#like WOW those are some important character details for sure

[halcyone-of-the-sea]

Wow! As the header says, my blog just went past 5k followers - I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who hopped on for this journey; I'm having the time of my life sharing my writing with you all.

In celebration and as a way to have a little fun - I'll be opening my inbox for a day and letting those who want to send in something fill it up!

Now, I know you're probably asking yourself 'Hal, I thought you said requests are going to be closed so you can finish the ones you have and work on the AUs?' And you'd be correct - I did say that. I'm not going to be writing full-length works for this event.

To anyone who sends something in (and follows the rules I have in place on my Request Form (be sure to check it even if you've already read it, I added some more characters and other stuff)) I'll be writing one-to-two page drabbles!

All this being said, after this post is uploaded I'll be opening my inbox up to anyone who would want to participate and closing it exactly one day after!

Thank you again for being the best community ever - I'm incredibly lucky to be surrounded by kind and respectful individuals as well as mutuals who are mind-numbingly sweet. I could not have achieved all of this without you; I think that's beautiful.

This post will also serve as the Masterlist for all of the expected drabbles, so if you'd like to keep updated on what's going to be happening/being written soon, this would be a good place to hang out!

ALL COMPLETED AS OF 11/5/2023

IMAGES USED: A black retriever in an extensive mountainous landscape by Maud Earl & L'angelo, la morte e il diavolo by Roberto Ferri || TOTAL: 5

➣The Perfect One

╰┈➤ ❝ [He stares at the rings under the glass with an acute narrowness to his eyes. He inspects every one as if a bomb might go off at any second, not missing a single detail in the metal.] ❞

➣Get In

╰┈➤ ❝ [Coming home with bruises and stitched wounds, you drag him into the bathroom to wash away the memories.] ❞

➣Hum Me A Tune, Blue-Eyes

╰┈➤ ❝ [You listen to his heartbeat as he keeps you to his chest, his breath tickling your hair.] ❞

➣Here Now

╰┈➤ ❝ [He nearly misses one of the most important moments of your lives together.] ❞

➣Burst Veins

╰┈➤ ❝ [He never noticed you weren't behind him.] ❞

IMAGES USED:  Fallen Angel by Roberto Ferri & Nature of Fear by Nicola Samori || TOTAL: 5

➣Nervous Eyes

╰┈➤ ❝ [No one understands how you two get along - not when you're so different. It makes you second-guess yourself. He notices.] ❞

➣Blood Like Obsidian

╰┈➤ ❝ [Simon can only fight against so many nurses as they shove him back from your operation room.] ❞

➣Supposed To Happen

╰┈➤ ❝ [You died and left him a child he had no idea existed. How can he even begin to try and understand?] ❞

➣Digging Gaze

╰┈➤ ❝ [You indulge in a one-night-stand after you'd both called it quits, only, it leads to more problems. When he sees you again, how will he react to the swelling of your stomach?] ❞

➣Sole Survivor

╰┈➤ ❝ [Your father died years ago, and so you fall under the stiff, and unyielding, protection of your Uncle Simon. But it's not all bad. He can be funny when he wants to be.] ❞

IMAGES USED: White and Black by Vadim Gorbatov & Saint Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne || TOTAL: 7

➣Didn't Mean It

╰┈➤ ❝ [Arguments are rare, certainly ones that leave you in tears.] ❞

➣Him, Her, and the Dog

╰┈➤ ❝ [The woes of pining after a woman whose deadly K9 looks like it hates his guts.] ❞

➣Drunken Sappiness

╰┈➤ ❝ [You can't say you've ever had a boyfriend as perfect as Kyle.] ❞

➣How Do You Listen To That?

╰┈➤ ❝ [It was three a.m. when you all got the call to load up, but what's the best way to wake both yourself and the Sergeant up?] ❞

➣Finally Broken

╰┈➤ ❝ [Childhood friends turned lovers. The realization was far more violent and instantaneous than you'd like to admit.] ❞

➣Don't Look At Her

╰┈➤ ❝ [The bomb starts ticking down, rapidly firing to zero. Gaz won't let Price near you. Not after he'd remembered the Captain's actions when they'd first met.] ❞

➣In His Head

╰┈➤ ❝ [Collection of his SFW and NSFW quirks.] ❞

IMAGES USED: Scene from the Great Flood by Joseph-Désiré Court & Saint Jerome in Prayer by Carlo Dolci || TOTAL: 7

➣Life Snaps By In Flashes

╰┈➤ ❝ [A collection of memories from the second he laid eyes on you. All flashing past in the soft buzzing of the overhead lights.] ❞

➣Heart-Eyes

╰┈➤ ❝ [Being a medic wasn't pretty, but when your boyfriend was the subject under your needle you can't help but enjoy his unwavering gaze. Today, he has something to share with you.] ❞

➣From Ten To Twenty & Beyond

╰┈➤ ❝ [You've known him ever since the incident on the playground, and now you can't help but imagine that same boy as you watch him make supper with flour in his hair.] ❞

➣Find Me

╰┈➤ ❝ [You're finally back in One-Four-One's hands, but that doesn't mean you're saved. Johnny tracks you down after a violent episode.] ❞

➣Still The Same Fools

╰┈➤ ❝ [There was always a rivalry between you two - that hasn't changed even if both of you have. Years later, the boiling point is finally met.] ❞

➣Is This Why?

╰┈➤ ❝ [He finally sees why you never introduced him to your parents.] ❞

➣Oblivious Pining

╰┈➤ ❝ [Johnny hangs off you like a silent beast. Not that you would notice, of course.] ❞

IMAGES USED: King Gustav III of Sweden and His Brothers by Alexander Roslin & Geography lesson by Eduard Karl Gustav Lebrecht Pistorius || TOTAL: 6

KEEGAN P. RUSS:

➣Paint The Dawn; Paint My Eyes

╰┈➤ ❝ [In the midst of war and death, there's little time for pleasure. All you had was a ripped-up sketchbook to call your own, its contents littered with the rough face of your comrade.] ❞

➣Hold Her Close

╰┈➤ ❝ [Keegan cares for his young daughter.] ❞

➣When The Fighting Stops & The Silence Sets In

╰┈➤ ❝ [Continuation of (Don't) Go To War: the aftermath of recovery and a budding relationship.] ❞

➣Movies and Stale Popcorn

╰┈➤ ❝ [Oak and Keegan finally get to watch that movie.] ❞

DAVID 'HESH' WALKER:

➣To The Boy of My Childhood

╰┈➤ ❝ [Ten years came and went fast, but the memory of the Walker boys stayed. One more than the other. You never got to tell him you loved him.] ❞

➣Keep The Sheets Warm, My Love Is Coming Home

╰┈➤ ❝ [If this wasn't enough to prove that you were the only person for Hesh, you didn't know what did.] ❞

IMAGES USED: Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Caravaggio & Amor Vincit Omnia by Caravaggio || TOTAL: 17

CAPTAIN JOHN 'SOAP' MACTAVISH:

➣New Paint

╰┈➤ ❝ [Fighting to forget you, MacTavish finds comfort in whoever he can. Yet, like the layers of paint on the walls, it always peels back to you.] ❞

➣A Song of Gnashing Teeth

╰┈➤ ❝ [There was never a day where the two of you weren't butting heads - everyone was at their wit's end. Of course, you would both be forced to cooperate at some point.] ❞

➣Listen To My Voice

╰┈➤ ❝ [He orders you to focus on him as the sounds outside the cell get closer. He promises nothing will happen to you. You know he's lying.] ❞

➣Look At The Stars; Look At Me

╰┈➤ ❝ [Stargazing in the middle of an overgrown and wild glade.] ❞

➣Alive and Breathing

╰┈➤ ❝ [You're sick. Very sick. John takes drastic action.] ❞

➣I Can See It In Your Eyes

╰┈➤ ❝ [It's finally time to meet the family.] ❞

➣A Green-Eyed Monster

╰┈➤ ❝ [You'd slept together, sure. No strings attached. Then why are you trying to make him jealous? Who cares, the point is that it's working.] ❞

SERGEANT GARY 'ROACH' SANDERSON:

➣Dance With Me Before The Chill Sets In

╰┈➤ ❝ [Tired? Yes, but he's never too tired for you and your loveliness. But maybe you need to remember to lock the door when you're home alone.] ❞

➣Raining Cats and Dogs

╰┈➤ ❝ [Roach has a deep love of storms.] ❞

OPERATION OFFICER ALEX KELLER:

➣Bright-Eyed History Lesson

╰┈➤ ❝ [A librarian with a fascination for war history and a soldier who loves how her eyes light up. Like a dog, he can't stop himself from coming back; smiling like a fool.] ❞

COLONEL ALEJANDRO VARGAS:

➣Hold Me Longer

╰┈➤ ❝ [Mornings spent in the sanctity of warm sunlight and bare skin.] ❞

SERGEANT MAJOR RODOLFO 'RUDY' PARRA:

➣A Love Like Ours Makes Us Strong

╰┈➤ ❝ [Rodolfo came back, alive but bruised. How do you explain how terrified you were?] ❞

COMMANDER PHILLIP GRAVES:

➣Sleeping On The Porch

╰┈➤ ❝ [As it turns out, your husband never really died. It's safe to say you're not overjoyed.] ❞

➣Love Echoes In Silence

╰┈➤ ❝ [You can feel him watching you, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a small smile. Humming to yourself, you listen to the birds outside the window.] ❞

SEBASTIAN JOSEF KRUEGER:

➣Ain't Giving Up My Pride

╰┈➤ ❝ [You get on his nerves, partially because you want to. But what happens when he finally snaps?] ❞

ALL 141 INCLUDED (SEPARATE):

➣Count The Hours

╰┈➤ ❝ [Collection of what the One-Four-One do on their down-hours with their Lovers] ❞

➣Wide-Eyed Panic

╰┈➤ ❝ [Why were you behind the couch?] ❞

[99redragons]

Wow, I agonized over this post way too long. Here it is, finally. I was gonna make this a reblog but i think since it's referencing multiple posts (and boy it got super long and added a related theory) this is better on its own. This is furthering @gin-juice-tonic's analysis of the tBoB journal pages. Heavy tBoB spoilers, and warning for the darker content it has. (some swearing too) I'm convinced now they're a warped version of events and downright fake for some, however, I believe many are real.

...But did Ford remember them? "I can delete memories randomly, just for fun. Maybe I already have." I do NOT think Bill could erase everything. He probably can only erase small/recent sections. But this is a big part of my theory.

But first, Gin's points. (using some of your pics for this Gin, hope you dont mind) I'm not going to post every journal page, but I'll give a ref for ones that seem important.

Okay, this is the post that actually convinced me (went through the links from tapas, the first is sure suspicious, but the second has pretty compelling evidence.) Ford referred to Fiddleford as F through the whole of journal 3 (aside from in code), and Bill as his Muse until the reveal, he wouldn't suddenly change the way he refers to people, even if he planned to rip out the pages, in which case, why would you write them in the first place?

On the first link (this one), this appears to be an embellished story. When you look at it from bill's perspective, he's reminiscing. He lies to himself. He's making it seem like Ford and Bill hit it off immediately, and while in a way, they did, it probably wasn't like this. I'll buy Ford used Cipher's line back at him, but the jovial way they banter is just so Bill. Ford would emphasize how he felt, the mysteries he was thinking about, his reverence for his Muse. He probably wouldn't recount it line for line when he was so secretive in journal 3. Bill makes it seem like they were more like equals, when in reality he likely relished the devotion and divine status Ford attributed to him. Also, "Cipher Speaks" is in Bill's handwriting from the sticky notes. could be coincidence? I think not. 'Ford' also describes it as the "GREATEST. DAY. OF MY LIFE." This mirrors bill's earlier statements about the reader's life being forever changed after meeting bill. According to Bill, meeting him is the highest moment of anyone's life, right?

In an additional post, Gin explains how Bill didn't tell Ford he was from another dimension. Ford had to find that out at the betrayal. So, all this taken, those two pages at least are fake.

For the third link, this one, while from Doylist perspective, Alex wanted the book to have fun little callbacks, from Watsonian, Bill simply can't help himself. Bill loves trying to be funny. He's trying to keep the reader hooked, and keeping the story interesting through callbacks is one way to do that. Some of these are Bill, some are self-referential because Bill's talking about real events from the past. (rats, cipherite suit, Small World cassette, we'll get to those later)

Bill has a habit of telling the truth through his lies. What I mean by that is, if he is repeating himself through actions or words, it's probably because there's some truth to it. If he's contradicting himself, there's something he's hiding. He'll claim he has no weaknesses, but later admit he does. He'll say he has no exes, only to reference exes later. So, we can glean truths from the lies he's telling in the pages.

I think Alex is a good enough writer to keep Ford and his writing (mostly) in character. He's made retcons/continuity errors before, but he knows the fandom will pick apart everything and find them, and will have a reason for it. There's definitely some fake pages, which begs the question, which are real?

One detail I want to point out is the vignette/burn marks on the edges of some of the pages. My secondary theory is about these. (And no, it doesn't indicate they were fake.) I'll explain later.

Assumptions/disclaimers: The pages we're shown are roughly chronological, though skip forward where surviving J3 pages would go. Pages aren't realistically double-sided like they would be in J3, these are inserted into tBoB magically. I don't have a blacklight version of J3, so I'm probably missing a little bit of context there. References J3 quite a few times, so this post works best if you are able to reference both books. I can go into detail and post more pictures for any sections that aren't clear.

First off, 'Lost in the woods'. This one I believe is real, because Ford's (author's cipher) codes are in it. This code is consistently used in the book whenever Ford inserts a page, even on the moth. For Bill to use this code would break the established pattern Alex has made. However, I agree with Gin that Bill intentionally placed this page to establish Ford as lonely, and thus make Bill look better for befriending him in contrast. I don't think it's that odd for Ford to talk about his social awkwardness, he talks about his childhood bullying pretty frankly, specifically on a page meant to be an author's About Me. However, he did rip this one out, so I think he was trying to ignore his feelings by hiding this page. No vignette.

'Cipher speaks', as we've discussed, is likely a fake/altered meeting. Vignettes on both pages. On the second page you can see where it looks burnt in one corner, and there's even tear marks like there's a page missing there, perhaps their real first meeting. It's also strange for Ford to draw himself like that.

'My Muse & Me'- Ford refers to Bill as his Muse again. Despite my doubts (I went back and forth on this one), I think this one has to be real. We find on the website computer (code: Fordtramarine) that Ford tried to submit a paper on fordtramarine. In that paper he refers to an 'extradimensional entity' and 'two-dimensional'. He shouldn't know that Bill is interdimensional at this point, so Ford must mean 'outside of physical reality', as in, the astral plane. Though, there's a painting of 'a muse' in the paper. Wasn't Bill supposed to be secret? Perhaps he thought he could get away with that small reference? Perhaps this paper was submitted more recently? I don't like the idea that things from the website are also fake, since it would be strange for Bill to have such narrative control there. The website seems to reveal things Bill can't control, even if Bill is talking. This page also establishes more timeline. This is saying that not only could Bill freely move in and out of Ford's mind within a year, he had full access to alter it as well, ahead of their deal before the test. This page is probably to make it seem appealing to let Bill into your mind. It also serves a purpose of showing us Ford had let Bill fully into his mind at this point in the story Bill's weaving. I am curious why would Ford hide this only to submit a paper on it, just to keep his Muse secret? And those damn red triangles, did Bill draw those, implying he could possess Ford before their deal? No burns/vignette. The neighboring pages both have it, why not this one?

June 15th- There is direct dialogue from Bill quoted, however, he refers to Bill as his Muse. Wouldn't Ford be creeped the hell out by the rat thing, and be alarmed that Bill possessed things just to kill them? I think this page was real, but was ripped out by Bill. Heavy vignette.

(Sorry for the poor quality, my phone camera is awful)

At this point I should explain: I think the burn/vignette represents Bill 'burning away' memories/altering them. Ford's memories, but possibly even the reader's. I want to be clear; I don't mean Bill erased the entire memory of the page, I mean Bill erased at least some part of those events. When it's heavy around the edges, heavier manipulation. It also could indicate which ones Bill burned/destroyed. More evidence for this later.

Karaoke page- How did Bill convince Ford to drink with him after the rat thing? Bill made him forget it was Bill. "The rats were his idea?" Yeah, he told you that right away, why did he need to tell you again? While probable this happened, the writing from Ford is sus. "This Bill guy, he's really got it all figured out"? Sounds a bit like Bill talking. The drawing is strangely detailed, too. 'Dancing queen' (disco girl's parody origin) was released in '76, so that lines up time wise, at least. Likely altered/created to make Bill seem friendlier. Either could have destroyed this one if there was a real version. Vignette.

A Voice from the Past spread- He says 'my Muse', but then mentions Bill by name, which indicates it's altered. Is the first bit real, then? Why would Ford rip out this important page revealing his muse's origin and past? His curiosity would overtake wanting to keep it secret, surely? And conversely, why would Bill fabricate it? To make himself seem more sympathetic? However, there is another explanation. There is the possibility Bill erased the memories of this conversation and it really happened in some form. Bill probably realized after revealing this information to Ford it could ruin his plans. Some vignette at the top, mostly on the right page. In that is a drawing of space and a code. The code says 'forget the past." Coincidence, or purposeful on a page for a conversation Bill made Ford forget? Bill could have ripped out the pages (if they existed) himself. It's also important to note Bill is trying to isolate Ford here, which is another reason he'd hide the pages/alter memories of talking about Stanley. Also, if Bill erased the phone number from Ford's mind later, it would make sense why Ford had to send a postcard.

A Winter Break/The Krampus adventure. Where would these pages have gone if they were real? It was January for the test, so it was before the deal, but after the bunker? Gin mentioned it feeling 'off' and strange because it's just Krampus, nothing weird or Gravity Falls-y about it, and I agree. And also, Fidds knocking it out feels... weird. I think that story is fabricated with some real details thrown in. Fidds is noticeably shaken up after, but otherwise the whole story seemed almost whimsical, and just...weird, and not in the GF way. It's fake. Ford goes back inside after looking outside in Time Traveler's Pig. He doesn't come outside onto the porch at all. You could say he comes back out after that, maybe. You could say it's a retcon. But we know the children's footprints were Dipper and Mabel, not random kidnapped kids. (Bill likely wouldn't expect the reader to know this.) My eyes are also drawn to the green and red rectangles. The festive theming bring to mind a Christmas special, and how often are those only partly canon? So, then what's real about it? I believe the gloves, and possibly the snow globe was real, since they come up again later. I believe if there was a monster, Ford (or bill possessing ford 'then-DARKNESS') fought it off, traumatizing Fidds even more. Something made Fidds shaken up. Fidds and Ford probably spent Christmas together. And Bill did warn Ford about Fidds' second thoughts (mentioned in J3). Did Fiddleford notice Ford forgetting things? Did he assume Ford was simply unshaken by what happened? For me what seals the deal is the heavy vignette around those pages. Bill altered his memories of what happened and is telling us this story instead, probably to make it seem not as bad, so Ford wouldn't be so angry that Bill wasn't there/realize that he possessed Ford. I'm also suspicious of the "Trust No One." at the end. Did this phrase really come from Bill? Wouldn't Bill be saying 'Trust me'? To be honest, it's possible the last page here was half a real conversation, but the way Ford suddenly changes his tune is strange AF and I suspect shenanigans for it. And the things Bill says are very different from 'F is not bold enough to follow through.' (J3 code, An Encounter) Also, most of these pages seem to have no reason to be ripped out, aside from mentioning Stan by name/drawing them, but he could have crossed that out, and the last page which Ford would have hidden from Fidds. If they were real in some form, Bill probably destroyed them to hide the truth.

Stanley memories pages- Real, not much to say about those. Goes after Bill's warning. Probably legitimately torn out by Ford since he'd want to keep these pictures before hiding J3. Though I do notice they are covering up a lot of red triangles, perhaps also drawn by Bill. No vignette.

Dream, or warning?- Before Jan. 17th. Real, since I can't see why Bill would make up a warning about himself. He wants the reader to trust him. The heavy vignette, again, indicates he made Ford forget about it and destroyed the pages before he could solve it, which would probably be easy since it was a dream. The laughter+fire at the end indicates Bill discovered them. Just a fun side note: the song referenced is 'Im your puppet'

"I was wrong about everything" spread- I think goes in the gap where the black scribbled out pages are in J3. Again, the Author's cipher is here, indicating these are real. Vignette again. Bill's possessing Ford a lot, trying to erase the idea of fighting back from his mind(unsuccessfully), likely also hiding these pages. More red triangles.

Bill-proof suit- Goes after The Blind Eye- references being banned from the library, Blind eye mentions still researching Bill. J3 said he discovered the chant to enter someone's mind by researching Bill, so he could also find the anti-cipher society and the cassette. Real. Bill likely destroyed these pages and the previous ones to try and slow down Ford and erase his plans to destroy Bill. Vignette.

Zom-bills to Looky Here: After 'Ways to hide', as Zom-bills is written in invisible ink, but before the truck stop. (This would require Ford to have written on the right page first, then Bill tore the rest of these out, but not a huge stretch) Bill is fucking with Ford hard. He's probably taking his anger out on Ford while simultaneously trying to bully and manipulate him like he would do to his henchmaniacs, as he says later. Vignette on most of these- he's constantly possessing Ford and making him black out, trying to manipulate his memory to make him compliant/torture him. Bill likely destroyed the cassette+the memory of it so it couldn't be used against him, as Ford presumably never gets the chance to. Why he's showing the reader this? He thinks it's funny. He could also be hoping to scare the reader, if the reader knows what he's capable of, they'll be more afraid, and fear and love are the same, right? Notably the sticky note page is only a little darkened, probably because Bill genuinely was trying to talk at first. I can't find any evidence that these are fake, but there's no codes indicating they're real either. I think they were real, but Bill destroyed at least some of them.

(Side note: Computer code: Oroborous. Curiously uses Bill's cipher, bill writes in J3 too. These pages are also vignetted. Bill wouldn't like Ford knowing he showed fear. He also purposefully didn't give the reader these 'missing pages', because he hates them and doesn't want to reveal his fear.)

Polaroids- Did Ford destroy this himself like the VHS? Trying to avoid being blamed for things Bill did? Just ashamed/horrified? Curiously, no vignette on the polaroids (this could be just to have the full page visible), or Bill wanted Ford to remember these to have the threat sink in fully. Probably actually happened, Bill doesn't really have a reason to fake these pages as they make him look worse/scarier.

Blackness/'No' pages: This is largely where my theory that vignette=memory manipulation makes the most sense, The darkness overtaking the page represents bill's influence and control, and stops resembling the journal pages much (though it could be invisible ink again). He can mess with Ford's mind as much as he likes. If these pages were ever real, Bill could have destroyed them himself too. Bill's pretty much telling the story here.

Fidds page, S page- Gin made another excellent post pointing out the problems with these. They're a bit redundant when compared to J3, aren't they? And in oddly specific ways. The use of the brother code indicates they're real, though. If Bill erased Ford's memories of these pages, him basically re-writing them makes sense, and also Ford going from 'the caves hold the answer' to 'the caves might hold the answers', the snow going from 'begun to fall' to 'has fallen', and going 'fidds wont speak to me'! instead of 'my assistant has clearly left me'. In some way Ford has probably retained a bit of his plans, but its not a stretch to say he'd loop his train of thought after losing memories. The "I grow maddened" at the edge is very shaky and blurry, which could reflect the shaky and blurry memory.

I also notice (this has probably been pointed out before) now in J3 that only once outside of Gravity Falls (route 14) can Ford plan clearly. Perhaps Cipher's influence is weaker outside the town? It makes sense. if Ford sent the postcard and made his plan while free(ish) of Bill's meddling, that's why Bill couldn't just erase his memory of his plan again.

So...yeah! Some are definitely fake. Some are placed or altered intentionally to serve a narrative. Bill could be manipulating the reader's and ford's memory to have never seen these pages. Some of these memories could have been simply warped, or erased later- not right away. I'll be honest I don't love the implication that Bill can just manipulate Ford's memories freely, so I'm sure there are significant limitations to it. Bill has to stall for the whole book and give away a lot of secrets in order to change the reader's brain enough for him to be satisfied, and even then it's not enough to make the reader give in. Bill's abilities are much less than he purports. He also says that the person can notice his 'tune-ups', so there is only so much he could alter someone's brain before they notice. However, if he's been messing with Ford's head this long, he'd have a big advantage. Is the explanation that Bill erased Ford's memory a little lazy? ...Yeah? But it also kind of heightens how badly Ford was being manipulated and why he got so paranoid and unhinged there. It lets a lot of these puzzle pieces fit together that wouldn't otherwise.

My vignette theory isn't super strong, I'll admit, but I think it definitely indicates something, given some pages don't have it when they could have. They could also simply indicate those pages were burned, though it being on the fake pages makes less sense then. Bill having destroyed the pages himself makes sense for a lot of the pages, but I cant rule out the possibility Ford did destroy some of them out of frustration/shame.

Something I also realized while going through J3 again is how many 'doodles' in J3 involve red triangles. (you can see an example on Frilliam's page) The triangles I assumed were Ford's obsession with Bill, but what if they were Bill's obsession? For another post perhaps.

So, what do y'all think? Ideas? Agree? Disagree? Things I missed? Questions? Something huge that shatters my whole theory? Let me know!

[saltedcaramelchaos]

Wonderlust theory thoughts !! Just finished the first episode :D (these are very disorganized but we just roll with it)

Troy's first bit is pretty cut-and-dried as far as I can tell, it's very much to show the character in his natural habitat, but we'll probably get more context as the series goes on!

Aside from the character, THE STEAMPUNK VIBES ARE SO COOL AAAHHH!! Using flipbooks as play-by-plays? Whatever that interview camera thing was? Using "cogs" as currency?!? YES PLEASE

Also, I see you May. Where were you going so quickly :eyes:

Runt and the street rats are so interesting to me,,, my first thought was "oh there's poor people even in the 'utopia'", but then they actually were stealing from uplanders iirc!

This implies that Doppler + the gang have some way to get up above, without running into the clockwork soldiers. That will definitely be relevant later.

Also it might end up being important who exactly it was that they were stealing medicine from

Come to think of it, why is it always medicine that's being stolen/transported? It could just be a way to show that the characters are kind and care about others, or it could be emphasizing a deep flaw in the system Reclaim runs on...

side note that moment when runt saw the moon and went "how'd they make that".... ough. I don't think that adds a dimension to the worldbuilding other than the character detail of "SHE'S NEVER SEEN THE MOON BEFORE and most people here probably haven't either", but wow, way to emotionally destroy me with a single throwaway line grizzlyplays

More steampunk gadgets yaaayyy! so far between the clockwork soldiers and the mites, all the security measures up above seem like they go WAY TOO HARD. Is it a way to control people through fear? Do they secretly know there's a whole society underneath? Is it to protect something, maybe those purple stones? Is it just the person making them being unconcerned if people die at their hands? I'm so sure this means something (<-"troy's dad is a villain" truther)

Blink's turn! This man has SO many secrets and I can't wait to learn all of them. What was his relationship to Aeon? Why is he here now? Why is he on the run?

More specifically, he said something to- maybe shopkeeper guy-? about how he can't stop helping people. It sounded like a personal-promise-slash-oath kind of thing. He's clearly already been through character development; in his conversation with Aeon neither of them were happy about how the other has "changed"... that's so fascinating to me, is he a paladin? He does this out of the goodness of his heart, sure, but he sure talks like he's at least emotionally bound to it. What could have happened to cause his adamance that helping people is the right thing to do, and that Aeon isn't doing that?

Speaking of Aeon, I 100% agree with the person that said she got to Troy first. It did strike me as suspicious that he had a whole chase scene with Blink Specifically and not anyone else

From what I caught, the vixens are pretty much the self-imposed policemen/tax collectors of Reclaim! I wonder what the general public thinks of them...

that's all I can think of at the moment! let me know if anything on here has been proven or disproven because I tend to ignore the very obvious details for the character/worldbuilding ones LOL

[jeding-png]

Hello! I saw your comments about chapters. I'm really interested about your opinion. In chapter 153 Derrick and Yvonne are talking. Between it's scene with three flowers.

It's interesting that blue flower (rose ??) is close to pink one than to darker pink flower. Which symbolise that Derrick (blue flower) (he even has dark blue flower in his suit) is closer to Yvonne (pink flower) than to Penelope (dark pink flower). We know that she use a manipulation and dark magic but that's not important. Can it be foreshadowing that Derrick "betrays" Penelope ?

I'm interested about your opinion!

Wow! Thank you for your comment and quite an interesting topic to discuss! :D

Actually, a few weeks ago I was planning to do a separate post about how SUOL-nim often leaves details in the manhwa, and it was about these flowers too (then I was too lazy to write, lol).

I can't say for sure if you've read the novel or know some parts, but I'll try to speak only based on the manhwa to avoid sudden spoilers! All the more, it will be interesting to see what hints are already left to the readers ^^

Firstly... I thought it was actually Derrick, Reynold, and Penelope—... but your observations are quite valid and also interesting!

And that is why let's consider both options~!

We first saw these flowers in chapter 105 during a conversation between Penelope and Derrick.

Derrick's office has space, nothing superfluous, everything in a strict style, and dark/cool colors. The only things that catch our eye because of their colors and more attention in the art are these three flowers and the cage with the bird.

You rightly point out that we see these flowers again in chapter 153 during Derrick and Ivonne's conversation. That is, they appear in a conversation with both daughters of the duke, who have different moods and goals, but Derrick's attitude towards both of them is revealed.

1) Derrick, Reynold, and (og?)Penelope.

The blue and pink flowers are Derrick and Reynold respectively, and the crimson flower is obviously Penelope. Interestingly, Penelope's flower is full of additional details unlike the other two, giving the impression of a crystalline material.

Blue and pink flowers stand looking at the sun's rays, but in different directions. However, their different paths, different views, and characters don't prevent them from standing next to each other, with their backs to each other.

The crimson flower stands in the shade, separated from the other two flowers. Tbh I associate it more with the Original Penelope and the situation that existed for six years.

And again, during the conversation in chapters 105-106, Derrick does not say that he does not care at all about Penelope. In his own way, he shows concern. He softened when Penelope was upset about the position of Eckles, said that he wanted to get Penelope out of prison with his methods. Because he is also responsible for her.

But Derrick can not understand Penelope and does not always listen to her words. And his feelings are different from those towards Ivonne.

Still, it's in the next chapter (or 156) that you will notice one important change.

2) Derrick, Penelope, and Ivonne.

Kind person, your words made me look at these flowers in the context of chapter 153 differently!

This fragment of the conversation was shown to us earlier than it was in the novel... and in a certain sense I approve of such a decision on the part of SUOL-nim.

Not just so I could see Derrick's nice suit, of course, hehehe~

Okay, back to the position of the flowers! In this context, all the flowers look in different directions, similar to the previous one, however-!

The blue flower is close to pink, yes, but it's like... hesitation? Derrick, unlike his father and younger brother, didn't want to believe until the last that Ivonne wouldn't return home. No, it is better to say that she is dead. But his flower looks at none of the other flowers.

This chapter gives us a chance to glimpse some of Derrick's feelings. His pain, guilt, and cracked mask of calmness. He wants to believe that his sweet little sister is back. He didn't want Ivonne to suffer and be away from her family all these years, Derrick worries that she would feel sad during Penelope's coming-of-age ceremony.

But at the same time, he cannot completely ignore Penelope and his attitude towards her. He even looks at the bird, thinking exactly of the one to whom it should have belonged.

It's quite interesting that his eyes don't have that blue light that indicates brainwashing. It's no exception that Ivonne has already used the mirror shard on Derrick, but it's generally Derrick's most sincere feelings.

Does this foreshadow Derrick favoring Ivonne over Penelope? Quite possible. But it will not be a very easy choice, behind which there will be something deeper and... ambiguous.

Derrick will look back at Ivonne. Derrick will think of her as the Ivonne he lost six years ago. But this doesn't mean that Penelope doesn't occupy any place in his heart.

This doesn't mean that he will react indifferently when it comes to Penelope.

Still, I think that Derrick himself cannot fully understand what he feels. Has guesses, has doubts. The fact that he may be a wonderful heir to the dukedom does not mean that he will also understand from the first time why he reacts in one way or another.

Especially me. For example, I like to look for the reason for the actions of certain characters, and only then give a subjective opinion as to whether it sounds convincing or justifies the character. Sorry, Derrick, I understand you, but I can't justify it.

The fact is that the story is also based on Penelope's face. First, it forms the reader's attitude towards some characters. And I did not see in the novel that there was a scene that would make me say "No, Penelope, you think so, but in fact everything is completely different!"

The next chapter will show what step Derrick dares to take.

But with these details SUOL-nim really leaves us little hints. It's both interesting for those who read the manhwa and a pleasant surprise for those who read the novel.

Actually, I have pretty superficial findings and research, and I may not be saying everything that is on my mind... and I should have written about this before this long post, where there is a lot of water in the text—

But I really thought the topic was quite interesting for discussion, and maybe other readers or you want to add something! Thank you very much!! <3

[szaryherbatnik]

This is the shit i wrote about kremy last night. Dislaimer this is very self indulgent and i do mention myself here but yeah. This is for the two people that wanted to read it mwah! Another disclaimer this is just a 4am ramble and i doubt its anything more than a summary of a bunch of episodes. Obviously, spoilers for ouaw ahead, especially the last few eps.

Hello yes it is me the leader of Kremy nation welcome to the party the room is empty there is no party just me and my thoughts about one Kremy Lecroux.

I think I have to point out at the beginning that being suicidal in Avantris, in the world of D&D in general, is completely different to being suicidal here, in our reality. We have religion, we have beliefs, sure. But no matter how much we believe in those things, there’s no concrete proof of the existence of the afterlife. Of any kind of an afterlife. We don’t know what comes next. Now, in D&D, afterlife is tangible. It’s a very real thing that exists. I’m not an expert, I don’t know most things about D&D but from my humble understanding, after a person dies, their souls go on a journey to an afterlife. One of a few possibilities. To my knowledge, your afterlife depends on what you did as a living being, similarly to how we view heaven and hell etc. So although it was a bit shocking to me that Kremy pointed out just how spiritual he is in episode 45, it makes total sense. 

Here’s another part where I wish I knew more about D&D. Kremy is a warlock, warlocks have patrons. Patrons provide those whom they teach with magical abilities, and also a form of protection. I don’t think it’s a general rule that patrons have something to do with the afterlife, but Kremy’s patron, Baron Samedi, does. And he’s a proper figure in voodoo religion here on our planet. Referencing Kremy in episode 45, the Baron wants to ensure a good afterlife for his warlocks. A “fun” afterlife, a “party of skeletons”. Kremy talks fondly of him, why wouldn’t he, and at some points he even repeats the phrase “the Baron provides” when he’s particularly blessed with magic (fanfic flashbacks). In the episode 45 speech, Kremy at some point says:

“When I die, I want to have a good time too.”

“Too” as in… he wants to have as much fun as the Baron and those who are already partying in the afterlife or as much fun as he’s having while being alive. I will come back to this. So Kremy being spiritual is not weird, the afterlife is real, magic is real, when Kremy dies, and fulfills certain conditions, he will be provided with a cool afterlife. Great. Wait, what was that about conditions?

This is where I’ll jump into introducing another character. Remy Garou. Bastard man who I hope suffers a painful death but he won’t because he’s canonically alive for at least 15 years after the events of Once Upon a Witchlight. Remy Garou is on the top of the list of top ten evil exes. He’s the one that introduced Kremy to magic, to the Baron. In fact, we got a quite detailed description of Kremy meeting Remy for the first time (yes I’m aware they sound like weird twins but they’re really not they’re not even the same species).

And wow. That first meeting was gay as shit. I don’t even want to talk about it, I can only mention that Kremy has a type when it comes to men. Whatever toxic romance these two had doesn’t matter (ALTHOUGH I WISH I KNEW MORE ABOUT IT), the important part now is that Remy is not a cool guy and he will murder Kremy and his friends if they don’t pay the money they owe him. Except. He won’t kill them. This is the condition that I previously mentioned. In the episode 45 speech Kremy said that he will only be granted his dream afterlife if he’s on good terms with all the other warlocks the Baron is the patron of. Remy has power over Kremy in this situation of debt, instead of being murdered, sent away to the realms above or beyond, Kremy and the Krew will be turned into uh… weird swamp creatures and they will forever live in constant pain. Not cool. 

AND IN A WEIRD TURN OF EVENTS THAT INCLUDE A MUSHROOM TRIP.

Kremy lost his memory of Remy. He exchanged the memory of their first meeting for a vision, he didn’t know the memory would be lost. Remy’s existence was entirely erased from the minds of Kremy, and the entire Krew. They still remember the debt, just not the consequences. Kremy now doesn’t know that if he fails to pay the debt, he will fail to fulfill the conditions of getting into his dream afterlife. And that’s when the suicidal thoughts really kicked in. 

No that wasn’t the first time I clocked Kremy as suicidal or depressed. The first time I noticed something was clearly wrong was when they stood outside of Bavlorna’s hut, when they were so high up, they could only see a sea of clouds spreading out beside them. And in that moment Kremy mentioned that when he stands in high places, he gets this weird desire to jump, just an intrusive thought. He said he would never do it, but he feels like he wants to. He named this “the call of the void”. Naturally I thought “yeah of course I think of that when I’m high above ground” but both Frost and Gricko said that no, they never think of that. And that it’s a weird thing to think. Oh okay. And they never spoke of it again. From that point on I was kind of on a lookout for more signs of the void calling. I hear it everyday, apparently Kremy does too. I have this gaydar thing for depressed people apparently.

And when Kremy forgot about the consequences of his debt, when he forgot that his afterlife would be taken away, the void started screaming. It was almost instant, the way he started saying that hey, he might as well just drown, he might as well just get thrown off the shelf, he might as well get eaten by a beaver. Why not, just let this be over. It got so intense to the point that he got called out on it, but hey, it’s Once Upon a Witchlight and serious moments don’t last long in less significant situations. Without the fear of not being able to go to the Baron’s skeleton party, Kremy just wants to die.

This answers the question previously stated. When Kremy dies, he wants to have a good time too. Because he’s not having a good time being alive. 

I fear people will either say “Nooooo that’s not true Kremy loves Gideon! Why would he want to die! He doesn’t want to die, he has so much to live for! Like Gideon!” or “Yeah Kremy sucks he doesn’t love his friends he’s a shitty guy he doesn’t truly love anything I don’t like Kremy”. (I don��t actually think that I’m just so goddamn paranoid it’s embarrassing.) That’s not how it works. You can love someone and something and still want to be dead. I don’t think he’s just sad, obviously it goes deeper. It’s not basic trauma, this goes far beyond Kremy’s want to be a different person, to be cooler, more dapper, more elegant, richer. Yes, Kremy is quite paranoid and I doubt he fully believes in who he created himself to be (obviously obviously obviously) but he does, from a technical point of view, have things and people to live for. But that’s not how it works. 

In my love for Kremy, in a way of begging for my own happiness, I hope he will have a good time being alive. I hope I will too. I love tragedy in fiction, Kremy’s writing is brilliant and I should be thanking Richie every second of my pathetic life for creating Kremy. But I can’t detach myself from Kremy emotionally, I want him to be happy. 

but i also want him to suffer just a bit more so i can squeeze every single fact about his life and mind out of him eeheheheheheheheheheeh okay its 4am goodnight

[dejasenti99]

well hi :3 welcome to deja’s skinblending guide. this is my first full written tutorial so excuse me if its not very good LAWL before we get started, here's the tools i'll be using

sims4studio

tray importer

photoshop 2022 (theres cracked version everywhere on tumblr)

blender 4.1

sims 4 ripper

blender + the ripper aren't required to make skins, plenty of people don't go that extra step, but i love using it for placement help

okay lets fuckin go gamers heres my very in depth process for making my ocs skins

miss dolly is gonna be our model today. she already has a skin but im gonna add some little details for the sake of example + some tats cause ive been meaning to anyway.

so when i first get started on making someone a skin, ill find a good base to use and then add details from other categories like nosemasks, eyebags, contours, etc.

my fav skin creators are @sims3melancholic and @thisisthem. my bases are usually thisisthem, and then i'll pick through a couple s3m skins and make notes on my phone about what parts i wanna take off of them (like, say, i like how a certain s3m skin's nose looks. i'll use that instead of a nosemask)

my goal when im gathering things i wanna add is to free up as many slots as i can. id rather add cheshire's freckles onto her skin than use up the freckle slot in skin details that i could use for something else, yknow?

ill repeat this process for makeup next. obviously im not giving my ocs permanent full glam, but some lipsticks can add better texture, you can get highlights/blush from........the blush section LOL and i love using this obscurus eyeliner at a low-ish opacity

just adds an extra level of detail i love. i think what keeps my sims looking consistent next to each other is that i tend to use some of the same details all across the board

make sure for all makeup/skin detail/tattoo category swatches you use, you make note of what swatch it exactly is. when you go into s4s to export the file, you're gonna have to manually select it and if u cant remember what skintone u chose out it can be annoying :/

note that she is completely nakey aside from her piercings while i pick what im gonna use for her skin! no clothing but u can keep on their hair. this is so we have a clear view of everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) for blender.

after you make sure u save the sim/household to ur gallery, you can close out of cas and save ur game! i forgot to do this bc im a fucking idiot but its okay bc you will not. its not REALLY necessary to do this as long as you know exactly what packages you need to locate for texture exporting

step one is done!!!! close out ur game

i have a million fucking characters so i made a deja senti skinblending folder to keep it all organized :-)

this is what it looks like inside. gives u a pretty good overview of what ur gonna be doing tbh. the 't' folder is all the textures we're about to export

thankfully i do have a version of dahlia saved in my gallery so even tho i didnt go it before i closed my game i can still show u what to do in tray importer lol. i have multiple sims in one household, so i narrowed it down by going up top and selecting dahlia / human / and her everyday outfit.

since im gonna give her this blush, i right click and hit open w package viewer so itll find it and open s4s for me

anime wow sound. im gonna change the color manually in photoshop so it doesnt matter to me what swatch i export. hit that green export button under the list of diffuse/shadow/etc (u dont need to worry about all those options, just diffuse) and save it to ur folder!

once ur done gathering ur textures ur good to close out of tray importer and s4s(we'll come back to s4s later tho)

thats step two! the quickest step lawl

this is where i start being a little extra. u dont have to rip ur sim and use blender if u dont want to, but i think it can rly help bc the default sim in s4s doesn't have ur sims facial features and can make ur skins look wonky/wont give an accurate representation of how itll look in game. this cuts out having to go in game/out of game over and over to check

so in simripper once u load up ur sim, the important part is to make sure u have it set to export the dae with separate meshes. once thats done u can import it into blender and there's plenty of other tutorials out there how to use simripper n all that.

so once u get the dae loaded into blender im gonna send u on a little side quest over to this ask i answered where i explain how i separate eyes from the head mesh. next thing ur gonna open is photoshop! or whatever u have thats similar

say hi to flat dahlia. u should have ur own guy but flat open now too :-) along with everything else ur gonna combine. in my case its blush and a titty mask. im gonna start w the blush so i zoomed into her face in blender. i went into the blush file and copied, then back into my base skin file and pasted into place with crtl+shift+v

please do not be like me. make sure u rename ur layers as you copy and paste them into the main skin file. do this because it DOES matter what order ur layers are in. u dont want to put ur highlight under ur nose mask cause the nose mask will just cover the highlight etc etc. i already lost what layer the new blush i added is. what is wrong w me

so when u have ur first detail pasted on and in place, ur gonna save the base skin file as a psd. then go into blender, and in the little textures window ur gonna replace the diffuse file ur dae came loaded with with ur new psd file

u should see the change u made but mine was super subtle so im gonna show it to u when i put on the cleavage overlay

when it comes to stuff like this, ur obviously gonna want to pick the closest to ur skintone swatch as u can. i did not do this, because again, im an idiot

mine is way too pale LAWL whoops. we can fix this tho

i add a hue/saturation adjustment and make it a clipping mask using that square w the arrow so the adjustment will ONLY affect the mask

from there i just make little adjustments until the color match up is as perfect as i can make it. for example for this, ik that it needs to be a little warmer and a little more saturated, so im gonna bump the hue and saturation sliders to the right and it was pretty much perfect

tiddies with no mask > with mask no adjustments > with mask and adjustments

and ur gonna go ahead and repeat that process with every single thing u wanna add to ur skin.

so as for tattoos! this is another thing ur gonna wanna rename the layers for because depending on how heavily ur sims can be tatted it can get A LOT

here's psyche's neat little tattoo folder. its separated into where the tattoo is and then

what it is

i find all my tattoo inspo on pinterest using flash sheets/keywords in the search. my ocs usually have sub-boards that i hoard inspo in for them specifically. dahlia doesnt have one bc ive never seen her as the most tattooed person, but i think she'd have some at least

this process is pretty much the same as putting on skin details! its all about adjusting to what u like. for example, i like when my sims tattoos are a little faded and a bit blurred at the edges cause it looks a little more real

when it comes to images i find on pinterest, ill save the image and first try to make it as clean as i can

for example, this lil guy

a curve mask made the whites brighter and the blacks darker as u can see. then ill go into filter > reduce noise to soften the harsh edges

then i flatten it, copy and paste to the skin file, n place it wherever i want it to go :-)

louder anime wow!!!

okay so now ur gonna want to make sure u .psd file is saved (it should be bc we've been checking our progress w blender) and then merge the visible layers (NOT flatten, merge visible. we need the transparency around the skin to be in tact)

ur done in photoshop and blender!!! good job :-)

step whatever number we're on. back into s4s!

ur focus is over here. make sure the option filled is the top one, and then hit the cas button

this menu will open, ur gonna go up to part type and find the option skin details, forehead. pick the first forehead wrinkle option that appears and hit 'next.' itll prompt you to save ur new file n give it a name, i usually just make it my sim's name cause i have a folder in my mods folder for specifically my cc

remember wayyyy back when we were exporting the skin details? ur gonna go back to that same section and hit 'import' instead of export. select ur skin's .png file, and poof !

ur skin :DD it looks great man good job

this part is EXTREMELY important. go up to the warehouse tab

in the 'data' section ur gonna see a box at the top labeled 'filter.' thats where i typed in 'compos' just so it would show me JUST the compositionmethod section since theres a lot of shit in there lawl. yours is initially gonna say '3,' but we're gonna change it to '0' mind you, this is because MY skins are all alpha. maxis match overlays do not show up on my skins because my comp method is set to 0, meaning it has top priority essentially.

after you do that, you can hit save and place that .package file you created into your mods folder!!! and GUESS WHAT BESTIE UR DONE!!!!! U DID IT :DDDD

of course, as always, you can always dm me if youre stuck on anything or need any more clarification. i am always open to help as much as i can. i rly hope this helped :-)

[ratrrriot]

Sonic art tips for a young artist pleasee :)

wow thanks for thinking my advice is worth asking for, i'm flattered! here are some tips that helped me learn how to draw them:

Starting by drawing a structure of basic shapes always helps with proportions,but if you decide to use one,don't let it make your drawing stiff! make sure to draw that structure with loose lines and don't think too hard about it. Movement and dynamism are core aspects of these characters,prioritize that over things like symmetry.

Unless you want the characters to look like they're made of rubber or super soft,avoid working exclusively with round edges. instead try making part of their bodies a litttle more sharp and exaggerate some corners. Try finding the perfect balance between sharp and round lines for each one so they look more natural and dynamic.

Pay attention to the proportions of the characters heads in relation to their hands,the length of their legs,the shape of their tummies and eyes,etc. but more importantly,pay attention to the spaces in-between all of those things. For example,the space between their eyes and the end of their foreheads varies from character to character. Details like where the ears are placed in relation to the eyes or how far their quills reach in relation to their backs are just as key as obvious things like what color they are.

Try to find at least a bit of volume in their muzzles. You don't need to take it as far as me cuz i like to exaggerate it but always remember that they aren't plain and try to visualize them separately from the character’s heads before drawing them.

To understand what makes each character recognizable shape-wise, i suggest using more than one pic of each as reference and seeing if there are any differences between them. then choose what you want to keep in your drawings of them and what not.

Don't feel preassured to always draw these characters in any of the official styles (if not ever), just draw them the way that’s more comfortable and fun for you!

Understanding and studying what you draw is important and incredibly useful, BUT it can become very stressful and frustrating when the results aren't what we wanted, Plus, practice is the most important factor when it comes to getting better at drawing and if you don't enjoy the process you don't practice as much. So if you stop having fun at some point or frustration starts taking over,make sure to take a break from working based on how the drawings is “supposed “ to look and instead think about your work process and see what needs to be changed for it to be enjoyable again (Even if it means ignoring all the tips i just mentioned until now and literally not thinking about what you're doing for a while!!). I certainly know i need a break from using my brain while drawing from time to time so i let myself momentarily forget everything I’ve ever learned about anatomy and structure and just doodle Sonic like a kid who just got new pencils. It's good for the heart and recharges motivation!!

And lastly, if you feel like Sonic & friends are hard to draw,it's not just you: they ARE hard to draw and for most it takes years to be able to draw them with ease. I still struggle with them from time to time even when in'm drawing them in my own style.

Hope these help! idk if these tips will be useful for everyone and i still have a lot to learn, so if you decide not to use any of these, that's cool. Good luck drawing these guys regardless!!

[aeoki]

[Idol Story] Esu Sagiri - Dream-à-Gogo 1

Characters: Hokuto, Esu & Fuyume Unlocked in: [5☆] Bursting Stardrop Season: Spring

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ< The second year ES was established. A day in May. >

Hokuto: …Hm?

I see you’ve come to “TrickStudio” today, Anzu.

Oh, don’t mind me – you can keep on working. I’d be happy if this place can be of use to you.

Speaking of which, are you making outfits? There are sketchbooks and fabric laid out.

…Hmm. So they’re outfits for idols who will be temporarily joining ES?

And you’ve already made contact with them? You always work so quickly, Anzu.

If you’re going to be making outfits for those idols, then it’s just as you’ve said: communication will be essential.

Outfits show each idol’s unique characteristics, so I think it’s a good idea to learn more about them through communication.

…Yeah. It’s good that you have more free time after leaving the “P-Organisation”.

But it does sadden me to see that you’ll no longer be using your free time in the future to make outfits for us anymore…

Hehe, I’m kidding. I also want to support you in what you want to do.

I’m… looking forward to seeing what sorts of outfits you’ll create for the new idols, Anzu.

Esu: Sagiri has just reached the park after a quick dash! He’s running continuously without a destination in mind – where will he be heading to!?

…………

That’s what I wanna knowwww! How long is he gonna chase me for!?

…Hm? I just got a notification on my phone.

Uhh, what’s this…? It’s from Anzu-san, the “producer”?

What business does she have with me? Am I getting scolded? Is she gonna lecture me?

No, no. I didn’t do any bad things at ES! I just mixed all the different juices and fizzy drinks and drank them all!

How about you stop saying stuff like that and look at her message? Yeah, I know~ I think I’ll do just that!

Let’s see. She wants to make “exclusive outfits” for the idols…

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?

Fuyume: Wha. Esu, don’t shout all of a sudden.

Esu: Whaa!? Don’t appear right next to me out of the blue like that! Is that how you want me to respond?

Fuyume: No, you just need to sweetly whisper, “I’m happy you came, Fuyume”...♪

Esu: Who’s whispering what to who now?

Anyway, I’m trying to check something important right now. That’s the whole reason why I let out that shout.

Look, I got a message from Anzu-san saying she wants to make me some sort of outfit.

Fuyume: Anzu-san? Why does she have your contact details?

Esu: What the? I just did the right thing by giving you an explanation, so why are you glaring at me with such a scary face?

And could you stop looking at my phone without my consent?

Fuyume: Hmph. It looks like… Anzu-san wants to make outfits for all the idols who’ll be temporarily joining ES.

Come to think of it, Yume thinks Yume also got a message from her earlier. If you’ve got one from her, then it makes sense that Yume must’ve gotten one too. Right?

…Ehehe, I knew it. Look, this Anzu person also wants to make an outfit for Yume ♪

Esu: You’re right. So does this mean Anzu-san wants to make outfits for all of us new idols?

Still, what sort of outfit is it gonna be?

We already have the standard ES idol one.

Since it’s an “exclusive outfit”, is it gonna be one that’s like “Wow~! Crazy~! That’s sooo Esu Sagiri~!!”!?

Fuyume: *Sigh…*

Esu: Why’d you let out a sigh!?

Fuyume: Well, it’s because you’re so childish, Esu.

You should make sure you read the entire message before letting your imagination run wild. It says this in the message: “It’s an outfit that shows each idol’s unique traits and charms”.

Esu: There are a bunch of people who’re always living inside their fantasies, so what you said is just gonna make them depressed.

Hmm? An “exclusive outfit” is one that “shows each idol’s unique traits and charms”?

Fuyume: That’s what’s written in the message. That’s why Yume decided that Yume will the one to design and make Yume’s outfit… hehe ♪

Esu: How did things come to that?

Fuyume: Well, Yume’s unique traits and charms are things that only belong to Yume, right?

A stranger will definitely not be able to make an outfit that shows off Yume’s charms… and Yume doesn’t want that, either.

Yume really thought things through. Did you not think about it at all, Esu? You just got all excited and made a fuss?

Esu: That’s not true. I mean, I literally just got the message. And besides…

Fuyume, you were the one who told me I should read the message carefully, right? Anzu-san says we should discuss ideas for our outfits with her.

I don’t think it’s right for you to decide that you’ll do it yourself, you know.

Fuyume: Hehe, Esu’s sulking.

You don’t have to go through the trouble of discussing ideas with Anzu-san. Yume will make the outfit for you, Esu ♪

It’ll be an outfit that’s perfect for you – it’ll be cool and amazing…♪

Esu: No, thank you!

Fuyume: Don’t be embarrassed as if it’s your mother that’s making it for you. Come on, let me get your measurements? Okay?

Esu: You’re not my mum and we’re standing in the middle of the park, you know!?

Sheeesh, I can’t even calmly type my reply to Anzu-san with you around!

I should get away from Fuyume for now – yeah, I’ll do just that.

Fuyume: Ah, Esu! Wait, Yume won’t forgive you for leaving Yume behind…!

Esu: …I remember now. I was being chased by him when I first came to the park too.

I don’t mind listening to what you have to say later, but don’t approach me just because you want to take my measurements!

Alright, Sagiri has started dashing off again. Where will he head next…!?

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤNext Chapter →

[the-down-upside-finch]

✨️Important News✨️

I hath opened commissions!

If you are interested in commissioning me, thank you from the bottom of my heart! Please read below for more details, and then go ahead and let me know with a comment or email! (We can also chat over Discord or Tumblr DMs)

Oh, wow, you hit the read more! Thank you for your interest! Okay, here are some things to keep in mind about my commissions:

☆ These are my character price sheets! I am not currently doing landscape commissions, but if you want a scene or background, we can definitely work that out!

☆ Payment is half up-front, then the rest when the piece is halfway complete.* (I currently accept payment through Venmo, and I will have my Ko-fi up and running soon.)

☆ I love drawing OCs, but I'm not limited to them! As long as I have refs, I can draw! (And I accept both written and drawn refs.**)

☆ I tend to draw on ~900×1200px canvases, so please let me know if you have a different size in mind!

☆ I currently cannot (and will not try to) draw the following:

Extreme gore/extremely bloody content (although I am okay to draw minor scrapes and whatnot)

Anything specifically meant to be sexually gratifying -- (Basically, NSFW stuff is a no! It's just not my sort of thing.)

Mechs/other robotic machines -- (The reason I won't draw mechs is because the current amount of effort I have to put into it is not a price I want to dangle in front of people. If you really want me to draw mech stuff, please reach out to me and we can talk about it and my current pricing!)

Anthropomorphic animals -- (I'm sorry, but I'm just not good at this yet! I don't want to be unable to deliver good art.) -- (This is different than humanoids with animal features! I'm better at drawing those.)

OCD triggers -- (for me, this includes needles and insects)

If you aren't sure whether or not something is within my realm of work, please ask me! I promise I won't be mean about it.

If you want to see some more examples of what I can do, please check out this page for specifics!

Thank you for scrolling all the way down here! I really appreciate your interest.

Here are the embedded images for potential higher quality:

The additional notes on the price sheets are as follows:

Both a color-coded & black-line version will be provided for uncolored sketches!

Please note that prices will vary based on complexity/level of detail

Simple glowy effects are free! Complex ones average an extra 3 USD.

(Referencing the bust and waist-up prices) Prices may vary depending on arm placement!

Colored sketches will not be "shaded", and coloring is loose (can go outside the lines)

Uncolored clean/detailed pieces can be filled gray or left white!

Colored clean/detailed piece will include appropriate shading, but there are options to choose from!

Things to note: -- Additional characters in a single commissioned scene will have a 40% discount. -- I will default to a solid gray background unless told otherwise! -- Complicated poses, props, and/or complex color palettes will increase the price!

Once again, thank you for your interest, and sorry for this insanely long post!

*If you would like to pay entirely upfront, that is perfectly fine!

**If you don’t have colored/a lot of refs, that’s okay! I will work with you during the sketching and coloring process to make sure I am drawing the character the way you want.

[jakeluppin]

a couple asks ago, you said "whenever I start working on my novel, the first song I listen to is Pin" and now i'm super curious about your novel!! care to share any details??

okay so i have two (well, i have like twenty i've done bits on since i started writing but two that are still somewhat being worked on now) but one of them is barely anything beyond a rough idea so i'll focus on the one that's more legit

i wrote about 90% of a first draft (about 60K) and then realized there were some fundamental issues with it so i started over

i have about 16K done of my new draft, some of which is brand new and some of which is revised from the first

it's a ya romance because that's where my heart has always been

for main characters we have (which as i'm writing these i realize i am So Bad at describing characters in this way whoops):

jake - jewish trans guys who is only out to his older sister (rachel). at this point, their parents are gone/dead (i've been back and forth on exactly what went down) so rachel's raising him. he's been in love with his best friend (caleb) since basically forever. he does stage crew for his school's theater department.

caleb - jake's best friend. he's gay. he has a crush on their mutual friend peter. he's one of those people who are just so loving that it's so easily to just get lost in. but also a total dick at the same time?

peter - he's really into theater, always in every production, which is how jake and peter met. just before the story starts peter and caleb were running lines for something and peter kisses caleb. described by other characters as being the nicest person you've ever met.

and then there's asher - his family just moved to town as his mom is the new cantor at jake's synagogue. he's also into theater and auditions for the fall musical, alongside peter. jake and caleb are there watching and jake hears him sing and is like. oh. shit. i'm in love. it's not revealed until midway through the book but asher is also a trans guy.

it's basically just a coming of age love story where jake finds himself and love and it's just really gay and jewish and probably very self indulgent but who cares?

oh also i have switched which musical they do multiple times for various reasons and right now it's Newsies but it may change again. but obviously asher, my beloved, is cast as davey jacobs so it is pretty perfect in that regard

gonna just throw some random lines/short scenes from draft two under the cut because i can. feel free to not read them haha

“You can’t seriously be doing homework now,” Caleb scoffs a moment later. 

I look up from my assignment and just shrug. “I’m simply not as invested in this as you are,” I offer.

“But you should be. For me. This is an important moment in my love life.”

I chuckle. “I love you, Caleb, but I think overall if I was as invested in your love life as you are, that would be a little weird.”

“Nope. I’m pretty sure it’s in the best friend manual that you’re supposed to care about it as much as I do. Sometimes maybe even more.”

“Can I have a copy of this best friend manual? I want to check the exact wording on that.”

“Sorry, only one copy was made and I keep it under lock and key.” Caleb smiles bright, and I roll my eyes in response.

--

“But seriously, you were amazing at your audition. I’m not just saying that or anything.”

“Thanks. I grew up singing. I think my mom might have disowned me if I didn’t end up with a good voice.”

“Really?” 

Asher laughs again. “Wow, you are gullible or I am not as funny as I think I am. But no, my mom would not have disowned me if I didn’t have a good voice.”

It’s this moment that Rabbi Finkle steps out of her office and says, “Asher, don’t lie. No self respecting cantor could stand to have unmusical children, just like I couldn’t stand to have children who do anything but read torah all day.” She smiles at us both, light in her eyes.

“Isn’t your oldest an atheist?” I ask.

“Yes, but he still reads torah ever day.” She laughs.

--

“So how was it?” I ask, sliding in Caleb’s car. He smiles wide as he turns to face me.

“Peter was amazing. Obviously. There’s something just, sexy about watching a guy dance.” He pauses, sighing, and then says, “I’m really gay.”

I laugh. “Really? I had no idea!”

“Yeah, not like I told you for the first time when we were like, nine or something.”

“Oh yeah, that definitely never happened.” 

Caleb chuckles and drives off. 

I can vividly remember when Caleb came out, the emotions so strong they stay pressed in mind. I can remember his fear, his hesitation, as he told me in a small voice that he liked boys. I can remember the confusion, not understanding what he meant, not sure what that meant for me. I can remember the happiness and his smile when I said there was nothing wrong with him “like liking” boys. I remember the ache I felt, when after telling him I like boys too, he told me “girls are supposed to like boys.” That ache I didn’t understand, that ache I couldn’t place for years, that ache that would come when Caleb would refer to me as a girl. 

“Were you scared telling me?” I ask a few minutes later, even though I know the fundamental answer.

“Of course,” he says. “I was nine. I was gay. And you were my best friend. Why wouldn’t I be afraid?” 

I nod in agreement. It’s something that, of course, I can understand. Just the thought of it causes anxiety to crawl up skin, pulling tight at my throat. It stops me from saying the things I want to say, things I know I need to say. The things I can’t imagine ever actually telling him.

Like: I’m in love with you.

Like: I’m trans.

Like: Yes. That means I’m guy. Which, if you remember the I love you part, would make me gay too. Or bi. Not totally sure about that yet.

Like: Main point being, I want to be with you and date you and I know you probably don’t or won’t ever see me as anything but your girl best friend but maybe you could. 

Yeah. Probably a good thing I’m not saying any of that.

--

“...Honestly, the challah was so good and reminded me of mom’s that I had a breakdown. Standard stuff, ya know. Who doesn’t have breakdowns over delicious Jewish foods?”

“Are you even Jewish if you don’t have breakdowns over delicious Jewish food?” Asher counters.

[clock-onyx]

A yearly trip

"...Jomei? You called me here?"

"Odin! Come in come in!"

"What did.. what did you want to discuss with me?"

"Oh it's nothin' s-serious! Y'know, it's been a while since you've come to live with us. Around erhhh... a year, y-yeah?"

"A year, yes."

"Right! Jiro has taken quite a liking to you and we've been t-thinkinnnn' that maybe you'd like to join us for our yearly visit to L-Lourielle? It's in a month, and we've rescheduled your work so someone will take over your duties on the days we're away."

"What? Wait wait wait- Are... Are you serious?"

"Of course I-I am! Whattt, you think I'd be l-lying to you?"

"N-No I just- Wow."

"Take time to process it, Odin! M-Maybe we'll even get to finally find that Chester of yours, hmm?"

"Yeah.. yeah! I'm- I'm sure we will. Thank you I'm just.. so surprised! Me? Out of EVERYONE here?"

"Mmmmhm! As I said, Jiro has t-taken quite a liking to you!"

"Right... thank you again, Jomei. Thank so so much-"

"Ah no need to thank me! ..Now now, you can go ask Jiro more questions about this, they're the first in charge with the trip, afterall! I got to g-get ready to see someone so you're free to do anything you'd like for this evening."

"Alright, alright. Good evening to you then!"

"You too, Odin!"

RAGHHH RAHHH I WORKED 12 HOURS ON THIS??? HELPPP LMFAOOOO

This is definetly one of my proudest works, i wanted to be extra detailed with this so i kinda went silly with this, wonder if anyone will catch some of the details as theyre important for the lore of the world and the characters themselves! I know this may not be to everyones tastes but im happy with it <|:3

And as I PROMISED! Jomei in lore art will be wearing those outfit suggestions you guys gave me, so I added one here!!!

I know the dialouges kinda clanky and weirdly worded but as long as it can clearly tell something about what theyre doing im happy with it! Oh and as a note, yes Jomei stutters from time to time, I imagine its pretty difficult to speak when you got a marionette mouth for well... a mouth LMFAO

This is much more in the future than the other drawings i did before, Odin's apperances tends to change a lot through the story as you can see, idk feels more natrual than him having the same iconic outfit forever, as the outfits important aswell! If someone catched who it originally belonged to of course winks

I heart lore art you guys sm YAYY JUMPS WITH JOY

[theitcharchives]

I caved. I watched Loki S2

Loki season two was fine but too many of you are being insufferable about the series itself and its lore. Timelines and universes are not interchangeable things–a universe contains timelines according to the series' lore itself and I don't understand how people do not understand this. MCU Loki now holds the timelines of 199999. Quit throwing the 616 thing around (looking at you Feige) and talking about "worlds". Variants are the same people across timelines according to logic, that's why some of the Lokis in S1E5 (iirc episode number) made no sense–Mobius did.

The first season remains one of the worst things I've ever had the misfortune to see, so to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the second is something.

Be warned–pleasantly surprised does not mean "omg it's perfect" it means "I did not expect this measure of respect for character and narrative, there's some good points and there's definitely bad points".

Still, the first three episodes were boring. The narrative in them and in some places of the second three was clunky. Things were underexplained and impersonal, both rushed and scattered. X-05 did not appear outside of the first season premiere, not even the first season proper (according to the internet because I indeed had zero recollection of him and refuse to rewatch S1) yet the second season treats him as if the audience is familiar with him–and it's confusing as heck. I cannot even properly recall what exactly happened in those episodes because it was so clunky and scattered and half explained. Especially the characters and their goals and stakes. I barely cared for Loki's, let alone anyone else's–well except Ouroboros. I love that guy.

Wow, we have to save all these freed timelines? Sure. I mean it's the right thing to do, so let's do it. It would've been so easy to actually get the audience to personally care–have Loki realize in those infinite timelines, there were some he could be happy in. His mother, his brother, even his father to whom his attachment is not resolved, there had to be timelines where they were happy and safe, perhaps even with him. In some of those timelines, Loki gets his revenge on Thanos, he gets to heal. He comes to term with his birth and heritage, he remedies the wrongs he has been done and has done to others in turn. Yes, those timelines deserve to exist, because Loki should know he deserves to be happy too. His "friends" too. Those stories deserve to exist.

Speaking of under-explained... so at one point Loki just... gains control over time jumps? Like that? Did I miss something in the whole thing? Like if it's because it's him, according to The Who being what is important ("in magic", I would have expected) then say it.

Some pieces were predictable. The whole interrogation of X-05 match one and two, the ending path itself (I was surprised by the tree thing though), Loki pruning himself (did that scene really need to be drawn out like that? We get what's happening, get on with it).

Some pieces were drawn out like the self-pruning, like retrieving Victor Timely. The whole time I was like "You've seen him, you can block objects in mid-air and teleport people in cages, snatch him and throw him in a portal so he can see the TVA instead of just talking to him and convince him–why does he need to be convinced?? Show him!!?" Details like these, like the machine that makes the shrinking cubes being left at all in the cell, Ravonna not actually looking to see if any other minutemen were considering her offer before compressing them all (I guess they had to slim down the cast, but man), Loki the Jotun with super strength having to run kilometers to catch one human–silly.

Things that were left out–Thanos, completely. The Jotun heritage. Loki being the scapegoat child in the narcissistic royal family, all his conditioning. It is said he wants a throne, it is never acknowledged why: being groomed to do so since childhood through mentions he was born to be a king, upbringing, education, treatment by family and society. The gender fluidity and sexuality, though with the MCU's regard for those things, it's likely better they left them alone–though the lack of shapeshifting was miffing. New York was handled better than I would've expected, but still breezily.

Now to be fair, many things were good. B-5 outright stating that the pruning the TVA does is an atrocity and convincing others. I'm ambivalent about Loki and Mobius–their relationship in the first season was a terrible one, but they genuinely roped me in in the second. Some things were funny in that delicate way that doesn't need clownery and one-liners that I'd been missing ever since the first two Thor movies. Ouroboros (especially in episode 5–ouch, too close to home). The soundtrack, amazing. The acting came across as more heartfelt. I even managed to tolerate Sylvie in the last few episodes–and oh yeah, leaving romance of any kind out, completely. Thank fuck. Loki actually being the main character of his own series. The fifth and sixth episodes. The sets, the props also felt real. The final outfit is growing on me. The dialogues, the interactions, the camera work, my gods, some parts were amazing. I am willing to rewatch it to make more sense of things, and look at other MCU works to see if it will impact them. I had given up on the MCU–Loki roped me in, Loki gave me back some interest when I thought it was dead for good.

Oh I'm still mad all my searches for comics appearances are cluttered with MCU stuff. I'll be mad until it calms out. "What if it never-" then I guess I'll never stop holding a grudge and complaining.

In the end, I'm just glad Loki got his not-terrible ending. I don't like that his final choice and chance was to sacrifice himself and all his needs for others, sitting in a tree holding the 199999 universe's timelines together, alone after saying teary eyed that he doesn't want to be alone. But it's still better than how he was treated and discarded from T:Ragnarok to Infinity War, and it doesn't exclude Loki from showing up again, some way or the other.

Obligatory link to the Loki comics reading list.

[farfromdaylight]

hello! here is a crosspost of my usual post about the new patch. all details hidden behind the readmore.

covers both patch msq and alliance raid!

overall i really liked this patch! it was chill for 90% of it, which is pretty typical for .1 patches; it's a lot of closing up plot threads from .0 and starting some new ones.

really liked the focus on family from different perspectives. i think it was very convenient that the one guy who happens to know what happened to Koana's parents was around, but eh, it closes that thread nicely so I can't really complain. I did very much enjoy the entire Shaaloani section, it was nice to focus in on the culture of the people and the importance of the rroneek, since it's so obviously modeled after Native American traditions and it really wasn't part of 7.0.

as for the gulool ja stuff:

THE DUNGEON WAS FANTASTIC? great great GREAT atmosphere, i had a BLAST. absolutely resident evil type shit, it was a DELIGHT. the notes were also so fun to read through.

ALSO, PROTO CARBUNCLE MODEL? FUCK ME UP WHY DON'T YOU. i did die once in that fight (i did it in duty support) but that was bc i didn't see the aoe go mid; i would have been fine otherwise. i did fuck up misdirection on the midboss but i managed to survive.

i know a lot of people were like "did zoraal ja get pregnant or what" in a tongue-in-cheek way, but i actually really enjoyed getting to see some backstory there. i still think zoraal ja is a bit too thin, and the concept of "the one female mamool ja around really wanted to fuck him" is a bit stupid, but i had fun with it.

and then we get back to s9 and...

WHAT THE FUCK.

SERIOUSLY, I WAS NOT EXPECTING SPHENE TO COME BACK, PERIOD. WHAT A FUCKING TWIST. i can't wait to find out what the FUCK is going on there, it was so unexpected to me. PLUS SHE'S ALSO LIKE? ALIVE? IN LIVING MEMORY??? WHAT IS HAPPENING.

i actually went into this patch with pretty low expectations, not because i disliked dawntrail (i quite enjoyed it, it's just not a 10/10 story to me) but because i wasn't sure i was going to be interested in what came next. but i'm in, now! this is NEAT. i want to see some fucked up shit.

anyway, good patch! looking forward to the next for sure. deeply funny that this sphene reveal comes in the same patch as her EX though. that's like if emet-selch showed back up at the end of 5.1 lmao. A WILD TWIST.

alliance raid time:

BRO I'M SO HAPPY THEY BROUGHT SAREEL JA BACK. he was absolutely underutilized in msq and this is so fun. the whole concept of this is pretty silly but it's a delight all the same. i may not have any context for the FF11 stuff but i still had a great time with all of this. love to hang out with bakool ja ja of all people.

my suspicion is that axaal is a stand-in for the player character of FF11, but this is just a guess; for all i know he's a canon guy, lol.

ALSO, WOW, THOSE BOSS FIGHTS. prishe handed my ass to me. fafnir did too. the third boss i had a better time with but it was much more engaging (FIVE BOSSES? WE LOVE TO SEE IT). the last boss also fucked me up, but wasn't that hard to get a hang of? i just got boned by using surecast too early on some of the knockbacks, lmao...

also i rolled a 95 on the minion and didn't get it. JUST ALLIANCE RAID THINGS. i wish i liked any of the glamour but i...... Do Not. maybe some of it will be tolerable dyed, i guess we'll see. i don't need any of it for gear (my ilvl is 730 and i'm only missing my m4s weapon for bis) so i am less motivated to farm it than usual, tbh. for once i don't have a fucked spell speed i need to fix.

anyway, alliance was fun! it was reasonably accessible for a non-fan, which i appreciated because some of the other tie-ins have decidedly Not been that way. looking forward to running it again with friends soon.

[metamatar]

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by reactionary premise?

orv's premise is a televised battle royale like the hunger games with more video game elements. so we get a lot of tropes common to the genre about how human beings descend into cruel mindless killing plundering torture machines when push comes to shove and there's some eugenicist survival of the fittest storytelling beats. sure the details of the premise aren't as bad as some apocalypse media bc theirs an alien species forcing them do it but textually its the same. what makes someone good or bad during the apocalypse is who they were outside, which is suggested to be somewhat unchangeable. kim dokja who is cast pretty uncomplicatedly as the hero makes very limited abortive attempts to challenge these things. the female characters are also... um. not very good.

since im complaining about it anyways its also one of those media that celebrates the importance of media which i find facile in every format. i said this about a memory called empire also. but the key to being a special guy elevated from an ordinary working class office worker is having read and commented on a long winded light novel bc you know how to play those rules now. that could be wonderful commentary on the real world if orv was interested in doing that but it hasn't 100 chapters in, its a very straightforward self insert type fantasy for now. the story progresses by making figures from myth and pop culture come alive. i find that kind of nostalgia boring esp when orv doesn't seem to say much about it apart from wow that's so cool. its korean ready player one.

[whypolar]

Gundam Unicorn OVA 2: The Second Coming of Char

It's time.

Here comes a special boy!

If you don't cheer and clap for him I'll blow this whole building up.

(You can read my previous post here, if you want.)

I was grinning every time Frontal was on screen. I'm so easy. He's perfect.

The music continues to be excellent.

The percussion in Frontal's theme is fucking crazy. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what is happening here musically, but I like the aggressive synth and that there's a xylophone. Maybe multiple xylophones. Imagine.

I also particularly liked this one track with the chanting vocals before the hostage negotiation-- apparently it's the Sinanju's theme.

The main theme associated with the Unicorn itself keeps getting caught in my head.

The robots remain very cool.

Combat plays out almost beat-for-beat as described in Novel 3, right down to the automatic cockpit functions and Banagher throwing up in his helmet. Gross.

Environments: effectively conveying information.

The backgrounds in this one didn't wow me as consistently as the first one, but that's fine. They're in space. They're on closed ships. They have other, more important things they want you to look at. Sterile corridors communicate information about the setting, even if they're not necessarily exciting.

They do some cool stuff with the lighting on the bridge. I also like that they have an inexplicable vaporwave room to put the civilians in.

I'm pretty sure I have this exact room in my house in Animal Crossing.

After Banagher gets captured we start seeing more variety again, since there are more different places for us to visit.

Those are my big surface-level impressions.

From this point on, there will be novel spoilers up to the equivalent point where this OVA ends (which will include some things that I assume will show up in OVA 3).

One of my favourite background nobodies, Lieutenant Commander Liam. I love that the main thing we know about her is that she's big and constantly side-eyeing her blustering boss.

In terms of novel comparisons, there's a lot more I can potentially talk about in this one than the first.

Judging by these first two, it seems like each OVA covers about 1.5 novels worth of material, which sounds about right to cover all ten in seven episodes.

They swapped a number of scenes around. They've been skipping over a lot of little Vist family stuff that will have to come up later. I don't think that will be a problem. I assume they had two priorities:

Establish key details of Frontal's character, such as his self-identity as a vessel and his ambiguous relationship to Char, in the same OVA where he's introduced

Set up the hook of Banagher getting rescued for OVA 3

They've held off on introducing Martha for now, which is fair. She hasn't really done much by this point, she just exists as a vaguely menacing figure. I assume she'll be in the next one. Please?

They also skipped over Cardeas' memories of Syam arranging to have Cardeas' father killed. If they intend to tell us that later, it will probably be through another character, such as Martha or Syam himself.

Alberto hasn't figured out Banagher is his half-brother yet. Martha is the one who tells him this, so that makes sense. I could see them making that scene Martha's introduction.

Have I mentioned I love Alberto? I really do. I like him even better without a judgmental narrator describing his fatness, so there's an unambiguous point in the anime's favour, lmao.

Banagher

I'm glad they kept the flashback of Banagher's childhood 'training', but disappointed that they cut off the nightmare at the end. I wanted to see how they'd do it.

Caught my not-husband zapping our son so he'll be good at killing people in the psychic death machine when he's older. He does it in the piano tapestry room, to make sure the repressed traumatic memories are as poetic as possible.

We don’t get to hear Banagher's mother confront his father about putting him in the newtype pilot torture simulator, so we miss out on Cardeas' incredible defence of "don’t worry, I'm not using drugs on him in the tests." Father of the year.

In the novel: we hear the fight, it moves on to memories of Banagher leaving home with his mother, and then it eventually degenerates into the horrible withered body of Banagher's dead father grabbing his ankle and trying to make him go to the Gundam. The Gundam is described as a giant bleeding demon that wants to eat him.

It's important to me that a Gundam should always be at least a little monstrous. They should let the Unicorn be evil. As a treat.

At this point, I think anime Banagher comes across as mostly in line with his novel counterpart's characterization. The change in situation means a change in behaviour. Events have forced him to start openly expressing his doubts and fears-- which means the audience can actually know what they are.

There is still one difference that stuck out to me, because they chose to cut a particular scene:

OVA Banagher feels less genuinely attached to his friends.

I don't think this is a worse characterization. It's interesting in its own way. It's just like... a notably different one, imo.

There's a very sweet scene in the novel of him reuniting with Micott and Takuya. They're all overjoyed to see each other again alive. They hug, floating through the air in low gravity. Banagher feels warmth and a sense of belonging, and seriously considers never getting back in the Gundam again. They get so caught up that they end up hitting a wall and getting grabbed by gravity again, so they all collapse and start laughing. Then Audrey comes in, and the moment ends, as Banagher is compelled to go to her instead.

In the anime, they're all at his hospital bedside when he wakes up. Micott directly calls out to him in concern. He totally ignores her and addresses Audrey instead. Bro???

Given that he mostly ignored the other students and stared into space for a lot of the previous OVA, because they cut a lot of their casual school interactions from that one, too, well... Audrey doesn't just feel like Banagher's most powerful connection, but possibly his only real connection.

They also cut Micott being the one who approaches Mackle about Audrey, which makes him decide to look her up. Instead, he recognizes her face on his own. I was surprised by this one, since it felt like they were setting it up, but I guess not.

Audrey / Mineva

Mineva translates flawlessly to the screen. It helps that she's central both to the plot and to our protagonist's motivation. An element of mystery is also already important to her portrayal, so not getting direct glimpses into her thoughts doesn't feel like losing something. Much like last time, we basically know what the protagonist knows, and it works.

This is the best case scenario, but it also gives me less of an excuse to talk about her. Now I have to talk about Riddhe instead. I can't even believe how much I feel the need to talk about Riddhe. I did not think I cared about Riddhe.

And yet.

Riddhe

We find out who he is by the end of this one. Kinda. Depending on how much attention the viewer pays to character surnames, they may have figured it out earlier, or might even still not have grasped exactly what was being implied.

Again: I don't especially care about Riddhe, so I'm hesitant to say I want them spending time on him that could be used elsewhere, but the thing about reading the novels first is that I know his significance to the plot going forward. I'm worried things might end up more frustrating in the long run if they don't do enough with him early on.

When I think about scenes centred on Riddhe from the first 4 novels that I found particularly memorable… a lot of them were removed!

That good luck charm he has? In the novel, he doesn't have that. He has model biplanes, like actual hand-sized toys. In his introductory scene, he's sitting in a cockpit with one and basically zoning out, pretending to make it fly around. He thinks about wanting to be a pilot growing up, and it really gives the distinct impression that he's a bit mad that planes are mostly obsolete and he has to fly in a mobile suit instead. People roast him for being a rich kid playing with his toys.

That's the kind of idiosyncratic and slightly cringe enthusiasm that makes a character feel real to me. I don't even know if it would have been better to keep that in, I just know that I personally would like it.

The little things are what let me engage with him as a specific character, as opposed to an archetype I'm not personally invested in. I'd rather have a more detailed character than a guy who feels like nothing, whether I personally like him or not.

This is how the novel version of Riddhe meeting Banagher played out:

After the battle, Riddhe is feeling survivor's guilt, since they lost a lot of pilots during the battle. He goes to check on his machine. The mechanic inside is one of the older crew members, and he's crying.

When Riddhe tries to speak to him, he turns around and screams at him. He found the airplane model in the cockpit, where Riddhe accidentally left it. He's furious that Riddhe brought a toy onto the battlefield. He tells him to his face that he wasn't taking things seriously, and that's why they got massacred in the battle.

He throws the plane out of the cockpit, Riddhe chases it down as it glides through low gravity, and Banagher ultimately catches it, which is how they meet for the first time.

It's just much meatier than what we got.

I also feel like we've seen less conflict with others and emotions from Riddhe about his family so far. We don't know what his relationship to them is like at all, really. We miss the scene of him biting the bullet and asking his father for help, even though he really doesn't want to, because he believes it might save lives.

Maybe that will feel more present going forward, now that Mineva knows who he is?

Still, it's not like we didn't get any character moments for him. We get a bit of banter between him and other members of the crew. He reacts to stuff. I thought the scene where he confronts Mineva about Zeon and recalls Garma's funeral was very good.

Just... I want him to be interesting enough for me to get something from his arc.

Imagine me pacing around my room and gesticulating wildly for this next part, because I finally get to talk about Full Frontal

This scene. This specific scene is the one I most want to talk about.

First of all, it has Frontal in it. Second, there's a lot of information conveyed in the novel scene that does not make it to the screen at all. Third, the anime makes its own strong visual choices that are entirely original and not drawn from any kind of novel description.

This shot of Frontal's mask is downright fascinating to me. The outside of the mask is pristine and smooth, but the inside has all these gnarled ridges. The lines around the eyes remind me of wrinkles on an old man's face. In-universe, someone decided it was important to make it look like that, where nobody but Frontal himself will see it. Was it designed this way at his request?

This scene in the novel is written from Banagher's perspective. There is no camera, it's just Banagher pointing out whatever he thinks is important to comment on. When they decided how to frame it in the anime, they pulled the camera way back, for all these extreme distance shots in this huge room. Everyone looks so tiny. This is, obviously, an unusual framing for an intimate conversation between three people.

There were so many cool and very deliberate shots in this scene; I'm kind of obsessed with it. The separation of spaces in this massive room and how they kept showing Frontal moving back and forth between them... I wish I could include them all, but tumblr has a 30 image limit per post.

When Frontal is wearing the mask and sitting next to Angelo, he is visually separated from Banagher. When he moves to speak to Banagher, he is then separated from Angelo. This is a sentiment that Angelo expresses in the novel-- that when Banagher was around, Frontal suddenly 'left him out of focus'. This is one of the things that drives Angelo to fixate on Banagher out of jealousy going forward.

Aside from depicting emotional distance between characters and showing off the absurdity of how big the room is, it's possible that the camera choices are meant to evoke another detail from the novels.

There is something very important we learn about Frontal that is conveyed solely through narration, and which has not come up at all yet in the OVA: the way characters describe his appearance, and the emotional response they have to it.

Specifically: Full Frontal looks exactly like Char Aznable, but he doesn't look like a convincing human being.

How does Banagher describe Full Frontal in this scene?

Well:

Is he a human? This was the first impression Banagher had. He could not detect any sense of life from that man, not just from the mask covering his eyes, but also the vibe that he was artificially created. He stared at the masked man who sat on the Mahogany made office table, and seriously thought that it might really be part of the decorations in the room.

The hand under the glove felt rather hard, causing Banagher to remember the first impression of a puppet ...

Perhaps I might not have seen the true appearance of this man? Banagher recalled the beautiful blue eyes, and felt that he was following an illusion ...

He also describes his stare as "machine-like" at one point.

After removing the mask, he describes Frontal's face as handsome and without identifiable flaws. "His cheekbones did not reflect his age" -- he looked younger than expected based on the age of Char Aznable, I think is the implication.

Anyway. The point is, he's good-looking and there's nothing specific anyone can pinpoint that's obviously wrong with him, and yet this is a consistent reaction characters have to meeting him. He doesn't feel real.

Honestly, this is one of my favourite things about Frontal, and it makes me a bit sad that it doesn't translate at all. I'm sure it would be difficult to visually convey-- any attempt runs the risk of looking like an error, or just 'bad'. It could also be they were worried about going too hard with it and making him read like a monster, rather than someone who could plausibly be a charismatic leader.

I get it. I just miss it, man. It's such a good little detail. He'll always be a beautiful creepy puppet to ME.

I love that Angelo's always two seconds from going on the attack. He's like a beautiful fluffy dog that's human-aggressive and keeps biting people. He's Frontal's feral rescue persian cat.

Angelo doesn't go for Banagher a third time in the novel. In that version, these lines are delivered (less violently) by Frontal himself.

The change makes sense. It's in character for Angelo, and it still implies something about Frontal-- he speaks about Banagher sympathetically, but he pretty much just lets Angelo do this, not even chastising him or telling him to stop like the previous two times.

Banagher still falls over in the novel, despite not being physically assaulted. He almost passes out from the horror of realizing he killed someone, and then he spends the entire rest of the scene dissociating and feeling physically ill. Marida and Zinnerman pretty much have to drag him out of there.

The scene with Angelo and Frontal on their own discussing the possibility of an attack on Palau is gayer in the novel. Being inside Angelo's head is always gayer. We might get the full version of this scene in the next one, since they started talking about certain exposition-related things before getting abruptly cut off.

Concluding scenes

I really like this scene with the family. The designs of these characters and how they interact with each other is very endearing. Marida casually holding the little girl upside-down and handing her over to the mother is unbearably cute.

They don't fully explain the logistics of where and how Banagher is being held prisoner, leaving it to you to intuit what the arrangement is. This works just fine for me, but I did wonder if it might throw some people off. Maybe not-- I feel like most UC Gundam stuff I've watched occasionally leaves gaps like this and trusts you to connect the dots on your own.

It's just very different from reading the novel, where it leads you through the whole process of him being kept on the ship, brought to Palau, being taken to see Frontal, etc. It gives a history of Palau as a mining colony, including how and why it was built, why the guy who bought it most recently renamed it Palau, the population size, the dimensions in kilometers... you get the idea. Completely different approach.

Marida.... the next one should have a lot more of Marida, I think. I'm glad. I want more Marida. She's one of my favourites.

Her big scene in this one is a good one with a lot of thematic and emotional weight, but the reordering of scenes did skip over a lot of smaller moments between her and Banagher that I really love-- big fan of her grabbing his face to check his eyes and then telling him about the effects of g-force on the human eyeball.

I'm hoping at least some of those casual interactions make it into the next one. They can be shifted around pretty easily, so long as it's before the attack on Palau begins.

I think that's everything I wanted to go over... either way, I'm done. This post took me a lot longer to edit than the first one.

I can't believe they made me write fifteen paragraphs about Riddhe.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

another aspect of things i think i've at least half mentioned before but now i'm thainking about it again: take "maybe atlas dies ostensibly, perhaps at all truly, because of [whatever thing involving mitzi] while also at least in part to try to protect lackadaisy, &/or his own image" and add, as we could if we consider atlas more relevantly a potential parallel to other characters than as like representing more detached Forces, that maybe he could have (also partially) died to protect at least these two people who we know were, for their part, close enough to him for their part to be involved in his death & have this exclusive knowledge about it & continue to share the secret solely on this connection

like the mystery of it all is important insofar as it plays into Character & Themes, so it's like sure often turning to those things to like reverse engineer hypotheses about the mystery & then see how it holds up to like actual details we have. like that it sure matches "imagine how relevant to Character & Themes it'd be if mordecai was the one who shot atlas" to then cross compare like wow & the silhouette of the gun that atlas left for mordecai upon their first meeting sure matches what we see of the gun mordecai's passing to or taking from mitzi in the [that remains between us] flashback panel that has to do with their secret knowledge of How It Happened re: atlas's death. so like here we are in general with characters who know each other & have personal connections & all their supposed straightforward plans / ambitions concerning business are perhaps in conflict with whether these people they're emotionally invested in will be okay....maybe atlas also took that conflict into account and, for example, if he was assuming lackadaisy would close (but in a more controlled way than if atlas Didn't die, & whatever [dangers surrounding things that have changed such that asa did have something to warn atlas about] stayed focused on him & lackadaisy by extension) he also maybe didn't assume mitzi would try to keep lackadaisy running & would instead just kind of safely liquidate things.

of course, more difficult to speculate re: mordecai, like, oh yeah perhaps atlas had some genuine affection for his wife, right, but mordecai's official labels are all along the lines of like, bookkeeper, gunman, bodyguard. safe to say mordecai has the emotional investment re: atlas / matters surrounding him, but less so that atlas did in turn, when even with atlas being this deliberately Overall mysterious figure to us, we're looking at things like "wow maybe atlas is looking slightly towards mordecai when the latter's just gotten partially hit by a couple of shotgun blasts after another day on the lethal situations job" as like the potential biggest indication of possible warmth and it would be more of a stretch for atlas to assume "well if i die, mordecai will be totally fine" as for him to assume that mitzi would not, in fact, try to run lackadaisy. seems plausible that another theme that could be emphasized with mordecai here is "oops mordecai has the reasons to try to reconcile his situation with his feelings, while atlas just has to go 'wow he's effective at successfully fighting for his life / killing these guys who meant to kill him. sure could be useful for me to keep putting him in that position'" i.e. mordecai wants to find emotional value in someone seemingly looking out for him, whereas if anything atlas may as well actively try Not to care about mordecai besides as a business asset. including if/when he involves mordecai in his death, which could sure be as emotionally impactful for mordecai as it apparently was/is, while for atlas it could Just be like "well i could always trust him & the whole thing is he's really good at killing someone" and that's that. or maybe it's still this mix of like "yeah i'm Using you, and for incredibly demanding & dangerous purposes. but i'm also giving you my literal shirts, sure" nonzero bit of giving a shit still. possibilities. but still seems like mordecai (and mitzi, really) was much more emotionally invested, and thanks to atlas being such a mystery, we get this tension of like, how much of a misalignment is there between how much they cared and how much atlas really did / how much they think he did?

but anyways tl;dr would sure be yet more drama if atlas figured mitzi could be safe when he died but it's like whoops that sure wasn't guaranteed even by that Ultimate Backing Out. Themes