#listen i love learning i love old books and i love rabbits

[verifiablebot]

i bought a cloth-bound copy of two scientific papers from the 30s about rabbit genetics and i fear i'm morphing into the most insufferable type of human alive

[yuri-is-online]

I imagine Deuce!Yutu is either A. The Ultimate Honor Student with perfect grades and a plsmile that makes old nannies and mothers swoon (Yutu: "Thanks, its because me and my parent are the local "weirdos" I had to overcorrect and become a golden child (':") OR B. just as bad as pre-NRC Deuce was, a gang member who'd jump anyone who'd look at him wrong (but still cried until he was sick when he watched My Girl (1991) behind Yuu's back. They told him not to because they knew it was sad, he didn't listen).

I imagine Yuu's main memory of Deuce to their Yutu was how much Deuce believed in self-improvement and redemption, always trying to be a better man, which either version of Yutu can't help but admire or respect, despite their complicated feelings over their absent father.

Upon meeting him in the "current" timeline as a student, A or B either can't help but give Pop's an A for effort, despite missing the goal sometimes or finds him a little cringe for being such a tryhard.

I had to google the movie you mentioned and got jump scared by it taking place in Pennsylvania. Pretty sure I have driven through the place it's supposed to be set before... and fuck just reading the synopsis made me cry I don't think I could watch it ;-; poor Yutu should have listened to his parent.

notes: they/them used for Yuu, for context on the fyuuture kid au can be found here and here.

I feel like I have read too much Tokyo Revengers because... we can have both: an honor student with a delinquent mean streak sounds like a good set up for Deuce! Yutu. Not that I think he would behave like Kisaki does exactly, but still. Dylla mentions in the White Rabbit event that she wasn't on the best terms with her mother when she was a teen, and we know about how Deuce was in middle school, so the idea of Yutu having a bit of a temper and rebellious streak to him does make a degree of sense. Sadly, I think that extends to his interactions with Yuu... so things are about to be angsty on two fronts today.

Much like Deuce, Yutu was just the cutest baby. He loved all things cute and fluffy. Bunnies, kitties, puppy dogs, he was such a sweet little kid who really loved chasing around butterflies in the great outdoors. He really loved to read, and learned how to do so at a very early age. When Yuu was having a bad day he would pick out one of his favorite books and insist on reading them a bedtime story so they could take a nap without any nightmares. If he was especially worried he would bring his favorite nightlight with him.

Not that anyone would ever dare to suggest it given what Yutu is like now, but he was very afraid of the dark as a child. He still is, there's just something about the void that exists in the darkness that screams danger to him. When he's isekaid to Twisted Wonderland it evolves into an extreme fear of blot and phantoms. I'd like his unique magic to have something to do with light or stars, something inspired by the Second Star to the Right from Peter Pan? I think it would be cute for someone afraid of the dark to be able to provide their own light.

When Yutu reaches middle school there's a noticeable change in his relationship with you. He's still polite, still bringing home good grades and unoffensive comments from his teachers. But he's a bit cold, as if he is purposefully putting emotional distance between you. His friends all treat you respectfully, but you just have a feeling, left over from somewhere, that you know what is likely going on but you can't put your finger on what. He gets angry when you try to ask questions, yelling something about how you just don't understand, maybe even throws in something about this being your fault...

I wrote about Riddle! Yutu having some fights with Yuu, but Deuce! Yutu's fights are so much worse. While Riddle! Yutu typically comes out of his room blubbering big fat tears ready to apologize, Deuce! Yutu feels the need to double down and save face. He does believe his parent has amnesia, he's seen how they act, but what he does not get is why they insist on feeling so fond of his dad and refuse to move on. In his mind their life could be a lot better if Yuu was willing to be honest with themselves about who his dad probably was. Yutu is very hung up on why Deuce felt the need to be redeemed, focusing on self improvement is all fine and good if you are someone worth redeeming but he's not around for Yutu to judge. And Yuu doesn't remember...

He's young, stupid, and angry, and he takes it out on anyone who looks at him wrong. What's worse for authority figures who want to help is that he's veeeery smart about how he does it. When he jumps someone you can bet there won't be cameras around to see it. When the police start troubling Yuu about what he's doing it's mostly just in the hope that they'll be able to talk some sense into their kid rather than to arrest Yutu or anything like that, but it doesn't work. Yutu gets to see the same thing that his dad did all those years ago, his parent crying because of his behavior but there's no grandparent Yuu is asking advice of. Since I am in the mood to be extra cruel, let's say the day that fight takes place, the day Yutu sees Yuu crying is the day he hears a very important name for the first time.

Deuce. His father's name is Deuce and the reason why he wasn't around was because he was from the other world that came to swallow up him and his parent the instant they began to remember. He doesn't get time to cover up the signs of his rebellion, or really a chance to say sorry. He has to look Grandpa Crewel in the face and admit that he made Yuu cry and added to the overly stressed mess their life had become. Everything they said about Deuce was true, and what's worse he was like him.

I feel like Deuce would be the sort of person who wanted to make a lot of home videos. Cater probably would be too, but he'd store most of them on his phone and I think that would be lost to time by the time his Yutu came home. Maybe it's because of the ghost camera, or his desire to be an "honor student" evolving into wanting to be an "honorable husband and father" but Deuce totally bought a video camera to take cheesy videos to show Yutu as he grew up. Instead the kid gets to see fragments of a life he could have had as he listens to his dad tell him about his life and how he met Yuu.

"Honestly I have no idea why they said yes." Deuce is a dork. A complete dork who looks so... young and life like in the video. He knows what features he took from Yuu but watching Deuce talk, he can pick up on the ticks, the way his mouth sets when determined. The look of shock that always made Yuu laugh, it bursts into view when he hears Yuu laugh as they enter the frame to snuggle into Duece's side, to press their face against his cheek with a happily contended sigh. "Y-yuu you're making me look uncool in front of the baby."

"He's not here yet!" You giggle and for the first time in a long time Yutu feels himself choking up as he watches his dad get all silly looking at the thought of his arrival.

"We're really looking forward to meeting you kiddo. I promise, nothing will ever happen to you. I'm not going anywhere."

"Well. Technically kept that last promise didn't you." He tries to play it off like a joke, but Crewel isn't laughing and neither is Yutu.

Gets put in Heartslabyul, but isn't exactly determined to be an honor student like his dad. While Deuce enjoys a good fight or the feeling of the wind in his hair... Yutu mostly got into fights because he was angry and needed someone to take it out on. Because of that temper he struggles with learning and controlling his magic but he still does pretty well with the practical academic side of things. He's proud of his ability to understand these things, and takes a lot of comfort in knowing his dad would be excited at knowing he was good at things like math and science.

Like with the other Heartslabyul boys, he had to fight his father's phantom. He sees putting Deuce to rest as part of his penance for how he treated Yuu in the years leading up to getting isekaid. He refuses to go back in time until he's able to lay this version of his father to rest next to Yuu so he can promise both of them, to their faces, that he'll create a world where they all can be together and live as a family.

Deuce is extremely friendly to Yutu! He wants to learn as much about Yuu's world as he can so he can help them feel as at home in Twisted Wonderland as possible. He makes sure to let Yutu know that extends to him too once Yuu warms up to having him in the friend circle, Uncle Ace is much less enthusiastic but it's clearly from a place of care towards Yuu. He starts to warm up when he sees Yutu trying his hardest to tutor Deuce, though he claims it's because he just thinks it's funny but really it's because Ace wants to see Deuce succeed.

Very correct on his feelings about Pops. His dad is so wildly cringe it's unreal. His effort is inspiring until he starts getting embarrassed for losing his temper and stuttering, or seven forbid you look at his grades. The more he interacts with both of you the more certain he becomes that Deuce would never have abandoned him... and that he is so getting grounded when Deuce learns about how he treated Yuu. And what's worse is that Yutu sort of wants him to.

Surprisingly that's not what happens at all. When Deuce learns who Yutu is, whether by sleuthing or through a violent confrontation with a monster from the future, when the whole story is laid out before him and his son bows to beg for his judgement it doesn't come at all. His Pops yanks him up by the collar and turns him towards Yuu.

"Say all of that again to your parent." Deuce's voice is as stern as it is serious. Yuu looks distraught, not quite to the point they were on the day everything changed but getting there as Yutu immediately breaks down and chokes, crying and begging for your forgiveness and saying he's sorry as Deuce brings all three of you together into a strong embrace. "I'm not the one you need to make things up to, but it's ok. I know exactly how you feel and we'll work through things together."

Deuce doesn't feel like he can be overly angry at Yutu for taking after him. He does feel the need to apologize to Yuu, profusely and in private, for putting them in so much danger and not being there to help Yutu work through his temper. If I was writing this as a story, I'd make Yuu sort of afraid of Yutu's feelings? I could see them blaming themselves and things being a bit awkward within their relationship with Yutu where they had been very good before the reveal. With Deuce being the loving and understanding partner that he is, the bridge is once again mended and the whole family gets to indulge in hobbies that aren't beating the shit out of other people.

Yutu gets back into reading, and starts looking up manuals and histories of blastcycles so he has something to talk to his dad about. He was right about his dad being extremely proud of him for being smart, he's that classic mechanic working class dad who can't stop talking about his kid who went to college and has pictures of him in his garage he makes sure to point out to everyone who comes in. Said person is really just Ace who really wants to make fun of Deuce and Yuu for being cringe together but is too focused on this whole world ending thing and wants everyone to be more focused on that.

Deuce promises that he is, he has a lot of confidence in the ability of your little group to be able to win against stacked odds. You've done it before you can do it again. Yutu couldn't have picked better allies, he's really determined to show him that and be a dad his son can be proud of. He repeats his promise to Yutu that he's never going anywhere, even though the kid never told him anything about the tapes because he really means it. He wants that world little Yutu dreamed of and older Yutu swore to fight for to be a reality, and it's his job as an honorable dad and future husband (he gets so flustered when he says that) to be the one on the front lines of fighting for it,

... just please please please do not tell Yutu about the egg incident. He doesn't think he could handle that embarrassment.

[marigold-hills]

june 1: incantation | @wolfstarmicrofic | word count: 546

Remus speaks carelessly. Mouth framing words like each sound is comfortably familiar – not rehearsed but known, something in his bones and blood and given to him by his ancestors. Broad vowels, silent t’s.

Sirius watches his lips move, the scar bisecting them stretch. Hangs on every dropped consonant like it’s a missed step in the dark. Something in him rejoices at the way Remus disregards elision: a flagrant defiance to Sirius’ childhood elocution lessons.

The joy of watching Remus speak is more than subversion from his upbringing – the moments when Sirius can do it like this (undisturbed and unnoticed)? They rebuild something in him he thought irreparably broken. He wants to fall asleep to it, make a cassette and listen to it on repeat, pretend he’s struggling with the material just to have Remus read to him.

There is something else, too. When he’s Padfoot and wants to chase a rabbit, a part of him feral and untamed – this want he can’t name occupies the same space. Something like this: to eat, to devour, to sink his teeth into flesh. Unnervingly, he thinks, he wants to hurt Remus.

“Cùram-slàinte,” Remus mumbles, “loiceadh.”

The part of Sirius that wants to bite him whines.

To hear him speak in English is a comfort. When he throws Latin-based spells it’s a thrill.

Listening as he builds incantations in Gaelic is the same as watching a storm approach with nowhere to hide. Sirius will stand in a clearing, wait for it to drench him, welcome each heavy raindrop. Thank it, afterward, if it deems him worthy to strike.

“Pads, do you have spare ink? I’ve run out.”

“Anything for you Moony, my love,” he jokes, endearment making Remus roll his eyes at him.

The library is quiet at this time of the evening. The other two of their four are playing Quidditch and Gobstones, respectively, as they always do on Fridays. Sirius keeps the days open, ostensibly so he can study (NEWTs are fast approaching, he should be). He brings his books along but doesn’t keep up with the pretends of actually opening them.

“You know.” Remus looks up from the borrowed ink pot, “you won’t get any studying done through osmosis.”

“Could do.”

Remus pretends to consider this. “Even if, won’t do you any good to learn this.”

He’s right, of course, as their Moony so often is. The dissertation he’s working on has nothing to do with Sirius’ work – Gaelic in the creation of new offensive spells is significantly different than his Exploring antimony and its reference as Grey Wolf in Ancient Runes. He doesn’t want to tell Remus he’s already finished his one (and got a tattoo to match) because then his excuse to hang out in the library would become even flimsier.

(Something he should consider: why the excuse and why the need to be there in the first place. Why watch Remus with such closeness, so differently than he does Peter, or James? But approaching these thoughts makes that feral part of him whine me a wounded dog, so he stays clear and indulges himself.)

“At least take your books out, you big mangy dog,” Remus laughs (sunlight falling onto old moss-covered stone) and reaches out to swipe a hair away from Sirius’ eyes.

NEXT PART

NOTES:

this is Part 1 of a 30 part series of standalone shorts which together make a larger story “The 30 ways you found me. Let me know your thoughts!

in the UK at the end of education equivalent to Hogwarts you can opt to do an extended project - essentially a semi large research paper on your chosen topic. I like to think it’s the same at Hogwarts, and that’s what they are working on here.

Oblivious Sirius is one of my favourites

[gravesiteprincess]

my intro 🕯️ 🪞

hi everybody !! my online name is calypso or auani, the purépecha word for rabbit. for privacy i dont like sharing my real one (even though its pretty common =^..^=). im 15 years!!! feel free to ask abt my birth chart if ur into that!! i live in the us, i speak english, spanish, & some portuguese!! i love learning abt different languages & cultures, i think theyre really cool. i can also read runes ! btww im a reconnecting spiritualist, a part of my culture that i would like to live on ♡ im also latina & i love my identity very much. anyways heres some of my interests!!

music: i like listening to artists like she wants revenge, lana del rey, sublime, hole, ms krazie, seu jorge, & jah cure ^_^ btw i know not all of these artists are good people, i do not support the things theyve done. some of my fav genres are pop, punk, riot grrrl, edm, mpb, recession pop, oldies, samba, cumbia, & reggae!! music is one of my favorite pastimes :3

movie/tv: i honestly dont watch many shows but my fav movies are edward scissorhands, thirteen, & girl, interrupted. im also watching nana but i have a bad attention span :(

books: again i have a bad attention span but i ♡ reading !! my fav book is bendíceme, ultima . its a kids book but it means a lot to me. i also like reading from the brontë sisters & i like poetry. ive tried being a writer but im not very good. one of my fav poets is antônio sousa .

i have a basic dni, the one u will typically see. if you go against this i will block you. i am also neurodivergent, any ableist hate will have you blocked. i am also queer !! literally any bigotry means u get blocked. if ur a creepy old man (or any creep i will block you & report you. i dont tolerate stuff like that so dont try !! anyways thats everything ig. bye guys !!

[chadfallout76podcast]

Death Shroud Q&A (submitted by @completely-legit)

completely-legit submitted:

10h ago

Death Shroud Q&A!

Writing Questions

Q: 1. "You only ever took one of us." – Paladin Danse, Death Shroud Meta jokes aside, it's obvious you enjoyed playing some of the best of Fallout 4's cast off of each other in ways that we weren't able to get in the game due to the mechanical restrictions of the gameplay.  Which was your favorite dynamic between characters to write?

A: Honestly I loved writing all of it. By the time you're well into the story the Red Rocket is filled with the strangest assortment of people/not people in the entire Wasteland. The conflict, ball busting, unexpected friendships that would be blossom out of that is really fertile soil for writing. Moreover, on a shared journey 2 years later they have a comfortable familiarity with each other they just slip back into. I also love Jefferson/Silver Shroud's dynamic, because you have a superhero level character who starts off 2 dimensional ripped out of a comic book and is suddenly REAL in a way that doesn't fit with reality. As a result he's kind of bumbling and awkward. Jefferson is the embodiment of him "not fitting in" outside of the page where he's idolized as well as stylized. It's just great stuff.

2. I believe you mentioned you turned to Dick Tracy for inspiration while writing this picturesque slice of noir life – what's the most important thing you've learned about writing a radio drama?  What was the most difficult thing about resurrecting a much older style of media that you didn't appreciate until you were deep in it?

A: I looked at a lot of inspirations to get the feel right in the beginning acts. Relistened to old school Sam Spade radio dramas, rewatched The Maltese Falcon (Bogart's version of Spade inspired the character of Valentine in development), as well as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Dick Tracy". Since I've been writing radio drama for almost 5 years now, I think the biggest thing I've learned over time is getting the rhythm right. I write in a way that I want to take people on an emotional rollercoaster of a journey in pretty much everything I do. Because that's life. We laugh, we get anxious and tense, we pine for people, cheer them out, mourn their losses and feel their pain. I always try to recreate that ride in any story we've done whether it's this or other productions we do. Lastly, always give people what they want: a satisfying ending. As far as resurrecting an older style of media...that was really easy as I've been listening to Old Time Radio since I was a teenager.

3. Did you do everything in one take or have any rehearsals/direction?  It seemed like all the VAs were in one call together, which is some incredible coordination and effort!

A: Nope! All recorded one night in one take with no rehearsal. Mostly because I was sweating over the script and didn't finish polishing it until 3 hours before recording. We did it all on Zoom and not 5 minutes in, a lightning bolt hit a transformer down the street, knocking out my power. Wes had to continue recording for me (it's why there's a big grid of people at the start as opposed to the single actor view later on. I was crushed I wasn't there live while they were recording.

4. The amount of voice (and writing) talent in this production is incredible for something so unofficial!  How long did it take you to bring this 3 hour noir tour of the Commonwealth to fruition?  How many times did you have to replay/reload Fallout 4 to fact check your details? :)

A: Thank you! We started asking people a few months ago. I had a brainstorming meeting with Wes and Emil from Bethesda who offered some helpful notes as I wrote on their characters. It took me 26 hours or so to edit and design the media elements, add effects and music scoring. It took 14 hours to render in 4k and only finished rendering at 10am the morning of airing. I was sweating over night that it would finish rendering in time. lol I didn't have to replay Fallout 4 as I have a really good memory of it, but looked to the Wiki on some key details and transcripts of how the characters talked in the main game.

5. Obviously, the plot had to wrap a bit around which VAs were available; were there any specific plot changes you had to make based on availability, or did you only seriously bend to writing after you already had a list of actors available for participation?  Anything extremely fun you had to cut?

A: At the last moment sadly Lynda Carter couldn't join us otherwise I wouldn't have written in Magnolia without her. Shari Elliker came in clutch and did a great job voicing her! I really and truly wanted MacCready a part of it, but Matt Mercer is INSANELY busy and was taking a much-needed vacation. Despite that he was kind enough to record for us. I wanted to try and bring EVERYONE back but between not being able to reach some people, others just able to wrangle their schedule...I think we did a good job getting as many people as we did. There was a bunch of stuff I had to cut for time (because this thing was already 3 hours). There was going to be an attack by the Mechanist on Diamond City, following the events at the Lombardo's with the Mechanist taking out the Detective Agency in retribution for meddling in their plans, but felt that was unnecessary and we'd already put listeners through enough torture. lol I was going to bring back Scribe Haylen as a link to investigate some of the Brotherhood's Black Market dealings in salvaged synth tech as part of the surprise return of Kellogg. But honestly the most fun scene would've been a trap in which they're lured to a train station thinking Harold is coming in by rail from the Capital Wasteland only to be chased by an Endritch "modded into the Universe" version of Thomas the Tank Engine. It would've resulted in a car chase with the Shroud realizing Jefferson has used all his James Bond-like car gadgets already so the most they can do is throw bottles at it that Hancock has emptied. lol

Plot questions:

1. "You started something two years ago you never finished."  - Boss Lombardo, Death Shroud

In my opinion, one of the biggest successes of Death Shroud was fans were of course hungry for the answers about what comes after a "happy ending".  In Death Shroud it's apparent that Nora chose to assist the Brotherhood of Steel along to a victory against the Institute - but it becomes clear that the ending wasn't perfect for everyone. There's been a lot of discussion over the years about how every faction ending to Fallout 4 has its own unique drawbacks.  In this case it seems like even beyond sacrificing the Railroad (and a lot of synths) the Brotherhood left a power vacuum in the Commonwealth which is allowing for raiders and the like to take back over in the absence of both the Institute and an effective Minute Men alliance. What was the most important part of this "ending" and its consequences for you to address?  What made it the best backdrop to set Death Shroud in?  The play mentions more than once that poor Nick is running out of spare parts with the source of synthetic limbs destroyed!

A: I picked that ending for our story because honestly it's one of the most dire from which to grow the story from. The rise of raiders and Triggermen (mafia control of parts of the city) is very Film Noir. I also needed Nora to have dipped out of the spotlight and honestly trying to just go live a quiet life and come to terms with what they did to the railroad was necessary plot wise. The Cabot storyline was also essential...she needed to have let him loose in order for the pieces of the story to come together. I also think it's important to remember that the Brotherhood REALLY aren't their for altruistic reasons. Once they take out the Institute they don't give a crap about rebuilding Boston. They salvage tech, hoard it and that's kind of it. By the time our story begins Nick and our former companions are doing their best just to keep things in some kind of order. Even Hancock needs to go back to run Goodneighbor to prevent it from falling apart.

 2. The biggest breakout original character was Charlie, Nick Valentine's protege turned traitor; wonderfully played by Aeric Azana.  I actually experienced several double takes during the first airing of the play and had to google to make sure I hadn’t completely forgotten the character somehow, he fit so well with the rest of the cast.  What was the inspiration for his character?  Care to give us some more loose backstory about how he wound up in the Valentine detective agency?

A: Aeric Azana is BRILLIANT and really completely lost himself in that character and brought it to life. I think the character fit in and felt so natural because it felt like a character that would be there. Following the events of Fallout 4, I think Nick would learn the importance of friends and family and in chasing down Nora's son, a set of continuity of beliefs and ideals. Seeing the Institute destroyed and most of the synths wiped out...there's no backup, no spare parts. Nick can be killed and destroyed and all that he was would be lost. Not only does Nick need help at the agency I think he wanted to have something he could never have: a sense of family. Taking in Charlie off the streets, raising him, teaching him would make sense for him. I have some thoughts on his background and how Nick found him...but that may end up being a story, so I'll keep quiet about that for now. Suffice to say, missing people is not all that Nick finds on cases.

3. No noir sleuth story is complete without organized crime!  Fallout players are intimately familiar with a lot of the gangs of the commonwealth, be it the Khans, the Forged, or even the Gourmands – but Ma Lombardo, played by the lovely Ellen McLain & her rabid dog son Carmen (the Boss) played by the equally talented Zack Ward - represent a newer type of evil in the Commonwealth.

In your opinion how does organized crime fit within the wasteland societal structure that already... lacks organization as it were?  Are they essentially just raiders who will monologue at you before gunning you down for your caps? Who is even standing up to them at this point?  Prosecuting them for their perceived crimes?  It’s funny to consider that these crime families are essentially more organized than most of the remaining political structures in place!

A: Say what you want about crime families, but they do hold up a semblance of order where there is needed one. If you take a look at the arc of the Godfather, in the beginning there is a balance of justice, deep seated respect of an order...a code of honor. Ma and Carmen Lombardo return because we've broken what little of that was left with the Triggermen by the time we were done in the Commonwealth. The hierarchy peaking order has been obliterated, so it leaves both a structural opportunity for them to return and also a true need to try and BE the stabilizing force after the power vacuum that was left by our choices. Nora and the gang basically fuck up the Commonwealth in one way or another and I honestly think it would be out of character for her to WANT to be a ruler. So who's left? The Triggermen under Lombardo aren't just raiders...they were forced inline in a way they hadn't been in a long time. Raiders wouldn't have stood a chance against them.

4. "If I’ve learned anything, people are what they believe" – Nick Valentine, Death Shroud

Nick Valentine is a character who has struggled with his identity in the past but came to some degree of closure about it by choosing to believe in/focus on the goodness of his deeds despite being a perceived copy of another man.  In Death Shroud we see him brush up against a much more literal (and meta) manifestation of the power of belief in ideas - it's a pretty poignant juxtaposition of the character's much-deliberated ideology vs a rather wild plot.  Is that the reason Nick was the only man left standing at the end?  The manufactured man who was both someone else's idea but how he defines himself, who he is, is his own choice as well?

A: Honestly the reason it was him still standing in the end is because this ultimately is HIS story, a Nick Valentine Mystery. What Nick misses completely is that like Nora, he is a keystone event. Unlike any other synth out there he is aware of who he is, who he wasn't, can't hide in plain sight like others can. Because of his journey, his actions, the people he helps, saves, draws to him, a tapestry of ripples of his existence, choices and actions forever ripple throughout the Commonwealth. Magnolia's comments in the end both speak to his position in their reality and also direct speak to us as players, "in the end we're not just stories".

5.  Follow up:  I also found it to be an incredibly fascinating character arc for Nick as well.  He was offered the keys to Diamond City, albeit by notorious criminal Ma Lombardo, but then later essentially by Charlie as well - but our synthetic hero turns both of them down since he's a “just a detective, not a politician”.

A: It's more than that also. Nick isn't motivated by power, has lived long enough to see how power corrupts and creates the illusion of choice. What Charlie misses is the EXPERIENCE Nick has as part of his journey. Could having that kind of power mean no more missing people? No more broken hearts? Yes...but it also means denying people the choices and lessons they've learned as a result of actions they take. He wasn't born. He was made. He was built to replace people. He was given memories, a life and story he didn't earn, didn't choose. He made the CHOICE to to throw all of that away and do the most human thing real humans often don't do: help people without reservation.

Over the course of the play it becomes clearer as characters reminisce over the events of Fallout 4, Nick's not entirely satisfied with some of the choices Nora made along the way and more notably some of the ramifications.  This is followed by the very end where Nick takes control to reset reality to a ‘previous save’ far in the past before the entirety of Nora’s adventure - rather than say, just before everything involving the events of Death Shroud went to hell in a handbasket.  Any particular reason that was Nick’s chosen reload point?  Do you think Nick has reached a point from his experiences where he would take a more active role in guiding Nora's decision making going forward?

A: Nick didn't have a choice there. There is only the current state or as teased in the commercial in the very beginning the only saved state available to you. "Safe equals saved" wasn't just a funny commercial, it was a promise that going back means returning to the start of the tapestry of choices, actions and impacts that began when Nora's keystone moment began. The day she was woken up and became something other than Nora. If you pay attention, throughout Fallout 4 Nick offers very specific guidance in some areas and specific wisdom. Knowing full well how important choice is to the causal nexus and maintaining the tapestry of reality he would walk that line very carefully in the choices made vs. influenced.

Last Question:

I’m very curious what the three sentence pitch was to get most of these VAs on board with this amazing project - and even Pete Hines and Emil Pagliarulo as well – if you can share that with us!

A: There really wasn't one. I've become really good friends with Wes these past few years and the other voice actors, Pete Hines, etc. are also people I've gotten to know through Fallout For Hope. So I think our track record as far as fundraising goes, trust in me/Fallout For Hope, etc. from working together on both unofficial Fallout community projects, causes and events and official NDA ones we've done the past few years created a unique situation this thing could even happen. This was our 3rd production this scale, but the one I'm most proud of.

[izicodes]

woah! just saw your bio change to software engineer. how did you transition? is it any different than web dev?

i also went on a TikTok rabbit hole and people are saying it’s useless to learn html/css and it’s not an actual language. honestly idk why I thought it would be easy to learn html > css > javascript > angular > react and somehow land a good paying job…

it’s gonna take YEARS for me to have a career, i feel old… especially with no degree

Hiya! 🩶

This is a long reply so I answered your question in sections below! But in the end, I hope this helps you! 🙆🏾‍♀️

🔮 "How did you transition?"

So, yeah my old job title was "Junior Web Developer" at a finance firm, and now my new title is "Frontend Software Engineer"! In terms of transition, I didn't make too much of a change.

After I quit my old job, I focused more on Frontend technologies that were relevant, so I focused on React.js and Node.js. I used YouTube, books, and Codeacademy. My first React project was >> this Froggie project <<~! Working on real-life projects such as the volunteering job I did (only for a month) where they used the technologies I was learning. So basically I did this:

decides to learn react and node 🤷🏾‍♀️

"oh wait let me find some volunteering job for developers where they use the tech I am learning so I can gain some real-life experience 🤔"

experienced developers in the team helped me with other technologies such as UI tools, and some testing experience 🙆🏾‍♀️

I did the volunteering work for both fun and learning with experienced developers and... I was bored and wanted to feel productive again... 😅

So for transitioning, I focused on learning the new technologies I wanted to work in and got some work experience (though it was volunteering) to back up if I can work in an environment with the tech. I still live with my family so I could do the volunteering job and have time to self-study whilst being okay financially (though I was tight with money haha) 😅👍🏾

🔮 "Is it any different than web dev?"

The old job was focused on using C# and SQL (including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript but fairly small) to make the websites, they were fairly basic websites for clients to use just to navigate their information needed. They weren't fancy cool web design because they didn't need to be, which was what made me bored of the job and wanted a change.

I am only a week into the job and have been working on small tickets (features for the site), but I think after a month or two into the job I will make a proper judgment on the difference~! So far, it's kind of the same thing I did in my old job but with new workflow tools, React-based projects, and funny people to work with 😅🙌🏾

🔮 "People are saying it’s useless to learn HTML/CSS and it’s not an actual language."

Yes HTML is a markup language and CSS is a stylesheet but they are the foundation of like 90% of the websites on the internet, I wouldn't ever call them "useless". Frameworks such as React, Django, Flask, etc still require HTML and CSS code to make the website's structure and styling. CSS frameworks like Tailwind and Bootstrap 5 still use CSS as their base/foundation. Not useless at all.

Don't focus on what other people are doing and focus on your own learning. I repeat this all the time on my blog. Just because one or a couple people online said one technology is useless doesn't mean it is (this is applied to most things in tech). Someone told me jQuery was entirely useless and no bother learning it - I did it anyway and it helped me better understand JavaScript. Anyhoo, try things YOURSELF before listening to what people say - make your own judgment. Not going to let a random Tech bro online whine about how annoying Python or C or whatever is to ruin my want to learn something. (This is all coming from a girl who loves web development very much's point of view :D)

🔮 "I thought it would be easy to learn html > css > javascript > angular > react and somehow land a good paying job"

Web Dev route, I love it! That's literally the same steps I would have taken if I had to start again~! For each new tech you learn, make a bunch of projects to 1) prove to yourself that you can apply what you've learned 2) experience 3) fill that portfolio~! 😎🙌🏾

With Angular and React, I would pick one or the other and focus on being really good at it before learning another framework!

I also recommend volunteering jobs, freelancing, helping a small business out with free/paid m

Lastly, you do not need a degree to get a job in Web Development. I mean look at me? My apprenticeship certificate is the same value as finishing school at 18, so in the UK it would be A-Levels, and I completed it at the ripe age of 21! I have no degree, I applied for university and got a place but I will give that space up for someone else, I'm not ready for university just yet! haha... (plus erm it's expensive at the end, what? even for the UK...). Sure, I used to avoid the job postings that were like "You need a computer science degree" but now if I were job searching I would apply regardless.

People switching careers in their 40s going into tech instead are making it, you can switch anytime in your lifetime if you have the means to! (everyone's situation is different I understand).

I'm not too good at giving advice but I hope in the rambling I made some sense? But yeah that's all! 😎

[who-owl-shares]

Go to Wonderland, Alice

"Curiouser and curiouser!"

Alice in Wonderland has to be one of my favorite stories out there, it's safe to say that I've managed to consume every type of media it has been adapted to. From printed books to the fantastical movies/cartoons and games it has been featured in.

But after listening to Neville Goddard, it changed my view on the story.

I've always saw myself in Alice, a little girl who's imagination knows no bounds. So limitless that my imagination became my reality. When I was younger I loved reading books and playing with my dolls, I never really saw that line between reality and my imagination because they were in fact, one.

The line was never there, it wasn't blurry or jagged, it just never existed. I didn't need to close my eyes to dream up these realities I've created, I simply believed.

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

My imagination has always been wild ever since and it has become useful now as I grew. I often tell my friends who knew about the Law to "Just assume it." They would frequently come to me for advice and I always answer them the same thing.

I've managed to get out from horrendous situations by using my imagination. That's why I always find the confidence to answer my friends worries when they feel they're out of control because I have went through the same phase before becoming a conscious creator.

It's a good practice to start imagining yourself being wealthy when you're still poor, to be smart when you think you're dumb, to be faithful but feel hopeless and to be beautiful if you feel ugly.

"Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

Throughout my manifestation journey, I realized that there is an aspect that most people in the community doesn't discuss enough. You lose you're sense of self in the process.

Everything thought was true, everything I have learned was just flushed out my system. I lived most of my life pursuing society's, my parent's and friend's expectations of me. I never really had my own belief system and even if I did have one, without The Law, I would've easily absorbed other people's opinions as my reality without a second thought.

But just like Alice, I ran through the maze of our garden as I made my escape from society's constraints and along the way, I got curious and tripped on a overgrown root of an old tree. Until eventually I found myself falling down into this deep mysterious rabbit hole.

"Is it mad to pray for better hallucinations?"

I see this a lot and it's understandable to feel weird, maybe even crazy, for thinking that you could simply get things just by imagining them. But I would like to remind you that you have been doing this the moment you took your first breath. It's not crazy, its just different from what you're used to.

I felt uncomfortable as well when I started manifesting, it was so unbelievable to me. After years of hardships, I would stumble upon Neville Goddard's talks on YouTube and this guy was telling me that I could have everything I wanted by just imagining it? I thought it was the most idiotic thing ever.

But I felt like a bigger idiot for dismissing the most helpful teachings I've ever heard while I was going through a hard time in life. After some time of scepticism, I tried it and you could guess by now that it actually worked. I wouldn't be writing so much about this if it didn't.

To some extent you do need to be delusional, but in my opinion that's not really the word I would like to use when describing this. Why feel the need to pretend its a lie waiting to be true if it's already true?

It will feel like a lie at first but through persistence and repetition, it will have no choice but to harden into fact.

"The destruction of Wonderland, is the destructing of me!?"

If negativity consumes your brain, negativity will consume your reality.

In the game, Alice: Madness Returns, we see that all the characters, scenarios, the train (metaphor: Alice's train of thought) were all reflections of Alice's psyche, the Queen of Hearts is a great example. We can also see that her hair was longer in Wonderland compared to the real world because it was a way to showcase how much Alice had control depending on what world she was in.

And this version of Alice wasn't so happy with her life, but through overcoming tribulations within herself by visiting her own Wonderland. All the answers she wanted was within her all along.

Alice is Wonderland, and Wonderland is Alice.

From this, we could see how much of an impact our imagination can cause. Our emotions, feelings and assumptions, will find it's way to embody itself through a person or situation.

So if you keep thinking something bad will happen, it will happen, vice versa.

That's why you have to pay attention to your train of thought, not necessarily obsessing over everything that comes up in your mind but to remind yourself of where to focus your attention to when you go off track.

"We're all mad here."

After reading all of that, you may think to yourself that this is just a fun and interesting take on the cult classic that is Alice in Wonderland.

You're not wrong but I encourage you to try, run through the garden and fall down the rabbit hole. The Law of Assumption has helped me so much in my life that I couldn't even recognize the person and the lifestyle I had before learning about manifestation.

Thanks to people like Neville Goddard, they helped me realized that we always had and will have the power to create our own reality, and that no one could take away this power.

And it does feel overwhelming but peaceful at the same time, like a catharsis waiting to explode after decades of mundanity. But through your imagination you can create a brand new reality from scratch. You can create a world, a world that's built on your own terms. It's okay to live a life others do not understand.

You can create your own Wonderland.

Go to Wonderland, Alice.

[wcmi-22]

The Passing of Storms

By Allison Blossom

All throughout Wonderland, each house prepared and gathered supplies for the appending storm that would soon hit their quaint little town. All the shops including, the book shop, prepared for the storm’s impact by placing boards on the windows, sandbags near the doorways and even made sure the books were evacuated from the premises. Luckily for Belle, her husband, the former beast known as Prince Adam, was there to help her along with their friends; Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, and Lumiere to help take the books to safety at her castle.

“You know if you wanted to read the books during the storm, you could have just said so!” Adam joked to which Belle slapped his shoulder jokingly.

“You Wish!” Belle said laughing but, soon her smile faded.

“You miss her don’t you, dearie!” Mrs. Potts says.

“Its just I know she was just a visitor but, I always thought Alice would be something more than that. And honestly, I feel like its my fault for driving her away. I mean I was the one who want her and Reg together because I thought I saw me and Adam in their relationship. I really wish I hadn’t interfered !” Belle says as she sits on the sandbags, putting her chin in her hands.

“Belle, it wasn’t your fault.” Adam comforted.

“If anything, it was that quack of a hatter!” Lumiere stated.

“Quite an awful brute he is isn’t he! You would think he would have learned by now!” Cogsworth interjected.

“For once in our lives I agree with you my persnickety friend!” Lumiere agreed.

Soon Lumiere and Cogsworth went back and forth saying how horribly repulsive Reginald was, even while Belle tried to interject. Yet, the worst thing they could have ever said was the most hateful one of all.

“A Creature like that doesn’t deserve true love!”

Once that was said a huge roar rumbled the shop. Everyone soon saw Prince Adam as he lowered his tone. Now that Adam was human for the most part, since he was free from the curse, however, he still possessed some beastly qualities that came in handy now and again.

“Thank you, Dear!” Belle said to Adam. “Now listen, I know Reginald isn’t perfect by no means but, talking about how he is disgraceful and terrible when you don’t even know the full story is just absolutely wrong! Especially believing such rumors that aren’t even true!” Belle said sternly.

Everyone then went silent, including Adam by the shocking revelation of what she just said.

“Wait what?!” Lumiere asked.

Belle then stood up and said to them all “ Reginald never slept with those women, he rejected their advances, and they created the rumors about him to retaliate! He only goes with it because he must, not because he wants to! If anything, he truly loves and cares about Alice because he told me that she isn’t like other women! Reginald loved Alice and still loves her even though she’s gone! Reginald is a good person and truly loves and respects Alice! Furthermore, you of all people Lumiere and Cogsworth should know not to judge people by who they were or what others say!”

Both men hung their heads in shame for a moment, when suddenly, they heard someone speak softly through the crowd, “Is this true?!”

They all turned to doorway. To their surprise they saw a soaked and muddy woman. And not just any woman! It was none other than Alice Pleasance Liddell.

“Alice!” Everyone shouts as they rushed to her. Belle was the first out of the group to hug her.

“Oh Alice, you’re back! you’re soaked and your muddy, but you’re back!”

“Wait!” Belle exclaimed curiously “How? When? Where? Why?”

“ Through the rabbit hole where I dug through the dirt to get to it, last night, under the old oak tree, and because of Wonderland and Reginald.” Alice explained with a tired smile. “Which reminds me, was all that true Belle? ” she asked. “Does Reginald still love me?”

“Every word!” Belle stated. Alice’s eyes glittered and she knew what she had to do.

“Where is Reginald now?!” Alice asked panickily.

“I believe at the hat shop but…” Belle explained but, soon saw Alice run out the door back into the pouring rain again.

Belle then ran to the door and shouted to Alice “ But, there’s a storm coming!”

Meanwhile, at the hat shop, the workers made sure everything was locked, the boards were up, and the sandbags were placed. Ears double checked the list once more before entering Reginald’s office

“Reg?” He says seeing Reginald in his chair moping once more. “Everything is ready for the storm!”

“Good, good.” Reginald says yet still lost in thought.

“You did your best old boy; Mary Anne was kind enough to let you use her looking glass and...”

“I’m going home, Ears.” Reginald states depressed as he gets up and goes out his office door toward the stairs. Ears soon noticed that Reginald left behind his signature hat and coat.

“But don’t you need your hat and coat?” Ears asks worried.

“Not right now, Ears.” He muttered and soon left out the door into the cold rain.

Soon Ear went back to work organizing and prepping for the storm, all the while making sure the White rabbit doesn’t have another panic attack in the process. Suddenly, Ears heard the jingle of the doorbell and quickly ran to the door praying it was Reginald but, soon was surprised that it was another individual.

“Alice!” He exclaimed in shock “You’re back and muddy?!”

“Where is Reginald!” Alice asked as she catches her breath.

“He...he…he just went out! How? Why? When…” Ears stated.

“No time to explain!” Alice explained, “Which way did he go?!”

Ears soon pointed in the direction he went, and Alice quickly slipped out and ran down the street, leaving Ears perplex and confused more than usual.

At the stony bridge that led to the entrance of the town, the storm began to hit hard as Reginald walked alone deep in his thoughts about his cricket. Then he stopped in the middle of the bridge to let his tears roll down his cheek along with the memories of Alice flood him once more. He thought about the way she walked, the way she laughed, they way she smelled, the way she smiled and even they way she spoke.

“Even now, I can hear her sweet voice calling my name!” Reginald thought sadly until, he heard her voice again. “Wait that sounds exactly like her?”

He opens his eyes and listens to make sure he wasn’t imagining things when suddenly he heard her voice again.

“Reginald!” She cried as she ran through the rain toward him seeing him in the middle of the bridge.

Reginald turned around quickly and couldn’t believe his eyes. Could it be? Was it she? His Alice?!Truly?! Covered in mud and soaked to the bone? Running and calling him? Was his mind playing tricks on him?

He wiped his eyes with his hands to make sure he wasn’t dreaming and saw it truly was her! Muddy soaked running and all!

In her view, Alice saw Reginald was turned around in shock. Alice merrily smiled and kept running with tears of joy running rapidly through her eyes until finally, she was at the bridge. There she stood there about 3 feet away from Reginald. They both stared at each other for a long time until Reginald was the first to break the ice.

“Alice?” He finally says still shocked “ You’re soaked and covered in mud?!”

Alice smiles and laughs “I know! Isn’t it wonderful!” She soon stepped a few steps closer to him all the while gazing into his eyes.

“But…why?” he asks softly still surprised.

Alice smiled as tears formed within her eyes.

“Because I couldn’t imagine my life without Wonderland,” She explained “and I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it!”

“I…I don’t understand?” Reginald huffs in shock. Alice then takes his hand, then proceeded to hold it tight with both of her hands. Not wanting to let it go for this moment.

“Then understand this!” She says proudly “I love you too, Reginald!”

Now, Alice had many love stories where characters confessed their love for the other. Yet, now more than ever did she realize that those feels she had read those scenes could not compare to how she felt confessing her to her love right now. Nor could they fathom the shock on Reginald’s face right now. Luckily for him, actions speak louder than words ever could. He then held Alice’s hands tightly with both hands, not wanting to let go of this moment either.

“You do?!” he responds.

“Yes!”

“Oh Alice!” Reginald says with tears in his eyes.

“Reginald!” Alice says lovingly.

Soon they both smiled and laughed with tears of joy running down their faces. Their foreheads leaning together as they enjoyed this joyous reunion that was long awaited for them. Then the Mad Hatter picks up Alice and swings her around in the pouring rain. Their foreheads soon touched once more and, as if by magic, their lips touched! Then a bolt of lightning and a roar of thunder crashed, jolting the young couple to part. They laughed once more at the unexpected shock then instantly returned to the magical kiss long awaited for the ages that melted their cares away.

Suddenly, the clouds parted, and the storm seemed to float away from the town, causing the citizens to go back outside and see the storm that finally ended with little damage to the village. As for the friends of Alice and Reginald alike. They both saw not only has the storm passed over but the storm of emotions between Reginald and Alice has passed over too.

The End

[mirjam-writes]

My research process for Be Still My Soul

I was asked about my research for Be Still My Soul (GO human au fanfic set in Finnish history. It has also its own blog @be-still-my-soul-fanfic for extra notes and background info), and I was so excited for a reason to babble about my process! Thank you for asking <3

The question was this:

Can I ask what your research process is? How long you’re willing to spend on it and then separating things you’ve discovered while interesting might not be right for the story you’re telling

The quick answer to "how long you're willing to spend on it" is always "way too much", truly ridiculous amounts! But I was also building on a foundation of existing knowledge. I have no degrees on history, but we learned the basics of all this at school. I also loved to listen my grandparents stories of the olden times as a kid; not necessarily about the war, but farming, customs and architecture. My proper interest in the civil war period began in 2018, during the 100th anniversary year. There were a lot of events, articles and news about the war, so I decided to read some of them, including old classics, and visit some museums. When I stumbled upon a reference I didn't understand, I read more, and that was a whole rabbit hole... But! When I started outlining Be Still, I was able to base it on a lot of knowledge I already had, and was able to add the big beats of the love story to the real historical timeline.

Then I started writing. I took a scene or a short period I had outlined and started to ask myself questions. What needs to be shown for the reader to understand the next big beat. What do the characters know, what do they see, what do they think. I always started my research from something related to the outline BUT it definitely got off track and severely out of hand so often! I found new details I could add to the story, and a whole bunch of details I hyperfixated in, researched for days---and used only maybe in one offhand paragraph.

I left so much out, because it was, at heart, a love story and not a history lesson. And some things made no sense to be explained in the story because they were every-day stuff for the characters! So, from the very early on I realised I needed an outlet for all that extra info in order to not clutter the story, and that's how the blog was born.

My biggest tools for research during writing were

online newspaper archives (to figure out what people actually knew and discussed at any current day I was writing about, because nowadays we of course know a lot more about the stuff that happened, than the people knew when it was actually happening. I also used newspapers to search for important information like if Vaseline was already available in 1918 Finland)

national archive's online photo archive (to get visuals of locations, clothes, houses and other things, to be able to describe them better)

Wikipedia (especially for looking for right words; I searched for a spesific thing from Finnish Wikipedia, then opened the English article to see the English word for it, and to figure out if the word is what I'm looking for. And then I went to Discord to ask around on writer's channels if the words I was about to pick were actually general knowledge for English speakers)

census data (I've also done genealogy research for my family, so I still have a subscription to some neat archives. These I used to search for names and professions, and to count amount of servants in big houses, etc)

library (I'm sure our local library thinks I'm doing some important historical research :D I read several books about other people's research, and also fiction. But I have kinda ruined the fiction for myself because I can now spot all the mistakes, and also, in one case, when the author described a scene in vivid detail, I could tell exactly which museum archive photo they had used as a reference!)

Whenever I found something I got curious about, all my other research (and writing!) stopped and I started googling more and more information, which sometimes did end up into the story, but more often did not! But I'm the sort of history geek that likes these rabbit holes, so I didn't mind much.

(Unless it felt like I got no new words into the story for weeks!)

[cartoonus-maximus]

Notes and Observations on FNAF TFTP Vol 5: "The Bobbiedots Conclusion"

(Was that always the title of this volume? I swear it used to be something else.)

I didn't enjoy this volume as much as "Submechanophobia," but I think it's about on par with "Somniphobia" -- parts of it were really good, while other parts just didn't grab me like that. Overall I found it a very middle-of-the-road volume.

But I absolutely love the cover art for this one! It looks so cool. (And it depicts a character that we'll meet in "Bobbiedots, Pt 2," a choice that I find interesting for reasons I'll get to later.)

As always, these are just some of my notes and observations made while listening to the audiobook, which I borrowed from my local library. Fair warning: there will be spoilers. If you want the whole experience for yourself, you should skip this and go read/listen to the book yourself first.

Here are my observations on the other books from this series if you’re interested.

I have nothing else to say about this volume as a whole, so let's dive right in!

"GGY"

The protag for this story is Tony Becker, a 12-year-old boy with aspirations of becoming an investigative journalist. As a small child, Tony was interested in newspapers and reporting on events, and he wrote his own "newspaper" about his neighbors.

Tony lives with his mother and grandmother. His father is currently in jail, having been accused and found guilty of embezzling money from the company he worked for, and he will be in prison for the next 20 years. His mother has struggled with going back to work after spending years as a stay-at-home parent, and Tony often performs odd jobs for his neighbors, feeling that he needs to help his family out financially in some way.

Tony's dad was found guilty and is in jail, but he insists he's innocent. Tony had to promise his dad he wouldn't investigate who actually stole the money from his company. (I feel like this implies that his father is really innocent, but knows who the real culprit is and would literally rather take the jail time than rat them out. At least, that's how it came across to me.)

The story opens with Tony sitting in a class at school. It's a writing class, where the students are supposed to be learning about different styles of writing, both fiction and nonfiction, but the teacher has a preference for fiction stories so that's what they mostly focus on. Tony is frustrated with his teacher's choices, because he wants to learn how to write nonfiction books and news articles.

There's this throwaway moment at the opening of the story. Tony is staring out the window instead of paying attention to the lesson, and he thinks he's sees something drop to the ground. For a moment, he thinks it was a person who jumped from the roof, but he ultimately dismisses the idea when he doesn't hear the sound of a body hitting the ground below, and decides he must have just seen a tree branch swaying in the wind. (This scene is never touched on again, or similar situations even alluded to; if it's foreshadowing, it's really badly done.) (If this were a "Fazbear Frights" book, I would assume that shape moving was Eleanor or the Stitchwraith.)

The students are assigned a group writing project, and Tony teams up with his best friend, who is called "Boots" for now, and their new friend, "Rabb." The three of them have been doing group projects together and hanging out after school for several weeks now, and have started calling themselves "the Three Amigos."

The three boys like to use pseudonyms during their writing assignments, and they make up new ones for themselves every week. This week, "Boots" has derived his name from the story "Puss in Boots" (which makes me think this kid has watched one or more of the "Shrek" movies no less than a dozen times!), while "Rabb" is short for "Dr. Rabbit," the pseudonym he's chosen for the week; Rabb doesn't explain to the others what "Dr. Rabbit" means or is in reference to, and Tony decides it's just a random word and a random title. Tony himself decides to go by "Tarbell," after Ida Tarbell.

Tony and "Boots" (whose real name is Ellis) have been best friends for years. However, in the past year, Tony has started to notice that the two of them are maturing at different speeds and developing different interests, and he feels himself pulling away from Ellis. It doesn't help that since "Rabb" joined their friend group, Ellis has been spending more time with him than with Tony.

Rabb is fairly new to their school, having only transferred in a few months ago. He's one of the smallest boys in their grade, and he has large brown eyes and choppy hair, which he admits he cuts himself. Despite that particular admission, Tony perceives both Boots and Rabb as coming from "well off" families, and he believes that the two of them aren't familiar with the cruelty of the world the way he is. He also thinks Rabb is a little mysterious, and has a "feeling that Rabb had layers that Boots would probably never have." (Which is… such a thing to say about your fellow 12-year-olds.)

Instead of getting started on their writing project right away, Boots and Rabb want to go to the Pizzaplex to play in the arcade, and they drag Tony along with them.

The Three Amigos have been to the Pizzaplex several times together. They've ridden the roller coaster, explored the climbing tubes, played Monty's Gator Golf, played Bonnie Bowl, raced Roxy Raceway, and they have most of the animatronic stage shows memorized. Today they're heading for the Faz-cade, Boots and Rabb's favorite part of the Pizzaplex -- this is the giant arcade, filled with games and home of DJ Music Man. There's even a karaoke section, apparently.

Tony goes with his friends, but he's not much of a gamer, so while Boots and Rabb play games he wanders off to people-watch, hoping to get an idea for their writing assignment. While walking around the arcade and watching various gamers play various games, he starts looking at the high scores on the machines, and notices the repeated initials "GGY" as the highest scorer on several arcade machines.

He talks to a few gamers around the arcade, but none of them know who "GGY" is. Some of the other kids he talks to also have high scores on different games, pointing their own initials out to him. A couple of them say that GGY's scores are "too high," suggesting that GGY's scores are impossible to win fairly, and that GGY is hacking the arcade games in order to achieve such numbers. Tony wonders who this "arcade phenom" could be (I hate that word with a passion now, btw) and decides to dig deeper, thinking he could write a story about this mystery gamer.

During this segment, we're also introduced to a pattern of the initials left on the high score list -- there are always three letters, and they're always the initials of the gamer's full name. For example, Tony sees the initials of a top scorer "ABC," which ends up being a high schooler named Axel Brandon Campbell. This established pattern means that every set of initials Tony sees throughout this story are meant to be read as the initials of the player's legal name, with the first letter being the first letter of their first name, the second letter being the first letter of their middle name, and the third letter being the first letter of their surname. By this logic, GGY's full name should be G___ G. Y____.

Tony spends the next week trying to figure out who GGY is, but every turn only gets him more questions and makes him more confused.

Tony runs into and ends up chatting with a Pizzaplex employee named Finbar, who works as an arcade attendant and has a very laid-back personality, addressing everyone as some variation of "dude." When Tony asks what he knows about GGY, Finbar confirms that GGY is a mystery player, and that their scores are all much higher than what should be possible. He and the other arcade attendants and technicians have run diagnostics on the arcade games GGY has played, making sure that the games weren't somehow hacked; their searches came up with nothing.

Finbar suggests that GGY could be another employee, since they would have access to the arcade after hours and would have more time to play the games and get better at them. He also suggests that it could be someone who has stolen or otherwise come into ownership of an employee key card, and is simply using it to play the games after hours.

As Tony asks around about GGY, he gets the feeling he's being watched. When he looks around, he only sees Glamrock Freddy looking in his direction; Tony waves a greeting to the normally friendly animatronic, but Freddy just continues to silently stare at him "like he was sizing Tony up." It creeps Tony out, and he leaves the arcade, aware of Freddy's watching him the entire time.

Later, Tony thinks over this encounter with Glamrock Freddy, and just thinking about it gives him goosebumps. He decides he just experienced an uncanny valley moment from meeting the gaze of a pseudo-sentient robot, and decides not to think any more about it.

At home, Tony tries asking around on internet forums dedicated to arcades, the Fazbear brand, the Pizzaplex. (Who let this 12-year-old make a Reddit account? Get him off there! DX) He ends up having multiple cryptic conversations with someone called "Morrigan99" about the mystery player GGY. "Morrigan99" turns out to be Crystal, a high schooler who lives in town and who Tony met at the arcade earlier in the week, and the two meet up again later to talk. (We'll get back to their conversation later; they talk to each a few times throughout the week, but Crystal doesn't say anything interesting until they meet in person a few days later.)

Thinking about Finbar's theory about GGY having a key card, Tony decides that his next step of investigation is to steal a key card from a Pizzaplex employee. He's read up on pickpockets, and he's sure it can't be that hard. He pretends to fall and injure himself near a Pizzaplex employee, and then steals her key card when she checks to make sure he's alright.

He uses this card to get into an employee computer kiosk, where he accesses the building's computer system. He searches the system for the play pass that GGY would have to use to play all those arcade games, and finds that GGY's play pass has been modified, and it doubles as a security pass.

A 'play pass' in this case is a card that can be won or purchased for use in the Faz-cade or on any other arcade machines on the Pizzaplex property. Using it allows the player to bypass use of physical game tokens, tickets, or money on each game (as the card carries a certain amount of digital currency on it) and allows the more serious gamers to play arcade games without spending time counting out tokens or quarters.

GGY's play pass also acts as a security pass, like the Pizzaplex security guards use, which means that GGY can go anywhere in the Pizzaplex building at almost any time. Tony comes to the conclusion that GGY is good at hacking technology, since they've obviously gotten their hands on either a security pass or a play pass and successfully altered the card in such a way that the computer system recognizes it as both.

While there's no user name attached to this play pass/security pass combo card, there's some information about the card's use. Obviously, the card is used to play several arcade games, after which the player inputs the initials "GGY" into the game when they get a high enough score. But there are also three other names attached to the card as people of interest; it sounds like GGY's card was used to enter locations in the Pizzaplex, but the security cameras only picked up footage of a second person that GGY brought with them after hours, and these other visitors have been identified by Pizzaplex employees at a later date. Tony only sees parts of the names, making out "Mary," "Rae," and "Tree."

While Tony is in the employee kiosk, he sees something move out of the corner of his eye, and looks up to see that Glamrock Freddy is nearby, keeping a careful watch on the kiosk. He manages to slip away from the robot's watchful gaze, and leaves the Pizzaplex.

"Were the animatronics programmed for security as well as for entertainment?" (Y'know, that's a good question. And I think the answer is 'yes, but actually no.')

The evening after this mini adventure, Tony meets up with Crystal. Crystal tells him that she thinks looking for GGY is dangerous, and that he may get hurt or something if he digs too deep. She explains that she hacks into computers as a hobby, and that she likes to poke around the computer systems of various locations and businesses just to see how they're set up and how they work. (Strangely, this isn't the weirdest hobby a teen can have, in my opinion.) She says that she's seen GGY's trail around the Pizzaplex computer systems, and specifically in the programming for the animatronics; she's looked at their code before, just to see what it looked like and how it functioned, but the last time she looked at it, it was different, and now there's new pieces of coding attached to Glamrock Freddy, Chica, Roxy, and Monty's programming. She doesn't know enough to know what the code does, or what sort of commands the animatronics are receiving, but there are a lot of repeating 'G's and 'Y's in the filler spaces of these new lines of code, leading her to believe it may be GGY's doing.

Crystal thinks GGY may be trying to take direct control of the animatronics. Between that and GGY being in possession of a hacked card that looks like both a play pass and a security pass to the computer system, she's come to the conclusion that GGY is dangerous, and she warns Tony against pursuing them, whoever they are.

At first, Tony takes Crystal's advice, and decides to stop actively looking into the mystery of GGY. He doesn't stop thinking about it though, and, when his partners Boots and Rabb show no interest in working on their shared writing assignment, Tony gets to work writing the whole thing himself, and he decides to write from the point of view of the version of GGY he's built up in his mind. In his story, GGY is a clever, shadowy figure who is quietly taking over the Pizzaplex from the inside out, and commands an army of animatronics.

While Tony is working on his homework, his grandmother is watching the news in the next room. On the TV, Tony hears a follow-up report about Mary Schneider, a woman who went missing a few months ago. She worked as the school counselor at Tony's school, and he remembers how worked up everyone was when she first went missing, so he stops to listen to the news report; they haven't found her or her body, and her family are still looking for her.

Later, Tony wonders if the missing school counselor could be the Mary that GGY was presumably seen with. Given the possibility that GGY is one of the kids who frequents the Faz-cade, it's possible that they go to the same school as Tony, and would have at least known about Ms. Schneider. And if that's the case, it's possible that GGY was the last person to see her at all. He decides to investigate into Mary Schneider, wondering to learn if A) GGY is a kid at his school who knew her and B) if they wanted to get rid of her for some reason.

Tony finishes writing the story for the assignment, and shows it to his unhelpful partners the next day at school. Boots skims it and decides it's boring, and Rabb doesn't even read it. (Wow, guys. Really pulling your weight on this group project, aren't ya?) (I kid, but I've definitely been paired up with these kids before in my life. So glad I'm not in grade school anymore.) Both boys decides to rewrite the story together after school, even though Tony already wrote it and it's due tomorrow. Inwardly, Tony thinks real hard about asking the teacher for different partners.

Tony, Boots, and Rabb are aware of a loose window that leads to the school's basement, which they found months ago and is easy enough for them to slip in through from the outside. (Tony doesn't think this is important, and only passively thinks about it as inspiration for another story, but it's important to note that it's a way for someone to slip into the school building without anyone knowing about it, since that's also what GGY is doing at the Pizzaplex.)

In order to investigate his missing school counselor, Tony breaks into the school after hours through this loose window. He makes sure to avoid any of the security cameras around the school, and he heads straight to the computer of the school's secretary. The school's secretary is an elderly woman who asks students to help her with errands sometimes and often types very slowly, so Tony has literally watched her type in the computer password before, so he knows how to log onto the computer.

Tony logs onto this computer and tries to find information about the missing counselor and any students she had sessions with, thinking a troubled student might be his best bet for locating GGY. He finds a list of the counselors that have worked with the school in the past few years: Mary Schneider was the school counselor for a few years, and when she went missing, she was replaced by Raelin Lawrence, who went missing a few weeks later, and then by Treena Welch, who also went missing within a few weeks. Their current school counselor, Georgia Lowe, has only been with the school for a month.

Tony recognizes the names as the names listed beside GGY's card pass. He notes that, while Mary Schneider going missing made the local news, the disappearances of Raelin Lawrence and Treena Welch has been kept pretty quiet; this is the first he's heard of it.

After thinking about it, Tony comes to the conclusion that if GGY is up to something bad in the Pizzaplex, but is also a student at his school, it's possible that the adults have recognized them as a troubled kid and sent them to the counselors office; somehow, the counselors piece together whatever it is GGY is up to, and GGY ends up bringing the counselors to the Pizzaplex to potentially kill them off. (Which is a lot of leaps, but it does fill in some gaps in the information we've already been given.) Tony scrolls through the list of students enrolled in the school, hoping to see someone with the initials "GGY." He doesn't find any.

Tony hears some weird noises around the school, and he gets spooked and runs out.

The next day, Tony goes to school, and has a lot of thoughts in his head about the whole GGY and reprogrammed animatronics and missing school counselors, and he wants to share some of his thoughts with his oldest friend, Boots. But Boots ignores him, and instead shows Tony how he and Dr. Rabbit "improved" Tony's story for their assignment. Apparently, Rabb butchered Tony's story, removing every reference to hacking, technology, arcade games, or the Pizzaplex, and instead turning it into a story about magical wizards doing battle with tentacle monsters.

Understandably, Tony is hurt and angry about his hard work being trashed by his supposed friends. He gets so upset, he stops thinking of them as "Boots" and "Rabb," and instead starts using their real names, Ellis and Greg.

During the school day, Tony gets called to the principal's office, where he is informed that he was caught on the school's security cameras when he broke in and accessed the secretary's computer. Tony knows this is a lie, since there are no security cameras in the locations he went in the school, and he gets the idea that someone was watching him and tattled on him.

Tony tells the principal that he broke in and accessed the computer on a date, and since it's the first time he's gotten in trouble at school, the principal lets Tony off lightly -- Tony has detention, and he also has to help the school secretary as her errand boy for a week.

The secretary, Mrs. Hawkins, isn't bothered by the fact that a student got onto her work computer without her permission. She's comically unbothered about the whole thing, and instead encourages Tony in searching for whatever information he needs in whatever way he needs to. (I just found her character really funny. She's so invested in living vicariously through this boy's misadventures, lol.)

Greg approaches Tony after school, apologizing for changing his story so suddenly. He watches Tony strangely for a few minutes, but then smiles and invites Tony to come with him and Ellis to the Pizzaplex.

.

.

Wow. What an abrupt and anticlimactic ending to this story.

This entire story was basically just: a kid notices some weird things happening, comes to an extreme conclusion and creates a whole story in his head about the weird happenings, but there's never any real answers or explanations. (So, y'know, just normal FNAF theorizing stuff.)

So in total, here's everything we actually know about the mysterious "GGY":

"GGY" plays a lot of the arcade games at the Pizzaplex, and achieves incredibly high scores.

The arcade games show no sign of being bugged or hacked, so "GGY" is very likely not cheating, and is actually just that good at the games.

"GGY" has a play pass (something that is generally assigned to customers) that's been modified so that it also acts as a security pass (like what the security guards of the building carry with them), so "GGY" would be able to use this card to enter 'employee's only' sections of the building, and would likely be able to get into the building after hours.

While they haven't hacked the arcade games, "GGY" has hacked into another parts of the Pizzaplex's building-wide computer system. The only thing they've done is embed commands into the code of the free-roaming Glamrock animatronics, but we don't know what those commands are (but we know Glamrock Freddy perks up and goes on the defensive whenever he hears someone talk about "GGY").

"GGY" doesn't have a customer profile or an employee profile attached to their play pass/security pass access card. There also doesn't seem to be any security camera footage of "GGY." (It's possible that "GGY" has hacked into the camera system to remove video evidence of themself, or it's possible that "GGY" simply looks like any other customer in the building and blends in with the crowd.)

Although "GGY" doesn't have their own customer or employee profile, there's a list of people that have been seen on the security cameras in restricted areas after GGY's card was activated. These people include three adult women, who previously worked as counselors at the same school and have all gone missing; this suggests that GGY, whoever they are, was the last person to see these missing women.

"GGY" is implied to be a set of initials (First name, Middle name, Surname).

Now, these facts, while interesting, don't really tell us much. If anything, they only raise up more questions. Questions that this story isn't interested in actually answering.

Put it's pretty clear that "GGY" is supposed to be the equally mysterious character "Patient #46" from the secret audio CDs in the "Security Breach" game. On those tapes, we hear a series of therapists talking to two patients, one of whom is the security guard Vanessa and the other is unnamed, and just has a case number attached to them; this unnamed patient is never heard speaking to the therapists (seemingly communicating with hand gestures and body language and other visual forms of communication that don't translate to the audio recordings), but we learn a few things about them from what the therapists say, including that the patient is young, is good with technology, likes the Pizzaplex, and is capable of hacking into computer systems. It's also implied through these tapes that the unnamed patient kills off any of the therapists who learn too much about them.

(Also, a thought I had about the whole "GGY has coded secret commands into the Glamrocks, but we don't know what it does" thing. The story implies that this code causes the animatronics to act as GGY's protectors or attack dogs, as they're actively seen responding in a defensive manner when Tony tries to learn about GGY. But, in the "Security Breach" game, we're also told that the Glamrocks have been given the order to go to the basement at night and dig through the rubble, searching for something. Could Patient 46 be the one responsible for that, and sending the animatronics to look for something down there?)

So okay, we have a parallel for "Patient #46." A hacker and a gamer who keeps disappearing therapists. But who are they really, why are they important to the greater FNAF universe (and to the audience), and what is their goal? Those, we don't know.

Except that this story tries to imply that Tony's classmate "Dr. Rabbit" (aka Greg) is "GGY." So, let's look at what we know about Tony's classmate, Greg:

Chooses to go by "Dr. Rabbit" as a fake name. Doesn't explain why.

Loves playing at the Pizzaplex arcade, and is constantly shown either dragging his friends there with him or going there by himself.

Actively tries to dissuade Tony from investigating "GGY," and even rewrites Tony's entire story in which Tony had portrayed GGY as a hacker who wants to take over the Pizzaplex and lead an army of animatronics.

Knows how to get into the school after hours without getting caught.

Is implied to be the one who catches Tony sneaking around the school after hours; to do so, he would have had to be sneaking around the school after hours as well, and would have to have admitted this to the principal when he reported Tony… which may be why Tony sees Greg in the detention hall later, assuming that the other boy got detention as well.

Greg's first name starts with 'G,' like "GGY's" name probably does, but the rest of his name doesn't follow the pattern of initials. When Tony checks the list of students, none of them have the initials G-G-Y, so we know Greg's name doesn't follow the pattern. (Although obviously, Greg could be short for "Gregory," a name that contains two 'g's and a 'y.' But every other set of three letters are people's initials in this story, and it would be strange for GGY to not follow that pattern.)

The story ends with Greg asking Tony to come to the Pizzaplex with him.

Greg asking Tony to come to the Pizzaplex with him isn't weird. It's already well established that Greg likes spending time at the Pizzaplex, and frequently asks Tony and Ellis to join him. However, if we're assuming that Greg is GGY, and if we assume GGY took people who knew too much about him to the Pizzaplex to get rid of them, then the invitation becomes sinister. This involves a lot of assumptions on our part, but it also seems to be what the story is telling us.

So then, if Greg is GGY, and he's trying to accomplish something at the Pizzaplex (which we don't know what his goal is), and he doesn't want anyone to know what he's up to, but people keep noticing him and looking too closely…. then the implied ending of this story is really "Tony prods at something he shouldn't be prodding at, and as a result he's led to the Pizzaplex by someone he thought was his friend, and is then likely killed off in some manner. He's possibly killed by the Glamrock animatronics (mostly likely Freddy), since GGY has control over them." Is that what happened to the counselors? Were they lured to the Pizzaplex somehow and killed by the animatronics? And if so, where are their bodies? They weren't reported dead, they're missing.

… I feel like this story is trying to make the case that Gregory, the player character in "Security Breach," is/was "Patient #46." The Patient 46 parallel character in this story is, presumably, a 12-year-old boy named Greg (potentially short for Gregory) who likes the Pizzaplex and is actively protected by Glamrock Freddy. But given that this Greg/Rabb kid doesn't read as "Gregory stand-in" to me, I'm going to table that for now.

(Although, to some extent, Greg reads almost like a Vanessa stand-in. Has a rabbit persona? Has security clearance of the Pizzaplex, which he uses to lure victims in and probably kills them and hides their bodies? Seems to be leading a double life? I dunno, man, he reads more as a Vanessa parallel than a Gregory parallel to me.)

Also, just a short note: This story seems to take place sometime around 2014-2015. I say this because the high school girl Crystal uses "Morrigan99" as her internet handle, and generally when someone has two numbers in their handle it's representative of their birth year. If Crystal was born in 1999, and we're assuming she's about 15 or 16 years old, that would put our story in the mid 2010s.

And that's all I have to say about "GGY." Onto the next one.

(photo by Pedro Szekely on flickr: link)

"The Storyteller"

This story opens on a board meeting that's happening in an office room on one of the upper floors of the Pizzaplex. We're specifically introduced to two members of the board -- Burrows and Edwin -- who will serve as the protagonists of this story, the first time in this series we've seen a story POV shared between characters.

Burrows is the chairman of the board of the Pizzaplex, despite only being in his 20s. He was some sort of child prodigy who started taking college courses at age 13. He's kind of an obnoxious tech bro in my opinion, and we later learn that his original dream was to become a video game developer, but he ended up in business and his new goal is just to make a name for himself. He's very narcissistic and proud, to the point where he won't even let anyone know his first name so they can't call him by it, forcing everyone to think of him only as "Mr. Burrows."

Edwin Murray is 64-years-old, making him the oldest member of the board and he's often treated by the other board members like a decrepit old man with dementia because they're all so much younger than him. Edwin used to own his own company, and he used to be a highly-respected robotics engineer, but his company ended up going under and getting bought out by Fazbear's. Part of the buy-out deal was that Edwin would become a board member at the Pizzaplex and that he can't quit or be fired; this feels like a punishment of some kind, since Edwin hates interacting with the other board members.

Apparently Edwin has a collection of old vintage posters and signs of Fazbear's characters, despite not having a lot of positive feelings about the company. He seems to keep them partially out of nostalgia and partially out of guilt, but we're not told what the guilt is from yet. We're also later told that Edwin used to have a wife and son, but both died, his wife dying in childbirth and his son dying in a tragic accident we aren't told about in this story; Edwin also keeps an undisclosed memento in his bedroom that makes him feel guilty about his son's death. (I think we'll learn more about that in a later story.)

We're also passively introduced to the rest of the Fazbear board of directors, which consists entirely of relatively young (most of them are in their 30s and 40s), good looking, wealthy people. They're also talking about technology and its functions during this meeting, and none of these non-main-character board members know anything about tech work, so they all just say whatever they thinks Burrows wants to hear.

One of the company's accountants predicts that, based on how the Pizzaplex is currently operating, they aren't actually going to be making any money -- the company will break even with their costs of running the Pizzaplex, but won't actually make a profit. Obviously, this isn't the company's goal, and Burrows needs to come up with ideas for how to make a profit margin.

"I refuse to be trapped in a box!"

The Pizzaplex has a creative team, which is a group of employees who create characters and write stories for those characters to enact. So these are the people who decide what sort of characteristics the animatronics should have and how they should behave, for example. Burrows' plan is to fire all of the people on the creative team and replacing them by an AI program that he'll program himself. Edwin argues that a computer program can't create good characters or tell good stories the way humans can, but Burrows ignores him. (Hitting this man with a stick in my head.)

Burrows decides to call this AI program "the Storyteller," since its job will be generating stories for the Fazbear characters to act out. He describes the AI's role as being "the Pizzaplex's ringmaster." Having to listen to this plan makes Edwin antsy, and he soothes himself by "envisioning himself setting the building on fire." (Yeah, Fazbear's seems to have that effect on people.)

The Storyteller needs to be in a console inside the Pizzaplex, and the console that they finally decide on is one that looks like a fake baobab tree. It's built in the middle of the Pizzaplex's front atrium, and it's very big, the "roots" in the floor and the branches running along the ceiling both concealing wires that lead all across the Pizzaplex, connecting to things all over the building. (I think this tree console is roughly in the same spot where the big golden Glamrock Freddy statue is in the "Security Breach" game.)

You can tell this story was at least partially inspired by the tree character at the Rainforest Cafe, which is a decorative tree with an animatronic face and tells short stories to children that hang out near it.

Burrows says that the baobab tree should be colored in reds, yellows, and blues, instead of using any colors that would naturally occur on the tree. I actually love that idea, because I think that makes for a fun visage that kids would enjoy looking at and planning on, but Burrows wants this color palette specifically because "Green is such an uninspiring color!" which is… such an incredibly moronic thing to say. Green is literally considered a happy color across a lot of cultures in our world, because it's associated with growing, healthy plants and bountiful food, but it's also been observed as inspiring people and boosting creativity. He also says that the tree should be red, yellow, and blue, describing them as "the colors of the rainbow." Like… does he know that's only a fraction of the rainbow? Does he know green is part of the rainbow? Does he know??? Can I hit him with a stick???

So far the most unrealistic part of this story is the 64-year-old man having positive feelings about the younger person with piercings and tattoos on her face.

The inner workings of the Storyteller are designed and programmed somewhere else, and it has to be transported into the Pizzaplex once it's finished. When Edwin asks specific questions about it, Burrows is evasive toward him; it sounds like Burrows found an old animatronic in Fazbear's storage that had a really robust AI, and he's done some work of stripping it of its old personality and reprogrammed it to generate stories.

Being forcefully kept out of the loop, Edwin spies on the Fazbear employees who are relocating the Storyteller while they're bringing it into the Pizzaplex to install inside the tree. To Edwin's surprise, it's not only not a conventional computer like he thought it would be, it's an animatronic, and one that he instantly recognizes. It's an animatronic from Edwin's old company, one that he designed and built himself, and seeing it again makes him have a panic attack.

This animatronic has a tiger head, and it has four arms on its torso. When it's installed inside the tree, it's connected in place by the arms being spread out and secured to the inside of the tree in a way that's clearly meant to suggest that its a captive or a prisoner. (But I'm weird, and my first thought when I heard this description was "oh, like Da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man!'")

Since Edwin built that particular animatronic, he knows why it was scrapped, and he knows that it's going to cause problems once it's wired into the entire Pizzaplex. And of course, this is exactly what happens: within the first week of the Storyteller being plugged into the Pizzaplex computer system and brought online, things start to go sideways around the building. The electrical system (which is hooked into the computer system) goes haywire, with lights coming on and turning off at random times. Doors with electric locks start glitching out, locking and unlocking without prompting. It's nothing dangerous, but it's enough to cause more work for the Pizzaplex employees.

"[Edwin] had to get inside the Storyteller's tree." (I, uh… I got a sneakin' suspitchin about what's going to happen next.)

Despite having been on the committee for designing the console for the Storyteller, Edwin isn't actually allowed to see inside the thing, and he isn't supposed to touch any part of the Storyteller's programming (mostly because he and Burrows don't personally like or trust each other). The main door for entering the Storyteller's tree for programming work is not only well hidden in the grooves of the fake bark, but it's locked to everyone except Burrows and two other unnamed programmers. Edwin does some digging, and learns that there's a hidden maintenance hatch near the top of the tree, and he uses that to get inside, sneaking in during the night when no one else is around.

Once inside the tree, Edwin comes face-to-face with his old tiger animatronic. A computer screen next to the animatronic shows a read-out of the code the AI is running, and Edwin is horrified to see that it's still running his old "Mimic 1" program.

(This isn't out first time hearing about Mimic 1, but it's our first time actually seeing what it is in the stories. Mimic 2 is the animatronic that's been chasing the kids around in the epilogue story, but Mimic 1 is a completely separate AI program. Both were created by Edwin.)

After this, Edwin continues sneaking into the tree every night for the next five nights. We aren't told what he does while he's in there. (… Five Nights at Storyteller's.)

Throughout the first week, the Storyteller begins to have a very negative affect on the animatronics, and the Glamrocks in particular start to display some new emotional behaviors that they didn't have before:

🐺💅 Roxanne Wolf was designed as a sassy character with a narcissistic streak, who exudes confidence and cares about her appearance. After the Storyteller comes online, she turns into a bully, saying mean things to customers and laughing about it. 🐥🧁 Glamrock Chica was designed to be sweet and fun-loving, as well as a lover of food. She also has a sidekick character, Mr. Cupcake, who she's supposed to have playful banter with. After the Storyteller comes online, she becomes really rude and snarky, ignoring food entirely and only interacting with Mr. Cupcake to pick verbal fights with him. 🐊🎸 Montgomery Gator was designed to act like a wild rock star with a bad boy streak, who breaks his guitars for show but is also charming and gentle with the kids. After the Storyteller comes online, he's started lashing out violently against everyone and everything. When he's not throwing temper tantrums, he's in some sort of depressive episode, and it gets so bad that little kids cry from just being near him. 🐻🎙️ Glamrock Freddy was designed to be kind and reliable, and friendly with the young customers. After the Storyteller comes online, he becomes a self-centered brute, who tries to steal toys from children and breaks down into tears when he's told off for his bad behavior.

(During this segment, Chica is also described as being yellow and wearing a bib. While these characteristics are common design choices for Chica across the franchise, it's not what she look like at the Pizzaplex; the Pizzaplex design for Chica is usually white and wears a leotard. So either the author of this story simply got confused between the different versions of Chica, or we're dealing with a different version of Glamrock Chica than the one we see in the "Security Breach" game/s.)

Burrows knows that Edwin has been sneaking into the Storyteller's tree during the night, but he didn't know what the other man was doing, so he chose not to do anything about it. After he witnesses Glamrock Freddy get into a fight with a little girl over a plush Freddy toy, Burrows grows concerned about the changes the Storyteller has made to the animatronics' personalities, worried that the robots may end up hurting someone. Since Edwin was so vocally against the Storyteller every step of the way, Burrows comes to the conclusion that Edwin is sabotaging the program.

Burrows has a remote locking mechanism installed on the maintenance hatch of the Storyteller's tree, which he can activate and lock remotely from another location. On the sixth night, from the comfort of his own home, Burrows watches the feed from a security camera as Edwin climbs into the tree. He locks the hatch once Edwin is inside.

At this point, Burrows genuinely thinks Edwin is trying to sabotage both the AI program (and by extension the computer systems of the entire Pizzaplex) and the Fazbear's company as a whole. He knows how dangerous that could be (since the Storyteller is connected to literally everything else in the Pizzaplex building, a serious malfunction could be fatal to both the employees and the customers). With this in mind, Burrows decides to imprison Edwin inside the tree, at least for awhile. He knows there's only a limited amount of air inside the tree, but, even if Edwin dies, Burrows thinks he's doing the company and the customers a favor.

He leaves Edwin in the tree for the next week. Throughout this week, Burrows thinks a lot about the man he trapped, and he thinks in circles to himself about whether or not he really did the right thing.

No one notices that Edwin is missing. And no one notices that there's a person inside the tree. When no one else says anything about it, Burrows (for some reason) comes to the conclusion that, since no has noticed a man trying to escape from inside the Storyteller tree, Edwin must have found another exit. (Or he, y'know… ran out of air and died?? You incredible moron???)

After the week has passed, Burrows decides to look in the tree himself. When he enters, he's surprised to find it filled with construction paper, each sheet covered in crayon drawings of squiggles, basic shapes, strange symbols, stick figures, and the repeated words "I'm sorry." Amidst the pile is Edwin's corpse, clutching a crayon in his hand; it looks like he was halfway through writing another "I'm sorry."

Burrows is suddenly beset with panic, and a sense of needing to be anywhere else. He tries to leave, but is unable to, having locked himself inside by mistake. He tries to access the Storyteller's control panel, but his passwords are denied. He ends up attacking the physical body of the Storyteller, tearing off parts of the tiger animatronic. He beats at the insides of the tree, yelling and trying to make enough noise to attract someone's attention outside. No one can hear him, and he realizes that the tree is soundproof just as he blacks out, running out of air.

… And that's it. That's where we end off!

.

.

So mainly this story introduces us to the Mimic AI, a related but entirely different beast from the Mimic Animatronic. The Mimic animatronic is the endoskeleton that's been chasing and killing the kids in the epilogue stories, and at this point it's not clear if that animatronic has any sort of intelligence, artificial or otherwise; it mostly just seems to follow a very simple set of protocols, and doesn't seem to have anything like a creative thought process. The Mimic AI, conversely, is literally just a computer program with rudimentary problem solving and creative capabilities; while it has an animatronic body, it doesn't have any motor skills in that body, and it can't move or anything.

Mimic 2 is an animatronic that, right now, is behaving like a mindless monster.

Mimic 1 is an AI system that is in control over the entire Pizzaplex, but has no functional physical body at the moment.

(Makes me wonder if the animatronic and the AI used to be a single Mimic entity, and they've been separated for some reason.)

Also I think this story tells us a little bit about the infamous Post-It Note Room. The story ends with Burrows finding Edwin with the Mimic 1, surrounded by scraps of colorful paper that (presumably) Edwin has drawn and written on. The notes and drawings on these paper pieces don't mean anything to Burrows, but, since we know Edwin and Mimic 1 have a connection with each other, the drawings and notes are probably meaningful to them. And, given the sheer volume of these paper pieces that are in the tree, I wonder if Edwin was bringing packs of construction paper and crayons with him into the tree each night for the first week, and has been sitting inside the tree drawing and writing these things as a way of communicating with the Mimic 1.

In the "Security Breach" game, there's a section known to many fans as "the Post-It Note Room," or similar names. It's a room filled with broken Staff 'bot heads and lots and lots of sticky notes; the note papers have lots of drawings and coded messages on them, which are very interesting to look at and try to decipher. (And another big part of this room is that it conceals a closet where a makeshift "family" of broken Staff 'bots are sitting around a table, seemingly arranged as though having dinner together.)

So obviously there's a connection here. Someone in the Pizzaplex has a connection to the Mimic AI (presented in the games as both Glitchtrap and Helpi), and has been using the Post-It Room to interact with it. But who this is, we don't know. Maybe Edwin exists in the games? Or maybe there's another character in the games that is a parallel to Edwin? It could potentially be Vanessa or Tape Girl, two game characters who we know have some sort of interaction with the AI. Or it could be someone else entirely. We're missing this very big, very important puzzle piece. But the connection is there, and it's definitely something we should make note of.

I can't really explain why, but Edwin and Burrows read to me as character parallels to Henry and Afton. I don't have clear evidence for why, but that's the vibe I got -- it may just be me looking for something that isn't there. (But I will say that rabbits and foxes live in burrows, and of course those are the animals associated with the Aftons and with the animatronics that are conspicuously missing from the Pizzaplex.)

"Bobbiedots, Pt 2"

(Here's a link to where I talked about "Part 1" if you need a refresher course!)

In this story, we pick back up where we left off with our boy, Abe. Abe thinks over some of his injuries and even near-death experiences he's had in this apartment, and how the Bobbiedot AIs blame their robotic predecessors. Since Abe still hasn't actually seen any of the Gen 1 Bobbiedots, he realizes he doesn't know anything about them. He doesn't even know if they're real, or if his little AI friends have been lying to him. He decides to look deeper into it.

Since Abe works as a technician at the Pizzaplex, he has access to all the company's information about their animatronics, other robotic creations, and computer programs. He searches through the files for specs about the Bobbiedots' prior incarnation as cleaning robots, but he only finds information about the designs and installation of the current Bobbiedots, the virtual assistants.

Abe's thought process informs the reader that it's not unusual for Fazbear to simply delete or otherwise hide files related to any robot that's malfunctioned to the point that they had to be recalled; he believes that, if the Gen 1 Bobbiedots really exist, this is likely what happened.

Not finding any computer files about the Gen 1 Bobbiedots and not having access to the archived paperwork, Abe decides to go look around the storage facilities in the Pizzaplex basement. The Pizzaplex has multiple underground levels, only accessible by employees and robotic assistants, and Abe thinks of them as the dungeon below the building. The highest of these underground levels is a storage warehouse, where machinery, animatronic pieces, and large decorative items are kept when not in use; this level also contains the Pizzaplex's main utility maintenance section. We're also told that there are several Pizzaplex employees who work specifically on this level.

In the utility section of this level there's an opening that leads to "the sewer system." Abe's thoughts tell us that this isn't a true sewer system, but rather just a space where water flows through and trash builds up (it's not connected to the city's sewers or anything). A lot of discarded robots tend to up here; since many of the robotics can't really be shut off, they tend to just wander around in this trash-filled space, almost like metal zombies. Abe thinks this whole space is a waste, and he doesn't understand why it's here.

Abe enters the "sewer," thinking that, if the Gen 1 Bobbiedots existed, there might be some old models or parts that got lost in here. When he enters and turns on his flashlight, the first thing he sees is a severely damaged Glamrock Chica, sprawled out on the ground and blinking up at him. Her face is broken and her beak is missing, leaving the lower part of her face a "gaping maw." (So, Chica after Gregory literally trashes her in "Security Breach?")

While he's down here, Abe sees a broken, eyeless Mr. Hippo animatronic. The sight makes him sad, since Mr. Hippo was always one of his favorite characters of the Fazbear cast. Beside the animatronic, he sees a Mr. Hippo magnet on the ground, and he decides to take it as a souvinir. We're told that the magnets were made too strong, and they often shorted out electrical items they were stuck on, so they had to be recalled.

Abe finds many discarded endoskeletons and other robots and robotic parts, but no Bobbiedots.

A day later, Abe goes to bed early, which causes the Bobbiedots to enter sleep mode for the night. He gets up during the night, trying to avoid waking the AI assistants. His bedroom door is locked, locked by Olive "to keep him safe during the night," but the lock is electronic and he can't manually unlocked it. He uses the Mr. Hippo magnet on it and the door opens easily. He sneaks down the hall toward the kitchen of the apartment, and he sees the ceiling trapdoor open. He doesn't see any robotic cleaners at first, but he can see the cables they're connected to leading from the trapdoor to the floor, moving about like tentacles. These tentacle-like cables move around, seemingly with a mind of their own, feeling around the area.

Abe finally sees one of the Gen 1 Bobbiedots. This robot's body is mostly silver and black, with feminine features and the black cables coming out of her head like hair. She has a pink panel on her chest, designating her as #3, the precursor to Rose. One of her eyes is missing entirely, and the other one doesn't seem to work, and feels her way around the apartment using her hands and cable-hair. When Abe makes a soft sound of surprise, she runs toward him, and he runs back to his bedroom, closing the door on the blind robot. After a moment, #3 returns to the ceiling compartment.

A few nights later, Abe decides to leave the safety of his bedroom again. He's trying to figure out what he should do about the old Bobbiedots. This time, on his trip out, he runs into the other two robots. The first one he sees has a blue panel on her chest, designating her as #1, the precursor to Gemini. She has a black and silver body like the first one did, with with the same hairlike cables on her head. She's in worse shape than #3 was, and is missing an arm and large pieces of her exoskeleton. The lower half of her face's outer shell is completely gone, exposing her endoskeleton mouth and teeth. She has blue eyes, but is also blind, and she walks right past Abe when he stands perfectly still. She seems to be trying to hum to herself, making some sort of rhythmic sound with her voice box, but her voice box is clearly damaged and the sounds she makes just sound like low-pitched gurgles. (This is the character featured in the cover art for this volume. Congrats on making the cover, girlie!)

Abe accidentally gets #1's attention, and she chases him through the apartment. He almost trips over #2, who is in even worse shape than her sisters, missing her entire exoskeleton shell and missing her legs entirely. She moves by dragging herself along the ground.

(Does the damage of these robots sound familiar? It should, because it mirrors how we see the Glamrock animatronics in parts of the "Security Breach" game and in all of the "Ruin DLC." In those games, Roxy is blinded, and the player has to avoid making noise to attract her attention; Chica loses the lower part of her face, and can no longer speak properly; Monty gets wrecked, losing the lower part of his body and most his outer shell, and he crawls after the player for most of those games.)

Abe is cornered by #1 and #2, and is saved by the Gen 2 Bobbiedots coming back online. Gemini turns on the TV full blast and plays loud music, causing the damaged robots to jerk around and writhe in panic. Abe sustains injuries from where the damaged robots try to grab at him, but flees and makes it to the safety of his bedroom, where Rose and Olive instruct him in cleaning and wrapping his injuries.

Some of his injuries are bad enough that he thinks about going to a hospital, but he ultimately chooses not to, unsure of how to explain where he received these injuries. He wraps himself in gauze and bandages. When he goes to work the next day, several of his coworkers express concern about his many bandages. Abe waves their concerns off, saying that he walked into a glass door at a friend's house.

At work, Abe repairs a broken down part in Monty's Gator Golf. One of the holes has a decorative birthday cake that's supposed to spin on a pedestal, but it's not working. When Abe first arrives at the broken machinery, he finds a small child hitting the side of the fake cake, and she tells him that that's what her daddy does with the TV when it's not working right. (Which I thought was comical, but I don't think that's something you can do with modern TV sets, is it?)

Later in the day, Abe walks down one of the main walkways of the Pizzaplex, passing the animatronics' green rooms and the gallery displays that showcase parts from both old and new Fazbear animatronic designs. While here, he meets a woman named Sasha, a social worker who wants to talk to a Fazbear employee about the animatronics.

Sasha explains that she specifically works with troubled kids, and that she's checking out the Pizzaplex to see if she thinks it's a good place to bring her young clients. While she likes the place, and she knows a lot of children do as well, she expresses her concerns about the Glamrocks in particular, citing that she feels they often come across to children as self-centered and loud, and she doesn't think a child who's already dealing with other problems would have a good time around them; she actually thinks many of the children she works with would find the animatronics scary. She wants to know Abe's opinion, since he works here and knows more about the animatronics. Abe tells her that he thinks the Pizzaplex is a great place for kids, but he admits that, if he was a dad, he wouldn't bring his hypothetical child here very often, or leave them unattended, and he certainly wouldn't want them spending very much time near the animatronics.

The two really hit it off during their conversation, and Abe ends up asking Sasha out. She agrees, and the two later meet up for a dinner date, where they continue their conversation. Sasha says that she's fascinated by the history of Fazbear's, and that she's read up on all the rumors, the mysteries, and the scandals. When Abe tells her about the virtual assistants in his apartment, Sasha gets intrigued, and she says she'd like to meet them. Against his better judgement, Abe ends up inviting her to his apartment for a second date.

Back at his apartment, Abe installs a padlock on the ceiling trapdoor. The Gen 2s watch, and tell him that they don't think the Gen 1s will be able to break the lock, so they should be safely contained. With that problem out of the way, Rose, Olive, and Gemini are eager to help Abe impress his new lady friend.

The home dinner date with Sasha goes well. When she comes over, Sasha immediately hits it off with the Bobbiedots, finding them very cute, helpful, and pieces of impressive worksmanship. The Bobbiedots express their approval of Sasha, then leave so she and Abe can be alone. Abe and Sasha have a good evening together.

After a few more good dates, Abe tells Sasha about the full situation with the Bobbiedots. Sasha listens, and, to his surprise, believes what he says; she knows enough of Fazbear's and their robots to believe that some cleaner 'bots could easily go off the rails. But she compares the actions of the Gen 1s to those of some of the troubled kids she's worked with in the past, and suggests that they could be acting out like kids do, either because there's something wrong with their emotional processors or because they've been mistreated in the past. Abe realizes he doesn't know much about the apartment's previous tenant, and he decides to do some digging.

Later at work, Abe looks up the personnel files of the previous tenant, learning that he was a Pizzaplex employee named Landon Prout. According to the file, Landon was undergoing treatment for "delusional paranoid disorder," as the man apparently thought that all of the animatronics at the Pizzaplex were actively stalking him, and were going to kill him. Landon was convinced to take a leave of absence, but seemingly never returned to work at the Pizzaplex after that. When Abe tries calling the phone number on Landon's file, it's answered by a woman who bursts into tears and hangs up with Abe asks for Landon.

Abe wonders if Landon was genuinely suffering from a delusion, or if he was genuinely in danger; he's seen enough shady things around the Pizzaplex to know that Landon's fears may have been for nothing.

The Gen 1 Bobbiedots beat on the trapdoor enough that Abe's padlock is forced out of its own screws, and it falls off entirely.

Sasha wants to spend the night at Abe's apartment. Since she's trained in how recognize the actions of a troubled or otherwise unwell person, and Fazbear animatronics are programmed to experience and act on something akin to human emotions, she thinks she may be able to help understand what's going on with the Gen 1s by observing them in person. Abe is uncomfortable with the idea at first, but relends. Rose, Olive, and Gemini get excited about the idea of a sleepover.

During the night, Abe and Sasha silently observe the Gen 1s as they move throughout the apartment. When they accidentally make noise, the robots all rush Abe, circling around him and hemming him in -- they don't seem to notice Sasha at all. When Abe and Sasha make it back to Abe's bedroom, which the robots can't seem to enter for some reason, Sasha says she doesn't think the Gen 1s are trying to hurt him. When they first slipped into the room, it looked like one of them was taking down a trap of some kind, but not setting it to start with. When they all circled Abe, it looked like they were acting as bodyguards, trying to protect him. She believes that the robotic Bobbiedots are trying to help and protect Abe, but, because they're damaged, their intentions come across wrong, and they end up harming him by mistake.

When Abe asks aloud "If the Gen 1s are trying to protect me, who are they protecting me from?," Sasha glances at the screens where the Gen 2s usually project themselves. Abe and Sasha quietly get up and try to leave the apartment, only for all the doors to suddenly lock themselves. The Gen 2s' screens light up, revealing Rose, Olive, and Gemini all smiling evilly at the two humans. Chaos erupts as the evil virtual assistants turn on every piece of equipment in the apartment at once.

Abe and Sasha escape the havoc by climbing up through the trapdoor in the kitchen ceiling. The Gen 1s had already returned to their crawlspace, and they start wailing and shrieking at this intrusion. Sasha calms them down, and they respond to her like scared children seeking comfort.

#3 is the only one with a functional voice box, and she manages to speak a few broken sentences. Sasha and Abe ask her about herself and her sisters, and #3 tells them that they were supposed to take care of Landon, a task that became more and more difficult as he fell deeper into his paranoia. At one point, during his leave of absence from work, Landon had an episode and was going to burn down the apartment building, and #3 and her sisters were forced by their programming to kill their own tenant in order to protect the building and the other tenants. None of these Bobbiedots seem happy about that outcome.

#3 tells Abe that the Gen 2s in this apartment were experimental, the prototype that came before all of the other AI Bobbiedots. They have a glitch in their system, causing them to perceive all humans as parasites that need to be eliminated. (It can't be a very big glitch, since they haven't made that many attempts on Abe's life, all things considered.) She then talks Abe through the process of shutting down the AI Bobbiedots.

This conversation is interrupted by the AI Bobbiedots opening a water pipe in the ceiling, filling the space with water and causing the ceiling below them to burst open. The two humans and three robots are washed out of the space, falling down into the kitchen which is quickly becoming flooded. The Gen 1s short out in the water, due to having so much of their inner workings exposed, and they all shut down and sink to the floor. Abe and Sasha are left scrambling for high locations, trying to keep out of the electrified water.

Abe manages to get to the computer terminal and shuts down the Gen 2 Bobbiedots. The electricity in the apartment dies with them and, while the apartment is completely waterlogged, it becomes safe to walk around again. Sasha frets over the unresponsive Gen 1s.

A sensor in the apartment sends out a flooding alert, and a maintenance robot calls Abe on the phone to ask about the water. Abe says that the bathtub overflowed, and the robot tells him that a team will be sent for clean up.

After the apartment floods, Abe is forced to come clean to his superiors about his unlawful stay in the apartment. Instead of firing him, the higher-ups at Fazbear are just glad that he solved their problem of the misbehaving Bobbiedots for them, and they just give him the apartment outright. No longer having to hide, Abe starts using the building amenities and starts meeting his neighbors.

With his job and living situation secure, Abe and Sasha decide to take their relationship to the next level, and Sasha moves into the apartment with him. The renovate and redecorate the apartment together, turning it into a proper living space, and make plans to move Abe's mom in with them, so she's not isolated from her family in the care facility anymore.

Abe also starts salvaging a lot of old robotic parts from the Pizzaplex basement levels, and he and Sasha work together to repair the Gen 1 Bobbiedots. They repair both the robots' inner workings as well as their outer appearances, trying to make them look as cute and friendly as possible. Sasha has even named them, naming the three robots after European queens:

#3, the pink-coded one who was missing an eye, is Victoria

#2, the green-coded one who was missing her legs, is Isabella

#1, the blue-coded one who was missing her mouth, is Elizabeth (!!!)

Their plan is for the Bobbiedots to help take care of Abe's mom during the day while Abe and Sasha are at work. Abe thinks his mom will like having some robot girlies to talk to, and he thinks the Bobbiedots will like being able to help people again (y'know, the thing they were originally programmed to do). The Bobbiedots are still off-line and unresponsive at this point, but Abe and Sasha are both hopeful about getting them up and running again soon.

.

.

So this story is interesting to me for a lot of reasons. For one, it's the first (and only) two-part story of this set, and I think Andrea did a pretty good job with it. For another, it ends on a happy ending, one that leaves both the human and robot characters on a good note, and we don't get that very often in this series.

And I just gotta say… Elizabeth? The blue-eyed robot on the cover is named Elizabeth? In this franchise? What a choice. (To clarify, it doesn't strike me as an actual reference to Elizabeth Afton, but it definitely feels jarring to see that name used again.)

Speaking of reused concepts, there are a lot of references to "Security Breach" in this story. Abe goes to several locations from the Pizzaplex in that game. He encounters a trashed Glamrock Chica. He finds a Mr. Hippo magnet. But, despite these parallels, he's not a stand-in for any of the characters in that game. He doesn't have anything in common with Vanessa. There are several moments where he feels almost like a Gregory stand-in of some kind, but then his actions in specific situations are the opposite of what Gregory does (he reacts positively to find the Mr. Hippo magnet, for example); it feels like Abe's journey and Gregory's journey are parallel to each other, but they as characters are not.

Strangely, for being a plot device rather than a character, Landon feels a little bit like Gregory and/or Glamrock Freddy: he trashes the robots around him, believing that they're out to get him, and he tries to set the building on fire.

Sasha also reminds me of Cassie, Gregory's friend who we meet in the "Ruin" DLC. She has positive feelings about the Fazbear animatronic characters, and she expresses concern over the broken robots (and again, the Bobbiedots are directly parallel to Roxy, Chica, and Monty).

Sasha, apparently: "All robots are queens!" Rose, Olive, and Gemini: "If she cleans, she's a thot!"

And again, we are being directly told "It's not the animatronics themselves that are evil! It's the AI running the building that you need to watch out for!"

So yeah, overall this was a really fun story with plenty of "Security Breach" and "Ruin" vibes built in. I really enjoyed it in a way I haven't been enjoying most of these stories.

(I want to see Abe, Sasha, and their robot daughters again sometime. I think that would be fun.)

"Epilogue"

Unknown to them Lucia, Kelly, Adrien, and Jace are the only ones left; our cast of kids have been literally halved. The four of them have been closed up in a room, trying to operate an old, broken radio in a bid to contact someone on the outside for help.

Lucia and Kelly get the radio working briefly, and they hear a static-y voice calling for help. Thinking one of their friends is trying to contact them from somewhere else in the Pizzaplex, they ask the voice for directions that they then try to follow; following these directions leads them out of the safety of the room they're in, and also leads them directly to the Mimic.

The Mimic attacks them, and is now wearing a monkey costume. All the lights in the area go out. (I guess the Mimic's presence just always messes with the electrical systems?)

The kids escape, and find another hiding place. They realize that, if the Mimic is focusing entirely on them, that probably means Joel and Wade are dead. They also realize that the Mimic was the voice talking to them over the radio, pretending to be one of their friends or another victim.

The kids end up splitting up again. Since the girls are good with technology, they're assigned to stay in the room and work more on the radio; hopefully they can get it working well enough that they can contact someone for help. The boys take the task of leaving the room and searching for a way out.

Lucia picks up the Mimic's user manual again, studying it for any information that could help them. All she learns is that there's a power-off button on the back of the Mimic's neck, but this doesn't help then right now. She thinks about how much she had been enjoying a robotics course at school, and she thinks that, if she ever gets back to school, she'll probably drop the course; all enjoyment she had on the subject has been sucked out by the Mimic.

Kelly focuses on working on the radio. She admits that ham radios is one of her hobbies, something about herself she's never shared with any schoolmates before. Both Kelly and Lucia connect further with each other over their shared experience of having hobbies that are "too nerdy for girls."

The boys crawl through an air duct, trying to avoid the Mimic. They see the Mimic through a vent cover, and it seems to see them, but it's unable to get to them while they're inside the vent. After some searching, the boys find the room where Joel and Wade were supposed to be, and they're shocked and horrified to come face-to-face with their classmates' remains.

Adrien hears the hum of the fan above them, and, like Joel, he think they could use the fan's duct as an escape hatch. He shares his thoughts with Jace, and they begin searching for a way to turn the fan off. Unable to find any controls or switches that control the fan, the boys have to go searching around the Pizzaplex for something to jam into the fan.

During their search, they run into the Mimic again. The Mimic is now wearing the costume of a "mangled dog, with one ragged ear and a torn muzzle." The boys run, ducking into the theater stage are to hide. Eventually, the Mimic wanders off, and the boys race back to the systems room where the opening to the fan is.

Having collected an animatronic leg, Adrien plans to climb up the chute and jam the fan with the metal leg. Just as Adrien enters the chute, the boys hear the Mimic outside the room, and the lights start to flicker. Adrien gets in the chute, and Jace finds a space to hide under the control panel just as the lights go out completely. (Very "Sister Location" Night 1 of him, tbh.)

The fan's motor is too powerful, so when Adrien jams the animatronic leg up into it the fan just chops the leg up, and Adrien is sprayed with heated shards of metal. The burns make him fall down the chute, where he's caught by the Mimic. From his hiding space behind the control panel, Jace listens as Adrien is killed by the Mimic.

(… And then there were three.)

[ibeta]

Plot: Sans the Skeleton Archlich

———

[Dialogue]

"They're all monsters, sir!"

"I can see that. Why aren't you writing it down? Get to work! We have a damned census to finish, and we won't be done until all of them are registered under the Monster Protection Act."

"Goat monster, reptile monster, water monster, skeleton monster, archlich, rabbit monster, cat monster, ghost—"

"Wait, did you just say archlich?"

"—monster, amorphous monster—"

"Hey, did he just say archlich?"

"Sorry, sir, I wasn't listening. I think that skeleton guy just winked at me!"

"—alligator monster, chicken monster—"

"Stop listing them and answer me!"

"Sorry, sir! Yes, that guy's an archlich. The short one, over there!"

"That funny guy was human?!"

"Sir, the archlich are classified as monster-monsters—"

"—they aren’t! Stop using that game book as a referral guide! No, wait—fuck, he is."

"Yessir, he's an archlich. The detector doesn't tell me an age, just an error."

"Because he's an archlich!"

"No, sir, because he might be super old or super young or super strong."

"Oh, gods..."

"In fact, the archlich aren't really under a religion—"

"Shut up! I told you not to use that game book as a monster guide!"

"But, sir, our monster guide was locked away by the Second Human King after he dethroned the First Human King. It was a super short reign of weeks, but not even the Third Human King found it. The game book, uh, just tries to write down the ones orally passed down by ancestors, but not even they can be trusted because most sided with the First Human King."

"The fucking Second Human King again. What the hell did we do to ever deserve that fucker?"

"Actually, he was always supportive of monsters, so he got really mad when the First Human King went to war with them. That's according to the historian scribes. His personal journals, the public ones, really went on and on about his one-true-love, the White Mage. He was so into him that he established the Monster Protection Act with so many defined strict laws and no exceptions when it came to their treatment. They called him the Red Prince."

"I know. They made dramas from the damned journals, and I'm still pissed that he linked the law to our damned souls!"

"Our souls are not damned, sir—"

"You know what I mean!"

"Yessir, but, uh, he was THE Human King. You know, like super officially, so he had powers over humanity. Like, there was THE Monster King, and there was THE Executioner—"

"They're magic titles, you brat!"

"Exactly! That means we were under his rule. Rumour has it that we still haven't found the new Human King, so we're stuck with the soul-bound laws until we can find him."

"And that short skeleton guy is a suspicious archlich in the middle of monsters—"

"Actually, sir, he's considered to be a monster under natural law because he's not human anymore."

"I know that! The damned laws keep whispering in my soul about what an idiot I am to think he's human—"

"That’s because the Red Prince... uh, King... made it a law that those who abandoned their humanity to become a monster would be a monster and free from his powers."

"Him again! That fucker never learns to stop!"

"Sir, the Second Human King has been dead for so many years."

"If I have to ask an archlich to help me resurrect that fucker so I can beat his lovestruck ass—"

"Sir... uh. Sir, you won't be able to win. According to the historians, the Second Human King personally took care of any threats related to the White Mage, which is why they suspected him to have a double magic title. Him being The Executioner made a lot of sense after years of him mocking us through his journals."

"And he was a damned seer on top of all his bullshit."

"Yessir, that's why his public journals are written in the modern common language, and the secret ones have never been found or have been written in code. Him being a seer wasn't public knowledge until we discovered his seventh journal, where he mentioned the historian who found it by name. Someone stole the journals and uploaded the scanned pages to the internet—and he also mentioned in the journal that the thief is supposed to do that. There's some code written on it, but he mentions that it's written in the Old Tongue—"

"We don't fucking know Old Tongue anymore!"

"Which makes it a super cool fictional language for roleplays, sir!"

"...I'll pretend I never heard that."

"But, sir—"

"Pretending! Not! To! Hear! That!"

"Uh, sir, what do we do about the archlich?"

"Just write down skeleton monster for the guy. Idiots might make a fuss about him siding with monsters, and I don't want to deal with that bullshit on my territory!"

"Sir, do you need me to change the directory so an archlich is defined as a different type of skeleton monster?"

"That is why I hired you. Get to work!"

———

... been hinting on so many lich jokes about it and remembered you don't have to use narrations to explain things. Just give your history to Nerd A. The mob character will do the work for you.

Hints of a Red Prince and a White Mage. Oh. Wow. I wonder who those could be.

[mareenavee]

Winter Friends Are Friends Forever

This was a prompt fill from my very, very dear friend Jinumon! (Chyeah that's the one I'm writin' the original book with lol.)

He didn't actually put the strangeness restriction on me, this time. I decide that on my own for a challenge LOL and I think it was fun, even if difficult. (:

The Prompt:

“My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows

Special shoutout to @archangelsunited for the amazing beta reading work. You are invaluable. I love that I learn new things and different perspectives when I get to read through your comments and dig into the editing. AH it's my favorite.

Without further ado,

Winter Friends Are Friends Forever

Cold.

Always cold now, because Man didn’t light the fire anymore. Or couldn’t. He was like the rabbit Meeko had just caught. Only bones—or would be soon enough.

Sad.

Meeko didn’t like that. He whimpered to himself. It was strange and quiet in this place. No more ear scratches, no more treats. No light. No fire. No blankets. None of it. House was empty and Man was in his long sleep and the storms just kept coming. The snow wasn’t so bad. Better than loud rain, but not better than mud. Snow didn’t make the sadness go away, though—at least, not for long.

He gnawed thoughtfully at the rabbit’s leg bone until it snapped. The marrow was fine, but he was still hungry—and that meant he���d have to go catch another. He whined, though nobody was around to hear him. The sound echoed out over the frozen field behind House. Meeko only ever made that noise because Man would ask him questions whenever he heard it. Meeko didn’t understand Man most of the time, except for a few words. ‘Food’ was his favorite one. ‘Outside’ normally was second best, but lately it was the same as ‘Inside,’ or maybe a little bit worse—almost like ‘No,’ or ‘Bad Dog.’

He missed Man’s voice—if he’d only wake up from the long sleep and talk again, Meeko wouldn’t mind. But he knew it couldn’t happen. He’d seen so many long sleeps happen in his time. Before Man had left the stone city behind and built House out here in the woods, Girl had a long sleep. When Girl was nothing but a squalling bundle of blankets, Lady had a long sleep. He remembered the new beds Man made for them under all that dirt.

Still sad.

Meeko let out another whine. Only an echo of the sound through the forest ever answered.

He wandered back to House and stepped inside, snowy paws leaving wet marks on the wooden floor. In a storm, the door had been damaged, and hung off its hinges at the top. It squeaked when he pushed past it into the dark. Man still slept on his bed. Meeko nudged his hand—almost all bone now—which hung off the side. It would not wake him. It never did, but it wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t do it.

Meeko would catch another rabbit, but he wouldn’t go unless House was okay. He nosed around each corner, pausing to bark at a spider crawling up the wall. Those things never listened. When he caught them, they crunched and tasted bitter—not like rabbit. He didn’t like them. He couldn’t help it, though. They moved with all those legs, and he had to catch them. Meeko didn’t make the rules. When the spider was out of reach, he remembered that he was still hungry. He grumbled as he walked back out into the snow. The ground was icy and stung the bottom of his feet if he stayed still too long.

Still cold. -> Read the rest on AO3!

[kayhi808]

Billy Mine Act 1.2

I was good. I listened. No Billy. By the 3rd night there, I was inconsolable. I cried & cried. I refused to talk to anyone. The attendants thought it was because I lost mama, but it was because Billy disappeared. I cried until I threw up & then I refused to eat. I was taken to the infirmary & there he was. He was tucked into a bed. His shoulder braced amongst the pillows. I couldn't see his face, but it was Billy Mine. They settled me in a crib in a room next to his and I pretended to go to sleep so they'd leave me alone. There were other kids in the cribs besides mine. I climbed out of the crib, once i thought it was clear and went to find my Billy.

The beds were separated, by curtains, but I remembered which one Billy was in. I went around the curtains & there he was. An ice pack was wrapped to his shoulder. His eyes were closed, thick dark lashes resting against his cheek. I throw my rabbit on the bed & climb up to sit at the foot of his bed by his feet. He opens his eyes and frowns at me. "What are you doing here?" he hisses.

I touch his foot & smile, "Mine." I'm so happy I found him. He didn't come to me because he was stuck in this place.

"You can't be in here. Go away." Kicking at me with his foot. He catches me in the thigh & I fall back. "Go on. Get out of here."

I gasp & stop a cry from escaping. I didn't want to be caught by the woman who brought me here. I back away, out of his reach, rubbing my leg. I didn't understand why he was angry. I slide off the bed with my rabbit. I walk to the head of his bed and tuck my rabbit between his arm & body. He doesn't have a toy with him. I thought maybe that's why he's grumpy. I kiss my rabbit good-bye and squeeze Billy's hand. I run out & back to my crib before anyone can find me. I'm sadder because I don't have my rabbit, but Billy needed it more.

Years later I learned that Bill's mama gave him up. He wasn't used to feeling loved. He shut himself off from it. But I loved him as much as my 3 year old heart could love a person.

*****

What the hell?? It was that kid from the office. Billy picks up the doll and stares at it. A pang of guilt hit him. He didn't mean to kick her. Why was she just wandering the infirmary all by herself?? She was just a baby. He brings the doll to his face & it smell like baby power & baby. It's weirdly calming. Billy just returned from a stint in the hospital. He had surgery done on his shoulder and it was really hurting him now that he didn't have any of the stronger pain medication he had at the hospital. He hid the doll, knowing he'll have to return it to the kid. It was weird how she found him.

*****

Billy is released from the infirmary, and he stops off at the nursery. He goes to the playroom thinking the kid will be there. "Billy? Can we help you?"

He's uncomfortable because he's sure everyone's heard about what happened to him & Arthur. "Yea, I'm looking for a little girl. She arrived last week. Light hair, long, about so high," indicating a height with his hands. "She's missing her doll," holding up the rabbit.

"Juliet?"

Shaking his head, because he can't shrug his shoulder, "I don't know her name." The teacher/caretaker points to a corner where Juliet is looking at a picture book by herself. She's separated from the other children. "Yea, can I?" Billy walks over to her. "Hey, Bunny."

Her head whips up to look at him. Her bottom lip trembles and she stands to run to him. She buries her face in his stomach & has her arms wrapped around him. She doesn't make a sound, but Billy can feel her little body shudder with her sobs. "Shhhhh, Bunny. It's ok." Billy sits & awkwardly pulls Juliet to sit in his lap because of his brace, wiping away her tears with the hem of his shirt. He gives her back her doll and she hugs it to her. "Thank you for letting me borrow him." She leans against him. "I'm sorry I kicked you." Rubs her leg. "Did I hurt you?"

"No."

"Your name is Juliet?"

"No. I'm your Bunny."

Billy laughs. "Before you were my Bunny. Are you Juliet?" She nod. "I'm Billy."

"I know." She pops her thumb into her mouth & pulls her book into her lap & looks up at Billy expectantly. He gets more comfortable and starts to read her the story.

*****

From that day on, if Juliet was a problem, they would seek Billy out to help. Juliet was a headstrong child. She refused to talk to the teachers and counselors. She didn't like to play with the other kids. From what they could tell, she would only speak to Billy Russo. Even with Billy trying to cajole her, she wouldn't always listen.

Couples would visit & try to foster her, but she would always be returned. After the first time she left with a family and realized she wouldn't see Billy. She threw a tantrum and acted wild until they brought her back. She'd happily stay at the group home with Billy.

A couple years would pass and Bill knew as she grew older it would be harder to get her adopted.

"How are you going to find a family if you keep acting like a wild animal?"

"I don't need a family. I have you."

"Bunny, you need a family..."

"You're my family. I don't need anyone else."

"That's not how this works. If you get a family, you'll be able to live in a real house. Have your own room. Nice things. Don't you want that?"

"Will you come with me?"

Harsh laugh, "They don't want me. I'm not going to have a family."

"I'm your family, Billy Mine." He stopped and let the warmth of her words soak in to him. This kid, for the past 2 years has loved him unconditionally. He'll get into playground fights and she'll run to his defense and take on 12-13 year old boys. The kid was fearless. It'd get embarressing and he'll get shit for it, but this 5 year old will bite, scratch, kick & punch to fight by his side. Bill wasn't too appreciative of it in the moment and he'd yell at her for embarressing him but it never seemed to bother her. His guilt would get to him and he'd seek her out. Apologizing with a sweet he'd swipe from the kitchens.

He knew he had to get her adopted because he'll age out in 5yrs and because he had no family and nowhere to go, he has already been thinking about joining the military. She's not his responsibility yet he cares about what happens to her. He had to get her settled before then. He needed her to be safe.

@idaofinfinity @imagine-a-fictional-boyfriend @e-dubbc11 @k-marzolf @bustlingcrowdsxorxsilentsleepers @ellooo0ooo @terry2227

[slutforspungen]

𖤐 my intro as slutforspungen 𖤐

my name is opal, I’m 15 years old and from the uk scotland to be specific & i have autism

as you can tell i absolutely love nancy spungen i could genuinely sit and talk about her for hours I find her and her whole relationship with sid to be really interesting, i got into them a few months ago in march because I watched the youtube video elanor neale done on them back in january, but I guess i never started really thinking about them until march not sure what sparked my random thought of them which led me down a whole rabbit hole but i’m thankful it happened I had heard their names referenced before back in 2018-2020 when i was a massive gacha life kid and loved “devils don’t fly” & “so am i” which are two songs that reference them obviously, never gave it any thought to look into who they were, i have read deborah spungens book “and I don’t want to live this life, a mothers story of her daughters murder” and i have also read den brownes book “padlocks living with sid and nancy”, i love nancy but I half like sid but I do believe they both deserved better and mental illness and drugs were their downfall enough on them i love to read and learn about them, random but i also love kate moss.

i’m also big on tcc (true crime community) my favourite shooting/shooters are columbine - eric harris & dylan klebold, and my favourite serial killers are jeffery dahmer & richard ramirez, I also like parkland - nikolas cruz, oxford - ethan crumbley, academy maniacs, jodi arias, kinda like salvador ramos & adam lanza, elliot rodger, dylann roof (im not racist) also randy stair/andrew blaze and probably more I can’t remember right now, i’m about to read sue klebolds book “a mother’s reckoning” and i know their not tcc but i love bonnie & clyde i’ve watched the 1967 movie and have two books on them i’ll soon read.

very random i know but I also like kpop and thai bl shows I just have lots of random interests don’t judge lol and i love to listen to lots of random music from multiple genres, I love cats to I have a 2 year old cat called alvin after alvin and the chipmunks and a 9 year old white labrador called poppy, I’m anxious overthink a lot so I struggle to speak to people so i apologise for being dry & i’m homeschooled and i love the 50s - 2000s eras/culture and just everything about those decades that’s all. 𖤐

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary290

7/5-6/24

friday - saturday

it is done!!!!!!!!!!!

i will probably do a proper post for it tomorrow, some time, like in the noon (not that it will get any people to listen really)

but here's the linxx!

and then here's the cover art!

#so funny (if you want to see what's going on, you should probably open it up in a separate tab and look at it zoomed in to see all the junk going on)

i'm glad i did the watermarks on the pics at the bottom there, it makes it kind of look uncomfortable, or like seedy i suppose, which helps a lot w/ what the cover is aiming for.

i think basically it's as good as i could have gotten it, the cover. i do like it, i feel like maybe i could do it better, if i planned it out more, maybe it looks like a mess to anyone else, it's kind of one intentionally but i mean, maybe in a bad way it's one too.

also, on bandcamp i wrote a big-ish thing about the album as it was made, here it is:

likely in progress since october of 2022, certainly in progress since november of 2022, finally complete in july 2024. these are songs about nothing especially. this album has seen: two apartments, one move, two jobs, a cockroach infestation, a mass shooting at the neighboring school of our last apartment, my girlfriend surviving the shooting because she was in a different building and he wanted to kill teachers because he did not get a job, the most traveling i've done in my life, myriad illnesses, various canker sores, working out through being sick, not recovering sooner because i had to work out because it would upset me to not complete the ritual as i normally do, the worst sore throat of my life, an ear infection, the starting of a public diary, the maintenance of a public diary, ants on the windowsill, ants in the flour, long standing friendships growing longer, shedding of irritability, regrowth of the irritability, self disgust of varying levels and varying causes, scrubbing the floor naked, bruising my knees at the melt banana show and bruising my knees doing kneeling squats and bruising my knees doing other things, the uneasy orbit of a sleep schedule (an asteroid almost, in capture, then, crashing), several remasterings, 2 computers, an apartment that's a single room, an apartment of multiple rooms cheaply constructed, inflation, grocery store packages changing graphic design, rotten fruit, eaten fruit, my girlfriend's mother loving then hating then loving us, rabbits in grass, rabbits on concrete, bird corpses and living birds and horses in a field for the rodeo and the bulls kept across from them moaning of a captivity under moonlight, the construction and completion of the las vegas sphere (orb of prosperity), numerous nightmares about being murdered, denver colorado, kyoto, tokyo, takeshita-dori street, all the green, a place where sad old gay men convened and sang karaoke remembering their youth in old mecha anime theme songs, a fashion magazine photographer speaking in english to me (stumbling in a beautiful way) "i hope to see you again one day", arizona and the asu campus, a strange fall fair where a woman told me to hold two pumpkins to my chest so it'd be like i had breasts (she seemed supportive), the strange trump-loving foodtruck that served elote that my gf liked, my most recent live performance with thomas since 2018, my girlfriend learning korean, completion of multiple books, falling in love with foucault as i did when i first read him in college, meeting people for the first time, meeting some for the second, sleeping on a bed in chicago, loving chicago, people staring at me in public, children staring at me, wondering if children hate me because at my root there is something wrong with me and everyone except me can tell, being published in various online journals, the coming first publication of my work in print, in a journal people hold in their hands of flesh, nothing special, everything special, stretches of relative silence, all the meaningless stuff, all the stuff i don't want to tell you because i like it too much. i already gave you too much, most likely. you will not have a sense of any of this as you listen to the record. i put it here, i don't know why. this album is 32 songs, 47-ish minutes long. you can click a button on a web site to listen to it, and you will hear it. 

credits

released July 5, 2024

Girlfriend - let me live, took me places, bought me food, let me cook, let me clean. m.b. ghul + clout jesus - voiceover/narration on track 1. please read his story here:

thomas / me and my kidney - let me use his microphone and audio interface to record extra vocals on panic! at the costco and au naturale. please listen to his music here:

georges bataille - wrote the sentence which i lifted for the album title (letter to kojeve where he begins talking about unemployed negativity) thomas hardy - wrote tess of the d'urbervilles which i quote on the final song. neighbors - let me scream and didn't ever complain or call the police. hospital terrorizer - i screamed and i wrote the songs and i made the cover and stuff.

but since i am on my blog i guess i can get into more detail about the record, and i also feel like anyone who reads this / has been reading this, you have actually seen what it's been like, the hostility of the little bit of writing i did for the album isn't really pointed back here, it's not necessarily a pose it's just like, i dunno, as a thing to make, there's so much time and effort, and most of that's invisible, that's not being said in a self pitying way, it's more about how that's the case for so much music, which makes it interesting, i think.

anyway, there's one song here called 'i didn't think before i started a diary' which isn't really about this diary, i wrote that song prior to even starting this, it's about something weird you can see w/ people who do have diaries on the internet, where some people like, years after they're done being updated, things like that, or even just posts / miniature diaristic stuff, of archiving all that, when really this is more about the practice/act than an archive to reach into history with. it was also inspired by a piece of poetry by a friend though i don't know if i could even find it. it's written from the perspective of someone wanting to archive a person, and i kept thinking about that from the other side. that's really the only song i have so much to say on i think, because the others are either a little more personal or a little more obvious, there's lots of political things, the song hell baby works off of a reference to hideshi hino's hell baby, the manga where a deformed baby is thrown into a dump and she is revived by flaming ghosts and wanders back to her family and then is shunned once again. it's really tragic.

anyway i know i said i'd have more pictures from yesterday to post but i've been busy all day with trying to get everything like ready enough, some songs feel a little odd still but that just seems like how they are, it's only 2 that feel a little odd and idk, if i really hate them eventually i will just remaster them and release them together or something but they sound good to me, i think i'm caught off guard by them because there's a newness about them, because i worked on one up to the last bit here, and another was the product of an error related to a crash where the .wav came out normal but the mp3 came out strange sounding i think, so i had to go back and re export. either way both sound good/cool just unexpected to me, and i am someone who had expectations that were precise about those songs, specific things about what frequencies were blasting when and how stuff sat, and then that's just new now.

tomorrow i have to make like... 3 posts inside the internet world, to make people maybe look at my album, and then it will be entirely/totally out of my hands, it will truly be over then, that's like the advertising period i get, lol, one day.

anyway i am super super tired right now, so i will sleep,

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[platypusplayhere]

Thank you @dangerliesbeforeyou for tagging me, im mentioning all kinds of media bc I love to rant, I have a lot of love in my heart and I have trouble choosing just 8: (im making this on mobile hope it's readable).

Howl's moving castle (2004)

My first experience of gender envy, gender fascination, gender emulation for Howl, at a time I didn't even know that gender was a thing because I was like idek 7 years old.

Kiss of the rabbit god (2019)

A short movie, stumbled onto it bc of Tumblr. You honour, I simply love it.

Shrek (2001)

I'm not being ironic I'm very serious about this one. My mom used to braid my hair weekly when I was little and I constantly played this one, I know it by heart and I'm not joking. I freaking love this movie. Same goes for Mulan, Beauty and the beast, Charlie and the chocolate factory, and the whole Shrek franchise up to the 3rd one. (Gotta watch Puss in boots 1 and 2 tho.)

V for vendetta (2005)

This is a shout-out to 14 years old me who might have at some point based their personality around this movie or maybe they didn't, who's to say. I'm not sorry. Kinda still like it tho.

Corpse bride (2005)

There is an independent cinema in my hometown and they did run it often over the years. Bestie I don't know how many times I went to see this movie with my mother as a child. Recently learned about the Jewish origins of this myth and im a lil upset about the stolen storyline without the context. But some will say it's a Burton movie and they're right.

Valentine's day (2011)

First movie I went to see alone with my friends, I was like 12yo. Rewatched it again like 2 years ago, yeah it ain't that great but it's the memories right.

Father and soldiers (2022)

The last movie that made me cry. I hate war movies but my friends convinced me to go because it was less than 2 hours and I've been mad at movies being more than two and a half hours lately (looking at u House of Gucci, Doctor Strange 2) yeah, I cried my eyes out. It's not a perfect movie but the message is great and very moving. I don't like the English title because the original/French title directly refers the name of a group of African soldier recruited by France in its colonies during WWI -> "Les Tirailleurs" (if I remember well, the soldiers were recruited in every colonies but they left Africa from the Senegal and so all these soldiers are referred as Senegalese regardless of their actual origins). The English title is more fitting thematically wise I'll give you that.

Fulmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)

Knew about it, was recommended by a dear mutual of mine on this very hellsite and yeah, ppl keep saying it's good because it just is.

I told sunset about you/ I promised you the moon (2020-2021)

If you read my tags u know how I rant about this show often. Watched it 2 years ago thanks to someone i follow on Tumblr (but im not really sure who it was anyway if you're a mutual thank you sm). My first foray into BL (back when I didn't even know what it was) and I couldn't be happier that I started with this. I don't have enough words to praise it. (currently writing a post about it tho, stay tuned for whenever I get around to finish it (tell me if u wanna know when it's up), big up to Bad Buddy and To My Star too)

Honoured mentions bc I started making a list and had more than 8 and couldn't not mention them:

Other movies: O'brother, Love and Leashes, God's own country, Jackie Brown, The big lebowsky (idek if I like this movie but I needed something to base my personality around when I was 15yo)

The book The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, I'm gonna keep my rant about how the English title is a misunderstanding of the book locked and not even start it.

Alice isn't dead and The Magnus archives (although they're podcasts and I haven't quite finished them, the first seasons are exquisite)

Welcome to Night Vale, I have a lot of episodes to catch up on (currently working on that) started listening like in 2016 then stopped around idek 2 years ago. Some of these episodes are masterpieces ( some I know by heart: Guidelines for disposal, Love is a shambling thing, What happened at the Smithwick House, If he had lived, and The Pilot ofc)

the ballet Swan Lake (1995, 2012) by Matthew Bourne. I don't have enough words. I'll just say it's on youtube.

.....and many more im not think abt rn

*acts surprised* this became a real long post, real quick

(That's why I take a lot of time to answer those lmao, shout out and thank you to the ppl who tag me in these and then I take a lot of time to answer)

Tagging these people and anyone who wants to do it can mention me: @sherlockig @dontbesoevil @lordmeowdemort @namelessbeing @hairbackc0llarup @comrademichael @johnlockdynamic @lovelywickedsoul @frenchsiren