#made this a page too from his stats if u ever want to reference it!

[guttersniper]

things your muse will notice about mine

what they look like. hard, sharp, and rough. mutt is small (4'7.5") and slightly underweight, but lean and sinewy from extensive travel, rough living, and exercise. despite his size, he’s a hard-worker, insisting on doing manual labor and other chores and tasks; has what could be referred to as farm kid strength. if you know, you know. his arms and legs are long and skinny, a little too skinny, but wiry muscles are built up along their lengths. once in a stable environment, his limbs, face, and stomach will gain a healthy weight, though he remains lean and flat. call it tough meat. narrow shoulders are oft curved inward, usually in a protective manner to make himself smaller and inconspicuous. he holds the most tension in his shoulders. he does tend to straighten up and broaden them, reminding you of a soldier’s posture. he typically stands with his hands in his pockets (jacket or pants) or by his sides.

his face is probably his most noticeable attribute. thin and narrow cheeks absent of any childish fat. his lips are chapped, both from weather exposure and from chewing at them when thoughtful or unsure. he usually has a good number of bruises around his face and body—whether these fights were initiated by him, or whether they came about through self-defence, varies. unruly eyebrows, could be described as almost bushy. dark, richly brown eyes framed by long lashes, with dark circles underneath them. the veins in his eyelids are increasingly pronounced if he’s been sleeping particularly badly. they look dark and smudged, appearing bruised. decently large, as well as usually being sharp and attentive, perceptive. he has an intelligent, yet angry and cagey, gaze. he always looks like he’s thinking, and can often be seen with a thoughtful pinch between his brows. they can sometimes look vacant, a soldier’s thousand yard stare. they’re not sunken into his face, but they don’t protrude noticeably, either.

his sharp facial features are accentuated through his thinness. resting expression is either a small frown, a flinty stare, fixed neutral, or something eerily unreadable. despite all this, you can still tell he’s young. due to these factors and with that in mind, he takes on an almost ageless appearance—some think he’s older than he is, some think he’s younger. his hair is dark brown, usually always messy. not quite bedhead-messy, but plainly unkempt. he gives himself his own haircuts, so the ends can be a little uneven. even in a stable environment, it will be rare catching him with entirely “nice” hair. typically right after he wakes up and wets it to comb into place will it be that way, and it will get mussed/wind-swept throughout the day.

regardless of the historical period, his fashion puts comfort, necessity, and ease-of-movement above all else. jeans (or any other past knee-length pants), dark/neutral colors, hoodies, sweaters, jackets (leather and denim), white tanks acting as undershirts, waffle thermals, henleys, belts, and flannels are staples. he doesn’t like standing out. always wearing a watch. layers everything; likes clothes that are a tad big on him. has he ever had clothes that fit him properly? who knows. his clothes are worn and thrifted/hand-me-down. he will have difficulty letting them go, if the time comes, and even refuses newer clothes to replace his new clothes if he thinks they still have some wear in them. he doesn’t like to wear shorts. not much skin is showing. this is both practicality and self-consciousness.

what they smell like. like outside. it really depends on the last time he was able to take a shower. typically, like a mix of dirt, stale cigarettes, sweat, unwashed clothes, and that smell that comes after handling old metal. sometimes, blood and gunpowder. tends to have lingering street smells on him, depending on how strong they were and how long he was exposed to them. sometimes those are good, sometimes those are bad. (if you want to be cute about it, tell him he smells like a wet dog. because he probably does. a little. though that probably comes from hanging around actual dogs.) if he’s in a more rural area, these smells will be slightly different. when washed, generic soaps, deodorants, and shampoos with plain, clean scents. his clothes should smell nicely freshly-laundered, then, too. being clean and staying that way for a while is a dream of his.

what they taste like. he’ll kill you.

what they sound like. naturally raspy and kinda low, but still distinctly prepubescent. firm, sharp, like a door closing. stern. very deadpan. little wiggle room in how you can read his tone as when he’s speaking. he likes being with others and listening to people talk and hearing their stories, he can and does make friends with anyone, but usually he is quiet and often doesn’t have someone to speak with. prone to short, clipped sentences and monosyllabism. sometimes he goes through periods where he doesn’t want to verbally speak. disuse adds to the hoarseness of his voice. if you can get him going about something, and he’s in the mood/interested, and he likes you (really isn’t hard to do, contrary to popular belief), you could have a nice conversation with him.

as a budding polyglot adapt at adopting different personas for survival reasons, mutt is naturally gifted at mimicking various voices, including their respective accents and dialects. that is, as long as he has had adequate exposure to them for the measure of infiltration necessary to whatever goal he has in mind, which is usually fitting in and avoiding unwanted questions. he has fine pitch control, understands the effects that rate of speech has quite instinctively, and also has finely tuned oral motor control that makes it almost easy for him to glide between strikingly different accents/languages without a hitch. too bad he can only do so much bass. if someone is perceptive enough, they will recognize their—and their social circle’s—body language, accent, and facial expressions being absorbed by him to better fit in. he mimics people as both an overall survival technique and a masking strategy. he won’t drop the façade unless he’s comfortable with you. far as you’re concerned, if you’re hearing him put on an accent/speak another language, he’s always sounded like that. some accents are easier than others, and you will be able to mark him as an outsider/foreigner, but it isn’t usually enough to raise any eyebrows.

what they feel like. his skin is dry and covered in callous and scarring, especially his hands—small with long, slim thief’s fingers, bulked slightly by said callous, though not in an obtrusive way. bony elbows and sharp edges. his feet are equally hard and calloused, and his heels are probably the driest place on his body. inclined to run cool, even in warmer weather, but tends to steady out once inside. collection of miscellaneous scars scattered around due to life on the streets. majority of them have turned pale with time. most noticeable one is on his left cheek. moles dot his body, particularly his arms, though none of them cluster, and they’re typically dark brown. his hair isn’t what you’d call healthy, another side effect of undernourishment, and—not by choice—generally unwashed for extended periods of time. obviously, with access to regular bathing facilities and proper, steady nutrition, this isn’t the case. then, it is soft and quite full.

[forsythiias]

hey ! i’m rachel. i’m 20 - almost 21 ! - she / her pronouns, gmt timezone ( i live in ireland and spend like a week in england every month at this rate . u guys will get used to it ). a fun fact abt me is that i spoke to hugh jackman & gave him a wolverine pin rly recently . that’s all i got . anyway. i’m playing jellybean jones, the baby of the fp jones fam ! she’s my absolute KID and i would LOVE to plot , so please feel free to shoot me a message or smash that like button and i’ll come at you in the not so distant future. 

⌜   genderfluid, she / they / he   |   out of time by the rolling stones, the local record store, the pop culture fiend   ⌟   ⏤   hey, isn’t that FORSYTHIA PARTHENIA JONES? the NINETEEN year old SOUTH SIDER has lived in town for their WHOLE LIFE, and has always denied their resemblance to DIANA SILVERS. they’ve been a STUDENT & WAITRESS for a while now, and i guess it makes sense - they’ve always seemed so TENACIOUS & INDIVIDUALISTIC, though i have heard that they can be pretty GARRULOUS & ACERBIC. did you hear about how they SOLD JACKED CARS IN TOLEDO TO PUT THEMSELVES THROUGH COLLEGE? i always knew that there was something up with them. you can check out her pinterest board HERE and her stat page HERE.

you can CHANGE the world, girl,                                     you really, truly can.

part one of three : bullet point history. trigger warnings for talk of infant health issues.

august fifth, 2000. it was a sticky autumn night when FORSYTHIA PARTHENIA JONES entered the world with a pitiful cry. the only daughter of two south siders, gladys and fp, and the younger sister of a one jughead jones, she wasn’t born to MUCH ; which made all that she did have matter all the more. a mother and a father who loved her? check. an older brother she would someday idolize and love like no other in the world? double check. a small ventricular septal defect, discovered only after her birth? triple check.

forsythia was, it seemed, destined to be a sickly child. her first few months were dotted with trips to the emergency room and visits to a local doctor, something always seeming to be wrong. infant colic was ten times worse. she caught a chill when she was two weeks old and needed to spend a WEEK in the icu because of the resulting chest infection. the doctors who treated her at birth had been confident over time that the hole in her heart - jellybean shaped, on the very first ultrasound - would close by itself, as many do. hers, however, didn’t. as she got older, the effects became more pronounced. she kept catching chest infections. she couldn’t seem to put on weight. breathing was, at times, a struggle. and she was SLEEPIER than any baby they had ever known before. the original plan had been to wait and see and hope that her tiny heart healed on it’s own. at ten months old, it became apparent that this would never happen ; and the surgery was scheduled. 

your baby is supposed to be PERFECT. she isn’t supposed to take ill every few days and ultimately be wheeled into a room for open heart surgery. it was likely a very harrowing experience, and those first few months of her life were understandably marred - but if there had ever been any doubts before, it became clearer than day when she came out of surgery that the youngest jones was a FIGHTER, through and through. they’d been prepared for a month long wait to bring her home again - it ended up being a fortnight. she didn’t cry, after. she didn’t FUSS. it was as if she had known that the first little while had been tough, and was trying her hardest to make all of their lives that little bit easier. lord knew that the jones’ needed it, especially when the stress of all that was going on with her had combined with their bills. 

now affectionately named jellybean for the defect she had survived, she grew into a remarkably NORMAL child. there were differences, of course, between her and the kids that she grew up surrounded by - she required regular checkups, she needed to dress extra warmly in winter, and she always got that little bit more wiped out than everybody else - but anyone told the story behind the scar in the middle of her chest gaped in shock. the girl who swung from the lower boughs of the trees at the edge of sunnyside trailer park and sprinted after her friends at full speed had once had a hole in her heart? impossible. that sort of health issue was reserved for those with a lot less life in them than the high spirited girl that jellybean became known as being, and never once did she allow it to define her. she was a SPITFIRE, pure and simple, and she’s proud to say that never once did she let herself sit out of an experience just because she was worried about what would happen if she partook.

life was not all sunshine and adventure, though. not every child notices the cracks in their home life appearing. jellybean didn’t. not until the rug was pulled right from under her feet. to her wide eyed and rose colored self, everything seemed to happen overnight. one day, they were happy. the next, her dad was an alcoholic and she and her mum were in transit to toledo, where they would move in with stony faced grandparents who treated her with corporate coldness. she didn’t understand the why of it all - couldn’t have even hoped to, when she was still so young. the reality of her father losing his job and their lives going to shit thanks to it didn’t sink in. all she knew was that she had lost the father she idealized and the big brother that she had always wanted to BE. 

she spoke to them both on the phone, of course. she was even lucky to see jughead a couple times, though their grandparents never wanted to hear about it afterwards, no matter how excited she was. it must have been jarring for him the first time he turned up to find that the pigtailed little girl who loved kids pop that he remembered had sheared her hair and was now listening strictly to pink floyd and other classics. but none of it was the same. not really. it wasn’t having her family together. to say that her drastic transformation might have stemmed from a place of resentment towards whatever forces were at play in ruining her family - that starting to go by JB, so similar to the FP that her nana and granddad refused to allow be mentioned around them might’ve been an act of defiance - wouldn’t have been incorrect. she wanted things to go back to normal. the fact that they didn’t killed her.

and they never really did. she and her mom returned to riverdale, a new opportunity spotted, but things never went back to how they had been before. she learned not to talk about it, though - and now she’s older, wiser, and she knows how to hide her feelings behind an easy bluff. there’s nothing to do but make the most of what she does have, right? a new brother. a new life. a new self. she has to stop dwelling on what she used to have, she supposes ; though sometimes, it hurts to think about what she’s lost. 

part two of three : headcanons.

jellybean is gonna be a lawyer someday, but she NEVER really wanted to be one. her dream from ages 3 to 11, she wanted to be a princess. she overheard some of the older serpents sarcastically referring to the jones family as royalty, and she really chose to run with it - refusing to take off a makeshift crown for the first month and getting called princess jellybean by her father for the next few years. after that phase had passed, though, she found her real passion - and for most of living memory, she’s wanted to own a record store. nothing too extravagant, really, just a first floor, one room sorta deal - she’d plaster the walls with posters of the greats and keep the merchandise in crates resting on rickety tables, and every friday night she’d hold a jams night where people could come and lounge around the floor on beanie bags, listening to some of their favorites. she had it all planned, and it’s still something of a dream - but if there’s one thing that jones’ family knows how to do, it’s sacrifice their dreams for harsh reality. with penny peabody DISGRACED, the serpents and southsiders in general need someone who knows them to represent them, when things go to trial, and feeling a sense of duty to the people she was raised around, jb bit the bullet and stepped up. she’s got a love for arguing and a knack for winning, so much so that god HELP whoever goes against her in a courtroom, someday.

she has yet to officially join the serpents ( her parents wouldn’t approve of it, for one, not now, and there’s a whole host of OTHER reasons ) - but jb went right ahead and got a tattoo on her right hand anyway, cause as a jones, she’s still serpent adjacent. the only difference between the picture linked and the one she has is that hers is done in white ink - her way of keeping things lowkey while still honoring her heritage.

miss her with a motorbike. they’re COOL and all, but jb values her life a little bit too much to trust a two wheeled death trip waiting to happen. she’s more into classic cars, anyway, and has pretty recently invested in the frame of a 1979 pontiac gto from the scrapyard that she plans on fixing up to perfection.

her style is southside meets cute. of course she loves her leather and fishnet combos - but jb is ALSO a huge fan of dungarees and sloganed t-shirts in a whole assortment of colors. anything ‘edgy’ she wears ( big boots, mesh tops, the list .. could go on ) gets coupled with something a little less so ( pink scrunchies, colorful makeup, a disney bag … again, the list could go on ), and that makes her her.

and finally, for now, cause i’m not sure i’ve done a good job of conveying it - jellybean is a good kid. she REALLY, truly is. she’s got some bite to her ( enough of a short fuse that it’s advisable not to test her limit ) & wouldn’t be her fathers daughter if she DIDN’T, but she’s also genuinely sweet. being a serpent doesn’t equal being a bitch, and so long as people out there treat her with respect, she’ll do the SAME. jb doesn’t turn unless she’s given reason to … and if they do, she won’t hold back.

part three of three : wanted connections.

fp & gladys jones ! 

kids from the south ( or north ) side that are in or around the same age, who jellybean would have grown up with / went to school with !! they might have reconnected after she returned to riverdale and now know her as who she’s become, but they also might be people who she lost contact with for a LONG TIME and who never got to see her post transformation - any and all variance on this wc would be fun!

anyone attending carson college who she might, maybe, rub shoulders with !!  i’d love the most mundane of connections - maybe they sit with each other during lunch, or they help each other study, or one time, jb dropped a book on their head in the library and they’ve been friends / enemies since! gimme anything !

regulars at pops / the speakeasy. 

so .. she’s pretty self sufficient, and she’s paying her way in terms of college by working shifts at pops and picking up extras in the speakeasy. she’d know a lot of people from that, i’d wager, and i’m sure she has her favorites!

more people southside serpent adjacent who she can play off of !! one of jb’s goals in life is to become an OFFICIAL member of the gang, which she hasn’t yet - but she is something of a southside princess, and that means she’d know most of them in some way!

p much anything else !

[nsjskljfslkf-blog]

【 ⑆ PRINCESS CUT FROM MARBLE, SMOOTHER THAN A STORM: ELIZABETH. 】

hi petals! i’m rue and i’m gonna be completely late with this introduction, but just love me for i am just a smol bean. anyways now that’s over n done with, this is my precious english muffin child elizabeth, for whom i love very dearly and i am hoping you all will too! for plots, feel free to slide into my dms or even just thumb that like button and i shall come screaming at u instead. not to mention, i have also set up a wanted connections page here for some ideas! lastly, i made a traditional stats page for elizabeth here just in case you wanted more info!

ADELAIDE KANE - CIS FEMALE, 21 — have you met ELIZABETH JAMES yet? word is that she is GENUINE & CARING, though if you catch her on the wrong day, she can also be IMPULSIVE & NAIVE. i heard that she is a FULL-TIME STUDENT AND A PART-TIME VET ASSISTANT, but don’t take it from me. when she was moving in, i thought i heard THAT'S AMORE BY DEAN MARTIN playing from her apartment. pretty appropriate, right? 

Elizabeth Madeleine James was born in the early hours of Spring in Birmingham, England to Duchess Renee and Duke Thomas of Devonshire, as well as a sister for the young Alexander. Her arrival was much-anticipated and there were celebrations for days prior to her introduction to the world. With her childhood consisting nothing more than love and devotion from her parents, Elizabeth had nothing to complain about. Her parents loved their children dearly, especially Elizabeth, whose pure heart and open-mindedness they helped to cultivate: they encouraged Elizabeth’s belief in extraordinary things and hoped she had carried it throughout her life growing up. Her parents had always made her promise to have courage and be kind to others, for—as they explained to her—kindness has power, and that they would see her through all the trials that life could offer, in life and death. Her relationship with her brother, however, is a bit estranged. As much as she loves her elder brother and wishes they could see eye-to-eye, sometimes they have a tendency to butt heads often. Whether that might mean your typical sibling arguments or full-on blown out fights, they just can’t seem to see get along.

When she was only 2 week old, Elizabeth and her family moved back to their home in Devon, England where her father, who held a high position in nobility there, was a Duke: which, by all means gave her the title of Lady. Growing up, she never really minded being referred to as Lady Elizabeth, but sometimes because of her title, a lot of the children in her hometown would make fun of her for being a boring ‘wannabe royal’. And as time went on, she started to regret her father’s position and so, as she aged swore to herself that she would never introduced herself as anything other than Elizabeth and that was that.

Most people would describe Elizabeth as The Benevolent. Despite being in a world where there’s hatred and suffering, Elizabeth declares herself independent and strong-willed by remaining kind-hearted and self-loving, not allowing the bitterness surrounding her life to overtake her and morph her into someone as cruel as the world seems to be every day. She makes the most of her life by remaining optimistic of the possibilities of a brighter future. But besides that, she’s also witty and sarcastic. She is unafraid to stand up for herself when she feels she’s in the right–or at least, attempt to do so. And although she strives to contain her optimism aura, she can fall into fits of frustration and annoyance quite often.

At the tender age of 12, Elizabeth was destined to be married through an arranged marriage to the only son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gabriele Valisari, and the two were meant to wed at the age of 18. Gabriele and Elizabeth were both from nobility in their respective towns and had grown up together.  Throughout the years as they’ve aged, both had grown to care less and less about the titles that they might one day have to abide by. Instead, they had taken advantage of their semi-freedom and laughed about the big shots they hung out with and sometimes, they would have McDonalds “friend dates”. Other times, without permission, would  go thrift shopping and then considerably donate to charities because they just didn’t care about money as long as they had each other.

Elizabeth had grown to love Gabriele, and Gabriele had grown to love Elizabeth – which was all the better considering it was an arranged marriage and the two had fallen in love naturally. But it didn’t even matter whether it was an arranged marriage or not, because they were both lost in blissful ignorance and they made each other so happy. Everyone from a mile away could see it in their eyes how much they loved each other – and the happiness they shared was bestowed upon them by the other half. Things between the two were absolute bliss and they were somehow always caught flirting during fancy dinner parties, and then occasionally sneak away while everyone bores themselves with business talk and petty gossip to wander around on the beach wearing a tux and an evening gown.

To the two teens, their ever-growing, budding romance was almost like a fairytale come to life, but with reality, not everyone can have a happily ever after. Two years before they were meant to be married, tragedy struck the hearts of the Valisari household when their son had been in the crossfire of a terrible car accident on his way back to his home. The crash was so intense, Gabriele unfortunately died instantly. When news of what had happened came to light, everyone was in utter mourning. The death of Gabriele was hard on the citizens who had adored him in every aspect of his life, but moreover, his mother took it the hardest. Since the death of her son, she had begun drinking excessively to the point where she died from alcohol poisoning three months after. On the other hand, his father tried his hardest to be the leader he was for the sake of the people, but even he broke down a few times.

As for Elizabeth, she was absolutely heartbroken and devastated. Upon hearing the news of what seemed to be a nightmare, the young girl at the time, never looked at love the same way again. For a moment, she seemed to have lost hope of truly being happy, but as time went on, she realized that not living her best life isn’t something Gabriele or her parents would have wanted for her. She remembered time again that Gabriele wanted her to be happy and successful in her years to come. He told her that even if life throws a curve-ball, she has to be prepared to swing for a home run. So, of course, she took what she was told to heart and continued living life to the fullest.

When Elizabeth turned eighteen, she decided she wanted to continue her studies and go to university in America. Her life and responsibilities in England weren’t over, but knew she wanted to have change of scenery and start a fresh beginning.  She loved to travel and in her days traveling alongside her father for years, she wanted to expand her experiences more. Her parents, of course, were hesitant about allowing her to leave country, but as time went on, they couldn’t help but allow her to travel to America for her continued studies only, with one condition: she must travel with a bodyguard. This condition was something Elizabeth would abide by, but it also made her life difficult every time someone suspiciously asked who the creepy-looking guy following her around everywhere was. So, with that being said, she packed her bags and ended up going to the other side of the globe to San Francisco, California to study Early Education. She’s been there ever since and hasn’t looked back.

[jaxdcnn-blog]

ooooo formal intro ~ !

that’s not LUCKY BLUE SMITH walking around?? nah, but JACKSON ‘JAX’ DUNN  gets that all the time. HE’S actually from THE BRONX, NEW YORK, though they live in THE GLASAMP DISTRICT now.  you’ve probably heard that ?? year old STOCKER of BUILD-A-BEAR being referred to as the TEENAGE DIRTBAG of this place.you know, i always see them SKATEBOARDING or blasting FAT LIP BY SUM 14 on their lunch break..whatever.

it’s dad back @ it again. went to bed at 5am and now it’s almost 3pm what a life what a life. anyways, u can catch more abt my kiddo jax down here. he’s a sloppy sweet mess have fun.

( tw death & car accident )

he grew up in the bronx, his dad wasn’t around. his mom never really liked talking about him but all she would say is she took them away before he could do anything harm. he hasn’t really cared to learn more.

he had a younger sister mandy, who was just a year younger than him. she liked to climb trees and read peter pan thrice and her brother would tease her frequently. 

they were poor and in the bronx but his mom was determined to have her kids be good so they went to sunday school and jackson learned guitar on saturdays, which birthed the music baby but no one knew it yet.

he was always petty quiet and a pretty angry boy, but his mother taught him that if he can’t think of ten good reasons to be angry, he should let it go. it helped a lot.

middle school comes around for the two kiddos and jax becomes a heartbroken emo, broken over nothing bc no one ever hurt him but he pretended! as for mandy, who knows how it started but she began hanging out with the wrong kinds of people. people who were older and liked to go out and party. people mom definitely wouldn’t approve of.

he was 14 when she got in a car accident with people driving under the influence and died. 

jax still hasn’t forgiven himself for it. he had nothing to do with the crash but he felt if he had reached out to his sister he cold have helped her make better choices and ultimately not get in that car that night. 

after that, jax stopped giving so much of a fuck. it was high school and he began hanging out with the punks, getting high at the skate park and jammin on guitars. at this point, jackson was still mourning mandy’s death but those people he was growing close with really helped him. 

he spent a lot of his time at concerts, moshing, making out with girls that he didn’t like, protesting ( ofc he's a liberal but more of the ‘government wants to control you and we gotta smash the patriarchy’ kinda vibes )

he was in a band for a couple years that really let him let out a lot of the angst and sadness he felt. he write most all their songs, and he didn’t really like being front and center but his friends kinda made him lead and said he was “good”. he still think they were fucking with him. 

after graduating he was kinda done with new york and wanted something else so he bought a bus ticket and took his guitar, his skateboard, and a backpack of his clothes, all the way to cali oooo ahhhh

which lead to the meme of punk boy gets job at build-a-bear. he hates it there but it pays the bills

he’s a couch hopper now !!! he’ll be damned if his bank account could support a place by himself in sand diego. he’s living the luch life of sleeping at other people’s homes wow what a life what a treat you get the angry punk boy in your house

he wants to start another band and just live his life like he’s been around for over a year, but he’s just trying to figure things out. maybe date a gil that doesn’t make him wanna barf. who knows. 

FUN FACTS ::

he has been a vegan for 3 threes n v proud of it

if you’re wondering abt ‘dating gross girls’ vibes, the only kind of girls jax seems to get are hot topic girls that listen to sleeping with sirens and think they get his music and say harley quinn and the joker are #goals and he Hates Them. but also he’s a young boy and likes getting laid

he has a vvvv soft spot for pretty girls who look glam and have pointy nails that could puncture his lung but he gets he’s kinda gross to them

jax iS KINDA GROSS THO. like almost always dirty hands and scrapes everywhere from skateboarding or moshing or, honestly who knows. he doesn’t always wash his hair. i mean thank god he smells ok bc his body literally matches the punk grunge vibes like he’s not smooth he’s not sexy. he’s a quiet angry boy in an acid wash jacket just trying to write sad songs about hating your gf

i have a connections page i will be cleaning up, and probably adding more too. he has stats here too. just give this a cute like and i’ll hit you up !!

[astrofireworks]

i raise u librarian!eunwoo 

so our resident nerd works in a library 

he’s the front librarian so he’s mostly in charge of administration and stuff at the front desk

meaning he has to deal with library patrons sometimes 

and that he also has to deal with his team 

i mean his team isn’t that bad, they’re mostly hella responsible 

namjoon works in the classics department and other than the fact that he sometimes knocks over stacks of books he’s a great right hand man

wonwoo works with the ya books and he’s a wonder at organising and snarking at namjoon

joshua works in the foreign language and he’s pretty quiet but so is eunwoo so they get along pretty well 

the children’s department, however, is a different story 

remember how his team is ~mostly~ responsible 

cue the children librarian 

hello kim myungjun

the noisiest bean eunwoo has ever met 

the worst thing is that myungjun’s intern eQUALLY NOISY AND IT DRIVES EUNWOO INSANE 

and by driving eunwoo insane he means that naturally all three of them best friends and eunwoo is in despair because he only wanted peace and quiet in his life but the universe decided to throw him mj and sanha and their sunshine smiles and their strange ways of worming themselves into everyone’s hearts and now he has to live with eternal screeching 

reference librarian leo constantly wants to murder them because they make sO MUCH NOISE but mj and sanha lock themselves in the children’s department and refuse to let anyone taller than sanha in because “if ur too tall u might scare the children!!!!” because they’re Actual Children, eunwoo swears 

he doesn’t fail to noticethe only person taller than sanha in this damn library is leo

when eunwoo whines about the feud going on namjoon just pats him on the shoulder and lopes off to join the self-help literature department librarian jin 

@ namjoon “thanks a lot hyung”

and so this is how eunwoo spends his days, juggling front desk duties and running interference between reference and children’s and shushing noisy library patrons

it’s a pretty normal job with a great team and at least it’s never boring

thanks a lot mj

like that time mj had to choose a book to read to the kids at Reading Time but couldn’t choose between two favourites and nearly broke down in tears 

but wonwoo just smacked him upside the head and handed him a third book 

crisis averted phew

until of course one day 

a short blonde man runs into the library and nearly doubles over panting and wheezing 

cue an alarmed eunwoo 

but it turns out there’s nothing wrONG he just needs like books like STAT 

eunwoo can do that 

and as jinjin rattles off a couple book names eunwoo searches them up and pages for mj 

why a grown-ass man is searching for so many children’s books with sUCH URGENCY eunwoo will probably never find out

but out comes mj and in they go to the children’s section 

and normally eunwoo turns back to his administrative duties 

but there’s still a shadow beside his administration desk 

that isn’t in a jinjin shape 

eunwoo looks up and blinks

and blinks again because sorry what is this man doing here

he’s dressed in all black and in a leather jacket and has the fiercest, grumpiest look on his face 

and is also holding a whole stack of children’s books

eunwoo blinks again 

what the hell is up with grown-ass men trying to find children’s books are they alright

this one is significantly less out of breath than the first man though so eunwoo just shrugs

i mean, he’s pretty cute

he accepts the books and library ID from the grumpy man and begins slowly checking them out, scanning each bar code and meticulously stamping the due date on the card at the back of the book

as he’s printing the receipt he peers at the man’s ID

‘moon bin’ it reads 

“so,,,, moon bin,,,,,” eunwoo starts carefully, 

“a big fan of children’s literature?”

and bin is startled and flushes red because??? there’s a reason why?????? he didn’t open his mouth???????? in the first place???????

and that reason is a dare by a lil shit currently sniggering outside the library 

jokes on you rocky because reason number 2 why bin doesn’t want to open his mouth is because he’s met literally The Most Beautiful man he has ever seen in his entire life 

it’s not as if he’s never been in the library before because like he hAs 

he lied he’s never been in this library before

just that he’s never seen this librarian before

in the softest blue sweater bin has ever seen with small sweater paws

and with the most adorable pair of thin metal-frame round glasses 

with the sweetest eye smile and the sweetest voice

bin thinks he might throw up

this man is beautiful and he’s staring too much 

“,,,,moon bin?”

“aH YES IT ME YES THAT’S ME YES” 

obvs he’s forgotten the question so eunwoo has to repeat it and bin is to embarrassed to reply right away

so he just stammers out a “yEah,,, my uh,,, friend,,,,,,,, yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, children’s literature yes”

and so eunwoo just shrugs because

the grumpy man is suddenly no longer like a grumpy cat when he’s embarrassed and?? his voice is kinda cute actually if eunwoo does say so himself

forget that he didn’t actually answer eunwoo’s question 

eunwoo doesn’t actually want to give this cute grumpy man back his books because it means he has to leave

but alas that blonde man is back with the noisy nuisance aka eunwoo’s best friend 

and sunshine boy mj is hitting it off with the blonde man and they’re whispering excitedly while giraffe sanha trails behind them like a lost puppy

eunwoo makes a mental note to remind mj sanha’s not his personal puppy and is in the library interning to acTUALLY LEARN SOMETHING 

and so he has to reluctantly hand bin’s books over 

as he scans jinjin’s books he overhears whispers between jinjin and mj 

mj: “ah so this is a dare? to see how many books you can borrow that start with your name??”

jinjin: “nah it just has to contain a word from my name?? and like we gotta see who has more books so i’m kinda lucky i got three words to work with, 박, 진 AND 우” 

eunwoo peers at the books in his stack

he’s right lmao all of jinjin’s books have all the words 박, 진 or 우

wait 

he peers at the check out history on his computer 

bin’s books all had 빈 or 문

oh

oH

mj: “well,, i hope u win, jinjin”

cue mj’s most blinding sunshine smile 

rip jinjin eunwoo’s so sorry he has to experience that smile 

mj only pulls it out when he’s trying to impress someone but it’s probably just blinding him

and jinjin looks appropriately dazed rip

he mutters a thank u and red-faced, takes the books from eunwoo and makes a bee-line for the door

and nearly crashes into the glass door because 1) he’s a klutz 2) i highly doubt he could see straight after that cute ass smile

and mj just sighs because “wow eunwoo wasn’t he adorable did you see his dimples i swear that was the cutest gu-”

“hyung lmao he lost”

“whAT”

“yeah his friend got like 2 more books”

“WHAT”

“yeah moon bin got like 10″

“W H A T”

helpful sanha: “we cleared the place of all the books with 박, 진 and 우 though”

“shit hyung please tell me you didn’t tear apart the children’s department”

“.,.,.,.,.”

“sanha,,,,,, please tell m-”

sanha: “i gotTA GO SUDDENLY”

“kim mYUNGJ U N CLEAN UP THE DEPARTMENT OR I SWEAR TO GOD”

rip mj 

he’s so lucky eunwoo loves him

namjoon just sniggers at him from the philosophy books because he’s a lil shit like that

eunwoo drops his head in his hands in despair

at least he got to meet a cute guy today though 

and so life goes on 

until the next day when a smol smol boy wearing a soft plaid shirt walks through the door 

eunwoo flashes a smile 

and then his eyes zero in on the books the boy is carrying

like half their children literature titles his library carries are in his arms

eunwoo narrows his eyes 

so this is the guy that made the dare 

rocky places his books on the counter and looks up at the librarian

woah

bin wasn’t lying when he came out of the library flushed red and stammering about an angel 

yeah this librarian is honestly one of the most handsome men he has ever met wow 

but said librarian is also giving him a death glare oops 

rip rocky

how can a greek statue look so menacing rocky isn’t quite sure 

he hurriedly produces a piece of paper from his pocket 

“ah,,,, so u met jinjin hyung and bin hyung,,,,”

eunwoo shifts the books from the counter to beside his computer

and doesn’t say a word 

“ahhh,,,,,, bin hyung also asked me to hand you this”

actually bin didn’t but rocky figures he doesn’t want to get on the librarian’s bad side i mean we all know what happens when u get on the bad side of an angel 

u die 

rocky doesn’t want to die so young

he scribbles down bin’s number on the piece of paper and hands it to a confused eunwoo before dashing out of the library

eunwoo slides his glasses further up his nose and peers at it

around the stack of books behind him namjoon and wonwoo also peer excitedly 

and eunwoo does that cute mouth-stretchy thing

you know the one i’m talking about the happy yawn laughing thing 

because he’s!! so!!!! excited!!!!!!!!!

a cute guy gave him his number!!!! 

i mean by proxy but still

outside rocky is endlessly relieved bc it looks like he can live another day 

until he remembers he gotta explain to bin why a random number will be texting him 

oops 

but when he tells bin this at dinner bin doesn’t react

which is kind of alarming

all bin does is freeze up and stop chewing and fall out of his chair 

which i guess is kind of alarming 

cue incomprehensible wailing through a mouthful of food

which i guess is more alarming 

rocky never expected that high a note come out of his hyung’s mouth especially not with that amount of food stuffed in his cheeks 

he lowkey wants to poke it to see how much is in there but jinjin gets there first

“bin ur mouth might explode”

“mouths don’t explode that easily” (through that mouthful of rice)

but then he starts wailing again because soft sweater paws round glasses eye smile angel has his number and might text him any time and his brain cANNOT HANDLE THAT

but by the time jinjin and him get bin off the floor and back onto his chair bin’s phone pings

because mj and sanha have gotten hold of the piece of paper rocky left eunwoo and have spent half the day endlessly into crafting The Perfect Message 

they even got jin and namjoon to vet it for them that’s how serious they are about setting eunwoo up 

and just to shut the terror twins up eunwoo agrees to send it because hell he doesn’t know if bin might reply anyway and asdjfhlkj he still lowkey can’t believe bin gave him his number

although he’s right in not believing it anyway bc it was rocky who did it but 

he sends it

cue more incomprehensible wailing from bin and him falling off his chair again with a mouth full of rice 

because when rocky picks up bin’s phone and reads the text all it says is 

“coffee tomorrow at 4? - librarian, cha eunwoo”

okay rocky admits he squealed a bit too

it’s okay rocky so did i

death by binu isn’t that bad a way to go i gUESS

[operationrainfall]

​

Title Yakuza Kiwami Developer Sega Publisher Sega Release Date August 29, 2017 Genre Action-adventure Platform PS4 Age Rating Mature Official Website

With the success of Ryu ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho, or simply Yakuza 0 in the West, Sega went further in celebrating the 10th anniversary for the series by re-releasing Ryu ga Gotoku or Yakuza as almost like an expansion. This time, not as an HD Remaster like the one released prior on the PS3, but a full blown remake with the same engine used for Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin and Yakuza 0. Bringing forth improved visuals texture and character models, frame rate, combat, and new added content which includes expanding portions of the story like the transformation of Kiryu’s sworn brother Nishiki from an ally into an antagonist. Since the HD Remaster never made it to Western shores and given how dated the first game can feel, it made perfect sense with 0 being a prequel and a new good starting point for those who wanted to dive into the franchise without dusting off their PS2s. With how well Yakuza 0 fared, how does the remake of such a classic stand up with these benefit of these new mechanics and added content?

Yakuza Kiwami begins 7 years after the events of Yakuza 0, with Kiryu now considered a rising star at this point who continued serving under the Dojima family banner. After doing the usual rounds of collecting debt money, Kiryu meets up with his old friends Nishiki and Yumi at Reina’s bar in celebration for his new future prospects. As the day goes by, Kiryu goes to visit the head of the Kazama family and his foster father, Shintaro Kazama, to catch up. Before they can go into details, Kiryu gets a call that Dojima kidnapped Yumi in his usual drunken haze and Nishiki was going after him. Knowing things would get bad, Kiryu rushes to Dojima’s office only to arrive too late with the sight of Dojima lying dead from Nishiki shooting him in self-defense. Knowing what fate his friend would face as a consequence of murdering one’s family head, Kiryu decides to take the fall and goes to jail in his place. Ten years pass and things have only gotten worse for the Tojo clan as the clan’s fortune has been stolen and the Third Chairman of the clan, Sera, turns up dead the day after it was discovered. If that was not enough, during the 10 years Kiryu found out that Yumi disappeared without a trace. After being released, Kazuma heads back to Kamurocho to help his foster father and locate his childhood friend and old flame Yumi, as well as protect a little girl named Haruka who shares a strange connection to Yumi.

For its time, the game’s plot was riveting and had just enough twists and turns to keep me interested with a well-rounded cast from all walks of life. Some of the twists haven’t aged that well, but some have been given a much-needed update to make them a little more believable. At the end of every chapter now, we get a glimpse of how Nishiki went from being a lowly officer to eventually becoming a villain. While I wished we had more to go on like his sister, I’m glad we got something as the original game presented us with friends with a long history but that was something we never got to experience until Yakuza 0. Even Yumi got some love with an entirely new section in the first chapter dealing with her birthday and Kiryu going out of the way to get a ring for her. It feels like padding but it was funny and emotional enough that I felt it was worth putting in. On the other hand, the additions to what they did for Majima I personally believe were not only unnecessary and hurt the narrative a bit but felt unwarranted. I won’t dwell on it, but they introduced a new game mechanic called the “Majima Everywhere” system that rears its head in the game’s plot. It is what it is, fan service and nothing but. It’s good to flesh out the beginning of the game with how he wants to test Kiryu’s convictions, but was it really necessary for him to get severely injured not once but twice just so you can justify his presence for this game mechanic, only for him to be taken out of commission just before the last story boss fight, when in the first game his early injury did just that? It’s superfluous and beyond stupid. Is it nice that they answered why Majima was obsessed with fighting Kiryu, something that the original game and the prequel Yakuza 0 skimmed over. Hell, not even the sequel Yakuza 2 ever explained it. But is it a good idea to shove this character in my face far more often even when it’s not necessary when it could have instead used that time for other characters? No.

When it comes to the Yakuza games, it’s the standard drill, a beat ’em up action game where you run around doing side stories with many random encounters to beat random punks to level your character with many little excursion possibilities sprinkled throughout the city in the form of mini-games, all the while continuing the plot at your own leisure. Speaking of mini-games, there are plenty though not too many new additions except the return of Pocket Racer with a few familiar faces now all grown up and the rock paper scissor style Cat Fights now with more depth and less frustration in the form of an arcade game called Mesu King; all the women now dressed up as insects and its pretty enjoyable and hilarious with all of its quirks. As for the meat of the game, the game is essentially Yakuza 1 with 0‘s skin, in both the game’s engine and combat system. Kiryu’s three styles from Yakuza 0 are back with of course the Dragon of Dojima style being available from the get go but with a unique twist. Since the bubble era is over, the game returns back to the old style of leveling mirroring the original game. You obtain experience through random fights, eating and finishing sub stories, with 78 in all, under 3 categories with the sphere grid system from Ishin and Yakuza 0 returning for Kiryu’s returning three styles. The aforementioned unique twist comes in the form the previously mentioned Majima Everywhere system, which is more negative than positive and holds the game back.

The fourth sphere grid doesn’t use any experience and instead, each orb has criteria to fulfill which unlocks the abilities for the fourth style, the Dragon of Dojima. When Kiryu left prison after 10 years, he has lost all of his abilities, which include his trademark style, so instead of just continuing on as normal at the beginning of chapter 2 like the original game, you instead bump into Majima who starts a fight and beats Kiryu easily. Not being happy with how weak Kiryu has become he offers to follow Kiryu around and pick a fight by any means. Hence the name “Majima Everywhere” he will literally be everywhere, in a trunk of a car, under a giant traffic cone, he will sneak behind you from an alley way, dress up as a cop to stop and frisk you etc. That’s not all, he will even go as far as to challenge you in several of the game’s minigames, like Pocket Racing, bowling, darts, you name it. I will admit, it at times was entertaining seeing Majma going out of his way to dress up even as a Hostess and the game just goes with it and you play the mini game like normal, dropping some references here and there from the multiple games and the ranking specific events were hilarious. However, to go up said ranks to unlock more abilities you need to fight him a lot and I mean a lot, specifically to obtain all the abilities from Majima’s side, with a few obtained from Komaki’s training, meaning you will have to fight Majima a whopping 50 times. That includes the fights in the story as well and others that are by pure accident as he will continue to hound you on the streets at any and all times. It’s repetitive, at times frustrating as his health grows exponentially and if he so sneaks up on you in his frequent hot spots, you must fight. So I hope you are willing to lay the smack down for another 5 to 10 minutes every time or just load up a save.

More Kiwami on Page 2 ->

Making a great remake isn’t easy, as this game proves that even with good intentions, sometimes added content can be detrimental and hurt the overall product, especially ones that are so tied to the game mechanics and in this rare case as well as the story. Majima Everywhere is when fan service goes too far and becomes more fan disservice — I honestly don’t want to fight Majima for a long time and I don’t expect seeing myself replaying this version of the first game all that often because of this. The first game is dated, yes there is no denying it, but what I loved about it and subsequent releases after was how well they were paced. I can play the story and do most of the sub stories with a mixture of random encounters and my Kiryu will get maxed stats and all abilities outside of training. While this thankfully applies to the other styles, the same can not be said of the style that Kiryu used for the entirety of the original game and subsequent later installments. It’s just not enjoyable having to grind boss battles and fight a character who gradually obtains more and more health bars thus making the grind even more painful unlike the side quests in Yakuza 0 which felt more natural and flowed better. Yes the developer’s are unapologetic and know they have a smaller budget to work with and reuse assets including the game’s engine and fans realize it and accept the games for what they are, as do I. This terrible decision though was self inflicted — they chose to put something this dull into the equation in the name of fan service and it boggles my mind. Another thing I noticed was the bosses now having been overhauled and now with entirely new move sets, which makes sense, but the problem is that they’re all mostly recycled from other bosses in the franchise. This isn’t entirely new, one instance of this was the moves and animations of one of the Yakuza 5 bosses Okita and reusing the majority of them again for Majima’s Dancer style; but that was it, a few instances, not an entire line up. It just screams laziness rather than being their usual efficient selves as a development team.

When Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan hit the scene, they added to the series a kind of boss exclusive QTE heat moves and Yakuza 3 followed up with “Feel the Heat” for boss context sensitive heat moves which were somewhat similar. I bring this up because now after so long they come back to an idea similar to those for this title with “Climax Heat” and it came with questionable results. There is nothing more frustrating or just plain annoying than seeing a boss regenerate health. Well in Kiwami each boss, ranging from mid-bosses to simply a strong opponent, has a chance to do just that, multiple times even. Usually, after taking down a health bar down or two from them, they will activate a color coded aura where they will begin to regenerate. To stop this you either use a weapon heat move or a Style Heat Move that corresponds with the color. The problem? Even on Normal the health regeneration can be very quick with them gaining almost an entire health bar back as you switch styles. If you don’t have enough Heat you’re pretty much going to have to either consume an item you carry on yourself that boosts your heat bar or pummel the enemy to gain enough heat, just to possibly get enough damage in so they didn’t regenerate too much health that you just scraped off. Sometimes the prompt just refused to show up and I had to position myself differently to activate it but that allowed them to gain even more health back. It’s a beyond god awful gimmick and it makes Hard difficulty and above unbearable at times.

When the game was released in Japan I heard complaints that the game suffered at times from frame rate dips, and while the game does stutter at times when exploring Kamurocho with a bit of screen tearing, the combat is silky smooth 60 fps with them implementing its updates upon its western release and I’m very thankful. When it came to cutscenes I noticed some updates not just for some new lines to fit the narrative, but even it even updated some of the voice acting which is nice; though the cutscenes themselves are a different story. Being faithful is one thing, but barely updating them shows a lack of effort, and it felt awkward as they just updated the textures and lip-syncing for the old cutscenes but the new ones have far better animation and pacing to them. When it comes to the music, the Ryu ga Gotoku franchise as a whole always delivered and went hand and hand with its gameplay to such a degree that it was ingrained into it and I cannot say the same for these remixes which I honestly felt either were too overproduced or in some fashion butchered them. The long time composer of the series, Hidenori Shoji was tasked in blending multiple musical genres with a modern feel for the game’s 2005 city setting. Doing so masterfully with mixing, hip hop, RNB, rap, rock, heavy metal and jazz to morph into some of the most contemporary and toe tapping music an action beat ’em up could ever have asked for and still feel like a video game soundtrack at its finest. The remix tracks replace real instruments what sounds like for synchronizers and dub step bulldozing what made the tracks not only fitting tone wise but thematically to the scenarios. It’s not all bad, some tracks like the remix for Unrest is fine and the remix for id was serviceable albeit being a departure, but the remixes for say the Funk Goes On and Intelligence For Violence are just terrible. On a side note, not surprising anyone, the licensed tracks are sadly gone, which include the main theme of the game Receive You which was done not in-house but collaborated with an actual famed band in Japan so it didn’t make the cut which I feel was a blow to the game, as it fit Kiryu and served as in introduction to the game perfectly.

Yakuza (2005)

Yakuza Kiwami (2017)

My complaints boil down to poorly thought out new gimmicks and the lack of effort; it’s apparent that this was a quick cash grab, not of the soulless corporate type but of what their general focus was on creative wise. Their development apparatus was clearly being more fully committed to Ryu ga Gotoku 6, or Yakuza 6, and its new engine then it was on for this remake. It’s not a terrible remake, no, but a disappointing one. Doesn’t help matters when one of the series usual strengths, its soundtrack, drops the ball and only makes the above issues I had just seem worse. New fans will likely be satisfied with the low price of $29.99, with this being their first experience of the first game that was chronologically released. As an old fan that played the original, I felt it accommodated me enough but wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been and needed more time to either fix the rough edges, add a bit more content or at least more effort to where the game needed. For the 60 hours I played, I got around 90% of the completion list done and still need to replay it on the hardest setting, so you are getting your bang for your buck. I can only hope that the recently announced remake for Yakuza 2, Ryu ga Gotoku Kiwami 2, will fare better as I hold the second entry in high esteem and near and dear to my heart.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Yakuza Kiwami ​ Title Yakuza Kiwami