#my brain is currently fried

[osalotte]

okay we all know retail worker laios x retail worker reader but I RAISE YOU:

restaurant au with charming charismatic waiter reader x socially awkward buss boy/dish washer laios.

like. pls tell me u see the vision

[juniper-clan]

To explain Anon: “Army Dreamers” is a song from Kate Bush and the animation trend tends to show three ill-fated characters corresponding to the call-and-response lyrics. So in this case..

Slickclaw: “What did he do? He should’ve been a rockstar.” “But he never had the money for guitar.”

Amberbranch: “What did he do? He should’ve been a politician.” “But he never had a proper education.”

Longstrike: “What did he do? He should’ve been a father.” “But he never even made it to his twenties.”

“What a waste, Army Dreamers. What a waste of Army Dreamers…”

If they were not Army Dreamers, I think that Slick would have done a lot of cocaine and Amber would be Yang Gang. what a waste ...

[randomgirlyoudontknow]

No one will probably read this, but as a long-time fan of ATLA (as in, I literally watched the show as it aired in 2005-2008), I wanted to share my thoughts on the live action. Let it be known that I am far from an ATLA purist––the original certainly had its own flaws and aspects that didn't age well, in retrospect. Despite the generally negative reviews I've seen from the fandom, I was actually very satisfied with this adaptation! But I’ve seen people saying that the characters were butchered, that it’s a soulless and superficial reproduction, and those who liked the live action aren’t capable of thinking/watching critically, which I wanted to push back against (I mean, I’m working on a doctorate in literature…I am quite literally incapable of watching anything uncritically).

The shift in tone to a darker, more mature one was a positive change, imo. It is definitely a much angrier show than the original, even if some of the characters were not as fiery as they should have been (*cough* Katara *cough*). Overall, while there were certainly decisions made that I didn't agree with (mainly related to pacing and narrative), I thought the cast and crew really captured the spirit of the original, and even added depth and nuance to parts I felt were initially lacking.

In general, I really appreciated the added emphasis on the cost and suffering of war and imperialism, as well as the depiction of the physical effects of bending. Now, I realize this is largely a matter of personal preference––for example, I'm very interested in depictions of war in fiction (I mean, my dissertation partially covers the impact of WWI on avant-garde art & literature, so...). But I've seen several claims that the live action glorifies war and violence in a way that is meant to traumatize the viewer, and I simply don't think that's true? While the original handled war, genocide, trauma, etc. in a phenomenal way for a kid's show in the early 2000s, it was also still sanitized when it comes to death and injury, to an extent that I feel like we, the viewers, almost lose sight of the fact that bending KILLS. Sure, we were exposed to its after effects, like the death of Katara and Sokka's mother or Zuko's scar, but there's something to be said actually seeing and acknowledging the very palpable danger that something like firebending presents.

I've even seen someone say that the show's depiction of "gratuitous violence" constitutes a "profound misunderstanding" of the source text, which I think is frankly a bad faith take. The death and violence, though more realistic, is still not a major focus of the show, nor is it glorified in any way. A glorification of violence would look like indiscriminate killing and maiming for the sake of edginess (looking at you GOT). We would see graphic depictions of death and injuries, which simply does not happen in this show (they even joke about the fact that we never see anyone die in Ember Island Players). War and fighting are still treated with the same depth and gravity as the original, only this time, the severity of its consequences isn't obscured from the viewer.

I also thought the show's handling of trauma (especially Katara's) was excellent. The choice to have Katara's mom's death revealed in flashbacks (specifically when around firebending) was something that really stood out to me. And the new characterization of Bumi, which I realize was quite unpopular, was another change I quite appreciated. His bitterness and cynicism seemed more in-line with someone who had endured 100 years of war and the suffering of his people at the hands of a brutal imperial force. Lastly, I was pleased to see the narrative attempt to address the role Iroh played in the Siege of Ba Sing Se (something that was absolutely missing from the original). The Earth Kingdom soldier confronting him and calling him a butcher was a powerful moment, for me. I truly hope the show continues to dive into this aspect of his character in future seasons.

Speaking of characters, I loved that we got extra background and insight into several of the characters. Zhao, for example, was unexpectedly quite funny, and his actor really did a phenomenal job of fleshing him out and making him feel like a real person (as slimy and smarmy as he was) rather than a stock, cartoon villain. And I have to give kudos to the actors who played Sokka and Zuko––they both did an incredible job of embodying their respective characters, in a way that felt highly reminiscent of the original. In particular, I thought the handling of Zuko's backstory was truly outstanding––perhaps even better than the original.

All in all, I felt the live action did a really nice job of balancing the darker sides with the light. While I've seen fans complaining that the show doesn't have the same goofiness and lightheartedness, I actually thought the humor worked really well––it was one of the few times I felt the overly ironic, Joss Whedonesque one-liners actually fit. Sure, the humor was a lot drier and more toned down than the original, but I nonetheless thought it carried the show's spirit well (loved that they let Sokka say “ass” not once, but twice). There were moments when I genuinely laughed out loud! I also appreciated how, despite the more mature tone, hope, friendship, and harmony still remained the most important aspect at the end of each episode.

There's a lot of room for improvement, but I was overall very satisfied with the live action, and I'm very glad that the series has been renewed. I'm very excited to see what the cast and crew does with the rest of the show!

[theregardedminecrafter]

It has been four days and Charlie Slimecicle:

-day 1 Easter

1. Thought his family and relationship was fixed

2. His daughter died

-Day 2

3. Found out his daughter died

4. Went on a grief stricken rampage

5. Destroyed his house

6. Alienated the others

7. Lost literally everything

8. The others gave him a second chance (The Trial)

Also sacrifice his bitch wife, which was very encouraged

9. Got really sad drunk

-Day 3

9. Five Lawyers

10. Trial

11. Prison and subsequent escape with His bitchwife(they reconciled)

12. Juanaflippa revived

13. Was revealed to have planted tnt under eggs, alienating himself from the rest of the server even more

14. Backflipo Family reunited once more

Coldplay Sounds

Paranoia, make sure JuanaFlippa is still safe

-Day 4

15. New start of the rest of their lives as a family

Brief moments of panic, where is his daughter?

16. Clean his daughter up

17. Hangout with Roier (the possible psychologist for court mandated relationship counseling)

18. Meet up with Juanaflippa’s best friend, Tilin (also apparently Bobby and Roier again)

“Tilin is dead” “What?” “It was a joke.”

19.Bobbyguards (Also Tilin chooses to stay with her best friend Juanaflippa and Uncle Slime)

20. “You are special, Tilin”

21. There have been new mobs, stronger mobs

22. Tilin doesn’t wear armor

23. Charlie jokes about not having a weapon to protect them, but look he found his sword

24. A sword’s sweeping edge always has a wider range then one would expect

25. There are a lot of mobs, including a skeleton

26. Tilin is bleeding. Tilin was slain by Slimecicle

Tilin was slain by Slimecicle

“Oh fuck. Oh shit.

Tilin!

Tilin!

Tilin. Tilin. Wha-

Wait. Wait. Tilin! Tilin…

Why can’t I rez?

Why can’t I rez?

Flippa, what happened?”

27. He didn’t mean to

28. Roier makes sure he know he will rot in jail. No one will take his case. Slime killed his Tilin

29. He gives everything he owns besides Flippa’s flower to his daughter, and entrusts her with Roier and Bobby

30. He leaves to find someone that can bring Tilin back

He has lost everything again, by his own hand

[trianglesimpfordpines]

ok so like 2 people said they wanted to see the "ford is the most realistic genius" post and that's all the encouragement i need. i'm probably gonna sound pretty full-of-myself on this post but that's just how it be like sometimes.

a lot of the time, "intelligence" is assumed to mean "knows more things." fictional characters who are supposed to be geniuses typically just...miraculously Know information they have no real way of acquiring, anticipate events that cannot reasonably anticipated, or every other character just suddenly gets stupid when the genius character is around so that the "genius" character just doing the logical thing comes off as particularly smart.

so you have a character who supposedly has a really high iq, but in practice they may as well be psychic.

as someone who actually has an iq of 147 (bear with me, because this isn't a flexing post), being "really intelligent" does not mean Just Knowing Things. what it means is that someone who's "smart" (in the traditional sense) can process more information, draw more conclusions, and do so faster than most people. it also usually means being really good at rationalizing things. so if you're someone who's well-adjusted and well-informed, that can definitely look like knowing all the right answers...but if you're someone who's not well-adjusted or well-informed, it can, if anything, make you even wronger. you get better at rationalizing your mistakes and digging yourself in deeper. and heaven help you if you have paranoid tendencies, because it's that much harder to convince someone they're being irrational when they're on a whole 'nother level of finding information to back up their irrationality.

ford is a genius. he learns incredibly fast and thoroughly. but he's also constrained by the information he has available to him, and by his own biases and past trauma and people issues.

that one writing advice post that made the rounds saying that a character's biggest flaw is usually their biggest strength in the wrong situation is very true of people who are very intelligent. it's why, for example, you'll sometimes see doctors, academics, experts buy into conspiracy theories. it's not because they're stupid; it's because they're smart enough to recontextualize all their knowledge to support their biases and beliefs.

and so many people do not understand this because they still think of "intelligence" as "knowing & being right about everything." so you get people arguing that ford isn't really a genius, because he was wrong and he made mistakes. but in my opinion, the mistakes he makes make perfect sense because he's a genius. that kind of recklessness is exactly what you get when you combine abnormally high iq with ford's myriad of personal issues. you get someone who's great at rationalizing, great at taking in information, and great at finding surprisingly well-thought-out reasons why their paranoia and antisocial tendencies are totally just the rational response.

think of it this way; the smartest people alive in the medieval era believed in the miasma theory. they weren't too stupid to understand what bacteria and viruses are; they just didn't have the tools needed to observe them. so they came up with a theory based on the information they did know, wrote essays and papers about it, made medical practices based on it...and it was completely incorrect, because genius without correct information leads to spectacular and very well-thought-out mistakes.

anyway, all this to say, as someone who could nominally be considered a "genius" but has been hella wrong about a lot of things in my life, i think ford is an incredibly realistic take on what most "geniuses" are really like. impressive in the right situations, not so much in the wrong ones, and very much not magical beings capable of mysteriously knowing all the correct information because they're Just That Smart. and very much not immune to emotional and personal issues getting in the way.

thanks for coming to my "i-just-slept-for-20-hours-and-my-brain-is-a-bit-scrambled-right-now" ted talk

[mothcpu]

been playing lobcorp again

[irishplaguedoctor]

Guys I just realized:

Pale Wyrm —> pale king

Descended to create and rule Hallownest

Little ghost—> shade lord

Ascended by beating the absolute shit out of (mostly) everyone in Hallownest

They almost mirror each other in opposite ways

[spikes-got-anger-issues]

Here are more of my notes and personal thoughts on the Commando App because I find it very intriguing and I am insane

(Note: In 2x09 and 3x18 there's a slight font error and the period between "2.1" in the "APP v2.1 BETA" in the corner missing. It doesn't appear until 4x10 when the numbers are spaced out and slightly resized)

So, we see throughout the show in the bottom right corner on the Commando App's engagement screen that Chase's Commando App is the 2.1 Beta version. Kate on the other hand has the 3.1 Beta version of it

Something worth noting is that Chase is the original owner of the Commando App, and up until Kate was introduced, he was the only one to have it and after 4x10 he is back to being the only one to have it

So, why does Chase have the 2.1 Beta version and not the 2.0 Beta version? Even more so, why isn't he even the Beta 0.1-1.9 version of the Commando App if he's the first person to have it installed on his chip?

And on top of that, if what we see of the Commando App in the show is the Beta version, then what was the Alpha version and when did it exist?

The Alpha version had to have come before the Beta version, that's the whole point of the Beta version existing since it's the second phase of an app after Alpha

Hypothetically, the Alpha version was what was originally on Chase's chip before it was implanted into him, or right after it was implanted into him

What I mean by that is when Douglas made their chips he obviously had the Commando App in mind to give to Chase because of his main bionic ability not being an offensive or defensive power and with Chase being physically smaller, but since this was new and experimental technology he had to make the Alpha version first to put onto the chip

I could imagine four potential (and completely hypothetical) things out of this idea:

The Alpha version only existed before the chip was inserted into Chase. Douglas created the app and programmed it into the chip and then did some tests and fixed some bugs on the app before turning it over into the Beta phase and then inserting the chip into Chase

The Alpha version existed on the chip as it was inserted into Chase, and then since the chip was essentially "live" and activated inside of Chase Douglas then observed possible faults and glitches in the program where he fixed it and then progressed it into the Beta phase, left at the 2.1 version, where he probably would have continued to update it further before Chase was taken by Donald

Once Donald took the bionic sibs, he had been updating the Commando App as he was still navigating their bionics and their apps. I don't see this as very likely though considering if he says the Commando App is glitchy then he would have done something to the app to try to get rid of the bugs in the programming

The Alpha version was supposed to go on Adam or Bree's chip, or even all three siblings, but Douglas ultimately decided to give it to Chase considering his size and main bionic ability. This is where the Alpha version turned into the Beta version as it was given to Chase

Circling back to Chase's Commando App being the 2.1 Beta version, the number could also simply mean that Douglas just started off numbering the Beta version at 2.1 since Chase is the original. Why not at least 2.0? Who knows! He also could have just skipped over the Alpha version and started off naming it right at the Beta 2.1 version

We see that Kate's Commando App is 3.1, not 2.2 or even 3.0. Considering the Beta numbering of Kate's Commando App compared to Chase's leads me to believe that there was a 1.1 Beta version at some point or even that the 1.1 could have been the Alpha version

Whether or not the Beta version 1.1 existed is just something to think about, and if it did then I think it's safe to assume that is was on Chase's chip at some point before potentially being upgraded to the 2.1 version

I think if we got to see Bree's Commando App activation screen in 4x10 then it could have potentially given us more information on the numbering system for the app. Bree's Commando App was temporary though, so I wonder if her Beta version would have been 3.2 or if it would have been 4.1 or even just 3.1 like Kate's

Ultimately just comparing the numbering of Chase's and Kate's apps means that the Commando App doesn't seemingly take "baby steps" in being upgraded, like having a Beta 2.1.1 version and whatnot. Maybe even the numbering is based off of the activation trigger for each Commando App. Spike activates when Chase is nervous, scared, or angry (a reminder that he's a form of Chase's fight-or-flight instinct but without the flight) and Spikette activates when Kate sees someone (or even just Chase for some reason?) getting hurt and becomes a rampaging momma bear

We could also throw away most of these ideas for Kate's Commando App and the relation to Chase's considering Krane gave her the app so he could have numbered it 3.1 instead of 2.2 but this is getting ridiculously hypothetical so I'm going to just dive away from this thought

Basically what I'm trying to get at is that Kate's 3.1 version most likely isn't an upgraded version of the Commando App, it's just numbered 3.1 because it's just another version of the app installed into a different person

Lastly, it's a great detail that the Commando App is programmed as a Beta app considering the nature of the app itself. Not only that, but it is quite literally new and experimental technology as it's an app on a chip inserted into bionic human beings!

It's referred to as a glitchy app and it even appears glitchy, which is what a Beta version is of an app/program. The Beta version is meant as like a semi-testing version of the app, a step up from the Alpha version, and has more work to be done before the app/program gets more finalized. It's going to have bugs, it's going to be glitchy, it's going to have plenty of issues but it's also operational and better than the Alpha version. So having the Commando App listed as "Beta" is a perfect and neat detail!

I actually don't think that there's anything wrong with the Commando App at all, or at least not Spike. I think contrary to what the characters say about it, it's not glitchy, at least not Spike. Sure there's maybe just one or two parts I could see as a "glitch" but I also could see it as normal operation. The bionic disruptor enhancing his bionic aggression instead of deactivating the Commando App is super interesting

It certainly doesn't help that Spike's behavior and personality is inconsistent so it's hard to judge this, or the fact that he only appears four times in the entirety of the show. On the other hand I think Spikette is different though and that she might have a few glitches, especially if we consider Krane gave it to her so it might be unstable but honestly who knows. This "glitch" talk is something for me to discuss at another time though.....

This is what we see out of the Commando App. The owner of the program cannot control the engagement or disengagement of the app, nor can they control themselves when the app is engaged. It's also described as a dangerous app due to this, especially since the owner loses control and their rampaging alter ego takes over.

And maybe this was how the Commando App was always meant to be, a defense mechanism that shuts out its owner in order to protect them, or at least that's Spike's purpose and not Spikette's. This would make sense since it's essentially their fight-or-flight system and meant to protect the owner of the app, they're not meant to be the ones in control of their own fight-or-flight system. They're supposed to take their enemy off guard by seemingly fighting a weaker appearing opponent that suddenly turns into a highly aggressive brute that will tear them apart

Or like Chase was wanting to find out in 4x10, maybe the Commando App could become controllable. Could this have been a potential future software update further into the Beta version or even into a more finalized version of the app? Was it obtainable at the versions Chase and Kate had? Was the Commando App meant to be controllable in the first place? Who knows!

So really all of this is just hypothetical. Was there an Alpha version of the Commando App? I think we can assume so, and further more it either existed before it was inserted into Chase or right when it was inserted into Chase before being upgraded. Maybe there wasn't an Alpha version and it started off as the 2.1 Beta version in Chase, but I still believe there was a 1.1 version somewhere, whether it was an Alpha or Beta. Maybe the Commando App was never meant to be finalized and was always meant to stay as a Beta version

Maybe the Alpha version of the Commando App were the friends we made along the way

No matter what, it's a great concept that I wish was utilized more in the show. I also wish we were given more general information about it. It had more potential, especially Spike (*cough cough* S4 Spike was disappointing though *cough cough*) to be developed further. I wish we heard more about Chase's thoughts on having the Commando App and practically being deemed weak at birth to have this monstrous alter ego inserted into him that he didn't ask for

Ultimately, I just think it's neat!

[theneighborhoodwatch]

I was looking back through Welcome Home's toy telephone audios to see if I could make any new discoveries with the current information we have, and oh my gosh, this story never ceases to surprise me with just how intricate it is.

^^ This part right here? Where Frank is reading bug facts? I'm almost certain it's a parallel to Wally Darling.

Wally doesn't sleep in the conventional way. He does rest, though, with his eyes most likely open.

Wally uses Home as a 'means of protection' from inclement weather...

...but also from a certain 'larger creature with an appetite' that was mentioned in Sally Starlet's story.

hmmm... i do like the idea that this is meant to be a parallel to wally, but i will say that i don't think wally's really hiding from anything? like, he seems VERY gung-ho about exposing himself to the horrors, even if it may or may not be in service of avoiding greater horrors later down the road (and he doesn't always have the best reaction when it doesn't go as planned - see his dialogue in the hidden records.)

i think, if anything, the butterfly in frank's dialogue here may be more Aspirational than anything else, when it comes to wally? maybe aspirational isn't really the right word; i don't think the butterfly is what wally himself aspires to be, but it could be representative of what is expected of him, if that makes sense. like wally, the butterfly doesn't really sleep in a conventional sense - it doesn't need to. it's not a person, after all. it knows its limits as a bug - a small, insignificant thing. it knows its place, and it demonstrates this by hiding rather than trying to change anything. not like wally, who's all but Demanding a response from his new audience.

i feel like there Also might be something to be said about naming dew/raindrops as potential dangers, given that you apparently have to take a loooot of precautions to make sure that any water damage doesn't seriously fuck up a muppet/other henson-esque puppet.

... or more likely, we are Looking Too Deep, but i am at least keeping the part about sleep vs rest in my pocket just in case.

[whiskey-tango-matcha]

hello beautiful ppl in my phone, if youve sent me a message/ask/etc and I haven't responded just know I have seen it, I love you dearly, and I apologize for not responding 🫶 ive been in a bit of a ✨mental health bad time✨ (not gonna say crisis bc I am doing my regular life duties lol) and I haven't had the capacity to do anything on here. i miss interacting and writing SO much and want to get back to it asap but life has been rough. love u all, just wanted to let ya know if you've tried interacting im not trying to ignore you im just in a rough spot

[thychesters]

"i feel like luffy knows right from the start who to fight." chopper gets it! the rest of the crew is waiting for him out on the bridge because they know this isn't their fight and all they can do is wait for their captain. the marines can't believe that this tiny group of pirates wiped out cp9 because this straw hat was a rookie, and the rest of the crew shouts out to him that they made it to the bridge, they got robin, and all he has left to do is kick lucci's ass and they can leave. and luffy smiles.

[txrtxglix-lvver]

support lesboys and trans fems but if youre a straight man please don't mock us by saying that you're a lesbian or that youre trans when you're trying to make fun of us...!! there are people who look like you but are actual transfem and lesboys and it may seem that they're trying to mock our community too when they're really trying to just live their lives with those labels :(

[sanjiaftersex]

your top 15 favourite tv shows can say a lot about your personality

Tagged by @kuhakukage

Let's go besties :

1. Courage the Cowardly Dog

2. Danny Phantom

3. Teen Titans

4. Teen Wolf

5. Inuyasha

7. Tokyo Ghoul

8. Shen He Ling/Word of Honor

9. Australia's next top model

10. Brooklyn 99

11. How to get away with murder

No tags all the besties can come list their favourite shows so i can get some good tv show recs thank yew.

[remma-demma]

My brain ghost G’raha telling me to get my shit together.

[infernaltenor]

the third (and... maybe final?) niki shiina analysis

thats a lie there's a nonzero chance i'll do more <- i really like reading into his character

the focus of this is intended to be the foil relationship of niki and mayoi. this is something observable between all members of alkaloid and crazy:b, with clear distinctions between who is meant to be a foil/mirror of who: rinne and hiiro, kohaku and aira, himeru and tatsumi. while i would love to do a full in depth analysis of every member in this particular grouping, i've been avoiding any discussion of events that are out on jp but haven't been on en, if only because i want to experience the stories myself, which is why, for the time being, i'll be skipping the rest of the alkaloid and crazy:b units.

there's a second major factor as to why i'm focusing on niki and mayoi: they have the weakest link. that is to say, everyone else in the group has a clear connection in their pasts. niki and mayoi lack this. while you can extrapolate and make guesses (mayoi living in the basement of es and having a surprising amount of information in the building construction and hidden rooms; niki's father being kicked off the air in preference of idols; my conclusion here is that mayoi's parents probably run es and likely ran niki's off the air. is there proof? no. that's why i'm not counting it.), nothing for them is as explicitly stated as it is for the rest: rinne and hiiro through the nature of being brothers, kohaku and aira's childhood friendship online, whatever the hell is happening with himeru and tatsumi's complicated fucking relationship. niki and mayoi have... none of that. and arguably, that's a connection in and of itself, that they have no past in common, but given the care taken for the rest of the units it feels almost like an oversight.

no matter! i'm not here to discuss what ifs; i'm here to read far too much into the silly goofy character of what is otherwise an incredibly sad and tragic unit (despite their rather goofy construct) because i love him and need his depth to be at the front page rather than ostensibly passed over. enstars where's my niki shiina breakdow-

anyway. with that out of the way, let's start with the most basic parts! game design and character design. for game design, they also typically are in the same spot (spot 4 for the live mechanics), although i'm willing to ignore this due to the fact that kohaku and aira, as well as tatsumi and himeru, do not adhere to this particular criteria. niki and mayoi are the two characters within their unit that have long hair; niki's side ponytail and mayoi's side braid (hey where's the niki shiina hair down car-). interestingly, niki and mayoi's main hairstyles occupy opposite shoulders. while it's something that's easy to overlook, i'm counting it because it's something i think is also an easy way to put differences together, the same way color palette is. and for niki and mayoi, color palette isn't really a concern (the same dictates the rest of the crazy:b and alkaloid pairings, however), but niki's hair is more blue-toned, while mayoi's retains a level of red in his purple (shinobu's, for instance, is way cooler in tone).

but this is all superficial stuff. things you can simply observe. beyond the unspecified parents, where's the digging in way too much?

well.

crazy:b is a unit that is altogether kind of goofy, but the individual characters are by and large, tragic. niki shiina reads as an outlier to this specific set up.

alkaloid is a unit that is altogether serious down to their aesthetic, but the individual characters are largely kind of silly. mayoi ayase reads as an outlier to this specific set up.

as an author's note, right here in the middle of this analysis, i know both units are not so clear cut, and that you can see incredible amounts of angst and silliness in the characters i have decided not to focus on. why i am focusing on niki and mayoi is because of their decidedly obvious contrasting personalities to the larger construction of their unit. niki, more often than not, serves as the crazy:b character who has no indication of what is going on, not to mention how much his personality is driven by his own unspecified condition and his relation to food; mayoi is the alkaloid character who has such a clear indication of his tragedy, as opposed to hiiro and tatsumi, both of whom acknowledge it less, and aira, who does it moreso through inner monologues. i digress.

with both niki and mayoi serving as the contrasting element to their respective units, this does include that they are not always that contrasting element; think, whenever niki puts himself down or reads rinne like a book, or mayoi's clear serious relationship with teaching the other members of his unit.

another aspect that i think contributes to a foil relationship more than the mirroring is the opposite ways they talk about themselves and even moreso, how they think about themselves. niki, by and large, puts himself down as an idol; it's expected, especially since being an idol was never his intention (for fun and profit! and also rinne), so he tends to think of himself (frequently) as someone with less experience. while mayoi's full story (afaik) hasn't been touched on, he shows considerable knowledge to the background and teaching of idols (dropping notes in on unsuspecting juniors, teaching alkaloid the choreography throughout the main story, just to name some off the top of my head), even showing in some ways his mastery of the skills for being an idol. what mayoi lacks for in confidence of himself, he makes up for in being confident in his ability to guide others with advice and teaching. this places niki and mayoi in clear opposite corners of their idol positions. that being said, mayoi hardly does think himself an expert in the industry, but while niki recognizes himself as not being an idol expert, he does frequently call up his cooking expertise, something that cannot be overstated. just with these two skills you can see how niki and mayoi treat their own expertise: niki acknowledges his with frequency, mayoi tries to push people away from knowing his.

niki is a character that tries to stay silly on the surface. to be fair to crazy:b, rinne also attempts this. the difference is that rinne's silliness has been broken clearly before, notably in the main story for the game. niki's character, at the point that i'm writing this post, has not had such a break yet. another aspect of niki is he does try to stay as clueless as possible (try isn't quite the word i'm looking for; he seems genuinely uninterested in the politics of the idol world! this is something i count in contrast to his fellow unit members, as much of crazy:b is focused primarily on that political atmosphere). without such a drastic break, niki's character does read as one intending to be seen as a silly character.

mayoi's character, while being silly in his own over the top reactions to, well, everything (alkaloid and mayoi is bocchi the rock if btr was yaoi, but that's... that's a different post), is probably one i would argue meant to be taken much more seriously in alkaloid. for one, his character does frequently deal with intrusive thoughts, which imo makes his overall character feel more serious. another aspect of this matches him with tatsumi for overall being what i feel to be the more seriously read parts of the alkaloid unit, as tatsumi is shown to be levelheaded often; there are some clear breaks for this particular formula with tatsumi imo, for instance, both his driving and technology usage serve to lighten his character considerably. mayoi's character, i think, due to the heavy usage of self-deprecating language, is meant to be read much more seriously than he sometimes ends up being.

my conclusion is basically... well niki and mayoi occupy (what i think) is an interesting balance for the foil/mirror imagery of crazy:b and alkaloid. their unit structures and symbols, as well as intentions feed into this, as do their character pairs, but due to niki and mayoi's own (mostly) untouched connections, their place in the structure feels much harder to nail down. this doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it does mean that i can (and more importantly) will tear into this gacha game like its a piece of literature.

[schoolbusgraveyard]

This is a question that has nothing to do with the trivia game.

If Ashlyn unexpectedly hugged each of the group, how do you think they would all react?

like this without reasons, that Ashlyn just hugs anyone out of nowhere for no reason (we know it's strange for her to do that... very strange) :D

I think it would probably go a little something like this:

Aiden: Surprised, but hugs her back pretty tightly. Kind of clings to her shirt a little bit. Doesn't really say a word, just hugs her back so tightly/clings to the back of her shirt. Probably starts swaying a little bit, too. Probably assumes that if she's hugging someone else first, there's a reason (even if nothing's wrong/even if there is no real "reason" aside from "she just wanted a hug"). He's super affectionate, she's not going to get out of that hug for awhile, but I think she would go into it knowing that.

Ben: A little confused, but also hugs back--not as tightly as Aiden, though. I feel like he would be worried about hugging a little too tightly and hurting someone/causing her discomfort. Would be extra careful about her hair. Sturdy and quick hug. Mildly embarrassed afterwards, though (not in a bad way, though).

Tyler: Oh, he would tease her (lightheartedly) for it. Probably roll his eyes and be kind of like "What, now you're being all affectionate? That's weird. Some kind of special occasion?" and roll his eyes (while she told him to be quiet), but ultimately hug her back. It'd probably be a little more tense from him, and he would wonder if something was actually wrong and she was just hiding it, but. Would pat her back before breaking the hug.

Taylor: I think she would be pretty excited, but also a little worried--I think she would immediately put her arms around Ashlyn and be kind of like, "??? Is something wrong? Oh, no, you just wanted a hug? Okay!" I also think that she would give Ashlyn a little hug-squish before pulling away.

Logan: I think he would be a little hesitant and caught off-guard, but I also think he would smile and hug her back. Maybe rest his chin on her shoulder once he processed that she was hugging him. I think he might also check on her/ask if she's alright, but overall would be pretty comfortable/relaxed once he realized what was going on.