#just realized i forgot to upload a couple more comics!

[that-butch-archivist]

source: That's Ms. Bulldyke to You, Charlie! by Jane Caminos

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 31: On the Scent

If you're on the scent for spoilers, keep reading! If you don't want to know everything about The Wheel of Time, including the books, show, comics, and card game all compressed into like, a couple thousand words inexplicably, definitely don't keep reading. The second you click that button everything will be psychically uploaded to your brain. I mean uh... something on theme... scentically uploaded to your nose.

We have a rising sun chapter as we're still in Cairhien and Thom's not around.

He gave one abrupt shudder and stopped laughing; she left him to crouch over Hurin.

Another not subtle thing to be doing. It's a good thing these Cairhienien are so politically suspicious that they miss the much greater threat right in front of them.

He said he didn’t know it, but he had a smile that shouted ‘lie’ a mile off.

Perrin could probably smell the lies on the dude before he opened his mouth.

I couldn’t hear what she said, but I didn’t know whether his eyes were going to pop out of his head or he was going to swallow his tongue first.

I'm sure that Verin just did the usual Aes Sedai thing and that the specifics aren't important, but it amuses me to imagine that she just told the dude the truth straight out.

He heard gasps from the Cairhienin listening, but he did not care. They could play their Great Game if they wanted, but Ingtar had come, and he was finished with it at last.

This is called dramatic irony and also counting your chickens before they hatch and whatnot.

Rand glanced at Perrin—He’s a sniffer?—and found Perrin studying him in return. He thought Perrin muttered something. Shadowkiller?

Have you boys tried talking to each other about your-

Nope. Can't even pretend to ask with a straight face.

Everyone was watching now—not even Cuale gave any attention to his own burning inn—and Rand thought a little caution might not be amiss after all.

Exactly Rand. You're surrounded by strangers in an immediate sense and surrounded by Darkfriends in a metaphorical sense. No point celebrating being free just yet.

Suddenly he noticed that the others were looking at him, Verin and Ingtar, Mat and Perrin. He realized what he had been doing, and his face colored. “I am sorry, Ingtar. It’s just that I’ve become used to being in charge, I suppose. I’m not trying to take your place.”

It's fascinating, how this boy has to be dragged kicking and screaming into everything, but once he accepts it he just takes to it instantly. A couple weeks' leadership and the boy completely forgets Ingtar's even there.

You can see why Demandred, Sammael, and Etcetera'al got so pissy.

She’s Moiraine’s eyes watching me, Moiraine’s hand trying to pull my strings. But I have cut the strings.

If only Rand had tried to learn about politics while he was here. He might have realized that Verin knowing things doesn't at all mean she's on Moiraine's side.

I guess that would probably have only made him more suspicious.

Also I forgot to mention her directly when taking these notes but Tiedra's plump so we know she's a good innkeeper.

It almost seemed to him that she was in the room with him, that he could smell her perfume, so much so that he looked around, and laughed to find himself alone.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had popped in invisibly somehow.

It was him, he thought. Rand is the Shadowkiller. Light, what’s happening to all of us? His hands tightened into fists, large and square. These hands were meant for a smith’s hammer, not an axe.

The duality that Perrin will be grappling with rears its ugly head. At last he already knows the answer. Though that really just makes his plot arc all the more frustrating.

Also, points to Perrin for pulling off having Rand in his POV instead of what usually happens (thus far in the series) and Rand hogging the spotlight. This isn't the first time this has happened (Egwene did it back in Fal Dara), but it does show the transition this series is slowly undergoing.

One of Mat’s eggs hit the floor and cracked. He did not look at it, though. He was looking at Rand, and Ingtar had turned around.

Mat, the so-called idiot, irresponsible fool: Has a tell about Rand's situation but volunteers nothing and doesn't cause any trouble.

Perrin realized he was staring, too. “Well, he did not fly,” he said. “I don’t see any wings. Maybe he has more important things to tell us.” Verin shifted her attention to him, just for a moment. He managed to meet her eyes, but he was the first to look away.

Perrin, the so-called quiet, responsible kid: Tries to get in a fight with a woman several decades his senior over his friend's honor.

“Interesting,” the Aes Sedai said, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I would very much like to meet this girl. If she can use a Portal Stone. . . . Even that name is not very widely known.”

Verin must suspect. How panicked does this make her?

Rand asked the innkeeper if there were any more books, and she brought him The Travels of Jain Farstrider. Perrin liked that one, too, with its stories of adventures among the Sea Folk and journeys to the lands beyond the Aiel Waste, where silk came from.

Is this our first real Shara reference? I think it might be.

The Shienaran played with a slashing, daring style. Perrin had always played doggedly, giving ground reluctantly, but he found himself placing the stones with as much recklessness as Ingtar. Most of the games ended in a draw, but he managed to win as many as Ingtar did.

Ignore the terrible pun and focus on how Perrin is being shifted by his experiences as well. Perhaps this is why he talked back to Verin earlier.

“There are Darkfriends among the high as well as the low,” Verin said smoothly. “The mighty give their souls to the Shadow as often as the weak.” Ingtar scowled as if he did not want to think of that.

Frankly Verin, if there weren't so few Aes Sedai I'd argue the Tower's horrible percentages make the mighty even more frequent donaters. And indeed note that Ingtar isn't "as if" anything. It's exactly the case that he doesn't want to think about noble Darkfriends.

“I know little of Cairhienin,” Ingtar told him, “but I’ve heard enough of Galldrian. He would feast us and thank us for the glory we had brought to Cairhien. He would stuff our pockets with gold and heap honors on our heads. And if we tried to leave with the Horn, he’d cut our honored heads off without pausing to take a breath.”

It's mind-boggling how actively detrimental to the cause of existence most of the modern day royalty proves to be. Like obviously they need to be toppled from their thrones and all that but damn.

There was a dignity to him that Perrin did not remember; Rand was looking at the Aes Sedai and the Shienaran lord as equals.

Well he's found the Horn of Valere twice now, so he's worthy of being a legendary hero even ignoring all the stuff he hasn't done yet. Selene's flirting sadly helped.

It will also help if you remember the way you behaved before the Amyrlin. If you are that arrogant, they will believe you are a lord if you wear rags.

Lan's training paying off in a dozen ways. He'd be so proud if he were here.

“A sa’angreal.” She sounded as if it were really not very important, but Perrin suddenly had the feeling the two of them had entered a private conversation, saying things no one else could hear.

For example, she's basically telling Rand what tools are available to him.

One by itself is powerful enough, but I can think of few women strong enough to survive the flow through the one on Tremalking. The Amyrlin, of course. Moiraine, and Elaida. Perhaps one or two others. And three still in training.

I guess Verin must think Cadsuane dead, since Lelaine and Romanda would make three if she were being counted. How terrifying that at this very point the White Tower has a total of eight, kind of nine women capable of using the Choedan Kal. It should be so much more.

As for Logain, it would have taken all his strength simply to keep from being burned to a cinder, with nothing left for doing anything.

Unless the male statue is quite different and only ever meant for Lews to use, Verin is very mistaken here. Logain is only a step below Rand, and there's sixteen tiers in between him and Moiraine.

She was talking to Rand. Perrin knew it, and from the queasy look in Mat’s eye, he did, too. Even Loial shifted nervously in his chair.

Thank goodness the empath is the POV to confirm that Loial is not blind or stupid but has in fact put two and two together.

Watching Verin’s smile, small and mysterious, Perrin felt a chill. He did not think Rand knew half what he thought he did. Not half.

Perrin you don't even know half of how right you are.

But we'll get to that next time, when our company visits The Huge Toad Crouching in the Night: Lord Barthanes's Manor! (Disclaimer: Toads may be metaphorical or even simileical)

[platoniclokiimagines]

Okay so imagine that reader and Loki haven’t been friends for that long but they’d still die for each other you know? And they seem like a softie who could never hurt a fly let alone a person right? So there’s an attack on the city while Loki and reader are out and he’s all concerned for them but suddenly they bust out these killer moves and he’s just ???? And the reader actually turns out to be a badass mutant who can control the elements but they just like to stay peaceful unless provoked

WC: 931

TW: none

A/N: This is kind of short because I forgot until 10pm that today is an upload day. Also, it’s roughly, at best, proofread, so if there’s any grammar or spelling errors…. *gestures vaguely* Please enjoy, regardless~

In the short time that you had both known each other, youand Loki had become fast friends.

It had just so happened that the both of you showed uparound the same time at the compound, and so both of you had sort of had to learnthe ropes at the same time, so while everyone else was already ahead of thegame and knew what they were doing, the two of you got to work together and goto “Avenger classes,” as Thor lovingly called them.

Which basically just meant that the two of you had to getlectures from each of the Avengers about what to do and what not to do on the job.

It was good information to have, and you did try to take notes at the beginning,but you couldn’t not get distractedby the magic Loki would use out of sheer boredom to entertain themself, and bythe end of the first day, you were thick as thieves, and the rest was history.

Once you were a couple months out of lessons, you were declaredon official probationary duty. Glorified Steve speak for being given a trialrun, should anything ever happen in your near vicinity when you were out andabout.

It just so happened that one afternoon, while the two of youwere having lunch on the sidewalk of a small café, the sudden sounds ofscreaming and terror filled the air, and you turned around to see peoplerunning away from the direction of a nearby street corner and, after a sharedglance with Loki, the both of you stood, food forgotten as you ran against thecurrent of everyone trying to get out of the way.

It didn’t take long for you to spot what, or rather who, wasthe cause. Someone flying by on some kind of hovering board looked to bethrowing bombs of some sort into the windows of the buildings along the street,causing pure chaos and havoc.

“That looks…”

“Terrible?”

“…in a word.” Loki didn’t turn to look at you as they spoke,instead trying to gauge what direction the person on the board was going to flynext. “We need to get that board out of the air.”

You couldn’t help but to grin. This would be easy for you.

“I got it. Just make sure people got out of here safely.”

Before Loki could answer, you took off after the figure onthe hoverboard, and after a moment, you heard Loki directing the people aroundthem to keep running away from you. With a loud crash, you realized thatanother bomb had been thrown, and you ducked and covered your head amidst theraining debris, grateful that most of what hit you wasn’t large enough to doany damage or be a deterrent.

With a quiet huff, you pushed yourself back up to your feet,and looked back up at the sky, watching the hoverboard dart back and forthacross the sky, the person aboard it yelling something you couldn’t quite makeout from where you were.

Taking a deep breath to ground yourself, you shifted so youwere braced better, hands held out from you as you closed your eyes and focusedall of your energy, until you felt the wind pick up around you and heard theforce of it whipping your hair around.

When you opened your eyes again, there a small tornadobefore you, and with little more effort than it took to flex your hands, theygrew in size, and you waved a hand, sending it toward the hoverboard and smilingto yourself when you heard a panicked yelp as they desperately tried to steeraway from you,

But there was no escape, and within seconds, you had caughtthe board up in the vortex you had produced, and you jerked both hands towardyou, sending the hoverboard, and whoever was on it, crashing down a few feet infront of you.

You worked fast, you knew you had to, and ran toward the hooded figure, ready for a fight, andthat was just what you got. While you’d never really showcased it during training, you were quite adept when it came tohand-to-hand combat, and while the offender put up quite the fight, they wereno match for you, and it took very little time for you to have them knockedout.

“…that’s new.”

You looked over to see Loki watching you, eyebrows raised asthey regarded you.

“When were you going to tell me you could do…” They paused,and gestured their hands vaguely in front of them. “…all that?”

You huffed out a laugh, and swiped your sleeve across yourforehead to soak up some sweat. “First of all, that wasn’t new. I’ve always been able to do that.”

Loki continued to regard you skeptically. “…I’ve never seenyou do it before.”

You shrugged. “I prefer not to, unless I really, really haveto.”

Loki narrowed their eyes a bit, trying to read you like theyusually did with everyone else on the team. “…smart. An ace up your sleeve. That’sa smart move.”

You grinned. “I know it is.” You looked back down at themotionless heap on the ground. “You wanna be useful and help me get this guy tothe compound.”

“Useful?! What doyou call getting everyone to safety?” Loki’s voice was comically shrill in sheer offense, and it made you laugh.

“A job well done. Now, come on.”

Loki didn’t stop grumbling the entire trip back to thecompound.

[mobius-prime]

234. Sonic the Hedgehog #166

DON'T. PANIC. I know. It's back. Don't worry too much though - it only lasts for two issues, so even if you detest this AU with all your heart and soul you only have to deal with it for a couple days. To be perfectly honest, I don't actually find the plot of this installment of Mobius 25 Years Later to be that much more interesting than the previous one. I find everyone to be a little too out of character, for one thing. However, it does at the very least provide a bit of closure to a story that was left wiiide open previously, so there's that.

Mobius 25 Years Later (Part One): Tempus Fugit

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley Colors: Jason Jensen

Last time on Mobius 25 Years Later, we left off with the timeline seeming to dissolve and rip itself apart while Sonic went back in time to fix the temporal and spatial instabilities of Mobius. Well, he fixed the threat of time coming to an end all right, but in the process somehow caused the timeline to skew wildly from how it was previously. In this new future, Shadow is a brutal and ruthless dictator, worship of Maria as an angelic guardian figure is officially sanctioned by his government, the Chaotix patrol the streets headed by King Shadow's chief enforcer Knuckles, and perhaps most bizarrely of all, Sally is married to Shadow as his queen. I have to note here that no explanation is given at all for how the timeline could have gotten messed up so badly - like, it doesn't really say anything about Sonic destabilizing specific events in the past, he just did something apparently, and stuff got messed up as a result. I'm personally not a fan at all of the idea of Shadow becoming so brutal like this, because it's just so out of character for who he's shown to become in the games (and in the comics coming up in a few issues), but at the very least there's the potential excuse of oh, well, this is a timeline where he didn't discover his true purpose in life and thus got led astray by darker influences or whatever. Regardless, things are very bad, and now Tails is on the scene, trying to figure out a way to fix it.

You see, he actually is able to remember the old timeline due to some kind of protective armband, and knows that this one isn't right. So he decides to go about recruiting some of his old allies to fix things, first starting with Knuckles. He walks in as Knuckles is instructing Lara-Su in her Guardian abilities, and Knuckles, once he realizes why Tails is here, ushers his daughter out grimly so they can talk alone. Tails tries to get Knuckles to listen to him, explaining that he took measures to protect himself, his wife Mina (remember? They got married in this timeline) and their kids from the time shift, and that he knows that everyone who was near the time machine when it freaked out still has memories of the other timeline. This merely pisses Knuckles off for some reason, and he yells at Tails to get out before he arrests him. Tails leaves the room dejectedly, but Lara-Su cheekily tries to cheer him up outside the door, clearly having overheard everything.

I already like this version of Lara-Su way better than the old one. The old one was weirdly whiny and selfish, while this one is immediately more assertive and ready to jump into action. As this is going on, we move to the dungeons beneath "Castle Mobius," where King Shadow is currently carrying out a rather… rough interrogation of Rotor, who's chained up to a wall. Shadow curtly acknowledges Rotor's strength of will in not "cracking" yet (it's not explained what information exactly he's trying to get out of him, but we can assume it relates to the timeline shift), and tells him he knows he will break eventually and leaves - and who is outside the cell to greet him but Lien-Da? She's apparently the one who captured Rotor for him, and she too remembers the old timeline, thanks to Cobar - we finally find out what she did when she confronted Rotor and Cobar back then!

Yeah, really don't like this version of Shadow. The juxtaposition of worshipping Maria as a gentle protective goddess, and Shadow's use of brutal torture tactics and authoritarianism is kind of… bizarre. A Legion mook runs up with information that Lara-Su has joined up with Tails, and Shadow orders Lien-Da to contact Knuckles to conduct an arrest of the two. Meanwhile, the two in question have managed to find Sonic, bedraggled and sitting next to a bunch of trash in a back alley, looking pretty awful. He, of course, is the same Sonic from the old timeline who went back to "fix" everything, and is horrified at how everything has turned out in this version of the future. It's once again worth noting that he sheds a few tears here, especially because this is around the time Sega started interfering more in the comics to make sure things were portrayed to their liking. There's a sketch version of the below page floating around somewhere showing Sonic crying substantially more than he is in the final product, which honestly, I don't know why Sega felt they had to force the artists to tone it back here, because I think if there's any circumstance where a normally cheerful and stoic person might truly lose it, it's losing their two children forever to the abyss of time.

Lara-Su urges the others to get up so they can go defeat King Shadow and save the day, but a sudden blinding light engulfs them. Sure enough, it's Knuckles, backed by what looks like half of Portal's police force, telling the three of them to surrender immediately as they're under arrest for treason…

The Chaotix Connection

Writer: R. Chacon and Ian Flynn Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Jason Jensen

This story is a bit bizarre - for one, it opens with a shot of Knuckles tied up and apparently coming to after being knocked out, only to immediately pull back a full day to show us what led up to this moment. That's a perfectly legitimate storytelling tactic, but it has to be done right for it to work, dammit, and the execution here is mostly just awkward and confusing. And for another, though someone is listed as the letterer for this story, very little of it is actually hand-lettered - the vast majority of it is machine-lettered. Seriously, out of the dozens and dozens of speech bubbles in this one story, which takes up half the issue's page span, only seven are hand-lettered (yes, I counted). I'm really not sure why this would be, nor why they bothered actually having someone letter only seven speech bubbles in the entire story when a computer was apparently doing that job perfectly well, but oh well. Anyway, here's the rundown - yesterday in Station Square, Rouge (sporting her Heroes getup) was snooping around for any juicy information when she got her hands on a nice little tidbit - namely, that Renfield T. Rodent is back. Remember him?

Aw, it's nice to see Sally and Sonic actually joking around with and teasing each other a bit. Things have been so frosty between them for so long, I forgot how nice it is to just see them being sweet and silly. The next day, Renfield's foreman oversees a delivery of slot machines to the new casino while Renfield himself watches from behind a screen, still sporting his capitalist tycoon grin and definitely seeming very shady as he talks to himself about putting on a grand show with this new scheme. The Chaotix and Rouge all arrive at the venue, and Rouge and Julie-Su nearly come to blows when Rouge insinuates that her only reason for coming is to show Knuckles that she's "gone legit." Knuckles breaks up the fight before it begins, and the group is let in early when they bluff to the guards that Renfield is expecting a meeting with them. They agree to split up and search for anything suspicious, checking in every few minutes to make sure none of them goes missing. Knuckles heads off on his own, and soon discovers an elevator that takes him to a secure room where the foreman is discussing the shipment with the help. When he hears Eggman's name mentioned, Knuckles knows this operation is rigged, so he leaps into action and begins to fight everyone present… alone. Seriously, man, couldn't have waited one whole minute to call in your backup? Speaking of the backup, Mighty in particular has decided it's prudent to check the food given what happened last time, while several of the others go for the slot machines as customers begin to file in.

Gotta love Mighty - no time to test anything scientifically, let's just shove potentially poisoned food into our mouths and see if we pass out! Knuckles, upstairs, finishes punching out the mooks and goes for the foreman, but when his fist makes a clanging noise against his nose he realizes that he's one of Eggman's auto-automatons. Things only get worse when said auto-automaton punches back, knocking him clean out. While the foreman ties him up and calls Renfield, Rouge, Vector, and Espio all check the slots, noticing that people seem to be acting weird while playing them. Sure enough, one glance at a screen later, the three of them are hypnotized as well. Knuckles wakes up with Renfield gloating over him, and naturally the rat immediately launches into a villainous monologue about how Eggman is paying him to use his fake slot machines to scan the brains of the patrons, allowing him to turn that data into a blueprint for what basically amounts to a Terminator. In fact, the whole casino is built on top of a factory that will start spitting out robots the moment the scans upload! Suddenly, the writers realize in horror that they only have two more pages to wrap this plot up, and so they go into overdrive figuring out a way to solve it in this limited amount of space.

I love the idea that Mighty just casually crunched up a whole factory and carried it around with him just to prove a point here. The police show up out of nowhere to arrest a fuming Renfield, and Julie-Su and Mighty explain that they knew something was wrong when Knuckles didn't check in, and even more hilariously, apparently on their way up here they just randomly passed the factory and Mighty was like "Yo, that doesn't fit the décor," hence him crunching it up. The president pops in out of the ether to congratulate the Chaotix on a job well done, and as Julie-Su and Rouge bicker some more, the curtain falls on one of the weirdest and most out of place stories we've experienced in some time. Bravo, Romy and Ian, we've officially learned that when you two collaborate, crap gets bizarre!

[snow-slayer]

A Bunch of Good Things from 2019

*I don’t do things consistently, so there’s chunks of time I just forgot to write. So the blank spaces are days where I could not recall the exact good things that happened.*

January 1: Started the year off right by hanging out with @nah-young, eating some delicious leftovers from New Year’s Eve and working on a puzzle. Also caught a shiny Delibird in Pokemon Go as the first catch of the year.  2: Had a headache at work, but went home to take care of myself. Dad and I talked for a long time about money and taxes without arguing. I have also discovered a future hobby I want to get into: 3D printing. 3: I cranked out four solid hours of studying. I’m going to ace the Auditing section of the CPA exam. I feel it in my bones (especially when I finally stood up and stretched). 4: My ‘other mom’ (one of my best friend’s mom) took me out for a belated Birthday lunch to our favorite Thai food place, and I enjoyed more mango sticky rice. It’s one of my new favorite desserts. 5: Did some epic New Year cleaning. Caught up on laundry, filed away my 2018 paperwork, and did some 2019 taxes. Finally on top of things! 6: A puzzle day! I connected a big piece of the sky to the side on the Lion King puzzle. I’ve still got a lot to go, but progress is being made. 7: As usual, I both surprised and pleased the teller at the bank when I moved some money from savings into my IRA. They wanted to know if it was for tax year 2018, but I could tell them last year was maxed out and it was for 2019. 8: Got to practice my training and supervising skills with @arrowhearts.  9: Spent the night at Lucy’s (she’s a cat). She’s the sweetest cat though, and was cuddling in my lap for so long! She even held my finger with her paw for like ten minutes. I love her. 10: It’s been forever, but I finally sat down and played some video games. I’m replaying Arkham Asylum again and really just exploring every nook and cranny I can find. 11: Might have started a new Francis story line ... Whoops :) 12: Helped Jane clear an apartment and acquired many new tools and art supplies to use. 13: Snow! It was snowing before bed, but I still woke up at 5 am to about 4 - 5 inches. Activated my dad gene and started shoveling at 5:30 am (sorry neighbors to the house I was dog sitting at). It’s so pretty out! 14: A quiet day, but I did some work for Jane and gamed some more. Can’t wait to start Arkham City when I get 100% on Arkham Asylum! 15: I took my coworker a basket of fun snacks from Lotte for her Birthday. She’s so excited to try them all! 16: Donated blood today and when I went to get dinner on the way home, I got a free salad! The entree was already free and I ordered a side salad. I pulled out my wallet to pay, but the coupon covered it, too!  17: Treated myself to breakfast on the way into preschool (my new volunteer place since the teacher I followed to several elementary schools is now at). Also ate some amazing home cooked food for lunch with @nah-young before going out for ice cream. 18: Did some very early spring cleaning to prep for my next yard sale and straighten up a bit. 19: Beat the storyline and finished gathering all of Riddler’s trophies in Arkham Asylum. I do still need to finish up the additional content for 100% completion. 20: Working with Jane to help clean out an apartment again and got stencils to use for my art (the ones with shapes of different sizes). I had wanted to get me a set, so I really lucked out. 21: Started reading a book for fun. Lol, I forgot that I can still read non-accounting things for fun. 22: Sent out 1099s at work. It’s always a dreaded part of the year, but it’s taken care of! 23: I started uploading my old Franmouche stories to AO3. I forgot that I’d written 185 pages of them. At least if someone else likes my rarepair, they have lots to read. No guarantees on the quality, but there is quantity. 24: Made fun penguin cutouts for the preschool class I volunteer at. Then studied for nine hours on campus. A busy, yet productive day. 25:  Finished watching all my lectures for the next portion of the CPA exam! So much auditing knowledge!!! 26: Panic alleviated. My check engine light had been on for a few days. Usually it’s just a gas cap issue so I was worried, but after readjusting the cap again (which usually fixes it) and an oil change, the light went out! 27: Played some Pokemon Go for four hours with @arrowhearts and Lyla. No Kyogre, but at least we each got a Groudon. Plus, the weather was beautiful for this time of year. 28: I found a dollar today while sweeping the parking lots with my dad! I’m gonna be riding this wave for a week. (Fun fact: my dad and I used to go bike riding on Sunday afternoons/evenings in the local parking garages and look for pennies. We’d always get bragging rights when we found a quarter or more. We still get excited and tell each other of the day’s finds when we find a few coins while we’re sweeping). 29: Had a bit of a headache, but managed to get through it so I could finish the workday. Then I get some well deserved rest. 30: Met up with @nah-young for some fries and ice cream! 31: My annual physical went well! Took care of a couple test we’ve been putting off, too, and they weren’t quite as bad as I thought they’d be.

February

1: I had such a productive day in the office, even for a Friday. Special thanks to @arrowhearts for helping me move all (24  years worth) of our files. 2: Started off the day a little rough and feeling low, but I decided to go up to campus, and I’m so glad I did. I was able to help a bunch of people get to their destination. Also hung out with @nah-young and @arrowhearts in a sketchy room. 3: Technically today (starting at 1 am). Had a great talk with @nah-young about a lot of things including our friendship. Successfully avoided the Super Bowl (which I heard sucked, so that was a good use of my time). 4: Had a really good conversation with my dad for almost an hour. We had some fights earlier in the year, but it was nice to be able to connect some. 5: It’ll be silly to look back on, but I thought I lost a reference letter for a scholarship applicant, but realized I could find it on our shared drive. Such a relief! 6: I tried Duck Donuts for the first time today. One of our board members brought me and a coworker a half dozen each. 7: Caught a Miltank in Pokemon Go! I thought I missed my chance, but there was a special running, so I got it. 8: Just heard we got a new boss at work, so it’ll be nice to be full staffed again. 9: Started working on a painting for @arrowhearts. It might be my first completed artwork of the year. 10: A lazy day, but I flipped through a book on home decorating. You know, to plan for my future house. 11: Officially started working for Jane’s business. We’ll see how it goes, but at least it’s an extra couple of hours per week. 12: Finished a dog sitting job, and I’m super thankful to be sleeping in my own bed again. 13: I gave Lucy, the sweetest cat ever, a piggyback ride and it was the cutest thing ever. I was on my knees and forearms trying to get Lucy to boop my nose when she just climbed on my back and sat down. I rose up on my knees and hands and she did the “i’m not so sure but I’m going to stay here” stand and let me crawl across the floor a while before finally jumping off. I love this cat. 14: Took the auditing section of the CPA exam. I feel much better about this one than I have about the other two. We’ll see on the 26th. 15: Such a busy day at the office! It was productive, but just a lot of work. 16: Even though I just too the other exam, I managed to get a lot of studying done. 17: Mamaw and I got to chat and work on the puzzle for a while. It was nice to hang out with her since I haven’t done son in quite a while. 18: We had some really good food at our investment club meeting today. Sheppard’s pie (like meat and mashed potatoes), salad, this great cracker dip (I have no other details other than feels like sharp cheddar finally shredded with a hint of spice in some sort of sauce). 19: Our new executive director started today. I think I made a pretty good first impression! 20: Started playing Arkham City again. We had a snow day and even my office closed, so I made the most of my day. 21: Lol and today I finished the main storyline of Arkham City. Accidentally, because I was doing side quests, but Batman got mad when I tried to go finish some before the last mission. 24: I am obsessed with Excel, but I figured out a formula so that it would total certain categories even if they weren’t in order. Plus I learned how to make a drop down menu (on two versions of Excel). Guess who’s budget looks beautiful! 25: I caught a Latias in Pokemon Go. Not having much luck with the water legendaries. I wonder if they don’t like me because we picked the grass starter. 26: I passed the Auditing section! (and instead of keeping it quiet, I made a point to tell some people). Then @nah-young and I went to dinner to celebrate our successes of the day and just have a nice chat. 27: Good news: I starved off a migraine that was starting on Feb 26. Maybe this new method will help them from getting bad. Just took an Aleve with some hot tea. 28: Went on a Pokemon run, and I found $20 blowing across the yard when I got home! A nice find for the year.

March 1: I’ve been really getting into “Ghost Story” by Peter Straub and had so much time to just sit and read while it rained. 2: I watched “Spiderman: Enter the Spiderverse” today. An epic movie and I highly recommend it! I also have several new costume ideas... 3: Officially started working on my Library Comic Con cosplay. There’s not much to show, but it was nice to start costuming again. 4: Hiked up to the nearby bubble tea. It was good! I got a mango green tea creama. Next time I know I have to mix it up before I start drinking it. 5: 6:   7: 8: 9: 10: Started replaying Castlevania IV. It’s been a while since I beat it, so hopefully I can still finish it! 11: I have proven myself an Excel deity. Well, at least Jane thinks though. She needed a spreadsheet for something and had some ideas so I whipped it out in five minutes flat with a bunch of formulas she didn’t even know were possible. I’m quite proud of it. 12: Lol, speaking of excel, I was geeking out over my budget with one of our board members. She was showing me how she built her itinerary in excel for her next trip and I got to show off my budget. 13: 14: 15: It was fake St. Patrick’s day at work, so I got to show off my green Riddler suit. Apart from being mistaken as dressing like a leprechaun a few times, I received a bunch of compliments on it. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of that suit jacket. 16: Tagged along with @nah-young to her grandfather’s birthday party and watched Bohemian Rhapsody. Apart from the timeline inaccuracies, I really enjoyed it! Look at that: two new movies in one month. 17: First big leaf job of the season. I guess the first major landscaping job. Dad helped out, so it made life easier. 18: Investment club meeting went well, and I ended up staying late to chat and help clean up, but it was enjoyable. Also had some great tiramisu from Trader Joe’s. 19: 20: 21: It was a downpour today, but I also made a 20 minute Costco run. Parking was great, the lines were short, and I managed to balance everything without a cart. Success! 22: Finally got around to doing invoices. It’s such a weight off my chest to take care of them. 23: I had the house to myself, so got ample studying done, played some pokemon, and treated myself to some bubble tea. Got myself a bunch of good pokes from Community day. 24: Another lovely day to sit and hang out with @nah-young. I always enjoy our hour long conversations just sitting in my car in her driveway. I also finished the lectures for the BEC portion of the CPA exam. 25: I found a gift card loaded with $30 today. It had been thrown into the dumpster, so a little gross, but it washed off nicely. 26: Ran up to the local library to turn in my books (look @arrowhearts, I did it the day before they were due and didn’t have to make a midnight run). I wasn’t going to check out more books since I already had some checked out from another library visit (I go to many branches due to my job and often check out a book or two, resulting in cycles of books due at different times), but I did anyway. I started reading Area X, too, and so far, I’m really enjoying it. 27: Our family’s accountants think I’m a bit weird because I was so excited to get my tax papers back even though I owed money. I was just like “cool!” to all the facts and things on my sheets, which is apparently not what they’re used to, but one of the new tax laws works in my favor as small business income is taxed at a lower rate or something. 28:  29: 30: I love Annihilation in the Area X series! I haven’t plowed through a book that fast in years. 31: I was catching up on my business spreadsheets and it turns out I had the most profitable March since I started my business :)

April 1: No April Fools jokes, which is always a huge plus. 2: 3: 4: Took the BEC section of the exam and then clocked in a bunch of hours for the Foundation. Jubilee is almost here!!! 5: 6: The Jubilee is over!!! What a relief! A lot of things went well, and I heard it was a lot of people’s favorite. Not sure what actually happened because I was stationed at check in/out all night, but hopefully the silent auction results are good. Huge shout out to @arrowhearts and @nah-young for getting me through the night! 7:A quiet morning of returning the Jubilee to the Foundation. Plus some other landscaping. 8: I know everyone at work is saying I should take time off, and I didn’t, but I’m actually feeling blessed that I have the physical and mental stamina to keep working on things. Plus, I need to catch up with post Jubilee stuff. 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19:  Got to talking with my art dealer for a long while and we exchanged headcannons and ideas. 20: Had a nice Pokemon run with @arrowhearts‘ dog. Plus, enough work to keep me out of trouble X) 21: A very busy Easter. I moved a huge mound of mulch. It was half the size of my car. Hopefully the home owner will like it. 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31: I’ve been feeling behind, but I finally knocked out a really important thing at work today. Got our annual applications in!

May 1: 2: 3: My gauntlets for my comic con costume look so cool! They’re a little stabby (there’s staples on the inside, although I should be able to tape it down for safety), but overall look cool for a first draft. 4: A long day, but I feel like I was really able to help my friend and her family, which is nice considering how much they do for me. 5: The event that happened wasn’t good, but I’ve been humbled as to how well our house was kept and motivated to try and become more organized. 6:  Dad and I were chatting today, and we could even touch on topics in a civil manner. It was quite nice!  7: Just found out I passed the BEC section of the CPA exam! I’m 75% CPA!!! And no cavities were found after my dentist appointment :) 8: Frantically working on my costume, but my head piece looks really good! 9: Mom even chipped in to help. We rigged up a steampunk mask I have (which doesn’t fit on my head right) so that I can actually wear it. 10: I’ve been fasting for Ramadan and I think my body and I are finally on the same page. It was a rough start this year, but I’m looking forward to focusing on being thankful for what I have and working on self discipline. 11: Library Comic Con! My costume is a bit rough, so no final pictures, but I have plans to make it better! 12: It was a busy Sunday. Lots of lawns, but thankfully the weather was cool. 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: Had a nice meeting with my boss. I keep feeling like I’m not on top of things or she’s disappointed, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Plus, she said I did great at the finance committee meeting, so that was nice. 18: Although I scared everyone I worked with all day, I was able to donate blood even though I had been fasting.  19: I saw the tiniest inch worm while I was pulling weeds today. It was more like a quarter inch worm and it was just trying so hard to climb up my arm when I found it. I also saw the first lightening bugs of the year. As a bug type Pokemon trainer, I’m quite pleased with all of this (less so with the mosquitoes though, as I got my first bite of the season). 20: I have found a nice way to keep cool at the property Dad and I work at. I’m allowed to douse my head, neck, and hat with the hose, and man does it feel good! 21: I received many compliments at the executive committee meeting for all my hard work on the budget, the Jubilee, and finance committee. 22: Caught up on reconciliations at work (finally). It’s been just a nightmare, but I’m happy they’re done. 23: Another me day. I’ve been taking Thursdays off and got to game for a bit but also accomplish a lot of laundry and studying. 24: Had a good meeting at work to discuss the future of the nonprofit I work at. Plus I finally made a phone call I didn’t want to make. 25: Went to a foam helmet making class with a coworker. I’m super excited to start trying out this style, and I think the sample we made in class can easily be used to make a helmet for Vile. Might have purchased a few things to go with it :) 26: Found a new drink that I love from Kung Fu Tea! Also got to rewatch Coco, which is always good. 27: Part of my afternoon spent working with Jane was changing her screen saver. It was set up for one photo of pictures, but some were so fuzzy, so we set up new pictures and I got to add my fuzzball to the reel. 28: I visited one of Jane’s friends to discuss dog sitting and we had such a nice conversation afterwards. 29: I found a four leave clover today while mowing lawns. It’s been years since I’ve found one, so that was exciting. 30: I plowed through about 6 hours of studying for the FAR portion of the CPA exam. Only two more lectures and then onto multiple choice! 31: Filled out a form at work (finally). Now I just have to hope my boss will sign it and have it notarized.

June 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: Took the (hopefully) last CPA exam. It was nice as I spoke to an elevator engineer before the exam and it helped to calm my nerves a bit.   7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: Wasn’t sure what day to put this on, but @nah-young and I hung out for hours just sitting and chatting on the cats’ back porch. 15: Successfully navigated into DC with the help of @arrowhearts (and had an interesting laugh about her being my son...? Oh well, at least we got to give the people sitting outside a show as we left the building with two rollie office chairs each). 16: Started working on my Halloween costume. I’ve abandoned the idea I originally had and will be switching to a different Mega Man X character (fun fact: it was a costume I originally intended to make before being introduced to Scaramouche back in 2017) 17: It was a scorcher, but had a slurpee for the first time in almost a year. I’m so thankful for the 7-11 within walking distance of where my dad and I work on Mondays. 18: I’ve officially passed the CPA exam! Now onto the next steps... 19: I have been struggling with telling people good news, but I did make an effort to inform some people about me passing the exam. 20: Told some more people about the CPA exam and just trying not to stress. I got celebratory milkshakes for my family after dinner. 21: My coworkers are so sweet. They brought me in a cake and we had a mini celebration. 22: 23: 24: 25: 26:Found a praying mantis while mowing. She kept standing where I wanted to mow, so I got to pick her up and put her somewhere safe (with lots of snacks for her!) 27: 28: 29: So glad I went to see Detective Pikachu with @nah-young and @arrowhearts! I really enjoyed it! 30: 31:

July 1: A new fiscal year! I did manage to get a good bit done on my latch hook. 2: A sudden thunderstorm took me off the weed pulling job early (i.e. a perfect opportunity to read). 3: It was quiet in the office. Too quiet ... yet super productive! I processed so many gifts and letters. 4: I don’t really celebrate, and spent a lot of it working, but played some pokemon in the rain. It was a warm day, so the cool rain felt so refreshing! 5: A jammed packed day with trashrooms, a bank run, and more pokemon quests! I completed another 15 and hatched a new pokemon. Plus I finished another book: Dr. Death. 6: A busy day, but I was able to finish everything so I can take the next day off completely (for once). Again, apologies to @arrowhearts  for dragging you out and getting caught in a downpour so I could get some bubble tea! 7: 8: 9: 10: Unboxed my unicycle! Not sure when I’ll ride, but it’s ready when I am. 11: 12: 13: 14: The vanity is back in my bathroom! Dad’s renovating it, and it’s been a slow process, but I finally have a sink! 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: Spent a few hours working on cleaning the basement, and I’m finally seeing some of the fruits of my labor. 21: 22: 23: 24: Officially finished the Vile helmet! 25: Just started a new dog sitting job, and the house is right on top of a pokestop. Guess I’m going to have a full item bag again! 26: Finally got myself a memory stick for my PSP. I’m replaying the Maverick Hunter X game ... because I can! 27: Got three team rocket grunts in one day at the one stop. 28: Plowed through the Vile portion of Maverick Hunter X. Lol, I probably make it harder on myself since I only use my favorites, regardless of if they’re good against the boss. 29: Had a huge crab and shrimp dinner at Jane’s house. 30: Hung out and ate delicious homemade butter chicken with my best friend’s mom (she’s basically like my other mother). We laughed and chatted, showed off our latest projects, probably kept the neighbors up, and just had a good time until like 2 in the morning.  31: Welp, it wasn’t a raid day for armored Mewtwo, but @arrowhearts and I did defeat more Team Rocket Go grunts in the rain.

August 1: Chatted with @nah-young for a few hours and I’ve got a new place to eat on my radar! 2: I kept feeling like I was letting my boss down because I couldn’t answer her questions/didn’t understand, but she insisted I was handling myself well, and found the information she needed later. Plus, she’s very complimentary of my work and appreciates my transparency and work ethic, both of which I work hard on and value. 3: 4: 5: 6:   7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31:

September 1: 2: 3: It’s official! We’re having a Halloween party at work. If my new schedule turns out, I’ll be at work on that day and will show off a costume. Not sure if it will be the one I’m working on, but I can always recycle an old one. 4: 5: 6:   7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: I had such a good ripstik run. @nah-young and I practiced for a good while yesterday (and she did her first trick, too!). I guess it’s nice to see the fruits of our practice since we’ve been working off and on for about a month. 16: Had the investment club meeting at my house. I didn’t get to cook everything, but I picked the recipe and it turned out well! 17: I finished “Every Tool’s a Hammer” by Adam Savage (from Mythbusters) and I really recommend it. It’s such a great book for anyone who makes or creates. It’s a fun read and chocked full of helpful hints. 18: I decided to start reading the Naruto series. I’m enjoying it so far! Now I just have to wait for the next to volumes to be available from the library. 19: I started replaying Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase. It’s amusing, although I’m a little rough. 20: 21: 22: 23: I’d been on the fence about taking a vacation early next year because I want to save up for a down payment, but after talking to my dad, I decided I’d do a little something. I still need to work out the plans (and make sure the people I want to visit are free), but I’m looking forward to it! 24: 25: 26: There’s a chance I might be going full time at my office job, so dad encouraged me to take the day off from trash rooms. I still got up early, but knocked out a bunch of chores, finished Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase, finished a drawing, and cleaned in the basement a bit. 27: Lol, I just realized I have three cycles of books checked out again. I started reading The Wicked Years series. I’m trying to set aside time each night so I can read a chapter or two before bed. 28: I made the pattern for my gauntlets! I’m actually trying to do it the right way and making measurements, creating an accurate template, and just generally taking my time. 29: Part 2 of the gauntlets: They’re made! My template worked and I spent a couple of hours slowly forming and shaping them. I still need some practice on the gluing component, but at least they feel sturdy. 30: Started replaying DK 64 again. I really love this game. Besides Gauntlet Legends, it’s probably my favorite N64 game we own. 31: Got rained out at work, but managed to take it easy in the afternoon and just generally keep ahead with laundry.

October 1: Today officially marks the first day of working full time at my office job. They added ten hours a week, so now I’m working 4 days at 10 hours each. It’ll take a little adjusting. I’m happy for the extra hours! 2: I sent out invoices on time for once! 3: It was my fuzzball’s 16th Birthday today! Someone also brought in some really yummy snacks to work that were leftover from a meeting. I also managed to create templates for the leg gauntlets and cut them out of  foam. I’m just rolling with the motivation now, and would like to have Vile finished by Halloween (keep reading to find out if it was finished). 4: Really just having a good time playing DK 64. Knocked out Gloomy Galleon, so all that’s left are my favorite levels! 5: 6:   7: I have leg gauntlets formed. Lol, I guess I should look up the name... All that’s left is the chest plate and cape! 8: I lucked out! My coworker can’t go to a book signing even this weekend and asked me to get her book signed since I’m going. It was the perfect opportunity to get my hands on a copy of “Where the Crawdads Sing” which I wanted to read before this weekend. 9: Making some headway on the costume again! Arm and leg gauntlets have the plating and base coat of plastidip. 10: I finished “Where the Crawdads Sing” within 48 hours of having it my possession. That’s such a huge accomplishment to read something so quickly and eagerly! 11: I was plowing through my to do list at work. I knocked out 11 items. Woo! 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: My Halloween costume is finished *gasp* before Halloween! Barely, but it counts. 31: I won the most creative costume at work! Well, tied for first, but that’s cool.

November (whoops, I really forgot to write this month) 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:   7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31:

December 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:   7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: My coworker is back! She had been on extended leave for a while, but now she’s back. She bring such a positive and fun attitude to the workplace. 13: 14: I’m officially 25! I worked a few hours in the rain, but got a lot done (and saw Lucy, my favorite cat I cat sit). Instead of going to a steakhouse for dinner, which I’m not a fan of, we ended up going to somewhere I did enjoy. Overall, it was a nice and quiet celebration. 15: 16: 17: I finished the Naruto series today! It was a good series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Going to take a manga break to work on a few novels I have checked out and then  decide which series to start. 18:  19: A busy day again. Knocked out two leaf clients for the year and went to see three bands perform at a local music club. I stayed out way too late, but had a great time hanging with a friend, one of the performers, and the performer’s friend. 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: Hung out with my brother and grandmother. I crushed them in several games! 25: Went to my coworkers in the afternoon and dueled for the first time in quiet a while. They wiped the floor with me, but I had fun with my deck destruction deck. 26: 27: Ended up hanging out with Jane for a while and just chatting about everything. We’re seeing eye to eye on a lot of things, so it was nice.  28: Finished my leaf jobs for the year! Time to relax. 29: 30: 31: Welp, ended up being sick and missing out on the intended New Year plans. I guess I did start the year with a migraine, so here I am ending it with one. After I rested up, I did start playing my favorite video game. Plus, I frantically read “Hey, Kiddo!” before the end of the year

Notable stuff

Highlights: Passed the CPA exam Officially hired full time

Books read: “Ghost Stories” “Every Tool’s a Hammer” “Where the Crawdads Sing” “Wicked” Naruto series “Hey, Kiddo!”

Movies watched: Spiderman: Enter the Spiderverse Mary Poppins 2 The Princess and the Frog Pokemon Lucario

[slylock-syl]

It’s Under/Source’s 2nd Anniversary today! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ💜

For such an event, I made thing that represents the Prologue chapter!~ Man, I’m not used to seeing him without a broken face, it is a strangeness.

Along with the image, I’ve also included a bunch of Behind-the-Scenes fun facts and tidbits about the thought process and the creation of Under/Source below for anyone who wants to know more about how it actually came to be~ ^_^

Behind the Scenes: Prologue!

I actually began writing back in 2016, it started off as a "joke" with my friend more or less based off a doodle I made when I was bored in class one time. Yep, the origin of Under/Source started with a crappy little doodle of Necros in class. ^_^

There was actually a HUGE gap in production during the writing phase, once summer vacation hit I left the project for a while on accident to do pretty much nothing all of that summer…I regret it to this day. :') I didn't pick it back up until around early next class semester, in August.

A teacher I had back in 2016 was really supportive of my hesitant want to start working on comics/webcomics, he was a huge part of me solidifying the decision to complete the writing and script for Under/Source, as well as start production on pages. I still remember the exact words he said, "If it's you, I know you can do it". ;w;

I had actually put off uploading the very first update of the comic for a good few weeks before I mustered the nerve to actually post! I kept delaying the first post so much due to anxiety that I actually had a backlog of THREE WEEKS' worth of updates by the time I started! (I miss having a backlog ;w;)

Papyrus's spaghetti pattern PJs were actually a recommendation by a friend of mine! He was originally just going to wear plain pink PJs, but the spaghetti pattern was too good not to use.

At first I made the spaghetti pattern PJ's by hand, copy and pasting each individual 'spaghetti plate' one by one. But by page 6 I clued in and made and actual pattern swatch, y'know, like any sane person would do. X'D

I have no idea what came over me to give Papyrus blue socks…I didn't want to make them red because I thought they would look like he still had his boots on. So I came up with the explanation that the socks are blue because Papyrus sometimes forgot to put his boots on when going outside, so when he saw his blue socks he wouldn't confuse them for his boots and remember to put shoes on. (Honestly tho I'm probably just crazy XD).

The little skull pin on Papyrus's scarf as well as Necros's necklace and outfit were all made by Papyrus! He is quite crafty.

I gave Necros his name based on his job back when his world still existed, he was considered a "necromancer" because of his job of working with souls. (Perhaps he'll elaborate more one day).

It took me a GOOD while before I settled on a name for the comic! It's working title for a while was Necrotale, to match Necros's name, but once the story began to develop I realized this name was no longer accurate to the overall story. And it took me a good long time before I settled on "Under/Source".

The prologue itself was a last minute decision.

It took me a good couple of months before I actually got into Undertale itself! Believe it or not I actually tried to avoid it altogether for a while because I thought it was a "dumb-looking game" and that it wasn't "that big a deal"…hooo boy if only I could go back in time to slap myself. I only caved in because a friend of mine kept pestering me INCESSANTLY to at least watch a playthrough, so I did, and I fell in love so damn hard that I want to go back in time again and slap myself a second time for being a colossal stubborn idiot. XD

[seigyokus]

Producer Letter #13

Same old translation-paraphrase mix as usual. Mostly translation this time though!

To everyone supporting Idolish Seven,

Thank you for your continuous support throughout 2017, a year full of new challenges that we couldn't have taken on without everyone.

We began releasing Part 3 of the story in-game, released singles and albums, and announced several new music videos underway. We were even able to present the path all of these idols have taken to everyone through the Idolish Seven Exhibit.

And so, 2018--

Both the anime and live are beginning to take shape. All of the staff members will be doing their best so that everyone will enjoy next year as well.

We are truly grateful for all of the support in 2017. As this 2017 reaches its end, we'd like to look back upon the year as well as announce our future directions for this project.

[About the Project as a Whole]

◆ About Part 3 We plan on releasing Chapter 18 of the story in January. Facing yourself, the importance of trust in your comrades, a new force rising to the top and throwing the idol world asunder, the unbreakable spirit and will to stand up to fight....

All of the various mindsets and expectations* will rise to prominence at the climax of the story. (T/N: omowaku can mean 'thought' or 'expectation/prediction/anticipation' so due to the lack of background context, I put both definitions in)

Once more... "Focus-- on the future and nothing more." Just like the feelings behind this phrase, please walk by these idols’ sides until the very end. (T/N: This whole bit is super vague! Also I forgot how I first tl'd that Part 3 catchphrase, or if I ever did it at all??? I feel like I have but my goldfish memory..........)

◆ About the Music Re:vale's new single 『NO DOUBT』 will be released on January 10th! The full versions of the songs are sure to surprise everyone, and we'd be very happy if you purchased the single. As we announced earlier today, we will also be releasing solo songs for each character on their birthday as part of our 『12 SONGS GIFT』 project! Please look forward to future announcements on this topic!

We also plan on releasing singles for the anime opening and ending themes, so please look forward to those releases as well.

◆ About the TV Anime "Idolish 7" (T/N: Stylized it as Crunchyroll does it since that's who's English subbing + simulcasting i7 this upcoming season!) On January 1st, we'll be broadcasting a special for Episodes 1+2 on TOKYO MX beginning 20:00 PM JST. This marks the start of the anime broadcast! Additionally, Episode 3 will be aired on TOKYO MX on the 7th, and be regularly broadcast from thereon out.

As for the anime opening, we'll be uploading it on YouTube around the time it airs on TV so everyone across the nation can enjoy it at the same time.

Please check the anime site and twitter for more details on broadcasting sites and stations.

Anime official site: http://idolish7.com/aninana/  Anime official twitter: https://twitter.com/ID7_anime

◆ About the Anime Spin-Off Series We were finally able to announce the spin-off series! This will be released as YouTube Originals so everyone can enjoy watching more animated stories about the idols. The first one will be 『TRIGGER 〜before The Radiant Glory〜』. The exclusive behind-the scenes story about TRIGGER's formation was novelized and comicalized, and now we hope you will enjoy watching the animated version. Here is a link to the teaser PV! 

More on this work will be announced at any given moment, so please look forward to it!

◆ About the Music Video Animations Next up in our Music Video Animation Series is IDOLiSH7's new music video, animated by MAPPA. This marks the 7th video in our series. We have not decided on a release date as of this moment, but we are dilligently working on the project and making progress. Please look forward to the finished product!

◆ About the Live At long last, we'll be holding our first live concert in 2018! We are still preparing the details for the next announcement, so please look forward to it!

◆ About the Comicalization+Novelization We have always wanted to expand on Re:vale's backstory ever since we began releasing Part 2 of the game story, beginning from the dawn of the band through their indies days. Thanks to Hakusensha, we've gotten our chance to tell their story through a three-part novel. We hope you are all enjoying 『Banri Ikkuu』's novelization, the first two chapters of which have been released online, as well as the comicalization, which began on December 9th. Please look forward to each of the stories told in 『Senko Fuma』 and 『Hyakusai Mukyuu』 as well! We would be very happy if you felt even a fragment of their feelings as you read these works.

(T/N: The Big Thing is that the number kanji from Banri, Yuki, and Momo's names are in the title of their parts. Banri gets his Whole Name which is kinda cool HAHA. I tweeted an explanation abt the titles a while ago and you can check it out here!) (T/N 2: Also wow official i7 staff is a Sadist bc i read both chapters of Banri Ikkuu out rn and let me tell u now all i felt was immense agony as i read abt how Banri felt, just Pain HAHA (it’s really good))

Additionally, we will be novelizing the chaotic world of "Ainana Gakuen" too! We are certain it'll be a very lively story, so we hope everyone will buy a copy of the book!

[About the Game]

We staff members will be giving it our all in 2018 as well so everyone can enjoy the game. We have plenty of events in store for this upcoming year, and we hope you will enjoy the game alongside the anime!

[About Upcoming Game Adjustments and Features]

◆ About Recently Added Updates We have added a Waiting Room feature in our latest update. We hope this will alleviate any inconveniences caused by holding multiple copies of an unidolized card due to lacking the items to idolize them, even if just a little. (T/N: You can read more abt this function here! Kind of interesting to see what the intended use was bc I am storing basically everything not a true SSR w good potential stats in there HAHA)

◆ Events We kicked off our first Rabbit Hall event in celebration of Christmas! Upon release, we have come to realize some of the features are faulty and we are sorry for any inconveniences caused. We hope that everyone will enjoy the event until the next. In 2017, we had a large-scale story release event and collaboration events. Likewise, we hope to implement all sorts of events for everyone's enjoyment.

◆ New Features We are currently on Version 3.0 of the game. Regarding the play style, we are aware that the interface and design are lagging behind in some aspects and we are deeply sorry to everyone for the trouble it has caused. We will be focusing on making the game easier to understand and play from here on out in addition to implementing new features. Furthermore, we understand that there are very few opportunities to obtain items for UR idolization. We are currently in the process of creating an enjoyable way to obtain them through gameplay, so please look forward to future updates on this issue.

◆ Questions, Comments, or Concerns about the Game Please contact us through our official home page through the following link: http://idolish7.com/contact/ 

Thank you for reading our letter all the way through. We truly appreciate it. The countless support from everyone gave us strength throughout this entire year. As for this upcoming year, there are countless challenges we have yet to take on, and we staff will do our best to continue delivering 'surprise' and 'fun' to everyone.

Thank you for everything, and we will be in your care next year as well.

Let's all Ainana in 2018!

THAT WAS A LONG ONE, and long time no post! Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! 

Hopefully I’ll be able to find time to post a couple chapters of Part 3 this break, and thank you again for your continued patience. 

I’m super looking forward to i7′s big break on TV in just a few days, and please spread the love for this franchise!

[violetsystems]

#personal

I woke up early enough today.  A few dreams that I sort of remember.  I don’t dream all that often.  Or haven’t in the past.  Which is to say the bed frame was probably a good idea.  Why be that guy on a first date who whispers “I don’t dream.”  Truth be told I could argue I don’t dream.  I live them.  But that sounds like I own and operate a skydiving service and that’s not what I do to make money.  I missed a couple of drops.  The Cav Empt drop particularly that was denied by the credit card issuer three times.  After the third automated text of “yes charge my fucking card” I realized this was not to be.  The Instagram debacle taught me something.  One would think that was to quit using it entirely.  But I just headbang in my office and say absolutely nothing every few hours.  It could be in response to something.  I forgot about the Gyakusou drop until it bled through the algorithm and fell upon my eyes in a feed.  I don’t ever really actively seek out anything on social media other than here.  I use Tumblr much like I would a search engine.  And then I pour my entire heart and soul into the platform in hopes of a neural net upload at some point.  The fraud algorithms must have been working overtime.  A coworker asked if I hadn’t “appealed to a higher power” in reference to my instagram shadowban.  Again Instagram is not what I use to make a living.  I can’t even like anyone’s posts.  People ask me questions or comment on things and I can only communicate back in likes.  If it all sounds backwards consider I’ve been running since 2011.  Eight years later I’m back where I started.  A little more in control of some things and surrounded by chaos at every corner.  I tried to check out the nike store over lunch but they had closed for remodeling.  Mentally at this point I’m beyond exhausted.  I do train like an athlete.  I wake up early in the morning and go to sleep fairly early.  People still try to treat me like I’m their younger brother.  Give me advice when they don’t take it for themselves.  I try to explain sometimes what I do to people around here.  Why I make the sacrifices I do.  Why I stay out of certain social circles.  Like I wasn’t born yesterday.  My birthday was a couple of weeks ago.  The silence spoke volumes like it usually does.  It made the people who cared about it seem extra genuine and special.  I spent it in New York and met up with friends from both the internet and Chicago.  In the company of a city with the capacity to care without smothering you to death with expectations.

Chicago means well.  But the elite often forget what it’s like to have to continuously face the morning.  It used to be that getting downtown at seven in the morning was like a ghost town.  Now I see people rapping to themselves and performing comedy routines on the sidewalk.  I see myself in it much like I’ve learned to see myself in any city.  Chicago doesn’t really understand proximity and respect.  Or at least it doesn’t at certain times of the day.  Being alone in this city has always sucked.  When you walk out your door you suddenly realize you aren’t alone.  I’ve been easily identifiable for awhile even if I’m always hiding in plain sight.  It works against my favor sometimes to focus my energy around the wrong people and situations.  Running in this city has always been a different thing entirely.  Until very recently.  The sort of claustrophobic nature of people’s expectations of your very presence is a little nauseating.  When it gets so bad you have to plan your routes and time out in public alone it feels much worse.  I live that.  For better or for worse.  This morning I plan to run around the park in the neighborhood.  The last time I tried to run by the river it was a little too big brother for my tastes.  Especially when I didn’t consent to being part of some scene.  But what can you do when it’s a shared public resource?  I can try to fight all of it and look bad doing it.  Or I can focus my attention on a narrower but surer path.  The park across the street is off the Damien bus stop.  The Nike running store is a twenty minute ride from there.  I pay a monthly pre-tax benefit for unlimited rides on the CTA.  There’s some financial wizardry involved in that. Something to do with lowering your taxable income.  God knows I spend hours on end looking at my finances.  It can be almost as bad as organizing my comic collection or filing my Magic cards.  In short the biggest success in my life lately is that I have been forced to plan.  To work around chaos at every angle requires you to set boundaries for yourself.  I heard our head of security at work describe this as a survival skill.  It’s called putting on the mask.  You walk out that door into the streets and you bark off people with a look.  You should know by know I’m not to be fucked with.  And if you don’t know now you know.  Rest In Peace Christopher Wallace.

Silent birthdays and secret lovers aside.  Atlantic Star was right about one thing.  As soon as people find out something good they try to break up these happy homes.  This is why we can’t have nice things.  Or possibly this is why I wake up early to run and check out a brand new Nike store.  Does that area bother me?  It brings up some bad memories for sure.  Bad memories that won’t be skulking about at ten or eleven in the morning unless it’s a walk of shame or something.  I never thought that after all these years part of the excitement was survival in spite of these obstacles.  That people know me in some form or another all over the world.  This is the prime reason in the current state of American politics I stopped traveling internationally.  My trip back to New York in April is bought and paid for.  I feel there’s a rhythm to it financially. Every month and a half or so.  Fly out for a weekend by myself and just be in the moment.  I go out in public by myself there and feel at peace.  There’s a persistent sense of being distant when I’m by myself there.  And yet the same things up in my face are far more intense there.  In some ways I evolved into a sort of fearlessness of being held back so many years.  The truth for the most part was that I held myself back.  Or my strategies were poorly informed and haphazardly designed.  Prototyping your dreams is hard to do.  You fail a lot.  Maybe in the process you realize it’s not your dream.  Maybe after all these years, you can’t run away from them.  They’re right there running side by side whether you like it or not.  Whether they are present or not.  It inspires you to run towards the light.  A feeling of something that fills you instead of drains you.    If anything I’ve been reductive to a fault in my life.  I’ve lived alone.  Worked on myself and applied criticisms that stung to my everyday life.  Facing these things I developed new strategies.  New techniques.  Strange and beautiful ways of communicating.  Connected with intelligent and inspiring people.  And disconnected from a lot in the process to make more room for the things that really matter.  If you didn’t know specifically by now, I’ve done all this because I care about you.  Love makes you do crazy shit.  Like wake up early in the morning, workout and avoid people.  Last time I checked that was working out for both of us.  <3 Tim

[stagesofabreakup]

Stages of a Breakup: Week 48

1. Whoops you did Monday on the end of last week

2. It’s Tuesday now!

3. Who cares

4. Wake up earlyish

5. See a text from the girl moving back into your/her room about when you’re moving out

6. It triggers some stress in you

7. You ask her if she wants the window treatments you bought

8. She doesn’t

9. This is more stress

10. Check social media

11. This turns out to be a horrible mistake because while you are casually scrolling through Instagrams, clicking away, you go to a very RANDOM and private Insta you thought only you followed, it’s a stripper in Miami who likes astrology and also designs clothes so her posts are all over the place but you love it

12. She did these memes of Horoscope Starter Packs

13. You click the Aries one bc you gotta see

14. YOUR EX-BOYFRIEND HAS COMMENTED ON IT

15. ??????????

16. HIS NEW GIRLFRIEND REPLIED TO HIS COMMENT???????

17. It’s honestly too much for you

18. Because this is a safe space

19. How did he even find it

20. Does she follow and showed it to him????

21. Were they gramming together??????

22. The thought of that bursts your heart

23. Bring 1,173 dollars in cash to a Chase bank

24. Deposit it, get checks-your roommate asked for 2 rents worth now

25. Something is wrong about the rent but you’ve decided it doesn’t matter

26. Go to the gym

27. Work out but sadly

28. Your phone freaks out and won’t respond to touch

29. You get VERY nervous

30. It fixes itself? But is probably still dying

31. Go to a beauty supply store

32. Buy a bedazzled baseball hat that says, “Boss” in fake jewels, purple mirror nail polish and nail gems—for Mardi Gras

33. Go to work

34. Eat 2 halves of leftover doughnuts

35. Still good

36. Listen in disgust while two people bond over Rick & Morty

37. Get two groups that don’t tip but are loud and boisterous and annoying

38. Get one group that does tip

39. Feel blahhhhhhhhhhh all damn DAY

40. Get annoyed at one manager who does not understand how to communicate thoughts

41. Stay an hour past when you were supposed to leave, mopping

42. Almost choke on some seasoned French fries

43. Walk to the train

44. Get a text from the guy (you were talking to a while ago then realized he was seeing someone else) asking if you’re mad at him

45. You reply no

46. But really-it’s not that you’re mad at him you just realized you were putting an unfair emphasis on his interactions with you and you don’t want to be texting him at 3:00am anymore

47. Wonder if you should tell him this

48. Wonder if you should message your ex-boyfriend and tell him it’s rude he didn’t tell you he was dating someone when he knew you would see it and have to deal

49. Drink a beer

50. Pay your roommate two months rent which is the most money you’ve ever written a check for

51. Accidentally break a plate

52. Eat the world’s worst quesadilla

53. FIND WORSE THINGS ON INSTAGRAM

54. Your ex-bf and his new gf went on a date to Applebee’s and they both uploaded matching instagrams and he captioned his “Applebae’s”

55. Which is objectively terrible and disgusting

56. You remember/realize that in the two years of dating neither of you ever posted a ‘couples’ photo, that’s just the two of you together

57. She already is saying “I love you” online and he’s “loving” (the love react on fb) the comments

58. It’s too much

59. How do you stop caring??? How do people stop that?

60. Talk with a friend on the phone a little about it

61. Laugh

62. Feel kinda better

63. A girl you met a few nights ago messaged you her fire ritual so maybe you’ll do one of those

64. To cleanse

65. Send a friend 2 dollars online for a sick button

66. Keep looking at the instagrams over and over again like visual self-flagellation

67. Wish that you had a “I’m happy and loved!” picture to post

68. Remember that he unfollowed you on Instagram anyway so it wouldn’t matter

69. Feel sad & out of control

70. Put on The Patriot

71. Decide you need to take a shower

72. Want to masturbate

73. Cum!!!!!

74. Knock over some bleach and stain the carpet whoops

75. Who leaves a jug of bleach unopened anywhere???

76. Stay up too late

77. Finally turn off The Patriot and try to sleep

78. Wake up at 10:00am

79. Wake up at 3:00pm

80. Stress about stuff more

81. Eat a doughnut and half of a steak sandwich that isn’t yours but is about to go bad and one pack of fruit snacks

82. Start trying to write an email to HR giving feedback they asked for

83. Get a call from your friend Molly!!!!!

84. It’s perfect and she’s perfect

85. Three way call your other friend Gabe!!!!!

86. This is better than Facetime!!!!!

87. Gabe, your least superficial friend in the world, tells you you are objectively prettier than your ex-boyfriend’s new gf and that she is a “step down”

88. Which, whether or not it’s true is sweet and kind thing to say and you love him for saying it and it makes you feel better

89. But still feminism though!!!!!!

90. Watch some more of The Patriot

91. Email the HR email

92. Email about an editing job you’re doing for a friend

93. Maybe connect with 2 new roommates?

94. Try to get ready to go to the gym

95. Post 2 pictures to Instagram your friend Rashida took in your sports bra

96. YOUR EX-BOYFRIEND HAS ALREADY POSTED ANOTHER INSTAGRAM THIS TIME OF HIS DOG THAT YOU MISS SO MUCH and wow Instagram is an emotional battlefield

97. But you feel fortified from talking with one of your best friends who you love

98. Look forward to the gym

99. OMG talk to your friend Charlie on the phone

100. While on the phone with him, sign up for Moviepass AND unfollow your ex-boyfriend on Instagram!!!!!!!!!

101. Two huge things

102. Feel like you have a piece of glass in your foot

103. Because you definitely do

104. Talk to your friend Molly on the phone

105. Start editing your friend Randy’s story

106. The only time you leave the house today it is to go to the gym and immediately come back home

107. Talk to your friend Jade on the phone

108. Finish Moshe Kasher’s book “Kasher in the Rye,” which was incredible

109. Take pictures of all the outfits you have for Mardi Gras, send them to her

110. Buy two items from Torrid for 62 dollars and get them shipped to her house so they’ll be there for Mardi Gras

111. Make an Instagram story starring your jeweled hat that says “BOSS”

112. Watch the first 35 min of Get Him To The Greek

113. Masturbate

114. Shower

115. Sleep

116. Wake up weirdly early for going to bed at 6:00am

117. Feeling rested and alert!!!

118. Ignore the shooting invisible pain in your foot and get dressed to go to the gym!!!

119. Eat a sandwich with cheese that only had a little bit of mold on it

120. Send two emails you’ve been meaning to-one to your old gym in New Orleans asking if you can work out while you’re there and one to a group you’re in about a room for March!

121. Get booked on a show 2 months from now by writing a semi-snarky fb comment!

122. Go to the gym

123. Get annoyed by a weird man who moved your ipod and reminds you “you can’t trust people”

124. But like, the only person you can’t trust is people who try to remind you you can’t trust people

125. Work out

126. Listen to Britney Spear’s first album

127. It has aged well

128. Go into a sneaker store on the way home because you need new sneakers and part of you wants to get rid of all remnants of things your ex-boyfriend was involved in acquiring before you go back so you seem more changed/new/different

129. Try on like 4 pairs of shoes

130. They are ok but too expensive

131. You need a DSW in this bitch

132. Go home

133. Start a new book that’s written by the guy who wrote Election and Little Children (both great movies/you didn’t know one person did both of those)

134. Come home

135. Eat 2 packs of fruit snacks because you don’t want to encounter anyone by going in the kitchen and you hear them in there

136. Look at your phone for a while

137. Your ex-bf’s new gf is truly doing the most and has posted 2 instagrams of them and made a picture of the two of them her profile picture

138. This washes off you like water because you are an evolved being

139. You have also gone through the cleansing ritual of looking through her Instagram with a few choice friends and feeling emotionally safe & superior because you have all concluded that she overdraws her eyebrows which should be a crime

140. Peek out of your apartment to find there are a lot of firefighters in the apt next door and a lot of smoke

141. Worry

142. Breathe in some smoke

143. It’s ok someone just burned some food

144. Get an email from a girl about a place for April—decide you could put your stuff in storage and stay with friends if you needed to for a month

145. Send 3 booking emails to try to get more shows around a date you’re doing in Philly

146. Feel like a real comic/consummate professional

147. Drink a whiskey ginger you made with the shittiest whiskey the world has to offer

148. Your friend Charlie is coming over!

149. Plan to take a shower in the hour it will take him to get to your apartment

150. Sit in one spot until 5 min before he’s supposed to come

151. Text him you’re hopping in

152. He says he’s at your stop

153. You turn off the shower & put clothes back on

154. Wait 20 minutes

155. He got a roast beef sandwich before coming

156. Drink with Charlie!

157. Learn about the Rohingya and the genocide they are facing in Myanmar

158. Talk about more stuff

159. Show him your ex-bf’s new gf

160. He looks her up on some journalist database

161. No arrests

162. You look yourself up

163. It finds this YouTube video from like 8 years ago you forgot you made!!!!

164. You were so pretty????!!

165. Watch many episodes of The Office while Charlie nods in and out

166. He says he’s lonely

167. You tell him he can hold you if he wants for contact

168. You secretly hope he will

169. He says it’s ok

170. Watch more of The Office

171. Take a shower at 3:00am

172. Go to sleep

173. Wake up at 12:00pm

174. Charlie didn’t set an alarm

175. He missed an important Skype call

176. Whoops

177. He leaves

178. Go to the gym

179. Go to work for a short period of time

180. Have some down time, do trick shots with other people you work with

181. Throw (successfully) two axes at a time, two axes in one hand, underhand, and backwards

182. Sweat profusely and turn really red but don’t care because the sense of strength and accomplishment you got is more than worth it

183. Have a really annoying group

184. They don’t tip

185. Buy a 6 pack of Milk Stout and tortilla chips (for the salsa you found unopened on the ground 2 months ago) on your way home

186. Home

187. Get a check for your writing that’s 380.00

188. Freak out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

189. Also get a copy of the magazine it was published in

190. It was so long ago you forgot what you wrote kind of

191. Read it

192. You’re so funny!!!!

193. Call your mom for the first time in more than a month

194. She has company but says she’ll call you back but she’s happy you called

195. Feverishly drink beers and eat chips & salsa

196. Write a fb status about how people in love never make good art

197. She calls back

198. Talk on the phone with her for 4 hours

199. Cry a lot

200. Get past it

201. Have a really good conversation

202. Process some shit

203. Find out that she and your dad are divorced now, it finalized December 1st

204. Cry cry cry

205. She tells you you’re being judgmental about your ex-boyfriend

206. “You’re not in that position anymore”

207. This is interesting and something you haven’t considered

208. Marinate

209. See an apartment listing for 525/month

210. Send out an inquiry about it

211. Your eyes hurt from being open and crying

212. Take a shower

213. Find out Venmo charged you an overdraft fee twice, try to remember to call and get one taken off

214. Try to cut the piece of glass out of your foot with dull scissors

215. It doesn’t really work

216. You’re hungry but you’re doing this not eating after midnight thing

217. Realize your gym closes so fucking early tomorrow you have to get up super early if you wanna go before work

218. Ugh

219. You still haven’t done any more work on editing your friend’s story

220. You know you’re setting a bad impression and he’ll probably never hire you again or recommend you for others

221. You just can’t make yourself focus on it for some reason

222. Feel bad about it

223. You go to New Orleans so soon

224. This 52 week project is almost over

225. What then

226. YOU GOT THE PIECE OF GLASS OUT OF YOUR FOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

227. You’re gonna be fine

228. Find a message from someone who read all the weekly entries of this book you put on a secret tumblr every week in case something happened to the Word doc

229. They said they read it all in one night after looking for things to help with their breakup and that it was very inspirational and relatable

230. You want to cry because that’s so encouraging, you have no idea if anyone will care about any of this it’s just something you needed to do and lots of people have made you feel kind of bad like you’re obsessing or thinking about it too much or prolonging hurt

231. It was nice

232. Stay awake accidentally til 4:00am

233. Get up at 8:30

234. Eat a doughnut

235. Go back to sleep for 25 minutes

236. Go to work looking like shit because you cried for 4 hours on the phone with your mom

237. Work

238. Your friend from college picked the date for her wedding!!!!!! It’s September 29th!!!!

239. Get like 100 bucks in tips

240. Be incredibly frustrated because two different managers snapped at you and one apologized but the other one was right before you left and it was so fucking annoying and you wanted to cry and hit something

241. Leave

242. Rush to the gym

243. Work out for 25 minutes

244. Your butt/back leg muscles are sore/tight today for some reason

245. Wait in line for 20 minutes at the bank to deposit a check

246. Sing softly to oldies with another man for like 10 of those minutes

247. Come home

248. Make a stir fry on the stove like a real person

249. Eat pizza crusts out of the trash, just to remind you where you came from

250. Find the song “Pretty Girl” by Clairo

251. Listen to it multiple times

252. Watch many many episodes of The Office

253. Do NO work on the story you should be editing

254. Drink 1 beer

255. Feel sooooo full

256. Eat the LAST fruit snack package! Out of 80!!!!

257. Find out that Kate Spade made a line of “bridal sneakers”

258. No no no no absolutely not

259. Make an Instagram story about how pimples are really just gifts from the Lord

260. Text your friend Gabe for a min

261. Eat some nutella

262. Want to masturbate and take a shower and also already be asleep

263. Drink water

264. Continue watching The Office & drawing

265. Find a video of a TINY little sweet angel girl covering “Creep” by Radiohead with her dad that is HEARTMELTING

266. Stay up toooo late

267. Wake up two different times from nightmares with abusive people

268. Get up for good

269. Eat a warm doughnut

270. Masturbate

271. Start getting dressed for the gym

272. Do some stuff online

273. Listen to lots of pump up songs

274. Stretch

275. Be sad you can’t go to a Superbowl party because you really need to finish editing this story today, but you also didn’t get invited to any sooooooo

276. Decide you’ll eat chips and salsa while you edit

277. Put 20$ on a Metrocard instead of getting an Unlimited because you’re going to New Orleans in 2 days!!!

278. Gym finally

279. Walk for 80 minutes while watching a HILARIOUS episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta

280. Two grown women get in a fight because one saw the other one park in a handicapped parking spot at the mall which was, “shady”

281. The other one yelled back, “I was hanging out with someone who is handicapped, bitch!”

282. They also did a mediation/séance to “clear the elephants in the room” which was…interesting

283. Text with your friend Gabe and he says some WONDERFUL things that are helpful to you

284. He says (gently) that you need to let go of your ego in all this, and it doesn’t matter what your ex-boyfriend is doing/who he is dating/if he still; has feelings for you because it doesn’t matter in your life anymore, you have moved on without him on your own and have grown so much

285. He also listens while you talk about editing your friends story and you realize why you have been putting it off—you’re worried about offending him by doing too many rewrites/how to address ADDING when editing vs. just rearranging/subtracting

286. Home

287. Get annoyed that one of your roommates & her bf is in the living room, this is the third night in a row someone has been dominating that space with their love and you wanted to write in there!

288. Eat chips & salsa and chicken nuggets in the kitchen with your computer

289. Finally start editing!!!

290. Whew it’s hard and you are tired

291. Wish you could just watch The Office and turn off your brain

292. Do the edits!!!

293. It takes a long time and you decide you won’t charge him for all of them because you made him wait so long

294. Email your rewrite with notes

295. Hope he likes it

296. Watch The Office

297. Paint your nails with this new mirror nail polish you got for Mardi Gras that isn’t what you thought but is still cool

298. It smells terrible though

299. Think about packing?

300. Decide to do it tomorrow

301. You have to work from 3:45-10 and work out at some point though

302. Look up how long it will take you to get to Newark

303. Like an hour and a half

304. Feel free from your conversation with Gabe and really feel like you have turned a corner

305. More Office

306. New Orleans so soon! ! ! !

307. !

[halloweendailynews]

There are fewer names in the Halloween industry more iconic than Ben Cooper, the costume brand first launched eight decades ago by the brothers Ben and Nat Cooper, who broke new ground in their innovative use of licensed pop culture icons from the likes of Disney and Star Wars. They helped define what Halloween is in America for multiple generations who proudly wore their plastic masks and vinyl smocks, and now Ben Cooper is back.

In Part 1 of our extended chat with Nat Cooper’s son Ira Cooper and author Jon James Miller, we discussed the rise of Ben Cooper Incorporated, becoming the biggest Halloween market shareholder by the late ‘70s after successfully bridging the gap from theatrical costuming to everyday dress up made affordable enough for everyday people. They paved the way for the pop culture-influenced cosplay culture of today.

The Cooper brothers were also pioneers in licensing some the earliest Disney properties, being among the first in the world to give kids a likeness of Mickey Mouse or Cinderella that they could find at their local drug store. By the 1980s, they were the Kings of Halloween, but the country was changing, as the pop culture icons they helped make famous were now becoming more readily available through all kinds of new products, and grownups began to celebrate the holiday more than ever.

In this third and final installment of our interview, the story resumes a quarter-century after Ben Cooper Costumes went bankrupt and was ultimately sold in 1991.

Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the name and the brand are looking to make a comeback, for all kinds of vintage-cool new items that honor Ben and Nat in their rightful place in Halloween history.

Read on for Part 3 of our interview with Ira Cooper and Jon James Miller!

Ben Cooper ‘Star Wars’ costumes ad.

Read Part 1: The Rise of Ben Cooper

Read Part 2: The Reign of Ben Cooper

Part 3: The Return of Ben Cooper

HDN – If they were here now, what do you think Ben and Nat Cooper would think of Halloween and costuming and just how the industry is today? Do you think they would feel a little pride or ownership over that, or do you think they would be more weirded out by it?

IRA – There would be no ego around it at all. They were very practical people who did not lord their position over anybody. They did one interview, with People Magazine, and never did another with anybody.

Nat kept himself out of the limelight. He worked 10 years on (signing) Sesame Street, and you could barely get him to take credit for getting the license. The head of licensing for Sesame Street took me aside after dinner at The Plaza in New York and he said, ‘Your father is the most tenacious businessman I’ve ever met.’ That’s a tremendous statement to make.

They were just so private that way. They didn’t decorate their houses with anything. I think Dad had a couple of Disney (film animation) cells at home, but nothing major. He had absolutely nothing that indicated Halloween. If there was art on the wall, it was art from other people.

Although they talked about it and they lived the business, they didn’t identify with it in that way. So I think they would just think it’s crazy where it went.

Nat always said that people are missing the low end of the market. There is always going to be X-number of millions of dollars in low priced items for people who cannot afford this other stuff. I think they would notice that still is not being served. The retailers don’t want to devote the space.

Lady Vampire mask by Ben Cooper.

JON – I think they’d be more flattered about cosplay.

IRA – They’d be mesmerized by it.

JON – I think in as much as they pioneered play suits for everyday wear, that was done in the ‘50s, so that was way ahead of anybody else as far as the cosplay lifestyle today where people can dress up every day.

IRA – I don’t think they foresaw adults running around identifying with superheroes. And that’s the essence that I get from cosplay, that it’s this psychological identity with it.

JON – I think the brothers Cooper would take a little satisfaction in the fact that Halloween is an $8.6 billion industry.  And it’s inflation-proof on top of that.

IRA – And it always was. Even in the worst recession years, Halloween did not lack growth. You could always measure how good the Halloween was going to be at the end of the season by looking at the candy sales in the beginning. If candy and party goods were good, they knew people were going to be buying those costumes eventually. Some years were very late sales and we’d see the stuff moving off the shelves in the last seven days, and other years it moved off in the last 15 days of what was initially only a 30-day selling period. Now the selling period is 60 days or more.

Rubber Dracula mask by Ben Cooper.

HDN – So after the ‘90s the Ben Cooper brand was dormant for 25 years. What can you tell me about the re-launch and what’s going on now?

IRA – I’ll leave that one with Jon.

JON – I always loved Ben Cooper growing up. And I kind of forgot about it for a decade or two. Then, I’m a writer too and I was doing some research, and one of my editors said, ‘Why don’t you do something about Halloween?’ It kind of went off in my head that I hadn’t heard about Ben Cooper for a long time. And then I realized there really isn’t anything online about them.

So I set about trying to find a Cooper. That took me months and months. I still consider it a minor miracle that the Cooper I did find was Ira. He’s the nicest guy on the planet. He took mercy on me and kind of told me the family story.

That’s really one of the unsung heroes of this whole story; how a Jewish immigrant family got their start and realized the American dream by taking over Halloween.

They are exceedingly modest, the Coopers are, especially Ira. What I bring to it is that I can see how people would be really interested in this story. It’s never been told before.

Short of making Halloween costumes again, which I don’t see in Ben Cooper’s near future, what I do see is doing collectibles and telling that story, because it’s really a pop culture phenomenon in and of itself.

They lived off pop culture for 50 years, and then they became it, because of their stature in the Halloween industry.

So Ira and I really hit it off, and we’re working on a book about Ben Cooper, the official history.

HDN – Oh, cool. That’s going to be great.

Ben Cooper ‘Star Wars’ 40th anniversary shirt.

JON – We’re very slowly rolling out a couple collectibles at BenCooperCostumes.com, starting with a 40th anniversary Star Wars t-shirt (pictured above), and we’ve got a couple of other things that are in the pipeline.

What I love about Ben Cooper is they kind of touched on everything in their time in the limelight. So you have super awesome Disney, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, basically any pop culture icon you can think of had its own costume back in the day. But what I love about the costumes especially is they actually are kind of folk art.

You can still buy a costume fairly cheaply online, and it brings you right back when you open that box and see that mask right in front of the costume. You’re teleported right back to your childhood. That kind of nostalgia is hard to come by these days.

And a lot of the costumes I buy, because I’m a collector too, they’re in really good condition. Some of them are haggered and ripped and stuff, but some of them are like they just came off the line at the Cooper factory. It’s largely luck to get one in that kind of condition, but I think Ben Cooper costumes are the only collectible that it’s cool if it’s got chocolate all over it when you get it, because somebody loved it.  

HDN – When is the book coming out?

JON – We’re estimating it’s going to be out in time for (San Diego) Comic-Con next year. So we’ll launch it, and then that obviously leads into the Halloween 2018 market. We’re hopeful that the book itself is going to be a bit of a collectible. We’d like to capture as many Ben Cooper Halloween costume images as possible.

HDN – That sounds so cool. I’m sure it will be a collectible in its own right. So costumes are not part of the plan right now?

IRA – I think we’re going to tell the story of Ben Cooper, but I don’t think it’s going to be an emerging area for youngsters. I think there’s a certain level of contemporary young adults who recognize that the art is nostalgic, and recognize the vibrancy of it, and we’re going to see some classic Ben Cooper images on some fashion items and home décor. These are things we have in the works.

But right now it’s time to tell the story, and give Ben and Nat their due.  

Following that initial release of the Star Wars 40th anniversary Ben Cooper t-shirt earlier this year, the new Ben Cooper has also since unveiled a number of other retro flavored items, including collectible pins, apparel, and additional shirts. You can find out more about these and upcoming releases at the official Ben Cooper Facebook page and on Instagram. Ben Cooper is also the subject of a great new exhibit showing from Sept. 9 through Halloween at the Mystic Museum in Burbank, CA, featuring never-before-seen prototypes, archive photos, original art, masks, and more.

If you have stories or photos of you and your Ben Cooper costumes, be sure to share in the comments below!

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Ben Cooper Vampire Bat lapel pin from Vixen by Micheline Pitt.

Ben Cooper monster mask swing skirt from Vixen by Micheline Pitt.

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[Interview] Ben Cooper Costumes Relaunched by Original Family (Part 3)! @BenCooperCo #BenCooper There are fewer names in the Halloween industry more iconic than Ben Cooper, the costume brand first launched eight decades ago by the brothers Ben and Nat Cooper, who broke new ground in their innovative use of licensed pop culture icons from the likes of Disney and…