#not a lot of dialogue or actual names in this one but it's something nonetheless

[mirage-of-the-virtuoso]

Darkness...

Silence...

Calm, cold, collected.

My emotions do not control me.

Control myself, and serenity will follow.

I am no one's possession.

I am no one's pawn.

The choices I make are my own.

I will take my fate into my own hands.

A figure looms high over the Dreamdark Enclave, watching from the mushrooms above. They had snuck by the guards with the help of invisibility and have found a spot among the mushrooms and twisted vines where the mortars won't detect them, where the Courtiers and their pets can't detect them.

Be still...

Be silent...

The figure - a sylvari with blue skin, white leafy hair tied back, and a pale pink glow - watched from above. By now, the Courtiers and Kennelmasters should be wrapping up whatever party they're indulging in. They seem so... normal, in terms of what Sylvari would act like. Their beliefs are just different than Dreamers. They wanted independence, individuality, to embrace the darker parts of their soul and to crumble the idealistic perfectionism into dust. They see cultish noble-esque pawns obsessed with a stone, and their enemy sees them as maddened fanatics obsessed with setting the world ablaze.

It's difficult to remain as a neutral party. A spy for neither. But his Wyld Hunt relies on communication with the Firstborn and the Pale Tree. The Nightmare Court, while considered a threat in Caledon, is far from priority.

Would he even be welcome here? Would he even belong? In the end, he must be considered a "convert" and that didn't settle with him. He's not "switching sides", and he refuses to be another's willing pawn.

I am no one's pawn...

One of the Counts tried their luck, attempted to reason with him and lure him in with promises of mental freedom and a release from the shackles of the Pale Tree.

How he wished it were that simple, to just be discontent. How wrong they were; it's not the Pale Tree that keeps him paranoid, clouded with self-doubt, unable to sleep. No... it was something else.

Breathe in... Breathe out...

The courtiers dispersed, and only a few guards lingered. Right on schedule.

The lone Dreamer drops down carefully, keeping behind vines and mushrooms, ever-vigilant for any sign of detection. As needed, he used his Mantras to quickly tear apart mortars and burst blossoms. With the help of his Signet, his teleports, and his invisibility magic, he swiftly crossed the otherwise open clearing undetected and climbed the mushrooms on the other side. The stealth spell won't last for long, he just needs to be out of sight when it fades.

The sylvari hid amongst the nearest twisted vine, and ripped apart yet another mortar that activated with his presence. The courtiers took notice, but they shrugged it off. The mortars had apparently been going off with random animals and insects. No reason why it was different.

The trespasser took a silent breath and glanced around the corner. Still nothing out of place to them.

Now that he was on the other side to his exit, perhaps it was time to reduce their numbers...

He climbed closer to the top and began to hum an unknown melody. The sylvari left a clone behind to shatter, as one of the guards would try to investigate and by then, he would be too far to maintain it.

Before long, one of the courtiers bark at another to inform one of the Counts of a mesmer intrusion. Only one, but who knows how many more are lurking. This is sure to send them into a panic.

Another courtier or two joined in from below, overhearing the commotion. The sylvari's face began to have a suspicious grin on it. While he may not understand their appeal for senseless killing, he does understand the appeal for mind games. And what better mind game than trying to figure out if the trespasser is a Dreamer, gone rogue out of a sense of justice, or another dissident unhappy with the Grove, toying with the Court as a means of proving themselves of their usefulness.

Funny how the answer is just out of a simple boredom, spurred by a feeling of being eternally out of place.

The sylvari hurried along and climbed to his exit. Behind him, various clones were shattering and drawing attention.

Usually, he doesn't jump the gun and lure someone early. But he's particularly stressed and they just happen to be there. Wrong place, wrong time, poor unfortunate souls.

Once he makes it up there, he turns to the chest he had made use of up there and pulled out a pistol and sword hidden inside. The first courtier to show their face got taken out right between the eyes with a bullet. The second and third were startled, calling a warning before being silenced with one shot each. Fourth, fifth, and sixth drew their weapons, only to be caught up in a large circle and inflicted with various phantom sensation of chills, poisoning, and sudden weakness.

One of the veterans came from the rear, greatsword in hand, only to find the corpses of their fallen allies on the ground.

And a haunting melody being hummed from the lone sylvari mesmer.

The mask the trespasser wore, crafted to look obnoxiously happy, pissed the courtier off. With a battle cry, they lunged, clashed blades with the mesmer, and was taken by surprised by the pain of the mesmer's blade.

As they lay bleeding on the ground, they demanded to know their identity. With their final breath, they got their wish.

The mask came off, but held so the mask was shielding the tresspasser's face still from any stragglers bringing up the rear.

It was the Valiant that tricked and killed Renvari with Caithe. The one known as Chrysallus.

What was he doing here?? Did the Pale Tree send him?!

A group of courtiers stood by the mushrooms, and the one Chrys only knew as the "Duke of Terror" walked closer, rifle in hand.

When asked what he wanted, Chrys distorted his voice and replaced the mask, saying that he wanted nothing. He was bored and they interrupted his period of solitude. He said they had a choice: either he can use this spot as a place to relax without interruption and therefore spare them the trouble of replacing more courtiers and relocating, or he would come back during the day and destroy the entire camp.

What guarantee did they have that this mesmer would keep his word? The most the sylvari offered was this: "See for yourself for two nights. Leave me unharmed, and I'll see to it that you are undisturbed by Dreamers. I only wish for my mind to be at peace."

The Duke told him that his request is laughable at best, and that there was nothing stopping him from killing the trespasser here and now.

"I'll take that as a no, then?"

The simple question was laced with an unsettling calmness, sending an odd chill down the spines of some of the newer courtiers.

"Suit yourself, I suppose. Should you change your mind on my offer..." The mesmer tapped the chest beside him. "Just leave me a sign of a peace offering. You have 24 hours. After that, what harm comes to your camp is on your hands."

With that, a couple of the feral hounds snapped free of their leashes and lunged at the mesmer, only to have him distort, then shatter, then disappear off the edge of the cliff.

A courtier hurried over to see where he had gone, but by then, there was no trace of him.

Two squads were sent out to search for the mesmer, but by morning, only three courtiers returned, half-scared out of their wits and insistent that "the Siren" was coming for them, that they were next.

Impressed by the display of showmanship and profiency at mental torture, the Duke reconsidered, and awaited the so-called "Siren" upon the high ledges of the Enclave.

And sure enough, he returned, as promised. The Duke asked why the mesmer expressed discontent with both the Grove and the Court. Were their goals not the same? To break free of Ventari's Tablet and cut off from the Pale Tree?

"No. As I've said previously, I only wanted some peace of mind. Silence has it's benefits, but I much prefer to be an observer. The background noise helps with collecting my thoughts. No offense to the Court, but I am ill-suited for them as I am for the Grove. I'm better off on my own."

The Duke of Terror told him that, should he ever change his mind and wish to be a full member of the Court, to only say the word and reveal his identity. That he earned his two nights of solitude.

"Siren" was expressed his gratitude, but warned that this doesn't mean a permanent alliance. It was just fortunate that the Dreamers wouldn't come near this place because of the Court.

[starrysnowdrop]

Why Hali/Aymeric?

This is something that I’ve been wanting to write up for a long time now, and I’ve finally been able to get my thoughts down properly. For those who have been around for a while might be used to my ship by now and can see how their chemistry is, but I know I have some newer followers that might be interested in this explanation. Or perhaps you’re just curious even though you’ve been here forever. Either way, I thank you in advance for taking your time to read this! See under the cut below.

Updated: 09/21/2024

So, you might or might not know that Hali is actually not my first WoL OC. Before Hali, I had made an Auri Hingan Samurai woman named Yume Aino, whom I first created back in 2019, shortly after the release of Shadowbringers (Yume’s blog can be found here: @firelightmuse). I didn’t realize it at first, but because of how I had written Yume, as a stoic, no nonsense warrior through and through, but also someone who was dealing with a lot of trauma and trying to find purpose in her life, I soon had a really hard time shipping her with anyone. Over the years I had tried shipping Yume with Cid, G’raha, and I briefly thought of Artoirel, but I now have found her perfect ship with Zenos. Before any of them, however, my first choice of an NPC ship was Aymeric.

Why Aymeric? Well, it took me quite a while to realize that a huge part of me wanting to ship Yume with Aymeric as a first choice was a very personal one. Aymeric was the first character in FFXIV that I completely fell for. Though I enjoyed the characters of Cid, Haurchefant, and G’raha in ARR, it wasn’t until we meet Aymeric in the Pre-HW patches that I had gotten attached to the world and the story through finding a favorite character of my own. Aymeric is so special to me, and that made me try to ship my only WoL at the time with him. But as you can see, that ultimately didn’t work out.

It didn’t work out because Yume and Aymeric didn’t vibe well with each other. There was a severe lack of chemistry between the two. I had realized that Aymeric is much too polite and respectful of decorum to break Yume out of her shell to make a deeper connection than just comrades that respect one another, and I didn’t think Yume was the kind of person that Aymeric would come to love either, as she would likely remind him of the many Ishgardian nobles that he was around all the time, for many reasons which I won’t elaborate on here due to brevity. And as I didn’t have any other OCs at the time, I just continued developing Yume and an NPC ship with Aymeric was discarded. Although I personally was very saddened by that, I thought it was the right decision for both characters.

Yet, I continued having trouble writing any kind of ship with Yume over time. After a few years, as I kept getting frustrated with the ships I was trying to write for her, I got inspired to make another WoL OC that would be different from Yume in every way. She actually would end up being much more of a self insert than I ever expected, but nonetheless I fell in love with the pink haired, happy go lucky Lalafellin woman who would become Hali Aloke, my pride and joy.

As I got Hali through base ARR and into the ARR patches, I didn’t have any intention on trying to ship her Aymeric and to try a WoL x NPC ship with him a second time, as I actually had intentions to ship Hali with Krile later on in her WoL journey.

But everything changed once Hali met Aymeric in 2.4, the lead up to Heavensward. I saw them in the cutscenes together, and as ridiculous of a height difference they had, I still couldn’t help but giggle and squeal whenever they were together. They just were incredibly adorable, and I couldn’t hold myself back. I just had to try to ship Hali with Aymeric.

So I decided to try to write a few prompts with them together and see how their dynamic was. And it was even better than I had expected. Their chemistry was so amazing, and the dialogue between them flowed quite effortlessly. Not only was I highly impressed and kept getting inspired to write more and more, but I got a ton of positive feedback from so many people telling me that they loved Hali and Aymeric together.

And I guess that was that. I have never looked back since. Hali x Aymeric are my everything (well besides Yume x Zenos now of course); my ship makes me so damn happy. Just looking at them makes me smile and want to write and gpose more. I can’t get enough of them. It’s to the point now that I don’t know if I could ever write a ship better than Hali x Aymeric. And you know what? I don’t even want to try at this point.

I still can’t fully comprehend how a pink haired, bubbly, sunshine of a lalafellin woman and a noble, brave, and charismatic Ishgardian knight could be such a beautiful and dynamic couple that would not only bring me endless joy but also keep inspiring me far more than anything else I’ve ever written. It is utterly beyond my comprehension, but somehow it works. And I am forever grateful that I just followed my heart and wrote what I wanted, and not for anyone else’s approval, but my own.

I somehow hope this helps inspire someone out there to not be afraid and just go for the ship they want to write for, despite what the fandom at large says. Trust me, it’s worth it.

[coraniaid]

To the ever growing list of dead adult women in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Catherine Madison, Jenny Calendar, and Joyce’s friend Pat so far, with at least three more significant names to come over the next three years) we can now add Faith’s first Watcher.  This character never officially gets a name, but she’s called Diana Dormer in the Go Ask Malice tie-in novel and I’ll use that name too just to avoid typing out “Faith’s first Watcher” repeatedly.  ‘Diana’ has zero lines of dialogue and appears on screen for zero minutes (which is pretty bad even by the standards of this show) and after this episode she will never be mentioned by anyone again, but nonetheless I think she’s a very interesting character.

Even if Faith’s arc in Season 3 wasn’t fully planned out from the start, Faith, Hope & Trick establishes quite a lot of what her character will look like going forward.  In particular, we see signs of what she’ll later self-diagnose as a “problem with authority figures” in her initial enthusiasm about the possibility for “having fun” now that she’s “Watcherless and fancy-free”, and in the first of a handful of hints about the circumstances of her pre-Slaying life (“my dead mother hit harder than that”, she tells a vampire mid-fight).  

And we also see, at the end of the episode, that this posture of tough self-sufficiency that Faith assumes is something of an act: that her Watcher’s death has actually had a huge impact on her, one which she’s been trying and failing to suppress since before she arrived in Sunnydale.  It’s surely not a coincidence that we have a scene of Faith hurriedly packing and preparing to flee town this episode which mirrors the scene of Buffy doing the same thing just last episode.  After all, there was a part of the quote from Revelations I omitted earlier: the problem Faith has with authority figures is that “they end up kind of dead”.

What was Faith’s Watcher actually like?  The show doesn’t think to tell us; the writers simply don’t care. All we know about her from this episode, other than that she’s dead, is the vaguest of suggestions that she was older than Giles (since, on seeing Giles, Faith comments that she hadn’t “known they came that young and cute”) and perhaps that she was in rather better standing with the Watcher’s Council (Diana, after all, probably was invited to the retreat, or how else would Faith have known about it?).  We also know that Faith blames herself for not being able to protect Diana from Kakistos (“I was there […] I saw what he did to her [...] I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t.  And I ran.”).  

I think those scraps – a dead, possibly abusive mother who, we’ll learn later, spent a lot of time “enjoying the drinking and passing out parts of life”, and a dead Watcher she wasn’t able to save – explain a lot about how quick Faith is to bond with practically every adult who spends even five minutes making the effort.  From Joyce in this very episode (“your Mom’s really cool, huh?” she tells Buffy within minutes of meeting her, her loyalty bought by a plate of food and the promise of a second soft drink), to Gwendolyn Post in just a few episodes’ time, to the Mayor himself in the second half of this season. Faith has a problem with authority figures, in that she really desperately wants one in her life.

One last thought. 

Something I hadn’t really considered before – and which I’m not sure the writers thought through either – is that Faith knowing about the Watcher’s retreat (and assuming Giles would be at it) means her Watcher must have told her she was going to the retreat herself, presumably sometime shortly before she died.  And at this point, even assuming she was Called soon after Kendra died, Faith can only have known Diana for a couple of months.

So at some point soon after meeting her, and only shortly after finding out about being a Slayer, Faith’s Watcher must have had to sit her down and tell her that she’d be leaving the country for a bit, to go and hobnob and kayak and socialize with the other Watchers in England, and that Faith would have to look after herself again for a little while.  I can imagine Faith playing it tough, like it was no big deal.  Other kids might be scared, but not her.  She can take care of herself, after all, can’t she?

And then her Watcher died, right in front of her eyes, and it turned out that she couldn’t.

Still, this episode at least ends on a positive note.  “The Council has approved our request,” Giles tells Buffy at the end of the episode.  “Faith is to stay here indefinitely.  I’m to look after you both until a new Watcher is assigned.”  Things have been tough – as Buffy notes, Faith had “a lot to deal with” – but she’s got somebody else to look after her now, so everything’s going to be fine forever.

… right?

[screemnch]

The Pathologic Russian and English analysis: Clara Saburova the Changeling Part 2

I am finally free to have a single month of summer vacation, so I'm taking this opportunity to finish up the last of the healer to healer communication analysis. Are you excited? I sure am.

As the Haruspex: I uhhh… Don’t have much to say specifically about the differences between Clara in Russian and English that I haven’t already said. Like yeah, she acts differently with Artemy than she does with Daniil, but that is present in both of the versions - she is much more vulnerable and emotive with Burakh, while she is a lot more deceitful with Dankovsky (which is sorta muddled by the fact that he’s the only one of the two to meet her "twin"). She refers to Artemy using exclusively the informal “you” and has a very stubborn and argumentative way of speaking for most of it. The instances of the “biblical” way of speaking that I pointed out in the Bachelor route are less frequent here, and Clara comes across as, well, just a girl. I uh… Also think that the dialogue website I’m using might be missing the bit of dialogue on day 11 when Clara actually offers to help Artemy? It has the dialogue for when he’s already in the Kaiur, but not beforehand (and the wiki tells me that they do talk in person before that. Correct me if I’m wrong). Sooooo yeah, that’s about it. This analysis is a bit more… Explaining the references and intertextualities within the dialogue rather than discussing what translational differences imply, but I think it’d be a cool insight nonetheless. So let’s get started!

This is… Completely unrelated to any translation stuff, but I did want to provide a little bit of intertextual context for “Suok” to allow all the fans that don’t speak Russian to speculate about this on their own. I tried to look up and see if there were any other potential sources for this name, but haven’t been able to find any alternative ones. So here goes. Suok is a last name, which served as inspiration for a character name from the Russian story book “the Three Fat Men” by Yuri Olesha. Very briefly the story is about a town being held under the oppressive rule of the titular three fat men, who had each taken control of one of the town’s resources (that sure reminds me of someone). Suok in this story is a young circus performer, who pretends to be the previously broken doll of Tutti - the Fat Men’s heir. She does so to free one of the leaders of the revolution that has been captured and sentenced to execution. It is revealed in the story that Suok was actually the twin sister of Tutti, which is why the doll looked so like her - it was made to replace her. It’s not the most well known of Russian stories, but it’s recognizable enough for an expat like me to remember. Thematically I do think it’s funny that there’s a reference to a story where three powerful people attempt to squash a revolution (which is by the way led by two men), and a little girl with a twin ends up saving one of those revolutionaries from certain death. And the doll theming. However, if I’m just ignorant and there’s actually like… A Buryat or Mongolian name or entity that’s also called Suok and it’s actually a reference to that… I shall wear a dunce cap, or something, Idk.

I really wish that I could convey how… Story-like Clara’s way of speaking becomes here? Like, yeah, she does talk somewhat… “biblically” but this is not that. She’s not just reciting the events, the way the story is phrased and the language flows feels like she’s restating it word for word. Especially in the part where Clara talks about how Suok was unkillable by anything - it’s all one continuous sentence. It reminds me of, and this is truly truly obscure Russian stuff, that one cartoon about Kutkh the Raven and the four silly mice that kept annoying the life out of him (it’s on Youtube I believe, so go educate yourself on some fairytales from Kamchatka). Those stories have a way of being both lyrical and conversational at the same time - it uses improper grammar (like starting your sentence with “and”) and feels very casual in its sentence structure, but the words it chooses and the matter it discusses is grandiose and epic (in the literary sense). Also a fun little detail is that rather than saying that the abyss couldn’t claim Suok, Clara says that she “did not wish to return to the abyss.”

Adding to my collection of “Clara and Artemy are a comedic duo, actually” is this moment in which (while the English version makes it sounds a little ironic and cautious) Artemy just casually goes “wow, that’s just like us…” as Clara is telling him the Kin’s creation myth. Though you can’t tell me that he wouldn’t be the kind of person that looks at a Bosch painting and goes “that’s so me.”

More from the “fun Russian idioms” world…While we do have a translation of “a little bird told me” in Russian - it is exactly that - a translation. From English actually. The idiom used here is, as far as I know, an originally Russian one. Namely “a dog barks, the wind carries it” which is essentially just “yeah it’s gossip I heard on the street.” Nothing particularly significant about this difference, just thought y’all would appreciate it.

At this point I’m becoming painfully aware of the fact that calling these an analysis of a specific character is silly, because there’s always two people involved in the conversation, but the format has been set already sooo… I could wax poetic about how much more laconic Russian is in terms of threats (partially due to the fact that we don’t use articles and stuff) but also I can’t help but feel like this was much easily translatable? Like, the line is, essentially “let’s hope you don’t regret this!” which is very much a threat already. But I guess the translating team decided to take the road less travelled.

I think I may have peaked. It doesn’t get better from here, this is the ultimate achievement of this analysis. In the last instalment of the madness project I spent a whole paragraph trying to explain why the Bachelor calling Clara “trash” was actually a scathing, humiliating insult that was translated as “little tramp” for no apparent reason, which made it seem (at least to me) a lot less cutting. I’d ask you to look at that screenshot in the previous analysis to see if you spot anything familiar, but I don’t even have an exclusive tag for this madness project (I totally should tho) and I won’t subject you to the other stuff I’ve written in my ramblings. I’ll just cut the suspense here: In this dialogue Artemy uses the exact same word that was translated as “tramp” for Daniil. The word “дрянь” (dryan’), meaning trash or something too worn out and torn to be useful. I understand this must’ve been done because the Bachelor and the Haruspex are supposed to have very different vibes about them and because, as previously stated, the Bachelor doesn’t get to be nearly as aggressive as he is in Russian but like… Wow. I think I need this in a meme format or something, because it’s just so funny to me. To clarify, too: “дрянь” isn’t an explicit swear word. It’s an insult, but it doesn’t need to be censored or anything. Neither “tramp” nor “bitch” fits the translation more or less. And I think that’s hilarious that they translated it so differently for the two characters.

And we’re back in the realm of “interesting” instead of “baffling” and “confusing”. Instead of “dying” or “letting people die” the two of them specifically talk about “killing”. Artemy asks if Clara wants to kill Taya, making the situation a lot more malicious from Clara’s perspective (this is the whole quest with figuring out how the story that Clara started telling Taya ends). Pretty short for a note, but it’s also just interesting in terms of like… How malice is attributed to Clara in the Russian version, but seems impersonal in the English version.

Just as fascinating (and probably just as short of a note) is this line, where in Russian Artemy calls Clara “daughter” with a diminutive. A lot of Russian words have diminutives, but it doesn’t necessarily make them appear kinder. Actually with words like “daughter”, the non-diminutive version – “дочь” (doch’) – is used a lot less and usually feels colder and more distant. The version with the diminutive – “дочка” (doch’ka) is the one used in everyday conversations. If you want to add endearment to the word, you’d have to put in another diminutive, making the word “доченька” (dochen’ka). That being said, I guess calling someone who isn’t related to you “son” or “daughter” isn’t too uncommon (though I usually picture it being said by like… grandmas on a bench, or helpful fairytale entities), though your everyday person is much more likely to just say “girl”, “boy”, or “kid”.

Not a translation difference, but I’ve already included a bunch of intertextual references in this particular analysis, so why not one more, huh? The story that Clara tells about the crystal flower, while obviously being an allusion to the town and the polyhedron, specifically referring to the utopian ending (cutting down the living flowers instead of the crystal flower -> razing the town and leaving the tower to stand) also reminds me of a specific story within the “Malachite Box” collection of the fairytales by Pavel Bazhov (check them out if you can, it’s a bunch of folk tales from the Ural mountains and they’re fascinating and incredibly dark). Specifically “the Stone Flower” - a story following Danila - an orphan boy that becomes a master-stone carver, but struggles to finish an order that doesn’t fit his own particular standards. He is told of the Stone Flower in the lair of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain (a force of nature entity that’s recurring in the “malachite box”) and how seeing it will allow someone to understand the stone and how to carve it. However he is warned that all who’ve seen it have always remained in the mountain, working for the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. Danila does, indeed, manage to see the stone flower and return to his bride, but what only manages to stay for so long before he destroys almost every single one of his creations and disappears without a trace. It’s left up for debate whether he simply went mad and perished in the woods, or if he returned to the Copper Mountain. I do think there are some parallels to be drawn between this story and Pathologic’s polyhedron – specifically in how it relates to Peter Stamatin. Not a one to one comparison, of course, but there’s something to be said there about the madness that comes with creating or trying to create something bigger than yourself, to the point where it’s less of the human world and more of the world of miracles and myth.

Not a particularly drastic difference here, but just wanted to point out that the whole “your lies are so crafty…” bit of this dialogue isn’t… actually present in the Russian version? I think the translating team kinda got used to the fact that this dialogue is almost the same as when Daniil talks to Clara, so they’ve added in this line even though Artemy just says “I’m fed up with you”.

To sum it up: yeah, I don’t have much. Clara is a fascinating character to me, but I do think that she is fascinating in both English and Russian. She’s a multitude of contradictory things, and she is condemned by those around her for either not fitting into the category they believe her to belong to, or being exactly what they believe her to be. She doesn’t get a break. Most of the differences between English and Russian have been just slightly “vibe altering” ones, and it’s a bit difficult to place a finger on the reasons why those changes I made. Like, with Daniil I could generalise that in an attempt to make him seem cold and detached, he accidentally lost a lot of his emotiveness. I have made the argument that Clara’s Russian dialogue makes her come across as more meta-aware (and there’s something to be said about how I argued that Clara and Aglaya are very idealistically opposed about the exact same belief and how that notion is echoed in Clara’s dialogue with Artemy) but at the end of the day… Yeah, the translators did a pretty good job with this one. I’ve said before that it’s not really a good idea to have every piece of dialogue include a footnote explaining what every word means (at least in a game like Pathologic. A game focused on education would be soooo fun with those. Like Martial Law, for example) but to add to that: I think it’s pretty cool that Ice Pick Lodge managed to create a game that is so distinctly Russian, that even a city boy like me can understand, despite taking place in the steppe. And at the same time, you don’t have to be Russian to understand it. I’ve provided a bit of intertextual context here, but you don’t actually need it to feel and understand what makes it so compelling, as seen by the fact that this game is beloved both in and outside of Russia. And I love that for all of us.

And that is it, folks, at least for the three healers and how they interact with each other. Up next (and hopefully not several months later) I'm gonna examine the shared dialogue that the healers have with the townsfolk. I guess that one will be both comparing the similarities and differences between the languages and between the three of them. Yippeee.

[synthwayve]

Who are your FIVE favorite Bloodborne characters and also why? (Yes sorry there are three more to choose from besides Micolash and Laurence 😞)

Thank you for the ask!! This really made me think tbh

1. Micolash (to nobody’s surprise)

He was actually not the first bloodborne boss fight I ever saw, but his fight captivated me nonetheless. His design is just so COOL. I can’t get over it. I always saw him as a gigantic meme but then I got into the lore more and realized wow, this character has a lot to him! Medical malpractice, insanity, possible regret, you name it! I always thought his contrast against what I’d heard of Laurence was interesting too, and now that I’m deep in the trenches it just gets better haha.

2. Rom (okay this might be a bit surprising)

As much as I draw other characters, Rom is super close to my heart. Im not the sharpest crayon in the box(and never have been) so her character is very endearing to me: I see her as having been the sort of person who yearns to be useful. To be good at something. Everyone could reassure her that “you don’t have to be smart or talented, you’re kind!” But when you’re surrounded by the extraordinary, the bar of “decent person” just doesn’t cut it. I think she ascended in an attempt to fix this, to be “special” like her peers, and not the sometimes-funny airheaded woman she thinks they take her to be. Also, her design is just very cool x,D

3. Laurence

His character has a lot of sides, which is ironic since he is a dlc boss and has maybe 4 lines of dialogue total lmao. I think that he had good intentions that rotted under the weight of his leadership, and he’s definitely super fun to work with on his own even outside of other character dynamics. If he’s manipulative and bordering on cruel, why is he like that? If he’s sweet but just misguided, why didn’t he give up on the blood before it blew up in his face? Should we feel bad for him? Should we feel angry? There’s a lot to think about- he’s a fun character to both design and interpret!

4. Caryll

I love Caryll’s entire concept, and the Caryll-rune system is particularly interesting to me. I like how many sides there can be to this character! I’ve always been one to heavily reference lore, but not tie myself down to it, so I just like their general vibe and the possibilities of their placement in the story. I’m sure if I stuck to the lore religiously I’d actually like them a bit less, since to me, the mystery around them is a big part of the character! I like to imagine their relations with the others too :)

5. Edgar

This was really hard to pick between him and Damian tbh, I put them at about the same level. Edgar is very flexible as a character but he has solid lore points that can’t be easily ignored, which I really appreciate! His possible dynamic with Micolash is always super interesting and I love the juxtaposition of a very accountant-coded character lugging around Ludwig’s Holy Blade with the full intention to punt you into the moon. As for Damian, I just have a particular soft spot for characters that are “right-hands” to a leader, left to mourn or act in their absence. The coolheaded assistant type has always been appealing to me, and I like that both of them have a very short presence in game but the fandom has widely made them bigger players!

Thanks again for the ask! It was a lot of fun to think about :) I love a lot of the BB characters honestly, narrowing down to top 5 made me *sweat* haha. If we had a top 6, Maria would be next!

[meyerlansky]

gonna get REAL snippy about some disk horse tonight: i am real fuckin' fed up of seeing everyone who felt impacted by the idea that astarion might be asexual or aspec in some way feel like they have to qualify their interpretation of a canonically sex-repulsed character openly discussing that sex repulsion in a way that is very resonant for a lot of asexual people. i am really fucking tired of the fact that everyone talking about astarion maybe even possibly being some variety of aspec feels COWED into couching it in "it's just a headcanon, it's just something that felt important to me personally! i'm not saying anyone else has to agree, it's just that it resonated for me."

i get not wanting to impose your reading of the text on other people—there are a fuckton of posts floating around about how that's a shitty thing to do and how x read isn't any more canon than y read and people who insist x IS more canon than y are jerks. and i don't disagree! people who insist there's One Canon in a choice-centric RPG are fucking dicks.

but i was also here in 2014, at the peak of exclusionist discourse, when every single time someone said "it's not that i have a problem with asexual people, i just wish they weren't taking up the resources meant for [REAL gay people/rape survivors/people dealing with comphet/etc]." what they actually meant was "I will not be satisfied until you shut the fuck up and never talk about your experiences in a place where i have to hear about it again". and it fucking worked; people recloseted themselves, blogs centered on the aspec community deactivated, real life organizations stopped explicitly including asexuality in their documentation when they had the previous year. for a solid three years, the only time any "big name blogs" mentioned asexuality was to make a joke out of it. i watched this shit happen with my own two eyes.

i don't have a problem with people who disagree with my reading of a character as asexual. i don't have a problem with allosexual people who say "this same thing resonated with me too, just in a different way" and move the fuck on. what i do have a problem with is the implicit vibe that comes up any time asexual and aspec people decide to talk about their experiences and things that resonated with them that we shouldn't take up too much space when we talk about that, because there are other people who don't feel that way and their interpretations deserve to be heard too.

i have not seen a single person on the acestarion train saying "you HAVE to think of him as asexual." i have seen multiple comments saying people who do see him as asexual are delusional or reaching, or that it's insulting—to whatever other identity—to read asexuality into his sex-repulsion. and i am really fucking annoyed [not at all surprised, but annoyed nonetheless!] that not only does the compassion for different takes not go both ways, but that people discussing their resonance with astarion from an asexual/aspec perspective are instinctually or habitually ceding ground by couching it in "you don't have to agree!" kind of statements, when that should be the fucking baseline for every single conversation about any characterization choice in, AGAIN, AN RPG BASED ON INDIVIDUAL CHOICE.

and i don't have any way to express this to the people that i actually have an issue with, because, again: asexual people relating to a character that's not explicitly stated to be asexual is treated as a joke at best and an attack on other identities at worst. but at this point, to me, calling a reading of astarion as asexual/aspec a "headcanon" is minimizing what it actually is: an interpretation of the text, supported by both dialogue and action[s], that is not monolithic but is no less "canonical" and/or rooted-in-the-text-itself than many, many other readings of his characterization, intended by the character's creator[s] or no. you're not going to catch me apologizing for how i read the character and how his dialogue resonated with me. and i don't think anyone else should feel like they have to apologize for it either.

[fawnydoe]

okay. episode 1 thoughts.

animation is gorgeous. with all the horror stories i've heard about the production of this show, it's hard to fully enjoy but it's nonetheless really impressive.

that said. it's waaaayy to bouncy and overanimated, no one has any weight. it feels like i could snap their limbs open with my bare hands and suck the meat from it like a crab.

the main character designs range from meh to flat out bad. i'm not gonna pretend im a good artist, designer, or animator lol but i do enough to say that the similar palettes make this a nightmare as an ensemble show. everyone bleeds together, the environments bleed into characters. the only standout ones are the ones you can tell weren't designed by vivienne.

no consistency, exterminators have the same horns as imps. adam looking like an imp makes no sense in context. it's just a design choice the creators likes but didn't flesh out any further.

the writing is awful. as soon as the lore dump ended and the actual plot began, i could feel an evil feeling creeping into me as if i had opened some sort of evil book.

angel dust's dialogue is pretty much only sex jokes and/or sexual harassment, specifically against the ugly cat. the va is doing a bad impression of the original one.

other va's are fine, but keith david's voice is so jarring to hear out of that skinny fucking cat, it doesn't work. i also know stephanie beatriz can act AND do the monotone voice, i know she can sing too! so im pinning this on the voice direction because clearly something is not being communicated. she's not working as vaggie.

why is the only lesbian named vaggie? can i kill myself?

swearing has become white noise, it's every other sentence. it's so lazy. why is charlie swearing if she's a disney princess? why is adam swearing? adam being a detectable dickhead is fine but the only way the writers seemed to want to convey this is through swearing and vulgarity, it feels cheap and lazy. why not go for the condescending holier-than-thou attitude? give me a bev fucking keane, someone who uses their faith as a way to put down others and keep themselves on a pedestal.

alastor and angel dust are shaping up to be my least favorites. insufferable writing, the way you can smell the issues within them and know they'll never be resolved in a satisfying manner.

however....beyond the mediocre writing, poor direction, horrible designs, terrible art direction, and so on. i get why people like this show. themes of redemption, of unfair social structure, of change and yeah obviously it already had a fanbase pre attached. but i feel like i can see the glimmer of potential that a lot of people attached themselves to.

but also this thing is a mantis? a fucking mantis? do you hate me specifically?

[kels-orange-joe]

introduction ^_^ (regularly updates)

haii my name is stitch (not my real name obviously)

and yes as in the chaotic blue creature from lilo & stitch but that’s besides the point

this is my side blog!! an omori (mainly kel) themed one at that. my main blog is @stitchthelilo, and this is specifically for stimboards/sensory boards (well some other stuff too but that’s like the main thing) whatever you wanna call em, it’s also a kel fanblog cuz he is THE BEST OMORI CHARACTER!!! I WILL STAND BY THAT TIL THE DAY I DIE BECAUSE ITS TRUE

nonetheless.. i do take requests! and my status will update when they are open and stuff like that idk

i tend to use emoticons a lot and i’m a lil bit cringe so just a warning

my first time doing this so criticism is accepted with wide arms :)

the stuff you can request is what i have put in the tags section :3 (will further elaborate in rules/boundaries section)

ohh and even if you wanna request something really specific (like combining #sunny’s sketchbook and #character portraits for example) you can still request it as long as it’s something that is a combination of tags that i put

also if you want to request a prompt pls specify if you want it to be dialogue or scenarios

TAGS

#waves of orange joe = stimboards/sensory boards

#sunny’s sketchbook = art

#character portraits = pfps

#mari’s picnic blanket = flags

#headspace shenanigans = fanfics

#basils’s photo album = headcanons

#white space vibes = mood boards

#space boyfriend’s tape = playlists

#sunny’s inner mind = prompts

#the headspace alter egos = names/pronouns

RULES/BOUNDARIES

sfw interactions only!

any fandoms are accepted! some i just know more about better than others which i will get into in a bit, so please do understand.. as that is why the accuracy for some stimboards is off

i have the right to deny your request, ESPECIALLY if it’s something very icky

proshippers/comshippers, dubcon/noncon, nsfw blogs, ddlg blogs, anti-lgbtqia+, anti-religion (muslimphobic, islamophobic, etc. etc), anti-xenogender/neopronouns, anti-otherkin/therian/whateva idrk, racist, zionists, and just anyone who supports anything gross GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THIS BLOG DNI

please do understand i have a life and you will have to be patient, your requests will be done eventually just wait

just have common sense, if you KNOW something is bad but are still here then go away oml

feel free to just talk to me in the asks! anon or not, i’m willing to just talk, as it isn’t just for requests. you can vent or rant there too if you want, i’ll listen! you are loved remember that <3

any ships are fine as long as they aren’t illegal or anything, a personal favourite of mine is suntan :3

you may request: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, whump, slow burn, nsfw (just not smut, i’d rather not do that on a blog like this.. implied smut is ok though! and gore and heavy topics are fine too), panic attacks, all types of horror, comedy, drama, pining, mutual pining, all kinds of relationships (as long as the toxic ones are not romanticised), and basically just anything that isn’t in the you may not request part

you may not request: smut, proship/comship, dubcon/noncon, romanticisation of gross things (but if it isn’t meant to be romanticised then you can request), just anything gross really

THINGS I WILL MAKE

ocs as long as you provide pics and/or info, info is optional though ofc! but if you don’t provide it i am just gonna go off of aesthetic

total drama

danganronpa

omori

undertale/deltarune but moreso undertale

pokemon

sonic

mario

cookie run

the amazing digital circus

murder drones

smg4

bfdi/bfb/tpot

ii

hfjone

any object show really lmao

mlp

adventure time. however……. i may not be that accurate when it comes to later seasons or fionna and cake, cuz i never actually finished it or watched the spin-off, lmao sorry

gravity falls! same as adventure time though, haven’t yet finished it (but ik bill cipher and allat)

vocaloid

warriors/warrior cats (i haven’t read the books though, might not be accurate sorry)

scp foundation

bbc ghosts

she-ra: and the princesses of power

memes

garfield

the sims

among us (as cringe as that may sound, it’s a good game)

my singing monsters

the battle cats

dnd

agere/petre/agedre/petdre

otherkin/therian

furry

starters movieunleashers

hazbin hotel/helluva boss (i do NOT support vivziepop or her team, i separate content from creator because the episodes can really be good, even if they miss most of the time.. and i love the concept of both shows. I PIRATE IT Y’ALL DW I AM NOT GIVING PRIME VIDEO NOR VIVZIEPOP MY MONEY 😭)

doctor who

good omens

and much more! but i can’t be bothered adding them.. if any more of my interests are in an ask i’ll just tell y’all and edit this

[defensivelee]

some scene/dialogue ideas for the hypothetical NSO-esque Louis dating sim in which you play as a mistress of him (sorry no male MC). I think the point of it would be to try to ASSERT YOUR INFLUENCE on him until you basically run the country yourself, which he makes extremely difficult for you to do. idk why I'm thinking of it so much 😭

---------

Louis: Do you think this looks good on me?

He'll probably be asking this a lot when he tries something on. You basically get to dress him since he'll usually listen to your opinions as you are very important to him.

Upon saying it looks awful but he secretly disagrees:

Louis: Well...just a little, I suppose.

Upon saying it looks awful and he agrees:

Louis: Who thought of this?

Upon saying it looks good:

Louis: Not much of an observation, love, you know everything looks good on me.

---------

Louis: I have a question. Do you love me? Really really really love me?

He'll ask this every night, just in a different form. Usually you would have three choices, all of which say the same thing: "Yes, I love you." I doubt it's because he's insecure, he just wants to hear you say it.

After a bad day in which you didn't really make him happy, though, he'll say:

Louis: I thought you loved me. You told me yesterday. Do you really really really love me?

He usually stares at you with a smile, sitting pleasantly on his bed, but at this point the music stops briefly and he sort of glowers at you. You have three choices again, and only one is different:

Player: No, you know why I stayed with you at all.

Louis will look down and smile, and the music will start up again.

Louis: Ahaha....you are not wrong.

If you say you love him, he looks vaguely suspicious but accepts it anyway.

---------

To increase the Trust & Love bar (probably the least important for your status, but necessary nonetheless if you want him to keep you around) you would have to give him a gift. I think you should be able to give him a little carp because it would be funny and he likes them.

Louis: You got me another fish? See, this is why I love you. You give me stuff.

Louis: She is so beautiful...can you name her for me?

Whatever the name is that you choose, he'll find it very endearing. Unless you attempt to call it Louis, in which case he'll feign offense but actually be laughing a little.

---------

You can make it your goal for him to just have awful days constantly so that his Happiness & Certainty will go down. Eventually he will start getting really personal at night instead of having sex, and he'll tell you things you may not have known about him. This makes him easier to manipulate/blackmail later on.

Louis: I will never understand Philippe. A boy kissed me once.

Louis: *his eyes now widening* I wanted to kill myself.

Louis: He said he was going to kill me if I told anyone--

Things like that.

[sonkitty]

Earthly Objects - Part 1

"You can't just manifest and cause trouble, there are rules." -Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 5 (The Ball)

(Crowley was blurry from the back when he really said that so the above screenshot is from the lines right before)

This post was last updated 07/07/2024.

Much of this post is some heavily involved theorizing. However, the Threshold Tricks existing actually supports a lot of this theorizing. I make mistakes nonetheless. Please keep that in mind. I am still confident in the Threshold Tricks, if nothing else.

...

The Game

Earthly Objects is a layered game. The characters in Good Omens 2 are playing it. A curious audience member can play it by trying to figure out how the game works.

The game consists of some notable patterns that start to resemble an expected script from the characters. Hence, there are rules. These rules can and will be broken.

The two main characters, Crowley and Aziraphale, play Earthly Objects the most and at the highest level of play. They have a heightened awareness compared to everyone else.

Most other characters play Earthly Objects on instinct with basic rule-following.

One character in particular, the Metatron, makes repeated mistakes.

This series of posts focuses on the present day since the minisodes are more difficult to follow for me. You can look at my Sideburns Scheme posts for when I remark on what I do find in the minisodes themselves.

Who made the rules? I don't know. It could be Crowley because it's very engineered, complicated, and he knows the game's intricacies better than anyone. He is most likely the best player in the whole thing. It could be God since she told us Herself she plays an ineffable game of her own devising in season 1. It could be Adam as an eventual result of his rebooting reality at the end of season 1. Season 1 had something resembling Earthly Objects as well. It could be the Metatron because certain characters are never allowed to say Crowley's name, and the Metatron clearly has something against Crowley himself. It could be an already existing book someone threw the characters into.

Whoever or whatever is responsible, the game is there with a number of findable, solvable puzzles for any willing and curious audience member.

I call the game Earthly Objects due to the use of the phrase "earthly object" in episode 1 and the touching even shown during that segment. The mechanics of this game are largely based on touching.

...

The Rule of Three

Earthly Objects loves the number 3. It is everywhere in the game and everywhere in the story. The standard set of points is 3. Even with Crowley's Threshold Tricks, the number 3 can still be found as the number of primary multiplicative adjectives required.

...

Points

A standard set of points is 3.

I cannot name all the sets, but I've seen and found enough, that's still my understanding of the main game in play.

One earthly object touch is worth 1 point. Standard dialogue points can be earned through "Hello" or an approved equivalent, questions, names, and numbers.

If two characters interact, the game usually wants each character to earn at least one point. Other scenes are meant to stand out when not adhering to this rule to find the game itself or as part of its broader puzzles.

Solo scenes still often require 3 points from that one character.

Points are dependent on context, timing, and placement around thresholds.

Things grow ever more complex with more characters involved.

...

Earthly Objects

Earth has objects, often thought of by humans as tangible objects. In this story, earthly does not mean solid, and touch does not mean direct skin or clothing contact. They are the most easily evident and likely common methods. The touch depends on how it is done and the nature of the object in question.

Checking a watch for the time is an earthly object touch because that is how you use a watch on Earth. Looking through a window is an earthly object touch because people look through windows to see things on Earth.

We see three earthly objects in the show's opening before Earth even exists. Those objects are a crank, a scroll, and a book. One of them, the book, is touched through a supernatural method but still touched.

An earthly object can be held during a character interaction and still count in many contexts.

These are basic earthly objects, for a few examples; see more at the end:

Chairs

Windows

Tables

Walls

Books

Mirrors

Cups

Doorknobs

Bodies of living natural beings (humans and goats for example)

...

Blurs

Blurs have multiple functions within the game, and an audience player must consider the surrounding context for their intention.

Among such functions is pass or share. For me, this part became evident in studying how window looks work.

...

Thresholds

Thresholds are largely understood to be doors.

Doors have earthly objects on them, such as doorknobs, door handles, locks, push plates, shades, windows, mirrors—even the astragal for double doors. The panel serving its function as mainly the door is different. That is the threshold and not an earthly object.

This story has other non-door thresholds, such as the edge of the sidewalk.

Window frames are thresholds and windows themselves have a remarkable threshold component when it comes to looking, with a link explaining such a thing further down.

...

Threshold Tricks

I love these things despite my frequent complaints on The Pocket Trick.

The Threshold Tricks are 6 special, advanced moves in Earthly Objects performed by Crowley. Each one requires assistance in some form, but Crowley himself is the main player performing the Trick in question.

These things are findable, solvable puzzles with at least two rounds for an audience member to play. I hope there isn't a third round because I don't think I could handle it. I have been stuck in Round 2 for months.

Round 1:

Round 1 involves finding the given Threshold Trick. It is complicated. There should be a Single, a Double, and a Triple. It should have a name. Five of the six Threshold Tricks should have a core concept with The Pocket Trick missing one. The core concept is the simple idea the Threshold Trick is based on. In Round 1, an audience member is only required to play the game by checking frame-by-frame during The Perfect Entrance Trick due to its quick movement, blurs, and a thumb tip touching a window pane.

It is still very challenging because a player must be familiar with the events of the story and put a lot of thought into these core concepts to solve the puzzle.

Round 2:

Based solely on my own experience, I admit, Round 2 starts with a second look at The Pocket Trick in case you missed something since there's a decent chance you're missing core concept itself.

To play Round 2, an audience member is definitely required to play the game by looking at things frame-by-frame because you can't discover the Tied Hands any other way. Well, at least you probably wouldn't. The Tied Hands are just the start of realizing the scale of The Pocket Trick and its giant impact on so much else within the Earthly Objects game.

Here is a post I made about the Threshold Tricks:

Threshold Tricks (Good Omens 2).

The Threshold Tricks require a minimum of 6 points due to their involvement with thresholds and even a specified format of a primary Single, Double, and Triple.

Aziraphale may not manipulate thresholds on the same level as Crowley, but he is aware and involved in quite likely all of the Tricks. In fact, at the story's end, he actually has his own part to play with his own special Magic Trick linked to The Door Trick with its own special name of The Door Catch.

Muriel is Crowley's trusted assistant in the last touches of The Bigger Thresholds Trick and The Pocket Trick, suggesting the pair have a hidden, past friendship from a previous draft or previous drafts of the story. The game further suggests this possibility with ensuring that Muriel scenes bookend one side of at least part of every Threshold Trick. I could be misreading it, of course, but the only other interpretation I have is a deep-rooted trust even if they aren't friends.

...

Vary Technique

The story does not want the characters to use the same exact technique twice on the same type of earthly object touch to earn a point, in a different later scene. It can be similar but should have some variation. An easy example is Shax knocks on the window using her knuckles at Crowley’s car, then later knocks on a window to the bookshop with just an index finger.

I most certainly have not verified this rule, just noticed subtle variations when looking for these things. Crowley's Threshold Tricks have a pattern that I do believe is intended to be, "Never do the same trick twice."

...

Awareness

I'm convinced Crowley and Aziraphale are aware of the rules and making choices about them, but that doesn't mean they know every move they are making that is following the rules.

When Crowley shoots out lightning in episode 1, the lightning itself still actually follows the rules with three different touches on the door to the coffee shop. I don't think Crowley did that on purpose or even knows it happened. But it did happen.

Still, his choices in most, or at least quite a bit, of his movement during the story do appear to be deliberate choices.

I'm not entirely sure how this awareness mixes with the drama of the presented story. There seems to be some layering involved, maybe even a switch to hit certain levels of the layering for what they need to move forward.

...

Earth

The surface upon which characters stand and walk is the Earth. They can touch the Earth to earn a point, but it requires a little more effort, such as hopping. The hopping might require the feet touch the ground at different times.

Let's check in with our experts.

Crowley hops in place in episode 1 before shooting out lightning. He also hops while talking to Muriel before the scene ends in episode 6. In both cases, the feet do not touch the ground at the same time.

Aziraphale deliberately avoids a point in episode 6 when he makes sure to step backwards off a rug onto the floor in episode 6. No points for stepping backwards onto Earth. Or at least he didn't earn a point for walking partly on a rug.

When Crowley is walking on the sidewalk and passing by the coffee shop in episode 1, he does the following to earn two points, not even in the same set believe it or not. The first thing he does is rotate his body, such that his left foot is fully on the ground, but his right foot isn't. Instead, only the heel touches the ground. As such, he gets the point because the heel is touching the ground. He's not just standing. After he fixes the power, the camera shows that his left foot is already off the sidewalk and moving to the road. He gets a point for the step because he's not just walking on the sidewalk, then the road. He's stepping from the sidewalk to the road. It might help that the edge of a sidewalk is a threshold. His second step after crossing the threshold has the foot conveniently cut off from the camera.

...

Apparel (Clothing and Accessories)

Generally speaking, touches require care in what qualifies as a proper touch, so I've assumed much the same when it comes to apparel. It depends on the context and what the camera sees.

Supernatural beings can usually manage self-clothing touches without much issue, but the ball invitations show Crowley putting himself in a position multiple times where self-clothing touches must be done with the assistance of an earthly object to allow the touch to happen. Most likely, that is due to Crowley intentionally not talking to anyone during the actual invitation phase.

Crowley’s sunglasses are a special type of accessory because they have both Accessory Mode and Door Mode. Thanks to the different modes and his understanding of context within the game, he can earn special accessory points with the sunglasses.

More info can be found here:

Earthly Object Study - Crowley’s Sunglasses (Good Omens 2)

Due to how the story ends, I suspect the apparel rules are not as simple as just letting two interacting characters to touch only such things with a scene as extensive as the bookshop scene between Crowley and Aziraphale at the end of episode 6. The story cares about context, and there is some big time context happening in that scene.

...

Humans

Humans are earthly objects. As such, they can do self-touches, such as clasping their hands.

Maggie is the show's prime example as she uses this method quite frequently. She might be a special type of human based on other things we observe in the show, but the story considers her human enough to allow this method nonetheless.

..

Supernatural Beings

If a supernatural being is actively touching an earthy object, they can, like humans, do self-touches.

There do seem to be related methods that make this rule seem rather lax and pointless. There's something like angels can do self-touches so long as one of them, somewhere on the screen is touching an earthly object and/or their reflections are visible on the floor. Or, if there is more than one supernatural being on screen and if one of them is doing a self-touch with no earthly objects on screen, all of them should be doing a self-touch on screen.

Aziraphale seems able to use self-touches on his hands as much as any human can anytime in the whole story except during only certain parts of his rule-breaking session in The Final Fifteen.

Miracle touches onto earthly objects are allowed. Crowley changing three traffic lights from red to green at the same time? That's an earthly object touch.

Supernatural beings are allowed reciprocal touches between each other, such as a fist bump or holding hands. Kissing is probably allowed though the one kiss shown has exceptional circumstances with a lot of other touching deliberately not happening.

Because of the ball invitations and intense nature of the argument scene in the bookshop in the Final Fifteen, I do still think there is some kind of rule or set of rules that has higher restrictions than what humans are allowed to do.

...

Windows

Windows are easy to overlook because once you do take the time to study them in their more complex use, they are by no means easy to understand.

Windows have specific functions on Earth in that people look through windows to see things, so looking through a window itself is an earthly object touch, provided the camera sees that touch in the proper way.

Here's a messy post about mostly a few more complex scenes involving windows:

Earthly Objects Study - Windows

Here is the simplified visual representation of The Window Trick:

The Window Trick - Visual Representation

...

Chairs

Aziraphale has a mysterious vendetta against the backs of chairs ever since Gabriel interrupted Aziraphale from listening to music. The chair he sits in when talking to Crowley about wanting help looking after Gabriel seems to be the main exception.

Aziraphale's got no visible back of a chair in the coffee shop or the pub, maybe other places, and even in the bookshop, when he is sitting in a chair, his back is not in the back of the chair most or all of the time. I don’t care enough to confirm every scene. It's weird.

This mystery suggests there is a point for the back to the chair that he is simply adamant to not earn. His back itself is rather important to the season's ending due to the shadows of the green leaves on the back of his coat.

There are plenty of other ways to earn points from chairs. It mainly needs to make sense for how a chair would be touched, such as using an arm rest.

...

Knock

Knocking on a window probably earns a point, provided the camera sees it. When Gabriel knocks on the door in episode 1? Not sure. The camera saw it, but the eventual response takes awhile. A blur might make it a pass. It's hard to tell.

...

Hands

Hands are complex. For instance, depending on the touch, credit could be determined by the number of fingers visibly used. If the touch is standard for one index finger and one index finger and thumb, it's probably fine.

Crowley messes with this rule a lot. He cares which touch is credited how. It’s not enough to earn points. In his first present day scene, he his holding a newspaper with only his index and middle finger extended. With his back to the bench, his arm on an arm rest, his line of sight toward the newspaper as if reading it, and possibly further complex pocket mechanics at work on his clothing, the two-finger-touched newspaper can can act as his own personal threshold until he decides otherwise.

Thumbs and thumb tips are particularly important when it comes to managing thresholds. Thumb tips can activate Door Mode with proper care.

By far, the weirdest, funniest hand mechanic I have found is that when it comes to pockets, Crowley's tie strands are connected to his hands because they are his Tied Hands. The tassels are their thumbs, and the clasps are their thumb joints. I am never, ever getting over that.

I doubt I'll ever figure out the hand mechanics fully myself.

...

Earthly Objects Main

Earthly Objects Part 2

Earthly Objects Part 3

...

Past version overall:

The Earthly Objects Game

[foodfightnovelization]

Chapter 7: Analysis and Discussion

We're back once again! As we make our way into Chapter 7, as is becoming increasingly common in this novelization, we open with a scene that isn't in the movie at all. Dan is riding a horse-drawn chuck wagon to the Copabanana (google "chuck wagon" if you don't know what that is) on account of his plane crashing a few chapters ago. Dan is pissed that he's taking such an archaic mode of transportation to the club as he was hoping to arrive in style, and does a backflip off the back of it to try and look cool. He fails. It's here we're introduced to the character of Lady X- and this whole scene is a pretty major diversion from the movie, where she isn't introduced until a little later. She's described as being a tall woman in a tight red dress, and if you haven't seen the movie (Dear god why would you be reading this blog if you haven't?) that's a fair, albeit incredibly brief summary of her appearance.

Lady X asks where she can go for a good time, and Dan awkwardly stammers "Banana!". She responds saying she prefers zucchini, and I genuinely can't tell if this is supposed to be a sex joke? So far the novelization has mostly avoided the movie's numerous cases of innuendo and sex puns so I GUESS not? Anyway, I actually think the movie not including this scene is for the best- it's a very low-key introduction to the character of Lady X, whereas in the movie the way she's introduced about a scene later is much more dramatic and gives some much-needed weight to the arrival of her character.

Meanwhile Dex is still at the Copabanana, mourning his missing girlfriend, and he once again tries to catch a raisin in his mouth. He fails.

Lady X enters the Copabanana, and THIS is where her character first shows up in the movie. Here in the novelization it's her second appearance, and there are some notable differences from the way it's depicted in the movie as well. We're told "Vlad, who had Rosa in a perfect dip, dropped her". This isn't in the movie's version of the scene, and the novelization doesn't tell us who Rosa is supposed to be (possibly the mascot for Rosarita, a brand of canned Mexican food?) so there's not much I can say about her. We're also told Tiki Taki, a breath mint Ike, starts breathing fire. This IS in the movie, but we're never told his name or what he's the mascot of, whereas here we are! (this is perhaps one of the advantages of a written format) I'll actually share the movie's version of this scene below, since it's accompanied by (what I believe) to be a genuinely fantastic song. Enjoy:

Lady X continues walking through the club as everyone watches in awe. On her way through the dance floor, she accidentally steps on the tail of "the maître d'". In the movie, this is Charlie The Tuna, and she says "Sorry, Charlie" after stepping on him. However, as we established in the previous chapter, this is clearly still SUPPOSED to be Charlie Tuna, and they just couldn't refer to him by name. So yeah, there are a few differences here and there in her introduction (notably the song isn't in the book on account of it being, well, a book) but it's more or less the same.

Dex sees Lady X and mutters "Of all the produce bars in all the supermarkets in all the world, she had to walk into mine". This is yet another reference to Casablanca, and it isn't the last either. Of course, in Casablanca Rick says "gin joints" and "towns in all the world" and he isn't a cartoon cereal dog mourning his raisin girlfriend, but it's a reference nonetheless. Lady X introduces himself to Dex, and this exchange is more or less the same as it is in the movie, save for a few additional lines of dialogue about how Hairy Hold is running the store now.

Dex and Lady X share some dialogue that isn't in the movie, mainly consisting of a whole lot of supermarket-based puns, before they're interrupted by Dan insisting he's Lady X's "sugar daddy". Kaptain Krispy points out there's something suspicious about Lady X and Brand X as a whole, leading the two to an argument. There are a few additional lines of dialogue here- Dex acknowledges Krispy's had a rough day, but asks that he doesn't take his anger out on Dan. There's honestly very few scenes in this novelization without some kind of extra dialogue that wasn't in the movie, and I've gotta say in almost every instance it adds something to the plot.

The argument continues with Lady X's comment about "things getting sour" between the sugar and salt Ikes, and Dex saying this isn't a "condiment conspiracy". Neither of these lines are in the movie, but the rest of the scene is more or less unchanged. Krispy is upset his bag was stomped by Mr Clipboard (that was like FOUR chapters ago, come on now) and the entire Copabanana explodes in a bar fight. In the movie Dan yells "Foodfight!" in a Suicide-Squad style title drop before brawling, but that isn't present here.

Dex picks up a barstool to join the fight, only to find Polar Penguin is sitting atop it. He declares the party's over, and everyone clears out. There's an additional few lines here where Maximilius is about to throw Dan out of the club and he pleads to be let go, but otherwise the scene is mostly the same as it is in the film.

Dan and Lady X head out of the club together, and the chapter draws to a close. I've gotta say, the changes in this novelization have really made Foodfight! a lot more enjoyable so far. The additional scenes, the altered dialogue and the absent sexual humor really make for a much better experience overall. Obviously the novelization has a huge advantage due to it just being the written word as opposed to the absolute eyesore of the finished film, but regardless it still feels vastly superior. I'm actually really enjoying this version of the story! Anyway, see you next time for Chapter 8!

[amplexadversary]

Additional thoughts on Live A Live

The medley of everyone's chapter themes during the end credits owns.

I like how the T. Rex sprite has similar chonky proportions to the budgie god. My reasons for liking this are many, and although I'm pretty sure the reason for the way Odo looks is so that they could fit him in the boss box, it's delightful nonetheless.

According to my friend who played the original, the cowboy's jerky used to be cigars. I actually kind of prefer them as a food item because snarfing three servings of dried meat in combat makes more sense to me than somehow speed-smoking cigars. I'd have liked to have had the molotovs though.

I doubt the old-lady's crochet was the same thing in the original either, but I think it's far funnier having the punk running around in that, clashing with his other clothes than whatever underwear it probably used to be. I'm imagining a (admittedly very nice before the washer got to it) shawl my mother once made that goes just around the shoulders and doesn't close in front, but in pink. I think he'd rock that over the jacket, with the handbag worn saddle-bag style. Very little says IDGAF better than clearly stolen clothing.

Speaking of the Mazinger chapter - throughout the whole beginning all the little kids do is ask me for food before I've had the chance to acquire any. But as soon as I did the taiyaki stand minigame and came back, the game auto-advanced the plot, and I never got to give them the snacks I had acquired. Not going to lie, I'm a little bit disappointed there isn't another opportunity to hand those off once you can get into the lab and no one is in any immediate danger.

I will concede to liking a stylistic choice the devs made in one respect: Having Hoersted's dialogue be in Iambic kicks ass. Having the NPCs in his chapter speak like that... not so much (it made the king sound like he was having a stroke at times).

Yes I put an H in font of Oersted's name to mock him. I was a little concerned I wasn't going to be rewarded with some Chrono Trigger cast call for completing the game. It turned out he earns the scorn for other reasons. No way in hell I'm playing his chapter again so it stays.

I'm amused by how much funnier the joke I was making while watching the balcony scene became thanks to where the plot went. I was being an ass and supplementing the dialogue with something along the lines of:

"Look, princess, I think we both know based on your reaction that you aren't having it, so I have some good news: I'm not either. We're headed to beard city over here so you should probably start thinking about who you want to cheat on me with now so I can cover for- ah shit of course she just got kidnapped."

Damn the little player character sprites are adorable. I want a lanyard or something with my favorites on it (mainly because if I got a little keychain I'd actually have to get three; one of the dirtbag ninja, one of the smartass psychic, and one of the Domon-lookalike. Also, they all have a few different poses that are really cute).

I swear I'm calling the ninja a dirtbag as an affectionate term; part of it is due to how much I liked the AOE and debuff on his dust veil move and so I had the poor guy doing his best chinchilla impression at the start of a lot of battles in his chapter. The other reason is that there are just a bunch of ways to be a dick in his chapter and I decided to roll with the interpretation.

Taeko's Furious Fist has got to be my favorite weapon in the game just because of the flavor text and how you get it. It's not a tangible object. The guy just rolls with the vibe. I was a little bit sad when I had to unequip it to make room for more powerful gear.

I still think the names I picked are better than the default ones with the exception of the one I couldn't come up with any decent alternative for (the kung-fu style) and for the MMA guy (a blatant reference). The rest I had to think about before committing, and I think the only one I'd change is I'd lengthen the psychic's name to Vulcan (from Vul) because it looks better next to the length of the others. Admittedly, the one I chose for the robot is also a blatant reference but honestly anything I put in there would have been an improvement over Cube.

[ryukatters]

yeah…I’m trying to convince myself that gojo is really gone because it’s going to hurt like shit if I start to have hope and he doesn’t come back 😭

……and with that being said. I have some thoughts to help me cope.

1.) Gojo states that he hopes what he’s experiencing (reuniting with geto, yaga, etc.) isn’t a dream. While this has caused a lot of us to immediately go “oh, he’s dead dead” since he’s seems content, apart of me found it interesting how he states that yet we get no actual answer as to whether or not it is just a dream. We see him smiling with geto and waving to what it seems like to be everyone else in the afterlife, but there’s no dialogue.

Gojo saying that he hopes this all isn’t a dream reminded me of this character named Gray (from fairy tail) who was in this fake reality and states that he wishes it was real since he was with the girl he loved and had a family with her. But, nonetheless he broke out of that fake reality because he knew he still had stuff to do.

While Gojo seems content with being dead, he does state something he somewhat regrets: not being able to tell Megumi about Toji.

and while he counters that with how he told shoko to take care of it, Gege has stated that Gojo will be the one to tell Megumi about Toji.

(honestly, I think Megumi is going to die and see gojo in the afterlife and that’s when he’s going to find out but 😭 this is me coping 😔)

Anyways, that’s still a regret he has. And it’s about Megumi. And what condition is Megumi in right now? Well, he’s pretty fucked up rn 😭

But I think that even though Gojo wants to be dead, he knows that there’s still stuff he has to do.

I think there’s still a chance he’ll come back, especially because we TECHNICALLY didn’t see him stop breathing, S*kuna praised him and Gojo smiled then we saw his face—we technically haven’t seen him taken his last breath (my delusions are so powerful 😭) also his head is still on his body, and Gojo has made it a statement that although you make think he’s dead, he had a chance to come back as long as he has his head, which is why you go. for. the. head.

2.) Shoko using RCT and Yuta possibly helping Shoko with that

3.) Writing.

Genuinely, I think an extremely good writer move to do in this situation would be to bring Gojo back, like sincerely I really do think that.

Now, before continuing this, I’d like to state that if Gege doesn’t do this; it doesn’t make Gege a shit writer. Some characters/plots can be hyped up intentionally, just for the good guys to lose because that’s what gets to readers. That’s why the Jjk as a whole hits so hard—that’s what a major theme of the story.

But…I really do think this would make it a better arc for Gojo since an ongoing theme for him has always been his identity, I mean in interviews Gege literally says that he lacks a personality.

I think Gojo going “north” and him coming back, but not necessarily fighting anymore and it’s more of him accepting that he’s Gojo Satoru, not just the strongest, would be a beautiful way to tie up his arc. not to mention, s*kuna didn’t refer to him as “the strongest” but called him by his name, Gojo Satoru.

I know a big thing about Gojo’ death, was that it was a very dishonoring death and kind of felt like a cop out since Gege has spoken on struggling with killing Gojo, thus him getting sealed.

I really do think there’s more that can be done with Gojo, but again, I don’t think this is that kind of story. Gege could 100% just plan to make this a full on tragedy just like with Greek plays, to show the faults of humanity and it’s effects

— 🕊️ (are you fine with emoji anons, if you’re not then just ignore this little emoji bit!)

i feel like that little airport scene is almost like purgatory/in between life and death. there's gotta be a reason why gojo meets his friends in an airport and not school or something. is he leaving to go somewhere? (i am also delusional)

i've never read anything where gege said that gojo would be the one to tell megumi about toji so maybe that can be another fragment of hope i can hold on to 😭

and yes i have faith in my girl shoko and my manz yuta! kashimo distract sukuna so they can drag his body away or smthn idk

i agree that having him live as just satoru gojo, a human, would have been the best conclusion for him but i guess we'll have to wait and see what gege's cooking (bc i know he's cooking something)

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Higurashi Month 2023, Day 13: Reflect

Higurashi Month prompts archive: AO3 

Shion was something of a connoisseur when it came to punishments that might be considered barbaric by modern society.

People always talked about the fancy weird cultism that surrounded Hinamizawa, whispering around the edges of their hands whenever she (not Shion, not then at least, but she) had accompanied Oni-Baba to the rare meeting outside Okinomiya itself. It had only been once or twice, but Shion had immediately been conscious of the way her family wore their kimonos, the dulled glimmer of gilt threads in the brocade worn dim by years of use, the fabric heavy and smooth like cream, compared to the flashier, brighter, lighter modern kimonos –and more often, suits– their meeting partners had worn.

Little-her had never seen so much Western clothing in a formal meeting between families. In Hinamizawa, people still wore the clothing passed down for generations, and they wore it with pride.

Modern families, Oni-Baba had said, distaste sharp in her voice, and nouveau riche, the foreign syllables sliding over her tongue like the clatter of mahjong tiles or the jangling chime of a pocketful of coins. Hinamizawans were better. They had their pride. They had their ancestry.

Machine-made and modern silk, Oni-Baba had explained the newer kimonos, telling Shion about the greedy fools who wanted the status symbols that they had sold off to make ends meet. Maybe the kimonos were custom-ordered, beautifully made and unfathomably expensive in a child's eyes, but they were as nothing compared to the weight of luxury in Shion's (it had been Mion's then, and was Mion's still, but Shion no longer owned that name) garments.

Of course, the other side of that coin was being seen as stick-in-the-mud conservative rural nobodies. Within Hinamizawa, Oni-Baba and the Sonozaki family were absolute rulers: outside it, they were a bunch of yokels. The most prestigious locals that this backwater part of the prefecture could offer, but yokels nonetheless. A forgotten pebble picked out of Japan's shoe and flung by the wayside, which was really all that had allowed them to keep their trappings of nobility.

If St. Lucia's was good for one thing, Shion observed with a humorless snort as she lay back on the hard bench with her hands folded behind her head, staring up at the ceiling, it was their library. These nuns collected an awful lot of exotic literature on their shelves, albeit occasionally in English or some other European language.

She'd found an interesting book talking about Gothic horror: its roots, its patterns, its traditions, what made the foundation of its horror. Gothic horror talked about transgression, how the breaching of boundaries between the Old World and the New displaced and disoriented. The Gothic came in fragments, weaving in bits of forgotten past or presented as epistolary novels, displaced in time and haunting the narrative with fractured roles and changing dynamics. It was the shifting of previously-held convictions in a place where the unknown wilderness held more power than mere modernity.

She felt that Hinamizawa was very familiar, in that sense.

The book had talked about how the effect of such horror came from that moment of hesitation, like a cool breath on the back of one's neck, when you heard an old story, a folktale, an urban legend, and wondered what if this is actually true?

Shion had been stuffed to the ears with such tales as a child, listening to her family and others recount the glorious brawling tapestry of their village and its legends. Hinamizawa was the very picture of the book's example of the Gothic-typical dialogue between the skeptical, rational, urban, and modern and the irrational, superstitious, premodern rural, and she a small microcosm of it. Raised on the ancient and storied past of her remote village, sent here to a smart modern school in the city, resenting both and suffering under their shared influences.

Of course, Shion had no intention of becoming a Gothic heroine.

But part of Hinamizawa's old ways was their isolation, and part of their isolation –because of their isolation– they could get away with much that would have had the government crashing down on her family's head if they had lived in Tokyo or the suburbs. Tattooing a child, for one thing, to say nothing of how Oni-Baba ruled the family with a will of iron.

So yeah. Throwing Shion in an underground cell to "reflect on her actions" for showing some stuffy teacher a bit more lip than usual?

Shion rolled her eyes.

Cute. Really, she was so utterly devastated and inconsolable by this punishment. She needed to pull out a lacy kerchief and dab her eyes, bedewed as they were by her poor maidenly tears!

These uppity nuns ought to see what Shion's family kept in their second basement.

AN: The book Shion references here is Gothic: An Illustrated History by Roger Luckhurst, an absolutely fascinating read that I recommend to anyone interested in how horror (mainly Gothic horror as the title says, but it dives into a lot of tangents) actually works.

[apompkwrites]

reader impact || first meeting: archon edition

series masterlist characters: venti, zhongli genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: i still don't know if this will be a series but last post would've been too long if i had all four in one

venti's playthrough -

hoo boy, venti's streams would be VERY chaotic.

this boy has nothing to tie him down except for his own mortality, but will that stop him? no.

lots of late night or early morning streams because his sleep schedule is practically nonexistent.

he does a lot of singing or storytelling streams, which is why the time is perfect.

he'll sing lullabies and read bedtime stories at night. in the morning, he'll sing soft songs to wake up his viewers and talk about the rare dreams he'd have once he passes out.

he'll also have drinking streams where he just drinks as much as he can. he's a drunkard, what can i say?

anyway, gaming is something he isn't opposed to, but mainly ones with music or just pure crackhead energy.

when his viewers suggest genshin impact, he'd be somewhat hesitant?

he needs games that are chaotic and filled with energy to keep his attention.

his mods and viewers, however, are able to convince him because of a certain drunken character.

as soon as he sees the non-spoiled description of your character, he's off to download.

he actually enjoys a lot of the adventure aspects of the game, even if he's known as a lazy streamer.

anyway, his viewers definitely should have warned him about your appearance.

they never told him you were such a cute character!

"don't be afraid. it's alright now, i'm back."

"HASGDGSJFK"

he shrieked when you started talking.

"HOW ARE THEY SO CUTE?!?!"

he gets sad when his character sets off dvalin...

you disappear and your dragon friend flies off... now venti's just sad he might've made you upset.

he's pouting the whole way through mondstadt, thinking of ways to make it up to you.

he doesn't care if you're a video game character, he loves you nonetheless.

and once dvalin shows up in mondstadt, he's genuinely excited. he knows your bound to appear again because your friend is here.

when you help venti fly behind dvalin, his chat is teasing him because of the grin on his face.

he's so soft for you, man...

he will spend hours just ranting about you when he's going through the domains with the standard characters.

when he finds the other statues in mondstadt, he likes to climb up it to admire your archon design.

even though he's known you for a few minutes, he will automatically recognize your face in the game.

he knows it's annoying but he can't help but ask his chat if he'll get to see you again soon. he really doesn't want to spend hours without hearing you and seeing you in game.

he likes to yell at paimon whenever she makes fun of you

he shrieks again when he sees you running past the fountain.

he almost cries when he sees you playing your lyre for the first time.

you're perfect in his eyes and all he wants is to spend every minute of this game with you.

although, he did have to take a break the first time he saw your archon form illustrated.

you just... look like an angel and his body can't handle that.

he loves listening to your tales. like the battle pass story that occurs every time it renews, he never skips it. soon, he'll memorize it and recite it with you once it appears.

"oh! i remember you two. you both scared dvalin away!"

"I'M SORRY"

please forgive him. he knows you won't because the game doesn't require it, but he decides to always call stormterror dvalin to make up for it.

"ah, right! i haven't introduced myself... i'm (name) the bard!"

please this boy is so smitten for a video game character.

when you're revealed to be the archon, he's not too surprised? i mean, he already recognized you from the statue.

he is so excited to steal the lyre for you.

it takes him a bit, though, just because he has a bad attention span and ends up revealing his location.

he's even more excited to learn you're a regular at diluc's tavern.

he would do anything to drink with you.

he'll reluctantly end the game there just because it's time for his bedtime songs/stories.

"i'll be back tomorrow, (name), my love! i promise!"

zhongli's playthrough -

zhongli's a really good streamer even when he doesn't try to be.

he is basically the king of just chatting streams.

daily tea times and storytime streams are a go!

his voice is what lures them in and his charm is what traps them there.

he's still poor, though...

he relies on the donations from his viewers but he always expresses his gratitude.

man's respectful, what can i say?

anyway, he does play games every now and then. he doesn't tend to enjoy fighting games though.

although, he's rather good at them... for some reason.

his gaming streams tend to be a lot longer because he picks games with an overarching story.

i'm talking long games like night in the woods, detroit: become human, really any long game with deep meanings and stories.

his viewers will pay for him to just sit there and read to them.

anyway, someone donates to him and recommends he play genshin impact because of the long story and hidden lore.

he definitely enjoyed the beginning of the story, but got even more attached once he reached liyue.

he seems very intrigued when he begins the quest by watching liyue's archon fall dead on the ground.

he would definitely go on a long rant about gods and goddesses that have fallen.

when he meets childe, he does take a liking to him.

now, this man is known for being stoic and serious, so it comes as a surprise when he almost loses his composure when you appear.

keyword being almost.

he manages to stay composed but his chat knows for a fact he's freaking out over you.

your fancy suit/dress reminds him of the anthropological tales of gods/goddesses and kings/queens.

let this man drink tea with you please--

"it is an honor to meet you. i have heard tell of you from mondstadt."

"... they have quite the pleasant voice."

his chat is going wild at this point.

they get to listen to two heavenly voices talk to each other at the same time?! it's a dream come true!

another man that will let your long lines of dialogue play, listening intently to the stories you tell his character.

he actually really likes the image of his character talking to you.

he's so short compared to you--

he also really likes your animation when you're standing still.

not your idle animations, even though those are really nice as well. i'm talking about the movement of your clothes when your character is standing there. it's just so... soothing to him.

the gradient of your hair color to your elemental gnosis is also a nice detail to him. he likes how there are subtle ways archons look compared to normal citizens in teyvat.

when he finds out you are also a person who struggles with money... oh boy, this man cannot relate more.

you both can be broke together.

he will look to his chat for help every time a bargaining option occurs.

similar to venti, he'd be able to tell you were an archon automatically, mainly because of the way you carry yourself and your design.

when you give away your gnosis, he was really interested in the fact that you were so dedicated to your title of the archon of contracts that you would just willingly give your gnosis away.

when he meets the adepti, his chat jokingly says that the yaksha is yours and his adopted child.

"... i would not be opposed to that idea."

all of the artists and writers in his chat are dying at this point.

he'd look up all of the lore, especially ones involving you, and use them for his storytime streams.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 305: Worst Intervention Ever

Previously on BnHA: Shinomori, whose name took me an entire week to memorize, was all, “nice to meet you Deku, I’m ten feet tall, do you want to know how I died?” and without waiting for an answer explained that he kicked it from old age at forty thanks to good ol’ OFA. Deku was all “wait a minute, then how come All Might, who’s fifty-five and is definitely dyeing his gray hair, is still alive?” First and Shino were all, “we really have no fucking clue but we think it’s cuz he’s quirkless, JUST LIKE YOU!” So basically, since quirkless people don’t exactly grow on trees these days, Deku is probably going to be the last user of OFA. The chapter ended with Nana being all, “psst, Deku, about my grandson. Uh, can you kill him?” which is sure to lead to a very interesting conversation this week.

Today on BnHA: Nana And The Gang are all “so, Deku, how can we put this delicately. The thing is, we’re pretty sure that AFO really fucked my grandson up, so on the off chance you can’t save him, how would you feel about, you know... [throat slitting gesture].” Deku is all “idk you guys, I kinda feel like he’s really just a traumatized child at heart and he’s in a lot of pain and stuff and so I should try to help him.” The Vestiges are all “BUT WHAT IF YOU CAN’T” and Deku is all “BUT I WANT TO TRY, DAMMIT” and the Vestiges are all “well when you put it that way, we, uh, were just testing you, so congrats, you passed!” The chapter ends with First being all, “ANYWAY SO WHY DON’T YOU TWO SHY BOYS STANDING OVER THERE IN THE SHADOWS COME SAY HELLO” before we CUT AWAY FOR ANOTHER WEEK, goddammit.

seriously, Nana

just... have you met Deku?? look, if you really want Tomura dead, just sic him on the U.A. first years and tell Shouto and Honenuki that it’s a training exercise

oh my god lmao

we’re too far away to see Nana’s face here so I will just assume that she turned and is staring DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA for this one line lmao. “I just wanted to clarify in case anyone felt inclined to take my dialogue out of context and spend an entire week complaining about it”

oh my god?! are you all purposely trying to make me sad??

someone stop me before I launch into an impromptu rant about all my Tomura feels. WHY IS NOBODY STOPPING ME. oh my god but yes, exactly. he’s just in pain all the time. this is exactly why I think Tomura has such high redemption potential even though so far he seems to lack so many of the redemption arc essentials such as feeling remorse, wanting to change, and taking responsibility for his actions. the reason why I’m willing to overlook all that in his case is because Tomura has essentially had zero agency his entire life. AFO molded him into a killer by making sure he was in constant mental agony, and making it so that the only thing that even slightly relieved that agony was killing peeps. like, please don’t think I’m making excuses for him or anything, but if you take a child and manipulate their existence to make it virtually impossible for that child to grow up as anything other than a killer, and basically never give him the chance to be anything else, then no shit he’s gonna be a killer?? he’s basically never had the choice not to be. it’s never been an option for him. anyways I feel like I am EXPLAINING MYSELF SO BADLY but nonetheless I am prepared to die on this hill

anyway so now Nana is all “that’s a rhetorical question btw because Our Hearts And Minds Are One so we can feel everything you feel bro.” so yeah, that’s interesting

now Banjou is getting started on the “let’s try and talk Deku out of wanting to save Tomura because it’s insane” part of their OFA Mystical Space Void Reunion agenda

look, Banjou, I feel you, I really do. you guys don’t think it’s realistic that Deku can defeat Tomura without killing him. so if it’s a choice between killing Tomura vs letting Deku and everyone else in the entire world die, then duh, you think Deku should kill him. I get it! and if this were a real life mass murderer I’d totally agree with you. but the problem is that this isn’t real life, this is a sympathetic shounen villain with a tragic past who might as well have FUTURE REDEMPTION ARC RECEIPIENT stamped on his forehead at this point

so First is all “look, there’s absolutely no doubt my brother has fucked this kid up good and proper by now”, which, again, fair

though, that’s kind of exactly my point though. everything that Tomura is, everything he’s done, he’s done because of AFO. AFO has so effectively shaped his personality and his worldview by this point that it’s all but impossible to penetrate that. he’s AFO’s puppet. but the problem is that rather than treating him like a victim, you all are treating him like a casualty. like he’s already a lost cause. but good luck trying to convince Deku of that

WHOA WHAT, RANDOM SUPER-IMPORTANT AND BIZARRELY UNRELATED EXPOSITION DROPPED IN JUST LIKE THAT??

way to still not reveal Sixth’s name, btw. THE PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW, DAMMIT. but also so this confirms something we basically already knew already, which is that not even AFO can steal OFA. it literally can’t be taken away by anyone unless the owner wills it. SO SUCK ON THAT AFO YOU EGG

(ETA: so I have no idea why this was omitted from this translation, but apparently the Sixth’s name was revealed as “En”, which is obviously not his full name but at least it’s something. also he most likely has a fire or smoke-related quirk based on the kanji used, 煙.)

so Banjou is saying that Deku’s “lack of an iron will” could be a disadvantage against AFO. hahaha what?? Midoriya “I’ll break all of my bones without blinking an eye just to protect someone” Izuku lacks an iron will? do tell

he says this is going to be a test of Deku’s determination. well yeah, no shit. but just not in the way you guys think

OH HELLO AGAIN

darker hair again here! but I don’t trust the contrast in these scans at all after last week. his coveralls are way darker than they looked before too, and you can clearly see he’s standing in the shadows now

(ETA: yep, once again the raw shows that his hair is considerably lighter than what’s shown in these scans here. although there’s no mistaking now that his hair is consistently being colored in this slightly darker shade, and it’s not just the lighting.)

anyways lol First was saying something about how AFO can’t steal OFA, and they’ve spent all this time cultivating it as the ultimate weapon against AFO, and blah blah blah. go on then, keep lecturing

NANA GODDAMMIT NONE OF THIS IS YOUR FAULT

girl what?? you did everything in your power to protect your family, and AFO, fucked up man that he is, targeted them anyway. there is one person and one person only to blame for what’s happened to Tomura, and that potato-faced asshole needs a good kick in the balls

NANA GODDAMMIT DON’T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE

SO HELP ME GOD!! I WILL GIVE YOU THE BIGGEST HUG YOU’VE EVER HAD!! THAT IS A THREAT

so now Nana is all “I’m just going to call my grandson a Thing to ensure that fandom has only the freshest, grass-fed no-hormones-added discourse this week”

I don’t even need to drop into the tags to know exactly which specific people are going to respond to this, and what kind of posts they are going to write lmao. everyone’s all caught up in the “that thing”, and meanwhile I’m over here completely hung up on this “nay” that’s appeared out of NOWHERE you guys. look at that. she really said “NAY”

Nana, my love, my dearest, I feel you girl I really do. but he’s not an unforgivable manifestation of pure evil, Deku is exactly right actually, he’s a boy in pain. you guys need to stop questioning Deku’s shounen protagonist instincts here and just let him work his sparkly magic. “let’s try and convince Midoriya Fucking Izuku that he can’t save someone” is a plan that is NEVER going to turn out well you guys

“DEKU GODDAMMIT WHAT IF WE CAN’T SAVE HIM” lmao it’s like an intervention

“DAMMIT DEKU JUST ADMIT YOU HAVE A SAVING PEOPLE PROBLEM!”

RED ALERT IT’S ANOTHER CLOSE-UP OF THE BACK OF MISTER TWO BON CLAY’S HEAD OMG

(ETA: I was too distracted with freaking out about Two and Three to really appreciate how ridiculously handsome First looks in this panel. but on my second readthrough it stood out so much that I had to go back and add an extra bullet point just to talk about how hot he is. look at him. wtf.)

THAT IS DEFINITELY AN UNDERCUT. THE PLOT THICKENSSSS. also those are fucking exhaust vents on Mister Three’s neck. MISTER THREE COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE RELATED TO THE IIDAS, PLEASE TELL ME YOUR SECRETS I’M DYING OVER HERE

so now Deku is launching into what will undoubtedly be a “saving people problems require SAVING PEOPLE SOLUTIONS” heroic counter-speech!

I mean, they can already feel the “lol nah I’m gonna try and save him” feelings running through him lol. ~OuR hEaRtS aNd MiNdS aRe CoNnEcTeD~ and all that. this is just a formality, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a good shounen protag speech

oh wait hold up, do you mean to tell me that the whole “hearts and minds are connected” thing I was just mocking just a paragraph ago actually allowed Deku to feel what Tomura was feeling?? like literally feel it??

YET AGAIN these Tomura feels are pounding on my front door you guys?? they just will not quit?? people my house is already full of feels, does it look like I need you to sell me any more of them?? -- what do you mean, they’re free??

AW YISS THAT’S IT DEKU. THAT’S SOME GOOD SPEECH RIGHT THERE

I appreciate the contrast here between the Douchebag Triumvirate of Overhaul, Muscular, and Stain versus the Misguided Twosome of Gentle and La Brava. never let it be said that Deku doesn’t know the difference between a redeemable villain and an unredeemable one

OH NO -- OH MY GOD

someone please help me I need directions to the OFA Spooky Galactic Nebula Realm in this fictional Japanese manga land. it’s not on google maps. I need to give these two babies a big hug and wrap them up in a blanket and treat them to some McDonalds Happy Meals please help

other things: (1) ENDEAVOR CHILLING OUT IN DEKU’S “PEOPLE I HOLD DEAR” PANEL LMAO NEON DISCOURSE EXTRAVAGANZA, (2) “ONE FOR ALL IS A POWER TO SAVE, NOT TO KILL” I’M ABOUT TO CRY DEKU I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO FEEL ALL THIS LOVE, (3) [SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE] THERE’S YOUR MOTHERFUCKING IRON WILL!!!!!!!! -- I’m sorry, please don’t call security, I’ll be good

I just randomly remembered that Deku is still saying all of this in his muffled “FMMPHHMMPHMM” voice and I’m somehow cracking up lol. so actually it’s a very good thing Their Hearts And Minds Are Connected, otherwise they’d no doubt be all, “...what?”

(ETA: so I completely missed this on account of it literally not being visible in the scan at all, but in the raw you can clearly see Baby Kacchan and Baby Shouto fanboying over All Might in two of these panels, and excuse me, ma’am??

thank you very much Deku for including them in your montage, particularly since you’ve never seen Baby Shouto before lol. amazingly accurate image you managed to conjure up, all things considered.)

SDKFJLSKHG -- AS IF ON CUE???

HE’S SO ADORABLE HELP?? Trippy Space All Might looks like he’s about to cry, and First is all “don’t crack a smile... you have to be Firm and Serious here... dammit, don’t smile” omg

anyways! YOU GO DEKU. “MY QUIRK MY RULES, BITCHES” damn, son

KLJLKKHLG TRIPPY SPACE ALL MIGHT LITERALLY ACTUALLY IS CRYING ALL MIGHT HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME

“I JUST... [CLENCHES FIST] REALLY LOVE SAVING PEOPLE” FUCKING HELL LMAO THIS IS THE WORST INTERVENTION OF ALL TIME

Deku is literally all “sure, maybe I’ll have to kill him, but have you guys also considered, MAYBE NOT??” it’s no use Nana he’s too powerful

LMAO FIRST

“like I’ve been saying this whole time, you should definitely try saving Shigaraki Tomura.” “but, uh... First, didn’t you just -- ” “shut up”

(ETA: clearly it’s not just his brother who inherited those smooth-talking genes.)

so now Deku has turned back into a sixteen year old and his clothes have gone missing again. just OFA things

dskljdlsklgk

yes... sure... “testing” you...

HEY

FIRST OF ALL, DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI YOU MADE NANA CRY. even if I’m pretty sure they’re actually tears of happiness/relief. and SECOND OF ALL, “TELL MY BOYFRIEND I SAID HI” DJSKDLKJJL ANYWAY MAYBE GRAN, NANA, AND MR. SHIMURA WERE IN A THROUPLE

[SCREAMS]

WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE?? WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE!!!!!

(ETA: and two-to-one odds that we cut away to some other scene once they finally start to turn around next week. I’M CALLING IT NOW. giving myself a week to brace myself for the rage.)

fucking hell. well if anyone needs me I will be adding Horikoshi fucking Kouhei to the list of irredeemable villains, peace