#of course there are tons of other details i thought were fun

[ckret2]

So a while ago some friends were talking about fans who claim the Same Coin theory is canon. And I made the mistake of saying:

Do you know who also has tons in common with Bill? Mabel. Yet nobody claims Bill reincarnated as Mabel. …wait now I want a "same coin but it's Mabel" AU. Funniest Bill reincarnation option. The all-seeing arsonist is making macaroni glitter art. The omnipotent tyrant is crying because a unicorn called her a bad person.

And then I overthought it for two months.

So—AU where after death, Bill's soul shoots 13 years into the past and reincarnates as Mabel. I'll call it ✨ Sparkly Coin AU ✨

Don't leave yet. Lemme show you why it works. Behold the eerie amount of parallels in their personalities, dialogue, behavior, mannerisms, tastes...

I could have kept going but my attention span ran out. All right, we all on board now? Convinced we could segue from one personality into the other? Great. Now here's why you should be interested: the juicy post-Weirdmageddon angst potential.

As long as a small fringe of the fandom still thinks Weirdmageddon is Mabel's fault, why not amp that up x100 and have some fun with it?

Is everyone sold now? Great. Let's get into the details. I've got 8 more pieces of art under the read more.

So the AU starts the instant Bill dies. Thanks to invoking his deal with the Axolotl—one way to absolve his crime, a different form, a different time—the Axolotl gives him a new shape and shoots him thirteen years into the past. Apparently, the Axolotl thought it would be very funny to stick Bill in the family that defeated him.

Which probably made for a jarring transition.

(It's fine, she's like 10 minutes old, she probably can't even tell who she's looking at. Not being able to tell who she was looking at is what got her into this situation ayyyy)

When Dipper & Mabel come back from Gravity Falls complaining about this triangular jerk Bill, their parents mention that Dipper's name was nearly Bill. See, after they knew they were going to have a boy, one night their mom dreamed about a visitor—some kind of magic pink salamander??—calling her child "BILL." Then at the next sonogram they found out they were having twins, the girl must've been hidden at a weird angle the first time, and they wanted matching names, so they thought, Bill and Bell. But they didn't really like Bell; but eventually they stumbled on Mabel, so to keep the names matching they switched from Bill to Mason. Isn't that the darnedest thing?

(Of course, Mabel and Dipper assume Bill harassed their parents to try to trick them into naming a kid after him. To be a jerk.)

When Bill meets Mabel, he's unaware that she's his future self—Bill's notably bad at doing things like, say, double-checking to see whether he's going to die anytime soon—but like... he can tell something's up.

Naturally, before visiting Gravity Falls, there were echoes of who Mabel used to be—but nothing anyone would be able to identify without context. All her Bill-ish quirks either smoothed out with time (see: how between second grade and fourth grade Mabel went from being the "freak" to the popular girl in class), or else they were accepted by her family as Mabel-ish quirks.

After they meet (and kill) Bill, they have the context to understand some of Mabel's behaviors... and unfortunately, some of Mabel's latent Bill-ness starts surfacing after she's been directly exposed to her prior incarnation.

The part of the Pines family familiar with Bill thinks the worst case scenario is that maybe Bill's survived and is slowly possessing Mabel; but far more likely, they think this is just some weird way of trying to subconsciously process last summer. Mabel doesn't think she's being weird, you guys are being weird, stop giving her weird looks. They get attacked by one triangle and now she can't wear yellow or pick up macrame as a hobby??

(It's not all red flags and uncomfortable triangle imagery, though. When Stan asks her what she'd like as a gift for some important event, she shyly admits that she thinks she's starting to outgrow her plastic gem jewelry and maybe she's old enough to get her first piece of real gold jewelry, if that's not too expensive? And Stan's never been so proud of her. Thirteen years old and already thinking about buying gold!)

But of course, the real fun starts when Mabel finds out.

That's the face of a girl who's just discovered that she tortured her great uncle. Now imagine running into the brother she possessed.

But I've already spent a million words and thirteen images on this post. If enough folks are interested in the AU maybe I'll expand on it later. Let me know what y'all think.

[kapsloc7]

FINALLY POSTING THIS!!1! This was a huge project for me (literally, it is 3 feet tall!) based on Will Wood's 'The Normal Album' and my personal relationship with it. I threw a ton of references and symbolism in here, it was a ton of fun to create :)

Rambling about details under the cut.

Also: If you enjoy this, I have prints (and other things?) available here!

ALRIGHT BUCKLE UP BECAUSE I HAVE LOTS TO SAY

This painting is acrylic on a 24"x36" canvas, created as part of my portfolio focusing on human experiences and mental health. I wanted to make a painting about music because it's a very important thing to me, and was ultimately inspired by the song Memento Mori, The Most Important Thing. In the end I decided to base it off The Normal Album in its entirety.

The most obvious reference is the outfit, of course. I took all my own reference photos so it isn't an exact match, but is of course in spirit Will's outfit from the album cover. The only symbolism in this is the expression of masculinity in the suit, and a slight bit of femininity in the painted nails. Nothing too deep about it, I just wanted to throw in some gender fuckery because of my trans-ness.

The keyboard itself isn't a reference (I mean it's just my keyboard) nor are the books behind it (Just there for composition) but I put some stickers on the keyboard to throw in some extra references and symbolism. First, the "Give Me That Old Time Religion," both a Self-Ish reference and inspired by the sticker on Will's keyboard. Second, the pride flag being covered by an upside down American flag. This was something more personal I threw in for fun, about my distaste for the US and the oppression of queer people here. Also, I threw in the window from the album cover (but empty)

In the background, there are silly references to specific songs, (white picket fences, barbed wire and trenches, and the 222 for 2econd 2ight 2eer) and some more personal references as well (pill bottle ties into themes of the album as well as my own mental heath issues.) The potted plant has a bunch of symbolism thrown at it, and was inspired by lines in well better the alternative and Outliars and Hyppocrates, kinda a bit about feeling restricted by pressures from yourself or others causing you to uhhh. not be okay. and the pot design is based on the keys of Will Wood's keyboard as well as kinda an Everything Is a Lot reference.

Hand stuff: Bracelets are bracelets I made, mostly just for fun to provide more visual interest. Both kandi bracelets are inspired by Will Wood of course, the visible letters reading 'Memento Mori'. The grey bracelet doesn't have the letters visible, but it reads 'not afraid to die' The rings I wore were also personal fun. The white ring on the middle finger is a bit of queer code representing Aromanticism, and an engagement ring on my ring finger. Just representing the struggles I've had with sexuality and relationships and such.

Finally the chains, wallet chain was thrown in to represent financial pressure, and the one over the piano is the actually important one, representing how shitty it feels to turn creativity into a career, and feeling forced to create. There's more thrown in here probably but I'm tired and basically wrote an essay already so UH. GOODNIGHT IF YOU READ THIS FAR I LOVE YOU WAAAAA!!!! PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS I LOVE TALKING TO PEOPLE

[xan-izme]

Double Life 9 (ATSV x reader x Batfam)

summary: Are you going to let your pride get in the way of what matters most?

Part 8, Part 10

Damian was watching you and Miles from afar. It was clear you two were close. He was, a little jealous. But he was quick to brush it off. He knows there is a bond between you and Miles stronger than the one he has with you. So, he won't fuss about it.

"Damian right? you waiting for Y/n?" Rio suddenly came up behind Damian and handed him a cup of juice.

Damian takes the cup and thanks her. "Yes. . . Mrs. Moralas. Do you know any, Miguels involved with my sister?" Damian looked up at Rio, with an innocent curious face.

"Miguel . . . Miguel? No. No, I don't think so? Why?" Rio hoped it wasn't some boy she was involved with.

"Just, wondering."

Bruce was staring at the graffiti art of your mother. He felt, sadness, guilt. Sad because he was too late to be there for you and your mother. Failed to support your mother when she probably needed it the most. Guilty, because he could probably never love your mother as strongly as you do.

He glanced over to where you and your cousin were standing. That was when he sees you actually letting your guard down completely. You looked so, tired. Like the heavy burden he sees you with, doubled by a ton. Yet, you seemed peaceful. Maybe because, your cousin seems to share the same look as you did.

He knew those looks. For a second. a suspicion creeped into his mind. But he was quick to shake it off.

'Impossible'

he would think to himself as he lets out a low chuckle. What a silly thought.

The party ended and you and the Waynes stayed behind to help clean and what not. Bruce got to see a lot of your baby pictures thanks to Rio and Jeff.

It was pretty fun, spending time with both families. Even Jason was being tolerable. While everyone was interacting with each other in the living room, Damian slipped away. decided to explore down the halls of the apartment. Pictures of you and Miles on the walls. Family trips, graduation. Every achievement framed and hanged on the walls.

Damian eventually found Miles room. The door was left slightly ajar. He would usually just go in and snoop around. But something was holding him back.

"Hey."

Suddenly Jason was behind him. Catching him off guard while he was deep in thought.

"Todd. What are you doing?" Damian spoke firmly as he glared up at the older. Jason just shrugged and chuckled "Doing the same as you. Taking a look around of course." Jason pushed past the younger boy and entered the bedroom.

Scanning the room, seemingly trying to search for something.

Damian frowns deeply and stomped into the room. "We shouldn't be in here."

Jason scoffs as he picked up a photo of you and Miles together. Dressed in your Sunday best. Smiling without a care in the world.

"Scared your big sis will get mad at you?" Jason mumbled as he set the photo face down back on the table. His eyes scan the desk. Drawings. He walked up to the desk and picked up the papers. shuffling them. looks like drawings of suits. Super suits to be specific.

Spider womans suits to be more specific.

It didn't look like some fanart or just little doodles. These were details. Upgrades with little gadgets.

"He's in on it." Jason mumbled to himself. Realizing your cousin Miles knows your secret. This gives Jason a lot of more information on you now. Proving some theories he had of you. And changing some others.

Damian just stood behind Jason. He didn't understand what Jason said. Nor did he care.

"Stop it Todd. This is an invasion of our hosts privacy." Damian demanded. Jason couldn't help but scoff humorously once again

"Cheap coming from you."

Suddenly two shadows from the open door were noticed by Damian. Before Damian can turn around. A deep voice spoke.

"You should listen to the kid."

When Jason and Damian turn to the door. They were greeted by you and Miles leaning on each side of the doorframe. Glaring at the both of them with cold stoic looks. Your glare was mainly aimed at Jason.

"Y/n I-" Damian was panicking a little. You walked into the room an put your hand on his shoulder. Giving him a small smile. Not the sweet one you usually give him. You were giving him the smile that looked empty.

"Go back and join the others cupcake." You ruffled his head and nudged him along out of the room. You signaled Miles to go along with Damian just in case he wonders off.

"Your cousin a fan of Spider woman? Does he know about-" Jason held up the paper drawings. You snatched the drawings out of his hand with a scowl, you roughly grabbed him by his collar and held him up the ground with your super strength.

"Whoa whoa!" Jason held up his hands in surrender, but he still had that damn smirk on his face. He was enjoying seeing that he pissed you off.

"We made a deal. I suggest you stick to that only." Your tone was an uneasy calmness as you spoke. You carelessly dropped Jason and stormed out of the room.

Jason huffed in annoyance, getting off the floor. You just gave him a warning.

It was time to leave and get back to Gotham. Bruce and the boys were heading back to the limo as you were saying your goodbyes. You and Miles gave each other a tight hug. You sighed as you pulled away. A sad look in your eyes.

"What?" Miles knows somethings wrong. You just, stared at him while holding him by his shoulders. The kind of look that seems far away.

"Nothing. . . love you, bye." You gave a small smile gently cupping one side of his face before letting go. Miles chuckled and smiled back.

"Bye!" He waved as you walked to the limo.

Back at Gotham. It was late in the night. You had gotten an alert from the watch. An anomaly showed up. In Gotham. You were quick. You took out the anomaly before it could do any serious damage.

But before you could get back to the Wayne mansion. You got another alert. You took care of it. Then another showed up.

It wasn't till the sun began to come up did you finally get back to the mansion. You haven't had a night like that in a while. As you laid in bed. Gwen came to mind. Her words.

Her warning of how Miles and Aaron not being able to be your replacement for long.

The anomalies were getting stronger. The more you just laid there and thought about it, the more fear began to creep into your mind. The possibility of losing Miles and Aaron. So many possibilities. Dear God, did it scare you.

You needed help. And you knew the Spider Society could help. But you were too prideful to go back to them. Selfish, you know.

You sighed and sat up from your bed. You grabbed your phone. Instantly greeted with your lockscreen of you and Miles. You stared at it for a moment. His smile. He was always the more joyful one between the two of you.

". . ."

You love Miles. You really do. But you just, can't physically bring yourself to reach out to the Society for help.

[superfallingstars]

Jily circa 1977, for @moonstainn's marauders era 70s outfit challenge! I had sooo much fun with this - I think this is the first time that James has made an appearance on this account, and I actually based his shirt and jacket on a photo of my dad in the 70s, which was super fun. Love a contrast stitching moment!

The other reason this was so fun is that I'm like one of those annoying historical fashion people but only for like, the 70s thru 90s, lol. I think late 70s fashion can sometimes get lost in the shuffle between the groovy early 70s and the neon 80s, so I really wanted to showcase it here, since that's the era in which James and Lily come of age. From what I've seen, late 70s fashion is less bell bottoms and fringe, and more cuffed jeans, knee-high boots, and furry jackets with big shoulders (perhaps a precursor to the shoulder pads of the 80s...?).

I can't resist rambling on about this, but I'll do everyone a favor and put it (as well as all of my references/inspo!) under the cut:

These are street style pics from 1977 London, taken by Derek Ridgers, and they're such a big influence on how I imagine Lily. You can see that the styles are starting to shift from the hippie fashion of the late 60s/early 70s – at this point there were a lot of these huge fuzzy jackets, cowl neck sweaters, layered zip-ups, and knee-high boots under midi skirts.

A few photos of some women whose fashion specifically inspired me for this drawing. The top row is all Kate Bush – there are a ton of photos of her from around this time and she looks quite similar to how I imagine Lily – and she rocks those tall boots (+ midi skirt combo). The bottom row is Isabelle Huppert (who I have considered as a time-accurate Lily fancast lol, although I'm uncertain of the exact dates of these photos). Her jacket in the first pic definitely inspired me for Lily, and I don't think I've ever seen someone look so cool in a scarf before...!

The other big trend I noticed (from looking through a million pictures of bands I like from this time) is the proliferation of cuffed jeans! What was up with these giant cuffs? Once I started looking for them, I noticed them everywhere. Tbh they're a nice way to add a fun little extra detail to a character's outfit. And I must mention that in the second photo (featuring the Buzzcocks), the guy on the right (John Maher) is pretty much EXACTLY how I imagine James to look. There's like no other pictures of him in those glasses tho! So unfortunate.

Anyway! I adore 70s fashion, and even though there are definitely similarities throughout the whole decade, late 70s fashion has its own unique trends that I hoped to bring some attention to here. Especially because it's basically the golden age for Marauders fans lol. Of course this is not comprehensive (far from it!), but I wanted to share my thoughts, and I hope it was at least a little informative or inspiring. Thanks if you made it this far through my rambles :-)

[gaypleasantview]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☆ shake the disease. // Autumn Drop Day 5 ☆₊‧⁺˖⋆

⋆ 2 mesh add-ons for Ladysimplayer8's 4t2 City Living Keyboard

⋆ floor version (60 poly) and wall version (68 poly), originally created by PixlMonster

⋆ 43 recolors in 512x512 textures

⋆ all files have been compressed and clearly labeled

Link, swatch, detailed credits and more info under the cut ♡

Hi people! Welcome to yet another thing I've made, and this one was a real pain in the ass sometimes but also an actually fun and rewarding experience! Just like my last upload, this one was inspired by @gothoffspring's very pretty pictures. I wanted to have whatever they're having, and it caused me to get into the intricacies of repositorying stuff, and damn was it hard, but it was all worth it in the end! The last few times I checked, this thing worked with absolutely no problems, but please do let me know if it starts pulling shit again.

Okay, let's get to the details now. I clearly got intrigued by the keyboard, and thanks to the absolutely priceless 4t2 conversion database, I found out that it has already been converted by Ladysimplayer8 on MTS, as was tons of other 4t2 stuff. It's a fully functional keyboard, too! To be honest, I first edited the mesh a bit to fit my preferred game style (separated the recolors + added a shadow), but the first time I thought to check the original creator's TOU was literally just now, and I realized too late they don't allow their meshes to be edited and posted, so I'll have to keep it to myself. However, all the other stuff I did was actually converted directly from TS4, so of course I'm sharing it!

The wall and floor add-ons are purely decorative, having been cloned from wall objects, but I find them to be super cute. You can find them in Hobbies.../Creative right next to the actual thing. They share the original's room rating and cost a little less, but still a reasonable amount of §700 because it is a keyboard, dammit.

As both of the add-ons are repositoried to the original, they will share whatever recolors the playable keyboard has. I decided to recolor them in options by gothoffspring and MsFrankenstein because they were all very pretty. I tried to clearly label every swatch but sometimes it's brain breaking (some of them turned out to look a little different in-game, too) so I sincerely hope the names all make sense!

Credits: base object by Ladysimplayer8 on MTS, mesh add-ons by @pixlmonster, recolors by @gothoffspring and @msfrankenstein910, this source for the graphics in the post

♡ Download ♡

As per creator's TOU, mesh (LSP8DigiRADKeyboardMesh) is not included, you will have to get it here. The add-ons won't work without it.

SFS | Mediafire

♡ Swatch ♡

⋆ 19 recolors by gothoffspring (original)

⋆ 24 recolors by MsFrankenstein910 (original)

[mirai-e-jump]

Uchusen Vol.188 (Spring 2025) Kamen Rider Gavv | Detail of Heroes ft. Main Cast & Director Interviews (other pages and translations below)

Publication: April 1, 2025

Chinen Hidekazu x Hino Yusuke

"Half a year has gone by since the program started, but have there been any changes in your surroundings over the course of filming so far?"

Chinen: People rarely called out to me on the street when the show first started airing, but recently, I've had people at the location sites react with, "Ah, it's Shouma!," and children will give me their drawings of Gavv as gifts. It got me to realize that tons of children are watching Gavv.

Hino: I'm glad that you've been working so hard. Everyone's looking at Hide……

Chinen: That goes for Yusuke-kun too!! (laughs).

Hino: No, when we were previously filming at the river, we waved back at a father and his child who were waving at us from the opposite side and saying, "Ah! It's Gavv!" Then, the father kept saying, "He's so cute~"……he wasn't looking at me (laughs).

Chinen: That's not true! He probably didn't realize it was you due to the distance between us (laughs).

Hino: I guess you're right! It's thanks to that costume that he forgot it was me! (laughs).

Chinen: The first time I could really feel the reaction of the fans was on February 5 at the "Super Hero Festival"!

Hino: Right! From adults to children, it made me happy that so many people were cheering us on.

Chinen: Many of them came dressed as Shouma. Both men and women. I thought that Kamen Rider fans were mostly made up of men, but I was surprised and happy to see that there were "so many women as well!"

"Please tell us your first impressions of each other, as well as your current impressions."

Hino: When I first met Hide, I got the impression that he had a puppy like cuteness to him, but after overcoming numerous obstacles over the course of filming so far, he's become more reliable. He used to be the "cute junior" who would ask me various questions, but now I feel like we're rivals who compete with each other in a mutual way. Also, given that we always spend alot of time together, even if we don't exchange words, I've started to tell if he's "doing well today," or if he "didn't get enough sleep today." Although, the way we screw around becomes more intense the closer we get to each other (laughs).

Chinen: Yusuke-kun has a longer career as an actor than I do, so I've been following by his example since filming began. He consults with me after the daily shoot, and has taught me so many things. And then recently, I've gradually come to understand more about acting, and we've been able to discuss the production and my way of thinking as an actor. Previously, all I could do was run after him, but now I feel that we're rivals who inspire each other and can run together.

"Chinen-san also played the role of Dark Shouma, but how was it playing a double role?"

Chinen: Being able to try out a different acting style from that of the usual Shouma was a valuable opportunity, so I prepared a "dark notebook" to write in for the role of Dark Shouma. I went into filming with that same amount of enthusiasm, but because both my performance and post recording time was now doubled, my tiredness came out more easily. However, with the help of Yusuke-kun and the rest of the cast, and with Director Tasaki giving me alot of advice for his first appearance in episode 21, I was able to perform the role without issue. Still, everyone said to me, "You're acting more lively than Shouma normally is" (laughs).

Hino: Hide had just gotten used to playing the role of Shouma, so I envied him since he was able to approach his performance from a different perspective. Even when transforming into Bitter Gavv, he created the role with sparkling eyes by saying stuff like, "What if I stick out my tongue here?," and it looked like he was having fun.

Chinen: When you play a role that's so close to your actual self, you lose sight of the boundaries between yourself and the role. With that being the case, it was very refreshing to play a role in which I ran away without paying for hot oden and beat up the old lady who ran the dagashi shop.

Hino: Yeah? So uh, which role is closer to you? (laughs).

Chinen: You oughta know!! (laughs). I was able to do bad things in my performance that I'd normally never do, so I was eager to create the role. Still, even though Shouma beats up Dark Shouma, those he harmed and the people who were in the area still leave with a bad impression of Shouma. It broke my heart to think that Shouma was creating a difficult situation for people to be in.

"We think that Hanto also had a difficult time dealing with emotional highs and lows, as shocking facts kept being revealed one after another."

Hino: I could feel the Planning and Scriptwriting team's strong determination of, "This is the kind of position Hanto's in" (laughs). After learning that Shouma's part of the Stomach Family, I thought that he was able to reconcile with him, but soon after, he learns about his mother's final moments, and then he learned the truth that his mentour's death had been arranged by Suga……it was like being hit with flurry of punches. Shouma's the only one he can talk to about Granutes from another Kamen Rider's perspective, so if he left him, Hanto would be all alone, wouldn't he? And when that happens, the only person he can count on is Suga, and yet Suga had him wrapped around his finger. While Hanto took an incredible amount of mental damage from that, it was so rewarding for me as an actor.

Chinen: In episode 22, he settles things with Hanto, but right after that in the beginning of episode 23, he rejects him by saying, "I can't deal with you." I could comprehend the story, but it was difficult for me as Shouma to create the flow in which Hanto's feelings would be properly connected to it.

Hino: When Hanto found out that Shouma was part of the Stomach Family, he fell into a mixed feeling of sadness and rage that Shouma had hidden the truth from him, and then there was the confusion and conflicting feelings he had about their friendship up to that point. I prepared with incredible enthusiasm to express this. Still, while deep down in his heart he was expecting for his mother to still be alive, when he was told about his mother's final moments, he came to learn that her encounter with Shouma is what led to her death. I was in a complicated situation, because if I let my emotions explode right then and there, he'd be blaming Shouma, so I had to suppress my emotions. That's why instead of using my performance skills, I just went with the flow and let things naturally take over from there.

"With the addition of their ally Lakia, has there been any change in your teamwork?"

Chinen: Kohei-kun looks cool, but he's a passionate man full of love and who values communication. That's why with Kohei-kun's arrival, everyone has more time to get together.

Hino: We didn't have much time to go out to eat together before Kohei-kun came along. But now the four of us, which includes Sachika, go out to eat together, as well as spend our private time together.

Chinen: Honestly speaking, I was worried that Shouma and Gavv would be overshadowed by Lakia's Kohei-kun, as he already had a year of experience in "Mashin Sentai Kiramager." Kohei-kun is cool and Lakia's character is appealing.

Hino: Vram is also really cool.

Chinen: Vram's first appearance in episode 17 was so cool, that it made me nervous, but in any case, Lakia is appealing.

Hino: There's no doubt that he's cool. However, as Kamen Riders facing the same enemy, I was worried when I simply wondered, "Can they really become friends when he beat the shit out of Hanto?" For Hanto, he's the same species as his mother and mentour's killers, and unlike Shouma, Lakia himself has no feelings for humans. I can't imagine how the relationship between these two will develop.

Chinen: Lakia's not the most social either.

Hino: Lakia's personality change and Hanto's growth will likely cause a sense of friendship to blossom.

"As a result, Shouma had to tell everyone his secret, but were there any changes in your performance compared to when you were hiding it?"

Chinen: I was hoping you'd ask me that! (laughs). Up until now, the level of secrecy would be different depending on the person I was working with, so it'd be like, "I want to keep this secret from Hanto, I've already told this much to Lakia, and this is a secret from Sachika-san." That's why I had to write out these situations in the script as I performed in order to keep them organized. So, I'm relieved that he was able to tell everyone the truth (laughs). Especially since he was able to reveal his secret to Sachika-san, Hapipare really became a place for Shouma to belong, and I think it helped him to feel secure within the story.

Hino: Having a place to return to is nice, isn't it?

"Both Gavv and Valen have appeared in numerous forms, but please tell us your favorite forms for each other's Riders, not your own."

Chinen: It would have to be Valen's Frappe Custom. The Gochizou that Hanto had been using until then had to be given to him by Shouma or made by Suga-san. However, the Frappeis Gochizou is one created just for Hanto. The Gochizou itself has a unique design that's divided into a top and bottom section, with each having a cute name, that being "Frappe Ichirou" and "Frappe Jirou." All the Gochizou-chan are like Shouma's children, but they're special children that he gives to Hanto as presents after overcoming various obstacles.

Hino: The scene where Valen's mark was engraved on it was great.

Chinen: Now that he's powered up, Valen can finally stand on his own (laughs).

Hino: The situation hasn't changed though, as Shouma still had to give him the Gochizou (laughs). I like Gavv's CaKing form. It's the first "Gochizou that doesn't disappear even if it's used," but that's because it's a "handmade sweet created with someone else in mind." I think it's great that those feelings became a special power, as it makes it seem heroic. Also, it's interesting that the Whipped Soldiers come out, as now we can do action scenes with multiple people. The Rider Kick making candles appear is also cool.

Chinen: CaKing form's cape is cool.

Hino: The cape is cool! It's so unfair! Next time, birth a Gochizou for Valen that'll give him a cape too! (laughs).

"Do you have any episodes that have been most memorable so far?"

Hino: It was really tough filming episode 24, where I was covered in ink. My costume was also inked, so it was a one take situation, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom during the shoot in order to avoid getting ink on the set and equipment. In a physical sense, it was the harshest part of the shoot.

Chinen: It's episode 24 for me too. Shouma, who had been weak up until then, recovered with the ice cream Sachika-san gave him, but I personally have a strong emotional attachment to the situation because it was mentally difficult for me to reconcile with Hanto.

"Finally, please give a message to all the Gavv fans."

Hino: From now on, Shouma, Hanto, and Lakia will work together to face the increasingly intense battles against the Stomach Family. As for Hanto, one highlight will be his "battle to protect humans" as a Kamen Rider, where he'll draw upon the bonds he established in the first half of the series. I look forward to your support until the end!

Chinen: After this, Gavv will enter a new chapter, with new enemies and a more expansive story. Not only Shouma's team, but the circumstances of the Stomach Family will also be explored, so please pay attention to that. The foreshadowing that Komura Sensei has been carefully scattering will gradually be brought to light, but even we don't know what will happen in the end either. Everyone, please look forward to future developments! _

Asanuma Shintaro

"Please tell us the details of how you became involved in this work."

Asanuma: I received an offer from Toei. To be honest, I had previously received an offer for the Kamen Rider series, but I wasn't able to appear due to my schedule. I wanted to appear in the series by any means, including as a revenge for that time, so I'm glad that it came to fruition.

"Your image is different from when you voiced Juran in "Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger," so some tokusatsu fans were probably surprised."

Asanuma: Normally, whether I'm a Voice Actor or actor, I usually perform my roles with the consciousness of not making the viewer feel that I'm "Asanuma Shintaro" as much as possible. Ideally, I'd like for people to notice that it's me for the first time during the end credits. As someone who originally came to Tokyo to become a film Director, I'm very happy to be able to spend all my time on the set of the drama, rather than in the usual post recording studio.

"What's your impression of the Kamen Rider series?"

Asanuma: I watched "Kamen Rider (Skyrider)" and "Kamen Rider Super-1" as they aired when I was a child. I also watched "Space Sheriff Gavan" and "Dai Sentai GoggleV," but the tokusatsu heroes that I was particularly engrossed with were from the Kamen Rider series.

"Do you have any special memories?"

Asanuma: It's a shame to say this, as I've had regular appearances in Super Sentai and Ultraman, but the heroes I have a particularly strong attachment to are Kamen Riders. I lost my father when I was four years old, but I still have a cassette tape with his and my voice on it from when he was still alive. In those days, video cameras had yet to become a commodity in most households, so the only memories I have of my father are in photographs and on that cassette tape. On side A of the cassette, there's the voice of my father reading the Kamen Rider manga to me and my older sister. It was the original manga drawn by Ishinomori Shotaro Sensei, so I think it was alittle difficult for me to understand at the time (laughs). And then, side B has the sounds of my father and I playing Kamen Rider. That's why Kamen Rider is an important connection between me and my father, and an indispensable part of my life.

"We heard that you also did hero shows. Did you ever perform as a Kamen Rider?"

Asanuma: After serving as grunts and monsters, my first time performing in a hero suit was for MammothRanger in the "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger" show, and from there, I played Kamen Rider V3, Stronger, and Black RX, just to name a few. When it came to the shows, they were gorgeous, in part because they used original stories, but there were also joint performances with senior Riders and Super Sentai, which wasn't common at the time. After that in 2000, I created and directed a performance called "Zipper!," which was a hero show about what they do behind the scenes, but in order to familiarize the performers to the world of the show, I was assisted through the cooperation of a show team that I had previously worked with. Since I referred to them at the time (laughs), I participated with them and played the role of Kuuga. I also participated in the show when they revived "Zipper!" in 2003, playing the role of Faiz.

"We'd like to ask you about Kamen Rider Gavv this time. What were your first impressions when you heard about the setting and worldview of this work?"

Asanuma: I was particularly surprised that it was a "sweets Kamen Rider." I've been surprised by Rider designs in the past, but I never thought I'd be surprised by the motif. Then again, I was also incredibly surprised when fruit was used in "Kamen Rider Gaim" (laughs). I thought, "What kind of substance would come from a sweets motif?," but there were many aspects that reminded me of Showa era Riders, such as "leaving while concealing his name and true identity," "being perceived as a monster," and "becoming a hero after being remodified." It also made me happy that the secondary Rider wears leather and has the occupation of a "reporter." It was also an honor for me to be the one in charge of his remodification surgery. That's why when I heard that Suga was going to transform, I started imagining things like, "He's a scientist, so maybe he'll become the Reiwa version of Ika Devil?" (laughs).

"But instead of becoming a monster, he transformed into a Kamen Rider."

Asanuma: The only thing I could say was, "Alright!" (laughs). When filming started, I never heard anything about me transforming into a Kamen Rider. However, I was told by one of the staff members that, "If you keep saying that you want to transform, it could happen." So, I was absurdly honest and kept saying it, and then my wish came true (laughs). While I might have been too greedy, I really wanted to become a popcorn Rider! My first photo book was titled "POPCORN," and I said to myself, "If I'm going to transform, I have to become a popcorn Rider!" I can talk about this now, but the reason Suga would snap his fingers every now and again was my way of adlibbing the impression that "it's bursting like popcorn." In the end, I was told, "A Popcorn Gochizou will appear, but it won't be used for transforming" (laughs).

"You put in alot of painful effort before you transformed into a Kamen Rider, huh? (laughs)."

Asanuma: Incidentally, when Hanto returns to the lab after making up his mind to undergo the remodification surgery in episode 6, I was eating peanuts, which was also me adlibbing. I used the peanuts that were served on set to express Suga's sense of composure that "he'll come back soon enough," and his lack of humanity, as he's carelessly eating during a serious scene. Actually, it may have also come from some expectation that I'd "transform into a Rider with a nut themed sweet……" (laughs).

"What was it like filming the transformation scene?"

Asanuma: One thing I was particular about wasn't the pose, but the way "Henshin" was said. It was a very relaxed and unserious way of saying it, that being, "What was it again? Ah, that's right. Henshin." What I envisioned was a system where the Bakemagnum is activated through the input of a vocal keyword at the end like, "I said it because I had to say it." "Henshin" is a very important word for Kamen Riders, and I think it's one that even evil Riders cherish. However, the man called Suga would never cherish it (laughs). For Suga, the use of his transformation item and the way he says "Henshin" isn't a cool signature phrase, but are instead just "a part of the process." Therefore, I thought about how much I could do to create a transformation that would be unsuitable for NichiAsa. When I demonstrated it in front of the Producer, he said, "Uwah, that's scary," so I felt that this was the right thing to do.

"To begin with, how did you prepare for the role of Suga?"

Asanuma: I expanded upon the image I got from the script and added things like, "He can't take a hint." Suga isn't a "suspicious monster," but rather a "freak with significantly low interest regarding people." For example, when Hanto tells him that his mother was kidnapped in episode 4, before he empathizes with his painful situation, he's more interested in the fact that she was taken alive and not as a Human Press. He's lacking sensibility, and he couldn't help but quickly ask, "That was how many years ago?" without lowering the tone of his voice. I'm conscious of making him the kind of "guy you don't want to open up to as much as possible." Out of all the characters in Gavv, I think he's by far the least trusted by the viewers (laughs).

"Did the Directors or staff give you any orders for the creation of your role?"

Asanuma: One day, I found a note tucked inside the script explaining Suga's past and background. It was by Scriptwriter Komura-san, and she wrote about how Suga isn't simply just a mad scientist and why he's so obsessed with Hanto. However, I was given this just before filming of episode 27. I was shocked and was like, "Is now the time for this?!" (laughs). That said, I also felt that the image of Suga that I had created up to this point wasn't wrong, so even if I had received the note earlier, I don't think it would've made much difference. Sadly, Suga was defeated, so I don't know if the contents of the note will be depicted in a future work, but I hope it'll be revealed in something like a spin off.

"Did you have meetings with Bake's Suit Actor Kitamura Kai-san?"

Asanuma: I have a mutual acquaintance with Kai-san, so I greeted him and we exchanged LINES when he was playing Otake (the Mushroom Granute) in episodes 5 and 6. Before filming for Bake, I gave him a voice message saying, "This is how I'd read this line," and he would listen to it and perform the post transformation version of it. Therefore, I have the impression that the two of us created Bake's performance together. Also, we both have similar heights and are left handed. I was surprised by this wonderful coincidence, and at the same time, I was excited to think that he'd be able to naturally portray my transformed self.

"Asanuma-san, you've appeared many times as a Voice Actor in tokusatsu productions, but how was post recording for Gavv?"

Asanuma: I didn't think that Suga was the kind of guy who'd go, "Hah!" or "Oriya!," so even during battle, I would say rough, casual lines like, "How about this?" or "Let's stop doing that. It's unsightly~." I was just talking the whole time. Hide and Yusuke, who were watching, were shocked and said, "It's okay to record so liberally?!" I panicked and said, "No, no, this is because it's Suga! You guys aren't allowed to imitate me!" (laughs).

"We've been asking everyone involved with Gavv, but what's Asanuma-san's favorite sweet?"

Asanuma: I like anything, but I think I eat snack (crispy) items most often. By the way, Bake uses a chocolate chip cookie Gochizou, but an anime I appeared in not that long ago called "Promise of Wizard" collaborated with "Aunt Stella's Cookies" and ran a campaign in which the characters from the anime refer to their favorite cookies. At that time, I played the character Owen, and he recommended their chocolate chip cookies. For almost four months now, I've been thinking, "I want to tell everyone about this coincidence!" I finally got my chance to tell you about it (laughs).

"Finally, please give a message to our readers."

Asanuma: Will Nyelv-kun read it?

"No, direct it towards our readers (laughs)."

Asanuma: Ah, sorry (laughs)……To be honest, I'd like to use this opportunity to apologize. Up until now, I've been asked many times by friends and the other actors around me, "Will Suga transform?" We weren't at the stage yet where I could talk about it, so I kept saying, "I can't, I can't. I'm doing my best not to make my exit."…….Everyone, forgive me! I did transform!……Hah~ I feel relieved! Finally, I'm free now (laughs). And then, to all the fans who support Shouma and Hanto and their friends. I'm truly sorry for making you feel uneasy up until now……or maybe, thank you if you did feel uneasy. Kenzo Suga's role was to stir up Gavv's story, so it'd make me happy if you've been watching Suga with that feeling in mind. Now that the selfish, psycho, and annoying being that was Suga has been defeated, who will your fear and anger be directed towards now? How about Nyelv-kun? Nyelv-kun! You'll have to take care of the rest! (laughs). It wasn't quite the image of Kamen Rider that I had envisioned from my childhood, but I'm proud that I was able to leave my mark on the show. I'd like to go to my father's grave and report this to him. I'll say, "I know it's different from what you remember, but I transformed into a Kamen Rider." _

Action Director Fujita Satoshi

"You've worked as a performer in many productions up until now, but what made you decide to become an Action Director?"

Fujita: I'm short, and when I first started working in this field, I was told by those around me that "it'd be difficult to continue working as an action actor when I'm this short, and that I should consider a different career path." That's why I started helping Watanabe Jun-san, who also went from being a performer to an Action Director with "Kamen Rider Zero-One," and starting around "Saber," I helped edit video storyboards (storyboards made with moving pictures), and from there, my vision for being an Action Director grew. After that, Producer Minato, who's also a close friend of mine, hired me as the Action Director for "Kamen Rider Outsiders," and that came to be the stepping stone for where I am now. The presence of Director Nakazawa and Producer Takebe, who selected me as the Action Director for "Kamen Rider Geats" TV series, was also very important.

"What exactly does the job of an Action Director entail?"

Fujita: In some cases, I'll think about the direction, and once I've thought about it, I'll go as far as to say, "I'll request a crane on this day, and will arrange the amount of people needed to assist the action staff on that day." It feels like I spend more time on paperwork. However, maybe it's just the way I spend my time. Director Kamihoriuchi has an incredibly sophisticated way of doing things, and he manages to do them skilfully and smoothly. I'd like to learn from him. Looking back on it now, I've loved music videos since I was a teenager, so when I was listening to the music, I'd think about the shots and direction in my head. So, maybe I had the desire to become a Director even back then. I still have a desire to shoot music videos, and perhaps that's connected to the fact that I tend to create catchy scenes when I'm filming action.

"Please tell us how you became the Action Director for the final episode of "Kamen Rider Revice."

Fujita: Sites like "Wikipedia" say that I worked with Jun-san as an Action Director for the final episode of Revice, but in reality, I only directed the scene where Kan Hideyoshi-kun from Geats appears. All he did was encounter and speak with Igarashi Ikki in front of the bathhouse, so I didn't really do that much as an Action Director.

"So Geats was your debut as an Action Director for a TV series. Now then, how did you get the offer for Gavv?"

Fujita: I was approached by Producer Takebe, who had also helped me with Geats. At that point, it was packed with tons of original ideas, and I personally felt that it was really interesting. Once the script's setting and plot were completed, I was surprised to find that despite its poppin appearance, the details of the story were very harsh. Shouma's life growing up is also quite tragic.

"What do you keep in mind when filming this work?"

Fujita: This isn't just for Gavv, but I'm always conscious of creating actions based on a person's background and personality, rather than the impression I get from their appearance. That's why I wanted to forget about Gavv's heroic design for a moment, and instead create a wild stance and fighting style for him that reflects his origins where "a Granute is a monster." I discussed this with Gavv's Suit Actor Nawata Yuya-san, and we came up with the style you see now. We of course didn't disregard the design, rather, we calculated the advantages of "the gap between that design and the wild actions."

"How did you think of Valen's actions so that they'd be in contrast to the wild Gavv?"

Fujita: At first, I imagined Valen as a cool character, but when I read the scripts for episodes 5 and 6, in which he fights an enemy as a Kamen Rider for the first time, I got the impression that he was more desperate to bear his fangs than be cool. Director Morota agreed with me on this. Also, unlike how Shouma's from the Granute world, Hanto was just an ordinary human before he underwent the remodification surgery, right? Based on this, I decided to create a character who'd be loved by the viewers for being "not super strong," but "passionate and reliable."

"It was shocking to see Valen get crushed by Glotta in his second appearance."

Fujita: I was also shocked and said, "How can he get the shit kicked out of him during his second battle?!" (laughs). However, Director Sugihara wanted to make Glotta an overwhelmingly strong character, so I understood, thinking, "If that's the case, then it's alright for Valen to suffer." Still, in episodes 7 and 8, Valen's Suit Actor Kaji also did jumping scenes, and Valen had many cool stunt like highlights, which made him really cool.

"What about Vram, the tertiary Kamen Rider?"

Fujita: I also discussed with Suit Actor Eitoku-san on how to express the character who comes after the wild Gavv and the passionate Valen. In fact, Gavv's "wildness" and Valen's "passionate ruggedness" are similar in some ways, so we decided on a "downer but cool type," as it was an attribute that neither Rider had. At first, I thought of him using a fighting style called "pudding kenpo," in which the Rider is always shaking while fighting, as it would take advantage of the "pudding Rider" and "jellyfish motif the Granute transforms from" setup. I came up with various ideas and also created video storyboards, but in the end, they were rejected (laughs). The only thing that remained was the "knee sliding into a yankii sitting pose" scene, which was used to agitate Valen. That was a move that I had been cooking up since the beginning. As a result, I decided on his fighting style by expanding upon that move.

"Please tell us about their opponent, Kamen Rider Bitter Gavv."

Fujita: Bitter Gavv wasn't that strong when he first appeared, as he leaves the scene after Vram puts enough pressure on him. Nevertheless, I thought about adding in a variety of fun elements. When I think up actions, I try to include elements that'll make people "want to imitate them." Therefore, Bitter Gavv was given a distinctive stance, and I also included the scenes where his joints dislocate during battle. If those who watch the program think, "That's cool~, I wanna dislocate my joints too," then I'll have succeeded (laughs). You really shouldn't dislocate them! For scenes where his joints dislocate, Suit Actor Nakata-kun and I discussed, "Wouldn't it look more detached if we did it this way?," and I created a video storyboard. Chinen Hidekazu-kun's performance as Dark Shouma was also really good.

"For this series, Gavv is made up of a small number of regular characters and Riders, but wasn't it difficult to create multiple Riders in a production like Geats?"

Fujita: I always think in terms of "this person is likely to do that," but on the flip side, I'll create their personalities by subtracting things that "this person wouldn't be able to do." I'll explain this directing method to the Suit Actors and ask them to come up with their own personalities. That way, I'm sometimes able to make use of the ideas they come up with as they are, use them later once they've grown, or maybe I'll use them for another character.

"Please tell us what you're conscious of in terms of the Granute characters that appear in each episode."

Fujita: I also try to take the beliefs and personal lives of the grunts and monsters into consideration. Tokusatsu works don't often delve into those kinds of aspects for the monsters, but……as an example, I think that a monster with hammers for arms lives a life of their own with those hammers. I'm a fan of Ghibli productions, and the worlds that Miyazaki Hayao-san depicts have a sense of reality within the fantasy. In a similar way, I believe that fantasy creatures like monsters can be made more convincing by presenting their beliefs, and when that happens, viewers will become more invested in the monster and show. I think the mood of the Agents performances is a particularly important part of showing Gavv's worldview.

"For the "reality in the form of fantasy," what exactly did you want to express?"

Fujita: For example, when a Rider pulls out a weapon, even though nothing should be there, they'll often pull it out from behind their backs or from out of frame, but I didn't want to do that. Therefore, I made sure that the Gavvgablade that Gavv uses comes out of the mouth on his stomach. Doing it like this increases the level of reality within the fantasy, don't you think? I think it'll get the viewers excited and invested in it. At the same time, it's also possible to create a "subtractive" direction like, "If the mouth is covered, the weapon can't come out."

"Are there any impressive action scenes that you've directed so far?"

Fujita: This is relevant to what I said before, but ever since the Gavvgablade first appeared, it just popped out of the mouth on his stomach, but I'm sure those watching must've thought, "I wish it came out looking cooler." The first time I made that look cool was in episode 11, when the sword flies out of the belt and hits an Agent. If I cut out that scene, the impression would've been something like, "Well, it's still interesting," but I think those who watched it were moved by their desire to see the "sword come out in a cool way." I like scenes that are created by build ups like those.

"In that episode, a highlight was the battle scene where they fight while knocking over the vending machine."

Fujita: Nawata-san and I both did our best in episode 11, but Director Kamihoriuchi did an amazing job of preparing things. Immediately after the script was finished, we received an order for "the battle to have these kinds of vibes," and it was decided that we'd construct a back alley set instead of filming on location. We prepared vending machines and outdoor units for the shoot, and then were subsequently given the order, "Since we can use the difference in elevation, can you think of some actions to take advantage of this?" I made about three video storyboards and had thorough discussions, and I exchanged ideas with the Director, where we came up with some interesting scenes, such as knocking over a vending machine and dropping an outdoor unit.

"Gavv uses lots of CG effects, but how do you shoot action scenes that use CG compositing?"

Fujita: Green screen filming techniques are common now, but it's still difficult to construct a scene from the script and have the entire film staff understand it. In my case, I'll discuss things with the Director, create a video stroyboard, and then think about the angles we want to shoot from and figure out what filming method to use. Along with it being easier to understand than verbal communication, we're also more likely to share opinions such as, "If that's the case, then maybe this is a better way to do it."

"The action of fighting by grabbing onto onomatopoeia words such as "munyu" is a direction unique to Gavv."

Fujita: That was shot on site using wire action, and then the letters for "munyu" would be added in post. I love wire action.

"Please tell us about any challenges you've experienced during filming so far."

Fujita: There have been so many challenges, that I don't know which one to talk about (laughs). What I'd like to say is that I've seen people on SNS say that, "Gavv started filming early, so it's nice that they have plenty of leeway," but because we started filming early, the deadline is also early, so there's really no time to spare. Toei's currently in the process of changing the filming schedule in order to "start preparations and filming early so they can create a good production." This policy will be very good for the coming future, but Gavv is stuck in the middle of this transitional period, so we're still exploring some things. The film staff and cast have been working hard despite such a schedule due to all the fans who look forward to the broadcasts.

"Will you no longer work as a Suit Actor in the future?"

Fujita: I do one offs every now and again, but balancing major roles like I used to do with being an Action Director is difficult. When I was working as a Suit Actor, moments where the character I was playing shined or gained depth felt rewarding. Still, I think the Action Director that I am now has more authority over giving depth to characters. I don't have a particular preference for one over another, but right now, as an Action Director, I'm excited about making Gavv and Valen and their friends shine. I'm doing everything I can to make it exciting for the children in front of the screens, the adult fans, and for Sugita-san, the Writer for Uchusen's "Detail of Heroes."

"Sugita-san too?! (laughs)."

Fujita: Sometimes when I'm directing, I'll think, "Sugita-san, you'll probably like this angle," or "Sugita-san! You'll be able to see the details here" (laughs).

"That's an honor. We'll pass this on to him. Finally, please tell us Fujita-san's favorite sweet."

Fujita: If I had to choose, I'd say it's "uirou." It's not a specialty from my hometown or anything like that, I just prefer uirou to yokan.

"Now then, please give a message to all the Gavv fans."

Fujita: Many people have said, "this Rider is my favorite," but I hope that the action was the deciding factor in making them their "favorite." The film staff and action team are working together, and we're doing our best to deliver you beautiful action, so please continue to support us!

[the-harvest-system]

excuse us being a mega hater lately

but

PEOPLE SAYING ANTI-ENDOS DON'T HURT PEOPLE IRL??? ARE SO FUCKING WRONG

Okay rest of post under the cut bc it has some triggering topics (sh) and might come across as vent-ish (it really is a rage filled tirade) but this is why ANTI ENDOS AND SYSMEDS ARE HARMFUL!!! BC OF COURSE THEY FUCKING ARE!!!

Okay so:

We started having suspicions of us being a system around April 2023. At that point, most of our interactions with systems were via systok, and sys-inclusive fandom servers. Now, before that time we experienced things that we now, looking back, know were definitely because of our plurality. But we only started finally NOTICING those behaviors around April. The thought that it could be plurality floated around in our head for a bit, but we stopped thinking about it until July. That's when the current host started hearing bits of conversations in headspace, and even replied sometimes. 2023 was a rough year for us (as all years from 2019 - 2023 were) but during that time, a long period of traumatic experiences from 2022 were still fresh in our minds. That's why, when the aforementioned host went on a DID research rabbit hole, due to said rough patch, when they stumbled upon tons of sysmeds saying that the experiences required to become a system had to be SO traumatic, you couldn't even function after them, and other such misinformation, the host decided that, no, we definitely aren't a system, because we're not FUCKING CATATONIC OR SOMETHING after our trauma (they forgot about the 2 week period after getting out of said traumatic experiences that we spent in bed, barely moving and talking).

So the host then had a mental breakdown, because they decided if we're not a system then we're "delusional and going insane" (direct-ish quote, we were stupid about mental health back then). I'm not going into details, bc the breakdown was NOT FUN!! We still have the scars, healed as they are.

Anyway this caused us to have really bad mental health the entire rest of 2023 and and not realize we actually ARE a system until early January 2024. (Also hey, syscovery anniversary!! Can't believe it's already been a year!! :D)

Yeah so next time I hear someone say that sysmeds and anti endos aren't harmful I'm gonna spit on that persons face (virtually) (or maybe irl if i meet someone like that irl) (I'm only slightly exaggerating) (only slightly)

[fauning]

Someone get this guy a donut‼️

Me as Vash and @radio-venom as Wolfwood ft our very demanding and cumbersome daughter the punisher. These cosplays were a bit of a challenge especially since I haven’t really cosplayed in years but I’m glad I went for it and ended up completing them in time for the con! Of course there’s tons of things I would have done differently now that I’ve finished but isn’t that the unending joy of cosplay lol. Overall we had loads of fun and everyone thought we looked cool so that’s what matters <3 the Vash outfit is inspired by the manga panels where he’s wearing only his under armor without his coat, although I did style the wig in accordance with ‘23 Vash’s design, so this look is a bit of a mashup. Also @radio-venom did an amazing job on the painting and detail work, I could never have gotten the metal texture that good myself! I haven’t worked on cosplays as a team before but it’s so much easier to work together and play to each other’s strengths <3

[ynscrazylife]

Eek! Yay!

So since I'm just a few episodes ahead I'm just going to keep it kind of vague. What do you think of a younger sister whose just a little younger than Sam? Dean practically raising her and so they're super close but when Sam leaves for college their dad decides that maybe the hunter life isn't the best for his daughter so he leaves her behind with a family friend. Imagine the angst and abandonment issues (def not me) like after Dean picks up Sam he tracks down his younger sister he hasn't seen in like a year and she just never gave up hunting so now she's actually pretty good at it? Can you imagine how awkward that reunion would be?? Maybe they're hunting down a monster together or something??

Sorry, this isn't exactly a scenario so much as my own personal idea for a backstory? I don't know but if you like it or you want something else let me know cause there's tons more that are similar or completely different from this one 😏

Great minds think alike cause I kinda had an idea in mind where Dean and Sam meet up with their sister through a hunt! This is a little different than what you put in the ask tho, so I hope that’s alright. I also feel like there is enough for a part 2 so I could end up adding to this! And this would be a fun OC concept to make 👀 if anyone wants that.

a reunion for the ages (dean & sam winchester x sister!reader)

The thing that makes this entire situation, what your life has become, so backwards and twisted is that at first, you didn’t actually want to hunt. You wanted to go to college, like Sam. You weren’t even that much younger than him and in his first year, he seemed to love it. But when your time rolled around, you didn’t get into Stanford.

Yes, there were other colleges that accepted you, but you really wanted to be with your big brother. The rejection hit you hard and as a result (and needing a distraction), you threw yourself into hunting. You became careless and reckless and instead of talking with you about it, your dad made a decision for you: that you weren’t cut out for hunting. He left you and took Dean with him.

When Dean realized what was going on, he of course tried to stop his dad. They got into a pretty bad fight over it. But he was a stubborn man and he refused to go back for you. Dean tried calling you, but thinking that he was in on it with Dad, you refused to pick up. You kept in touch with Sam for a little while, but the both of you got busy as time went on, and the weekly calls stopped.

A few years later, Dean and Sam have hit the road, intent on finding Dad. The backseat of the Impala, which was usually occupied by you, is empty.

“I thought if I gave you some time you might bring it up yourself, but dude, are we picking up Y/N or not?” Sam asks finally, no longer wanting to beat around the bush about it. He knows about Dad and Dean leaving you behind, but assumes that at some point you would’ve made up with them.

“She shouldn’t be involved in this,” Dean says resolutely, keeping his eye on the road ahead, firmly gripping the steering wheel.

“You had no problem involving me in this,” Sam points out, trying not to sound upset over it. There was a small part of him that wonders if he hadn’t gone with Dean, would he’ve been able to save Jess? Still, he knows that he went willingly, and that he could’ve said no.

“You know how to hunt and fight. The last time I saw Y/N hunt . . . Trust me, it didn’t go well,” Dean mutters, definitely not in the mood to have this conversation.

“Shouldn’t we at least let her know what’s going on with Dad?” Sam suggests, now more curious about what happened between you and Dean and Dad. You never gave many details about it.

“Have at it, if she’ll pick up,” Dean says, throwing one hand in the air. He’s trying to play it off as if he doesn’t care, but he does. He misses you.

Sam tries but, as Dean predicted, you don’t answer. Over the next couple days, they get wrapped up into a case where they suspect an angry ghost is the perpetrator, going after the people that they blame for their death. Thankfully they’re able to find the object that the ghost is attached to, a music box. What they don’t expect, however, is to be dealing with a ghost possessing someone. It’s a chef, to be exact, which leads them to their current situation: fighting the possessed chef in his kitchen.

“Sam, a little help here?!” Dean yells, fist-fighting the enraged chef, who looks a little ridiculous in his white chef’s hat.

“I don’t have any iron! Or salt!” Sam yells back, rummaging through his bag in search of something, anything, that might help.

Suddenly, someone runs into the room from behind the guy and jumps on his back. It’s a woman, with a bat in her hand. As the guy stumbles back, she hits him in the head repeatedly, until the guy throws her off his back and onto the table. The woman smacks him again with the bat, then gets salt from out of her pocket, and throws it at him. The ghost is expelled from his body and he drops to the floor.

Dean and Sam exchange looks, wondering who the hell she is.

The ghost isn’t done yet, though. It lifts the woman into the air and lets her drop onto the table, which cracks. She falls onto the floor and the ghost lunges for her, disappearing and now possessing her. Dean and Sam prepare themselves for another fight, only to both freeze when the woman stands up and turns around.

It’s their sister. Their little sister, who’s meant to be enjoying a hunt-free life. There’s a gash on her forehead which is leaking blood down her face and within seconds, she’s lunging at Sam.

He falls back, not sure what to do. If this were anyone else being possessed, he’d fight back, but he doesn’t want to hurt you.

“Y/N, Y/N, c’mon!” He yells, doing his best to dodge your hits.

Dean runs around and grabs you in a bear-hug, pinning your arms to your sides. He drags you back, even as you thrash. “Get some salt, Sam!” He says, struggling to manage you.

“I told you, I don’t have any!” Sam repeats, frustrated.

“It’s a KITCHEN!” Dean practically screams.

While Sam looks for salt, you twist out of Dean’s arms. The two of you go at it but eventually, Dean’s able to get you down on the ground. He feels bad about pressing his knee on your abdomen, holding your arms down, but he has to keep you there.

“I found a salt shaker,” Sam says, kneeling down by your head. “We gotta destroy the music box, though, before the ghost possesses one of us.”

“Alright, do it, but give me the salt,” Dean says, moving your arms above your head and holding your wrists with one hand. With his other, he takes the salt and has to pry your jaw open to pour the salt in your mouth.

You cough and splutter, but Dean forces your mouth to close until you’ve swallowed the salt. Finally, the ghost leaves your body. Dean throws the salt shaker to Sam, who salts the music box before chucking it into the oven.

“Alright, Y/N, we gotta go,” Dean says, throwing one of your arms over his shoulders and pulling you to your feet.

All you can do is lean against him and mumble your brother’s name, your head spinning.

Sam grabs the chef and the four of you stumble out the back exit. Sam lays the chef on the ground and calls the fire department, then you guys make your getaway in Dean’s car.

“I’m staying with her,” Sam decides, sitting in the backseat with you while Dean starts to drive.

“Sam . . . Dean? What’re you doing here?” You ask as Sam tends to your head with the first aid kit that they keep in the car. You can hardly believe that you’re really with your brothers again.

“Could ask you the same question, kid. Sammy and I were hunting that ghost,” Dean says, speeding up a little to get to the motel faster.

“So was I,” you say. Your head feels far too heavy to hold up on your own right now so you let it lean against Sam’s shoulder.

“What?” The brothers ask in unison. They weren’t sure what answer they were expecting but it wasn’t that.

“Been hunting ever since you and Dad left, Dean,” you tell them. Even though you are in pain, you don’t miss the beat of silence that follows.

“You were pretty good back there,” Sam compliments, ruffling your hair a bit. With your head wound bandaged up, he slings his arm around you for the rest of the drive.

Dean is quiet, his fingers thumping against the steering wheel, until the three of you arrive at the motel. Sam helps you out and lays you down on his bed. “I’ll be right back, gonna get you an ice pack,” he says, going to the mini ridge.

Dean sits across from you on his own bed, sighing. “How are you feeling?” He asks.

“Like I got thrown onto a table . . . Oh wait, I did,” you answer sarcastically, mustering up a smile.

Sam returns, giving you the ice pack and then sitting next to Dean. He glances between his siblings, sensing some tension. “Do you two need to . . . Talk or something?” He asks.

“You’ve really been hunting this whole time?” Dean asks you, still in a bit of disbelief.

You nod. “I got my act together after Dad . . . After you and Dad left. I wanted to prove him wrong,” you explain, shrugging. “Where is he, anyway?”

Sam and Dean exchange a look. “We don’t know. We’ve been hunting and hoping to find him in the process,” Sam says.

You nod slowly. Your dad taking off isn’t that uncommon, but it is uncommon to see your brothers hunting together. “I’ll get out of your hair soon,” you mumble, not sure that they wanted you around.

“Woah, wait. There’s no rush. Sam was right, you were pretty good back there . . . We could use your help,” Dean says. He’s not going to let you go so easily this time around.

“Really?” You say, a little surprised. You sit up in bed, taking the ice pack off your forehead.

“Yes. And keep that on,” Dean says quickly, taking the ice pack from you and pressing it to your wound himself. He moves to sit down next to you, making you roll your eyes, but you don’t argue. It’s kinda nice to have him helping you out, he’s always been protective over you and Sam.

“The Three Musketeers, all back together again,” Sam jokes, just to annoy you both.

“Is it too late to back out now?” You ask.

“Yes,” the brothers say. You’re in too deep now, Dean and Sam aren’t letting you go again.

[softpine]

So this might be a weird question. Do they have sex? Neither of them seem inclined

RIGHT WELL ABOUT THAT.... there are a ton of things i had intentions to write but probably wouldn't have gathered the courage to post because they ended up becoming far too personal for me. and frankly i don't think people were ready to read and be compassionate about this specific plot line, which was a huge problem because it was so personal to me. i don't want to go into detail, but it had a lot to do with intrusive thoughts. i realized that i couldn't portray that in the specific way i wanted to using this visual medium. i was terrified that my meaning would be misconstrued considering the topic is already so misunderstood by those who haven't experienced it. basically, i wrote myself into a corner by setting up this plot line and then realizing i actually am sooo not ready to share this with the world.

but i can still answer your question!! the short answer is yes, sometimes.

the long answer is that casper is ace, but for many reasons, you wouldn't hear him use that language himself. he wholeheartedly believes his complicated feelings about intimacy stem from OCD (oh yeah idk if this will be surprising to anyone, but i was in the process of saddling him with that 😌), and who his biological father is and knowing he shares his genetics, and also due to the way he was raised (mikaela may have been really good about teaching safe sex, but she was also a young mom who gave him an extreme fear of pregnancy lmao). it's hard to make sense of these outside factors and how they relate to inherent sexual attraction, and well, honestly... casper is not the type of person to investigate his feelings in this way. as he gets closer with coco and things start heading towards a relationship, he tells her that sex isn't his thing. he likes all the other parts about being in a relationship, he just wishes sex didn't have to be part of it.

she doesn't believe him at first and thinks that he's just using this as some kind of manipulation tactic. given her trust issues and the experiences she's had throughout her life and her career, she genuinely can't imagine that any man would want to be in a relationship without sex – specifically with her, as she has a hard time viewing herself as valuable outside of her sex appeal. neither of them are particularly good at communicating their feelings, so they end their already tenuous relationship and go back to being friends. but with time she realizes he's being honest. it makes her think about what she actually likes & doesn't like about sex. for her, it's a foregone conclusion, something she does even when she'd rather be doing something else, and the times she's enjoyed herself the most are when she's alone (truly alone, not in front of a camera) or when sex is the vehicle by which she can get closer to someone.

later, when they do get together, coco makes it clear that she's fulfilled with the relationship as it is, but that if he wanted to try it, she wouldn't make it a big deal. she knows better than anyone what it feels like to have sex with someone she's not sexually attracted to. it can still be fun, feel good, strengthen bonds, etc. and of course they would stop if it wasn't working out. this is something casper never got from the other people he's been with, no matter how understanding they tried to be. it's the first time he doesn't feel like he's being left out of a joke, or that he has a ton of expectations to live up to. so it does work for them sometimes! just not super often. but everyone's needs are being met and no one is getting pressured so it's all good :)

obligatory disclaimer: this is only representing the experiences of two individuals, this is not meant to be a representation of all asexual people, or all sex workers, or all people with trauma, etc.

[billieeilishshusband]

She had chances to be with tons of people, but she choice you to be attracted to. It was coachella, A bunch of famous artists were there of course Billie Eilish was invited and bunch other singers. While Doja was performing a bunch of singers were sat at a few couches. The couches were slightly uncomfortable they were like circling each other while straight. I have to honest watching the TV and talking to everyone was slightly boring. Billie was sat next to me in fact it was only us to on the couch facing the tv the other two couches were packed. My eyes were slowly closing while my arms were crossed, and my legs were quite open. I bobbed my while closing my eyes, I tilted my head sideways falling my head on her shoulder. During the period I was asleep for I liked Billie more than anyone here and it felt amazing meeting her. My eyes were slowly closing while my arms were crossed, and my legs were quite open. I bobbed my while closing my eyes, I tilted my head sideways falling my head on her shoulder. During the period I was asleep for I liked Billie more than anyone here and it felt amazing meeting her. I met Finneas before,, but it was only a few talks. He knew that I liked Billie. It was quite clear. My eyes were slowly closing while my arms were crossed, and my legs were quite open. I bobbed my while closing my eyes, I tilted my head sideways falling into Billie more than anyone here and it felt amazing meeting her. I met Finneas before, but it was only a few talks. He knew that I liked Billie. It was quite clear. My eyes were slowly closing while my arms were crossed, and my legs were quite open. I bobbed my I liked Billie more than anyone here and it felt amazing meeting her. My eyes were slowly closing while my arms were crossed and my legs were quite open. I bobbed my head sideways and fell my head on her shoulder. During the period of me being asleep Billie took quite quick notice to me falling asleep on her. She wasn’t annoyed or weirded out like most people probably would. I felt so warm with her. She noticed my movement, she gently turned her head detailing my features. She started stroking my short curly hair while speaking about random stuff. So they were all getting blankets and pillows. She moved her body making sure not to move too much. You had your head moved to her chest. She was still slightly sitting up, her blonde hair now messys. omehow although you were taller than her your body curled up right against Billie. Your face buried into her chest while she moved her head to be right above your head. The next morning I woke up before the others. I gently moved before realising who it was that was wrapped around my body. I felt so warm so I wasn’t planning on moving but I was still wanting to know. It was the cute blondie, Billie Eilish. I laid back down and I grabbed my phone from my pocket. Opening Instagram and I clicked on someone randoms story and it was a bunch of videos of Coachella and Doja Cat preforming. While going through peoples story I stopped at Lana’s. It was a photo of Billie laughing while stroking my hair, I was surprised. I screenshotted the story and also reposted it on my story adding a few hearts. I saw Billie post a story and it was another photo of us two and then a reposted video of her sleeping while hugging me. I was tagged or else I would of posted it on my story “Oh morning YN” she sat up and faced me “You fell asleep early” She chuckled standing up to straight “Yeah I saw some stories on Insta and sorry for sleeping all over you and probably drooling on you” I chuckled at the end of the sentence. “No it was cute” She said chuckling. “You know Billie- if your ever free- would you like to maybe hang out or go out? I know that's sudden but I never feel comfortable like I did.” I said standing up and facing her. she started chuckling at first I thought she was about to make fun of me “Yes I would love that”

im sorry i had to cut parts so if some parts dont make sense thats whyyy

[tecceran]

@sekaitransparents 1 year anniversary bingo event!

ੈ✩ prompts: crossover + shuffle unit + best card set ‧₊˚

【 xenoblade 3 themed card edits 】

machina!nene + (half) high entia!toya

gormotti!airi + tantalese!honami

╰┈➤ free to use with credit!

* . °•★|•°∵ credit + my bingo card + my thoughts + no background versions under cut! ∵°•|☆•° . *

transparents by @/sekaitransparents of course!

‣ the person with the xenoblade 3 themed profile choosing to do a xenoblade 3 themed crossover? whaaaat?

‣ if you know nothing about xenoblade (which i assume is most people) this probably won’t make a ton of sense, but i nonetheless am going to explain my thoughts

‣ machina!nene is probably pretty obvious bc of the robonene connection. since she already has purple eyes i pulled colors from mwamba, and combined the metal plating + light details from him and lanz. had to do the silver/white hair

‣ i will admit high entia!toya was done partly just so i could make his headwings two different colors to match his hair. he did have a kinda bird-themed set tho, so i think it fits. plus the fancy rich classical musician just feels very high entia. tho being a half-blood high entia actually doesn’t feel fitting of toya’s father but by 3 you’re lucky to be a high entia with medium headwings and they were already a nightmare to figure out rendering at this size

‣ gormotti!airi was again kinda obvious. she’d want to be a cat girl. and i based her ears more on nia + her family so the trans metaphor theme continues. gormotti designs are actually wildly varied with how “animalistic” they are, and then you throw nia in, and without getting into spoilers, her ears are more back-facing than other gormotti so it’s just all over the place

‣ tantalese!honami was kinda just a vibes/for variety’s sake thing. i can’t recall rn if there are any distinctly tantalese (or urayan for that matter) characters in 3, but logistically there should be, so i decided it’s more fun this way.

‣ i happened to have a online music group (ie, nightcord-esq) swap unit with these four and 3/4 of them were featured in this card set (which as stand alone art is one of my favs) so i decided on these four! i could (and might) do more/all characters at some point (it would have to wait till my winter break, i’m so swamped with school rn 😓😓) since i already have plans for everyone (except VSs). i wanted each of the the units to have an even kevesi/agnian split, and it ended up working out that the first two and latter two characters in each pjsk group worked as an kevesi + agnian pair, so they could all be ouroboros pairs, too! (i wonder, would that make the VSs moebius?)

[sepal-sea]

I don't think zepotha is actually bad in the way ppl (on tumblr) think it is.

Ok so goncharov functions pretty much exactly like a real movie might. Chances are, if you weren't given context to the meme, you would legitimately think this obscure homoerotic mafia movie rocketed to internet fame by shipping obsessed tumblrites was real, because it's totally plausible! It's not a shallow meme either, people legitimately posted about it in the in-depth and realistic way an online fandom would post about it, even disagreeing or having bad takes about it. Goncharov is basically the acting-out of any other tumblr fandom but now with a movie that doesn't exist. Because tumblr is a text-based platform it's really easy to line out this kind of analysis and fan behavior, and to agree on an accepted canon. Goncharov is remarkably centralized, and bits of "canon" rarely go against each other, and instead add to each other. You could easily make a real movie out of the accepted canon.

Zepotha, meanwhile, shows only the most shallow understanding of it's genre or potential fanbase. It's all "you look like this girl" and "this reminds me of this scene". It doesn't feel like a legitimate fanbase. But I think that's not inaccurate to how things that are popular on tiktok function. An obscure horror movie rocketed to tiktok fame would one hundred percent have a fandom largedly composed of only the most surface-level, visual aspects of it (of course with a small group of freaks posting the most insanely detailed videos ever about it). In that way, the trick functions exactly as intended. Also, with tiktok being a video-based platform that is of course going to predispose ppl to the most visual elements of fan culture. That's not the main reason zepotha is worse though, because videos about zepotha were not actually the main form of content on tiktok. Commenting was. Even though zepotha SHOULD be more centralized, as it WAS actually organized by one person, it's not, precisely because it was based around commenting and spreading the meme. This makes it hard to find a solid line of "canon", as comments are attached to videos which are basically impossible to neatly string together and follow along with. That's why there was so much conflicting confirmation; there were a bunch of different "the girl"s in zepotha, a ton of different "the scene"s, but anything past that was unexplored. this is the reason I think that zepotha is worse, but it's also not really anyone's fault-this would have happened due to the medium no matter what. I still think it was really cool and fun how people decided to join in on this meme, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that it was being used to market a song. I appreciate the purity of goncharov as a labor of love, but I also don't think zepotha being a marketing scheme automatically makes it bad. Artists need all the help they can get, and it's nice that this person managed to make a viral meme that actually helped their song, entirely based on a fake horror movie bit. I probably would have thought zepotha was really funny and cool if goncharov didn't already exist (and was way better).

TLDR: it's not zepotha's fault it's worse than goncharov, it's tiktok's fault. Also, zepotha isn't even that bad, it's just not as good as goncharov, and we're overly defensive bc we see it as a cheap knockoff

[s-che]

The Dream Library: Apocalypse World 2

The Dream Library had our second Apocalypse World one-shot earlier this week, ending out the end of a month of talking about D. Vincent and Meguey Baker’s game of high octane apocalyptica. Next month, we'll be continuing our semester of PBTA one-shots and book-club discussions with two excellent historical games: Night Witches and Sagas of the Icelanders.

If you'd like to get in on the discussion and maybe even sign up for a one-shot, shoot me a message -- we'd love to have you.

As with the last play report, I want to open by making two things absolutely clear:

Apocalypse World is a sicknasty game that deserves to get played way more often than it does, especially by people who are working and playing in a design lineage which has been forever altered by Meg and Vincent’s work.

Apocalypse World is a game done absolutely dirty by short-term play, a fact which came out way harder in this session than it did the first time round. We had a ton of fun, of course — but the fact that our play was capped at the 3-hour mark meant we barely scratched the surface of what this game can do. 

This time, I ran the game following Vincent Baker’s advice on running Apocalypse World in a con slot, which helped a lot — and still didn’t scratch the itch I have to play this game and only this game for the next hundred or so years. Most notably, we ended up dividing play into two micro-sessions — meaning we got to turn our bio-break into a narrative breather as well and flex some of the game’s “long-term” rules. I’ve broken my thoughts up here by session, which felt appropriate.

Session 1: A Desert Landscape

I had no idea where the session was going to start when we settled down to play — beyond the fact that I was going to open in media res with someone (the answer ended up being my first volunteer, @tormentedbyvisions) in a very bad spot. Details came quickly when we looked for them — a collapsing office tower and glimpses of a desert landscape out the broken windows, dotted with more towers in the distance. Goldman (The Savvyhead, any pronouns), an elderly survivor who, as it turned out, loved nothing more than telling people lies about the world as it was, is cornered on the second floor as a gang headed by a warlord named Dremmer picked their way through the rubble below. Cut forward a few seconds and we have Goldman leaping from a hole in the wall to land on the dune below as Dremmer’s gang fire wildly at a phantom drawn from the psychic maelstrom.

Meanwhile James (The Driver, he/him) and October (The Skinner, they/them) raced along the desert highway looking for their friend. A bad role lead to an ambush, a flipped car, and a surprisingly civil conversation with a would-be raider named Jackabacka — who James enlisted to get the car unstuck and then left unconscious in a ditch. Meeting back up with Goldman — a little battered from his fall from the building, but mostly fine — the game headed back to their home: the outskirts of an oil-refining city which sprang into existence at the moment we needed it, and never before. We wrapped on our first microsession by developing character Hx and nailing down who all these people were to each other.

What did we learn? For one, Apocalypse World is a great game to make shit up in. I talked at length in my last session write-up about the instruction to “barf forth apocalyptica” and how good getting really in the juice of a genre feels, but there’s more than just that happening here. Apocalypse World has a deeper philosophy of storytelling and play (one related, I think, to what I called “fluid mapmaking” in a recent article) which really relishes in moments of hesitation and consideration. There’s an approach to play which some games and players take where “good improv” is ultimately about maximal flexibility — where the ultimate end is to hide the fact that you’re “making things up” at all, and make the game world seem as fully realized as possible. Improv is just a way to get there — since we cannot possibly have prepped for every occasion, improv fills in the gaps. The hyper-performative role of the GM is never permitted to ask for a second to think or talk through some ideas out loud (in the way a non-GM player might) — their role is a kind of computer-referee (a “stable,” as opposed to fluid, mapmaker) who presents only the truth.

Apocalypse World bucks this trend in several ways: in the way moves prompt big narrative swings, in the suggestion you spend session one just following the characters around and seeing what happens, in the MC philosophy (to “always say what your prep demands,” yes, but also to “barf forth apocalyptica,” to “ask provocative questions and build on the answers,” and to “sometimes, disclaim decision-making), and also (and perhaps most importantly) in the “umms” and “hmms” which permeate the play examples. Apocalypse World is a game which is invested in modeling collaborative — really collaborative — play and which, as a result, never felt like a burden or a trap. It felt like my players and I were all together mapping and remapping a world with the tools and toys the Bakers had given us (and what lovely tools and toys they are) but never restricted by the thing we were trying to make. It felt like we were playing. 

On another note about the first session — and this isn’t textual to Apocalypse Worlds, but to Vincent’s con-running method, but — the practice of giving players something to do (in this case, filling out the details of their character sheets) while the narrative spotlight is on others is one of those design ideas that, once you’re exposed to it, you’ll never forget. This is something I’ve seen others to — most recently (and extensively) @jdragsky's Seven Part Pact is a game that does this over and over and over again — but it really hit me in this session what a lifesaver it is. Especially in online games, where losing focus and energy is so easy, giving people something to do which keeps them invested in the game (in the way, in person, just being in a space together might) is the kind of thing I’m going to start putting in all my games. 

Session 2: Lord Terry’s Gasland Refinery

Back from a brief break, I introduced the players to the threat map I’d designed while they were away. It was populated, mostly, by people we’d already talked a little bit about — the refinery where they lived, Dremmer’s Gang in the north, the landscape of the desert highway all around them — plus a couple of strange details thrown in for good measure (at the last minute, I decided to add the Red Priory, the setting of the last oneshot I ran, on the map in the far east — a fact which I could talk about for hours. People need to play Apocalypse World with me west marches style PLEASE). 

Jumping back into the swing of play wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped — the result, I think, of breaking up the session like we did meant we needed to do the usual beginning of session dipping our toes in the water again, but this time with a much sharper awareness of the ticking clock. Still, we got somewhere — thanks in no small part to the fun of just bopping around with these characters. It’s rare that you get to say “okay, now it’s a week later. What has that week looked like?” especially in the context of a oneshot. The cost of starting a session to the players — okay, what has your life looked like? how much barter are you losing to afford that? — quickly transformed what had been a pretty generic setting into a place that had some teeth. Barfing forth apocalyptica — and some yes-anding with the players — gave us Lord Terry, a feudal tyrant whose authority rests (shakily) on the loyalty of his retained soldiers and the terror of the serfs (including our players). 

Truthfully, we didn’t get particularly far in this session: some tinkering in Goldman’s workshop, an argument with Terry, a scouting mission which ended in a tense standoff with Jackabacka, and then a race back home as October washed Jackabacka’s blood off their knife and James bled out in the backseat. I don’t think the “plottiness” of the session got anywhere — but that has also maybe never felt like less of the point. The joy of our second session was absolutely frontloaded — in the moments of thinking about the community to which we (tangentially) belonged and the powers that be, there. 

Apocalypse World tells you it is best played in a long campaign — and I think this was the moment it was most clearly right. I would love to tell you what happens next to James, or whether Lord Terry is going to be dethroned, or if Dremmer’s really the threat he seems to be. None of those are questions I thought I’d be asking, going into this session — they’re questions the game gave me over the course of play. We had some hiccups, of course (combat is brutal when you don’t have a medic, and I wish, in retrospect, that I’d pushed players to read people more often), but on the whole Apocalypse World is a marvelous engine for generating a really collaborative story.

Which makes me ask, like I did last time — what the fuck happened? People talk a lot about PBTA as a philosophy and not just a mechanic — but I think at some point in history that philosophy seems to have fallen out and gotten slimmed down to "PBTA is when 2d6+"

This isn't to say there aren't good PBTA games being written now — we'll be playing some of them in this unit — but, GOD. There is shit in this game that, hearing it from downstream, you would never know about. People should know about it! You, right now, should know about it! Go and play Apocalypse World right now! and also forever!!

[lynyangell]

Fanfic Writers 20 Questions

Fanfic Writer 20 Questions

OOoo a shiny new game thing that gives me an excuse to yap about my fic??? Yes please! I was tagged by @wingsofescape, thanks friend! These are fun!

1.How many works on Ao3?

45! I'm honestly kinda proud of that number. In October 2024, there were 2.

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

I hate looking up my stats damn 348,171! That's wiiiiiiild

Again, in October 2024, about 5k

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos

Sir (cuz everybody loves the smut LOL)

Must Love Dogs (cuz everybody loves Hayate)

Dream a Little Dream (I have no idea why)

It Matters to Me (cuz it's one of the oldest)

Strawberry Wine (cuz it's the first in my big series)

4. What fandoms do you write for?

FullMetal Alchemist!! At this point exclusively! (Unless you count the Gilmore Girls Crossover AU....and I do!)

5. Do you respond to comments?

100% of the time! Comments are the best thing in the WORLD. All I want for Christmas is comments.

6. Angstiest Ending?

I have some pretty angsty fics. But I usually dip up into something at least a little hopeful? I'll prolly say Angel With a Shotgun (SFW version). They're at war, that stuff is rough

7. Fic with the happiest ending?

Definitely Something to Talk About

8. Do you get hate?

Definitely not since I started writing again. Maybe occasionally back in my ff.net days? But so far no!

9. Do you write smut?

Oh hell yes.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I would have said no to this until very recently, but @hawkeyes-darling and I are doing a FMAxGilmore Girls AU Crossover series. It's pretty wild!

We're going to be going through all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls but replacing the characters with our characters from FMA. So of course, tons of things change, b/c they're different people who respond to the same situations differently!

Stargazing is the prequel to Grumman Girls!

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of! I did have an old fic a LONG time ago posted to another random archive, and I wasn't aware of it, but I was credited :shrug:

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but it would be cool!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic?

I am for the first time right now, and it's super fun! Looking forward to doing more work like this in the future!

14. All time favorite ship?

Say it with me now: ROYAI.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oooo. This is hard.

Sometimes I doubt I'll ever finish my longfic, Oh My Dear. Because it's hard. And long. But I love it so much, and I already have other fics for the series written, including I'll Keep You Safe which is extra special to me because of the artwork @awesomedurraworld has drawn for it!

16. Writing strengths?

I would hope that I do a good job of portraying people who have been traumatized and how they deal with and process their emotions. Since as a mental health counselor, that's kinda my thing.

I try....really, really, really hard to accurately portray the characters personalities and how who they are when they are alone/with their intimate partner is different than who we see onscreen/on the pages. But it's still the same person. IDK if that makes sense to anyone. #LynRambles

17. Writing Weaknesses?

SO. Many. Things. Commas are the bane of my existence. I feel like I'm shit at describing settings/surroundings/details/clothing, that kind of thing. And I have 0 original ideas. (This is a lie. I refuse to acknowledge my original ideas b/c I don't believe I will ever have the skill to write them.)

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

I don't really use it, cuz it pretty much doesn't fit into my fandom? I've used it in the past and then tried to use context clues to make the translation clear, and then I actually DID get hate for the way I did it, now that I think about it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. Like everybody else my age.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Okay so my honest to goodness favorite is not yet published. It's called "Need You to Love Me", and it will be coming soon! It's also currently the longest I've ever written!

But of those that are already published.....I'm very very partial to "Beautiful Disaster". Or I could just say "Stolen Moments", and I wouldn't be lying LOL. (SFW Stolen Moments)

Tagging @hawkeyes-darling, @baudleaires, @edxwin-elric, and @theblueeyedfirebender whoever else wants to do this!

[centrally-unplanned]

Watched a bunch of stuff last night, including the Alita OVA from 1993! I thought it was a lot of fun, the thoughts:

--- It did the "obvious" thing of adapting the romance arc with Yugo of Volume 2 as the core, while blending in the events of Volume 1 as sort of backstory and setup as opposed to their own story. This arc is Alita at her most humanized in the early parts of the manga, and its the plot that centers Zalem as the untouchable overlord city most effectively. Any short adaptation is gonna choose this - part of why James Cameron (lol) did the same thing!

--- Speaking of, the manga does not actually have any particular focus on Alita's eyes, but the anime definitely has more than one shot where it establishes them as thematically special. Given that the James Cameron film is famous for going full CGI on Alita's eyes, and he knows about the property from Guillermo del Toro passing him the OVA as opposed to the manga, I think I can see the chain of events that lead to that (ill-fated?) decision.

Her eyes are pretty amazing in the OVA, so I get it! As my previous reblogs showed lol.

--- I think I can break apart the manga into three "concepts": the setting as cyberpunk dystopia, Alita as a character dealing with identity issues as an amnesiatic combat robot, and shounen fighting & levelling arcs. The OVA heavily focuses on the first part, ditching almost all the shounen stuff - its fight scenes are quick and focus on violence & bodily destruction over strength or "fighting techniques", etc. This is great for me, obviously! But it also, almost accidentally, ditches most of her identity issues? Because its less than an hour long, and needs to do a ton of worldbuilding - including even adding in a new character from Zalem to help with that - and is doing Yugo's entire arc, you really don't have time left for Alita's struggles. Yugo actually gets more "inner depth" than she does! She commits to being a bounty hunter, then after that she is pretty much just In Love while Yugo goes through his detailing of his past and collapse.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, it does as a story. Just interesting for something that is known as very "protagonist associated" to have an OVA where she is barely the protagonist.

--- While no Urotsukidoji or anything, this is another one of those OVAs where its reputation, particularly in the west, is as a hyper-violent, gory OVA? And like so many it really isn't. People get decapitated, don't get me wrong, buts its never lingers on those moments. Instead they serve as tone setters for the crapsack world or just are part of the action sequences.

I think in general the OVA era rarely made horror/gore films the way some other mediums/industries did? There are exceptions of course but in the end anime is trying to do too many other things; beautiful animation, focus on character designs, often being adaptations and so doing the plot of those more complex stories, erotic content for audiences that aren't *that* fetishistic on average, and more. All of these priorities compete for space in comparison to having endless jumpscares and blood splatters. So far my track record for watching the famous "gorefest" or "~crazy~" anime is that every one of them is tamer than the rep suggests, and I believe this medium/genre mismatch is why.

--- The biggest question I have around Alita in general is why there was never any more anime? Its weird, right? Its a famous property from a beloved genre, it had a hollywood film for some crazy reason, things like Ghost in the Shell got multi-season anime after all. Why no feature film remake in the 2000's? Why no 13-cour in the 2010's? I don't have an answer to that yet.

Why the initial OVA was so minimal is at least partly answered by Kishiro here:

MNS: Many fans have wondered, why were only 2 anime OAV episodes produced in 1993? YK: It was based on the plan proposed by the animation production company. It might have been better to turn down the plan and wait for a better adaptation proposal to come up, but back then, I couldn't afford to review the plan coolly. At that time, I was still serializing the work and was so busy that I wasn't ambitious to make it into animation.

Essentially he took the "deal on hand", not offering much, because he didn't have the time, money, or business savvy to work the industry for a better proposal. 100% understandable. I don't think the OVA did too well? I can't find a lot of sales figures, but the comments I see are in the "respectable" range, and it didn't get quick or expansive rereleases over time.

More broadly, and again speculative, I think maybe Alita overall isn't that successful? Like sure Kishiro is still out here releasing more sequel manga to this day somehow, but when I look at the "media mix" its just really sparse. No big video game adaptations - it has a PlayStation game in the 90's - it has like a drama CD and a novelization? No big merch waves or tie-ins. I am betting the big anime production committees just don't think its a hot enough property to sell that great. Wouldn't be a bad idea or anything, but not one you have to do like idk Chainsaw Man.

In the western fandom spaces its quite well known because of the idiosyncrasies of licensing history, the weird James Cameron factor, and I think a general fascination with anime cyberpunk; the west eats up any of the older cyberpunk properties for its aesthetic in a way that can blind people to the reality of that just being a subgenre in Japan at the time. Alita might just be niche enough that it not getting any wider anime adaptations is no grand mystery.

(But I hope to dig into this question more)