#number 24 layouts

[lulu2992]

Exploration of the now-offline Far Cry 5 official websites

Introduction

I used the Internet Archive, also known as the Wayback Machine, to see what the official Far Cry 5 websites used to look like between May 2017 and February 2020. On or before September 25th, 2020, the site changed and a lot of information about the game and its character disappeared. This is what I was interested in recovering.

In the posts, for convenience, you will see me use the terms “American website” and “European website”. While there were theoretically 19 versions, there were only two different layouts and appearances.

All the available languages and locations, according to the U.S. version.

The “American” layout was used for:

Canada (English & French) - /en-ca/ & /fr-ca/

Mexico - /es-mx/

The U.S. - /en-us/

Brazil - /pt-br/

And the “European” one was for:

Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland (“Nordic English”) - /en-nordic/

France - /fr-fr/

Germany - /de-de/

Italy - /it-it/

The Netherlands - /nl-nl/

Poland - /pl-pl/

Russia - /ru-ru/

Spain - /es-es/

The U.K. - /en-gb/

Australia - /en-au/

The Chinese (/zh-tw/), Arabic (/ar-ar/), Japanese (/ja-jp/), and Korean (/ko-kr/) Far Cry 5 sites were apparently not properly archived, but the ones that most often were and that I recovered all the content from were the U.S. and U.K. versions, which is also why I ended up choosing the generic terms American and European (even though they are not always geographically accurate).

The current Far Cry 5 website, as I’m writing this, is www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/far-cry/far-cry-5

The old sites I was interested in were far-cry.ubisoft.com/game and far-cry.ubisoft.com/farcry5, and more specifically far-cry.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/, far-cry.ubisoft.com/farcry5/en-us/, far-cry.ubisoft.com/game/en-gb/, far-cry.ubisoft.com/farcry5/en-gb/. To change the language/region, you just have to replace /en-us/ or /en-gb/ with another tag; I included them all in the lists above.

In each post, there will be two parts: Recovered content and Commentary. In the first one, I will post what I found in the archives, and in the second, compare all that information with the final version of Far Cry 5 to see what has changed and what still seems relevant.

I hope you enjoy this series :)

[sematarygirls]

GONE  GIRL.                             masterlist

if you know the whereabouts of this person, please call 911 or contact the kildare county sheriff's department at 252-290-6688

       NAV ! Part One. Part Two.

CASE NUMBER: 2023-KILDARE-002

CASE NAME: L/N, Y/N - Missing Person

DATE SUBMITTED: July 24, 2023 (Investigation Ongoing)

AGENCY: Kildare County Police Department

EVIDENCE TECHNICIAN: Officer J. Gingham

ITEMS ENCLOSED:

1. Incident Report

2. USB Containing Witness Statements

3. USB Containing Suspect Interviews

4. Anonymous Tips & Alleged Sightings

5. Manilla Folder of Crime Scene Photos

6. Subpoenas for Phone Records

  6.1. Victim's Call Logs

7. Subpoenas for Text Messages

  7.1. Victim's Text Messages

8. Search Warrant for 313 Lakeshore Drive

  8.1. Bottle of Unidentified Pills (Pending Analysis)

  8.2. Encrypted Flashdrive (Pending Analysis)

  8.3. Victim's Diary

  8.4. Threatening Letter (Pending Handwriting Analysis)

  8.5. Calender with Day of Disappearance Circled

  8.6. Shattered Picture Frame of Victim and R. Cameron

  8.7. Cellphone Charger

  8.8. Hairbrush (Collected for DNA)

9. Search Warrant for R. Cameron's Room at 115 Kingsford Street

  9.1. Pair of Victim's Underwear

  9.2. Collection of Naked Photos of Victim

  9.3. "R" Pendant Necklace (Victim was Last Seen Wearing)

  9.4. Bloody T-Shirt (Pending Analysis)

10. Victim's Purse (Recovered at Old Church on Whickam Road)

  10.1. Wallet with ID

  10.2. Torn QuickFuel Reciept

  10.3. Baggie with Unidentified White Powder (Pending Analysis)

  10.4. ChapStick Classic Cherry Lip Balm

  10.5. Keyring: House Key for 313 Lakeshore Drive, House Key for 231 Bradford Road, Unidentified Key, Heart Locket Keychain with R. Cameron's Picture Inside

  10.6. White, Silver, and Red Sobriety Chips

  10.7. Sunglasses

  10.8. Lo Loestrin Fe Birth Control

  10.9. Crumpled Photo of Victim and Unidentified Man

  10.10. Pink Hello Kitty Lighter

  10.11. Switchblade

  10.12. Trident Pineapple Twist Gum

11. Copy of Missing Person's Flier

12. Incident Reports from 313 Lakeshore Drive

13. Subpoena of Victim's Bank Statements and Financial Records

  13.1. Victim's Bank Statements and Financial Records

14. Subpoena of Victim's Medical Records

  14.1. Victim's Medical Records

CHAIN OF CUSTODY LOG INCLUDED

notes .ᐟ the layout isn't very pretty, but you get the idea. it's a detailed account of everything in the evidence box thus far

taglist .ᐟ @starkeysprincess / @cometmultiverse / @iheartjjmaybnk / @all4l0vee / @kissesfrmriri / @bradshawed / @fallbhind / @rafeslittleangel / @bakugouswaif / @fakedhearts / @avada-kedavra-bitch-187 / @riaras-everthroner / @memoirofasparklemuff1n / @rafeysangelbaby

                                ୭ৎ

[mpchev]

Update on fanbinding dissertation: binding the dissertation itself!

After many days and nights of writing and wrangling footnotes and proofreading (where I couldn't convince my laptop that yes, I meant textualisation, not sexualisation), 'twas time to bind the beasts! In three copies, no less! Which I approached with way too much confidence from my one fanbind experience, and came with many fun little surprises due to the format guidelines I had to follow 🤡

This is going to be a long one, so here's my happy unfocused mug to confirm that it all ends well:

First pickle: The typesetting. I absolutely loved typesetting fanfic, but the dissertation had to be A4 (way less fun, boo-hoo), one-sided, with every page numbered. Did you know that LibreOffice won't let you add blank pages and only number the non-blank ones, without skipping numbers? In order to print signatures I could fold into one-sided pages, only numbered on the right-hand pages, I ended up switching to landscape orientation and including the equivalent of a blank page in the left margin.

Second pickle: The imposing, which I couldn't figure out using the amazing bookbinder with my weird landscape 2-page layout. I finally gave in and rearranged all the pages manually, which looked like p. 1 on the recto / p. 10 on the verso, then p2/p9, p3/p8, p4/p7, p5/p8, p6/p7. And because there was no way I was paying print-in-colour prices for all of this, I further split the manually imposed pages into two files, one for the greyscale printer (cheaper) and one for the colour printer (highway robbery). Still came up to ~£70, just for printing.

Very glad I went in chunks of 10 for the signatures, it made both the math and the folding using sheets from two different piles much easier, highly recommend (if for some absurd reason you also want to bind one-sided numbered pages in folded signatures).

Third pickle: Linear time. Had planned on having so much time to print and bind this thing, but kept writing and rewriting and proofing and oops! It was due in less than 24 hours and it was still not out of the laptop. So.

22/09/24, 6pm: Got to the library, started printing.

6.45pm: Found another printer where all the paper was the same shade of white, started printing again ��‍♂️ (kept the the misprints to use as scrap paper when glueing)

7.30pm: Started folding the 150 sheets of paper (3 x 100-page dissertation, 2 pages per sheet). Went from the last episode of The Magnus Protocol, to an episode of Welcome to Night Vale, to deciding restart The Magnus Archive, which felt almost poetic.

9pm: Headed back home, trimmed the edges (with a borrowed guillotine), folded the endpapers, stabbed everything. Lack of pictures to be blamed on my inability to mess with linear time, and the eventual sleep deprivation.

10.30pm, I think? Started sewing the signatures together, again with Supernatural (which I started rewatching when I submitted my first dissertation assignment in mid-May, and finished 2 days after submitting the dissertation itself, again, such poetry).

2am, probably? Tipped the endpapers and glued cheesecloth over the spines. Somehow figured out where to set the three textblocks to dry (I don't have a press). Sadly gave up on sewing on (or glueing) headbands, because time.

3am-ish: Cut the missing cover pieces out of millboard (had already cut 4 of 6 covers, since I knew it had to be A4), measured the spines of the three textblocks and cut those as well.

???am: Did some math, because sure, that's the right time for that. Cut the bookcloth to size, glued the cover pieces on the bookcloth. Remarkably only messed up the measurements on one of them! That means one of the copies has a millimetre of millboard showing in the inside corners of the back cover, but not enough time/bookcloth/millboard to redo it, onward we go!

Way past dawn: Took a break for food while the covers somewhat dried. Cased the three textblocks in the three covers, with the endpapers bubbling, which took me by surprise since it was the same paper and same glue I had used for the fanbind without any problem. I'm now thinking that bigger book = more time needed to apply the glue = endpapers getting warped, but I was so exhausted by this point that who knows. Again, no time to redo it!

9.30am: Stacked the dissertations under the heavy reference books I used to write the dissertation. Toute est dans toute hein. Went to bed while they (mostly) dried.

2.30pm: Woken up by my neighbour's dj set. Eventually put all that hard work in a tote and walked to school to hand it in at 4.30pm.

Fourth and last pickle: The titling. Couldn't find paper long enough to do a half-dust jacket like I did last time. Had big cutout plans, ran out of time and couldn't finish testing those. Also had some thicker textured paper I thought of cutting and glueing to the cover as a title card, but it turned out too thin and was warping. Finally resigned myself to submitting it with a blank cover, but one of my teachers asked if I would mind adding the title on with metallic markers to make it easier to identify (one copy will eventually be on the shelf at the Institute), and I'm SO HAPPY with how it turned out. Metallic markers. Why didn't I think of that. (I did, however, think about dressing appropriately for the occasion.)

So, is it possible to print and bind 3 books in less than 24 hours? Yes! Am I glad I did it? Also yes, very satisfying, love being extra! Would I do it again? God no, I've been sleeping for two weeks and I still haven't recovered. Can't wait to start binding something else though, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

That's it! That's over! Aaaaaah! Now waiting for the grade and comments, and hopefully soon I'll be able to share the content as well.

I'll also try to post some more about the research/writing process itself, somewhere between the late nights reading international treaties on income tax and the early mornings spent figuring out how to apply for a phd next.

Thank you so much to everyone who followed along, this was way more fun than I ever could have hoped!

[rontra]

Persona failteacher yuri, comic #24: about her breaking point (part 3: pot, kettle) [AU masterpost]

i hate when it's one page off from an easily arrange-able number. egh

in case you're unfamiliar: in languages that use more graphemes than can feasibly fit on a keyboard layout, an IME (input method editor) software component is used. in our example--typing japanese on a generic laptop keyboard--the user would type in romaji or kana and the IME provides a dropdown menu to choose which kanji you want to insert. usually you press spacebar to go down the list and Enter to insert the selected kanji. so make sure to spell everything correctly and pick the right kanji at the end... 😤

there are also "thumb-shift" keyboards that are faster when writing in japanese, which are popular with people who write a lot for a living. i think they're very cool

^idk just in case you were curious what kind of frenzied keyboard whoopsies she's having in her Mad Bull haze . im just talking about keyboards and pretending kawakami isnt severely spiraling (and psyching herself up to force toriumi's hand) as we speak. it's fine

[imbermagnvs]

imbermagnvs 100 followers event !

hello my friends!! thank you all greatly for 100 followers, that’s so incredible and definitely not something i ever expected, haha… to celebrate this wonderful milestone, i’m hosting a prompt event!

-> Rules

the rules are fairly simple! complete prompts to win prizes within the timeframe of May 24 to June 4 (with an additional grace period of three days for those who were only able to get partially through.) finishing certain numbers of prompts earns prizes! this event is not a contest, there are no winners. you can claim prizes as long you complete an edit that fits the prompt.

-> Visibility

in order to ensure i see your entry, tag me (@imbermagnvs) in the post and include #imber100 in your hashtags :) if i do not see it within two days, feel free to send me an ask or dm!

-> Prizes

the prizes for entering are as follows: — completion of one prompt: one icon set of your choosing ! — completion of three prompts: one layout or pastebin graphic set of your choosing ! — completion of five or more prompts: one psd coloring set of your choosing ! the prizes do stack, and you may claim them as they are earned or all at once.

*the sources i will edit are on a f- around + find out basis. good luck

-> Prompts

there are two sets of prompts: one for general gfx, one for psd colorings. completing both sets will not earn you any extra prizes. you can mix and match prompts as you please, but fulfilling more than five does not get anything.

graphic prompts:

make an edit based off of your favorite hobby (if your hobby is editing, make one based off of your current main interest OR treat this as a free day!)

make an edit based off of your favorite pokemon type (if you do not have one, CHOOSE.)

make an edit based off of your favorite science

make an edit you have always wanted to try but were too scared (i.e. thought it was out of your skill level or too difficult. doesn’t have to be good. but do it.)

> *if you are very brave and never scared, make an edit in a style you never/rarely edit.

make an edit based off of your favorite scent or taste (if you do not have one/are like me and can’t smell or taste, use a random color generator and make an edit based off the first color that comes up, no takebacksies.)

coloring prompts:

make a coloring based off of your favorite season

make a coloring of clashing/non-complementary colors (and attempt to make it look okay.)

make a coloring based off of your favorite board/card game (if you do not have one, make it off of your current most repeated song.)

make a coloring of your personal color palette (the colors most prominent in your wardrobe, backpack, daily life, etc.)

make a coloring of your least favorite color/color palette.

[bonestrouslingbones]

holy grail of fun web design things all for the low low price of Instant Migraine

very excited to start my TWO (2) web design classes and learn even more ways to make the whole ebony thing even more unnecessarily complicated so i'm looking at some of the syllabi early and oh good lord i fear one of my professors has the same tastes as me in terms of making a website look cool with awesome colors and patterns which would be awesome if he didn't also forget to make sure it isn't slightly miserable to try to use in its intended context on different screen sizes

[gaylactic-fire]

In all seriousness, thoughts about MKW... I'm still conflicted??

Visually, it looks stunning, but that is to be expected.

The track design, from an outside perspective, is just not doing it for me. I know the roads need to be widened to account for 24 players, but I feel like half of the skill level is gone?? Like nothing feels more satisfying to me than mastering a drift around a tight turn. I think that feeling is going to be very much absent in MKW.

The MUSIC sounds INCREDIBLE. That may be my number one most hyped feature (much like AoI lol). Just hearing remixes of old tracks was so good.

I kind of predicted that there would be no retro tracks in this game, which I feel was a half correct prediction given how radically changed they are. In a sense, I appreciate this, because when you redo tracks from older games like the OG Mario Kart and Super Circuit without much layout changes they tend to be dreadfully boring. On the other hand, some of the newer retros being so altered rub me the wrong way. Why fix something not broken?

I think the free roam gimmick is going to be interesting for all of about five minutes. Sure, you put a lot of detail into this world, but I don't play Mario Kart to have a leisurely drive round the countryside. Not everything has to be BOTW now, Nintendo.

The roster is a joke. Y'all really couldn't use this as an opportunity to share some love to fan favourite Mario side characters?? No one from Paper Mario? Mario RPG? Luigi's Mansion? The Mario and Luigi games? Nah, random ass enemies and NPCs. Plus no return of Link, Isabelle or the inklings?? Death to Nintendo

Final thought: people are going to abuse the FUCK out that rewind feature for item bagging. As a frontrunner, I fear.

[sprintingowl]

Turnip28

Turnip28 is an indie wargame built around kitbashing models so that they look like the haggard survivors of a thousand years of vegetable-motivated Napoleonic war.

The core rules are free, and (as of 4/2/24) the game is receiving regular support.

Rules-wise, the closest comparison is definitely Warhammer. Models have statistics for Wounds, (in)Accuracy, (non)Toughness, and number of attacks they can make. Solo models (called Snobs) and units (called Followers) are both fielded, and an emphasis is placed on armies being unpredictable, difficult-to-control things that panic and get disorganized and sometimes just don't listen to your orders.

The biggest mechanical divergence is that players take turns activating units, and the process for this involves using a Snob to tell a gang of Followers what to do. Only if there's no Followers nearby to boss around does the Snob act directly.

The tone of the game's writing and setting is definitely black comedy. War is gross, no one involved is particularly competent, the motive for the fight has been completely lost over the years, and one of the narrative's main characters is a pile of fingers that, due to the decent tactical advice it gives, has been scooped into a box to be carried around. There's a genuine toad-in-the-hole recipe included in one of the factions' unit list.

The overall structure and layout of the book will make you say "this is definitely a wargame," but the rules are well-organized and easy to follow and reference. It's at least as professional as anything out of the big presses, and the art is gorgeous, evocative, and creative.

The game's factions, called Cults, are varied and distinct and come with advice on how to play them. Most of them pull from the same pool of generic units, with a few variations and passive effects, but they all do a solid job of transforming the way the game is played.

Despite this, the real star of the game---which I think gets somewhat overshadowed by how much game there is---is still the kitbashing. You can use proxies or models from another game, but Turnip28 really wants to get you into painting and modeling your unique army. You can still have a good time if you just like the mechanics, but you'll have a great time if you click with the modeling.

All told, Turnip28 feels like a gem. It uses a familiar mechanical foundation in order to get a little weird with its setting, and to encourage players to do creative modeling. The end result is a rulebook packed with gorgeous art, which reads cleanly, and which lets you and a buddy crash strange little squads of gremlins into each other for an hour.

[flaminfawkesfox]

so I have been on Rednote for like 24 hours and I have noted a couple things about the app that might be good to know for anyone who's considering registering there:

You can link your Instagram/Facebook or Twitter account. But to register a Rednote account requires a phone number for verification. Since most American social medias beg for your phone number, email, medical records, copyright to your posts, etc, this is very tame.

Until you have registered an account, Rednote's page is predominantly in Chinese, so translating apps will be useful.

On the topic of translating, if you're using a translating app, you must translate to simplified Chinese.

Translating comments on the app works pretty well.

If you're gonna post something in English, you should add Chinese subtitles along with it, just out of courtesy. It helps everybody out.

The app uses some generative AI for profile icons or post layouts, but it's optional. And you're not automatically opted in to AI features.

Please read their Terms of Service. As Rednote is based in China, it's their rules, and our American freedom of speech cannot protect us from social media regulations. Formality in how you post or comment will also be important in how many people find you, so say hi to people! You can read the Terms of Service in English, so don't worry about translating a wall of text.

This should really go without saying, but as a reminder to any brainrotten Americans: Just be human, and treat others as human. Chinese Rednote users have been so welcoming to Tiktok immigrants and American users, and American users in turn have shown respect and gratitude, and have even been willing to learn some Mandarin. There's a profound politeness and unity that I and probably many other Americans have never seen before, and it's just beautiful. If you're losing hope in the US, just know this: we people can still know kindness when our leaders have chosen to make enemies.

Finally, just.... don't get addicted to it like me :') I'm hooked. I'm genuinely enjoying the experience.

That's all I got.

[nonagesiiiimus]

eden's tlt reread: GTN, chapter one (pgs. 15-24)

before i really get into it, there's a few things i'm going to try and track throughout this reread (with some color coding, ooh): for right now, i'd like to start with words i had to look up, references to threes or other significant numbers, physical structure of the settings, and foreshadowing. i'll probably add some more things to track as i go.

interlude: on the Ninth House's layout

briefly, i want to talk about the description and structure of the Ninth house. we get some descriptions on pgs 15- 17, and 23 in the first chapter, with more peppered throughout the book. Gideon says that "this late in the equinox no light would make it [to the Ninth] for months", which puts the Ninth on the far reaches of the solar system (pg. 15). based on the rest of the description: no atmosphere of its own, rocky, freezing cold, it's easy to say this is Pluto. there's a quote later in the book when they are on the First and Gideon is confused by the nighttime that confirms this: “Griddle,” she said, “this planet spins much faster than ours.” At Gideon’s continued blank expression: “It’s night, you tool” (pg 86). one day on Pluto is equal to a week on Earth, so it makes sense for her to be confused about this new circadian rhythm.

now, for the structure of the ninth: it's pretty straightforwardly a tunnel down the center of the planet, with offshoots and balconies facing inward of the tunnel: "the Ninth was an enormous hole cracked vertically into the planet's core, and the prison a bubble installation set halfway up into the atmosphere where the living conditions were probably a hell of a lot more clement" (p. 23). clement = mild, merciful. there seems to be a first floor/ main bottom layer, where the "cold white doors of Castle Drearburh" are set (p. 16). we can assume as well that the tomb is also in the Castle Drearburh, along with the church. there seems to be different tiers cut into the tunnel that are living quarters and other rooms, and a splitoff point that leads out towards the landing pad: "Leaving her cell and swinging her pack over one shoulder, she took the time to walk down five flights to her mother's nameless catacomb niche [...] then came the long hike up twenty-two flights the back way [...] heading to the splitoff shaft and the pit where her ride would arrive" (p. 15). they must be pretty significant structures built into the surrounding walls of the drillshaft. this is emphasized by a later quote that says "They hadn't managed to cozen [Giden] inside Drearburh for a good two years", meaning Gideon must have had no reason to go into Drearburh for all that time- her living quarters and spaces are all separate of the castle (p.36). the landing field for the shuttle seems to be up the splitoff shaft really high up, on a terrace above all the living quarters (but not above the snow leek fields, which must be on the highest terrace?)

back to regularly scheduled c1 thoughts

~ chapter one ~

a wee bit of foreshadowing here: "Gideon never ran unless she had to", first appearing on the very first page of GTN, only to reappear later when Dulcinea/Cytherea faints at Canaan House!

the use of would instead of could in this quote: "her mother hadn't been in there since Gideon was little and would never go back in it now" (p.15): idk if this is anything, but to me it emphasizes Wake's willfull spirit.

first mention of frontline titties of the fifth on pg. 18 in talking with Crux!

the interaction with Crux is so sick and twisted and gross but also some of the first we get to see of Gideon's banter and personality. i also personally love the descriptors tamsyn uses for Crux's speech: bubbles, croaks, gurgles. it's gross and perfect

Crux says, "one day we will use your parts for paper" (p.19). this brings up one of my biggest and most longstanding questions: what is flimsy, and what is the deal with organic material in the Dominicus system? tamsyn muir has confirmed that flimsy itself is an oil-based paper akin to a plastic film, but this topic is deserving of its own post later on because i have a lot of thoughts. however, harrow later has a journal that has a cover of "tanned human leather" (pg. 146). yuck. maybe both are used? maybe the oil that flimsy is made of is derivative of humans fat? ew.

"You talk so loudly for chattel, Nav" (p. 18). chattel= n enslaved person held as the legal property of another, a bondsman

"Gideon was home free. Gideon was gone" (p. 20). this made me laugh because of a joke from HTN: when Augustine tells Harrow that if he wants Ortus the First to go, “he’ll be giddy-gone", which i unfortunately don't have the page number for but is funny to me here when reflecting. gideon, giddy-gone!

"[Aiglamene] simply backhanded Gideon the way you might hit a barking animal" (p. 21). this line breaks my heart every single time. gideon is striving so desperately for agency in this moment, and is so discounted even by the one person who she feels might be slightly looking out for her. aiglamene asking "will you disgrace me?" right after this also stings Gideon and stings me- it's an ask for obedience that i just despise on contact.

"sin of perfidy": perfidy = disloyalty, deceitfulness, a deliberate betrayal of trust. the highest sin in Aiglamene's eyes.

another quote that rips my heart out: : "Nobody had ever loved [Gideon] in the house of the Ninth" (p. 22). brb, crying my eyes out.

FIRST COMMANDER WAKE MENTION! pg. 23 tells the story of Wake tumbling down the drillshaft and landing brain dead in a hazmat suit, with one-day old Gideon in a bio-container plugged into the suit. there's a fabulous quote here that says "she was too far gone by the time the exhausted nuns had tethered her by force, as though death had been the catalyst for the woman to hit the ground running, and they only got one word out of her: she had screamed Gideon! Gideon! Gideon! three times, and fled" (p. 23). not only do we see the foreshadowed antics of Commander Wake's spirit here, but we also see one of our first references to the number 3. threes become pretty important and reoccuring in this book, for reasons that i think require their own post.

one other number thing: this is gideon's 87th attempt at escape. 87 could also be a significant number, which may requires its own post on my part. harrow is the 87th reverend mother, there's gideon's 87 attempts. maybe this is a thin thread, but someone posted in this reddit thread that it could be a reference to Judges 8:7:

Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.

it makes sense with Gideon's name referencing the demise of someone else, as Tamsyn helpfully addended, but it might be too thin of a theory.

this concludes my thoughts on chapter one! super excited to keep rolling on this deep dive.

[chojrak-making-things]

Some screenshots from Scandicordia which I looked upon in July, in similar time as Teldrassil. I tried to convince CjPlays to look upon this world long ago, but he didn't make overview since then, so I had to see it myself (yes, I'm that lazy).

This world was created by Mutti, with help of her team from Discord. There's post which explains all details and contains download link, and vlogmas playlist, where video number 24 is world overview. It's recorded in German + Mutti focused more on showing families, that's why I asked another youtuber for overview, and then I did it myself. But anyway, here are some screenshots and thoughts that I had:

First of all, the map layout is really nice, and it really reminds me of Praven. There's not much worlds near rivers across the whole world, so it's good to have that layout.

The amount of trees is also perfect. As a performance maniac, this is important too.

Houses are rather larger than smaller, and really spread across, especially the farm ones. It's visible it was mainly done for Pets expansions pack, especially for horses.

...

But beside that, there is also district with smaller houses and spaces. Some of them are more rustic inside, giving feel of wooden shack.

Even such a small suburb has it's own park in the middle, which is nice.

There are also more extravagant houses, like this manor with dramatic wrap-around porch and beautiful landscaping:

or this sweet stick bellow:

Every part of building is functional! and well... it is kind of spoiler, cause I haven't seen it't been showed much on pics, and it's hidden in very interesting woodsy area, with a lot of camping and hiding spots nearby.

But speaking about recreation places, this town has really polished public lots, with a lot of activities.

Despite it's stylized as more of Nordic type of world, the lighting and all those camping/recreation areas gives me vibe of summer colony, which I absolutely love. It's not only world perfect for playing Pets, but it also squeezes every drop from Generations and Seasons expansion packs. Before I had it in game, I thought it might be like Aurora Skies enriched with EPs, but now I see it has it's own unique vibe.

I really don't have anything to prick about. I thought earlier that maybe buildings in town centre could be more distinguish - tenements houses or something could bring more diverse in architecture styles, but on the other hand it could also destroy this feel of summer destination and rusticness, so I'm glad the way it is.

It has even campus if you'd like to play University EP from home world.

It's been a little over a year since this world was released, and despite it gained a lot of notes, I haven't saw it since then, and thought it's criminally underrated, so I hope this overview will boost attencion even a bit.

[blue-rose-soul]

Where could you see Alastor setting up his eatery if not Cannibal Town? He may keep his meals free of mystery meat, but there is the safety factor of being in a friend's territory.

For some reason I think he'd keep it small. Restaurant feels too big a title. So... Eatery. :}

Vox is banned from all Royal Properties, Alastor's side project included, and Alastor doesn't officially allow the BeeEats service so he can't even order on the sly. He'd be lying if he said he didn't care.

Yeah, I think he'd make it something small and quaint too. Not like a Michelin 5-star restaurant but the kind of place that attracts a solid number of regulars and hosts live music. It definitely has that rustic vibe Alastor is so fond of and several nods to the bar where Nicaise taught him to play the piano. There's a wall of banned customers and Vox's portrait was up there before opening day on a 18" x 24" gold-framed canvas with a plaque reading, 'Idiot Box.' And then there are a few dozen smaller photo prints of the various VoxTech employees who have been sent to get takeout on Vox's behalf only to be stopped at the door. Vox 'settles' for having his personal chef try to recreate Alastor's pompano en papillote, but it's not the same...

As for its exact location, it's a little hard for me to pick out a specific area to place it. One of the mods (don't remember which) of @nunalastor did a pretty good analysis of various scenes of the layout of Pentagram City and how they contradict one another, which lead to a pretty cool collective headcanon that the city actually rearranges itself. (If I'm able to find the post I'll come back later and link it). As far as I know this is because Vivienne cared more about setting up good-looking scenes than mathematically calculating the smallest detail of her fictional world. I'd say Alastor would pick out an older neighborhood far from the Vees' entertainment district or Carmilla's industrial zone and probably not terribly far from Cannibal Town itself. As for safety, he'd keep a number of those doll-like phantoms hidden on the premise to keep an eye out for trouble when he's not present to defend the eatery himself. Any corpses made in such incidents get delivered straight to Cannibal Town.

[judjira]

the college

tags: fluff pairing: reader x mina after hours wc: 1861 back to masterlist

“Aaaand done.”

That’s your last lab report done for the night. Thank God, your university has a 24/7 study hall. You wouldn’t have been able to get any of this done at your apartment.

The study hall is chilly, but then it always is because the administration has no idea what temperature regulation is. The fluorescent lights are actually of a rather warm color, allowing you to read and process at a rather consistent pace.

Your lab reports, rather neat if you do say so yourself, are handwritten, thanks to the demands of your rather uptight professor. You even get detractions for not having your letters being written straight. Which has caused you to spend an outrageous amount of time making sure your margins are correct, your layout is neat, and your formulae are even.

It’s a bit of a mindless exercise in futility, but you have to admit, it is kind of satisfying to look at your finished lab reports and their neatness. Certainly a gratifying reminder of how many hours you’ve spent redoing lines and numbers as compared to actually studying the formulae required for this lesson.

At this hour, the study hall isn’t quite what it is in the morning, when the full hustle and bustle of the university has students scrambling from class to class, cramming reports, and studying for exams.

Still, it’s a nice change of pace from that, with barely a soul inside, besides you and some other woeful student, busy typing something down on their laptop.

It’s a nice shelter from the real world, outside the walls of the university, where you get to witness the essence of human experience in its worst forms.

But also its best forms, too.

You bid your farewell to the night shift guard, who scans your ID and nods at you in acknowledgment.

If the study hall was quiet, with only the whirring of the air conditioner and the occasional flip of a page, outside is silence incarnate. The university, with its open-air walkways and open courtyards and gardens, is almost soullessly silent, the only sounds echoing being your footsteps.

There are barely any lights, the building all mostly closed, with only street lamps that illuminate the open walkways and fluorescent pin lights to guide through the closed hallways.

Idly, you wonder what there is beyond this. Beyond open books and laptops, lecturing teachers and noisy students, oral quizzes and final exams. It’s hard to imagine what life is like beyond what you know.

But you’ll get there eventually. And soon, all this will be gone. No more cramming late night papers, no more last minute studying for exams, no more frustrating group works where you do all the work.

As much as the work is frustrating and irritating and sometimes makes you want to jump off a building, you know there is only so much of it left before it becomes real.

And so, you make the odd, but sincere decision to savor it.

You cross another hallway, towards the campus gates, and hear the rattling of cans nearby, as well as some aggravated shouting.

“Stupid—fucking—ugh!”

The last word is punctuated by a slam, and you wince in response.

It’s not uncommon to see fellow students in the area, especially at this time, during finals season when everyone is struggling to meet their academic demands.

Turning the corner, you see the source of the noise.

A girl, with long blonde hair, wearing a bomber jacket and waist high jeans, is slamming on a vending machine, as the drink she’s evidently ordered is stuck.

It’s quite the break from the silence of the night. She is a break.

Because even her form, pristine and elegant blonde hair, almost glowing bomber jacket with decals, and the studs on her boots shining from the vending machine light, break the quiet monotony of your vision.

And then she punches the vending machine glass. You can swear you hear it crack, and you let out a squeak.

Then her head swivels in your direction, eyes screaming bloody murder. Her teeth are gritting, nostrils flared, and she’s clenching her fists so hard, you’d think they were bleeding.

Then she notices who it is.

And her whole body relaxes.

“Oh. It’s just you.”

You chance a hesitant wave.

“Fancy seeing you here, Mina.”

Her eyes untense and take in your form lazily, her lips quirk up into that lazy smirk you know her for, and her fists unclench and breathe.

Simultaneously, you unclench and breathe, as the anger she’s so known for is not directed towards you.

“I kinda expected to see you around here.”

Mina is…not someone you thought you would’ve become friends with.

She was your classmate a total of once, and in that one time you became paired for a project. The rest is somewhat history. If you can call last semester history.

The thing is, however, you and Mina are not…what people think of when they say the word friends.

“And what’s that supposed to mean, hm?”

You prod, walking forward towards her, her form illuminated by the glow of the vending machine. Mina shrugs.

“Just figured you’d be here studying somewhere is all.”

Of course, that would be fine, but then she has to continue.

“You’re a nerd, so…”

You sigh. The way Mina has so effortlessly dubbed you as a nerd reminds you of 90s highschool romcom movies and their tropes with nerds and jocks and punks. It is a bit of a cheesy way to refer to you, it is the 21st century after all, but you’ve never minded.

That’s the thing between you and Mina. To all eyes, except yours and hers, she is the stock trope and character of a bully, mirroring your somewhat admittable inclinations towards being a nerd.

But you know the real Mina.

“What’re you tryna get?”

“Hm? Just some Red Bull…cramming a paper.”

You raise an eyebrow. Mina’s never been one to put effort into her grades. It’s kind of what she’s known for, and you learned that firsthand when you were paired with her.

“Really, now?”

You see her eyebrows twinge in annoyance as she turns her attention back to the vending machine.

“What’s it to you?”

Her voice rings of…embarrassment. As it usually does.

“Well, I could have sworn you said you submitted all your papers already.”

And then, the subtle flush of her cheeks, caught in the act. But you play it out a little more.

“Ah, well, if you’re going to work on a paper, might as well leave you to it. I’m done for the day. So, I guess I’ll see you—”

Then her hand latches onto your wrist.

Her face steams of red, her eyes unwilling to look into yours, and her lips twisting into an unwilling frown.

She mumbles.

“I didn’t quite catch that.”

Then, she huffs, clears her throat, and crosses her arms.

“…I was waiting for you, okay? Are you happy?”

You laugh. Yes, you are happy.

No, not a lot of people will believe it if you say that Myoui Mina, batch delinquent and all-around truant, has a crush on you. Which is funny, since Mina does her best to hide that fact.

Not that she’s any good at hiding it.

“…I was…trying to get you some coffee.”

Mina admits, with a hand scratching behind her head sheepishly and her eyes pointedly looking anywhere but you, and your heart soars.

“And why would you do that?”

You tease, because you love to tease. The way Mina’s cheeks bloom red and her stutter comes up and her arms cross and fingers fidget.

It’s all so noisy.

And the way it disrupts the evening still, the studious calm, the college silence, is a blessing that you give your thanks for, everyday Mina is with you.

“…urgh, you’re impossible.”

Mina turns to leave, her cheeks about to burn if they turn any redder.

You laugh, and grasp her wrist, mirroring her earlier actions.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you. You just make it so easy.”

Mina grumbles, as she is wont to do, and she scratches the back of her head again.

“Did you finish your work?”

You did, and nod to affirm that fact.

This was probably one of the hardest semesters you’ve ever had, and to have finally finished the last requirement fills you with a certain bliss you can’t even begin to describe.

“…I’m proud of you.”

And there it is. As she speaks, you see it bloom.

That cacophonous, reverberating, turbulent smile.

The smile that rings through your ears, disrupting any semblance of silence that maintains you throughout your days in school. It rings and echoes, yells and hollers, sings and screams, until you cannot hear anything else.

And you love it.

“…thanks, Minari.”

Then, her cheeks color pink like the rosiest sunset of the year, and you are smitten.

“I mean, it’s you, of all people. ‘Course you were gonna finish the sem.”

Even though she turns her face away, as she does when she speaks of anything positive, you take in her affirmations like water to a thirsty soul.

Mina, of all people, knows how much you’ve struggled. How you’ve toiled and troubled over every single paper, quiz, and grade. How often you stumbled in seeing your self-worth. How you clawed your way to excellence.

She was there for it all, after all.

At your side when you studied to body double. Offering you snacks and drinks to keep you hydrated and full. Reminding you to take breaks.

Every time you felt the silence would overtake you, Mina was there, in all her thunderous presence, there to shake you back into reality.

And you couldn’t be more thankful.

“If you say any more about me, Miss Myoui, I might think you have a crush on me.”

She scowls, and even her scowls are resplendent and vibrant.

“…is that a bad thing?”

But then, you hear it.

The hesitation. The embarrassment. The shame.

A moment of silence threatening to overcome her noise.

And quickly, you reassure her.

Your hand slips into hers.

“No.”

No, her noise is welcome.

In a universe where the great void of space is nothing but silence immaculate, with nothing to disturb it, Mina’s noise, above all things, is what you cherish.

“I think it’s nice.”

The hesitation goes. And the embarrassment. And the shame.

And suddenly, your Mina is back again, turning her face to the ground, eyes locked on your hand in hers, lips trying to stifle the smile that comes to her lips.

“…okay.”

Yes, this is okay.

“You wanna grab a bite to eat?”

Mina looks up. She looks at you.

Her eyes soften. Her lips curl. Her cheeks bloom.

And your world explodes into sound.

“Yeah.”

Nights are quiet. They usually are, in the university. It’s something you’ve learned to live with.

“Y’know, you can enter the library. You don’t have to be a weirdo and creep around the entrance, waiting for me.”

“…that’d ruin my reputation.”

“Alright, weirdo.”

“I’m so done with you.”

But when Mina is there, you find that you prefer the noise a little more.

[ferronickel]

Hail, flatter! This one, who is a layperson of the arts and comixcraft, has a query for you:

So like, what is flatting?

I've seen your flats in Wifwulf, and I've read about the flats in Looking Glasses, and generally get that it results in an image with similarly coloured areas sharing the same false-colour.

But like, how is it then used? The final images seem to contain more colours and shading, so why not just go straight to this? Why do false colours get used instead of the real ones? How do you pick the colours and how many get used?

How come this is a thing that a whole other person can do separately? I guess that's because it's time consuming - so it saves time somehow?

Thank you! I come in the spirit of humility wishing to relieve my ignorance of your noble craft!

OHOHOHO!!! You've activated my trap card and now I get to ramble about comics craft! And in my area of professional expertise, too! Be prepared for a long post

I'm going to start with the last part of your question:

How come this is a thing that a whole other person can do separately? I guess that's because it's time consuming - so it saves time somehow?

So the thing about comics is that it is one of the most intensely time consuming mediums to create. One person can make comics on their own fairly easily, but it takes forever to produce. Consider that I've been working on Looking Glasses for 18-19 months and have drawn about 87 pages. Now, the western comics industry expects issues to be produced monthly, generally 24 pages in length. It's very difficult for a single person to work at this rate, so the labor of producing comics has been divided. Generally these jobs become:

Writer (writes the script)

Editor (edits the script)

Artist (draws the lineart)

Colorist (colors and renders the art)

Letterer (adds balloons, dialog, and sfx)

Flatter (sometimes 'color assistant' they take the art and prepare it for coloring)

This isn't comprehensive though, there are a bunch of other jobs, like designers and layout artists. Occasionally the artist job gets broken into Pencilers (who sketch the art) and Inkers (who ink the sketch). Basically, by splitting the work amongst a number of people you can produce comics much faster. Not all of these jobs are required, and creator-owed books might have artists do their own coloring and lettering, while big work-for-hire books might have twice as many people working so they can pump out a spider-man book every other week.

Okay, so why Flatters?

Flatting at it's most basic level is just coloring inside the lines. You take a black and white page of art, and you have to fill in every part of the page that will eventually be colored. It's a pretty time consuming task depending on how involved your lineart is.

Flatting a page of Looking Glasses doesn't take me all that long, usually less than a half hour, which is pretty quick. Looking Glasses pages tend to be... optimized for flatting though. There are only ever a few characters and there aren't a ton of background details.

You mentioned Wifwulf (created by my longtime friend and collaborator Dailen Ogden), here's one of it's pages:

Basically everything that's a different base color, (every tree, plant, bit of moss, character, etc.) needed to be picked out separately. Each page of Wifwulf took me a few hours to flat. If Dailen had been doing that themself, those hours would have really added up, but instead they could spend that time drawing and coloring. Now, that said, these pages have a lot of texture, so it's hard to see exactly what I did.

Here's an example from a comic I worked on early in my career. (Lineart by Patrick Custodio)

The writer for this comic loved to put in these incredibly complex crowd scenes, which is something the artist excelled at drawing. I was coloring and flatting at this point on the book, and before I could even start coloring properly, I would need to flat for like eight hours. (I have a much more efficient method these days) It was frustrating because I just wanted to work on the actually creative part, but the majority of my time was spent on something monotonous. As soon as I got the writer to hire a flatter for me, coloring a page would take me only one or two hours, not nine or ten.

So that's why flatters exist, mainly to ease the workload on colorists.

But like, how is it then used? The final images seem to contain more colours and shading, so why not just go straight to this?

Flatting serves a couple of purposes. It's main function, like I said above, is just coloring in the lines. After finishing your lineart it has to get colored in, so in a layer below the lines, you add colors.

The secondary function is preservation. I like to work in a way that is non-destructive, basically, at any point in the process I can restore an earlier version of the drawing if I make a mistake or don't like something. Flats are integral to this.

In digital art, there's this thing called anti-aliasing, where the edges of a line or shape have a drop off of pixel color or opacity. It makes the edges look smoother or blurrier. The three dots on the left are Anti-Aliased, while the one on the right is Aliased, there's no drop off, just hard pixels.

Anti-aliasing is fine until you need to change the color using the paint bucket, or select using the magic wand...

See how the anti-aliased art doesn't play well with these tools, but the aliased art does? So with something like Wifwulf, the final art is going to be full of texture that makes it impossible to select anything again once it's painted. By having a dedicated aliased flats layer under the rest of the artwork, you can always re-select any part of the image you want.

I always leave my flats layer alone, and do any detail work in layers above. For example when I was painting this, it really helped to be able to select just the titan so I could work on those paints without worrying about brushstrokes overlapping the rest of the characters.

One of the other things you can do with flats is quickly selecting certain elements. On most pages, I flat my panels, figures, and background elements separately. Later, with a single button press, I can select just the characters in the scene, or entire panels at a time, which makes things like shading a whole lot easier.

Why do false colours get used instead of the real ones?

If you're flatting for other people you often don't know what the final colors are going to be, so you just pick random ones. Garish colors can be helpful because it makes it obvious that they're not the final colors. Why don't I use the correct colors on my own pages when I'm flatting? Habit, mostly. It's also faster to grab random colors than to track down the correct ones. Sometimes two different things will have the same final color but I like to flat them with different colors so I can select them individually if I need to.

You can see the process a bit here. In my flats, Lancer's spade (eye? eyes? thing) is a different color from his tongue, even if they end up being the same white in the final image. This would help if I ever needed to select just his eyes for some reason. You can also see how I select his body fur color and then add details on top, like his colored fingers and the grey on his arm. Those elements have blurry anti-aliased edges, and it would be impossible to re-select them without flats.

How do you pick the colours and how many get used?

I use the default "additional color set" palette in clip studio and just work my way through it. I pick row and work my way down (for a change of pace I vary which row I start with). How many is mostly dependent on the artwork. You just keep going until you run out of individual objects to color. I have worked on pages where I've run out of colors on this palette and had to start making up more. Typically a page of Looking Glasses only needs around 20-30, though.

So! That's flatting! It's a little known job, and it's how I got started with my comics career, so I have a lot of thoughts on it. I was trying to be concise (lol), so I hope this all makes sense, but I'd be happy to clarify or answer any other questions about this process. I know I didn't really go into how I flat my work, so I can make that post if anyone is interested.

[parkminijiminie]

What is going on with Jimin, Jungkook and Jikook?

Warning: long post

I've been a BTS fan since early 2017. Back in the day, I ran this blog here, analyzing a lot of Jikook moments, but life sort of took over, and I stopped having the time for it. However, I never stopped being a fan and observing BTS and Jikook through the years. There's a lot said and written already about the supposed video of JK, but here are my two cents.

To me, the most logical explanation for that video is that this really is Jungkook. The layout of the apartment matches (yes, even the position of the security system, if you have ever watched JKs lives, you'd know that it actually is at his shoulder height, just like in the video), the dog looks like Bam, the couch is the same and this definitely looks like JK. There's also another video of the man in this apartment, alone, shirtless, and having a whole tattoo sleeve on his right arm just like JK. Obviously, we don't know for sure, but it looks like it's him. People say it was filmed in late Feb, early March, and I agree. JK had the same hair then, the outfits look warm, like winter clothes and not to forget, that when JK was stalked in his gym (late of February) there were a lot of fuss about a girl being there with him, so it all checks out in my book.

Now, what the video shows isn't that scandalous. A boy hugging a girl from behind and them playfighting/tickling each other or whatever. It isn't overly explicit. It could mean a lot of things, but it's clear the people are at the very least physically comfortable with each other. It's a short video. We don't know if they're even alone, but it looks like it. There are a number of possibilities for whom this person is to JK: a long-time girlfriend, a casual hook-up, a one night stand, or just a friend.

We'll probably never know for sure. What we do know is that this is an unacceptable invasion of privacy, and the person who took those videos should be sued for all they are worth. I hope we all agree on that, yes?

Now, if this girl is someone JK is dating/has dated/has slept with, where does that leave his and JM's relationship?

In my eyes, as someone who's observed them for literal years now, there's no way JM and JK have always had a strictly platonic relationship. Too much just doesn't add up. Sure, technically, they could be bestest friends with great chemistry, but as someone who is now 30 years old, I don't think I've seen this type of chemistry between people ever be just platonic. At times, it looked too much like sexual tension for it to easily be dubbed as "friendly".

My theory is this (keep in mind these are still just assumptions):

In 2017-2020, pre-Covid era, JM and JK spent A LOT of time together, basically all of it. BTS were super active, they didn't have any breaks. They were always working. Always on tour and doing smth else. JM and JK were pretty young back then (20-24) and this is typically the time when someone discovers their sexuality and starts experimenting, and I believe that at some point they did this together. They were best friends but also had this weird tension and air around them and I think they could've started a physical relationship back then. The members teasing them hear and there about being a couple, also kind of supports this, though of course, it doesn't prove anything.

Contrary to other people, I don't belive they only just fucked. It's very hard to have sex with someone who you are very close to otherwise, who you love and admire as a person, and not catch romantic feelings for them, so I think they did more than fucking. Whether they had a serious relationship or decided not to label it much, due to MS coming up, the group being in jeopardy or other reasons, I tend to think that other than sex, they also had feelings.

Side note: In any case, they were figuring thinks out about themselves as individuals, as well as a pair. I think maybe this is the time JM realized he is definitely bisexual (which he proudly expressed in his photobook of last year in my opinion). Idk what Jk figured out for himself, if anything.

Anyhow, by 2020‐2021 it seemed they had some sort of agreement about what/who they were to each other. At times they could have been on and off. There might have been other people/partners in-between, but I think they were mainly together by this point. It even looked like they lived together for some time. The fact they always took the same car and they were together on JKs birthday night when they first had number 1 on hot 100 sort of proves it. JM's birthday live in 2021 was also sus af (the way he was blushing while mentioning JK and their whole convos, very sus).

I think before Covid they had smth somewhat stable but then Covid hit. Their schedules changed, it was a tough period overall. Suddenly, they were not working and traveling so much, they were staying in SK. I think this was the time things started getting much more real and different. MS was also in the near horizon. Maybe one of them wanted a more committed relationship, and the other wasn't ready. Maybe they were both afraid. Maybe they tried and it didn't really work out. Maybe one finally realized his sexuality and the other had doubs. Whatever it was, the feelings of affection were still there. Chemistry as well. Proof: JM bday live in 2021 was just crazy, the way he blushed when JK was mentioned and the way the spoke to each other... man. Also, the way the were at PTD L.A. The way JK answered questions about JM etc.

So , all that connected them as people was still there, but I think their relationship come late 2021-early 2022 was definitely more unstable. Who knows what happened then. Personally, I don't believe in the theory that they opened their relationship, rather I believe by the second half of 2022, due to whatever reasons, things were simple mostly off between them. I believe they stayed this way all through the second half of the year and at least the first 4 months of 2023. They were friends, their families still loved and supported each other (JK's mom made seaweed soup for JM's bday, which one does for family) but that's about it. They weren't living together anymore, as well.

The beginning of 2023 we saw a very busy JM and a very not busy JK. Sure, they still commented on their welives but it seemed they didn't meet each other that often. Jm was working, JK was at home and occasionally with Tae. Yeah, JK watched a lot of JM content and often invited him over, but he also didn't know when his promotions will be over and it seemed they haven't seen each other for some time and JK was missing JM. I think if they truly were a serious couple back then, they would still have found the time to meet each other no matter how busy one or the other was, especially considering they live in the same city, and it wasnt the case. I don't think JK would have to resort to watching hours of JM's content just to satisfy his need-for-JM thirst, if they were a couple back then.

So, yeah, I think they were not more than friends by this point, for sure, which also ties up pretty well with the timing of the recent leaked video (February-March). To me it seems that JK and JM probably saw other people in that period, at least JK, JM was pretty damn busy then. Maybe they had some serious partners even, maybe just hook-ups here and there. Maybe this was JK's time to explore more of his heterosexual side, who knows. I don't think he stopped caring for JM in some capacity. In fact it kind of looked like he longed for his company but for one reason or another, they were simply not that much in each other's lives in the first quarter of 2023.

But then something weird happened around June-July. First JM is all scratched up from something (presumably Bam) indicating he saw JK and spent time with him. Then Seven came out and JM flew to NY. There they spend a long, fun weekend amid promotions. It wasn't a secret but they seemed to want to keep private and didn't really want to talk about it , judging by the way JK answered the question about JM being in NY as well. JM was practically silent. Then they returned and that welive happened. The one where they openly flirted, JM said he could handle JK naked, JK blushed like a school girl and tried everything in his power to get to JM but JM said "I'm not that easy". That welive. Idk about you, but that welive didn't seem platonic to me at all and if I had been JK's partner at the time, I would definitely be very angry with his behaviour. I don't think JK is disrespectful and a cheater, and neither is JM for that matter, so I believe there's no way any of them had a partner when that welive happened. I simply refuse to belive they are that type of people.

So, my conclusion is they were both single then and something definitely happend in July and NY. They returned somewhat different and they still kind of are. Jk posted pics of NY to Twitter for the first time. Jm shared a pic from then for JKs bday (shirtless, as we all know) and then recently another pic from a boat that could have been from back then, as well. The whole way they're acting offline and online strangely reminds me a lot of the time after their trip to Tokyo, actually. The way JM has been posting about JK very much give me nostalgia about the way he used to post Jikook often in 2017-2018 before he withdrew from social media. But maybe that's just me 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, to finish this long post I will say this. I don't know what Jikook were and are to each other and unless, it is explicitly denied the person in the video is JK, I will believe that it's him. But also, unless it is confirmed he currently has a girlfriend, I will have my doubts. The video is old and in any case, it doesn't prove much other than the fact JK is maybe into women (solely or also into them). This video though doesn't automatically negate everything I've seen between Jikook through the years. In some ways, it confirms what I've been thinking for a long time now. Unless JM and JK personally shut down any rumors about them and deny any romantic connection or confirm a relationship with someone else , I still believe that at some point in their lived their relationship crossed the platonic line.

Whether that was in the past or is currently true, I only can guess, but to me there's no way these two were always, all these years, just only friends.

For now, I will observe how JK, JM and Hybe are acting after the leaked videos and go from there. It will also be indicative.

Peace.

[my-rewrite-academia]

Week 24 (Final Exams - Part 2):

Start!

Monday comes around. Tenya and Momo give Nedzu a list of their finalised teams. He is already aware, of course, as he kept an eye on them through the cameras.

After the written exams, they have half-an-hour to relax, before Aizawa finally explains the exams in depth, everyone now dressed in their costumes.

The goal, as explained before, is to capture the enemy team leader for five minutes using a special capture tape provided to everyone. For those five minutes, the leaders can escape. If they escape, that time held captive will be reset to zero. Other team members can be taken out by capturing them for two minutes. Once those two minutes are up, the capture tape will glow red, and the captive will have to stay still for the rest of the exam.

They will be fighting in City D, where there are many civilian bots provided by Power Loader. They are small and if they are damaged, they will set off an alarm and their eyes will glow red. Damaging a civilian bot will dock points from the individual student. 

Speaking of docking points, students will be marked based on their performance. He doesn't explain the specifics of the marking, but does let them know that the better they act, the higher their points. Within the exams, they are only to refer to each other by hero names. Using real names will mark them down a point.

The exam is two hours long, but it doesn't have to last two hours long, nor do they have to fight for the entirety of it, (that would just be asking for the impossible). It will end earlier as soon as the team leader is marked 'out'. Again, if neither are taken out, both teams will lose, not win, meaning nobody goes on the trip.

The students are handed two rolls of capture tape each. "Good luck," Aizawa says once more.

Each group is taken to a starting point. As Aizawa said, the fake city is full of civilian bots, each small with a friendly smile on their faces. None of them want to see what it looks like if damaged. They start on opposite ends of the fake city, and the exam will start when Mic, in a booth, announces it.

They go over their plans first, modifying it to fit in with the city layout, the map provided in their starting point, both highlighting the team bases. Momo creates earpieces for her teammates, who wear them gratefully.

Both teams have decided to make protecting their leader their number one priority but in different ways. They have five minutes to refamiliarise themselves with the plan and modify it accordingly. At the end of the five minutes, it starts.

"STAAAAARRRRRT!"

Revelry in the Dark

As soon as it starts, all of Team A leave the base. Momo is guarded by both Izuku and Kyouka, heading north towards Team B's base. Yuuga and Tooru split off together to the west. Tsuyu and Minoru partner up, heading east. Mezou, Kouji, and Hanta head northwest together.

Meanwhile, everyone in Team B splits up, with only Shouto guarding Tenya. Mashirao and Rikidou go in the same direction, while everyone else travels alone to different locations. Ochako and Denki head off to the base, undeterred. 

Fumikage heads straight to the west, using what he learned from Hawks to aid him, having Dark Shadow wrap around him and fly up ahead until he spots two students – Yuuga and Tooru. After spotting them, he assesses where the civilian bots are, before dive-bombing onto their location.

The dive-bombing, of course, creates some noise, and Tooru and Yuuga are able to see him coming and react accordingly. Tooru pushes herself out of the way, moving the light around her costume to turn it invisible. Yuuga uses his navel laser to propel himself out of the way, accidentally taking a civilian bot with him, the blue smile turning into a red frown, blaring some noise. He winces. 

Fumikage uses Dark Shadow to soften his landing, and he stands from the small crater his divebomb creates. "Greetings, Kousen. Spotlight." He stances up, ready for battle. "Let us observe who shall win. Light? Or dark?" 

"That's quite cheesy, mon ami," Yuuga stutters, civilian bots evacuating at the battle soon to happen. "We're not after you, you see! Perhaps we should leave the fighting for now."

"I shall respectfully decline." With that, Fumikage sends Dark Shadow to attack Yuuga, who dodges in a panic, sweat coating his face. Tooru, unseen, charges at Fumikage, reeling back a fist to punch him, only for her fist to meet the might of Dark Shadow.

"Sorry, lady!" Dark Shadow cheers. "But the bird mutation ain't just for show! You can look invisible, but you should learn about this thing called magnetoreception! Disturbing the magnetic fields is just as loud as yelling." 

Tooru backs up, and she smiles. How exciting! An opponent who can figure out where she is! It's good practice, she reckons. With that, she charges back in, forgetting about relying on her invisibility, dodging and weaving between Dark Shadow's attacks. He's hardly affected when she tries to burn him or freeze him, and she gets knocked back time and time again, barely landing any hits against him. But it's so exciting!

Yuuga is a coward. He knows this. The reason he chose Momo's group wasn't because he thought he'd work well with Tooru, or because he wanted to prove himself. It's because he wanted to lose. Team B's group is full of powerhouses with strong quirks, like Shouto, Bakugou, Ochako, Denki, Mina. He knew he'd stand no chance against them, and that's why he chose Momo's group. There's a reason he wanted to lose.

Except, as he watches Tooru fight against Fumikage, (although, 'watch' is hardly the word to use when she's invisible), he feels a deep sense of shame within himself. Here his teammate is, fighting against someone like Fumikage, who is so strong, not a single scratch or bruise on him. Tooru is fighting him, getting hit at every turn, and she gets back up. Charges in again. She fights.

His hands shake, tears already building in his eyes. (He's always been a crybaby.) He shouldn't want to win. He should be doing everything to make sure his team loses. To make sure half of the class doesn't get to go on that trip.

But, as he watches Tooru, he knows he can't. Yuuga may be a sad excuse of a hero, but he refused to be a worse friend. So, he stands up, hands behind his head, and he fires a beam of light straight at Fumikage.

He dodges. Of course, he dodges. Because Yuuga can't do a single thing right.

But then– "Good job, Spotlight!" As Fumikage focused on dodging Yuuga's laser, Tooru dived in further, finally managing to land a hit on Fumikage's jaw. His head flies back, and Dark Shadow retaliates by smashing into Tooru, sending her flying back, right to where Yuuga stands. "Look at that! We managed to land a hit on him!"

"… No. You did. I missed."

Tooru's voice is as peppy as ever, "I only hit him 'cause you fired." She pats him on the back, strong. "Now, let's do that again! Until we get a chance to capture him!"

"Unfortunately for you," Fumikage says, "you won't get a chance." He attacks once more, and Tooru dives in, Yuuga yelping and trying to hide. But Tooru's words replay in his head. He did something. It was pathetic, and yet it somehow helped. 

… He shouldn't. He wanted to lose. He shouldn't be trying to win… But he can't leave her hanging. Not like this.

So, he readies himself, and fires again, unsure of where Tooru is, but trusting her to dodge. She does, and she lands another hit. The more Yuuga fires, Tooru notices that Dark Shadow begins to shrink as the lasers pass by. A lightbulb switches on in her head.

"Hey, Spotlight! Do you remember what Kyou said? About how we could work together?" Yuuga thinks. And he remembers. Tooru grins, unseen. "Wanna try it out?"

"My fair lady, you are quite daring!" Yuuga turns his navel, stomach churning dangerously, but adrenaline high. "Whenever you are ready!"

Tooru backs off from Fumikage. He charges in, unnerved by this sudden turn, but he's too late. Yuuga fires a laser, as strong as he can. Tooru steps into it, absorbing all of that radiation and light. Fumikage, stunned, freezes. Yuuga just hit his teammate. On purpose.

Then Tooru begins to glow. "Hey, Tsukuyomi-san, dweller of the dark." She steps forward, Dark Shadow retreating with it. "You wanted to see how light combats the darkness? Here you go!" Light blooms from her body, bright and all encompassing. Dark Shadow screeches at the overwhelming amount of light, Fumikage panicking at the sight.

Yuuga shields his eyes, pale and sweaty. When he opens his eyes, Dark Shadow is little more than a heap on the ground, Fumikage curled up and palming at the ground, blinded momentarily.

"Spotlight! The tape!"

"R-Right!" Yuuga rushes forth, tape at the ready, and he ties Fumikage up, taking a step back a moment later. Tooru, as soon as the tape is around him, jumps on top of him, recalling how Izuku kept her pinned down in the Sports Festival, and recreating it with Fumikage as her victim. 

"G-Get off of me!"

"No way," she sings, gleeful. "With that super strong quirk, I bet you've barely worked out. I'm gonna lay on top of you for two minutes! And I know you're not overpowering me!" She turns her head, activating her suit one more. "Spotlight! Be a darling and fire super short bursts around Tsukuyomi here. That way Dark Shadow can't even grow, can he?"

Fumikage doesn't answer. He doesn't have to. Two minutes pass. The tape glows red. Tsukuyomi is out.

-

Rangers – Attack!

As Yuuga and Tooru encounter Fumikage, Tsuyu and Minoru are quickly confronted by Team B's only duo: Mashirao and Rikidou. Tsuyu is on the rooftops as it happens, Minoru following on the pavement. Mashirao and Rikidou are the first to notice Minoru, but neither notice Tsuyu, who spots them. 

Mashirao makes the first move, chasing Minoru into a vacated building, where there are no civilian bots to harm. Rikidou follows after. Minoru is deceptively fast, screaming as he runs away, but he's just as quickly cornered in the third story, in a room full of pillars and wooden boxes. 

"Uh, hey," Minoru greets, nervous. "So, how's your day going?"

Mashirao doesn't grace that with a response, lunging at Minoru with a tail to his face, only for Minoru to duck, making him miss entirely thanks to his lack of height. He guns for the door, only for Rikidou, powered up with a stick of sugar, to block his way via breaking a pillar and covering the door in rubble. Minoru screams once more, believing now that Tsuyu cannot come to his rescue.

"Fight's on, Purple Rain," Mashirao declares, before both him and Rikidou charge at him. Minoru manages to escape, running around the room. Rikidou chases after him, Mashirao cutting him off at several points. The fight reigns on, Minoru getting struck every so often, while Mashirao and Rikidou are merely sweating with how much they have to run after him.

Eventually, however, Mashirao does manage to strike Minoru in the gut with his tail, sending him flying against the wall. Rikidou picks him up, grinning all the while. Minoru struggles in his grasp, tears in his eyes, but he can't fight as Rikidou begins to tape up his body. 

"Wait!" Minoru cries. "Please! Not like this!"

"I could make it worse," Rikidou says, dropping Minoru on the ground. "Just accept your loss."

Mashirao nods. "He has to stay like this for two minutes, right?"

"Yeah."

"Too bad." A tongue shoots past them, wrapping around Minoru and dragging him away. Mashirao and Rikidou turn around. Tsuyu stands on the windowsill, ripping the tape off Minoru's body. "Sorry I'm late, kero. I didn't know which floor you were on."

Minoru sobs. "I-It's okay, Froppy! Just get here faster next time!"

Tsuyu nods. "Sure." 

Rikidou lunges at her, attempting to punch her, but she drops inside the building, ducking past Rikidou and wrapping her tongue around him, before throwing him into a pillar. Mashirao jumps in next, tail swinging. She ducks, moving back towards the wall. This time, Minoru attacks, throwing a ball with accuracy, pinning it to Mashirao's tail. Tsuyu ducks once more, and Mashirao pales as his tail latches on the wall behind her. Stuck. 

Minoru freaks out, internally. He couldn't do this before – dodging and attacking with two people on him was impossible. But with Tsuyu here, victory is in sight!

Rikidou jumps back into the fight, powered up with three sugar packets… and his IQ takes a hit, attacking mindlessly. Tsuyu has more trouble dodging, as does Minoru, getting hit a good few times, but with Rikidou in this state, he's become oblivious to anything other than his targets. Mashirao struggles against the wall, cursing how sticky Minoru's ball is. As he does, he notices Minoru throwing more balls onto the floor around Tsuyu, who stands still

Mashirao figures it out quickly. "Fornax! Wait!"

But it's all for naught. Rikidou is too mindless to listen, and he charges at Tsuyu. When he does, his foot lands on top of Minoru's trap. He rips his shoes off, but it's too late, as Minoru slaps a ball on his back and Tsuyu delivers a kick to his stomach, sending him on the ground, stuck. And in an uncomfortable position, with one foot stuck too. 

Tsuyu wraps Rikidou in capture tape, Minoru sticking his hands to the ground. They turn to Mashirao next. He pales. 

Two minutes pass. Rikidou and Mashirao are out.

-

Rivals Riot

Back to Yuuga and Tooru!

Tooru speaks into her earpiece, declaring that Tsukuyomi is down. A moment later, Tsuyu declares that Fornax and Tailwhip are out. As soon as that's announced, Tooru and Yuuga celebrate, Fumikage watching them blandly on the ground. 

"Ah! I didn't expect to win," Yuuga claims, holding his stomach.

"Don't speak like that!" Tooru yells, slapping his back for emphasis. "If you only expect failure, then that's all you'll get!" Yuuga chuckles nervously, still sick. He's sure that if he tried to use his quirk again, he'd throw up immediately.

"Well said, Kousen!" As if to spite him, Mina steps in, beaming. "Now, I believe we have a rematch we never missed?"

Tooru smiles back. "That we do! Spotlight? Let me handle her. You go get some rest, okay?"

Yuuga steps back. "I-If you're sure."

"I am." Tooru cracks her knuckles. "I have a score to settle, after all."

Yuuga steps away. As soon as he does, Tooru charges in, suit turning invisible. It matters not, as Mina spreads her acid all around. Tooru yells in pain as the acid strikes her, burning through her clothes and searing her arms.

Mina grins. "I did some research, Kousen. Acid isn't radiation! I can burn you!"

Tooru breathes in deeply, tears stinging her eyes from the burns on her body. Crap. Her bluff is completely gone now, especially since she instinctively screamed. "Then," she says, voice wavering, "I guess we can both go all out." As soon as she says that, the atmosphere begins to drop. Yuuga shivers, Dark Shadow coming out to provide warmth to Fumikage. A puff of condensation leaves Mina's mouth. "I did my research too… There's a reason I've been training my temperature control. Did you know that liquid travels slower when it's cold?"

Mina readies herself, cold but eager nonetheless. "Good! I'd hate for my rival to fall behind."

The battle begins. Tooru manages to dodge much of Mina's acid, and she grits her teeth as she slams her fist into Mina's acid-coated skin. Mina retaliates with well-placed strikes, finding her acid solid when it strikes the ground, making her unable to slide across the floor.

Their fight is gritty. With every hit Tooru lands, she takes damage. But Mina isn't nearly as sturdy as Tooru, who has built her body for years. All-in-all, it's a pretty even fight, but Tooru has far more constitution, even if their stamina is on par with Mina's years of dance. 

Tooru manages to hit Mina hard enough to make her dizzy, and quickly wraps the capture tape around her.

Then Mina dissolves it. She smiles, hand on her head as she tries to regain her bearing. "Sorry, hunny," she says through chattering teeth. "But I don't think I can be captured." 

Tooru only grins back. "Then, I'll just have to knock you out!" Mina blanks. Tooru kicks her in the gut, then punches the back of her head, sending her face-first into the floor. She's out-cold. Unconscious. Tooru whoops in victory, and quickly ties her every orifice up, hoping to every God out there that she doesn't wake up before two minutes.

As she lets the temperature return, she quietly cries, as a third person arrives, landing harshly on the ground from the rooftop. 

"Yo!" She turns, shaking. Before her stands Eijirou, a wide grin on his face, legs hardened before it returns to its normal muscles. "Be a pal and give my teammate back, won't you?"

Tooru stands, her burns aching and body tired. Three back-to-back fights. Damn. "Hey, Spotlight? Gimme a hand, won't you?"

Yuuga walks to her side. "I'm not sure if even ten hands will help us."

They wouldn't. With Yuuga still half-sick from overusing his quirk against Fumikage and Tooru exhausted beyond belief, they know that they're not emerging from this as the winners. Still.

"But, as you said my fair lady, if we expect failure, then we'll only get failure."

Tooru laughs. "That we will!" 

In fairness, they last longer than they expect. Eijirou can't fight lasers, nor can he dodge what he can't see, but he can react to it. Two minutes go by and Mina's tape goes off. Two minutes go by, and Tooru and Yuuga lie in a heap, tape wrapped around them. Knocked-out. 

Eijirou emerges as the victor. Acid Trip, Kousen, and Spotlight are now out.

-

Electric Punk

Denki and Ochako travel south, and they meet Momo, Kyouka, and Izuku halfway, who are travelling north. They collide, Ochako jumping Momo, who moves her cape to block Ochako's hand, and Denki follows after them.

Kyouka and Izuku react quickly enough, chasing after Momo, who creates a copper pole, directing Denki's electricity away from her. Izuku kicks Ochako away from Momo, while Kyouka sends a blast at Denki, who gets sent flying. Civilian bots are fleeing the premises, some glowing red and blasting their alarms after Momo was tackled into them.

"I'm going after Chargebolt!" Kyouka yells, then doesn't wait for an answer, running after Denki. He's landed far away from Momo, Izuku, and Ochako, already wielding his water gun. He shoots, and Kyouka steps out of its path, retaliating with her own projectile. Denki sends a wave of electricity towards her through the ground, and Kyouka blasts her speakers once more.

His jaw drops as the electricity fizzles out, some even recoiling towards him. Kyouka smirks, seeing his shock. "Did nobody tell you? Radio waves can affect electricity. Sorry, but I'm a great match against you."

His grin is limp. "Great match for me, too."

She rolls her eyes. "No chance in hell." With that, she sends another blast at Denki. He decides that playing long-range will only result in failure, and charges at her with a cry of war, metal baton in hand. She's ready for this – it's only logical that he would do this. Still, Kyouka breaks out into a sweat as she finds herself in close-quarters combat. Not her forte.

She manages to dodge a few strikes, sending small blasts in retaliation, but she can't dodge them all. With each strike, Denki runs a small charge of electricity through his baton, shocking Kyouka in tandem. She falls to her knees, when one strikes right into her shoulder, and manages to roll out of the way of the following strike. As she lands, she blasts again, this time small and targeted: right into Denki's wrist. His wrist flies back and, with another blast, the baton soars from his hand, lying in a heap.

He panics, running to get it, only for Kyouka to strike the back of his knees with a blast, making him fall to the ground. She charges at him, one lobe leaving her speaker, and wrapping around Denki's ankle. He instinctively sends a wave of electricity around his body, and Kyouka grits her teeth, blasting her own lobe with her soundwaves, cutting it off before it could travel any further. 

She leaves one speaker on, keeping a steady noise going as she pulls Denki towards him. He panics, clawing at the ground, grabbing his water gun, only for her to yank him forth and slap it out of his hands. She lowers the sound little by little, and his heartbeat follows with it, slowing down.

Before she blasts it, loud and piercing. Denki chokes, his head spinning, eyes rolling back. As much as he fights against it, he falls unconscious, with no idea what the hell just happened.

Kyouka grins, wrapping him up with tape, before limping away to get back to Izuku and Momo. Hopefully she didn't rupture his eardrums.

-

Contact

Back to Ochako, Momo, and Izuku: they're fighting. Momo is using a bo staff, keeping her distance away from Ochako, while Izuku attacks with his katana, stepping back whenever Ochako tries to grab him. All-in-all, it's the most ferocious game of keep-away to be known by mankind.

Ochako's physical abilities have been amped up by Miruko, and she is using every bit of knowledge to aid her. Two-on-One? Who cares!? She sure as hell doesn't. She's learned a lot from friends and Miruko, and she will prove her worth here and now. After all, she already promised to fight Momo again, and she really wants to beat Izuku at least once. This is her chance to kill two birds with one stone.

Izuku slashes at her, and she dodges, bringing her hand to slap his katana, only for Momo to jump in as Izuku draws his katana back, slamming her bo staff into Ochako's gut. Ochako grabs it as soon as it makes contact, and Momo lets it float away, simply creating a new one.

Really now, it's a good fight. Ochako does well against two opponents, none of them giving anyone a chance to breathe. She stands her ground, managing to graze her fingertips against Izuku's sleeve, and accelerating him backwards, far away. He manages to cut the top of his hakama off, leaving his black turtleneck to cover his chest. It takes a while, with carbon fibre woven into it, but he manages.

While Izuku struggles against his own clothes, Ochako and Momo continue their fight. Ochako reaches for Momo, who bats her wrist away, kicking her leg out to trip Ochako up, only for her to jump over it, lunging with her other hand. Momo drops to the ground, creating a pole from her bare stomach, which slams into Ochako. She chokes, landing on the ground, clutching her abdomen.

Momo gets up, rushing at her, one hand holding the capture tape, the other holding her staff. Ochako manages to get herself together before she can reach her, getting her feet under her and kicking off to Momo, tape at the ready. She manages to catch it around Momo's stomach, then taps herself, accelerating herself into the sky, fast, Momo hanging on by the tape. 

Momo yelps, realising that she has no choice but to hold onto the tape, or fall and get captured anyway. After all, she can't recover from a landing that fast, and Ochako could touch her while she recuperates. No, she could create a layer of sorbothane to soften the impact. But what if it's not enough–?

As she thinks, Ochako pulls her up by the tape, and taps her too. Now, even she can't event all and create sorbothane to absorb the impact. She swallows nervously, the ground further and further away. "Well played, Uravity."

Ochako smiles down at her. "Thanks, Izanami!" Now, all she has to do is keep Momo in the air for five minutes.

For a moment, Momo considers giving up. She knew she wasn't cut out for this - she's not like Ochako, so strong and unafraid to be herself and look good while doing it.

But.

But.

She already promised to live up to her teammates' expectations. They trust her. And she won't betray that trust.

Momo looks around the area, spotting Kyouka and Denki's ongoing match. An idea flutters into her head, watching as Denki shocks Kyouka with his baton. Though, right now, it's far more dangerous. Right now, she'll just have to trust Izuku. (Not that it's a hard thing to do.)

Meanwhile, Izuku cuts his hakama off, finally, and stops accelerating, his clothes flying past him. He runs back, spotting the shadow on the ground. He looks up to see Momo and Ochako in the air, Ochako slowly wrapping tape around Momo. That simply won't do. 

Good thing he added that hookshot.

He hasn't had much practice with it, only latching onto poles and buildings. He hasn't practiced this yet. But, well, no time like the present.

He activates his earpiece, aiming his hookshot up. "Izanami. Don't let Uravity hear me. Just make sure to catch." Momo doesn't answer, but in the sky, she's pretty damn confused. That is, until, a line of reinforced, metal rope flies by her. She doesn't think about it, and only grabs onto it. Ochako jumps in shock. Then Izuku brings the hookshot back down. Momo goes with it.

"Woah!" Ochako yelps, moving back down as Momo severs through the tape via creating blades from her body, only to drop them on the floor. She chuckles. "Guess that plan's gone sky-high." Pun absolutely intended.

"Guess so," Momo agrees. Her hand glistens, and she creates yet another long staff. This time, there's a taser attached to the end. Ochako gulps. "Thank you for giving me a perfect view of Chargebolt and Amplify's match. It inspired me." 

Faced against two people, Ochako was doing incredibly well. Faced with two people, one with a taser? She's a goner.

Kyouka arrives back at the scene, and Ochako is wrapped up tightly in capture tape, her fingertips covered in plasters. Kyouka grins. "Yeah. I beat his ass too."

Chargebolt and Uravity are out!

-

Explosive Temper

Back with Tsuyu and Minoru, they're back on the move, Tsuyu on the rooftops and Minoru on the ground, rushing towards the east, as they decided earlier. Minoru is weary, tired from getting beat up and from using his quirk so much. Tsuyu is far less affected, only sweaty, as she was only hit a few times. Sure, her ribs are aching, but it's nothing bad.

As they travel forth, an explosion sounds, and they both stop, turning around. As they do, Bakugou lands in front of Tsuyu, grinning widely. She realises arbitrarily that it's the first time she's seen him in costume since the second day of school. His gauntlets are now gone, (confiscated after the support team realised how hazardous it was), replaced with a thick armband to propagate sweat.

"Hey," Bakugou greets, then raises his arm. She has that moment to react, before he fires an explosion her way. She dives off the building, into the populated street. Minoru shrieks as he figures out who has come after them, and Bakugou drops to the ground, loud and abrasive. He blasts at the ground to soften his landing, damaging some of the civilian bots, who all run away in fear. 

He strikes once more, bringing up rubble as he does. Tsuyu and Minoru are forced to dodge, unable to get close at all. Minoru throws a ball at him, but Bakugou has been stuck watching them for weeks. He knows now to touch it, and instead blasts at it, sending it back. Panicking, Minoru throws more, which Bakugou weaves through, before blasting one at the side, sending it flying at Tsuyu. 

She doesn't expect it at all, and thus gets struck in the chest by it. Bakugou follows up by charging at her, getting behind her and sending a small blast at her back. It sears her costume, only slightly stinging her skin, and sends her to the ground, her shoulder stuck to the ground. 

Minoru screams, panicking even more, and Bakugou gets to him with speed, blasting him away. He goes back to Tsuyu and wraps her leg with capture tape. Minoru picks himself up and screams into his earpiece, "Backup! I need Backup! Bakugou's here!" Bakugou slaps his hand away from his earpiece, cracks his knuckles, and blasts by his ear, disorientating him and giving him enough time to wrap him up too. 

With that done, he shoves Minoru next to Tooru and sits. Back-up, Minoru requested. Sure, Bakugou grins, he'll beat up the back-up too.

Minutes go by, five, ten, fifteen, before the back-up arrives. Mezou and Kouji. 

"What?" Bakugou questions, standing up. "Only two of you?"

Mezou grunts. "There were three of us, but Cellophane went on ahead to take down your leader."

Bakugou guffaws. "Good fucking luck! We got Shouto on guard duty. That Cellophane bastard won't last a minute!"

"Then," Mezou stances up, "we'll beat you and back him up."

Bakugou cracks his neck. "Tough words. See if you can back it up."

Mezou lunges first, fast. But Bakugou has been watching for weeks. He knows how fast Mezou is, despite his bigger form. Kouji yells loudly and birds respond to him, diving down at Bakugou to peck at him. He explodes, scaring them away and burning the feathers of a few. In the same instance, he blasts out of Mezou's path, using another blast to send him up and over Mezou, reaching out to blast his back.

Kouji yells once more, summoning rats too this time. Birds and rats attack Bakugou, pecking and biting, messing up his vision and crawling all over him.

"ARGH!" he yells, setting explosions off all around him. "You're pissing me off!" He charges at Kouji, who tries to run away. Mezou, back stinging, rushes back in, managing to strike Bakugou in the jaw and get him away from Kouji. Bakugou growls, swinging back at Mezou, who dodges, grabbing onto Bakugou's arm and pulling him forth while bringing his knee up, right into Bakugou's stomach. He chokes, falling to the ground.

Spotting his chance, Kouji calls out once more. But, as soon as his voice leaves, Bakugou raises both hands, creating a super explosion, drowning out his voice. With the blast radius, Mezou goes flying back, as does Kouji. Kouji, a bit further away from the explosion, is conscious, but Mezou is out-cold. Bakugou turns to Kouji, who shrivels from his attention, and wraps him in capture tape. Kouji can only watch as Bakugou does the same to Mezou. 

"Damn," says Bakugou, scowling all the while. "You fuckers… fought. Well. I guess."

Then he takes off, back to their base, leaving Kouji as the only one to have heard a compliment from him. The mute kid. He sure knows who to speak to, huh?

-

Hot n' Cold

Hanta, as foretold by Mezou and Kouji, arrives at the base. Really, he's not sure if he got here too early for the plan or not, but he's here now. The plan was to head all the way to their designated directions, then head to the enemy base, taking out anyone they meet along the way.

As it stands, Hanta is apparently the only one who has gotten here in time. Tooru and Yuuga aren't here, Tsuyu and Minoru needed back-up with Bakugou, Mezou and Kouji went to back them up, and Izuku, Kyouka, and Momo are away. 

To be fair, he and Tsuyu are the only ones who can travel fast in a dense city, with their respective quirks. Still, that doesn't change how much he wants to cry.

Why? Well, it's simple.

There's only one guard with Tenya. The guard in question? Shouto. He stands outside of the entrance, not moving an inch. Momo and Izuku suspected that Shouto would stay guard, as he's skilled in both defence and offence, but it didn't make him any easier to face. Theoretically, he could sneak past him, but highly doubts that the son of Endeavour wouldn't pick up on him.

(Dammit, he's screwed. He should have written his will already.)

"I know you're there." AH! He knew it! "Come out."

… There's no use playing dumb. Hanta takes a deep breath, before leaving the corner he hid behind. "Hey, Shouto. Any chance you could let me pass?" 

Shouto blinks. "No." Hanta blinks, and he's covered in ice. Dammit. His teeth chatter, and his limbs would shiver if they had room to. Not even leaving his place, Shouto holds out his tape, and sends out a small bit of ice, taking the tape with it. It slaps on Hanta's face. Guess that also counts as 'captured', huh? It must, because the tape glows red two minutes later. Shouto melts the ice, leaving Hanta on the floor.

"Man," a familiar voice enters. Eijirou walks to Shouto's side, eyes on the water on the floor. "You went overboard."

"I did not," Shouto rebukes. "If I let his elbows out, I would have been in trouble." While that is an awfully high compliment, Hanta distinctly recalls how one-sided it was. Eijirou only laughs, patting Shouto on the shoulder. Shouto frowns. "I wasn't joking."

"Didn't think you were," Eijirou assures.

Hanta has the urge to sob as he hears explosions in the distance and– yep. Bakugou drops by Shouto and Eijirou. Dammit, that means Mezou, Kouji, Tsuyu, and Minoru are out. 

"Welcome home," Shouto deadpans. 

Bakugou sniffs. "This ain't home." He looks down at Hanta, and snorts. "Man, I didn't think you were actually stupid enough to come alone." Hanta wants to yell at him, but he quickly remembers that he's not allowed to move after being captured. "Shit, is this everyone?"

Eijirou nods. "Guess so. I took down, er, Kousen and Spotlight. They got to Tsukuyomi and Acid Trip."

Bakugou rolls his neck. "I got fucking, uh, Froppy, Purple Rain, Tentacole, and Anivoice."

Shouto looks at Hanta. "Only Cellophane has come here. That means Kyou and Amplify are left with Izanami. Unless Chargebolt and Uravity got to them first. If they did, I doubt we'd still be here."

"Ding-ding. Full marks." Hanta doesn't even need to look to see. That's Kyouka's dry wit, after all. "They've been captured now."

Bakugou grins, slamming an open palm against his fist. "So, three-v-one, huh? That's fine by me! I'll take you all on by myself."

"There's no need," Shouto states, before icing the door behind him shut, covering the entire front of the building, ignoring Tenya's yell of indignition. "I'll take Kyou."

"No, actually," Kyouka retorts, stepping up. "You'll be taking me." Shouto narrows his eyes at her, and she lashes out with her lobes, throwing Shouto aside to the right alley.

Kyouka charges after him. Shouto is already annoyed – he joined Tenya in order to fight Izuku, not her. He sends out a large iceberg, and Kyouka grins almost manically. She grunts as she stabs her lobes into the ice. A few pounds is all it takes, before the ice shatters. Shouto's eyes widened. Once again, he's found someone who can destroy his ice with ease.

Good thing he can use his fire now. At least, that's what he thinks. But then Kyouka plugs both lobes in, aiming directly at his hands, and fires. The sound waves crash into his hand, his flames flying back towards him. Kyouka smirks, "Sorry, but I've been training against fire since the USJ. Guess I'm just a good opponent for anyone with an elemental quirk."

Shouto levels his gaze on her. "That's fine," he says. "I hope you don't mind training with me in the future."

Kyouka huffs. "I'm honoured." The fight reigns on.

As much as Kyouka can combat Shouto's quirk, it's not invincible. She takes elemental damage. She gets burned. She gets slammed in the stomach by ice, frozen by it. Her ears ache with the cold. Shouto, now using both sides of his quirk, doesn't have to worry about being frostbitten or overheated. So, while Kyouka is able to put up a good fight, Shouto goes untouched for much of it.

That is, until he uses his fire once more and Kyouka's blast is even louder, even stronger than before. Shouto stumbles back, ears ringing. He's disorientated. Kyouka doesn't stop there, using one speaker to project her heartbeat as loud as she can go, the other piercing into the ground, sending it through the ground. The ground beneath Shouto trembles, but he can't tell if it truly is or if it's all in his head. 

Keeping it up, Kyouka approaches as slowly as she can, and Shouto groans, the noise becoming louder as she does, and he slams his hands as hard as he can against his ears. He falls to his knees, and Kyouka smirks, grabbing her tape. As she reaches out to wrap him up, he reaches out, grabbing her arm. Her eyes widen, spotting blood coming from his ears.

Oh, shit. He ruptured his own eardrums. Who does that!?

Shouto does. He pulls her arm over his shoulder, throwing her over. In doing so, her lobe rips free from the ground. The floor no longer trembling, Shouto goes to swing at Kyouka.

And misses.

Kyouka feels a beat of hope. He's still disorientated, and his ruptured eardrum only makes it worse. She charges back at him, swinging wide, and manages to strike his jaw. He winces, and sends out a wave of ice. It knicks Kyouka's arm, but mostly misses thanks to his vertigo. 

With a cry of war, she runs at him, catching the tape around his stomach and dragging him to the floor, wrestling to get on top of him. With his eardrum ruptured, she can't use the same technique she used on Denki, but she can try to brute force her way through. So, keeping a stream of noise around them, she keeps her tape wrapped around Shouto, arm at his neck, the force of her soundwaves destroying his ice and extinguishing his fire before it can grow.

She struggles against him, crying out. Two minutes feels more like two hours, before the tape finally glows red, and both she and Shouto crumple. 

"You," says Shouto, louder than necessary, "did good!"

Kyouka nods against his chest. "You too!"

-

Rock and a Hard Place

When Kyouka throws Shouto aside, Momo creates a pile of rope, throwing it around Eijirou. She pulls him towards her, further down the alley. "And I'll be fighting you."

Eijirou grins, landing on his feet and hitting his fists together. "Fine by me!" 

Momo starts, using the same tactic she used for Ochako, and striking at him with a taser. He smacks it aside, lunging at her with hardened arms. She manages to step back and out of the way of his swings, throwing her hand under his chest, palm facing up, and creating a pipe shooting straight up. Eijirou manages to react in time, softening his arms to harden his chest. Still, the impact has him stumbling back.

Momo discards the pipe, instead creating a grappling hook. She shoots it up, attaching to a building, dropping down a single item as she rises and forming a visor around her eyes. Eijirou panics, first thinking that it's a bomb. To an extent, he's right. He hardens his body, able to do so for a short second, but it's for naught. After all, it's a flash bomb. It goes off, blinding Eijirou, and Momo drops back down, eyes protected by the visor.

She creates a net weighed down by tungsten as she falls, dropping it on top of Eijirou's body. He flounders, black spots appearing in his vision, before he hardens his arms and cuts past the netting. Momo greets him with tape to his face, but it's easily taken off before he can truly be captured. 

Momo moves back, and nearly trips over Hanta as she does. Hanta wants to apologise, but he can't, both because he's supposed to stay still and because Eijirou has already shoved Momo further down the alley. She yells out in pain as his hardened arm makes contact. His vision isn't entirely clear, but he can see enough.

But, tripping over Hanta does give her a neat idea. Her arm sparkles with creation, but Eijirou lunges in, spotting it, and punches her hand away before can make it. Momo can't make it as fast as she can make other stuff, because she doesn't remember the exact mechanics. If she wants to search it up on her watch, she'll need the time to do it. And she doubts Eijirou will fall for the flashbomb again.

As she dodges between Eijirou's strikes, using a staff to aid her, she urges herself to think, Momo! In the background, a wall of ice appears in her peripherals. Oh. That'll work.

When Eijirou lashes at her, she doesn't bother dodging, allowing it to hit. As his fists lands, Momo throws her hand out, her palm sparkling, and metal plating protrudes, building a large wall in front of her. Eijirou bashes into it, and Momo is given a bit more time. She creates her item of choice, filling it with her prepared one, and aims at the dent in the metal wall. 

Surely enough, Eijirou breaks through it, and Momo fires her tape gun. The capture tape lands directly onto Eijirou's chest and, before he can rip it out, Momo throws her hands out harshly, creating super glue from her hands as she does, and it spreads across the tape.

It's not an invincible tactic. She knows. So, while Eijirou struggles to get it off, prioritising that, his chest burning with the application of the super glue and from his trying to rip it off his bare skin, Momo dives forward, discarding her tape gun, both hands sparkling. Eijirou manages to pull the tape off his body, and looks up to see Momo, holding a bomb in one hand, her other hidden behind her back.

Eijirou instinctively covers his eyes. Really, he should have covered his nose and mouth. Because Momo's bomb is full of chloroform. She places her gas mask over her face, and detonates it. Within seconds, Eijirou falls unconscious, and Momo places her capture tape around him. They got two for a reason, after all. 

With Eijirou taken care of, she retrieves her other roll of tape from the gun, and marches back to the enemy base.

-

Blessed versus Hollow

Bakugou licks his lips, dry for a reason he can't tell. "Then, I guess you wanna fight me," he says to Izuku, who only smiles nervously. He walks around, the left alley, katana in hand. Bakugou swallows a thick lump in his throat, and he tries to grin. "Fine! But remember: you asked for this."

Their fight starts with Bakugou swinging. And Izuku has known Bakugou for years. He also knows that Bakugou always starts with a right swing. So, he ducks beneath it, moving behind Bakugou. He lets one hand go from his katana, and swings an open palm as hard as he can at Bakugou's back. Bakugou stumbles for a moment, before swivelling around, sending another blast at Izuku.

Izuku uses the blunt edge of his katana to knock his arm away, ducking in and elbowing Bakugou in the gut. In the same movement, Bakugou moves his hand up, blasting Izuku to the side of his face. Izuku hisses, pulling back. He trains his katana towards Bakugou, frowning.

Bakugou grins. It's strained. "What's wrong? Realise you picked wrong!?" He rushes at him, and blasts at thin air as Izuku steps back, slicing his katana through the explosion at a distance. Bakugou growls. "Come on! You wanted to fight me! Fight back!" He pushes on. A short, controlled blast at Izuku's chest.

Izuku bashes his wrist up with his katana's handle, then swings in the next instance, leveling his katana at Bakugou's neck, frown still present. "You're holding back. Why are you holding back?" 

Bakugou's eye twitches. He doesn't answer, instead knocking Izuku's katana away and charging in. 

"Why are you holding back!?" Izuku yells, kicking out, his foot landing on Bakugou's chest. He grabs onto Izuku's ankle and throws him away.

Izuku lands on his feet. "Like there! You could have blasted my ankle instead of throwing me! Why are you holding back!?"

Bakugou is silent, teeth grit, and he rushes at Izuku, lashing out and blasting at his face. Izuku swings his katana up, slicing through it again, and barging into Bakugou with his shoulder.

"Why!?"

"I don't wanna hurt you!" Bakugou finally reveals, shaking. "There! You happy now!?"

"Of course not!" Izuku moves into Bakugou's personal space, bashing his head into Bakugou's jaw. "You never cared before! Why do you care now!?"

"Because!" He punctuates with a louder, larger explosion, forcing Izuku to reel back, heat kissing his skin. "It was never okay, was it!? That's what everyone says! Then you go ahead and decide to fight me!? Why!?"

Izuku grabs his hookshot, firing past Bakugou's head. He flinches away from it, and Izuku steps in, katana reeled back, low. He brings it up, and Bakugou just barely moves back in time, the blade catching on his shit and tearing it open. "Because I wanted to! I wanted to prove to myself that I'm not that defenceless, weak, pathetic Deku I used to be!"

Bakugou growls, throwing another explosion at him. This time, it strikes Izuku's shoulder directly, and he nearly drop his katana as his arm drops from the force and heat. It's been a while since he's experienced Bakugou's explosions.

"Ain't it obvious you're not!?"

Just like that, Izuku stops, eyes wide.

Bakugou scowls. "Dammit, do you really need me, of all people, to spell it out!? You're not the same as middle school! You're in the student council, you survived the USJ, you got fourth place in the Sports Festival. Everyone fucking respects you! As if you're the same nerd from Aldera!"

Izuku lowers his katana, taken back. Bakugou scoffs, hiding his face in his hands, and he groans, loud and full of frustration. "I've had to spend months watching you get stronger. Watching all of you fuckers get stronger. Months spent with a shrink, makin' me question everything I've ever done, everything I've ever believed! Fricking Present Mic had to spell it out for me! You think I'm blind!?"

Stricken, Izuku can't respond. He doesn't know how to. For once, his brain completely fails him.

Because Bakugou removes his hands and there are tears in his eyes. "So, there. I didn't come into this expecting to fight you. 'Cause I didn't want to. The only reason I joined this team is 'cause I wouldn't feel right on your team."

Izuku breathes out shakily. "That's insulting, you know. I chose to fight you, so you should have at least honoured that by giving your all." 

Bakugou observes him. And he nods. "Fine. Whatever. I'll give it my all now."

But Izuku only sighs, sheathing his katana with his left hand, his right hanging limply. "There's no point." 

"HAH!?"

He waves a hand. "When I slapped your back earlier, I slapped some capture tape on it." Bakugou's eyes blow open. He struggles to look behind him, and he spots a flash of red. He turns back to Izuku, gaping. Izuku smiles wryly. "Maybe next time. If there is a next time."

Izuku walks away and Bakugou falls on his arse. He tilts his head back. And he laughs.

-

Speedster

Tenya was prepared for many scenarios. He wasn't foolish enough to think nobody could ever get past Shouto – he was prepared for anything. But, as Kyouka breaks down Shouto's wall of ice, Momo and Izuku her side, he can firmly say he did not expect this.

Izuku? He was hoping to face him. That's the reason he requested Izuku to join a different team. Kyouka? Unexpected. He didn't realise she would stand a chance against Shouto. And, going by the burns and the fragments of ice on her, she was the one to win against him. Momo? Definitely unexpected. The whole reason Ochako and Denki went to the enemy base was because he expected her to stay there, not join the battle.

He didn't join the battle, because he didn't want to risk losing like that. He didn't want to risk going into battle with, say, Minoru – a good match against his quirk – and lose in such a way. 

"Give it up!" Momo demands, breathing harshly, bruised and battered. "All of your companions have been defeated!"

She's not the only one hurt. Izuku has many minor burns on his body, his right arm useless. Kyouka still shakes from frost and burns dotted on her skin. 

Nevertheless, Tenya will not insult his friends by taking them lightly. Even now, he's sure they'd put up a mighty battle. As such, "I refuse," he takes his stand. "Giving up so easily will only bring dishonour upon my comrades! I will fight!"

It's not an easy fight, not at all. Tenya's right to take them seriously.

Even injured, Kyouka can still blast sound waves at him, disorienting him. Even injured, Momo can still act as an ample, versatile threat. Even injured, Izuku can still act as a good back-up. 

Kyouka is too exhausted to move around, only attacking from long-range. Izuku's shoulder is too injured to swing his katana, and he settles for using his hookshot to direct Tenya back to Momo. Momo is the only one fighting up-close, settling with her trusty rapier, battling speed with speed. It helps that Izuku and Kyouka cut off Tenya's escapes, forcing him to battle her up-front. 

He manages to land a good few hits, and Momo returns them in kind, though they're not nearly as strong as Tenya's. It all comes to an end, however, when Momo forms a can of spray paint, coating Tenya's visor with it. He takes his helmet off, a short-term solution, but that turns out to be a mistake when Momo creates dust, throwing it into his eyes, and then, with all the strength they have left, Izuku and Kyouka jump him with rolls of capture tape, keeping him down. 

When he tries to boot his engines to escape, Momo relies on an old tactic, spraying liquid nitrogen onto them, forcing him to shut them off, lest they explode. 

He struggles for five whole minutes, Momo joining on the dogpile, keeping the tap secured to his body until–

"IT'S OVER!" Mic yells, jazzed beyond belief. "INGENIUM HAS BEEN CAPTURED! TEAM A WIIIIINS!"

-

Notes:

OOOOOH BOY! THIS ONE IS A LONG ONE! 8.4K TO BE EXACT!! It was originally going to be split into two parts, but I decided to write it into one. You're welcome :))

I gave everyone their time in the limelight this chapter. Before I get another oh-so-smart anon full of sarcasm and barely-disguised insults, read over the fights one more time. They make sense. I made sure of it. 

Bakugou is getting there. He still doesn't know what he's supposed to become, but he'll learn as the series goes on. And, NO, I do not intend to create any sort of friendship with Izuku. But, at the same time, Izuku needs to have that closure. Until Bakugou gets his head sorted, however, he's not getting it

Oh, Tenya. Taken down by the good ol' dust in your eyes followed by a dogpile. What a lad. But, in all seriousness, did you expect him to be able to take down three people all at once? Didn't think so!

Conclusion:

Aizawa debriefs everyone

The civil war starts

Team A vs Team B. Winners: Team A