#particularly because i don't thing there's any single 'correct' answer

[stillness-in-green]

The thing that doesn't make sense to me if Izuku resolved to kill is how it doesn't let them prove AFO wrong? AFO did his big reveal which only makes it clearer how deep the grooming went and it should've been time for Izuku to understand Tenko and Tenko to understand the abuse then reject the mindset forced onto him. But Izuku killing Tenko doesn't do that. Tenko just dies. It feels very wrong.

I guess Izuku just wasn't very interested in proving AFO wrong! Honestly, the only thing I immediately remember Izuku disputing the guy on was the same thing he disputed Shigaraki on: that he was anything more than a human being. AFO isn't a Demon King, but just a lonely man. Shigaraki hasn't transcended humanity; there's still a human somewhere deep inside of him. Izuku won't correct his allies' use of dehumanizing language for Villains, of course, but he's quick to push back when the Villains themselves self-aggrandize.

Sorry, I really only have withering disdain for Deku at this point. And I guess I don't really see any evidence that Deku was ever particularly driven by "proving AFO wrong." He wants to stop AFO, certainly, but that's because AFO is a monster who takes advantage of vulnerable people to maneuver them into doing Bad Things that advance AFO's Bad Plans and sets them onto Bad Paths that are difficult to walk back, not because he expressly opposes AFO on this or that ideological point about the nature of humanity and society.

(Hit the jump for the rest of a somewhat rambly reply.)

If anything, current evidence is that neither Deku nor the manga itself really do disagree with AFO about the frailty of humans, as expressed by Tsukauchi answering Deku's question about how to prevent future tragedies by shrugging and saying, "You don't, because life fucking sucks sometimes and that's just how it is. Our hands are completely tied on improving the system as we have it, so all we can do is punch out the Villains that appear in front of us to stop them from causing more harm."

That's also me being a bit harsh, of course. The fact that Deku is even still asking that question in the epilogue suggests that the manga hasn't reached its final answer yet, and maybe it will yet come up with something better! It doesn't have much time left, but it's still possible!

All the same, Deku is still having to ask that question in the epilogue because he never truly faced it over the course of the story. Never thinking about what Shigaraki as a person said in favor of fetishizing the Crying Child, never coming up with any kind of non-violent plan of attack or conversational approach, I have to ask what exactly about Shigaraki did Deku ever disagree with AFO on?

AFO, in the end, characterized Shigaraki as a puppet he molded exactly as he desired, a doll who he sculpted and programmed to act as he wished, a feeble child who has never made a single decision that AFO didn't cultivate him to make. So far as I can tell, Deku never really contested that framing. He didn't know the extent of it until the full reveal, of course, but Deku, like AFO, insisted on approaching Shigaraki solely through that "Crying Child" lens. He seemed to believe that nothing Shigaraki said or did on the surface really mattered (save as a reason that Shigaraki had to be stopped and potentially killed), that the "truth" of Shigaraki was that feeble little weeping boy who never grew up.

How could Deku possibly "prove AFO wrong" in that context? He doesn't even disagree with him! I mean, he's got some nice talk about how people deserve a second chance, sure; he says that people doing wrong doesn't make them Villains for the rest of their lives. What does do that, however - insofar as I can tell from how opaque the series keeps Deku throughout the final war - is refusing the hand out of the darkness. You stop being a victim and become a Villain for the rest of your life by choosing to remain a Villain even when offered an alternative (no matter how patently awful that alternative is).

Shigaraki chooses to remain a Villain and Deku doesn't have a counter for that because Deku never really got past the false binary represented by Villains and Victims to begin with. And I think the same goes for people who expected Shigaraki to just fold when he realized the extent of the grooming he'd undergone. Disallowing Shigaraki any agency in who he is and what he's done is defining him the same way AFO and Deku both did; when Shigaraki refuses to accept that framing, refuses to be a passive victim, the only thing left for him to be is a Villain. And when a Villain refuses to stop...

Well, Hawks already told us what the Heroes' answer to that is. "Someone has to die." As no one ever stepped up to prove him wrong, as far as the story is concerned, he isn't.

AFO always knew that victims can be turned into Villains with the right nudges; that's the whole reason for him cultivating "warped seeds" whenever and wherever he found them. Hero Society is - and always has been - much too rigid in its enforcement of the Hero/Villain/Victim narrative to effectively combat him. Crucially, Deku - the boy who wants to bring everything back just the way it was - doesn't disagree with him. He thinks AFO is an asshole for setting people up to fail, but he doesn't disagree about what failure means. So if AFO, Deku, and the story itself are all in agreement, what's even there for Deku to disprove?

Now, there is something that would prove AFO wrong, but it isn't something you can do while insisting on drawing lines to separate sad manipulated woobie victims who just need to be saved from awful unrepentant villains who just need to rot. It isn't something you can do while infantilizing Shigaraki Tomura.

The way to prove AFO wrong is to make room in society to help all Villains. Even if they aren't asking for it, even if they never ask for it, and even if they're jolly bastards who don't really deserve it! As long as there's a point at which it becomes okay to give up on trying to save Villains, Shigaraki will remain unsavable. He will insist on being unsavable. He could no more let that go than All Might could step aside and let AFO's attack kill an innocent at Kamino.

That's what it means to be a Hero for Villains.

Ultimately, what makes AFO right is that he knows that Hero Society makes it difficult if not impossible to uncross the victim-to-Villain bridge, and so anyone who does cross that bridge (with or without his influence) is that much more susceptible to him. Deku, in turn, thinks the only Villains he can save are those who drop everything and come sprinting as fast as they can back to the Hero side, so anyone who won't do that is someone he can't help.

Shigaraki refused to stop trying to create a better world for Villains. Toga refused to live in a world that would imprison her. Twice refused to give up on the friends no Hero would help. It's the same with every other Villain who refused to quietly endure their status quo: in a society that refuses to change how it treats Villains, anyone who won't submit to suffering in silence cannot be saved.

That's the paradigm AFO exploits, and Deku will never prove him wrong without resolving to change the paradigm first. We'll see if the last two chapters get him there.

[accirax]

Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 16 Dissection

Wow. Just wow. What a way to end off the chapter. (/pos)

I wasn't expecting to have a whole lot to theorize about with this one (especially given its relatively shorter length), but buckle in, because I'm sure I'm going to have a lot to say about the way that the end of this brilliant chapter played out...

Enough to call this a Part 1 again, much like I did last time. That means I have a rate of way over one image per minute...

SPOILERS for Danganronpa: Despair Time through the end of Chapter 2. (wild) Also spoilers for SDR2 through the beginning of Chapter 4.

When I was first watching the episode, I definitely had the thought, "I wonder if MonoTV is just saying this for the sake of engagement with the theoretical audience, because it seems like MonoTV should already know what the answer is due to its role and what the students just said." Based on what happens later in the episode, that was probably about correct? I dunno, there's a lot to unpack with MonoTV here.

Who Voted Teruko?

(For all two people who would understand the reference, please read that header in the tone of "who voted Sifu?" from Survivor 45. Or, really, I should probably say one person, because it's probably just Venus :P)

So, it's happened once again. While the clear majority of the votes are on the correct blackened, Ace, we have a single straggler who decided to vote for Teruko instead. But, who is this mystery person? Let's talk possibilities.

First, however, I think we should take a look at last Trial's voting results.

What I find strange is that the order of the students, even those who weren't voted for, changed. My guess was that students who receive votes are put at the front, students who are dead are put at the end, and the middle seems to be alphabetized by last name order?

Chiem - Cuevas - Fontana - Giles - Grebenshchikova - Hakobyan - Jing - Lacroix - Markey - Nageishi - Rosales - Tobisa - Young

Interestingly, if true, this means that J was being categorized as "J Rosales" even when she was still going by "J Moreno" in Chapter 1. Fascinating.

Anyways, the Chapter 2 board has shuffled things around. Obviously Min and Arei have been moved down since they died, and Ace was moved to the top because he now has votes. However, the end of the lineup also changed, for some reason.

Chiem - Cuevas - Fontana - Giles - Grebenshchikova - Hakobyan - Jing - Lacroix - Young - Tobisa - Rosales

What does this mean? Honestly, I have no clue. None of the students stayed in the same positions relative to each other (as in, Whit is no longer after Eden, Eden is no longer after J, etc), so I don't think it can be used to particularly suspect any of them? If anything, I think Eden would look the least suspicious, because at least she stayed in the middle while J and Whit swapped who was at the beginning or the end.

It's possible this was just an editing mistake, but I figured I'd point it out in case it helps anyone with their theories. (Clearly, it's just evidence that Whit is one step closer to becoming a Cuevas--)

Back to the original point, who was the one Teruko vote? In Chapter 1, I think it's pretty widely agreed upon that Min voted for Teruko. However, Teruko got two votes in Chapter 1, so the possibility remains that it could be the same person who's voted for Teruko twice now. I've gone on the record to say that I thought Arei was the one to provide Teruko her second vote in Chapter 1, but thankfully numberoneanika helped me to see how there could have been other options.

Obviously, Arei wasn't the one to vote for Teruko this time. So, with that in mind, here are my best theories:

Ace

Pros: Doesn't want to die, and therefore might not want to vote for himself. Probably the most obvious option.

Cons: At the end of 2-15, Ace was, all things considered, pretty accepting of his upcoming death. He said that the only reason he was fighting back was to stall for time, but that he knew that there was no way he'd get out of the Trial alive. Voting for Teruko doesn't help him delay the inevitable at all. If he were trying to cast a vote in the vain hope that it would save him from death, I would have expected it to go to Eden. Also, I doubt that Ace would have been the extra vote for Teruko in Chapter 1, to the extent that's important.

David

Pros: Dislikes Teruko and wants to cause chaos. It's also possible he could have cast the extra vote on Teruko in Chapter 1, if he had already made up his mind about wanting to take the killing game off the rails.

Cons: Honestly, I don't know if there are any direct cons to it being David who cast the vote. He might have been able to get more emotional damage for his buck if he'd voted for Eden or something? I don't know.

Teruko

Pros: Believes herself to be at least partially at fault for the deaths of her fellow classmates and doesn't like it. Therefore, if she can't bring herself to have another hand in their deaths by casting a vote on them, she could vote for herself (believing she can't die) instead. This is also an option that could easily be repeated across all Trials, if important.

Cons: If Teruko wants to proceed with not helping all of her other classmates die, it's in her best interest to vote correctly, instead of swaying the votes to an incorrect answer and having everyone but Ace die.

The Mastermind???

Pros: While it's not a guarantee, the mastermind likely has a grudge against Teruko (assuming the mastermind is not Teruko herself), due to the "kill Teruko Tawaki" missive/note. Therefore, they could be voting for her due to their grudge. From a narrative sense, this would also "ensure" that this phenomenon can happen at every Class Trial, if that's what DRDTdev wants.

Cons: Although I just laid out their motive, this would be an incredibly petty thing for the mastermind to do and could potentially give the innocent students needless additional information about their identity.

Conclusion? I think it's most likely to be David. After my blunder last time, though, I'm definitely willing to hear out other options if people have candidates to propose!

Also, it's nice that they updated David's portrait to include his new Look. I imagine some art intern scurrying around behind the scenes trying to find a good screenshot of David to use on the board in the last hour of the Trial.

Yo, wait, is that an anti-MM-coded line for Whit? Because the mastermind would obviously expect there to be more than one Trial? Can we get some more of these??? (/j)

Also kinda anti-Whit-knowingly-being-in-a-time-loop lines, for anyone who's been considering that theory. Unless he's just really deep undercover, to the level where he's interjecting lines that go against the theory to a group of people who have yet to suspect him for it at all.

LET'S GO NICO PARALLELS!!!!!!

Hu: How could you say it's just misfortune? Arei wasn't killed because of an accident. Bad luck or not, Ace had made up his mind to go through with this murder! So we can't possibly blame ourselves for failing to prevent something like that.

🔥🔥🔥THE BLAMING YOURSELF SISTERS🔥🔥🔥

Well, more or less. Teruko is fully blaming herself under the name of "misfortune"-- that much was made clear by the end of the episode, if nothing else. But Hu is coping by continuing to blame Ace convincing herself that there's nothing she could have done, and therefore isn't actually to blame. It doesn't matter how reliable she was-- because she was reliable, she promises-- because Ace was going to kill anyways. Basically, it doesn't matter how much of an immovable object she was because Ace was such an unstoppable force. Ignore the fact that the whole debate is about which of those would win.

Hu's stance is fascinating, though, because it means that she's somewhat buying in to the idea of fate. Arei was fated to die, Ace was fated to kill, no skin off your back. Given that MonoTV itself represents fate, it seems clear that one of the main messages of this story will be fate doesn't exist/is what you make it, which means that, to some degree, all of the characters will have to be representatives of or affected by that, with believing in the concept of immutable fate being represented as the villain. (I'm sure I'll talk about this more next time I talk about mastermind candidates.)

Therefore, Hu cashing in on the fate idea could be good or bad for her. It might be important that we establish that she does believe in fate, much like Teruko does, because she'll need to face it and denounce it on her way to survivor-hood. Or, this could be a subtle indicator that Hu will always lean on fate to protect her own sense of self, a red flag for her being a killer or possibly even a mastermind in the future.

Hu is clearly being set up to be a major player in Chapter 3, though, which is great for me, because that's exactly what I wanted! Let's get you some real daily life screentime, girl :)

Absolutely raw line here.

Eden: I... I can't forgive him. He killed Arei, after all. She was innocent, and he killed her for unfair reasons. But... those unfair reasons were unfair to him as well. Veronika: [...] When we first met Ace a week ago, he was the same person, certainly, but he was also different. He was happier, and he trusted people more. And he wasn't a murderer back then. Still, between then and now, he changed. He had to. Like adding stones to a pane of glass, one after another, until eventually, the glass cracks. The only thing anyone can do in this killing game is to shatter.

And another raw line from Veronika at the end of her section. I can't wait to see both of those lines used as captions for people's fanart.

Still though, on top of being true (and highlighting how Ace did actually change for the worse), this also feels like a reminder to us that the characters are changing over the course of the killing game. Therefore, a character who said one thing in Chapter 1 might not feel the same way once they hit Chapter 3 and beyond. Being in the killing game takes a toll on everyone, and the self-discovery it inspires can lead people to do things that they never would have done before. Case in point, Levi sacrificing himself for Teruko later in this episode.

SO true Veronika. Casual reminder to you all that this is literally only overall Day 8 of the killing game. Xander was alive less than one week ago for these people.

If I had a nickel for every time that Ace was compared to glass in Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 16, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

(Also, the clock-themed music is back. I wonder what it's supposed to represent...? *adds it to my already way too long list of theories to write now that the Chapter has ended*)

Genuinely WHAT was acevi cooking this episode. (/pos) I had never been super into the ship before because of how seemingly incompatible they were after the first trial, but seeing how much they clearly care about each other (or at least how much Ace cares about Levi) I'm kind of compelled to now. This truly was the toxic yaoi Trial ever.

Hey, FF called it in the "Blackened's Blaze of Glory" idea! Also, WOAH WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!

Let's go, Ace animation! It's nice to see that he was able to participate in one before he died. And wow, did he participate indeed!

It's kind of crazy how breakable MonoTV is due to its screen face. Like, you can't just do that to a Monokuma; his head is likely too hefty. But, even though MonoTV is breakable, it doesn't mean anything in the end. False hope at its finest.

This is the face of someone going, "wait, was it really that easy?"

HOLY SHIT

Out of all the lines and events of this episode, it's quite possibly this line that has made me go the most insane. Just goes to show that I am way too invested in the lore of this series. (/j)

So, this is a direct confirmation that XF-Ture Tech was involved in the creation of MonoTV, and therefore, quite possibly the implementation of the killing game as well. That's huge. I mean, not too unexpected given how important it clearly was to Xander, Min, and even altDRDT, but I wasn't expecting to get confirmation here and now of all places.

Given this, I would not be at all surprised if the altDRDT character known as XF is the one who created MonoTV. Like, she might be the Ultimate Roboticist or Ultimate Software Developer or something. It also means that the mastermind very likely has some sort of positive association with XF Tech, so sus on Min (sponsored by XF), Rose (has connections to one of the Spurlings), and possibly J (family runs in wealthy circles). Of course, if XF Tech is directly partnered with HPA in some way, it could also be someone who's particularly associated with the school-- although, that would most likely be Min again.

There's also the question, "why did MonoTV have a different personality than the default driver," which is related to the question, "what was the default driver created for?" My immediate thought was that XF Tech might just have robot assistants that generally help them, and that was the default personality that was assigned from MonoTV. However, XF (or whoever else) found that boring for the sake of entertainment, and decided to jazz MonoTV up, possibly to make it more like Monokuma.

Then again, it's been highlighted again and again that MonoTV is really incompetent. Surely, that's not something that someone who wanted the killing game to succeed would want to program into their host. It could have been an accidental side effect, but if MonoTV really was made by the Ultimate Roboticist, would that person really make mistakes? Is it possible that MonoTV's personality could have been made that way to subtly sabotage the killing game?

(I understand I'm furthering logic off of a string of assumptions-- not trying to lay down the law here, just running you through my initial thought process upon considering this evidence.)

Given that MonoTV told us in Chapter 2 Episode 3 that it has a lot of limits and there's a lot it still doesn't know about the killing game, I don't think that this is a situation in which MonoTV's AI expanded so much over time that it developed a new personality. Especially because that means that all that development would have needed to happen before the killing game began, off screen. That's why I think that MonoTV's alternate personality needs to have a human explanation, which I believe might be tied to XF.

I don't have any "answers" to this question because I don't think we're meant to have any at this point, but I also can't make any particularly compelling guesses about it without reviewing a lot of the evidence we already have. (*adds another theory to my mental theory list*) I am thinking about this though. I'm thinking about it a lot...

MonoTV: Full restart scheduled in one hour.

Also, I take this to mean that MonoTV will likely be back to its usual personality come Chapter 3. It might have a slightly different design to take into account the broken screen, but I think the personality will remain the same.

(If MonoTV's body does get fixed, would that mean that there are multiple copies of MonoTV out there, or that someone fixed MonoTV within that tight time window???)

MonoTV is in your walls.

Also, here's a list of all the students who are shown reacting in a confused/scared manner after MonoTV begins to restart: Eden, Rose, Ace, Nico. Doesn't mean that they can't be the mastermind all of a sudden, but it is probably evidence to the contrary. After all, the mastermind would likely be the one most aware that this could happen. And, if you only build in four slots of people reacting in disbelief (such that there are plenty of people who could slip under the radar), it might make more sense to give those lines to people who are actually genuinely shocked, much like the audience.

Also also, I think that the text on MonoTV's screen reads, "Falling back to default driver. Restart in an hour." AKA, not much lore to be taken from there, other than that it's once again called the "default."

It's MonoTV Time Again

More absolutely essential information when it comes to cracking what exactly MonoTV is. This is a killing game that is, first and foremost, designed to kill everyone, not going for anything like "redemption" or "revealing the truth."

It's also fascinating that it says "every participant." Not even "every participant except one"; the killing game wants to kill everybody. What does that tell us?

This killing game is likely NOT an attempt to imitate Junko. In that case, they would be prepared for the possibility of multiple survivors.

The mastermind, assuming they're amidst the cast, is willing to die for the bit. Every participant includes themselves.

XF-Ture Tech also default wants everyone to die. This likely means that they were willing to sacrifice Min for whatever this plan was. Sorry, Min :(

Now, it is definitely possible that any of these ideas are an overstatement. Killing all of the students is stated to be MonoTV's purpose, NOT the purpose of the killing game as a whole. Therefore, it could be that MonoTV is programmed to want all of the students to die, to minimize the chance that it would develop any feelings of sympathy and start to work against the killing game. Meanwhile, the mastermind is expecting there to be one or more survivors, potentially including themselves.

However, that is just a minor potential discrepancy, and I find it likely that DRDTdev intended this scene to comment more on the rationale of the killing game as a whole. In which case, this is a fascinating look into the mastermind and XF Tech's rationale.

He cares about Charles so much :,) <3

I know some people have been using this as reason to suspect him ("why would he be more focused on Charles not getting traumatized than telling Teruko, who he theoretically also cares about, to run"), but personally, I didn't read it that way at all. (I say as, like, the #1 Whit Isn't Evil defender lmao)

First of all, from a pacing perspective, I think it was nice to have a quick break from people just telling Teruko to run. We have Eden saying that, followed by Charles saying that, so having the third instance be something a little different helped break up the repeat information, in my opinion. J tells Teruko to run immediately afterwards anyway, so you still get the same effect of everyone warning Teruko as the clock ticks down.

Secondly (and more importantly), I think that this could easily be an indication of Whit seeing Charles as sort of an extension of his mom. Not in the sense that he sees Charles as family, but that Whit had one person who he really, really cared about, and he couldn't stop them from dying or being hurt. Even though Whit does generally care about the others, after Xander and Min died, he realized that he wouldn't be able to save everyone. And, he wasn't even particularly interested in trying in the first place-- after all, he said that solving the fights between others wasn't his business, so it's not like he's trying to be everyone's savior.

If Teruko is already dead, then that's how it's going to be; there's nothing he can do about it. But he can try to protect the person he cares about most in this killing game from suffering, because he refuses to have that person exit his life again. The fact that Whit is prioritizing Charles' safety over anything else in this moment will only make it all the sadder when Whit fails to prevent Charles from dying in Chapter 3, and make the impact of his returning loneliness all the more catastrophic.

Obviously, that's just my theory and not a fact, but I do think that it's one reasonable way to explain why Whit said that here without having to cast him in any sort of suspicion. It's a possibility.

Yet another instantly iconic line. I'm so happy that DRDTdev is doubling down with this being the reality of Teruko's talent, because pushing the abilities of someone who's talented with luck is so fun!

Although, not gonna lie, in this moment, I was actually flabbergasted and frantically running through options of who I thought the replacement protagonist might be. Like, Eden? Charles?? When people said they thought David might become the protagonist, THEY DIDN'T MEAN FOR CHAPTER 3!!!

Also, absolutely diabolical to hide Teruko's execution in plain sight as the thumbnail, under the guise that this was meant to represent Ace's death. Gosh.

But it was actually Levi who got shot, which is fascinating! I also thought they might kill him here as sort of a pre-emptive double kill (as in, "keep on pace with the typical number of fangan survivors while not actually having to explain why a double kill occurred"), but from the way the rest of the episode plays out, I think it's pretty clear that he'll live through this experience.

He'll almost certainly have some sort of design update, though, which I'm excited to see. Let's hope he doesn't suddenly turn into a robot, a la Nekomaru. (I imagine this scene may have originally been inspired by creating an alternate take on Nekomaru taking a bullet for Akane.)

As for why Levi did this for Teruko, Venus explained to me what I now believe is probably the most likely reason: he's repaying a perceived "debt" he owed to Teruko after she saved him from being executed back in the Prologue. (Other people may have reached this conclusion as well, but I heard it from Venus first)

Teruko already saved his life once before, so now, he believes he owes it to her to save hers. Obviously, Teruko seemed pretty confident about surviving the execution, but he may have still thought that causing her to suffer a coma or the loss of a limb was big enough of a threat that she shouldn't have to suffer through it.

That sort of idea would also tie into what I originally thought might have been some of his reasoning: that he doesn't think very highly of his own life, and was willing to sacrifice it for someone who he considered "good"/more important than him. It would also allow him to die as a hero saving someone's life, rather than a heartless monster who ended lives. Not saying that this is a healthy rationale, but, well, the guy just threw himself in the line of fire for someone who said they'd be fine. Also, it's DRDT. Nobody here has a healthy rationale.

Btw, this ⬇

Levi: I don't understand. I can't understand you, no matter how hard I try.

Is the last thing that Levi was ever able to say to Ace (as well as Levi's last line of the Chapter). Have fun with that, acevi nation.

My heart broke in half when I saw Rose react in this way. Hang in there, queen...

MonoTV: Don't worry. I shut off the gun as soon as I detected that Levi was in the way. His injuries are not fatal.

Also, MonoTV's default programming still includes it saying things like "don't worry"? Fascinating.

Motherfucker Not Another Clearly Important Info Jumpscare-- (/j)

So, uh. Whit got a new sprite in Chapter 2 Part 2 other than his trying not to laugh one. Yaaaaaaay... (dissolves into tears)

Points of interest about the sprite itself: obviously, this is the closest thing that we've gotten to a scary/breakdown sprite for Whit thus far.

If you look at his eyes, you'll see that they've gone gray/black as opposed to his usual blue, and his heart-shaped pupils and arrow-circle design have gone completely missing. This makes him I believe the third character whose eyes turn gray when they're experiencing negative emotions thus far, after Xander and David. Another knight at the table of Sir Light Pollution! Although, notably, Xander and David's eyes always had some gray in them, while Whit's, prior to now, were 100% blue.

Whit is also holding one hand behind his back, which could be concealing something? I saw a comic (which I thought was drawn by gooseagain8, but I checked their account and I couldn't find it--) where he was holding a remote to keep the Trial doors shut behind his back, and now I can't think of anything else, haha. However, I also don't know where Whit would have gotten that remote from, so it's probably not that specifically.

I don't think I even have to explain why people would use this to think that Whit is the mastermind. It's pretty obvious. However, I do think that this probably diminishes the odds of Whit being your standard "revealed in Chapter 6" mastermind, because it's so obvious. Fangan authors, naturally, can do whatever the hell they want, but it seems unfitting for DRDTdev's behavior so far to give such a massive hint for something that's so far down the road. I say this because, with the mysteries of Mai, and XF Tech, and who says the quotes at the beginning of the Chapters, and LGI, DRDTdev seems to have a track record of enjoying a long-running mystery, and making complex, layered puzzles that the most insane of fans can go back and forth on for hours.

If this was meant to be a hint that Whit will be revealed as the mastermind in Chapter 6, I'd think we'd get, like, a sprite with Whit's hand behind his back but without the scary expression, or he'd say something more subtle like "don't you just love it when you can't get the door open?"

Instead, we get this incredibly in-your-face, obviously suspicious sprite, that even someone who had never seen an episode of DRDT before in their life could easily point out to suspect that Whit is evil. So then, why else could it be included?

One option is that it is meant to foreshadow that Whit will take on a more villainous role, but in the shorter term. He could be revealed as a mastermind or traitor in Chapter 3. My problem with this sprite as evidence of Whit as a late-game mastermind is that this is a really big hint. Generally, with a reveal like that, you'd probably want to build up to the reveal with bigger and bigger hints. For instance, you could say that DRDTdev started off with the small hint that Whit knows a lot about what people think, then move up to the medium hint that he and MonoTV have similar styles of humor and meta jokes, then move to the bigger hint that Whit suddenly knows a ton about how hanging works, for some reason. This piece of evidence is such a big hint that Whit is the mastermind (under the assumption that it is that) that I don't really know where you'd go from here without just saying that Whit is the mastermind. We've eliminated the possibility that the hints could grow any bigger, cutting the trail off early. Therefore, at the moment, I think this only (narratively) works if this is the last hint we get that Whit is the mastermind, which would mean that Whit would have to be outed soon.

Alternatively, I definitely think it's possible that DRDTdev is setting up Whit as an intentional red herring, a bait with which to divert the audience's attention away from whoever the real mastermind is. It could just be a fun game for the fandom, or actually come into play in the main plot in the future, if someone accuses him of being the mastermind on these charges. That's sorta the assumption I'd been operating off of before witnessing this scene. However, if that's the case, then DRDTdev shouldn't just have Whit do all of these things without creating an in-universe explanation for why he did them. Whit would have to have a completely innocent reason for striking this pose at this point, which... oh boy.

Not gonna lie, it's been difficult for me to come up with a non-sus explanation for this sprite that doesn't make it sound like I'm 100% coping, but I'll try my best. Anybody got some more of those spare anti-MM-coded Whit lines I asked for earlier?

Given the presentation of DRDT, when we see this sprite of Whit, we don't know what he's looking at. It's easy to jump to the assumption that he's looking at the students who are trying to open the door, but it's also possible that he's just looking at the door itself. Like, he's also just expressing his anger at the door for not opening.

If that's the case, it would probably be for the same rationale that I used to justify his line protecting Charles earlier. He doesn't want Charles to suffer, which means that he wants Charles out of this room now. The hand behind the back, then, is a tad confusing, but there are a few explanations I can think of.

The first is that this sprite was created with further uses in mind down the road. For instance, if Whit later hides a gun behind his back (don't ask how or why he would non-suspiciously have a gun), then this sprite may have been prepared to handle that circumstance so that it doesn't have to be redrawn later. Of course, to this point, DRDTdev hasn't held back with creating unique sprites for unique situations-- check out how many sprites Teruko and Ace have for likely just this episode. So, it's probably more likely that, if Whit does need to hide something behind his back later, it would have been drawn then.

The second is that just the hand is a red herring. The facial expression is real (being mad at the door), but DRDTdev made him hide his hand behind his back so that people would think he was concealing something. Overall, I think that's an acceptable level of red-herring-ness. You aren't faking something as big as the facial expression itself, but you still throw in a little false lead to throw the audience off of the scent. However, in an ideal world, there would still have to be an in-universe explanation for why he did it. Unless he just chose this moment to scratch his lower back, I don't know what that would be.

That's all I have for now, but I don't necessarily think that this sprite means that Whit has to be evil in some capacity. However, it's done the best job so far of making me think that he is, so I'll keep my mind open to that in the future.

This is such an excellent end to Ace's character. Like, I was already nodding my head along with all of the people who expressed why Ace's death here was narratively satisfying, but having him finally accept death in order to save Levi's life is a beautiful cherry on top.

I like it because it doesn't make Ace's death as overall depressing as everyone thought it would be. Ace was about to die believing that he was a piece of shit who never changed, even when everyone else wanted him to and was able to themselves. But, even if he might not have realized it, accelerating his own death for Levi's sake means that he did change. He was finally able to conquer his fears by looking them straight in the face. And, if the theories are correct that Ace had a hand in Taylor's death...

Ace: Because... because Levi is gonna fucking die, and I'm going to have a third goddamn death on my hands!

(Here's iistardust-and-sprinklesii's post, which first brought the idea that "third death" might mean that Ace was adding Levi on to his kill count of Arei and Taylor to my attention, at least.)

...it means that he also got to save a friend this time instead of killing him.

Obviously Ace's death is still a tragedy-- every death in the killing game is-- but just like Arei, he was still able to improve himself from who he was before he died. It's a really poetic ending that really hammers in the point that everyone has the capacity to be a good person, even in their last moments.

Really really really loved Logan's performance as Arturo here. This is the most... I don't know, human? Arturo has ever sounded. He sounds really young and afraid, which is totally befitting of the scene. It's not like I now believe that Arturo is a great guy and shoo-in survivor or anything, but it endeared me a lot to his character.

Also "I have no experience with saving lives" Felicity OOF.

This CG goes so fucking hard. First of all, I love the way that DRDTdev drew the hair and the fabric folds. They're always great, but I think that the extra sharpness and blockiness going on here serves the pointedness yet bluntness of Ace's words. Second of all, THE COLORS. Not only has everything become more red to highlight the fire and passion behind Ace's words, but it's also ACE'S COLOR. Ace is literally dyeing Arturo with his final message before he dies. I don't think we've really seen Arturo and Ace interact before (other than implied horror trio, I guess), so this was a fascinating move to make with regards to Arturo's character moving forward.

This is another way that Ace's character ends satisfyingly. Kind of funny that he's parroting this message when he just internalized it from Teruko, like, 15 minutes ago, but I understand why it resonated with him. And, like Levi, why he might have overstated this lesson so that he could go out as (even more of) a hero.

Execution Rambling Time!

This execution had a lot going on, so I expect to have a lot to say about it. We'll start here, with the name: Thanatophobia. For anyone who wasn't aware, it means, "fear of death." Totally makes sense, especially given Ace's eventual cause of death. I guess MonoTV/the mastermind/XF Tech(??? INSANE) knew enough about Ace to know that he was going to die of fright at the end? Eh, that's how most executions work, so I don't think it gives us too much to work with.

However, this is a confirmation that executions in DRDT are more based on what will cause students despair than directly what their talent is. It was kind of hard to tell with Min, given that her talent (Ultimate Student) and her fear of failing and being wrong kind of went hand in hand. However, horses were not the focus of this execution; Ace's personality was. Cool to keep in mind for future executions.

Drdtblingsceo (and perhaps others, but they were the first person I saw) was able to make out that not only does the grave on the left say "Taylor Riley," but the two other graves also say "Felicity Giles" and "Elliot Cuevas." (You can't really make it out in my screenshots, but you can see it better in the linked post. Sorry, I have a fairly old computer :( ) Terrible news for Mr. Riley, but great news for us when it comes to speculating about Ace's past. I wonder what caused Ace's secret to be about his eating disorder, rather than his dead friend that he seemingly blames himself for?

I was very closely inspecting this frame to see if it would contain any easter eggs about what happened in Xander's past. As far as I can tell, the article titles read, from right to left:

Unexplained Illness Kills Thousands

More People Are Dying of Cancer Than Ever Before

Flu Season Claims Thousands of Lives

Chronic Kidney Disease Mortality Death Toll Continues to Climb

??????? (I don't think this one actually has any text)

Falling Rates of Survival for Hospitalized Patients

Antibiotic-Resistant Infections a Growing Threat in Hospitals

Article #1 is the article that's zoomed in on for dramatic effect. As far as I can see, none of the actual paragraphs of any of the articles are legible.

We can fully rule out #2, #3, and #4 as being related to Xander-- those are all real-world diseases that don't really match up with the sickness Xander described. #5 is also out, because, even if it was meant to relate to Xander, it has no content, and therefore, nothing to analyze. I don't know why it's there, but it gives nothing.

#1, #6, and #7 all have the possibility of being related to Xander-- most likely #1, given that it was the one that was zoomed in on-- but that's only because they're vague. Therefore, we can't really learn anything more about the North C and Chariton incident from them. Still a good idea to check them, in my opinion, but they don't seem to bear any fruit.

Goddammit, do I really have to run out of images *now*? Like, in the middle of the execution? Fine, I'll be back to finish what I've started in a bit. Thank you for reading this far, and look out for the reblog hopefully later today!

[rontra]

drop your ffxiv lore

asking me to drop my pants in public would be less embarrassing..... you have to understand crucially that i don't know anything about anything and dont want The Knowers to see me

LMAO well i can talk about it a little but only on One Condition. as i mentioned before im a Certified Stormblood Gamer . in fact according to the wiki i am about this deep (level 64 questing atm)

so basically the condition is this: if something wasn't explicit in ARR or HW you cannot under any circumstances talk to me about it...! if you have any sort of reaction to this post that has to do with any later material than that i ask you Don't say it to me. if you are in doubt about whether something "counts", the safe answer is yes it does, and just going "neat!" instead & moving on will do fine. i really don't want to play spoiler chicken with you and don't want to know anything i don't already know. i'm enjoying taking my time with the game, so please refrain from correcting or corroborating anything i have to say about it atm!!!!!!! i'm still baby! thank you....!!! 😭👍

anyway my xiv characters are 1 a dude who was born in a wet cardboard box all alone and might be scared of women . & 2 a scary woman who did definitely kill her wife but is also the most Wife Guy for like secret reasons. the second one's lore is being ironed out as we speak so its all subject to change but the concept is there

1. ZT

love this guy. i even made an amv about it when i finished arr

(every xiv player voice) my wol is the most special boy in the world.

i actually had a whole thing typed up here about like his fucked up mom and whatever but i got shy and deleted it. i might go over it if someone's actually interested . but basically he's a poor little meow meow who, up until the beginning of the game, was abused pretty consistently bc of [evil cat people family dynamic reasons]. his family members mostly hate his ass and were rarely all that nice to him, so he has a lot of issues with self-worth and things like that--he doesn't feel like he's particularly good at anything or really "worth" much

he's from southern ilsabard which is a place i uh do not know much about. as a stormblood gamer. but it's fine the details don't really matter (walking away quickly)

his most prized childhood possession was the ruined scraps of an old arcanist's tome, and through sheer tenacity he managed to teach himself his first rudimentary spell from the incomplete paragraphs therein. he mostly chalks that feat up to the fruit of Time + Boredom and not talent or love, but those pages were the only thing he took with him when it finally came time for him to follow his older brothers' footsteps and leave the family.

gets on the boat. goes to limsa. enlists in the arcanists guild to cultivate what he sees as the One Single Skill He Has. people in the guild ???praise him??? and encourage him?? to keep at it??? which he is not at ALL used to, but it motivates him to work even harder at his training. he's pretty far from home and deeply unsure of himself, but he absolutely does not want to go back to the limited world he knew until now. so that unwillingness to look back sort of inherently keeps him trucking in search of a new purpose to latch on to

he's very sensitive to people being niceys to him, because he's not used to it at all. he's 4x weak to it and might cry if it's coming from an older woman who is even vaguely maternal, due to his horrific mommy issues. also, he wants to be useful to people ("for once"), so he has a hard time saying no to all the million quests and sidequests in the game. perfect

his inability to say no to people who request his help puts him on the Old Nymian Scholar Investigation Mission of course. i am Scholar Guy for a reason and that reason is ZT. this dude never had anything his family valued, and lived as the expendable runt of the litter his whole life, and now is suddenly entrusted with something important for the first time in his life--something bigger and older than him, a way of life, a legacy to uphold and carry forwards into the future

and that mantle is pretty heavy. but he'll carry it! and that's how he becomes a healer boy who will defend any random tonberry with his life. he feels very strongly about the extinct art of the scholars and also about being a healer in general--boy finally found his calling! also he has the echo and is our funny warrior of light but like that's fine. i'm sure the "not being able to say no to people, no matter how tired/hurt/etc he himself is" thing is not catching up any time soon. i did play DRK up to 60 though and lmao. well. hang in there. i even made an amv ab

there's some more stuff about him like how his path through eorzea and as a healer specifically is in lockstep with death at every turn and also how he's a blue mage on the side and whatever but this is long enough. here's a pic of him with one of my favorite "no one else gives a shit about this character" npcs

he's a pretty kitty and very sweet altho he does need to learn to assert himself (and starts doing so through the course of the game). he's very attached to his friends. he doesn't have any love interest or w/e for now he's figuring his own stuff out. gaining confidence. classic stuff. easy protagonist recipe. my meow meow. i played pvp just to get him a haircut. the things i do for zt

2. KRALJICA

the new baby. kraljica is not her original name, but she's never going to use her original one again. her surname is Radinasch, which used to be Aradina, before she killed her own queen who may or may not have been also her wife (ofc by hrothgar convention she then changed her surname to represent the loss of her queen) (despite being the killer) (it's a memento :) )

she is a bozjan hrothgar so we're back to ilsabard shenanigans (which remains kind of problematic for a stormblood gamer, but It's Fine). she actually knows ZT's mother, but not in a good way. Radina's group was in local political tension with ZT's mom's group, so there's some history there (notably in that kraljica would recognize ZT as "zahsa's runt" (derogatory) and not be very nice to him about it, but they don't really share a Personal history beyond the Faction Squabbles)

back to the point though, kraljica killed her queen, and most of the other followers of said queen were not very happy about that. killing the queen is like really high up on the list of things hrothgar do not want you to do. so she is branded queenkiller and exiled. some of the other hrothgar choose to follow kraljica out (having faith in her leadership for various reasons), making her their new queen as they venture to eorzea together (and all of their surnames become akraljica to match).

kraljica takes the surge of enmity against her as a natural consequence of what she did, and doesn't correct anybody who identifies her as a queenkiller in her journeys. she basically does not care about her shattered reputation or having to leave her home, because she is on, a secret, Other Scheme.

what they don't know of course is that radina asked her to do it. for scheme reasons. #women

kraljica is acting in accordance with radina's will. not even her own loyal followers know what her plan is, but they can clearly tell she has conviction; even when being hated by her people and ousted from her home, kraljica moves with that same inexhaustible willpower

(maybe she has questions, when she's alone, and wonders how much radina kept from her in the final days. and maybe she misses and mourns her. but all of that is only for her, in private, when no one can see... in front of the others, she's unflinching, and a leader they will follow no matter what...!!!)

she doesn't seem to have the echo and isnt a warrior of light. ZT can do that stuff. she's like busy with her own thing. she's running around collecting suspicious amounts of aether and being suspiciously driven and faithful to her cause. suspiciously

ok fine it's because radina asked her to cut her loose from mortality, venerate that, and bring her back as a primal. because she wants to become a war god strong enough to take revenge on the empire. something that will keep coming back, no matter how many times it's destroyed, as long as her chosen can still call for her....<3 that's so romantic

of course, what returns will not be radina-the-person. it will be an image of her will, shaped by kraljica's mind and the bloodpool of radina's aether. radina is dead for good; what kraljica is summoning is a representation of radina's goals and dreams, fueled by pure belief and a lot of aether. That Which Resembles Wife But Is Not will cast one megaflare for every minute of suffering inflicted upon bozja. (speaking to the empire thru a megaphone) this is your final warning

their summoning is pretty unorthodox and and "partial" (the primal does not manifest a corporeal form at this time, but it is certainly present in its vessel to some extent)--the game already allows a few different quirky summonings, so we're just playing calvinball and making up Another Special Case (this time owing to the specific setup and execution of radina's plan, her and kraljica's synchronicity about the whole thing, kraljica's unique position in her life, and some sprinkles of Rule Of Cool to taste) . imo the game is flexible enough about it that putting in Just One More Weird Summon Strat is not gonna break anything (LMAO) so it's fine <3

all you have to do is write in a side character who goes "but! that's not possible..." while the thing is happening in front of them

anyway suffice to say no one is doing it like radina's weird ass, and she couldn't do it without her wife guy who is willing to do whatever she wants. suffice to also say that kraljica's own aether is noticeably Weird and over-aspected by her beloved primal, and that "radina" (that which resembles wife but is not) Could Be lowkey tempering her right now and nobody would even notice it because her goal and the primal's goal are already one and the same. but that's probably fine. radina would never do that to her <3......

unless of course there are things about her even kraljica never understood. but surely that wouldn't happen

its really hard for other people to get a grip on kraljica because she won't let anybody close to her emotionally and she definitely won't spill the beans on radina's secret scheme. her boys are with her no matter what (#hrothgang) (they also picked up a viera whose city name now includes "akraljica" hahaha). other people are just like um that is a shady lady who is casting spells we dont even know how to classify. scary. also she's got a situationship with a nasty bandit milf (my friend's hrothgal<3) so we better just leave her alone. bad vibes all around

radina was a gunbreaker. kraljica is very good at manipulating aether and a strong fighter too, but i havent rly settled on a canon class for her. because her actual "canon class" is like. "a summoner from a hypothetical Other FF game. not even a specific other FF game, just Very Much Not This One" LMAO

she would just be like ah its um secret ancient arts from my homeland . you wouldnt know her. shes from a different continent. not like how they do it in limsa. not at all. goodbye (walks away mid conversation) and the arcanists could not stop her. like

anyway i'm not used to playing a female char so i keep getting distracted by her breasting boobily around. they dont let ZT jiggle like that so how was i to know... and basically, so-called free thinkers when dalmascan draped top 👇

she almost had a different face marking way back in the benchmark character creation era, but looking at it now it looks so weird without her big X . like who is that

(metian vest so important for the shoulder bulk... not gonna lie)

anyway kraljica would hear about the final aeon from ff10 and be like that's fucking right.

[wishing-stones]

Hii,,, hope I'm not bothering you too much. I've been a really big fan of your writing for a couple of months now. You don't have to respond to my ask if it makes you uncomfortable, I understand.

I'm someone who easily falls into paranoia spirals, and constantly second guesses whether my behaviour is socially appropriate since I have such a hard time reading a room. I have a habit of unknowingly stepping over the line when I get excited and thus making people uncomfortable, and only being aware of it if I'm directly confronted about it? Though because I absolutely hate conflict I often distance/isolate myself from the people I'm close to and find myself forming deeper emotional attachments to stuffed animals than people.

Would the guys find this to be a problem? Would they particularly care about someone being more open to an inanimate object than them, or if they need to regularly switch between reminding the person of boundaries and assurance that they aren't a selfish or awful person?

(Again, feel free to ignore this if you don't want to respond, I won't get upset if this ask gets deleted for being too much)

- 🖍 crayanon

Okay first of all Crayanon is adorable

Secondly, sending me asks is in no way bothering me! If I don't have the time or energy to respond to them, I often sit on them until I do (or until I come up with a sufficient answer for some of them). The only ones I wind up deleting are the ones I legitimately don't have an answer to LOL.

Thirdly, I'm seeing some self-deprecation here, and I'd like to remind you that you aren't a selfish or awful person for your neurodivergence. I prefer the company of animals, stuffed or not, to people most of the time as well. It's no shortcoming of yours that you have issues reading social queues-- especially when excited. You're far from alone in that aspect, and honestly? You can't blame yourself for crossing a boundary that you didn't know existed. All you can do is keep that boundary in mind going forward. You're not psychic, so you can't have known, and anyone who gets mad at you for crossing a line you weren't aware of... might be someone you may wish to rethink being around. This is a very annoying thing that happens with Neutotypical people, I feel. They expect you to know the exact social standards of every single setting everywhere you go when they... don't communicate that whatsoever. It isn't your fault, and this is all a very long winded way for me to say: Don't beat yourself up over stupid unspoken societal standards. It doesn't make you a bad person, and neither does wanting to avoid these situations. You aren't selfish, and you aren't awful.

With that out of the way...

Generally speaking, the guys are really good with mental health and neurodivergence in general. It's kind of a monster society thing-- since monsters are all so vastly different from one another, they don't tend to balk at anything that has to do with appearance or mentality. It's just the way you are, and if it happens to cause problems for you or them, they're still very supportive. They might nudge you towards professional help if it becomes a serious problem, but on the whole, these guys are very hard to offend by behavior.

Killer also has issues with boundaries sometimes, and needs to be corrected. With the guys, this usually comes in the form of playful violence, but you can shove him off or tell him to back up or steep off just as easily. His are hard to cross, but if you manage it, he's pretty gracious with letting you know, and if he sees you edging up on that line again, he'll playfully remind you of it. He won't get mad. The most you'll get for your troubles is a noogie.

Dust may snap if his boundaries are crossed in any serious way, but he's kind of a withdrawn person. He doesn't mean to be mean, but he'll be firm. He might get a little short and brisk to get you to back off... but he'll explain why once he's wound down from it. He might get a little rattled, but he won't hold it against you. Learning to be around new people can sometimes have a steep learning curve that can go on for years after you've met and grown close to them.

Axe only snaps if you get near his skull injury. Otherwise, he's pretty chill. If it's a social boundary, he isn't bothered too much, and will remind you that it's there calmly. He'll also warn you off of it if he feels you're creeping toward his or anyone else's boundaries, and praise you with reassurances if you remember these on your own. It'd do you well to remember that one of his biggest boundaries is to not startle him awake, since... that's less one for him and more one for you, so you don't get hurt on accident.

Cross will gently bodily move you if it's a physical boundary and just... say your name correctively if it's a social one. He'll explain his boundaries, but prefers reminding you rather than telling you. He thinks that you'll remember these on your own soon enough if he just... nudges you away from them. He's pretty understanding, even if he looks stern. Baggs takes note of these behaviors and works with you on them. Little memory exercises to remind you of where general boundaries might be, offers different methods of mindfulness, and takes everything in stride. Even if you cross his, he's patient and explains gently. He also likes the subtle sort of nudging you in the right direction-- making your own associations and your own corrections are far preferable than straight directions. It allows you to build your own habits and reminders that are custom-tailored to you.

Nightmare has arguably the hardest time with this because he is not pleasant when a boundary of his has been crossed. He'll get a little sour, but still remind you carefully of what that was and why he didn't like that. It's really not you, it's him. He gets cranky and bitter when bothered, but... he also has to remind himself that no one here is psychic and can't possibly know what he's thinking. He likes to lead you into conclusions yourself ("Do you remember what happened last time?") rather than actively correcting it, and does so as gently as he can. This bothers you deeply, and he can tell. He doesn't want you agonizing over a simple mishap that, in the grand scheme of things, matters very little.

As for being closer to stuffies than to them...

...They might get a little jealous, but the most that nets you is them sitting with the plush so that you have no excuse but to spend time with them. Oh no. Fortunately, they can be pretty still and quiet if you don't feel like people at the moment. Just hanging around quietly is enough.

[mostlyihyperfixate]

Okay! Finished "Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice." Wrap-up thoughts, go!

Disclaimer before we get started: These are just my thoughts and feelings. Being my thoughts and feelings does not make them correct. Anyone feeling differently than I do has just as much right to feel that way, and I harbor no ill will towards anyone with other interpretations or thoughts. I also recognize that I haven't played the other two games in this trilogy, which could possibly answer some of my complaints. Also: My mom tells me all the time that no one actually cares about my viewpoint on how stories fall short, so I fully understand that…well, no one might actually care about my viewpoint on how this story fell short.

The last case did not change my ranking. Of the four games I've played now, it's definitely ranked at the lowest. Turnabout Trump was fantastic, but none of the other cases managed to do much to captured my interest. I will allow that Apollo Justice overall had a lot more care to tie everything together than Justice for All did, but it also did so in a way that kind of had me scratching my head.

I think the biggest question I have for everything being tied together is…why are Klavier and Kristoph brothers? What is the narrative purpose here? Having them not be related wouldn't change a single thing about either of them. Klavier is, unfortunately, so bland that he doesn't react in any particularly person way to the reveal with Kristoph. It's just kinda…there. It's pretty much the exact same reaction he had to Daryan being revealed to be a murderer. The only thing I can think of is that Kristoph and Klavier were meant to go toe-to-toe in the trial seven years before, and Klavier trusted Kristoph with the tipoff. But I think there are several other ways that that could have still be true without what I feel is an unnecessary familial tie. Maybe it's a reflection of everyone else having familiar ties? It still feels weird to me.

As does the other stuff. Why did Apollo and Trucy need to be half-siblings? Why did Lamiroir need to be Trucy's mom? Everything is tied together, but ultimately it seems like it was kind of randomly done to make the characters seem closer than for any story-related reason. The game doesn't even end with Trucy or Apollo finding out about their relationship to each other OR to the singer that just HAPPENED to be involved in one of their cases.

And in the end, I feel like it was missing what I loved about the original trilogy: the relationships. I'm not whining because Miles wasn't involved at all. That's whatever. I also loved Phoenix and Maya, and Maya and Pearl, and Phoenix and Pearl, and Miles and Gumshoe, and Mia and Diego, and Mia and Maya, and Franziska and...literally everyone, and the list goes on and on and on and. I sort of feel like Apollo Justice traded out the character-to-character chemistry for over-the-top cartoon antics that left me wanting. I struggled to really care about ANY of these characters that weren't Trucy.

At least the last case did give me more Trucy and Phoenix together. Baby Trucy is so cute! I could have done with more of them, honestly. I get that the game wasn't about Phoenix, so I understand why they didn't do it. But it's about the only relationship I cared about--and it was literally only Baby Trucy and Phoenix.

And so, sadly, I leave this game not particularly interested or even convinced of the two major ships I've seen from it: Klavier/Apollo and Kristoph/Phoenix. If I squint, I can see the first. I really don't get the latter at all.

I've been over Klavier. I don't have anything against him. He's just bland, and he doesn't bring anything to the story or to Apollo as a character. At least if he had an emotional reaction, that would be SOMETHING. He's even just kinda "meh" about his band breaking up. And then the final case has Apollo thinking about the darkness inside Klavier, and how he's going to help remove that darkness, and I just…what darkness? You can't just say there's darkness in the last case and have me buy it! You've already made him different from Miles; don't be trying to recapture the lightning in the bottle with him when it's too late. Either introduce the "darkness" earlier, or work with what you've got.

Kristoph was a boring final boss, too. I felt like he was handfed to me as the culprit, and the entire time I was playing through the investigation segment, I was just like, "But WHY did he murder a magician?! WHAT could he gain from this?!" Only to find out he didn't actually kill the magician and the whole thing was just…he was mad that Phoenix took over a case from him, which is kinda of the same boring "because I'm evil, that's why" motivation that makes Matt Engarde not very interesting to me. But at least Engarde was difficult to overcome! He was entertaining in his evilness, and it was satisfying to win against him! But you don't even get the satisfaction of defeating Kristoph. He's literally about to walk away when someone just HAPPENS to mention the jurist system, and then Kristoph shoots himself in the foot not by admitting to anything but by insulting on the non-lawyers he's explicitly told are involved. What?

Whatever happened to all his black psyche-locks anyway?

I felt like it was all downhill for culprits, really. Kristoph was great in the first one. The nurse was a little transparent in Turnabout Corner, but the twist with her and the doctor was pretty good. And then Darayan was A) incredibly obvious from the minute he turned up on screen and B) incredibly boring. His motive was to make money. Okay. Look, I realize that's very realistic and all, but it's not very interesting. And the Kristoph again in the last case was disappointing.

I guess the games have never been super subtle with their culprits. It's always one of, like, five people, max, that you run into. But at least it was fun trying to piece together their motivations. Unfortunately, I also felt like this game was a lot easier than the previous three. I never came close to getting a game over once. Being able to figure everything out instantly not only derived me of one of the pleasures of the game, but also meant that I didn't have anything BUT the weaker motivations to go off of.

I hadn't seen or read a lick of anything about this game before I started, in contrast to having watched people play the first game and half the second. And the only two things that surprised me here were that Lamiroir was Trucy's mom (no, I did not peg that they had the same hair) and that Valant didn't kill his mentor (which I was genuinely pleased to see…the twist that the man killed himself was admittedly pretty good).

And then every single time poker came up, we had to spend five minutes shouting about how we absolutely definitely never ever ever ever GAMBLED because gambling is ILLEGAL, children! I wonder if they did play for money in the Japanese version, but they had to make it clear there wasn't gambling involved in the English version for the same reason the game corner got removed in Pokemon. I guess I get it, but it's kind of distracting.

I'm looking forwarding to playing the next two games. I hope I like Athena! I'm already not excited about the 3D artwork. I have seen renderings of Miles and, like, ick. There's nothing wrong with 2D art, you know? But I'm a bit bummed to see that Phoenix comes back as the star. I want to see more of him back in the saddle, but ultimately I feel that Apollo never got a chance to shine. I finished his game knowing only one more thing about him than I did at the beginning: That he's got a mom and a half-sister.

In the end, I don't think this was a bad game. I just don't think it was what it could have been, and it fell short of its predecessors for me.

Next time: Orca case???? Maybe????? I thought that was a joke but I've seen enough fanart to make me suspect otherwise.

[hogwarts-legacy-confessions]

To answer this question in more detail: No, I have not felt personally targeted by a post on this blog, and I'm grateful for that. But I know too many people who have been, and that's really fucking sad.

Maybe the intention was for this blog to be a fun place where people could post their dirty, dark secrets, but all it's become is a cesspool of negativity.

Too many people are stressed and over-researching their fics because of lore police on here ranting over minute details.

Too many "bigger" creators now feel guilty for not interacting with every single person who comments on their work or drawing the MC of every person who draws theirs first.

Too many people who don't interact with this blog, who have blocked it even, have been bombarded with Anon's saying their work is being attacked here. That's not a nice feeling.

Too many people worried their work isn't “good enough” and only got attention because they posted early on.

People have considered deleting entire works because of posts on here.

And honestly, I've probably missed a lot more ways people have been negatively affected.

Sitting here and saying, "I'm not omniscient" does not change the fact that people are very obviously being hurt by the content posted on this blog.

Fandom should be an escape. Not a place people have to grow a thick skin to interact with.

/rant over

You're correct that my aim with this blog was to give people a place to admit things about their interest in the game and its characters that they would not say publicly. Specifically, I've had multiple people relay to me anonymously that they love my work who also admitted they were afraid to express their appreciation by way of public engagement on it. I thought it might be interesting to see what other secrets people may be hiding, and we've gotten some good ones.

But, you're right that the nitpicking over fics and fanart has gone too far. The AI argument has been done to death, for instance, and we know historical accuracy is an issue in fanworks (as it's bound to be in any fandom based on a specific time period), and we also know that people are feeling underappreciated in their efforts to contribute to the fandom.

I am not one to cater to the most sensitive person in the room. From the inception of this blog it had detractors, including multiple people who submitted very direct attacks against me personally, some of which I published. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these same people had submitted some of the nastier confessions just to sow discord then pointed them out in order to prove how bad the blog is. But the idea that someone might be so devastated by this or that general comment or correction that they want to quit fandom or remove their work honestly never occurred to me. I've made an effort to ensure that posts aren't aimed at any particular individual, but that does leave them open to interpretation and anxious people may assume the worst.

Until a few hours ago, I had never heard about any of those purported reactions you listed above - not even from people with whom I share servers and DMs - and I do wonder who/how many people we're talking about here and whether the posts really were even about them. There was only that one girl who dramatically "left the fandom" because people were saying critical things about Sebastian. Other than that, not one single person has reached out to me (and anons are obviously open) to say "hey, I was hurt by x/y/z" or "I think this confession is about me."

I can also tell you for a fact there are certain bad actors trying to stir up trouble, particularly for me and this blog, which they're primarily against because they don't like its admin. I can't control what those individuals do as far as sending anons that may or may not be accurate, and I suggest that everyone block them when they rear their heads.

That said, I can admit that we've gone a little off course with both the tone and content of some of the confessions. I'll be implementing new guidelines (to be determined, and I welcome input) surrounding the issue of fandom and fanworks.

Thanks for your gracious feedback. Anons and DMs remain open.

[andromeda3116]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I recently discovered you on A03 through your Zutara fics and I must admit that I'm mesmerized by your stories. They are so wonderfully written—the structure, the development, the characters, the dialogues and the political aspects are so beautiful. Everything about them makes me want to dive in and read and explore the worlds you have created.

I'm writing this in the hope that you might be able to provide me with a little guidance. I really admire your work, and I wanted to know if you had any tips on how to develop characters, dialogues and conflicts, for every scene you've written contributes to the story in some way (it's really engaging and thrilling as a reader).

Without further ado, I hope this finds you well. Thank you :)

First of all, thank you for your kind words! And I'm flattered that you wanted my advice!

The only "trick" I can actually impart is: I've gotten a lot of mileage out of just reading my story out loud to myself, and seeing if it sounds good. And from there is a lot of "oooh, that sounds wrong, how about..." until you get something that works, or -- quite often, in my experience -- you just highlight the sentence to come back to later when you're less frustrated. And try again. (This is particularly useful with dialogue.)

But for the rest... I know this is going to sound trite, but the answer is to just write a lot. And read a lot.

Everyone has their lists of writing advice, how to structure stories and make them pop -- but ultimately, everyone has a different way of doing those things, and mostly, there isn't actually a correct answer. Finding your voice just takes practice.

Reading a lot -- and watching a lot of movies and shows! -- can teach you a lot of the wrong ways to do it, either because you cringe away from the screen/page for reasons you can't put into words, or because it all comes together so well that you try to mimic it in your own writing and you have to figure out why you couldn't do it like they did. Trust me, I wrote a lot of derivative shit while trying to capture someone else's lightning in my own bottle. I honestly don't think that's a bad thing -- everyone learns from someone else, and everyone starts off by mimicry. If anyone claims to have had their own unique voice from the start, they're full of shit.

Redwall taught me how to craft imagery, I can point you back to the FFX oneshot that taught me how to use single-sentence punches to gut the reader, Terry Pratchett taught me how to incorporate politics into a story in such a way that it doesn't feel dry, there was a brief period back on fictionpress.net (s/o to my other fandom olds) where weird single-sentence poetry (?) things? were super-cool to me and they taught me how to build emotion using syntax, Lord of the Rings taught me how build an engaging plot, the drabble and one-sentence challenges taught me how to use conservation of words to make what I did have count -- and so on and so forth.

I've been writing stories since I could hold a pencil, and sharing them, getting feedback on them, and actively engaging with them since I was 13 (I'm 33). It sounds like weak advice, but it really legitimately just does come down to "read something that sets your brain on fire, try to do something like it, inevitably fuck it up, try it again until you figure out why it didn't work, fix that, read something else that sets your brain on fire, try to do it, inevitably fuck it up --" ad nauseum, until you've figured out enough "yikes"-es that you know how to craft a story on your own that hits all the notes you want it to hit. Kinda like sculpting, you start with a shapeless rock and chip away at all the parts that don't work until you learn what does. And the statues you make get better and better the more of them you sculpt. They don't have to be good. A lot of them won't be. And that's a good thing! It's the process of learning how not to do it that teaches you how to get it right.

But other than that, I unfortunately can't give you a lot of advice. It honestly does just take a lot of practice, consuming stories and digesting them and pulling their pieces out to try and make something out of it all yourself. And accepting that you're gonna fail a lot. I failed a lot. I still fail a lot. There's never a point where you're done learning how not to do it.

Wanting to write well is the first step. Writing badly is the second.

[faux-fires]

15 questions, 15 mutuals

Tagged by @ranilla-bean!!

were you named after anyone? nope! parents straight-up made up a name for their firstborn (moi) and i've spent the whole of my life wearily correcting people's pronunciation.

when was the last time you cried? two days ago i made mySELF cry thinking of a sad story beat for a wip, making me, officially, an even bigger nerd than suspected

do you have kids? nope, and not particularly interested. my brother's of the same mind. i think it's because we grew up so damn poor, i feel like i spent my 20s just getting financially stable and my 30s are for all the things my middle class schoolfriends got to do in their teens.

do you use sarcasm a lot? noooooooooo why would you even ASK me that

what's the first thing you notice about people? if dude, clothes. if women, eyebrows. if i'm not sure, nose.

what's your eye color? grey-blue

scary movies or happy endings? rana's answer is spot on for me too: "happy endings bc i am a wimp"

any special talents? i'm pretty good with people! i can make friends easily it's the keeping them that's hard

where were you born? uk

what are your hobbies? cross-stitch, vidya games

have any pets? yes, three: resentful bag-of-dicks tabby cat merlin, pretty but cheeky westie sybil and adorable but somehow perpetually damp (?) scottie basil

what sports do you play/have you played? swimming, archery. i really really want to get back into horse riding but i don't have the time or the cash to invest in all the safety equipment

how tall are you? taller than my mum HAHAHA

favorite subject in school? classical civilisations - the way my school worked you took latin for two years and then the content was split into two subjects, latin and ClassCiv. i was garbage at latin and the teacher disliked me so the fact that i was good at classciv and picked it meant he had to keep seeing me which i took a certain vindictive glee at. however you picture me picture a spotty teen version of me smirking across a desk as i turn in an essay that is TECHNICALLY an a but you know i cannot pronounce a single latin word in it correctly.

dream job? aging socialite with a purse dog, or anything classed as a 'lazy girl' job

Tagging the last 15 peeps to interact with one of my posts mwahahaha: @hollyand-writes, @mikkeneko, @loudfederationscreeching, @sulkybender @carabas, @hoochieblues, @biioshocker, @elaseolvidah, @wardenkay, @overthinkingfeathers, @bizarreshark, @dorianpink, @flashhwing and i've lost count, so anyone else who wants go.

[witchcraftandburialdirt]

Because I know we talked about it but also because I know it's smthn u enjoy thinking about: How much has Tarhos corrupted Haru and how much of it is just the darkin is a God, corrupted as he may be, that actually answered his prayers unlike the others?

✧ ── 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 LEAGUE VERSE

Something that makes Haruo and Tarhos' relationship unique is, at least to me, their joined mindspace - while Rhaast and Kayn can communicate telepathically and can read eachother it is still two separate beings bickering with one another. For Haruko and Tarhos the line is much more blurred; they experience eachother's feelings and desires, hear each single thought and even have shared dreams. They are less "two people in one body" and much more "one person in two bodies" in terms of how they can communicate with eachother, I mean technically if we wanted to get really into it we could debate about how there is no true unified "self" but rather a fractaling recursion of self-repeating selves - think about how your conscience talks to you in your own voice or how you ask yourself questions and you answer them - that. Its incredibly complicated to try to explain in a tumblr post but that is how, for myself at least, Haru and Tarhos operate. Tarhos and Haru can hear the other one talking and know its not them doing it but it still feels like their own thought. I hope that makes sense because it's only going to get worse from here -

While that isn't necessarily the question I do think its an important thing to distinct when speaking about them; before Tarhos found a vessel they basically acted as a singular unit anyway - I doubt that mindset would change much once he took over the dragon in Ionia. So, beginning with that I'm going to continue on and say that I don't think Haru was "corrupted" so much as he was validated. Before the Noxian invasion Haruko was most likely living peacefully in Bahrl with his village and family, there was tension between Vastayans and Humans as always but he didn't go out comitting murder for fun. He just simply did not interact with them or care enough to - and I really don't think he cared about or even knew about Noxus. Based on that alone we can see a distinct difference from the past to present, and I do think that has a large chunk to do with Tarhos. Darkin are PTSD ridden forgotten Gods whose last moments feeling sunlight were surrounded by the rise of the Void, and the fall of Azir along with the Empire of Shurima - and when Haruko first found Tarhos, the blade was eager for bloodshed and violence.

Upon first contact their minds partially merged, Haru's strength of spirit was able to dominate and shackle back Tarhos' possession of him for the most part, but not completely. The battle was fought and Haruko fled having lost practically everything within a single day by an unknown force that brutalized without mercy - which I'm sure is an event Tarhos can understand way too well. This is where the validation and mind-merging come into play; even if Tarhos did not actively say anything to Haru at that time, Haru can still feel what Tarhos is and vice versa. Within Tarhos' own bloodlust and hatred towards the Void Haru felt validated and correct in his anger and immediate dehumanization of Noxians; seeing them as a plague to Ionia much like the Void is a plague to Shurima. Once the mind has decided to dehumanize it is very easy for people to fall into acts of violence without any reprise or guilt over them; its happened many a time throughout history and is still happening today. And that is very hard to change once its cemented, particularly through a place of deeply rooted trauma which resulted in a cultural and territorial genocide. One of which the very land has still not healed from.

Haru does view Tarhos as a God too - he is one - and to have those views validated and reaffirmed by something so universally larger than him screams to him that he is correct. Tarhos didn't have any bit of a healthy mindset when they originally met, they were both spiteful and livid at the world around them - and violence always breeds violence, anger breeds anger etc. With Tarhos healing though it does leave an actively larger question regarding that original validation; does it still hold as much as it should? Haru hates Noxians so much and frankly would be fine if they were eradicated, but that seems a very sharp shift for a creature thats lived in relative peace for 300+ years. Anger is often a mask we wear to hide things we're not ready to face yet, its the brain defending itself from whatever ugly can of worms needs to be opened but will really really hurt when it eventually does.

In short, Haru has found comfort, validation, and solace in a bloodthirsty God which reaffirms his fury and approves of it - he isn't getting any help for the legitimate reasons he's like this - and until he does there won't be any end to it. I don't think he was corrupted, I think Tarhos' just helped pour gasoline ontop of a small fire and both of them let it explode without really thinking about the consequences afterwards or why the fire was there to begin with.

[darkangel1791]

For the one-shot asks - 3, 7, 10, 20, 22 - Walking Mojo

Sorry this answer is late! I didn't see the ask at the time and then had to find the original post! 😆

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

In most of them there is some aspect of hurt/comfort. Louis is almost always wanting to please and or protect Lestat. A detail that shows up so much in my fics is French. French words, French pronunciations or a character, Louis usually, speaking French. Often there is some kind of quote from the books that is in the fic, or inspired the fic. A lot of my fics are about some period of time that is just glossed over in the books.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

This is difficult. I don't know that I've ever done any world building in my VC fics. I tried to stick close to canon. And I actually used maps of New Orleans to make sure that if I had a character going somewhere in New Orleans, the streets are correct, and they lead to the right places.

Maybe that I tried to include Anne and Stan Rice in some of my fics to explain why her name is on the books and why she goes on book tours, to put her into the same world as the vampires.

Or possibly 1940s New York in Christmas in New York.

10. How do you decide what to write?

Usually when I was reading a book, I would come to a part that I would have questions about. Such as, what happened during that time, or what did the other character in this scene think and feel? The fics that are not covered by that were just a single idea I would have, and I would start writing to get everything in line to lead to this idea, or scene, then write what the idea/scene was, and then what it would cause the characters to do, and resolve the story.

20. If you wrote a prequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

Since you wrote Walking Mojo, I assume that's the fic you'd like me to use for this and the next question.

The prequel to Walking Mojo would involve Louis going to visit Lestat who is packing and him tossing his key to Louis and assuming he will watch Mojo, because Lestat needs him to. Then Mojo and Louis getting to know each other. Louis reading books or doing research on the computer about what a dog needs ie. exersise, socialization, plenty of fresh water, etc. And figuring out how to give Mojo these things.

22. Who is your favorite character in Walking Mojo and why?

Well, Mojo, obviously! 😁

Thanks so much @persefoniajax for asking!

Please let me know if I have the wrong original post, because this one doesnt say anything about one-shot, but it was the first on i found, and if so I will answer the correct questions!

[transienturl]

okay so if I have FIVE cables and TWO ethernet switches and TWO usb ethernet adapters and FOUR computers and two of them are IDENTICAL CLONES

and if I get slow speeds only with the TWO identical computers only when they're plugged into ONE of the port types of ONE of the switches only when data is flowing FROM THE SWITCH TO THE COMPUTER, and full speed otherwise

but the situations with slow and non-slow speeds don't change if I change

which of the 4 identical ports on the switch is being used

which ethernet adapter is plugged into which computer

which cable is plugged into which ethernet adapter

the direction of the cable (flipping the two ends)

where the data is coming from

but, as mentioned, they do change if I use a different switch (even with test data flowing in some order through both cases!) or computer or test direction or type of port on the switch (not all of its ports are identical)

then:

what the hell

how can it matter which switch (well, switch port) is connected "directly to" a computer if the cable and adapter that are actually in between them don't matter (so it's nothing physical) and the data is going through the problematic switch and switch port in both tests. and the speed is the same in both directions in the good test so it's not a limit of the—every single component on its own can demonstrably do full speed in both directions.

cause, like. source—switch2—switch1—adapter—computer works at full speed in both directions with any source, any adapter, and any computer. source—switch1—switch2—adapter—computer is slow only from left to right, only with the two identical computers, but with any source and adapter

that's impossible?

the problem with this situation is that the next step is to isolate the software and hardware in the affected computers, which happen to both be m3 macbook pros that were cloned from each other because purely by happenstance my dad is switching from one to the other this week and hasn't wiped the old one. it would be pretty mysterious but perhaps a macos version difference or piece of software running on his OS image is causing this... again, specifically only with a certain topology of the same network switches in an otherwise identical scenario and while changing out everything else(?) but ok

but I don't want to reinstall macos to try to identify that, that's a lot of work

ugh

I mean I guess I have to wipe the one we're selling anyway. but like—

aha! post interrupted: my dad speculated, and was proved correct, that it depends not on what switch and port type is plugged into the computer in question... but just on what port type. good thing we actually have another switch, which also does it.

so, remaining questions:

is this software or an m3 mac thing, and in either case... how would that possibly be related

why the hell did you even spend this much time trying to figure this out when (not that this was mentioned prior to this) the reduced speed is still significantly faster than your home internet connection and thus this won't actually matter 99.9% of the time

well, I'll have to reinstall macos to answer the first. as for the second, I mean a) it was interesting, but more importantly b) the networking in our house has not proven particularly reliable, and anything not performing to spec—particularly in an unexpected but reproducible way—is an opportunity to investigate it to see if there's a root cause whose repair could fix issues that I do actually care about the impact of.

it's kind of like the reasons I have [mumblemumble] hours put into things like "how could xkit rewritten pause every gif, yes every gif, yes even that one": besides being fun, the edge cases I ran into while developing and testing it taught me so much about how (i.e. "the many ways in which") tumblr's frontend displays images and about how browser image loading and rendering, in-browser data manipulation, and cutting edge styling rules work. sure, only a subset of those will probably make it into the codebase, but you don't know which subset!

you have a maximum chance of catching the perfect fish only if you cast the widest net, as... probably nobody says, because I made that up on the spot just now. also, that doesn't mean you actually should cast the widest net, as that's pretty inefficient; this is only to say that it's not entirely without value, goes the rest of the saying, for completeness.

[dailyaudiobible]

10/13/2023 DAB Transcript pt2

So, assuming that Paul wrote this letter in his lifetime, then what we’re seeing is Paul's desire to clarify things that he didn't have time to clarify and answer questions that that are coming to him from the church and to offer correction when correction is needed, whether that be interpersonal correction in the church or whether there's like an incorrect doctrine happening, and that is the case in second Thessalonians. For example, Paul's teachings in his letters like, it's not like an ambiguous thing, the early church believed that the arrival of Jesus, his return was imminent, literally imminent, literally like in their lifetimes, any day, any second. So that would make certain people that go well, I'm going to stop life as I have previously known it and wait because this could, I’m gonna be ready, this could happen at any time. So that will lead to is that people would stop working, quit their jobs ,stop providing for themselves. Stop being a contributor into the community. King of lean on everybody else and live idly which then led to boredom which then led to gossip and meddling in other people's business. So, Paul in this letter, kind of lays it out. Like, yeah, you can't leech off each other. That's not how this works. If you don't want to work, then I guess you don't want to eat. And another thing will find this letter, when you think about this, these are baby Christians in Thessalonica and they didn't have a lot of time to be poured into. And so, they have what they have and they’re trying to live into their faith and they’re trying to be ready and waiting for Jesus arrival and they get word, like communication comes in through the church that it already happened. Jesus came and they missed it. Which is a horrible thing to say to a baby congregation of baby Christians, like you missed it. And so, Paul of course sets the record straight that he didn't say that he wouldn't say that, it's not true. And he really wants to encourage them. Again, he didn't have a whole lot of time with them. They were persecuted from the get go. They are still being persecuted and marginalized, they aren’t particularly wealthy enough to really defend themselves in any kind of social way. They don't have a lot. They just have a lot of love and a lot of hope in Jesus. So, he loves them and wants to encourage them. Encourage them to take the long view, justice is, belongs to God and God sees those who are faithful to him. And justice in the end will prevail. And so, we get this glimpse again, these letters really give us, since they’re like letters written to specific churches about specific things, we get this glimpse into what's going on in the early church, and second Thessalonians gives us a view of baby Christians under fire trying to be faithful. And so we begin Second Thessalonians chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You, we thank You for the Scriptures, we thank You for this tangible gift that we can actually hold in our hands if we so choose. We thank You that no matter how murky or cloudy things get, we have a tangible gift even if technology fails, we have a tangible gift. Thank You for this technology that binds us together and has allowed us to be together, every single day for these well, almost 16 straight years. Thank You, thank You for the Scriptures and the way that they speak into our lives and all the different nuances and complexions. Thank You for this letter. The second letter to the Thessalonians, come Holy Spirit and speak to us. Thank You for this book of Jeremiah that we are working our way through. Come, Holy Spirit, and speak to us, guide and direct our steps, transform us, change us we pray, in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, of course, it's where you find out what's going on around here and it's good to know what's going on around here, so check it out. Check out the different sections like the…the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of categories in the Daily Audio Bible Shop with the resources in those categories that are for the journey that we are taking through the year together and through the Bible together. Things like the Daily Audio Bible Journal which we have fashioned well over a couple of iterations to perfect, things like the black wing pencils that are perfect for journaling with, that's what I used a journal with. Written resources like the God of Your Story. Things to wear, things to drink like the Daily Audio Bible Wind Farm coffee and tea and a number of different varietals that we will send fresh to you, you can even have them sent once a month, each month if you like. So, there are a number of resources that certainly everything throws a little bit of a log on the Global Campfire but they are designed and crafted for the journey that we are on together. So, check out the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what's happening here is life-giving and brings encouragement into your days. If being in community together working our way through the Scriptures is meaningful than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that's the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today, I'm Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey DAB family, this is Lost in Texas. This is my first time calling. Little over a month ago, I was blindsided with losing my job, the day before my birthday. And I’ve been searching and struggling to understand the reason why God did this, what He has planned for me. And I keep finding something and then it falls through, finding something else and then it falls through. And then, I recently found a position that fits all of my needs with a strong Christian company and I made the application for it, I have a friend who knows my potential boss. He submitted a referral for it. And I’ve reached out to the boss myself and I hear nothing. If I heard a no, I’d be able to move on and understand that it’s not God’s plan, this is not God’s plan for me. If I heard a yes, it’d be amazing. But it’s the hearing of the nothing that is killing me and it’s making me question things and it’s bringing up all these coping mechanisms that rely on things that I’m trying. I’m trying to not fall back into. And I just need prayer to make sure that I can stay away from these things. And honestly, I think this job would be perfect if I could just have the opportunity. So, please any prayer you could help me with that, would be greatly appreciated.

Father God, we come before You this morning, worshiping You and thanking You in the beautiful morning sunrise. We lift up the prayer requests to You and we offer them as a sweet incense to You, Father God. We are lifting up Riding for Christ who needs a position close to home. He is serving and protecting the community around where he lives, Father, and we ask You to open up the opportunity for him to be able to be close to home and not waste so much time driving so far away to his job. His Little Song Bird, Wanda is in the hospital, Father God, and we are praying for strength and healing, Father God, over Wanda. On the Prayer Wall, Daryl has asked for prayers for his 14-year-old daughter with cyclic vomiting, Father God, we are asking You to pour healing into this young girls stomach. Heal her organs, Father God, allow this vomiting to stop. And let her body naturally work the way You have intended for it to be. Andrea is asking for prayers for her daughter Ray, who is not walking with God, for her son Jaden and his friend Ethan with bi-polar and her friend Antonia with the vision impairment. Father God, we call Ray back into the fold, Father God, she is a prodigal Lord, and we’re calling her name, Father God. We’re lifting that name. You see her, Father God, direct her back Lord and let her humble herself before You and ask for salvations plan and let her walk uprightly, righteous before You, Father God. Heal the bi-polar. And heal the vision, Lord I bow before You this morning with a few additional prayers for the weekly call-ins and the Prayer Wall. Father God, I’m lifting up His Little Sharie before the throne of grace today. She is experiencing fear, Father God, and I ask the Holy Spirit to permeate completely through her and dispel that fear that is not of God. And place it with peace that passes all understanding. I know this scripture is used many, many times. And we believe in its power. She is in fear of what’s going on in her body and has apprehension of the drugs they’re wanting to start. Father God, we are asking for wisdom to come to the doctors if there’s an alternative way to deal with this, we are asking for second opinions, we are asking Lord, for You to give His Little Sharie the assurance of what path she is supposed to go on next. Under Construction is looking for a part-time job for the weekend, Lord. I am asking for You to open up the opportunity for her to find the exact position and job and place that You want her to be in that will fulfill her financial needs, above and beyond what her bills are, so that out of her abundance she is able to help others from Your gracious provisions. And for the Prayer Wall, for JC of GA Father God, for a successful colonoscopy, guide the instruments and the doctors, let them be steady, let there be no mishaps or side effects or any causes other than having a successful procedure done with good results because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Hey Liza, this is Spark. I haven’t particularly called in because I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t necessarily know how to call in. I’ve been praying for you. I’m walking through the grass in bare feet right now. And I wanted to tell you, I vividly remember when this journey started, and I was working. I can tell you exactly where I was when this journey started with you. Sister, your power and your strength is, is delivered by God. And I want you to know that I am so proud of you. I love you. My wife tells me I can talk to a fence post, but I haven’t necessarily know how to talk to you. So hear it goes, I don’t rehearse. I believe God has an utter calling for you. I believe that God has used you right now to reach out and touch people and make people think and make people love and make people care for each other. Sister, this life is temporary, all we can do is hope and strive to be good people. And we get to go see our Father. I want you to know that I pray for you every day. I love you. And what an inspiration you are and I will see you soon. Muah. I love you. Be with God.

[the-teapot-hatter]

I was the one who send the isekai protagonist request, what I meant was that the protagonist does everything to attract the boys’ attention like wearing nice clothes that suit their tastes, partaking in their favourite activities and giving them presents, all just to get them to notice her. But mc here, doesn’t do any of that stuff, they’re only interested in dumpster diving yet somehow has caught the boys’ eyes compared to the overlooked protagonist who actually makes an effort to be seen.

Sorry it took me a little bit to get back to this, I was a little busy. And thank you for the clarification.

This isn't particularly staring any of the boys, but rather a long list of them (their short interactions) and the protagonist's failed attempts at wooing them. After such, she investigates the Reader.

If this isn't want you wanted, or I messed up something while writing, please feel free to tell me and I'll try writing it again to see if I get it correct the next time around.

Really, Aerilyn had tried everything that she could think of. But absolutely nothing was working, which didn't make any sense. She had read all of the novels, had gotten the spin-off games, had spent a ridiculous amount of money to read ahead in the webnovel adaptation, she bought all the merch, had visited every con, had watched and was present for every single interview there had been with the author.

Out of everyone, Aerilyn could say that she was the one that understood the characters the best. She was the one that knew all there was to know about this world and it's characters. So, logically, she was the one that was best suited to wooing the harem of men that the Saintess had won throughout her travels in the original, right?

All Aerilyn had to do was woo them before the original heroine showed up, and the Saintess hadn't appeared yet, and Aerilyn did the same things she did when wooing the boys (or at least most of the same things), and yet they still weren't interested. Not one. Not one single one of them was interested in Aerilyn. And she had tried everything.

…First, was her attempts with the Phantom Thief…

She had intentionally moved the guards stations so he would have an easier time getting in and out. And once she noticed the guard walking about, placed in front of her new family's treasury, she couldn't help the wide grin on her face. Because she new that wasn't a guard. It was the one and only Phantom Thief Ace Trappola, the second son of Count Trappola.

A mischievous boy that never failed to make her heart flutter any time she read of him through the pages of a book, saw him through a screen, or heard iconic voice lines being spoken from.

Cooling herself, she walked over towards the faked guardsmen, fighting off the grin that wanted to spread across her face once more. She knew exactly what to do to catch his attention!

"You there! What's your name?" Aerilyn called, watching as the fake guardsmen turned to look at her. The pounding of her heart taking on an excited erratic pace.

"My name is Sept, Lady Cyprus." The fake guardsmen answered, and Aerilyn had to fight off the squeal that made its way up her throat. While Ace did well to disguise his voice, he would never be able to hide himself from a rabid fan like Aerilyn.

"Oh? I don't recall having any guardsmen being named that. Let alone assigned this section of the manner." Aerilyn didn't actually pay attention to the guardsmen's names, but she would let Ace think that she does in order to further impress him. "You're that Phantom Thief that's been stealing from nobles lately, aren't you?" Aerilyn accused.

What she didn't realize at the time, and would never realize, was that Ace was not impressed. In fact, he was more that a little annoyed with the ladies, and some men, that have been coming up to him lately and accusing him of being a Phantom Thief. He didn't mind a good chase every now and again, but this was ridiculous. Then there was the fact that he could be dangerous, for he has a very real sword on him, and the lady before him had decided to confront him without any guardsmen for protection. So, in other words, she was an idiot.

And, as if to further worsen his opinion of her, Aerilyn dug into one of the pockets of her overly huge dress and threw a pouch of coins at him. A particularly smug look on her face. "You shouldn't steal from others, but I need this less than you do. Consider me letting you go a mercy." And then she spun around and walked away. Leaving Ace feeling thoroughly insulted. He didn't steal because he needed money. He did it because of the thrill. Though, lately, it hasn't been nearly as fun due to the increasingly odd behaviors of others.

Days later, Aerilyn was left confused when the Phantom Thief never paid her a visit. He didn't even come up to her and interact with his real identity, leaving her to wonder what she could have possibly done wrong. After all, its what had happened in the novel, right?

…Then, there was her efforts with the Navy's rising star…

Aerilyn didn't actually like working out or doing anything that got her sweaty. But she also knew how beastmen like Jack worked. Or rather how wolves worked. All she had to do was perk his interest, get him interested in her, and she could drop the excessive exercise. 

Until that happened, she would come out of her way every week and train with the patrolling guardsmen, and request training from the Navy to teach her proper self-defense. It wasn't the proper means, but she was a noble lady and could do whatever she wanted. As far as she was concerned, a full group of disgruntled people was more than fine if it would gain Jack's attention.

Only, the beastmen never came up to her. Never interacted with her. Never even offered to help her. She was left confused and frustrated as to why her efforts weren't working. Unknowing to the fact that Jack himself had just wanted the woman to leave. She was throwing everything off and putting a heavy strain on everyone else because of her whims. On top of it all, Jack could tell that she wasn’t even putting that much effort into it, instead ogling at him or one of the many other people.

It left him increasing uncomfortable, something he was growing used to feeling since she was far from the only noble to have pulled a stunt like this recently. He had heard that the Crown Prince was in the action of drafting and setting up a law to prevent this from happening again in the future, but all he could do until that time came was wait. 

To Aerilyn's surprise, two weeks later, she was bared entry. A couple of guardsmen reciting Prince Malleus's new decree, something that Aerilyn had never heard of before. Unsatisfyingly, she ended up having to give up on wooing the wolf beastmen for now. Jack couldn't have been more relieved when his workplace finally went back to normal.

…Her attempts with establishing trade with the up and rising Viscount was a total failure as well…

For weeks, Aerilyn had sent letter after letter to Azul about a business venture she knew he would enjoy and profit from. Not only would she make money from the deal, she could establish contact with Azul as well. She knew the prospect would be successful, since Azul would do so himself in the future and gain a massive profit from it.

She wasn't stealing the idea from him if he hadn't yet thought of it. Not to mention, she would make sure he would still profit from it in the end, so she didn't see the big deal. However, he never answered any of her letters. Not a single one, and Aerilyn couldn't figure out why.

And long soon after, Azul started up the business she had been alluding to in her letters to him, even though she hadn't even given him the full details! She didn't understand why he wasn't answering and she didn't understand why the original seemed to be speeding up. Azul didn't come up with this idea until the saintess made an off handed remark about to Turtolois plant in the east. And the saintess hadn't appeared yet, so she didn't understand what was going on.

Unbeknownst to her, Azul had received letters from not just her, but a whole slew of people. While some were evasive in their letters, he knew enough to piece the information together. While Azul didn't understand why so many letters were addressed to him, why so many people knew about the money making venture and were doing nothing, and why so many people who hadn't had recent contact with each other all seemed to be doing the same things.

While Azul would get as much money from it as he can, he wasn't going to involve himself in something as crazy as this.

…She'd even tried helping the pitiful servant Jamil, but he didn't seem to appreciate her kindness…

She had gone to the Duke Asim's social party, unfortunately, too many people were crowded around Kalim for her to get close to him, so she tried the next best thing. She had requested Jamil's assistance, and as kind as the Duke heir was he granted it, which led her to taking the servant out with her onto the terrace.

"What was it you needed help with, my lady?" Jamil had inquired. Aerilyn's grin was wide, basking in the sound of his hypnotic voice for a moment before she responded to him.

"It was a little hectic in there, I wanted to give you a moment to rest." Was Aerilyn's cheerful response, knowing the servant beside her would appreciate the gesture. Only, he didn't appreciate it, and he was in fact annoyed by it. Multiple people kept pulling this same stunt, which was pulling him away from his work. Which meant he had to do everything later and because he had to do everything later, he had to retire even later.

By this point, Jamil was sure this was some cruel joke on him. That the nobles thought it funny to push him around just because he was a servant to the Asim's. Something he refused to put up with any longer.

At the next party, when Aerilyn made the same request of Kalim, he rejected her. Not only that, but she wasn't invited to the next few parties that the heir threw. In the end leaving Aerilyn confused. How could something like this happen? Was someone messing with her? Were they trying to take her happy ending?

…And on and on it went. She tried everything. And she does mean everything. She imported a rare mining material to Idia because she knew he would use it for his experiments in bringing back his kid brother, Ortho. She had expected him to come ask where she found it, he hadn't…

…She had attempted to empathize with Epel. Give him a moment away from people gushing over his appearance. She had advocated for Vil to play a role in the Opera house for once. She'd brought Riddle a strawberry tart and followed every rule down to the letter in hopes of his approval. She'd talked with Malleus with nonchalance and let him know she wasn't scared of him. She intentionally created "interesting" situations for the Leech twins to get involved in. She let Cater know that she wanted to see the real him instead of the facade he put up…

The point being, she did everything imaginable. And nothing worked! But she did just as the novel's descripted! As the webnovel showed! As the spin-off game suggested! Everything! And yet none of them took any interest in her. So, she launched a secret investigation to see what they were interested in, in hopes of coming up with a new plan.

And she found out that they were interacting with some trash diving peasant that wasn't even worth the dirt beneath their shoes! The character wasn't even mentioned in the original! Not one line dedicated to her! Not one image showed her! She didn't even have the appearance of the faceless NPCs! That's how unimportant she was, and yet all the boys took interest in this nameless nobody.

And then Aerilyn considered the fact that maybe she wasn't the only one that transmigrated. Obviously, this NPC wasn't just a nobody and had to be from the real world like her. They must have done something! And Aerilyn was going to find out what, if it was the last thing she did.

Unbeknownst to Aerilyn, quite a few nobles were already aware that she investigated their lovely trash diving maiden that they were still attempting to convince to live with them. Aerilyn was one of the ones put on top of a blacklist of radicalists that had been popping up more and more lately. Suffice to say, if she pulled anything, she'd be taken care of.

[sourgrenadine]

Can you write a scenario where Ed gets a crush on a new coworker who’s kinda like Spencer from Criminal Minds? They’re well-meaning and have a lot of encyclopedic intelligence, but they’re always the most socially awkward person in the room.

a/n: i decided to make this into a fuller fic instead of bullet points, but its still a little disjointed

The firm that Edward works at is small. No one really wants to work at a forensic accounting firm, not in Gotham at least. While in places like Metropolis the only turn off for the job is the admittedly mundane cubicle, in Gotham working for places like this can be a death wish.

So that's why he's so surprised to cee a new face in the office.

The few coworkers he has flit around you, holding out a hand and attempting small talk. To their credit, the people he works with aren't the worst companions in Gotham. At least they're working for a bureau less corrupt than others, but he still has to look on in pity as you shift on your feet, trying to swerve towards your desk.

You don't wave them away, nor do you voice any discomfort, but you fiddle with your hands and keep nodding your head without actually engaging. It's clear that you'd rather just start working and not have to deal with the office pleasantries.

Edward doesn't think much of you at first, you keep your head down and never go out of your way to interact with anyone. and that's fine by him. The two of you go about your routines without bumping into each other, both content to never speak.

He doesn't realize the full extent of your social skills, or lack thereof, until you're both in the break room (really, just a counter) and he murmurs a riddle to himself. He says it so softly, just a silly one about coffee, really not meant for anyone else to hear.

But you do and you say the answer to him, louder than you'd intended.

He stares at you, because it's the first time you ever spoke to him, and the first time he'd experienced you starting a conversation without really being provoked. You meet his eye for a second, spout out a trivia fact about some obscure deep-sea fish, and teeter out of the break area with your head down.

From there, he's hooked. Despite the shaky social aspect, the way you answered him instantly made him know he likes you. Sure, the riddle wasn't particularly difficult, but for most it would still take a few seconds to process the wordplay. He starts to leave little sticky notes, scrawled riddles for you to solve, notes passed in the margins of ledger paper.

He adores your work ethic, and is a little nervous to break your focus with his puzzles. The pros outweigh the cons though because the way that you quickly scrawl the answer down and pass the paper to him like you're passing a note in school is just too cute to him.

He begins to pay more attention to you too, taking note of the little things. Frankly, he thinks you're overqualified for this job. You fix his coworker's mistakes with a single scan of the ledgers, easily counting up the numbers that would've taken anyone else a calculator.

He notices when his coworkers fumble with a name of a client, you quickly pipe up to fix their bumble. Actually, you speak up a lot, if it's to correct someone else. Even when it doesn't seem entirely wanted, you still do it and Ed actually really appreciates that about you because it makes everything more efficient.

Ed puffs out his chest that you haven't corrected him too.

He starts to write harder and harder puzzles and riddles in an attempt to stump you, but you seem to pass them flawlessly and he falls so in love then.

He starts to bring you coffee if he notices your cup is empty. The breakroom coffee quality is less than favorable, so once a week Ed takes a coffee shop detour in the morning to buy something that doesn't taste like dirt. He quickly memorizes your order too.

He never outright says that he likes you, but he does write more romantic riddles.

No one else in the office humors him as much as you do, and even if you don't like him the way he likes you, he knows that he has a companion.

[elalmadelmar]

I am!

And the short answer is, no, fiduciary duty to shareholders does not overridde the outcome of shareholder votes.

However, the framing of this question is... not quite right. The thing is, shareholders don't get a particularly open-ended ability to direct the actions of a company. Shareholders give official, binding feedback to the company through shareholder votes. These votes are on specific questions selected ahead of time by the company Board of Directors, and are typically fairly constrained in content and scope.

Plus, it isn't as though "eternal unrestrained growth" is actually legally specified as the correct objective of the fiduciary duty to shareholders. That is how the duty has been interpreted by companies in their strategic decision making, but when you see litigation based around a failure in duty to shareholders, it is typically the company having pulled some illegal clownshoes nonsense that came to light and tanked the stock price through bad publicity. Because we live in a corporate dystopia, shareholders have a much better ability to punish companies than the government does for shit like that. "You made yourselves look like idiots and it cost us, your shareholders, money, so now pay us back because your idiocy made my line go down," more or less.

With the disclaimer that I can't be assed at the moment to do a specific deep dive on this question, I can't think of any case that came to public notice where a company actually wound up in litigation for failure in duty to shareholders simply because it pursued a business strategy that did not lead to the highest possible market performance.

Overall, this is something that tends to work on less official levels than that. Companies announce quarterly fiscal results, and the movement of stock prices in the lead-up to and the immediate aftermath of these announcements is closely watched and much commented upon. Companies HATE saying anything that isn't "Yeah we just had a fucking amazing quarter and made a bazillion bucks and cut our operating costs to be a lean, mean, money-making machine and are doing everything exactly right" in these announcements. However, this also means that "Hey, we made some decisions that are costing us a lot of money right now but we think they'll pay off in the long run" is a highly disfavored message. They don't want to run the risk that people will only hear the costing us a lot of money right now part and sell out and tank the stock price. This aversion becomes a spiral, because the more companies don't wanna say that, the more of a big deal it becomes when they do, and the bigger the reaction in stock price movement, reinforcing the aversion. The 24-hour news cycle beating every single CEO fart to death as an omen of future stock moment does not help this in the slightest. So even if they are in fact making decisions that trade short-term cost for long-term gain, they are going to try and spin it as hard as they can into something that sounds positive for the right now.

So, when fiduciary duty to shareholders as the reason companies act like shortsighted idiots gets trotted out, it's less about what fiduciary duty literally demands and more about how the world of professionally predicting the financial future tends to operate in waves of hysteria and tea-leaf reading.

Question about fiduciary duty: under US law, are the officers held to not uphold their duty if the shareholders direct them to follow a course that is not eternal growth(to simplify let us say this was done by obviousr majority) and they obey?

I am not qualified to answer this question.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank, let’s say hypothetically I or a friend has a cocaine addiction. How, hypothetically, would one go about fixing that?

I am no expert on dealing with drug issues or drug addiction in particular, and it is possible I may not have the most up-to-date (or correct) views. (My drug posts were made years ago, as were my posts on addiction.) I'm going to try to keep this general and avoid specifics.

When I was in school, I had an issue with substance use that my mother and I have discussed openly in the past. As I'm not sure I've talked about in those posts, a certain portion of the time I was also drinking, which led to various issues. If you've read those posts, you can probably get a sense of what I was going through.

To make a long story short, what helped a lot was the approach of not allowing yourself to keep using alcohol or drugs, and taking the time to figure out why you use them, what they accomplish in your life, why they are such a drag (for me, the answer is that I drink in large amounts with my friends and family, which is socially pleasant but has negative effects on my body). You need to know these things not because of "science" but because it helps you know what to do in the future and figure out what your needs are. You may want to use some sort of evidence here, but again, I'm no expert on this stuff, and I was never particularly good at taking action based on evidence.

Anyway, I was still heavily drinking on weekends, and the more I would drink the more I would drink. On some nights, I would get so sick from drinking that I was unable to get out of bed the next morning. I used to have a drinking partner whom I had a very deep, intimate and loving relationship with, but this eventually ended. (A big part of my problem is that I tended to feel I owed her this, but I think she ended up realizing I really wasn't capable of fulfilling a "friendship" role for her or anyone.)

Once I figured out this stuff, I didn't just stop drinking -- I started to drink in smaller amounts to keep the effects of alcohol in check (this is when the cocaine thing came up). Some of the drinking was also accompanied by an increasing use of amphetamines -- I still took amphetamines in college, but I later found that amphetamines were causing me some serious problems and I stopped them.

As far as I know, this was basically the right approach. At least for me, it's not the kind of thing you can get through a "treatment plan," it's the kind of thing you have to gradually work out, but you can probably get pretty far along in terms of "I'm no longer drinking to excess."

I've also heard from several people (e.g. from the person I just linked) that they got sober by seeing a "treatment plan" that involved them giving up drinking all together (with no substitution, like "take these pills"). This was not for me -- drinking is still not a good idea for me but, having reached the point where the problem was "I'm too drunk," I didn't take it as a serious treatment plan.

And then there are the people who don't drink at all, which is fine for them, but that's not for me.

(For the record, I've found that a mix of two things helps a lot. First, being very very very honest with myself about what alcohol does to my body and how it makes me feel. I also try to make sure to keep myself in a situation where I know I'm going to drink no matter what, or I can stop drinking with the effort of a single step -- a sort of "no drinking plan" for the next several days, where I try not to drink if I know I'll be doing so anyway in an hour or two.)

This all was probably way too long to answer the question you're actually asking. Sorry, I really can't be any more specific here.