#not saying it doesn't happen elsewhere this is just the specifics where I've seen it

[mlmxreader]

"I'm such a simp", "He's got GYATT", "thats my bbg pookie fr fr" - can't you lot come up w your own bullshit instead of appropriating and misusing AAVE 247? seriously? or are you that fucking thick & racist?

[anghraine]

It's interesting (if often frustrating) to see the renewed Orc Discourse after the last few episodes of ROP. I've seen arguments that orcs have to be personifications of evil rather than people as such or else the ethics of our heroes' approach to them becomes much more fraught. Tolkien's work, as written, seems an odd choice to me for not wrangling with difficult questions, and of course, more diehard fans are going to immediately bring up Shagrat and Gorbag.

If you haven't read LOTR recently, Shagrat and Gorbag are two orcs who briefly have a conversation about how they're being screwed over by Sauron but have no other real options, about their opinions of mistakes that have been made, that they think Sauron himself has made one, but it's not safe to discuss because Sauron has spies in their own ranks. They reminisce about better times when they had more freedom and fantasize about a future when they can go elsewhere and set up a small-scale banditry operation rather than being involved in this huge-scale war. Eventually, however, they end up turning on each other.

Basically any time that someone brings up the "humanity" of this conversation, someone else will point out that they're still bad people. They're not at all guilty about what they're part of. They just resent the dangers to themselves, the pressure from above, failures of competence, the surveillance they're under, and their lack of realistic alternative options. The dream of another life mentioned in the conversation is still one of preying on innocent people, just on a much smaller and more immediate scale, etc.

I think this misses the reason it keeps getting brought up, though. The point is not that Shagrat and Gorbag are good people. The point is that they are people.

There's something very normal and recognizable about their resentment of their superiors, their fears of reprisal and betrayal that ultimately are realized, their dislike of this kind of industrial war machine that erases their individual work and contributions, the tinge of wistfulness in their hope of escape into a different kind of life. Their dialect is deliberately "common"—and there's a lot more to say about that and the fact that it's another commoner, Sam, who outwits them—but one of the main effects is to make them sound familiar and ordinary. And it's interesting that one of the points they specifically raise is that they're not going to get better treatment from "the good guys" so they can't defect, either.

This is self-interested, yes, but it's not the self-interest of some mystical being or spirit or whatnot, but of people.

Tolkien's later remarks tend to back this up. He said that female orcs do exist, but are rarely seen in the story because the characters only interact with the all-male warrior class of orcs. Whatever female orcs "do," it isn't going to war. Maybe they do a lot of the agricultural work that is apparently happening in distant parts of Mordor, maybe they are chiefly responsible for young orcs, maybe both and/or something else, we don't know. But we know they're out there and we know that they reproduce sexually and we know that they're not part of the orcish warrior class.

Regardless of all the problems with this, the idea that orcs have a gender-restricted warrior class at all and we're just not seeing any of their other classes because of where the story is set doesn't sound like automatons of evil. It sounds like an actual culture of people that we only see along the fringes.

And this whole matter of "but if they're people, we have to think about ethics, so they can't be people" is a weird circular argument that cannot account for what's in LOTR or for much of what Tolkien said afterwards. Yes, he struggled with The Problem of Orcs and how to reconcile it with his world building and his ethical system, but "maybe they're not people" is ultimately not a workable solution as far as LOTR goes and can't even account for much of the later evolution of his ideas, including explicit statements in his letters.

And in the end, the real response that comes to mind to that circular argument is "maybe you should think about ethics more."

[moghedien]

so I do wonder about season 3 supposedly being book 4 pretty much entirely because we haven't really gotten book 3 yet. so i'm like thinking about what really happens in book 3, right. the main plot lines are:

Rand running away and being largely absent from the book all together

Moiraine, Perrin, and the homies chasing down Rand across the continent

the Wondergirls being recruited by Siuan to hunt the Black Ajah and being sent to chase them to Tear

Mat delivering a letter and then going rescue the wondergirls when he finds out about Rahvin targeting them

And like this all converges on them in Tear when Rand takes Callandor and the Stone of Tear falls

and Imma be honest. None of this is extremely vital to the point where it can't be dealt with more quickly or elsewhere.

The most important plot point being the Callandor thing, which probably needs to happen. And while I've seen people suggest that Callandor might be in Falme for some reason, it feels wrong if Rand al'Thor doesn't get to take the Sword that isn't a Sword from the Stone that isn't a Stone

So let's assume that it is going to happen in the show. Does it need to happen next season?

Because the only real reason why it should happen before book 4's storyline is because of the Aiel. The Aiel need to find Rand so that he can go into the Waste and all that. So Aviendha, Bain, and Chiad are in Falme. We might be able to write a way around the Aiel needing to take the Stone of Tear right now if we just have Aiel bring Rand around like "look we think this is the guy." I mean, some of the Aiel still doubted Rand after book 3, so its not like it would create conflict that wasn't there already and it might make some of the conflict make more sense.

But what about Callandor? Well, Rand does shit all with Callandor for several books, so why does he need to take it now? And given that the main point of taking Tear other than Callandor was to defeat Be'lal, who definitely isn't surviving the Forsaken purge, there's no immediate reason to take the sword, and specifically not taking it might give some people reason to doubt he's the dragon longer.

And then, speaking of Be'lal and Rahvin, we obviously don't know for sure, but most of us are working under the assumption that their roles are going to be given to Sammael. Sammael is already dealt with later in the series as it is, so why not make the time in which we deal with Sammael the time when Rand takes Callandor? The Stone of Tear falling later might solve some of the later series's lack of important feeling climaxes anyway.

I feel like it just might make sense to rearrange the plot on this but I know that people won't like me even suggesting that's what might be happening lmao

anyway, at the very least we know we're getting some plot points from book 3 because we're gonna get Faile and some other characters then that didn't show until book 3 (they have already been cast and everything so its not like they're maybe gonna be cut), so ya know. its not gonna be a straight up adaptation of TSR no matter what even Rafe says because there's gonna be at least those book 3 plot points

[shieldfoss]

Paul Graham's "Orthodox Privilege"

I've got a list of essays and articles I read that made me go "...oh that's how it is" (more than a few by SSC) but one of them, that I don't hear many people talking about, is Paul Graham's "Orthodox Privilege"

Orthodox Privilege

I'm just gonna fill it in here below the cut so you don't have to go elsewhere to read it but it's good and fast to read (short + well edited)

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." -Einstein There has been a lot of talk about privilege lately. Although the concept is overused, there is something to it, and in particular to the idea that privilege makes you blind — that you can't see things that are visible to someone whose life is very different from yours. But one of the most pervasive examples of this kind of blindness is one that I haven't seen mentioned explicitly. I'm going to call it orthodox privilege: The more conventional-minded someone is, the more it seems to them that it's safe for everyone to express their opinions. It's safe for them to express their opinions, because the source of their opinions is whatever it's currently acceptable to believe. So it seems to them that it must be safe for everyone. They literally can't imagine a true statement that would get you in trouble. And yet at every point in history, there were true things that would get you in trouble to say. Is ours the first where this isn't so? What an amazing coincidence that would be. Surely it should at least be the default assumption that our time is not unique, and that there are true things you can't say now, just as there have always been. You would think. But even in the face of such overwhelming historical evidence, most people will go with their gut on this one. In the most extreme cases, people suffering from orthodox privilege will not only deny that there's anything true that you can't say, but will accuse you of heresy merely for saying there is. Though if there's more than one heresy current in your time, these accusations will be weirdly non-deterministic: you must either be an xist or a yist. Frustrating as it is to deal with these people, it's important to realize that they're in earnest. They're not pretending they think it's impossible for an idea to be both unorthodox and true. The world really looks that way to them. Indeed, this is a uniquely tenacious form of privilege. People can overcome the blindness induced by most forms of privilege by learning more about whatever they're not. But they can't overcome orthodox privilege just by learning more. They'd have to become more independent-minded. If that happens at all, it doesn't happen on the time scale of one conversation. It may be possible to convince some people that orthodox privilege must exist even though they can't sense it, just as one can with, say, dark matter. There may be some who could be convinced, for example, that it's very unlikely that this is the first point in history at which there's nothing true you can't say, even if they can't imagine specific examples. But in general I don't think it will work to say "check your privilege" about this type of privilege, because those in its demographic don't realize they're in it. It doesn't seem to conventional-minded people that they're conventional-minded. It just seems to them that they're right. Indeed, they tend to be particularly sure of it. Perhaps the solution is to appeal to politeness. If someone says they can hear a high-pitched noise that you can't, it's only polite to take them at their word, instead of demanding evidence that's impossible to produce, or simply denying that they hear anything. Imagine how rude that would seem. Similarly, if someone says they can think of things that are true but that cannot be said, it's only polite to take them at their word, even if you can't think of any yourself.

Orthodox Privilege

I never noticed, until today, the associated time - July 2020 - an so I never, until today, realized he might be talking about the reactions you saw to COVID.

[amuseoffyre]

Mulling on the way Stede and Ed have both learned to talk around their desires and wishes, whether as a defence mechanism or because past experience has made them cautious about expressing themselves. This has led them to have very different ways of saying what they need in very carefully constructed way and sometimes, missing what the other is saying entirely.

Since it got long, I'll show mercy :)

I've written before about the way Stede leans into the passive voice in season one. He doesn't directly express an opinion, coming at it from the side so he can't be blamed if it's a bad suggestion.

A prime example is when he tries to dissuade Ed from going to the party by describing how bad it'll be (from his perspective) or when Ed's considering leaving and instead of asking him to stay, he says Ed doesn't need to rush off and "we're all enjoying your company".

Based on his past experience, it's no small wonder, when his every suggestion to his father was shot down with scorn and disdain. His likes and interests were mocked relentlessly and constantly criticised. Even Mary shouted at him about the ship which - he thought - was his idea of the best future for him with his family. For him, expressing how he's feeling is something that can be weaponised against him.

He not only hides his feelings, but when he's feeling especially bad, he hides himself as well. He leaves situations when he's distressed or unhappy: leaving his family, hiding in his cabin in 1x01, retreating in the party in 1x05, going back to the ship in 1x08, returning home in 1x09.

The one time he does express himself verbally to Ed, before the academy, he's mid-retreat to the ship. He's angry and upset and insulted by Calico Jack and is taking himself elsewhere, but Ed stops him and says he should stay.

And this is where I chew on their communication mismatches, because Stede has been sitting and sitting and sitting all day, all the negative stuff building, stoked by Jack's cheerfully applied passive aggression and manipulation. He's been smiling through it for Ed's sake and when he loses his temper, he falls into the same pattern of not being direct. He doesn't point the finger at Jack for his behaviour, which has been the trigger the whole time. He tells Ed "I don't like who you are around this guy", his focus being 'this guy' who has caused this change in Ed's behaviour.

But Ed hears it as something being wrong with him specifically. He doesn't hear that it's Jack's influence of behaviour. His own self-esteem is so brittle, he immediately takes this as being fully his fault and when he's given the choice to stay with Stede or go with Jack, he leaves and says "You were always going to see what I am."

This not only cements Stede's conviction that saying what he thinks aloud will get a negative response (in this case, Ed leaving), but also solidifies the fact that Ed is fully convinced that Stede would eventually come to dislike him as much as Ed dislikes himself. Neither of them said what the other thinks they said, but because it's informed by their own trauma and issues, they radically misinterpret the other's meaning.

Like Stede, Ed edges around directness as much as he possibly can. Given what we've seen of the people from his past, it's clear that honesty and earnestness are subject to mockery at best and, at worst, the thing he cares about will be taken away from him.

Instead, to avoid the risk of that, he tends to drop hints, make roundabout suggestions, uses metaphors and allegories, and tries to nudge people to understanding what he means/wants.

He doesn't want to leave but doesn't know if he's welcome to stay, so he just makes noises that he's thinking about moving on so an invitation will be extended. He doesn't care about the invitation to the party, but maybe, pfft, not like he's bothered, but they could go. Whatever.

If it does get to a point where he's upset he - like Stede - will try to remove himself from a situation and hide away. It happens in 1x06 during the fuckery, 1x10 inside the pillow fort, 2x04 at Mary and Anne's.

It's very telling that the times he does let his guard down a bit, it's when someone goes after him. He and Stede have their most direct conversations when Ed is hiding under a yellow blanket, even if Stede is still bemused by the 'doggy heaven' metaphor.

A lot of the time they're both like ships passing in the night when it comes to communicating because they're both trying so hard not to show too much vulnerability. It's there on the beach at the naval academy when Stede tries to deflect Ed from China by pointing out "it's quite far". It's there in Ed's fishing metaphor which has so many layers and Stede has no idea wtf is going on because he has none of the context.

Stede has learned to be more direct in S2, so much more so that he actually expresses his feelings and emotions aloud for the first time. He talks about it with Lucius, Zheng and Anne, even before he and Ed have their breakthrough in 1x04 when, at Anne and Mary's, Stede frankly and directly explains himself to Ed and it helps them get back on an even keel.

Ed isn't quite there yet, though, and this is why the fall out in 1x07 comes out of nowhere for Stede because he's missing a lot of the information that Ed has threaded into the metaphor.

He knows Ed doesn't want to be a pirate, but the subtext all through the fisherman conversation is like they're having two different conversations. Stede is being so much more direct by pointing out that Ed is panicking and offering options, but Ed is deflecting as a defence again.

What's lovely is that by the final scene, they're sort of getting to the same page. Awkwardly, tripping each other up a bit on the way, but they're getting there, realising there's a lot more to each other than they had understood before. The entire exchange has so much layered into it.

Stede: so we're innkeepers now? Ed: I thought we could give it a go. Unless you're having second thoughts. Stede: I'm not. Ed: It's a bit of a shithole. Stede: It's a fixer-upper. Good bones.

On one hand, it's about the building and oh the symbolism of him wanting to make a place where people choose to stay with him is aaaaaa.

On the other hand, it's both about Ed himself and their relationship. Ed couching his meaning in metaphors again and this time, Stede picks up the meaning, even if he doesn't fully get all the nuances of it. (also teehehehe 'good bones'. I bet there are)

They're working their way towards better communication, a little bit at a time. They've both had their lowest ebb, run in panic, and learned from it. There's still a lot of trauma and defence mechanisms to unpick, but they're getting there.

Now if Stede could stop bottling up his trauma and hiding them in his wine-cellar of the things, that'd be great.

[fatherramiro]

going to be a little fun, a little snarky, on the dash tonight but since i don't think ive ever publicly talked about this before (with regards to Boat Show Fandom) we're gonna get a little insight into one of the reasons i don't ship a certain ship (and im really trying to keep this out of the tag soooo)

listen like you know what if you want to ship krester and ángel, im not about to say you can't do that or whatever, like im not your dad! follow your heart! but like the reason i know that i wouldn't be able to personally, no matter what could've happened on the show, is that it kind of leaves ramiro in the dust.

a refrain from a lot of folks has always been "ramiro deserves better" and yeah, he shouldn't have to put up with bullshit! but the fact is is that, deserving better or not, ramiro wants ángel. he's in love with him. and ángel is in love with him too, despite posts claiming that he was trying to break up with ramiro in their final scene together in episode seven. the show kind of drives home the fact that despite the drama and messiness of it all, they're both equally invested in being together. so if the show suddenly pivots from that to "oh but ángel really doesn't love ramiro as much as he loves krester" or "krester is secretly ángel's soulmate," it almost feels like what was the point of ramiro and ángel in the back half of season one? if they wanted to set up ángel's affections being elsewhere, there were plenty of opportunities to do so - have ángel care that krester died, or have there be tension between him and ramiro, for example. but the writing specifically is of ramiro and ángel fully committed to each other. and if ángel suddenly dumps him, then that leaves ramiro with what exactly?

the idea of ramiro deserving a better boyfriend is also predicated on a character who does not exist in the show. if ramiro deserves better, where are fics shipping him with any other male character who would do better? or even fics where he finds love with an oc? there is no one else on the show for ramiro, and while love is not the only story a character can aspire to, he starts the show in a love story and there's no indication that his character wants to be single. maybe we would've gotten a new character introduced in season two who was ramiro's real love but like.... i doubt it?

there's more story for krester outside of ángel - he has his family, and his closest and most important relationship is the one he has with tove. but ramiro and ángel are a package deal; to suddenly drop ramiro in favor of krester means that ramiro doesn't have as much of a driving motivation in the story any longer, unless he's going to be pining after ángel the whole time, which would be a Choice. and maybe bo and jantje could write that story successfully but it doesn't fit with the story they seemed to be telling in season one.

there's also the idea i've seen in many posts, mostly from when the show first aired, that basically said "it's okay that ángel treats ramiro badly, because he won't do that to krester!" and like... okay. but if ángel really is a toxic fuckboy, i doubt he's going to treat krester any better than he treated ramiro? like the whole thing just feels like it's mean towards ramiro, and as a ramiro girlie (gender neutral) i just can't vibe with it.

this is not meant to shame anyone either, like you can ship whatever the hell you want. but this is just me thinking about it and verbalizing it so like... yay for me?

[rubylarkspur22]

Attention Demon Slayer Fans!

Hey, y'all! I am here to rant about one of the worst takes I've seen on Demon Slayer!

Muzan is intentionally sending gradually more powerful demons Tanjirou's way, and hasn't learned to just yeet Kokushibou or Douma at the kid.

If you don't want to read me being ticked at the fools who say this, move along now.

Uh... No, he f-ing isn't? Muzan specifically and intentionally sent a grand total of 4 demons after Tanjirou. Out of the 12(13 if you consider Daki and Gyutarou separate units, and *math noises* 18 if you count all the Hantengu clones as separate units) demons Tanjirou fights before the Infinity Castle Arc. That isn't even half of the demons he fought on-screen! It's a quarter or a third, at most! And again, these are all the demons he faces on-screen!

Demons Muzan sent specifically to go after Tanjirou: Susamaru and Yahaba, Enmu, and Akaza.

List of Demons Tanjirou just happened to come across: Temple Demon, Hand Demon, Swamp Demon, Kyogai, Rui, Akaza if he wasn't sent after Tanjirou, the one demon he fought in episode 1 of the RLD Arc, Gyutarou and Daki, Hantengu.

AKA Tanjirou's just accidentally stumbling across the vast majority of the demons he fights, and those demons happen to be getting gradually more powerful. Muzan didn't even know Tanjirou was in Yoshiwara or the Swordsmith's Village! He just happened to be there! Hell, Muzan did try to do the smart thing by sending Akaza after Enmu got killed! And also by amping up Enmu with more blood and sending him after Tanjirou when Rui was killed! Muzan just didn't think to account for training and Kamado stubbornness! So that failed, and Muzan lost Tanjirou after Enmu died and Akaza bolted because he no longer had a sentient GPS on Tanjirou! Which brings me to another point!

"If Tanjirou keeps killing the powerful demons, why doesn't Muzan just send Kokushibou or Douma?"

Muzan doesn't know where Tanjirou is once his demons are dead! He has little to no way of knowing how much longer Tanjirou will be in an area for, so why send one of his heavy hitters if the guy he's sending them to isn't even there! Especially cuz Douma's running a cult, and it's be awkward if he just poofed him elsewhere in the middle of a thing. Kokushibou's doing dick knows what, but he's just as likely to have a freakout as Muzan is. And Nakime's Blood Demon Art doesn't work in sunlight! Even if it did, the more powerful demon he sent to kill Tanjirou and capture Nezuko after the Swordsmith Village Arc would be a crispy pile of ashes in about 2 seconds(probably less)!

And in the RLD Arc? He clearly assumed Gyutarou was competent enough to handle the situation and Daki had managed to soften Tanjirou up enough to make it easy for Gyutarou to kill him. If not for there being other Slayers(specifically, Tengen, who is a Hashira for a reason and therefore highly skilled and competent) in the fight, Tanjirou would have been dead. Hell, maybe Muzan did think Tanjirou was dead post-RLD. And then the mf shows up in the Swordsmith Village, terrorizing Muzan's cells, and the man was probably cussing up a storm the whole time!

These are the in-universe explanations! Out of universe, Tanjirou is the protagonist and needs to get stronger to face stronger demons. Basic shounen logic(even if the plot armour isn't as bad as some people make it out to be). But anyone who says Muzan intentionally sent five different(and gradually more powerful) ranks of the Twelve Kizuki after Tanjirou is spitting BS.

Remember, we as the viewers have a degree of omniscience. We know where Tanjirou is in relation to these demons. Muzan does not. Therefore, we cannot expect him to act the way we would with our omniscience.

[missmyloko]

Hi Justine me again once more XD

Sorry for the bunch of questions and comments

Today I came to ask if you know are the Maikos and presumably super senior geiko or maybe an okasan on this video https://youtu.be/nwMCz-N5_44

And if you can tell us a little bit about them and if they are still active

I'm pretty sure I have seen the senior Maiko elsewhere but I can't remember when and where and by the hairstyle I believe they are from gion.

By other side I want to point out that we have a minarai wearing a handara obi with is rare to see in Footage, very cool but her lips looks like they are both painted, do you think they are of its just what it seems do to her face? Or perhaps these are pontocho Maikos?

Plus I have some other questions regarding some comments that I saw.

A selfcalled Japanese man told that they were not real due to how slow the walk and the quality of their outfits. I must say that he is wrong they look pretty legit taking into consideration all details on them, like the hairdo, their collar, kansashi and more, but the handara obi looks quite flat in my opinion the fabric doesn't look like any others I've seen and the way is tied is quite not like others handara obi I've seen in maikos, are these one used as well or maybe it was due to the season? We know that in Somer and warm months lighter kimonos are worn and this could be the case. But I would love to know your expert opinion

Another comment also said that the women who stops them and then walks with her it's a Geiko using western clothes, due to the way her hair is tied up, this could be the case but I'm no so sure because I've seen that hairdo in other elderly woman in Japan not only Geikos, however it could be the case or she could be an okasan, she gives me the vybe of one . But can you tell if she is one member of the karyukai indeed? And if she is do you know who she might be?

And to end this round of questions, at the end of they video when the girls and the woman meet eachother I don't see the girls properly greeting her. If that allowed of posible? They seem quite close but it's surprising for me a moment without formality and is expected in those cases specifically in public even if they were I. A rush. What is your opinion?

My apologies again for. The bunch of questions, I hope you can help me with my doubts and thank In Advance dear Justine.

I hope you are doing amazing

My very Best Regards:)

They're maiko Sakiko (紗貴子) and minarai Chisako (千紗子) of Nishimura (西村) in Gion Kobu. The woman who stops and talks to them is one of the okasan of Gion Kobu (I can't remember which one off the top of my head) and appears to be turning them around to avoid the crowd along Hanami Koji, so when you're on your way to work and are in a rush big, formal greetings just don't have time to happen. They do acknowledge her and bow to her when they first see her though ^^

[love-bokumono-fics]

How does one write a good fic summary? What information should go in there? Any tips in general or anything you’ve seen that goes well is greatly appreciated 🩷

Hi Nonny,

There are lots of ways to write a summary for a fic, and different methods can have different results. I'm hardly an expert resource, and my methods might not vibe with everyone, but here's my general thoughts:

Keeping in mind what you want a Summary to DO is one of the most important things.

Do you want it to draw readers in with a teaser? Do you want it to tell readers what to expect in the story? Do you want to give readers a sample of your writing style? All of the above? None of the above?

Having a general idea of what you want your summary to Do will help you fill it out. I tend to write my summaries in a way that gives potential readers an idea of what to expect in the story, as well as leaving something to mystery to draw them in.

Generally I try and answer the basic questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? (How? usually gets left off, because the How is the body of the story. I leave the unexplained How as the bait to draw readers in. Or I offer the question of How? as the hook to draw readers in.)

These questions can generally be answered in a couple sentences.

Who? Is used to establish the main character(s) and/or the POV character(s). People don't always read Character tags, or they just skim the list for a certain name, so having this little bit of clarification in the summary can help a reader.

What? Can be used to establish the premise of the story. What's happening? What day is it? What's going on? These sort of questions.

Where? Can be included or not depending on your story. If you're establishing an AU or the story takes place outside of the characters' normal location, it can help to orient your readers to other details in the story. But if your story is taking place in the normal, familiar places, it's not as necessary to spell these things out. Such details are often implied in other parts of the summary.

When? Like Where? including that detail may or may not be necessary. If the time of day or the season is a significant part of your story, then include it to help paint the idea. Or if you're outside of canon times, or at a specific part of the canon timeline it can be helpful to give your readers an ides of things.

Why? Often goes hand in hand with What? helps establish the impetus of the story. Sure things are happenings, but giving a hint as to why those things are happening can help draw in readers, and also give them a clue as to what's happening.

Ideally you want to walk the the line between giving out enough information to the readers to pique their interest and draw them into the full story without giving away everything that happens. This can be employed to various degrees, and depending on things like how long your story is, and how much you the author want to share (or even know what is happening, because some stories go way off track) can greatly change how you format your summary.

Then you can sprinkle in other things to help add flavor, an excerpt of text from the story (in or out of context), the opening lines, even things like tropes, jokes, author's commentary, lyrics that fit the theme/ were inspiration.

There's a million different ways to craft a summary, and I don't think there's any one "Correct" way to do them. The formula can help provide a baseline, but if the story I'm writing hinges around not knowing Where? for example, then obviously I'm not going to spell that out in the summary. Or I'm writing a story that's so short and simple it doesn't even have the questions asked to be able to answer. giving a very simple "exactly what it says on the tin" summary works in those places.

In other places, spoilers in the summary work in ways that wouldn't elsewhere. I've written stories that included a canon compliant plot point, and included that in the summary, because the canon plot point wasn't the purpose of the summary, it was getting to that point.

My advice if you want to figure out how to craft summaries is skim through AO3, pick your favorite fandom, or go to a random fandom, and just scroll through the stories, read the summaries. Pick up real books and read the summaries that publishers put out. See what people do, how people do it. Look at the way people phrase things. Pay attention to what draws you in personally, compared to the things people might say that turn you off from a story. Look beyond characters and tropes and such when you're doing that, pay attention to the way authors talk about their works. See how you feel when it looks like authors are excited to share their work compared to how it feels when author's tear down their work. Examples and references can help So Much.

And remember, your summary doesn't have to be set in stone. It can change along with your story. If new characters come in, new relationships develop, if there's a plot point you want to tease out, add them it. Or even if the story is done, but you just thought of a better way to summarize it, then go for it!

Good luck writing, Nonny!

If anyone else has advice for writing summaries, or a method that's completely different from mine, feel free to chime in! What works for one person might not work for everyone

[golden--flowers]

I get annoyed by people so it's Unpopular Opining Time. Whenever trans men or transmasculine people or whoever try to use the word transmisandry, other people shut them down (and ignore whatever experiences they're trying to articulate) by saying 'transmisandry isn't real because misandry isn't real, transmisogyny exists as an intersection of transphobia and misogyny, but the experience you're talking about is just transphobia'. [As a side note, it is true that misandry doesn't exist in the same way as misogyny, as a like, social order and hierarchy, but society at large, imperial society, does want men to also be miserable because it wants everyone to either be miserable or afraid in various ways. Society wants men to be unable to foster emotional connections with anyone, even in passing, feel isolated, and blame women for their problems. And this is usually only expressed by people saying 'the patriarchy hurts men too'.] Anyways. So, since transmisandry got shot down and treated like a Cringe Term, people came up with transandrophobia as a term with less baggage that could still be used to communicate their unique experiences, and it still gets shut down as being just another word for the same thing!

I'm lucky enough to experience internet and trans community spheres/spaces where radical inclusion, radical trans inclusion, acceptance, solidarity, are the norm. I knew someone who considered themself as transmasculine and experienced very different internet spheres than me, as you do, and the climate was so different than what I was used to, I was hesitant to believe it at first, bu they really opened my eyes to how things can be, Out There. And since then I've seen many other people sharing their own experiences with being transmasculine or a trans man. Getting shamed for choosing manhood, for identifying with men, being called a traitor, being considered gross, or as violent somehow, being less included in discussions of trans experiences and less worth listening to, being considered as less of a three dimensional person, considered as automatically having more privilege or being an oppressor, but if they don't Pass enough having their gender made invisible, and many paradoxical treatments the same as trans women and nonbinary people who don't identify as transmasculine have. If you go to an in person queer rally event you can count how many of the speakers are trans women, how many are nonbinary, and how many are trans men. Part of what I'm saying also is that it's easy to think the way you see people treated around you as the norm, and to disbelieve people when they say they've had very different experiences elsewhere, the experiences of both places both happen.

People say that trans men and transmasculine people can only experience transphobia, not a specific intersection of transphobia and something else, as if anyone is ever hated solely for the decision to change their gender from the one assigned at birth and nothing else about them. People say that bias against men doesn't exist in society At Large, as if society is a monolith, and as if there's an insignificant number of people in society in general and in queer communities who have lived under patriarchy and as a reaction to that have swung to the idea of manhood being bad/gross/lesser/violent, even when that supposition hurts vulnerable people. If being hated not for choosing your gender but for choosing your gender and that chosen gender being man or masculine isn't an intersection of transphobia and something else, I don't know what is. And when a lot of that hatred comes from people who are queer, and who are trans, who are supposed to be part of your community, I think that deserves a word for it.

Even aside from all that. I don't think it's ever right to take a piece of vocabulary that people use to express their experiences and their truth, and to smear it so much it becomes unusable. I'm aspec, and I'm nonbinary. I remember not just mockery of the idea of aspec people being included in the queer community, but specifically mockery of terms like amatonormativity used to express the oppressive societal norms and rules around relationships and what they can be. Mockery of xenogender labels and neopronouns, the attack helicopter thing. I'm always going to be sympathetic and want people to be able to use the language that they have to express their unique experiences, and for them to be trusted on it.

[bitetherabbit]

loooong vent post cw for sh towards the end. im so tired, man been having some rough days and i just need to write it out instead of following through on other ideas

i literally don't know what to do i can't keep living like this anymore i feel so trapped and i don't know where to begin to help myself, im an adult but i feel like a fucking child especially when im regressed or even when my anxiety takes over and stops me from doing necessary things like make phone calls or make appointments, i don't like going outside alone or driving elsewhere because i don't want to be seen, (gender dysphoria, having to mask to interact with people). i stay inside this shithole of a house that i've been trying to clean up and make livable but it's a lot of stuff that doesn't belong to me so i can't just get rid of it, i can only sit in my bedroom and rot (can't afford to move out.) at least i was out of the house when i was working, but i had to quit my job recently because that specific company was sooo toxic and i couldn't take it anymore (story for another day), and now i get instantly stressed and anxious any time i try to job search and so i give up, and i can't just go out and get a basic 8hr standing around job because my body is in regular pain all the time now, moreso after having covid twice my joint pain has gotten noticeably worse (another thing i need to call a dr about and deal with but i haven't) and also now that i'm aware of the fact that i mask severely around others, mask behaviour, mask health, and have learned more about autism and had a fucking revelation about myself it's like my symptoms of everything is worse like the dam broke and there's nothing holding it back anymore, like i've forgotten how to be a person around others and how to talk to people, because my body and mind are so burnt out all over and it's probably been holding back all this shit my whole life including the trauma. like, what don't i remember from when i was a toddler??? because when im regressed that's the age i feel. what happened back then??? and i know some might say i shouldn't be complaining when there are solutions right there, call your doctor, find a therapist, apply to jobs, but at this point i'm so stuck and everything is overwhelming i just can't do it by myself i can't i can't i need someone to take care of me i need someone to help me do it. there's so much shit i don't know where to begin!!! and i don't know what set it off, but i've been feeling like a fucking child for 3 days now and i don't have anyone to talk to about it (my family asked me if i was "tired" and did i get enough sleep) because i don't want to bother them with it since they have their own problems too going on right now, mental health issues are a lovely generational thing in my family, and im struggling because i know they all love me to the moon but sometimes they can be so toxic to each other and i just take it all in and absorb it.

and i've been trying so so hard to learn more and educate myself on trauma and neurodivergence and i'm trying to break the cycle of passing your own trauma on to your children (good thing i don't want kids...) and everything i learn i see happening in my family and it explains why they behave this way. and this is the side of my family that doesn't include the narcissistic parent i don't speak to anymore! (another story for another day)

so lately i'm like, "huh maybe my trauma isn't just from this one asshole parent. looks like it's wayy worse on this side of my family than i realized", now that i'm an adult and can understand better. and while it's not behavior generally directed towards me like the narcissistic parenting was, this shit is like, they haven't sorted their shit out and so their trauma is traumatizing me (the kid/grandkid) as a result. because i'm close to my family. I love them. and it fucking hurts to see them react to each other when they're stressed, and then react unhealthily to me in other situations because of their lack of ability to self regulate.

and i just want to fucking rip my head off!!! my brain has been thinking about c*tting up my legs and i FUCKING HATE IT i don't want to do that i don't want to i don't want to it doesn't help anything and you only feel worse after!!! it's been a little over 2 years and im holding strong. don't give in now.

breathe

i can't blame them for not trying to heal and better themselves if i can't even contact a therapist to do the same for myself, right? i can only do so much on my own, but i feel like i have made some progress, even though some days are still so fucking hard. i've been researching and becoming aware of things, learning techniques to help myself. if i don't actively do the work then am i any better than them?

i can see now the reasons for their behavior and idk it allows me to forgive them? but is that the right thing to do if their behavior keeps continuing? is someone at fault for their toxic behavior if it stems from being untreated/undiagnosed and traumatized their whole life?

see these are questions for a therapist.

i feel worn out now, but less wound up, after writing. it really does help to release feelings this way. a thought for another time but it's like i can yell as much as i want to in writing and it feels so good. (i feel like i've lost my voice, my self, due to trauma. will write more about that at some point.)

[olderthannetfic]

I don't have the exact stat or the book title handy because all that stuff is in a box somewhere, but for a course we read a book profiling online behavior and communication, focusing mostly on Usenet bc it was written when that was the main place to be online, just before/just as LJ started gaining ground, and the author found that something like 10% of users made 90% of the posts, and like half of users only ever made 1 or 2 posts. Informal surveys I've seen of specific groups, like comparing the number of people with TERF/GC markers in Twitter bios to who is making the tweets, seem to bear this out. I think that that's a big part of why people struggle with the idea of private discords- there are plenty of bigger servers that are lurker friendly, but unlike with Usenet or LJ or tumblr or twitter you can't really find them without knowing an in. afaik there's not like, a big searchable discord directory.

And bringing up this or other social difficulties with fandom/online interaction often gets incredibly unhelpful responses. Some people feel attacked by people not loving the idea of hidden servers becoming the main place fandom happens and will reply with stuff like "well maybe you should try not being a friendless loser" but even if they want to be helpful, as you said social skills are hard to teach. In fandom-adjacent terms, you see it a lot in activism conversations- people will say that the "real" activism, direct action stuff and protest organizing, doesn't happen online- which, extremely pragmatic and fair- but if you ask how you can get involved, then, you tend to get variations on "well you have to go meet people" that are incredibly inflexible for issues like being immunocompromised and effectively trapped in your house forever by COVID, or living in a rural red state where there is absolutely not a leftist co-op no matter how many times you look or someone from Portland insists that can't possibly be the case.

I think it's made worse by lurking generally being wiped off the face of the net more and more- like half the "kids these days" comments here and elsewhere seem to be younger fans not lurking around to observe the social norms on tumblr or ao3 before being loud about it, and having no idea that might even be an option, and twitter facebook etc are all built to drive engagement at any cost. You see something enraging on tumblr you can scroll and you probably won't find something like that on your dash for a few dozen more posts unless you really suck at curating your feed, but on Twitter the next post is probably just as bad, and eventually you break and respond. Political or fandom or something else, lots ends up behind closed doors for security reasons because harassment is so bad. I think a lot of people find that 10% of people making 90% of posts with everyone else just reading/liking/reblogging/etc figure a more natural way to engage, but if you tried to suggest that that was something to strive to accommodate to a Twitter exec they'd probably drop dead on the spot.

--

The problem is that the 10% tends to include the people who build spaces, and even if they're friendly to the 90%, it's the rest of that 10% they remember by name.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Gotta say I only watched 2 episodes of Euphoria season 1 before I dipped out but all of the clips and gifs I've seen of season 2 look 10 times better to me. And yet I've seen disscusion that this season is not great? Specifically the writing not being great.

I'll be honest, I think Euphoria kind of has the same issue with its fandom that Succession did in season 3:

This is to say, there was a long(er than usual) gap between seasons, and a pandemic, and during that time the show blew up. Euphoria was successful in season 1, but its season 2 premiere ratings is evidence of the fact that it came back with a much bigger, much more vocal audience.

And some of that audience is great. Some of it... not so much. My perspective (just three episodes in, mind you) is that season 2, while imperfect, is better than season 1 thus far. I say this as someone who was uncomfortable with some of season 1. Now to be fair, you're always going to be uncomfortable with parts of Euphoria. Teens are fucking and doing drugs and getting into life-threatening situations. (While, it must be said, being played by adult actors). However, I often felt like season 1 kind of... traded in plot for shock factor. I feel like season 2, thus far, has more of a grip on who the characters are and where their stories should go. There are things I'm not a big fan of (the amount of Sydney Sweeney nudity--though! It must be said! Sydney has gone on the record as being comfortable with it and being able to say no to nudity, and she is an adult woman, so the "they are exploiting Sydney and she knows not what she does" rhetoric is a bit... condescending) but I think that the show is currently more cohesive than it was in season 1.

Tbh, a lot of the criticism I've seen is bullshit. That doesn't mean that I haven't seen valid, well thought out critiques. But honestly, a lot of what I've seen is like... Look at me, I know this show is MORALLY BAD, please do not BLAME ME for watching every week, I AM A GOOD PERSON!!!

And like, we're all watching the saaaaame scenes of Zendaya doing fentanyl, you know? I don't really see the point of watching the show if you're just going discuss how morally abhorrent it is to you. It's just a bit funny too, because the only reason why Euphoria is getting this kind of critique is that it has the HBO license to show more explicit sex, to show more explicit drug use. The activities depicted on this show has been depicted, in a less explicit sense, on teen shows for decades. Degrassi and Gossip Girl did all of this.

I also think that the show is doing things that fans kind of just don't like, and tbh as fandom has grown and become more of a "known" factor in society, I do think we have a lot of people in fandom who can't ride. This is not just a phenomenon with Euphoria--again, I saw very similar things happening in the Succession fandom. How could Rue do drugs again??? How could Rue and Jules be having relationship issues?

Conflict is the heart of a show, and when conflict makes sense, I enjoy it, personally. I love Rue. It hurts to see her in the depths of addiction. But it's realistic, and intriguing conflict for Rue to continue to dig herself into the hole of addiction. It's realistic for her to be an asshole to people because she is an addict. It makes sense that this would negatively affect her relationship with Jules, and it's realistic that Jules would look elsewhere.

In the same sense, it makes sense that Cassie, someone who has been depicted as having a lot of depression, a lot of self loathing, and a need for love from men, to seek out a boy who is not only KNOWN to be abusive, but the one person she shouldn't be with anyway because he was with her best friend. Cassie's relationship with Nate is hard to watch, and I see it being dinged a lot on social--but they're not giving us this relationship because they're trying to romanticize abuse. It's actually a pretty harsh reality that I think makes total sense of Cassie as a character, and it makes sense that Nate would prey upon her.

Another thing--although I think this show portrays emotionally authentic things for teenagers, it's very clear that we aren't supposed to see this as the way life should be or is for teens. The heightened costumes, the fact that poor girls are carrying designer bags, the cinematography. The show is very clearly coded as surreal, and that does make me give it some license. Does that mean everyone else needs to like it? No.

But I don't know. It just seems a bit hypocritical to me that because this show is depicting things that are very much PRESENT but more ALLUDED TO in other shows, it's suddenly the bridge too far lmao.

[pricechecktranslations]

idk if you follow kagepro (i dont, because of my question), but are the songs actually supposed to be vague and/or confusing? or have i just not found translations that make sense? there's a wiki for it and everything, but i can't wrap my head around what's going on and the anime didn't help either. is it possible that it's just not something my brain is interested in and so it refuses to process the information, since ec and baccano are easy for me to follow?

Well, I would be a massive hypocrite if I commented on how easy or hard the series is to follow without having read the light novels. Perhaps they're simpler. However, I was made to understand at one point that all of the various media are meant to be complete stories in and of themselves--that is, they each represent different timelines, in a sense? So I feel like each individual installment should make sense on its own rather than needing the others to explain it (with the exception of the songs I suppose). Myself I've only watched most of the songs, the SHAFT anime (which I hated and have largely blocked out of my memory as a result), and read the first few volumes of the manga.

I think they are vague and confusing, but I can't really say what the cause for that is, especially not knowing which translations you've seen (because yes there have been some bad translations out there, and I'm not invested enough to know if they've been corrected). Part of it might be that Jin was developing the story as it was released rather than having all of these ideas upfront. Some of it is a similar issue to Evillious where actual concrete things are being described but the terminology or presentation makes it sound metaphorical. Some of it is unreliable narration, I think, where a song is from the perspective of a character who doesn't have all the facts (and the song doesn't make it clear that this is what's happening).

But I think that last thing you said is probably the easiest explanation, yes. For me, I can follow Evillious easily because I know what everything is referring to, because I'm invested enough to process all the information that's available outside of the songs. Kagepro is in a similar boat, where the songs are referring to things that are more adequately explained elsewhere, and it's more about the emotions of the characters undergoing these events than it is the specific plot.

I don't know, I've written a lot here but I don't think I've said anything particularly helpful, sorry. I'll say that I can roughly grasp the majority of what's going on in the plot, but I dislike the narrative outside of the songs so my understanding is rudimentary at best.

[moth-and-raven]

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I awaken alone, in a field of pitch black. Carefully, slowly, I rise to my feet. Nothing reaches my senses but a feeling of vastness, like I'm high in the sky or floating in an endless ocean. I'm awed by the sheer, imperceptible size.

Guided by something I can't name or place, I take a small step forward. The night lights up around my foot, sparks of silver starlight. They swirl, briefly, illuminating the darkness, before settling like snowflakes.

It doesn't snow in Vesuvia. Where have I seen snow before?

My footprint stays, outlined in the strangely familiar motes, as does the next, and the next. A river of stars pours from me, memories of my path through the dark.

I continue on until it seems like I've walked for years. But I don't tire, and feel no worse for wear even after…

Julian! The Hanged Man’s swamp! I have to get back to him. I have to help. That's why I came here in the first place, to—

The lifeline around my wrist, woven of Asra's magic, tightens suddenly, like someone is pulling on the other end. I stop where I am in the empty sky and raise it to eye level, peering into its slowly-sharpening blue light. It's captivating, welcoming, like all I need to do is relax and it'll take care of the rest. It would be so easy.

It's so bright that I don't notice the starlight behind me growing, moving, spinning slowly around itself until it coalesces into something more solid, a flat silver-white disk as familiar to me as breathing. When it catches my attention, rising overhead to observe me, I startle and drop my wrist, stepping back uncertainly.

The silver disk narrows to a crescent, curved like a cat's eye, and regards me with something like amusement. As I watch, it blinks.

"Reyja," it says, inside my head, in my own voice. "At last we meet."

I have felt this presence before, in readings and dreams, in my worst moments and my best. I felt it the day Asra left, warning me that something big was about to happen. I felt it comforting me when Julian said we couldn't be together, urging me to go back to him despite my dismay. It is intuition, introspection, indecision. There are tears in my eyes when I blink in return and stretch out my hand to touch her pockmarked face.

"We don't have long now," the Moon says gently, ruffling my hair with a gust of sweet wind. "Your place is elsewhere, with another. One you have known, and sought."

"Yes," I reply, a choked whisper. "But—"

"He can give you answers. He learns them himself as we speak."

"Answers?"

"To the questions you have been too afraid to ask."

I've been afraid of so much, for such a long time. She'll have to be more specific. "Which ones?"

The Moon laughs and waxes again to fullness, but doesn't respond. Maybe I didn't phrase it right.

"You know more than you think, Reyja," she says abruptly. "About yourself and the world around you. Trust yourself to put this knowledge into practice."

I shake my head before I even realize I'm doing it. It's almost second nature now, to deny any ability I might have tricked others into thinking I have.

"Or don't," the Moon continues. "Indecision has served you this long, hasn't it?"

I pause. Has it? Or have I just been stagnating? First I was waiting until I recovered from my mysterious illness, then for whatever Asra was going to do, then for my apprenticeship to end. I’ve always been passive, allowing things to happen to me instead of making them happen myself. Like a caterpillar liquifying in a cocoon, breaking down without knowing why.

Have I finally emerged, now bearing wings?

The Moon sends another breeze to caress my round face, gliding over my scarred and pimpled skin. So like her own. She smiles, waning to a crescent.

“Why is Julian finding the answers to my questions?” I ask softly, peering up into her soft silver light. “What about his?”

“The answers are the same.”

She must catch my surprise.

“Your threads are bound together, woven and woven again,” she says. “Such a tie cannot be unwound by time, nor distance, nor even death itself. And such a man cannot be a stranger.”

Her words pierce me like arrows, unlocking some long-buried truth. So much lies beyond the years I can remember, a lifetime of experiences now shrouded in shadow. But the gentle moonbeams illuminate just enough: a single familiar face, though with two healthy eyes, that watches me longingly when he thinks I can’t see him.

“I knew him,” I gasp, barely able to speak through the weight of the realization. "Before my— before I…"

But how? How could I have possibly known Julian, even briefly, and not fallen as hard for him then as I have now? The image in my mind, glimpsed as if through the impenetrable bars of the palace’s prison, is painted with kindness, even care, but pain, too, and regret. As if— as if we ran out of time. Something horrible, something permanent, ended it before it began. What could have been enough to stop… this?

The answer comes to me in a flash of red, and under the Moon’s glow, it seems for a moment as though my hands are drenched in blood, flowing out from beneath my fingernails as surely as it dripped from the walls of Lucio’s suite.

“I died,” I whisper, flexing my fingers. I can see the veins beneath my pale skin, blue again. “The Plague, it— how?”

“That is not mine to tell, Reyja,” says the Moon. “And you will learn no more on your own. But you are no longer alone.” She hoods her eye, not unkindly. “Perhaps you never were.”

Tears well in my throat again, almost overwhelming me. I am many things: Afraid. Indecisive. Gifted with magic. Reborn again into a world I did not survive the first time.

But I am not alone.

It’s time for me to leave. The Moon doesn’t need to tell me that. I swallow my tears; just as I felt beneath the starstrand tree with Julian, they don’t seem necessary anymore. Someday I will mourn myself, but not here. Not now.

“How do I get back?” I ask.

“The path to the Hanged Man’s realm is closed. You must go on, and trust yourself. You know the way.”

She’s right. I do. “Thank you.”

“We will meet again.”

“I hope so.”

The Moon begins to fade, sinking low in the great dome of darkness around us. “Until then, I will be with you.”

“I know.”

“Go, then,” she says softly, narrowing to a thin silver arc. “And find him again.”

------

Julian cannot help but count his steps. Maybe the undeniable truth of one number following another is all that's keeping him tethered and able to function now. It's been nearly a day since he awoke from the Hanged Man's realm. The knowledge he regained from the raven-headed Arcana swirls through his mind, but he keeps it at arm's length for now, as best he can. It's too much to tackle all at once, and without Reyja—

Nearly everyone they counted as an ally had been waiting at the fountain for their return. His sister and her partner, and her partner's partner the Countess’s bodyguard, had stood close together, the flash of the silver bracelet that had replaced Balam's magenta beads catching Julian’s eye as he staggered out of the shallow pool. Nadia had been conversing with Skylar further back, but both came forward at the sound of his splashing footsteps. And Asra, bless him, had caught Reyja before she fell, limp and weak, and reassured him over and over again that everything would be okay. It wasn't unheard of, he said, for people who went into the realms together to come out alone. It took both Balam and Skylar’s agreement to calm Julian down, and even then the sight of Reyja's hand drifting with the flow of the fountain nearly undid him again. He carried her back to her room, their shared room now, by himself, fueled by adrenaline and a deep, horrible fear that she would never find out what he learned from the Hanged Man, that he would never get to tell her how sorry he was for what had happened.

That she would never know how much he loved her.

Asra had done everything he claimed he would and more. Even now, he weaves strange magicks to keep Reyja safe and healthy on her journey. Soon, he keeps promising. Soon she'll wake up and be good as new. Julian repeats the words like a prayer, and swallows his tears each time they surge up again. If she wakes, the first thing she sees can't be him weeping. She'll think something is wrong.

He turns on his heel in front of the windows again and peers back at Reyja's body, so still and silent, tucked in the bed they had shared only once. Five steps later he crouches beside her, floats his fingers over her pale cheek, and kisses her forehead. He has lost count of the number of times he's begged her to return to him. He has lost count of the number of times he's bitten down on his hand to stifle his panic.

He has not lost track of time itself.

The Masquerade begins tomorrow at sundown.

He settles back on his haunches next to the bed. Part of him — a distant, smothered part — tells him he would be more comfortable if he climbed in beside her, but he couldn’t possibly risk disturbing her. Comfort is far from his top priority now, with her catatonic like this. Lost in another dimension. All his fault, all his fault, all his—

A thump on the door startles him, flaring his already-overwrought nerves. He would protect her with his life, his soul, his everything, against whatever was coming to harm—!

“Fancy seeing you here, beanpole.”

Oh.

“Nurlan?”

“In the flesh.”

What was Nurlan Samal, fixture of the South End, doing here, striding around the palace like she owned it?

“So,” she says, sweeping her hair away from her face with practiced ease. “You’re not dead.”

“I’m— N-no, I’m not.”

Julian can’t help but glance at Reyja’s body.

“Relax. She isn’t, either.”

He snaps his gaze back to Nurlan’s, worry growing hard in his mismatched eyes. “And what would you know about—”

“I said relax, Julian. Everything’s going to be fine.” She leans her crutch against the foot of the bed and sits down in the same armchair on which he’d fallen asleep a few nights ago, digging in the pocket of her flowing orange tunic. It was a ritual he wished he wasn’t familiar with, he thought as she fished a cigarette from her case. The two of them had shared countless conversations wrapped in clouds of pungent smoke, punctuated by the frequent tap of fingers knocking ashes away, bidding farewell with the grind of a heel against cobblestone to crush the smouldering ends cold.

Until he lost his taste for it completely, the cinders from the Lazaret’s crematoriums choking him whenever he stepped outside. Visions of the flames that charred the skin from her bones—

“Please don’t do that here, Nura,” he asks, voice softened by the threat of tears.

Nurlan pauses with the cigarette already in her mouth, fire licking at its tip. She eyes him for a moment before lowering her hand and, reluctantly, tucking the cigarette back into her pocket. “I get it, you know,” she says. Her lavender eyes flit from him to Reyja. A frown, so foreign on her face, furrows her perfectly-tended brows. “When Aida…”

Of course she understands. Of course she does. Julian swallows hard, guilt rolling over him like storm-pushed waves.

“I couldn’t do it twice. That’s why I came, when I heard.”

“I… I was never there. The first time, I didn’t— I didn’t know.” He sighs and rearranges himself to sit against the bedside table. “She never told me she was… One day, she just didn’t come back.”

“Wait, the first time?”

Julian can’t bring himself to explain. But Nurlan was always a quick study.

“It was her? Three years ago? The one who—?” She pauses. “But I thought she…?”

“She did.”

“Then how the fuck is she here now?”

Of all the memories he’d regained, that one, the most important one, still eluded him. He knew what he had done, the oaths he’d sworn, the lengths he’d gone to, but the details were the same empty swirl he’d grown to hate. “I’m not sure,” he admits. And, despite himself, he almost laughs. How absurd it is to say it aloud. “I think it was magic.”

“Huh.”

They lapse into silence, each lost in their thoughts. Julian sits up to reach for Reyja’s hand, meshing their fingers. He presses his palm to hers, hoping against hope that she will squeeze back this time. Nothing. Again.

Nurlan doesn’t miss the exchange. “I thought you two never…?”

“We didn’t. We weren’t. Just colleagues. My fault, now that I remember it.”

“What do you mean, your fault?”

“I invited her to join me at the clinic. She never would’ve been in danger if I hadn’t.”

“That’s bullshit, Julian, and you know it. The whole city was in danger.”

He shrugs like the weight of the world is trying to prevent it. “Perhaps she would have left, then. Gotten out of here.”

“Maybe. But I don’t think she would’ve gone without you.”

“I had no hold on her.”

“Sure, but I saw the way she looked at you when we ran into each other down by the theatre.” Nurlan chuckles. “Asking me if you were always so cute. Where were you two off to, so busy that you wouldn’t see my show?”

“Oh, ahm…” He trails off, looks away. “We were— We needed to talk.”

“Talk or ‘talk,’ because if it’s the second one…”

Julian’s blush, and the way his face twists in pain, answers for him.

“Are you fucking serious? No, hey, you look at me.” Nurlan’s voice is pure flame, scorching him. He deserves it.

“I thought it would be safer to—” he begins, but Nurlan cuts him off.

“Safer? Who the fuck cares about safety? Everything’s dangerous, Julian. You, me, her.” She touches the cigarette case in her pocket. “These horrible things. You can’t live a life without danger. That’s no life at all.”

“But—”

“No! I want you to be happy, but by all the gods of the southern tribes, you make it really fucking difficult, you know that? Why would you throw away something so beautiful? Don’t you know how rare it is?”

Beautiful enough to wake the dead. “Of course I—”

“Then how dare you? How dare you do that to her, or to yourself?”

He hangs his head, ashamed. “I thought it would be for the best.”

“Reyja didn’t let you, though, did she?”

“No. Despite it all…” The tears he’s fought so hard against finally spill over, but he laughs through them, breathless and relieved. “Despite it all, she wanted me back.”

Nurlan cools, releasing what remains of her anger in a long sigh. “You’re not a bad person, Julian. Stupid sometimes, but not bad. I know you think you are, even after Nadia pardoned you.”

He looks up, startled. “How did you know about that?”

“People talk. Nothing like an after-party for all the hottest Vesuvian gossip. But that’s not the point: if you had genuinely done something wrong, you know I wouldn’t be so upset with you for trying to ruin everything. And that is what you’ve done, you can’t deny it.” She shakes out her hair. “But you haven’t. It’s all going to be okay. With you, with her, with you and her. Even with me.”

Julian plumbs the depths of his mind, searching for a scrap of information he’d heard when he first returned to the city. “Rio? Is that his name?”

Nurlan smiles. “He’s a good man, too. You’d get along great.”

“I’m happy for you, Nura.”

“Yeah.” But her face falls. “I waited a long time for him. After Aida, I didn’t think anyone would… That’s, th-that’s part of why I—” She heaves a steadying breath. Her fingers twitch towards her cigarettes again, but, with effort, she restrains herself. “You couldn’t do it, Julian. You couldn’t go through it. I know you. Losing your memories saved you, because it would’ve broken you to carry around grief like that. I know, because it… because it almost broke me.”

Julian blinks. Nurlan never let her emotions show like this.

“And I’m so much stronger than you, it’s not even funny.” As quickly as it came, her flash of vulnerability dissipates again, chased away by the sunny warmth of her broad, theatrical smile. “So you should be grateful for that, and that your own stupidity didn’t get in the way permanently.”

“I am,” he whispers, gaze drifting to Reyja’s form again. “I am.”

Nurlan lets the moment linger. He looks so soft, standing guard. As anxious as he is, there’s something different about him now, something new.

It’s cute, the way he still thinks he’s hiding it.

“Well, I’d love to stay, but I did actually come here for a purpose,” she says, reaching for her crutch. “Stand up, beanpole.”

“Stand up? Why?”

Nurlan reaches into her pocket again, emerging with a long tape measure. “Do you think your Masquerade costumes are going to make themselves?”

“Costumes?” Attending the Masquerade is so far down in his mind, he hasn’t even considered it.

“Reyja hasn’t been to one, has she? Or if she has, it would’ve been before…”

“Ah.” She had told him she was missing memories. Everything beyond three years ago was gone, which, of course, makes sense now. And that would include any past Masquerades, though he isn’t sure she was even in Vesuvia when they happened yearly. “But… you?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” Nurlan asks, swinging her tape measure.

“N-no! Of course not! You’re, ah—”

“I’m amazing, I know. So get up, because your suit is going to need some expert alterations to fit those shoulders of yours.”

Julian obeys, though Nurlan stops him on his knees to measure across his back. When she’s finished, he rises fully, hovering over her as she turns her attention to Reyja.

“Be careful,” he says tightly.

Nurlan raises an exasperated brow at him. “Have I ever not been?”

“I-it’s just that, erm. She’s sensitive, I think. About her size.” He touches Reyja’s arm, swallowing hard as he scans her body. “God knows I wish she wasn’t. She’s so beautiful…”

Nurlan nods, understanding. “She’s in good hands with me. You know that.”

“I… yes. Thank you. And thank you for, for all of this. And making these. You didn’t have to.”

“Think of them as a ‘congratulations on not getting executed’ present. Or maybe a celebration of your new… whatever you want to call what you two have.”

“We haven’t talked about it,” Julian says, looking at Reyja again. “I hope we get to.”

“You will.” Nurlan takes her measurements and turns to leave, but pauses at the door. “Hey, tell me something. Just because I’m nosy, and I want to hear you say it: do you love her?”

Julian has not taken his gaze from Reyja’s sleeping form, tracing the curves of her cheeks and the peaks of her lips, the swells of her plush body, the thick muscles of her thighs. He doesn’t have to think about his answer. “Yes. More than life itself, yes.”

“Hm. Thought so. Love looks good on you, Julian. I hope you know that.”

It does, doesn’t it? He feels himself blush, and hears Nurlan laugh as she departs. But he still can’t tear his eyes away from her, his love, his Reyja. He kneels next to the bed, pulls her hand into his again, drops a kiss to the faint scar on her wrist he hadn’t noticed before he was spending every waking moment watching for signs of her return from the arcane realms. He wonders what else he hasn’t seen yet, how many more marks there are to kiss. He hopes he’ll discover them all, in time. And be the first to tend to any new ones.

“I love you, Reyja,” he whispers. “I’m so sorry I haven’t said it before. I love you, my darling. I love you.”

And, for the first time in hours, she stirs.

—————

prev || next

[m0e-ru]

eight months in somebody actually asked me abt visualive instead of me immediately annoying ppl about it without former notice. I might actually write properly for once 😳😳😳

OK OK!!!!! In this essay I will.... I will.... Visualive Adachi.... Visu/BURSTS INTO TEARS/

OKAY OKAY for real I just care Visualive so much (as someone who can’t fully understand Japanese AHAHA)

First I’ll add some foundation about what Visualive really is, then I talk abt Adachi in the latter parts of it because this is technically the first time I’m properly talking about this hehe 🐿

T....table of contents???

Visualive

Visualive the Evolution

Masami Itou

Visualive Adachi

Visualive the Evolution Adachi

Terms and Legend

VL - Visualive

VLE - Visualive the Evolution

stage - shortened for “stageplay”

面白い - omoshiroi (it’s just that specific)

Yuuya - VL Hero name

Hayato - VLE Hero name

Baba - Hero

Masami - Adachi

Taniguchi - Dojima

Saotome - Daisuke

Mamiya - Izanami

I add honorifics but sometimes I forget the hyphen intentionally or unintentionally I’m sorry if it makes it hard to read lol

all links have automatic timestamps for easy viewing. i mean. i hope the timestamps work

VISUALIVE “Persona 4.” A stage adaptation of SMT: Persona 4 by Atlus. It adapts the first part of the story, from the hero’s arrival to after recovering Mitsuo Kubo from the TV world. It also ends on a cliff hanger, showing a teaser of Shadow Naoto being projected on the screen.

It takes up a speedy recapitulation of the hero’s spring life, before slowing down and showing in depth his school life in summer. A day before Morooka-sensei’s death, there is a little skit with Kou, Daisuke and Adachi. The hero walks into the conversation before the two other boys leaving, and Morooka-sensei walking in on the student and detective. The next day follow’s the teacher’s death and the Investigation Team (IT) begin investigating their new lead.

From the words “visual” and “alive,” the niche of this stage was meant to be the fusion of live acting and visual digital projections. All seen from the stageplay with the colorful cast of actors and CG animations being projected on the screen. This offers an opportunity for characters to summon their personas, perform cool visual effects, change the backdrop, or even confront their own Shadows.

Performed in Sunshine Theater from the 15th to the 20th of March 2012. The screenplay was written and directed by Shintaro Asanuma from the theatrical group “bpm.” The video production produced by Shutaro Oku, a film director and visual planner. He later takes over as director for VISUALIVE THE EVOLUTION, the sequel stage. The stage music was produced by Shunsuke Wada, with a special show exclusive vocal track sung by Shihoko Hirata.

On this note, I haven’t seen any sort of original soundtrack released for any of the stages and I’m SO SAD. The last song in Mitsuo’s boss fight was such a BANGER and literally EVERYTHING ELSE Marvelous, Wadasan please take my MONEY

Regarding the cast, there were some special accommodations for Teddie, Rise, and Nanako, all of which did not have live actors at the time. During the casting, actors for the three characters could not be found or simply left the directors unsatisfied they couldn’t cast anybody. An exception for Rise, who was able to have a live actor in the sequel stage. It has been stated that there weren’t any “pretty boy” actors that fit the “Teddie Criteria.” While there weren’t any child actors that were believed to portray Nanako well.

Teddie was only ever seen in his bear costume while Rise was busy talking through a call, all voiced by their video game cast. Nanako has never appeared on stage, only being scarcely mentioned in the script. Again, this is different in the sequel stage where her role was extremely important and was shown as a screen projection.

VISUALIVE “Persona 4” THE EVOLUTION. A sequel stage. Beginning abruptly in the middle of Shadow Naoto’s boss fight, the story continues from there until the “true end” of the game’s original story. *Certain characters are introduced while others have been reintroduced. And on a personal note, when it’s all comedic in the beginning, it’s all for what’s coming right after.

I don’t know if I’m salty or just find it really funny AHAHA I might go talk abt it some other day with more context ehehe

Performed in The Galaxy Theater from the 3rd to the 9th of October 2012, only a few months after the PSVITA Persona 4 Golden release, which is July 2012. The screenplay was now written by Jun Kumagi while directed by Shutaro Oku. And music production finally taken over by Shoji Meguro himself.

---

HAHAHA this is starting to look like a wiki page. moving on. I might start rambling rn

(warning LONG !!!! aaa,,)

My thoughts on the stage adaptations. For the first Visualive (VL) I believe it’s pretty close to canon! I enjoy the characterization and how much love and care was present when handling the entire production.

Actors were busy playing the game itself, wherein a PS2 was present in the practice room. Along with magazines and game guides explaining the game’s story and the characters itself. Actors performing together and even improv acting together to get a grasp of their characters. All of them knowing well of Persona 4 as a well loved game, delicately handling their characters and hopefully performing them right while making the audience happy.

The staff taking care of each other while the director and video producer, Asanuma-san and Oku-san, working together well to make their vision into a reality.

The same thing happened with VL the Evolution (VLE) and literally every other good stage. Except... I feel the script kinda got out of hand with too much liberty where it feels a bit more disconnected from canon. But! It makes up for it in its content, whether comedic or (INCREDIBLY) dramatic! It’s great as its own story at that point. So in this case, I like to take the first VL and get to connect it canon, while I don’t know what the hell happened in VLE to the point I’ll just enjoy it as its own content.

These opinions deserve its own essay, post whatever bc I have SO much to say abt this. ANYWAY. VL ADACHI

---

Tohru Adachi is portrayed by Masami Itou (伊藤マサミ), a screenplay writer, director and an stage actor himself. He does have a single character voice role along with a fellow troupe member in the same franchise, but mostly works as the former three. He is part of Asanuma-san’s entertainment group “bpm.” On a similar note, Masashi Taniguchi, Dojima’s actor, was also part of their group from 2011 to 2016, which may explain their good synergy as the boss and the bumbling fool dynamic. I mean, somebody’s gotta get hit in the head every few skits.

With Masami-san being an important part of the cast, he doesn’t appear as often as Taniguchi-san in backstage content like the VL bonus disk or the official blog. Mentioned in his own personal blog, he had been busy with his roles as assistant director (I am assuming also for VL).

Also fun to note, because his role is mainly comic relief, he has been using his liberty to change up the material almost everyday making each performance exciting. This also leaves some other actors jealous of his freedom in his role, such as Saotome-san, Daisuke’s actor.

---

VL Adachi really has a... how do I say this? an adorable speech pattern (THE SAME SPEECH PATTERN THAT DROVE ME MAD TRYING TO DECIPHER I THOUGHT YOU WERE A CITY BOY OSSU OSSU MY ASS /shakes you violently/). Overall, he really fits the loose lipped bumbling fool, and his accent really makes him seem more casual and invested. What I’m saying is... VL Adachi either actually has genuine empathy or he actually has more energy to fake it (compared to some other edgelord. i mean you saw my p4ga analysis. I’m sick of him lol ahaha).

One of my favorite ways to explain this (OTHER THAN CHAIR CAR ADVENTURE MY BELOVED WE’LL GET TO THAT LATER) is the rice field scene with him and Dojima. It’s overanalyzation time 🎉

(43:04)

While investigating, Adachi whines about being tired while Dojima smacks him in the head. In this case, it’s established that Adachi doesn’t want to be there, yes? It’s the country, it’s hot and it smells like green.

"Ah... Dojima-san..! Why don't we take a break? (...) There really is nothing out here... Is the criminal still even here at all? (...) I wonder if I've passed being a rookie yet. Haha, but this city doesn't even have convenient transportation. I can't go to leisure lands (recreation, amusement parks, arcades, ect.) and head home at all."

Adachi then tries to tell Dojima a story. “when I got to this city after being newly assigned, I met an interesting guy (...) Yeah, I remember that the cherry blossoms haven't bloomed yet. So, I was driving my car and got near the station and--” Dojima gets a phone call.

Adachi politely puts his hands down waiting for his boss to finish so he can finish the story. Again and again, Adachi attempts to talk to Dojima about a story he’s so persistent trying to tell someone about. It was so 面白い that he would find someone to talk to about it. Even being polite and patient enough to wait for a chance to speak. He even gets fed up with it and blows up in front of his boss, clearly irritated he’s not given a chance to talk.

Sure, it could be Adachi feeling fed up like a normal person where someone agreed he to listen to him, before being constantly ignored. Or Adachi trying to be a more annoying whiny brat, depending on where you look at it.

If the story wasn’t too “interesting” to Adachi, he would’ve just brushed it off and stopped talking to Dojima entirely, or start up new small talk, or even complain some more. But no, he had a story he wanted to voice out so bad that he got irritated that the one person in the vicinity couldn’t listen to him.

Only after Dojima told him to continue their investigation elsewhere did Adachi finally stop and focus on something else. Maybe that story was for another day, or maybe it was never meant to be told.

What if it was just original (game) Adachi? He’d find a way to squirrel out of the investigation as usual, or push Dojima to “investigate” elsewhere. “Hey boss, don’t you think it’s hot? Why don’t we go elsewhere? We’ve seen this place too many times to count and I doubt anything new’ll turn up. How about we take a break at Junes, y’know? Where it’s cool? C’mon boss,” something like that.

og Adachi is just really annoying and silly to me. Some grown man thinking he can freeload because he never gets anything out of putting in more energy and effort? I don’t care how tall he is, I will smack him in the head.

Yeah VL Adachi whines, too, but at least it doesn’t look like he’s going to escape and waste his time somewhere else. He just sucks it up stops trying to leave the situation.

Or maybe I’m getting this all wrong and VL is exactly the same and my rage just gets dampened because of Masamisan’s execution of character hmm...

SO. What was his story about anyway? The one he really wanted to share to Dojima?

I mean... it’s obvious enough

First day in town? Spring? Actually mentioned driving a car when literally out of every single persona 4 media at the time was there not a SINGLE mention of Adachi having a car OTHER THAN the same stageplay it’s being mentioned in?

A story, from somewhere around uhh four? five months ago? was something that he remembered so dearly and was willing to share despite it obviously embarrassing him even if he puts the blame on a certain somebody in the same story?

Or maybe it’s because he really had nothing to talk about ever since he realized all his stories from the city weren’t actually that funny or interesting in the first place.

BUT then that would mean out of all the things he could talk about—more whining, complaining, complimenting, small talk—he insisted about talking about this story in particular.

Okay, look. I’m just. Just. As someone who talks too much, of course I have things I actually want people to hear out of all the bullshit that comes out of my mouth. And if the thing I actually want people to listen to doesn’t even get heard, I’d go mad.

Sure, Adachi’d be fine when his complaints or intentionally unfunny jokes get brushed off. But a story of a guy that he thought was so funny, interesting, 面白い gets ignored, he really blew up, even just for a split second, maybe.

And ALL the things that happened in that story—on his first day in Inaba! His car got dented, he had to deal with a weirdo dumbass employee that knew zero personal space, yelled in his ear, who didn’t know how to do their job, got his station reputation messed up on the first day, got his ass grabbed, got (unintentionally?) mocked for his lame stories, and got his car dented for the SECOND time. Probably MORE

And he STILL wanted to talk about it /punches through concrete wall/

yes I’m overthinking about this of course i am

This little tidbit of VL Adachi kinda makes me go insane sometimes—his entire characterization in VL in particular. It was really refreshing to see and how they included both of his characters in it, his facade and how irritated he is of a lot of things underneath. And how flexible his character is immediately working with other characters when there’s sudden improv to balance the situation. Like him and Dojima, Morooka, the attendant, or even Yuuya (hero) himself.

I’ll take Taniguchi-san’s messing around in the VL bonus backstage disc in place of Masami-san being so busy he couldn’t appear in it as often as other characters.

For stagetime that lasted for fifteen minutes or less, my appreciation for VL Adachi, even if he was just comic relief, really rocketed. I say VL, bc Adachi the edgelord he’s supposed to be in literally every other media is something I analyze separately.

I haven’t even gotten to VLE oh my GODDDDD

Like I said, I don’t really regard VLE close to canon but as something to be appreciated for what it is by itself. But the way Adachi was characterized there, in or out of character, still struck me.

---

Yes, there was his strange fan-agreed-canon which is,,, now canon obsession with cabbages (not that that’s a bad thing lmao). There was also him being a lot more jumpy and intimate in a clowny way, patting people on the shoulder or even downright hugging them just to mess around. Even FORGETTING who the same goddam loser who grabbed his ass almost a year ago is. But like, can’t blame him they literally changed their actor (and screenplay writer) AHAHAHA

ha... no more comedy, only dorky sword fights now

(speaking of sword fights I think it’s a fun thought how Mamiya-san [Izanami, also one of the youngest in the cast] admitted it was his first time doing sword fight choreography and even thanked Masami-san and other staff members for guiding him)

One thing unintentionally in character was Adachi accidentally nabbing the sushi overdosed in wasabi. Masami-san didn’t actually account for a joke sushi and didn’t immediately eat it—until Taniguchi-san (who also made Dojima go off his shits compared to VL) jokingly yelled at him and even riled up the audience for him to eat it. He even went off stage to get water just for him to eat the goddam sushi.

And Masami-san did! (kinda choked, but he’s fine).

Continuing from the same scene, while being overly giddy about sushi dinner (and I mean overly--he was singing about it while hopping to the Dojima residence), he tried to remind the two, Dojima and Hayato (hero), that Nanako was sleeping. Probably where she was sick if the scene was translated from the game.

(30:07)

And... the dramatic parts of VLE

Adachi was the one who reported to the IT that Dojima was chasing Namatame in the rain. While Naoto was discussing Namatame’s journal entries, Adachi, as giddy as he is, took it from Naoto’s hands and reveled in the discovery of evidence so childishly(?). He even ran to Dojima when he began regaining consciousness and immediately called the nurses to help him wheel Dojima to the ER.

Then, The Hospital Scene™️, right after Nanako flatlines.

(1:02:02)

Adachi, who recently walked into the scene, immediately worries about Dojima and IT who were ALL crying. He looks down, devastated—before yelling how Dojima’s heading to Namatame’s room.

He yells in terror and the same grief at his injured boss, all while running past and even jumping over children, who fell to the ground sobbing, to get to him. He continues yelling in a pained fashion while immediately reprimanding Dojima to stop. He gets carried by the collar before being tossed to the ground at Hayato’s feet, all while being pat by the same boy.

Dojima makes his speech about how unfair it is for the ‘killer’ to be alive when his daughter isn’t. When he finally falls to his knees, Adachi rises from the ground, humbly saying he’ll do his best to take care of Dojima (or something like that I’m in tears I literally can’t do VLE’s hospital scene i h8 this). He finally starts crying along with everyone else, being pushed away again but still tries again, trying to usher his boss away from the door.

With the help of the guard in front of the door, they all disappear off stage

please... I know this scene doesn’t need that much translation because of how important this scene is in the entire story. and I know my narratives aren’t enough so just,,,, just watch it please it’s so much more than this. everyone’s acting was just spectacular

(1:08:47)

So, after the IT (YOSUKE. JUST YOSUKE. good job Mae-chan) stop themselves from k wording Namatame, it was ADACHI who reported Nanako’s miracle recovery. He ran to the same corridor where they all cried in, even panting and falling to the ground in relief trying to report the good news. Then he pats Hayato on the shoulder and says he’s going to Dojima.

With this... /slaps roof of half of VLE/ ALL of this....adachi.... adachisan.... he Cares™️..... holy shit.....

now. comparing to the game. do you even remember what og Adachi did? did he.. even do anything?????

(56:39)

NO!!! he just stood there!!!! being a bumbling fool but.... inappropriately!!! man. he didn’t act concerned enough.

adachi: /walks into a bunch of kids crying outside a hospital room/ “lmao why tf are y’all crying? did uhhh what’s her face uhhh nanako. did she d word or something? rip, I guess lol” LIKE????? CAN YOU IMPLY FASTER

and then he’s like “wgat hmm Where’s Dojima-san Heading Because That’s Not The Way To His Room 🤔” and only when he’s asked he actually mentions he’s heading to Namatame’s room and still needs to get choked by a first year for the room number like..... zero consideration

and his boss??? where his daughter he loves so much just??? di*s???? and he’s so devastated he’s doing what he can that very moment while he’s so numbed of thinking of the consequences???? And adachi goes “uhh boss that’s illegal” LIKE. BITCH. /punches through a concrete wall but harder/

---

And??? His confrontation scene??? Like, I know they mashed it up w his tv confession scene to save stagetime for other scenes BUT IT WAS SO MMBMBMBMMGN /gestures in a good way/

(1:15:56)

UM?? guy behind everything??? in a vulnerable area where he could easily get physically assaulted bc hes not in the tv world w his persona?? Trash talks women like he absolute misogynist he is??? getting yelled at by a bunch of kids and YELLING BACK IN THE SAME AGITATED MANNER even TAUNTING THEM then and there to GET HIS ASS?????

og Adachi was such a pussy he got caught and just scurried off into the TV world where he ended up having powers like...ok....scared of getting beat down by a bunch of highschoolers unless you have powers...ok....

he only taunted them to get him when he was in the tv world too.....he rlly couldn’t say shit in the real world huh... lol

(yeah yeah this shows how VLE Adachi knew abt his TV world powers which would make you think if he ever went into the tv world and came back out alive. Or he’s really just a badass who doesnt give a shit abt anyone’s opinions and CAN beat anyone’s ass. i have a separate thing abt this but bc i like to laught at vle rather than overthink its own lore i might. not. idk lol)

and ??? VLE Adachi can??? He can swordfight??? he doesn’t even NEED a gun—he even reflects bullets w his blade (but apparently he can still get slapped by a flying fan more often than any other attack). His fight choreo was just...so poggers. He’s like short villains done good—like??? he’s short compared to everyone else!!! but he makes up for it for stuffing all the energy inside him while is bursts out making him him the over energetic gremlin he is!!! go VL adachi!!!!

(am I low key making fun of Madono-san in the TUUSH stageplay I’ve seen four minutes of? maybe)

OK!!! Yes I was gushing abt Masami-san again back to Adachi.

It’s portrayed that while not being afraid to admit his crimes, he also goes out of his way to be a bastard and have the gall to get a bunch of kids to fight him, one on eight. He can use a katana, probably a narrative dark reflection of the hero, Hayato which I thought was nice—and he can fight!!! It also shows his persona, yes, but...it doesn’t make it clear if he’s overwhelmed by his Shadow like in the game, where his eyes were yellow and he was emitting a dark aura.

But it gets interesting how he sees he’s getting overwhelmed and starting to lose his edge towards a bunch of kids. He falls to the ground even banging the floor like a whiny brat while literally the IT tries to tell him to turn himself in. Again, like a brat he tells everyone to shut up—before getting incapacitated. While some of the IT rejoice, he bolts up unaccepting of his defeat—before getting hit in the stomach.

(1:23:54)

And his words from when he drops his katana, “Why..?” He grabs the foldable chair against his stomach, and with a remorseful look in his eyes, he says “I’m sorry..!”

THEN HE BACKFLIPS—then Hayato slashes him.

In a tone of disbelief, he goes “no way...” and collapses to the ground, being possessed by Ame-no-Sagiri.

Blah blah blah then Teddie rockets himself into the eyeball spy cam and then they both explode aaaaa

Teddie survives but I really don’t know where Adachi went. Not even a mention by Dojima if he turned himself in or was ever found—or I need to review VLE for the 48274827482nd time hehe

WHOO then the whole cast appears for the dance number at the end of show YAHOO