#remove images from google search

[reputematter]

How to Remove Harmful Content from Google Search

Erase damaging content from search results and take control of your online narrative.

[reputematters]

Delete Images from Google Search Results Easily

Removing images from Google that you do not own can be challenging but is possible under certain circumstances. If an image infringes on your privacy, is defamatory, or violates Google’s policies, you can file a removal request through Google’s support channels. You’ll need to provide evidence that the image violates Google’s guidelines, such as proof of harm or privacy breaches.

[shubham987]

Spiritual Organization Reputation Management

Spiritual Organization Reputation Management essential for maintaining trust, respect, and influence. Build Brand Better specializes in providing tailored reputation management services for ashrams, gurus, non-profit spiritual trusts, and religious institutions to ensure their values and missions are reflected authentically online.

Negative press, misleading reviews, social media controversies, or misinformation can quickly affect the public image of even the most respected spiritual leaders.

That’s why Build Brand Better, a trusted name in online reputation management services in India, offers customized solutions including review removal, SEO suppression, content marketing, public relations, and social media monitoring specifically designed for spiritual and religious organizations.

With Build Brand Better, spiritual institutions can focus on their teachings and community work while we protect and enhance their digital reputation. Our team ensures that only genuine and respectful content remains visible, while harmful or defamatory material is removed or downranked.

Whether it’s removing negative reviews, managing online backlash, or promoting positive stories, Build Brand Better is the go-to partner for effective and ethical Spiritual Organization Reputation Management.

[reputematters2]

Remove Unwanted Images from Google & Web – Professional Image Removal Services

At Repute Matters, we specialize in helping individuals and businesses remove unwanted images from Google and the web through our Professional Image Removal Services. Unwanted photos—whether on search engines, websites, blogs, or social media—can hurt your personal or brand reputation. Our expert team uses legal and strategic methods to identify, report, and eliminate offensive or outdated images that harm your credibility or privacy.

With our online image removal services, we ensure a clean digital footprint by working directly with platform policies, copyright laws, and image suppression techniques. Whether you're a public figure, professional, entrepreneur, or company, we offer tailored solutions that protect your online image and rebuild trust. From Google image removal to social media clean-up, we’ve got you covered. Trust Repute Matters to restore your online presence—because your reputation matters.

[my-silly-poker]

gaza scam warning

I'm locking this post because it was about the original wave of gaza-scams and is now outdated when it comes to recent real fundraisers that have been appearing on Tumblr. Please don't pass up people in need because you're afraid of scams. Identifying scams from the real fundraisers is easy.

@el-shab-hussein does a lot of vetting on Tumblr. @nabulsi is another reliable user who has done vetting (but as of this time is not vetting new posts). @90-ghost is a real palestinian person but they don't do a lot of in-depth vetting.

el-shab-hussein and nabulsi have a vetted fundraiser google sheet. el-shab-hussein has a list of direct contacts in gaza/yemen who are certifiably real people. operation olive branch is a coordinated effort to gather certified crowdfunding campaigns both for families and humanitarian provisions.

When you receive an ask, check any of the above resources to see if they're there. Some also have pre-existing social media accounts, such as Instagram, that they certify as theirs and prove that they are a real person in Palestine. Scroll down their blog, look at the notes in their post, and look for confirmation that they are verified anywhere (do not trust their claims until you see the confirmation yourself).

Then if you see confirmation that they are a real person in Palestine who needs help, reblog their post and maybe donate $5.

Feel free to message me about anyone who sends you an ask that seems suspicious and I'll tell you if they resemble any scam archetypes I've seen.

Original post:

Hey gamers, recently there have been a number of scam blogs on tumblr claiming to be Gazan victims. They've been making a number of iterations of the exact same blog and story but with different names and sometimes different PayPal links.

Thus far, the content of these scams are being stolen from 2 real fundraisers. Please lend your aid to these people who need help instead of the disgusting scam farm

Help Haya Orouq's family escape Gaza

Help Rawan AbuMahady's family escape Gaza

These are examples within the past month which have been deleted.

Ma22ya

Khalilhan

jovialsuitdonutai

miniaturepostkingjaiur

Donation scams on tumblr are extremely common and anyone who has a tumblr account will encounter them at some point. You have likely encountered them before and not realized it. They throw together a brand new blog with a story of needing aid, then use bots to go through follow lists and post notes to send messages to random users. Scambusting blogs like kyra45 do a lot of work to track and call out these scams when they surface.

Scam Spotting Tips

They send an ask often accompanied with a follow despite having never interacted with you before. Ask yourself: How did you find your blog? These interactions usually come out of nowhere when you have no original posts or interests they could've found you through, because they're just going down the lists of random blogs.

They reblog just enough posts to make you think that their blog is in-use when it is actually only a day or a few old. Enable timestamps and try find the blog's oldest post; if a blog seems old but still seems suspicious, be wary of post backdating

They often disable or delete comments on their donation post to hide comments that call them out. Open the notes and see if it says "some replies have been hidden, blocked or removed." Blocked/hidden comments sometimes still appear in reblogs of a post but not the original, so open a random reblog and see if telling comments appear there.

It isn't unusual for the story and the ask to either be exact copy-pastes of each other, or otherwise have very telling suspicious details, such as: using different names, having different goal amounts, contrasting story details, etc. Pay attention to and trust the suspicion of details that stand out as odd.

Like many of the above examples, they often use an automatically generated username consisting of random words

Reverse image searching can be a helpful giveaway if it works, but don't trust it entirely - scammers often steal images from private Facebook groups/profiles or alter the images so that people don't find the source. An image not having a source should also be suspicious, as you should wonder why this person's social media presence is exclusively a 3 day old tumblr blog

When you receive an ask from a blog like this, reporting them for spam or phishing and reporting the PayPal account for fraudulent activity does help get these accounts taken down.

In name of the situation, here are great verified resources to support real people who need help:

Many organizations and gofundmes for Gaza

Verified fundraisers for individuals in Gaza put together by @palestineasdiqa on Instagram and Twitter

Click to donate for free using ad revenue

Participation and political resources for US, UK and Canada

USPCR's toolkit

[telomeke]

Reblogging for this tip – since Google Image Search may be returning more and more AI-generated images, this is advice from "Ghoul (I hate this website)" @‌DontKillGhoul on Twitter:

You need to type -Al after your search item to hide Al results (still sucks that we have to do it because most people don't know that's an option)

‌

[straycatj]

Not Rocky, only sucky — A record of the unauthorized use of my photo in Oliver Clegg’s work

This article documents the events surrounding the unauthorized use of one of my photographs in a work named Rocky by Oliver Clegg, from the initial discovery through to the current situation.

Please consider this a formal report for those who have supported me.

September 7, 2021

I posted a photo of my cat Kofuku and Mr.J.

At the time, someone even made a pixel art version of it, and many people enjoyed it together.

January 2023

A kind follower sent me a mention to a post introducing a “work” by Oliver Clegg.

Clegg later claimed he had tagged my Instagram, but in fact he had created a brand-new tag called “straycatmrj.” This has also been documented.

By that point, someone had already annotated his work via Hypothesis, raising questions about his use of materials.

February 2025

The traced work resurfaced. I began an investigation.

That same month, I consulted a lawyer through an initiative supported by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs:

Bansou.Support – a legal support service for copyright infringement and similar issues on the internet.

I was informed that:

Because the image is viewable online from Japan, this constitutes copyright infringement under Japanese law.

In my case, this use clearly does not fall under fair use.

My rights are protected internationally under the Berne Convention, regardless of the creator residing in the United States.

April 2025

Once again, I saw another traced work posted.

The uploader promptly removed the post and even issued a follow-up to explain the situation. I deeply appreciate their response.

However, the traced image continued to be reblogged.

I decided to follow through on my prior consultation and contact the gallery representing Mr. Clegg.

April 30, 2025 (JST)

I contacted the gallery directly.

A lawyer had advised that “this kind of issue is often treated seriously as a matter of credibility by galleries, so it’s worth contacting them.”

However, I received no response—perhaps because I am merely a Japanese individual blogger.

May 3, 2025 (JST)

I sent a follow-up message, stating that unless I received a response by the close of business on May 6 (EDT), I would make the findings public.

May 7, 2025

With no reply, I published the facts and timeline on Tumblr.

Many people offered support. However, I also witnessed comments that ignored all legal context, and some individuals spread false assumptions and slander.

Such baseless speculation only reveals more about the mindset and behavior of those making it.

I would like to take this opportunity to again express my sincere gratitude to those who responded respectfully and supported me.

May 8, 2025

24 hours later, with more response than expected, I published a follow-up thank-you note in the form of a reblog.

May 9, 2025 (Night)

60 hours later, I discovered that the relevant Tumblr tags were no longer functioning.

I suspected a technical issue—or possibly a report by someone connected to the other party.

I contacted Tumblr Community Support, and they responded promptly, stating that the issue had been resolved and would be reflected within 24 hours.

Shortly thereafter, the tag search functionality returned to normal.

May 10, 2025

72 hours later: search results had shifted.

Tumblr Search When searching for the artist’s name, I noticed that the specific work featuring my cat no longer appears in search results.

Google Image Search The image now appears to be filtered under SafeSearch.

Once again, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported and stood with me.

Thanks again to everyone who helped clarify the origin of the image.

(This post may be useful to those researching digital appropriation or copyright boundaries in art.)

[rallamajoop]

The Complete Guide to Eye Colour In Resident Evil 8

Alright. I've cracked open the game files to extract every eye-related asset I could find. I've installed a bunch of mods to let me remove face coverings and zoom all the way in on the RE8 model viewer. Let's settle this one once and for all!

The short version, for those who just want a cheat sheet:

Ethan Winters: Hazel

Miranda & the Four Lords: Various greys

Bela, Cassandra and Daniela: Yellow

Mia, Rose, Chris and the Duke: Blue

Every local villager: Blue

Most of these are, of course, open to some interpretation, even beyond the usual scope for debating the exact line between grey and blue, etc. Does the eye colour on Ethan's model even count as canon, when you never see it in game? Does Donna's, when her eyes are either hidden behind a veil or vanishing as the light fades from them? It's up to you. But have some longer notes below.

Ethan

For Ethan, I could not get a good shot of his in-game model even with mods, so the render comes from Noesis (a tool for viewing game assets). His eyes are a sorta dark-blue-brown, which I think I can safely class as 'hazel' under the standard definition of "kinda brown, but not, like, brown-brown".

Unsurprisingly, the texture for Ethan's eyes has barely changed from the one in RE7 (lower resolution, and with a larger pupil than most in RE8) ‒ because why update what won't even be seen? But they're still distinctly different from every other character in either game, so I like to see hazel-eyed-Ethan as the official version myself.

Miranda and the Four Lords

Genetically unrelated though they may all be, Miranda and her four "children" all have some variant of washed-out-blue-grey-eyes ‒ even Moreau, who has the least human-looking eyes in the family. Is the mould a factor? (Insert your own theories here!)

Donna's eyes look brown in her portrait, and I would not blame anyone for taking that as more definitive than her character model. But the portrait is dark and fairly low-resolution, and her eyes are very pale in death, so I'd still tend towards the grey-blue of the model myself.

For such different characters, Dimitrescu and Heisenberg's very-pale-grey eyes are remarkably similar. Even Donna's are arguably just a darkened version of the same colouration, and all three have areas of orange-brown discolouration near their pupils.

Apparently this counts as a form of heterochromia ("central heterochromia"), which gets some people very excited. Realistically though, this particular form of heterochromia is so common that you probably don't even notice it most of the time (pick an eye colour, plug it into google image search, and I guarantee you will find examples without even looking for them).

The same central-orange-brown-region is also present for Mia, baby Rose, and Ethan ‒ you can even see a traces of the same in the Baker family (though not Miranda herself). And it's tempting to start to theorise that blue/grey-eyes-with-brown-centres are a symptom of mould-infection ‒ but then, two of the five members of Chris' team have it too, as well as some of the villagers. It's not there for every blue-eyed character in this game, but it's probably just one of Capcom's standard ways of adding a little realistic variation to eye textures.

All that said, Heisenberg, Dimitrescu and Miranda's eyes are so pale that they look just a little bit unnatural, and I'd be very surprised if that wasn't deliberate.

As for mutated forms, Heisenberg is the only one whose monster-form maintains his original eyes ‒ though they're darknened by a heavy pink overlay, which looks even more extreme to me in his game model than it does in the asset, so there's probably another layer of filters on top of it.

Dimitrescu and Moreau just get pupil-less white eyes in their own monster forms (though Moreau certainly gets plenty of other monster-eyes elsewhere on his body). And Miranda gets just one weird eye in the middle of her forehead, for whatever reason. Other monsters in this game have all manner of different eyes, probably just whatever the designer thought looked cool ‒ there's no one, consistent mould-infection-standard, just an awful lot of bizarre individual variation.

Bela, Cassandra and Daniella

All have unnatural yellow eyes, which I think we can take as a cadou-fly-people trait. Their eyes are so consistent they all seem to use the same eye-texture-asset between the three of them, so I haven't bothered including it three times.

There's also one official render of Lady Dimitrescu which gives her almost-glowing yellow eyes, though there's a yellow tint to all the light in the picture, so it may just be reflecting ambient lighting. Still, if you want to theorise she can make her eyes do that, that pic's arguably as canon as anything else.

Rosemary Winters

Rose's eyes seem to change a little between her baby stage and her teen years, losing those brown centres, though they're still a similar blue otherwise. The much stranger thing is that both baby and teen Rose's models have two slightly different extra red eye textures included alongside the standard blue ones, and I could not tell you what they're for.

Possibly there's some way of superimposing the red over the blue base to create the glowing-white-eyes you see when she uses her powers. But that doesn't happen until the DLC (which has even more confusing eye textures which might work for this purposes), and never to baby Rose, so I'm not entirely convinced. Were Rose's eyes supposed to flash red at some point in development? I have no idea.

Mia and Chris

Get grouped together because both appeared in RE7, where their models had brown eyes instead of blue. This makes more sense for Chris, whose model was completely redesigned for RE8, but what's going on with Mia? Her eyes are the same colour before and after she's infected in RE7, and her eyes only get even more brown when she's being mind-controlled, so I don't think we can blame the mould. I'm going to have to assume Capcom just changed them when they reworked her model for RE8 (which has changed, if not nearly so much as Chris') and didn't notice, or didn't expect anyone in the audience would.

I could not actually find any textures for Chris' eyes in the RE7 files, probably because he only shows his face in cutscenes stored in video format, but here's a close-up pic anyway.

The Villagers (and the Duke)

There are 8 named villager characters in the village files, but only five different eye textures to share between them ‒ and two of those are just lightly-adjusted variants on one of the first three. Luiza's model doesn't even have textures for her eyes ‒ I assume her model just references eyes from one of the first five.

Below in order are Elena, Leonardo, Roxana (the other woman at Luiza's), Griggori (man with the gun who Ethan meets first), and finally, the common texture used by Anton, Iulian, Sebastian, and even the Duke. Maybe we can blame inbreeding.

I doubt there's any important buried lore to be found in the fact the Duke has the same eyes as half the village, it's probably just a texture the developers liked using for characters whose eyes would never have to be seen up close.

Chris' Team

Yet more pseudo-canonical eyes, never actually seen in game. But they do all have detailed face models (you can reveal them with mods), probably because there were plans to give them bigger roles earlier in development. Their eye textures are an a different format to the usual, possibly because their models are invisible and incomplete, but they do match what that mod reveals.

The team are notable mostly for containing some of the very few white-skinned but brown-eyed characters in the game (the mother and daughter on the bus from Rose's epilogue are the only others) ‒ though the team isn't all white anyway.

And having now spent way too long digging into this subject, I'm not totally sure Capcom is aware that green eyes are a thing that a) exist, and b) can be as common as blue in some parts of Europe, because Eveline is the only person in this game with green eyes, and she's just a hallucination.

What colour eyes do white people have again? Blue, right? Blue eyes for everyone!

You may draw your own conclusions.

[crash-bang-boom-corp]

Random simplyplural formatting things I found out recently. behold:

click for better quality.

TL;DR:

the html entity "& ensp ;" <- remove spaces, tumblr just tried to eat it. is a blank space that acts like a typed character. You can use it multiple times in a row to get the effect of an indent. It can also do in-line formatting to add space between words, since its basically the same as a letter entity as far as i know.

the markdown formatting for an image, if you negate the URL, gets you yellow text. I don't think it's possible to change the color but...yk...yellow is cool too i guess. formatting = "[alt text here](url)". You can change this to be "[text](no url, just empty parenthasies)" to get yellow text. Found this from a google search.

If you're unfamiliar with markdown, the humble hashtag can get you headings in three sizes. Big = 1 hashtag, medium = 2 hashtags, small = 3 hashtags.

fancytextgenerator and coolsymbol dot com's font changers work because all of the "fonts" are actually fully accounted for html entities. Hence why you can copy paste **those fonts**, but not **any random font** found on say, google docs. This means they'll work in simplyplural as well.

This isn't a comprehensive list of tips by any means, but I found these out recently and thought I'd share since most simplyplural / markdown type things on tumblr are pre-made formatting things, not general how-tos. (as far as I know)

sincerely, Chatters A and B, who had immense fun with this.

Update: go to settings and accessibility and preferences and change the highlight color to change it from yellow to another color!!

[givecredit]

Basic online etiquette when interacting with artists:

Reblog or retweet/share from the source

Don’t take and redistribute what doesn’t belong to you

Don't repost without permission

Don't crop watermarks

Don't claim other's work as your own

Don't remove links to OP's website/store/etc

“I got the image from Pinterest / Google / Facebook / etc, I didn’t know the artist!”

If you don’t know the artist, then you don’t have permission to repost. Finding an image online doesn’t mean it’s free to take. If you refuse to look up a watermark or reverse image search to find the owner to ask for permission to share it, then practise simply not posting what doesn’t belong to you. Easy peasy.

Theft isn't cool, and it takes away exposure, engagement, recognition, and potential sales and work opportunities from artists. Support creative people rather than stealing from them.

-> Other people’s crediting blogs, past and present: @credit-the-artist, @credit-the-artists, @creditingartists

[reputematter]

How to Remove Negative Google Search Results

Description: Learn effective strategies to delete or suppress negative Google search results and protect your online reputation.

[erulasse23]

Frodo & PTSD: Definition of Trauma

As a quick introduction, I recently finished a Lord of the Rings trilogy re-read and as an adult with a psychology background, I am endlessly fascinated with Tolkien’s portrayal of trauma and its affects through Frodo in particular. This is going to be multiple parts, but I want to start with a definition of trauma and what Frodo might have found traumatic about his journey.

A simple google search suggests the following definition of trauma: “A deeply distressing or overwhelming experience that can have lasting negative effects on a person’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being.” Some deeper research highlights certain elements of the causes and effects of trauma.

- Trauma is defined by the way our brains process an experience as highly threatening or dangerous, such that it overwhelms our ability to cope. In this sense, trauma is highly subjective.

- Trauma can be one event, or repeated exposure to stressors.

- Trauma literally re-wires our brain. A prolonged or severe stress response (fight or flight) has significant physical impact on our bodies including our nervous system, hormones, cardiovascular system, etc. PTSD occurs when these systems do not go back to normal after the threat is gone, and we lose the ability to successfully regulate our attention and emotions.

What is unique about Frodo, compared to the rest of the Fellowship, is that he carried the Ring and experienced both its pressures and the presence of the Eye for an extended time. The Eye, referring to Sauron’s metaphysical presence and attention, is described in terms of a threat. Carrying the Ring feels like there is a monster around the corner at every turn, waiting in suspense for a jump scare, constantly being chased and barely staying out of reach. In short, it’s a prolonged, acute stress response happening inside Frodo’s brain for months, exhausting his physical and emotional resources.

Other research about trauma indicates that experiences which significantly alter our self-perception (ideas about who and how we are) are significantly more difficult to process and move past. Frodo giving in to the Ring and claiming it in the end certainly had a huge impact on his self-image. You can see this in how he treats Saruman and the ruffians in ‘The Scouring of the Shire’. Compared to the other hobbits, even kind Sam, Frodo is much more forgiving and empathetic. I believe that is because he identifies with these “bad guys” now. His experience changed him in a way that not even Sam’s did, who was with him to the end.

The other event which causes a PTSD-like response in Frodo (which I’ll get into in another post) is being stabbed by a Nazgûl on Weathertop. Why does this affect him just as much as the Ring and Sauron’s destruction? There are two reasons. One, the Nazgûl have a certain power over despair. We see this later in the Black Breath and particularly Merry and Eowyn’s wounds (which they recover from, perhaps unlike Frodo, but that’s another post too). Two, as soon as Frodo is revived, before he even is tended to by Elrond, he “bitterly regretted his foolishness, and reproached himself for weakness of will” in putting on the Ring. His self-image again plays a large part in his difficulty healing even after Elrond removes the splinter that was left in his shoulder.

In ‘Homeward Bound’ Frodo says to Gandalf, “The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me… Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden.”

Part Two | Part Three

[basalt-dnd]

I apologize for the impatience, but I'm devastated at the removal of your links from DropBox, as I've JUST started a new campaign and JUST gotten a new computer, so I don't have the images anymore. Is there any way you could fax me the compendium? If not fax, email is fine, too!

Thank you for letting me know that it went down! Unfortunately, I wasn't running my own DropBox... as such, I'm not sure I have everything that was on there (although it should still be here! Just... at the mercy of Tumblr's terrible search function)

You're looking for the underwater adventures compendium, yeah? Or is there something else from the DropBox you were looking for? If it was the underwater adventures, I still have the pages hosted on Google Drive for now.

If you're looking for something else specific, let me know and I'll try to hunt it down!

Edit: I've switched my page tab to display my Tumblr directory instead of the defunct DropBox. If you can't see the tab on your device, I've linked it here.

[shubham987]

Remove Negative Content from Google Search

In the digital era, your online presence is your first impression—and negative content on Google can damage your credibility, trust, and customer relationships instantly. If you’re looking for a reliable way to remove negative content from Google Search, Build Brand Better is your go-to partner.

As a trusted name in digital reputation management, we specialize in eliminating or suppressing harmful content such as bad reviews, false news, defamatory blog posts, outdated information, and misleading search results that can unfairly tarnish your brand image. With years of expertise in search engine algorithms, legal protocols, and ethical content removal strategies, Build Brand Better provides tailored solutions to protect your reputation.

Our ORM experts use a multi-layered approach—ranging from legal takedown requests and DMCA filings to positive content creation, SEO, and content displacement—to ensure damaging content is pushed down or completely removed. We understand the emotional and financial impact negative search results can cause, and that’s why we offer discreet, effective, and long-term solutions for individuals, brands, and businesses.

If you're serious about rebuilding trust and protecting your online footprint, choose Build Brand Better to remove negative content from Google Search and reclaim your digital identity with confidence.

[gothic-aesthetic-gal]

Old Scars (Part 20)

Ledger!joker x reader

Fem!reader is kidnapped by the joker and his henchmen while just trying to get a moment's reprieve from her boring, soul-destroying job ✨️

Tw: I mean, we all saw TDK, right? Generally I'd say this is on the same level/rating. Kidnapping, violence, mentions of minor characters (not J) being misogynist/threatening SA, reference to past traumatic injury. NSFW in one or two places but mainly this is narrative/story based first and foremost. In this chapter, discussions of violence. Otherwise a milder one.

Part 20 -

First of all, I needed to find the address of the club we had visited, and to do that, I would need to find somewhere I could access the internet. I threw on the most unassuming clothes I had and separated out some of the money. I would need somewhere to hide the rest of the cash and weapons, which I wasn't about to carry around in broad daylight. There was a drop ceiling in the bathroom. If I climbed on top of the toilet seat I could pop out one of the panels and stash them up there inside of a pillow case. Satisfied with my solution, I popped the tile back into place and set to removing the chair barricading the door.

The sun was desperately trying to break through the clouds again, and for the first time in such a long time, the rain had stopped. It didn't take me long to find an internet café and tuck myself away at the back. I tried searching for the nightclub using what little I could remember of the area, which wasn't a whole lot. I knew it had to be in one of the "less desirable" neighbourhoods, but it wasn't the Narrows. I had to sift through multiple results that came up on google maps, though I doubted they would advertise there. It would require someone tech savvy enough to add the business - and, if they turned a blind eye to mob dealings taking place in their VIP section, then that probably meant they wanted to keep a lower profile on purpose. It was still a fairly new concept to a lot of people, so there was no guarantee you'd find any place you were looking for.

Still, I checked each result that popped up, hoping someone else might have added it. I was about to give up altogether when I remembered the restaurant we had passed to get in through the back doors. I cross-referenced the tags on the map with restaurants nearby and found a couple of results that way.

Finally one of the pages looked familiar. Opening the three images attached to the restaurant listing, I realised I had found it. I hurriedly scribbled down the address. I needed to run some observations and try and get ahold of more information. As ridiculous as it seemed, I also needed to get food, a new toothbrush and paste, and shampoo for my hair.

As I wandered the aisles of the nearest grocery store, I felt like I was in a trance. The mundanity of it felt so jarring now. Ever since the Joker had grabbed me by the hand and plunged me directly into the criminal whirlpool, things had been escalating, spiralling downwards. Now I was circling the drain. I moved along unseen, unimportant, uninteresting. Minding your business was a strategy everyone in the city seemed to have learned; one of the first lessons upon your arrival in Gotham. It was second-nature, and allowed so much to slip by: unseen, unheard, unhindered. It was infuriating, but for now, it would work to my advantage.

Back in my hotel room, I replaced the chair under the door handle and flopped down onto the bed. I would eat and then try to rest despite the riot of thoughts in my head, before going to the club in the evening. Somehow, I managed two more hours before shouting in the hall and the slamming of a door woke me up with a start. The other guests at this particular establishment would often remind me of their presence with loud noises - arguments, playing music, talking on the phone in the hall. The city outside was much the same, with the constant sounds of traffic, the trains, police sirens, and shouts of residents blurred together into one wall of sound. I turned over and buried my head beneath the pillow in exasperation.

Later, when I woke up, head fuzzy from deep sleep I wandered into the bathroom to splash my face with cold water. When I finally made it out onto the street I saw that the uncharacteristically fair weather had held on into twilight. The the sun lit up the sky in a blaze of red, yellow, and purple, the same hues of the fading bruises I'd gained during my fight with Vladislav, my fear toxin trip, and even some from my passionate transgressions with J. As I drifted through the city streets like a ghost, I looked up at the electrical poles, with their tangled web of black wires strung across the sky like spiderwebs. The air hummed with a static energy, and I was so focused on my self-appointed mission that the faceless masses of people faded away around me. It was as if, even for only one moment, the city threw me no obstacles: she embraced me. This must be how the criminals felt. Now that her darker facets were working in my favour, it felt liberating. It was dangerous. I reminded myself not to get complacent...

Perhaps it was the lack of water, which was usually pouring down, driving the residents into the ground during Winter. Instead there was the faintest promise of Spring in the breeze, a gentle reprieve from the bleak greyness of November through March. As I boarded the train, I again found myself gazing longingly up at the brilliant sky. The clouds were ablaze with orange fire. My mind's eye instantly transported me into his arms; the flames dancing in his dark eyes matching the burning in my chest. The yearning was almost too much. I thrust my head into my hands as I sat down. Without him, there was only the monochrome misery of my boring little life in an ugly, desperate place.

I thought again about how we had stood still in the street in my dream, as the panicked crowd flowed around us like water. There we stood, just two of us. Immovable against the current. But then, like a scalpel, the harshness of his words, the detachment with which he spoke them, cut me deeply. How was it that he could be so callous about killing?

This tumultuous state of mind stayed with me all the way to my destination. It wasn't until my unsteady feet found their way into the familiar looking alley at the back of the restaurant and the nightclub, that my determination to find what I had come looking for took over. I had dressed myself in jeans and a t-shirt, a hoodie and a pair of old sneakers. My goal wasn't to get inside the club itself - not tonight. I also had with me a backpack containing a camcorder, a notepad and pen, and in case I fucked things up majorly, the loaded handgun with the safety engaged. The final item I had, though not intentionally, was the pair of sunglasses I had bought in the corner store on the night I'd helped J escape the cops at his apartment. They were in the front pouch of my hoodie and I found them when I stuffed my hands in there, ducking behind one of the many dumpsters. I wondered if I should have just bought the first ticket out of Gotham the morning after I'd made my escape from him... or maybe, even, that i'd stayed, as I fiddled with them to calm my nerves.

I stayed that way for so long that my nose started to sting with the cold as the last traces of the sun vanished. I was about to give up, feeling stupid and out of my depth, when a pair of headlights crawled along the alley and a car followed. I switched on the camera and pointed it at the approaching vehicle, watching intently as three men stepped out. The first two were huge - meatheads who were obviously security detail for the third guy. He was much shorter, with a smug grin and an ill-fitting suit. I zoomed the camera in on the three figures as they stood under the street lamp. The car pulled away into the dark, leaving them there while the short man lit up a fat cigar with a puff of smoke.

"You sure you wanna do that out here boss?"

"Calm your tits, it's a disgusting thing, Brady getting beat half to death out here, but even someone that brazen isn't about to take on the Ibanescu family," he crowed.

I scribbled down the names.

"True but -"

Their Boss stubbed out the cigar on the bricks and stuffed it back into his pocket once he was satisfied it was dead.

"Okay, okay! Are you my grandmother? Jeez!" He waved off the man's concern dismissively.

As they approached the door they paused for a moment. One of the two big men leaned in closely to inspect something.

"Fuuuuck, you can see where that shit went clean through his hand into the door," he thought aloud.

The other two huddled closer to see what he meant.

"His fingers 'ain't never gonna move the same," said the other big man, grimly.

The image of J, his thunderous expression, and the swift motion of him plunging the knife through my attacker's hand replayed in my mind. A slight smile tugged at my lips as I thought about the look of fear on the attacker's face. Men like that were so used to being the ones creating fear in others...

One of the two big men knocked his enormous fist against the door and they waited. Soon, the door was flung open to admit them. I recognised the man who waved them inside as the security man for the nightclub who had let us into the building as well. If this was something he'd done both for J, and this 'Ibanescu' man, then I guessed his loyalty was to the money paid rather than anyone in particular. I noted this observation down.

As the men disappeared inside, I took a risk and darted out from my hiding place, across the alley, just in time to catch the door before it closed all the way. I quickly switched from video to photograph the lock - a simple yale and no deadbolt. It was possible to engage the latch so the door clicked shut but didn't lock. That was good to know. Peering inside and seeing no visible security cameras, I decided to go for it.

I shoved my camera into my backpack and slipped along the familiar hallway, ducking low out of sight near the turn off to the bustling kitchen. As I approached the double doors into the club, I slipped on the sunglasses, just in case I ran into anyone who might recognise me. It was a good call, because the towering figure of the security man suddenly pushed through the doors in front of me.

In a flash of quick thinking, I decided to address him first: if in doubt, play dumb.

"Excuse me? I'm lost. Can you help me?" I asked casually.

"How the fuck did you get in here?" He muttered back in disbelief.

"Oh, i'm sorry. Is the restaurant closed or something?"

"Restaurant?"

"Yeah. The Gooden Dragon?"

"No, no. That's out the front. You can't be in here!" He said angrily.

"Oh? I'm sorry. My eyesight's no good and I don't know the area yet. My bad," I laughed sheepishly, deliberately feeling my way along the wall.

He looked at my shades and my clumsy attempt to locate the exit, and came to the conclusion I was visually impaired, just as I'd hoped.

"You're blind?"

"Legally yeah. Sorry to bother you! I just followed the directions I was given and thought I'd made it. Followed some people in here. Won't do that again!" I said in as jolly a tone as I could muster.

I was too afraid of being found out to feel guilty for such a lie.

"Hey wait. You're not far off at all, let me help you get round the front, I was just coming out here for a smoke break," he offered sheepishly.

I could smell the cheap cigarette he was smoking as he led me back up the alley and to the front of the Chinese restaurant. I couldn't help but think about J, seeing him sat on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table, chain smoking as I sketched his form in black ink. As I caught sight on my reflection in the steamed up window to the Golden Dragon, I wondered what he was doing at this exact moment...

The guy insisted in helping me to place my order inside so I had to keep up my charade a little longer. As we waited I felt compelled to speak.

"Thank you for helping me. What's your name?"

"Amir, how about you?" He answered.

"Jane," I lied, omitting "Doe" and hoping he wouldn't press for a surname, unravelling the threads of my obvious lie.

You know, Jane, you really gotta be more careful round here..." he warned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, bad things happen in this neighbourhood. You have to be careful."

"Bad things happen all over this city, i'm sure it's not so bad," I dismissed him, wanting to see if he's elaborate.

No. Trust me, like, only last week someone got attacked in that alley."

"Oh no, you mean like a mugging?"

"No, no. Apparently two men attacked him. He was stabbed and beat with a crowbar. Just out of the blue."

I felt a mixture of emotion at this, both a faint feeling oh shame that I had given myself over to such violence, and anger that the guy had been to cowardly to admit to having his ass beat by a woman. At least saying he'd been attacked by two men would keep me out of the picture.

"That's terrible. Who would do something like that? Is the guy okay?" I asked, somehow suppressing my reaction.

"Well, I wouldn't say I knew him too well. John Brady - he's a regular."

"Oh right, but surely you've seen him at the club since?" I prodded carefully.

"Oh yeah, I've seen him. But..." he looked around and leaned in closer to me, lowering his voice, "in all honesty, some of the women have complained about him. I'd hoped he would be too scared to come back, but he's in business with Alexe Ibanescu, so of course he's not."

"Can you not ban him from the club if multiple women have brought it up?" I muttered, unable to keep some of the irritation out of my tone.

"No, you don't get it. The Ibanescus run the local dog fights, and uh, a big prostitution ring, around here. Right now they're buying up property like crazy, trying to become a bigger player. Alexe recently bought the club, he will never ban one of his associates," he explained looking very uncomfortable.

"So you have to let it slide?" I murmured.

"Yes, I don't like it. I try to keep an eye out but what can I do?"

I thought about it silently for a moment.

"Anyways, none of this is relevant to you. I just meant - Look, if someone on the untouchable list like him can get attacked like that, you see why I'm telling you to be careful?" He urged with a sigh.

"I get it, and I appreciate the advice," I nodded as he handed over the bagged up food they put on the counter.

"How are you gonna get back?"

"I'll call a cab," I answered, waving my Nokia burner phone in one hand.

He insisted on waiting with me until it pulled up and I climbed inside. I watched him from behind my blacked out lenses as we pulled away and merged into traffic, sinking down into the back seat in relief as the city lights whirred past and jotting down what Amir had just told me. The pen scored into the paper as I repeatedly circled the names Alexe Ibanescu and John Brady: I had just gained some major leads.

🃏 Author's note: I PROMISE J will be back, and it will be worth the wait Xx

Also to those of you who comment, thank you so very much. It can get a bit hard to find the motivation to write sometimes but you all keep me going 💕 🃏

Tag List

If I forgot anyone or you want to be removed from the tag list - please let me know! 💕

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Link to the Masterlist of other Chapters ⬇️

Title graphic by me, dividers by @strangergraphics ✨️

[alexanderwales]

Game Review: The Roottrees are Dead

When I played Obra Dinn shortly after it came out, I thought "man, that was great, they should make a hundred of these, this should be a whole genre", and on reflection, that would actually be a terrible idea, because what made it great was the storytelling, the attention to detail, and the loving care that went into it. As I've learned from the wave of games that take inspiration from Stardew Valley, there are some genres that I only like if they have a lot of attention to detail and artistry.

The Roottrees are Dead very clearly follows in the footsteps of Obra Dinn, and while it doesn't quite hit the same highs, I think it's a worthy successor that forges its own path and helps to establish what's possible within the space.

In The Roottrees are Dead you play as an investigator in the late 1990s (1998 for the original, 1999 for Roottreemania), looking into the Roottree family to uncover some of there secrets. You do this almost entirely through a simulacrum of the early internet, with a pre-Google web search, periodicals, and checking out books from the local library. Gameplay entails combing through these documents to see what there is to search, then making some deductions to put information up on the sprawling family tree. Just like in Obra Dinn, you get your guesses "confirmed" after you've locked in some number of correct entries, which helps to narrow down the search space.

It's a good game. I recommend it if you like research and puzzles and deduction.

I think mostly I want to talk about how it feels to play this game, and what I think makes it work in a way that's totally different from other detective/puzzle games.

First, and I think this is very important, you can search almost everything, and you are often rewarded for this. Every name, every company, every book, all of them can be searched in one way or another. Sometimes it's the web search, and if that turns up nothing, sometimes you can search the periodicals, except that you don't start out knowing the names of the periodicals. And when you do get the name of one, it opens things up, because you can go searching using this new resource.

Sometimes the information isn't quite right, so you have to think it through. Use someone's maiden name, or find out what a book was retitled to for its second publication, or figure out how the thing you're searching for would be referenced. This is all the kind of thing that I find really enjoyable, and more so than in real life, because the feedback is instant. Even if you hit a dead end, the game will usually have some text for you, and sometimes it'll tell you it's a dead end with a little story, ending with "unfortunately none of this seems relevant to the Roottree family".

What you're ultimately doing is creating this whole web of information, picking up names from articles you read and tracking them down, which gives you more articles and more names. You have some understanding of these people and their relationship to each other. You get to know the history in this very unconventional way. It's pretty unrealistic, but my suspension of disbelief was mostly fine.

Locking things in feels great, particularly because it means that you're removing a possibility from your list of names, making everything easier in the next go. This was something clearly borrowed from Obra Dinn, and I'm glad, because it works so well and feels so rewarding. New here are "optionals" that get confirmed whenever a lockin of the main family happens, and this is a great evolution of the concept.

There are two places where the game let me down a little bit, and both have to do with the pictures. The first issue is that I wanted the pictures to be of a higher quality. The web version had AI images, which were a little wonky, and got flak for it, so the images were (apparently) hand-drawn for the release on Steam when people were paying money for it. And they're still a little wonky, which is surely a budget issue, and maybe a little bit an art direction issue. I don't like criticizing thing for their lack of budget, but man, there were places where I felt it here.

The second issue with the pictures is that these tend to be the worst kinds of clues. People just do not talk about appearance and clothing in these ways, and it always feels clunky in the way that other clues (usually) don't. They're necessary, because this is part of the core gameplay, matching pictures to names, but it feels to me like the weakest part.

New to the Steam version is "Roottree Mania", which deals with a crisis of "extras" to add to the family tree, those who are products of affairs. It's basically the same in structure, and proof to me that this concept has legs: the focus is different, but you're engaging in the same gameplay. I would say that overall, I enjoyed Roottree Mania about as much as the main game, even if the scope was somewhat less focused.

And like before, I find myself thinking "they should make a million of these", but I know that this is only as good as it is because there's significant dedication and care put into it, and you can't just "copy" it and expect for it to be playable or good. You need those little moments when things snap into place, when something confusing reveals itself to be well-ordered. You need puzzles to work out, inconsistencies to uncover, information working together. And that's hard, and it's something I'm happy this game was able to do.