#might try to reuse parts of it later

[rapono-writes-stuff]

BONUS:

Unfinished scenes from "Snap my neck with care" that were sadly scrapped due to issues with pacing and/or tone, but I still liked:

(#1 alt intro)

You want to go home.

It’s the one thought rattling around in your head with any clarity, among the cacophony of anxiety. Body high-strung and tense, radio clenched tightly in one fist, flashlight in the other. It flickers, for just a moment, but it’s enough to make your heart leap with a jolt of fear.

The light stabilized, and no monsters emerged, no footsteps or creaking vents. Your body sags with exhausted relief, tense shoulders slumping, as you allow yourself a moment of weakness.

-------

(#2 hand holding)

Curious, you grabbed at one of the hands holding you, the Bracken hesitant before it let you, your two hands gently holding its one.

Big, so much bigger than yours. It was hard to feel much through your thick gloves, but you still touched and explored. The long thinness of the fingers were deceptive of their strength, tipped in sharp claws you gently poked at.

-------

(#3 protective panic)

The sound of invertebrate footsteps broke the peace, as you raised your head to look, spotting a hoarding bug poke its head out the doorway.

You didn’t get to react before the Bracken moved. Your only warning was feeling its body tense against you, before it shoved you forward, underneath its chest, claws digging into the carpeted floor. It glared at the bug as its leaves rattled rapidly with fury, and sound that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck, the sound you heard before a coworker who stared a moment too long, had their neck broken in front of you. You'd heard the snap, a gurgle, before he was gone.

The bug scurried away quickly with a chirp, as your breath hitched

[kloofspeaks]

The Creation of a Physical Copy of Coming Home (But Not to You) - The complete summary

Since, I promised I would update this as soon as I started working on it and boy, has it been several hours of me trying to learn how to use Microsoft word, hundreds of songs in my Jayvik playlist and perhaps, a small minor emotional breakdown. I have gotten Coming Home (But Not to You) formatted for bookbinding.

I hope @lesbianherald knows that they have not only written about 678 pages of a glorious and beautiful story but when in book format, that comes out to be 340 pages which is bigger than Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (which.. you out wrote him twice). I swear, I promised to update you and that’s literally all I have besides a minor practice signature before I venture out to find a book suitable to hold the piece and paper that looks a tad more vintage.

The first draft pages in word looked like this, this was also MY final concept before I went out of my way to make a little page design in procreate. (Featured later)

The Artist featured also gave me permission to use this for this personal project. Please, check them out with this link here: X (their art is gorgeous)

[Written January 3rd, 2025]

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

Okay, we’ve settled on some covers. Might be wondering why I didn’t want to make one from scratch? I didn’t want to weather it, personally. It’s a lot more work and the threading and binding itself is going to take most of my time. I’m working on A4 (Actually, it ended up being smaller than A4 at about 11 by 8.25 but when folded it’s 5.5 by 8.25) paper format, having to adjust my measurements as we go because they were drastically different in the word document. I edited some of the features of the pages and actually sketched out a design for my Cricut to use for the cover and chapter page emblems for just a little personal flare!

I actually went to the thrift store and broke apart books that werent in use to provide me a proper book board because the ones I had were too thick! Reuse and recycle, baby! (All for the power of Jayvik)

A little thing about this project is that I actually bought weathered paper for this! Yeah, that.. it didn’t end up coming LMAO. I did buy some book corners for some metal flare. The hexcore design I drew out, myself, in procreate and also cut out in Cricut (thank you, TikTok tutorials).

A little fact as well; I haven’t bookbinded in 3 years! My books when I started were actually GOD awful— which is also part of why I chose a base book frame because that was my biggest weakness when it came to this. The binding itself was actually the easiest part to me when I started! I kid you not, I did very much come out of retirement because of Jayvik. I wanted a physical book I could mark and leave notes on, so why not make it myself? I’m extremely thankful, I got permission to do this and plan on doing this with another one of my favorite Jayvik fanfictions once it is completed, so perhaps… maybe. I don’t know, after I had gotten all the signatures out I had realized that the book covers used WERE TOO SMALL! This is the book before pressing for over 48 hours and in a middle of a snowstorm!

[Written on January 6th, 2025]

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

And the book is binded! I had used wax thread which is already thicker and way more durable and actually made for bookbinding. It has already had about two layers of glue on the binding but I tend to do about four just for extra strength and protection. It should be going in the book in about a day or two, which will lead to the final update of this!

It took me about three well-spread out days, six hours of actual sewing and teaching myself how to use a curved needle without violently stabbing my skin but I was able to get the box-stitch in.. I tried to even out the layers as I had binded too fast in one part and two signatures ended up being uneven, whoops. I fixed that with a tap of a literal hammer (No pun intended) but this was truly an experience. The parts with the open black page on front is when the stitching was glued and the book pages were placed on. This also meant I had the actual book for it to sit in ready. Which was crazy to think about.

Would you believe me if I told you I measured this all by eye and had to cut the pages four different ways to make this book actually become a book. The next paragraphs will be glamor shots. Thank you for sticking with me— encouraging me on this because of my LACK of experience in this entire field and prayers for my poor fingers.

[Written on January 13th, 2025]

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

And we’re here, it’s finished and settled. Here are the glamor shots. I do plan on doing more bookbinding in the future as I DID enjoy the process but folding and making signatures will forever be my enemy. Here’s the glamor shots and underneath the cut is all my reactions and build up to finishing this monster of a book.

A couple things, I never want to do this again. If I ever do a fanfiction THIS big again. I’m spilting it into two books, perhaps even three depending on how big it is. The symbol on the front is the Piltover symbol, I tried to find Jayce’s Talis house symbol and THERES NOTHING, I literally tried drawing and everything. My Cricut didn’t want to cut it and trust me, I tried for over three hours with the symbol.

What only matters is that I think it’s cute. I think the simplicity and mix of tears added to the final design a lot more than I thought it would.

If I ever do this again. (Knowing me, I will.) I plan on revisiting this, probably make another version when I have more bookbinding knowledge under my belt LMAO, but enjoy this lengthy post. I’m now going to go to bed.

Also huge shout out to my Zelda art book for being my primary book press for this entire thing. I really need a book press.

[Finished, January 14th at 12:08 AM, 2025]

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

The Chapter 4 Essay Part 1: Kokichi Ouma

A metapost on my thoughts on Kokichi’s overall motivations and Gonta’s actions during ch4. Split into two parts. You can find the Gonta half here: (LINK)

I think the way Kokichi acts when he’s telling the truth says something crucial about his personality. When he’s telling the genuine truth, his expression becomes carefully neutral.

(post trial, chapter 1)

To me, it feels like he’s trying very hard to keep this face of neutrality. Normally, he’s able to expertly express any emotion that he wants to. In these moments, its almost like the emotion he’s feeling is so overpowering that he’s trying to repress it in order to maintain control over the face he presents to everyone else, but isn’t quite able to do so.

Kokichi is very careful about keeping people from seeing the parts of himself that he doesn’t choose to show. His villain persona and constant lying is part of this- He wants to keep people away from him. During the events of the killing game, he uses the distance that he creates in many ways. Part of it was that not having many close alliances allowed him to go off and do whatever he wanted during daily life. This let him explore the school and investigate the truth of the killing game without interruption or much attention. Lying also gave him distance between the game and himself. Pretending that the killing game was fun might’ve been his way to cope with everything that was happening. I think Kokichi is really damn good at separating himself from his emotions, lying to himself to do what he thinks needs to be done. This line from Chapter 1 is pretty telling…

(post trial, chapter 1)

This was also something he says himself to Kaito in the exisal hanger during chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

I’m inclined to believe everything that Kokichi says to Kaito in the exisal hanger. As Kiibo says when Kaito questions it, “I think his dying words may have been the honest truth.” Knowing he was about the die, and that he absolutely needed Kaito’s help to get his plan to break the killing game to work- to achieve his genuine, true goal- I don’t see any reason for him to lie.

This emotional distance extends past just the killing game. I think it's a key part of how he interacts with others around him.

Kokichi is an ultimate leader. I think he uses his talent throughout the game in an attempt to “lead” everyone from the shadows. He wanted to stop the killing game and escape with as many people as possible. However, his methods are very ends-justify-the-means. I believe that he did genuinely care about everyone at the ultimate academy, but in the detached way a distant king might care about his subjects. On the other hand, if he had to use or sacrifice a few as pawns for the greater good, that is what had to be done. It’s not like it didn’t emotionally affect him, but I think he was deliberately trying to keep his distance so that it would not impact him as much, and so that he could continue trying to tear the killing game apart with as many tools in his arsenal as possible.

(post trial, chapter 5)

With this core motivation in mind, this brings us to Chapter 4.

In my opinion, the Killing Game Busters was never a plan that was meant to succeed. From an in-game perspective, the idea that he was originally going to follow this mercy kill plan doesn’t make sense to me. Firstly, Kokichi already had suspicions that they were being watched as early as chapter 3.

(post trial, chapter 3)

…and he later confirms that he was fully convinced of this fact when Monokuma agreed to reuse the chapter 4 motive in the virtual world.

(post trial, chapter 5)

He knew that this killing game was for somebody else’s entertainment. I’ll go a bit into the secret of the outside world in a moment, but considering this, I don’t think he ever fully believed in it. Choosing to mercy kill everyone, in the name of a “truth” that was incompatible with what he had discovered… just doesn’t make sense to me.

Not to mention, from a narrative standpoint, I think the idea that he was completely for this mercy kill plan, decided to throw out the plan mid-trial, and then start an entirely different plan to end the killing game in chapter 5, isn’t very compelling. It weakens Kokichi’s overall character by making his motivation less cohesive and making him seem less organized over all, which I think is one of his strengths as a character. A Kokichi that is this fickle with what he’s trying to do would not have been able to write the script for chapter 5.

I think he always had different goals in mind with the Killing Game Busters. The first was something that is made very clear in chapter 5, but started here in chapter 4: He wanted to stop the killing to give himself room to break the game while minimizing deaths. The second was to further villainize himself, for all the reasons I talked about above, and some more I will get into in a little bit.

Seeing the secret of the outside world was undoubtably disturbing, regardless of whether he believed it or not; there is a noticeable shift in how Kokichi acts before and after he swipes that card key. Combined with discovering that Miu, someone he’d been working with closely, was planning on murdering him, I believe that seeing the destruction of the outside world pushed him towards more drastic measures than what he had been doing in previous chapters. He decided that in order for his plan in chapter 5 to work (which he had almost certainly already been planning at this point, considering how elaborate it was), he needed to make everyone question if pursuing the truth was the right thing to do at all.

After Miu’s body discovery, nobody was really worried about losing this class trial. Everyone had seen how Shuichi had guided them all to the truth and caught the blackened three times in a row, despite the unique difficulties in each case. They had full confidence in his abilities.

(investigation, chapter 4)

Shuichi is also not really doubting his abilities as a detective anymore. One of Shuichi’s core internal conflicts is his fear of the consequences of revealing the truth. Up to this point, it seems like he’s been moving past it. Especially after catching Korekiyo “Actual Serial Killer” Shinguji, who had no regrets or grey motivation for his killings. Shuichi’s morale, and subsequently everyone else’s, was at an all time high. (Of course, he was starting to feel a lot of pressure to solve these cases and save everyone on his own… but that’s another issue. ily Shuichi)

If Kokichi could take the wind out of Shuichi’s sails, really destroy the confidence he had built up so far, he could set up his impossible trial in chapter 5 to be more likely to work as intended. Everyone will be less motivated to try and figure out what happened if they are uncertain that finding the truth would actually result in anything good.

And I do believe he was trying to knock Shuichi off balance specifically. Damaging his confidence is one thing, but he was also deliberately trying to drive a wedge between him and Kaito. He antagonizes Kaito all chapter 4 investigation, including making up a nickname for Shuichi (“Shumai”) that directly riffs off Kaito’s closeness with Maki. He insists into the trial that he and Shuichi are partners now.

(class trial, chapter 4)

(Sidenote: Kokichi’s behaviour during trial 4 is genuinely really interesting to me. On top of the direct digs like this, he says a lot more subtle things to get under Kaito’s skin during trial 4 that I think are super neat to pay attention to.)

Theoretically, pushing Kaito away from Shuichi, combined with the powerlessness he’ll feel in the wake of the truth of both trial 4 and the outside world, could make him easier to convince to join Kokichi’s “side”. He even directly asks Shuichi to team up with him before leaving the virtual world:

(daily life, Chapter 4)

This leads me to believe that Shuichi was originally the one that Kokichi intended to use to build his impossible trial. I mean, if Shuichi was the one in the exisal hanger and presumed dead instead of Kaito, the chances of everyone else solving that mystery drops Significantly. Everyone else, aside from maybe Kiibo, was 100% convinced that Kokichi was the mastermind at that point. No one except Shuichi would’ve tried to dig as deep as he did, for better or for worse. I think this idea is supported by the note that Kokichi wrote next to Shuichi’s face on the whiteboard in his room (“trustworthy?”). He was clearly considering Shuichi as a person for one reason or another, and I believe this is it.

By condemning Gonta, who everyone else perceived as a kind soul who would never hurt anybody, someone who was struggling to understand what the virtual world even was with his amnesia, would be perceived by the others as kicking someone when they were down. Gonta has an absolutely miserable time through the accusations and wholly blames himself for how things turned out in the end. That, and Gonta’s actions were even well-intentioned. The secret of the outside world was apparently so horrible, Gonta thought it would be kinder to mercy kill everyone rather than force them to face it. This result would make everyone question if the truth was really as undoubtably good as they had come to think so far; Not only did Gonta suffer because they had to find the truth, but seeking the secret of the outside world would apparently also only lead to suffering. This would make them hesitate during Kokichi’s impossible trial.

(class trial, chapter 4)

As I said before, Kokichi’s second goal for trial 4 was villainizing himself even further. He says that this was a goal himself to Kaito in chapter 5.

(post trial, chapter 5)

Part of this villainization was just adding to the persona he had already created for himself and that I already talked about his motivations for before. The other part was what he says here. He specifically wanted everyone to think that he was the mastermind. This gave him leverage in two main ways. First, making himself appear to be the mastermind with an actual mastermind as hands off as Tsumugi genuinely gave him power over everyone else. He used this in chapter 5 to put a pause to the killings and give himself more room to enact his plan to break the killing game from the inside.

(daily life, chapter 5)

Although he then says “You guys can commit suicide together or kill each other… / Or, you can change your mind and stay here! You’re welcome to do that too!”, having experienced the secret of the outside world already, I think he’s pretty confident in what they will be feeling in this moment. No one is going to kill each other, and he knows that. He wants them to take that second option for the time being while he sets up his plot.

Making himself appear like the mastermind also benefited his impossible trial plan directly. Everyone would be much more likely to vote for someone they were convinced was the mastermind rather than one of their friends. No one would suspect that it was really him that was the victim.

“Using Gonta and making him into a murderer” was a significant part of how he villainized himself, but the way he treated Gonta during this whole experience was also a major factor. Starting as early as just after Miu was killed, he begins to be really aggressively mean to Gonta. He just straight up bullies him throughout the second half of the trial.

(daily life, chapter 4)

(class trial, chapter 4)

And then, after all this, he acts remorseful and sides himself with Gonta at the very end. It isn't genuine emotion like he felt before Kaede's execution, shown by his neutral expression. To me, this uncharacteristically open expression of grief feels like it was just set up to exacerbate the impact of his cruelty after Gonta’s execution. At this point, everybody’s little faith in Kokichi has been shaken significantly. With the shock of the trial, maybe you Could start to believe they were on the same side, as a team. Then, at the reveal of the extent of Kokichi’s manipulation, that is all ripped painfully away again.

(post trial, chapter 4)

(post trial, chapter 4)

Even if these parts of trial 4 make my stomach turn, I don’t want to imply that Kokichi is completely cold-hearted and unfeeling. Actually, I think there were multiple moments in chapter 4 that show him struggling to regulate his emotions and keep face around everyone else while he enacted this plan.

1: I don’t think Kokichi initially planned to make the reveal that Gonta was the killer as dramatic (or frankly, a bit traumatic) as it ended up being. He had been carrying himself a certain way during the first half of the trial, and I think Shuichi lying to his face in front of everyone about Kokichi’s own alibi dramatically changed his attitude. I mean, Shuichi lied (as he had done almost every trial and gotten 0 flack for) and Tsumugi even called him out on it, but everyone believed him over Kokichi anyways. So when Kokichi lies, it’s completely inexcusable, even though he’s been working tirelessly on his own trying to save everyone?* But when SHUICHI lies, and gets caught in it, people go along with him? They don’t doubt their trust in him for even a second? This double standard infuriated him. It’s at this point that he completely shifts in energy. If Shuichi, no, everyone, is going to disrespect him like this, he was going to make them suffer for it.

(class trial, chapter 4)

2: Kokichi only goes full villain after Kaito says “Kokichi, If you really cared for Gonta, explain yourself to everyone” in the post trial. I think that even though he was always going to paint himself as the villain, he was legitimately affected by the things that had just happened (Gonta’s death, Miu’s attempted murder, the secret of the outside world, even if he knew it wasn’t real) and what he’d just done. Even if he was trying hard not to be. The sudden shift he has from not saying anything to cackling about how little he cared about Gonta feels to me like he was kicking himself back into gear after trying to process some genuinely difficult emotions. 3: After Kokichi punches Kaito down, and everyone completely ignores him in favour of helping Kaito up, Shuichi says these iconic words to Kokichi: “Kaito always has us by his side, see? But no one wants to be around you. / You’re alone, Kokichi. And you always will be.” Kokichi responds like this:

(Post-trial, chapter 4)

There’s something about the way he cuts himself off, pauses, and then his mask falls. I think Shuichi’s words got to him more than he wanted them to. Honestly, Kokichi’s attitude towards cooperation, keeping everyone at arm’s length, and insisting (to himself) that he (as a leader) must fix the killing game completely on his own just seems so lonely to me. Even if he is intentionally trying to alienate himself and get everyone to hate him, being so viscerally cut into like this must have hurt. Especially from someone he was trying to work to get onto his side. It’s no wonder he quickly left after this moment.

This is what I think drove Kokichi in chapter 4. He’s a leader who wants to “lead” his classmates into safety, but he isn’t afraid to use underhanded, cruel tactics if he thinks it will get him ahead in the game for the greater good. He viscerally represses his emotions in order to keep himself going and keep everyone else away from him. He tried to destroy Shuichi’s confidence and drive a wedge between him and Kaito to get him on his side for his plan. He used and made Gonta into a murderer to villainize himself and discourage everyone else from seeking the truth.

Whenever I imagine Kokichi on his own, out of the spotlight of the Audience or the eyes of his castmates, he’s never as expressive as he is in the open. I think in reality, Kokichi is a pretty depressed and lonely person. His clownish personality isn’t entirely a facade, and outside of a killing game scenario, I think he would act pretty similarly to how he does in game. But I do think that he uses it as a mask for his true emotions. While I feel like the “evil villain” persona is a genuine part of Kokichi’s personality, outside of the killing game he probably doesn’t act on it as deeply as he does in-game. I also think Kokichi struggles with letting people become close to him, even without anything on the line. The killing game just caused him to lean into these aspects of his personality hard, and in potentially the worst ways.

*I feel like here it’s important to mention that personally, I still think the collateral damage he caused in his attempts to stop the killing game matters. A lot. I don’t think he should be excused for the things he did, even if he had good intentions. This makes him a really interesting, morally grey character, and I like that about him. EDIT: I can't believe I have to add this, but please do not use this essay as ammunition for harassing people who ship ougoku… I don't agree with doing that at all. I hope I made it clear that I find Kokichi to be a complex character whose mistreatment of Gonta was never targeted, and more just an aspect how how he isolated himself and how he manipulated others to end the killing game, even if it caused suffering to them in the moment. Kokichi cares about everyone in the ultimate academy, in his own weird, detached way. He's not completely heartless nor is he an abusive monster. And even if none of that was the case, it's never an excuse to harass people for disagreeing with you. Please be cool!! Thanks <3

[rius-cave]

Ok, hear me out.

Charlie uses the sticker system to get the others to do chores around the hotel. Why? You might ask.

No, its not because Charlie thought it was cute and fun, (though that is a bonus) its because its the only way they get Adam to do a full good job on his stuff.

Like at the start of it Adam was like 'Yeah whatever, I'm not gonna clean shit just to get a stupid sticker' and after he finished a chore a few hours later and showed Charlie (it was not a good job in the slightest) she just smiled and gave him a sticker and the ADHD part of Adam's brain was like:

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

STICKER!

(No, but thats how my Mom used to get me to do things)

But when he did another half assed job, Charlie told him to finish it and THEN she would give him a sticker.

So the only logical thing for Adam to do was drop the chore for a bit because "this is fucking stupid" and he mostly forgot about it, until later when he walked past the room he was working on and his brain was like 'we could still get that sticker' he brushes it off and goes to do something else.

But he can't stop thinking about it now, so he eventually folds and goes back to finish the chore.

There is now a sticker cork board in Adam and Lucifer's room that's just, fucking over flowing with stickers.

This trick also works on Angel, so I can imagine those two fighting over chores in the house to get a stupid pun sticker for their room.

safsdjhgdsfsd that's funny and cute, I dig it. To reuse a meme someone sent me once, *slaps Adam* this man can fit so much desperation for praise and validation. Any kind of affirmation or praise is like a drug to him, especially in Heaven. He'll try to fight it, and pretend he doesn't care, especially about Charlie's approval, but fuck if it doesn't feel good.

[alexanderwales]

I regularly play a fair amount of games that have some kind of design element to them, either management games, automation games, or city builders. One of the things I find interesting is how much and in what way they encourage aesthetically pleasing designs, since this is an extremely difficult game design problem for a few reasons.

There's the "well what even is aesthetically pleasing" problem. If you want the game to calculate this, you have to have some kind of metric for it, and my intuition is that you don't want the game to calculate this. Instead, you want the game to play in such a way that pretty designs are naturally created by the play in their quest to play well, offering a kind of intrinsic reward.

And when I think about all the games I've played that have done this well, I think Factorio might be one of the ones where I naturally gravitate toward pretty designs. One of the reasons for this is just that designs are repeatable, easy to move, easy to correct, and generally come from attempting to maximize throughput and minimize resources spent. You get these nice long clean, tileable designs without even trying too hard, and if you look at it later, and it's complete spaghetti, you know that you've made any problems down the line harder to diagnose and correct.

Compare this to something like Two Point Museum, a game I'm currently playing, where you're encouraged to place similar things in clusters together, and to make some kind of "flow" through your museum to maximize how much each guest gets to see, but which also has this "decoration need" element slapped onto it that encourages you to slap down random "decorations" all over the place, which tends to look awful if you're playing at all optimally (either maximizing your own time spent, or maximizing decoration power per dollar). And it does seem like you're encouraged to make thing maximally cramped as well, too much stuff in too small an area, when ideally, aesthetically, you would let your big important displays have room to breathe. It's also difficult to move things, owing to how they designed their systems, and you can reuse rooms but maybe not quite enough for my tastes.

I think my ideal game with some design elements would have the aesthetically pleasing result just baked into how the game is played, which seems very difficult if you also want the gameplay to be simple and elegant and clean.

I played a good bit of Amazing Cultivation Simulator, and had kind of hoped that it would have some kind of solution: that feng shui would be part of the core of the game, woven into it at such an elemental level that you'd wind up with good-looking rooms while trying to achieve ultimate power. And I never really did end up making any room in that game look anything other than awful.

But I do think there's something there, some way to design a game such that "looking good" is very much baked into how it's played.

[fullofgutsndopamine]

all the earth around me (around you)

or: a drunk confession

tw: drinking

part of wcbah universe. not required reading, but you might enjoy it if you liked this.

charlie doesn’t drink.

this is a known fact, one of the first things you’ve learned about him.

he’ll say it’s too damn expensive to drink, or it all tastes like bread water anyways, while the truth is covered in the corner: he’s seen what alcohol can do, how it can turn you into someone you aren’t, betraying yourself.

So when charlie comes over as your outside, getting clothing down from the clothesline, a storm brewing on the horizon you aren’t sure what to expect.

“charlie?” you can’t hide the smile when you see him, “what’s up?”

and like, you didn’t expect to see him, but it’s always a pleasant surprise, a face you don’t mind seeing finally, someone you can hang up the responsibilities of the world at the door and just be yourself with-

his voice is low, “I have a surprise for us.”

his hands are tucked behind his back and he still has a towel tucked into the front of his pants, was obviously doing chores before he raced over. it made sense; you had heard his fathers old beat up truck slowly, painstakingly, turn out of the gravel driveway, chug and groan down the street-it was finally safe.

“oh?” you tease, “I hope it’s chocolate.”

and you’re laughing, because like-that’s such a rare occurrence and such a small thing, but when you’re burning overdue bills and notices to keep warm last winter the little things get overlooked.

“better, sweetheart.” his eyes are shining, the smirk pulling at his lips, “i’ll go get set up inside?”

it’s a question, not a statement, and you’re nodding, he’s laughing at you as you crane your neck to see what’s behind his back but he doesn’t loosen the grip, doesn’t try and stop you.

instead, he takes a step forward, his hand cups the back of your head as he gently brings it to you, kisses your forehead and he finishes by walking backwards into the house, narrowingly missing running into the wall.

and as your fingers go to your forehead where he kissed, where it still lingers and feels like static, and you remind yourself: this is friends. just friends. this is what they do when they’re forced to survive.

by the time you’re inside, charlie has two small plastic cups on the dining room table.

they’re reused and rewashed from the gas station but it doesn’t make a much a difference when you see the bottle on the table.

“thought you didn’t like that stuff.”

he shrugs, takes the dark bottle in his hands and rolls it around. it’s half gone, his fathers favorite bottle, but charlie will insist he won’t notice it, that it won’t be missed.

“It’s different with you,” he’ll say gently, like he knows the weight of it, says if with a shrug to try and hold the weight down, “safe with you, yknow? Nothing bad will happen when i’m with you.”

he shrugs: “you don’t have to, i just thought-“

and you aren’t going to be the reason he doesn’t drink. even if he’s been around it forever and has stayed away from it. if he wants one good night who are you to deny him it? and besides, maybe he’ll get some sleep finally.

“Pour me one too,” you say, opening a cabinet in the kitchen, “i’ll get us a snack.”

and he’s grinning now, standing and pouring the amber liquid into the bottles slowly, can hear the sound as it hits the bottom and slowly doubles in side.

you’re at his side, pulling into a seat as he hands you a cup.

“To us.”

he says, his eyes dark, biting his lip before you clink sides of a plastic cup with him:

“To us.”

you repeat back, throwing it back

the problem is, you’ll say later, is it tastes so bad you keep thinking one more drink will make it better.

you’re nearing the third cup, face bright red and charlie’s shirt sleeves rolled up, hiccups between the two of you.

“charlie,” you hiccup, “Shh. I-I gotta tell you somethin’.”

and you’re both giggling, he’s reaching over to tangle his fingers into yours, trying to move hair out of your face but failing, doubles of you.

“Go ahead.”

“I love you.” you’re giggling.

and he’s laughing.

this is something you two say all the time, after all. in passing, in letters.

he rolls his eyes, “honey-“

“no, no.” you huff, eyebrows one, “like. actually love you. like, can’t see you with anyone else-“ a pause for a hiccup

and this is wrong.

charlie realized this as soon as it leaves your lip. not how he wants your first meangiful i love you to go, wants you to remember it, not be under the influence of cheap alcohol.

it’s after he’s done dancing with you, no music playing but he hums a song he’s been working on forever, drawing you close to his chest as you two dance around the creaking floor boards, the house moans and groans in protest against you two as he spins you around again and again

“charlie-“

“Shh.”

charlie feels sober suddenly, like someone dropped cold water over his head.

“Cmon,” he puts the lid on the alcohol bottle, not much left anyways, stands and takes your hand: “let’s call it a night.”

you huff, pause for a second before your voice comes back lighter, suddenly the scared kid he remembers growing up with:

“you’re staying, right? keep the monsters at bay?”

and you’re too old for this. for him to stay the night, to believe in monsters of that he’d keep you save from them, but he takes your hand and tangled his fingers into yours, leads you up the stairs-let’s you out your weight on him as he guides you to your room, closes the door gently and helps you out of the old dress that’s two sizes too big that you’re constantly sewing up, let’s you rest against him as he goes through your closet, tries to ignore that all your pajama tops are his old shirts, still smell like him and are ripped and worn with age and their own stories-

when you’re dressed he slides you into bed, undoes his own jeans and crawls in next to you, you’re immediately curling into him, both ignoring how his feet hang off the edge of the bed, far too tall but doomed to live a life of twin sized mattress forever.

“alright, honey.” the pad of his thumb draws constellations across your arm, “close your eyes. i’ll take first watch. you’re safe.”

and it isn’t until you’re snoring, when he’s sure you’re fast asleep and won’t remember this that he pressed his lips against your forehead and speaks:

“i love you too.”

[peydawgz]

Hiiii!!! Could you write about hazard and reader bein festive little guys? Iike they r decorating for christmas and stuff!! Just some nice fluff (or anything else you wanna add i dont mind) 🪲

Decorating || Hazard x Reader Headcannons (gender neutral)

I hope you enjoy!!! This was very fun to write!!

December finally approached, the winter season bringing the leaves down with it, with snow carpeting the surfaces outside. For you, this would be a comforting time period, and something to be excited about. You’d already started bringing down those old boxes of decorations, reused time and time again. You were eager to spread your holiday cheer.

For Hazard, the holidays were dark. The icy chill of snow used to feel like burning on his skin, too poor to cover up. He could admire the lights around his hometown, but ma and pop were too busy drinking and fighting to decorate themselves. He’d look through the glass panes of bakery windows, dying to get his hand on some tasty scones… a chocolate yule log… even a cookie crumb would satisfy him. He could steal those treats from the outside, but the joy could never feel genuine knowing he couldn’t have it at home. While all the other kids got to play with their new toys, he had empty bottles.

No matter how hard any of the Phreaks had tried, Hazard wouldn’t participate in any wintertime festivities. He’d just lay around and drink and brood, possibly becoming the very thing he despised. You wanted to try and create a positive experience for your first xmas as a couple, and steer him away from that tortured experience.

While everyone was out, you dragged the boxes into the lair and began setting up a tree. The ornaments were all mismatched but it was cute, and instead of a star at the top there was instead a dog plushy with a little hat. You strung up one set of lights in the main area, but left the rest of the decorations in the box to be put up later. You wanted to start off small with this new interaction.

The last thing you wanted to do was make some festive sweets. Just as you were taking out the variety of cookies to cool, you hear their vehicle pulling into the garage. The Phreaks’ all have different reactions as they enter, surprised, delighted, fearful. Hazard is astonished, like he couldn’t believe his eyes. You approach the members with your cookie tray, and the ones that are able to eat are pleased. Fin looks like he might cry as he munches on his cookie, staring at the tree.

“Why’d ya go and do tha’?” He asks you. “For you.” You respond, leaning up to kiss his jaw. “Wanna help with the rest?”

He reaches the tallest parts of the room for you, putting up more lights and garlands. Little snowmen are placed on the mantle, and everyone has their own little socks hung up. Some of the others helped, too, and put their “ornaments” on the tree. Tools, photos, bottles and other sentimental garbage were scattered on the tree now, making it one of a kind.

The whole group gets together around the television, and you cuddle up beside Hazard under a heated blankie. Susie has on a delightful sweater, Boomslang holds on to a decorative pillow, and Revel has his own little Santa hat. As you’re all distracted by the holiday movie, Hazard has come to terms with his anger towards the season. Finding himself here, with you and his found family, he feels cherished and loved. Getting to enjoy the things he never had, he was a very lucky man to be here now. He looked like he wanted to cry, again.

On xmas day, you put a gift for everyone under the tree, and you were happy to find that other members brought gifts as well. You all sit together and open presents, everyone got something they desired. “No way! Strings for my bass?” “I needed this exact tool, how did you know?” “This is my favorite snack!”

Hazard presented you with a camera, to capture all your memories together with. You took pictures of this day to remember, and maybe you’ll put them all together in a scrapbook one day.

Hazard catches you busy playing with your new gifts, and he gestures up at the ceiling. Your eyes follow his hand and you find mistletoe hanging above you. “Ya know what tha’ means.” He grins before pulling you into a sweet kiss. As he pulls away he strokes your hair.

“Ya really made this special for me… I love ya so much.”

[witchesoz]

The Wicked Witch... of the South?

Now that I have covered the Wicked Witch of the West, the Good Witch of the North and the Good Witch of the South, it is time for me to explore... No, not the Wicked Witch of the East. And no, not Mombi either. Both of these witches shall get their posts in their own time... But before exploring these other major antagonists of Oz media, I want to talk about the most overlooked of all the Ozian witches Baum ever created... The Wicked Witch of the South. (dramatic drumrool)

Most of you probably never heard of her. When Dorothy is introduced to Oz, in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" novel, she is told there are only four Witches in Oz - two Wicked ones, in the east and the west, and two Good ones, in the north and the south. And this motif of "cardinal" witches stays untouched until Baum wrote "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz". In this novel, on top of changing some of the backstories for the Land of Oz, Baum deepens the lore of the four great Witches by revealing the following:

There were originally four Wicked Witches, who conquered Oz and split it between them. At the time Dorothy arrived in Oz, only the Eastern and Western Witches remained, because the other two were vanquished by the Good Witches. The Good Witch of the North defeated the Wicked Witch of the North - identified as Mombi, the antagonist of "The Marvelous Land of Oz". As for Glinda, she defeated the "Wicked Witch of the South"... But who is this Witch of the South? We are never told. Baum never reuses her. Outside of this singular mention in the novel, she doesn't appear in any other book written by Baum. She is just a mention in one or two sentences.

When Marvel Comics decided to adapt the Oz books in the early 2000s, the Wicked Witch of the South had an appearance - in a flashback for the "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz" comic. Here is how Skottie Young depicts her, on the far right :

Among Ozian fans, a strong headcanon/fan-theory went around. The Wicked Witch of the South might be connected to... Blinkie. Old Blinkie is a character that deeply fascinates fans of the novels. Probably because she is one of the rare noticeable Witches of the later Oz books, and because she looks so much like the Wicked Witch of the West - to the point one of the common theories is that she is somehow a "resurrection" or reincarnation of the Witch of the West.

Blinkie's unusual position and overall strangeness makes sense when you know where she comes from: she was born from the early Oz cinematic universe and started as a fusion of Mombi and the Wicked Witch of the West. She was created as an antagonist of an alternate version of the land of Oz (see "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz" - the movie). Later the same cinematic story was "imported" in the book-canon, resulting in Old Blinkie appearing as an antagonist of "The Scarecrow of Oz" (novel) and acting not in Oz anymore but in... Jinxland. Jinxland being one of the many "Oz-but-not-Oz" countries Baum later invented - miniature kingdoms within Oz, so he can still tell Oz stories, but cut off from the rest of the Oz land. (Again, this was part of Baum getting tired of Oz as a main setting and trying to find more and more convoluted ways to "escape" his own creation).

The reason Blinkie is theorized to maybe be the former Wicked Witch of the South is due to Jinxland's position, as it is in a remote area by Quadling Country. While Baum never confirmed this in any way, some recent Oz material decided to make this theory a reality: for example the role-playing game "Oz: Dark and Terrible" decided to made Old Blinkie the former Witch of the South, plotting in Quadling Country from the shadows the same way Mombi does in Gillikin Country.

That being said, there is one man who worked tirelessly on bringing back the Wicked Witch of the South. One Oz creator who offered us four different Witches of the South. I am speaking, of course, of... Eric Shanower.

Eric Shanower was already the man behind the Marvel comic adaptation I talked about above, illustrated by Skottie Young. Eric Shanower was also involved in the comics "Adventures in Oz" (or "Little Adventures in Oz", the titles change around) - and it we DO have an appearance of the Wicked Witch of the South. It is merely a flashback depicting Glinda and Tattypoo's own rose to power - but not only does the Wicked Witch of the South makes a visual appearance... She also consists a fun Oz lore twists.

Because this Wicked Witch is... the MGM Wicked Witch.

Yes, to still bring in the book-universe the iconic design of Hamilton's green-skinned witch, she was reinvented as... the Wicked Witch of the South, the "missing" Wicked Witch. There was even a little red piece of cloth added to her hat, to note that she belongs to the red-colored South.

Now these examples are of the Witch only appeared in flashbacks - but Shanower also worked on two stories where the missing Witch appears as a proper character.

First came 1986's "The Enchanted Apples of Oz" , a comic book created by Shanower and trying to tell the story of how the Witch of the South is finally vanquished. She remains unamed, but we learn that Glinda plunged her into a deep magical sleep, of which a magician wakes her up from, out of love. As the main antagonist of the story, the Witch is out to get the titular "enchanted apples" of Oz, the fruits of a magical tree from which all the magic of Oz is born out of - and she almost succeeds in absorbing for herself all of the magic of Oz, before she is turned into a stone statue by the Magic Belt.

The idea of the Wicked Witch of the South being placed under a magic sleep and awakening up was reused in 1993 by Rachel Cosgrove for the final and most famous incarnation of the Wicked Witch of the South. I am talking about Singra, from the novel "The Wicked Witch of Oz" - which was also illustrated by Eric Shanower (I tell you he is behind almost ALL of the Wicked Witches of the South). Named Singra, this Witch was also placed under a magical spell by Glinda - though here only for a hundred years, instead of the "endless until broken" limit in "The Enchanted Apples". This iteration of the Wicked Witch reuses a few details that became "common" in post-MGM media - for example the idea that all the Wicked Witches are one big family (Singra is identified as a cousin of the two Wicked Witches Dorothy defeated) and that all Wicked Witches are weak to water (Singra must obtain the blessing of a water nymph to protect herself from being melted). Whereas the previous witch was defeated by petrification, Singra rather has her mind wiped clean by the waters of the Fountain of Oblivion.

[glade-constellation]

“We’re going to literally spell out why the bad guy is bad, and how to help them, but do nothing about it because they are Bad Guy™️ and bad guys can’t change.”

The current running theme for every single fucking villain in TSAMS. A running theme I viscerally hate with my entire being. I think KC was the only one to escape this, but even then they just killed him off later.

For a show that seems to want to handle sensitive and heavy topics, they sure as hell never handle them well. Listen, if a majority of your audience is young teens, you need to be careful with the story you tell and what might be taken from it. TSAMS is teaching its audience that bad people will never change.

That’s just not true. At all.

Often people who act out do so because of past trauma. Trauma can be healed with time and therapy. Yes, it’s difficult, especially when the person says they don’t want to heal. But you can do it. Did you know that rejecting help can be a subconscious survival tactic? It doesn’t instantly mean that the person wants to be bad, or wants to stay bad. They are simply living in survival mode, and their brain thinks the way they currently act is the only way to survive.

Just because Bloodmoon says they can’t be helped doesn’t mean it’s true. And it definitely doesn’t mean they immediately deserve death. Yes, they have done terrible things, but nearly everything they’ve done has been ordered of them by another person. That, or their coding. The coding may be a harder thing to fix, but listen. Look at your current cast. You can’t tell me Moon and Solar couldn’t work together to fix it. Or Earth couldn’t help them with therapy and they’d eventually turn to killing just animals. There are so many ways Bloodmoon could be helped, but no. Just no. They don’t want to be helped, so we won’t go out of our way to try.

It’s just so unbelievably frustrating that several fans have pointed this out and the show doesn’t seem to care. Bloodmoon has room to be redeemed, even now, but the show doesn’t want that. They seem to be stuck on this idea the Bloodmoon can’t be redeemed.

And it’s not like this is a new theme they’re trying to tell for the story. No, this has been around since Eclipse. Yes, Sun and Moon did try to help Eclipse in the beginning, but help is a strong word. It was more like they tried to bargain with him. No one actually tried to help. And the moment the bargaining didn’t work, they just dubbed him the villain and turned against him. In the end, Eclipse tried to help. It was pretty terribly done, yeah. But he was trying. He even gave up his one piece of power and told Moon he could send him anywhere in the multiverse. But no, the only way out was through death. I get that Eclipse did a lot of terrible things. I get that a large majority of the cast had their own trauma because of Eclipse. But he could have been helped. We have seen moments where he wanted help, but would immediately turn back to his survival tactics. Eclipse was bad, but he didn’t have to die.

Anyways, they already taught the “villains always bad” story with Eclipse. They don’t need to retell it with Bloodmoon. That’s just reusing old parts of the story.

The only reason I don’t bring Ruin up is because Ruin was different from all the others. There wasn’t anything that made him a villain besides the fact that he was a virus. There was no “sad backstory”. He just was evil. That is how you write a villain you want your audience to love but still want to kill off in the end. Ruin was fun to watch, and a great villain, and I wasn’t mad when they got rid of the virus. I was attached but not at the emotional level as I am with Eclipse, KC, and Bloodmoon. He had no backstory to make me want him to live. I love a villain that is enjoyable to watch but don’t mind when they’re gone. That is how you write a good villain you don’t want people to riot about afterwards.

This has just turned into me ranting about storytelling and character analysis, but honestly. TSAMS. Do better. A good portion of your fan base is screaming for a Bloodmoon redemption. Why are you pushing so hard for people to hate them? You’ve already told the plot line you’re currently trying to sell. What is the point of just upsetting your fans?

[karltface]

Well, I just turned 42. I'm celebrating by reviewing a toy. Specifically, I'm solving a 20-year mystery.

Behold, Mutant Spawn. At a size and image quality we didn't have at the time. I loved me some monsters even then, but this never appeared in my area. I puzzled over this photo again and again, trying to parse what I was even looking at. Why is the armor vomiting his face? Why is there half a bear trap hanging off his kidneys? And bug wings?

Not that I was looking very hard, but this had bothered me ever since. This year, I pulled the trigger. And boy howdy, was it cheap.

Okay then. The card only makes things more confusing. Somehow Spawn (or an alternate timeline version thereof) has become a "dual being", a poisonous (and deadly!) predator that poses as a harmless bug to trick evildoers. I guess this is post-Armageddon, then. Let's do this.

Ah... hmm. I'm enamored with the way that head just sort of oozes out and dangles. It wobbles around a lot too, which is doubly hilarious. What I took to be a serrated metal jaw is in fact a textured, fairly smooth... Well, a friend of mine said it looks like an... adult swing. The four tongues lolling out of the mouth don't help, nor does the spiky toilet bowl collar. The jaws (and mechanical blade-tentacles, boasting a whopping two hinge joints each), are blatantly pegged into a plain black hinge jutting from the sternum.

Articulation is minimal: swivel hips and shoulders, and the head can stand at half-mast if you wedge it up there real good, but no turning it at all. It also retracts into the armor. The aforementioned tentacles have their hinges, as does the tail- which is just another tentacle. On another obvious hinge. The jaw can actually hinge all the way up over the head.

The hands have holes for accessories, but none are present. The holes are the super tiny kind, too, which makes 'em pretty useless, eh? Not sure what might have been planned there, really. He could probably carry the original Spawn's nail-board, though.

Now, "mutant" I get. "Spawn", sure. There'd already been a few odd permutations. But I'm not sure how much of this thing is even organic. All that red and black mostly has the pebbly texture of the chunky armor bits Al was rocking at the time, but there are several portions- the forearms and torso, chiefly- that are purely mechanical, with a stylized endoskeleton look.

In fact, if you lift the bug wings (and we'll touch on those momentarily), the only recognizably organic parts are the head and this hideous lump of alien-looking meat. Almost as if this is just a suit construct housing the little undead tentacle monster that used to be Spawn. The lump is actually soft rubber, and kind of fun to touch.

The wings are a point of contention here. Boxed, mine had them mounted on the forearms. Fortunately, there are holes on the back that will let them rest against the back, where they nestle snugly over Mutant Spawn's apparent mutant slug butt. Some shipments had four wings, but I didn't get that lucky. They were reused for Manga Violator, which is surely even cheaper, but I don't even want half of that thing clogging the parts bin. I'm fine with just rear ones for now.*

And now, the harmless looking insect-like creature. A golf cart sized cyber bulldog with rhino skin, bug wings and a bladed tail. And two shorter bladed tails. "Harmless". The future must be pretty bad if this doesn't set off alarm bells anymore.

A bit of research tells me this started life as Chameleon Spawn. When color-changing paint didn't cost out, they reworked a few small touches and released it this way. And also with four wings. And later, with four organic bendy tentacles, and blue patches on the armor. There may have been a solid silver version too.

And with that, I think I can officially proclaim this the Worst Trainwreck in the original Spawn line. Everything from the design to the engineering, from the odd variants to the terribly vague (and yet oddly specific) backstory, stumbles across the finish line sideways with drinks in hand. Sculpt and Paint did their best with the ingredients they were given (apparently you can polish a turd), but garbage in, garbage out.

Well, that's my bit. And remember, kids: always research before you buy. If you can't find more than one source, nobody else wanted it either.

* I had ordered the four-tentacled one, but there was a mixup. The seller didn't even want this back, so it's getting harvested for wings when that shows up, and this uniquely awful piece will take it's place on the shelf.

[luzial]

Writers Tag Game

Tagged by @swordbisexual and @gefionne, thank you both!

This was more challenging than I anticipated it would be. I feel like I usually have a good handle on these things but I really had to think about it in this case.

Five things you will find in my writing:

1. Dreams or Dreamy Sequences. I love writing them and using them to show characters something they might not know otherwise and/or to give characters a chance to DO something they might not do otherwise. Obviously DA is a great setting for playing around with this kind of thing.

2. (Unnecessarily?) Specific Details in Descriptions. I typically picture scenes very clearly in my mind while I'm writing, often (though not always) because I am working from a reference image. I am never quite sure how necessary these kinds of details are or whether they add to the scene in the end, but obviously one of the goals of writing is trying to get readers somewhere in the ballpark of what you're imagining in your head, and I hope this helps without feeling bulky. (Getting in the ballpark is the key, imo. It's easy to get lost in the weeds thinking people need to see exactly what you're seeing when, honestly, that doesn't matter so much as whether they are able to picture something coherent, even if it varies somewhat from what you intended. But details can help make the moment memorable.)

3. The Same DA Characters Reused. There are a few of my favorites who I both love to write and feel confident in writing. It's efficient to reuse them because I can slip into their voices without having to listen to too much banter or reread too much dialogue. If I have a reason to do it, you're going to see Dorian, Varric, Cole, Cassandra, Felassan, and (obviously) Solas.

4. Alternate POVs. I wrote my first longfic in a single POV and I think that was the right choice for the story, but some of the most fun I had with it was actually writing alternate POV chapters that people requested. Now it's hard for me to imagine doing anything other than a one-shot with a single POV. I love the flexibility that writing in multiple POVs gives you, and the opportunities you have to reveal the way a scene unfolded very differently for one character versus the other. The choice of when to swap and who gets to give us their version of the narrative for a specific event is one of the most important parts of planning out a chapter for me.

5. Sentence Structure as a Tool. Run-on sentences and short/half sentences can both have big impacts, even if they're not grammatically correct. I think maybe my best personal examples of this are in my jealous!Solas at Halamshiral fic. There's a hell of a run-on and then, later, a bunch of abbreviated sentences. All of that was very intentional and, hopefully, encouraged readers to experience those sentences in the particular, uh, rhythm that I wanted.

Tagging @dirtheran, @galadrieljones, @littleglowingwolf, @fadedsweater, @sandetigerrr, and anybody else who wants to do it!

[shukufuyu]

[A3! Backstage Translation] Tasuku Takato SSR — BE.MINE Ver.Tasuku (3/3)

Tasuku: I get the “pleasant” part though, but what do you mean “heart pounding”?

click below to read more, announcement/notes at the end of chapter

previous

Izumi: We’ll be in your care today!

Tasuku: Thank you for having us.

Staff: The pleasure is ours!

We’re currently preparing for the photoshoot, would you mind waiting for a few minutes.

Izumi: Understood.

…Anyways, Tasuku-san. I heard that for this photoshoot you got special training from Citron-kun.

Tasuku: Yeah. For practice, I ended up wiping a lotta people's heads with a towel.

Honestly at first, I thought it’s a little extra for a practice, but in the end I noticed there were moments that were useful as a reference for the photoshoot.

Izumi: Hehe, I’m glad. I heard it from everybody. Like “It was more pleasant than I thought” or like “It was heart pounding”....

CHOICE A: It’s mostly well received!

Izumi: It’s mostly well received!

Tasuku: I don’t know if I should be happy or what…

Izumi: I believe the practice for the reliable boyfriend paid off well! [1]

Tasuku: I guess yeah, it feels like staying up until late was worth it.

CHOICE B: Everyone had varying thoughts.

Tasuku: I get the “pleasant” part though, but what do you mean “heart pounding”?

Izumi: Apart from when someone was a kid, people usually don’t get their heads wiped.

It’s heart pounding because they’re not really used to it, I understand that feeling somehow.

Tasuku: Huh, really. I don’t really get it though.

Staff: I apologize for the wait! Takato-san, we’re starting now.

Tasuku: Aight, I’ll be going.

Izumi: Yes, please do your best!

Cameraman: I look forward to working with you today.

Then, please hold this towel and stand over there.

Tasuku: Understood.

Izumi: (....Ah. His expression suddenly became softer. Seems like he’s immersed in his role already)

Cameraman: Now picture your girlfriend before the camera, could you try striking a few poses for the shoot?

Tasuku: Yes.

Cameraman: First, let’s start a pose as if you’re wiping. Mhm, that’s good! Like that, that way…

Tasuku: …

Izumi: (It does feel like when a couple who happens to get back after an interrupted date)

(Even though they just got drenched from the rain, Tasuku’s expression shows that he’s having fun…)

(making the most of his time with his girlfriend, he wonderfully conveyed how much he cares about her wellbeing)

Cameraman: That’s great! For the last one, would you look over to make an eye-contact with the camera over here…like that!

Tasuku: …

Izumi: Nothing came out of Tasuku-san’s mouth…but I can see that he’s saying “You alright?” that’s Tasuku-san for you…)

later that week

Tasuku: …We’re back.

Izumi: Welcome home. Wait, you guys…what happened…

Citron: We were practicing soccer when there was suddenly a guerilla heavy rain, we’re soaking wet~!

Omi: Even though the weather forecast said it’d be sunny today.

Tasuku: It’s a shame, but we had to stop our practice.

Izumi: That’s terrible…

But anyways, I’ll go bring some towels, so please wait there for a bit!

Izumi: Alright, please use this!

Tasuku: Aight, thanks.

Tsuzuru: Helped us a bunch.

Citron: I’m drenched from the top to the tip of my feet~

Azami: So cold…

Omi: We should go take a shower as soon as possible.

Tsuzuru: Yeah we should. Or else we’ll catch a cold…

Tasuku: That’s how it is. Then I’ll prepare a change of clothes and go to...

Izumi: Ah! Tasuku-san, water is still dripping from your hair. Can you hand over the towel for a sec?

Tasuku: Yeah…

Izumi: …Alright, this should be fine! Please warm up the bathtub so you don’t catch a cold.

Citron: Tasuku, you’ve gotten better at wiping everyone’s heads, but looks like you’ve got a long way to go when it comes to wiping your own~!

Tasuku: That’s an entirely different thing.

previous

[1] this story reuses the atama wo taoru de fuku 頭をタオルで拭く(to wipe one’s head with a towel) phrase a lot, but I might go insane if i have to translate it in many more instances again, and when spoken in english, it’ll totally sound unnatural in an unironic setting, so i changed this specific line.

t/n: Hi! apologies for the wait, just a bit of an announcement, I'm getting closer my graduation and i need to realize the gravity of situation so I'll be spending more of my free time focusing on that. however, if you have a personal request for translation (exclusively for backstages), I'll happily translate it for you—please @ me on twitter and dm me a recording of the requested backstage (preferably gdrive links)

I'll try to be more active on my own accord by the end of the year or after finals, for more details/status regarding requests, you may check my blog description.

[goodomensafterdark]

GOAD Writer's Guild Presents: A Release of Tension Part 2

Written by niknak90 on our subreddit

If you've been bouncing up and down with excitement like Spongebob waiting for Part 2 of "A Release of Tension," the wait is over! I'd hoped to get this done before Christmas, as we do have a splash of holiday fluff, but it needed just a little more time. And if this is the first time you're seeing this, and you're into Aziraphale having a wank in Crowley's body, subsequent pining/angst/guilt, and finally some fluffy kissing and tender sex, you've come to the right place. Not labeling this as a Pillow Fight entry as there is that undercurrent of angst, but this installment is ultimately very soft, tender, and fluffy.

Summary

The night after Armageddon didn’t happen, Aziraphale and Crowley switch bodies, and Aziraphale finds Crowley’s body is in desperate need of some attention. Afterwards, he feels some guilt and is afraid to tell Crowley, even as they grow closer. Finally, thanks to a little holiday magic, they kiss, he confesses, and they finally get to experience that release together.

**CW/TW-**Part 1 had the dubcon warning because Crowley didn't know Az was having a wank in his body. Everything in part 2 is fully consensual.

Tags for Part 2: Christmas Fluff, Post s1, Mistletoe kisses, First Kiss, First Time, Blow Jobs, Light Angst

Excerpt

One day in early December, Crowley walked into the shop with a small wrapped box in his hand. “Got you something, angel,” he said as he put his glasses on the horse statue.

“Oh dear, is it Christmas already? Oh, I’m afraid I haven’t gotten you anything.” Aziraphale was normally thrilled to decorate for the season, but the confusion of his current relationship with Crowley had occupied his mind. They had grown comfortable sitting closer together and holding hands, but had yet to progress further. There was also the matter of his unspoken confession sitting in his stomach like a lump of coal.

“It’s okay, angel. It’s still a few weeks away. Just wanted to get this a bit early.” He handed the box to Aziraphale, a small red one with a gold bow. His hand was chilly where it brushed against Aziraphale’s; of course the silly demon didn’t wear gloves.

“You want me to open it now?” Aziraphale asked. Crowley nodded.

Aziraphale carefully undid the bow and unwrapped the paper, setting them aside to be reused later. He opened the red box to find a green sprig of…

“Mistletoe?”

“Yeah, thought it might be festive. You know, decoration for the bookshop.” Crowley was clearly trying to sound casual, but utterly failing.

“Decoration. Right,” Aziraphale repeated, trying not to betray the flood of emotions this gift came with. Presuming that Crowley was not ignorant of Yuletide traditions, this must be an attempt to bring them closer. To accelerate the gradual coming together that had started over the last few months. To finally press their lips together the way Aziraphale had fantasized about that night he took liberties with the demon’s body.

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Thank you to betas u/badbitchbarenziah, u/fishey_me, and u/Glittering_Rock1665 for betas.

[canmom]

Animation Night 169: Sex. 2.

So. Storytime.

Two years ago, we had a joke. "We should totally show some hentai on Animation Night 69." we said. Having said that, we were honour-bound to totally commit to the bit. Teaming up with @mogsk, I wrote a massive post on sexuality in animation and the history of 'hentai', from the hentai seiyoku discussed in 20th-century sexology journals to the modern subcultural kaleidoscope.

It is, genuinely, one of my favourite posts I ever wrote in this project. It's definitely not perfect - the sections on BL and the lolicon boom are especially weak, but still! There's no way I'm beating that.

Mogs, meanwhile assembled a perfectly pitched playlist of animation dealing with the theme of sexuality, from classic oldschool BL like Kaze to Ki no Uta to charming little comedies like Oruchuban Ebichu, and a scattering of actual h-anime like Weather Report Girl. For my part, I led with the genuinely classic film Kanashimi no Belladonna (Belladonna of Sadness).

So somehow - somehow! - we managed to make the idea of getting together with your online friends to watch a bunch of anime about sex just... plain fun and uplifting, to the point that @footsteps-on-the-dance-floor will tell me years later how much she enjoyed it. Not to mention, we got a pretty good cross-section of the different dimensions of sexuality in animation as well!

I didn't even get banned on Twitch.

This week, the counter has drawn the sex number. So can we do it again? Well, my friends, we're gonna try~ Tonight, @mogsk and canmom present: the long-awaited sequel to sex. Sex, 2.

This time we're narrowing our focus a bit. One of the distinctive elements of eromanga, by the analysis of Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga, is how particular images get encoded as signs that can be reused by other mangaka, and these signs can become the seed for particular subgenres. So, our selection tonight is in part designed to give a brief cross-section of some of these visual tropes.

So let me introduce you to our program. CWs: sex, obviously; also a couple of these films (Cleopatra, Parade Parade) cw for rape. Here's the programme, read on for brief descriptions of each item and a lil cultural context~!

Cleopatra (1970) - oldschool Tezuka weirdness

Boku no Sexual Harassment (1994-5) - 90s salaryman BL

Interspecies Reviewers (2020) - monstergirl sex comedy, and an instance of the trend of recent cable TV h-anime

Agent Aika (1997-9) - panty shots to the most ludicrous degree

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (2015) - ONA comedy framed as fetish education

Parade Parade (1996) - futanari + yuri

Golden Boy (1995-6) - 90s sakuga and a classic comedy

Queen's Blade (2009) - kyonyuu

Colorful (1999) - panty-centric comedy skits

after that: if you still have energy, I might take requests~

[n.b. a lot of these are TV series - we will only really be getting a 1-2 episode sample of each one, for runtime's sake.]

Cleopatra (クレオパトラ), 1970

Last time we led with certified classic, genuinely moving and good as hell film Belladonna of Sadness. This was part of a last gambit by the struggling Mushi Productions, the studio of Osamu Tezuka, credited with inventing TV anime back in the day with Astro Boy. Long before there would be such a thing as an h-anime subculture, Tezuka experimented with creating erotic animated films based on history and mythology.

Belladonna is the best remembered of the three, and with good reason. Tezuka was largely not involved by this point. The others, though... are some plain fucking weird movies, I'll tell you that much. So tonight we'll be watching Cleopatra (1970). I may have shown you the trailer before - this is the Caesar trampoline movie. That is only the beginning.

I recently finished reading Osamu Tezuka's manga Ayako, written in 1972-1973 - not long after this movie, actually, during Tezuka's gekiga phase. I'm sure it's common knowledge by now, but Tezuka was one horny old guy! Ayako has all manner of skulduggery: incest, murder, gangster stuff, more murder, etc., but the core story is about a girl who is imprisoned in an underground cell for 20-some years by the machinations of her family. As she grows up, she ends up in an incestuous relationship with her protective brother - and once she finally escapes, she is highly agoraphobic but also throws herself at nearly every man she meets.

It's very much a story of the sins of the past echoing down into the future, shot though with post-war history and gangster movies, but its central fixation is the figure of Ayako herself: the soft cloistered object of obsession and attraction. Whether they want to protect Ayako, seek absolution from her, fuck her, or exploit her.

But it's also in places a really wacky manga, with a lot of very comical contrivances or hyper-cartoonish panels with extreme squash and stretch. It's a completely different way of displaying action.

I think this gives me a sense of the sort of wavelength Tezuka was on when he draws a scene where Cleopatra is tied down by stakes and a bunch of guys line up to rape her while she shouts at them defiantly. It's all very theatrical, a huge contrast to the much more internally oriented Belladonna. Just a plain strange movie, but it's one I've been fascinated to watch for ages.

Whatever we make of Cleopatra, we'll jump into the program that Mogs drew up! Once again she's come through magnificently.

My Sexual Harassment (僕のセクシャルハラスメント), 1995-6

Our next act is some old school yaoi! One day I'll get to do that big effortpost on the history of BL, but not this day. In any case, Boku no Sexual Harassment is an OVA from the mid 90s about a young man called Junya Mochizuki trying to fuck his way up the company ranks for the sake of himself and his partner Kazunori Honma. In particular, he has an affair with his boss, Mr. Honma, running across the whole OVA.

This is perhaps best known for an infamous scene involving corn. It's here as a window into this period of BL - not quite as high-mindedly aesthetic as its 80s predecessors, and with its erotic focus being on like... 90s salarymen, which is quite a specific thing!

Interspecies Reviewers (異種族レビュアーズ), 2020

Next, a series which has the dubious distinction of proving too steamy for Crunchyroll. Interspecies Reviewers enters the general milieu of modern videogame-inflected fantasy anime, a comedy dancing along the line of whether it's too overtly porn to air on TV. The story tells of a group of fantasy characters who are the clients of monstergirl sex workers, hoping to encounter as many different species as possible. This is a frame device for a series of episodes focused around what it would be like to have sex with various kinds of monstergirl.

This is an example of a recent trend in TV anime, namely very overtly sexual cable TV anime such as High School DxD, which have in a way come to fill the gap left by OVAs. This is a niche that also includes the likes of Goblin Slayer and Redo of Healer. In contrast to those series' "big grimdark plot with a side of rape" approach, Reviewers is light-hearted fantasy sex comedy mixed with (if you live in China) a certain amount of actual porn, which fansubbers have kindly spliced back in to the censored release for us.

Agent Aika (AIKa), 1997-9

The panty shot is one of the more popular visual tropes in eromanga, to the point that Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga dedicates a whole two page spread to the history of the trope. (Surprisingly, I can't find any more substantial account in Kimi Rito's History of Hentai Manga).

You'll see it often enough in anime, overtly or subtly, and certainly in the early works of Katsuhiko Nishijima, who debuted in 1986 with Project A-ko, a classic Kanada-inflected OVA that still bears signs of its hentai roots. But there is nothing that takes the panty shot to the same extreme as Agent Aika (1997). The degree to which the camera in this action anime contrives to show panties at a machinegun rate... it crosses over into a level where it feels less like outright fetish material and more like experimental art.

This is a series that is only coherent through the erotic focus. And yet, it's not generally categorised as porn. Nobody actually fucks. Lines are very arbitrary...

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (アニメで分かる心療内科), 2015

This ONA adapts a gag manga series themed around the idea of an education series on fetishes, paraphilias, and so on - not so different in concept from Peepoodoo and the Super Fuck Friends, from the sound of it! The ONA is produced by Shin-Ei Animation, a venerable studio known for beloved characters like Doraemon; it's a bunch of five minute bite-sized chunks which I plan to sprinkle in between the other stuff we watch as a palate cleanser.

Parade Parade (パレードパレード), 1996

Having warmed you up sufficiently, this is the point in the evening where we pull out the futa porn.

Parade Parade is an OVA by the studio Pink Pineapple, one of the giants of the 90s erotic OVA scene - I wrote about them a bit last time. It's a relatively "tasteful" example of the futanari (二形) trope, literally 'two forms', referring to basically a character with a mostly cis woman-typical body except for a penis (generally in addition to a vulva), which she will typically use in penetrative sex. This is typically represented as either the result of magic, an intersex condition, or just a fantasy world where it's not unusual.

Depending on your subcultural corner, this might be further distinguished from other niche variants of dickgirl (e.g. a futa must have both sets of genitals).

In anime and manga, the futa trope apparently traces back to the introduction of American trans porn magazines to Japan, inspiring mangaka such as Kitamimaki Kei to start drawing futanari characters. Futanari manga first spread through dōjinshi in the 80s, and became popular in eromanga in the 90s, before circling back to the West. So actually yeah I guess this one is on us trans girls! I always assumed it was like, an independent invention. The more you know...

Here we have succesful idol Kaori, who's secretly intersex - and only her girlfriend Yuko knows. She's very careful to let nobody know, for the sake of her career, but a rival lesbian idol is about to find out...

Golden Boy (1995-6)

Now here is a true classic.

Golden Boy is a comedy series about a wanderer named Kintaro, who dropped out of uni to travel around Japan getting into sexual escapades. Each episode, he runs into someone and hopefully falls for them while coming across as an idiot pervert, but gradually reveals that he's actually a decent and resourceful guy - and yet, having found love, there will always be a reason he must move on. A setup to hang all sorts of plots, carried by some honestly unreasonably impressive animation from the realist school, most notably Mitsuo Iso. It's just... very very well done.

The above clip did the rounds on here a while ago (I think maybe the dubbed version), and we will indeed be watching episode 4 to put that in context.

Queen's Blade (2009)

So this is a studio ARMS OVA - the guys who did stuff like Mezzo Forte with Yasuomi Umetsu - a fantasy story about a warrior tournament. But for our purposes it's standing in for the 巨乳 kyonyuu subgenre - meaning 'huge boobs'. So if you wanna do the meme in Japanese, that's the word you need.

This has a rather specific history in eromanga, recounted by Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga. Per Rito, the popularity of the term dates back specifically to 1989, where it was used to promote porn star Kimiko Matsuzaka, as well as Western gravure porn magazines. Gradually displacing other terms like 'D-cup', the onomatopoeic ボイン boin and portmanteau デカパイdekapai, kyonyuu soon became cemented as the term for a type of character design. It grew in popularity in the space opened up by the bishōjo genre established by the lolicon boom.

So under the pen of mangaka like Kei Keitamimaki (him again!), designs with massively exaggerated boobs became very popular, defining a subgenre of their own. Artists would sometimes express anxiety over whether they would be 'allowed' to draw such extreme designs, but it became widespread in seinen magazines. Gradually, these genre boundaries dissolved and boob size started to become a symbol of characterisation.

Queen's Blade is a fairly longrunning series but as far as I understand, it's broadly a silly ecchi anime about women with very large boobs fighting to become queen. It's not the most comical example of this trope necessarily (nothing can really beat High School of the Dead's supersonic bullet dodging tits) but it's pretty up there.

Colorful, 1999

Colorful is a comedy series of brief (~7 minute) skits about boys trying to see panties and suffering many consequences. As a late 90s anime it's got some interesting stylstic Y2K stuff - look at that rotoscope clip! - as well as strong animation from people like Norio Matsumoto of Naruto fame.

So!

Mogs's encylopedic knowledge of weird obscure horny anime once again coming to the rescue: I'm fascinated to see where this night will take us. And whether I'll still have a Twitch account tomorrow.

I realise this is a much later start than we'd like with such a big programme, but I hope you will come join me for some weirdly educational sexy animation! Dip in and out or stay for the whole programme, the choice is yours - see you at twitch.tv/canmom, going live now, programme starts in about 30 minutes at 22:30 UK time!

Animation Night 169 is gonna be a little postponed - we'll be going at 7pm UK time on Tuesday (29 August) at twitch.tv/canmom! Hope to see you there! I will try to write a little more interesting info as we lead up to that~

[two-of-tails]

Hey Tails!

I can imagine with all the inventing you do, sometimes you might need to salvage a specific part from past projects for your current ones. Do you ever feel bad taking apart old projects?

I DO!!.... all my inventions are very dear to me, and I try my best not to reuse parts, so a few of the inventions that I don't use that often end up collecting dust in storage... Although I do prioritize what is needed for the present so I can take certain parts with the idea in mind that I can simply put it back together later.

I like to reassure my little inventions that they will be fine after the procedure every time, though...,,

[witch-of-illusions]

Lately it was translated in English a light novel from 2007 called ''Kuradashi-hen'' with content that Ryukishi wrote originally for the VN but then it was discarded/changed. The parts I found more interesting: • Satoshi's original personality was ''cool'' and ''down-to-earth'', he was supposed to be a transfer student from Hinamizawa school to Okinomiya Middle School, in the same class as Shion, that should have been their first meeting; he also would have known since the start her true identity. I actually don't really like his ''original'' personality, I prefer how Ryukishi changed it, it also fits more Satoko and Rika's description of him back to Tatarigoroshi! ''What's more note worthy is Satoshi's characterization. …What can I say…? This cool and down-to earth Satoshi who'd interrupt to say "shut up Shion" is completely different from the Satoshi we have today. I think I'd like to salvage this rejected version of Satoshi and reuse him in a future work. This Satoshi might make a rather nice Satoshi. Even this type of Satoshi would get Shion's heart racing. (bitter smile)'' I also prefer how they met in the version we know 💝 But I like that here Satoshi has knows Shion's true identity since the start. It's also written ''First off, Shion isn't at St. Lucia Academy. She's attending a school in Okinomiya here'' so I'm not sure if it means that Shion originally wasn't supposed to be sent to that school but just kept secretly in Okinomiya (because Satoshi had no clue about Shion's existence until their meeting here)...? • Originally, when Oiishi tells Shion about Satoshi's disappeareance, she was already supposed to have ''homicidal' thoughts toward the people she thought were behind it ''This Fragment is from a scene at the police station, where Ooishi is breaking the news about Satoshi's disappearance. Her beloved going missing has caused Shion's world to collapse, and little by little she seems to slip into a vivid psychological coma. In the main story, there's a scene where Kimiyoshi says something like 'That Houjou brat deserved to be cursed…' that leads to a similar collapse. I recall wanting to make a large impact around that part of the story, so I decided it was too early to have a development like this, and cut it back.'' I think it was better it was changed because I think it was too early for Shion to have such thoughts and it makes more sense for them to act like when she's going L5 later in the story, considering how they are descripted. • Shion originally was supposed to not commit suicide in Tatarigoroshi's ending and to help Keiichi's to recover: I actually already made already a post about this some times ago I guess Ryukishi wanted Tatarigoroshi to have a more tragic ending, as the arc itself wasn't already tragic enough, so...but considering how hard it would have been for them to go on with the awareness they lost almost of all their beloved ones, maybe it was better that way. • In Minagoroshi the player was supposed to choose if to make Rika to suggest to Keiichi who to give the doll or just to watch. If you would have chosed the second option, he would have given it to Rena and it would have led to a Watanagashi/Meakashi bad ending. Even though Shion's is Satoko's nee-nee there, I wonder if she would have still killed her too or spared her instead? I read that in the console version it was still included the fact you could choose but not matter what you choose, Keiichi will still give the doll to Mion; actually, if you choose to make Rika to try to talk to Keiichi before he makes the decision, he kind of says he already knows what to do. I honestly prefer it was changed, Keiichi giving the doll of Mion on his own, not because Rika tells him to do so, it's really meaningful.

• In Minagoroshi originally Teppei wasn't supposed to be arrested immediately, but somehow he would have been able to escape to Okinomiya. Of course the club doesn't give up on him. "We saved Satoko. …But from here on it's different. We'll make sure he gets what he deserves for forcing all that hard work on Satoko. Let's teach him the high price of messing with our friend." Along with the Sonozaki family and Akasaka, they are able to catch and to deal with him. "…So you're that scumbag Teppei? We meet at last." "Who the hell are you?!" "I've come to pay you back for doing such a fantastic job with Satoko!!" I would have liked to see the club dealing directly with him, but I think that for Akasaka, it's better to have his moment in Matsuribayashi.

''Rika-chan...I came to save you.''