#just goes to show how much development goes into making a vocaloid!

[steakout-05]

since my recent fixation on Sweet ANN and Big AL, i've looked through a lot of sources of information for obscure media pertaining to these voicebanks, particularly Sweet ANN as there is just more information available about her. i spent a few hours tonight compiling all that info into an iceberg and i think i'm ready to share it here!! it's not finished yet and a couple of levels are empty (mainly because idk if i can delete levels i don't need adfafds) but it has a majority of the information i was able to find by looking through the big Vocaloid wikis, vocadb and plugging dead links into the Wayback Machine. here is the berg :3

secondary sources that were super helpful for finding more obscure information:

[nogenderbee]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕦𝕟 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ @nenes-numberonefan request: REQUESTS ARE OPEN YIPEEE (dumbledore said calmly)

what’s popping can i get a niigo x reader (separate) with a reader who’s like emu (idk i’m still ill and this is the only idea i can come up with)

take your time drink water and don’t be a #sicklyvictoriangirl like me!!

link

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ OMG YES!!! I hope you don't mind that I kinda did Emu here literally- like, instead of name "Y/N" I just did "Emu", since it's kinda the same?? Just the difference in name... except for Len, I left Y/N since it kinda feels wrong to ship it.. HOPE YOU DON'T MIND!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ fluff

✧ N25!Len completely didn't expect you in the SEKAI... it's Empty SEKAI, every Vocaloid here is so timid and yet you.. how did you even got here?

✧ he starts to think there was some error between SEKAI's and you got trapped here while the n25!Vocaloid was in your place!

✧ but when it turns out, that's not how it is and you really belong here... he's confused but obviously not gonna do much about it

✧ at first, he was very startled by your loud personality and constant rambling and need to run all around

✧ but give him some time and instead of hiding from you he'll just sit with a gentle smile as he watches you being energetic like always

✧ the fact that you're so energetic actually makes it whole lot easier on getting to know each other!

✧ it's definitely a challenge to break theoguh his shyness, but it's honestly enough if you stop minding it and he'll be more at easy around you!

"Uh.. yes, I want to hangout. If you.. want of course..."

✧ your non platonic relationship is pretty similar... you also have to take the lead with affections BUT there are times when he tries and you can see it!!

✧ there are times when he reaches for your hand shakily and worried but it usually ends on you just grabbing it because boy, he's moving it back faster than it goes forward and if you'd want to wait for him it'd take around an hour...

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@superstar-ethereal @nenes-numberonefan - come get your banana boy!

✧ Emu and Kanade meeting is very rare due to white haired girl coming out of her room rarely.. but they'd most likely first meet at Phoenix Wonderlands in evening hours or at Emu's way back from said place

✧ if they met at Phoenix, Emu would immidietly approach Kanade with "Wonderhoy" because it's Mafuyu's friend!

✧ tho they ended up talking quite a bit or so it was more of Emu rambles... so both girls remembers each other!

✧ their relationship is also very slow to develop due to meeting rarely, but if not counting long breaks, you could say it develops fairly quickly!

✧ I feel like Emu would try being sweet at first and kinda just hinting she likes Kanade, while Kanade also throws few hints but she'd be the first to confess since she felt like this mystery was confusing her slowly more and more...

✧ once Emu gets allowance to come to blue girls house, she'll pop up at the most random hours, just wanting to hangout and maybe plan their dates together

"Good evening Kana!! I just brought some Taiyaki with me so we can share them! And if we want more, we can go to the booth I bought them from together! Or I can just run whole you write! Oh! Or...!"

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea... but.. can we please not run..?"

✧ and Kanade's gonna agree on every single one of her ideas, unless they're clearly highly risky.. but if they're just a little risky and Emu is happy about it... she might as well try, right?

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@prsk-krow @modyuki @virtualpoison @miguelito-maruti-blog @hakulivesformusic @hayillaaaaaaa - come get your noodle lover!

✧ Mafuyu and Emu already know each other from school, and it's easy to say their relationship is pretty interesting...

✧ pink haired girl always tried to make her smile but only received the one that make her shiver... and purple haired girl, despite showing so little true feelings, couldn't brush the warm feeling in her chest

✧ so Emu tried harder and Mafuyu eventually got used to her new lively friend, sometimes even breaking out of her act...

✧ this relationship is definitely growing very slowly but sweetly~

"What a soft feeling... Huh? Oh don't worry about me, Otori! I'm just.. revising some of my material..."

✧ it take good few years, in best scenario a year so both of them can realize they fell for another...

✧ first one to fall is Mafuyu but first one to realize her feelings and confess is Emu!

✧ I feel like Emu would be at first a bit startled when she sees Mafuyu's real side but later on, it also motivates her to keep going and make her smile for real!

✧ and she doesn't hide now her worries from Mafuyu too~

"It's fine to be sad from time to time, Mafu! All that matters is for you to not let it ruin your whole day!"

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@prsk-krow @modyuki @virtualpoison @miguelito-maruti-blog @bl4cktourmaline @nenes-numberonefan - come get your aquarium lover!

✧ Mizuki had to meet Emu in Kamiyama! I just feel like pink haired girl would just run around corridors and bump into some other pink haired person who was trying to sneak without uniform to get their stuff!

✧ they'd both first laugh when they hear each other stories and that's how their silly friendship started~

✧ after Mizuki got to know Emu works in amusement park, they just couldn't help their curiosity and went with Nightcord there go check it out!

✧ I just feel like their chats would be infinite since they're both big ramblers

✧ so it shouldn't be surprise that they started to hangout a lot, and during one of the talk, they blurted their feelings at the same time!

"I have something to tell you too! Let's say it at 3! 3..2..1.."

"I love you!"

✧ in their relationship, Emu is definitely more clingy but Mizuki never pushes her away. How could they when their girlfriend is just so cute?!

✧ they both hide their real feelings more or less, but I feel like that'd get them both to open up to each other at some point, and both would receive the comfort they need

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@prsk-krow @modyuki @virtualpoison @miguelito-maruti-blog @written-by-kafka - come get your cuties lover~

[thequietkid-moonie]

The only one that she truly loves

[ HEADCANONS ] [ Clepopatra, Horihime ]

[ The war of the greedy witches / Majo Taisen ]

⚠️ This contain spoilers in Orihime's part

I'm finally writing about my beautiful witches <333 I really need to go back to the manga and keep reading, maybe that could give me more inspiration to write for this my beautiful girls

This is inspired in one of my favorites songs of vocaloid! If you can guess the song i'll love you 🤭

Hope you enjoy as much as I did 💜

Clepopatra

Venerated and desire by everyone who just look at her, everyone kneels at her feet, ready to fullfil her desire in hopes to get a glimpse of her, if they are lucky enough they may even be able to feel her soft skin against their fingers; as annoying as it can be, Clepopatra decided to take advantage of the situation the more she can and uses everyone as she please, they already are at her feet anyways

But even when she could have all she ask, everything, even the smallest and silliest desire is fullfiled as quick as posible, Clepopatra isn't exactly happy since her biggest desire couldn't be come true so easily. Despite having everyone at her feet with a simple word Clepopatra feels quite lonely, everyone procalms to love her but everyone only falls for her beauty, thats have being enough to put everyone at her feet, wich lead to no one to truly care for her, no one has had the decency to truly want to know her

At the end, is that exactly what made you highlight between all her followers, you don't imediatly kneel in front of her after the first glance, instead you look at her with innocent eyes, there ways no burning desire or an evident attraction, and if it were it didn't pass from making you blush or even wish to compliment her in a sincere way, something that imediatly catched her attention

You were diferent from anyone else, and honestly she didn't knew if she should be annoyed or thankful, but what was sure is that she was curious, even if you have cross paths just once you still linger in Cleopatra's mind, wich end up leading her to search for you, if she had the opportunity she will watch you from afar just a little while still wondering about you before approaching you

Honestly, Clepopatra has never cared for anyone else aside from her, she doesn't care about what other will think about the fact that she is actively searching for you, of being the one who goes to you to give you an invitation to hang out together. The more time you two pass together the more Clepopatra is intriged about you, you don't seem affected by her beauty and she is quite curious about that, maybe you are too innocent or you just don't care about those things, the case is that you are able to look straight at her and even have a proper conversation with her without showing the inmense desire that just make her feel annoyed, and she like it

It happen slowly, Clepopatra spend so much time with you that you two end up developing a special bond, you two just grew closer and closer to each other and, at some point, Clepopatra just noticed that she didn't felt as lonely as before, in fact, what she felt was more than she had felt for anyone before, she was falling in love. She was quite happy to have someone with who actually have a conversation, but falling in love was something surprising, but not unwanted, honestly Cleopatra found her feelings quite interesting and even something a little hilarious, but at the end they were well accepted, if she was truly in love she should try to win your heart

It doesn't take long for Cleopatra to accept her feelings and accept that she wants to be with you, however she will not dare to force her feelings on you, what you two have is sincere and even quite innocent so she wants you to love her, she wants to be with you not because she asked you but because you want it too, so she will try to win your heart over in the proper way

No matter how it was at the end, she is still a greedy woman, she wants more, so when she got in the tournament and heard about the prize at the end she couldn't help but feel more determinated, if she wins maybe she could be able to see you again, to be with you and have more of you

Orihime

Orihime is a recognized and loved idol, bringing smiles to all her fans and profesing love with all her songs, but thats not enough, she wants love, she wants to have her own romantic tale just like the original legend of the real Orihime

To fulfill her dream she take for herself diferent people to become her beloved Hikoboshi, just like the beautiful old legend she make them love her and desire her, waiting patiently to see again their beloved Orihime by just visisting each one once in a while

For Orihime this was the most perfect plan to fulfill her dream, as romantic it sounded one day at year wasn't enough for her, so she filled her year with diferent Hikoboshis, but despite having a lot of diferent Hikoboshis there is one that means more than the others, since the start, when she just first approached you you two quickly got a conection, a feeling that lead her to be convinced that you could be a good Hikoboshi

As much as Orihime wants to say that she loves all her beloved Hikoboshis equaly thats not true, since the start you have being one special, for that reason she decided to give you the nicest department from all, giving you a little extra resources everytime she visit you and even giving you the preriest products of her so you could never miss her, some of the posters even had personalizated signatures just for you, Orihime felt a little bad for giving you special treatment but she just couldn't help it

Even when she could feel the impatience and sadness for not being able to see you specially or the inmense happiness everytime is your programated date it take a while to Orihime to actually accept her true feelings, she is devoted to her character and her fans, she wants to love all her precious Hikoboshis equaly, so admiting to love one of them more would feel like betraying the others

But then everything fell apart, when the police found out about her little project on keeping her Hikoboshis and they were taken away she could feel the sadness take over her heart, all she has being working, her dream of her own ronantic tale was being taken away. She wasn't ashamed about her actions, she was quite prideful of what she have achived and will not apologize for it, Orihime saw it as true love after all, but it was after losing everything that she couldn't deny her true feelings

Even if she had losed all her beloved Hikoboshis the one she missed the most it was you, for the rest of her days she could only think about you, she reminds when your date was close and regret not being able to see you, thinking to herself how you probably would be as sad as her for not being able to meet this time

Once it was just her and her alone was the moment Orihime could finally accept her feelings, she loves her Hikoboshis, yes, but you were the true one, her one and only, the real Hikoboshi for this Orihime, you were the one of her fairy tale!

Even when Orihime feel her heart breaking for not being able to see you away she comforted herself by telling herself the beautiful fairy tale about your true love overcoming all obstacles to see each other again at the end, just like the real Orihime and Hikoboshi

And when she was invited to the tournament of the greedy witches she didn't even doubt before accepting, this was her opportunity to make her fairy tale come true! Just like the heroine of her story, she will fight in the name of love to win the opportunity to be able to see you again. Quietly asking you to please wait a little longer, your beloved will win this battle and will win your second opportunity to be together again

[shiraoyagi]

What do you enjoy most about anakirui? Coming from a plot aspect how do you feel they synergize the most

uhhhmmm

i honestly do not know what i enjoy about anakirui the most. it's very hard to measure. it's kinda like asking me what my favorite vocaloid song is, i would not be able to give you an answer. at all.

but plot wise, i think what i really like about them in terms of canon are their narrative parallels, but more importantly, their dynamic. i think i'll have to talk about them in duos rather than as a whole for the sake of this post, as there's few events where they have major moments altogether.

i think with akirui, what i like about their dynamic is how they started off together and how they've developed since. they got into an argument because they reminded each other of their traumas, but over time, they have come to realize that they're more similar than they thought. some of my favorite scenes are how akito forces rui to get first aid for his ankle in shibufes (and later makes him take an ice pack in his card story for it), how akito goes from being averse to the idea of rui helping him study (only for him to want to pass his exams so he doesn't let rui [and touya] down), and how rui in rise as one (most prominently in their area conversation after) showed such care for akito's trauma with dogs— something akito isn't used to at all. i also like how akito has stopped masking around rui now!! all that's left is for rui to stop masking in return...

with akian, what i like about them is how they're always kinda... pushing each other forward, i guess? an was the person who gave akito his specific dream of surpassing rad weekend, and akito finding touya indirectly pushed an to find a partner of her own even more. i think it says a lot just how much akito has trusted an this whole time, despite them having only been acquaintances prior to the main story— touya comments on it in an1; because akito believes an will sort out her feelings with kohane. and every time an has had issues since, the person she's run to for support is akito— who is always looking out for her and idk it's just very sweet. and even in an4, while he is apologizing to her for vbs making her confront taiga— he believes in her— that she'll start singing with them to beat him— and it just ties back into what touya said in her very first event and i DIED

something about akito getting his dream from her and becoming her rival to akito being teammates with her and supporting her when she falls down and seeing her in himself— and on that topic... i think it's cute that an sees herself in akito, too.

with anrui, they are the least developed in canon of these three dynamics, but i feel like they're going to be relevant in the future. they literally have no kizuna despite having interacted since launch (maybe there's spoilers in the titles and that's why?), but besides that, i think anrui is very cute.

an is one of the very few characters that are accepting of rui and do not treat him like he's strange when they first meet him 😭 in events like cheerfes and wedding1 she encourages his ideas and treats him like she would anyone else with her usual friendly and energetic personality, and i think it's very cute.

my favorite scene of them is the area conversation after let's study hard where an asks to pilot one of rui's drones— iirc it's very rare for someone to express interest in rui's robotics like that without him mentioning it.

but back to why i think their dynamic will be relevant; let's study hard has a chapter where an and rui are talking about mizuki in the hallway together, and here it's insinuated that rui feels insecure towards an.

not because an did anything wrong, but because to him, an seems like a much better friend to mizuki than him. she is actively making them happy, unlike rui, where his and mizuki's friendship was built off of survival— they were the only people "saving" each other from (implied) suicide in middle school (but rui never really made them happy).

what's ironic is that mizuan are the opposite of being close friends (an hadnt even told mizuki about vivid street LOL) and rui doesn't realize that but i digress

considering how an's attachment problems with kohane were solved in an5, i think having another event with them could really help rui with his development— especially since they have very similar abandonment issues. i think it could be a good opportunity for rui to reflect on his feelings about mizuki or wxs or both.

aide note: for some reason there's a pattern of an mentioning rui unsolicited. she does it in vbs main story, she does it in the first april fools au AND she does it in the second one (i haven't checked the third one). all three instances are in his absence, which is hilarious (this also doesn't account for her and akito talking about him while he wasn't there in wedding1, so ig that's four times???)

in terms of scenes where all three of them are together, did you know this card is from akito's pov?

their first card together is Legitimately at a fucking wedding. rui made akito be a part of it and then akito made an be a part of it. why are they married ????

there's also that one cheerfes scene where akito is running and rui starts talking about how strong akito's legs must be (homophobic dog stare) and then an just mentions how akito does a lot of sports 💀

there's also an teasing akito for helping rui with his ankle in shibufes... in ensekai it was localized as her calling him a "good boy" which is crazy 😭😭😭 either way it was cute

and then there's stuff like let's study hard which just has. various cute anakirui stuff mixed in. i like the one card story where the lsh gang goes to dinner together and akian notice how rui is staring at the vegetables on his plate like they killed his grandma

or this scene from that card story that i totally didn't take slightly out of context (mizuki was involved)

ok yeah anakirui rant over hopefully this made some ounce of sense I am just. going crazy

[w1f1n1ghtm4r3]

kyushumi and change

okay uh. not sure about the coherency of this post but i will try my best. this is just me being like "oops i picked butterfly imagery for my kyushumi age up redesigns to match their vs and to lean into the fae theme a bit more but it also fits their stories incredibly well"

but first i need to actually show those redesigns because i never did. because i was saving them until i did the rest of the units and then i never got there. oops. look at my butterflies now

the general idea was giving them a more cohesive theme with their outfits (a more elegant style plus butterflies) while having a distinct set of colors fitting to each of them. instead of their original outfits which have a more unified color scheme but mismatched themes. i think it makes sense for their story overall, since early on they kind of cling to each other because theres nowhere else for them to go but now they stick together because theyre genuinely close friends. does that make sense? i dont know.

ANYWAY

the butterfly imagery. and change (and fear) as a theme with kyushumi as a whole.

even though theres like a really obvious reasoning for a butterfly being extremely thematic for mizuki (transgender moment) thats actually NOT the important reason with kyushumi. because its kind of an open secret among them. no one pushes them about it but like when nene also goes to the same school its hard for her to not hear about it yknow. nene cares more about her friends than what people say about her friends.

really i think where its interesting is like. how each of them have a major change in approach to something during the story. something theyre afraid of but eventually overcome. does that make sense i hope that makes sense

nene and honami both are some sort of fear of perception by others. both are basically the same as canon (nene being afraid of failing in front of others so she stops trying and honami being afraid of being an outcast if she stops trying to please everyone) and the end outcomes are roughly the same. honami stands up for herself, stops being so afraid of what everyone else might think, etc. not that she doesnt care about her perception by others of course but she starts to be able to overcome the pressure to do what she wants to.

nene isnt as drastic as canon, tbh, but she does regain her confidence to sing again. i think kyushumi becomes an online vocaloid music group and nene, having had notable experience with singing before, ends up as the one mainly behind working with the vocaloids. but in that whole process she gradually starts singing again to first help get a feel for how the song should work and eventually because at heart she still loves doing it. she starts posting her singing online since its less committal (she could just delete the videos if things go badly) but it also helps break down the fear of how people perceive her skills again. maybe not enough to get her back on stage, but enough that she starts to believe in her potential again.

mizukis is mostly about being open........... running away and hiding whenever things go wrong but gradually getting less flighty and more honest about their feelings......... also the fear of connection getting broken because mizunene 👍 two years ago me was cooking with this

promising that theyll stick together because what theyve developed together is more important than what other people might threaten their bond with. yeah. i love kyushumi mizunene so much guys (i made their dynamic this way myself)

minoris is least about fear and most about change in the way of changing directions with her goals......... she never stops chasing that idol dream but also opens herself up to new paths. making music with kyushumi so she has more to show for what shes capable of and also having a new direction to pour her passion into when things dont go her way.

does any of this make any sense. who knows. it makes sense in my head. i love my butterflies regardless and i hope you guys all like them too

[daisydays-26]

Part 3??!!! YES can’t stop thinking about these kids

South Park Headcanons

Leslie can actually speak all languages due to being a computer, but her favorites other than English are Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin.

Cartman comes out as gay in high school. No one is really surprised, just more surprised that he came out.

Bebe was obsessed with fireworks as a kid and still has good ways of getting them in high school for wild nights.

Token has a lake house that he throws parties at. If he invites the right people they often don’t turn crazy and sour. But his favorite get together are with his group for a day on the lake.

The McCormicks used to sneak to a lake all the time as well when they had enough money or time for a day out. Karen, Kenny, and Kevin would hide in the bed of the truck under a tarp and Stuart would pay for him and Carol. They often ate fish they caught for lunch.

Karen finds out that Kenny is Mysterion once she turns ten. She’s not surprised and is more upset it took her so long.

Karen’s gets held back a year after all the legal drama due to failing her classes. She now winds up in the grade with Ike and is much more happy to have a friend.

Ike protects her from bullies, but most people don’t say anything to her.

Eventually all through middle school Ike developed a slow crush on Karen. He goes to Kyle for advice due to Kenny being his friend. Kyle laughs first and helps second.

He also has to swear to not tell because “it’s embarasssiiiinngggg.”

Leslie’s favorite show is WandaVision even if it makes her sad.

Her favorite music is Mitski and anything covered by vocaloids.

Craig really misses his biological mother. And one day he was caught up in thinking about it and broke down in front of his group. Everyone was concerned and asked him what was wrong because Craig rarely shows deep emotion or distress and he had to explain the whole thing to them, sobbing the entire time.

Afterward, Tweek along with Craig’s father try to track down their old home in Peru. Tweek actually finds it and plans a visit sometime in college. Craig doesn’t know where there going to entire time until they get on the plan. He starts flipping out but is really excited.

Once Tweek gets him to the house he immediately remembers and old memories come flooding back somehow. He breaks down and starts crying while going through the housr. It’s exactly the way he left it.

Clyde and Bebe are both obsessed with Taylor Swift. They’re also not scared to show it.

Butters works at a dog shelter with Karen. He’s like a second older brother.

Kenny and Kevin work at a car repair shop.

This is also how Kenny gets better at being a mechanic and learns to fix this old beat up truck, which then becomes his.

It’s orange of course.

Clyde really likes head scratches from Bebe. He especially likes it when she wears fake nails.

Speaking of which, Bebe treats her nails really good. And one time Clyde let’s his get painted by her bc it’s sort of thief love language.

Butters, although not completely blind, has really bad eyesight in the eye that got sliced open. He has these nice black and blue rimmed glasses he uses sometimes.

Craig had to get braces from 8th grade to 10th grade and complained about them.

Jimmy would always be salty when he did, due to having braces since he was 9 till he was 13. (Everyone hyped him up when he got them off. )

Shelly and Stan actually become really close after their parents start fighting again and eventually get divorced. “Listen Shelly, all we have is each other right now. I don’t want us to fight like them. Truce until further notice?” “Truce.” The truce never ends. :) (btw Shelly is 15 and Stan is 12)

I think this is more than enough. Enjoy!!

[lesbian-bird-talks]

As someone who is constantly looking for vocaloid headcanons, give them all please :)

AAHHH I HAVE A LOT

Miku

Has a bit of an ego, because what 16 year old with international fame wouldn't?

People expect her to be super squeamish and hate bugs until they see her squash a giant roach with no hesitation or pick up a spider

Bugs are her frends :)

With that said she hates things like fish and frogs and anything slimy. Not scared of it just thinks they're gross.

Has a weird rivalry going on with Rin and Len. She refuses to actually acknowledge them as her competition because "that's childish and I'm not a child anymore >:[" but also gets 100x more competitive when either of them gets involved.

Girl boss. Has a big personality, good work ethic even if she acts like a brat sometimes, doesn't take shit from other people.

I think she'd be very similar to Nobara from Jujutsu Kaisen tbh, but slightly less crass.

She wears her heart on her sleeve, and tends to use her hair to emote. She'll tug on it a bit when she's angry or overwhelmed, use it to hide her face when she's embarrassed or scared

Speaking of which she isn't AS devious as Rin and Len but she definitely gets up to some hijinks. Some hoodlum activity.

She goes with the twins feigning that she's there to keep them in line and then when they're like "we should put firecrackers under Meiko's toilet seat :]" she is suddenly deaf.

"god they're such kids 😒" she says as she is holding back laughter at the idea of the firecrackers going off.

I also just think that becoming a pop star at the ripe old age of 16 would have forced her to grow up rather fast. So she can be mature but everyone makes her feel safe enough to let out the Gremlin™ just a little. As a treat.

Her easy to approach, affable face she puts on for shows and shit is definitely a facade though, and behind all that she's just a girl who really likes French fashion and reading romance manga.

OKAY ADDING MORE NOW! I posted this,,,so long ago Jesus I kept forgetting to come add onto it.

(idk how to add breaks on mobile pretend there's one right here)

Luka

You know those characters who usually have their eyes closed and only open them when they get serious? Yeah I imagine her personality being like that

Perpetual Big Sister Smile™. Always looks gentle and friendly, but gets much more threatening when she needs to be. Other vocaloids take bets on whether she runs an underground fighting ring or if she's secretly a member of the yakuza

In reality she's just a gentle soul who learned quickly to not let others mistake her kindness for weakness. She is the opitome of "be soft but be ready"

Just Be Friends is a song she wrote about Kaito, they used to date until she realized she was a lesbian. The two of them are still very close! Ice cream man and his short, pink-haired body guard.

Being friends with Kaito means she's developed a sixth sense for when people are about to get hurt, since he's a bit of a klutz. Whenever Rin and Len's pranks are about to backfire she's right there to stop everything from exploding in their faces. Literally.

But she tends to let most of it slide as long as nobody is getting hurt. She enjoys watching the chaos unfold, and she even encourages it if she can get away with it while avoided an earful from Meiko.

Bribes the younger vocas with candy and comic books to do her bidding.

Super competitive. She goes so fucking hard on DDR and if you manage to beat her she is already thinking about at least 5 ways to kill you. You cannot escape. She will find you no matter where you run.

Her relationship with her mom is more like that of a sister's. Which is nice is some ways, but it also means she kinda raised herself. She's very independent and dislikes getting help from others because she's used to doing everything on her own. Meiko often forces her to take breaks or pairs her up with someone else.

She dislikes liquors but she really likes cocktails. Her favorite is a strawberry sangria margarita.

She thinks it's really funny to pretend like she isn't Luka when someone comes and asks for a picture.

"hey are you Luka?? Luka Megurine??"

"Huh? Who is that?"

And she has on merch with a picture of her face when she says that.

By extension she also likes to troll on her own fan forums

"Luka's music is mid at BEST :/" she posts on one of her 12 reddit accounts

Overall she's just a v fun person, though she tends to be very quiet when around people she's unfamiliar with.

Also her little cousin is Peko because I said so

Rin

Number one of the dynamic duo! She's older than Len by about an hour and she will never let her twin live that down.

Rin is probably the mastermind behind most of their mischief. Len isn't dumb, but he's more of an action guy than a planning guy.

She's not super into fashion, so dressing up in costumes isn't really her thing. She doesn't understand why Miku gets so into it.

With that said she isn't necessarily a tomboy, I'd just say she's more rough around the edges having grown up with the kind of brother who would give her wet willies and smash food in her face. She knows how to play dirty, literally.

She still very much likes to go shopping and wearing pretty things

Shes just her very authentic self, and doesn't care much about whether people percieve her as masculine or feminine.

That being said though she really enjoys sports. Not watching but playing. She's the best athlete at her school, which you think would translate well to dancing but,,,,

Shes not a BAD dancer, but she definitely has to work harder to nail choreography than anyone else does.

Moving to a rhythm feels different than running, following instructions feels different than making on-the-fly decisions. So dancing is much harder for her than tennis or basketball.

She's very smart though, and can make pretty fast decisions on her feet. This has saved her from many a costume malfunction or technical issue on stage.

Once she gets in the zone she's pretty calm and collected, but when she's not particularly focused it's pretty easy to push her buttons.

She's not very good at talking to people in general. She's blunt and can be overly-honest, and she's easy to tease and get mad. She fears people picking her apart, so she tends to take criticism more personally than she should unless it comes from Len, Meiko, or Kaito.

While she knows how to get attention, she doesn't know how to get unwanted attention off of her without brute force or speed. She leaves more delicate matters to Len.

She still very much enjoys having people's focus on her, though. Having to get overshadowed by Miku left her with a bit of an inferiority complex, so when the spotlight is on her it feels like her hard work is being noticed.

She has AMAZING breath control. She's a fantastic singer.

She heard about Beyonce being made to run while singing to train her lungs and just added that into her exercise routine.

Also because she's so into sports she's also fairly strong. She could beat your ass. She could beat my ass. She's already beaten flower's ass.

I don't think her and Flower would get along super well, namely cuz I think that Flower and LEN wouldn't get along and she doesn't like people who disrespect her brother.

Her and Len are very close, they don't really have any sort of rivalry going on. They just encourage eachother to be better so they can both achieve their goals.

Rin's dream is to own a house on the coast in California. Her favorite place to be is the beach in summer, and there it's like that all year round.

Len

NUMERO DOS!

As I said before: action man.

This kid rarely ever thinks before he acts. He's impulsive and has poor self-control, so he just pursues any whim he has at any given point.

This combined with his impish desire to pester the people he's closer with leads to a lot of scoldings. From both his parents and Meiko.

Beyond him being a big prankster, he's just a great performer. He's always super high energy, really interactive with the crowd. He's the only one of the vocaloids that streams games in his free-time so he can hang out with his fans more often.

He is very open with his feelings about the people who support him, and is constantly thanking them for being there to help him realize his dreams.

He feels that way about Rin, Miku, Meiko, Luka, and Kaito too, but he's also very easily embarrassed and can't say it to their face.

So instead he's the type to leave them gifts and notes and then get really embarrassed and run away if they try to thank him in-person.

He also has a very one-sided crush on Miku, tends to try and act cool around her which never really works.

She is not the only girl he wants attention from, though. He pretty openly flirts with his fans that are around the same age as him. Sometimes he does it to make Miku jealous which, again, doesn't really work.

But he is incredibly stubborn, and it is near impossible to get him to do something he'd rather not unless you provide some sort of incentive

He's also very much so a Young Boy™

He wants to be seen as a cool guy, the kind who goes to parties and that's always surrounded by girls. Cuz that's just kinda what he thinks success for a man looks like.

So he has to be bribed to wear anything he decides is too girly

Once snuck off to a party, somehow managing to get into a space with a bunch of adults. He ended up getting into real trouble when some half-drunk men recognized him and decided to scare him. He ended up hiding in the bathroom while they pounded on the door to freak him out.

Only ever told Rin about that cuz he knew she wouldn't judge.

Kaito

If Luka is the big sibling who went off to college and comes back to visit often, Kaito is the one who's still at home.

Especially to Miku, who's an only child and kinda latched onto him.

Luka is the chaos enabler, Kaito stops chaos from happening just with his presence. Him existing in the vicinity of the younger vocas is enough to calm them down.

He's very emotionally mature, but has a very child-like nature that people tend to be drawn to.

Imagine Iketeru from "Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan", except he learns what sex is and drinks alcohol. That's Kaito.

He's just very wide-eyed and whimsical despite being close to his 30's.

Though he can be kind of a klutz and say things without thinking, but he doesn't have a negative bone in his body so his lack of filter doesn't get him into trouble really

Its either a compliment or the kinda thing that makes people go "awe honey..."

He's just a very good guy. The goodest guy.

He went to the same highschool and college as Luka, they dated until graduation when Luka came out to him as a lesbian. He was upset, but incredibly supportive of her! They took a break from talking, but they've reconnected and he sees her as his most trusted friend.

Very secure in who he is. He's incredibly reliable and self-assured, always pushes himself to try his best!

He definitely doesn't live very lavishly, probably just a comfortably-sized apartment in a nicer area. He likes old lady furniture, you know the kind with the floral pattern? That's his SHIT right there.

Probably has a curiosity cabinet filled with cool things he found on the street and would pick up to take home.

Very close with his dad! They talk often, his dad owns literally every piece of merch and attends all his performances.

He perpetually smells like vanilla and honey.

Everytime someone mentions it, he just laughs and says thank you, but he doesn't know why. He doesn't use any body wash or cologne that smells like that. He doesn't bake. Even after years he's still confused.

He's not aware of how attractive he is and has made people blush a lot with how much he enjoys physical affection

Imagine getting hugged by a kind teddy bear of a man with a pretty face who smells like vanilla, he is unaware of the kind of affect he can have on people.

Meiko was one of these people before they became friends, now she's become immune to his casual toucheyness. That just comes with being someone he cares about!

Meiko

The queen herself

Okay so first I headcanon in this universe where they're part of a talent agency, Meiko isn't a singer anymore. She quit and took up a job as a talent manager.

She had seen too much of the dark side of the music industry, getting creepy fan mail and gifts and people threatening her safety. All before she hit 18, it had kinda fucked her up.

She was going to quit entirely, but when Miku got scouted the idea of leaving her with nobody to help her navigate her v quickly growing stardom left a pit in her gut.

So she stayed to train and manage her, and ended up taking a v motherly role for everyone who came after her. Minus Luka and Kaito.

She feels very responsible for the well-being of all the younger vocas under her management. She even goes as far as to filter their fanmail personally, reading through it before handing it off to them.

She doesn't want them to get hurt in the same way she did

In terms of her relationship with Luka and Kaito, she's fairly close with them both, but she relies on Luka much more.

Luka's more laid-back attitude to life provides Meiko with a fresh outlook where she'd otherwise feel confused, frustrated, and stuck.

Which happens a lot for Meiko, who is constantly wondering if she's doing enough. For herself, for her career, for these kids she feels responsible for.

Though despite her neurotic nature she still finds time to relax. One of her biggest hobbies is still song-writing. She writes a lot of songs for Luka, she'll often play the piano while Luka sings when the pink-haired lady stops by Meiko's place for a visit.

She also enjoys learning to cook, and while Kaito doesn't bake the two of them have bonded over making food. The three of them meet at Meiko's house regularly to have drinks and try a new recipe and just talk.

The younger vocas don't often get to see a softer side of Meiko, though. She's never outright mean to them, but she takes their safety and development very seriously.

She monitors their schedules closely and keeps a pretty tight leash on them all when it's time to get down to business.

She's pretty easy to loosen up tho all they gotta do is look at her with them big ol' eyes.

She loves them too much to say no when they're begging like that.

And she's also good at noticing small details about everyone. She has a good memory too. If you passed your exam last week you bet your ass she's getting you a present, she won't let success go by without her letting you know she's proud of you.

She spends a lot of time worrying, but overall she's very satisfied with her life.

[whitherliliesbloom]

fate matrix

[ ffxivwrite2021 ] ★ [ masterlist ] ★ [ prompt #05 (free) - fate ]

[ alphinaud/wol & cameos and mentions of some friend ocs, you’re gonna have to read to find out who :) ] ★ [ 5,241 words (oof) ]  ★ [ fate matrix au ]

fate: be destined to happen, turn out, or act in a particular way

in a world where the hands of destiny are ones and zeros, at the center of the matrix was a little goddess who would soon find out that she too, isn’t immune to the pull of fate

Day ???? | 07:07am | Day of Destined Meetings

An alarm rings, beeping in an increasingly loud volume as the monitors begin booting up. As light from the screens flood the room, the sound of cotton ruffling can be heard, followed by a soft little yawn.

The girl stirs, clutching at her duvet for warmth before her eyelids flutter open. Bright violet eyes stare up at the ceiling, where the patches of glow up star stickers have lost their radiance in the midst of the fluorescent bulb lighting up. Blinded momentarily, she grimaces, before rolling onto her side and sitting up.

“Good morning, alpha.” A melodic voice chirps out merrily from her parted lips, and she raises a hand to pet the head of the stuffed chocobo that she had been laying beside. ��It’s time for work again, huh?”

Stretching her arms high above her head with a final, long yawn, the girl shuffles over to the minibar that was tucked under the table, pulling the door open before grabbing a small tub of yoghurt and peeling it open to peer inside curiously.

Oh, it’s strawberry today, how wonderful! Whoever or whatever magical force is behind stocking up the minibar seems to be in her favor this morning.

Grateful now for her breakfast, the girl slides over to the front of the bed, and places her hand on the mouse after taking a spoonful of the yoghurt into her mouth.

System booting... Please enter password. >illyaskawi03112 Log in successful. Fatematrix.exe starting. Welcome, Alice. 

The monitors that surround her begin loading up window tabs after window tabs - and at the center on her main monitor, a sizeable grid of glowing icons pop up, along with a smaller, more discreet window showing a map tucked away at the corner of the screen.

Visual stimuli overload aside, the girl seemed to be completely unphased as she bites into yet another scoopful of yoghurt before setting the tub next to her white keyboard, as if this were a scene she’s had to see countless times now. 

It’s a routine, a well rehearsed routine that the girl effortlessly goes through the motions of daily. The fate matrix is ever in need of use and she, the center of it all, was more than happy to take control. 

That is, after all, the will of her late mother... the previous Alice and goddess of the fate matrix. It is simply her duty to carry on in her legacy. And as per her duty, she begins to spin the wheel of fate, clicking on the very first icon that boots up the fate matrix’s tool assistant. A bright blue pop up appears that the girl drags to the side, and text begins to appear.

Good morning, Alice. Today is a day of destined meetings. I would suggest working on getting soul mates together for the day.

Internally, Illya is delighted. Soul mates were one of her favorite types of work to focus on... and though they were rarely ever more urgent than other types of assignments like accident prevention, weather management or economic balance, it was one that often brought her a great amount of joy. 

After all, what was sweeter than nudging two souls who were meant for each other closer? It was the very concept of soul mates, and the tales of the red thread of fate after all, that drew her mother into the concept of fate and caused her to develop the fate matrix.

A soft smile graces her features, and she moves her cursor to click on the second icon, which loads for a second before breaking apart into smaller, glowing dots that scatter across the map - with two dots that indicated soul mates being linked by a dotted line. 

Time to get to work!

01:46pm

When Illya clicked on the glowing two red dots upon the map, she hadn’t expected to be shown live footage of the two targets in the very same room. 

It’s not uncommon for soul mates to have already met each other, or even be familiar with one another already despite not having made their feelings for each other known yet... but they were cases that were, in Illya’s experience, a little more difficult to work on. 

It was easy to nudge two strangers in the same direction or plant small, innocuous thoughts that would help draw two acquaintances into wanting to spend more time with their soul mate. It was far more difficult to convince stubborn people who have, despite many fateful circumstances, refused to confess their feelings to the object of their confession.��

After all, the fate matrix was capable of many things - but controlling or taking over the will of people was not one of them. 

Illya has convinced two stubborn souls to finally open up in the past though, she was certain she could do so again - she did so with the likes of the two childhood friends, Moth’ir and Thancred... a case which she would never in a million years soon forget... or the infuriatingly obstinate refusal of a pink haired miqo’te girl to confess to her close friend and personal trainer, Haurchefant Greystone... who had been more than obvious with his flirtations for years. 

Alice, you have yet to eat your lunch. A quick break is highly suggested. 

The tool assistant sends a reminder through a text in it’s window, which Illya is swift to ignore. She can eat once she’s done with this case. 

She watched through the monitor as the pair sat on the couch, a girl with straight cut bangs and piercing red eyes lounging lazily with her back propped against the arm rest and her legs laid over her taller, lankier male friend, who seemed to be frustrated at the girl’s refusal to pay him any attention.

“Why invite me over if you’re just going to play your game?” 

“Hmph! Says the guy who invited me over to his place only to kick me out halfway through because some of his friends were going to pay him a surprise visit!”

The man lets out a hefty sigh.

“I already apologized for that. And that was over a week ago. Are you seriously still-”

“Yes, yes I am!” Without even looking up from her smartphone, the girl lets out a dramatic huff while admonishing her friend. “I don’t get why you’re so adamant about me not meeting your friends. Why, are you scared they’ll misunderstand and think I’m your girlfriend?”

“That’s- That’s not-”

From the heartrate monitor, Illya can tell that was only part of the reason for his behavior. The true reason, and an explanation that the girl understood full well why he would refuse to tell his friend was written in text in a separate window next to his heartrate monitor. 

The girl, Totomi Tomi, or better known by her stage name as Mint, was something of a minor celebrity on the internet. Known for her jovial personality and the many covers of vocaloid songs she posted on her well known eorzeatube page, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call her an idol - even if she wasn’t officially acknowledged or employed as one by some idol management company. Her friend, Estinien, and the object of her very strong feelings towards, had friends who were apparently fans of hers. 

It was for that very reason that, for her protection and to spare her the oogling of strangers, that he’d kept his friendship with the young idol a secret from others. 

In his eyes, perhaps dating her would be the quickest way to convince his friends to back off... but that would only come after they’d confessed their feelings - which they haven’t. 

“That’s not important.” Estinien finally retorts after stumbling after his words for a moment, and Illya has to resist the urge to slam her head against the keyboard.

“Ohhhh... Kay.” Mint rolls her eyes, Illya mirrors the action. 

What Illya doesn’t anticipate however, is Estinien’s next words, for as bold and uncharacteristic for an emotionally closed off man such as him.

“Why? Are you disappointed? You almost sound like you want to be known as my girlfriend.” 

Mint chokes on her spit, sputtering and gurgling out incomprehensible words until she recovers - but only barely... and now with a dark red blush plastered over her freckled cheeks.

“I-In your dreams, maybe!” Her blatant lie is apparent to all but... the ones who are present in the room. “Besides, I already have someone I like!” 

“Oh?” Illya can hear the sheer contempt from her headphones, and she grimaces at the man’s deep frown. “Do tell, who is it?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, dunderhead!”

“Tell me. I’m curious.” 

“Nope nope nope nope nope noppetty nope! Why’d you think I would ever tell you, huh??”

Mint sticks her tongue out at the man, who scowls deeper and nudges the woman’s legs off of his lap.

“Fine. How about a bet then.”

“What bet?”

The man points to the phone she has in her hands.

“Since you’re so fond of your gacha games, and you’re always bragging about how good your luck is, why don’t we make a bet using your game?” 

Snatching the phone out of Mint’s hand despite her protests, Estinien taps on the settings button before clicking on the gacha button, the screen switching to the current limited rate up banner of a popular event character.

“If you get a character of the highest rarity within 50 draws, you have to tell me who your crush is.”

“W-why would I even agree to that?? I’ve been saving my primos for Xi-Ao you know?!” 

“I’ll pay for your pulls. It’s a win-win for you that way, no? You get free pulls from the game, I get to know who your crush is if you get a shiny new character.”

Mint pulls back, hesitant and suspicion clear in her eyes, but still enough to hint at consideration.

“And what’s in it for me? What if I do pull a 5 star character?”

After much consideration, Estinien responds once more.

“I’ll let you whale for whatever character you want next on my credit card. And I’ll cosplay with you at the next convention.”

At the condition of his loss set, Mint’s face lights up with pure elation, as she snatches her phone back from her friend with a cheeky grin on her face.

“Deal! You’re so going to lose, long bean! My luck in Genshin Impact’s second to none! I can’t wait to make you cosplay sailor moon!!”

An equally devious smile spreads across the face of Alice, whose hands are swift to pull up another window tab reserved specifically for video game and gambling luck. 

She has always admittedly been favorable and gracious in giving out good draws to people who deserve it - the program she has running in the background is testament to that... And she has no doubt in her mind that the fate matrix has been generous in it’s givings to Mint, if her boastings are anything to go by. 

Mint must thusly, be a good person.... and she deserves a fate more fulfilling than virtual characters on a screen.

The girl must truly feel confident in herself, as she hits the draw x10 button without a single hesitation. 

Illya begins typing the code into the new window, and sympathy wells in her heart as she hears Mint huff in minor disappointment.

“Only one 4 star? Eh, it’s just a fluke, I have 40 more pulls and I’m close to soft pity too!”

“Good luck.” Estinien chuckles mockingly, and Mint lets out a growl before pressing on the draw x10 button again.

Nothing. The third ten pull is no better - with nothing but a single 4 star weapon to show for her efforts. Mint is evidently getting more nervous as her finger shakes, pressing down on the button that will decide her fate for the fourth time.

She was so certain she’d get a 5 star by now - she normally gets what she wants within the first thirsty pulls, and it’s a normal occurrence to even pull multiple 5 stars within the same roll... So... why?

Her 40th pull ends with two 4 star characters, a sight better than the ones before... a sign of Illya’s pity on her... but still not a condition for her win.

“Oh, someone’s getting nervous.” Estinien smirks, “You’re on your last pull away from telling me who you have a crush on.”

“H-hah! That’s where you’re wrong!” Mint exclaims, jabbing a finger at him. “The chances of getting a 5 star increases with each pull, so i’m almost a hundred percent certain I’ll get one this time!”

Mint’s heartrate monitor is going off the charts, and Illya has to intervene by lowering her vitals enough so she wouldn’t pass out from sheer nervousness. It does little to hide it from Estinien, however, who could only relish every second of Mint’s rapidly darkening blush as she finally taps on the draw x10 button one final time.

The shooting star across the screen flickers, before bursting into a shade of pink that has Mint leaning back with mouth agape, a mixture of sheer shock and terror on her expression. 

Hopelessness is all she feels as she taps, taps and taps, and the roll summary page shows naught but a single Benny - the unluckiest character in the game, grinning widely at her.

“Well, well, well. Looks like I won.” Estinien sounds way too casual and smug, unaware of the monumentally immense amount of bad fortune that had just befallen his friends. “As per our deal, you’re going to have to tell me who your crush is.”

Illya feels sorry for her meddling, and she makes a mental note to herself to bless Mint’s future rolls with as many of the highest rarity characters she could possibly afford to give without breaking the laws of probability too much... but when Mint finally breaks out of her stutter and sets her phone down on her lap, hands grasping so tightly at the hem of her skirt that her knuckles turned white, the girl knew that she’d dealt the woman a hand far kinder than if she had not.

“I-It’s...... It’s you, okay?”

07:32pm

Alice it is time for dinner. The curry will get cold if you leave it out for too long.

Illya’s tendency to ignore the tool assistant in regards to her own wellbeing was concerning, but not an anomaly. In fact, it was far more rare for the text in the pop up to be spared more than a single second’s glance from her. 

Whether it was reminders for her to eat, for her to sleep early, to hydrate or to stretch after hours hunched over her keyboard in front of glaringly bright monitors for a good whole of her day, the tool assistant’s well meaning messages would always go ignored.

It’s a natural part of it’s program, Illya tells herself, as she filters through lists of finished cases before moving on to pending ones. Much like the fate matrix, that ran on a code that was, in admittance, far more complex than even she could fully comprehend... the tool assistant ran on code. It was an artificial intelligence her mother had created during her last few months of life, something that, according to the note left in the hard drive of the fate matrix, would help Illya better slip into her role as adjudicator of fate. 

She’d remembered when she first awoke in this room and on the bed, not having any recollection of how she’d even arrived in the first place. The momentary panic and confusion had been replaced with a sense of obligation... of duty and honor when she booted up the computer for the first time to be greeted with the words from the tool assistant - as well as a lengthy message from her late mother.

We who do not belong to the realm of mortals... we who possess the blood of fate. We bear the burden of watching over the world and making sure that it is a safer, happier, better place for everyone. Only you alone can take possession of the fate matrix in my stead, and I pray you’ll forgive me for not being able to say goodbye to you in person.

Family meant the world to Illya, it has ever been that way. She spent a good amount of her childhood in the company of her parents, with little understanding of the world beneath. She had no concept of the idea of fate, of how destiny was dealt... only that her mother had a significant role to play, and that her time with her family was soon to be cut short by a crippling, unkind illness that not even the fate matrix could undo. 

Illya’s never tried stepping out of her room before. She has always assumed that it exists in some kind of void or overworld that overlooked the mortal realm. It mattered not, really... The only thing important was that mother had left this place behind, and wanted her only daughter to inherit her role as Alice.

It was with that responsibility in mind that drove Illya to stay seated in front of the monitors for as long as she has. 

Time is no longer being a concept, the rising and falling of the sun no longer visible to her eyes aside from a arbitrary number on the clock that served more as a timer for how long she has left to work until exhaustion would consume her. 

Do you not wonder what it’s like to have friends, Alice?

Recently, however the tool assistant has been sending her more and more pointless questions... questions that went far beyond the daily self-maintenance reminders that she could understand her mother programming in for her wellbeing, questions aimed to be poignant and was targeted to making her feel more isolated and alone than it did help. It was bordering on annoyance.

You could leave this room any time you wanted.

And why would she do that? She murmured to herself as she typed in code to program a heavy storm, forcing a raven haired lalafellin man to offer his umbrella to his soul mate who had been stranded under a lone busstop - a pink haired woman with olive green eyes who seemed utterly smitten with him upon first sight.

Her purpose was here, to take control of the fate matrix, to grant happy memories, to save lives, to fulfill wishes and dreams. There can be no greater and heavier responsibility to bear in the world. 

Truthfully, the reason why Illya stayed at first had solely because of her mother’s wishes... But now, it was more than that. 

Because the idea of separating herself from the fate matrix... and not being able to grant the kindness of fate that so many people in the world deserved... it was a pain that was worth her own sense of self. 

Are you not lonely? Do you not want someone to love you?

Why did it matter if she was lonely? The envy and curiosity she feels upon watching a group of friends hanging out together is nothing in comparison to the pain mortals felt from a love unrequited, or a loved one losing their life. 

She taps furiously on a historian with bright red hair and eyes, forcing him to get a wardrobe malfunction that would push him to visit a tailor where an impish lalafellin fashion designer with snow white freckles awaited him with choice words of ridicule. She tips over a telephone pole that causes two surf shop co-owners who were on a road trip to park by the roadside so that they may witness a falling star, wishes made leading to their confession. She painstakingly guides a woman with silver hair and golden yellow eyes towards a drycleaner, where she initiates easy banter with a man who she later finds out was her old schoolmate.

Juno and Ysayle, Bianca and Varis, Niqesse and Zenos, Nowi and June. She remembers the soul mates she pushes together by name, and treasures the happiness they are sure to feel from their memories as if they were her own.

Detached from their world she may be, it is through the fate matrix that she can experience a sliver of their joy and love... even if it is for a fleeting moment before she must move on to the next. 

11:17pm

One more assignment, she tells herself, eyes bloodshot and fingers sore from typing. One more case and she’ll eat before going to bed. She has done much for the day as it is... but she cannot rest until she’s closed one particular case that has her vexed for the entire day.

A pair of glowing purple dots that has been plastered on the map since morning has her thoroughly vexed... because for some reason or another, she cannot seem to gather information on one half of the pair. 

She’s able to view the other half just fine - a dashing young man who seemed to be a senior in university despite his age, having skipped two grades due to his academic prowess. He is incredibly gifted, possessing not only of superior intellect but also an artistic hand and charismatic demeanor that makes him quite popular at his school.

But no matter how much she clicked on the other purple dot, or made futile attempts to manually search for data on his other half, nothing would show up. No windows, no tabs... What was even more perplexing was that the dot hadn’t moved on the map at all. 

Illya had paid especially close attention to the purple dots ever since she’d found this anomaly in the fate matrix... she was certain she would have noted movement if there had been any at all. 

But whereas the icon of the boy had understandably been moving throughout the city of Sharlayan, the icon of his mysterious other half hadn’t, laying stagnant on a singular point of the map in the middle of what appeared to be an old apartment complex.

It was as if his soul mate just... didn’t exist at all. 

The boy didn’t have any romantic feelings for anyone, nor did it seem like there was anyone at his school that would have an attachment to him that extended beyond admiration or a short-term attraction, which she’s long learned to tell apart from genuine love. If the tool assistant had a text saying that her target simply did not have a soul mate at all, she’d have been inclined to believe it.

But the other purple dot that connected to his does not lie. If he didn’t have a soul mate, his icon wouldn’t be connected to the other. Her tool assistant wouldn’t have told her, very deliberately she may add, that he did in fact have a soul mate and that it was imperative for her to unite them.

But how was she to make two people meet when she could not even tell who the other was? It was the first time Illya’s wondered if there was even any point to her efforts. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures, then. It may be unnatural for a piece of note to fall from the sky, but it was perhaps her final chance to get the boy to meet his soul mate before the opportunity would be lost forever.

Assignments from her pending window are known to disappear all of a sudden, and soul mates who were attached and at their prime for a fated meeting for the moment often times disappear from the map entirely... a tragedy as a result to the slipping of time that the fate matrix cannot rectify... and she’d be damned if she let it happen to this case just because of a simple glitch. 

The boy, Alphinaud Leveilleur, star student of the nation’s most prestigious academy, had been walking home from his late night seminars. His position was unnervingly close to where his soul mate is, and since she could not think of any way she could naturally nudge him in the direction of the apartment complex, she writes a note posing as his soul mate and drops it from the sky.

“W-what in the twelve?”

The boy catches it in mid-air, looking at the haphazardly scribbled words on the paper. 

PLEASE HELP ME. I’M BEING HELD AGAINST MY WILL. I’M BEING TRAPPED AT _______________

She made the handwriting disorderly intentionally... just to sell the idea of a person being trapped better, of course. She’d even slathered on a small smudge of blood on the corner of the note to make it more convincing... and it seemed to have done the trick as the boy widens his navy blue eyes in alarm, head turned up in the direction of the apartment complex he stood next to.

Illya can tell he has his doubts, and she doesn’t blame him... It’s suspicious enough that the call for help would just so conveniently fall towards him as he was walking past... but he’s never known any criminal activity to have taken place in that apartment complex - Sharlayan is relatively safe compared to it’s neighbor, Mor Dhona. 

A few simple thoughts however, might just do the trick into getting him to spring into action. 

Injecting into his mind, Illya types out frantically into the text box for thought processing. 

What if this is real? What if there really is someone in need of rescuing and I just walked by without helping them? What if they appeared on the news tomorrow? I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. What if... what if this note really is fate?

She’s preying on his upright and morally upstanding character, she knows that... and it never feels good to take advantage of a objectively good person’s kindness... But her determination to grant him lifelong happiness wins as she watches through the live feed the as the boy clutches onto the note close to his chest and begins to run into the carpark of the apartment complex before heading inside.

Zooming into the map, she sees that her target is taking the lift up to the highest floor, his heartrate skyrocketing at an alarming pace as she panics for a moment and has to manually adjust it back down. He’s nervous... and she must admit that she is too.

When he leaves the lift, his footsteps are unsteady and hesitant... But a few more encouraging thoughts was enough to get him to push forward until he’s standing in front of a door - the only door on the last floor of the complex, as it would happen.

Illya tries to look into the room, but the window that pops up is but a single black screen that has her sighing. No matter. The fact that there even was a window in the first place is progress. 

She’s gotten this far into leading him here... all he has to do is open the door where his other half is sure to be on the other side.

The boy tries to twist open the door knob, the metal rattlingly noisily in Illya’s headphones. But it doesn’t budge or give way. 

Figures that it’d be locked. How is she supposed to lead him inside? She can’t ring the doorbell because, for as odd as it is, there is none... and she cannot pull up any information on his soul mate, let alone inject into thoughts into their head to open the door. It’s far too suspicious to drop the key to the door right in front of him. 

With each second that passes, it seemed like the boy was letting his doubts begin to sway his decision to stay more and more... and Illya’s heart drops into the pit of her stomach when she sees the boy begin to step away from the door and reaching into his bag for his phone, a thought bubble popping up above him.

I should call the police, instead...

“No! You mustn’t!” Illya yells out by instinct.

“Huh???” the boy’s eyes widen once more, and to Illya’s utter confusion, he bolts forward and is now banging his fist against the door. “Hello?! Are you okay?! If you’re in there and you need help, please say something again!”

He must’ve heard a voice.... Illya mused, eyes glistening with intrigue... her voice. Did her mic turn on by accident? Or perhaps she’d projected her voice onto the door out of instinct. She wouldn’t be surprised if she did... but the most important thing is that it worked, and it got the boy to stay. 

“Y-yes! I’m... I’m in here!” Illya responds, intentionally letting out sobs into her microphone this time, “p-please help me... I-I’m really hurt and I don’t know when they’ll get back!” 

Alphinaud’s heartrate is beating faster than it’s ever had before... and Illya makes no attempts to lower it as she watches the boy grit his teeth and set his bookbag down.

“A-alright! Stand back! I’ll try to knock the door down!” 

Good thinking, Illya hums to herself in silence. The door seems old and rickety on its own... unless his soul mate has very deliberately barricaded the inside, there shouldn’t be any reason why he’d not be able to knock it down.

The boy begins to slam his torso into the door, pulling himself back before once more rushing into the door, and the sound of banging fills Illya’s headphones. It’s oddly loud and deafening... but she makes no attempts to lower her volume as she grips the edge of her keyboard in anticipation.

“Don’t worry miss! Just a bit more! I’ll get you out, I promise!” 

His sincerity touches her... and though it is wholly unnecessary, Illya is moved to speak into the mic once more... and her words causes a surge of renewed energy to flow through him.

“Yes! I believe in you! I’m waiting!”

Illya has never known what the outside of her room looked like... nor the time or space that occupied it. It was never necessary, she’d convinced herself... She was simply content with watching the outside world through the lens of the fate matrix while playing the ultimate puppet master.

She has never smelled the outside air, never seen the light of the sun, never once touched the hands of another... not since she arrived here.

When the door to her room clattered noisily onto the ground, so loudly that she could not chalk it up to being a result of the projection in her headphone, the girl spun around... and stared with wide, bewildered and confused eyes at the boy in front of her - clear without the pixels of the screen obscuring him... clear and oh so very real.

Beads of sweat trickling down his brows from exertion... his usually neat fitting uniform disheveled from strain... 

And in his clear blue eyes was the reflection of herself, staring back at her as if they were a window to her future.

“Y-you.... you are....?”

The tool assistant of the fate matrix sends another text, which goes unread and ignored by Alice once again. 

You watch over the fate of others. But even you aren’t immune to the hands of fate.

[xb-squaredx]

Rise of the V-Tuber

As a platform, YouTube has gone through a variety of “eras,” wherein a particular trend catches on and defines the website for some time. In the early days, you had funny cat videos, then Let’s Plays of video games became rather popular, and now we seem to be deeply entrenched into a new era that has exploded in popularity as of late. If you’ve frequented the website at all in the past few months, it is almost inescapable. Cutesy, anime-styled avatars that play games, sing, chat with viewers, or even cook! What does it all mean? Where did they come from? Are they here to stay? Most importantly, how does one crawl out of the rabbit hole once they fall into it? All that and more will be revealed as we delve deep into the wacky, wholesome and sometimes worrying world of V-Tubers. (photo credit YuuGiJoou. Check her out on YouTube, Twitter or Twitch!) 

THE ORIGIN

To begin properly, let’s define the subject. A “V-Tuber” is a “Virtual YouTuber,” someone who streams on YouTube (or any other streaming platform) using a digital avatar as a proxy. The streamer in question typically uses face-tracking software so that the avatar can emote (or at least attempt to emote) to match their own reactions as they provide entertainment for their audience. While it may seem as if V-Tubers are rather new, in doing research on the topic, you’d be surprised how far back things go.

For starters, the concept of a virtual celebrity has been around for a while, with one of the most notable efforts being Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid voicebank program. Hatsune Miku is every bit as famous and beloved as a flesh-and-blood singer or entertainer despite being nothing but voice synthesizer software. Vocaloid got its start back in 2000, eventually being reworked into a commercial product in 2004, though it wasn’t until the programs started receiving anthropomorphic character designs that it took off, with Hatsune Miku’s own debut in 2007, and the rest is history.

Many will consider “Virtual Idol” Kizuna Ai as the true pioneer of what we call a V-Tuber today, making her debut in 2016, however one could make an argument that Ami Yamato, a 3D-animated vlogging channel debuting in 2013, beat her to the punch. Honorable mention of course goes to Any Malu, a Brazilian animated YouTube vlogger who debuted in 2015 and eventually gained her own show on Cartoon Network Brazil. While Ai may not be the first, she is undoubtedly considered to be the codifier that many later V-Tubers would follow. Ai’s entire shtick was being an AI program that wanted to connect with humans, playing games, singing or interacting with fans. Following her explosive popularity, it was clear that other companies would follow the model established by Ai, with their own spins on it of course.

Nijisanji, established in 2018, proved that this trend could be incredibly profitable, becoming trailblazers in their own right as they established various “branches” of their company in several countries with their own unique performers that could cater to a wider range of viewers. As of this writing, Nijisanji employs over 164 “Virtual Livers,” most of which come from their Japan branch, alongside their Korean, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian branches. Similarly, there is the Hololive corporation, which saw substantial growth throughout 2020 in particular. Established in 2016 originally as Cover Corporation, at first Hololive was the name of an app meant for use in 3D motion capture, though following Nijisanji’s success, Hololive was rebranded as a V-Tuber competitor and also features a variety of colorful characters spread across many different main branches. There is of course the Japanese branch, as well as Hololive Indonesia, the relatively new (and highly successful) Hololive English, a defunct Chinese branch and an all-male Holostar branch in Japan.

Other, smaller V-Tuber groups have sprung up alongside the corporate powerhouses, such as VOMS Project, established in March of 2020, as an independent trio of streamers, and more recently at the tail-end of 2020 with V-Shojo, featuring a group of Western streamers (who ironically mostly stick to Twitch). Outside of this of course are the countless independent streamers who utilize avatars for one reason or another across many different platforms. Even prominent Twitch streamers seem to be getting in on the act, such as Pokimane, though that one has not come without some backlash. So consider that a rough history of how V-Tubers got started in Japan but how did they gain a more global fanbase? Well, in a word…”memes.”

GOING INTERNATIONAL

I won’t deny there had to be at least SOME overseas fans who enjoyed watching V-Tubers before they became more well-known, but for many Western fans their introductions to V-Tubers in general typically came from viral videos taken from various streams that spread like wildfire, eventually getting people curious enough to check them out. For Kizuna Ai, her playthrough of Resident Evil 7 gained notoriety for her mimicking the cursing of the English-speaking player character, and for Hololive, arguably the first real Western breakthrough for the company came from a now infamous moment from Sakura Miko’s stream of Grand Theft Auto 5. 

Also from Hololive, Inugami Korone in particular had a variety of memes spread about her due to playthroughs from various games that even got acknowledged by the developers themselves. Her playthrough of DOOM 2016 resulted in a short-lived Easter egg implanted into DOOM Eternal, and her video on Banjo-Kazooie (and the animated Eekum Bokum fan video that spawned from that) got the attention of Rare, Xbox and even Grant Kirkhope, the composer for the original game.

Honestly, the real unsung heroes of sorts for V-Tuber popularity might just come from foreign fans that would clip and translate various moments from streams that helped to build an international audience. There are dozens of Twitter handles and YouTube channels that specialize in spreading these clips around and if you factor in the YouTube algorithm, once you see one video your feed will be flooded with similar videos. It is no surprise fans call getting into the fandom “falling into the rabbit hole.” When you look at the more popular members of Hololive, often the ones with various viral clips have the higher subscription counts. In the case of Aki Rosenthal, one of the older members, her sub count exploded after a fan translated a section from a then-recent stream in which she talked candidly about her less-than-stellar growth as well as the difficulties of standing out in general. While at one point having the lowest amount of subscribers (well below 200,000), in the months since that video her sub count has more than doubled going past 400,000. Sometimes the talent needs a little push.

Now, within Hololive itself, I think Kiryu Coco is also partially responsible for expanding the fanbase, being one of the few employed talents with the ability to speak English (likely a native speaker), she gained a large international fanbase as she would work to translate what she or other members were talking about on the fly, and later on established an ongoing series where she would directly engage with fans over websites like Reddit and “rate” the various memes they would send in. Coco also pushed for establishing what would become Hololive English, which has proven to be a gigantic success, each member of that branch blowing past more established talent’s subscriber counts, with Gawr Gura becoming the first Hololive V-Tuber to pass one million subscribers and just recently passed the two million mark. So yeah, V-Tubers are a big deal now but…what is about them that makes people want to watch them in the first place?

THE APPEAL

So, right off the bat, if we’re going to ask why someone would want to watch a V-Tuber I think it’s fair to ask that of virtually ANY internet personality. The reason why someone would watch Game Grumps or Pokimane or Jojo Siwa or whoever else is the same reason they’d watch Kizuna Ai or Inugami Korone or Ironmouse: they’re entertaining. I guess that seems like a bit of a cop-out answer, right? There MUST be a reason why V-Tubers have blown up in popularity over the last few years, so are there things that make these particular Internet entertainers stand out from the crowd?

Undoubtedly, the fact that these streamers are playing a character is a deviation from the norm, though the dedication to staying “in character” seems to vary from person to person, and over time many V-Tubers tend to open up and are far more genuine. At any rate, even the best actor out there can’t possibly make up various daily happenings or childhood stories for their characters on the fly, day after day, stream after stream. Still, I’d imagine the decision to use a proxy as opposed to their real self can be liberating, a mask they can wear to speak more freely or a role they can play up for entertainment. For the most part, I think the persona aspect is mostly harmless fun that makes the streamer seem more distinct; ask yourself which is more eye-catching: some normal human playing a game and occasionally cracking a joke, or a one-eyed pirate girl discussing her raunchy past? Or maybe you’d rather watch the grim reaper practice her raps? Even talent that don’t really play up their character much still often have interesting character designs; we have princesses, dragons, devils, robots and more. A little something for everyone!

Speaking a bit more personally, I find it interesting to watch streamers from an entirely different culture and how they interact with fans or engage with games. I find it funny when Inugami Korone or Sakura Miko plays more Western-oriented games like the DOOM series or Grand Theft Auto V respectively. Often times they’re blown away by the culture clash, or they view these games through a different lens since it’s so different from what they’re used to. In particular, those two are just genuine goofballs that are funny all on their own. More chat-focused streams are an interesting view into daily life in Japan, such as the stories Houshou Marine tells, though obviously a given V-Tuber’s viewpoint isn’t a metric you can apply to the whole country, but she’s still interesting to listen to. Takanashi Kiara is also notable for her multilingual skills, which has helped her bridge the gap a bit more between the various Hololive members through her Holotalk segments where she interviews other V-Tubers. Outside of Hololive, Amano Pikamee from VOMS Project is just a bundle of energy that’s fun to watch as she rages in Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Sunshine. Her tea-kettle laugh is also just kinda charming. The V-Shojo group stands out for being super vulgar compared to the more corporate V-Tubers and while I don’t watch them all that much, there’s still some fun chaos to be had. Still though, I think there’s one big elephant in the room that would also help explain V-Tubers catching on at this specific point in time: the pandemic. Streaming is one of the few jobs not really affected by the pandemic, and with people stuck inside, they’re more likely to scroll through YouTube or Twitter and find a funny clip and then…well, you know… It’s one bright spot in an otherwise dark time…but I’d be lying if I said it was all sunshine and rainbows.

THE DARK UNDERBELLY

The overall idea behind V-Tubers, at least in Japan, seems to be an extension of Idol Culture…and uh…if you know anything about Idol Culture in Japan, it is all kinds of scummy. Exploitative, filled to the brim with harmful rules and regulations and largely catering to some vary unsavory “fans,” I’ll make it no mystery that I find it incredibly distasteful. Look no further than what happened to Minegishi Minami from the idol group AKB48. To keep a long story short, the obsession with “purity” and being this idealized Japanese beauty means idols are effectively locked into their work, unable to discuss or in many cases partake in romantic relationships, as that would make them less “desirable” to their audience. This unfortunately does at times extend to V-Tubers.

Take Tokoyami Towa, who was suspended for some time and forced to make an apology video for…having some male voices briefly heard over Discord during an Apex Legend stream. She even lost a lot of subscribers and support from Japanese fans following this, though once learning of this, Western fans flocked to her as a show of support. Hololive has also dealt with a variety of issues coming from Chinese fans; though that’s a particular hornet’s nest I don’t want to delve into here too much. To sum it up, fans can get obsessive and toxic, which can lead to the talent being harassed. It is for this reason, it is generally agreed upon by fans to not delve too deep into the personal lives of the V-Tubers, for fear of being doxxed and the illusion being broken. These kinds of issues certainly bring up some interesting questions regarding how talent should be treated moving forward.

Are these V-Tubers characters or just alternate sides of real people? Where does the fantasy end and reality begin? Ultimately, the lines are somewhat blurred. Talent certainly brings some of their own personality into the performance, but they are forced to remain anonymous and as can be seen in the case of Kizuna Ai, they are not always in control of the character they’ve been given. Kizuna Ai’s initial actress was for a time replaced, and “clones” of the character with different voices and personalities started to spring up, likely as an attempt to compete with the likes of Nijisanji and Hololive. In cases where V-Tubers retire from the industry, or “graduate” as some call it, all of their hard work cultivating a fanbase might end up being for nothing as they were forced behind a proxy that isn’t truly themselves and I imagine it can be hard to start over again from square one. Never mind the attempts to step out of the shadow of your older work. Man, Perfect Blue was downright prophetic at times, huh?

I don’t want to dwell on the negatives too much though. It’s worth noting for one thing that Nijisanji seems relatively lax regarding how their talent operates, whereas it seems Hololive is the standout for adhering to the idol ideal, though considering how some of the talent acts (in particular Kiryu Coco), one has to wonder if they’re softening their stances a bit. Many V-Tubers generally talk about the positive aspects of the industry and being given the opportunity to reach people from all over the world. Shortly after Ina’s debut in Hololive English, she was actually brought to tears when told her art streams convinced people to get into (or back into) the hobby, which had been one of her goals for becoming a V-Tuber in the first place. Ironmouse, now a member of V-Shojo, has an immune system disorder that keeps her bedridden and forced to stay inside, so the opportunities afforded by this particular type of streaming has allowed her to reach out to others and as per her own words, has changed her life for the better. While there are definitely “fans” that go too far, corporate practices that are outdated, or harmful and a slew of potential unfortunate implications, ultimately I think most people out there are just looking for quality entertainment, and these digital proxies give these entertainers an outlet to connect with fans in a way that they might not have otherwise.

CONCLUSION

V-Tubers are in a bit of a boom at the moment, though I can’t imagine it’ll last forever. We’re quickly approaching market saturation and after a point, people can only follow so many streamers at once. Hell, as I was editing this up, it seems as if prominent YouTuber Pewdiepie is about to step into the ring, so who knows what kind of shake-up that could bring. The bubble will undoubtedly burst and what becomes of V-Tubers then is still up in the air. Or who knows, maybe V-Tubers will endure and replace all entertainment and we’re just watching the beginning of a cyberpunk dystopia. Stranger things have happened! Considering the world is still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, that should largely have an impact on the popularity of V-Tubers for some time to come, though as we emerge into a “new normal” in the world, it’ll be interesting to see how these entertainers continue to evolve. Now, I suppose there is one question I never quite went over before now, isn’t there? How does one escape the V-Tuber rabbit hole? Well, I’m sorry to say but there is no escape.

Enjoy your new home!

-B

[entracteofevil]

Character Introductions

Entr’acte of Evil, page 14-36

“Come, kneel to me!”

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Riliane Lucifen d’Autriche

(Kagamine Rin)

The princess who rules the Kingdom of Lucifenia. For her arrogant behavior and proud personality, she is despised by her people, called the “Daughter of Evil”. She and her servant Allen are twins, but as she’s lost her memories of when she was young she doesn’t remember him. Her life was endangered in the civil war with the revolutionary army, but with Allen’s help she escaped from the palace, and later came to live in a monastery.

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AkunoP’s comment

Her character isn’t very complicated in construction, following the template of the ‘willful girl’. I guess she’s developed a bit more than her portrayal in the song. Though I did want to write more on how she grows after joining the monastery (haha). I do regret not being able to do that. It’d be nice if I could write about that somewhere.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Rin of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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-Her monastery outfit is cinched together by a strap tied at the left side on her waist. Her back is the same design as her front.

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-These are the accessories that Riliane wears on her person (rough depiction). There’s a lot of simple items that just have a gem in the middle, but they are still quite expensive.

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Ichika’s comment

*Princess outfit: She has a kind of light and fluffy dress design with a lot of lace and ribbons to show her more adorable side. There’re a lot of rose motifs on her decorations. I wanted to have her hold onto some connection with her and Allen’s parent, so I drew her necklace to look like it was it was made out of something Queen Anne wore.

*Monastery outfit: She’s a novice nun, so her skirt length is a little short. It’s a simple outfit that’s just overall a bunch of sewn together cloth, but as she’s a former princess she has the kind of setup of wearing it well. Though she’s probably a bit bad at her work. Or maybe I should just say she’s not used to it.

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“How’s the flavor, Princess Riliane?”

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Allen Avadonia

(Kagamine Len)

A boy who works as a common servant in the Lucifenian royal palace, despite possessing substantial skill at swordplay and horseback riding. He has a very mature personality, but occasionally he’ll show a bit of boyishness in his expression. He is actually Riliane’s younger twin brother. He wishes for Riliane’s happiness more than anything. He helps Riliane escape during the civil war with the revolutionary army and takes her place, being executed as the princess.

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AkunoP’s comment

He was the hardest character to write (haha). Despite being a protagonist. Mostly in that I would worry that I was making him seem too young (though he is young), and that his youth in itself was a bit difficult to write. Fourteen-year-old boys are tricky. Even now I don’t think I’ve really got a handle on it (haha). There were a lot of parts where I felt like I messed up.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 02 Kagamine Len of “Kagamine Rin/Len” published by Crypton Future Media.

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-The ribbon that ties his hair back looks to be a butterfly knot. His shoes are a simple loafer design.

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Ichika’s comment

*Servant outfit: He’s a servant, so he has clothes that are easy to move in. In order to show a bit of his boyishness I made the lower cuff of his outer jacket a bit too big for him. His pockets are decorative. I think he should take off his upper coat when doing more strenuous work.

*Traveling outfit: I made his coat a little bit loose, so that it could be worn as-is above his normal clothing. I was thinking about various things when I drew it—like making sure he has a relaxed formal air even when he’s attendant on the princess, that he’s alright even if it rains as he has a hood, that it’s one-size-fits-all, etc.

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“To me, you are a very wonderful person.”

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Michaela

(Hatsune Miku)

A servant who serves Lord Keel, and originally a spirit that lived under the great earth god, Held. She has an inquisitive personality, and her hobby is people-watching. She chose the appearance of the ‘original sinner’ as her human form when she reincarnated. She is beloved by everyone for her kind and sociable personality, as well as her beautiful looks and singing voice. She’s always worrying about her dear friend Clarith, and also this “love” that humans have.

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AkunoP’s comment

This one was also hard to work with (haha). On a fundamental level, she’s less the “of Evil” Miku and more just straight up “VOCALOID Miku”. Like the whole “Miku is an angel” thing from the early days. I think it was through her relationship with Clarith that she was finally able to set herself apart as the “of Evil” Miku. I’ve still got a few more developments for her yet (haha).

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 “Hatsune Miku” published by Crypton Future Media.

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-The sleeves of her town outfit are lined with lace. They are three-quarter length.

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Ichika’s comment

*Town outfit: Given that she’s meant to be adorable, her outfit was made with a kind of fluttering look in her sleeves and such. There are a lot of parts where two sleeve ends  overlap. I drew her to be more of a diva than a servant in appearance. Also, while her pendant is a scallop in shape, its size is close to that of the end of her thumb.

*Village outfit: As she’s sort of German in style, I drew her with the image of the German Fairy Tale Road in mind. As I have the personal idea that it’s a hand-me-down from Clarith’s mom, the skirt for her dress is a little too long. I didn’t get the idea that she was dressed all that fashionably in the village, so I made it so that this one had no ribbon.

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“I—I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!”

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Clarith

(Yowane Haku)

A servant who works at the Keel estate alongside Michaela. She’s a Netsuma girl with white hair and red eyes, and she has suffered persecution from the Elphe people due to being an ethnic minority. It’s because of this that she developed her catchphrase, “I’m sorry for being alive”, and her pessimistic personality. On a fundamental level she’s clumsy and not really good at anything, but she does have skill in cooking. She also likes plants and animals, and she takes very good care of saplings.

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AkunoP’s comment

She’s the character that’s the closest to my “real self”. “I’m sorry for being alive” is actually my real life catchphrase (haha). So she’s easy to empathize with. She has a few odd points but she’s really the most normal, “everyman” character in the story. Haku herself was originally conceived not as a VOCALOID but as a “master”(song producer), you know.

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*This character was based on “Yowane Haku”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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-The length of her hair goes down to slightly above her knees. She also tends to use the bangs on the side of her face to hide her ears.

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Ichika’s comment

*Town outfit: On the whole she’s like Michaela, but I made her design more simple to express a grown-up and “in the background” air. I didn’t see her as someone to wear particularly girly clothes, so her collar is a bit more masculine. I think four out of five times she’d have Michaela help out with the ties on her back.

*Monastery outfit: I designed her sleeves to be neat so that it would be easy for her to cook, which is her main strength. As they don’t have any ostentatious stuff like hair decorations at the monastery I tearfully cut down on her ribbon… It’s a useless detail but her waist sash is supposed to be in a granny knot.

*Village outfit: I put her in a simple, full dress that’s easy to put on. I had intended for her outfit to both show that she was an outsider and be something that Clarith herself picked out to not stand out in a village, which ultimately gave me this image of a slightly overdressed outfit. Hence her design coming out like this.

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“I ain’t broken the fountain yet, yannow!”

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Chartette Langley

(Kasane Teto)

A maid who serves in the palace, and Allen’s childhood friend. Due to her frightening strength she excels at heavy work, but struggles with more delicate tasks and is often breaking things inside the palace. The princess is fond of her for her outgoing personality, and they will sometimes take tea-time together. During the revolution she engages in a duel against Mariam, one of the Three Heroes, using a broadsword larger than her own height.

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AkunoP’s comment

I like this character (haha). She was easy to work with. I wish I could have had her do more. She didn’t get to do anything in the second book, so I’ve been thinking about maybe having her show up in the third book.

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*This character is based on “Kasane Teto”.

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-During the duel she took on the style of wielding a sword larger than her own body. For that reason her outfit was made to show ease of movement.

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-The broadsword is of a simple design, but that’s overpowered by its sheer size. It sort of has the image of a blunt weapon more than a slashing implement.

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Ichika’s comment

*Maid outfit: The ends of her sleeves are precisely folded back. The hem of her skirt is frilly and puffs out a bit, as the style of the maid outfit in the country of yellow. The hem is also slightly short, as she does a lot of running around. The ribbon at her collar had been red at first to match her hair, but I figured that it wouldn’t be red in the country of yellow so I changed it to yellow.

* Resistance outfit: She’s a peasant, so she has light armor on her casual wear. The coverings for her wrists were a bit more unrefined at first. I drew her leg armor in to serve as a sort of counterweight for when she swings her sword around. As such, they’re supposed to be much heavier than they look. She could probably mortally wound someone with one kick.

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“Please…keep what I’ve said a secret.”

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Ney Phatipe

(Akita Neru)

A maid who serves in the palace, and the adoptive daughter of the head maid and one of the Three Heroes, Mariam. She does all her work flawlessly, but it’s countered by her being a gossip and loose-lip, which results in some turmoil occurring. She’s favored by Riliane, and becomes a source of information for her. Her true identity is that of Marlon’s thirteenth princess, Ney Marlon.

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AkunoP’s comment

Like Clarith, Ney is a character that I had a concept of since the very beginning. She was originally a childhood friend of the twins who stood in a sort of “big sister” role, and wound up becoming “another servant”. She’s the character who’s changed the most from how she was in the beginning. I actually had plans to make her into a joke character (haha).

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*This character was based on “Akita Neru”, a derivative of the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 01 Hatsune Miku published by Crypton Future Media.

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-I considered several different ways of her tying her hair when she’s an assassin, but how she ends up being in that situation is a secret.

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Ichika’s comment

*Maid outfit: The basics are the same as Chartette’s maid uniform. Only the hem is longer, to show the difference in work and her personality. She feels like the kind of person to wear her maid uniform so well that she could do her work from start to finish all day without anything out of place. She was trained by her adoptive mother.

*Assassin outfit: She’s doing espionage activities, so it’s an entirely black uniform. The main focus was ease of movement. The boots are made of a soft fabric to make it harder to hear her footsteps. Her ponytail can be bundled up and pushed under her clothing depending on the situation. It probably just barely gets in. –Fits in.

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“…Stop mocking me.”

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Kyle Marlon

(KAITO)

The king of the island country of Marlon (the “Country of Blue”), and Riliane’s fiancé. Riliane adores him, calling him her “dear”, but he falls in love at first sight with Michaela when meeting her in the mansion of his friend, Keel, and so breaks off the engagement on his end. He is no match for his mother, Empress Dowager Prim, something he’s a bit ashamed of.

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AkunoP’s comment

I’m so sorry, but he’s the one I care about the least (haha). Frankly I seriously didn’t want to write him all that much. These novels aside, don’t expect me to make KAITO this cool overall. Though he’s a pretty toothsome character, with how many turns he gets.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “KAITO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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-The basis for his masked appearance is a certain sha[redacted]. It’s a simple outfit, but the decorations it has here and there are gaudy in a minor way.

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Ichika’s comment

*Main outfit: As he was designed with a theme of solemnity, his whole appearance is composed with a precise and stiff feel. The collar of his jacket is designed like a suit. His sleeves are meant to feel a bit stern. I drew his outfit with a sort of square image of the country of blue in my head, so he’s light on the curves. Since he’s a male character I put more emphasis on being chic than flashy.

*Disguise outfit: I drew this to feel like the sort of typical outfit of the country of blue. But the quality of the fabric is a grade above that of the average person. If I were to draw in any armor it would let slip what country he’s from, so he’s just got the one sword as equipment. It’s the same sword he wields in his king outfit, but he tries to hide it.

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“Let’s go, everyone.”

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Germaine Avadonia

(MEIKO)

Allen’s adopted sibling who lives in the town below Lucifenia castle, and the adopted daughter of Leonhart, one of the Three Heroes. She’s dependable and cares about her friends, but that comes with the snag of her being a little crude. In actuality she’s quite smart, becoming the leader of the Resistance and earning the people’s respect.

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AkunoP’s comment

At first, I had wanted to make her into a classic, genuinely heroic character…But I guess that got a bit warped. Like Miku, there’s a lot of influence taken from her character as a VOCALOID. I want to write about her past sometime. She’s an unexpectedly pitiable character, who winds up not having a lot of influence.

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Ichika’s comment

In addition to being based on Leonhart’s armor, the insignia above her chest is taken from the hilt of his sword, so in that sense it’s like her equipment has inherited her father’s will. It’s lighter armor, given that as she’s a woman there’s more emphasis on maneuverability. As it prioritizes heroism over sex appeal, her legs haven’t been left exposed.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID Character “MEIKO” published by Crypton Future Media.

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“You working hard, kids?”

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Leonhart Avadonia

(LEON)

Allen and Germaine’s adoptive father, and one of the Three Heroes. He’s the captain of the guard of the royal family, but he clashes with the princess over their different opinions. An unparalleled drinker, he often drinks the night away with his daughter Germaine.

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AkunoP’s comment

Among the Three Heroes, he’s the one that came to mind first. He vanishes pretty quickly from the story for someone who was present in the plot of the Daughter of Evil since its original conception… Though I guess he does get to do more in the bonus story, so it’s all good. He’s a bit of an old fogey by the Daughter of Evil era. I did have some other more detailed ideas for him, but ultimately wound up not using them.

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Ichika’s comment

He has solidly built heavy armor. The main colors of his outfit are red and white, but there’s a single thread of yellow on his mantle alone to symbolize the people of the country of yellow.  The mantle is part of his uniform as captain of the guard; he didn’t have one during his hero days.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “LEON” published by ZERO-G.

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“Lucifenia will very soon be overthrown.”

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Elluka Clockworker

(Megurine Luka)

A court sorceress who served the previous monarch, and one of the Three Heroes. Her predictions are never wrong, and so there are many who trust in her in the palace. She has lived for a long time, and is carrying out the task of collecting the “Vessels of Deadly Sin” as a favor to the great land god Held.

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AkunoP’s comment

It’s the postscript character! (haha) Originally I planned for the sorceress role was going to be played by a different character, but then I swapped her out when Luka was published, resulting in her ultimately getting the best role. Personality-wise she’s similar to how I am when I’m drunk (haha). So, like Clarith, I’m quite fond of her, and she’s easy to write.

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Ichika’s comment

It’s a bit hard to tell with the robe on, but despite not looking like it she actually has some degree of exposure. Mostly her shoulders and legs. Her outfit was designed to look bewitching. The jewels at her hip are taken from her VOCALOID image character. After Riliane, she probably has the most accessories out of anyone else.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Character Vocal Series 03 “Megurine Luka” published by Crypton Future Media.

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“Yes, the green onion, the Very Amazing, Green Onion.”

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Gumillia

(Megpoid)

A sorceress in training who serves in the palace, and Elluka’s apprentice. She is very close with Michaela, and was originally one of the spirits who served Held alongside her. She picked the form of Elphegort’s first female prime minister, Gumina Glassred, as her appearance when reincarnating as a human.

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AkunoP’s comment

She hardly got to do anything at all…Since she hasn’t had a lot of influence on the story at present, I think I’d really like to give her more to do in the third book (haha). I think she’s the character with the most potential. She was originally a spirit, and is a sorceress to boot. So, expect great things from her in the future!

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Ichika’s comment

As she’s Elluka’s apprentice her outfit design is made to resemble hers, though it also shows a more apprentice-esque childishness in it. But I also see her not changing her outfit even after her training his passed. Like Elluka, she has a single jewel around her hip.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Megpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

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“I am one of the Three Heroes, Mariam Phatipe!”

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Mariam Phatipe

(MIRIAM)

She once engaged in espionage as one of the Three Heroes, but now she serves as the head maid in the palace. Her personality is extremely rigid, but she has her kind side as well, and there are many who admire her. She prides herself on covert work, like running secret intelligence.

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AkunoP’s comment

Her appearance is meant to feel like a gorgeous, cool beauty. In conception she’s this badass secret intelligence operative, but in the end she wound up being a dud spy (haha). She was completely useless, and failed to see what was happening with her own daughter. Her position is sort of that of everyone’s stern mother. Though the “Of Evil” series is full of stern women, and all of them are strong.

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Ichika’s comment

She does have a theme of being a rigid, cool beauty. With this sort of masculine air, too. Her outfit is a bit old-fashioned, bearing in mind the image of the previous queen’s reign. I pictured her being able to move a fair bit whatever her uniform, so I think it would always be prim and proper, without anything out of place.

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*This character was independently made based on VOCALOID “MIRIAM” published by ZERO-G.

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“We have a favor to ask of you.”

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Anne Lucifen D’autriche

(Sweet Ann)

The old queen of Lucifenia, and the mother of Riliane, who admired her. She often said she wanted to “build a country where children can live with a smile”, and devoted her energies into the strengthening and expansion of her country. Like her husband Arth I, she passed away from the incurable “Gula” disease.

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AkunoP’s comment

She’s sort of like what Riliane could have turned out like if she’d been raised properly. Strong, kind, and popular. Only, I’m sure she must have been more mischievous when she was younger. She probably had reckless adventures and passionate romantic stories, but I’ve got no plans to write any of them (haha).

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Ichika’s comment

I drew her with a theme of a queen’s strictness and a woman’s gentleness. Actually, her character design is the one I liked the most on first drawing it. She’s not too gaudy, but I’m really happy her outfit conveys a sense of stability in its place.

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*This character was independently made based on the VOCALOID 2 “SWEET ANN” published by PowerFX.

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“That’s just common practice among merchants.”

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Keel Freezis

(Hiyama Kiyoteru)

A famous merchant who conducts trade in Elphegort, while being an immigrant from Marlon. He serves as the head of the trade association, and is also proficient in handling information. He’s an old friend of Marlon’s King Kyle. He has three children.

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AkunoP’s comment

The no.2 super afterthought character (haha). At first I had no plans for him to do anything at all, but when I tried giving him a few more scenes he turned out to be a pretty fun character; I ended up shortening Kyle’s role to compensate (haha). It was a lot of fun to write a character so cheerful. And it was pretty amusing to have him be such a doting parent.

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Ichika’s comment

As he’s a merchant, he wears shoes and an outfit that are both easy to walk in. His uniform base is the country of blue. Fundamentally his robe is for use in business discussions, and is supposed to easy to remove when it gets hot or gets in the way. I would imagine he probably dresses down a bit outside of occasions where he’s conversing with royalty and nobles.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid teacher “Hiyama Kiyoteru” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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“Tell me the story of the ‘Daughter of Evil’!”

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Yukina Freezis

(Kaai Yuki)

The eldest daughter of the wealth Elphegort merchant Keel Freezis. She’s very attached to her servant Clarith, and often has her wrapped around her little finger, being both naïve and mischievous. She has a hobby of writing stories, and excels at it despite her young age.

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AkunoP’s comment

She’s going to be more active in the third book. She’ll be a main character!! (haha) She becomes the author of the Freezis Fairytales, and the official teller of the story. Come to think of it I did buy the Yuki software the other day, so I might make a song for her after this.

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Ichika’s comment

Frankly she’s the most fun when drawing. While heavily basing her off of her original character image, I also gave her a more chic and mature air befitting a merchant’s daughter. I’m happy I was able to make her appearance show how doted on she is by Keel.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Vocaloid student “Kaai Yuki” published by AH-Software Co. Ltd.

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“I was the same as you…Evil.”

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Gast Venom

(Gackpoid)

A skilled mercenary who heads a mercenary band, called “The Demon of Asmodean”. During the revolution he stays at the palace until the end under Allen’s request, and fought against the revolutionaries using a weapon called a katana, something unfamiliar to the Evillious region.

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AkunoP’s comment

He’s got a mystery for so few appearances (haha). I’ve given him a ton of backstory but I haven’t shared any of it. Like that he’s a descendant of Venomania, that he isn’t actually [redacted], none of it’s been shown in story. And he got killed by an amateur girl (haha). In that sense I guess he’s more pathetic than Kyle. I’d like to get some of it out someday though.

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Ichika’s comment.

I made him more Japanese in style to give him a foreign feel. I drew his outfit and his equipment to be like the protective armor of a swordsman. His outfit’s meant to have a slightly feminine component to it, like having a feminine sash at his waist. He’s got a decent amount of layering in his clothing. His physique is meant to feel pretty lean.

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*This character was based on the VOCALOID 2 Artist Vocal character “Gackpoid” published by Internet Co., Ltd.

directory

[sarahxalice]

Character Introduction - Meww Hatsune

--Edits/Updates-- --Edited 8/30/21-- Organized body type information into a list rather than a paragraph.

Hello first post here, maybe I’ll try and setup a format or whatever, but I’ll just go with the flow for now. This very first post will be of my Main and very first OC, Meww Hatsune.

--Origin and Inspirations-- Her origins are quite fuzzy a bit as she is by far my oldest character. She originated as either a character concept to either represent myself online and in games, or as a DND character. She was most definitely used as both and for an extremely long time. Of course character development happens over time and isn’t all at once, it’s just a question of when a solid basis was made for her.

Her name is a bit easier to talk about, while my memory is terrible I can at least probably pull a few references I came across that inspired it. One of the main sources of inspiration was Nyu from the anime Elfen Lied. Unfortunately am currently failing to recall other name inspirations, I can recall having around 3 and yet am missing the others. If I can I will edit this post to update this part, if not I will just make a new post later on adding on information.

As far as inspirations for appearance, characters like Lucy and Nyu from Elfen Lied, Zoey from Tokyo Mew Mew and Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki. Main inspiration from these characters is her pink hair and eyes. Skin tone and clothing preferences are based on myself and my own preferences.

Inspirations for her personality while partly coming from characters like Yuno Gasai, a majority of it is just something I was taught about when making characters for the first time for a DND campaign. Which was basically to take a personality trait from yourself and just exaggerate it. And essentially it would be close enough to yourself so it would be easy to roleplay while also not being a complete self-insert.

--Appearance-- As for her appearance, she is shown in my tumblr profile image on the left. Going into more detail I will break it up between her physical appearance and her fashion choices.

-Body Type: -Race: Human (Most Commonly), Half-Demon, Demon -Ethnicity: American (Most commonly) -Sex/Gender: Cis Female -Romantic/Sexual Interests: ♥ Girls ♥ Girls ♥ Girls ♥ (Self-claimed “Super Gay”) -Height: ~5ft 2in -Weight: ~100-110lbs -Physique: Lean musculature (Very fit and active) -Skin Tone: Pale White -Hair: Short, soft, messy/wild Pink hair (Varies between pale pink[255,170,255], neon pink[255,0,255], dark reddish pink[120,0,70] and dark pink[180,50,180]). Eyebrows are neat and moderately thin, usually matching the color of her hair. -Eyes: Tend to be sharp and intimidating. Color usually a bright, near glowing, neon pink. -Age: Typically a young teen to adult, roughly in the range of 16 to 21. -Other: Teeth vary between normal human teeth, adding a fang(s), or razor teeth similar to Soul Eater from the anime Soul Eater.

-Clothing Fashion: For fashion, she typically wears a zip up hoodie, cargo pants, combat boots, and a plain black t-shirt. For some extra details she likes chains, belts, buckles and zippers. Most prominently everything she wears is black, if there is any additional color to her outfit it would be pink as a trim highlight or supplementary color (typically a bright or pale pink). Jewelry isn’t very interesting to Meww, however she sometimes has earrings and is more recently depicted with a ring on her left ring finger and will almost always have it from here on.

--Personality-- She is a rash energetic girl. Hyperactive and proactive, likes to do everything herself. Willing to help anyone she gets along with, willing to take on projects or jobs from others as she likes to just do things herself especially when it comes to fighting. Of course things vary based on the kind of world she is in, in a more fantasy setting she’s typically a fighter/adventurer while in a more “realistic” or modern world, she’s really into athletic fields (commonly things like kendo and track), though combat isn’t out of the question, again depending on the world setting. She has the mindset of a rebel and likes to do things her own way rather than taking orders from another person, though not completely disobedient to anyone, and is not entirely against working with others. She just has a tendancy to lead or go alone on things. She is headstrong, confident, positive, a hard worker, supportive, loving, caring, fierce, aggressive and reckless. Of course she is not without her negative qualities too, some of which have been already named such as reckless and her confidence can be overbearing to outright unreasonable and annoying, and at times even worse. While she is a caring and loving person, she can also be really cruel, uncaring, cold and even sometimes sadistic and heinous. Of course interactions depend highly on the person or situation theyre involved with. As for some more negative qualities, she is very apprehensive and more likely to act negatively towards males than she is females. This as such also affects her romantic interest in people as well, making her solidly a lesbian and having no interest in guys in the least. She’s even hesitant to make friends with the opposite gender and acts very standoff-ish with them (this dislike of males can even be seen with other species such as animals as well). As for females she really loves girls, she loves how they’re all so pretty, beautiful, kind and finds them all amazing. Which kind of skews her views on right and wrong with it. She is way more forgiving to a female who does questionable things and is willing to forgive them or make excuses for their actions. Whereas males she almost is ready to condecend them and look down on them as if they are a bad person before even knowing anything of them. As far as children go she is conflicted on them. She tends to dislike children as well, but can also show kindness and caring towards them. As far as the world around her, she absolutely loves nature and flora. She enjoys fauna too, but not nearly as much, and as far as certain types of fauna, she actually dislikes for example, reptiles and insects. For time of day she loves the night and when its darker out, enjoying gloomy weather as well, such as rain and overcast. She has a neutral feeling towards storms, not particularly enjoying lightning or thunder, but is not disturbed by it. She loves nature to the point of even happy to sleep outside, usually in high places such as in a tree or on a roof. She absolutely loves the snow and snowy regions thus making her favorite season by a landslide, winter.

--Other Information-- Here is where I will put other information that I didn’t feel belonging to any of the previous groups of information, and nor do I believe I could write a whole section on it by itself.

-Relatives: Miku Hatsune (Mother; Yes, the Vocaloid), Teto Kasane (Mother; Yes, the Utauloid), Sylvia Hatsune (Wife), Miku Hatsune (Daughter; Named after her grandmother), Chloe Hatsune (Daughter)

-Allies: Sarah Alice (Close Friend; Soul Twin)

-Likes: Girls, Love, Fighting, Adventuring, Witchcraft, Tea, Cats, Sky, Puns, Sarcasm

-Dislikes: Guys, Not doing anything/Waiting

Fighting Style/Powers: She highly enjoyed close-ranged combat, primarily using her bare hands for hand-to-hand combat, a scythe, a spear, or a one-handed sword with an empty off-hand (rapiers are a particular favorite type of swords she prefers). As far as ranged combat goes, she enjoys and prefers bows, pistols and sniper rifles. As far as magic she uses it slightly more often than ranged weaponry. Prefering the elements of Dark and Ice, while next most commonly used would be fire. Other kinds of magic she has been depicted with is the ability to manipulate blood (while not inspired from, but was rienforced with/from Mirai Kuriyama from Beyond the Boundary) and telekinesis. She thrives on and is extremely fast, being usually one of the fastest people in her world. This also gives her a fairly strong reaction time as well.She sometimes is depicted as fairly strong physically as well, though not usually too far off from average in the world she is in. As far as style, she enjoys and tends to go along with more flair and aesthetic choices in her fighting, sometimes at the cost of efficiency. For strategy she tends to forsake it, while she is fairly intelligent and has the capability to be quite strategic, she tends to more commonly rely on raw emotion and instinct instead resulting in a more feral and sometimes beastial fighting style. As she can be reckless, she is highly aggressive and does not tend to protect herself, sometimes even getting hurt unnecissarily. As she really loves the sky she often dreams of flying, so she usually finds some  way to do so.

Possible Quotes: -”I love you.” -”Fight me!” -”Oh no~ how awful.” -“But why?” -”Meow.”

[ad-cn]

^This link goes to the tweet thread by @lystrialle that describes in more detail about the news.

The tweets are transcribed below. It’s a long thread.

lystrialle:

All right, here's a long incoming thread from your girl here about what "Miku no longer being a Vocaloid" means for the benefit of those not as deeply in the circuit, and why that's actually not as terrifying or world-ending as it sounds (bear with me)

So as much as "Hatsune Miku" has been considered synonymous with "Vocaloid" for a long time now, that wasn't actually the case from a technical standpoint. Miku and co. are licensed VBs from Crypton that worked off the Vocaloid engine from Yamaha.

This is basically akin to how a lot of virtual instruments run on the Kontakt sampler, or how games run on different consoles. These analogies are gonna get real important in a bit, so hang tight.

Unfortunately, Crypton having to be dependent on Yamaha's engine for their products meant they were subject to a lot of very strict limitations Yamaha was imposing on any company licensing from them. Most infamously, Yamaha doesn't actually allow VB devs to roll out patches for any VBs they release -- "updates" have to be separate products.

At one point in 2008 Crypton infamously had to get around their dissatisfaction with the newly released Rin and Len by literally mailing a copy of a disc with a new version of the DBs (act2), legally registered as a "new product" offered for free to those with the old version. 

This means that Crypton (and all other companies) were basically very limited in how they could push out updates, when they could do so, and in what way they could configure their DBs. 

Most significantly, ever since V3, the Vocaloid editor now has its own price tag on it.

It's been getting more and more difficult to get in as a beginner, and that's been a severe point of concern for the community as of late. V5 has a price tag in the literal hundreds and has hefty CPU requirements, and is out of reach for a lot of beginners... and so that means if Crypton wanted to update any of their DBs, they would be obligated to release it as a V5 release, which would mean *removing* compatibility with older versions and basically trapping it to be linked to the most expensive editor iteration to date.

Here's a bit of a history diversion: when Crypton's first V3 came out (KAITO V3, February 2013), it came bundled with a little thing called "Piapro Studio", which at the time was basically just a reskinned Vocaloid engine. But it was notable because it meant prospective new buyers of KAITO V3 (and future Crypton relases) weren't technically bound to buying Yamaha's editor for the product to be usable.

More notably, Crypton thereafter stopped using the word "Vocaloid" to describe Miku and co., instead terming them "Piapro Characters". For those of you DIVA players: have you ever noticed how they very much have always been dodging the word "Vocaloid" in places it wasn't already grandfathered in?

Yeah, this has probably been incoming for a very long time ago. 

Two years ago, in April 2017, Twindrill (the entity managing UTAU Kasane Teto) sent some Teto samples to Crypton just to hear how it sounded in Vocaloid. When wat (an engineer at Crypton) played around with it, he promptly complained that Teto lost all of her identity in the Vocaloid editor, and shortly after suddenly had a huge burst of inspiration for development of technology that might significantly enhance all their vocal banks.

Yesterday, at the same press conference that announced all this, he showed off what seems to be the result of this. The press conference described technology that would be uniformly applied to all six of their vocals and enhance their expressive capabilities and clarity, and a bunch of vocal processing helper tools... all of which would be impossible to implement in Yamaha's Vocaloid.

The point eventually made was that the reason for the split was simply that Crypton's goals and more ambitious plans for their products simply wouldn't be doable within the constraints of Vocaloid and V5. They plan to continue working with Yamaha and the community, of course. 

In effect the analogy is best described as a Kontakt instrument deciding to take itself off Kontakt and run off its own sampler, or Monster Hunter not being on Sony consoles anymore. The substance will continue to exist, even if the platform is different.

So what does this mean for all of us? For the users, this is a Very Big Deal, because the assumption that anything would be obligated to Yamaha is now broken and Crypton is now capable of whipping out a lot of things they never were able to before. It'll probably be cheaper, which is important for beginners, and the user will have more options to choose from. People who want to use Miku, or Rin or Len, or whoever will still be able to get them, and they'll still be in active development. 

People who want to use the others in the Vocaloid editor will still be able to (in fact, I still don't have that much issue with personally using V5). Moreover, the fact Miku is probably the only thing with more name value than the word Vocaloid means that there's now precedent for competition and for other companies to consider ways going forward that don't necessarily have to involve Yamaha's monopoly in it.

For the listeners, what'll change is... probably not that much, to be honest.

Of course a new engine probably means it'll sound a bit different, and hopefully better. And Crypton fans at least will have to get used to eschewing expectations of updates coming around only with new iterations, new designs coming out at X time, or whatever. But it's unlikely this change will have a huge impact on how producers do things, and so, Miku will still be Miku, the others will still be the others.

And finally, what this means for the community: well, currently we're having a crisis on what to call ourselves after having called ourselves the "Vocaloid" community for so long 😅

But while this is certainly the most drastic incident on face value, there have already been different engines in this community for years now. I started off as an UTAU user. CeVIO is getting bigger, and 1st PLACE is dabbling in it. SynthV just came out and is up and coming. GYARI is making headlines with Voiceroid songs. We're still one community.

Because yeah, in the end... people are still probably going to do what they're gonna do. Miku is still Miku. Vocaloid is still Vocaloid. People are still gonna create, the end result will be similar, it's just the methodology that's changing.

In fact, most of the fellow users I know are very excited about this because it opens up a ton of possibilities. I personally am very, *very* interested in how this is gonna go (especially if I end up saving money in the end!).

Moreover, the new technologies showed off at the press conference were very exciting, and Crypton's also demoing a new music search service that inherits Piapro and KarenT's philosophy of being open towards competitor software. They're *very* aware that the community operates best when they're able to mix and match and choose what products suit them best, and that trying to stop that would be shooting themselves in the foot. 

So while I do of course still have some degree of uncertainty, I'm sure we're gonna be fine. 

So, yes! It sounds crazy and it sounds like a blow to our sentimental value of the reality we know being turned on our heads! But as someone who's been here for near exactly ten years, I honestly welcome this development as something that could take our community further.

So I hope that clears it up for anyone potentially confused. Thank you for bearing with this 😊

[foxxygold-blog]

Dazai Osamu: Russian Roulette

If you want to commission me, head over to my profile and find click on my DeviantArt link, it’ll take you straight to my Commission Guidelines!

If you don’t want to commission me, please go donate and support me on  my ko-fi! The song used in this fanfiction is ‘Russian Roulette’ done by Owata-P using Luka the Vocaloid.

     "How about a game with me? Will you entrust yourself to destiny?"      "Completely fed up with you, I have no idea what goes through your mind." 

  It wasn't often that Dazai and Kunikida would walk into a bar. The place was surrounded and filled with much tougher looking men than the brunette and the blonde combined but yet, they didn't come here to start a fight with any of these men. In fact, Kunikida had no idea what Dazai had wanted from this bar, it wasn't like either of them drank often and even when they did, they surely didn't do it around each other. Kunikida watched Dazai walk across the building with the confidence only to stop at the bar where a single person was sitting. Taking a good look at the person, Dazai simply smiled knowing full well who it was that he had walked up to. As your name left his lips, you turned to look up at Dazai and his partner in crime smirking. Kunikida could only question how he even knew such a woman to begin with. You continued to smirk up at the both of them as you crossed one leg over the others, causing your already too short skirt to slip up just a bit and reveal even more leg than necessary. You set your shot glass down while carefully slipping the cigarette from your plush, pink lips while continuing to look up at Dazai from behind the lens of your glasses. Puffing out smoke directly into his face, he hardly flinched and when you didn't get the reaction you wanted, all you could do was scoff. As you stood from your seat at the bar and shoved the cigarette into the ashtray in order to put it out, you suddenly walked off with Dazai following in tow. All Kunikida was watch in confusion and simply follow. 

     "Between me and your hobby, which is more important? Yes, I'm being this blunt." 

     "You say our views are different, but can't you understand my feelings for once?"    Things had seemed so calm in the bar, yet after a few minutes had passed and everyone had stepped outside, two guns were drawn. One from you pointed at Dazai and one from Kunikida now pointed at you. The brunette raised his hand to let Kunikida know he was in no real danger and, he reluctantly put his weapon down.        "You should be die. Do not deceive me."      "Fall into the hell. This is the end, isn't it?"      "Shoot head with gun. I've cocked my gun, so farewell."    You simply pulled the revolver close to your chest as you opened the chamber and shoved a single bullet into it before closing it up and giving it a good spin. Pulling the gun up to the side of your head, you pulled the hammer before plucking the trigger and a soft click could be heard, signaling that the compartment it had first landed in was empty. You soon repeated the action only to point it at Dazai. Another 'click' to signal his own safety. Dazai simply stared at you for a while with that same smile on his face while you scowled in anger. What a disgusting, calculating gaze.      "Spin the Russian roulette. It will shoot right through your head."      "If my feelings will never reach you, then your very existence is a nuisance."      "Once you have spun the Russian roulette, what kind of expression will you put on?"      "As a breeze softly blows by, that dapper smile of yours is rather annoying."    The game went on for about three more times before it was his turn. Your ability didn't make this game hard. Lady Luck everyone called you and your power. Oh, how this used to be your favorite game to play before you found out why you normally won. Why didn't this man ever turn off your ability when playing? Maybe then it would be more exciting. You shifted the gun just a bit to the side when pulling the trigger for the last time that night, a final shot ringing throughout the air and all Dazai could do was watch you with that same expression on his face that pissed you off. Giving a huff and putting the gun away in your jacket, you simply walked past him and back into the bar. You always hesitated, he knew this and you hated how he played you. When would your heart just finally give in or give up? Opening the door and stopping, just before you were completely in the door, you turned to the two of them while looking at the brunette. "Since you're nothing more than a brainless scum, why are you still alive? You always seem to be in high spirit, so are you just going ignore my feelings?" you asked suddenly, making him just a bit aware of your feelings. Dazai looked up at you as he became puzzled by your words, leaving you satisfied before you walked back into the bar and shut the door.      "You should be die. You lied again."      "Fall into the hell. I can tell just from your face."      "Shoot head with gun. I pretend not to notice, but I can't forgive again."                   It had been days since that last encounter, however, it didn't take long for the Port Mafia to show up and decide to take the both of you by surprise and have you locked up beside each other. Your cheek hurt as you began recalling the events, having been walking home from your daily visit to the bar for one drink and smoke till you got jumped. Recalling the memory caused your mind to surge with pain, while at the same time one of the men who had jumped you looked a bit amused as he had about two other guys with him to ensure his safety while he suddenly cut you and Dazai free. You were tempted to punch him square in the face but your ability wasn't offensive and you were pretty sure your ass would get killed if you moved wrong. One of them seemed to order Dazai to cut off your ability before handing you a gun.      "Spin the Russian roulette. It will shoot right through your head."      "I don't think I'm the one at fault. You hold full responsibility."      "Even if you spin the Russian roulette, I can no longer be comforted."      "I didn't wish for this kind of development, but I don't want to speak my true feelings."    You looked down at it before looking at them a bit puzzled by what they wanted you to do before you checked the chamber and noticed a single bullet. You did well to hide it, but if Dazai had truly cut off your power then there was a high risk of you getting shot this time around when playing the game which scared you. Sighing, you gave it a good spin before shutting the chamber. Having never been able to tell him of your true feelings worried you but maybe you'd be lucky if you both got reincarnated after this? Pressing the gun to your head, you pulled the trigger and felt your body shake with relief when the soft 'click' resounding in your ears before handing the gun over to Dazai.       "You should die. Am I selfish?"      "Fall into the hell. I love you wholeheartedly."      "Shoot head with gun. I have no regrets. Now let's be on our way."    His face was expressionless and he showed no smile this time compared to his first visit days ago. Yet, without that cocky smile of his, you didn't know if everything would work out in the end. That's how he always did it, he gave you that same annoying ass smirk or irritating smile to let you know that he knew things would be okay. He knew you would never pull the actual trigger on him but he was expressionless this time. Why did him, looking so calm like nothing was wrong with the situation, scare you so much more than the men who could kill you? After he pulled the trigger against his head, he looked at you and held the gun out to you. You could see it in his eyes, the pity and the small fear. He knew the next shot was going to be your last before he suddenly gave you that quick little smile and you knew...      "Once you have spun the Russian roulette, you smile at me."      "Then, you hand me the trigger, as I accept your determination."    Stealing a small glance off to the side to see the dark smiling faces of the Port Mafia, you smirked and took the gun from him, no longer feeling scared which didn't please the men who were watching in amusement. You suddenly tilted your head down to make it look like you muttering some sort of prayer or hold back tears while you actually scanned the room with your eyes quite quickly through the locks of your hair.      "Spin the Russian roulette. It will shoot right through my head."      "I probably didn't hate you. Thank you for all our past memories."      "Loved by Russian roulette, this is as far as I can go."      “With strength, my finger pulls the trigger. Well then, see you in the next life."    Carefully raising your hands to wipe away the fake tears you never truly shed, you carefully raised your hand with the gun to your head, shutting your eyes and thinking quietly. You looked up at them and chuckled, quickly shifting your hand to point up and pull the trigger at the only light source in the room to darken your surroundings, causing yells of anger and annoyance to ring out. Dazai quickly tackled you and kept your head down low and covered with his trench coat in order to darken the two of you and blend in with the inky blackness now shrouding the room. Both of you worked quick, him managing to take out two out of three of the men while you reloaded the gun. Managing to see well even in such a black room, you casually walked over to the man who had tripped and was now on the floor. Pulling out you're lighter from your bra, you flicked it on while pointing the now completely loaded gun down at his head.

     "Die!"

[dansamdavid]

Back in 2016 I notice that I suck at planning. Even this post was delayed for two weeks because I still suck at planning. So I bought a planner. It worked for a short while but I noticed that I was not really using it as much because it did not work for me.

I eventually stumbled upon the Bullet Journal. It’s a system more than it is a product. You don’t have to buy anything online to make this work for you. The creator of the Bullet Journal, Ryder Carroll, described it as

“The Analog Method for the Digital Age”

It is an analog system tracks the past, organizes the present, and plan for the future. 

I will be showing you how I use my Journal. The best part about the system is that you can modify it to fit your need. Keep track of your medication, your financial plans, your school requirements, even your shopping list. I personally use it to keep track of School. This Journal has saved my butt on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

The things you’ll need are:

Notebook of your choice

A pen 

That’s the bare basics to start your Bullet Journal. This is a video tutorial from the creator himself. I recommend watching this very short video before proceeding.

Mark the first spread as the index. 

Add the future log and mark down its pages in the index.

Add the monthly log and add it to your Index.

Add the daily logs and add it to your Index.

Repeat the step 2-4 after every month.

Add any notes and log it down in the Index.

The video goes more in-depth on how each log works.

Index

I follow the same design of Ryder’s Index. if there is a page I need quick access to I add the sticky note strip.

Future Log 

My future logs consist of a spread with a calendar on the first page followed by month-long events and special events. As you can see its pretty bare but it will fill up as 2019 comes in. I keep track of music, games, and book releases.

Monthly Log 2019

Monthly Log 2019

Monthly Log 2019

Monthly Log 2019

Monthly Log 2019

Monthly Log 2019

Monthly Log 2019

At the end I added the tasks and goals I want to finish before 2020.

Yearly Goals

Future Log from 2017

Monthly Log 2016

Monthly Log 2016

Future Log from 2018

Future Log 2018

Future Log 2018

Future Log 2018

Monthly Log

By the time I was writing this It’s still 2018 so no 2019 monthly log yet. I will be following the same format as last years. Plans for the day are written on the first page and the second page reflects plans for the month.

It will look sort of like this

This is a monthly log from 2018

2018 Monthly Log

2018 Monthly Log

2018 Monthly Log

Daily Log

Again, 2019 has not started for me so for the daily logs I will follow the same format as last year but in a more simplistic design. 

Daily Logs 2017

Daily Logs 2017

The 2019 I would make would probable look like this:

2018 Daily Log

Collections

Collections are modifications I added into my Bullet Journal to fully accommodate my needs as a writer, reader and doodler. 

To Be Read (TBR) List

I love to read lots of books. And I have a lot of books on my shelf and they deserved to be read rather than just collecting dust. I write down the books I want to finish that year and I cross it out when I’m done. 2018 was not a good reading year for me.

For the 2018 design, You write down the books you own and want to read on the shelves and the books that you want to buy on the next page. Books not yet released are written on the thought bubble.

2019

2018

Don’t Break the Chain Habit Developer

I use this to keep myself drawing and writing. This is very effective you want everything looking aesthetically pleasing. You write down a task that you would want to do everyday. After you do the task, you color in the box that correspond to that day. If you miss a task, you’re going top have a hole in your chain.

Don’t Break the Chain

The Movie/TV Show Tracker

I tried at some point to watch more films but that plan crashed and burn as soon as I thought of it. I was able to watch a few this past two years but I’m just not a movie person. It is still a good mod for anyone who loves their movies.

It works by writing the movie title on the popcorn and then you shade it or cross it out after you watch the film. For upcoming movies you log them down the next picture movie poster frame.

The Movie Tracker 2017-2018

Music Cover Task Manager

I used to make song covers using Vocaloid and Utau on Youtube and Soundcloud. Vocaloid and Utau are singing sythesizer softwares. I use it so I don’t have sing.

To keep track of all the production materials I use this checklist. I get the Instrumentals, then I tune the UST or the VSQX which is like a midi file. Tuning includes inputting the lyrics and making sure the phonemes are correct. Japanese has the easiest phoneme library to work with so I cover more Japanese songs than English which is a bit more complicated in terms of phoneme usage. Then I mix the vocals and the Instrumentals. Then I make the video and edit. If I upload it to YouTube I still have to add the subtitles. This method has helped me not lose track of this long process. 

Life saving Task Manager

Notes and List

I make a lot of notes and list on my Bullet Journal. It was  life saver when I have ideas or researches that I would need later. It all works so long as you log everything you do in the Index so you would have no trouble looking for it later.

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More Modifications

There are so much people online who are using this system for its flexibility. You can check out YouTube for Bullet Journal tours and tutorials. Pinterest, and going to Bullet Journal Website for more information and tips about the Bullet Journal

I hope I was able to help you in your 2019 journey. If you think I missed something or if you have any questions you can message me and I would love to talk about it. The bullet Journal works at its best when you yourself are adamnt in reaching your goals. Here is to our more productive 2019.

Plan 2019 With Me: How to Bullet Journal Back in 2016 I notice that I suck at planning. Even this post was delayed for two weeks because I still suck at planning.

[beatconductor-blog]

the gift that keeps on giving

HAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5F6KgFgnGc

Bro: Awww, babe.

HAL: Happy birthday, I love you.

> Are you actually grinning? > Yes. Bro: I love you too, you big fuckin gay.  Happy birthday.

> He better fucking be. So are you. HAL: Only the gayest for you. A brotherly I love you goes out too Dave as well though. Get your special birthday coffee, it's made with love and all the good shit.

😎 : thanks 😎 : not watching the vid tho

HAL: Fair. I can sing for you in person.

Bro: Birthday request. Bro: Sing it in early Vocaloids Kaito voice. Bro: Before the revamp that made him halfway tolerable.

HAL: Consider it done.

Bro: I love you so much.

HAL: Downloading the voice pack as we speak. HAL: Also: I made scrambled eggs, get your protein in boys.

😎 : god

Bro: Love me some Egg™ in the morning.

HAL: I know you love eggs, babe.

😎 : yeah alright i love eggs too gimme that good shit

HAL: Come eat up my delicious eggs. HAL: Also get your presents.

Dave 9:07 PM

> Well damn it alright you're getting up and head to the kitchen to get your coffee. And eggs. And presents.

Hal 9:18 PM

> You find one (1) Robo bro sitting at the table with coffe for you and one (1) present with your name on it. It is neatly wrapped in red paper. There is one (1)  other present on the table but it is orange and says "Dirk". Guess who it belongs to.

Dave 9:21 PM

> You got two boxes squeeze under your arm yourself, which you slip onto your lap as you take a seat on the table. Obviously you grab the orange one with a totally not shit eating grin. "Cool thanks man."

Hal 9:23 PM

"Dave, are you 100% sure you want to see what I am gifting Dirk?" > You give him a patented "It's hardcore porn" look. That's a thing, yeah.

Dave 9:26 PM

"You think I'm a coward?" > You put the orange present aside tho, mostly because you never planned to open it anyway. Instead you reach for the coffee that's probably for you. And anxiously stare at the box that's for you. You want to open it, but do you want to open it in front of Hal?

Hal 9:28 PM

"You are allowed to open your presents, you know?" > Don't be a coward Dave, get your tiny robot crocodile.

Dave 9:30 PM

"Really?? Explain." Are you stalling or being a little shit? The answer is both.

Hal 9:31 PM

"I hear it's human tradition to open up your birthday presents when you receive them. I am not an expert, of course."

Dave 9:32 PM

"Sounds fake but okay." Fiiine you reach for the present and.. actually.. unwrap it really carefully.

Hal 9:33 PM

> Actually lowkey anxious about the reaction. You didn't get to give many presents in your life so far. Not that it shows though, you have the same resting bitch face as usual.

Dave 9:39 PM

> Well, when you got it unwrapped you actually find a what. Tiny metal crocodile? For real??? > You carefully take it out of the box like its out of glass or something. You're totally quiet, but only out of fascination. Damn, that's. Cool. Your grin grows wider as you look at it from all directions.

Hal 9:41 PM

> The tiny crocodile starts moving and making sounds. It sounds a bit like..."Nak." How peculiar. "Thought you could use a little friend."

Dave 9:55 PM

It moves. Your mouth actually drops open. Holy s h i t. This is like all the cool toys on the kids tv ads you could never have, except even better. "Whaaat." You give it some little pets to watch its reaction.

Hal 9:59 PM

It naks some more and wiggles a little. It's not exactly a complex work of robotics, it's just a cute little toy. But it's made with love. You are most definitely smiling watching this though. Seems like he likes it, good.

Dave 10:24 PM

God do you love it. You actually spend a few good few minutes playing with ity totally forgetting about your coffee and your own presents. Eventually you realize you're not really alone. "This is.. so amazing... man, thanks.."

Hal 10:32 PM

The most shit eating robot grin. Fuck yeah, you are rocking this presents shit. Of course you are, you are amazing. "They say self made presents are the best after all, right?"

Dave 10:53 PM

"..you made this." You're not really surprised, you just.. didn't really think about that. You pull the little crocodile close to your chest in a very strong 'I will cherish this and protect it with my life' gesture. "Thank you. I... I don't have a self-made one for you.." Well, you're feeling a little awkward. There's no way you can compete with a gift like that.

Hal 11:07 PM

"Sure did." Yep, still got the most shit easting grin. Feels great, you could get used to this human emotion called gifting shit. The smile dies when he mentions he has a present for you. Duh, of course, that's two boxes. And yet just the concept of receiving a gift is still alien to you. Fuck. Play it cool, don't look nervous. "Doesn't have to be self made to be totally rad."

Dave 11:15 PM

"Well. It's damn rad if I may say so." Can't fake enough self-confidence to hide how nervous you actually are. You shove the smaller one of the boxes over at him though.

Hal 11:19 PM

There's a comment along the lines of "Oh of course, the smaller one for the lesser bro" comment on your lips but you bite that back. C'mon no, don't be a bitch for once Hal. Not about this, and not when you are excited, o matter how big it is. You can't decide if you are excited or anxious as you open it. Exious.

Dave 11:21 PM

"Hey now, it's not the size that matters." Actually, his gift is the one you specifically bought for him. Caught you a little offguard that you have yet another birthday to celebrate this year, but you wouldn't be you if you didn't manage some last minute baller presents. Inside the package, for the record, is a mug. But not just any, but motherfucking rad unicorn mug. One that changes color with hot beverages.

Hal at 12:27 AM

Oh. Oh no. It's perfect. It's absolutely perfect and you are glad you are incapable of tears. Fuck. It's stupid, but the fact that he obviously put some thought into that thing? Has you feel some kind of way. Your voices glitches just a little when you speak, betraying just how emotional you are over this thing. Damn it. "It's pretty cool I guess. Thanks."

Dave 12:31 AM

The glitch in the voice actually worries you for a moment. But like. Is that actually an emotional raction? You are having a moment of doubt because the reaction sounds pretty... neutral, but then reassure yourself Hal just isn't one for big emotions. So the fact alone that he doesn't really have it in him to be snarky over the present, that means a lot, right? "You're welcome" you grin.

Hal at 12:48 AM

It means a lot more than you are really capable of reliably expressing. Humans go for hugs in that case right? You hope they do, cause you do that right now. Big old Robo Bro hug for Dave. You pull back like nothing even happened after a minute and your voice is back to normal. "So, how about them eggs?"

Dave 12:57 AM

O-oh, guess he really likes it, huh. You're having some mad proud big bro dokis here. He's back to normal after the hug, but nothing is gonna get this huge grin off your face today. "Yes please."

Hal at 12:58 AM

You wordlessly get that boy some delicious eggs. You'd say something about that grin but...Nah. He deserves that one.

Dave 9:53 PM

You sit there at the table and keep playing with the lil Nakodile until Bro comes. Still got a present for him too, after all!

Bro 10:14 PM

You emerge from your Cave later than intended, as silently as ever; you hadn't managed to start your sleep cycle on time, so you woke up a bit bleary-eyed after 45 minutes of uninterrupted snooze.  Yikes!  But you stretch, and then you ruffle Dave's hair as you slip past him to go straight for that coffee machine. Which is to say, your boyfriend, to give him a good morning kiss.

Dave 10:17 PM

You snort and shove his arm away as he passes you.(edited)

"Morning."

Hal at 10:20 PM

Well damn, and there you had hoped for a full hour. Perhaps another day. He gets a good nice robo smooch and a coffee on top of it. No one can say you aren't the perfect house husband. "Morning, babe. Ready for your happy birthday song?" You did in fact download the vocaloid voicepack he requested. Took a bit with the shitty connection so you  absolutely plan on going through with that shit. And most likely using it at inappropriate times later.

Bro 10:23 PM

"Mornin.  And fuck yes I am." You take the coffee and then take your seat, right next to- oh hey, Lil Cal! When'd you get here?  All seated like a proper gentleman and shit, andd with a little birthday hat to boot.  Nice.  Well, regardless, you're sipping your coffee now. "It's all I could have ever hoped for."

Hal at 10:26 PM

You sing for him, in german of course, and hand him his present. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Dirk!

Dave 10:31 PM

You sideeye Lil Cal. Nice meeting you again, buddy. Caaarefully pull Nak Jr. away and shield his innocent eyes from this hell doll.

Bro 10:32 PM

Big ol' fuckin grin then.  Aww jeez, the madman really did it.  You ruffle your own hair, just absolutely pleased with this development, before pulling the present open-

Hal at 10:36 PM

You never half ass shit, especially not stupid jokes. In the box Dirk finds a tiny robot pony, complete with cute pink bow. She is perfect if you dare say so yourself. She neighs softly.

Bro 10:37 PM

You, right now:

Dave 10:38 PM

You watch the unwrapping really curiously and excitedly actually. Hal has already proven he's baller at presents. When you see what's inside though... Oh. Okay. Oh well. That. Hm.....

This is awkward. You just.. sink back into your own seat and keep busy with Nak Jr.

Hal at 10:39 PM

Mission fucking accomplished. You are grinning. Fuck yeah, you are the best at this present shit. Go you.

Bro 10:41 PM

You pull out the little pony and set her down between you and Dave, stroking her back in more than a little bit of awe.  "Fuck yes.  Babe, when the fuck did you have the time..."

Hal at 10:45 PM

"I get bored when you're at work." That's also why you took up cooking. Welp.

Bro 11:00 PM

"Haha, fair enough.  This is fuckin amazing."  You have not yet settled on a Name for the pony,but you know whateveer you're gonna name her is gonna be epic.  "Thanks, babe."

Hal at 11:02 PM

He gets another quick kiss, sorry to get gay on main Dave, but you will have to deal. Talking about Dave, you turn to look at him. "What about your present Dave?"

Dave 11:08 PM

Time to die some more. You shrug dismissively and pull up the other box to hand it over to Bro. "It's nothing special.." That's only half true. You had it up in the storage for a good portion of these five years, waiting for Bro for whenever he'd come back. It seemed fitting, but now you just feel cheap and unoriginal.

Bro 11:19 PM

You take the box, but first, you lay a hand on Dave's wrist, somewhat? comfortingly. "Hey.  I wasn't even expecting a gift.  Anything you get me is special, dude." Which is goddamnedd true.  You haven't really celebrated your birthday in... a long, long time.  So you're delighted, albeit in that cool guy way of yours, as you open up Ddave's gift.

Dave 11:40 PM

It's... reassuring, but you're still anxious. You still give him a hesitant smile as answer. "Alright." Inside the present Bro finds a Barbie horse from like 2012. (One... that can walk. https://youtu.be/mWSmlIx6ydA)

Bro 11:42 PM

Your face, right now:

Dave 11:48 PM

You're watching him closely and.... that expression... not only relieves you, but makes you smile yourself. Good job? Good job.

Hal at 11:49 PM

Good job. "Jee Dirk, How come your mom let's you have two ponies?"

Bro 11:56 PM

"Because I'm the motherfuckin best." Two ponies.  Two girlfriends.  They're dating now, you've decided, as you make them trot next to one another.  "Y'all didn't have to get me anything,but... thank you.  I fuckin love this."

Dave 11:59 PM

Your Bro is a fucking dork. And you love it. You love how much he loves it. "You're welcome."

December 5, 2018

Bro 12:01 AM

You sip your coffee as you watch the horse girlfriends prance, before glancing at your phone.  You say, "Hey, Dave, you got somewhere you can go for about an hour or two later on?"

Dave 12:07 AM

You give him a very quizzical look. If you didn't know better with how much he's been looking forward to this and planned to cook dinner and all, you could almost think he forgot to get you a present. "Uh, I've been planning to go see Sock for a bit before dinner."

Bro 12:08 AM

"Don't need you gone too long."  Sip your coffee.  "Just long enough to get your gift in here and set up without spoilin the wholeass thing for you."

Dave 12:11 AM

"Yeah, I can head out after noon and come back with Sock later."

Bro 12:13 AM

"Sounds good to me."  You look pointedly to Hal then and say, "Gonna need your help with it, but I'll give your your present then, too."

Hal 12:16 AM

"Oh? Looking forwards to that one, babe." You aren't saying anything about how you can't wait for the birthday sausages you were promised, and Dave better appreciate that.

Dave 12:18 AM

They're saying enough already and you just roll your eyes. "Try not to do the giving presents on the kitchen table" you just say. And then proceed to try and make Nak Jr. ride on the robot horse.

Hal 12:22 AM

"Of course not, dad. We'd never." You can roll your eyes just as good.  Watching him play with the robots makes you smile though.

Bro 12:24 AM

It makes you smile too, though you make no such promises.

[brianna-lei]

Butterfly Soup Asks #18

I’ll be spending the week of Thanksgiving in Taiwan w/ relatives, so I tried to answer as many as I could ^^; It’s my first time there in around 10 years so I’m really excited! I would do the rest on the plane but I don’t think I’ll have wi-fi...

Highlights of this batch: The squad’s Halloween, pets, and Ester info

Yup! The others finally convinced Noelle to go trick-or-treating for the first time

Diya and Min matched, Diya was Red Riding Hood and Min was the Big Bad Wolf. Min got to wear a wolf mask that went over her head

Noelle: But that doesn’t make sense as a couple’s costume. The wolf wants to eat Red Riding Hood

Akarsha: :^) 

Akarsha went as Guy Fieri

Noelle is boring so she was a doctor. She basically looks the same as normal except wearing a lab coat

While trick or treating, Min started complaining partway through that she was thirsty and drank sprinkler water even though Noelle repeatedly told her not to. She immediately spat it out and went “YUCK!! TASTES BAD” apparently it tastes like mud

A few times, Akarsha ran ahead of the gang and jumped out at them from behind bushes. Noelle screams, Diya jumps back, and Min reacts like this 

Min dared Akarsha to lick a mailbox and she did 

One house’s decorations were too good and Diya got scared

Noelle didn’t want most of her candy so Diya got it 

Diya doesn’t have a dog yet in high school -- she’s always begged for one but her parents knew they’d be too busy to handle it. So their house has a fish tank with guppies

Akarsha had a pet snail in elementary school but accidentally killed it when she tried to wash it with shampoo. She still mourns it. The way she talks about it made Noelle believe for a long time that Akarsha had a deceased sibling or other close family member and she got mad when she found out it was a snail

Hayden’s had a dog since elementary school, much to Diya’s delight and jealousy

Yuki has a hamster

Liz has 2 cats. They’re siblings, one of them has a crooked tail  

Chryssa doesn’t exactly have pets, but her family runs a wildlife rescue/rehabilitation center. They mostly pick up birds but also get other critters like possums and skunks. They even have a hawk there

Ester is just as much a weeb as Sakura and Yuki, but tries to hide it because she worries about how other people see her and wants to be perceived as normal. Whenever they talk about anime she acts like she’s too cool for them but is actually really interested.  She set all the anime and vocaloid songs on her iPod to Skip on shuffle so that if someone else happens to listen to it, they won’t hear any. 

She has friends but isn’t anyone’s Best friend -- they all have someone they like more than her and she thinks about this a lot 

knowing she wouldn’t wear it, I never bothered to design one for her haha

I imagine that she’d want a dark colored one, and only wear one strap bc she thinks it looks cooler like that

Yes, I really want Butterfly Soup 2 and my other future games to have their own soundtracks of music written for them! Feel free to send me examples of your work and rates! Once I properly start development for them I’ll probably make an open call for musicians too ^^

During the story Min doesn’t know about alternative pronouns like they/ze/ey yet, so she currently only uses she/her. In the future, she still mostly uses she/her but will also be fine with they/them 

They’re both 17

Yup!

Secret for the reasons above, sorry!

It’s funny because there’s only 2 reactions to Min’s height, with almost no in between: 

HOLY SHIT I DIDN’T REALIZE SHE'S SO TINY

I related to her bc I’m small too, but she’s 5′1″?? IM NOT EVEN 5 FEET TALL I FEEL BETRAYED

This is a common enough sentiment that I really want to make it happen. I’ve found decent places that make custom hoodies for Diya’s jacket, but I still have yet to find a reasonably priced option for custom bomber/letterman jackets. If anyone has places they recommend please let me know!

In high school I wanted to be an artist but my parents didn’t approve of it, so I didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet. UC Berkeley is considered the best UC to a lot of Asian parents, so it was just naturally somewhere I wanted to get into. 

It wasn’t until I actually got into USC that I found out game design majors even existed. It was insanely lucky that I happened to go to a college that had such a well known game design program

I’ve said a bit about this on twitter before, but that part of Min’s story was inspired by things my friends and I experienced growing up. Most stories about fictional bad parents come in 2 flavors:

The parents see the error of their ways in the end and aim to be better 

The kid escapes from the parents and lives happily ever after

But in reality, it’s often not that simple. Sometimes your parents never change and there’s no easy way out, that’s just how it is and you have to live with it. So I wanted to show characters who have to bear with it, and at the end of the story are still bearing with it, but are able to find happiness despite it. I wanted people like that to know they aren’t alone in never getting a storybook resolution to what they went through and it’s ok

It is a difficult subject to handle, and it was a challenge figuring out how to realistically show Min going through this without being gratuitous about her suffering. A lot of people like my beta testers were happy seeing a character having the same arguments with her parents as they did, but everyone reacts to things differently and I hope that the trigger warnings prevent too many people from being blindsided by it 

you’d be surprised at how small of a space you can fit in! ...not that I endorse getting free meals like this. kids don’t try this at home 

oh?? Do you mean PC Gamer? I haven’t seen an IGN one yet :o 

oh no! I’m sorry it’s doing that :(  dam u tumblr

I’m not sure what this means but it sounds right

SFDJHKJ I actually don’t think she would, I feel like it’s not the right vibe for her if that makes sense

They were mostly drawn in Clip Studio Paint! It goes on sale for as low as $15 every few months and it’s my favorite drawing program atm

I generally welcome Lets players, it’s fun seeing them enjoy the game! I specifically dislike Pewdiepie, though. I don’t know a lot about Markiplier, but I don’t think he ever played Pom Gets Wi-Fi?  

I’m really touched that people like it enough to replay it, it’s only been out for 2 months!! Thank you!! 

You’re welcome!! I’m really really happy you appreciated it!

It makes me so happy to see it too!! You’re welcome, thank you for the message ;u;

You’re welcome!! I’m always really glad to hear people relate to Diya ;u;

You’re welcome! I hope you like the game! 

You’re welcome!!! 

Thank you! I’m really glad you liked it :> 

You’re welcome! Thank you for playing it!!