for evidence.

Hoonis is suddenly filled with determination as he turns to see a small storage room. He quietly opens the door and enters. Around the dark room are various boxes stacked on top of each other, which are likely full of props and equipment. Hoonis begins scrambling through one of the boxes… only to find old VCR tapes.

Hoonis reaches for one of the tapes and stares at it. No title indicating what could be hiding within those reels of film. He looks around some more to spot an old TV sitting in a small hidden part of the room, hidden behind a box.

Hoonis steps to TV and spots cords within the box. He turns to see an outlet near the TV.

Only one thing to do with all this.

Hoonis plugs the TV up and sticks a tape into the tape player. Static appears on the screen… before a very familiar bright yellow background appears…

Realization and nostalgia hit Hoonis like a truck.

These are Darly Boxman tapes…

—

It’s been a few hours. The sun has likely set by now. What started as a search for clues has turned into a show binge as Hoonis intently watches the episode’s ending play out. His bow tie has also been untied, unbeknownst to Hoonis.

As the episode’s credits roll, Hoonis places a hand to the screen and rubs it down the buzzing glass.

“Oh, Darly Boxman…” Says Hoonis. “Will I ever be as good a host as you?”

As Hoonis admires his idol, the door to the storage room opens. Hoonis turns his eyes to spot Bendle staring him down.

Hoonis turns his head around to stare at the man in silence, before speaking up again. “I wouldn’t remember this if I were you!” He says.

Bendle then shuts the door and stands in the hallway, confused by what he saw. “…All I wanted to do was tell him his vest was done drying…”

“Bendle?” Bep asks Bendle as she approaches. “Where is Hoonis? I don’t think he’s left the studio…” Irritation bubbles in her voice.

“…I-in there…” Says Bendle, pointing to the door.

“What?” Bep asks, heavily irritated.

Bep slams open the door to see Hoonis placing another tape in the TV. Hoonis looks back as tape slowly enters the slot. Bep stares in utter anger and dismay at the sight of her father’s show intro begins to play.

“…WHAT IN GOD’S NAME ARE YOU DOING!?” Bep asks furiously.

“H-hello, Bep!” Says Hoonis. “I just found these old tapes and—“

Before Hoonis can continue, Bep goes up to the screen and punches it, breaking the screen. Glass gets thrown around everywhere, but no one is terribly hurt.

“…Got carried away.” Hoonis finishes his sentence.

“Bendle!” Says Bep, turning to face Bendle. “Find who smuggled in these tapes!”

“Y-yes, ma’am.” Bendle hurries off.

Bep then slowly turns to Hoonis and looks him dead in the eyes. “…What about 'I hate my father' do you not understand?” She asks, voice shaking with anger.

“I-I…” Hoonis stammers. “I was only trying to see if there’s anything I could find on Darles…”

“What the hell could I possibly be hiding from you!?” Bep asks.

Hoonis thinks about Bep’s statement… “…Nothing about his personal life, I’d imagine. I’d be left to believe he was always a busy man…” Says Hoonis. “But, still, did he ever truly show he never loved you?”

Bep looks taken aback. She then gets up and drags Hoonis out of the room and to the washers. She takes his vest out of a drying machine and hands it to him.

“Get out.” Says Bep. “I’m done with you.”

Hoonis hesitates. He stands silently.

“Get. Out.” Says Bep, even more sternly than before. “GET OUT!!”

Hoonis hurries out of the washers and heads for the exit. Bep storms off.

Hoonis almost trips as he exits Bep’s studio. The sun has set. The sky is dark and the buildings are a deep purple. Hoonis walks down the sidewalk as puts his vest back on and fixes his tie.

His arms sag, he walks slow. The day that he had been waiting for has become one of the most disappointing days Hoonis has ever lived.

—

Hoonis has been trying for days. Going after any morsel of info he could find, but there wasn’t anything. No new point to go off from.

He’s watched tapes, interviews, everything he could find and purchase from sellers. He’s even rewatched them, thinking there could’ve been something he missed.

Everything…

And yet, nothing.

He stands in his room in front of a bulletin board he made, pacing. Trying to connect the dots.

No new information on Darles. Nothing.

“Oh, dear God!” Hoonis shouts into the air. “Give me a sign! A new lead! Anything!!”

Hoonis plops onto the floor, onto his back, desperate for answers. Desperate for anything that could help him.

Amongst his silent pleas, that he thought would fall on deaf ears…

“…HELP…” Calls an unknown voice.

Hoonis quickly rises and glances around.

“…HELP ME…”

No one is there.

The word repeats in high yet desperate tone.

“…HELP…”

“…HELP…”

“…HELP…”

An idea crosses Hoonis’ mind.

He needed help…

…What if he had some extra help in finding Darles?

What if he had been trying to look for him all wrong? What if he needed extra hands?

He wants to call Remney, but she’s busy. Busy with art things. Hoonis then gets another idea.

Go around the city. Ask who could be of help. Who wouldn’t want to help a celebrity?

—

It’s early in the night. The Pink City has been coated in a soothing purple hue.

All appears calm and well.

…But it’s not.

“Excuse me! Hello!” Hoonis calls out into the street. “Would anyone be so kind as to help a celebrity find his idol?”

Hoonis goes up to multiple citizens as he calls out. Each one moves out his way, creeped out by the stranger asking for such a thing no one wanted any part in.

As Hoonis scouts the area for people to ask, he spots two strangers sitting in front of a gonstri shop. Both strangers appear to be wearing causal clothes. One is wearing a fedora on her head while the other has a cigarette in his mouth.

Hoonis rushes over to the table the strangers are sitting at and body slams on top of it. Both strangers appear to be stunned, the fedora wearing one more so than the other.

“WOULD YOU BE SO KIND AS TO HELP A CELEBRITY LOOK FOR HIS IDOL!?” Hoonis shouts into the fedora wearing woman’s face.

The woman, looking panicked, darts her eyes around before pushing Hoonis off of her shoulders. The man gets up from his seat and stares Hoonis down, almost as if he’s defending his friend.

Fear begins to bubble within Hoonis. He gets off the table and stands before the duo.

“Have you ever heard of a man named Darles Nemeni?” Asks Hoonis. “Darly Boxman?”

The man shakes his head, a no. The other, however, looks as if she’s thinking. Trying to recall something…

Hoonis looks with desperation as he waits for an answer.

The woman then looks to the man and outlines a box over her head.

Hoonis’ eyes light up. “Yes!” He says. “You know who he is?”

The woman then begins to think. She eventually looks back up at Hoonis and shrugs.

“You don’t know?” Hoonis asks.

The woman shakes her head. Her friend then looks to her, then to his phone. He’s texting her. The woman does the same.

…Hoonis wonders why they’re texting.

“What are you texting for?” Hoonis asks.

The duo looks up at Hoonis. The man then shows him his phone. It appears to be how they communicate.

Hoonis takes notice of the contact name at the top of the screen.

“…Elain?” Hoonis asks.

He looks to the duo. The woman, Elain, nods. She shows Hoonis her phone to show him her friend’s name.

“…Dento.” Says Hoonis. The man, Dento, nods once Hoonis turns to face him. Hoonis then decides it’s best he introduces himself. “Well, allow me to introduce myself! I am TV star Hoonis Boogie! But, just call me Hoonis. Good names, by the way.” He puts out his hand.

The duo nods as Dento steps foward to Hoonis. He hesitates, but eventually shakes his hand.

“Now that that’s done, would you mind helping look for Darly Boxman?” Hoonis asks. “He’s my idol, and I’ve been trying to find him for years, but to no avail. I’ve considered asking around the city for help, and so far, you two are the only ones who haven’t run away from me! Would you mind lending a hand?”

Dento looks to Elain. Elain looks to Dento.

They appear to be questioning Hoonis.

Hoonis questions as to why as Elain looks up at him. Desperation coats his eyes.

Elain looks back to her phone. She begins typing. So does Dento.

Hoonis waits for a response, his heart pounding from the anticipation.

Elain and Dento pack their phones in their pockets and face Hoonis. Elain puts her hand out for Hoonis to shake.

Hoonis’ eyes light up with happiness and excitement. He takes Elain’s hand and firmly shakes it. “Thank you, thank you!” He says. “I’m so glad you have the same desires I do!”

Elain nods in agreement as Hoonis continues to shake her hand. Elain appears to be slightly uncomfortable, but Hoonis doesn’t notice.

“Now, follow me!” Hoonis declares as he begins to drag Elain along by the arm. Hoonis doesn’t really notice Dento quickly running after them.

A grand adventure beyond what is known awaits them.

- END -

Next Chapter:

[wispyatomica]

Finally found a Splatoon character maker that I love! This is my Inksona!

I took some creative liberties with adding a nose piercing and a necklace that I wear on the daily outside of the picrew maker itself including the custom background.

For anyone wanting to make their own! Here is the link!

[shining-scion]

Ok, here’s my thoughts/review on Pirate101 as a newcomer/someone who just beat arc 1.

I wanna start off by saying I did, overall, have a lot of fun with this game. I did. That being said—

The first thing I think is really worth addressing as a problem is just how… culturally insensitive this game gets. I’m not an expert on any of this stuff, and with Wizards I’m not sure how much is noticeable until at least Krok, but I noticed some stuff almost immediately here that I— while not an expert— am concerned about. Perhaps that’s because I’m older. I did start my Wizard playthrough very young.

First of all, the whole class of witchdoctor, the aesthetic… probably needs to go. I can tell it’s being sourced from “piratey” media, (wasn't the plot of one of the POTC movies that Jack Sparrow got tied up with a voodoo doll in some manner?) but it’s outdated and while I can’t speak for the cultures it affects, I’ve seen people speak out against using similar tropes. I’ve personally just replaced the class altogether in my own headcanons, but I don’t think Pirate has the budget or means to overhaul a whole class, and headcanons don’t fix canon, so I’m not sure what can be done here. I’m not an expert.

I can tell that, in general, much like Wizard, Pirate is a melting pot of different sailing/odyssey/pirate pieces of media. “The Road to El Dorado” is literally a movie.

In general, I don’t mind the media inspirations being blatant. It’s fun to see what I recognize and how passing bits and pieces of different stories make their way into the Spiral, and when it’s done well I think it gives the universe this really fun bizarro world vibe. The issue lies in the fact that popular culture is full of stereotypes, and it’s clear that those stereotypes were taken as face value and just seen as “tropes”— which, yeah, a stereotype is often used as a part of a trope, but that doesn’t make it ok. At all. Both games would need a serious rehaul to make some of this stuff passable, I’m sure.

In addition to the witchdoctor class, the whole entirety of Cool Ranch was really just awful to Native people, and so was the literal opening questline in Skull Island. Wizards has this problem at times too.

In general, Spiral worlds have a problem where they don’t take enough creative liberty from their source IRL locations. I wonder if they might have at least a little bit of an easier time with this stuff if they took the time to worldbuild each… well, world, until it’s a distinct thing from its source. They did so fairly well with Dragonspyre, and multiple pieces of fiction do the same, so I don’t see why they couldn’t except for maybe their “one world a year” cycle kind of stopping them from writing things like that as much as they want.

TDLR: KI, YOU NEED A SENSITIVITY READER. “IT’S FICTION” IS NOT AN EXCUSE. THOSE ARE REAL STEREOTYPES AND REAL HARM. YOU SHOULD BE DOING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TO PREVENT PERPETUATING HARMFUL STEREOTYPES IN THE FUTURE.

I just wanted to hold space for that topic, because it’s important, and it’s probably my biggest worry above all else. I don’t know everything but it seemed worth mentioning.

Transitioning onto the brief background context I do have with this game, since that will affect my view…

I played Pirate101 once as a kid— in 2012, when it launched. My stepsister and I crowded around the home computer and waited with baited breath as we saw another side of the spiral for the first time…

I never got past like, level 3, and that first character currently says she’s “adrift in the spiral” on the loading screen so I can only assume she got shot by the Armada or something horrible. Anyway—

The idea of playing again was something I’d turned over in my mind as I got back into Wizards. Now that I was older, I figured I’d be able to grasp it better than I could as a kid, and I’d be able to pay for my own sub, as well. After a bit of thinking, I went for it. I’d heard a lot of things about the game’s current state, but I decided to try and push that out of my mind as much as possible and meet it on its own terms. I wanted to give it a fair shake and I wanted to experience it with all the unbridled joy I know it would have given me as a kid, without worrying about how the later content would or wouldn’t compare.

I’ll give the game this— I LOVE THE OPENING. Maybe I was just excited to cross the long awaited item off my list, or maybe my inner child was just giddy to start a new adventure in my favorite fictional world, but I could not stop smiling and laughing from the moment the curtains opened to the minute I landed in Skull Island. Escaping the ship was exciting, seeing the Armada was SO COOL— I can see why they’re a fan favorite 101 villain— and the way I got to pick my backstory was unique. When I realized a Swashbuckler was much the same as a Storm wizard, I was really happy to see that picking the choices that seemed to speak to me (in wizards, questions about my personality, here, what I thought would make for a cool backstory) landed me with a playstyle I favored. It’s a small, coincidental thing, but it worked and I settled into things fairly quickly.

…I did also notice that the game was a lot rougher around the edges. Small things, really— the bloom is a little too bright, some models aren’t entirely animated in the face, things like that. I didn’t mind, and honestly? It just reminded me a little bit of classic Wizard, and it grew on me within the hour.

There were a few glitches that have and continue to persist. The dialogue box when Boochbeard is psychically communicating with you, or your companions are talking while you’re doing something, is covered by the crowns shop symbol unless the menu is opened. This was a… mild problem for me, as I have an auditory processing disorder and need that text to understand what’s being said to me. As well, every time I was shown an image, it would be cut off and shown halfway above the screen. I never got to see the face of my mother. That sounds horrible out of context. Anyway—

I really enjoyed the moment you walk up to the dock in Jonah Town and see your parent’s ship. I think my little part of the game was how the chase to El Dorado often felt like you were moving in step with your parents, running beside them and only separated by time.

There’s a weird feeling of legacy and it all feels really grand in a way Wizard doesn’t. They’re both, objectively, stories about growing up and taking your place in the world, but the Young Wizard is not attached to the Spiral in the same way the Pirate is. If I were to name the difference, I’d say Wizard is about Destiny and Fate, while Pirate is much more about Legacy and Heritage. The Wizard is guided by the stars, the Pirate is guided by the echoes of the past. They’re both very different ways of addressing and justifying the great journey, but I think they work in step with each other.

Another thing that I think was done SUPER WELL is the sense of SCALE. Especially, docking at Mooshu made me realize that if anything, I hadn’t explored CRAP of the worlds I was going to. I was basically saying I explored a whole country when I was really just going to the capital. The travel times were boring and a little egregious at times, but I think they were overall needed to give a sense of just how big the Spiral really was. When you look at the illustration of the cosmos, it can almost seem sort of small, but that’s not the case at all and Pirate really wants to remind you of that.

Gear wise, I knew it was gonna be more open ended, but OH GOD. I wasn’t expecting what I got. I was waiting for a waterworks, or the Kane dungeon to be like Darkmoor, but it wasn’t like that at all. The openness was daunting, but eventually I really just pressed into the agility and attack stats, and I came through fine. Managing my companions was a little bit more of a daunting task, and I eventually realized that even on a normal playthrough, you needed to know how EVERY class played so that you could spec your companions accordingly. There’s a lot to keep up with and I don’t think the fact that I was treating it like Wizard102 helped. It took me until about Aquila to really have an idea of what I was doing.

As for Ship Things— coolest part of the game. I am REALLY impressed with how well it plays especially for the engine and when it was coded. The skyboxes are gorgeous, the fact you can run around on your boat and even get a little cabin was a pleasant surprise, and I liked the nods to Wizard’s spells with the ship combat attacks. I did play through the whole game with a partner and often rode with her, so this might not be an issue for others, but my nautical level was severely underleveled almost the entire game. I’m only on Sinbad part 1 now, but to my knowledge, I’m past the part where sailing is useful.

Now, as for purely story stuff…

This was Blind Mew’s game. I’ve heard a lot about him as a writer during my time on Wizblur, and I know he has pretty strong influence in Wizard now, but I wanted to see his writing “in his element”, so to speak.

…I really enjoyed it. I could tell that a lot of story beats were planned out in advance, with an idea of how and when exactly things would tie together. There was a thematic idea through the entire game and it stuck to that— the idea being of freedom, and choosing to seek redemption.

It was really interesting to hear this sort of idea of “redemption is an action an individual chooses to take— and it doesn’t always mean forgiveness or being allowed “back in”— it just means the person tries to do better.”

A lot of redemption arcs in the current day are very… uh… Catholic about it? You must Grovel and Suffer and Atone and only once you have Suffered and Killed All The Old Parts Of You can you be considered worthy. Pirate doesn’t do that. It kind of just says that at any point, someone can decide to turn around and do something different, and you should always give people the chance to TRY.

I know Valencia part two was rushed, but I think even then it was really good. Kane did something I really appreciated with was take the theme and add an addendum:

People can decide to turn around and do better at any point, and they deserve to be offered that chance, but some people will refuse to do better.

Kane SHOOTING HIS OWN HEART really tied a bow on the message for me. You could probably argue “well, could he really be blamed for that if he didn’t have the conscious to tell him it was the right thing to do to accept it?” But I really don’t think the whole nature of AI and how they think thing matters here.

The ending was great. I adored how all the companions sort of came to your side in the end and even explicitly said that they were your family. I’m not sure Wizard ever has a moment where an NPC says something that… close and caring to your PC.

Overall I enjoyed the chase for the map pieces, and chipping at the Armada’s elites was really well done. I wasn’t expecting them to treat the Marleybone war with so much gravity, but they did it about as well and as seriously as a kid’s game could. The finale with Rooke at the end was amazing, the atmosphere was really well done and Rooke died to my partner’s crab, which was just… peak 101 game comedic timing.

I also really loved the “GO GO GO AND GET OUT” way they structured Valencia part 1 and 2. I was genuinely tense and nervous in part 2, wondering if being Spiral Spain’s Attaché was even going work. Being so close to Kane and watching him get SCOLDED for daring to touch me was incredibly satisfying. I wish there was more time for Royal court shenanigans so that I could get to see Kane glaring at from across the room more, but I suppose that’s what fanfiction is for.

In terms of story execution and story execution purely, I’d give arc 1 an 8/10. Every beat was there when it needed to be and early actions affected the long term narrative, which was nice to see. With some Wizard worlds I do feel like they suffer from “this could have been an email” disease, but my time was less wasted in Pirate.

…Now, as for Sinbad…

I have unfortunately noticed the increase in insane difficulty, and an increase in glitches. Last night my partner and I tried to do the tower in Mooshu to find Sinbad, and we were in there for two hours, only to get teamwiped and find no dungeon recall. I understand Pirate was made to be harder than Wizards, but that is just straight up unfair for mainline content, I’m sorry. As well, a promotion quest my partner did had enemies that were almost level eighty. If the level cap is seventy, how in the WORLD is that fair?

It didn’t bother me so much initially, but now in the endgame it really does— how much is locked behind a timer. Oh, you want to level your pet? You have to constantly be starting timers for their training, and logging in regularly to stop their training and start a new one even if you aren’t playing. If your companions get injured they’re unusable until they’ve recovered, which is mostly fine in the early levels, until they need ten hours to recover at level seventy. If you’ve been trying to fight something for ages, and you keep dying, all your companions will be bedridden and you just— can’t play anymore. It reminds me of those really formulaic mobile games where everything is on a timer and progress is so, so slow that you maybe get five minutes to do things a day. Sinbad feels impossible right now because I’ve pretty much run out of ways to improve or maximize a stat to make it easier. There’s no team up either— so am I just supposed to hope I can figure out how to cheese a rigged combat system?

I am still, overall, interested in Pirate101. I want to support the game and allow it to come back to life like the developers have been trying to do. I am interested in what’s next for the story and how they’re going to expand or do something differently from the Armada. I can understand reused assets from Wizard, I can understand a few glitches or bugs, but if I can’t keep up with the gameplay, none of that matters.

It’s possible I just suck at the game. I came for the story and for the most part, I did get to experience that. It was really impressive to see how well it stood up against Wizard— it didn't feel like an aside or lesser, it had its own identity and part of the Spiral.

I’m not sure how to end this review other than… like, I can’t tell KI how to make their games, but please have a little bit of mercy. Wizard is fairly forgiving and I understand wanting to make a harder game, but there’s hard and there’s challenging. Pirate101 is not challenging me, it’s hitting me with a brick inside of a sock. I think it really needs some balancing help.

Adoring the amount of badass coats to pick from, though.

[reloaderror]

Hello,hope you're doing well,I was wondering if it's okay to ask you something about nno media

How is the anime? I am partway through the manga(still early on) but stuck in procrastination, and was thinking of watching the anime to get me back into it. But then...how good or not good is it? For example as a Pandora Hearts manga fan I'll tell everyone to avoid the anime completely, and Umineko I'd recommend not watching beyond say... episode 2-3,and just read the VN or manga instead, but what about nno? Is the anime worth watching?

Thank you!

of course! this might not be super coherent. I was halfway into a nap when the neighbours set the fire alarm off like 15 min ago. disclosure, this is also just my opinion that being said I do believe this is an overall common view within the fandom and i trust someone will chime in if im ever wildly off mark or there’s dissent

as a standalone the anime is not bad. as an adaptation. well. it diverges from the plot of the manga from the Alya arc on (i do not remember what episode mark that is on the top of my head but? roughly halfway through??) and seeing as it was airing while the manga was still ongoing they took some,, and some very creative liberties. needless to say they weren’t all well received.

but if you’re looking to use it as a way to get back into reading the manga, I think watching the first half wouldn’t be a bad idea.

the soundtrack is incredible — on this everyone agrees. The animation has that classic early 2000s feel, somewhat nostalgic with watercolour backgrounds — aesthetically it’s not bad. and we’ve got kenjiro tsuda as yukimi which is an incredible bonus. And it is, up to and including the Alya arc, pretty faithful to the manga. I also think it does a good job of capturing the characters as they are presented to us early in the manga in terms of characterisation for the most part.

so in terms of the purpose you seem to want the anime to serve, i’d say give it a go, at least the first half — until around ep 15/16 ( had to quickly look that up).

as always if anyone else wants to add to this, go ahead!

[loonela]

I started this on July 8 and finished it on August 14 but never got around to posting until sometime around midnight for me. An extended AN is below.

Rating: Genfic

TW: implied/referenced child abuse

Ships: All background/pre-ship

I have done so much research for this series it isn't even funny. So, below, I will include the various references, creative liberties, and trivia that is too detailed for the actual fic. There's also headcanons and general AU continuity notes. If you haven't finished this oneshot, you will get spoiled for it.

I use a lot of Japanese words and dialectal phrases. I also use some romaji terms over the official translated terms for JJK things - ex. hijutsushi for non-sorcerers.

Maki and Mai were born in Kyoto, so I imagine them using Kyoto-ben, a subdialect of Kansai-ben. Maki doesn't use a lot of keigo (honorific speech), and Mai uses marginally more solely because Iori is wonderful and respected.

In this AU, Toge was taught sign language by his Deaf aunt and grew up in a good amount of Deaf Japanese culture. I'm basing what bits of Deaf culture I know off of Americans, because finding that alone is hard, let alone Japanese Deaf culture.

Jujutsu society has some messed up views about daemons; in hijutsushi society separation is considered extremely wrong, but sorcerers are expected to separate by the end of their first year. Yes the Zen'ins are that terrible. The other clans aren't much better.

Japanese schools run from the first week of April to the end of March, split into 2 or 3 terms with breaks throughout in July-August, over New Years, and before the new year. This fic takes place in the third term, so February and March 2018.

Both Getou and Haibara are alive. I don't want to give too many spoilers for the rest of what the Mirror Souls series will cover, but Getou doesn't defect. Daemons change a lot. Haibara being a counselor is inspired from Come Hell or High Water by louandhaz.

Daemons here act in self-preservation of both human and daemon, provided the connection is intact. I've added subtle notes for each daemon in terms of what they do and how they act with their human.

Non-consensual daemon touching is somewhat of an allegory for sexual assault in His Dark Materials. I'm not interpreting it quite to this level, as I don't think I can portray the aftermath with the nuance and sensitivity it deserves. It's traumatizing in a different way.

I headcanon that Tokyo and Kyoto schools do a decent amount of missions together, and most of the students are friendly, if not outright friends even across both schools.

Blame Six Eyes.

The separation ritual site is a rift in the space time continuum essentially, and the permanent change to a daemon bond in the form of separation allows for the multiverse to be viewed and fate to be "shown". If you want a visual, I took inspiration from the Path Space used in Honkai: Star Rail.

When Gojo warps, he likes to flare his cursed energy a little bit before fully arriving to give his students warning. He realized pretty early on as a teacher that he got a lot of kids that did not take startling well. His energy is really oppressive feeling sometimes.

Ieiri's use of RCT is almost an innate technique of itself. Not even Gojo is as good as her with it and he actively weaponizes it with Red and Hollow Purple.

I'll let you guess what the background ships are.

It's really hard to heal daemon wounds. RCT is used on another by physical contact, and it's taboo to touch daemons. Ieiri figured out at some point that she could channel both her daemon and her own positive energy into a daemon if her daemon forms a "bridge".

In the domain vision of Shibuya that Toge sees, more characters die there than canon.

Toge can't turn Cursed Speech off. The separation ritual silences all techniques, including ones like Cursed Speech and Six Eyes.

The daemon names were either picked because I liked the sound and meaning, it complimented the character, or it paralleled the kanji of the human's name. The forms were based off of firstginger's quiz (spreadsheet form linked).

[rainderthesomeone]

hello bendy community this is my first ever post ive made to it, been doing mosty tf2 stuff, but uh..... I saw this today

this is Norman.......uh........ for a graphic novel its cool and I know the artists already have a lot of pressure when it comes to character design and Norman is kind of a background character sadly, but I still love the guy and This doesn't do him justice so I took creative liberty and made my own Norman design.

this was mostly an excuse to get back into character design since ive been incredibly demotivated in drawing recently but after seeing uh the Norman graphic novel design I wanted to give my favorite creepy projector fella some justice, btw mans in his 40s coming up on his 50s he looks young because he has a great skin care routine and he's good at self care, yes this is the same guy who lurks in the shadows and stalks people, creepy people are always the person you least expect them to be, let me know if ya wanna see more of this goober!

[wrongcaitlyn]

hiiiii tawny I had free time for the first time in like WEEKS and so I caught up on your solangelo au week posts and now for my thoughts:

so american: YES. I LOVE. SO WORTH THE WAIT. NO THOUGHTS HEAD EMPTY THE VIBES WERE VIBING. I read this as soon as it came out so the thoughts have left my head but trust I loved it.

renegades au: omg I love it. v v excited to see where it goes. also may have convinced me that I need to read renegades?? but I love the dynamic that the anarchists have. also I love scientist percy for some reason like it’s def not the easiest power you could’ve went with but I like the idea of him being a more behind-the-scenes guy bc I think that’s what he’d choose for himself if given the chance. also your percabeth dynamics are on point in literally every fic from this week (even tho they’re just in the background lmao).

new rome au: I think this route for nico is like. actually way more plausible than what happened canonically. like he DOES have way more friends in new rome than in chb. dont get me wrong im glad he stayed in canon but this was SO INTERESTING. I love the idea of nico healing on his own and separate from will. I feel like it takes away some of the… unhealthy codependency of their relationship LOL. once again the percabeth dynamics🫶🏻 also I feel like some space from percy and then seeing him while he and annabeth are in college more often would be good for their friendship??? like idk I am a big fan of taking ur space when needed. also risk is SUCH a will song. boy was in love with a dude before they even had a conversation.

nerds au: as a nerd a nerds au is something that can be so special LMAO I love this dynamic perhaps bc it is also my life (esp in hs). all of the character dynamics in this fic were just. chef’s kiss. I loved. I think you translated nico’s unhealthy habits from canon into a hs au in a really interesting, believable way bc nico WOULD stay up late to do hw out of spite. maybe not canon nico but a nico who grew up in the (possible public) school system. also I love the quiz bowl addition (at my hs it was called scholar bowl so sorry if I type that instead LOL) bc I had so much fun in quiz bowl. I made some of my best friends thru it :) are u in quiz bowl?!? the rules were way too accurate to be written by someone unfamiliar with it lol.

long story short I love all ur fics and will forever be excited to see an update to any one of them <3

oh my GOD. you have literally made me die dead. kicking my feet and giggling at this AHHGSDF

i'm SO glad that you liked so american!!!! was highly anticipating ur response bc u convinced me to actually write it so!!!! i'm so happy <33

ABSOLUTELY READ RENEGADES. srsly it's such a good series like i will recommend it to EVERYONE. the anarchists dynamic is so😭😭 keep in mind that this is a heavy au of renegades, so the dynamic is slightly different (+ a very different ending in the series, i took a lot of creative liberties) but i'm so glad that you liked it!! and YESLKSDJF i just realized that i had background percabeth in all of my solangelo week fics. which like. THEYRE SO ICONIC THEY HAVE TO BE EVERYWHERE i think there are some couples that i absolutely LOVE but i prefer to actually write them as background couples?? like i obsess over their dynamics, but i like it from an outsider's perspective and not as the main plotline (at least when writing fics) so i very much enjoyed including them in all of these

honestly SAME with the new rome au. like. absolutely love that nico managed to make a home in chb, but like?? reyna jason AND hazel were all in new rome... i honestly wouldn't have blamed him if he took that opportunity instead!!! i think this would be a really cool au to expand on and like actually make a full multichap but i am trying desperately to not turn everything into 100k monstrosities. i tried limiting myself to 5k words and didn't even manage that so. but i definitely think he would've grown a lot + gotten some healthier coping mechanisms when living with all of his friends, then meeting percy a year later, and THEN going into a relationship with will - and ofc, will is happy with whatever ends with a solangelo endgame. he's their own number one shipper!!

I'M SO GLAD U LIKED THE NERDS AU nico's characterization was definitely something that i considered (and, tbh, that i consider in all au's, because trauma and coping mechanisms do not often translate the exact same over universes - characters are always going to behave slightly different in other situations, so it's always exciting to see how that works!!). one thing that DOES translate throughout every universe is that he has no semblance of a sleep schedule; this time it's just due to hw instead of tartarus nightmares! SAME WITH THE QUIZ BOWL and yes i am part of the club!!! genuinely made my friend group through that, and we actually did what was in the fic irl - as in, we made a discord server and like quizzed each other over that. my team lost be an insane amount. i am nowhere near as skilled as nico and will. i maybe have gotten, like, 4 questions right in my two years of being part of the club (though i will use the excuse that my anxiety makes it VERY hard to hit the buzzer. i hate being wrong more than not answeringslkdf) but!!!! i do think nico and will would SLAY at quiz bowl, they both definitely feel like people who have random encyclopedic knowledge on the most niche topics

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH ILY <333

[imagine-silk]

Miguel O'Hara: After Hours

》 Miguel is a workaholic at Alchemax and has always been very invested in his work to the point he is one of the staff given an office to take breaks he barely takes. He knows all the people there, or at least have seen them, and not all of them are scientists.

The devil works hard but a scientist on seven shots of espresso works harder. Truly unhinged and completely responsible moving with creative liberty he wouldn't be able to if he wasn't deprived of a basic function he decided he didn't need. When Miguel was like this everyone knew he was going to be a bit difficult so they left him alone for the most part. Even Lyla only bothered him to tell him when she was coming and going.

There were not many staff after dark that weren't actively losing their mind and you were no different. You didn't know how long you had been up but you knew you saw the morning come twice. Being a janitor was a taxing job but hey, someone needed to clean the toilets. To say you were good at your job would be an understatement, even now when you were doing three people's jobs.

Then you heard a loud thud and a groan. "Puta madre."

You knew it was a curse but it was so soft and passive, that and he didn't move after. If he didn't say that you would have thought he died. "Didn't you see the sign, man?" You spoke with the same passive voice.

"No."

"Yeah, you should look where you're going. You could get really hurt." If anyone was around they would have thought the both of you were stoned out of your mind. You stepped onto the wet floor and held out your hand. You had shoes to make sure you didn't fall, work would be a nightmare otherwise. "Here. Don't you scientists bruise like a peach?"

"Most of us do, yes." He said taking your hand and leveraging it. "Do janitors? No, right?"

"I do, but I don't say nothing." You said pulling off your hat to show a purple spot on your forehead. "Mini printer fell on my head. I'm in so much pain."

Miguel pushed your hair back to see it in full and you gave a flat 'ow' neither of you cared to address. "This has been here for a while, why haven't you put anything on it?"

"I haven't had time. The second I stop moving in front of one of the workers they yell at me. Only in here no one typically does but that's cause no one but you are here."

"No painkillers?"

"Can't afford it. And every time I bring it to work someone steals it."

"I have some. I need them anyway." His office was very clean and sectioned but to you you could see it was because he wasn't here often, there was a thin layer of dust on things. The pills were awesome. You stayed in his office with low lighting to let it set in. "So what's your name?"

"[Name]. And I know who you are."

"You do?"

"You're one of the company's big boys. Of course I know. And I hear a lot of things."

"Really?"

You hummed in response. "No one sees the background characters."

"Like what?"

"Peter just had a baby. She's super cute. Name's Mayday. And that kid Pavitr's girlfriend is a model." You spilled a lot of secrets that night. So many you both ended up sleeping in the office, him at his desk and you on the floor against the couch. And when you woke up you said your thanks and parted ways.

After that he saw more and more of you after hours. You would wave but didn't want to bother him working. He increasingly tried to think of a reason to bother you. He didn't get it, he fell into it. "I told you you should watch where you're going."

Miguel held onto your shoulder while you held him from falling. "Thanks." You held him up and walked him off of the wet part of the floor. When you tipped your hat to leave he started talking. "Do you want to take a break with me?"

It surprise you but you took the chance with a smile. Every time he was there alone you took a break with him. Sometimes you were both zombies, sometimes you were perfectly fresh, but always there to talk. After a while you were the one to make a move. "Do you want to go to lunch?"

For once in what felt like forever you and Miguel found a reason to leave the office. Lunches turned into 'you need to try this' turned into dates. Others started to make comments on it. Your coworkers took advantage of you wanting to work the night shift and take a route to the lab. And Lyla commented on how Miguel was leaving more often. After you got caught stealing a kiss the two of you said fuck it and just didn't care. You didn't mention it but you also didn't hide it. People still yelled at you to get to work but now the end of the day was sweeter. Miguel still didn't look where he was going.

All because you refused to sleep and he slipped.